While the ultimate terror for sinners is the day of judgment itself, there are terrifying things which we can unleash on ourselves during our lives on this earth because of our sin. Sometimes these are the obvious consequences of sinful folly, like having to go short of essentials because we have blown the budget on trivialities. But sometimes indulging in a particular sin leads on to committing worse sin of the same kind, in a way which is its own punishment. For example, wilful ignorance of the truth can lead to someone eagerly embracing pernicious delusion, remaining impervious to any attempts to help them see sense. In an epistle to the Thessalonians Paul refers to this outcome as God’s punishment for that sin (2 Thess. 2:11; another example is in Rom. 1:23–24). We might recognise this as a kind of “poetic justice,” or proverbially, “what goes around comes around.” But the special terribleness of it comes from the fact that it is God’s righteous judgment meted out to individuals personally and for which they remain themselves entirely responsible. Thomas Manton discusses God’s part in the judgment in the following updated extract from his sermon on 2 Thessalonians 2:11. The only way to avoid this terrible, self-inflicted judgment is to heed the gospel call to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth (2 Thess. 2:13–14).

By God’s just judgment, those who follow and promote a distortion of the gospel become infatuated in such a way that they swallow the grossest errors, to their own destruction. “For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thess. 2:11).

But here a difficulty arises, for God is not, and cannot be, the author of sin. He who is essentially good cannot be the cause of evil. He who is the avenger of sin cannot be the author of sin. If He were to cause someone to sin, how would His punishment of it be just?

The answer to this difficulty is that, as it is a sin, God has no hand in it; but as it is a punishment of sin, God does have something to do in it.

God judges us

He who is the supreme lord and governor of His creatures is also their judge, for legislation and judgment belong to the same authority. This is why God is sometimes called our king, and sometimes our judge (Gen. 18:25; Rom. 3:5–6).

God’s judgments are either external or internal

In this life, God’s way of judging is either external or internal.

Take, for instance, the two acts of judicature — reward and punishment.

Rewards

In rewarding, God’s external government is seen in dispensing outward blessings to His people, as the fruit of their obedience. ‘Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?’ (Mic. 2:7). His promises yield protection, and maintenance, and such a measure of outward prosperity as supports and maintains them during their service.

Likewise, as to His internal government, He rewards His people’s obedience in giving them peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom. 14:17). ‘Wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace’ (Prov. 3:17).

God also often rewards grace with grace. For example, ‘If thou call the sabbath a delight … then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord’ (Isa. 58:13–4) Similarly, ‘Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart’ (Psa. 31:24). Proficiency in a grace is a reward for the exercise of that same grace.

Punishments

It is the same in punishing. Sometimes God uses the way of external government, by the terrible judgments He brings down on people for the breach of His law (Rom. 1:18). Sometimes this is in the way of internal government, by terrors of conscience. Or by punishing sin committed with sin permitted.

For both the godly and the wicked

Both inward and external are seen in punishing both the godly and the wicked.

For instance, in the godly, in the way of external government, ‘when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world’ (1 Cor. 11:32). In the way of internal government, the lesser withdrawings of the Spirit, which God’s people find in themselves after some sins and neglects of grace, are grievous.

But the judgments on the souls of the ungodly are most dreadful. The sinner is either terrified or stupefied — terrified by horrors of conscience (1 Cor. 15:56), or stupefied by being given up to their own hearts’ counsels (Psa. 81:12), left dull and senseless and past feeling (Eph. 4:18).

By horrors of conscience, they are made to feel God’s displeasure at the courses they walk in; but when that is long despised, and they sin on still, then the other and more terrible judgment comes — for, giving a sinner up to his own lusts, and for the sinner to lose all remorse, is the last and sorest judgment on this side of hell.

Internal judgments refer to mind and heart

As to God’s internal judgments, the Scripture chiefly identifies two parts — blindness of mind and hardness of heart. They usually go together.

Blindness of mind is spoken of in John 12:39–40: ‘… He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.’ All the routes by which the Word might enter and work conversion are obstructed, and it was God who laid this punishment of blindness on them.

Hardness of heart is referred to in that famous instance, Exodus 4:21, ‘I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.’

God does not make those who see, blind, nor does He make those who are soft, hard. Rather, He leaves them to their own prejudices, obstinacy, and unpersuadableness, and even then, He does so when highly provoked.

How God is not involved in the judgment

To understand God’s concurrence as a judge in “sending a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie,” we must not say too much of it, or too little.

We must not say too much of it, lest we leave a stain and blemish on God’s glory. God infuses no sin, no blindness or hardness, into people’s hearts. All influences from heaven are good. He neither conveys deceit into people’s minds directly, nor does He command or persuade people to oppose the truth. Nor does He impel or incite their inward propensities so to do. All this belongs, not to God, but either to man or Satan.

Nor must we say too little. For instance, Scripture does not say that God blinds or hardens by bare prescience or foresight. God foresees other things, and yet they are not ascribed to God. For example, He foresees that people will kill, or steal, or do wrong, and yet God is not said to kill or steal, in the same way as He is said to blind and harden.

Nor does Scripture say that God blinds or hardens only by way of manifestation, as if it was only that in the course of His providence God manifests or declares how blind and hard they have turned out to be. When the saints pray, ‘Lord, harden not our hearts from thy fear’ (Isa. 63:17), they don’t mean, ‘Don’t show the world how hard and blind I am,’ but rather, ‘Cure my hardness of heart; keep back this judgment from me.’

Again, we must not say that all that God does is a bare, naked, and idle permission, as if it happened besides His will and intention, and He had no more to do in it than a man who stands on the shore and sees a ship ready to sink; he could have helped it, but he permitted it. No. There is not a bare permission only, but a permissive intention, and a judicial sentence, which is seconded by an active providence.

Many things concur to the blinding of the mind and hardening of the heart, all which God wills, but justly. The wicked take opportunities of their own accord to blind and harden themselves. Satan tempts out of his own malice. But all this could not be done with effect and success without the will of God. There is a supreme power over-ruling and ordering all that is done in the world.

How God is involved in the judgment

God’s concurrence may be stated by these things.

Taking away the light of the Spirit

God withdraws or takes away the light and direction of His Holy Spirit (Deut. 29:4). When God lets the ungodly loose to their own hearts’ counsels, then they fall into damnable errors. Like a greyhound sighting a hare, as soon as his collar is taken away, the restraint is gone, and his inbred disposition carries him. So those who are greedy for worldly things are powerfully drawn into the errors of the world, when God takes off the restraint of His grace, and gives them up to their own lusts.

In this, God is not to be blamed, for He is debtor to none, and the grace of His Spirit is forfeited by not receiving the love of the truth. Wilful blindness brings the penalty of blindness; and because people will not see, they shall not see. When they shut their eyes tight against the light of the gospel, it is just of God in this manner to smite them with blindness. Since they had no love to the truth, they are given up to errors and deceits. Because they despise the Holy Scriptures, and dote on vain fables, He permits them to weary themselves with various superstitions.

Giving them up to the power of Satan

God not only deserts them but hands them over. He delivers them up to the power of Satan (2 Cor. 4:4). Satan, as the executioner of God’s curse, works on people’s corrupt nature, and deceives them.

It says in 1 Chronicles 21:1, ‘Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel;’ but it says in 2 Samuel 24:1, ‘The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.’ How do we reconcile these two places? God gave David over to be tempted by Satan — by God as a judge, by Satan as an executioner. There is a similar incident in 1 Kings 22. Temptations to sin come immediately from the devil, but they are governed by God for holy and righteous ends. When they grieve His Spirit, God withdraws and leaves them to the evil spirit, who works by their fleshly and worldly lusts, and those who prefer worldly things before heavenly are easily seduced.

Providing instruments and objects

There is an active providence which raises the instruments and proposes the objects which, when they meet with a wicked heart, blind it.

The instruments. ‘The deceived and the deceiver are his’ (Job 12:16). Whether in worldly or religious matters, when someone deceives, or is deceived, it is of God. Both are His, not only as His creatures, but as they are subject to the government and disposal of providence as to how and whom they deceive, and how far. For people’s ingratitude, God raises up false prophets to seduce those who delight in lies rather than in the truths of God (Ezek. 14:9).

The objects. Wicked instruments varnish and dress a thing up with all the skill they can to make it a powerful deceit, and then it is befriended and countenanced by the powers of the world, and so it easily prevails with those who are motivated by worldly hopes or fears, and have debauched their conscience by worldly respects.

God says, ‘I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people’ (Jer. 6:21). If we will find the sin, God will find the occasion. If Judas has a mind to sell his Master, he shall not lack peddlers to bargain with him. The priests were consulting to destroy Christ at the same time as the devil put it into Judas’ heart (Matt. 26:3). Birds and fish are easily deceived with just the kind of baits that they greedily catch at. So God by His just vengeance orders such occurrences and occasions that meet with a ready response from a wicked and worldly heart.

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The shape of people’s lives tells you what’s important to them. They must believe that certain things matter, based on where they focus their attention and where they spend their energies. From the little interest they pay to other things, even if they notionally concede their importance, it becomes clear from the absence of any practical impact or consequences in their lives that they don’t really believe in them at all. Over a couple of generations, we have as a society successfully insulated ourselves from meaningful concerns about God and our eternal destiny. In his preaching, the young Covenanting preacher James Renwick points out five things the majority of people simply don’t believe in, as far as anyone can tell from their lives. Yet their failure to reckon with these realities is a terrible mistake. In the following updated extract, Renwick goes on to outline five practical responses that we should be encouraged to make on the basis of really accepting the existence of the one living and true God and the availability of salvation.

Five realities we disregard

Beloved, there are five things that are little believed by the most part of this generation.

God

The first thing that is little believed by the world is the being of a God. This is apparent by the little fear of God that is in the land. O, if you knew and believed the being of a God, you would certainly fear Him more!

Heaven

The second thing that is little believed by the most part of this generation is that there is a heaven, a place of rest for the souls of the godly. If they did, there would be more labour and diligence to get it for their dwelling place, and there would be more holiness in you, and hungering after it, so that you would enjoy the pleasant inheritance that is above, where the service of God cannot be interrupted and marred by spiritual or temporal enemies, as it is often here below.

Hell

The third thing that is little believed by the most part of the world is that there is a hell, a place of torment, where the souls of the wicked go to after death, even a place of endless torment where there is no mitigation of the pain for evermore.

O friends! If this were believed, people would make much more effort to avoid this place. You would not carry on entertaining idols in your hearts as you do. You would not comply with the sinful courses of the time as you do. There would not be such a compliance with these slaves of the enemy, neither would there be such a running in to them, if you believed that there was such a place as hell, where all impenitent sinners must receive what their sins justly deserve through all eternity.

Death

The fourth thing that is not seriously believed by this generation is the certainty of death. Of course we all say that we believe we will die! but it is only with a natural or rational faith. But if serious thoughts of this possessed our hearts, we would be more in believing it, and more preparing for it.

O friends! Live well, and labour to die well, for after death there is no repentance; there is no turning to God in the grave, for as the tree falls, so it must lie to eternity. O friends! strive to get a right sight of this.

Judgment

The fifth thing that is little believed by the most part of this generation is the certainty of judgment. O friends! believe that you must appear before the tribunal of God, who is, and will be, a just and terrible judge. Consider that when you come there, you will be either justified or condemned there, and no excuses will admitted, neither will there be any oversight in the matters handled there, but all will be done justly.

Oh, labour then to be ready to meet with God in mercy, and with joy in that day of accounts! There are some, I believe, to whom it will be a day of joy, and a merciful meeting. But there are others, even the wicked and reprobate, to whom this will be a terrible day. Oh! Oh! it will be a sad and dreadful day to all of them, but, oh! it will be a pleasant day to all true believers, and those who are in Christ Jesus.

Five responses we should have

In reality, it is those who are in covenant with Christ who have nothing to fear on the day of judgment. How can we respond to this truth?

Reckon with reality

O friends, take instruction! Labour to attain to faith in this, that all the promises in the Bible, and all the privileges of heaven, shall be fulfilled to you at the day of judgment, if you are a believer. In that day, when the book shall be opened, and all things shall appear as they are, naked and bare before Him, and when the judge shall sit, and give out sentence, then the experience of believers will be that they reap the advantages of all these privileges, to their everlasting comfort for evermore.

Accept the invitation to come to Jesus

Come and enter into covenant with Christ. You will find that all I’ve been telling you about is true! If you have already come to Christ, be encouraged to think that the day of judgment will be a joy to you. If you have not yet come, be entreated to come and embrace Jesus Christ, on His own terms, as He is offered to you in the gospel, and all shall be well! I earnestly beg you, by all the joys in heaven, and all the torments in hell, to come and embrace Him. Come and take Him to be your God, and offer yourselves away to Him to become His people.

Be realistic

It’s at the last day that all shadows will vanish away. Take note though, and be firmly persuaded, that never till then will they be gone. Till then, the flesh will war against the spirit, and an unrenewed part will remain in you till then. So you must learn to submit to His will in this, that you will continue to have clouds and shadows, as well as sunshine and good weather.

Be encouraged

All the godly may be encouraged in this. For, at that day, all shadows shall be gone, all your sufferings and sorrows, and even your sinning, shall have an end. In that day, faith shall dissolve into fruition, and hope into possession, and love, that ambitious grace, shall be the believer’s companion for ever, even to all the ages of eternity.

Take comfort

All God’s people who are in trouble and difficulties for Him and His cause can take comfort. Comfort yourselves with the fact that this day is coming, and fast approaching, when all these shadows shall flee away, and you shall be made more than conquerors in Christ, through Him who has loved you.

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Our moment in history is not marked for its optimism or positivity. Commentators on a range of cultural phenomena and from across the social spectrum discuss how things are only getting worse. Wherever we look, public services, consumer affairs, the creative industries, there is a sense that standards are in decline and have been for decades. Even upheavals in the political domain are less a sign of insightful new plans for workable improvement in people’s lives than a risk-taking turn to extremes born of a sense that there is nothing much really left to lose. Embittering the disappointment is the failure of our society’s myth that things are on an upward trajectory and can only get better. Even as Christians, we are often tempted to resentment and ask angrily why we have to put up with this when things were never this bad in the past. Without necessarily doubting that things have got worse over time, Alexander Nisbet reflects on why Ecclesiastes teaches us not to start asking, “What is the cause that the former days were better than these?” (Ecclesiastes 7:10) Misery comes from sin, and difficulties are an opportunity to depend more fully on the Lord. Redemption in Christ Jesus provides us with a hope for the world to come that lasts through and beyond the miseries and disappointments of this world. In the following updated extract, Nisbet urges us to avoid the response of frustration with our circumstances in providence and to take God’s way of contentment through self-abasement and heavenly wisdom.

The main aim of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes 7 is to reveal more about the way to true happiness and contentment, and to point out some remedies to the vexations which are incident to this life.

The question not to ask

In verses 9–10, the Preacher dissuades us from two things which are far contrary to the grace of patience. “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.”

The Preacher warns us against the very first sudden motions of anger or revenge against oppressors and the instruments of trouble (v.9). To have anger “resting” or being cherished in the heart is the habitual and allowed frame of those who are void of the saving knowledge of Christ. They are the ones who cherish angry feelings, and think over in detail all the ways they have been wronged, and feed on the contemplations of possible ways of revenge. They have no reluctance or grief about such a vengeful spirit, whereas, although a child of God may be assaulted with the impulse to revenge, yet he gives these impulses no permission to rest peaceably in his heart.

The Preacher warns us also against sinful quarrelling against the Lord for apparently making times more troublesome, and burdens heavier, than they used to be. This only indicates ignorance of the true state of times, foolish presumption in finding fault with His wisdom, and unbelief of his sovereignty. “Say not thou, ‘What is the cause that the former days were better than these?’ for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.”

The present may well be worse than the past

This is not to be understood as if the present times were not often worse than the former, in many respects. That is in fact foretold (Matt. 24:12; 2 Tim. 3:1).

Nor does it mean that the Lord’s people are not permitted to search into what sins may have been the procuring causes of the change for the worse, or to bewail the defections or miseries of these changes, seeing both these are duties (e.g., Lam. 3:40).

Instead, it means that we should not quarrel with God’s providence for casting our lot in more troublesome times, and under more grievous oppressions, than there have been formerly, as if there were no cause why people should submit to a change of times from better to worse.

The Spirit of the Lord does not here give particular reasons for such changes, because there are many reasons in Scripture, sufficiently obvious to satisfy us on this point. Only He prohibits and rebukes the boldness of the question, and gives, as a general reason to dissuade us, the fact that these inquiries flow from people’s ignorance of the sovereignty and wisdom of the Lord, who works all things for His own glory, and the good of His people.

Providence is not something we can quarrel with

The Lord’s people have a duty to search out the sinful causes which provoke the Lord to change times to the worse, and the wise reasons He has for so doing, and to bewail that our later times have far degenerated from the purity and holiness of former days. Yet it is a great sin to quarrel with providence, or to inquire concerning this matter with a spirit that is fretting and malcontent, as if it were not well ordered by divine providence that we should not have as much peace and prosperity, and as great freedom from outward trouble, as those who were before us.

Fretting against our times is not a sign of wisdom

To the extent that we fret and repine about how the present times are worse than the former, to that extent we are lacking the heavenly wisdom which teaches those who have it to adore the righteousness of God in all the arrangements He makes, even though they do not see the particular reasons of them. “Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee …” (Jer. 12:1

This heavenly wisdom often leads them to satisfying reasons, clearly held forth in Scripture. For example, God in His wisdom takes steps sometimes to discover people’s perversity, which at other times He sees fit to restrain. Sometimes He uses grievous trials to promote the faith, patience, and other graces of His people, graces which at other times He promotes without such trials.

So that this quarrelling with the Lord indicates great presumption, flowing from ignorance of the true state of both the present and former times. This leads them not to consider the good of the present times, which often as far exceeds the good of the former as the evils and troubles of the present times exceed those of the former. “Thou dost not inquire wisely (or, as it is in the original, “by wisdom”) concerning this matter.”

The way to contentment

Holiness

He commends having high esteem with God, and good report from others, founded on grace and true holiness. This is better than the most precious things in the world, in which most people place their happiness. “A good name is better than precious ointment” (v.1).

Soft-heartedness

He praises the soft and tender frame of heart which the sanctified consideration of death begets in the soul, beyond the worldly mirth and joy which is ordinarily expressed by laughter (vv.1–4).

Sensitivity

He commends humble submission to the serious and wise rebukes of those who (whether in a public or private capacity) have a call from God to point out the evil, danger and remedy of sin. This is better than glorying in your own sins, or in the flattery of others in their sins (v.5), because whatever joy or pleasure you may have in following sinful ways, or flattering yourselves or being applauded by others in your sinful ways, it is not long-lived (v.6).

Patience

He commends the grace of patience under the most grievous pressures and injuries the saints may meet with, in and from the world, as a great furtherance toward true happiness (vv.7–10).

Wisdom

He praises saving wisdom because of its excellent effects or advantages (vv.11–12).

He directs us to the right way to make use of the Lord’s dispensations (vv.12–21).

1. Consider that God brings things about contrary to our will and designs of obtaining happiness, and we cannot by our wit and power alter or twist His workings to serve our imaginary goal of finding true happiness in created things (v.13).
2. In prosperity we should rejoice with thanksgiving. Meanwhile, in adversity, we should consider seriously what has procured it, God’s purpose in it, and our duty under it (v.14).
3. We should not arrogantly think that we have such a superlative righteousness and wisdom that we can criticise the works of God for not being wise or fair, as if we could manage them better (v.16); neither should we give or sell ourselves to impiety in a time of prosperity (v.17).
4. Those whose guiding principle is the true fear of God shall have a sure and sweet deliverance from all their sufferings and temptations (even though, as to their outward circumstances, they fall before the wicked) (v.18).

This leads the Preacher again to commend spiritual wisdom, partly because of its blessed effect (in that it satisfies the person against the trials and temptations mentioned, beyond any human help or strength, v.19), and partly because people are so ready to go wrong without this saving wisdom, even when they are both imputatively and inherently “just”, v.20).

The Preacher recommends that people would not be very inquisitive to hear or know, much less revengefully resent what evil others rashly speak of them (v.21). Such inquisitive inquiries and revengeful resentments may not only readily meet with undesired and unexpected railings and revilings from those of their own household (v.21), but people may also be conscious to themselves that they themselves have spoken rashly and heatedly against others (v.22).

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Of all the places to turn for cold hard facts and undeniable reality, theology might seem the least likely. Yet science and technology, which some few decades ago were regarded as indisputably reliable, have not only let us down but, especially with the advent of AI, also make increasing numbers of people question what even is reality. Generations of scepticism about the reliability of the Bible have only cycled us through the failures of other competing sources of knowledge, and have not brought us to any better clarity or wisdom. Hugh Binning, the gifted Glasgow philosopher turned pastor, identified God as the one great reality. Furthermore, when God makes Himself known in the Bible His revelation is both reliable and, as Binning points out, relational. It’s not only that we can arrive at genuine certainty about God (and ourselves, and the way of salvation). It’s also that this knowledge draws out a response of devotion to God which expresses itself in very practical ways. Too much of theology as practiced by theologians is, Binning hints, abstract and irrelevant. The real point of finally recognising reality is not to congratulate ourselves on our new-found certainty but to consecrate ourselves to God. Binning explains more in the following updated extract from a sermon on 1 John 2:3.

The apostle John says that the designation of a true Christian is the knowledge of God, and the designation of true knowledge is obedience to His commands. “Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3).

We should labour to bring our light to the lamp of the Word, and our knowledge to this testimony of unquestionable authority. When we have recourse to “the law and the testimony,” then we will find out if there is light in us, or as much light as people think they see. If we could only open our eyes to the shining light of the Scriptures, we would be able to see that much of the so-called light of this age is darkness and ignorance. I don’t mean only the errors that come out under the guise of “new light,” but especially the ordinary familiarity with the truth of the gospel, which, in comparison with the true metal of the knowledge of God, has been badly contaminated by the mixture of the gross darkness of our affections and lifestyle.

“Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.” Here then, in a narrow circle, we have all the work and business of a Christian. Our direct and principal duty is to know God and keep His commandments — which are not two distinct duties, but make up the one complete work of Christianity, which consists in conformity to God. Then the reflex and secondary duty of a Christian, which makes for his comfort, is to know that he knows God. To know God and keep His commands is a thing of indispensable necessity to the very being of a Christian. To know that we know Him is of great concernment to the comfort and well-being of a Christian. Without the first, you are as miserable as you can be without the sense and feeling of misery, because you lack the spring of all happiness. Without the second, a Christian is unhappy, for the present, though he may not be called miserable, because he is more happy than he realises, and only unhappy because he does not know his happiness.

Christians really know the real God

Knowledge is so natural to the human spirit that the desire for it is restless and insatiable. But since the fall, knowledge has taken a journey far from human nature and has not left any footprints behind it to be found out again. This is the case even in the things that are most obvious to our senses, but our darkness is much more increased in spiritual things, because of the dullness and earthliness of our spirits. God Himself should be the primum intelligible of the soul (the first and principal object, whose glorious light should first strike into our hearts), yet Job testifies, “How little a portion is known of him!”

In natural things, we have one veil of darkness in our minds to hinder us, but in the things of God, we have a twofold darkness to break through — the darkness of ignorance in us, and “the darkness of too much light” in Him, which makes Him as inaccessible to us as the other.

This is why those holy ones who know most of God think they know the least, because they see more to be known, but infinitely surpassing knowledge. Pride is the daughter of ignorance, for he who does not know his own ignorance, supposing he knows ever so much, is the greatest ignoramus.

Knowing reality has definite effects

The true knowledge of God does not consist so much in grasping points of theology, as in a serious grasp and conception of the divine majesty which kindles into flame the two affections of love and hatred toward their proper objects. It is a knowledge that carries the torch before the affection — a light that shines into the heart and transmits warmth into it until it burns in the love of God and the loathing of oneself.

As long as you only hear of God in sermons, or read of Him in books, you can maintain a good opinion of yourself, and your knowledge only “puffs you up” in vanity. Ordinarily, those who doubt least are not the ones most free from error and misunderstandings. And when you seriously reflect on the difficulty of knowledge, and the darkness of our minds, and the general curse of vanity and vexation on everything (so that what is lacking cannot be numbered, nor what is crooked made straight), then you can’t help seeing the dangers of excessive confidence on a par with a race being run at full speed on a dark night on a track full of pits and snares. Our level of confidence too often flows not from the evidence of truth, but from the ignorance of our minds; it is built not so much on the strength of reason as the strength of our emotions and the weakness of our judgment.

But if ever you come to see God and know Him in a living manner, then you see your own weakness and vileness in that light, and you cry out, like Isaiah, “Woe is me! I am a man of polluted lips!” Then you discern in that light the beauty and loveliness of God, and it ravishes your heart after it. Then, as Jeremiah says, you will not glory in riches, or strength, or beauty, or wisdom, but only in this, that you have at last got some sight of the only fountain of happiness. Then you don’t think so much of tongues and prophesyings and knowledge of controversies — gifts of body or mind, or the external appendages of providence, don’t much affect you. You would be content to trample on all of these to get into a fuller discovery and enjoyment of God Himself.

If we search the Scriptures, we find that they do not entertain us with many and subtle discourses on God’s nature or decrees or properties; nor do they spend much time on the many perplexed questions that are raised about Christ and His offices, about which so many volumes are churned out, to the infinite distraction of the Christian world. The Scriptures do not claim to satisfy your curiosity, but to edify your soul. That’s why they display God in Christ, clothed with all His relations to mankind, in all those plain and easy properties, which concern us everlastingly — His justice, mercy, grace, patience, love, holiness, and suchlike.

From this I gather that the true knowledge of God does not consist in comprehending all the conclusions that are deduced and controversies that are discussed, but rather in the serious and solid grasp of God as He relates to us, and consequently in order and with reference to our hearts being moved to love, and adore, and reverence Him. Scripture holds Him out to us only in those garments that are fit to move and affect our hearts.

It is possible for someone to know all these things, and yet not know God Himself, for knowing Him cannot be abstracted from loving Him. ‘They that know thy name will trust in thee,’ and so love thee and fear thee. For it is impossible but that this will be the natural result, if only He is known in reality, because there is nothing more attractive (and at the same time more terrible) and more eligible and worthy of our choice. Infinite beauty and goodness, and infinite power and greatness, and infinite sufficiency and fullness, are combined together with infinite truth, and so the soul that really grasps Him at all cannot but grasp Him as the most ravishing, and the most to be revered too. If someone doesn’t find their soul appropriately affected, it is a clear demonstration that they don’t really grasp God, but only an idol. The infinite Light, and the infinite Life, are simply one, and anyone who sees the one cannot but be warmed and moved by the other.

Real knowing leads to practical obedience

But everyone claims that they know God! The self-love in people’s hearts is such that it makes them blind in judging themselves. Therefore, the Holy Spirit not only designates a Christian by the knowledge of God, but also characterises knowledge by keeping the commandments. “Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.”

So religion is not defined by a number of opinions, or by a collection of articles of faith, but rather by practice and obedience to the known will of God. This is because knowledge is a duty in relation to something else — it is instrumental to something else — it is not principally intended for itself, but for obedience.

Some things that we study are entirely theoretical; others are practical. Perhaps some may think that Scripture, or theology, is mainly theoretical, as there are so many mysteries enfolded in it which don’t seem to concern our practice in any way. I accept that much that is drawn from the Scriptures is like that, but I rather think that all that is in the Scriptures themselves has the practice of God’s will as its objective, either directly or eventually. Either it prescribes our obedience, or else it engages our affections and secures our obedience. Those exalted discourses about God, His nature and properties, His works and the mysteries included in them, are all directed towards this end — further than the mere knowing of them, engaging the heart of a believer to more love and reverence and adoration of God, so that he may be brought more easily to a sweet compliance and harmonious agreement with the will of God in all His ways.

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Do we sometimes lose the wonder of the fact that we have our existence from God and we exist for God? For Paul, this simple, basic fact wasn’t something to grudge, or to disregard. Instead, Paul grounds everything in this given and delights to glorify God. Hand in hand with offering us the comfort of knowing that our good God is in control of everything there is and everything that happens, this truth draws us on to take delight in God and our total dependence on Him. In the following updated extract, we can see that this is how John Brown of Wamphray understands Paul’s message in Romans 11:36, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”

It is our ignorance of our dependence on the Lord that makes us ready to quarrel with Him for arranging things for us otherwise than we would wish. If we knew at all that we had our life and all from Him, we would not grow as proud as we do, nor think that He wrongs us, whatever He does. God is obliged to none, but may do with all His creatures as He pleases.

God’s glorious independence

“Of him are all things.” God, whose being is in and of Himself, His name being I AM THAT I AM, is the sole author of being to all His creatures, great or small. “Of him are all things.” All of them, however glorious they may be, are only pieces of life and being borrowed from the fountain and well-spring of all being. He is the first cause of their being, and from him alone they have the being which they have.

“Through him,” or “by him,” are all things. That is, as they have their being from God, so they have their dependence on Him. They would not subsist in their being without Him; When God has given a being to His creatures, and brought them alive them with a ray of His life, they cannot subsist without Him; he is the preserver of both man and beast, and of all things. He has framed the creature in such a way that it must owe its dependence to its Creator every hour and moment, and must be preserved by Him. He who first kindled this spark of life in the creature must keep blowing at the coal constantly, or else it will die out again, for in him we move, we live, and have our being (Acts 17:28). “Through him are all things.” The creatures would fall into pieces, if the same omnipotent hand as gave being to start with was not still upholding.

“To him are all things.” They are not ordered for themselves, as their ultimate end, but for Him and His glory. As the being of all creatures came first from God the ocean of all being, so like a stream it must run back into Him again. He Himself was the ultimate end of all these borrowed beings, and there is no creature, no human being nor angel, that is created for themselves. Instead, God’s giving them a being, and preserving that being, and disposing of it, is wholly for Himself, the author of all. God may dispose of all His creatures, to whom He was graciously pleased to give a being, as suits best with His own ends. Just as all things are of Him, and through Him, so “all things are to him.”

Our songs of praise

Then Paul adds a doxology, saying, “To him be glory for ever. Amen!” This is a song of praise acknowledging God (of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things) to be worthy of glory and honour — not for a short time, but for evermore.

The apostle cries out, “To him be glory!” When ministers deliver truths concerning God’s goodness towards us, it is commendable that they do so in such a way as to teach the people what their duty should be in reference to it. By their own example, they can go before them in a song of praise, like Paul here.

Never should we hear of anything received from God, but our hearts should be raised up to sing a song of praise to Him. Especially we should praise when we hear of His bestowing on us a natural being, or a being in grace, and preserving us in that state.

In all our songs of praise to God, for all His benefits bestowed on us, we must give nothing to Him of our own. Our best way to praise Him is to acknowledge Him to be glorious and excellent in Himself, and worthy of all glory and honour from others, and to wish that this glory of His would be known to all, and acknowledged and declared by all. “To him be glory!”

As God’s end in creating all things was the manifestation of His own glory, so a gracious soul should and will join in here with God, and do what they can to promote and advance the same purpose, and so wish that God would get glory of all things, seeing it is His due. When the apostle has said, “To him are all things,” that is, “to his glory and honour,” then he adds, “To whom be glory!” “I am heartily content with that, and wish it may be so; and O that it were so!”

God is worthy to be extolled for ever and ever, and his glory cannot be adequately seen or shown. Correspondingly, a gracious soul rightly affected with the sense of God’s goodness towards itself or others will be so ravished with the desire to have God extolled and magnified that it will not take put a time-limit on the matter. It will take an endless age to get His glory set out. A soul truly conscious of His goodness will see it to be something that they are not able sufficiently to extol him for in time, and will therefore cry out with the apostle here, “To him be glory for ever!” (See Gal. 1:5 and 1 Pet. 5:11).

Our desires to extol and praise God should be real, hearty, sincere and earnest, and not merely superficial compliments. If they are real, we may rest confident and be sure that God will have glory to Himself by his works of creation and providence. Paul closes his song of praise with an “Amen!” Saying “amen” not only indicates the vehemence and earnestness of our desire to have it so (it means the same as “so be it”), but it also indicates a conviction or confidence that it will be so as we say (“it shall be so!”). On this score we add “Amen” to our prayers, and likewise to our praises.

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In a world full of troubles and difficulties, our biggest problem is our own sin. Sometimes, even to think of the mercy of God only adds to our realisation of how sinful we are, because how can we explain why we continue to rebel against the Lord our God who is so full of mercies and forgiveness? (Dan. 9:9). It can from time to time be appropriate, or indeed unavoidable, to sit for a while with a sense of our sinfulness and sorrow over it. In the following updated extract, this is what the scholar-poet and Glasgow minister Zachary Boyd (c.1585–1653) invites us to do, as a salutary exercise which will help us both loathe our own sins more and have more compassion for our brothers and sisters in their afflictions. We have no reasons for self-congratulation; if the Lord saves sinners like us, it must be for His own sake (Dan. 9:17).

I come now to you, brothers and sisters, and I entreat every one of you, for the Lord’s sake, to lament your own sins first, and thereafter, let us come and lament for the sins and afflictions of our brethren. As you profess yourselves to be the fellow-members of your brethren, have also a fellow-feeling for their troubles. It is not possible that someone who cannot weep for his own misery can be moved to compassion towards others. Also, the Lord will laugh at your lamentations for others, if He finds you playing with your own sins, and turning His grace into wantonness.

By mourning for our sins and for the sins and afflictions of God’s people, we shall reap this comfort, that we shall be hidden in the day when the Lord comes to judge.

Let us therefore prepare ourselves for lamentations. Let it not be grievous to us to weep today, for better is the house of mourning than the house of dancing. It is far better to be at the cross of Christ, weeping with good Mary, than dancing in King Herod’s hall with the daughter of Herodias (Matthew 14). I would rather be washing the blessed feet of Jesus with my teras in Simon’s house with the sinful woman (Luke 7), than be eating dainty meals with Dives clothed in purple and scarlet (Luke 16). I would rather be lying in the stocks with Joseph (Genesis 39) than dancing around the golden calf with idolaters (Exodus 32).

Lamentations for the fear of sin not yet committed

Before a sin is committed, while it is but being conceived, in the concupiscence, the regenerate person will mourn and lament, for he perceives the devil busy looking to bring forth sin so that death may ensue. He continually laments and groans and cries, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24). The brittleness of our nature, and the strong inclination that we have to sin, should always make our heart tremble.

For this reason, the Lord has given a precept to every one of His servants to “work out the work of their salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12), and where fear and trembling are present, lamentation and mourning cannot be absent.

Lamentations for sins already committed

Lamentation, mourning and misery follow after sin as the shadow follows the body. Where sin is present, shame will not be absent. Where shame is, pain is. Where pain is, there is mourning. “We have sinned,” said Daniel, “we have committed iniquity” (Dan. 9:5). And what follows? “To us appertains open shame” (Dan. 9:8).

But there is something worse than the shame that comes by sin. That is when the soul is so darkened that in God’s light it cannot see light. It is only sin that hides God’s face from the soul. It is only sin that separates between God and the soul. Hence lamentations like, “Will the Lord absent himself for ever? Will he show no more favour? Is his mercy clean gone for ever?” (Psalm 77:7–9).

Sin is like a pill of aloes covered with sugar, sweet on the outside but bitter inside. All the painted pleasures of sin are only like tombs, having nothing inside but rottenness and stink. Sins in youth cost old age many a sore sigh. You will feel the truth of this one day, if either grace or glory are appointed for you. Go to those who are old, and enquire of them what profit they have now from those things of which they are now ashamed. They will say to you, “If only we had not been fools! If only we had been wise, and had done all the good which we have not done, and not done the evil which we have done! Woe is us now because we have sinned!” (Lam. 5:16).

When Peter denied his master, he thought he had achieved a lot for himself in saving his own life. But after Christ turned and looked on him, he went out and wept bitterly (Luke 22:62). See David in his palace, glancing towards Bathsheba, pursuing her from a distance till he obtained his desire. After that, he covered his adultery with murder. “Now,” he thought to himself, “I have wisely sorted things! Now instead of adultery I shall have a wife!” But while this sugar was in his mouth, in comes Nathan with the bitter parable of the sheep, ending in, “Thou art the man!” Then all his joy was turned into mourning, so that out of the bitterness of his heart he cried out with a heavy lamentation, “I have sinned against the Lord!”

Who now would buy these deceitful pleasures with such terrible terrors of a conscience crammed with the horrors of hell? Solomon’s advice to the young man is to keep himself from the sins of youth. The reason he gives is because he shall mourn in the end, when he has consumed his flesh and his body (Proverbs 15:11). The least taste of sin shall set your teeth on edge, it is so sour.

As for the wicked, though they seem to sin securely and be very happy, yet in laughing their heart is sorrowful. When Judas kept the money bag, the stolen pennies were sweet. To Judas, thirty pieces of silver for the life of his master seemed to be great gain. “Now,” said Judas to himself, “I am rich! I have my wages in my hand!” But as soon as the devil began to rake up his conscience and show him the blood of God which he had betrayed, he threw bag and silver and all away, and went and hanged himself. Where was all Judas’ joy now?

Lamentations for the judgments which follow sin

Few lament for fear of the inclination they have to sin, wishing they were delivered from the body of death. There are also only few who lament after sin is committed. But everyone, both good and bad, will weep and lament when the judgments of the Lord come upon them. Some say, “Woe to us now because of murderers!” (Jeremiah 4:31). But only the godly can cry from the heart in time of trouble, “Woe to us now, for we have sinned!” (Lamentations 5:16). The wicked man’s woe is not for his sin. He howls like a dog only because he is beaten, not because he is at fault. But the godly man’s woe is not only because he is beaten with stripes, but chiefly because of his sins.

The wicked man’s cry to God is always, “Deliver me from this plague!” But the godly man’s cry is chiefly, “Forgive me my sins, which are the cause of the plague!” It often happens that a child of God will laugh and loiter in sin, when he should lament for it. But when the Lord brings judgments, then he will arise from his complacency and weep, lament, and confess.

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Can we really trust what we see and hear? In the news and on social media, there is a crisis of confidence as people take an increasingly sceptical and cynical approach to some of the content they consume alongside a gullible and naively accepting approach to other sources. What we then share with others may not be disinformation — deliberately intended to deceive — yet it may still be misinformation, spread on the mistaken assumption that it is valid. With technological advances in social media and now AI, falsehoods can now easily be shared to large audiences in a plausible way that affects people’s thinking and behaviour. When we are all floundering in a fog of half-truths and uncertainties, the outcome is not to make people believe a specific lie, it is to make us distrust the possibility of a final truth. Yet there is a tension between the recent cultural assumption that truth is relative and flexible enough to be different for different people and the more immediate contemporary realisation that when people accept falsehoods as true there are real-life damaging consequences, both for individuals and the fabric of society more widely. Our culture, while naturally wanting to escape from lying and falsehood, is simultaneously ambivalent about truth and hungry for it. What God offers, by contrast, is the truth, and God’s people reflect this in their aversion to all forms of lying and falsehood. Thomas Manton (1620–1677), one of the clerks to the Westminster Assembly, preached on David’s prayer in Psalm 119, “Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me thy law graciously.” In the following updated extract, Manton shows how David is a pattern for us in begging to be free from lying and to be granted the gracious gift of God’s truthful law.

What is lying?

Lying is when people knowingly and willingly, and with purpose to deceive, signify what is false by gestures, actions, or (especially) words. The matter of a lie is a falsehood, but the form of a lie is with an intention to deceive (therefore a falsehood is one thing, a lie another). We lie when we not only speak falsely but knowingly, and with purpose to deceive.

There are two ways of lying in our words. One way is by asserting as false what you know is true, or by asserting as true what you know to be false. The other way of lying is when we promise things we do not intend to perform.

There is also a lying to God and a lying to other people.

Lying to God is the worst sort, because it indicates unbelief and atheism, low thoughts of God, as if He was not omniscient.

How do we lie to God? Partly when we put Him off with a false appearance, and make a show of what is not in the heart, as if He would be deceived with outsides and vain pretences (Hosea 11:12). Partly too, when we do not perform the promises we made in a time of trouble. We throw out promises to flatter God till we get out of trouble, but we do not seriously set our hearts to accomplish them.

As for lying to other people, there are three sorts of lies. There is the mendacium jocosum, when an untruth is devised for merriment. (This does not refer to fables or parables, which are only an artificial way of representing the truth in terms which more people are able to grasp; nor to irony, which is a notable way of making truth strike the heart with force). There is also the mendacium officiosum, the “officious lie,” for the help of others, such as when Rebekah taught Jacob to lie so that he would get the blessing (Gen. 27:1). There is also the mendacium perniciosum, the “pernicious lie,” to harm others.

All these sorts of lies are sins. Scripture condemns all lying without restriction (Eph. 4:25; Rev. 22:15).

Why should the children of God be far from lying?

For the good of human society

What is contrary to human society should be odious to the children of God, who are members of the same society or body politic. Human society is upheld mostly by truth. Where there is no truth, there can be no trust; where there is no trust, there can be no commerce. It makes people unfit to be trusted. Indeed, our neighbour has the right that we should speak truth. Because truth is the foundation of human society, lying should be far from the children of God.

For preserving the order of nature

The tongue is the interpreter of the mind, and there is great disorder when the tongue speaks otherwise than the person thinks.

To show who they belong to

We resemble Satan in nothing so much as in lying, and we resemble God in nothing so much as in truth. Falsehood is the devil’s character (John 8:44). But truth is no small part of the image of God, for He is called “the God of truth,” who “cannot lie.” Ephesians 4:22–24 says, “Put off the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and holiness.” Then straight away, “Wherefore put away lying; speak every man truth with his neighbour” (v.25). “Wherefore,” that is, from your regeneration, when the image of God is planted in you. It’s the same in Colossians 3:9, “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.” There may be sin in the child of God, but there should be no guile in them. Habituated guile is the old man which is deceitful; the new man is framed to truth, and according to the will of God.

Because deceit is disgraceful

By the light of nature, deceit is odious. We love those who are just and true; we acknowledge it as a moral perfection. But a lie is counted the greatest disgrace; we revenge even the accusation of it; it is accounted a base thing to lie. It comes from fear, and it tends to deceit, both which are contrary to human dignity. It is therefore shameful in the eyes of nature, and those who are most guilty of it cannot bear to be accused of it (1 Kings 20:23).

Because deceit is detested by God

Lying is a sin which is most hateful to God; therefore it should be far from the children of God. There are six things God hates, and a lying tongue is one of them (Prov. 6:17, 19; see also Prov. 12:22). Because God hates it, we should hate it (Prov. 13:5).

Because deceit deserves punishment

Lying is a sin which God has expressly threatened to punish in this life (Psa. 5:6) and in the life to come (Prov. 19:5). The first time God’s vengeance was shown in the New Testament it was for a lie (Acts 5:5). “By swearing and lying, therefore doth the land mourn” (Hosea 4:2). God’s advice to His people how to avoid His judgments is, “These are the things that ye shall do: Speak every man the truth to his neighbour, execute the judgment of truth, love no false oath …” (Zech. 8:16–17). In the life to come, “there shall no wise enter into it anything that … maketh a lie” (Rev. 21:27); “All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Rev. 21:8); “For without are … whosoever loveth and maketh a lie” (Rev. 22:15).

Are there any remedies against lying?

Hate it

Do not think it a venial matter. David says, “I hate and abhor lying” (Psa. 119:163). Slight hatred of a sinful course is not sufficient to guard us against it — instead, hate and abhor it with a deadly hatred.

Love the law of God

If the law of God is dear to you, you will not lightly break it.

Remember your spiritual conflict

You never give Satan so great an advantage as by falsehood and guile. The devil assaults by wiles, but your strength lies in downright honesty. Satan’s strength lies in wiles, but you must beat him down in sincerity. The first piece of the spiritual armour is the girdle of truth, the grace of sincerity, by which you are to God and others what you make yourself out to be.

Take heed

Set a watch on your tongue. “I said I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue” (Psa. 39:1). Let us speak of what we think, and think of what we speak, so that the mind may conform itself to the nature of truth.

Avoid the causes of lying

There are three.

Boastfulness. The spirit of vainglory is the mother of vain talking, and therefore of a lying tongue. “Flattering lips” and “the tongue that speaketh proud things” are joined together in Psalm 12:3.

Flattery, or the desire to ingratiate yourself with those who are great and mighty in the world. “With flattering lips, and a double heart do they speak” (Psa. 12:2).

Fear and distrust. Carnal fear was what put David to his evasive strategies in his times of danger. He was apt to deal a little deceitfully in time of temptation and danger (for example in his interactions with Ahimelech the priest (1 Sam. 21:8), Achish (1 Sam. 27:8; 10), and in what he got Jonathan to tell his father (1 Sam. 20)).

What is the blessing David prays for instead?

David asks for a benefit, “Grant me thy law,” and on the terms of grace, “graciously.”

He already had the book of the law. Every king was to have a copy of it written before him. But he doesn’t mean the law written in a book, but the law written on his heart. This is a privilege of the covenant of grace (Heb. 8:10).

The grant of the law

The law is “granted” to us when we understand it and our hearts are framed to love and obey it.

Urge God not only to grant His word to the church in general, but to you, to yourselves, each in particular. Literal instruction belongs to the first covenant, but when the word is made ours, that is a privilege of the second covenant.

And check to make sure that the law has been granted to you. A ready and cheerful obedience to God’s will is the surest sign that the law has been “granted” to us — when studying it and putting it into practice is the great employment and pleasure of our lives.

The law in our heart

The same law that is odious to the flesh is acceptable to a gracious heart. What others count a restraint, the gracious count a great benefit and favour. The “carnal mind” (Rom. 8:7) shuns all means of searching and knowing themselves, wishing that certain things were not sins, or not wishing to know that they are sins. They hate the law, and will not come to the light (John 3:20).

But a gracious heart desires nothing more than the knowledge of God’s will. However contrary it is to their sinful desires, they approve it (Rom. 7:12). They desire the knowledge of it more than “thousands of gold and silver” (Psa. 119:72). The best thing they can enjoy is to have full direction in obedience.

And putting the law into practice is welcome to their souls. “His commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:4). They are grievous to others, but not to them, because their hearts are suitable to the law and it suits them.

Do you count the law an enemy or a friend? The law is an enemy to those who count it an enemy, and a friend to those that count it a friend. It is a rule of life to those who delight in it, and count it a great mercy to know it and to be subdued to the practice of it, but it is a covenant of works to those who pull away from it, and count it a heavy burden not to be borne. Which do you complain of, the law, or your corruptions? What are you troubled with, light or lusts? A gracious heart groans, not because of the strictness of the law but because of the body of death — not because God requires so much but because they can do no more.

The grace of the law

If the law is “granted” to us, or written on our hearts, it is out of God’s mere grace. “Grant it graciously,” says David. The conditions of the covenant are conditions in the covenant, and the articles that bind us are also promises in which God is bound to bestow such great benefits on poor creatures. This encourages us to wait for His work with all the more confidence, when we are conscious that we do not have the law applied so intimately and closely as we should.

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