From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
July 25 "He that has received his testimony has set to his seal
that God is true." John 3:33 We can only set to our seal that God is true in any one
point of doctrine, experience, or precept when we feel an inward witness
that God indeed has declared it. Thus, upon every manifestation of God's
goodness to the soul, every application of Christ's blood to the conscience,
and every revelation of God's distinguishing grace, it is only as we receive
Christ's testimony, experience the inward approbation of it, and feel its
sweetness and blessedness that we can set to our seal that God is true.
This, we may be well assured, is the only way to know the power and reality
of true religion, to understand the Scriptures, and enjoy a convincing
testimony that God is our God, Christ our Savior, the Holy Spirit our
Teacher, heaven our eternal home, and that our soul is saved in the Lord
Jesus Christ with an everlasting salvation. And with what divine certainty can such a soul sometimes
speak. Sometimes, indeed, we cannot believe anything; it seems as if there
were nothing in God's word that we could set our seal to. All seems a mass
of confusion, and our ignorance appears so great that we cannot set our seal
to any vital truth. But when the blessed Spirit is pleased to testify of the
things of God, and we, receiving the testimony of Jesus Christ, walk in the
light of that testimony, then there is a holy certainty of and heavenly
acquiescence with God's truth. This divine faith will bring us through all
our trials and sorrows, and though we may be dragged through a very hell of
temptation, yet shall we know God is true. Here, then, is the grand trial of
faith; first to receive Christ's testimony, and then to hang upon that
testimony, in spite of all opposition from within and without, from feeling
its weight, power, and sweetness.