The Saints Safety in Evil Times (sermon)

The Saint's Safety In Evil Times. Richard Sibbes. 1633. Best guess under 60-70 pages. [Source: Bought]

Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth a lie.—Ps. 7:14.

This sermon appears in several different collections of Sibbes' works. Once again, Sibbes is using a psalm of David as his starting point. The subject this time is "the saint's safety in evil times."

In this sermon he speaks of good and evil, right and wrong, heaven and hell. These subjects aren't particularly popular--even within church circles--but these subjects are always relevant. They remain relevant because they feature largely and prominently in the word of God, in the Bible.

Spurgeon said of Sibbes, "Sibbes never wastes the student's time. He scatters pearls and diamonds with both hands." I wholeheartedly agree.

Here are some of the pearls and diamonds within this sermon.

Not only wicked men, but their devices, are the seed of the serpent.

The more liberty we have not to sin, makes our sin the greater.

The more deliberation any man takes in sinning, the more his soul is pleased with wickedness. A heart long exercised in sin will admit of no impression of grace; for the spirits are so absorbed with other designs that they are dry and dead to better things. 

Delight carries the whole strength and marrow of the soul with it; much of the soul is where delight is.

The spirit is either the best or the worst part in a man.

A good Christian thinks it not enough to see good done by others, but labours to have a hand in it himself.

God hath but two things in the world that he much regardeth; his truth, and his church, begotten by his truth; and shall we think that he will suffer long, wretched men who turn that wit and power which they have from him against his truth and church? No, assuredly; but he will give them up by that very wit of theirs, to work their own destruction;

Only wretched man seeks happiness in the way to misery, and heaven in the way to hell.

Whatever we get by sin for the present, it will prove the worst bargain that ever we made. 

Many are not content to go to hell alone, but they will draw as many others as they can into their fellowship here, and torment hereafter. 

That which we should especially labour for is, 1, to be good in ourselves; and 2, to do all the good we can to others, even as God our Father is good, and doth good; and the further our good extends, the more we resemble our Father. Such as we are, such are our thoughts, such are our devices.

What are all our temporal deliverances, if we live still in sin, go on in sin, die in our sins, and so perish eternally?

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

True or False with Richard Sibbes #3

TRUE OR FALSE. If we would have faith ready to die by, we must exercise it well in living by it, and then it will no more fail us than the good things we lay hold on by it, until it hath brought us into heaven, where that office of it is laid aside.

TRUE OR FALSE. Our care must be to know our work, and then to do it; and so to do it as if it were unto God, with conscience of moderate diligence; for over-doing and over-working anything comes either from ostentation or distrust in God. Let us do our work, and leave God to do his own. Diligence and trust in him is only ours, the rest of the burden is his. Trust God and be doing, and let him alone with the rest. He stands upon his credit so much, that it shall appear we have not trusted him in vain, even when we see no appearance of doing any good.

TRUE OR FALSE. A heavenly soul is never satisfied, until it be as near God as is attainable. And the nearer a creature comes to God, the more it is emptied of itself, and all self-aims. Our happiness is more in him, than in ourselves.

TRUE OR FALSE. A sound-hearted Christian hath always a God to go to, a promise to go to, former experience to go to, besides some present experiences of God’s goodness which he enjoys. For the present he is a child of God, a member of Christ, an heir of heaven. He dwells in the love of God in the cross as well as out of it. Ho may be cast out of his happy condition in the world, but never out of God’s favour. If God’s children have cause to praise God in their worst condition, what difference is there betwixt their best estate and their worst?

TRUE OR FALSE. Our life is nothing but as it were a web woven with interminglings of wants and favours, crosses and!blessings, standings and fallings, combat and victory, therefore there should be a perpetual intercourse of praying and praising in our hearts.

TRUE OR FALSE. We ought not only to give thanks, but to be thankful, to meditate and study the praises of God. Our whole life should be nothing else but a continual blessing of his holy name, endeavouring to bring in all we have, and to lay it out for God and his people, to see where he hath any receivers.

TRUE OR FALSE. We live not to live. Our life is not the end of itself, but the praise of the giver. God hath joined his glory and our happiness together. It is fit that we should refer all that is good to his glory, that hath joined his glory to our best good, in being glorified in our salvation.

TRUE OR FALSE. What makes heaven but the presence of God? and what makes hell but the absence of God? Let God be in any condition, though never so ill, yet it is comfortable; and usually we find more of God in trouble than when we are out of trouble. The comforts of religion never come till others fail.

TRUE OR FALSE. It is our chief wisdom to know him, our holiness to love him, our happiness to enjoy him. There is in him to be had whatsoever can truly make us happy. We go to our treasure and our portion in all our wants; we live by it and value ourselves by it.

TRUE OR FALSE. God in his own time, which is best for thee, will be the salvation of thy countenance; he will compass thee about with songs of deliverance, and make it appear at last that he hath care of thee.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

True or False with Richard Sibbes #2

TRUE OR FALSE. There is no condition but therein we may exercise some grace, and honour God in some measure.

TRUE OR FALSE. Men are not damned because they cannot do better, but because they will do no better; if there were no will, there would be no hell.

TRUE OR FALSE. Many out of a misconceit think that corruption is greatest when they feel it most, whereas indeed, the less we see it and lament it, the more it is. The more we see and grieve for pride, which is an immediate issue of our corrupted nature, the less it is, because we see it by a contrary grace; the more sight the more hatred, the more hatred of sin, the more love of grace, and the more love the more life, which the more lively it is, the more it is sensible of the contrary. Upon every discovery and conflict corruption loses some ground, and grace gains upon it.

TRUE OR FALSE. This imagination of ours is become the seat of vanity, and thereupon of vexation to us, because it apprehends a greater happiness in outward good things than there is, and a greater misery in outward evil things than indeed there is; and when experience shews us that there is not that good in those things which we imagine to be, but, contrarily, we find much evil in them which we never expected, hereupon the soul cannot but be troubled.

TRUE OR FALSE. It mars all in religion when we go about heavenly things with earthly affections, and seek not Christ in Christ, but the world.

TRUE OR FALSE. A good Christian begins his repentance where his sin begins, in his thoughts, which are the next issue of his heart.

TRUE OR FALSE. We cannot have too much care upon what we fix our thoughts.

TRUE OR FALSE. It is not so much the having of grace, as grace in exercise, that preserves the soul.

TRUE OR FALSE. And it is good to renew our resolutions again and again: for every new resolution brings the soul closer to God, and gets further in him, and brings fresh strength from him; which, if we neglect, our corruption joining with outward hindrances will carry us further and further backward, and this will double, yea multiply our trouble and grief to recover ourselves again.

TRUE OR FALSE. Trust or confidence is nothing else but the strength of hope. If the thing hoped for be deferred, then of necessity it enforces waiting, and waiting is nothing else but hope and trust lengthened.

TRUE OR FALSE. God only is the fit object of trust. He hath all the properties of that which should be trusted on. A man can be in no condition wherein God is at a loss and cannot help him. If comforts be wanting, he can create comforts, not only out of nothing, but out of discomforts.

TRUE OR FALSE. Only they that know God will trust in him; not that knowledge alone is sufficient, but because the sweetness of God’s love is let into the soul thereby, which draweth the whole soul to him. We are bidden to trust perfectly in God; therefore, seeing we have a God so full of perfection to trust in, we should labour to trust perfectly in him.

TRUE OR FALSE. He knows our souls best, and our souls know him best, in adversity.

TRUE OR FALSE. Sin makes us afraid of that which should be our greatest comfort; it puts a sting into every other evil. Upon the seizing of any evil, either of body, soul, or condition, the guilty soul is embittered and enraged; for from that which it feels, it fore-speaks to itself worse to come, it interprets all that befalls as the messengers of an angry God, sent in displeasure to take revenge upon it.

TRUE OR FALSE. When men will know us least, God will know us most. He knows our souls in adversity, and knows them so as to support and comfort them, and that from the spring-head of comfort, whereby the sweetest comforts are fetched.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

True or False with Richard Sibbes #1

TRUE OR FALSE. True peace arises from knowing the worst first, and then our freedom from it. It is a miserable peace that riseth from ignorance of evil. It is Christ’s manner to trouble our souls first, and then to come with healing in his wings.

TRUE OR FALSE. Religion indeed brings crosses with it, but then it brings comforts above those crosses.

TRUE OR FALSE. We are prone to cast down ourselves, we are accessory to our own trouble, and weave the web of our own sorrow, and hamper ourselves in the cords of our own twining. God neither loves nor wills that we should be too much cast down. He was troubled himself that we should not be troubled. The ground, therefore, of our disquiet is chiefly from ourselves, though Satan will have a hand in it.

TRUE OR FALSE. Grief is like lead to the soul, heavy and cold; it sinks downwards, and carries the soul with it.

TRUE OR FALSE. We must not only be ready to give an account of our faith, upon what grounds we believe; but of all our actions, upon what grounds we do what we do; and of our passions, upon what grounds we are passionate; as in a well-governed state, uproar and sedition is never stirred, but account must be given.

TRUE OR FALSE. Satan could not deceive us, unless we deceived ourselves first, and are willingly deceived.

TRUE OR FALSE. First or last, self-denial and victory over ourselves is absolutely necessary; otherwise faith, which is a grace that requireth self-denial, will never be brought into the soul, and bear rule there.

TRUE OR FALSE. God hath made the soul for a communion with himself, which communion is especially placed in the affections, which are the springs of all spiritual worship. Then the affections are well ordered, when we are fit to have communion with God, to love, joy, trust, to delight in him above all things.

TRUE OR FALSE. Affections are as it were the wind of the soul, and then the soul is carried as it should be, when it is neither so becalmed that it moves not when it should, nor yet tossed with tempests to move disorderly; when it is so well balanced that it is neither lift up nor cast down too much, but keepeth a steady course. Our affections must not rise to become unruly passions, for then as a river that overfloweth the banks, they carry much slime and soil with them.

TRUE OR FALSE. Those that love too much will always grieve too much. It is the greatness of our affections which causeth the sharpness of our afflictions.

TRUE OR FALSE. He that is much in heaven in his thoughts is free from being tossed with tempests here below.

TRUE OR FALSE. If we can not prevent wicked thoughts, yet we may deny them lodging in our hearts. It is our giving willing entertainment to sinful motions that increaseth guilt, and hindereth our peace. It is that which moveth God to give us up to a further degree of evil affections. Therefore what we are afraid to do before men, we should be afraid to think before God.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: The Soul's Conflict Within Itself

The Soul's Conflict with Itself and Victory Over Itself By Faith. Richard Sibbes. 1635. 328 pages. [Source: Bought]

First sentence from the introduction:

There be two sorts of people always in the visible Church; one that Satan keeps under with false peace, whose life is nothing but a diversion to present contentments, and a running away from God and their own hearts, which they know can speak no good unto them, these speak peace to themselves, but God speaks none. Such have nothing to do with this scripture; the way for these men to enjoy comfort, is to be soundly troubled. True peace arises from knowing the worst first, and then our freedom from it. It is a miserable peace that ariseth from ignorance of evil. The angel troubled the waters, John 5, and then cured those that stepped in. It is Christ's manner to trouble our souls first, and then to come with healing in his wings. But there is another sort of people, who being drawn out of Satan's kingdom and within the covenant of grace, whom Satan labors to unsettle and disquiet: being the god of the world, he is vexed to see men in the world, walk above the world. Since he cannot hinder their estate, he will trouble their peace, and damp their spirits, and cut asunder the sinew of all their endeavors. These should take themselves to task as David doth here, and labour to maintain their portion, and the glory of a Christian profession.

First sentence from chapter one: The Psalms are, as it were, the anatomy of a holy man, which lay inside of a truly devout man outward to the view of others. If the Scriptures be compared to a body, the Psalms may well be the heart, they are so full of sweet affections, and passions. For in other portions of Scripture God speaks to us; but in the Psalms holy men speak to God as in their own hearts. 

Premise/plot: The Soul's Conflict with Itself and Victory Over Itself by Faith is a collection of sermons by Richard Sibbes largely about David's psalm 42. The subject is in some ways simple and practical: how is a Christian to live and walk in this life in order to best prepare for the next; OR: how does Christian sanctification come about?!?! No doubt the Christian continues to struggle with sin, but how does the Christian handle sin in his or her life?!?! The subject is in some ways complex and quite theological. It is one thing to grasp intellectually certain doctrines and principles. It is quite another to live out the faith and "work out your salvation."

My thoughts: This one is PACKED with rich, insightful truths. It is a substantive, meaty read. But I found it to be well worth the effort. Some of the sentences were long--I won't lie. And the style itself is not modern or contemporary. Richard Sibbes was a Puritan who lived 1577-1635. This one wasn't just "good" it was FANTASTIC and WONDERFUL. The truths proclaimed within this one need to be heard, read, ABSORBED. Sibbes is still relevant because the Christian struggles are the same no matter the century.

1. To consider the greatness and goodness of Almighty God and his love to us in Christ. 2. The joys of heaven and the torments of hell. 3. The last and strict day of account. 4. The vanity of all earthly things. 5. The uncertainty of our lives, etc. From the meditation of these truths the soul will be prepared to have right conceits of things, and discourse upon true grounds of them, and think with itself that if these things be so indeed, then I must frame my life suitable to these principles. Hence arise true affections in the soul, true fear of God, true love and desire after the best things, etc.

The way to expel wind out of our bodies is to take some wholesome nourishment, and the way to expel windy fancies from the soul is to feed upon serious truths.

In Christ, God’s nature becomes lovely to us, and ours to God; otherwise there is an utter enmity betwixt his pure and our impure nature. Christ hath made up the vast gulf between God and us.

God is the cause why things are not, as well as why they are.

Nothing should displease us that pleaseth God: neither should anything be pleasing to us that displeaseth him. This conformity is the ground of comfort.

That we should not call God’s love into question, he not only gives us, (1) his word, but a binding word, his promise; and not only (2) a naked promise, but hath (3) entered into a covenant with us, founded upon full satisfaction by the blood of Christ, and unto this covenant sealed by the blood of the Lord Jesus, he hath (4) added the seals of sacraments, and unto this he hath added (5) his oath, that there might be no place left of doubting to the distrustful heart of man.

By the bare word of God it is that the heavens continue, and the earth, without any other foundation, hangs in the midst of the world; therefore well may the soul stay itself on that, even when it hath nothing else in sight to rely upon.

All our misery is either in having a false foundation, or else in loose building upon a true.

Trust is never sound but upon a spiritual conviction of the truth and goodness we rely upon, for the effecting of which the Spirit of God must likewise subdue the rebellion and malice of our trill, that so it may be suitable and level to divine things, and relish them as they are. We must apprehend the love of God, and the fruits of it, as better than life itself, and then choosing and cleaving to the same will soon follow; for as there is a fitness in divine truths to all the necessities of the soul, so the soul must be fitted by them to savour and apply them to itself; and then from an harmony between the soul and that which it applies itself unto there will follow, not only peace in the soul, but joy and delight surpassing any contentment in the world besides.

Our trusting in God should follow God’s order in promising. The first promise is of forgiveness of sin to repentant believers; next, 2, of healing and sanctifying grace; then, 3, the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven to them that are sanctified; 4, and then the promises of all things needful in our way to the kingdom, etc.

Faith is an establishing grace, by faith we stand, and stand fast, and are able to withstand whatsoever opposeth us. For what can stand against God, upon whose truth and power faith relies?

Conceive of God’s mercy as no ordinary mercy, and Christ’s obedience as no ordinary obedience. 

Corruptions be strong, but stronger is be that is in us than that corruption that is in us. When we are weak in our own sense, then are we strong in him who perfecteth strength in our weakness, felt and acknowledged. 

In all kind of troubles, it is not the ingredients that God puts into the cup so much afflicts us, as the ingredients of our distempered passions mingled with them.

But the greatest trial of trust is in our last encounter with death, wherein we shall find not only a deprivation of all comforts in this life, but a confluence of all ill at once; but we must know, God will be the God of his unto death, and not only unto death, but in death. We may trust God the Father with our bodies and souls which he hath created; and God the Son with the bodies and souls which he hath redeemed; and the Holy Spirit with those bodies and souls that he hath sanctified.

We complain of the times, but let us take heed we be not a part of the misery of the times: that they be not the worse for us. 

Christ himself is nothing else but salvation clothed in our flesh. When we embrace Christ in the arms of our faith, we embrace nothing but salvation. He makes up that sweet name given him by his Father, and brought from heaven by an angel to the full, Luke 2:14; a name in the faith of which it is impossible for any believing soul to sink.

I will be sharing quotes from this book throughout the next few weeks. I will do so in a bite-size manner in the hopes that you will take the time to absorb some of the richness for yourself and benefit from it in your own life.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Sword of the Wicked

Sword of the Wicked. Richard Sibbes. 1577-1635. [Source: Bought]

The Sword of the Wicked is an exposition of Psalm 42, focusing specifically Psalm 42:10.

Richard Sibbes walks us through nearly the entire Psalm. He points out details about David, about God, about believers like you and me.

Here is how Sibbes describes the book of Psalms: "If the Scriptures be compared to a body, the Psalms may well be the heart, they are so full of sweet and holy affections and passions."

He continues, "In other portions of Scripture, God speaks to us; in the Psalms, holy men (especially David, who was the penman of most of them), speak to God, wherein we have the passages of a broken, humble soul to God."

He then begins by looking at the author of the Psalm, David, and his situation. What was David's state of mind when he wrote Psalm 42? What can we learn about David? What can we learn about God? How can we apply it to ourselves? These are the questions Sibbes asks of the text.

Much of the psalm deals with David's grief, for example. Sibbes points out that David's grief "ariseth from his desire." What did David desire most? God! I loved this insight: "He that loves most and desireth most, he always grieves most." Sibbes notes that David didn't just pour out his tears, or his words. He poured out his SOUL as well.

This is a lesson worth noting, especially in this day and age when preachers like to use gimmicks and guarantee success.

Beloved, neither sin, nor grief for sin, are stilled and quieted at the first. You have some short-spirited Christians, if all be not quiet at the first, all is lost with them; but it is not so with a true Christian soul, with the best soul living. It was not so with David: when he was in distemper, he checks himself; the distemper was not yet stilled, he checks himself again; then the distemper breaks out again, then he checks himself again; and all little enough to bring his soul to a holy, blessed, quiet temper, to that blessed tranquillity and rest that the soul should be in, before it can enjoy its own happiness, and enjoy sweet communion with God.

After a few pages of introduction, Sibbes narrows down the focus to Psalm 42:10. He addresses David's enemies, and examines the enemy's attacks.

There hath been contrary seeds from the beginning of the world, and will be while Satan is in the world. Till he be cast into the ‘burning lake,’ and he there in perpetual chains adjudged to torment, he will raise up men alway that shall he of his side. And as long as that grand enemy is, and as long as men are that will be subject to his government, as alway there will he, he will have a great faction in the world. And by reason that he hath a party in us, the flesh, he will have the greatest party in the world. The most go the broad way, so that God’s children, even David himself, shall not want enemies.

Their purpose was therefore to shake his faith and affiance in God; and herein they showed themselves right, the children of the devil, whoso scope is to shake the faith and affiance of God’s people, in all his temptations, and by his instruments.

For the devil knows well enough, that as long as God and the soul join together, it is in vain to trouble any man; therefore he labours to put jealousies, to accuse God to man, and man to God. He knows there is nothing in the world can stand against God. As long as we make God our confidence, all his enterprises are in vain.

Keep faith, and keep all. If faith be safe, all is safe; let us strengthen that, and strengthen all; weaken that, and we weaken all. What cares Satan for other sins that we fall into? He aims at our assurance, that we may doubt of God’s love, whom we have been so bold as to sin against.

That is it he aims at, to make weak faith in the particular acts of sin we commit. He knows that sin naturally breeds doubts, as flesh breeds worms.

Where sin is, if it be in never such a little degree, he knows it will breed doubts and perplexities, and where they are, he hath that he would have. He labours to hinder that sweet communion that should be between the soul and God: Where is note thy God? You see wicked men are the children of the devil right in this.

Then he examines David's response...and asks what our response should be as well. They were teasing and taunting, WHERE IS YOUR GOD?

‘Where is thy God? David might rather have said to them, Where are your eyes? where is your sight? for God is not only in heaven, but in me.

Though David was shut from the sanctuary, yet David’s soul was a sanctuary for God; for God is not tied to a sanctuary made with hands. God hath two sanctuaries, he hath two heavens: the heaven of heavens and a broken spirit. God dwelt in David as in his temple. God was with David and in him; and he was never more with him, nor never more in him, than in his greatest afflictions. They wanted eyes, he wanted not God. 

God is with his church and children, and wicked men are not aware of it. Christ is in them, and they are not aware of it. Christ was in the saints when Saul persecuted them, and Paul was not aware of it, ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Who art thou, Lord?’ saith he. Alas! he dreamed not of Christ. However wicked men of the world think, yet God is near his own children, in the most disconsolate condition that can be.

Now, therefore, to make some use of it to ourselves, let us enter into our own souls, and examine with what spirits and feeling we hear God reproached, and religion reproached, and hindered, and disgraced any kind of way. If we be not sensible of this, and sensible to the quick, we may suspect we are not of David’s spirit, that was a man after God’s own heart.

When we see wicked men go about to pervert religion, and overturn all, and we are not stirred at it, it is an ill sign.

He that hath no zeal in him hath no love.

Spiritual warfare. Believers tend to think either too much or too little about Satan. They tend to either give too much credit to Satan, make him more powerful, more present than he really is. OR. They tend to deny his existence all together. The Bible makes it clear that Satan is real, that his defeat is certain. We are called to be aware spiritually, and to fight the good fight. Often we don't recognize the fact we're in a war and that we're called to be part of that--equipped to be part of the Lord's army.

This was a short read. It is one sermon from Sibbes' Complete Works.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: The Bruised Reed

The Bruised Reed. Richard Sibbes. 1630. [Source: Bought]

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law. Isaiah 42:1-4

Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory;
and in his name the Gentiles will hope.” Matthew 12:15-21

First sentence: The prophet Isaiah, being lifted up and carried with the wing of a prophetic spirit, passes over all the time between him and the appearing of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Seeing with the eye of prophecy, and with the eye of faith, Christ as present, he presents him in the name of God to the spiritual eye of others.

If you read only one Puritan sermon, I'm tempted to say that it should be Sibbes' The Bruised Reed. For anyone wanting to taste and see how glorious, how wonderful, how sweet Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior really is should read it. The sermon teaches us about ourselves AND about Christ. 

I loved this one so much I am already thinking about rereading it. 

Quotes: 

• Christ was God’s servant in the greatest piece of service that ever was, a chosen and a choice servant who did and suffered all by commission from the Father. In this we may see the sweet love of God toward us, in that he counts the work of our salvation by Christ his greatest service, and in that he will put his only beloved Son to that service.
• In time of temptation, apprehensive consciences look so much to the present trouble they are in, that they need to be roused up to behold the one in whom they may find rest for their distressed souls.
• In all that Christ did and suffered as Mediator, we must see God in him reconciling the world to himself (2Cor. 5:19).
• What a support to our faith this is, that God the Father, the party offended by our sins, is so well pleased with the work of redemption! And what a comfort this is, that seeing God’s love rests on Christ as well pleased in him, we may conclude that he is as well-pleased with us if we are in Christ!
• For his love rests in a whole Christ, in the mystical Christ, as well as in the natural Christ, because he loves him and us with one love. Let us, therefore, embrace Christ, and in him embrace God’s love, and build our faith safely on a Savior who is furnished with so high a commission. See here, for our comfort, a sweet agreement of all three persons: the Father gives a commission to Christ; the Spirit furnishes and sanctifies it, and Christ himself executes the office of a Mediator. Our redemption is founded upon the joint agreement of all three persons of the Trinity. 
• Shall our sins discourage us when he appears there only for sinners? Are you bruised? Be of good comfort, he calls you. Do not conceal your wounds, open everything before him and do not take Satan’s counsel. Go to Christ, although trembling, as the poor woman who said, “If I may only touch his garment” (Matt. 9:21). We shall be healed and have a gracious answer. Go boldly to God in our flesh; he is flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone for this reason: so that we might go boldly to him. Never fear to go to God, since we have such a Mediator with him; he is not only our friend but our brother and husband. Well might the angel proclaim from heaven, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy” (Luke 2:10). Well might the apostle stir us up to “rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). Paul was well-advised upon what grounds he did it. Peace and joy are two main fruits of Christ’s kingdom. Let the world be as it will, if we cannot rejoice in the world, yet we may rejoice in the Lord. His presence makes any condition comfortable. “Do not be afraid,” he says to his disciples when they were afraid, as if they had seen a ghost, “It is I” (Matt. 14:27), as if there were no cause of fear wherever he was present. 
• When in temptation, think “Christ was tempted for me; my graces and comforts will be according to my trials. If Christ is so merciful as not to break me, then I will not break myself by despair, nor will I yield myself to the roaring lion, Satan, to break me in pieces.”
• A man truly bruised judges sin to be the greatest evil, and the favor of God the greatest good.
• First, we must conceive of bruising either as a state into which God brings us, or as a duty to be performed by us. Both are meant here.
• But if we have this for a foundation truth, that there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us, there can be no danger in thorough dealing. It is better to go bruised to heaven than sound to hell. Therefore let us not take off ourselves too soon, nor pull off the plaster before the cure be wrought, but keep ourselves under this work till sin be the sourest, and Christ the sweetest, of all things. 
• And when God’s hand is upon us in any way, it is good to divert our sorrow for other things to the root of all, which is sin. Let our grief run most in that channel, that as sin bred grief, so grief may consume sin. 
• The purest actions of the purest men need Christ to perfume them; and this is his office. When we pray, we need to pray again for Christ to pardon the defects of our prayers.
• When blindness and boldness, ignorance and arrogance, weakness and willfulness, meet together in men, it renders them odious to God, burdensome in society, dangerous in their counsels, disturbers of better purposes, intractable and incapable of better direction, miserable in the issue. Where Christ shows his gracious power in weakness, he does it by letting men understand themselves so far as to breed humility, and magnify God’s love to such as they are. He does it as a preservative against discouragements from weakness, to bring men into a less distance from grace, as an advantage to poverty of spirit, rather than greatness of condition and parts, which yield to corrupt nature fuel for pride. Christ refuses none for weakness of parts, that none should be discouraged, but accepts none for greatness, that none should be lifted up with that which is of so little reckoning with God.
• Truth fears nothing so much as concealment, and desires nothing so much as clearly to be laid open to the view of all. When it is most unadorned, it is most lovely and powerful.
• Christ came down from heaven and emptied himself of majesty in tender love to souls. Shall we not come down from our high conceits to do any poor soul good? Shall man be proud after God has been humble?
• What is the gospel itself but a merciful moderation, in which Christ’s obedience is esteemed ours, and our sins laid upon him, wherein God, from being a judge, becomes our Father, pardoning our sins and accepting our obedience, though feeble and blemished? We are now brought to heaven under the covenant of grace by a way of love and mercy.
• Heavenly truths must have a heavenly light to discern them. Natural men see heavenly things, not in their own proper light, but by an inferior light. In every converted man, God puts a light into the eye of his soul proportionable to the light of truths revealed to him. A carnal eye will never see spiritual things.
• We must, therefore, walk by his light, not the blaze of our own fire.
• God must light our candle (Psa. 18:28) or else we will abide in darkness. Those sparks that are not kindled from heaven are not strong enough to keep us from lying in sorrow, though they make a greater blaze and show than the light from above, as madmen do greater things than sober men, but by a false strength: so the excess of these men’s joy arises from a false light. ‘The light of the wicked shall be put out’ (Job 18:5). The light which some men have is like lightning which, after a sudden flash, leaves them more in darkness. They can love the light as it shines, but hate it as it discovers and directs.
• Spiritual light is distinct. It apprehends spiritual good and applies it to ourselves; but common light is confused, and lets sin lie quiet. Where fire is, in any degree, it will fight everything contrary to it. God put irreconcilable hatred between light and darkness from the first; so also between good and ill, flesh and Spirit (Gal. 5:17). Grace will never join with sin, any more than fire with water.
• All scandalous actions are only thoughts at the first. Thoughts are seeds of actions.
• It is better to enjoy the benefit of light, though with smoke, than to be altogether in the dark.
• There is never a holy sigh, never a tear we shed, which is lost. And as every grace increases by exercise of itself, so does the grace of prayer.
• By prayer we learn to pray. So, likewise, we should take heed of a spirit of discouragement in all other holy duties, since we have so gracious a Saviour. Pray as we are able, hear as we are able, strive as we are able, do as we are able, according to the measure of grace received.
• We must know for our comfort that Christ was not anointed to this great work of Mediator for lesser sins only, but for the greatest, if we have but a spark of true faith to lay hold on him. Therefore, if there be any bruised reed, let him not make an exception of himself, when Christ does not make an exception of him. ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden’ (Matt. 11:28). Why should we not make use of so gracious a disposition? We are only poor for this reason, that we do not know our riches in Christ. In time of temptation, believe Christ rather than the devil. Believe truth from truth itself. Hearken not to a liar, an enemy and a murderer.
• We are weak, but we are his; we are deformed, but yet carry his image upon us. A father looks not so much at the blemishes of his child as at his own nature in him; so Christ finds matter of love from that which is his own in us. He sees his own nature in us: we are diseased, but yet his members. Who ever neglected his own members because they were sick or weak? None ever hated his own flesh. Can the head forget the members? Can Christ forget himself? We are his fullness, as he is ours.
• Cast yourself into the arms of Christ, and if you perish, perish there. If you do not, you are sure to perish. If mercy is to be found anywhere, it is there.
• What greater unthankfulness can there be than to despise any help that Christ in mercy has provided for us?
• The same Spirit that convinces us of the necessity of his righteousness to cover us convinces us also of the necessity of his government to rule us. His love to us moves him to frame us to be like himself, and our love to him stirs us up to be such as he may take delight in, neither do we have faith or hope any further than we have a concern to be purged as he is pure.
• None ever did truly desire mercy for pardon but desired mercy for healing.
• The first and chief ground of our comfort is that Christ as a priest offered himself as a sacrifice to his Father for us. The guilty soul flies first to Christ crucified, made a curse for us. Thence it is that Christ has right to govern us; thence it is that he gives us his Spirit as our guide to lead us home.
• We must be new creatures. They seek for heaven in hell that seek for spiritual love in an unchanged heart.
• Truth is truth, and error, error, and that which is unlawful is unlawful, whether men think so or not.
• God has put an eternal difference between light and darkness, good and ill, which no creature’s conceit can alter; and therefore no man’s judgment is the measure of things further than it agrees to truth stamped upon things themselves by God.
• The purpose of Christ’s coming was to destroy the works of the devil, both for us and in us; and the purpose of the resurrection was, as well as sealing to us the assurance of his victory, so also (1) to quicken our souls from death in sin; (2) to free our souls from such snares and sorrows of spiritual death as accompany the guilt of sin; (3) to raise them up more comfortable, as the sun breaks forth more gloriously out of a thick cloud; (4) to raise us out of particular slips and failings stronger; (5) to raise us out of all troublesome and dark conditions of this life; and (6) at length to raise our bodies out of the dust. For the same power that the Spirit showed in raising Christ, our Head, from the sorrows of death and the lowest degree of his abasement, that power, obtained by the death of Christ from God, now appeased by that sacrifice, the Spirit will show in the church, which is his body, and in every particular member thereof.
• A Christian conquers, even when he’ is conquered. When he is conquered by some sins, he gets victory over others more dangerous, such as spiritual pride and security.
• True judgment in us advances Christ, and Christ will advance it. All sin is either from false principles, or ignorance, or thoughtlessness, or unbelief of what is true. By lack of consideration and weakness of assent, Eve lost her hold at first (Gen. 3:6). It is good, therefore, to store up true principles in our hearts, and to refresh them often, that, in virtue of them, our affections and actions may be more vigorous. When judgment is fortified, evil finds no entrance, but good things have a side within us to entertain them.
• How can we think that Christ will lead us out to victory, when we take counsel with his and our enemies?
• Where Christ is, all happiness must follow. If Christ goes, all will go.
• Nothing is stronger than humility, which goes out of itself, or weaker than pride, which rests on its own foundation.
• Christ will not leave us till he has made us like himself, all glorious within and without, and presented us blameless before his Father (Jude 24).
• Let us think when we are troubled with our sins that Christ has this in charge from his Father, that he shall not ‘quench the smoking flax’ until he has subdued all. This puts a shield into our hands to beat back ‘all the fiery darts of the wicked’ (Eph. 6:16). Satan will object, ‘You are a great sinner.’ We may answer, ‘Christ is a strong Saviour.’ But he will object, ‘You have no faith, no love.’ ‘Yes, a spark of faith and love.’ ‘But Christ will not regard that.’ ‘Yes, he will not quench the smoking flax: ‘But this is so little and weak that it will vanish and come to naught.” Nay, but Christ will cherish it, until he has brought judgment to victory.’ And this much we have already for our comfort, that, even when we first believed, we overcame God himself, as it were, by believing the pardon of all our sins, notwithstanding the guilt of our own consciences and his absolute justice. Now, having been prevailers with God, what shall stand against us if we can learn to make use of our faith?
• If we fail, he will cherish us. If we are guided by him, we shall overcome. If we overcome, we are sure to be crowned. As for the present state of the church, we see now how forlorn it is, yet let us comfort ourselves that Christ’s cause shall prevail. Christ will rule, till his enemies become his footstool (Psa. 110:1), not only to trample upon, but to help him up to mount higher in glory. Babylon shall fall, ‘for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her’ (Rev. 18:8). Christ’s judgment, not only in his children, but also against his enemies, shall be victorious, for he is ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’ (Rev. 19:16). God will not always suffer antichrist and his supporters to revel and swagger in the church as they do.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Sermon Review: A Description of Christ

A Description of Christ. Richard Sibbes. (1577-1635, Sibbes lifespan). 29 pages. [Source:Bought]

Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. Isaiah 42:1-2

Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. Matthew 12:18

Instead of trying to read ALL of volume one and then reviewing it as a whole, I thought I would review each work separately. The first work is a sermon entitled, "A Description of Christ." The preaching text is Isaiah 42:1-2 and Matthew 12:18. (I believe other verses are used as well as supports.) This sermon is also available online if you should want to seek it out. 

In this sermon, Sibbes is describing the goodness--the sweetness--of Christ. This is my first time reading Sibbes, but, so far at least is to God--to Christ--be the GLORY. I think from start to finish, his goal is to point his readers--his listeners--to Christ so they can be saved. The sermon shows us WHY Christ is worth beholding, and it speaks of his servanthood. How Christ came as a prophet, priest, and king. The sermon speaks of our union with Christ as giving us all we could ever possibly want or need. It speaks of who Christ is, and who we are in Christ and apart from Christ. 

Favorite quotes:

Are you dejected? here is comfort; are you sinful? here is righteousness; are you led away with present contentments? here you have honours, and pleasures, and all in Christ Jesus. You have a right to common pleasures that others have, and besides them you have interest to others that are everlasting pleasures that shall never fail, so that there is nothing that is dejecting and abasing in man, but there is comfort for it in Christ Jesus; he is a salve for every sore, a remedy for every malady; therefore, ‘Behold my servant.’

We were severed and scattered from God. His office was to gather us together again, to bring us all to one head again, to bring us to himself, and so to God, to reconcile us, as the Scripture phrase is, Col.1:20. Now, it being the greatest work and service that over was, it required the greatest servant; for no creature in the world could perform it.

He is a servant that bears another man’s burden. There was a double burden—of obedience active, and obedience passive. He bore them both. He came under the law for us, both doing what we should have done, and indeed far more acceptably, and suffering that we should have suffered, and far more acceptably. He being our surety, being a more excellent person, he did bear our burden, and did our work, therefore he was God’s servant, and our servant; and God’s servant, because he was our servant, because he came to do a work behoveful to us.

Our liberty comes from his service and slavery, our life from his death, our adoption and sonship and all comes from his abasement.

A Christian is the greatest freeman in the world; he is free from the wrath of God, free from hell and damnation, from the curse of the law; but then, though he be free in these respects, yet, in regard of love, he is the greatest servant. Love abaseth him to do all the good he can; and the more the Spirit of Christ is in us, the more it will abase us to anything wherein we can be serviceable.

Christ was chosen before all worlds to be the head of the elect. He was predestinate and ordained by God. As we are ordained to salvation, so Christ is ordained to be the head of all that shall be saved. He was chosen eternally, and chosen in time. He was singled out to the work by God; and all others that are chosen are chosen in him. There had been no choosing of men but in him; for God saw us so defiled, lying in our filth, that he could not look upon us but in his Son. He chose him, and us in him.

Was Christ a chosen servant of God, and shall not we take God’s choice? Is not God’s choice the best and the wisest? Hath God chosen Christ to work our salvation, and shall we choose any other?

Again, if Christ be a chosen servant, O let us take heed how we neglect Christ. When God hath chosen him for us, shall not we think him worthy to be embraced and regarded; shall we not kiss the Son with the kiss of love, and faith, and subjection?

He is a Saviour of God’s own choosing, refuse him not. 

What is the reason that men refuse this chosen stone? They will not be laid low enough to build upon this corner stone, this hidden stone. The excellency of Christ is hidden, it appears not to men, men will not be squared to be built upon him. Stones for a building must be framed, and made even, and flat. Men stick out with this and that lust, they will not be pared and cut and fitted for Christ. If they may have their lusts and wicked lives, they will admit of Christ. But we must make choice of him as a stone to build upon him; and to be built on him, we must be made like him. We like not this laying low and abasing, therefore we refuse this corner stone, though God hath made him the corner of building to all those that have the life of grace here, or shall have glory hereafter. God hath chosen him only, and we must choose him only, that we may be framed and laid upon him to make up one building.

This is our comfort and our confidence, that God accepts us, because he accepts his beloved; and when he shall cease to love Christ, he shall cease to love the members of Christ. They and Christ make one mystical Christ. This is our comfort in dejection for sin. We are so and so indeed, but Christ is the chosen servant of God, ‘in whom he delighteth,’ and delights in us in him. It is no matter what we are in ourselves, but what we are in Christ when we are once in him and continue in him. God loves us with that inseparable love wherewith he loves his own Son.

Let us present to ourselves thoughts of God as the Scripture sets forth God to us.

All God’s love and the fruits of it come to us as we are in Christ, and are one with him.

And shall God love him and delight in him, and shall not our soul delight in Christ? 

We should therefore desire God to shed the love of Christ into our hearts more and more, that we may feel in our souls the love that he bears to us, and may love God and Christ again, for that that he hath done for us.

The very beholding of Christ is a transforming sight. The Spirit that makes us new creatures, and stirs us up to behold this servant, it is a transforming beholding. If we look upon him with the eye of faith, it will make us like Christ; for the gospel is a mirror, and such a mirror, that when we look into it, and see ourselves interested in it, we are changed from glory to glory, 2 Cor. 3:18. A man cannot look upon the love of God and of Christ in the gospel, but it will change him to be like God and Christ.

For how can we see Christ, and God in Christ, but we shall see how God hates sin, and this will transform us to hate it as God doth, who hated it so that it could not be expiated but with the blood of Christ, God-man.

There are three main defects in man since the fall. There is ignorance and blindness. There is rebellion in the will and affections. And in regard of his condition, by reason of the sins of nature and life, a subjection to a cursed estate, to the wrath of God and eternal damnation. Hereupon comes a threefold office in Christ, that is ordained to save man, to cure this threefold mischief and malady.

As we are ignorant and blind, he is a prophet to instruct us, to convince us of the ill state we are in, and then to convince us of the good he intends us, and hath wrought for us, to instruct us in all things concerning our everlasting comfort. He is such a prophet as teacheth not only the outward, but the inward man. He openeth the heart, he teacheth to do the things he teacheth. Men teach what we should do, but they teach not the doing of them. He is such a prophet as teacheth us the very things; he teacheth us to love and to obey, &c.

And answerable to the rebellion and sinfulness of our dispositions, he is a king to subdue whatsoever is ill in us, and likewise to subdue all opposite power without us. By little and little he will trample all enemies under his feet, and under our feet, too, ere long.

Now, as we are cursed by reason of our sinful condition, so he is a priest to satisfy the wrath of God for us. He was made a curse for us, Gal. 3:13. He became a servant, that, being so, he might die, and undergo the cursed death of the cross; not only death, but a cursed death, and so his blood might be an atonement as a priest. So, answerable to the threefold ill in us, you see here is a threefold office in Christ.

Let us labour, then, to see where to have supply in all our wants. We have a full treasury to go to. All treasure is hid in Christ for us. What a comfort is this in anything we want! If we want the favour of God, go to his beloved Christ, desire God to love us in his beloved, and to accept us in his gracious Son, in him whom he hath made his servant, and anointed with his Spirit for that purpose.

Christ is a prophet to teach us the way to heaven, but how few be there that will be directed by him! Christ is a king to subdue all our spiritual and worst enemies, to subdue those enemies that kings tremble at, to subdue death, to subdue the fear of judgment and the wrath of God, and yet how few will come under his government! ‘Christ is the light of the world,’ John 9:5, yet how few follow him! Christ is the way, yet how few tread in his steps! Christ is our wisdom and our riches, yet how few go to him to fetch any riches, but content themselves with the transitory things of this life! Men live as if Christ were nothing, or did nothing concern them, as if he were a person abstracted from them, as if he were not a head or husband, as if he had received the Spirit only for himself and not for them, whereas all that is in Christ is for us.

A man shall never go to heaven but by such a disposition and frame and temper of soul as is wrought by the Holy Ghost, persuading the soul first of the love and favour of God in Christ.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible