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Why don’t people listen to their pastors?God sends preachers to announce the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ and to warn people of the dangers of their sin. The message that God wants us to hear is both clear and extremely important. So why don’t people listen? The Covenanting preacher John Welch identifies faults on the side of both the preacher and the hearer. Preachers may get frustrated that their hard work bears such little fruit, while hearers may get frustrated when preachers don’t come across as if they themselves grasp the magnitude of their responsibility. Not only hearers but also preachers can forget that the preaching of the cross, which seems such foolishness, both as to method and content, is after all both the wisdom of God and the power of God.Why people should listen to their pastorsFirst, the things they preach are absolutely necessary. It is necessary that you are converted and saved, that you turn, and turn for real, that you embrace Jesus Christ, as He is offered in the gospel, etc. This is how you are to be saved, or else lie in your sins and be eternally damned, and sentenced to everlasting torment. Is not the damnation of immortal soul a thing of weight and momentousness? Therefore, is it any wonder that ministers use all arguments to persuade you to do these things, seeing they are so absolutely necessary that, without doing them, all the world cannot save you from hell and eternal ruin.
Second, they are not only absolutely necessary, but of immediate necessity. They must be done without delay. Now or never! There is no repentance after death, and the longer they are delayed, the more difficult they become.
Third, there are great advantages to doing this. O the advantage of gaining even one soul to Christ! The advantage of confirming and establishing one soul in the moment of temptation! It is worth all the painstaking efforts a minister can make, even if he was to labour all his days. Not to speak of the advantages that come to the soul, and accrue to God’s glory!
Where preachers go wrongAlthough there are so many reasons why ministers should make it their work to persuade people, yet we find it is a work that doesn’t thrive very well in their hands. I shall give you some reasons for this, starting with reasons to do with the ministers whose work it is.
Preachers contradict their own messagePerhaps, although by their words they persuade people to these things, yet their own practice says the opposite. They preach up God and holiness in words, but “in deeds they deny them.”
This kind of preaching will neither profit folk nor persuade them. There is plenty of this kind of preaching in these days we live in. They tell us to believe, repent, be holy, but then look and see what their own life and practice tells you.
Preachers don’t take their message seriouslyThere are many ministers whose lives and behaviours may be neither scandalous nor profane, yet they are not as serious as the matter requires. They do not urge or persuade folk with the ardency and seriousness that matters of such absolute necessity require. Our words come through such cool and drooping lips that they practically freeze in our mouths, and can we then imagine that our preaching will do good or profit others? We deliver our words with such a slow spirit of indifference that it seems it’s something that could be done or not done just as we please.
Preachers don’t target the heartThough sometimes ministers may be somewhat serious and fervent in their work, yet they never lay close siege to the heart. Instead, they handle matters generally and generically. They will tell you that you should repent, but they never tell you what you are to repent of, nor the necessity of it, for example. Where sin is not particularly reproved, nor duty warmly pressed and recommended as a thing of absolute necessity, it will be a long time before that kind of preaching takes effect on the heart.
Where hearers go wrongHearers don’t really believeA great reason why the work doesn’t thrive is the ignorance and unbelief of the hearers. They don’t know the things that we are persuading them of. Nor do they really believe what is preached to them. When we tell them of communion with God, heaven, eternal life, etc, they know nothing about any of these things. When we tell them of the necessity of conversion — that they must be converted or they will be condemned — they do not believe that. If we tell them that hell is opening its mouth to receive them, that wrath is abiding on them, and that there is no escaping but by turning to God in and through Jesus Christ, they don’t believe that either.
Hearers don’t really seeAnother obstruction is that the things we speak of and persuade you of are far out of sight. Heaven, which we tell our hearers to seek, is out of view. Hell, which we tell them to beware of, is far out of sight.
The consequences are inevitableAnother reason comes from the providence of God. This work has such little success in our hands because God has taken away the blessing. He has withdrawn His gracious and comforting presence. Time was, when the arm of the Almighty went along with the preaching of the Word, but now the blessing, power, and efficacy of the gospel is taken away. On us is accomplished that word, “The Word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that hear it” (Heb. 4:2).
What kind of hearer are you?Now I come to a short word of application. I shall divide all who hear me into the following four or five categories.
Complete strangers to GodSome are altogether strangers to God. “Without God, without Christ, being aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise.” I imagine that there are not a few in this category here, who are still strangers to God and living in darkness. Numbers of you have lived under the sound of the gospel and are still in your natural state. You used to be ignorant atheists before, and that’s what you still are.
What I would say to you is that my reason for coming to you today is so that you would now look around you, and consider your ways. “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways” (Haggai 1:3). This thing is what the Lord wants you to do. Consider what you are, and what you are doing. Consider what state you are in by nature, and where you will end up, if you continue in the same state. Consider your ways, and turn to the Lord, and live. Seek that the Lord would turn you to Himself. But if you don’t turn, make ready for hell, the place where all torment and woe meet, and a hotter hell than the hell of Sodom. You are heading for torment, an intolerable torment worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah.
My exhortation to you is, Don’t spend a moment longer in that dangerous condition! Death, hell and damnation are upon you, and all the world, and for that matter, all the angels in heaven, cannot save you from it, while you live in that condition. Without delay, flee out of it to Jesus Christ! Don’t wait a moment longer, for if you die in that condition, all the world cannot save you from hell and destruction.
The half-heartedAnother category of folk here are those who have had some resolutions in the past, and have been half persuaded to reform their ways. They have been almost persuaded to be Christians, but never fully persuaded. You have never come to the point. You remain just where you were.
Well, the thing I would say to you is, either make a thorough work of it. Be thorough in the business, and be persuaded. Otherwise, persuade yourselves (and I, in the name of the Lord, persuade you) that it shall make your case worse, and less hopeful than the case of pagans.
Those who have cooled offAnother sort of folk is those who were once zealous and forward in religion, but now they have turned cold, and fallen from their first love.
A word to you who once appeared hot and zealous for God, and have now turned stone cold. Consider your ways, before it is too late. If you give way to such backsliding courses, your case may at length become desperate. What I want to say to you is, “Remember from whence thou art fallen, repent, and do thy first works.”
GrumblersAnother sort of folk is a company of poor murmuring people. They keep on entertaining hard thoughts of God. What I have to say to you is, Have better thoughts of God! Otherwise you can be sure He will make something crop up in your way that will make you have different thoughts of Him.
The godlyI will say this one word to those who are really godly: Fight it out, friends! Run the Christian race set before you. Run, and run with patience — you will come to the end of it shortly. Be faithful to Him who has called you. Don’t let the world, or your own corrupt hearts, make you flinch from it.
Let me give you some motivations to urge you to steadfastness and constancy in your Christian course.
Because of its uniquenessHold on to your way because it has four properties that no other way has.
It is a pleasant way. “All wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”
Of all possible ways, this is the only sure and safe way.
It is an honourable way. Much credit and dignity follow on it. It is the most creditable way you’ve ever gone in.
And it is a blessed way. It has the blessing attached to it. It has the promise both of this life, and of that which is to come. Happy, blessed, is the one who walks in it. As the psalmist says, “Blessed is every one that fears the Lord, and walketh in his ways.”
Because of its destinationHold on your way, believers, because it ends in glory. Do not faint, for it is the way that all the worthies have gone in, the ones who have gone before you. The whole cloud of witnesses and sufferers for Christ who are now triumphing in heaven have gone in the same way before you, and they have all been landed safe on the confines of Immanuel’s land, and so freed from all their difficulties. Indeed, it’s likely you will also meet with opposition and crosses in the way, but blessed is the one who wrestles and runs it out. “Blessed is he that endures unto the end, for the same shall be saved.”
May the Lord Himself persuade you to this!
← Escaping the fear of trying too hardFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Escaping the fear of trying too hardTrying too hard, especially without self-awareness, is something which many people want to avoid because of the vicarious embarrassment it creates in others. The fear of being seen as cringe holds people back from embracing and wholeheartedly pursing their own interests. Young people in particular can feel pressurised to conform to mainstream tastes in order to avoid becoming a target of mockery, especially online, where scrutiny can be intense and judgment harsh. Meanwhile the counter-reaction, which proclaims that “cringe culture is dead,” does not present a genuinely satisfactory alternative. Although this counter-movement proposes that people should uninhibitedly pursue their own passions regardless of other people’s opinions, it mostly simply embraces the same things as cringe culture mocked, irrespective of their merit. Real freedom from the fear of other people’s judgment does not come through the bravado of denying that we care what anyone else thinks of us. Our sights should be set on something higher than the fun of finding our own niche and the joy of self-fulfilment. It’s more about having a passion for something that is truly excellent in itself and realising that, regardless of whether it brings us lots of likes or tons of negative feedback, it’s too valuable not to pursue. That something, in the view of Andrew Gray, is salvation. Andrew Gray noticed that the advice of the Proverbs is to be diligent, especially in making our peace with God, being reconciled to Christ, and preparing for heaven. In the following updated and condensed excerpt, Andrew Gray challenges us to be diligent about the righteousness and holiness which God requires.Diligence makes us richSolomon says, “The hand of the diligent maketh rich” (Proverbs 10:4). Diligence makes a Christian rich in experience, rich in love, rich in humility, and, for that matter, rich in all the spiritual things in heaven. If you were diligent, who knows what you wouldn’t achieve!
We don’t have much timeBut, Christians, “the night is coming, wherein none will see to work” (John 9:4). Our time to remain in this valley of misery is only short. For all you know, this may be the eleventh hour of the day for you, and you may only have one hour left, but your everlasting destiny depends on the use you make of the time you’ve got. Therefore, be diligent.
If you mis-spend your time, it is impossible to recover the loss. “Therefore, while it is called ‘today,’ harden not your hearts, but hearken to his voice” (Hebrews 4:7). Some of you who are hearing me now will end up standing on the brink between time and eternity and remember what that man said, and will be forced to cry out, “Call time back again! Call time back!” But it will be a fruitless request. Therefore, be diligent.
The task is importantChristians, you have a great work. Therefore be diligent! Isn’t putting sin to death a great work? Isn’t self-denial a great work? Isn’t patiently bearing the cross a great work? Don’t you have a long journey to go? Therefore, be diligent!
Other people put this much effort into much more worthless things
To encourage you to exercise the excellent grace of diligence, consider the great diligence and effort that worldly people put towards pursuing their idols. Christians, doesn’t it put you to shame to see one of them compassing sea and land to gain some trivial inheritance? Won’t you put in as much effort to attain an everlasting crown? Are the people of the world not only wiser but also more diligent than the children of light (Luke 16:8)? Let the competition begin! They get up before daybreak to purchase a vanity, but you leave it till after dawn to obtain a crown!
Diligence leads to certain successThe diligent Christian is the overcomer. What will help you to overcome your sins and idols? Just this, Be diligent. “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule” (Proverbs 12:24). Why are you overruled? Just because you are not diligent but slothful. I can answer almost all the excuses you can make with these three words, be diligent, be diligent, and be diligent. How is it that the devil never so much as attacks you but he gets the victory over you? The answer is, you’re not diligent!
Apathy brings its own disadvantagesThink of the exceedingly great disadvantages that attend the slothful.
The five things it killsSlothfulness kills five things.
Convictions. We sometimes go home from precious sermons convicted, but what do we do with the convictions? They die without any kind of fruit, for slothfulness kills them all.
Resolutions. Slothfulness kills many precious resolutions, vows and covenants. Christians go away from the service with some good purposes and holy resolutions, but we sleep them off, and slothfulness slays them all.
Desires. Slothfulness kills many precious desires for God and for the excellent things of heaven.
Good impulses. Slothfulness kills many excellent motions of the spirit. When Christ comes and knocks, why do we slight Him? “I have put off my coat, how can I put it on again? And I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?” (Song 5:3), and so Christ goes away.
Opportunities to enjoy God. Slothfulness kills many excellent enjoyments of God. When a Christian has managed to get close to God, do you want to know what it is that spreads a veil over the face of lovely Christ? It is slothfulness. We fall asleep on the bed and let Christ depart without us noticing.
The three things it breedsThen, slothfulness breeds three things: complacency; conceit and presumption; and spiritual decay.
Its three consequencesSlothfulness clothes you with rags. “For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags” (Proverbs 23:21). What makes that change of clothes? What rips the party-coloured dress? What makes you unsuitable to king’s children? Just slothfulness.
Slothfulness makes all duties unpleasant. What makes you lose heart in prayers, preaching, communions? Slothfulness. “The way of a slothful man is as an hedge of thorns” (Proverbs 15:19), and that is a most unpleasant gate. Praying, preaching, taking the Lord’s supper, will never be sweet to you till you are diligent.
And slothfulness interrupts many precious manifestations of Christ. Do you want to know the reason why Christians have so many complaints about Christ being absent? It’s because of their slothfulness.
It takes diligence to get to heavenI beseech you to be diligent, because many have come short of heaven for lack of it. “Strive to enter in at the strait gate,” why? “Because many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24). Do you not know that dreadful greeting, “Depart from me, thou slothful person, and wicked servant”? (Matt. 25:26).
Diligence is what God expectsI beg you to be diligent, because Christ has commanded it. I’d advise you to obey the king’s commandment, especially because it comes with the oath of God.
← How escape leads to endeavourWhy don't people listen to their pastors? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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How escape leads to endeavourThose who flee to Christ for justification will also flee from sin in sanctification. But what does it feel like when you are being sanctified? In one of his sermons, Hugh Binning explores the blessings of both justification and sanctification. Justification doesn’t mean that we are changed on the inside — that’s what happens in sanctification. Yet as the inner graces are strengthened, this does not translate into any feeling of self-satisfaction. Instead, as Hugh Binning discusses in the following updated excerpt, what has prominence in sanctification is an awareness of our ongoing inner sinfulness, which makes us increasingly conscious of our own inadequacies alongside an increasing realisation of our absolute need of Jesus Christ, who is “made unto us [both] righteousness and sanctification …” Sanctification is not a flattering process but a humbling one which gives the glory to the Lord Jesus.It is difficult to decide which is the greatest privilege of a Christian — that he is delivered from condemnation, or that he is made to walk according to the Spirit, and is made a new creature — whether we owe more to Christ for our justification or sanctification (for He is made both to us).
However, it is more necessary to conjoin them together than to compare them with each other. One is not more necessary than the other — to be delivered from wrath or to walk according to the Spirit. I think it could be argued that a soul escaped from condemnation should have the great stream and current of its affections and endeavours toward sanctification, not so that they would be accepted by God, but because they are accepted by God.
The escape from condemnationIt is not said that there is nothing condemnable in those who are in Christ, but that there is “no condemnation” to them. There is, in fact, a “body of death” and “law of sin” within them, a nature defiled with original sin, and many streams flowing from it, which the sprinkling of the blood of Christ in justification does not take away. If any man say there is no sin in him, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But here is the grace and mercy of God in Jesus Christ — it removes the curse where the sin is, and takes away the condemnation where all is worthy of condemnation.
In this way, the soul’s justification is parallel to Christ’s condemnation. There was in Him nothing condemnable, no sin, no guile in His mouth. Yet there was condemnation to Him because He was in the stead and place of sinners. Our iniquities were laid “on him,” not “in him;” He who knew no sin was made a curse for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So then, the soul that flees to Jesus Christ’s righteousness, though it has in it all that deserves condemnation, yet there is “no condemnation to it,” because His righteousness is laid on it, and Christ has taken away the curse. The innocent Son of God was condemned, therefore guilty sinners are absolved. The curse was applied to Him who had no sin, but only “was made sin,” or had sin “laid on him,” and therefore the sentence of absolution from the cures is applied to those who have no righteousness, but are made the righteousness of God by free and gracious imputation.
I say all this because of many unsavoury and unsound expressions that are currently in use, along the lines that there is no sin in the justified, that justification removes sin as if it had never existed at all. I say, as the condemnation of Jesus Christ did not blot out His innocence and holiness (but only justice considered Him on that account a transgressor, when He was yet in Himself the spotless Lamb of God), so likewise, the justification of a sinner before God does not remove or blot out the corruption and defilement of our natures, but only scrubs our names out of the list of debtors, and considers us as righteous before God on Christ’s account.
The endeavour towards sanctificationI’m saying this for you to put it to use, so that you may loathe and abhor yourselves, as much if you have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ as if you had not been. Indeed, you ought to remember all the more your sins which He does not remember as debt any more, and be ashamed and confounded because they are pardoned. I find it is ordinary for souls to look on themselves with more complacency when they see that God looks favourably on them. I don’t think that any soul can duly consider the gracious face of God in Jesus Christ to them without all the more loathing themselves. But I do think that slight and inconsiderate thoughts of pardon breed bright and breezy self-conceits in the heart.
Even God’s children sin in this way. Something is abated of our self-abhorrence when God speaks peace and pardon to us. But I beseech all who believe there is no condemnation for them to consider that in you there is everything that deserves condemnation, and in fact, nothing but what deserves it. Therefore, let this aspect of God produce self-loathing and self-detestation in you. The more you grasp that He is pleased with you, the more displeased you should be with yourself, because it is not yourself He is pleased with, but His own well-beloved Son. The day of redemption is coming, when there will be not only nothing condemnation to you but nothing condemnable either. That’s how it will be in heaven. Bu while you are here, this is a most important duty, to loathe yourselves, because of all your abominations, and because He is pacified towards you (Ezek. 16:63; see also Ezek. 36:31 and Ezek. 20:43–44).
A strange new thing is suggested by many, namely, that the highest advancement in religion is not in feeling or knowing or confessing sin, but in being dead to the sense and conviction of sin. Alas! This is putting godliness to death, crucifying repentance and holiness and the old man, but enlivening the old man in its lusts, and living to sin. It is that kind of “new gospel” which, even supposing an angel brought it from heaven, we ought not to believe. Lord, give the Spirit so that we would understand the things which have already been revealed! And save us from these new discoveries and new lights!
Sometimes it seems as though everyone claims a right to the privilege of Christians, to be pardoned and absolved from condemnation, and don’t even question it even though in the meantime their iniquities testify against them, and their transgressions say in the heart of the godly, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” This is why the apostle describes the one who is in Christ Jesus as someone who walks, “not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” In this way he not only guards against the presumptuous imaginings of those who live in their sins and claim to hope for heaven, but to stir up everyone who is justified to pursue a new manner of life, since they are in Christ Jesus.
← Did you hear that thunder?Escaping the fear of trying too hard →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Did you hear that thunder?The one true God is a speaking God. He communicates with the creatures He has made, in a way that is both accurate and clear. These days, His message is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, but in earlier times, He would sometimes actually speak from heaven, in an audible voice speaking understandable words. On one occasion, when Jesus was praying in the hearing of a crowd of people, God the Father replied to His prayer directly. Jesus said, “Father, glorify thy name,” and the Father replied, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” It was unmistakeable. But plenty of the bystanders misheard and mistook. “The people therefore that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered; others said, An angel spoke to him” (John 12:28–29). What could possibly explain the confusion? The words were audible, the message was clear, yet somehow they couldn’t figure out what they’d even heard. Samuel Rutherford used this incident to make the point that we hear what we want to hear. When our wills are antagonistic to God, even our senses are biased away from perceiving God’s message to us. The opinions we form, which we like to think are rational and evidence-based, are shaped in advance by our wishful inclinations, and these, unless grace changes us, are wishes to be left to carry on without anything to do with God at all. In the following updated extract, Rutherford shows how the human tendency to dismiss the gospel as incomprehensible and irrelevant is not because of any defect in the gospel or God’s communication of it, but because of our sinful desire not to be bothered by it.The people had various opinions about the Father’s answer from heaven. Some said it was thunder. Doesn’t any ignoramus and the most simple idiot know thunder when he hears it?! This shows us how ignorant we are of God, and of the gospel way. Consider what was this voice of God from heaven to Christ. It was the gospel, and it was a clear expression of the communion between Christ and his Father. But what God means is unknown to us. Some say that the gospel is a thunder, and a work of nature, a mere imagination and a dream. Yet these are all false, and they do not agree one with another.
The gospel is the will of God from heaven, yet it is a riddle, a parable not understood (Matt. 13:14; 1 Cor. 14:21; Isa. 29:11–12). “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:18).
Without grace, they don’t understand the gospelThe understanding is a dark lantern, which has some light inside it, but sends out none at all to apprehend things any distance away [a dark lantern was a hand-held lantern which had a shutter to stop its light shining out]. As the will is iron-hard against heaven, so it is soft as wax to receive the impressions of the flesh, if Christ does not draw aside the curtain of the flesh to let you see the glory of the gospel. Otherwise, God speaks, and Samuel says, “Eli, here I am; you called me.” To the woman of Samaria, Jacob was greater than Christ, and Jacob’s well was as good as the water of life.
Just like the communion between Christ the Son and the Father, the communion between Christ and the soul is a roll of thunder, a work of nature, or anything at all to the natural man. God speaking to the heart is a mystery to him. The Jews say among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52). With great difficulty, according to their imagination of a bodily eating. Esteeming Christ more highly than other beloveds is a mystery even to the saints, to the extent that they are natural. It’s a strange question for professors of the gospel to ask, “What more is in Christ than in other well-beloveds?” yet that is what they say in Canticles 5:9.
The natural understanding is the most whorish thing in the world. There is a wide variety of imaginary gods. “According to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah” (Jer. 2:29). “They have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding” (Hos. 13:2). Even in the search for truth, the understanding is a rash, precipitate, and unquiet thing. Like a silkworm, it first makes a work of many threads, and then lies fettered and entangled in what came out of its own bowels. The mind spins and weaves lies out of itself, and fancies and dreams, and then expends itself on these, and so creates its own chains and fetters.
But in the matters of God, the mind runs mad, here, there and anywhere. In gospel knowledge it turns frantic, and when it comes to move and act within the sphere of supernatural truths, it only laughs and messes around till it comes out again. If Christ preached is foolishness, then Christ Himself must be a fool, even to the Greeks, the most excellent intellects in the world (1 Cor. 1:22–23). The gospel can only come within the brain of a natural man as a notional fancy, a chimera (1 Cor. 2:14). Indeed, when the greatest intellects came to natural theology, the borders of divine truth, to look on the outside of divinity and contemplate and behold God in His works, they didn’t know what to make of Him (Rom. 1:23). Some thought God to be a dainty bird of paradise. No, said other great thinkers, He is a four-footed beast. No, said others, He is a creeping thing. The most eminent of them, even head of learning among them, said He was a corruptible man.
They turned futile, foggy, reasonless, and stark nothing in their finer discourses and reasonings, in weighing and balancing things. The frame of the heart of man is only evil (Gen. 6:5). I know their imaginations, says the Lord, like the imaginings of the potter designing his earthen pots, that be in the heart, mind, and head of men. Many vain patterns are in our heads, just as there is a variety of pots, bottles, and earthen vessels in the potter’s house, but they are evil, wicked, and only evil from the womb. But especially, how many devices and new patterns of religions and gods are in the heart of men? How many sundry opinions of Christ are in people’s brains? Some said he was John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah (Matt. 16:14).
Without grace, they don’t like the gospelThe love and affections are most whorish, light, and wanton. No one god is the natural man’s God. It may be maintained that an unrenewed man does not have one predominant sin, but, indefinitely, sin is his king; and however many sins he has, that’s how many kings (Rom. 5:14; Rom. 6.7–12).
It’s true, pride, covetousness, or some particular sins may come to the throne by turns, as either complexion, strength of corrupt nature, or times bear sway. As Satan is not divided against Satan, so no natural man will be a martyr for a false god, or a predominant lust, in opposition to another known false god, though all may oppose the gospel. The Lord complains of the heart “that playeth the harlot with many lovers” (Jer. 3:1). Heaven and saving grace are indivisible. No one is half in heaven, half in hell. Almost a Christian is no Christian. When Adam fell from the one God, he fell into many inventions, not just one (Eccles. 7:29).
Without grace, they always choose the wrong interpretationPeople think that the supernatural ways of God are just a rumble of thunder in the air, which is a most natural work, merely the ebbing and flowing of the spirit in either natural joy or melancholy, naturally following the complexion of the body. It is grace that puts a right sense on the works of God, as on the Word of God. We are no less heterodox in mis-interpreting the works of God than in putting false and unsound senses on the Word of God. When emerods plague the Philistines, they wonder whether it was chance, or the God of Israel. Moses works miracles, the magicians work miracles, and the Egyptians doubt whether their false god, or the living God that made the heaven and the earth, has wrought the miracles.
When God and nature both work, the natural man, or even saints, to the extent that they are still natural, betake themselves to the nearest god. Sickness comes, and the natural man says, “Neglect of the body, health, the moon, humours, the air, cold weather did it.” He doesn’t look to God. And the believer, guilty of a breach of the sixth commandment in neglecting second causes and in needless hurting the body, doesn’t look at this at all, but foists it all on God working only in a spiritual dispensation. He considers only the dispensation in God, not sin in himself.
Or, mercies grow invisibly, and we don’t see them. We are ready to sleep when mercies are offered. When Christ knocks in love, we are in bed (Cant. 5). Judgements speak in the dark, but we don’t hear. To hear the Lord’s rods, and who hath appointed it, is what the man of wisdom does (Mic. 6:9). There is an orthodox wisdom and will, just as there is an orthodox faith. The will, as well as the mind, can frame syllogisms; every unrenewed man has a faith of his own in the bottom of his will. Some are willingly ignorant (2 Pet. 3); some through deceit refuse to know the Lord (Jer. 9); whereas lusts put out reason, and take the chair. Lust hath powerful logic against Christ; a fleshly mind, vainly puffed up, is a badge of bastard intelligence, which out-reasons all the gospel. O but grace is quick-eyed, sharp, and a clever thing, to see God veiled under the curtain of flesh; to see Christ and heaven through words, and the gospel pregnant with so great a salvation.
The truth about Christ is a blessingLittle wonder that there are divisions about Christ. Some regard the Lord speaking from heaven as thunder; others, as an angel. Christ is the most disputed thing in the world. There are five religions (Matt. 16:13–14), and a range of opinions about Christ. The scribes and Pharisees had many different opinions, and only one in ten of them is the right way. Many said Christ is a prophet (John 7:40); others said this is the Christ (v.41); others no because Christ wouldn’t come out of Galilee (v.41), and there was a division among them (v.43). Christ is for a sign that shall be spoken against (Luke 2:34). Amongst Christs sufferings was that He sustained the contradiction of sinners (Heb. 12:3.) There is only one heaven, and one way to heaven; and there is only one hell, but there are thousands of ways to hell. From one point to another, you can draw only one straight line; but you may draw ten thousand crooked and circular lines. The truth is one, and very narrow; the lie is broad, and very fertile.
It’s a blessed thing to find the wisdom to hit on Christ, and adhere to Him. There are some gamblers and cheats who lie in wait to deceive the simple (Eph. 4:14). They roll the dice for heaven, and they can roll you anything on the dice, whether one, or seven. Resign yourselves therefore, in this plethora of false religions, to Christ, to be led to heaven.
← Twelve things for preachers to preachHow escape leads to endeavour →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Twelve things for preachers to preachOnce people have turned up for a service, preachers have a responsibility to deliver a message which is worth their while hearing. Faced with an assembly of perishing souls on their way to eternity, what can preachers say that won’t just be a wasted opportunity and leave people no better than before? The leading Covenanting preacher John Welch of Irongray (c.1624–1681) was alive to the urgency of the preacher’s task. He caught the note of gravity weighing down Paul’s description of his labours. Labouring consciously under the eye of God, Paul tried to ‘persuade’ his hearers, not of trivial things or of mere moral imperatives or of his own importance, but of things that should really matter to them considering the judgment seat of Christ is ahead of him and them. In the following extract John Welch identifies twelve things which a preacher must aim to persuade his congregation of. If people remain unpersuaded, it shouldn’t be because their pastor never mentioned these things, or never indicated how essential they were.I defy anyone who gets a sight of his need of Christ, and of the excellence that is in Him, and of the recompense of the reward that is laid up for those who love and serve Him, to be a sluggard about his duty, or continue in the neglect of duty.
Paul resolved that his work would be “to persuade men.” What is it that ministers are to persuade people of? The details are not set down in the text, for then it would have run to a great length, so Paul speaks only in general terms. But I find these twelve things mentioned in Scripture, that we as ministers have a commission to persuade you of.
Turn to GodWe are to persuade people to be convinced of sin, and converted to Jesus Christ. We are to persuade the ungodly and profane to turn and live, warning them that if they will not turn, they must burn for ever. “Turn ye, and live! Why will ye die, O house of Israel?” That is one thing we are to persuade you of, that Christ is standing at the door and knocking, and He will take it badly if you refuse to open to Him.
It is a great thing to persuade you of the necessity of conversion, or the new birth, and that unless you are holy, you will never be happy. This is the work of both prophets and apostles. Jeremiah cries, “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings” (Jer. 3:22). Ezekiel says the same, “Turn ye, turn ye and live, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezek. 33:11). Solomon makes this his work also. “Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets: Turn ye at my reproof” (Prov. 1:30, 23). Jesus Christ Himself makes this His work. “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” So did His apostles after Him.
We are to tell and persuade you to set about the work of faith and repentance (Isa. 1:2; Joel 2:12). We have to persuade you to turn to God, and to warn you of your danger if you don’t. This presupposes that every man and woman has their back to God. We come to you who are still strangers to God, and strangers to His Son Jesus Christ, and strangers to the Holy Spirit and the grace of repentance.
What considerations might persuade you?
- Consider that if you will not turn, you will die without grace, faith, repentance, etc. Turn, and you will live, but if not, “ye shall surely die in your iniquities.”
- Consider that if you turn to Him, we assure you in His name, all will be well with you. We tell you, He has a fatted calf for you, robes to put on you — He has all that can make you happy. Friends, you will have a life of it here, and eternal life hereafter.
- Consider that Christ is in good earnest with you. You’ll wrong yourselves, if you don’t accept the offer. In fact, you will perish eternally.
Turn for realThe second thing we are to persuade people to do is to turn in reality. It is not any old sort of turning that will do. Not every kind of turning has the everlasting advantage. Therefore, the Lord commissions His servants to tell you to make the thing sure, so that you don’t deceive yourselves about your turning. You must turn, and turn with all your heart and soul. Set about a thorough repentance.
Embrace Jesus ChristThe third thing that preachers have to persuade folk to do is to embrace Jesus Christ as He is offered to them in the gospel. We are to persuade you to unite with Him, as He has offered Himself to you. This was the work of Isaiah the prophet, Paul the apostle, and indeed of Christ Himself. “I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him.” That is, take Him for a king, prophet, and priest, as He is offered to you.
To persuade you to this, take the following considerations.
- What will you do, if you don’t do this? Don’t you think the day will come when you will wish you had done it? The day will surely come when you will wish you had taken Him up on His offer, even at its worst.
- The terms are easy — so easy that it’s only, “Come and drink.” “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye unto the waters; and he that hath no money, come, buy and eat, without money and without price.” Drink and drink fully. Can you want larger terms than these, “He that is athirst, let him come, and whosoever will, let him come, and take of the water of life freely”?
- Nothing is so acceptable and well-pleasing to God as this. You’ll make many a sad heart by refusing Him, whereas if you receive Him, it will be well-pleasing to many. It will be the most acceptable thing you ever did, for you will please God, angels, and saints. You will only displease Satan and the wicked. Put these two in the balance. Do the one, and please God, angels and saints; do the other, and you only displease the devil and wicked men, and I don’t know if you owe them anything else.
- Consider the disadvantages of refusing Christ, and the advantages of receiving Him. I can tell you, everyone will have their work cut out to get right at death, but some will have more to do than others. I’ll tell you who will have the least to do — those who have been most forward in giving a testimony for the cause of Jesus Christ. They have an open door in heaven to see Jesus.
- Your sin and guilt are great, and so your punishment will also be great, and all the more so, because you have sinned against the remedy provided, and against mercy. Do you think those who have done so will be thought worthy? No, “of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy of, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing?” He that despised Moses’ law, you know, died without mercy; and will you escape? I would not be in the place of those refuse Christ for ten thousand worlds.
Get to know GodFourthly, it is part of our duty as ministers to urge you to make your acquaintance with Jesus Christ. Eliphaz sent the message to Job, “Acquaint now thyself with God, and be at peace; thereby good shall come to thee” (Job 22:21). Acquaint yourselves with His mind in His Word, and receive the law from His mouth. Lay it up in your hearts, labour for wisdom, and with all your getting, get understanding. Ignorance and unbelief are the destruction of fools; therefore it is the minister’s work to press them to get acquainted with God. “Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me” (Isa. 27:5).
If you knew the necessity of being acquainted with God, there would be no need to press or persuade you. When you must meet with Him after death, the business depends on you knowing Him now.
Give yourself up to GodThe fifth thing is to persuade people to devote themselves wholly to God by a covenant relationship, without reservation. This is what Paul professes in verse 15. Those who live should not henceforth “live unto themselves, but unto him …”
The thing we are to persuade you of is to make a real resignation of yourselves, and all you have, to Him, so that He may have the command of you, your relations, and all you have, and even your life also, when he calls for them — so that you may say, “I am not my own; my children, my means, etc, and my very life, if He calls for it, are not my own.” Resign it all to God in a full, free and absolute way. You are engaged to do it by the tie of creation, because you are His creatures. But there is also the tie of redemption, or redeeming love, and this is the strongest tie of all.
Be a ChristianPaul persuaded Agrippa “almost” to be a Christian. The great thing we have to do is to persuade you not only almost, but altogether, to be a Christian
Obey all God’s commandmentsThe seventh thing we have a commission to persuade you of is obedience to all God’s commands. This sums up the whole duty which God requires of man. God requires universal obedience to His revealed will. “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments” (Psa. 119:6).
Be faithful to JesusThe eighth thing is to persuade you to be faithful to Jesus Christ — faithful to His Word, His covenant, His cause, interest, and despised truths.
Expect a cross to carryNinthly, be cheerful under the cross of Christ. The Word says, “Ye shall also reign with him.” That is a fair allowance for suffering.
Make God your delightTenthly, be persuaded not only to do duty under necessity, or by constraint, but make it your delight to serve God. His commands are so far from being grievous that they should be our delight. And yet, do not trust in duty.
Be holy in all your lifeThe eleventh thing to persuade you of is holiness “in all manner of life and conversation.” Be holy in your eating and drinking, your conversations, your buying and selling, and in the whole of your life.
Be clear about Christ’s causeThe last thing we are to persuade men and women to do is to be resolved about the cause of Christ and religion. Do not halt between two opinions. This was what Elijah persuaded the people of Israel of, when he said, “If the Lord be God, follow him, and if Baal, then follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). Ministers should press people to be positive and resolute about the cause of Christ. Christ Himself, when He saw a great multitude following, turned about and said, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” Christ wants folk to be resolute in what they are doing.
In this respect, ministers must tell them to beware of loving the world too much. They must, rather, hate it, and count it unprofitable. There is a good reason for this, because the world is an enemy to religion. Many times, it spoils communion with God and His coming to them, and is a source of many a falling out between Him and His people.
← When sin is a consequence of sinDid you hear that thunder? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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When sin is a consequence of sinWhile the ultimate terror for sinners is the day of judgment itself, there are terrifying things which we can unleash on ourselves during our lives on this earth because of our sin. Sometimes these are the obvious consequences of sinful folly, like having to go short of essentials because we have blown the budget on trivialities. But sometimes indulging in a particular sin leads on to committing worse sin of the same kind, in a way which is its own punishment. For example, wilful ignorance of the truth can lead to someone eagerly embracing pernicious delusion, remaining impervious to any attempts to help them see sense. In an epistle to the Thessalonians Paul refers to this outcome as God’s punishment for that sin (2 Thess. 2:11; another example is in Rom. 1:23–24). We might recognise this as a kind of “poetic justice,” or proverbially, “what goes around comes around.” But the special terribleness of it comes from the fact that it is God’s righteous judgment meted out to individuals personally and for which they remain themselves entirely responsible. Thomas Manton discusses God’s part in the judgment in the following updated extract from his sermon on 2 Thessalonians 2:11. The only way to avoid this terrible, self-inflicted judgment is to heed the gospel call to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth (2 Thess. 2:13–14).By God’s just judgment, those who follow and promote a distortion of the gospel become infatuated in such a way that they swallow the grossest errors, to their own destruction. “For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thess. 2:11).
But here a difficulty arises, for God is not, and cannot be, the author of sin. He who is essentially good cannot be the cause of evil. He who is the avenger of sin cannot be the author of sin. If He were to cause someone to sin, how would His punishment of it be just?
The answer to this difficulty is that, as it is a sin, God has no hand in it; but as it is a punishment of sin, God does have something to do in it.
God judges usHe who is the supreme lord and governor of His creatures is also their judge, for legislation and judgment belong to the same authority. This is why God is sometimes called our king, and sometimes our judge (Gen. 18:25; Rom. 3:5–6).
God’s judgments are either external or internalIn this life, God’s way of judging is either external or internal.
Take, for instance, the two acts of judicature — reward and punishment.
RewardsIn rewarding, God’s external government is seen in dispensing outward blessings to His people, as the fruit of their obedience. ‘Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?’ (Mic. 2:7). His promises yield protection, and maintenance, and such a measure of outward prosperity as supports and maintains them during their service.
Likewise, as to His internal government, He rewards His people’s obedience in giving them peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom. 14:17). ‘Wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace’ (Prov. 3:17).
God also often rewards grace with grace. For example, ‘If thou call the sabbath a delight … then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord’ (Isa. 58:13–4) Similarly, ‘Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart’ (Psa. 31:24). Proficiency in a grace is a reward for the exercise of that same grace.
PunishmentsIt is the same in punishing. Sometimes God uses the way of external government, by the terrible judgments He brings down on people for the breach of His law (Rom. 1:18). Sometimes this is in the way of internal government, by terrors of conscience. Or by punishing sin committed with sin permitted.
For both the godly and the wickedBoth inward and external are seen in punishing both the godly and the wicked.
For instance, in the godly, in the way of external government, ‘when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world’ (1 Cor. 11:32). In the way of internal government, the lesser withdrawings of the Spirit, which God’s people find in themselves after some sins and neglects of grace, are grievous.
But the judgments on the souls of the ungodly are most dreadful. The sinner is either terrified or stupefied — terrified by horrors of conscience (1 Cor. 15:56), or stupefied by being given up to their own hearts’ counsels (Psa. 81:12), left dull and senseless and past feeling (Eph. 4:18).
By horrors of conscience, they are made to feel God’s displeasure at the courses they walk in; but when that is long despised, and they sin on still, then the other and more terrible judgment comes — for, giving a sinner up to his own lusts, and for the sinner to lose all remorse, is the last and sorest judgment on this side of hell.
Internal judgments refer to mind and heartAs to God’s internal judgments, the Scripture chiefly identifies two parts — blindness of mind and hardness of heart. They usually go together.
Blindness of mind is spoken of in John 12:39–40: ‘… He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.’ All the routes by which the Word might enter and work conversion are obstructed, and it was God who laid this punishment of blindness on them.
Hardness of heart is referred to in that famous instance, Exodus 4:21, ‘I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.’
God does not make those who see, blind, nor does He make those who are soft, hard. Rather, He leaves them to their own prejudices, obstinacy, and unpersuadableness, and even then, He does so when highly provoked.
How God is not involved in the judgmentTo understand God’s concurrence as a judge in “sending a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie,” we must not say too much of it, or too little.
We must not say too much of it, lest we leave a stain and blemish on God’s glory. God infuses no sin, no blindness or hardness, into people’s hearts. All influences from heaven are good. He neither conveys deceit into people’s minds directly, nor does He command or persuade people to oppose the truth. Nor does He impel or incite their inward propensities so to do. All this belongs, not to God, but either to man or Satan.
Nor must we say too little. For instance, Scripture does not say that God blinds or hardens by bare prescience or foresight. God foresees other things, and yet they are not ascribed to God. For example, He foresees that people will kill, or steal, or do wrong, and yet God is not said to kill or steal, in the same way as He is said to blind and harden.
Nor does Scripture say that God blinds or hardens only by way of manifestation, as if it was only that in the course of His providence God manifests or declares how blind and hard they have turned out to be. When the saints pray, ‘Lord, harden not our hearts from thy fear’ (Isa. 63:17), they don’t mean, ‘Don’t show the world how hard and blind I am,’ but rather, ‘Cure my hardness of heart; keep back this judgment from me.’
Again, we must not say that all that God does is a bare, naked, and idle permission, as if it happened besides His will and intention, and He had no more to do in it than a man who stands on the shore and sees a ship ready to sink; he could have helped it, but he permitted it. No. There is not a bare permission only, but a permissive intention, and a judicial sentence, which is seconded by an active providence.
Many things concur to the blinding of the mind and hardening of the heart, all which God wills, but justly. The wicked take opportunities of their own accord to blind and harden themselves. Satan tempts out of his own malice. But all this could not be done with effect and success without the will of God. There is a supreme power over-ruling and ordering all that is done in the world.
How God is involved in the judgmentGod’s concurrence may be stated by these things.
Taking away the light of the SpiritGod withdraws or takes away the light and direction of His Holy Spirit (Deut. 29:4). When God lets the ungodly loose to their own hearts’ counsels, then they fall into damnable errors. Like a greyhound sighting a hare, as soon as his collar is taken away, the restraint is gone, and his inbred disposition carries him. So those who are greedy for worldly things are powerfully drawn into the errors of the world, when God takes off the restraint of His grace, and gives them up to their own lusts.
In this, God is not to be blamed, for He is debtor to none, and the grace of His Spirit is forfeited by not receiving the love of the truth. Wilful blindness brings the penalty of blindness; and because people will not see, they shall not see. When they shut their eyes tight against the light of the gospel, it is just of God in this manner to smite them with blindness. Since they had no love to the truth, they are given up to errors and deceits. Because they despise the Holy Scriptures, and dote on vain fables, He permits them to weary themselves with various superstitions.
Giving them up to the power of SatanGod not only deserts them but hands them over. He delivers them up to the power of Satan (2 Cor. 4:4). Satan, as the executioner of God’s curse, works on people’s corrupt nature, and deceives them.
It says in 1 Chronicles 21:1, ‘Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel;’ but it says in 2 Samuel 24:1, ‘The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.’ How do we reconcile these two places? God gave David over to be tempted by Satan — by God as a judge, by Satan as an executioner. There is a similar incident in 1 Kings 22. Temptations to sin come immediately from the devil, but they are governed by God for holy and righteous ends. When they grieve His Spirit, God withdraws and leaves them to the evil spirit, who works by their fleshly and worldly lusts, and those who prefer worldly things before heavenly are easily seduced.
Providing instruments and objectsThere is an active providence which raises the instruments and proposes the objects which, when they meet with a wicked heart, blind it.
The instruments. ‘The deceived and the deceiver are his’ (Job 12:16). Whether in worldly or religious matters, when someone deceives, or is deceived, it is of God. Both are His, not only as His creatures, but as they are subject to the government and disposal of providence as to how and whom they deceive, and how far. For people’s ingratitude, God raises up false prophets to seduce those who delight in lies rather than in the truths of God (Ezek. 14:9).
The objects. Wicked instruments varnish and dress a thing up with all the skill they can to make it a powerful deceit, and then it is befriended and countenanced by the powers of the world, and so it easily prevails with those who are motivated by worldly hopes or fears, and have debauched their conscience by worldly respects.
God says, ‘I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people’ (Jer. 6:21). If we will find the sin, God will find the occasion. If Judas has a mind to sell his Master, he shall not lack peddlers to bargain with him. The priests were consulting to destroy Christ at the same time as the devil put it into Judas’ heart (Matt. 26:3). Birds and fish are easily deceived with just the kind of baits that they greedily catch at. So God by His just vengeance orders such occurrences and occasions that meet with a ready response from a wicked and worldly heart.
← Five things nobody really believesTwelve things for preachers to preach →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Five things nobody really believesThe shape of people’s lives tells you what’s important to them. They must believe that certain things matter, based on where they focus their attention and where they spend their energies. From the little interest they pay to other things, even if they notionally concede their importance, it becomes clear from the absence of any practical impact or consequences in their lives that they don’t really believe in them at all. Over a couple of generations, we have as a society successfully insulated ourselves from meaningful concerns about God and our eternal destiny. In his preaching, the young Covenanting preacher James Renwick points out five things the majority of people simply don’t believe in, as far as anyone can tell from their lives. Yet their failure to reckon with these realities is a terrible mistake. In the following updated extract, Renwick goes on to outline five practical responses that we should be encouraged to make on the basis of really accepting the existence of the one living and true God and the availability of salvation.Five realities we disregardBeloved, there are five things that are little believed by the most part of this generation.
GodThe first thing that is little believed by the world is the being of a God. This is apparent by the little fear of God that is in the land. O, if you knew and believed the being of a God, you would certainly fear Him more!
HeavenThe second thing that is little believed by the most part of this generation is that there is a heaven, a place of rest for the souls of the godly. If they did, there would be more labour and diligence to get it for their dwelling place, and there would be more holiness in you, and hungering after it, so that you would enjoy the pleasant inheritance that is above, where the service of God cannot be interrupted and marred by spiritual or temporal enemies, as it is often here below.
HellThe third thing that is little believed by the most part of the world is that there is a hell, a place of torment, where the souls of the wicked go to after death, even a place of endless torment where there is no mitigation of the pain for evermore.
O friends! If this were believed, people would make much more effort to avoid this place. You would not carry on entertaining idols in your hearts as you do. You would not comply with the sinful courses of the time as you do. There would not be such a compliance with these slaves of the enemy, neither would there be such a running in to them, if you believed that there was such a place as hell, where all impenitent sinners must receive what their sins justly deserve through all eternity.
DeathThe fourth thing that is not seriously believed by this generation is the certainty of death. Of course we all say that we believe we will die! but it is only with a natural or rational faith. But if serious thoughts of this possessed our hearts, we would be more in believing it, and more preparing for it.
O friends! Live well, and labour to die well, for after death there is no repentance; there is no turning to God in the grave, for as the tree falls, so it must lie to eternity. O friends! strive to get a right sight of this.
JudgmentThe fifth thing that is little believed by the most part of this generation is the certainty of judgment. O friends! believe that you must appear before the tribunal of God, who is, and will be, a just and terrible judge. Consider that when you come there, you will be either justified or condemned there, and no excuses will admitted, neither will there be any oversight in the matters handled there, but all will be done justly.
Oh, labour then to be ready to meet with God in mercy, and with joy in that day of accounts! There are some, I believe, to whom it will be a day of joy, and a merciful meeting. But there are others, even the wicked and reprobate, to whom this will be a terrible day. Oh! Oh! it will be a sad and dreadful day to all of them, but, oh! it will be a pleasant day to all true believers, and those who are in Christ Jesus.
Five responses we should haveIn reality, it is those who are in covenant with Christ who have nothing to fear on the day of judgment. How can we respond to this truth?
Reckon with realityO friends, take instruction! Labour to attain to faith in this, that all the promises in the Bible, and all the privileges of heaven, shall be fulfilled to you at the day of judgment, if you are a believer. In that day, when the book shall be opened, and all things shall appear as they are, naked and bare before Him, and when the judge shall sit, and give out sentence, then the experience of believers will be that they reap the advantages of all these privileges, to their everlasting comfort for evermore.
Accept the invitation to come to JesusCome and enter into covenant with Christ. You will find that all I’ve been telling you about is true! If you have already come to Christ, be encouraged to think that the day of judgment will be a joy to you. If you have not yet come, be entreated to come and embrace Jesus Christ, on His own terms, as He is offered to you in the gospel, and all shall be well! I earnestly beg you, by all the joys in heaven, and all the torments in hell, to come and embrace Him. Come and take Him to be your God, and offer yourselves away to Him to become His people.
Be realisticIt’s at the last day that all shadows will vanish away. Take note though, and be firmly persuaded, that never till then will they be gone. Till then, the flesh will war against the spirit, and an unrenewed part will remain in you till then. So you must learn to submit to His will in this, that you will continue to have clouds and shadows, as well as sunshine and good weather.
Be encouragedAll the godly may be encouraged in this. For, at that day, all shadows shall be gone, all your sufferings and sorrows, and even your sinning, shall have an end. In that day, faith shall dissolve into fruition, and hope into possession, and love, that ambitious grace, shall be the believer’s companion for ever, even to all the ages of eternity.
Take comfortAll God’s people who are in trouble and difficulties for Him and His cause can take comfort. Comfort yourselves with the fact that this day is coming, and fast approaching, when all these shadows shall flee away, and you shall be made more than conquerors in Christ, through Him who has loved you.
← Where is the progress?When sin is a consequence of sin →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Where is the progress?Our moment in history is not marked for its optimism or positivity. Commentators on a range of cultural phenomena and from across the social spectrum discuss how things are only getting worse. Wherever we look, public services, consumer affairs, the creative industries, there is a sense that standards are in decline and have been for decades. Even upheavals in the political domain are less a sign of insightful new plans for workable improvement in people’s lives than a risk-taking turn to extremes born of a sense that there is nothing much really left to lose. Embittering the disappointment is the failure of our society’s myth that things are on an upward trajectory and can only get better. Even as Christians, we are often tempted to resentment and ask angrily why we have to put up with this when things were never this bad in the past. Without necessarily doubting that things have got worse over time, Alexander Nisbet reflects on why Ecclesiastes teaches us not to start asking, “What is the cause that the former days were better than these?” (Ecclesiastes 7:10) Misery comes from sin, and difficulties are an opportunity to depend more fully on the Lord. Redemption in Christ Jesus provides us with a hope for the world to come that lasts through and beyond the miseries and disappointments of this world. In the following updated extract, Nisbet urges us to avoid the response of frustration with our circumstances in providence and to take God’s way of contentment through self-abasement and heavenly wisdom.The main aim of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes 7 is to reveal more about the way to true happiness and contentment, and to point out some remedies to the vexations which are incident to this life.
The question not to askIn verses 9–10, the Preacher dissuades us from two things which are far contrary to the grace of patience. “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.”
The Preacher warns us against the very first sudden motions of anger or revenge against oppressors and the instruments of trouble (v.9). To have anger “resting” or being cherished in the heart is the habitual and allowed frame of those who are void of the saving knowledge of Christ. They are the ones who cherish angry feelings, and think over in detail all the ways they have been wronged, and feed on the contemplations of possible ways of revenge. They have no reluctance or grief about such a vengeful spirit, whereas, although a child of God may be assaulted with the impulse to revenge, yet he gives these impulses no permission to rest peaceably in his heart.
The Preacher warns us also against sinful quarrelling against the Lord for apparently making times more troublesome, and burdens heavier, than they used to be. This only indicates ignorance of the true state of times, foolish presumption in finding fault with His wisdom, and unbelief of his sovereignty. “Say not thou, ‘What is the cause that the former days were better than these?’ for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.”
The present may well be worse than the pastThis is not to be understood as if the present times were not often worse than the former, in many respects. That is in fact foretold (Matt. 24:12; 2 Tim. 3:1).
Nor does it mean that the Lord’s people are not permitted to search into what sins may have been the procuring causes of the change for the worse, or to bewail the defections or miseries of these changes, seeing both these are duties (e.g., Lam. 3:40).
Instead, it means that we should not quarrel with God’s providence for casting our lot in more troublesome times, and under more grievous oppressions, than there have been formerly, as if there were no cause why people should submit to a change of times from better to worse.
The Spirit of the Lord does not here give particular reasons for such changes, because there are many reasons in Scripture, sufficiently obvious to satisfy us on this point. Only He prohibits and rebukes the boldness of the question, and gives, as a general reason to dissuade us, the fact that these inquiries flow from people’s ignorance of the sovereignty and wisdom of the Lord, who works all things for His own glory, and the good of His people.
Providence is not something we can quarrel withThe Lord’s people have a duty to search out the sinful causes which provoke the Lord to change times to the worse, and the wise reasons He has for so doing, and to bewail that our later times have far degenerated from the purity and holiness of former days. Yet it is a great sin to quarrel with providence, or to inquire concerning this matter with a spirit that is fretting and malcontent, as if it were not well ordered by divine providence that we should not have as much peace and prosperity, and as great freedom from outward trouble, as those who were before us.
Fretting against our times is not a sign of wisdomTo the extent that we fret and repine about how the present times are worse than the former, to that extent we are lacking the heavenly wisdom which teaches those who have it to adore the righteousness of God in all the arrangements He makes, even though they do not see the particular reasons of them. “Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee …” (Jer. 12:1
This heavenly wisdom often leads them to satisfying reasons, clearly held forth in Scripture. For example, God in His wisdom takes steps sometimes to discover people’s perversity, which at other times He sees fit to restrain. Sometimes He uses grievous trials to promote the faith, patience, and other graces of His people, graces which at other times He promotes without such trials.
So that this quarrelling with the Lord indicates great presumption, flowing from ignorance of the true state of both the present and former times. This leads them not to consider the good of the present times, which often as far exceeds the good of the former as the evils and troubles of the present times exceed those of the former. “Thou dost not inquire wisely (or, as it is in the original, “by wisdom”) concerning this matter.”
The way to contentmentHolinessHe commends having high esteem with God, and good report from others, founded on grace and true holiness. This is better than the most precious things in the world, in which most people place their happiness. “A good name is better than precious ointment” (v.1).
Soft-heartednessHe praises the soft and tender frame of heart which the sanctified consideration of death begets in the soul, beyond the worldly mirth and joy which is ordinarily expressed by laughter (vv.1–4).
SensitivityHe commends humble submission to the serious and wise rebukes of those who (whether in a public or private capacity) have a call from God to point out the evil, danger and remedy of sin. This is better than glorying in your own sins, or in the flattery of others in their sins (v.5), because whatever joy or pleasure you may have in following sinful ways, or flattering yourselves or being applauded by others in your sinful ways, it is not long-lived (v.6).
PatienceHe commends the grace of patience under the most grievous pressures and injuries the saints may meet with, in and from the world, as a great furtherance toward true happiness (vv.7–10).
WisdomHe praises saving wisdom because of its excellent effects or advantages (vv.11–12).
He directs us to the right way to make use of the Lord’s dispensations (vv.12–21).
- Consider that God brings things about contrary to our will and designs of obtaining happiness, and we cannot by our wit and power alter or twist His workings to serve our imaginary goal of finding true happiness in created things (v.13).
- In prosperity we should rejoice with thanksgiving. Meanwhile, in adversity, we should consider seriously what has procured it, God’s purpose in it, and our duty under it (v.14).
- We should not arrogantly think that we have such a superlative righteousness and wisdom that we can criticise the works of God for not being wise or fair, as if we could manage them better (v.16); neither should we give or sell ourselves to impiety in a time of prosperity (v.17).
- Those whose guiding principle is the true fear of God shall have a sure and sweet deliverance from all their sufferings and temptations (even though, as to their outward circumstances, they fall before the wicked) (v.18).
This leads the Preacher again to commend spiritual wisdom, partly because of its blessed effect (in that it satisfies the person against the trials and temptations mentioned, beyond any human help or strength, v.19), and partly because people are so ready to go wrong without this saving wisdom, even when they are both imputatively and inherently “just”, v.20).
The Preacher recommends that people would not be very inquisitive to hear or know, much less revengefully resent what evil others rashly speak of them (v.21). Such inquisitive inquiries and revengeful resentments may not only readily meet with undesired and unexpected railings and revilings from those of their own household (v.21), but people may also be conscious to themselves that they themselves have spoken rashly and heatedly against others (v.22).
← Eight barriers to unityFive things nobody really believes →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Eight barriers to unityChristians, separated as they are from one another across a variety of denominations and splinter groups, nevertheless generally agree that more unity would be a good thing. While we value the spiritual oneness we have in Christ irrespective of different labels and groupings, Scripture is clear that this spiritual oneness should be reflected in visible oneness. We have to concede that divisions in the church not only harm our gospel witness to the world, they also hinder everyone’s spiritual progress and, even worse, disregard God’s requirement that His people should be one. So why does disunity persist? In a recent publication, James Durham identifies eight things that act as temptations to excuse or justify our ongoing separation from our brothers and sisters. James Durham’s work on church divisions is newly available in a fresh edition from Reformation Heritage Books, The Scandal of Church Divisions: Healing the Wounds of Schism.When people are tempted to perpetuate divisions, what are the various factors which might make the temptation stronger and harder to resist, especially for ministers and elders?
Zeal for God Masking the Desire for a ReputationOnce people are invested in a cause, and their own reputation is at stake for taking sides, then their heatedness and tenaciousness can express itself under other appearances, perhaps under cover of zeal for God’s honor, or respect for the reputation of the ministry and the ordinances. It may not seem to be any personal credit or respect that motivates them but zeal and respect for the Master, as is insinuated when the disciples sought to be avenged by fire from heaven on the place that would not receive Christ (Luke 9:54), and also when they forbade some to cast out devils, even in Christ’s name, because they thought it was not for Christ’s honor (Luke 9:49).
Firm Conviction of the Rightness of Their CauseThe temptation to persist in a division is often accompanied with great confidence about the justness and equity of their own side and about the unreasonableness of their adversaries. There may be in part some good ground for this, where the controversy is some doubtful, disputable thing. How great confidence both Job and his friends had in their debate! Both sides frequently express the desire that God would decide the matter (confident that God would take their side), when in reality God did not fully approve of either of them in either matter or manner. Sometimes also there may be a persuasion which one side finds very satisfying, when yet it is not from God. This was likely how it was on both sides in Galatia, even when they were biting and devouring one another (Gal. 5:8). For we often find in experience that once a disputable thing has been argued about over a period of time, it will become palpably clear and altogether necessary to those who have argued for it. Commitment to the cause bribes the light and perverts even the wisdom of the just. Hence we see that the longer someone argues for something, the more confident they become about it, because his own arguments secretly prevail more with himself than reasons proposed by any others to the contrary can.
Believing the Matter to Be Necessary and ImportantThere is a strength in the temptation to continue in a division when the matter under dispute is not only thought to be just but also necessary and of great importance.
Circumstantial truths are presented as necessaryA question over the most circumstantial truth (if we may speak so) can be regarded as necessary and a thing that cannot be quit. Even those on the side of the error will talk up the controversy as if it were a high point of Christianity. Among the early church fathers, those who maintained the millenarian opinion, and Christ’s personal reign, thought it a point of high concernment. Justin Martyr even said that anyone who thinks differently is no Christian. In later, popish writers, we see how strenuously they argue for the necessity of things like holy anointing oil. The apparent weightiness of such things gives people the impression that they are foundational points of Christianity.
Claims about the good of the church are inflatedIf the dispute is over a matter of fact or a question of government, people think it is so important for the good of the church that they cannot back down without being accessory to the corruption and hurt of the church, or complicit in undermining the church’s authority. Hence the faults and consequences of the other side are so often exaggerated, and canons and constitutions are alleged to be broken, as we may see (among other instances) in the debate between Rome and Constantinople over who should have precedence before Antichrist was revealed, one claiming to have the support of an act of the Council of Nicea, the other an act of the Council of Chalcedon, and Rome claiming to have Saint Peter on their side, and the good of the universal church.
Faults on the other side are exaggeratedIf it is a dispute about personalities, such as who is to be acknowledged bishop or minister, or who has been lawfully ordained or deposed, etc., then those on the other side are conceived to be notoriously heinous, and those on the side they support are believed to be incomparably gifted and eminent. No wonder, then, that they make their point so vehemently, because they believe that so much of the good or evil of the church depends on the admission of these men to office and the rejection of the others. This flows inadvertently from the former differences, because when one side are confident that they themselves are right on such an important point, they necessarily must think that those on the other side are wrong and unspiritual. The hotter the opposition grows, the more they think each other the more inexcusably obstinate.
By this they are also disposed to hear and receive reports and misinformation about their opponents. They end up honestly believing that they are outrageously wrong in every possible way, including in their motives and intentions. The differences that arose first between Luther and Karlstadt, and afterward between Luther and his followers on the one side, and Zwingli, Calvin, and others on the other side, fully demonstrate this. How little these beginnings were at first! And yet even the smallest differences were exaggerated, and the persons on either side were misrepresented, even before these differences came to the height which they did. We may observe also that making such mistakes about people and their actions, and the bitterness that follows, is most ordinarily discernible to be on the side where, in all conscience and fairness, there is least to be said in its defense.
Believing You Have Pure MotivesAdd to these factors people’s conviction that their motives are honest and sincere. They are not aiming for any goal that is actually corrupt, nor do they entertain or approve any palpable dissimulation in their professions. But as they have some confidence of the rightness of their side, so they may regard it as a testimony to their sincerity of heart to maintain their cause. Great strength in the temptation to continue division lies here. For when you believe in your own sincerity and integrity, and, it may be, you have access to God, and liberty to pray, even in reference to such things, it is not easy to stop yourself in that way. And yet it cannot be thought but that among the instances of such divisions as we have given, people on both sides had an honest end and aim and did pray and had access in prayer. Indeed, there is no question but that many of them on both sides would go to heaven with such differences, for they continued zealous in their divisions, even to death. Nor should we find this strange, for the best know only in part and are liable to make mistakes, and their zeal and sincerity are squared according to their knowledge. It was such zeal (that is, not according to knowledge) that made Paul and others, with a kind of sincerity, persecute the church; therefore, proportionally, there may be zeal and sincerity in lesser things when there is ignorance of them.
Fear of Losing Face by RelentingCommitting yourself to taking sides strengthens the temptation to perpetuate the division, because by backing down afterward, it leaves you open to criticism for being so hasty to start with, and your ministry loses impact in other ways, and your followers, who possibly may be more tenacious and zealous than yourself, may be irritated and provoked. These things then look more damaging, even to the work of the gospel, than continuing divided. It is written of Luther that in discussion with Melanchthon and others toward the end of his life, he acknowledged to them that he had been too vehement and peremptory in his writings on the Lord’s Supper. When they urged him then to publish something to this effect, he replied that he was afraid to do so in case it would diminish the authority and weight of other controversies he had appeared in for God, so he declined to do it, although he did allow Melanchthon, after his death, to do about it as he thought fit.
Fear of Losing Credibility in Other AreasSometimes also, the temptation to continue in a division is strengthened by fear of bringing bad consequences on those who side with them. For example, if they make too many concessions in such and such particulars for union, they might make themselves and their cause odious to others who possibly had more respectful thoughts of them because of the stance they took in such things. Luther is said to have given this as a main reason why he kept up the difference over the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and would not unite with Calvin and others over it. Calvin’s views were generally more hated than Luther’s theory of consubstantiation, and Luther was afraid that uniting would leave the princes and others more open to malice and hatred.
Looking at the Failings of the Other SideIt strengthens the temptation to continue a division when people do not look at the difference simply in itself but comparatively with respect to the principles and behavior of their opponents. By considering things that are displeasing in them and their way, they are made the more tenacious and brought to justify themselves the more. Hence it is in such divisions that the great stress of debates lies in aspersions and accusations, recriminations and counter-recriminations, as if the only vindicating argument was, “The other side are wrong in so many things about their behavior, therefore our way must be right,” or, “therefore we have good reason to divide from them.” Almost necessarily, such recriminations are used in debates where the matter is not of such momentousness and clarity, as in the debates we have mentioned between Jerome and Rufinus, where there was no dispute on either side but recriminations on both. The same thing can be seen in the accusations of the Donatists.
Expecting the Other Side to Concede FirstIn such differences also, each side is ready to think that the other should and will concede to them and will not risk division on so little a thing. Hence, many have been drawn on to division from small beginnings, which they would not have yielded to if they had known what the consequences would be, or if they had not expected that the other side would have yielded. When this expectation is not met, their commitment to their own side becomes stronger, and the division more irreconcilable. It was remarked of Victor that he would not have been so peremptory in the controversy about when to hold Easter, if he had not assumed that the other side would have yielded.
For a more extended discussion on the theme of church unity, a recommended resource is James Durham’s insightful and practical book, The Scandal of Church Divisions: Healing the Wounds of Schism, published by Reformation Heritage Books.
← This is how we know we knowWhere is the progress? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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This is how we know we knowOf all the places to turn for cold hard facts and undeniable reality, theology might seem the least likely. Yet science and technology, which some few decades ago were regarded as indisputably reliable, have not only let us down but, especially with the advent of AI, also make increasing numbers of people question what even is reality. Generations of scepticism about the reliability of the Bible have only cycled us through the failures of other competing sources of knowledge, and have not brought us to any better clarity or wisdom. Hugh Binning, the gifted Glasgow philosopher turned pastor, identified God as the one great reality. Furthermore, when God makes Himself known in the Bible His revelation is both reliable and, as Binning points out, relational. It’s not only that we can arrive at genuine certainty about God (and ourselves, and the way of salvation). It’s also that this knowledge draws out a response of devotion to God which expresses itself in very practical ways. Too much of theology as practiced by theologians is, Binning hints, abstract and irrelevant. The real point of finally recognising reality is not to congratulate ourselves on our new-found certainty but to consecrate ourselves to God. Binning explains more in the following updated extract from a sermon on 1 John 2:3.The apostle John says that the designation of a true Christian is the knowledge of God, and the designation of true knowledge is obedience to His commands. “Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3).
We should labour to bring our light to the lamp of the Word, and our knowledge to this testimony of unquestionable authority. When we have recourse to “the law and the testimony,” then we will find out if there is light in us, or as much light as people think they see. If we could only open our eyes to the shining light of the Scriptures, we would be able to see that much of the so-called light of this age is darkness and ignorance. I don’t mean only the errors that come out under the guise of “new light,” but especially the ordinary familiarity with the truth of the gospel, which, in comparison with the true metal of the knowledge of God, has been badly contaminated by the mixture of the gross darkness of our affections and lifestyle.
“Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.” Here then, in a narrow circle, we have all the work and business of a Christian. Our direct and principal duty is to know God and keep His commandments — which are not two distinct duties, but make up the one complete work of Christianity, which consists in conformity to God. Then the reflex and secondary duty of a Christian, which makes for his comfort, is to know that he knows God. To know God and keep His commands is a thing of indispensable necessity to the very being of a Christian. To know that we know Him is of great concernment to the comfort and well-being of a Christian. Without the first, you are as miserable as you can be without the sense and feeling of misery, because you lack the spring of all happiness. Without the second, a Christian is unhappy, for the present, though he may not be called miserable, because he is more happy than he realises, and only unhappy because he does not know his happiness.
Christians really know the real GodKnowledge is so natural to the human spirit that the desire for it is restless and insatiable. But since the fall, knowledge has taken a journey far from human nature and has not left any footprints behind it to be found out again. This is the case even in the things that are most obvious to our senses, but our darkness is much more increased in spiritual things, because of the dullness and earthliness of our spirits. God Himself should be the primum intelligible of the soul (the first and principal object, whose glorious light should first strike into our hearts), yet Job testifies, “How little a portion is known of him!”
In natural things, we have one veil of darkness in our minds to hinder us, but in the things of God, we have a twofold darkness to break through — the darkness of ignorance in us, and “the darkness of too much light” in Him, which makes Him as inaccessible to us as the other.
This is why those holy ones who know most of God think they know the least, because they see more to be known, but infinitely surpassing knowledge. Pride is the daughter of ignorance, for he who does not know his own ignorance, supposing he knows ever so much, is the greatest ignoramus.
Knowing reality has definite effectsThe true knowledge of God does not consist so much in grasping points of theology, as in a serious grasp and conception of the divine majesty which kindles into flame the two affections of love and hatred toward their proper objects. It is a knowledge that carries the torch before the affection — a light that shines into the heart and transmits warmth into it until it burns in the love of God and the loathing of oneself.
As long as you only hear of God in sermons, or read of Him in books, you can maintain a good opinion of yourself, and your knowledge only “puffs you up” in vanity. Ordinarily, those who doubt least are not the ones most free from error and misunderstandings. And when you seriously reflect on the difficulty of knowledge, and the darkness of our minds, and the general curse of vanity and vexation on everything (so that what is lacking cannot be numbered, nor what is crooked made straight), then you can’t help seeing the dangers of excessive confidence on a par with a race being run at full speed on a dark night on a track full of pits and snares. Our level of confidence too often flows not from the evidence of truth, but from the ignorance of our minds; it is built not so much on the strength of reason as the strength of our emotions and the weakness of our judgment.
But if ever you come to see God and know Him in a living manner, then you see your own weakness and vileness in that light, and you cry out, like Isaiah, “Woe is me! I am a man of polluted lips!” Then you discern in that light the beauty and loveliness of God, and it ravishes your heart after it. Then, as Jeremiah says, you will not glory in riches, or strength, or beauty, or wisdom, but only in this, that you have at last got some sight of the only fountain of happiness. Then you don’t think so much of tongues and prophesyings and knowledge of controversies — gifts of body or mind, or the external appendages of providence, don’t much affect you. You would be content to trample on all of these to get into a fuller discovery and enjoyment of God Himself.
If we search the Scriptures, we find that they do not entertain us with many and subtle discourses on God’s nature or decrees or properties; nor do they spend much time on the many perplexed questions that are raised about Christ and His offices, about which so many volumes are churned out, to the infinite distraction of the Christian world. The Scriptures do not claim to satisfy your curiosity, but to edify your soul. That’s why they display God in Christ, clothed with all His relations to mankind, in all those plain and easy properties, which concern us everlastingly — His justice, mercy, grace, patience, love, holiness, and suchlike.
From this I gather that the true knowledge of God does not consist in comprehending all the conclusions that are deduced and controversies that are discussed, but rather in the serious and solid grasp of God as He relates to us, and consequently in order and with reference to our hearts being moved to love, and adore, and reverence Him. Scripture holds Him out to us only in those garments that are fit to move and affect our hearts.
It is possible for someone to know all these things, and yet not know God Himself, for knowing Him cannot be abstracted from loving Him. ‘They that know thy name will trust in thee,’ and so love thee and fear thee. For it is impossible but that this will be the natural result, if only He is known in reality, because there is nothing more attractive (and at the same time more terrible) and more eligible and worthy of our choice. Infinite beauty and goodness, and infinite power and greatness, and infinite sufficiency and fullness, are combined together with infinite truth, and so the soul that really grasps Him at all cannot but grasp Him as the most ravishing, and the most to be revered too. If someone doesn’t find their soul appropriately affected, it is a clear demonstration that they don’t really grasp God, but only an idol. The infinite Light, and the infinite Life, are simply one, and anyone who sees the one cannot but be warmed and moved by the other.
Real knowing leads to practical obedienceBut everyone claims that they know God! The self-love in people’s hearts is such that it makes them blind in judging themselves. Therefore, the Holy Spirit not only designates a Christian by the knowledge of God, but also characterises knowledge by keeping the commandments. “Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.”
So religion is not defined by a number of opinions, or by a collection of articles of faith, but rather by practice and obedience to the known will of God. This is because knowledge is a duty in relation to something else — it is instrumental to something else — it is not principally intended for itself, but for obedience.
Some things that we study are entirely theoretical; others are practical. Perhaps some may think that Scripture, or theology, is mainly theoretical, as there are so many mysteries enfolded in it which don’t seem to concern our practice in any way. I accept that much that is drawn from the Scriptures is like that, but I rather think that all that is in the Scriptures themselves has the practice of God’s will as its objective, either directly or eventually. Either it prescribes our obedience, or else it engages our affections and secures our obedience. Those exalted discourses about God, His nature and properties, His works and the mysteries included in them, are all directed towards this end — further than the mere knowing of them, engaging the heart of a believer to more love and reverence and adoration of God, so that he may be brought more easily to a sweet compliance and harmonious agreement with the will of God in all His ways.
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Remembering atrocities with purposeTimes of relative peace for God’s people are always eventually broken by the hostility of evil forces and people who, one way or another, would prefer no trace of God’s presence and promises to exist. God’s people, until Jesus came, were more or less identified with the people of Israel. Now that Jesus has come, God’s people are defined in spiritual rather than ethnic terms (Philippians 3:3), yet as Christians we still owe ethnic Israel our respect and gratitude (Romans 3:2) and our love (Romans 11:28). When the wicked forces of barbarism attack, as happened on 7 October 2023, we recognise the ages-old struggle of evil against the word and work of God and we react with horror against the brutality and savagery inflicted on Jewish people simply for being Jews. We denounce the increasing incidence of appalling anti-Semitic attitudes and actual violence, even in the UK, as seen in the recent deadly attack at a Manchester synagogue. Many of the Psalms memorialise previous similar incidents in history and provide a framework for us to bear witness to the atrocity while appealing to God for help, both in the sense of bringing justice and deliverance from evil and also help to become more devoted to God and godliness. In the following updated extract from his commentary on the Psalms, the Covenanter David Dickson (who knew that Christians can also be the subjects of barbaric and unreasoned persecution) takes us through Psalm 74, a psalm of lamentation and appeal arising in the aftermath of enemy attack.There are three parts to Psalm 74. The first is the pitiful lamentation presented to God because of the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple by the Chaldeans (v.1–11). Next is the strengthening of the faith and hope of God’s people, that God would send a deliverance (v.12–18). In the third, there are various petitions for the relief of His people, the restitution of His own work, and the suppression of His enemies (v.19–23).
Lamenting towards GodThe psalm opens in v.1–2 with lamentation and prayer for relief in general. In all judgements, inflicted by whatsoever instruments, the Lord’s people must look first to God. Even when wrath, and fear of utter wrath, stare them in the face, they must make their appeal to God, however angry He seems to be.
The Lord does not want His people to yield to oppressive thoughts of being “cast off”. Instead, He allows us to question everything that might hint at this, and to debate that point with him, and not to endure it. We are permitted to say, “Why hast thou cast us off for ever?”
Although by our sins we have provoked the Lord to fall upon us, as if we were His enemies, yet we must not quit the least connection we have with Him, not even the external covenant. Instead we must make use of it for supporting of our faith in Him. Here, they call themselves “the sheep of thy pasture,” reminding Him that He has taken on the care of them, as a shepherd over his flock. Whatever the Lord does to His people, they must pray to Him, and make use of all the ties that bind Him and them. “Remember thy congregation,” they pray, “which thou hast purchased” by price and conquest, and “of old,” from a long time ago. He has measured them out, and they are His inheritance, not to dispose of or put away (“the rod of thine inheritance”). They remind Him that He has granted them deliverances out of terrible trouble before (“which thou hast redeemed”), and that He had taken up residence among them in His public ordinances (“this Mount Sion, wherein thou hast dwelt”).
Testifying against the enemyAmong all the calamities of Gods people, nothing afflicts them so much as the insolent profanation of the worship and name of God among them. In the first petition of their prayer (v.3), they lament how the enemies have spoiled the temple, and dwell most insistently on this, “Even all that the enemies have done wickedly in the sanctuary.”
When the wicked are let loose on God’s people, they are most insolent, cruel and savage in how they treat them. “Thy enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations” (v.4). It is not enough for these enemies to insult God’s people, but they will insult their way of religion, and the God whom they worship. “They set up their ensigns” (v.4), displaying their banners on the ruins of God’s temple, as signs of their victory over that religion which is professed there, and over God’s worship there.
When the Lord is provoked by His people’s evil behaviour towards Him, it is only justice if He permits them to be maltreated by enemies. Yet the Lord’s purpose is only to correct His people, by letting them see the sinfulness of how they have provoked Him. The enemies whom He uses as instruments in their correction, however, have in mind their utter destruction. They want them rooted out of the world. “They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them” (v.8).
Praying for justice to be doneOur patience is much shorter than God’s long-suffering and forbearance. The suffering people here ask, “O God, how long shall the adversary reproach?” (v.10), when with God it is not yet time to act against them.
Yet the Lord’s long-suffering patience greatly hardens the adversaries in their insolent mocking of God’s people.
The godly can endure their own troubles better than they can bear the open dishonouring and blaspheming of God which arises out of their trouble. “Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?”
Worldly wisdom may imagine that God is idle when He permits His enemies to trample on His people and on His glorious name. Yet faith will not admit of such a thought, but goes and appeals to God by prayer to let His strength and power be displayed, so that the world will not think that He is keeping His hands in His pockets. “Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? Pluck it out of thy bosom.”
Fortifying faith and hope in GodRelations between God and His people (especially the fact that He has made Himself their “king,” v.12), are pledges that God defends His kingdom and His injured subjects, and punishes His enemies. And the more time has passed since God avowed Himself king of His church (“God is my king of old”), the more confident later generations may be to find new evidences of His royal actions for them and against their enemies.
New troubles must not make us forget old mercies. Instead, we should call them to memory, to make use of them afresh as pledges that what He has done before, He will do again. The deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, and the destruction of the Egyptians, is a pledge to God’s people in every subsequent age that God will destroy their enemies, however strong and terrible they may be, and will deliver His church (v.13–15).
Faith is so thrifty that it will not even let the works of creation and common providence pass by, without making use of them (day and night, light and darkness, summer and winter, v.16–17).
Redoubling prayer for deliveranceAlthough sins, and especially the persecution of God’s people and blasphemy against God, are not punished immediately, yet they shall not be forgiven. “Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord” (v.18). All sins, and especially blasphemy against God’s name, are aggravated by the folly of the sinner, and the excellency of God (“Remember that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name,” v.18).
In comparison with her many and strong enemies, the church of God is like a solitary, weak, desolate turtle-dove, harmless, meek, lowly, patient in desolation, easing her grief by sighing, and exposed to a multitude of ravenous birds. “O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of the wicked!” (v.19).
Yet however weak the church is, and however many and strong the enemies are, they all cannot all devour the church, unless the Lord were to deliver them over into their hands. Against which the church may confidently pray, “O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of the wicked!” for He has given His people wings, and a hiding place too, to use.
Although the Lord’s people deserve to be excluded many times over from the covenant of grace, yet the Lord will never debar them from their right to it, when in their need they draw near to Him and plead for the benefit of it, “Have respect to the covenant” (v.20).
Places which lack the light of the Lord’s presence in His ordinances are dark and uncomfortable places, where it is no less dangerous for the people of God to remain than for sheep to be in the midst of the dens of cruel lions and ravenous beasts. When God casts His people into such places, there is much need to make use of God’s covenant for preservation.
When supplicants come to God, especially when over-loaded with troubles, they shall find comfort, and shall not be disappointed (v.21). The sense of need and emptiness is the best disposition for prayer, and the best preparation for praises also. Those who are poor in their prayers shall be rich in their praises. “Let the poor and needy praise thy name” (v.21).
Remembering who will win in the endThe church’s cause is the Lord’s cause. The wicked do not malign the godly for their sins, but for their righteousness, and so the quarrel is the Lord’s. He will and must maintain her, even if He seems to sit still a while. “Arise, O Lord, plead thine owne cause” (v.22).
The Lord’s enemies are all foolish people; for they beat out their brains on the church’s bulwark. Because the Lord holds off from responding for a time, they go on to blaspheme Him daily to His face, but they shall find at length that God has all their reproaches on record. “Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily” (v.22).
Every sin is fearful, and especially enmity against God and His church. But openly glorying in it is worse, and God will take knowledge of this, and punish it. “Forget not the voice of thine enemies” (v.23).
Sin, and especially persecution gloried in, grows daily more and more. Yet the growing of sin, and especially of persecution, only hastens the deliverance of the godly, and the destruction of the enemies. “The tumult of those that arise against thee increaseth continually” (v.23).
← Why we need Christians as well as Christian valuesFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Why we need Christians as well as Christian valuesVoices on the political right-wing have become louder recently in calling for more respect to be given to Christian values. This is positive as far as it goes, although God is not there to be co-opted into any political cause whether left or right wing, and using Christian words and imagery must be more than virtue-signalling. “Christian values” are not some nebulous form of niceness which coincides with nostalgia for a less complicated Britain of some decades back. The real value of “Christian values” appears when distinctively Christian truths are lived out in a distinctively Christian lifestyle, i.e., when devotion to the one living and true God expresses itself in the pursuit of godly living. It is when Christians are flourishing in godliness that the nation will be able to see real benefits in both the temporal (political, financial, social) and spiritual domains. This point was made by John Collins (1632?–1687), a fellow of Harvard who was appointed to preach in Scotland in the 1650s before pastoring in London (when he was ejected in 1662, he preached a powerful farewell sermon which was later published). In the following updated abridgement of a sermon on Isaiah 6:13, Collins draws on the metaphor in Isaiah’s prophecy which pictures a nation as a tree, and the Lord’s people in it as its solid trunk.What kind of people count as Christians?The really righteous of a nation are, under God, the strength of it — I mean those who have these features.
As far as doctrine goes, they keep to the only foundation which God has laid, the Lord Jesus Christ. They hold as much truth as is ncessary to the life of faith and power of godliness, and maintain no false doctrine which is inconsistent with these.
As far as practice goes, they fear God and work righteousness. They not only believe in Christ, but live in obedience to Him.
All true religion consists in faith and holiness — it glorifies God by believing and obeying.
Clearly, this excludes atheists (who have no religion), idolaters, heretics, and those who follow a false religion.
It also excludes:
- those who don’t know the first thing about Christian teachings, and don’t understand what they say they believe,
- those who lead profane lives, despise those who are good, and persecute powerful godliness,
- those who claim to be Christians, but only for worldly reasons.
In a word, it excludes all who lack true faith and real holiness, and indulge themselves in any known sins, whether more often and obvious, or more private and hidden.
What features do Christians have?Isaiah decribes them as “the substance” or “stock” of a tree (Isa. 6:13). What does this mean?
Firm and durableThe stock of a tree is its most firm and durable part. The leaves may be shaken off, the branches dry and withered, and even lopped off, yet the stump still continues, and lives. It keeps its place and retains its sap.
When hypocrites and part-time believers fall away and stop taking an interest in Christianity, yet the godly shall continue, and hold their own, and keep their standing. They are all united to Christ, who is like the root of the tree, as well as to each other, as all part of the same stock, and so preserved in life by sap they derive from the root.
GrowingThe stock propagates itself. Cut off all the branches, but the stem will shoot out again, and send out new leaves and fruit and seed, from which other trees will come.
The godly propagate their righteousness. They pass it on to others, beget children to God, are spiritual parents, and have spiritual offspring. Many are affected by their instruction, won over by their example, awakened by their warnings, overcome by their persuasion.
How are Christians beneficial to a nation?It is common in horticulture for the tree to be spared for the sake of the stock. If the gardener finds a cluster or two of grapes on a vine, by those few he perceives that there is life in the tree, and some hope of more fruitfulness to come, and therefore he does not cut it down. “So will I do,” says the Lord, “for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all” (Isa. 65:8). He spares the rest — he does “not destroy them all, for his servants’ sakes,” — i.e., for the sake of the righteous among them.
In fact, the gardener looks after the tree for the sake of the stock. As long as there is life in the stock, he not only doesn’t dig it up, but he prunes it, and bestows on it whatever cost and labour it needs.
Many a blessing, both temporal and spiritual, comes to a nation for the sake of the godly in its midst.
Temporal blessings. God blessed Laban, even though he was an idolater, for Jacob’s sake (Genesis 30:30), and heathen Potiphar for Joseph’s sake (Genesis 39:5). God may give a people peace and plenty, so that His own servants may have their share in it, to encourage them in holiness. The reason why Babylon had such a long time of peace before its downfall was so that God’s people in it would have peace (Jeremiah 29:7).
Spiritual blessings. God gives the means of grace to a people — His Word and ordinances and the offers of salvation — especially for the sake of those who belong to Him. It is no small mercy to have an external gospel call, an offer of Christ. If people neglect their opportunities, forsake their own mercies, lose the benefit of the good they have had, it is their own fault — the privilege is no less in itself. But where God has nobody to call effectually, He does not usually send the gospel. Paul was forbidden to preach in Asia and was prevented from going into Bithynia (Acts 16:6–7), because God did not have any people there who were as yet to be called by His grace. But he was sent into Macedonia (v.10), because there God had work for him, several who were soon to be converted by his ministry. If Gd had not had a seed among the Macedonians, they might have still continued in the same darkness that others were in.
How are Christians the “strength” of a nation?On what account are the Christians in a nation said to be its strength? What influence do they have on the welfare and security of a people?
They are precious to GodThey are God’s favourites, His children, His jewels (Mal. 3:17), His treasure (Ex. 19:5), His portion (Deut. 32:9). They are the most closely related to Him, and most dearly beloved by Him.
Just as people will save their bags and boxes, which are of little worth, if their jewels are in them, so God will show the same concern for His people. Happy is that society where God has many friends, if the people are only wise enough to be friendly to them! It is a pity if the ones who are favoured by heaven are not also favoured by them!
They speak to God for their nationChristians make use of their relationship with God for the people. They intercede with God for them by prayer. Moses interposed with God for Israel (Psalm 106:23), and Abraham prayed for Abimelech’s household (Genesis 20:17), and Samuel prayed for the Israelites (1 Samuel 12:23). The Christian part of a people are the praying part of them, and so they are the ones who do the most for them.
Grace will always out-pray nature. The prayer of others is only the voice of nature or conscience, but in the true believer it is the language of grace. Others make prayers; only believers pray prayers. Others pray in set forms, or with their gifts, but only believers pray “in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 20).
They have faith behind their pleas. They are indeed the only persons who have true faith, and it is faith especially that makes anyone plead with God, and make use of whatever arguments God’s Word warrants. The goodness of prayer is not to be judged by the artistic merit of its composition, or the elegance of its style, or the fervency of its expression, but by the workings of faith.
They do not participate in the wickedness which brings judgmentChristian people in a nation are often a means of stopping the current of wickedness which is ready to overflow a land with judgments, and to bring swift destruction on it. It is the sin of a nation which lays them open to wrath. If you want to keep off wrath, you must endeavour to keep out sin — if you want to hinder the effect, you must obviate the cause. It is the devil’s damnable policy to draw people into sin, so that he will expose them to punishment. The greatest enemies to a people, who go the quickest way to ruin them, are those who draw them into sin, and so into God’s displeasure.
Who is that most hinders sin, and prevents the place being inundated with sin, but the Christians in a nation? They speak against it, they bear testimony against it, if they have any authority they suppress it, and by their example they discourage it. None are so active, none so zealous, in opposing sin as those who are most holy. They not only fear sin in themselves, but labour to prevent it in others.
To prevent sin is their first priority, but if that cannot be, they lament it and mourn over it, and “sigh and cry for the abominations” of a land (Ezekiel 4:4). David “beheld the transgressors, and was grieved” (Psalm 119:158); “rivers of waters ran down his eyes, because they kept not God’s law” (v.136). Jeremiah “wept in secret places” for the pride of his people (Jeremiah 13:17). This does not directly stop the course of sin in a land, yet it is a kind of check to it.
While in this way they lay to heart the sins of others, they are not themselves partakers of these sins, nor do they share in the guilt. These sins are not universal in the nation, when there are at least some who testify their dislike of them by their sorrow for them. The more universal sin is, the more dangerous it is, and it is all the more likely to bring on judgments when the godly themselves become guilty, not exactly by committing it, yet by not mourning over it (which is a degree of fellowship with it). When they mourn for the sin committed by others, they free themselves from the guilt of approving or conniving at it or fellowshipping in it, and in this way they are instrumental in keeping off more general judgments.
They spread goodnessThe Lord’s people not only inhibit the progress of sin in the nation, they propagate goodness to others, as well as promoting it in themselves. They do this by advice, warnings, and example. They make it their business not only to do good themselves but to make others good — to bring them to holiness as well as to keep them from sin.
Grace, wherever it is, is communicative. It spreads itself as far as it can. Those who love God see so much loveliness in Him that they long to persuade others to love Him too. Those who walk in God’s ways like them so much, and find so much peace and pleasantness in them, and know there is such a reward at the end of them, that they take every care to get others into the same ways. They know that the one they serve is generous enough and rich enough.
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Inviting the Lord to returnThere is a dynamic to-and-fro between the Lord and His people when they are united to each other within the covenant of grace. This means that while the Lord makes promises and gives blessings for His people to grasp hold of, they can in turn with reverence hold Him to His word and remind Him to do what He has said. One believer who had a clear sense of this was Janet Hamilton, Lady Earlstoun (who died in 1696). She suffered persecution alongside her husband, Sir Alexander Gordon of Earlston (1650–1726), for Covenanter principles. At various stages in her life, Janet wrote down her reflections on the Lord’s dealings with her, also taking the opportunity to renew of her personal covenant with the Lord. Janet’s writings were discovered after her death and were published at the request of her friends. In the following updated extract, Janet appeals to the Lord for help with her own family, as well as showing a concern for the wider church and national context.Come to my familyNow, Lord, I desire to enter into covenant with Thee this day, in opposition to all the corruptions of the body of sin that I am mastered with. I desire in Thy sight to protest against all things in me or my family that are not like Thee, and this day to invite Thee back to my house on any terms, and do not break us with Thy long absence. Come, Lord Jesus, and take up Thy dwelling amongst us. We are a heartless company without thee.
Come to the heads, and tell us what is our duty, and put work in our hands. Art Thou passing by us as one that has no work for us to do? O Lord, I cannot contemplate this! Do not let our iniquities put a stop in Thy way. Come over the mountains of oppositions and put us to duty, and keep us at duty, and dwell with us.
I invite thee to come to my poor babes. Let them be included among those little children that Thou permittest to come to Thee. Grant salvation to the one who appears to be near the end of his life. Let him have mercy in and through a complete Mediator, Christ. Let Thy sympathy and free love be extended towards him, for he is one of Thy sufferers, who has gone without the administration of Thy sacrament of baptism because of the unfaithfulness of ministers. Lord, Thou knowest it was not in contempt of Thy holy ordinance that he has not been baptised, but because, in our situation, we could not show, in any more eminent way, our dislike to the injuries done to thee, O Lord, by unfaithful ministers. All their treachery is well known to Thee. Lord, break the snares, and let Thy poor flock escape; and hasten the day when my young ones shall feed beside the shepherd’s tents (Song 1:8).
I invite Thee this day to every soul within my family. Let the work of grace be amongst them all, every one encouraging another in the way of duty, that we may be a little sanctuary for Thee to dwell in.
Come to our countryI invite thee, O Lord, this day to return to poor covenanted Scotland. Although she has broken covenant with Thee, yet Thou must not give up on her. Remember Thy former lovingkindness to her; and, for Thy own name’s sake, return, return, and deliver. Are not enemies rejoicing that they have got some of the sons and daughters of Zion to help them to lay on the gravestone to hold down the work? Are not enemies crying, “Where is the covenanted God of Scotland?” and saying, “If this work had been of God, it would have stood!” All the blood of Thy people, and the cause of God for which they suffered, is now buried under the mockery of some and the joy of others. But rouse up Thyself, Thou who art the Lion of the tribe of Judah! Let it be known to all nations that the covenanted God of Scotland lives and reigns. O that the resurrection of Thy buried work would be more glorious than ever! Let Zion’s walls be built again, so that she may be beautiful as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners (Song 6); so that her enemies may tremble; and so that her children, who for a long time have been mourning over her rubbish, may rejoice in her beautiful order, and be compassed about with songs (Psalm 32:7).
I invite Thee to the poor, betrayed, scattered societies in Scotland that Thou art now justly contending with. The marks of Thy displeasure are evidently to be seen in every meeting — an absent God in every piece of duty, love and tenderness much gone, the breeding of hot-headedness and contentions and lukewarmness, nothing like a practical work among the majority, or making any progress in the way of Christianity. Has all this not come on us because our God is not amongst us? O that Thou, Lord, wouldst return, and make known for what Thou art contending! Remove these spiritual plagues, and let Thy Spirit be poured out among the poor ones who sigh in Zion, and let them again behold the king’s face in peace.
I desire to invite thee to every afflicted and wearied soul that is tossed and like to faint on the dark mountains, passing through dark steps, and none to speak comfortably unto them, but every one adding to their grief. Lord, appear thou for their help, and shorten these days for the elect’s sake, lest they faint under the burden, and put forth their hands to iniquity.
Come in spite of everythingI desire this day to covenant with Thee in opposition to all the powers, civil and ecclesiastical, that have eaten out the life of Christianity, and are standing in opposition to Thee and Thy precious truths, and I engage never to own them till they be for Thee. This I engage in the strength of the Lord. I adhere to all the truths of the Old and New Testaments, and to all the testimonies given by Thy people for carrying on Thy work. I desire to adhere to the now forgotten Covenants, and to all the work of Reformation which is founded on Thy Word.
Lord, help a poor, weak, insufficient creature to hold by this, vowing and paying vows unto Thee. I do this day give up my dear husband and children unto Thee, that Thou mayest make them for Thee, and employ them in Thy service, whatever the risks may be. O Lord, take them off my hand, that they may be committed in Thy love to Thy service. In the day when Thou goest through the land with the devouring sword, let them get their souls for a prey, and be found within the bounds of the everlasting covenant. This is all my desire. May grace in exercise be their portion.
I do this day solemnly enter into covenant with Thee, holding up my hands, vowing to be Thine, giving myself up unto Thee, closing with Thee on Thy own terms, begging Thee to come and add Thy seal to this great work.
And I desire that this covenant may be as a staff to hold me up from staggering on the dark mountains. O Lord, help me to have a practice in sincerity, like one who is genuinely in covenant with thee! O Lord, I take the stones in the wall, and timber in the house, to be witnesses that I have given up myself and all mine unto Thee, O Lord, this day!
(Signed) Janet Hamilton
Earlstoun
January 1691
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Almost thereWhen Paul told Agrippa the plain, rational truth about Christ’s death and resurrection, Agrippa pushed it away. All Paul’s persuasiveness was not enough to make him move more than a little towards becoming one of those despised Christ-followers. For the godly Covenanting minister Alexander Wedderburn, this was not merely an exchange between two long-ago figures. Wedderburn was deeply concerned that in and around the church, too many people are still “almost” Christians. Rational though Christianity is, Wedderburn was painfully aware of those who would only pick and choose the bits of the faith they like, and who therefore remain at as much of a distance from the Saviour as if they were committed non-believers. His appeal therefore in the following updated extract is to realise the shamefulness of being “almost” and not “altogether” a Christian, and to strive to reach Christ really and truly.“Almost” should make us humbleAll of us are committed to doctrinal principles which lead us to be altogether Christians, but we must face the question in point of practice. The Lord could complain of many as He did of Ephraim in Hosea 7:8, “Ephraim is a cake unturned,” that is, raw on the one side and burnt on the other. In some things, they are Christians (especially the things that are consistent with their self-interest), but in other things they deny it, especially in things that are most difficult, and of most absolute necessity.
Why should this make us humble ourselves?
It includes a secret contempt of GodIf you cut and carve the laws of your sovereign, taking what you like, and rejecting what you please, you despise the authority that commanded them. To do something at the command of God, and to refuse to do other things, must flow either from some apparent iniquity in the law (which is highly insulting) or from despising the authority that commanded it, and both reflect on God.
It is something God hatesTo be a Christian in part, and not altogether, is something God loathes. This was the church of Laodicea, which was neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm. It had some degrees of heat, and some of cold, and God threatens that He will spew her out of His mouth something His stomach loathes.
It means you are pulled two waysThis puts you to serve two masters — to be for God in some things, and for His enemy in other things. “A double-minded man,” says James, “is unstable in all his wayes,” a man who has a mind and a mind. That man must be like Israel in Elijah’s time, lurching between two incompatible alternatives.
It means you never do enoughYou may lose out on heaven, even though you do great things for God, because of not doing more. Some things are absolutely necessary for salvation. If we are never so righteous in our dealing with other people, yet, “he that believes not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the only begotten Son of God.” Now how lamentable is it, to do much for Christ, and yet come short of heaven for not doing more?
It means you are already losing out on the best bit of ChristianityTo be only partly a Christian deprives you even now of the sweetest part of Christianity. The peace and joy promised in the gospel is attained by performing the most inward duties of it, while neglecting these makes many find godliness a kind of labyrinth to them, as if they are continually breaking open shells that have no kernel in them.
All these laid together evidence what kind of reasons we have for self-humbling, if we are only “almost a Christian.”
“Almost” should make us striveIf it is the case that many are only “almost Christians,” then each of us must labour to be not only almost but altogether a Christian.
I must exhort all, that while they are avoiding some sins in practice (by which they become Christians in part), they must not sit down contentedly with that, while they are practising other sins no less dangerous. While they avoid, for instance, scandalous sabbath-breaking, they still practise hypocrisy, or empty formality.
Or, while they practice some of the duties whereby one becomes almost a Christian, and not far from the kingdom of God, they may perhaps voluntarily neglect other duties which may be more necessary for salvation.
Or, they practice Christianity at some times, and quite the contrary at another time, ebbing and flowing in Christianity as the sea with the course of the moon, serving times and occasions with religion, and not keeping an even pace.
To help us labour to be not only almost but altogether Christians, I offer these directions.
Strive to be seriousFirst, Christian, labour to be very serious in the performance of holy duties. Be careful to join with these activities attention of mind (Eze. 33:32), singleness of heart (Psa. 145:18), purpose of affection (Rom. 12:11), and holy fear and reverence (Heb. 12:18).
The lack of these makes even our religious duties to be performed only as “almost Christians.” There is not that reverence of God, that delight, that fellowship and communion with God, which is attained by those who endeavour to be “altogether Christians.”
Therefore, consider well the nature of God whose service it is — His majesty (Mal. 1.14), His holiness (Jer. 48:10). Consider the nature of the service wherein you have to do with Him. Consider them as duties, and a part of your homage, not parts of your Christian liberty. Consider them as privileges, as indeed they are — as talents, of which you are to give an account to God. These and such like considerations may influence us to more seriousness in our performances.
Strive to get right thoughts of GodLabour to get right (i.e., believing) thoughts of God,
- In His all-sufficiency (Gen. 17: 1). That would keep your heart steady and fixed in religion. God is our happiness, and not created things. Whether you have more or less of created things, it all comes to the same thing, if God is ours.
- In His omnipresence (Psa. 139:6–7). This will awe us when we have secret opportunities and temptations to sin (Gen. 39:9). It will possess us with godly fear and reverence (1 Cor. 11:10). It will also comfort us in afflictions (Psa. 23:4).
- In His universal providence. His providence extends itself to every thing that comes to pass, even the least things (Matt. 10:28). Beside the reasons this gives us to adore the perfections of God (Job 37:14; Psa. 107:43), it will help us to thankfulness (Psa. 40:5), and keep us from abusing His mercies (Hos. 2:8), and help us to submit patiently to afflictions (1 Sam. 3:18).
Strive not to neglect known dutiesWe must be very careful about this. Often, in matters of practice, our zeal is spent on the things that are most doubtful, when clear acknowledged duties are neglected. This is how it was with the Jews in Micah’s time. They were careful to enquire when they should fast, but neglected the duties of moral equity (Mic. 6:7). The best way, as one observes, to know more of the mind of God in what is doubtful, is to be busy in doing what is clear (John 7:17). The best Christian is the one who is most in the fundamentals of a Christian’s duty.
Strive to monitor your walkEvery night, take an account of what has come to pass in the day, and examine what the tendency of your heart has been, and what you have done, and on what grounds, and for what ends, as well as what you have neglected. By this you will come to know what progress you are making against your corruption, and how long you have continued in sin without repenting of it. This record or journal of our daily walkings has been the practice of many godly people, and nothing has a greater tendency to prevent us from resting on being almost Christians.
Strive to model yourself on ChristKeep the perfect pattern of Christ’s life before you. It is true, not all the actions of Christ are imitable. He was not a mere man, but God and man, and what He did as God, or as mediator between God and man, we cannot imitate. But there are various things in which the Scriptures expressly propose Him as an example, including love (Eph. 5:12), meekness (Matt. 11:29), self-denial (Phil. 2:3), patience (1 Pet. 2:21), making it His work to do good (Acts 10:38).
This serves not only for our example, but also for our encouragement. There is nothing He calls us to, but He did it, and is now crowned.
Strive to do everything in the name of ChristIf you really want to be above being only “almost a Christian,” then labour to do all you do in the name of Christ. The main point of Christianity lies in this, to have in view the authority of Christ as commanding or forbidding what we are or are not called to (Col. 3:17; Matt. 21:23; John 5:43), to do what we do in the strength of Christ (Mark 16:17; Acts 3:12), and to do it for the sake of Christ, for His honour. All this is included in doing something “in His name.”
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When the Lord is in the little thingsSometimes we pull through a time of real difficulty and can only marvel at the narrow escape we had. According to Alexander Henderson’s advice though, the feeling of relief should not hold us back from reflecting closely on the details of the experience, because it is in these little things that we will be able to see all the more clearly the care that God continually shows to His people. All the complex interacting and interweaving factors in the situation were being managed and arranged by God and recognising this will only increase our thankfulness and the glory we give to Him. Alexander Henderson bases his remarks on the incident in Matthew 14 where Peter was saved from drowning when the Lord Jesus put out His hand and caught him. In the following updated extract, Henderson explains how it honours the Lord to notice the details of His deliverances.When the wind became boisterous, Peter did not have enough faith to be able to walk on the water any more, for through the weakness of his faith he began to sink. Yet he had enough faith that when he did begin to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately the Lord answered his prayer, and sent him an immediate deliverance, in such a way that Peter would know it was from Himself. Yet at the same time He rebukes Peter for the weakness of his faith, which made him waver so much that although at first he would attempt to walk on the water, now he begins to sink.
In Peter’s deliverance, there are four or five things to observe.
- How great it was — Peter was on the water, and the wind was boisterous.
- How timely and opportune it was — just when he was beginning to sink.
- How obvious Christ’s work in it was — He stretched out His hand and caught him.
- How closely related it was to Peter’s prayer — in fact, it was a real answer to Peter’s prayer. “Peter cried, ‘Lord, save me!’ and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him.”
- How clearly it shows free grace. Peter’s unbelief and doubting was the lead that made him sink, but free grace was the rock that lifted him out. So the deliverance was a free deliverance, not from his merit, but contrary to his demerit.
The details make all the differenceHere is the doctrine I draw from this. Any who are wise, and desire to see the loving-kindness of the Lord in their deliverance (so that they would love the Lord who loves them, and be thankful to Him) should observe and consider not only the substance of their deliverance (what I call the bulk and body of it), but also the circumstances with which it is clothed and accompanied.
To understand this, we must distinguish between the action itself, and the circumstances surrounding and clothing it (not only in human actions between one and another, but in all our actions towards God, and in all the actions of God towards us). Legal experts, philosophers and theologians have different opinions about how to count and describe particular “circumstances,” yet all with one consent acknowledge that they must be heeded and observed.
In our good actions, when the substance is only small, the circumstance makes up for it. The poverty of the widow added much weight to her two mites which she threw into the treasury. “Verily, I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than all they which have cast into the treasury, for all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living” (Mark 12:43–44).
In all our evil actions, it makes our transgression worse, that we who are merely dust and ashes sin against the most great and most good God — and that for trifles, worthless and perishing things — and that we sin against knowledge and against mercy.
The distinctions between sins of ignorance, sins of weakness, and sins of presumption, and the excusableness and inexcusableness of sin, arises from the circumstances.
The details point us to God without compareIn the actions of God towards us, both the blessings and deliverances which we receive are much illustrated and magnified by the circumstances of a God who is so great that it is not lawful for us to endeavour to express how great He is! He who is so great without measure, loved us first, us so small, even before we had a being, and those who were even His enemies. And He loved us so much, and so greatly, that He spared not His own Son to die for us, and spared not His own Spirit to dwell with us. So you see how this love is magnified and multiplied by the circumstances which make it a great love, a multi-faceted love, a wonderful love.
The same applies in God’s deliverances, both of His people in the Old Testament times, and His church in the New Testament times, and particular persons in both times. The circumstances add much light and lustre to them, to endear them to us all the more.
No one can think of the deliverance of the people of God from Egypt, and from Babylon, and of the Christian Church from persecution, without spending a great part of their thoughts on the circumstances of the deliverances. The deliverances from the Armada, from the Gunpowder treason, from the enemies since the beginning of this war, are great in substance, but each one of them is also admirable in the circumstances.
And who can meditate on the preservation and deliverance of Noah, of Joseph, of Moses, of David, of Daniel, of Jonah, of Peter, of Paul, and many others of old, and of recent times, without being affected with many particular features of their deliverances? Those who are natural look only to the substance, and satisfy themselves with the fact that they are delivered. But those who are spiritual cannot satisfy themselves even with meditating on the circumstances, which move them deeply.
The details deserve to be observedThere may be three reasons why circumstances of this kind are to be observed.
Because the Lord God has a providence in the smallest thingsGod’s providence includes the smallest things, and the most casual and contingent things, and things which are arbitrary as far as we are concerned, and seem to depend most on our own will and choice. However, what He dignifies with His providence we ought not to disdain in our observation. The poorest of the works of God’s dispensation is abundantly rich for our meditation.
Because of how much the details show of God’s loveThere is much manifestation of love to the people of God in circumstances, and much revelation of the wrath of God against the enemy. When the godly look on the circumstances, their hearts are wonderfully affected, overcome and melted within them. When the wicked are constrained to hear of them, they are confounded within themselves, and realise by this more than anything else that God has been fighting against them, and they against God.
Because of how much glory comes to God from the little thingsThe Lord prepares material for a sacrifice of glory and thanksgiving to Himself not only from the great bundles and sheaves of His work, but from the small, scattered grains of His providence. For of Him, and through Him, and for Him are all things.
For these and similar reasons, we are to observe the circumstances of the work of God at this time. The deliverance and victory itself is like the moon shining in the light with her light borrowed from the sun, yet the circumstances of it are like the bright stars, and some of them of the first magnitude, twinkling and sending out their light round about for our contemplation and comfort. The deliverance itself is the lovely and beautiful outline of the work, the circumstances are the embroidery and variety of colours worked onto it by the hand of God, and laid before our eyes so that we would behold the manifold goodness, power and wisdom of God.
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The advantage of having a Father to pray toWhen Jesus taught us to pray to “our Father who is in heaven,” the relationship with God this implies gives us a huge advantage in prayer. Certainly we should always begin prayer with awe-filled thoughts of God. As He is “in heaven,” we should keep in mind His greatness and majesty. Yet at the same time, as He is “our Father,” we should fill our thoughts with His goodness and mercy. Thomas Manton (clerk to the Westminster Assembly) mentioned some of these points when he started discussing the Lord’s Prayer. In the following updated extract, Manton explains in more detail how God is a Father to His children in Christ, and what this means for us when we pray.In what sense is God a Father?The first person of the Godhead is called God the Father. He is Father either with relation to Christ, or to us.
With respect to us, the first person is not only the Father of Christ, but also our Father. “I go to my Father, and your Father” (John 20:17). Those who want to pray rightly must address themselves to God, as a Father, in Jesus Christ.
Our business is mainly with the first person, with whom Christ intercedes for us. “We have an Advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the Righteous” (1 John 2:1). Before whom does He appear? Before the Father. And it is the Father to whom we direct our prayers (though not excluding the other persons). “I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:14). Though it is not unlawful to pray to Christ, or to the Holy Spirit, usually Christian worship is terminated on God the Father, as being chief in the mystery of redemption. So it is said, “Through him, by one Spirit, we have access to the Father” (Eph. 2:18). We come to Him through Christ, as the meritorious cause (He has procured permission for us), and by the Spirit, as the efficient cause (He gives us a heart to come), and we come to the Father, as the ultimate object of Christian worship.
A Father by creationThere is another distinction to make. God is a Father to mankind, either, in a more general consideration, by creation, or in a more special regard, by adoption.
There is some advantage in prayer, to look on God as our Father by virtue of creation — to consider that we can come to Him as the work of His hands, and beseech Him that He will not allow us to perish (Isa. 64:8). There is a general mercy that God has for all His creatures, and therefore, as He gave us rational souls, and fashioned us in the womb, we may come to Him, and say, “Lord, thou hast made us, do us good, do not forsake us.” It gives us confidence in the power of God. He who made us out of nothing is able to keep, preserve, and supply us, when all things fail, and in the midst of all dangers. Believers are able to make use of this common relationship (see 1 Pet. 4:19; also Psa. 124:8).
A Father by adoptionMore especially, there is a particular sort of people to whom God is a Father in Christ, that is, to believers (John 1:12). In their natural state and condition they were children of wrath, and slaves to sin and Satan, yet when they are willing to welcome and receive Christ into their hearts, they are allowed to call God “Father.”
They are permitted to have child-like communion with Him, and run to Him in all difficulties, and lay open their needs to Him. When we are ill at ease, and in any difficulty, this is the privilege of our adoption, that we have a God to go to — we may go to our Father, and plead with Him.
Adoption is an act of free grace, by which we who were aliens and strangers, servants to sin and Satan, are, in and by Christ, made sons and daughters of God, and reckoned and treated accordingly, to all intents and purposes. This is a great and special privilege, given to God’s own children, by virtue of their relationship with Christ.
“Our Father” gives us confidence in prayer“Our Father” is not an empty title, or a mere technicality. It is the basis of all the favour and grace which we stand in need of, and receive, from God. He will really perform all the parts of a Father to us. There is no Father like God! The reality of fatherhood is in God; none is so fatherly and kind as He (Matt. 7:11)
But how will God treat us as a Father?
He allows us to come to him in all our needs“Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 1:6). Those who are sons shall have the spirit of sons, and God will incline their hearts to come and call to Him for supply. This is a great advantage. When He gives a spirit of prayer, then He will be ready to hear and grant our requests. “How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13) — when we come and importunately ask for the highest blessing, and will not take no for an answer.
He supplies all that we lack“Your Father which is in heaven knoweth you have need of these things” (Matt. 6:32). A father will not let his child starve, and certainly no one is so fatherly as God. You do not have a Father who is ignorant of your condition, or who disregards it. He takes exact notice of all your needs and pressures. He says, “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands” (Isa. 49:16), just as we might tie a knot in a handkerchief, or write a note on the back of our hands, to make sure we remember something. In fact, the hairs of their heads are numbered (Matt. 10:30). And Jesus Christ acts as His reminder, one who continually appears before Him to represent their needs (Heb. 9:24).
He pities our miseries“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him” (Psa. 103:13). In fact, He will pardon their sins. Earthly fathers may exhaust all their pity after meeting with multitudes of provocations. But God will spare us, as a man spares his only son, and not only his only son, but his dutiful son (Matt. 3:17). Many times we forget the duty of children, but God will not forget the mercy of a father.
He trains us upHe disciplines us, and treats us with much indulgence, and wisdom, and care. A father takes a great deal of pains in bringing up his child, and shaping his or her habits and behaviour. That’s what God does with His children. If He afflicts them, it is as a father, only with purposes of good, and not even as an earthly father (Heb. 12:10). They mingle a great deal of bad temper with their corrections, when they get fired up, but God never mingles bad temper with His rod. When He gives a bitter cup, He is a Father still (John 18:11).
He lays up an inheritance for usThe apostle says, “Children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children” (2 Cor. 12:14). Now, God has laid things up for us, as well as laid out much on us. “Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). He has a kingdom, a glorious inheritance to bestow on us. And we are kept for that happy state. Though He already has an heir, Jesus Christ, the heir of all things, yet God has made us co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17).
“Our Father” helps us in our dutyAs it encourages us to pray, so “Our Father” helps us in our duty in prayer, encouraging us to behave appropriately towards Him.
With reverence“If then I be a father, where is mine honour? And if I be a master, where is my fear?” (Mal. 1:6). 1. We should pray with a child-like reverence and affection. If we expect the supplies of children, we must perform the duty of children. God wants to be acknowledged as a Father, not with a matey familiarity, but humbly, and with an awe of His majesty.
With loveOur love to God is mainly seen by subjection and obedience to His laws. Christ wants us to think of God in the relationship of our Father so that we would remember our duty to Him. “If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear” (1 Pet. 1:17).
We never pray right, except when we pray resolving to cast off all sin. How can we call Him “Father,” when we do not care about continually displeasing Him from day to day? That is what the Lord accuses His people of doing: “Thou hast said, Thou art my father: Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest” (Jer. 3:5–6). God takes it to be an insult and reproach to Himself when we do evil, yet come and call Him Father. He takes it badly, when people come with empty compliments, and flatter Him with lying lips, and do not walk as children in holy obedience. Calling God “our Father” expresses that we are committed to serving God with holiness.
With gratitudeWhen we come to pray, we must remember not only what we lack, but what we have already received, acknowledging that we have everything from Him. He is our Father. “Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people, and unwise? Is not he thy father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee and established thee?” (Deut. 32:6). We must acknowledge the good we have from Him, as well as the good we expect to come from Him.
Therefore, if we want to have a praying heart, and be relieved of the anxious care which is a disparagement to providence, it is good to think of God as our Father. This makes us rest on Him for all things. “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on —” why? “For your heavenly father knoweth that ye have need of all these things” (Matt. 6:25).
You who are fathers would be most insulted if your children were to filch and steal for their living, and go from door to door begging, instead of trusting to your care and provision. A believer, who knows he has a heavenly Father, will not be negligent in his calling, but active and industrious, and will use the lawful means which by the providence of God he has been brought up in. Then, he will “be careful for nothing,” as the apostle’s advice is (Phil. 4:6), “and in every thing, by prayer and supplication, make your request known unto God.”
If we could only turn our worries into prayer, and run to our Father, how happy it would be for us! Care, and diligence, and necessary provision is our work and labour, but for the success and outcomes of things, leave it to God. When we are fretting in the world with such anxiousness, and troubled with restless thoughts — how we will be provided for in old age, what will become of us and ours — we take God’s work out of His hands. This is a disparagement to our heavenly Father, and a reproach to His providence and fatherly care.
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Are Christians any better than others?Christians are not always the good guys. Plenty Christians are petty, dishonourable or unreliable while non-Christians can be compassionate neighbours and colleagues of integrity. So is pursuing the ways of God really necessary, or worth the effort? Can we be good without God? Are the failings of individual Christians this a valid reason to reject Christianity? The Covenanting minister John Carstares discusses this problem in his introduction to James Durham’s sermons on “the great gain of godliness” (1 Timothy 6:6).One groundless prejudice against godliness is that those who have made a big noise about being Christians, and made big claims for Christianity, have many great and gross failings and faults. They are as worldly, as pedantic, as peevish, as proud, as hot-tempered, as vindictive, as vain, as selfish, as those who never professed to be Christians. Are they not therefore all a pack of hypocrites? There are a few things to say about this.
Some are Christians in name onlyAmong those who claim to be Christians there are always some who are not really godly. They “have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5), and in doing so, they disgrace godliness as far as they can, and destroy their own souls. But why should their faults be attributed to godliness, when it’s the lack of godliness that actually causes them?
Undeniably, Christians have failingsIt is not to be denied, but freely and honestly confessed, with sorrow and regret, that all the godly have their own failings, weaknesses and faults. They are not sinless angels, nor perfected saints. No believer on this earth has been so beautifully godly as to be without any blots and blemishes whatsoever. “In many things,” said the Apostle James, speaking of himself and other godly people, “we offend all” (James 3:2).
Yet these failings are reflected on with grief and sorrow of heart by the godly, when in any measure they analyse the situation, and to that extent, they always proceed from and are caused by their not being seriously and suitably, consistently and constantly exercised to godliness. We cannot in the least blame godliness for these failures, because godliness makes the godly censure themselves more severely, chide themselves more sharply, and judge themselves more seriously for these failures than anyone else reasonably can.
Christians have good pointsThere are many good, commendable things worth emulating in the godly, which are not found in others. Why should these be overlooked and passed by entirely, only to scrutinise and exaggerate the few failings in all (or the bigger faults in some) of the godly, when those who are judging are entirely destitute of those many other good things which the godly have? Surely this is not dealing fairly. It is very like the disposition of the insects which can fly over a whole meadow full of fragrant sweet-smelling and pleasant flowers, and sit down on a little dung and enjoy it!
God has reasons for permitting His people to be imperfectIn His sovereign, holy and spotless providence, God may permit some of the godly to mess up badly, for various reasons. By doing so, He chastises and humbles them, and also warns others to beware in case they fall, and “not to be high-minded, but to fear, and to watch and pray, lest they enter into temptation” (Romans 11:20; Matthew 26:41).
Also, in His righteous judgement, He leaves those who are prejudiced against Him, and gives them up to their own hearts’ lusts. They hold on to this deep-rooted prejudice against godliness and the godly, dismissing them as a pack of hypocrites and deceivers, and in doing so they stumble and fall and break their own necks, because they have drawn their conclusions from the failures of a few individual Christians, and imputed them to all Christians as such, and against godliness itself.
In fact, in every society, city and countryside, some failure or another on the part of a godly person is talked about and industriously spread around. Then, when the example and practice of the godly looks like reproving and convicting the ungodly, they always have these few failures to talk about, to ensconce themselves against the otherwise irresistible force of these convictions, and save them from reformation. They always have something ready at hand so that they can say, “They may have a reputation for godliness, but he has done this, and she has done that, and he messed up in this way, and she that way.”
This is something that believers should bear in mind, so that they would be more motivated to “walk circumspectly,” and lead exemplary convicting and edifying lives. Surely they ought to seriously pursue the mortification of their own sin, self-denyingly and self-sacrificially, since the consequences of causing such stumbling run so dreadfully deep.
Some Christians do lead a very blameless lifeIt cannot be denied that though lesser or greater faults and failures are visible in the godly, yet there are some believers who live very inoffensively, and whose blameless lives in a great measure adorn the doctrine of God and the profession of godliness. These not only have the form of godliness, but they also display the power of godliness, not contradicting or belying their profession by their practice. Impartial onlookers cannot but think and say that these are truly godly persons, and “God is in them of a truth.” Why then does not the blameless behaviour of many encourage as much respect for godliness as the blameworthy behaviour of a few others in some things detracts from its reputation? This exposes the deeply though unjustifiably rooted prejudice they have against godliness and the godly.
Christianity as a whole should not be tarred with the same brushWhat reason is there for imputing these faults and failures of a few Christians to all Christians in general and to Christianity itself, and in this way endeavouring industriously to bring them and it into disgrace and contempt, so as to be disapproved, disowned and so utterly rejected with such disdain and detestation? Is any other group, of any profession, science, art, or trade in the whole world, treated in the same way? Where is any society of any profession or craft or calling, utterly renounced and abandoned with the profession itself, on account of the failures of a few of their number, or because some were not so good at the trade as others in the group? What group or occupation could stand this? Why then should godliness, and the godly as such, be the only ones to be treated in this unique and unusual manner? Especially when these mistakes are confessed with shame and sorrow by the guilty persons themselves, and not at all owned or justified or extenuated or condoned by the rest of the godly, but disclaimed and condemned? And when all the followers of this religion are taught by their own principles to “deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, to lie soberly, righteously and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:12)?
The biggest critics of Christianity are the biggest hypocritesThose who are so ready to notice and speak out against Christians, and Christianity itself, because of the failings, faults and mistakes of some of the godly (of which there are, sadly, admittedly, too many), are at the same time conniving at the same, or worse, in others and in themselves, and quietly indulging themselves with liberty and latitude in them! Why do they not amend them? Why do they not make the effort to out-strip them in all manner of godly living? Where would they find any Christian finding fault with them for doing so? But they not only do the same things, or worse, themselves, but they make allowances for others who do so, or find no great fault in them for it (at least nothing like what they accuse Christians of), and they point the finger at Christians, and decry and disgrace Christianity itself. This betrays pure dislike of godliness, and most unfair and irrational prejudice.
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Why family prayer mattersChristians in general will acknowledge the essential need for every believer to spend time personally in prayer and Bible reading. The value of congregational prayer is also well understood. But do we invest as much in family prayer? When John Brown of Wamphray wrote a book on prayer, he devoted a complete chapter to “The Necessity and Usefulness of Family Prayer,” arguing that we should treat family prayer as a non-negotiable duty which we must not neglect.There are, as you know, various ways how the duty of prayer may and should be performed. Public prayers should be made in the church, while private and individual prayers should be done by each on their own. There are other ways too, either more formal (whether ordinary or occasional) or more exclamatory (whether mental or vocal). Nobody raises any doubts about either the lawfulness or the necessity of these kinds of prayer, even though they are all only too neglected by us all.
But when it comes to family prayer — that is, prayer performed by a family, as such, to God — not only is family prayer too much neglected, but many will actually argue that it is not necessary. They regard it as a piece of unnecessary devotion, if not something that God doesn’t even require. At the very least, they will satisfy themselves by reasoning that since it is not expressly required, it may safely be omitted, and treat it as indifferent, whether it is performed or not performed as they see fit.
I would like therefore to show that family prayer is a duty, required by the law of God, and consequently cannot ordinarily be omitted without sin.
Families are the most basic social groupAll societies, as such, should be for God. They should intend His glory and honour, and exert themselves to celebrate His praises, so that He may be exalted in the world and His name made great. God has made man a sociable creature, and requires service of us as such. In that capacity — as sociable creatures — we are obliged to glorify our Creator, and worship Him, and serve Him, in all companies and societies we come into.
Families, as such, are societies, and therefore they should, as such, advance the glory of God by prayer and praises. The family is the first and most stated and fixed society that exists. If we are obliged to worship God in any society, then clearly we must do so in family-society. Indeed, the family is a society in which we have better reasons and opportunities to celebrate God’s praises, and have fellowship with Him by prayer and supplication, and indeed more frequently than in other societies, even daily.
Families share so many things that prayer should be easyIf members of different families have a duty to praise and pray to God together as occasion requires, then certainly the members of one and the same family have this duty too. They always have easier opportunities to meet together, they share the same reasons and occasions to pray, and they have experienced the same mercies which obligate them to praise God and acknowledge their dependence on Him.
Families have a relationship with GodIf we consider what relationship families have to God, we cannot help seeing what duty they have to worship together. The Lord is the supreme author and institutor of the family. He is their preserver, nourisher and protector. All are of Him (Romans 11:36). All blessings are from Him (James 1:17). He is the Father of all (Ephesians 4:6). Families should acknowledge this, and live in a way which witnesses and confesses that they acknowledge Him for their Lord, supreme governor, preserver, and indeed their Father, by worshiping Him and praying to Him (Malach 4:6).
Families were made by God for His honourGod has appointed families — family societies and family relationships — so that He would be glorified by them. Flocks of birds and herds of animals preach the glory of God’s wisdom and goodness, in their kind, and why should not flocks of humans? They are after all rational creatures, created to gather in the rent from all the world, and should they not sing and set forth the praises of the Lord in a more articulate and rational manner, after their kind? Families, as little flocks, are more constantly associated together, and have their hearts and affections more united, and should they not worship God by singing His praises together? They can learn from the birds, who sing more cheerfully when they are together than when they are scattered apart from each other.
Heathen families worship false gods togetherThe dim light of nature showed heathens to think of family worship as a duty. That explains why, in their idolatrous and superstitious way, they had household gods, and household services and sacrifices. They knew that as God was to preserve and do good to families, and as families stood in need of favour and blessings from God, so they should, as united families together, in that relationship, pay Him due homage, and openly acknowledge their subjection to and dependence on Him. But Christians have the bright light of the Word! All their duty is laid out before them in the Word, in plain and distinct terms, and reinforced with more pungent and perspicuous reasons, and are they going to be strangers to this duty? Heathens will rise up in judgement and condemn families who were so ungodly as to treat God as if He was not the God of their family, and had not bestowed favours on their family, and did not concern Himself with what is done in families, and as if their families could exist perfectly well without Him.
Family members owe it to each other to worship togetherThe light of nature taught the king of Nineveh to call his whole city to the duty of fasting and prayer in view of the terrible warning of ruin they had been given, and to cry mightily to God if possibly they might be spared. The same light, now more clearly shining in the Scriptures, teaches fathers, and others who have responsibilities within the family, to do what they can (according to their positions and capacities) to advance God’s glory, and so call all under them, or within the family, together, to cry to the Lord with one mouth, heart and voice, both at ordinary and special times, and to bless Him for mercies and favours received.
Christianity teaches that heads of families should devote their families to God, consecrate them for His service, and (to help achieve this) act before them as a good example. They should call them together so that they can join together in the more formal service to God, so that they all together can offer themselves to God and His service. This is the meaning of the Lord appointing His people to dedicate their houses (Deuteronomy 20:5), as David did (see the title of Psalm 30).
Families can show their love to God by worshipping GodNeglecting the duty of family worship is inconsistent with the love to God and His glory which is called for from one and another. How can parents evidence that they love the Lord with all their heart, soul and strength, when they do not exert themselves, in their domestic capacity, to bring all under them with them to exalt the Lord together? The psalmist zealously invited all, even inanimate creatures, to join him in praising God! (See Psalm 69; 34; 106:1, 48; 111:1; 112:1; 113:1, 9; 115:18; 116:19; 117:2, 135:1; 146:1, 10; 147:20; 148:2–4, and elsewhere). Seeing how excellent the Lord was, and how little was all that he could do, he appealed for help from angels and men, and of birds and animals, from sea and dry land, from all creatures, rational and irrational, animate and inanimate!
But then you look at those who will not call their own children and their own family to help them, or join them, in celebrating God. Where is their zeal for the Lord of hosts? Where is their ardent affection for Him, and strong desire to have Him set on high?
God notices what we do in our familiesThe Lord is careful to have families kept in a godly order and walk, each in reference to each other, in their mutual relationships and duties. He gives the duties of the husband in reference to his wife, and the wife in reference to her husband, the duties of parents in reference to their children, and vice versa, the duties of masters in reference to their servants, and vice versa. These are particularly and frequently inculcated, as we see in Paul’s epistles, beside the special command in Deuteronomy 6:6–7.
What does all this mean? Only that the Lord wants families to be temples for Him to dwell in, or churches fit for glorifying Him, so that He would delight to dwell among them.
Additionally, all these family and mutual duties call for divine help and grace to carry them out rightly. Should we not pray as families for this? Family prayer is surely a suitable means to get grace for performing family duties. Seeing the duties lie on all the members of the family to one another, surely reason requires that all should join together in one body to lift up a prayer for grace and assistance, so that each would be helped to perform his or her duty to the other, and they to others, and others to God, so that God would be glorified by all.
Family worship predates church worshipFrom the earliest times, until the days of Enos, all the formal worship that God got was in families (Genesis 4:26b). We have no reason to think that this domestic worship was abandoned by the holy patriarchs once people “began to call on the name of the Lord.” Enoch walking with God, considered as father of a family (Genesis 5:22), is not consistent with neglecting family worship. Noah’s family must have been different from all the rest of the families of the world. When Abraham went with Isaac to Mount Moriah, he told his servants that he and the lad would go and worship (Genesis 22:5), indicating that worshipping with his family was no strange thing to him, otherwise his servants would not have understood what he meant.
When the Lord said of Abraham, “I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgement,” etc. (Genesis 18:19), it indicated what a godly head of a family he was. Are we supposed to think that all this instructing of his family would be without family prayer? Surely it was part of instructing them in the way of the Lord, to instruct them how to pray.
When the Lord told Jacob to go to Bethel (Genesis 35:1), Jacob immediately got busy preparing his whole family for worshipping God (v. 2–3). The altars the patriarchs built were not for themselves alone, but for them and their families.
Families were important under the ceremonial lawUnder the ceremonial law, families were to worship God. For example, eating the Passover, within their doors, was a piece of worship. When they were to go up to Jerusalem for the feast, their families still ate apart. Parents were told to instruct their families in various places in Deuteronomy.
Furthermore, the words of the fourth commandment are clear for families sanctifying the sabbath. All the members of the family are mentioned distinctly and particularly, and even the “stranger,” who is residing with them temporarily, is not omitted. The head of the family is specially singled out to take responsibility for this, in order to all the rest. All of them, as a family, and as related to the father of the family, and he with them, are to keep the sabbath day holy, as a family.
More of John Brown’s discussion of family prayer is presented in the pamphlet, “Suburbs of Heaven.”
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How can we live life to the fullOur culture offers significance without transcendence — the prospect of finding meaning and fulfilment but in humanistic terms that make no reference to deity or the supernatural. This offer persists, even though by experience it continually founders on the very average, even mediocre, and largely unfulfilling reality of our everyday existence. By contrast, Christianity is unashamed to offer fulfilment outside of and beyond human activities and attainments — in life with Christ. This offer is realistic about our spiritual sickness and inertia, going so far as to identify our basic problem as spiritual death and ever-increasing corruption. But the life of Christ is the ineffable, abundant, fountain of the life of God Himself, and the good news is that this is what dead and dying sinners are invited to participate in. Several times in the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ is said to have life, or claims to be life, or says He will give sinners life. In the following updated extracts, George Hutcheson comments on the life — eternal life — which is available in and from Jesus for otherwise unfulfilled and perishing sinners.Life is in Jesus“In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).
Not only does the Lord Jesus have life in Himself essentially from the Father (John 5:26), but the life of all living creatures is “in him.” Life is in Him as in the fountain cause (as the stream is in the fountain, and rays of light are in the sun): and in Him still as the preserver when it is given (as the fountain constantly feeds the stream, so that it does not dry up).
Believers ought to study the Godhood of Christ their head, shining in His giving life to all living creatures, and their having their life still in Him, so that when they observe all the variety of living things, from the least to the greatest, which are fed by that fountain, they may come confidently to Him for life and enlivening, as He is the one who can create life. He is the one who can restore a soul, and bring to life a dead piece of clay. Then they need not be discouraged by their baseness when they come to Him (considering that He does not disdain to communicate life to the basest worm and smallest midgie) and they may hold their spiritual life from Him, abiding in Him in whom life still is, when they get it. Then too, they may not fear that their life will decay, when they dwell in the one in whom is the inexhaustible fountain of life, and the one who preserves and continues the life of all creatures.
He gives eternal life“Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:15).
Christ here points Himself out as the Saviour of sinners, having sufficient virtue to cure the sinfulness and misery of those who flee to Him by faith, and to keep them from perishing, and save them. It is only believing in Him, and laying hold on Him by faith, that brings a cure for the guilt of sin, the pain of conscience through sin, and the dominion of sin. Although all without Christ are in a state of perishing, and excluded from heaven, yet by faith in Him sinners are freed from death, and made heirs of life. “They shall not perish but have eternal life,” and this includes remission of sins, reconciliation to God, perseverance in the state of grace, and all the means leading to these ends.
Love gives everlasting life“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
The way of deliverance is not to be ascribed to anything in us procuring it (for God might justly have damned us all), but only to the free love of God. Love to lost sinners is not to be thought of as shining only in Christ (who willingly gave Himself to redeem), but also in the Father. The Father loved lost sinners, and sent His Son to suffer and to do the work of a mediator, so that through His mediation He would, not begin to love them, but convey the effects of His love in a way agreeable to his justice. God loved the world, and that preceded Him giving Christ, and was the cause of it.
Every one who believes in Christ is not only delivered from perishing by Christ’s undergoing wrath for him, but is instated in a right to eternal blessedness. This eternal blessedness the believer shall certainly attain, here in the pledge and bud, and hereafter in full enjoyment.
The blessedness which Christ purchased to believers is the only thing that really deserves the name of “life.” All other life is only a kind of death in comparison with it. It shall be blessedness eternally and without end.
Life flows out into eternityJesus said, “Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13–14).
The water of life, although Christ purchased it, yet it must be His free gift to us (who cannot buy it), and His offer includes a promise of giving it to every one who will receive it in the due order. The promise is made indifferently, i.e., without respect of persons. He does not say, “I can give,” but, “I shall give him,” i.e., if he receives my offer, indefinitely, whoever he may be.
Anyone who partakes of the true grace of God in this way, it will refresh and satisfy him, so as to quench his thirst after vanity and earthly delights, and make these things tasteless. “Whosoever drinks of this water shall never thirst.”
The Spirit and grace of Christ in believers is not a stream or a pond, that may run dry, but “a well,” and a “springing” well, of inexhaustible fullness, virtue and refreshment. It is not the kind of well which may rot and make water taste bad, but a springing well, constantly fresh. It is not only a spring which keeps within its banks, but a well of water leaping up, and watering all around. The Spirit and grace of Christ flows out in all the activity of those who receive them, making them fruitful. It flows out also on others, to their good and edification.
As the truly godly have no limit to religion but eternity, and their desire is to keep fresh till the end, so, where the Spirit of Christ is, He will still be pouring out His virtue and riches from day to day, and letting out more and more to the sinner till eternity comes. Then, when all the banks of incapacity, sin, distance, ignorance, mortality, etc., have been broken down, and the windows of heaven have been opened, this stream and well becomes an ocean, and grace, smothered here under corruption and infirmity, gets leave to spread itself out freely in glory.
Life comes by hearingJesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall life” (John 5:24).
The promises of eternal life are absolute in Christ’s intention toward His own people, and He undertakes to perform all the conditions which He requires of them, when they are humble and flee to Him.
Whatever remainders of the image of God people may have, and whatever excellencies, yet they are spiritually dead till Christ comes to them. They are destitute of spiritual life and of the favour and peace of God. They are dead, by a sentence of the law passed against them, unconscious of it and unable to help themselves.
But such is the power of the gospel, being the voice of the Son of God, that not only will it speak to those who have ears, but it will raise dead souls to life by conversion, and give them an ear to hear, and make them believe.
Those who are regenerated and raised from the dead by the Word of the gospel, and who embrace it (and Christ in it) by faith, the life that is begotten in them shall be cherished and nurtured and carried on by the enjoyment of the beginnings of conformity and communion with Christ, until it is perfected with glory. “They that hear (or, those who, being regenerated, are made to hear so as to believe) shall live.”
Jesus gives life more abundantlyJesus said, “The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
Those who make themselves out to be the Messiah, or who run unsent and bring in corrupt doctrine, Christ declares to be enemies, and not shepherds. They come only to do the flock harm. But His business is to give them life, and life in great abundance.
Christ is the kind of shepherd who will be so far from destroying His flock that He will “give life,” even to those of them who are dead.
Christ’s great aim in coming to the world is to purchase and confer life on His own elect people. However He treats them, yet it all tends towards this great aim. When they think it otherwise, it is their own mistake, “for,” He says, “I am come that they might have life.”
By His coming, Christ intends not only life to His flock, but “more abundant life.” He will not only give the life that will simply supply the basic needs of His people, but such a super-abounding measure that it will testify to His fullness, and completely refresh them.
Once He has conferred this abundant life in conversion, He will make it grow more and more while they are within time (1 Thess. 4:1–4). Yet all this is but a drop, in comparison of the abundance of life that is reserved for His people in glory. In these respects He says, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Jesus gives us life by His deathHe said, “I lay down my life for the sheep” (v.15, v.17–18).
Christ, held out with His ignominious cross, is the great stumbling-block of the world. Yet, although the shame and ignominy joined to the cross add to its grievousness, it could not hold Christ back from undergoing it, and indeed He provides various considerations to make it appear lovely.
He declares that the Father loves Him because of this suffering. The Father is so well pleased with the reconciliation of lost sinners that He both loves Christ for taking on the work, and is fully satisfied with how His suffering attains that goal.
Also, He declares that He was to lay down His life, not to continue as the prisoner of death, but so that, having paid the ransom, He could take His life again, with the Father’s approval.
Finally, He declares that He did all this in obedience to the Father’s command. The way of accomplishing our redemption was agreed on between the Father and the Son in advance.
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Why does God allow false teachers in the church?Truth is so important to Christians. Ours is the living and true God and the God of truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. The Spirit sanctifies us through the truth. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Yet the Christian church is constantly having to resist erroneous doctrines, false teachings, and heresies. Why does God allow such dangerous untruths and half-truths to continue even within His church and among those who profess to be His people? A large part of the answer is that it provides an opportunity for those who love the truth to make this clearly apparent. Paul explains to the church of Corinth, “There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Corinthians 11:19). In the way same way as the furnace makes it obvious what is precious metal and what is dross, so when heresies crop up, they test the quality of church members as to whether they resist or accept the false teaching. In the following updated extract, George Gillespie offers some reflections on Paul’s explanation.Why must there be heresies?The point I want to make here that God in His most wise and sovereign providence can and does make a good use of heresies, “so that they which are approved may be made manifest.”
“They which are approved” means those who are true and sincere saints, approved and accepted of God, or (as the Reformed theologian Bullinger puts it) the “truly godly.” The same word is used in this sense in Romans 16:10; 2 Corinthians 10:18; 2 Timothy 2:15, etc. The word is basically means good money, or well-refined silver, and it refers to saints with special reference to their mortification, i.e., their being refined from the dross of their corruptions. The opposite is “reprobate,” something to be rejected or thrown away, like dross (1 Corinthians 9:27; 2 Corinthians 13:5–6).
How is it that by heresies the godly are made manifest? Clearly the authors and followers of heresies are not the godly ones, for the apostle calls heresy a “work of the flesh” (Galatians 5:20) and wants heretics to be rejected, as those who are self-condemned (Titus 3:10). Rather, those who are approved are known by this, as one of their characteristics, that they hate, avoid, and resist heresies, and earnestly contend for the faith. They hold fast the truth of Christ without wavering.
Those who introduce or adhere to heresies are by that very fact known to be un-approved, like reprobate silver. So, anyone who sides with heresies or heretics, or commits themselves to them — anyone who does not stand fast in the faith — ipso facto declares that he is not included in the group Paul regards as godly. This is how contrary the Holy Ghost’s language is to the tone of the sects in our times.
Not only in this Scripture, but in various other Scriptures, the Holy Ghost distinguishes those who are approved by God, (a) from those who turn away from the truth after false doctrines, and believe seducing spirits, as well as (b) from those who live an ungodly life. In Deuteronomy 13:3, when a false prophet arose, and the sign or wonder he prophesied came to passe, what was God’s meaning in permitting this? “The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul.” Anyone who hearkened to the false prophet, even when his sign or wonder came to pass, made it known about themselves that they had not been loving God with all their heart.
Similarly, in Matthew 24:24, those who are elect are not deceived by false christs and false prophets. Conversely, those who are deceived by them, and go on in their error to the end, are not elect but reprobate (Galatians 5:20–21).
Heresy is a work of the flesh, and is included among the things which render a person incapable of inheriting the kingdom of God. Therefore, those who walk in the Spirit, and not in the flesh, and are made ready to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, are not only not heretics themselves, but they resist and oppose heresy, as a work of the flesh. Those who are Christ’s “disciples indeed” continue in His word: those who do not continue in His word are not his “disciples indeed” (John 8:31; see also 1 John 2:24 with 2 John v.9).
The wonder of providenceJustin Martyr, a theologian from the 2nd century, responded in one of his books to those who questioned God’s providence, saying, “If God has taken away the idolatries of the heathen and also abolished the Jewish worship, why has He allowed heresies to enter the Christian church?”
He gives this solution, that although heresies come into the church through people’s negligence and slothfulness (while men slept, the enemy sowed the tares among the wheat, Matthew 13:25), yet the providence of God is in no way slothful in this. God foresaw and foretold that heresies would come, and has given plain warning of it in His Word. He adds that the same God who has destroyed heathenish worship and abolished the Jewish religion will also destroy heresies, after He has permitted them for a time.
Even if we had no distinct knowledge of what God intends to bring out of heresies, yet we ought not to censure providence, but humbly and reverently adore God’s most wise and most holy (though secret and unsearchable) ways of working. If we saw some deadly poison among some drugs which a skilled and qualified physician is using, we would not rashly criticise the physician, for he knows how to disabuse that which is in itself poisonous, and to make it one of the ingredients in a most effective medicine.
Or if we came into the workshop of a skilled craftsman, and saw some ugly-looking instruments, which we think can serve no good, yet it would be deeply foolish to censure the craftsman, who knows to make an excellent good use of these things, though we don’t.
How much more foolish and sinful it is, to allow thoughts to rise in our hearts against the wisdom and providence of God, just because we do not know what He intends to work out of such things! And all the more inexcusable to accuse His providence, when He has made known to us in His Word that He is using heresies in order to make manifest who are and are not approved! As Chrysostom says, God permitting heresies to arise will not hurt you, if you are among the approved, for this will be the means of making you more manifest!
The inexcusableness of hereticsYet all this cannot excuse either the heretics or schismatics themselves, or these who connive at them. What Christ says of scandals in general is true of heresies in particular. “It must needs be that heresies come, but woe to him by whom they come!” I add, “and woe also to him who does not work towards extirpating them, according to his place and calling!”
The text 1 Corinthians 11:17 does not have reference to the will of God’s commandment (which is the rule of our duty), but to the will of God’s decree, i.e., the secret counsel of His will. It is God’s purpose to permit heresies, and to overrule them so that His graces in His children may shine forth more, and that, contrary to the intentions of Satan and heretics, even heresies may make manifest who are approved, namely (as Tertullian says), those who cannot be corrupted by them.
Can God’s people be taken in by heresies?Is it possible for someone who has been chosen and justified, and is regenerate, be drawn away, and infected with heresy through the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive?
I would reply that it is possible for a regenerate person to be tempted and drawn into heresy, just as he may be tempted and drawn into other great sins. Heresy is as inconsistent with the state of grace in any person as the other “works of the flesh,” such as adultery, fornication, drunkenness, or the like. We must think of an elect and justified person poisoned with heresy in the same way as we think of an elect and justified person lying in some great sin (for instance, Noah, Lot, David, Peter).
But then, that person, being elected, justified and regenerate, cannot be supposed to live and die in that sinful state. God will certainly heal his backslidings, and rescue his soul out of the snare of the devil by repentance, for the elect cannot be deceived in such a way as to continue and die in a heresy (Matt. 24:24). And, while he continues in such a gross sin or heresy, you may truly say that for that time, he is “unapproved,” or like dross, and unrefined silver. He is unapproved, greatly reproveable, to be rejected and cast away to the furnace like drossy and unrefined silver. And no wonder, for in that state he is not exercising his graces but his corruptions, and by his great sin he extremely grieves and dangerously quenches the Holy Spirit once given to him.
What if unbelievers resist heresies?Is it possible for those who are not approved of God to be preserved from being infected with heresies, and indeed be forward in resisting them?
I would reply that we must remember it is not the aim of this text to give us the distinguishing features between these who are “approved,” and all counterfeit Christians (“unapproved”), but between these who are approved, and these who foment or follow heresies. Those who are approved of God will continue in the truth of Christ, grounded and settled, and will stand fast in the faith and contend for it, and this is one of the characteristics found in all who are approved. Meanwhile, anyone who turns away from the truth, and from the doctrine of Christ, and turns aside after heresies, in doing so infallibly declares themselves to be unapproved, whatever profession or show of holiness they have. Whatever happens to the white mark of those who are “approved,” most certainly, this black mark cannot fail on the side of the “unapproved.” It is impossible for anyone who is of a heretical belief and faction to be holy, spiritual, mortified, and “approved,” or one who “walks in the Spirit, and not in the flesh.”
I do not doubt, but by the heresies and schisms of these times .God is exposing many unapproved, unmortified nominal Christians, who only claim to be pious. I may apply to our time what Chrysostom observed of his own day. “How many who are clothed with a shadow and show of godliness, and who have a counterfeit meekness, and who were thought to be some great ones, have been quickly manifested in this time, when so many fall away. Their hypocrisy has been detected, and they have appeared as they are, not what they feigned themselves to be.”
This is no small matter, but very much for the profit and edification of those who will observe it, to know distinguishingly those who are clothed in sheep’s clothing, and not to include hidden wolves indiscriminately among the true sheep. This time has become a furnace which exposes the false copper coin, melting the lead, burning up the chaff, and making the precious metals more manifest.
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When churchmen defile the churchJustin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has recently resigned over failures in his handling of one of the Church of England’s worst child abuse scandals. A damning report found a conspiracy of silence around the sadistic abuse of young boys both in the UK and in Africa, perpetrated by John Smyth, a prominent evangelical in the Church of England, and left unchallenged by bishops and others in church leadership. Several commentators have noted how church leaders can remain aloof from on-the-ground pastoral concerns and instead use their platforms for airing their own views on issues of little concern to local congregations. The daily spiritual needs of people’s souls are low in their priorities and when genuine wrongs are perpetrated, victims are easy to ignore. In perhaps less heinous cases, this picture is very recognisable in other churches too. When we drill down to the essential features of this situation, we find that God has already spoken His utter opposition to this kind of wickedness in the church. Long ago, He expressed His disgust at the prophets who brought defilement into His church by their conspiracy of cruelty and selfishness. Westminster Assembly member William Greenhill explains in the following updated extract from his commentary on Ezekiel.Multi-faceted wickednessTaking together the 25th and 28th verses of Ezekiel 22, you have expressed the sins of the prophets which defiled the land, making it to be called “The Uncleansed Land.” These sins are: conspiracy, cruelty, soul-murder, covetousness, inhumanity, and flattery.
Jerusalem was the holy city, the city of God, the place where God’s name was recorded, a type of the church of God in all ages. Yet there, even there, were wicked and false prophets. It shows us clearly that there will always be false prophets in the church of God. They were there in Christ’s time: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing” (Matt. 7:15). They were there in Paul’s time: “there was one Bar-Jesus, a Jew, and a false prophet” (Acts 13:6). They were there in John’s time: “Many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). So many have gone out that there is a generation of them here to this day, and they will not cease as long as the Lord has His church in the world. There will be false prophets around even at doomsday.
Unhealthy consensusEzekiel says there was “a conspiracy of her prophets.” They combined together, all of one heart and mind. The evil prophets met in Jerusalem and consulted, and they consented to prophesy the same thing, and none of them should prophesy otherwise. If anyone did, they would cry them down, along with any who might follow them. Thus they “made a conspiracy” against the true prophets, and those who were truly religious, opposing God and godliness. Read for yourself how they set themselves against Jeremiah (Jer. 26:8), and stirred up the princes and people against him (Jer. 26:11), and how they prophesied the same things (Jer 13:17 and 6:14).
Threatening wordsThese prophets are “like a roaring lion ravening the prey.” Lions are fierce and cruel, especially when hungry. Just as lions first roar, to scare people and other animals, before they then hunt their prey, so wicked prophets roared against the true prophets and their followers. “This man is worthy to die,” they said about Jeremiah (Jer. 26:11) — not to be silenced, or imprisoned, or banished, but “to die.” Nothing but death would suffice them. They were greedy of the prey, and said he should “surely die” (Jer 26:8).
Destructive policies“They have devoured souls.” “Souls” means “people,” by a figure of speech called synecdoche, where the part stands for the whole. These prophets preached dreams and visions out of their own heads, whereby they seduced and ruined multitudes (Eze. 13:10; Jer. 14:13; Jer 13:13).
When prophets fail to warn the people about their sins, they destroy them (Eze. 3:18), and it is the same when they present their own fancies instead of God’s word (Jer. 23:22 and 32). If only they had delivered the word of God, they would have turned people from evil ways, but by their lies and dreams they made them err.
Ambitiousness“They have taken the treasure and precious things.” These prophets were false, and would not do the work of a prophet unless the people gave to them — and gave them the best things. Micah said the same thing: the prophets teach for money (Mic. 3:11), and prepare war for those who refuse to put into their mouths (Mic. 3:5). They did not necessarily take the people’s treasure by force, or steal away their precious things, but the way they behaved was that the people must give. They were not content with what was their stipend, but they had ways, arts, devices, to get more.
Note that an alternative meaning for the Hebrew word is glory, or honour. The sense then would be that these false prophets were ambitious, aspiring to high place and the glory of popular acclaim.
Highly incongruous wickednessIt was the men who should have openly declared against sin, who openly committed sin. “There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof.” They roared like lions, not caring who heard or saw them; they made many widows in the very midst of Jerusalem. They sinned notorious sins, and were not ashamed of them. “Both prophet and priest are profane; in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord” (Jer. 23:11). In the temple, the most public place of worship, there they set up their idols and detestable things (Eze. 7:20).
When prophets and men in near relations to God are bad, they proceed from sin to sin, from degree to degree of the same sin, till they become impudent. These prophets conspired against those who were good in Jerusalem. They were cruel, murderous, covetous, inhumane, and all that even in the midst of Jerusalem. They did not blush at any or all these sins, only proceeded in their covetousness so that they got the treasure and precious things the people had.
Seen wickednessGod takes special notice of the sins of prophets. They are mentioned first in the general corruption that affected all sorts. There were priests’ sins, princes’ sins, and people’s sins, but the prophets are set in the front. They provoked God greatly. They did the most hurt. “From the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land” (Jer. 23:15). They were the corrupt springs, which corrupted the whole Jewish earth with the streams of their false doctrines, and the example of their sinful practices.
Their sins are spoken of in great detail in the Word, and set on record. God takes note of it all. They dealt falsely (Jer. 6:13). They “belied the Lord” (Jer. 5:12). They “taught rebellion against the Lord”’ (Jer. 28:16; 29:32). They “strengthened the hands of evil-doers,” so that no one returned from his wickedness (Jer. 23:14). They were “light and treacherous” (Zeph. 3:4). They deluded the people, and murdered their souls (Jer. 8:11; Eze. 13:10). They were exceedingly covetous, and greedy of gain from every quarter (Isa. 56:11; Mic. 3:5). They made the people forget the name of the Lord (Jer. 23:27). They were sly like foxes (Eze. 13:4).
When the prophets were defiled with such sins, they defiled the land with them, kindled the indignation of the Lord, and made Him say concerning them, “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall” (Jer. 23:15), and that He would consume them by sword and famine (Jer. 14:15).
← Sympathetic encouragement to persevere through persecutionFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Sympathetic encouragement to persevere through persecutionOne of the insidious ways that authoritarian regimes often take to coerce dissidents is to target their families. Covenanters often had to work as whole families to stay strong under persecution. This was the case with the Covenanter Robert Ker, Laird of Kersland. While he was on the run in 1669, his wife, Barbara Montgomery, Lady Kersland was betrayed as someone who kept conventicles in her chambers. Armed men searched her room, discovered her husband in hiding, and arrested him. Although she was ill at the time, Lady Kersland reacted with calmness and composure. She exhorted her husband to do nothing out of regard to her or her children that might wound his conscience. As he was taken away, she reminded him of the text, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”Robert and Barbara had five children, who seem to have been living with their mother at the time of their father’s arrest. One of the daughters was Jean Ker. She received the following letter from John Brown of Wamphray after her father was captured. John Brown used his own time of exile in Holland to write not only valuable books of theology, but also letters of consolation and encouragement to his friends at home. As the following updated letter shows, he writes kindly to Jean to maintain her courage, reminding her that God’s love is not inconsistent with the experience of difficulty, and confident of the rewards of glory which will follow a life of suffering.9th August, 1677
Worthy and dear Jean,
My long silence as to writing has not been through forgetfulness. I may confidently say, I neither do nor can forget you, and what is infinitely more to you is that the Father of mercies neither does nor will forget you.
Oh, how happy it is to have a portion in Him, to have a share of His cross, to be following Him through adversity, and to be owning Him and His despised cause! It may be it is somewhat bitter at present, but afterwards, what peace and consolation it will yield to a soul going into eternity, to remember and reflect on the sufferings and hardships he has endured and been put to suffer for the sake of Jesus and His glorious truth and interest! And more, to see the special love of God calling him or her out to confess Him, and to endure the displeasure of men for His sake!
I hope you find, dear Jean, the unseen incomes of joy refreshing your soul in the midst of all your other hardships, making you say you would not change places with the best. The sour cross is made sweeter than all the honeyed rest, wealth, pleasure, and ease would be, which others delight themselves with, and settle down on as their portion.
Up your heart, my dearly beloved. The Lord is coming. He has seen all that young Jean Ker has been made to suffer for His sake. All is fresh in His remembrance. All Jean Ker’s tears, turmoils, groans, sighs, and sore hearts, etc., are written in His book of remembrance. You will think it all little enough one day, and when you see with a full sight His glorious face, you will say, “Oh, is this He, for whom I suffered disgrace, harassment, inconveniences, and other evils? If I had known what a one He was and is, I would have been willing to have accounted it my glory to have suffered ten thousand times more than I did!”
O mistress, how joyful your heart will be when He shall come to the door of heaven, and welcome you into glory, and with His soft hand wipe all your tears away, and put on beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness, and put the new song, the song of Moses and the redeemed, in your mouth! Can you now imagine how your heart will leap for joy?
Take courage, then. Believe and hope. He is true, and will not deny Himself. His word is tried, His promises are sure. Let us give Him glory by faith, and in patience possess our souls, for not one word He ever spoke shall fail.
Let all your work be to get your heart worked up more and more to love him, and to wonder at His dispensations of love towards you. Give Him glory that He ever put on your father’s family the honour of standing by the cause of Christ, when many that seemed something before have forsaken Him, and have embraced this present world.
Fear not. A deliverance will come. I am afraid that the dawning of that day shall be terrible. The righteous God will be avenged on an adulterous generation. But in the meantime, He will be a hiding place to His Zion.
His grace be with you, now and ever more.
I remain yours in the Lord.
JB
← How can Christians confront the fear of dying?When churchmen defile the church →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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How can Christians confront the fear of dying?The fear of suffering pain, along with the fear of needing to rely on the care of others, leads many people to imagine what a ‘good death’ might look like. For some, it means being in control of when they die — the key is choice and self-determination. Beyond death they either believe there is nothing or presume that things will be better than they are now. Those who believe in Jesus, however, have something better to hope for than the absence of physical suffering. On their behalf, Jesus has actually abolished death. He has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Whatever their final weeks and days look like, believers fall asleep in Jesus and wake up to see Him face to face. David Dickson reflected on Jesus’ victory over death. He shows that if we relinquish self-determination in order to entrust ourselves to Jesus, death’s destroyer and our deliverer, fear is displaced by peace and contentment.Jesus has destroyed SatanPaul tells us that Jesus took the nature of His people, “that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14–15).
Sinners, without Christ, are under the sentence of death, both temporal and eternal. Satan has the power of death (as the hangman has power over the pit and gallows), to take away those who are not delivered from his power into torment at death.
However, Christ has destroyed Satan’s power and tyranny on this point, on behalf of all His elect, and true believers.
The way Christ has overcome Satan is by His own death, ransoming His own. In order to do this, it was necessary for Christ to be a mortal man, as well as God. This is how He was able to die.
Love to the “children,” that is, the elect who were given to Him, made the Son of God come down, and make Himself a man also. Christ, in His human nature, is as much a man as any of the elect, having flesh, and blood, and bones, just as we do. His flesh and blood is not only similar to ours, but a part of our substance. He has come of the same stock of Adam and Eve, as surely as we have, of the same substance, and not made either by creation out of nothing, or by transubstantiation of some other thing.
Jesus delivers believers from the fear of deathAs well as destroying the devil, another fruit of Christ’s death, is the delivery of believers from the bondage of the fear of death, in which they lie before belief. He “delivers them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:15).
There is a natural fear of death, and the devil, and hell, rooted in all people, always. It may not be always felt, yet it is easily wakened. This fear puts people in bondage. Because of it, they do not dare to meditate on death, or God’s judgement, or hell, as deserved by themselves.
However, Christ’s death delivers His people both from the danger of this evil, and from the bondage of this fear also. None but a child of Christ’s can have solid and true courage against death, neither is there a free man in the world, except the true Christian.
Hope in Jesus anchors the soulAfter speaking of the solidity of the ground on which the believer rests, Paul also shows the stability of the grip which the believer takes of these grounds. “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” (Heb. 6:19).
He uses the simile of the grip which a ship’s anchor takes when it is cast on good ground. There is “hope,” meaning “the thing we hope for,” as well as “hope,” in the sense of “how we lay hold of it.”
Albeit we have not gotten full possession of the promises in this life, yet we get a grip of them, by faith and hope. Hope’s grip is not a slender imagination, but solid, and strong, like the grip of an anchor.
The believer is not exempted from being some experience of tossed about by trouble, and temptations, while he is in this world. Indeed, believers are subject to these things, as a ship on the sea. Yet, whatsoever upheavals there may be, all is safe — the soul’s anchor is cast within the veil, into heaven — the soul is secure.
Paul attributes to the anchor all kinds of good properties. It is weighty, solid, and firm, it will not drag, nor bow, nor break, it is so sure, and steadfast. Again, it is sharp, and piercing; it has entered into that within the veil, that is, into heaven, represented by the sanctuary beyond the veil. And so the ground is good, as well as the anchor, to hold everything fast.
Jesus is waiting for His people to join HimSpeaking of heaven, where believers have cast their anchor, Paul says, “whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Heb. 6:20).
What commends our anchor-ground is that Christ is there, where the anchor takes hold, as our “forerunner.”
Calling Christ our “forerunner” calls to mind that Christ was once in the ship of the church militant Himself, tossed about and tempted as others, albeit without sin. Yet He has now gone ashore, to heaven, where the ship of the church is seeking to land.
In that He has gone ashore as our forerunner, His landing is an evidence that we who are following after Him will land there also. He goes before to make our entry easy. He is forerunner for us, on our behalf, for our advantage, to prepare a place for us.
The fact that our anchor is there where Christ is, means that it must be all the more secure, for He is there, to hold everything fast, until He draws the ship to the shore.
Then also, Christ has entered into heaven as our “high priest for ever.” He is invested in an office for us, the office of the high priest. He is the truth and the substance of the priest as a type. His priesthood is for ever, and so for the benefit of His people in all ages. We now, as well as others before us, may have the benefit of His intercession.
He is said to be “made” a high priest after His entry into heaven. Although He was priest for His church from the beginning, yet it was never declared so clearly until after His ascension into heaven, when He sent down tangible blessings on His church, and continues to do so still ever since that time.
← What can we count on tomorrow to bring?Sympathetic encouragement to persevere through persecution →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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What can we count on tomorrow to bring?The expectation of good in the future is a joyful feature of the Christian life, but only because the expectation is well-founded. Those who belong to Christ can confidently look forward to a bright future in glory because of who the triune God is and what He has done for our redemption. If, however, we place our confidence in the fickle things of this life, their sheer unreliability means that we are acting with the utmost folly. In just one week, the global news has included the sudden and shocking deaths of a UK politician, a pop singer, and a terrorist leader. It is rare that any of us go for long periods without some startling event upsetting some wish or expectation we had held. We are constantly being reminded of the unpredictability of life in ways that underline the immense tragedy of pinning our hopes of happiness and fulfilment on things in this life instead of on the Saviour. This is how Hugh Binning interpreted the words in Proverbs, “Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Prov. 27:1). The following updated and abridged excerpt explores how cramped our vision is when we do not take eternity into account, and how precarious our happiness is when we expect to find it in temporal things instead of in God.“Tomorrow!” This is the narrow sphere of poor man’s comprehension! All he can attain to is to make provision for the present time. These are the two great ruins and decays of the nature of man. One, he is degenerated from God to created things, and he seeks his joy and rest in them, when in them there is nothing but the opposite, i.e., vexation. And then, he is fallen from the apprehension of eternity, and the poor soul is confined within the narrow bounds of time. Now all his forethought is to lay up some perishing things for some few revolutions of the sun, for some few morrows. After this, an endless morrow ensues, yet he does not perceive it, and makes no provision for it, and all his glorying and boasting is only on some presumptuous confidence and ungrounded assurance that these things have stability for the time to come.
It is worth observing that, whatever the immediate and particular matter and occasion of our glorying in may be, yet self is the great and ultimate object of it. It is self that we glory in, whatever created thing be the reason or occasion of it. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow.” This is the crookedness and perverseness of man’s spirit since his departure from God. Self-love and pride have spread through the whole of mankind, and the whole in everyone. Every one is infected, and all in every one.
We are not self-reliantAlthough we have this strange self-idolizing tendency, and a self-glorying disposition, yet we are such poor and beggarly creatures that we do not in reality have sufficient within ourselves to give satisfaction to our hearts. That is why we must borrow from external things. When we have any kind of ownership of them, or entitlement to them, then we glory in ourselves for them, as if they were truly in ourselves!
We are creatures by nature most indigent, yet most proud, which is unnatural. No man is satisfied within himself (except the good man, Prov. 14:14), but everyone goes outside of themselves to seek satisfaction at the door of every creature. When there are some plumes or feathers we can borrow from other birds, we begin to raise our crests, and boast ourselves, as if we had all these of our own, and were beholden to none. But just as things that are truly our own are not sufficient to feed this flame of glorying, without bringing in some outward things, so present things, and the present time, will not afford enough fuel for it, without the addition of “tomorrow.”
“Boast not thyself of tomorrow.” No man’s present possession satisfies him, without the addition of hope and expectation for the future. This makes apparent the poverty of our spirit, and the emptiness of all things we enjoy here. What we presently possess does not fill up the vacuums in the heart, without something being supplied by our imaginations about tomorrow. A prodigal and riotous waster cannot get by with his yearly income, but takes on more on his estate on the next year’s income, before it come. He begins to spend out of it before it actually comes, and then, when it comes, it cannot suffice. In the same way, the insatiable and indigent heart of man cannot feed its joy in complacency on even the whole world, even if it were now in its possession, without some addition of hopes and expectations for the time to come. The soul anticipates and forestalls the morrow, and borrows present joy and boasting from it, and yet when it comes itself, perhaps it will not so much as fill the hand of the reaper, never mind pay the debt of glorying that was taken out on in its name, or recompense the expectation which was in it (see Job 11:18, 20; 8:13).
Our circumstances are so changeableThere is such an infinite variety in the details of providence that it is folly for anyone to presume to boast of any thing. So many things fall between the cup and the lip, the chalice and the chin, as the proverb is. Nothing is certain, but that all things are uncertain.
All things are subject to perpetual motion, revolution, and change — today a city, tomorrow a heap of ruins. And there is nothing between a great city and a heap but one day, nothing between a man and no man but one hour. Our life is subject to infinite casualties. It may receive a fatal stroke from the slightest thing, and the most unexpected. It is a bubble floating on the water. So many poor, dying creatures rise up, and swim and float a while, and are tossed up and down by wind and wave, and the least puff of wind or drop of rain sends us back to nothing.
We are a vapour appearing for a very little time — a creature of no solidity — a dream — a shadow and appearance of something. This dream or apparition is but for a little time, and then it vanishes, not so much into nothing, for it was little distant from nothing before, but rather it disappears.
All human affairs are like the spokes of a wheel, in a continual circumgyration. A captive king in defeat was made to pull the chariot of Sesostris, an ancient king of Egypt, but he kept looking behind him. When Sesostris demanded the reason, he replied, “I am looking at the wheel, and musing on the vicissitudes and permutations of it, and how the highest parts are instantly the lowest.” This word repressed the king’s vainglory.
In this constant wheeling of outward things, which is the soul that enjoys true quiet and peace? The soul that is fixed, as it were, in the centre, on God. It is the soul that has its abode in God. Though the external parts are in a continual violent motion, yet the centre of the wheel is at much peace. It is not violently turned, but gently complies with the changes of the other.
We know so littleAs there is no more in our power but the present hour — for to yesterday we are dead already, for it is past and cannot return, it is as it were buried in the grave of oblivion, and to tomorrow we are not yet born, for it is not come to the light, and we know not if ever it will come — so there is no more in our knowledge but the present hour.
The time past, though we remember it, yet it is without our practical knowledge, it admits of no change by it. The time to come is not born to us, which means in effect that we are not born to it.
And indeed, in the Lord’s disposing of all affairs under the sun, after this method, there is infinite wisdom and goodness both. God has made us so that we would not set our heart, nor terminate our eyes upon any thing here, but He has opened up and spread eternity before us in the Scriptures. There you may read and understand your fortune — your everlasting estate in it. He hides temporal things from us, and wills us to live implicitly, and give Him the trust of them without anxious foresight, but eternity He has unveiled and opened up to us.
Certain it is, that no one, till they are fully possessed of God, who is an all sufficient good (Psalm 4) can find any satisfaction in any present enjoyment, without the addition of some hope for the future. Great things without Him will not content. For what is it all, if you have no assurance for the time to come? Yet slight things with Him will make us content. Great things with little hope and expectation, fill us with greater vexation instead of joy, and the greater they be, this is the more increased.
If you really want to have solid reasons for glorying, and want to avoid being fooled into a golden dream of vain expectations of vain things, I would exhort you to labour to fill up the vacuums among present things with that great hope, the hope of salvation. This will be like a helmet to keep your head safe in all difficulties (1 Pet. 1:3; Heb. 6:18–19; Rom. 5:5). It is true that people’s expectations of gain, credit, etc, do in some measure abate the torment and pain of the things we presently lack and need, but it is certain that such hope is not some panacea to the heart, so as to expel all grief. Instead, it leaves much vexation there.
← Why we need a personal relationship with GodHow can Christians confront the fear of dying? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Why we need a personal relationship with GodIt is one of the great joys of the Christian church that the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is so easily accessible and readily available to sinners. The salvation He has procured is not hidden somewhere remote, but there for the taking. The question is whether those who need it most will actually take possession of it and make use of it. The Saviour must be embraced, His salvation needs to be grasped hold of. One pastor who felt the urgency of this point was Patrick Gillespie, who wrote a book on the covenant of grace. Patrick Gillespie (1617–1675) was minister in Kirkcaldy and Glasgow before being appointed Principal of Glasgow University. George Gillespie was his older brother. The following updated extract is from the section of his book devoted to explaining how the covenant is personal.What is personal about it?No one else can do it for meThis is a work and business which no one can transact for someone else, but each one must personally enter the covenant for himself. I mean, the saving interesting of a soul in Christ is an act which you cannot do by a proxy, nor transmit to your heirs, not even to your children.
It’s about persons, not thingsThe covenant of grace is not only, or even mainly, a covenant of goods or of things, but of persons. Both parties to the covenant speak the apostle’s words, “I seek not yours, but you” (2 Corinthians 12:14). On God’s side, it consists not so much in God promising life and salvation and all good things to us, as in His promising and bequeathing Himself to us, even Himself personally considered, the Father, Son, and Spirit. On the sinner’s side, it does not consist in our covenanting our service and duty and obedience to God, so much as in our giving ourselves away to him. “Ye shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:28). “And I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:18).
It involves my whole personIt is a covenant with the whole person. It is not a covenant with this or that part of you, but with the whole person, soul and body. “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17). “Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:20). There is no part in him that is not in covenant with God; yea, the very dust of the saints, their dead bodies are in covenant with God, and by virtue thereof, shall be raised up again at the last day, as Christ proves. (Matthew 22:31, 32).
It requires me to personally do somethingThis covenant requires and presupposes something to be personally done by us (beside what Christ did for us, and in our name) before we can actually have any benefit by it. “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me (John 6:57). And “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).
What is so important about it?All who hear the offers of the gospel, as particular individual souls, have a duty to explicitly enter covenant with God through Christ on the terms of grace. The weight and importance of this duty will be apparent if we consider the nature and necessity of it, as follows.
Our survival depends on itConsider the wretched condition under which all lie, if they have not personally, each one for themselves, entered in covenant with God. They must stand or fall by their own righteousness, and by the tenor of the covenant of works that was made with Adam. “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them” (Romans 10:5). They are “by nature the children of wrath, even as others … without Christ, strangers from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:3,12). “For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a-whoring from thee” (Psalm 73:27).
Our blessedness depends on itConsider the thoroughly blessed state of these who personally enter into a covenant with God. If someone’s state is blessed on account of personal covenanting with God, then this must needs be a very weighty duty, and of huge importance. “Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 144:15). “O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou are my Lord … The Lord is my portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage” (Psalm 16:2,5,6).
Our access to Christ’s redemption depends on itConsider the ineffectualness of all that Christ did and suffered, without this personal covenanting with God on our part. This is the very application of the cure and remedy. Without it, we can have no actual benefit by the covenant of redemption, nor by what Christ suffered and did in order to fulfilling the covenant of suretyship. This is the very sprinkling of the blood of the covenant upon us (Hebrews 9:19–20). “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you” (Ezekiel 36:25).
It is like when a man contracts for himself and his heirs. His heirs cannot actually have any benefit by that covenant, till they have taken possession of the inheritance. So we can have no actual benefit by, nor right in law to claim, the everlasting inheritance by Christ’s covenant and death, until we take possession of Him by faith in Him. That is how we come to inherit the promises. “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:14,22,26,29; see also Hebrews 9:15).
Our union with Christ depends on itWithout personally covenanting with God we cannot have an actual being in Christ, for it is by personal covenanting with Him through faith that we come to have the reality of a spiritual and mystical union with Him. As we can have no evil by or from Adam, without having a being in his nature, so neither can we have any good or benefit by Christ, until we have a being in Him, and be made partakers of the divine nature. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me” (John 6:57).
Our assurance depends on itWithout this we cannot make our calling and election sure, the greatest business that is committed to us. How can a soul that has not personally entered covenant with God come to know certainly its everlasting estate? It is impossible for a soul to find out its election, if it has not found this effect of it, or to for the soul to make sure of its calling to the state of grace, without personal covenanting with God. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness within himself … He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life … These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:10,12,13).
Someone who has not covenanted with God is so far from having certainty about his everlasting state, that he lacks both the grounds of certainty, and the witness and evidences of it. “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3). “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14). “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16).
Our peace depends on itWithout personal covenanting with God, the soul can never be quiet inwardly, as being settled in a solid, well-grounded peace and satisfaction about its estate. It is continually tossed about, till it settles on this mountain, “Neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy upon thee” (Isaiah 54:10). Though this is not the harbour and port where the souls of the saints shall arrive, yet sure it is a safe road for hope to anchor in, and for the soul to lie quiet and safe in, with peace at home. “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” (Hebrews 6:19). “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever” (Isaiah 32:17). “Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow” (2 Samuel 23:5).
Our boldness with God depends on itWithout this personal covenanting, no boldness or familiarity of access to God can be reached, or maintained. We find that the saints have been bold on this account, and have maintained their faith in evil times, when their souls have witnessed to a personal covenant between God and them. “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever” (Psalm 73:26). “The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him” (Lamentations 3:24). “Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not” (Isaiah 63:16). See also Psalm 42 throughout. It is on this ground that we are exhorted to boldness (Hebrews 10:22).
Our comfort in difficult situations depends on itWithout such covenanting with God we will not be able to put a good construction on providences which do not look good at first sight, when there is any harshness in them. This is the very spring of satisfaction with all our providences, that God is in covenant with me, and these providences must come from covenant love. “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies” (Psalm 25:10). “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot … Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:5,9,10).
Now, if personal covenanting is a duty of such importance, how is it that you dare to slight it? How does it come about that you dare not shake off and slight other duties, yet you are not more taken up with this? Will you hear the gospel, pray, read, meditate, and yet not personally enter into covenant with God? Let it be far from you!
← Seven reasons why pastors need to be holyFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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The honour of being God’s servantMoses, the great leader of God’s people in the Old Testament, was characterised above all by his meekness. His brave leadership in exceedingly testing circumstances was marked neither by harshness nor self-aggrandizing. Although it subverts worldly ideas of what a strong leader looks like, those who want to be the greatest in Christ’s church have to be servants, and serve God by serving others. In the following excerpt from one of his sermons, the godly pastor Alexander Wedderburn explores the huge dignity that belonged to Moses when God called him, after his death, simply, “My servant.”Commendations for God’s servantsThe great testimony of God to Moses is, “my servant.” It is the highest commendation of a man after his death, that in his life he was God’s servant. It is true, all the creatures are in their kind subservient, and God’s greatest enemies do His work. But to be “His” by way of distinction or propriety, as Moses is said to be, is a man’s greatest eulogy in death.
In Scripture, “servant” is the name given to the most eminent saints as their title of greatest honour. Think of “Abraham my servant,” “Job my servant,” “Jacob my servant,” “David my servant.” The greatest prophets and apostles glory in it; Paul, for example, prefixes it to some of his epistles, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.” This name is also given to the greatest princes, such as Nebuchadnezzar, head of the Assyrian empire (Jer. 25:9) and Cyrus, head of the Persian empire (Isa. 45). It is given to the excellent martyrs (Rev. 19:2), to the saints in glory (Rev. 22:3), and to the blessed angels (Rev. 19:10). Lastly, this name is given to Jesus the Mediator, “Behold my Servant …” (Isa. 42:1). When you see all these uses of the name laid together, it shows what an eminent testimony of honour it is.
Many things are fixed on in the world, as things which commend people after their death, according to the diversity of their lives. Some have been commended for their honour, some their courage, some their wisdom, some their riches. Where there is a concatenation of these, how eminently commendable that person must be! Well, in spending your life in service to God, a multitude of these concur. How deservedly then is a servant of God commended!
There is wisdom in being God’s servantIt is the highest wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and a good understanding have all they that do His commandments. Moses is brief in determining what wisdom consists in. “Keep his statutes, for this is your wisdom” (Deut. 4:6). Yea, where His service is absent, the Scripture speaks of men as fools. Since they have rejected the word of God, what wisdom is in them? (Jer. 8:9) The foolish virgins are foolish indeed, to make no provision for the time to come. Though they should be able, with the philosophers, to dispute de omni re scibili (about every knowable thing), or, with Solomon, to traverse nature from the cedar to the hyssop (1 Kings 4:33), yet he who does not walk circumspectly is a fool (Eph. 5:16).
There is honour in being God’s servantThere is no trade of life so honourable as to serve God. “The way of life is above to the wise” (Prov. 15:24). There are four things which show how honourable a service it is.
First, they are taken up with the noblest objects. Philosophers call their metaphysics the most noble science, because it deals with the highest beings. God’s servants, like Caleb, constantly follow Him (Num. 14).
Next, they act from the noblest principles. Love constrains them, and indeed, by regeneration, they partake of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1), which elevates the spirit far above what the most famous among the Greeks or Romans could ever reach.
Then, they aim at the noblest ends, such as the glory of God, the good of His church, the salvation of their own souls. Others, like men of low spirits, have low designs. “Who will show us any good? is that which many say” (Psa. 4).
And they receive the noblest reward. “Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of immortal glory.” “Blessed is that servant whom his Lord shall find waiting; verily, I say unto you, he shall make him ruler over all that he hath.” What more can be imagined?
There is gain in being God’s servantAs it is honourable, so it is truly gainful to be His servants. “Godliness is great gain, for it hath the promises of this life, and that which is to come.” Like ships that go to a far country, they keep a trade with heaven, where they have wine, and milk, and honey, and white linen, and eye-salve, without money and without price.
No sooner do His elect children, though they were prodigals before, come to their father’s house, but they are clothed with the best robe, and fed on the fatted calf, and given a ring on their hand, and shoes on their feet. Granted, that which usually goes under the name of riches is not their portion, but their gain is more noble, and they lay up to themselves where the moth cannot enter.
There is enjoyment in being God’s servantAs it is gainful, so it is exceeding pleasant to be God’s servant. We may say, as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon’s servants, “Blessed are those servants who stand by and hear the wisdom of thy words.”
Their walks are sometimes to green pastures, sometimes to the fields, sometimes to the gardens, to see if the pomegranates bud, sometimes to the banqueting house. It is true, they also sometimes walk down to the wilderness (Hosea 2:14), but there they are allured, and a door of hope is opened to them.
What excellent company they have in these walks! Enoch walked with God (Gen. 6). If to walk with the wise is, in Solomon’s eyes, so great a privilege (Prov. 13:2), what must it be to walk with the only wise God?
What sweet fellowship they have in these walks! Sometimes they sit down under His shadow, sometimes He kisses them with the kisses of his mouth, sometimes He eats with them, sometimes He takes them in His bosom (Isa. 40:11). How pleasant a life must this be! The apostle simply calls it “the life of God” (Eph. 4:18).
They live the sweetest life. Satan can say to God of Job, “Hast thou not set a hedge about him, and about all he hath?” “About all he hath,” is saying a lot. “Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?” Who? It is like the expression that Ahasuerus used with Esther, “Who is he, or where is the man, that durst presume to do this?” It is the highest act of boldness that ever the creature attempted, to be a persecutor of those who have salvation for walls and bulwarks, and are sheltered under the faithfulness of God, as a bird under the feathers of the mother hen (Psa. 71).
Lay all this together and see if it is not a high eulogy to be His servant!
Appropriate responses from God’s servantsRespectIf it is so great a privilege to be God’s servant, then this reproves those who undervalue the privilege. Some disdain His service as a bondage, even though they call Him master and lord, but David preferred the lowest employments in His service to dwelling in the tents of wickedness. Some, like Canaan, are “servant of servants” (Gen. 9:25), and despise their own mercy. Rectify your opinion of his service, since it is the honour of angels, who are in Scripture referred to more often by their service than their nature, though their nature is most pure and excellent spirit.
ConsolationHere is consolation for His servants. Though their service is never so low, yet their privilege is great, and especially since they are friends, as well as servants.
In fact, one who does the will of Christ, he is His father, His mother, His brother, His sister. Rejoice in your privilege, even when it has a mixture of the cross with it.
StrivingIf it is such a great privilege to be His servants, then they should strive to do His service acceptably. These are the qualifications required in His servants if they are to serve acceptably.
Loyalty. They cannot serve two masters, for they must cleave to the one, and leave the other. You must give up on lusts, Satan, and the world, and you must not serve others in opposition to Him. These opposites send many out of His servants, and like Gideon’s 22,000, they return to their tents (Jud. 7:3).
Responsiveness. A servant cannot stand on his own rights, but must be at the beck of his master. If the centurion said to one, “Go!” he had to go. You must not stand and dispute your duty — His will is reason enough, even if His will is that you are to suffer for righteousness’ sake. Supposing His will was that we should walk on a sea of trouble, we ought to say with Peter, “Master, if thou wilt bid me, I will come unto thee.”
Cheerfulness. His service must be done cheerfully (Psa. 110:3). It is true, we are to serve him with reverence, and godly fear (Heb. 12:28), yet this is not inconsistent with cheerfulness. He does not love to have service wrung out of us, as if to an austere and rigorous master, as the man who had the one talent called him; but we are to rejoice in trembling.
Assiduousness. We must labour to do Him service in every thing. Servants are to obey their masters, as the servants of Jesus Christ, directing and referring to His honour their most ordinary employments.
Selflessness. We must not lay stress on our service, as if it deserved our hire. When we have done all, we are unprofitable servants. Indeed, though He say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” yet our reply ought to be, “When saw we thee hungry, and fed thee?”
← Seven reasons why pastors need to be holyFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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We need to give the true God true worshipWhen we worship the true God, it is fundamentally not about what we get out of it, but rather glorifying Him. Yet as we worship Him, we are gradually being conformed more and more to His image. This benefits us as well as being honouring to Him. Meanwhile, our understanding of what God is like cannot but shape the manner in which we worship Him. When we have a true grasp of who He truly is, the consequence for our worship will be that it truly reflects what He is like. The way we worship God should tell a story about the kind of God He really is. These interconnected themes stand out in the following excerpt from Hugh Binning’s discussion of John 4:23–24 (“… true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth…”).Our worship should correspond to the God we are worshippingThe right manner of worshipping God is so as our worship carries the stamp of His image on it, such that it is like a mirror in which we may behold God’s nature and properties.
What He Himself is, that is what He wants to be acknowledged to be, and I think it would really be true worship if it had engraved on it the name of the true and living God, and if it proclaimed of itself: God is, and He is a rewarder of them that seek Him diligently.
Most part of our service speaks of an unknown God. Its inscription is, “To the unknown God.” There is so little reverence, or love, or fear, or knowledge in it, that it’s as if we did not worship the true God at all, but an idol. I fear that our worship is sometimes such that no one could conclude from it that it had any relation to the true God!
But this is true worship, when it renders back to God His own image and name. In water from a pure and clean fountain, you may see your reflection distinctly, but a troubled or muddy water, he cannot see himself. So, pure worship is worship which receives and reflects the pure image of God, but impure and unclean worship cannot receive it and retain it.
Christians, please consider this, for the Father seeks a certain kind of worshipper —and why? Because in them He finds Himself (so to speak) — His own image and superscription is on them, His mercy is engraved on their faith and confidence, His majesty and power are stamped on their humility and reverence, His goodness is to be read on the soul’s rejoicing, His greatness and justice in the soul’s trembling.
O, how little true worship there is, even among them whom the Father has sought out to make true worshippers! We stay at the first principles of religion, and do not go on to build on the foundation. Sometimes our worship has a stamp of God’s holiness and justice, in the fear and terror of such a majesty which makes us tremble before Him — but where is the stamp of His mercy and grace which should be written in our faith and rejoicing? Tremble and fear indeed, yet rejoice with trembling, because there is mercy with Him. Sometimes there is rejoicing and quietness in the soul, but it quickly degenerates into carnal confidence, and makes the soul turn grace into wantonness, and think of itself above what is right, because it is not counterpoised with the sense of His holiness and justice.
O, to have these jointly written on the heart in worship — fear, and reverence, and confidence, and humility, and faith! That is a rare thing. It is a divine composition and temper of spirit that makes a divine soul. For the most part, our worship reflects nothing of God, neither His power, nor His mercy and grace, nor His holiness and justice, nor His majesty and glory. A complacent, faint, formal way, void of reverence, of humility, of fervency, and of faith!
I beseech you, let us consider, as before the Lord, how much effort and time we lose, and how we please no one but ourselves, and profit no one at all! Stir up yourselves as in His sight! For it is the fixed and constant meditation of God and His glorious properties that will beget the resemblance there should be between our worship, and the God whom we worship, and imprint His image on it. Then it would please Him, and profit you, and edify others.
Our worship should be spiritualOur worship must have the stamp of God’s spiritual nature, and be conformed to it in some measure, else it cannot please him. There must be a conformity between God and souls. This is the great purpose of the gospel, to repair the image of God which was originally on man, and make him like God again.
Now, this is the way that Jesus Christ repairs this image, and brings about this conformity with God. As the soul worships God in a way that is suitable to His nature, it is the more and more like God, and happy in that likeness. “God is a Spirit, therefore,” says Christ, “you must worship him in spirit and truth.” The worship of saints must be of a spiritual nature, so that it may be like the immortal divine Spirit. It is such worshippers the Father seeks. He seeks souls to make them like Himself, and this likeness and conformity to God is the very foundation of the soul’s happiness, and eternal refreshment.
This is a point of great consequence, and I fear, not much laid to heart. The worship must be like the Worshipped. It is a spirit that must worship the Eternal Spirit. It is not a body that can be the principal and chief agent in the business.: What communion can God have with your bodies, while your souls are removed far from Him, any more than He can with beasts? All society and fellowship must be between those that are like one another. A human being can have no comfortable company with animals, or with stones, and trees: it is people that can converse with people; and a spirit must worship the self-existent Spirit.
Our worship should involve our whole personDo not, however, make a mistake on this point, as if in New Testament times we are not called to an external and bodily worship, and services to which our outward body is instrumental. This is one of the deep delusions of this age, into which some have fallen, that there are no external ordinances, but that Christians are called to worship all spirit. This is one of the “spiritual” teachings (as they would call themselves) which you must not receive, for it is neither the Spirit of God, nor of Christ, that teaches this — nor, indeed, the Spirit of God the Creator, because He created the whole man, body and soul, and so must be worshipped by the whole man. He created man with the capacity to offer up external actions in a reasonable manner with the inward affections.
Thus, as the Lord created us, so we should serve Him, every member, every part in its own capacity — the soul to precede, and the body to follow; the soul to be the chief worshipper, and the body its servant employed in the worship. True worship has a body and a soul as well as a true human being. As the soul separated is not a complete person, so neither is the soul separated a complete worshipper without the body. The external ordinances of God is the body, the inward soul affection is the spirit, which, joined together, makes complete worship.
Our Lord Jesus taught us to offer up our bodies and spirits both, in a reasonable service (Rom. 12:1–2). The sacrifice of the bodily performance, offered up by the spiritual affection and renewed mind is “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable and reasonable:” The spirit which dwelt in Christ above measure, did not think it was too base to express itself in the way of external ordinances! He was indeed above all, above the law, yet He willingly came under them — to teach us, who have so much need to come under them. He prayed much, He preached, He sang and read, to teach us how to worship, and how much need we have of prayer and preaching.
The spirit which Christ promised to His disciples and apostles breathes most lively in the use of the external ordinances all their days. “The hour is come, and now is,” said Christ, “in which the true worship of God shall not be in the external ceremonies of the Old Testament church, or in rites void of all life and inward sense of piety.” The true worship of God shall be made up of a soul and body, of spirit and truth — of the external appointed ordinances according to the Word of truth and the Spirit of truth, and of the spirit and inward soul-affection and sincerity which shall quicken and actuate that external performance. Worshippers who had no use of ordinances were never envisaged. Christ was not that kind of worshipper, His disciples were not that kind of worshippers, and therefore the idea that we can do without ordinances is a “new gospel,” which we ought not to receive.
As it is certain then, that both soul and body must be employed in this business, so it is sure that the soul and spirit must be the first mover, and chiefest agent in it. That is because it is a spiritual business, and relates to the Fountain Spirit, who has the most perfect opposition to all false appearances and merely external shows. The part of man that comes nearest to God must draw near in worshipping God, and if that is removed far away, there is no real communion with God. Man judges according to the outward appearance, and can reach no further than the outward man, but God is an all-searching Spirit, who tries the heart and reins, and therefore He will pass a different judgement on your worship then other people can do, because He observes all the secret wanderings and escapes of the heart out of His sight. He misses the soul when you present attentive ears, or eloquent tongues. There is no dallying with His majesty. Painting will not deceive him: His very nature is contrary to hypocrisy and dissimulation.
O consider, my beloved, what a one you have to do with! It is not other people, but the Father of spirits, who will not be pleased with what pleases others of your own flesh, but who must have a spirit to serve Him!
Alas! what are we doing with such empty names and shows in religion? Busied in the outside of worship only, as if we had no one to do with but others who have eyes of flesh, all that we do in this way is lost labour, and will never be reckoned as true worship!
Many make religion merely a matter of outward fashion and external custom. Even your very thoughts and minds are removed from this business. You have nothing present but an ear, or an eye, and your minds are about other business. Your desires, your fears, your joys, your delights, your affections never did run in the channel of religious exercises, but all your enthusiasm is for other things. You have no sense of God, His mercy, or justice, or wrath, or of your own misery and need. You sorrow in other things, but have no sorrow here — none for sin. You rejoice for other things, but you cannot rejoice at the gospel. Oh, be not deceived! God is not mocked.
← Seven reasons why pastors need to be holyFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Seven reasons why pastors need to be holyMoral failure in high-profile ministers is exceptionally ruinous to the good they may have previously done in their ministry and can be devastatingly destabilising to the faith of those who had benefited from their work. It underlines how essential it is for ministers to be genuinely holy and actually godly from the heart outwards. Personal holiness is a gospel issue since it affects the conviction with which the gospel is declared and also its credibility if the messenger fails to live up to the message. The souls of many are at stake. The conduct of a negligent minister has eternal consequences (1 Tim. 4:16). Ministers are engaged in the most important, and most holy, work there is. In an essay on the qualifications of a minister, James Durham mentions learning, gifts, and grace. Most of the essay is devoted to grace as a qualification. His definition of grace includes not only saving grace but also godliness. The following extract from Durham’s essay has recently been republished in a book titled, Preventing Ministry Failure. It provides seven ways in which holiness is necessary for ministers.Holiness in the ministry is necessary by precept, for holiness is a qualification alongside things like ability to “convince gainsayers” in the list in Titus 1:8–9.
Holiness in a minister is also useful and necessary in many respects as a means to an end.
Holiness is necessary for the minister himselfHe cannot be confident in his calling, or in a sense of being approved of God in this calling, without being holy. Though he may be called by the church, yet if he is not holy he cannot act as someone who has been called by God, and so he will inevitably be greatly incapacitated.
Holiness is necessary for the work of the ministryIt is in the nature of the ministry that it requires communion with God and standing in His counsel (Jer. 23:18, 22). Without this, it may be accounted a stealing of His Word without acknowledging of Himself (v. 30). Although it is necessary in any calling to have communion with God and stand in His counsel, yet the nature of the ministry makes these things uniquely necessary for this work.
Holiness is necessary for boldness in the work of the ministryWithout holiness, there cannot be boldness in the message, especially where difficulties occur.
Holiness is necessary when it comes to the application of truths, especially to the spiritually wearyIt comes more naturally to a holy minister to take up the spiritual cases of others and apply a gracious remedy to them, and sympathize with them, by bringing to others the same consolation with which they have been comforted themselves (2 Cor. 1:4). This is, after all, one of the main ways by which God fits His ministers experimentally for their work. Even Christ, the head of the church, was in some senses qualified in this way. This is why Luther said that these three things are requisite in a minister, not only meditatio and oratio (meditation and prayer) but also tentatio (temptation). Anyone who lacks this holiness is certainly exceeding defective.
Holiness is necessary for genuine fruitfulnessThe Lord often blesses holy ministers with great fruit yet gives only little fruit to ministers who may be very gifted but have less personal holiness. We can see from Paul’s example that hearers profit not simply from good preaching but in answer to a minister’s prayers joined with his preaching. But what can the unrenewed minister do here? Can he weep between the porch and the altar and plead with the Lord for His people (Joel 2:17)? Can he strive without ceasing in prayer to God for them? If there is no grace in his heart, he will be incapable of having success in his ministry.
Holiness is necessary if a minister is to have much credibilityIt is requisite that a minister is “of good report,” even to those “which are without” (1 Tim. 3:7). Otherwise, his word will not have much weight. But what will gain a good report without holiness? Hypocrisy is usually not very convincing, neither does it continue over time, but holiness adorns the gospel even in people’s ordinary callings, and much more in a minister, who is a city set on a hill and cannot be hid (Matt. 5:14).
Holiness is necessary for the church to seekHoliness is a qualification that a congregation is right to look for when they choose someone to call as their pastor and when a presbytery is considering whether to ordain someone into the ministry. This is clear:
- From the many directions that are given to ministers concerning this one thing in the epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus and the fact that congregations and presbyteries are expressly limited in their proceeding to this, that he be holy (1 Tim. 3:2, etc.; Titus 1:8). This holiness is not only described negatively (he must be “blameless…not given to wine,” etc., vv. 6, 7) but also positively, that he must have a good name, be sober, just, and holy.
- Even a deacon is to be examined as to these qualifications (1 Tim. 3:10), which presupposes that a minister is much more to be examined. Only then let him use the office, if he be found (that is, after examination) to be blameless. The qualification of holiness is as much to be verified as the others.
- Novices (that is, those who are only recently brought in to the faith) are excluded from the office of a minister, either because they are not yet able to bear it or because it is not yet well known how they might turn out. Those who should be ordained as ministers should have a well-established profession.
- The instruction in 1 Timothy 5:22, “Lay hands suddenly on no man,” and so on, confirms that congregations and presbyteries should choose ministers carefully. The risk is not only that the man does not have gifts but that through lack of spiritual sensitivity or maturity he will put his gifts to a bad use. In all the epistles, when Paul is recommending ministers, he always gives some evidence of their sanctification and in this way lets us know how truly weighty this qualification of holiness is when men are to be commended for the ministry and recommended in the ministry.
Since it is such a great trust to be entrusted with the oracles of God and with the souls of people, can someone be thought fit to endeavor to save the souls of others if he makes no conscience of taking heed to his own? This is the apostle’s reasoning, “If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?” (1 Tim. 3:2–5). This is proposed by way of a question to show the unanswerableness of that reasoning by which he presses observing the former qualifications. And certainly, these two are not put together without weighty reasons: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to the flock” and “unto the doctrine” (Acts 20:28; 1 Tim. 4:16). It shows that he who cares not for the one will never natively and naturally care for the other. The words that follow should especially be considered, “for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” This intimates that carelessness in his own walk may not only mar his own salvation but also the salvation of his hearers, seeing these two ordinarily go together. Can people dispense with this so as to have only a form of ordinances, not caring whether their ministers have fruit amongst them or not? Or not caring that the profit should be to many or few? Much cannot be expected (whatever God may do sovereignly) from a man that does not stand in God’s counsel (Jer. 23:22) and therefore does not turn many from their iniquity. Neither can any expect that the Lord will approve that one should be made a steward in His house and an under-father to His children who cannot with any charitable grounds be accounted a child himself. And what confidence can there be that a man not esteemed to be gracious shall either conduct himself in a Christian way in the outward form of religion or keep soundness in the faith? And will those who endanger so much by giving such great responsibility who are not worthy of any such trust not be an accessory to these evils?
Ministers should therefore be very careful about this. Holiness should be carefully prioritized in the instruments which we hope the Lord will use, in proportion as we expect the Lord to set before them an open door (Rev. 3:8) and grant them success in their ministry.
The book, Preventing Ministry Failure, is published by Reformation Heritage Books. It contains material from both James Durham and James Guthrie.
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Reasons why ministers must be diligent in their ministryLittle is known about the minister called Archippus. Perhaps he was a colleague of Epaphras in Colosse, or maybe pastor of the church of Laodicea. All we know is that while Paul was in prison in Rome, writing to the church of Colosse, he identified Archippus as someone who needed one piece of advice, “Take heed to your ministry” (Colossians 4:17). There are after all many reasons why a minister could slack off and become lax in his work. The people he pastors may not show the growth he would like to see after all the labour he has spent on them, or they may actively oppose and undermine him. His own indwelling sin could be getting the upper hand in his soul, and there could be too much love of the world. All these are factors identified by the Covenanting minister William Veitch (1640–1722). Nevertheless, as a pastor himself, Veitch urges his fellow ministers to maintain diligence in their ministry. In the following updated excerpt from his sermon on Colossians 4:17, Veitch gives several reasons why this is so important. These also give material for church members to pray for their pastors.The preciousness of the workIt is a great trust, far above any other trust in this world, when immortal souls are committed to us. These are the souls about which the thoughts of the Most High have been concerned from eternity, and for whose redemption God manifested in the flesh shed His precious blood, and for whose espousing He has put us unto the ministry.
I think we should never go this errand, without praying like Abraham’s servant (Gen. 24:12). We should pray, “O Lord God and Father of my master Jesus Christ (who has promised Him a great backing and a numerous seed, upon which He may see the satisfaction of the travail of His soul), send me good speed this day, and put forth thy power in the preached gospel, that Thy people may be a willing people!”
O, but it is a high and a great calling to trade about the saving of souls, one of which is a more precious jewel than the whole world can purchase or redeem! (as Christ tells us out of His own mouth; Matt. 16:26.)
Surely of all other persons, ministers should be most diligent, seeing they have both their own souls to save, and others!
The difficulty of the workThe second reason why we must take heed to our ministerial work is because it is a difficult work.
It is difficult partly from the various and numerous enemies that oppose it. Satan, that roaring lion and restless enemy of the Church is standing at our right hand (Zech. 3:1). Also what principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places, and what rulers of the darkness of this world we have to wrestle against! (Eph. 6:12) Indeed, what opposition from those among whom we live, some with open violence breaking down as far as they can the carved work (Psa. 74:6); others with vigour make a pretence of building with us, but like the false apostles, intending nothing less than to bring us back to corruptions which had been abandoned in the house of God.
The work is also made difficult partly from our own ignorance. This disables us from managing this trust to the best advantage. How hard is it for ministers to speak aright to the various cases and conditions of their people, and to find fit words to hold forth the evil of sin, the loveliness of Christ, the beauty of holiness, the danger of living carelessly and unconcernedly under the means of grace, and repeated offers of the gospel!
The danger of going wrongThe third reason why ministers need to take heed to their ministry is that there have been ministers in the Church (and we have had sad instances of it in our days) making a high profession and high claims for Christ and the pure work of reformation, yet who afterwards, when the opportunity and temptation offered, have betrayed the cause, exposed their rottenness, and ruined the Church and work of God, as far as they could. Some of them were betwitched and enticed into doing so by the riches of the world (like Judas and Demas); others by the honours of the world (like Diotrephes). And O! how many are Archippus-like even in the best of times, and are lukewarm and remiss in this great work!
The greatness of the LordWe must take heed to our ministry, when we consider what a great Lord and master we have received it from. His eye is always on us, to see how we manage this trust, as it was on the angels of the seven churches. The fact that He wrote to them after He ascended, exposing their failures and shortcomings, and the punishments due to them, should be a warning to ministers in all succeeding ages of the Church, to take heed to their ministry.
The weight of a minister’s accountabilityWe need to take heed to our ministry when we consider what a severe certification our great Lord and master added to it when He committed it to us. “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, ‘Thou shalt surely die,’ and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hand” (Eze. 3:17–18).
Ministers need to take heed to manage their trust aright, seeing a severe account will be required of them. It is a stewardship that must be reckoned for, and none of us know how soon that message may be sent unto us, “Give an account of thy stewardship!” (Luke 16:2). Whether we have received more or fewer talents, we would always remember to be laying them out, and improving them, as those that must give an account (Heb. 13:17).
The blessedness of the rewardLastly, the ministers who have been heedful and faithful shall be greatly rewarded. “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever” (Dan. 12:3). “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods” (Matt. 24:45–47). “Be thou faithful unto the death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Rev. 2:10).
We who believe in such a reward as this should keep constantly and closely to this work, and prosecute it with the greatest diligence — it will eternally recompense all the labour and toil of this world.
We should also frequently consider what severe punishments shall be inflicted on the heedless and slothful servant. “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, ‘My lord delayeth his coming;’ and shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 24:48–51).
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The rights and wrongs of swearing oathsEarlier this year, an environmentalist serving on a jury took the oath by swearing on a river. Jurors are legally permitted to swear on their own religious book, as well as to make a non-religious “affirmation” instead of taking an oath, but this was reportedly the first time someone has sworn an oath on a part of nature. This juror swore with his fingers dipped in a cup of water taken from his local river. He explained that nature was his god and that he treated the river with the same “reverence, sacredness and love in action as many religious people give to their holy book.” Religious oaths are classified by the Westminster Confession as a part of worship, differing from activities such as preaching and the sacraments only in that they are “occasional” (appropriate on specific occasions) rather than “ordinary” parts of worship. Oaths are often discussed by theologians as an implication of the third commandment, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain …” As the following updated excerpt from James Durham’s work points out, one key reason for treating an oath as a part of worship is that you cannot swear by the name of someone you can’t pray to. When a juror swears by Almighty God, they are calling Almighty God to witness what they are swearing, and to judge them according to the truth or falsehood of what they swear. On this view, to call on someone or something that is not the true God is worse than futile.The Third Commandment both requires oaths, and requires oaths to be kept.
What is an oath?At the outset we would like to distinguish between these four things.
Oaths are sayings which directly invocate God by expressions such as ‘By …’ (‘By my holiness I have sworn,’ Psa. 89:35), or, ‘I swear by the Lord.’
Asseverations (also called vehement assertions) are expressions such as, ‘As the Lord liveth,’ ‘In conscience,’ ‘In faith,’ &c. Like oaths, these should be done in truth and judgment with fear, and when called to, but they differ in that, in oaths, we are only to make mention of the true God, and swear by Him, but asseverations may be expressed in terms such as, “As thy soul liveth” (2 Kings 2:2, 4, 6), and yet by so saying we do not swear by the soul of anyone.
Simple assertions, such as, ‘In truth,’ ‘Truly,’ ‘Indeed.’ These only speak the thing simply, and affirm what is asserted to be true or false. As such, these belong to the Ninth Commandment only.
Imprecations are either directed to oneself conditionally, such as, ‘If such and such a thing is truth, then let me perish;’ ‘Shame upon me, if I do not do this or that;’ or they are directed towards others, especially in things like, ‘Shame upon you,’ ‘the devil take thee,’ ‘vengeance on thee,’ and other expressions too abominable to mention.
Thinking in more detail about oaths. In oaths which are for confirmation, we distinguish between assertory oaths, which only confirm a thing to be truth, and promissory oaths, which engage the person swearing to perform a certain thing in the time to come, either absolutely or with qualifications.
When an oath has the right qualifications, either of these kinds of oath is a lawful piece of God’s worship, and may, and should, be made use of by His people. This is a clear truth from Scriptures such as Deuteronomy 10:20; Deuteronomy 6:13; Jeremiah 4:2.
What is the right way to swear an oath?What can we swear about?Consider, first, the matter of an oath. Assertory oaths must be about things that are (1) true; (2) weighty; (3) true and weighty to our knowledge. Meanwhile, promissory oaths must be about things which are (1) just and lawful, (2) possible, (3) profitable, (4) in our power, and (5) all of these to our knowledge.
What form should it take?The form of an oath must be, “By the true God …” Swearing an oath is a special part of God’s worship, for we can swear by no one whom we cannot invocate. Therefore idols, creatures, graces, &c., are excluded here, for none of these are God.
When is an oath called for?The impetus to swear an oath must be edification, that is, God’s glory, our own vindication, or our neighbour’s good, or the call of a magistrate putting us to it. The oath should be used for putting an end to controversies, when no other means of clearing up or deciding them remains.
What kind of expressions should we use?As to the expressions in which the thing is sworn, it is required not only that it be truth to the person who swears it, and true in that person’s meaning, but also that the expressions are plain and intelligible to the meaning and understanding of the person to whom the oath is given, otherwise it deludes rather than clarifies.
Hence these two rules are to be observed.
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The meaning must be so clear that it may be, and is, most ordinarily and obviously gathered from the words and expressions that are used.
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The expressions must be according as they are supposed to be understood by others, especially the one who requires the oath. If he means one thing, and we another, then God’s name is profaned, and the point of the oath is frustrated. Needless to say, equivocations in our expressions, and mental reservations, are condemned. Equivocation means using ambiguity in our words; mental reservation is when we privately give the words a different sense in our thoughts from what they seem to mean to anyone else.
How do we go about it?As to the right manner of swearing, these things ought to be noticed.
We must swear intelligently. It must be in judgment; we must understand the thing we swear, and the nature of our oath, and the God we swear by (Jer. 4:2).
We must swear with godly fear and reverence. We are now in an especial way in God’s own sight, and it is good if the heart would be filled with the sense that God is present.
We must swear in integrity. There must be single-mindedness in our aim, that it would not be to deceive anyone, but to express the truth truly and faithfully (this is called righteousness in Jeremiah 4:2.
And for the most part these properties or qualifications may agree to oaths, asseverations and imprecations.
What can we not swear by?What then may we judge of oaths that people swear by angels, saints (“by Mary,” “by Paul”) and other created things (such as heaven, light, the world), by soul, conscience, &c., or by graces, such as, “by faith”?
We need not be too particular in drawing distinctions here, for we conceive them all to be simply unlawful.
That is partly because none of these are God, and swearing is a special piece of God’s worship (Deut. 6:13). Swearing by any thing, whatever it is, which is not God, is condemned: “They have sworn by those who are not gods” (Jer. 5:7).
It is partly also because we cannot invocate any of these, and therefore we cannot swear by them. An oath carries along with it an invocation, or calling on the name, of the one we swear by.
Also, these other persons or things lack the properties of the one to whom this worship belongs. They lack, for example, omniscience, to examine whether we mean what we have sworn or not, and omnipotence, and justice to avenge, if things are not as we have sworn, and the sovereign right to call the swearers to a reckoning. It would also derogate from the thrust of this commandment, which gives this honour to God alone, as His due, and implies that He alone has all these properties in Him.
Indeed, such oaths are expressly prohibited by Christ. “Swear not at all, neither by heaven nor earth” (Matt. 3:34), for they stand in an inferior relation to God, and are His servants.
As none of these things are God, to take order with us if we swear falsely, so none of them are ours, so as we can lay them in pledge, for the least thing to be done to them if our oath is not true. None of them can be added to or diminished from by us. We cannot make one hair of our heads black or white, which is why we ought not to swear by our head. Much less can we quiet our conscience, or increase our faith, that we should so freely swear by these. Matthew 5:36 makes this clear.
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The solution for self-glory in church leadersWhen the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus asking a favour, her request was that her two sons would be allowed to sit on either side of Jesus in His kingdom (Matthew 20). As the conversation proceeds, it becomes clear that for several reasons, this was a very inappropriate request. Yet it expresses an aspiration that is still familiar in the church today. The desire for a place of honour in Christ’s kingdom can too often come from a spirit of competitiveness, one or two striving for preeminence over the other brothers. It mistakenly conflates spiritual greatness with earthly, worldly prominence, so that the glory of struggling and suffering is eclipsed by the glory of recognition and other people’s acclaim. In his commentary on this episode, David Dickson exposes this ambitiousness, and identifies the solution which Jesus provides. An updated excerpt is as follows.The lengths people will go to get aheadFrom this request to Christ for preferential treatment for the two apostles, James and John, we can learn, for one thing, how hard a thing it is to be rid of the love of this world, and of pleasant dreams about it. The apostles and their friends were still dreaming of an earthly kingdom of Christ, and of worldly honour for His servants, even though Christ told them the opposite so often, and was careful to prepare them rather for the cross in this world.
How necessary it is, too, for all to watch over their hearts, so that the love of the honour of this world does not creep in on them, when a bait presents itself! In hope of prevailing by means of their mother’s intervention, these two chiefe apostles are thus tickled and entangled with a vain and corrupt lust.
What means and instruments people will employ, to gain any earthly thing which they love! They would even play on their mother’s natural relationships to get her to make suit, and, for fear of being refused if she makes her specific request to start with, she opens with a general preface to oblige Christ first. “I desire a certain thing of thee,” she says, “Grant that these my sons may sit …” (Matt. 20:20–21)
The little they know of Christ’s waysBut Jesus answered and said, “Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (v.22)
Christ’s answer shows us that when ministers of the gospel hunt for high places in the world, they do not know what they are doing, nor how foolish they are in so doing. Christ says here, “Ye know not what ye ask.”
But they replied to Him, “We are able.” It’s those who are least acquainted with the cross who are the most confident about taking it on.
Instead, the promotion and the kingdom which we must set our hearts on is another world — and we must prepare ourselves for the cross with Christ, before we come into the kingdom with Him.
Christ puts them in mind of suffering, rather than reigning — and of suffering in this world, before they could reign in the world to come.
Those who suffer for Christ, suffer no other thing but what Christ suffered also. “Ye shall drink,” He says, “of my cup.” A certain measure of affliction was fitted and measured out for Christ and His followers, and Christ esteemed it to be only light, and of the shortest endurance. He calls it “a cup,” soon drunk up, a dipping, or a sprinkling with affliction, a baptism, as the original means.
The disproportionateness of any rewardJesus said, “To sit on my right hand and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father” (v.23). It was not part of Christ’s commission, when He was sent into the world, to appoint what degrees of reward every believer will have in glory, in comparison one of another, or who shall have less, and who shall have more. This does not appertain to Christ. Again, it is not His without the Father. “It is not mine to give, save to those for whom it is prepared of my Father.” He said this likewise, speaking as a man, more closely related to one than to another (as here He was looked on), or as if at His own pleasure, for gratifying of friends, He might distribute degrees of glory in heaven, “It is not mine to give …”
The Lord does not deny that there shall be degrees of glory in heaven, comparable to sitting on the right hand to some, and on the left hand to others; rather He implies it in manner of His answer. However, these degrees of glory shall not be distributed with respect to people’s works or deservings, or anything in the persons to be glorified, but merely according to the good pleasure of God, and His decree, preparing and predetermining what shall be every individual’s measure. “It shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.” In this sort of distribution, Christ does not deny that it belonged to Him to give degrees of glory in that He was one in substance and government with the Father, but says, “It is not mine to give, save to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.”
Christ’s solution for ambitiousness in the churchWe see next that the rest of the apostles were no less ambitious than James and John on this point, yet they were angry with them. “When the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren” (v. 24).
People will be angry at others for a fault for which they themselves are guilty, and be nothing grieved for it in themselves. That is how diversely sin is shaped in our own persons, and in others.
But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them … ” (v.25) Our Lord takes the opportunity to beat down and root out this wicked weed of prelacy [or any form of preeminence in the church].
Isn’t it hard to root out the seed of a beloved sin! and especially the root of ambition for power in the church. It cannot be drawn out till it is repented of, for it is hard to put it out of even the apostles’ hearts.
What our Lord saw as a fit means of cutting off strife was, to take away all domination in the church, and all ranking among the men of one office in His house. “Whosoever shall be great among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” (v. 26–27). Where there is no higher place, where no greater power belongs to one than to another, then all strife for the place of more power ceases.
Although the Lord allows dominion, and principality, and greatness, and the exercising of authority, in the civil state, He will not allow it among the ministers of the gospel. Granting the exercise of domion among princes and civil governors, He says, “It shall not be so among you.”
It is not the abuse of power which our Lord forbids in His ministers, but simply and absolutely He excludes all greatness of jurisdiction of one over the rest. He curbs the very wish and will to be great among their fellow ministers, speaking to every one of His ministers, saying, “Whosoever will be great among you …”
Christ’s insistence on His servants servingSo far must the apostles and ministers of the gospel be from affecting state, and positions of power over the rest, that, as they would please our Lord, they must set themselves to serve the rest of their brethren. Each is to promote the work of Christ done by the others’ hands, by each maintaining the credit of the others’ ministry. “Let him be your minister, or servant.”
Not only does our Lord forbid all positions of power among the apostles and among the preachers of the gospel, but also all stately primacy, or dignitary priority. He forbids all “chiefness,” even without jurisdiction (such as a constant and unchangeable precedence in church assemblies). He prescribes for any inclination to this by requiring them to put effort into mutual submission, each man serving the rest, for the furtherance of the common work.
If this command does not prevail with someone who is ambitious, but simply has to act on his ambitious desires, then the rest of the ministers are warranted to diminish that man’s estimation, and to account the less of him, correspondingly as he is ambitiously inclined to a position of superiority over the rest. “Let him be your servant,” i.e., esteemed your servant, and no more than that.
Christ’s own exampleOur Lord supports His doctrine by His own example, showing them how He humbled Himself for the public good. “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (v.28).
The example of our Lord’s humiliation of Himself serves to curb all ambition in His ministers. If it does not prevail with them, it shall shall bear witness against them.
Christ did not come to take up an earthly dominion, or a stately pre-eminence, as His disciples imagined. Instead, He came in the shape and state of a servant, and behaved Himself in such a way that He was ready, for the good of His disciples, to wash their feet. He did not come to reign in a worldly manner, but to serve in the outward ministry of the gospel.
Ministers should not only quit prelacy and seeking pre-eminence for the good of the church, but they should quit their life also, if need be. Christ, out of love to our salvation, not only emptied Himself of stately dominion, but also emptied Himself of liberty and life, “gave himself a ransom for many.”
← Five comforting promises for the troubled churchFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Five comforting promises for the troubled churchWith the church in a period of decline, it is hard to know whether the bigger threat comes from within or without. The short and often overlooked prophecy of Obadiah seems to focus largely on external threats. As George Hutcheson notes in his commentary on Obadiah’s prophecy, the first part of the prophecy exposes the futile self-confidence of those who were hostile to the Lord and explains what severe consequences will follow their opposition and violence against the Lord’s people. But even while surrounded by problems and enemies, the Lord’s people are sustained by the faithfulness of the Lord. Hutcheson identifies five comforting promises which Obadiah announces for the troubled church. Whatever partial fulfilments of these promises we may identify in the experience of the church so far, Hutcheson is looking ahead to a comprehensive fulfilment in times to come.A promise of restorationFrom verse 17 to the end, this prophecy contains comforting promises to the church now in trouble. Although Judah had some taste of the fulfilment of these promises at their return from captivity and afterwards, and although the New Testament church has a continual fulfilment of them in a spiritual way, yet at least some of these promises seem to point more especially at the time of the conversion and saving of “all Israel,” as the apostle calls it in Romans 11.
In verse 17 the church is promised three kinds of things — deliverance and relief from her troubles; holiness and the privileges she had previously enjoyed; and the restitution of their previous possessions. This is promised not only to the Jews, in reference to what they were deprived of by the captivity, but to the whole “house of Jacob,” in reference to what was given them by the covenant, made with their fathers, which is yet unaccomplished.
Although in the time of the church’s trouble, the Lord withholds from her the possession of her pleasant things, yet His thoughts and purposes of love are still as large and sure to her as ever. She may read this from the Word, even though she does not see it in providence. That is why the time of Judah’s trouble is a time when He makes many promises.
DeliveranceEven in the church’s greatest afflictions, not only are there some who will escape (it being impossible that she should totally perish), but she may expect complete deliverance from all her evils in due time. “Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance.”
HolinessHoliness is the inseparable companion of deliverance, and is also a means of bringing deliverance to the church, for when there is deliverance, there shall be holiness. Holiness is both an evidence that God dwells in the church (and He will establish His own habitation), and a token that God will preserve them as His consecrated people, and not permit them to be profaned and polluted by the invasion of enemies as they have been. In this way, holiness is also sometimes to be taken as the fruit of the holy Lord dwelling among them, and setting them apart for Himself, and as the free reward of their pursuit of holiness (Joel 3:17; Isa. 52:1).
Holiness is not only the church’s duty to pursue, but the Lord’s promise to fulfil. He undertakes to work it in her. “There shall be holiness” is a promise that they shall be a holy people, and enjoy God’s presence in holy ordinances, and be preserved from the violence of enemies.
RestitutionThe mercies of the church, whether spiritual or temporal, insofar as God has promised them and they need them, are sure, and these mercies will be restored to them after they have been suspended from the comfort and use of them for a long time. “The house of Jacob shall possess their hereditary possessions” (as the word is) after long captivity and exile.
A promise of victoryThe next promise (verse 18) is of the utter ruin of Edom, and of all the most inveterate enemies (such as Edom was) of the church, and especially of the church of converted Israel, who shall be the occasion and cause, if not also the instruments, of their enemies’ destruction.
The church of God will never be short of inveterate and cruel enemies, nor difficulties, while she is in the world. For, not only Judah in the time of their captivity, but the church in her restoration by Christ, and “the house of Jacob and Joseph” (which takes in all Israel, and the ten tribes expressly), when they share of this deliverance, have a “house of Esau” against them. There is no time in which the church has corruptions, but she is to expect difficulties in it.
Yet, the opposition of enemies against the church only contributes to making way for God to let out many proofs of His love in helping and delivering her.
Opposition to the church is a certain pledge of the utter destruction of those who oppose her, and the Lord is able (when He pleases) to make His weak people strong to bring it about. This promise that “Jacob shall be a fire” etc., indicates not only that Edom shall be utterly consumed, as a flame consumes stubble, but that their meddling with the church shall be cause of their ruin. It’s as if stubble, endeavouring to put out a fire, was burnt up itself.
The Word of God, and the omnipotence and fidelity of God who speaks it, is sufficient to confirm the church’s faith in the certainty of highly improbable things. Whatever unlikelihood there may be in this promise, it is removed by this, “For the Lord hath spoken it.”
A promise of expansionIt is further promised (verses 19 and 20) that the church shall not only have restitution but the enlargement of their possessions. They will enjoy all their own, and possess what had belonged to their enemies.
The promise teaches us that the afflictions of the church, through God’s blessing, contribute towards her advantage and gain. The captivity are to get not only their own land, but also “the mount of Esau and the Philistines,” and what they did not have before their captivity.
Christ in His church will gain ground on His enemies. He will possess and reign over them, either by their voluntary conversion, or by violent subjection and destruction. Meanwhile, the privileges of the people of God are irrevocable and inevitable, and will burst out in comforting fruits even after long and sad interruptions. “Israel shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and Samaria, and Benjamin with Gilead (as the original has it)” of which they have been so long deprived.
The Lord notices every distress and captivity of his people, and what becomes of them, and may manifest much of His goodness to those whom He has sore afflicted and brought down with corrections. Although the captivity were sent away in much ignominy, and were carried far off, yet the Lord notes that they are the captivity, and where they are, and promises that He will restore them to their possessions, and cause them to possess the gates of their enemies.
A promise of preachersThere is a further promise in verse 21 — of fit instruments, who will be raised up in the church to deliver her, and to manage the cause of God against enemies, just like long ago, when the Lord raised up judges to deliver Israel. We are to understand this not only spiritually (that Christ will send the church His apostles and messengers, who instrumentally save the elect (1 Tim. 4:16) by holding forth Christ in the Word of salvation, and by their doctrine do condemn the world): but that in all ages, and especially in the church of converted Israel, God will raise up instruments of deliverance to the church, as He also did in the times between the captivity and the coming of Christ.
The church of Christ will not lack fit instruments to promote her happiness, for, “saviours shall come up on Mount Zion.” The allowance of the church of God is salvation, both eternal and temporal also, in so far as is fit for her to receive. This is why the instruments sent to her are called “saviours,” i.e., in an instrumental way.
The doctrine of the gospel in the mouth of Christ’s servants, reproves, judges and condemns the world, and all the enemies of Christ, and this judgement is reinforced with spiritual (and sometimes temporal) plagues, till the day comes when they shall receive a complete recompense.
As the Lord is sovereign in all the world (even over his enemies), so, when He raises up instruments for the church’s good, He will bless them, and by them He will bring His enemies to account, and will execute His sentence against them.
A promise of Christ’s reignThe last and great promise is (verse 21b), that God in His Christ shall have a kingdom in His church, and among their enemies, for their benefit.
Where Christ sets up His church, there He sets up His kingdom also, and will be acknowledged as such. “The kingdom shall be the Lord’s.” No dominion or sovereignty is to be acknowledged in the true church, but Christ’s only. He alone has power to make laws binding the conscience, to institute ordinances, enjoin censures, appoint officers, and by His own courts to judge His own house, etc. All other “saviours,” or instruments of deliverance, must serve Him, and His officers must content themselves with His ministry.
The kingdom of Christ is matter of comfort to the true church and the godly, as it is sweet to live under his yoke and protection. Christ holds His kingdom by a certain and firm tenure. It is made sure to Him by the infallible promise of God, as here recorded in Holy Scripture. On this ground the church, notwithstanding all opposition, may expect the day when “the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).
← Guidance for getting rid of sinThe solution for self-glory in church leaders →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Guidance for getting rid of sinIt can happen that problems and difficulties coincide with very troubling sights of our sins. Things can then seem overwhelming, and we can’t stop thinking that God is not only angry with us but rightly so. Where can we then turn in this desperate situation? Zachary Boyd (1585–1653) imagines a dialogue between a man with a terminal illness and his pastor. The discussion takes place over several days and covers an extensive range of topics. On the second day, the sick man reaches out desperately for advice about his sins, which he feels are crushing him. In the following updated and abbreviated excerpt, the pastor offers him various considerations to encourage him, and the man finally realises that through it all, the pastor is chiefly trying to point him to the Lord Jesus Christ. Zachary Boyd was minister of the Barony Parish, Glasgow. Well-known as a poet, he contributed around a tenth of the content of the Scottish Psalter (1650). He was Rector and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Glasgow. He faced Cromwell’s army with bravery when they invaded Scotland and proceeded to Glasgow.Sick man: My soul is so blinded with my sins that I cannot get a sight of mercy. I’m afraid I will die in despair. Don’t you pity me at all?
Pastor: May the Lord pity you, and give me a heart to pray for you. May the Lord put the words in my mouth which will comfort your comfortless soul in this ongoing trial. Have patience in your pain. Sin is like a rotten tooth. The deeper root it has in your jaw, the more painful it is to draw it. But many people are more ashamed to confess a fault than to commit a sin. What is it in particular that grieves you, my friend?
Sick man: The wrath of God makes me afraid. His anger is like a lion, which cannot be tamed. My sin is past, but punishment is to come. Terrors shout from the fire, “Because you have fallen down before the god of this world, go down, down to him who you worshipped on earth!” I am beholden to God for such a long opportunity to repent. But I neglected it, and now God does not think I am worthy of comfort, for while I was in prosperity, I was so covered over with the spirit of slumber that I would not be warned or wakened by the voice of God’s trumpeter. Because I ignored Boanerges, the sons of thunder, now God will not deign to give me a Barnabas, the son of consolation.
Pastor: I rejoice from my heart, not in your grief, but in that you are so grieved for your sins. God in mercy by these sorrows whets your desires for Him. It is good to be of a humble and contrite spirit. “To whom will I look?” said the Lord. “Even to him that is of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” The more humble you are, the further you are from the danger of God’s judgments.
When sin is a heavy burdenSick man: Then it seems that a soul cast down by its own unworthiness is in less danger of judgment than those who are lifted high up in their own conceits.
Pastor: Without a doubt. Bless God, my friend, for a humbled heart! Yet never rely on any grace that is within yourself. Let God’s mere mercy alone be your strength and your support. The least opinion of our own worth is a frost which nips repentance in the blossom.
Sick man: My heart is strained and squished with grief. The heavy weight of my sins! How close they stick to me! I am like a tired horse that can’t wait to be rid of its burden.
Pastor: To be tired of sin is a sign that you will shortly be delivered from it. Sin is not a heavy burden to the wicked, because in them it is like water in its own element — though it has weight, yet it doesn’t weigh itself down. The sin-wearied soul has Christ’s promise of rest (Matthew 11:28), but woe to those who, like Laodicea, have need of nothing! For the most part, people are drowned in drowsiness. Complacency is far more dangerous than despair. Complacency has shaken hands with hell and death. The one who is greatest in God’s eyes is the one who is smallest in his own eyes.
Getting rid of this burdenSick man: But how can I be delivered from this burden?
Pastor: Listen to Christ in His gospel calling, “Come to me!” Go to Him who calls so lovingly, “Come!” Strive above all things to get a sight of your Saviour by the eye of faith. Urge on your heart a deep meditation on His mercy. His merits are able to cure our maladies.
Sick man: There is such a mist between me and Christ that it is not possible for me to see Him. If only my eyes were cleared with God’s eye-salve, so that I could clearly look at Him!
Pastor: The great desire you have to see Him is a sort of seeing. Not everyone sees Christ the same. Not everyone goes up the mountain with Peter, James, and John. Not everyone sees God face to face, like Moses. Not everyone lays their head in Christ’s bosom, like His best beloved disciple. But don’t be discouraged, just because you can’t get so close to Christ as you’d like. If you can’t get so close as to embrace Him like Simeon did, you can still strive to touch the border of His garment from behind with the finger of faith, and the flow of your sins will be staunched. Sighing for a sight of Christ is a real sight of Him. He wants to be found by those who never sought Him — how much more will He be found by those who seek Him and sigh for Him!
Christ is not always absent when He is unseen. What shall be able to separate a Christian from the love of Christ? What then shall be able to make a Christian soul despair? Shall damnation? No, for Christ, God’s salvation, is ours. Shall hell? No, for Christ has the keys of both heaven and hell. Shall the world? No, for Christ has overcome the world. Shall the law? No, for Christ has fulfilled the law. Shall death? No, for our Christ is the way and the life. Shall the Father’s wrath? No, for Christ has trodden the winepress of His wrath for you and for all repenting sinners. All Scripture points at Him, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” Run, friend, to Him, and He shall deliver you from all your sins and from all your fears!
When sin puts comfort out of reachSick man: I cannot get quit of my sins. I try running away from them, but they only follow me the faster. Wherever I go with my thoughts, above or below, my sins follow close behind me. I try to chase them away, even beg them to leave me alone, but their answer is, “We are yours, we will stay with you!” It puts my soul out of peace and order and thrusts me away from the Lord my God. I’ve been seeking and sighing for comfort for so long, but I can’t see anything.
Pastor: Comforts are not always seen straight away. Elijah’s servant went up Carmel eight separate times to espy some appearance of rain. The first seven times he could see nothing, and at the eighth, all he could see was a little cloud of comfort. So hold on, my friend, a little while, with Elijah, on your knees. Send up your prayer to the top of the hill, again and again, and if you keep going till you perceive even a handsbreadth of mercy, eventually God’s comforts will rain down in great abundance on your wearied spirit.
Sick man: But how can I get quit of my sins?
Pastor: The best way to be quit of sin, in the sense that it does not reign in us, is to bend our hearts towards Christ, who is Immanuel, God with us. Though all are worthy to be condemned, yet there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. He is the heave-offering, which we must always lift up like a shield between God’s wrath and our sinful souls.
How mercy goes deeper than our deep troublesSick man: Just as I swim through one deep temptation, I fall into another that is deeper. My head is turned into a whirling giddiness.
Pastor: There is no deepness either in our sins or in our troubles, but the mercy of God in Christ is able to over-reach it by innumerable fathoms. Though afflictions rain down on us like water pouring from spouts, they may well wash us, but they shall not be able to drown us. A godly man should not be afraid for a spout full of bitter waters. There is no sin which Christ’s blood is not able to purge. Whatever your sin is, if you can repent, He can forgive. Christ can do anything but this: He cannot save someone who will not repent. Seeing you know that He is infinite in mercy, have all your recourse to Him. Just test His mercy. Humble yourself at His feet, and see whether or not there is mercy with Him that He may be feared. Christ is not only true, but truth itself, and He has said, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.” He who is true may lie, but truth itself cannot lie.
Sick man: That is the truth. When I think of your comforts for my distressed soul, I think that all your purpose is to point chiefly at Christ, as though He alone were the ground of grace.
Pastor: Yes! Christ is Immanuel, God with us, God with man, God in man, God-man. In Him, God and man are one person. Because we ate of the forbidden fruit, He was hanged on a cursed tree. He has loved us with an inexpressible love. By the conduit pipe of His humanity, grace for grace has been conveyed to our graceless souls. Who can express His love? He loved us to the end, and of His love there is no end.
Sick man: Is it only in Christ, then, that salvation is to be found? All Scripture, you say, points at Him.
Pastor: The Scripture is plain. “There is none other name given under heaven among men, whereby we must be saved.” He is full of love. He is the only Saviour, pointed out by Old Testament and New Testament alike. All religion is in this, that we know Christ. This is salvation, to know Christ and Him crucified. By His blood, the bill and bond of the law is crossed out and cancelled. He is our refuge against the force of God’s wrath. The church cannot come up from the wilderness except by leaning on her Beloved, Christ. Let people cover themselves as carefully as they can with their own righteousness, yet some part of them will peep bare until Christ comes with the covering of His righteousness.
← Experiencing the power of the resurrection todayFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Experiencing the power of the resurrection todayThe transformation from death to life is stupendous and miraculous. Only God can do it. Not merely as a hypothetical possibility, but in historical fact, the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. This showed conclusively the utter futility and impotence of any opposition to God’s good ways, whether human, demonic, or merely natural. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ changed everything. As the Covenanting minister Michael Bruce (1635–1693) outlined in a sermon on Matthew 28, the transformative power of the resurrection is vast and unstoppable. In the following updated extract, Bruce vividly describes how spiritual death can be abolished in sinners’ hearts and spiritual life planted there instead, spiritual foes can be vanquished overnight, and spiritual growth can be seen even in barren and backsliding churches and communities.The Lord makes big changes in a little timeOne thing in this chapter which rejoices the heart is this — that a dead and buried Christ shall be a living, rising, and exalted Christ the next day, whoever might say the contrary. In the previous chapter is a dead and buried Christ, with many joining together to hold Him down in the grave, yet in this chapter He rises in spite of them all. All the men of the world, with all the devils in hell, shall not be able to hold our Maker in the grave one hour longer than His appointed time.
In the previous chapter, you see a sad and dark world. Now in the beginning of this chapter, there is a light world again, and a sound basis for gladness again. It’s but the space of three days, but what a change!
Such is the way that our blessed Lord orders business with His church and people. In a very little time, He can make a very great change.
There are three or four great changes produced in this small interval of time.
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Before, never a one acknowledged Christ but one or two poor women. Now, more are beginning to acknowledge Him.
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Before, a great stone was lying on the mouth of Christ’s grave. Now, there is no stone on it, but the stone is rolled away, and an angel is sitting on it. This will be a great change for the better in Britain and Ireland, when not one stone will be left to hold Christ in His grave.
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Before, the soldiers are all standing watching Christ’s grave, laughing and domineering in their pride, and no doubt swearing many a choice oath, saying with much bravado that the God of the fanatics would never rise again. Now, all of a sudden, they are all fallen like dead men, and cannot handle their arms. All the instruments they were using to keep Christ in the grave are rendered useless.
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Before, there is a great din about a dying Christ. Now, there’s a great din about His resurrection. Before, there’s nothing but darkness, the sun refuses to countenance this abominable act of the taking away of the life of the Son of God, the earth trembles, and the temple splits in two. Now, the rising Christ is astonishing to both friend and foe. The sun gives light again, and all things begin to look brighter.
The comfort of God’s powerI mention this for comfort to the friends of Christ. The saddest case of Christ’s friends will not last long. There will be a change for the better. What do you think, friends, of these three changes that a little time produced long ago?
In Exodus 10, Pharaoh commands Moses, ‘Get away, let me never see your face again, sir! If I see you again, your head won’t stick on your neck!’ Yet by midnight, Moses and Aaron are sent for in all haste, and all the people of Israel dismissed out of Egypt!
Then in Exodus 14, all the children of Israel are weeping in front of the Red Sea, pursued by enemies, with rocks on every hand. By the beginning of Exodus 15, they are all singing! Singing songs and rejoicing at the wonderful victory over their enemies, now floating on the water like dead carrion, the very same element where they had drowned so many of Israel’s little ones!
Also in Esther 7, see Haman feasted one day, and hanged the next.
Great are the changes that our Lord all of a sudden makes for the good of His church and people!
Christ makes big changes for His peopleAnd a rising Christ makes a great change for His church and people. Christ rising in a Christian’s heart makes a great change. Christ’s rising in the wider community makes a great change.
There are four great changes a rising Christ makes in a Christian’s heart.
The first is in Romans 7:9. ‘I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.’ Whenever Christ comes to make a gracious change in a man or a woman’s soul, there sin lives, and they die. That is to say, all conceit of self-righteousness in the person falls while their sin revives — it’s not that the sin that was dead revives, but the poor person who thought sin was dead and he alive is made to change his thoughts.
The second is in Galatians 2:20. ‘I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I.’ I, that I, that used to predominate in the poor body, the life is put out of it by a rising Christ, and another ‘I’ is brought to life, and life put into it, and that is by faith in the Son of God.
The third is, Christ makes the person who gave off an aura of the things of an evil world before, now give off an atmosphere of the things of heaven. Is that not a great change? You used to have an earthly smell before Christ rose in your heart, but now a heavenly smell. Before, a smell of the dunghill, now the scent of the pleasant land that lies afar off, where cinnamon and aloes are in abundance, all plants of heaven, every one sending out their fragrance.
The fourth is in Acts 16:24. There the gaoler takes Paul and Silas and puts them fast in the inner prison. But in verse 28, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises, and the prisoners heard them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and every prisoner’s shackles fell off them, and the doors were opened. The gaoler called for a light and sprang in, but he came out again with an astonishing change on his heart. Before there was nothing but beating and binding Paul, now there is nothing but binding up his wounds. Before, nothing but harsh abuse, now nothing but tender care.
Christ makes big changes for the communityA rising Christ makes a great change in a community, in three or four ways, each more encouraging than the last. One, He strikes a blow against scribes and Pharisees, false and backslidden teachers. Two, He gives a boost to a holy, lively and faithful gospel ministry. Three, He puts a new life and a new lustre on His ordinances, which had neither life nor lustre while He was in the grave.
You see after His resurrection, how one bit of preaching by Peter draws 3,000 to Christ, and many of the Lord’s people who seemed to be lagging far behind, get new stock in, and get newly kitted out. The men of the world say, ‘We’ll never get provisions for the difficulties ahead of us.’ Aye, but never let them trouble their heads with that. Nothing will be lacking to us if ever a rising Christ comes among us.
There is another big change that a rising Christ makes, and that is, heaven and earth will be as it were thrown into confusion. Angels come out of heaven, and earth shakes and breaks up before Him. What a muddle! What a din there is when once He begins to creep out of the grave! He rises and makes heaven and earth concur with Him in what He plans to do.
Do you want to know why our day is so sad, and we have such little success? The reason is simply the absence of a rising Christ. He is not to be seen amongst us.
Our need of Christ risingI shall give you four or five words of warning. Take them with you, and use them as long as you live.
Until Christ rises in the hearts of His people in Britain and Ireland, he is not likely to rise in the wider community. Then, people and ministers, raise Him in your hearts! Exalt Him within, and then He will soon lift Himself up without.
As long as Christ does not rise, the devil’s kingdom will increase. Worldly ministers, people-pleasing ministers, and “idol shepherds” will increase and will persecute the saints and people of God. As long as Christ lies in the grave, so long will Satan’s kingdom increase. More will turn to popery than have as yet, more will turn to prelacy, more will defect from the covenanted work of reformation, more will turn profane, more will perjure themselves than have as yet. Well, if you want to have Satan’s kingdom declining and the devil’s kingdom decreasing, then pray much for a rising Christ, for that only, and nothing less, will do it.
Although it’s true that our Lord Jesus may rise in a very different way than many expect, and also without any human help (as here, He rose without any human assistance, not so much as one of His friends was with Him when He rose), yet remember that our Master expects every Christian to roll up their sleeves and help Him to rise.
How to help Him rise todayThere are four stones lying on Christ’s grave in Scotland, which every Christian should work in their own sphere to remove — a stone of popery, a stone of prelacy, a stone of God-provoking and cruel laws, and a stone of the persecution of those who want to live godly in Christ Jesus. Alongside these, and saddest of all, is a stone of backsliding and defection in ministers and people.
But you may say, ‘What can I do, as a poor private Christian, towards rolling these stones off Christ’s grave?’ I don’t believe there are any of you who can’t do these three or four things.
Though you cannot do anything by word or deed, yet you may do something by prayer and supplication.
Through the grace of God, you can roll away your own stone that you have laid there, of formalism, unconcernedness, fickleness, and unfaithfulness, and falling from your first love, and much unrepented sin and iniquity. Do something to roll that away, for this is the stone that most holds Christ down, and not prelacy or the prelates (although the prelates’ black hour will not be the less for holding Him down).
Though you cannot lift off the stone, yet I hope you may put Him to it, according to His word to raise Himself. This is the prayer of the church. ‘Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, and ride prosperously, because of truth’ (Psalm 45).
Through grace, you may second Christ’s motion. At least join with Him and don’t counteract Him.
Now I challenge you all tonight to raise Christ out of His grave. Will you let Christ stay buried? For shame! Every one of you, do something towards raising Christ among you.
The more remarkably Christ has been buried, the more remarkably shall He rise. If you want to have a rising Christ in Scotland, and an astonishing day to enemies and to friends (for it will be astonishing to both — His people will be astonished about their fears and doubts as to their sin and duty), then, as I was saying, do what you can to roll away the stone on His grave. Do you want His government in action, His standard lifted up, His sceptre spreading on the top of the mountains? Then put away the stone.
← How and why to run the Christian raceGuidance for getting rid of sin →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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How and why to run the Christian raceOlympian athletes are legendary for their skill and dedication to their sport. Writing to the church of Corinth, the apostle Paul alludes to such athletic prowess in order to motivate Christian believers to live holy lives. In Ancient Greece, the Isthmian Games were held before and after the Olympic years, in a location close to the city of Corinth. This is one of several vivid cultural references Paul makes in this section of his epistle, with the intention of prompting believers to care for each other’s spiritual welfare. Discussing Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 9, David Dickson points out that Christians have all sorts of liberties now that Christ has set them free, yet they should use their knowledge and freedom in a way of love, not out of pride. As Dickson explains in the following updated extract, the same level of utmost self-discipline that an athlete displays in how he or she eats and trains in order to compete at the peak of their performance should be seen in the spiritual realm as believers suppress their own self-gratification in order to assist other believers heavenwards.We must run with the utmost self-disciplineThe noble Isthmian or Corinthian games were usually hosted near to Corinth, and those who competed in the games, whether running or wrestling, were not to indulge themselves in gluttony and pleasures, but were to be temperate in all things, bearing all things, in order to win the conqueror’s crown. In those games, the runners and wrestlers accustomed themselves to a most temperate diet, by way of preparation for the race. The winners in those games were crowned with laurel, or ivy, or honoured with some similar reward.
In the same manner, the Apostle wants Christians to be most moderate in how they use the things of this world, and to abstain from anything at all that might stop their progress, or hinder them in their warfare.
All this is in order to obtain an “incorruptible” crown, that is, an eternal one, laid up in heaven for all who strive lawfully, and finish their course. Christian wrestlers expect a more noble crown than that corruptible one, won by those who participate in the such sporting events.
We may follow Paul’s own example in running the Christian race and acting the part of a champion, and smiting his adversary certainly and seriously. Paul says he earnestly “keeps down” the body (v.27), the body of sin, and the old man, and the lusts of the flesh, in order that they would be slain. He kept his body (properly so called), by virtue of spiritual discipline, to be subject to his spirit. We should do the same thing. The Apostle nurtured his body in such a way that in labours, and watchfulness, and fastings, it would hold out in its duty, and not be drawn away by passion from the Spirit., and so that the body of sin (as much as lay in him) would be destroyed.
Paul’s purpose in “keeping down” the body of sin, or the old man, was, “lest, if I should live in a different way than I advise others to live, I should be a castaway, or blotted out as a hypocrite from the number of the saints.” “Therefore you do the same thing that I do,” Paul says, “and to the same end.”
When he speaks of “castaways” here, the Apostle does not contrast it with being elect, but with being approved. Just as Scripture refers to “reprobate silver,” meaning something which is not true and genuine, and calls that which is sincere, “approved,” so here the Apostle calls “reprobate” the one who does not live according to the profession of Christianity which he has made, and is not sincere, and as he ought to be.
Our running has to be helpful to our Christian brothers and sistersPaul’s exhortation is that the Corinthians would strive for temperateness, and not be so interested in their food that they would put a stumbling block in the way of fellow believers by what and how they ate. That is why he shows them that they must run in the Christian race, reminding them that in this race, all who run according to the laws of God (not only one, as was usual in their sports), would receive the winner’s crown.
Earlier on in the epistle, he exhorted them by his own example that they should moderate the use of their Christian liberty, chiefly in the things which appertained to gluttony, and specifically in the eating of things offered to idols.
We must use our knowledge with loveOne believer may know his liberty to use things which have been offered to idols. Yet a bare knowledge is not sufficient — it must be joined with love in use and practice. Knowledge without charity puffs up, and makes people proud despisers of the brethren who know only a little. But knowledge joined with charity edifies — that is, it accommodates itself for the good of others (1 Cor. 8:1).
Paul distinguishes between someone who knows with pride, and someone who knows with love to God and neighbour. The one knows nothing solidly, because he is puffed up with a vain opinion of his own knowledge. The other, as he is taught by God, so he is approved of by God that he is truly knowing (8:2–3). Not all who are converted have the same measure of knowledge. For example, some of the Corinthian converts from paganism had not yet abandoned their old opinions of idols, but retained some degree of reverence for the idol, and so their weak consciences were defiled when they ate things that were offered to idols, because they doubted whether they were doing the right thing. It is therefore too simplistic to say that it is lawful to feed on things offered to idols (8:5–7).
We must use our liberty with love“But,” some would object, “the eating of food is an indifferent thing, not part of our religion, and liberty is granted to us. Our eating and our not eating this or that food are both equally pleasing to God, assuming it’s for our health. We mustn’t be barred from our liberty!” (1 Cor. 8:8)
Paul answers that this is true indeed, yet there is a way in which you end up using your liberty in a way which damages your weaker brother (8:9).
For one thing, the weak one who sees you eating in the idol’s temple (with knowledge, yet without charity), is encouraged to eat too, yet in a way which pollutes himself (8:10). Indeed, by doing so, he is destroyed (8:11).
Additionally, when you sin in this way against the brethren, wounding their weak conscience, you are sinning not only against the brethren, but also against Christ, because the tendency of what you are doing is to frustrate or thwart the purpose of Christ’s death. Christ redeemed that brother, so that he would be saved, but you are eating in such a way that you are endeavouring, as much as in you lies, that that brother would perish (8:12).
Paul concludes that it is better to be deprived for ever of our liberty to eat those foods, than to eat in a way that causes ham to our brother (8:13).
Paul’s own examplePaul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 9, in summary, is, “I am an apostle, and am as free as any other believer, yet I not only abstain from things which are lawful and profitable, but I even adapt myself to the infirmities of all. I keep myself under control for the good of the gospel, and therefore you also should do the same.”
In the first part of 1 Corinthians 9, Paul has asserted his own right. He then shows how he moderates his use of that liberty. For example, in the question of the maintenance of ministers, he shows his resolution to forbear, choosing rather to die of hunger than to let others speak evil of him, saying perhaps that he preached for hire (1 Cor. 9:15–18).
Then he extends his moderating of his liberty to all sorts of “things indifferent.” In this, he was not serving himself, but others, so that he would win them to the gospel (v.19). He conformed himself both to the Jews, who were under the Mosaic ceremonies (v.20), and to the Gentiles, who were without the ceremonial law (9:21). He conformed himself also to the weak, those who doubted their liberty, by abstaining from things which were in fact lawful, just like they did (9:22).
In short, he accommodates himself in all indifferent things to all kinds of people, and that is for three reasons. First, so that he would gain as many as possible, or at least some. Second, so that the doctrine of the gospel would be better esteemed among all, by the way he behaved so moderately. Third, so that, by serving the advantage of the gospel, he himself would be saved, being made partaker of the gospel with other believers (9:23).
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Six things which combine to make a false opinion a heresyJust as it is unhelpful to label as heretical any opinion we happen to disagree with, so it is unhealthy to dismiss the spiritual threat of heresy altogether. The Lord Jesus hates error in His church and it pleases Him when false teachings are resisted. But what kinds of error are significant enough to be called heresy? In the following updated extract, George Gillespie explores what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 11:19 when he wrote about the “heresies among you.” He lists six features which co-occur to make an error so bad as to be classified as heresy.The apostle says (1 Corinthians 11:19), “There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.”
By “heresies” here some understand no more but divisions and sects, and conceive that heresies in point of opinion or doctrine, are not meant here. If so, then the very divisions and sects themselves will expose who are “approved,” and who not, before it comes to heretical opinions. Sectaries are not approved, and these who are indeed approved, are none of theirs, but those who keep themselves unspotted, and free from them. So the word “heretic” in Titus 3:10 is understood as an “author of sects,” for example. Sometimes the word “heresy” is used in the New Testament for a sect, yet we may note that it is used only for the kind of sect which either was in reality, or was esteemed to be, of some heretical opinion (e.g., Acts 5:17; 15:5; 24:5; 26:5; 28:22).
The apostle uses the word “heresy” twice in his epistles, and in both places he makes some distinction between heresies, and divisions, or strifes and variance (1 Cor. 11:18–19; Gal. 5:20). For not every division, strife, or variance, is heresy.
Therefore in the text which I now speak to, 1 Corinthians 11:19, I understand “heresy” to be somewhat more than division. The Arabic translation of this verse repeats the word “schisms” out of the preceding verse, reading “for there must arise schisms and heresies among you …” It seems that those who take the word “heresies” to mean only divisions do not observe the flow of the apostle’s argument, for after he has spoken of their schismatic divisions, contrary to the rule of love, he adds, “for there must also be heresies among you.” He is saying in effect, “I partly believe it, that there are divisions among you, for there must be not only schisms, but, worse than that, there must be heresies also!”
So, what is heresy? I answer with two things that are not heresy, before giving six positive identifications.
Two things which are not heresyNot every unscriptural error is a heresyHeresy is to be understood neither so broadly as to include every error which may be confuted by Scripture (even if perhaps that error is maintained too tenaciously), nor so narrowly that it includes only errors which are destructive to some fundamental article of the Christian faith, if a “fundamental article” means a truth without which, if you do not know and believe it, it is impossible to get salvation.
When Peter Martyr Vermigli defines heresy, he makes no mention of a fundamental error, but speaks of an error “contrary to the Scriptures.” Likewise Calvin understands heretics to be those who make a division in the church by false doctrines. Walaeus [a Dutch theologian who contributed to the Canons of Dort] says that heretical churches err either in the foundation, or in some other things built upon the foundation. When Peter speaks of the heresies which take away the very foundation, Jesus Christ, he thinks it too little to call them simply heresies, but he calls them “damnable heresies.”
But you might understand fundamental truths to be all the chief and substantial principles of Christianity — not meaning only the first rudiments, or ABC of a catechism, which we first of all put to new beginners, but I mean all such truths as are commonly put in the confessions of faith, and in the fuller and larger catechisms of the Reformed churches, or all such truths as all and every one who lives in a true Christian Reformed church are commanded and required to learn and know, as they expect in the ordinary dispensation of God to be saved — in this sense, I may agree that heresy is always contrary to some fundamental truth.
It is one thing to dispute about the absolute sovereign power of God, and what are the truths, which, if someone doesn’t believe them, it is absolutely and altogether impossible that they can be saved. I don’t really think this is a question which Scripture provides an answer for, and I don’t know what edification there is in canvassing it. I’m only sure it is a question much abused.
It is another thing to dispute what are the truths which, in a church where the gospel is truly preached, all and every one who has come to years of knowledge and discretion and who has the means and opportunities to learn, ought to know and (according to the revealed will and ordinary dispensation of God) must learn, as they desire or expect to have a true fellowship with Christ in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, or to be accepted of God, and saved eternally.
Something can be heresy without being condemned (yet) by the churchWe must not think that no one is a heretic but one who has been formally admonished by the church, and then continues pertinaciously in his error. For when it says in Titus 3:10, “a man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject,” it implies that he is a heretic before such admonition.
Six things which concur to make a heresyHeresy is an error held by someone in the churchHeresy is an error held by some minister or member of a church, by which I mean either a true church or an assembly claiming and professing to be a true church. Both Peter and Paul, where they foretell that heresies are to come (in 2 Peter 2:1 and 1 Corinthians 11:19). they add “among you,” i.e., among you Christians. (See also Acts 20:30: “Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things.”) Therefore the Scripture does not give the name of heretics to those who are altogether outside the visible church — those are called by the names of heathens or unbelievers, or “they that are without,” or the like.
And held voluntarilyHeresy is an error voluntarily and freely chosen, both in the first invention and broaching of it (which is what heresiarchs do, i.e., the arch-heretics who invent heresies and lead heretical sects), and in the maintaining of it or adhering to it (which is done by all heretics). This I collect from the very name which the Scripture gives to it, for hairesis “heresy” comes from aireomai, “I choose.” Therefore we do not give the name of heretics to Christians who are compelled in time of persecution to profess this or that error, which would perhaps be formally a heresy, if professed voluntarily and without compulsion. They ought indeed to prefer to die, and to endure the greatest torments, before they profess what they know to be an error, but this sin is not properly called heresy.
In this respect, Tertullian thinks that an heretic is said to be “condemned of himself” (Tit. 3:10), because he has of himself chosen that which condemns him. The apostle has just commanded us to reject a heretic. “But if I reject him,” someone might say, “then I will lose him, I destroy his soul.” “No,” says the apostle, “his perdition is of himself, for he has chosen his own ways, and his soul delights in his abominations.” This interpretation is much surer and safer than to say that a heretic is called self-condemned because he goes against his own light, and against the principles received and acknowledged by himself, an interpretation which is accompanied with many dangerous consequences.
And replaces the truthHeresy is a choosing of error which is accompanied with a rejecting of truth. A heretic puts light for darkness, and darkness for light; good for evil, and evil for good. He chooses error as truth, and refuses truth as error. Those who “give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils,” do also “depart from the faith” (1 Tim. 4:1), “resist the truth” (2 Tim. 3:8), and “turn away their ears from the truth” (2 Tim. 4:4). Their trajectory has a terminus a quo as well as a terminus ad quem (a starting point as well as an endpoint).
And ensnares othersHeresy is an error which is professed and maintained, and which by that means becomes a scandal (stumbling block) and snare to others. For although there may be heresies (just as much as other kinds of sin) lurking and hidden in the thoughts, yet that belongs to God’s judgement only, not to man’s. The heresies which are spoken of in 1 Corinthians 11:19 are certainly known and clearly distinguishing to other people. And heretics are scandalous persons who must be avoided and rejected (Rom. 16:17; Tit. 3:10), which could not be the case if their errors were not known.
And contradicts some chief truthHeresy is an error which is contradictory to some chief and substantial truth, grounded on, or by necessary consequence drawn from, the Holy Scripture. There was never yet a heretic in the Christian world who contradicted something that is literally there in black and white in Scripture. The most damnable heretic will offer to subscribe to the Scripture instead of a Confession of Faith, yet they will not subscribe to all the truths which necessarily follow from the words of Scripture.
But I do not call heresy every error which is contrary to some consequent truth, grounded upon Scripture. Just as Scripture does not reckon all who sin to be “workers of iniquity,” so it does not reckon not all who err to be heretics. Although no sin and no error is insignificant in its own nature, yet not every sin is a gross and heinous sin, and not every error is heresy. Heresies are mentioned as greater evils than schisms (e.g., 1 Cor. 11:18–19), but this could not be so, if every error was a heresy.
And is divisiveHeresy is an error which is maintained factiously, or contentiously, in a way which involves dividing the church, and drawing away disciples after it. “I may err,” said Augustine, “but I shall not be a heretic.” Heretics are deceivers and seducers who endeavour to pervert others, and to overthrow their faith (2 Tim. 3:13; Acts 20:30; 2 Tim. 2:17–18; Rom. 16:17–19; 2 Pet. 2:2). All known and noted heretics are also schismatics, who make a rupture, and strengthen their own grouping by drawing disciples and followers after them (to the extent that, as we have seen, the word “heresy” is often used for a sect). Heresy as carries schism with it in its bosom. Calvin says that the breaking of church communion and the making of a division is a thing common both to heretics and schismatics, for heretics break one bond of church communion, i.e., consent in doctrine, while schismatics break another, i.e., love, though sometimes they agree in doctrine.
From all these scriptural observations we may make up a description of heresy like this. Heresy is a gross and dangerous error, held voluntarily and maintained divisively, by some person or persons within the visible church, in opposition to some chief or substantial truth or truths grounded on and drawn from the Holy Scripture by necessary consequence.
← How remembering leads to refreshingFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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How remembering leads to refreshingEvery believer in Jesus has by definition dedicated themselves to the Lord, to be His and for Him from now for ever. Sometimes it can be helpful for believers to explicitly reflect on this and articulate it in their own words. In Covenanting times it was not unusual for individual believers to formulate such “personal covenants” and sometimes to write them down. One godly woman who did this was Janet Hamilton, Lady Earlston (who died in 1696). Janet married Sir Alexander Gordon of Earlston (1650–1726), a Covenanter who fought at Bothwell Bridge. He was arrested some time after the battle, and ended up imprisoned in Blackness Castle. Janet voluntarily joined him in prison (and some of their children were born there).At various stages in her life, Janet wrote down her reflections on the Lord’s dealings with her in the form of “soliloquies.” The earliest available of these follows in updated form. In her thoughts she moves seamlessly from addressing own soul by way of reminiscences and self-exhortations, to addressing the Lord in praise and prayer. Her recollections culminate in a renewal of her personal covenant with the Lord. Janet’s writings were discovered after her death and published at the request of her friends, with the hope that it would encourage others to write their own accounts and personal covenants.Recollections of the Lord’s graceLord, I desire to bless Thy name for Thy former loving-kindnesses to me in the day of my trouble, in helping and standing by me when overcharged with affliction, and deserted by friends. What was I, and my father’s house? A poor insufficient creature, taken up with nothing but vanities of all sorts. Oh, what moved so holy a God ever to condescend to look upon me, and pass by so many much more worthy than poor undeserving me! Oh, praises be unto thee, O Most High! Oh that my tongue were employed through time in magnifying the holy name of so merciful a God!
Placing me among the godlyMay not I say, His mercies are over all His other works to me? May not I sit down and admire free love? First, in inclining my heart to love Him and His people, and in casting my lot amongst the godly, and in bestowing a godly and kind husband on me (when I was left destitute without father or mother), and that He did so care for me as not to allow me to enjoy the desires of my heart, but was at pains to hedge in my ways with thorns. His infinite love did not allow me to sit at my ease, enjoying my pleasures in the day of Zion’s calamity, but prepared the way by smaller trials for greater.
Preparing me gentlyThou didst in Thy infinite wisdom, not at first cast me into the hottest flames of the furnace, lest I should not have been able to stand, but would in fright have fainted and turned back. But, oh, praise! praise be to Him who inhabits eternity, that condescended so far to me, a worm, as sweetly to train me up, in alluring me, and speaking comfortably to me, when I first entered into the wilderness!
Thou causedst Thy word to be to my soul as the honey and the honeycomb. Thou madest me sit under Thy shadow with great delight, and Thy fruits were sweet unto my taste; so that many a time which to onlookers was sad, was sweet to me. The Lord did so support and feast me in His banqueting house that I was made to rejoice in the midst of my tribulations.
Equipping me to stand strongLikewise, Thou didst not allow me to go on with those who were indifferent in Christ’s matters, but with Thy rods Thou didst raise such a zeal and love on my spirit, and so filledst my mouth with arguments, that I could not see any thing like defection from, or wrong done, to any of Thy truth, without resenting, testifying, and contending against it. Thou madest at least this change in my heart, which was proud and haughty, much disdaining the converse of the poor, but Thou helpedst me to be denied to great folk, and to the reproach I suffered on that front, making the company of the poor that were godly in the land, dear unto me.
And I hope they shall be so while they keep in God’s way, He having passed by the great ones, and honoured the poor boldly to testify for Him; and those whom He honours, I desire, through grace, to honour.
Confronting me with the truthPraise be to Thee whose care of me was such that it was ministers who were valiant for Christ that were sent in my way, those who did not flatter me in my sin, but faithfully and freely held out, in the gospel, what was sin and duty, and sealed the same with their blood.
Answering my prayersHow Thou didst encourage me with many sweet answers of prayer, to confirm me in Thy love! Thou didst help me, in the days of Thy love to me, to make a full resignation of all that was mine to Thee, so that when I was put out of all, stripped bare and made destitute, not knowing of shelter to me and my poor babes, how calmly and quietly didst Thou help me to go under it! So much so that I was made to fear that it was unthinking numbness, and not supporting grace.
Bringing me out of a sinful way of thinkingAnd such was Thy love, that even in that, Thou wouldst not let me go without a reproof. For there was a friend who was permitted to wrong me in a matter, and the Lord withdrew, and then I was as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. I could not get it borne, until I mourned for my folly in thinking that nature could do any thing in me, without assisting grace. Then He helped me to make a full resignation anew of all that was mine, and to look beyond all earthly portions to that noble inheritance which Thou hast purchased with Thy blood, and gavest me full contentedness in all my sufferings, both from friends and foes.
And when Thou didst (for the trial of my faith and patience) throw me in very hot flames of affliction, having all the discouragements from the world that a poor thing could meet with — and (what was sorest to me) not having that measure of the sense of Thy presence as sometimes before — oh, that condescendence! Oh, that fatherly love, that did not allow me to sink in this storm, which most people thought little of! There were few to sympathise with me, but many thought it their duty to add to my affliction.
Oh, praises, praises be to Thee, who in that time didst help me to sit silent, bearing Thy indignation patiently, because I sinned against Thee, yet Thy mercies did not fail towards me! But Thou didst in this extremity secretly support me, and didst, by restraining grace, fence me in, not giving me liberty to seek a sinful deliverance.
Renewal of my personal covenant with the LordO Lord, continue in Thy love, in keeping me in Thy way, that I may have reason to set up my Ebenezer, and to say, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped me.” O Thou that hast begun this good work, perfect it, that I may praise Thy holy name through time and all eternity.
And now, O Lord, out of the sense of all these Thy loving-kindnesses towards Thy poor handmaid, I desire, in Thy strength, to renew previous commitments, and solemnly anew to enter in covenant with Thee. O Lord, help me to go sincerely about it, and let Thy presence go along with the duty!
O Lord, I here desire to enter solemnly into covenant with Thee, taking Thee for my Lord and Master, and accepting Thee on Thy own terms, taking Thee for my King, Priest, and Prophet, and in my station, through Thy grace, to stand by truth, and cheerfully to take on Thy yoke, and follow Thee. Lord, Thou knowest my weakness — I desire to believe that Thou wilt be a present help in the day of need to me, according to Thy promise, and in the faith of this I go on.
I here give my hearty consent to Thee to come and take possession in my soul, and to cast out all there that stands in opposition to Thee. Come, Lord Jesus, subdue all my corruptions, and bring them under Thy feet, that I may be, through Thee, a conqueror over them.
I desire here to take Thee for my all, to be ruled and governed by Thee, acquiescing to whatsoever shall be Thy way of dealing with me. Give me Thyself, and this shall be all my desire.
I desire to enter my protestation at the throne of grace, against all principalities and powers in me that stand out against Thee, and shall endeavour, in Thy strength, to war against them, for they are as a tyrant not having consent.
Whatever I have been, I do here accept of the offer of peace through Christ, and do make a sure covenant with Thee this day, never to be reversed, hoping Thou wilt make all forthcoming unto me, both on Thy part and mine.
I desire here to acknowledge all the controverted truths that are founded on Thy holy Word (the Word which I desire to be my rule), and to confess Thee before men, that Thou mayest confess me before Thy Father. Lord, give me it in that hour, if I shall be brought before great ones for Thy name’s sake.
I desire to adhere to all the articles of the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant, to which I stand engaged, only I disown the king’s part of it, he having un-kinged himself by the breach of Covenants, and by making our land a land of graven images, our land that was so solemnly given up to God. I desire in weakness to adhere to it, although it has been burnt by the hand of the hangman, and is now buried by those that better things were expected of.
O Lord, I desire to conclude by giving myself up to Thee, and all mine. Accept, Lord Jesus Christ, and help to perform, and acknowledge me as Thy covenanted child, protesting humbly, that failing on my part (against which I resolve, as Thou knowest) shall not make void this covenant, seeing I have accepted Thy offer, on Thy own terms, and will henceforth wait for what is good, so that when Thou comest I may rejoice in Thee, crying, “This is my God, and I have waited for Him.”
As witness my hand, at Blackness Castle, December 1687.
Janet Hamilton
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Why pastors should lead with love rather than fearAlthough the church in general currently has little influence in wider society, this does not eliminate the problem of ministers and pastors striving for power and influence within their own smaller circles. Sometimes there is seeking for pre-eminence among their brother ministers, sometimes it is a domineering attitude towards the people in the pews. Although this may go hand in hand with sound doctrine and other forms of usefulness, it is the opposite of the spirit of meekness and gentleness which the Lord Jesus Christ models for His servants. As Thomas Manton pointed out in one of his sermons, pastors should lead by light and love, not with force and fear. In the following extract from a sermon on 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4, Manton diagnoses the basic problem as lack of Christ-like humility and sounds the warning that pride in the church is the defining characteristic of what it means to be anti-Christ.Humility makes ministers Christ-likeThat which is most remarkable in Christ, and should be in all his followers, is humility. He expressed a wonderful contempt of the riches and greatness of the world, and all the honour which is of man, taking the form of a servant, and making Himself of no reputation, and living a mean, inferior life. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matt. 9:28). He kept no state, nor affected pomp of attendants. Though He was Lord of all, yet He became poor, to make us rich (2 Cor. 8:9).
But even if this was appropriate for Him, does He also expect it from His servants and officers in the church? Yes. This is the grace He has recommended to all his followers: Mat. 11:29, “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly” (Matt. 11:29). But especially He recommends it to the ministers of the gospel. Because our Lord foresaw what spirit would work in them, therefore He forewarned them of pride and lordliness: Mat. 20:25, 26, “Ye know that the princes of the earth do exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them; but it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister” (Matt. 20:25–26). Among Christ’s servants, he that is chief must be chief in service, even as a servant to all: “He that is chief, as he that doth serve” (Luke 22:26).
Domination, greatness, principality and power, is allowed in the civil state, for there it is necessary, yet it is excluded in the church. This pretentious taking on of pre-eminence and chiefness is the bane of the church — it is taxed as a great sin in Diotrephes (3 John 9) — whether it is pre-eminence either over their fellow-labourers, or the people of the Lord.
You see how tender the apostles were in this point. Everywhere they disclaim this affectation of lordship: “Not that we are lords of your faith, but helpers of your joy” (2 Cor. 1:24). Peter says to his fellow-elders, “Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock” (1 Pet. 5:3). And if the apostles would not assume lordship, who may?
It is true, there is a government in the church, and the people are to obey their guides (Heb 13:17), and to “have them highly in honour, for their works’ sake” (1 Thess 5:13), but yet the pastors of the church should govern by light and love, not by pomp and force, and not be known by such pomp and authority as begets fear.
Signs of an un-Christ-like spirit in the churchWell, now, let us see the opposite state. If humility and meekness be in the very essence of Christianity, and woven throughout the whole frame of it, then it is anti-Christian to be lordly and proud, especially in those who claim to be successors of Christ and His apostles.
With some, all their business is to get power. What schemes they have for getting ahead! How studiously they pursue promotion! They blush not to say so openly before angels and men. This worldly ambition to rise higher and higher is their design and trade of life.
Within the church, they presume to exercise supreme authority. But it is the unique and incommunicable property of Christ to be Lord and lawgiver to the church. “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us” (Isa. 33:22). God alone has such interest in His people as to prescribe supreme or universal laws to them, and we are His subjects. “There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy” (James 4:12). Now anyone who makes laws that immediately bind the conscience, invades Christ’s sovereignty. This is spiritual tyranny, and the worst sort of tyranny, to arrogate a power over the subjects of Christ and their consciences as lord of their faith. Likewise, it is an exercising an authority no less than divine, to take upon oneself to absolve others from their duty to God, or the penalty which sin has made his due. To do this as of right, is to sit in the church of God as God.
How Christ’s church should operateHow then should things carry on in the true and reformed Christianity?
With meeknessWith such meekness, modesty, and mortification, that our religion may be known to be established by a crucified Lord, whose doctrine and example do visibly and eminently hold forth the contempt of the world. The pride and ambition of the pastors of the church hath been the cause of all the evil in it; therefore nothing so unsuitable to the gospel as a domineering spirit. We, that are to preach heavenly-mindedness and self-denial, should not affect the greatness of the world, lest our lives contradict our doctrine.
With respect towards civil authoritiesHow eminent and exemplary we should be in our obedience to magistrates! For this is the opposite of anti-Christian pride. God is very tender of the honour of civil powers and authorities, and wants every soul to be subject to them: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom. 13:1), and again, “Submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether it be to the king as supreme, or to governors, as them that are sent by him” (1 Pet. 2:13). Great respect and submission is due to them for God’s sake, and so that we may commend religion to the profane world, and live down the reproaches of the gospel. Those who were not afraid to speak evil of dignities, who despise government in their own hearts, or weaken the esteem of it in the hearts of others by their words, are branded as wicked (2 Pet. 2:10), ‘But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanliness, and despise government; presumptuous are they, self-willed; they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.’
With reverence towards the LordWhat a wickedness it is to usurp divine honours! We do so when we take to ourselves the praise and admiration which is only due to God. “And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus, &c. and his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom we see and know; yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all” (Acts 3:12).
← Three signs of Spirit-given prayerFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Three signs of Spirit-given prayerPrayer is the Christian’s heartbeat, pulsing continually. What keeps it going so constantly is the Holy Spirit, or as Paul calls Him, the Spirit of adoption, who has taken up residence in the believer. Life itself and all the signs of life come from the Spirit. In a sermon on Romans 8:15, “Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father,” the gifted young preacher Hugh Binning identifies three characteristics of Spirit-given prayer.The chief principle and origin of prayer is the Spirit of adoption received into the heart. Many of you cannot be induced to pray in your family (or, even more seriously, on your own personally), because you say you aren’t accustomed to it, or haven’t been taught, or something like that. But, beloved! Prayer doesn’t come through education or learning — it comes from the Spirit of adoption. If you say you can’t pray, then it means you do not have the Spirit — and if you do not have the Spirit, you are not the sons of God. Please be aware of the logical conclusions of what you say.
But I hasten on to the characteristics of this divine work: fervency, reverence, and confidence, in crying, ‘Abba, Father.’
Spirit-given prayer is ferventUnfortunately, fervency is usually spent on other things of less importance than prayer. Truly, what people are spirited and passionate about is all in the way of contention and strife, or high temper and misnamed zeal. Yet because the things that we are so earnestly contending about have some connection with religion, we not only excuse our vehemence but approve it!
Other people’s spirits are burned up on the pursuit of the things of the world. The sharp edge of their desires turns that way, with the inevitable consequence that it is blunted and dulled in spiritual things, so that it cannot pierce into heaven and prevail effectually.
Fervent like burning incenseAs there were no sacrifices in the temple without fire, kept going perpetually, so there is no prayer now without some inward fire in the desires, kept blazing up and growing into a flame as those desires are presented to God.
As the incense that was to be offered on the altar of perfume (Exodus 30) had to be beaten and prepared, so, truly, prayer would do well to be made out of a beaten and bruised heart and contrite spirit (Psalm 51:17) — a spirit truly conscious of its own unworthiness and needs. That pounding of the heart will yield a good, fragrant smell, as some spices only do when beaten.
The incense was made of various spices, suggesting to us that true prayer is not one grace alone, but a compound of graces. It is the joint exercise of all a Christian’s graces, seasoned with all. Every one of them, whether humility, or faith, or repentance, or love, etc., contributes some distinctive fragrance. The acting of the heart in supplication is a kind of compendium and result of all these, just as perfume is made up of many ingredients.
But above all, as the incense was, our prayers must be kindled by fire on the altar. There must be some heat and fervour, some warmth, conceived by the Holy Spirit in our hearts, which will make our spices send forth a pleasant smell, as spices do when they are heated.
Fervent and unspoken and discerned by GodLet us commit ourselves to be more serious in our approaches to God, the Father of spirits. Certainly, frequency in prayer will greatly help us towards fervency, and help us to keep it when we have it.
Crying in the heart may be silent to others, but it strikes the ears of God. His ear is sharp, and the voice of the soul’s desire is shrill, and even if it cries in the depths, they will meet together. It is true that vehemence of affection will sometimes cause the voice to be lifted up, but yet that fervency will cry just as loud to heaven when it is kept internal. I am not insisting on such extraordinary degrees of vehemence that they affect the body — I would rather wish that we would accustom ourselves to a solid, calm seriousness and earnestness of spirit, which would be more constant than such raptures can be.
Spirit-given prayer is reverentAnother thing that prayer is composed of is reverence. And what is more suitable than reverence, whether you think of Him or of yourselves? “If I be a father, where is my honour? If I be your master, where is my fear?” (Mal. 1:6). When we call Him Father, or Lord, we proclaim this much — that we ought to know our distance from Him, and His superiority to us.
Reverent because God is our FatherAnd if worship in prayer does not have this characteristic, it lacks that congruity and suitableness to Him which is its beauty. Is anything more uncomely than for children to behave irreverently and disrespectfully towards their fathers, to whom they owe their beings? It is a monstrous thing even in nature, and to the light of nature. How much more abominable must it be, to draw near disrespectfully to the Father of spirits, in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways, to whom we owe not only this dust, but the living spirit that animates it, and “in whom we live, and move, and have our being (and wellbeing)”! — to draw near to worship this one, and yet to behave ourselves so unseemly and irreverently in His presence, that our hearts are not stricken with a sense of His glory, but lie flat and dead before Him! We scarcely have it in our thoughts, who we are speaking to.
Reverent because God is holyO the wanderings of heart we have in the worship of God! While we are in communication with our Father and Lord, whose heart is fixed to a constant attendance and presence by the impression of His glorious holiness? Whose spirit does not continually gad about, and get distracted by every thing that occurs, and so mar that soul correspondence? O that this word was written in capital letters on our hearts, “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him” (Psalm 86:7).
That one fact — God — affects everything. Either we must change Him into an idol, which is nothing, or, if we grasp that He is God, we must realise our infinite distance from Him, and His unspeakable, inaccessible glory above us. He is greatly feared and reverenced in the assemblies above, in the upper courts of angels. How much more then should He be greatly feared and had in reverence in the assemblies of His saints, poor mortals, whose foundation is in the dust and in the clay (Job 4:19), and who drink in iniquity like water (Job 5:16)? There are two points of difference and distance from us. Angels are pure spirits, but we have bodies, which is further removed from His nature. And then, angels are holy and clean, but we are defiled with sin, which His holiness has the greatest antipathy against.
Let us consider this, my beloved, so that we may carry the impression of the glorious holiness and majesty of God on our hearts whenever we appear before Him, so that we may serve and rejoice with trembling, and pray with reverence and godly fear. If we realise, indeed, our own condition — how low it is, how base it is, how we cannot endure the clear sight of our own consciences — we cannot look on ourselves steadfastly without shame and confusion of face at the deformed spectacle we present. Much less could we endure to have our souls opened up to the view of other people. We would be overwhelmed with shame if they could see into our hearts! Now then, realise seriously what God is, how glorious in holiness, how infinite in wisdom — and I am sure you will be brought to a reverent, humble, and trembling behaviour in His sight.
Spirit-given prayer is confidentConfident because God is our FatherAt the same time, I must add this — that because He is your Father, you may intermingle confidence with your reverence. Indeed, you are commanded to do so, and this honours Him as much as reverence. For confidence in God, as our Father, is the best acknowledgement of His greatness and goodness. It declares how able He is to save us, and how willing, and so ratifies all His promises, and sets to our seal to His faithfulness.
There is nothing He regards Himself so honoured by, than a soul fully resigning itself to Him, and relying on His power and goodwill in all its necessities, casting its care on Him, as a loving Father, who cares for us.
Truly, there is much beauty and harmony in the conjoining of these two — rejoicing with trembling, confidence with reverence, asking nothing doubting, and yet conscious of our infinite distance from Him, and the disproportion between our requests and His highness. “Let us draw near with full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22). There is much in Scripture, both exhorted and commanded and commended, about that liberty and boldness of pouring out our requests to God as one who will certainly hear us, and grant what is good.
Confidence is the opposite of unbeliefUnbelief spoils everything. It is a wretched and base-spirited thing, that can think no honourable thoughts of God, but only like itself. But faith is the well-pleasing ingredient of prayer. The lower thoughts you have of yourself, the higher and more honourable thoughts it will make you have of God. “My ways are not your ways, nor my thoughts as your thoughts, but as far above you as the heavens above the earth” (Isa. 55:8). This is the rule of a believing soul’s thoughts of God and expectations from Him.
Confident because of God’s faithfulnessIn spiritual things which concern your salvation, which are absolutely necessary, you may take the boldness to be absolute in it, and say, like Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him,” and like Jacob, “I will not let thee go till thou bless me.” But in outward things (which have some usefulness in them, but are not always fittest for our chiefest good), or in the degrees of spiritual gifts, and measures of graces, the Lord calls us to pour out our hearts to Him — without anxiety, yet with submission to His pleasure, because He knows what is best for us. In these, we are not bound to be confident that we shall receive the particular thing we ask, but rather our confidence should fix on His goodwill and favour, that He will certainly deny us nothing that He knows is good for us. So, in these things we should cast ourselves absolutely and without anxiousness on His loving and fatherly providence, and give ourselves up to Him to do with us as He sees convenient.
There is sometimes too much limiting of God. This is ordinarily attended and followed with shame and disappointment in the end. On the other hand, there is intolerable remissness and slackness in many, in their laxness in asking for even the weightiest petitions of salvation, mortification of sin, etc. This certainly arises from the diffidence and unbelief of the heart, and the absence of the deeply rooted conviction both of the incomparable necessity and worth of the things themselves, and of His willingness and commitment to bestow them.
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Four Reasons Why People in Power Should Glorify GodWhile we wait for the dust to settle after the General Election, we are both comforted and challenged by the truth that the Lord is still in power and looking after the whole of human history for His own glory. This is not merely a platitude for Christians to use to soothe themselves after unwelcome election results. It is an understanding that should shape everything, including when things are going the way we would like. Those who are now in power in the nation must take account of this too. The gospel requirement remains in force, that whoever we are and whatever position we hold, we must all trustingly and penitently acknowledge the Lord in His glory sitting king for ever. As David Dickson shows in the following extract from his comments on Psalm 29, the gospel confronts those in positions of authority, the “mighty” and the “potentates” in our nation.In Psalm 29, David directs his exhortation to the potentates of the earth, “O ye mighty,” in order that they may humble themselves before God, and give Him the glory of all power, and authority, and excellency, above themselves, and above all other creatures.
Although princes should be most careful of all people to glorify God, yet it is most rare to see them humble themselves before Him. Natural corruption is as strong in them as in others, and their education breeds them to high and stately thoughts of themselves, while their riches and power puff them up, and the flatterers who ordinarily attend them make them forget themselves and God also. Therefore they are thrice exhorted here to give glory to God (v1–2).
It is most necessary that potentates humble themselves before God, and be singled out to be challenged to do so, because their example and authority prompt many outwardly to submit to God. That is why David speaks to them in their grandeur, “Give glory to God, O ye mighty” (v.1).
To the extent that men are great in the world, they are ready to think much of their own strength, of what their power is able to reach to, and what honour is due to them. But if they reckon right, strength and glory belong to God. And according as He is above them in power and excellency, so should He proportionably be magnified. “Give unto the Lord glory and strength, and give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name” (v.2).
The glory which God wants is what He has prescribed in His own ordinances, given forth in His Word to His church. “Worship him in the beauty of holiness,” that is, in the glorious sanctuary, the place of public meeting, beautiful indeed, not so much for timber or stones, but because there are the holy and beautiful means of grace to us, and God’s worship showing forth His glory.
Because He has more power and majesty than themDavid’s proof for the claim that strength and glory belong to the Lord is just the one single work of thundering (v.3–9).
Though the standing works of creation speak most of God, yet such is our foolishness that we apprehend least what is seen daily, and a lesser work which occurs more rarely will move more people, as for example, the thunder, or the eclipse of the sun or moon.
No work of the Lord is rightly grasped till He Himself be looked to as the immediate worker of it. This is why David points out the sound of the thunder, as the voice of the Lord upon many waters.
Though the Lord should be observed as the worker of every work, yet He is not at first seen in His work to any purpose, till by often reviewing His operation about it, we become somewhat affected with His glory and power in them. David repeats the second time, “the God of glory thundereth,” and the third time, “the Lord is upon many waters” (v.3–4).
When the thunder (or any work of God) is well considered, some invisible thing of God will appear in it; as for example, His power and majesty (v.4).
Then David goes into more detail on the subject, and shows the effects of God’s voice on trees (v.5), mountains (v.6), the lightning (v.7), the waste wilderness (v.8), the animals and the woods which are their habitat (v.9).
Human senselessness is greater than that of the brute creatures. They are all more moved with the thunder than are human hearts, for the most part. Yet one work of God that you dwell on, shows more of God than many of His works which you looked at slightly and pass over. Indeed, one sensitive and understanding person will discover more of God in one work of God, than will many in their ordinary mood, either in that work, or in any other, or in all His works.
Because He shows His glory best in His churchDavid gives a second reason for his exhortation to the mighty to worship God in the beauty of holiness, because “in his temple every one doth speak of his glory” (v.9).
Although the glory of the Lord is displayed in all the earth, and in all His works, yet it is in His temple, in His church, that His works are displayed expressly and fully. For there, by His Word, His counsel is opened, and His holiness, His goodness, justice, mercy, and all His attributes are declared.
Outside the church, people are compelled to acknowledge His glory now and then, but in His church, people declare His glory distinctly and willingly. “In his temple doth every one speak of his glory.” All there confess His praise, and everything in the temple holds out something of Christ and His benefits, to the glory of God’s mercy. This is more than the world can understand.
Because He reigns supremeA third reason to motivate princes to give to God glory and strength, is, because His kingdom reaches to the ruling of the waters (“the Lord sits on the flood”), and because He is a king immortal (“the Lord sits king for ever”) (v.10).
As the strength of the Lord appears in all His works, so it is especially apparent that He rules the raging sea. Once He drowned the world with it, and now He binds it up, that it should never do so again. No king is king over every kingdom and king, but God is King above all kings. No king is of long continuance, but the Lord is the everlasting king. Every mighty one should do Him homage, as his king, his lord, and his supreme superior.
Because He will bless His peopleFourthly, those who humbly submit themselves to the Lord, and worship Him as His people should do, shall be equipped with abilities for every good work, and shall be abundantly blessed (v.11). Potentates should be motivated to give all glory to God, and to join with His people in glorifying him, because of the blessedness of His people, who worship Him in His holy temple.
The power of the Lord is not against His people, but for His people, against His and their enemies. “He gives strength to his people,” i.e., against their enemies, and to equip them to every part of His service He calls them to. The Lord’s people give the glory of power and strength to the Lord, and the Lord will give strength to his people.
The true worshippers of God, whatsoever may be their exercise in the world, may be sure of reconciliation with Him, and of true blessedness, for the Lord will bless His people with peace (v.11).
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What kind of government do we want anyway?As the country prepares to go to the polls, it is worth reflecting on what exactly we are entitled to expect from the government. What is the basis of secular government and what is it supposed to achieve in the nation? Does it matter if people holding office in our country are Christians or not? During the Second Reformation, much thought was given to the nature of civil authority, mainly in terms of how it was related to and contradistinguished from churchly authority. George Gillespie set out a series of propositions which differentiated civil from ecclesiastical power. The following abridged piece extracts his descriptions of civil power.The civil power and the ecclesiastical ought not by any means to be confounded or mixed together.
Both powers are indeed from God and ordained for His glory, and both are to be guided by His Word, and both are included under the precept, “Honour thy father and thy mother.” So that we ought to obey both civil magistrates and church office-bearers in the Lord.
But notwithstanding the many things in which they agree, yet they are distinguished from each other by marvellously vast differences. Here are eight ways of distinguishing them.
Civil power is founded on the law of natureFirst of all, they are distinguished in respect of their very foundation and institution. Civil or political power is grounded on the law of nature itself, and for that cause it is common to infidels along with Christians. Ecclesiastical power depends immediately on the positive law of Christ alone.
Civil power belongs to the universal dominion of God the Creator over all nations, whereas ecclesiastical power belongs to the special kingdom of Christ the Mediator, which He exercises in the church alone, and which is not of this world.
Civil power is occupied about earthly thingsThe second differences in the objects about which they are concerned. The civil power is occupied about the outward man, and civil or earthly things — about war, peace, upholding justice and good order in the commonwealth.
Its objects also include the outward business or external things of the church. These are things which are indeed necessary to the church, or profitable, as touching the outward man, the external state and condition of the ministers and members of the church. Yet they are not properly and purely spiritual, for they do not reach to the soul.
As far as ministers and members of the church are citizens, subjects, or members of the commonwealth, it is in the power of the magistrate to judge, determine and give sentence concerning the disposing of their bodies or goods. The same applies to the maintenance of the poor, the sick, the banished, and others who are afflicted in the church.
It is also within the magistrate’s powers to regulate (as far as it concerns civil order) marriages, burials, and other circumstances which are common both to holy and to civil societies; and to afford places fit for holy assemblies, and other external helps by which the sacred matters of the Lord may more safely, commodiously, and more easily be performed in the church.
It is also within the magistrate’s powers to remove the external impediments to divine worship or ecclesiastical peace, and to repress those who exalt themselves against the true church and her ministers, and raise up trouble against them.
In such external matters of the church, although all magistrates will not, yet all (even heathen magistrates) may and ought to aid and help the church. By the command of God, prayers are to be made even for heathen magistrate, that the faithful under them may live a quiet life with all godliness and honesty (1 Tim. 2:1–2).
However, the object of ecclesiastical power is very different. It says nothing about people’s bodies, goods, dignities, civil rights, etc., but takes to do only with the soul, the inward man. Ecclesiastical power is merely and purely spiritual. It is exercised therefore about the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, public prayer and thanksgiving, the catechising and instructing of children and ignorant persons, the examination of those who are to come to the holy communion, church discipline, the ordination and deposition of ministers, the settling of controversies around faith and cases of conscience, canonical constitutions concerning the treasury of the church and collections of the faithful, as also concerning ecclesiastical rites, or indifferent things, to do with keeping decency and order in the church, according to the general rules of Christian love and prudence contained in the Word of God.
Civil power is lordlyThen, these powers are distinguished in respect of their forms.
Civil power is lordly and magisterial. Ecclesiastical power is indeed furnished with authority, yet that authority is more fatherly than kingly, and it is also purely ministerial (it is not lawful to ministers of the church to have dominion over the flock). Emperors, kings, and other magistrates are indeed appointed fathers of the country, but they are at the same time lords of their people. Not that they are permitted to issue commands at their own will (for they are the ministers of God for the good of their subjects), yet it belongs to their power truly and properly to exercise dominion, to hold principality, to proceed imperiously.
Civil power is endued with authority to compel. But it does not belong to the church to compel the disobedient. Compulsion is not in the nature of ecclesiastical power. The very most which the church can do with the most shameless or malicious person is to excommunicate them. But the magistrate has on standby a jurisdiction of compulsion and external force, whereby stubborn, rebellious and undaunted pride may be externally repressed.
The power of the magistrate works only politically, or civilly. According to the nature of the sceptre or sword, he makes and enforces civil laws, which sometimes also he changes or repeals, and other things of that kind.
The same sin therefore in the same person may be punished one way by the civil power, and another way by the ecclesiastical power. Someone may be punished by the civil power under the formality of a crime, with corporal or pecuniary punishment (such as death, banishment, forfeiture of goods, imprisonment), and also by the ecclesiastical power, under the notion and nature of “scandal” [i.e., hindering people’s spiritual wellbeing and bringing dishonour on Christ’s church], with a spiritual censure.
Civil power aims at the good of the nationThe immediate nearest end of civil power is that the good of the commonwealth may be provided for and procured, whether it be in time of peace, according to the rules of law and counsel of judges, or in time of war, according to the rules of military prudence, so as to procure the temporal safety of the subjects, and preserve or restore external peace and civil liberty.
But the chief and ultimate end of civil government is the glory of God the Creator, so that when those who do evil are restrained or punished, and those which do good get praise, the people may all the more shun impiety and injustice, and so that virtue, justice and the moral law of God (as touching the eternal duties of both tables, which are obligatory on all of Adam’s posterity) may remain in strength and flourish.
So, whereas a Christian magistrate will wholly devote himself to promoting the gospel and kingdom of Christ, and direct and bend all the might and strength of his authority to that end, this does not proceed from the nature of his office or function (which is common to him with an infidel magistrate), but from the influence of his ordinary Christian calling on his particular vocation.
For every member of the church (including the faithful and godly magistrate) ought to order his or her particular vocation, faculty, ability, power and honour to the end of promoting the kingdom of Christ, and cherishing and defending the true religion. So the advancement of the gospel and all its ordinances is indeed the end of the godly magistrate, yet not of a magistrate simply; or (if you prefer) it is not the end of the office itself, but of him who executes the office piously.
By contrast, the end of ecclesiastical power, and indeed of the ministry itself, is that the kingdom of Christ would be set forward.
Civil power brings about safety and liberty in the nationThe proper effect of the civil power is the temporal safety of the commonwealth, external tranquillity, the fruition of civil liberty, and of all things which are necessary to human civil society. As a by-product, it also brings about the good of the church, i.e., in so far as by executing justice and good laws, some of the impediments that usually hinder and disturb the course of the gospel are avoided or taken away. By consequence it comes about by God’s blessing that the church is defiled with fewer scandals, and has more freedom and peace.
But the proper effect of the ecclesiastical power, or keys of the kingdom of heaven, is wholly spiritual. The act of binding and loosing, of retaining and remitting sins, reaches to the soul and conscience itself (which cannot be said of the act of the civil power). And as unjust excommunication is void, so ecclesiastical censures applied according to Christ’s will are ratified in heaven (Matt. 18:18), and therefore ought to be esteemed and acknowledged as applied by Christ Himself.
Civil power can be held by a wide variety of personsCivil power is committed sometimes to one, sometimes to many, sometimes by right of election, sometimes by right of succession. But under the New Testament, ecclesiastical power is competent to none by the right of succession — the one who has it must be called to it by God and the church to it. Neither was it given by Christ to one single pastor or elder (far less to a prelate), but to the church, hence ecclesiastical censures ought not to be inflicted by one but by many (2 Cor. 2:6).
Civil power reaches to everyone in its territoryGod has commanded that every soul should be subject to the civil power, i.e., all members of the commonwealth, of whatever condition and estate. Not even the clergy are free from the yoke of the civil magistrate. However, ecclesiastical power extends itself only to those who are called brethren, i.e., members of the church.
Civil power can operate where church power fails, and vice versaIf either power fails to do its duty, that does not prejudice the exercise of the other power. If the magistrate neglects to punish with secular punishment some malefactors who are church members by profession, it remains in the power of the church to curb those people by the bridle of ecclesiastical discipline (indeed, by virtue of their office they are bound to do so). Equally, the magistrate may and ought to punish in life and limb, honours or goods, even if the offender has repented or been reconciled with the church.
Neither power is obliged to cast out or receive those who the other casts out or receives. The ecclesiastical ministry is chiefly to do with repentance to salvation, and gaining the sinner’s soul. It therefore embraces all kinds of wicked people repenting, and receives them into the bosom of the church. The magistrate has another and very different remit, for he is to punish even repenting offenders, both to satisfy justice and the law, and also as a deterrent to others. Absolution from church censures does not at all free a delinquent from civil judgement and the external sword.
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What kind of king does the church have?When earthly power is within reach, people vie for it with enthusiasm, competing sometimes ruthlessly to be able to lord it over others. In our nation although we have seen how some in power can act with integrity, genuinely in the public interest as they see it, yet there are plenty examples of those who are merely venal, using their position and privileges for manifestly self-serving reasons. This is so different from the lordship and reign of Jesus Christ in His own church. Although all power in heaven and earth belongs to Him, the way He treats us is in keeping with Him being meek and lowly in heart. David Dickson finds this principle illustrated in Christ’s last journey to Jerusalem before His death. His triumphant entry into Jerusalem was not on a splendid war horse but on an ordinary donkey. In the following extract from his writings on Matthew 21, David Dickson demonstrates that as Jesus was on His way to sacrifice Himself to gift His people with salvation, His greatness is seen in the care He shows for the little ones.Christ is resolved to lay down His life, and now, the nearer He draws to His suffering, the more He reveals himself to be the promised Messiah, in whom the promises were accomplished. Also, lest anyone made a mistake about the nature of His kingdom, He gives evidence in His poverty that His kingdom is not of this world, borrowing an ass to ride on (Matthew 21:1–11).
He wants His people’s willing loyaltyJesus has the right to use whatsoever it pleases Him to make use of, as He shows in commanding the disciples to “loose the ass and her colt, and to bring them to him” (v.1–3). Also, whatsoever impediment can occur to any of His servants in the course of their obedience to Him, He foresees it, and provides for it to be removed. “If any say ought unto you …” etc. He knows that the owner of the ass will be there, and what he will say, and foretells how He shall dispose his will, and move him to let them go without any more ado, for the hearts of kings and all are in His hand.
In this way He lets His disciples see a glimpse of His Godhead, saying, “Straightway he shall send them.” Yet although He is Lord of all, yet He wants to make use of what His friends have with their own consent, so that they may be reasonable servants, bestowing with good will what He calls for.
Also, He is not ashamed both to profess Himself Lord and Master, and yet to be so far emptied as to have need of the service of an ass. “Say,” saith he, “the Lord hath need of them.”
He is true to His promisesMatthew then makes an observation on this passage from Zechariah, “Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (v.4–5). From this we learn that our Lord will see to it that all things written of Him shall be fulfilled. He is the promise-maker, and the promise-performer also. That is why it says, “This was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet.”
It is not our deserving, but God’s purpose and promise, which is the cause of our Lord’s gracious behaviour toward the world. For now, as He is about to be killed in Jerusalem, yet He rides in as king, to accomplish promises made to the church by the prophet Zechariah. To know of Christ, and of His coming to His people, is the very essence of the church’s joy and gladness. Whatsoever their grief may be, this is sufficient to be their comfort. The Spirit says for comfort, “Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh.” It doesn’t matter how the world fares, it is “the daughter of Zion,” the company of the blessed and believers in Jesus, whose comfort God has a care for.
He makes Himself accessible to the least deservingHowever, not only the dull multitude, but even the daughter of Zion is asleep to the gracious tidings of the gospel, and needs to be stirred up by a “Behold!” to observe the Messiah coming. “Behold thy king!” Our Lord is a king, however lowly He looks – in fact, the Lord of lords, and King of kings.
The church has a special interest in Christ, and He has interest in His church as His own special subjects, for whose good He governs all the matters of the world. “Thy King cometh unto thee.” This is the glory of His crown, that He is so gentle and merciful to us that He will not forsake the work of our redemption, neither for our mis-deservings and provocations, nor for the injuries done to Him by His adversaries because of us. He is “meek.” The manner of His kingdom is spiritual, not like the pomp of this world, for He sits on no stately horse, but “on an ass’s colt,” so that the poorest of His subjects should not be deterred or debarred from access to Him.
He accepts the little things His people do for himMatthew then notes the disciples’ obedience and success. “And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon” (v.6–7).
When we have a clear call, our part is ready obedience, without troubling ourselves what may be the success of the outcome. It is our part to honour Christ, as far as we can — and to lay aside our ornaments to glorify Him, like they put their clothes on the ass and the colt. Christ is content with any state which is to keep in His kingdom here on earth, with what His disciples can provide for Him. “They set him thereon,” and so He rode.
“And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way. Others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way” (v.8). The people are moved, and do honour unto Christ. However base our Lord’s kingdom may seem to spectators, yet He can bring to Himself as many subjects as He pleases, and so purchase Himself glory, not only before a spiritual eye, but also in the sight of the world. “Great multitudes spread their garments in the way.” It is each one’s part to honour our Lord, and promote His kingdom as they are enabled, some one way, some another, some spreading their garments, others cutting down branches of trees, and strawing them in the way.
He makes ordinary people fearless about confessing HimThe multitudes (v.9) took in their mouths words of Psalm 118, where it is prophesied of the coming of Christ, to shew himself king.
The Lord can open the eyes of whomsoever He will, to see His glory, and to give Him honour as the true king of Israel, and to perceive the predictions of prophecies to be accomplished in him.
Usually the more insignificant sorts of people are the ones whom the Lord chooses to set forth His glory, and to trumpet His praise. When those who ought to know Christ and honour Him, do not, God can raise up others to glorify Him. Here the church-men mis-regard Christ, and God stirs up the multitudes to confess Him.
When it pleases Christ to display His kingly power, He can cause the meanest of His subjects avow him, and set forth His glory, even in the faces of His raging enemies. Here (without fear of the corrupt church-men’s excommunication) the people make joyful acclamation to His honour, they pray for the prospering of His kingdom, and they confess that salvation is its fruit (for “Hosanna” in the Hebrew means, “Give now salvation, we pray”). They acknowledge Christ to be the promised Messiah, “the son of David,” to be sent by God, and in God’s name, into the world, to be the Blessed, and the fountain of blessing, to His subjects. “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!” (v.9).
His glory will be unavoidably obvious to His enemiesSo Christ enters openly, in state, into Jerusalem (v.10).
When it pleases Christ to take to Him His kingdom, He will avow Himself king in the midst of His enemies, just as He here rides in this glory into Jerusalem.
Yet, where the greatest show of religion is, it is no new thing to see Christ to be least known. The city of Jerusalem asks, “Who is this?” (v.10). Where He is minded to honour Himself in suffering, He shows Himself so evidently that even His enemies must take notice of Him.
← What to do in a minorityFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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How can we expect things to get better?With election season ongoing in the UK and the USA, it provides opportunity to analyse the state of the nation and decide whose vision for the future we prefer. An honest evaluation from the perspective of God’s law can only conclude that over the past few decades, society and leaders have conspired together to encourage each other to abandon God’s ways. The result has not been greater human flourishing but more disregard for the vulnerable and the resurgence of various forms of oppression through for example the cost of living crisis, widening access to abortion, carelessness about predatory men gaining access to children and women, and failures in social care disadvantaging the elderly and those with disabilities. Can anything much be salvaged from the wreckage, though, if we are not on God’s side and while God withholds His approval? The prophet Micah brought urgent warnings from the Lord for rulers in particular. George Hutcheson discusses Micah’s words in the following updated extract from his commentary. Although God certainly holds each individual responsible for their own sins, Micah also insists that the ruling classes are themselves accountable to God for how they (mis)use their power in the nation. This holds equally true for those seeking to remain in power and those seeking to win the election. When rulers become oppressors and turn a blind eye to the miseries of the poor, there is something fitting about God refusing to help them in their own time of need.In the opening two chapters of his prophecy, Micah has faithfully exposed the sins of the body of this people, and denounced God’s judgments because of sin. Now in chapter 3 he comes more particularly to reprove the rulers of both church and state, especially in Judah, and to threaten them with the consequences of their sins.
He does this firstly by distinct groupings, in relation to their own particular punishments. The princes, who ought to know right and wrong, and walk accordingly, were yet the most perverse and inhumane in oppression (Micah 3:1–3). Micah warns them that in their time of difficulty they shall not be acknowledged by God (v. 4). The false prophets, who deluded the people, and preached in whatever way would be most subservient to their base ends (v.5), are threatened with such confusion as would make them ashamed of their trade (v.6–7), whereas Micah, a faithful man, would faithfully persist in his duty (v.8).
He also deals with the rulers conjointly, in relation to the judgement which by their sin they had procured to come on the church of God. The rulers perverted justice (v.9), and built the holy city with goods taken by oppression (v.10). Generally, both rulers in the state and teachers in the church were corrupted with bribes, and love for gain, and yet would presumptuously rely on God (v.11). He therefore warns that for their sake Sion would be laid desolate (v.12).
The ruling class should know the law“Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel, is it not for you to know judgement?” (v.1) Micah challenges the rulers in peace and war, for affected ignorance of the law of God. He lays the basis for showing how aggravated their wickedness was, in that they should be concerned to be even better acquainted than others with the will of God in the matter of justice and equity. Although they ought to be exemplary in their knowledge and obedience, (knowledge including consequent affection and practice), in their practice they proved that they either were ignorant of the law, or else they despised it.
When a land in general is culpable of defecting from God’s ways, rulers in church and state have their own eminent guilt in it. This is implied in the general theme of what Micah says, as, having reproved the whole body of the people, he now comes to challenge the rulers in an especial manner. “Hear, O heads of Jacob.”
Micah’s practice shows us that faithful ministers ought not only to inveigh against sin in general, or the sin of the common people only, but they ought in particular to reprehend the sins of every rank, even of rulers. Those of greatest eminency are bound to hear God speaking by His messengers, and to receive what messages are sent to them, as being under the law just as others are.
As rulers especially are unwilling to be brought to an account for their ways by the ministry of the Word, so ministers are bound to omit no point of discretion, and tender persuasiveness, which would be consistent with their fidelity and zeal against sin, and which may be instrumental to make the word take, and not be stumbled at. We can see this from Micah’s way of entreaty, “Hear, I pray you,” which indicates both that the rulers were averse to hearing, and that Micah tenderly reached out in order that they would hear.
Beside the general obligation lying on all (especially within the visible church) to know and obey the will of God, it is especially incumbent on rulers and great ones among the Lord’s people to do so. By reason of their education, means, encouragements, leisure, offices, etc., they are enabled with advantages, and bound to know more than others, and to put their knowledge into practice, in order that they may be examples to others.
However opposed people may be to the challenges of ministers in the matter of affected ignorance, or wilful neglect of known duties, yet these excuses will not satisfy their own consciences, when they are seriously put to it. That’s why Micah confronts them with a question which they could not deny. “Is it not for you to know judgement?”
Their knowledge should be put into practiceThe Lord does not reckon that people know anything, when the truth they know has no place in their heart, and they make no endeavours to put it into practice. That’s how Micah explains that they “do not know judgment” — it was that they “hated the good” (v.2), and oppressed the people (v.2–3).
The Lord notices chiefly the disposition and affection of people’s hearts towards good or evil. It is a desperate condition, when not only your practice is out of course, but your affections also are alienated from God and inclined to evil. “You hate the good, and love the evil.”
Whatever oppressors may claim to be the cause of their cruelty toward those they oppress (e.g., they stood in need, and needed to live of their own, etc.), yet the Lord sees it to flow from their perverse and corrupt affections. That’s why He says of oppressors, “Ye hate the good, and love the evil.”
God sees it when they oppress the peopleIn opposition to what the rulers ought to be, Micah sets forth their disposition and practice. They abhorred what was good, and loved what was evil. They oppressed and undid the Lord’s people so cruelly, by taking away the very means of their subsistence and livelihood, that it was as if they had flayed their skin from off them, eaten their flesh, and broken their bones to boil them for meat, the way butchers and cooks do with animals for food (v.2–3).
The greatest perversity is usually found in those who ought, and may, and will not, or neglect to make use of such means as might promote piety and justice. All this perversity is in “the heads of Jacob,” who had means and opportunity to set them doing otherwise.
Oppression is, in God’s account, inhumane butchery, and murder, in a degree far above simple slaughter, while the oppressed pine away for want, and the oppressors (like barbarians, or wild beasts) eat that which is the very life and flesh of the poor.
However, although magistrates and great ones think themselves to be above all law, yet they have no right to oppress a people (especially if they are God’s people) and deal with them simply as they wish. Rather, they are accountable for how they have treated them. Here they are challenged by God for how they are oppressing His people. The oppressed — or others — perhaps do not dare to challenge them for their injurious dealings, yet there is a God who will lay it to their charge.
God will disown them in their time of crisisThe sentence which will be particularly passed on them is by way of retaliation. As they had oppressed the poor and turned a deaf ear to their cries, so they will meet with judgment without mercy or compassion. God will not pay attention to them, even if (out of a sense of their trouble) they seek Him.
For it says, “Then shall they cry unto the Lord” (v.4). They will be forced to seek God, whom they otherwise disregarded. Even the greatest, and those who most wickedly forget God, shall at one time or other be conscious of God’s reverence, and will send their errand His way. Natural (unspiritual) people may make some show of seeking God in trouble — not in faith, or out of love, but out of sense of trouble. The general calamities which were previously threatened, or their own particular corrections for their sin, press down on them, and “then shall they cry.”However, it is righteous with God not to heed this crying of the wicked in their trouble, because of their previous wickedness and ongoing unsoundness, and in particularly, so that He may recompense them for not hearkening to the cry of the poor who they had oppressed. “They shall cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them.”
“He will hide his face from them at that time” of trouble. It is extreme misery to be deserted totally by God in trouble, and to lack His favour and sense of reconciliation, which would support them in any extremity.
“He will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.” Although God sometimes in a sense hides His face from His own children, in order to test their faith, His intention, when He disregards the wicked in trouble, is so that wickedness would be seen and lamented as the cause of it.
← What to do in a minorityFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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What to do in a minorityToday’s church finds itself not only exiled from places of prominent usefulness, but also under attack from multiple sources. At the same time, it is itself beset with many vulnerabilities. Low levels of commitment and spirituality within its members and leaders, coupled with inarticulateness in proclaiming the gospel message, mean that the church is ill equipped for the pressures and assaults of an increasingly aggressive secular society. Although unlike Covenanting times, when the threat of armed physical violence was real, there remain ways in which our situation today echoes David’s experience in Psalm 86, where he describes many strong enemies assembling against his small forces and poised to destroy him. “O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul …” (Psalm 86:14). In a sermon on this prayer of David’s, the blind Edinburgh preacher Archibald Skeldie brings God’s perspective to bear. In the following updated excerpt, Skeldie discusses the significance of the numerousness of David’s enemies in God’s sight, before offering suggestions as to how to respond as a threatened minority.David says that his enemies “assemble themselves together.” He mentions their “assembling” for two reasons.
The numerousness of enemies is no match for God’s powerFirst, for the glory of God’s power. The weaker the defending side, and the stronger the assailing force, the more obvious is the power of one who defends the weaker against the stronger. The power of God Almighty is manifested, when His saints and servants are brought to such extremity that they can neither help themselves, nor find help from others, against their many and mighty persecutors. He who manifested His power in Paul’s weakness in the hour of temptation, declares His power by protecting His saints in time of persecution. As one commentator says, “The Lord will not deny His safeguard to His saints while they are straited with necessity.” Instead He graciously helps them.
Remarkable is the example of Hezekiah and his people. The army of the Assyrians was known to be great, Hezekiah was conscious of his weakness, and that weakness was not unknown to his enemy, who told him that he had neither riders for horses, nor counsel for war. The power of God who protected Hezekiah was manifested, not only in promising him security, but likewise in actually ensuring his safety in the destruction of his enemy. Hezekiah, so weak in the sight of Sennacherib, seemed foolish in holding out a walled city against him. He would have judged him mad, if he had ventured to come in open field against him. Yet the power of God was magnified, whose bridle was always in Sennacherib’s lips, so that he could not go beyond His permission, just like a horse can only go where his rider wishes. The church of God complains in the 83rd Psalm of the confederacy of many enemies, who not only sought the ruin of God’s people, saying, “Let us root out Israel from being a nation,” but broke out in pride against the Lord Himself, saying, “Let us take for our possession the mansions of God.” The church requests their destruction by humble prayer so that God would be magnified in His glorious power.
The numerousness of enemies is an opportunity to trust God more fullyThe second reason for David to mention the “assembling” of his enemies is to declare his trust and confidence in God. The multitude of his enemies is so far from chasing him away from God, that it maketh him run all the more to God, by earnest prayer and settled confidence. As by His power He is able to protect him, so by His mercy He will compass him (Psalm 32:10).
David well knew how powerfully this argument would prevail with God, that the one who is pursued by many enemies, and trusts in God, should be protected by the power and mercy of God. Basic humanity will teach people not to betray but rather to protect to the utmost of their power those who commit their lives to their care. Much more will the tender mercy of our gracious Lord move Him graciously to protect all those who “put their trust under the shadow of his wings.”
How to respond to being outnumbered by enemiesVarious things are set out in Scripture for us to take note of.
Every one of God’s people should well observe what unique experiences they have had of God’s favourable protection. What makes David unafraid of the multitude of his enemies is when he considers how he has previously been delivered from the fury and rage of his enemies. Basil summarises David’s position in a similar psalm (Psalm 27), “Because I have received so great experience and proof of divine help, then, albeit twice or thrice so many press to overwhelm me, yet being guarded by this hope, I will withstand all those evils with invincible courage.”
The Lord Himself exhorts His people to trust in Him, with a promise of security and safety. “Trust in the Lord, and ye shall be established; believe his prophets, and ye shall prosper” (2 Chronicles 20:20).
Don’t be deceived by appearances. If we look at the experience of His saints, it may justly be said, “None of them that trust in him, shall be desolate,” because those who trusted in Him were always delivered: “Our fathers that trusted in him were not ashamed.” We must not withdraw our confidence from God, when we see no appearance of help at the hands of men! Instead we should all the more rely on Him, with trust and confidence. He usually sends His relief when there is least appearance of it.
Mutual enemies can agree in opposition against God. Although the enemies of David were proud, and their pride and ambition caused them dissensions and strife amongst themselves, yet they can combine themselves to be David’s persecutors. It is the nature of proud men, so far as they are proud, to presume on their own worth, and think all others contemptible. They presume on their own wisdom, so they think nothing done well other than their own words and works, or else what somehow or other takes their fancy. They are so concerned about their own honour and wealth that they care nothing if others are brought to ruin and disgrace. It is a wonder then that they can assemble with others for one united purpose! Yet we see that though Pilate and Herod were mutual enemies, they can be friends when Christ is to be crucified. Though there is mutual hatred betwixt the Pharisees and Sadduces, they can conspire together when Christ is persecuted. The proud persecutors of the saints of God are set to work by Satan for one end, to destroy the kingdom of Christ, even though those who have a hand in the business all have their own worldly, devilish and other motivations, ambition, cruelty, and covetousness.
How to act in view of imminent threatWhen the Covenanters of Britain and Ireland hear of the assembling of enemies from various quarters, there are three things which they should earnestly lay to heart.
Carefully strive to keep peace amongst yourselvesFirst, Covenanters should labour to be of one mind in the essentials of religion, and in the service and worship of God. They should mutually defend one another, according to thair Covenant. They should remove from themselves all excuses which may hinder them from advancing the cause of Christ — none who has power should claim to be weak, nor should those who have wealth claim poverty, but every zealous Christian should count it his honour and happines that God has furnished him with ability, and by His providence offered him opportunity, to honour Christ and advance His kingdom.
Christians are called to peace, in one body. They should let the peace of God rule in their hearts at all times, but especially when their peace is troubled by cruel persecutors. Abraham thought it not time to argue with Lot, when they were in the land of the Amorites. The Athenians and Thebanes had their mutual jealousies, yet they packed up all their dissensions when they were invaded by Philip, King of Macedonia, the enemy of the liberty of all Greece. This is especially important when you remember that usually distraction is a dolorous omen of destruction. Union makes strength, but division brings weakness. If we are true to ourselves, and keep that peace which we have sworn in our Covenant, and which is required of the disciples of Christ, we will have less need to worry about all the enemies of the cause of Christ.
Do what you can to hinder enemies assemblingSecondly, when the people of the Lord hear of their enemies assembling, they should labour as much as in them lies, to hinder them coming together. It was wise of the Romans to fight with the army of Hasdrubal before the army of Hannibal. It is a great deal safer to deal with the individual parts of an army than the complete body. In the time of Edward I of England, one of the Scottish noblemen, with 8,000 of our people, vanquished in one day 30,000 of the English, who were divided into three bands. It would have been more difficult, if they had all been joined together.
Humbly entreat the Lord to be here to helpThirdly, when we hear of the assembling of various people from various quarters, our humble prayer should be to the Lord, “That he would be present in the assembly of his saints,” that so they would be protected and defended against the assemblies of their cruel enemies. “If God be one our side, who is against us?” Abijam was more encouraged that God was with his people than he was afraid of the huge number of Jeroboam’s army against his people.
But while we entreat the Lord by prayer, we must look well to two things.
For one thing, we should not be excessively afraid, or fainthearted, when we are fewer in number, seeing it makes no difference to the Lord to vanquish by few or by many. There are frequent passages to this effect in the Book of Judges, and in the Books of the Kings.
The other thing is, even if in God’s providence our numbers are greater, yet we must not lean on the strength of man, but to the help and assistance of God. Neither the greatness of number, nor the goodness of the cause for which they fight, will make people prevail aginst their enemies if they have greater confidence in their own strength than in the help of God. I actually think that when Jehosaphat was threatened by his enemies, he could have raised a greater army than all the kings who were his enemies, and yet he says, “Lord, we know not what to do, but our eyes are towards thee.” “Chariots and horses may run to the battle, but the Lord of hosts giveth victory.” If we find access to God by prayer, then any time we are threatened by our enemies, we may expect His protection and deliverance, according to David’s observation, “When I cry, then mine enemies shall be turned back; this I know, for God is for me.”
← Accurately valuing God's ordinancesHow can we expect things to get better? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Accurately valuing God’s ordinancesGod has provided many ordinances as means for Him to show us His grace, including preaching, prayer, Christian fellowship, etc. The New Testament also has two special ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s supper, known to the Covenanters and others as sacraments to distinguish them among the other ordinances. These are the Lord’s gifts to His people to help us in our faith along the way, and the spiritual significance of participating in these particular ordinances is immense. The spiritualness of both baptism and the Lord’s supper can, however, mean that we distort their importance, either overlooking their value altogether, or investing far too much in them. While we do not want to ungratefully undervalue their significance, neither do we want to superstitiously exaggerate them. In the following brief updated excerpt, James Durham guides us between these extremes.Giving excessive respectWe place too much weight on the sacraments if we think that they are absolutely necessary in order to salvation — or if we imagine that they confer grace by themselves (just when people partake of the outward elements of water, bread, wine, without faith) — or if we rest on simply the outward receiving of the elements, as if that made us in some way acceptable to God.
Sometimes, people superstitiously and blindly prefer the sacraments to all the other ordinances, so that they disparage the others. They will go for a long time neglecting preaching and praying, but they simply must have baptism and communion.
It is also excessive when we prefer the outward ordinance to Christ and the thing signified by the ordinance. For example, if we are more interested in the baptism of water then the baptism of the Spirit, or more interested in the external communion than the inward. Then, anything of heaven that is to be found in the ordinances is left neglected, and people are more upset about going without the sacrament once, than about missing Christ often and long.
We should also beware of coming and going from ordinances while neglecting Him who gives the blessing, yet thinking that all is well enough, seeing we were present at the ordinance.
Too much is made of the sacraments when people travel a great distance in order to partake of a sacrament when this means they are unable to fulfil necessary moral duties called for at that time. Likewise when people place more value on the sacraments than on works of mercy and charity, or dote on the sacraments to the neglect of such works.
It is also too much esteem when the sacraments are accounted so holy that they may not be administered where Christ permits, or as if they are somehow spoiled when they are not administered in some “consecrated” place.
Finally, also excessive is adding to Christ’s institution, in the way of administration, as if what He has appointed (because it is common and ordinary), is base, and too low for them.
Giving too little respectOn the other hand, the sacraments get too little esteem when people use them as bare and empty signs, without respect to their due ends.
They are disrespected when God is not reverenced in them as He ought to be according to His command, when we are going about such holy and solemn pieces of worship. Also when people can carnally, and without preparation and observation, treat them as common things.
Too little respect is shown in the failure to admire and bless God’s grace and goodness in stooping down in them to us, the failure to ponder and study them, failing to delight in them, and being careless as to whether we have them or go without them.
Likewise, corrupting the Lord’s institution in our manner of going about a sacrament, either adding to it, or diminishing from it, or changing it, as if this is something that humans had the right to do.
We do not value the sacraments highly enough when we have little zeal to keep them pure, as well as when we neglect them on those occasions where we needed to make more of an effort to get them.
It is disrespectful when we account them better when administered by one minister rather than another, or we think the less of them when they are administered by certain men (who are also lawful ministers) — as if men added any worth to the ordinance of God. Also when we assume that their efficacy depends on the one who administers them, or the grace of those who participate alongside them.
We give the sacraments too little respect when we never actually lay weight on any of them, or draw comfort from them. When we don’t wish and pray for others to get good from them. When we are unafraid that they are used wrongly by multitudes of those who partake of them, and rather than endeavouring to improve the situation, we are content for them to be made available to all indifferently. Also when we have little zeal against the errors that wrong them.
Finally, people show insufficient respect when they are not afraid that they might break the commitments and engagements they made in the sacraments.
← The energetic activity of waitingWhat to do in a minority →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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The energetic activity of waitingAll our safety and wellbeing depends on keeping close to the Lord. Yet our sinful hearts keep drifting away from Him, to our own cost as well as His dishonour. When we then come to our senses and realise He is far away and we are in a desperate place without Him, what can we do? In the following updated extract, William Guthrie’s advice to helpless, sin-stricken people is not to give in to a passive, lethargic, despairing kind of inactivity, but to “wait” on the Lord by rejecting unsafe alternatives and by persisting in the expectation of grace from Him.While Isaiah speaks for himself, he speaks for all the godly, when he says, “I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him” (Isaiah 8:17). In these words you have the duty of the people of God: to wait on the Lord until He pleads their cause, and executes judgment for them.
One of the doctrines we can deduce from this verse is that when people are shaken out of their self-confidence, it is their duty then to wait on God.
Reasons why we should wait on GodWe are to wait on God for several reasons.
- Because we are commanded to. “Wait on the Lord” is often commanded in Scripture.
- Because of the promise that is annexed to waiting. “Those that wait upon the Lord shall never be ashamed.”
- Because it is the most acquiescent and composed posture one can possibly be in. In an evil time, “it is good to hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”
- Because it has always been the work and practice of the people of God, even in the days of old. Says the Psalmist, “My soul waits for the Lord, more than they that do watch for the morning.”
- Because it always has a joyful outcome. “Lo! this is our God! we have waited for him, we will rejoice in him!”
But so that you may better know when it is your duty to wait on the Lord, I shall in the next place show you three things. Firstly, what precedes, or goes before, waiting on the Lord. Secondly, what it means to wait. And thirdly, what follows a right waiting on the Lord.
Things that come before waiting[In order to wait on the Lord, these things should be firmly fixed in our hearts.]
It really is our duty. The duty itself is fully set out in this chapter. “Say not, ‘A confederacy!’ with them to whom this people shall say, ‘A confederacy’;” that is, “Do not let their words make you afraid.” “But only sanctify the Lord in your hearts;” that is, be only afraid of offending Him.
There is a promise held out to those who make Him their fear. “He shall be for a sanctuary unto them.”
A threatening is pronounced against those who fall away from Him. There is a threatening pronounced against the common multitude who decline and join with the times. “He will be for a stone of stumbling unto them.” It is only a promise held out to those who walk aright, while it is a threatening against those who go wrong and comply in an evil time.
What does waiting on the Lord mean?Exclusively on GodWaiting on God means that the heart terminates on Him, with an expectation fixed only on God for help, and on none else. “My soul, wait thou only upon God: for my expectation is from him.” That is, “Wait on God, and on no other.” Similar is that word, “Help us, Lord, for vain is the help of man.”
Pre-eminently on GodWaiting on God also signifies that your expectation is more on God Himself than on any created means. God can give you means, but if you don’t get Himself, it doesn’t matter what else you might get. He may send back your means for a plague to you and not for your good. Therefore plead with Him, and be blunt with Him, and say, “Go with us, Lord, or else carry us not up hence.” So I say, you should plead more for God’s presence than any other means under heaven.
Whatever it costsWaiting on God means submitting to the seasons of deliverance from your present condition, and to the ordering of it and all that concerns you, while under the trial.
For as long as it takesWait on God means resolving to remain at the duty of waiting, until He shows you what else you should do. For waiting on God is still your duty while you are in the dark, and can use no other means for your relief.
What follows after waitingThese things follow after waiting, and are clear from the text.
Stigma. You must resolve to be “for signs and wonders in Israel.” If ever you resolve to be someone who waits on God, you must resolve to be mocked, reproached, banished, imprisoned, and every other way persecuted for Christ.
Pressures. A great many temptations follow when you wait on God.
Isolation. There will be few left to preach the gospel or to consult with in that dark time. He says, “Go to the law, and to the testimony.” You must then make use of your Bibles instead of your ministers.
Eventual vindication. The manifest vengeance of God shall be on those who turn aside. That will be the lot of those who oppose the work and people of God.
The implications for usHave you been given your work and duty in a dark time? Then go to God. Don’t plead ignorance, saying, “What shall we do?” Instead, I say, wait on the Lord, and judge yourselves happy, that the thing which is your duty cannot take from you by enemies (though they may take your life from you).
Face temptations squarely. Before temptation comes, be resolved that they will not cause you to turn aside. Make the effort to be clear in your understanding as to the honesty and justness of the cause, and for that end be well acquainted with the Scripture, and there see what is your duty.
To conclude, believe this, that God’s wrath abides on those who turn aside from Him. All that they previously took pleasure in shall forsake them, or shall be embittered to them, in the day when those who waited shall enjoy what they waited for.
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What makes the Christian ministry special?All of Christ’s people are called to be His witnesses, and speak His truth into the situations and relationships they find themselves in. There is one body, and each member its own place and usefulness. Yet not all are called to be preachers or hold the office of minister in Christ’s church. John Brown of Wamphray explains the distinctiveness of the Christian ministry in the following updated extract. After showing that it is not unspiritual to value the forms and order of Christ’s church, he points to a large number of Scripture references which demonstrate that some but not all are called to be ministers. It is when people follow the Scripture pattern in preference to the promptings of their own spirits that God the Holy Spirit is genuinely honoured and will add His blessing.Church order is more than empty formalism[Our opponents in this controversy are prone to] accuse us of adhering to externals, devised by human wisdom, because we cleave to the rules and methods and orders prescribed by Christ to be followed in His house. On the other hand, they see themselves as the ones who follow the Spirit and are led by His direct help and influence.
The problem is that they end up accusing the Holy Spirit of leading them in a method and order that is not prescribed in the Word, but is only the invention of their own brains, blasphemously attributed to the leading of the Spirit of God. There is no basis to imagine that the Spirit of God will lead anyone in courses opposite to, and reflecting on, what Christ has instituted, because He is the Spirit of Christ, and sent by Him from the Father, with the work of testifying to Him, and not working at cross-purposes to Him, or trampling on what He has appointed.
Although there are differences of opinion about the order to be observed in the house of God, there is no warrant for our opponents to reject all order. They seem to want to bring in the confusion of Babel instead of the beautiful and edifying order which Christ, the supreme head and king of the Church, has appointed, and signally blessed, for His own glory and for promoting the good and edification of His subjects.
According to our opponents, it was not the mind of Christ “that Christians should establish the shadows and form of officers, without the power, efficacy and Spirit of Christ.” However, the power, efficacy and Spirit of Christ, is not in Christian’s power to establish (the Spirit bloweth where He listeth; John 3:8). I am not familiar with the Spirit which can be established by men — it is not the Spirit of God who is so under their power that He can be established by them as they please.
Also, although we are not trying to make a case for shadows and forms, yet we acknowledge (and desire to observe) the ordinances which Christ has appointed to continue in His Church, “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:11–13), even to “the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20). We have no ground to think that all these offices and officers were appointed only for that time and age, seeing the work is of the same necessity now as it was then. It is true, there was a special piece of work called for then; i.e., the founding and settling of gospel churches, and of gospel order and ordinances, and special, extraordinary officers were called, qualified and empowered then, which are not now necessary.
Now that the foundation has been laid, no is more required but a continual building on that foundation, for which, ordinary officers, and a standing ordinary ministry, are sufficient and necessary, in order that the ordinances of perpetual use may be administered, according to Christ’s appointment, for the constant edification of the Church. When the Church is denuded of her officers and watchers, she becomes easier prey for these grievous wolves who now enter in, not sparing the flock, and speak perverse things to draw away disciples after them.
The Christian ministry is a distinct officeOur opponents argue that there were no distinct office-bearers, particular individual persons, separated and set apart for the work of the ministry in the days of the apostles. However, the opposite is true. There were apostles, there were evangelists, and there were the other ordinary officers ordained and settled in the churches. See Acts 6:1–6; Acts 14:23; 1 Cor. 12: 28–30; Eph. 4:11; Phil. 1:1; Phil 4:3; Phil 2: 25; Col. 4:7, 12, 17; 1 Thess. 5:12–14; 1 Tim. 3:1–15; 1 Tim. 4:14–16. 1 Tim 5: 17, 22; 2 Tim. 2:2; 2 Tim. 4:1–2; Tit. 1:5–9; Heb. 13:7, 17; Jam. 5:14; 1 Pet. 5:4; Rev. 1:20; Rev. 2; Rev. 3.
Declaring that there is no such thing as office-bearers established in the house of God, distinct from other church members, destroys the whole order of the ministry. It contradicts what is taught in Rom. 12:6–8; 1 Cor. 12; Acts 15:4, 6; Acts 21:18; 2 Cor. 5:18–19. It contradicts what is evident in the titles, or particular designations which are given to individual persons set over others in the New Testament, such as “pastors” (Eph. 4:11; 1 Pet. 5:20; Acts 20:28), “doctors” (1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11), “stewards” (1 Cor. 4:1; Tit. 1:7), “preachers” (Rom. 10:14), “overseers” (Acts 20:18; 1 Pet. 4:15; 1 Pet. 5:2), “angels” (Rev. 1:20, etc), “stars” (Rev. 1:18), “ambassadors” (2 Cor. 5:19–20), “such as are set over others” (Heb. 13:17); and “rulers” (1 Cor. 12:28; 1 Tim. 5:17).
The same thing is also evident from:
- the special work given to them, not only included in the fore-mentioned titles, but expressly mentioned, such as preaching the gospel, administration of sacraments, care of the poor, exercise of discipline, etc. (see Matt. 28:19; 1 Cor. 9:16–17; 10:16; Rom. 12:6–8; 2 Cor. 12:15; 1 Tim. 4:13–16; 3:5; 2 Tim. 2:25; 4:2; Acts 6:2, 4).
- the duties required of others, in reference to them (1 Thess. 5:12; Gal. 6:6; 1 Tim. 5:17; Heb. 13:7, 17).
- the qualifications required in them (1 Tim. 3:2; 2 Tim. 2:2–6; Tit. 1:5–9).
- the orders given about examining and ordaining them (Acts 6; 1 Tim. 3:10; 5:11–12).
- the special commands and injunctions laid upon them, to mind their work aright (1 Tim. 3:5. 1 Pet. 5:2, 3. 1 Tim. 4:14, 15, 16. Act. 6:2, 4. 2 Tim. 4:2. & 2:25. 1 Cor 9:16, 17 2 Cor. 12:15. Heb. 13:17).
- the promises of God’s presence and assistance in the discharge of this work (Matt. 28:20; Rev. 1:1).
- God’s approbation of them in it (Matt. 16:19; John 20:23; Matt. 10:40; Luke 10:16; John 13:20; 1 Thess. 4:8).
- In this way, the work which God has committed specifically to these officers, is made common.
The Spirit is a God of order and uses ordinary meansSome even go as far as to say that everyone, according as his own spirit (falsely called the Spirit of God) moves him, may take on this work (although for the sake of order they may allow something like a call from the people). But the Lord has restricted this work, ordinarily, to specific officers. Any encroachment is expressly prohibited (e.g., Rom. 12:3, 6, 7, 8; 1 Cor. 12; 1 Cor. 7:20; 1 Thess. 4:11).
That God is free to call whom He will, we know; but He has told us by His servant Paul, that He will not call women to this public ministry. Seeing He has appointed an ordinary and settled way whereby persons are to enter into this work, we have no warrant to think that those who do not come in by the door that He has set open, but creep in at windows, or suchlike unlawful ways, are called of the Lord. Rather, they run unsent, in contempt of God and His established order.
Some argue that anyone who is moved by the Spirit may instruct, teach, and exhort, when the saints are gathered together. This does not refer to private admonishing and exhorting, but the teaching which is ministerial, and is to have ministerial authority, when given by persons clothed with the authority of the ministerial office. This work is unique to the office, and ought to be performed only by those who are clothed with the office.
Also, in ordinary cases, God moves no one to violate the order established in His own house. Because of this order which Christ has established, we judge that all those persons who suppose themselves moved by the Spirit to teach publicly in the assemblies of the saints, are moved by their own spirit, and not by the Spirit of God, who is a God of order, and not the author of confusion; or rather by the spirit of Satan, in contempt of Christ’s order.
It is small wonder that their brethren, who are under the power of the same delusion, receive them, hearken to them and honour them. Yet this is more a confirmation of their delusion, than an argument evincing the lawfulness of their way.
Some argue that it is wrong to exclude from the ministry those who are not educated for it. But why does it offend them, that men put effort into being instructed and qualified for this work? Why does it offend them that only those who are qualified should be admitted into the office? It seems that the work of the ministry is a light business with them, and may be carried out by those who have no learning or qualifications. But the Lord qualified His apostles by teaching them for several years, as well as by extraordinary infusion of knowledge. Are we supposed to wait for such miracles now? Experience tells us that the Lord does not work in this way now, so why are they offended when we use ordinary means to attain knowledge? The work of the ministry is something that will take up the whole man, and his whole time, if he is faithful and diligent.
← How preaching is necessary for conversionFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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How preaching is necessary for conversionNot even the Word of God will convert souls unless the Holy Spirit blesses it. Does this mean that preaching is pointless? Absolutely not, says Samuel Rutherford. Interacting with writers in his own time, Rutherford concludes emphatically that preaching the Word is necessary for people to be converted. As seen in the following updated and abridged excerpt, Rutherford is clear on the one hand that the Word is only an instrument, and also on the other hand that it is a real instrument. The Word — read and especially preached — is God’s chosen method of winning souls to Himself.Preaching the Word is necessary as an instrumentThe Word preached is the instrument of the Holy Spirit in our conversion, not the author of it, or its “efficient cause.”
The Word (written or preached) is a created thing, not the formal object of our faith. It is not the objectum quod [the object which] but the objectum quo [the object by which], the intervening means or medium of our faith. The Word, like all instruments, must be elevated above its nature, to bring about more than a “letter” impression of Christ believed in.
The writing, speaking, and conveying of Christ to the soul in the preached Word may be human and by the letter, but the thing signified by the Word, Christ, is divinely supernatural, and the way of it being conveyed to the soul, in regard of the higher operation of the Spirit (above the actings and motions of the letter), is divine, heavenly, supernatural.
The action of the Holy Ghost, in begetting faith, is “immediate.” The Word only prepares and informs the external man, but the Spirit cometh after, and, in another action, distinct from the Word, infuses faith. Then the Spirit of regeneration is not said to work with the Word, but there is a more common operation of God, which begets literal knowledge, or some higher illumination. Also, the Spirit works with the Word, so as in one and the same act, the Spirit opens the heart to hear and receive what is carried along in the letter of the Word, and so the Spirit works mediately, not immediately.
In the infusion of the new heart, and the habit of the grace of God, we are merely passively acted on, and put forth no cooperation with God, any more than a dead person cooperates to bring itself to life (Eph. 2:1–2), or the withered ground cooperates to receive the rain (Isa. 44:3–4). Though the Word goes before the Spirit’s work, and the Word may be preached during the time while the Spirit is working, yet the act of infusing the new heart is a real action by God, received by us by no subordinate activity of the mind, or act of the will. In this formal act of infusion, what the Word does, other than by way of disposing or preparing, I must profess my ignorance, although it is certainly true that “faith cometh by hearing,” and, in the very meantime whilst Peter was still speaking, “the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the Word” (Acts 10:44).
Then if we take conversion in the sense of the humbling self-despairing of a sinner and all preparatory acts, going before the infused life of Christ, and in the first operations flowing from this infused life, the Word is an instrument of conversion. But I cannot see how it is an active or moral instrument when the soul is undergoing the Lord’s act of infusion of the life of Christ, unless you call it a passive instrument, because it does not persuade the soul to receive the new life, nor is the soul, being merely passive, an apprehending, knowing, choosing, or consenting faculty. This is an act of omnipotency, the Lord pouring in a new heart. The Word is the instrument as far as the Spirit works in us the same habit of new life, and the same Spirit of grace and supplication that is promised in the Word (Isa. 44:3–4; Zech. 12:10; Eze. 36:26–27), and the same Spirit that the Scripture says Christ purchased by His merits (John 1:16–18; John 12:32; Rev. 1:5; Heb. 10:19–22).
So we conclude that the Word preached is the means which instrumentally concurs with the Spirit for the begetting of faith. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:14–17). It is clear that he is speaking of the external Word because in v. 14–16 he is speaking of the word that a sent preacher carries, also called the glad tidings that messengers on the mountains bring (v.15), and a “report” which they all hear even if they do not all believe (v.16).
Preaching the Word is a powerful instrumentThe Word preached, of itself, is not a dead letter, as some call it. Paul does call the law a “dead letter,” but that is because, while it teaches what we should do, it does not promise the Spirit of grace to obey, as the gospel does. As Augustine says, the law makes us know sin, but not eschew it. But the gospel is not a dead letter of itself (even though the letter of it is void of the Spirit), except incidentally, in the same sense that it is the savour of death unto death, and a rock of offence — i.e., to those that stumble at the Word.
The gospel, in its letter and in its literal sense, offers a way or means of reconciliation to those who believe. But the law, as the law, in no sense can either offer or give life. Rather, seeing that all have sinned, the proper use of the law, to all under the law, is to give out a sentence of condemnation, in the literal sense of it. If the law leads anyone to Christ, that is done by a higher Spirit than that which speaks in the letter of the law. It’s true, it’s the same infinite Spirit, the Lord, who speaks in all Scripture, but in the law He says nothing but, “Either perfectly do all or die eternally.” But in the law He condemns and convinces, in order that we may flee to the Surety of a better covenant (Heb. 7:22).
In this sense, law and gospel called the Word of God, is not a dead letter in itself, for, “the law of the Lord converteth the soul, etc.” (Psa. 19:7); “the gospel is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom. 1:16). The Word externally preached has power in itself to destroy, and, when it is accompanied by the Spirit, it has power to convert, and so is an instrument of the Spirit both ways.
The Lord uses preachers of the WordThe Lord has made and sanctified a ministry, and ministers, to be fathers of the second birth and instruments to save themselves and others (1 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 4:16). “Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, and read of all men. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Cor. 3:2–3) (see also 1 Thess. 2:19–20).
Some have argued that the Word by which Christ saves us is not the Word outside us, but the Word within us. So, for them, the preaching of the gospel is not the Word by which souls are converted, and faith does not come from outward hearing as an instrument. Their argument runs like this. “The Word outwardly preached can never convert the soul, because it is only a mere sound, therefore it is not an instrument of conversion; it’s only the Word within us that matters.” But I utterly deny the consequence. Put a pen to paper a thousand times, and it will never write, unless the hand of a writer draws the characters. Will we then conclude that, ergo, the pen is not an instrument of writing? It doesn’t follow! It’s an unjust consequence, and destroys all ordinances, natural and spiritual. The only thing that follows is, “Ergo, the Word without us is not a principal cause of conversion, it can do nothing except the Spirit empowers and animates and co-works with the Word.”
Furthermore, whereas they argue that the preached word is merely a sound and a letter, I answer that it is not an ordinary sound, like you get from reading the odes of Horatius or the epistles of Seneca. In itself, it is a sound filled with majesty — power — heaven. Every word is pregnant with grace and life. Even if you separate the Word from the Spirit, in the style, conveyance, method of it there is still so much divinity, majesty, holiness, life, and gravity that it betrays its origin to be heaven and its author to be God. Some might call it a “dead letter,” referring to the paper and ink and printed characters, but that’s not how to think of it. The words connote and involve the things they signify, the precious promises, and what the Lord calls “the great things” of His law. In this sense they are not dead letters, but the instrument, chariot, and means of conveying Christ and the Spirit to the heart.
Of course the Word doesn’t work without the Spirit. No instrument, no tool, no hammer, no axe can build a house without the mason and carpenter moving them. But it doesn’t follow that they are not instruments at all! All that follows is, “God does not work faith by the preached Word alone, but by the omnipotency of grace going along with it.” Although the preached Word, in its sound, is physical, literal, bodily, yet in its power, majesty, and the things it signifies, it is spiritual, lively, heavenly.
The Word must be preached to everyoneThose who argue against the instrumentality of the preached Word end up also arguing that the gospel shouldn’t be preached to anyone except those who already have the Word and Spirit in their hearts (because, they say, these are the only ones who can receive it by faith). In effect, they take away the Word, ministry, ordinances, preaching, and dismiss them as mere delusions. They are arguing that there is no need of Scripture, preaching, sacraments, hearing of or doing any duties to each other.
But you see how false it is that the gospel is not to be preached to any but to those that are converted. It is contrary to Christ’s express commands to His apostles, “Go teach all nations” (Matt. 28:19–20). Likewise Paul preached to the obstinate Jews (Acts 13) and to the scoffing Athenians (Acts 17).
← Why we should pray about everything and hide nothingWhat makes the Christian ministry special? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Why we should pray about everything and hide nothingEven when we are aware of needing God’s help in many areas of life, we can still be reluctant to pray. We think it’s too much to ask, perhaps — or maybe it’s too insignificant to mention in prayer. But Obadiah Sedgwick, a member of the Westminster Assembly, urges us in the folloiwng updated extract to pray about everything, and hold nothing back. The reasons he gives are all in the prayer-hearing God and His overflowing compassion.“All prayer,” extends itself not only to all the kinds and forms of praying, but also to all the matters or things for which we pray.
Five reasons to pray about everythingGod can hear every request as well as any individual request. He can hear a multiplied request as well as a single request. He doesn’t take things in, or observe things, by discourse, where one notion may be an impediment to grasping another. By reason of His omniscience, all things are equally simultaneously present to Him.
Indeed, God can grant many and great requests, as easily as the single and smallest petition. The greatest gift comes as freely and readily out of His hand as the most common mercy — even Jesus Christ, and pardon of many sins, are the same price as our daily bread. Though by comparison with the latter, the former gifts of a much more elevated nature and dignity, yet in respect of the fountain of them, all of them come from the freeness of His goodness and love.
Christ, by whom we are to put up all our requests (for He is our advocate and intercessor) is as ready and able to plead many and great requests, as well as a few and inferior ones. As He is our mighty Redeemer, so He is our mighty intercessor. And His blood is as efficacious and meritorious for many sins as for some.
This is the reason why God has made manifold promises. We may put up many and great requests all at once. The promises are called “the wells of salvation,” and “the breasts of consolation.” Now living wells afford a plenty, as well as a scanting measure of water. And the child may move from breast to breast, and draw enough from either, if one alone will not serve. If one promise does not cover all your needs, yet all of them do, and as God graciously comprehends all our supplies in all of His promises, so He has propounded them all to us, so that we would then there urge Him for the supply of all our necessities.
Lastly, God is rich in mercy, and plenteous in compassion. His mercies are often referred to as manifold mercies, and His goodness is called an abundant goodness, and His redemption a plenteous redemption, and His kindness a great kindness. Now mercy is a ready inclination to pity and help, and multitudes of mercies are like a compounded, and doubled, and redoubled opening up of God’s tenderness to do a sinner good.
Why we should hide nothing from GodYou should conceal not even one of your distresses from God. The heart and life of man are full of sin, and just as full of need. There is not any branch of the soul, nor limb of the body, nor turning of the life, but is replenished with some necessity or other. You have a mind which still needs to be enlightned, a judgment which still needs to be captivated, a heart which still needs to be converted and humbled. How many sinful commissions there are which need to be bewailed, and how many particular and vile inclinations yet need to be subdued! Besides all this, every grace which you have (and there are manifold graces in a holy soul), every one of them is in exigence, and needs more spiritual filling, both for its habit, and acts, and degrees. Indeed, all our duties are only lame-handed motions, which need more strengthning, or like mixed rivers, which should run more clearly.
In this case what should we do? to whom should we go? should we divide the principles of our helps, and go for some to God, and for the most to created things? O in no wise! for all our help is only in Him, who alone can help all!
Or should we branch out our helps, and present them as a beggar does his needs, one day mentioning one need, and some distance of time later, bring up another? O no! Come with all, and with all at once, to God, who is as able, and as willing, for many sinners, as well as for one sinner — and for many sins in one person, as well as for one in any. As they did with the impotent and sick man, they brought all of him, bed and all, and laid him before Christ, so should we bring body and soul, and every distress of either, and present the whole bulk before the Lord at once, root and branches, for a manifold supply. We should press Him for manifold mercies, for abundant strength, for God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we are able to ask or think (Eph. 3).
Beloved, as your own unworthiness should not put you off from being a petitioner at the throne of grace, so the variety of your necessities should not discourage you from commencing your appeals at the throne of rich mercies. There is reason in God which will hearten us, and there is reason in ourselves to crave as earnestly and as simmultaneously for all our helps as for some. You equally need the pardon of this sin, as whatever else it may be, and mercy is as ready and able for both, as for either.
And if that corruption was more subdued, and yet this remained altogether untouched, you would have just as many, and more forcible, doubts about your situation from this discrepancy, and the inequality of the victory. Wherefore, as Abraham in his petition for the people of Sodom and Gommorrah took up request upon request, descending from high to low, from many to few, so should we in our requests ascend from one sin to more, from more to many, from many to all. You know that confession of sins should not only be particular, but universal; and our sorrow for sin should respect the kinds of sin as well as the particular acts? Well, all of this signals that there is an ampleness of grants, so much mercy and supply corresponding to the required latitude of confessions and sorrow.
Certainly it’s true that some one sin may (for some special reason, either of some guilt, or present insolency) be more insisted on then another, just as one clause in the plea may be urged more then another. Yet it should not be to the exception of the rest. “O that sin, Lord, by which I have dishonoured Thee so much, and yet which rages so much, pardon it, subdue it, out with it — and not only that, but sins like them, and not only them, but all my sins, blot them out, cleanse me from them!”
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Five things to do when everyone else despises ChristAlthough it remains a fact of history that after Christ died He rose again, yet at some times more than others, the wider relevance of this fact seems non-existent. For all the interest people take in Him, He might as well still be buried in the grave. His followers have little influence and little prestige, and He and they are more or less dismissed with a sneer everywhere. In times like this, what can Christ’s followers do? The Covenanting minister Michael Bruce gave five pieces of advice to hearers in his day. Observing the behaviour of the women in Matthew 28 over the period while Christ was in the grave, Bruce identifies five activities that believers can keep busy with, when Christ and His cause are at their most beleaguered.When the world has done their worst to Christ, and can do no more to Him, still the people of God always have work to do with Him. You can see in this chapter that Christ is dead and buried, and left alone, and yet for all that, there are some poor women who haven’t quite given up on Him. These poor people will not quit with Him.
So there is a huge difference between Christians looking at a buried Christ, and the world looking at Him. The world sees no beauty in Him, but Christ is always beautiful to the believer, whatever the world might do to Him.
In fact, poor redeemed sinners will always be following Him, whatever condition He is in. These women have a work to do with Christ when the world have done their worst with Him.
There are five pieces of work we have to do with Christ when the world has done their worst with Him.
Keep love burningKeep love burning in our hearts to Him. O friends, is there any love to a buried Christ among you? You see how love was still burning in these women’s hearts always. Remember this piece of work you have to do, to keep much love in your heart to Him. When curates, malignants, magistrates, prelates and backslidden clergymen have done their worst to Him, you must love Him as much as ever you did.
Keep company with HimKeep company with Him. As soon as the sabbath is over, these women run away to keep a dead and buried Christ company. If you spend time with Christ in a day like this, surely you will not keep company with those who betray Him.
Do what you can for HimWhatever seems to be Christ’s need at the moment, you must labour to meet it. Although there was a mistake in these poor women, yet they were right in the main thing. Christ’s broken body seemed to be them to be in need of embalming, so they prepared spices for that, although the mistake was that they did not believe He would rise again so soon. Still, there was something about Him that looked to them like something He needed, so they prepared a supply for that.
O how our blessed Lord Jesus in His members needs someone to speak a word for Him these days! But He cannot get a hearing! Some people will do nothing but swear and forswear, and play fast and loose with Him. He comes to some and asks a lend of their houses and lands a year or two, but they will not grant it. He comes to some and seeks a horse and saddle, but they will not give that. The disciples did not let Him go without a horse when He called for one, nor yet a saddle, even if the saddle was just that they spread their garments on it. But nobody takes an interest in the needs of Christ in His members these days, either to identify a need or supply it.
Refuse to take offence at HimGuard against being offended at Him. This was the thing He wanted from His disciples. “Blessed are they that shall not be offended in me.” All He desires from you is that you would not be offended at Him. Supposing He meets you with a violent death, do not be offended at Him. If for a long time He lets some enemy or other always have the upper hand over you, this is a piece of the work He calls for from your hands when His back is against the wall.
Love His despised peopleDo not let any of His suffering followers have less of a place in your heart on account of them backing their Master and getting suffering for their pains. “Am I naked? Then clothe Me,” He said, “and I give you this encouragement, that whatever you do for one of these suffering little ones, you do it to Me.”
O friends, are you done with Christ just because the people of the world are done with Him? It’s a black mark against professing Christians, that just because Christ is buried, they think they have nothing more to do with Him! It’s a black mark against our clergymen, that when Christ is buried, there’s almost never one of them who asks how He lies. O Christians, have you really nothing more to do with Him when the most of the world has done with Him? There is never less interest in Christ than when His back is to the wall, and O but you are ashamed people who do not take an interest in Him now, when He seems to be in His grave.
← What is our honest reaction to the gospel?FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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What is our honest reaction to the gospel?Hearing about what Jesus did on the cross forces a confrontation. When the gospel of God meets our sinful hearts, what is our honest reaction? There can only be acceptance or rejection, and there is both sin and terrible danger in sidestepping the demands of the gospel even for the time being. John Welch of Irongray, reaching the end of a sermon on Isaiah 53, insisted that his hearers faced up to their response to the news of Christ crucified. As the following updated extract shows, his questions, posed in the consciousness of God’s presence, are very pointed. Will we prefer our sins to salvation? Or will we entrust ourselves to the Saviour?Now I come to ask what you have to say to the gospel. What do you say to it? Do you have something to say against what I have been telling you? Do you have something to say against what Christ suffered? or against what He did after He suffered, when He said, “Thrust in your hands into my side, and be not faithless, but believing?” Or will you be like Thomas and say, “My Lord and my God!” Friends, what will you do? Tell me what you think of all that has been said of a suffering Christ today. What effect does it now have on you? And what effect will it have afterwards? Will you leave this place without closing with Jesus Christ? What do you say to it? Do you have any objections?
“Yes,” says someone, “I have three objections that hinder me.”
I have too many doubts“I have many doubts in my heart, so that I dare not presume to come to Christ.”
But why do you not dare?
“I have been such a great sinner.”
I tell you then, sinners, in the name of the Lord, you who have these fears and doubts, come on, and do not let that hinder you. Instead let it put you to make all the more use of the Lord. Come away to Him. Though your sins were as scarlet and as crimson, ye shall be made white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). You have God’s command for it, and you have God’s warrant for it, and you have God’s revelation, and these are His revealed duties that He bids you do. Be serious in going about what is revealed in the Word of God to be your duty (and that is all that the gospel calls for), and unite with Jesus Christ.
Or are you saying, “I would love to go to Jesus, but I’m afraid of breaking up with Him again.” Only resolve in Christ’s strength, and He will keep you, and all the devils in hell shall not get you to break off. “But I have made so many promises, and I have broken them all, and I fear that I will do so again.” I say, you must resolve again in Christ’s strength, and as His hand lays the foundation, He shall finish the work. “Turn again unto me,” saith the LORD, “and I will heal your backslidings.”
I can’t do itSomeone is saying, though, “I can’t. You tell us to embrace Him, but we cannot. It’s as impossible for us as to touch the sky. We can’t even begin.”
What did the Lord say to the poor man who had the withered hand? He told him to stretch it out. “I cannot,” he would say, but yet what does the Lord say? “Stretch out thy hand” (Luke 6:10).
I tell you in His name, make an attempt, and show your goodwill, and He will help you to do it. If only you would give it a try, and just say, “Lord, I believe with the faith that I have, and as far as I can, I believe — Lord, help my unbelief.”
It’s a strange thing, friends, that you won’t even try. The man in Luke 6 might have said, “What’s the point of me stretching out my withered hand? I know I can’t.” But yet Christ tells him to stretch it out as he can, and He makes his attempt effectual. You who say you cannot do so much as to make an attempt, just make the attempt, and God will make these attempts effectual, and you will find Him.
Therefore, if you don’t dare to venture, or think you cannot get a grip of Him, yet will you give Him a look? “Look unto me all ye ends of the earth, and be saved, for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22). This is all that He requires — that you would give Him a look.
I don’t want toAre there any other objections? “I don’t want to.”
That is the truth of the matter. “I don’t want to part with the world; I don’t want to serve Him; I don’t want to obey His commands. I am not resolved to do that yet. I don’t want to leave the world that I’ve got so much advantage in. No, no, I don’t want to come to Him, say what you will.”
Woe is me, that is a terrible thing. You don’t want to have Him? Let ministers say what they will, you don’t want Him? What’s the reason for that? He is able to declare of Himself that it is not His fault that you are unwilling.
“O,” you say, “He is a hard master, there is no living with Him. I won’t get my idols entertained in His service. I couldn’t cope with it. I can’t part with my lusts, and with my sin. If you want the plain truth of it, I don’t think there has ever been a man or a woman that ever had a happy day serving Him, and therefore I have to go my own way at my own risk. Whatever comes on the back of it, I must sin, and I must not miss out on my opportunities in the world.”
Well, friends, I say there is much more advantage to be had in coming to Christ.
But this is your opportunityFriends, we have encountered a strange piece of providence. I had planned to have preached elsewhere today, but against my own expectation I have been brought here again.
So it’s by chance that we are here today, and I have been presenting to you a bloodied, wounded, bruised Christ. He is all crushed with the wrath of God. He was forced to cry, “What shall I do? My soul is sorrowful, even unto death, and what shall I do?” This wounded Christ has purchased salvation to sinners, and has sent me here this day as His ambassador to make offer of Him. Have I made any impression on you? I have come in His name and I may not leave you like a knotless thread, a pointless waste of time.
It is in His name that we come here, and I summon and charge you all — as you will answer before the great God, and as you would want to be found of Him in peace, and as you would want one day to look Him in the face, and not call the hills and mountains to fall on you — I summon you to embrace Him!
I charge you by the love of Jesus Christ that put Him to suffer all those things. I charge you by the torments of hell that surely shall follow on those who disobey. I charge you by the love of Him who was dead and is now alive, and lives for evermore. I charge you by Him who has the keys of hell and death, and the keys of heaven.
Come and tell me what you plan to do. Or are you resolved to live as you have done? Do you live prayerless and godless? Will you leave off that? Are you drunkards? Will you leave off that? What are you going to do? Do you swear? Will you keep swearing more?
Are you repenting? Or have you decided to live a while longer in your sins? Will you continue in these things, and keep your idols, and your corruptions? Have you resolved to do that, or this? Will you come today and give up everything to the Lord, and embrace this suffering Christ, before His wrath comes upon you? Have ye drawn back? Will you draw back more? Or will you come to Him?
How will you respond?What do you say to it? I offer Him to you. I lay the offer at every individual’s door, and to every individual’s conscience, and I command and charge you to come and embrace Him, and I desire the Lord God of heaven that He would confirm this.
Now what do you say to it, you who have had so many preachings preached to you? I beseech you, give an answer. Come and take Him, and embrace Him today. For you cannot tell if you will ever have the offer again. I cannot tell if I will ever have the opportunity to speak to you again. What do you think, is it for nothing that we come out to preach, when we are at such high risk, and when we are seen as traitors and rebels in every one of these meetings? It’s not a small business, this. God calls us to be serious, and not to trifle. Therefore, men and women, will you come and close with Him?
Dear, beloved friends, will you let Christ’s death and sufferings persuade you to take Christ’s offer? I long for you to come to Him, for your own life and salvation. I press it on you, and as He is offered, so take Him. Dear friends, give your answer! Say it to Him — it’s not me that wants your answer. Say something to the Lord, for as the Lord lives, you must say something, yea or nay. As you don’t want God to speak in wrath to you, friends, say that you will be the Lord’s! Say that you will enter into an everlasting covenant with Him, never to be forgotten! Or as the Lord lives, these trees, and this water, and that brae, and the earth that you sit on shall be a witness against you eternally, and this tent, and I, and these clouds above your heads.
Therefore now, come, and take the offer, and tell God that from this day forward you resolve to be for Him. Old men, and young men, will you close with Him? Young bairns, the youngest of you all, will you close with Him? Say, “Lord, I would be content to close with Him.” Will you say this, old women and young women? Answer God, who is bidding you come to Him. Say with good David, “Thou art my God and my king … Thou hast made with me an everlasting covenant, well-ordered in all things, and sure.”
I would gladly fall down on my bare knees in front of you if that would get you to say the thing. O friends, give an answer! Say what Thomas said, “My Lord and my God!” and say with David, “O God, thou art my God,” and say with the church in Jeremiah 50:5, “Come, let us enter ourselves into an everlasting covenant with God …”
We must leave you, friends, and yet how can we think of leaving till you come to Him? Take heed what you are doing. Go to Him, and close with Him.
← Six features of an attentive ministerFive things to do when everyone else despises Christ →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Six features of an attentive ministerThe work of the ministry requires constant care and attention. Yet there are plenty reasons why a pastor might lose heart in the work of the ministry, since discouragements are many, and personal corruptions are active. The Covenanting minister William Veitch (1640–1722) was aware of these burdens. He identified Archippus as a minister who seems to have flagged and even become lazy in the work. Paul sends Archippus a brief word of exhortation in his letter to the Colossians: “Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it” (Col. 4:17). Veitch, speaking as a minister to fellow ministers, deduces that great attentiveness is required in ministers if they are to carry out their ministerial responsibilities rightly. In the following updated extract, Veitch gives six features of the attentiveness which Paul urged Archippus to show in his work.WisdomThe first thing necessary to enable a minister take heed to his ministry is wisdom and knowledge, not only in the doctrinal but also the practical part of religion. I think both of these are needful to make a minister “apt to teach,” or else his ministry will be more art-work than heart-work. The ministers of Christ must be men of knowledge, for they are watchmen, and watchmen must have eyes in their head. They are to point out to the people their way, their danger, and their duty. If they are blind, what hurt comes to the church! “The leaders of this people cause them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed” (Isaiah 9:16).
Ignorance causes error, and error destruction. That is why the apostle said to the elders of Ephesus, “Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost made you overseers, to feed them,” i.e., with knowledge and understanding, so that they may be soundly principled and right in the faith. The reason is, “for grievous wolves will enter in among you, speaking perverse things to corrupt your people, and to draw disciples after them” (Acts 20:28–30).
Ministers should be like the creatures around Christ’s throne, full of eyes within and without, before and behind. Within, looking to the frame and constitution of their own hearts. Without, to the duties they ought to perform and the snares and dangers they must beware of in following their duty. Before them to God, for counsel and direction. Behind them, to the flocks which they lead. “The priest’s lips should keep knowledge,” says Malachi, and so every minister is (as it were) the treasurer of the place where he is. If ministers lack this treasury of spiritual knowledge and wisdom, they will not be able to distinguish rightly between truth and error, sin and duty. They cannot instruct the ignorant, resolve doubts, quiet the troubled conscience, feed the hungry, and comfort the discouraged. Let Antichrist have blind and ignorant watchmen: our Lord Jesus Christ should have ministers who are thoroughly furnished for every good work.
DiligenceFor a minister to discharge his office rightly, he needs painstaking diligence. Knowledge must flow into action . Ministers are called “angels,” and angels are not only full of eyes, but also full of hands and wings (Eze. 1:5). Therefore, “they rest not day nor night” (Rev. 4:8). They know much, therefore they act much.
The heathen could tell us that unpractical knowledge signifies nothing. The Egyptians painted a tongue with a hand under it, to show that knowledge was good when practiced. The blessing is not promised to the bare knowledge of commanded duties, but to the practice of them. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if you do them” (John 13:17). “Blessed are they that do his commandments , that they may have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates unto the city” (Rev. 22:14). Ministers are spiritual harvesters, and the crop is very precious. If it is lost by our sloth, we will pay dear for it.
FaithfulnessHow much we need to take heed that we do our ministerial work faithfully! Faithfulness is a proportioning of our obedience to the command, or being impartial in all the ministrations of the house of God. See what a charge the Apostle Paul gives Timothy. “I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing of partiality” (1 Tim. 5:21). We see that the one who is partial cannot be faithful. An unfaithful minister is perfidious both to God and man. It says in Zephaniah 3:4, “their prophets are light and treacherous persons,” and “treacherous persons” means prevaricating persons who violate the trust due to God and the people alike. It is the highest treachery that can be, to be false to God and rob Him of people’s souls. What is recorded in Ezekiel 3:20 is worthy of our attention. “Because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, but his blood shall I require at thine hand.” If a minister may perish for not warning sinners, much more for encouraging them to sin, by corrupt doctrine, and a lewd life, for if there is death in an omission, much more must it be things that are positively evil.
Let me add one word more on this point. A faithful minister must be a fearless minister. He must not be afraid of the faces of men, when he is to deliver the truths of God. Four times in one verse, the Lord forbids the prophet to fear: “Son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briars and thorns be with thee , and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house” (Eze. 2:6).
PrudenceIf we are to “take heed to our ministry,” we also need prudence. This is necessary to direct us in the dexterous management of all the parts of our work, and especially as to the methods by which, and the times in which our work may be done to the best advantage. Of all the parts of our ministerial work, none requires more prudence in order to handle it rightly than reproof, i.e., to do it so as it may be accepted as a kindness by the person reproved, and as an excellent oil that will not break the head, as the Psalmist expresses it (Ps. 141:5). For while faithfulness and wisdom ponder the necessity of the duty, prudence considers the fittest time, and the best manner of application with respect to the person. See in 2 Samuel 12 the prudence and dexterity with which Nathan prepared David in the parable, from verse 1 to verse 6, before he comes to touch him in the quick with “Thou art the man!” in verse 7.
EarnestnessWe must be sincere and serious (Eccles. 9:10). It is not likely that we will seriously press gospel truths and holiness home on others, until we know the sweetness and good of them ourselves. The apostle tells us that sincerity in our work and walk will be no small ground of our rejoicing, when our consciences within, and observers without, can testify that we endeavoured sincerely and carefully to manage this trust committed to us (2 Cor. 1:12).
Ministers need to take heed to this, since their work has to do with spiritual things, and so they are more apt to be deceived by hypocrisies creeping in both to their hearts and their duties. Many a time the frequency of these duties almost takes away the fervency of them. Ministers should therefore often think of what Paul said, to keep themselves diligent at their work, “Lest when I preach the gospel to others, I myself be a castaway” (1 Cor. 9:27).
PerseveranceThis “take heed” includes constancy and perseverance. We must not imagine we can do this work by fits and starts, nor be like these foolish Galatians, who began in the spirit, and ended in the flesh. We must not put our hand to the plough and look back, for you know what Christ says of those who do so, “They are not fit for the kingdom of God.” They are not fit for managing His kingdom aright in this world, and if they don’t do that, they may have reason to fear being shut out of His kingdom in the next world.
← How to be guided by conscienceWhat is our honest reaction to the gospel? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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How to be guided by conscienceFollowing our conscience is the right thing to do when our conscience is well-informed and characterised by the integrity that comes from being purged by the blood of Christ. We want neither a stupefied or seared conscience on one hand, nor a doubting, over-scrupulous conscience on the other hand. As Samuel Annesley shows in the following updated extract from his sermon on conscience, the sense of sin and the receiving of forgiveness need to be in the right balance. Then we will be equipped to navigate through life in a consistently Christian way.How to get a reliable conscience1. Get your conscience awakened from its natural lethargy.
2. Preserve your conscience tender from being seared.
3. Rectify its errors as you would get cure of blindness.
4. Resolve its doubts as you would a claim to your lands.
5. Break from your scruples as you would from thieves on the road.
6. Lay your head in Christ’s bosom to cure your trembling.
How to keep a reliable conscienceAnd then for the integrity and quiet of your conscience, observe these proposals, as meticulously as you would a doctor’s prescription in a tedious sickness.
- Avoid sinning as you would a train of gunpowder.
- Be as quick in your repentance as in the cure of a pleurisy.
- Live under the felt presence of the jealous God.
- Examine your heart, as princes sift out treason.
- Pray for the grace you need, as starving persons cry for food.
- Let every action be like an arrow shot at a mark.
- Think of God as a wise physician.
- Be as vile in your own esteem as you are in the eyes of the most hypercritical enemy.
- Live on Christ, as the child in the womb lives on the mother.
- Love God (as near as possibly you can) as God loves you.
Landmarks to use on the journeyBut you may find these rules, even though I have condensed them, to be too many, and too long to be always remembered. So, to ensure that you will not be overburdened with things which should never be forgotten, I shall commend to you some directions, which may be to your souls in your pilgrimage towards heaven, as ship provisions in a sea voyage — generally sufficient, when others cannot be had.
Plainly practise these reminders of direction in all your conscientious walking.
Consult duty, not eventsThere’s nothing in the world for us to do, but to mind our duty. Curious speculations, that do not tend towards holiness, are one thing: but misgivings based on predictions of what may or will happen to you when you do your duty, may be reckoned among your grosser iniquities. To venture to sin in order to avoid danger, is to sink the ship for fear of pirates, and must be reckoned amongst your greatest follies, your worst of sins.
Some argue, in effect, “This way of duty will probably bring down some people’s displeasure on me, and therefore to prevent that, I’ll take the course which will certainly bring down God’s displeasure.” Is not their reason dangerously distempered? Unquestionably their conscience is. Besides, by-ways will not lead you to the place you aim at.
On the contrary, keep your consciences from being violated, and you cannot be miserable. How calm and quiet, as well as holy and heavenly, would our lives be, if we had only learnt this single lesson, to care about nothing but to know and do our duty, and to leave all effects, consequences and events to God!
The truth is, it is a daring boldness for silly dust to prescribe to infinite wisdom, and to let go our work, to meddle with God’s. He has managed the concernments of the world, and of every individual person in it, without giving occasion to any one to complain, for more than the past five thousand years, and does He now need advice from you? Therefore let it be your only business to mind your duty.
Aye, but how shall I know my duty? Take a second reminder.
The advice you would give to someone else, take yourselfThe worst kinds of people are apt enough to lay such burdens on other folk’s shoulders, that if they would take them on their own, they would be rare Christians indeed. The outcry made by those who revile godliness, when they nitpick and dissect the misdeeds of Christians! Even they expect that those who make a profession of religion should be blameless beyond exception; and even they scorn those who fall away at all from their professed strictness. On the other side, those who are holy expect that even graceless persons should bear reproof, receive instruction, and change the course of their lives.
In middle cases, then, between these extremes, what exactness will serious Christians require from themselves, where the bias of their own corruptions does not misguide them? David was twice surprised to pass sentence against himself by parables in the abstract, where he did not realise he was implicated himself.
Where this rule is too short, add a third.
Do nothing on which you cannot pray for a blessingWhere prayer does not lead, repentance must follow. It is a desperate venture to sin on hopes of repentance. Every action of a Christian that is good, is sanctified by the Word and prayer. It is unseemly for a Christian to do anything, however trivial, that he can’t pray over. If Christians only but bestow a serious exclamatory prayer on every action, they would find that such prayers would cut off all things sinful, demur all things doubtful, and encourage all things lawful. Therefore do nothing but what you can preface with prayer.
But these rules are all defective, so I’ll close with an example that’s infinitely above defects.
Think, speak, and do what you are persuaded Christ Himself would do in your situation, if He were on the earthThe heathen kept in their view the best examples they had, and therefore let us follow the best of ours. There are many remarkable examples in Scripture, but I propose neither great nor small, but the King of Saints. It is better for a Christian to be an example, than to follow one. But by imitating Christ, you will come as near as possible to the best, for your fellowship shall be with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ, through the Spirit of holiness, the only one who can teach you what it is to abide in Christ, who was, and is, and ever will be our absolute copy.
O Christians! How Christ prayed, and redeemed time for prayer! How Christ preached, out of whose mouth proceeded nothing but gracious words, so that His enemies could not but admire Him! How little Christ valued the world, when He renounced it Himself and taught us to renounce it too! What time Christ spent in conversation, when He made the hearts of those who He happened to fall into company with burn within them! How Christ went up and down doing good to man, and always those things that were pleasing to God!
Four last remindersBeloved, to summarise, I commend to you these four reminders, to be so many scarlet threads on every finger of your right hand, so that you would never put your hand to any action, but these reminders would be in your eye.
- Mind duty.
- What’s another’s duty in your situation, is yours.
- When you can’t say, “The blessing of the Lord be on it,” do not meddle with it.
- But above all, as you would never renounce your name as a Christian, never forget to look to Christ. Whatever treatment you meet with from the profane world, remember Christ your Exemplar, and follow His steps. “He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.”
← Facing death with clarity and anticipationSix features of an attentive minister →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Facing death with clarity and anticipationPeople’s priorities change as they move through different stages of their life. What sort of things weigh most heavily when we are forced to think most seriously about death? Betrayed after years on the run, now severely wounded and on death row, John Nisbet of Hardhill (c.1627–1685) wanted his friends to know that he was facing his end with a clear sense of God’s love for him — so much so that he could hardly wait to get to meet Him face to face. Nisbet dictated his testimony from prison, shortly before he was executed at the Grassmarket in Edinburgh. As the following abridgement shows, he is full of thankfulness to the God of all grace for introducing him to His saving truth and granting him firm commitment to it, as well as full of concern for the holiness and integrity of the Christian friends he leaves behind.Reasons for writingI have always thought that to live for Christ, and die for Christ, is a sufficient testimony for truth; yet now when I am within a few hours of eternity, to prevent mistakes, to satisfy my dear friends, and let them know how it is with me, and to let the world know what I die witnessing for, and testifying against, I judge it proper to leave a few lines behind me.
The Lord’s superabundant goodnessAs for myself, it pleased the Lord Jehovah, of his superabundant goodness and infinite mercy, powerfully to determine my heart to close with and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, as He is made offer of in the everlasting gospel, for my king, priest, and prophet.
The Scripture has been to me from my youth the living oracles of His divine and sacred lips. When I was crying, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ and saying, ‘How shall I know the way of the Lord, that I may walk therein?’ then His Word was a light to my feet and a lamp to my path, exhorting me, ‘Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price …’ (Isaiah 55:1–8). When I was grappling with sin, Satan, and the world, and my own wicked and deceitful heart, the enemies of my salvation, His words were as props and pillars to me. It is by Him that I have fought the good fight, that I have finished my course, and that I have kept the faith. It is by Him shining in His Word that I know all my manifold sins and transgressions are freely pardoned, and that I have a just right and title to what is expressed in 1 Corinthians 1:30.
No room left to doubtSo that now, the guilt and condemning power of sin being fully pardoned by a judicial act of God’s free and sovereign grace, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially applied and witnessed to by the Holy Spirit, on and to my spirit, there is no room left me to doubt any more of my being freely justified by Him, of my being in union with Him, and in a state of grace. Nor of the power, dominion, and filth of sin, original and actual, being subdued, taken off, and washed away by the virtue of the Spirit of sanctification, or of being created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, and being sanctified throughout in soul, body, and spirit, and made meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light by Him who loved me, and gave Himself to the death for me, and redeemed me by power and price.
Longing to go to JesusNow, being in such a case of communion with Him, I am pained till I be freed of the remains of a body of sin and death, till I be freed of the world and all things therein, and also of this natural life, and be possessed of Himself, and with Himself, in His eternal inheritance, which is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away, a place which He hath provided for all whom He hath chosen, all whom He hath called, for all whom He hath justified, for all whom He hath sanctified. O to be there, where I shall sin no more, neither feel any more of the withdrawings of His Spirit’s presence, and light of His glorious countenance, but shall be ever with Him, see Him as He is, and serve Him for ever and ever.
Appeal to Christian friendsNow, my dear friends in Christ, it is the unquestionable and indispensable duty of all who have any love to God, to His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, to the thriving of His kingdom, to their own soul’s salvation, and to the following generation, to act a close, constant and needy dependence on the Lord Jehovah’s all-sufficiency, for light, for counsel, for direction, for strength and ability, to make conscience in bearing testimony for Him, for His persecuted truth, work, and interest, in these lands.
O that in this all could act a faithful part for Him who has done so much for poor wretched us! When we were lying, dying, and rotting in our blood-red sins, He passed by us with His love and life-giving visit, saying to us, ‘Live, live!’
And on the other hand, to witness faithfully, constantly, and conscientiously against all that the enemies have done, or are doing, towards overthrowing the glorious work of Reformation, and banishing Christ out of these lands by robbing Him of His crown rights (for He, and He alone, is head of His own church), and by burning the Covenants, and persecuting His gospel ministers and members. Even though ministers and members may be turning their backs on Christ and His cross, reproaching and casting dirt on you and the testimony of the day, yet do not let this weaken your hands, stumble or discourage you from going on in the strength of the Lord your God, to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, and witness a good confession for Him and His cause, resisting unto blood, striving against sin.
Leaving and adheringBut, my generation-work being done with my time, I go to Him who loved me, and washed me from all my sins — to Him who has counted me worthy to suffer for His name. If only I had many lives to lay down for Him, and much blood to seal His noble and honourable cause with! — He who graciously pitied me, and has now given me the full assurance of being a member of His church triumphant, the new Jerusalem, the city of the living God!
I die adhering to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the undoubted Word of God, an unerring rule of faith and manners, and a firm foundation for principle and practice in the ways of godliness and true holiness. And the Confession of Fatih, Larger and Shorter Catechisms, as agreeable to them and safely founded on them. Likewise the Sum of Saving Knowledge, and the Directory for Church Government, in her doctrine, worship and discipline. I confess all the attained-to pieces of reformation in the Church of Scotland, particularly between the years 1638 and 1649, the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant, the Acknowledgement of Sins and Engagement to Duties.
Last requestIt is my last request and my soul’s desire that, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, you would set apart much time, and mourn, and afflict your souls for your original sin, heart plagues, sins of persons and families, sins of kings and kingdoms, and for all the dreadful apostacies, hateful compromises, and sinful sidings of ministers and people with the enemies of God and godliness. Mourn that there is not more faithfulness and zeal for the cause of God amongst His people.
My dear friends, give up your contentions and censuring one of another. Sympathise with and love one another, for this is His commandment. Keep up your sweet fellowship meetings. What is proposed for continuing a testimony for truth and against defections, let it be done with Scripture light for direction, and with zeal tempered with knowledge, and with the spirit of meekness accompanied with patience and humility. Be always ready to give a reason of your faith, and be much denied to the world, to yourselves, and to your natural life, and when God in His providence calls you to lay it down for Him, do it cheerfully, and embrace the cross of your sweet Lord Jesus with open arms, for He will not send any on a warfare on their own charges.
Don’t take fright at His sweet, lovely and desirable cross. Because of the wounds I received when I was captured, I have not been able to lift up or lay down my head without someone helping me, but yet I have never been in a better place in all my life. He has not challenged me for a single thing since I came to prison, small or great, but on the contrary, He has so wonderfully shined on me with the sense of His redeeming, strengthening, assisting, supporting, through-bearing, pardoning and reconciling love, grace, and mercy, that my soul longs to be freed from bodily infirmities and earthly organs, so that I may flee to His royal palace, the heavenly habitation of my God, where I am sure of a getting a crown put on my head, and a palm in my hand, and a new song in my mouth, so that I may bless, praise, magnify and extol Him for what He has done to me, and for me.
So I bid farewell to all my dear fellow-sufferers. Farewell, my children. Pursue holiness in all your ways, and praise the Lord for what He has done for me, and tell all my Christian friends to praise Him for this too! Farewell, sweet Bible, and wanderings, and contendings for the truth! Welcome, death. Welcome, the city of my death, where I shall see Him, and be enabled to serve Him eternally with full freedom! Welcome, blessed company of angels and spirits of just men made perfect! But, above all, welcome, welcome, welcome, our glorious and only God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Into Thy hands I commit my spirit, for Thou art worthy. Amen.
← When pastors become predatorsHow to be guided by conscience →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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When pastors become predatorsShepherds are God’s gift to the church, given because He wants His dear flock to be well looked after. But sometimes the shepherds turn rogue and instead of caring for God’s flock, they put their own interests first. Pastoral ministry becomes all about their own position and prestige and what they can get out of it. The needs of the flock are left unmet and instead they suffer spiritually at the hands of those supposed to nurture them. As the Westminster Assembly member William Greenhill noted, this may be endemic in a church culture, and daring to speak out against it may be penalised. While we are familiar with high-profile scandals in evangelicalism in recent years, this is not a new problem. Nor do things have to reach extremes of financial, emotional or sexual abuse in order for pastors to be guilty of flouting their responsibility to feed the Lord’s flock. Harshness, neglect and a multitude of little ways of lording it over the Lord’s heritage belong to the same category of un-shepherdlike behaviour. Yet as Greenhill points out in his remarks on Ezekiel 34, when the sheep suffer, God notices, and He will ultimately intervene to rescue His maltreated people.Ezekiel has already reproved the people and threatened the judgments of God against them for their sins. Now he comes chapter 34 to deal with their ‘shepherds,’ whose fault it was that the people had become so wicked. The first ten verses are God’s reproof of the shepherds, and the judgment He will bring on them.
The behaviour of the shepherdsThe ‘shepherds of Israel’ (v.2) were the chief rulers, whether in church or state. A ‘woe’ or general judgment is threatened against them — a variety of evils, not just one but several sad judgments will come on them.
The shepherds should have been ‘feeding’ the people, leading and teaching them. But here was their sin — they ‘fed themselves, not the flock.’ Those who are shepherds in the church, are set up for the good of the people, to benefit and advantage them, not to seek themselves, to draw from the people what they can to make themselves great. They should be content with their allowance, and give themselves fully and wholly for the good of those who are committed to their trust. This interrogative, ‘Should not the shepherds feed the flock?’ highlights the heinousness of their sin, and the indignation of God against it. ‘What? You are shepherds, and you don’t feed the flock? You are perverting the course of nature, and violating the order which God has set!’ That is intolerable, and God will treat them severely for it.
Office-bearers should care like shepherdsThose who are set over the people in the church are shepherds, and ought to act like shepherds do towards their flocks. They should govern them gently, protect them constantly, provide for them carefully, feed them faithfully, and seek their good diligently.
God who is the great Shepherd does this. ‘He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young’ (Isaiah 40:11). ‘The Lord is my Shepherd,’ meaning He provided green pastures and still waters for him, and for all his (Psalm 23). He gave them David for a shepherd, ‘to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance;’ and he ‘fed them according to the integrity of his heart’ (Jeremiah 5:7).
Ministers should be like to God in all these ways. Yet few of those who are over God’s flock in the church prove to be what they ought to be. The political rulers were wicked, and so were the ecclesiastical rulers. They are called shepherds, but they did not do the work of shepherds. The shepherds of Israel did not feed the flock! From Ezekiel 22:25–28 you may see what the prophets, priests, and princes were like — not a true shepherd amongst them.
The three defining characteristics of wicked shepherds in the church are given here.
They feed themselves. They are covetous, self-seekers. They eat the fat, clothe themselves with the wool. They kill them that were fed, full of fat and flesh, they made a prey of the rich and wealthy. See how butchers deal with oxen and sheep, killing, flaying, chopping in pieces, breaking their bones, selling some parts, and eating others, and whatever they do is for their own interest. The shepherds in the church were selfish and covetous. ‘They are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand; they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter’ (Isaiah 56:11). One’s gain comes from one quarter, a second’s from another quarter, a third’s from a third, and their eyes were upon their gain and nothing else. ‘The heads of Jerusalem judge for reward, the priests teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money’ (Micah 3:11). They all sought themselves, and so declared what they were.
They do not feed the flock. A good shepherd’s care and delight is to feed his flock. He shows his care by strengthening the weak, by healing the sick, by binding up the broken, by bringing back those that have gone astray, and seeking out those who are lost. These shepherds did none of these things.
They treat the flock harshly and cruelly. ‘With force and cruelty have ye ruled them’ (v.4). These shepherds did not distinguish between the weak and strong, the healthy and sick, so as to rule them wisely, gently, compassionately. Instead they were rough, rigid, bitter, and cruel to them. As the political shepherds were out for dishonest gain (Ezekiel 22:27), so the ecclesiastical shepherds also ruled after their own wills. The prophets were roaring lions ravening the prey — they devoured souls, they took the treasure and precious things, they made many widows in the midst of Jerusalem. The priests violated the law of God, and so wronged the people (v.25–26). The prophets and priests conspired together to tyrannize over the people, who were so accustomed to it, that they were content to have it so (Jeremiah 5:31). ‘My people hath been lost sheep; their shepherds have caused them to go astray’ (Jeremiah 50:6).
God notices the behaviour of bad shepherdsGod’s flock here needs shepherds to look after it. Some in God’s flock are diseased or infirm, some sick, some broken, some driven away, some straggling and in danger of getting lost. God’s sheep are vulnerable to many evils, diseases, and dangers. These could be ‘vain customs’ (Jeremiah 10:3); being bruised and broken (Jeremiah 6:14); being hunted by wild animals (Ezekiel 13:18); being beaten and ground to pieces (Isaiah 3:15); being devoured (Psalm 14:4); errors, heresies, corrupt opinions and practices (Matthew 24:5; 2 Peter 2:2); backsliding (Jeremiah 8:5); mistakes and all sorts of evils (Isaiah 5:20).
It is mercy, indeed, great mercy, that God has appointed shepherds for His flock, to make provision for the weaknesses, maladies, and dangers of the soul. Where the shepherds are wicked, it is bad for the flock. If they are selfish, negligent, or harsh, the flock will suffer.
O pray to God earnestly, that He would give us good shepherds! There is a wonderful promise or two in Jeremiah. ‘I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking’ (Jeremiah 23:4). And, ‘I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you according to knowledge and understanding’ (Jeremiah 3:15) These promises speak of good shepherds for the church. Let us put these promises to a good use, and urge God to fulfil them.
In fact, wicked ministers, in God’s account, are effectively not ministers at all. He says His flock were scattered, ‘because there is no shepherd’ (v.5). There were many shepherds in the church, yet as good as none, because they were wicked, self-seeking, did not feed the flock, but ruled with cruelty. When shepherds degenerate so far as to be contrary to what they should be, then they are as non-shepherds before God. In Zephaniah 11:17, they are called ‘idol shepherds,’ and idols are nothing. When things are like this, then the sheep are scattered.
Yet God eyes the ones in positions in the church, and He deals impartially with them. He observed what the ministers did in their places, and, seeing them selfish, negligent, and cruel, he threatens them all: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel.’ He saw they were all guilty of grievous sins, and they did not amend after His had shown them long forbearance, and therefore without respect He denounces judgment against them. God is greater than the greatest. He has no fear of the faces of princes or prophets. Let them cover their ways with whatever pretence they wish, the Lord discerns them. However terrifying they are to the people, the Lord will be a terror to them. However long they continue in their wickedness, God will eventually be avenged on them.
The Lord is against bad shepherds‘Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord’ (v.7, v.9). Great indignation was in the breast of God against these shepherds. ‘Hear the word of the Lord, shepherds: He is vehemently displeased with you, and can hold back no longer.’ As surely as He is the living God, He will punish the shepherds who treat His flock like this (v.8), making laws, imposing burdens, finding out ways to enrich themselves and impoverish the people.
Verse 10 enumerates the punishments of these shepherds. The first is God’s enmity against them. They were so great that they kept all in such awe that no one dared to say or do anything against them. If any did, they were soon crushed. So the Lord says, ‘ Behold, I am against the shepherds’ — ‘I, that am the Governor of nations, the Lord of heaven and earth, the dread Sovereign of princes, priests, and prophets, I am against them.’ The Hebrew means, ‘I come to set myself against them;’ the Vulgate puts it, ‘I am above them;’ others translate it, ‘I am against them.’
Secondly, ‘I will require my flock at their hand.’ ‘Not only will I demand an account from them, what is become of My flock, but I will have recompence for every one that is wounded, weak, lost, or slain. I will require at your hand limb for limb, blood for blood, and life for life.’
Thirdly, He will displace them. ‘I will cause them to cease from feeding the flock.’ Some were cut off by the hand of justice (e.g., Jeremiah 52:10–11, 24–27; Lamentations 5:12). Others were carried away captive, and held in chains and bonds.
Fourthly, ‘Neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more.’ They will be deprived of the opportunities they had to enrich themselves. They made a prey of the flock, using it to their own advantage, but they would not do so any longer.
The sins of ministers in seeking themselves, and neglecting and wronging the flock, greatly provoke God, and bring certain and severe judgments upon themselves.
God will eventually put things rightGod promises, ‘I will deliver my flock from their mouth’ (v.10). Like a shepherd rescuing a lamb out of a lion or bear’s mouth, so God will pull His flock out of these predators’ mouths, so that they will no more be violated and devoured by these tyrants.
Instead God will relieve them, make them safe and set them at liberty. Many years His flock had been molested by wicked princes, priests, and prophets. They had eaten up many of His flock, and the rest were in danger of being devoured. The poor sheep could not withstand their violence; these shepherds were like young lions among the flocks, going through, treading them down, and tearing them in pieces, and none can deliver (Micah 5:8). But though the sheep had no one able to deliver them from these lion-like shepherds, yet God was able to do it, and did it. He was a lion to these lions, and tore them in pieces, rescuing his flock. He will do it eventually.
← The danger of wavering on gospel basicsFacing death with clarity and anticipation →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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The danger of wavering on gospel basicsNew ideas and teachings are constantly cropping up in and around the church. Although believers, and the church as a whole, are meant to grow in knowledge, it has to be knowledge of the truth. The truth of the gospel is what we stake our souls on for eternity, and we cannot afford to be enticed into wavering on the gospel basics and swallowing false teachings. George Gillespie was particularly earnest in emphasising the duty of remaining loyal to the truths which God has plainly revealed in Scripture. In the following updated excerpt, he provides several reasons why instability is so dangerous.Fluctuating and wavering over those things which God has revealed for us either to believe or do, is a sin, while to be firm, fixed and established in the truth (to “hold fast the profession of it,” to “stand fast in the faith”) is a duty commanded. It is good theology to maintain this.
The value of being committed to the truthWe see the value of steadfastness from the very light of nature. “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?” (Jer. 2:11). The heathen Greeks used to say that he who goes wrong in his religion is drinking out of a cup that is full of holes. How firm and constant the heathen philosophers were in maintaining their opinions! They could not only displease their friends, but suffer the heaviest things for their opinions.
But set aside the light of nature. Every one of the earliest churches, to which the apostles wrote epistles, was expressly warned, either to stand fast in the faith, and to hold fast their profession, or to beware of and to avoid false teachers, and not to be carried about with diverse and strange doctrines.
It must be not only a truth, but a most special and necessary truth, when the apostles thought fit to impress it on the churches in all their epistles (see Rom. 16:17-18; 1 Cor. 16:13; 2 Cor. 11:3-4; Gal. 1:6-8; Eph. 4:14; Phil. 3:2, 18; Col. 2:6-8; 2 Thess. 2:2-3; Heb. 10:23; 13:9; Jam. 5:19-20; 2 Pet. 2:1-3; 3:16-18; 1 Jn. 4:1; Jud. 3-4). All these verses are full and plain on this point, and most worthy of our frequent thoughts and observations, especially at a time when this corner of the world is so full of new and strange doctrines.
The dangers of wavering on the truthThwarting ScriptureIf we are not steadfast and unmoveable in the profession of our faith, we frustrate (as far as we are concerned) the reason why the Scriptures were written. Luke gives this reason to Theophilus, why he wrote the story of Christ’s birth, life and death, “That thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed” (Luke 1:4). When Peter hath mentioned the voice which came from heaven concerning Christ, he adds the certainty of the Scripture as a greater certainty. “We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place” (2 Pet. 1:19). A voice from heaven is more likely to deceive us, than the written word of God.
Looking like a false churchMaintaining and professing the true faith is one — indeed, the principal — mark of a true visible church. Christ Himself gives us this mark of His sheep (John 10:4-5).
Embarking on worse errorsIf once we forsake the way of truth, and go into an erroneous way, we shall not know where to find our paths. We shall wander from mountain to hill, and forget our resting place. As one wave comes after another, so one error comes after another. Error spreads like a canker (2 Tim. 2:17). “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13). This has already made some (and I hope will make more), who were at first too susceptible to the new doctrines and practices of false teachers, now move away from them, seeing they increase to more ungodliness and more error, endlessly. One error breeds a hundred, and a hundred will breed ten thousand.
Missing out on gospel promisesIf we waver, and are led about with diverse and strange doctrine, then the prophesies which have gone before of the true church shall not be made good in us. It was promised of the church and kingdom of Christ, “The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge …” (Isa. 32:4-5). Those who were simply and rashly led about with every wind of doctrine shall (according to the promise) be so wise and knowing as to distinguish between truth and error, and between virtue and vice (see also Isa. 33:6).
Losing what we have gainedInstability and forsaking the way of truth makes us lose much that we had gained (2 John 8). All the comfort we enjoyed, all the good our souls ever received of such a truth, such a cause, such a ministry, and all that ever we did or spoke or suffered for the truth, we lose when we turn aside into an erroneous way.
Reducing gospel comfortWavering greatly hinders our spiritual comfort and contentment. To be “knit together in love” is one means, and to “have all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of gospel truths,” is another means, by which the apostle wishes the hearts of Christians to be comforted. It adds much to Paul’s comfort that he could say, “I have kept the faith…” (2 Tim. 4:7-8).
Risking our soulsWe put our souls and our salvation greatly in jeopardy when we turn aside from truth to error. It is said of the unstable that they wrest the Scriptures “unto their own destruction” (2 Pet. 3:16), like a man who has fallen into quicksand, and the more he wrestles to get out, the more he sinks. When the apostle has spoken of Christ purchasing our reconciliation, justification and sanctification, he adds an “if” (Col. 1:23): “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard.” Not that our persevering in the faith is a condition in Christ purchasing these blessings, but it is a condition without which we cannot possess and enjoy what Christ has purchased. He who falls away from the true doctrine of the gospel proves himself to have no part in the benefits of Christ.
Some errors are in their own nature damnable, and inconsistent with the state of grace, or fellowship with God (2 Pet. 2:1). “Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God” (2 John 9). Surely it may be said of Arians, Socinians, Romanists, Libertines, “they have not God,” because they do not abide in the doctrine of Christ (Gal 5:4).
There are also other errors, which may comparatively be lesser, yet impenitency, and continuing in them, condemns those who hold them. This is why the Apostle James reckons the one who errs from the truth to be in a way of death and danger of damnation (James 5:19-20).
← Five things which do not necessarily indicate a call to preachWhen pastors become predators →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Five things which do not necessarily indicate a call to preachThe work of preaching, and the office of preacher, are exceptionally important in the church. But sometimes, when people grasp the importance of preaching, they may make mistakes about what qualifies someone to become a preacher. John Brown of Wamphray wrote against various misconceptions that were becoming popular in his time, views which may well sound familiar to us today. In the following adapted excerpt, Brown tackles the issue of what we can rely on and promote as sure indicators of a call to the ministry.Grace in the heart is non-essentialI dare not say that a necessary qualification for the ministry is to be able to demonstrate the existence of real grace in the heart. Grace, and the saving workings of the Spirit, are latent, hidden in the heart, and there is no outward sign and evidence by which others can certainly or infallibly discern and judge these in others. They are hidden in such a way that even a person who has grace, will not always be in a position to discern it in his own heart, even though one is more acquainted with his own spirit and heart than others can be. So I dare not say that having the reality of grace is such a qualification that the lack of it renders a man no minister, and all his performances null before God, or man; though the person, being a real stranger to grace, can expect no acceptance of God through Jesus Christ for what he does. This is verified by Christ’s employing of Judas in the ministry.
The wish to teach others is non-essentialI deny that all who understand the truth of the gospel, and are able to instruct others, may or have a right to teach. Qualifications are no call. And, not every inclination to tell others what we know of the things of God, is a call to the work and office of the ministry. Private persons, in their private capacities, may and ought to seek to promote the edification of others (Psalm 66:16; 1 Pet. 4:10-11). Telling what you have found in your own experience, moreover, is not the whole work of the ministry. That also includes the preaching of the gospel, and the dividing of the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15), speaking, exhorting and rebuking with all authority (Tit. 2:15), beseeching, as ambassadors, in the name of God, and in Christ’s stead (2 Cor. 5:19-20).
The inward work of the Spirit is non-essentialThe inward work of the Spirit is necessary to make a man a real, upright and sincere Christian, or true member of the invisible church, and it is also necessary to make a man a sincere and upright minister before God, and approved by Him in what he doth. But it is not simply and absolutely necessary, in order to make one a minister before others, for others cannot certainly know this, nor do they walk by an infallible rule in judging this. What is necessary to make a man a member of the visible church, a professing Christian, I grant is also necessary to make one a minister, both before God and others; for others can judge of this, and have a certain and fixed rule to use to judge whether the profession is true or not, although not to judge whether it is sincere or not.
The call of the Spirit is non-essentialWe can identify someone who has been called by the Spirit by the fact that they are gifted with the gifts of the Spirit, fitting for preaching of the gospel. These include the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge (1 Cor. 12:4, 7, 8, 11), whereby they are apt to teach (1 Tim. 3:2) and fit to take care of the church (v.5). These gifts, considered in themselves, are different from true and saving grace, and yet come from the Spirit, and are given to profit with; and so must be used to edification, according to the way prescribed in the gospel.
But some, speaking of being “called by the Spirit,” mean something like a personal word of inspiration saying to the man that he must go and preach. We reject all such fancies, even though some depend on them; we account them plain delusions (Matt. 24:24; 2 Thess. 2:9; Deut. 13:1; Gal. 1:8-9). No one can show any good basis warranting us to look for such immediate calls — there is no promise for this, or any command to expect it.
For what is this testimony of the Spirit, by which everyone may know who is truly called of God, and who not? Does the Spirit, when He calls one to this work, speak to the senses of all beholders, and witness also to them that this one is indeed called? This is not necessary even to make a Christian, never mind a minister. I would only say that if no one can know by the Scriptures that he, in particular, is called to be a minister, and must therefore fall back on an inward and immediate testimony of the Spirit, then we must also say that no one can know that someone else is a minister, without the inward and immediate testimony of the Spirit. Therefore they cannot be offended at us for not believing that they are sent by God, because we have no inward and immediate testimony of the Spirit about it. Although the Scriptures do not particularly and expressly tell us that “Mr So-And-So” is a false teacher and ought to be avoided, it says enough to warn us. The whole Scripture, which points out and declares the truth, and condemns errors, is as good to us as an immediate testimony saying, “Those ones are deceivers” — indeed, better, and more sure.
Appreciative hearers are non-essentialSome say that a preacher’s inward call from the Spirit is made manifest in the minds of their brethren, who sense the life and virtue in them and are edified by their words. But I cannot accept this. Is this manifestation always at every sermon, or only sometimes? Is it on the hearts of all who hear, or only some? Perhaps “their brethren” are disposed to recognise them, but the signs of Paul’s apostleship were among strangers, whom he converted, and brought in to the faith. If this manifestation is always and on all present, we would have to question Christ’s apostleship and calling, for everyone knows that His preaching did not always have this effect. Nor did Paul’s and Barnabas’. We would have to say that Ezekiel, who was sent to a rebellious people, who refused to hear, had no true and substantial call, nor Moses, when he was sent to Pharaoh. Yet those who are a “savour of death unto death” to some, may yet for all that be successors to the apostles.
Holiness is essentialHoliness is required of gospel ministers. The apostle tells us that the minister must be “a lover of good men (or “of good things,” as it is in the margin) sober, just, holy, temperate” (Tit. 1:8). He must be blameless (Tit. 1:7), “vigilant, sober, and of good behaviour” (1 Tim. 3:2). Therefore, all who are employed in the examination and trial of ministers should be careful in searching after this, as well as examining their gifts and other qualifications. When clear and manifest evidences appear of their hatred of good things, and of the godly, of their insobriety, injustice, unholiness, intemperance, lack of vigilance, and of their evil behaviour, they ought to be laid aside from that holy function, just as well as when their lack of gifts and of other requisite qualifications is clearly apparent. Indeed, if there are no positive evidences of this love, and of seriousness in the matters of God, giving fair and reasonable grounds for concluding that they are faithful men, they ought not to commit the Word to them.
← Four good responses to the good newsThe danger of wavering on gospel basics →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Four good responses to the good newsWhen the Lord Jesus came to do His work of redemption, it cost Him dearly. He suffered in His body and in His soul and indeed died for the sake of sinful people like you and me. Preaching on Isaiah 53, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities …” John Welsh of Irongray showed first the depth of Christ’s sufferings. He then asks, how should we respond? The following updated excerpt gives his four suggestions as to appropriate responses, concluding with a reminder of who should especially recognise themselves as summoned to act on the gospel call.Now that I have spoken of the suffering Saviour, I desire this of you. Rouse yourselves up to be suitably affected with what I have spoken from these truths. There are three or four ways you should respond.
WonderAnd the first thing I would exhort you to be taken up with is wondering. What man or woman is there among you that can hear these things spoken of, and not wonder at it? That Christ should have suffered all this for the like of you and me! That He who is the Son of God should have quit heaven, and that the Son of God should have become man, that He should have been put so sore to it as to die — for sinners!
I cannot tell what calls for wonder from us, if this doesn’t. O the height! O the breadth! O the length! O the depth of this mystery! That the Son of God should have been put so sore to it as to die for sinners, and not only to die, but to drink the cup of the Father’s wrath! Who can hear this declared, and not wonder at the hearing of it? O wonder! O wonder at it! Wonder at the hearing of it!
Detest sinDid our Lord Jesus Christ have to suffer such great sufferings? Well then, see how you should look on sin. Should not sin be very detestable to you, and very abominable? Should not be at very much pains to forsake sin, when it was sin that brought our blessed Lord Jesus Christ to undergo such great sufferings, sufferings which would have brought you to such sad condemnation, and to lie under the wrath of God eternally and eternally?
Sinners, I think that supposing there was nothing else to motivate you to forsake your sins, and to hate every false way, and to hate the very least word and thought of sin, that this might be a motive — that it brought our Lord Jesus Christ to undergo such great sufferings.
Love to Him will call for this. “All ye that love the Lord, hate evil” (Psalm 97:10).
Don’t disappoint HimOur Lord Jesus Christ was brought to so many and so great sufferings. And He has undergone them so cheerfully. Has He not? And He is satisfied to see the travail of his soul.
O do not yet then do what you can to disappoint Him, while He is making offer of His blood to wash you! Do not do anything that will make Him regret that He shed His blood for the like of you! For when you do not give him a suitable meeting, you give him good reason to regret it, for you are doing what in you lies to make His sufferings of none effect.
BelieveBut what I mainly want to exhort you to is what our Lord Jesus Christ exhorts you to. Remember, after His resurrection, when He came out of the grave, when His disciples were gathered together in a room for fear of the Jews, He came in there among them, and said, “Peace be unto you” (John 20:21). Remember that in the beginning of that chapter there was some word of His resurrection. Some of them affirmed that He was risen, yet others still thought it was only imaginary and a mistake. (Although angels came down from heaven and gave testimony that He was risen, yet some of them could not believe that!) When He comes in among them, what does He say to Thomas? Just the same as He says to us today. He holds out His hands and the hole in His side, and says, “Be not faithless, but believe!” That is the thing. “Reach hither your hands into the hole in My side, and be not faithless, but believe.”
That is the thing I have come here for today as a messenger of the living God. It is to let you see this day the wonderful, condescending love of Christ, and to say to you, “Reach hither the hand of your faith, and take a look at this bloodied Saviour who was crucified. Come, put in your fingers, put in your hand in the hole of that bloody side of His, and be not faithless, but believe!”
That is the great thing that Christ calls for. That is the great reason why He wants His sufferings told us. Why? So that it would bring His people to unite with Him — to give Him credit, and to believe in Him.
That is why I now come here, and say this to you, and bid you reach hither your hand, and be not faithless, but believe. The great reason why He wants His sufferings told is — so that you would close with this suffering Lord Jesus Christ. Come to Him, and be no more faithless, but believe! Say with Thomas, “My Lord, and my God!” As soon as Christ’s hands and His side were presented to him, Thomas could no longer stand out. If the same argument does not prevail with you, I wonder what will! Thomas said, “My Lord and my God! I can stand out no longer, for now I have seen the wonderful love of God! Now I see the wonderful love of Christ, which made Him undergo all these great sufferings! Now I have seen the wonderful excellency of the Saviour!”
Remember who this message is forAllow me to emphasise this a little here, for this is the great goal which Christ has in mind in keeping up the preached gospel — so that you would believe, so that you would be saved, and brought to close with Jesus Christ.
So I here summon all of you, of all ranks of persons, to a serious frame. Compose your spirits suitable to the message that I am to declare to you. Men and women, I come to you now, and I present before you a bloody Christ, a suffering Saviour. I come to you, as He did to His disciples, and I say to you, “Reach out your hands to a bloody Saviour. Take a look of Him believingly. Look to Him, and close with Him. Look to Him. He has said, ‘Look unto Me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved!’ O come and take a look at this suffering Christ! Take a look at Him!”
You older people, maybe you have even been professing faith all your days, yet you never actually closed with Him. You have even thought it fashionable to believe in Jesus Christ, and yet to this day you have never done it. I summon you this very day at this present time to come and take a look of this suffering Jesus Christ, and stretch out the hand of your faith and close with Him, and come and say, “My Lord and my God!”
Secondly, I summon those who are outside of Christ — those who have never yet been hankering about to do it, and those who have made many attempts, but never came cleanly off in the doing of it. I summon you to come here, and stretch out your hands, and be not faithless, but believe. I summon you, whoremongers, adulterers, drunkards, or whatever you may be. Come to him, sinners! Come here and reach in your hands, and be not faithless, but believe, and close with this suffering Jesus Christ.
Will you let Him go away and not take the offer off His hand? and give Him no thanks for it? Shall He have that to say, that you would not take the offer, and that you would not give Him much thanks for His sufferings? Will you not take the benefits that He offers to you by His sufferings? I come here in His name, and offer you peace — will you not take it? I offer you healing in His name, and will you not take it off His hand?
← How to get a good conscienceFive things which do not necessarily indicate a call to preach →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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How to get a good conscienceSooner or later, our conscience will do its work of passing a verdict on us, so as to produce either shame (when conscience blames us) or comfort (when conscience approves of us). Those who have been regenerated can legitimately take comfort from knowing that the blood of Christ cleanses them from all sin. But how is this comfort possible, when even the regenerate still keep sinning? Samuel Annesley published a sermon on the conscience, in which he describes the ‘good conscience’ and, as the following updated excerpt shows, gives a list of ten suggestions as to how to get a good conscience.What kind of conscience should we desire?Two kinds of conscience are desirable, and cannot be commended too highly.
A good honest conscience. Conscience is good in respect of its integrity when it gives a right judgement of everything according to the Word of God. I grant that the law of nature binds, ecclesiastical laws bind, and political laws bind, but the Word of God is the principal rule, which precisely binds the conscience, because of its author. “There is one law-giver, who is able to save and to destroy …” (James 4:12).
A good peaceable conscience. Conscience is good in respect of its peace when it excuses, absolves, and comforts as it should — that is, when it is pacified by the blood of Christ. There was once a dying man, and it is said that the devil appeared to him, and showed him a very long parchment, where his sins were written on both sides, and they were many. Three quarters of the words he had spoken in his life were idle words, and all his actions were classified according to the ten commandments. Satan said to the poor sick man, “Do you see this? Behold your virtues! See how you will be judged!” But the poor sinner answered, “It is true, Satan, but you have not included everything, for you should have added here below, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all our sins, and you have also forgotten, Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Why do we need a good conscience?1. You cannot possibly get rid of your conscience, therefore be persuaded to get a good one. The unconverted do what they can to extinguish conscience. They flatter it with worldly reasoning, they bribe it with mock devotions, they wound it with heinous provocations, they scar it with habitual wickedness, they trample it underfoot by sinning in spite of it; they run away from it by diversions, and will not endure to hear it. Yet they can sooner turn their souls out of their bodies, than conscience out of their souls. Indeed, even amongst all these indignities, their conscience is as fresh and active as if it was not being abused in these ways. It is only waiting its opportunity to be heard, and then it will make what was done perhaps 40 years ago as if it had been but yesterday. A conscience you must have, and sooner or later it will do its job.
- Your own conscience will be either your best friend or your greatest enemy (of all created things), to eternity. There’s no greater riches, no greater pleasure, no greater safety than a good conscience. However great may be the pressures of the body, the hurry of the world, or the intimidations of Satan, they can’t reach the conscience. A good conscience uniquely cheers the dying body, joyfully accompanies the departed soul to God, and triumphantly brings both soul and body to the tribunal to come. There’s no more profitable means, nor surer testimony, nor more eminent conveyer of eternal happiness than a good conscience. On the other hand, there is no greater torment than an evil conscience. Though its gentler checks may be disregarded, its louder clamours will make you tremble. What will you do, when conscience shall reproach you with your abuse of mercies, incorrigibleness under judgements, contempt of Christ, and hatred of holiness? If you can’t endure to hear what conscience has to say now, how will you endure it to eternity?
How can we get a good conscience?But how shall we get such good consciences? Here are some suggestions.
Count no sin smallScrew up your obedience to every command to the highest. Ferret out every sin to the most secret corruption. When you have set your watch against the first risings of sin, beware of the borders of sin. Do not venture on temptations to sin, for you will find, like children on the ice, there’s always danger, never any good.
Repent immediatelyThere’s not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not, therefore, without delay, set about the healing duty of repentance, and on every slip into sin renew it, speedily renew it. If only I could snatch you out of your state of impenitency, and persuade you to daily actual repentance!
Compose yourself to live as under God’s eyeLive as in the (more than) tangible presence of the jealous God. Remember, all things are naked and bare before Him. You cannot deceive Him, for He is infinite wisdom; you cannot flee from Him, for He is every where; you cannot bribe Him, for He is righteousness itself. Keep therefore fresh realisations of God in your thoughts. Speak as knowing that God hears you. Walk as knowing that God is nearer to you than you are to yourself. Read through Psalm 139. Christians, do nothing but what you are willing that God should take notice of.
Be serious and frequent in the examination of your heart and lifeThis is so necessary to the getting and keeping of a right and peaceable conscience that it is impossible to have either without it. We have a thousand matters to think on all the day long, the night too, the week, the year — but who questions with his own heart, “What am I? what am I doing? how do I live? is the course I follow good and lawful? is that which I omit my duty, or not? Is God my friend? Am I His? What hope do have I of heaven? Say I die tomorrow, today, this very hour, where is my assurance I shall be saved? what reply can I make against the accusations of Satan and my conscience? will Christ be my advocate, when I shall stand in judgement? Have I grace, or have I none? do I grow in grace, or do I decay? Am I better this year than I was last year? what sins have I conquered now, that held me in combat then? what graces have I obtained now, that I did not have then?” Review each day whether your hearts have been intent upon religion, and indifferent to the world. Have special care of two portions, of your time, i.e., morning and evening — the morning to fore-think what ought to be done, and the evening to examine, whether you have done what you ought.
PrayBe much in prayer — in all manner of prayer, but especially in secret prayer. Do not dismiss your own appeal by the love of sin, and you shall certainly be heard when you pray for grace. Believe it, Christian, it’s not your inevitable weakness, nor the spiritual dullness you feel, nor your lamented rovings, nor your distractions, nor your mistaken unbelief — not any of these, nor all of them together, can shut out your prayer. If you do “not regard iniquity in your heart,” then be encouraged. It is the voice of your beloved that says, “Verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.”
Let every action have reference to your whole life, not only a partThe emphasis of the apostle’s exhortation is very great, “Exercise thyself unto godliness.” Let your whole life be a preparation for heaven, like an athlete’s preparation for victory. Strip yourself of all encumbrances, so that you may attend to piety. Pleasures may tickle you for a while, but they have a heart-aching farewell.
Live more on Christ then on the graces in youDo not venture to sin because Christ has purchased a pardon — that is a most horrible and impious abuse of Christ. For this very reason there was no sacrifice under the Old Testament law for wilful wickedness, lest people might think they knew the price of sin. But so that no one will be overwhelmed with the sense of their unworthiness, know that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and our salvation is better, safer, more for God’s glory, and our comfort, in His hand then in ours.
Be in every way nothing in your own eyesIt is the humble soul that thrives exceedingly, and alas! what do we have to be proud of? Whether you look at our constitution, or our conversation [lifestyle], our conception is sinful, our birth is penal, our life is toilsome, and our death we know not what. But all this is nothing to the state of our soul. A convert, when he comes to be conscious of sin at all, sees more cause to be weary of his life than proud of his graces. To rise and fall, to confess sin and commit it, to see others outrun us, when they set out after us, to recover the time for communion with God which we trifle away in unobserved trivialities — surely for such persons to be low and vile in their own eyes hardly deserves to be called humility! Use Agur’s words about himself (or some think they are Solomon’s), “Surely I am more brutish than any man. My knowledge of holy mysteries is very little, and in comparison with my ignorance, nothing.”
Think good thoughts of GodThink good thoughts of God, whatever He does with you, whatever He requires of you, whatever He lays on you. We never arrive to any holiness (or peace) worth mentioning, till we lose our selves in God. Once we can unriddle God’s methods of grace, and decode God’s methods of providence, getting a good spiritual use out of both, then we are not far from having a good conscience.
Yet there’s still one thing lacking, and it’s implied in thinking good thoughts of God, but it must be eminently expressed.
Do all you do out of love to GodSpiritual love-sickness is the soul’s healthiest state. When love to God is both cause, means, motive and end of all our activity in the business of religion, then the soul is on the wing towards its rest. Our love to other things is properly regulated when it is the goodness of God that moves us to love them. We ought to love God in such a way that with Him or under Him we love nothing else, but all things only in Him, because otherwise we do not love Him with our whole heart. When husbands love their wives, and wives their husbands — when parents love their children, and children their parents, it is a rare pitch to love all these in God, i.e., to advance our love to God by them, and so far as any of them draw away our love to God, to say to them, as Christ said to Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me.”
← How (not) to discern God’s willFour good responses to the good news →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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In the life of the church, if it isn’t scriptural, it’s probably superstitious – so how then can we identify a religious superstition?
Why is preparing for the Lord’s Supper such a serious duty?Not many people associate illness and death with being unprepared when participating in the Lord’s Supper. But that is exactly what Paul does when he reforms the communion services in Corinth. Not being suitably prepared, or worse still, not being really converted at all, and going ahead and participating in this blessed Christian ordinance, is a serious life and death issue for professing Christians. Believers everywhere are seriously cautioned against partaking “unworthily” which really means to be unprepared and to act unsuitably to the sacredness of the duty and privilege. The personal remedy involves serious self-examination.The following updated excerpt is from a sermon James Durham preached in Glasgow about preparation for the Lord’s Supper. Durham was himself converted at a Saturday preparation sermon preached in South Queensferry. Preaching to his own congregation years later from 1 Corinthians 11:29, “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body” Durham, paraphrased the text in striking terms. “You had need to look well to the examination of yourselves, for if you neglect or miscarry in that duty, your hazard and danger is dreadfully great through unworthy communicating. If you would escape, then make conscience narrowly and carefully to examine yourselves.”We cannot be ultimately accountable for others, any more than we can examine others. But if, like in Corinth, the Church comes under some spiritual judgement, there is encouragement here for those who sincerely examine themselves before participating, that they will personally escape the hazard. If not, they are sure to be affected in some way by the Lord’s chastisement of the Church. The special dignity and excellence of the Lord’s Supper is also a strong motive to the duty of self-examination. As Durham explains, communion with Christ in the Supper is the closest that His people come on earth to the communion they will enjoy with Him in heaven, and how then can we fail to approach His table with the greatest reverence and love?How is the Lord’s Supper uniquely solemn?In the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper there is a special eminence, excellence, dignity and worth. To put it another way, this ordinance is of a unique, solemn nature.
All the ordinances of the Lord are excellent. If all His works be excellent, then much more the gospel ordinances are a step above these. Yet the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper seems dignified with an eminence and excellence above them all.
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In reference to what it sets out and exhibits. They all set out love, but this sets out love in an eminent degree, for it sets forth the Lord’s death, where the most eminent step and degree of His love shines. In fact, this ordinance sets out His actual dying, and so sets out His love in its liveliest colours, and its great masterpiece.
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In reference to the excellent benefits communicated in it. It is true that, as to matter, it communicates only the same as what is communicated in the Word and baptism. Yet if we look at the words, “Take ye, eat ye, this is my body,” they hold out Christ Jesus not so much giving any particular gift, as actually conferring Himself in his death and suffering. The main scope of this ordinance is to confer Christ and all that is in Him to the believer.
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In reference to the manner in which our Lord Jesus makes Himself over to us. I don’t mean only the clearness of it (for in this ordinance there is the clearest view of a slain Saviour, and of covenanting with God, and often the most comfortable manifestations of love go along with it), but also that there is here a clear glance of heaven on earth. Jesus Christ and His people are mixing and being familiar together — He condescends not only to keep company with them, but to be their food and refreshment. He gives them not only the word to their faith, but himself (as it were) to their senses (in so far as the means by which He communicates Himself is more sense-able, although of course it is by His Spirit that the means is made effectual). The very firstfruits of heaven are communicated, as it were, to the very senses of the believer. “I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until that day I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26 29). He seems to point out a more special way of keeping communion with His people in this ordinance, in resemblance to that which He will have with them in heaven. This ordinance seals up a special union and communion between the head and members, a type of what there will be in heaven.
What more could Christ have given us?This lets us see how much we are obliged to Christ Jesus. What more could He have given than Himself? And what could have been invented, that could have more confirmed and warmed the hearts of His people than this, such a lively representation and commemoration of His blessed body?
Very likely we might come to discern His body better, if there we had a more high estimation of this ordinance. Not that there is any efficacy in the ordinance of itself to communicate grace, yet in view of the fact that it is Christ’s own institution, it is a most lively means of grace. There is not a circumstance in all the action but it is to be wondered at. It was instituted the same night He was betrayed, for example, and after the Passover, when the traitor Judas was going to bring the band of soldiers to take Him, and He warrants us to take it, and in it we have sweet communion amongst ourselves. Every thing in it ought to draw us to admire His sufferings, and the great love they came from, and their notable effects for us.
What frame of mind and heart should we have approaching it?All of this should stir us up to make the effort to be in a solemn, divine, heavenly frame of soul for such a solemn, divine, heavenly activity as this is. We should thoroughly examine ourselves, to see that all things are in good order, like to a bride who is going to be married tomorrow, trying on her wedding dress, and seeing that everything is just right.
Without going into detail, I will only point out in general what frame is called for from you ahead of participating in the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper.
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It should be how you would desire to be, if Christ was coming personally and visibly to marry you tomorrow. Consider what frame we would wish to be in, if we were to meet with Him, and clasp hands with Him personally and visibly. Pursue that kind of frame!
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It should what we would desire to have if we were about to die, when all earthly things will be insignificant and of little worth to us — if our eternal peace and happiness were depending on this critical point. That would be a night of making our will, and adjusting our accounts with God, and bringing things to a point between Him and us, so that our debts would not grow any greater, otherwise it would not be so easy for them to be discharged.
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It should be the kind of frame we would desire to be found in, if the day of judgement were to be tomorrow. How humble we would strive to be, how abstracted from the things of the present world, and how confirmed in the faith of God’s love, if the voice of the archangel and the last trumpet were sounding, and a solemn meeting of all before the tribunal of Christ was about to take place! What frame would you desire to be in, if that was the case? That is what you should strive to be in tonight — just as you would desire in that day. It will be a sting in many a conscience on that day, that they were so unconscientious about being in a suitable frame for this ordinance!
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It should be a heavenly and divine frame, because this is what a heavenly and divine action calls for. How abstracted your heart should be from the world, and from your carnal delights! How much your heart should be in heaven and conversant with God! What a pitch your communion with God should be raised to, in apprehending Him, and meditating on Him, and considering and admiring at the sufferings of Christ and the love they came from, and tasting that He is good, and even delighting and solacing yourselves in His love! This is what the Lord grants His people, when they go about the action of the ordinance humbly and reverently.
← The willingness of the Lord Jesus to be our RedeemerFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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When Jesus said He was delighted to come and do the Father’s will, what did this involve for Him?
Sometimes we need to put our own hearts under the microscope to verify our sincerity. What will help us to do this?
Life on earth for the Christian should be distinctively heavenly. What does this mean in practice?
Unpalatable as it may be, God deliberately ensures that the life of faith is not easy for us. Why is that still the best way for us?
Once a guilty conscience grasps the lifeline that Jesus offers, how does it change the way we view His grace?
When a friend struggles to interpret providence, understand themselves, and figure out what to do for the best, how would you advise?
How the happiness of heaven can make us happy hereThe sorrow that we feel when a believer dies is not a hopeless kind of sorrow, because we know they are now happy with the Lord. But heaven can seem very misty and distant to us as we trudge on in our own beleaguered lives. Even when we believe in Jesus and are washed from our sins in the blood of Christ, we do not always take the comfort that is available from all the implications and consequences of this. In the Bible, however, the amount of information Jesus gives us about heaven shows that if we can sharpen our focus and get a clearer grasp of where we are heading, then some of the happiness of heaven can infuse our lives here. James Durham’s commentary on the Book of Revelation includes his analysis of the various “steps” of happiness in heaven. As the following updated extract shows, not only is heaven a happy place, but it can give us happiness on earth too.
Those who are in heaven have come out of great tribulation. But the means of surviving to reach heaven is not their own innocence (for they needed washing), nor their own sufferings or works (for what made them white was “the blood of the Lamb”). It was by taking themselves only to Christ’s satisfaction that they attained this righteousness and the blessedness of heaven. Christ’s red blood can make blood-guilty souls white, it has such excellent virtue. While the rest of the world were worshipping idols, or following self-righteousness, these folk fled to Jesus Christ for refuge, and by His righteousness and satisfaction alone they are made white, pardoned of sin, and brought to heaven.
Their happiness in heaven is set out in these circumstances, or steps.
A happy placeThey are “before the throne of God” and “in His temple” (verse 15). They begin to be in this place in His Church on earth, by fellowship in His ordinances. But their position there is completed in heaven this is completed, when they are presented before God’s throne in glory.
A happy activityTheir service and work, and the uninterruptedness of it, are happy. “They serve Him night and day” (verse 15), and have their place among the angels that stand by (Zechariah 3), freed from selfishness and the body of death. They are not doing this service by fits and starts, but constantly, like the priests who took turns to spend night and day in the temple (Psalm 134:1). This is a special part of their happiness – that the enmity which is in them now against the service of God, is then taken away, and their delight in His service is not marred. What a privilege they have! They need no priest, nor any intervening means to help them serve. What constancy they have! There is no intermission in their service, no whoring from God, but they do the will of God cheerfully and delightsomely.
A happy companyA third step of their happy condition is that they enjoy God’s company. “He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them” (verse 15). They are not at a distance from God, nor is He at a distance from them. He makes Himself familiarly known to them, and there is no intermission of their sense and joy in His presence. They do not have communion with God on and off, but He shall constantly and fully manifest Himself as dwelling in the same house with them, and they are in His company for ever.
A happy freedomAnother step of their happiness is that they have freedom from all crosses and natural defects and infirmities, and attacks from others. There is neither hunger nor thirst, nor scorching heat of the sun. That means no persecution, if we take it figuratively (as Matthew 13), or if we take it literally, no disturbance of the air or bad weather or anything hurtful to the body. Not only are there no sinful defects in heaven – there are no sinless defects either. Hunger, cold, weariness – there is nothing of that sort in heaven, nothing to temper their happiness or impair their blessedness, not the least upset from their natural infirmity internally, nor anything externally by annoyance of even the weather.
A happy receiving of the care of the LambThe main step of their happiness, which is the great reason for all the rest, and serves to confirm it all, is, “the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them …” (verse 17). The Lamb, Jesus Christ Himself, who is God on the throne, equal to the Father – His care over them will have no lack, but will supply all good.
For one thing, He shall feed them. This includes all the care over them and tenderness to them that is in Him. It also takes in all provision needful for their well-being, in providing for them, and feasting them, and keeping an eye on them so that they will come to no hurt, like a shepherd does with his flock (Psalm 23). He Himself will take them in His special guiding, without any ordinances or any ministers intervening.
For another thing, He shall feed them in the most excellent pastures, not puddles or streams, and not just any fountain, but “living fountains of waters,” which never dry up, and are able to quench all thirst, and cool all heat. Earthly consolations are only static cisterns, or streams at best, but at His right hand is fullness of joy, and pleasures for ever more (Psalm 16). They are fountains full of diversity and abundance of consolations, and they are inexhaustible.
Indeed, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (verse 17). God will put an end to all their misery. There shall be neither sigh nor tear there, nor cause of tears. Though in their life they were never without tears on their cheeks, yet no sooner shall they enter heaven, but God’s presence and a glimpse of His favour shall wipe them away so that they will never stick there any more, or be seen there again. There is nobody in the happy company in heaven who either actually weeps or has reason to weep or sorrow for ever.
How can this make us happy on earth?God’s people, especially in difficult times, should be acquainting themselves with the happiness of glory. This is why the Lord goes to such pains to make it known, and reveal it, and put it on display. The Lord stirs up John, and other believers, to look at it and to believe it and to comfort themselves by it. Believing it will prevent us from fainting, insofar as heaven will make an end of all our difficulties. Believing it will help us to submit to what comes our way here, because that time of happiness is coming. And believing it will make our lives lively and comfortable. We can go empty-handed for the time being, when we can comfort ourselves with the happiness of heaven ahead of us.
If those who are in heaven are those who have “come out of tribulation,” then we can reason that tribulations, and even great tribulations, are the way to glory even for those whom God loves most. Jesus Christ Himself drank of the brook by the way (Psalm 110:7), and was made low before He was exalted. His members follow their Head in a conformity of suffering (Romans 8:28–29; Acts 14:22). Suffering would not seem so grim and terrible-like if we had a better realisation of what comes on the back of it. Let none of us think the worse of glory, or think that the happiness of God’s people is of less worth, because tribulations are in the way to it. Neither let anyone prize an easy life in this world with God’s curse.
Those who are in heaven have “washed their garments in the blood of the Lamb who came through tribulation.” Those who are most righteous, whether in active obedience (keeping the law) or in passive obedience (yielding their bodies to be burnt), have need of Christ’s satisfaction to make them white. These worthies kept themselves free from the pollutions of their time and shunned no suffering, but that was not the basis on which they appeared before God. Holiness is good, but when we seek to appear before God, we must seek to be found in Christ (Philippians 3:9). No merit of ours can bring us through either temporal or spiritual judgments. We get through by the washing of our garments in Christ’s blood.
What can we do to bring the happiness of heaven into our lives now?* Labour to reach clarity on your right and your part to the happiness of heaven (that is, through Christ, by faith), and long to experience it. * Back up your longings with endeavours to reach it. I fear sometimes that many of us, when we breathe our last, will realise that we mostly looked on heaven as if it was just a story. * Mortify your members which are upon the earth (Colossians 3:5). What are all your idols when laid in the balance against the happiness of heaven? What happiness can be compared with enjoying God? * Use the expectation of this future happiness to comfort yourself, if you have fled to Christ for refuge. Supposing you are in tribulation now, there is a time coming when you will get out of it. Supposing a body of death troubles you now, and needs, oppression, poverty, hunger, nakedness, etc., disadvantage you, yet when you come to heaven you will be troubled with none of these things. None are poor there, all are rich. None are naked, all are clothed with white robes. None are hungry, all are feasted and well fed. * Seeing all this happiness comes through being washed in the Lamb’s blood, think much of believing! Make that knot sure, because that is what heaven hangs on. Loose that knot, and heaven will fall away from you. Make sure your calling and election, and seek to know that it is sure and beyond question.
Seeing this happiness is ahead, aim to make a good beginning in in it now. How can we do this?
- By serving God, and by holiness ceasing from sin. Those who serve God most uninterruptedly here have the closest resemblance to heaven.
- By enjoying God’s company. We can’t do this un-mediatedly, like they do in heaven, but we can do it by faith in Him, and by His Spirit in us, and by having our life lifted up to Him (Colossians 3:1–2).
- By being in Christ’s flock, under His care and tuition, fed by Him, and led by Him, and feeding on Him, and yielding ourselves up to Him.
- By having a contentedness with our situation in the world, as He is pleased to carve it out to us, learning in every state to be content (Philippians 4) in the enjoying of God and Christ’s care of us.
- By being weaned in our affections away from carnal and worldly pleasures, not indulging in these or thirsting for them.
- In a word, by striving to reach a greater length of holiness, and endeavouring to have fuller communion with God.
Lord, make us serious in seeking these things!
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Why We Should Embrace Jesus Without HesitationJohn Welsh was in real earnest when he pled with his hearers and urged them fervently to unite with the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. The text of his sermon was Isaiah’s description of the Saviour suffering, bleeding, dying for sinners. “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). This is not a Saviour to despise – this is the glorious Redeemer conquering sin and death by suffering and dying. The only hope of a sinner is to embrace Him by faith on account of His work on the cross. The following updated extract from John Welsh’s sermon, where he draws out the urgency of believing in Christ for salvation and the many incentives we have for doing so.How should we receive Christ?What way we are to close with a suffering Christ?
First, you must do it timeously. You must close with him instantly. At this very moment you must close with him. You must not stop to ponder what He has done for you, and what He has suffered for you, and how that is that you are made partakers of the benefits that He has purchased by His sufferings.
Secondly, you must close with Him deliberately. You may not do it in a sudden fit. A sudden dash at it will not do the turn. It must be a resolved business, after serious deliberation. So you must do it both instantly and advisedly, and the reason is, because I know that if you do not do it resolutely and deliberately, you are taking the best way to fall back again, and to turn your backs on Him when you meet with the cross.
Thirdly, as you must close with Christ deliberately, so you must not take him by halfs. You must take all Christ, as He offers Himself. He makes offer of Himself to be a king, and to be a priest, and to be a prophet, and you must take him for justification, and for sanctification. You must take him for a physician, and for a husband, to be a guide, to be a saviour and to be a redeemer – to be all things that you stand in need of.
And then, fourthly, you must close with Him cheerfully. You must close with whole Christ, with your whole soul. The whole soul must give its consent. You must not close with Him with your conscience only, and with your affections only, but you must close with Him with your whole soul.
On what terms should we embrace Christ?And then the next thing is the terms upon which you are called to close with Him. I shall give you these two or three words that set out the terms.
The first you will see in Isaiah 55:7: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
You see another in Hosea 3:3: “Thou shalt abide for me for many days: thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another: so also will I be for thee.” You must abide for Him for many days; you must not turn to other lovers, but you must say that you are wedded to Him as your husband, and you must prefer Him above all others.
And then thirdly, you must close with His cross. If you are going to close with Him, you must take Him and His cross. O sirs! You must take Him and His cross. If any resolve to close with Him, you must also resolve to take Him with His cross, and to follow Him whithersoever He goeth, and to sell all, that you may follow Him. These are the terms in Psalm 45:10: “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thy own people, and thy father’s house; so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty.”
What are some motives for uniting with Christ?The next thing that I am to speak to is the motives which we want you to be pressed with to close with Christ.
To receive peace and healingMaybe this would be a reason to move you to close with him – the great benefits that He has purchased to those who will close with Him, i.e., both peace and healing.
If this does not prevail with you, I don’t know what will. O sirs, shall I go away and leave you this day? Dear friends, I do not leave you until I have pressed on you these motives to close with Jesus Christ. I long to bring you to close with Him, for you shall get both peace and healing in time, and peace after time.
You will get peace with God, and peace with your own consciences. You will get peace to your own souls, perfect peace. That one shall be kept in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Him, and why? Because He has purchased that to those who close with him.
Poor backslidden sinners, who are ashamed of your backslidings, and hard hearted sinners, who are ashamed of your hard heartedness, will you come to Him? Will you close with Jesus Christ, and take what He has purchased with these wounds? If you would come and close with Him ye shall get healing.
To avoid being rebels against GodHere is another motive. As you would not want to be found traitors and rebels against the great God of heaven, you must close with Christ on pain of rebellion. “This is his command, that ye believe on the only begotten Son of God.” He commands, and therefore we command and charge you in His name, to close with Jesus Christ, on pain of eternal damnation, on pain of being found disobeyers of the gospel, and on pain of all the punishments that shall otherwise come upon you.
To give satisfaction to ChristClose with Him, also, because He is a God who is greatly satisfied to have the benefits that He has purchased applied to sinners. He is greatly satisfied to have sinners making application of these benefits by closing with Him. If you want to give Him satisfaction for His benefits, and if you care about pleasing Him who is offering them, this is the way to satisfy Him, to close with Him.
To be responsive to all the calls you are gettingMany things call you to close with Him. You are called by your frequent sick-beds, whether sickness in your own persons, or sickness in your families. Also plenty other things are calling you too. The mercies of God are calling you. The judgements of God are calling you, and the torments of hell. You own unbelieving, sinful hearts are calling you, and your backslidden hearts. What then? Will you not give up your lusts and close with Him, and embrace Him? The angels are calling you, for they rejoice at the conversion of one soul. And you have the devil by all his temptations calling you. You have all these many calls to close with this suffering Lord Jesus Christ.
To be welcomed by HimWhy else should you close with Him? Because He takes it as a great proof of your sincerity, even when once you begin to say, “My Lord and my God.”
To honour the blood of the covenantClose with Him then, as you do not want to be found guilty of trampling underfoot the blood of the covenant, and counting it an unholy thing. It is the very blood by which sinners are to be saved.
← How far reaching is the commandment to believe?FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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How far reaching is the commandment to believe?It’s pleasing to God that we believe in Jesus Christ. It’s also the only way to obtain eternal life. Something that’s so much in our interest is also what God presses us to do – not just by giving us the basic information about the Lord Jesus but both inviting and commanding us to come to Him for life. According to John, “This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment” (1 John 3:23). What does this actually involve though? In the following updated extract from a sermon on this text, Hugh Binning explains how far-reaching this commandment is. It takes in all of God’s commands, and it views them as broken by sinners, fulfilled by Christ, and obeyed by believers.The Lord both invites and commands us to believePeople have different temperaments. Some who cannot be constrained by fear may be persuaded by love. With some a request will more prevail than a command. Others again are only emboldened by love and condescension, and therefore they must be restrained with authority.
In the administration of the gospel, the Lord accommodates Himself to people’s diverse dispositions.
God sometimes stoops down to invite and affectionately beseech sinners to come to His Son for life. He has prepared a marriage and banquet for us in Christ. He has made all things ready for receiving guests and for eating, and He sends His servants to entreat and invite to this wedding those who have no bread and clothing, and are poor and lame. He gives a hearty invitation to all who stand at an infinite distance from Him, and so are feeding on empty vanities outside of Him, to come and enjoy the riches of His grace, which runs as a river in Christ between these two golden banks, the pardon of sin, and the purification of our soul from its pollution.
And He comes yet lower, to request and plead with poor sinners, as if He could have advantage by it. He does not refuse to be a supplicant at any one’s door, to beseech him to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:14, 19, 20). As if we could do Him a favour, He requests us most earnestly. Truly it is strange that this does not melt the heart, and make it fall down into the belief and obedience of the truth!
But because the heart of man is desperately wicked, and is now become stubborn and froward, like a wild ass, or as a swift dromedary traversing her ways, therefore the Lord also gives out his royal statute, backed with majesty and authority. “This is his command.” He hedges in our way with threatenings as well as promises annexed to the commandment: “He that believeth has everlasting life, but he that believeth not is condemned already, and shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
Truly it is a wonder that there should be any need either of an invitation, or a request, or a command, or a threatening. Why should we need to be invited, or requested, or commanded, or threatened to accept our own happiness? Might not a bare and simple proposal of Jesus Christ, His nature and offices, and of the redemption and salvation purchased by Him, suffice? What more should be needed, but to declare to us that we are lost and utterly undone by nature, and that there is a refuge and remedy provided in Christ? We would seek no other persuasion to go and dig for a treasure of gold, beyond someone showing us where it is hidden. How strange is the rebellious and perverse disposition of man’s heart!
In the text, this command of believing in Jesus is comprehensive, because it takes in all precepts, under a threefold consideration. It takes them all in (1) as broken and transgressed by men, (2) as fulfilled by Christ, and also (3) as a rule of righteousness, according to which the believer ought to walk.
Believe that we have broken all God’s commandmentsThe command to believe in Christ first of all means that a sinner should examine himself according to the law of God. We should lay out our whole life and course, our heart and ways, before the perfect and holy commandments. We should stop our own mouth with shame and silence, and find ourselves guilty before God.
Some speak of the work of the law as being preparatory to the gospel. But I conceive it would be more fitly expressed if it was put like this instead – that one of the essential ingredients in the bosom of believing, is that all sinners acknowledge their sin and misery, and discern their own abounding iniquity and danger of perishing by it, how guilty they are before God, and how subject to his judgment, that so finding themselves undone, they may have recourse to a Saviour.
Truly the Spirit’s work is to convince of sin, and then of righteousness, and when we are commanded to believe, the first part of our believing is crediting the law, and the justice and righteousness of God against us, and then believing and acknowledging the gospel. “Ye believe in God, believe also in me.” But it only breeds misapprehensions, when the law is seen as a condition without which we shall not be welcome to the gospel. Truly, I think, both are proposed as essentials of saving faith; not in such a way as one procures a warrant to the other, but only in an order that is suitable to any reasonable nature, and that is all. In other words, conviction of sin is only required of you because fleeing for refuge to a Saviour is a rational action which necessarily includes the sense of misery without Him. But the sense of sin and misery is not a thing which you should go about to prepare, so as to fit yourselves for a greater welcome at Christ’s hand.
Here it is easy to understand how the command of believing belongs to all who hear it, even the vilest and grossest sinners, who are yet stout-hearted, hard-hearted, and far from righteousness (Isa. 46:12), those who are spending their money for that which is not bread, and their labour for that which satisfies not, and those whose hearts are uncircumcised, and their lives profane. The commandment of coming to the Son and believing on Him for life, is extended to them all. All are invited, requested, commanded, and threatened to this duty. All are instructed to believe in Christ, that is, out of a sense of their own lost estate, to embrace a Saviour for righteousness and strength.
Neither is there any fear that people can come too soon to Christ. We need not set down exclusions, for if they are not conscious of sin and misery, they will certainly not come to Him at all. The command that enjoins them to believe on the Son, requires them also to believe that they are lost without him. If even the most presumptuous sinners would once give obedience to this commandment, really there would be no fear of presumption in coming to Jesus too soon.
A sense of sin is not set as a porter, to keep out any who are willing to come in, but rather to open the door, and constrain those who are unwilling to enter in, so that if the least measure of the sense of sin can do this, we are not to wait till we have more, but to come to the Prince exalted to get remission of sins, and more true gospel sorrow which worketh repentance unto salvation from dead works. You should not therefore understand any promises in the scriptures as if there were any conditions set down to exclude any from coming, who are willing to come. The promises only declare the nature and manner of what they are invited to, so that no one may misunderstand what it is to believe, and take their own empty presumptions or fancies, which embolden them to sin more, for that true faith which is full of good fruits.
Believe that Jesus Christ has kept all God’s commandmentsOnce anyone has acknowledged the guilt and curse of all the commandments by believing the law, they also look on the Son, Jesus Christ, and find the law fulfilled, the curse removed, all satisfied in Him. Then you find all the commandments obeyed in Christ’s person, all the wrath due for the breach of the commandments quenched by His sufferings. And you give a cheerful and cordial approbation of all this.
We should rest on Christ’s obedience and suffering as that which pacifies the Father’s wrath to the full. This is what gives the answer of a good conscience, and pacifies every penitent soul, and secures their title to heaven. This presents God with a full atonement and obedience to all the law, and He accepts this from a believer as if it were the believer’s own.
Faith takes in its arms, as it were, in one bundle, all the precepts and curses, and gives them over to Christ, putting them in His able hand, and then takes them all, as satisfied and fulfilled by Him, and holds them up in one bundle to the Father.
Believe that all God’s commandments direct us how to liveSo, thirdly, believing on the Son includes all the commandments again, this time as the rule of walking and the mark to aim at. Finding such a perfect exoneration of bygones in Christ and standing in such favour with God, the soul is sweetly constrained to love and delight in the divine laws. And truly this is the natural result of faith.
I want you to rightly observe this conjunction, that what is inseparably knit with faith is love to God and others, delight to do His will, to love Him, and live to Him. Do not deceive yourselves with vain words. If you do not find the smartness of the gospel and the doctrine of grace laying this restraint on your heart, you are yet in your sins. This is the reasoning of a believing soul: “Shall I, who am dead unto sin, live any longer therein? Shall I not delight in those commandments, when Christ hath delivered me from the curse of the law?” The believer may fall, and come short, yet the pressure of their heart is that way inclined.
But then observe the order. You must first believe on the Son, and then love him, and live to Him. You must first flee to His righteousness, and then the righteousness of the law shall be wrought in you. Therefore do not weary yourselves to no purpose. Do not wrong your own souls by seeking to reverse this order, which was established for your joy and salvation. Know that you must first meet with satisfaction in all the commands of Christ, before obedience to any of them be accepted, and having met with that, know that the sincere endeavour of your soul, and the affectionate impulse of your heart to your duty, is accepted.
If you then find yourselves afterwards oppressed with guilt and an inadequate walk, know that the way is to begin at this again, to believe in the Son. This is the round you must walk, as long as you are in the body. When you are defiled, run into the fountain, and when you are washed, study to keep your garments clean, but if defiled again, get your hearts washed from wickedness. “These things,” says John, “I write to you, that ye (who believe) sin not,” but if any sin who desire not to transgress, you have a propitiation for the sins of the whole world.
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Celebrating the enthronement of King JesusSaturday 6th June saw the coronation of Charles III as King of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, in a ceremony which included anointment, public acclamation and enthronement. These core components of the ceremony can be traced over a thousand years for English kings, and stretch back further still in our heritage to the coronation of King Solomon. A prominent theme in the coronation service is that the King of kings is the Lord Jesus Christ, whom all monarchs are called to reflect, and to whom all must give account. In the Bible, several psalms are written to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ when He is enthroned as king over all. In the following updated extract, David Dickson comments on the kingdom of Christ from Psalm 97.A kingdom full of joy, majesty and righteousnessThe psalmist proclaims Christ king among the Gentiles, and commends His kingdom to them as full of joy, full of majesty, and full of righteousness.
Besides the sovereignty which God has over all people, He has a special kingdom, in which He reigns by the gospel of Jesus Christ. “The Lord reigneth!” (verse 1) The coming of this kingdom makes available comfort against all grief from sin or misery, and gives true reasons for joy and full blessedness. “Let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of isles be glad” (verse 1).
However insignificant Christ’s kingdom may seem to the world, yet it is full of heavenly majesty. The glory of Christ’s kingdom is unsearchable, and hidden from the eyes of the world, who are unable to perceive the things of God unless He reveals Himself to them and opens their understanding. “Clouds and darkness are round about him” (verse 2).
Christ’s kingdom gives no liberty to sin. It is altogether for “righteousness and judgment” (verse 2). There, righteousness is taught to sinners, and sinners are made righteous, and kept in the way of righteousness, and rewarded according to their righteousness.
A kingdom that vanquishes its enemiesAfter the psalmist has set out how comforting Christ is to His subjects, he shows how terrible He is to His enemies. Even though the kingdom of Christ is a kingdom for righteousness, and a fountain of joy to all who receive Him, yet He does not lack enemies. When He gave the law at Sinai, “fire went before him.” But more, not less, wrath attends those who despise the gospel, and Christ will consume all His adversaries. “A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about” (verse 3), however many there are, and however completely they surround His little flock.
There is no match between Christ and His adversaries. “His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw and trembled. The hills melted at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth” (verse 4–5). However great monarchs they may be, they cannot stand before His presence. Eventually, His judgments on the enemies of the church, and His blessings on the church, shall be so evident that onlookers will be forced to acknowledge God in them. “All the people shall see his glory” (verse 6). Those who serve graven images are reckoned as enemies to God and to Christ (verse 7). God will not have the worship that people want to give Him by serving or worshipping Him in, at, or before images. He wants to be served is by a direct and immediate worship, without the mediation or intervening of anything which may intercept His worship. “Worship him!” (verse 7)
A kingdom to be glad inAll true worshippers can take comfort. God’s wrath against idolaters is certain, and they have clear evidence of Christ’s supremacy over all created things.
Whether you think of the church collectively as “Zion” the mother, or in her particular branches, “the daughters of Judah” (verse 8), they have the same reasons for joy, and the same source of up-building – by God’s word and works of judgment. The manifestation of the gospel of Christ is the exaltation of God, and the manifestation of His excellency. As we grieve when it is dishonoured, so we should have joy when its glory is displayed. The joy of all the saints is, “for thou, Lord, art high above all the earth, thou art exalted far above all gods” (verse 9).
A kingdom to be holy inBelievers, the true worshippers of God, are here referred to as “ye that love the Lord” (verse 10). The love of God must be joined with, and manifested by, the pursuit of a holy life. We must not only abstain from, but hate and abhor, what is sinful.
Perhaps hating evil and loving God will readily make you subject to malice and persecution from the wicked, yet the godly will have their souls saved. Eventually they will be fully delivered from the harm which Satan and the wicked intend to bring on the godly for their godliness. The Lord “preserveth the souls of his saints: he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked” (verse 10).
The complete fruit of their righteousness will not be in their possession immediately however. It is like something “sown” (verse 11), and it takes time for the corn that is sown to spring up and come to a ripe harvest. Yet the Lord sees the heart. If by faith in Christ we have purified our hearts to the unfeigned pursuit of holiness, we are righteous in God’s sight, even if we have many infirmities, and even if we have periods of grief and interruption of joy. Yet eventually there will be a full harvest of gladness. “Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart” (verse 11).
A kingdom to thankfully confess inWhatever our condition in life is, we are exhorted, “Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness” (verse 12). Whatever tribulation the faithful may have in the world, there are reasons for joy in the Lord, and they should make conscience of this commandment to rejoice in the Lord.
Whatever can be taken from the godly, their right and part in Christ can never be taken from them, and so there is reason to give thanks for this gift for ever. “Give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness,” or, “Confess to the remembrance of his holiness” (verse 12). That is, acknowledge to His glory the benefit which you have by being a subject of this king. Whatever work or word of Christ brings us to remember His name, it should also bring us to consider and remember His holiness, the untainted glory of all His attributes – wisdom, justice, goodness, power, mercy, truth, etc – and the untainted glory of His word, works and purchase to us.
Image source: Royal Collection Trust
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What can I tell my friends about Jesus?In a recent study of what people in the UK think about Jesus, it was found that following a conversation with a practicing Christian, around a third of non-Christians said they wanted to know more about Jesus, felt more positive towards Jesus, and were open to an encounter with Jesus. This seems to reflect a growing openness towards hearing about Jesus from Christians compared to previous findings, perhaps reflecting the upheavals and uncertainties of the last couple of years. So what would we most of all want our non-Christian friends to know about Jesus? Samuel Rutherford had no doubts about the attractiveness of Jesus to sinners, even people who thought they had no use for Him in their lives. In the following updated extract, Rutherford describes some of the wonder of Jesus as the Saviour. More than bare facts and doctrines, Rutherford is gripped with the beauty and loveliness of Christ, the eternal Son of God. Jesus has such a powerful magnetic influence that once He gives someone a glimpse of Himself, they can’t help but be drawn to Him for salvation. What then are some of these glimpses we want people to see?Jesus Christ has a unique aptitude for drawing sinners to Himself.
Jesus is the RedeemerThe Father is not the Redeemer, nor is the Holy Spirit, but Jesus Christ is in person the Lord Redeemer. In the deep of God’s wisdom, the Son was thought fittest to make sons (Gal. 4:4). As Lord Saviour, Christ is a fit person to rescue captives, and to draw them into the state of sonship. I do not say this in a way that excludes the other two persons of the Trinity, for the Father draws sinners to the Son (John 6:44), and the Spirit of grace is a special agent in the work of conversion. But Christ is personally the one who draws sinners, and God works all plans He designed in heaven by Christ. It is Christ who brings many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10).
Jesus is the MediatorChrist’s role is to be a congregating and uniting Mediator (Col. 1:20). He reunites heaven and earth. He is our peace (Eph. 2:14), the Shepherd who gathers in one the sons of God (John 11:52). By the merit of His blood He makes sinners legally one with God. He is Emmanuel, God with us. We were banished out of paradise, but the Son was sent out to bring in the out-law sons.
Jesus embodies God’s mercy to sinnersIn Christ, God has laid down (so to speak) His compassion, mercy, and gentleness to sinners. In His person and work, Christ has taken away infinite wrath, and satisfied divine justice. God nowhere has so much mercy, graciousness, kindness, tender compassion to sinners and such a sea of love, as in the Lord Jesus. O but He is a most lovely, desirable, compassionate God in Christ!
The sinner finds all that God can have in him, or do for saving, in the Mediator Christ. Nothing can come out of God to the sinner, except through Christ. There is no golden pipe, no channel but this. All God, and whole God, is in Christ, and all God as communicable to the creature. If only God was seen in His lovelyness, His beauty would be strong ropes to draw hell itself up to heaven. Love, grace, mercy, are uniting attributes in God, attributes which solder or fuse things permanently together. These essential attributes that are in one person of the Trinity are in all three persons of the Trinity, yet the mediatorial manifestation of love, grace, and free mercy is only in the Son. Christ is the treasury, store-house, and repository of the free goodness and mercy of the Godhead. As the sea is a congregation of waters, so Christ is a confluence of these lovely and attractive attributes that are in the Godhead.
Jesus reflects God’s beauty to sinnersChrist is the face of God (2 Cor. 4:6). The beauty and loveliness of the person, and much of their majesty and glory, is in the face. So the beauty and majesty and glory of God is manifested in Christ. He is the brightness of the Father’s glory (Heb. 1:3); the Father is as it were all sun, Christ the Son is the substantial rays, light-shining, the eternal and essential radiating of this sun of glory. The sun’s glory is manifested to the world in the light and beams that it sends out to the world, and if the sun kept its beams within itself, we would see nothing of its beauty and glory. No man or angel could see anything of God, if He had not had a consubstantial Son, begotten of himself by an eternal generation. But Christ is the beams, and the splendour, and the shining (but the consubstantial shining) of the Father. As God incarate Christ reveals the excellency, glory, and beauty of God.
Christ is the drawing loveliness of God. If you see a creature’s beauty, or a man’s face, you see the creature itself and the man himself. That’s what Christ says to Philip (John 14:9). “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. I am as like the Father, as God is like Himself; there is a perfect, indivisible, essential unity between the Father and me. I and the Father are one; one very God; He the begetter, I the begotten.”
So you see that God has pledged all His beauty, His loveliness, and His attractive virtue in Christ, the lodestone of heaven. Wisdom is a fair, lovely, and alluring beauty. Well, Christ is the essential wisdom of God. If ever your eyes once fastened on that dainty lovely thing Christ, that eternal, infinite flower and lily that sprang out of the essence and beautiful nature of God, with eternal, infinite greenness, beauty, fragrance, vigour, life, never to fade, that essential wisdom and substantial Word – if ever your eyes once fell on Him in a vision of glory, it would be un-possible to take your eyes off Him again! Such attractive rays and visual lines of lovely beauty and glory would come from His face to your eyes, and such darts of love into your understanding, heart, and affection, that you would be captivated by His glory for ever and ever.
Jesus came as close as He possibly could to sinnersThen there is so much warmness of heart, and such a fire of love, such a stock of free grace, so wide, so tender, so large a heart of mercy and compassion toward sinners, that He had to put Himself into such a posture of mercy that would most conveniently allow Him to get a strong pull of sinners to draw them – a large and wide handful, His arms full of sinners.
How? He had to be a man for us, to get all the organs of lovely drawing sinners to Him. He got Himself a human heart to love humans, human bowels to compassionate humans, human hands to touch the leper’s skin, a human mouth and tongue to pray for humans, to preach to humans, and in our nature to publish the everlasting gospel, human legs to be the good shepherd to walk over mountain and wilderness to seek and to save lost sheep; a human soul to sigh and groan for humans; human eyes to weep for sinners.
To lay down His life for His poor friends, He became a created clay-tent of free grace, a shop and a warehouse of compassion towards us. He borrowed the womb of a sinner to be born, He sucked the breasts of a woman who needed a Saviour, He ate and drank with sinners and publicans, He came to seek and to save lost sinners, He was numbered with sinners, He died between two sinners, He made His grave with sinners, He borrowed a sinner’s tomb to be buried in.
And now He keeps up the old relationship with sinners, even now that He is in heaven. Honour has not changed Him, He has not forgotten His old friends. “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). In heaven Christ cannot now sigh, but He can feel sighing, He cannot weep, but He has a man’s heart to compassionate our weeping, in such a way as is suitable to His glorified condition. The head is in heaven, but He has left His heart in earth with sinners: that Comforter, His Holy Spirit, who He has sent to abide with us.
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The what, how and when of a pacified conscienceThe New Testament gives us a picture of believers as people who have the kind of relationship with the Lord where they can freely go to Him, still with an awareness of their sin, but with the freeness and confidence that comes from a clear awareness of the power of the blood of Christ to wash their sin away. How can we come to share that freedom and confidence? What can be done about our guiltiness, and our sense of guilt? It’s all about the conscience. A clear, calm conscience comes from not simply registering our sins but also registering the effects of Christ’s atoning, justifying blood for us. James Durham preached a sermon on Hebrews 10:22, “Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” In the following updated extract he explains the nature of this privilege of being able to draw near to God in full assurance of faith, as well as how and when we can (and should) do so.The conscience of a person un-reconciled to God is mighty and fearsome, a terrible pursuer, ready to seize on him. It is a dreadful thing to be exposed to God’s wrath, and to the challenges, accusations, throes and pangs of a conscience that has a quarrel against you, when you have nothing with which to answer its accusations.
Yet the efficacy of Christ’s blood is such that it is able to purge the conscience of whoever flees to it, and to fence and guard him against the wrath of God, and the challenges and accusations of his own conscience, God’s deputy. Once conscience has no just ground to pursue, so it cannot, and it will not, pursue him as God’s enemy. There is an efficacy in the blood of Jesus Christ to purge and pacify the conscience of the person who in good earnest has believing recourse to it – that is, I say, when he actually makes recourse to that blood, and when it is actually applied and made use of, by faith.
What can we expect for our conscience when we go to the blood of Christ?What can a conscience-troubled sinner expect, by fleeing to the blood of Christ? God’s rich and liberal allowance to that person is, you can draw near to Him with full assurance of faith. You may come to Him with confidence and boldness, as a Father, in all your worship and appeals.
The meaning is not that the sinner fleeing to this blood has no reason for humility, or repentance for sin, and no accusations of conscience. Nor does drawing near with full assurance of faith remove the holy awe and filial reverence which is due to God, and which is not only fully consistent with this full assurance of faith, but inseparable from it.
It does, however, mean that as believers whose consciences have been sprinkled with the blood of Christ, we can expect these things.
- We may boldly go to God in prayer, as if our friendship with Him in Adam had never been broken (v19). The blood of the covenant makes our relationship to Him as our Father as near, intimate, kindly, firm, and sure as Adam’s was pre-Fall, with considerable added advantages.
- We may make use of the promises (– pardon of sin, sanctification, support in affliction, quickening, peace, comfort, etc.) according to need, with confidence. The believer may draw near with full assurance of the faith of God’s faithfulness to perform them, in His own measure, manner and time.
- Heaven, eternal life, and glory, and indeed all things contained in the promises.
- Full and thorough publication of pardon and justification before the tribunal of God at the day of judgement. ‘Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies, who is he that condemneth?’
How can we obtain this privilege?How may we attain this unspeakably excellent privilege of ‘drawing near with full assurance of faith,’ with holy boldness and confidence to obtain all these great things? The answer is in the words a little before, ‘… by the blood of Jesus …’ This assumes that we are fleeing to Christ for the satisfying of divine justice, and that we are applying to Him for purging, pacifying and satisfying the conscience.
Whatever is necessary and requisite in the application of Christ’s righteousness for making our peace with God, the same is needful to attain calmness, tranquillity and peace in the conscience. What is that? See Romans 4:5: ‘To him that worketh not, but believeth on him who justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.’
When you join this with the words in the text, it tells us that the way to peace and calmness of conscience is as follows. First, you are not to evade or refuse your debt, but to acknowledge it. Second, you are to renounce and disclaim all possibility of satisfying divine justice yourself. And thirdly, you are to flee to Jesus Christ, and through virtue of His satisfaction and blood, and the covenant of His grace, to rest on Him for pardon. You are ‘to believe on Him (although you are in some way ungodly) who justifieth the ungodly.’ This is the basis for peace with God, and should quiet the conscience.
But when the sinner has done this, if the conscience is still not quieted and calmed, three further things are necessary.
Actually renewing your application to ChristThis is not so much to get a new pardon, as a new extract of the same pardon which you received in your first fleeing to Christ. When someone has fled to Christ, and is at peace with God, if they do not have peace in their conscience, they are to take a renewed look at the promise, and to act faith anew on Christ’s blood – to display it to their conscience, acknowledging their sin, yet holding still by it the fact that they have fled to Christ, and on that ground making use of the promise for the renewed pardon of sin through His blood.
In this sense faith is called a ‘shield’ (Eph. 6:16). When the accusation is thrown in on the conscience, it burns like a fiery or poisoned dart. But faith goes to the fountain of Christ’s blood – to the covenant and promises – and out of these wells of salvation draws bucketfuls to quench the fiery dart. Faith makes the believer say, ‘I cannot make satisfaction for this sin, but here is a promise of pardon to those who have fled (as I have) to Christ and to the blood of sprinkling.’
Reasoning from solid gospel truthsYet accusations are not soon or easily removed, nor the conscience calmed, and so there is need of continuing in the fight, and of drawing conclusions from solid and undeniable premises.
This is what Paul does. Someone might have said, “You’ve been complaining of a body of death, and saying that with your flesh you serve the law of sin. Is not that a grievous accusation against you?” “It is true,” he would reply. “But there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1–2). That is making use of the shield of faith! To put the matter beyond doubt, he goes on and draws the conclusion, “I, by faith, have fled to Christ for refuge, and therefore there is no condemnation to me.”
Indeed, whenever challenges come in from sense and/or conscience, and are fanned by temptation, it is needful to reason from the grounds of faith, to ward off the blow and quiet the conscience. This is a reflex act of faith. It does not justify, yet it serves to reason the conscience into peace and calmness.
Bringing comfort to yourself by believingReasoning from solid gospel truths will ward off the force and bitterness of challenges, but that is not enough to thoroughly calm and settle the soul. It is also needful that the soul actively draws in peace and consolation to itself by believing. This, as Paul says, “is able to guard the heart and mind through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4). In Psalm 51, David is not labouring only to get his conscience calmed, but for it to be actually filled with consolation. The promises themselves are often somewhat insipid and tasteless (if I may put it like that) when they are not seasoned and enlivened by God’s voice going along with them, and putting flavour and life in them. This is “the voice of joy and gladness” which David is so eager to hear.
When should we use this freedom?What are the times or situations when the believer may and ought in a special manner to make use of his liberty and boldness to “draw near with full assurance of faith”? Undoubtedly, there is no situation where a believer may not aim at this. But more especially we should, in situations like the following.
When you have fallen into more gross guilt, as David had (Psalm 51).
When that gross guilt and grievous sinning is accompanied with great aggravations. In Psalm 51, David’s sin was aggravated mightily and yet he makes application to Christ over all that guilt and all these aggravations of his guilt.
When through folly you have relapsed in sin. I don’t say this to give a liberty to sin, God forbid, but to the commendation of God’s free grace, and of the worth and efficacy of Christ’s blood, and for the encouragement of lost sinners who would love to reach through to Christ for pardon and peace. As long as the blood of Christ has efficacy and worth, and as far as the promise extends itself, so long and so far the believer’s faith may reach to come with boldness and confidence.
When accusations are lively and very sharp – indeed, when they are sharpest and most piercing. Supposing these accusations were like so many troops of horsemen rushing in on him, and the conscience was like a lion rampant, standing with its claws ready to tear, the believer may and should (humbly acknowledging guilt) step forward confidently, and apply the blood of sprinkling. When did David made his most earnest and humbly-confident request to God for the joy of his salvation? When blood-guiltiness was staring him in the face, and when his very bones were broken, and when to his own sense, his grace was very much gone, and when he had (as is were) forfeited his right to consolation. That’s when he comes forward and draws near to God, on the grounds of grace.
When you find, to the great grief of your soul, you are exceedingly indisposed to duty – when your praying, repenting, hearing, etc., are not what you would like them to be. David prays not only for consolation but also for the lively exercise of grace, “Create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me, and uphold me with thy free Spirit.” It is without doubt a very damaging mistake for troubled sinners to think that first they must have a good spiritual frame and lively grace before they venture to draw near to God with confidence. I grant these are very desirable, and the desire for them is very commendable, yet if David had stuck at that in Psalm 51, he might have remained unwashed all his days. But, knowing the way of God’s grace, David steps humbly yet confidently forward in the exercise of faith over the sense of guiltiness and all its aggravations, over relapsing in sin, over indisposition, and over many sharp accusations (all granted, and lamented over) and makes all these together just so many reasons to go to God.
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Feeding the sheep means loving the sheepPastors are commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ to care for the spiritual welfare of the flock. Yet pastors are themselves fallen and frail sinners, with many disappointing missteps in their past. When they have themselves slipped up so badly so many times, can Jesus really have any more use for them in His ministry? Looking at the case of Peter, George Hutcheson says that restoration after a terrible fall is difficult, yet certainly possible. In the following updated exposition of John 21, Hutcheson shows how Christ’s prime requirement in His ministers is that they love His flock, the little lambs and older sheep who He loves and wants fed. The love of a restored believer for Christ does not erase the memory of their painful falls, but the memory of what they have been rescued from gives shape and depth to their love for Christ and His people as they move forward in humble service.In John 21:15–17, on profession of his love to Christ, Peter is restored to and confirmed in his apostolic office which he had forfeited by his foul and gross fall. Christ’s threefold question about Peter’s love is only intended to draw out a threefold answer from Peter, so that his professed repentance would be as frequent as his denial. Consequently, we are not to look on Christ’s threefold injunction to Peter as three distinct commands requiring diverse things, but only as one command three times repeated.
Restoration to ministry is difficultIn general, this teaches that apostacy and denial of Christ, though even out of weakness in a time of strait, is full of hazard. It brings disciples to a loss not easily recovered. Peter, by reason of his fall, needs a kind of restitution, and a confirmation anew in his office and dignity.
At the same time, when Christ puts His people on service, and calls for evidences of their love to him, He first goes before them with proofs of Himself – His power, love and care – in order to engage them to their duty. His enquiry about Peter’s love, and His engaging him to service, was not till after He had given proof of Himself by the miracle, “when they had dined,” and after their bodies were refreshed by Him.
Love is essential in the servants of ChristChrist’s question to Peter, and the triple way of propounding it, teaches that love to Christ is the Christian’s badge. Anyone who deserts that standard is a runaway. This is what Christ tests Peter by: “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”
Ministers who are called to take charge of Christ’s children and flock need much love to Him. No service they may offer can be approved, if instead of flowing from love to Christ, it is undertaken for some hidden agenda. Nor, without this love, is there any possibility of enduring the many blasts they will meet with in their calling, or the much toil they will have, even with and from the flock itself. The inquiry, “Lovest thou me?” is premised as a needful qualification for discharging the trust committed to the minister.
Yet whatever love for Christ people may warrantably claim to have, it does not allow them to swell in their own eyes because of it, or because of any dignity conferred on them as those who love Christ. Saints, in their repenting for their failings, should look back to the low estate from which Christ has raised them, so that they will see all the more clearly their ingratitude, in back-sliding or forsaking Him. That is why He guards all these questions with this designation, “Simon” (not “Peter,” the name He gave him; John 1:42), and “son of Jonas,” a poor fisherman. It is so that Peter, as he professes his repentance and renewed love, will let his heart be affected with thoughts of the low estate from where he was exalted, and to which Christ might justly debase him again, and leave him as He found him, “Simon, son of Jonas.” In professing his love, and embracing this charge, he should still remember his origins.
Our love should not exclude but be enhanced by the memory of what we have doneThe sense of the Lord’s people’s backslidings should be a whet-stone to sharpen their love to Christ, and to make them not content to return to a formal way of profession after their foul slips, but to move forward with a new edge on them, to recover their losses, and prevent falling again in a similar way in the future. This is why Christ enquires particularly at Peter, “Lovest thou me?” because if he has been truly recovered, he ought to be eminent in love, and have it more deeply rooted in his heart, partly so that he will not slide again, and partly in testimony of his sense of Christ’s kindness, who looked on him after his fall.
True repentance should, and will, not only be sincere and real, but just as eminent in its effects as the sinner’s fall was. Peter’s threefold profession of love to Christ corresponds to his threefold denial of Christ.
Those who have fallen grossly in the time of temptation, and have through mercy been recovered again, should still be suspicious of themselves, as having grossly given the lie to their former professions. Christ wants for Peter not to easily trust himself, considering what big claims he had made before, when he gone and fallen so badly.
Christ initially puts the question in comparative terms. “Lovest thou me more than these?” That is, “more than any of the rest love me?” He is not so much saying that someone who has fallen and been restored should strive to out-strip the next one in the grace of love. Rather He wants Peter to reflect on his former conceit of himself, and his unique undertaking (Matt. 26:33), and maybe also his recent forwardness in coming out of the ship (John 21:7) and testing whether, because of that, he would boast of any unique love to Him. And so, with the offer of accepting his sincere love, and calling for it, He rips up Peter’s former conceit of himself.
This teaches us, partly, that the evil of a saint’s apostasies and defections will never be thoroughly cured by any returning out of one particular evil course, unless the fountain, cause and root of their evils is cured, and continually abhorred and watched over. Christ presents Peter with what had occasioned his former fall, to see what he thinks of it, and if it continued with him. Partly too it teaches us that Christ allows His people to season their bitter thoughts of their own evils with the offer of His love and acceptance of what is good and sincere in them. He propounds this indirect challenge in such a way that He also guards it with an offer of His present acceptance of Peter’s love.
Peter modestly declines in his answer to make any comparisons. So in the second and third questions, Christ omits the comparison, and puts the question simply, “Lovest thou me?” He covers and passes by infirmities when He sees us convinced of them.
The connection between restoration, humility and loveWe need not curiously distinguish between the different Greek words that Peter uses in his answers to Christ’s questions, signifying greater and lesser degrees of love. If any distinction should be made between these expressions, the fact that Christ uses both shows us that He takes notice of, and is willing to accept of, lesser degrees of sincere love as well as greater. He interrogates concerning both, implying (a) that He will accept either, and also (b) that those who are sober and dare not profess an eminent measure of love to Christ still need to examine if they are sincere and real even in the weaker degree they profess.
Whatever the exact signification of these words, yet there are several things we may learn from Peter’s answers.
- It is very possible for fallen saints to recover their feet, and attain to love again.
- Someone who truly loves Christ may humbly avow his love before Him as often as He enquires about it. “Yea, Lord, I love thee.”
- If we sincerely love Christ, our falls will teach us sobriety, and not to boast of ourselves above others. Peter makes no comparisons in answer to Christ’s first question, but simply ranks himself among those who do love Him.
- Those who want to prove themselves to truly love Christ must not only satisfy themselves in the matter, but should appeal to His knowledge, and be sure that He knows and approves of them as such. “Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.”
- Those who want to approve themselves to Christ should think of Him as knowing all things, and remember that therefore He will not be deceived with performances. “Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.”
- Our sight of the grace of God in us, after our back-slidings, should be joined with the sense of our falling. When Peter was grieved, Christ puts him in mind of how his former sliding had justly rendered him suspect, so that the awareness of this would accompany his profession of love.
Service includes the memory of what we have doneChrist commissions Peter, repeating it three times. Christ is able to make good use of saints who fell foully in a time of temptation, and can raise them up again, to do Him eminent service in their generation. Fallen Peter is again entrusted with the charge of Christ’s sheep and lambs.
The moment a saint loves Christ, Christ extends that love to all His people, so that anyone who truly loves Him will show kindness to them. As soon as Peter professes love to Christ, He directs him, “Feed my lambs.” A great evidence of reality of love to Christ is to have a care of Christ’s lambs.
Ministers ought to think of Christ’s people as very seriously recommended to them, and therefore they should very seriously mind their work for them. The threefold charge signalled this for Peter.
Those who want to be faithful in a ministerial charge ought to look on the people of their charge as really Christ’s people, and people who Christ is in a close relationship with. Christ calls them “My lambs, my sheep.” These people are loved by Christ, committed to the minister’s charge by Christ, and Christ wants the minister to win them to Christ.
Ministers ought to keep in mind the variety of personalities, and degrees of strength, which are in the people committed to their charge, so they may interact with them and care for them accordingly. There are both weaker lambs, and stronger sheep. Remember Isaiah 40:10–11, “Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand …. he shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.”
Feeding is a major part of the minister’s work. Ministers are to feed Christ’s people with sound and wholesome doctrine, and to dispense it in such a way that reaches the capacity of the weakest. Christ’s first command is to give food, and specifically to the lambs.
Yet it is not sufficient that ministers be able to feed the people in their charge unless they also govern and rule them, and do every other duty of a good shepherd unto them. And even the strongest ought to subject themselves to this government. In Christ’s second repetition of the charge the word is different from the previous one, “Feed, or govern, and play the shepherd, and that even for the sheep.”
Not even the strongest believers will ever come to a time when they have reached such a height of perfection and sanctity that they have out-grown Christ’s ordinances, which include the ministry. Ministers are obliged to deal with them accordingly. In the third repetition of the charge, Christ goes back to the word He first used, “Feed, or provide food,” and that even to “my sheep,” as well as to lambs.
← Four Ways To Keep Your Conscience UneasyFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Four Ways To Keep Your Conscience UneasyOur sense that we’ve done something wrong (or indeed something virtuous) is the voice of conscience. An uneasy conscience is a very troubling thing. Whatever else is going well for us, when our conscience niggles and prickles, we cannot be at peace. The epistle to the Hebrews tackles the problem that we have an ‘evil conscience’ (Hebrews 10:22) and that our conscience needs to be ‘purged’ (Hebrews 9:14). The gospel has a solution to a defiled and accusing conscience. Peace of conscience is one of the key benefits that Jesus Christ can give us. However, in a sermon on these two verses in Hebrews, James Durham takes the time to identify four ways that people can temporarily buy themselves some suppression of the voice of conscience. He shows in the following updated extract that a conscience that goes quiet – but not because it’s been purged by the atoning blood of Christ – is a very dangerous thing.In Hebrews 9 and 10, the apostle’s purpose is to commend the transcendent worth and matchless excellency of Jesus Christ, and the incomparable efficacy of his most precious blood. He does this on the basis of this noble, notable, and unique effect of it, i.e., that when nothing else can allay the storm of an evil conscience, nor purge it from defilement, this blood can do it effectually, when applied by faith.
There is nothing that Christians should more aim at, and endeavour more to practice, than to follow the way by which they may get their consciences purged. All the more so for those who have had their consciences defiled all over again, after they were previously purged.
Observe from Hebrews 10:22 that a conscience which is not purged by the blood of Christ is a very evil thing.
The unpurged conscience is either awakened or asleep, and this is bad both ways. If it is awakened, and the terrors of God are freshly felt by it, who can express the terribleness of this? A wrath-wounded spirit, or a bad conscience roused by the terrors of the Almighty God, who can bear? But if an unpurged conscience is silent and asleep, it is in some respect worse, for it has this dreadful awakening ahead of it. The longer it sleeps, all the more terrible will be the awakening. No one can fully represent to you the exceeding terribleness of the terror of an evil conscience, when awakened by the wrath of God pursuing a quarrel with the soul. Do not allow yourselves to be so deluded as to think that a silent and stupid conscience is a good conscience, in no danger!
Observe too that though all are by nature have an unpurged conscience, yet in the covenant of grace, God has laid down a way how sinners may get their consciences purged.
The apostle’s argument here is that when the blood of Jesus is applied to the conscience, it successfully gives the conscience a real purging from sin, just as really and successfully as those who were ceremonially unclean were given access to ceremonial church-privileges by the ceremonial sacrifices and washings. Legally, as to the removing of the guilt of sin (and as to having peace with God and in your own conscience), the conscience is purged in such a way that sin cannot stand in the way of you expecting God’s favour. Though you are a debtor, yet there is a way laid down in the Gospel covenant to declare you free from the debt. If it is said, “How can you, how dare you come to God with such confidence, when you have an evil conscience through so much sin?” The apostle answers, “Let us come, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” As to a confident approaching to God, and application of Christ’s righteousness, those who have made application of the blood of sprinkling may come to God with as much holy and humble boldness as if their conscience had never been defiled and polluted.
Observe thirdly that the only way to have a defiled conscience cleansed is by the blood of Christ. There is no other way.
It is not the blood of bulls, or of calves, or any one, or all of those ceremonial sacrifices or washings that can do the business. God appointed many means of ceremonial purgation, yet they could never have cleansed the conscience. It’s only the blood of Jesus that has this effect. Nothing but the blood of Christ can satisfy God’s justice, and remove the quarrel betwixt Him and the guilty sinner. Till God is satisfied, the conscience cannot be quiet; seeing then that nothing can satisfy God’s justice but Christ’s blood, nothing can purge and satisfy the conscience but Christ’s blood. If it is said, “Who will lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” the conscience will answer, “I have many things to lay to their charge!” until that sweet word is spoken, “It is Christ who shed his blood.” Never till then will conscience be quiet.
There are four ways that people take, for cleansing and purging the conscience, which are all (if there be no more) ineffectual for achieving the real purging and solid satisfaction of the conscience, which you should be aware of.
- DiversionSome endeavour to divert their conscience, and to seek a suspension of its pursuing the quarrel against them, claiming some other absorbing business. When Felix found himself beginning to tremble at the apostle’s searching and powerful discourse, he sought a suspension from it for a time, saying to the apostle (and to his conscience), “Go thy way for this time, and I will call for thee when I have a convenient season” (Acts 24).
Similarly, when some have some fit of conscience, they go to some light-hearted friend, or to some game to drive it away, or possibly they drink it down. Their friend helps them to laugh it off, and banish that depressive fit, and so to bring the person to get rid of this trouble of his conscience as a silly fancy, and as if it were for their good to do so. Very frequently, when people cannot endure to converse with their disquieted conscience, they labour to quash and quench any exercise that begins in it.
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ResolutionsAnother way is also too common, and that is by seeking quieten conscience by something other than the blood of Christ. Some under terrible convictions will promise and vow that, if they drank excessively before, they will do so no more, and they will not go to this tavern or spend time in that company for such and such long time. Some will vow not to eat meat on a certain day of the week throughout their whole life; they will, it may be, vow to be more religious. But all along, they are still the same old carnal people they always were, because they did not aim single-mindedly at peace with God through Christ’s blood, but only for the time being to pacify their conscience.
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CompensationSome seek to compensate the conscience. They will do some penance. Or they will pray, and try to weep tears in prayer. They will force themselves to mourn, they will give something regular donations to the poor, they will set themselves to amend things for the future. Yet the defilement of conscience lies there still unremoved, because they never betook themselves to the right fountain to wash. I do not condemn you or dissuade you from doing these duties, which are good in themselves, because commanded by God, but you must not rest on them. You must put a difference between founding your peace on them, and founding your peace on the blood of Christ applied to the conscience by faith. Please do not seek to bribe your conscience like this!
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DiscussionSome people go and discuss their situation with exercised Christians, describing their situation to them to get some ease in their conscience. Now, this is good and commendable in itself, and when it is done rightly. Discussing things with godly believers may through God’s blessing do good, if it helps us to go to the fountain of Christ’s blood and wash there. But we are at fault when we try to get our consciences quieted by what people say, while we are not making recourse to the blood of Christ by faith. We must not use Christian discussion as the way to peace when we are doing nothing about how the justice of God can be satisfied. If we have a sense of sin and guilt in our conscience, our first work should be to take ourselves to Christ and the blood of sprinkling. Unless we are actually fleeing to Christ and to His blood, then words of comfort and advice spoken to us, either in public or private, are null and void as far as bringing us any advantage.
ConclusionSo we see that when nothing can pacify an evil and defiled conscience, nor purge it from dead works, yet the application of the blood of Christ by faith can and will purge that conscience, and give it such peace and quietness with holy and humble confidence and boldness in coming and drawing near to God, as if in some respect it had never been defiled by these dead works of sin.
The apostle insists on these two things.
The sufficiency of Christ’s blood as the price that satisfies God’s justice and quiets the conscience. When the conscience gets this blood applied to it by faith, it has no ground to seek any further satisfaction, as if something was left owing. Christ’s blood, as a full and condign price, satisfies for all the debt. “The blood of Christ shall purge your conscience from dead works.”
And the resulting confidence a believer has for going to God. Someone who has fled to Jesus Christ after committing sin, and has actually applied His blood to their conscience, may have quietness of conscience and may go to God with boldness and confidence. This is one of the rarest pearls and richest jewels of the gospel – one of the most excellent privileges of a believer – and one of the noblest and most notable epxressions and evidences of the grace of God – and indeed the great proof of the reality and efficacy of the satisfaction of our blessed Lord Jesus. When the conscience of the poor believer is confounded, and put on the rack with so many accusations about their sin, they may apply Christ’s blood, and on that basis have sweet peace and tranquillity of soul.
← Stepping towards assuranceFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Stepping towards assuranceJesus once raised the alarming possibility that some people who claim to be on good terms with Him are actually complete strangers to Him. We do not want to be in the position of thinking we have a relationship with God when in reality it is only one-sided, not reciprocated on His side. But David’s confidence was not misplaced when he said, “God hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure …” (2 Samuel 23:5). How does the Holy Spirit lead us to have an equally well-grounded assurance that we are one of the Lord’s people? In the following updated extract, Alexander Wedderburn identifies some of the steps that the Holy Spirit takes with us.What is the way and method by which Christians can be able to say, “The Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant”? How does the Spirit bring them to this?
I will offer these steps by which the Spirit customarily brings the elect to affirm it as confidently as David does, in fact when he was dying, which was not time to dissemble. How does the Spirit bring the elect to this ground of assurance, to be able to affirm that God has made the covenant with them?
I confess, it’s a great privilege, and if it is your privilege, you have a great charter – the promises of this life, and of that which is to come. A little time will show this to be no fancy, but something surer than the covenant with the sun and the moon.
The Holy Spirit removes self-confidenceOrdinarily before the Holy Spirit brings the Lord’s people up to be assured that the Lord has made a covenant with them, He takes down their natural assurance. It’s like someone who has to build on an old foundation, and finds it rotten, and thinks it best to take it down to the bottom before he can build the new foundation.
Often in the beginning of the Spirit’s working, a person can readily give no account of the Spirit’s working, neither what He has done with the old foundation, nor the new. If I ask you your case, you can readily give no account. You dare not build on the old foundation, and you dare not say that you have a new work. This is very frequently a step in the way in which the Spirit brings the soul to say, “The Lord hath made with me a covenant.” They can neither build on the old ground, nor dare they say they have a new ground. This ordinarily has a tendency to clarify that someone does have a share in the covenant. They don’t know what to say, they are so confused, the Spirit has taken away the old ground, but for all they know, the Spirit has not yet laid any new foundation. That case looks likely to be the beginning, which will come to some day in the week when you will say, “The Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant.”
The Holy Spirit assists ordinary diligenceWhere the Spirit is leading, so as to clarify that someone is in a personal covenant with God, ordinarily He prompts them to duty, and assists all diligence.
We are not to expect assurance with raptures of joy and consolation and delight in God. Many a time we are like the Syrian leper who said, “I thought he would have come out, and called on his God, and laid his hand on the place!” We think that, except we get a remarkable elevation of peace and joy in prayer, we can never have peace. But we must not limit the Lord. If He takes that way, all well and good. But the ordinary way He uses is simply that He helps us at prayer, and stirs us up to delight in Him. Or another time, He withdraws Himself, and makes the desertion your burden; for the complaint at His absence may be as sweet a mark as the pleasure of His presence; the heart that complains of His absence may have their assurance confirmed, as well those who enjoy His presence.
Now when the Holy Spirit has pulled down the old rotten wall (– although possibly He has not yet brought the new structure above ground), yet He is assisting you in prayer, in believing, in repentance, in mortification of lusts – then He is about to bring you to say, “The Lord hath made with me a covenant.” It’s near the break of the day, it’s not far from the dawn. He who has helped you to diligence is not far from bringing your consolation. Even though it may seem to be the darkest time of the night, yet if the Spirit is helping you at duty, and bearing you up in your situation, the day is near breaking with you.
The Holy Spirit gives recognisable characteristicsThe Spirit also guides us to assurance by giving us true marks that God has made a covenant with us. A person may say, “I have made the covenant with Him, and have vowed and promised and subscribed with my hand, but how do I know if He has made a covenant with me?” Here I shall enquire what the sure marks are, by which an individual may analyse whether God has made the covenant particularly with them.
The business is not so difficult to know, if you are diligent, and not a hypocrite, playing the cheat in your religion, but conforming your heart to the gospel, and wrestling with all the nonconformities of your heart. I have searched the opinions of many, how to come to reciprocal marks, i.e., how to know if He has made a covenant with us when we think we have made a covenant with Him. There have been so many fine distinctions and strong objections raised about these marks, that theologians add in so many restrictions and limitations that it’s difficult to give a reciprocal mark on which a Christian may rest. However, I will offer you the three things on which I lay the greatest weight myself.
Habitual preference for Christ’s prioritiesRichard Baxter has often repeated this mark: a habitual preferring of Christ’s interests to the interests of the flesh. That is indeed a great mark that God has made a covenant with you, when you habitually prefer Christ’s interests to all the interests of the flesh.
To elaborate.
When God enters into covenant with a person, they take up sin as an enemy. They hate it as an enemy. They have joined in league with the opposing forces. They identify sin, especially presumptuous sin, as an enemy, and treat it accordingly. They avoid any company that may bring temptations to it, for they have made a league with its greatest enemy, Christ. Shortly after Paul became a convert, he says, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?” He was angry at the very existence of sin, and could not tolerate even the smell of it, whatever the sin may be – not only presumptuous and gross sins and neglects of duty. If you have entered into covenant with God, you have broken the covenant with death and hell. It gives you good ground to say, “The Lord has made a covenant with me,” if you take up sin as an enemy, and deal with it accordingly.
Also, the soul goes against sin as an enemy unitedly. The understanding says, “I should leave this sin.” The conscience says, “I will leave this sin.” The will and affections say, “Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity, for I have kept the commandments of my God.” They turn that sin out of doors. If your understanding, will, conscience and affections unite against sin as an enemy, you may be sure you can say, “The Lord hath made with me a covenant.” The bargain must be driven by both parties. So if you have grown complacent, and neglect duty, and treat sin as a friend, perhaps you may say, “I have made a covenant with the Lord,” but you cannot say, “The Lord has made with me an everlasting covenant.”
Pursuit of holinessThose who have made a personal covenant with the Lord, and He with them, have a second mark – they follow the design of the covenant, which is holiness. “Having these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord” (2 Cor. 7:1).
Therefore, look to the holiness of your heart and life. Someone may make the claim, “I am holy in my desires, and holy in my delights, I have a holy joy, and a holy peace,” but if they do not have a holy walk, that person cannot readily say, “The Lord hath made with me a covenant.” He may have made a covenant with God, but he cannot say, “God hath made a covenant with me.”
Besides, not only must there be holiness be in the life and in the heart, but we must be careful to prefer the design of the covenant to all other things. What if the Lord was to give you the offer that He made to Solomon at Gibeon, “Ask of me riches, or honour (and the many things He named), and I will give it to thee”? As Solomon preferred wisdom to them all, so someone who is in covenant with God would prefer holiness to anything that God could offer.
It’s worth noticing Psalm 119:111: “Thy testimonies have I chosen as an heritage for ever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.” What did he choose? God’s “testimonies,” which is a general word. It’s not only “Thy promises,” but “Thy testimonies,” which includes God’s commands. And what did he choose them for? “My heritage.” Why did he choose them? “For they are the rejoicing of my heart.” “Whatever I encounter, I get no true joy from it, and so I have chosen God’s testimonies; it is exclusively God’s testimonies that rejoice my heart.”
So the way to ascertain whether God has made the covenant with you, is, if you have come to see sin as the enemy, and deal with it accordingly, and if you have taken holiness, not only in your heart and life, but as your choice for your heritage, because it rejoices your heart.
Experience of covenant blessingsThirdly, you may know if God has made the covenant with you, by the fact that He accomplishes the covenant in your experience.
If He has begun to fulfil the covenant, then certainly He has made the covenant with you. Experience is a notable ratification of the promise. Those who believe have a witness within them that Christ is the Son of God – they have the Spirit within them, and none can send the Spirit but the Son of God. Take a view of the promises, and sort them, so that you may go to some specific promise when you encounter challenges, or come into deadness and desertion. It’s a dreadful thing when all the Bible is alike to us, and when we do not have some passages of the Bible that we may say of them, “These are my scriptures.”
Go and charge your heart and conscience, “See thou tell me nothing but the truth.” If these marks do not correspond with your characteristics, then whatever you say of making a covenant with God, I defy you to say, “God hath made a covenant with me.”
← Can you by searching find out God?FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Can you by searching find out God?God is beyond us. However much we think we know about Him, He is an inexhaustible, unfathomable depth. He is not an object for us to scrutinise, or a challenge we can absorb, or something malleable which we can mould into a form of our own liking. Our basic starting point when we think of God is to realise that our minds simply cannot encompass Him. Yet He is knowable, when He makes Himself known. And when He makes Himself known, the knowledge of Him makes us not only realise our own littleness but also entrust ourselves to Him to be saved by Him and to live to His honour. These points are made by Hugh Binning in the following updated extract, where Binning reflects on God’s eternity and incomprehensibleness before insisting on the practical consequences for sinners like us coming to truly know God.God is the unbeginning alpha and the unending omegaThis is properly to be, and only this deserves the name of being – that which never was nothing, and never shall be nothing, which may always say, “I am.”
Man is, but look a little backward, and he was not, you shall find his beginning: and step a little forward, and he shall not be, you shall find his end. But God is alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.
But who can retire so far backward as to apprehend a beginning, or go such a leap forward as to conceive an end in a being who is the beginning and end of all things, but without all beginning and end? Whose understanding does it not confound? We cannot imagine a being, but we must first conceive it as nothing and in some instant receiving its being. Therefore, canst thou by searching find out God?
A man’s imagination may extend to suppose to itself as many thousands of years before the beginning of time as have been so far. Then let all the angels and people of all generations from the beginning be employed in nothing but calculating this. And then suppose a product to be made of all their individual sums of years. It would be vast and unspeakable, but yet your imagination could reach further. You could multiply that great sum as often into itself as there are units in it. Now, when you have done all this, you are never a whit nearer the days of the Ancient of Days. Suppose then this was the only activity of humans and angels throughout all eternity, all this marvellous arithmetic would not amount to the least shadow of the countenance of Him who is from everlasting. All that huge product of all the multiplications of humans and angels has no proportion to that never beginning and never ending duration.
Our lives are fleetingly briefBut O, where shall a soul find itself here? It is enclosed between infiniteness before and infiniteness behind, between two everlastings. Whichever way it turns, there is no outgoing, whichever way it looks, it must lose itself in an infiniteness round about it.
Though we vainly please ourselves in the number of our years, and the extent of our life, yet the truth is, we are still only losing as much of our being and time as passes. First we lose our childhood, then we lose our adulthood, and then we leave our old age behind us also, and there is no more before us.
But though days and years are in a continual flux about Him, and they carry us down with their force, yet He abides the same for ever. He is the beginning without any beginning, the end without an end, there is nothing past to him, and nothing to come. He is all, before all, after all, and in all. He beholds out of the exalted and supereminent tower of eternity all the successions and changes of the creatures, and there is no succession, no change in His knowledge, as in ours. He is never driven to any consultation on any emergent or incident. He is in one mind, and who can turn Him?
The being of God is beyond usNow, canst thou by searching find out God? If mortal creatures cannot attain the measure of what is finite, O then, what can a creature do, what can a creature know, about Him who is infinite, and the maker of all these things? You cannot compass the sea and land, and how then can you comprehend Him who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? (Isa. 40:10). You cannot measure the circumference of the heavens, and how then can you find out Him who metes out the heavens with His span and stretches them out as a curtain? (Isa. 40:12, 22).
Canst thou by searching find Him out? And yet you must search Him, not so much out of curiosity to know what He is (for He dwells in inaccessible light which no man hath seen, nor can see; 1 Tim. 6:16), or to find what we cannot know when we have found – not so much to find Him, as to be found of Him. But though you never find Him out, yet you shall not seek Him in vain, for you shall find blessedness in Him.
This all means that we must seek GodWhat shall we then do? Seek him, and search him indeed! If we cannot know Him [through and through], we must reverence, fear and adore what we do know. Enough of Him may be known as may teach us our duty and show us our blessedness.
Let then all our inquiries of Him have special reference to this purpose, that we may out of love and fear of such a glorious and good God, worship and serve Him, and compose ourselves according to His will, and wholly to His pleasure. Whatever you know of God, it is but a vain speculation, and a work of curiosity, if it does not lead to this end, to frame and fashion your soul to union and communion with Him in love. Whatever you know of God, it is but vain speculation if it does not reveal yourself to yourself in such a way that in the light of God’s glorious majesty you distinctly see your own darkness and deadness and utter impotency.
The angels that Isaiah saw attending God in the temple cannot behold His glory, but must cover their face with their wings from the radiant and shining brightness of His majesty. Yet they have two other wings to fly with. Being composed in reverence and fear to God, they are ready to execute His commands willingly and swiftly. What then does Isaiah make of this glorious sight? “We are all unclean, people and pastor.” The glory of God shining on Isaiah does not pull him up into arrogance and conceit of the knowledge of such profound mysteries, but he is more abased in himself by it.
So it was with Job. “I heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear,” he said (Job 42:5), “but as long as it was hearsay, I thought myself something; I often reflected upon myself and my actions with a kind of complacency. But now since I have seen Thee by the seeing of the eye, I abhor myself in dust and ashes. Self-love made me loathe other people’s sins more than my own, and self-love covered my own sins from me, presenting me to myself in a feigned likeness. But now I see myself in my true shape. Thy light has pierced into my soul, and I cannot endure to look at myself.”
Here is the true knowledge of God’s majesty: it exposes within you a mystery of iniquity. Here is real knowledge of God: it abases all things beside God, not only notionally, but in affection. This knowledge attracts and unites your soul to God, and draws it away from yourself and all created things. Knowledge falsely so called is what puffs us up, but true knowledge empties a soul of itself, and humbles the soul in itself, so that it may be full of God.
Finding God has concrete practical effects in our lifeThis then is the first property of saving knowledge of God: it removes all ground of vain confidence (so that a soul cannot trust to itself), and then its real, proper intent is to bring the soul to trust in God, and depend on Him in all things.
For this purpose the Lord has called Himself by so many names in Scripture, corresponding to our various needs and difficulties. It is so that He would make known to us how all-sufficient He is, so that we would turn our eyes and hearts towards Him. This was His intention behind revealing this name, “I am” – it was so that Moses would have a support for his faith. If Moses had looked at the outward appearances of things, was it not almost a ridiculous thing to go to the king with such a message, that he would dismiss so many subjects? Was it not the attempt of some madman to think of leading so many thousands into another nation? “Well,” says the Lord, “I am: I who give all things a being, will give a being to my promise; I will make Pharaoh hearken, and the people obey.”
What is there that this name of God does not match? If He is what He is, then He can make of us what He pleases. If our souls had this name “I AM” constantly engraved on our hearts, O what power the divine promises and threatenings would have with us! “I, even I, am he that comforteth thee,” He says. If we believed that it really was He, the Lord Jehovah, how we would be comforted! How we would praise Him by His name JAH! How we would stoop before Him, and submit to His blessed will!
If we believed this, would we not be as dependent on Him as if we had no being in ourselves? Would we not make Him our habitation and dwelling-place? Would we not be reassured about our own stability, and the stability of His church, from His unvariable eternity (like the psalmist in Psalm 90 and Psalm 102)? How can we think of such a fountain-being, without at the same time acknowledging ourselves to be shadows of His goodness, and acknowledging that we owe to Him what we are, and so consecrating ourselves to His glory? How can we consider such a self-being, independent, and creating goodness, without having some desire to cleave to Him, and some confidence to trust in Him?
In sum, whatever you hear or know of God, realise that it is vain and empty unless it descends down into your heart to fashion it to fear and love Him, and unless it extends to your outward behaviour to conform it to obedience. “You are but vain in your imaginations, and your foolish hearts are darkened, while when you know God you glorify him not as God.” If glorifying God is not the fruit and end of your knowledge, that knowledge shall be worse to you than ignorance, for it both brings on judicial hardening here, and will be your solemn accuser and witness against you hereafter (Rom. 1:21, 24). The knowledge of Jesus Christ, truly so called, is neither barren nor unfruitful, for out of its root and sap springs humility, confidence in God, patience in tribulations, meekness in provocations, and temperance and sobriety in lawful things (2 Pet. 1:5–8).
← Knowing the unknowable GodFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Knowing the unknowable GodWhen we think of God, it is alarmingly easy to fall into the trap of thinking that God is just another kind of creature – of course the best and greatest and most impressive in whatever dimension you consider, but ultimately just another creature. This line of thinking is something we should resist, because God is altogether other. He is in reality completely beyond us and above us, a different order of being entirely. We can truly know Him, but in order for this to be possible He has to accommodate Himself to us and make Himself known to us in ways that we can grasp. Hugh Binning highlights and underlines God’s transcendence in the following updated extract. He uses God’s self-description, “I AM THAT I AM,” as the basis for emphasising from various points of view that we must at all points maintain in our minds the distinction between the Creator and the creature, between God and everything else in existence. Only once we sense the littleness of our understanding are we in a position to start to learn who and what God is.The chief point of saving knowledge is to know God. And the starting point of the true knowledge of God is to discern how ignorant we are of Him, and to find Him beyond all knowledge.
In Exodus 3:14 the Lord gives a definition of Himself, but such a one as is no more clear than Himself to our capacities. It is indeed a short one, and you may think it does not say much. “I am.” What is there that may not say the same? The least and most insignificant creature has its own being! Yet there is more majesty in this simple style than in all others. Let creatures compare with creatures – let them take superlative styles – let some of them be called good, and some better, in the comparison among themselves. But God must not enter the comparison.
No comparisons are validPaul thinks it an odious comparison, to compare present crosses to eternal glory (Rom. 8). But how much more odious it is to compare God with creatures! Call Him highest, call Him most powerful, call Him most excellent, almighty, most glorious in respect of creatures – and all you do is abase His majesty, bringing it down to any terms of comparison with them, seeing He is beyond all the bounds of understanding. All these terms only express Him to be in some degree eminently above the creatures. As some creatures are above others, so all you do is to make him the chief of them all, as some creature may be the head of one line or kind under it. But what is that to His majesty? He speaks very differently of Himself. “All nations are before him as nothing, and they are accounted to him less than nothing” (Isa. 40:17).
Certainly you have not taken up the true notion of God, when you have conceived him the most eminent of all beings as long as any being appears as a being in his sight, before whom all beings conjoined are as nothing. While you conceive God to be the best, you still attribute something to the creature. You imagine only some different degrees between beings who differ so infinitely, so incomprehensibly. The distance betwixt heaven and earth is but a poor similitude to express the distance between God and creatures.
All created things are inconsequentialNow, if you could imagine something that is less than nothing, then could you begin to guess at the vast distance between it and a being. So is it here: “Thus saith the Lord, All nations, their glory, perfection and number, all of them, and all their excellencies united, do not amount to the value of an entity, in regard of my majesty. All of them are just like zeroes. Join never so many of them together, they can never make up a number, they are nothing, and less than nothing.”
So then we ought to conceive of God, and to attribute a being and life to him, in such a way that all created beings vanish out of our sight. The glorious light of the sun, although it does not annihilate the stars, yet it annihilates their appearance to our senses, and makes them disappear, as if they didn’t exist. There is a great difference between the stars in the night, some lighter, some darker, some of the first magnitude, and some of the second and third, some of greater glory, and some of less. But in the day time all are alike, all are darkened by the sun’s glory. Let the glorious brightness of God shine once on the soul, and in that light all these lights shall be obscured, and all the differences between them unobserved. An angel and a human, a human and a worm differ much in glory and perfection of being: but O, in God’s presence there is no such reckoning on this account. All things are alike, God infinitely distant from all, and so not more or less. Infiniteness is not capable of such terms of comparison.
This is the reason why Christ says, “There is none good but one, even God.” Why? because, in respect of His goodness, nothing deserves that name. Lesser light in view of the greater is a darkness, and lesser good in comparison of a greater good, appears evil. How much more then shall created light and created goodness lose that name in the presence of God’s uncreated light, and self-sufficient goodness!
God’s self-sufficient perfection is absoluteThis is why the Lord names Himself in this way, “I AM,” as if nothing else was. “I will not say,” He says, “that I am the highest, the best and most glorious that is; that assumes that other things have some being and some glory that is worth taking account of. But I am, and there is none else. I am alone. I lift up my hand to heaven, and swear I live for ever.” There is nothing else that can say, “I am, I live, and there is none else;” for nothing has its life of itself. No one can boast of what they have borrowed, and is not their own. As if a bird that had stolen from other birds its beautiful feathers, was to come out and argue with them about beauty. Would they not straight away every one pluck out their own feathers, and leave her naked, to be an object of mockery to all?
Even so, our breath and being is in our nostrils, and that depends on His majesty’s breathing on us. If He was only to hold in his breath, as it were, we would vanish into nothing. “He looketh upon me and I am not” (Job 7:8). That is a strange look, that not only looks man out of countenance, but out of life and being. He looks him into the first nothing-like existence, and then can he say, “I live, I am”? No, he must always say of himself in respect of God, as Paul says of himself in respect of Christ, “I live, yet not I, but Christ in me.” “I am, yet not I; but God in me: I live, I am, yet not I but in God, in whom I live, and have my being.” There is no other thing beside God that can say, “I am,” because all things are borrowed drops of this self-sufficient fountain, and sparkles of this first light. Let anything intervene between the stream and the fountain, and the stream is cut off and dried up. Let anything interpose between the sun and the beam and the sunbeam vanishes. Therefore this fountain-being, this original light, this self-being is the only one who deserves the name of being. Other things to which we give those names are nearer nothing than God, and in regard of His majesty, may more fitly be called nothing than something,
You see then how profound a mystery of God’s absolute self-sufficient perfection is infolded in these three letters, “I AM,” or in these four, “JEHOVAH.” If you ask what God is, nothing occurs better than this, “I AM,” or “HE THAT IS.” If I should say He is the all-mighty, the only wise, the most perfect, the most glorious, it is all contained in that saying, “I AM THAT I AM.” For that is really to be: to be all those perfections simply, absolutely, and as it were solely. If I say all that, and reckon out all the Scripture epithets, I add nothing. If I say no more, I diminish nothing.
← Discerning a call to secular serviceFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Discerning a call to secular serviceThere are various resources which can be used by those who are wondering whether they have a call to preach. Perhaps less is available for those who are discerning that they do not have a call to the gospel ministry. It can sometimes seem as though, if a young man has a pressing desire to serve the Lord, the only way to do this is to preach. However we still need to recognise the validity and the value of secular callings and the work that can be done for the Lord outside of the gospel ministry. Someone who initially struggled to recognise their calling was Archibald Johnston of Wariston. A gifted young lawyer who desperately longed to devote his whole life (and death) to the Lord’s service, he wrestled earnestly with the problem of whether he was being called to the gospel ministry or to continue in the legal field. He kept a detailed diary of his spiritual and psychological turmoils, including how he came to the clear view that his calling was not the gospel ministry. The various aspects of his decision-making process are still appropriate today, as can be seen from the following updated extracts from his diary for August 1633. Setting aside time for prayer and fasting, he coordinated the advice of wise friends, helpful contemporary writers, and the teaching of Scripture in his analysis of his own inclinations and gifts and the requirements of a gospel minister. Wariston went on to have a stellar career in law and politics, making huge contributions to the good of the Scottish church. In the end he was executed by hanging for remaining true to his principles. My brother-in-law exhorted me to settle my resolutions concerning my calling, and gave me reasons to continue in what I had begun, letting me see my impatience for catechising on the one part, and on the other part the possiblity of serving God and doing good as an advocate.
MondayOn Monday, after praising and praying, I resolved to keep a private fast to God all this week for my deliverance from my troubles, fears and perplexities, and for God assisting me against temptation and directing me in my confusions, chiefly concerning my calling. In this I prayed the Lord of heaven that He would direct me in choosing my calling, and bless me in what He made me to choose, and enable me in and by it to glorify Him, edify His servants and my friends, and the poor people, and to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling. (Lord, hear and direct for Christ’s sake!) I remembered how last Saturday night the Psalm which happened to be read was Psalm 127, “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it,” and I applied this to my calling.
ThursdayOn Thursday I heard Rev Henry Rollock preach on Genesis 2:2, where he argued that we should imitate God’s example and rest on the Sabbath day, “but,” he said, “it is most commendable to labour in our particular calling all the week.”
After the sermon I looked at William Perkins’s treatise on Callings (having first prayed to God to direct me and settle me in my calling, and reiterating all my vows to Him) [Perkins, A Treatise of the Vocations or Callings of Men (1603)]. When I read Perkins, and finding my mind much settled by it, I resolved to follow his rules of choosing a calling, and to examine myself by his signs. Perkins directs us to examine what calling God calls us to, 1st, by our affection and inclination, and 2nd, by our gifts.
Then I spent all afternoon testing by both tests whether I should apply myself to the ministry or to law.
First, I found that I truly respected and honoured more in my mind the ministry than law, but that my affection and resolution constantly carried me to the law. This was partly because I saw that my mind could not be bent to religious exercises constantly, but fainted if it was not sometimes diverted to secular things, and partly also because I did not dare to take on the burden of more souls than my own – for I found it genuinely difficult for my own soul alone to work out its salvation in fear and trembling. So I found that my inclination was always to serve God in this, fearing lest I would be diverted from it to something else.
Secondly, I found my gifts not so fitted for the ministry as for law. My gift is dialectic rather than didactic – fitter for disputing pro and contra than for teaching solid grounds. Also neither my invention, judgment nor memory was in favour of handling such deep mysteries. Again, in the judgment of all, I have no gift for speaking, and would have no utterance at all in preaching. I was never a good linguist, either in Scots, French or Latin. However, the main point of the calling to the ministry lies in catechising, and this I am utterly incapable of, due to my natural hastiness, crossness and impatience.
As for law. My affection. My continual resolution since my childhood. My plying of my studies to that end. The manifold opportunities of making progress in it. My gifts being disputative, and therefore naturally fitting me for it. Also, chiefly, the warrant of the apostle, commanding me to remain in the calling in which I was called (1 Corinthians 7:20); the commentators Bolton, Pareus, and Perkins on that text all advise against an unnecessary or rash change of calling.
All of this greatly settled my mind, and made me resolve that, having craved God’s direction in my choice and then His blessing on my choice, I would fall to my book next week.
My resolution was confirmed by reading Genesis 3:19 (“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread …”) and Matthew 25 (about the servants who received the talents). Also Mark 6:3, “Is not this the carpenter?” from which Perkins says that Christ used carpentry as His particular calling, and Exodus 20, “Six days shalt thou labour,” which according to Perkins is a command. Also 1 Corinthians 12:28, “God hath set some in the church, first apostles, gifts of healings, helps of governments.” Ephesians 4:28, “Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” Colossians 3:22, “Servants, obey in all things your masters, and, whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “This we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. Now them that work not at all, but are busybodies, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread.”
My mind was strongly prompted by these passages to be settled in a calling, and was then confirmed in my first resolution by Perkins’ rules of examination, but especially by 1 Corinthians 7:20, and I blessed God heartily for settling my mind so well.
ReflectionsI remembered how I had presented to God as my greatest request that He would be well-pleased to settle me in a particular calling, in which I could glorify Him, edify His servants, and work out my own salvation with fear and trembling. This made me confident of the general principle that assuredly God would bless me in my calling. I also remembered how, having craved God’s direction concerning my choice of a calling, I got the same passage, 1 Corinthians 7:20, brought to my memory in my prayer as an answer.
Also, God answered all the objections that I could bring against my calling to law. The first objection was that God seemed to thwart me in the study of this calling. Answer: It was because I had not till now sought God’s direction and blessing so urgently. Now, after being so urgent with God, I can say with David, “The Lord hath delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the jaws of the bear, he will deliver me also out of the hand of this Philistine.” So the Lord who protected me in my travels [to France] and directed me in my marriage, will bless me also in my choosing and in my calling. All the more so, since on the one hand what I am praying for now tends more to His glory and the good of His servants and my salvation, and on the other hand the manner of my praying is [by His help] more humble, more frequent, and more fervent than before.
My second objection was that I would shame myself by something I said. Answer: That would be to distrust God’s assistance, which He will not refuse to any who truly desires it, not only in divine discourses, but also secular discourses tending to His glory and the good of the commonwealth.
Thirdly, I had a doubt about the distractions associated with law. Answer: My devotion, not being continually bent [towards spiritual things] would be the benter when it was [from time to time] employed in God’s service.
Fourthly, I had a doubt about the temptations associated with law. Answer: Those temptations are less dangerous than either medicine or theology, for there they endangered either the soul or the body, but with law they only endanger the purse. Also, those temptations would be like so many pricks in my side to keep me awake all the time, and to hold God’s graces in exercise, and to maintain my tenderness of conscience (which, if never stirred, would grow obdurate).
Then, for my greater confidence of a blessing, I remembered how all my prayers run on this line, that God would glorify Himself both in my life and in my death, and that He would send either life or death as He thought fittest to His glory, the best interests of church and commonwealth, and my own salvation. So that, seeing God now sends life, I may be confident that He has some work to do with me yet for His glory, the wellbeing of His servants, and my own good.
Thereafter I spent that night in confessing, praying, and praising for all His mercies, and in particular for settling my mind so well that day in my particular calling. Blessed by His name for it, for now and for evermore!
Archibald Johnston of Wariston kept a diary for many years. Extracts have recently been republished in a book titled, ‘For Christ and Covenant: The Spirituality of Archibald Johnston of Wariston,’ edited by Ruth E Alcalay.
← Two ways we argue with GodFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Two ways we argue with GodThe welcoming Saviour occasionally seemed to push people away. This was what appeared to happen to the woman who came to ask for His help in Matthew 15. He made a seemingly dismissive comment counting her as one of the dogs instead of one of the children belonging to the family. Amazingly the woman didn’t take His words at face value but perceived the welcome disguised behind them. In humility she actually turned His words to her own favour, pointing out that even the dogs would eat the crumbs that fell from the meal table. She perceived that a crumb of grace was as good as a whole loaf. In the following updated sermon, William Guthrie takes a closer look at humility. Unlike this woman whose faith and humility were genuine, we can sometimes say apparently humble things which in reality expose our lack of faith and indeed our pride.True humility does not argue with Christ Jesus, but sweetly complies with Him. But let me show you what way false humility works. False humility is always at one of two extremes. It is either lower than God would have it, or it is higher than God can tolerate.
- False humility goes lower than God wantsLeaving our responsibility to GodFor example, there are many of you who will leave it to God whether to save or damn you. That is false humility, because He has declared His mind peremptorily to the contrary. People are to keep pressing to get into heaven, until they are actually cast into hell. They will get no thanks from God for that kind of humility.
Giving a latitude to God where He takes noneFalse humility leaves it up to God to save you whether you believe or not. “We know,” say some, “that people should believe; but He may save us in any way. He may bring folk to heaven equally well without faith as with it.” Do you imagine that God will bring people to heaven if they do not believe? You are making a great mistake. “He that believeth not shall not see life. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.”
Putting you lower than the reach of free graceWhen a man takes such a look of his guilt that he thinks himself below the free grace of God, it is false humility. Though he does not want to say that he has sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost, yet he thinks God cannot pardon him. But it is a sin to think like this, when God has said, “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven.” In this way false humility justles out the whole of God’s arrangements in the covenant of free grace.
Taking more care of the glory of God than He does HimselfIt is a strange sort of humility when someone stands up and says, “I think it would be an encroachment on the holiness of God to show mercy to me. He may show mercy to whoever He pleases, but He cannot pardon me.” That is a strange thing. You do not need to worry about encroachments on His holiness, when He has declared that He has found a ransom. Will you be wiser than God? He will never regard that as humility! It is enough to us that He has made a declaration through the world, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear you Him.” As if to say, “I shall satisfy myself in myself. Don’t trouble your heads about that. I am satisfied.”
Thinking it is a mistake to take little problems to GodFalse humility goes lower than God allows when it treats it as a faux pas to put little things into God’s hand. Many think it would be injudicious for them at such a time as this to ask God to heal their sore head which incapacitates them from hearing the preaching, or to help their faint heart that hinders them from profiting by the Word. But this is the devil’s humility, for the Lord counts all the hairs of your head. Some think it would be some sort of gaffe to ask for a bag of meal from God, and a coat to put on their back at such a time as this – but He has commanded you to put all your needs onto Him, from your salvation to your shoe-latchet.
Thinking it a mistake to come to God often about the same thingThis humility justles with the majesty of God. This is the case with many of us. You have told God often what you are. You have frequented many communions, and yet you are not the better. You have come often with one and the same thing, and now you blush to come to Him again.
But in this you are humble overmuch. Really you should be ashamed that you have not come again and again about one and the same thing! Never account it a mistake to come to Him repeatedly (though the world would think it was), while He has told the brother to forgive the brother seventy times seven in a day. How much more will the great God of heaven forgive us in one day!
- False humility rises higher than ever God allowed it“I’m not good enough to be saved by Christ”False humility goes higher than can be tolerated, in refusing to go into debt to God. This is when people are still seeking for some qualification before they dare approach Christ in believing. They say they would not hesitate to go to Him if they could only get their hearts so and so broken—that is, if they could endure some penance for their sins. But this is to justle with God, for He sings this one note, “Come without money, and without price.” Many are playing upon this string, “If only I had such and such a measure of sorrow for my transgressions”—i.e., “I’m not willing to venture on Him absolutely.” But you won’t get anything but God’s curse or displeasure if you don’t change your tune. If you stick out over any qualification, you spoil the market of free grace wholly.
“I’m too much of a sinner for Christ to save me”A false humility is unwilling to be absolutely in Christ’s debt. Those who have it resolve to be only a very little in His debt, even though they realise they must be in His debt to some extent. “For,” they say, “He may show mercy to any other sinner, but not to such a sinner as I am. I know He can pardon sinners, but I don’t want to assume that He will pardon the kind of sinner I am.”
But remember what distance is between you, the creature, and God; and between sin and free grace. The difficulty here is, to make God stoop to man, when there is such an infinite distance between God and the creature. But there is no comparable disproportion between your sin, and the sin of anyone else. Has free grace stooped to pardon the sin of any? Then the hazard is past. So your humility is proud humility, because you don’t want to be absolutely in His debt. You would dare to venture the pardon of one sin on Him, as long as it was only a bad thought, or suchlike, but you dare not venture the pardon of a great sin. That is strange ignorance! Since free grace has stooped to pardon any sin, then if you have the heart to venture the pardon of one idle word on Him, then you may also venture on Him the pardon of drunkenness, covenant-breaking, and indeed, every sin. No sin can stand in the way, because the disproportion is between sin and grace, and not between grace and a particular sin.
“I can’t go to God until I’ve got a broken heart”False humility also justles with God about sin after conversion. Many, when they come first to close with Christ, realise they must resolve to take Him on His own terms, and to be absolutely in His debt. But afterwards they think they cannot come if they don’t have such and such a stock of grace. “Am I supposed to go to God,” they say, “in such a frame as this, before I get my heart humbled?”
But don’t you agree that all your exercises of faith, repentance, etc., are from God, and absolutely from God? Then you have to be in His debt for repentance and a broken heart, as well as for the pardon of sin. This is not the time to be haggling with Him. You must be absolutely in His debt now after conversion, just as much as when you first closed with Him. It is true you ought to be in a better frame, yet you must be always in His debt. Since you lack a better frame, and cannot get it, you must always be in His debt – for new debt, as well as for the old. I grant it is your duty to seek for a good frame of spirit, but if you cannot get it, you are to cast all on Himself together, for He cares for you.
“All my experiences are worthless”False humility will not acknowledge crumbs to be real and true bread. Because people don’t have the special experiences that others report – because there is something they’ve never had, because they never knew a remarkable answer to prayer or a wonderful sense of God’s presence – therefore they despise everything they have experienced. Truly that is very proud. You think nothing of heart conviction – but someone may have something worse than that. You think it nothing that you see Christ to be a precious jewel; you think it nothing that your desire runs towards Him. But indeed I think very much of it. You think nothing of it that you account all His commands to be right, and that you have a respect to both small and great of them. But that is a miserable humility, since the Scripture has said, “They shall never be ashamed who have respect to all his commandments.” The crumbs are really bread just as much as big loaves. The woman in Matthew 15 was prudent; she could make do with little crumbs until she got more.
“I’ll make do without the things that God can give me”This high-handed humility says it won’t hold God to some promise, on condition that He will perform other promises. Some would not ask God for bodily health, or the life of their wives or children, provided He would save their souls and keep them from the troubles of this time.
But is it fair, do you think, to set such limits to the free bounty and holy majesty of God, so that you do not deal liberally with Him according to His own Word? Does He hold back anything from you? He is of a liberal heart, and allows His people to devise liberal things at His hand. Is He going to be in your debt, so to speak, if you let Him off from performing one promise as long as He makes good another one? Absolutely not, and in fact He allows you to seek your salvation and your health, and the health of your children, with food and raiment to you and them, and every other thing that may be for your good. I grant that if the Lord calls you to give up these things, you are to submit them all to Him, but when He is not expressly calling you to that, then you are not to do it, but to hold Him to His promise.
Has He not promised, “Thou shalt have bread, and thy water shall be sure”? Then you may seek it from Him, for He can well spare it. He will never thank you for not asking a temporal benefit, even if it was just the cure of a sore head, or sickly body. I say, Seek health, food, and raiment, and as much means as may carry you through the world without being burdensome to others. He hates the manner of a churl. “The liberal man deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand.”
← The cold comfort of a changeable GodFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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The cold comfort of a changeable GodUnlike us, there is nothing precarious about God’s existence. He has life in Himself and He is altogether perfect. He never changes, either for better or worse or to adapt to changing circumstances. So when a recent survey has shown that almost half of evangelicals in the US say ‘yes’ to the question, ‘Does God change?’ it raises questions about how solid someone’s faith is if they are not relying on the unchangeable God – and how lively their hope for the future can be. With our circumstances continually in flux and fears often threatening to overwhelm us, the comfort and hope that comes from the constancy of God cannot be underestimated. Faith in the unchanging and unchangeable God was what sustained one overwhelmed and fearful believer in Psalm 102. In the following updated extract, David Dickson points out the various weighty reasons for the believer’s distress yet balances them against the eternity, omnipotence, and immutability of the Lord.The church needs comfortPsalm 102 is consistent with the time when the Jews were in captivity in Babylon. About the end of the captivity, when the seventy years were now nearly expired, the weight of the misery of God’s people, and the mockery of the heathen, and the people’s longings for delivery, greatly afflicted the prophet and so he pours out this prayer.
It is no strange thing for the dear children of God to be under heavy affliction. They may be afflicted, and even overwhelmed. Yet the way for an afflicted and overwhelmed Christian to have relief, comfort and deliverance is, “to pour out his soul before the Lord.”
From the opening of the prayer we learn that a soul who is seeking relief and comfort in God, may both confidently pray for, and certainly expect a hearing and acceptance of their prayer. “Hear my prayer, O God. Let my cry come unto thee” (verse 1). Indeed the Lord permits His children to speak to Him in their own babbling forms of speech, even though the terms they use are not really fitting for His spiritual, invisible, and incomprehensible majesty (such as, “Hear me,” “hide not thy face,” “incline thine ear to me,” etc.) (verse 2).
The causes of the prophet’s grief are three. First, the church was experiencing the reproach and cruelty of the enemy (verse 8). Second, he had the sense that God’s anger was apparent in his situation (verse 9–10). Third, his comparison between the prosperity of the church in the past, and the adversity of the church in the present, made the present situation all the heavier (verse 9–10).
He sadly reflects that the consequence of this is likely to be that he and the church would be cut off without comfort or hope of deliverance. The church as a whole, or the scattered parts of it, may be almost disappearing, and utterly decaying under long-continued trouble: “My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass” (verse 11).
The Lord remains constant till the end of timeBut from verse 12, the prophet strives to comfort himself in the hope of grace to be shown to the church. “But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever …”
His first source of comfort is that God has purposed to perpetuate the remembrance of Himself to all generations, and He endures for ever to see it done.
There is therefore ground of hope to believers, even in the saddest condition of the church; for although believers are mortal, yet God (in whom their life is hid), is eternal. “Thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever.”
God wants His name to be known in all generations, and wants to have people making use of His word and ordinances in order to preserve the memory of His attributes, works and will. This is why the church must continue from age to age.
The Lord’s constancy will bring changes for the betterIn verse 13 the prophet reasons from God’s unchangeableness to conclude that the condition of the church will change from worse to better. This is good reasoning. “Thou shalt endure for ever,” he says, and therefore, “thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion” (verse 13).
We can even aim for and be encouraged by the expectation that there will be an enlargement of the knowledge and fear of God among those who do not yet know Him. The psalmist is looking forward in verse 15 to the heathen coming to fear the Lord. The Lord has a time when He is pleased to arise, to restore His afflicted people to comfort, and to restore religion to its own beauty, even in a way that makes kings fear and tremble when they see how God cares for His own despised people.
God will have glory in in restoring His church: “When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory” (verse 16). Whatever instruments the Lord uses for this, He wants Himself to be seen to be the builder. As the glory of the Lord is obscured when His church is scattered, so when He sets up His own ordinances again, His glory is displayed. The connection between God’s glory and the salvation of His church is a reason for comfort and hope. However badly the church may be demolished, yet it shall be restored and repaired again.
The Lord’s constancy guarantees that the church will never be consumedThe prophet sorrowed on the personal level because he looked likely to die of grief for the church, and on another level because the church looked likely to perish in their captivity, and not go on to the hoped-for coming of the Messiah, and the conversion of the heathen, which was necessary for the perpetuation of Christ’s church to the end of the world.
In the history of Israel, it did sometimes seem that they were being stopped from going on in their journey to the coming of Christ. The tribe of Judah got so weak that it appeared there was no possibility it would last, or make any progress. There was the fear that if Judah was cut off, and Israel was abolished, then the Messiah who was supposed to be coming from them would never appear. This was the terrible fear with which the prophet is wrestling here (verse 24).
Against this fear and temptation the prophet (in the name of the church) is wrestling in prayer. He strengthens his faith by various arguments taken from God’s (which is to say, Christ’s) eternity, omnipotence, and immutability (see Hebrews 1:11–12).
Whatever difficulty faith is brought into, faith goes and deals directly with God. “God is the doer of what is done,” the believer says, and so he deals with God by prayer for relief. When it appears that we are going to perish, this should not hinder us from praying, but rather it should sharpen us in our duty. When God’s promises and God’s providences seem to disagree, we may appeal to and argue from the covenant, and not displease God by so doing.
The Lord’s constancy is the believer’s consolationThe eternity of Christ is the consolation of the believer in his mortality; and the eternity of Christ as God is the pledge that the believer will be preserved, and that all God’s promises will be performed.
The immutability of God is a notable comfort to His afflicted people because, since He is not changed, therefore they shall not be consumed. “Heaven and earth shall perish, but thou shalt endure” (verse 26); “thou art the same” (verse 27).
The prayer concludes with the prophet’s victory over the fear and temptation, expressed in a solid assurance of the perpetuity of the church from one generation to another, founded on those attributes of Christ (eternity, omnipotence, and immutability). So those who are sorry for the affliction of the church shall have consolation from God, and a gracious answer to their prayer, as the experience of the prophet teaches us.
The perpetuity of the church may be solidly concluded from the unchangeableness and eternity of God. Whatsoever change may befall the visible church before the world, yet before God she is fixed and stable, like a house built on a rock.
← How the Word of God gives us words for GodFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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How the Word of God gives us words for GodEvery so often the suggestion is made that we should use gender-neutral language to refer to God. There is certainly a need for carefulness in how we speak about God, so that we don’t inadvertently make Him seem inaccessible or unavailable to specific groups of people. Yet this should not be driven by our perceptions of what might make God unappealing to sinful preferences, or by the demands of certain groups that God should fit the mould they want Him to fit. God has actually chosen to make Himself known to us in His Word – in human language. Yet human language fails almost before it starts to express the greatness of God. We must therefore confine ourselves to speaking about God in ways that He legitimises (in that He has used these terms Himself in the Scriptures) while constantly realising that even these words are not adequate. God is so great that He cannot be confined in any way – not the whole universe can contain Him – and certainly He cannot be reduced to the kind of creature whose identity changes in the eye of the beholder according to which are currently the preferred pronouns, as dictated by sinful imaginations or to suit self-serving human interests. Our job is not to conform God to our political agendas or passing ideological fixations, but to conform ourselves to Him. As the following updated extract from a textbook by Hugh Binning makes clear, we can only ever know and speak of God on His own terms.“God is a Spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Something of the nature of God is pointed out to us here, as well as something of our duty towards Him. “God is a spirit,” is His nature; and “we must worship him,” is our duty, and “in spirit and in truth” is the right manner of doing our duty. If these three were rightly pondered, till they sink in to the depth of our spirits, they would make us real Christians.
We need to know accurately who God isIt is presupposed for all Christian worship and walking, to know what God is. This is indeed the primo cognitum of Christianity, the first principle of true religion, the very root out of which springs and grows up walking suitably with and worshipping appropriately a known God.
In too much of our religion we are like the people of Athens, who built an altar to an unknown God, and the Samaritans, who worshipped they knew not what. Such a worship, I don’t know what it is, when the God worshipped is not known!
True knowledge of God is not comprised of many notions and speculations about the divine nature, or high and strained conceptions of God. Some people speak of these mysteries in some unique way, using terms far removed from common understandings, which neither themselves nor others know what they mean. But this only shows that they are presumptuous, self-conceited, knowing nothing as they ought to know. There is a knowledge that puffs up – a knowledge that only makes people swells up, it doesn’t make them grow. It’s only a rumour, full of air, a vain and empty and frothy knowledge, that is neither good for edifying others, nor saving themselves. A knowledge that someone has, so as to ascend on the height of it, and measure himself by the degrees of it, is not the true knowledge of God. The true knowledge of God doesn’t know itself, doesn’t look back on itself, but looks straight towards God, His holiness and glory, and sees our baseness and misery. Therefore it constrains the soul to be ashamed of itself in such a glorious presence, and to make haste to worship, as Moses, Job and Isaiah did.
We cannot worship God without knowing accurately who He isThis definition of God, if we truly understood it, could not but transform our worship.
God is a spirit. Many people form in their own mind some likeness and image of God, who is invisible. They imagine to themselves some bodily shape. When they conceive of Him, they think He is some reverend and majestic person, sitting on a throne in heaven. But I beseech you, correct your mistakes about Him! There is outward idolatry as well as inward. There is idolatry in action, when people paint or engrave some similitude of God, and there also is idolatry in imagination, when the fancy runs on some image or likeness of God. The latter is too common among us. Indeed it comes to much the same thing, whether to form similitudes in our mind, or to engrave or paint them outwardly. The God whom many of us worship is not the living and true God, but a painted or graven idol. You do nothing more than fancy an idol to yourselves when you conceive of God under the likeness of any visible or tangible thing. Then whatever love, or fear, or reverence you have, it is all but mis-spent superstition, the love and fear of an idol.
God is beyond the reach of our sensesKnow then that God is a spirit, and therefore He is like none of all the things you see, or hear, or smell, or taste, or touch. The heavens are glorious indeed, the light is full of glory, but God is not like that. If all your senses were to make an inquiry, and search for Him throughout the world, you would not find Him, even though He is near at hand to every one of us. Your eyes and ears and all your senses could travel the length of the earth and breadth of the sea, and would not find him, even as you might search all the corners of heaven before you could hear or see an angel. If you cut a person into pieces, and resolved him down into atoms of dust, yet you could not perceive a soul within him. Why? Because these are spirits, and so beyond the reach of your senses.
God is beyond the capacity of our languageIf God is a spirit, then He is invisible, and dwells in light inaccessible, which no man hath seen or can see. Then our poor narrow minds, which are immersed (as it were) in bodies of clay, and receive all knowledge from the senses, cannot frame any suitable notion of His spiritual nature. We cannot even conceive what our own soul is, except when some tangible activity flows from it. The height that our knowledge of ourselves amounts to, is only the dark and confused conception that the soul is some inward principle of life and sense and reason. How then is it possible for us to conceive rightly of the divine nature, as it is in itself?
In a dark and general way, we guess at His majesty by the glorious emanations of His power and wisdom, and the rays of it which He displays in all the works of His hands. From all these concurring testimonies and evidences of His majesty we gather at best the notion of Him that He is the fountain of life, the self-independent being, the very life and light of men, who makes all things visible, and He Himself is invisible.
This is the reason why the Lord speaks to us in the Scripture of Himself in terms of His face, His right hand and arm, His throne, His sceptre, His back parts, His anger, His fury, His repentance, His grief and sorrow. None of these are properly in His spiritual, immortal and unchangeable nature. He speaks in this way because of our dullness and slowness in apprehending spiritual things. It is almost beyond the comprehension of the soul while in the body, because the soul is almost addicted to the senses of the body. The Lord therefore accommodates Himself to our terms and notions. Like a father babbles with his babbling children, He speaks to us in our own dialect, but at the same time He wants us to realise that He is not really like this, but infinitely removed in His own being from all these imperfections.
So when you hear these terms in Scripture, O beware that you do not conceive God to be such a one as yourselves! In these expressions so below His majesty, learn your own ignorance of His glorious majesty, and your dullness and incapacity, when the Holy One must come down as it were in some bodily appearance, before you can understand anything about Him.
God is most powerfulIf God is a spirit, then He is most perfect, and most powerful. All imperfection, infirmity and weakness in the creature is founded in its material part of it. A body, when the soul and spirit is out of it, has no more virtue nor efficacy than so much clay, though when it had the presence of its spirit, it was active, agile, swift, strong and nimble. Consider then what a one the God of the spirits of all flesh must be – the very fountain-spirit, the self-existent spirit. When the soul of a human being – or even the spirit of a horse – has so much virtue as to stir up a lump of earth and enliven it to so many different kinds of activities, even though that soul and spirit did not and indeed could not make that piece of earth they dwell in – then what must be the power and virtue of Him who made all these things?
God is immenseIf God is a spirit, then He is not circumscribed by any place; and if He is an infinite spirit, then He is everywhere. No place can include Him, and no object can exclude Him. He is within all things, yet not included or bounded within them, and He is outwith all things, yet not excluded from them. As you know, every object has its own bounds and limits circumscribed to it, and it shoots out all other objects out of the same space. But a spirit can pass through all of them, and never disturb them. A legion of spirits may be in one man, and have plenty space. How much more the maker of all spirits fills all in all! The thickness of the earth does not keep Him out, nor does the largeness of the heavens contain Him.
O, how narrow thoughts we have of His immense greatness! How often, I wonder, do you reflect on His immensity? God is near at hand to every one of us. Who among us think of a divine majesty nearer us than our very souls and consciences? For “in him we live and move and have our being.” How is it that we move, and do not think with wonder of the first mover, in whom we move? How is it that we live and persevere in being, without continually considering the fountain-being in whom we live and have our being? We go about all our business as if we were self-existent, and independent of anyone, never thinking of the all-present, quickening spirit, who activates us, moves us, speaks in us, makes us to walk, and eat and drink! Who of us believes this all-present God? We imagine that He is shut up in heaven, and takes no notice of what is going on below, but certainly, He is not so far from us.
God’s understanding is unsearchableIf God is a spirit, then, as He is incomprehensible and immense in being, so also there is no comprehension of His knowledge. He is an all-knowing spirit, an all-seeing spirit, as well as all-present. “There is no searching of his understanding” (Isa. 40:28, and Psalm 147:5). “Who hath directed his spirit, or being his counsellor hath taught him?” (Rom. 11:34; Isa. 40:1).
O that you would always set this God before you – or rather, set yourselves always in His presence, in whose sight you are always! How it would compose our hearts to reverence and fear in all our actions, if we really did believe that the judge of all the world is an eye-witness to our most unobserved and secret thoughts and doings! If any other human being was as privy to your thoughts as your own spirit and conscience, you would blush and be ashamed before him. If every one of us could open a window into one another’s spirits, I think this assembly would disperse as quickly as when Christ invited those who were without sin to cast a stone! We could not so much as look one upon another. O then, why are we so little apprehensive of the all-searching eye of God, who can even declare to us our thought before we think it? God “knows our down-sitting and up-rising, and understands our thoughts afar off, and is acquainted with all our ways” (Psalm 139). O, how we would ponder our path, and examine our words, and consider our thoughts beforehand, if we set ourselves in the view of a spirit who is within us and outside us, before us and behind us!
← Blessings, boundaries and the churchFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Blessings, boundaries and the churchThe Church of England recently voted in favour of allowing blessings for same-sex couples although with assurances that the church’s doctrine of marriage will not change. To many this seems incoherent, and it exposes a lack of clarity on the boundaries between what is and is not acceptable in the realm of sexuality and marriage. In the New Testament model, the church and the world are on different sides of a clear line of demarcation and the church has no need to feel pressurised into adopting the agenda and mores of the world. In the early days of the church of Corinth the pressure was real and the church in some significant ways capitulated to societal expectations. The boundary markers in these ways collapsed and the apostle Paul needed to write more than once to reinstate them. Particularly in the area of sexual ethics the divergence needed to be crystallised between how the surrounding culture regarded people’s behaviour, and how Jesus’ apostles expected the church to react. Immorality of any kind, including same-sex relationships, is not something for the church to bless, but to help people avoid. As David Dickson’s commentary on Paul’s letter to the Corinthians draws out in the following updated extract, Paul teaches both that sexual immorality has no place within the church, and that forgiveness is available.Indifference to sexual purity is a pagan attitudeLike the other Gentiles, the Corinthians regarded sexual immorality as a “thing indifferent,” neither right nor wrong in itself. But in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul rejects this point of view. Anticipating and forestalling that their excuse would be, “All indifferent things are lawful for us now that we are Christians!” Paul makes several counter-points.
Firstly, in verse 12, he qualifies their major assumption, “All indifferent things are lawful!” by limiting it to “lawful as far as they are beneficial,” i.e., helpful, and, “lawful as long as our sinful desires do not win the mastery over us,” for by the intemperate use of our liberty we can sin even in the use of indifferent things.
Then in verse 13 he also challenges their secondary assumption, that fornication is something indifferent. He says in effect, “Granting that food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, there is a big difference between food and fornication!” It is lawful to eat any kind of food, because God has ordained food to be a natural good. Yet we have to reckon with the fact that God will destroy both food and the stomach, at least as far as its current functions are concerned. So for the sake of our stomach we must not endanger our eternal salvation, or the salvation of others, by eating in a way that causes others to stumble. However, the big difference is that sexual immorality is never lawful. It is simply a sin, and to be avoided.
The body is simply not made for immorality – it is not in any way comparable to how food is ordained for the stomach and vice versa. The body is ordained to be a member of Christ our Lord, who is ordained to be the head, to govern the whole body, so that it would be kept holy. In fact, in the resurrection our bodies will be raised as glorious bodies, just as the body of Christ was raised. Therefore they ought not to be defiled with fornication.
Paul goes on to refer to what should have been an obvious, known fact about marriage: the two become one flesh. The members of Christ are not to be made by fornication the members of a prostitute (verses 15-16). For “he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (verse 17). Believers are members of Christ, because they are united to Him by faith, and are one mystical body with Christ – one spiritual body, or one spirit with Christ.
Paul then provides an exhortation. “Flee fornication!” (verse 18). Returning to his argument, he draws a comparison with other sins. Other sins misuse something or other that is external to the body, but sexual immorality abuses its own body, and for that matter dishonours the body more than any other sin (verse 18).
Especially considering that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, they ought not to be polluted with sexual immorality. Additionally, believers are not their own – they have been purchased with the blood of Christ. They must therefore take heed that they do not defile themselves with immorality, but rather by a holy way of life both in body and soul they should endeavour to glorify God their Redeemer, whose they are.
Sexual impurity has no place in the churchTowards the end of chapter 4, Paul has been warning the church of Corinth that formal church censures would come their way if they continued in their schismatic and divisive ways. Lest they should think these are empty words, he tells them at the start of chapter 5 that they must excommunicate a certain individual who had committed a certain type of sexual sin. “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you” (1 Corinthians 6:1-2).
Paul here reprimands the church because they ought long ago to have grieved for this great offence, and excommunicated the wicked person from fellowship, instead of excusing his fault by minimising it, or making a joke of it, or glorying in it as if they were impressed with what he had done.
One reason for excommunicating this individual is because he was defiled by heinous wickedness. Even the Gentiles would not so much as speak of this sin without detestation.
Paul recognises that as a church, they have the power to excommunicate a wicked person like this. But now he adds his additional apostolic authority to the situation. “For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 6:3-5).
“Truly,” he is saying, “you have my opinion and authority concerning that wicked person. Therefore, when you are gathered together, be fortified by this letter, which comes with apostolic authority, and by the authority of Christ, in whose name the censures of the church should be given, and excommunicate this wicked person.”
Paul uses the expression, “Deliver him to Satan,” because when anyone’s outward status is that they have been rejected and cast out of the church, and excommunicated from the privilege of the fellowship of the saints, then as far as their outward status is concerned, they are declared to belong instead to the kingdom, slavery, and power of Satan. To be a citizen of the kingdom of God (that is, the church) even outwardly, is a greater honour than to reign outside of the church. To be excommunicated is to lose your reputation and honour and dignity, and be reckoned as belonging to the subjects of the devil.
Having said this, the actual purpose of excommunication is to be a means of repentance and salvation. Truly by the censure of excommunication the pride of the flesh should be mortified, and the new creature will be saved in the day of judgment.
Impurity is a contagionPaul continues in verse 6, “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” The risk was that the whole church would be infected and polluted by the contagion of so great a wickedness, just as a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. That is why they needed to excommunicate the wicked person. Continuing with the metaphor, Paul says that the Christian church must be purged from things which bring reproach on Christ and cause others to stumble – and the hearts of Christians must be purged from all the corruption of their old nature – with at least the same diligence as the houses of the Jews were purged from literal leaven before the Passover. Doing this would have the beneficial effect “that ye may be a new lump,” a new and holy society, new creatures really and indeed (verse 7).
The church should be a place where holiness flourishesConfirming his argument, Paul explains that the thing signified in the Passover – the sacrifice of Jesus Christ – commits Christians to have a care that holiness would flourish in us and in the church. Putting away malice and wickedness both from ourselves and from the church will mean that we can worship and serve the Lord cheerfully and in a holy way, in sincerity and truth. We cannot live in a holy and righteous way (as the meaning of the feast of the Passover lamb requires of us) unless the leaven of our past life and our wicked practices are purged away out of us and out of the house of God, and unless we endeavour to keep sincerity and truth in us and in the church.
The church should not judge the world, but itselfPaul wraps up his argument by referring to a previous letter he had written to the church of Corinth, in which he had told them not to have fellowship with fornicators (verse 9). By consequence they should have understood that fornicators were to be excommunicated from the church, and much more so those who committed incest.
Of course, this gives them no excuse for thinking that this instruction about immoral persons referred only to those who were in the world, or outside of the church. That would have been to command something impossible, because they must necessarily either live amongst such wicked persons or else go out of the world (verse 10). They lived in Corinth, after all, where the majority remained pagans. Paul clarifies that he means they must not keep fellowship with anyone who claims to be a Christian, or a brother, who commits sexual immorality. That brother is to be excommunicated, if after the church has convinced him of his sin he remains wicked and impenitent (verse 11).
Neither the apostle nor the church had the right to impose church censures on those who were outside the church. Those outside the church are left to the judgment of God. But the conclusion they ought to have drawn from this is that judging members of the church certainly is part of the church’s work – this power does belong to the church. That is why their responsibility was to put away or excommunicate that wicked person from among them.
← Breaking the cycle of intergenerational perversityFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Breaking the cycle of intergenerational perversityA failing health service, the social care timebomb, disregard for the safety of women and children, economic stagnation, the aftermath of the pandemic, immigration woes, a crisis in law and order, the deficiencies of our energy policy – yet even the boldest politicians seem to offer little more than sticking plasters, if not proposals that will positively make things worse. Even secular commentators are talking in terms of Britain’s “fall from grace” and expressing frustration at how little yield there is for our efforts. We seem to have inherited problems from the previous decades and generations which we cannot solve, while inheriting opportunities which we fail to exploit to our advantage. At the national level it is as if something is preventing us from achieving what we could.Yet this is not a new experience. In the 1600s commentators such as William Guthrie were keen observers of national trends and their analysis moved beyond the political and economic to also take into consideration the spiritual dimension. In Guthrie’s view, national stagnation and failures were the price the nation paid for collectively forsaking the Lord and loosening their commitment to His ways. In the 1700s Thomas Boston, sharing essentially the same outlook as Guthrie, elaborated further on the perversity of his generation. It was a perversity which seemed to actively incite God to thwart their attempts to better themselves.The following pair of updated extracts from their writings show Guthrie’s self-accusation of the nation and Boston’s earnest exhortations to “save yourselves from this untoward generation.” Although politicians will always disappoint us with the limited solutions they can offer to the nation’s problems, it is not inevitable that we keep sinking into ever worsening decline. If we accept Guthrie’s and Boston’s analysis and advice, we can break out of the cycle of intergenerational perversity and thrive under God’s blessing.God is right to be angry with us when we refuse to be humbled by His chastisementsBy William Guthrie
We have responded with deep-rooted complacency, impenitence, obstinacy and incorrigibleness under all the dreadful chastisements of God.
Although God has visited us with dreadful chastisements, we have responded with complacency and incorrigibleness. God has also given us tokens of his indignation against us because of these attitudes, yet our attitudes do not change. So while he continues to smite, we are so far from humbling ourselves and turning to him that we grow worse and worse, and sin more and more.
This is surely undeniable. We only need to observe the condition of the land, and the present character and behaviour of the people. Virtually everyone is crying out for their afflictions, but almost no one is mourning for his sin.
What kind of generation is this?By Thomas Boston
“Save yourselves from this untoward generation” is part of Peter’s advice to his hearers in his sermon in Acts 2. What kind of generation was this?
A generation that has become impervious to the means of grace and the glorious gospel of Christ.
And is not this the case of the present generation? We have long enjoyed the gospel, and now we are like those who are made deaf by the continual sounding of many waters. To whom shall preachers now speak? Who now believes the report of the gospel? Some who once trembled at the Word, now sit like brazen walls against it. Some whose consciences were once touched, are now apparently seared with a hot iron. What can be expected, but that God will change his messengers, and try sharp rods after a slighted word?
A generation in which corruption of life and manners is become universal, having overspread all ranks of society
Alas! is not this our very case? Is not profaneness and wickedness like a flood gone over all its banks? If we look at the congregation, what profane swearing, drunkenness, biting and devouring one another, and uncleanness abound among us, even in the midst of gospel-light! Is this the fruit of plenty, fulness, and thriving in the world? If we look abroad through the nations, religion is truly fallen under contempt. Looseness and licentiousness are become fashionable, the flood-gates of debauchery are set open, and there is no stemming of the tide. The generation has not stopped at ordinary crimes, but they have proceeded to an open defiance of heaven by atheism and blasphemy. What prodigious blasphemies have been heard of, of late! The foundations of Christianity are sapped by damnable heresies. The principles of true religion are in hazard of being lost, not only among people, but pastors. What a dreadful conjuncture this is, when in England and Ireland the supreme Godhead of Christ, and His equality with the Father, is denied, while in Scotland legalism, by which the purity of gospel-doctrine is corrupted, prevails and is countenanced so much!
A generation deaf to the calls of providence, who are not drawn by mercies, and not driven to repentance by lesser strokes
Our generation has met with a great variety of providences. Uncertainty as to who the new monarch would be – but God gave us King George and not another Stuart monarch. Civil unrest in the Jacobite Rising of 1714 – but God stopped it from filling the whole land with blood. Impoverishment following the failure of the Darien Scheme. The threat of pestilence, which rages in France – but so far God has averted it from us. What is the fruit of all these mercies, strokes, deliverances, and long-suffering? Are we bettered by them? So far from it, that we are visibly growing worse and worse. We take one bad step after another, so that the reasons why God is angry are still multiplying.
A generation resistant to check, control, or reproof in their sinful courses, but determined to have their own way
People cannot endure reproof. Church discipline is despised. Personal interventions are apt to incense the reproved against the reprover. Ministers challenging people in the preaching of the Word, people are not able to bear, if they are too close to the bone. Everyone cares more about reputation than conscience.
How can we save ourselves from this generation?As a first step, we must open our eyes, and look.
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Look around you, and observe the generation, and consider seriously the way they are going, and the perversity which this manifests. Otherwise you will never bestir yourself to save yourself from it.
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Look above you, to God. Take notice how the course of the untoward generation is displeasing to Him, how it dishonours Him and robs Him of the glory that is due to his name. God is the governor of the world, and He is not an idle spectator of what people do on earth. Since He looks to us, let us look up to Him.
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Look within you, and see what perversity exists within your own heart, and appears in your own life and way (Isaiah 6:5). Nobody saves themselves from an untoward generation without beginning here.
More particularly:
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Return to God by Jesus Christ, in the way of the everlasting covenant held out to you in the gospel. “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39). Be stiff-necked no longer, but yield yourself to the Lord. Take salvation closely to heart now at last, and enter into the covenant, if you are still a stranger to Christ. And if you are the friend of Christ, renew your covenant, give a renewed consent to the marriage-covenant between Christ and your soul.
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Endeavour to walk closely with God in your personal capacity, as Noah did (Genesis 6:9). Strive to be acquainted with the life and power of religion in your own souls. When the church is going through a dark and cloudy day, it is hard to keep fast to a religion you don’t feel. When the winds of error and delusion are left to blow, they will hurt anyone who doesn’t know God. In a time of general calamity, anyone who cannot live by faith will find it hard to live.
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Beware of and stand at a distance from the sinful ways and courses of the untoward generation. “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). Let it not encourage you to sin, that you see others take liberty to themselves to do so, for that way you only enter into the conspiracy against God with the multitude. If you are ever to save yourselves from this untoward generation, you will be instructed of God (as Isaiah was), that he “should not walk in the way of this people” (Isaiah 8:11).
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Mourn over the sins of the untoward generation, as well as over your own, otherwise you are not free of them (Ezekiel 9:4; Psalm 119:136). “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes,” said David, “because they (the wicked) keep not thy law.” God is dishonoured, His name is profaned, His ways, truths, and ordinances are trampled on by this untoward generation – and we stand by as unconcerned spectators, or else join in! What? is God our Father? is Christ our elder brother? are we on heaven’s side or are we not?
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Make the welfare of Christ’s church a matter of your own personal concern. Take a personal interest in how it fares with the church of Christ in this untoward generation.
There has been much contending in Scotland, even unto blood, for all the parts of our covenanted reformation. Few of the Covenanting generation remain now, but in this current generation the work is at risk of going to wreck at our hands. It is much to be lamented that church members generally are very easy and complacent about the matter. They do not see the danger, they do not perceive the weight of it, and they are not inclined to take much interest in it. Hence no wonder they are not busy wrestling with God about it. But you are called to bestir yourself on Zion’s behalf. Our Lord takes notice how people behave in times when His interest is sinking. He will look after His own interests Himself in due time, but those who stand aloof from it are in a dangerous position, according to what Mordecai told Esther, “For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed” (Esther 4:14).
Now is the time to save yourselves. God is still on a throne of grace. He is calling to you, however far you have gone on with the untoward generation, to save yourselves now from this generation.
← The wrong kind of fearFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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The wrong kind of fearAnxieties are rising as people are struggling to respond to a complex combination of problems. The cost of living crisis, fuel costs, the war in Ukraine, the discontent that has led to so much strike action, the weaknesses of the NHS and the social care system – there are plenty reasons for concern.Fear is an instinct which can sometimes helpfully prompt us to avoid danger, yet other times damagingly paralyses us. In spiritual terms, fear can get the better of us when we forget both how great and how good God is. According to Matthew 14, the disciples in the boat in the storm cried out for fear. In the following updated extract, William Guthrie discusses the debilitating effects of fear in the Lord’s people, before suggesting ways to avoid being wrongly fearful. The people of God are very prone to the wrong kind of fear, when new difficulties appear to them.
What is the wrong kind of fear?God’s people are troubled with a fear that is sometimes called “slavish fear.” It arises from various sources, including the misbelief of what God has said, and forgetting what He has said concerning them. It flows also from fixing on His providence [instead of His Word], and putting the worst possible construction on it.
Another source it flows from is despondency of spirit and heartlessness. That weakens their hands in the use of lawful means for bearing their own trial and working for their own deliverance. Their faith and hope and all goes to wrack and ruin. Then there often arises an inclination to follow some unlawful means for deliverance, and even if they do not actually follow it, still the heart is naturally laid open for such a temptation. Ordinarily, complaints are the fruits of slavish fear.
To summarise, slavish fear consists in an atheistical putting of created things in a channel of independency on God, as if the creature could come and go of its own accord without commission from Him. “It is God who comforteth: who art thou that art afraid of a man that shall die, &c.?” (Isaiah 51:12). The truth is, the Lord’s people had forgotten the omnipotent power and sovereignty of God, and thought that mere humans could do with them what they pleased without God. When you are so minded, it is a hundred to one if you don’t attempt to get out from under the trial in some unlawful way.
Why do God’s people have this fear?First, there is the great ignorance of God’s care for His people.
That is the cause of all their slavish fear, and it is what He challenges His people for. “Thou hast feared every day, and hast forgotten me: who art thou that art afraid of a man that shall die?” (Isaiah 51:12–13) We imagine ourselves as standing alone without God. “There feared they, where no fear was.”
The second reason is unbelief.
Thirdly, there is atheism, a growing sin, i.e., when His people think of God as like some creature, and created things like God, as if created things can work what they wish without Him. They put God above the creature in some things, and the creature above Him in some other things.
The fourth reason is, because his people yield to this fear too soon. You think that you never have a fear without reason. Yes, but you are obliged to shut out those things that look like reasons, when they come in on you. When slavish fear begins to mutter in our bosom for us to harbour it, it makes it prevail.
Why is this fear so damaging?This fear weakens the hands of God’s people in all duties. When they begin to fear out of measure, they lose all, and grow indifferent whether they do duty or not. No one will bide by their duty when their faith fails them; or if they do go about any duty, it will be just as if they are doing it by rote.
This fear also brings discouragement of soul. Nothing can comfort the people of God, where this fear prevails.
Also it brings discomposure of their countenance, which damages the reputation of their religion. Whenever slavish fear gets the upper hand, it makes people look as if they served a hard master, who makes his people undergo things that he will not allow them expenses for.
This fear also disobliges God to work for their deliverance from whatever it is they are afraid of. As it says, “He could do no mighty works, because of their unbelief.”
This fear makes them incapable of understanding their own mercy, when it begins to appear. This is what left the Israelites in Egypt unable to understand what Moses said about their deliverance. When people succumb to this fear, all duty is a burden to them.
Although God may do anything for His people in His sovereignty and mercy, there is no promise we can look to in the Bible that God will help someone who has yielded to slavish fear. James 1:6-7, “Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord, because he asketh not in faith.”
How can this fear be cured?The thing that cures the disciples’ fear in Matthew 14 is Christ approaching to them in favour. Behold, he is coming, but they mistake him. Only bring Christ and the believer together, and whoever they are, He will heal them of all their disputes and diseases. Christ approaches the disciples, and speaks friendly to them, until they heard the words, “It is I, be not afraid,” together with His approaching. What completely allays all their fear is Christ coming in to them, and nothing else does it.
What can we do to avoid this fear?All the people of the Lord should be aware that they have this kind of infirmity. Then, when difficulties are renewed against you, and slavish fear labours to take possession of you even though you have fled to Christ, guard against it, and know why it is so damaging, and encourage yourselves against it.
In a cloudy and dark day, when your fear grows, remember what a care God takes for His people. They are set as a seal upon His heart, and written upon the palms of His hands. He has said, “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye.” Would we be afraid, if we believed that any who trouble the people of God, it is as bad as if they took on God?
Believe this also, that whatever the Lord does, or allows others to do, it shall work together for the good of His people. It is a common truth in everybody’s mouth, certainly, but I may say the least believed truth in all the Bible! You may not question the truth of the promise, but yet you stop short of applying it to yourselves. I offer you that promise, and you put it to yourselves, and solidly acquiesce with it in your heart, that all the distresses and afflictions His people are under in Britain and Ireland shall work together for their good. If it is so, why then do you not believe it, and find peace from fear?
Believe also that nothing befalls His people, except what comes by His providence. You say, “That’s true, but there are many things that we meet with, that God does not allow.” I say there is nothing you meet with, but it comes either by His active or permissive providence. There is no evil done in the city but what the Lord knows. That the ministers in Britain and Ireland are put out of their houses, kirks, and lands, and banished out of the country, is all His providence, and shall work together for their good. If so, then your fears can be quieted.
Know that there is nothing to be feared, except God and an evil conscience. As a man in Ireland said to a bishop, when he threatened to imprison him, he answered, “I know no prison worse than an evil conscience.” If you resolve to fear nothing but the God of heaven and an evil conscience, you need not fear people, for the fear of these will quiet all your other fears.
← The heavenly wisdom of a soft answerFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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The heavenly wisdom of a soft answerIn Prince Harry’s recent memoir we can see the effect of the insatiable voyeuristic appetite for celebrity gossip. We no doubt feel sympathy for those whose lives are picked over endlessly by commentators who seem to say what they like with little fear of contradiction. Perhaps we have all felt the impulse sometimes to tell our own side of the story, take control of the narrative, speak our own truth. There are more wise and less wise ways of doing this. Laying bare your heart does not necessarily lead to acceptance and respect, it can sometimes give more fodder for ridicule. Worse, telling your story may involve you in making accusations against other people. Now you have also shredded other people’s reputations. So the drama rolls on and the prospects of reconciliation fade further away. And it’s all words! The consequences of our words can sometimes be enormous, as the apostle James pointed out long ago. In the following updated extract, David Dickson explains James’s insistence on the need to bridle our tongues. It is impossible without God’s grace, yet the counterintuitive act of responding with meekness when we are provoked is the way of heavenly wisdom and it leads to peace and righteousness. Christians should strive by God’s grace to be people of integrity – like a fountain which sends out one consistent stream of water, not alternating between the pure and the defiled – and so show who really is in control in their hearts.James chapter 3 contains two pieces of advice. The first is for governing the tongue (verses 1–13), and the second is to do with the meek wisdom which assuages the evils of the tongue, and avoids strifes and contentions (verses 14–18).
Control your tongue and you control your whole selfJames tells us to bridle the tongue, that is, to hold back from invective, and rigid rehearsals of other people’s vices or infirmities. “Be not many masters,” he says (verse 1), i.e., do not arrogate to yourselves the authority of a master over others, and too much liberty to carp at things (as many do), but instead bridle your tongues.
One reason for this is because those who unjustly censure others will suffer heavier judgement from the God who avenges injuries (verse 1). Also, seeing we all have many failings (“in many things we offend all,” verse 2), it is better for us to deal more diligently with the infirmities of others, not to arrogate the authority of judging without a calling, or to be unjust in judging.
Anyone who knows how to govern their tongue shows the sign of being “perfect,” someone who can moderate all their actions (verse 2). Anyone who cannot moderately rule their tongue, but in all things carps at other people’s behaviour, has the sign of being a hypocrite.
If you are guiding the horse’s bridle, you have control of the horse; and if you have your hand on the rudder, you are steering the ship. Even so, if you have your tongue under control, you rein in your whole body, and keep your outward actions in check (verse 3–5).
Great care is needed in governing the tongue, because of how gloriously it can boast. It can on both sides perform much good – in speaking the truth, in constancy, in letting things slide, in courtesy, and so on – and it can do much evil, in lies, reproaches, calumnies and so on (verse 5).
Let fly with words and you stir up a world of evilAs a small fire can kindle and devour may things, so the tongue, unless it is appeased and bridled, can stir up a world of evils, and create infinite sins (verse 5–6). Although it is a small part, it is nevertheless a part of the body, which means it can involve all the other members of the body in what it does. It can defile the whole body with wickednesses, and with its wickedness set on fire the wheel of all our natural faculties.
When the tongue is ready to serve the devil in this way, there is some affinity between the evil tongue and hell (verse 6). From the devil the tongue can send out enough flames of lies, slanders and quarrellings to burn the whole world.
There is no kind of animals, but may be tamed by human reason or skill, and experience teaches that some of all kinds have been tamed (verse 7). But the tongue can be tamed by no human reason or art. It is an unquiet and an unruly evil, full of deadly poison, by which it is ready to bring, and does bring, deadly mischiefs to others (verse 8). Therefore you must by God’s supernatural grace diligently endeavour to bridle the tongue.
Be honest in your words and you show you have supernatural graceThe tongue is mutable, deceitful, crafty. One minute it makes itself out to be very good, blessing God, the next minute it openly shows its real nature, by cursing other people (and indirectly God, according to whose likeness people are made). This it does from the same mouth, sometimes sending forth blessing, sometimes cursing (verse 9). But this is absurd and monstrous, and must in no wise be tolerated by those who belong to Christ (verse 10).
James then uses four similes – a fountain, a fig-tree, a vine, and the sea (verse 11–12) – arguing from these natural impossibilities to expose this irrational incoherence in our practice. It is simply not natural that sweet and bitter water should flow from the same channel of the fountain, or that a fig-tree should bring forth grapes, and a vine figs, or that the same sea should yield both salt water and sweet. So reason will not allow us to think that it is the tongue of someone who is regenerated, which, although sometimes it blesses, yet being unbridled, it otherwise curses – for a bad tree does not bear good fruits.
This is why it is so important for the regenerate to follow the simplicity of holiness in speech, and to endeavour to bridle their tongues.
Wisdom consists in avoiding contentionIn the second part of the chapter, James gives another piece of advice. He exhorts us to wisdom joined with meekness, which is the remedy for the evils and jealousies of the tongue. If anyone is going to show themselves a prudent Christian, they ought to show it in innocence and meekness.
Laying aside meekness, and instead cherishing contradictory vices in the heart, such as jealousy and contention, is no matter of glorying, but rather of shame (verse 14). Indeed, it is effectively lying against the truth – falsely boasting yourself to be spiritually wise (or, Christians) but in fact showing yourself to be wicked. This is why we must make an effort to strive after the wisdom of meekness.
Wisdom does not lead to vengefulnessThe wisdom of contention, envying, revenging of personal attacks, is not the wisdom which descends from heaven, from God. Instead it is earthly, sensual and devilish (verse 15). Its origins are in fallen nature and the devil. Where there is not wisdom with meekness, but envy and contention, there tumults, seditions, and every wickedness reigns (verse 16). These are more reasons to pursue the wisdom of meekness.
Wisdom makes peace and is peaceableIn verse 17, James gives eight characteristics of heavenly wisdom, the wisdom which is joined with meekness. (1) It is pure and chaste, i.e., it holds fast truth and holiness, lest it be in any way polluted. (2) It is peaceable, avoiding contentions. (3) It endeavours after equity. (4) It easily gives place to right reason. (5) It is full of mercy towards those who err and sin. (6) It is full of good fruits, omitting nothing of those things which are fitting in those who are good and pious. (7) It does not enquire suspiciously into the blemishes of others. (8) It is without hypocrisy, with which chiefly carnal wisdom is delighted. All these are reasons why we ought to endeavour after wisdom joined with meekness.
Those who endeavour after this wisdom joined with meekness, simultaneously endeavour to make peace, or to be peaceable themselves (verse 18). They are in peace. They work righteousness, or increase their holiness. They sow to themselves for time to come, and for life eternal, so that they may reap the fruit of righteousness in due time.
← Why love is one of God's commandmentsThe wrong kind of fear →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Why love is one of God’s commandmentsThe love between God’s children is a stronger bond than mere niceness, it is something definite, active and fruitful. It is also something that God commands His children to show to one another, and it is pleasing to God when they do walk in obedience to this commandment. In the following updated extract, Hugh Binning outlines some of the reasons why God likes love enough to command it, based on 1 John 3:23: “this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.”The relationship between love, lifestyle and faithI wish you to rightly observe this conjunction, that these are inseparably knit together, love to God and love to other people – delight to do His will – to love Him and live to Him. Do not deceive yourselves with vain words. If you do not find the doctrine of grace laying this restraint on your heart, you are yet in your sins. This is the reasoning of a believing soul: “Shall I, who am dead to sin, live any longer therein? Shall I not delight in those commandments, when Christ has delivered me from the curse of the law?” Although that person falls and comes short, yet the pressure of their heart is in that direction.
At the same time, pay attention to the order. You must first believe on the Son, and then love Him, and live to Him. You must first flee to His righteousness, and then the righteousness of the law shall be wrought in you.
Therefore do not weary yourselves to no purpose. Do not wrong your own souls by seeking to reverse this order, which was established for your joy and salvation. Know that you must first meet with satisfaction in all the commands of Christ, before your obedience to any of them can be accepted. Then, having met with that, know that the sincere endeavour of your soul, and the affectionate impulse of your heart towards your duty, is accepted.
And if you find yourself afterwards surcharged with guilt and inconsistent walking, yet you know that the way is to begin at this again, to believe in the Son. This is the round you must walk, as long as you are in the body. When you are defiled, run into the fountain, and when you are washed, strive to keep your garments clean, but if defiled again, get your hearts washed from wickedness.
How far-reaching love isNow love is a very comprehensive command. It is the fulfilling of the whole law (Romans 8:10, Matthew 22:37–38. It is indeed the true principle and pure fountain of our obedience unto God and men. All fruits of the Spirit are moral virtues that grow out of the believer. Whether pleasing to God, or refreshing to other people, they are all virtually in the root of love. That is why the apostle names one for all, i.e., brotherly love, as the bond of perfection (Colossians 3:14).
Love is a bundle of many divine graces, a company or society of many Christian virtues combined together. They are named bowels of mercies, long suffering, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, forbearance, and forgiveness, all which are tied to the believer’s girdle by charity. So where love is, every good comes. After love comes a troop of so many sweet endowments and ornaments, and where love is lacking (as truly it is the epidemic disease of the time), many sins abound, for when iniquity abounds, “the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12).
Oh! that is our temperament, or rather our distempered nature — our love is cold, and our passions are hot! When charity goes away, out come the wild and savage beasts of darkness, i.e., bitter envying and strife, rigid censuring and judging, unmercifulness and implacableness of spirit towards others’ failings and offences. Self-love keeps the throne, and all the rest are her attendants. For where self-love and pride is, there is contention, strife, envy, and every evil work, and all manner of confusion. They lead one another as in a chain of darkness (Proverbs 13:10; James 3:16).
Do not think that love is a mere compliment, an idle feeling. It more real than that, more vital. It has bowels of mercy, which move when others are moved, and which bring their neighbour’s misery into the inmost seat of the heart, and make your spirit a companion in their misery. It is also exercised in forbearing and forgiving. Charity is not easily provoked — therefore it can forbear, it is easily appeased — therefore it can forgive, it is not soon displeased, or hard to be pleased, “forbearing and forgiving one another in love.”
How helpful love isFocus more then on this grace of love. See it to be the fulfilling of the law, for “the end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.” The end of the law is not strife and debate, nor the intricate and perplexed matters which bring endless questions and no edification.
Though people claim to be motivated by conscience and scripture, yet they violate charity, the great end of both, which mainly strives for edification in truth and love. It is a violent perversion of the commandment to love, to overstretch every point of conscience, or every point of difference, so far as to rend Christian peace and unity. All these names of war, and all these fiery contentions among us, what have they been kindled by if not the lack of charity? What James says of the tongue, I may likewise say of uncharitableness and self-love — they set on fire the course of nature, and they are set on fire of hell.
True zeal and the love of God is a fire that in its own place has a temperate heat, and does not burn or consume what is round about it. But our zeal is like fire that is mixed with some gross material, a preying, devouring, and consuming thing, zeal down in the lower region of man’s heart, where it is mixed with many gross corruptions, which are as oil and fuel to it, and gives it an extreme intemperate destroying nature.
How significant love isBut then consider that this commandment of love is our Lord and Saviour’s last testamentary injunction to His disciples (John 13:34–35). “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
It is Christ’s last will, and it is given us as a token and badge of discipleship. Every profession has its own signs and rules, every order has its own symbol, every rank its own character. Here is the differential or unique character and identification of a Christian — brotherly love. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
I remember a story of a dying father who called his sons to him on his death bed. Having sent for a bundle of arrows, he tested them one by one if they could break them, and when they had all tried this in vain, he caused them to untie the bundle, and take the arrows one by one, and so they were easily broken. By this he gave them to understand that their stability and strength would consist in unity and concord, but if love and charity were broken, they were exposed to great hazard.
I think our Lord and Saviour gives such a precept unto his disciples at his departure out of this world (“A new command I give unto you,” John 13:34) to show them that the perfection of the body, into which they were all called as members, consisted in that bond of charity.
Indeed love is not only a bond or bundle of perfection in respect of graces, but in regard of the church too. It is that bond or tie which knits all the members into one perfect body (Colossians 3:14–16). Without this bond, everything will necessarily be tears, rags, and distractions.
How pleasing love is to GodTruly believing in the Son must be gratifying to God, not only from the general nature of obedience to His will, but also because this does the most honour both to the Father and to the Son. The Father counts Himself much honoured when we honour the Son, and there is no honour the creature can be in a capacity to give Him like this, to cast all our hope and hang all our happiness on Him (John 5:23–24), to set to our seal that He is true and faithful (John 3:33), which is done by believing.
But most of all, it is pleasing in His sight because the Father’s good pleasure centres on the same point as the soul’s good pleasure, that is, on the well beloved Son, Christ. Therefore faith must needs be well pleasing to the Father, for what else is faith but the soul’s delight and satisfaction in the Son. As the Father is already well pleased with His death and sufferings, so He holds him out in the gospel, that you may be as well pleased with Him as He is. This is believing indeed, to be pleased with Him as the Father is pleased, and this pleases the Father too.
Oh that you could understand this! The gospel is not brought to you so that you would reconcile God, and bring about a change in His affection, but instead, to beseech you to be reconciled to God, to take away all hostility out of your heart. This is the business which preachers have to do, to persuade you that the Father holds Himself abundantly contented with His Son. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And to move you to be as well contented with Him as He is, he says, “Hear Him!” “I hear Him for you, now you hear Him for Me! I hear Him interceding for you, now you hear Him beseeching you!”
This serves to take away all ground of suspicions concerning our welcome and acceptance with God. It cannot but be an acceptable and pleasing thing to God, when the affection and desire of your soul falls on and gathers into your bosom with His good pleasure Christ His Son!
How harmonious love is with God’s loveAnd then, it is well-pleasing to God that we love one another, not only because He sees His own image and likeness in our love (for there is nothing in which the Christian more eminently resembles their Father, or more evidently appears to be a child of the Highest, than in free loving all, especially the household of faith, and forbearing and forgiving one another, and so God cannot choose but like it well), but especially because your love centres on the same objects as His love — these whom the Father so loved that He gave His only begotten Son for them, and the Son so loved them, that He gave Himself for them. If these are your delight, and you show forbearance to them as the Father and the Son has done, that concentration of affections into one point cannot but be pleasing to Him.
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How to defy discouragementsMuch as we would like to start a new year with a sense of optimism, sometimes the outlook only seems forbidding. January blues may conspire with nagging feelings of being spiritually in a low place to make Christians discouraged. The Covenanting minister John Welwood (1649–1679) was aware of many reasons for pessimism, yet in the following updated letter he wrote of ways to turn every possible discouragement into a reason to take comfort.8 July 1675
Dear sister,
We have to live by faithIf I had things according to my own wishes, I would have the light of the Lord’s countenance shining over on me, and the upper hand over all my enemies. But when I was restless in this way and unsatisfied, I was taught to live by faith – a very profitable thing for us, and pleasing to God, but we are so backward to it, because we do not want to believe until we can see.
Yet the Lord is much displeased when we doubt His love, especially since we have so many evidences of it, since He has often manifested Himself to us, and worked in our souls. Unless He is actually smiling, we will not believe that He loves us! If He dandled us in His lap for twenty years, and then hide Himself from us, we would instantly be suspicious whether He had ever loved us at all. But it is much more pleasing to Him, and profitable and comforting to ourselves, to venture to believe that He does love us. He does not play tricks on His people. We may build on His Word and His work in our souls, for Christ is no dissembler.
I know nothing that should discourage a Christian. There is not one discouragement in all the Word of God, but many are His encouragements. But through our folly and unbelief we lose the comfort of them.
We don’t need to be discouraged by guiltShould guilt discourage us? God “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God through him.” Christ says to the Father, “If the Christian owes thee anything, put that on my account.”
Or by God’s wrathShould wrath discourage us? “He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,” and, “There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”
Or by our ignoranceShould our darkness and ignorance discourage us? He is continually with us, and leads us like a flock. Our safety lies not in our wisdom and leading, but His. Even if we are foolish, or pilot is skilful and careful.
Or by our sinfulnessShould a body of sin and death discourage us? We certainly have good reason to cry, “O wretched ones that we are!” It deadens and deceives us, and holds us back from duty. Yet His grace is sufficient for us. Not grace within us, but grace outside us is where our safety lies. He is the one that keeps us from temptations and delivers us from evil.
Or by our small progressShould our little growth in grace and in the knowledge of Christ discourage us? Indeed it is our great complaint, “Our leanness, our leanness!” It’s fitting that folk grow downwards in low thoughts of themselves, for He dwells with the humble. The more folk have of grace, the more they see of corruption, and the more they have of faith, the more they see of unbelief.
But perhaps we make an idol of grace, and prize it more than its author, the Lord Jesus. He may well say to us, “Am I not worth more to you than never so much grace?” The God of all grace is ours – the fountain is ours – we are complete in Him, and He is fit to hold the purse-strings for us. It is better that He should hold our treasure than we ourselves. We would want to have as much as would serve us for all our journey right now. This is always the aim of our hearts. We want to have a stock of grace inside us, so that we would not need to rely on Christ, or be beholden to Him, for continual supply. We think it a poor life to live like beggars, but that’s because we think that what’s in our hand is surer, and will more easily be effective, than what is in Christ’s hand! But Adam had his stock in his own hand, and see how quickly he went bankrupt.
If we had never so much grace, we would ruin ourselves if Christ’s grace were not daily and moment-by-moment keeping us. It is not our grace and worthiness that commends us to God, but the righteousness of Christ. We are obliged to God for the grace we get, not He to us. If He chooses to keep us with little in hand, we ought to be content, and not fall out with Him because He will not fill our purses with money – after all, we have access to the treasure house!
Or by a sense of distance from the LordDoes a sense of desertion discourage us? Sometimes there are many fogs and clouds in the air, but it is all bright above. Though to our senses His love changes, yet with Him there is no variableness, nor shadow of turning. He loves us just as much when He hides His face as when He smiles, and He has many wise and holy purposes in all the afflictions we meet with. They are to ballast us. Also they purge out our sins and make us partakers of His holiness. They keep us waking and watching.
Our Lord will not leave us nor forsake us. We may be sure of victory. And what an inheritance we are predestined to! It sits all wrong to be unthankful and discontent when the Lord has showed us that mercy, to teach and instruct us that we should not walk in the way of the world. He could have left us to run to the same excess of riot with them, to forget God and our own soul altogether. Is not God our Father? Is not Christ our husband? Is not the Spirit our constant companion? Are not angels our attendants? Are not the devil, the wicked, sin, death, and hell all under our feet? Is not the creation all working together for our good? And heaven our home?
Satan and our folly combine together to make us pore over the things that will sadden us and keep us from seeing our privileges. Here is our duty: to rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and continue instant in prayer.
AdviceNow as for your situation, cast all your care upon him, for He careth for you. To trust Him honours Him greatly. Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and do nothing to offend Him. He is a shield to them that trust in Him. Remember also that afflictions are the gateway to heaven. Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your mind.
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Six things to pray for in the new yearAs a new year opens, what will the future hold? What are we justified to hope for, and what is realistic to work towards? In the prayer of Moses the man of God, we get an insight into what a bright and desirable prospect would look like for a believer and the church collectively, and what we can legitimately throw our energies into striving for with the Lord’s help and blessing. Time seems to be passing so quickly and there are so many things that cause grief even at times when we are conditioned to take an optimistic view. In this light David Dickson comments on the six things Moses prays for in Psalm 90 in the following updated extract.1. Wisdom for eternityIn the concluding part of Psalm 90, Moses prays for six things in response to the short and sorrowful life of the Lord’s people. The first petition is for wisdom to provide in time for the remedy of sin and everlasting misery, before this short and uncertain life ends. “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (verse 12).
Although our life is both short and uncertain as to how soon it may end, yet our tendency is to look on its indefiniteness as if this meant its duration will be infinite and our years innumerable. When Moses prays, “Teach us to number our days,” it implies some acknowledgement of this.
It is easy for us to calculate how many of our days are already past, and easy to consider how few there are to come by the course of nature (or God’s ordinary providence), yet this lesson must be taught by God before we can make any profitable use of it. “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.”
The only remedy for sin, and the wrath of God, and the misery of mortal humans for sin, is the wisdom which is taught by God in the Scripture, i.e., that sinners should seek reconciliation with God through the sacrifice and obedience of Christ, and keep friendship with God by the power of His spirit.
The right use of the things we see manifested in our lives of sin and wrath and judgments is to deal with God by prayer, not only that He would inform us of our danger and duty, not only that He would reveal to our minds the mystery of grace and reconciliation, but also that He would effectually move our will, heart and affections by faith which worketh by love, so that we would make application of the remedy for ourselves. “So that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
- Comfort from GodThe second petition is that God would not only remove the evidences of His displeasure against His people, but that He would also now at length show Himself to be reconciled by changing His dealings with them in a course of comfort. “Return (O Lord), how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants” (verse 13).
Although the Lord does not go away from His people (He always remains with the in one or another gracious working) yet in terms of His comforting presence He may turn away until His people request Him to return.
When the Lord does withdraw His comforting presence from His people, however short a time it may be, it sems a long time to us in this short life. “Return, O Lord, how long?”
Although the Lord does not change His affections or repent like a man, yet He can change His dealings, like a father who commiserates his child’s affliction, and tries to cherish and comfort him after disciplining him.
“Let it repent thee concerning thy servants.” Although we are very slight servants, and sorely smitten for our disobedience, yet we should not cast away our calling, nor act as if our relationship with God has been dissolved. Instead we should cling to Him in any way we can. Here they still call themselves His servants.
- Spiritual refreshmentThe third petition is for some spiritual comfort and refreshment to their souls, which would keep them in good heart and in hope of eternal salvation. “O satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad in our days” (verse 14).
When a soul is conscious of God’s wrath, he or she has as great a hunger for spiritual comfort as a famished man has for food. “O satisfy us!” The renewed confirmation of God’s mercy, pardoning sin and giving us a clear sight of our reconciliation, is able to comfort us in our greatest sorrow. “O satisfy us with thy mercy!”
As physical hunger cannot tolerate delay, so neither can a sense of God’s wrath, or the desire for favourable acceptance long endure the absence of consolation. After a night of trouble they earnestly expect a morning of comfort. “Satisfy us early!”
A poor hungry soul, lying under a sense of wrath, knows it will be happy for ever if only it can find again what it felt before – one sweet fill of God’s mercy made known to it. “Then we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
However great our trouble, and however long it lasts, the renewed sense of God’s reconciliation to us seasons and sweetens all our trouble, recompenses all our losses, and makes our situation in this short and miserable life very comfortable. “Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil” (verse 15).
- God’s work to growThe fourth petition is that God would continue the work of building and enlarging His own church, and of glorifying Himself in their sight, and in the sight of their posterity from generation to generation. “Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children” (verse 16).
The building, purging, enlarging and propagating of the church, and the manifesting of God’s care for it, is the Lord’s own proper work. He will not give it up. Although He may hide His activity for a time, yet He is still at work, and His people should pray for and may expect the manifestation of it.
As it is the glory of the Lord to manifest His grace and mercy to His people, or the visible church, so correspondingly it is the desire of the Lord’s people to have Him glorified, no less than to have themselves preserved or comforted.
The church in every age should have a care that their posterity would participate in the same merciful work of God which they have themselves experienced, and that their children would profit by how their predecessors were corrected.
- The beauty of the LordThe fifth petition is that God would beautify His people. He beautifies them with His holy ordinances, with order and unity and peace, with a holy lifestyle, and with the evidences that He is dwelling among them as His own covenanted people, proper subjects of His kingdom, and those who belong to His own family.
God is the glory of His people – their beauty and ornamentation is in Him. This is how they are made honourable in the sight of all nations, as the bride is made beautiful by her clothing and ornaments. This is how His people should think of Him, and value Him, and love Him. They should remember Him and seek their beauty in Him.
The time when the beauty of the Lord is on His people, and seen to be on them, is when they are behaving like His covenanted people – when they are walking in faith and obedience before Him, and is showing Himself to be their covenanted God, protecting and blessing them.
- A blessing on what we do for GodThe sixth petition is that God would bless the endeavours of His people for promoting God’s work among them, and for transmitting His ordinances and truth to their posterity. “Establish thou the work of our hands” (verse 17).
If we pray for the Lord’s work to progress in His church, we must resolve not to be idle, but to commit ourselves to endeavour, in our places and callings, according to our ability, to promote His work, just as His servants and instruments should be doing.
When we do go about building the Lord’s church and promoting Christianity, we must acknowledge that the success of our labours depends only on God, who must be entreated for the blessing.
Our work is so mixed and defiled with imperfections and sins that God would only be just if He withdrew Himself from it. We must therefore all the more earnestly deal with Him to keep His own hand on His work, and keep our hands in it.
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Four comforts as time passesAs humans we are constrained by time. The passing of one year to the next is something entirely out of our control – all we can do is mark dates and recognise milestones. The only constant from one generation to the next is God. He is outside of time, because time is something that He created. The amazing thing is that as He stands outside of time and remains entirely unaffected by the passing of moments and millennia, He has chosen to make Himself a safe haven for sinful creatures vulnerable to change and decay. This thought was a tremendous comfort to Moses, the man of God, in his prayer to God in Psalm 90. David Dickson in this updated extract identifies the four sources of comfort that Moses draws from God’s unchangingness and unchangeableness for sinners who are reconciled to Him, especially when they may be wrestling with the swift passage of time and difficulties and sorrows in life.It is sin that has procured the shortness and the miseries of this life, as Moses lamentably sets out before the Lord, who is full of pity. But his prayer opens with a fourfold comfort for the church against temporal troubles and this world’s miseries.
- The Lord’s kindness to His people in all agesThe first comfort is drawn from the Lord’s kindness to His people in all ages. “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations” (Psalm 90:1)
When we pray therefore, we must lay hold on the offer of God’s kindness according to the covenant of grace, and look on God as gracious to us in Christ. Moses here, and others elsewhere, when they come as supplicants in prayer they begin with renewed acts and expressions of faith.
God’s people in any given place and age are one body with God’s people in all ages preceding and following. They may lay claim to all the privileges of God’s people before them. Here the church in Moses’ time joins itself with all the Lord’s people in former times, for the use of succeeding ages which were yet to come. “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.”
The Lord’s people are strangers in the earth, partly because they have no certain residence in this world, and partly because they have such a poor reception among the people of the world, but especially because at heart, in their affections, they are pilgrims in this world. However, this does not mean they lack a resting place. They have a dwelling in heaven, that is, God Himself, in whom they dwell by faith. They find in Him rest, and food, and protection, and comfort. In fact, in His heart they have had a lodging “in all generations.”
The troubles and miseries of this life make the godly to search out what participation they have in God, and another life. What pinches them on earth makes them seek their abundance in heaven.
- The decree of the eternal covenantThe second comfort of the believer against the miseries of this short life is taken by Moses from the decree of their election and the eternal covenant of their redemption, settled in the purpose and counsel of the blessed Trinity for their advantage. In this covenant it was agreed before the world existed that the Word to be incarnate would be the Saviour of the elect. Moses says, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (verse 2).
Here the asserting of the eternity of God is with reference to His own chosen people. To say, “Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations, and Thou art God from everlasting to everlasting,” is effectively to say, “Thou art from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God in purpose and affection toward us Thy people, and so Thou art our God from everlasting in regard of Thy eternal purpose of love electing us, and in regard of appointing redemption for us by the Redeemer.”
When we discern God’s goodwill to us in time, we may arise to God’s goodwill to us before time. From the grace showed to us in time, we may conclude that grace and goodwill were purposed toward us and ordained for us before time. This is what the psalmist is teaching us. When he has said, “From generation to generation, thou hast been our dwelling place,” that is, “in all time past Thou hast been our God,” he subjoins, “Before the mountains were brought forth … Thou art God,” that is, “the same God unchangeably in Thy purpose and love toward us before time, from everlasting.”
Also, from special love shown to us in time, we may conclude not only that His love has been toward us not only before time from everlasting, but also that it shall continue towards us in time to come for ever. “Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God,” he says, that is, “the same strong God, immutable in Thy purpose and love toward us first and last.” Indeed faith cannot fix itself till by the warrant of God’s Word and feeling of His gracious working in us in time, it joins God’s work of grace and His purpose of grace together.
This is why the apostle Paul leads the believer in Christ to election in Christ before the world was, and to predestination to adoption by Jesus Christ according to His good pleasure before the world was (Ephesians 1:1, 3, 4, 5). Similarly in 2 Timothy he leads us to a completed covenant before the world was made, between God the Father and God the Son, according to which all conditions required of the Redeemer are settled, and all the elect, all the redeemed, are delivered over to the Son, the Word to be incarnate, the intended Redeemer, and all saving grace is given over into Christ’s hand, for the sake of the elect, to be let out to them in due time: “Grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:9).
The nature of God which is to be one and the same, unchangeable from everlasting to everlasting, is the solid ground for faith to reason things out in this manner.
The knowledge of God’s eternal goodwill to us is a sufficient cordial to soften and sweeten all our grief and affliction in this life. The very reason why this doctrine is prefixed to what follows in the psalm about temporal miseries, is to comfort the Lord’s people against all the troubles of this life.
- The resurrection of the deadA third comfort Moses mentions is from the resurrection of the dead. “Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men” (verse 3).
Although God puts into effect the decree which has appointed all men once to die, yet He has also appointed a resurrection, by which He will powerfully recall and make to return from death all Adam’s posterity. “Thou turnest man to destruction,” and so all must die, “and sayest, Return, ye children of men,” and so all must rise again.
It costs the Lord but a word to make the dead rise again, or to make those that are destroyed to return again. “Thou sayest.” His word has already gone out about the resurrection, and it is altogether operative. It will prove fully effectual at length.
- The shortness of time until the resurrectionThe fourth comfort is drawn from the shortness of the time between anyone’s death and their return from the dead in the resurrection. Perhaps someone might object that it is a long time since the resurrection was promise, till the time that it will be really accomplished.
But although it may seem a long time between a person’s death and their resurrection, yet before God it is only a short time. For that matter it is nothing in comparison with eternity. “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night” (verse 4).
Unless we reckon time as God reckons it, we cannot but be weary and think it long, and wonder at the delay in the performing of His promises, and so fall into temptation and unbelief.
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Reasons why believers love Jesus more than anyone elseThe deeper we reflect on who our Lord Jesus Christ is and where He has come from, the more it serves to highlight the adorable beauty of what He has done for His sinful people. If by faith we accept His gifts of salvation – what He has done and what He gives – the only appropriate response is to love Him. The following updated extract gives Richard Cameron’s reflections on this theme as he expounds the love for Christ that animates the soul of a believer.Love is misplaced if is not bestowed on Jesus Christ Himself. David bestowed his love well when he said, “Whom have I in the heavens but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee” (Psalm 73). In Song 3:3 the spouse says, “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” It is not a mouth or lip love, it is a soul’s love.
Think of where Christ came fromWhat is His birth? You know if a man comes to make suit to a woman, she will be sure to enquire what parents he is descended from. And is there any like our Lord? He is descended of honourable parentage. He is the Son of the Father. He is the Son of God, and as He is man He is the Son of David.
This is a wonderful thing, that the Son of God should offer marriage to the most insignificant man or woman in all the land. You would be very impressed if the king, having one lawfully begotten son, was to send him to you, and desire marriage with a low-ranking girl. But oh wonderful! God has sent His only begotten Son, who is God equal with Himself—He has sent Him down from heaven to earth, to discuss terms for marriage with the poorest believer there.
Think of the possessions He hasJesus Christ is heir of all things. All power in heaven and earth is given unto Him. Such is the believer’s Beloved! It is He that has power, ruling over heaven, earth, and hell, and the absolute disposal of all things. He has grace and glory, and every good thing to give unto them that wait on Him. Is it any wonder then that the spouse says, “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” She could not endure the loss when He absented Himself. But many, because they cannot get the present things, think little of Christ. Some even say, “If you are faithful and honest, you get nothing! So much misery comes of following Christ; follow Christ and lose everything!” You think Christ is not a good husband, since His followers are so badly treated on earth.
But I will tell you—nay, I assure you—that the believer has as good a right to the world as anyone else, and the one who is cast out of house and hold for Christ has as good a right to it as anyone. Oh then, saw ye Him whom my soul loveth in this night of persecution on the Church—when the Lord’s people are meeting with such bitter things? They will however have much more than their persecutors have. Supposing you did not have twopence to rub together, you have more than all the persecutors have—you have Himself, and that is more than all other things.
Think of His precious personLet us consider what Jesus is, as to His person. You know when a young man makes suit to a young woman, she not only asks what is his birth and what he has, but has some desire to know what he is in himself. Is he a well-favoured man? So the spouse goes to the watchmen, and to the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, to professing Christians in general, and says, “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, that if ye find my well beloved, ye tell him, that I am sick of love.” She cannot go without Him any longer.
But they reply, “What is thy beloved more than another beloved? that thou makest so much noise about him.” There are many who say, “What do you mean, making so much ado about Christ?”
“Indeed,” says she, “my beloved is white and ruddy; fairer than the sons of men, and the chiefest of ten thousand.” And indeed so He is, and always will be to any who know the power of religion. He will be to them the pearl of great price. He is refreshing to them every way; He fills the desires of the hungry and longing soul. “His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.”
Love Christ for taking our natureNow let us consider what Christ has done for the church and for believers. Our Lord has been at much pains, and cost too, for believers. Will this not give us reason to love him?
I tell you one thing He has done for us: He has taken on Him our nature.
This is a very familiar thing that you have heard of very often, but it is soon forgotten, and little thought of. He took upon Him our nature. He took not upon Him the nature of angels, but the nature of poor ruined man. Oh, this is a heart-engaging consideration!
Many think nothing of it, that Christ left His place in heaven, came out from the Father’s bosom, and took upon Him our nature. But is it not a great wonder? The eternal Son of God, the second person of the glorious Trinity, came down here on earth, and took on Him the nature of the seed of Abraham!
O wonderful condescension! Many think nothing of it, but let me tell you, poor sinners could never otherwise have gone up to heaven to Him. No; for if He had appeared like Himself, the second person of the ever-blessed Trinity, if He had appeared in His regal robes of glory and majesty, we could not have looked near Him. The Lord became bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. And should not this engage us to love Him very much?
Love Christ for taking the form of a servantHe not only took on Him our nature, but He took on Him the form of a servant. He came not only like man, but like an insignificant, low-ranking man. Indeed, had He come like a rich or great man, poor folk would not have got to come near Him—not so much as to touch the hem of His garment. But our Lord has His own way of coming. He comes like a poor mean man into the world, and He goes ofttimes to poor men’s houses. And seeing He came in such a poor mean way, should not this make us look to Him?
Love Christ for taking all our infirmitiesI will tell you further what He has done. He has taken on Him all our infirmities and our diseases. “He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. He was tempted in all things like unto us, that he might be able to succour them that are tempted.” Here there may be some that are hungry, thirsty, and cold, as were some after the affair at Pentland. Although it has not been exactly the same with those who were at Bothwell, at Pentland they were likely to perish in the woods. They were both cold and hungry and thirsty. You know what persecutions they suffered by enemies. But may not this be matter of comfort to all sufferers in affliction: “We have not an high priest that cannot be touched with our infirmities,” but one who was exercised with sad afflictions, and suffered, and was persecuted in His body, in our nature, and therefore knows well how to support and succour His people in all their afflictions. And should not this engage us to love Him, and to desire conformity to Him? For indeed He knows well how to see to us, and how to comfort us under all cases and conditions.
Love Christ for bearing the wrath of GodI tell you further yet, what He has done for us. He bore the wrath of God for believers, for all that come to God in and through Him. This is a strong reason for all the people of God to love Him with their whole heart and soul – that He has borne the wrath that would have crushed all the elect, yea, all the world, and kept them in the place of torment for ever and ever. He bore the wrath that made Him sweat great drops of blood, and cry out, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” What shall I say? He was so deserted of God as made Him cry out on the cross, “Eli, Eli, lama sabbachthani? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” I think the person that has soul’s love to Christ has good reason to and may well bear the wrath of man: for that wrath is far inferior to the wrath that Christ has borne for His people. Oh, how this ought to endear Christ to us!
Love Christ for dying for usI will tell you what else Christ has done for believers. Listen carefully. He has even died for them, even the cursed death of the cross. This is how He has taken away the sting of natural death, and He will keep us from eternal death if we believe in Him; for while “we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.”
Love Christ for going into the grave for usChrist not only died for us, but went down and perfumed the grave for believers, so that they may say, “O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?” Take note. For, I think, if you are believers you will have love to Him on this account. Those who have gone to the scaffold for Christ did it cheerfully, as if their dying day was the best day that ever they saw in their life. They were sometimes so joyful that their souls, as it were, leaped out of their bodies, because our Lord has gone through death and the grave for them. That is why they have the victory and have overcome death and the grave.
Love Christ for rising again for usWhich leads us to something else that He has also done for believers, and that is, He rose again and overcame death. But oh, how few are buried with Him in baptism! How few have mortified every sin and corruption arising within them, that they may partake of His resurrection unto eternal life and salvation!
Love Christ for interceding for usLastly, I will tell you another thing that Christ does to make Himself loveable to us. He is interceding always at the Father’s right hand for you, if you are a believer. Christ’s praying refers to every believer in the Church of Scotland. He prays even for ministers and members who have largely given up praying for Him and His cause! And this is how He “is able to save all that come unto Him; because He ever lives to make intercession for us.”
I say, consider these things, and you will think it no wonder that the believer loves Him above anyone and everything else whatsoever!
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Are we born innocent?Are we sinners because we do bad things, or do we do bad things because we are sinners? A recent survey in the US found that a clear majority of professing evangelicals would say that we are born innocent. This optimistic view of human nature may well chime with what many would like to think, yet the Bible paints a much bleaker picture of fallen human nature, with Paul going so far as to say that by nature we are “children of wrath.” Without a clear picture of the seriousness and urgency of the problem of our sinfulness, we are unlikely to put much effort into how we can be saved from it. The God whose grace rescues us from our sin will also seem less glorious than He really is. In the following updated extract James Fergusson opens up Paul’s words of Ephesians 2:1–3. Fergusson’s comments show clearly how what we need saving from is not something superficial, and the salvation God provides is not only radically transformative for us but on His part impressively rich and generous.Every one of us by nature, and before conversion, is dead, not to sin, but in sin. Paul addresses the Ephesians as, “You who were dead in sins” (Ephesians 2:1). That means we are wholly deprived of all ability and power to convert ourselves (Rom. 9:16), or to do any thing which is spiritually good (Rom. 8:7). While Paul says that the Ephesians were dead in sins before God quickened them, he is speaking of a thing common to them with others, which is why he includes himself and the other believing Jews with them (verse 3).
The fountain-cause of this spiritual death was Adam’s sin (in him all have sinned, Romans 5:12), and through the merit of his sin imputed to us, we are deprived of original righteousness (Romans 7:18), and a perverse inclination to all evil has come in its place (Genesis 6:5). Additionally, every individual’s own particular actual sins lay him lower under this state of death, and make it all the more difficult for him to be delivered from it (Jeremiah 13:23).
The evidence of spiritual deadness is sinful activityThe evidence that they were dead in sins and trespasses is their walking in and making a daily trade of sin, without striving against it, and without any thorough remorse for it. “Ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air …” (verse 2). Paul illustrates this woeful walk from the two guides which they followed, and which carried them on and encouraged them in their sinful course. The first was, the universal corrupt course and custom of “the world;” and the second guide was Satan, here called “the prince of the power of the air.”
Walking in sin is different from falling into sinAlthough the regenerate still have a body of sin and death dwelling in them (Romans 7:24), and do sometimes actually fall in sin (indeed, even very gross sins, 2 Samuel 11:4, 12:9), yet they do not walk in sin. That is, to the child of God, sin is not like the way of the traveller, so as they make it their daily trade and employment (Psalm 1:1), or sin without any reluctancy flowing from a spiritual principle against what they know to be sin (Galatians 5:17), or walk after sin by making sin, and suggestions to sin, their guide whom they willingly follow (Romans 8:1). Sin may conquer the regenerate, and carry them as an unwilling captive (Romans 7:14, etc.), but they no longer “walk” in sin; for Paul says that for them it was “in time past ye walked.”
Such is the power of converting grace, that it causes people to change their former way and course, however deeply they were rooted in it and habituated to it. There is a change from how they walked in “time past,” such that they do not so walk in the time present.
The Lord is not at all moved by the merit or worth of those whom He doth convert, to bestow converting grace on them rather than on others whom He leaves in their unconverted state. In fact, He makes this grace of His to fall on those who are in no respect better than those whom He passes by. These Ephesians, before conversion, were second to none in sin and wickedness, yet He converted them.
The general corrupt custom and example of those with whom we live, or those who lived in the former times, is a strong incitement in the minds of many – and sufficient excuse – to follow them in doing evil, without further inquiry. But it is clear evidence that someone is still in an unrenewed state, when they make the example of others the highest rule according to which they walk, and when they labour to conform themselves more to other people than to the will of God.
We are all sinful by naturePaul speaks in verse 3 of “the lusts of our flesh … the desires of the flesh and of the mind.” Our obstinate rebellion comes out in the fact that we follow the “lusts,” that is, the impulses and motions and sudden flashes, of our inbred corruption (here called “flesh”), which, flowing from Adam’s first sin, has infected his whole posterity (Christ alone excepted, 2 Corinthians 5:21) and seats itself in all the powers and faculties of our souls and bodies, even including the understanding and will (Romans 8:7; Colossians 2:18). All corruption and sin, even that which is in the mind, is called “flesh,” because it is conveyed by fleshly generation (John 3:6), the fleshly members of the body are the instruments by which all sin is carried out (Romans 6:19), and every sin draws the person away from God to earthly and fleshly things.
This inbred corruption of their natures Paul subdivides into two, the “flesh” and the “mind.” When the term “flesh” is contrasted with the “mind,” it is distinguished from the “flesh” beforementioned. Here it must mean the corruption which is seated in the sensual appetites of the soul, while the “mind” means the more noble faculties of the soul, i.e., the will and understanding, in so far as they are also corrupted. Then the “desires” of the flesh are the deliberate and fixed resolution to follow those lusts and suggestions of corrupt flesh, which, accordingly, Paul says they “fulfilled” and accomplished to the utmost.
Paul then points out the root and fountain-cause of this their miserable slavery and subjection to sin, that is, their natural sin and misery. “Ye were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (verse 3). We were all, from nature, that is, from the very cradle, birth, and conception, “children of wrath,” i.e., by reason of our original sin, liable to God’s eternal wrath.
By nature all of us are wholly sinfulWhatever differences may be among the unregenerate as to circumstances in life, externals in religion, or the particular sins to which they are enslaved, yet all of them are alike vile in God’s sight. Paul pronounces of himself and all of them, Jew and Gentile alike, that they were children of disobedience, because one way or other they followed the lusts of the flesh.
Those who lead a blameless life before the world in their unconverted estate (and therefore thought their condition abundantly good, Philippians 3:7) will, when converting grace comes, see themselves to have been as vile and wretched as any. They will not only see that nothing they did was truly good and acceptable to God, for it was not done in faith (Hebrews 11:6), but also that the root of all sin was in them, budding out without any check or restraint, except from respect to self-interest, reputation, pleasure, or advantage (Matthew 14:5). The more blameless they were before the world, the more their spiritual pride abounded (Philippians 2:7), and so they were all the more loathsome to God (James 4:6).
The whole person, both soul and body, is infected with sin by nature, so that not only the sensual part, but even our will and understanding, are corrupted by it. In the understanding there is not only ignorance but also mistakes about God and good (1 Corinthians 1:23). In the will there is a crooked perverseness and averseness from what is spiritually good (Romans 8:7).
Every unregenerate person is a slave to sin in all these ways. Paul affirms of us all that before conversion, not only flesh was in us, which lusted after unlawful things, but those lusts came the length of fixed resolutions and desires – and not only so, but we fulfilled and accomplish them. Respectable people do not wholly fulfil the lusts of the fleshly appetite, yet they fulfil the desires of the mind by their pride, vanity of spirit, self-seeking, and such like.
All are guilty of original sin by nature, and from the first moment of conception (Psalm 51:5), and therefore, in the course of divine justice, liable to the stroke of God’s wrath and anger, and this by nature also. So the misery of the unregenerate is never sufficiently seen until it is traced back to this bitter root and fountain, the sin and misery in which they were born. When Paul says we were “children of wrath by nature,” he implies that we were also sinners by nature, seeing wrath always follows sin, and sin is the root, fountain, and headstone of all our misery.
Seeing our sinfulness helps us to appreciate holinessThe apostle Paul is intending to establish the Ephesians in the doctrine of salvation by free grace in Christ. In order to do this, he sets out the happiness of the state in which free grace had placed them, by showing the misery of their previous state, before conversion. “You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). That is, they had been dead – not naturally, but spiritually, for there was nothing in them of the spiritual life which consists in the union of the soul with God (John 5:40) – nothing of the power of the soul, flowing from this union, to do things which are spiritually good and acceptable to God (John 15:5). Natural life consists in the union of the soul with the body, whereby the person is enabled to move, speak, and do the actions which are competent to that life. Analogously, their spiritual deadness tells of their separation from God (Psalm 58:3), and their total inability to do any thing which is spiritually good (Romans 8:7).
Seeing our sinfulness helps us to appreciate God’s mercyGod is rich and overflowing in the exercise of His attribute of mercy. This is apparent when we consider that there is no creature towards which He does not exercise His mercy (Psalm 104:24), and that mercy is exercised, not only without, but also often contrary to, the deserving of those on whom it is exercised (Ezekiel 36:21–22). Yet there is nothing in which God does more to manifest the riches and abundance of His mercy, than in the work of bringing dead sinners to life, and of carrying on the work of grace in them until it is perfected in glory. Just think of the misery of the objects of His mercy (Ezekiel 16:3, etc.), and their bad deservings (Jeremiah 14:7), the greatness of the good things which He bestows on those miserable objects (Luke 12:32), the course He takes for satisfying divine justice, so that those good things can be given without wronging justice (John 3:16), and the multitude of sins which mercy covers in those objects, not only before their conversion (Isaiah 55:7), but also after it (Proverbs 24:16)! All these, and many considerations besides, manifest God to be rich in mercy in quickening dead sinners. “God, who is rich in mercy, hath quickened us.”
← Sensitivity to spiritual insensitivityReasons why believers love Jesus more than anyone else →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.
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Sensitivity to spiritual insensitivityThe 2021 Census for England and Wales has shown that only 46% of the population now identify themselves as Christian, making Christianity now a minority religion in England and Wales. The most concerning thing about this is not so much that Christianity is losing political influence in the nation, as if all that matters is our voice and social prestige, or as if Christ’s church is only valid with popular approval and credibility. Instead, it gives us reason to mourn the emptiness and hopelessness that people consign themselves to when they don’t know Jesus Christ, as well as the disrespect and dishonour we collectively do to God when on the national level we are so rapidly turning our backs on Him and His ways. But do these concerns really register with us? Are we alive to the tragedy of these things? Perhaps at one time we cared about the eternal destiny of our fellow-sinners and God’s reputation and public glory, but now our eyes glide over the bad news and a malaise of apathy paralyses us from even turning to the Lord about the situation. In the following updated extract, William Guthrie meditates on the prayer in Isaiah 63 which confesses and laments hard-heartedness in the Lord’s people when confronted with societal and moral problems.These are very sad words, “O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?” (Isaiah 63:17) It is one of the heaviest and saddest troubles from the hands of God on men and women, to have their hearts hardened from His fear. And yet things are not desperate, or past remedy, so long as there is enough softness of heart as to perceive the hardness of our hearts, and to be capable of regretting it before God. Hard softness, as we may call it, is not the worst kind of hardness, or at least it is not the greatest degree of it. The Lord had graciously bounded their hardness so that it had not gone the full length that it could have done. This is how they notice it, and say, “Why hast thou suffered our hearts to be hardened from thy fear, and to be so hard that we should not fear thy name?”
Hardness of heart is something for us to confessWhenever it is said that the Lord hardens, it is not meant that He does so by infusing any sinful qualities into the heart (James 1:13). God is incomprehensibly holy, and infinitely removed from being accessory to anything that is sinful in the creature. But it is said that He hardens when He permits and leaves someone to the hardness of their own heart (which is natural to the offspring of fallen Adam), but also when He withholds or withdraws something of the grace given to the creature, on which hardness of heart follows. But seeing as the majesty of God is under no obligation to give grace to the creature, that hardness of heart cannot be charged on Him, nor can He be blamed for withholding abused grace from them.
You must therefore look on the complaint as not being spoken in a way of proud or ill-natured expostulation laying all the blame on God, and evading or shifting it off themselves. No, the words point to how the Lord was interacting with the church members who are speaking here. Nor are we to think that these words are spoken irreverently, in a way of complaining about God, but only in a way of expostulation with themselves. It is as if they said, “Lord, what have we done that has provoked Thee to deal with us in this way?” There is the hint of a desire to know what sin in them it was that had brought on this plague of hardness of heart, which was grievous to them beyond anything in their external condition and captivity.
It seems to be one of the evils of our time, that many, even good folk, are largely strangers to the condition of their own heart. More particularly, hardness of heart is an evil incident to the people of God. It is by the people of God that this complaint is made, “Why hast thou made us to err, and hardened our heart from thy fear?” We think it is made with much bashfulness, spoken by those who were ashamed that they could hardly claim that God was their Father. Yet they are necessitated to lay claim to God. They give Him much credit, as if merely the look of His eye could redress their condition.
Symptoms of hardness of heartHere are a few symptoms and evidences of this hardness.
- When challenges for sin do not easily make impression on us. Though his own situation was particularly pointed out in the parable Nathan used, David took little notice of it in the way of applying it to himself.
- When we acknowledge our sins, yet without being affected by this so as to be made better.
- When the impression of a sin wears off easily. I think if we had spiritual dexterity in sinking challenges for sin in the blood of Christ, there would be no harm from that! But when the challenge is thrown off through deadness, or simply passes away somehow or another, or else is forgotten before we get any satisfying views of pardon, then our case is not right. This only hardens the heart still more.
- When we have troubles in providence, yet our ability to pray is restrained.
- When we become rash, heedless, precipitate, and fearless in worship and in walking, rushing forward without ever considering our own condition, walking as if there were no hazards in our walk and conversation, without fear of being indisposed for worship or any kind of duty.
- When we cast off the reverential fear that we ought to have, as if we did not live in the midst of snares and manifold temptations, or as if we did not have hearts ready to comply with every snare and temptation. Walking in the fear of the Lord all the day long is become a rare thing among Christians nowadays.
The seriousness of having a hard heartThat felt hardness of heart is, in the account of God’s children, one of the heaviest and greatest of strokes that come upon them from the hand of God. It is picked out here as the worst of judgments. I think their hearts were at their mouths, and the tear in their eyes, when speaking out these words, “Why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?” They do not complain about their outward calamity, though it was more than ordinary; the stroke that most affected them was hardness of heart. “And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities.” And, “all this is come upon us; yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.”
Now, the reasons why the people of God look upon this as a sad stroke are these.
- Because, of all the things that God could send us, hardness of heart has most of God’s displeasure in it.
- Because it borders very near to the condition of the reprobate.
- Because it prevents us from tackling the things that keep us labouring under it. We know that we are in the wrong, yet we cannot mourn for it before God. We sin, and cannot repent.
- Because it means we do not profit under any of God’s providences. However He smites us, our hearts do not grieve.
- Put the question to yourselves:—What do think about the problem of hardness of heart, and how does it affect you? Do ye feel it one of the heaviest and saddest things that God could send you? Do you seriously think you would be content to take any other rebuke from Him, if only this hardness of heart was removed?
Things to beware of because they have a hardening effectIf hardness of heart is your burden, I recommend that you would take it as a favour from God that it is actually a burden to you. Perhaps the fact that it is so little your burden makes you question if there is anything at all promising in your case and condition. Therefore search into the causes of it.
- Failing to take notice of conscience and convictions, and trying to quench the motions of the Spirit, gradually harden the heart. Where conscience tables a challenge, oh, then, let it speak out.
- Taking no notice of God’s entreaties. Sometimes the Lord’s calls are very urgent and pressing on us to entertain grace, communion, and fellowship with God, yet the soul does not listen but lets them pass by. This is why people who live under an entreating gospel, yet do not get God’s grace, or evade the offer of it, are the most hardened of all people.
- Allowing sin to sit on the conscience unrepented of. As every act of sin strengthens the habit of sin, and disposes unto more acts of sin, so it hardens exceedingly, thrusts out from God, and keeps the soul still under its dominion.
- Formalism in worship, i.e., a continual custom of worshipping God formally, either in public, in the family, or in secret.
- Acknowledging a problem but omitting to wrestle with God for pardon and victory over sin.
The Lord convince us more thoroughly of the evil of hardness of heart, and teach us to make use of the right remedy through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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