Pride # 5
But the attempt is utterly fruitless. These things are wholly distinct in themselves, and must be distinctly managed by the soul in its dealings with God. The confounding of them by pride will only dishonor the grace of God, disturb our peace, and weaken our strength for obedience - as well as keep us from that humble posture which at all times befits us as sinners. This principle of self-righteousness must be mortified, before we can walk humbly with God, and before we can be brought from everything without or within us - to rest simply for favor and acceptance with God, on Him in whom the Father is well-pleased.
Not only is the foundation laid in mere grace, but the top-stone will be brought forth with shouting, "Grace, grace!" The Lord alone must and shall be exalted; and we shall be brought to count all things but loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Not only shall nothing be exalted for our justification before God besides Him; but nothing shall be exalted with Him; for "the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
To correct this self-righteous spirit, the Lord often plunges His own people into the ditch, and causes their own clothes to abhor them - when, it may be, they have washed themselves in snow-water, and thought their hands clean. He takes off the restraint from some one or another of their corruptions - allows the world and the devil, with their temptations to assail them, until feeling still more their sinfulness and misery, they abhor themselves and repent in dust and ashes, and are more frequent and earnest in their applications to His blood which cleanses from all sin, and are brought to exalt "the Lord alone" in their hearts, and to rejoice in "the Lord their righteousness."
V. Are we not become as gods to ourselves, when in our own strength we address ourselves to our work, face difficulties, and encounter temptations?
Is it not natural to us thus to act independently of the Almighty? Do we not, even the best of us, find ourselves every day, almost in everything - acting as if we had an all-sufficiency of might and power in ourselves, and as if our own arms were to bring us salvation? And in this case not the Lord well say, "Behold man has become as one of us?" We are in a manner become insensible, that "in Him we live, move, and have our being," but act as if we had everything in ourselves.
In Him alone, we can live comfortably and usefully. Whatever we do in life that is great and is profitable to ourselves or others, we have all our strength and abilities for it, in every view - from Him. If we resist the devil, overcome the world, subdue the flesh, or live to God - we live in every sense in Him. In Him also we move - all the motions of the soul and body,are from Him entirely every moment. Not one motion of any single part of the body can we for an instant command without His permission - without His aid. Nor can there be in our minds, in the least degree, any spiritual motions of our thoughts, or any holy workings of our affections towards God - but what proceed every moment, in every degree, from Him. In Him we live, move, and have our being - both temporally and spiritually.
But in what heart dwells the practical belief of this? Are we not living, in this sense also, without God in the world? Where are those who are practically sensible, that, without continued influences and aids from above - we have, the best of us, wisdom for no work, no strength for no duty, no success under no trial, and no victory over no enemy? Are we not found making weak attempts for duties, fruitless struggles against temptations, until almost overcome; before we are made truly sensible of our own weakness, and apply to the Lord for strength?
What wonder is it, if in this case we hear people complaining, that they cannot do this work, or overcome that temptation If they could, would they not set up the idol, man, and "sacrifice to their own net?" God is determined in every thing to bring man our of himself. So far therefore as we depend on ourselves - so far we are sure to be disappointed.
It is our pride and self-sufficiency, and not our weakness - which gives any inward or outward enemy the victory over us. In proportion as we are truly humble - God gives effectual grace to help us in every time of need.
~Thomas Charles~
(continued with # 6)
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Pride # 4
Pride # 4
III. Often when this spirit ceases to seek worldly riches, it tries to be supported, if possible, by religious wealth - and the man, if he cannot be a god to himself, will at least be his own saviour.
The young man in the gospel who went away from Christ very sorrowful because he was very rich - and the Pharisee in the parable - were influenced by the same spirit, equally opposite to and distant from God. The one was rich in temporal things, and the other, as he thought, in spiritual things; each being a god to himself, possessing in himself all fullness and sufficiency. "I thank you that I am not as other men," are the words of the Pharisee's lips; and, "I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," is the language of his heart. Well might the Lord say, "Behold man has become as one of us" - for who but God has such a fullness and sufficiency in himself, as to have need of nothing. But here, in religion, this spirit is of all things the most detestably odious in the sight of God. There is no creature in the universe so abominable to Him - as the one who tries to support his own pride and independence, by a mask of religion and a form of godliness.
But alas! this is the sum and substance of the religion of many showy professors. Influences by this principle, they will go about, for many years, seeking with no small labor and pain, to establish their own righteousness, unwilling through the pride of their hearts to submit to the righteousness of God provided by Christ Jesus. "They have not submitted," says the apostle, "to the righteousness of God." They were religious, yes, eminently zealous in religion; but they had not, and they would not, submit to the humbling scheme of the gospel.
Such are, through the pride of their hearts, unwilling to be convinced that they are altogether unprofitable, and wholly destitute of all strength to do any part of God's will - this being totally and so directly opposite to the principle of pride and independence within them. But if they imagine that they can be saved by establishing a righteousness of their own, and live independently of God, without being indebted to His mercy - this persuasion sets at once all the springs of the soul in motion; and this flattering but vain hope drives them about in an endless round of religious performances, to establish their own righteousness. To submit to a righteousness purely outside of their own righteousness of them, on the mere testimony of God - they know not how; a proud heart is unwilling, and savors it not. But to establish their own righteousness is a way of being saved, which appears highly rational, requires no great degree of self-denial, and is consistent with the utmost vanity of their own hearts - they may thus still be as gods, knowing and possessing good in and for themselves. And thus, while in the midst of the utmost poverty and misery, they would imagine themselves rich and increased with goods, and live, as to any dependence of heart upon God for spiritual blessings, "without God in the world."
IV. Even in those who have submitted to the righteousness of God, and put on Christ in sincerity, this spirit of pride and independence will still exert itself.
It will strive in various ways to keep them from simply relying, as altogether guilty, on him, who is made of God unto us righteousness - and it is not without the greatest difficulty that they are brought, in the face of sin and guilt, to rejoice wholly in the Lord their righteousness. When led to see their own righteousness as filthy rags, and driven from placing any confidence in the flesh - in their own doings - they are still anxious to possess something in themselves, on which to depend and build their hopes of acceptance with God. They will be tempted to look to the work of the Spirit in the heart, and make it the foundation - which can never be anything but the superstructure.
Christ, in His obedience and death, is the only sure foundation for sinners, as to pardon and acceptance with God. "Other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus." The holiest saint stands in equal need of it, with the most profligate sinner; and to eternity it must be the sole stay and support of the spirits of just men made perfect. The building on this foundation is holiness and obedience. But if care is not taken, the natural pride of man will place the superstructure in the place of the foundation, or at least will attempt to put partly as the foundation some of those materials are fit only for the construction of the building.
Thus holiness is apt to degenerate into self-righteousness; and what God gives for sanctification, we are in danger of applying for justification. We are such Pharisees by nature, that we know not how to feel grace, and at the same time, believe, as if we had none - to rest simply on Christ's righteousness, without addition of anything in us, either of outward performances or of inward grace. But we are still found missing something of our own with the foundation - it must be with some cement of our own graces, duties or endeavors.
~Thomas Charles~
(continued with # 5)
III. Often when this spirit ceases to seek worldly riches, it tries to be supported, if possible, by religious wealth - and the man, if he cannot be a god to himself, will at least be his own saviour.
The young man in the gospel who went away from Christ very sorrowful because he was very rich - and the Pharisee in the parable - were influenced by the same spirit, equally opposite to and distant from God. The one was rich in temporal things, and the other, as he thought, in spiritual things; each being a god to himself, possessing in himself all fullness and sufficiency. "I thank you that I am not as other men," are the words of the Pharisee's lips; and, "I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," is the language of his heart. Well might the Lord say, "Behold man has become as one of us" - for who but God has such a fullness and sufficiency in himself, as to have need of nothing. But here, in religion, this spirit is of all things the most detestably odious in the sight of God. There is no creature in the universe so abominable to Him - as the one who tries to support his own pride and independence, by a mask of religion and a form of godliness.
But alas! this is the sum and substance of the religion of many showy professors. Influences by this principle, they will go about, for many years, seeking with no small labor and pain, to establish their own righteousness, unwilling through the pride of their hearts to submit to the righteousness of God provided by Christ Jesus. "They have not submitted," says the apostle, "to the righteousness of God." They were religious, yes, eminently zealous in religion; but they had not, and they would not, submit to the humbling scheme of the gospel.
Such are, through the pride of their hearts, unwilling to be convinced that they are altogether unprofitable, and wholly destitute of all strength to do any part of God's will - this being totally and so directly opposite to the principle of pride and independence within them. But if they imagine that they can be saved by establishing a righteousness of their own, and live independently of God, without being indebted to His mercy - this persuasion sets at once all the springs of the soul in motion; and this flattering but vain hope drives them about in an endless round of religious performances, to establish their own righteousness. To submit to a righteousness purely outside of their own righteousness of them, on the mere testimony of God - they know not how; a proud heart is unwilling, and savors it not. But to establish their own righteousness is a way of being saved, which appears highly rational, requires no great degree of self-denial, and is consistent with the utmost vanity of their own hearts - they may thus still be as gods, knowing and possessing good in and for themselves. And thus, while in the midst of the utmost poverty and misery, they would imagine themselves rich and increased with goods, and live, as to any dependence of heart upon God for spiritual blessings, "without God in the world."
IV. Even in those who have submitted to the righteousness of God, and put on Christ in sincerity, this spirit of pride and independence will still exert itself.
It will strive in various ways to keep them from simply relying, as altogether guilty, on him, who is made of God unto us righteousness - and it is not without the greatest difficulty that they are brought, in the face of sin and guilt, to rejoice wholly in the Lord their righteousness. When led to see their own righteousness as filthy rags, and driven from placing any confidence in the flesh - in their own doings - they are still anxious to possess something in themselves, on which to depend and build their hopes of acceptance with God. They will be tempted to look to the work of the Spirit in the heart, and make it the foundation - which can never be anything but the superstructure.
Christ, in His obedience and death, is the only sure foundation for sinners, as to pardon and acceptance with God. "Other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus." The holiest saint stands in equal need of it, with the most profligate sinner; and to eternity it must be the sole stay and support of the spirits of just men made perfect. The building on this foundation is holiness and obedience. But if care is not taken, the natural pride of man will place the superstructure in the place of the foundation, or at least will attempt to put partly as the foundation some of those materials are fit only for the construction of the building.
Thus holiness is apt to degenerate into self-righteousness; and what God gives for sanctification, we are in danger of applying for justification. We are such Pharisees by nature, that we know not how to feel grace, and at the same time, believe, as if we had none - to rest simply on Christ's righteousness, without addition of anything in us, either of outward performances or of inward grace. But we are still found missing something of our own with the foundation - it must be with some cement of our own graces, duties or endeavors.
~Thomas Charles~
(continued with # 5)
Saturday, September 21, 2019
The Necessity of Afflictions # 2
The Necessity of Afflictions # 2)
Believer! Rejoice in the thought that the rod, the chastening rod - is in the hands of the living, loving Saviour who died for you! Tribulation is the King's Highway - and yet that highway is paved with love. As some flowers before shedding their fragrance require to be pressed - so does your God see fit to bruise you. As some birds are said to sing their sweetest notes when the thorn pierces their bosom - so does He appoint affliction to lacerate, that you may be driven to the wing, singing, in your upward soaring, "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed!" "Those," says the heavenly Leighton, "whom He means to make the most resplendent - he has ofenest His tools upon." "Our troubles," says another, "seem in His Word to be ever in His mind. Perhaps half the commands and half the promises He gives us there - are given to us as troubled men."
Be it ours to say, "Lord, I will love You, not only despite of Your rod - but because of Your rod. I will rush into the very arms that are chastising me! When your voice calls, as to Abraham of old, to prepare for bitter trial - be it mine to respond with bounding heart, "Here am I!" - and to read in the rainbow which spans my darkest cloud, "He chastens, Because He loves!" And He pities, because He loves.
When tempted in our season of overwhelming sorrow to say, "never has there been so dark a cloud, never a heart so stripped and desolate as mine!" Let this thought hush every murmur, "it is your Father's good pleasure!" The love and pity of the tenderest earthly parent is but a dim shadow - compared to the pitying love of God.
If your heavenly Father's smile has for the moment been exchanged for the chastening rod - be assured there is some deep necessity for the altered discipline. If there are unutterable yearnings in the soul of the earthly parent as the lancet is applied to the wound of his child - infinitely more is it so with your covenant God, as He subjects you to these deep woundings of heart! Finite wisdom has no place in His ordinations. An earthly father may err - is ever erring; but, "as for God - His way is perfect!" This is the explanation of His every dealing: "Your heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things!"
Trust His heart - when you cannot trace His hand! Do not try to penetrate the cloud which "He brings over the earth," and to look through it. Keep your eye steadily fixed on the rainbow! The mystery is God's - the promise is yours. Seek that the end of all His dispensations may be to make you more confiding. Without one misgiving - commit your way to Him. He says regarding each child of His covenant family, what He said of Ephraim of old "I do earnestly remember him still." While now bending your head like a bulrush; your heart breaking with sorrow - remember His pitying eye is upon you. Be it yours, even through blinding tears to say, "Even so Father!" For He does not afflict willingly.
In our seasons of trial, when under some inscrutable painful dispensation, how apt is the murmuring thought to rise in our hearts, "All these things are against me! Might not this overwhelming blow have been spared? Might not this dark cloud, which has shadowed my heart and my home with sadness, have been averted? Might not the accompaniments of my trial have been less severe? Surely the Lord has forgotten to be gracious!"
No! These afflictions are errands of mercy in disguise! "He does not afflict willingly." There is nothing capricious or arbitrary about your God's dealings. Unutterable tenderness is the character of all His allotments! The world may wound by unkindness - trusted friends may become treacherous - a brother may speak with unnecessary harshness and severity; but the Lord is "abundant in goodness and in truth." He appoints no needless pang. When He appears, like Joseph, to "speak roughly" - there are gentle undertones of love. The stern accents are only assumed - because He has precious lessons that could not otherwise have been taught!
Ah! be assured that there is some deep necessity in that all He does. In our calendars of sorrow we may put this luminous mark against every trying hour, "It was needed!" Some excess branch in the tree required pruning. Some wheat required to be cast overboard to lighten the ship, and avert further disaster.
Mourning one! He might have dealt far otherwise with you! He might have cut you down as a fruitless, worthless cumberer! He might have abandoned you to drift, disowned and unpiloted on the rocks of destruction - joined to your idols! He might have "left you alone" to settle on your lees, and forfeit your eternal bliss! But He loved you better. It was kindness, infinite kindness - which blighted your fairest blossoms, and hedged up your way with thorns!
"Without this hedge of thorns," says Richard Baxter, "on the right hand and on the left - we would hardly be able to keep the way to heaven!"
~John R. McDuff~
(The End)
Believer! Rejoice in the thought that the rod, the chastening rod - is in the hands of the living, loving Saviour who died for you! Tribulation is the King's Highway - and yet that highway is paved with love. As some flowers before shedding their fragrance require to be pressed - so does your God see fit to bruise you. As some birds are said to sing their sweetest notes when the thorn pierces their bosom - so does He appoint affliction to lacerate, that you may be driven to the wing, singing, in your upward soaring, "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed!" "Those," says the heavenly Leighton, "whom He means to make the most resplendent - he has ofenest His tools upon." "Our troubles," says another, "seem in His Word to be ever in His mind. Perhaps half the commands and half the promises He gives us there - are given to us as troubled men."
Be it ours to say, "Lord, I will love You, not only despite of Your rod - but because of Your rod. I will rush into the very arms that are chastising me! When your voice calls, as to Abraham of old, to prepare for bitter trial - be it mine to respond with bounding heart, "Here am I!" - and to read in the rainbow which spans my darkest cloud, "He chastens, Because He loves!" And He pities, because He loves.
When tempted in our season of overwhelming sorrow to say, "never has there been so dark a cloud, never a heart so stripped and desolate as mine!" Let this thought hush every murmur, "it is your Father's good pleasure!" The love and pity of the tenderest earthly parent is but a dim shadow - compared to the pitying love of God.
If your heavenly Father's smile has for the moment been exchanged for the chastening rod - be assured there is some deep necessity for the altered discipline. If there are unutterable yearnings in the soul of the earthly parent as the lancet is applied to the wound of his child - infinitely more is it so with your covenant God, as He subjects you to these deep woundings of heart! Finite wisdom has no place in His ordinations. An earthly father may err - is ever erring; but, "as for God - His way is perfect!" This is the explanation of His every dealing: "Your heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things!"
Trust His heart - when you cannot trace His hand! Do not try to penetrate the cloud which "He brings over the earth," and to look through it. Keep your eye steadily fixed on the rainbow! The mystery is God's - the promise is yours. Seek that the end of all His dispensations may be to make you more confiding. Without one misgiving - commit your way to Him. He says regarding each child of His covenant family, what He said of Ephraim of old "I do earnestly remember him still." While now bending your head like a bulrush; your heart breaking with sorrow - remember His pitying eye is upon you. Be it yours, even through blinding tears to say, "Even so Father!" For He does not afflict willingly.
In our seasons of trial, when under some inscrutable painful dispensation, how apt is the murmuring thought to rise in our hearts, "All these things are against me! Might not this overwhelming blow have been spared? Might not this dark cloud, which has shadowed my heart and my home with sadness, have been averted? Might not the accompaniments of my trial have been less severe? Surely the Lord has forgotten to be gracious!"
No! These afflictions are errands of mercy in disguise! "He does not afflict willingly." There is nothing capricious or arbitrary about your God's dealings. Unutterable tenderness is the character of all His allotments! The world may wound by unkindness - trusted friends may become treacherous - a brother may speak with unnecessary harshness and severity; but the Lord is "abundant in goodness and in truth." He appoints no needless pang. When He appears, like Joseph, to "speak roughly" - there are gentle undertones of love. The stern accents are only assumed - because He has precious lessons that could not otherwise have been taught!
Ah! be assured that there is some deep necessity in that all He does. In our calendars of sorrow we may put this luminous mark against every trying hour, "It was needed!" Some excess branch in the tree required pruning. Some wheat required to be cast overboard to lighten the ship, and avert further disaster.
Mourning one! He might have dealt far otherwise with you! He might have cut you down as a fruitless, worthless cumberer! He might have abandoned you to drift, disowned and unpiloted on the rocks of destruction - joined to your idols! He might have "left you alone" to settle on your lees, and forfeit your eternal bliss! But He loved you better. It was kindness, infinite kindness - which blighted your fairest blossoms, and hedged up your way with thorns!
"Without this hedge of thorns," says Richard Baxter, "on the right hand and on the left - we would hardly be able to keep the way to heaven!"
~John R. McDuff~
(The End)
Pride # 3
Pride # 3
II. The same spirit that exerts itself in opposition to God's providential dispensations as to our state and circumstances in this world, is found quarreling also with God's gracious dealings with our souls, especially in young converts.
Sensibly feeling the heavy load of guilt on their consciences, they become impatient in their distress, and cannot bear the yoke which the Lord has put upon them; but as Rachel said, "give me children, or I die!" so they cry, "give us peace, or we perish!" They being in a degree unhumbled, a secret but a stubborn rising of self-righteous pride will manifest itself in various ways - such as secret anger at heart, because they are thus - a sullenness, like a person disappointed, because they cannot be as they would - a desperate willfulness in complaining and in refusing comfort - and an aptness to fly in the face of God, and say, "why has he thus dealt, or why does He thus deal with us?"
And with these peevish and violent workings of pride, the devil joins at the same time with all his fore, setting forth everything in the most discouraging light, and insinuating, that there is little or no prospect of things being better.
In the mean time, unbelief is also raging; deliverance seems hardly possible; all the means of it seem insufficient; so many things stand in the way - such corruptions within,such difficulties without, and such guilt remaining. The soul is ready to sink under the burden, being almost determined to give up all for lost.
In such inward workings of our minds, there is more pride, and of an unhumbled spirit, dissatisfied with the sovereign pleasure of God respecting our condition, than we are apt to imagine! Being in such a spirit, do we not seek, and as it were, demand peace and comfort, as if they are our right - rather than the free and undeserved gifts of God? If not, why are we so fretful and uneasy under delays? Why do we presumptuously expostulate, "Why is He so long in coming?" If we narrowly examine our deceitful hearts, I doubt not, but that we shall find unhumbled pride at the bottom of all this impatience.
In proportion as this spirit prevails - is our utter unfitness to receive any gospel-blessing or comfort from the Lord. God never bestows His blessings, until He has brought us into a suitable frame to receive them. "God gives grace to the humble" - to those whom He has emptied of their pride and self-sufficiency. When effectually humbled, they are easily satisfied with His dealings with them. Then every mercy bestowed appears, as truly it is, great and undeserved - and the language of the soul is, "I deserve less than the least of all Your mercies."
We would be as gods; but the Lord will make us know, that He is Being to whom absolute sovereignty belongs; that He cannot be limited, nor have His ways prescribed to Him. He will have us to exercise absolute submission and acquiescence in all His dealings and dispensations towards us.
"O Lord," said David, "you are my God; my times are in your hands" - his times of trouble and of peace, of darkness and of light, he acknowledged with acquiescence and thankfulness, to be in the hand and at the disposal of God, and that it was his place humbly to wait the Lord's time and season for the enjoyment of His comforts and for the light of His countenance.
Nothing indeed can be well with us, until we are brought to this frame of mind - until we are satisfied that the Lord should carve for us both in temporal and spiritual things, until we are willing to bear His chastisements and thankfully to receive His comforts - when, and however He is pleased to send either the one or the other.
But when we are made willing, that the Lord should in every thing be God to us - we cannot but succeed in the end; and though we may have to wait for the vision - yet it will assuredly come, and will not tarry, and will fully answer our largest expectations. "Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." "You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."
Hence we see, how this spirit of pride and independence operates, with respect to spiritual as well earthly things - and that it can feed on one as well as on the other. It is indeed changed in its form, and pursues its end in a different course; but it is the old man still, setting up for himself, though he wears the appearance of the new man in Christ. It is still satan, though he is transformed into an angel of light.
~Thomas Charles~
(continued with # 4)
II. The same spirit that exerts itself in opposition to God's providential dispensations as to our state and circumstances in this world, is found quarreling also with God's gracious dealings with our souls, especially in young converts.
Sensibly feeling the heavy load of guilt on their consciences, they become impatient in their distress, and cannot bear the yoke which the Lord has put upon them; but as Rachel said, "give me children, or I die!" so they cry, "give us peace, or we perish!" They being in a degree unhumbled, a secret but a stubborn rising of self-righteous pride will manifest itself in various ways - such as secret anger at heart, because they are thus - a sullenness, like a person disappointed, because they cannot be as they would - a desperate willfulness in complaining and in refusing comfort - and an aptness to fly in the face of God, and say, "why has he thus dealt, or why does He thus deal with us?"
And with these peevish and violent workings of pride, the devil joins at the same time with all his fore, setting forth everything in the most discouraging light, and insinuating, that there is little or no prospect of things being better.
In the mean time, unbelief is also raging; deliverance seems hardly possible; all the means of it seem insufficient; so many things stand in the way - such corruptions within,such difficulties without, and such guilt remaining. The soul is ready to sink under the burden, being almost determined to give up all for lost.
In such inward workings of our minds, there is more pride, and of an unhumbled spirit, dissatisfied with the sovereign pleasure of God respecting our condition, than we are apt to imagine! Being in such a spirit, do we not seek, and as it were, demand peace and comfort, as if they are our right - rather than the free and undeserved gifts of God? If not, why are we so fretful and uneasy under delays? Why do we presumptuously expostulate, "Why is He so long in coming?" If we narrowly examine our deceitful hearts, I doubt not, but that we shall find unhumbled pride at the bottom of all this impatience.
In proportion as this spirit prevails - is our utter unfitness to receive any gospel-blessing or comfort from the Lord. God never bestows His blessings, until He has brought us into a suitable frame to receive them. "God gives grace to the humble" - to those whom He has emptied of their pride and self-sufficiency. When effectually humbled, they are easily satisfied with His dealings with them. Then every mercy bestowed appears, as truly it is, great and undeserved - and the language of the soul is, "I deserve less than the least of all Your mercies."
We would be as gods; but the Lord will make us know, that He is Being to whom absolute sovereignty belongs; that He cannot be limited, nor have His ways prescribed to Him. He will have us to exercise absolute submission and acquiescence in all His dealings and dispensations towards us.
"O Lord," said David, "you are my God; my times are in your hands" - his times of trouble and of peace, of darkness and of light, he acknowledged with acquiescence and thankfulness, to be in the hand and at the disposal of God, and that it was his place humbly to wait the Lord's time and season for the enjoyment of His comforts and for the light of His countenance.
Nothing indeed can be well with us, until we are brought to this frame of mind - until we are satisfied that the Lord should carve for us both in temporal and spiritual things, until we are willing to bear His chastisements and thankfully to receive His comforts - when, and however He is pleased to send either the one or the other.
But when we are made willing, that the Lord should in every thing be God to us - we cannot but succeed in the end; and though we may have to wait for the vision - yet it will assuredly come, and will not tarry, and will fully answer our largest expectations. "Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." "You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."
Hence we see, how this spirit of pride and independence operates, with respect to spiritual as well earthly things - and that it can feed on one as well as on the other. It is indeed changed in its form, and pursues its end in a different course; but it is the old man still, setting up for himself, though he wears the appearance of the new man in Christ. It is still satan, though he is transformed into an angel of light.
~Thomas Charles~
(continued with # 4)
Saturday, September 14, 2019
The Necessity of Afflictions # 1
The Necessity of Afflictions # 1
"If need be!" (1 Peter 1:6).
What a blessed motto and superscription over the dark lintels of sorrow! - "If need be!" Every arrow from the guiver of God is feathered with it! Write it, child of affliction, over every trial your God sees fit to send!
If He calls you down from the sunny mountain-heights to the darksome glades, hear Him saying: "There is a need be!"
If He has dashed the cup of earthly prosperity from your lips, curtailed your creature comforts, diminished your "basket and store" - hear Him saying, "There is a need be!"
If He has ploughed and furrowed your soul with severe bereavement - extinguished light after light in your dwelling - hear Him thus stilling the turnult of your grief, "There is a need be!"
Yes! believe it, there is some profound reason for your trial, which at present may be indiscernible. No furnace will be hotter than He sees to be needed.
Sometimes, indeed, His teachings are mysterious. We can with difficulty spell out the letters, "God is love!" We can see no "bright light" - no luminous rainbow in "our cloud." It is all mystery; not one break is there in the sky! Nay! Hear what God the Lord speaks: "If need be!" He does not long leave His people alone, if He sees their chariot wheels dragging heavily. He will take His own means to sever them from an absorbing love of the world - to flush them out of self, and dislodge usurping clay-idols that may have vaulted on the throne which He alone should occupy!
Before your present trial - He may have seen your love waxing cold - your influence for good lessening. As the sun puts out the fire - the sun of earthly prosperity may have been extinguishing the fires of your soul. You may have been shining less brightly for Christ, effecting some guilty compromise with an insinuating and seductive world. he has appointed the very discipline and dealing needful - nothing else - nothing less could have been effectual!
Be still, and know that He is God! That "need be"," remember, is in the hands of Infinite Love, infinite Wisdom, infinite Power! Trust Him in little things - as well as in great things - in trifles as well as in emergencies. Seek to have an unquestioning faith. Though other paths, doubtless, would have been selected by you had the choice been in your hands - be it yours to listen to His voice at every turn of the road, saying, "This is the way - walk in it!"
We may not be able to understand it now - but one day we shall come to find that affliction is one of God's most blessed ministers - sent forth to "minister to those who are heirs of salvation." There would be no rainbow in the material heaven - but for the cloud! Lovelier, indeed, to the eye is the azure blue - the fleecy summer vapor - or the gold and vermilion of western sunsets. But what would become of the earth if no dark clouds from time to time hung over it; distilling their treasures - reviving and refreshing its drooping vegetable tribes?
Is it otherwise with the soul? Nay! The cloud of sorrow is needed. Its every raindrop has an inner meaning of love! If, even now, afflicted one, these clouds are gathering, and the tempest sighing - lift up your eye to the divine scroll gleaming in the darkened heavens, and remember that He who has put the rainbow of promise there - saw also a "need be" for the cloud on which it rests!
There is therefore reason for this chastisement, for "Whom the Lord loves - He chastens." (Heb. 12:6). What! God loves me when He is discharging His quiver upon me! - emptying me from vessel to vessel! - causing the sun of my earthly joys to set in clouds? Yes! afflicted, tempest-tossed one! He chastens you - because He loves you! This trial comes from His own tender, loving hand - from His own tender, unchanging heart!
"I do believe," says Lady Powerscourt, "that He has purchased these afflictions for us - as well as everything else. Blessed be His name, it is a part of His covenant to visit us with the rod." What says our adorable Lord Himself? The words were spoken, not when He was on earth, a sojourner in a sorrowing world, but when enthroned amid the glories of heaven, "As many as I love - I rebuke and chasten." (Rev. 3:19).
~John R. McDuff~
(continued with # 2)
"If need be!" (1 Peter 1:6).
What a blessed motto and superscription over the dark lintels of sorrow! - "If need be!" Every arrow from the guiver of God is feathered with it! Write it, child of affliction, over every trial your God sees fit to send!
If He calls you down from the sunny mountain-heights to the darksome glades, hear Him saying: "There is a need be!"
If He has dashed the cup of earthly prosperity from your lips, curtailed your creature comforts, diminished your "basket and store" - hear Him saying, "There is a need be!"
If He has ploughed and furrowed your soul with severe bereavement - extinguished light after light in your dwelling - hear Him thus stilling the turnult of your grief, "There is a need be!"
Yes! believe it, there is some profound reason for your trial, which at present may be indiscernible. No furnace will be hotter than He sees to be needed.
Sometimes, indeed, His teachings are mysterious. We can with difficulty spell out the letters, "God is love!" We can see no "bright light" - no luminous rainbow in "our cloud." It is all mystery; not one break is there in the sky! Nay! Hear what God the Lord speaks: "If need be!" He does not long leave His people alone, if He sees their chariot wheels dragging heavily. He will take His own means to sever them from an absorbing love of the world - to flush them out of self, and dislodge usurping clay-idols that may have vaulted on the throne which He alone should occupy!
Before your present trial - He may have seen your love waxing cold - your influence for good lessening. As the sun puts out the fire - the sun of earthly prosperity may have been extinguishing the fires of your soul. You may have been shining less brightly for Christ, effecting some guilty compromise with an insinuating and seductive world. he has appointed the very discipline and dealing needful - nothing else - nothing less could have been effectual!
Be still, and know that He is God! That "need be"," remember, is in the hands of Infinite Love, infinite Wisdom, infinite Power! Trust Him in little things - as well as in great things - in trifles as well as in emergencies. Seek to have an unquestioning faith. Though other paths, doubtless, would have been selected by you had the choice been in your hands - be it yours to listen to His voice at every turn of the road, saying, "This is the way - walk in it!"
We may not be able to understand it now - but one day we shall come to find that affliction is one of God's most blessed ministers - sent forth to "minister to those who are heirs of salvation." There would be no rainbow in the material heaven - but for the cloud! Lovelier, indeed, to the eye is the azure blue - the fleecy summer vapor - or the gold and vermilion of western sunsets. But what would become of the earth if no dark clouds from time to time hung over it; distilling their treasures - reviving and refreshing its drooping vegetable tribes?
Is it otherwise with the soul? Nay! The cloud of sorrow is needed. Its every raindrop has an inner meaning of love! If, even now, afflicted one, these clouds are gathering, and the tempest sighing - lift up your eye to the divine scroll gleaming in the darkened heavens, and remember that He who has put the rainbow of promise there - saw also a "need be" for the cloud on which it rests!
There is therefore reason for this chastisement, for "Whom the Lord loves - He chastens." (Heb. 12:6). What! God loves me when He is discharging His quiver upon me! - emptying me from vessel to vessel! - causing the sun of my earthly joys to set in clouds? Yes! afflicted, tempest-tossed one! He chastens you - because He loves you! This trial comes from His own tender, loving hand - from His own tender, unchanging heart!
"I do believe," says Lady Powerscourt, "that He has purchased these afflictions for us - as well as everything else. Blessed be His name, it is a part of His covenant to visit us with the rod." What says our adorable Lord Himself? The words were spoken, not when He was on earth, a sojourner in a sorrowing world, but when enthroned amid the glories of heaven, "As many as I love - I rebuke and chasten." (Rev. 3:19).
~John R. McDuff~
(continued with # 2)
Pride # 2
Pride # 2
But how vain were his contrivances, and how miserably was he disappointed! Cherubim, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, were placed at the east of the garden of Eden, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Nothing, therefore but renouncing his own wisdom and strength, and submitting wholly to God, and embracing the way he is pleased to provide, can save him from the threatened ruin. He turned himself from God, to seek his comfort and his happiness in the creature - but behold, the whole earth, and all things in it, are cursed for man's sake - and its productions were to be thorns and thistles.
To prevent death, man would eat of the tree of life - but behold, the cherubim and a flaming sword stop his way. What then can he do, but miserably perish, except his willful and independent spirit be broken down, his pride humbled, and he be brought to lie at the foot of divine mercy?
Here is the difficulty: man's whole nature as corrupted, is wholly bent on seeking happiness for and in himself, separate from God. He knows not how to deny his own will, or discard his own wisdom and his own strength, or oppose his worldly lusts, which wholly lead him from God - besides, the way which God has provided for his happiness and salvation in Christ, is so extremely humiliating, that nothing but a total renunciation of himself in every view can ever enable him to embrace it. How can the pride and independent spirit of man stoop to this?
Here is the main controversy between man and God. Man would still be as God, knowing good and evil; and God cannot but unchangeably determine to bring down this idol, that He may be all in all. And if God saves man at all, it is inconsistent with his very nature, and opposite to all his holy perfections, to save him, but in a way, which effectually hides pride from man. He must cast down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, so that he who glories, shall glory only in the Lord. We see this independent spirit working in various and opposite ways, but all leading further from God, and directly calculated to set up this idol, man.
1. We see the great body of mankind with their faces universally set towards the world, and their vigor exerted in one general race after the things of the world.
And what is this strong principle, which universally prevails, and actuates the whole mass? Every one seems as if he would have the whole world to himself - and were the whole in his possession, it would be too little to satisfy his insatiable desires. To what purpose is this bustle and striving? Why all these contentions and jarrings? Is it not, because man would have something to depend on, and to support himself by, independently of God? He would be as God - able to supply himself with the means of comfort and happiness. He will not depend on God, but he would prove for himself good and evil.
That this is principle, which so vigorously operates within, must appear abundantly evident to us, if we for a moment consider: Why it is that we desire so earnestly to have our comforts and safety in our own hands. Is it not, because we think them not so sure, or so satisfactorily placed as we wish they should be, in the hands of God? What would the carnally-minded give, could he but have his life and health at his own disposal, to keep and enjoy them at his own pleasure? When he is sick or poor, how far preferable does it appear to him, to be able to be his own physician, or to supply his own needs, then to receive both from the Almighty. But why does he think so? Is it not, because he likes not to depend on God? Is it not, because he would be independent of Him? And as worldly things are the means, which bid fairest to help him in his ungodly pursuits - he thinks that he never can have enough.
But, alas! all is insufficient. He is still disappointed; and therefore he is full of impatience, murmurings, and complaints. The support that he seeks, independently of God, is still lacking - and pride being disappointed, impatience corrodes his vitals, of which murmurings and complaints are the natural expressions and effects. We would be as gods, possessing all fullness and sufficiency in ourselves - and when we cannot be what we would - not so rich, not so great, not such gods as we wish and attempt to be, then our pride bursts forth in impatience, discontent, rage and misery!
But when God brings us to Himself, He effectually teaches us to deny this ungodliness, and our worldly lusts. He crucifies us to the world, and brings us to forsake all that we have, in which we put confidence, and from which we seek any happiness. What He will take away, He will again restore suddenly and unexpectedly, and thereby convince us that we have all every moment from Him. He will embitter every blessing, and make us know and feel the misery of departing from Him. He will convince us, that there is no happiness to be found but in Himself only. And when He gives us all things richly to enjoy, He will teach us at the same time to use all, not for ourselves, but for Him, "for whom, through whom, and to whom are all things."
In short, He will be our God, and will act in everything as such towards us, and will bring us to live upon Him, and to Him; and not upon the creature, and to ourselves. And when we become possessed of the humble frame and temper of dependent creatures - then murmurings and complaints, impatience and disquietude, will all be banished - and we shall receive all good and evil things with holy submission and humble thankfulness, being abundantly satisfied, that the Lord is our God.
~Thomas Charles~
(continued with # 3)
But how vain were his contrivances, and how miserably was he disappointed! Cherubim, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, were placed at the east of the garden of Eden, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Nothing, therefore but renouncing his own wisdom and strength, and submitting wholly to God, and embracing the way he is pleased to provide, can save him from the threatened ruin. He turned himself from God, to seek his comfort and his happiness in the creature - but behold, the whole earth, and all things in it, are cursed for man's sake - and its productions were to be thorns and thistles.
To prevent death, man would eat of the tree of life - but behold, the cherubim and a flaming sword stop his way. What then can he do, but miserably perish, except his willful and independent spirit be broken down, his pride humbled, and he be brought to lie at the foot of divine mercy?
Here is the difficulty: man's whole nature as corrupted, is wholly bent on seeking happiness for and in himself, separate from God. He knows not how to deny his own will, or discard his own wisdom and his own strength, or oppose his worldly lusts, which wholly lead him from God - besides, the way which God has provided for his happiness and salvation in Christ, is so extremely humiliating, that nothing but a total renunciation of himself in every view can ever enable him to embrace it. How can the pride and independent spirit of man stoop to this?
Here is the main controversy between man and God. Man would still be as God, knowing good and evil; and God cannot but unchangeably determine to bring down this idol, that He may be all in all. And if God saves man at all, it is inconsistent with his very nature, and opposite to all his holy perfections, to save him, but in a way, which effectually hides pride from man. He must cast down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, so that he who glories, shall glory only in the Lord. We see this independent spirit working in various and opposite ways, but all leading further from God, and directly calculated to set up this idol, man.
1. We see the great body of mankind with their faces universally set towards the world, and their vigor exerted in one general race after the things of the world.
And what is this strong principle, which universally prevails, and actuates the whole mass? Every one seems as if he would have the whole world to himself - and were the whole in his possession, it would be too little to satisfy his insatiable desires. To what purpose is this bustle and striving? Why all these contentions and jarrings? Is it not, because man would have something to depend on, and to support himself by, independently of God? He would be as God - able to supply himself with the means of comfort and happiness. He will not depend on God, but he would prove for himself good and evil.
That this is principle, which so vigorously operates within, must appear abundantly evident to us, if we for a moment consider: Why it is that we desire so earnestly to have our comforts and safety in our own hands. Is it not, because we think them not so sure, or so satisfactorily placed as we wish they should be, in the hands of God? What would the carnally-minded give, could he but have his life and health at his own disposal, to keep and enjoy them at his own pleasure? When he is sick or poor, how far preferable does it appear to him, to be able to be his own physician, or to supply his own needs, then to receive both from the Almighty. But why does he think so? Is it not, because he likes not to depend on God? Is it not, because he would be independent of Him? And as worldly things are the means, which bid fairest to help him in his ungodly pursuits - he thinks that he never can have enough.
But, alas! all is insufficient. He is still disappointed; and therefore he is full of impatience, murmurings, and complaints. The support that he seeks, independently of God, is still lacking - and pride being disappointed, impatience corrodes his vitals, of which murmurings and complaints are the natural expressions and effects. We would be as gods, possessing all fullness and sufficiency in ourselves - and when we cannot be what we would - not so rich, not so great, not such gods as we wish and attempt to be, then our pride bursts forth in impatience, discontent, rage and misery!
But when God brings us to Himself, He effectually teaches us to deny this ungodliness, and our worldly lusts. He crucifies us to the world, and brings us to forsake all that we have, in which we put confidence, and from which we seek any happiness. What He will take away, He will again restore suddenly and unexpectedly, and thereby convince us that we have all every moment from Him. He will embitter every blessing, and make us know and feel the misery of departing from Him. He will convince us, that there is no happiness to be found but in Himself only. And when He gives us all things richly to enjoy, He will teach us at the same time to use all, not for ourselves, but for Him, "for whom, through whom, and to whom are all things."
In short, He will be our God, and will act in everything as such towards us, and will bring us to live upon Him, and to Him; and not upon the creature, and to ourselves. And when we become possessed of the humble frame and temper of dependent creatures - then murmurings and complaints, impatience and disquietude, will all be banished - and we shall receive all good and evil things with holy submission and humble thankfulness, being abundantly satisfied, that the Lord is our God.
~Thomas Charles~
(continued with # 3)
Saturday, September 7, 2019
Repent or Perish !
Repent or Perish!
"Unless you repent you too will all perish!" (Luke 13:3).
These were the words of the incarnate Son of God. They have never been cancelled; nor will they be as long as this world lasts. Repentance is absolute and necessary if the sinner is to make peace with God (Isaiah 27:5), for repentance is the throwing down the weapons of rebellion against Him. Repentance does not save, yet no sinner ever was or ever will be saved without it. None but Christ saves - but an impenitent heart cannot receive Him.
A sinner can not truly believe - until he repents. This is clear from the words of Christ concerning His forerunner, "For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him" (Matt. 21:32).
It is also evident from His clarion call in Mark 1:15, "Repent - and believe the gospel." This is why the apostle Paul testified "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). Make no mistake on this point dear reader, God "now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30).
In requiring repentance from us, God is pressing His righteous claims upon us. He is infinitely worthy of supreme love and honor, and of universal obedience. This we have wickedly denied Him. Both an acknowledgement and amendment of this is required from us. Our disaffection for Him and our rebellion against Him are to be owned and made an end of. Thus repentance is a heartfelt realization of how dreadfully I have failed, all through my life, to give God His rightful place in my heart and daily walk. The righteousness of God's demand for my repentance, is evident if we consider the heinous nature of sin. Sin is a renouncing of Him who made me. It is refusing Him His right to govern me. It is the determination to please myself; thus, it is rebellion against the Almighty. Sin is spiritual lawlessness, and utter disregard for God's authority. It is saying in my heart: "I do not care what God requires - I am going to have my own way! I do not care what God's claim upon me is - I am going to be master over myself!" Reader, do you realize that this is how you have lived?
True repentance issues from a realization in the heart, wrought therein by the Holy Spirit, of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, of the awfulness of ignoring the claims of Him who made me, of defying His authority. It is therefore a holy hatred and horror of sin, a deep sorrow for it, and acknowledgment of it before God, and a heart-forsaking of it. Not until this is done will God pardon us.
"He who covers his sins shall not prosper! But whoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy" (Prov. 28:13). In true repentance the heart turns to God and acknowledges, "My heart has been set upon a vain world, which could not meet the needs of my soul. I forsook You, the fountain of living waters, and turned unto broken cisterns that can hold no water. I now own and bewail my folly!" But more, it says, "I have been a disloyal and rebellious creature - but I will be so no longer. I now desire and determine with all my might to serve and obey You as my only Lord. I flee to You as my present and everlasting Portion!"
Reader, be you a professing Christian or not - it is repent or perish. For everyone of us, church members or otherwise, it is either turn - or burn! Turn from your course of self-will and self-pleasing; turn in brokenness of heart to God, seeking His mercy in Christ; turn with full purpose of heart to please and serve Him - or be tormented day and night, forever and ever, in the lake of fire! Which shall it be? Oh, get down on your knees right now and beg God to give you the spirit of true repentance!
"Him has God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour - to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:31). "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death!" (2 Corinthians 7:10).
~A. W. Pink~
(The End)
"Unless you repent you too will all perish!" (Luke 13:3).
These were the words of the incarnate Son of God. They have never been cancelled; nor will they be as long as this world lasts. Repentance is absolute and necessary if the sinner is to make peace with God (Isaiah 27:5), for repentance is the throwing down the weapons of rebellion against Him. Repentance does not save, yet no sinner ever was or ever will be saved without it. None but Christ saves - but an impenitent heart cannot receive Him.
A sinner can not truly believe - until he repents. This is clear from the words of Christ concerning His forerunner, "For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him" (Matt. 21:32).
It is also evident from His clarion call in Mark 1:15, "Repent - and believe the gospel." This is why the apostle Paul testified "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). Make no mistake on this point dear reader, God "now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30).
In requiring repentance from us, God is pressing His righteous claims upon us. He is infinitely worthy of supreme love and honor, and of universal obedience. This we have wickedly denied Him. Both an acknowledgement and amendment of this is required from us. Our disaffection for Him and our rebellion against Him are to be owned and made an end of. Thus repentance is a heartfelt realization of how dreadfully I have failed, all through my life, to give God His rightful place in my heart and daily walk. The righteousness of God's demand for my repentance, is evident if we consider the heinous nature of sin. Sin is a renouncing of Him who made me. It is refusing Him His right to govern me. It is the determination to please myself; thus, it is rebellion against the Almighty. Sin is spiritual lawlessness, and utter disregard for God's authority. It is saying in my heart: "I do not care what God requires - I am going to have my own way! I do not care what God's claim upon me is - I am going to be master over myself!" Reader, do you realize that this is how you have lived?
True repentance issues from a realization in the heart, wrought therein by the Holy Spirit, of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, of the awfulness of ignoring the claims of Him who made me, of defying His authority. It is therefore a holy hatred and horror of sin, a deep sorrow for it, and acknowledgment of it before God, and a heart-forsaking of it. Not until this is done will God pardon us.
"He who covers his sins shall not prosper! But whoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy" (Prov. 28:13). In true repentance the heart turns to God and acknowledges, "My heart has been set upon a vain world, which could not meet the needs of my soul. I forsook You, the fountain of living waters, and turned unto broken cisterns that can hold no water. I now own and bewail my folly!" But more, it says, "I have been a disloyal and rebellious creature - but I will be so no longer. I now desire and determine with all my might to serve and obey You as my only Lord. I flee to You as my present and everlasting Portion!"
Reader, be you a professing Christian or not - it is repent or perish. For everyone of us, church members or otherwise, it is either turn - or burn! Turn from your course of self-will and self-pleasing; turn in brokenness of heart to God, seeking His mercy in Christ; turn with full purpose of heart to please and serve Him - or be tormented day and night, forever and ever, in the lake of fire! Which shall it be? Oh, get down on your knees right now and beg God to give you the spirit of true repentance!
"Him has God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour - to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:31). "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death!" (2 Corinthians 7:10).
~A. W. Pink~
(The End)
Pride # 1
Pride # 1
"You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5).
The temptation by which satan ruined our first parents, he too successfully applies daily to us, their wretched posterity. "God knows," said he, that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." It seems as if this were verified in the event; for "the Lord God" said: "Behold man is become as one of us, to know good and evil."
Before the fall man knew nothing, as to good, but the will of His Creator; and it was enough for him implicitly to follow that. But since that direful event, he has become independent of God, and chooses for himself; "He has become like one of us," says God, "to know good and evil." Instead of being a child, provided for by His Father, under His care and protection - he has become his own master, and his own physician, choosing good and rejecting evil, according to his own inclination. Thus he set up, as it were, for himself - a spirit of independence had taken possession of his soul.
This is the spirit which constitutes essentially the character of satan himself. "Whence do you come?" said the Lord to him. His answer was, "From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it," boldly intimating, that he acknowledged no superior, and was his own master, going where he would, and doing what he pleased - yes, even boasting as if the earth was his own, and that here none could control him, or at least had a right to do so.
We, as satan's children, faithfully bearing his image, and exactly copying his example - are under the influence of the same independent spirit. And were the Lord to put the same question to us, our answer, if according to truth, must be similar - we go to and fro, live to ourselves, and do what we please, as independently of God as if there were no such Being. Thus we are like satan. We are practical atheists, seeking for sufficiency and comfort in ourselves, and not in God - in the creature, and not in the Creator. No temper or frame of mind can be more opposite to God than this, or further from true godliness.
While this self-sufficiency influences the heart, there is an utter impossibility of any reconciliation between us and God. "God resists the proud." And hence our Saviour says, "Except you are converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." We must be "converted," and become what man was at his creation, "as little children" - that is, dependent on God, submissive to His will, seeking all our happiness in Him alone, being contented, that He should forever be the source of all our happiness, and that He should communicate it in the time, way, and degree He pleases.
When thus converted, we, as the creatures of God, become humble in spirit, and, as forgiven sinners, we become contrite in heart. And in this frame we are to walk with God, and He will dwell in us: "for thus says the High and Lofty One, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place; with Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Here the religion of Christ begins - our progress in the divine live is always measured by our progress in humility. Humility is the strength and ornament of all other graces - it is the food that nourishes them; it is the soil in which they grow.
Though the whole scheme of gospel salvation in every view of it, and all the different providential dispensations of God towards us, are directly calculated to hide pride from man; yet so deeply rooted is this spirit of independence and self-sufficiency in our hearts, that nothing but the effectual operations of the Holy Spirit can bring us to possess the humility of creatures, and the contrition of sinners. As creatures, we would possess all-self-sufficiency for happiness in ourselves; and, as sinners, we would be even our own saviours, sufficient to rescue ourselves from sin and guilt, from destruction and misery.
This seems to be intimated by the words, "Behold man has become as one of us, to know good and evil" - as one of us, in the plural number - as the whole Trinity, in themselves essentially considered, and also in their various relations to us, as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, were rejected, and man sought for sufficiency, relief, and happiness in himself only.
This seems further intimated in the latter part of the verse, "And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden and the ground from whence he was taken." These words plainly set forth a total rejection of God and His will, and a strange and a willful propensity to seek a remedy for his misery, the consequence of his disobedience, in a way of his own finding out. He would still live, though he had sinned; and he thought he had sagacity sufficient to provide effectual means to prevent the execution of the threatening.
~Thomas Charles~
(continued with # 2)
"You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5).
The temptation by which satan ruined our first parents, he too successfully applies daily to us, their wretched posterity. "God knows," said he, that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." It seems as if this were verified in the event; for "the Lord God" said: "Behold man is become as one of us, to know good and evil."
Before the fall man knew nothing, as to good, but the will of His Creator; and it was enough for him implicitly to follow that. But since that direful event, he has become independent of God, and chooses for himself; "He has become like one of us," says God, "to know good and evil." Instead of being a child, provided for by His Father, under His care and protection - he has become his own master, and his own physician, choosing good and rejecting evil, according to his own inclination. Thus he set up, as it were, for himself - a spirit of independence had taken possession of his soul.
This is the spirit which constitutes essentially the character of satan himself. "Whence do you come?" said the Lord to him. His answer was, "From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it," boldly intimating, that he acknowledged no superior, and was his own master, going where he would, and doing what he pleased - yes, even boasting as if the earth was his own, and that here none could control him, or at least had a right to do so.
We, as satan's children, faithfully bearing his image, and exactly copying his example - are under the influence of the same independent spirit. And were the Lord to put the same question to us, our answer, if according to truth, must be similar - we go to and fro, live to ourselves, and do what we please, as independently of God as if there were no such Being. Thus we are like satan. We are practical atheists, seeking for sufficiency and comfort in ourselves, and not in God - in the creature, and not in the Creator. No temper or frame of mind can be more opposite to God than this, or further from true godliness.
While this self-sufficiency influences the heart, there is an utter impossibility of any reconciliation between us and God. "God resists the proud." And hence our Saviour says, "Except you are converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." We must be "converted," and become what man was at his creation, "as little children" - that is, dependent on God, submissive to His will, seeking all our happiness in Him alone, being contented, that He should forever be the source of all our happiness, and that He should communicate it in the time, way, and degree He pleases.
When thus converted, we, as the creatures of God, become humble in spirit, and, as forgiven sinners, we become contrite in heart. And in this frame we are to walk with God, and He will dwell in us: "for thus says the High and Lofty One, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place; with Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Here the religion of Christ begins - our progress in the divine live is always measured by our progress in humility. Humility is the strength and ornament of all other graces - it is the food that nourishes them; it is the soil in which they grow.
Though the whole scheme of gospel salvation in every view of it, and all the different providential dispensations of God towards us, are directly calculated to hide pride from man; yet so deeply rooted is this spirit of independence and self-sufficiency in our hearts, that nothing but the effectual operations of the Holy Spirit can bring us to possess the humility of creatures, and the contrition of sinners. As creatures, we would possess all-self-sufficiency for happiness in ourselves; and, as sinners, we would be even our own saviours, sufficient to rescue ourselves from sin and guilt, from destruction and misery.
This seems to be intimated by the words, "Behold man has become as one of us, to know good and evil" - as one of us, in the plural number - as the whole Trinity, in themselves essentially considered, and also in their various relations to us, as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, were rejected, and man sought for sufficiency, relief, and happiness in himself only.
This seems further intimated in the latter part of the verse, "And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden and the ground from whence he was taken." These words plainly set forth a total rejection of God and His will, and a strange and a willful propensity to seek a remedy for his misery, the consequence of his disobedience, in a way of his own finding out. He would still live, though he had sinned; and he thought he had sagacity sufficient to provide effectual means to prevent the execution of the threatening.
~Thomas Charles~
(continued with # 2)
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