Bible Studies

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I want it to be known to all who read my posts that the material I use is public domain and is free to share, since there are no copyrights (esp. for 1923 or prior, which is all of the material’s timeline).
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“Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Ps 37:4).

According as the Lord is the object of your delights, the desires of your heart will be answered. There is no answer to them, no satisfaction, until the Lord Jesus is the object of your affection. When He is, then the heart finds everything to satisfy it.

If every treasure or gain you could wish for were stored in some fort, or castle, your first work would be to possess the stronghold, and the next to explore and enjoy all the treasures in it. If I delight in the Lord, I possess Him. Love possesses what it delights in, even when there is no compensation. How much more when there is! His love begets ours, though it is always in advance of ours, and passes knowledge.

The mistake with some is the attempt to satisfy the heart with the things which answer to the desires of the heart. First one thing and then another is sought after and even possessed; for instance peace, and the assurance of glory, and other distinct and special blessings, but the heart is not satisfied because many other things are wanting, and where there is want there is not satisfaction. There is no real satisfaction until everything is complete and without break or interruption. The heart seeks where it may rest in a sphere where everything is very good. The divine nature cannot be satisfied with anything short of this.

The unsatisfied state of the natural heart tells how it has departed from God. The way with us is that we often seek and obtain some particular good, and the very enjoyment of it makes us feel more the absence of the things which suit it, so that the possession of the good thing awakens the sense of the imperfection of the rest, just as one would feel if part of one’s dress were excellent and new, but the rest old and worn. Every saint, through grace, obtains and possesses some of the treasure of glory, but these beautiful and rare things only cast in the shade the common things around, and the heart feels that instead of being satisfied, it is ruffled by the contrasts which intrude and beset it.

In fact, it is the treasures which have been sought, and not the fort where they are all stored in permanency and in order, and where there is no disturbance nor incongruity, but everything abundant and appropriate; “In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9). Where everything is perfect and beautiful, and all timely and suitable, where without discrepancy or contrast, each is contributing its beauty and excellence, and adding to and setting off the other; this is the scene where the heart is satisfied, and this is only found in the Lord Jesus, and only secured by delighting in Him who is the center and source of all, where all is divine order and divine permanency.

One perfection, or even many, does not satisfy the heart; one perfect One with every perfection does satisfy it, but it is not the perfections I seek, but the perfect One—not the fruits of the garden, but the garden itself; and there I sit under His shadow with great delight and His fruit is sweet to my taste. If the garden is mine, if I possess the Lord Jesus, I possess not the fruits nor treasures only, but I possess Him in whom they are in fullness, and every desire of my heart is met at one and the same time in unfading light and eternal perfection.

-JB Stoney

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