A Thousand Mercies

…where we have one affliction, we have a thousand mercies. And should the sense of one, though sharp, drown all these, especially a few of them? Some one of them is more just matter of praise and rejoicing, than all the afflictions in the world of sorrow and dejection. You are in troubles, but you are not in hell; and why not there, but because his mercy towards you is infinite? The Lord has taken this or that from you. Oh, but hath he taken his loving-kindness from you? Has he divorced you from Christ? Has he cut you off from hopes of glory? Has he extinguished his grace in you, or taken his Holy Spirit from you, or shut you out from the covenant of grace, or separated you from his love? Rom. 8

-David Clarkson, from Pray For Everything, volume 2 of Works, page 174

Armchair Sermons: Owen On The First-Fruits of God

I have asked the question, as I am sure you have, “Why doesn’t God just take us all out right now?” Owen nails it right here. (Emphasis mine)

Now God takes believers, that they may be a kind of first-fruits unto himself of the creatures. He satisfies himself with believers throughout the world, to be first-fruits of the whole creation. And if God should cease from taking these first-fruits, he would destroy the world. To what end should he maintain this fabric at such an expense of power, patience, forbearance, goodness, wisdom, if there came no revenue to him? Now, he never took any revenue but the first-fruits. And if any one …. do put forth his hands to this portion of God, he will be sure sorely to revenge it.

-John Owen, Volume 9, page 287, from a sermon entitled, A Christian, God’s Temple

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Grace and Ingratitude

Is everything we do and every thought we think, done with the acknowledgement that God has been gracious? Are we thankful? Are we praising God for the blood of Christ even in the minutest happenings of our lives?

Therefore every breath we take, every time our heart beats, every day that the sun rises, every moment we see with our eyes or hear with our ears or speak with our mouths or walk with our legs is, for now, a free and undeserved gift to sinners who deserve only judgment.

I say “for now” because if you refuse to see God in his gifts, they will turn out not to be gifts but High Court evidence of ingratitude. The Bible speaks of them first as “the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience” that point us to repentance (Romans 2:4). But when we presume upon them and do not cherish God’s grace in them, “Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5).

But for those who see the merciful hand of God in every breath they take and give credit where it is due, Jesus Christ will be seen and savored as the great Purchaser of every undeserved breath. Every heartbeat will be received as a gift from his hand.

-John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life

Loaded Daily

Psa 68:19  Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation! Selah

“Blessed be the Lord.” At the mention of the presence of God among men the singers utter an earnest acclamation suggested by reverential love, and return blessings to him who so plentifully blesses his people. “Who daily loadeth us with benefits.” Our version contains a great and precious truth, though probably not the doctrine intended here. God’s benefits are not few nor light, they are loads; neither are they intermittent, but they come “daily;” nor are they confined to one or two favourites, for all Israel can say, “he loadeth us with benefits.” Delitzsch reads it, “He daily bears our burden;” and Alexander, “Whoever lays a load upon us, the Mighty God is our salvation.” If he himself burdens us with sorrow, he gives strength sufficient to sustain it; and if others endeavor to oppress us, there is no cause for fear, for the Lord will come to the rescue of his people. Happy nation, to be subdued by a King whose yoke is easy, and who secures his people from all fear of foreign burdens which their foes might try to force upon them. “Even the God of our salvation.” A name most full of glory to him, and consolation to us. No matter how strong the enemy, we shall be delivered out of his hands; for God himself, as King, undertakes to save his people from all harm. What a glorious stanza this is! It is dark only because of its excessive light. A world of meaning is condensed into a few words. His yoke is easy, and his burden is light, therefore blessed be the Saviour’s name for evermore. All hail! thou thrice blessed Prince of Peace! All thy saved ones adore thee, and call thee blessed.

-The Treasury of David, Spurgeon

Mean Thoughts of God

It is from mean thoughts of God that you are not convinced that you have by your sins deserved his eternal wrath and curse. If you had any proper sense of the infinite majesty, greatness, and holiness of God, you would see, that to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, and there to have no rest day nor night, is not a punishment more than equal to the demerit of sin.-You would not have so good a thought of yourselves; you would not be so clean and pure in your own eyes; you would see what vile, unworthy, hell-deserving, creatures you are. If you had not little thoughts of God, and were to consider how you have set yourselves against him-how you have slighted him, his commandments and threatenings, and despised his goodness and mercy, how often you have disobeyed, how obstinate you have been, how your whole lives have been filled up with sin against God-you would not wonder that God threatens to destroy you for ever, but would wonder that he hath not done it before now.

-Jonathan Edwards, The Works of, Volume 2, From a sermon on divine sovereignty

Edwards’ sharp reproof cuts to the heart. Too often, most often, we think highly of ourselves while our perspective on God waxes cold with contempt because of our little thoughts of God. While it is true that we need to be saved, we need to be saved by God, not from ourselves, but from God Himself.

Born Again According To Abundant Mercy

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (1 Peter 1:3)

We have just started going through 1 Peter in the men’s bible study. I only have a couple of commentaries at my disposal on this magnificent epistle, so it is encouraging me to be more dependent on praying and meditating on the text – there is certainly a sweetness to this that I had been neglecting up until recently. That being said, I did find something in Calvin’s commentary on the first letter of Peter that is worded quite well.

Commenting on 1 Peter 1:3:

According to his abundant mercy. He first mentions the efficient cause, and then he points out the mediating cause, as they say. He shews that God was induced by no merits of ours to regenerate us unto a living hope, because he assigns this wholly to his mercy. But that he might more completely reduce the merits of works to nothing, he says, great (multam) mercy. All, indeed, confess that God is the only author of our salvation, but they afterwards invent extraneous causes, which take away so much from his mercy. But Peter commends mercy alone; and he immediately connects the way or manner, by the resurrection of Christ; for God does not in any other way discover his mercy; hence Scripture ever directs our attention to this point. And that Christ’s death is not mentioned, but his resurrection, involves no inconsistency, for it is included; because a thing cannot be completed without having a beginning; and he especially brought forward the resurrection, because he was speaking of a new life.

Calvin explains why Peter is driving home, According to His abundant mercy. It is because he wants to get it through our heads that we are not born again because we believe but that we believe because we are born again and we are born again according to the abundant mercy of God.