Thought for the Lord's Day - #63

And as a man of holiness prays for more holiness, so a man of holiness believes for more holiness. Psalm 51:7—in the Hebrew the words run in the future thus: "You will purge me from sin with hyssop, and I shall be clean: you will wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." In the sense of all his sinfulness and vileness, he believes that God will give out greater measures of purity and sanctity to him: "You will purge me, and I shall be clean: you will wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Just so, in Psalm 65:3, "Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, you shall purge them away." Though for the present iniquity did prevail—yet he had faith enough to believe that God would purge him from his transgressions, and that he would mortify prevailing corruptions.

 - Thomas Brooks

The Crown and Glory of Christianity,
or,
HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness

Thought for the Lord's Day - #62

Every one seeketh not God, and far fewer find Him, because they seek amiss. He is to be sought far above all things, if men would find what they seek. Let feathers and shadows alone to children, and go seek your Well-Beloved. Your only errand to the world is, to woo Christ; therefore, put other lovers from about the house, and let Christ have all your love, without mincing or dividing it. It is little enough, if there were more of it. The serving of the world and sin hath but a base reward, and smoke instead of pleasures; and but a night-dream, for true ease to the soul. Go where ye will, your soul shall not sleep sound but in Christ's bosom. Come in to Him, and lie down, and rest you on the slain Son of God, and inquire for Him. I sought Him, and now, a fig for all the worm-eaten pleasures and moth-eaten glory out of heaven, since I have found Him, and in Him all I can want or wish. He hath made me a king over the world. Princes cannot overcome me. Christ hath given me the marriage-kiss, and He hath my marriage-love; we have made up a full bargain, that shall not go back on either side.

- Samuel Rutherford
Letter to John Carsen

Thought for the Lord's Day - #61

It is evident, from the scripture doctrine of divine Providence, that God brings about every man’s lot, and all the parts thereof. He sits at the helm of human affairs, and turns them whithersoever he listeth. “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all deep places’ (Ps. 135:6). There is not anything whatsoever befalls us, without his overruling hand. The same Providence that brought us out of the womb, brings us to, and fixes us in the condition and place allotted for us, by him who ‘hath determined the times, and the bounds of our habitation’ (Acts 17:26). It overrules the smallest and most causal things about us, such as ‘hairs of our head falling on the ground’ (Matt. 10:29, 30); ‘A lot cast into the lap’ (Prov. 16:33). Yea the free acts of our will, whereby we choose for ourselves, for even ‘the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water’ (Prov. 21:1). And the whole steps we make, and which others make in reference to us; for ‘the way of man is not in himself; it is not man that walketh to direct his steps’ (Jer. 10:23). And this, whether these steps causing the crook [some one or other piece of adversity] be deliberate and sinful ones, such as Joesph’s brethren selling him into Egypt; or whether they be undesigned, such as manslaughter purely casual, as when one hewing wood, kills his neighbour with the ‘head of the axe slipping from the helve’ (Deut. 19:5). For there is a holy and wise Providence that governs the sinful and the heedless actions of men, as a rider doth a lame horse, of whose halting, not he, but the horses’ lameness, is the true and proper cause; wherefore in the former of these cases, God is said to have sent Joesph into Egypt (Gen. 45:7), and in the latter, to deliver one into his neighbour’s hand (Exod. 21:13).

God has, by an eternal decree, immoveable as mountains of brass (Zech. 6:1), appointed the whole of every one’s lot, the crooked parts thereof, as well as the straight. By the same eternal decree, whereby the high and low parts of the earth, the mountains and the valleys, were appointed, are the heights and the depths, the prosperity and adversity, in the lot of the inhabitants thereof determined, and they are brought about, in time, in a perfect agreeableness thereto.

The mystery of Providence, in the government of the world, is, in all the parts thereof, the building reared up of God, in exact conformity to the plan in his decree, ‘who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will’ (Eph. 1:12). So that there is never a crook in one’s lot, but may be run up to this original. Hereof Job piously sets us an example in his own case, “He is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doth. For he perfometh the thing that is appointed for me; and many such things are with him’ (Job 18:13, 14).

- Thomas Boston
The Crook in the Lot:
Living with that thorn in your side

Thought for the Lord's Day - #60

For how in general doth the Holy Spirit teach us and enable us to pray? It is by these three things.

(1.) By giving us a spiritual insight into the promises of God and the grace of the covenant, whereby we know what to ask upon a spiritual view of the mercy and grace that God hath prepared for us.

(2.) By acquainting us with and giving us an experience of our wants, with a deep sense of them, such as we cannot bear without relief.

(3.) By creating and stirring up desires in the new creature, for his own preservation, increase and improvement.

And in answer unto these things, consisteth his whole work of sanctification in us. For it is his effectual communication unto us, of the grace and mercy prepared in the promises of the covenant through Jesus Christ; hereby doth he supply our spiritual want, and sets the new creature in life and vigour. So are our prayers an extract and copy of the work of the Holy Spirit in us, given us by himself.

And, therefore, by whomseover he is despised as a Spirit of supplication, he is so as a Spirit of sanctification also.

Now consider what it is that in your prayers you most labour about? Is it not that the body, the power, the whole interest, of sin in you may be weakened, subdued, and at length destroyed? Is it not that all the graces of the Spirit may be renewed daily, increased and strengthened, so as that you may be more ready and prepared for all duties of obedience? And what is all this but that holiness may be gradually progressive in your souls, that it may be carried on by new supplies and additions of grace, until it come to perfection?

- John Owen
Pneumatologia:
Or, A Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit,
Wherein an Account is Given of His Name, Nature,
Personality, Dispensation, Operations, and Effects;
His Whole Work in the Old and New Creation is
Explained; and the Doctrine Concerning it Vindicated

(I added the paragraph breaks for clarity)

Thought for the Lord's Day - #59

...there is no faith without God's word, for of his faithfulness we cannot be convinced, until he has spoken. And this of itself is abundantly sufficient to confute the fiction of the sophists respecting implicit faith; for we must ever hold that there is a mutual relation between God's word and our faith. But as faith is founded chiefly, according to what has been already said, on the benevolence or kindness of God, it is not every word, though coming from his mouth, that is sufficient; but a promise is necessary as an evidence of his favor. Hence Sarah is said to have counted God faithful who had promised. True faith then is that which hears God speaking and rests on his promise.

-John Calvin

Thought for the Lord's Day - #58

God saw it needful for Adam to have a Sabbath in paradise. And if it were needful for him that was without sin, and had no clog of corruption to hinder him; nor ill example to seduce him; yet (l say) if he had need of this (as God in his wisdom saw he had) because his calling (though followed without tediousness) would yet partly have withdrawn his heart, that he could not so freely and wholly have given himself to the praising of God, and considering of his power, wisdom, and goodness; and therefore was to set one day apart from all works of his vocation, that he might wholly addict himself to religious and holy exercises, and with greater liberty and comfort do them; then what need have we, and how far is our necessity greater which are burdened with many corruptions of our own, and have temptation from many ill [precedents], and many allurements of the world, to pull our hearts from the worship of God, which are men of polluted lips ourselves, and dwell among people of polluted lips; and which cannot without far greater distraction, and weariness also, follow our callings. If Adam had need of a Sabbath when he had no corruption to hinder him, how much more have we, which both within and without are beset & on every side compassed with such strong impediments from ourselves and others, that when we have a Sabbath to bestow wholly and only on godliness and religion, can hardly and with much ado keep our hearts from wandering after the world and earthly things? If Adam had need in his innocence of this help, then no man in this world is so strong, as that he for that cause might exempt himself from keeping a Sabbath.

- John Dod

A Plain and Familiar Exposition of the Ten Commandments 

(hat tip: The Westminster Standards)

Thought for the Lord's Day - #57

Let Christians rejoice that, if a subtle, cruel, active, and powerful enemy is continually prowling about, the eye of infinite wisdom and love rests ever on them, the arm of never-tiring omnipotence is ever around them to protect and defend them.  The lion of hell is a chained lion, a muzzled lion, to Christians.  He may alarm, but he shall never devour them.  His chain is in the hand of his conqueror and their Lord.  It was very natural for Peter to put his brethren in mind of their great enemy.  He must have often thought of the words of our Lord Jesus, 'Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.' His experience is full of warning and encouragement.  It proves that if Christians are not cautious, though the lion of hell shall not be permitted to devour them, he may inflict wounds of which they will bear the marks till the close of life; and it finely illustrates our Lord's declaration,--'I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.' Neither their own heedlessness, nor the malignity of their infernal foe, shall be able to accomplish their destruction.  Let him, then, that is born of God, 'keep himself, that the wicked one touch him not,' and let his joy, that he has a better keeper than himself, even the keeper of Israel, who never slumbers nor sleeps, not produce security, but encourage vigilance.  God keeps his people, not without but through their own watchfulness.

- John Brown (1784-1858)

The Christian's Great Enemy:

A Practical Exposition of 1 Peter 5:8-11

Thought for the Lord's Day - #56

long one today . . . sorry. But it's a good one, couldn't stop myself. But I guess, if you're in a rush -- just the first paragraph will do.

Faith presents the Christian with a cloud of witnesses to whom the promise hath been fulfilled; and these as great sinners as himself is. Scripture examples are promises verified.  They are book-cases, which faith may make use of by way of encouragement, as well as promises.  God would nev­er have left the saints’ great blots to stand in the Scriptures, to the view of the world in all succeeding generations, had not it been of such use and advan­tage to tempted souls, to choke this temptation, which of all other makes the most dangerous breach in their souls—so wide sometimes, that despair itself is ready to enter in at it.  Blessed Paul gives this very reason why such acts of pardoning mercy to great sin­ners are recorded, Eph. 2  He shows first what foul filthy creatures himself and other believers contem­porary with him were before they were made par­takers of gospel grace.  ‘Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh,’ Eph. 2:3; and then he magnifies the rich mercy of God, that rescued and took them out of that damned desperate state.  ‘But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,... hath quickened us together with Christ,’ ver. 4.

And why must the world know all this?  O, God had a design and plot of mercy in them to more than themselves—‘That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness to­ward us through Christ Jesus,’ ver. 7  Wherever the gospel comes this shall be spoken of, what great sins he had forgiven to them, that unbelief might have her mouth stopped to the end of the world, and this ar­row which is so oft on Satan’s string made headless and harmless.  God commanded Joshua to take twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan and set them up.  And observe the reason, ‘That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?  Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever,’ Joshua 4:6, 7.  Thus God hath, by his pardoning mercy, taken up some great notorious sinners out of the very depths of sin, who lay at the very bottom, as it were, of hell, swallowed up and engulfed in all manner of abomination; and these he hath set up in his word, that when any poor tempted souls to the end of the world—who are even overwhelmed with fears from the greatness of their sins—shall see and read what God hath done for these, they may be relieved and comforted with these examples, by God intended to be as a memorial of what he hath done for others in time past, so a sign what he shall do, yea, will, for the greatest sinners to the world’s end, upon their repen­tance and faith.  No sins, though as great and many as the waters of Jordan themselves, shall be able to stand before the mercy of God’s gracious covenant, but shall all be cut off and everlastingly pardoned to them.

O who can read a Manasseh, a Magdalene, a Saul, yea, an Adam—who undid himself and a whole world with him—in the roll of pardoned sinners, and yet turn away from the promise, out of a fear that there is not mercy enough in it to serve his turn? These are as landmarks, that show what large bound­aries mercy hath set to itself, and how far it hath gone, even to take into its pardoning arms the great­est sinners, that make not themselves incapable thereof by final impenitency.  It were a healthful walk, poor doubting Christian, for thy soul to go this circuit, and oft to see where the utmost stone is laid and boundary set by God’s pardoning mercy—farther than which he will not go—that thou mayest not turn in the stone to the prejudice of the mercy of God by thy own unbelief, nor suffer thyself to be abused by Satan’s lies, who will make nothing to remove God’s land‑mark, if he may by it but increase thy trouble of spirit, though he be cursed for it himself.  But if, after all this, thy sins seems to exceed the proportion of any one thou canst find pardoned in Scripture —which were strange—yet faith at this plunge hath one way left beyond all these examples for thy soul’s succour, and that is to fix thy eye on Christ, who, though he never had sin of his own, yet laid down his life to procure and purchase pardon for all the elect, and hath obtained it; they are all, and shall, as they come upon the stage, be pardoned.  ‘Now,’ saith faith, ‘suppose thy sins were greater than any one saint’s; yet are they as great as all the sins of the elect to­gether?’  Thou darest not surely say or think so.  And cannot Christ procure thy pardon, who art but a sin­gle person, that hath done it for so many millions of his elect?  Yea, were thy sins as great as all theirs are, the sum would be the same; and God could forgive it if it lay in one heap, as well as now when it is in several.  Christ is ‘the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,’ John 1:29.  See here all the sins of the elect world trussed up in one fardel, and he carries it lightly away into the land of forgetfulness. Now faith will tell thee, poor soul, that the whole vir­tue and merit of Christ’s blood, by which the world was re­deemed, is offered to thee, and shall be com­municated to thy soul in particular.  Christ doth not retail and parcel out his blood and the purchase of it, some to one and some to another; then thou mightest say something; but he gives his whole self to the faith of every believer.  All is yours, you are Christ’s.  O, what mayest thou not, poor soul, take up from the promise, upon the credit of so great a Redeemer?

 - William Gurnall

The Christian in Complete Armour

Thought for the Lord's Day - #55

That Christ should love man when he was most unlovely, that man's extreme misery should but inflame Christ's affections of love and mercy -- this melts the believing soul. That Christ should leave the eternal bosom of his Father; that he who was equal with God should come in the form of a servant; that he who was clothed with glory, should be wrapped in rags; that he whom the heaven of heavens could not contain should be cradled in a manger; that from his cradle to his cross, his whole life should be a life of sorrows and sufferings; that the judge of all flesh should be condemned; that the Lord of life should be put to death; that he who was his Father's joy should in anguish of spirit cry out, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' that that head which was crowned with honour, should be crowned with thorns; that those eyes which were as a flame of fire, which were clearer than the sun, should be closed up by the darkness of death; that those ears which were accustomed to hear nothing but hallelujahs, should hear nothing but blasphemies; that that face which was white and ruddy should be spit upon by the beastly Jews; that that tongue which spoke as never any man spoke, yes, as never any angel spoke, should be accused of blasphemy; that those hands which swayed both a golden scepter and an iron rod, and those feet that were as fine brass, should be nailed to the cross -- and all this for man's transgression, for man's rebellion! Oh! the sight of these things, the believing of these things, the acting of faith on these things, makes a gracious soul to break and bleed, to sigh and groan, to mourn and lament! That faith which accompanies salvation is more or less a heartbreaking, a heart-melting faith.

 - Thomas Brooks

Heaven on Earth

(haven't done one of these in forever, need to get back to it)

Food for Thought

Started this like a month ago, got distracted and busy, and just now made the time to finish. Sso it's not actually current, but I haven't really had time to finish it up . . . really should've waited til life was a bit calmer before trying to start this blog up again.

I don't particularly have time to write a post on any of these ideas, but the cow's stomach that is my brain has been regurgitating and re-chewing on this stuff lately.

• Blogger Kirk Miller highlights some of Carl Trueman's rumination's on his essay, "What Can Miserable Christians Sing?" The historic answer (not that anyone cares about that kind of silliness anymore) is: The Psalms. Having shoved aside the psalms in our worship, what have we done? Truman writes:
  

  By excluding the cries of loneliness, dispossession, and desolation from its worship, the church has effectively silenced and excluded the voices of those who are themselves lonely, dispossessed, and desolate, both inside and outside the church. By so doing, it has implicitly endorsed the banal aspirations of consumerism, generated an insipid, trivial and unrealistically triumphalist Christianity, and confirmed its impeccable credentials as a club for the complacent. In the last year, I have asked three very different evangelical audiences what miserable Christians can sing in church. On each occasion my question has elicited uproarious laughter, as if the idea of a broken-hearted, lonely, or despairing Christian was so absurd as to be comical . . .

• Richard Gaffin on the Historicity of Adam. Short, sweet, to the point. (see also Jared Oliphint's 20 Resources on the Historicity of Adam)
  

  if Adam is not the first, who subsequently fell into sin, then the work of Christ loses its biblical meaning. If it is not true that all human beings descend from Adam, then the entire history of redemption taught in Scripture unravels. The result is no redemptive history in any credible or coherent sense and so the loss of redemptive history in any meaningful sense.

• John Calvin gives us a good rule to follow:

  So then, let us remember that whenever mention is made of [Christ's] death alone, we are to understand at the same time what belongs to his resurrection. Also, the same synecdoche applies to the word "resurrection": whenever it is mentioned separately from death, we are to understand it as including what has to do especially with his death.

  (for the quotation in context, click here)
• Gaffin agrees (from Resurrection and Redemption)

  Inseparability, however, is not indistinguishably. Plainly Paul thinks of Christ's death and the resurrection as different events on the same plane of historical occurrence. The resurrection is not an aspect or component part of the death. Rather, as Calvin's statement itself reflects, each has a meaning of its own, which is suppressed at the risk of seriously distorting Paul's gospel.

List of Things Necessary to Salvation

Saying that my pal TurretinFan (who I owe at least one far overdue email) has produced an excellent blog post is akin to saying that Seattle gets a lot of rain, but sometimes you have to state the obvious. This post is really worth a read or three.

Thought for the Lord's Day - #54

We believe that this true faith, being wrought in man by the hearing of the Word of God and the operation of the Holy Spirit, sanctifies [1] him and makes him a new man, causing him to live a new life, and freeing him from the bondage of sin. Therefore it is so far from being true that this justifying faith makes men remiss in a pious and holy life, that on the contrary without it they would never do anything out of love to God, but only out of self-love or fear of damnation. Therefore it is impossible that this holy faith can be unfruitful in man; for we do not speak of a vain faith, but of such a faith which is called in Scripture a faith working through love, which excites man to the practice of those works which God has commanded in His Word.
These works, as they proceed from the good root of faith, are good and acceptable in the sight of God, forasmuch as they are all sanctified by His grace. Nevertheless they are of no account towards our justification, for it is by faith in Christ that we are justified, even before we do good works; otherwise they could not be good works, any more than the fruit of a tree can be good before the tree itself is good.
Therefore we do good works, but not to merit by them (for what can we merit?); nay, we are indebted to God for the good works we do, and not He to us, since it is He who worketh in us both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. Let us therefore attend to what is written: When ye shall have done all the things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do. In the meantime we do not deny that God rewards good works, but it is through His grace that He crowns His gifts.
Moreover, though we do good works, we do not found our salvation upon them; for we can do no work but what is polluted by our flesh, and also punishable; and although we could perform such works, still the remembrance of one sin is sufficient to make God reject them. Thus, then, we would always be in doubt, tossed to and fro without any certainty, and our poor consciences would be continually vexed if they relied not on the merits of the suffering and death of our Savior.

The Belgic Confession of Faith, Article XXIV
Man's Sanctification and Good Works

Thought for the Lord's Day - #53

A friend posted most of this to his blog recently, and it really stuck with me...what was deserved, what could have been done to Adam, vs. what actually happened to him. Striking really.

From Matthew Henry's Commentary on Gen. 3:22:

God drove him out, made him go out, whether he would or no. This signified the exclusion of him, and all his guilty race, from that communion with God which was the bliss and glory of paradise. The tokens of God's favour to him and his delight in the sons of men, which he had in his innocent estate, were now suspended; the communications of his grace were withheld, and Adam became weak, and like other men, as Samson when the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. His acquaintance with God was lessened and lost, and that correspondence which had been settled between man and his Maker was interrupted and broken off. He was driven out, as one unworthy of this honour and incapable of this service. Thus he and all mankind, by the fall, forfeited and lost communion with God. But whither did he send him when he turned him out of Eden? He might justly have chased him out of the world (Job xviii. 18), but he only chased him out of the garden. He might justly have cast him down to hell, as he did the angels that sinned when he shut them out from the heavenly paradise, <2 4.="" a="" abandoned="" and="" be="" blockquote="" but="" by="" chain.="" converse="" designing="" despair="" drag="" dungeon="" earth="" eating="" end.="" excluded="" first="" for="" from="" fruits="" god="" good="" grave="" ground="" he="" him="" his="" hold="" humble="" ii.="" improvable="" innocency="" its="" keep="" latter="" love="" man="" new="" not="" observe="" of="" only="" our="" out="" parents="" pet.="" place="" plough="" prison-house="" privileges="" probation="" purposes="" recompensed="" remind="" s="" second="" sent="" state="" taken.="" taken="" terms.="" that="" the="" their="" them="" then="" they="" though="" thoughts="" till="" tilling="" to="" toil="" torment.="" upon="" was="" were="" whence="" which="" with="" work-house="" would="" yet="">

Meditation Worthy Thoughts on the Incarnation of Christ

Patrick Ramsey just posted a link to a great lecture by Carl Trueman "The Glory of Christ: B.B. Warfield on Jesus of Nazareth." This brief sample is worth chewing on by itself before going on to read all of Trueman's lecture.

It is, of course, a truism that the language of Chalcedon, of substance and personhood, is absent from the New Testament, and, of course, no advocate of the Chalcedonian definition would ever have claimed its explicit presence in the text. Warfield’s own view of the Chalcedonian definition is that it functions as a presupposition which makes the teaching of the Bible comprehensible as a single, unified whole. To quote him on this point:

Only on the assumption of this [the Chalcedonian] conception of Our Lord's person as underlying and determining their presentation, can unity be given to their representations; while, on this supposition, all their representations fall into their places as elements in one consistent whole. [6]

This is an important point which has a general application well beyond its specific concerns. For a start, it flags up Christ's humanity and divinity as the only means of making coherent sense of the gospel accounts of his life. It is thus not in the first instance an exercise in metaphysical speculation but rather an attempt to think out the necessary presuppositions about his person which make sense of the historical account of his actions and teachings given in the gospels. This is a very important point, particularly at a time when theological diversity is something of a buzzword among biblical scholars. The current trend is, I am sure, intimately connected to the increasing subdisciplinary specialization of higher learning, fuelled in large part by the information revolution; but Warfield is surely correct to point to the presuppositional nature of our theological approach to the Bible. If we go to the Bible without a commitment to the unity of revelation and the coherence of the biblical witness at the level of epistemology, then we will inevitably find ourselves drawing certain conclusions from that, such as the God of the Old Testament is not that of the New or the way of salvation for Paul is not the same as for James. It is perhaps no surprise that the Chalcedonian definition is being called into question by theologians at exactly the same point in time as the fundamental theological unity of the Bible is also being subjected to vigorous assault.

For Warfield, the idea that Christ is one person in two substances is one of the necessary counterparts of his commitment to the unity of scripture's teaching: in other words, it must be true because it allows the church to make sense of the Bible’s teaching about Christ. The formula itself is not inspired in the way that the Bible is inspired; it is not therefore sacrosanct; one can indeed go to heaven without ever having heard of the definition; but it is nonetheless a necessary presupposition, implicit or otherwise, if the message of the Bible concerning Christ is to be properly and thoroughly understood.

emphasis mine, and done so for obvious reasons.

Ramsey (who's posted some reflection-worthy words of his own on the Incarnation lately) also provided a link to Warfield's fantastic "The Emotional Life of our Lord," which it's been entirely too long since I've read. Criminal, really. If you haven't read it in the last month or so, I encourage you to get at it :)

Thought for the Lord's Day - #52

Every grace that brings a Christian to heaven must be a tried grace. He must try his patience, his contentment, his humility. How shall all these graces be tried but in a variety of estates and conditions?

And secondly, How should we have experience of the goodness of God but in variety of estates? When we find the stable, certain, constant love of God in variety of conditions, that howsoever our conditions ebb and flow, be up and down, like the spring weather, sometimes fair and sometimes foul, yet not withstanding the love of God is constant always, and we have never so sure experience of it as in the variety of conditions that befall us; then we know that in God there is 'no shadow of changing,' howsoever the changes of our life be. Is it not a point worth our learning, to know the truth of our grace, and to know the constancy of God's love, with whom we are in a gracious covenant?

And then again, we learn much wisdom how to manage our life hereby, even in the intercourse of our changes, to be now rich, now poor, now high, now low in estates. He that is carried on in one condition, he hath no wisdom to judge another's estate, or to carry himself to a Christian in another condition, because he was never abased himself. He look very big at him. He knows not how to tender another, that hath not been in another's condition. And therefore to furnish us, that we may carry ourselves as Christians, meekly lovingly, and tenderly to others, God will have us go to heaven in variety, not in one uniform condition in regard of outward things.

- Richard Sibbes

Thought for the Lord's Day - #52

Our happiness consists in due subordination and conformity to Christ, and therefore let us labor to carry ourselves as He did to His Father, to His friends, to His enemies. In the days of His flesh He prayed whole nights to His Father. How holy and heavenly-minded was He, that took occasion from vines, stones and sheep to be heavenly-minded, and when He rose from the dead His talk was only of things concerning the kingdom of God, in His converse to His friends. He would not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed; He did not cast Peter in the teeth with his denial, He was of a winning and gaining disposition to all; for His conduct to His enemies, He did not call for fire from heaven to destroy them but shed many tears for them that shed His blood. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (Matt. 23:37), and upon the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). So that if we will be minded like unto Christ, consider how He carried Himself to His Father, to His friends, to His enemies, yea to the devil himself. When He comes to us in wife, children; friends, etc. we must do as Christ did, say to Satan, "Get thee hence," and when we deal with those that have the spirit of the devil in them, we must not render reproach, but answer them, "It is written."

Thought for the Lord's Day - #51

But we must carefully note that Christian freedom is, in all its parts, a spiritual thing. Its whole force consists in quieting frightened consciences before God—that are perhaps disturbed and troubled over forgiveness of sins, or anxious whether unfinished works, corrupted by the faults of our flesh, are pleasing to God, or tormented about the use of things indifferent. Accordingly, it is perversely interpreted both by those who allege it as an excuse for their desires that they may abuse God’s good gifts to their own lust and by those who think that freedom does not exist unless it is used before men, and consequently, in using it have no regard for weaker brethren.

Today men sin to a greater degree in the first way. There is almost no one whose resources permit him to be extravagant who does not delight in lavish and ostentatious banquets, bodily apparel, and domestic architecture; who does not wish to outstrip his neighbors in all sorts of elegance; who does not wonderfully flatter himself in his opulence. And all these things are defended under the pretext of Christian freedom. They say that these are things indifferent. I admit it, provided they are used indifferently. But when they are coveted too greedily, when they are proudly boasted of, when they are lavishly squandered, things that were of themselves otherwise lawful are certainly defiled by these vices.

Paul’s statement best distinguishes among things indifferent: “to the clean all things are clean, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is clean, inasmuch as their minds and consciences are corrupted”. For why are the rich cursed, who have their consolation, who are full, who laugh now, who sleep on ivory couches, “who join field to field”, whose feasts have harp, lyre, timbrel, and wine? Surely ivory and gold and riches are good creations of God, permitted, indeed appointed, for men’s use by God’s providence. And we have never been forbidden to laugh, or to be filled, or to join new possessions to old or ancestral ones, or to delight in musical harmony, or to drink wine. True indeed. But where there is plenty, to wallow in delights, to gorge oneself, to intoxicate mind and heart with present pleasures and be always panting after new ones—such are very far removed from a lawful use of God’s gifts.

Away, then, with uncontrolled desire, away with immoderate prodigality, away with vanity and arrogance—in order that men may with a clean conscience cleanly use God’s gifts. Where the heart is tempered to this soberness they will have a rule for lawful use of such blessings. But should this moderation be lacking, even base and common pleasures are too much. It is a true saying that under coarse and rude attire there often dwells a heart of purple, while sometimes under silk and purple is hid a simple humility. Thus let every man live in his station, whether slenderly, or moderately, or plentifully, so that all may remember God nourishes them to live, not to luxuriate. And let them regard this as the law of Christian freedom; to have learned with Paul, in whatever state they are, to be content; to know how to be humble and exalted; to have been taught, in any and all circumstances, to be filled and to hunger, to abound and to suffer want.

- John Calvin

Thought for the Lord's Day - #50

Those who are strict in restraining their own liberty yet ought not to impose those restraints upon the liberties of others, nor to judge of them accordingly. We must not make ourselves the standard to measure others by. A good man will deny himself that liberty which he will not deny another, contrary to the practice of the Pharisees.

- Matthew Henry

Thought for the Lord's Day - #49

No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight hereafter, who doth not in some measure behold it by faith here in this world. Grace is a necessary preparation for glory, and faith for sight Where the subject (the soul) is not previously seasoned with grace and faith, it is not capable of glory or vision. Nay, persons not disposed hereby unto it cannot desire it, whatever they pretend; they only deceive their own souls in supposing that so they do. Most men will say with confidence, living and dying, that they desire to be with Christ, and to behold his glory; but they can give no reason why they should desire any such thing,-only they think it somewhat that is better than to be in that evil condition which otherwise they must be cast into for ever, when they can be here no more. If a man pretend himself to be enamoured on, or greatly to desire, what he never saw, nor was ever represented unto him, he doth but dote on his own imaginations. And the pretended desires of many to behold the glory of Christ in heaven, who have no view of it by faith whilst they are there in this world are nothing but self-deceiving imaginations.

- John Owen

Thought for the Lord's Day - #47

Much of Protestantism remembers yesterday as Reformation Day, many of those even have a clue what the Reformation was about... One of those who noted that day was Wes Bredenhof, of the Canadian Reformed Church. Yesterday, he blogged part of a conversation between Guy de Bres (author of the Belgic Confession) and a Roman Catholic bishop, just nine days before de Bres went to the scaffold. The whole thing is well worth the read, but for today's post, I just posted this snippet.

As I've said before and say it again, I have never been stubborn and close-minded against clear thinking and reason. But if anyone can show me from the Word of God that I have been in error, I am completely ready to give up. Up to the present there has been nothing of all that I have heard that would make me leave the certain for the uncertain. I still hold the same position that I did at the time when by quick testimony from the Word of God, you made me appear to be contrary. As I have said, I am not stubborn, and do not prefer my judgment to the judgment of the Church. But I do certainly prefer with clear thinking and just cause the ancient and early Church in which the Apostles set up all things according to the ordinance of Christ. I prefer that to the church of our time which is loaded with a vast number of human traditions, and which has degenerated itself in a remarkable way from the early Church. With good reason, I say, I hold to that which the Apostles first received. For Jesus Christ, in Revelation 2, says to those in Thyatira that they should beware of the profound trickeries of Satan, to beware of false doctrine. He says, "I will put on you no other burden, only that which you have already, hold fast to this until I come."

- Guy de Bres