Five Steps to Living the Christian Life

Let’s go through the five steps together. They can be remembered by the acronym APTAT. Remember, what we are trying to discover is the practical biblical meaning of living by faith, or walking by the Spirit, or serving in the strength that God supplies.

Picture yourself facing some challenge now. A confrontation with an antagonist. A difficult visit to the doctor. A chance to tell someone about what Christ means to you. A lesson to teach. A job to apply for. An exam to take. A move to make. Too many things to do in one day. Etc.!! What do you do so that when the challenge is past and the day is done, you can say, I lived by faith; I walked by the Spirit; I served in the strength that God supplied; to him be the glory?

I see five Biblical steps. Three of the five steps are prayer.

Step #1—A: ADMIT

Admit that without Christ you can do nothing.

None of us can please God, live by faith, walk by the Spirit, or serve in God’s strength until we admit our utter helplessness without Christ—physically, morally, and spiritually. Let me mention four levels of helplessness that we need to see and admit from our hearts.

Four Levels of Our Helplessness Without Christ

1. We would not have come into being without Christ. John 1:2–3, “He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” Your eternal personhood was created by Christ out of nothing. You would not exist without him.
2. We would vanish out of existence without the moment by moment sustaining of Christ. Colossians 1:17, “He is before all things and in him all things hold together.” Or as Acts 17:25, “God gives to all men life and breath and everything.” Every breath we take we owe to Christ. We are utterly helpless without his creating and sustaining power.
3. We would have no true virtue without his work in our soul. 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural man [i.e., the man without the Spirit of Christ] does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” Until the Spirit of Christ invades our soul and gives us a spiritual taste, we recoil at spiritual things. So we are utterly helpless to love God and live for God’s sake without the renovating power of Christ.
4. Therefore, we are helpless to bear fruit without Christ. That is, the abiding significance of our lives will be zero without the power of Christ.

Only one life
‘Twill soon be past
Only what’s done for Christ
Will last.

So in the little APTAT card I quote John 15:5 where Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” By the world’s standards we may accomplish much without Christ (like build an institution, or produce a blockbuster movie). But from God’s perspective without Christ our lives are like little shriveled fruitless twigs.

Cries for Help Follow Admissions of Helplessness

So step one as we face the tasks of our lives is to say to God—this is a prayer—O Lord, I can’t do anything without you. Without Christ, I wouldn’t exist; I wouldn’t take another breath; I wouldn’t know or love you; and there will be no fruit from what I am about to do. This is an act of great humility. This is where living by faith, and walking by the Spirit begins.

King Solomon faced the challenge of governing a great nation. How did he pray for help? He said (in 1 Kings 3:7), “O Lord, my God, thou hast made thy servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.” In other words he admits his helplessness without God. I am no more capable of ruling this people without you than is a little child.

Or consider Jeremiah’s cry for help (Jeremiah 10:23f.), “I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Correct me, O Lord, but in just measure; not in thy anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.” Before he asks for help, he admits that a man’s way is not in himself. “Man proposes, God disposes” (Proverbs 16:9).

(See also: Genesis 18:27; Psalm 86:1; Isaiah 66:2; Luke 18:13; 2 Corinthians 3:5.)

Living by faith, and walking by the Spirit begins with the admission of helplessness.

When you bow your head to pray
Let the first thing that you say
Be a lowly word and meek:
“I admit that I am weak.”

That is step one in living so that Christ gets trusted and you get helped and people get served and God gets glory.

Step #2—P: PRAY

Pray for God’s help!

You are about to make that difficult phone call, or talk to your colleague about Christ, or take the test, or start your new job, or reprimand an employee, or enter the doctor’s office, or preach a sermon. You may be in the car or an office or a classroom, or kitchen or waiting room or behind a pulpit.

“O Lord, Help!”

You admit from your heart that without Christ this is going to be a wash. Then you you very simply and very humbly pray like this, “O Lord, help me! Please help me.” And you may get specific: help me not to forget anything important; help me to love this person; help me to be wise; help me to accept the news with hopefulness; help not to be bitter; help him to accept what I say; help me not to forget whose I am.

Asa, king of Judah, gives us a beautiful example of steps one and two when Serah the king of Ethiopia came against him with one million men and three hundred chariots in the valley Zephathah. 2 Chronicles 14:11 says,

Asa cried to the Lord his God, “O Lord, there is none like thee to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O Lord our God!”

“We are weak, help us, O our God!”

The Heart of Christian Living

The very heart of Christian living is to admit our weakness and to seek strength and help from God. God commands it in Psalm 50:15 (on the card), “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you shall glorify me.”

That’s the answer to the question how to live so that you get help and God gets glory!! Pray for help from God. The one who gives the help gets the glory. That’s what it says in Psalm 50. You get help. God gets glory. Or as the Lord said to Paul, when he cried out for help: “My power is made perfect in [your] weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Jesus loves me this I know
For the Bible tells me so,
Little ones to him belong,
They are weak but he is strong.

That song is not just for kids. When you face your day, ADMIT your helplessness, and PRAY for help from God.

(See also Psalm 18:3; 22:19; 34:15, 17; 38:22; 56:9; 91:15; Mark 9:24; Hebrews 4:16.)

Step #3—T: TRUST

Trust in a promise of God suited to your need.

Living by Faith

This is the way that the action you are about to take becomes an act of faith. This is what Paul meant when he said in Galatians 2:20 that the life he now lives he lives by faith in the Son of God. Living by faith means overcoming obstacles to obedience by trusting promises of help and future happiness.

An act is an act of faith when the strength to do it comes through trusting in a promise of God. When you bank on God’s help and his promise of happiness to get you through your task, then you are living by faith, and walking by the Spirit.

How to Do Right in the Choices We Face

Every day we are confronted with choices—to do right or to do wrong, to be honest or dishonest, to be loving or to be indifferent, to forgive or to go on holding a grudge, to speak of Christ or to be silent, to go do my assignment or to put it off, to go to follow God’s leading to the mission field or to stay home. And every day there are obstacles to making the right choice: fear, pride, addiction to comfort—and these come in all shapes and sizes.

How do you bring yourself to do the right thing so that Christ gets trusted, you get helped, people get served, and God gets glory? Answer:

1. ADMIT you can’t do it without Christ.
2. PRAY for God’s help. And then
3. TRUST in some promise that assures you that the world’s incentive toward disobedience is not as great as God’s incentive toward obedience.

This is not a passive thing. It is an active, disciplined tactical maneuver in the fight of faith. If you have time, you go to your Bible and look for some promise suited for your specific challenge. For example, if you are struggling for the strength to let a grudge go and be kind to your enemy, go to the promise in Romans 12:19, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” And trust that the Lord can and will settle accounts far more justly and fairly than you ever could, and roll that burden onto him.

Our Need for an Arsenal of General Promises

But there are times when we do not have time to look through the Bible for a tailor-made promise. So we all need to have an arsenal of general promises ready to use whenever fear or addiction to comfort threaten to lead us astray or make us weak. Here are a few of my most proven weapons:

• “Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will help you. I will strengthen you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). I have slain more dragons in my soul with that sword than any other I think. It is a precious weapon to me.
• “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?” (Romans 8:32). How many times I have been persuaded in the hour of trial by this verse that the reward of disobedience could never be greater than “all things.”
• Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me . . . And lo, I will be with you to the close of the age!” (Matthew 28:18, 20). How many times have I strengthened my sagging spirit with the assurance that the Lord of heaven and earth is just as much with me today as he was with the disciples on earth!
• “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:15).
• “My God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

Constantly be adding to your arsenal of promises. Every morning look for a new one to take with you through the day. And when the hour of challenge and trial comes, get the strength to do right by TRUSTING a specific promise from the Word of God.

Step #4—A: ACT

Act with humble confidence in God’s help.

This might seem so obvious that it wouldn’t need mentioning. But it does because there are some who say that since Christ is supposed to live his life through you (”I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I but Christ who lives in me.”), you should not do anything—that is, simply wait until you are, as it were, carried along by another will.

Well this is simply not what the Bible teaches. The Spirit of God does not cancel out our will. The work of God does not cancel out our work. The Spirit transforms our will. And God works in us so that we can work. So Philippians 2:12–13 (correct your card) says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

When you have admitted to God that you can do nothing without him, and prayed for his help, and trusted his promise, then go ahead, ACT! And in that act Christ will be trusted, you will be helped, others will be served, and God will get glory.

Which will lead naturally to the last of our five steps.

Step #5—T: THANK

Thank God for the good that comes.

This is what you naturally do if 1 Peter 4:11 has really happened, namely, serving in the strength that God supplies. God gave the help, God gets the glory, and that starts with our thanks.

This is what Paul was urging when he said in Colossians 3:17, “Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” When you have the grace to do a thing in the name of Jesus, that is, for his glory and by faith in his promise, then give God thanks!

Or if the person you are trying to change experiences a change of heart, then thank God! It is God who changes hearts and brings good intentions. “But thanks be to God who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus” (2 Corinthians 8:16).

(See also Romans 7:25; 1 Corinthians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 2:14; 1 Thessalonians 1:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Timothy 1:12.)

Conclusion

Whether you are a “card-carrying” Christian or not, be a Christian.

• Live by faith.
• Walk by the Spirit.
• Serve in the strength that God supplies.

That is, live in such a way that

• Christ gets trusted,
• you get helped,
• people get served, and
• God gets glory.

When you face a challenge or a temptation do APTAT:

• A - ADMIT that without Christ you can do nothing.
• P - PRAY for God’s help.
• T - TRUST in a promise suited to your need.
• A - ACT with humble confidence in God’s help.
• T - THANK him for the good that comes.

The first two and the last are acts of prayer. So let us enter prayer week with a deep awareness that prayer is not a mere devotional interlude in the real business of living; it is the pathway of faith and obedience. There is no other.

The article in it’s entirety can be viewed HERE You can also listen to John verbally describe this process personally by downloading his explanation from the 2006 Together For The Gospel Conference. (Listen from the 15:28 mark until 18:38 specifically.)

The Acronymns of John Piper (Part 1) November 28, 2007

A N T H E M

Strategies for Fighting Lust

I have in mind men and women. For men it’s obvious. The need for warfare against the bombardment of visual temptation to fixate on sexual images is urgent. For women it is less obvious, but just as great if we broaden the scope of temptation to food or figure or relational fantasies. When I say “lust” I mean the realm of thought, imagination, and desire that leads to sexual misconduct. So here is one set of strategies in the war against wrong desires. I put it in the form of an acronym, A N T H E M.

A – AVOID as much as is possible and reasonable the sights and situations that arouse unfitting desire. I say “possible and reasonable” because some exposure to temptation is inevitable. And I say “unfitting desire” because not all desires for sex, food, and family are bad. We know when they are unfitting and unhelpful and on their way to becoming enslaving. We know our weaknesses and what triggers them. “Avoiding” is a Biblical strategy. “Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness” (2 Timothy 2:22). “Make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14).

N – Say NO to every lustful thought within five seconds. And say it with the authority of Jesus Christ. “In the name of Jesus, NO!” You don’t have much more than five seconds. Give it more unopposed time than that, and it will lodge itself with such force as to be almost immovable. Say it out loud if you dare. Be tough and warlike. As John Owen said, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” Strike fast and strike hard. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” ( James 4:7).

T – TURN the mind forcefully toward Christ as a superior satisfaction. Saying “no” will not suffice. You must move from defense to offense. Fight fire with fire. Attack the promises of sin with the promises of Christ. The Bible calls lusts “deceitful desires” (Ephesians 4:22). They lie. They promise more than they can deliver. The Bible calls them “passions of your former ignorance” (1 Peter 1:14). Only fools yield. “All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter” (Proverbs 7:22). Deceit is defeated by truth. Ignorance is defeated by knowledge. It must be glorious truth and beautiful knowledge. This is why I wrote Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. We must stock our minds with the superior promises and pleasures of Jesus. Then we must turn to them immediately after saying, “NO!”

H – HOLD the promise and the pleasure of Christ firmly in your mind until it pushes the other images out. “Fix your eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 3:1). Here is where many fail. They give in too soon. They say, “I tried to push it out, and it didn’t work.” I ask, “How long did you try?” How hard did you exert your mind? The mind is a muscle. You can flex it with vehemence. Take the kingdom violently (Matthew 11:12). Be brutal. Hold the promise of Christ before your eyes. Hold it. Hold it! Don’t let it go! Keep holding it! How long? As long as it takes. Fight! For Christ’s sake, fight till you win! If an electric garage door were about to crush your child you would hold it up with all our might and holler for help, and hold it and hold it and hold it and hold it.

E – ENJOY a superior satisfaction. Cultivate the capacities for pleasure in Christ. One reason lust reigns in so many is that Christ has so little appeal. We default to deceit because we have little delight in Christ. Don’t say, “That’s just not me.” What steps have you taken to waken affection for Jesus? Have you fought for joy? Don’t be fatalistic. You were created to treasure Christ with all your heart – more than you treasure sex or sugar. If you have little taste for Jesus, competing pleasures will triumph. Plead with God for the satisfaction you don’t have: “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14). Then look, look, look at the most magnificent Person in the universe until you see him the way he is.

M – MOVE into a useful activity away from idleness and other vulnerable behaviors. Lust grows fast in the garden of leisure. Find a good work to do, and do it with all your might. “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord” (Romans 12:11). “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). Abound in work. Get up and do something. Sweep a room. Hammer a nail. Write a letter. Fix a faucet. And do it for Jesus’ sake. You were made to manage and create. Christ died to make you “zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:14). Displace deceitful lusts with a passion for good deeds.

Fighting at your side,

Pastor John

This was an article posted on November 5, 2001 on DesiringGod.org. You can view it HERE.

The Tests of Love To God November 28, 2007

While I was surfing the net recently, I came across a blog which had this article by Thomas Watson. I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it (not to mention humbled and rebuked by it as well). His metaphorical use of earthly relationships (such as in marriage, child/parent and friendships) really help drive the points home.

The Tests of Love to God

Let us test ourselves impartially whether we are in the number of those that love God. For the deciding of this, as our love will be best seen by the fruits of it, I shall lay down fourteen signs, or fruits, of love to God, and it concerns us to search carefully whether any of these fruits grow in our garden.

1. The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of God. ” When I awake, I am still with thee “ (Psalm cxxxix. 18). The thoughts are as travellers in the mind. David’s thoughts kept heaven-road, I am still with Thee. God is the treasure, and where the treasure is, there is the heart. By this we may test our love to God. What are our thoughts most upon? Can we say we are ravished with delight when we think on God? Have our thoughts got wings? Are they fled aloft? Do we contemplate Christ and glory? Oh, how far are they from being lovers of God, who scarcely ever think of God! ” God is not in all his thoughts “ (Psalm x. 4). A sinner crowds God out of his thoughts. He never thinks of God, unless with horror, as the prisoner thinks of the judge.

2. The next fruit of love is desire of communion. Love desires familiarity and intercourse. ” My heart and flesh crieth out for the living God “ (Psalm lxxxiv. 2). King David being debarred the house of God where was the tabernacle, the visible token of His presence, he breathes after God, and in a holy pathos of desire cries out for the living God. Lovers would be conversing together. If we love God we prize His ordinances, because there we meet with God. He speaks to us in His Word, and we speak to Him in prayer. By this let us examine our love to God. Do we desire intimacy of communion with God? Lovers cannot be long away from each other. Such as love God have a holy affection, they know not how to be from Him. They can bear the want of anything but God’s presence. They can do without health and friends, they can be happy without a full table, but they cannot be happy without God. ” Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like them that go down into the grave “ (Psalm cxliii. 7). Lovers have their fainting fits. David was ready to faint away and die, when he had not a sight of God. They who love God cannot be contented with having ordinances, unless they may enjoy God in them; that were to lick the glass, and not the honey.

What shall we say to those who can be all their lives long without God? They think God may be best spared: they complain they want health and trading, but not that they want God! Wicked men are not acquainted with God: and how can they love, who are not acquainted! Nay, which is worse, they do not desire to be acquainted with Him. ” They say to God, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways “ (Job xxi. 14). Sinners shun acquaintance with God, they count His presence a burden; and are these lovers of God? Does that woman love her husband, who cannot endure to be in his presence?

3. Another fruit of love is grief. Where there is love to God, there is a grieving for our sins of unkindness against Him. A child which loves his father cannot but weep for offending him. The heart that burns in love melts in tears. Oh! that I should abuse the love of so dear a Saviour! Did not my Lord suffer enough upon the cross, but must I make Him suffer more? Shall I give Him more gall and vinegar to drink? How disloyal and disingenuous have I been! How have I grieved His Spirit, trampled upon His royal commands, slighted His blood! This opens a vein of godly sorrow, and makes the heart bleed afresh. ” Peter went out, and wept bitterly “ (Matt. xxvi. 75). When Peter thought how dearly Christ loved him; how he was taken up into the mount of transfiguration, where Christ showed him the glory of heaven in a vision; that he should deny Christ after he had received such signal love from Him, this broke his heart with grief: he went out, and wept bitterly.

By this let us test our love to God. Do we shed the tears of godly sorrow? Do we grieve for our unkindness against God, our abuse of mercy, our non improvement of talents? How far are they from loving God, who sin daily, and their hearts never smite them! They have a sea of sin, and not a drop of sorrow. They are so far from being troubled that they make merry with their sins. ” When thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest “ (Jer. xi. 15). Oh wretch! Did Christ bleed for sin, and do you laugh at it? These are far from loving God. Does he love his friend that loves to do him an injury?

4. Another fruit of love is magnanimity. (Editor’s note: In case you are wondering what the word “Magnanimity” means, Thomas Watson is referring to “generous in forgiving an insult or injury; free from petty resentfulness or vindictiveness”)Love is valorous, it turns cowardice into courage. Love will make one venture upon the greatest difficulties and hazards. The fearful hen will fly upon a dog or serpent to defend her young ones. Love infuses a spirit of gallantry and fortitude into a Christian. He that loves God will stand up in His cause, and be an advocate for Him. ” We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard “ (Acts iv. 20). He who is afraid to own Christ has but little love to Him. Nicodemus came sneaking to Christ by night (John iii. 2). He was fearful of being seen with Him in the day time. Love casts out fear. As the sun expels fogs and vapours, so divine love in a great measure expels carnal fear. Does he love God that can hear His blessed truths spoken against and be silent? He who loves his friend will stand up for him, and vindicate him when he is reproached. Does Christ appear for us in heaven, and are we afraid to appear for Him on earth? Love animates a Christian, it fires his heart with zeal, and steels it with courage.

5. The fifth fruit of love is sensitiveness. If we love God, our hearts ache for the dishonour done to God by wicked men. To see, not only the banks of religion, but morality, broken down, and a flood of wickedness coming in; to see God’s sabbaths profaned, His oaths violated, His name dishonoured; if there be any love to God in us, we shall lay these things to heart. Lot’s righteous soul was ” vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked “ (2 Pet. ii. 7). The sins of Sodom were as so many spears to pierce his soul. How far are they from loving God, who are not at all affected with His dishonour? If they have but peace and trading, they lay nothing to heart. A man who is dead drunk, never minds nor is affected by it, though another be bleeding to death by him; so, many, being drunk with the wine of prosperity, when the honour of God is wounded and His truths lie a bleeding, are not affected by it. Did men love God, they would grieve to see His glory suffer, and religion itself become a martyr.

6. The sixth fruit of love is hatred against sin. Fire purges the dross from the metal. The fire of love purges out sin. ” Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols! “ {Hos. xiv. 8}. He that loves God will have nothing to do with sin, unless to give battle to it. Sin strikes not only at God’s honour, but His being. Does he love his prince that harbours him who is a traitor to the crown? Is he a friend to God who loves that which God hates? The love of God and the love of sin cannot dwell together. The affections cannot be carried to two contrarieties at the same time. A man cannot love health and love poison too; so one cannot love God and sin too. He who has any secret sin in his heart allowed, is as far from loving God as heaven and earth are distant one from the other.

7. Another fruit of love is crucifixion. He who is a lover of God is dead to the world. ” I am crucified to the world “ (Gal. vi. 14). I am dead to the honours and pleasures of it. He who is in love with God is not much in love with anything else. The love of God, and ardent love of the world, are inconsistent. ” If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him “ (1 John ii. 15). Love to God swallows up all other love, as Moses’ rod swallowed up the Egyptian rods. If a man could live in the sun, what a small point would all the earth be; so when a man’s heart is raised above the world in the admiring and loving of God, how poor and slender are these things below! They seem as nothing in his eye. It was a sign the early Christians loved God, because their property did not lie near their hearts; but they ” laid down their money at the apostles’ feet “ (Acts iv. 35).

Test your love to God by this. What shall we think of such as have never enough of the world? They have the dropsy of covetousness, thirsting insatiably after riches: ” That pant after the dust of the earth “ (Amos ii. 7). Never talk of your love to Christ, says Ignatius, when you prefer the world before the Pearl of price; and are there not many such, who prize their gold above God? If they have a south land, they care not for the water of life. They will sell Christ and a good conscience for money. Will God ever bestow heaven upon them who so basely undervalue Him, preferring glittering dust before the glorious Deity? What is there in the earth that we should so set our hearts upon it? Only the devil makes us look upon it through a magnifying glass. The world has no real intrinsic worth, it is but paint and deception.

8. The next fruit of love is fear. In the godly love and fear do kiss each other. There is a double fear arises from love.

(i.) A fear of displeasing. The spouse loves her husband, therefore will rather deny herself than displease him. The more we love God, the more fearful we are of grieving His Spirit. ” How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? “ (Gen. xxxix. 9). When Eudoxia, the empress, threatened to banish Chrysostom; Tell her (said he) I fear nothing but sin. That is a blessed love which puts a Christian into a hot fit of zeal, and a cold fit of fear, making him shake and tremble, and not dare willingly to offend God.

(ii.) A fear mixed with jealousy. ” Eli’s heart trembled for the ark “ (I Sam. iv. 13). It is not said, his heart trembled for Hophni and Phinehas, his two sons, but his heart trembled for the ark, because if the ark were taken, then the glory was departed. He that loves God is full of fear lest it should go ill with the church. He fears lest profaneness (which is the plague of leprosy) should increase, lest popery get a footing, lest God should go from His people. The presence of God in His ordinances is the beauty and strength of a nation. So long as God’s presence is with a people, so long they are safe; but the soul inflamed with love to God fears lest the visible tokens of God’s presence should be removed.

By this touchstone let us test our love to God. Many fear lest peace and trading go, but not lest God and His gospel go. Are these lovers of God? He who loves God is more afraid of the loss of spiritual blessings than temporal. If the Sun of righteousness remove out of our horizon, what can follow but darkness? What comfort can an organ or anthem give if the gospel be gone? Is it not like the sound of a trumpet or a volley of shot at a funeral?

9. If we are lovers of God, we love what God loves.

(i.) We love God’s Word. David esteemed the Word, for the sweetness of it, above honey (Psalm cxix. 103), and for the value of it, above gold (Psalm cxix. 72). The lines of Scripture are richer than the mines of gold. Well may we love the Word; it is the load-star that directs us to heaven, it is the field in which the Pearl is hid. That man who does not love the Word, but thinks it too strict and could wish any part of the Bible torn out (as an adulterer did the seventh commandment), he has not the least spark of love in his heart.

(ii.) We love God’s day. We do not only keep a sabbath, but love a sabbath. ” If thou call the sabbath a delight “ (Isa. lviii. 13). The sabbath is that which keeps up the face of religion amongst us; this day must be consecrated as glorious to the Lord. The house of God is the palace of the great King, on the sabbath God shows Himself there through the lattice. If we love God we prize His day above all other days. All the week would be dark if it were not for this day; on this day manna falls double. Now, if ever, heaven gate stands open, and God comes down in a golden shower. This blessed day the Sun of righteousness rises upon the soul. How does a gracious heart prize that day which was made on purpose to enjoy God in.

(iii.) We love God’s laws. A gracious soul is glad of the law because it checks his sinful excesses. The heart would be ready to run wild in sin if it had not some blessed restraints put upon it by the law of God. He that loves God loves His lawó the law of repentance, the law of self-denial. Many say they love God but they hate His laws. ” Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us “ (Psa. ii. 3). God’s precepts are compared to cords, they bind men to their good behaviour; but the wicked think these cords too tight, therefore they say, Let us break them. They pretend to love Christ as a Saviour, but hate Him as a King. Christ tells us of His yoke (Matt. xi. 29). Sinners would have Christ put a crown upon their head, but not a yoke upon their neck. He were a strange king that should rule without laws.

(iv.) We love God’s picture, we love His image shining in the saints. ” He that loves Him that begat, loves him also that is begotten of him “ (1 John v. 1). It is possible to love a saint, yet not to love him as a saint; we may love him for something else, for his ingenuity, or because he is affable and bountiful. A beast loves a man, but not as he is a man, but because he feeds him, and gives him provender. But to love a saint as he is a saint, this is a sign of love to God. If we love a saint for his saintship, as having something of God in him, then we love him in these four cases.

(a) We love a saint, though he be poor. A man that loves gold, loves a piece of gold, though it be in a rag: so, though a saint be in rags, we love him, because there is something of Christ in him.

(b) We love a saint, though he has many personal failings. There is no perfection here. In some, rash anger prevails; in some, inconstancy; in some, too much love of the world. A saint in this life is like gold in the ore, much dross of infirmity cleaves to him, yet we love him for the grace that is in him. A saint is like a fair face with a scar: we love the beautiful face of holiness, though there be a scar in it. The best emerald has its blemishes, the brightest stars their twinklings, and the best of the saints have their failings. You that cannot love another because of his infirmities, how would you have God love you?

(c) We love the saints though in some lesser things they differ from us. Perhaps another Christian has not so much light as you, and that may make him err in some things; will you presently unsaint him because he cannot come up to your light? Where there is union in fundamentals, there ought to be union in affections.

(d) We love the saints, though they are persecuted. We love precious metal, though it be in the furnace. St. Paul did bear in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus (Gal. vi. 17). Those marks were, like the soldier’s scars, honourable. We must love a saint as well in chains as in scarlet. If we love Christ, we love His persecuted members.

If this be love to God, when we love His image sparkling in the saints, oh then, how few lovers of God are to be found! Do they love God, who hate them that are like God? Do they love Christ’s person, who are filled with a spirit of revenge against His people? How can that wife be said to love her husband, who tears his picture? Surely Judas and Julian are not yet dead, their spirit yet lives in the world. Who are guilty but the innocent! What greater crime than holiness, if the devil may be one of the grand jury! Wicked men seem to bear great reverence to the saints departed; they canonise dead saints, but persecute living. In vain do men stand up at the creed, and tell the world they believe in God, when they abominate one of the articles of the creed, namely, the communion of saints. Surely, there is not a greater sign of a man ripe for hell, than this, not only to lack grace, but to hate it.

10. Another blessed sign of love is, to entertain good thoughts of God. He that loves his friend construes what his friend does, in the best sense. ” Love thinketh no evil “ (I Cor. xiii. 5). Malice interprets all in the worst sense; love interprets all in the best sense. It is an excellent commentator upon providence; it thinks no evil. He that loves God, has a good opinion of God; though He afflicts sharply, the soul takes all well. This is the language of a gracious spirit: ” My God sees what a hard heart I have, therefore He drives in one wedge of affliction after another, to break my heart. He knows how full I am of bad humours, how sick of a pleurisy, therefore He lets blood, to save my life. This severe dispensation is either to mortify some corruption, or to exercise some grace. How good is God, that will not let me alone in my sins, but smites my body to save my soul! ” Thus he that loves God takes everything in good part. Love puts a candid gloss upon all God’s actions. You who are apt to murmur at God, as if He had dealt ill with you, be humbled for this; say thus with yourself, ” If I loved God more, I should have better thoughts of God. ” It is Satan that makes us have good thoughts of ourselves, and hard thoughts of God. Love takes all in the fairest sense; it thinketh no evil.

11. Another fruit of love is obedience. “ He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me “ (John xiv. 21). It is a vain thing to say we love Christ’s person, if we slight His commands. Does that child love his father, who refuses to obey him? If we love God, we shall obey Him in those things which cross flesh and blood. (i.) In things difficult, and (ii.) In things dangerous.

(i.) In things difficult. As, in mortifying sin. There are some sins which are not only near to us as the garment, but dear to us as the eye. If we love God, we shall set ourselves against these, both in purpose and practice. Also, in forgiving our enemies. God commands us upon pain of death to forgive. ” Forgive one another “ (Ephes. iv. 32). This is hard; it is crossing the stream. We are apt to forget kindnesses, and remember injuries; but if we love God, we shall pass by offences. When we seriously consider how many talents God has forgiven us, how many affronts and provocations He has put up with at our hands; this makes us write after His copy, and endeavour rather to bury an injury than to retaliate it.

(ii.) In things dangerous. When God calls us to suffer for Him, we shall obey. Love made Christ suffer for us, love was the chain that fastened Him to the cross; so, if we love God, we shall be willing to suffer for Him. Love has a strange quality, it is the least suffering grace, and yet it is the most suffering grace. It is the least suffering grace in one sense; it will not suffer known sin to lie in the soul unrepented of, it will not suffer abuses and dishonours done to God; thus it is the least suffering grace. Yet it is the most suffering grace; it will suffer reproaches, bonds, and imprisonments, for Christ’s sake. ” I am ready not only to be bound, but to die, for the name of the Lord Jesus “ (Acts xxi. 13). It is true that every Christian is not a martyr, but he has the spirit of martyrdom in him. He says as Paul, ” I am ready to be bound “; he has a disposition of mind to suffer, if God call. Love will carry men out above their own strength. Tertullian observes how much the heathen suffered for love to their country. If the spring head of nature rises so high, surely grace will rise higher. If love to their country will make men suffer, much more should love to Christ. ” Love endureth all things “ (1 Cor. xiii. 7). Basil speaks of a virgin condemned to the fire, who having her life and estate offered her if she would fall down to the idol, answered, “Let life and money go, welcome Christ. ” It was a noble and zealous speech of Ignatius, ” Let me be ground with the teeth of wild beasts, if I may be God’s pure wheat. ” How did divine affection carry the early saints above the love of life, and the fear of death! St. Stephen was stoned, St. Luke hanged on an olive tree, St. Peter crucified at Jerusalem with his head downwards. These divine heroes were willing to suffer, rather than by their cowardice to make the name of God suffer. How did St. Paul prize his chain that he wore for Christ! He gloried in it, as a woman that is proud of her jewels, says Chrysostom. And holy Ignatius wore his fetters as a bracelet of diamonds. ” Not accepting deliverance “ (Heb. xi. 35). They refused to come out of prison on sinful terms, they preferred their innocence before their liberty.

By this let us test our love to God. Have we the spirit of martyrdom? Many say they love God, but how does it appear? They will not forego the least comfort, or undergo the least cross for His sake. If Jesus Christ should have said to us, ” I love you well, you are dear to me, but I cannot suffer, I cannot lay down my life for you, ” we should have questioned His love very much; and may not Christ suspect us, when we pretend to love Him, and yet will endure nothing for Him?

12. He who loves God will endeavour to make Him appear glorious in the eyes of others. Such as are in love will be commending and setting forth the amiableness of those persons whom they love. If we love God, we shall spread abroad His excellencies, that so we may raise His fame and esteem, and may induce others to fall in love with Him. Love cannot be silent; we shall be as so many trumpets, sounding forth the freeness of God’s grace, the transcendence of His love, and the glory of His kingdom. Love is like fire: where it burns in the heart, it will break forth at the lips. It will be elegant in setting forth God’s praise: love must have vent.

13. Another fruit of love is to long for Christ’s appearing. “ Henceforth there is a crown of righteousness laid up for me, and not for me only, but for them which love Christ’s appearing “ {2 Tim. iv. 8}. Love desires union; Aristotle gives the reason, because joy flows upon union. When our union with Christ is perfect in glory, then our joy will be full. He that loves Christ loves His appearing. Christ’s appearing will be a happy appearing to the saints. His appearing now is very comforting, when He appears for us as an Advocate (Heb. ix. 24). But the other appearing will be infinitely more so, when He shall appear for us as our Husband. He will at that day bestow two jewels upon us. His love; a love so great and astonishing, that it is better felt than expressed. And His likeness. ” When he shall appear, we shall be like him “ (1 John iii. 2). And from both these, love and likeness, infinite joy will flow into the soul. No wonder then that he who loves Christ longs for His appearance. ” The Spirit and the bride say come; even so come, Lord Jesus “ (Rev. xxii. 17, 20). By this let us test our love to Christ. A wicked man who is self-condemned, is afraid of Christ’s appearing, and wishes He would never appear; but such as love Christ, are joyful to think of His coming in the clouds. They shall then be delivered from all their sins and fears, they shall be acquitted before men and angels, and shall be for ever translated into the paradise of God.

14. Love will make us stoop to the meanest offices. Love is a humble grace, it does not walk abroad in state, it will creep upon its hands, it will stoop and submit to anything whereby it may be serviceable to Christ. As we see in Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus, both of them honourable persons, yet one takes down Christ’s body with his own hands, and the other embalms it with sweet odours. It might seem much for persons of their rank to be employed in that service, but love made them do it. If we love God, we shall not think any work too mean for us, by which we may be helpful to Christ’s members. Love is not squeamish; it will visit the sick, relieve the poor, wash the saints’ wounds. The mother that loves her child is not coy and nice; she will do those things for her child which others would scorn to do. He who loves God will humble himself to the meanest office of love to Christ and His members.

These are the fruits of love to God. Happy are they who can find these fruits so foreign to their natures, growing in their souls.

Those Plowed Unto Life, These Flatter Us to Death November 26, 2007