PEARLS from PHILPOT - Volume 3

All true religion Jesus is . . . our sun, and without Him all is darkness; our life, and without Him all is death; the beginner and finisher of our faith; the substance of our hope; the object of our love. It is the Spirit who quickens us . . . to feel our need of Christ; to seek all our supplies in Him and from Him; to believe in Him unto everlasting life, and thus live a life of faith upon Him. By His . . . secret teachings, inward touches, gracious smiles, soft whispers, sweet promises, manifestations of Christ's glorious Person and work, Christ's agonizing sufferings and dying love, the Holy Spirit draws the heart up to Christ. He thus wins our affections, and setting Christ before our eyes as "the chief among ten thousand and the altogether lovely One," draws out that love and affection towards Jesus which puts the world under our feet. All true religion flows from the Spirit's grace, presence and power. The regenerating operations of the Holy Spirit From the very nature of the fall, it is impossible for a dead soul to . . . believe in God, know God, or love God. It must be quickened into spiritual life before it can savingly know the only true God. And thus there lies at the very threshold—in the very heart and core of the case—the absolute necessity of the regenerating operations of the Holy Spirit upon the soul. The very completeness and depth of the fall render the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit as necessary, as indispensable as the redeeming work of the Son of God. This hard school of painful experience In times of trial and darkness, the saints and servants of God are instructed. They see and feel what the flesh really is, how alienated from the life of God—they learn in whom all their strength and sufficiency lie—they are taught that in them, that is, in their flesh, dwells no good thing—that no exertions of their own can maintain in strength and vigor the life of God—and that all they are and have, all they believe, know, feel, and enjoy, with all their ability, usefulness, gifts, and grace—flow from the pure, sovereign grace—the rich, free, undeserved, yet unceasing goodness and mercy of God. They learn in this hard school of painful experience their emptiness and nothingness—and that without Christ indeed they can do nothing. They thus become clothed with humility, that lovely, becoming garb—cease from their own strength and wisdom—and learn experimentally that Christ is, and ever must be, all in all to them, and all in all in them. Many difficulties, obstacles, and hindrances "Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know Him!" Hosea 6:3 The expression, "press on," implies that there are many difficulties, obstacles, and hindrances in a man's way, which keep him back from "knowing the Lord." Now the work of the Spirit in his soul is to carry him on in spite of all these obstacles—to lead him forward—to keep alive in him the fear of God—to strengthen him in his inner man—to drop in those hopes—to communicate that inward grace—so that he is compelled to press on. Sometimes he seems driven, sometimes drawn, sometimes led, and sometimes carried, but in one way or another the Spirit of God so works upon him that, though he scarcely knows how—he still "presses on." His very burdens make him groan for deliverance—his very temptations cause him to cry for help—the very difficulty and ruggedness of the road make him want to be carried every step—the very intricacy of the path compels him to cry out for a guide—so that the Spirit working in the midst of, and under, and through every difficulty and discouragement, still bears him through, and carries him on—and thus brings him through every trial and trouble and temptation and obstacle, until He sets him in glory. It is astonishing to me how our souls are kept alive. The Christian is a marvel to himself. Carried on, and yet so secretly—worked upon, and yet so mysteriously; and yet led on, guided, and supported through so many difficulties and obstacles—that he is a miracle of mercy as he is carried on amid all . . . difficulties, obstacles, trials, and temptations. The poison fang of sin! We must go down into the depths of the fall to know what our hearts are, and what they are capable of—we must have the keen knife of God to cut deep gashes in our conscience and lay bare the evil that lies so deeply imbedded in our carnal mind—before we can enter into and experience the beauty and blessedness of salvation by grace. "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it—but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores—they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." Isaiah 1:6 When the Church of God fell in Adam, she fell with a crash which broke every bone and bruised her flesh with wounds which are ulcerated from head to toe. Her understanding, her conscience, and her affections were all fearfully maimed . . . her understanding was blinded; her conscience stupefied; her affections alienated. Every mental faculty thus became perverted and distorted. When Adam fell into sin and temptation—sin rushed into every faculty of body and soul—and penetrated into the inmost recesses of his being. As when a man is bitten by a poisonous serpent, the venom courses through every artery and vein, and he dies a corrupted mass from head to foot; so did the poison fang of sin penetrate into Adam's inmost soul and body, and infect him with its venom from the sole to the crown. But it is only as sin's desperate and malignant character is opened up by the Holy Spirit that it is really seen, felt, grieved under, and mourned over as indeed a most dreadful and fearful reality. "The whole head is sick—and the whole heart faint." 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 heedless or wrong decisions; the conscience, like an opium eater, lies asleep and drugged in stupefied silence. A penitent backslider and a forgiving God! "And while he was still a long distance away, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him." Luke 15:20 After a child of God has enjoyed something of the goodness and mercy of God revealed in the face of His dear Son, he may wander from his mercies—stray away from these choice gospel pastures—and get into a waste howling wilderness, where there is neither food nor water—and yet, though half starved for poverty, has in himself no power to return. But in due time the Lord seeks out this wandering sheep, and the first place he brings him to is the mercy seat—confessing his sins and seeking mercy. O what a meeting! A penitent backslider and a forgiving God! O what a meeting! A guilty wretch drowned in tears—and a loving Father falling upon his neck and kissing him! O what a meeting for a poor, self-condemned wretch, who can never mourn too deeply over his sins, and yet finds grace super-abounding over all his abounding sins—and the love of God bursting through the cloud, like the sun upon an April day—and melting his heart into contrition and love! Salvation! Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now has come the salvation." Rev. 12:10 The sweetest song that heaven ever proclaimed, the most blessed note that ever melted the soul, is "salvation." To be saved from . . . death and hell; the worm which dies not; the fire which is not quenched; the sulphurous flames of the bottomless pit; the companionship of tormenting fiends; all the foul wretches under which earth has groaned; blaspheming God in unutterable woe; an eternity of misery without hope; and saved into . . . heaven; the sight of Jesus as He is; perfect holiness and happiness; the blissful company of holy angels and glorified saints! And all this during the countless ages of a blessed eternity! What tongue of men or angels can describe the millionth part of what is contained in the word salvation! A peculiar people "But you are . . . a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people." 1 Peter 2:9 May we never forget that the suffering Son of God gave Himself to purify unto Himself a peculiar people . . . a people whose thoughts are peculiar, for their thoughts are the thoughts of God, as having the mind of Christ; a people whose affections are peculiar, for they are fixed on things above; a people whose prayers are peculiar, for they are wrought in their heart by the Spirit of grace and supplication; a people whose sorrows are peculiar, because they spring from a spiritual source; a people whose joys are peculiar, for they are joys which the stranger cannot understand; a people whose hopes are peculiar, as anchoring within the veil; a people whose expectations are peculiar, as not expecting to reap a crop of happiness in this marred world—but are looking for happiness in the kingdom of rest and peace in the bosom of God. They make it manifest that they are a peculiar people by . . . walking in the footsteps of the Lord the Lamb, taking up the cross, denying themselves, and living to the honor, praise, and glory of God. Softened, broke, and melted your heart "I drew them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love." Hosea 11:4 When God draws His people near unto Himself, it is not done in a mechanical way. They are drawn, not with cords of iron, but with the cords of kindness; not as if God laid an iron arm upon His people to drag them to Himself—whether they wished to come or not. God does not so act in a way of mechanical force. We therefore read, "Your people shall be made willing in the day of Your power." He touches their heart with His gracious finger, and he communicates to their soul both faith and feeling. He melts, softens, and humbles their heart by a sense of His goodness and mercy—for it is His goodness, as experimentally felt and realized, which leads to repentance. If you have ever felt any secret and sacred drawing of your soul upward to heaven—it was not compulsion, not violence, not a mechanical constraint—but an arm of pity and compassion let down into your very heart, which, touching your inmost spirit, drew it up into the bosom of God. It was some view of His goodness, mercy, and love, with some dropping into your spirit of His pity and compassion towards you, which softened, broke, and melted your heart. You were not driven onward by being flogged and scourged, but blessedly drawn with the cords of kindness, which seemed to touch every tender feeling and enter into the very depths of your soul. Fixed and fastened by an Almighty hand. Truth, as it stands in the naked word of God, is lifeless and dead—and as such, has no power to communicate what it has not in itself—that is, life and power to the hearts of God's people. It stands there in so many letters and syllables, as lifeless as the types by which they were printed. But when the incarnate Word takes of the written word, and speaks it home into the heart and conscience of a vessel of mercy, whether in letter or substance—then He endues it with divine life—and it enters into the soul, communicating to it a life that can never die. Eternal realities are then brought into the soul, fixed and fastened by an Almighty hand. The conscience is made alive in the fear of God; and the soul is raised up from a death in sin, to a heavenly, new, and supernatural life. When we are reduced to poverty and beggary How often we seem not to have any real religion, or enjoy any solid comfort! How often are our minds covered with deep darkness! How often does the Lord hide Himself, so that we cannot behold Him, nor get near to Him! What a painful path is this to walk in, but how profitable! When we are reduced to poverty and beggary, we learn to value Christ's glorious riches. The worse opinion we have of our own heart, and the more deceitful and desperately wicked that we find it—the more we put our trust in His faithfulness. The more black we are in our own esteem—the more beautiful and lovely does He appear in our eyes. As we sink—Jesus rises. As we become feeble—He puts forth his strength. As we come into danger—He brings deliverance. As we get into temptation—He breaks the snare. As we are shut up in darkness and obscurity; He causes the light of His countenance to shine. Now it is by being led in this way, and walking in these paths, that we come rightly to know who Jesus is; and to see and feel how suitable and precious such a Savior is to our undone souls! We are needy, He has in Himself all riches.

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PEARLS from PHILPOT - Volume 3

J.C. Philpot

J.C. Philpot (1802 - 1869)

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