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Joseph Charles Philpot J.C. Philpot Bevindelijke geschriften & prediking
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Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
John 1:17

The way to learn truth is to be much in prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ; as you lie upon your bed, as engaged in your daily occupation, to be from time to time looking up to the Lord Himself as He sits upon His throne of grace, and be begging of Him to teach you Himself, for He is the best teacher. The words which He speaks, they “are spirit and life.” What He writes upon our hearts is written in characters which will “stand every storm and live at last.”

We forget what we learn from man, but we never forget what we learn from Jesus. Men may deceive—Christ cannot. You can trust no minister really and fully. Though you may receive truth from his lips, it is always mixed with human infirmity. But what you get from the lips of Jesus, you get in all its purity and power. It comes warm from Him; it comes cold from us. It drops like the rain and distills like the dew from His mouth; it comes only second-hand from ours.

If I preach to you the truth, I preach indeed as the Lord enables me to speak. But it is He Who must speak with power to your souls to do you any real good. Look then away from me; look beyond me, to Him Who alone can teach us both. By looking to Jesus in the inmost feelings of your soul, you will draw living truth from out of His bosom into your own, from His heart into your heart, and thus will come feelingly and experimentally to know the blessedness of His own declaration—“I am the truth.”

To the reader…

Here a question is put to you: from whom do you want to learn the truth? We can hear much from books and preachers, and the Lord uses them, but what comes from men is always mixed with human weakness. That is why I say to you: look away from me, look beyond me. What we learn from men we forget; what Jesus teaches us we never forget. His words are spirit and life, and they come warm from His heart.

Seek Him, then, in prayer, on your bed and in the midst of your daily occupations. You do not need to make long prayers; a looking up to Him, Who sits on the throne of His grace, with the plea that He Himself would teach you, is not too small for Him. He is the best Teacher and He never leads astray. Whoever deals with Him in this way will feel how the truth passes from His heart into his own, and will learn by experience what He declares: “I am the truth.”

With warm regards,
The compilers of jcphilpot.nl