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Joseph Charles Philpot Bevindelijke geschriften & prediking
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For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:13

When God has worked in a man “to will,” and not only worked in him “to will,” but also worked in him “to do;” when He has made him willing to flee from the wrath to come; willing to be saved by the atoning blood and justifying righteousness of Jesus; willing to be saved by sovereign grace as a sinner undone without hope, and glad to be saved in whatever way God is pleased to save him; willing to pass through the fire, to undergo affliction, and to walk in the strait and narrow path; willing to take up the cross and follow Jesus; willing to bear all the troubles which may come upon him, and all the slanders which may be heaped upon his name; when God has made him willing to be nothing, and to have nothing but as God makes him the one, and gives him the other–and besides working in him “to will,” has worked in him “to do,” worked in him faith to believe, hope whereby he anchors in the finished work of Christ, and love whereby he cleaves to Him with purpose of heart; when all this has been “with fear and trembling,” not rushing heedlessly on in daring presumption, not buoyed up by the good opinion of others, not taking up his religion from ministers and books; but by a real genuine work of the Holy Spirit in the conscience; when he has thus worked out with fear and trembling what God has worked in, he has got at salvation; at salvation from wrath to come, from the power of sin, from an empty profession; at salvation from the flesh, from the delusions of Satan, from the blindness and ignorance of his own heart; he has got at a salvation which is God’s salvation, because God has worked in him to will and to do of His good pleasure.

To the reader…

Is it ever a wonder to you how you have now become willing to flee from the wrath to come and to be saved by the atoning blood of Jesus? Willing to be nothing, to take up the cross and to walk the narrow path? That willingness did not come from yourself. It is God Who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Let that make you humble and comforted at the same time. Humble, because you do not owe your religion to yourself, to ministers or to books; comforted, because He Who gave the willing also works faith, hope and love. What God has worked in you, you may work out with fear and trembling, and its end is salvation: from the wrath to come, from the power of sin, from the delusions of Satan and from the blindness of your own heart. That is God’s salvation, and that is why it stands firm.

With warm regards,
The compilers of jcphilpot.nl