Heavenly Springs

Holding Fast The Doctrines of Grace

“Anything That Drives Me To My Knees is Good”

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“Often does it happen that the enmity of the world drives the Christian nearer to his God. How many prayers have been offered up as the result of persecution that would never have been offered else, heaven alone can tell! How many a groan, and sigh, and tear, acceptable to God, have been forced from true hearts by their sufferings, God alone knows! Ah! in the soft days, the summer days of peace and prosperity, we are apt to gad abroad after vain delights; but when the winter comes, with its keen and cutting blast, we haste to our own abode, we cleave to our own hearth, we love to dwell with our own kindred. Even so right frequently, with hearts all chill and cheerless, we have sought the house of our Father and our God, drawn near to his altar, and found a refreshment we fain could wish that we might never leave. Why, oh! why, are we so fickle? If we could find succor and solace apart from the Rock, away from the Sun, absent from our Lord, our wayward hearts would do so; but when the waters of affliction have covered all the earth, then we fly back to our Noah, our ark, and find rest for the sole of our foot. The friendship of this world is enmity to God. It rivals God’s friendship, it deceives and deludes many hearts; but when the world frowns, it is a blessed frown that makes me seek my Savior’s smile. Anything that drives me to my knees is good. Anything that makes me trust in the promise, and wait only upon God because my expectation is from him, is healthful to my soul, infuses courage, and inspires confidence, and invests her with fresh strength. O brethren, the very glory of the church is to live nearer to God. The more she thinks of her great and glorious Head, and the more she leans upon the invisible arm of the Eternal, the more invincible she is persecution in driving her to her stronghold is overruled to her help.”

Charles Spurgeon

You can read the entire sermon here.

The Prosperity and Triumphs of Wicked Enemies of the Church

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“Another great trial of our patience is, the triumph of the wicked enemies of the church, and that the saints are usually under their feet in sufferings and scorn. I spake before of persecution, and as to the prosperity and triumphs of malignants. David, who was under the like temptation, hath long ago given us considerations sufficient for our patience; Psal. 37. 73. And the triumph of the wicked is but for a moment, and their motion as the grasshoppers, that fall as they rise. Their victories, and glory, and rage, are like a squib of gunpowder, which makes a noise and is presently extinct: they are moved dust, which the wind of God’s displeasure blows into our eyes: they are dying while they are raging, and their own death is at hand and lingereth not, while they are killing others. Go into the sanctuary and see their end, and it may silence all impatience; for see their corpse in rottenness, and their souls in hell, and pity will overcome envy, and their case will appear to you a thousand times more sad than theirs that suffer by them for righteousness sake. Their contrivances do but plot themselves into misery. All the blood which they shed, must be reckoned for: and precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, even when they seem deserted.

Where now is Alexander, Cæsar, Tamerlane, and such other famous murderers called conquerors? Are they now triumphing? Is it an ease to their tormented souls, or life to their dust, that living fools do magnify their names, and their dear-bought victories and murders? If it be no glory to a serpent, crocodile, or a wolf, or a mad dog, to kill men, no nor to the devil, who is a murderer from the beginning, why should it be a glory to these instruments of the devil?

O what a dreadful search will it be to Babylon, when in her shall be found the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus, and upon her shall come at once all the righteous blood that hath been shed! The blood of the many hundred thousand Waldenses, Albigenses, Bohemians, did but render the Papacy more odious: their Inquisition, and Alva’s cruelties lost them the low countries. They got nothing in France by the sudden murder of thirty or forty thousand Protestants; nor will they get at last by their present cruelties. The two hundred thousand murdered by the Irish, prepared for the murderer’s greater ruin, but did not satisfy their desires.

Queen Mary’s fires did but make Popery the more easily and commonly hated and extirpated in the days of her successor. Persecutors are not immortal, but must die as well as others: and they have not always the choice of their successors. And as their names rot with their carcases, and to pious, sober and wise posterity no names are more odious, so their designs and works also often perish with them.

We have seen in our days and land, the same men that were the terror of the nation in war, laid in a grave and left to the common earth, where no one is afraid of them. And the same men that were lift up by many victories, thought kings, parliament, ministers, and people must submit to their will, as being in their power, within one or two years were hanged, drawn and quartered, and their quarters hung up over the gates of the city: their victorious army being dissolved without one drop of bloodshed.”

Baxter, R., & Orme, W. (1830). The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter: Volume XI (507–509). London: James Duncan.

God Can Make Wicked People’s Actions Work To His Own Glory

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Photo compliments of the J.C. Ryle Photo Collection.
Photo compliments of the J.C. Ryle Photo Collection.

“The very things that have seemed most unfavorable to God’s people have often turned out to be for their good.

What harm did the persecution do to the church of Christ after Stephen’s death? Those who were scattered “preached the word wherever they went” (Acts 8:4).

What harm did imprisonment do St. Paul? It gave him time to write many of those letters which are now read all over the world.

What real harm did the persecution of bloody Mary do to the cause of the English Reformation? The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church.

What harm does persecution do the people of God at this very day? It only drives them nearer to Christ: it only makes them cling more closely to the throne of grace, the Bible, and prayer.

Let all true Christians lay these things to heart, and take courage. We live in a world where all things are ordered by a hand of perfect wisdom, and where in all things God works for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28). The powers of this world are only tools in the hand of God: he is always using them for his own purposes, however little they may be aware of it. They are the instruments by which he is forever cutting and polishing the living stones of his spiritual temple, and all their schemes and plans will only turn to his praise. Let us be patient in days of trouble and darkness, and look forward. The very things which now seem against us are all working together for God’s glory. We only see half now: a little while longer, we shall see all; and we shall then discover that all the persecution we now endure was, like “the seal” and “the guard” (verse 66), tending to God’s glory. God can make the “wrath of man praise him” (Psalm 77:10, KJV).”

Ryle, J. C. (1993). Matthew. Crossway Classic Commentaries (287–288). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

A Page From Church History

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There are so many good reasons to study church history. One reason is that it gives us perspective.  When we study church history we see the providential hand of God guiding the affairs of men and nations in such a way that the Gospel is never extinguished.

I know I’m not the only one who sees the writing on the wall.  The rising anti-Christian sentiment in our country gives pause for great concern. Anyone who knows me well is aware that I have very strong political views.  But the truth is that politics are neither here nor there when measured against eternity and God’s grand plan of redemption for His elect. The most important thing to God is the church, and whoever touches her, touches the apple of His eye (Zech. 2:8).  In the church’s history there have been seasons of peace and there have been times of terrible persecution.  I pray for the peace of the church in America. I do that because I’d like to lead a quiet life and be able to pursue holiness without being harassed (1 Tim. 2:2). However, such has not always been the case, and it certainly is not the case for many of our brothers and sisters today in various regions of the world.  What I am trying to get at is this: Persecution might be new to us, but it is not a new experience to the church. With that in mind, I wanted to share an excerpt from Stephen J. Nichols’s book, “Pages from Church History.” Here he describes the sociopolitical context that the early church, in the Roman Empire, found itself.  Read closely. I believe you will find not just a few similarities. More important, I think it will encourage you to see beyond the noise of the immediate.

Due to the nature of the Roman Empire, a conglomerate of formerly independent city- and nation-states, a certain pluralism prevailed. To be a Roman was the glue that held everything together, but underlying this was great pantheon of gods and religions and world views.

To accommodate these differences, the empire dubbed certain religions as acceptable…These religions tended to be pluralistic or at least polytheistic, so to bring them into the already expanded fold of gods mattered little.  Some of them observed secretive rites and rather bizarre practices.  They were accepted, however, because these religions did not preclude their members from participating in the civil cult, or offering sacrifices to the gods of Rome.

But not all religions fit so well … Not only did Christianity affirm that there is one God, it also made the point that there is only one way to God.  For Christians, other religions do not simply provide alternatives, they are false. All of this resulted in Christianity’s being designated an illegal religion …

The Christians in the region were plentiful and had abandoned the pagan cults and temples, making for economic difficulties, curiously similar to the fallout of Paul and the church at Ephesus just a century earlier (Acts 19:21-41). Pliny [a Roman senator] knew the Christians were to be executed, but he was puzzled as to the exact nature of the crime.  He failed to see how they were enemies of the state.  Emperor Trajan assured Pliny that they were in fact enemies of the state and were to be executed, though he did not seem to indicate that doing so should be Pliny’s top priority. The main reason for their treatment, Trajan affirmed and Pliny consented, was that they failed to offer a sacrifice to the images of the gods or to the images of the emperor.

Consequently, and quite ironically, the early Christians were accused of atheism; they did not recognize the gods of the Roman state, and they certainly could not offer sacrifices to them. This gave Nero, emperor during the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul-as church tradition has it- his reason to persecute them …Nero and the others bootstrapped the accusation that the Christians denied the gods of the state (which was true) to the charge that the Christians were the enemy of the state (which was not true). In reality, Christians made great citizens … Christ and the New Testament teach that Christians are to honor the government and its officials. Christianity practiced compassion for the less fortunate and practiced a high ethic concerning social relationships in the marketplace and in the home.  Christians were law-abiding and peaceful.  Yet they were hated and viewed as the very enemy of the state…perhaps the real reason for the persecution is that the Christians were a convenient scapegoat.  Tertullian reveals the ulterior motive:  “They consider that the Christians are the cause of every public calamity and every misfortune of the people. If the Tiber rises as high as the city walls, if the Nile does not rise to the fields, if the weather will not change, if there is an earthquake, a famine, a plague – straightway the cry is heard: “Toss the Christians to the lions!”1

In a strange way, reading this page from church history helped settle my soul.  How is that?  Well, after all is said and done, there is only one thing that matters: I am a Christian.

Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways. (Ps 119:36–37).

1 Nichols, Stephen J., (2006) “Pages From Church History: A Guided Tour of Christian Classics” (49-50), Phillipsburg: N.J., P&R Publishing.