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The Goodness of God by A. W. Pink

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

“The goodness of God endureth continually” (Psalm 52:1)

The “goodness” of God respects the perfection of His nature: “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).  There is such an absolute perfection in God’s nature and being that nothing is wanting to it or defective in it and nothing can be added to it to make it better.

He is originally good, good of Himself, which nothing else is; for all creatures are good only by participation and communication from God.  He is essentially good; not only good, but goodness itself: the creature’s good is a superadded quality, in God it is His essence.  He is infinitely good; the creature’s good is but a drop, but in God there is an infinite ocean or gathering together of good.  He is eternally and immutably good, for He cannot be less good than He is; as there can be no addition made to Him, so no subtraction from Him (Thomas Manton).

God is summum bonum, the chief good.  The original Saxon meaning of our English word “God” is “The Good.”  God is not only the Greatest of all beings, but the Best.  All the goodness there is in any creature has been imparted from the Creator, but God’s goodness is underived, for it is the essence of His eternal nature.  As God is infinite in power from all eternity, before there was any display thereof, or any act of omnipotency put forth; so He was eternally good before there was any communication of His bounty, or any creature to whom it might be imparted or exercised.  Thus, the first manifestation of this Divine perfection was in giving being to all things.  “Thou art good, and doest good” (Psalm 119:68).  God has in Himself an infinite and inexhaustible treasure of all blessedness enough to fill all things.

All that emanates from God—His decrees, His creation, His laws, His providences—cannot be otherwise than good: as it is written.  “And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).  Thus, the “goodness” of God is seen, first, in Creation.  The more closely the creature is studied, the more the beneficence of its Creator becomes apparent.  Take the highest of God’s earthly creatures, man.  Abundant reason has he to say with the Psalmist, “I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well” (Psalm 139:14).

Everything about the structure of our bodies attests the goodness of their Maker.  How suited the bands to perform their allotted work!  How good of the Lord to appoint sleep to refresh the wearied body!  How benevolent His provision to give unto the eyes lids and brows for their protection!  And so we might continue indefinitely.  Nor is the goodness of the Creator confined to man, it is exercised toward all His creatures.  “The eyes of all wait upon Thee; and Thou givest them their meat in due season.  Thou openest Thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing” (Psalm 145:15-16).  Whole volumes might be written, yea have been, to amplify this fact.  Whether it be the birds of the air, the beasts of the forest, or the fish in the sea, abundant provision has been made to supply their every need.  God “giveth food to all flesh, for His mercy endureth forever” (Psalm 136:25).

Truly, “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord” (Psalm 33:5).  The goodness of God is seen in the variety of natural pleasures which He has provided for His creatures.  God might have been pleased to satisfy our hunger without the food being pleasing to our palates—how His benevolence appears in the varied flavors which He has given to meats, vegetables, and fruits!  God has not only given us senses, but also that which gratifies them; and this too reveals His goodness.  The earth might have been as fertile as it is without its surface being so delightfully variegated.  Our physical lives could have been sustained without beautiful flowers to regale our eyes, and exhale sweet perfumes.  We might have walked the fields without our ears being saluted by the music of the birds.  Whence, then, this loveliness, this charm, so freely diffused over the face of nature?  Verily, “The tender mercies of the Lord are over all His works” (Psalm 145:9).

The goodness of God is seen in that when man transgressed the law of His Creator a dispensation of unmixed wrath did not at once commence.  Well might God have deprived His fallen creatures of every blessing, every comfort, every pleasure.  Instead, He ushered in a regime of a mixed nature, of mercy and judgment.  This is very wonderful if it be duly considered, and the  more thoroughly that regime be examined the more will it appear that “mercy rejoiceth against judgment” (James 2:13).  Notwithstanding all the evils which attend our fallen state, the balance of good greatly preponderates.  With comparatively rare exceptions, men and women experience a far greater number of days of health, than they do of sickness and pain.  There is much more creature—happiness than creature—misery in the world.  Even our sorrows admit of considerable alleviation, and God has given to the human mind a pliability which adapts itself to circumstances and makes the most of them.

Nor can the benevolence of God be justly called into question because there is suffering and sorrow in the world. If man sins against the goodness of God, if he despises “the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering,” and after the hardness and impenitency of his heart treasurest up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath (Romans 2:5), who is to blame but himself?  Would God be “good” if He punished not those who ill-use His blessings, abuse His benevolence and trample His mercies beneath their feet?  It will be no reflection upon God’s goodness, but rather the brightest exemplification of it, when He shall rid the earth of those who have broken His laws, defied His authority, mocked His messengers, scorned His Son, and persecuted those for whom He died.

The goodness of God appeared most illustriously when He sent forth His Son “made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might received the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).  Then it was that a multitude of the heavenly host praised their Maker and said, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good-will toward men” (Luke 2:14).  Yes, in the Gospel the “grace (Gk. benevolence or goodness) of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11).  Nor can God’s benignity be called into question because He has not made every sinful creature to be a subject of His redemptive grace.  He did not the fallen angels.  Had God left all to perish it had been no reflection on His goodness.  To any who would challenge this statement we will remind him of our Lord’s sovereign prerogative: “Is it not lawful for Me to do what I will with Mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?”(Matthew 20:15).

“O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men” (Psalm 107:8).  Gratitude is the return justly required from the objects of His beneficence; yet is it often withheld from our great Benefactor simply because His goodness is so constant and so abundant.  It is lightly esteemed because it is exercised toward us in the common course of events.  It is not felt because we daily experience it.  “Despisest thou the riches of His goodness?” (Romans 2:4).  His goodness is “despised” when it is not improved as a means to lead men to repentance, but, on the contrary, serves to harden them from the supposition that God entirely overlooks their sin.

The goodness of God is the life of the believer’s trust. It is this excellency in God which most appeals to our hearts. Because His goodness endureth forever, we ought never to be discouraged: “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in Him” (Nahum 1:7).  When others behave badly to us, it should only stir us up the more heartily to give thanks unto the Lord, because He is good; and when we ourselves are conscious that we are far from being good, we should only the more reverently bless Him that He is good.  We must never tolerate an instant’s unbelief as to the goodness of the Lord; whatever else may be questioned, this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; His dispensations may vary, but His nature is always the same (C. H. Spurgeon).

From A. W. Pink, The Attributes of God.

Posted in A. W. Pink |

Search from the Book of the Lord by Thomas Boston

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

Several things are implied in Isaiah 34:16, “Search from the book of the Lord, and read:”

1.  That man has lost his way, and needs direction to find it, Psalm 119:176, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant.”  Miserable man has blurred vision in a directionless world, which is a dark place, and has as much need of the scriptures to guide him, as one has of a light in darkness, 2 Pet. 1:19.  What a miserable case is that part of the world in that lacks the Bible?  They are vain in their imaginations, and grope in the dark, but cannot find the way of salvation.  In no better case are those to whom it has not come in power.

2.  That man is in danger of being led farther and farther wrong. This made the spouse say, “Tell me, O you whom I love, Where you feed your flock, Where you make it rest at noon.  For why should I be as one who veils herself by the flocks of your companions?” Song 1:7.  There is a cunning devil, a wicked world, corrupt lusts within one’s own breast, to lead him out of the right way, that we had need to let go of, and take this guide.  There are many false lights in the world, which, if followed, will lead the traveler into a mire, and leave him there.

3.  That men are slow of heart to understand the mind of God in his word. It will cost searching diligently before we can take it up, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me,” John 5:39.

Our eyes are dim to the things of God, our understanding dull, and our judgment is weak.  And therefore, because the iron is blunt, we must put too the more strength.  We lost the sharpness of our sight in spiritual things in Adam; and our corrupt wills and carnal affections, that favor not the things of God, do blind our judgments even more: and therefore it is a labor to us to find out what is necessary for our salvation.

4.  That the book of the Lord has its difficulties, which are not to be easily solved. Therefore the Psalmist prays, “Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law,” Psalm 119:18.

Philip asked the eunuch, “Do you understand what you are reading?” and he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?”  There are depths there in which an elephant may swim, and will exercise the largest capabilities, with all the expertise they may be possessed of. God in his holy providence has so ordered it, to stain the pride of all glory; to make his word the more like himself, whom none can search out to perfection, and to sharpen the diligence of his people in their inquiries into it.

5.  That yet we need highly to understand it, otherwise we would not be commanded to search into it. “Of the times and seasons,” says the apostle, “you have no need that I write to you;” and therefore he wrote not of them.  There is a treasure in this field; we are called to dig for it; for though it be hid, yet we must have it, or we will waste away in our spiritual poverty.

6.  That we may gain from it by diligent inquiry. The holy humble heart will not be always sent empty away from these wells of salvation, when it undertakes itself to draw.  There are shallow places in these waters of the sanctuary, where lambs may wade.

Posted in Thomas Boston |

The Patience of God by A. W. Pink

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

The Patience of God by A. W. Pink

Far less has been written upon this than the other excellencies of the Divine character.  Not a few of those who have expatiated at length upon the Divine attributes have passed over the patience of God without any comment.  It is not easy to suggest a reason for this, for surely the longsuffering of God is as much one of the Divine perfections as His wisdom, power, or holiness, and as much to be admired and revered by us.  True, the actual term will not be found in a concordance so frequently as the others, but the glory of this grace itself shines forth on almost every page of Scripture.  Certain it is that we lose much if we do not frequently meditate upon the patience of God and earnestly pray that our hearts and ways may be more completely conformed thereto.

Most probably the principal reason why so many writers have failed to give us anything, separately, upon the patience of God was because of the difficulty of distinguishing this attribute from the Divine goodness and mercy, particularly the latter.  God’s longsuffering is mentioned in conjunction with His grace and mercy again and again, as may be seen by consulting Exodus 34:6, Numbers 14:18, Psalm 86:15, etc.

That the patience of God is really a display of His mercy, in fact is one way in which it is frequently manifested, cannot be gainsaid; but that they are one and the same excellency, and are not to be separated, we cannot concede.  It may not be easy to discriminate between them, nevertheless, Scripture fully warrants us, in predicating some things of the one which we cannot of the other.

Stephen Charnock, the Puritan, defines God’s patience, in part, thus: It is a part of the Divine goodness and mercy, yet differs from both.  God being the greatest goodness, hath the greatest mildness; mildness is always the companion of true goodness, and the greater the goodness, the greater the mildness.  Who so holy as Christ, and who so meek?  God’s slowness to anger is a branch of His mercy: “the Lord is full of compassion, slow to anger” (Psalm 145:8).

It differs from mercy in the formal consideration of the subject: mercy respects the creature as miserable, patience respects the creature as criminal; mercy pities him in his misery, patience bears with the sin which engendered the misery, and giving birth to more.  Personally we would define the Divine patience as that power of control which God exercises over Himself, causing Him to bear with the wicked and forebear so long in punishing them.  In Nahum 1:3, we read, “The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,” upon which Mr. Charnock said, Men that are great in the world are quick in passion, and are not so ready to forgive an injury, or bear with an offender, as one of a meaner rank.  It is a want of power over that man’s self that makes him do unbecoming things upon a provocation.  A prince that can bridle his passions is a king over himself as well as over his subjects.  God is slow to anger because great in power.  He has no less power over Himself than over His creatures.

It is at the above point, we think, that God’s patience is most clearly distinguished from His mercy.  Though the creature is benefited thereby, the patience of God chiefly respects Himself, a restraint placed upon His acts by His will; whereas His mercy terminates wholly upon the creature.  The patience of God is that excellency which causes Him to sustain great injuries without immediately avenging Himself.  He has a power of patience as well as a power of justice.  Thus the Hebrew word for the Divine longsuffering is rendered “slow to anger” in Nehemiah 9:17, Psalm 103:8, etc.  Not that there are any passions in the Divine nature, but that God’s wisdom and will is pleased to act with that stateliness and sobriety which becometh His exalted majesty.

In support of our definition above, let us point out that it was to this excellency in the Divine character that Moses appealed when Israel sinned so grievously at Kadesh-Barnea and there provoked Jehovah so sorely.  Unto His servant the Lord said, “I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them.”  Then it was that the typical mediator pleaded, “I beseech Thee let the power of my Lord be great according as Thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is longsuffering,” etc. (Numbers 14:17).  Thus, His longsuffering is His “power” of self-restraint.

Again, in Romans 9:22 we read, “What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction…?”  Were God to immediately break these reprobate vessels into pieces, His power of self-control would not so eminently appear; by bearing with their wickedness and forbearing punishment so long, the power of His patience is gloriously demonstrated.  True, the wicked interpret His longsuffering quite differently—“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11)—but the anointed eye adores what they abuse.

“The God of patience” (Romans 15:5) is one of the Divine titles. Deity is thus denominated, first, because God is both the Author and Object of the grace of patience in the saint.  Secondly, because this is what He is in Himself: patience is one of His perfections.  Thirdly, as a pattern for us: “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering” (Colossians 3:12).  And again, “Be ye therefore followers (emulators) of god, as dear children” (Ephesians 5:2).  When tempted to be disgusted at the dullness of another, or to be revenged on one who has wronged you, call to remembrance God’s infinite patience and longsuffering with yourself.

The patience of God is manifested in His dealings with sinners. How strikingly was it displayed toward the antediluvians.  When mankind was universally degenerate and all flesh had corrupted his way, God did not destroy them till He had forewarned them.  He “waited” (1 Peter 3:20), probably no less than one hundred and twenty years (Genesis 6:3), during which time Noah was a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5).  So, later, when the Gentiles not only worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, but also committed the vilest abominations contrary to even the dictates of nature (Romans 1:19-26), and hereby filled up the measure of their iniquity; yet, instead of drawing His sword for the extermination of such rebels, God “suffered all nations to walk in their own ways,” and gave them “rain from heaven and fruitful seasons” (Acts 14:16-17).

Marvelously was God’s patience exercised and manifested toward Israel.  First, He “suffered their manners” for forty years in the wilderness (Acts 13:18).  Later, when they had entered Canaan, but followed the evil customs of the nations around them, and turned to idolatry; though God chastened them sorely, He did not utterly destroy them, but in their distress, raised up deliverers for them.  When their iniquity was raised to such a height that none but a God of infinite patience, could have borne them, He, notwithstanding, spared them many years before He allowed them to be carried down into Babylon.  Finally, when their rebellion against Him reached its climax by crucifying His Son.  He waited forty years ere He sent the Romans against them and that only after they had judged themselves “unworthy of eternal life” (Acts 13:46).

How wondrous is God’s patience with the world today! On every side, people are sinning with a high hand.  The Divine law is trampled under foot and God Himself openly despised.  It is truly amazing that He does not instantly strike dead those who so brazenly defy Him.  Why does He not suddenly cut off the haughty, infidel and blatant blasphemer, as He did Ananias and Sapphira?  Why does He not cause the earth to open its mouth and devour the persecutors of his people, so that, like Dathan and Abiram, they shall go down alive into the Pit?  And what of apostate Christendom, where every possible form of sin is now tolerated and practiced under cover of the holy name of Christ?  Why does not the righteous wrath of Heaven make an end of such abominations?  Only one answer is possible: because God bears with “much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.”

And what of the writer and the reader? Let us review our own lives.  It is not long since we followed a multitude to do evil had no concern for God’s glory, and lived only to gratify self.  How patiently He bore with our vile conduct!  And now that grace has snatched us as brands from the burning, giving us a place in God’s family, and begotten us unto an eternal inheritance in glory; how miserably we requite Him.  How shallow our gratitude, how tardy our obedience, how frequent our backslidings!  One reason why God suffers the flesh to remain in the believer is that He may exhibit His “longsuffering to usward” (2 Peter 3:9).  Since this Divine attribute is manifested only in this world, God takes advantage to display it toward His own.

May our meditation upon this Divine excellency soften our hearts, make our consciences tender, and may we learn in the school of holy experience the “patience of saints,” namely, submission to the Divine will and continuance in well doing.  Let us earnestly seek grace to emulate this Divine excellency.  “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48): in the immediate context Christ exhorts us to love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us.  God bears long with the wicked notwithstanding the multitude of their sin, and shall we desire to be revenged because of a single injury?

Posted in A. W. Pink |

Seeing God’s Goodness Here by C. H. Spurgeon

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

“I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of thy Lord in the land of the living.” — Psalm 27:13

We were favored with very much of God’s goodness, last Sabbath evening, when we considered the rule of grace in guiding a believer’s life, namely, that, instead of seeing in order to believe, he has learned to believe in order to see.  “Unless I had believed to see,” says the psalmist, “I had fainted;” and we should never have known true refreshment nor enjoyed the comforts of the Lord, but should have been full of doubts, and distracted with fears, if we had not learned the sacred art of believing although we did not see, or even believing in spite of what we did see; or believing in order that we might see, fully expecting that sight, would inevitably follow if our faith were but simple and true.

Those of you who were present last sabbath evening will remember that I restricted my remarks, for the most part, to the one matter of our salvation.  I tried to show to seekers that, instead of looking for evidences of salvation first, and then believing in Christ, they were to believe in Christ in order to obtain those evidences — that, instead of looking to their repentance, and then having confidence in Christ, their repentance sprang from their confidence in Christ — that, instead of saying, “We are not fully sanctified, and therefore fear we are not saved; “they were to remember that the certainty of their being saved by grace, through faith, would be to their minds and hearts, the great motive power by which they would be enabled to obtain that sanctification which cannot be theirs as long as they remain in legal bondage, and have doubts about being “accepted in the Beloved.”  There were some set at liberty last Sabbath evening, who had really known the Lord for years, but were afraid to say definitely that they had trusted in Christ, and that, therefore, they were saved.  May God grant that all of us may not only come to Christ, but may we also exercise a simple, childlike faith, which just takes God’s Word as it stands in this blessed Book, believes it, receives it, lives upon it, asks no questions concerning it, and will allow none to be asked by others.

On this occasion, I propose to make a particular application of the general principle of our text.  David was a man of many troubles.  Especially in the latter part of his life, he was incessantly in the furnace, and he says that he should have “fainted” under these many troubles if he had not “behaved to see,” in the particular matter of his briars, “the goodness of the Lord” in that land which is the special sphere of trouble.  David believed to see the goodness of the Lord, not only in the glory land yonder, but also in this land here below.  He believed to see the goodness of the Lord, not merely when he emerged from the furnace, but also while he was in it.  As a pilgrim and a stranger, he believed to see the goodness of the Lord during the days of his pilgrimage.  He did not always see it, but he believed to see it; he believed in it and anticipated it; and, by believing in it, he did actually come to see it with the eye of his mind, and to rejoice in it.

We all know that this world is a very unpromising field for faith; according to our varied experiences, we must all subscribe to the declaration that this earth is, more or less, a vale of tears that it is not our rest, for it is polluted.  There are too many thorns in this nest for us to abide comfortably in it.  This world is under the curse, so it still bringeth forth thorns and thistles, and in the sweat of our face do we eat our bread until we return to the earth out of which man was at first taken.  Were this world really to be our home, it would be a terrible fate for us; if we were always to live in this huge penal settlement, it would be sad indeed for us to know that we had continually to dwell where the shadow of the curse ever lingers, and where we have only the shadow of the cross to sustain us under it.  But faith comes into this unpromising field, and believes that she shall see the goodness of the Lord even here.  It rushes into the fiercest fight that ever rages here, fully believing that it shall see the banner of the Lord’s mercy and truth waving even there.  It bears the burden and heat of the earthly toil and expects to experience the lovingkindness of the Lord beneath it all.  It knows that it will see more of its God in the land beyond the flood; but, still, it believes to see the goodness of the Lord even in this land of the living which is so distracted and disturbed with sorrows and cares, and trials and tribulations.

I want to show you, first, that faith is infallibly persuaded of God’s goodness here; secondly, that it expects clearly to see that goodness here, and, thirdly, that it is this expectation and belief which sustain the soul of the tried believer.

I. First, then, FAITH IS INFALLIBLY ASSURED OF THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD IN THIS TIME STATE.

It is persuaded of this from what it knows of God himself.  It could not believe that he could be otherwise than good.  It reads the promise recorded in his Word and it believes that they are all true and reliable.  It can detect nothing that is unkind or ungenerous in any of them; they are all couched in the softest, gentlest, and most consoling words.  The language used seems to have been selected on purpose to meet this case and to make the promise suitable and sweet to the sorrowing heart.

It feels sure that God could not be unkind.  With the psalmist, it cries, “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart;” and though, like the psalmist, it may have, to write afterwards, “But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped;” yet it stands fast to the first declaration, “Truly God is good to Israel,” however much surrounding circumstances may seem to prove the contrary; it knows that, from the necessity of the divine nature, God must be good to his people both here and hereafter.

When faith turns to the Bible and reads the history of the Lord’s people, it sees that God has been good to them; and, knowing that he is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever,” it draws the cheering inference that he will also be good to today. Inasmuch as it can distinctly see that the trials and difficulties of the saints in the olden times always wrought their lasting good, it is convinced, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the current trials and troubles, overruled by the same loving Lord who cared for them, will work lasting good, and that God will bless now as he blessed his saints in the olden time.

Perhaps some of you have faith, but yet, possibly through want of thought, you have not exercised it upon this particular point.  If you are given to murmuring against God, you will often think thoughts which you would not like to hear or to see in spoken or written language.  If someone should say to you, “God has been very unkind to you; I am sure that you cannot see the goodness of God displayed in your life,” you would at once turn round upon such a slanderer and defend the character of your God from such an unjust accusation.  Although you often murmur against the Lord in your spirit, yet, if another person should say in words what you have felt in your heart, you would then see the wickedness of your murmuring and you would also see that, in the depths of your soul, there is a firm confidence in the goodness of God to you.  You need to stir up that holy fire and set it blazing, so that you may get comfort from its warmth; for it is true, and it must be true, that God is now good, and always good, and good to the highest possible degree of goodness to all his children in their worst calamities and their darkest seasons of sorrow.

But there are some conditions of life in which it is really a trial to faith to believe in the goodness of the Lord, as, for instance, that of long-continued, dire poverty. Some of God’s choicest saints are so poor that they not only lack luxuries, but they even lack the very necessaries of life.  As a rule, possibly without exception, God does give his people bread and water, but, sometimes, the bread is only a very small portion and the cup of water — a very tiny one.  I have known a child of God, who has said to me, “I have struggled hard against poverty: I have undertaken first this and then that, but, in every case, I have failed.  My little vessel has tried to enter the harbor of prosperity, but the cruel winds have always driven it back again into the rough sea of adversity.  If I had been a spendthrift; if I had been wasteful in the days of my prosperity, or if I had not used my substance for the cause of God, I could understand my non-success.  If God would again entrust me with ample means, I would cheerfully give to his cause, as I used to do, but, alas! I have not anything left after my daily needs are supplied.”  Unbelief asks, “can this be the goodness of the Lord?”  But Faith answers, “Yes, it is, and it must be; I should faint in this poverty, I should give up in despair if, under all my trials and hardships, I were not sure of the goodness of God to me.  If I were even starving to death, God should still have a good word out of my dying mouth.  Even if he should let me die of starvation, it must be right, and he must be good.”

There are others of God’s children, whose trials come from constant sickness; and some forms of illness are so trying that we are apt to ask ourselves why we should be subjected to them.  I talked, this morning, with an aged sister in Christ, who, years ago, met with an accident by which her head was so severely injured that, every alternate day, her pain is almost unbearable.  She can never go up to the house of God because the sound of the preacher’s voice or of the singing of the congregation would be more than she could endure.  When we talked together, gently and softly, concerning the things of God, she quoted to me Psalm 119:75: “I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.”  If anyone asks, “Can it be the goodness of the Lord thus to keep away one who really loves his house and prizes his ordinances and to send her such sore sickness?” — we must reply, “Yes, it must be right.  We cannot see how God’s goodness can thus be manifested, but we are to believe that it is.”

I may be addressing some others, who are subject to peculiarly trying infirmities, which unfit you for the work you love and the field of service where you have long been so happy and useful.  Well, dear friends, in such a case as that, you must believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living in thus making your life to be one of sickness and weariness and pain.

The same rule also applies to our bereavements. How mysterious are the dispositions of providence in this matter!  Many, whom we cannot afford to lose, are taken away from us; while others, who seem to do no good, continue to live.  Death appears to spare the hemlock and to cut down the oak and the cedar.  Where there is a man who only encumbers the ground, he is often allowed to remain; while others, who are like pillars of Christ’s Church, are taken away.  I know a little village, where there were but a few poor inhabitants, and one man of substance, whom I very greatly esteemed.  Towards the small salary of the pastor in that village, my friend contributed three-fourths, if not nine-tenths.  He was the mainstay of that little Christian community.  When I found him, last week, very ill with fever, and joined with other friends in earnest prayer that his life might to spared, it seemed to us absolutely essential to the welfare of that village church that he should be kept here at least a little longer.  But now that the Lord has taken him home to himself, what can we say?  We must not begin to cavil at what God has done, but say to him, We are sure that whatsoever thou doest is right; it cannot be wrong, it cannot be unkind; it must be the kindest thing that could have happened, the very thing which we should have wished to happen if we could have known what thou knowest, and if we could have formed our judgment upon the same principle as swayed thine infallible judgment.”

We sometimes fancy that we should like to make a slight alteration in some of the arrangements of divine providence.  We would not interfere with the great wheels that are ever revolving, but just here and there, where a small cog rather inconveniently touches our personal interests, we would like to have it so altered as to let us alone.  But, remorselessly, as we sometimes imagine, the great wheels grind on, our comforts are taken from us and our joy is destroyed.  What then?  Why, let us still say, “Lord, not our will, but thine be done;” and let us kiss the hand that wields the rod as much as the one that bestows choice gifts upon us.  It is far easier for me to say this than it is for yon poor widow to carry it out, easier for me to say it than it is for that weeping mother, who has seen all her children taken before her to the silent tomb.  But, my sisters, my brothers, if it is harder for you, then so much the more earnestly would I urge you to say it; for the very difficulty of the submission, when you have rendered it, would prove the sincerity of your confidence in your God and bring the more glory to him.

So, as we take our friends and relatives to the tomb and commit the precious dust to the earth, let us still believe to see the goodness of the Lord even there.  If we do not look at our sorrows in that light, we shall faint under our repeated losses and bereavements; but if that be the light in which we view them, we shall see a glory gilding even the graves that cover the bodies of our departed loved ones and shall rejoice in the full assurance of the goodness of the Lord to us and even more to those who have gone to be “forever with the Lord.”

Another matter may, perhaps, have greatly troubled some of you, namely, your unanswered prayers.  You have been praying for certain people for a long time; but, so far, you have received no answer to your supplications.  There is a brother here, who has prayed for years for the conversion of his wife; yet she is still unconverted.  If he yields to unbelief, he will have many difficult questions to answer.  God has said, “Ask, and ye shall receive; you have asked for a thing which, apparently, is for God’s glory, yet you have not received it; and this will sometimes be a staggering blow to the earnest pleader.  Some of you have prayed, as I have done, for the life of a friend, or you have sought some other favor from the hands of God, but he has not granted it.  I believe there is a brother here, who has carried an unanswered prayer about with him for ten or a dozen years.  I have known cases of believers praying for thirty years, and yet not obtaining what they asked for; and some of them, like the worthies of old, have “died in faith, not having received the promises.”  They have not lived to see one of their children converted, yet their children have been converted, and saved through their prayers too, long after the parents slept in their graves.

In the cases of unanswered prayers, there is always the temptation to believe that God has not been faithful to his promises, that this bitter draught of unbelief is an addition to the sorrow which you feel at your non-success at the mercy seat.  This is the time when you will faint unless you believe to see the goodness of the Lord even now and here.  You must feel that, in any case, God’s will must be done.  You must still continue to pray, for you do not know what God’s will is; but you must pray with resignation, after your Savior’s perfect, model in the garden of Gethsemane, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”  You will be comforted and helped if you can look upon your unanswered prayers in that light.

And, dear brethren, there is another thing that will sometimes press upon you very heavily, namely, the desertions which occasionally fall to the lot of the believer as to his communion with God. Sometimes, we are left in the dark.  Whether you are or not, I know that I have been where I could not see sun, or moon, or stars, or even get so much as a look from my Master to cheer my sad heart or a word from his mouth to make glad my spirit.  At such times, we must remember that ancient message, “Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.”  If you cannot see, you must, believe to see; and if your heart feels like a stone, still believe that Christ is your life; and if, instead of holy meditations, your soul is racked with blasphemous temptations and evil thoughts, still hold on to Jesus, sink or swim.  If, instead of clear evidences of salvation, you are half afraid that the Lord has forsaken you and given you up, and you fall into an unbelieving frame of mind, go again to the fountain filled with blood, that this sin, like all others, may be washed away.  Trust Christ all the more “when the enemy shall come in like a flood;” for, then, “the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.”  Those must be strange Christians who never have any conflict raging within their souls.  If that is true Christian experience, I wish I could get it; — to be always at peace and at rest and never again have to wrestle with sins and doubts and fears.  But, beloved, if we cannot attain to that position — and I believe that the most of us cannot — let us still walk by faith; for, so, we shall walk triumphantly even under the discouragements of our inward spiritual conflicts.

One other point I must mention, and then I will leave this part of the subject.  To many believers, the sharpest trials they ever have to endure arise from troubles connected with the Church of Christ. What a grief it is to the godly when any portion of the Church of Christ does not prosper — when bickerings arise among the members, when one brother or sister is jealous of another and when all our attempts to mend the rent only make it worse.  It must be very trying for some of you to have to go on the Lord’s day to listen to a minister who does not edify you, but rather provokes you to wrath; or to attend church-meetings, as I know that some do, and find them anything but a means of grace; or to have to meet with professors [of faith] who, in their common conduct and conversation, instead of leading you onward and upward, do you as much mischief as if they were men of the world.  It is sad to see even one of God’s ministers sound asleep, and to see other professing Christians careless and worldly, and to see the whole ship of the Church like the vessel described by the Ancient Mariner —

“As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean;”

when there was no motion, no advance; when —

“The very deep did rot.”

It is a dreadful thing when there is such a horrid deathlike calm as this; yet, even amidst such trials as these, we must believe to see the goodness of the Lord.  We must still believe that the great Head of the Church has not forgotten her, that in her darkest times he still wears her name upon his heart, and that he will yet return to her in mercy, cast out all her enemies, repair her broken walls, and cause the banner of his love to float again over her citadel.

II. Now, secondly, and very briefly, FAITH NOT ONLY BELIEVES IN THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD, BUT SHE EXPECTS TO SEE IT EVEN HERE.

Sometimes, she sees it very soon. God does not guarantee to let his people see here the reason for all his providential dealings with them, but he does occasionally do so.  There is many a believer who has lived to see the goodness of God to him.  Bernard Gilpin’s case was a very clear one.  As he was on his way to London to be burned at the stake, his leg was broken and he had to stop on the road.  He said it was all for the best, and so it was; for, when he reached London, the bells were ringing, for Queen Mary was dead, and Queen Elizabeth had come to the throne, so he was not burned – the breaking of his leg had saved his life!  Some of us have also seen the goodness of the Lord displayed under very strange circumstances.  It was so in connection with that terrible calamity at the Surrey Gardens Music Hall.  Notwithstanding all the sorrow and suffering that it brought upon us, as we now look back upon it, we see how God, by means of that calamity, called public attention to the preaching of the Word; and I have no doubt that, for every life that was then lost, a thousand souls have since been saved from going down to the pit, so let God’s name be praised for that gracious overruling of a terrible crime.  You may not have to wait even a day before you will distinctly see the goodness of the Lord; but you must believe it before you see it.  It must be a matter of duty to you now to believe it; and then, by-and-by, it may be a matter of privilege to you to see it.

But faith does not always expect to see the goodness of God here at once. It knows that this is the land of mist and fog and is glad if it can see even one step ahead.  Ay, and faith is quite satisfied to go on even if it cannot see a step ahead.  It puts its foot down on what seems to be a thick cloud, but finds the ground solid beneath.  Without seeing where it is going, faith takes the next step, relying upon the faithfulness of God, and again it is safe; and so faith pursues its way in the thick darkness and with greater joy than those who see far ahead and compliment themselves upon their shrewdness.  Faith knows that the day has not yet dawned, for the shadows have not yet fled away, so, while in this mortal state, it walks by faith, not by sight.

Faith understands, too, that man is not endowed with that degree of judgment which might enable him, at present, even if the light were clearer, to see the goodness of the Lord distinctly. With such an intellect as he now has, a child is not likely to see the wisdom of his father in the use of the rod.  Even if he is a well-instructed child, he may still scarcely be able to see it.  The father is the better judge; he has seen more of life, he knows what the child does not know and foresees what the child does not even dream of.  How can I, who can only see a little pool in front of me, judge as to how the Lord should manage the great ocean?  Here am I sailing my tiny toy-boat upon a pond; and am I to lay down rules of navigation for God in steering the leviathans of the deep across the shoreless seas?  Here am I, an emmet of an hour, creeping about upon the little ant-hill which I call my home; and am I to judge as to how God manages all the affairs of time and eternity?  Down, thou foolish pride; what knowest thou?  Thou art wise only when thou knowest that thou art a fool; but thou art such a fool that thou dost not know even that until God teaches it to thee.  Lie down, then, and trust where thou canst not understand.

Faith also knows that, at present, the whole plan and procedure of God’s providential dealings with men cannot be seen.  We cannot fairly judge the working of providence by gazing at a part of it.  There is an old joke about a student who took one brick to the market in order to show the people what kind of house he had to sell; but who could rightly judge of a house by looking at a single brick?  Yet this would be less foolish than trying to judge as to the goodness of the Lord by the transactions of an hour.  If, instead of trying to measure, with a foot-rule, the distance between Sirius and the Pleiades, we would just believe that God has measured that vast distance to an inch and leave such measurements to the almighty mind which can take in the whole universe at one sweep, how much wiser it would be on our part!  God sees the end from the beginning; and when the great drama of time shall be complete, then will the splendor as well as the goodness of the Lord be seen.  When the whole painting shall be unrolled in one vast panorama, then shall we see its matchless beauty and appreciate the inimitable skill of the Divine Artist.  But, here, we only look at one little patch of shade or one tiny touch of color, and it appears to us to be rough or coarse.  It may be that we shall be permitted, in eternity, to see the whole of the picture; and, meanwhile, let us firmly believe that he who is painting it knows how to do it, and that he, who orders all things according to the counsel of his own will, cannot fail to do that which is best for the creatures whom he hath made and preserved in being.

III. So, finally, THERE IS A WONDERFULLY SUSTAINING INFLUENCE ABOUT THIS PRACTICAL BELIEF IN THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD.

There is a man lying upon the surgeon’s operating table and the skillful surgeon has to cut deeply; why does the man endure that operation?  Because he believes it is for his lasting good. He believes that the surgeon will not cause him an atom of pain more than is necessary, and therefore he lies quietly and endures it all.  But imagine that any of us were there, and that we fancied that the operator meant to do us has instead of good.  Then we should rebel; but the conviction that it is all right helps us “to play the man” and to bear the pain with patience.  That should be your attitude towards God, my dear friend.  May your belief in his goodness enable you to bear the sharp cuts of the knife which he is using upon you!  He must have been a bold man who was the first to plough the ground, all to bury bushels of good, golden wheat in the earth; but, nowadays, our farmers do it as a matter of course.  They go to the granary, take out that which is very valuable, go off to where they have made the death-trench ready to receive it and cast it in there, knowing that, unless it is cast in there to die, it will not bring forth fruit.  But they believe to see the fruit that will spring from it; every farmer, when he sows his wheat, has the golden sheaves before his mind’s eye, and the shouts of the harvest home ring in anticipation in his ear; and, therefore, he parts with his treasured store of wheat, and parts with it cheerfully.  So, dear friends, let us part with our friends, and part with our health, and part with our comforts, and part with life itself if that is necessary, believing that “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

Let me just add that, if there is such sustaining power about believing to see the goodness of the Lord even here, what must result from the still higher belief of seeing the goodness of the Lord in another and better world than this? The expectation of that bliss may well bear us up on its wings far above all the trials and troubles of this present life; so let us entreat the Holy Spirit to administer to us this heavenly cordial.  Then, in the strength of the Lord, let us go forth to serve him, with body, soul, and spirit, to the highest degree that is possible to us.

If there are any of you who have never believed, let, me just tell you what is needful ere I close my discourse.  The way of salvation is this, — Believe God’s Word; believe that your Maker cannot lie; trust his Son, whom he has given to be the Savior of all who trust him; and rely upon what his Word has declared: “he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”  If thou trustest in Christ, even if thou hast not a fraction of other evidence of thy salvation, thou art a saved soul on that evidence alone.  Cast thyself upon him and thou shalt find that declaration to be true to thee, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”  But if thou believes not, remember that this declaration is equally true, “he that, believeth not the Son shall not see life; but, the wrath of God abideth on him.”  May God save all of you from that awful doom, for his dear Son’s sake!  Amen.

Posted in C. H. Spurgeon |

Discovering the True Sense of Scripture by Thomas Boston

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

The sense of the scripture is but one, and not many.  There may be several parts of that one sense subordinate one to another; as some prophecies have a respect to the deliverance from Babylon, the spiritual by Christ, and the eternal in heaven; and some passages have one thing that is typical of another: yet these are but one full sense, only that may be of two sorts; one is simple, and another compound.

Some scriptures have only a simple sense, containing a declaration of one thing only; and that is either proper or figurative.  A proper sense is that which arises from the words taken properly, and the figurative from the words taken figuratively.  Some have a simple proper sense, as, ‘God is a Spirit,’ ‘God created the heavens and the earth;’ which are to be understood according to the propriety of the words.  Some have a simple figurative sense, as, ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away,’ and etc.  These have but one simple sense; but then it is the figurative, and is not to be understood according to the literal meaning of the words, as if Christ were a tree, and etc.  Thus you see what the simple sense is.

The compound or mixed sense is found wherein one thing is held forth as a type of the other; and so it consists of two parts, the one respecting the type, the other the antitype; which are not two senses, but two parts of that one and entire sense intended by the Holy Ghost: e.g. Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, that those who were stung by the fiery serpents might look to it and be healed.  The full sense of which is, ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, that, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.’  Here is a literal and mystical sense, which make up one full sense betwixt them.  Those scriptures that have this compound sense, are sometimes fulfilled properly (or literally, as it is taken in opposition to figuratively) in the type and antitype both; as Hos. 11:1, ‘I have called my Son out of Egypt,’ which was literally true both of Israel and Christ. Sometimes figuratively in the type, and properly in the antitype, as Psa. 69:21, ‘They gave me vinegar to drink.’  Sometimes properly in the type, and figuratively in the antitype, as Psa. 2:9, ‘Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.’  Compare 2 Sam. 12:31.  Sometimes figuratively in both, as Psa. 41:9, ‘Yea, mine own familiar friend hath lifted up his heel against me; which is meant of Ahithophel and Judas.  Now the sense of the scripture must be but one, and not manifold, that is, quite different and nowise subordinate one to another, because of the unity of truth, and because of the perspicuity of the scripture.

Where there is a question about the true sense of scripture, it must be found out what it is by searching other places that speak more clearly, the scripture itself being the infallible rule of interpreting of scripture.  Now that it is so, appears from the following arguments.

(1) The Holy Spirit gives this as a rule, 2 Pet. 1:20, 21.  After the apostle had called the Christians to take heed to the scripture, he gives them this rule for understanding it, ‘Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation of our own exposition.  For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’  As it came, so is it to be expounded: but it came not by the will of man; therefore we are not to rest on men for the sense of it, but holy men speaking as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and so never erring; therefore we are to look to the dictates of the same Spirit in other places.

(2) There are several approved examples of this, comparing one scripture with another, to find out the meaning of the Holy Ghost, as Acts 15:15.  And to this agree the words of the prophet,’ and etc.  The Bereans are commended for this in Acts 17:11.  Yea, Christ himself makes use of this to show the true sense of the scripture against the devil, Matt. 4:6, ‘Cast thyself down,’ said that wicked spirit; ‘for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee,’  ‘It is written again,’ says Christ, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’  And thus our Lord makes out the true sense of that scripture, that it is to be understood only with respect to them who do not cast themselves on a tempting of God.

According to the Westminster Confession of Faith (chapter 1.9), “The infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is the scripture itself; and, therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture which is not manifold but one, it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly (2 Pet. 1:20, 21; Acts 15:16).

Posted in Thomas Boston |

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