Aug 12
25
Your filth will be washed away!
(J. C. Philpot, “The Clean Water Sprinkled” 1866)
O, what loathsome monsters of iniquity—how polluted, filthy, and vile do we feel ourselves
to be—when the guilt of our sin is charged home upon our conscience! Have you not sometimes loathed yourselves on account of your abominations?
Has not the filth of your sin sometimes disgusted you; the opening up of that horrible, that ever running sewer, which you daily carry about with you?
We complain, and justly complain—of a reeking sewer which runs through a street—or of a ditch filled with everything disgusting. But do we feel as much—do we complain as often—of the foul sewer which is ever running in our soul—of the filthy ditch in our own bosom?
As the sight of this open sewer meets our eyes—and its stench enters our nostrils, it fills us with self-loathing and self-abhorrence before the eyes of a holy God.
“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away!” Ezekiel 36:25-26
Nothing can tame savage hearts!
(John MacDuff)
Oh, the human heart is deep in its corruptions, deep in its self-deceptions. “The human heart
is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” Jeremiah 17:9
Nothing can tame savage hearts, but the regenerating power of the blessed Gospel.
“I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a
new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone
and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and cause you to
follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.” Ezekiel 36:25-27
Salvation by Grace!
from Spurgeon
No sinner will ever come to Christ apart from the quickening, enlightening, drawing, converting power of the Holy Spirit, supernaturally exercised upon the conscience and heart.
Until grace comes into our souls we have no heart for the things of God. We may be fussily religious so far as to be attentive to every ‘outward form of worship’; but there is no heart-work, no light of truth in all our devotion. But when once the divine light comes in, then we become intensely real in our dealings with God.
When the grace of God comes, the Holy Spirit brings us out from under the dominion of the old nature by creating within us a new life, and he brings us out from under the tyranny of the
Prince of Darkness by opening our eyes to see, and our minds to understand celestial truth. The opening of our blind eyes and the pouring in of the light of truth are from the Lord.
The entrance of God’s word into the mind by the power of the Holy Spirit gives us light as to– ourselves, our sin, and our danger. With this comes light as to the way of salvation through Jesus Christ, and light as to the mind of God concerning our sanctification. True knowledge takes the place of ignorance, and a desire for purity becomes supreme over the love of sin.
Not all the temptations of life, nor all the terrors of death, nor all the furies of hell, shall prevent any soul upon whom God has begun his work of grace from reaching eternal salvation. What a blessing is this, and what a comfort it is!
“The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord.”
The Will of Man VS The Will of God
Joe Terrell
When we speak out against the false doctrine of the free will of man, we actually mean the independent will of man. There are at least two things from which a man’s will can never be independent:
Man’s will does not operate independent of God’s will anymore than the will of a character in a book can operate independently of the will of the author who wrote the book. Romeo willed to kill himself precisely because Shakespeare willed it. Every man has a will, to be sure; but that will always chooses what God has ordained for the man to do. Does Pharaoh harden his heart? Yes he does, with purpose and determination. But it is equally true that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Does Saul of Tarsus repent and believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Yes, he does, with purpose and determination. Yet is was God’s will that created Saul’s, and so we say that before Saul ever chose to trust Christ, God chose to save Saul, and Saul’s choice was just the outworking of God’s.
Nor can man’s will act independent of his nature: he always chooses what is consistent with his nature. In fact, man’s will is merely the expression of his nature. He does not always choose to do everything he desires, for he has competing desires that cannot all be fulfilled; but he always chooses that which advances what he wants the most. Man’s greatest desire is self-glory which makes it utterly impossible for him to choose God’s way of salvation. He may choose a perverted version of God’s gospel, or he may choose to “accept” certain aspects of the gospel. But the one thing he cannot choose is to “deny himself, take up his cross and follow Christ.” (Matthew 16.24) Such an act is diametrically opposed to all that man desires. If a man is to choose such a course, it is necessary that there be a change of his nature, and it must be a wholesale change, not a mere alteration. That is exactly what happens in the New Birth – a man’s God-hating, rebellious nature is changed – more, created new – so that he is a submissive and loving person in things pertaining to God. Therefore, he chooses to follow Christ, not because an act of God has merely made it possible for him to do so, but because this act of God (the New Birth) makes it necessary for him to do so. The born again man is no more free of his nature than the spiritually dead man. He chooses to follow Christ because his nature compels him to do so just as, in former times, he rejected Christ because his nature compelled him to do so.
No man’s will is independent: it is merely the performing of the will of God ordained before time, and is always the expression of the nature of the man.
I will be with you!
(From Winslow’s, “The Man of God Divinely Prospered”)
“When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” Isaiah 43:3
Jesus is with us…. to counsel our perplexities, to guide our feet, to supply our need,
to deliver us from the power of our enemies, to keep us from all evil, and to bring us home to glory!
To have Jehovah with us is…. to be encircled by every divine perfection; to be encompassed by a wall of fire which no foe can penetrate; to dwell in the munition of rocks; to have our bread and our water sure; to have ever at our side a flowing spring in drought; to have the shadow of a great rock in the heat; to have a table in the wilderness; to have the divine cloud and fire safely conducting our journey homeward.
Precious presence of the Lord! It is…. a shield of adamant, a garden of delights, a tower of strength, a portion of heaven come down to earth.
Child of God! Jesus is with you in all your history!
Let faith deal with this truth in all its battles and its trials. You may seem and feel at times alone. The sun may withdraw itself, and the stars of night may be draped in cloud. Dark, and dreary, and lonesome may be your way. Nevertheless, let faith, whose most brilliant achievements are when it is the most opposed to sense, grapple with thus truth.
“I am kept, guided, watched over, encircled by the Unseen God. The Lord is with me, and I will endure as seeing Him who is invisible.”
“When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” Isaiah 43:3
Open wide your mouth — and I will fill it!
(James Smith, “Privilege, Duty, and Promise”)
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth — and I will fill it!” Psalm 81:10
Our great privilege is to have God for our God:
to know Him, to love Him, to adore Him, and to trust in Him.
If God is ours — then all must be well. If God has delivered us from . . .
the Egypt of this world, the power of sin, and the tyranny of Satan —
then He is our God indeed.
He says, “I am Jehovah — the compassionate God . . .
who sympathizes with My people in their sorrows,
who counts their tears, who feels their groans, and who records their prayers.”
“I am Jehovah — the God of power . . .
who delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage;
whose strength is as infinite as My nature,
for whom nothing is too hard.”
“I am Jehovah — the God of love . . .
whose resources are boundless,
whose pity is tender, and
who never fails or forsakes those who trust in Him.”
“I am Jehovah — your God . . .
pledged to you by promise;
engaged for you by covenant;
and bound to you by oath!
As I am your God . . .
look to Me,
trust in Me,
expect from Me.”
“Open your mouth wide!” That is, “Ask LARGELY — ask for great, numerous, and costly blessings! Do not be afraid of asking for too much!
My heart is large, My love is great, My wealth is unbounded!
Ask BOLDLY — do not be afraid — but come boldly to My throne of grace, that you may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Ask FREQUENTLY — I am always ready to give! I am never weary of listening to your prayers. Come whenever you are in need — I rejoice to do you good. No parent ever delighted to give to a darling child — as I delight to give to you! Therefore ask and receive, that your joy may be full.
“Open your mouth wide — and I will fill it!” That is, “I have the very blessings which you need. They are from Me — they are for you! I have the disposition to give! Do not doubt My benevolence, for this grieves My heart. I give you My word, that I will bestow My favors upon you freely, plentifully, and frequently! My Word is plain — read it; it is faithful — trust it; it is honest — plead it; it is sure — expect the fulfillment of it. I will do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think!”
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth — and I will fill it!”
I will love them FREELY
from Spurgeon’s, “GRACE ABOUNDING”
“I will love them freely.” — Hosea 14:4.
No LABOR of man can procure the Grace of God;
and no EFFORT of man can add to it.
God is good from the simple necessity of his nature; God is love, simply because it is his essence to be so, and he pours forth his love in plenteous streams to undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving objects, simply because he “Will Have Mercy on Whom He Will
Have Mercy, and He Will Have Compassion on Whom Will Have Compassion,” for it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.
No matter how vile, and black, and foul, and godless, men may be, God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy; and that free, rich, overflowing goodness of his can make the very worst and least deserving, the objects of his best and choicest love!