Sovereign Grace Church

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see Him as He is


(1 JOHN 3:2)

God leads all His people “forth by the right way;” (PSALM 107:7); but the right way is to them as God leads them, a mysterious one, for He “brings the blind by a way that they knew not” (ISAIAH 42:16). Could you and I, by the eye of faith, retrace the whole path that God has been pleased to lead us in, from the time He was pleased to quicken our souls or I might go further back than that—from the time that we came into existence; could we accurately and believingly trace out all the path, we should come to this sweet conclusion in our minds: It has all been a path of undeserved and unmingled mercy; His dealings with us, however painful they may have been, yet have all guided us “by the right way, that we might go to a city of habitation” (PSALM 107:7).

And what is our present condition? Some of us perhaps are passing through severe trials, walking in “darkness that may be felt,” (EXODUS 10:21) laboring under heavy burdens, and not seeing the sun behind the cloud. But may we not judge from the past, what is the use of the present, and what will be the issue of the future? Has the Lord ever disappointed your expectations? Has He ever been to you less than you have hoped, or other than you wished? Oh that the Lord would enable each of us to trust Him even now! However dark the path He may call us to walk in, may the Lord give us this blessed confidence, that He is still leading us, still guiding us, and will lead us and guide us, until He brings us to “see Him as He is,” to enjoy His presence, and to sit down in His glorious and eternal kingdom.

^{An excerpt from J.C. Philpot’s Sermon “The Heavenly Birth And Its Earthly Counterfeits”}