Feeds:
Posts
Comments

The Work of the Spirit by A. W. Pink

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

It is a great mistake to suppose that the works of the Spirit are all of one kind, or that His operations preserve an equality as to degree.  To insist that they are and do would be ascribing less freedom to the Third Person of the Godhead than is enjoyed and exercised by men.  There is variety in the activities of all voluntary agents: even human beings are not confined to one sort of work, nor to the production of the same kind of effects; and where they design so to do, they moderate them as to degrees according to their power and pleasure.  Much more so is it with the Holy Spirit.  The nature and kind of His works are regulated by His own will and purpose.

Some He executes by the touch of His finger (so to speak), in others He puts forth His hand, while in yet others (as on the day of Pentecost) He lays bare His arm. He works by no necessity of His nature, but solely according to the pleasure of His will (1 Corinthians 12:11).

UPON BOTH THE UNSAVED AND THE SAVED

Many of the works of the Spirit, though perfect in kind and fully accomplishing their design, are wrought by Him upon and within men who, nevertheless, are not saved.  “The Holy Spirit is present with many as to powerful operations, with whom He is not present as to gracious inhabitation.  Or, many are made partakers of Him in His spiritual gifts, who are not made partakers of Him in His saving grace, Matthew 7:22, 23” (John Owen on Hebrews 6:4).  The light which God furnishes different souls varies considerably, both in kind and degree.  Nor should we be surprised at this in view of the adumbration in the natural world: how wide is the difference between the glimmering of the stars from the radiance of the full moon, and that again from the shining of the midday sun.  Equally wide is the gulf which separates the savage with his faint illumination of conscience from one who has been educated under a Christian ministry, and greater still is the difference between the spiritual understanding of the wisest unregenerate professor and the feeblest babe in Christ; yet each has been a subject of the Spirit’s operations.

“The Holy Spirit works in two ways.  In some men’s hearts, He works with restraining grace only, and the restraining grace, though it will not save them, is enough to keep them from breaking out into the open and corrupt vices in which some men indulge who are totally left by the restraints of the Spirit..… God the Holy Spirit may work in men some good desires and feelings, and yet have no design of saving them.  But mark, none of these feelings are things that accompany salvation, for if so, they would be continued.  But He does not work Omnipotently to save, except in the persons of His own elect, whom He assuredly bringeth unto Himself.  I believe, then, that the trembling of Felix is to be accounted for by the restraining grace of the Spirit quickening his conscience and making him tremble” (C. H. Spurgeon on Acts 24:25).

The Holy Spirit has been robbed of much of His distinctive glory through Christians failing to perceive His varied workings.  In concluding that the operations of the blessed Spirit are confined unto God’s elect, they have been hindered from offering to Him that praise which is His due for keeping this wicked world a fit place for them to live.  Few today realize how much the children of God owe to the Third Person of the Trinity for holding in leash the children of the Devil, and preventing them from utterly consuming Christ’s church on earth.  It is true there are comparatively few texts which specifically refer to the distinctive Person of the Spirit as reigning over the wicked, but once it is seen that in the Divine economy all is from God the Father, all is through God the Son, and all is by God the Spirit, each is given His proper and separate place in our hearts and thoughts.

THE SPIRIT’S OPERATION IN THE NON-ELECT

Let us, then, now point out a few of the Spirit’s general and inferior operations in the non-elect, as distinguished from His special and superior works in the redeemed.

1.  In restraining evil. If God should leave men absolutely to their own natural corruptions and to the power of Satan (as they fully deserve to be, as He will in Hell, and as He would now but for the sake of His elect), all show of goodness and morality would be entirely banished from the earth: men would grow past feeling in sin, and wickedness would swiftly and entirely swallow up the whole world.  This is abundantly clear from Genesis 6:3, 4, 5, 12.  But He who restrained the fiery furnace of Babylon without quenching it, He who prevented the waters of the Red Sea from flowing without changing their nature, now hinders the working of natural corruption without mortifying it.  Vile as the world is, we have abundant cause to adore and praise the Holy Spirit that it is not a thousand times worse.

The world hates the people of God (John 15:19): why, then, does it not devour them?  What is it that holds back the enmity of the wicked against the righteous?  Nothing but the restraining power of the Holy Spirit.  In Psalm 14:1-3 we find a fearful picture of the utter depravity of the human race.  Then in verse 4 the Psalmist asks, “Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?  Who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.”  To which answer is made, “There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous” (v. 5).  It is the Holy Spirit who places that “great fear” within them, to keep them back from many outrages against God’s people.  He curbs their malice.  So completely are the reprobate shackled by His almighty hand, that Christ could say to Pilate, “thou couldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above” (John 19:11)!

2.  In inciting to good actions. All the obedience of children to parents, all the true love between husbands and wives, is to be attributed unto the Holy Spirit.  Whatever morality and honesty, unselfishness and kindness, submission to the powers that be and respect for law and order which is still to be found in the world, must be traced back to the gracious operations of the Spirit.  A striking illustration of His benign influence is found in 1 Samuel 10:26, “Saul also went home to Gibeah: and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God (the Spirit) had touched.”

Men’s hearts are naturally inclined to rebellion, are impatient against being ruled over, especially by one raised out of a mean condition among them.  The Lord the Spirit inclined the hearts of those men to be subject unto Saul, gave them a disposition to obey him.  Later, the Spirit touched the heart of Saul to spare the life of David, melting him to such an extent that he wept (1 Samuel 24:16).  In like manner, it was the Holy Spirit who gave the Hebrews favor in the eyes of the Egyptians—who hitherto had bitterly hated them—so as to give earrings to them (Exodus 12:35, 36).

3.  In convicting of sin. Few seem to understand that conscience in the natural man is inoperative unless stirred up by the Spirit.  As a fallen creature, thoroughly in love with sin (John 3:19), man resists and disputes against any conviction of sin.  “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh” (Genesis 6:3): man, being “flesh,” would never have the least distaste of any iniquity unless the Spirit excited those remnants of natural light which still remain in the soul.  Being “flesh,” fallen man is perverse against the convictions of the Spirit (Acts 7:51), and remains so forever unless quickened and made “spirit” (John 3:6).

4.  In illuminating. Concerning Divine things, fallen man is not only devoid of light, but is “darkness” itself (Ephesians 5:8).  He had no more apprehension of spiritual things than the beasts of the field.  This is very evident from the state of the heathen.  How, then, shall we explain the intelligence which is found in thousands in Christendom, who yet give no evidence that they are new creatures in Christ Jesus?  They have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 6:4).  Many are constrained to inquire into those scriptural subjects which make no demand on the conscience and life; yea, many take great delight in them.  Just as the multitudes took pleasure in beholding the miracles of Christ, who could not endure His searching demands, so the light of the Spirit is pleasant to many to whom His convictions are grievous.

THE SPIRIT’S OPERATION IN THE ELECT

We have dwelt upon some of the general and inferior operations which the Holy Spirit performs upon the non-elect, who are never brought unto a saving knowledge of the Truth.  Now we shall consider His special and saving work in the people of God, dwelling mainly upon the absolute necessity for the same.  It should make it easier for the Christian reader to perceive the absoluteness of this necessity when we say that the whole work of the Spirit within the elect is to plant in the heart a hatred for and a loathing of sin as sin, and a love for and longing after holiness as holiness.

This is something which no human power can bring about.  It is something which the most faithful preaching as such cannot produce. It is something which the mere circulating and reading of the Scripture does not impart. It is a miracle of grace, a Divine wonder, which none but God can or does perform.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY APART FROM THE SPIRIT

Of course, if men are only partly depraved (which is really the belief today of the vast majority of preachers and their hearers, never having been experimentally taught by God their own depravity), if deep down in their hearts all men really love God, if they are so good-natured as to be easily persuaded to become Christians, then there is no need for the Holy Spirit to put forth His Almighty power and do for them what they are altogether incapable of doing for themselves.  And again: if “being saved” consists merely in believing I am a lost sinner and on my way to Hell, and by simply believing that God loves me, that Christ died for me, and that He will save me now on the one condition that I “accept Him as my personal Savior” and “rest upon His finished work,” then no supernatural operations of the Holy Spirit are required to induce and enable me to fulfill that condition—self-interest moves me to, and a decision of my will is all that is required.

But if, on the other hand, all men hate God (John 15:23, 25), and have minds which are “enmity against Him” (Romans 8:7), so that “there is none that seeketh after God” (Romans 3:11), preferring and determining to follow their own inclinations and pleasures.  If instead of being disposed unto that which is good, “the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11).  And if when the overtures of God’s mercy are made known to them and they are freely invited to avail themselves of the same, they “all with one consent begin to make excuse” (Luke 14:1 8)—then it is very evident that the invincible power and transforming operations of the Spirit are indispensably required if the heart of a sinner is thoroughly changed, so that rebellion gives place to submission and hatred to love.  This is why Christ said, “No man can come to me, except the Father (by the Spirit) which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44).

Again—if the Lord Jesus Christ came here to uphold and enforce the high claims of God, rather than to lower or set them aside.  If He declared that “strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto Life, and few there be that find it,” rather than pointing to a smooth and broad road which anyone would find it easy to tread.  If the salvation which He has provided is a deliverance from sin and self-pleasing, from worldliness and indulging the lusts of the flesh, and the bestowing of a nature which desires and determines to live for God’s glory and please Him in all the details of our present lives—then it is clear beyond dispute that none but the Spirit of God can impart a genuine desire for such a salvation.  And if instead of “accepting Christ” and “resting upon His finished work” be the sole condition of salvation, He demands that the sinner throw down the weapons of his defiance, abandon every idol, unreservedly surrender himself and his life, and receive Him as His only Lord and Master, then nothing but a miracle of grace can enable any captive of Satan’s to meet such requirements.

OBJECTIONS TO TOTAL DEPRAVITY PROVED FALSE

Against what has been said above it may be objected that no such hatred of God as we have affirmed exists in the hearts of the great majority of our fellow-creatures—that while there may be a few degenerates, who have sold themselves to the Devil and are thoroughly hardened in sin, yet the remainder of mankind are friendly disposed to God, as is evident by the countless millions who have some form or other of religion.  To such an objector we reply, The fact is, dear friend, that those to whom you refer are almost entirely ignorant of the God of Scripture: they have heard that He loves everybody, is benevolently inclined toward all His creatures, and is so easy-going that in return for their religious performances will wink at their sins.  Of course, they have no hatred for such a “god” as this!  But tell them something of the character of the true God: that He hates “all the workers of iniquity” (Psalm 5:5), that He is inexorably just and ineffably holy, that He is an uncontrollable Sovereign, who “hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth” (Romans 9:18), and their enmity against Him will soon be manifested—an enmity which none but the Holy Spirit can overcome.

It may be objected again that so far from the gloomy picture which we have sketched above being accurate, the great majority of people do desire to be saved (from having to suffer a penalty for their sin), and they make more or less endeavor after their salvation.  This is readily granted.  There is in every human heart a desire for deliverance from misery and a longing after happiness and security, and those who come under the sound of God’s Word are naturally disposed to be delivered from the wrath to come and wish to be assured that Heaven will be their eternal dwelling-place—who wants to endure the everlasting burnings?  But that desire and disposition is quite compatible and consistent with the greatest love to sin and most entire opposition of heart to that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).  But what the objector here refers to is a vastly different thing from desiring Heaven upon God’s terms, and being willing to tread the only path which leads there!

The instinct of self-preservation is sufficiently strong to move multitudes to undertake many performances and penances in the hope that thereby they shall escape Hell.  The stronger men’s belief of the truth of Divine revelation, the more firmly they become convinced that there is a Day of Judgment, when they must appear before their Maker, and render an account of all their desires, thoughts, words and deeds, the most serious and sober will be their minds.  Let conscience convict them of their misspent lives, and they are ready to turn over a new leaf; let them be persuaded that Christ stands ready as a Fire-escape and is willing to rescue them, though the world still claims their hearts, and thousands are ready to “believe in Him.”  Yes, this is done by multitudes who still hate the true character of the Savior, and reject with all their hearts the salvation which He has. Far, far different is this from an unregenerate person longing for deliverance from self and sin, and the impartation of that holiness which Christ purchased for His people.

All around us are those willing to receive Christ as their Savior, who are altogether unwilling to surrender to Him as their Lord.  They would like His peace, but they refuse His “yoke,” without which His peace cannot be found (Matthew 11:29).  They admire His promises, but have no heart for His precepts.  They will rest upon His priestly work, but will not be subject to His kingly scepter.  They will believe in a “Christ” who is suited to their own corrupt tastes or sentimental dreams, but they despise and reject the Christ of God.  Like the multitudes of old, they want His loaves and fishes, but for His heart-searching, flesh-withering, sin-condemning teaching, they have no appetite.  They approve of Him as the Healer of their bodies, but as the Healer of their depraved souls they desire Him not.  And nothing but the miracle-working power of the Holy Spirit can change this bias and bent in any soul.

It is just because modern Christendom has such an inadequate estimate of the fearful and universal effects which the Fall has wrought, that the imperative need for the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit is now so little realized.  It is because such false conceptions of human depravity so widely prevail that, in most places, it is supposed all which is needed to save half of the community is to hire some popular evangelist and attractive singer.  And the reason why so few are aware of the awful depths of human depravity, the terrible enmity of the carnal mind against God and the heart’s inbred and inveterate hatred of Him, is because His character is now so rarely declared from the pulpit.  If the preachers would deliver the same type of messages as did Jeremiah in his degenerate age, or even as John the Baptist did, they would soon discover how their hearers were really affected toward God; and then they would perceive that unless the power of the Spirit attended their preaching they might as well be silent.

From Studies in the Scriptures, January and February 1934.

Posted in A. W. Pink |

Theme Study: The Holy Spirit by Jim Ehrhard

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

Preface to the Study

The work of the Holy Spirit is an often neglected area of Biblical teaching.  Not neglected so in the area of theology but often in the area of application to the believer’s daily life.   While Evangelicals hold to an orthodox view of the Holy Spirit, they have forgotten His work and ministry in their daily experience.

For instance, when we speak about the Trinity, it is often easier to speak about the work of the Father and the Son.  But we are often uncertain in our descriptions of the Spirit and in our relationship to Him.  Yet the person and work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential to all of the Christian life.  It is through the work of the Spirit that we were brought to conviction and drawn to Christ.  Through the Spirit, we were adopted as sons and sealed unto the day of our redemption.  The Spirit is our counselor and our comforter.  He enables us to pray and to understand the Scriptures that He inspired.  It is the Holy Spirit who pours out the love of the Father into our hearts and it is the Spirit who works in us to transform us from glory to glory.  It is He who takes up residence in the lives of believers so that our bodies are called the “temple of the Holy Ghost.”

To be deficient in our understanding of the Spirit is to be deficient in understanding much of what God has done for us and is doing in us.  To be deficient in our love for the Spirit is to be deficient in our love for God.  We pray that this issue of Teaching Resources might remind us of the person of the Holy Spirit and cause us all to love Him more and desire to walk and live in the Spirit.

In our lead article, A. W. Pink examines the general work of the Holy Spirit on both the elect and the non-elect.  In a similar, but more detailed fashion, the article by John Owen, The Work of the Spirit in Believers, reminds the believer of all that the Holy Spirit was done in and for him.  Thomas Watson’s article speaks about the evidences of the Spirit’s working in the life of a godly man while Thomas Boston reminds us of How the Holy Spirit Enables Us to Pray.

The final two articles emphasize the personal aspects of the Spirit’s person and ministry.  The Holy Spirit’s Love by Horatius Bonar gently reminds us abut a forgotten aspect of the Spirit’s ministry and personality.  And Spurgeon’s article on The Personality of the Holy Ghost lovingly reminds us that the Holy Spirit is a person, not a force or power.

We hope that these articles will direct your hearts to thanksgiving to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit because of their great love and ministry toward those who have been bought with a price.  And we pray that you might find comfort and strength for each situation you face knowing that you have an all-knowing Father in heaven, an interceding Son at His right hand, and (praise God!) a Blessed Holy Spirit who is with you always and lives in you forever!  Take time to thank the Trinity for all the ways that God’s grace, comfort and power is communicated to you through the work and person of the Holy Spirit!

By His Grace, Jim

Posted in Jim Ehrhard |

Which World Am I a Citizen of? by John Arndt

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

Showing that in order to understand the true nature of repentance, we must necessarily know the distinction between the old and the new man; or, how in us Adam must die, and Christ live; or, how in us the old man must die, and the new man live.

“We know this, that our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin”—Romans 6:6.

In every Christian there is found a twofold man, opposed, like their fruits, to one another. This will more fully appear from the following statement:

Adam Old man, Outward man, Old birth, Flesh, Nature, Reason, Darkness, Tree of Death, Evil fruit, Sin, Damnation, Death, Old Jerusalem, Kingdom of the devil, Seed of the serpent, Natural man, Image of the earthly, Christ New man. Inward man. New birth. Spirit. Grace. Faith. Light. Tree of life. Good fruit. Righteousness. Salvation. Life. New Jerusalem. Kingdom of God. Seed of God. Spiritual man. Image of the heavenly.

The truth of this statement, the Scriptures, as well as experience, abundantly confirm. The former speak largely of the old man and the new, of the inward and outward man. (See Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:9; 2 Cor. 4:16. They teach also that the Spirit of God is in us: Rom 8:11; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; 2 Cor. 5:5; Eph. 1:13. And likewise Christ, Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 13:5.) Experience, moreover, demonstrates the same. Hither may also be referred that striving and struggling of the flesh and Spirit, from which even the saints are not free (Rom. 7:23). Likewise there belong here the different fruits of the flesh and Spirit reckoned up by St. Paul (Gal. 5:19‑23). This point is therefore clearly stated in Scripture, and too certain to be called in question by any Christian. It is the hinge, as it were, on which all the Scripture moves, and the foundation on which the true knowledge of man depends. Out of the same fountain issue true repentance, or the death of Adam, and the life of Christ in us. For no sooner does Adam die in us, but there perishes with him all that is originally derived from him; the old outward man, the old birth, the flesh, nature, corrupt reason, darkness, the tree of death, evil fruits, sin, death, damnation, the seed of the serpent, the natural man, the earthly image, the old Jerusalem, and the kingdom of Satan. But as long as Adam lives, there also live and reign with him the old man, and the carnal birth, the flesh, nature, corrupt reason, darkness, and the whole train of evils before mentioned, bring all comprised under the kingdom of Satan, and subject to damnation, and to the curse everlasting. But if, on the other hand, Christ live in any one, then verily there live and reign with him the new and inward man, the new birth, the Spirit, grace, faith, light, the tree of life, good fruits, righteousness, life, happiness, the seed of God, the spiritual man, the heavenly image, the new Jerusalem, and the kingdom of God. All which proceed from the divine blessing, and tend to eternal salvation. Here is a matter of importance, namely, so to order one’s life and conduct, that Christ the new or second Adam, and not the old Adam, may live and reign in us.

2. Therefore it is necessary for a man to watch, to fast, to pray, fight, and strive; and, as St. Paul expresses it, to examine himself if Christ be in him (2 Cor. 13:5). He is to work out his salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). He is to enter through the strait gate and the narrow way in Christ (Matt. 7:13). That is, man must now hate and deny himself, forsake all (Luke 14:26), and die unto sin (Rom. 6:2). This surely is not to be effected, as the delicate Christians of this age imagine, by any careless and slight application of mind, but by an inward and profound sorrow, contrition, and brokenness of heart, together with groans and tears that cannot be uttered. These inward exercises, and acts of devotion, are most feelingly set forth by David in his Penitential Psalms, which abound with expressions of this nature (Psa.6; 32; 38; 51; 102; 130; 143). The apostle calls it a crucifying of the flesh while the affections and lusts thereof (Gal. 5:24). Whoever attains to this state, in him verily Christ lives, and he reciprocally in Christ by Faith. Then Christ conquers and reigns in man, whose faith is become “the victory that overcometh the world” (1 John 5:4).

3. But since the world, which thou art to strive against, is not without thee, but within thee, it follows, that it is also to be conquered not without, but within thee. For what is the world, but “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life?” (1 John 2:16). As these are in thee, so in thee they are to be subdued, that thus thou mayest worthily bear the name and character of a true child of God. “For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world” (1 John 5:4); and if thou overcomes”, and Vainest the victory over thy great enemy the world, thou art then a child of light (Eph. 5:8), a member of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 5:30), and the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. 6:19). Thou art now a good tree (Matt. 12:33), that freely and without constraint, yea, with joy, love, and pleasure bringeth forth fruit to the glory of God (Matt. 5:16).

4. But if thou livest in Adam, and Adam reigns in thee, then thou art not a child of God, nor born again of him. For since thou art overcome by the world, and since the prince therefore rules in thee by pride, ambition and selflove, thou art on this very account to be numbered amongst the children of the devil (John 8:44). “For as many are are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14). And, on the contrary, as many as are led by Satan, they likewise are his children; yea, they are the very members of Satan, sons of darkness, a habitation of unclean spirits, an accursed Babylon, full of impure and of abominable beasts; as it is represented by the ancient prophets (Isa. 13:21; Rev. 18:2); but particularly by the prophet Ezekiel. He being brought in spirit into the temple at Jerusalem, beheld two remarkable things: one whereof was, “every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about;” and secondly (which was still more detestable), “seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, worshipping these beasts and images, and offering them incense” (Ezek. 8:10,11).

5. Behold, O man, a lively representation here given of thy depraved, brutish, and beastly heart! If thou wilt but enter into this temple of thy heart, thou shalt surely find therein vast numbers of foul, detestable creatures, images, and idols, fashioned and represented by all manner of corrupt and impure thoughts in the carnal mind, imagination, and memory. Moreover (and this is the greatest evil of all), though these idols and horrid abominations should be utterly banished from the heart, and this detestable evil, by which man is made the habitation of unclean and pestilential reptiles, should, by all means, be destroyed by repentance, by mortification of the flesh, and by penitential tears and humiliation; yet, instead of doing that, thou lovest these serpents, adorest these vile monsters, and servest and carressest them. Alas! thou but little regardest that Christ is cast out of thy soul by these abominations, and is utterly banished from thy heart; and that by this means thou deprives” thyself of the supreme and eternal Good, losing the Holy Spirit with all his excellent gifts and graces. O miserable man! thou exceedingly grievest when any outward trouble befalls thee, or when thou losest any thing in the world that is dear to thee; why then is it, that thou art not at all concerned at the loss even of CHRIST himself, and at the deplorable state of thy soul and body, which are both become a habitation of malignant spirits!

6. If these things be seriously pondered and laid to heart, we shall soon understand what Adam and Christ are; and how they live and act in men. To this head we may also refer the following observations. First, In Adam we are ALL naturally equal, nor is one better than another; since we are all, both as to body and soul, equally polluted and corrupted, so that it is affirmed by St. Paul, not only of Jews and Gentiles, but even of all men in general, that “there is no difference” (Rom. 3:22). Hence it is also true, that in the sight of God, no an is better than the most profligate criminal. For though that perverse temper which is natural to all, does not equally in all break out into works, yet God judges all men by the inward state of the heart, that poisoned fountain of all sin. Nor is there any sin so heinous, which man by nature would not freely commit, were he not strongly restrained by divine grace. For by the bent of our nature we are but too much inclined to pollute ourselves with all manner of wickedness (Jer. 13:23); and if the inclination be not always attended with the external effect itself, it is wholly to be attributed to the grace of God, and not to any strength or prudence of our own (Gen. 20:6). This consideration should excite us to the practice of true humility, and to an unfeigned fear of God; and at the same time restrain us from rashly despising our fellow‑creatures, lest, by reflecting on others, we ourselves split upon the dangerous rock of carnal presumption. Secondly, It is proper to observe, that as in Adam we are all equally bad with regard to the corruption of nature; so by Christ we are all made equally just and holy; no man receiving for himself any prerogative of a peculiar righteousness in the sight of God. For since Christ is our perfection, our “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30; 6:11), we, who in Adam are alike, are also alike in Christ. For as in Adam by nature we are all one man and one body, infected with the foul contagion of disobedience and sin, so all true Christians are as one man in Christ, and make up one body, completely purified and sanctified by faith, and the blood of Christ.

7. This truth is a remedy against spiritual pride, namely, that none should account himself better before God than others, though perhaps adorned with greater gifts, and endowments. For even these are no less bestowed on him of pure grace, than are righteousness and salvation themselves. Upon this principle of pure grace, be careful to keep thy mind constantly fixed. If thou cost so, then this grace shall protect thee against the dangerous snares of pride and arrogance; and as, on the one hand, it will convince thee of thy own misery and poverty in spirit, so, on the other, it will give thee a most lively insight into Christ, and into the exceeding riches of grace, offered through him to all mankind.

Posted in John Arndt |

The World Passeth Away by Horatius Bonar

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

The things that are seen are temporal.  Ours is a dying world and here we have no continuing city.  But a few years—it may be less—and all things here are changed.  But a few years —it may be less—and the Lord shall have come, and the last trumpet shall have sounded, and the great sentence shall have been pronounced upon each of the sons of men.

There is a world that passeth not away. It is fair and glorious.  It is called “the inheritance in light.”  It is bright with the love of God and with the joy of heaven.  “The Lamb is the light thereof.”  Its gates are of pearl; they are always open.  And as we tell men of this wondrous city, we tell them to enter in.

The Book of Revelation tells us the story of earth’s vanity: “A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.  And the voice of harpers and musicians and of pipers and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee.  And no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee” (Revelation 18:21-22).

Such is the day that is coming on the world, and such is the doom overhanging earth — a doom dimly foreshadowed by the sad commercial disasters that have often sent sorrow into so many hearts and desolation into so many homes.

An old minister, now two hundred years gone, lay dying.  His fourscore years were well‑nigh completed.  He had been tossed on many a wave, from England to America, from America to England, again from England to America.  At Boston, he lay dying, full of faith and love.  The evening before his death, as he lay all but speechless, his daughter asked him how it was with him.  He lifted up his dying hands, and with his dying lips simply said, “Vanishing things, vanishing things!”  We repeat his solemn words, and, pointing to the world with all the vanities on which vain man sets his heart, say, “Vanishing things!”

“The world passeth away.” This is our message.  Like a dream of the night.  We lie down to rest; we fall asleep; we dream; we awake at morn; and lo, all is fled that in our dream seemed so stable and so pleasant!  So hastens the world away.  O child of mortality, have you no brighter world beyond?

Like the mist of the morning. The night brings down the mists upon the hills—the vapor covers the valleys; the sun rises, all has passed off—hill and vale are clear.  So the world passeth off and is seen no more.  O man, will you embrace a world like this?  Will you lie down upon a mist, and say, This is my home?

Like a shadow. There is nothing more unreal than a shadow.  It has no substance, no being.  It is dark, it is a figure, it has motion that is all!  Such is the world.  O man, will you chase a shadow?  What will a shadow do for you?

Like a wave of the sea. It rises, falls and is seen no more.  Such is the history of a wave.  Such is the story of the world.  O man, will you make a wave your portion?  Have you no better pillow on which to lay your wearied head than this?  A poor world this for human heart to love, for an immortal soul to be filled with!

Like a rainbow. The sun throws its colors on a cloud and for a few minutes all is brilliant.  But the cloud shifts and the brilliance is all gone.  Such is the world.  With all its beauty and brightness; with all its honors and pleasures; with all its mirth and madness; with all its pomp and luxury; with all its revelry and riot; with all its hopes and flatteries; with all its love and laughter; with all its songs and splendor; with all its gems and gold—it vanishes.  And the cloud that knew the rainbow knows it no more.  O man, is a passing world like this all that you have for an inheritance?

Like a flower. Beautiful, very beautiful; fragrant, very fragrant, are the summer flowers.  But they wither away.  So fades the world from before our eyes.  While we are looking at it and admiring it, behold, it is gone!  No trace is left of all its loveliness but a little dust!  O man, can you feed on flowers?  Can you dote on that which is but for an hour?  You were made for eternity and only that which is eternal can be your portion or your resting place.  The things that perish with the using only mock your longings.  They cannot fill you and, even if they filled, they cannot abide.  Mortality is written on all things here; immortality belongs only to the world to come—to that new heavens and new earth wherein righteousness dwells.

Like a ship at sea. With all its sails set and a fresh breeze blowing, the vessel comes into sight, passes before our eye in the distance, and then disappears.  So comes, so goes, so vanishes away this present world, with all that it contains.  A few hours within sight, then gone!  The wide sea o’er which it sailed as calm or as stormy as before; no trace anywhere of all the life or motion or beauty which was passing over it!  O man, is that vanishing world thy only dwelling‑place?  Are all thy treasures, thy hopes, thy joys laid up there?  Where will all these be when thou goest down to the tomb?  Or where wilt thou be when these things leave thee, and thou art stripped of all the inheritance which thou art ever to have for eternity?  It is a poor heritage at the best, and its short duration makes it poorer still.  Oh, choose the better part, which shall not be taken from thee!

Like a tent in the desert. They who have traveled over the Arabian sands know what this means.  At sunset, a little speck of white seems to rise out of the barren waste.  It is a traveler’s tent.  At sunrise, it disappears.  Both it and its inhabitant are gone.  The wilderness is as lonely as before.  Such is the world.  Today it shows itself; tomorrow it disappears.  O man, born of a woman, is that thy stay and thy home?  Wilt thou say of it, “This is my rest,” when we tell you that there is a rest, an everlasting rest, remaining for the people of God?

The world passeth away. This is the message from heaven.  All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field.  The world passeth away. But God ever liveth.  He is from everlasting to everlasting; the king eternal and immortal.  The world passeth away. But man is immortal.  Eternity lies before each son of Adam as the duration of his lifetime.  In light or in darkness forever!  In joy or in sorrow!

The world passeth away. What then?  This is the question that so deeply concerns man.  If the world is to vanish away and man is to live forever, of what importance is it to know where and what we are to be!  A celebrated physician, trying to cheer a desponding patient, said to him, “Treat life as a plaything.”  It was wretched counsel.  For life is no plaything, and time is no child’s toy, to be flung away.  Life here is the beginning of the life which has no end; and time is but the gateway of eternity.

What then? Thou must, O man, make sure of a home in that world into which thou art so soon to pass.  Thou must not pass out of this tent without making sure of the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.  When thou hast done this thou canst lie down upon thy deathbed in peace.  Till thou hast done this, thou canst neither live nor die in peace.  One who had lived a worldly life at last lay down to die; and when about to pass away he uttered these terrible words, “I am dying, and I don’t know where I am going.”  Another in similar circumstances cried out, “I am within an hour of eternity and all is dark.”  O man of earth, it is time to awake!

“How can I make sure?” you ask.  God has long since answered that question, and His answer is recorded for all ages: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ! I have never done anything else,” you say.  If that be really true, then, as the Lord liveth, thou art a saved man.  But is it really so?  Has thy life been the life of a saved man?  No, verily.  It has been a life wholly given to vanity.  Then as the Lord God of Israel liveth, and as thy soul liveth, thou hast not believed, and thou art not yet saved.

“Have I then no work to work in this great matter of my pardon?” None.  What work canst thou work?  What work of thine can buy forgiveness or make thee fit for the Divine favor?  What work has God bidden thee work in order to obtain salvation?  None.  His Word is very plain, and easy to be understood: “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5).

There is but one work by which a man can be saved. That work is not thine, but the work of the Son of God.  That work is finished—neither to be taken from nor added to—perfect through all ages and presented by Himself to you, that you may avail yourself of it and be saved.

“And is that work available for me just as I am?” It is.  God has brought it to your door; and your only way of honoring it is by accepting it for yourself and taking it as the one basis of your eternal hope.  We honor the Father when we consent to be saved entirely by the finished work of His Son; and we honor the Son when we consent to take His one finished work in the room of all our works; and we honor the Holy Spirit, whose office is to glorify Christ, when we hear what He saith to us concerning that work finished “once for all” upon the cross.

Forgiveness is through the man Christ Jesus, who is Son of God as well as Son of man! This is our message. Forgiveness through the one work of sin‑bearing which He accomplished for sinners upon earth.  Forgiveness to the worst and wickedest, to the farthest off from God whom this earth contains.  Forgiveness of the largest, fullest, completest kind; without stint, or exception, or condition, or the possibility of revocation!  Forgiveness free and undeserved—free as the love of God, free as the gift of His beloved Son.  Forgiveness ungrudged and unrestrained—whole‑hearted and joyful, as the forgiveness of the father falling on the neck of the prodigal!  Forgiveness simply in believing; for, “by Him all that believe are justified from all things.”

Could salvation be made more free? Could forgiveness be brought nearer?  Could God in any way more fully show His earnest desire that you should not be lost, but saved—that you should not die, but live?

In the cross there is salvation—nowhere else.  No failure of this world’s hopes can quench the hope which it reveals.  It shines brightest in the evil day.  In the day of darkening prospects, of thickening sorrows, of heavy burdens, of pressing cares—when friends depart, when riches fly away, when disease oppresses us, when poverty knocks at our door—then the cross shines out, and tells us of a light beyond this world’s darkness, the Light of Him who is the light of the world.

From How Shall I Go To God?

Posted in Horatius Bonar |

Signs of Covetousness by Richard Baxter

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

The signs of covetousness are these:

1. Not preferring God and our everlasting happiness before the prosperity and pleasure of the flesh; but valuing and loving fleshly prosperity above its worth (Rom. 13:14; Matt. 6:19; 1 Tim. 3:8; Phil 3:19; Ezek. 33:31; Jer. 9:23).

2. Esteeming and loving the creatures of God as provision for the flesh, and not to further us in the service of God.

3. Desiring more than is needful or useful to further us in our duty.

4. An inordinate eagerness in our desires after earthly things.

5. Distrustfulness, and vexatious cares, and contrivances for time to come.

6. Discontent, and trouble, and a longing discontent at a poor condition, when we have no more than our daily bread.

7. When the world taketh up our thoughts inordinately: when our thoughts will more easily run out upon the world, than upon better things: and when our thoughts of worldly plenty are more pleasant and sweet to us, than our thoughts of Christ, and grace, and heaven; and our thoughts of neediness and poverty are more bitter and grievous to us, than our thoughts of sin and God’s displeasure.

8. When our speech is freer and sweeter about prosperity in the world, than about the concernments of God and our souls.

9. When the world beareth sway in our families and conversations and shutteth out all serious endeavours in the service of God, and for our own and others’ souls: or at least doth cut short religious duties, and is preferred before them, and thrusteth them into a corner, and maketh us slightly huddle them over.

10. When we are dejected overmuch, and impatient under losses, and crosses, and worldly injuries from men.

11. When worldly matters seem sufficient to engage us in contentions, and to make us break peace: and we will by lawsuits seek our right, when greater hurt is more likely to follow to our brother’s soul, or greater wrong to the cause of religion, or the honor of God, than our right is worth.

12. When in our trouble and distress, we fetch our comfort more from the thoughts of our provisions in the world, or our hopes of supply, than from our trust in God, and our hopes of heaven (Job 1:21).

13. When we are more thankful to God or man for outward riches, or any gift for the provision of the flesh, than for hopes or helps in order to salvation; for a powerful ministry, good books, or seasonable instructions for the soul.

14. When we are quiet and pleased if we do but prosper, and have plenty in the world, though the soul be miserable, unsanctified, and unpardoned.

15. When we are more careful to provide a worldly than a heavenly portion, for children and friends, and rejoice more in their bodily than their spiritual prosperity, and are troubled more for their poverty than their ungodliness or sin.

16. When we can see our brother have need and shut up the bowels of our compassion, or can part with no more than mere superfluities for his relief: when we cannot spare that which makes but for our better being, when it is necessary to preserve his being itself; or when we give unwillingly or sparingly (1 Tim. 6:17-18; Mal. 3:8, 9; Judges. 7:21).

17. When we will venture upon sinful means for gain, as lying, overreaching, deceiving, flattering, or going against our consciences, or the commands of God.

18. When we are too much in expecting liberality from others, and think that all we buy of should sell cheaper to us than they can afford, and consider not their loss or need, so that we have the gain: nor are contented if they be never so bountiful to others, if they be not so to us.

19. When we make too much ado in the world for riches, taking too much upon us, or striving for preferment, and flattering great ones, and envying any that are preferred before us, or get that which we expected.

20. When we hold our money tighter than our innocency and cannot part with it for the sake of Christ, when he requireth it; but will stretch our consciences and sin against him, or forsake his cause, to save our estates; or will not part with it for the service of his church, or of our country, when we are called to it.

21. When the riches which we have, are used but for the pampering of our flesh, and superfluous provision for our posterity, and nothing but some inconsiderable crumbs or driblets are employed for God and his servants, nor used to further us in his service, and towards the laying up of a treasure in heaven.

These are the signs of worldly covetousness.

The counterfeits of liberality or freedom from covetousness, which deceive the worldling, are such as these …

1. He thinks he is not covetous because he hath a necessity of doing what he doth for more.  Either he is in debt or he is poor, and scarcely hath whereon to live; and the poor think that none are worldlings and covetous but the rich.  But he may love riches that lacketh them, as much as he that hath them.  If you have a necessity of laboring in your callings, you have no necessity of loving the world, or of caring inordinately, or of being discontented with your estate.  Impatience under your poverty shows a love of the world and flesh, as much as other men’s bravado that possess it.

2. Another thinks he is not a worldling because if he could but have necessaries, even food and raiment, and conveniences for himself and family, he would be content; and it is not riches or great matters that he desireth.  But if your hearts are more set upon the getting of these necessaries or little things, than upon the preparing for death, and making sure of the heavenly treasure, you are miserable worldlings still.  And the poor man that will set his heart more upon a poor and miserable life, than upon heaven, is more inexcusable than he that setteth his heart more upon lordships and honors than upon heaven; though both of them are but the slaves of the world, and have as yet no treasure in heaven, Matt. 6:19-21.  And, moreover, you that are now so covetous for a little more, if you had that, would be as covetous for a little more still; and when you had that, for a little more yet.  You would next wear better clothing, and have better fare; and next you would have your house repaired, and then you would have your land enlarged, and then you would have something more for your children, and you would never be satisfied.  You think otherwise now; but your hearts deceive you; you do not know them.  If you believe me not, judge by the case of other men that have been as confident as you, that if they had but so much or so much they would be content; but when they have it, they would still have more.  And this, which is your pretense, is the common pretense of almost all the covetous: for lords and princes think themselves still in as great necessity as you think yourselves: as they have more, so they have more to do with it; and usually are still wanting as much as the poor.  The question is not how much you desire.  But to what use, and to what end, and in what order?

3. Another thinks he is not covetous, because he coveteth not anything that is his neighbor’s: he thinks that covetousness is only a desiring that which is not our own.  But if you love the world and worldly plenty inordinately, and covet more, you are covetous worldlings, though you wish it not from another.  It is the worldly mind and love of wealth that is the sin at the root: the ways of getting it are but the branches.

4. Another thinks he is no worldling, because he useth no unlawful means, but the labor of his calling, to grow rich.  The same answer serves to this.  The love of wealth for the satisfying of the flesh is unlawful, whatever the means be.  And is it not also an unlawful means of getting, to neglect God and your souls, and the poor, and shut out other duties for the world, as you often do?

5. Another thinks he is no worldling, because he is contented with what he hath and coveteth no more when that which he hath is a full provision for his fleshly desires.  But if you over-love the world, and delight more in it than God, you are worldlings, though you desire no more.  He is described by Christ as a miserable, worldly fool, Luke 12:19-20, that saith, “Soul, take thy ease, eat, drink, and be merry, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.”  To over-love what you have is worldliness, as well as to desire more.

6. Another thinks he is no worldling, because he gives God thanks for what he hath, and asked it of God in prayer.  But if thou be a lover of the world and make provision for the desires of the flesh, it is but an aggravation of thy sin, to desire God to be a servant to thy fleshly lusts, and to thank him for satisfying thy sinful desires.  Thy prayers and thanks are profane and carnal: they were no service to God, but to thy flesh.  As if a drunkard or a glutton should beg of God provision for their greedy throats, and thank him for it when they have it: or a fornicator should pray God to pander to his lusts, and then thank him for it: or a wanton man of fashion should make fine clothes and gallantry the matter of his prayer and thanksgiving.

7. Another thinks he is no worldling because he hath some thoughts of heaven and is loath to be damned when he can keep the world no longer, and prayeth often, and perhaps fasteth with the Pharisee twice a week, and giveth alms often, and payeth tithes, and wrongeth no man (Luke 18:11-13; Matt. 6:16-18).  But the Pharisees were covetous for all these, Luke 16:14.  The question is not whether you think of heaven, and do something for it?  But whether it be heaven or earth which you seek first, and make the end of all things else, which all are referred to?  Every worldling knoweth that he must die, and therefore he would have heaven at last for a reserve, rather than hell.  But where is it that you are laying up your treasure, and that you place all your happiness and hopes?  And where are your hearts?  On earth or in heaven? Col. 3:1-3; Matt. 6:20-21.  The question is not whether you give now and then alms to deceive your consciences, and part with so much as the flesh can spare, as a swine will do when he can eat no more, but whether all that you have be devoted to the will of God and made to stoop to his service and the saving of your souls, and can be forsaken rather than Christ forsaken, Luke 14:33.

8. Another thinks that he is not covetous, because it is but for his children that he provideth: and “he that provideth not for his own, is worse than an infidel,” 1 Tim. 5:8.  But the text speaketh only of providing necessaries for our families and kindred, rather than cast them on the church to be maintained.  If you so overvalue the world, that you think it the happiness of your children to be rich, you are worldlings and covetous, both for yourselves and them.  It is for their children that the richest and greatest make provision, that their posterity may be great and wealthy after them: and this maketh them the more worldlings, and not the less; because they are covetous for after-ages, when they are dead, and not only for themselves.

9. Another thinks he is no worldling, because he can speak as severely of covetous men as any other.  But many a one revileth others as covetous that is covetous himself; yea, covetous men are aptest to accuse others of covetousness, and of selling too dear, and buying too cheap, and giving too little, because they would get the more themselves.  And many preachers, by their reading and knowledge, may make a vehement sermon against worldliness, and yet go to hell at last for being worldlings.  Words are cheap.

10. Another thinks he is not covetous, because he purposeth to leave much to charitable uses when he is dead.  I confess that much is well: I would more would do so.  But the flesh itself can spare it, when it seeth that it must lie down in the grave.  If they could carry their riches with them and enjoy them after death, they would do it no doubt.  To leave it when you cannot keep it any longer, is not thank-worthy.  So the glutton, and drunkard, and whoremonger, and the proud must all leave their pleasure at the grave.  But do you serve God or the flesh with your riches while you have them?  And do you use them to help or to hinder your salvation?  Deceive not yourselves, for God is not mocked, Gal. 6:7.

False Accusations of Covetousness

Yet many are falsely accused of covetousness upon such grounds as these:

1. Because they possess much and are rich: for the poor take the rich for worldlings.  But God giveth not to all alike: he putteth ten talents into the hands of one servant, and but one into another’s: and to whom men commit much, of them will they require the more (Luke 12:48; 16:9-10; 2 Cor. 8:14-15).  Therefore, to be entrusted with more than others is no sin, unless they betray that trust.

2. Others are accused as covetous, because they satisfy not the covetous desires of those they deal with, or that expect much from them, and because they give not where it is not their duty, but their sin to give.  Thus the buyer saith the seller is covetous; and the seller saith the buyer is covetous, because they answer not their covetous desires.  An idle beggar will accuse you of uncharitableness, because you maintain him not in sinful idleness.  The proud look you should help to maintain their pride.  The drunkard, and riotous, and gamesters expect their parents should maintain their sin.  No man that hath anything, shall escape the censure of being covetous, as long as there is another in the world that coveteth that which he hath: selfishness looketh to no rules but their own desires.

3. Others are judged covetous, because they give not that which they have not to give.  Those that know not another’s estate will pass conjectures at it; and if their handsome apparel or deportment, or the common fame, do make men think them richer than they are, then they are accounted covetous, because their bounty answereth not men’s expectations.

4. Others are thought covetous, because they are laborious in their callings, and thrifty, and saving, not willing that any thing be lost.  But all this is their duty: if they were lords or princes, idleness and wastefulness would be their sin.  God would have all men labor in their several callings that are able: and Christ himself said, when he had fed many thousands by miracle, yet “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.”  The question is, How they use that which they labor so hard for, and save so sparingly.  If they use it for God and charitable uses, there is no man taketh a righter course.  He is the best servant for God, that will be laborious and sparing, that he may be able to do good.

5. Others are thought covetous, because, to avoid hypocrisy, they give in secret and keep their works of charity from the knowledge of men.  These shall have their reward from God: and his wrath shall be the reward of their presumptuous censures.

6. Others are thought covetous, because they lawfully and peaceably seek their right, and let not the unjust and covetous wrong them at their pleasure.  It is true, we must let go our right, whenever the recovering of it will do more hurt to others than it will do us good.  But yet the laws are not made in vain: nor must we encourage men in covetousness, thievery, and deceit, by letting them do what they desire: nor must we be careless of our Master’s talents; if he entrust us with them, we must not let every one take them from us to serve his lusts with.

Posted in Richard Baxter | 1 Comment »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »