Oct 22
11
|
The foulest filth under the cleanest cloak (J. C. Philpot, “New Years’ Address, 1858“) “Take heed unto yourselves!” Acts 20:28 There are few Christians who have not ever found SELF to be their greatest enemy. The pride, unbelief, hardness, and impenitence of a man’s own heart; the deceitfulness, hypocrisy, and wickedness of his own fallen nature; the lusts and passions, filth and folly of his own carnal mind; will not only ever be his greatest burden, but will ever prove his most dreaded foe! Enemies we shall have from outside, and we may at times keenly feel their bitter speeches and cruel words and actions. But no enemy can injure us like ourselves! In five minutes a man may do himself more real harm, than all his enemies united could do to injure him in fifty years! To yourself you can be the most insidious enemy and the greatest foe! In all its forms, SELF in its inmost spirit is still a . . . deceitful, subtle, restless, proud, and impatient creature; masking its real character in a thousand ways, and concealing its destructive designs by countless devices. We have but to look on the professing church to find . . . the highest pride under the lowest humility, the greatest ignorance under the vainest self-conceit, the basest treachery under the warmest profession, the vilest sensuality under the most heavenly piety, and the foulest filth under the cleanest cloak. “Take heed unto yourselves!” Acts 20:28 |
The Awful Sin of Judas
“Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him (Jesus) unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver” (Matthew 26: 14-15).
Ever since he “betrayed innocent blood” (Matthew 27: 3, 4), selling the Lord Jesus to the highest bidder, the name Judas has been a byword, symbolic of the worst form of treachery and deceit known to man. However, though he stands out in history as unique and his crime the most sinister, his sin is still among us.
The man who identifies with and/or supports, in any way, preachers, churches and ministries which, in their preaching, deliver Christ into the hands of His enemies to do with Him as they will; auctioning Him off to the sinful crowd; selling Him out at a price agreeable to fallen man’s sinful will – that man is a Judas!
Any preacher or pastor, who, to get his people to be faithful, frightens them with the hounds of hell, drives them with the whip of the law, or bribes them with promises of exalted positions and great rewards in heaven – that preacher or pastor is a Judas!
Is the Lord Jesus Christ such an ugly, unattractive, undesirable Husband that His bride will not love nor serve Him unless she is driven or bribed? What a dishonouring thought! What a blasphemous thought! Those who truly know the Lord Jesus, love Him. Those who love the Lord Jesus, desire to honour and serve Him. Those who desire to honour and serve Him do so, as willing and thankful servants, constrained by the knowledge of His great love for them, and the love which they, in return, have for Him (II Corinthians 5:14; I John 4:19). To all who know Him, Christ is “altogether lovely,” and desired above any other, and all else!
~Maurice Montgomery (1939-2015)
A mother sin
Unbelief is a mother sin—a breeding sin. It does not remain in the heart alone, but gives birth to thousands of sins, all springing up out of its prolific womb—like the fabled sea monsters. We see in the wilderness how all through all their journeyings the crying sin of the people of Israel was unbelief. It was the parent of all their fretfulness, murmuring, and rebellion—it lay at the root of everything done by them displeasing to God—gave birth to all their idolatry and all their other sins—and eventually shut out all but Caleb and Joshua from the promised land. Their carcasses fell in the wilderness through unbelief.
J.C.Philpot
“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6
Octavius Winslow
That God was under any obligation or necessity to reveal
Himself to man, is an idea that cannot for a moment be seriously entertained.
It will follow, then, that such a revelation of Himself, His mind and will, to
fallen creatures, having been made, it must be regarded as an astounding act of
His sovereign mercy, irrespective of any claim whatever arising from the
creature man. The source where it originates must be entirely within God
Himself.
The only full and perfect revelation of the glory of God is seen in the Lord
Jesus; and apart from a spiritual and experimental knowledge of the Son there
can be no true, adequate, and saving knowledge of the Father. “No man has
seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father, he has declared Him.” The vast importance of a correct knowledge
of God is a truth which finds an assent in well-near every judgment. Every
awakened conscience desires it; every believing mind admits it; every tried
soul feels it. It lies at the basis of salvation; it forms the material of
happiness; it supplies the true motive to holiness; it is the ground-work and
the prelude of future and eternal glory.
As all knowledge of God out of Christ is defective and fallacious, examine
closely, and in the light of the revealed word, the source and character of
your professed acquaintance with the nature, character, and perfections of God.
Ponder seriously this solemn declaration of Christ Himself. “No man knows
the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, save the Son, and he
to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” Has your knowledge of God
overwhelmed you with a sense of your sinfulness? Have you caught such a view of
the Divine purity, the immaculate holiness of His nature, as to compel you to
exclaim, “Woe is me! for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean
lips,…for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts; why I abhor myself,
and repent in dust and ashes?” Has your study of His law forced upon your
mind the deep and solemn conviction that you are a fallen, ruined, lost,
guilty, condemned sinner, at this moment lying under the wrath of God, and
exposed to future and everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and
the glory of His power? Has it laid you beneath the cross of Christ? Has it
brought you to His blood and righteousness for pardon and acceptance? Has it
led you utterly to renounce all self-trust, self-confidence, self-boasting, and
to accept of Jesus, as “made of God unto you wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption”? If it has not wrought this for you,
your knowledge of God is but as “sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal.” “This,” says Christ, “is life eternal, that they
might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”
If you know not the Son, you know not the Father. “No man knows the
Father, but he to whom the Son shall reveal Him,”—Jesus Himself has
declared. Consider well the mercy of having transactions with such a God, in
such a Christ. A God so holy and just, so good and wise, in a Christ so truly
human, so spotless, so near, so dear and precious! God in Christ! Oh the
immensity of the truth! Oh the glory of the revelation! That God reconciled,
one with the believer; all His feelings love, all His thoughts peace, and all
His dealings parental; each perfection harmonising in the most perfect
agreement with all the others, to secure the highest amount of good here, and
of happiness unspeakable and eternal hereafter.
The Unbelief Of Man
Luke 22:67
If I understand the Word of God, the greatest, most abominable evil in this world is the horrible sin of unbelief. I would rather stand before God guilty of any crime known to man than stand before him guilty of having heard and refused to believe the gospel of his dear Son. Why? Because unbelief is man’s wilful declaration that God himself is a liar (I John 5:10). UNBELIEF IS THE MOST DARING AND THE MOST OBNOXIOUS EVIL IN THE WORLD. Yet, unbelief is natural to man. It is the bent of the human will.
Yes, UNBELIEF IS AN ACT OF THE WILL. Our Lord said, “Ye will not believe.” Both faith and unbelief involve the will. I know that faith is the gift of God, effectually wrought in his elect by the Holy Spirit.And I know that no man can, by nature, believe God. But I also know that believing is an act of the will. No one believes without willing to believe. Faith is God’s gift wrought in us, not upon us.He works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. God gives us the will to believe. Yet, faith is a voluntary thing. If I believe God, I do so willingly. And unbelief is a voluntary thing. If you refuse to believe God, you do so voluntarily, you choose to do so. Your unbelief is your own fault. It is a crime for which you must bear all blame and guilt.
WHY DO MEN REFUSE TO BELIEVE GOD? The fact is, unregenerate men prefer to embrace and trust any form of darkness to believing the revelation of God. How readily man receives the changing speculations of science, myths of mysticism, and opinions of “learned” men. Man prefers feelings to faith. Therefore, emotional religion is appealing. Men prefer faith in themselves to faith in Christ. Therefore, free-will, works religion is attractive. Men prefer visions, signs, miracles, and experiences to divine revelation. Therefore charismatic religion is accepted. And men prefer the pretence of intellectualism to the simplicity of faith. Therefore intellectual religion, whether liberal or conservative, Arminian or Calvinistic, is applauded. Why do men and women refuse to believe God and the gospel of his free grace in Christ? The answer is simple: FAITH IN CHRIST BEGINS WITH AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF PERSONAL SIN, DEPRAVITY, GUILT, AND INABILITY. No unregenerate man will make such an acknowledgement. His pride, self-righteousness, and love of self keep him from believing God.
Don Fortner
WHEN IS A SINNER BORN AGAIN? Galatians 1:15-16
I have no interest in answering the foolish questions of men about the chronological sequence of events in a man’s salvation. I will leave that to theologians who have nothing better to do than dissect the scriptures. But I do want to tell you when a person may with confidence say, “I am born again by the grace of God.”
The Apostle Paul tells us that he was saved, born again “when it pleased God”. Salvation comes to chosen sinners at “the time of love” appointed by God in sovereign predestination before the world began.
The new birth is wrought in chosen, redeemed sinners by the irresistible power and grace of God the Holy Spirit, who have been “separated” by him from their mothers’ wombs. Those who are the objects of God’s grace are under the special care and protection of the angels of God (Heb. 2:14) and the providence of God (Hos. 2:6-23; Rom. 8:28) until the appointed time of their calling. It is in that sense that God’s elect are secretly separated from their mothers’ wombs.
The new birth is wrought in those sinners separated from their mothers’ wombs by God, when the Lord God, by the power of his Spirit is pleased “to reveal his Son in” them. Christ must be revealed to us by the preaching of the gospel; and he must be revealed in us by the sovereign operations of the Holy Spirit. No one is, or can be, born of God until he reveals his Son in them. This is the doctrine of Holy Scripture.
When you know Christ, you are born again. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
When you believe on Christ, you are born again. “Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else”(John 3:15, 36; Isa. 45:22). We are not born again by believing on Christ. We cannot believe on him unless we are born again Faith is the fruit, not the cause of the new birth. If you trust Christ, this is the assurance of the gospel – You are born of God – You have everlasting life in Christ!
When you have Christ, you are born again. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:10-13). Get Christ and you get life. Miss Christ and you miss life. “Christ in you” is the hope of glory. Life, eternal life is not getting the right creed, but getting the right Christ. CHRIST IS LIFE! WITHOUT CHRIST THERE IS NO LIFE!
Don Fortner
Invincibly and irresistibly drawn
(J.C. Philpot,
“True
Discipleship“, 1869)
As the Lord is pleased to enlighten his mind, the Christian sees . . .
such a beauty,
such a blessedness,
such a heavenly sweetness,
such a divine loveliness,
such a fullness of surpassing grace,
such tender condescension,
such unwearied patience,
such infinite compassion,
in the Lord of life and glory—that he is as if invincibly and irresistibly
drawn by these attractive influences to come to His feet to learn of Him.
So far as the Lord is pleased to reveal Himself in some measure to his soul, by
the sweet glimpses and glances which he thus obtains of His Person and
countenance, he is drawn to His blessed Majesty by cords of love to look up
unto Him and beg of Him that He would drop His word with life and power into
his heart.
Men as well as children, may be pleased with trifles!
(John Newton)
Men as well as children, may be pleased with trifles. However one object may
drive out another — it is but an exchange of trifles.
A believing view of the land that is far off, where the King reigns in His
beauty — will wean our affections from the trifles of this world!
Nothing can turn out the love of the world, but the love of God shed abroad in
the heart. Wherever the love of God is so shed abroad in the heart as to become
the ruling principle — there the world loses its hold. The light of His glory,
as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ — casts shame and disgrace on all
worldly vanities!