Grace Gems

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Look up today, O parched plant!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing." Ezekiel 34:26

Here is sovereign grace, "I will send down showers." Is this not sovereign, divine mercy--for who can say, "I will send down showers," except God? There is only one voice which can speak to the clouds, and bid them beget the rain. "Who sends down the rain upon the earth? Who scatters the showers upon the green herb? Do not I, the Lord?"
Grace is the gift of God--and is not to be created by man.

It is also needed grace. What would the ground do without showers? You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds--but what can you do without the rain? As absolutely needful is the divine blessing. In vain you labor, until God bestows the plenteous shower, and sends salvation down.

Then, it is plenteous grace. "I will send down showers." It does not say, "I will send them drops," but "showers." So it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, He usually gives it in such a measure that there is not room enough to receive it. Plenteous grace! Ah! we need plenteous grace . . .
  to keep us humble,
  to make us prayerful,
  to make us holy,
  to make us zealous,
  to preserve us through this life,
  and at last to land us in Heaven!
We cannot do without saturating showers of grace.

Again, it is seasonable grace. "I will send down showers in season."
What is your season this morning?
Is it the season of drought? Then that is the season for showers.
Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for showers.
"As your days--so shall your strength be."

And here is a varied grace. "I will give you showers of blessing." The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God's blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If He gives converting grace--He will also give comforting grace. He will send "showers of blessing."

Look up today, O parched plant, and open your leaves and flowers for a heavenly watering!

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Nine evils which death will put an end to!

(Thomas Watson, "The Saint's Desire to be with Christ")

"I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far!" Philippians 1:23

It is the desire of a true saint to be gone from this present world, "I desire to depart." What a wicked man fears--that a godly man hopes for!

The worldling desires to live in this present world forever; he knows no other heaven but earth--and it is death to him to be turned out of his heaven. A wicked man does not go out of this world--but is dragged out!

But a soul enlivened and ennobled with a principle of grace, looks upon the world as a wilderness wherein are fiery serpents, and he desires to get out of this wilderness!

The bird desires to get out of the cage, though it is made of gold. Just so, the saints of God have looked upon themselves as imprisoned in the body, and have longed for a jail-delivery. "Oh, that I had wings like a dove, that I might fly away and be at rest!" Psalm 55:6

It is no wonder that a true saint is so earnest to be gone from this present world--if we consider how beneficial death is to a child of God. Death puts an end to all his evils! In particular, there are nine evils which death will put an end to:

    1. Death will put an end to a believer's SINS.

    2. Death will put an end to a believer's TEMPTATIONS.

    3. Death will put an end to a believer's FEARS.

    4. Death will dry up a believer's TEARS.

    5. Death will put an end to a believer's TROUBLES.

    6. Death puts an end to a believer's CARES.

    7. Death will put an end to all our NATURAL imperfections.

    8. Death will put an end to the imperfections of GRACE.

    9. Death will put an end to a weary PILGRIMAGE.

Though death is a bitter cup, there is sugar at the bottom!

Death is the believer's best friend, for it brings him to Christ, which is far better!

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain!" Philippians 1:21

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The only saint He ever loved!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"The Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastens every son He receives." Hebrews 12:6

Bear patiently the rod for a season, and under the darkness--still trust in God, for His love burns towards you. God loves His redeemed people with a love too deep for human imagination. He loves them with all His infinite heart!

God has not forgotten you, because He smites. His blows are no evidences of lack of love. You may fear that the Lord has passed you by--but it is not so! He who counts the stars, and calls them by their names, is in no danger of forgetting His own redeemed children! He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature He ever made--or the only saint He ever loved!

"Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb?
 Even these may forget, but I will never forget you!" Isaiah 49:15

"I have loved you, My people, with an everlasting love.
 With unfailing love I have drawn you to Myself!" Jeremiah 31:3

"Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the very end!" John 13:1

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God is too kind to punish the ungodly!

(A.W. Tozer)

God's justice stands forever against the unrepentant sinner in utter severity!

The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions! It hushes their fears and allows them to practice all kinds of iniquity--while damnation draws every day nearer, and the command to repent goes unregarded. As responsible moral beings, we dare not so trifle with our eternal future!

"On the wicked He will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lot!" Psalm 11:6

"Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them!" Isaiah 3:11

"They always heap up their sins to the limit. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost!" 1 Thessalonians 2:16

"They called to the mountains and the rocks: Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" Revelation 6:16-17

"He, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb!" Revelation 14:10

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A corrupt heart was the source of all!

(Thomas Boston, "Human Nature in its Fourfold State")

We have seen what man was as God made him--a lovely and happy creature.

Let us view him now as he has unmade himself--we shall see him a sinful and a miserable creature. This is the sad state we are brought into by the fall. Man's nature is now wholly corrupted. There is a sad alteration--an astonishing overturning in the nature of man. Where, at first, there was nothing evil--now there is nothing good.

"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Genesis 6:5

All our wicked practices are here traced to the fountain and spring-head--a corrupt heart was the source of all.

The soul, which was made upright in all its faculties--is now wholly disordered.

The heart, which originally was made according to God's own heart--is now the reverse of it . . .
 a forge of evil imaginations,
 a sink of inordinate affections,
 and a storehouse of all impiety! Mark 7:21, 22

Behold the heart of the natural man, as it is opened in our text:

The mind is defiled.

The thoughts of the heart are evil.

The will and affections are defiled.

The imagination of the thoughts of the heart, that is, whatever the heart frames within itself by thinking, such as judgment, choice, purposes, devices, desires, every inward motion--is evil. Yes, and every imagination--every frame of his thoughts, is evil continually.

But is there not, at least, a mixture of good in them? No, they are only evil. Whatever changes may be found in them, are only from evil to evil; for the imagination of the heart, or frame of thoughts in natural men, is evil continually. Not one holy thought can ever be produced by an unholy heart.

O, what a vile heart is this!

O, what a corrupt nature is this!

What can that heart be, whereof every imagination, every set of thoughts--is only evil, and that continually!

Surely that corruption is ingrained in our hearts, interwoven with our very natures, has sunk deep into our souls, and will never be cured but by a miracle of grace. Now such is man's heart, such is his nature--until regenerating grace changes it!

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My statutes and carefully observe My ordinances!" Ezekiel 36:26-27

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The chief dangers which will confront the church in the coming century!

(William Booth, 1829-1916)

The chief dangers which will confront the church in the coming century will be . . .
  religion without the Holy Spirit,
  Christianity without Christ,
  forgiveness without repentance,
  salvation without regeneration,
  Heaven without Hell.

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One continued dream and delusion!

(Thomas Boston, "Human Nature in its Fourfold State")

"There is no one who understands." Romans 3:11

"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:14

"They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts." Ephesians 4:18

The natural man's apprehension of divine things is corrupt. The understanding, that leading faculty, is despoiled of its primitive glory, and covered over with confusion.

Tell them how they may advance their worldly wealth, or how they may gratify their lusts--and they will quickly understand these things. But it is very hard to make them know how their souls may be saved, or how their hearts may find rest in Christ. They are very stupid and unteachable in the matters of God. What woeful delusions prevail over them! Do we not often see those, who in other things are the wisest of men--yet are notorious fools with respect to their soul's eternal interests?

Many who are eagle-eyed in the trifles of time--yet are like owls and bats in the light of eternal realities. Nay, truly, the life of every natural man is but one continued dream and delusion, out of which he never awakes, until either, by a divine light darted from Heaven into his soul, he comes to himself--or, in Hell he lifts up his eyes in torment!

Sin has closed the windows of the soul, and darkness covers the whole. The prince of darkness reigns there, and nothing but the works of darkness are framed there. We are born spiritually blind--and cannot be restored without a miracle of grace!

"For though your hearts were once full of darkness, now you are full of light from the Lord!" Ephesians 5:8

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God would be voted out of the world!

(Thomas Boston, "Human Nature in its Fourfold State")

"The world . . . hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil." John 7:7

"They have hated both Me and my Father!" John 15:24
"They hated Me without a cause!" John 15:25

"Haters of God." Romans 1:30

"Crucify Him!" they shouted.
"Why? What crime has He committed?" asked Pilate.
 But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify Him!" Mark 15:13-14

Men set up for themselves an idol of their own imagination, instead of the true God--and then fall down and worship it.

Every natural man is an enemy to God--as He is revealed in His Word. The infinitely holy, just, powerful, and true God--is not the God whom he loves, but the God whom he loathes! The Pagans finding that they could not be like God in holiness, made their gods like themselves in filthiness; and thereby they show what sort of a god the natural man would have. God is holy and just; can an unholy creature love His unspotted holiness?

There is not a man, who is wedded to his lusts, as all the unregenerate are--but would desire to blot out the God of justice. Can the malefactor love his condemning judge? Can a heinous sinner love a just and holy God? No, he cannot!

Men naturally would rather have a blind idol--than the all-seeing God! They no more love the all-seeing, everywhere present God--than the thief loves to have the judge witness to his evil crimes. If it could be carried by votes, God would be voted out of the world; for the language of the carnal heart is, "Leave us alone! We have no desire to know Your ways!" Job 21:14

"The carnal mind is a mass of downright, undiluted enmity to the Most High God. Such a mind is opposed, not merely to the things of God, the laws of God, and the truth of God--but to God Himself!" Spurgeon

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The secret desire of every unconverted heart!

(Robert Murray M'Cheyne, 1813-1843)

"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God!' They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good." Psalm 53:1

It is in his heart that he says this. This is the secret desire of every unconverted heart. If the bosom of God were within the reach of men, it would be stabbed a million times in one moment!

When God was manifest in the flesh, He was altogether lovely. He did no sin, and went about continually doing good. Yet they they mocked Him and spat upon Him and crucified Him on the accursed tree! Unconverted men would do the same with God again--if they could.

Learn the fearful depravity of your heart. I venture to say that there is not an unconverted man present, who has the most distant idea of the monstrous wickedness that is now within his bosom. When you are in Hell, it will break out unrestrained.

Yes, you have a heart that would kill God if you could. If the bosom of God were nor within your reach, and one blow would rid the universe of Him--you have a heart fit to do the heinous deed!

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A lion! a dragon! a serpent!

(Henry Law, "Gleanings from the Book of Life")

"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish!
 No one can snatch them out of My hand!" John 10:28

Many and mighty are their foes--yet the good Shepherd protects all of His sheep.

In themselves they are as weak and tremulous as a broken reed.

The wild boar out of the forest marks them as his prey.

The roaring lion watches to devour.

Savage dogs would mangle.

The wind, the rain, the tempest, threaten to destroy.

The Good Shepherd knows these perils, and protects from all.

Satan is the arch enemy of the flock:
  for strength--he is a lion,
  for fierceness--he is a dragon,
  for twisting deviousness--he is a serpent.

His might almost reaches almightiness.

His many vassals, as legion, are a universal swarm.

His vigilance never slumbers.

His skill is barbed by world long experience.

His wrath is vehement, because his time is short. He wars with desperation because a hopeless doom is near.

How is it that the sheep are not all driven to Satan's prison cell?

There must be a Shepherd almighty to protect.

He who delivered David "from the paw of the lion, and from the paw of the bear" is the same rescuing Lord.

Paul seemed to be in the jaws of ruin, but he testifies, "The Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, and I was delivered from the lion's mouth."

In direst extremity let the believer cry, "Rescue me from the mouth of the lion; save me from the horns of the wild oxen!"

A protecting arm will speedily be outstretched.

Thus His sheep never perish, and no one can snatch them out of His hands!

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Short pithy gems from John Newton!

(John Newton)

They are the happiest Christians, who have the lowest thoughts of themselves, and in whose eyes Jesus is most glorious and precious!

    ~  ~  ~  ~

My heart is vile, and even my prayers are sin. My soul is very sick--but my Physician is infallible!

    ~  ~  ~  ~

How unspeakably wonderful it is, to know that all our concerns are held in hands that bled for us!

    ~  ~  ~  ~

Our sea may sometimes be stormy--but we have an infallible Pilot, and shall infallibly gain our port.

    ~  ~  ~  ~

Our work is great--our time is short--and the consequences of our labors are infinite!

    ~  ~  ~  ~

Lord, save us from our golden calves!

    ~  ~  ~  ~

Abominations, like nests of vipers, lie quietly in us--until the rod of affliction arouses them. Then they hiss and show their venom!

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Like the bubble on the stream!

(John MacDuff)

"You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before You. Each man's life is but a breath!" Psalm 39:5

"Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow!" Psalm 144:4

"This world in its present form is passing away!" 1 Corinthians 7:31

"What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes!" James 4:14

"The world and its evil desires are passing away!" 1 John 2:17

We shall come, some day, to see the false and fascinating joys of earth in their true light: like the bubble on the stream, dancing its little moment on the surface--and then vanishing forever!

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:26. Nothing else; nothing less, can satisfy the cravings of an immortal spirit. All other happiness is a mimic happiness; a wretched counterfeit of the true; a base alloy, on which Satan may have stamped the currency of Heaven; but it is "of the earth, earthy"--and upon it Death will put an extinguisher forever!

"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" Mark 8:36

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Into the depths of the sea!

(Thomas Boston, "Human Nature in its Fourfold State")

The sinner outside of Christ is bound over to the wrath of God. He is under an obligation in law to go to the prison of Hell, and there to lie until he has paid the utmost farthing.

But "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1

The believer's sins are pardoned, and the guilt of them is removed. The bond obliging him to pay his debt is canceled. God the Father . . .
  takes the pen,
  dips it in the blood of His Son,
  crosses off the sinner's accounts,
  and forever blots them out of His debt-book!

Being united to Christ, God says, "Deliver him from going down to the pit--for I have found a ransom!" Job 33:24

The sentence of condemnation is reversed, and the believer is absolved and set beyond the reach of the condemning law. His sins, which previously were set before the Lord, Psalm 90:8, so that they could not be hidden--God now takes and casts them all behind His back, Isaiah 38:17. Yes, God "will tread our sins underfoot, and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea!" Micah 7:19

What falls into a brook may be retrieved--but what is cast into the sea cannot be recovered.

But there are some shallow places in the sea. True, but their sins are not cast there--but into the depths of the sea. The depths of the sea are devouring depths, from whence their sins shall never come forth again.

But what if they do not sink? God will hurl them in with such force that they shall go to the bottom, and sink as lead in the mighty waters of the Redeemer's blood!

Their sins are not only forgiven--but forgotten. Jeremiah 31:34, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." And though their after-sins do in themselves deserve eternal wrath, and do actually make them liable to temporal strokes, and fatherly chastisements, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace, Psalm 89:30-33--yet they can never be actually liable to eternal wrath.

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Blessed change!

(William Nicholson, "Pearls of Great Price!")

"If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!" 2 Corinthians 5:17

But in what sense?

No new physical faculties are given to him; but his faculties have new qualities and applications. They receive a new bias, and are engaged in new and different views and pursuits.

The understanding is enlightened, and has different ideas and sensations of spiritual things.

The desires are fixed on God and holiness.

The will is submissive to the Word and will of God; and the renewed person enjoys peculiar satisfaction and delight in whatever is heavenly and divine. He now . . .
  hates sin,
  conquers the world,
  obeys the divine precepts,
  loves all his brethren in the Lord,
  and pursues holiness in the fear of God.

Blessed change!

Who is the author of it?

The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, of a Christian's birth and character--is the sovereign mercy of God; and to that mercy, in time and eternity--he may well ascribe all the praise!

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ--in His great mercy He has has caused us to be born again!" 1 Peter 1:3

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All of His glorious attributes and perfections are yours!

(William Nicholson, "Pearls of Great Price!")

It is the privilege of Christians to say, "For this God is our God for ever and ever! He will be our guide even to the end!" Psalm 48:14

The believer is also called an heir of God, which implies that he is entitled, through grace, to all that the Infinite Jehovah possesses, so far as shall be needful to make him completely and eternally happy.

God is . . .
  an infinite Being,
  without bounds to His essence,
  wonderful in His actions,
  inconceivable in His purposes,
  and inexpressible in His attributes.

He is . . .
  infinitely more than worlds in Himself;
  too high for our speculations, and
  too majestic for our descriptions--yet
He is the God of all His redeemed people!

Christians, rejoice that this God is yours!

All of His glorious attributes and perfections are yours!

His mercy is yours . . .
  to save you,
  to remove your guilt, and
  to sympathize with you in times of distress.

His wisdom is yours . . .
  to provide for you,
  to counsel you, and
  to direct all things for your good.

His omnipotence is yours . . .
  to guard and protect you in the hour of danger,
  to support you in every conflicting scene, and
  to preserve you unto His heavenly kingdom.
 
His goodness is yours . . .
  to supply all your needs,
  to enrich you with the best of blessings, and
  to grant you unfading happiness in the mansions of glory.

His omniscience is yours . . .
  to behold you in every situation, adverse or prosperous;
  to foresee all the attacks your adversaries intend to make upon you;
  and to provide for your present and everlasting security.

His omnipresence is yours--therefore He has said:
  "In six troubles I will be with you, and in seven I will not forsake you."
  "I will never leave you nor ever forsake you."
  "Lo! I am with you always, even to the end of the world."

His justice is yours . . .
  to fulfill all covenant engagements,
  to reward you with a dwelling-place in the realms of bliss,
  to punish all those hostile powers incessantly opposing you.

His immutability is the rock of your security, and the source of your unspeakable joy!

His faithfulness is yours, as the pledge for the accomplishment of all those exceeding great and precious promises to those who believe.

This God is really your own, and entirely your own, and eternally your own!

Oh! the happiness of the Christian, in having the Lord for his God!
Rejoice and say, "The Lord is my portion, therefore will I hope in Him!"

How great is the condescension of God, in becoming the eternal portion of such worthless worms!