Sovereign Grace Church

Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto the people: O visit me with thy salvation

(PSALM 106:4)

[Beloved], appearances are nothing. Where there is not the work of regeneration, there can be no evidence of any child of promise. We read in the Scriptures of truth, of some “who were once enlightened, and had tasted of the heavenly gift, and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and had tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come” (HEBREWS 6:4,5). But in these there is not one feature of the child of the freewoman. They are said to “have been once enlightened.” Yes! enlightened in head knowledge, like men studying some art or science; so a head knowledge of divine things, but no heart influence. They are said also to have “tasted of the heavenly gift.” Yes, like children taking medicine, and so nauseate it as to spit it out. And “partakers of the Holy Ghost, not in grace, not in the new birth, not in any saving knowledge, but simply partakers in the ordinary means of grace, as Chorazin and Bethsaida were of old” [MATTHEW 11:21]. And the taste they are said to have had of the “good word of God, and the powers of the world to come;”—both these are no more than mere outward privileges, which belong alike to the children of the bondwoman and of the free. All are without a single mark of grace to denote the spot of God’s children. Nothing short of regeneration proves the children of promise.