“Oh, I saw my gold was in my trunk at home! In Christ, my Lord and Saviour!”

 

This is John Bunyan’s account of his deliverance from his struggling through the birth canal of the assurance of his salvation, taken from Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. This is such a sweet, beautiful, and God glorifying account. With all of Bunyan’s struggles with his assurance, I am contemplatingly thoughtful of how God is so gracious to grant us assurance. God does not just want to save us, but He wants us to be sure that we are saved. That He grants us peace and consolation in our salvation, is so endearing. He knows He will save us, and yet He is so encouraging, that He makes it known to us, that we may take comfort in Him, the God of all consolation.

Here’s Bunyan:

“But one day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, Thy righteousness is in heaven; and methought withal, I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God’s right hand; there, I say, as my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was adoing, God could not say of me, He wants my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. Hebrews 13: 8.

Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed, I was loosed from my affliction and irons, my temptations also fled away; so that, from that time, those dreadful scriptures of God left off to trouble me; now went I also home rejoicing, for the grace and love of God. So when I came home, I looked to see if I could find that sentence, Thy righteousness is in heaven; but could not find such a saying, wherefore my heart began to sink again, only that was brought to my remembrance, he “of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption;” by this word I saw the other sentence true, 1 Cor. 1: 30. 

For by this scripture, I saw that the man Christ Jesus, as he is distinct from us, as touching his bodily presence, so he is our righteousness and sanctification before God. Here, therefore, I lived for some time, very sweetly at peace with God through Christ; Oh methought, Christ! Christ! there was nothing but Christ that was before my eyes, I was not now only for looking upon this and the other benefits of Christ apart, as of his blood, burial, or resurrection, but considered him as a whole Christ! As he in whom all these, and all other his virtues, relations, offices, and operations met together, and that ‘as he sat ‘ on the right hand of God in heaven.

It was glorious to me to see his exaltation, and the worth and prevalency of all his benefits, and that because of this: now I could look from myself to him, and should reckon that all those graces of God that now were green in me, were yet but like those cracked groats and fourpence-halfpennies that rich men carry in their purses, when their gold is in their trunks at home! Oh, I saw my gold was in my trunk at home! In Christ, my Lord and Saviour! Now Christ was all; all my wisdom, all my righteousness, all my sanctification, and all my redemption.

Further, the Lord did also lead me into the mystery of union with the Son of God, that I was joined to him, that I was flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, and now was that a sweet word to me in Eph. 5: 30. By this also was my faith in him, as my righteousness, the more confirmed to me; for if he and I were one, then his righteousness was mine, his merits mine, his victory also mine. Now could I see myself in heaven and earth at once; in heaven by my Christ, by my head, by my righteousness and life, though on earth by my body or person.”

Armchair Sermons: M’Cheyne’s Last Sermon, The Vessels of Wrath Fitted to Destruction, part 2

Before You Get Started…

If you haven’t read the first post in this series, I would strongly recommend that you start there. What I am hoping is that you will get so enthralled with the sermon that you will want to go and read the whole thing here. At any rate, I hope you find this series to be helpful in your gaze at the glory of God.

Previously…

In part 1, M’Cheyne’s introduction begins with addressing, Where does the wrath of God flow from? Using Psalm 11 he shows us that God’s everlasting judgement and wrath flow from His love of righteousness, not His longing for human pain. God loves righteousness! Therefore He hates sin. Love never fails and because Love never fails, neither will His hatred of unrighteousness. His wrath is constant because His love is endless. God is Love! This is why Hell is eternal, endless….and perfect.

The Question To Answer…

The question that M’Cheyne takes time to answer in this sermon is, Why are not all saved? M’Cheyne answers this question in three points on why man is allowed to perish by expositing the words of Paul in Romans 9:22,23.

The three points M’Cheyne uses and explains to answer the question are as follows:

1. That God may show His wrath
2. That God may show His power
3. That God may show the riches of His glory

The end of the sermon is where everything I am posting on ties together in a way that just blows me away. I am thoroughly a sovereignty of God guy. But knowing something in my mind and sensing the earnestness of God’s ultimate glory in the eternal damnation of the lost and the glorification of His saints, still leaves me with a sense of dread. Both the damned and the saved will glorify God, for that is there purpose.

Here’s M’Cheyne…

Let us enter into this subject a little more deeply. There are three reasons set down here why men are allowed to perish.

I. The first is, that God was willing to show His wrath. These words are terrible. We are told frequently in the Bible of the wrath of God. It is not like human wrath: it is calm, settled – it consists principally in a regard to what is right. This is the wrath of God. We are told a great deal about it in the Bible. It is revealed against all sin. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” – Romans 1:18 Observe the word “all” – it is against all sin. Then Colossians 3:6, “For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.” We are told also, brethren, that this anger is constant. “God is angry with the wicked every day.” – Psalms 7:11. The bow of God’s justice is, as it were, already bent against the wicked, the arrow of God’s is already on the string against the wicked. And then we are told that His wrath is intolerable. In the Psalm which we were singing (Psalms 90:11), it is said, “Who knows the power of thy wrath?” And we are told in Revelation, “The great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?”

But we learn more by example than even by these declarations. We have many examples of God’s wrath and its consequences. The first example we have is, his casting the angels out of heaven. We are told by Jude, “That the angels which kept not their first estate, He hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.” And we are told by Peter, “That God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” Now, brethren, in several respects this was one of the greatest examples of divine wrath we have, for it seems to have happened in one day. One day these angels were in heaven – the next in hell. One day they were angels of light – the next fiends of darkness. And then this made it fearful, when the Lord left them no room for repentance. One thing the universe might have learned from this was, that God will certainly punish sin.

Pause for a Moment…

I have to pause here and comment on this last part, “when the Lord left no room for repentance.” What a gift, that we are even given the opportunity to repent. God did not give this opportunity to the angels, only humans.

Back To It…

Another example of God’s punishing sin was not in heaven, but one earth, when He sent the deluge upon it. “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth.” And so it came to pass: “The flood came, and carried them all away;” and it has left traces on our world still, to show that God will not fail to punish sin.

Another example of divine vengeance was, when God destroyed Sodom. “Now, the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.” The cry of its wickedness went up to heaven, and God sent down two angels, to see if it was according to the cry that came up; and they found it even so; and, when they had taken out just Lot, God rained fire and brimstone upon the devoted city; and he has left traces of it there to this hour.

There was yet another exhibition of divine wrath on earth - it was the death of God’s dear Son. If ever there was a time when God could have said that he would forego his wrath it was surely this. It was this for two reasons. First, because the object of that wrath was dear to God. There never was on in the universe so dear to God as his Son. And another reason was, Christ had no sin of his own. Just as his robe was seamless, so was his soul sinless. Nay, brethren, that one act of his – laying down his life, was so glorious, as an exhibition of God’s justice, that the universe never saw its “marrow”. “Yet it pleased God to bruise him.” These words do not give the least shadow of his suffering from God on account of our sin. Brethren, if any thing in the world can show that God will punish sin, it was the death of his dear and sinless Son.

There is one exhibition of his wrath yet to come. Verse 22 – “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?” God is yet to destroy the souls that he has made–not the angels that fell, for he has done that already, when he cast them into hell, but the souls on which he has waited. There is to be a new exhibition of wrath that the world never saw the like of before. He is going to show what he will do to the despisers of his Son – to those who despise his gospel. it will be a new thing when “God will be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know him not, and that have not obeyed the gospel.” God waits to show his wrath. Ah, brethren! it will be fearful to feel it – it is fearful even to think of it. so I believe it will be with the wicked: they will be beacons, to show how God will punish sin.

I hope these words are stirring you as they have stirred me, God Bless.

The Desires of The Righteous

What do you desire? Where is the longing of the flesh taking you? Do you see the Lord more clearly or has His glory begun to fade in your sight? What is the fruit being produced by the fertilizer sown into the ground of where we are planted? Are we good grounds keepers or are we slack in the work required of us that by the sweat of our brow we must labor?

Bunyan would have us examining the fruit we are producing…..

“As the tree is known by its fruit, so is the state of a man’s heart known by his desires. The desires of the righteous are the touchstone or standard of Christian sincerity—the evidence of the new birth—the spiritual barometer of faith and grace—and the springs of obedience. Christ and him crucified is the ground of all our hopes—the foundation upon which all our desires after God and holiness are built—and the root by which they are nourished. It is from this principle of Divine life which flows from Christ to his members, that these desires and struggles after holiness of thought and conduct arise, and are kept alive. They prove a fountain of consolation to the harassed and tried believer; for if we are in the sense of this scripture ‘righteous,’ we shall have those desires to enjoy the presence of God on earth, and with him felicity in heaven, which the voice of the Omnipotent declareth shall be granted. O! the blessedness of those in whose hearts are planted ‘the desires of the righteous.’ “

-John Bunyan, The Works of, Volume 1; page 743; from The Desire of the Righteous Granted; buy the 3 volume set here, or read here for free