Category: From Your Pastor

From Your Pastor: John Owen, On Mortification of Sin

“How Can I Put to Death the Deeds of the Body, and Live?!”[1]

What is mortification? A habitual weakening of sin. Although we are united to Jesus Christ by faith and sin has lost it’s dominion, or rule and reign over believers, nevertheless, sin remains in us, and is hostile to our spiritual growth (Romans 6-8). Read prayerfully and carefully Romans 8:6-13:

To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (ESV Romans 8:6-13)

Mortification consists in constantly fighting against sin. We must understand that the Christian life is a conflict, it is a great spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:10-20).

* Know that God hates sin and will judge it.

* Know that you have such an enemy as sin to deal with.

* Labor to be acquainted with the ways, wiles, methods, advantages, and occasions of sin’s success over you.

You must be a believer to mortify sin. Without the Spirit of God, you cannot mortify (Rom. 8:13).

There must be sincerity and diligence in a universality of obedience. Read 2 Cor. 7:1.

Consider whether your lust has these dangers symptoms accompanying it:

* It has long corrupted your heart and it has had power and prevalency over you for some time.  

* Secret pleas of the heart approving of itself and making excuses for why you do it in order to remain in you.

* Rather than fight the sin, you seek to find evidences of good things you do to give you peace, rather than dealing with the sin that is corrupting you through its power.

* Has it had a frequency of success in you?

* You have sought to mortify the sin simply by being frightened of judgment or the consequences for you and your reputation.

* Has God dealt with you about your sin, particularly through the discipline of affliction?

Get a clear and abiding sense upon your mind and conscience of the guilt, dangers and evil of your sin.

Load your conscience with the guilt of your sin.

Bring your lust to the Gospel, not for relief (yet!) but for further conviction of its guilt; you might say:

“What have I done? What love, what mercy, what blood, what grace have I despised and trampled on! Is this the return I make to the Father for his love, to the Son for his blood, to the Holy Spirit for his grace Do I thus treat the Lord in this way?! Have I defiled the heart that Christ died to wash, that the blessed Spirit has chosen to dwell in? …Do I account communion with him of so little value? …I daily grieve that Spirit whereby I am sealed to the day of redemption?!”

Constantly long and breathe after deliverance from the power of sin (Rom. 7).

Consider whether the distemper is rooted in your nature and increased by your constitution/temperament (Psa. 51; 1 Cor. 9:27).

Rise mightily against the first actings and conceptions of your distemper.

Use and exercise yourself to such meditations as may serve to fill you at all times with self-abasement and humility before God and thoughts of your own vileness.

 * Think on the majesty and holiness of God and His infinite distance from you.

* Think much of how little you yet know Him and seek to commune with Him.

Do not speak peace to your soul before God speaks it to you; but hearken to what God says to your soul.

Raise your heart by faith to an expectation of relief from Christ.

Consider Jesus’ mercy, tenderness and kindness to sinners, as He is particularly Priest at God’s right hand.

Consider his faithfulness to help you as he has promised.

Act faith on the death of Christ: Have an expectation of power and expectation of conformity to Him by His Spirit.

* The Spirit of Christ alone reveals unto us the fullness of Christ for our relief.

* The Spirit of Christ alone establishes the heart in expectation of relief from Christ.

* The Spirit of Christ alone brings the cross of Christ into our hearts with its sin-killing power.

* The Spirit of Christ is the author and finisher of our sanctification.

IN Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

 

 

[1] This is edited from John Owen’s important classic ‘The Mortification of Sin’ (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2004).

From Your Pastor: Extraspective Faith

“We See Jesus…Consider Jesus…Looking to Jesus,

the Author and Perfecter of our Faith”

(Heb. 2:9a, 3:1, 12:2a).

Faith is extraspective, always looking out of oneself to Christ. As one of our forefathers put it well, our faith is always looking for Christ throughout one’s day. Faith humbly looks up to receive Christ’s forgiveness, looks around for Christ’s help and fellowship, and looks down to see Christ’s light on the path. Faith keeps its eye on Christ the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Faith looks up humbly to receive Christ’s grace from the beginning of the Christian life. As we walk by faith in this present age, our faith continues to look around and find Christ in each situation, in each and every circumstance, as Habakkuk said: “I will stand on the watchtower and look out to see what you will say to me,” (Hab. 2:1), so faith is always looking outward, extraspectively to take hold of Christ in His fullness of grace and truth (John 1:16-18).

From the beginning of our conversion or union with Christ through the Spirit’s work in our effectual calling, faith is like a holy seed implanted by the Spirit of God in believers as a gift (Eph. 2:6-10; 2 Cor. 4:13; James 1:21)—a gift that keeps on giving—and growing  (2 Pet. 1:5ff; 1 Thess. 1:3-5; Gal. 5:22; Heb. 10:22)! God-given faith is supernaturally active in looking to Christ alone as the justifying and sanctifying Savior as He is revealed in and through the Word of God (Acts 13:48; John 6:37). As the Westminster Confession says: “The principal acts of saving faith are, accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ…” (WCF, 14.2).

Faith trusts in Christ alone for “justification, sanctification, and eternal life” (1 Cor. 1:30; cf. WCF, 14.2). We find and receive by faith both our justification before God and our definitive and progressive sanctification (1 Cor. 6:9-11; Heb. 2:9-11) of being conformed into the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). Faith trusts Christ for justification by faith alone apart from works (Rom. 4:4-5), but also trusts God for sanctifying conformity to Christ (Phil. 1:6; 2:12-13). Christians are created in Christ Jesus to do good works (Eph. 2:10), and have been set free to be a people for Christ’s own possession who are zealous for good works (Tit. 2:14).

While justification is by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone, it is not a faith that is alone; it is always a working faith. This means that faith is never separate from, or empty of  good works; true and saving faith is a working faith (Eph. 2:10; Tit. 2:11-14; 1 Thess. 1:3; cf. Rom. 2:6-7). Without good works, we have no true faith (James 2:14-18). Faith takes hold of a whole Christ, and in Him we find all that we need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3-4). Faith receives a whole Savior who can save us from both the guilt and power of sin (Rom. 10:13-17). As the hymn writer Toplady wrote: “Be of sin the double cure, save me from its guilt and power!” The Christian trusts in Christ “for salvation not only from wrath, but also from sin; not only for salvation from the guilt of sin, but also from its pollution and power; not only for happiness hereafter, but also for holiness here” (R. Shaw, ‘Commentary on Westminster Confession’).

Faith is the empty hands that receive all that we need for life and godliness in Christ alone. True faith struggles against sin, weaknesses, and against all obstacles to take hold of the strength and grace that are found in Christ, to become “imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb. 6:11-12). Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). With extraspective faith, looking to Christ, we please Him, knowing confidently that He is, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him! Let us seek Him in Christ!

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

From Your Pastor: “Christ’s Beautiful Heart towards His People” by Thomas Goodwin

(Edited by Charles R. Biggs)

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens , Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” – Hebrews 4:15-16

     The Heart of Christ in Heaven towards Sinners on Earth[1] (1651) is a wonderful sermon series by Thomas Goodwin (1600-79) to stir up our affections to know the love of Christ that He has for us in His exalted state in Heaven. The subtitle of the sermon is “A Treatise Demonstrating the Glorious Disposition and Tender Affection of Christ, in His Human Nature Now in Glory, unto His Members, under All Sorts of Infirmities, Either of Sin or Misery”.

The immediate intention of the sermon was to reject the popular idea that Christians in the post-apostolic age were at a disadvantage to Christians who knew Christ on earth because Christ was now glorified. Goodwin asserted from the Holy Scriptures that Christ feels strong affections, deep compassion, and emotional sympathy toward His suffering people even while seated at God’s right hand.[2]

Goodwin said that the Bible “does, as it were, take our hands and lay them upon Christ’s breast, and let us feel how his heart beats…toward us, even now [when] he is in glory.”

     It is important to understand how Goodwin defined faith, and how it could be powerfully used to build up and edify the Christian as it focused on Christ. Gordon Crompton says that Goodwin defined faith as the spiritual sight and knowledge of Christ. In Goodwin, “we see Christ’s spiritual excellencies and His glory, and our heart is taken with them.” Michael Horton asserts that Goodwin’s favorite definition of faith was this:

“Now this Spirit, when he comes down thus into the heart, works eyes, and feet, and hands, and all to look upon Christ, and to come to Christ, and to lay hold upon Christ…. And faith is eyes, and hands, and feet, yea, and mouth, and stomach, and all; for we eat his flesh and drink his blood by faith.”

     What problem does Christ’s exaltation of passing into heaven pose for our faith? What is the solution?

The Problem: Goodwin recognized that sinful men might be put off by the words “a great high priest that is passed into the heavens” (Heb. 4:15). Believers might think that the greatness of the exalted Christ might cause Him to forget us, and think something like:

…But now He has gone into a far country, where He has put on glory and immortality,” Goodwin points out. He sits as king at God’s right hand in heaven. His human nature is aflame with glory. How can we boldly approach such a king? How can we expect Him, in exalted power and holiness, to bear patiently with us when we are so weak, foolish, and sinful?”

Solution/Encouragement: Goodwin taught that Christ’s mercy is so certain that Scripture uses a double negative to forcefully declare the positive truth: “We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”

Our infirmities stir Christ’s compassion; Goodwin argues from Hebrews that “infirmities” include both our troubles and our sins. It is as if Jesus says to His own in His exalted state:

“Your very sins move him to pity more than to anger…even as the heart of a father is to a child that hath some loathsome disease, or as one is to a member of his body that hath the leprosy, he hates not the member, for it is his flesh, but the disease, and that provokes him to pity the part affected the more.”

Goodwin gives a helpful example of this idea; he wrote: “If your child becomes very sick, you do not kick the child out; you weep with him and tend to his needs. Christ responds to our sins with compassion despite His abhorrence of them.”

     How can Christ be tender-hearted toward believers now that He is glorified and freed from all earthly pain and cares? Christ’s compassion flows out of His personal human experience. Hebrews 4:15 says that He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Earlier, Hebrews 2:18 says, “For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor [tenderly help] them that are tempted.”

Today in heaven, Jesus in His human nature knows everything that happens to believers on earth. Jesus says to His church in Revelation 2:2, “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience.” This is possible because Christ’s human nature is filled with the Holy Spirit beyond measure, and the Spirit is like Christ’s eyes in all the earth (Rev. 5:6).

Knowing our distress here in this world of sin and misery, Our kind Lord Jesus remembers how He felt when facing similar miseries. Christ even knows the experience of sin’s guilt and the horror of facing God’s wrath against sin. Although personally sinless, Christ bore all the sins of His people. His knowledge of our pain along with the memory of His pain moves His heart to overflow with compassion.

We must remember that Christ is God and man. This is a very practical doctrine for us to understand as believers. As God, Christ is infinite, eternal, and unchanging. But, as a man, He has been lifted up to a new level of glory. Goodwin said,

“For it is certain that as his knowledge was enlarged upon his entering into glory, so his human affections of love and pity are enlarged in solidity, strength, and reality…Eph. 3:19, ‘The love of Christ,’ the God-man, ‘surpasses knowledge.’”

So Christ is not hurt by our sufferings, but His human soul responds to our sufferings with glorious, beautiful tenderness.

In Goodwin’s study of the Gospel of John, chapters 13 through 20, he showed Christ’s determination and passion toward His Beloved people. In his focus on John 13 to 17, he reminds us of Jesus’ sweet words in John 13:1: “Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”  Even when Jesus’ mind was set on His imminent exaltation to supreme glory, Goodwin said, “his heart ran out in love towards, and was set upon, ‘his own:’…his own, a word denoting the greatest nearness, dearness, and intimacy founded upon propriety [or ownership].”

At that precise time, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, demonstrating that Christ’s glorification would not diminish but rather increase His love and grace service to His people. Jesus said in John 14 to 16 that He would ascend to heaven to secure our happiness as believers. He would prepare a place for us, He said. And He would return like a bridegroom to bring us to our eternal home. Goodwin wrote,

“It is as if [Jesus] had said, ‘The truth is, I cannot live without you, I shall never be quiet till I have you where I am, that so we may never part again; that is the reason of it. Heaven shall not hold me, nor my Father’s company, if I have not you with me, my heart is set upon you; and if I have any glory, you shall have part of it.’”

In Goodwin’s words, Jesus said the Holy Spirit would comfort us with “nothing but stories of my love,” for He would not speak of Himself but as one sent from Christ.

Meanwhile, Christ promised to pray for us in heaven, and to send answers like love letters from a bridegroom to his beloved. He demonstrated His commitment to pray for us by interceding even then, as seen in John 17.34. Goodwin stresses that when Jesus ascended to heaven, His last earthly act was to pronounce a blessing on His disciples (Luke 24:50–51). His first official act as the enthroned king was to pour out the Holy Spirit upon His church (Acts 2:33)—all the works of the Holy Spirit testify of Christ’s present love for His church.

Goodwin asks: Does a minister preach the gospel by the Holy Spirit? It is because of Christ’s heart for sinners. Does the Spirit move you to pray? It is because Christ is praying for you. Does the New Testament express Christ’s love for sinners? It was all written “since Christ’s being in heaven, by his Spirit.”

     Goodwin proved Christ’s compassion for His people from each Person of the Triune God. Goodwin explained that Christ is compassionate because of the influence of the Trinity on the ministry of Christ. The doctrine of the Trinity profoundly shaped Goodwin’s theology. Goodwin believed the ancient doctrine that “the external works of the Trinity are undivided”—that is, everything God does in creation, providence, and redemption is the work of all three persons in cooperation with each other, each acting in His own distinct manner. Christ’s ministry of compassion flows from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God the Father gave Christ the office of high priesthood to exhibit mercy and compassion. Goodwin says that the priesthood “requires of him all mercifulness and graciousness towards sinners that do come unto him…. As his kingly office is an office of power and dominion, and his prophetical office an office of knowledge and wisdom, so his priestly office is an office of grace and mercy.”

Everything the Father sent Christ to do, He has done for us. As Goodwin expounded, Christ died for us; He rose for us; He ascended into heaven for us; He sits at the right hand of God for us; He intercedes for us. From beginning to end, our high priest acts as the Father’s appointed surety and representative of His elect people.

The Son’s beautiful heart is a manifestation of the Father’s beautiful heart. So Goodwin invites us,

“Come first to Christ, and he will take thee by the hand, and go along with thee, and lead thee to his Father.”

In seeing the Father’s loving heart, we are assured that His obedient Son will love us forever. Goodwin also cites Matthew 11:28–29, which reveals Jesus as God’s exalted Son. But Jesus also says in these verses, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

Therefore, Goodwin said, we are to take the sweetest thoughts we ever had of a dear friend and raise them up infinitely higher in our thoughts of the sweetness of Jesus. What a friend we have in Jesus! His divine nature as the Son of God proves that He will have compassion on every sinner who comes to Him.

How did the Second Person of the Trinity become human like us? Luke 1:35 says that the Holy Spirit worked a miracle in the womb of a virgin. Goodwin writes,

“It was the Spirit who overshadowed his mother, and, in the meanwhile, knit that indissoluble knot between our nature and the second person, and that also knit his heart unto us.”

But Goodwin says that the Spirit did more. All the “excellencies” or graces that filled Christ’s human nature were a result of the Spirit’s work in Him. Goodwin’s comforting and cogent argument here is that “if the same Spirit that was upon him, and in him, when he was on earth, doth but still rest upon him now he is in heaven, then those dispositions must needs still rest entirely upon him.”

The Holy Spirit empowered Christ’s human nature to be a channel of God’s mercy to us. Christ’s human heart has a greater capacity for kindness than the hearts of all men and angels. God is infinitely merciful. Christ’s humanity does not make Him more merciful, but makes Him merciful in a way suited to our needs. The incarnation does not increase God’s mercy, but brings His mercy near to us.

What are the four applications to believers that Goodwin gives in The Heart of Christ? How do they apply to your life?

* Christ’s heart of compassion affords us the strongest encouragements against sin. We know that Christ is not at rest in His heart until our sins are removed. Those sins move Him more to pity than to anger even though He hates them.

* Whatever trial, temptation, or misery we may suffer, we know that Christ also endured it and that His heart moves to relieve us in our distress.

* The thought of how much we grieve Christ’s heart by sin and disobedience is the strongest incentive we have against sinning.

* In all our miseries and distresses, though every human comforter fails, we know that we have a Friend who will help, pity, and succor us: Christ in heaven.

Dear believers, how full of compassion Christ is for us as He sits upon His throne of glory. Surely, reflecting on this truth should help us rejoice in Christ and set our hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Goodwin writes,

“What is it to have Christ thus dwell in the heart by faith?… It is to have Jesus Christ continually in one’s eye, an habitual sight of him.”

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

 

Footnotes

[1] Thomas Goodwin, ‘The Heart of Christ’ (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust Reprint, 2011). Also available on the KCPC booktable.

[2] Some of the following digest is from  A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life, Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012).

 

From Your Pastor: Richard Sibbes on “Entertaining the Holy Spirit”

There is nothing good in man by nature (Rom. 3:10-23). The Holy Spirit is sent from the risen-ascended Christ to make believing men good (Acts 2:33-36). The Holy Spirit’s ministry is to come and live within believers and to conform them to Christ’s likeness (Rom. 8:29). The Holy Spirit is particularly the “Spirit of Holiness” (cf. Rom. 1:4); Christ’s Spirit is the cause of all holiness in the believer.

Richared Sibbes (1577-1635) wrote “That attribute the Spirit delights in is that of holiness, which our corrupt nature least delights in and most opposeth.”[1] Man was created by God with a desire by nature for holiness, and a desire for happiness. After the fall of man into sin and rebellion against God man still seeks after happiness, but the desire for holiness has been extinguished.[2] The Spirit of Christ comes to dwell in believers to oppose the flesh and fallen nature of man to produce Christ-likeness that brings deep and lasting happiness to the believer.

Sibbes wrote, “Let us labor to be in Christ that we may get the Spirit. It is of great necessity that we should have it (“Him”). Above all things next to redemption by Christ, labor for the Spirit of Christ, Sibbes persuaded believers.”[3] Sibbes taught that the primary ministry of the Spirit of Christ was to enlighten believer’s minds, to soften their hearts, to quicken their wills to faith and action, and to sanctify God’s people.[4] The Spirit’s ministry is a sanctifying ministry, but wonderfully relational as well. God communicates Himself to believers, and believers through the Spirit communicate their hearts back to Him. Without Christ, there could be no Holy Spirit for the believer; without the Spirit there could be no union with Christ and enjoyment of His benefits. Without the Spirit, there could be no real communion with God in Christ.

All the communion that Christ as man had with God was by the Holy Ghost; and all the communion that God hath with us, and we with God, is by the Holy Ghost: for the Spirit is the bond of union between Christ and us, and between God and us.[5]

Sibbes wrote that “God communicates Himself to us by His Spirit, and we communicate with God by His Spirit. God does all in us by His Spirit, and we do all back again to God by His Spirit.[6] Sibbes wrote: “There is nothing in the world so great and sweet a friend that will do us so much good as the Spirit, if we give Him entertainment.”[7]

The Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son to conform believers to the obedience of Christ as a Holy friend with whom to walk and talk in fellowship together. So for Sibbes, “entertaining the Spirit” is being careful and cautious not to grieve the Spirit of God (cf. Eph. 4:30). To put it positively, “entertaining the Spirit” is to subject ourselves to Christ as Lord and kind king as believers. It is treating the Spirit as a kind friend as well as a king (cf. Malachi 1:6) who has brought glorious and holy fellowship from the Father and the Son to redeemed sinners (cf. 2 Cor. 13:14). Sibbes wrote summarizing his understanding of entertaining the Spirit:

…There is the obedience of faith, and the obedience of life. When the soul is wrought to obedience, to believe, and to be directed by God, then the Holy Spirit is given in a farther measure still. The Holy Ghost is given to them that obey, to them that do not resist the Spirit of God….the Spirit is given to them that obey the sweet motions of it…If we have the Spirit of Christ, let us labor to subject ourselves unto it. When we have any good motion by the ministry of the Word, or by conference, or by reading good things (as holy things have a savor in them…)…Oh, give way to the motions of God’s Spirit! (my emphasis)[8]

The obedience that the Holy Spirit equips believers with is no mere morality, or outward show of behavior resulting in hypocrisy, but an inward disposition of particularly “cheerful obedience”. The believer is to be stirred up by the Spirit, motivated by the love of God in Christ that will encourage her to obey the Savior who has loved them and laid down His life for them. Sibbes was cautious to avoid bare moralism that was an unbiblical error of his time. Sibbes emphasized that believers’ love because they have first been loved by God in Christ (cf. 1 John 4:11-19). Sibbes wrote pastorally for believers to understand that the love of God must be the believer’s motivation in all that they do for God if it be true, Christian obedience:

Whatsoever we do else, if it be not stirred by the Spirit, apprehending the love of God in Christ, it is but morality…What are all our performances if they be not out of love to God? And how shall we love God except we be persuaded that he loves us first? …The gospel breeds love in us to God…working a blessed frame of sanctification, whereby we are disposed to every good duty.[9]

“Let the Spirit dwell and rule in us,” captures in summary what it mean for Sibbes for believers to entertain the Spirit of God.[10] Sibbes sweetly called the Spirit the “Blessed Lodger that ever we entertained in all of our lives.”[11] For Sibbes, that entertaining meant to welcome with hospitality and nurture our friendship with the indwelling Spirit.” This relationship with the Holy Spirit as the believer’s holy guest was subject to a deepening and ever-intensifying growth in the love and peace of God. The more the believer seeks to let the Spirit guide, comfort, conform, edify, and guard the soul from sinning, Christ will desire by His Spirit to develop the believer’s soul more maturely and deeply (Eph. 3:17-19). Sibbes wrote, “Christ desires further entertainment in his church’s heart and affection, that he might lodge and dwell there.”[12]

Entertaining the Holy Spirit also meant for Sibbes a further subduing of sinful corruption in the soul, and an enlarging of God’s grace and comfort in the heart:

Let us remember that grace is increased, in the exercise of it, not by virtue of the exercise itself, but as Christ by his Spirit flows into the soul and brings us nearer to himself, the fountain, so instilling such comfort that the heart is further enlarged. The heart of a Christian is Christ’s garden, and his graces are as so many sweet spices and flowers which, when his Spirit blows upon them, send forth a sweet savor…Therefore keep the soul open to entertain the Holy Ghost , for he will bring in continually fresh forces to subdue corruption, and this most of all on the Lord’s day (my emphasis).[13]

Because the souls of believers are still contaminated by sin (Rom. 7:7-25), they are to trust Christ to further subdue the corruption, thus enlarging the believer’s heart, and making the soul a more pleasant and holy place for Christ to dwell. This is to be obtained by prayer to God in Jesus’ name. Entertaining the Spirit meant for Sibbes never to grieve the Holy Spirit of Christ (cf. Eph. 4:30). Sibbes plead with God’s people: “Oh give him entrance and way to come into his own chamber, as it were to provide a room for himself.”[14] Believers can grieve the Spirit when they resist his teaching, direction, strengthening, and/or comfort from Him.[15] When believers receive the delight and comfort brought to them by the Spirit, they entertain his motions of grace and comfort toward them, but when they refuse Him, they grieve Him, and sin against Him.[16] Sibbes taught realistically that the best of believers are prone to grieve the Spirit. Believers who have the Spirit of God within them know experientially that there is an enmity within and without against the workings of the Spirit.[17]

Sibbes taught that believers should remember that the Spirit is a Spirit of Holiness and so he “is grieved with unclean courses, with unclean motions and words and actions.”[18] The Spirit is a Spirit of Love and so he is grieved when believers cherish malice or corruption against other Christians. “He will not rest in a malicious heart who is the Spirit of Love.”[19] There must not be any rottenness or malice that is practiced and performed in the hearts of believers. The Spirit is a Spirit of Humility and wheresover He is, there is humility. Those that are filled with vain and high thoughts, proud conceits, and self-centeredness grieve the Spirit of God (cf. James 4:6-8).[20] The Spirit of God is especially grieved by spiritual wicked sins such as pride and high-mindedness, perhaps even more so offended than by sins against the body, Sibbes taught. Grieving the Spirit can also be a disregard of a well-informed, Biblically-enriched conscience. Sins against conscience can grieve this wonderful Spirit if Christ, and “lay a clog upon Him” as Sibbes says colorfully.[21]

The primary goal of the Christian life is to please Christ (2 Cor. 5:9-10), and to enjoy comfort in Him, being equipped with gifts for loving service by the Holy Spirit.[22] We can grieve the Spirit and not properly entertain His sweet and comforting work in and through us when we are distracted by worldly things, and prefer creaturely, created things, more than “His motions leading us to holiness and happiness”.[23] When the mind is troubled with much (as Martha in Luke 10:38-42), then the Spirit is grieved. Especially in our time, believers ought to heed the wisdom of Sibbes here:

…When the soul is like a mill [or loud industrial warehouse], where one cannot hear another, the noise is such as takes away all intercourse. It diminishes of our respect to the Holy Spirit when we give way to a multitude of business (what we would call “busyness”); for multitude of business (“busyness”) begets multitude of passions and distractions; that when God’s Spirit dictates the best things that tend to our comfort and peace, we have no time to heed what the Spirit advises. Therefore we should so moderate our occasions and affairs, that we may be always ready for good suggestions. If a man will be lost, let him lose himself in Christ and in the things of heaven…(my emphasis).[24]

Because the primary office of the Spirit is to “set out Christ, and the favor and mercy of God in Christ,”[25] let believers never slight the good news of Christ in the Gospel. Let God’s people receive God’s grace in Christ as He is held out to them, especially in preaching. Sibbes counseled that eagerness to hear God’s Word preached by God’s called, gifted and ordained ambassadors was a primary way to make “way for God in the heart” and so he said: “Give [the preachers] entertainment.”[26] Sibbes emphasized not only the work of the Spirit within the believer, but the Spirit’s work through the means appointed by God, particularly preaching.

More on Richard Sibbes in the weeks to come… More on preaching and the Spirit of God…

Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) was affectionately known as the “Sweet Dropper” as a Puritan preacher.[27] He has been distinguished among the Puritans as the “Heavenly” Dr. Sibbes because he was famous for his affective spirituality.[28] Affective spirituality is a focus on the affections or the desires as they are transformed by the Spirit of God motivating believers to joyful obedience in Christ.

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

 

Footnotes

[1] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed in Works, V:412

[2] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed in Works, V:413

[3] Sibbes, Excellency of the Gospel in Works, IV:212

[4] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed in Works, V:413

[5] Sibbes, A Description of Christ in Works, I:17

[6] Sibbes, A Description of Christ in Works, I:17-18

[7] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed in Works, V:431

[8] Sibbes, A Description of Christ in Works, I:24-25

[9] Sibbes, A Description of Christ in Works, I:24

[10] Sibbes, A Description of Christ in Works, I:25

[11] Sibbes, A Description of Christ in Works, I:25

[12] Sibbes, Bowels Opened in Works, II:58

[13] Sibbes, The Bruised Reed in Works, I:75

[14] Sibbes, Excellency of the Gospel in Works, IV:236

[15] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed in Works, V:415; Sibbes gave advice on specifically how to avoid the grieving of the Spirit. 1. Let believers submit our souls entirely to the Spirit of God as Divine Governor. 2. Let believers walk perfectly (“precisely”) in obeying the Spirit in all things.

[16] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed in Works, V:415

[17] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed in Works, V:414

[18] Sibbes, Excellency of the Gospel in Works, IV:236

[19] Sibbes, Excellency of the Gospel in Works, IV:237

[20] Sibbes, Excellency of the Gospel in Works, IV:237

[21] Sibbes, Excellency of the Gospel in Works, IV:237

[22] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed in Works, V:414

[23] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed in Works, V:416

[24] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed in Works, V:422

[25] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed in Works, V:420

[26] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed in Works, V:426

[27] Packer, J. I. A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1990), 179.

[28] Kapic, Kelly M. and Gleason, Randall C., Edited. The Devoted Life: An Invitation to the Puritan Classics, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 79.

From Your Pastor: Congratulations! “…Everything Beautiful in Its Time”

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.…The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-5, 12:13).

As you graduate, there are a few things that I would encourage you to keep in mind as you continue on your pilgrimage in this present age. As your pastor, I would not want you to be surprised by all the changes, both good and bad that you will inevitably experience in this world “under the sun”. Think about how you already know this to some degree. You have gotten used to a particular season in your life, then things change, and you face other opportunities (and troubles!); think about growing up, and the increasingly difficult things you have to learn, and the things you enjoy that you must leave behind. Think of friendships that are ever-changing, people ever-moving to other places, you ever-longing within.  One important truth that I think you should understand at this point in your life is that as Christians we should know that the only permanence in this world is constant change: Note Ecclesiastes 3:1ff: “There is a time to…a time to…a time to…a time to… a time to…etc.

Our gracious God through the Scriptures prepares us for such change in our lives. This is one of the beauties of the Book of Ecclesiastes. We long for things to stay the same yet things are always changing. Don’t think that there is something wrong when you long for permanence but only experience change. Since the fall of man into sin this is the “new” normal in a world “under the sun”. As human beings we were created for permanence, because our Creator has placed eternity in our hearts (Ecc. 3:11). The truth is that we will never be fully satisfied as pilgrims in this world, and so we continue to journey on by faith. We may at times feel homesick here because we are made for another world. As C. S. Lewis wrote eloquently and longingly:

“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists…If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing (my emphasis).”[1]

The wise man of Ecclesiastes teaches us: There is a “a time to be born…a time to die…” (Ecc. 3:2). Everything happens between these two significant events in your lives. You are born then you will eventually die (unless the Lord Jesus returns first). Your life is brief, like a mist, like a breath (James 4:14). We are taught to be wise with the time that God has given to us (Eph. 5:15-17). As believers, in the midst of all the changes around us in our lives, we should daily remind ourselves that we are on pilgrimage to a glorious world that will never change, and to grow in this hope through faith and patience (Heb. 6:11-12). We are not home yet as Hebrews 11:13-16 teaches us. God is “preparing for us a city” (Heb. 11:16). For now, we walk by faith with good courage (2 Cor. 5:6-8). While we enjoy many aspects of this good world, we await a better, more permanent world; this permanent world is our hope. We await a glorification of the heavens and the earth and of our whole selves (bodies, souls, spirits, 1 Thess. 5:23-24; Rom. 8:23-25; Phil. 3:20-21; Rev. 21:1ff). The world is not what it will be—(and cheer up!) we are not yet what we will be because of God’s grace and power in our lives.

While we live in this sin-tainted, yet good world (cf. 1 Tim. 4:4-5), we are called to be useful to God and to others in our service. We are called to be pilgrims in this world as believers, exiles who live to worship God and do good (Jer. 29:3-11; cf. 1 Pet. 2:11-12; 2 Pet. 3:11-14). We are called to know that our times are in God’s hands (Psa. 31:15). The times in which we live, and the places where we live, work, and enjoy life have all been sovereignly and perfectly ordained by our great God for our good and His glory (see Acts 17:26). In the Old Covenant we have an excellent example of how pilgrims ought to live in the time and place God has placed us until the restoration of all things. Our good and kind king tell us to know and always remember that in Christ He has great plans of peace and joy for us (Jer. 29:11). While we are here, we are to learn to do good to all, to build up our community, both in the church and in our neighborhoods and callings (read Jer. 29:4-14).

While we travel as pilgrims and grow older, we realize increasingly more experientially that everything is indeed always changing around us as Ecclesiastes chapter 3 tells us. There is a time for everything under the sun, from our births to our deaths, and with this comes temptation (1 Cor. 10:13). All of these changes can begin to seem like a prison for us. By God’s grace the changes can become the way to more freedom experienced through the peace and joy of the Lord. Which one will it be? Some folks feel like all the change in this world is oppressive and like a prison from which there is no escape because they lack control over their lives and circumstances; they feel powerless (they are powerless in the face of change!). For those who have no hope beyond this world, who are described as “without hope and without God in this world” (Eph. 2:12) and who see God’s divine power and attributes, yet exchange the truth of God for a lie, this constant and perpetual change seems for them more like a prison (Rom. 1:19-32). Life will seem to them like “vanity” (Ecc. 1:2-3). Here’s one singer-poet’s description of the vanity and prison he found in the “changes”:

“I still don’t know what I was waiting for/And my time was running wild/A million dead-end streets/And every time I thought I’d got it made/It seemed the taste was not so sweet/So I turned myself to face me/But I’ve never caught a glimpse/Of how the others must see the faker/I’m much too fast to take that test…I watch the ripples change their size/But never leave the stream/Of warm impermanence and/ So the days float through my eyes/But still the days seem the same….Ch-ch-changes/Pretty soon now you’re gonna get older/Time may change me/But I can’t trace time/I said that time may change me/But I can’t trace time…”[2]

But for believers, these changes can bring joyous freedom! Believers are taught to “stand firm” and to let nothing move us, to fully give ourselves to the Lord knowing that our labor in the Lord is never “vanity” (1 Cor. 15:58). All the ch-ch-changes are ordained and intended for our good by a caring and kind compassionate God and Father, who through the Lord Jesus Christ by his Spirit will make us beautiful. For believers, the constant change is intended to be a path of beauty as pilgrims here in this world. Read 3:11-14:

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil– this is God’s gift to man. 14 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.”

This path toward beauty and true peace, can grant believers great confidence, especially as we know and remember three important truths from the wisdom of God revealed to us at the conclusion of the Book of Ecclesiastes:

“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” – ESV Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

  1. We know God.. “Fear God…” “What do the Scriptures principally teach? The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man” (WSC, Q&A 2).

God has made us for Himself; our only hope of finding true meaning, satisfaction, love and peace in this present age is by living first to know God, and to grow in our relationship with Him in Christ, and thus to know ourselves better. How are these two related, God and self? By knowing God, you understand yourself as a creature of God, made by God, made for God, waiting for God. By knowing yourself, you can see how God has been good to you, and given clear evidence of Himself in His creation, this glorious “theater of creation”, your own conscience, and especially (and savingly!) in Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures. To know God is to know yourself better—it is to become more and more beautiful in Him as you are sanctified in Christ. As our forefather John Calvin wrote: “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”[3]

  1. We fear Him. “FearGod… In wonder and awe, we thank him for our salvation, and we seek to serve and, to know him better. This is simply living as “man before Majesty”. We live before God honoring Him as a Father, and obeying (fearing) Him as a king and master (Mal. 1:6). Our forefather John Calvin called true piety, or the true spiritual Christian Life as that which combined reverence or the fear of God and the love of God together. He wrote,

“The gist of true piety does not consist in a fear which would gladly flee the judgment of God but rather in a pure and true zeal which loves God altogether as father, and reveres him truly as Lord, embraces his justice and dreads to offend him more than to die.”[4]

  1. We keep His commandments. The Commandments are not merely The Ten Commandments although these are included, but they are more broadly all of the Scriptures. Our faith in this kind God and Savior is to be in submissively dependent upon his Holy Word (John 15:9-11). Our Lord Jesus taught: “Sanctify them by your Word, your Word is truth” (John 17:17). God has given us his Word to reveal himself ultimately, and to call us to a Savior who never changes who is fully committed to making us beautiful in his time, by his grace in spirit! Our hope and trust me are in this great truth:

CHRIST is our PERMANENCE as pilgrims in this present age.

We have a Savior who is the same “yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

So while everything created is always changing, by God’s grace in Christ, we can acknowledge that so are we—changing for the good and becoming more beautiful—in Him. And we wait the great change and complete transformation that 1 Corinthians 15:51 speaks about. One day we shall be completely and permanently changed in the twinkling of an eye, when we shall be completely like him, transformed in body, soul and spirit to be fully holy and to live with Christ in a world without Shadows.

Until that day, let us be faithful pilgrims seeking the Lord Our God and aiming to please him above all things! Because he is good, and greatly to be praised! He indeed will make all things beautiful in  its time!

In Christ’s love, and– Congratulations! I’m grateful to be your pastor and I’m very proud of you!

Pastor Biggs

 

P.S. And I must leave you with an assignment to read. What would I encourage you to read now that you have graduated?

* John Calvin’s ‘The Golden Book of the Christian Life” (Learn to serve God from a sanctified heart; this is an abbreviated version of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion that will change your life forever).

* C. S. Lewis’ “The Weight of Glory” (1942) (Learn of the glorious “immortals”!).

* J. R. R. Tolkien’s “On Fairy Stories” (Learn to be a faithful “sub-creator” because of the Great Eucatastrophe!).

[1] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 3, chapter 10. I also would strongly recommend you read Lewis’ excellent sermon entitled “The Weight of Glory”, 1942, now that you’re graduating.

[2] David Bowie, “Changes” from the album Hunky Dory, RCA Records (1971). What the great artist Bowie wrote about is clearly revealed in Ecclesiastes 3:11b: “…[God] has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” ; note the line: “But I can’t trace time…”

[3] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.1.1-2: “Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God…Without knowledge of God there is no knowledge of self.”

[4] Calvin, Institutes, Book 1.

From Your Pastor: Richard Sibbes’ Affective Spirituality: “To Look to Christ”

 

Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) was affectionately known as the “Sweet Dropper” as a Puritan preacher.[1] He has been distinguished among the Puritans as the “Heavenly” Dr. Sibbes because he was famous for his affective spirituality.[2] Affective spirituality is a focus on the affections or the desires as they are transformed by the Spirit of God motivating believers to joyful obedience in Christ. Sibbes’[3] primary emphasis as a preacher was the interior soul, a focus on the hearts, the affections, the desires of the soul toward God in Christ rather than merely external behavior, or an outward conformity to the law of God.[4] He did not undermine the law of God, but emphasized the law as it is written by the Spirit upon the heart that was promised to believers in Christ in the context of the Covenant of Grace (cf. Heb. 8:8-13).[5] Sibbes believed that the primary attention of the Christian ought to be on the love of God as He is revealed in Christ.[6]

Sibbes emphasized the Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit as a Christological reality in the believer’s life. His understanding of the Spirit of Christ’s work was Biblically-theologically united in his mind to the obedience and fruitfulness the Spirit would produce in every believer united to Christ. This fruitfulness would fulfill the demands of the law, which is summarized as true love for God in Christ (cf. Rom. 13:8-10). The Spirit of Christ’s primary ministry was to convict, lead to confession, comfort with forgiving love and mercy, and conform believers to Christ. This was not an undermining of God’s holy law, but a different emphasis that Sibbes “contextualized” wisely in his time due to an imbalanced moralistic emphasis that sought to awaken apathetic people living in the covenant of grace in the national church.[7]

In contrast to the much moralistic preaching in his time, Sibbes had a wonderful reputation in the 1600s as one who preached “sweet, soul-melting Gospel-sermons” that refreshed the saints, awakened the apathetic, and encouraged the troubled. He was known for his very experimental (“experiential”), or practical sermons.[8] One of Sibbes’ contemporaries, one Samuel Hartlib referred to Sibbes as “one of the most experimental divines now living”.[9] Sibbes sought to have an eminently practical theology that always was applied to men’s lives and experiences. Sibbes wanted to demonstrate that all theology about God and His salvation was relevant to all of life.[10]  Sibbes would agree with the famous statement made later by the Rev. Dr. Robert Burns that Christian truth should be brought home to “men’s business and bosoms.”[11] Sibbes understood that Christians that are truly recipients of grace in Christ through the Spirit would be particularly obedient Christians characterized by fruitfulness and thankfulness.[12] In this way, Sibbes’ practical or “experiential” emphasis was to produce the obedience of faith that should be evident in a Christian’s life.

Although Sibbes was a Triune Theologian, who had a tremendous emphasis on the Holy Spirit, he asserted strongly that the chief end of man, is “To look to Christ”, or to be “swallowed up in the love of Christ”. Ultimately, then, for Sibbes, the Father and Spirit desired to reveal Christ, and His mediating love to sinners in calling, regeneration, justification, sanctification and glorification. This goal to look to Christ has two elements, Sibbes taught: 1. That God might be glorified; 2. That believers might be happy. “And both these are attained by honoring and serving Him.[13] For Sibbes, the Triune theologian, God would be glorified through sinners believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the application of all of Christ’s benefits by the Holy Spirit, would enjoy Him in intimate relationship. This is a summary of what the Westminster Divines would later write (after Sibbes’ death in 1635) as the “chief end of man”, “To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”[14]

For Sibbes, looking to Christ had a transforming effect on the believers. Like John Owen (1616-1683) after him, the emphasis was “looking on Christ” (cf. Heb. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18).[15] Sibbes wrote of the transforming effect that looking to Christ has on believers. “The very beholding of Christ is a transforming sight…it is a transforming beholding. If we look upon him with the eye of faith, it will make us like Christ….When we see the love of God in the gospel, and the love of Christ giving himself for us, this will transform us to love God.”[16] Sibbes wrote that by looking to the glory of God in Christ we see Christ as our husband, and that breeds a disposition in us to have the affections of a spouse.[17] We see Christ as our head, and that breeds a disposition in us to be members like him.[18] Sibbes encouraged growth in Christ by His Spirit through meditation on His Beautiful Person. Sibbes wrote that Christ is the most beautiful person, particularly as the mediator between the Father and sinners who brings peace and reconciliation. This loveliness and beauty of Christ is “especially spiritual”, Sibbes taught, meaning that it had spiritual efficacy to stir up the graces of Christ’s Spirit.[19] Quoting a spiritual father in the faith, Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), he wrote, “When I think of Christ, I think at once of God, full of majesty and glory; and, at the same time, of man, full of meekness, gentleness, and sweetness.”[20]

In Sibbes’ rich and biblical Christology and Pneumatology there is no room for Antinomianism, or carelessness with regard to God’s law. If one is truly a believer, they will be becoming like Christ by His Spirit. The believer’s union with Christ demanded this understanding. This transformation would be one of both comfort and conformity. The Spirit’s work would comfort believers with the Father’s love in Christ, and they could boldly draw near to Him for help in their lives (cf. Acts 9:31). This confidence in the Father’s love would dispel all of their fears (1 Jo. 4:18), and they would love God as a Father (Rom. 8:15). The Spirit would also conform believers to the likeness of Christ (Rom. 8:29). Sibbes wrote that what the believers behold by faith in Christ, they would become. What a believer sees in the Savior would be a reality for them in their sanctification. Sibbes emphasized Christ as Savior first, then Christ as the believer’s example, but one could not be separated from the other any more than justification could be separated from sanctification in the true believer.

This priority or primacy on Christ first as a Savior was important for Sibbes’ doctrine and explanation of sanctification in the believer. For Sibbes, Christ is the Source of the Spirit for believers. If Christ is not understood first as Savior, then the Spirit will not sanctify. Believers only have the Sanctifying Spirit as a gift of the completed work of Christ for sinners (cf. Heb. 2:11ff; Acts 2:33-36). The Spirit that Christ had in his earthly life, He now has in fullness in his exaltation in glory. This same Spirit, the exalted Christ pours out abundantly and graciously upon His people. It is important to note that the emphasis for Sibbes is on the Spirit being particularly the Spirit “of Christ”. This again accentuates Sibbes’ pneumatology being Christological. Sibbes wrote briefly, yet deeply:

…All is first in Christ, then in us….We have not the Holy Ghost immediately from God, but we have Him as sanctifying Christ first, and then us; and whatsoever the Holy Ghost doth in us, He doth the same in Christ first, and He doth it in us because of Christ…Whatsoever the Holy Ghost works in us, He takes of Christ first (my emphasis).[21]

Sibbes wrote of this biblically rich Christological pneumatology throughout his works. He wrote elsewhere, “[The Lord Jesus Christ] hath the Spirit Himself eminently, and dispenses and gives the Spirit unto others; all receiving the Spirit from Him as the common root and fountain of all spiritual gifts.”[22] Jesus Christ is the “man of the Spirit”, and the one who pours out His Spirit on His Church.[23] “The gift of the Holy Ghost especially depends upon the glorifying (“glorification”) of Christ. When [Christ] had fulfilled the work of redemption, and was raised to glory, God being pacified gave the Holy Ghost as a gift of his favor (cf. Acts 2:32-35).[24]

For Sibbes, believers get all their rich spiritual blessings from Christ (cf. Eph. 1:3-14; 2 Pet. 1:3-4). As it was with Christ in His life, so believers can expect the same in Him by His grace. Christ was conceived by the Spirit, anointed by the Spirit, and sealed by the Spirit, so are believers in the same way. In fact, Sibbes summarized this by clearly teaching that “When we [believers] are knit to Christ by His Spirit, then it works the same in us as it did in him.” As Christ was conceived, anointed and sealed by the Spirit, so those in union with Him are conceived, anointed and sealed as well. Sibbes’ Christological focus was to accentuate all of the spiritual blessings for believers, to encourage them toward a closer communion with the Triune God, and a deeper, more assured salvation and sanctification. All grace that believers have is “from His fullness” received by us by the Holy Spirit (cf. John 1:16). Sibbes wrote: “From Christ, we have grace to know God’s favor towards us, grace for Christ-conformity, and grace to know privileges and benefits towards us…both favor and grace in us, and privileges issuing from grace, we have all as they are in Christ.”[25]

All of the blessings believers have is because of Jesus Christ! All the promises of God are made to Christ first, then to us.[26] Sibbes taught that whatever privilege or blessing that believers enjoy such as justification, adoption, sanctification—any blessing from God the Father from grace to glory–should first be seen in Christ. He wrote: “Our election is in Christ first. He is chosen to be our head. Our justification is in Christ first. He is justified and freed from our sins being laid to his charge as our surety, and therefore we are freed. Our resurrection is in Christ first. We rise, because he is the ‘first-begotten from the dead.’ Our ascension is in Christ, and our sitting at the right hand of God in him first.

All things that are ours, they are first his; what he hath by nature, we have by grace (my emphasis).[27]

In fact, there is no blessing, nor immediate communion between the Father and believers except through Jesus Christ. “Christ is the Father’s, and we are the Father’s in Christ.”[28] God in our nature comes between the Father and us, and all things come from God to us in him…Out of Christ, there is no communion with God. He is a friend to both sides: to us as man, to him as God. All things come originally from the fountain of all, God.[29] All comes down from the Father through the Son to us by the Holy Spirit. “God doth all in Christ to us. He chooseth us in Christ, and sanctifies us in Christ; he bestows all spiritual blessings on us in Christ, as members of Christ. To Christ first, and through him, he conveys it to us.”[30] Christ’s human nature is the first temple wherein the Spirit dwells, and then we become temples by union with Him.”[31] Sibbes taught that if one was truly a believer in Christ then he would begin to look and act and live like Him in gentleness and humility. Sibbes would not have agreed with, nor fathomed the Antinomian way of thinking of a so-called “Savior” that did not become also the Sanctifier of the believer. If Christ was truly the Savior of the believer, then He was also the Sanctifier who transformed her.

More on Richard Sibbes in weeks to come…

If your affective appetite was whet, and you want more “heavenly drippings”, you might start with these excellent books: A Heavenly Conference, The Bruised Reed, and The Love of Christ: Expositions on Song of Solomon. These are available on the KCPC booktable.

 

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

 

 

Footnotes:

[1] Packer, J. I. A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1990), 179.

[2] Kapic, Kelly M. and Gleason, Randall C., Edited. The Devoted Life: An Invitation to the Puritan Classics, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 79.

[3] Manuals for writers are not in agreement on whether to write plural “Sibbes’” or “Sibbes’s”. In this paper, I will use “Sibbes’”; http://www.dailywritingtips.com/possessive-of-proper-names-ending-in-s/ accessed on December 1, 2015.

[4] Harold Patton Shelly, Richard Sibbes: Early Stuart Preacher of Piety, Ph.D. diss. (Temple University, 1972), 55-56.

[5] “[Sibbes stressed covenant as the] ground of the entirety of the Christian life both in justification and sanctification”; Mark Dever, Richard Sibbes: Puritanism and Calvinism in Late Elizabethan and Early Stuart England (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2000), 2.

[6] Harold Patton Shelly, Richard Sibbes: Early Stuart Preacher of Piety, Ph.D. diss. (Temple University, 1972), 55-56. Shelly wrote: “Some earlier Puritans had emphasized the law of God and conformity to its precepts. The goal for which Sibbes strove was not external precision gained by following the law of God but an internal holiness produced by the Spirit of God (my emphasis). God’s love and mercy, not his law and judgment, ought to inspire the saint.”

[7] R. N. Frost, “Richard Sibbes’ Theology of Grace and the Division of English Reformed Theology,” PhD diss. King’s College of the Univ. of London, 1996, 174-77. Frost emphasizes that Sibbes was not an Antinomian, but was ministering in a context that was rife with moralism, and so he emphasized the ministry of the Spirit from within men’s souls. Dever wrote that modern scholarship has wrongly presented Sibbes as a central, “though unwitting, figure in the development of moralism, emphasizing sanctification at the expense of justification.” Dever, “Richard Sibbes,” 99. Dever rightly points out that “Sibbes was not…and unwitting representative of a nascent moralism. He was, rather, one of the last of the great Reformed preachers of England both to believe in theory and to know in practice an officially undivided covenant community,” 134.

[8] Kapic and Gleason, The Devoted Life, 80.

[9] Mark Dever, Richard Sibbes: Puritanism and Calvinism in Late Elizabethan and Early Stuart England (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2000), 1.

[10] Bert Affleck, “Theology of Richard Sibbes (1577-1635),” PhD Diss., Drew University, 1969, 18. Affleck asserts that Sibbes’ legacy to history is a theology relevant to life, a theology for the whole of life.

[11] Cartwright, H.M. “Faith and Justification: Volume One of the Works of Thomas Halyburton.” The James Begg Society. Quote from http://www.nesherchristianresources.org/JBS/publications/info_haly1.html, accessed November 21, 2015.

[12] Sibbes wrote that believers’ whole lives under the Gospel should be characterized by fruitful and thankfulness demonstrated by obedience. From Divine Meditations in The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander B. Grosart (1862-1864); repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2004), VII:206. This edition of Sibbes’ complete works will be cited as Works.

[13] Sibbes, The Christian’s End in Works, V:298; Quoted in Frost, “Richard Sibbes’ Theology of Grace,” 44.

[14] Westminster Confession of Faith, Shorter Catechism, Question 1: “What is the chief end of man?” Answer: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

[15] John Owen taught often throughout his writings that believers can grow in their communion with God and in their sanctification through the experience of gazing on Christ by faith. See especially John Owen, Mediations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ, in Works, I:140; I:274-432; Also, Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded, in Works, VII:344-351.

[16] Sibbes, A Description of Christ in Works, I:14

[17] Sibbes, A Description of Christ in Works, I:12; Sibbes’ preaching was clearly influenced by Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390) and Augustine of Hippo (354-430), as well as Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). Sibbes had a “moderate mysticism” not an “ontological fusion” as taught by radical mystics but a “union analogous to human marriage”. Frost wrote that this covenant-marriage or mystical marriage language placed Sibbes in company with many of the central figures of the Christian-mystical tradition who used marital imagery to describe spirituality. The mystical union emphasized that Christ and believers are one. Sibbes accentuated the benefits of this mystical union: “…With the same love that God loves Christ, he loves all his. He delights in Christ and all his, with the same delight….You see what a wondrous confidence and comfort we have hence, if we labor to be in Christ, that then God loves and delights in us, because he loves and delights in Christ Jesus.” Quoted in Frost, “Richard Sibbes’ Theology of Grace,” 115.

[18] Sibbes, Excellency of the Gospel in Works, IV:271

[19] Sibbes, Bowels Opened in Works, II:138

[20] Sibbes, Bowels Opened in Works, II:138

[21] Sibbes, A Description of Christ in Works, I:18

[22] Sibbes, Excellency of the Gospel in Works, IV:205

[23] Sibbes, Excellency of the Gospel in Works, IV:205-208

[24] Sibbes, Excellency of the Gospel in Works, IV:209

[25] Sibbes, A Description of Christ in Works, I:19

[26] Sibbes, A Christian’s Portion in Works, IV:25ff

[27] Sibbes, A Christian’s Portion in Works, IV:26

[28] Sibbes, A Christian’s Portion in Works, IV:32

[29] Sibbes, A Christian’s Portion in Works, IV:33

[30] Sibbes, A Christian’s Portion in Works, IV:33

[31] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed in Works, V:414

From Your Pastor: Why Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy is Glorious (Part 7)

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8)

Why is keeping the Lord’s Day holy glorious?

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is an opportunity to please and glorify God in obedience to His commandments.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is a privilege and blessing of the Covenant of Grace.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it can remind us that the Lord Jesus created it, kept it, and fulfilled it, and gave it to believers as a way of imitating Him.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is an opportunity for growth and maturity in Christ.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it can be a time well spent that helps us not to live overly busy and distracted lives.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is a way of joyfully, peacefully, and graciously witnessing publicly to whom it is you belong, and to whom it is you ultimately submit!

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is part of our confessional heritage as particularly Reformed Christians.

 

  1. Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy is glorious because it is a part of our confessional heritage as particularly Reformed Christians.

I would invite you to further study of this matter by reading our Confession of Faith and Catechisms on the moral law, but particularly the fourth commandment. I would invite you to consider the thoughts of John Calvin on the Sabbath Day that are found in His Institutes of the Christian Religion.[1] I would encourage you to think about the great heritage we have as Reformed Christians who have been known to place an important emphasis on the Lord’s Day because it is indeed a glorious day to enjoy! As your pastor, I never would want us to fall into legalism of any sort with regard to this glorious day, but I must honestly and truthfully from a heart of love teach you what I think we need to understand from Scripture and our heritage as Reformed Christians. As I conclude, let us look at the Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 121, and think about how we might prayerfully apply these truths:

     The Westminster Larger Catechism, Question and Answer 121 says helpfully: Why is the word Remember set in the beginning of the fourth commandment? A. The word Remember is set in the beginning of the fourth commandment,(1) partly, because of the great benefit of remembering it, we being thereby helped in our preparation to keep it,(2) and, in keeping it, better to keep all the rest of the commandments,(3) and to continue a thankful remembrance of the two great benefits of creation and redemption, which contain a short abridgment of religion;(4) and partly, because we are very ready to forget it,(5) for that there is less light of nature for it,(6) and yet it restraineth our natural liberty in things at other times lawful;(7) that it cometh but once in seven days, and many worldly businesses come between, and too often take off our minds from thinking of it, either to prepare for it, or to sanctify it;(8) and that Satan with his instruments much labour to blot out the glory, and even the memory of it, to bring in all irreligion and impiety.(9) (1)Exod. 20:8 (2)Exod. 16:23; Luke 23:54,56 with Mark 15:42; Neh. 13:19 (3)Ps. 92:(title) compared with Ps. 92:13,14; Ezek. 20:12,19,20 (4)Gen. 2:2,3; Ps. 118:22,24; Acts 4:10,11; Rev. 1:10 (5)Ezek. 22:26 (6)Neh. 9:14 (7)Exod. 34:21 (8)Deut. 5:14,15; Amos 8:5 (9)Lam. 1:7; Jer. 17:21,22,23; Neh. 13:15-23

     “…Because we are very ready to forget it.” Isn’t this very true of your own heart? I know it can be of mine (so very easily in fact!). But with great faith in Christ, and by the power of His Holy Spirit, let this be another way that our congregation at KCPC can have more peace, being built up in the LORD, walking in the fear of the Lord, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and multiplying in this year!! (Acts 9:31). Think about it: Christians can walk in the fear of the Lord, keeping God’s commandments, and have the comfort of the Holy Spirit. It might be counterintuitive to have fear of the Lord and the Spirit’s comfort together like this?! But isn’t it just this fear of the Lord that brings more comfort of the Spirit? While it is not our works that are the foundation of our salvation—Christ alone and His righteousness gives us that! Nevertheless, our works that we do sincerely in Christ can comfort us and bring us to assurance of our faith and more joy than we can imagine! How? Because we can see the work of the Spirit in our works for Him (cf. Eph. 2:10) and thus we are encouraged to assurance that we belong to God, and thus we can be comforted! Indeed, by His grace, we will be comforted! (2 Peter 1:3-12; John 15:1-17). Jesus has chosen us to go forth and be joyful (John 15:11) and fruitful in obedience to Him (John 15:16). Let us expect that as believers here at KCPC!

Do we walk in the fear of the LORD, knowing that God hates sin, and we are still capable of sin? Do we walk in the fear of the LORD, knowing that God has clearly revealed His will to us so that we may know the true path of life, satisfaction of our souls, and the glory of holy lives in this present age?! Do we walk in the fear of the LORD, knowing that Jesus walked in the fear of the LORD on our behalf to merit salvation for us, and then to give us His precious Holy Spirit, who will also in Christ, make us a true and holy God-fearer?! This is the Spirit that has been given to us who believe!

And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD” (ESV Isaiah 11:2-3a).

     So how can we better keep the Lord’s Day holy? Another way of asking this is: How can we better fear God and keep His commandments joyfully in Christ Jesus? This is not the time for lists that can easily fall into the trap and ditch of legalism, but here are a few offered pastoral suggestions that I try to live by. These are only suggestions. Perhaps you can share some of yours with me?! I ask you to please pray for me to be more consistent in my own life—I want to be holy, humble, and honest above all things—but sin still remains in me. Please pray for me, and kindly and with love approach me when you see I’m being inconsistent with what I am encouraging you to believe!

Eugene Peterson translated our Lord’s words in Matthew 11:28-30 that might help us to think about the proper spirit of the Christian Sabbath or Lord’s Day, and yet another advantage of keeping it as holy:  “Are you tired? Worn out? Burnt out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me-watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on’ you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly” (Eugene H. Peterson, The Message [Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1993).[2]

 

Suggested Questions to Ponder and Ask Yourself to Help You to Keep the Lord’s Day Holy:

Is this activity on the Lord’s Day going to glorify God above all things? / Is this activity a work of necessity or mercy that I lovingly desire to do to love God and neighbor? / Is this activity going to hinder me (or others) from publicly worshipping God and attending to any calls to worship that God calls me to through his ordained servants? / Is this activity loving and the best use of my time for myself, my family, my guests, my neighbors, and those who look to me for leadership? / Is this activity going to be consistent with God’s Word, and particularly His clear teaching on how he desires the Lord’s Day to be remembered? / Is this activity work that I normally engage it on other days, and can it wait? / Is this activity a distraction from my taking time to grow up in God’s Word? / Is this activity something that will not be conducive to remembering what I learned in the morning worship sermon and meditating upon it and hiding in my heart so that I won’t sin against God? / Is this activity properly living a godly example before a broken and lost world?

Prayer: Dear Jesus, I want to keep the Lord’s Day holy, please help me. Grant me your wisdom and discernment. Amen

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

 

(Link to full study: From Your Pastor.Why Keeping the Lords Day is Glorious.March 2016)

 

[1] John Calvin in his Institutes gives three primary reasons for the Christian Sabbath or Lord’s Day: “First, we are to meditate throughout life upon an everlasting Sabbath rest from all our works, that the Lord may work in us through his Spirit. Secondly,each one of us privately, whenever he has leisure, is to exercise himself diligently in pious meditation upon God’s works. Also, we ‘should all observe together the lawful order set by the church for the hearing of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, and for public prayers. In the third place, we should not inhumanly oppress those subject to us. (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles [Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960], 2.8.34)

[2] From Tom Schwanda, Reformed Spirituality Network: http://reformedspiritualitynetwork.org/

From Your Pastor: Are You Assured of God’s Love for You?

 

Are you assured of God’s love for you? Do you have a firm and growing assurance of God’s love for you? Are you like Abraham who was fully convinced that the Lord is able to do what He has promised to you (Rom. 4:19-22)? You may have faith in Christ, and yet not have full assurance of faith. Sometimes it is easy to see how others can be loved by God, and not yourself. Do you want to be assured and grow into a deeper confidence and joy in God’s love?

First, are you a Christian? Are you trusting in Christ alone for your salvation apart from works? Do you believe that all of your righteousness and redemption is found in Christ alone (1 Cor. 1:30), and this is received by you through faith alone in Christ alone because of grace alone? If you have Christ, then you have faith. Yet there is an important distinction that should be made between those who have true and saving faith, and those who have the full assurance of faith (Heb. 10:22-24). The Apostle John wrote his first letter to help believers to be assured. He wrote: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (ESV 1 John 5:13). “…That you may know that you have eternal life.” Do you know…for sure?!

One of the most precious and practical things we can learn from Holy Scripture is that God truly loves us in Christ and makes this love known to us, and even felt in us by His Spirit. God desires His children to know His love for them in Christ by His Spirit.

Beloved, our Confession of Faith can help us tremendously in growing in our faith, and thus coming to assurance of faith. In fact, believers can have an infallible assurance of faith that can lead us into deeper joy and greater obedience to Christ out of gratitude!

Let us together as a congregation consider chapter 18 of the Westminster Confession of Faith (note the scripture references that you might be interested in looking up and studying further). I will briefly follow each section with a commentary to get you thinking prayerfully.

Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 18.1  Although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favour of God, and estate of salvation;(1) which hope of theirs shall perish;(2) yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love Him in sincerity, endeavouring to walk in all good conscience before Him, may, in this life, be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace,(3) and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God; which hope shall never make them ashamed.(4) (1)Job 8:13,14; Micah 3:11; Deut. 29:19; John 8:41. (2)Matt. 7:22,23. (3)1 John 2:3; 1 John 3:14,18,19,21,24; 1 John 5:13. (4)Rom. 5:2,5.

True Faith in Christ: Our confession pastorally teaches us that believers are saved only through the grace of God found in Christ alone for salvation. We must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in our union with Him we desire to serve Him sincerely. If one has true faith, then he will also have works (James 2:14-18). True believers desire for their faith to be seen in loving Christ “in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before Him”.

Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 18.2  This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, grounded upon a fallible hope;(1) but an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation,(2) the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made,(3) the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God:(4) which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.(5) (1)Heb. 6:11,19; (2)Heb. 6:17,18. (3)2 Pet. 1:4,5,10,11; 1 John 2:3; 1 John 3:14; 2 Cor. 1:12. (4)Rom. 8:15,16. (5)Eph. 1:13,14; Eph. 4:30; 2 Cor. 1:21,22.

Three Important Aspects of Assurance of Faith: We can have as believers united to Jesus Christ an infallible assurance of faith because of three important things: (1) Believing God’s Promises in His Word: The truth of God’s Word, particularly the promises of God found in Holy Scripture. This is the infallible foundation for assurance of our faith. Simply put, we believe God’s promises; we believe that God’s Word is true (2 Cor. 1:20-22). (2) Believing Fruits are Produced: There is evidence in possessing some fruits inwardly in the heart and conscience, and outward fruits that show forth that we are the sons of God. These marks of grace or good fruits should flow out of a sincere, regenerated heart (“You will know the tree by the fruit it bears…”- Matt. 7:16ff). A believer can know that they not only possess a desire to will to do good but they seek by faith with sincerity to do good in gratitude for what Christ has done (Phil. 2:12-13). (3) Testimony of the Holy Spirit: The Spirit of Sonship, or of Adoption testifies with our spirits, or our hearts that we are the children of God and we cry, “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). The Spirit seals us unto the Day of Redemption, or gives us the assurance that we are truly possessed and loved by God the Father in Christ Jesus. This knowledge of God’s love can lead to deep experiential joy, like being loved by a spouse, or basking in the love of a faithful Christian mother or father.

Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 18.3  This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties, before he be partaker of it:(1) yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may, without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of ordinary means, attain thereunto.(2) And therefore it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure;(3) that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience,(4) the proper fruits of this assurance: so far is it from inclining men to looseness.(5) (1)1 John 5:13; Isa. 1:10; Mark 9:24; Ps. 88; Ps. 77:1-12. (2)1 Cor. 2:12; 1 John 4:13; Heb. 7:11,12; Eph. 3:17,18,19. (3)2 Pet. 1:10. (4)Rom. 5:1,2,5; Rom. 14:17; Rom. 15:13; Eph. 1:3,4; Ps. 4:6,7; Ps. 119:32. (5)1 John 2:1,2; Rom. 6:1; Tit. 2:11,12,14; 2 Cor. 7:1; Rom. 8:1,12; 1 John 3:2,3; Ps. 130:4; 1 John 1:6,7.

Not All with Faith Have Assurance: All believers possess saving faith, but not all believers with saving faith possess assurance of faith (“It does not so belong to the essence of faith”). This may take a long time, and this may be through much conflict against Satan and sin. But one can come to this assurance by using the ordinary means that Christ has kindly and generously given to His church, such as the word, sacrament, prayer, fellowship. These are means of grace that the risen-ascended Christ has given to His people so that they might mature in Him, and come to an assurance of God’s love. In fact, God has commanded His children that we are to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:3ff; 2 Cor. 13:5). This assurance of God does not make us loose in our walk before God, but makes us joyful, and prayerful, and watchful, and gives a deeper desire to please God in Christ. Maturing and growing in sanctification are not optional for the Christian life, they are required: “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him…” (1 Jo. 2:3-5).

Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 18.4  True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as, by negligence in preserving of it; by falling into some special sin, which woundeth the conscience and grieveth the Spirit; by some sudden or vehement temptation; by God’s withdrawing the light of His countenance, and suffering even such as fear Him to walk in darkness, and to have no light:(1) yet are they never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may, in due time, be revived;(2) and by the which, in the mean time, they are supported from utter despair.(3) (1)Cant. 5:2,3,6; Ps. 51:8,12,14; Eph. 4:30,31; Ps. 77:1-10; Matt. 26:69-72; Ps. 31:22; Ps. 88; Isa. 1:10. (2)1 John 3:9; Luke 22:32; Job 13:15; Ps. 73:15; Ps. 51:8,12; Isa. 1:10. (3)Micah 7:7,8,9; Jer. 32:40; Isa. 54:7-10; Ps. 22:1; Ps. 88.

No Negligence: This assurance can be shaken, particularly when we are negligent and fail to watch and pray, and fall into temptation and sin against God. We should seek to please God and not to in any way grieve the precious Spirit of God who lives within us as God’s children (Eph. 4:30). God can remove His special presence and comfort for a season as a discipline to His children, that we might repent, and confess our sins, and seek prayerfully to return to a sweet communion with God our Heavenly Father.

Do you know that God loves you? Meditate upon His promises to you in Christ. Think about how he loves His own dear children. Seek in light of these promises to be faithful and grateful in your service to Him, seeking to please Him sincerely from the heart. Ask God to fill you with His Word and Spirit so that you might more fully know of the God the Father’s great, wide, deep, high, and broad love for you in Christ Jesus (Eph. 3:17-19). Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to have more joy as God has promised to you in Christ.

Meditate upon John 15:9-11 to ponder your assurance, and to seek prayerfully to reach full assurance of faith. Our Lord Jesus says:

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Our Lord Jesus desires us to know that He loves us as the Father has loved Him from all eternity. That is a great amount of love! This is the love that should motivate and fuel all of our obedience to Him.

Christ teaches us to abide in His love (cf. Jude 20-21). But how? How does one specifically abide in Christ’s love? Our Lord Jesus teaches us that we abide in Him by doing His commandments, and seeking to please Him by being sincerely obedient from our heart. And note that He teaches us that we might not only glorify Him, but that we would also very much enjoy Him: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (15:11).

In other words, as Christ is loved by the Father, and lives in obedience to Him because He desired to please Him above all else. So, in Christ, we can have the joy that He had by the Spirit, and through this also to enjoy His joy in full as we live in Christ by faith. We can see here the foundation of our assurance in knowing the love of God for us in Christ, the evidence of our assurance as we keep (imperfectly, yet sincerely) Christ’s commandments from the heart, and come to possess a deeper and fuller *JOY* by His precious and beautiful Spirit.

In Christ’s love,
Pastor Biggs

 

 

 

From Your Pastor: Why Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy is Glorious (Part 6)

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8)

Why is keeping the Lord’s Day holy glorious?

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is an opportunity to please and glorify God in obedience to His commandments.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is a privilege and blessing of the Covenant of Grace.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it can remind us that the Lord Jesus created it, kept it, and fulfilled it, and gave it to believers as a way of imitating Him.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is an opportunity for growth and maturity in Christ.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it can be a time well spent that helps us not to live overly busy and distracted lives.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is a way of joyfully, peacefully, and graciously witnessing publicly to whom it is you belong, and to whom it is you ultimately submit!

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is part of our confessional heritage as particularly Reformed Christians.

 

  1. Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy is glorious because it is a way of joyfully, peacefully, and graciously witnessing publicly to whom it is you belong, and to whom it is you ultimately submit!

     How are we unlike the culture around us as the people of God? We are called to be holy and separate (Eph. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:15-16; 2 Cor. 6:16:-7:1 “…Go out from their midst, and be separate from them…” (2 Cor. 6:17). The Bible teaches us that the grace of God has appeared to teach us how to live, and what to say “no” to, and how to show forth to the world the freedom that comes to us in Christ! What better way of doing this in Christ than through keeping the Lord’s Day holy and set apart. While the rest of the world (even many evangelicals sadly!) go about treating the Lord’s Day with disregard, we can by faith uphold the commandments of God and show forth to the world the beauty of holiness!

Are you being “trained to renounce ungodliness”? Are you living “self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age”? Are you waiting on Jesus, at least to some degree on one day out of seven? Do you know that you have been redeemed from “all lawlessness” (including the disregard of the Lord’s Day and the other blessed commandments of God!)? The Apostle Paul wrote triumphantly what we should love and confess:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works (ESV Titus 2:11-14)

Let us flee from all lawlessness in our culture, particularly the disregard for making the Lord’s Day holy. Let us seek to show forth to our culture in our habits, character, and our lives that we are the redeemed and we are different—and blessed in Christ! Remember when Daniel involved himself faithfully and with excellence in the good vocation he had in the Babylonian culture, and yet he made a public stand against idolatry that was visible to all, and for that God richly blessed him! (Daniel 1). Daniel did not withdraw completely from the world, God doesn’t call His people to that, but Daniel made sure that he was not taking part in an idolatrous, foolish, unbelieving culture. And Daniel was greatly blessed. What kind of blessing might we expect from keeping the Lord’s Day holy? Perhaps our health could be better? Perhaps we struggle with anxieties and worry and joylessness that can be cured by obedience in this way? Perhaps we can learn that there is a joyful, peaceful, gracious, and even powerful work that can be done by us as a congregation if we just believe! (John 11:40).

I ask you honestly, for we as Christians to consider prayerfully, what can politics and certain places or positions of power do to change the culture and the world that hasn’t already been given (better!) in the keeping of the Lord’s Day holy! This is a commandment that can have an immediate effect upon our town, our commonwealth, our nation, our culture—immediate change would come if every Christian took a stand and sought to better and more faithfully keep the Lord’s Day holy.[1] I am often reminded of God’s goodness and grace when on Sundays, I cannot get my mouth around a Chick-fil-a! Praise God for at least one man who had a conviction, and whose conviction causes others to take note. How might culture be impacted, and folks around us be loved if we were to seek to fulfill the commandment joyfully in Christ?! My pastor friend was once eating out on a Lord’s Day, not making it his normal practice, but had an opportunity to do so, and it seemed good. As the waitress came to the table, he invited her to worship at his church the following Sunday. She said I would love to, but the “Sunday, Church crowd” keeps us so busy on Sundays for brunch I cannot get off to come to worship.[2]

I must ask you, do folks online, or in your neighborhood see visibly any difference in you and your family on the Lord’s Day than anyone else in the culture or the world? Could you be recognized as a believer based on your rhythm and pattern of life and work-week?[3] Are you different in the way you live your life in culture? Are you different in the way you live your life before other Christians? Honestly, before God, are you living like a slave like the rest of the culture and the world?? Remember, beloved, as the Apostle Peter teaches us:

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God (ESV 1 Peter 2:15-16; cf. Gal. 5:1)

Suggested Questions to Ponder and Ask Yourself to Help You to Keep the Lord’s Day Holy:

Is this activity on the Lord’s Day going to glorify God above all things? / Is this activity a work of necessity or mercy that I lovingly desire to do to love God and neighbor? / Is this activity going to hinder me (or others) from publicly worshipping God and attending to any calls to worship that God calls me to through his ordained servants? / Is this activity loving and the best use of my time for myself, my family, my guests, my neighbors, and those who look to me for leadership? / Is this activity going to be consistent with God’s Word, and particularly His clear teaching on how he desires the Lord’s Day to be remembered? / Is this activity work that I normally engage it on other days, and can it wait? / Is this activity a distraction from my taking time to grow up in God’s Word? / Is this activity something that will not be conducive to remembering what I learned in the morning worship sermon and meditating upon it and hiding in my heart so that I won’t sin against God? / Is this activity properly living a godly example before a broken and lost world?

Prayer: Dear Jesus, I want to keep the Lord’s Day holy, please help me. Grant me your wisdom and discernment. Amen

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

 

(Link to full study: From Your Pastor.Why Keeping the Lords Day is Glorious.March 2016)

 

[1] Wouldn’t it be a shame to find out that all of the good intentions we had as Christians in cultural and political involvement were somehow undermined by our refusal to honor the fourth commandment and keep the Sabbath holy? Would it not be a true day of revival when all Christians, especially evangelical ones could get as worked up and zealous for keeping God’s commandments in Christ as they get for political parties and powerful people that they think can really “change things”?! It seems to me that the first kind of change our churches need is to return to honoring God and His commandments? It seems that this would have a profound effect on our nation by God’s grace!

[2] I realize that excuses made by unbelievers are not necessarily always true, but this does serve as a helpful thought, doesn’t it?

[3] I want to remind us that there are legitimate works of mercy and sometimes of necessity that would prevent us from keeping the Lord’s Day as we would like. Some folks seek to be off from work on the Lord’s Day and they cannot. If one is able to just state a conviction about working on the Lord’s Day, even if one is not able to get off from work, this is still graciously witnessing and seeking to be obedient to God!

From Your Pastor: Why Keeping the Lord’s Day Is Glorious (Part 5)

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8)

Why is keeping the Lord’s Day holy glorious?

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is an opportunity to please and glorify God in obedience to His commandments.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is a privilege and blessing of the Covenant of Grace.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it can remind us that the Lord Jesus created it, kept it, and fulfilled it, and gave it to believers as a way of imitating Him.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is an opportunity for growth and maturity in Christ.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it can be a time well spent that helps us not to live overly busy and distracted lives.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is a way of joyfully, peacefully, and graciously witnessing publicly to whom it is you belong, and to whom it is you ultimately submit!

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is part of our confessional heritage as particularly Reformed Christians.

 

  1. Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy is glorious because it is a time well spent that can help us not to live overly busy and distracted lives.

The Lord Jesus teaches us about the importance of “seeking first the Kingdom of God and all its righteousness—first, before all things” (Matt. 6:25-33; cf. Luke 10:38-42). What better way to do this at the beginning of every week than keeping the Lord’s Day holy? This can produce a proper and holy rhythm in your weekly time and work and rest pattern that is not only obedient to God’s word but will be pleasing to your conscience and even your body.[1] The Apostle Paul teaches that we are apt to waste the valuable time that God has given to us and so he admonishes us in Christian love to make the most of every opportunity, to be wise with our time spent:

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is (ESV Ephesians 5:15-17).

Honestly, before God, are you walking wisely, making the best use of your time? Is this a serious problem for you? Are you constantly distracted? Do you recognize it as a sin? In a world as constantly busy and distracted as ours is, we must be extra wise, and to pray for discernment with regard to the way we spend our time—especially on the Lord’s Day. As pastor, I am often met with folks asking me to pray for them to spend their time better, especially in bible reading and prayer. I am grateful to pray for you on that as your pastor. Please pray for me as well! But we must act by faith on this impulse and desire for change. Often through obedience by faith in Christ, particularly in God’s commandments, the feelings of desire, the good habits, and the character that are needed to be faithful to God in this important privilege and duty will come as you step forward by doing what you know to be right in your union with Christ. From now on, when folks ask me to pray for them about this, I am going to ask them how they are using the Lord’s Day to develop this desire toward more obedience (Rom. 6:17).

It is important to note that Ephesians 5:17 says: “…Understand what the will of the Lord is”. There is no better place to find the will of the Lord than in the Ten Commandments![2] There is no place to find out how one may love God and keep His commandments! One way to love God and neighbor is to remember the Lord’s Day and to seek to keep it holy. Remember, our Lord Jesus said that often the reason we don’t live according to God’s way and will is that our hearts are divided, we love something or someone more than we love God (Matt. 6:21-24; Luke 14:26-27). When our Lord asked to define what the will of God looked like, he responded: “To love the Lord your God with everything in you, and your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30). Is there a better way to love God and neighbor than keeping the Lord’s Day holy? There are other ways to love God and neighbor, but are they better as far as the time God has specifically given to us believers on the Lord’s Day? Or perhaps to ask the question a different way: Can we truly love God and neighbor as ourselves if we know that we are to keep the Lord’s Day holy, and we do not? Remember the full exegesis of the fourth commandment given to us by God, and particularly the responsibility we have to family members, guests, neighbors, etc. God’s scope of this commandment is broad, and publicly noticeable by others. It is important to note in the fourth commandment that as the application of the commandment is broad, so is our responsibility to God and others, and so are the consequences of our disregard of it will be as well:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy (Exodus 20:8-11)

The fourth commandment as it is exegeted and unpacked by God in Exodus 20:8-11 shows that our understanding of the Lord’s Day will have an effect on others. This is one reason why it is so important to think about it as Christians. Let us ask ourselves some challenging questions that may be helpful to consider: Is it loving for us entrusted as the head of our homes to disregard the Lord’s Day given to us and our family as a gift of grace? Is this not only disregarding God, but also disregarding the gracious love that should be demonstrated to our family? If we are in a position of leadership (like a pastor or a Christian leader) and something is unnecessarily scheduled on the Lord’s Day, have we considered the distraction this could bring to others, even hindering them from public worship of God? Have we considered that our position granted to us by God could be an opportunity for us to do good, particularly in helping others to keep the fourth commandment? Perhaps we can seek to use our God-given positions to reschedule some unnecessary events for another day?[3] Have we thought about the obligation for others involved and how this might tempt them to go against what is good and right and according to their consciences? Let us think about these things if we are to seek to love God and our neighbors as ourselves.[4] Pray for me to have wisdom in this, particularly as your pastor. Let us remember how love is clearly defined for us by the Apostle Paul:

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (ESV Romans 13:8-10)

Suggested Questions to Ponder and Ask Yourself to Help You to Keep the Lord’s Day Holy:

Is this activity on the Lord’s Day going to glorify God above all things? / Is this activity a work of necessity or mercy that I lovingly desire to do to love God and neighbor? / Is this activity going to hinder me (or others) from publicly worshipping God and attending to any calls to worship that God calls me to through his ordained servants? / Is this activity loving and the best use of my time for myself, my family, my guests, my neighbors, and those who look to me for leadership? / Is this activity going to be consistent with God’s Word, and particularly His clear teaching on how he desires the Lord’s Day to be remembered? / Is this activity work that I normally engage it on other days, and can it wait? / Is this activity a distraction from my taking time to grow up in God’s Word? / Is this activity something that will not be conducive to remembering what I learned in the morning worship sermon and meditating upon it and hiding in my heart so that I won’t sin against God? / Is this activity properly living a godly example before a broken and lost world?

Prayer: Dear Jesus, I want to keep the Lord’s Day holy, please help me. Grant me your wisdom and discernment. Amen

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

 

(Link to full study: From Your Pastor.Why Keeping the Lords Day is Glorious.March 2016)

 

[1] Studies have shown that there are outstanding results on the body and mind from keeping Sabbath even from non-Christians.

[2] See especially the Westminster Larger Catechism on how to keep God’s commandments in Christ, Question and Answers 97-153, 115-121 for the fourth commandment on the Lord’s Day particularly.

[3] Every year there is a fun run that I would enjoy taking part in here in Purcellville. But it is on the Lord’s Day. I have often written with respect to those who are organizing the event, asking them to change the day so that they might honor God in the fourth commandment, but that I also might participate, and others as well. As of today, there has been no change. This can be frustrating, but all that we are called to do is try to speak into the situation and trust God with the rest.

[4] There are some who must work on the Lord’s Day. They may have spoken up about it to their superiors, but they still must work. This is a good work if required, and characterized in Scripture as a work of necessity (Matt. 12:11; Luke 13:15; see also Westminster Larger Catechism, Q&A 117). But should this work be normal? I think this is especially important for Christian leaders to consider who are the bosses or superiors of those Christians who feel obligated to work on the Lord’s Day, and who may be tempted to go against their conscience which is unwise and very unsafe (see further Westminster Larger Catechism, Q 126-133). It seems that the works of necessity are works that are exceptions, not rules to live by.