Are You Regenerate? # 6
Reader, I invite your particular attention to these marks and evidences of regeneration, while I try to set them before you in order. Forget everything else in this volume, if you will - but do not forget this part of it. I might easily mention other evidences besides those I am about to mention. But I will not do so. I would rather confine myself to the First Epistle of John, because of the peculiar explicitness of its statements about the man that is born of God. He that has an ear, let him hear what this beloved Apostle says about the marks of Regeneration.
1. First of all, John says, "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in Him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God." "We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning" (1 John 3:9; 5:18).
A Regenerate man does not commit sin as a habit. He no longer sins with his heart and will, and whole inclination, as an unregenerate man does. There was probably a time when he did not think whether his actions were sinful or not, and never felt grieved after doing evil. There was no quarrel between him and sin - they were friends. Now he hates sin, flees from it, fights against it, counts it his greatest plague, groans under the burden of its presence, mourns when he falls under its influence, and longs to be delivered from it altogether. In one word, sin no longer pleases him, nor is even a matter of indifference - it has become the abominable thing which he hates. He cannot prevent it dwelling within him. "If he said he had no sin, there would be no truth in him" (1 John 1:8) - but he can say that he keenly abhors it, and the great desire of his soul is not to commit sin at all. He cannot prevent bad thoughts arising within him, and shortcomings, omissions, and defects appearing, both in his words and actions. He knows, as James says, that "In many things we offend all" (James 3:2). But he can say truly, and as in the sight of God, that these things are a daily grief and sorrow to him, and that his whole nature does not consent unto them, as that of the unregenerate man does. Reader, I place this mark before you. What would the Apostle say about you? Are you born of God? No one born of God makes a practice of sinning; that is, he does not sin in that malignant manner in which the children of the devil do - he does not make a trade of sin, nor live in the constant and allowed practice of it. There is a great difference between regenerate and unregenerate people in the very sins that they commit. All indeed sin - but a child of God cannot sin - that is, though he does sin, yet he cannot sin after such a manner as wicked and unregenerate men do.
2. Secondly, John says, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" (1 John 5:1).
A Regenerate man believes that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour by whom his soul can be pardoned and redeemed; that He is the divine person appointed and anointed by God the Father for this very purpose, and that beside Him there is no Saviour at all. In himself he sees nothing but unworthiness - but in Christ he sees ground for the fullest confidence, and trusting in Him, he believes that his sins are all forgiven and his iniquities all put away. He believes that for the sake of Christ's finished work and death upon the Cross, he is reckoned righteous in God's sight, and may look forward to death and judgment without alarm. He may have his doubts and fears. He may sometimes tell you he feels as if he had no faith at all. But ask him whether he is willing to trust in anything instead of Christ, and see what he will say. Ask him whether he will rest his hopes of eternal life on his own goodness, his own amendments, his prayers, his minister, his doings in church and out of church, either in whole or in part, and see what he will reply. Ask him whether he will give up Christ, and place his confidence in any other way of salvation. Depend upon it he would say, that though he does feel weak and bad, he would not give up Christ for all the world. Depend upon it - he would say he found a preciousness in Christ, a suitableness to his own soul in Christ, that he found no where else, and that he must cling to Him.
Reader, I place this mark also before you. What would the Apostle say about you? Are you born of God?
3. Thirdly, John says, "Everyone that does righteousness is born of Him" (1 John 2:29).
The Regenerate man is a holy man. He endeavors to live according to God's will, to do the things that please God, to avoid the things that God hates. His aim and desire is to love God with heart and soul, and mind and strength, and to love his neighbor as himself. His wish is to be continually looking to Christ as his example as well as his Saviour, and to show himself Christ's friend by doing whatever Christ commands. No doubt he is not perfect. None will tell you that sooner than himself. He groans under the burden of indwelling corruption cleaving to him. He finds an evil principle within him constantly warring against grace, and trying to draw him away from God. But he does not consent to it, though he cannot prevent its presence. In spite of all short-comings, the average bent and bias of his ways is holy - his doings holy - his tastes holy - and his habits holy. In spite of all his swerving and turning aside, like a ship going against a contrary wind, the general course of his life is in one direction - toward God and for God. And though he may sometimes feel so low that he questions whether he is a Christian at all, in his calmer moments he will generally be able to say, with old John Newton, "I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world - but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am." [Let none conclude that they have no grace, because they have many imperfections in their obedience. Your grace may be very weak and imperfect, and yet you may be truly born again to God, and be a genuine son and heir of heaven.]
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 7)
A Proliferation of Christian Devotionals and Sermons
Saturday, December 29, 2018
Saturday, December 22, 2018
Are You Regenerate? # 5
Are You Regenerate? # 5
And what is it they need in order to make them fit to enjoy heaven? They need to be regenerated or born again. It is not a little changing and outward amendment they require. It is not merely the putting a restraint on raging passions, and the quieting of unruly affections. All this is not enough. Old age - the lack of opportunity for indulgence - the fear of man, may produce all this. The tiger is still a tiger, even when he is chained; and the serpent is still a serpent, even when he lies motionless and coiled up. The alteration needed is far greater and deeper. They must have a new nature put within them. They must be made new creatures. The fountain-head must be purified. The root must be set right. Each one needs a new heart and a new will. The change required is not that of the snake, when he casts his skin and yet remains a reptile still. It is the change of the caterpillar, when he dies and his crawling life ceases - but from his body rises the butterfly - a new animal, with a new nature. All this, and nothing less, is required.
The plain truth is, the vast proportion of professing Christians in the churches have nothing whatever of Christianity, except the name. The reality of Christianity, the graces, the experience, the faith, the hopes, the life, the conflict, the tastes, the hungering and thirsting after righteousness - all these are things of which they know nothing at all. They need to be converted as truly as any among the heathen to whom Paul preached, and to be turned from idols, and renewed in the spirit of their minds, as really, if not as literally. And one main part of the message which should be continually delivered to the greater portion of every congregation on earth, is this - "You must be born again." I write this down deliberately. I know it will sound dreadful and uncharitable in many ears. But I ask anyone to take the New Testament in his hand and see what it says in Christianity, and compare that with the ways of professing Christians, and then deny the truth of what I have written, if he can.
And now let everyone who reads these pages remember this grand principle of Scriptural religion - "No salvation without Regeneration - no spiritual life without a new birth - no heaven without a new heart."
Think not for a moment that the subject of this tract is a mere matter of controversy - an empty question for learned men to argue about - but not one that concerns you. Away with such an idea forever! It concerns you deeply. It touches your own eternal interests. It is a thing that you must know for yourself, feel for yourself, and experience for yourself, if you would ever be saved. No man, woman will ever enter heaven without having been born again. Make sure to yourselves this great change. It is no notion that I have now preached unto you. Your natures and your lives must be changed, or, believe it, you will be found at the last day under the wrath of God. For God will not change or alter the Word that is gone out of His mouth. He has said it - Christ, who is the truth and Word of God, has pronounced it - that without a new birth, or Regeneration, no man shall inherit the kingdom of God."
And think not for one moment that this regeneration is a change which people may go through after they are dead, though they never went through it while they were alive. Away with such a notion forever! Now or never is the only time to be saved. Now, in this world of toil and labor - of money - getting and business - now you must be prepared for heaven, if you are ever to be prepared at all. Now is the only time to be justified, now the only time to be sanctified, and now the only time to be born again. So sure as the Bible is true, the man who dies without these three things, will only rise again at the last day to be lost forever.
You may be saved, and reach heaven without many things which men reckon of great importance - without riches, without learning, without books, without worldly comforts, without heath, without house, without land, without friends - but without Regeneration you will never be saved at all. Without your natural birth you would never have lived, and moved on earth; without a new birth you will never live and move in heaven. I bless God that the saints in glory will be a multitude that no man can number. I comfort myself with the thought that, after all, there will be "a great multitude" in heaven. But this I know and am persuaded of from God's Word, that of all who reach heaven, there will not be one single individual who has not been born again.
"Are you born again?" I say to everyone whose eye is upon this page. Once more I repeat what I have already said, "No salvation without a new birth."
III. Let me, in the third place, point out the MARKS of being Regenerate, or born again.
It is a most important thing to have clear and distinct views on this part of the subject we are considering. You have seen what regeneration is, and why it is necessary to salvation. The next step is to find out the signs and evidences by which a man may know whether he is born again or not - whether his heart has been changed by the Holy Spirit, or whether his change is yet to come.
Now these signs and evidences are laid down plainly for us in Scripture. God has not left us in ignorance on this point. He foresaw how some would torture themselves with doubts and questionings, and would never believe it was well with their souls. He foresaw how others would take it for granted that they were regenerate who had no right to do so at all. He has therefore mercifully provided us with a test and gauge of our spiritual condition, in the First Epistle of John. There He has written for our learning, what the regenerate man is, and what the regenerate man does - his ways, his habits, his manner of life, his faith, his experience. Everyone who wishes to possess the key to a right understanding of this subject should thoroughly study this First Epistle of John.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 6)
And what is it they need in order to make them fit to enjoy heaven? They need to be regenerated or born again. It is not a little changing and outward amendment they require. It is not merely the putting a restraint on raging passions, and the quieting of unruly affections. All this is not enough. Old age - the lack of opportunity for indulgence - the fear of man, may produce all this. The tiger is still a tiger, even when he is chained; and the serpent is still a serpent, even when he lies motionless and coiled up. The alteration needed is far greater and deeper. They must have a new nature put within them. They must be made new creatures. The fountain-head must be purified. The root must be set right. Each one needs a new heart and a new will. The change required is not that of the snake, when he casts his skin and yet remains a reptile still. It is the change of the caterpillar, when he dies and his crawling life ceases - but from his body rises the butterfly - a new animal, with a new nature. All this, and nothing less, is required.
The plain truth is, the vast proportion of professing Christians in the churches have nothing whatever of Christianity, except the name. The reality of Christianity, the graces, the experience, the faith, the hopes, the life, the conflict, the tastes, the hungering and thirsting after righteousness - all these are things of which they know nothing at all. They need to be converted as truly as any among the heathen to whom Paul preached, and to be turned from idols, and renewed in the spirit of their minds, as really, if not as literally. And one main part of the message which should be continually delivered to the greater portion of every congregation on earth, is this - "You must be born again." I write this down deliberately. I know it will sound dreadful and uncharitable in many ears. But I ask anyone to take the New Testament in his hand and see what it says in Christianity, and compare that with the ways of professing Christians, and then deny the truth of what I have written, if he can.
And now let everyone who reads these pages remember this grand principle of Scriptural religion - "No salvation without Regeneration - no spiritual life without a new birth - no heaven without a new heart."
Think not for a moment that the subject of this tract is a mere matter of controversy - an empty question for learned men to argue about - but not one that concerns you. Away with such an idea forever! It concerns you deeply. It touches your own eternal interests. It is a thing that you must know for yourself, feel for yourself, and experience for yourself, if you would ever be saved. No man, woman will ever enter heaven without having been born again. Make sure to yourselves this great change. It is no notion that I have now preached unto you. Your natures and your lives must be changed, or, believe it, you will be found at the last day under the wrath of God. For God will not change or alter the Word that is gone out of His mouth. He has said it - Christ, who is the truth and Word of God, has pronounced it - that without a new birth, or Regeneration, no man shall inherit the kingdom of God."
And think not for one moment that this regeneration is a change which people may go through after they are dead, though they never went through it while they were alive. Away with such a notion forever! Now or never is the only time to be saved. Now, in this world of toil and labor - of money - getting and business - now you must be prepared for heaven, if you are ever to be prepared at all. Now is the only time to be justified, now the only time to be sanctified, and now the only time to be born again. So sure as the Bible is true, the man who dies without these three things, will only rise again at the last day to be lost forever.
You may be saved, and reach heaven without many things which men reckon of great importance - without riches, without learning, without books, without worldly comforts, without heath, without house, without land, without friends - but without Regeneration you will never be saved at all. Without your natural birth you would never have lived, and moved on earth; without a new birth you will never live and move in heaven. I bless God that the saints in glory will be a multitude that no man can number. I comfort myself with the thought that, after all, there will be "a great multitude" in heaven. But this I know and am persuaded of from God's Word, that of all who reach heaven, there will not be one single individual who has not been born again.
"Are you born again?" I say to everyone whose eye is upon this page. Once more I repeat what I have already said, "No salvation without a new birth."
III. Let me, in the third place, point out the MARKS of being Regenerate, or born again.
It is a most important thing to have clear and distinct views on this part of the subject we are considering. You have seen what regeneration is, and why it is necessary to salvation. The next step is to find out the signs and evidences by which a man may know whether he is born again or not - whether his heart has been changed by the Holy Spirit, or whether his change is yet to come.
Now these signs and evidences are laid down plainly for us in Scripture. God has not left us in ignorance on this point. He foresaw how some would torture themselves with doubts and questionings, and would never believe it was well with their souls. He foresaw how others would take it for granted that they were regenerate who had no right to do so at all. He has therefore mercifully provided us with a test and gauge of our spiritual condition, in the First Epistle of John. There He has written for our learning, what the regenerate man is, and what the regenerate man does - his ways, his habits, his manner of life, his faith, his experience. Everyone who wishes to possess the key to a right understanding of this subject should thoroughly study this First Epistle of John.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 6)
Are You Regenerate? # 4
Are You Regenerate? # 4
Surely you must be aware that the vast majority of people in the world see nothing, feel nothing, and know nothing in religion as they ought. How and why is this, is not the present question. I only put it to your conscience - is that not the fact?
Tell them of the sinfulness of many things which they are doing continually - and what is generally the reply? "They see no harm."
Tell them of the awful peril in which their souls are - of the shortness of time - the nearness of eternity - the uncertainty of life - the reality of judgment. "They feel no danger."
Tell them of their need of a Saviour - mighty, loving, and divine, and of the impossibility of being saved from hell, except by faith in Him. It all falls flat and dead on their ears. "They see no such great barrier between themselves and heaven."
Tell them of holiness, and the high standard of living which the Bible requires. They cannot comprehend the need of such strictness. "They see no use in being so very good."
There are thousands and tens of thousands of such people on every side of us. They will hear these things all their lives. They will even attend the ministry of the most striking preachers, and listen to the most powerful appeals to their consciences. And yet, when you come to visit them on their deathbeds, they are like men and women who never heard these things at all. They know nothing of the leading doctrines of the Gospel by experience. They can render no reason whatever of their own hope.
And why is all this? What is the explanation - what is the cause of such a state of things? It all comes from this - that man naturally has no sense of spiritual things. In vain the sun of righteousness shines before him - the eyes of his soul are blind, and cannot see. In vain the music of Christ's invitations sounds around him - the ears of his soul are deaf and cannot hear it. In vain the wrath of God against sin is set forth - the perceptions of his soul are stopped up - like the sleeping traveler, he does not perceive the coming storm. In vain the bread and water of life are offered to him - his soul is neither hungry for the one, nor thirsty for the other. In vain he is advised to flee to the Great Physician - his soul is unconscious of its disease - why should he go? In vain you put a price into his hand to buy wisdom - the mind of his soul wanders; he is like the lunatic who calls straws a crown, and dust diamonds - he says, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." Ah, reader, there is nothing so sad as the utter corruption of our nature! There is nothing so painful as the anatomy of a dead soul!
Now what does such a man need? He needs to be born again, and made a new creature. He needs a complete putting off the old man, and a complete putting on the new. We do not live our natural life until we are born into the world; and we do not live our spiritual life until we are born of the Spirit.
But, reader, you must furthermore be aware that the vast majority of people are utterly unfit to enjoy heaven in their present state. I lay it before you as a great fact. Is it not so?
Look at the masses of men and women gathered together in our cities and towns, and observe them well. They are all dying creatures - all immortal beings - all going to the judgment seat of Christ - all certain to live forever in heaven or hell. But where is the slightest evidence that most of them are in the least degree fit and ready for heaven?
Look at the greater part of those who are called Christians, in every part throughout the land. Take any parish you please in town or country. Take that which you know best. What are the tastes and pleasures of the majority of people who live there? What do they like best, when they have a choice? What do they enjoy most, when they have their own way? Observe the manner in which they spend their Sundays. Mark how little delight they seem to feel in the Bible and prayer. Take notice of the low and earthly notions of pleasure and happiness, which everywhere prevail, among young and old, among rich and poor. Mark well these things, and then think quietly over this question - What would these people do in heaven?"
You and I, it may be said, know little about heaven. Our notions of heaven may be very dim and indistinct. But at all events, I suppose we are agreed in thinking that heaven is a very holy place - that God is there - and Christ is there - and saints and angels are there - that sin is not there in any shape - and that nothing is said, thought, or done, which God does not like. Only let this be granted, and then I think there can be no doubt the great majority of professing Christians are as little fit for heaven as a bird swimming beneath the sea, or a fish for living upon dry land.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 5)
Surely you must be aware that the vast majority of people in the world see nothing, feel nothing, and know nothing in religion as they ought. How and why is this, is not the present question. I only put it to your conscience - is that not the fact?
Tell them of the sinfulness of many things which they are doing continually - and what is generally the reply? "They see no harm."
Tell them of the awful peril in which their souls are - of the shortness of time - the nearness of eternity - the uncertainty of life - the reality of judgment. "They feel no danger."
Tell them of their need of a Saviour - mighty, loving, and divine, and of the impossibility of being saved from hell, except by faith in Him. It all falls flat and dead on their ears. "They see no such great barrier between themselves and heaven."
Tell them of holiness, and the high standard of living which the Bible requires. They cannot comprehend the need of such strictness. "They see no use in being so very good."
There are thousands and tens of thousands of such people on every side of us. They will hear these things all their lives. They will even attend the ministry of the most striking preachers, and listen to the most powerful appeals to their consciences. And yet, when you come to visit them on their deathbeds, they are like men and women who never heard these things at all. They know nothing of the leading doctrines of the Gospel by experience. They can render no reason whatever of their own hope.
And why is all this? What is the explanation - what is the cause of such a state of things? It all comes from this - that man naturally has no sense of spiritual things. In vain the sun of righteousness shines before him - the eyes of his soul are blind, and cannot see. In vain the music of Christ's invitations sounds around him - the ears of his soul are deaf and cannot hear it. In vain the wrath of God against sin is set forth - the perceptions of his soul are stopped up - like the sleeping traveler, he does not perceive the coming storm. In vain the bread and water of life are offered to him - his soul is neither hungry for the one, nor thirsty for the other. In vain he is advised to flee to the Great Physician - his soul is unconscious of its disease - why should he go? In vain you put a price into his hand to buy wisdom - the mind of his soul wanders; he is like the lunatic who calls straws a crown, and dust diamonds - he says, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." Ah, reader, there is nothing so sad as the utter corruption of our nature! There is nothing so painful as the anatomy of a dead soul!
Now what does such a man need? He needs to be born again, and made a new creature. He needs a complete putting off the old man, and a complete putting on the new. We do not live our natural life until we are born into the world; and we do not live our spiritual life until we are born of the Spirit.
But, reader, you must furthermore be aware that the vast majority of people are utterly unfit to enjoy heaven in their present state. I lay it before you as a great fact. Is it not so?
Look at the masses of men and women gathered together in our cities and towns, and observe them well. They are all dying creatures - all immortal beings - all going to the judgment seat of Christ - all certain to live forever in heaven or hell. But where is the slightest evidence that most of them are in the least degree fit and ready for heaven?
Look at the greater part of those who are called Christians, in every part throughout the land. Take any parish you please in town or country. Take that which you know best. What are the tastes and pleasures of the majority of people who live there? What do they like best, when they have a choice? What do they enjoy most, when they have their own way? Observe the manner in which they spend their Sundays. Mark how little delight they seem to feel in the Bible and prayer. Take notice of the low and earthly notions of pleasure and happiness, which everywhere prevail, among young and old, among rich and poor. Mark well these things, and then think quietly over this question - What would these people do in heaven?"
You and I, it may be said, know little about heaven. Our notions of heaven may be very dim and indistinct. But at all events, I suppose we are agreed in thinking that heaven is a very holy place - that God is there - and Christ is there - and saints and angels are there - that sin is not there in any shape - and that nothing is said, thought, or done, which God does not like. Only let this be granted, and then I think there can be no doubt the great majority of professing Christians are as little fit for heaven as a bird swimming beneath the sea, or a fish for living upon dry land.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 5)
Are You Regenerate? # 3
Are You Regenerate? # 3
To me indeed there seems to be much confusion of ideas, and indistinctness of apprehension in men's minds on this simple point - what regeneration really is - and all arising from not simply adhering to the Word of God. That a man is admitted into a state of great privilege when he is made a member of a pure church of Christ, I do not for an instant deny. That he is in a far better and more advantageous position for his soul, than if he did not belong to the Church, I make no question. That a wide door is set open before his soul, which is not set before the poor heathen, I can most clearly see. But I do not see that the Bible ever calls this regeneration! And I cannot find a single text in Scripture which warrants the assumption that it is so. It is very important in theology to distinguish things that differ. Church privileges are one thing. Regeneration is another. I, for one, dare not confound them.
I am quite aware that great and good men have clung to that low view of regeneration, to which I have adverted. But when a doctrine of the everlasting gospel is at stake, I can call no man master. The words of the old philosopher are never to be forgotten - "I love Plato, I love Socrates - but I love truth better than either." I say unhesitatingly, that those who hold the view that there are two regenerations, can bring forward no plain text in proof of it. I firmly believe that no honest reader of the Bible only, would ever find this view there for himself; and that goes very far to make me suspect it is an idea of man's invention. The only regeneration that I can see in Scripture is, not a change of state - but a change of heart. That is the view, I once more assert, which the Church Catechism takes when it speaks of the "death unto sin, and new birth unto righteousness," and on that view I take my stand.
Reader, regeneration, or new birth, is the distinguishing mark of every true Christian. Now just consider what I say. Are you regenerate, or are you not?
II. Let me show you, in the second place, the necessity there is for our being regenerated, or born again. That there is such a necessity is most plain from our Lord Jesus Christ's words in the third chapter of John's Gospel. Nothing can be more clear and positive than His language to Nichodemus - "Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." "Marvel not that I said unto you, you must be born again." (John 3:7).
The reason of this necessity is the exceeding sinfulness and corruption of our natural hearts. The words of Paul to the Corinthians are literally accurate - "The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him." (1 Cor. 2:14). Just as rivers flow downward, and sparks fly upward, and stones fall to the ground, so does a man's heart naturally incline to what is evil. We love our soul's enemies - we dislike our soul's friends. We call good evil, and we call evil good. We take pleasure in ungodliness, we take no pleasure in Christ. We not only commit sin - but we also love sin. We not only need to be cleansed from the guilt of sin - but we also need to be delivered from its power. The natural tone, bias, and current, of our minds, must be completely altered. The image of God, which sin has blotted out, must be restored. The disorder and confusion which reigns within us must be put down. The first things must no longer be last, and the last first. The Spirit must let in the light on our hearts, put everything in its right place, and create all things new.
It ought always to be remembered that there are two distinct things which the Lord Jesus Christ does for every sinner whom He undertakes to save. He washes him from his sins in His own blood, and gives him a free pardon - this is his justification. He puts the Holy Spirit into his heart, and makes him an entire new man - this is his regeneration.
The two things are both absolutely necessary to salvation. The change of heart is as necessary as the pardon; and the pardon is as necessary as the change. Without the pardon we have no right or title to heaven. Without the change we would not be fit and ready to enjoy heaven, even if we got there.
The two things are never separate. They are never found apart. Every justified man is also a regenerate man, and every regenerate man is also a justified man. When the Lord Jesus Christ gives a man remission of sins, He also gives him repentance. When He grants peace with God, He also grants power to become a son of God. There are two great standing maxims of the glorious gospel, which ought never to be forgotten. One is, "he who believes not shall be damned." (Mark 16:16). The other is, "If any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." (Romans 8:9).
Reader, the man who denies the universal necessity of regeneration, can know very little of the heart's corruption. He is blind indeed who fancies that pardon is all we need in order to get to heaven, and does not see that pardon without a change of heart would be a useless gift. Blessed be God that both are freely offered to us in Christ's gospel, and that Jesus is able and willing to give the one as well as the other.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 4)
To me indeed there seems to be much confusion of ideas, and indistinctness of apprehension in men's minds on this simple point - what regeneration really is - and all arising from not simply adhering to the Word of God. That a man is admitted into a state of great privilege when he is made a member of a pure church of Christ, I do not for an instant deny. That he is in a far better and more advantageous position for his soul, than if he did not belong to the Church, I make no question. That a wide door is set open before his soul, which is not set before the poor heathen, I can most clearly see. But I do not see that the Bible ever calls this regeneration! And I cannot find a single text in Scripture which warrants the assumption that it is so. It is very important in theology to distinguish things that differ. Church privileges are one thing. Regeneration is another. I, for one, dare not confound them.
I am quite aware that great and good men have clung to that low view of regeneration, to which I have adverted. But when a doctrine of the everlasting gospel is at stake, I can call no man master. The words of the old philosopher are never to be forgotten - "I love Plato, I love Socrates - but I love truth better than either." I say unhesitatingly, that those who hold the view that there are two regenerations, can bring forward no plain text in proof of it. I firmly believe that no honest reader of the Bible only, would ever find this view there for himself; and that goes very far to make me suspect it is an idea of man's invention. The only regeneration that I can see in Scripture is, not a change of state - but a change of heart. That is the view, I once more assert, which the Church Catechism takes when it speaks of the "death unto sin, and new birth unto righteousness," and on that view I take my stand.
Reader, regeneration, or new birth, is the distinguishing mark of every true Christian. Now just consider what I say. Are you regenerate, or are you not?
II. Let me show you, in the second place, the necessity there is for our being regenerated, or born again. That there is such a necessity is most plain from our Lord Jesus Christ's words in the third chapter of John's Gospel. Nothing can be more clear and positive than His language to Nichodemus - "Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." "Marvel not that I said unto you, you must be born again." (John 3:7).
The reason of this necessity is the exceeding sinfulness and corruption of our natural hearts. The words of Paul to the Corinthians are literally accurate - "The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him." (1 Cor. 2:14). Just as rivers flow downward, and sparks fly upward, and stones fall to the ground, so does a man's heart naturally incline to what is evil. We love our soul's enemies - we dislike our soul's friends. We call good evil, and we call evil good. We take pleasure in ungodliness, we take no pleasure in Christ. We not only commit sin - but we also love sin. We not only need to be cleansed from the guilt of sin - but we also need to be delivered from its power. The natural tone, bias, and current, of our minds, must be completely altered. The image of God, which sin has blotted out, must be restored. The disorder and confusion which reigns within us must be put down. The first things must no longer be last, and the last first. The Spirit must let in the light on our hearts, put everything in its right place, and create all things new.
It ought always to be remembered that there are two distinct things which the Lord Jesus Christ does for every sinner whom He undertakes to save. He washes him from his sins in His own blood, and gives him a free pardon - this is his justification. He puts the Holy Spirit into his heart, and makes him an entire new man - this is his regeneration.
The two things are both absolutely necessary to salvation. The change of heart is as necessary as the pardon; and the pardon is as necessary as the change. Without the pardon we have no right or title to heaven. Without the change we would not be fit and ready to enjoy heaven, even if we got there.
The two things are never separate. They are never found apart. Every justified man is also a regenerate man, and every regenerate man is also a justified man. When the Lord Jesus Christ gives a man remission of sins, He also gives him repentance. When He grants peace with God, He also grants power to become a son of God. There are two great standing maxims of the glorious gospel, which ought never to be forgotten. One is, "he who believes not shall be damned." (Mark 16:16). The other is, "If any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." (Romans 8:9).
Reader, the man who denies the universal necessity of regeneration, can know very little of the heart's corruption. He is blind indeed who fancies that pardon is all we need in order to get to heaven, and does not see that pardon without a change of heart would be a useless gift. Blessed be God that both are freely offered to us in Christ's gospel, and that Jesus is able and willing to give the one as well as the other.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 4)
Saturday, December 15, 2018
Are You Regenerate? # 2
Are You Regenerate? # 2
This change of heart in a true Christian is so complete, that no word could be chosen more fitting to express it than that word, "Regeneration," or "new birth." Doubtless it is no outward, bodily alteration - but undoubtedly it is an entire alteration of the inner man. It adds no new faculties to a man's mind - but it certainly gives an entirely new bent and bias to all his opinions so now, his views of sin, the world, the Bible, and Christ so new, that he is to all intents and purposes a new man. The change seems to bring a new being into existence. It may well be called being born again.
This change is not always given to believers at the same time in their lives. A vast multitude of people it is be feared, go down to the grave without having been born again at all.
This change of heart does not always begin in the same way. With some, like the Apostle Paul, and the jailor at Philippi, it is a sudden and violent change, attended with much distress of mind. With others, like Lydia of Thyatira, it is more gentle and gradual - their winter becomes spring almost without their knowing how. With some the change is brought about by the Spirit working through afflictions or providential visitations. With others, and probably the greater number of true Christians, the Word of God, preached or written, is the means of effecting it.
This change is one which can only be known and discerned by its effects. Its beginnings are a hidden and secret thing. We cannot see them. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us this most plainly - "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound thereof - but cannot tell whence it comes or where it goes; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). Would you know if you are Regenerate? You must try the question, by examining what you know of the effects of Regeneration. Those effects are always the same. The ways by which true Christians are led, in passing through their great change, are certainly various. But the state of the heart and soul into which they are brought at last, is always the same. Ask them what they think of sin, Christ, holiness, the world, the Bible, and prayer, and you will find them all of one mind.
This change is one which no man can give to himself, nor yet to another. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). But man has no power to work the change. No minister on earth can convey grace to any one of his congregation at his discretion. He may preach as truly and faithfully as Paul - but God must give the increase. He may baptize with water in the name of the Trinity - but unless the Holy Spirit accompanies and blesses the ordinance, there is no death to sin, and no new birth unto righteousness. Jesus alone, the great Head of the Church, can baptize with the Holy Spirit. Blessed and happy are they who have the inward baptism, as well as the outward.
The Scripture teaches that no more than a child can beget itself, or a dead man quicken himself, or a nonentity create itself; no more can any carnal man regenerate himself, or work true saving grace in his own soul.
There are two kinds of baptism, and both necessary - the one interior, which is cleansing of the heart, the drawing of the Father, the operation of the Holy Spirit - and this baptism is in man when he believes and trusts that Christ is the only method of his salvation.
It is on all parts gladly confessed, that there may be in divers cases, life by virtue of inward baptism, where outward is not found.
I lay before you the foregoing account of Regeneration. I say it is that change of heart which is the distinguishing mark of a true Christian man - the invariable companion of a justifying faith in Christ - the inseparable consequence of vital union with him, and the root and beginning of inward sanctification. I ask you to ponder it well before you go any further. It is of the utmost importance that your views should be clear upon this point - what Regeneration really is.
I know well that many will not allow that Regeneration is what I have described it to be. They will think the statement I have made, by way of definition, much too strong. Some hold that Regeneration only means admission into a state of ecclesiastical privileges - being made a member of the Church - but does not mean a change of heart. Some tell us that a Regenerate man has a certain power within him which enables him to repent and believe if he thinks fit - but that he still needs a further change in order to make him a true Christian. Some say there is a difference between Regeneration and being born again. Others say there is a difference between being born again and conversion.
To all this I have one simple reply - and that is, I can find no such Regeneration spoken of anywhere in the Bible. A Regeneration which only means admission into a state of ecclesiastical privileges may be ancient and primitive, for anything I know. But something more than this is needed. A few plain texts of Scripture are needed; and these texts have yet to be found.
Such a notion of Regeneration is utterly inconsistent with that which John gives us in his first epistle. It renders it necessary to invent the awkward theory that there are two Regenerations, and is thus eminently calculated to confuse the minds of unlearned people, and introduce false doctrine. It is a notion which seems not to answer to the solemnity with which our Lord introduces the subject to Nicodemus. When He said, "Verily, verily, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," did He only mean, unless a man be admitted to a state of ecclesiastical privilege? Surely He meant more than this. Such a Regeneration a man might have, like Simon Magus, and yet never be saved. Such a Regeneration He might never have, like the penitent thief, and yet see the kingdom of God. Surely He must have meant a change of heart. As to the notion that there is any distinction between being Regenerate and being born again, it is one which will not bear examination. It is the general opinion of all who know Greek, that the two expressions mean one and the same thing.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 3)
This change of heart in a true Christian is so complete, that no word could be chosen more fitting to express it than that word, "Regeneration," or "new birth." Doubtless it is no outward, bodily alteration - but undoubtedly it is an entire alteration of the inner man. It adds no new faculties to a man's mind - but it certainly gives an entirely new bent and bias to all his opinions so now, his views of sin, the world, the Bible, and Christ so new, that he is to all intents and purposes a new man. The change seems to bring a new being into existence. It may well be called being born again.
This change is not always given to believers at the same time in their lives. A vast multitude of people it is be feared, go down to the grave without having been born again at all.
This change of heart does not always begin in the same way. With some, like the Apostle Paul, and the jailor at Philippi, it is a sudden and violent change, attended with much distress of mind. With others, like Lydia of Thyatira, it is more gentle and gradual - their winter becomes spring almost without their knowing how. With some the change is brought about by the Spirit working through afflictions or providential visitations. With others, and probably the greater number of true Christians, the Word of God, preached or written, is the means of effecting it.
This change is one which can only be known and discerned by its effects. Its beginnings are a hidden and secret thing. We cannot see them. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us this most plainly - "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound thereof - but cannot tell whence it comes or where it goes; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). Would you know if you are Regenerate? You must try the question, by examining what you know of the effects of Regeneration. Those effects are always the same. The ways by which true Christians are led, in passing through their great change, are certainly various. But the state of the heart and soul into which they are brought at last, is always the same. Ask them what they think of sin, Christ, holiness, the world, the Bible, and prayer, and you will find them all of one mind.
This change is one which no man can give to himself, nor yet to another. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). But man has no power to work the change. No minister on earth can convey grace to any one of his congregation at his discretion. He may preach as truly and faithfully as Paul - but God must give the increase. He may baptize with water in the name of the Trinity - but unless the Holy Spirit accompanies and blesses the ordinance, there is no death to sin, and no new birth unto righteousness. Jesus alone, the great Head of the Church, can baptize with the Holy Spirit. Blessed and happy are they who have the inward baptism, as well as the outward.
The Scripture teaches that no more than a child can beget itself, or a dead man quicken himself, or a nonentity create itself; no more can any carnal man regenerate himself, or work true saving grace in his own soul.
There are two kinds of baptism, and both necessary - the one interior, which is cleansing of the heart, the drawing of the Father, the operation of the Holy Spirit - and this baptism is in man when he believes and trusts that Christ is the only method of his salvation.
It is on all parts gladly confessed, that there may be in divers cases, life by virtue of inward baptism, where outward is not found.
I lay before you the foregoing account of Regeneration. I say it is that change of heart which is the distinguishing mark of a true Christian man - the invariable companion of a justifying faith in Christ - the inseparable consequence of vital union with him, and the root and beginning of inward sanctification. I ask you to ponder it well before you go any further. It is of the utmost importance that your views should be clear upon this point - what Regeneration really is.
I know well that many will not allow that Regeneration is what I have described it to be. They will think the statement I have made, by way of definition, much too strong. Some hold that Regeneration only means admission into a state of ecclesiastical privileges - being made a member of the Church - but does not mean a change of heart. Some tell us that a Regenerate man has a certain power within him which enables him to repent and believe if he thinks fit - but that he still needs a further change in order to make him a true Christian. Some say there is a difference between Regeneration and being born again. Others say there is a difference between being born again and conversion.
To all this I have one simple reply - and that is, I can find no such Regeneration spoken of anywhere in the Bible. A Regeneration which only means admission into a state of ecclesiastical privileges may be ancient and primitive, for anything I know. But something more than this is needed. A few plain texts of Scripture are needed; and these texts have yet to be found.
Such a notion of Regeneration is utterly inconsistent with that which John gives us in his first epistle. It renders it necessary to invent the awkward theory that there are two Regenerations, and is thus eminently calculated to confuse the minds of unlearned people, and introduce false doctrine. It is a notion which seems not to answer to the solemnity with which our Lord introduces the subject to Nicodemus. When He said, "Verily, verily, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," did He only mean, unless a man be admitted to a state of ecclesiastical privilege? Surely He meant more than this. Such a Regeneration a man might have, like Simon Magus, and yet never be saved. Such a Regeneration He might never have, like the penitent thief, and yet see the kingdom of God. Surely He must have meant a change of heart. As to the notion that there is any distinction between being Regenerate and being born again, it is one which will not bear examination. It is the general opinion of all who know Greek, that the two expressions mean one and the same thing.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 3)
Saturday, December 8, 2018
Are You Regenerate? # 1
Are You Regenerate? # 1
I wish to speak to you about regeneration, or being born again. The subject is a most important one at any time. Those words of our Lord Jesus Christ to Nicodemus are very solemn, "Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3). The world has gone through many changes since those words were spoken. Eighteen hundred years have passed away. Empires and kingdoms have risen and fallen. Great men and wise men have lived, labored, written, and died. But there stands the rule of the Lord Jesus unaltered and unchanged. And there it will stand, until heaven and earth shall pass away - "Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
But the subject is one which is doubly important in the present day. Things have happened which have drawn special attention to it. Men's minds are full of it, and men's eyes are fixed on it. Surely it is a time when every true Christian should examine himself upon the subject, and make sure that his views are sound. When the truth is assailed, those who love truth should grasp it more firmly than ever. Oh, for a greater spirit of decision throughout the land! Oh, for a more hearty determination to be always on the Lord's side!
Now I propose to attempt three things -
1. Firstly, to explain what regeneration, or being born again, means.
2. Secondly, to show the necessity of regeneration.
3. Thirdly, to point out the marks and evidences of regeneration.
If the Lord God shall enable me to make these three points clear to you, I believe I shall have done your soul a great service.
I. Let me then, first of all, explain what regeneration, or being born again, means.
Regeneration means, that change of heart and nature which a man goes through when he becomes a true Christian.
I think there can be no question that there is an immense difference among those who profess and call themselves Christians. Beyond all dispute, there are always two classes in the outward Church - the class of those who are Christians in name and form only, and the class of those who are Christians in deed and in truth. All were not Israel who were called Israel, and all are not Christians who are called Christians. "In the visible Church," says an article of the Church of England, "the evil be ever mingled with the good." Some, as the Thirty-nine Articles say, are "wicked and void of a lively faith." Others, as another article says, "are made like the image of God only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and walk piously in good works." Some worship God as a mere form - and some in spirit and in truth. Some give their hearts to God - and some give them to the world. Some believe the Bible, and live as if they believed it - others do not. Some feel their sins, and mourn over them - others do not. Some love Christ, trust in Him, and serve Him - others do not. In short, as Scripture says, some walk in the narrow way - some in the broad way; some are good fish of the gospel net - some are the bad fish; some are the wheat in Christ's field - some are the tares.
I think no man with his eyes open can fail to see all this, both in the Bible, and in the world around him. Whatever he may think about the subject I am writing of, he cannot possibly deny that this difference exists.
Now what is the explanation of the difference? I answer unhesitatingly - Regeneration, or being born again. I answer, that true Christians are what they are, because they are regenerate; and formal Christians are what they are, because they are not regenerate. The heart of the true Christian has been changed. The heart of the Christian in name only, has not been changed. The change of heart makes the whole difference.
This change of heart is spoken of continually in the Bible, under various emblems and figures: Ezek. 11:19; 36:26) "A taking away of the stony heart" - a new heart, and putting within us a new spirit."
The apostle John sometimes calls it, being "born of God," sometimes, being "born of the Spirit." (John 1:13; 3:3-6).
The apostle Peter calls it "repenting and being converted" (Acts 3:19). The Epistle to the Romans speaks of it as "being alive from the dead." (Rom. 6:13).
2 Corinthians - "being a new creature - old things have passed away, and all things become new" (5:17).
Ephesians speaks of it as a resurrection together with Christ (2:1); as "a putting off the old man, which is corrupt - being renewed in the spirit of our minds - and putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (4:22, 24).
Colossians calls it a "putting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him" (3:9, 10).
Titus calls it, "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (3:5).
1 Peter speaks of it as "a being called out of darkness into God's marvelous light" (2:9). 2 Peter - "being made partakers of the divine nature" (1:4).
1 John calls it a "passing from death to life" (3:14).
All these expressions come to the same thing in the end. They are all the same truths only viewed from different sides. And all have one and the same meaning. They describe a great radical change of heart and nature - a thorough alteration and transformation of the whole inner man - a participation in the resurrection life of Christ - or, to borrow the words of the Church of England Catechism, "a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness."
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 2)
I wish to speak to you about regeneration, or being born again. The subject is a most important one at any time. Those words of our Lord Jesus Christ to Nicodemus are very solemn, "Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3). The world has gone through many changes since those words were spoken. Eighteen hundred years have passed away. Empires and kingdoms have risen and fallen. Great men and wise men have lived, labored, written, and died. But there stands the rule of the Lord Jesus unaltered and unchanged. And there it will stand, until heaven and earth shall pass away - "Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
But the subject is one which is doubly important in the present day. Things have happened which have drawn special attention to it. Men's minds are full of it, and men's eyes are fixed on it. Surely it is a time when every true Christian should examine himself upon the subject, and make sure that his views are sound. When the truth is assailed, those who love truth should grasp it more firmly than ever. Oh, for a greater spirit of decision throughout the land! Oh, for a more hearty determination to be always on the Lord's side!
Now I propose to attempt three things -
1. Firstly, to explain what regeneration, or being born again, means.
2. Secondly, to show the necessity of regeneration.
3. Thirdly, to point out the marks and evidences of regeneration.
If the Lord God shall enable me to make these three points clear to you, I believe I shall have done your soul a great service.
I. Let me then, first of all, explain what regeneration, or being born again, means.
Regeneration means, that change of heart and nature which a man goes through when he becomes a true Christian.
I think there can be no question that there is an immense difference among those who profess and call themselves Christians. Beyond all dispute, there are always two classes in the outward Church - the class of those who are Christians in name and form only, and the class of those who are Christians in deed and in truth. All were not Israel who were called Israel, and all are not Christians who are called Christians. "In the visible Church," says an article of the Church of England, "the evil be ever mingled with the good." Some, as the Thirty-nine Articles say, are "wicked and void of a lively faith." Others, as another article says, "are made like the image of God only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and walk piously in good works." Some worship God as a mere form - and some in spirit and in truth. Some give their hearts to God - and some give them to the world. Some believe the Bible, and live as if they believed it - others do not. Some feel their sins, and mourn over them - others do not. Some love Christ, trust in Him, and serve Him - others do not. In short, as Scripture says, some walk in the narrow way - some in the broad way; some are good fish of the gospel net - some are the bad fish; some are the wheat in Christ's field - some are the tares.
I think no man with his eyes open can fail to see all this, both in the Bible, and in the world around him. Whatever he may think about the subject I am writing of, he cannot possibly deny that this difference exists.
Now what is the explanation of the difference? I answer unhesitatingly - Regeneration, or being born again. I answer, that true Christians are what they are, because they are regenerate; and formal Christians are what they are, because they are not regenerate. The heart of the true Christian has been changed. The heart of the Christian in name only, has not been changed. The change of heart makes the whole difference.
This change of heart is spoken of continually in the Bible, under various emblems and figures: Ezek. 11:19; 36:26) "A taking away of the stony heart" - a new heart, and putting within us a new spirit."
The apostle John sometimes calls it, being "born of God," sometimes, being "born of the Spirit." (John 1:13; 3:3-6).
The apostle Peter calls it "repenting and being converted" (Acts 3:19). The Epistle to the Romans speaks of it as "being alive from the dead." (Rom. 6:13).
2 Corinthians - "being a new creature - old things have passed away, and all things become new" (5:17).
Ephesians speaks of it as a resurrection together with Christ (2:1); as "a putting off the old man, which is corrupt - being renewed in the spirit of our minds - and putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (4:22, 24).
Colossians calls it a "putting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him" (3:9, 10).
Titus calls it, "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (3:5).
1 Peter speaks of it as "a being called out of darkness into God's marvelous light" (2:9). 2 Peter - "being made partakers of the divine nature" (1:4).
1 John calls it a "passing from death to life" (3:14).
All these expressions come to the same thing in the end. They are all the same truths only viewed from different sides. And all have one and the same meaning. They describe a great radical change of heart and nature - a thorough alteration and transformation of the whole inner man - a participation in the resurrection life of Christ - or, to borrow the words of the Church of England Catechism, "a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness."
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Hold Fast # 6
Hold Fast # 6
Six thousand years ago, sin entered into the world by the devil's daring falsehood - "You shall not surely die!" (Gen. 3:4). At the end of six thousand years, the great enemy of mankind is still using his old weapon, and trying to persuade men that they may live and die in sin, and yet at some distant period may be finally saved. Let us not be ignorant of his devices. Let us walk steadily in the old paths. Let us hold fast the old truth, and believing that, as the happiness of the saved is eternal, so also is the misery of the lost.
(i) Let us hold it fast in the interest of the whole system of revealed religion. What was the use of God's Son becoming incarnate, agonizing in Gethsemane, and dying on the Cross to make atonement - if men can be finally saved without believing on Him? Where is the slightest proof in Scripture, that saving faith in Christ's blood can ever begin after death? Where is the need of the Holy Spirit, if sinners are at last to enter heaven without conversion and renewal of heart? Where can we find the smallest evidence that any one can be born again after death, and have a new heart - if he dies in an unregenerate state? If a man may escape eternal punishment at last, without faith in Christ or sanctification of the Spirit, sin is no longer an infinite evil, and there was no need for Christ to die on Calvary!
(2) Let us hold fast the doctrine of future eternal punishment, for the sake of holiness and morality. I can imagine nothing so pleasant to men, as the fallacious theory that we may live in sin - and yet escape eternal perdition; that although "we are slaves to many wicked desires and evil pleasures" while we are here in this world, we shall somehow or other, all get to heaven hereafter! Only tell the young man who is "wasting his substance in riotous living", that there is a heaven at last, even for those who live and die in sin, and he is never likely to turn from evil. What does it signify how he lives, if there is no "judgment to come?" Why should he repent and take up the cross - if he can get to heaven at last without trouble?
(3) Finally, let us hold it fast for the sake of the common hopes of all God's saints. Let us distinctly understand that every blow struck at the eternity of punishment, is an equally heavy blow at the eternity of reward. It is impossible to separate the two things. No clever theological definition can divide them.They stand or fall together. The same language is used, the same figures of speech are employed, when the Bible speaks about either condition. Every attack on the duration of hell is also an attack on the duration of heaven. It is a deep and true saying, "With the sinner's fear - our hope departs."
I turn from this section, with a strong sense of its painfulness. I feel keenly, with Robert M'Cheyne, that "it is a difficult subject to handle lovingly." But I turn from it with an equally strong conviction, that if we believe the Bible, we must never give up anything which it contains. From hard, austere, and unmerciful theology, Good Lord, deliver us! If men are not saved, it is not because God does not love them, and it not willing to save them - but because they will not come to Christ (John 5:40). But we must not be wise above that which is written. No morbid liberality, so called, must induce us to reject anything which God has revealed about the next world. Men sometimes talk exclusively about God's mercy and love and compassion, as if He had no other attributes, and leave out of sight entirely His holiness and His purity, His justice and His unchangeablenes, and His hatred of sin. Let us beware of falling into this delusion. It is a growing evil in these latter days.
Low and inadequate views of the unutterable and filthiness of sin, and of the unutterable purity of the eternal God, are fertile sources of error about man's future state. Let us think of the mighty Being with Whom we have to do, as He Himself declared His character to Moses, saying, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, patience and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgressions, and sin." But let us not forget the solemn clause which concludes the sentence - "And who will by no means clear the guilty" (Exodus 34:6-7). Unrepented sin is an eternal evil, and can never cease to be sin, and He with whom we have to do is an eternal God!
~J. C. Ryle~
(The End)
Six thousand years ago, sin entered into the world by the devil's daring falsehood - "You shall not surely die!" (Gen. 3:4). At the end of six thousand years, the great enemy of mankind is still using his old weapon, and trying to persuade men that they may live and die in sin, and yet at some distant period may be finally saved. Let us not be ignorant of his devices. Let us walk steadily in the old paths. Let us hold fast the old truth, and believing that, as the happiness of the saved is eternal, so also is the misery of the lost.
(i) Let us hold it fast in the interest of the whole system of revealed religion. What was the use of God's Son becoming incarnate, agonizing in Gethsemane, and dying on the Cross to make atonement - if men can be finally saved without believing on Him? Where is the slightest proof in Scripture, that saving faith in Christ's blood can ever begin after death? Where is the need of the Holy Spirit, if sinners are at last to enter heaven without conversion and renewal of heart? Where can we find the smallest evidence that any one can be born again after death, and have a new heart - if he dies in an unregenerate state? If a man may escape eternal punishment at last, without faith in Christ or sanctification of the Spirit, sin is no longer an infinite evil, and there was no need for Christ to die on Calvary!
(2) Let us hold fast the doctrine of future eternal punishment, for the sake of holiness and morality. I can imagine nothing so pleasant to men, as the fallacious theory that we may live in sin - and yet escape eternal perdition; that although "we are slaves to many wicked desires and evil pleasures" while we are here in this world, we shall somehow or other, all get to heaven hereafter! Only tell the young man who is "wasting his substance in riotous living", that there is a heaven at last, even for those who live and die in sin, and he is never likely to turn from evil. What does it signify how he lives, if there is no "judgment to come?" Why should he repent and take up the cross - if he can get to heaven at last without trouble?
(3) Finally, let us hold it fast for the sake of the common hopes of all God's saints. Let us distinctly understand that every blow struck at the eternity of punishment, is an equally heavy blow at the eternity of reward. It is impossible to separate the two things. No clever theological definition can divide them.They stand or fall together. The same language is used, the same figures of speech are employed, when the Bible speaks about either condition. Every attack on the duration of hell is also an attack on the duration of heaven. It is a deep and true saying, "With the sinner's fear - our hope departs."
I turn from this section, with a strong sense of its painfulness. I feel keenly, with Robert M'Cheyne, that "it is a difficult subject to handle lovingly." But I turn from it with an equally strong conviction, that if we believe the Bible, we must never give up anything which it contains. From hard, austere, and unmerciful theology, Good Lord, deliver us! If men are not saved, it is not because God does not love them, and it not willing to save them - but because they will not come to Christ (John 5:40). But we must not be wise above that which is written. No morbid liberality, so called, must induce us to reject anything which God has revealed about the next world. Men sometimes talk exclusively about God's mercy and love and compassion, as if He had no other attributes, and leave out of sight entirely His holiness and His purity, His justice and His unchangeablenes, and His hatred of sin. Let us beware of falling into this delusion. It is a growing evil in these latter days.
Low and inadequate views of the unutterable and filthiness of sin, and of the unutterable purity of the eternal God, are fertile sources of error about man's future state. Let us think of the mighty Being with Whom we have to do, as He Himself declared His character to Moses, saying, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, patience and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgressions, and sin." But let us not forget the solemn clause which concludes the sentence - "And who will by no means clear the guilty" (Exodus 34:6-7). Unrepented sin is an eternal evil, and can never cease to be sin, and He with whom we have to do is an eternal God!
~J. C. Ryle~
(The End)
Hold Fast # 5
Hold Fast # 5
IV. In the next place, let me charge you to hold fast for great foundation-principles of Scripture: that forgiveness of sins is only given to man through the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
This is a deep and solemn subject; but there is such an immense amount of strange doctrine floating in the air about it, that I dare not pass it over. It seems to me to lie so near the roots of the Gospel, that it is my duty not to be silent.
So far as I can understand, the theory of many appears to be - that it is the incarnation, rather than the sacrifice; the human nature that Christ took on Him rather than the death He died - which is intended to be the chief ground of hope for our souls. It seems to be held that the blood which cleanses from all sin is not so much the life-blood which Christ shed when He died, as the blood of human nature of which He became a partaker when He was born into the world, and by partaking ennobled all Adam's race, and made salvation possible for fallen man.
As to the old doctrine that the blood which flowed on Calvary was the ransom paid for our souls and the price of redemption from the punishment due to our sins, it seems to be thrown aside by many like an obsolete dogma, unworthy of these latter days. Some even sneer at it as blood theology and tell us that Christ's death was only the death of a great martyr, and a grand example of perfect submission to God's will - but not a propitiation for sin.
Now I know not what some of you may think of the theory I have tried to delineate; but I must say plainly that I cannot for a moment admit that it is true, and will bear the test of calm examination. The subject is one about which I dare not call any one master.
I cannot reconcile the theory with scores of plain texts in the New Testament in which the forgiveness of sins, salvation, justification, reconciliation, redemption, deliverance from wrath to come, and peace with God - appear to be inseparably connected with the sufferings and death of Christ, and not with His life. Romans 5:10 means only Christ's life of intercession; and it is like Hebrews 7:25, which also refers to Christ's intercession. Revelation 5:9: "You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood".
I can not dwell longer on this solemn subject. If time permitted, I might remind you how the story of the Cross, and the blood has always been found the most effective weapon in the mission field all over the globe. If others are content to turn away from the old paths of redemption by blood and substitution, and to rest on a vague hope that, somehow or other, they will be saved by Christ's incarnation, I am not their judge. Give me rather for my faith the standing-place of the noble army of martyrs and the goodly company of reformers, namely, the blood and passion of Christ. I dare not launch forth into a world unknown on any other plank but this!
V. Let me charge you, in the next place, to hold fast sound and Scriptural views of the work of the Holy Spirit. Faith in the Holy Spirit, we must always remember, is as truly a part of Christianity as faith in Christ. Every child who repeats the Church Catechism is taught to say, "I learn to believe in God the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies me and all the elect people of God." Furthermore, the work of the Holy Spirit, though mysterious, will always be known by the fruits He produces in the character and conduct of those in whom He dwells. It is like light which can be seen, and fire which can be felt, and wind which causes noticeable results. Where there are no fruits of the Spirit, there is no presence of the Spirit. Those fruits, I need not tell you, are always the same, conviction of sin, true repentance, lively faith in Christ, and holiness of heart and life.
Now I believe this kind of truth about the work of the Holy Spirit needs strongly to be pressed on congregations in the present day. I am afraid there are myriads of professing Christians throughout the land, who really know nothing about the Holy Spirit. They seem to think that as baptized members of a great ecclesiastical corporation, that they possess all the privileges of members. But of the work of the Spirit on their own individual hearts, of conversion, repentance, and faith - they know nothing at all. They are spiritually asleep and dead - and unless they awake are in great danger. To arouse such people to a sense of their unsatisfactory condition, to stir them to see that if the Holy Spirit indwells them, they ought to know something of Him by inward experience, and never rest until they feel this. This is work which I am convinced every clergyman ought to keep continually in view, and I entreat you to do so this day. Not only preach Christ - but take care that you also preach the Holy Spirit.
While we are thankful for the increase of public religion, we must never forget that, unless it is accompanied by private religion, it is of no real solid value, and may even produce most mischievous effects. Incessant running after sensational preachers, incessant attendance at hot, crowded meetings protracted to late hours; incessant craving after fresh excitement and highly-spiced pulpit novelties - all this kind of thing is calculated to produce a very unhealthy style of Christianity; and, in many cases, I am afraid, the end is utter ruin of soul. For, unhappily, those who make public religion everything, are often led away by mere temporary emotions, after some grand display of ecclesiastical oratory, into professing far more than they really feel. After this, they can only be kept up to the mark, which they imagine they have reached, by a constant succession of religious excitements. By and by, as with opium-eaters there comes a time when their dose loses its power, and a feeling of exhaustion and discontent begins to creep over their minds. Too often, I fear, the conclusion of the whole matter is a relapse into utter deadness and unbelief, and a complete return to the world. And all results from having nothing but a public religion! Oh that people would remember that it was not the wind, or the fire, or the earthquake, which showed Elijah the presence of God - but the still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12).
I desire to lift up a warning voice on this subject. I want to see no decrease of public religion, remember; but I do want to promote an increase of that religion which is private between each man and his God, and that religion which is most beautifully exhibited at home. I want to see more attention paid to those passive graces which are the truest evidence of the work of the Spirit. To be religious among the religious, and spiritual among the spiritual, all this is comparatively easy. But to adorn the Gospel, and be Christlike, in the midst of a large family circle of unconverted, and uncongenial relatives, to be always patient, gentle, loving, kind, unselfish, good-tempered; this is the grandest fruit of the Holy Spirit. We need more of this kind of religion. Now, private religion is the root of all vital Christianity. Without it we may make a brave show in the meeting or on the platform, and sing loud, and shed many tears,k and have a name to live, and the praise of man. But without it we are dead before God.
VI. Let me charge you, in the last place, to hold fast the teaching of Scripture about the state of man after death. This is a very solemn and painful topic, and flesh and blood naturally shrink from its contemplation. But so many strange doctrines are floating in the air about the whole subject, that I dare not refuse to consider it. The language of the Bible about "judgment to come" and the future punishment of those who die impenitent, appear to me so distinct, that I do not see how it can be explained away. Those who object to the doctrine of future punishment, talk loudly about love and charity, and say that it does not harmonize with the merciful and compassionate character of God. But what says the Scripture? Who ever spoke such loving and merciful words as our Lord Jesus Christ? Yet His lips which three times over describe the consequence of impenitence and sin, as "the worm that never dies, and the fire that is not quenched." He is the Person who speaks in one sentence of the wicked going away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal" (Mar. 9:43-48; Matt. 25:46).
Who does not remember the apostle Paul's words about charity? Yet he is the very apostle who says the "wicked shall be punished with everlasting destruction" (2 Thess. 1:9). Who does not know the spirit of love which runs all through John's Gospel and Epistles? Yet the beloved apostle is the very writer in the New Testament who dwells most strongly, in the book of Revelation, on the reality and eternity of future woe! What shall we say to these things? Shall we be wise above that which is written? Shall we admit the dangerous principle that words in Scripture do not mean what they appear to mean? If so, where are we to stop? Is it not far better to lay our hands on our mouths and say, "Whatever God has written must be true!" "Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments" (Rev. 16:7).
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 6)
IV. In the next place, let me charge you to hold fast for great foundation-principles of Scripture: that forgiveness of sins is only given to man through the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
This is a deep and solemn subject; but there is such an immense amount of strange doctrine floating in the air about it, that I dare not pass it over. It seems to me to lie so near the roots of the Gospel, that it is my duty not to be silent.
So far as I can understand, the theory of many appears to be - that it is the incarnation, rather than the sacrifice; the human nature that Christ took on Him rather than the death He died - which is intended to be the chief ground of hope for our souls. It seems to be held that the blood which cleanses from all sin is not so much the life-blood which Christ shed when He died, as the blood of human nature of which He became a partaker when He was born into the world, and by partaking ennobled all Adam's race, and made salvation possible for fallen man.
As to the old doctrine that the blood which flowed on Calvary was the ransom paid for our souls and the price of redemption from the punishment due to our sins, it seems to be thrown aside by many like an obsolete dogma, unworthy of these latter days. Some even sneer at it as blood theology and tell us that Christ's death was only the death of a great martyr, and a grand example of perfect submission to God's will - but not a propitiation for sin.
Now I know not what some of you may think of the theory I have tried to delineate; but I must say plainly that I cannot for a moment admit that it is true, and will bear the test of calm examination. The subject is one about which I dare not call any one master.
I cannot reconcile the theory with scores of plain texts in the New Testament in which the forgiveness of sins, salvation, justification, reconciliation, redemption, deliverance from wrath to come, and peace with God - appear to be inseparably connected with the sufferings and death of Christ, and not with His life. Romans 5:10 means only Christ's life of intercession; and it is like Hebrews 7:25, which also refers to Christ's intercession. Revelation 5:9: "You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood".
I can not dwell longer on this solemn subject. If time permitted, I might remind you how the story of the Cross, and the blood has always been found the most effective weapon in the mission field all over the globe. If others are content to turn away from the old paths of redemption by blood and substitution, and to rest on a vague hope that, somehow or other, they will be saved by Christ's incarnation, I am not their judge. Give me rather for my faith the standing-place of the noble army of martyrs and the goodly company of reformers, namely, the blood and passion of Christ. I dare not launch forth into a world unknown on any other plank but this!
V. Let me charge you, in the next place, to hold fast sound and Scriptural views of the work of the Holy Spirit. Faith in the Holy Spirit, we must always remember, is as truly a part of Christianity as faith in Christ. Every child who repeats the Church Catechism is taught to say, "I learn to believe in God the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies me and all the elect people of God." Furthermore, the work of the Holy Spirit, though mysterious, will always be known by the fruits He produces in the character and conduct of those in whom He dwells. It is like light which can be seen, and fire which can be felt, and wind which causes noticeable results. Where there are no fruits of the Spirit, there is no presence of the Spirit. Those fruits, I need not tell you, are always the same, conviction of sin, true repentance, lively faith in Christ, and holiness of heart and life.
Now I believe this kind of truth about the work of the Holy Spirit needs strongly to be pressed on congregations in the present day. I am afraid there are myriads of professing Christians throughout the land, who really know nothing about the Holy Spirit. They seem to think that as baptized members of a great ecclesiastical corporation, that they possess all the privileges of members. But of the work of the Spirit on their own individual hearts, of conversion, repentance, and faith - they know nothing at all. They are spiritually asleep and dead - and unless they awake are in great danger. To arouse such people to a sense of their unsatisfactory condition, to stir them to see that if the Holy Spirit indwells them, they ought to know something of Him by inward experience, and never rest until they feel this. This is work which I am convinced every clergyman ought to keep continually in view, and I entreat you to do so this day. Not only preach Christ - but take care that you also preach the Holy Spirit.
While we are thankful for the increase of public religion, we must never forget that, unless it is accompanied by private religion, it is of no real solid value, and may even produce most mischievous effects. Incessant running after sensational preachers, incessant attendance at hot, crowded meetings protracted to late hours; incessant craving after fresh excitement and highly-spiced pulpit novelties - all this kind of thing is calculated to produce a very unhealthy style of Christianity; and, in many cases, I am afraid, the end is utter ruin of soul. For, unhappily, those who make public religion everything, are often led away by mere temporary emotions, after some grand display of ecclesiastical oratory, into professing far more than they really feel. After this, they can only be kept up to the mark, which they imagine they have reached, by a constant succession of religious excitements. By and by, as with opium-eaters there comes a time when their dose loses its power, and a feeling of exhaustion and discontent begins to creep over their minds. Too often, I fear, the conclusion of the whole matter is a relapse into utter deadness and unbelief, and a complete return to the world. And all results from having nothing but a public religion! Oh that people would remember that it was not the wind, or the fire, or the earthquake, which showed Elijah the presence of God - but the still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12).
I desire to lift up a warning voice on this subject. I want to see no decrease of public religion, remember; but I do want to promote an increase of that religion which is private between each man and his God, and that religion which is most beautifully exhibited at home. I want to see more attention paid to those passive graces which are the truest evidence of the work of the Spirit. To be religious among the religious, and spiritual among the spiritual, all this is comparatively easy. But to adorn the Gospel, and be Christlike, in the midst of a large family circle of unconverted, and uncongenial relatives, to be always patient, gentle, loving, kind, unselfish, good-tempered; this is the grandest fruit of the Holy Spirit. We need more of this kind of religion. Now, private religion is the root of all vital Christianity. Without it we may make a brave show in the meeting or on the platform, and sing loud, and shed many tears,k and have a name to live, and the praise of man. But without it we are dead before God.
VI. Let me charge you, in the last place, to hold fast the teaching of Scripture about the state of man after death. This is a very solemn and painful topic, and flesh and blood naturally shrink from its contemplation. But so many strange doctrines are floating in the air about the whole subject, that I dare not refuse to consider it. The language of the Bible about "judgment to come" and the future punishment of those who die impenitent, appear to me so distinct, that I do not see how it can be explained away. Those who object to the doctrine of future punishment, talk loudly about love and charity, and say that it does not harmonize with the merciful and compassionate character of God. But what says the Scripture? Who ever spoke such loving and merciful words as our Lord Jesus Christ? Yet His lips which three times over describe the consequence of impenitence and sin, as "the worm that never dies, and the fire that is not quenched." He is the Person who speaks in one sentence of the wicked going away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal" (Mar. 9:43-48; Matt. 25:46).
Who does not remember the apostle Paul's words about charity? Yet he is the very apostle who says the "wicked shall be punished with everlasting destruction" (2 Thess. 1:9). Who does not know the spirit of love which runs all through John's Gospel and Epistles? Yet the beloved apostle is the very writer in the New Testament who dwells most strongly, in the book of Revelation, on the reality and eternity of future woe! What shall we say to these things? Shall we be wise above that which is written? Shall we admit the dangerous principle that words in Scripture do not mean what they appear to mean? If so, where are we to stop? Is it not far better to lay our hands on our mouths and say, "Whatever God has written must be true!" "Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments" (Rev. 16:7).
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 6)
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Hold Fast # 4
Hold Fast # 4
Sin, I need not remind any Bible reader, consists in doing, saying, thinking, or imagining anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God. "Sin" as the Scripture says, is "the transgression of the law." (1 John 3:4). The slightest outward or inward departure from absolute mathematical parallelism with God's revealed will and character, constitutes a sin, and at once makes us guilty in God's sight. The Ninth Article of our Church declares that sin is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusts always contrary to the spirit; and, therefore, in every person born into the world, it deserves God's wrath and damnation.
Sin, in short, is that vast moral disease which affects the whole human race, of every rank and class and name and nation and people and tongue, the plague of rulers and statesmen, the divider of churches, the destroyer of family happiness, the cause of all the miseries in the world.
Now I am obliged to declare my conviction, that the extent and vileness and deceitfulness of sin are a subject which is not sufficiently brought forward in the religious teaching these days. I do not say it is ignored altogether. But I do say that it is not pressed on congregations in its Scriptural proportion. The consequences are very serious.
One result, I am persuaded, is the immense increase of that sensuous, ceremonial, formal kind of Christianity, which has swept over England and America like a flood in the last forty years, and carried away so many before it. I can well believe that there is much that is attractive and satisfying - in this system of religion, to a certain order of minds, so long as the conscience is not fully enlightened. But when that wonderful part of our constitution is really awake and alive, I find it hard to believe that a sensuous, ceremonial Christianity will thoroughly satisfy us. A little child is easily quieted and amused with gaudy toys and dolls and rattles, so long as it is not hungry; but once let it feel the cravings of nature within, and we know that nothing will satisfy it but food. Just so it is with man in the manner of his soul. Music and singing and flowers and banners and processions and beautiful vestments and man-made ceremonies of semi-Romish character, may do well enough for man under certain conditions. But once let him awake and arise from the dead, and he will not rest content with these things. They will seem to him mere solemn triflings - and a waste of time!
Once let him see his sin, and he must see his Saviour, in order to obtain rest for his soul. He feel stricken with a deadly disease; and nothing will satisfy him but the Great Physician. He hungers and thirsts; and he must have nothing less than the bread of life. I may seem bold in what I am about to say - but I fearlessly venture the assertion, that one half of the semi-Romanism of the last forty years would never have existed, if people had been taught more fully and clearly the nature, vileness and sinfulness of sin.
I believe the likeliest way to cure and mend this defective kind of religion is to bring forward more prominently, and expound more frequently, the Ten Commandments as the true test of sin. They really seem to me to have fallen into the rear of late, and, with the exception of the sixth and eighth, to receive less attention than they deserve. Let us try to revive the old teaching in nurseries, in schools, in training colleges, in universities. Let us not forget that "the law is good if a man use it lawfully," and that "by the law is the knowledge of sin." (1 Ti. 1:8; Rom. 3:20, Rom. 7:7). Let us bring it to the front once more, and press it on men's attention. Let us expound and beat out the Ten Commandments, and show the length and breath and depth and height of their requirements. It is the way of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. It was the way of great divines like Andrews and Leighton and Hopkins and Patrick, whose works on the Commandments are classics to this day.
We would do well to walk in their steps. We may depend upon it, men will never truly come to Christ, and stay with Christ, and live for Christ - unless they feel their sins, and know their need of a Saviour. Those whom the Holy Spirit draws to Christ are those whom the Spirit has convinced of sin. Without real conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Christ and follow Him for a season - but they will soon fall away and return to the world!
I commend this point to your private consideration. I suspect that the prevailing desire to make things pleasant to hearers, and the fear of giving offence by plain speaking, have much to say to the neglect of the law in this day. But the testimony of the Bible is clear - "By the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:20, 7:7). The words of Lightfoot are most deeply true, "The consciousness of sin is the true pathway to heaven.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 5)
Sin, I need not remind any Bible reader, consists in doing, saying, thinking, or imagining anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God. "Sin" as the Scripture says, is "the transgression of the law." (1 John 3:4). The slightest outward or inward departure from absolute mathematical parallelism with God's revealed will and character, constitutes a sin, and at once makes us guilty in God's sight. The Ninth Article of our Church declares that sin is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusts always contrary to the spirit; and, therefore, in every person born into the world, it deserves God's wrath and damnation.
Sin, in short, is that vast moral disease which affects the whole human race, of every rank and class and name and nation and people and tongue, the plague of rulers and statesmen, the divider of churches, the destroyer of family happiness, the cause of all the miseries in the world.
Now I am obliged to declare my conviction, that the extent and vileness and deceitfulness of sin are a subject which is not sufficiently brought forward in the religious teaching these days. I do not say it is ignored altogether. But I do say that it is not pressed on congregations in its Scriptural proportion. The consequences are very serious.
One result, I am persuaded, is the immense increase of that sensuous, ceremonial, formal kind of Christianity, which has swept over England and America like a flood in the last forty years, and carried away so many before it. I can well believe that there is much that is attractive and satisfying - in this system of religion, to a certain order of minds, so long as the conscience is not fully enlightened. But when that wonderful part of our constitution is really awake and alive, I find it hard to believe that a sensuous, ceremonial Christianity will thoroughly satisfy us. A little child is easily quieted and amused with gaudy toys and dolls and rattles, so long as it is not hungry; but once let it feel the cravings of nature within, and we know that nothing will satisfy it but food. Just so it is with man in the manner of his soul. Music and singing and flowers and banners and processions and beautiful vestments and man-made ceremonies of semi-Romish character, may do well enough for man under certain conditions. But once let him awake and arise from the dead, and he will not rest content with these things. They will seem to him mere solemn triflings - and a waste of time!
Once let him see his sin, and he must see his Saviour, in order to obtain rest for his soul. He feel stricken with a deadly disease; and nothing will satisfy him but the Great Physician. He hungers and thirsts; and he must have nothing less than the bread of life. I may seem bold in what I am about to say - but I fearlessly venture the assertion, that one half of the semi-Romanism of the last forty years would never have existed, if people had been taught more fully and clearly the nature, vileness and sinfulness of sin.
I believe the likeliest way to cure and mend this defective kind of religion is to bring forward more prominently, and expound more frequently, the Ten Commandments as the true test of sin. They really seem to me to have fallen into the rear of late, and, with the exception of the sixth and eighth, to receive less attention than they deserve. Let us try to revive the old teaching in nurseries, in schools, in training colleges, in universities. Let us not forget that "the law is good if a man use it lawfully," and that "by the law is the knowledge of sin." (1 Ti. 1:8; Rom. 3:20, Rom. 7:7). Let us bring it to the front once more, and press it on men's attention. Let us expound and beat out the Ten Commandments, and show the length and breath and depth and height of their requirements. It is the way of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. It was the way of great divines like Andrews and Leighton and Hopkins and Patrick, whose works on the Commandments are classics to this day.
We would do well to walk in their steps. We may depend upon it, men will never truly come to Christ, and stay with Christ, and live for Christ - unless they feel their sins, and know their need of a Saviour. Those whom the Holy Spirit draws to Christ are those whom the Spirit has convinced of sin. Without real conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Christ and follow Him for a season - but they will soon fall away and return to the world!
I commend this point to your private consideration. I suspect that the prevailing desire to make things pleasant to hearers, and the fear of giving offence by plain speaking, have much to say to the neglect of the law in this day. But the testimony of the Bible is clear - "By the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:20, 7:7). The words of Lightfoot are most deeply true, "The consciousness of sin is the true pathway to heaven.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 5)
Hold Fast # 3
Hold Fast # 3
How and in what manner this was done, I can no more explain than I can the union of two natures, God and man, in the Person of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. I only know that there is both a Divine and a human element in the Bible, and that, while the men who wrote it were really and truly men, the book that they wrote and handed down to us is really and truly the Word of God. I know the result - but I do not understand the process. The result is, that the Bible is the written Word of God; but I can no more explain the process, than I can explain how the water became wine at Cana, or how five loaves fed five thousand men, or how the Apostle Peter walked on the water, or how a few words from our Lord's lips raised Lazarus from the dead. I do not pretend to explain miracles, and I do not pretend to explain fully the miraculous gift of inspiration.
The position I take up is, that while the Bible writers were not "machines" as some sneeringly say - they only wrote what God taught them to write. The Holy Spirit put into their minds thoughts and ideas, and then guided their pens in writing and expressing them. Even when they made use of old records, chronicles, pedigrees, and lists of names, as they certainly did, they adopted, used, and compiled them under the direction of the Holy Spirit. When you read the Bible, you are not reading the unaided, self-taught composition of erring men like yourselves - but thoughts and words which were given by the eternal God. The men who were employed to write the Scripture "spoke not from themselves". They "spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1:21). He who holds a Bible in his hand should remember that he holds not the word of man - but of God. He holds a volume which not only contains - but is God's Word!
In saying all this, I would not be mistaken. I only claim complete inspiration for the original languages in which the books of the Scripture were written. I admit fully that transcribers and translators were not infallible, and that occasional mistakes may have crept into the sacred text, though amazingly few. When, therefore, some critics object to a word or a verse here and there, reason would tell us - that we should bear with them patiently, and agree to differ. Difficulties about the meaning of many places in the Bible, apparent discrepancies, obscure passages, no doubt, there always will be. But the book, as a whole, contains nothing that is not true.
But unhappily the battle of inspiration does not end here. A school of men has risen among us, who boldly deny the inspiration of large portions of the Old Testament. The book of Genesis, for example, is declared by some to possess no Divine authority, and to be only a collection of interesting fictions. I can find no words to express my entire disagreement with such theories. I maintain firmly - that the Old Testament is of equal authority with the New, and that they stand or fall together. You cannot separate them, any more than you can separate the warp and woof in a piece of woven cloth. The writers of the New Testament continually quote the words of the Old Testament, as of equal authority with their own, and never give the slightest hint that these quotations are not to be regarded as the Word of God. The thrice-repeated saying of our Lord, taken from Deuteronomy, "It is written," when tempted by the devil, is deeply significant and instructive. (Matt. 4:5-10).
But this is not the whole of my objection to these modern theories. I contend that attacks on Genesis in particular involve most dangerous consequences. Then tend to dishonor our Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles. That they regard the events and persons mentioned in Genesis as real, historical, and true, and not fictitious - is clear to any honest reader of the New Testament. Now, how can this be explained if Genesis is, as some say, a mere collection of fiction? You cannot explain it except on the supposition that our Lord and His Apostles were ignorant, and did not know as much as modern critics do - or else that they secretly suppressed their knowledge in order to avoid offending their hearers. In short, they were either fallible or fallacious, deceived or deceivers. God forbid that we should adopt either one conclusion or the other! I frankly confess that my whole soul revolts from these modern teachings about Genesis.
When I read that our Lord Jesus Christ is "One with the Father," that "in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," that He is "the Light of the world," my mind cannot conceive the possibility of His being ignorant, as latter-day theories about Genesis certainly imply. That blessed Saviour to whom I am taught to commit my soul, in the very week that He died for my redemption, spoke of the Flood and the days of Noah as realities! If He spoke ignorantly, with Calvary in full view, it would shake to the foundation my confidence in His power to save me, and would destroy my peace. I abhor the idea of an ignorant Saviour! From all distrust of any part of the Bible - may you ever be delivered. How any English clergyman can read a lesson from Genesis in church, if he does not believe its inspiration, I cannot understand. And how after this he can gravely ascend the pulpit, select a text from Genesis, preach a sermon on the text, and draw lessons from it, when he does not believe in his heart that the text he has chosen was given by inspiration; this, I say, is one of those things which fill my soul with amazement, and make me tremble for the ark of God.
Well and wisely has this age been called "an age of downgrade theology." The man who only admit a partial inspiration of the Bible, has been justly compared to one with his head in a fog and his feet on a quicksand. From theories like these may you ever be preserved!
3. In the next place, let me charge you to hold fast the old doctrine of the sinfulness of sin, and the corruption of human nature. I can find no words to express my sense of the vastness and importance of this subject. It is my firm conviction that a right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving religion. The first thing that God does when He makes a man a new creature in Christ - is to send light into his heart,and show him that he is a guilty sinner. The material creation in Genesis began with "light," and so also does the spiritual creation. I have an equally firm conviction that a low and imperfect view of sin, is the origin of most of the errors, heresies, and false doctrines of the present day. If a man does not realize the extent and dangerous nature of his soul's disease, you cannot wonder if he is content with false or imperfect remedies. I believe that one of the chief wants of the Church in the nineteenth century has been, and is, clearer, fuller teaching about sin.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 4)
How and in what manner this was done, I can no more explain than I can the union of two natures, God and man, in the Person of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. I only know that there is both a Divine and a human element in the Bible, and that, while the men who wrote it were really and truly men, the book that they wrote and handed down to us is really and truly the Word of God. I know the result - but I do not understand the process. The result is, that the Bible is the written Word of God; but I can no more explain the process, than I can explain how the water became wine at Cana, or how five loaves fed five thousand men, or how the Apostle Peter walked on the water, or how a few words from our Lord's lips raised Lazarus from the dead. I do not pretend to explain miracles, and I do not pretend to explain fully the miraculous gift of inspiration.
The position I take up is, that while the Bible writers were not "machines" as some sneeringly say - they only wrote what God taught them to write. The Holy Spirit put into their minds thoughts and ideas, and then guided their pens in writing and expressing them. Even when they made use of old records, chronicles, pedigrees, and lists of names, as they certainly did, they adopted, used, and compiled them under the direction of the Holy Spirit. When you read the Bible, you are not reading the unaided, self-taught composition of erring men like yourselves - but thoughts and words which were given by the eternal God. The men who were employed to write the Scripture "spoke not from themselves". They "spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1:21). He who holds a Bible in his hand should remember that he holds not the word of man - but of God. He holds a volume which not only contains - but is God's Word!
In saying all this, I would not be mistaken. I only claim complete inspiration for the original languages in which the books of the Scripture were written. I admit fully that transcribers and translators were not infallible, and that occasional mistakes may have crept into the sacred text, though amazingly few. When, therefore, some critics object to a word or a verse here and there, reason would tell us - that we should bear with them patiently, and agree to differ. Difficulties about the meaning of many places in the Bible, apparent discrepancies, obscure passages, no doubt, there always will be. But the book, as a whole, contains nothing that is not true.
But unhappily the battle of inspiration does not end here. A school of men has risen among us, who boldly deny the inspiration of large portions of the Old Testament. The book of Genesis, for example, is declared by some to possess no Divine authority, and to be only a collection of interesting fictions. I can find no words to express my entire disagreement with such theories. I maintain firmly - that the Old Testament is of equal authority with the New, and that they stand or fall together. You cannot separate them, any more than you can separate the warp and woof in a piece of woven cloth. The writers of the New Testament continually quote the words of the Old Testament, as of equal authority with their own, and never give the slightest hint that these quotations are not to be regarded as the Word of God. The thrice-repeated saying of our Lord, taken from Deuteronomy, "It is written," when tempted by the devil, is deeply significant and instructive. (Matt. 4:5-10).
But this is not the whole of my objection to these modern theories. I contend that attacks on Genesis in particular involve most dangerous consequences. Then tend to dishonor our Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles. That they regard the events and persons mentioned in Genesis as real, historical, and true, and not fictitious - is clear to any honest reader of the New Testament. Now, how can this be explained if Genesis is, as some say, a mere collection of fiction? You cannot explain it except on the supposition that our Lord and His Apostles were ignorant, and did not know as much as modern critics do - or else that they secretly suppressed their knowledge in order to avoid offending their hearers. In short, they were either fallible or fallacious, deceived or deceivers. God forbid that we should adopt either one conclusion or the other! I frankly confess that my whole soul revolts from these modern teachings about Genesis.
When I read that our Lord Jesus Christ is "One with the Father," that "in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," that He is "the Light of the world," my mind cannot conceive the possibility of His being ignorant, as latter-day theories about Genesis certainly imply. That blessed Saviour to whom I am taught to commit my soul, in the very week that He died for my redemption, spoke of the Flood and the days of Noah as realities! If He spoke ignorantly, with Calvary in full view, it would shake to the foundation my confidence in His power to save me, and would destroy my peace. I abhor the idea of an ignorant Saviour! From all distrust of any part of the Bible - may you ever be delivered. How any English clergyman can read a lesson from Genesis in church, if he does not believe its inspiration, I cannot understand. And how after this he can gravely ascend the pulpit, select a text from Genesis, preach a sermon on the text, and draw lessons from it, when he does not believe in his heart that the text he has chosen was given by inspiration; this, I say, is one of those things which fill my soul with amazement, and make me tremble for the ark of God.
Well and wisely has this age been called "an age of downgrade theology." The man who only admit a partial inspiration of the Bible, has been justly compared to one with his head in a fog and his feet on a quicksand. From theories like these may you ever be preserved!
3. In the next place, let me charge you to hold fast the old doctrine of the sinfulness of sin, and the corruption of human nature. I can find no words to express my sense of the vastness and importance of this subject. It is my firm conviction that a right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving religion. The first thing that God does when He makes a man a new creature in Christ - is to send light into his heart,and show him that he is a guilty sinner. The material creation in Genesis began with "light," and so also does the spiritual creation. I have an equally firm conviction that a low and imperfect view of sin, is the origin of most of the errors, heresies, and false doctrines of the present day. If a man does not realize the extent and dangerous nature of his soul's disease, you cannot wonder if he is content with false or imperfect remedies. I believe that one of the chief wants of the Church in the nineteenth century has been, and is, clearer, fuller teaching about sin.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 4)
Saturday, November 17, 2018
Hold Fast # 2
Hold Fast # 2
C. The third fact is the effect which Christianity has produced on the world. If Christianity is a mere invention of man, and not a supernatural, Divine revelation, how is it that it has wrought such a complete alternation in the state of mankind? Any well-read man knows that the moral difference between the condition of the world before Christianity was planted, and since Christianity took root - is the difference between night and day; the difference between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of the devil. At this very moment I defy anyone to look at the map of the world, and compare the countries where men are Christians - with those where men are not Christians, and to deny that these countries are as different as light and darkness, black and white. How can any infidel explain this on his principles? He cannot do it. We only can who believe that Christianity came down from God and is the only Divine religion in the world.
Whenever you are tempted to be alarmed at the progress of infidelity, look at the three facts which I have just mentioned, and cast your fears away! Take up your position boldly behind the ramparts of these three facts, and you may safely defy the utmost efforts of modern skeptics. They may often ask you a hundred questions you cannot answer, and start clever problems about geology, or the origin of man, or the age of the world, which you cannot solve. They may vex and irritate you with wild speculations and theories, of which at the time you cannot prove the fallacy, though you feel it. But be calm and fear not. Remember the three great facts I have named, and boldly challenge them to explain them away. The difficulties of Christianity no doubt are great; but, depend on it, they are nothing compared to the DIFFICULTIES OF INFIDELITY.
3. In the next place, let me charge you to hold fast the authority, supremacy, and Divine inspiration of the whole Bible.
About the authority of that blessed book I need not say much. I am addressing men who have answered the solemn questions of the Ordination Services, and subscribed to the Thirty-nine Articles. By so doing you have declared your belief that the Scriptures are our Church's rule of faith and practice. The clergyman who preaches and teaches anything which flatly contradicts the Bible, appears to me to forget his own pledges, and deals unfairly with the Church of which he is a minister.
About the inspiration of the Bible I feel it necessary to speak more fully. It is,l unhappily, one of the chief subjects of controversy in the present day, and one about which you have a right to know what I think.
The subject of inspiration is always important. It is the very keel and foundation of Christianity. If Christians have no Divine book to turn to as the warrant of their doctrine and practice, they have solid ground for present peace or hope, and no right to claim the attention of mankind. They are building on a quicksand, and their faith is vain. If the Bible is not given by inspiration throughout, and contains defects and errors - it cannot be a safe guide to heaven. We ought to be able to say boldly, "We are what we are, and we do what we do, and teach what we teach - because we have here a book which we believe to be, altogether and entirely, the Word of God."
The subject without doubt is a very difficult one. It cannot be followed up without entering on ground which is dark and mysterious to mortal man. It involves the discussion of things which are miraculous, supernatural, above reason, and cannot be fully explained. But difficulties must not turn us away from any subject in religion. There is not a science in the world about which questions may not be asked which no one can answer. It is poor philosophy to say we will believe nothing - unless we can understand everything! We must not give up the subject of inspiration in despair, because it contains things hard to be understood."
One cause of difficulty lies in the fact that the Church has never defined exactly what inspiration means, and consequently many of the best Christians are not entirely of one mind. I am one of those who believe that the writers of the Bible were supernaturally and divinely enabled by God, as no other men ever have been, for the work which they did, and that, consequently, the book they produced is unlike any other book in existence, and stands entirely alone. Inspiration, in short, is a miracle. We must not confound it with intellectual power, such as great poets and authors possess. To talk to Shakespeare and Milton and Byron being inspired, like Moses and Paul, is to my mind, almost profane!
Nor must we confound it with the gifts and graces bestowed on the early Christians in the primitive Church. All the apostles were enabled to preach and work miracles - but not all were inspired to write. We must rather regard it as a special supernatural gift, bestowed on about thirty people out of mankind, in order to qualify them for the special business of writing the Scriptures; and we must be content to allow that, like everything miraculous, we cannot entirely explain it, though we can believe it. A miracle would not be a miracle - if it could be explained! That miracles are possible, I do not stop to prove here. I never trouble myself on that subject, until those who deny miracles have fairly grappled with the great fact, that Christ rose again from the dead. I firmly believe that miracles are possible, and have been wrought, and among great miracles I place the fact that men were inspired by God to write the Bible. Inspiration, therefore, being a miracle, I frankly allow that there are difficulties about it which at present, I cannot fully solve.
The exact manner, for instance, in which the minds of the inspired writers of Scripture worked when they wrote - I do not pretend to explain. I have no doubt they could not have explained it themselves. I do not admit for a moment that they were mere machines holding pens, and, like type-setters in a printing office, did not understand what they were doing. I abhor the mechanical theory of inspiration. I dislike the idea that men like Moses and Paul were no better than organ pipes, employed by the Holy Spirit, or ignorant secretaries - who wrote by dictation what they did not understand. I admit nothing of the kind. But I do believe that in some marvelous manner the Holy Spirit made use of the reason, the memory, the intellect, the style of thought, and the peculiar mental temperament of each writer of the Scriptures.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 3)
C. The third fact is the effect which Christianity has produced on the world. If Christianity is a mere invention of man, and not a supernatural, Divine revelation, how is it that it has wrought such a complete alternation in the state of mankind? Any well-read man knows that the moral difference between the condition of the world before Christianity was planted, and since Christianity took root - is the difference between night and day; the difference between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of the devil. At this very moment I defy anyone to look at the map of the world, and compare the countries where men are Christians - with those where men are not Christians, and to deny that these countries are as different as light and darkness, black and white. How can any infidel explain this on his principles? He cannot do it. We only can who believe that Christianity came down from God and is the only Divine religion in the world.
Whenever you are tempted to be alarmed at the progress of infidelity, look at the three facts which I have just mentioned, and cast your fears away! Take up your position boldly behind the ramparts of these three facts, and you may safely defy the utmost efforts of modern skeptics. They may often ask you a hundred questions you cannot answer, and start clever problems about geology, or the origin of man, or the age of the world, which you cannot solve. They may vex and irritate you with wild speculations and theories, of which at the time you cannot prove the fallacy, though you feel it. But be calm and fear not. Remember the three great facts I have named, and boldly challenge them to explain them away. The difficulties of Christianity no doubt are great; but, depend on it, they are nothing compared to the DIFFICULTIES OF INFIDELITY.
3. In the next place, let me charge you to hold fast the authority, supremacy, and Divine inspiration of the whole Bible.
About the authority of that blessed book I need not say much. I am addressing men who have answered the solemn questions of the Ordination Services, and subscribed to the Thirty-nine Articles. By so doing you have declared your belief that the Scriptures are our Church's rule of faith and practice. The clergyman who preaches and teaches anything which flatly contradicts the Bible, appears to me to forget his own pledges, and deals unfairly with the Church of which he is a minister.
About the inspiration of the Bible I feel it necessary to speak more fully. It is,l unhappily, one of the chief subjects of controversy in the present day, and one about which you have a right to know what I think.
The subject of inspiration is always important. It is the very keel and foundation of Christianity. If Christians have no Divine book to turn to as the warrant of their doctrine and practice, they have solid ground for present peace or hope, and no right to claim the attention of mankind. They are building on a quicksand, and their faith is vain. If the Bible is not given by inspiration throughout, and contains defects and errors - it cannot be a safe guide to heaven. We ought to be able to say boldly, "We are what we are, and we do what we do, and teach what we teach - because we have here a book which we believe to be, altogether and entirely, the Word of God."
The subject without doubt is a very difficult one. It cannot be followed up without entering on ground which is dark and mysterious to mortal man. It involves the discussion of things which are miraculous, supernatural, above reason, and cannot be fully explained. But difficulties must not turn us away from any subject in religion. There is not a science in the world about which questions may not be asked which no one can answer. It is poor philosophy to say we will believe nothing - unless we can understand everything! We must not give up the subject of inspiration in despair, because it contains things hard to be understood."
One cause of difficulty lies in the fact that the Church has never defined exactly what inspiration means, and consequently many of the best Christians are not entirely of one mind. I am one of those who believe that the writers of the Bible were supernaturally and divinely enabled by God, as no other men ever have been, for the work which they did, and that, consequently, the book they produced is unlike any other book in existence, and stands entirely alone. Inspiration, in short, is a miracle. We must not confound it with intellectual power, such as great poets and authors possess. To talk to Shakespeare and Milton and Byron being inspired, like Moses and Paul, is to my mind, almost profane!
Nor must we confound it with the gifts and graces bestowed on the early Christians in the primitive Church. All the apostles were enabled to preach and work miracles - but not all were inspired to write. We must rather regard it as a special supernatural gift, bestowed on about thirty people out of mankind, in order to qualify them for the special business of writing the Scriptures; and we must be content to allow that, like everything miraculous, we cannot entirely explain it, though we can believe it. A miracle would not be a miracle - if it could be explained! That miracles are possible, I do not stop to prove here. I never trouble myself on that subject, until those who deny miracles have fairly grappled with the great fact, that Christ rose again from the dead. I firmly believe that miracles are possible, and have been wrought, and among great miracles I place the fact that men were inspired by God to write the Bible. Inspiration, therefore, being a miracle, I frankly allow that there are difficulties about it which at present, I cannot fully solve.
The exact manner, for instance, in which the minds of the inspired writers of Scripture worked when they wrote - I do not pretend to explain. I have no doubt they could not have explained it themselves. I do not admit for a moment that they were mere machines holding pens, and, like type-setters in a printing office, did not understand what they were doing. I abhor the mechanical theory of inspiration. I dislike the idea that men like Moses and Paul were no better than organ pipes, employed by the Holy Spirit, or ignorant secretaries - who wrote by dictation what they did not understand. I admit nothing of the kind. But I do believe that in some marvelous manner the Holy Spirit made use of the reason, the memory, the intellect, the style of thought, and the peculiar mental temperament of each writer of the Scriptures.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 3)
Hold Fast! # 1
Hold Fast! # 1
"Hold fast for that which is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
My trumpet ought to give no uncertain sound. With abounding temporal prosperity, we seem, as a nation, to be sitting on the edge of a volcano, and at any time may be blown to pieces, and become a wreck and a ruin.
Worst of all, the air seems filled with vague agnosticism and unbelief. Faith languishes and dwindles everywhere, and looks ready to die. The immense majority of men, from the highest to the lowest, appear to think that nothing is certain in religion, and that it does not signify much what you believe. Even in our universities, the tendency to multiply the doubtful things of Christianity, and to diminish the essentials, appears to grow and increase every year. All the foundations of faith are out of course.
In times like these, I shall make no apology for charging you to beware of losing, insensibly, your grasp of Christian truth, and holding it with slippery and trembling fingers, I ask you, therefore, to hear me patiently this day, while I try to set before them a list of cardinal points on which I think it of essential importance to "hold fast that which is good." Of course I do not expect you all to agree with some of the things I am going to say. Far from it! I lay no claim to infallibility. But at any rate you will not be left in ignorance of my opinions.
1. First and foremost, let me charge you to hold fast the great principle that Christianity is entirely true, and the only religion which God has revealed to mankind.
In reviews, magazines, newspapers, lectures, essays, novels, and sometimes even in sermons, scores of clever writers are incessantly waging war against the very foundations of Christianity. Reason, science, geology, anthropology, modern discoveries, free thought, are all boldly asserted to be on their side. No educated person, we are constantly told nowadays, can really believe supernatural religion, or the plenary inspiration of the Bible, or the possibility of miracles. Such ancient doctrines as the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, the Personality of the Holy Spirit, the Atonement, the obligation of the Sabbath, the necessity and efficacy of prayer, the existence of the devil, and the reality of future punishment, are quietly put on the shelf by many professing leaders of modern thought, as useless old almanacs, or contemptuously thrown overboard as lumber! And all this is done so cleverly, and with such an appearance of candor and liberality, and with such compliments to the capacity and nobility of human nature, that multitudes of unstable Christians are carried away as by a flood, and become partially unsettled, if they do not make complete shipwreck of faith.
The existence of this plague of unbelief must not surprise us for a moment. It is only an old enemy in a new dress, an old disease in a new form. Since the day when Adam and Eve fell, the devil has never ceased to tempt men not to believe God, and has said, directly or indirectly, "You shall not die, even if you do not believe." In the latter days especially, we have warrant of Scripture for expecting an abundant crop of unbelief - "When the Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?" Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. There shall come in the last days scoffers (Luke 18:8; 2 Tim. 3:13; 2 Peter 3:3). Here in England skepticism is that natural rebound from semi-popery and superstition, which many wise men have long predicted and expected. It is precisely that swing of the pendulum which far-sighted students of human nature looked for, and it has come.
But, as I tell you not to be surprised at the widespread skepticism of the times, so also I must urge you not to be shaken in mind by it, or moved from your steadfastness. There is no real cause for alarm. The ark of God is not in danger, though the oxen seem to shake it. Christianity has survived the attacks of Hume and Hobbs and Tindal; of Collins and Woolston and Bolingbroke and Chubb; of Voltaire and Paine and Holyoake. These men produced no more real effect than idle travelers produce by scratching their names on the great Pyramid of Egypt. Depend on it, Christianity in like manner will survive the attacks of the clever writers of these times. The startling novelty of many modern objections to revelation, no doubt, makes them seem more weighty than they really are. It does not follow, however, that hard knots cannot be untied, because our fingers cannot untie them, or that formidable difficulties cannot be explained, because our eyes cannot see through or explain them. When you cannot answer a skeptic, be content to wait for more light; but never forsake a great principle. In religion, as in many scientific questions, said Faraday, the famous chemist, "the highest wisdom is often a judicious suspension of judgment."
When skeptics and infidels have said all they can, we must not forget that there are three great broad facts which they have never explained away; and I am convinced they never can, and never will. Let me tell you briefly what they are. They are very simple facts, and any plain man can understand them.
A. The first fact is Jesus Christ Himself. If Christianity is a mere invention of man, and the Bible is not from God - how can infidels explain Jesus Christ? His existence in history they cannot deny. How is it that without force or bribery, without arms or money, without flattering man's pride of reason, without granting any indulgence to man's lusts and passions - He has made such an immensely deep mark on the world? Who was He? What was He? Where did He come from? How is it that there has never been one like Him, neither before nor after, since the beginning of time? They cannot explain it. Nothing can explain it but the great foundation-principle of revealed religion, that Jesus Christ is truly God, and that His Gospel is all true.
B. The second fact is the Bible itself. If Christianity is a mere invention of man, and the Bible is of no more authority than any other uninspired volume, how is it that the book is what it is? How is it that a book written by a few Jews in a remote part of the earth, written at distant and various periods without concert or collusion among the writers; written by members of a nation which, compared to Greece and Rome, did nothing for literature - how is it that this book stands entirely alone, and that there is nothing that even approaches it, for high views of God, for true views of man, for solemnity of thought, for grandeur of doctrine, and for purity of morality? What account can the infidel give of this book, so deep, so simple, so wise, so free from defects? He cannot explain its existence and its nature on his principles. We only can do that - who hold that the book is supernatural, and is the book of God!
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 2)
"Hold fast for that which is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
My trumpet ought to give no uncertain sound. With abounding temporal prosperity, we seem, as a nation, to be sitting on the edge of a volcano, and at any time may be blown to pieces, and become a wreck and a ruin.
Worst of all, the air seems filled with vague agnosticism and unbelief. Faith languishes and dwindles everywhere, and looks ready to die. The immense majority of men, from the highest to the lowest, appear to think that nothing is certain in religion, and that it does not signify much what you believe. Even in our universities, the tendency to multiply the doubtful things of Christianity, and to diminish the essentials, appears to grow and increase every year. All the foundations of faith are out of course.
In times like these, I shall make no apology for charging you to beware of losing, insensibly, your grasp of Christian truth, and holding it with slippery and trembling fingers, I ask you, therefore, to hear me patiently this day, while I try to set before them a list of cardinal points on which I think it of essential importance to "hold fast that which is good." Of course I do not expect you all to agree with some of the things I am going to say. Far from it! I lay no claim to infallibility. But at any rate you will not be left in ignorance of my opinions.
1. First and foremost, let me charge you to hold fast the great principle that Christianity is entirely true, and the only religion which God has revealed to mankind.
In reviews, magazines, newspapers, lectures, essays, novels, and sometimes even in sermons, scores of clever writers are incessantly waging war against the very foundations of Christianity. Reason, science, geology, anthropology, modern discoveries, free thought, are all boldly asserted to be on their side. No educated person, we are constantly told nowadays, can really believe supernatural religion, or the plenary inspiration of the Bible, or the possibility of miracles. Such ancient doctrines as the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, the Personality of the Holy Spirit, the Atonement, the obligation of the Sabbath, the necessity and efficacy of prayer, the existence of the devil, and the reality of future punishment, are quietly put on the shelf by many professing leaders of modern thought, as useless old almanacs, or contemptuously thrown overboard as lumber! And all this is done so cleverly, and with such an appearance of candor and liberality, and with such compliments to the capacity and nobility of human nature, that multitudes of unstable Christians are carried away as by a flood, and become partially unsettled, if they do not make complete shipwreck of faith.
The existence of this plague of unbelief must not surprise us for a moment. It is only an old enemy in a new dress, an old disease in a new form. Since the day when Adam and Eve fell, the devil has never ceased to tempt men not to believe God, and has said, directly or indirectly, "You shall not die, even if you do not believe." In the latter days especially, we have warrant of Scripture for expecting an abundant crop of unbelief - "When the Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?" Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. There shall come in the last days scoffers (Luke 18:8; 2 Tim. 3:13; 2 Peter 3:3). Here in England skepticism is that natural rebound from semi-popery and superstition, which many wise men have long predicted and expected. It is precisely that swing of the pendulum which far-sighted students of human nature looked for, and it has come.
But, as I tell you not to be surprised at the widespread skepticism of the times, so also I must urge you not to be shaken in mind by it, or moved from your steadfastness. There is no real cause for alarm. The ark of God is not in danger, though the oxen seem to shake it. Christianity has survived the attacks of Hume and Hobbs and Tindal; of Collins and Woolston and Bolingbroke and Chubb; of Voltaire and Paine and Holyoake. These men produced no more real effect than idle travelers produce by scratching their names on the great Pyramid of Egypt. Depend on it, Christianity in like manner will survive the attacks of the clever writers of these times. The startling novelty of many modern objections to revelation, no doubt, makes them seem more weighty than they really are. It does not follow, however, that hard knots cannot be untied, because our fingers cannot untie them, or that formidable difficulties cannot be explained, because our eyes cannot see through or explain them. When you cannot answer a skeptic, be content to wait for more light; but never forsake a great principle. In religion, as in many scientific questions, said Faraday, the famous chemist, "the highest wisdom is often a judicious suspension of judgment."
When skeptics and infidels have said all they can, we must not forget that there are three great broad facts which they have never explained away; and I am convinced they never can, and never will. Let me tell you briefly what they are. They are very simple facts, and any plain man can understand them.
A. The first fact is Jesus Christ Himself. If Christianity is a mere invention of man, and the Bible is not from God - how can infidels explain Jesus Christ? His existence in history they cannot deny. How is it that without force or bribery, without arms or money, without flattering man's pride of reason, without granting any indulgence to man's lusts and passions - He has made such an immensely deep mark on the world? Who was He? What was He? Where did He come from? How is it that there has never been one like Him, neither before nor after, since the beginning of time? They cannot explain it. Nothing can explain it but the great foundation-principle of revealed religion, that Jesus Christ is truly God, and that His Gospel is all true.
B. The second fact is the Bible itself. If Christianity is a mere invention of man, and the Bible is of no more authority than any other uninspired volume, how is it that the book is what it is? How is it that a book written by a few Jews in a remote part of the earth, written at distant and various periods without concert or collusion among the writers; written by members of a nation which, compared to Greece and Rome, did nothing for literature - how is it that this book stands entirely alone, and that there is nothing that even approaches it, for high views of God, for true views of man, for solemnity of thought, for grandeur of doctrine, and for purity of morality? What account can the infidel give of this book, so deep, so simple, so wise, so free from defects? He cannot explain its existence and its nature on his principles. We only can do that - who hold that the book is supernatural, and is the book of God!
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 2)
Sunday, November 11, 2018
There Has Been Too Much Trifling With Jehovah!! (and others)
There Has Been Too Much Trifling With Jehovah! (and others)
"Then I answered and said: Amen, O Lord!" (Jeremiah 11:5).
Perhaps there is a secret contention going on between you and
God. God has spoken to you - but thus far there has not been Jeremiah's response of "Amen, O Lord."
Here you have the one response which a man of God must ever make to the words of God. When God says anything to him, there is nothing left for him but to bow the head and say, "Amen, O Lord - so be it!"
This response is the only one that suits a creature's lip. When God speaks - there is nothing left for man but to hear. When God decrees - there is nothing for man to do but acquiesce. When Jehovah gives a command - what is there left for His creature to do but obey? Any other word than "Amen" springs from rebellion. Any other response to the word of Jehovah, simply tells of a heart that wars with God.
It is not for men to judge God's words, far less to amend them. It it pleases Jehovah to say anything, no matter how stern, how dreadful, or how searching - there is only one position for man: that is to bow his head and say, "Amen, O Lord."
"Oh," says one, in the proud spirit of our times, "you are making a bold bid for your God this morning."
I am. The sovereignty of God needs to be brought to the front. There has been too much trifling with Jehovah! Man needs to have the peacock's feathers plucked out of his cap, and be taught that he is a poor little nothing, and that for God to speak to him at all is infinite condescension, and that for him to say anything else than "Amen" is boundless impudence!
If God condescends to utter a command, am I to go and judge whether the Lord has a right to say it? Shall I take the word of Jehovah my Maker and weigh it in my scales - and bring up His thoughts to the paltry bar of my fallen reason - and enter my protest unless I can see a good reason for God speaking as He does? When God promulgates a decree, He does not send it to man to be revised!
We are living in the days of the deification of humanity. We hear so much about 'the glory of humanity', and 'the triumphs of humanity' - that God has become little better than a very inferior deity who runs after man and tips His cap to him.
This is not the picture which the Bible gives. God's claim is this, "I am the Lord, and you are but the creatures of My hand. The brightest of My angels are but sparks struck off from the anvil of My creative omnipotence. When I speak, let men and angels be silent; or, if they must speak, let them say: Amen, O Lord!" This is the only response that suits a creature's lip.
If you can conceive of a being who is infinitely wise, all-powerful, infinitely righteous, absolutely holy, inflexibly just, and all gathered up into boundless love - that is God.
If such a One speaks - then what is there left for me but to say, "Amen?" I am stark, raving mad, if I dare question the utterance of Infinite Wisdom. I am unutterably vile, if I can dare to criticize the utterance of Absolute Love. Idiocy must have taken hold of my brain and alas! of my heart, if I would amend anything which His infinite holiness has declared. The very nature and character of God declare that the only response for man when God speaks is "Amen, O Lord."
Oh, for that grand attitude of resignation and submission to God, that bows before every word of God - whether it be a silver note of mercy from Heaven, or a thunder-clap of denunciation!
~Archibald Brown~
(The End)
______________________________
He Does As He Pleases!
"For the Lord Almighty has purposed - and who can thwart Him? His hand is stretched out - and who can turn it back?" (Isaiah 14:27).
To say that God is sovereign, is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in Heaven and earth - so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will.
Whatever takes place in time - is but the outworking of that which He has decreed in eternity. The sovereignty of the God of Scripture is absolute, irresistible, and infinite!
We insist that God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases!
"The Lord does whatever pleases Him, in the Heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths!" (Psalm 135:6).
"All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. God does as He pleases with the powers of Heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him: What have you done?" (Daniel 4:35).
~A. W. Pink~
"Then I answered and said: Amen, O Lord!" (Jeremiah 11:5).
Perhaps there is a secret contention going on between you and
God. God has spoken to you - but thus far there has not been Jeremiah's response of "Amen, O Lord."
Here you have the one response which a man of God must ever make to the words of God. When God says anything to him, there is nothing left for him but to bow the head and say, "Amen, O Lord - so be it!"
This response is the only one that suits a creature's lip. When God speaks - there is nothing left for man but to hear. When God decrees - there is nothing for man to do but acquiesce. When Jehovah gives a command - what is there left for His creature to do but obey? Any other word than "Amen" springs from rebellion. Any other response to the word of Jehovah, simply tells of a heart that wars with God.
It is not for men to judge God's words, far less to amend them. It it pleases Jehovah to say anything, no matter how stern, how dreadful, or how searching - there is only one position for man: that is to bow his head and say, "Amen, O Lord."
"Oh," says one, in the proud spirit of our times, "you are making a bold bid for your God this morning."
I am. The sovereignty of God needs to be brought to the front. There has been too much trifling with Jehovah! Man needs to have the peacock's feathers plucked out of his cap, and be taught that he is a poor little nothing, and that for God to speak to him at all is infinite condescension, and that for him to say anything else than "Amen" is boundless impudence!
If God condescends to utter a command, am I to go and judge whether the Lord has a right to say it? Shall I take the word of Jehovah my Maker and weigh it in my scales - and bring up His thoughts to the paltry bar of my fallen reason - and enter my protest unless I can see a good reason for God speaking as He does? When God promulgates a decree, He does not send it to man to be revised!
We are living in the days of the deification of humanity. We hear so much about 'the glory of humanity', and 'the triumphs of humanity' - that God has become little better than a very inferior deity who runs after man and tips His cap to him.
This is not the picture which the Bible gives. God's claim is this, "I am the Lord, and you are but the creatures of My hand. The brightest of My angels are but sparks struck off from the anvil of My creative omnipotence. When I speak, let men and angels be silent; or, if they must speak, let them say: Amen, O Lord!" This is the only response that suits a creature's lip.
If you can conceive of a being who is infinitely wise, all-powerful, infinitely righteous, absolutely holy, inflexibly just, and all gathered up into boundless love - that is God.
If such a One speaks - then what is there left for me but to say, "Amen?" I am stark, raving mad, if I dare question the utterance of Infinite Wisdom. I am unutterably vile, if I can dare to criticize the utterance of Absolute Love. Idiocy must have taken hold of my brain and alas! of my heart, if I would amend anything which His infinite holiness has declared. The very nature and character of God declare that the only response for man when God speaks is "Amen, O Lord."
Oh, for that grand attitude of resignation and submission to God, that bows before every word of God - whether it be a silver note of mercy from Heaven, or a thunder-clap of denunciation!
~Archibald Brown~
(The End)
______________________________
He Does As He Pleases!
"For the Lord Almighty has purposed - and who can thwart Him? His hand is stretched out - and who can turn it back?" (Isaiah 14:27).
To say that God is sovereign, is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in Heaven and earth - so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will.
Whatever takes place in time - is but the outworking of that which He has decreed in eternity. The sovereignty of the God of Scripture is absolute, irresistible, and infinite!
We insist that God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases!
"The Lord does whatever pleases Him, in the Heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths!" (Psalm 135:6).
"All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. God does as He pleases with the powers of Heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him: What have you done?" (Daniel 4:35).
~A. W. Pink~
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