Romans, Exposition of Chapter 5: Assurance - Chapter Two (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, 1899-1981)

Romans 5:1-2 

5 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

  Peace with God and False peace

We now proceed to look at the 'peace with God', that results from justification by faith, from the two sides - the God-ward, and the man-ward. Far too often it is taken even here in a purely subjective sense. While it is true that there are great subjective consequences of this peace, as I hope to show, it is essential that we should look at it first in a more objective manner. Peace of necessity involves two people, it is a relationship between two persons, and in this case it is peace between man and God. We must bear in mind that something has to happen on God's side as well as on our side before peace can obtain. We must remind ourselves again of the position under the Law. The Apostle has shown us at length that from the side of God the position was that God's wrath was upon us. He laid that down as a primary postulate as far back as the eighteenth verse of the first chapter where he says, 'For the wrath of God has been revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men'. He is 'not ashamed' of the Gospel because it deals with that and delivers us from it.

Here he is saying the same thing in a different way by asserting that we have 'peace' with God. Apart from justification, apart from that which has been done for us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no peace between God and man. There is no peace either on God's side or on man's side, 'for the wrath of God is against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men'. We should never forget that, but mankind is always very ready to forget it. That is why so many by-pass the Lord Jesus Christ and all His work. That is why so many pray to God without ever mentioning the Lord Jesus Christ. They see no need of Him. They say, 'God is love' and believe that they can go to God directly just as they are. That is a complete denial of the Christian faith. It is the result of the failure to see that there is no peace between them and God even from God's side, and that the wrath of God is upon them because of their ungodliness and unrighteousness. Before there can be peace between God and man, and man and God, something has to happen with respect to the wrath of God, which is a revealed fact.
The Apostle has already told us what has happened, in chapter 3, verses 24-26: 'Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God bath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.' As we have seen, the great problem confronting the mind of God was this - How can God at one and the same time forgive a sinner and yet remain just and righteous and eternally the same ? The answer is that God has sent His Son into the world, and has 'set Him forth' as a 'propitiation' for our sins. That means that He laid our sins upon Him, and poured out His wrath against sin upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only because He has done that, that God can look upon us with favour, and pardon us and forgive us and reconcile us unto Himself. This had to happen before the wrath of God could be appeased and He could look upon us and deal with us in a new way. The Apostle asserts here that, in the light of what has happened in Christ, who was 'delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification', as far as God is concerned the wrath is no longer there, and He is at peace with all 'that believe in Jesus'.
But it was necessary also that something should happen from our side, for by nature we are all at enmity with God. As the result of the blindness caused by sin, and our being drugged by the devil, we imagine that all is well, and often believe that we are pleasing God. But this is because we are ignorant of God. We have conjured up a god out of our own imaginations, we have projected our own thoughts, and we have thought that that is God. The moment we realize the truth about God we are troubled and disturbed and our natural enmity to Him reveals itself. That is what happens to many people who have always thought that they were Christians, and have always been religious and godly. They suddenly awaken to the fact that the God whom they thought they were worshipping is not God at all, not the God revealed in the Bible, not the God who has revealed from heaven His wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. The moment they see that, they hate God, they are no longer at peace with Him. They had a false peace arising out of their own imaginations, but they were not at peace with God.
The Apostle teaches in many places that 'the carnal mind is enmity against God' [Romans 8: 7] and that by nature we are all 'the children of wrath' [Ephesians 2: 3] and 'alienated from the life of God' [Ephesians 4: 18]. That is man by nature. He is afraid of God, he has a craven fear of God, a 'fear that hath torment'. He is afraid of the very idea of God. He feels that God is some great tyrant waiting to crush him. He dare not think about death and the grave because of the judgment that will follow it. As Paul teaches the Corinthians, 'The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law' [1 Corinthians15: 56]. The moment a man realizes the truth about God this feeling rises within him, and he is fearful and alarmed. There is no peace between such a man and God; rather is he troubled and afraid disturbed and unhappy. He tries to find peace but cannot. He is afraid of God, afraid of death, and afraid of the judgment. It is surely obvious that before there can be peace between such a man and God, man has to be dealt with. And what the Apostle teaches here is that as the result of the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that alone, all causes of enmity have been dealt with, and man can be at peace with God as God is at peace with him. On both sides there is this reconciliation, and there is 'peace with God'. God at peace with us, we at peace with God. The communion between God and man, broken by sin and the Fall, is re-established.
That is the meaning of this statement that because we have been justified by faith we have peace with God. This is such a vital statement that we must examine ourselves in the light of it. The test of our profession of Christianity is whether this is true of us. Has our natural state of fearfulness with respect to God, our enmity with respect to God, been removed? The Apostle lays it down here that it is an inevitable consequence of justification. Notice that he does not say that the Christian is a man who is 'hoping' that this may be the case. 'Being justified -having been justified - by faith, we have peace.' We are not looking for it, we are not hoping to get it; we have it, we have got it, we are rejoicing in it. That is the statement, and that is why it becomes a test of our profession of the Christian faith. A Christian of necessity is one who is clear about this, otherwise he has not got peace. There is no more thorough test of our profession of Christianity than just this: are we enjoying this peace with God? There are many, alas, in the Church, as there have always been, who dispute this altogether. They say that a Christian is a man who is hoping that he is going to be forgiven, and that at the end he will go to heaven. But that is not the Apostle's teaching. We have peace, it is already a possession. He will say later on in chapter 8, 'There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus'. That is the same thing. It is clearly important therefore for us to make sure that we are in this state of 'peace with God'.
What does this mean experimentally or in experience? The first answer is that a man who has peace with God is a man whose mind is at rest about his relationship with God. He is clearly able to understand with his mind the doctrine of justification by faith only. This means that a change has taken place in his thinking concerning his relationship to God. When awakened to the truth about God and himself his thoughts would be something like this: Ah, there is God in His utter absolute holiness and here am I, a sinner and 'in sin'. There is God's holy Law and its pronouncements. I have sinned against it and cannot erase my past. How can I possibly stand in the presence of God? With Job he asks, 'How can a man be just with God?' He realizes that he cannot, and he is troubled and disturbed, and unhappy.
John Bunyan tells us in Grace Abounding that he was in that condition and in an agony of soul for eighteen months. The time element does not matter, but any man who is awakened and convicted of sin must be in trouble about this. How can he die and face God? He is aware that he cannot in and of himself, and therefore he is unhappy and troubled. There is no peace; he does not know what to do with himself; he is restless. Having 'peace with God' is obviously the opposite of that. It implies first and foremost that the man's mind is at rest, and he has that rest because he now sees that this way of God, as provided in Christ, is really a way that satisfies every desideratum. Now he can see how this satisfies the justice and the righteousness and the holiness of God. He can see how in this way God can justify the ungodly, as Paul has already put it in chapter 4. He thinks it out and he says, 'Yes, I can rest upon that; because God "justifies the ungodly" He can justify even me'.
You notice that I put this intellectual apprehension and understanding first. There is no peace between man and God until a man grasps this doctrine of justification. It is the only way of peace. And it is something that comes to the mind, it is doctrine, it is teaching. In other words we are not just told, 'All is well, do not worry. All will be all right in the end; the love of God will cover you.' That is not the Gospel. It is all stated here, in detail, in this explicit manner; and it comes as truth to the mind. The first thing that happens is that the mind is enlightened, and the man says, 'I see it. It is staggering in its immensity, but I can see how God Himself has done it. He has sent His own Son and He has punished my sin in Him. His justice is satisfied, and therefore I can see how He can forgive me, though I am ungodly and though I am a sinner.' The mind is satisfied.
You will never have true peace until your mind is satisfied. If you merely get some emotional or psychological experience it may keep you quiet and give you rest for a while, but sooner or later a problem will arise, a situation will confront you, a question will come to your mind, perhaps through reading a book or in a conversation, and you will not be able to answer, and so you will lose your peace. There is no true peace with God until the mind has seen and grasped and taken hold of this blessed doctrine, and so finds itself at rest.
Having said that, I go on in the second place to say that the man who believes this truth and grasps its import is a man who knows that God loves him in spite of the fact that he is a sinner, and in spite of his sin. He was troubled before by the wrath of God. His question was, How can God love me and bless me? But as he looks at Christ dying on the Cross, buried, and rising again, he says, 'I know He loves me. I cannot understand it but I know He does. He has done that for me.' It is not mere sentiment or feeling he has solid facts of history to prove that God loves him. God does not merely tell us that He loves us, He has given the most amazing proof of it. The Apostle goes on to say that, and to prove it, in this very chapter, from verse 6 to verse 11. Nothing is more wonderful than to know that God loves you; and no man can truly know that God loves him except in Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
My third answer to the question of how we may know that we are justified is also a most practical test. The man who has been justified by faith, and who has peace with God, can answer the accusations of his own conscience. It is essential that he should be able to do so, because thoughts will arise within, which will suggest to him, 'This is impossible, how can you be at peace with God? Look at yourself, look at your heart, look at the plague of your own heart. How can it possibly be the case that God has forgiven you, and that God loves you?' These accusations arise within our minds and consciences. If you cannot answer them you are obviously not clear about being justified by faith, and if you cannot answer them as they try to shake your confidence, you will again be miserable and unhappy; and there will be no peace with God. But the truly justified man can answer them, and thus he retains his peace.
Not only that; in the fourth place I go on to assert that he can not only answer the accusations of his own conscience, he can answer with equal firmness the accusations of the devil. Nowhere has that been put so movingly as in a verse of that great hymn of John Newton's which begins with the words - 'Approach, my soul, the mercy-seat, Where Jesus answers prayer'. It is the following verse:
Be Thou my shield and hiding-place,
That, sheltered near Thy side,
I may my fierce accuser face,
And tell him Thou hast died. Poor John Newton! Before his conversion he had been engaged in the slave trade and traffic. He had been a vile and a foul sinner. There was scarcely a sin that he had not committed. You can well understand therefore how the devil would rake up his past and hurl it at him. The devil would resurrect it all and cause it to pass as a horrible panorama before his eyes and then challenge him, 'Do you still claim to be a Christian, forgiven and at peace with God?' But John Newton had his answer, an answer that can silence the devil. He says in effect in that verse, 'What can I tell him? I cannot tell him that I am a good man, I cannot tell him about my past or even my present. There is only one way of silencing him; "I can my fierce accuser face, and tell him Thou best died", for me and my sin.'
But it is only the man who believes in the doctrine of justification by faith who can do that. The man who believes vaguely in the love of God cannot do so, for the devil will not listen to him. The man who says 'I feel happy' will soon be made unhappy by the devil, for he is more powerful than we are. There is only one thing that the devil can never answer and that is the argument of 'the blood of Christ'. 'They overcame him', says the Book of Revelation, 'by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony' [Revelation 12: 11]. Their testimony was a testimony concerning the blood of the Lamb. It is the only way. Can you do that? Can you do so with confidence, and in spite of what you may feel momentarily? If you can, and do, the devil will have to be silent, he will leave you alone. He will come back again, but you will always be able to silence him, and thus continue in a state of peace.
Another test can be put in this way: when a man has a true grasp of the doctrine of justification by faith he no longer has a fear of death, no longer a fear of the judgment. This follows of necessity. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews deals with that in the second chapter of his Epistle. He says that Christ has delivered all those who 'were all their lifetime subject to bondage'. What was the bondage? 'The fear of death', which was controlled by the devil. Christ has defeated the devil, and has therefore delivered them from this bondage of the fear of death. These are very practical matters. Have you visualized yourself lying on your deathbed? What are your feelings when you do so? Are you still afraid of death? Are you still afraid of the judgment of God? If you are, you cannot say 'I have been justified by faith and am at peace with God'. If your faith cannot stand up to these tests it is not truly Christian faith. The man who has been justified by faith has peace with God, and can say with Toplady:
The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do;
My Saviour's obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view. The last test I suggest is one which I find increasingly to be a most valuable test in my pastoral dealings with people about spiritual problems. It is this: can you do all that I have been describing even when you fall into sin? It is understandable that a man should be fairly untroubled in mind and conscience when he has been living a fairly good life; but what happens when he falls into some grievous sin? A sudden temptation overtakes him and before he knows what has happened he has fallen. Here is the question. When this happens to you, can you still employ the argument I have been describing? I find that many are caught by the devil at that point. Because they have fallen into sin they query and question their salvation, they doubt their justification, they wonder whether they have ever been Christians at all. They lose their peace and they are in a torment and an agony. They have gone back, and have started doubting their whole standing in the presence of God because of that one sin.
Any man in that position is just betraying the fact that, for the time being at any rate, he is not clear about the doctrine of justification by faith only. Because if he believes that one sin can put a man out of the right relationship to God, then he has never seen dearly that hitherto he has been in that right relationship, not because of anything in himself, but because of the Lore Jesus Christ and His perfect work. When a man says, 'Because I have sinned I have lost it', what he is really saying on the other side is, 'I had it because I was good'. He is wrong in both respects. In other words, if we see that our justification is altogether and entirely in the 'Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified', we must see that, even though we fall into sin, that is still true.
'But', you may say, 'what a dangerous doctrine!' Every doctrine is dangerous, and can be, and has been, abused. But this is the doctrine of justification by faith only. We have already been told in chapter 4: 'But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.' So we must never feel that we have lost everything because we have fallen into sin. If a man goes back over the whole question of his salvation, and his standing before God, and his relationship to God, every time he falls into sin, we must come to the conclusion that he has never clearly understood justification by faith. The Apostle surely makes it very plain to us here. 'Therefore being justified by faith', says the Authorized Version. But a better translation, the right translation is, 'Therefore having been justified by faith'. 'Having been.' It is in the Aorist tense, and the Aorist tense means that the thing has been done once and for ever. You do not have to go on being justified; it is one act. It is this declarative act of God that we have emphasized so frequently, in which He makes a declaration that because He has imputed Christ's righteousness to us, because He has already punished our sins in Christ, He pronounces us to 'be just' once and for ever. You cannot be just one day and not just the next, then again just the day after. That is impossible. This is a declarative, a forensic, a legal matter. It happens once and for ever; and therefore to query it because of sin is to display again some ignorance or uncertainty of the doctrine.
There, then, are six tests which, I suggest, we can easily and practically apply to ourselves.
Let me now make some comments. That is the statement, that is the position, but, again to be practical and helpful, certain comments are called for. Though what I have been saying is the truth with regard to justification by faith, and though it is true of everybody who is justified by faith, I still say that faith at times may have to fight. But I hasten to add that faith not only may have to fight, faith does fight, faith can fight; and faith always fights victoriously in this matter of justification. There is always the element of rest and of peace, and as we have seen, of certainty in connection with faith. Abraham we are told was 'fully persuaded that' - there is an element of knowledge and of certainty always in justifying faith. There must be, otherwise we cannot have peace with God. But at the same time faith may have to fight at times when the devil, as it were, brings up all his batteries. The greatest saints have testified that even to the end of their lives the devil would come and raise this question of justification with them and try to shake them. But faith can always deal with him, faith can always silence him. It may be a desperate fight at times, but faith can fight and faith does fight.
Let me use another illustration. Faith in this matter is remarkably like the needle of a compass, always there pointing to the magnetic north. But if you introduce a very powerful magnet at some other point of the compass it will draw the needle over to it and cause it to swing backwards and forwards and be most unstable. But it is certain that the true compass needle will get back to its true centre, it will find its place of rest in the north. It may know agitation, it may know a lot of violence, but it will go back to its centre, it always finds the place of rest, and the same thing is always true of faith. So the mere fact that we may be tempted to doubt, the mere fact that we may have to struggle and bring out all arguments, and go over the whole question again, does not mean that we have not got faith. In a sense it is a proof of faith, as long as we always arrive back at the position of rest. That is my first comment.
I am emphasizing that there is always an element of assurance of faith, but I do not mean by that, that there is always 'full' assurance of faith. There is a great phrase about the full assurance of faith in Hebrews 10, verses 19-22: 'Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, let us go in', he says, 'with full assurance of faith.' Now the assurance that I am talking about as a constant element in faith does not mean of necessity that 'full' assurance. There is a difference between assurance and full assurance. What I stipulate and postulate is that there is always some assurance. You can be a Christian, you can be justified by faith, and have an assurance of justification without knowing what Paul has in mind when he says, 'The Spirit beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God'. You can be a Christian without this full assurance of faith; but you cannot be a Christian without being justified by faith, and that always means an element of assurance, the ability always to come to a place of rest.
At times your faith may only just be able to get you to that place, but it does get there. That is assurance of faith though it is not the full assurance of faith. How many have been discouraged by that! The devil has got them into trouble because he has been able to prove to them they have not got the full assurance, and then he says, 'Well if you have not got that, you have not got anything'. Some of the Protestant Fathers were tempted to say that, but surely they were wrong; and the Puritans were certainly right at that point, as were the great leaders of the Evangelical Awakening of two hundred years ago. You can be a Christian without the full assurance of faith, but you cannot be a Christian at all without having justification by faith and the element of assurance that is involved in that doctrine.
Unfortunately I have to make a third comment. I wish that it were unnecessary. 'Being therefore justified by faith we have peace with God' - and I have described the peace. But alas, there is such a thing as a false peace; there are people who think they are at peace with God and who are not. What then are the characteristics of false peace? We have to consider this because it is in the New Testament. John says about certain people who had been in the Early Church, 'They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us' [1 John 2:19]. Take also the people described in the sixth chapter of Hebrews; they had had certain experiences but finally they are lost, they were never regenerate at all. We have to test ourselves and prove ourselves and examine ourselves, say the Scriptures, whether we are in the faith or not [2 Corinthians 13: 5]
What are the characteristics of false peace? It generally results from thinking that faith simply means believing, and giving an intellectual assent to certain propositions and truths. That was the essence of the heresy known as Sandemanianism to which I referred earlier. It is based, as the Sandemanians based it, on Romans l0: 10, 'If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus'. They taught, and teach, that any man who says, 'I believe Jesus is Lord, 1 believe He is the Son of God', is thereby saved and that all is well with his soul. But all may not be well. You can subscribe to the truth, and give an intellectual assent to it, and yet not really be saved by it. There are men who have 'a form of godliness but deny the power thereof'. Faith is not only a matter of intellect; it is deeper, as I have been trying to show in stressing the element of assurance.
Secondly, the person with a false peace is generally found to be resting on his or her faith rather than on Christ and His work. They really look at their own believing rather than at Christ and what He has done. They say, 'I now believe, therefore I must be all right'. They persuade themselves; a kind of Coueism. They are not looking to Christ; they are looking to their own faith, and they turn faith into a kind of work on which they rest.
Another characteristic of false peace is somewhat surprising and unexpected. The man who has a false peace is never troubled by doubts. But that is where the devil makes a mistake. The counterfeit is always too wonderful, the counterfeit always goes much further than the true experience. When the devil gives a man a false peace counterfeiting the true peace, he creates a condition in which the man is never troubled at all. He is in a psychological state. He does not truly face the truth, so there is nothing to make him unhappy. Let me put this in the form of a very practical question. Can you sit in an evangelistic service without being made to feel uncomfortable at all? If you can you had better examine yourself seriously. I am assuming, of course, that the Gospel is being preached truly, that it is the true evangel which starts with the wrath of God and man's helplessness. It matters not how long you may have been saved, if you are truly justified you will be made to feel unhappy, you may even be made to feel miserable temporarily, and you will thank God again for justification by faith and have to apply it to yourself. But the intellectual believers are never troubled at all, they are always perfectly at ease, without a doubt or any trouble. They say, 'Ever since I made my decision I have never had a moment's trouble'. Such talk is always indicative of a very dangerous condition, is always very suspicious because it is too good to be true.
To put it in another way, I say that this kind of person is always much too 'healthy'. The people who have this false, counterfeit peace are much too glib, much too light-hearted. Compare them with the New Testament picture of the Christian. The New Testament Christian is 'grave', 'sober', and he approaches God with 'reverence and godly fear'. But the people with the false peace know nothing of that; they are perfectly healthy, all is well, and they are supremely happy. Nothing like that is to be found in the Scriptures. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul speaking in that manner, with such glib cliches falling from his lips? His speech is, 'Knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men', and 'I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling', and 'Work out your salvation in fear and trembling'.
Another characteristic of false peace is that it is only interested in forgiveness and not in righteousness. The man who has the false peace is only interested in forgiveness. He does not want to go to Hell, and he wants to be forgiven. He has not stopped to think about being positively righteous, he is not concerned about being holy and walking in holiness before God, so he is negligent about his life, and does not pursue holiness. He does not heed that exhortation in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 'Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord' [Hebrews 12: 14]. He is an Antinomian, only interested in forgiveness, and negligent with regard to living the Christian life.
Another invariable characteristic of the man with the false peace is that when this man falls again into sin he takes it much too lightly. He is not like the person I have just been describing whose faith is shaken by Satan when he falls into sin. This man says almost as soon as he has fallen, 'It is all right, the blood of Christ covers me'. And up he gets and on he goes as if nothing had happened. You cannot do that if you have any true conception of what sin means, and what the holiness of God really is. This man with a false peace heals himself much tooquickly, much tooeasily, much too lightly. It is because he takes sin as a whole toolightly.
What are the characteristics of true peace ? They are the exact opposite of what I have just been describing. First, the man with true peace is never glib, never light-hearted. The man who is a true Christian is a man who has had a glimpse of Hell, and who knows that there is only one reason for the fact that he is not bound for it. That is always present with him, so he is never glib, never superficial, never light-hearted.
Secondly, he is a man who is always filled with a sense of wonder and amazement. He can re-echo the words of Charles Wesley:
And can it be, that I should gain
An interest in the Saviour's blood,
Died He for me, who caused His pain;
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how ran it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? This seems to me to be inevitable. The man who has true peace is a man who never ceases to be amazed that he has it, amazed at the fact that he has ever been justified at all, that God has ever looked upon him and called him by His grace.
Which leads to the next characteristic, namely, that he is humble. You remember that one of the characteristics of Abraham's faith was, 'he staggered not in unbelief at the promise of God, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God'. Go through the New Testament and you will always find that the most outstanding characteristic of the Christian is that he is humble 'poor in spirit', 'meek', 'lowly'. Realizing the truth about himself and about God, and realizing that he owes all to Christ, he is a humble man, he is a lowly man. That is another way of saying that his sense of gratitude to God and to our Lord is always prominent. There is no better index of where we stand than the amount of praise and of thanksgiving that characterizes our lives and our prayers. Some people are always offering petitions or making statements; but this man, having realized something of what God in Christ has done for him, is thanking God, is always praising God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is inevitable and incontrovertible. The man who realizes his position truly must be filled with a sense of 'wonder, love, and praise'.
Then, finally, he is a man who is always careful about his life. Not that he may be justified as the result of the carefulness; he is careful because he has been justified. Again this is quite inevitable. He does not fall back on works and try to justify himself; his position is that because of what Christ has done for him he wants to show his gratitude to Him. Realizing the terrible character of sin he wants to leave it, and in addition he is anxious to be holy and to go to Heaven. 'He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure' [I John 3: 3].
The Scriptures are full of this. Let me remind you of some great statements of this truth. I Timothy 1: 19, 'Holding faith and a good conscience'. You not only hold faith, you hold the good conscience as well, 'which some having put away, concerning faith have made shipwreck'. What a terrible statement! 'Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.' Hymenaeus and Alexander claimed to have faith, and to hold faith; but they did not 'hold the good conscience' and so 'made shipwreck'.
Then I Timothy 3: 9, 'Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience'. Faith is something which you carry in a most precious, delicate vessel because it is such a wonderful thing. Carry it, says the Apostle, 'in a pure conscience' - 'holding the faith in a pure conscience'.
And then a final quotation from Titus 3, verses 8 and 9. 'This is a faithful saying.' What has he been talking about? 'Justified by his grace', etc. 'This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou constantly affirm, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.' The man who is not careful to maintain good works is a man who is proclaiming that he has got a false sense of peace. The man who has the true peace is a man who is always careful to maintain good works. He carries his faith in a pure conscience, he holds not only the mystery of the faith but he also holds at the same time this conscience, this good conscience.

There, it seems to me, are the characteristics of true peace. Have you got it? How can one maintain it? There is only one way to maintain it; it is to be living a good deal of your life in the First Epistle of John, chapter I and the first two verses of chapter 2. That is how you maintain the peace. You have been given it: 'Having been justified by faith we have peace.' You have been given it once and for ever. The devil will come and tempt you, sin will make you shaky. Go back, go back to that section of John's First Epistle and you will find that you will be able to maintain, to preserve, and to keep your peace.

  https://www.peacemakers.net/

God and Time (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, 1899-1981)

2 Peter 3:8-9 

8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

So far in our study of this chapter we have seen that in this world we are confronted by two possible positions: we can either accept the ideas of men and their philosophies, their attempts to understand history and to explain history and to forecast the future of the world — we can either do that, or else we can believe that the Bible is the Word of God; that these prophets, to whom Peter refers, and these Apostles were men specially chosen by God, given by Him a message, and an understanding beyond human reason, and that here in this Book we have God’s account of the world and history. We must be in one of those two positions. That is the argument that Peter is working out, and you remember how, in doing so, he takes past history and shows how the scoffers are utterly mistaken. He points out how there have always been such people — before the Flood and before Sodom and Gomorrha. How confident and arrogant and assured they always are, but they have been proved to be wrong, not only by what has happened, but also by the way in which God has finally acted after a long delay. Peter ended on that great note by reminding them of the power of God.

But now, here, in these two verses he goes a step further forward. For it is not only the scoffers who are concerned about these questions; God’s people themselves know what it is to be affected by doubts and uncertainties. They believe the Gospel, they accept the Gospel and yet, as they look at the world, it does not seem to conform to what the Gospel says. Thus it comes to pass that most of these New Testament Epistles were written in order to strengthen the faith of God’s people and to comfort them. For though God’s people are not like the scoffers, though they do not put their questions in the same way, they very often put the same questions. You will find in many of the Psalms such questions as, ‘Hath God forgotten to be kind?’ In other words, the difference between God’s people and the scoffers is in the way in which they put the questions rather than in the nature of the questions. For instance you will find many times in the New Testament itself that God’s people have become discouraged. The members of the early church, at least many of them, seemed to have believed that the Lord would return immediately. They began to wonder, therefore, what was taking place — why hadn’t God done this? why didn’t God send Christ?

Well now, the position is very much the same still as we look at the modern world, as we see its godlessness and its irreligion. It is not surprising that at times we should feel like asking questions — why does God allow this? why does God tolerate it? If God has the power, why does He allow this to go on, why does He not intervene and interfere, why does He not overwhelm His enemies? He has promised to do so, why doesn’t He? That is the kind of question which the Apostle now deals with in these two verses. Here we have his answers to the church and to the Christian; not his answer to the scoffers, which we have already considered.

We can divide up his answer most conveniently under two main headings — the general answer, and the particular answer. There are certain general points here, says Peter, which we must always bear in mind. The first is that we must never be too curious about ‘the times and seasons’. I need not stay with that, because this warning about being over-concerned about dates and times and seasons is found repeatedly in the Bible. In general, the Bible tells us that we must have a great concern about the End; that we must be looking for, and waiting for, this great event which is going to wind up history; but we must never be too concerned as to the particular time, as to when it is going to happen. That seems to be the way in which the New Testament approaches this whole subject — we are to be always looking unto and waiting for and expecting the coming of the Lord, but the moment we begin to calculate and to fix when it is going to happen we involve ourselves in difficulties and troubles. Hence the warning not to be concerned about times and seasons and dates.

I do not want to stop with that now, but it is a most illuminating and interesting study to read history on this subject and to see how even good and devout and godly men have fallen into this particular trap. There were people centuries ago who felt certain that the coming of the Lord was going to take place in their time. It has always been something that has come very naturally to some people to identify certain of the symbols — Napoleon as the anti-Christ for example. When they have tried to fix times and seasons, men have always fallen into that error. We know how there were people who were certain of the significance of the war of 1914-1918, while in the last war, too, men and women were guilty of this particular fallacy and made the same identification in connection with Mussolini and Hitler. Now the answer is, that we must always expect the Lord, and yet never try to fix and determine exactly the time of His coming. For the Bible says that it will be sudden and unexpected, and known to no one.

But perhaps the most important general principle which Peter lays down here can be put like this, that we must always remember that we cannot by our very nature and constitution understand fully the mind of God. We are upon earth; we are finite. Not only that, but our minds have also been twisted and perverted as the result of sin. One of the first things we have to realise, therefore, is that we always start with this limitation as we begin to meditate upon God and His ways and His works with respect to man. ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts’ (Isaiah 55:8 and 9). That is the great principle which we find everywhere in the Bible, and we can put it in a practical form and manner. Whenever I am troubled as to God’s ways, if I cannot quite understand what is happening, if I feel that something altogether different ought to be happening; if God’s ways with respect to me personally or with respect to the world and mankind seem odd and strange, the first thing I should say to myself is that I must always remember that the trouble is probably in my mind, because God is so infinitely above me, and His mind eternal and so different that I must not expect to be able to understand. If we begin to approach these problems on the assumption that we can understand the mind of God as we understand our own mind, there, at once, is an initial fallacy. Indeed the one thing that is quite definite is that we must start with the realisation that there is this infinite qualitative difference, as the modern theologians put it, between God and ourselves — that God is in the heavens, we are upon earth. We cannot see things as He sees them.

That, then, being the general principle, let us see how Peter works it out in particular and in detail. The first point which he makes is God’s relationship to time, which he works out in the following terms.

In the first place, Peter tells us that God is altogether above time. ‘Beloved, be not ignorant of this, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.’ That is the principle; God is eternal, God is above time. We must never think of God as being involved in the time process or in the flux and movement of time and history — God is altogether above time. It is almost impossible for us to grasp such a thought and such a concept, and yet it is a very vital principle. We, being creatures of time, of necessity think in terms of time. God is altogether above and beyond and outside it, so that when we are thinking of the purposes of God, it is always dangerous to exaggerate this time element. God Himself, being eternal, is right outside it. To Him a thousand years are but as one day and one day as a thousand years. In other words, He does not live at all in the realm, or in terms of, the time process.

However, we do not stop there, obviously, because we must go on to this second statement: though God is above time, God does act in time. That is equally necessary. It is God who started the time process. God, by creating the world, began the movement of history. He Himself is outside it and above it, but He set it going. Now in that sense I suppose that the argument of the famous Deists of zoo years ago can be used as long as we do not misuse it. God is like a man making a watch or clock — He Himself is outside it, He exists without it, He is not a part of it. The watchmaker makes the watch, he winds it up, he sets it going, he is outside the process but he initiates the process, he sets the hands in motion. That may help us a little to understand the relationship of God to time. But, according to this biblical teaching, God set the process going and He keeps it going. We can even go further than that— God is controlling time and God’s actions are all worked out on a very definite plan and according to a very definite scheme. You cannot read the Bible without seeing that quite clearly and quite definitely. God made the world, and at a certain point history began. But man sinned and fell. Then God intervened. Again it seemed as if the process was going on apart from God, but then God intervened again. You notice all along how He did things — it all happened ‘in due time’ — that is a biblical term which is constantly employed. So we see that although God is above and beyond time, He still controls and acts in time. He has set the time process and the historical process going and then He comes into it; if you like, He enters into it from the outside. That still does not make God a part of the time process, but it does show His control over it and His interference with it, according to His own eternal will and counsel.

That brings us to a concrete statement of the nature of what we may call divine chronology. God acts and plans and schemes, He interferes and enforces. When does He do so? What is it that determines when God intervenes? That is the question that concerns people. Our trouble when we begin to think of time, of chronology, is that we think of clocks and calendars, of weeks and months and years. But a study of the Bible makes it abundantly plain and clear that God’s chronology must never be thought of in this way. It is always, rather, a matter of moral conditions. Let me give you some quotations from Scripture to prove what I mean. In Genesis 6:3 we read, ‘And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man.’ Now what was happening there? Well, the world had sinned and the moral conditions were getting worse and worse. God was speaking, God was upbraiding, He was condemning, and calling to repentance; but men paid no heed. So He makes this statement: the point will arrive when I will cease to strive with you and I will act. That is not a point on a calendar, it is that the moral conditions would become such that God then would act. Or take the statement in Genesis i 5:16, ‘For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.’ God will only act when the iniquity is full. Take again the words from the New Testament: ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute; that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation.’ The prophets had been killed centuries before, but the punishment comes when the iniquity has reached a certain level. Then take the phrase, ‘until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled’, and ‘this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, and then shall come the end’. When is the end going to come? It is obviously not a certain date on a calendar, it is when the Gospel shall have been preached to all nations and amongst all people —‘then cometh the end.’ When did Christ come into the world? ‘When the fulness of the time was come’ — when the conditions were such that God said: This is the time. Again, ‘in due time Christ died for the ungodly’. When will the end of the world be? It will not be until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, until God has gathered out His people from amongst the Gentile nations — it will not happen until then. Now that is the biblical teaching on divine chronology.

Let us therefore get rid of all these ideas of dates and calendars, and let us realise that what determines God’s intervention in the time process is the matter of moral conditions. What is much more important than any particular date is the moral state and condition of the world today; for Scripture makes it very plain that before the end there will be a terrible apostasy. But we must be careful, for men have often said before, ‘This is the last great apostasy’. We must not again try to fix the exact time of the end, but we should be made to think, as we see the falling away from God and the arrogance and the active godlessness and irreligion. We should be made to think of these things because we are told that just before the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the moral conditions will be such that there will be this great apostasy and sin and iniquity will be revealed. Let us therefore, keep our eyes on the moral conditions rather than on the dates, because that is what seems clearly to be the teaching of the Bible with respect to the nature of divine chronology.

Peter then moves on to the second principle, which I am just going to note. It is the principle of God’s righteousness. Having pointed out that although God is thus outside the time process, He nevertheless interferes in it, Peter goes on to say, ‘The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward.’ Let me put it like this. When we are troubled about these things, we must not only remember that we cannot understand the mind of God, that this whole question of time is not to God what it is to us; we must also hold tenaciously and without wavering to the principle that God is righteous. In other words, whatever else may be the explanation of the things that trouble us, it is not anything unworthy in the character of God. When we see the world as it is today, or as it has been in previous ages, and God does not seem to act, the temptation, suggested to us by the Devil, is to ask, ‘Is God unconcerned that the ungodly are thus being allowed to flourish?’ Now I say there is only one way to answer that, and it is to say, ‘The Lord is not slack.’ Whatever else it is, it is not any unrighteousness in God. It is not that God is unconcerned. We can be certain and sure at this moment that what God has said, God will perform. His promises are absolute, they are sure, they are certain. God’s righteousness is something that cannot vary, it is one of those absolutes which I must never attempt to quibble about. What God has said, God will perform, and we can be sure that the ungodly and the unrighteous shall be brought to judgment, shall be brought to punishment. ‘The heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing; yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.’ That is the biblical answer.

Christian people, let us comfort ourselves as we think of that great principle. Because we are Christian we may be called upon to suffer at a time like this. The world may laugh and mock, and it may seem to be very successful as it does so, but as certainly and as truly as we are alive at this moment, the unrighteous and the ungodly will have to answer for their every word, and those who have been faithful to the Lord will receive the ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant’. The Lord is righteous, the Lord is ‘not slack’, there is no slackening in God, there is no moral slackness; the utter, absolute righteousness of God remains. Let us hold on to that whether we understand what is happening or not.

Then lastly, there is this wonderful principle of God’s long-suffering. ‘The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’ This is a difficult statement. It is a difficult statement theologically, and it has led to much argument and disputation. If I may say so in passing, it is generally one of those stock quotations which are always brought forward whenever people are discussing election and predestination. But to look at it in that way is rather to miss the point which Peter is making. It seems to me that Peter’s point is this, that a part of the explanation of what seems to us to be a delay is God’s long-suffering. This we can be certain of, that God does not wish that any should perish (I did not say ‘will’, I said ‘wish’, for the word translated ‘will’ should really be translated ‘wish’). Whatever God wills inevitably comes to pass —there is a difference between God willing and God wishing a thing, and what Peter says is that God does not wish that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. God takes no delight in the death of the ungodly; that is why, Peter says, He delays His action. That is something which we can illustrate from Old Testament history. Did you notice the times before the flood — how God seemed not to act for one hundred and twenty years? There was Noah preaching to those people. Why didn’t God destroy them at the beginning, you ask? Ah, that is the long-suffering of God. God by thus holding back His hand does not wish that the ungodly should perish. God always warns before He strikes, and if you read your Old Testament history again from this standpoint, it will amaze you more and more to notice the extraordinary patience of God. Look how He waited before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha. Look especially at His patience with the children of Israel when they laughed at Him and insulted Him and turned their backs upon Him. God sent them that succession of Prophets — the long-suffering of God! Oh, let us not ask our questions as to why God delays. It is this amazing patience and long-suffering of God.

Then look at it in terms of the centuries that passed before Christ came — why that long apparent delay? To me there is only one answer: it was God, as it were, showing the ancient world how it could not save itself apart from His action. Man always claims that he can put himself right — God gave the nation a law and said, If you can keep that law it will save you. They felt confident they could do so and God gave them all those centuries just to show them that they could not. It is this long-suffering of God that leaves the world without an excuse or a plea. And that, according to the Apostle Peter, is the explanation of why the Lord has not returned before this particular point in history. The world is being given a chance, an opportunity; Christ is preached, the Gospel is offered; all these years are passing and the offer is being made. So it works out like this. When the end shall come, and when the final judgment shall take place, all men and women who have ever lived shall be raised to stand there before God in judgment, and then this delay will in itself be the one thing that will finally condemn them. The world will be left without an excuse. God will be able to say, ‘The Gospel was preached, Christ was offered to you and throughout all these long centuries I waited, I delayed, I gave you the opportunity.’ The righteousness of God will be revealed. The world will be left without a vestige of an excuse. Thank God that there has been this delay. Where would you and I have been had it not been for it? The long-suffering and the patience of God! ‘The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance,’ says Paul. And again at the end of this chapter we find Peter saying once more, ‘Account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation.’

That then seems to me to be the Apostle Peter’s answer to the Christian who is troubled about the conditions, and who sometimes is tempted to query and question with regard to the delay. Remember that we are dealing with God and not with man. Remember His eternity. Remember His relationship to time. Remember the utter righteousness and holiness of God. Remember His love, His mercy, His compassion. We are in time, and let us confess it, we are far too much like James and John. You remember our Lord sent them one day to prepare His way for Him. They went into a city of the Samaritans who would not receive them, and you remember how James and John said unto our Lord, ‘Shall we call down fire from heaven to consume and destroy them?’ If you and I controlled this world, no doubt it would be like that — we would bring in immediate judgment. But the reply was, ‘Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of, for the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.’ ‘The Lord is not slack’, but He does not wish that any should perish, but that all should come into this blessed knowledge of salvation.

Let us then submit unto God and His absolute wisdom, and especially to His love and mercy, His long-suffering and compassion. The ways of God are certain and are sure. We cannot understand them now, but in His own good time we shall understand all things.

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Family Prayers (John MacDuff, 1885)

CHOICE EXCERPTS We look forward with joyful hearts to that better world, where we shall have no contrariety of mind to You, when we shall be with You, and like You; serving You without distraction; and where sin and sorrow will be no more felt or dreaded. * * * * * * The shadows of night have again fallen around us in peace. We thank You for the continuance of health and strength, and many outward blessings. We thank You for the crowning mercy of all--Jesus, Your unspeakable gift! Thousands of needy, outcast sinners have repaired to Him, yet still the Fountain of His grace is as free as ever. This is still His name and memorial, "Mighty to save!" Lord, we come to You, with all our sins, casting ourselves on His infinite and all-sufficient righteousness. Wash every guilty stain away. * * * * * * There is not a corruption we have within us, which Your grace is unable to subdue. There is not a cross or trial, or care, but Your grace will enable us to endure. It is Your all-powerful grace alone which, from hour to hour, averts from us temptations we could have no strength in ourselves to resist. Hold us up--and then alone we shall be safe. To You we look for everything. * * * * * * May we view every dark providence as an errand of love in disguise--a messenger sent from the Eternal Throne, to minister to us, who are heirs of salvation. May we live as pilgrims on the earth. * * * * * * Whatever Your leadings may be, let us cheerfully confide in their wisdom and faithfulness. We are poor judges of what is good for us, but we can trust You in all things--in what is great and what is small; what is dark and what is bright; what is joyous and what is grievous. We rejoice that all is in Your hands, and all is for the best! * * * * * * May we ever regard sin as our greatest trial. When temptation assails us, grant us power to resist it. May our lives, our tempers, our affections, our desires--be regulated by the example of our divine Lord and Master. Give us His meekness of spirit--which no provocation could ruffle. Give us His forgiveness of injuries--amid ingratitude and scorn. Give us His calm, unmurmuring submission to Your holy will. * * * * * * We bless You especially for the tokens of Your mercy in Jesus. We bless You for His full, free, everlasting Redemption. Oh set us in the Clefts of the Rock—and hide us there! Let us feel the all-sufficiency and security of His covenant love. For our infinite need--there is Your infinite fullness! For our infinite danger--there is Your infinite salvation! Lord, give us grace to live worthy of our high calling. Enable us to adorn the doctrine of our God and Savior. Let His love be the animating principle in our actions. Let our chief delight be to serve Him. May our greatest pain be to vex and grieve Him. May our affections be more elevated--our eye more single--our lives more consistent--true religion more the one thing needful. * * * * * * May we rest in the confident persuasion that You do all things well--and nothing but what is well. Enable us to exercise a child-like acquiescence in all Your dealings. These may at times be mysterious; but when Your purposes of love are at last unfolded, we shall dwell with adoring gratitude on all the way by which You have led us. Give us grace, meanwhile, to be living as dying creatures. Let us never forget our pilgrim character, nor dream away, in guilty unconcern, our fleeting moments. Enable us to take You as the strength of our hearts and our portion forever. Keep us from the absorbing power of earthly things. May . . . Your Spirit be our teacher; Your Word be our guide; Your sovereign will be our motive; Your glory be our ultimate end. * * * * * * Enable us to rely on Your guiding arm, and to merge our wills in Yours. Hold us up--and we shall be safe. O God, forbid that, in the midst of earth's cares and pursuits, we should ever lose sight of our immortal destinies. Let us imbibe more of the pilgrim spirit; having our eye upwards, and our footsteps onwards. Give us grace to manifest the power of a holy life. * * * * * * We desire to make acknowledgment of our unworthiness and guilt. We will not cloak nor disguise our manifold and multiplied transgressions. Discover to us the depths of our depravity; unveil to us the secret pride and selfishness and worldliness of our hearts. Deliver us from our besetting sins. Let us see our vileness—in the cross of Your dear Son. * * * * * * We renounce all dependence on ourselves. Wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked—we take Jesus as all our salvation and all our desire. * * * * * * May we seek in every providence to hear Your voice; and in every event to read Your will. May we live conscious of the predominating motive of love to You. May we feel Your favor lightening every cross and lessening every care. * * * * * * May all our duties be gladdened with a sense of Your presence and love. May we have a single eye in all we think, and say, and do—to the glory of our adorable Redeemer. As pilgrims and strangers on the earth, may we declare plainly that we seek a better country. * * * * * * We rejoice to believe that we are entirely in Your keeping. If You send us prosperity, Lord, hallow it. If You send us adversity, Lord, sanctify it. May all things work together for our good. We put ourselves, blessed God, into Your hands. * * * * * * Sanctify affliction to all in sorrow. Let Your suffering people rejoice in the assurance that Your chastisements are the dealings of a Father; that the furnace is lighted to purge away the dross, and refine and purify for glory. Direct, control, suggest, this day, all our thoughts, purposes, designs, and actions—that we may consecrate soul and body, with all their powers, to the glory of Your holy name. And all that we ask or hope for, is for the Redeemer's sake. Amen. * * * * * * We come, acknowledging, that it is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed. We are nothing and we have nothing. By nature and by wicked works, we could expect nothing but indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish. Each day is a witness against us. We confess our proneness to depart from You, the living God. We confess our reluctance to render to You the tribute of our undivided homage and love. Lord, we bring our sins and lay them on Him, who, as our Surety-Substitute, was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. We bring our weakness to His Almighty strength. We bring our insufficiency, that we may receive from Him, the promised "all sufficiency in all things." We rejoice, blessed Savior, to think of You, as sympathizing with us in all our trials and perplexities and temptations; keeping us as the apple of Your eye, and feeling what is done to Your people as if it were done to Yourself. * * * * * * Enable us to repose in the infinite fullness of Your grace and mercy; to experience the blessedness of an unreserved, unwavering trust and confidence in Your dealings. Let us confide to You the allotment of all that befalls us. Let us harbor no suspicions of Your faithfulness or love. Let us commit the unknown future to Your better wisdom, saying, "Teach us the way wherein we shall walk, for we lift our souls unto You." * * * * * * May we walk in the light of Your countenance. Your favor is life. Nothing but the possession of Your infinite love can satisfy the longings of our souls. Whom have we in heaven, O God, but You? and there is none upon earth we would desire besides You. * * * * * * The Lord reigns! Nothing befalls us but what is the dictate of infinite wisdom and everlasting love! Let every heavy-laden one know that it is Your gracious hand that appoints every burden. Often would we choose what would be detrimental to our best interests. You choose for us. Let us rejoice in You as a rich Provider, and an all-wise Provider; who will give us nothing, and deny us nothing, but what is for our good. May all Your poor afflicted ones take refuge in the assurance that You are the God of Providence; that whatever befalls them is Your doing; and that the sunshine of Your countenance can make up for every loss. O Source of all consolation, draw near to the afflicted. Abundantly sanctify Your dealings. * * * * * * We desire anew this night to repair to His cross. We disown all trust in ourselves. Other refuge, other righteousness, we have none, and we need none. We cleave, in simple dependence, to the work of Jesus. We are safe only when clinging to the horns of the blood-besprinkled altar. * * * * * * Every blessing, temporal and spiritual, we desire to connect with Your favor. Every rivulet of providential or gracious mercy--we would trace to Yourself—its great fountain-head. Every cross and loss we would submit to—as the appointment of Your wisdom. We would tread the roughest path--if You lead us there! May all Your dealings toward us issue in our sanctification. May our hearts be becoming holier and purer. Transform us more from day to day, and from week to week—into the image of Your Son. * * * * * * Through another night, be pleased to grant us Your guardian care. Shepherd of Israel, may Your wakeful, sleepless eye be upon us. May the shadows of this night's darkness be to us only as the shadow of Your wings. Shield soul and body by Your mighty power. Lying down in Your fear, may we awake in Your favor, fitted for the duties of a new day. All this we ask for the sake of Jesus Christ, our only Savior. Amen. * * * * * * Preserve us from the snares of a wicked world. Strengthen us in seasons of weakness. Protect us in the hour of temptation. * * * * * * Never for a solitary moment, have You withdrawn Your hand of love from us. Take these hearts of ours and make them Yours. May our inmost thoughts, and desires, and purposes—be dedicated to Your glory. Pour Your rich grace into our hearts. Let us not fall a prey to the allurements and enticements of this present evil world; but may we walk as seeing You, who is invisible. * * * * * * God of all consolation, bind up their wounds. Keep them from a murmuring spirit, under dark dispensations. Let them know and believe—that infinite love is in all Your arrangements—that finite wisdom has no place in Your chastisements—that He with whom they have to do, cannot do wrong. Lord, give us all this lowly spirit of submission to Your will. Whether You chasten us, or gladden us; whether prosperity or adversity be our portion--oh bring us nearer Yourself! May Your dealings serve to trim the lamp of faith and keep it brightly burning. * * * * * * O Lord our God, we desire to bow this night at the footstool of Your Throne, adoring You for all Your great goodness. What are we--that we should be permitted to come into Your presence, or take Your thrice blessed name into our sinful and polluted lips? You have not dealt with us after our sins—but according to Your rich and undeserved mercy. What mercy it is in You—to bend Your ear to our feeble lispings of praise, and to listen to the pleadings of such unthankful and unholy hearts. We could not have ventured to approach Your footstool--but for Your great love to us in Christ Jesus. Through Him alone it is, that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts are rendered acceptable in Your sight! In Him we are pardoned, justified, adopted, saved! In Him we are kept, sanctified, sealed. In Him we shall at last be presented without fault before Your throne. Blessed Savior, we may well entrust our eternal all to Your keeping. Our needs are numberless, but Your help is infinite! You are waiting to dispense needed grace, for every time of need. Lord, we feel that we require grace for everything! There is not the hour or moment we can live independent of You. Carry on Your own work within us. Hold us up--and then alone we shall be safe. * * * * * * Most Blessed God, You have again permitted us to see the beginning of another day. We desire to accept every new morning as a fresh gift of Your love. We are the constant beggars on Your bounty. If Your sustaining arm be withdrawn--we instantly perish. We rejoice to look back on the way by which You have hitherto led us; protecting us from danger, supporting us in trouble, disappointing our fears, and realizing our hopes. * * * * * * It is our desire, blessed God, to lie passive in Your hands. Whether prosperity or adversity be ours, whether You chasten us or gladden us--oh bring us nearer Yourself. When we cannot understand Your dealings—may faith repose in Your unchanging faithfulness. May we feel assured that all things are working together for our good; and that what is mystery here--will be unfolded and unraveled hereafter. Now, we see through a glass darkly—but then face to face. Meanwhile, may we walk less by sight and more by faith. May we bow to Your will. Let us see no hand in our trials but Yours; while we say, in lowly submissiveness, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has a sovereign right to take away." May we cheerfully submit to whatever You see fit to appoint. May we murmur at nothing that brings us nearer to You. Loving You supremely, take what You will away--we must be happy. * * * * * * Make us like Jesus--patient and meek, thankful and forgiving. Take away all pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy--all absorbing love of the world. Set our affections on things above. * * * * * * O Lord, we desire to draw near into Your gracious presence, in the name of Him whom You hear always, and in whom You are ever well pleased. Give us grace to approach You, under a deep sense of our unworthiness. We have nothing to plead in extenuation of our guilt. We have sinned against light and privilege, warning and mercy. We mourn our deep-rooted depravity, our constant proneness to depart from You, the feebleness of our faith, the coldness of our love, the imperfection of our best services, the mingled motives in our holiest duties. We come anew, casting ourselves on the infinite fullness of our adorable Redeemer. In Him is all our hope. Give us, out of His inexhaustible treasury, grace upon grace. Transform us into His image. May we seek to walk in His footsteps, and to copy His example. * * * * * * All that we are, and all that we have, is derived from You. There is nothing we possess that we have not received from You. Oh give us grateful hearts; feeling that the least blessing we enjoy—is unmerited on our part, and a gift of free grace on Yours. * * * * * * Enable us to feel our sins—to have a deep and heartfelt consciousness of their heinousness in Your sight. We are apt to cloak and mask them; we are reluctant to make a frank and unreserved confession of them all. Lord, give us grace, in true penitence and contrition of heart, to cast ourselves—all unworthy—on the infinite worthiness of Him who is all-worthy. For His sake, receive us graciously--love us freely. We rejoice to meditate on the love which He had for us from all eternity. We rejoice to think that it is the same at this hour that it was then—unchanging, everlasting. * * * * * * Lord, subdue within us whatever is inconsistent with Your mind and will. Put a sanctified restraint on our thoughts. Repress all vain imaginations. Crucify every remaining sin. May our hearts become holy temples, and our lives living sacrifices. * * * * * * We commend all belonging to us to Your sovereign care. May Your love reign paramount within us--may there be no competing affection. May we seek to show by our pure lives and consistent walk—that we have been imbibing the Savior's spirit. Take these unworthy, erring hearts—sanctify and seal them for Yourself. Make them Yours—Yours only, and Yours wholly, and Yours forever! * * * * * * Let us live as the expectants of a glorious immortality. Lord, may we habitually remember, that here we are pilgrims and strangers. Oh be our constant Guide in all our journeyings. Let us never go but where You direct. Let us never hesitate when and where You call us. Let us not arraign the allotments of Your infinite love. May we feel that all the circumstances of life---its joys and its sorrows--its comforts and crosses--are ordained by You in adorable wisdom. Our way might have been hedged up with thorns, but it has been full of mercy. * * * * * * Lord, we mourn over our dullness, and coldness, and lukewarmness. We look forward to that day, when there shall be nothing to mar the joy of entire and undivided devotion to you, and consecration to Your service. * * * * * * O God, we come into Your blessed presence this evening, anew to thank You for the unmerited tokens of Your love and mercy. On You we are dependent for all the temporal bounties of our lot, and for all our higher and more enduring spiritual privileges. If we have been enabled this day to resist temptation, and to fight against sin, it is Your grace which has enabled us to do so. We are weak and helpless. Our hearts are ever dealing treacherously both with ourselves and You. The good that we would do--that we don't do. And the evil that we would not do--that we do. Nothing else but the merits of our blessed Redeemer can save us. We take refuge in the fullness of His grace—in the completeness of His finished work. Our souls would magnify the Lord, our spirits would rejoice in God our Savior; for He who is mighty has done great things for us--holy is His name. * * * * * * We take refuge anew at the foot of Your cross, bringing our infinite unworthiness to Your infinite merit and all-sufficiency. Wash us, blessed Savior, in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. Receive us graciously. Love us freely. Preserve against the world's snares, and dangers, and temptations. * * * * * * May all worldly thoughts, and cares, and disquietudes, be laid aside, that we may enjoy a foretaste of the everlasting blessedness which is at Your right hand. We come, gracious Lord, relying on Your mercy and love in Jesus. We would direct the undivided eye of faith to His finished salvation; rejoicing that it is as free as ever, and as efficacious as ever. * * * * * * Fill us with a deep and humbling sense of our guilt. May we mourn an erring past, and receive grace for an unknown future. We would seek this day anew to enkindle our love at Your holy altar. Inspire us with resolutions of new obedience. May we no longer live unto ourselves—to the world—to the creature—to sin. May the great Creator and the adorable Redeemer occupy, without a rival, the throne of our affections! * * * * * * We approach You, acknowledging our great unworthiness. Fill us with a deep sense of our guilt. We have not the humbling consciousness we ought to have of our exceeding vileness. We are apt to plead vain excuses for our sins. Forgive us, O Lord—forgive us all, for Your dear Son's sake. Wash these crimson and scarlet stains away, in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. Blessed Lord, make these unworthy hearts of ours Your temple—holy altars of gratitude and love. May our lives form a continued thank-offering for Your manifold mercies. May we count it our highest privilege, as well as our sacred duty, to walk so as to please You. * * * * * * Almighty God, we desire, on this the morning of a new day, to approach the footstool of Your Throne of grace. You are glorious in Your holiness, fearful in praises, continually doing wonders. Your eternity, no finite mind can fathom. Your purposes no accident can alter. Your love no time can impair. We adore You as the God of our life; moment by moment we are dependent on Your goodness; if You withdraw Your hand, we perish. And yet, O Lord, we have not been living habitually mindful of You. We have too often taken our blessings as matters of course. We have had unthankful hearts in the midst of Your daily tokens of unmerited mercy. Above all, we have been living in guilty forgetfulness of Your dear Son. We have not been remembering as we ought, that but for Him and His wondrous grace, we must have perished everlastingly! We have not felt, as we ought, the attractive power of His cross. Other lords have had dominion over us. Your love, which ought to have reigned paramount, has been displaced by other affections. We have been "minding earthly things;" too often anxious, and troubled, and concerned—about things that will perish with the very using. Lord, have mercy upon us. Melt our hard and obdurate hearts; renew them by the indwelling of Your gracious Spirit. * * * * * * All our hope is in Jesus. Help us, blessed Savior, else we die! Give us to see the adaptation of Your character and work to all the wants and weaknesses the trials and difficulties—the sorrows and sins of our fallen and suffering and tempted natures. There is infinite merit in You to meet all the magnitude of our infinite guilt. May we exhibit more willingness to renounce all dependence on ourselves, that You may be enthroned in our hearts, as Lord of all. Make us more heavenly minded—more pilgrim-like. Our graces are feeble—-Lord, sustain them. Our affections are lukewarm—Lord, revive them. Search us—try us—lead us. Use whatever discipline You see best: may it all result in our growing sanctification, in endearing to us Your favor, and bringing us to live under a more constant and realizing sense of the things which cannot be shaken. * * * * * * O Lord, our Heavenly Father, by whose good providence we are spared from day to day—enable us to come this night into Your presence, with hearts filled with gratitude and thankfulness for all Your mercies. We would be deeply humbled on account of our unworthiness. What are we—that we should be permitted to take Your name into our polluted lips? We have sinned—what shall we say unto You, O preserver and Redeemer of men? We have erred and strayed from Your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and the desires of our own hearts unto evil. We have been rebellious, and wayward, and selfish, and unthankful. We have been living in the enjoyment of countless blessings without any due acknowledgment of Your giving hand. Your kindness has too often been abused, Your grace resisted. We have been worshiping and serving the creature more than the Creator, who is God over all, blessed forevermore. Lord, we flee anew to the clefts of the Smitten Rock—hide us there, from that wrath and everlasting condemnation which these our manifold sins have justly merited. * * * * * * What encouragement we have to trust Your love and mercy! We can fear no evil when You are with us. We rejoice that we are in Your hands; that all that our concerns are at Your disposal. Enable us to rest, in calm composure, in Your infinite wisdom. Give us lowliness and gentleness; kindness and unselfishness. May our own wills be merged in the higher will of our Father in Heaven. Whatever be the discipline You employ, may we meekly submit to it. May we watch all Your varied teachings, and get profit and sanctification out of them all. May they bring us nearer Heaven and nearer You. * * * * * * O Lord, we desire to draw near into Your blessed presence on this the beginning of a new day. Accept of our morning sacrifice. Enkindle our souls with a live coal from the inner sanctuary. Throughout the day may our minds be stayed on You. May a sense of Your favor and love be intermingled with all its duties—hallowing all its pleasures, and softening all its trials. Lord, we have received our being from Your hands; may the lives imparted by You, and sustained by You, be consecrated to Your praise. May we feel the happiness of Your service, and regard nothing that this world can give, as comparable to the enjoyment of Your friendship and love. We thank You, above all, for the provisions of the everlasting covenant. Gracious Savior, Shepherd, Guide, and Portion of Your people—give us the assured sense of pardon and forgiveness through the blood of the Cross. May we have no trust in anything but in Your matchless work. May simple faith be followed by holy obedience. May we know the blessedness of a holy life; of affections once alienated from God, now alienated from the world. May no spiritual foe be permitted to obtain the victory over us. May no idol to usurp Your place in our souls. * * * * * * We adore You, gracious God, as the source of all our happiness—the Author of all our blessings. Forbid that we should allow any created good to dispossess Yourself from the supreme place in our affections. May our one animating wish and longing be—to live, and walk, and act, so as to please You. * * * * * * What are our lives—but testimonies to Divine faithfulness? We look back with gratitude and thankfulness on a wondrous past—the innumerable mercies which have been showered upon us, and that, too, in the midst of our ingratitude and sin. Bless the Lord, O our souls, and forget not all His benefits! Where would we now have been, but for Your great love to us in Christ! On Him our every hope of pardon and acceptance is built. * * * * * * Lord, enable us to manifest our love to You, by a holy walk and life, adorning the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Give us a tender conscience, a broken spirit, filial nearness, purity of heart, consistency of conduct, uprightness of life. Bring us under the power of renewed natures and purified affections. May all that is earthly and carnal, all that is unamiable and selfish, all that is unkind and unholy—be displaced by what is pure, elevated, lovely, and holy. Above all, may we live under the influence of unseen realities. With our faces Zionwards, may we feel that our true home is above. * * * * * * May Your sorrowing people be enabled to trust You in the dark. May they look forward to that joyous period when they shall come to stand in Your presence, and trace for themselves all the wisdom of Your now inscrutable dealings. * * * * * * Most Blessed God, we desire to approach Your sacred presence on this, the close of another day. Let our prayer come before You as incense, and the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Enable us to have a realizing view of Your Divine Majesty. Glory be to Your Holy Name, that though Heaven is Your dwelling-place, You condescend also to make every lowly heart Your habitation. Though You are the greatest of all Beings, You are the kindest of all, and the best of all. We come, weak and helpless and burdened, to that cross where alone there is shelter and peace for the guilty. We will not cloak nor mask our manifold sins and wickedness before the face of You, Almighty God, our Heavenly Father. We would confess them with a humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart. May Your love exercise a paramount influence over us. * * * * * * We come, poor and needy, pleading Your own gracious promise, to give "all sufficiency in all things" to those who seek You. We have no offering of our own to present at Your footstool—we have everything to receive. There is nothing between us and everlasting destruction—but Your mercy in Jesus. Wandering in the wilderness, in a solitary way, hungry and thirsty, our souls fainting within us—we would drink of the streams of abundant grace which flow from the Smitten Rock. Bring us to live, more and more every day, under the constraining influence of Your love. * * * * * * Give us fresh victories over our secret corruptions. May the power of evil wax weaker and weaker; and the power of Your grace wax stronger and stronger. May we know, by joyful experience, the happiness of true holiness. * * * * * * Give us reverential and child-like submission to Your will. The lot may be cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Finite wisdom has no place in Your dealings. Not only are all things ordained by You, but ordained in ineffable wisdom and love. May the end of Your dispensations be our growing sanctification. * * * * * * O God, You are great—and greatly to be feared. Your greatness is unsearchable. Heaven is Your throne—the earth is Your footstool. Before You, cherubim and seraphim continually cry—'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty!' Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Your glory. You are the sovereign controller of all events. You do according to Your will in the armies of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. The Lord reigns. Man proposes—but You dispose! And You dispose wisely and well. * * * * * * Whatever be the sphere in which Your good providence has placed us, may it be our earnest endeavor to use our time, and talents, and opportunities for You. May it be our highest desire—to walk so as to please You. May it be our heaviest cross and trial—to incur Your displeasure. In the performance of every-day duties, let us seek to make this the directory of our conduct, "How would Jesus have acted here?" * * * * * * We come anew to You this night, weary and heavy-laden, beseeching You to grant us the blessed sense of Your forgiving mercy. We lament that we do not feel, as we ought to do—the burden of sin. Bring us in poverty of soul—in self-denying, self-renouncing lowliness, to cry out, "God be merciful to us, sinners." Show us the infinite adaptation of the Redeemer, in His Person and work, to meet all the necessities of our tried and tempted natures. May His name be as ointment poured forth. May His blood be our only plea—His love our animating principle—His glory our chief end. * * * * * * In Christ we are as secure as everlasting power and wisdom and love can make us! * * * * * * How, Lord, shall we come into Your presence? Our very prayers are enough to condemn us. Our purest services, if weighed in the balances, would rise up in judgment against us. We come anew in the name of Your dear Son, confessing, and desiring deeply to feel as we confess—that we are sinners and the chief of sinners. We look to Your grace abounding over all our sin—to Your infinite merit abounding over our infinite demerit—to the everlasting righteousness and faithfulness of a tried Redeemer, coming in the room of our imperfections. We would place all our sins on the head of the immaculate Substitute. He alone can bear them away into a land of oblivion, so that they can rise up to condemn us no more. We bless You that He ever lives and reigns for our justification. We rejoice to think of Him as our Great High Priest, with the names of His covenant people engraved on His heart, bearing them along with Him in His every approach to the throne. All power in Heaven and in earth is entrusted to His hands! * * * * * * We desire anew to bless and praise You for Your unspeakable gift—Jesus, the Son of Your love. There is not a ray of hope which visits our souls—but emanates from His cross. He is the channel of every blessing. We rejoice to think that at this moment He is bending upon us a gracious eye from the Throne, and, with undying and undiminished love, pleading our cause. Lord, we come, casting ourselves on the fullness of Your grace in Him. * * * * * * May even trials and crosses become easy to us, when borne in a spirit of tranquil submission. Let us be living as pilgrims on the earth—weaned from what is uncertain and transitory here—and having our affections fixed on the things which cannot be shaken, but remain forever. Oh that Your love might be enthroned more than it is, as the ruling passion of our souls—and Your glory more the end and aim of our being. We adore you for Your free, sovereign, unmerited love in Jesus! * * * * * * We often confess with the lip—what the heart does not feel. We often appear to be humble, when we are not humble—when our hearts are full of self, and pride, and vainglory. We desire to come anew into Your presence, casting ourselves on the free grace, and love, and mercy of Jesus. We rejoice that in His cross all Your attributes have been magnified. * * * * * * Known unto You are all our varied circumstances, our peculiar trials, and temptations, and perplexities. Our every burden we cast on a faithful God. Our souls, our lives, our cares—we leave entirely in Your hands, saying, "Undertake for us." * * * * * * It is in the name, and trusting in the merits of Your dear Son alone, that we can have any confidence in approaching You. We rejoice that we have always a safe shelter at the foot of His cross. We rejoice that there, every attribute of Your nature, and every requirement of Your law, have been vindicated and magnified. Myriads are now in glory to bear witness to the power and love of an all-gracious Savior. Save us, else we perish! There is not a sin but You can cancel—there is not the unsanctified heart which Your promised Spirit is unable to convert into a Temple of the living God. Keep us from evil; preserve us from temptation. * * * * * * May our weakness drive us to Almighty strength. Keep us, by Your grace, from an uneven walk, from inconsistency of conduct. May we be gentle, and lowly, meek, and forgiving. May we overcome evil with good. * * * * * * We pray for all in sorrow—may they look to the hand which was pierced for them, to bind up their bleeding wounds. May He who graciously said of old, "I know their sorrows," be near, with His own exalted sympathy, to minister to their varied experiences of trial. * * * * * * Give us grace to look away from our guilty selves and our guilty doings—to Him who has done all and suffered all, and procured all for us! Give us a deep and abiding sense of our vileness and unworthiness. May every sin which has usurped the throne of our affections be cast down, that God Himself may be our all in all. May we seek to imbibe more of the spirit, and to copy more of the example, of our Divine Redeemer. May we feel it to be our joy to serve Him, our privilege to follow Him, our sorrow to vex and grieve Him. * * * * * * O Lord, we desire to approach the footstool of Your Throne, adoring You as the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, who neither faints, nor is weary. Your wisdom never fails. Your resources never exhaust. The kindness of the kindest knows a limit, but Your kindness knows no limit. With Your friendship, and favor, and blessing—we are rich—whatever else You may take away. * * * * * * We come unto You this morning in the name of Your dear Son. Our sins reach unto the clouds. Blessed Savior, we would bury all our transgressions in the depths of Your forgiving mercy. We seek no other refuge, and need no other refuge—but You. Relying on Your finished work, we can look calm and undismayed on the unknown future. We can cast all our cares, as they arise, upon You, feeling not only that You care for us—but that You make these cares Your own. * * * * * * During the past day, You have been compassing our path—shielding us from danger, and guarding us from temptation. None is so able, none is so willing, as You are—to befriend and guide us in every perplexity. We can experience no real deprivation, and mourn no real loss—if we have You. May we ever be near the atoning fountain; continually hidden in the clefts of the Rock. * * * * * * We have nothing of our own but our sins; all that is good in us comes from Jesus. Have mercy upon us, for His sake, in whom You see no iniquity. * * * * * * We desire to take Jesus as our pattern in all things. When in need of direction or guidance in any duty, or under any perplexity—may this be ever our inquiry, "How would the Savior have acted here?" May we imbibe His unselfish spirit. May life be a more constant effort than it has been, to crucify self and to please God. * * * * * * Sanctify sorrow to the sons and daughters of affliction. Let them not murmur under Your Fatherly chastisements. Let them own Your Sovereignty, and take comfort in the thought that You do all things well; seeing no hand but Yours in the bestowing and removing the gifts of Your bounty. "The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad!" * * * * * * How unworthy are we to come to Your footstool. There is enough of coldness in our prayers, of insincerity in our repentance, of imperfection in our best attempts to serve You—that were we tried by these, we must have perished forever! Our prayers themselves require forgiveness. In You alone are our persons and our services rendered acceptable. We flee to the foot of Your cross. Here we are safe, though everywhere else we be in danger. Let us exercise a simple confidence and trust in Your completed work. We bring every sin to Your atoning blood. May we have You in all, and for all the duties and difficulties and trials of life. * * * * * * Your thoughts are not as man's thoughts. Had they been so, the sinner, with all his deep depravity, and unutterable vileness, and base ingratitude, would not have been thus welcomed, pardoned, accepted, loved. Bring us to live more constantly and habitually under the constraining influence of Your Redeeming love. May these souls of ours, ransomed at such a price—be dedicated to Your service. * * * * * * Keep us from pride—the master passion of our fallen and corrupted natures. * * * * * * Our wishes, our desires, our interests, our joys, our sorrows, our friends—we leave entirely to Your sovereign care and disposal. * * * * * * May we be melted under a sense of our own great unworthiness, and of His amazing love. * * * * * * May sin be more dreaded, and holiness more loved. * * * * * * Lord, break the world's alluring spell; strip it of its vain fascinations! May we give evidence to all, that we are living under the power and influence of gospel principles and renewed affections. And even though trial and sorrow should at times be our allotted portion, may we seek to show that the grace of God can impart an inner sunshine which no outward darkness can obscure. May we increasingly experience—that the way of holiness is the way of happiness. * * * * * * O Eternal, Everlasting God, Fountain of all happiness, God of all grace--we desire to acknowledge anew with grateful hearts, Your undeserved mercies. You have made our cup to overflow with blessings. From the very threshold of our being, You have been our Protector and Guardian. You have shielded us from unknown dangers. You have warded off unseen calamities. No earthly friend could have loved us and cared for us, like You! Helpless, hopeless, friendless, portionless by nature, we cast ourselves on Him who is help and hope and friend and portion--to all who seek Him. We have no trust but in His work. Sprinkle these polluted hearts with His pardoning, peace-speaking blood. Hide us in the clefts of the smitten Rock. Safely sheltered there, we can make the triumphant challenge, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" We mourn our distance and estrangement from You, our guilty departures, our coldness and insensibility. Let Your wondrous patience and kindness lead us to repentance. Turn us, Lord, and we shall be turned! Draw us and we shall run after You! May every thought, and affection, and feeling, and temper--be brought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus. May we love what He loves, and hate what He hates. May we know the happiness of true holiness; and rejoice in doing Your holy will.

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