Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots

Surely, the very hour the poor saint dies, he is at once higher and happier than the highest upon earth. Footnote. We give thee hearty thanks, for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world. Church of England Burial Service. I have some of the best news to impart. One beloved by you has accomplished her warfare, has received an answer to her prayers, and everlasting joy rests upon her head. My dear wife, the source of my best earthly comfort for twenty years, departed on Tuesday. Venn's letter to Stilling Fleet, announcing the death of his wife. End of footnote. I fear there is a vast amount of delusion on this point. I fear that many who are not Roman Catholics, and profess not to believe in purgatory, have, notwithstanding, some strange ideas in their minds about the immediate consequences of death. I fear that many have a sort of vague notion that there is some interval or space of time between death and their eternal state. They fancy they shall go through a kind of purifying change, and that though they die unfit for heaven, they shall yet be found meet for it after all. But this is an entire mistake. There is no change after death. There is no conversion in the grave. There is no new heart given after the last breath is drawn. The very day we go, we launch forever. The day we go from this world, we begin an eternal condition. From that day there is no spiritual alteration, no spiritual change. As we die, so we shall receive our portion after death. As the tree falls, so it must lie. If you are an unconverted man, this ought to make you think. Do you know you are close to hell? This very day you might die. And if you died out of Christ, you would open your eyes at once in hell and in torment. If you are a true Christian, you are far nearer heaven than you think. This very day, if the Lord should take you, you would find yourself in paradise. The good land of promise is near to you. The eyes that you closed in weakness and pain would open at once on a glorious rest, such as my tongue cannot describe. And now let me say a few words in conclusion, and I have done. 1. This paper may fall into the hands of some humble-hearted and contrite sinner. Are you that man? Then here is encouragement for you. See what the penitent thief did, and do likewise. See how he prayed. See how he called on the Lord Jesus Christ. See what an answer of peace he obtained. Brother or sister, why should you not do the same? Why should not you also be saved? 2. This paper may fall into the hands of some proud and presumptuous man of the world. Are you that man? Then take warning. See how the impenitent thief died as he had lived, and beware lest you come to a like end. O erring brother or sister, be not too confident, lest you die in your sins. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Turn you. Turn. Why will you die? 3. This paper may fall into the hands of some professing believer in Christ. Are you such an one? Then take the penitent thief's religion as a measure by which to prove your own. See that you know something of true repentance and saving faith, of real humility and fervent charity. Brother or sister, do not be satisfied with the world standard of Christianity. Be of one mind with the penitent thief, and you will be wise. 4. This paper may fall into the hands of someone who is mourning over departed believers. Are you such an one? Then take comfort from this scripture. See how your beloved ones are in the best of hands. They cannot be better off. They never were so well in their lives as they are now. They are with Jesus, whom their souls loved on earth. O cease from your selfish mourning. Rejoice rather that they are freed from trouble and have entered into rest. 5. And this paper may fall into the hands of some aged servant of Christ. Are you such an one? Then see from these verses how near you are to home. Your salvation is nearer than when you first believed. A few more days of labor and sorrow, and the King of kings shall send for you. And in a moment your warfare shall be at an end, and all shall be peace. Chapter 12, page 196. The Ruler of the Waves And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hind part of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? Mark 4, verses 37-40. It would be well if professing Christians in modern days studied the four Gospels more than they do. No doubt all Scripture is profitable. It is not wise to exalt one part of the Bible at the expense of another. But I think it should be good for some who are very familiar with the epistles, if they knew a little more about Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Now why do I say this? I say it because I want professing Christians to know more about Christ. It is well to be acquainted with all the doctrines and principles of Christianity. It is better to be acquainted with Christ Himself. It is well to be familiar with faith, and grace, and justification, and sanctification. They are all matters pertaining to the King. But it is far better to be familiar with Jesus Himself, to see the King's own face, and to behold His beauty. This is one secret of imminent holiness. He that would be conformed to Christ's image and become a Christlike man must be constantly studying Christ Himself. Now the Gospels were written to make us acquainted with Christ. The Holy Ghost has told us the story of His life and death, His sayings and doings four times over. Four different inspired hands have drawn the picture of the Savior, His ways, His manners, His feelings, His wisdom, His grace, His patience, His love, His power are all graciously unfolded to us by four different witnesses. Ought not the sheep to be familiar with the shepherd? Ought not the patient to be familiar with the physician? Ought not the bride to be familiar with the bridegroom? Ought not the sinner to be familiar with the Savior? Beyond doubt it ought to be so. The Gospels were written to make men familiar with Christ, and therefore I wish men to study the Gospels. On whom must we build our souls if we would be accepted with God? We must build on the rock, Christ. From whom must we draw that grace of the Spirit which we daily need in order to be fruitful? We must draw from the vine, Christ. To whom must we look for sympathy when earthly friends fail us or die? We must look to our elder brother, Christ. By whom must our prayers be presented if they are to be heard on high? They must be presented by our advocate, Christ. With whom do we hope to spend the thousand years of glory and the after eternity? With the King of Kings, Christ. Surely we cannot know this Christ too well. Surely there is not a word, nor a deed, nor a day, nor a step, nor a thought in the record of His life which ought not to be precious to us. We should labor to be familiar with every line that is written about Jesus. Come now and let us study a page in our Master's history. Let us consider what we may learn from the verses of Scripture which head this paper. You there see Jesus crossing the lake of Galilee in a boat with His disciples. You see a sudden storm arise while He sleeps. The waves beat into the boat and fill it. Death seems to be close at hand. The frightened disciples awake their Master and cry for help. He arises and rebukes the wind and the waves, and at once there is a calm. He mildly reproves the faithless fears of His companions, and all is over. Such is the picture. It is one full of deep instruction. Come now and let us examine what we are meant to learn. 1. Let us learn first of all that following Christ will not prevent our having earthly sorrows and troubles. Here are the chosen disciples of the Lord Jesus in great anxiety. The faithful little flock which believed when priests and scribes and Pharisees were all alike unbelieving is allowed by the shepherd to be much disquieted. The fear of death breaks in upon them like an armed man. The deep water seems likely to go over their souls. Peter, James, and John, the pillars of the church about to be planted in the world, are much distressed. Perhaps they had not reckoned on all this. Perhaps they had expected that Christ's service would at any rate lift them above the reach of earthly trials. Perhaps they thought that He who could raise the dead and heal the sick and feed the multitudes with a few loaves and cast out devils with a word, He would never allow His servants to be sufferers upon earth. Perhaps they had supposed He would always grant them smooth journeys, fine weather, an easy course, and freedom from trouble and care. If the disciples thought so, they were much mistaken. The Lord Jesus taught them that a man may be one of His chosen servants and yet have to go through many an anxiety and endure many a pain. It is good to understand this clearly. It is good to understand that Christ's service never did secure a man from all the ills that flesh is heir to and never will. If you are a believer, you must reckon on having your share of sickness and pain, of sorrow and tears, of losses and crosses, of deaths and bereavements, of partings and separations, of vexations and disappointments, so long as you are in the body. Christ never undertakes that you shall get to heaven without these. He has undertaken that all who come to Him shall have all things pertaining to life and godliness. But He has never undertaken that He will make them prosperous or rich or healthy and that death and sorrow shall never come to their family. I have the privilege of being one of Christ's ambassadors. In His name I can offer eternal life to any man, woman, or child who is willing to have it. In His name I do offer pardon, peace, grace, glory to any son or daughter of Adam who reads this paper. But I dare not offer that person worldly prosperity as a part and parcel of the gospel. I dare not offer him long life, an increased income, and freedom from pain. I dare not promise the man who takes up the cross and follows Christ that in the following he shall never meet with a storm. I know well that many do not like these terms. They would prefer having Christ and good health, Christ and plenty of money, Christ and no death in their family, Christ and no wearing of cares, Christ and a perpetual morning without clouds. But they do not like Christ and the cross, Christ and tribulation, Christ and the conflict, Christ and the howling wind, Christ and the storm. Is this the secret thought of anyone who is reading this paper? Believe me, if it is, you are very wrong. Listen to me and I will try to show you, you have yet much to learn. How should you know who are true Christians if following Christ was the way to be free from trouble? How should we discern the wheat from the chaff if it were not for the winnowing of trial? How should we know whether men served Christ for his own sake or for selfish motives if his service brought health and wealth with it as a matter of course? The winds of winter soon show us which of the trees are evergreen and which are not. The storms of affliction and care are useful in the same way. They discover whose faith is real and whose is nothing but profession and form. How would the great work of sanctification go on in a man if he had no trial? Trouble is often the only fire which will burn away the dross that clings to our hearts. Trouble is the pruning knife which the great husbandman employs in order to make us fruitful in good works. The harvest of the Lord's field is seldom ripened by sunshine only. It must go through its days of wind and rain and storm. If you desire to serve Christ and be saved, I entreat you to take the Lord on his own terms. Make up your mind to meet with your share of crosses and sorrows, and then you will not be surprised. For want of understanding this, many seem to run well for a season and then turn back in disgust and are cast away. If you profess to be a child of God, leave to the Lord Jesus to sanctify you in his own way. Rest satisfied that he never makes any mistakes. Be sure that he does all things well. The winds may howl around you, and the waters swell. But fear not, he is leading you by the right way, that he might bring you to a city of habitation. Psalm 107, verse 7 2. Let us learn in the second place that the Lord Jesus Christ is truly and really man. There are words used in this little history which, like many other passages in the gospel, bring out this truth in a very striking way. We are told that when the waves began to break on the ship, Jesus was in the hinder part, asleep on a pillow. He was weary, and who can wonder at it after reading the account given in the fourth chapter of Mark. After laboring all day to do good to souls, after preaching in the open air to vast multitudes, Jesus was fatigued. Surely if the sleep of the laboring man is sweet, much more sweet must have been the sleep of our blessed Lord. Let us settle in our minds this great truth, that Jesus Christ was verily and indeed man. He was equal to the Father in all things, and the eternal God. But he was also man, and took part of flesh and blood, and was made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted. He had a body like ours. Like us he was born of a woman. Like us he grew and increased in stature. Like us he was often hungry and thirsty, faint and weary. Like us he ate and drank, rested and slept. Like us he sorrowed and wept and felt. It is all very wonderful, but so it is. He that made the heavens went to and fro as a poor, weary man on earth. He that ruled over principalities and powers in heavenly places took on him a frail body like our own. He that might have dwelt forever in the glory which he had with the Father amidst the praises of legions of angels came down to earth and dwelt as a man among sinful men. Surely this fact alone is an amazing miracle of condescension, grace, pity, and love. I find a deep mine of comfort in this thought that Jesus is perfect man, no less than perfect God. He in whom I am told by Scripture to trust is not only a great high priest, but a feeling high priest. He is not only a powerful Savior, but a sympathizing Savior. He is not only the Son of God, mighty to save, but the Son of Man, able to feel. Who does not know that sympathy is one of the sweetest things left to us in this sinful world? It is one of the bright seasons in our dark journey here below when we can find a person who enters into our troubles and goes along with us in our anxieties, who can weep when we weep and rejoice when we rejoice. Sympathy is far better than money and far rarer too. Thousands can give who know not what it is to feel. Sympathy has the greatest power to draw us and to open our hearts. Proper and correct counsel often falls dead and useless on a heavy heart. Cold advice often makes us shut up, shrink, and withdraw into ourselves when tendered in the day of trouble. But genuine sympathy in such a day will call out all our bitter feelings, if we have any, and obtain an influence over us when nothing else can. Give me the friend who, though poor in gold and silver, has always ready a sympathizing heart. Our God knows all this well. He knows the very secrets of man's heart. He knows the ways by which the heart is most easily approached and the springs by which that heart is most readily moved. He has wisely provided that the Savior of the gospel should be feeling as well as mighty. He has given us one who has not only a strong hand to pluck us as brands from the burning, but a sympathizing heart on which the laboring and heavy laden may find rest. I see a marvelous proof of love and wisdom in the union of two natures in Christ's person. It was marvelous love in our Savior to condescend to go through weakness and humiliation for our sakes, ungodly rebels as we are. It was marvelous wisdom to fit himself in this way, to be the very friend of friends, who could not only save man, but meet him on his own ground. I want one able to perform all things needful to redeem my soul. This Jesus can do, for he is the eternal Son of God. I want one able to understand my weakness and infirmities, and to deal gently with my soul while tied to a body of death. This again Jesus can do, for he was the Son of Man, and had flesh and blood like my own. Had my Savior been God only, I might perhaps have trusted him, but I never could have come near to him without fear. Had my Savior been man only, I might have loved him, but I never could have felt that he was able to take away my sins. But, blessed be God, my Savior is God as well as man, and man as well as God. God so as able to deliver me, man so as able to feel with me. Almighty power and deepest sympathy are met together in one glorious person, Jesus Christ my Lord. Surely a believer in Christ has a strong consolation. He may well trust and not be afraid. If any reader of this paper knows what it is to go to the throne of grace for mercy and pardon, let him never forget that the mediator by whom he draws near to God is the man Christ Jesus. Your soul's business is in the hand of a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of your infirmities. You have not to do with a being of so high and glorious a nature that your mind can in no wise comprehend him. You have to do with Jesus, who had a body like your own and was a man upon earth like yourself. He well knows that world through which you are struggling, for he dwelt in the midst of it thirty-three years. He well knows the contradictions of sinners, which so often discourages you, for he endured it himself. Hebrews 12.3 He knows the art and cunning of your spiritual enemy, the devil, for he wrestled with him in the wilderness. Surely with such an advocate you may well feel bold. If you know what it is to apply to the Lord Jesus for spiritual comfort in earthly troubles, you should well remember the days of his flesh and his human nature. You are applying to one who knows your feelings by experience and has drunk deep of the bitter cup, for he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Isaiah 53.3 Jesus knows the heart of a man, the bodily pains of a man, the difficulties of a man, for he was a man himself and had flesh and blood upon earth. He sat wearied by the well at Sychar. He wept over the grave of Lazarus at Bethany. He sweat great drops of blood at Gethsemane. He groaned with anguish at Calvary. He is no stranger to your sensations. He is acquainted with everything that belongs to human nature, sin only accepted. A. Are you poor and needy? So also was Jesus. The foxes had holes and the birds of the air had nests, but the Son of Man had not where to lay his head. He dwelt in a despised city. Men used to say, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? John 1.46 He was esteemed a carpenter's son. He preached in a borrowed boat, rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed ass, and was buried in a borrowed tomb. B. Are you alone in the world and neglected by those who ought to love you? So also was Jesus. He came unto his own, and they received him not. He came to be a Messiah to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and they rejected him. The princes of this world would not acknowledge him. The few that followed him were publicans and fishermen. And even these at the last forsook him, and were scattered every man to his own place. C. Are you misunderstood, misrepresented, slandered, and persecuted? So also was Jesus. He was called a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans, a Samaritan, a madman, and a devil. His character was belied. False charges were laid against him. An unjust sentence was passed upon him. And though innocent, he was condemned as a malefactor, and as such died on the cross. D. Does Satan tempt you and offer horrid suggestions to your mind? So also did he tempt Jesus. He bade him to distrust God's fatherly providence, command these stones to be made bread. He proposed to him to tempt God by exposing himself to unnecessary danger, cast thyself down from the pinnacle of the temple. He suggested to him to obtain the kingdoms of the world for his own by one little act of submission to himself. All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Matthew 4, verses 1-10 E. Do you ever feel great agony and conflict of mind? Do you feel in darkness as if God had left you? So did Jesus. Who can tell the extent of the sufferings of mind he went through in the garden? Who can measure the depth of his soul's pain when he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matthew 27, verse 46 It is impossible to conceive a Savior more suited to the wants of man's heart than our Lord Jesus Christ, suited not only by his power, but by his sympathy, suited not only by his divinity, but by his humanity. Labor I beseech you to get firmly impressed on your mind that Christ, the refuge of souls, is man as well as God. Honor him as King of kings and Lord of lords, but while you do this never forget that he had a body and was a man. Grasp this truth and never let it go. The unhappy Thucynian errs fearfully when he says that Christ was only man and not God. But let not the rebound from that error make you forget that while Christ was very God, he was also very man. Listen not for a moment to the wretched argument of the Roman Catholic when he tells you that the Virgin Mary and the saints are more sympathizing than Christ. Answer him that such an argument springs from ignorance of the Scriptures and of Christ's true nature. Answer him that you have not so learned Christ as to regard him only as an austere judge and a being to be feared. Answer him that the four Gospels have taught you to regard him as the most loving and sympathizing of friends as well as the mightiest and most powerful of saviors. Answer him that you want no comfort from saints and angels, from the Virgin Mary or from Gabriel, so long as you can repose your weary soul on the man Christ Jesus. 3. Let us learn in the third place that there may be much weakness and infirmity even in a true Christian. You have a striking proof of this in the conduct of the disciples here recorded when the waves broke over the ship. They awoke Jesus in haste. They said to him in fear and anxiety, Master, carest thou not that we perish? There was impatience. They might have waited till their Lord thought fit to arise from his sleep. There was unbelief. They forgot that they were in the keeping of one who had all power in his hand. We perish. There was distrust. They spoke as if they doubted their Lord's care and thoughtfulness for their safety and well-being. Carest thou not that we perish? Poor faithless men! What business had they to be afraid? They had seen proof upon proof that all must be well so long as the bridegroom was with them. They had witnessed repeated examples of his love and kindness towards them, sufficient to convince them that he would never let them come to real harm. But all was forgotten in the present danger. Sense of immediate peril often makes men have a bad memory. Fear is often unable to reason from past experience. They heard the winds. They saw the waves. They felt the cold waters beating over them. They fancied death was close at hand. They could wait no longer in suspense. Carest thou not, said they, that we perish? But after all, let us understand, this is only a picture of what is constantly going on among believers in every age. There are too many disciples, I suspect, at this very day, like those who are here described. Many of God's children get on very well so long as they have no trials. They follow Christ very tolerably in the time of fair weather. They fancy they are trusting Him entirely. They flatter themselves. They have cast every care on Him. They obtain the reputation of being very good Christians. But suddenly some unlooked-for trial assails them. Their property makes itself wings and flies away. Their own health fails. Death comes up into their house. Tribulation or persecution arises because of the Word. And where now is their faith? Where is the strong confidence they thought they had? Where is their peace, their hope, their resignation? Alas, they are sought for and not found. They are weighed in the balances and found wanting. Fear and doubt and distress and anxiety break in upon them like a flood, and they seem at their wits' end. I know that this is a sad description. I only put it to the conscience of every real Christian whether it is not correct and true. The plain truth is that there is no literal and absolute perfection among true Christians so long as they are in the body. The best and brightest of God's saints is but a poor mixed being. Converted, renewed, and sanctified though he be, he is still compassed with infirmity. There is not a just man upon earth that always doeth good and sinneth not. In many things we offend all. A man may have true saving faith and yet not have it always close at hand and ready to be used. Ecclesiastes 7.20 and James 3.2 Abraham was the father of the faithful. By faith he forsook his country and his kindred and went out according to the command of God to a land he had never seen. By faith he was content to dwell in the land as a stranger believing that God would give it to him for an inheritance. And yet this very Abraham was so far overcome by unbelief that he allowed Sarah to be called his sister and not his wife through the fear of man. Here was great infirmity. Yet there have been few greater saints than Abraham. David was a man after God's own heart. He had faith to go out to battle with the giant Goliath when he was but a youth. He publicly declared his belief that the Lord who delivered him from the paw of the lion and bear would deliver him from this Philistine. He had faith to believe God's promise that he should one day be king of Israel though he was owned by few followers. Though Saul pursued him like a partridge on the mountain and there often seemed but a step between him and death. And yet this very David at one time was so far overtaken by fear and unbelief that he said, I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul. 1 Samuel 27 verse 1 He forgot the many wonderful deliverances he had experienced at God's hand. He only thought of his present danger and took refuge among the ungodly Philistines. Surely here was great infirmity. Yet there have been few stronger believers than David. I know it is easy for a man to reply. All this is very true but it does not excuse the fears of the disciples. They had Jesus actually with them. They ought not to have been afraid. I should never have been so cowardly and faithless as they were. I tell the man who argues in that way that he knows little of his own heart. I tell him no one knows the length and breadth of his own infirmities if he has not been tempted. No one can say how much weakness might appear in him if he was placed in circumstances to call it forth. Does any reader of this paper think that he believes in Christ? Do you feel such love and confidence in him that you cannot understand being greatly moved by any event that could happen? It is all well. I am glad to hear it. But has this faith been tried? Has this confidence been put to the test? If not, take heed of condemning these disciples hastily. Be not high-minded, but fear. Think not because your heart is in a lively frame now that such a frame will always last. Say not because your feelings are warm and fervent today tomorrow shall be as today and much more abundant. Say not because your heart is lifted up just now with a strong sense of Christ's mercy I shall never forget him as long as I live. O learn to abate something of this flattering estimate of yourself. You do not know yourself thoroughly. There are more things in your inward man than you are at present aware of. The Lord may leave you, as he did Hezekiah, to show you all that is in your heart. 2 Chronicles 32 verse 31 Blessed is he that is clothed with humility. Happy is he that feareth always. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall. 1 Peter 5.5 Proverbs 18 verse 14 1 Corinthians 10 verse 12 Why do I dwell on this? Do I want to apologize for the corruptions of professing Christians and excuse their sins? God forbid! Do I want to lower the standard of sanctification and countenance anyone in being a lazy, idle soldier of Christ? God forbid! Do I want to wipe out the broad line of distinction between the converted and the unconverted and to wink at inconsistencies? Once more I say, God forbid! I hold strongly that there is a mighty difference between the true Christian and the false, between the believer and the unbeliever, between the children of God and the children of the world. I hold strongly that this difference is not merely one of faith, but of life, not only one of profession, but of practice. I hold strongly that the ways of the believer should be as distinct from those of the unbeliever, as bitter from sweet, light from darkness, heat from cold. But I do want young Christians to understand what they must expect to find in themselves. I want to prevent their being stumbled and puzzled by the discovery of their own weakness and infirmity. I want them to see that they may have true faith and grace in spite of all the devil's whispers to the contrary, though they feel within doubts and fears. I want them to observe that Peter and James and John and their brethren were true disciples, and yet not so spiritual that they could be afraid. I do not tell them to make the unbelief of the disciples an excuse for themselves, but I do tell them that it shows plainly that so long as they are in the body, they must not expect faith to be above the reach of fear. Above all, I want all Christians to understand what they must expect in other believers. You must not hastily conclude that a man has no grace merely because you see in him some corruption. There are spots on the face of the sun, and yet the sun shines brightly and enlivens the whole world. There is quartz and dross mixed up with many a lump of gold that comes from Australia, and yet who thinks the gold on that account worth nothing at all? There are flaws in some of the finest diamonds in the world, and yet they do not prevent their being rated at a priceless value. Away with this morbid squeamishness, which makes many ready to excommunicate a man if only he has a few faults. Let us be more equipped to see grace, and more slow to see imperfections. Let us know that if we cannot allow there is grace where there is corruption, we shall find no grace in the world. We are yet in the body. The devil is not dead. We are not yet like the angels. Heaven has not yet begun. The leprosy is not out of the walls of the house, however much we scrape them, and never will be till the house is taken down. Our bodies are indeed the temple of the Holy Ghost, but not a perfect temple until they are raised or changed. Grace is indeed a treasure, but a treasure in earthly vessels. It is possible for a man to forsake all for Christ's sake, and yet to be overtaken occasionally with doubts and fears. I beseech every reader of this paper to remember this. It is a lesson worth attention. The apostles believed in Christ, loved Christ, and gave up all to follow Christ, and yet you see in this storm the apostles were afraid. Learn to be charitable in your judgment of them. Learn to be moderate in your expectations from your own heart. Contend to the death for the truth that no man is a true Christian who is not converted, and is not a holy man. But allow that a man may be converted, have a new heart, and be a holy man, and yet be liable to infirmity, doubts, and fears. Number four. Let us learn in the fourth place the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a striking example of His power in the history upon which I am now dwelling. The waves were breaking into the ship where Jesus was. The terrified disciples awoke Him and cried for help. He arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. This was a wonderful miracle. No one could do this but one who was almighty. Make the winds cease with a word. Who does not know that it is a common saying, in order to describe an impossibility, you might as well speak to the wind. Yet Jesus rebukes the wind and at once it ceases. This was power. Calm the waves with a voice. What reader of history does not know that a mighty king of England tried in vain to stop the tide rising on the shore. Yet here is one who says to a raging wave in a storm, Peace, be still. And at once there was a calm. Here was power. It is good for all men to have clear views of the Lord Jesus Christ's power. Let the sinner know that the merciful Savior to whom he is urged to flee and in whom he is invited to trust, is nothing less than the Almighty and has power over all flesh to eternal life. Revelation 1.8 John 17.2 Let the anxious inquirer understand that if he will only venture on Jesus and take up the cross, he ventures on one who has all power in heaven and earth. Matthew 28.18 Let the believer remember as he journeys through the wilderness that his mediator and advocate and physician and shepherd and redeemer is Lord of lords and King of kings and that through him all things may be done. Revelation 17.14 Philippians 4.13 Let all study the subject for it deserves to be studied. A. Study it in his works of creation. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. John 1.3 The heavens and all their glorious host of inhabitants, the earth and all that it contains, the sea and all that is in it, all creation, from the sun on high to the least worm below, was the work of Christ. He spake and they came into being. He commanded and they began to exist. That very Jesus who was born of a poor woman at Bethlehem and lived in a carpenter's house at Nazareth had been the former of all things. Was not this power? B. Study it in his works of providence and the orderly continuance of all things in the world. By him all things consist. Colossians 1.17 Sun, moon and stars roll round in a perfect system. Spring, summer, autumn and winter follow one another in regular order. They continue to this day and fail not according to the ordinance of him who died on Calvary. Psalm 119.91 The kingdoms of this world rise and increase and decline and pass away. The rulers of the earth plan and scheme and make laws and change laws and war and pull down one and raise up another. But they little think that they rule only by the will of Jesus and that nothing happens without the permission of the Lamb of God. They do not know that they and their subjects are all as a drop of water in the hand of the crucified one and that he increases the nations and diminishes the nations just according to his mind. Is not this power? C. Study the subject not least in the miracles worked by our Lord Jesus Christ during the three years of his ministry upon earth. Learn from the mighty works which he did that the things which are impossible with man are possible with Christ. Regard every one of his miracles as an emblem and figure of spiritual things. See in it a lovely picture of what he is able to do for your soul. He that could raise the dead with a word can just as easily raise men from the death of sin. He that could give sight to the blind hearing to the deaf and speech to the dumb can also make sinners to see the kingdom of God hear the joyful sound of the gospel and speak forth the praise of redeeming love. He that could heal leprosy with a touch can heal any disease of heart. He that could cast out devils can bid every besetting sin yield to his grace. Or begin to read Christ's miracles in this light. Wicked and bad and corrupt as you may feel take comfort in the thought that you are not beyond Christ's power to heal. Remember that in Christ there is not only a fullness of mercy but a fullness of power. Study the subject in particular as placed before you this day. I dare be sure your heart has sometimes been tossed to and fro like the waves in a storm. You have found it agitated like the waters of the troubled sea when it cannot rest. Come and hear this day that there is one who can give you rest. Jesus can say to your heart whatever may be a single moment peace, be still. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available free and for sale in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources as well as our complete mail-order catalog containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts is on the web at www.swrb.com We can also be reached by email at swrb.com by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. T6L3T5 You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Kelvin in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship commenting on the words of God which I commanded them not neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731 writes God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions since he condemns by this one phrase I have not commanded them whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies and attend not to His commands they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the papists all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them as it is well known and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The prophet's words then are very important when he says that God had commanded no such thing and that it never came to his mind as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required nay, what he never knew.