Prosperity

As I was riding my bicycle this morning, I thought about all of the beautiful houses in the neighborhood that had been built since the 1960s.  America has experienced sixty years of unbroken prosperity, such as the world has never seen.  Americans have come to believe that prosperity is their birthright, that they are entitled to it as a matter of course.  The great wealth of this country is the result of several centuries of hard work by people who believed in the “Protestant Work Ethic.”  Previous generations labored long and hard, in the belief that God would prosper their honest toil.  That work ethic has now been lost.  It has been replaced by a generation of Americans who believe they are entitled to prosperity, regardless of how they live.  The work ethic that was the foundation of our nation’s wealth is a thing of the past, and the present genearation is squandering the moral and economic legacy it inherited.  The truly sad thing is that our nation no longer has the moral strength to make the hard choices that could reverse this decline.

“Trouble and anguish have come upon me; yet Your commandments are my delight” (Psalm 119:143).

Several verses in Psalm 119 teach us that God’s word is a source of comfort in all our afflictions.  What ever trouble and anguish we experience in life, delight in God’s word will carry us through it triumphantly.  That thought has often been a great encouragement to me.  Thoman Manton’s comments on verse 143 are very insightful.  He opened my eyes to something I had never seen in this verse.  While the overall emphasis is that God’s word is a unique source of encouragement in suffering, there is something more here.  David specifically says that God’s commandments are his delight. In the midst of trouble, the Christian will discover that obeying God’s commands will be a source of strength and comfort.  Even Christians may experience great anguish of heart in troubles, but the sweetness of obedience to God’s commands can allay the bitterness.  Delight in God’s word is proof of the reality of grace in a believer’s heart.  

“I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil” (Psalm 119:162).

In Psalm 119 we find certain statements repeated again and again.  This repetition indicates the importance of those statements.  Verse 162 is one of many that express David’s great joy over God’s word and how highly he valued it.  I have mentioned this subject often because it is so important.  Let me quote a  few of Thomas Manton’s comments on this subject: “This joy, which is the mark of a sound believer, is delighting to know, believe, and obey God’s word.”  “Those who are most observant of God’s will, and careful to follow it, have the greatest contentment in their souls.”  Manton maintains that the encouragement and comfort that result from being employed in performing God’s commands, are a continual feast to the Christian.  Compared to this, all other pleasures are nothing.  It is a sweet thing know God’s word and be brought under the power of it.  The reason God’s word can do this, affirms Manton, is that “the godly find glad tidings in the word, suitable to their soul’s necessities.  Here is enough to content them.  The word of God affords such comforts, such matter of rejoicing, as cannot be paralleled.  Oh! what inestimable treasure do we find in the word of God!”  True Christians have tasted God’s love in the doctrines and promises of the gospel.  This sweetness gives the believer such assurance, that no arguments can stand against it.  

Salvation Nowhere Else

From God’s word we learn what a treasure truth is, and what a high value we should put upon it.  It teaches us that apart from true biblical religion there is no salvation.  Thomas Manton had given us one of the most conclusive proofs of this.   He argued that no other teaching or religion can provide salvation because there is no true holiness in anything but biblical Christianity.  Hebrews 12:14 teaches that without holiness no one will see the Lord.  Only the truth revealed in Scripture can make us holy.  Manton maintained that those who are ignorant of biblical truth cannot have a good heart.  Those who reject the gospel’s saving truth will not find salvation anywhere else.  When people ignore or reject God’s word, they dam up the fountain of holiness.  God works holiness in us in only one way.  I think this is a very powerful line of argument.  People may outwardly live a moral life, but only faith in the saving truth of the gospel can give them a clean heart.  The gospel will be given its true value only when it is seen as uniquely necessary for our eternal welfare. 

Sanctified by Truth

In John 17:17 Jesus asked the Father to “Sanctify them in the truth.  Your word is truth.”  What is called “truth” in Romans 1:18 is “that which is known about God” in the next verse.  Therefore, what God’s word reveals about Him is what sanctifies the Christian.  To be sanctified is to be set apart from sin for God.  Knowledge of God does this.  This is the knowledge that is necessary to salvation.  God’s word alone provides us this knowledge.  We really know the truth of His word and are able to communicate it effectively to others, only when it sanctifies us.  We must experience the transforming power of truth to know it.  Thomas Manton’s thoughts on this are very helpful: “God’s way of working is by light; in giving us this saving knowledge, He begins with the understanding.  He deals with us as rational creatures.  Therefore He not only teaches, but draws and sancifies the heart by enlightening the mind.  As the rising sun dispels darkness, saving light dispels ignorance and lusts.  This is the way spiritual life begins.  If our minds are enlightened, our hearts will embrace the ways of God.”  I will continues with this tomorrow. 

Answers to Prayer

God knows the best way to answer our prayers, and He also knows the best time to answer them.  If our Lord delays to answer us, it is for a good reason.  Why does He delay at times?  The Puritan Richard Sibbes gave a thoughtful answer to that question: “There are several reasons why the Lord delays to help us. (1.) That our faith and dependence on him might be better tested.  Christ refused to answer the Canaanite woman’s plea for help.  She had come to Christ because her daughter was possessed by a demon.  The Lord put her off that he might display her faith to us forever (Matthew 15:28).  (2.) Sometimes he delays in order to humble us.  ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble’ (James 4:6).  Until we are nothing in our own eyes, God delays to help us.  The Lord took away Paul’s hope of life (2 Corinthians 1:9), that he might know the only place to find help and comfort in all his extremities.  (3.) God delays and puts off our requests to enhance the value of the gift.  We highly prize that which costs us dear.  God delays his gifts that we may know their true price.”

The Place of Our Affections

Many times I have talked with Christians over the place of our emotions in our spiritual lives.  Often I have heard someone describe the spiritual struggles of a Christian this way, “They are just going on their emotions.  Their feelings rule them, not God’s word.”  They are encouraged to “obey the Bible, no matter how you feel.”  We must obey the Lord even though our fallen nature is resistant.  The fallen nature will always be there.  But new desires will be there too.  If nourished and strengthened these desires will transform us.  Christians who never develop a fervent passion for God’s word will never consistently read it.  Christian obedience is not about ignoring our affections, it is a matter of seeing our desires changed!  That is the heart of Christian spirituality.  So often in the Psalms David expresses his great love for God’s word!  The first and greatest commandment is to love God.  The Bible tells us that the beginning of wisdom is to fear God.  Love and fear are affections.  As Jonathan Edwards wrote, religious affections are the heart of our relationship with God.  One popular Evangelical author acknowledges that we must read our Bibles, even though we all know we would rather watch a movie.  I know no such thing!  I will go along with David, who often said that God’s word was his delight.