All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags

If God were to wait until we—by our faith, our virtues, and good works of congruity or condignity—had made ourselves worthy, in part or in whole, to receive his favor, the restoration of communion between him and ourselves would never happen, and salvation would forever be out of reach for us.

Herman Bavinck

Remember Your Depravity....Rejoice in Your Deliverance

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved ;) 6 And hath raised us up together , and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast . 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." ephesians2: 1-10

The Humbling Doctrine of God’s Absolute Sovereignty — A.W. Pink

This doctrine of the absolute Sovereignty of God is a great battering-ram against human pride, and in this it is in sharp contrast from the “doctrines of men.” The spirit of our age is essentially that of boasting and glorying in the flesh. The achievements of man, his development and progress, his greatness and self-sufficiency, are the shrine at which the world worships today. But the truth of God’s Sovereignty, with all its corollaries, removes every ground for human boasting and instils the spirit of humility in its stead. It declares that salvation is of the Lord-of the Lord in its origination, in its operation, and in its consummation. It insists that the Lord has to apply as well as supply, that He has to complete as well as begin His saving work in our souls, that He has not only to reclaim but to maintain and sustain us to the end. It teaches that salvation is by grace through faith, and that all our works (before conversion), good as well as evil, count for nothing toward salvation. It tells us we are “born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (). And all this is most humbling to the heart of man who wants to contribute something to the price of his redemption and do that which will afford ground for boasting and self-satisfaction.

But if this doctrine humbles us it results in praise to God. If, in the light of God’s Sovereignty, we have seen our own worthlessness and helplessness we shall indeed cry with the Psalmist “All my springs are in Thee” . If by nature we were “children of wrath,” and by practice rebels against the Divine government and justly exposed to the “curse” of the Law, and if God was under no obligation to rescue us from the fiery indignation and yet, notwithstanding, He delivered up His well-beloved Son for us all; then how such grace and love will melt our hearts, how the apprehension of it will cause us to say in adoring gratitude “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake” . How readily shall each of us acknowledge “By the grace of God I am what I am! (from Chapter 12 of The Sovereignty of God, Arthur W. Pink)

John Calvin – Thinking of Ourselves Rightly

For, because all of us are inclined by nature to hypocrisy, a kind of empty image of righteousness in place of righteousness itself abundantly satisfies us. And because nothing appears within or around us that has not been contaminated by great immorality, what is a little less vile pleases us as a thing most pure–so long as we confine our minds within the limits of human corruption. Just so, an eye to which nothing is shown but black objects judges something dirty white or even rather darkly mottled to be whiteness itself. Indeed, we can discern still more clearly from the bodily senses how much we are deluded in estimating the powers of the soul. For if in broad daylight we either look down upon the ground or survey whatever meets our view round about, we seem to ourselves endowed with the strongest and keenest sight; yet when we look up to the sun and gaze straight at it, that power of sight which was particularly strong on earth is at once blunted and confused by a great brilliance, and thus we are compelled to admit that our keenness in looking upon things earthly is sheer dullness when it comes to the sun. So it happens in estimating our spiritual goods. As long as we do not look beyond the earth, being quite content with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue, we flatter ourselves most sweetly, and fancy ourselves all but demigods. Suppose we but once begin to raise our thoughts to God, and to ponder his nature, and how completely perfect are his righteousness, wisdom, and power–the straightedge to which we must be shaped. Then, what masquerading earlier as righteousness was pleasing in us will soon grow filthy in its consummate wickedness. What wonderfully impressed us under the name of wisdom will stink in its very foolishness. What wore the face of power will prove itself the most miserable weakness. That is, what in us seems perfection itself corresponds ill to the purity of God.

~John Calvin~The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Depravity has Radically Corrupted Human Reason

Frontline Ministries - Depravity Has Radically Corrupted Human Reason

Depravity has Radically Corrupted Human Reason

By Jay Wegter


Why study the ethical condition of the unbeliever’s mind?

A. The doctrine of original sin concerns man’s apostasy from God. In Eden, Adam and

Eve tested God, rebelling against His command. As a result of the fall of our first

parents, sin (radical depravity), and death became universal for the human race(rom5:12)

B. When man broke away from God ethically, he also broke away intellectually.

Man’s intellectual rebellion is expressed in his attempt to interpret everything in

which he comes into contact without reference to God.[1]

C. Grover Gunn gives us an analogy that is extremely helpful in understanding

the unbeliever’s intellectual rebellion. Gunn compares the natural man’s

reasoning processes to a pair of “faulty scales.”[2]

1. In this analogy the “scales” are analogous to one’s world view. All information

that a person encounters is interpreted by means of his world view. (The scales

are utilized to validate everything except one thing – they cannot weigh

themselves! World view cannot validate itself.)

2. God has given to every man “weights” that are accurately stamped. They are stamped internally by reason of the fact that all men bear the image of God. Every person has an innate knowledge that he is made in the image of an almighty Creator. By reason of that image, every man also has the law of God written upon his heart (rom2:14, 15).

3. The God-given “weights” are also stamped externally. The whole creation that surrounds man gives inescapable daily evidence of the power, wisdom and majesty of it Creator.[3]

4. In order to avoid the indelible stamp that God has put upon these “weights,” the natural man constructs a fantasy view of reality that flows from his own mind. He assumes that the true and living God has not revealed Himself in Scripture.

5. As a consequence, the unbeliever’s scales do not “weigh” accurately. Due to the rebellious assumption that the God of Scripture does not exist, every conceivable area of life is interpreted in an erroneous manner. (“Issues that should carry great weight have no weight at all on the scales of unbelief.”)[4]

6. In essence, the unbeliever is “pressing a depraved thumb upon the scales.” The God-given weights are rendered inaccurate by that constant act of tampering. The unbeliever cannot get an accurate reading upon his scales because he has set aside the authoritative claims of God, Christ and Scripture.[5]

7. When the revelation of God is evaluated on the world’s scales, the result is rejection and skepticism. As a result, measuring reality is a task that is absolutely impossible for the world’s autonomous scales.

8. Because the apologist is armed with an understanding of the unbeliever’s reasoning processes, he will not suggest for a moment that the unbeliever’s scales are in working order. Rather, his argument will at many junctures will confront the unbeliever’s world view – “Hey, get your thumb off of those scales! You’re cheating!”[6]

II.Rom 1 :18-23 is the Scriptural record of the universal corruption of human

reason. The Romans passage documents man’s intellectual war upon the moral

image of God.

A.Rom 1:18 – The wrath of God – God’s wrath is His holy aversion to all that is

evil. God’s holiness and love are expressed in righteous indignation against evil.

Revealed – A continued outpouring, “dynamically, effectively operative

in the world of men… proceeding from heaven” Murray, p. 35. Present tense,

ongoing disposition; settled indignation.

Against ungodliness – (Ungodliness is disregard directed against God

Himself) and unrighteousness (disregard for God’s laws); the latter flows from the

former.

Suppression – To Suppress is to hinder or hold down as a captive what is

true (psalm 14:1). They continue to try to convince themselves that the God of the

Bible does not exist. Though they studiously suppress the knowledge of God, all

men are theists in their hearts.

B.Rom 1:19 – Natural revelation – What they do know – the knowledge of God

that is “in them” – subjective (the image of God in them) and “unto them” –

objective (the wonders of nature)psalm 19:1, ,2 “The heavens…”

C. Rom 1:20– They are without excuse because they know:

The facts of creation – They have observed the external creation.

God’s eternal power – They have been witness to God’s unfailing

omnipotence in sustaining the world. They have beheld God’s invisible attributes

(wisdom, omniscience, etc.) and God’s eternal power. They know (internally)

because they have reflected upon the creation.

The divine nature (the Godhead) – The divine nature is seen in God’s

unchanging, everlasting deliverance – His providential dealings through the ages –

His consistency in upholding the world.

Clearly seen – God’s attributes are seen (understood) upon reflection

and by observation (limited knowledge and awareness of the Creator). This

knowledge is sufficient to condemn him, but not to save him. Psalm 97:6 – “The

heavens declare the righteousness…”

III. The unbeliever’s mind is fixed upon a lie.

A. Though the whole cosmos points inescapable to the truth of the Creator, the

unbeliever prefers the lie. (Although he tries, man can’t escape from himself, for

he is the crown of God’s creation – Ps 8; 19; 139.)[7]

1. He exchanges the truth for a lie (Rom. 1:25). The opposite of truth is rebellion,

lies, foolishness ((Prov. 1:7; Jer. 22:11-14; Matt. 12:30) ). He worships the

creature instead of the Creator – this is idolatry.

2. He has foolishly decided in his heart that the God of the Bible does not exist (Rom. 3:10-12).

a.) His heart, the inner control center, is against God (Rom. 5:10).

b.) Out of the heart are the issues of life (Prov. 4:23).

c.) The heart is the location of human character (Luke 6:45).

d.) The heart is the aspect of man that concerns God the most (1 Sam. 16:7).

e.) The heart is the seat of man’s spiritual faculty (Prov. 3:5), man’s moral faculty (Mark 7:20-23), man’s intellectual faculty (Heb. 4:12) and man’s emotional faculty (Prov. 15:13)).

3. The unbeliever seeks to wipe out God and be his own god.

a.)Genesis 3:1-7 – Satan told Eve a lie -- she would be “like God” knowing

perfect holiness. Adam and Eve sought to interpret the universe without

God – Jer. 8:9. .

b.) Lost men are usurpers of God’s place; they are acting autonomously.

B. The unbeliever’s conscience accuses him (Romans 2:15).

1. The Law is written upon man’s heart (his moral conscience).

2. Men know it is wrong to steal, kill and lie, but they reject the God who put this moral standard in their heart – they cannot give an account for the morals they believe to be true.

3. John Calvin said that there is an inescapable sense of Deity in the heart of every person.

IV. The unbeliever suppresses the truth of God.

A. In order to embrace the lie, the unbeliever unrighteously suppresses God’s truth.

He “holds down” the truth of God, not wishing to retain the knowledge of God in

his thoughts.

1. Though he possesses the truth of God, he suppresses the truth about God, thus

he sins against knowledge. (The unbeliever has no sentiment to live for the

glory of God.)[8]

2. Although the unbeliever represents himself as a “truth seeker,” as “neutral” and

as “objective,” the Scriptures declare the natural man to be in rebellion against

the God of truth. The seat of all sin lies in this aforementioned suppression.

The denial of God’s truth is an expression of man’s arrogant claim to be

autonomous. At the heart of the denial is man’s wicked attempt to erase the

very essence of the Creator-creature distinction which alone can give meaning

to existence.[9]

3. The unbeliever resembles the tenant farmers in Jesus’ parable (Matt. 21:33-44).

The farmers had a livelihood because of the mercy of the landowner, but they

refused to honor Him.

4. The natural man has “an ax to grind,” or vested interest in suppressing the

revelation of God. If he can expunge the knowledge of the Creator from his

thoughts, then he will not have to think about God as his Lawgiver and Judge

either.

B. In his suppression, the unbeliever makes self the ultimate reference point. The

natural man wants to be his own absolute authority. The Scriptures affirm that

autonomy belongs to God alone.

1. The unbeliever attributes autonomy to self – he tries to make his mind the

determiner of reality. Man desires a “god” who will leave the autonomy of his

mind in tact.

2. The Bible states that man cannot know God, the created world or self apart from

the revelation of God. Therefore when man makes self the ultimate reference

point, he places himself in a position to not understand truth. God regards man’s

speculations as futility, darkness and utter foolishness (Rom. 1:21-23; Eph. 4:17-19).[10]

3. Reasoning begins either with self or with God. The Bible is the infallible

starting point. Submission to God only occurs when men believe, submit to and

obey God’s Word. Submission to the truth of God is submission to God.

C. The non-Christian’s philosophy or world view, is based upon his allegiance to

independence.

1. Man’s commitment to independence from God rules out the possibility of

acquiring true knowledge. By seeking to live and think independently of God,

man has left the only source of certainty. The natural man wears a mask of total

certainty, but at the same time he is uncertain because he has abandoned the

source of true knowledge. (The cost of rendering God irrelevant is incalculable.

It thrusts man upon a shore-less sea of epistemological despair.)

2. In so doing, he opposes himself – he is left with only finite speculation and

probability.[11] He is stuck with a world ruled by chance and contingency. A

universe based upon chance has no basis for meaning and rationality, thus no

certainty. The commitment to independence brings man to futility and

hopelessness.

3. The God of Scripture is ultimate reality and absolute truth. The choice to live

independently of Him is incalculably expensive. Non-Christian philosophy

based upon allegiance to independence claims to know truth, but offers nothing

but ruin and eternal death.

4. In their determination to be independent of God, unbelievers reject the claims of

Christ. The Apostle Paul refers to every man-generated philosophy as “empty

deception” (Col. 2:8).

D. Scripture exposes the lie of independence.

1. Romans 1:18-23 reveals that the opposite of truth is not ignorance, but

rebellion, folly, foolishness and preference for the lie. The Bible states that the

whole knowledge endeavor is a moral issue. God gives meaning to the facts of

His creation. The sinful mind rejects God’s authoritative interpretation of the

facts. (To assign a fact a different meaning than God does is sin. Sinners

readily redefine knowledge that God has already defined, eg.: death, galaxies,

morals, etc.)

2. The lie began when the human race fell away from God. When our first parents

sinned, they believed the lie that man can successfully be his own ultimate

reference point. The lie offered “freedom” – man could do whatever he deemed

right in his own eyes and succeed. Man could be the measure of all things and

the master of his own destiny without his world falling apart. The lie also

involved a philosophical commitment that pictured man as able to give facts

their original definition.

3. Reception of the lie corrupted man’s reason. The unbeliever by God’s common

grace is able to use his created abilities to make worthwhile contributions to

culture, research, education, the arts etc. But, his sinful mind rejects God’s

authoritative revelation. His radical sin bias (known as depravity) issues forth

in a comprehensive and antagonistic perversion of God’s general revelation

(God’s witness in the created universe). As long as the lie is in place, a man is

kept from knowing the true and living God.

4. Fallen man uses his intellect to judge God’s revelation as false. The sinner uses

the autonomy lie to set himself up as judge over what presents itself as divine

revelation. Fallen man does not wish to think about the source of his existence

(namely that he is upheld every moment by the thought and power of God). By

means of the lie, man seeks to produce an “intellectual” buffer between himself

and God. (Through the philosophy the lie provides, man seeks to distance

himself from accountability to God – he wants estrangement from his Creator

who makes claims upon him.)

5. “[A]ll humans are born under the dominion of sin, with an overwhelming

inclination to measure life in the scales provided by Satan. The basic measure of

Satan’s scales is the false gospel, ‘you can do what is right in your own eyes, and

you will not be judged with death; you will succeed in life’” (Grover Gunn on

Genesis 3).

6. Fallen man distorts the truth to fit his desires. He does not conform his desires to

the truth. Fallen men adopt a belief system that permits sinful expression. This

could be referred to as “L.C.D. religion.” (LCD because the lowest common

denominator in this “equation” is a man’s lusts, desires and passions – these

determine what he will believe – he gravitates to a belief system that allows him

to keep his sin.)

In other words, the unbeliever selects a belief system that does not demand

repentance from sin. By contrast, the Word of God declares that true repentance

(which God requires of man) involves forsaking the sins which are antagonistic to

the truth of God.

7. (Only by the miracle of the new birth is a man enabled to repent – only then does

he possess the inclination to do God’s will and forsake evil.) The sinful

suppression of truth only ends when a man repents from self as the ultimate

reference point. Os Guinness notes that impenitence is characterized by distorting

the truth so that it is conformed to one’s desires. By contrast, true repentance

submits to the truth of God and, in ongoing repentance, one’s desires are

continually conformed to God’s truth.[12]

E. The lie is filled with internal inconsistencies.

1. The lie assumes that this space, mass, time continuum known as the universe is

self-sustaining. But the naturalistic world view cannot account for morals, the

laws of logic, the conditions of knowledge and uniformity in nature. (i.e., a

universe founded upon chaos offers no accounting for the above.)

2. Suppression by choice is unsuccessful. The natural man knows that punishment

awaits him for his sin, yet he pretends that he can’t find God for lack of data.

Greg Bahnsen offers the following insight from Scripture, “Being ‘without God in

the world,’ the natural man yet knows God, and, in spite of himself, to some extent

recognizes God. By virtue of their creation in God’s image, by virtue of the

ineradicable sense of deity within them and by virtue of God’s restraining general

grace, those who hate God, yet in a restricted sense know God, and do good.”

(One cannot disassociate who God is from what He has commanded and

commended as His system of truth and ethics.)

3. For fallen man, corrupted reason is never the tool of divine revelation. For the

unbeliever, reason is either slain on the altar of chance or reason is worshipped as

the final authority. (The unbeliever’s god is not rational, realistic or reasonable.)

The unbeliever claims that he lacks reliable proof that the God of the Bible exists.

BUT when asked to supply the categories of “proof” he would designate as

admissible, he is unable to describe those categories (SeeProverbs 28:26 ).

4. A chance universe is the enemy of rationality. To say that rationality is based upon

irrationality is to “kill” facts as they are gathered. (Facts are “killed” because it

becomes impossible to give them meaning with any certainty.)

V. Suppressing the truth of God results in dire consequences.

A. There is nothing more destructive to the dignity and integrity of man than to know

the truth of God and to suppress it. The Apostle Paul pulls back the curtain and

shows us the moral turpitude ensues when it is no longer held back by the dam of

truth. (With the theological basis for morality set aside, nothing remains to keep the

floodgates of immorality closed.)

B. It is not enough to know that men suppress the truth of God. We must know the evil

consequences of suppression. This is not just an intellectual rejection of God’s truth.

What is involved is nothing less than the rebellion of the whole man.[13] (Mind,

emotion and will are all united in the refusal to give God the glory He is due. Men

refused to honor Him or give thanks.)

C. The dire consequences of man’s suppression are catalogued in Romans chapter one:

1. INTELLECTUAL FUTILITY – All thinking that sets aside the claims of God

always ends in futility. (They make nonsense out of logic.)

2. SPIRITUAL DARKNESS – When the Creator-creature distinction is denied, the

mind is flooded with soul-damning myths. (The areas of life dominated by the

myth run the gamut, the range of subjects is endless: origin, destiny, purpose,

knowledge, ownership, being, death, reason, morality, hope, reality etc.)

3. INCREDIBLE FOLLY AND STUPIDITY – The more man claimed to be eminent

in philosophy, the more foolish he became. Nothing less than vanity can be

expected when men exchange the truth of God for a lie.

4. FALSE RELIGION – False religion is evidenced in the proliferation of idolatry in

all its forms and manifestations. Men worshipped and served the creature and the

creation. This universal idolatry includes egocentrism, humanism, hedonism,

skepticism, materialism, intellectualism, and vain philosophy.

5. GROSS IMMORALITY – The unbridled expression of lust is one of the degrading

effects of man’s mutiny against God. Immorality is the rebellion of mind, spirit,

and body. The lust of the flesh replaces the love of the creature for the Creator.

6. SOCIAL DEPRAVITY – Suppression of God’s truth is highly destructive to social

standards and structures. Social depravity disrupts the essential order that is

necessary to maintain the decency and dignity of civilized society.[14]

Endnotes:

---

[1] James F. Stitzinger, Apologetics and Evangelism, (The Master’s Seminary, Sun Valley, CA, 1999).

[2] Grover Gunn, A Comparison of Apologetic Methods, (http://capo.org/cpc/apolo22.htm), pp. 3, 4.

[3] Ibid., pp. 5-7.

[4] Ibid., p. 13.

[5] Ibid., p. 14.

[6] Ibid., p. 15.

[7] Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, “Crucial Biblical Passages for Christian Apologetics” Jerusalem and Athens,

E. R. Geehan, Ed. (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 1971), pp. 134-136.

[8] Greg L. Bahnsen, Always Ready, (Atlanta: American Vision, 1996), p. 42.

[9] Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, Jerusalem and Athens, p. 136.

[10] James F. Stitzinger, Apologetics and Evangelism.

[11]Greg L. Bahnsen, Always Ready, p. 105.

[12] Os Guinness, Time for Truth, from Christian Book Summaries, vol. 1 no. 15 (Apr. 2000), pp. 6, 7.

[13] Hughes, Biblical Passages, p. 136.

[14] Ibid., p. 137.

Watson – A Picture of Our Own Hearts

The sins of others work for good, as they are glasses in which we may see our own hearts. Do we see a flagitious, impious sinner? Behold a picture of our hearts. Such should we be, if God did leave us. What is in other men’s practice is in our nature. Sin in the wicked is like fire on a beacon, that flames and blazes forth; sin in the godly is like fire in the embers. Christian, though you do not break forth into a flame of scandal, yet you have no cause to boast, for there is much sin raked up in the embers of your nature. You have the root of bitterness in you, and would bear as hellish fruit as any, if God did not either curb you by His power, or change you by His grace.

~Thomas Watson~

Man's Chief End is to Glorify God by Thomas Watson (conclusion)

This brings us to the second thing:

2nd. The enjoyment of God in the life to come. Man's chief end is to enjoy God forever. Before the plenary fruition of God in heaven, there must be something previous and antecedent; and that is our being in a state of grace. We must have conformity to him in grace, before we can have communion with him in glory. Grace and glory are linked and chained together. Grace precedes glory, as the morning star ushers in the sun. God will have us qualified and fitted for a state of blessedness. Drunkards and swearers are not fit to enjoy God in glory; the Lord will not lay such vipers in his bosom. Only "the pure in heart shall see God." We must first be, as the king's daughter, glorious within, before we are clothed with the robes of glory. As King Ahasuerus first caused the virgins to be purified and anointed, and they had their sweet odours to perfume them, and then went to stand before the king, Esth. 2:12, so must we have the anointing of God, and be perfumed with the graces of the Spirit, those sweet odours, and then we shall stand before the king of heaven. Being thus divinely qualified by grace, we shall be taken up to the mount of vision, and enjoy God for ever; and what is enjoying God for ever but to be put in a state of happiness? As the body cannot have life but by having communion with the soul, so the soul cannot have blessedness but by having immediate communion with God. God is the summum bonum, the chief good; therefore the enjoyment of him is the highest felicity.

He is a universal good; bonum in quo omnia bona, "a good in which are all goods." The excellencies of the creature are limited. A man may have health, not beauty, learning, not parentage, riches, not wisdom; but in God are contained all excellencies. He is a good, commensurate fully to the soul; a sun, a portion, a horn of salvation; in whom dwells "all fulness." Col. 1:19. God is an unmixed good. There is no condition in this life but has its mixture; for every drop of honey there is a drop of gall. Solomon, who gave himself to find out the philosopher's stone, to search out for happiness here below, found nothing but vanity and vexation, Eccl. 1:2. God is perfect, the quintessence of good. He is sweetness in the flower. God is a satisfying good. The soul cries out, I have enough. Psalm 17:15, "I shall be satisfied with thy likeness." Let a man who is thirsty be brought to an ocean of pure water, and he has enough. If there be enough in God to satisfy the angels, then sure there is enough to satisfy us. The soul is but finite, but God is infinite. Though God be a good that satisfies, yet he does not surfeit. Fresh joys spring continually from his face; and he is as much to be desired after millions of years by glorified souls as at the first moment. There is a fulness in God that satisfies, and yet so much sweetness, that the soul still desires.

God is a delicious good. That which is the chief good must ravish the soul with pleasure; there must be in it rapturous delight and quintessence of joy. In Deo quadam dulcedine delectatur anima immo rapitur [The soul, delighted with the sweetness of God, indeed is ravished by it]: the love of God drops such infinite suavity into the soul as is unspeakable and full of glory. If there be so much delight in God, when we see him only by faith, 1 Pet. 1:8, what will the joy of vision be, when we shall see him face to face! If the saints have found so much delight in God while they were suffering, oh what joy and delight will they have when they are being crowned! If flames are beds of roses, what will it be to lean on the bosom of Jesus! What a bed of roses that will be!

God is a superlative good. He is better than anything you can put in competition with him: he is better than health, riches, honour. Other things maintain life, he gives life. Who would put anything in balance with the Deity? Who would weigh a feather against a mountain of gold? God excels all other things more infinitely than the sun excels the light of a taper.

God is an eternal good. He is the Ancient of days, yet never decays, nor waxes old, Dan. 7:9. The joy he gives is eternal, the crown fadeth not away, 1 Pet. 5:4. The glorified soul shall be ever solacing itself in God, feasting on his love, and sunning itself in the light of his countenance. We read of the river of pleasure at God's right hand; but will not this in time be dried up? No. There is a fountain at the bottom which feeds it. Psalm 36:9, "With the Lord is the fountain of life." Thus God is the chief good, and the enjoyment of God for ever is the highest felicity of which the soul is capable.

Use 1. Let it be the chief end of our living to enjoy this chief good hereafter. Austin reckons up 288 opinions among philosophers about happiness, but all were short of the mark. The highest elevation of a reasonable soul is to enjoy God for ever. It is the enjoyment of God that makes heaven. 1 Thess. 4:17, "Then shall we ever be with the Lord." The soul trembles as the needle in the compass, and is never at rest till it comes to God. To set out this excellent state of a glorified soul's enjoyment of God: 1. It must not be understood in a sensual manner: we must not conceive any carnal pleasures in heaven. The Turks speak of a paradise of pleasure, where they have riches in abundance, and red wine served in golden chalices. The epicures of this age would like such a heaven when they die. Though the state of glory be compared to a feast, and is set out by pearls and precious stones, yet these metaphors are only helps to our faith, and to show us that there is superabundant joy and felicity in the highest heaven; but they are not carnal but spiritual delights. Our enjoyment will be in the perfection of holiness, in seeing the pure face of Christ, in feeling the love of God, in conversing with heavenly spirits; which will be proper for the soul, and infinitely exceed all carnal voluptuous delights.

2. We shall have a lively sense of this glorious estate. A man in a lethargy, though alive, is as good as dead, because he is not sensible, nor does he take any pleasure in his life; but we shall have a quick and lively sense of the infinite pleasure which arises from the enjoyment of God: we shall know ourselves to be happy; we shall reflect with joy upon our dignity and felicity; we shall taste every crumb of that sweetness, every drop of that pleasure which flows from God.

3. We shall be made able to bear a sight of that glory. We could not now bear that glory, it would overwhelm us, as a weak eye cannot behold the sun; but God will capacitate us for glory; our souls shall be so heavenly, and perfected with holiness, that they may be able to enjoy the blessed vision of God. Moses in a cleft of the rock saw the glory of God passing by, Exod. 33:21. From our blessed rock Christ, we shall behold the beatific sight of God.

4.This enjoyment of God shall be more than a bare contemplation of him. Some of the learned move the question, whether the enjoyment of God shall be by way of contemplation only. That is something, but it is one half of heaven only; there shall be a loving of God, an acquiescence in him, a tasting of his sweetness; not only inspection but possession. John 17:24, "that they may behold my glory." There is inspection: verse 22. "And the glory thou hast given me, I have given them." There is possession: "Glory shall be revealed in us," Rom. 8:18; not only revealed to us, but in us. To behold God's glory, there is glory revealed to us; but to partake of his glory, there is glory revealed in us. As the sponge sucks in the wine, so shall we suck in glory. 5. There is no intermission in this state of glory. We shall not only have God's glorious presence at certain special seasons; but we shall be continually in his presence, continually under divine raptures of joy. There shall not be one minute in heaven, wherein a glorified soul may say, I do not enjoy happiness. The streams of glory are not like the water of a conduit, often stopped, so that we cannot have one drop of water; but those heavenly streams of joy are continually running. Oh how should we despise this valley of tears where we now are, for the mount of transfiguration! How we should long for the full enjoyment of God in Paradise! Had we a sight of that land of promise, we should need patience to be content to live here any longer.

Use 2. Let this be a spur to duty. How diligent and zealous should we be in glorifying God, that we may come at last to enjoy him! If Tully, Demosthenes, and Plato, who had but the dim watch-light of reason to see by, fancied an elysium and happiness after this life, and took such Herculean pains to enjoy it, oh how should Christians, who have the light of Scripture to see by, bestir themselves that they may attain to the eternal fruition of God and glory! If anything can make us rise off our bed of sloth, and serve God with all our might, it should be this, the hope of our near enjoyment of God for ever. What made Paul so active in the sphere of religion? 1 Cor. 15:10 "I laboured more abundantly than they all." His obedience did not move slow, as the sun on the dial; but swift, as light from the sun. Why was he so zealous in glorifying God, but that he might at last centre and terminate in him? 1 Thess. 4:17, "Then shall we ever be with the Lord."

Use 3. Let this comfort the godly in all the present miseries they feel. Thou complainest, Christian, thou dost not enjoy thyself, fears disquiet thee, wants perplex thee; in the day thou canst not enjoy ease, in the night thou canst not enjoy sleep; thou cost not enjoy the comforts of thy life. Let this revive thee, that shortly thou shalt enjoy God, and then shalt have more than thou canst ask or think; thou shalt have angels' joy, glory without intermission or expiration. We shall never enjoy ourselves fully till we enjoy God eternally.