The Fruits and Marks of the Lord Being Our God 2
Back to J. C. Philpot Sermons
Now it is good for a child of God to be comparing his religion with this mark as given in God's word. For instance–
1. When you read a BOOK, a religious book, put it into this scale; weigh it by this test; does it do my soul good? Is there profit in it? What blessed feelings does it produce in my heart? Am I convinced by reading it of the shallowness of my religion, and that I must learn deeper things yet than I know already? Does it wound me? Does it show me in what instances I have gone astray? Does it leave a solemn and abiding impression on my heart? Does it show me more of the exceeding evil of sin, than I ever saw before? And do I find when I put it down, that I am in a solemn, humble, spiritual frame? Then, I can say, this book is to my profit, and I get good thereby.
But if, on the other hand, the book only hardens my heart, and darkens my mind, so that I can think lightly about sin and the evils of my nature, seem enabled to indulge more in some besetting temptation, to walk more loosely, not to watch so carefully lest I be entangled, and get strengthened and encouraged in carnal ways from the book that I have read—Oh, let me put it away!—this is not the teaching of God! And why do I know it is not the teaching of God? Because it does not profit my soul.
2. So in hearing a MINISTER, (I do not say you are to go and be as some who are watching to make a man an offender for a word—God is utterly against that)—this is what you should do—you should ask, Is it to my profit? what feeling, what impressions does it leave upon my spirit? When I go from chapel, can I plunge into the first carnal conversation which comes across my path? Can I go home, and be as carnal and as worldly as I was before? Or, is there some solid, solemn, spiritual impression left on my heart? Does it lead me to prayer? Does it make God's word sweet? Do I go home and spend the rest of the day engaged more or less in divine things? Do I feel my heart drawn more from earth to heaven? Am I shown more and more of my own sinfulness and misery—and more of the beauty, blessedness, and suitability of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do I feel a solid, abiding, spiritual impression left upon my soul, so that the things of God lie with weight and power upon my mind? When I lie awake upon my bed on Sunday evening, is my mind more drawn up to the Lord than it was before?
On the Monday, when I go about my business, do I still carry with me what I heard on the Lord's day? Does it separate me from the people with whom I have to work, and the business I have to do? And am I from time to time during the day lifting up my heart to God, and asking him to visit and bless my soul? Can I trace these things to what I heard on the Lord's day before, and feel that what I heard was really made profitable to my soul? Now this is how we are to weigh sermons and ministers—whether they are made profitable to us—by this we know what is the teaching of God.
3. And so with respect to our COMPANIONS, who make a profession of religion. When we go into their company and converse upon the things of God, we should weigh what effect it has left upon our minds. Has their company made us light and trifling? Has it made us think less of sin? Has it given greater looseness to our own carnality? Has it brought a hardness, deadness, and barrenness into our spirit? Has their conversation robbed us of any sweet frame that we were in before? Has their company entangled us in any snare, or opened any door to temptation? Then these companions are not to our profit, and what is given by them is only to our harm, and not to our good.
But, on the other hand, if we have fallen into the company of an exercised child of God, and his conversation has been blessed to our soul, has drawn up our affections more to the Lord, made prayer more our element, shown us how we have gone astray, convinced us that we have walked in wrong paths, softened and melted our soul, then we say—his conversation has been to my profit—I have received good in speaking with this child of God—I will see him again—the Lord may again bless his conversation to my soul.
4. And thus it should be with every HYMN given out. We should ask ourselves—is this to my profit? Does it bring a sweet and blessed feeling into my soul! Does it solemnize my mind?
5. So with every chapter of SCRIPTURE we read; so with every prayer we put up. So all the day long with everything we do—we should be continually watching the Lord's hand, and saying inwardly—Is this for my profit? Is this for my good? Am I learning real religion thereby? This minister, this work, this book, this person, this circumstance, this company, this occupation, this engagement, this path of living, this way of business—what is it doing for my soul? Is it doing me harm or good? Is it for my profit or for my injury? If it is for my profit—doing my soul good, melting my heart, softening my spirit, bringing Jesus near, separating me from the world, fostering a spirit of prayer in my bosom, making me to walk with the Lord in sweet and blessed communion with him—it is of God.
Why? Because it is to profit!—it is doing my soul good, bringing life and feeling to my heart, communicating sweet and blessed impressions to my soul. I feel that it is doing my soul good; let me then avoid everything else, because I know it is not for my good, but my injury. This, then, is the way whereby we may, if we are honest to ourselves—weigh in the scales of the sanctuary, whether the teachings we have, or profess to have, are to profit.
If we are God's children, all his teachings will be to our profit. He will teach us sometimes by providences—they shall be to our profit. He will teach us by afflictions—they shall be to our profit. He will teach us by trials—they shall be to our profit. He will teach us by temptation—it shall be to our profit. He will teach us by enemies, who will show us our faults when friends would not—it shall be to our profit. He will teach us by ministers—it shall be to our profit. He will teach us by books—he will teach us by hymns—he will teach us by the Scripture—teach us by his various dealings with us. If we are his children, all these will be to profit. By all these things we shall be instructed.
Now this is the grand difference between a child of God, and a child of the Wicked One. All that the child of God goes through is for his profit, all that the child of Satan goes through is for his injury. Everything heaps blessings on the head of the one—and everything heaps curses on the head of the other. If he has sickness, it is a blessing to a child of God; if inpoverty, it is a blessing to him; if he is persecuted, it is a blessing to him; if he is in temptation, it is a blessing to him. Whatever he passes through, however rough, however difficult, however painful, however opposed to flesh and blood, it is all made a blessing to him!
But, on the other hand, it is all made a curse to a child of the devil. Look at Saul, and look at David. Here was Saul—everything was made a curse to him—the very throne which he sat on, the crown which he wore on his head, the scepter which he carried in his hand—all made a curse to him, all plunging him deeper and deeper into perdition. And here isDavid—everything made a blessing to him. Not a single thing he passed through but is overruled and made a blessing to his soul.
And so it is with the child of God—everything is a blessing to him. It may not come as a blessing, but it will end in one. All that God sends upon his children ends in their good. What a mercy, then, to have a hope that we are in the right way, that the Lord is teaching us to profit! I want you who desire to fear God, to weigh this matter well in your heart. Do not say, 'I know this and that; I have made a consistent profession many years; I am sound on the point of election; I am a member of a gospel church; I hear this and that minister.'
But look at this—'What has my religion done for me? What has my profession wrought in my heart?' Let me fix my eyes upon this one thing—let me draw my attention away from everything else, and fix my eyes as closely upon it as the clerk at the Bank fixes his eye upon the bank-note—What have I learned to profit? Do I bear Scripture marks of being one of those whom God is teaching? If I do, then I am one of God's children, for "all your children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children." (Isa. 54:13.) But if we cannot find any of this profitable teaching, we must write upon all our profession, "Tekel—you have been weighed on the balances and have failed the test." Daniel 5:27
III. But we may pass on to our third point; "I am the Lord your God, who LEADS you by the way that you should go." Now there is a way that we should go—and there is a way that we should not go. And the way whereby the Lord leads us is the way that we should go. But what is the way that we should go? We may look at it in two points of view—first, as a way of providence; and secondly, as a way of grace.
1. There is a way whereby we should go in a way of PROVIDENCE—and it is the Lord, and the Lord alone, who can lead us in the way that we should go in temporal matters. It is a mercy if we can wait and watch his guiding hand—for if left to ourselves, we would be sure to go the wrong way. But how may we know whether it is a way that we should go, or a way that we should not go?
Here is an opening for you; you can establish your business in a better neighborhood; or enlarge it; or change your position of life; or take some situation; or embrace an opportunity that seems likely to be beneficial to your temporal interests. Now how are you to know whether this is a way whereby you should go, or the contrary? What does conscience say? Is it a right way to go? Shall I bring temptation upon my soul by going in that way? Shall I sin against God by going in that way? Shall I provoke him by going in that way? Shall I commit known evil by going in that way? Shall I put myself into a situation where temptation will be too strong for me there? Shall I cause the Lord to hide his face from me by going there? Shall I bring his correcting hand upon me by going there? Shall I find nothing but briers and thorns there? It may seem a very nice way, a very flesh-pleasing way, just what a worldly person would like—but it may be just such a way as a child of God dare not take.
Now if we are made willing that God should lead us in the way wherein we should go, and that we should not choose our own way—he will take care to lead us in the right way. It is true that the Lord does overrule all our crooked ways for our good, though we may have to repent, grieve over, and suffer for them—it is our mercy the Lord does overrule all our ways—though they may bring much pain and grief into our hearts. But still, how much better it is, how much wiser, how much safer to walk in a God-honoring way, than to walk in a God-dishonoring way—to walk in a right way instead of a wrong way—to walk in a straight way instead of a crooked way—to walk in an upright way instead of a deceitful way—to walk in the fear of God, and not to walk according to the lusts and wishes of our fallen nature. But, it is our mercy, that if we are the children of God, he WILL lead us in the way that we should go!
2. But this is more true still in a way of GRACE. Now in a way of grace, we often know not what is the way which we should take, for he promises to lead the blind by a way that they know not—and we cannot often see the leading of God. We desire to be right, but we cannot always see how we ought to act—or what we ought to do. Here is one way that would not be dishonoring to God—and here another that would not be dishonoring to him, and still we know not which to take. But the Lord says, "I will lead you in the way whereby you should go." There shall be sooner or later an opening up of the will of God—an inward admonition, a leading in the way of providence, a word resting on the mind, and all fulfilling the promise that he will lead you by the way which you should go.
But how contrary this way is to our OWN way! We desire to walk in an easy path—but the Lord leads in a rough one! We desire to walk in a flesh-pleasing path—but he would have us to walk in a God-fearing one! We would desire to have our own will gratified, our own inclinations followed—we would desire to have as much of the world as we can embrace, and yet have the favor and love of God, and go to heaven at last. But no! If we are to walk in the way that we should go—we must be led in a straight and narrow way—an afflicting way—a way we should have never chosen for ourselves—a way in which flesh and blood cannot possibly walk.
Yet the Lord himself says that "he leads you in the way that you should go." He leads you in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ—he leads you to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings—he leads you in the path of tribulation, that you may know more of a suffering Jesus and have union and communion with him. What a mercy it is that the Lord should lead us in the way—in a way of prayer, in a way of watchfulness, in a way of supplication, in a way of desire, in a way of hungering and thirsting after righteousness, in a way wherein none but himself can really satisfy and bless our souls—"in a way which no fowl knows, and which the vulture's eye has not seen," (Job 18:7)—in a way wherein his redeemed walk, and his redeemed alone—in a way which none ever chose for himself, and which only God could choose for him, but in which he constrains him to walk.
Now you may be tried in your mind from time to time to know whether the Lord is your God. God's people are often thus tried; for they cannot take up an empty profession; nor can they rest upon a sound creed, nor walk in the path of presumption and vain-confidence. They want the Lord himself sweetly and blessedly to speak into their souls, "I am the Lord your God"—and they want nothing more. But even when they have not that, are there no marks in their favor, no tokens for good, no signs and evidences of the Lord being their God? Yes! He is their Lord in the 'dark' as well as in the 'light'. He has left these two marks upon record for their comfort and encouragement—"I am the Lord your God, whoteaches you to profit, who leads you by the way which you should go."
"I TEACH you to profit—I make my blessed word to sink with a divine power into your soul—I cause my doctrine to drop like the rain, and my speech to distill like the dew—I open your eyes to see—I unstop your deaf ears to hear—I touch your heart to feel—I bring the truth home to your conscience! Thus I teach you to profit—my teachings and dealings with you are for your good—not to puff you up with pride, not to harden your heart and sear your conscience—but to your profit—that you may be a partaker of my holiness, and have a foretaste of heaven before you arrive there—to make you a companion for the saints above, who walk in the full light of God's countenance."
Now can we find this mark? We may have doubts and fears, and temptations, and sinkings, and many gloomy things to distress our minds—but can we say this with an honest conscience, "What I have learned of religion, and the things of God, has been, I believe, for my profit. I have been taught things in the school of affliction, and in exercise and trial, that I could have learned no other way. I have seen the emptiness of mere profession, the folly of resting upon a mere letter creed, and brought to this point—to know that none but the Lord Jesus can bless my soul, and to wait upon him with earnest cries and sighs for a sweet application of his love, blood, and grace; and at times and seasons I can say, I have seen him by the eye of faith, and have felt and embraced him as my salvation." If we can say this, then we can say the teaching of God has been to our profit.
And if we can find that the LEADINGS and dealings of God in our soul have been to lead us in a way we would not otherwise have walked in—if we see that in providence and grace, the outstretched hand of God has led us in right paths, we can add also, "the Lord has led me in the way that I should go—a way which my conscience tells me I should walk in, but which I never could or would have walked in, had it not been for his leadings."
And thus, if I can find these two marks of his teachings and leadings in my soul, then I have two blessed evidences of the Lord being my God. But whatever be our profession, whatever our creed, if these two things be not there—if what we profess to have been the 'teachings of God' have not been to our profit—but have hardened our heart, seared our conscience, puffed up our minds, made us think lightly of sin, and plunged us more into the world than before—if others can see that the teachings of God, which we profess to have experienced, have not been to our profit—it is not all our boasting that the teaching of the Lord has been ours, that will make them believe it. If they can see that we have not walked in God's ways, but in paths of our own pursuing, we may speak very strongly and boastfully, and may say, "I am sure that the Lord is my God"—but if we do not bear spiritual marks that we have walked in the way wherein God leads his people, will God witness it? will his people agree with it? and will an honest conscience add its verdict? I say, boldly, No!
Back to J. C. Philpot Sermons