10.05. Volume 5 cont'd
A puzzle to myself
I am indeed very far from knowing what I desire to know, or being what I wish to be; and am often a puzzle to myself, seeing and feeling no more grace than the most carnal wretch who makes no profession; and yet having restraints and inward checks, breathings, and sighings of which I am persuaded such know nothing.
I feel so many evils daily, and sometimes hourly, working in my heart, and see so many traps and snares laid for my feet in every direction, that my wonder is, not that any fall, but that any stand! No, I am confident that all must fall were it not for everlasting love and almighty power—kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. "Hold me up, and I shall be safe!"
I feel my ignorance in divine things
I see such sin in my wretched, fallen nature, and feel so much my weakness against temptation, and see at the same time what a horrible and dreadful thing sin is, that I am led from time to time earnestly to call upon the Lord to hold me up—that I shall be safe! I feel my ignorance in divine things—how dark my mind is when not enlightened by the Blessed Spirit—how unable I am to realize any portion of God’s Word, to feed upon any one truth, or taste the sweetness of any one promise. And thus I feel myself led to look up for divine teaching, and that the Lord Himself would make His blessed truth known to my soul.
Continually haunting me My own evil heart is more or less my daily burden—and hinders me in everything which I would think, say, or do for the Lord. Sin, in some shape or other, is continually haunting me—and I find the truth of what Paul says, "When I would do good, evil is present with me." But by this I am taught to prize the atonement which Jesus has made by shedding His own precious blood for my sin. A child of God can never rest satisfied with the knowledge of sin. He cannot rest in a spiritual discovery of the disease. No! he must have some experimental acquaintance with the remedy—the blood of Jesus, which cleanses from all sin. Sweet words, when any measure of their truth is experimentally felt. "All sin" is a very comprehensive word. The horrible aboundings of iniquity in our carnal mind—the vain imaginations, polluting thoughts, presumptuous workings, vile lusts—what can cleanse our consciences from the filth, guilt, and power of those hourly abominations? Only the precious blood of Christ—the Lamb without blemish and without spot!
Gently whispering to you My dear friend, I have felt my mind moved to write you a few lines, not only to sympathize with you in your affliction, but also to express my affection for you, and my sincere pleasure that the blessed Lord has been with you to bless your soul with some melting sense of His mercy and love. If you can view it by the eye of living faith, you will see your present state of pain and bodily suffering—a million times preferable to all that the worldlings can covet! The things which are seen are temporal—but the things which are not seen are eternal. It is incalculably better to be afflicted and have Jesus in the affliction—than to have all the honors, pleasures, and riches that Satan can offer—or the world bestow. But we do not voluntarily choose afflictions. The Lord takes care to choose them for us, and they are just such as are suitable to our condition and circumstances. You would not have chosen to have your leg and arm broken—but doubtless it was good for you to have them broken—or they would not have been so. There is no curse in this affliction—no vindictive punishment. It is rather the voice of a kind Father, gently whispering to you, "My son, give me your heart!" May the Lord make your bed in your sickness, and sweetly overshadow your soul with His love which passes knowledge.
Almighty, though gentle, fingers
I find true religion to be a very different thing from what I once thought it. There was a time when, in all apparent sincerity, I was looking to my spirituality and heavenly-mindedness as evidences of my salvation—instead of being a poor needy suppliant and starving petitioner for a word or a smile from the Lord Himself. It seemed more as if my spirituality were to take me to Christ—than that my miserable poverty and nakedness were qualifications to bring Christ down to me—but all these idols have tumbled into ruins! I am now in that state that Immanuel must have all the glory, by stooping down to save, bless, and teach an undone wretch, who has—neither spirituality—nor piety—nor religion—nor anything holy or heavenly in himself—and whose chief desire, when able to breathe it forth, is to be but the passive clay in the hands of the Divine Potter, and sensibly to feel the almighty, though gentle, fingers molding him into a vessel of honor fit for the Master’s use!
Superabounding grace "Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly." Romans 5:20
I am sure that nothing but superabounding, victorious, overshadowing, and overpowering grace will subdue me to the feet of Jesus and slaughter my idols! Nothing suits my soul but sovereign, omnipotent, and superabounding grace. I am no common sinner—and must therefore have no common grace!
Snares of death "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning people from the snares of death." Proverbs 14:27
Snares of death surround and beset our path. Some arise from the world, some from Satan, some from the people of God—but far, far most from ourselves! The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life which detects and manifests these hidden snares—and by its bubbling up as a living spring in the heart it brings the soul into the presence of God—and thus strength, wisdom, and grace are communicated to flee them before fallen into them—or deliver our feet out of them when unhappily entangled. That wonderful medicine!
"Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases." Psalms 103:3
What a mass of—filth and folly—blindness and ignorance—deceit and hypocrisy—carnality, sensuality, and devilism are we! Prone to all that is bad—utterly averse to all that is good—bent upon sin—hating holiness, heavenly-mindedness, and spirituality—what earthly wretches, guilty monsters, abominable creature are we! And if our minds are sometimes drawn upwards in faith and affection, and we pant after the living God, how soon, how almost instantly, do we drop down again into our earthly self—whence we are utterly unable to rise until the Blessed Spirit lifts us out again! What fits of unbelief—shakings of infidelity—fevers of lust—plagues of carelessness—consumptions of faith, hope, love and zeal—yes, what a multitude of diseases dwell in our poor soul!
Well, then, the soul must have many—and I am inclined to think there is some analogy between the body and soul in their diseases, and that a scriptural and spiritual parallel might be drawn between them. Some I have hinted at above, and blindness, deafness, dumbness, paralysis, leprosy—are scriptural analogies. But they all admit of a twofold cure—that wonderful medicine which John saw run from the wounded side of the Redeemer—blood and water, the one to heal, the other to wash—the one to atone, the other to cleanse—justification by blood, and sanctification by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. A living religion "Every tree that doesn’t grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire." Matthew 7:19 A religion that does nothing for a man’s soul is worthless. And a religion that never manifests itself in a man’s life, is as worthless as a religion that does nothing for the soul. Death is stamped upon both. Religion to be worth anything, must be a living religion—a religion that proceeds from a work of grace upon the heart—communicating life to the soul—and exercising an influence wherever it exists, and in whomever it resides. For where there is a springing up of spiritual life in a man’s soul—it must be made manifest by his words and actions!
If there were no love of sin
If there were no love of sin—there would be no power in sin. Sin does not come with a strong hand, seize us by the throat, and say "Obey me!" But sin—insensibly creeps into our heart—catches hold of our carnal mind—insinuates itself into our vile affections—and thus entraps us!
These hideous monsters
Perhaps, when the Lord was pleased to save you, you thought you would walk happily from earth to heaven. Like the children of Israel, you saw your enemies dead upon the seashore, little thinking, little dreaming of the wilderness before you. But after a time sin, which seemed dead—began to revive—to lust—to crave—to work—to seek its objects!
There is one thing which has often harassed and puzzled many—that all the spiritual blessings they have experienced and enjoyed, has made no change in their carnal mind. This is a deep mystery. The "mystery of ungodliness," I may well call it—that the carnal mind, the old man, undergoes no change! He may be subdued, and withdraw himself into some dark recess—for the human heart is full of caves and grottos—and in these dens, hideous monsters sit! These hideous monsters withdraw themselves in the light of day. The human heart is very deep—and these grottos and caves lie so out of sight, that we know not what these monsters are about—but there they are, and creep forth when night comes on!
All our acts in babyhood "For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son." Romans 5:10
See in what state the people of God are. What word does Paul use to point out their state by nature? ENEMIES! Enemies to whom? To that great, glorious, and ever-living God, in whom they live, and move, and have their being—the God of heaven and earth—who called them into existence—and upon whom they depend for every breath they draw. What a dreadful state must they be in to be "enemies" to such a God!
Enemies! Enemies of God, who could crush them with a frown into the dust—who by one look could hurl them into hell—who could trample upon them in His righteous wrath—as I might trample upon a helpless worm beneath my feet! They are born enemies to God. As a toad is born a toad, and as a viper is born a viper—so man is born an enemy to God. We are conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity—and therefore we come into the world, enemies to God. "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Our very nature is intrinsic, abstract, irreconcilable, enmity against God—hating Him, hating His ways, hating all that is God and Godlike. O, what a fearful condition! Not only to be born enemies—but to grow up enemies—to be woven throughout in enmity to God—full of enmity—every nerve—every fiber—every power—every principle—every faculty—every passion—at enmity with God—warring against the Most High!
We go astray, speaking lies from the womb. All our acts in babyhood—in childhood—in youth and manhood—are all acts of daring enmity against God. They all show forth the enmity of the human heart against the blessed Jehovah. O, how deeply dyed in enmity must man be when he is by birth, nature, and practice utterly alienated from the life of God! That every fiber of our nature should be steeped in enmity against God—that our carnal heart in all its constitution, in its very blood, should be one unmitigated mass of enmity to God—O it is a dreadful thought! "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." A mysterious thing
"I thank You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in Your sight." Luke 10:21
True religion is a mysterious thing. Now, this secret, mysterious religion is the sole work of God upon the soul. We have no more, and we have no less than He is pleased to impart. But when we come to look at the nature of this mysterious—yet the only true religion—we find it to consist chiefly of two branches—a knowledge of sin, and a knowledge of salvation—an experience of self, and an experience of Christ—an acquaintance with hell, and an acquaintance with heaven. However varied, deep, or diversified our experience may be, yet, as far as it is of God, we shall find it very much to be summed up in the knowledge of these two distinct things.
Now of these two distinct things, God has said that they are both alike unsearchable. Describing the human heart, God gives this testimony concerning it—"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" The Lord here gives a challenge, declaring that the wickedness and deceitfulness of the human heart are so deep, that no man can, that no man does, know it to the bottom. And again, speaking of the love of Christ, which is the ultimatum—the sum and substance of the other branch of vital godliness—the Lord pronounces that also to be unsearchable. For Paul prayed that the Ephesian church might know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. He also speaks of "the unsearchable riches of Christ." As we have no line sufficiently deep to sink to the bottom of human depravity, so we have no line sufficiently high to reach to the summit of the love of Christ! Thus, all our knowledge of self, as well as all our knowledge of Christ, must be, from the very nature of things, defective.
We are like truant children!
"Our Savior in times of trouble!" Jeremiah 14:8 For the most part, we do not need a Savior except "in time of trouble." We can do very well without God when we are—at ease—in health—in prosperity—and the carnal mind is uppermost. It is a sad thought, a dreadful thought—that we can often do so well without God—live without Him—think without Him—act without Him—speak without Him—walk without Him—work without Him—just as if there were no God. All this we can do when self, and sin, and the world are uppermost in our hearts and thoughts. But when can we not live without God? When our soul gets into "trouble." And therefore, the Lord, so to speak, is obliged to send "trouble" to flog us home! We are like truant children! Here is a truant child playing about in the street—taking up with every dirty companion, forgetting all about home—unmindful of his mother, who is all anxiety about him, and his father who is all solicitude. The father and mother have then to go and flog him home! So the Lord sees us, His truant children, wandering away from home, taking up with every foolish vanity, forgetting all we profess to know. He has to come with His rod and flog us home—and He does this by sending trouble! Thus, when we get into "trouble," we remember there is a God—we think once more of the Lord—we need Him to help us—He must come immediately, or we sink! We say, ’Lord come! come now! I cannot do without You—my soul is troubled—my mind distressed—Lord, you must come—come, Lord, and speak a word to my soul!’
Now what brings all these cries and desires, breathings and utterings unto the Lord? Why, the Lord taking the rod down, laying it on us, and flogging us with some "trouble," such as—affliction in the family—sickness in the body—trials in circumstances—chastisement in soul—lashes of conscience. And thus, the Lord by various "troubles" brings us to cry and sigh and feel our need of Him as a Savior. And He is so kind and compassionate—He is not offended, because we only make use of Him when we need Him. Anybody else would be offended. I would not like to have you for a friend, if you only came to me when you needed me. I would not care much for your friendship, if you merely valued it for what you could get from me. Yet we are such base, rebellious wretches, as at times to treat the Lord in this way—a way in which we would be ashamed to treat our earthly friends—only coming to Him when we can get something from Him—only fleeing to Him when we cannot do without Him—only visiting Him when we are in some distress. When the world smiles, and things are prosperous, and all is pleasant and comfortable within, it seems (such wretches are we) that we can do without the Lord. But when "trouble" comes, then the Lord is pleased often to make us feel that none but He can do our souls good. Him we must now have—Him we cannot now do without—He must save now, and bless now—for there is none that can help but He!
What a wretched man I am!
"What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans 7:24
What causes despondency in the saved sinner’s soul? Is it not because he finds so much in himself that is utterly opposed to God and godliness? If there were—no inward adulteries—no secret idolatries—no darkness of mind—no deadness of soul—no hardness of heart—no tempting devil—no alluring world—no body of sin and death—you would not feel despondency set in upon you as a flood. But this is it which causes despondency in a living soul—to find in himself so much of everything that is opposite to the work of God upon the heart—so much of everything that is the very opposite to what he desires to be, and what he believes every Christian should be. But no sooner do the evils of his fallen nature manifest themselves, than despondency begins to work. It must be so. If I had—no sinful heart—no unbelief—no infidelity—no inward adultery—no internal idolatry—no pride—no hypocrisy—no covetousness—no powerful lusts—no boiling corruptions—no harassing enemy—no alluring world—no wicked heart—why would I despond? But it is because there is such opposition to vital godliness in his heart, because there is so much in him that he knows and feels to be contrary to grace, and the work of grace, that casts him down. The grand bent of man’s carnal heart In our natural state, we are all the slaves of self. Self in its various forms—proud self—lustful self—covetous self—righteous self—self in some shape or other—is the idol before whom all carnal knees bow—the master whom all carnal hearts serve. In our natural state, we are all the slaves of the world. What the world presents—we love. What the world offers—we delight in. To please the world—to get as large a portion as we can of its goods—to provide in it amply for ourselves and our children—to obtain and to maintain a respectable station in it—this is the grand bent of man’s carnal heart. When they feel leprous to the core
"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!" 1 Peter 1:4
Bringing the elect through every storm—setting all the ransomed before the throne of the Almighty forever—deliverance from every temptation—escape from every snare—and complete salvation from every foe—are all secured to the heirs of promise in the word of truth. How needful this promise of ’preservation to the end’ is for the Lord’s people to experience, when they discover what hearts they possess, and how perpetually they are departing from the Lord—when they see what they have to contend with from within and from without—when they know that an ever watchful enemy is perpetually endeavoring to ensnare, or to assail their souls—when they view the depth of nature’s corruption—when the hidden evils of their heart are dissected by the keen anatomizing knife of the Spirit—when they feel leprous to the core—and know that they have no power and no strength to keep themselves from falling! How sweet, how precious, how suitable it is then to believe that they are written in the book of life, that their names are engraved on Jesus’ hands, and worn on Jesus’ shoulder—that He will preserve them to the end, and bring them home through every storm! Your temporal trials are included
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 This promise includes things providential—as well as things spiritual. If all things are to work together for your good, your temporal trials are included in the "all things." Every bodily affliction—every family trouble—everything that tries us in providence—everything that is bitter and cutting to our flesh—as well as everything spiritual and gracious is included in this comprehensive promise.
Don’t leave my soul destitute
"For my eyes are on You, O God the Lord. In You I take refuge. Don’t leave my soul destitute." Psalms 141:8
I am convinced that the Lord brings all His people to this spot, to know that they—have nothing spiritually but what He gives them—feel nothing but what He works in them, and—are nothing but what He makes them. They must be fully cut off from the creature, the arm of self-righteousness must be broken, the idol of fleshly wisdom must be dethroned!
Secret divine communications
"For my eyes are on You, O God the Lord. In You I take refuge. Don’t leave my soul destitute." Psalms 141:8
Before we can savingly believe in Jesus—we must be thoroughly weaned from the creature—we must be cut off from an arm of flesh—our own righteousness must be dashed to a thousand splinters before our eyes—our wisdom must have become utter foolishness—our strength must have become thorough weakness—we must have felt the misery of our previous idolatries—we must have mourned over our perpetual and unceasing backslidings—and we must have seen in the Lord everything to draw forth the affections and desires of our soul.
Thus also before there can be trust in the Lord, there must be secret divine communications from Him. So that if there be trust in the Lord, there will be not only a going forth of the soul to Him, but there will be a coming down of that very Lord into the soul, enabling it to trust in Him. There will also be trials, and promises in those trials—temptations, and deliverances out of those temptations—afflictions, and consolations proportioned to those afflictions—miseries, and mercies suitable to those miseries. And these things being wrought in the heart, and brought into the conscience by a divine power, there will be strength to trust in God, such as He communicates only to those who truly and earnestly seek His face.
Earthen vessels "We have this treasure in earthen vessels." 2 Corinthians 4:7
Each person at the best is but of the earth—earthy. Man was created out of the dust of the earth—his body, therefore, will always bear marks of that clayey origin. Some vessels may indeed be larger than others, made almost, as it would appear, of better, or at least more carefully wrought and tempered clay, and, may be more beautiful in shape—more decorated and adorned—and put to more honorable uses. For comparing man with man, as the world views them, one may be but a flowerpot hardly worth a penny—and another, a costly vase, worth thousands.
Rank and titles, honors and dignities, wealth, learning, education, may adorn some people—while ignorance, poverty, and rags debase others. Yet all are taken out of the same pit of clay—all are molded on the same potter’s wheel, all baked in the same furnace, and all eventually come to the same end! How frail these bodies of ours are! How easily our earthen vessel may be broken to pieces, and become but a piece of lifeless clay! The fruits of a godly life "By their fruits you will know them." Matthew 7:20
Honesty and uprightness in all acts of business—simplicity, sincerity, and trustworthiness in word and deed—manifesting there is a power given to us to make us—good husbands—good wives—good children—good employees—good masters—these are all so many evidences of true salvation. A tyrannical husband—a fretful discontented wife—an unkind father—a rebellious son—a harsh master—a fraudulent employee—those who walk inconsistently—and by their words and actions bring a reproach upon the truth of God—what right have these to call themselves children of God? Wherever the truth and power of saving religion come, there will be the fruits of a godly life attending it. No sooner is divine life implanted in the soul, than it begins to bubble and spring up and thus to manifest its existence. When divine life is communicated, it immediately begins to manifest itself—for it is like a spring in a field, or out of a hillside, which breaks forth, as it were of itself, and cannot be kept back or pent up by putting your foot upon it. It is surprising what a change is created in the soul by the communication to it of divine life. It is truly, as the prophet speaks, that "in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert"—the wilderness heart of man—that parched ground of the soul—that dry and thirsty land in which there is neither food nor water—that habitation of dragons where each serpent lies coiled up in his den. But even there, the voice of the Lord "will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." How soft—how tender, how simple and sincere—how full of life and feeling—how earnestly bent after God—how thoroughly changed from its former carnality and worldliness—is the soul made alive unto God by regenerating grace!
Dangerous & worst spots
One of the most dangerous and worst spots into which a child of God can fall, is when—we leave our first love—our heart grows cold and dead in the things of God—sin revives and begins again to manifest its hideous power—the world attracts and allures—our feet get entangled in the snares spread by Satan—and we wander, to our shame and sorrow, away from the Lord—leaving the fountain of living waters, and hewing out cisterns, broken cisterns, which hold no water. But the Lord will not leave His people here. After a time we begin to see and feel the miserable consequences of not walking tenderly and conscientiously—and not acting consistently with our holy profession. Guilt falls upon our conscience—the Lord withdraws the light of His countenance—and much bondage falls upon our spirit. Now we begin to see that it is an exceedingly evil and bitter thing to sin against the Lord! The sympathy of Christ
"For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." Hebrews 4:15
All who fear God have now a High Priest who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities—and so can sympathize with us in our temptations and afflictions. Jesus has a personal acquaintance with every trial, temptation, and form of suffering which any one of His people might go through—that He might sympathize feelingly with them—through Himself having personally experienced them. And thus He sits in heavenly bliss with a human heart—tender, affectionate, feeling—and sympathizing, as having Himself passed through every phase of suffering—known every trial—been exposed to every temptation—and having had a personal experience of everything that shall befall any of His living family. This is a mysterious subject. I do not profess to understand or explain it—but I receive it upon the testimony of God’s word, and as such, I see in it a great blessedness—mines of grace—treasures of encouragement—a rich source of divine consolation! If you and I are in a trial, there is a sympathizing High Priest for us at the right hand of the Father. The widow, the orphan, the poor, the needy, the distressed, and the exercised—whatever be their affliction, there is a merciful and faithful High Priest, who can feel for and with them—whose tender, loving, and affectionate heart is melted with a sympathizing sense of what they are suffering here below.
Now to believe this—and in trial, suffering, and exercise to go to a tender, sympathizing, affectionate, and loving High Priest, and thus realize His pity toward us—what strength and support it gives. Do we feel the burden of sin? He felt it. Are we crying under a sense of guilt? He felt it. He had indeed no personal guilt—but He felt all the guilt we can feel—by imputation. Does the world frown? It frowned upon Him. Do men persecute you? They persecuted Him. Are you oppressed? He was oppressed also. Are you scoffed at, mocked, jeered, insulted? He also endured all these things. Does God hide His face? Is your soul in darkness? Are you full of fear? He passed through all these things. This made Him sympathizing, tender-hearted, loving, kind, and affectionate. But O what a sympathizing High Priest there is in the courts above—for poor sinners here below! We may tell Him all our cares. The secret sins that you are obliged to keep locked up in your own bosom—the painful temptations you are exercised with—the various things that cut deep into your conscience, which you cannot breathe into any one’s ear—all are open to this sympathizing High Priest—all may be spread before that throne of grace, on which He ever sits! A question which deeply interests A question which deeply interests—and often painfully exercises every true child of God—is how the life of God is maintained in his bosom. If he is a partaker of the grace of God, he desires to know how shall that grace be kept in living exercise, that he may be brought through every trial, temptation, and affliction, and eventually landed safe in glory. The love & worship of idols The love and worship of idols is both the cause and consequence of all backsliding. Now nothing but a more spiritual worship can dethrone the worship of an idol. And nothing but a stronger love can overpower the love of an idol—for we must love something—and if we do not love the Lord Jesus, we shall love some idol-god of our own.
You have been an idolater—you have set up some idols, and perhaps many, in the secret chambers of imagery—you have been caught in some hidden snare set by Satan—you have gotten into the spirit of the world—your wife, children, business, occupation have been entanglements—these and other household idols have drawn aside your heart from God, and you have fallen into a very cold, barren state. Be honest with your own conscience and say whether it be so or not. Lay bare your inmost spirit before God. Have you not got into a cold, backsliding state? Has not pride, or covetousness, or worldly-mindedness laid sad hold of you? "Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding." Jeremiah 3:22 If a man was left by God So desperately wicked is the heart of man—so determined to have its fill of evil—that if a man was left by God, he would sin one moment—and jump into hell the next! With bitter grief & mournful cry
We look at this sin and we look at that sin—we call to mind this and that slip or fall—and sometimes say with bitter grief and mournful cry, "O, that I had never committed that sin! O, that I had never broken out in this or that direction! O, that my lust, my pride, my covetousness, my angry temper, my foolish lightness, my carelessness, and carnality had never overcome me at that time! O, that I had never spoken that foolish word, done that sad thing, that I had never fallen into that snare of the flesh! O, that I had never got entangled in that awful trap of the devil!" The cross is the only place where a guilty sinner can meet with a forgiving God—where all his sins are pardoned, and all his iniquities, so great, so black, so aggravated, are forgiven. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin." 1 John 1:7 Seas of blood & love!
What depths of agony it cost Jesus to redeem us from the bottomless pit! What seas of blood and love He had to wade through! What conflicts with Satan! What hidings of His Father’s face! What a weight of unutterable woe! What an indescribable pressure of imputed sin! And yet He suffered all this, when He bore our sins in His own body on the tree! The sum & substance of all vital godliness A profession of religion, without a real experimental knowledge of Christ—is but a deceit or a delusion. There is a solid reality and enduring substance in the divine teachings and gracious operations of the blessed Spirit in the heart. "Possession and enjoyment"—personal possession, and spiritual, experimental enjoyment—of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ—of the love of God—and of the communion of the Holy Spirit—is the peculiar privilege and supreme blessedness of the children of God. This is also the soul of all true religion—and the sum and substance of all vital godliness. I desire to know nothing in my own soul but what God is pleased to teach me out of the Scriptures by His blessed Spirit, that I may apprehend, firmly grasp, inwardly seize, blessedly realize, and experimentally enjoy Christ! The mountaintop of pride
If a Christian ever gets upon the mountaintop of pride, God will be sure to bring him into the ’valley of humility.’ We pray—to be humble, teachable, dependent—to know more of the grace, spirit, and presence of Christ—to have more fellowship and communion with Him—to be more conformed to His image and example—to walk more in His footsteps—to more know and do those things which are pleasing in His sight. But we cannot have these desires granted except through trial and affliction—for it is in these trials and afflictions that Christ manifests and makes Himself known and precious. A boundless treasury of trials Be assured that you have that very trial which is most adapted to your particular case and state. You think sometimes that you could bear any trial except that which is laid upon you. But depend upon it, God has selected out of the variety of trials—that very trial which shall most suit your state and circumstances. He has, as it were, a boundless treasury of trials—all ready for use. And He has taken out of it that peculiar trial which shall most suit your case. He has selected that yoke which shall fit most closely upon your neck, and fastened that burden upon your shoulders which is most for your good, and His glory, that you shall carry, even though you bear it down to the gates of death! A world of deception & falsehood
We live in a lying world! The reason for this is not far to seek. Satan is its god and prince—and he is a liar, and the father lies! The present world, being by the permission of God under Satan’s lordship and dominion, bears the impress which he has stamped upon it, and whereby he has made it a world of deception and falsehood. We ourselves went astray as soon as we were born, speaking lies. In lies we grew up. In lies we lived. And but for His grace, in lies we would have died—either as professors or profane—for there are thousands of both who live and die with a lie in their right hand!
Living then in a world of lies, there is little else to be heard or seen, but false words—false deeds—false doctrines—false professions. Living surrounded by an atmosphere of falsehood, if there is any truth in the world, or any truth in our hearts, lips, or lives—that truth must come from God, for He is the God of truth, as Satan is the father of lies. Until God the Spirit was pleased to work with a divine power upon your soul, you lived in lies, you loved lies. Your religion, if one you had, was a lying religion—for there was no truth in it, no reality, no power. For until our eyes are spiritually opened we see neither our nakedness nor our rags—neither know the truth nor care to know it—but as poor, self-deceived creatures you would have lived, and as such you would have died—but for the sovereign, distinguishing, superabounding grace of God, which plucked you as a brand from the fire made by the sparks of your own kindling!
Nothing but sovereign grace As the Lord is pleased to open our eyes, we shall see more what grace is—how pure, how free, and how sovereign. We shall see our sins so great—that nothing but free grace can pardon them; our backslidings so aggravated—that nothing but free grace can heal them; our hearts so hard—that nothing but free grace can soften them; our path so rough—that nothing but free grace can help us over it; and our death so dreadful—that nothing but the grace of God can take away its sting, and make us shout, "Victory!" even in its very arms! We shall find nothing but sovereign grace can make us holy or happy either for time or eternity!
There is an outgoing of the single desire of the soul to the Lord Jesus Christ that His grace may be ever flowing forth into us, so as to dispel all doubt and fear—break to pieces all bonds and fetters—fill us with love and humility—conform us to His suffering image—produce in us every fruit that shall redound to His praise—be with us in life and death—and land us safe in eternity!