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A wounded spirit who can bear?

18 Sunday Dec 2022

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Proverbs

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Biblical Counseling, Broken Spirit, proverbs, Proverbs 18:14, Sermon Outline

Proverbs 18:14 (KJV)

14 The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?

Original

14 רֽוּחַ־אִ֭ישׁ יְכַלְכֵּ֣ל מַחֲלֵ֑הוּ וְר֥וּחַ נְ֝כֵאָ֗ה מִ֣י יִשָּׂאֶֽנָּה׃

Ruach of a man. The spirit of a man.

[Distinctions between rûaḥ and nepeš: rûaḥ is the principle of man’s rational and immortal life, and possesses reason, will, and conscience. It imparts the divine image to man, and constitutes the animating dynamic which results in man’s nepeš as the subject of personal life. The distinctive personality of the individual inheres in his nepeš, the seat of his emotions and desires. rûaḥ is life-power, having the ground of its vitality in itself; the nepeš has a more subjective and conditioned life. The NT seems to make a clear and substantive distinction between pneuma (rûaḥ) and psychē (nepeš). G.L.A.]

Payne, J. Barton. “2131 רִיַח.” Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, edited by R. Laird Harris et al., Electronic ed., Moody Press, 1999, p. 837.

’ish, man can mean a human being or a male as opposed to a female, a husband rather than a wife.

יְכַלְכֵּ֣ל

Contain, sustain, endure. The root idea is to hold, take hold of something. The spirit of a man can endure. Could we say “hold it together”/ “not fall apart”?

מַחֲלֵ֑הוּ

His (the man’s) sickness, infirmity

וְר֥וּחַ נְ֝כֵאָ֗ה

But a spirit broken/cross-references
The HALOT gives all the uses:
נָכֵא: נכא: cs. נְכֵא, fem. נְכֵאָה: defeated, רוּחַ נְכֵאָה Pr 15:13 17:22 18:14 (:: לֵב שָׂמֵחַ); נְכֵה־רוּחַ broken in spirit (Gesenius-K. §128x) Is 66:2, 1QIsa pl. נכאי (כאה, see Kutscher Lang. Is. 200), cj. Ps 109:16 נִכְאֵה לֵבָב rd. נְכֵא/ה var. †

Proverbs 15:13 (KJV)
13 A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
Proverbs 17:22 (KJV)
22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Isaiah 66:2 (KJV)
2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
Psalm 109:16 (KJV)
16 Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.

Interesting thing as a tentative notice: A broken spirit is something which a human being cannot bear. But, it is simultaneously that which renders one to become a object of God’s mercy.

מִ֣י יִשָּׂאֶֽנָּ

Who can bear/carry?

The spirit can bear infirmity.
But an infirm spirit can bear nothing.

Van Gogh Old Man in Sorrow

Some commentators:

The body can, as it were, fall back upon the support of the spirit, when it is distressed and weakened; but when the spirit itself is broken, grieved, wearied, debilitated, it has no resource, no higher faculty to which it can appeal, and it must succumb beneath the pressure. Here is a lesson, too, concerning the treatment of others. We should be more careful not to wound a brother’s spirit than we are to refrain from doing a bodily injury; the latter may be healed by medical applications; the former is more severe in its effects, and is often irremediable.

Spence-Jones, H. D. M., editor. Proverbs. Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909, p. 350.

Verse 14 points out that one’s attitude, for good or ill, is the single most important factor in confronting adversity.

Garrett, Duane A. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993, p. 165.

  1. STRENGTHEN YOUR SPIRIT (18:14)

That this proverb makes a true observation, few would doubt. “What can you do when the spirit is crushed?” (THE MESSAGE) “Short of outward resources, life is hard; short of inward, it is insupportable.”9 The purpose of 18:14, however, goes beyond mere observation to help the reader avoid a crushed spirit. God has designed the way of wisdom to bypass problems. The more we walk in this path, the less chance of having our spirits crushed. Broken hearts do happen, sometimes by our mistakes and sometimes through no fault of our own. Knowing this, God endowed others with the capacity to bring us joy (see 17:21–22; 12:25).

Lennox, Stephen J. Proverbs: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. Wesleyan Publishing House, 1998, p. 185.

It is unusual that the word “spirit” appears twice. In v 14a it stands for the strength and determination of a person that can deal with physical sickness. In v 14b it is a “crushed spirit” that is so far depressed and shaken that it simply destroys a person. The phrase “crushed spirit” occurs in 15:13 and 17:22, where the contrast is with a joyful heart. Here the contrast is with the normal drive for life that anyone would usually have in confronting illness or adversity; the situation may be difficult, but one can recover; cf. Prov 12:25. However, the effect of the rhetorical question in line b is to throw doubt on the possibility of recovery, when one’s courage fails.

Murphy, Rowland E. Proverbs. Thomas Nelson, 1998, p. 136.

Wouldst thou have a sound body; then see to it that thou hast a joyful heart and a good courage, a heart which is assured of the grace of God and well content with His fatherly ordaining.—[T. ADAMS (on ver. 14): The pain of the body is but the body of pain; the very soul of sorrow is the sorrow of the soul.—FLAVEL:—No poniards are so mortal as the wounds of conscience.—WATER-LAND:—On the misery of a dejected mind].

Lange, John Peter, et al. A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Proverbs. Logos Bible Software, 2008, p. 169.

  1. Bear up patiently (18:14). “The spirit of a person will sustain his infirmity.” Willpower and determination can counterbalance physical weakness and enable a person to win the day. On the other hand, “a broken spirit who can bear?” If the willpower is undermined, a person cannot endure. He must surely succumb and suffer defeat. In the first clause the term “spirit” is masculine, in the second feminine. The change of gender suggests that the manly quality of the inner person has become weakened through affliction. The implication is that believers should be as reticent to wound a brother’s spirit as they would be to injure his body. The latter may be healed by medical treatment; the former is more severe in its effects, and is sometimes irremediable.

Smith, James E. The Wisdom Literature and Psalms. College Press Pub. Co., 1996, p. 596.

A man’s spirit will endure sickness: TEV has interpreted spirit as “[your] will to live” and translates endure sickness as “can sustain you when you are sick.” In some languages if this model is followed, it will be necessary to say something like “desire to go on living” or “desire to stay alive.”
But a broken spirit who can bear?: A broken spirit renders the same Hebrew expression translated by RSV in 17:22 as “a downcast spirit” meaning “discouragement” or “despair.” However, TEV makes spirit refer to the same “will to live” as in the first line: “but if you lose it.…” Bear renders a word meaning to carry a load. In this case the burden is the emotional one of despair. Stated as a question we may ask “Can anyone stand it?” “Who can bear up under it?” or “Who is able to carry on?” Since the question is rhetorical, it may also be put as a statement; for example, “No one can bear it.”

Reyburn, William David, and Euan McG. Fry. A Handbook on Proverbs. United Bible Societies, 2000, p. 389.

Yet there are bounds beyond which a man cannot go, without almost miraculous assistance. The spirit, like the body, may be borne down by a weight beyond its strength: and when the spirit, which ought to support a man under all his other trials, is itself broken, he must fall of course.

Now there are many things which inflict so deep a wound upon the spirit, as to destroy all its energy, and incapacitate it for its proper office: and that we may provide an antidote against them, and afford some consolation under them, we will,

Simeon, Charles. Horae Homileticae: Proverbs to Isaiah XXVI. Holdsworth and Ball, 1833, p. 193.

Simeon lists 4:
Nervous disorders, bodily ailments.
By great and long-continued afflictions
By guilt upon the conscience
By violent temptations/trials
By spiritual desertion

He then lists three remedies:

  1. There is no affliction which is not sent by God for our good—
    [Afflictions, of whatever kind they be, “spring not out of the ground:” they are all appointed by God, in number, weight, and measure, and duration
  2. Our afflictions, of whatever kind they be, will endure but a little time

Simeon, Charles. Horae Homileticae: Proverbs to Isaiah XXVI. Holdsworth and Ball, 1833, p. 196.

  1. There is in Christ a full sufficiency for every wound

The Lord Jesus “will not break a bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax, but will bring forth judgment unto victory;” and, if we confide in him, “our heaviness may indeed continue for a night, but joy shall come in the morning.”]

Simeon, Charles. Horae Homileticae: Proverbs to Isaiah XXVI. Holdsworth and Ball, 1833, p. 197.

Cross References:
See broken spirit HALOT, above.

There are a few ways to take this spirit:

  1. Body vs. soul/spirit. The spirit can hold up a broken body. But a broken spirit leaves no remedy.
  2. As a matter of self-control/self-will/courage. Sort of a stoic, Kipling’s If
    If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
  3. As just an observation: If your crushed in spirit, you cannot survive
  4. As pointing to something beyond the immediate verse.

a. First look at the cross-references
b. Second consider the issue of overwhelming grief and trial generally (as Simeon does. He may have gotten here from cross-references, but if so, he doesn’t show his work).
c. What do we find?
i. The unusual phrase broken spirit is used three times in Proverbs as something one cannot bear.
ii. But it is used twice outside of Proverbs as a predicate for the mercy of God. If take the phrase more broadly to include smashed/shattered we get these verse:
Psalm 51:17 (KJV)
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Isaiah 61:1 (KJV)
1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
Psalm 34:19 (KJV)
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.
Psalm 147:3 (KJV)
3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
iii. A very clear pattern is seen: There is a brokenness which overcomes a human being, a degree of suffering which shatters one heart/spirit. It cannot be overcome
But, this very same irremediable trouble is something which makes one the peculiar object of God’s mercy and grace.

iv. This when thought of more broadly opens up to those passages
a. Rom. 5:1-5

Romans 5:1–5 (KJV)
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

b. James 1:2-3
James 1:2–3 (KJV)
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

Conclusion: We could look at weakness as something to avoid at all costs. Our weakness is something we cannot bear. We then look at God’s help as something which rescues us and puts back on our own feet. But that is not what the texts when taken together tell us. If gaining God is a good which we should seek, then weakness is not an evil but a good for us. We glory in our weakness because our weakness makes us dependent upon God.

Another conclusion: When come to speak with, to counsel and encourage another who is broken in spirit, we should realize they actually cannot bear the trouble they face. They are weak, and that is not bad. An attitude of, “Why don’t you trust Jesus, buck-up” is cruel and harmful. If we are coming in the Spirit of Christ, we should come with the attitude, that you cannot bear this burden and you should not expect that you can. While this is exceptionally painful, it is not bad. This is for your good. God uses this to conform you to the image of the Son:

Romans 8:28–30 (KJV)
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

There is no other way to this end without the benefit of being crushed so that what we now have will give way to what He will give.

Spiritual Eye-Salve: Sermon Outline

10 Saturday Dec 2022

Posted by memoirandremains in Uncategorized

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Chrysostom., Faith, Nautal Man, Sermon Outline, Sight, Thomas Adams, Uncategorized

SPIRITUAL EYE-SALVE
Thomas Adams
Ephesians 1:18
This grace that here Paul prays for his Ephesians is illumination. Wherein is described to us — I. an eye; II. an object [what the eye sees]. The eye is spiritual, the object celestial.
I. The eye is the most excellent organ of sense.

But it is certain, in God’s image be not in the understanding, the soul is in danger; if they chimed air, there is comfort of life gay, life of comfort. Hence it is that the God of this world dothso strive to blinded the minds of them that believe not
God hath set to bid us to defend the poor real eye from annoyances. So he had given the understanding faith and hope to shelter it.

A. The situation of the spiritual eye is the soul. God, framing man’s soul, planted in it two faculties: the superior, that is the understanding, which perceive it and judge it; the inferior, that is the will, which being informed of the other, accordingly follows are flies, chooseth or if refuseth.

Use 1: this teaches us to desire in the first place the enlightening of our eyes, and then after, the strengthening of our feet…. Keep it labors for feet before he has eyes, takes a preposterous course; for, up to, the lame is more likely to come to his journeys and then the blind…. Chrysostom says, knowledge of virtue must ever go before devotion; for no man can earnestly affect the good he knows not; and the evil whereof he is ignorant, he fears not.

Use 2: this reprehends a common fashion of many auditors. When the preacher begins to analyze this text, and to open the points of doctrine, to inform the understanding, they lend him very cold attention…. But alas! No eyes, no salvation.
B. I come from the situation to the qualification of the spiritual eye: enlightened…. Man’s mind is not only dark, darkness, Ephesians 5:8, till the Spirit of knowledge of light on him, lighten him…. When a natural man comes in the Temple, among the congregation of God’s saints, the soul is not delighted with their prayers, praises, songs, and service; he sees no comfort, no pleasure, no content in their actions. True, he does not, he cannot; for his understanding is not enlightened ….Wwhat a world of happiness does this man’s I not see! Whereupon we call a mere full and natural. The world links have esteemed and misnamed Christians Gods fools; but we know them the fools of the world.

There are two reasons why we must all day of God for ourselves, as Paul did for the Ephesians, this grace of illumination:
Reason one: Our spiritual blindness came upon us by God to just curse for our sins.

Reason two: This original defect is increased by actual transgressions…. But I rather think that, like the water man, but look one way and row another; for he must needs be strangely squinted eye that can at the same instant fashion one of his lights on the light of glory, and the other on the darkness of iniquity.
C. [Diseases of the eye]:
1. First the cataract, which is a thickness drawn over the eye, and bread of many causes: this especially, either from the rheum of vainglory, or the inflammation of malice…. This dark mind is the fault were saints and keeps his seminary, and since hatching a black root of the lusts.
The means took spell this disease is to take God’s law and to thy hand and heart, and through that glass to look to thyself…. This inspection is difficult. It is a hard, but a happy thing, to know oneself. Private sins are not easily spied out…. He that is partially indulgent to one sin is a friend to all. It is at pains well taken to study thyself. If thou wouldst be good, first know that thou art evil.

And as in some, the fuliginous vapors arising from the lower parts of the body blind the eyes; so in him the fumous evaporations of the flesh’s lusts have caused absolute blindness.

2. Secondly, there is another disease called pearl in the eye: a dangerous disease, and hereof are all worldlings sick; for earthly riches is such a great pearl in the eye, that they cannot see the pearl of the Gospel, which the wise merchant sold all he had to purchase…. We are easily inclined and declined from our supernal bliss, by a doting love of these transient delights…. The eye follows the heart with more diligence than a servant his master…. This pearl must be cut out of the worldling’s eye with a sharp knife of repentance otherwise he is never likely to see heaven.

D. There is also a double defect in this natural eye

1. First it perceives only natural and external things. A beast has one kind of eye, a natural man to a Christian three. The beast has an eye of sense; the natural man, a sense and reason; the Christian, of sense, of reason, and of faith. Each of these has its several objects, several intentions. The eye of sense regards only natural things; the eye of reason, only sensible and natural things; the eye of faith, spiritual, supernal, and supernatural things.

2. The second defect in the eye is an insolid levity; it is roving, like Dinah’s, and ravished abroad; but wants self-inspection. Nothing does sooner blind us in comparisons. He they would mount to a high opinion of his own worth, by comparing it to the base wickedness of another, is like one that observing a cripple’s lameness, wonders at himself that he is so swift.

E. Spiritual blindness

1. Spiritual blindness shall appear the more perilous, if we compare it with natural. The bodies I may be better spared than the souls; as to want the eye of Angels is far worse than to want the eyes of beasts. The want of corporeal site is often good, not evil: evil in the sense, and good in the consequence. He may the better intent heavenly things, that sees no earthly to draw him away. Many a man’s eyes has done him hurt [like David].

Besides, the bodily blind fields and knowledge is his want of sight; but the spiritually blind thinks that none have clearer eyes than himself. He that wants corporeal eyes blesses them that see; this man derides and despises them…. But the mind and soul is led by the world, which should be his servant, is his traitor; or, by the flesh, which should be as a wife, is his harlot; or by the devil, which is a dog indeed, a crafty curb, not leading, but misleading him.

2. The means to cure it:
i. A knowledge of God, procured
a. By his works.
b. by the Scriptures
c. But the scriptural knowledge (common to the wicked) is not sufficient; there must be a spiritual knowledge.
ii. A knowledge of ourselves, procured
a. Naturally, by looking into the Constitution and composition of our own persons.
b. Morally: by considering how frequently we have transgressed these virtues to which the very heathen gave a strict obedience.
c. Spiritual knowledge goes yet further: it searches the heart; and if that most inward chamber, or in any thereof, you can find an idle, it brings it forth.

II. The object to be seen: ‘the hope of his calling, and the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.’
The philosophers propound six necessary occurrences to her perfect seeing

A. Firmness or good disposition of the organ that sees. A rolling eye bolts nothing perfectly…. This object is so immense, that we cannot well look besides it.

B. The spectacle must be objected [made an object] to the sight:… nor can the understanding see into the super natural joys, lest the Lord objects [shows it] it to them.

C. That there be a proportional distance between the organ and the object: neither too near, nor too far off…. The best I upon earth looks but through a glass, a lattice, and obscuring impediment.
It is required that the objective matter be substantial…. but this object here proposed is no empty chimera, or imaginary, translucent, airy shadow, but substantial: “the hope of God’s calling, and a glorious inheritance;” which though natures goal I cannot reach, the fates by sees perfectly.

D. And the subject of this spectacle is by demonstration proved solid and substantial; because nothing but that can give this intellectual eye firm content and complacency. How go the affections of man and a rolling and ranging pace from one creature to another. Now that hard to set up on wealth…. say wealth was calm, thou art than for honor; they riches are a latter, whereby thou would client dignity [and so on from one desire to another – no man is content with anything in this world. Here is an irony: The man who cannot see God is still not content with anything but God.] Nothing but the Trinity of persons in that one Deity can fill the triangular concave of man’s own heart.

E. clearness of space between the organ and the object …. there must be removing all thick and impenetrable obstacles:
i. Some have whole mountains between their eyes and heaven; the mountains of vainglory hinder their sight.
ii. Others, to make sure prevention against their site of heaven, have rolled the whole earth between that and their eyes.
iii. Others yet have interjected such a skewer and peachy clouds between their site and his son of glory, but they cannot see. Whether of the errors, the dark and light of truth, or of affected ignorance, but blind to their own eyes; or a blasphemous atheism; they will see nothing what they do see…. Thus the devil deals with them,…. First he put out their eyes with their own iniquities, and then leaves them about to make himself sport.

F. lastly, the object must be stable and firm.

Conclusion: ….Contemn we, condemn we the foolish choice of worldlings, in regard of our portion, and the better part, never to be taken from us. Why should I mislike my gold, because he prefers his copper? The least dram of these joys shall outweigh all the pleasures of earth. And as one performance in hell shall make the reprobate forget all earthly vanities; so the least drop of this pleasure shall take from us the remembrance of our former miseries. We shall not think on our poverty in this world, when we possess those riches; but forget contemptible baseness, when God shall give us that glory of Saints… God give us to see these things now in grace, that we may hereafter see them in glory! Amen.

Sermon Outline: Isaiah 15-16

25 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by memoirandremains in Acts, Isaiah, Preaching, Sermons, Uncategorized

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Acts, Evangelism, Isaiah 15, Isaiah 16, salvation, Sermon, Sermon Outline, Tent of David

 

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(Picture, “War & Poverty” by Kelly Short — I am using this picture because it provokes one to sympathy by seeing the horror of war — is one of the primary effects of Isaiah 15-16)

In reading Isaiah 15-16, I thought (1) How would I preach this passage? And (2) What is important in the manner of its composition: It is poetry, with a great deal of emphatic compression, repetition and imagery. Why is written like this and not as a narrative or as a didactic declaration?

I.  The Horror of Judgment

The overall tone is one of pathos. The repetition insists upon the horror and sorrow:

Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night

Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night

And so on. Every detail of the devastation is repeated and amplified. It is like a series of snapshots of broken walls, bodies and wailing. The destruction is absolute and goes down even to the earth. 16:8-10

There are refugees fleeing in all directions and the terror and sorrow spread in all directions like blood from the corpses:

Isaiah 15:8–9 (ESV)

8           For a cry has gone

around the land of Moab;

her wailing reaches to Eglaim;

her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.

9           For the waters of Dibon are full of blood;

for I will bring upon Dibon even more,

a lion for those of Moab who escape,

for the remnant of the land.

I can help thinking of all the millions pouring out of the Middle East who suffer loss and death and sorrow even as they flee. Any sermon must effectuate the sorrow and horror of the judgment or the sermon will have failed in its purpose.

II.  The Cause of Judgment

Second there is the cause of this devastation:

Isaiah 16:6–7 (ESV)

6           We have heard of the pride of Moab—

how proud he is!—

of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;

in his idle boasting he is not right.

7           Therefore let Moab wail for Moab,

let everyone wail.

Mourn, utterly stricken,

for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.

This reminds me of Obadiah 3 (which is interesting when you compare this to Amos 1:11-12 & 2:1-3).  So this horror has come about because of pride.

III.  The Escape from Judgment

Third, this is the real bite in the passage. God has destroyed Moab with a horror beyond belief.  But God mourns the destruction:

Isaiah 15:5 (ESV)

5           My heart cries out for Moab;

her fugitives flee to Zoar,

to Eglath-shelishiyah.

For at the ascent of Luhith

they go up weeping;

on the road to Horonaim

they raise a cry of destruction;

 

Isaiah 16:9 (ESV)

9           Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer

for the vine of Sibmah;

I drench you with my tears,

O Heshbon and Elealeh;

for over your summer fruit and your harvest

the shout has ceased.

God loves his enemies: God judges, and yet there is compassion for the necessity of the judgment:

Luke 19:41–44

41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

There is a command to shelter the refugees:

Isaiah 16:3–5 (ESV)

3           “Give counsel;

grant justice;

make your shade like night

at the height of noon;

shelter the outcasts;

do not reveal the fugitive;

4           let the outcasts of Moab

sojourn among you;

be a shelter to them

from the destroyer.

When the oppressor is no more,

and destruction has ceased,

and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,

5           then a throne will be established in steadfast love,

and on it will sit in faithfulness

in the tent of David

one who judges and seeks justice

and is swift to do righteousness.”

Notice this command ends with the protection in the tent of David. This phrase “tent of David” matches (in the LXX) the language of Acts 15:16:

The citation from Amos 9:12 follows the LXX fairly closely, though this version differs from the Massoretic (Hebrew) text in significant ways.49 ‘Precisely the divergence of the LXX from the Hebrew enables the text to be used midrashically.’50 The purpose of this restoration of the Davidic rule is not simply to bless Israel but also ‘ “that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things” ’. James adds words possibly taken from Isaiah 45:21 ‘ “(things known from long ago” ’) as a gloss on the concluding words from Amos 9:12 (‘ “these things” ’).51 This addition strengthens the claim that God’s plan to save Gentiles along with Jews is no novelty, since it was part of his eternal purpose (cf. Rom. 15:8–12).

David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), 432.

The language of the throne coupled to the tent of David strengthens the tie to Jesus (and all of the cross-references to Jesus based upon this language).

The reason why the sorrow and terror are seen throughout the poem is that God intends to provoke the same sorrow and terror in the hearer. Moab is guilty. The judgment is justice, but it is sad, frightening event. God is calling upon his people to rescue the judged people of Moab.

It is interesting that it is not certain what attack is being foretold:

The first part of the prophecy, 15:1–9, tells of the devastating effect of the disaster which was to befall Moab. As noted above, the actual nature of the attack cannot be determined from the general account here. The major emphasis is upon the effect, which will be that the Moabites will be so demoralized that their only response will be weeping and flight.

John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1–39, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1986), 336–337.

But by analogy, the lesser judgment all foretell the greater judgment to come. This would lend itself, by such analogy to a very evangelistic plea. The tie to seeking protection in the tent of David would strengthen the argument.

God foretells this judgment, primarily to the people of God, to provoke them with both the horror of the judgment and the sorrow of the victims (who deserve the judgment) so that they will reach out and rescue these people by bringing them into the tent of David.

Sermon Outline: Nehemiah 3

31 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by memoirandremains in Nehemiah, Preaching, Sermons, Uncategorized

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Difficulty with the text: on its face, this is a dull text. There is conflict before and after Nehemiah 3, but this chapter presents little conflict (there is a mention of some kind of conflict involving the nobles of Tekoa —Neh. 3:5b— but that is not explained).

One might be tempted to spiritualize the text by making some arcane symbols of the gates and the order: but that is not warranted from the text. It is a simple list of the work which was completed. The NIV Study Bible note even suggests the that list was essentially Nehemiah’s project list.

Therefore, we can begin with the question of “Why is this project list even in the Bible?”

It shows that the people were faithful to the call.
It shows that the work of God often entails planning and dull work.
It also shows that the extraordinary work of God is often ordinary.

The Extraordinary Ordinary Work of God

A.  This work, on its face, is hardly “spiritual”: they built a wall.
1. When we think of “spiritual” or “religious” work or effort
a. This leads us to split our lives in parts, generally (there is my “religious” life and my regular life).
b. It causes us to undervalue or misperceive the life of the gathered people of God. 1 Cor. 12 — and thus lose out on the blessings of God, because we may fail to see the greatest of the gifts given. 1 Cor. 13.
2. All of our live is to be “spiritual”. 1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:23
B.  We know this work was extraordinary from the context
1. This is recorded in the Bible, so we have the grandest of contexts.
2. We know the story of Nehemiah in particular.
3. The opposition from the wicked is another indicator of God’s presence. The Devil cannot be in the presence of God’s work and keep quiet. Mark 1:23; 5:2.
4. The actors saw this as spiritual work: Neh. 3:1. The text begins with the high priest who arose to do the work. The priests consecrated the gate & walls.

C. The work of God cannot always be seen for what it is
1. Sometimes God’s work is invisible.
a. To unbelievers Mark 4:12
b. To believers Mark 6:51-52
2. Sometimes the work of God provokes
a. Mark 3:1-6
b. Neh. 2:10 & 19; 4:1, et seq.
What is miraculous here?
1. Relevant dates:
538: Return from exile
520: Haggai
516: Temple
458: Ezra
445: Nehemiah
It’s been 90 years since the return from exile
It’s been 70 years since the time was built.
2. The people have shown no natural heart for the work.
3. These people were prone to all sorts of trouble: Ezra 9:1, Hag. 1:9
4. The work was subject to outside troubles: Ez. 4:17, etc.
5. Just consider what people who had fallen into lifetimes of workless habit would be like. That they would change at all would be indicative of supernatural action (Hag. 1:14; cf, Acts 17:6 vs. Mark 14:50).

Application
1. The miraculous work of God is often ordinary in how it looks: The miracle may even be largely invisible: like building a wall, the most mundane sort of thing.
2. The ordinary work of the church is supernatural
a. The preaching of the gospel. 1 Peter 1:12
b. Sanctification. Gal. 5:16 & 22-26
c. It is also seen in the acts of (i) Sending a man from one place to another (Eph. 6:21); (ii) a greeting (Rom. 16:22, 1 Cor. 16:20); (iii) establishing churches (Tit. 1:5); (iv) strengthening a church (1 Tim. 1:3). [These are things commanded or commended by an apostle. They were things which the Spirit deemed worthy of recording. None would have taken place without the Spirit’s work).

Sermon Outline, John 1:11

24 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by memoirandremains in John, Preaching, Sermons, Uncategorized

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John 1:11 (ESV)

11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

How to preach this.
There are three parts to the verse
An action: he came
The recipients of the action: his own
The response: rejection

I. He Came

Implications:
a) If he came, he was not there before: why the absence? (Gen. 3)
b) The waiting for the Messiah
c) There was no ability to compel God to come (the idea of compelling God is at the heart of idolatry)
d) Parallels to the parables (e.g. Luke 19:11)

A Miracle
What a wonder is here:
a) The Incarnation
b) The distance between dark & light, creature & Creator

II.His Own
a)His own by creation
b)His own by covenant/promise
c) Contrast, those under the New Covenant will receive him — these will come by conquest

III. Rejection
a) They could see him
b) Killed him
c) They did not understand (1 Cor. 2:8, 2 Cor. 4:4)
d) This will turn to judgment

Introduction and Outline of a Sermon on Church Conflict (Philippians)

18 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Philippians, Preaching

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[This is the mere introduction and outline of a sermon. Notice that a sermon is not a merely commentary upon a text, but is a means of changing how one thinks and desires. The application must flow naturally from the transformation of the heart. A good sermon and biblical counseling must have the same ends and means (Dr. John Street calls it ‘expositional counseling’).]

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In Philippi, something had gone wrong. There were two women whose conflict had over-spilled the banks of their relationship and was now flowing through the streams of the church. The bitter water had reached into Paul’s prison, and from that prison he did more than resolve the issue, he set out to rebuild their heart.

Now, we have no idea why these women fought: Paul does not even mention the particulars of their conflict. But it is just that way with fighting: when the war is over we have the scars, but we don’t know why we drew our sword.

Paul loves this church dearly. He thanks God for them in every remember (1:3); he prayers for them with joy (1:4); he is certainly God is working in them and for them to the end that they will be “complete” (1:6, 2:13); he “holds in [his] heart” — which is an endearment he offers to no others; he “yearn[s] for [them] all with the affection of Christ Jesus”; they are his partners in the work of the Gospel (1:5).

Therefore, Paul’s heart must have been torn in two when he heard from Epaphroditus of the conflict. Sorrow upon sorrow had been heaped upon Paul, and now he had his friends in rivalry with one-another.

Now, if we were to seek to work here, we would likely put our effort into the facts of the conflict and the possible solutions. But Paul doesn’t go there (at best he leaves that for later, 4:3). Rather, Paul runs at the root of the conflict: They have lost sight of how the story ends.

Paul is no therapist or life coach. He is an apostle and pastor. Paul’s orientation is toward that Day:

9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9–11 (ESV)

In Paul’s understanding, that Day transforms how he thinks about this day. His own imprisonment is redeemed, because it has “served to advance the gospel” (1:12). It is not that he is not under pain and pressure: in fact, his sees death and life in the presence of Christ as the only resolution to his pain. However, he does not shrink from the pain and trial, but rather can still rejoice for the cause of Christ’s glory (1:18).

He then turns to the Philippians and tells them that their suffering is a grace of God:

29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. Philippians 1:29–30 (ESV)

Paul is not merely seeking to resolve their conflict: he is seeking to remove the grounds for their conflict. Think of it this way: Come the “day of Christ” what will this matter?

Suppose a young lady will be married in a few months. It is the common lot of such women to work and sacrifice and plan and worry as she prepares for that day. She will deprive herself of pleasures and rest, and she will do so joyfully because she so anticipates that day.

Paul is preparing his friends, his family for “the day of Christ”. He thus works to recast their present troubles as future blessing. Like a bride preparing for her wedding, he tells that they may suffer troubles joyfully: not because the trouble is no trouble, but because the end is so joyous and certain.

Here are three of the means Paul uses to restructure their hearts, their desires, their thinking and willing and affections: First he tells them that end which they desire is certain. Second, he gives the example of his own life, how he willingly has lost everything in his work to gain such a day. Third, he tells them to pray, meditate and then act as those who are willingly preparing for that day.

First, the end is certain: Philippians 2:4-11

Second, Paul’s own example: Philippians 3

Third, Pray, Meditate, Act with Joy. Philippians 4:4-9

[In each of three sections, note the implied obstacles to believing and acting. E.g., in Phil 3, Paul speaks of his joyful loss of all things. We so treasure our immediate goods that we fear losing them and thus will fight to keep them. Paul counters that line of thought by explaining how he works through such desires. The second point, in particular, should do the work of responding to objections. Now someone here will say, But if I try to reconcile with X, I might lose Y.]

 

 

 

What are the best preservatives against melancholy and overmuch sorrow?

16 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Joy, Preaching, Puritan, Richard Baxter

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WHAT ARE THE BEST PRESERVATIVES AGAINST MELANCHOLY AND OVERMUCH SORROW?[1]

Lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.—2 Corinthians 2:7.

THE brevity of a sermon not allowing me time for any unnecessary work, I shall not stay to open the context…these three doctrines which I shall handle all together; namely,—

I. That sorrow, even for sin, may be overmuch.

II. That overmuch sorrow swalloweth one up.

III. Therefore it must be resisted and assuaged by necessary comfort, both by others, and by ourselves.

In handling these, I shall observe this order: I. I shall show you when sorrow is overmuch. II. How overmuch sorrow doth swallow a man up. III. What are the causes of it. IV. What is the cure.

I. It is too notorious that overmuch sorrow for sin is not the ordinary case of the world.

A. A stupid, blockish disposition is the common cause of men’s perdition. The plague of a hard heart and seared conscience keeps most from all due sense of sin, or danger, or misery, and of all the great and everlasting concerns of their guilty souls. A dead sleep in sin doth deprive most of the use of sense and understanding… But most men so little regard or feel them, that they have neither time nor heart to think of them as their concern, but hear of them as of some foreign land, where they have no interest, and which they never think to see.

B. Sorrow is overmuch when it is fed by a mistaken cause.—All is too much where none is due; and great sorrow is too much when the cause requireth but less.

Superstition always breeds such sorrows, when men make themselves religious duties which God never made them, and then come short in the performance of them.

C. Sorrow is overmuch when it hurteth and overwhelmeth nature itself, and destroyeth bodily health or understanding.—… God will have mercy, and not sacrifice; and he that would not have us kill or hurt our neighbour on pretence of religion, would not have us destroy or hurt ourselves; being bound to love our neighbour but as ourselves.

II. When sorrow swalloweth-up the sinner, it is overmuch, and to be restrained: as,

A. The passions of grief and trouble of mind do oft overthrow the sober and sound use of reason.—

 B. Overmuch sorrow disableth a man to govern his thoughts; and ungoverned thoughts must needs be both sinful and very troublesome.—

 C. Overmuch sorrow would swallow-up faith itself, and greatly hindereth its exercise.—

 D. Overmuch sorrow yet more hindereth hope.—When men think that they do believe God’s word, and that his promises are all true to others, yet cannot they hope for the promised blessings to themselves. Hope is that grace by which a soul that believeth the gospel to be true, doth comfortably expect that the benefits promised shall be its own; it is an applying act. The first act of faith saith, “The gospel is true, which promiseth grace and glory through Christ.” The next act of faith saith, “I will trust my soul and all upon it, and take Christ for my Saviour and Help.” And then hope saith, “I hope for this salvation by him.” But melancholy, overwhelming sorrow and trouble, is as great an adversary to this hope, as water is to fire, or snow to heat. Despair is its very pulse and breath. Fain such would have hope, but they cannot. All their thoughts are suspicious and misgiving, and they can see nothing but danger and misery, and a helpless state. And when hope, which is the anchor of the soul, is gone, what wonder if they be continually tossed with storms?

E. Overmuch sorrow swalloweth-up all comfortable sense of the infinite goodness and love of God, and thereby hindereth the soul from loving him.—And in this it is an adversary to the very life of holiness. It is exceeding hard

F. And then it must needs follow, that this distemper is a false and injurious judge of all the word and works of God, and of all his mercies and corrections.—

 G. And by this you see that it is an enemy to thankfulness.—It rather reproacheth God for his mercies, as if they were injuries, than giveth him any hearty thanks.

H. And by this you may see, that this distemper is quite contrary to the joy in the Holy Ghost.—

I. And all this showeth us, that this disease is much contrary to the very tenor of the gospel.—

J. Yea, it is a distemper which greatly advantageth Satan to cast-in blasphemous thoughts of God, as if he were bad, and a hater and destroyer even of such as fain would please him.—

 K. This overmuch sorrow doth unfit men for all profitable meditation.—

L. And it is a distemper which maketh all sufferings more heavy

III. QUESTION. “What are the causes and cure of it?”

A. ANSWER I. With very many there is a great part of the CAUSE in distemper, weakness, and diseasedness of the body; and by it the soul is greatly disabled to any comfortable sense. But the more it ariseth from such natural necessity, it is the less sinful and less dangerous to the soul; but never the less troublesome, but the more.

Three diseases cause overmuch sorrow:—

1. Those that consist in such violent pain as natural strength is unable to bear. But this, being usually not very long, is not now to be chiefly spoken of.

2. A natural passionateness, and weakness of that reason that should quiet passion. …. Even many that fear God, and that have very sound understandings and quick wits, have almost no more power against troubling passions, anger and grief, but especially fear, than they have of any other persons.

3. But when the brain and imagination are crazed, and reason partly overthrown, by the disease called “melancholy,” this maketh the cure yet more difficult; for commonly it is the foresaid persons, whose natural temper is timorous and passionate, and apt to discontent and grief, who fall into crazedness and melancholy: and the conjunction of both, the natural temper and the disease, doth increase the misery. The signs of such diseasing melancholy, I have often elsewhere described. As,

a. The trouble and disquiet of the mind doth then become a settled habit.

b. If you convince them, that they have some evidences of sincerity, and that their fears are causeless and injurious to themselves and unto God, and they have nothing to say against it; yet either it takes off none of their trouble, or else it returneth the next day: for the cause remaineth in their bodily disease; quiet them a hundred times, and their fears a hundred times return.

c. Their misery is, that what they think they cannot choose but think.

d. And, when they are grown to this, usually they seem to feel something beside themselves, as it were, speaking in them, and saying this and that to them, and bidding them do this or that; and they will tell you, “Now it saith this or that,” and tell you when and what it hath said to them; and they will hardly believe how much of it is the disease of their own imagination.

e. In this case they are exceeding prone to think they have revelations. ….And many of them turn heretics,

f. But the sadder, better sort, feeling this talk and stir within them, are oft apt to be confident that they are possessed by the devil, or at least bewitched, of which I will say more anon.

g. And most of them are violently haunted with blasphemous injections, at which they tremble; and yet cannot keep them out of their minds. Either they are tempted and haunted to doubt of the scripture, or Christianity, or the life to come, or to think some ill of God; and oft-times they are strangely urged, as by something in them, to speak some blasphemous word of God, or to renounce him; and they tremble at the suggestion, and yet it still followeth them; and some poor souls yield to it, and say some bad word against God; and then, as soon as it is spoken, somewhat within them saith, “Now thy damnation is sealed! thou hast sinned against the Holy Ghost! there is no hope.”

h. When it is far gone, they are tempted to lay some law upon themselves,—never to speak more, or not to eat; and some of them have famished themselves to death.

i. And when it is far gone, they oft think that they have apparitions; and this and that likeness appeareth to them, especially lights in the night about their beds: and sometimes they are confident that they hear voices, and feel something touch or hurt them.

j. They fly from company, and can do nothing but sit alone and muse.

k. They cast off all business, and will not be brought to any diligent labour in their callings.

l. And when it cometh to extremity, they are weary of their lives, and strongly followed with temptations to make away [with] themselves; as if something within them were either urging them either to drown themselves, or cut their own throats, or hang themselves, or cast themselves headlong, which, alas! too many have done.

m. And if they escape this when it is ripe, they become quite distracted.

EXCURSUS on the Devil and “Possession”

1. And, first, we must know what is meant by Satan’s “possession” either of the body or the soul. It is not merely his local presence and abode in a man that is called his “possession;” for we know little of that, how far he is more present with a bad man than a good. … but he possesseth only the souls of the ungodly by predominant habits of unbelief and sensuality.

2. And so also he is permitted by God to inflict persecutions, and crosses, and ordinary diseases on the just; but when he is God’s executioner of extraordinary plagues, especially on the head, depriving men of sense and understanding, and working above the bare nature of the disease, this is called his “possession.”

3. And as most evil motions on the soul have Satan for their father, and our own hearts as the mothers, so most or many bodily diseases are by Satan, permitted by God, though there be causes of them also in the body itself. And when our own miscarriages, and humours, and the season, weather, and accidents may be causes, yet Satan may bythese be a superior cause.  [He defines the word broadly to refer to affect by the Devil: which may range from temptation or physical affliction to possession “of the soul” – which seems similar to what is commonly meant by “possession”.] From all this it is easy to gather:—

a. That for Satan to possess the body is no certain sign of a graceless state; nor will this condemn the soul of any, if the soul itself be not possessed. …

b. Satan’s possession of an ungodly soul is the miserable case which is a thousand times worse than his possessing of the body. But every corruption or sin is not such a possession; for no man is perfect, without sin.

c. No sin proveth Satan’s damnable possession of a man, but that which he loveth more than he hateth it, and which he had rather keep than leave, and wilfully keepeth.

d. And this is matter of great comfort to such melancholy honest souls, if they have but understanding to receive it,—that of all men none love their sin which they groan under so little as they; yea, it is the heavy burden of their souls. …

e. And it is the devil’s way, if he can, to haunt those with troubling temptations whom he cannot overcome with alluring and damning temptations. As he raiseth storms of persecution against them without, as soon as they are escaping from his deceits; so doth he trouble them within, as far as God permitteth him. We deny not but Satan hath a great hand in the case of such melancholy persons; for,

i. His temptations caused the sin which God corrects them for.

ii. His execution usually is a cause of the distemper of the body.

iii. And as a tempter, he is the cause of the sinful and troublesome thoughts, and doubts, and fears, and passions which the melancholy causeth. The devil cannot do what he will with us, but what we give him advantage to do. He cannot break open our doors, but he can enter if we leave them open.

f. But I add, that God will not impute his mere temptations to you, but to himself, be they never so bad, as long as you receive them not by the will, but hate them. Nor will he condemn you for those ill effects which are unavoidable from the power of a bodily disease, any more than he will condemn a man for raving thoughts or words in a fever, frenzy, or utter madness. But so far as reason yet hath power, and the will can govern passions, it is your fault if you use not the power, though the difficulty make the fault the less.

B. ANSWER II. But usually other causes go before this disease of melancholy, except in some bodies naturally prone to it; and therefore, before I speak of the cure of it, I will briefly touch them.

1. And one of the most common causes is sinful impatience, discontents and cares proceeding from a sinful love of some bodily interest, and from a want of sufficient submission to the will of God, and trust in him, and taking heaven for a satisfying portion.

 

…. But yet it beseemeth even a pardoned sinner to know the greatness of his sin, that he may not favour it, nor be unthankful for forgiveness.

I will therefore distinctly open the parts of this sin, which bringeth many into dismal melancholy.

a.  It is presupposed that God trieth his servants in this life with manifold afflictions; and Christ will have us bear the cross, and follow him in submissive patience. Some are tried with painful diseases, and some with wrong by enemies, and some with the unkindness of friends, and some with froward, provoking relatives and company, and some with slanders, and some with persecution, and many with losses, disappointments, and poverty.

i. And here impatience is the beginning of the working of the sinful malady. Our natures are all too regardful of the interest of the flesh, and too weak in bearing heavy burdens; and poverty hath those trials which full and wealthy persons, that feel them not, too little pity; especially in two cases:—

I When men have not themselves only, but wives and children in want, to quiet.

II And when they are in debt to others; which is a heavy burden to an ingenuous mind, though thievish borrowers make too light of it.

2. And this impatience turneth to a settled discontent and unquietness of spirit, which affecteth the body itself, and lieth all day as a load or continual trouble at the heart.

3. And impatience and discontent do set the thoughts on the rack with grief and continual cares, how to be eased of the troubling cause. They can scarce think of any thing else; and these cares do even feed upon the heart, and are to the mind as a consuming fever to the body.

4. And the secret root or cause of all this is the worst part of the sin, which is, too much love to the body and this world. …

5. There is yet more sin in the root of all, and that is, it showeth that our wills are yet too selfish, and not subdued to a due submission to the will of God, but we would be as gods to ourselves, and be at our own choosing, and must needs have what the flesh desireth. We want a due resignation of ourselves and all our concerns to God, and live not as children, in due dependence on him for our daily bread, but must needs be the keepers of our own provision.

6. And this showeth that we be not sufficiently humbled for our sin; or else we should be thankful for the lowest state, as being much better than that which we deserved.

7. And there is apparently much distrust of God and unbelief in these troubling discontents and cares. Could we trust God as well as ourselves, or as we could trust a faithful friend, or as a child can trust his father, how quiet would our minds be in the sense of his wisdom, all-sufficiency, and love!

8. And this unbelief yet hath a worse effect than worldly trouble; it showeth that men take not the love of God and the heavenly glory for their sufficient portion. Unless they may have what they want or would have for the body,—this world; unless they may be free from poverty, and crosses, and provocations, and injuries, and pains; all that God hath promised them here or hereafter, even everlasting glory, will not satisfy them: and when God, and Christ, and heaven are not enough to quiet a man’s mind, he is in great want of faith, hope, and love, which are far greater matters than food and raiment.

C.  ANSWER III. Another great cause of such trouble of mind is the guilt of some great and wilful sin; … There is some more hope of the recovery of these, than of dead-hearted or unbelieving sinners, who work uncleanness with greediness, ..

But yet if God convert these persons, the sins which they now live in may possibly hereafter plunge their souls into such depths of sorrow, in the review, as may swallow them up.

D.  ANSWER IV. But among people fearing God, there is yet another cause of melancholy, and of sorrowing overmuch; and that is ignorance and mistakes in matters which their peace and comforts are concerned in. I will name some particulars:—

1. One is ignorance of the tenor of the gospel or covenant of grace: …

2. And many of them are mistaken about the use of sorrow for sin, and about the nature of hardness of heart. They think that if their sorrow be not so passionate as to bring forth tears and greatly to afflict them, they are not capable of pardon, though they should consent to all the pardoning covenant; and they consider not that it is not our sorrow for itself that God delighteth in, but it is the taking down of pride, and that so-much humbling sense of sin, danger, and misery, as may make us feel the need of Christ and mercy, and bring us unfeignedly to consent to be his disciples, and to be saved upon his covenant-terms. Be sorrow much or little, if it do this much, the sinner shall be saved.

…

3. And abundance are cast down by ignorance of themselves, not knowing the sincerity which God hath given them. Grace is weak in the best of us here; and little and weak grace is not very easily perceived, for it acteth weakly and unconstantly, and it is known but by its acts; and weak grace is always joined with too strong corruption; …

4. And, in such a case, there are too few that know how to fetch comfort from bare probabilities, when they get not certainty; much less, from the mere offers of grace and salvation, even when they cannot deny but they are willing to accept them; and if none should have comfort but those that have assurance of their sincerity and salvation, despair would swallow up the souls of most, even of true believers.

5. And ignorance of other men increaseth the fears and sorrows of some. They think, by our preaching and writing, that we are much better than we are. And then they think that they are graceless, because they come short of our supposed measures; whereas if they dwelt with us and saw our failings, or knew us but as well as we know ourselves, or saw all our sinful thoughts and vicious dispositions written in our foreheads, they would be cured of this error.

6. And unskilful teachers do cause the griefs and perplexities of very many. Some cannot open to them clearly the tenor of the covenant of grace; some are themselves unacquainted with any spiritual, heavenly consolations; and many have no experience of any inward holiness, and renewal by the Holy Ghost, and know not what sincerity is, nor wherein a saint doth differ from an ungodly sinner. As wicked deceivers make good and bad to differ but a little, if not the best to be taken for the worst; so some unskilful men do place sincerity in such things as are not so much as duty; as the Papists, in their manifold inventions and superstitions; and many sects, in their unsound opinions.

And some unskilfully and unsoundly describe the state of grace, and tell you how far a hypocrite may go, so as unjustly discourageth and confoundeth the weaker sort of Christians, and cannot amend the mis-expression of their books or teachers.* And too many teachers lay men’s comforts, if not salvation, on controversies which are past their reach, and pronounce heresy and damnation against that which they themselves understand not. Even the Christian world, these one thousand three hundred, or one thousand two hundred years, is divided into parties, by the teachers’ unskilful quarrels about words, which they took in several senses. Is it any wonder if the hearers of such are distracted?

IV. I have told you the causes of distracted sorrows, I am now to tell you what is THE CURE, But, alas! it is not so soon done as told; and I shall begin where the disease beginneth, and tell you both what the patient himself must do, and what must be done by his friends and teachers.

A.  Look not on the sinful part of your troubles, either as better or worse than indeed it is.

1. Too many persons, in their sufferings and sorrows, think they are only to be pitied; and take little notice of the sin that caused them, or that they still continue to commit: and too many unskilful friends and ministers do only comfort them, when a round chiding and discovery of their sin should be the better part of the cure. …

2. And yet when, as foolishly, they think that all these sins are marks of a graceless state, …

B.  Particularly, give not way to a habit of peevish impatience.—…Prepare for the loss of children and friends, for the loss of goods, and for poverty and want. Prepare for slanders, injuries, or poisons; for sickness, pain, and death. It is your unpreparedness that maketh it seem unsufferable.

And when you feel distracting cares for your deliverances, remember that this is not trusting God. Care for your own duty, and obey his command; but leave it to him what you shall have: tormenting cares do but add to your afflictions. …

C. Set yourselves, more diligently than ever, to overcome the inordinate love of the world.—…That which men love they delight in, if they have it; and mourn for want of it, and desire to obtain it. The will is the love: and no man is troubled for want of that which he would not have.

1.  But the commonest cause of passionate melancholy is, at first, some worldly discontent and care: either wants, or crosses, or the fear of suffering, or the unsuitableness and provocation of some related to them, or disgrace, or contempt, do cast them into passionate discontent; and [then] self-will cannot bear the denial of something which they would have. And then when the discontent hath muddied and diseased a man’s mind, temptations about his soul do come-in afterwards; and that which began only with worldly crosses doth after seem to be all about religion, conscience, or merely for sin or want of grace.

2.  Why could you not patiently bear the words, the wrongs, the losses, the crosses that did befall you? Why made you so great a matter of these bodily, transitory things? Is it not because you over-love them? …

D.  If you are not satisfied that God alone, Christ alone, heaven alone, is enough for you, as matter of felicity and full content, go, study the case better, and you may be convinced.—…

E.  And study better how great a sin it is, to set our own wills and desires in a discontented opposition to the wisdom, will, and providence of God; and to make our wills, instead of his, as gods to ourselves.—…

F.  And study well how great a duty it is wholly to trust God, and our blessed Redeemer, both with soul and body, and all we have.—…

O that you knew what a mercy and comfort it is for God to make it your duty to trust him! If he had made you no promise, this is equal to a promise: if he do but bid you trust him, you may be sure he will not deceive your trust.

1.  OBJECTION. “But it is none but his children that he will save.”

2.  ANSWER. True: and all are his children that are truly willing to obey and please him. If you are truly willing to be holy, and to obey his commanding will, in a godly, righteous, and sober life, you may boldly rest in his disposing will, and rejoice in his rewarding and accepting will: for he will pardon all our infirmities through the merits and intercession of Christ.

G.  If you would not be swallowed up with sorrow, swallow not the baits of sinful pleasure.—…The more pleasure you have in sin, usually the more sorrow it will bring you; …Never look for joy or peace as long as you live in wilful and beloved sin. This thorn must be taken out of your hearts before you will be eased of the pain; unless God leave you to a senseless heart, and Satan give you a deceitful peace, which doth but prepare for greater sorrow.

H. … is, the cure of that ignorance and those errors which cause your troubles.

 


[1] This is an outline of the first half of Sermon XI from volume three of “Puritan Sermons”; James Nichols, 1844

Of Living as Strangers, as sermon by David Clarkson

07 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in David Clarkson, Discipleship, Faith, Hebrews, Preaching, Puritan, Self-Denial, Submission

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Of Living as Strangers

The Christian life is often spoken of as a “pilgrimage.” John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress made this image lively and plain. If the life is one of “pilgrimage”, then one must know the rules of the travel. Many travelers have found themselves ruined by being ignorant. In his sermon, “Of Living as Strangers” (vol. 1 collected works), David Clarkson demonstrates the place of this doctrine in the Christian life and then provides a rebuke and instruction on how the Christian must live, to live as a stranger.

This sermon would be a useful teaching tool and test for Christian discipleship.

An outline of the sermon follows:

And confessed that they were strangers.—Hebrews 11:13

“Obs. Those that would die in the faith, should live as strangers and pilgrims.”

 

I.  The believer is everywhere shown to be a stranger in this world.

A.  This is shown throughout the Bible:

1.  Jacob. Gen. 47:9

2.  God tells the people that they will be strangers, even after they enter the land, “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Lev. 25:23).

3.  David calls himself a stranger while he reigns as kin.

4.   This continues in the NT, 1 Pet. 2:11.

B.  What does it mean to be a “stranger” or “pilgrim?”

1.  It means that we live in this world only a short while.

a. At best, we can only know this world as an inn; a place of temporary lodging.

b. The laws and customs of the people of God and this world will differ. “The laws of their own country have no place here: the law of faith, love, self-denial, loving enemies, &c. Such a country is the world to the people of God, a strange country; and in this respect they are strangers.”

2.  “In respect of their design, their motion, it is still homewards. This strange country likes them not, nor they it; they are travelling towards another, that which is, that which they account, their home, that better country, that heavenly country, that city prepared for them, that city whose builder and maker is God.”

3.  The believer must travel through the land, taking all only what is fit for the journey: “Much would be a burden, a hindrance to them in their journey; they have more in hopes than hand….Though they be princes, sons of God, heirs of a crown, their Father sees it best, safest for them, to travel in a disguise.. ..Their treasure, their crown, their glory is at home, their Father’s house; till they come there they are strangers.” The believe must expect no more than is fit for a traveler.

4. “In respect of their usage. They are not known in the world, and so are often coarsely used. In this strange country they meet with few friends, but many injuries.”

5. “In respect of their continuance. Their abode on earth is but short. A stranger, a traveller stays not long in one place.”

6. “In respect of their relations. Their dearest relations are in another country. Their Father, their Husband, their Elder Brother, their dearest Friend, their Comforter, and the far greatest part of their brethren and fellow-members, are all in heaven. He that lives at a distance from his relations may well pass for a stranger.”

II.        Use of the Doctrine

A.   The Christian must not live on earth, thinking himself to be a home.

1.  All the hope must be elsewhere.

2. Clarkson gives this rebuke, “No wonder if these people be unwilling to die, since they must part from the world as one parts from his own country to go into banishment. They that thus live in the world cannot expect to die in the faith. Whose image and superscription do they bear?”

B.  He then encourages and directs Christians how to live as strangers here.

1.  Don’t let the pleasures and comforts of this world be your comfort and custom. 1 Peter 2:12; Romans 12:2.

2. Be patient in suffering:  You are stranger here; you cannot expect better. Leave vindication to the Lord.

3.  Be content with what you have: it is only temporary: “it is but a while, and you will be at home, and then you will find better entertainment, and more plenty.”

4. Don’t set your heart on this world. Remember, you’re leaving.

5.  Hurry home: don’t stray out of the way and after sins, vanities and deceits. Think of dear God is to you – and you to God. “Oh let the sight, the thoughts of Jesus, quicken your pace. And while you are absent in the body, let your hearts be at home, your hearts in heaven, where are your treasure, your joys, your crown, your glory, your inheritance, your husband. Oh, is not here allurement enough? This is the way to be at home while you are from home.”

 

6. Be not too fearful of death. It is a sleep now; Christ’s death did change the property of it? and will a pilgrim, a weary traveller, be afraid of sleep? When you are come to the gates of death, there is but one step then betwixt you and home, and that is death. Methinks we should pass this cheerfully, the next step your foot will be in heaven. 

The True Believer’s Union With Christ.1

24 Friday May 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Corinthians, Christology, Preaching, Puritan, Union With Christ

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The True Believer’s Union with Christ

Rev. Thomas Lye, A.M.

James Nichol, Puritan Sermons, vol. 5, no. 18

“But he that is joined unto The Lord is one spirit” 1 Corinthians 6:17

 

In context, the verse occurs one of the reasons given by Paul for fleeing sexual immorality.

 

Observation:

True believers are closely united to Christ Jesus.

 

Query 1: Whom are we we to understand by “true believers”

Solution 1: Not mere professors (that is those make a bare profession of faith without possessing saving faith).

Solution 2: “Such as are united unto Christ by internal implantation.

 

Query 2: What Kind of Union is it betwixt The Lord Jesus and true believers?

Solution 1 (negatively)

A. Not a union of physical nature.

B. Not a hypostatical union, such as in the incarnation

C. Not a union of substance. “Not an essential union; not such a union as make believers in any wise partakers of the substance of Christ’s Godhead.”  On this point, he rejects the doctrine of theosis. However, it is exactly at this point that Letham (Union With Christ) makes a helpful observation. The language Lye rejects is “Being Godded with God and Christed with Christ.”  Letham explains that Origien and Gregory of Nyssa, “move[] closer to the idea of apothesis. In this line of thought, there is a generic human nature that was created by God is now divinized. Salvation entails being absorbed into God, individuals losing their identity as they are merged into this defied humanity.” 92 

 

Letham notes there is a second way in which this doctrine works out which does not entail a breakdown of the Creature/Creator distinction, “It is a union and communion with the persons of the Trinity. This is achieved by our sharing by grace the relation that the Father that the Son has by nature, thus retaining both personal and human identity.” 92  “In other words, Athanasius is arguing that the humanity of Jesus Christ, body and soul, was given the grace of being capable of everlasting personal communion with the eternal Son of God.” 93 On this point, then Lye is not so far distant:

 

Those expressions of Nazianzen, Χριστοποιειν and Θεοποιειν, of old, and Englished by some of us of late, namely, “Being Godded with God, and Christed with Christ,” are harsh and dangerous, if not blasphemous. To aver that believers are partakers of the substance of Christ’s Godhead, is to ascribe that to believers which we dare not affirm of Christ’s manhood itself; concerning which we say, that it was “inseparably” joined together with the Godhead in one person, but yet “without the least conversion, composition, or confusion.”* True, indeed, believers are said to “be partakers of the divine nature;” (2 Peter 1:4;) but how? Not of God’s substance, which is wholly incommunicable: but believers, by the “exceeding great and precious promises,” as by so many conduit-pipes, have excellent graces conveyed unto them; whereby they are made like to God “in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness,” wherein “the image of God,” which was stamped on man at his creation, consists. (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10.)

 

 

D) Not such an union which mounts up believers to an equality with Christ in any respect.

 

Positively:Cyprian tells us in the general, “It is not such an union as speaks a conjunction of persons, or a connexion of natures; but a consent of wills, and confederation of affections.” (Nostra et ipsius conjunctio non miscet personas, nec unit substantias; sed affectus consociat, et confeederat volunlates.—Cyprianus.)

 

A) It is a spiritual union, “Believers are partakers of one and the same  Spirit with Christ: Christ’s Spirit is really communicated to them, and abides in them.”

 

B) a Mystical (Strong will centuries later called this an “inscrutable” union. At this point, Lye notes the three sets of unions: The Trinity, the Incarnation, and the union of Christ and believers.

 

C) A real, true union: not a mere matter of imagination (Lye, “fancy”; or as we might say now, a union of mere words).

 

D) “A close, near, dear, intimate union.—Like that of the food with the body which it nourisheth. Hence believers are said to eat Christ’s flesh, and to drink his blood; (John 6:54;) such an intimate union as that one possessive particle is not sufficient to express it: [it is] not said, “My vineyard is before me;” but, “My vineyard, which is mine, is before me.” (Canticles 8:12.)“

 

E) In inseparable union (Romans 8:38-39). As Letham notes on this point, it is a union closer than one had with one’s own limbs. A limb may be severed, but one may never be severed from Christ.

 

Question 2: What are the efficient causes of this union?

The principal efficient cause: The Trinity, particularly the work of the Spirit.

 

On the human side (less principal):

Outward, “generally, all ordinances”. Particularly, the word preached. “The way to have Christ’s company is to keep Christ’s words” (John 14:23).

 

Also baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Of the Supper, he writes

 

The Lord’s supper: this is a great means of strengthening and evidencing our union, and advancing our communion, with Christ Jesus. We are “all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Cor. 12:13.) Hence that in 1 Cor. 10:16: “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of” (means, arguments, evidences, of our communion with) “the body of Christ?” The wine which we drink, “is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?” Thus much for the external means of union.

 

 

Confirmation:  Lye now goes on to “confirm” the fact of such a union.

 

First, he looks to the expressions which are used to describe the relationship with Christ. For example:

 

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27 (ESV)

 

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Romans 8:10 (ESV)

 

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Romans 8:10 (ESV)

 

 

 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

       “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people. 2 Corinthians 6:16 (ESV)

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15:7 (ESV)

Second, from the imagery used to describe our relationship to Christ: “living stones” (1 Peter 2:4-6); a building with Christ a cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20-21); a vine and branches (John 15:1-5); a marriage (Ephesians 5:30-31); a body (Ephesians 1:22-23; 5:30; 1 Corinthians 12:12).

Third, the communication of Christ to believers implies a union.

John 1:16 (ESV)

For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Union With Christ the Only Way to Sanctification

23 Thursday May 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Corinthians, Faith, Mortification, Obedience, Preaching, Sanctification, Thomas Boston, Union With Christ

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The following is an outline with comments of a sermon by Thomas Boston on the doctrine of union with Christ. The sermon can be found in volume 2 of collected works. Boston discussion of union with Christ and the order salvation — particularly his mention of passive and active reception sets out an area of explanation and investigation which could be a fruitful ground for more fully understanding the doctrine)

 union with christ the only way to sanctification

1 Cor. 1:30.—But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us—sanctification.

Introduction:

The world in its greatest darkness was not insensible that man’s nature was corrupted, that they needed something wherewith they might please God, attain to happiness, and repair the wound which they understood their nature had got. And although that Jews and Gentiles had different devices whereby they thought this might be obtained, yet all agreed in that it behoved them to go into themselves for it, and to draw something out of the ruins of their natural powers wherewith to help themselves, thereby discovering they did not sufficiently understand the depth of the corruption of human nature. And this principle is so agreeable to corrupt reason, that God’s device to bring about man’s salvation from sin and misery in and by another, to wit, Christ, was to ‘the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness,’ ver 23. And if we sound to the bottom, it is the same at this day to the unregenerate part of the Christian world.

Here, he sets out the problem and the solution:  Our helplessness, which is twofold:  Primarily, we do not rightly understand our circumstance.  The second flows from the first: Sin has so greatly corrupted our understanding that we do not realize the true depth of our trouble.

A con requires both an initial deception. However, the deception must remain in place until the scheme concludes. Sin functions in that manner.

Boston will demonstrate that the failure caused by sin admits of only a personal remedy –  the solution to ignorance and death is a person, Jesus Christ.

I  In the text we have the sum of God’s device for the salvation of sinners, and it centres in Jesus Christ who was crucified.

A.That the whole of man’s salvation shall be from Christ. God has made or constituted him the fountain of all salvation, from whom it must be conveyed to all that shall partake of it.

(1.) Man is ignorant naturally of the way to true happiness: he has lost God, and knows not how to find him again.

At this point, Boston makes a fascinating observation: The knowledge possessed by the human race is limited to the knowledge possessed by Adam: do this and live; there is a God, but he is absent. Boston does not suggest some sort of oral tradition (which would be both absurd and uninteresting), but rather a limitation in the structure of creation – there simply isn’t something more which can be had on this side of Adam.

Having noted the trouble, Boston notes the solution (he uses this pattern repeatedly: State a proposition, illustrate and elaborate; demonstrate the solution)

For remedy of this, Christ is made ‘wisdom.’ The treasures of wisdom and knowledge were lodged in him, Col. 2:3 and he is constituted the grand Teacher of all that seek for eternal happiness.

(2.) Man is unrighteous, and cannot stand before a righteous God.

For remedy of this, Christ is made righteousness. He, by his obedience to the law’s commands and suffering the wrath it threatened, hath brought in everlasting righteousness, which is a large garment, able to cover all that betake themselves to it,

… And the vilest of men coming to him, shall find a righteousness in him to be communicated to them; so that they that are far from righteousness shall be wrapt up in a perfect righteousness, if they will take Christ to them as God has made him.

(3.) Man is unholy, unfit for communion with a holy God here or hereafter. His soul is dead in sin, his lusts live and are vigorous in him; so that he is no more meet for heaven than a sow for a palace…but there is as much difference betwixt true holiness and their attainment, as between a living body and an embalmed corpse. … for our natural abilities will serve us no more for sanctification, than the cripple’s legs will serve him to walk.

But for remedy in this, Christ is made sanctification. … And the most polluted sinner, whose lusts are most raging, may confidently try this grand method of sanctification, which can no more fail him than God’s device can fail to reach the end he designed for it.

(4.) Man by the fall is become mortal, liable to many bodily infirmities and miseries, and at length must go to the grave, the house appointed for all living. Nature could find no remedy for this. The learned Athenians mocked at the resurrection of the dead,

But man’s salvation cannot be complete without a remedy for this; therefore Christ is made ‘redemption,’ who will give in due time deliverance to his people from misery and death,

Boston lays out the troubles we face – and then notes that all our solution lies in the person of Jesus. It is not a bare knowledge about, but a communion and union with Jesus which transforms one’s life.

B. That all who partake of this salvation, must partake of it in him, by virtue of union with him: …

This then is the grand device of salvation, that Christ shall be all to sinners, and that they must partake of all in him; which is quite opposite to our natural imaginations, and exalts the free grace of God, depressing nature. (1.) They do not help themselves, their help is in another: He is made wisdom, &c. (2.) They do not so much as help themselves to their helper; for it is of God, by the power of his grace, that they are brought to be in him. It is not the branch itself, but the husbandman that ingrafts it.

Boston having thus provided a brief exegesis sets out the doctrine:

Doct. ‘God’s device for the sanctification of an unholy world is, that sinners unite with Christ, and derive holiness from him, whom the Father has constituted the head of sanctifying influences. Union with Christ is the only way to sanctification.’

I) What is holiness?  As to holiness, it is that disposition of heart and course of life which is conformable to God’s holy law, and pleases him. In this life it is imperfect, but in the life to come it will be perfected. …

A. True holiness is universal in respect of the commands of God, Psal. 119:6. Tit. 2:12. Gal. 5:19. &c.

B. True holiness is not only in external duties, but necessarily includes internal obedience of the soul to the will of God, Psal. 24:3. …. And though not without weeds of corruption, it is the holy man’s constant work to be labouring to root them up.

C. In true holiness there is a bent, inclination, and propensity of heart, to the acts of obedience to God. The spirit, that is, the new nature, has its lustings, as well as the flesh, Gal. 5:17. By Adam’s fall the hearts of men got a wrong set, a bent and propensity to evil, Rom. 8:7. Hos. 11:7. Now, in sanctification it is bent the other way, towards God and godliness, 2 Thess. 3:5

D. As the love of God is the great comprehensive duty of holiness, love is the fulfilling of the law; so love runs through all the duties of religion, to give them the tincture of holiness, Heb. 6:10. And without this, should a man give all his goods to the poor, it profiteth nothing. Where self-love is the domineering principle, their duties are in God’s account serving themselves, and not him. Holy duties are the obedience of a child who loves his father, and therefore serves him; not the obedience of a servant, who loves himself, and therefore serves for his wages.

E. True holiness is influenced by the command of God. The will of God is not only the rule, but the reason, of a holy life, John 5:30., Psal. 119:115.

F. True holiness has for its chief end the glory of God, 1 Cor. 10:31. …The want of this mars a man’s life and actions, so far as they are not holy, but selfish, Zech. 7:6.

G. Lastly, True holiness is universal. Sanctifying grace seeks through the whole man, and the whole of his course.

1. Mortification is universal, Gal. 5:24. …It is no true mortification where one lust is spared.

2. Vivification is universal, 2 Cor. 5:17. As when the body of Christ was raised, there was life put into every member; so when the soul is raised to live the life of holiness, the image of God is repaired in all its parts, and the soul embraces the whole yoke of Christ, so far as it knows the same.

Thus, holiness is a completely different life.

II. I shall shew how this holiness is derived from Christ, according to the grand device of infinite wisdom for the sanctifying of an unholy world.

A. God made the first Adam holy, and all mankind was so in him, Eccl. 7:29.

B. Adam, sinning lost the image of God, that holiness in which he was created, and turned altogether corrupt and averse to good.

C. Man’s sanctification by himself thus being hopeless, for his nature being corrupted wholly, he could never sanctify his own heart or life, seeing no effect can exceed the virtue of its cause; it pleased God to constitute a Mediator, his own Son, to be the head of sanctifying influences to all that should partake of them. And again, he set up the human nature holy, harmless, and undefiled, which was united to the divine nature in the person of the Son. So Christ, God-man, was filled with the Spirit of holiness, and received a holy nature, to be conveyed from him to those that are his by spiritual generation, Eph. 2:10. And the Mediator being God as well as man, and the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily, there can never be wanting sanctifying influences in him who is a full fountain.

The human nature taken up the God in the incarnation was holy – that is without defilement. Then, just as Adam conveyed original sin those who followed him; so Jesus will convey holiness to those who are spiritually born of him.

D. Jesus Christ took on him the guilt of all the elect’s sins, and the curse due unto them; and these sins of theirs did hang about him till they brought him to the dust of death. … For the guilt of sin and the curse being taken away, sanctification follows of course; that being removed which prevented sanctifying influences, and a communication opened betwixt heaven and the soul again, upon its reconciliation with God.

Jesus sets up a possibility of communion (whether ground or space or cause, Boston does not neatly distinguish).

E. Though by the death and resurrection of Christ, the sanctification of his people is infallibly insured, as the corruption of all mankind was by the fall of Adam; yet we cannot actually partake of Christ’s holiness till we have a spiritual being in him, even as we partake not of Adam’s corruption till we have a natural being from him. And for the effecting of this union with Christ, he in the time of love sends his quickening Spirit into the soul, whereby he apprehends us; and thus there is a passive reception of Christ. And the soul being quickened, believes, and so apprehends Christ. Thus that union with Christ is made up by the Spirit on Christ’s part, and faith on ours. So the soul being united to him, lives by the same spirit of holiness which is in him, and takes of his, and gives to his members for their sanctification.

This description of the nature of union with Christ and its relationship to the order of salvation is the one of the most detailed I have yet seen. Note that the initial relationship caused by the Spirit is “a passive reception of Christ”. Thereafter, faith “apprehends Christ”; thus leading to an active reception.

This two-fold reception of Christ seems to provide a basis for understanding the nature of union in the believer. There is a manner which the union is indissoluble (the passive union); and yet another manner in which faith lays upon Christ (the active union). The active union would thus be capable of development; while the passive union could not be lost.

F. Lastly, As Jesus Christ is the prime receptacle of the Spirit of holiness, as the head of all the saints; so the continual supplies of that Spirit are to be derived from him for the saints’ progress in holiness, till they come to perfection. And faith is the great mean of communication betwixt Christ and us, Acts 15:9. And thus it does, as it empties the soul of all confidence in itself for sanctification, and relies upon him for it according to his word: putting on the saints to use the means of sanctification appointed by him, yet taking their confidence off the means, and setting it on himself, Phil. 3:3. And for the ground of this confidence it has his word, so that his honour and faithfulness are engaged for the supply of the Spirit of sanctification this way, being the way in which he has commanded us to look for it.

Use I. Of information.

A. The absolute necessity of holiness. … There is more evil in sin than suffering, more in man’s sin than the wrath of God. Nay, suppose a man saved from wrath, but not from sin, he is a miserable man; because of his unlikeness to God; for as happiness lies in assimilation to God, it must needs be a miserable case to be so unlike him as sin makes us.

B. In vain do men attempt sanctification without coming to Christ for it. Those that know not Christ may attain to a shadow of holiness, but can never be truly sanctified.

C. Unholiness ought not to stop a sinner from coming to Christ, more than a disease ought to hinder a man to take the physician’s help, or cold from taking the benefit of the fire. And they that will have men to attain to holiness before they believe, are as absurd as one who would have the cripple to walk before he use the cure for his lameness.

D. True faith is the soul’s coming to Christ for sanctification as well as justification. For faith must receive Christ as God offers him, and he offers him with all his salvation. Now, he is made sanctification: Wherefore the soul, being willing to take Christ with all his salvation, to be sanctified, comes to him for it.

Use II. Of Exhortation. Come then to Christ for sanctification.

To press this, I offer the following motives.

Mot. 1. If ye be not holy, ye will never see heaven.—Heaven’s door is bolted on the unholy, Heb. 12:14.—There is another place provided for the unholy impure goats.

Mot. 2. Ye will never attain holiness, if ye come not to Christ for it. How can ye think to thrive following another device than God’s for your end? Ye may do what ye can to reform, ye may bind yourselves with vows to be holy, watch against sin, and press your hearts with the most affecting considerations of heaven, hell, &c. but ye shall as soon bring water out of the flinty rock, as holiness out of all these, till ye believe and unite with Christ. Consider,

1. While ye are out of Christ, ye are under the curse; and is it possible for the cursed tree to bring forth the fruit of holiness?

2. Can ye be holy without sanctifying influences, or can ye expect that these shall be conveyed to you otherwise than through a Mediator, by his Spirit?

3. Ye have nothing wherewith to produce holiness. The most skilful musician cannot play unless his instrument be in tune. The lame man, if he were ever so willing, cannot run till he be cured. Ye are under an utter impotency, by reason of the corruption of your nature.

Lastly, If ye will come to Christ, ye shall be made holy. There is a fulness of merit and spirit in him for sanctification. Come then to the fountain of holiness. The worst of sinners may be sanctified this way, 1 Cor. 6:11.

Wherefore be persuaded of your utter inability to sanctify yourselves, and receive Christ for sanctification, as he is offered to you; and thus alone shall you attain to holiness both in heart and life.

 

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  • Thomas Traherne, The Soul’s Communion with her Savior. 1.1.6
  • Thinking About Meaning While Weeding the Garden
  • Thomas Traherne, The Soul’s Communion With Her Savior 1.1.6
  • Addressing Loneliness
  • Brief in Chiles v Salazar

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Recent Posts

  • Thomas Traherne, The Soul’s Communion with her Savior. 1.1.6
  • Thinking About Meaning While Weeding the Garden
  • Thomas Traherne, The Soul’s Communion With Her Savior 1.1.6
  • Addressing Loneliness
  • Brief in Chiles v Salazar

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