By nature we are prone to desire liberty, and abuse it; we need to be exhorted that we use not our liberty as an occasion to the flesh, Gal. 5. to sloth and ease, &c. Liberty to sin is no liberty, but the greatest bondage that can be to have a free heart to serve God, and the lets outwardly removed is sweet liberty to enjoy God, is liberty to be set free by Christ from sin, Satan, hell, is to be freed indeed; and though we have nothing to do to be saved, we have something to do for his glory, which is to be our meat and drink, therefore let no difficulty hinder thee in serving thy Lord, say not it is impossible, consider Luk. 1. 6. 1 Pet. 4. 13. 19. Press after perfection, the nearer the better, watch and pray to prevent sin, to do good, make it thy business to keep Christ's commands.
Showing posts with label Q-Antinomianism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Q-Antinomianism. Show all posts
Aug 9, 2010
Set your affections on things above - J.C. Philpot
(J. C. Philpot, "Spiritual Convictions & Heavenly Affections")
"Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." Col. 3:2
Naturally we have no affection for anything else.
There is no such thing as a spiritual desire or a heavenly affection in our soul, when we are in a state of unregeneracy. So fallen are we that we love, and cannot but love the world, and the things of the world. We have no heart for anything but the things of time and sense. No, rather, as our carnal mind is enmity against God, we hate everything which is spiritual, heavenly, and holy.
One main part, therefore, of the work of God upon the soul, is to take off our affections from these earthly things--and to fix them upon Jesus where He sits enthroned above--that we may love and hate those same things which He loves and hates.
Our affections are not to be set upon things on the earth. Business, worldly cares, the interests of our family, the things of time and sense--in whatever form they come, whatever shape they may assume, must not so entwine themselves around our affections as to bind them down to the earth.
We may use them for the support and sustentation of our life--but we must not abuse them. We are not to set our affections on them!
Houses,
gardens,
land,
property,
friends,
family;
all these earthly things we are not to set our affections on--so that they become idols. Thus any lovely object may be foul--because turned to an idol.
It may be but a flower--and yet be an idol.
It may be a darling child whom everybody admires for its beauty and attractiveness--yet it may be a defiling idol.
A cherished project may be an idol.
A crop of wheat,
a flock of sheep,
a good farm,
a thriving business,
the respect of the world,
may all be defiling idols--for all these things, when eagerly pursued and loved, draw the soul away from God, and by drawing it insensibly from Him, bring pollution and guilt into the conscience.
Now we are, or by grace in due time shall be, weaned and divorced from earth with all its charms and pleasures and all its polluting idols.
"Dear children, keep yourselves from idols!" 1 John 5:21
"I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols!" Ezekiel 36:25
"Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." Col. 3:2
Naturally we have no affection for anything else.
There is no such thing as a spiritual desire or a heavenly affection in our soul, when we are in a state of unregeneracy. So fallen are we that we love, and cannot but love the world, and the things of the world. We have no heart for anything but the things of time and sense. No, rather, as our carnal mind is enmity against God, we hate everything which is spiritual, heavenly, and holy.
One main part, therefore, of the work of God upon the soul, is to take off our affections from these earthly things--and to fix them upon Jesus where He sits enthroned above--that we may love and hate those same things which He loves and hates.
Our affections are not to be set upon things on the earth. Business, worldly cares, the interests of our family, the things of time and sense--in whatever form they come, whatever shape they may assume, must not so entwine themselves around our affections as to bind them down to the earth.
We may use them for the support and sustentation of our life--but we must not abuse them. We are not to set our affections on them!
Houses,
gardens,
land,
property,
friends,
family;
all these earthly things we are not to set our affections on--so that they become idols. Thus any lovely object may be foul--because turned to an idol.
It may be but a flower--and yet be an idol.
It may be a darling child whom everybody admires for its beauty and attractiveness--yet it may be a defiling idol.
A cherished project may be an idol.
A crop of wheat,
a flock of sheep,
a good farm,
a thriving business,
the respect of the world,
may all be defiling idols--for all these things, when eagerly pursued and loved, draw the soul away from God, and by drawing it insensibly from Him, bring pollution and guilt into the conscience.
Now we are, or by grace in due time shall be, weaned and divorced from earth with all its charms and pleasures and all its polluting idols.
"Dear children, keep yourselves from idols!" 1 John 5:21
"I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols!" Ezekiel 36:25
Strangers in the world - J.C. Philpot
(J. C. Philpot, "The Precious Trial of Faith", 1865)
"To God's elect, strangers in the world." 1 Peter 1:1
Strangers!
What makes the children of God so strange?
The grace of God which calls them out of this wretched world. Every man who carries the grace of God in his bosom is necessarily, as regards the world, a stranger in heart, as well as in profession, and life.
As Abraham was a stranger in the land of Canaan; as Joseph was a stranger in the palace of Pharaoh; as Moses was a stranger in the land of Egypt; as Daniel was a stranger in the court of Babylon; so every child of God is separated by grace, to be a stranger in this ungodly world.
And if indeed we are to come out from it and to be separate, the world must be as much a strange place to us; for we are strangers to...
its views,
its thoughts,
its desires,
its prospects,
its anticipations,
in our daily walk,
in our speech,
in our mind,
in our spirit,
in our judgment,
in our affections.
We will be strangers from...
the world's company,
the world's maxims,
the world's fashions,
the world's spirit.
"They confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth." Hebrews 11:13
"To God's elect, strangers in the world." 1 Peter 1:1
Strangers!
What makes the children of God so strange?
The grace of God which calls them out of this wretched world. Every man who carries the grace of God in his bosom is necessarily, as regards the world, a stranger in heart, as well as in profession, and life.
As Abraham was a stranger in the land of Canaan; as Joseph was a stranger in the palace of Pharaoh; as Moses was a stranger in the land of Egypt; as Daniel was a stranger in the court of Babylon; so every child of God is separated by grace, to be a stranger in this ungodly world.
And if indeed we are to come out from it and to be separate, the world must be as much a strange place to us; for we are strangers to...
its views,
its thoughts,
its desires,
its prospects,
its anticipations,
in our daily walk,
in our speech,
in our mind,
in our spirit,
in our judgment,
in our affections.
We will be strangers from...
the world's company,
the world's maxims,
the world's fashions,
the world's spirit.
"They confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth." Hebrews 11:13
Jul 27, 2010
True faith and false faith - William Huntington
"...But to give you a description of false faith is more then I can pretend to, unless you will allow me to describe true faith and oppose it to false, and so lead your mind in the line between the two.
As for the faith of arminianism, I believe it to be worse than the faith of devils; for I have heard arminians mention the awful decrees of God, and wantonly laugh at them; but devils believe and tremble. True faith holds every revealed truth of the Bible, but opposes none. If you live by faith, Christ, the bread of heaven, will be the food of thy faith. If you walk by faith, Christ, the living way, will be the path of faith, If you stand fast by faith, Christ will be faith's foundation; faith will stand no where, but on Christ; and Christ will always bear every weight that faith lays on him. Christ will never suffer faith to fail, nor will faith ever suffer Christ to have a co-partner; Christ will never suffer faith to be confounded; nor will faith ever suffer Christ to be dishonoured.
As for the faith of arminianism, I believe it to be worse than the faith of devils; for I have heard arminians mention the awful decrees of God, and wantonly laugh at them; but devils believe and tremble. True faith holds every revealed truth of the Bible, but opposes none. If you live by faith, Christ, the bread of heaven, will be the food of thy faith. If you walk by faith, Christ, the living way, will be the path of faith, If you stand fast by faith, Christ will be faith's foundation; faith will stand no where, but on Christ; and Christ will always bear every weight that faith lays on him. Christ will never suffer faith to fail, nor will faith ever suffer Christ to have a co-partner; Christ will never suffer faith to be confounded; nor will faith ever suffer Christ to be dishonoured.
Jul 15, 2010
It would have been otherwise - WIlliam Huntington
"I believe, that the reason of so many persons making shipwreck of their confession of faith, and apostatizing from their profession of it, is, because they had no other bond to hold them to it but the bondage of the law; nor any other rule to walk by but the commandments. Had the bond of everlasting love got hold of them, and Paul's gospel rule of eternal life been given them, I believe it would have been otherwise." -William Huntington
Jul 13, 2010
Idling life away like an idiot or a madman - J.C. Philpot
"When one is spiritually reborn, he
sees at one and the same moment . . .
God and self,
justice and guilt,
power and helplessness,
a holy law and a broken commandment,
eternity and time,
the purity of the Creator, and
the filthiness of the creature.
And these things he sees—not merely as
declared in the Bible—but as revealed in
himself as personal realities, involving all
his happiness or all his misery in time and
in eternity. Thus it is with him as though
a new existence had been communicated,
and as if for the first time he had found
there was a God!
sees at one and the same moment . . .
God and self,
justice and guilt,
power and helplessness,
a holy law and a broken commandment,
eternity and time,
the purity of the Creator, and
the filthiness of the creature.
And these things he sees—not merely as
declared in the Bible—but as revealed in
himself as personal realities, involving all
his happiness or all his misery in time and
in eternity. Thus it is with him as though
a new existence had been communicated,
and as if for the first time he had found
there was a God!
Jul 9, 2010
The loose Antinomian spirit - J.C. Philpot
Much that passes for union in a church is merely natural feeling of friendship and regard as worshippers in the same place, and as from time to time brought together in a kind of social religious intercourse. Real soul union is one of the rarest things in the world. There may be much warm shaking of hands, kind enquiry’s, and friendly looks and expressions, a few words about the sermon or general soul matters, where the Holy Ghost has neither given spiritual life nor cemented spiritual union…
Another prominent evil is the loose Antinomian spirit so widely prevalent in Calvinistic churches. This denial of practical godliness appears under a resting upon mere doctrinal truth in vain confidence of interest therein, without any vital experience of its liberating power or sanctifying effects manifest in the walk and life. Books, periodicals, and sermons are coming continually under our eye, sound in letter of truth, in which there is not the faintest attempt to enforce vital, practical godliness, either in its experience in the heart or in its influence on the life. The highest doctrine is set forth in the most decided unflinching way; free will so called, is chased over hill and dale; the Arminians and Pharisees, soundly rated as the most weak and foolish of men, and shouts of victory are pealed forth to the triumph of sovereign grace. But there it begins and ends. A little shallow experience may be named; but of fruit, inward or outward, a godly life, a Christian walk, not a syllable.
Is fruit generally insisted upon as the mark of union with Christ? Such fruits as self-denial, crucifixion of the flesh with its affections and lusts; laboring to know and do the will of God; repentance and godly sorrow for sin; mourning and sighing over a backsliding heart; a prayerful meditative spirit, and that sweet spirituality of mind which is life and peace – are not these vital realities positively ignored and not even named, much less insisted upon?
It would almost seem, from the general neglect of enforcement upon believers practical godliness, as if the elect might do anything they liked, and that we are saved not from sin, but in sin; delivered from the curse of the law, not to walk in obedience of the gospel, but almost to do any abomination in which the carnal mind delights! (Jer. 7:10)
By J.C. Philpot – 1860
Another prominent evil is the loose Antinomian spirit so widely prevalent in Calvinistic churches. This denial of practical godliness appears under a resting upon mere doctrinal truth in vain confidence of interest therein, without any vital experience of its liberating power or sanctifying effects manifest in the walk and life. Books, periodicals, and sermons are coming continually under our eye, sound in letter of truth, in which there is not the faintest attempt to enforce vital, practical godliness, either in its experience in the heart or in its influence on the life. The highest doctrine is set forth in the most decided unflinching way; free will so called, is chased over hill and dale; the Arminians and Pharisees, soundly rated as the most weak and foolish of men, and shouts of victory are pealed forth to the triumph of sovereign grace. But there it begins and ends. A little shallow experience may be named; but of fruit, inward or outward, a godly life, a Christian walk, not a syllable.
Is fruit generally insisted upon as the mark of union with Christ? Such fruits as self-denial, crucifixion of the flesh with its affections and lusts; laboring to know and do the will of God; repentance and godly sorrow for sin; mourning and sighing over a backsliding heart; a prayerful meditative spirit, and that sweet spirituality of mind which is life and peace – are not these vital realities positively ignored and not even named, much less insisted upon?
It would almost seem, from the general neglect of enforcement upon believers practical godliness, as if the elect might do anything they liked, and that we are saved not from sin, but in sin; delivered from the curse of the law, not to walk in obedience of the gospel, but almost to do any abomination in which the carnal mind delights! (Jer. 7:10)
By J.C. Philpot – 1860
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