On My Way To Heaven

We are reading this great classic together at Challies. It has proved to be a great experience to read along with others who are also sharing what they have been learning. You can visit their places and read what they have to say today. (Lisa, Paul, and Deek)

10. Quench Not the Spirit

n this chapter I clearly see two main streams:

1. Hell awaits for those who oppose grace.

2. The precious doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints.

Sibbes doesn’t write too much about the first point, but he starts this chapter mentioning it clearly and firmly. However, he, as a great physician of the Christian soul, deals more with the second one, the Perseverance of the Saints.

I love this doctrine. I love it because it is always a good reminder that because of Christ’s death and resurrection I am saved and I am indeed, journeying home. He will not let me go astray.

He mentions four “means whereby Christ preserves grace”:

1. Holy communion; fellowship with other saints.

2 Much more communion with God in holy duties, such as meditation and prayer, which not only kindles but adds a lustre to the soul.

3. The preached Word, on Sibbes’ words: “We feel by experience the breath of the Spirit to go along with the breath of his ministers…as acoal that has fire in it will quickly gather more fire to it. Smoking flax will easily take fire.”

4.Grace is strengthen by the exercise of it (I Tim.4:7) . And again using the author’s words: “Stir up grace that is in you, for in this way holy motions turn to resolutions, resolutions to practice, and practice to a prepared readiness to every good work.”

It touched my heart, and the fire grew in me as I was reminded that even though I need to actually do something, that is exercise myself in this grace, “it is not by virtue of the exercise itself, but as Christ by his Spirit flows into the soul and brings us nearer to himself, the fountain, so instilling such comfort that the heart is further enlarged”

Sibbes closes this chapter encouraging us to love and be merciful with the saints around us, to not “mistreat the heirs of mercy”. and this is a thread that can be traced so far in every chapter of the book. Be merciful with the weak! He reached me, why I won’t reach them? and again, I cannot but think in my role as a Mom.

11. Christ Judgment and Victory

ibbes deals in this chapter with the doctrine of Justification.

Jesus Christ saved us  and took us out of darkness into his formidable light and from the moment He saved us, he abolished our sins and guilt, and started in us the process of Sanctification. “Pardon leads to obedience” and this we must keep in our hearts as we walk under His sun every day.

Sibbes says:

“He is our Sanctifier as well as our Saviour”

And then he proceeds to enlist thing that we {I}  need to remember:

1. Christ is our Priest, our Mediator, “He has right to govern us; thence it is that He gives us his Spirit as our guide to lead us home”

2. If we are in a state of grace, let us remember that if we sin we can come to Christ’s mercy to find forgiveness, knowing that He has given us the promise of His Spirit to pardon us.

3. “The constrain that he lays upon his subjects is that of Love”.

So here I am on a new day no one has ever lived before, and I am ready to walk through it, because I know that my Redeemer lives, and He holds me with cords of love and He sustains me, and He will lead my steps as I am On My Way to Heaven.

My comments on chapters 8 and 9 here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 7:41 AM and is filed under My Thoughts, Read This with tags Books, Doctrines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.