06.01c. MORE PEARLS FROM PHILPOT
"That good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Romans 12:2
God’s will is "perfect". In it, there is . . .
no spot,
no stain,
no weakness,
no error,
no instability.
It is and indeed must necessarily be as perfect as God Himself; for it emanates from Him who is all perfection; and is a discovery of His mind and character.
But when
sets itself against our flesh,
thwarts our dearest hopes,
overturns our fondest schemes,
we cannot see that it is a perfect will. But rather, are much disposed to fret, murmur, and rebel against it.
snatch a child from your bosom;
strike down a dear husband;
tear from your arms a beloved wife;
strip you of all your worldly goods;
put your feet into a path of suffering;
lay you upon a bed of pain and languishing;
cast you into hot furnaces or overwhelming floods;
make your life almost a burden to yourself!
How can you, under circumstances so trying and distressing as these, acknowledge and submit to
Look back and see how
Whatever we have lost, it was better for us that it was taken away. Whatever . . .
property,
or comfort,
or friends,
or health,
or earthly happiness we have been deprived of,
it was better for us to lose, than to retain them.
Was your dear child taken away? It might be to teach you resignation to God’s sacred will.
Has a dear partner been snatched from your embrace? It was that God might be your better Partner and undying Friend.
Was any portion of your worldly substance taken away? It was that you might be taught to live a life of faith in the providence of God.
Have your fondest schemes been marred; your youthful hopes blighted; and you pierced in the warmest affections of your heart? It was . . .
to remove an idol,
to dethrone a rival to Christ,
to crucify the object of earthly love,
so that a purer, holier, and more enduring affection might be enshrined in its stead.
To tenderly embrace
The ultimatum of gospel obedience is to lie passive in His hand, and know no will but His.
"That good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Romans 12:2
The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: "I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that publican over there! For I never cheat, I don’t sin, I don’t commit adultery, I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income." Luke 18:11-12
Man unites in himself, what at first sight seem to be completely opposite things. He is the greatest of sinners--and yet the greatest of Pharisees.
Now, what two things can be so opposed to each other as sin and self-righteousness? Yet the very same man who is a sinner from top to toe, with the whole head sick and the whole heart faint--who is spiritually nothing else but a leper throughout--how contradictory it appears that the same man has in his own heart a most stubborn self-righteousness!
Now, against these two evils God, so to speak, directs His whole artillery--He spares neither one nor the other.
But it is hard to say which is the greatest rebellion against God--the existence of sin in man and what he is as a fallen sinner--or his Pharisaism, the lifting up his head in pride of self-righteousness.
It is not easy to decide which is the more obnoxious to God--the drunkard who sins without shame--or the Pharisee puffed up with how pleasing he is to God.
The one is abhorrent to our feelings--and, as far as decency and morality are concerned, we would rather see the Pharisee. But when we come to matters of true religion, the Pharisee seems the worst! At least our Lord intimated as much when He said the publicans and harlots would enter the kingdom of God before them.
"But the publican stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ’O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner!’ I tell you,
As regards sin in its workings, we may say there are
to be saved . . .
1. The GUILT of sin.
2. The FILTH of sin.
3. The LOVE of sin.
4. The DOMINION of sin.
5. The PRACTICE of sin.
1. We need the application of Christ’s precious blood to our conscience, to take away the guilt of sin.
2. We need the Spirit of Christ to sanctify and to wash the soul in the fountain, to cleanse from the filth of sin.
3. We need the love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts, to take away the love of sin.
4. We need the power of Christ, to rescue us from the dominion of sin.
5. We need the grace of Christ, to preserve us from the practice of sin.
It is feeling sin in its various workings, which makes us value Christ! Strange mysterious way! O, strange path! that to be exercised with sin, is the path to the Savior!
Very painful, very mysterious, very inexplicable --that the more you feel yourself a wretched, miserable sinner; the more you long after Jesus, who is able to save you to the uttermost!
Thus, we shall find that we need all that Christ is. For we are no little sinners; and He is no little Savior!
We are great sinners!
He is a Savior--and a great one!
"He is able to save to the uttermost!" Hebrews 7:25
"Oh, what a wretched man I am! Who will free me from this body that is dominated by sin?" Romans 7:24
If a person were to tell me he did not love sin in his carnal mind, I would say with all mildness, "You do not speak the truth!" If your carnal mind does not love sin . . .
Why do you think of it?
Why do you secretly indulge it in your imagination?
Why do you play with it?
Why do you seek to extract a devilish sweetness out of it?
O, what a mercy it would be, if there were not this dreadful love of sin in our heart!
"Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord!" Romans 7:25
"Take courage!
who deals out to you every trial,
who allots you every affliction,
who brings upon you every cross,
who works in you everything according to My own good pleasure.
When we can thus believe that the Lord our God is about our bed and our path, and spying out all our ways; when we can look up to Him, and feel that He is the Lord our God, there is no feeling . . .
more sweet,
more blessed,
more heavenly!
"Take courage!
"Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for forty years, to humble you." Deuteronomy 8:2
We learn humility by a deep discovery of what we are; by an opening up of . . .
the corruption,
the weakness,
the wickedness,
of our fallen nature.
The Lord’s way of teaching His people humility is by placing them first in one trying spot, and then in another; by allowing . . .
some temptation to arise;
some stumbling block to be in their path;
some besetting sin to work upon their corrupt affections;
some idol to be embraced by their idolatrous heart;
something to take place to draw out the sin which is in their heart; and thus make it manifest to their sight.
As a general rule, we learn humility, not by hearing ministers tell us what wicked creatures we are; nor by merely looking into our bosoms and seeing a whole swarm of evils working there; but from being compelled by painful necessity to believe that we are vile, through circumstances and events time after time bringing to light those hidden evils in our heart, which we once
thought ourselves pretty free from.
We learn humility, not merely by a discovery of what we are, but also by a discovery of what Jesus is.
We need a glimpse . . .
of Jesus,
of His love,
of His grace,
of His blood. When these two feelings meet together in our bosom . . .
our shame, and the Lord’s goodness;
our guilt, and His forgiveness;
our wickedness, and His superabounding mercy;
they break us, humble us, and lay us, dissolved in tears of godly sorrow and contrition, at the footstool of mercy!
And thus we learn humility,
"Then they will come to their senses and escape from the Devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants." 2 Timothy 2:26
In our natural state, we are all the
We love our foul master, hug his chain, and delight in his servitude, little thinking what awful wages are to follow.
This mighty conqueror has with him a numerous train of captives! This haughty master, the ’god of this world’, has in his fiendish retinue, a whole array of slaves who gladly do his behests. They obey him cheerfully, though he is leading them down to the bottomless pit! For though he
amuses them while here in this world with a few toys and baubles, he will not pay them their wages until he has enticed and flattered them into that ghastly gulf of destruction, in which he himself has been weltering for ages.
"Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe." 2 Corinthians 4:4
"But
Depend upon it, the Lord’s family have to go through much tribulation on their way to heaven. So says the unerring word of truth, and so speaks the experience of every God-taught soul. Now . . .
in these seasons of trouble,
in these painful exercises,
in these perplexing trials,
the Lord’s people need strength; yet the Lord sends these trials in order to drain and exhaust them of ’creature strength’.
Such is the ’self-righteousness’ of our heart; such the ’legality’ intertwined with every fiber of our natural disposition--that we cleave to our own righteousness as long as there is a thread to cleave to; we stand in our own strength as long as there is a point to stand upon; we lean upon our own wisdom as long as a particle remains!
In order, then, to exhaust us, drain us, strip us, and purge us of this pharisaic leaven, the Lord sends . . .
trials,
temptations,
sorrows,
perplexities.
What is their effect?
To teach us our weakness, and bring us to that one and only spot where God and the sinner meet--the spot of creature helplessness.
In order, therefore, to bring us to this spot, to know experimentally the strength of Christ, and feel it to be more than a doctrine, a notion, or a speculation--to know it as an internal reality, tasted by the inward palate of our soul--to have this experience wrought into our hearts with divine power, we must be brought to this spot--to feel our own utter weakness.
"Do not love the world or anything in the world.
If the love of the Father is in us, we will not love the world--nor will the world love us!
If your heart and spirit are still in the world, and you are not separated from . . .
its society,
its amusements,
its pursuits,
its pleasures,
its delights,
its men,
its maxims,
you certainly lack any evidence of a divine change having been wrought in your soul.
"Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." James 4:4