Welcome to a year of reading Richard Sibbes together! The reading plan for the entire year can be accessed here. I encourage you to stick with us, allow yourself time to read, and soak in the riches of this gifted and prolific Puritan preacher. You will be edified and encouraged.
If you have trouble with how Sibbes used words, check out the Lexicons of Early Modern English for definitions from the period.
Summary/Engagement
Sin. Impurity. Filth. Imperfection. Blackness.
The Church, and you, are indeed black. We are imperfect and will war with sin until we die or Christ returns. Contrary to what some faiths would teach there is no possibility of perfection in this life. Our nature is one corrupted by sin from conception to death. We are incapable of pleasing God and live in open rebellion against him until he saves us.
Do you remember the day of your salvation? Do you remember the incalculable joy, the overflowing zeal, and the immeasurable passion and gratitude? I remember the settling of a calm over my heart and mind that I never had. I remember the sudden passion I had to share this good news with everyone. Eventually, the fires of sin lapped at the edges of my grove of peace. They flashed and raged and threatened to burn it all down. In my immaturity I came to the realization that it would not be all easy sunshine and roses from here on out. In fact, I came to understand that it would in many ways be harder.
“The church of God and Christians, whilst they are here, are in an unperfect state. No Christian in this life attains to full happiness and brightness, but is attended on by those sins and sorrows that argue an unperfect estate. The church of God, and every converted Christian, must needs confess that they be black outwardly and inwardly.”
Application / Further Discussion
Many of you can relate to the zeal and joy of conversion followed by the crashing down of sorrow like waves on the beach. Waves never take the beach in one sweep, they wear over time. So sin and the Devil seeks to wear us down wave by wave, grain of sand by grain of sand, until there is nothing left. The world looks at us and asks why we are not perfect. They point to our hypocrisy and sin and say we must not be Christians.
Yes, we are sinners. We are black, as Sibbes says, with imperfection. We are worse than the world, our friends, and even our families know. Our hearts are dark alleys that outsiders don’t walk down. Yet, in Christ God has redeemed us and given us a new nature. We are no longer slaves to walk down those dark alleys in our hearts. He has given us his Holy Spirit to help us.
God uses our imperfections to humble us, make us patient, and render us pitiable. We are a sinful and hypocritical people. The church is full of people who, if honest when asked how they are doing, might not say “great!” We might instead say, “I’m struggling with this or that.” We should not hide our afflictions. We cannot. Salvation is the realization that we are sinners, and in need of a Savior. That sin has not gone away. Indeed, Sibbes says of the church;
“And to seek her comfort in Christ Jesus. Oh it doth her good to receive the sentence of death, shame, poverty, damnation, in herself, that so she may be found in Christ, arrayed with rich robes of his righteousness. Hence her plain-hearted openness in confession. Let us do the like, and leave it to the harlot and whore of Babylon to say herself is a queen, she is glorious, she cannot err.”
We Christians suffer and fight against sin to varying degrees. But we all suffer and fight sin. Let the world see our blackness, our imperfections. They know they are imperfect and have that commonality with us. They recognize, in their criticisms of the church, that we are all sinners. It is from this that we hold forth the good news. Christ Jesus is God who saves sinners. Humble yourself, repent, and believe.
You who suffer, “Are afflictions upon thee? Be sensible of them, be humbled in them, but never shrink from the hold of Christ or hope of mercy.” You are Christ’s. Drink deeply from the well that never runs dry. Be satisfied in the waters of the eternal spring of Christ Jesus. Hold fast to Jesus Christ, though storms rage and sin threatens to burn it all down. Hold fast your confession to the end. This world is passing away, do not let go of him for temporary foolishness or comfort. All storms come to an end, and so to will this life and its suffering. Live your life to the glory of God, in the joy of his salvation, and wait for that day when all things are made right.
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9–10)
We have been called out of darkness into his marvelous light. Wretches invited to the dinner table as honored guests. Like Joseph, we have been summoned from prison, bathed, and put on clean robes. Our robes are the righteousness of Christ. There is more mercy in Christ than sin in you.
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Last week, we The Saint’s Happiness.
Next week, we read The Rich Pearl. Here is an audio recording of Mark Dever reading it in its entirety.
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