The Godly Person Weeps!

by Thomas Watson

Christ calls His spouse His "dove" (Song 2:14).
The dove is a weeping creature. Grace dissolves
and liquefies the soul, causing a spiritual thaw.
The sorrow of the heart runs out at the eye.

A godly heart grieves that it is not more holy.
It troubles him that he falls short of the rule
and standard which God has set. "I should",
he says, "love the Lord with all my heart.
But how defective my love is! How far short
I come of what I should be, no, of what I
might have been!"

A godly man sometimes weeps out of the
sense of God's love. Gold is the finest and
most solid of all the metals, yet it is soonest
melted in the fire. Gracious hearts, which
are golden hearts, are the soonest melted
into tears by the fire of God's love.

I once knew a holy man, who was walking
in his garden and shedding plenty of tears
when a friend came on him accidentally
and asked him why he wept. He broke
forth into this passionate expression:
"Oh, the love of Christ, the love of Christ!"
Thus we have seen the cloud melted into
water by the sunbeams.

A godly person weeps because the sins he
commits are in some sense worse than the
sins of other men. The sin of a justified
person is very odious, because it is a sin
of unkindness.

Peter's denying of Christ was a sin against love.
Christ had enrolled him among the apostles.
He had taken him up into the Mount and
shown him the glory of heaven in a vision.
Yet after all this mercy, it was base
ingratitude that he should deny Christ.
This made him go out and "weep bitterly."
He baptized himself, as it were, in his own tears.

The sins of the godly go nearest to God's heart.

The sins of the wicked anger the Lord.
The godly man's sins grieve Him.

The sins of the wicked pierce Christ's side.
The sins of the godly wound his heart.

The unkindness of a spouse goes
nearest to the heart of her husband.

How far from being godly are those who
scarcely ever shed a tear for sin! If they
lose a near relation, they weep, but
though they are in danger of losing God
and their souls, they do not weep. How
few know what it is to be in an agony
for sin or what a broken heart means!

Their eyes are not like the "fishpools in
Heshbon", full of water (Song 7:4), but
rather like the mountains of Gilboa, which
had no dew upon them (2 Sam. 1:21).

Others, if they sometimes shed a tear,
are still never the better. They go on in
wickedness, and do not drown their sins
in their tears. Let us strive for this divine
characteristic: to be weepers.

This is "a repentance not to be repented of"
(2 Cor. 7:10). It is reported of Mr. Bradford, the
martyr, the he was of a melting spirit; he
seldom sat down to his meal but some tears
trickled down his cheeks.

There are two lavers to wash away sin:
blood and tears. The blood of Christ washes
away the guilt of sin; tears wash away the filth.

Repenting tears are precious.

God puts them in His bottle (Psalm. 56:8).

Repenting tears are beautifying.
A tear in the eye adorns more than a ring of
the finger. Oil makes the face shine. (Ps. 104:15).

Repenting tears make the heart shine.

Repenting tears are comforting.
A sinner's mirth turns to melancholy.

A saint's mourning turns to music.

Repentance may be compared to myrrh,
which though it is bitter to the taste,
is comforting to the spirits.

Repentance may be bitter to the fleshy part,
but, it is most refreshing to the spiritual.
Wax that melts is fit for the seal. A melting
soul is fit to take the stamp of all heavenly
blessing. Let us give Christ the water of our
tears and He will give us the wine of His Blood.

Claiming God's Promises

Jeremiah 32: 39:41

“I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them.  And I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me.” 

I was online reading a well crafted sermon about part b of Jeremiah 32:42 which is “I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them.” . The writer went on and on about how faithful God is and He will never lie to us etc.  Since, I did not remember the verse by heart, I pulled out my Bible to read about Jeremiah 32.  Then I realized the writer omitted the fact that, while God promised to give prosperity to the Israelites, He had conditions in the previous verses that the writer neglected to mention. While it is true, God is faithful and will never lie to us, we would do well not to test Him while we stand on a few words that tickle our funny bones.

He promised in verses 39-41 that He would give them one heart, and that He would put His fear in their hearts so they would not turn away from Him. To sum up, verse 42 cannot be claimed by itself while neglecting the above verses. In Christianity we miss out on the fact that God Himself has given us a new heart to learn to fear Him and stay the course so we would not turn away from Him. This is extremely important.  This is why I tell people in my new released Christian book to examine themselves and if after a decade or more of Christianity they are still the same old plain Jane or John that accepted Christ and there has been no awareness of a supernatural transformation, they ought to go back to the basic.

We cannot stand there like lost sheep and tell people, oh yeah I am a Christian. What this claim amount to in your life matters very much to God. His promises are for those who have God’s fear in their hearts, they are kept in His ways and they are able to continue the path of Salvation they are on. We tend to think that the passage in Mathew 7:22 is not for us “Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we force out demons and do many miracles by the power and authority of your name?” A lot of us in the church love to think that this passage is only for some. It is equally for those Church goers who have never gotten to the point where they were changed by the Salvation they claimed they have received.

 In the new heart we receive from Him, if we believe, then the next step is to trust Him and have confidence in Him to walk the walk He put us on. So, we not only receive conversion by His grace, we learn to walk and persevere through the Holy Spirit, by His grace, So, if you have not been transformed inwardly because of what you believe, then I am afraid all your beliefs are floating around your head and they have not even made ways to your mind, let alone your heart. Examine yourself, unless you believe in vain.

PRAYER: Father God I pray that together we learn to walk in unison according to your word. I pray that we would learn to be people after your own heart. That we would make it our joy to honor your covenant with us so together we might enjoy the life we have in you now and future blessings awaiting us. May the ascended Christ help us to examine our hearts so we do not believe in vain and end up disqualified when it is too late. 

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