Sovereign Grace Church

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice!

(2 CORINTHIANS 12:21)

[Dear reader], did the Spirit of God ever convince you of sin? Do you see yourself liable to the curse of the law, and the just vengeance of God, for the innate depravity of your nature, and the transgressions of your life? Do you come to Christ humbled and self-condemned: sensible that unless you are clothed with the merits of [the Lord Jesus Christ] our Elder Brother, you are ruined and undone, and can never stand with joy or safety before the holy Lord God? If so, lift up thy head; redemption is thine; thou art in a state of grace; thou art translated from death to life; thou art an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ. But if you never felt, nor desire to feel this work of the Holy Ghost upon thy heart, this conviction of sin, this [repenting] faith, all the supposed righteousness of thine own, wherein thou trusted, is but a broken reed; a painted sepulchre; and the trappings of a Pharisee.

[Beloved] rejoice! [PHILIPPIANS 4:4] The holy Lord God, to whom [we] must give account, is [our] Father, [our] Savior, and [our] Friend. What is death to such, but the accomplishment of their warfare, and the commencement of an endless triumph [ISAIAH 40:1-2]? I admire an illustration of the death of the righteous, which I lately met with in a discourse on that subject, by an eminent writer [John Gill]: “As a man,” says he, “that takes a walk in his garden, and spying a beautiful full-blown flower, he crops it, and puts it into his bosom, so the Lord takes His walks in His gardens, the churches, and gathers His lilies, souls fully ripe for glory, and with delight takes them to Himself.” *

^{* The Superior Happiness of the Righteous Dead [departed], to that of Living Saints by John Gill}