02.07b. Holiness contd1

Wallowed in sin like swine in the mire

The worst men are commonly best conceited of themselves.

"There is a generation which is pure in their own eyes—and yet is not washed from their filthiness." Pro 30:12

They were very bad—and yet they had a great opinion of their own goodness. They were very filthy, and yet they stood very much upon their own purity. Their hands were black, their hearts were black, their works were black, and their ways were as black as hell—and yet they were pure in their own eye. They were filthy within, and filthy without; filthy in body, and filthy in soul, and filthy in spirit. Filthiness had quite overspread them, and yet they thought to cover their filthiness with a mask of holiness. There has always been such a generation of men, who have wallowed in sin like swine in the mire—and yet have kept up in themselves a strong opinion of their own goodness and holiness.

There are many who are shining Christians, who are pure golden Christians in their own eyes—who are vile in God’s eyes!

Those who pretend their hearts are as good as the best, when their lives are as bad as the worst—shall experience this truth at last to their shame and cost—that without visible holiness here, there can be no fruition of God hereafter.


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The great work of the ministry

I have always looked upon the great work of the ministry to consist in two things: first, in making unholy men holy; and, secondly, in making those who are already holy to be more and more holy. First to beget holiness, and then to nurse up holiness. First to bring souls to Christ, and then to build up souls in Christ, is without all question the greatest work which should be most in every minister’s eye, and which should always lie nearest and warmest upon every minister’s heart.


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A sad story of a woman named Bochna

I have read a sad story of a woman named Bochna, who had but two sons in all the world. One day, when she was walking with the one son by the river, she heard the other cry out, and hastening to him, she found a knife sticking in his side, which killed him immediately. Then she made haste back to the other child—but in her absence, he had fallen into the river and drowned—and so she lost both her sons at once!

Now, this is your very case. Everyone of you have two children, as I may say—a soul and a body—an eternal life and a temporal life; and oh, what a dreadful and unspeakable loss would it be to lose both these at once! And yet, as certain as there is a God in heaven, you will lose them both without holiness.

"Without holiness no one will see the Lord." Heb 12:14


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Ignorance is the mother of destruction

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Hos 4:6

The Chaldee renders it, they are besotted—and so fitted for destruction. The Papists teach that ignorance is the mother of devotion; but this text tells us that ignorance is the mother of destruction.


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Rather be Satan’s bond-slaves

Most shall continue obstinate and impenitent in their ungodly courses and practices, as men resolved rather to go to hell than to heaven, and to be forever unhappy rather than they will be holy, Isa 43:10, Isa 43:12, and Isa 44:8. Woe, woe to them forever, who had rather be Satan’s bond-slaves than Christ’s free-men, that had rather be "vessels of wrath" than vessels of honor, and that had rather be firebrands of hell than glorious saints in heaven.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Get out of My sight!

Many now-a-days say there is no hell. Multitudes think that all that is spoken of hell in Scripture—is false and mythical. They will not believe that there is a hell—until they come to feel themselves in hell—until they find everlasting flames about their ears—until they are sentenced to the fire—until they are doomed to everlasting fire!

The last words that Christ will ever speak to the ungodly, will be the most tormenting, and horrifying, the most killing and damning, the most stinging and wounding! "Then He will also say to those on the left—Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels!" Mat 25:41. This terrible sentence breathes out nothing but fire and brimstone, terror and horror, dread and woe!

"Depart from Me!" Here is utter rejection—"Pack! Begone! Get out of My sight! Let Me never see your face again!"

"You who are cursed!" Here is malediction. You shall be cursed in your bodies and cursed in your souls! You shall be cursed of God, and cursed of angels, and cursed of saints, and cursed of devils, and cursed of your companions! Yes, you shall curse your very selves, your very souls. All your former curses, all your maledictions—shall at last recoil upon your own souls! Now you curse every man and thing which stands in the way of your lusts, and which cross your designs! But at last all the curses of heaven and hell shall meet in their full power and force upon you!

"But, Lord, if we must depart, and depart cursed, oh let us go into some good place!" "No! Depart into the eternal fire!" There is the vengeance and everlasting continuance of it. You shall go into fire, into everlasting fire, which will neither consume itself, nor consume you! Eternity of extreme punishment is the hell of hell. If all the fires which ever were in the world were contracted into one fire, how terrible would it be! Yet such a fire would be but as a ’painted fire’—compared to the fire of hell. The greatest and the hottest fires that ever were on earth—are but ice in comparison to the fire of hell. Ah! how sad, how dreadful would it be to experience what it is to lie in unquenchable fire—not for a day, a month, or a year, or a hundred, or a thousand years—but forever and ever!

"If it were," says one, "but for a thousand years, I could bear it—but seeing it is for eternity—this astonishes and affrights me!" "I am afraid of hell," says another, "because the worm there never dies, and the fire never goes out!"

It is called "unquenchable fire," and "eternal fire." The torments of the damned are very grievous for the bitterness of them—and more grievous for the diversity of them—but most of all grievous for the eternity of them!

Wronged justice can never be satisfied, and therefore the sinner must be forever tormented. The sinner in hell will sin forever, and therefore he must be punished forever. It will not stand with the unspotted justice and righteousness of God to cease punishing—while the sinner ceases not sinning.

"But, Lord, if I must go into fire, into everlasting fire, oh let me have some good company in my misery!" "No! The devil and his demons shall be your companions!" Ah! who can conceive or express the misery of living with devils and damned spirits and hellish fiends and furies forever!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ But as flea-bitings

"Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze." Isa 30:33

Alas! the brick-kilns of Egypt, and the furnace of Babylon, were but as a blaze of straw, compared to this tormenting Tophet, which has long been prepared for the great and mighty ones of the earth!

Oh, how dreadful must that fire be—which is prepared by God Himself, and which is kindled by the breath of the Lord, and which shall never be quenched! Such is the fire which is prepared for the great and mighty ones of the world! Oh, the easeless, the endless, the remediless, the inevitable torments which are prepared for those who are graceless!

In hell their wanton eyes shall be tormented with ugly and fearful sights of ghastly spirits! In hell their ears, which used to be delighted with all delightful music, shall now be filled with the hideous cries, howlings, and yellings of devils and damned spirits! In hell their tongues of blasphemy shall now be tormented with drought and thirst; and though with the rich glutton, they cry out for a drop to cool their tongues—yet justice will deny them drops, who have denied others crumbs! In hell their hands of bribery, cruelty, and tyranny shall now be bound with everlasting chains, and so shall their feet, which were once swift to shed innocent blood.

In a word, their torments shall be universal—they shall extend to every member of the body, and to every faculty of the soul.

Ah, sirs! Fire, sword, famine, prisons, racks, and all other torments which men can invent—are but as flea-bitings, compared to those scorpions! They are but as drops, compared to those vials of wrath! They are but as sparks, compared to those eternal flames that all unsanctified people shall lie under.

Look! as the least joy in heaven infinitely surpasses the greatest comforts on earth, so the least torments in hell do infinitely exceed the greatest that can be devised here on earth.

Ah, sirs! Remember this—as there are degrees of glory in heaven—just so, there are degrees of torment in hell. As those who are most eminent in grace and holiness shall have the greatest degrees of glory in heaven—just so, those who are most vile and wicked on earth shall have the greatest degrees of torments and punishments in hell.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ You are not sick—but dead!

"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath." Eph 2:1-3

Sin is the plague of the heart—and there is no plague so deadly as the plague of the heart. Oh, this is a disease which none can cure, but he who is the physician of souls. As to spiritual realities, an unsanctified person is not half-dead—but he is stark dead!

You are as well able to make a world, to command the winds, and to raise the dead—as you are able to cleanse your own hearts, or change your own natures, or sanctify your own souls. You have no power to perform any supernatural act—such as to believe or love God, or repent, or to change your own heart, or to sanctify or make yourself holy. You are dead in trespasses and sins, and have lost all your spiritual senses of seeing, hearing, tasting, and feeling. It is certain that your nature is so corrupted that you can not think a good thought, nor speak a good word, nor do a good work. You are not sick—but dead! Dead God-wards, and Christ-wards, and heaven-wards, and holiness-wards!

Since the creation of the world, no dead man ever made himself alive. It is God alone, who can quicken the dead.

"But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus." Eph 2:4-7

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Shouldn’t shepherds feed their sheep?

"Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord: Destruction is certain for you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn’t shepherds feed their sheep? You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve!" Eze 34:2-3

Many preachers in these days, have good lungs for speaking—but bad brains—and worse hearts and lives!

Unholy ministers are such as who preach to please the people—rather than to profit their souls; to tickle the ear—rather than to awaken the conscience; who are better at fleecing of their flocks—rather than they are at feeding of their flocks; who seek more men’s goods—rather than their good; who mind more the humoring of their hearers’ fancies—than the saving of their souls.

Unholy ministers set up men’s traditions above God’s own institutions; prefer human commands before divine commands; are very zealous and warm for mint, anise, and cummin—but are very cold, careless, and negligent in the great and weighty matters of the law, namely, judgment, mercy, and faith; prefer a fat salary before an interest in a heavenly inheritance; pretend a great deal of reverence to the name of Jesus, and yet in their lives do daily crucify the Lord Jesus; with Judas can kiss Christ and betray Christ in a breath; preach as if they had a mind to go to heaven, and live as if they were resolved to go to hell; feast their own bodies—but starve their people’s souls; speak ten words to elevate themselves, and hardly two for Christ.