I’ve just begun to explore the works of J. C. Philpot at the YouTube site Christian Sermons and Audiobooks. Last night, I found this sermon and listened to it while I was practicing a lick on my guitar; it reinforces much that is already at this blog site; furthermore, since I love Psalm 119 and see it as the prayers and confessions of a real pilgrim traveling through this world, I wanted to share it with you.
It is a 58 minute sermon, but highlights are provided for those who only have 10-15 minutes to explore Philpot’s works.
Sermon text: Ps 119:17 [KJV] GIMEL. Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.
Sermon title: The Master’s Bounty – J. C. Philpot / Christian Audio Sermon; a brief bio of J. C. Philpot is at the end of this post.
Sermon HIGHLIGHTS:
- What a fund of true vital experience is in Psalm 119: the pilgrims desires, longings, prayers that aided him in his journey – these might also aid you
- Three features in this verse / Psalm; one: a deep sense of the psalmist’s sinfulness and helplessness – as in 119: 25 DALETH. My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word [the ‘dust’ that we cleave unto will be explained below in different words]
- Two: the desire of the Psalmist’s soul to experience quickening [to be made alive] and reviving teachings of God’s Spirit in his heart – David having already been weaned from walking in his own strength, pours out his soul per the leadings of the Comforter
- Other pleas: 119:131 I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments. 135 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes.
- Three: the desire of David to understand and keep God’s word; his affection for it
- David had some understanding of the fruit of his plea in verse 17 – that he might live and obey
- His petition, ‘deal bountifully’
- What is man in the state of nature because of the fall?
- We must be acquainted with this state to experientially know the remedy that God has provided [if one does not know his state of wretchedness, then he won’t be seeking a way out of it; or he will think that he can of himself get out of it…]
- Rom 6:17 [KJV] But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
- Also we were slaves of Satan, the world, of self in its various forms: lustful self; covetous self; righteous self…idolatrous [he expounded upon those points]
- In verse 17, David called himself God’s servant; what change must take place in us that we might be a servant of God, instead of sin, Satan, self or the world?
- There is a difference between being an adopted son and a servant; he explained that via an example using the patriot Jacob, the apostles and angels; and distinguishing between father and master
- The Lord also illumines His word to alarm, terrify the conscience and soul [in the book, The Pilgrim’s Progress this process is seen]
- These actions by God, loosen our chains by causing remorse…; it doesn’t remove them
- He thereafter makes His child sick of sin, the world, Satan and self by enabling him to feel the bondage, the darkness, wretchedness and misery, as to loathe those lusts by which he has been so cruelly entangled; the world in which he has delighted; Satan, who has deceived him so well;
- [The following section of Ezekiel 36, which is referring to the new covenant, reveals God’s requirement of that very thing: …31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. 32 Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.]
- The above loosens our chains of servitude to Satan moreso, but they still remain
- Psalm 110:3a Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power,
- We need a manifestation of the Lord’s mercy, grace and favor to our hearts to move us to leave our old master for our new one
- To be crucified with Christ, entering by living faith into a knowledge of Jesus’ sufferings, His blood, and His righteousness, to be dead to sin by virtue of his death – Romans 6, baptized into His death
- By the above, we are brought into willfully serving Him, finding pleasure in Him and His service
- David knew such a state before he uttered verse 17
- To deal bountifully, what is that? There is nothing to be gained by creature service; God gives all by grace and mercy, such as pardoning of sin; past, present and future: every thought of the heart; every look of the eye; every word, action…[he provided scripture statements of this]
- When one has guilt, the pressure of temptation; when one feels mostly filth, iniquity, does he not then long for the Lord to deal bountifully with him?
- To freely pardon; graciously accept; mercifully forgive…to bless the soul with a clear testimony that the Lord has put away all his sin – such are the Lord’s bountiful dealings with His children
- Mercy, grace, love and salvation are bounties
- The Holy Spirit creates desires in the heart to experience these things; believers then are not content to only read of them in the word, they want the communication of such things to the heart
- A hungry man is not content to see a banquet table unless some of that food reaches his mouth
- In verse 17, it was as if David said, Lord, I see such grace, mercy…deal bountifully, pour into my heart some of the riches of Christ
- The super abounding of God’s grace over sin seems to be inherent in David’s petition
- If we watch the movements of our hearts, attending to the various thoughts, desires, workings that pass through our minds, we shall feel that indeed, sin abounds in us: pride, hypocrisy, covetousness, deadness regarding the things of God; selfishness, sensuality and a thousand evils are perpetually struggling and lifting up their heads in our souls
- Those who know their own hearts, know that to be true
- Does not one want to experience the super abounding of grace over these sins? Deut 32:10 [KJV] He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye
- David knew that certain effects would follow God’s bounteous dealings: that he might keep His word; that he would be alive; – versus being cold and barren towards God
- Death works in us, as in, 119: 25 DALETH. My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.
- Aren’t these things a source of lamentation? Can we think that our coldness doesn’t matter as long as we have an interest in Christ’s blood?
- The dead soul can
- It is the believer’s daily lamentation, that he is so dead, stupid, hard-hearted in the things of God
- That very lamentation proves that there is a principle of life which feels the deadness; the very moaning and sighing reveal the tender conscience groaning under the coldness; that there have been seasons when the inward life of God has been felt…there have been times when the Lord’s countenance, liberty, and love have been felt in the heart
- The painful contrast…moves one to mourn the heart’s deadness
- Can the fallen creature help itself; bring itself out of these wretched feelings? Can it bring itself out of the darkness, death and bondage?
- It is impossible for any child of Adam to keep alive his own soul
- As God renews His work in the soul, the child of God makes the simple petition of verse 17, that he may not perpetually be in bondage; that he may be renewed – that those former divine inshinings, heavenly testimonies, enable the heart to run in God’s commands in perfect freedom, that he may live
- But in what way do we live?
- That dead, cold, indifferent state could scarcely be called living; that state wherein there is just enough life to feel our own death; light to see our darkness; liberty to mourn our chains
- We cannot call it life unless there be some of the Lord’s inshining, some manifestation of the Lord; as soon as the blessed Spirit begins to work in the heart, it begins to live
- New feelings are experienced, life flows in and flows out as does prayer; then the Lord is endeared to the soul; it loves what He loves – that is the living David sought
- We live by faith in the Son of God; that is possible when the Lord is pleased to communicate true faith to the heart
- Then we believe in Jesus, in His blood, His blood, His righteousness, His person
- As faith lifts up its drooping head in the soul, we begin to live a life of faith upon the Son of God; then we begin to love
- When we’re in darkness, coldness, barrenness, there is neither love to God or to man; His ways are a misery to us: the word and prayer life are neglected; we are cold under preaching; we forsake fellowship and the things of eternity fade from view
- But when God is gracious …when he manifests His power in our life, it is like rain during a drought, renewing the soul such that is begins to love
- Then His means of grace come alive – life is experienced in the word, prayer, preaching…
- We are utterly unable to produce these feelings in our soul
- We feel our deadness and barrenness and mourn it: ‘Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?’
- But to renew our souls, to bring life and feeling into our hearts, to lift ourselves up out of the pit of carnality, is beyond our power
- We need sovereign grace to do so; we need a touch from the Lord’s finger, a smile from His countenance, a manifestation of His mercy
- When He deals bountifully with our soul, it lives; when He does not, then it droops and dies
- How great is the contrast of the living soul from those deceived and deceiving professors who think they can do something to revive their own hearts – they have not yet felt the misery of their own slavery …they have not yet learned the lesson that in their flesh dwells no good thing
- They know NOT the depth of the fall into which man has sunk – they talk in vain of renewing their own souls, of cultivating this or that grace
- But the Lord’s people who know their own depravity and helplessness, know what it is to sometimes sink and sometimes rise; that is, they know experimentally that no man can quicken his own soul or keep it alive
- Live must come as a gracious gift from Him who deals bountifully with those whom He makes and manifests as His servants
- 119:17 Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.
- David desired to keep His word, but could not of himself. He couldn’t keep his thought upon God for a half hour, nor obey His will, except by God’s grace
- His inability and helplessness were deeply wrought in his soul, he was sensible of the dreadful fall of man, of his depravity, to think of keeping God’s word without enabling grace [David: psalmist, king, warrior fell to adulterer and murderer – a great contrast therein]
- When do we keep God’s word? When we feel any part of it as precious (just like in our physical lives, we take care with precious things, as gold, silver…)
- When the Lord is bountiful, it is mostly by dropping a word into our soul, by opening some precious scripture to the heart, by giving some manifestation of the revealed word of His goodness and love; as the word drops from the mouth of God, it is caught up by the thirsty soul, lodged in the heart, stored, locked up in the treasure house of the conscience
- But we also keep His word when we obey, attend to it, act upon it, as in: 119:9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
- If the Lord gives a check, the believer heeds; if the Lord drops an admonition, the believer receives it; if the Lord sends a reproof, the believer submits…
- In this way, we keep God’s word: when the word is made life and spirit to the soul, it is brought with power into the heart, and the soul keeps it because the Lord applies it with savor and unction to the conscience
- The Lord’s family are all exercised in this way; they may all join with David in this petition
- Don’t they all sensibly mourn over barrenness in the things of God?
- When they mourn, they believe that none but the Lord can remove the grief, barrenness…
- After the cry, Lord, Oh that you would remove this deadness, revive my heart, strengthen my soul, shine in me, lead me, guide me, hold me up, visit me, bring me out of this coldness, deadness, darkness; do not all the Lord’s people honestly desire to keep His word?
- Their longing is to live according to His word, but they cannot do it; their wicked heart draws them aside one way or another [sin, Satan, world or self]
- Sometimes lusts entangle, sometimes pride inflates, hypocrisy seizes…
- Sometimes a corruption lays hold on them that they cannot obey God’s word, they experience conviction, guilt…their hearts are burdened, their souls bowed down [as in Ps. 119:176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.]
- They cannot produce the fruits of a godly life in themselves; but when the Lord provides His bounty to their souls, lifting them up, they are able then to make such petitions as verse 17; then they want to be given His salt and light, His sweet teachings
- Therein our own deadness is overruled, enabling us to come to the footstool of mercy
- Thus the Lord takes occasion by our mourning, lamentations, self-abhorrence, and loathing; He takes occasion by these to manifest more of His sovereign grace
- He therein shows us that where sin once abounded, grace does much more abound; those whom the Lord loves, He loves to the end; the great work which He’s begun, He will accomplish
- Why then am I so imprisoned; why so dark, so dead, so deserted?
- If He deals bountifully and I am a servant; then why does He leave me in all this carnality and wretchedness?
- The Lord means to humble you; to lead you into a deeper acquaintance with the fall; to endear Himself more to your soul; that when you sink more into wretchedness, you may bless His name when He appears in your behalf
For two posts in this blog that support this post strongly, see Categories: Jonathan Edwards, three posts that provide a glimpse into his spiritual life; Conversion Testimony, The Sinner’s Prayer post, which explains that there is a 5 stage ‘struggle of faith’ via which one is born again [NOT by signing a card…]; also the categories of Beatitude Life and True Kingdom Citizen: the beatitudes are Christ’s description of His true kingdom citizens; the first two describe one as spiritually bankrupt and mourning sin, these things were inherent in this post also. So, if you would know more of these, visit the aforementioned posts.
[Beatitude life deals with the beatitudes in narrative form; the other, via sermon excerpts.]
Joseph Charles Philpot (1802 – 1869) was known as “The Seceder”. He resigned from the Church of England in 1835 and became a Strict & Particular Baptist. While with the Church of England he was a Fellow of Worchester College, Oxford. After becoming a Strict and Particular Baptist he became the Editor of the Gospel Standard magazine and served in that capacity for twenty years.
Educated at Oxford University, he was elected a fellow of Worcester College, and appeared to have a brilliant scholastic career before him. But he was brought into solemn concern spiritually and the Lord led him into the ministry. He first preached in the Established Church at Stadhampton (Oxfordshire). In 1835, however, he was constrained, for the truth’s sake, to sever his connection with the Church of England and to resign his curacy and his fellowship. The letter to the provost stating his reasons was published and went into several editions.
The same year, he was baptized by John Warburton at Allington (Wilts). The rest of his life was spent ministering among the Strict Baptists. For 26 years, he held a joint pastorate at Stamford (Lines) and Oakham (Rutland). In addition for over twenty years, he was editor of “The Gospel Standard”, where many of his sermons first appeared.
“My desire is to exalt the grace of God; to proclaim salvation alone through Jesus Christ; to declare the sinfulness, helplessness and hopelessness of man in a state of nature; to describe the living experience of the children of God in their trials, temptations, sorrows, consolations and blessings.” – J. C. Philpot
Resources
- Joseph Philpot, The Seceders: the Story of J. C. Philpot and William Tiptaft, Banner of Truth Trust (1961)
External links
- Philpot’s letter of resignation from the Church of England, March 1835
- Online Sermons at True Gospel Resources
- Free e-books by Philpot at Grace-eBooks.com