Man's religion & God's religion
"That no flesh should glory in His presence."
1 Corinthians 1:29
Man's religion is to build up the
creature.
God's religion is to throw the creature down
in
the dust of self-abasement, and to glorify Christ.
What a mystery are you!
What stupid blockheads!
"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them.
Matthew 15:16
What lessons we need day by day to teach
us anything aright, and how it is for the most
part, "line upon line, line upon line—here a
little, and there a little." O . . .
what slow learners!
what dull, forgetful scholars!
what ignoramuses!
what stupid blockheads!
what stubborn pupils!
Surely no scholar at a school, old or young,
could learn so little of natural things as we seem
to have learned of spiritual things after . . .
so many years instruction,
so many chapters read,
so many sermons heard, so many prayers put up,
so much talking about religion.
How small, how weak is the amount of
growth—compared with all we have read
and heard and talked about!
But it is a mercy that the Lord saves whom
He will save—and that we are saved by free
grace—and free grace alone!
Take me as I am with all my sin and shame
"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved." Jer. 17:14
Here is this sin! Save me from it!
Here is this snare! Break it to pieces!
Here is this lust! Lord, subdue it!
Here is this temptation! Deliver me out of it!
Here is my proud heart! Lord, humble it!
Here is my unbelieving heart! Take it away,
and give me faith; give me submission to
Your mind and will.
Take me as I am with all my sin and
shame and work in me everything well
pleasing in Your sight.
Nothing but a huge clod of dust
"Set your affection on things above—not
on things on the earth." Colossians 3:2
Everything upon earth, as viewed by the eyes
of the Majesty of heaven—is base and paltry.
Earth is after all, nothing but a huge clod of
dust, and as such, as insignificant in the eyes
of its Maker as the small dust of the balance,
or the drop of the bucket.
What, then, are . . .
its highest objects,
its loftiest aims,
its grandest pursuits,
its noblest employments,
in the sight of Him who inhabits
eternity; but base and worthless?
Vanity is stamped on all earth's attainments.
All earthly pursuits and high accomplishments . . .
wealth,
rank,
learning,
power, or
pleasure,
end in death!
The breath of God's displeasure soon
lays low in the grave all that is rich
and mighty, high and proud.
But that effectual work of grace on the heart,
whereby the chosen vessels of mercy are
delivered from the power of darkness and
translated into the kingdom of God's dear
Son, calls them out of . . .
those low, groveling pursuits,
those earthly toys,
those base and sensual lusts in which other
men seek at once their happiness and their ruin.
How can they escape?
"He will keep the feet of His saints."
1 Samuel 2:9
The Lord sees His poor scattered pilgrims
traveling through a valley of tears—journeying
through a waste-howling wilderness—a path
beset with baits, traps, and snares in every
direction.
How can they escape?
Why, the Lord 'keeps their feet'. He carries them
through every rough place—as a tender parent
carries a little child. When about to fall—He
graciously lays His everlasting arms underneath
them. And when tottering and stumbling, and
their feet ready to slip—He mercifully upholds
them from falling altogether.
But do you think that He has not different ways
for different feet? The God of creation has not
made two flowers, nor two leaves upon a tree
alike—and will He cause all His people to walk
in precisely the same path? No. We have . . .
each our path,
each our troubles,
each our trials,
each peculiar traps and snares laid for our feet.
And the wisdom of the all-wise God is shown by His
eyes being in every place—marking the footsteps of
every pilgrim—suiting His remedies to meet their
individual case and necessity—appearing for them
when nobody else could do them any good—watching
so tenderly over them, as though the eyes of His
affection were bent on one individual—and carefully
noting the goings of each, as though all the powers
of the Godhead were concentrated on that one
person to keep him from harm!
God will meet all your needs
"And my God will meet all your needs
according
to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:19
Until we are brought into the depths of poverty,
we shall never know nor value Christ's riches.
If, then, you are a child of God, a poor and
needy soul, a tempted and tried believer in
Christ, "God will meet all your needs."
They may be very great.
It may seem to you, sometimes, as though there
were not upon all the face of the earth such a
wretch as you—as though there never could be
a child of God in your state . . .
so dark,
so stupid,
so blind and ignorant,
so proud and worldly,
so presumptuous and hypocritical,
so continually backsliding after idols,
so continually doing things that you
know are hateful in God's sight.
But whatever your need be—it is not beyond the
reach of divine supply! And the deeper your need,
the more is Jesus glorified in supplying it.
Do not say then, that . . .
your case is too bad,
your needs are too many,
your perplexities too great,
your temptations too powerful.
No case can be too bad!
No temptations can be too powerful!
No sin can be too black!
No perplexity can be too hard!
No state in which the soul can get, is beyond
the reach of the almighty and compassionate
love, that burns in the breast of the Redeemer!
That sympathizing, merciful, feeling,
tender, and compassionate heart
Why are you cast down, O my soul?
"Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why so
disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for
I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God."
Psalm 42:11
Do you forget, O soul, that the way to heaven
is a very strait and narrow path—too narrow for
you to carry your sins in it with you?
God sees it good that you should be cast down.
You were getting very proud, O soul.
The world had gotten hold of your heart.
You were seeking great things for yourself.
You were secretly roving away from the Lord.
You were too much lifted up in SELF.
The Lord has sent you these trials and difficulties
and allowed these temptations to fall upon you,
to bring you down from your state of false security.
There is reason therefore, even to praise God
for being cast down, and for being so disturbed.
How this opens up parts of God's Word which
you never read before with any feeling.
How it gives you sympathy and communion
with the tried and troubled children of God.
How it weans and separates you from dead professors.
How it brings you in heart and affection,
out of the world that lies in wickedness.
And how it engages your thoughts, time after time,
upon the solemn matters of eternity—instead of being
a prey to every idle thought and imagination, and
tossed up and down upon a sea of vanity and folly.
But, above all, when there is a sweet response from
the Lord, and the power of divine things is inwardly
felt, in enabling us to hope in God, and to praise His
blessed name—then we see the benefit of being cast
down and so repeatedly and continually disturbed.
"Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why so
disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for
I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God."
Psalm 42:11
Treasure in earthen vessels
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels."
2 Corinthians 4:7
Do not be surprised if you feel that in yourself
you are but an earthen vessel—if you are made
deeply and daily sensible of your frail body.
Do not be surprised . . .
if your clay house is often tottering;
if sickness sometimes assails your mortal tabernacle;
if in your flesh there dwells no good thing;
if your soul often cleaves to the dust; and
if you are unable to retain a sweet sense
of God's goodness and love.
Do not be surprised nor startled . . .
at the corruptions of your depraved nature;
at the depth of sin in your carnal mind;
at the vile abominations which lurk and work
in your deceitful and desperately wicked heart.
Bear in mind that it is the will of God that this
heavenly treasure which makes you rich for
eternity, should be lodged in an earthen vessel.
We have ever to feel our native weakness—and
that without Christ we can do nothing—that we may
be clothed with humility, and feel ourselves the
chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints.
We thus learn to prize the heights, breadths,
lengths, and depths of the love of Christ, who
stooped so low to raise us up so high!
All trials, all temptations,
all strippings, all emptyings
The very trials and afflictions, and the sore
temptations through which God's family pass,
all eventually endear Christ to them.
And depend upon it, if you are a child of God,
you will sooner or later, in your travels through
this wilderness, find your need of Jesus as "able
to save to the uttermost."
There will be such things in your heart, and such
feelings in your mind—the temptations you will
meet with will be such—that nothing short of a
Savior that is able to save to the uttermost
can save you out of your desperate case and
felt circumstances as utterly lost and helpless.
This a great point to come to. All trials, all
temptations, all strippings, all emptyings
that do not end here are valueless—because
they lead the soul away from God.
But the convictions, the trials, the temptations,
the strippings, the emptyings, that bring us to
this spot—that we have nothing, and can do
nothing, but the Lord alone must do it all—these
have a blessed effect, because they eventually
make Jesus very near and dear unto us.
No fear!
"There is no fear of God before their
eyes."
Romans 3:18
Those who have every reason to fear as to
their eternal state before God, have for the
most part, no fear at all. They are
secure,
and free from doubt and fear.
The depths of human hypocrisy,
the dreadful lengths to which profession may go,
the deceit of the carnal heart,
the snares spread for the unwary feet,
the fearful danger of being deceived at the last;
these traps and pitfalls are not objects of anxiety
to those dead in sin.
As long as they can pacify natural conscience,
and do something to soothe any transient
conviction—they are glad to be deceived!
God does not see fit to disturb their quiet.
He has no purpose of mercy towards them;
they are not subjects of His kingdom;
they are not objects of His love.
He therefore leaves them carnally secure, as
in a dream—from which they will not awake
until the day of judgment.
These difficulties . . .
"From all your idols will I cleanse you." Ezekiel 36:25
When there are no crosses, temptations, or trials,
a man is sure to go out after and cleave to idols.
It matters not what experience he has had. If once he
ceases to be plagued and tried, he will be setting up
his household gods in the secret chambers of his heart.
Profit or pleasure, self-indulgence or self-gratification,
will surely, in one form or another, engross his thoughts,
and steal away his heart.
Nor is there anything too trifling or insignificant to
become an idol. Whatever is meditated on preferably
to God—whatever is desired more than He—whatever
more interests us, pleases us, occupies our waking
hours, or is more constantly in our mind—becomes
an idol, and a source of sin.
It is not the magnitude of the idol, but its existence
as an object of worship—that constitutes idolatry. I have
seen some 'Burmese idols' not much larger than my hand;
and I have seen some 'Egyptian idols' weighing many tons.
But both were equally idols—and the comparative size had
nothing to do with the question.
So spiritually, an idol is not to be measured by its size,
or its relative importance or non-importance. A flower may
be as much an idol to one man, as a chest full of gold to
another.
If you watch your heart, you will see idols rising and setting
all day long, nearly as thickly as the stars by night.
But God sends . . .
trials,
difficulties,
temptations,
besetments,
losses,
afflictions,
to pull down these idols—or rather
to pull away our hearts from them.
These difficulties . . .
pull us out of fleshly ease,
make us cry for mercy,
pull down all rotten props,
hunt us out of false refuges, and
strip us of vain hopes and delusive expectations.
Idolatry!
Through the inward conflicts,
secret workings
Through the inward conflicts, secret workings,
mysterious changes, and ever-varying exercises
of his soul, the true Christian becomes established
in a deep experience of . . .
his own folly and God's wisdom,
his own weakness and Christ's strength,
his own sinfulness and the Lord's goodness,
his own backslidings and the Spirit's recoveries,
his own base ingratitude and Jehovah's patience,
the aboundings of sin and the super-aboundings of grace.
He thus becomes daily more and more confirmed in . . .
the vanity of the creature,
the utter helplessness of man,
the deceitfulness and hypocrisy of the human heart,
the sovereignty of distinguishing grace,
the fewness of heaven-taught ministers,
the scanty number of living souls,
and the great rareness of true religion.
Wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores
"The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there
is no soundness in it—but only wounds, and bruises,
and putrefying sores. They have not been closed,
neither bound up, neither soothed with ointment."
Isaiah 1:5-6
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 mindless or wrong decisions.
The conscience, like an opium eater, lies
asleep and drugged in stupefied silence.
When all these 'master faculties of the mind' are
so drunken and disorderly—need we wonder that
the bodily members are a godless, rebellious crew?
Lusts call out for gratification.
Unbelief and infidelity murmur.
Tempers growl and mutter.
Every bad passion strives hard for the mastery.
O the evils of the human heart, which, let loose,
have filled earth with misery, and hell with victims;
which deluged the world with the flood—burnt
Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from heaven—and
are ripening the world for the final conflagration!
Every sin which . . .
has made this fair earth a 'present hell';
has filled the air with groans; and
has drenched the ground with blood;
dwells in your heart and mine!
Now, as this is opened up to the conscience by the
Spirit of God—we feel indeed to be of all men most
sinful and miserable—and of all most guilty, polluted,
and vile. But it is this—and nothing but this—which
cuts to pieces our 'fleshly righteousness, wisdom, and
strength'—which slays our delusive hopes—and lays us
low at the footstool of mercy—without one good thought,
word, or action to propitiate an angry Judge.
It is this which brings the soul to this point—
that if saved, it can only be saved by the
free grace, sovereign mercy, and tender
compassion of Almighty God.
The
Temptation
Idling life away like an idiot or a madman
This wily devil!