"Wherefore
the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and
election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so
an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the
everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
-II
PETER 1:10-11 [KJV]
I
believe many of God's people, if not most, have much ado to "make
their calling and election sure."
They are not a people to take things for granted; they cannot sit at
ease and say, "I have no doubt that I am a child of God;"
they want something powerful, something applied, something spoken by
the mouth of God Himself;
and short of that, they must be exercised with doubts and fears as to
their state before Him.
Now let conscience speak; let us turn over the leaves of conscience. What says that faithful Witness? Has God spoken with power to your soul? Has He pardoned your sins? Has He given you a sweet testimony of your interest in the Son of His love? Say you, "Why, I do not know that I can say all that, I do not know that God has pardoned my sins." Well, we will come a little lower then; if you cannot say that, we will take a little lower ground; can you say that you are sighing and groaning and crying at times, not always, but as the Lord works in you, for the sweet manifestations of Jesus' love to your souls?
Now let conscience speak; let us turn over the leaves of conscience. What says that faithful Witness? Has God spoken with power to your soul? Has He pardoned your sins? Has He given you a sweet testimony of your interest in the Son of His love? Say you, "Why, I do not know that I can say all that, I do not know that God has pardoned my sins." Well, we will come a little lower then; if you cannot say that, we will take a little lower ground; can you say that you are sighing and groaning and crying at times, not always, but as the Lord works in you, for the sweet manifestations of Jesus' love to your souls?
Here
is a door open for you, the door of hope in the valley of Achor. Can
you come in here? Well, these are marks of being one of God's
peculiar people. But you cannot be satisfied, short of God Himself
making it known to you; you want an immediate testimony from His
blessed mouth, and nothing but that can satisfy you, and when He
sheds abroad His
love in your soul, it will give you peace and comfort, and nothing
short of that can.
-Gospel
report by preacher J.C. Philpot (1802-1869 A.D.)
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