“We can never love God to an height while we forget his loving kindnesses.”

“Praise and thankfulness be the only heavenly work that can be done on earth; the only joyful employment that shall last to all eternity in another life; a work that should…continually glorify God; yet how unthankful are most professors?”

“Are not we unmindful of the gracious dealings of God with us? Have not we forgotten the God of our salvation, and been “unmindful of the rock of our strength?’”

“I wonder not that many complain of their decays of love to God, while they forget his wonders of grace and love to their souls.”

“And did we oftener recount the mercies of God, they would work endearments betwixt God and our souls: did we consider what a wonder it is that God should draw us out of nothing; that he who stoops to “behold the things of heaven” should put his finger to our workmanship: that he should curiously work us, as needle work, in the dark vaults of nature; and that when we were fuller of sin than the toad of poison, that yet he should feed a toad and clothe a cockatrice: the fire of love to God would burn within our breasts. How is God provoked by this sin?

“God took it ill at the hands of the Israelites that they “remembered not his hand; nor the day in which he delivered them:” how much more do we grieve the Lord, who remember not the goodness and salvation of the Lord in Canaan, yea, in Zion? How have we forgot the God that bridled nature’s proud waves and said, “Hither to ye shall go and no further?” When we were ripe for judgment then mercy stepped in, and yet how slow to give thanks?”

“Did not he present the face of Christ as lovely to thy soul, who before was “despised and rejected?” And hath not Christ fed thee with fresh supplies of free grace that have watered thy soul every moment so that you have been “Kept through his mighty power?” And yet, O wretched heart! How unthankful hast thou been? “Thou hast forgotten all his benefits.”

The above quote comes from “A Gospel Glass”, by Lewis Stuckley. While reading, my mind was filled with the many scriptures where God had commanded that His people remember, that they be careful to diligently pass all God had entrusted to them down to their children. The Psalms rehearsed over and over the greatness, goodness, and loving kindnesses of God. The prophets time and time again lamented that the people had forgotten, they did not consider, somewhere along the way they neglected to set their mind on the things of God, they became indifferent to the God of their salvation. They no longer talked with their children of the things of God as commanded. They no longer retained God in their minds, and eventually, they were “destroyed for a lack of knowledge.”

I wanted to end the post with the words “Thou hast forgotten all his benefits,” for those are truly heartbreaking words. How could we forget Christ? What loathsome, wicked and ungrateful creatures we are. For the words are true, our Beloved puts His hand on the latch, yet we are too comfortable and drowsy (our minds filled with what?), to arouse ourselves and go to Him. And even after we have so sorely mistreated Him, He doesn’t forsake us, but stands behind the lattice to allure us back to Him, then we remember His beauty and worth, we sing His praises and search for Him, no longer resting content in the fog of forgetfulness.  And yet, we forget.

But, that is not where Mr. Stuckley stopped. Like the prophets of old, he felt obligated to warn his readers of the consequences of such ungrateful forgetfulness.

“A man would think it were impossible that every unpleasing providence should make us so forgetful of all the mighty works that have been done within doors upon our souls. How just is it with God to plague us for this our unkindness unto him? “because thou hast forgotten,” “therefore the harvest shall be all an heap.” In the beginning all succeeded well according to our desire: “In the day the plant grew, and in the morning the seed flourished;” but because of unthankfulness extreme misery followed. Wonder not that the showers are withheld; that the Lord causeth the sun to set on the prophets at noon-day; that the manna falls not at your doors; that the “hidden manna” and “white stone” are denied you; you have been unthankful – you have “not taken care for the fragments that nothing be lost.”

May we be brought to repentance before the warning of this dear saint becomes our reality.

“God knows what a controversy there is with the land for the unthankfulness of them that dwell therein. Because you have not served God with joy and praise in the days of plenty, therefore it is but a righteous thing that you serve in scarcity and famine of bread – of the word of the Lord.”

Follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” ~ Matthew 5:8

“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:” ~ Colossians 1:12

The following quote is from John Owen as he discusses “The Necessity of Evangelical Holiness.”

“Follow holiness,” saith our apostle, “without which no man shall see the Lord;” for it is the “pure in heart” only that “shall see God.” It is hereby that we are “made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.” Neither can we attain it before we are thus made meet for it. No unclean thing, nothing that defileth or is defiled, shall ever be brought into the glorious presence of this holy God. There is no imagination wherewith mankind is besotted more foolish, none so pernicious, as this, that persons not purified, not sanctified, not made holy, in this life, should afterward be taken into the state of blessedness which consists in the enjoyment of God. There can be no thought more reproachful to his glory, nor more inconsistent with the nature of the things themselves; for neither can such persons enjoy him, nor would God himself be a reward unto them. They can have nothing whereby they should adhere unto him as their chiefest good, nor can they see any thing in him that should give them rest or satisfaction; nor can there be any medium whereby God should communicate himself unto them, supposing them to continue thus unholy, as all must do who depart out of this life in that condition. Holiness, indeed, is perfected in heaven, but the beginning of it is invariably and unalterably confined to this world; and where this fails, no hand shall be put unto that work unto eternity.”

“All unholy persons, therefore, who feed and refresh themselves with hopes of heaven and eternity deceive themselves. Heaven is a place where as well they would not be as they cannot be; in itself it is neither desired by them or fit for them.”

“And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” 1 John 3:3

“There is, therefore, a manifold necessity of holiness impressed on us from the consideration of the nature of that God whom we serve and hope to enjoy, which is holy.”

“Our concernment and interest in God, both here and hereafter, do depend on our being holy.”

Owen has strong words for those who hold to antinomianism:

“He that thinks to please God and to come to the enjoyment of him without holiness makes him an unholy God, putting the highest indignity and dishonor imaginable upon him. There is no remedy; you must leave your sins or your God.”

And lest his readers conclude that he had veered off course into works righteousness, he continues:

“It is true, that our interest in God is not built upon our holiness; but it is as true that we have none without it. Were this principle once well fixed in the minds of men, that without holiness no man shall see God, and that enforced from the consideration of the nature of God himself, it could not but influence them unto a greater diligence about it than the most seem to be engaged in.”

May we all take seriously these words of caution and encouragement; the Scriptures clearly show the necessity of holiness. Those who are justified are also being sanctified. The process of sanctification in our “here and now” is preparing us, “making us meet” for the enjoyment of God for all eternity.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” ~ Hebrews 12:1