09.03. PEARLS FROM PHILPOT cont'd1
"The Lord tries the righteous." Psalms 11:5
To keep water fresh, it must be perpetually running. And to keep the life of God up in the soul, there must be continual trials.
This is the reason why the Lord’s people have so many . . .
conflicts,
trials,
painful exercises,
sharp sorrows,
and deep temptations—
to keep them alive unto God—to bring them out of, and to keep them out of that slothful, sluggish, wretched state of carnal security.
The Lord, therefore, "tries the righteous." He will not allow His people . . .
to be at ease in Zion;
to be settled on their lees, and
get into a wretched Moabitish state.
He therefore sends upon them afflictions, tribulations, and trials—and allows Satan to tempt and harass them.
Personal, spiritual, experimental knowledge of Jesus
It is our dim, scanty, and imperfect knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in His eternal love—and in His grace and glory—which leaves us so often cold, lifeless, and dead in our affections towards Him.
If there were more blessed revelations to our soul of the Person and work, grace and glory, beauty and blessedness of the Lord Jesus Christ—it is impossible but that we would more and more warmly and tenderly fall in love with Him—for He is the most glorious object that the eyes of faith can see!
He fills heaven with the resplendent beams of His glorious majesty—and has ravished the hearts of thousands of His dear family upon earth by the manifestations of His bleeding, dying love. Just in proportion to our
The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying, "Yes,
There can be no new thought in the mind of GOD.
New thoughts, new feelings, new plans, new resolutions continually occur to OUR mind—for ours is but a . . .
poor,
fallen,
fickle,
changeable nature.
But God has no new—thoughts, feelings, plans or resolutions. For if He had, He would be a ’changeable’ Being—not one great, eternal, unchangeable ’I Am’. All His thoughts, therefore, all His plans, all His ways are like Himself . . .
eternal,
infinite,
unchanging,
unchangeable.
The love of Christ to His Church is also—eternal, unchanging, unchangeable. And why? Because He loves as Deity.
O what a mercy it is for those who have any gracious, experimental knowledge of the love of Christ—to believe it is from everlasting to everlasting—that no incidents of time, no storms of sin or Satan, can ever change or alter that eternal love—but that it remains now and will remain the same to all eternity!
Help from the sanctuary
"May the Lord answer you when you are in distress—may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you
When the soul has to pass through the trying hour of temptation, it needs
Help is sent from the sanctuary because his name has been from all eternity . . .
registered in the Lamb’s book of life,
engraved upon the palms of His hands,
borne on His shoulder,
and worn on His heart.
Communications of life and grace from the sanctuary produce spirituality and heavenly-mindedness. The breath of heaven in his soul . . .
draws his affections upward,
weans him from earth, and
makes him a pilgrim and a sojourner here below,
"looking for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
Holy wrestling
Wherever the Lord brings trials upon the soul, He pours out upon it the spirit of grace and supplication.
If the child of God has a burden; if he is laboring under a strong temptation; if his soul is passing through some pressing trial; he is not satisfied with merely going through a ’form of prayer’. There is at such times and seasons, a
there are fervent desires;
there are unceasing groans;
there is a laboring to enter into rest;
there is a struggling after deliverance;
there is a crying unto the Lord—until He appears and manifests Himself in the soul.
But a true and sincere disciple not only listens to his Master’s instructions, but acts as He bids. So
To have some of these divine features stamped upon the heart, lip, and life—is to be
To be much with Jesus is to be made like unto Jesus—to sit at Jesus’ feet is to drink in Jesus’ words—to lean upon Jesus’ breast is to feel the warm heart of Jesus pulsating with love—and to feel this pulsation, causes the heart of the disciple to beat in tender and affectionate unison—to look up to Jesus, is to see a face more marred than the sons of men; yet a face beaming with heavenly beauty, dignity, and glory.
To be
To be
meek as He was;
humble as He was;
lowly as He was;
self-denying as He was;
separate from the world as He was;
living a life of communion with God—
as He lived when He walked here below.
To take a worm of the earth and make him
How unsurpassingly great must be that kindness whereby the Lord condescends to bestow His grace on an enemy—and to soften and meeken him by His Spirit—and thus cause him to grow up into the image and likeness of His own dear Son. Compared with this high privilege—all earthly honors, titles and robes sink into utter insignificance.
"And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything," Ephesians 1:22
How vast—how numerous—how complicated are the various events and circumstances which attend the Christian here below, as he travels onward to his heavenly home!
But if all things are put under Jesus’ feet—there cannot be a single circumstance over which He has not supreme control. Everything in providence and everything in grace are alike subject to His disposal. There is not . . .
a trial,
a temptation,
an affliction of body or soul,
a loss,
a cross,
a painful bereavement,
a vexation,
a grief,
a disappointment,
a case, state or condition,
which is not put under Jesus’ feet.
He has
How much trouble and anxiety would we save ourselves, could we firmly believe, realize, and act on this!
If we could see by the eye of faith that . . .
every foe and every fear,
every difficulty and perplexity,
every trying or painful circumstance,
every looked-for or unlooked-for event,
every source of care, whether at present or
in prospect—are all put under His feet—at His sovereign disposal—what a load of anxiety and care would be often taken off our shoulders!
You must not love one of these glittering baubles
"Do not love the world or anything in the world." 1 John 2:15
This is a very wide sentence. It stretches forth a hand of vast grasp. It places us, as it were, upon a high mountain, and it says to us, "Look around you—there is not one of these things which you must love."
It takes us, again, to the streets of a crowded city—it shows us shop windows filled with objects of beauty and ornament—it points us to all the wealth and grandeur of the rich and noble, and everything that the human heart admires and loves. And having thus set before us, it says, "None of these things are for you.
The precept takes us through the world as a mother takes a child through a bazaar—with playthings and ornaments on every side—and says, "You must not touch one of these things."
In some such similar way the precept would, as it were, take us through the world—and when we had looked at all its playthings and its ornaments, it would sound in our ears—"Don’t touch any one of them; they are not yours—not for you to enjoy, not for you even to covet!"
Can anything less than this be intended by those words which should be ever sounding in the ears of the children of God—"Do not love the world or anything in the world"?
One unmingled scene of happiness and pleasure
"In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." John 14:2
O that we could lift our eyes to those blessed abodes—those mansions of heavenly bliss—where no sorrow intrudes, where sin is unknown, where tears are wiped from off all faces, where there is . . .
no languishing body,
no wasting sickness,
no pining soul,
no doubt,
no fear,
no darkness,
no distress—
but
And what crowns the whole—there is the eternal enjoyment of those pleasures which are at the right hand of God forevermore!
But how lost are we in the contemplation of these things—and though our imagination may seem to stretch itself beyond the utmost conception of the mind, into the countless ages of a never-ending eternity, yet are we baffled with the thought—though faith embraces the blessed truth.
But in that happy land, the immortal soul and the immortal body will combine their powers and faculties to enjoy to the uttermost all that God has prepared for those who love Him.
"I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him." Micah 7:9
It is a view of our sins against God that enables us to bear the indignation of the Lord against us and them.
As long as we are left to a spirit of pride and self-righteousness, we murmur at the Lord’s dealings when His hand lies heavy upon us.
But let us only truly feel what we rightly deserve—that will silence at once all murmuring. You may
murmur and rebel sometimes at your hard lot in providence. But if you feel what you deserve—it
will make you water with ’tears of repentance’ the hardest cross.
So in grace, if you feel the weight of your sins, and mourn and sigh because you have sinned against God, you can lift up your hands sometimes with holy wonder at God’s patient mercy that He has borne with you so long—that He has not smitten you to the earth, or sent your guilty soul to hell.
You will see, also, that the heaviest strokes were but fatherly chastenings—that
When this sense of merited indignation comes into the soul, then meekness and submission come with it, and it can say with the prophet—"I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him."
You would not escape the rod if you might.
"Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." John 1:17
The way to learn truth is to be much in prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ. Beg of Him to teach you Himself—for He is the best teacher. The words which He speaks, they "are spirit and life." What He writes upon our hearts is written in characters which will "stand every storm and live at last."
We forget what we learn from ’man’—but we never forget what we learn from Jesus.
’Men’ may deceive—Christ cannot.
Though you may receive truth from his lips, it is always mixed with human infirmity. But what you get from the lips of Jesus—you get in all its purity and power.
It comes warm from Him—it comes cold from ’men’.
It drops like the rain and distills like the dew from His mouth—it comes only second-hand from men.
If I preach to you the truth, I preach indeed as the Lord enables me to speak. But it is He who must speak with power to your souls to do you any real good. Look then away from me—look beyond me—to Him who alone can teach us both.
By looking to Jesus in the inmost feelings of your soul, you will draw living truth from out of His bosom into your own—from His heart into your heart—and thus will come feelingly and experimentally to know the blessedness of His own declaration—"I am the truth."
Buried in the grave of carnality and worldliness
"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." Colossians 3:1 How many there are even of those who desire to fear God who are kept down by the world, and to whom it has not lost its attractive power.
They are held fast, at least for a time, by worldly business—or entangled by worldly people or worldly engagements . . .
their partners in business or their partners in life;
their carnal relatives or their worldly children;
their numerous connections or their social habits;
their strong passions or their deep rooted prejudices;
all bind and fetter them down to earth.
There they grovel and lie amid "the smoke, and stir of this dim spot which men call earth;" and so bound are they with the cords of their sins, that they scarcely seek deliverance from them—or ever desire to rise beyond the mists and fogs of this dim spot into a purer air—so as to breathe a heavenly atmosphere, and rise up with Jesus from the grave of their corruptions.
But they shall never be
"As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit . . ." 1 John 2:27
Have you ever had
One drop, if it be but a drop, will sanctify you forever to the service of God. There was not much of the holy anointing oil used for the service of the tabernacle, when we consider the size and quantity of what had to be consecrated. When he went through the sacred work, he touched one vessel after another with a drop of oil—for one drop sanctified the vessel to the service of the tabernacle.
There was no repetition of the consecration needed—it abode. So if you ever had a drop of God’s love shed abroad in your heart—a drop of the anointing to teach you the truth as it is in Jesus—a drop to penetrate, to soften, to heal, to feed—and give light, life, and power to your soul—you have the unction from the Holy One—you know all things which are for your salvation, and by that same holy oil you have been sanctified and made fit for an eternal inheritance.
’Practical atheists’, we daily prove ourselves to be.
We profess to believe in an All-mighty, All-present, All-seeing God. But we would be highly offended if a person said to us, "You do not really believe that God sees everything—that He is everywhere present—that He is an Almighty Jehovah." We would almost think that he was taking us for an atheist! And yet
For instance, we profess to believe that God sees everything. And yet we are plotting and planning as though He saw nothing.
We profess to know that God can do everything. And yet we are always cutting out schemes, and carving out contrivances, as though He were like the gods of the heathen, looking on and taking no notice.
We profess to believe that God is everywhere present to relieve every difficulty and bring His people out of every trial. And yet when we get into the difficulty and into the trial—we speak, think, and act, as though there were no such omnipresent God, who knows the circumstances of our case, and can stretch forth His hand to bring us out of it.
Thus the Lord is obliged to thrust us into trials and afflictions, because we are such blind fools, that we cannot learn what a God we have to deal with—until we come experimentally into those spots of difficulty and trial, out of which none but such a God can deliver us.
This, then, is one reason why the Lord often plunges His people so deeply into a sense of sin. It is to show them what a wonderful salvation from the guilt, filth, and power of sin, there is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
For the same reason, too, they walk in such scenes of temptation. It is in order to show them what a wonder-working God He is, in bringing them out.
This too is the reason why many of them are so harassed and plagued. It is that they may not live and act as though there were . . .
no God to go to,
no Almighty friend to consult,
no kind Jesus to rest their weary heads upon.
It is in order to teach them experimentally and inwardly those lessons of grace and truth which they never would know until the Lord, as it were, thus compels them to learn—and actually forces them to believe what they profess to believe.
Such pains is he obliged to take with us—such poor scholars, such dull creatures we are. No child at a school ever gave his master a thousandth part of the trouble that we have given the Lord to teach us.
In order, then, to teach us what a merciful and compassionate God He is—in order to open up the heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths of His love—He is compelled to treat, at times, His people very roughly—and handle them very sharply. He is obliged to make very great use of His rod, because He sees that "foolishness is so bound up in the hearts" of His children—that nothing but the repeated "rod of correction will ever drive it far from them."
"As for you, you were
To be
no present part or lot with God;
no knowledge of Him;
no faith, no trust, no hope in Him;
no sense of His presence;
no reverence of His awesome Majesty;
no desire after Him or inclination toward Him;
no trembling at His word;
no longing for His grace;
no care or concern for His glory.
To be
self creators,
our own judge,
our own lord,
and our own God.
O what a terrible state is it to be thus
It is this lack of all sense and feeling which makes the death of the soul to be but the prelude to that second death which stretches through a boundless eternity.
"I cried unto You—Save me, and I shall keep Your testimonies." Psalms 119:146
If you know anything for yourself, inwardly and experimentally of . . .
the evils of your heart,
the power of sin,
the strength of temptation,
the subtlety of your unwearied foe,
and that daily conflict between nature and
grace, the flesh and the spirit, which is the peculiar mark of the living family of heaven; you will find and feel your need of salvation as a daily reality. There is present salvation—an inward, experimental, and
You need to be daily and almost hourly saved from the . . .
guilt,
filth,
power,
love, and
practice
of indwelling sin.
"I cried unto You—Save me, and I shall keep Your testimonies." Psalms 119:146
Fleshly holiness, fleshly exertions, fleshly prayers, fleshly duties, fleshly religious forms, fleshly zeal—these are what men consider good works, and present them as such to God.
But well may He "who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity", say to all such fleshly workers, "If you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the crippled and the diseased, is it not evil?"
All that the flesh can do is evil, for "every imagination of man’s heart is only evil continually;" and to present the fruits of this filthy heart to the Lord of hosts, is "to offer defiled food upon His altar."
A broken heart, a contrite spirit, a tender conscience, a filial fear of God, a desire to please Him, a dread to offend the great God of heaven, a sense of the evil of sin, a desire to be delivered from sin’s dominion, a mourning over our repeated backslidings, grief at being so often entangled in our lusts and passions, an acquaintance with our helplessness and weakness, simplicity and godly sincerity,
a hanging upon grace for daily supplies, watching the hand of Providence, a singleness of eye to the glory of God,—these are a few of the fruits of the Spirit.
Every stripping, sifting, and emptying—every trial, exercise and temptation that the soul passes through, has but one object—to beat out of man’s heart that cursed spirit of independence which the devil breathed into him when he said, "You shall be as gods".
A man must well near be bled to death before this venom can be drained out of his veins!
In the first awakenings of the soul, we do not usually know much, nor feel much, of our fallen sinful nature. We feel more the guilt of sin ’committed’ than of sin ’indwelling’.
The way in which SIN sometimes seems to sleep, and at other times to awake up with renewed strength—its active, irritable, impatient, restless nature, the many shapes and colors it wears,
The cries of the damned are his music.
Their curses and blasphemies are his songs of triumph. Their anguish and despair are his wretched feast.
Say to those who are afraid, "Be strong, and
"
my base, wicked heart,
my strong lusts and passions,
my numerous inward enemies,
the snares of Satan,
and the temptations of the world.
I do fear. I cannot help but fear."
Still the Lord says, "Do not fear."
Here is a child trembling before a large mastiff dog; but the father says, "Do not fear, he will not hurt you, only keep close to me."
Who is that dog but Satan, that huge mastiff, whose jaws are reeking with blood? If the Lord says, "Do not fear," why need we fear him? He is a chained enemy.
But how the timid soul needs the divine "Fear nots!" For without Him, it is all weakness—with Him, all strength; without Him, all trembling—with Him, all boldness.
Say to those who are afraid, "Be strong, and
"
How sweet and expressive is the phrase, "
"
words—"
And what a mercy it is, that there should ever be in us "the desire" of a living soul—that though the righteous dealings of God are painful and severe, running contrary to everything nature loves—yet that with all these, there should be dropped into the heart that mercy, love, and grace—which draw forth the desire of the soul toward the Name of God.
This is expressed in the words that follow, "My soul yearns for You in the night—in the morning my spirit longs for You!" Isaiah 26:9.
Is your soul longing after the Lord Jesus Christ?
Is it ever, in the night season, panting after the manifestation of His presence? hungering and thirsting after the dropping of some word from His lips—some sweet whisper of His love to your soul?
These are marks of saving grace. The carnal, the unregenerate, the ungodly, have no such desires and feelings as these!
O self! Self!
Oh, to be kept from myself—my . . .
vile,
proud,
lustful,
hypocritical,
worldly,
covetous,
presumptuous,
obscene self.
You are a treacherous villain, and, I fear, always will be such!
What are all the gilded toys of time?
But, alas! what wretches are we when left to . . .
sin,
self, and
Satan!
How unable to withstand the faintest breath of temptation!
How bent upon backsliding!
Who can fathom the depths of the human heart?
Oh, what but grace, superabounding grace, can either suit or save such wretches?
That dear, idolized creature
"I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live." Galatians 2:20
The crucifixion of self is indispensable to following Christ.
What is so dear to a man as himself?
Yet this beloved self is to be crucified.
Whether it be . . .
proud self,
or ambitious self,
or selfish self,
or covetous self,
or, what is harder still, religious self;
fondling,
petting,
pampering,
nursing– this fondly loved self has to be taken out of our bosom by the hand of God, and nailed to Christ’s cross! The same grace which pardons sin also subdues it!
To be crucified with Christ! To have everything that the flesh loves and idolizes put to death! How can a man survive such a process?
"Nevertheless I live!"
As the world, sin, and self are crucified, subdued, and subjugated by the power of the cross, the life of God springs up with new vigor in the soul.
Here, then, is the great secret of vital godliness: that the more that sin and self, and the world are mortified, the more do holiness and spirituality of mind, heavenly affections and gracious desires spring up and flourish in the soul.
O! blessed death! O! still more blessed life!
"I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live." Galatians 2:20
Unquenched, unquenchable!
"Many waters cannot quench love; neither can floods drown it." Song of Solomon 8:7
The bride uses a figure which shall express the insuperable strength of divine love against all opposition; and she therefore compares it to a fire which burns and burns unquenched and unquenchable, whatever be the amount of water poured upon it. Thus the figure expresses the flame of holy love which burned in the heart of the Redeemer as unquenchable by any opposition made to it.
How soon is earthly love cooled by opposition! A little ingratitude, a few hard speeches, cold words or even cold looks, seem often almost sufficient to quench love that once shone warm and bright. And how often, too, even without these cold waters thrown upon it, does it appear as if ready to die out by itself.
But the love of Christ was unquenchable by all those waters. Not all the ingratitude, unbelief, or coldness of His people could quench His eternal love to them!
He knew what the Church was in herself, and ever would be . . .
how cold and wandering her affections,
how roving her desires,
how backsliding her heart!
But all these waters could not extinguish His love!
It still burnt as a holy flame in His bosom,
"Many waters cannot quench love; neither can floods drown it." Song of Solomon 8:7
"So that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are very familiar with his evil schemes." 2 Corinthians 2:11
Satan well knows both how to allure and how to attack; for
Most men are easily led captive by him at his will, ensnared without the least difficulty in the traps that he lays for their feet; for they are as ready to be caught as he is to catch them! Why would Satan need to roar against them as a lion, if he can wind himself around them and bite them as a serpent?
To cast the sinning angels out of heaven; to banish Adam from Paradise; to destroy the old world by a flood; to burn Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from heaven–these examples of God’s displeasure against sin were not sufficient to express His condemnation of it. He would therefore take another way of making it manifest.
And what was this?
By sending His own Son out of His bosom, and offering Him as a sacrifice for sin upon the tree at Calvary, He would make it manifest how He abhorred sin, and how His righteous character must forever condemn it.
See here the love of God to poor guilty man in not sparing His own Son; and yet the hatred of God against sin, in condemning it in the death of Jesus.
It is almost as if God said, "
What wondrous wisdom, what depths of love, what treasures of mercy, what heights of grace were thus revealed and brought to light in God’s unsparing condemnation of sin, and yet in His full and free pardon of the sinner!
If you have ever had a view by faith of the suffering Son of God in the garden and upon the cross; if you have ever seen the wrath of God due to you, falling upon the head of the God-Man; and viewed a bleeding, agonizing Immanuel; then you have seen and felt in the depths of your conscience what a dreadful thing sin is. Then the broken-hearted child of God looks unto Him whom he has pierced, and mourns and grieves bitterly for Him, as for a firstborn son who has died.
Under this sight he feels what a dreadful thing sin is.
"Oh," he says, "did God afflict His dear Son? Did Jesus, the darling of God, endure all these sufferings and sorrows to save my soul from the bottomless pit? O, can I ever hate sin enough? Can I ever grieve and mourn over it enough? Can my stony heart ever be dissolved into contrition enough, when by faith I see the agonies, and hear the groans of the suffering, bleeding Lamb of God?"
Christians hate their sins. They hate that sinful, that dreadfully sinful flesh of theirs which has so often, which has so continually, betrayed them into sin. And thus they join with God in passing condemnation upon the whole of their flesh; upon all its actings and workings; upon all its thoughts and words and deeds; and hate it as the prolific parent of that sin which crucified Christ, and torments and plagues them.
We are surrounded with snares.
Temptations lie spread every moment in our path.
These snares and these temptations are so suitable to the lusts of our flesh, that we would certainly fall into them, and be overcome by them, but for the restraining providence or the preserving grace of God. The Christian sees this; the Christian feels this.
The child of God . . .
sees the snare,
feels the temptation,
knows the evil of his heart,
and is conscious that if God does not hold him up, he shall stumble and fall.
As then a burnt child dreads the fire, so he dreads the consequence of being left for a moment to himself; and the more is he afraid that he shall fall.
If his eyes are more widely opened to see . . .
the purity of God,
the blessedness of Christ,
the efficacy of atoning blood,
and the beauties of holiness,
the more also does he see the evil of sin, the dreadful consequences of being entangled therein. And not only so, but his own helplessness and weakness and inability to stand against temptation in his own strength.
And all these feelings combine to raise up a more earnest cry, "Hold me up, and I shall be safe!"
This is what the Sovereign Lord says: "Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet I will be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they have gone." Ezekiel 11:16
Every place in which the Lord manifests Himself, is a sanctuary to a child of God.
Jesus is now our sanctuary, for He is "the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands." We see the power and glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.
Every place is a sanctuary, where God manifests Himself in power and glory to the soul. Moses, doubtless, had often passed by the bush which grew in Horeb; it was but a common thorn bush, in no way distinguished from the other bushes of the thicket. But on one solemn occasion it was all "in a flame of fire," for "the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire" out of the midst; and though it burned with fire, it was not consumed. God being in the bush, the ground round about was holy, and Moses was bidden to take off his shoes from his feet. Was not this a sanctuary to Moses? It was, for a holy God was there! Thus wherever God manifests Himself, that becomes a sanctuary to a believing soul.
We don’t need places made holy by the ceremonies of man; but places made holy by the presence of God!
Then
Poor, miserable, paltry works of a polluted worm!
"We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away." Isaiah 64:6
We once thought that we could gain heaven by our own righteousness. We strictly attended to our religious duties, and sought by these and various other means to recommend ourselves to the favor of God, and induce Him to reward us with heaven for our sincere attempts to obey His commandments.
And by these religious performances we thought we would surely be able to make a ladder whereby we could climb up to heaven. This was our tower of Babel, whose top was to reach unto heaven, and by mounting which, we thought to scale the stars.
But the same Lord who stopped the further building of the tower of Babel, by confounding their speech and scattering them abroad on the face of the earth; began to confound our speech, so that we could not pray, or talk, or boast as before; and to scatter all our religion like the chaff of the threshing floor. Our mouths were stopped; we became guilty before God; and our bricks and mortar became a pile of confusion!
When, then, the Lord was pleased to discover to our souls by faith, His being, majesty, greatness, holiness, and purity; and thus gave us a corresponding sense of our filthiness and folly; then all our creature religion and natural piety which we once counted as gain, we began to see was but loss; that our very religious duties and observances, so far from being for us, were actually against us; and instead of pleading for us before God as so many deeds of righteousness, were so polluted and defiled by sin perpetually mixed with them, that our very prayers were enough to sink us into hell, had we no other iniquities to answer for in heart, lip or life.
But when we had a view by faith of the Person, work, love, and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we began more plainly and clearly to see, with what religious toys we had been so long amusing ourselves, and what is far worse, mocking God by them.
We had been secretly despising . . .
Jesus and His sufferings,
Jesus and His death,
Jesus and His righteousness,
and setting up the
True religion must be everything or nothing with us. In religion, indifference is ruin; neglect is destruction.
Of all losses, the loss of the soul is the only one that is utterly irreparable and irremediable. You may lose property, but you may recover the whole or a portion of it; you may lose health, but you may be restored to a larger measure of bodily strength than before your illness; you may lose friends, but you may obtain new ones, and those more sincere and valuable than any whom you have lost. But if you lose your soul, what is to make up for that loss?
Do you ever feel what a tremendous stake heaven or hell is? Have you ever felt that to gain heaven is to gain everything that can make the soul eternally happy; and to lose heaven is not only to lose eternal bliss, but to sink down into . . .
unfathomable,
everlasting,
unutterable woe?
It is this believing sight and pressing sense of eternal things; it is this weighty, at times overpowering, feeling that they carry in their bosom an immortal soul, which often makes the children of God view the things of time and sense as . . .
trifles lighter than vanity,
and pursuits empty as air,
and gives them to feel that the things of eternity are the only solid, enduring realities.
"My words descend like dew." Deuteronomy 32:2
The dew falls imperceptibly. No man can see it fall. Yet its effects are visible in the morning. So it is with the blessing of God upon His Word. It penetrates the heart without noise; it sinks deep into the conscience without anything visible going on. And as the dew opens the pores of the earth and refreshes the ground after the heat of a burning day, making vegetation lift up its drooping head, so it is with the blessing of God resting upon the soul.
Whenever the Lord may have been pleased to bless our souls, either in hearing, in reading, or in private meditation, have not these been some of the effects? Silent, quiet, imperceptible, yet producing an evident impression . . .
softening the heart when hard,
refreshing it when dry,
melting it when obdurate,
secretly keeping the soul alive, so that it is neither withers up by the burning sun of temptation, nor dies for lack of grace.
"May God give you the dew of heaven." Genesis 27:28
Coming up from the wilderness
"Who is this
To come up from the wilderness, is to come up out of OURSELVES; for we are ourselves the wilderness. It is our wilderness heart that makes the world what it is to us . . .
our own barren frames;
our own bewildered minds;
our own worthlessness and inability;
our own lack of spiritual fruitfulness;
our own trials, temptations, and exercises;
our own hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
In a word, it is what passes in our own bosom that makes the world to us a dreary desert.
Carnal people find the world no wilderness. It is an Eden to them! Or at least they try hard to make it so. They seek all their pleasure from, and build all their happiness upon it. Nor do they dream of any other harvest of joy and delight, but what may be repaid in this ’happy valley’, where youth, health, and good spirits are ever imagining new scenes of gratification.
But the child of grace, exercised with a thousand difficulties, passing through many temporal and spiritual sorrows, and inwardly grieved with his own lack of heavenly fruitfulness, finds the wilderness within.
But he still comes up out of it, and this he does by looking upward with believing eyes to Him who alone can bring him out.
He comes up out of his own righteousness, and shelters himself under Christ’s righteousness.
He comes up out of his own strength, and trusts to Christ’s strength.
He comes up out of his own wisdom, and hangs upon Jesus’ wisdom.
He comes up out of his own tempted, tried, bewildered, and perplexed condition, to find rest and peace in the finished work of the Son of God.
And thus he comes up out of the wilderness of self, not actually, but experimentally. Every desire of his soul to be delivered from his ’wilderness sickening sight’ that he has of sin and of himself as a sinner. Every aspiration after Jesus, every longing look, earnest sigh, piteous cry, or laboring groan, all are a
His turning his back upon an ungodly world; renouncing its pleasures, its honors, its pride, and its ambition; seeking communion with Jesus as his chief delight; and accounting all things but loss and rubbish for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus his Lord as revealed to his soul by the power of God; this, also, is
From the cradle to the coffin, affliction and sorrow are the appointed lot of man. He comes into the world with a wailing cry, and he often leaves it with an agonizing groan! Rightly is this earth called "a valley of tears," for it is wet with them in infancy, youth, manhood, and old age. In every land, in every climate, scenes of misery and wretchedness everywhere meet the eye, besides those deeper griefs and heart-rending sorrows which lie concealed from all observation. So that we may well say of the life of man that, like Ezekiel’s scroll, it is "written with lamentations, and mourning and woe."
But this is not all. The scene does not end here!
We see up to death, but we do not see beyond death.
To see a man die without Christ is like standing at a distance, and seeing a man fall from a lofty cliff—we see him fall, but we do not see the crash on the rocks below.
So we see an unsaved man die, but
But is it all thus dark and gloomy both in life and death? Is heaven always hung with a canopy of black? Are there no beams of light, no rays of gladness, that shine through these dark clouds of affliction, misery, and woe that are spread over the human race?
Yes! there is one point in this dark scene out of which beams of light and rays of glory shine! "God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thessalonians 5:9
There, on the other side, is my solitary soul
"For what is a man profited, if he shall gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matthew 16:26
Here is my scale of profit and loss.
I have a soul to be saved or lost.
What then shall I give in exchange for my soul?
What am I profited if I gain the whole world and lose my soul?
This deep conviction of a soul to be saved or lost lies at the root of all our religion.
Here, on one side, is the WORLD and all . . .
its profits
its pleasures,
its charms,
its smiles,
its winning ways,
its comforts,
its luxuries,
its honors,
to gain which is the grand struggle of human life.
And this dear soul of mine, my very self, my only self, my all, must be lost or saved.
"The Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him." John 14:17
The world—that is, the world dead in sin, and the world dead in profession—men destitute of the life and power of God—must have something that it can see. And, as heavenly things can only be seen by heavenly eyes, they cannot receive the things which are invisible.
Now this explains why a religion that presents itself with a degree of beauty and grandeur to the natural eye will always be received by the world; while a . . .
spiritual,
internal,
heartfelt and experimental religion will always be rejected.
The world can receive a religion that consists of . . .
forms,
rites, and
ceremonies.
These are things seen.
Beautiful buildings, painted windows, pealing organs, melodious choirs, the pomp and parade of an earthly priesthood, and a whole apparatus of ’religious ceremony’, carry with them something that the natural eye can see and admire. The world receives all this ’external religion’ because it is suitable to the natural mind and intelligible to the reasoning faculties.
But the . . .
quiet,
inward,
experimental,
divine religion,
which presents no attractions to the outward eye, but is wrought in the heart by a divine operation—the world cannot receive this—because it presents nothing that the natural eye can rest upon with pleasure, or is adapted to gratify their general idea of what religion is or should be.
Do not marvel, then, that worldly professors despise a religion wrought in the soul by the power of God. Do not be surprised if
"
Surrounded as we are with a crooked generation, professing and profane, whose ways we are but too apt to learn; beset on every hand by temptations . . .
to turn aside into some crooked path,
to feed our pride,
to indulge our lusts,
to gratify our covetousness;
blinded and seduced sometimes by the god of this world; hardened at other times by the deceitfulness of sin; here misled by the example, and there bewitched by the flattery of some friend or companion; at one time confused and bewildered in our judgment of right and wrong; at another time entangled, half resisting, half complying, in some snare of the wicked one; what a struggle have some of us had to
"But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold." Psalms 73:2
When I said, "My foot is slipping," Your love, O Lord, supported me. Psalms 94:18
"He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand." Psalms 40:2
"Hold me up, and I shall be safe!" Psalms 119:117
"I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths." Proverbs 4:11
"They mingled among the pagans and adopted their evil customs. They worshiped their idols, and this led to their downfall." Psalms 106:35-36
The ’carnal professors’ of the day see nothing wrong, nothing amiss, nothing inconsistent in their conduct or spirit, though they are sunk in . . .
worldliness,
carnality, or
covetousness.
But where there is divine life, where the blessed Spirit moves upon the heart with His sacred operations and secret influences, there will be light to see, and a conscience to feel, what is . . .
wrong,
sinful,
inconsistent,
and improper.
It its but too evident that we cannot be mixed up with the professors of the day without drinking, in some measure, into their spirit and being more or less influenced by their example.
We can scarcely escape the influence of those with whom we come much and frequently into contact. If they are dead, they will often benumb us with their corpse-like coldness. If they are light and trifling, they will often entangle us in their carnal levity. If they are worldly and covetous, they may afford us a shelter and an excuse for our own worldliness and covetousness.
Abhor that loose profession, that ready compliance with everything which feeds the . . .
pride,
worldliness,
covetousness,
and lusts of our depraved nature,
which so stamps the present day with some of its most perilous and dreadful characters.
"Having a form of godliness but denying its power.
"Take heed unto yourselves!" Acts 20:28
There are few Christians who have not ever found SELF to be their greatest enemy. The pride, unbelief, hardness, and impenitence of a man’s own heart; the deceitfulness, hypocrisy, and wickedness of his own fallen nature; the lusts and passions, filth and folly of his own carnal mind; will not only ever be his greatest burden, but will ever prove his most dreaded foe!
Enemies we shall have from outside, and we may at times keenly feel their bitter speeches and cruel words and actions. But no enemy can injure us like ourselves! In five minutes a man may do himself more real harm, than all his enemies united could do to injure him in fifty years!
To yourself you can be the most insidious enemy and the greatest foe!
In all its forms, SELF in its inmost spirit is still a . . .
deceitful,
subtle,
restless,
proud, and
impatient
creature; masking its real character in a thousand ways, and concealing its destructive designs by countless devices.
We have but to look on the professing church to find . . .
the highest pride under the lowest humility,
the greatest ignorance under the vainest self-conceit,
the basest treachery under the warmest profession,
the vilest sensuality under the most heavenly piety,
and
"Take heed unto yourselves!" Acts 20:28
"Take heed unto yourselves!" Acts 20:28
This was Paul’s public warning to the elders of the church at Ephesus. It was Paul’s private warning to his friend and disciple, his beloved son, Timothy. And do not all who write or speak in the name of the Lord need the same warning?
Men may preach and pray until both become a mere mechanical habit; and they may talk about Christ and His sufferings until they feel as little touched by them as a ’tragic actor’ on the stage, of the sorrows which he impersonates.
Well, then, may the Holy Spirit sound this note of warning, as with trumpet voice, in the ears of the servants of Christ. "Take heed unto yourselves!"
Pride, self-conceit, and self-exaltation
of those who occupy any public position in the church.
Therefore, where these sins are not mortified by the Spirit, and subdued by His grace; instead of being, as they should be, the humblest of men; they are, with rare exceptions, the proudest.
Did we bear in constant remembrance our slips, falls, and grievous backslidings; and had we, with all this, a believing sight of the holiness and purity of God, of the sufferings and sorrows of His dear Son, and what it cost Him to redeem us from the lowest hell; we would be, we must be clothed with humility; and would, under feelings of the deepest self-abasement, take the lowest place among the family of God, as the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all the saints.
This should be the feeling of every child of God.
Until this pride is in some measure crucified, until we hate it, and hate ourselves for it, the glory of God will not be our main object.
"He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
1 John 1:9
Every sin that we have committed?
Do we not sin with every breath that we draw?
Is not every lustful desire sin? And is not every proud thought sin? And is not every wicked imagination sin? And is not every unkind suspicion sin? Every act of unbelief sin? And every working of a depraved nature sin?
We committed sin when we sucked our mother’s breast! We committed sin as soon as we were able to stammer out a word. And as we grew in body, we grew in sinfulness.
Will He forgive . . .
sins of thought,
sins of look,
sins of action,
sins of omission,
sins of commission,
sins in infancy,
sins in childhood,
sins in youth,
sins in old age?
Will He forgive . . .
all the base lusts,
all the filthy workings,
all the vile actions,
all the pride,
all the hypocrisy,
all the covetousness,
all the envy, hatred, and malice,
all the aboundings of inward iniquity?
"The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin." 1 John 1:7
"But you have an
Wherever the
bestows and draws out faith,
gives repentance and godly sorrow,
causes secret self-loathing, and
separation from the world,
draws the affections upwards,
makes sin hated, and
Jesus and His salvation loved.
Wherever the
gives new motives,
communicates new feelings,
enlarges and melts the heart, and
spiritualizes and draws the affections upwards.
Without
all our religion is a bubble,
all our profession a lie, and
all our hopes will end in despair.
O what a mercy to have one drop of this heavenly
By this
afflictions,
perplexities,
and sorrows.
By this
in every chastisement,
in every providence,
in every trial,
in every grief, and
in every burden.
By this
Every good word, every good work, every gracious thought, every holy desire, every spiritual feeling do we owe to this one thing: the
"But you have an
"To God’s elect, strangers in the world." 1 Peter 1:1
Strangers!
The grace of God which calls them out of this wretched world. Every man who carries the grace of God in his bosom is necessarily, as regards the world, a stranger in heart, as well as in profession, and life.
As Abraham was a stranger in the land of Canaan; as Joseph was a stranger in the palace of Pharaoh; as Moses was a stranger in the land of Egypt; as Daniel was a stranger in the court of Babylon; so every child of God is separated by grace, to be a stranger in this ungodly world.
And if indeed we are to come out from it and to be separate, the world must be as much a strange place to us; for we are strangers to . . .
its views,
its thoughts,
its desires,
its prospects,
its anticipations,
in our daily walk,
in our speech,
in our mind,
in our spirit,
in our judgment,
in our affections.
We will be strangers from . . .
the world’s company,
the world’s maxims,
the world’s fashions,
the world’s spirit.
"They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Hebrews 11:13
Sin has thoroughly diseased us, and poisoned our very blood.
Sin has diseased our understanding, so as to disable it from receiving the truth.
Sin has diseased our conscience, so as to make it dull and heavy, and undiscerning of right and wrong.
Sin has diseased our imagination, polluting it with every idle, foolish, and licentious fancy.
Sin has diseased our memory, making it swift to retain what is evil, slow to retain what is good.
Sin has diseased our affections, perverting them from all that is heavenly and holy, and fixing them on all that is earthly and vile.
"But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and
"O Israel, you have destroyed yourself! But in Me is your help." Hosea 13:9
Is not this a true charge? Does not your conscience agree with it, as a well founded accusation? Have you not willingly with your eyes open, run into some sin, which, but for God’s mercy and upholding hand, would have proved your certain destruction? Have you not stood upon the very brink of some deep pit, down into which one more step would have plunged you?
As you realize the evils of your heart, you see what a marvel it is, that grace is kept alive in your bosom! You see yourself surrounded on every side with that which would inevitably destroy it--but for the mighty power of God!
You look back and wonder how the life of God in your soul has been preserved so many years. Sometimes you have been sunk into such carnality. You have felt such emptiness of all good, and such proneness to all evil, that you wonder how you have not been swallowed up, overcome, and carried away into the pit of destruction!
David said, "I am as a wonder to many." But you can say, "I am a wonder to myself!" The world, the devil, and your own evil heart, have been for years all aiming to destroy the precious life of God in your soul--all stretching out their hands to
And yet, in His mysterious wisdom, unspeakable grace, and tender compassion, He has kept the holy principle alive in your soul.
O, the mystery of redeeming love!
O, the blessedness of preserving grace! We have been preserved, upheld, and kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation!
"O Lord, You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit!" Psalms 30:3
"He has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping!" Psalms 66:9
"Hold me up, and I shall be safe!" Psalms 119:117
"For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for His children. It is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay! And God, in His mighty power, will protect you until you receive this salvation." 1 Peter 1:4-5
The elect are preserved in Christ, BEFORE they are called by grace. They are kept by the power of God from perishing in their unregeneracy.
Have not you been almost miraculously preserved in the midst of dangers, and escaped when others perished by your side--or been raised up as it were, from the very brink of destruction and the very borders of the grave?
Besides some striking escapes from what are called ’accidents’, three times in my life--once in infancy, once in boyhood, and once in manhood, I have been raised up from the borders of the grave, when almost everyone who surrounded my bed thought I would not survive the violence of the attack.
Were not these instances of being kept by the power of God? I could not die until God had manifested His purposes of electing grace and mercy to my soul.
But the elect are also kept by the mighty power of God AFTER they are called by grace; for they are in the hollow of His hand, and are kept as the apple of His eye.
I will not say they are kept from all sins. Yet I will say that they are kept from damning sins. They are kept especially from three things . . .
from the dominion of sin,
from daring and final presumption,
from lasting and damnable error.
They are never drowned in the sins and evils of the present life so as to be swallowed up in them--for it is impossible that they can ever be lost!
They are therefore preserved in hours of temptation, for they are guarded by all the power of Omnipotence, shielded by the unceasing care and watchfulness of Him who can neither slumber nor sleep.
Looking back through a long vista of years, can you not see how the hand of God has been with you--how He has held you up, and brought you through many a storm, and preserved you under powerful temptations? How gently He sometimes drew you on, or sometimes kept you back?
"I give them eternal life, and
Having chosen us, God begets us with His word, regenerates us by a divine influence, and makes us new creatures by the power and influence of the Holy Spirit.