THE ELECTION HATH OBTAINED IT--J.C. PHILPOT

J.C. PHILPOT (1802-1869)

"The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded." Romans 11:7

Those that are blinded by the god of this world, have no knowledge of what power and feeling and savour and dew are; they see not these things, they are blind to their reality, they are dead to their importance; but the living family of God, who are brought by his blessed Spirit into some apprehension of eternal realities, have eyes to see what power is, and hearts too, to desire to feel its manifestation. Nay, it is the very seeing what reality and power are which makes them desire to experience the savour of eternal things in their conscience; and because they do not feel them as they wish, it makes them often fear that they are blind altogether (Isaiah 59:10). But the very inquiry, the very anxious cry, the very groaning desire, the very fervent supplication to the Lord that he would not let them live and die without a testimony from himself, that he would lift up the light of his countenance and grant them the life of his favour—these very cries are a proof of life. Were you blind, you would not see these things; were you deaf, you would not spiritually hear these things; were you dead, you would not feel these things. And, therefore, that which you seem to take as an evidence against you, is, in reality, an evidence for you; and the very sensations of trepidation, anxious inquiry, godly fear, and the crying out before the Lord that he would search and try you and really make your heart right in his sight—these very things are the symptoms of life, the evidences of a work of grace upon the heart, and are the spiritual breathings of the quickened soul, the Lord himself having communicated these feelings unto it.

(from Ears from Harvested Sheaves for April 19th)

OUR AWESOME GOD--by W.F. BELL

Psalm 104; 145:3; Colossians 1:14-16

The 104th Psalm is a commentary on the opening chapter of Genesis, and like many of the Psalms, renders much praise and adoration to the Creator of all things. But "the wicked" (verse 35) know nothing of this glorious Creator-God, so they talk of "mother nature" and "evolution." But to the Spirit-taught child of God, Psalm 104 is a delight to meditate upon, as the psalmist sings of the many voices of nature, and of God's "majesty" and providence. We live in a day when words have changed meaning, and some words have become meaningless. "Awesome" is one such word, as this adjective is now used in everyday conversation to describe the most trivial of things. But "awesome" (causing awe) is a word which should be used as a description of the great Creator alone. "O Lord my God, Thou art very great." That means the true God is awesome beyond words. "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable" (Psalm 145:3). Let us always "magnify the Lord" with true heart praise and with great reverence. "Bless the Lord, O my soul." This is no trifling matter. The list of "created things" in Psalm 104 includes the heavens, the waters, the clouds, the wind, the earth, mountains, thunder, valleys, springs, hills, beasts of the field, birds, grass, trees, the moon, the sun, sea creatures, darkness, light, angels, and man. Neither you nor I nor any human made any of these things! Yet men still reject this evidence of the great Creator's "handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). All "sinners" by nature are blinded by their sin, so do not acknowledge this awesome God. But in humility all those who are redeemed must say with the psalmist here, "I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of Him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord" (Psalm 104:33-34). Not sad, but glad! Psalm 104 is all about God, His greatness, His glory, and His goodness. The holy attributes of God are wondrous themes to regularly occupy our thoughts. The true God is "clothed with splendor and majesty," and "covered with light as with a garment" (verses 1-2). "The glory of the Lord shall endure forever; the Lord shall rejoice in His works" (verse 31). "O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is full of Thy riches" (verse 24). Note, God's works, wisdom, wealth. How this truly humbles us, for we are reminded that some day proud sinners are to "be consumed out of the earth" (verse 35). Our Lord Jesus Christ is the mighty Creator, "the firstborn of every creature," as "all things were created by Him, and for Him" (Colossians 1:15-16). The Son is eternal, though Jesus the Man appeared in the fullness of time. Let us worship, praise, and give humble thanks to our Saviour for creating "all things," including man, the crown of creation. Let us render true praise to the grace and mercy of God for His great salvation, which has been so freely bestowed upon us in Christ, "even the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:14). Psalm 104 teaches us that God's end and goal in creation was to glorify Himself, just as we know it is His "eternal purpose" to glorify His "manifold wisdom" by redeeming "the church" through Christ (Ephesians 3:10-11). His purpose shall never fail! So join me then in singing, "Bless the Lord, O my soul," for He is an awesome, gracious God. QUOTE FOR THE DAY "Dear Lord, assist our souls to pay, The debt of praise we owe; That we enjoy a gospel-day, And heaven begun below." John Newton

SOME SHORT SAYINGS OF JOHN FLAVEL

John Flavel was a Puritan who lived from 1628-1691. He had some very spiritual writings. His works are available in our day from Banner of Truth, and much of it online. Among his best known works are "The Mystery of Providence" and "Keeping the Heart".

"One act of faith in the Lord Jesus pleases God more than all thy strivings to meet the claims of his law, through thy whole life, can do."

"Take away the knowledge of Christ, and Christians would be the most sad and melancholy beings in the world."

"As God did not at first choose you because you were high, He will not now forsake you because you are low."

"Though you cannot make the gospel effectual, yet the Spirit of God can make the means you are capable of using effectual."

"The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying."

JELLYFISH CHRISTIANITY--J.C. RYLE

J.C. Ryle (1816-1900), the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, was one of the soundest preachers and writers of his time. There were so many good things he had to say. He battled against the creeping liberalism of his denomination. He is remembered with fondness by the majority of Reformed Christians of our day. One of my favorite excerpts of his follows. You can still obtain most of his writings today.

“One plague of our age is the widespread dislike to what men are pleased to call dogmatic theology. In the place of it, the idol of the day is a kind of jellyfish Christianity – a Christianity without bone, or muscle, or sinew, – without any distinct teaching about the atonement or the work of the Spirit, or justification, or the way of peace with God – a vague, foggy, misty Christianity, of which the only watchwords seem to be, ‘You must be…liberal and kind. You must condemn no man’s doctrinal views. You must consider everybody is right and nobody is wrong’. And this creedless kind of religion, we are told, is to give us peace of conscience! And not to be satisfied with it in a sorrowful, dying world, is a proof that you are very narrow-minded! Satisfied, indeed! Such a religion might possibly do for unfallen angels! But to tell sinful, dying men and women, with the blood of our father Adam in our veins, to be satisfied with it, is an insult to common sense and a mockery of our distress. We need something far better than this. We need the blood of Christ."

The Upper Room; chapter six, “One Blood”, page 99; Banner of Truth, London, 1977 reprint

EXPOSITION OF PSALM 8:1- CHARLES SPURGEON

Mr. Spurgeon! He has been called an Arminian, and a Hyper-Calvinist and everything in between. He must have been doing something right! When you go with the word of God as it is, you will be opposed by many enemies, but God will see you through. During this series of Spurgeon short articles, I am again enjoying his depth and love of Christ. Here he gives exposition of the first verse of one of my favorite Psalms. I hope you enjoy it as much as I, a few quaint words and all. cw


Verse 1. Unable to express the glory of God, the Psalmist utters a note of exclamation. O Jehovah our Lord! We need not wonder at this, for no heart can measure, no tongue can utter, the half of the greatness of Jehovah. The whole creation is full of his glory and radiant with the
excellency of his power; his goodness and his wisdom are manifested on every hand. The countless myriads of terrestrial beings, from man the head, to the creeping worm at the foot, are all supported and nourished by the Divine bounty. The solid fabric of the universe leans upon his eternal arm.

Universally is he present, and everywhere is his name excellent. God worketh ever and everywhere. There is no place where God is not. The miracles of his power await us on all sides. Traverse the silent valleys where the rocks enclose you on either side, rising like the battlements of heaven till you can see but a strip of the blue sky far overhead; you may be the only traveler who has passed through that glen; the bird may start up affrighted, and the moss may tremble beneath the first tread of human foot; but God is there in a thousand wonders, upholding yon rocky barriers, filling the flowercups with their perfume, and refreshing the lonely pines with the breath of his mouth. Descend, if you will, into the lowest depths of the ocean. where undisturbed the water sleeps, and the very sand is motionless in unbroken quiet, but the glory of the Lord is there, revealing its excellence in the silent palace of the sea. Borrow the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, but God is there. Mount to the highest heaven, or dive into the deepest hell, and God is in both hymned in everlasting song, or justified in terrible vengeance. Everywhere, and in every place, God dwells and is manifestly at work. Nor on earth alone is Jehovah extolled, for his brightness shines forth in the firmament
above the earth. His glory exceeds the glory of the starry heavens; above the region of the stars he hath set fast his everlasting throne, and there he dwells in light ineffable. Let us adore him "who alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea; who maketh Arcturus,Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south." (Job 9:8-9.) We can scarcely find more fitting words than those of Nehemiah 9:6, "Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee"

Returning to the text we are led to observe that this Psalm is addressed to God, because none but the Lord himself can fully know his own glory. The believing heart is ravished with what it sees, but God only knows the glory of God. What a sweetness lies in the little word our, how
much is God's glory endeared to us when we consider our interest in him as our Lord.
How excellent is thy name! no words can express that excellency; and therefore it is left as a note of exclamation. The very name of Jehovah is excellent, what must his person be. Note the fact that even the heavens cannot contain his glory, it is set above the heavens, since it is and ever must be too great for the creature to express. When wandering among the Alps, we felt that the Lord was infinitely greater than all his grandest works, and under that feeling we roughly wrote these few lines:—

Yet in all these how great soe'er they be, We see not Him.
The glass is all too dense And dark, or else our earthborn eyes too dim.
Yon Alps, that lift their heads above the clouds
And hold familiar converse with the stars,
Are dust, at which the balance trembleth not,
Compared with His divine immensity.
The snow-crown'd summits fail to set Him forth,
Who dwelleth in Eternity, and bears Alone, the name of High and Lofty One.
Depths unfathomed are too shallow to express
The wisdom and the knowledge of the Lord.
The mirror of the creatures has no space To bear the image of the Infinite. '
Tis true the Lord hath fairly writ his name,
And set his seal upon creation's brow.
But as the skilful potter much excels
The vessel which he fashions on the wheel,
E'en so, but in proportion greater far,
Jehovah's self transcends his noblest works.
Earth's ponderous wheels would break, her axles snap,
If freighted with the load of Deity.
Space is too narrow for the Eternal's rest,
And time too short a footstool for his throne.
E'en avalanche and thunder lack a voice,
To utter the full volume of his praise.
How then can I declare him?
Where are words With which my glowing tongue may speak his name?
Silent I bow, and humbly I adore.

From Treasury of David, Volume One, on Psalm eight, verse one.

THEY PREFERRED OFFICE TO CHARACTER--C.H. SPURGEON

CHARLES H. SPURGEON

These Israelites fell into another mistake, which is also often made to-day: they preferred office to character. In their distress, instead of calling upon God, they sent for Hophni and Phinehas. Why did their hearts turn to them? Simply because they were priests, and the people had come to hold the sacred office in such superstitious reverence that they thought that was everything. But these young men were sinners against the Lord exceedingly; they were not even moral men, much less were they spiritual men. They made the house of God to be abhorred, and dishonored the Lord before all Israel. Yet, because they happened to hold the office of the priesthood, they were put in the place of God.

Dear friends, this is a kind of feeling which many indulge. They think they shall be saved if they have a Levite for their priest. They imagine that the worship of God must be conducted properly, because the man who conducts it is in the apostolic succession, and has been duly ordained. You shall see a man eminent for the holiness of his life, for the disinterestedness of his character, for the fidelity of his preaching, for his power in prayer, for the blessing that rests upon his ministry in the conversion of sinners; but he is counted a mere nobody, because he lacks the superstitious qualification which deluded men think is so necessary. Here are Hophni and Phinehas, two of the grossest sinners in all the land of Israel; but then, you see, they are in the line of Aaron, and so they are trusted, and indeed are put in the place of God.

Now, God forbid that we should say a word against the house of Aaron, or against any who speak the name of the Lord, whom God has truly called unto his work! But, beloved, this work is not a mere matter of pedigree; it is a question of the abiding presence of God with man and in a man. Unless God be with the minister whom you hear, to what purpose do you listen? If the leader of the church be not one who walks with God, where will he lead you? "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." The blind man may wear a badge on his arm to show that he is a certified guide; but will you be saved from the ditch simply because he belongs to the order of guides, and has his certification with him? Be not led away by any such vain notion. Yet this is the error into which many have fallen in all ages of the church.

WASTED YEARS--CHARLES SPURGEON

Yes those wasted years over which we sigh shall be restored to us. God can give us such plentiful grace that we shall crowd into the remainder of our days as much of service as will be some recompense for those years of unregeneracy over which we mourn in humble penitence.

The locusts of backsliding, worldliness, lukewarmness, are now viewed by us as a terrible plague. Oh that they had never come near us! The Lord in mercy has now taken them away, and we are full of zeal to serve Him. Blessed be His name, we can raise such harvests of spiritual graces as shall make our former barrenness to disappear. Through rich grace we can turn to account our bitter experience, and use it to warn others. We can become the more rooted in humility, childlike dependence, and penitent spirituality, by reason of our former shortcomings. If we are the more watchful, zealous, and tender, we shall gain by our lamentable losses. The wasted years, by a miracle of love, can be restored. Does it seem too great a boon?

Let us believe for it, and live for it, and we may yet realize it, even as Peter became all the more useful a man after his presumption was cured by his discovered weakness. “Lord, aid us by thy grace” (Faith’s Checkbook)