Honey from the Rock: For Afflicted Pilgrims

Honey from the Rock: For Afflicted Pilgrims

by Patte Smith on Sunday, October 7, 2012 at 11:00am ·

"... with honey from the Rock I would satisfy you.”
~ Psalm 81:16

Look not a moment off from Christ...
the merits of Christ alone
must be the foundation of your hope to stand on.
Christ only can be the hope of glory (Col 1:27).
When we come to God,
we must bring nothing but Christ with us.
Christ is the gift of God (John 4:10).
Look at Christ now;
look to Him
and be saved all the ends of the earth (Isa 45:22).
There is none else.
He is a Savior,
and there is none beside Him (v 21).
Look anywhere else and you are undone.
God will look at nothing but Christ
and you must look at nothing else.

God intends that you should look on Him,
for He has set Him on a high throne of glory,
in the open view of all poor sinners who desire Him.
You have infinite reason to look on Him,
no reason at all to look away from Him:
for He is meek and lowly of heart (Matt 11:29).

Hear what He says, “I have found a ransom” (Job 33:24).
“In Him I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17).
God will have nothing else.
Nothing else will do you good,
or satisfy conscience,
but Christ who satisfied the Father.
God does all on account of Christ.
You deserve
hell,
wrath,
rejection:
Christ’s deserving are
life,
pardon
and acceptance.
He will not only show you the one,
but He will give the other.

It is Christ’s own glory and happiness to pardon.

He is “the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
He went through all your
temptations,
dejections,
sorrows,
desertions,
rejections
(Matt 4:3-12; Mark 15:24; Luke 22:44; Matt 26:38),
and has drunk the bitterest of the cup
and left the sweet;
the condemnation is out.
Christ drank up all the Father’s wrath at one draught;
and nothing but salvation is left for you.

Judge not Christ’s love by providence,
but by promises.
Bless God for shaking off false foundations,
for any way whereby He keeps the soul awakened
and looking after Christ;
better sickness and temptations,
than security and superficiality...
Comfort from any hand but Christ
is deadly.

Remember Christ’s time of love when you were naked (Ezek 16:8,9),
and then He chose you.
Can you ever have a proud thought?
Remember whose arms supported you from sinking
and delivered you from the lowest hell (Psalm 86:13),
and shout in the ears of angels and men (Psalm 148),
and for ever sing praise, praise; grace, grace.
Daily repent and pray, and walk in the sight of grace,
as one that has the anointing of grace upon you.
Remember your sins, Christ’s pardoning;
your deserving, Christ’s merits;
your weakness, Christ’s strength;
your pride, Christ’s humility;
your many infirmities, Christ’s restoring;
your guilts, Christ’s new applications of His blood;
your failings, Christ’s raising up;
your needs, Christ’s fullness;
your temptations, Christ’s tenderness;
your vileness, Christ’s righteousness.
Blessed soul! whom Christ shall find not having on His own righteousness (Phil 3:9),
but having his robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14).

Do all you do as soul-work,
as unto Christ (Zech 7:5,6),
as immediately dealing with Christ Jesus,
as if He were looking on you
and you on Him,
and fetch all your strength from Him.



Excerpted from Honey Out of the Rock - by Thomas Wilcox (1621-1687)