08.05. Volume 5
"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 hecan 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
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
Strangle and suffocate it!
"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.
"You crowned Him with glory and honor and put
See the sovereign supremacy of Jesus!
There may be circumstances in your earthly lot which at this moment are peculiarly trying. You look around and wonder how this or that circumstance will terminate. At present it looks very dark—clouds and mists hang over it, and you fear lest these clouds may break, not in showers upon your head, but burst forth in the lightning flash and the thunder stroke!
But
None of our trials come upon us by chance! They are all appointed in weight and measure—are all designed to fulfill a certain end. And however painful they may at present be, yet they are intended for your good.
When the trial comes upon you, what a help it would be for you if you could view it thus, "This trial is sent for my good. It does not spring out of the dust. The Lord Himself is the supreme disposer of it. It is very painful to bear; but let me believe that He has appointed me this peculiar trial, along with every other circumstance. He will bring about His own will therein, and either remove the trial, or give me patience under it, and submission to it."
You may be afflicted by sickness. It is not by chance that such or such sickness visits your body—that the Lord sees fit to afflict head, heart, chest, liver, hand, foot, or any other part of your body.
All your afflictions are put under the feet of Jesus! You may think at times how harshly you are dealt with—mourning, it may be, under family bereavements, sorrowing after the loss of your ’household treasures’—a beloved husband, wife, or child. But O that you could bear in mind that all your afflictions, be they what they may, are put under the feet of Jesus, so that, so to speak, not one can crawl from under His feet but by His permission—and, like scolded hounds, they crawl again beneath them at a word of command from His lips!
Let us then hold fast this truth, for on it depends so much of our comfort.
"Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. He did this to present her to Himself as a glorious church
What are we ourselves as viewed by our own eyes? Full of spots, wrinkles, and blemishes! And What do we see in ourselves every day, but sin and filth and folly? What evil is there in the world that is not in us, and in our hearts? It is true others cannot read our hearts. But we read them; yes, are every day, and sometimes all the day reading them. And what do we read there? Like Ezekiel’s scroll, it is "written within and without;" and we may well add, if we rightly read what is there written, we have every reason to say it is "full of lamentations, and mourning, and woe." Ezekiel 2:10
For I am sure that there is nothing that we see there every day and every hour, but would cover us with shame and confusion of face, and make us blush to lift up our eyes before God, or almost to appear in the presence of our fellow man!
But neither others, nor we ourselves, now see what the church one day will be, and what she ever was in the eyes of Jesus! He could look through all the sins and sorrows of this intermediate period, and fix His eye upon the bridal day—the day when before assembled angels, in the courts of heaven, in the realms of eternal bliss, He would present her to Himself a glorious church,
O what a day will that be, when the Son of God shall openly wed His espoused bride; when there shall be heard in heaven, "what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting—Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns! Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready." Revelation 19:6-7
Bitten by this serpent’s tooth
No man has ever sounded the depths of the fall.
The children of God have indeed discoveries of the evil of sin. And they have such views at times of the desperate wickedness and awful depravity of human nature, that they seem as if filled with unspeakable horror at the hideous enormity of the corruption that works in their carnal mind.
But no man has ever seen, as no man ever can see, in this time-state, what sin is to its full extent, and as it will be hereafter developed in the depths of hell.
We may indeed in our own experience see something of its commencement; but we can form little idea of its progress, and still less of its termination. For sin has this peculiar feature attending it, that it ever spreads and spreads until it involves everything that it touches in utter ruin.
We may compare it in this point of view to the venom-fang of a serpent. There are serpents of so venomous a kind, as for instance the Cobra de Capello, or hooded snake, that the introduction of the minutest portion of venom from their poison tooth will in a few hours convert all the fluids of the body into a mass of putrefaction. A man shall be in perfect health one hour, and
The introduction of sin into the nature of Adam at the fall was like the introduction of poison from the fang of a deadly serpent into the human body. It at once penetrated into his soul and body, and filled both with death and corruption.
Or, to use a more scriptural figure, sin may be compared to the disease of leprosy, which usually began with a "bright spot," or "rising in the skin", scarcely perceptible, and yet spread and spread until it enveloped every member, and the whole body becoming a mass of putrefying hideous corruption.
Or sin may be compared to a cancer, which begins perhaps with a little lump causing a slight itching, but goes on feeding upon the part which it attacks, until the patient dies worn out with pain and suffering.
Now if sin be . . .
this venom fang,
this spreading leprosy,
this loathsome cancer;
if its destructive power be so great that, unless arrested and healed, it will destroy body and soul alike in hell, the remedy for it, if remedy there be, must be as great as the malady. Thus if there be . . .
a cure for sin,
a remedy for the fall,
a deliverance from the wrath to come,
it must be at least as full and as complete as the ruin which sin has entailed upon us.
The man who has slight, superficial views and feelings of sin will have equally slight and superficial views of the atonement made for sin. The groans of Christ will never sound in his ears as the dolorous groans of an agonizing Lord; the sufferings of Christ will never be opened up to his soul as the sorrows of Immanuel, God with us; the death of Christ will never be viewed by him, as the blood shedding of the darling Son of God. While he has such slight, superficial views of the malady, his views of the remedy will be equally slight and superficial.
As we are led down into a spiritual knowledge of self and sin, so we are led up into a gracious knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
By suffering all the penalties of our sin, Jesus redeems us from the lowest hell and raises us up to the highest heaven—empowering poor worms of earth to soar above the skies and live forever in the presence of Him who is a consuming fire!
"And she will have a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Matthew 1:21
"I hate pride and arrogance!" Proverbs 8:13
Our hearts are desperately proud.
If there is one sin which God hates more than another, and more sets Himself against, it is the sin of pride.
well fertilized by . . .
rank,
riches,
praise,
flattery,
our own ignorance,
and the ignorance of others.
We all inherit pride from our fallen ancestor Adam, who got it from Satan, that "king over all the children of pride."
Those, perhaps, who think they possess the least pride, and view themselves with wonderful self-admiration as the humblest of mortals, may have more pride than those who feel and confess it. It may only be more deeply hidden in the dark recesses of their carnal mind.
As God then sees all hearts, and knows every movement of pride, whether we see it or not, His purpose is to humble us!
When I look back upon my life, and see . . .
all my sins,
all my follies,
all my slips,
all my falls,
my conscience testifies of the many things I have thought, said, and done, which . . .
grieve my soul,
make me hang my head before God,
put my mouth in the dust, and
confess my sins unto Him.
When I contrast my own exceeding sinfulness with . . .
God’s greatness,
God’s majesty,
God’s holiness, and
God’s purity . . .
I fall down, humbly and meekly before Him,
I put my mouth in the dust,
I acknowledge I am vile.
"I am nothing but dust and ashes." (Abraham)
"Behold, I am vile!" (Job)
"Woe to me! I am ruined!" (Isaiah)
"I am a sinful man!" (Peter)
"My eyes are always looking to the Lord for help, for
"Oh, please help us against our enemies, for all human help is useless." Psalms 60:11
What a mighty God we have to deal with!
And what would suit our case but a mighty God?
Have we not mighty sins?
Have we not mighty trials?
Have we not mighty temptations?
Have we not mighty foes and mighty fears?
And who is to deliver us from all this mighty army, except the mighty God? It is not a ’little God’ (if I may use the expression) that will do for God’s people. They need a ’mighty God’, because they are in circumstances where none but a mighty God can intervene in their behalf.
And it is well worth our notice that the Lord puts His people purposely into circumstances where they may avail themselves, so to speak, of His omnipotent power, and thus know from living personal experience, that He is a mighty God, not in mere doctrine and theory, but a mighty God in their special and particular behalf.
Why, if you did not feelingly and experimentally know . . .
your mighty sins,
your mighty trials,
your mighty temptations,
your mighty fears,
you would not need a mighty God.
O how this brings together the strength of God and the weakness of man! How it unites poor helpless creatures with the Majesty of heaven! How it conveys to feeble, worthless worms the very might of the Omnipotent Jehovah!
This sense of . . .
our weakness and His power,
our misery and His mercy,
our ruin and His recovery,
the aboundings of our sin and
the super-aboundings of His grace;
a feeling sense of these opposite yet harmonious things, brings us to have personal, experimental dealings with God. And it is in these personal dealings with God that the life of all religion consists.
"The Lord hears His people when they call to Him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles." Psalms 34:17
"As chastened, yet not killed." 2 Corinthians 6:9
The Lord does not see fit to lay the same chastisements upon all His people. He has rods of different sizes and different descriptions; though all are felt to be rods when God brings them upon the back.
The Lord chastises with one hand, and upholds with the other. In your spiritual experience, you may have passed under many chastising strokes. And when they fell upon you, they seemed to come as a killing sentence from God’s lips. You feared your illness might end in death. Under your bereavement, you felt as if you could never hold up your head again. You thought your providential losses might prove to be your earthly ruin. Your family afflictions seemed to be so heavy, as to be radically incurable.
All these were killing strokes. But though chastened, you were not killed. You lost no divine life thereby; but you lost much that pleased the flesh; much that gratified the creature; much that looked well for days of prosperity, but would not abide the storm.
But you lost nothing that was for your real good.
If you lost bodily health; you gained spiritual health.
If you lost a dear husband or child; God filled up the void in your heart by making Christ more precious.
If you had troubles in your family; the Lord made it up by giving more manifestations of His love and grace.
Your very losses in providence were for your good; for God either made them up, or what you lost in providence He doubled in grace.
So that though chastened; you are not killed!
Has anything that has happened to you quenched or extinguished the life of God in your soul?
As the dross and tin were more separated; has not the gold shone more brightly? Have you not held spiritual things with a tighter grasp? When God chastens His people, it is not to kill them; it is . . .
to make them partakers of His holiness,
to revive their drooping graces,
to make them more sincere, upright and tender in conscience,
to make them more separate from the world,
to make them seek more His glory,
to make them have a more single eye to His praise,
to make them live more a life of faith.
Here is the blessedness—that when God chastises His people, it is not for their injury, but for their profit; not for their destruction, but for their salvation; not to treat them with the unkindness of an enemy, but with the love of a friend!
Look at the afflictions, chastenings and grievous sorrows that you have passed through. Have they been . . .
friends to you, or enemies?
instruments of helping you, or hindrances?
ladders whereby you have climbed up to heaven,
or steps whereby you have descended into hell?
means of taking you nearer to Christ, or means of carrying you more into the world?
If you know anything of God’s chastening, you will say, "Every stroke has brought me nearer to God! He has flogged me home!" As a father will seize his truant boy out of a horde of other children and flog him home, so
In your own experience, you know that God’s chastenings have not killed you. But rather they have been the means of reviving and keeping alive the work of grace upon your heart!
"As chastened, yet not killed." 2 Corinthians 6:9
There is "a knowledge of the things of God" which a man may possess without a personal experience of the new birth—without any divine operation upon his soul whatever, or any participation of the grace of God.
>From reading the scriptures and hearing the Gospel preached, many attain to a carnal, intellectual, barren head knowledge of the truth; who, as to any experimental, vital, saving acquaintance with it, are still in the very gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.
A man may have the ’knowledge of an apostle’ and the ’worldliness of a Demas’.
He may be clear in head, and rotten in heart.
He may understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and be nothing but a hypocrite and an impostor.
In our day such characters abound in the churches.
But distinct from this "head knowledge", as distinct from it as heaven from hell, there is a most blessed "spiritual knowledge" of the things of God, with which the people of God are favored.
"Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures." Luke 24:45
’You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I brought you to Myself and carried you on eagle’s wings." Exodus 19:4
The idea here, is of snatching His people out of Egypt as an eagle would snatch her young away from the hands of the spoiler of her nest, and bear them away and aloft on her outstretched wings.
Deliverance . . .
from idolatry,
from bondage,
from a state of degradation and abject slavery,
is the leading idea of bringing His people out of Egypt.
So, spiritually, the Lord bears us out of a worse Egypt, by His Almighty power. Has He given you some deliverance from the world and the spirit of it, and brought you to Himself by the power of His grace? Has He carried you up out of sin . . .
its open commission,
its secret practice,
its inward indulgence,
and broken in some measure the love and the power of it?
Has He carried you not only out of the grosser iniquities of Egypt, but its more ’refined and acceptable sins’, such as . . .
creature idolatry,
religious lip-service,
self-righteousness, and
mocking God by superstition, tradition, and vain ceremony?
Has He carried you, as on eagles’ wings, out of all the idols of Egypt? For Egypt was a land teeming with idolatry, and therefore an apt emblem of
"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians." Leviticus 26:13
"Praise be to the Lord, for He has saved you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh. He has rescued His people from the power of Egypt!" Exodus 18:10
"The pulpit has its
"He has filled me with bitterness.
The Lord’s people have many hard lessons which they have to learn in the ’school of Christ’. Each one has to carry a daily cross, and are burdened and pressed down under its weight. This daily cross may and does differ in individuals. But every child of God has his own cross, which laid upon his shoulders by an invincible hand, he has, for the most part, to carry down to the very grave.
Thus, some of God’s people are afflicted in body from the very time the Lord begins His work of grace upon their heart. Or if exempt from disease, are shattered in nerve, depressed in spirits, and weighed down by lassitude and languor, often harder to bear than disease itself.
Some are tied to ungodly partners, meeting with opposition and persecution at every step.
Others have nothing but trouble in their family, either from the invasion of death into their circle, or what sometimes is worse than death—disgrace, shame, and ungodliness.
Others have little else but one continual series of losses and crosses in their circumstances, wave after wave rolling over their heads.
O, view the family of God toiling homeward . . .
some dragging along an afflicted body;
others a wounded spirit;
others carrying upon their shoulders dying children;
others with scarcely a rag to their back or a crust in their hand;
footsore,
fearful in heart,
trembling at a rustling leaf,
a deep river to pass, and
a furious enemy in sight.
"Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vine; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. The Sovereign Lord is my strength!"
Habakkuk 3:17-19
"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man." 1 Corinthians 10:13
There is not a single sin ever perpetrated by man which does not lie deeply hidden in the recesses of our fallen nature! But these sins do not stir into activity until temptation draws them forth.
Temptation is to the corruptions of the heart, what fire is to stubble. Sin lies quiet in our carnal mind until temptation comes to set it on fire.
Temptation is to our corrupt nature, what the spark is to gunpowder. Have you not found this sad truth: how easily by temptation are the corruptions of our wretched heart set on fire, and burst into every kind of daring and dreadful iniquity?
In temptation, we learn what sin is . . .
its dreadful nature,
its aggravated character,
its fearful workings,
its mad, its desperate upheavings against God,
and what we are or would be,
"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation." Matthew 26:41
"Hold me up, and I shall be safe!" Psalms 119:117
"The things on earth will be shaken, so that only eternal things will be left." Hebrews 12:27
Man is always seeking happiness in some shape or other, in the things of this world. He does not see or feel that outside of God, happiness is impossible; and that to seek it in ’the creature’ is to add sin to sin. But look at this vain attempt in a variety of instances.
Look at people young in life. What romantic prospects dance before their eyes! "What dreams of love and home by flowery streams!" But what a rude shock do these ’dreams of earthly happiness’ usually experience! This is true of most, if not all, who build their hopes of happiness on ’the creature’. But particularly so in the case of the family of God. How jealous is He of all such schemes of earthly bliss—and how, sooner or later, He shatters them all by His mighty hand!
Look, for instance, at health, that indispensable element of all earthly happiness! What a rude shock many of the dear family of God have experienced in their earthly tabernacle, even in their youthful days, by accident or disease, so as to mar all earthly happiness almost before the race of life was begun!
Look again at wedded happiness—that "perpetual fountain of domestic sweets"—how bitter a drop often falls from the hands of God into that honeyed cup! Why does that mourning widow sigh? Why does her heart swell, and her eye run over? What does that scalding drop on her cheek mean?
How many a blooming daughter has faded away in consumption before a mother’s eye! How many a fine strong son has been cut down by an accident—or sudden illness has borne him away to the cold grave, in the very pride and prospect of life!
But apart from these elements of shattered and broken creature happiness, what disappointment, what vexation, what sorrow and care we find in everything we put our hands to! Even with health and home unbroken, wife and child untouched by death’s cold hand, there is sin and misery enough in a man’s own bosom to fill his heart with continual sorrow!
Thus wisely and mercifully, all our attempts to grasp earthly happiness fail and come to nothing.
Child of grace, do not murmur at the hand of the Lord which has broken your ’dreams of creature happiness’. God does not intend that you should have your heaven here on earth, nor live after the fashion of this world. It is a kind hand, though a rough one, which blasts all your schemes of creature happiness, which breaks your body into pieces with sickness, blights all your prospects of wealth, and fame, and reputation, and ambition, and pours bitter gall into each honeyed cup.
Why does the Lord brake all your earthly schemes of human happiness? Why does He blight all . . .
your prospects,
your plans of ambition and of success in life,
your
That they may all be removed out of your hearts’ affections; and give you happiness which shall endure forever and ever!
"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe." Hebrews 12:28
"They perish because they did not receive
There is a receiving of ’the truth’, and a receiving of ’the love of the truth’. These two things widely differ.
To receive the truth will not necessarily save; for many who receive the truth, never receive ’the love of the truth’.
Professors by thousands receive the truth into their judgment, and adopt the plan of salvation as their creed; but are neither saved nor sanctified thereby. But to receive ’the love of the truth’ by Jesus being made sweet and precious to the soul, is to receive salvation itself.
"Yes, He is very precious to you who believe." 1 Peter 2:7
These "lovers" of ours
"I will run after my lovers and sell myself to them for food and drink, for clothing of wool and linen, and for olive oil." Hosea 2:5
Here is the opening up of what we are by nature, what our carnal mind is ever bent upon, what we do or are capable of doing, except as held back by the watchful providence and unceasing grace and goodness of the Lord.
These lovers, then, are . . .
the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life;
all which, unless subdued by sovereign grace,
still work in our depraved nature, and seek to regain their former sway.
But the Lord, for the most part, mercifully interposes, nor will He usually let His children do what they gladly would do; or be what they gladly would be. He says, "therefore I will block your path with thornbushes; I will wall you in so that your cannot find your way." (Hosea 2:6)
The Lord, in His providence or in His grace, prevents our carnal mind from carrying out its base desires; hedges up our way with thorns—by which we may spiritually understand prickings of conscience, stings of remorse, pangs of penitence—which are so many thorny and briery hedges that fence up the way of transgression, and thus prevent our carnal mind from breaking forth into its old paths, and going after these former lovers to renew its ungodly alliance with them.
A hedge of thorns being set up by the grace of God, our soul is unable to break through this strong fence, because the moment that it seeks to get through it, or over it, every part of it presents a pricking brier or a sharp and strong thorn, which wounds and pierces our conscience.
What infinite mercy, what surpassing grace, are hereby manifested! Were our conscience not made thus tender so as to feel the pricking brier, we can hardly tell what might be the fearful consequence, or into what a miserable abyss of sin and transgression our soul would fall.
But these lacerating briers produce remorse of soul before God; for finding, as the Lord speaks, "that when she runs after her lovers, she won’t be able to catch up with them. She will search for them but not find them," there comes a longing in her mind for purer pleasures and holier delights than her adulterous lovers could give her. And thus a change in her feelings is produced, a revolution in her desires. "Then she will say, I will go back to my Husband as at first, for then I was better off than now." The idea is of an adulterous wife contrasting the innocent enjoyments of her first wedded love—with the state of misery into which she had been betrayed by base seducers.
And thus the soul spiritually contrasts its former enjoyment of the Lord’s presence and power—with its present state of darkness and desertion. "Where," she would say, "are my former delights, my first joys, and the sweetness I had in days now passed, in knowing, serving, and worshiping the Lord? Ah! He was a kind and loving husband to me in those days. I will return to Him if He will graciously permit me, for it was better with me when I could walk in the light of His countenance, than since I have been seeking for my lovers, and reaping nothing but guilt, death, and condemnation."
It is in these storms
"When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone; but the righteous stand firm forever." Proverbs 10:25
The very storms through which the believer passes, will only strengthen him to take a firmer hold of Christ.
As the same wind that blows down the shallow-rooted tree, only establishes the deep-rooted tree—so the same storms which uproot the ’shallow professor’, only establish the ’true believer’ more firmly in Christ.
Though these storms may shake off some of his ’leaves’, or break off some of the ’rotten boughs’ at the end of the branch, they do not uproot the believer’s faith, but rather strengthen it.
more of his own weakness, and of Christ’s strength;
more of his own misery, and of Christ’s mercy;
more of his own sinfulness, and of superabounding grace;
more of his own poverty, and of Christ’s riches;
more of his own desert of hell, and of his own title to heaven.
"Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to You for protection. I will hide beneath the shadow of Your wings until this violent storm is past." Psalms 57:1