Jun 20
21
By His wounds we are healed
(J. C. Philpot, “Steps of Thankful Praise” 1865)
Sin has thoroughly diseased us,
and poisoned our very blood.
Sin has diseased our understanding, so
as to disable it from receiving the truth.
Sin has diseased our conscience, so as to make it
dull and heavy, and undiscerning of right and wrong.
Sin has diseased our imagination, polluting it
with every idle, foolish, and licentious fancy.
Sin has diseased our memory, making it swift to
retain what is evil, slow to retain what is good.
Sin has diseased our affections, perverting
them from all that is heavenly and holy, and
fixing them on all that is earthly and vile.
“But 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
Hell is full of the Divine holiness!
(Winslow, “Holiness, the Fruit of the Chastening of Love”)
Hell is full of the Divine holiness; holiness
in the manifestation of justice; holiness in
its most glorious exercise.
How fearfully are the lost now learning this truth!
Think it not a trifling matter, unconverted reader,
to look into the bottomless pit, and to know that
there is but a step and you are there! You walk to
the end of the treacherous plank, and you are gone!
O solemn thought! but one step between you and
the quenchless flame! but one step between you
and endless torment!
Throughout eternity the lost soul will be testifying
to this truth: “God is holy; I was a sinner; I rejected
His salvation, I turned my back upon His gospel,
I despised His Son, I hated God Himself, I lived in
my sins, I loved my sins, I died in my sins, and now
I am lost! to all eternity lost! And God is righteous
in my condemnation!”
Better an ounce of divine grace!
Spurgeon, “Daniel’s Undaunted Courage”
Better to pine with Lazarus than feast
with Dives, for the love of God more
than compensates for temporary
disadvantages. Better an ounce of
divine grace than a ton of worldly goods.
What makes the children of God so strange?
(J. C. Philpot, “The Precious Trial of Faith”, 1865)
“To God’s elect, strangers in the world.” 1 Peter 1:1
Strangers!
What makes the children of God so strange?
The grace of God which calls them out of this wretched
world. Every man who carries the grace of God in his
bosom is necessarily, as regards the world, a stranger
in heart, as well as in profession, and life.
As Abraham was a stranger in the land of Canaan;
as Joseph was a stranger in the palace of Pharaoh;
as Moses was a stranger in the land of Egypt;
as Daniel was a stranger in the court of Babylon;
so every child of God is separated by grace,
to be a stranger in this ungodly world.
And if indeed we are to come out from it and to
be separate, the world must be as much a strange
place to us; for we are strangers to . . .
its views,
its thoughts,
its desires,
its prospects,
its anticipations,
in our daily walk,
in our speech,
in our mind,
in our spirit,
in our judgment,
in our affections.
We will be strangers from . . .
the world’s company,
the world’s maxims,
the world’s fashions,
the world’s spirit.
“They confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth.” Hebrews 11:13
These scars!
(Charles Spurgeon)
“Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne!” Revelation 5:6
Why should our exalted Lord appear in heaven — with His wounds? The wounds of Jesus are — His glories, His jewels, His sacred ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus is lovely, because He is “white and ruddy”; white with innocence, and ruddy with His own blood. We see Him as the Lily of matchless purity — and as the Rose crimsoned with His own gore. Christ is lovely in His life and His teaching — but oh! there never was such a matchless Christ as He who hung upon the cross! There we behold all His beauties in perfection, all His attributes developed, all His love drawn out, all His character expressed!
Beloved, the wounds of Jesus are far more lovely in our eyes — than all the splendor and pomp of kings! The thorny crown is more attractive than any imperial diadem. Jesus wears the appearance of a slain Lamb — as His court dress in which He wooed our souls, and redeemed them by His complete atonement.
Nor are these only the ornaments of Christ — they are the trophies of His love and of His victory! He has redeemed for Himself a great multitude whom no man can number — and these scars are the memorials of the fight! Ah! if Christ delights to retain the thought of His sufferings for His people — how precious should His wounds be to us!
“Behold how every wound of His,
A precious balm distills,
Which heals the scars that sin had made,
And cures all mortal ills.
Those wounds are mouths that preach His grace;
The ensigns of His love;
The seals of our expected bliss,
In paradise above!”
False faith!
(Don Fortner)
There is a false faith in which multitudes are confidently resting.
There is a false faith by which multitudes are deceived and will perish for ever in Hell.
A false faith may be greatly enlightened and knowledgeable in gospel truth (Heb. 6:4).
A false faith excites the affections (Stony Ground Hearers).
A false faith reforms the outward life (The Pharisees).
A false faith may speak very well of Christ (The Jews).
A false faith confesses sin (Saul).
A false faith may humble itself in sackcloth and ashes (Ahab).
A false faith may repent (Esau – Judas).
A false faith may diligently perform religious works (The Pharisees).
A false faith may be very charitable and generous (Ananias).
A false faith may tremble at the Word of God (Felix).
A false faith may experience much in religion (Heb. 6:1-4).
A false faith may enjoy great religious privileges (Lot’s wife).
A false faith may preach, perform miracles, and cast out demons (Matt. 7:23).
A false faith may attain high office in the church (Diotrephes).
A false faith may walk with great preachers (Demas was Paul’s companion).
A false faith may be peaceful and carnally secure (The Five Foolish Virgins).
A false faith may even persevere and hold out until the day of judgment (Matt. 7:22-23).
If you have the faith of God’s elect, it will bear examination.
If you do not, if you are resting in a false faith, you need to be awakened so that you may flee to Christ in true faith.
Bitten by this serpent’s tooth
(J. C. Philpot, “The Destruction through Death
of Him Who Had the Power of Death” 1858)
No man has ever sounded the depths of the fall.
The children of God have indeed discoveries of the
evil of sin. And they have such views at times of
the desperate wickedness and awful depravity of
human nature, that they seem as if filled with
unspeakable horror at the hideous enormity of
the corruption that works in their carnal mind.
But no man has ever seen, as no man ever can see,
in this time-state, what sin is to its full extent, and
as it will be hereafter developed in the depths of hell.
We may indeed in our own experience see something
of its commencement; but we can form little idea of
its progress, and still less of its termination. For sin
has this peculiar feature attending it, that it ever
spreads and spreads until it involves everything
that it touches in utter ruin.
We may compare it in this point of view to the
venom-fang of a serpent. There are serpents of
so venomous a kind, as for instance the Cobra
de Capello, or hooded snake, that the introduction
of the minutest portion of venom from their poison
tooth will in a few hours convert all the fluids of
the body into a mass of putrefaction. A man shall
be in perfect health one hour, and bitten by this
serpent’s tooth shall in the next, be a loathsome
mass of rottenness and corruption. Such is sin.
The introduction of sin into the nature of Adam at
the fall was like the introduction of poison from the
fang of a deadly serpent into the human body. It at
once penetrated into his soul and body, and filled
both with death and corruption.
Or, to use a more scriptural figure, sin may be
compared to the disease of leprosy, which usually
began with a “bright spot,” or “rising in the skin”,
scarcely perceptible, and yet spread and spread
until it enveloped every member, and the whole
body becoming a mass of putrefying hideous
corruption.
Or sin may be compared to a cancer, which begins
perhaps with a little lump causing a slight itching,
but goes on feeding upon the part which it attacks,
until the patient dies worn out with pain and suffering.
Now if sin be . . .
this venom fang,
this spreading leprosy,
this loathsome cancer;
if its destructive power be so great that, unless
arrested and healed, it will destroy body and soul
alike in hell, the remedy for it, if remedy there be,
must be as great as the malady. Thus if there be . . .
a cure for sin,
a remedy for the fall,
a deliverance from the wrath to come,
it must be at least as full and as complete
as the ruin which sin has entailed upon us.
The man who has slight, superficial views and feelings
of sin will have equally slight and superficial views of
the atonement made for sin. The groans of Christ will
never sound in his ears as the dolorous groans of an
agonizing Lord; the sufferings of Christ will never be
opened up to his soul as the sorrows of Immanuel, God
with us; the death of Christ will never be viewed by him,
as the blood shedding of the darling Son of God. While
he has such slight, superficial views of the malady, his
views of the remedy will be equally slight and superficial.
As we are led down into a spiritual knowledge of self
and sin, so we are led up into a gracious knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
By suffering all the penalties of our sin, Jesus redeems
us from the lowest hell and raises us up to the highest
heaven–empowering poor worms of earth to soar above
the skies and live forever in the presence of Him who
is a consuming fire!
“And she will have a son, and you are to name Him
Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:21
The wheels of divine justice grind
slowly; but they grind to powder.
Be Warned!
There is a day of reckoning to come.
Soon you too must do business with God himself.
The God of the Bible is the God of Justice and of Judgment.
1. The Judgment of God is Sure.
2. The Judgment of God will be Sudden.
3. The Judgment of God is Just.
4. The Judgment of God is Endless.
5. The Judgment of God will Cause No Sorrow to the Redeemed. (Rev. 19:1-6).
6. Your Religion will not save you from The Judgment of God (Matt. 7:22-23).
7. The Only One who can save you from the Judgment of God is Jesus, who bore the
Judgment of God for Sinners! (Don Fortner)
All the ravishments of His presence and love!
(J. C. Philpot, “Meditations on 1 Peter”)
“Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation
of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:9
What is to be compared with the salvation of the
soul? What are riches, honors, health, long life?
What are all the pleasures which the world can
offer, sin promise, or the flesh enjoy? What is all
that men call good or great? What is everything
which the outward eye has seen, or natural ear
heard, or has entered into the carnal heart of man
–put side by side with being saved by Jesus with
an everlasting salvation?
Consider what we are saved from–as well as
what we are saved unto.
From a burning hell–to a blissful heaven!
From endless wrath–to eternal glory!
From the dreadful company of devils and damned
spirits, mutually tormenting and tormented–to the
blessed companionship of the glorified saints, all
perfectly conformed in body and soul to the image
of Christ, with thousands and tens of thousands of
holy angels! And, above all, to seeing the glorious
Son of God as He is, in all the perfection of His beauty,
and all the ravishments of His presence and love!
To be done forever with . . .
all the sorrows, troubles, and afflictions of this life;
all the pains and aches of this poor clay tabernacle;
all the darkness, bondage, and misery of the body of
sin and death–to be perfectly holy in body and soul,
being in both without spot, or blemish–and ever to
enjoy uninterrupted union and communion with God!
O what a heaven lies before the children of God!