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Coming To Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

“Coming to Christ” is a very common phrase in Holy Scripture.  It is used to express those acts of the soul wherein, leaving at once our self-righteousness and our sins, we fly unto the Lord Jesus Christ and receive His righteousness to be our covering and His blood to be our atonement.  Coming to Christ, then, embraces in it repentance, self-negation, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it sums within itself all those things which are the necessary attendants of these great states of heart, such as the belief of the truth, earnestness of prayer to God, the submission of the soul to the precepts of God’s gospel, and all those things which accompany the dawn of salvation in the soul.  Coming to Christ is just the one essential thing for a sinner’s salvation.  He that cometh not to Christ, do what he may, or think what he may, is yet in “the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity.”

Coming to Christ is the very first effect of regeneration.  No sooner is the soul quickened than it at once discovers its lost estate, is horrified by its state, looks for a refuge, and, believing Christ to be a suitable one, flies to Him and reposes in Him.  Where there is not this corning to Christ, it is certain that there is as yet no quickening: where there is no quickening, the soul is dead in trespasses and sins, and being dead it cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.  “No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him.”  Wherein does this inability lie?

First, it does not lie in any physical defect. If in coming to Christ, moving the body or walking with the feet should be of any assistance, certainly man has all physical power to come to Christ in that sense.  I remember to have heard a very foolish Antinomian declare that he did not believe any man had the power to walk to the house of God unless the Father drew him.  Now, the man was plainly foolish, because he must have seen that as long as a man was alive and had legs, it was as easy for him to walk to the house of God as to the house of Satan.  If coming to Christ includes the utterance of a prayer, man has no physical defect in that respect; if he be not dumb, he can say a prayer as easily as he can utter blasphemy.  It is as easy for a man to sing one of the songs of Zion as to sing a profane and libidinous song.  There is no lack of physical power in coming to Christ.  All that can be wanted with regard to the bodily strength man most assuredly has, and any part of salvation which consists in that is totally and entirely in the power of man without any assistance from the Spirit of God.

Nor, again, does this inability lie in any mental lack. I can believe the Bible to be true just as easily as I can believe any other book to be true.  So far as believing on Christ is an act of the mind, I am just as able to believe on Christ as I am able to believe on anybody else.  Let his statement be but true, it is idle to tell me I cannot believe it.  I can believe the statement that Christ makes as well as I can believe the statement of any other person.  There is no deficiency of faculty in the mind: it is as capable of appreciating as a mere mental act the guilt of sin, as it is of appreciating the guilt of assassination.  It is just as possible for me to exercise the mental idea of seeking God as it is to exercise the thought of ambition.  I have all the mental strength and power that can possibly be needed, so far as mental power is needed in salvation at all.  Nay, there is not any man so ignorant that he can plead a lack of intellect as an excuse for rejecting the Gospel.

The defect, then, does not lie either in the body or, what we are bound to call, speaking theologically, the mind.  It is not any lack or deficiency there, although it is the vitiation of the mind, the corruption or the ruin of it, which, after all, is the very essence of man’s inability.  Through the fall and through our own sin, the nature of man has become so debased and depraved and corrupt that it is impossible for him to come to Christ without the assistance of God the Holy Spirit.  Now, in trying to exhibit how the nature of man thus renders him unable to come to Christ, take this figure [example].  You see a sheep; how willingly it feeds upon the herbage!  You never knew a sheep sigh after carrion [meat]; it could not live on lion’s food.  Now bring me a wolf; and you ask me whether a wolf cannot eat grass, whether it cannot be just as docile and as domesticated as the sheep.  I answer, no; because its nature is contrary thereunto.   You say, “Well, it has ears and legs; can it not hear the shepherd’s voice and follow him whithersoever he leadeth it?”  I answer, certainly; there is no physical cause why it cannot do so, but its nature forbids, and therefore I say it cannot do so.  Can it not be tamed?  Cannot its ferocity be removed?  Probably it may so far be subdued that it may become apparently tame; but there will always be a marked distinction between it and the sheep because there is a distinction in nature.  Now, the reason why man cannot come to Christ is not because he cannot come so far as his body or his mere power of mind is concerned, but because his nature is so corrupt that he has neither the will nor the power to come to Christ unless drawn by the Spirit.

But let me give you a better illustration.  You see a mother with her babe in her arms.  You put a knife into her hand and tell her to stab that babe to the heart.  She replies, and very truthfully, “I cannot.”  Now, so far as her bodily power is concerned, she can, if she pleases; there is the knife, and there is the child.  The child cannot resist, and she has quite sufficient strength in her hand immediately to stab it to its heart.  But she is quite correct when she says she cannot do it.  As a mere act of the mind, it is quite possible she might think of such a thing as killing the child, and yet she says she cannot think of such a thing as killing the child; and she does not say falsely, for her nature as a mother forbids her doing a thing from which her soul revolts.  Simply because she is that child’s parent, she feels she cannot kill it.

It is even so with a sinner.  Coming to Christ is so obnoxious to human nature that, although, so far as physical and mental forces are concerned (and these have but a very narrow sphere in salvation), men could come if they would: it is strictly correct to say that they cannot and will not unless the Father who hath sent Christ doth draw them.  Man is by nature blind within.  The Cross of Christ, so laden with glories and glittering with attractions, never attracts him because he is blind and cannot see its beauties.  Talk to him of the wonders of the creation, show to him the many-colored arch that spans the sky, let him behold the glories of a landscape – he is well able to see all these things; but talk to him of the wonders of the covenant of grace, speak to him of the security of the believer in Christ, tell him of the beauties of the Person of the Redeemer – he is quite deaf to all your description.  You are as one that plays a goodly tune, it is true; but he regards not, he is deaf, he has no comprehension.  I ask, do you find your power equal to your will.  You could say, even at the bar of God Himself, that you are sure you are not mistaken in your willingness; you are willing to be rapt up in devotion, it is your will that your soul should not wander from a pure contemplation of the Lord Jesus Christ, but you find that you cannot do that, even when you are willing, without the help of the Spirit.  Now, if the quickened child of God finds a spiritual inability, how much more the sinner who is dead in trespasses and sin?  If even the advanced Christian, after thirty or forty years, finds himself sometimes willing and yet powerless — if such be his experience — does it not seem more than likely that the poor sinner who has not yet believed should find a need of strength as well as a want of will?

But, again, there is another argument.  If the sinner has strength to come to Christ, I should like to know how we are to understand those continual descriptions of the sinner’s state which we meet with in God’s holy Word?  Now, a sinner is said to be dead in trespasses and sins.  Will you affirm that death implies nothing more than the absence of a will?  “Surely a corpse is quite as unable as unwilling?” says one.  “Well then, if I cannot save myself and cannot come to Christ, I must sit still and do nothing.”  If men do say so, on their own heads shall be their doom.  There are many things you can do.  To be found continually in the house of God is in your power; to study the Word of God with diligence is in your power; to renounce your outward sin, to forsake the vices in which you indulge, to make your life honest, sober, and righteous, is in your power.  For this you need no help from the Holy Spirit; all this you can do yourself; but to come to Christ truly is not in your power until you are renewed by the Holy Ghost.

But mark you, your want of power is no excuse, seeing that you have no desire to come and are living in willful rebellion against God.  Your want of power lies mainly in the obstinacy of nature.  Suppose a liar says that it is not in his power to speak the truth, that he has been a liar so long that he cannot leave it off – is that an excuse for him?  Suppose a man who has long indulged in lust should tell you that he finds his lusts have so girt about him like a great iron net that he cannot get rid of them, would you take that as an excuse?  Truly it is none at all.  If a drunkard has become so foully a drunkard, that he finds it impossible to pass a public-house without stepping in, do you therefore excuse him?  No, because his inability to reform lies in his nature, which he has no desire to restrain or conquer.  The thing that is done, and the thing that causes the thing that is done, being both from the root of sin, are two evils which cannot excuse each other.  What though the Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor the leopard his spots?  It is because you have learned to do evil that you cannot now learn to do well; and instead, therefore, of letting you sit down to excuse yourselves, let me put a thunderbolt beneath the seat of your sloth, that you may be startled by it and aroused.  Remember, that to sit still is to be damned to all eternity.

And, now, we gather up our ends and conclude by trying to make a practical application of the doctrine; and we trust a comfortable one.

“Well,” says one, “if what this man teaches be true, what is to become of my religion?  For do you know, I have been a long while trying, and I do not like to hear you say a man cannot save himself.  I believe he can, and I mean to persevere; but if I am to believe what you say, I must give it all up and begin again.”  It will be a very happy thing if you do.  Remember, what you are doing is building your house upon the sand, and it is but an act of charity if I can shake it a little for you.  Let me assure you, in God’s name, if your religion has no better foundation than your own strength, it will not stand you at the bar of God.  Nothing will last to eternity but that which came from eternity. Unless the everlasting God has done a good work in your heart, all you may have done must be unraveled at the last day of account.  It is all in vain for you to be a church-goer or chapel-goer, a good keeper of the Sabbath, an observer of your prayers; it is all in vain for you to be honest to your neighbors and reputable in your conversation; if you hope to be saved by these things, it is all in vain for you to trust in them.  Go on; be as honest as you like, keep the Sabbath perpetually, be as holy as you can.  I would not dissuade you from these things.  God forbid!  Grow in them, but oh, do not trust in them for, if you rely upon these things, you will find they will fail you when most you need them.  And if there be anything else that you have found yourself able to do unassisted by divine grace, the sooner you can get rid of the hope that has been engendered by it, the better for you, for it is a foul delusion to rely upon anything that flesh can do.  A spiritual heaven must be inhabited by spiritual men and preparation for it must be wrought by the Spirit of God.

“Well,” cries another, “I have been sitting under a ministry where I have been told that I could, at my own option, repent and believe, and the consequence is that I have been putting it off from day to day.  I thought I could come one day as well as another; that I had only to say, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me,’ and believe, and then I should be saved.  Now you have taken all this hope away from me.  I feel amazement and horror taking hold upon me.”  I am very glad of it.  This was the effect which I hoped to produce.  I pray that you may feel this a great deal more.  When you have no hope of saving yourself, I shall have hope that God has begun to save you.  As soon as you say, “Oh, I cannot come to Christ. Lord, draw me, help me,” I shall rejoice over you.  He who has got a will, though he has not power, has grace begun in his heart, and God will not leave him until the work is finished.  But, careless sinner, learn that thy salvation now hangs in God’s hand.  Oh, remember, thou art entirely in the hand of God!  Thou hast sinned against Him, and if He wills to damn thee, damned thou art.  Thou canst not resist His will nor thwart His purpose.   Thou hast deserved His wrath, and if He chooses to pour the full shower of that wrath upon thy head, thou canst do nothing to avert it.  If, on the other hand, He chooses to save thee, He is able to save thee to the very uttermost.  But thou liest as much in His hand as the summer’s moth beneath thine own finger.  He is the God whom thou art grieving everyday.  Doth it not make thee tremble to think that thy eternal destiny now hangs upon the will of Him whom thou hast angered and incensed?  Dost not this make thy knees knock together and thy blood curdle?  If it does so, I rejoice, inasmuch as this may be the first effect of the Spirit’s drawing in thy soul.  Oh, tremble to think that the God whom thou hast angered is the God upon whom thy salvation or thy condemnation entirely depends!  Tremble and “kiss the Son lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way while His wrath is kindled but a little.”

Posted in C. H. Spurgeon |

Christ the Door by Robert Murray M’Cheyne

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

This parable spoke Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spoke unto them.  Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.  All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. – John 10:6-10

Christ is the kindest of all teachers.  He was speaking to a crowd of ignorant and prejudiced Jews, and yet how kindly he deals with them.  He told them one parable, but they understood not.  ‘This parable spoke Jesus unto them; but they understood not what things they were he spoke unto them.’  And yet, we are told, Christ spoke unto them again.  He hath given them a description of the true and false shepherd and of the door into the sheepfold; but they seem to have been at a loss to know what the door meant; therefore he says, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.’  You see how kindly he tries to instruct them.  My brethren, Christ is the same kind teacher still.  Are there not many stupid and prejudiced persons here? And yet has he not given you ‘precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little’ (Isaiah 28:10)?  He has broken down the bread for you.

Let us now examine this explanatory parable: (1) Christ is the door into the Church. (2) The invitation here given to enter in. (3) The promise to those that enter in.

1. Christ is the door into the Church.

‘I am the door.’  The only way into the Church of God, either for ministers or members, is by Christ, and through faith in him.  Many try to enter in by learning; learning is not to be despised, but it is not the door.  There are many who have entered into the ministry by having eminent gifts, but these are not the door.  And those who enter in such a way are thieves and robbers, for they enter not in by the door.  Again, many enter in by the door of worldly favor, some by the favor of the rich, some by the favor of the common people, some by the favor of the patron; but still they are thieves and robbers, for they enter not in by the door.  Remember then, and never forget it, that the right way into the ministry is through Christ.  None can tell of sin but those who have felt its burden.  None can tell of pardon but those who have tasted of it.  None can tell of Christ’s power to sanctify but those who have holiness in their hearts.  Brethren, hold such in reverence; flee from all others: they may have learning, they may have gifts, they may have the flattery of the common people, but they are thieves and robbers.

But further, there are many members who enter into the fold another way; they also are thieves and robbers.  There are many who enter in by the door of knowledge – they have got acquainted with Bible knowledge, they can tell of the way of a sinner’s acceptance with God; but if you have not come into the fold by being washed in the blood of Christ, you are a thief and a robber.

Some enter into the fold by a good life.  As touching the law, they are like Paul, blameless.  You are not a thief, you are not a swearer, you are not a drunkard, and you think you have a right to enter in – a right to sit at the Lord’s table; but Christ says it over and over again, you are a thief and a robber.  Ah, brethren, remember, if you are admitted into the fold on account of your morality, your outward decency, your good life, you are a thief and a robber.  Brethren, there is a day coming when those who have entered into the sheepfold, not by the door, but some other way, will look back and see their guilt when they shall enter an undone eternity.

Observe, brethren, before I leave this part of the subject, that Christ is a present entrance.  Brethren, there is a time in each of your lives – or rather I should say, history – that the door of the sheepfold is open to you.  ‘I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved;’ but that time will pass away.  It is but a moment compared to eternity.  This is a solemn truth.  Brethren, if I could promise you that the door will stand open for a hundred years, it would still be your wisdom to enter in now; but I cannot answer for a year, I cannot answer for a month, I cannot answer for a day, I cannot answer for an hour; all that I can answer for is, it is open now – tomorrow it may be shut forever.

2. I come now to the second thing proposed, and that is, to show you Christ’s invitation.

‘I am the door; by me if any man enter in he shall be saved.’  There are many sweet invitations to sinners in the Bible; I have often felt these words to be the sweetest.  There are some invitations addressed to those who are thirsty.  It is said in Isaiah, ‘Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters’ (Isaiah 55:1).  Christ said on the last day, that great day of the feast, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink’ (John 7:37).  And he says, near the end of the Book of Revelation, ‘I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely’ (21:6).  Again, there are some invitations that are addressed to those that have a burden: ‘Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28).  Again, there are some that are addressed to those who are prisoners: ‘Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope’ (Zechariah 9:12).

But this appears to me the sweetest of all, for it is said, ‘If any man’.  It is not said, if any thirsty man, if any weary man, if any burdened man, but if any man enter in he shall be saved.  I have seen some rich men’s doors where none could enter but the rich and where the beggar must lie at the gate.  But Christ’s door is open to any man, whatever your life, whatever your character may be.  Christ is not like the door of some churches, where none can enter in but the rich; Christ’s door is open to the poor: ‘To the poor the gospel is preached’ (Matthew 11:5).  Some, perhaps, can say, ‘I am the most vile one in this congregation,’ yet Christ says, ‘Enter in.’ Some, perhaps, can say, ‘I have sinned more than all; I have sinned against a father, I have sinned against a mother, I have sinned against mercies and against judgments, against the invitations of the gospel, and against light,’ yet Christ says, ‘Enter in.’

Observe still farther that the invitation is not to look at the door, but to enter in.  There are many that hear about the door, but that is not enough; it is to enter in at it.  And there are many that like to hear about the door, but yet they do not enter in.  Ah, my brethren, that’s a great cheat of the devil.  I am persuaded many of you will go away this day well pleased because you heard about the door, but you do not enter in.  There are many that go a step farther, they look in at the door, but yet they do not enter in.  I believe that many of you are often brought there; but when it comes to the point, that you must leave your idols, that you must leave your sins, you do not enter in.  ‘By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.’

Again, there are some who see other people enter in, but they do not enter in themselves.  You, perhaps, have seen a father, or a mother, or a neighbor enter in; you have seen a change come over them and a peace possess their minds, and you say, ‘I wish I were them;’ but you do not enter in.  Ah! if you would be saved, you must enter in at the door; convictions will not do, tears will not do, etc.  And this is the reason why so many of you are not happy: you do not enter in.

3. I now come to the third and last point, and that is, the promise:

‘If any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture;’ ‘I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.’

The first part of the promise is, ‘They shall be saved.’  Christ pledges his word for it: that those who enter in shall be saved.  Those who do not enter in shall be damned.  If you are not Christ’s, you are without, and ‘without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie’ (Revelation 22:15).  But those who enter in shall be saved.

It is immediate pardon. There will be even now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.  O my brethren, it is immediate pardon we offer you from the Father: ‘If any man enter in, he shall be saved.’  And then, ‘He shall go in and out, and find pasture.’  That is to say, you will have all the privileges of a sheep; it goes out to the well; it goes out to the pasture.  So, if you are his, you can go in and out to find pasture.  My dear brethren, there may come a time in Scotland when there will be little pasture, when there will be no undershepherd, when the witnesses will be slain.  Yet the Lord will be your shepherd, he will feed you.  You shall ‘go in and out, and find pasture.’ Amen.

Sabbath Forenoon
11th September, 1842

Posted in Robert Murray McCheyne |

Suffering and God’s Chastisement by A. W. Pink

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

The problem of suffering is a very real one in this world and to not a few of our readers a personal and acute one. While some of us are freely supplied with comforts, others are constantly exercised over procuring the bare necessities of life. While some of us have long been favored with good health, others know not what it is to go through a day without sickness and pain. While some homes have not been visited by death for many years, others are called upon again and again to pass through the deep waters of family bereavement. Yes, dear friend; the problem of suffering, the encountering of severe trials, is a very personal thing for not a few of the members of the household of faith. Nor is it the external afflictions which occasion the most anguish: it is the questionings they raise, the doubts they stimulate, the dark clouds of unbelief which they so often bring over the heart.

Very often it is in seasons of trial and trouble that Satan is most successful in getting in his evil work. When he perceives the uselessness of attempting to bring believers under the bondage in which he keeps unbelievers, he bides his time for the shooting at them of other arrows which he has in his quiver. Though he is unable to drag them down to the commission of the grosser outward forms of sin, he waits his opportunity for tempting them to be guilty of inward sins. Though he cannot infect them with the poison of evolutionism and higher criticism, he despairs not of seducing them with questions of God’s goodness. It is when adversity comes the Christian’s way, when sore trials multiply, when the soul is oppressed and the mind distressed, that the Devil seeks to instill and strengthen doubtings of God’s love, and to call into question the faithfulness of His promises.

Moreover, there come seasons in the lives of many saints when to sight and sense it seems as though God Himself had ceased to care for His needy and afflicted child. Earnest prayer is made for the mitigation of the sufferings, but relief is not granted. Grace is sought to meekly bear the burden which has been laid upon the suffering one; yet, so far from any sensible answer being received, self-will, impatience, unbelief, are more active than ever.

Instead of the peace of God ruling the heart, unrest and enmity occupy its throne. Instead of quietness within, there is turmoil and resentment. Instead of “giving thanks always for all things unto God” (Ephesians 5:20), the soul is filled with unkind thoughts and feelings against Him.  This is cause or anguish unto the renewed heart; yet, at times, struggle against the evil as the Christian may, he is overcome by it. Then it is that the afflicted one cries out, “Why standest Thou afar off, O Lord, why hidest Thou Thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1).

To the distressed saint, the Lord seems to stand still, as if He coldly looked on from a distance, and did not sympathize with the afflicted one. Nay, worse, the Lord appears to be afar off, and no longer “a very present help in trouble,” but rather an inaccessible mountain, which it is impossible to reach. The felt presence of the Lord is the stay, the strength, the consolation of the believer; the lifting up of the light of His countenance upon us, is what sustains and cheers us in this dark world. But when that is withheld, when we no longer have the joy of His presence with us, drab indeed is the prospect, sad the heart. It is the hiding of our Father’s face which cuts to the quick. When trouble and desertion come together, it is unbearable. Then it is that the word comes to us, “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him” (Hebrews 12:5).

Ah, it is easy for us to perceive the meetness of such an admonition as this while things are going smoothly and pleasantly for us. While our lot is congenial, or at least bearable, we have little difficulty in discerning what a sin it is for any Christian to either “despise” God’s chastenings or to “faint” beneath them. But when tribulation comes upon us, when distress and anguish fill our hearts, it is quite another matter. Not only do we become guilty of one of the very evils here exhorted from, but we are very apt to excuse and extenuate our peevishness or faintness. There is a tendency in all of us to pity ourselves, to take sides with ourselves against God and even to justify the uprisings of our hearts against Him.

Have we never, in self-vindication, said, “Well, after all we are human; it is natural that we should chafe against the rod or give way to despondency when we are afflicted. It is all very well to tell us that we should not, but how can we help ourselves? We cannot change our natures; we are frail men and women, and not angels.” And what has been the issue from the fruit of this self-pity and self-vindication? Review the past, dear friend, and recall how you felt and acted inwardly when God was tearing up your cozy nest, overturning your cherished plans, dashing to pieces your fondest hopes, afflicting you painfully in your affairs, your body, or your family circle. Did it not issue in calling into question the wisdom of God’s ways, the justice of His dealings with you, His kindness towards you? Did it not result in your having still stronger doubts of His very goodness?

In Hebrews 12:5, the Christian is cautioned against either despising the Lord’s chastenings or fainting beneath them. Yet, notwithstanding this plain warning, there remains a tendency in all of us not only to disregard the same, but to act contrary thereto. The apostle anticipates this evil, and points out the remedy. The mind of the Christian must be fortified against it. But how? By calling to remembrance the source from which all his testings, trials, tribulations and troubles proceed, namely, the blessed, wondrous, unchanging love of God. “My son, despise not thou the chastenings of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him. FOR whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth.” Here a reason is advanced why we should not despise God’s chastening nor faint beneath it — all proceeds from His love. Yes, even the bitter disappointments, the sore trials, the things which occasion an aching heart, are not only appointed by unerring wisdom, but are sent by infinite Love! It is the apprehension and appropriation of this glorious fact, and that alone, which will preserve us from both the evils forbidden in 5:5.

The way to victory over suffering is to keep sorrow from filling the soul: “Let not your heart be troubled” (John 14:1). So long as the waves wash only the deck of the ship, there is no danger of its foundering; but when the tempest breaks through the hatches and submerges the hold, then disaster is nigh. No matter what floods of tribulation break over us, it is our duty and our privilege to have peace within: “keep thy heart with all diligence” (Proverbs 4:23): suffer no doubtings of God’s wisdom, faithfulness, goodness, to take root there. But how am I to prevent their so doing? “Keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 21), is the inspired answer, the sure remedy, the way to victory. There, in one word, we have made known to us the secret of how to overcome all questionings of God’s providential ways, all murmurings against His dealings with us.

“Keep yourselves in the love of God.” It is as though a parent said to his child, “Keep yourself in the sunshine:” the sun shines whether he enjoys it or not, but he is responsible not to walk in the shade and thus lose its genial glow. So God’s love for His people abides unchanging, but how few of them keep themselves in the warmth of it. The saint is to be “rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17); “rooted” like a tree in rich and fertile soil; “grounded” like a house built upon a rock. Observe that both of these figures speak of hidden processes: the root-life of a tree is concealed from human eyes, and the foundations of a house are laid deep in the ground. Thus it should be with each child of God: the heart is to be fixed, nourished by the love of God.

It is one thing to believe intellectually that “God is love” and that He loves His people, but it is quite another to enjoy and live in that love in the soul. To be “rooted and grounded in love” means to have a settled assurance of God’s love for us, such an assurance as nothing can shake. This is the deep need of every Christian, and no pains are to be spared in the obtaining thereof. Those passages in Scripture which speak of the wondrous love of God, should be read frequently and meditated upon daily. There should be a diligent striving to apprehend God’s love more fully and richly. Dwell upon the many unmistakable proofs which God has made of His love to you: the gift of His Word, the gift of His Son, the gift of His Spirit. What greater, what clearer proofs do we require! Steadfastly resist every temptation to question His love: “keep yourselves in the love of God.” Let that be the realm in which you live, the atmosphere you breathe, the warmth in which you thrive.

This life is but a schooling. In saying this, we are uttering a platitude, yet it is a truth of which all Christians need to be constantly reminded. This is the period of our childhood and minority. Now in childhood everything has, or should have, the character of education and discipline. Dear parents and teachers are constantly directing, warning, rebuking; the whole of the child-life is under rule, restraint and guidance. But the only object is the child him-self — his good, his character, his future; and the only motive is love. Now as childhood is to the rest of our life, so is the whole of our earthly sojourn to our future and heavenly life. Therefore let us seek to cultivate the spirit of childhood. Let us regard it as natural that we should be daily rebuked and corrected.  Let us behave with the docility and meekness of children, with their trustful and sweet assurance that love is behind all our chastenings, that we are in the tender hands of our Father.

But if this attitude is to be maintained, faith must be kept in steady exercise: only thus shall we judge aright of afflictions. Sense is ever ready to slander and belie the Divine perfections. Sense beclouds the understanding and causes us to wrongly interpret God’s dispensations with us. Why so? Because sense estimates things from their outside and by their present feeling.

“No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous” (Hebrews 12:11), and therefore if when under the rod we judge of God’s love and care for us by our sense of His present dealings, we are likely to conclude that He has but little regard for us. Herein lies the urgent need for the putting forth of faith, for “faith is the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is the only remedy for this double evil. Faith interprets things not according to the outside or visible, but according to the promise. Faith looks upon providences not as a present disconnected piece, but in its entirety to the end of things.

Sense perceives in our trials naught but expressions of God’s disregard or anger, but faith can discern Divine wisdom and love in the sorest troubles. Faith is able to unfold the fiddles and solve the mysteries of providence. Faith can extract honey and sweetness out of gall and wormwood. Faith discerns that God’s heart is filled with love toward us, even when His hand is heavy and smarts upon us. The bucket goes down into the well the deeper, that it may come up the fuller. Faith perceives God’s design in the chastening is our good. It is through faith “that He would show thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is” (Job 11:6).

By the “secrets of wisdom” is meant the hidden ways of God’s providence. Divine providence has two faces: the one of rigor, the other of clemency; sense looks upon the former only, faith enjoys the latter.

Faith not only looks beneath the surface of things and sees the sweet orange beneath the bitter rind, but it looks beyond the present and anticipates the blessed sequel. Of the Psalmist it is recorded, “I said in my haste, I am cut off from before Thine eyes” (Psalm 31:22). The fumes of passion dim our vision when we look only at what is present. Asaph declared, “My feet were almost gone, my steps had well-nigh slipped; for I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Psalm 73:2, 3); but when he went into the sanctuary of God he said, “Then understood I their end” (verse 17), and that quieted him. Faith is occupied not with the scaffolding, but with the completed building; not with the medicine, but with the healthful effects it produces; not with the painful rod, but with the peaceable fruit of righteousness in which it issues.

Suffering, then, is a test of the heart; chastisement is a challenge to faith — our faith in His wisdom, His faithfulness, His love. As we have sought to show above the great need of the Christian is to keep himself in the love of God, for the soul to have an unshaken assurance of His tender care for us: “casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7). But the knowledge of that “care” can only be experimentally maintained by the exercise of faith — especially is this the case in times of trouble. A preacher once asked a despondent friend, “Why is that cow looking over the wall?” And the answer was, “Because she cannot look through it.” The illustration may be crude, yet it gives point to an important truth. Discouraged reader, look over the things which so much distress you, and behold the Father’s smiling face; look above the frowning clouds of His providence, and see the sunshine of His never changing love. “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (verse 6).

There is something very striking and unusual about this verse, for it is found, in slightly varied form, in no less than five different books of the Bible: — “Happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty” (Job 5:17); “Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of Thy law” (Psalm 94:12); “Whom the Lord loveth He correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth” (Proverbs 3:12); “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten” (Revelation 3:19).

Probably there is a twofold reason for this reiteration.

First, it hints at the importance and blessedness of this truth. God repeats it so frequently lest we should forget, and thus lose the comfort and cheer of realizing that Divine chastisement proceeds from love. This must be a precious word if God thought it well to say it five times over!

Second, such repetition also implies our slowness to believe it; by nature our evil hearts are inclined in the opposite direction. Though our text affirms so emphatically that the Christian’s chastisements proceed from God’s love, we are ever ready to attribute them to His harshness. It is really very humbling that the Holy Spirit should deem it necessary to repeat this statement so often. “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”

Four things are to be noted.

First, the best of God’s children need chastisement — “every son.” There is no Christian but what has faults and follies which require correcting: “in many things we all offend” (James 3:2).

Second, God will correct all whom He adopts into His family. However He may now let the reprobate alone in their sins, He will not ignore the failings of His people — to be suffered to go on unrebuked in wickedness is a sure sign of alienation from God.

Third, in this, God acts as a Father: no wise and good parent will wink at the faults of his own children: his very relation and affection to them oblige him to take notice of the same.

Fourth, God’s disciplinary dealings with His sons proceed from and make manifest His love to them: it is this fact we would now particularly concentrate upon.

1. The Christian’s chastisements flow from God’s love. Not from His anger or hardness, nor from arbitrary dealings, but from God’s heart do our afflictions proceed. It is love which regulates all the ways of God in dealing with His own. It was love which elected them. The heart is not warmed when our election is traced back merely to God’s sovereign will, but our affections are stirred when we read “in love having predestinated us” (Ephesians 1:4, 5). It was love which redeemed us. We do not reach the center of the atonement when we see nothing more in the Cross than a vindication of the law and a satisfaction of justice: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). It is love which regenerates or effectually calls us: “with loving kindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:3). The new birth is not only a marvel of Divine wisdom and a miracle of Divine power, but it is also and superlatively a product of God’s affection.

In like manner it is love which ordained our trials and orders our chastisements. O Christian, never doubt the love of God. A quaint old Quaker, who was a farmer, had a weather-vane on the roof of his barn, from which stood out in clear-cut letters “God is love.” One day a preacher was being driven to the Quaker’s home; his host called attention to the vane and its text. The preacher turned and said, “I don’t like that at all: it misrepresents the Divine character — God’s love is not variable like the weather.” Said the Quaker, “Friend, you have misinterpreted its significance; that text on the weather-vane is to remind me that, no matter which way the wind is blowing, no matter from which direction the storm may come, still, “God is love.”

2. The Christian’s chastisements express God’s love. Oftentimes we do not think so. As God’s children we think and act very much as we did when children naturally. When we were little and our parents insisted that we should perform a certain duty we failed to appreciate the love which had respect unto our future well-being. Or, when our parents denied us something on which we had set our hearts, we felt we were very hardly dealt with. Yet was it love which said “No” to us. So it is spiritually. The love of God not only gives, but also withholds. No doubt this is the explanation for some of our unanswered prayers: God loves us too much to give what would not really be for our profit. The duties insisted upon, the rebukes given, the things withheld, are all expressions of His faithful love.

Chastisements manifest God’s care of us. He does not regard us with unconcern and neglect, as men usually do their illegitimate children, but He has a true parent’s solicitation for us: “Like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him” (Psalm 103:13). “And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

There are several important sermons wrapped up in that verse, but we have not the space here to even outline them. God brings into the wilderness that we may be drawn nearer Himself. He dries up cisterns that we may seek and enjoy the Fountain. He destroys our nest down here that our affection may be set upon things above.

3. The Christian’s chastisements magnify God’s love. Our very trials make manifest the fullness and reveal the perfections of God’s love. What a word is that in Lamentations 3:33; “He doth not afflict willingly!” If God consulted only His own pleasure, He would not afflict us at all: it is for our profit that He “scourges.” Ever remember that the great High Priest Himself is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities;” yet, notwithstanding, He employs the rod! God is love, and nothing is so sensitive as love. Concerning the trials and tribulations of Israel of old, it is written, “In all their affliction He was afflicted” (Isaiah 63:9); yet out of love He chastens. How this manifests and magnifies the unselfishness of God’s love!

Here, then is the Christian supplied with an effectual shield to turn aside the fiery darts of the wicked one. As we said at the beginning, Satan ever seeks to take advantage of our trials: like the fiend that he is, he makes his fiercest assaults when we are most cast down. Thus it was that he attacked Job — “Curse God and die.” And thus some of us have found it. Did he not, in the hour of suffering and sorrow, seek to remind you that when you had become increasingly diligent in seeking to please and glorify God, the darkest clouds of adversity followed; and say, How unjust God is; what a miserable reward for your devotion and zeal! Here is your recourse, fellow-Christian: say to the Devil, “It is written, ‘Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.’ “

Again; if Satan cannot succeed in traducing the character of God and cause us to doubt His goodness and question His love, then he will assail our assurance. The Devil is most persevering: if a frontal attack falls, then he will make one from the rear. He will assault your assurance of sonship: he will whisper “You are no child of His: look at your condition, consider your circumstances, contrast those of other Christians. You cannot be an object of God’s favor; you are deceiving yourself; your profession is an empty one. If you were God’s child, He would treat you very differently. Such privations, such losses, such pains, show that you cannot be one of His.” But say to him, “It is written, ‘Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.’“

Let our final thought be upon the last word of our text: “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” The one whom God scourges is not rejected, but “received” — received up into glory, welcomed in His House above. First the cross, then the crown, is God’s unchanging order. This was vividly illustrated in the history of the children of Israel: God “chose them in the furnace of affliction,” and many and bitter were their trials ere they reached the promised land. So it is with us. First, the wilderness, then Canaan; first, the scourging and then the “receiving.” May we keep ourselves more and more in the love of God.

Posted in A. W. Pink |

Responding to God’s Discipline by A. W. Pink

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

“If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” – Hebrews 12:7, 8

The all-important matter in connection with Divine chastenings, so far as the Christian is concerned, is the spirit in which he receives them. Whether or not we “profit” from them, turns entirely on the exercises of our minds and hearts under them. The advantages or disadvantages which outward things bring to us, is to be measured by the effects they produce in us. Material blessings become curses if our souls are not the gainers thereby, while material losses prove benedictions if our spiritual graces are enriched therefrom. The difference between our spiritual impoverishment or our spiritual enrichment from the varied experiences of this life, will very largely be determined by our heart-attitude toward them, the spirit in which they are encountered, and our subsequent conduct under them. It is all summed up in that word “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).

As the careful reader passes from verse to verse of Hebrews 12:3-11, he will observe how the Holy Spirit has repeatedly stressed this particular point, namely, the spirit in which God’s chastisements are to be received.

First, the tried and troubled saint is bidden to consider Him who was called upon to pass through a far rougher and deeper sea of suffering than any which His followers encounter, and this contemplation of Him is urged “lest we be wearied and faint in our minds” (verse 3).

Second, we are bidden to “despise not” the chastenings of the Lord, “nor faint” when we are rebuked of Him (verse 5).

Third, our Christian duty is to “endure” chastening as becometh the sons of God (verse 7).

Fourth, it is pointed out that since we gave reverence to our earthly fathers when they corrected us, much more should we “rather be in subjection” unto our heavenly Father (verse 9).

Finally, we learn there will only be the “peaceable fruit of righteousness” issuing from our afflictions, if we are duly “exercised thereby” (verse 11).

In the previous articles, we have sought to point out some of the principal considerations which should help the believer to receive God’s chastisements in a meet and becoming spirit. We have considered the blessed example left us by our Captain: may we who have enlisted under His banner diligently follow the same. We have seen that, however severe may be our trials, they are by no means extreme: we have not yet “resisted unto blood” — martyrdom has not overtaken us, as it did many who preceded us: shall we succumb to the showers, when they defied the fiercest storms! We have dwelt upon the needs-be for Divine reproof and correction. We have pointed out the blessed distinction there is between Divine punishment and Divine chastisement. We have contemplated the source from which all proceeds, namely, the love of our Father. We have shown the imperative necessity for the exercise of faith, if the heart is to be kept in peace while the rod is upon us.

In these verses, another consideration is presented for the comfort of those whom God is chastening. That of which we are here reminded is, that, when the Christian comports himself properly under Divine correction, he gives proof of his Divine sonship. If he endures them in a manner becoming to his profession, he supplies evidence of his Divine adoption. Blessed indeed is this, an unanswerable reply to Satan’s evil insinuation: so far from the disciplinary afflictions which the believer encounters showing that God loves him not, they afford a golden opportunity for him to exercise and display his unquestioning love of the Father. If we undergo chastisements with patience and perseverance, then do we make manifest, both to ourselves and to others, the genuineness of our profession?

In the verses which are now before us, the apostle draws an inference from and makes a particular application of what had been previously affirmed, thereby confirming the exhortation.  There are three things therein to be particularly noted.

First, the duty which has been enjoined: Divine chastisements are to be “endured” by us: that which is included and involved by that term we shall seek to show in what follows.

Second, the great benefit which is gained by a proper endurance of those chastisements: evidence is thereby obtained that God is dealing with us as “sons:” not as enemies whom He hates, but as dear children whom He loves.

Third, a solemn contrast is then drawn, calculated to unmask hypocrites and expose empty professors: those who are without Divine chastisement are not sons at all, but “bastards” — claiming the Church for their mother, yet having not God for their Father: what is signified thereby will appear in the sequel.

“If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.” This statement supplements what was before us in verse 5. Both of them speak of the spirit in which chastisements are to be received by the Christian, only with this difference: verse 5 gives the negative side, verse 7 the positive. On the one hand, we are not to “despise” or “faint” under them; on the other hand, they are to be “endured.” It has become an English proverb that “what cannot be cured must be endured,” which is but another way of saying that we must grit our teeth and make the best of a bad job. It scarcely needs pointing out that the Holy Spirit has not used the term here in its lowest and carnal sense, but rather in its noblest and spiritual signification.

In order to ascertain the force and scope of any word which is used in Holy Scripture neither its acceptation in ordinary speech nor its dictionary etymology is to be consulted; instead, a concordance must be used, so as to find out how it is actually employed on the sacred page. In the case now before us, we do not have far to seek, for in the immediate context it is found in a connection where it cannot be misunderstood. In verse 2 we read that the Savior “endured the cross,” and in verse 3 that He “endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself.” It was in the highest and noblest sense that Christ “endured” His sufferings: He remained steadfast under the sorest trials, forsaking not the path of duty. He meekly and heroically bore the acutest afflictions without murmuring against or fainting under them. How, then, is the Christian to conduct himself in the fires? We subjoin a sevenfold answer.

First, the Christian is to “endure” chastisement inquiringly. While it be true that all chastisement is not the consequence of personal disobedience or sinful conduct, yet much of it is so, and therefore it is always the part of wisdom for us to seek for the why of it. There is a cause for every effect, and a reason for all God’s dealings. The Lord does not act capriciously, nor does He afflict willingly (Lamentations 3:33). Every time the Father’s rod fails upon us it is a call to self-examination, for pondering the path of our feet, for heeding that repeated word in Haggai “Consider your ways.” It is our bounden duty to search ourselves and seek to discover the reason of God’s displeasure. This may not be a pleasant exercise, and if we are honest with ourselves it is likely to occasion us much concern and sorrow; nevertheless, a broken and contrite heart is never despised by the One with whom we have to do.

Alas, only too often this self-examination and inquiring into the cause of our affliction is quite neglected, relief therefrom being the uppermost thought in the sufferer’s mind. There is a most solemn warning upon this point in 2 Chronicles 16:12, 13, “And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great; yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but the physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers.”  How many professing Christians do likewise today? As soon as sickness strikes them, their first thought and desire is not that the affliction may be sanctified unto their souls, but how quickly their bodies may be relieved. We do not fully agree with some brethren who affirm that the Christian ought never to call in a doctor, and that the whole medical fraternity is of the Devil — in such case the Holy Spirit had never denominated Luke “the beloved physician,” nor had Christ said the sick “need” a physician. On the other hand, it is unmistakably evident that physical healing is not the first need of an ailing saint.

Second, the Christian is to “endure” chastisement prayerfully. If our inquiry is to be prosecuted successfully, then we are in urgent need of Divine assistance. Those who rely upon their own judgment are certain to err. As our hearts are exercised as to the cause of the chastening, we need to seek earnestly unto God, for it is only in His light that we “see light” (Psalm 36:9). It is not sufficient to examine ourselves: we must request the Divine physician to diagnose our case, saying, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23, 24). Nevertheless, let it be pointed out that such a request cannot be presented sincerely unless we have personally endeavored to thoroughly search ourselves and purpose to continue so doing. Prayer was never designed to be a substitute for the personal discharge of duty: rather is it appointed as a means for procuring help therein. While it remains our duty to honestly scrutinize our hearts and inspect our ways, measuring them by the holy requirements of Scripture, yet only the immediate assistance of the Spirit will enable us to prosecute our quest with any real profit and success. Therefore we need to enter the secret place and inquire of the Lord “show me wherefore Thou contendest with me” (Job 10:2). If we sincerely ask Him to make known unto us what it is in our ways He is displeased with, and for which He is now rebuking us, He will not mock us. Request of Him the hearing ear and He will tell what is wrong. Let there be no reserve, but an honest desire to know what needs correcting, and He will show you.

Third, the Christian is to “endure” chastisement humbly. When the Lord has responded to your request and has made known the cause of His chastening, see to it that you quarrel not with Him. If there be any feeling that the scourging is heavier than you deserve, the thought must be promptly rejected. “Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment (or chastisement) of his sins?” (Lamentations 3:39). If we take issue with the Most High, we shall only be made to smart the more for our pains. Rather must we seek grace to heed that word, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God” (1 Peter 5:6). Ask Him to quicken conscience, shine into your heart, and bring to light the hidden things of darkness, so that you may perceive your inward sins as well as your outward. And then will you exclaim, “I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me” (Psalm 119:75).

Fourth, the Christian is to “endure” chastisement patiently. Probably that is the prime thought in our text: steadfastness, a resolute continuance in the path of duty, an abiding service of God with all our hearts, notwithstanding the present trial, is what we are called unto. But Satan whispers, “What is the use? You have endeavored, earnestly, to please the Lord, and how is He rewarding you? You cannot satisfy Him: the more you give, the more He demands; He is a hard and tyrannical Master.” Such vile suggestions must be put from us as the malicious lies of him who hates God and seeks to encompass our destruction. God has only your good in view when the rod is laid upon you. Just as the grass needs to be mown to preserve its freshness, as the vine has to be pruned to ensure its fruitfulness, as friction is necessary to produce electric power, as fire alone will consume the dross, even so the discipline of trial is indispensable for the education of the Christian. “Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9).

Keep before you the example of Christ: He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, yet before His shearers He was “dumb.” He never fretted or murmured, and we are to “follow His steps.” “Let patience have her perfect work” (James 1:4). For this we have to be much in prayer; for this we need the strengthening help of the Holy Spirit. God tells us that chastisement is not “joyous” but “grievous”: if it were not, it would not be “chastening.” But He also assures us that “afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11). Lay hold of that word “afterward:” anticipate the happy sequel, and in the comfort thereof continue pressing forward along the path of duty. “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit” (Ecclesiastes 7:8).

Fifth, the Christian is to “endure” chastisement believingly. This was how Job endured his: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). Ah, he looked behind all secondary causes, and perceived that above the Sabeans and Chaldeans was Jehovah Himself. But is it not at this point we most often fail? Only too frequently we see only the injustice of men, the malice of the world, the enmity of Satan, in our trials: that is walking by sight. Faith brings God into the scene. “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13).

It is an adage of the world that, “Seeing is believing;” but in the spiritual realm, the order is reversed: there we must “believe” in order to “see.” And what is it which the saint most desires to “see”? Why, “the goodness of the Lord,” for unless he sees that, he “faints.” And how does faith see “the goodness of the Lord” in chastisements? By viewing them as proceeding from God’s love, as ordered by His wisdom, and as designed for our profit. As the bee sucks honey out of the bitter herb, so faith may extract much good from afflictions. Faith can turn water into wine, and make bread out of stones. Unbelief gives up in the hour of trial and sinks in despair; but faith keeps the head above water and hopefully looks for deliverance. Human reason may not be able to understand the mysterious ways of God, but faith knows that the sorest disappointments and the heaviest losses are among the “all things” which work together for our good. Carnal friends may tell us that it is useless to strive any longer; but faith says, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15). What a wonderful promise is that in Psalm 91:15, “I will be with him in trouble: I will deliver him.” Ah, but faith alone can feel that Presence, and faith alone can enjoy now the assured deliverance. It was because of the joy set before Him (by the exercise of faith) that Christ “endured the cross,” and only as we view God’s precious promises will we patiently endure our cross.

Sixth, the Christian is to “endure” chastisement hopefully. Though quite distinct, the line of demarcation between faith and hope is not a very broad one, and in some of the things said above we have rather anticipated what belongs to this particular point. “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it” (Romans 8:24, 25). This passage clearly intimates that “hope” relates to the future. “Hope” in Scripture is far more than a warrantless wish: it is a firm conviction and a comforting expectation of a future good.

Now inasmuch as chastisement, patiently and believingly endured, is certain to issue in blessing, hope is to be exercised. “When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10): that is the language of confident expectation. While it be true that faith supports the heart under trial, it is equally a fact — though less recognized — that hope buoys it up. When the wings of hope are spread, the soul is able to soar above the present distress, and inhale the invigorating air of future bliss. “For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen” (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18): that also is the language of joyous anticipation. No matter how dark may the clouds which now cover thy horizon, ere long the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. Then seek to walk in the steps of our father Abraham, “who against hope, believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations” (Romans 4:18).

Seventh, the Christian is to “endure” chastisement thankfully. Be grateful, my despondent brother, that the great God cares so much for a worm of the earth as to be at such pains in your spiritual education. O what a marvel that the Maker of heaven and earth should go to so much trouble in His son-training of us! Fail not, then, to thank Him for His goodness, His faithfulness, His patience, toward thee. “We are chastened of the Lord (now) that we should not be condemned with the world” in the day to come (1 Corinthians 11:32): what cause for praise is this! If the Lord Jesus, on the awful night of His betrayal, “sang a hymn” (Matthew 26:30), how much more should we, under our infinitely lighter sorrows, sound forth the praises of our God.

May Divine grace enable both writer and reader to “endure chastening” in this sevenfold spirit, and then will God be glorified and we advantaged. “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.” This does not mean that upon our discharge of the duty enjoined God will act toward us “as with sons”; for this He does in the chastisements themselves, as the apostle has clearly shown. No, rather, the force of these words is, If ye endure chastening, then you have the evidence in yourselves that God deals with you as sons. In other words, the more I am enabled to conduct myself under troubles as becometh a child of God, the clearer is the proof of my Divine adoption. The new birth is known by its fruits, and the more my spiritual graces are exercised under testing, the more do I make manifest my regeneration. Furthermore, the clearer the evidence of my regeneration, the clearer do I perceive the dealings of a Father toward me in His discipline.

The patient endurance of chastenings is not only of great price in the sight of God, but is of inestimable value unto the souls of them that believe. While it be true that the sevenfold description we have given above depicts not the spirit in which all Christians do receive chastening, but rather the spirit in which they ought to receive it, and that all coming short thereof is to be mourned and confessed before God; nevertheless, it remains that no truly born-again person continues to either utterly “despise” the rod or completely “faint” beneath it. No, herein lies a fundamental difference between the good-ground hearer and the stony-ground one: of the former it is written, “The righteous also shall hold on his way” (Job. 17:9); of the latter, it is recorded, “Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the Word, immediately he is offended” (Matthew 13:21). Mere suffering of things calamitous is not, in itself, any evidence of our acceptance with God. Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upwards, so that afflictions or chastisements are no pledges of our adoption; but if we “endure” them with any measure of real faith, submission and perseverance, so that we “faint not” under them — abandon not the Faith or entirely cease seeking to serve the Lord — then do we demonstrate our Divine sonship. So too it is the proper frame of our minds and the due exercise of our hearts which lets in a sense of God’s gracious design toward us in His chastenings. The Greek word for “dealeth with us as with sons” is very blessed: literally it signifies “he offereth Himself unto us:” He proposeth Himself not as an enemy, but as a Friend; not as toward strangers, but as toward His own beloved children.

“But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons” (verse 8). These words present the reverse side of the argument established in the preceding verse: since it be true, both in the natural and in the spiritual realm, that disciplinary dealing is inseparable from the relation between fathers and sons, so that an evidence of adoption is to be clearly inferred therefrom, it necessarily follows that those who are “without chastisement” are not children at all. What we have here is a testing and discriminative rule, which it behoves each of us to measure himself by. That we may not err therein, let us attend to its several terms.

When the apostle says, “But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers,” it is obvious that his words are not to be taken in their widest latitude: the word “all” refers not to all men, but to the “sons” of whom he is speaking. In like manner, “chastisement” is not here to be taken for everything that is grievous and afflictive, for none entirely escape trouble in this life.

But comparatively speaking, there are those who are largely exempt: such the Psalmist referred to when he said, “For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men” (Psalm 73:4, 5). No, it is God’s disciplinary dealings which the apostle is speaking of, corrective instruction which promotes holiness. There are many professors who, whatever trials they may experience, are without any Divine chastisement for their good. Those who are “without chastisement” are but “bastards.” It is common knowledge that bastards are despised and neglected — though unjustly so — by those who illegitimately begot them: they are not the objects of that love and care as those begotten in wedlock. This solemn fact has its counterpart in the religious realm.

There is a large class who are destitute of Divine chastisements, for they give no evidence that they receive them, endure them, or improve them. There is a yet more solemn meaning in this word: under the law “bastards” had no right of inheritance: “A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 23:2): No cross, no crown: to be without God’s disciplinary chastenings now, means that we must be excluded from His presence hereafter. Here, then, is a further reason why the Christian should be contented with his present lot: the Father’s rod upon him now evidences his title unto the Inheritance in the day to come.

Posted in A. W. Pink |

Theme Study: Coming to Christ by Jim Ehrhard

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

Preface to the Study

A great deal of misunderstanding has often arisen in Reformed circles about the free offer of Christ and the importance of our need to call people to believe the gospel and be saved.   This has happened before.  During the 18th Century, Baptists in England placed so much emphasis on election that they began to neglect sharing the gospel and inviting people to come to Christ.  Many even began to teach that the gospel should not be shared with a person until that person had the “warrant of faith,” or some evidence that they were elected.

Such teachings created many problems.  First, it caused many believers to neglect evangelism and missions assuming that “if God wants the heathen to be saved, He will do so and without our help!”  Second, it made many non-believers unsure if they had that “warrant” and so they waited for such evidences rather than fleeing to Christ.  Finally, some who had come to faith spent much time agonizing over whether their evidences were real enough or sufficient enough, or whether they may have been deceived.  While there is certainly a need to discern between true and false conversion, we must be careful not to fall into the error of attaching anything to the free offer of the gospel.  It weakens evangelism and missions, it causes some to delay coming to Christ, and it hinders true assurance among those who believe.

Fortunately, the 19th Century in England saw a renewed emphasis on the free offer of salvation, especially in the preaching of Charles Spurgeon.  Spurgeon was soundly criticized by many Calvinists for his emphasis on the free offer of salvation and for calling people to come to Christ without “law work” that had become the emphasis among the hyper-Calvinists of the 18th Century.

The articles chosen for this issue emphasize that same concern: that we would invite people to come to Christ; that we would say to them, “Today is the day of salvation, behold, now is the appointed time;” that we preach the whole gospel, “that repentance and forgiveness of sins might be preached in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:47).  May we all be encouraged to call many to come to Christ to receive his free offer of salvation!

By His Grace, Jim

Posted in Jim Ehrhard |

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