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ALL OF "GRACE GEMS" FROM OCTOBER 2003

By Grace Gems
ALL OF "GRACE GEMS" FROM OCTOBER 2003 IN ONE FILE What stupid blockheads! (Joseph Philpot, "Daily Portions") "Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. Matthew 15:16 What lessons we need day by day to teach us anything aright, and how it is for the most part "line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little." O . . . what slow learners! what dull, forgetful scholars! what ignoramuses! what stupid blockheads! what stubborn pupils! Surely no scholar at a school, old or young, could learn so little of natural things as we seem to have learned of spiritual things after . . . so many years instruction, so many chapters read, so many sermons heard, so many prayers put up, so much talking about religion. How small, how weak is the amount of growth compared with all we have read and heard and talked about! But it is a mercy that the Lord saves whom He will save, and that we are saved by free grace, and free grace alone. Take me as I am with all my sin and shame (Joseph Philpot, "Daily Portions") "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved." Jer. 17:14 Here is this sin! Save me from it! Here is this snare! Break it to pieces! Here is this lust! Lord, subdue it! Here is this temptation! Deliver me out of it! Here is my proud heart! Lord, humble it! Here is my unbelieving heart! Take it away, and give me faith; give me submission to Your mind and will Take me as I am with all my sin and shame and work in me everything well pleasing in Your sight. Nothing but a huge clod of dust (Joseph Philpot, "Daily Portions") "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Colossians 3:2 Everything upon earth, as viewed by the eyes of the Majesty of heaven, is base and paltry. Earth is after all, nothing but a huge clod of dust, and as such, as insignificant in the eyes of its Maker as the small dust of the balance, or the drop of the bucket. What, then, are . . . its highest objects, its loftiest aims, its grandest pursuits, its noblest employments, in the sight of Him who inhabits eternity; but base and worthless? Vanity is stamped on all earth's attainments. All earthly pursuits and high accomplishments . . . wealth, rank, learning, power, or pleasure, end in death! The breath of God's displeasure soon lays low in the grave all that is rich and mighty, high and proud. But that effectual work of grace on the heart, whereby the chosen vessels of mercy are delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, calls them out of . . . those low, groveling pursuits, those earthly toys, those base and sensual lusts in which other men seek at once their happiness and their ruin. How can they escape? (Joseph Philpot, "Daily Portions") "He will keep the feet of His saints." 1 Samuel 2:9 The Lord sees His poor scattered pilgrims traveling through a valley of tears, journeying through a waste howling wilderness, a path beset with baits, traps, and snares in every direction. How can they escape? Why, the Lord 'keeps their feet'. He carries them through every rough place, as a tender parent carries a little child. When about to fall, He graciously lays His everlasting arms underneath them. And when tottering and stumbling, and their feet ready to slip, He mercifully upholds them from falling altogether. But do you think that He has not different ways for different feet? The God of creation has not made two flowers, nor two leaves upon a tree alike; and will He cause all his people to walk in precisely the same path? No. We have . . . each our path, each our troubles, each our trials, each peculiar traps and snares laid for our feet. And the wisdom of the all wise God is shown by His eyes being in every place; marking the footsteps of every pilgrim; suiting His remedies to meet their individual case and necessity; appearing for them when nobody else could do them any good; watching so tenderly over them, as though the eyes of His affection were bent on one individual; and carefully noting the goings of each, as though all the powers of the Godhead were concentrated on that one person to keep him from harm! The true spiritual Atlas (John MacDuff, "Memories of Olivet" 1870) "You shall make His soul an offering for sin." Isaiah 53:10 "Now is My soul troubled." John 12:27 Mark, it is SOUL SUFFERING that is the burden of Jesus' anguish. "Now is my soul troubled" "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.'' That 'cup' was filled to the brim with curses. His holy soul was like a vast reservoir, into which the transgressions of every elect child of Adam rushed from every age, demanding satisfaction. He was "filled with horror and deep distress" at the fearful havoc sin had wrought, and at its dreadful penalty, which He was now bearing. The wrath of God; the terrible manifestation of His displeasure at iniquity; was upon Jesus. He was the true spiritual Atlas, bearing on His shoulders the sins of a guilty world! Jesus' sufferings were not calamities; they were punishment judicially inflicted. There was an eternity of woe was condensed into them! Christ was the Sin Bearer, bearing not merely the punishment of sin, but sin itself. As we see drop by drop crimsoning the sods of Gethsemane, we may well exclaim, "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5 God will meet all your needs (Joseph Philpot, "A Supply for Every Need" 1843) "And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:19 Until we are brought into the depths of poverty, we shall never know nor value Christ's riches. If, then, you are a child of God, a poor and needy soul, a tempted and tried believer in Christ, "God will meet all your needs." They may be very great. It may seem to you, sometimes, as though there were not upon all the face of the earth such a wretch as you, as though there never could be a child of God in your state . . . so dark, so stupid, so blind and ignorant, so proud and worldly, so presumptuous and hypocritical, so continually backsliding after idols, so continually doing things that you know are hateful in God's sight. But whatever your need be, it is not beyond the reach of divine supply! And the deeper your need, the more is Jesus glorified in supplying it. Do not say then, that . . . your case is too bad, your needs are too many, your perplexities too great, your temptations too powerful. No case can be too bad. No temptations can be too powerful. No sin can be too black. No perplexity can be too hard. No state in which the soul can get, is beyond the reach of the almighty and compassionate love, that burns in the breast of the Redeemer! That sympathizing, merciful, feeling, tender, and compassionate heart (Philpot, "A Compassionate High Priest" 1847) "For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our infirmities." Hebrews 4:15 The child of God, spiritually taught and convinced, is deeply sensible of his infirmities. Yes, that he is encompassed with infirmities, that he is nothing else but infirmities. And therefore the great High Priest to whom he comes as a burdened sinner, to whom he has recourse in the depth of his extremity, and at whose feet he falls overwhelmed with a sense of his helplessness, sin, misery, and guilt; is so suitable to him as one able to sympathize with his infirmities. We would, if left to our own conceptions, naturally imagine that Jesus is too holy to look down in compassion on a filthy, guilty wretch like ourselves. Surely, surely, He will spurn us from His feet. Surely, surely, His holy eyes cannot look upon us in our . . . blood, guilt, filth, wretchedness, misery, and shame. Surely, surely, He cannot bestow . . . one heart's thought, one moment's sympathy, or feel one spark of love towards those who are so unlike Him. Nature, sense, and reason would thus argue, "I must be holy, perfectly holy, for Jesus to love; I must be pure, perfectly pure, spotless and sinless, for Jesus to think of. But . . . that I, a sinful, guilty, defiled wretch; that I, encompassed with infirmities; that I, whose heart is a cage of unclean birds; that I, stained and polluted with a thousand iniquities; that I can have any inheritance in Him, or that He can have any love or compassion towards me; nature, sense, reason, and human religion in all its shapes and forms, revolts from the idea." It is as though Jesus specially address Himself to the poor, burdened child of God who feels his infirmities, who cannot boast of his own wisdom, strength, righteousness, and consistency; but is all weakness and helplessness. It seems as if He would address Himself to the case of such a helpless wretch, and pour a sweet cordial into his bleeding conscience. We, the children of God; we, who each knows his own plague and his own sore; we, who carry about with us day by day a body of sin and death, that makes us lament, sigh, and groan; we who know painfully what it is to be encompassed with infirmities; we, who come to His feet as being nothing and having nothing but sin and woe; "we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our infirmities," but One who carries in His bosom that . . . sympathizing, merciful, feeling, tender, and compassionate heart. Why are you cast down, O my soul? (Philpot, "A Believer’s Dialogue With His Soul") "Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God." Psalm 42:11 Do you forget, O soul, that the way to heaven is a very strait and narrow path; too narrow for you to carry your sins in it with you? God sees it good that you should be cast down. You were getting very proud, O soul. The world had gotten hold of your heart. You were seeking great things for yourself. You were secretly roving away from the Lord. You were too much lifted up in SELF. The Lord has sent you these trials and difficulties and allowed these temptations to fall upon you, to bring you down from your state of false security. There is reason therefore, even to praise God for being cast down, and for being so disturbed. How this opens up parts of God's Word which you never read before with any feeling. How it gives you sympathy and communion with the tried and troubled children of God. How it weans and separates you from dead professors. How it brings you in heart and affection, out of the world that lies in wickedness. And how it engages your thoughts, time after time, upon the solemn matters of eternity; instead of being a prey to every idle thought and imagination; and tossed up and down upon a sea of vanity and folly. But, above all, when there is a sweet response from the Lord, and the power of divine things is inwardly felt, in enabling us to hope in God, and to praise His blessed name; then we see the benefit of being cast down and so repeatedly and continually disturbed. "Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God." Psalm 42:11 Shut up! (Thomas Reade, "Christian Experience") They tell the prophets, "Shut up! We don't want any more of your reports." They say, "Don't tell us the truth. Tell us nice things. Tell us lies. Forget all this gloom. We have heard more than enough about your 'Holy One of Israel.' We are tired of listening to what He has to say." Isaiah 30:10-11 O what a deluge of evil has sin brought upon the earth! The heart of man naturally revolts against the faithful exposure of its enormities. Our pride fondly shelters itself under the 'dignity of human nature'. We cannot bear to be told how wicked we are, how very far gone, even as far as possible, from original righteousness. But the Bible is no flatterer! It is a faithful mirror, in which we may clearly see, (if we have eyes to see) our real state, divested of all paint and covering. This offends our pride. We cannot endure the sight! Therefore we turn away with disgust from this Holy Book, and consider it our enemy, because it tells us the truth. They tell the prophets, "Shut up! We don't want any more of your reports." They say, "Don't tell us the truth. Tell us nice things. Tell us lies. Forget all this gloom. We have heard more than enough about your 'Holy One of Israel.' We are tired of listening to what He has to say." Isaiah 30:10-11 Welcome all sickness! (Henry Law, "Psalms" 1878) "The Lord nurses them when they are sick and eases their pain and discomfort." Psalm 41:3 The Lord regards His people with especial love. But they are not exempt from trouble. Their heavenward march is through much tribulation. Sickness often assails their frames. Languor depresses them. Weakness detains them to a bed of suffering. But they are not deserted. No, they now are encompassed with distinctive mercies. When heart and flesh appear to fail, the inner man is renewed with especial strength. Welcome all sickness which brings Jesus to the bedside! Treasure in earthen vessels (Joseph Philpot, "Daily Portions") "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels." 2 Corinthians 4:7 Be not surprised if you feel that in yourself you are but an earthen vessel; if you are made deeply and daily sensible of your frail body. Be not surprised . . . if your clay house is often tottering; if sickness sometimes assails your mortal tabernacle; if in your flesh there dwells no good thing; if your soul often cleaves to the dust; and if you are unable to retain a sweet sense of God's goodness and love. Be not surprised nor startled . . . at the corruptions of your depraved nature; at the depth of sin in your carnal mind; at the vile abominations which lurk and work in your deceitful and desperately wicked heart. Bear in mind that it is the will of God that this heavenly treasure which makes you rich for eternity, should be lodged in an earthen vessel. We have ever to feel our native weakness, and that without Christ we can do nothing; that we may be clothed with humility, and feel ourselves the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints. We thus learn to prize the heights, breadths, lengths, and depths of the love of Christ, who stooped so low to raise us up so high! All the houses in this plague stricken land (Charles Spurgeon, "Nunc Dimittis" #1014) To many this world is very sweet, very fair. But God puts bitters into the cup of His children. When their nest is soft, He fills it with thorns to make them long to fly. Alas, that it should be so, but some of God’s servants seem as if they had made up their minds to find a rest beneath the moon. They are moonstruck. All the houses in this plague stricken land are worm eaten, and let in the rain and wind! My soul longs to find a rest among the ivory palaces of Your land, O Immanuel. The gate (by J. C. Ryle) "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." Matthew 7:13 There is a gate which leads to pardon, peace with God, and heaven. Whoever goes in by that gate shall be saved. Never, surely, was a gate more needed. Sin is a vast mountain between man and God. How shall a man climb over it? Sin is a high wall between man and God. How shall man get through it? Sin is a deep gulf between man and God. How shall man cross over it? God is . . . in heaven, holy, pure, spiritual, undefiled, light without any darkness at all, a Being who cannot bear that which is evil, or look upon iniquity. Man is . . . a poor fallen worm crawling on earth for a few years, sinful, corrupt, erring, defective, a being whose imagination is only evil, and whose heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. How shall man and God be brought together? How shall man ever draw near to his Maker without fear and shame? Blessed be God, there is a way! There is a road. There is a path. There is a door. It is the gate spoken of in the words of Christ, "the narrow gate." "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." Matthew 7:13 Moving shadows! (John MacDuff, "Memories of Olivet" 1870) "Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth for someone else to spend." Ps. 39:5-6 Learn the unsatisfactory nature of all earthly things. "Altogether vanity." In one brief hour David's dream had vanished. It was a pantomime, "moving shadows." He had been "heaping up riches;" accumulating costly materials in his palace. They now fell into the hands of a base unscrupulous guerrilla band. And was David's case a singular or exceptional one? Alas! no. Every day makes additional disclosures of the "moving shadows," and writes the old "sum of the whole matter," "this also is vanity." One man has toiled a whole lifetime. The coveted RICHES have come at last; houses and lands and equipage and luxury; all is realized. But, it is only "moving shadows." Disease unexpectedly supervenes; he has no health, no heart to enjoy them. The riches are there, but the zest is gone! Another has toiled with equal SUCCESS. He had a beloved child, all worthy of inheriting his wealth; but, at the hour he least dreamed of, the footfall of the dread messenger was heard at the door, and the object of his fondest anticipations is borne away to the 'long home'! What to him now are the long, toiling, fretting years of the past? His gold is poor base alloy; that amassed fortune passes to some unknown or distant relative in whom he feels no interest. It is again "moving shadows"; the "castle of snow" which rises in a night and perishes with the morning sun. "We heap up wealth for someone else to spend." Yes! there are many broken and sad hearts that will be ready to subscribe this experience as their own; who, in the memory of . . . frustrated hopes, disappointed schemes, forfeited friendships, sorrowful bereavements, will tell that the world is not the gay and gladsome and happy thing many take it for. Would that, in the midst of this constant experience of its vanity and unsatisfactoriness; we might adopt David's words in this Psalm as our habitual motto. This would . . . temper the joys of prosperity, reconcile to the bitterness of adversity, and keep us mindful that this changeful, deceitful earth is not our home. All trials, all temptations, all strippings, all emptyings (Philpot, "The Everliving Intercessor" 1846) The very trials and afflictions, and the sore temptations through which God's family pass, all eventually endear Christ to them. And depend upon it, if you are a child of God, you will sooner or later, in your travels through this wilderness, find your need of Jesus as "able to save to the uttermost." There will be such things in your heart, and such feelings in your mind, the temptations you will meet with will be such, that nothing short of a Savior that is able to save to the uttermost can save you out of your desperate case and felt circumstances as utterly lost and helpless. This a great point to come to. All trials, all temptations, all strippings, all emptyings that do not end here are valueless, because they lead the soul away from God. But the convictions, the trials, the temptations, the strippings, the emptyings, that bring us to this spot: that we have nothing, and can do nothing, but the Lord alone must do it all; these have a blessed effect, because they eventually make Jesus very near and dear unto us. Listen! He calls you! (Richard Baxter, "The Saints' Everlasting Rest") Then the King will say to those on the right, "Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matthew 25:34 See how the Judge smiles on you; there is love in His looks; the titles of Redeemer, Husband, King, are written in His friendly, shining face. Listen! He calls you! He invites you to stand on His right hand. Fear not, for that is where He sets His sheep. He takes you by the hand, the door is open, the kingdom is His and therefore yours. There is your place before His throne. The Father receives you as the spouse of His Son, and bids you welcome. Ever so unworthy, you must be crowned. This was the purpose of free redeeming grace, the climax of eternal love. O blessed grace! O wonderful love! This is that joy which was purchased by sorrow. This is that crown which was bought by the cross. Jesus wept, that now my tears might be wiped away. He bled, that I might now rejoice. He was forsaken, that I might have this fellowship. He then died, that I might now live. O free mercy, that can exalt so unworthy a sinner! Free to me, though costly to Christ! You cannot weary nor wear Him out! (Mary Winslow, "Life in Jesus") The humble, penitential, minute confession of sin will . . . keep the conscience tender, create a watchful spirit within, sanctify the heart, and draw us closer and closer to the Cross, and to the Christ of the Cross. Thus go to Jesus. He is with you . . . in all your concerns, in all your trials, in all your blessings, in all your sorrows and in all your joys. His dear eye is ever upon you for good. He loved you with an everlasting love, and with loving kindness drew you to Himself. Veil no secrets from Him. Keep an open heart with Christ. If your love is cold, He will warm it. If your spirit is depressed, He will raise it. If your corruptions are strong, He will subdue them. The oftener you come the more welcome you will be. You cannot weary nor wear Him out! Mysteries and perplexities (John MacDuff, "Hospice of the Pilgrim" 1891) "Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things." Matt. 6:32 What a rest is this for weary, burdened wayfarers! It is the assurance not only of a 'needs be' in whatever befalls them; but that all are the appointments of their heavenly Father. "Your heavenly Father!" With tender care for the minute and lowly, He . . . makes grass to grow for the cattle, pencils the flower, sculptures the snow wreath, watches the sparrows fall, and feeds the young ravens. The unslumbering Shepherd keeps watch and ward continually, whether under the infinite blue of day, or under night with its starry galaxies. Though mysteries and perplexities are on every side, yet we can rely on the assurance that His are no arbitrary dealings, swayed by caprice, marked and misdirected by human blindness and ignorance; but the dictates of unerring wisdom and of unchanging everlasting love. Mark the Savior's words. They are not "My heavenly Father;" but "your heavenly Father." He would have each child to know His individual, particular affection and pity; and, despite baffling providences, to cleave to the unforgetting love of God. All which befalls His people is meted out by One who is too kind to mingle an unnecessary or superfluous drop in their cup of sorrow. "This is the resting place, let the weary rest. This is the place of repose." Isaiah 28:12 False religion (Horatius Bonar, "False Religion and Its Doom") "I will lay your corpses in front of your idols and scatter your bones around your altars." Ezek. 6:5 There is such a thing as false religion. It may be earnest and zealous, yet false. No amount of sincerity or zeal will make that true, which is in itself false. False religion is the worship of a false god, or the false worship of the true God. We worship the true God untruly when we give him only half a heart, half a soul. Do not think that the utterance of some true words, or the expression of a little sentimental devotion, is the true worship of the true God. False religion is useless. It profits nothing and nobody, either here or hereafter. It is not acceptable to God. It will not be counted a substitute for the true. It does not satisfy the conscience. It does not make the man happy. It does not fill the heart. It does not remove burdens. It will not stand the fire. It is but wood, and hay, and stubble. The judgment will sweep it all away. It is useless both for time nor eternity, both for earth nor heaven. It is irksome and unprofitable, only cheating the poor worshiper into the belief that he has felt or performed something good and worthy. God abhors false religion. It has not one feature that is pleasing to Him. It is merely external. It is untrue. It is against His revelation. It is dishonoring to Him. It is self exalting. It is pure mockery. It is rottenness and death. It is a mouthful of words, a handful of dust and ashes. Therefore God abhors it. "I will lay your corpses in front of your idols and scatter your bones around your altars." Ezek. 6:5 Doctrines that relate to common life (William Law, "A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life") Our blessed Savior and His Apostles are wholly taken up in doctrines that relate to common life. They call us to renounce the world, and differ in every temper and way of life, from the spirit and the way of the world . . . to renounce all its goods, to fear none of its evils, to reject its joys, to live as pilgrims . . . in spiritual watching, in holy fear, and heavenly aspiring after another life; to take up our daily cross, to deny ourselves, to seek the blessedness of poverty of spirit, to forsake the pride and vanity of riches, to take no anxious thought for the morrow, to live in the profoundest state of humility, to rejoice in worldly sufferings, to reject . . . the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; to bear injuries, to forgive and bless our enemies, to give up our whole hearts and affections to God, and strive to enter through the strait gate into a life of eternal glory. This is the common devotion which our blessed Savior taught, in order to make it the common life of all Christians. If contempt of the world, and heavenly affection are necessary tempers of Christians; it is necessary that these tempers appear in the whole course of their lives, in their manner of using the world. If we are to be new creatures in Christ, we must show that we are so, by having new ways of living in the world. If we are to follow Christ, it must be in our common way of spending every day. Thus it is in all the virtues and holy tempers of Christianity; they are not ours unless they be the virtues and tempers of our ordinary life. Easy? (by Newman Hall) "He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son." Rev. 21:7 To be a true Christian is not so easy a thing as some suppose. It is not merely . . . true beliefs, an evangelical creed, a scriptural church, a comfortable sermon once or twice a week. It is not this which constitutes Christianity. You who think religion so very easy a thing, be apprehensive lest, when too late, you find that you knew not what true religion meant. Easy? A depraved being to trample upon his lusts? a proud being to lie prostrate with humility and self reproach? those who are "slow of heart, to believe," to receive the Gospel as little children? Easy? To "crucify the flesh," "to deny ungodliness," "to cut off a right hand, and to pluck out a right eye?" Easy? To be in the world, and yet not of the world; to come out from it, not by the seclusion of the cloister, but by holiness of life; to be diligent in its duties, yet not absorbed by them; appreciating its innocent delights, and yet not ensnared by them; beholding its attractions, and yet rising superior to them? Easy? To live surrounded by objects which appeal to the sight, and yet to endure as seeing what is invisible? Easy? To pray and see no answer to prayer, and still pray on; to fight this battle, and find fresh foes ever rising up, yet still to fight on; to be harassed with doubts and fears, and yet walk on in darkness, though we see no light, staying ourselves upon God? Easy? To be preparing for a world we have never visited, in opposition to so much that is captivating in a world where we have always dwelt, whose beauties we have seen, whose music we have heard, whose pleasures we have experienced? Easy? To resist that subtle foe who has cast down so many of the wise and the mighty? Easy? When Jesus says it is a "strait gate," and that if we would enter we must "strive," bidding us "take up our cross daily, deny ourselves, and follow Him?" Ah! it is no soft flowery meadow, along which we may languidly stroll; but a rough, craggy cliff that we must climb. It is no smooth, placid stream, along which we may dreamily float, but a tempestuous ocean we must stem. It is no easy lolling in a cushioned chariot, that bears us on without fatigue and peril. If we are to be saved, we must "overcome." "He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son." Rev. 21:7 Don't touch their filthy things! (Stephen Tyng, "Practical Meditations") "Therefore, come out from them and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don't touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you." 2 Cor. 6:17 I am to be separated from the sinful world around me. Separated in actual character and conduct, by the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart and life. I have come out from them, for my lot is no longer with them. I cannot walk in their paths. I cannot pursue their objects. I cannot partake of their pleasures. While they reject the gospel, my heart thankfully embraces it. While they live without Christ, it is my desire and delight to live for Him and with Him. While they are earthly in all their plans and objects, I am to seek the things which are above. There is my treasure, and there must be my heart also. Their opinions, and maxims, and plans are of no consequence to me. I cannot yield . . . to their judgments, to their examples, nor to their authority. I cannot find my pleasures in this wilderness world. I must not run out for the trifling vanities of the world around me. I must not form a part of its foolish passing pageant. Redeemed (Henry Law, "Redemption") "God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." 1 Cor. 6:20 "God purchased you at a high price. Don't be enslaved by the world." 1 Cor. 7:23 Redeemed ones are no more their own. Your time is redeemed; use it as a consecrated talent in His cause. Your minds are redeemed; employ them to learn His truth and, to meditate on His ways. Thus make them armories of holy weapons. Your eyes are redeemed; let them not look on vanity; close them on all sights and books of folly. Your feet are redeemed; let them trample on the world, and climb the upward hill of Zion, and bear you onward in the march of Christian zeal. Your tongues are redeemed; let them only sound His praise, and testify to His love, and call sinners to His cross. Your hearts are redeemed; let them love Him wholly, and have no seat for rivals. "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." 1 Peter 1:18-19 I was a poor, lost creature (Stephen Tyng, "Practical Meditations") Of all the blessings which I have received, surely the most inestimable is the gift of Divine redemption. I have been purchased by the death of Christ! I was a poor, lost creature, sold under sin, when He opened my prison doors, and let me go free! What a mercy was then granted to me! When I look . . . at the sorrow and darkness which I have escaped; at the misery from which I have been delivered; at the glories which are laid up for me; at the love which has accomplished all, how thankful ought I to be! I have an eternal home and an inheritance above! There my Savior will rejoice over me forever! It is a mystery of grace. My heart ought always to bless God for the boundless consolation. If the world neglects me or reviles me, it is of little consequence. God my Savior loves me! No fear! (Joseph Philpot, "The Heavenly Birth and its Earthly Counterfeits" 1843) "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Romans 3:18 Those who have every reason to fear as to their eternal state before God, have for the most part, no fear at all. They are secure, and free from doubt and fear. The depths of human hypocrisy, the dreadful lengths to which profession may go, the deceit of the carnal heart, the snares spread for the unwary feet, the fearful danger of being deceived at the last; these traps and pitfalls are not objects of anxiety to those dead in sin. As long as they can pacify natural conscience, and do something to soothe any transient conviction, they are glad to be deceived! God does not see fit to disturb their quiet. He has no purpose of mercy towards them; they are not subjects of His kingdom; they are not objects of His love. He therefore leaves them carnally secure, as in a dream, from which they will not awake until the day of judgment. Take all to Jesus! (Octavius Winslow, "Go to Jesus") Then Jesus said, "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28 The life of faith is a constant coming to Jesus for daily, hourly, and fresh supplies. Let every circumstance and event, every trial, sorrow, and need, be an echo of the gracious life inspiring words: "Go to Jesus!" Go to Jesus, confessing sin. Go to Jesus, unveiling grief. Go to Jesus, telling need. Go to Jesus, breathing love, desire, and hope. You are still in the land of famine and of need. But your heavenly Father would remind you that He has anticipated and provided . . . for all your requirements, for all your history, for your daily demands, in Him whom whose fullness fills all in all. Take the hard heart, or the broken heart; take the cold heart, or the glowing heart; take your barrenness, or your fruitfulness; take the sunbeam of prosperity, or the cloud of adversity; take the joy, take the sorrow; take all to Jesus! Let Him participate in all, keep you in all, sympathize with all; for Jesus is your Brother, raised up to befriend, relieve, and preserve you in your time of need. These difficulties . . . (by Joseph Philpot) "From all your idols will I cleanse you." Ezekiel 36:25 When there are no crosses, temptations, or trials, a man is sure to go out after and cleave to idols. It matters not what experience he has had. If once he ceases to be plagued and tried, he will be setting up his household gods in the secret chambers of his heart. Profit or pleasure, self indulgence or self gratification, will surely, in one form or another, engross his thoughts, and steal away his heart. Nor is there anything too trifling or insignificant to become an idol. Whatever is meditated on preferably to God, whatever is desired more than He, whatever more interests us, pleases us, occupies our waking hours, or is more constantly in our mind, becomes an idol, and a source of sin. It is not the magnitude of the idol, but its existence as an object of worship, that constitutes idolatry. I have seen some 'Burmese idols' not much larger than my hand; and I have seen some 'Egyptian idols' weighing many tons. But both were equally idols, and the comparative size had nothing to do with the question. So spiritually, an idol is not to be measured by its size; its relative importance or non importance. A flower may be as much an idol to one man, as a chest full of gold to another. If you watch your heart, you will see idols rising and setting all day long, nearly as thickly as the stars by night. But God sends . . . trials, difficulties, temptations, besetments, losses, afflictions, to pull down these idols, or rather to pull away our hearts from them. These difficulties . . . pull us out of fleshly ease, make us cry for mercy, pull down all rotten props, hunt us out of false refuges, and strip us of vain hopes and delusive expectations. Idolatry! (Joseph Philpot, "Idolatry" 1852) "They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God." 1 Thes. 1:9 Nothing is too small or too insignificant which, at times, may not be an idol. What is an idol? Something my carnal mind loves. How may I know whether my carnal mind loves it? When we think of it, and are very much pleased with it. We pet it, love and fondle it, dallying and playing with it, like a mother with her babe. See how she takes the little thing and gazes at it. Her eyes are fixed on it; she dotes upon it because she loves it. Thus we may know an idol if we examine our own hearts, by what our imagination, desires and secret thoughts are going out after. Instead of being spiritually minded, having his heart and affections in heaven, he has something in his mind which it is going out after; something or other laying hold of the affections. The child of God has, more or less, all these propensities working within. There is idolatry in every man's heart. How deep this idolatry is rooted in a man's heart! How it steals upon his soul! Whatever is indulged in, how it creeps over him, until it gets such power that it becomes master. A man does not know himself, if he does not know what power this idolatry has over him. None but God can make the man know it; and when the Lord delivers him, he then turns to God and says, "What a vile wretch I have been! What a monster to go after these idols, loving this thing, and that. A wretch, a monster of iniquity, the vilest wretch that ever crawled on the face of God's earth, for my wicked heart to go out after these idols!" When the soul is brought down to a sense of its vileness and loathsomeness, and God's patience and forbearance, it turns to God from idols, to serve the only living and true God, who pardons the idolater. Through the inward conflicts, secret workings (Joseph Philpot, "The Soul's Growth in Grace" 1837) Through the inward conflicts, secret workings, mysterious changes, and ever varying exercises of his soul, the true Christian becomes established in a deep experience . . . of his own folly and God's wisdom, of his own weakness and Christ's strength, of his own sinfulness and the Lord's goodness, of his own backslidings and the Spirit's recoveries, of his own base ingratitude and Jehovah's patience, of the aboundings of sin and the super aboundings of grace. He thus becomes daily more and more confirmed in . . . the vanity of the creature, the utter helplessness of man, the deceitfulness and hypocrisy of the human heart, the sovereignty of distinguishing grace, the fewness of heaven taught ministers, the scanty number of living souls, and the great rareness of true religion. Wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores (Joseph Philpot, Balm in Gilead, 1852) "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it; but only wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither soothed with ointment." Isaiah 1:5-6 Every thought, word, and action is polluted by sin. Every mental faculty is depraved. The will chooses evil. The affections cleave to earthly things. The memory, like a broken sieve, retains the bad and lets fall the good. The judgment, like a bribed or drunken judge, pronounces mindless or wrong decisions. The conscience, like an opium eater, lies asleep and drugged in stupefied silence. When all these 'master faculties of the mind' are so drunken and disorderly, need we wonder that the bodily members are a godless, rebellious crew? Lusts call out for gratification. Unbelief and infidelity murmur. Tempers growl and mutter. Every bad passion strives hard for the mastery. O the evils of the human heart, which, let loose, have filled earth with misery, and hell with victims; which deluged the world with the flood; burnt Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from heaven; and are ripening the world for the final conflagration! Every sin which . . . has made this fair earth a 'present hell'; has filled the air with groans; and has drenched the ground with blood; dwells in your heart and mine! Now, as this is opened up to the conscience by the Spirit of God, we feel indeed to be of all men most sinful and miserable; and of all most guilty, polluted, and vile. But it is this, and nothing but this, which cuts to pieces our 'fleshly righteousness, wisdom, and strength'; which slays our delusive hopes; and lays us low at the footstool of mercy; without one good thought, word, or action to propitiate an angry Judge. It is this which brings the soul to this point: that if saved, it can only be saved by the free grace, sovereign mercy, and tender compassion of Almighty God. The wilderness wanderer (Joseph Philpot, "The Wilderness Wanderer" 1867) "They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in." Psalm 107:4 The true Christian finds this world to be a wilderness. There is no change in the world itself. The change is in the man's heart. The wilderness wanderer thinks it altered; a different world from what he has hitherto known . . . his friends, his own family, the employment in which he is daily engaged, the general pursuits of men, the cares and anxieties, the hopes and prospects, the amusements and pleasures, and what I may call 'the general din and whirl of life', all seem to him different to what they were; and for a time perhaps he can scarcely tell whether the change is in them, or in himself. This however is the prominent and uppermost feeling in his mind: that he finds himself, to his surprise a wanderer in a world which has changed altogether its appearance to him. The fair, beautiful world, in which was all his happiness and all his home; has become to him a dreary wilderness. Sin has been fastened in its conviction on his conscience. The Holy Spirit has taken the veil of unbelief and ignorance off his heart. He now sees the world in a wholly different light; and instead of a paradise it has become a wilderness; for sin, dreadful sin, has marred all its beauty and happiness. It is not because the world itself has changed that the Christian feels it to be a wilderness; but because he himself has changed. There is nothing in this world which can really gratify or satisfy the true Christian. What once was to him a happy and joyous world has now become a barren wilderness. The scene of his former . . . pursuits, pleasures, habits, delights, prospects, hopes, anticipations of profit or happiness, is now turned into a barren wasteland. What once was a blooming and verdant pasture, a glorious scene of hill and dale, trees and flowers, is now turned into sand and gravel, with the burning sun of God's wrath above, and the parched sand of his own desolate heart beneath. He cannot perhaps tell how or why the change has taken place, but he feels it, deeply feels it. He may try to shake off his trouble and be a little cheerful and happy as he was before; but if he gets a little imaginary relief, all his guilty pangs come back upon him with renewed strength and increased violence. God means to make the world a wilderness to every child of His, that he may not find his happiness in it, but be a stranger and a pilgrim upon earth. Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "Grace Quotes Archive" by: Bible Bulletin Board Box 119 Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022 Our websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com Email: [email protected] Online since 1986

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