- Home
- Speakers
- J.C. Philpot
- Idling Life Away Like An Idiot Or A Madman
Idling Life Away Like an Idiot or a Madman
J.C. Philpot

Joseph Charles Philpot (1802 - 1869). English Strict Baptist preacher and editor born in Ripple, Kent, to a Church of England rector. Educated at Oxford, earning a B.A. in 1824რ 1824, he taught classics at Merchant Taylors’ School before resigning his Anglican curacy in 1835 to join the Strict Baptists. In 1837, he became pastor at Stamford and Allington, serving until 1869, preaching to hundreds weekly. Philpot edited The Gospel Standard magazine from 1840, publishing sermons and theological works like The True, Proper, and Eternal Sonship. His writings, emphasizing sovereign grace and experimental religion, reached thousands across England and America. A scholar of Hebrew and Greek, he translated Calvin’s Institutes excerpts. Married with one daughter, he prioritized ministry over personal wealth, living simply. His sermons, over 600 published, remain influential among Strict Baptists and Reformed circles.
Download
Topic
Sermon Summary
This sermon delves into the profound spiritual awakening that occurs when one is reborn, where they come face to face with the stark contrasts of God and self, justice and guilt, power and helplessness, and the eternal truths of God's holiness and human sinfulness. It describes the transformative experience of realizing the existence of God for the first time, akin to awakening from a long slumber and recognizing the futility of a life spent in trivial pursuits and religious formalities without true understanding.
Scriptures
Sermon Transcription
Idling Life Away Like an Idiot or a Madman by J. C. Philpott When one is spiritually reborn, he sees at one and the same moment God and self, justice and guilt, power and helplessness, a holy law and a broken commandment, eternity and time, the purity of the Creator and the filthiness of the creature. And these things he sees not merely as declared in the Bible, but as revealed in himself as personal realities involving all his happiness or all his misery in time and in eternity. Thus it is with him as though a new existence has been communicated, as if for the first time he had found there was a God. It is as though all his days he had been asleep and were now awakened, asleep upon the top of a mast with the raging waves beneath, as if all his past life were a dream and the dream were now at an end. He has been hunting butterflies, blowing soap bubbles, angling for minnows, picking daisies, building houses of cards, and idling life away like an idiot or a madman. He had been perhaps wrapped up in a religious profession, advanced even to the office of a deacon, or mounted in a pulpit. He had learned to talk about Christ and election and grace and fill his mouth with the language of Zion. But what did he experimentally know of these things? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Ignorant of his own ignorance, of all kinds of ignorance, the worst, he thought himself rich and increased with goods, and to have need of nothing, and knew not that he was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. This Puritan devotional has been brought to you by Grace Gems, a treasury of ageless Sovereign Grace writings. Please visit our website at www.gracegems.org, where you can browse and freely download thousands of choice books, sermons, and quotes, along with select audio messages. No donations accepted. Thank you.
Idling Life Away Like an Idiot or a Madman
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download

Joseph Charles Philpot (1802 - 1869). English Strict Baptist preacher and editor born in Ripple, Kent, to a Church of England rector. Educated at Oxford, earning a B.A. in 1824რ 1824, he taught classics at Merchant Taylors’ School before resigning his Anglican curacy in 1835 to join the Strict Baptists. In 1837, he became pastor at Stamford and Allington, serving until 1869, preaching to hundreds weekly. Philpot edited The Gospel Standard magazine from 1840, publishing sermons and theological works like The True, Proper, and Eternal Sonship. His writings, emphasizing sovereign grace and experimental religion, reached thousands across England and America. A scholar of Hebrew and Greek, he translated Calvin’s Institutes excerpts. Married with one daughter, he prioritized ministry over personal wealth, living simply. His sermons, over 600 published, remain influential among Strict Baptists and Reformed circles.