Presumptuous vs. Genuine Faith

"Presumptuous faith does not proceed in the right method; it rashly imagines that the salvation promised in the gospel belongs to itself; but this is either upon no foundation, or upon a false one.”

“ For sometimes these persons, without any trial or self-examination, which they avoid as too troublesome, and inconvenient to their affairs, foolishly flattering themselves, proudly lay claim to the grace of our Lord; and securely slumber in this vain dream, without either enquiring, or being willing to enquire, what foundation they have for this their imagination.  Sometimes again they lay for a foundation of their confidence, either that perverse notion concerning the general mercy of God, and easy way to heaven, of which nothing that I know of is mentioned in the gospel covenant, or an opinion of the sufficiency of their own holiness, because they are not so very vicious as the most profligate, or the external communion of the church in religious worship, or the security of their sleeping conscience, and the pleasing fancies of their own dreams, which they take for the peace of God and the consolation of the Holy Spirit. With these and the like vanities of their own imagination they deceive themselves, as if these were sufficient marks of grace. “

“But true believers, from a deep sense of their misery, panting after the grace of the Lord Jesus, and laying hold of it with a trembling humility, dare not boast of it as already theirs, till, after a diligent scrutiny,  they have found certain and infallible evidences of grace in themselves.  It is with a profound humility, a kind of sacred dread, and a sincere self-denial, that they approach, to lay hold on the grace of Christ.  Nor do they boast of having laid hold of this, till after an exact examination, first of the marks of grace, and then of their own hearts.  But it is otherwise in both these respects with presumptuous persons, who rashly lay hold on what is offered them in that order, (for God does not offer security and joy to sinners, before the soul is affected with sorrow for the guilt of his past sins, and a due solicitude about salvation,) and then presumptuously, boast of their laid hold on grace; but they cannot produce any necessary arguments to make the same appear.”

“A living faith impresses on the soul, in such deep characters, the image of what is right and good, that it accounts nothing more lovely than to endeavour after it to the utmost of its power; it paints in such lively colours, the most shiny holiness of the Lord Christ, that while the soul beholds it with the supreme affection, it is transformed into its image (2 Corinthians 3:18) it so pathetically represents the love of a dying Christ, that the believer accounts nothing dearer than in return, both to love and to die to him (Galatians 2:20) the meditations of the promised happiness is so deeply engraved on his mind, that he is ready, for the sake of it, to try all things, to bear all things ( Corinthians 4:16-18) and thus it purifies the heart itself, (Acts 15:9) in order to the practice of a sinner and constant piety.”

Witsius, Herman. The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man. Vol. 1. Grand Rapdis: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010. 386- 389 vols 2 print.

Dead While Living

“In a man spiritually dead, there is really a natural or animal life, which though not active in that which is good, is doubly active in that which is evil.  The understanding not apprehending the wisdom of God, looks upon it as foolishness (1 Corinthians 2:14), and yet, when it would find wisdom in the things of God, it so transforms them by its mad presumption, and compels them, even against their nature, to a conformity to the notions of its trifling presumptuous self-wisdom, that while it impiously presumes to correct the wisdom of God, it transforms it in a dreadful manner into downright folly."

"The will, not finding any thing in God where with it can take delight, seeks it either in the creatures without God, or which is more abominable, in the very perpetration of wickedness. The affections, shaking off the reins of reason, rush on its full career.  The body, with all its members, is the throne of mad and furious lusts. And, the whole man, being so averse from God, and infatuated with the fond love of himself, sets himself up for an idol, makes his own advantage his supreme end, his own pleasure his most infallible law."

"This is the life of the soul, which is dead while living (Timothy 5:6).”

Witsius, Herman. The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man. Vol. 1. Grand Rapdis: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010. 358-59. 2 vols. Print.

Blessed are the Meek

"Meekness is not and easy grace. Indeed, no grace comes easily. It is the heavenly life into which we are being fashioned, and nothing less than a moral and spiritual revolution will produce in us the heavenly qualities. The old must die that the new may live.  Spiritual graces are not merely amiable traits of nature trained and cultivated into gentleness - they are transformations wrought by the divine Spirit."

"Meekness is a submissive spirit toward God, and a patient, quiet, forgiving spirit toward men. We should be meek toward God. We should accept whatever God sends, without complaint, without a rebellious word or feeling. It is easy to find reasons why we should do this. He is our Father, and loves us with a love which we never can doubt. Nothing but good can ever come from Him to us.  Whatever the form of the providence may be, we know it enfolds a blessing.”

“We are confident, too, of God’s wisdom. He makes no mistakes in any of His dealings with us. When our ways are set aside for His, we know it is because His are better. Dr. Payson was asked, when enduring great bodily affliction, if he could see any particular reason for the dispensation. “No,” he replied, “but I am as well satisfied as if I could see ten thousand reasons; God’s will is the very perfection of all reason.”

“When we think of these great truths concerning God, our heart should be quieted in any experience of pain or sorrow, or in any mystery of darkness, and it should appear reasonable to us to wait and suffer in patience, and with trustful, songful acquiescence. Why should the frail creature doubt the wisdom and the goodness of the strong Creator? Why should the child distrust the love and wisdom of the Father?”

“The captive bird which flies violently against the wires of its cage, trying to escape, only beats and bruises its own breast and wings, and at the end of its frantic struggles is still captive. Alike hurtful to one’s self and unavailing are all resisting of God’s will.”

“Wiser far is the bird which, when it finds itself shut in the cage, unable to escape, begins to sing, filling its prison with sweet music.  It spares itself all hurt.  It shows a spirit of trust and confidence.  Then even in its captivity it scatters benedictions all about it in its notes of cheerful song.”

“This illustrates the meekness with which God’s children should accept even the most painful events of life.  Their faith should never fail. They should look upon the inevitable, not as a decree of stern fate to which they can only submit, but as a revealing of the Father’s will, and therefore, something holy and sacred, something, too, in which a thousand blessings of love are folded up.”

“Resistance to God’s will gets nothing for its striving. A man cannot contend with God and hope to overcome omnipotence. The struggling bird has only hurts and bruises as the result of his struggles. It has broken no wire of its prison. It has loosened no chain. It has opened no door. But the bird which cheerfully accepts its bondage and sings in its prison is no longer a captive. It is as free as if it were soaring in mid-air. All the world belongs to it. Acquiescence in any suffering already has the victory over the suffering. The Christian who rejoices in the midst of pain and trial overcomes all pain and trial.”

Miller, J. R. The Master's Blesseds. Swengel: Reiner Publications, 1977. 34-36. Print.

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

“The deepest happiness is not that which has never suffered, but that which has passed through the experience of sorrow and has been comforted.”

“In the kingdom of heaven those are favored ones who are called to suffer. Instead of being unfortunate, they are the blessed.”

“Sorrow in itself is not a blessing. Sickness, pain, affliction, trial are not favors in themselves. These experiences can be nothing else but hard and bitter.  It is only in their fruits that the blessing comes.”

“We should never know God’s marvelous comfort if we never had sorrow.”

“God may not spare His children the grief, because there is a blessing in it, either for themselves or for others, but if they must drink the cup, He would strengthen them for it.  In one of the Psalms there is a word which is full of rich suggestion.  We are bidden to cast all our burden upon the Lord.  In the margin, however, is the word gift, as another reading, - “Cast thy gift upon the Lord.”  So our burden is God’s gift to us. This is true whatever the burden may be – duty, sorrow, pain, loss, care. Being God’s gift, there must be a blessing in it, something good, something we could not miss without sore loss.”

“This then is the blessing which comes to those who mourn – they receive the strength of God to sustain them in their sorrow.  The burden may not be lightened, but it is really an answer to the heart’s cry for help if new strength is given. Then the sufferer is enabled to sing, - the sorrow is changed to joy.”

Miller, J. R. The Master's Blesseds. Swengel: Reiner Publications, 1977. 25-30. Print.

God's Love

“God’s love is a fruitful love.”


“Wheresoever he loves, he makes the things lovely. We see things lovely, and then we love them; but God so loves us that in loving us he makes us lovely.”

“For his love is the love, as of a gracious, so of a powerful God, that can alter all things to us, and us to all things. He can bring us good out of everything, and do us good at all times.”

“God will be good to them in the best things, and a Christian, when he begins to know what the best things are, concerning a better life, he then learneth to value spiritual blessings and favours above all other whatsoever.”

“God’s love is a fruitful love, and fruitful in the best things.”

Sibbes, Richard. The works of Richard Sibbes. Second. II. Cambridge, Great Britain: The Banner of Truth Trust. 2001, 331. Print.

Steadfast Endurance

"Someone may point out that unregenerate people go through trials and sufferings and do not steadfastly endure. The reason is that they have nothing to look forward to except more suffering and desolation. The Christian's afflictions lead to perseverance because they are connected with this hope. If some Christians fail to grasp triumph in the midst of trial, it is because they have lost the connection between the fire and the future; they have failed to grasp hope, the cord that binds the pain to the prize. If our eyes are on the stars, we cannot see our sorrow. If we keep in our hearts the glory that is to follow, than the gloom of the present will have no significance."

 

 

"Suffering receives a new meaning. It becomes a means in God's hand to carry us on toward consummation. When God lets the weight of suffering rest on us, He does so to exercise us in

patience and endurance. Suffering has the very effect of making the Christian hope the more eagerly for the 'glory' which God has promised him. Suffering is thus not something of which we must be ashamed. Hope makes it something positive, in which we can actually rejoice. If there were no suffering, hope would never have the opportunity to attain full strength. It is by suffering that hope is tested and strengthened. The role of suffering in the Christian life is to develop endurance "and endurance produces character and character produces hope.'"

 

 

"It should be noticed that the virtue produced in the Christian by the ploughing of tribulation is not mere tolerance. There is no thought of, "I can stand it." The pagan, in dull hopelessness, bows to the inevitable. The Christian accepts the suffering, knowing that God is bringing him through to glory; and from the hope of the past to the hope of the future, he sees the connection running through his suffering like a thread that binds all together. His life is like the turbulent rapids of a river, but he knows that the river comes from a still spring and is flowing to a calm ocean. In this knowledge, the Christan has settled peace."

 

 

"The tribulation which has wrought in us the habit of reliance on God, the patient persistence of endurance, develops in us still further virtues. Patient endurance will develop a mature character, and a character of this sort produces a steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us."

 

 

"Multitudes of Christians live out their lives in the simplest circumstances. Not only will they never set the world on fire, but also they will never be noticed by the world. But we may be sure that devotion to the Lord, though unnoticed by the world, is observed by Him and will not go unrewarded. These multitudes know the joy and power of steadfast endurance and resultant maturity of virtue and character. They have the sense of being approved by God, even though they have not done anything that would call for special citation. Some of the greatest battles and victories are fought and won in the dark recesses of secret lives, well away from man's historical writing. What secular historian would mention Job? But we can be sure that all Heaven was regarding, with intense interest, the conflict raging in the life of that ancient cattle raiser, and that the glory of God was manifest in all that he did."

 

 

"Let all humble souls take comfort in this. It may take more of the grace of God for a man to go to his office each morning and sit at the same desk he has occupied for the last forty years than for a martyr to be burned at the stake. It may have a greater supply of the grace of God for a housewife to resume the daily round of household chores than for a missionary to be shot by the Reds in China."

 

 

"Let us see in Job's life this chain reaction of God's dealings with His people in the midst of pain. Job knew the terrible pressure of suffering. This caused him to examine his position before God; he realized that he was nothing in himself, that he had no rights so far as God was concerned. This conclusion led him to look to God and to accept absolutely anything from His hand. When God allowed the severer blows to strike him, Job perceived the corresponding grace and love of God toward himself. This taught him steadfast and persistent endurance. As his sorrows increased, Job sensed that he was being proved by God and approved, so he looked to God with even greater confidence, and with the expectation that the Lord would reveal Himself to him in a fresh way. Since his hope was from God, his heart was filled with the joy of the Lord. This is what our text sets forth, God is working in us. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son who he receiveth" (Hebrews 12:6)."

 

 

"Tribulation leads to steadfast endurance; steadfast endurance produces maturity of character and a sense of being approved by God, which increases our further hope. But all this results from the truth that we have been justified by the grace of God in Christ."

"Our victory over daily tribulation comes from the fact that Christ took our place upon the cross, and died in order to bring us back to God and to bring God back to us. Our lives have ten thousand facets, and God wants the light of His being to reflect from every one of them. He wants to show the world the great sufficiency of His grace. Do we have a problem? God is able to meet that problem. Do we have a need? God is able to supply that need. Do our hearts have a cavity of Loneliness? God is able to fill it with Himself and to be all things to us through Christ. Do we stumble? God is able to strengthen us and make us stand. Do we waver between two choices? God is able to direct us. Are we feeble in our wills? God is able to give us the power to choose for Him."

 

 

"Thus God's work leads us from Himself to Himself. Thus we learn to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."

 

 

Barnhouse, Donald Grey. God's River Romans 5:1-11 Expositions of Bible Doctrines Epistles to the Romans.Philadelphia: The Evangelical Foundation, inc., 1959. 94-99

Exemplary Suffering

"God chooses some of His children to suffer for reasons of His own, entirely apart from sin in their lives, even with no apparent constructive purpose; although these who pass through such suffering do indeed grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord."

 

"And when they have passed through the fires which His love has planned for them, He brings them to the place of triumph and rewards them with eternal glory because they have won honors for Him."

 

"I believe the Bible reveals that God chooses some people to suffer intensely, and the choice of these heroes of pain is made in two ways but with one object. God's object is to demonstrate to the invisible world, and especially to Satan, that He can hold the allegiance of those who have become His children through faith in Christ Jesus, and that nothing can swerve them from confidence and trust in Him, even though the enemy brings his heaviest artillery to bear. The choice is made sometimes at at the nomination of God, sometimes at the nomination of Satan. This conclusion is based on the Biblical teaching that God is not the Father of all men. The Bible teaches that all men are children of wrath and disobedience, and that only a few become children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. These are translated from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of the Son of God's love. This present world system is organized by Satan, and every part of our civilization is Satanic. Here and there a few fields have been faintly perfumed by the presence of Christians, but we must accept the verdict of God's Word that "the whole world lieth in the lap of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19). In every civilization and stratum of society, God has His own who live in opposition to the principles which govern the surrounding fallen world."

  

"The outstanding example of suffering on earth inflicted for its effect in Heaven is the story of Job. Briefly, the outline of the conflict is as follows: When Satan came into the courts of God to report, as he must do at intervals, God pointed out to him a man whose walk and ways were in righteousness and holiness and whose trust was in God alone. Though in the midst of Satan's world, Job was giving no allegiance to him. This was a mouthful of dust for the Devil, who cried out: "Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?" (Job 1:10)."

 

"Incidentally, that is one of my favorite Bible verses, because Satan admits that the power of God which surrounds all of us who trust Him is so effective that no event can touch us unless God lowers the hedge and permits it. Our God, who guides the fish through the sea, can order the incidents of history and details of circumstance to fit the pattern of life which He had designed for His redeemed children. All will happen exactly according to the plan of God."

 

"To the charge that Job was faithful because God protected him and blessed him with great possessions, the divine reply was given that the hedge would be lowered to permit Satan to touch the family and property of Job, but he must not touch Job himself. Immediately the Devil goes into action. Storms rage, an army marches, bandits move from the lair, lightening falls from the sky. The houses and barns of Job are destroyed, his property ravaged, his children are killed.  Only three servants escape to bring the news to Job. It should be noted that these events were caused by the Devil, even though permitted by God. We read in the second epistle to Timothy that Satan can do as he pleases to all who have not been born again (2 Timothy 2:26), and he uses the forces of nature for his ends. Let those who are not Christians realize that the enemy of souls is the cause of their misery. The Christian knows that when life strikes a blow the enemy means it for evil but God intends it for good."

 

"Job received the news of his losses with quiet trust in God. He arose, tore his mantle and shaved his head - marks of mourning in those days- and then fell down on the ground and worshipped God. That must have been a bitter moment for Satan. Job cried out, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job 1:20,21). His words have been dust in Satan's mouth for thousands of years, for multitudes of God's children have repeated Job's words when similar ill have befallen them. How wonderful that when we are blinded by tears, we can nevertheless see our God. In fact, our tears become crystal lenses through which He is magnified; and in the midst of suffering we realize the greatness of His power and the tenderness of His love."

 

"God next permitted the hedge to be lowered further, to permit Satan to afflict Job with anything short of death. Satan immediately launched an attack on the body of Job. Boils covered the poor man from head to foot."

 

"Once more Job triumphed and praised God in the midst of pain. He was confident that there was an eternal purpose behind his suffering, and knew that the events of time were important in the light of eternal issues. We must not forget that an invisible war - a rebellion of Satan against God - is being fought in the lives of men. God in His Word and by His actions in the lives of His people tells us that we are expendable in this invisible war. But, where an expendable man dies in an earthly war, a suffering saint lives eternally, shining as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars forever and ever."

 

"However when suffering comes to us, we should not immediately think that we are suffering for God in His war with the enemy. First, we should ask if we have wandered from His path. Second, we should ask Him to use our tribulation to form His image in us, in order that we may become like Christ. Then we may ask Him to use our suffering for His honor and glory. For, if God can be thus glorified, and if Satan can be made to eat dust, we are delighted that God does with us whatever He pleases."

 

Barnhouse, Donald Grey. God's River Romans 5:1-11 Expositions of Bible Doctrines Epistles to the Romans.Philadelphia: The Evangelical Foundation, inc., 1959. 85-91