Dec 20
26
· We serve a gracious Master, who knows how to overrule even our mistakes to His glory and our own advantage.
· I am persuaded that love and humility are the highest attainments in the school of Christ and the brightest evidences that He is indeed our Master.
· Satan will preach free grace when he finds people willing to believe the notion, as an excuse and a cloak for idleness.
· We are never more safe, than when we are most sensible that we can do nothing without Christ.
· “None but Jesus!” is my motto.
· One, ‘Thus says the Lord,’ ought to have more weight and authority with us than a thousand arguments.
· Persecution has hurt its thousands……Popularity has slain its ten thousands!
· Beware of the world! It is thorny, deceitful and treacherous! Those who are very much engaged in it will find their troubles multiplied with every day.
· I have read of many wicked popes, but the worst pope I ever met with is POPE self!
· If you truly love Him; then you will study to please Him.
· Every drop of rain hits its appointed target!
· If I may speak of my own experience, I find that to keep my eye simply upon Christ, as my peace and my life; is by far the hardest part of the Christian life.
· Self-righteousness can feed upon doctrines as well as upon works!
· A minister may be diligent in his work, regular in his family, attentive to his people, and in many respects exemplary in his outward conduct; and yet not preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
· I want nothing of that ‘knowledge’ which has NOT a tendency to make sin more hateful and Jesus more precious to my soul.
· Lord, save us from our golden calves!
· May Christ be our theme in the pulpit and in the parlor.
· My heart is vile, and even my prayers are sin. My soul is very sick; but my Physician is infallible!
· My hope is built, not upon frames and feelings, but upon the atonement and mediation of Jesus.
· The Christian knows that the season, measure, and continuance of his sufferings are appointed by Infinite Wisdom, and designed to work for his everlasting good; and that grace and strength shall be given him according to his need.
Excerpts from John Newton
“He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.” –2 Samuel 23:5
J.C.Philpot
O the blessedness of having a manifest interest in the blood of the covenant, and thus to have a testimony that God has made a covenant with his dear Son upon our behalf; that our names are written in the book of life; and that Christ is our Mediator at the right hand of the Father! What are all earthly blessings compared with this? What are health and strength and riches and all the goods of this life; what is everything that the carnal heart can desire or the covetous mind grasp; what is all compared with an interest in the everlasting covenant, and in the love and blood and righteousness of the Lord the Lamb? What is earth, with all its attractions, compared with an interest in the precious, precious blood of a dying Jesus?
You will find it so when you come to lie upon a bed of languishing and pain; when the cold drops of sweat stand upon your forehead, and the last enemy is about to grasp you by the throat. What will your anxious strivings to have something and be something more than you have or are—aye, I may add, your successes—what will they do for you then? Only be so many ghastly spectres of the past to terrify and alarm your conscience, to see what shadows you have been seeking to grasp to the neglect of solid substance. But in that solemn hour to have a testimony from God of pardon and peace, will make smooth a dying bed, will calm all anxious fears, and will take you safely through the dark valley of the shadow of death.
The grand object of the eye of faith!
(Charles Spurgeon)
“We fix our eyes not on what is seen—but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal!” 2 Corinthians 4:18
In our Christian pilgrimage it is well, for the most part—to be looking forward. Forward lies the crown—and onward is the goal. Whether it is for hope, for joy, for consolation, or for the inspiring of our love—the future must, after all, be the grand object of the eye of faith!
Looking into the future—the Christian sees sin cast out, the body of sin and death destroyed, the soul made perfect, and fit to be a partaker of eternal glory. Looking further yet, the believer’s enlightened eye can see death’s river passed. He sees himself . . .
enter within the pearly gates,
hailed as more than conqueror,
crowned by the hand of Christ,
embraced in the arms of Jesus,
glorified with Him, and
made to sit together with Him on His throne!
Contemplation of my glorious future may well relieve,
the darkness of the past, and
the gloom of the present!
The joys of heaven will surely compensate for the sorrows of earth!
Hush, hush, my fears!
Death is but a narrow stream—and you shall soon have forded it!
Death—how brief! Immortality—how endless!
Time—how short! Eternity—how long!
The road is so, so short! I shall soon be there!
“In the future, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day; and not only to me—but to all those who have loved His appearing!” 2 Timothy 4:8
“Let Israel hope in the Lord—for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.” –Psalm 130:7
J.C.Philpot
“Let Israel hope in the Lord.” Has she ceased to hope in the creature? Does she despair of salvation from any other source or quarter but the blood of the Lamb? Is she crying, sighing, longing, panting, and begging of the Lord to appear in her soul? “Let Israel,” then, “hope in the Lord—for with the Lord there is mercy.” He will not spurn his waiting Israel from his feet; he will not smite her with the lightnings of his wrath; he will show mercy to the poor, guilty sinner that comes with dust upon his head, clothed with sackcloth and ashes, mourning and lamenting his vileness before the Lord. There is no wrath in the bosom of the Lord against him; there is mercy, pardoning mercy in the bosom of Jehovah for Israel; therefore “let Israel hope in the Lord.”
If Israel looks to herself, she cannot have one grain of hope; if she looks to the law, she cannot have one ray of expectation; or if she looks to an arm of flesh, none can do her good. But if Israel looks “to the hills from whence comes her help”—to God the Father, in his electing love—to God the Son, in his redeeming blood—to God the Spirit, in his sanctifying work; if Israel is thus enabled to anchor within the veil, thus to “hope in the Lord,” her hope shall not be cut off, shall not be disappointed; it shall not be as “the hope of the hypocrite,” a spider’s web, that the first gust of eternal displeasure shall forever sweep away.
THE CLOSING BENEDICTION
John MacDuff
“Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He comes shall find watching.” —Luke 12:37
Church of God! is this your attitude, as the expectant of your Lord’s appearing? Are your loins girded, and your lights burning? If the cry were to break upon your ears this day, “Behold the Bridegroom comes,” could you joyfully respond—”Lo, this is my God, I have waited for him”? WHEN He may come, we cannot tell—ages may elapse before then. It may be centuries before our graves are gilded with the beams of a Millennial sun; but while He may or may not come soon, He must come at some time—yes, and the day of our death is virtually to all of us, the day of His coming.
Reader! do not put off the solemn preparation. Do not be deceived or deluded with the mocker’s presumptuous challenge, “Where is the promise of His coming?” See to it that the calls of an engrossing world does not foster this procrastinating spirit. It may be now or never with you. Do not put off your sowing time until harvest time. Leave nothing for a dying hour, but to die, and calmly to resign your spirit into the hands of Jesus. Of all times, that is the least suitable to attempt to get the vessel filled—to attend to the great business of life when life is ebbing—to trim the lamp when the oil is done and it is flickering in its socket—to begin to watch, when the summons is heard to leave the watchtower to meet our God!
Were you never struck how often, amid the many gentle words of Jesus, the summons “to watch,” is over and over repeated, like a succession of alarm-bells breaking ever and anon, amid chimes of heavenly music, to rouse a sleeping Church and a slumbering world?
Let this last “Word” of your Lord’s send you to your knees with the question—”Am I indeed a servant of Christ?” Have I fled to Him, and am I reposing in Him, as my only Savior?—or am I still lingering like Lot, when I should be escaping?—sleeping, when I should be waking?—neglecting and trifling, when “a long eternity is lying at my door?” He is my last and only refuge; neglect Him—all is lost!
Believer! you who are standing on your watchtower, be more faithful than ever at your post. Remember what is implied in watching. It is no dreamy state of inactive torpor: it is a holy jealousy over the heart—wakeful vigilance regarding sin—every avenue and loophole of the soul carefully guarded. Holy living is the best, the only, preparative for holy dying. “Persuade yourself,” says Rutherford, “the King is coming. Read His letter sent before Him, ‘Behold I come quickly;’ wait with the wearied night-watch for the breaking of the Eastern sky.”
Let these “Words of Jesus” we have now been meditating upon in this little volume, be as the Golden Bells of old, hung on the vestments of the officiating High Priest, emitting sweet sounds to His spiritual Israel—telling that the true High Priest is still living and pleading in “the Holiest of all;” and that soon He will come forth to pour His blessing on His waiting Church. We have been pleasingly employed in gathering, up a few “crumbs” falling, from “the Master’s table.” Soon we shall have, not the “Words” but the presence of Jesus—not the crumbs falling from His table, but everlasting fellowship with the Master Himself!
“Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
The Grace of Election!
C.H.Spurgeon
There is no difference, by nature, between the elect and others—those who are now glorified in heaven, and who walk the golden streets, dressed in robes of purity, were by nature as unholy and defiled, and as far from original righteousness, as those who, by their own rejection of Christ, and by their love of sin, have brought themselves into the pit of eternal torment, as a punishment for their iniquities. The only reason why there is a difference between those who are in heaven and those who are in hell, rests with divine grace, and with divine grace alone. Those in heaven must inevitably have been cast away, had not everlasting mercy stretched out its hand and redeemed them. They were by nature not one bit superior to others. They would as certainly have rejected Christ, and have trodden under foot the blood of Jesus, as did those who were cast away, if grace—free grace—had not prevented them from committing this sin. The reason why they are Christians is not because they naturally willed to be one, nor because they did by nature desire to know Christ, or to be found of him; but they are now saints simply because God made them so. He gave them the desire to be saved; he put into them the will to seek after him; he helped them in their seekings, and afterward brought them to feel that peace which is the fruit of justification. But by nature they were just the same as others; and if there is any difference, we are obliged to say that the difference does not lie in their favor. In very many cases, we who now “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” were the very worst of men! There are multitudes that now bless God for their redemption who once cursed him; who implored, as frequently as they dare to do, with oaths and swearing, that the curse of God might rest upon their fellow men and upon themselves. Many of the Lord’s anointed were once the very castaways of Satan, the sweepings of society, the refuse of the earth, those whom no man cares for, who were called outcasts, but whom God has now called desired ones, seeing he has loved them.
“Therefore brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if you do these things, you shall never fall.” –2 Peter 1:10
J.C.Philpot
Have you any testimony to your effectual calling? Has grace indeed laid hold of your heart? O that you might know more fully—more powerfully—what a blessed hope of eternal life is laid up in the bosom of this heavenly calling, that it might cheer and encourage you to press on more and more to realize all that is given you in Christ, both for here and hereafter, in present grace and in future glory! In knowing what is the hope of their effectual calling, the saints of God learn that this hope embraces all things which are made theirs in Christ, whether life or death, or things present or things to come, that all are theirs; and for this blessed and all-sufficient reason, that they are Christ’s and Christ is God’s. It is by making sure our calling that we make sure our election—for the one is the sure evidence of the other; and thus, if doubt and uncertainty hang over our calling, the same doubt and uncertainty must rest upon our election to eternal life. But as these doubts and fears are removed by the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, and we can clearly see and fully believe that the grace of God effectually called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, then we see by faith what is laid up in the bosom of this calling, and what a glorious hope of eternal life is thereby afforded as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and thus abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.