Tried With Fire

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7 By this love we are not to understand a softness and tenderness of mere nature, or a love founded on worldly motives, as any natural person may have, but a love for our brethren, proceeding from love towards God. In other words, loving all peoples in general because of their relationship to God; and loving good men in particular, for the grace we see in them, and because they love our Lord Jesus in sincerity. This is Christian charity and that commandment which Christ gave to his disciples. New, not in its object, but in the motive and example whereon it is founded, even Jesus Christ. This is the love which the primitive Christians were so renowned for, that it became a proverb, "See how these Christians love one another." And without this love, though we should give all our goods to feed the poor, and our bodies to be burnt, it would profit us no...

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1 The death of Jesus Christ has turned our whole lives into one continued sacrifice; and whether we eat or drink, whether we pray to God, or do anything to man, it must be all be done out of a love for, and knowledge of him who died and rose again, to render all, even our most ordinary deeds, acceptable in the sight of God. If we live by this principle, if Christ be the Alpha and Omega of all our actions, then our least are acceptable sacrifices; but if this principle be wanting, our most pompous services avail nothing: we are but spiritual idolaters; we sacrifice to our own net; we make an idol of ourselves, by making ourselves, and not Christ, the end of our actions: and therefore, such actions are so far from being accepted by God, that, according to the language of one of the Articles of our Church...

When a person has for some little time tasted the good word of life and felt the powers of the world to come, he is often highly transported with that sudden change he finds in himself. But then Satan comes at such a time to pull him up with a high conceit of his own experiences as if he were some great person. He will tempt him to think ill of his brothers, as though he were better or holier than they. Take heed, therefore, and beware of this most evil device of our spiritual adversary; for as honor is before humility, so a haughty spirit goes before a fall, and God is obliged when under such circumstances to send us some humbling visitation (or permit us to fall) as he did Peter into some grievous sin, that he might learn not to be so high minded. To put a stop to all these suggestions of pride, let us remember that Christ was the one who chose us; we did not chose him; we have nothing but what we have received. Indeed, the free grace of God alone has made the difference between u...

You see, my dearly beloved brothers, that our way through the wilderness of this world to the heavenly Canaan is beset with thorns, and that there are sons of Anak to be grappled with before you can possess the rose, the Promised Land. But let not these, like so many false spies, discourage you from going up to fight the Lord's battles, but say with Caleb and Joshua, "No, we will go up , for we are able to conquer them." Jesus Christ, that great captain of our salvation, has in our stead, and as our representative, battled the grand enemy of mankind, and we have nothing to do, but manfully to fight under his banner, and to go on from conquering to conquer. Our glory does not consist in being exempted from, but in enduring temptation. "Blessed is the man, who endures temptation;" and again "Count it all joy" when you fall into various temptations. And in that perfect form our blessed Lord has prescribed to us, we are taught to pray, not so much to b...

Wenceslaus Hollar/ Source For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me.   Psalm 38:2 What has God wrought in you? Has he even given this conviction to you, not a little fight now and then, or a qualm of your conscience? The devil and natural conscience may do this, but when it is wrought in your heart by the Spirit of God, it goes to the bottom, the arrow sticks fast, and a poor soul sometimes endeavors to pray, endeavors to pull it out, all but in vain. Has God wrought this in your soul? Now, when God works this change in the soul, the devil is always busy tempting the poor convicted sinner to despond, if not despair. Ignorant formalists, who are some of the worst people under heaven, when a person is under conviction, think the devil is got into them, whereas the devil is in themselves; for the devil hoodwinks people, and he endeavors to persuade them that there is no harm done to God by sinning against him. It is God who wou...

Karl Briullov/ Source For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. James 1:23 To walk with God implies that the Spirit of God removes the power of the natural heart. Perhaps it may seem hard to some, but our own experience daily proves what the Scriptures in many places assert, that the carnal mind, the mind of the unconverted man, and even the mind of the regenerate, so far as any part of him remains unrenewed, is [at] enmity against God himself. Indeed, one may well wonder that any creature, especially that lovely creature man, made after his Maker's own image, should ever have any enmity, much less a prevailing enmity, against that very God in whom he lives, moves, and has his being. But so it is. Our first parents contracted it when they fell from God by eating the forbidden fruit… and this same enmity rules and prevails in every man that is naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam… He th...

I am beloved of the Lord, if, having his love in my heart, I show it by loving those he has loved. Some people may say, "I love you, but I do not love those about you, your friends;" you are not bound to love all alike but it may teach you to be civil to that person's beloved. As soon as ever we hear of a Christian, as soon as ever we hear of a believer, as soon as ever we hear of a sinner turning to God, we should rejoice and be like the angels  in heaven who rejoice over one sinner's repentance. Some people may say, "I love dearly to hear of persons being converted by such a minister; I love dearly to hear of persons being converted by a dissenter; I love dearly to hear of persons being converted by a churchman, but I do not like people should be converted by this and that person." I believe there are a great many people whose hearts are thus narrow, but this mixture is not of God. And I pray God they may know it by experience; that they may know they are ...

I have heard of a person who was in company once with fourteen ministers of the gospel, some of whom were eminent servants of Christ, and yet not one of them could tell the time God first manifested himself to their soul. Zaccheus's was a very quick conversion, perhaps not a quarter of an hour's conviction: this I mention that we may not condemn one another. The Lord works with each of us differently and in different seasons. We do not love the pope, because we love to be popes ourselves, and set up our own experience as a standard to others. Those that had such a conversion as the jailer, or the Jews; O, say you, we do not like to hear you talk of shaking over hell, we love to hear of conversion by the love of God and of being drawn to him for his great love; while others that were so shaken, as Robert Bolton and other eminent men were, may say, you are not Christians, because you had not the like terrible experience. You may as well say to your neighbor, you have not ha...

[W]hen the fullness of time was come, Christ came, made of a woman, made under the law, according to the eternal counsel of the Father. He did not come in glory or splendor, as him who brought salvation with him. No, he was born in a stable and laid in a manger; oxen were his companions. Our Lord Jesus Christ stooped in amazing love to such low and poor things for our sakes. What love is this, that the Son of God would come into our world in so lowly a condition, to deliver us from sin and misery to which we are involved by the fall of our first parents! The Lord Jesus Christ came to take our nature upon him and to die a shameful, painful, and accursed death for our sakes. He died for our sins to bring us to God. He cleansed us from the guilt of sin by his blood, he satisfied for our imperfections, and now, my friends, we have bold access unto him. George Whitefield Daily Readings , Randall J. Pederson, ed., Christian Focus Publications, 2010,  taken from t...

The wisdom of God contrives a way that justice might be satisfied, and yet mercy is still triumphant. How was that? The Lord Jesus, the dear Redeemer, interposes! … The Son of God says, "Father, spare the sinner; let him not die. Father, Father, O hold thy hand, withdraw thy sword, for I come to do thy will. Man has broken thy law, and violated thy covenant. I do not deny that man deserves to be punished forever. But Father, what Adam could not do, if you will prepare for me a body, I, in the fullness of time will go, and die for him. He has broken thy law, but I will go and keep it, that thy law may be honored. I will give a perfect, un-sinning obedience to all thy commandments, and so that you may justify ungodly creatures. I will not only go down and obey thy law, but I will go down and bleed; I will go down and die. Here I am; I will step in between thee and sinners, and be glad to have thy sword sheathed in my heart's blood for them." George Whitefield Daily...

Have you been enabled to reach out the arm of faith and embrace the blessed Jesus in your souls, so that you could say, "My beloved is mine, and I am his?" If so, fear not, whoever you are. The Lord, the everlasting God, is your righteousness. Christ has justified you; who is he that condemns you? Christ has died for you, is risen again, and ever lives to make intercession for you. Being now justified by his grace, you have peace with God, and shall before long be with Jesus in glory, reaping everlasting and unspeakable fruits both in body and soul. All is yours if you are Christ's, for Christ is God's. My brethren, my heart is enlarged towards you! Think of the love of Christ in dying for you! Talk of and recommend the righteousness of Christ, when you lie down and when you rise up, at your going out and coming in! Think of the greatness of the gift, as well as of the Giver! Show to all the world, in whom you have believed! Let all by your fruits...

Our Lord Jesus does recommend morality and good works, as all faithful ministers will do, and clears the moral law from many corrupt glosses put upon it by the letter-learned Pharisees. But before he comes to this, he talks of inward piety, such as poverty of spirit, meekness, holy mourning, purity of heart, and especially hungering and thirsting after righteousness. He then recommends good works as evidence that we have his righteousness imputed to us, and these graces wrought in our hearts. Matthew 5:16 says, "Let you light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Then Jesus immediately adds in the next verse, "Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them (to take away the force of it as a rule of life) but to fulfill them (to obey it in its whole latitude, and give the complete sense of it)." Then he goes on to show how broad the moral law is. So our ...

All believers, whether they are men or women, ought to be subject to Jesus Christ, for he is the Head of the church. He has bought her by his blood. Believers, therefore, are not their own, but are under the highest obligation to glorify and obey Christ in their bodies and their souls, which are his. But what is more, we find perfect freedom in his service. His commandments are holy, just, and good. Therefore, it is your highest privilege, O believers, to submit to and obey them. Earthly husbands may be so mean as to impose some things upon their wives, merely to show their authority, but it is not so with Jesus Christ. He can, and does, impose nothing except that which is conducive to our present and future good. George Whitefield Daily Readings , Randall J. Pederson, ed., Christian Focus Publications, 2010,  from the June 21 reading.

When God brought Eve to Adam, he received her with joy, and said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (Gen. 2:23). Adam and Eve were one flesh, and were to have one heart. The same terms are used in Scripture to express the believer's union with Jesus Christ. We are called Christians after Christ's name, and made partakers of Christ's nature. Out of his fullness believers receive grace for grace. O infinite condescension! O ineffable union! Hence it is that believers are said to be members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Hence it is, that the apostle, speaking of himself, says, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). What an expression! How much it comprehends! The question was given to the Corinthians: "Do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" (2 Cor. 13:5). Agreeable to this is Colossians 1:27: "Christ...

What! Will not all the arguments I have mentioned, prevail you to leave the husks, and return home to eat the fatted calf? What! Will you thus requite our Savior's love? That should be far from you! Did he come down and shed his precious blood to deliver you from the power of sin, and will you spend your youthful strength and vigor in the service of it, and then think to serve Christ when you can follow your lusts no longer? Is it right that many who are endowed with excellent gifts, and are thereby qualified to be supports and ornaments of our church, should, notwithstanding, forget the God who gave them their gifts, and employ themselves in things that will not profit? O why will they not arise and be zealous for the Lord of hosts? Doubtless, when death overtakes them, they will wish they had, and what hinders them to begin now? Do you think that anyone has ever yet repented that he began to be religious too soon?  But how many on the contrary, have repented that they began when ...

The imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ is a comforting doctrine to all Christians. To you, sinner, who ask what you must do to be saved, how uncomfortable would it be to tell you, by good works, when perhaps you have never done one good work in all your life.  This would be driving you to despair. Indeed, no: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved," (Acts 16:31). Come to Jesus by faith, and he will receive you. You have no righteousness of your own to depend upon. If you are to be saved, it is by the righteousness of Christ, through his atonement and sacrifice for sin. His righteousness must be imputed to you, otherwise you cannot be saved. There is no difference between you, by nature,  and the greatest criminal; the difference made is all owing to the free, rich, and underserved grace of God. Come by faith to Christ. Do not come, Pharisee-like, telling God what you have done, how often you have gone to church, received the sacraments, fasted, prayed, or the li...

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 The Deists, who own a God but deny his Son, dare to go to God outside of Christ. But Jacob was taught better. God soon reveals the gospel to him. Here is a ladder by which God preaches to you. If you have a mind to climb from earth to heaven, you must get up by the Son of God. No one ever pointed out a proper way to heaven for us, but himself. When Adam and Eve fell from God, a flaming sword turned every way to keep them from the tree of life. But Jesus alone is the new and living way, not only to the holy of holies below, but into the immediate presence of God. And that we might know that he was a proper Savior, the top of it reached to heaven. If it had stopped short, Jacob might have said, ah! the ladder is within a little way of heaven, but does not quite reach it; if I climb to the top, I shall not get there, after all. But the top reached heaven, to point out the divinity and exaltation ...

Here is a blessed word - God shall not only be our refuge, but God shall be our strength also. What strength? - to make every day of trouble so easy to us by his power as to carry us through it. God has said, and will stand to it, "As your day is, so shall your strength be." Afflictions even at a distance will appear very formidable, when viewed by unbelief. Our fears say, "O God, if I come to be tried this or that way, how shall I bear it?" But we do not know what we can bear till the trial comes; and we do not know what strength God can give us, or what a strong God he will be, until he is pleased to put us into a furnace of affliction… he will never leave us till we are helped quite over and quite through it. George Whitefield Daily Readings , Randall J. Pederson, ed., Christian Focus Publications, 2010, excerpt from the May 9 reading.

We can no more turn our hearts than turn the world upside down. It is the Redeemer by his Spirit who must take away our heart of stone, and by the influence of the Holy Spirit, give us a heart of flesh. I might as well attempt to reach the heavens with my hands; I might as well go to some churchyard and command the dead to rise. I might as soon shake my handkerchief and bid the streams divide and they give way as to expect a soul to turn to God without the grace of the Mediator. Come, my dear hearers, I am of a good man's opinion that prayed he might be converted every day. In the divine life, not to go forwards is to go backwards; it is the great part of the Spirit of God to convert the soul from something that is wrong to something that is right, every day, hour, and moment of the believer's life - so that, in short, his life is one continued act of converting grace. George Whitefield Daily Readings , Randall J. Pederson, ed., Christian Focus Publications, 2010, from the Ma...

Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves,‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Luke 3:8 A man that has truly repented is truly regenerated… there is, as it were, a new creation wrought in your hearts. If your repentance is true; you are renewed throughout, both in soul and body; your understandings are enlightened with the knowledge of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ; and your wills, which were stubborn, obstinate, and hated all good, are obedient and conformable to the will of God. Indeed, our deists tell us that man now has a free will to do good, to love God, and to repent when he will; but indeed there is no free will of any kind in any of you but to sin; no, your free will leads you so far that you would, if possible, pull God from the throne… But when you are turned to the Lord by evangelical repentance, you will is changed; your obedience, now hardened and benumbed...