He hath done all things well

During the days of His humiliation, Christ did many wonderful works. Many were astonished at the miracles of healing which He performed. In these things the Lord manifested forth His glory, as is recorded of Him in connection with the turning of the water into wine at the marriage of Cana in Galilee. These miracles which He performed witnessed to the truth of the claim which He made that He was the Son of God. It is true that the disciples also did many wonderful works but they were empowered to do so and did these things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When men brought to Christ one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech they besought Him to put His hand upon him. No doubt they had witnessed some of the other works done by Christ and were persuaded that He was able to heal this case also. In this they were not mistaken. In the hands of Christ no case ever miscarried. Failure is written on all that man does but not so with the divine Redeemer. No affliction was proof against His dealing with it or handling of it. He could give sight to the blind, cleanse the leper, heal the lame and even raise the dead to life, so the deafness of the man brought to Him or the impediment in his speech was not beyond the healing power of this One. The Saviour took the man aside from the multitude, put His fingers into his ears, spat, and touched his tongue. Looking up to heaven, He said, Ephatha, Be opened. Immediately his ears were opened and the string of his tongue loosed and he spoke plainly. This was by the mighty working of the power of God. Though the Saviour charged them to tell no man, yet the more he charged them, the more they published it. They were so astonished at what had taken place that they could only say: “He hath done all things well: He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.” However astonished they were, if they did but know it, this was but a whisper of His power.

While the Saviour when He was in this world did manifest His power in the healing of physical troubles, yet this was not the great end for which He had come into this world. It was to heal the souls of men, the souls of poor lost sinners that the Saviour came into this world, by giving His life a ransom for many. He was to pay the ransom price of His people’s deliverance in order that they might be set free from the plagues of sin and of death. What a mammoth task this was which was laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ and one in which He would have utterly failed were He not the God-man Redeemer. To give infinite satisfaction to the divine law and justice was impossible except for One who was perfectly holy and who was able to bear the wrath of God against sin. This the divine Redeemer did as the Saviour of sinners in order to deliver His elect inheritance from going down into everlasting destruction.

We have, then, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ One who is able to heal the souls as well as the bodies of men. Wherever a soul is healed of the leprosy of sin, there we may take it the hand of the Lord has been laid on that one. It is through the power of His Spirit that He effects this. The great deliverance wrought out by Christ is applied individually to the souls of men through the effectual working of God’s Spirit in the soul. What virtue, what efficacy, what healing power there is in the atonement wrought out by Christ. Through the blood of His Cross sinners are healed, yea, made whiter than the snow. None ever remain the same after He has put his hand on them. His touch has still its healing power. The worst of men and of women brought into contact with the healing power of Christ are delivered. Whatever excuses men may entertain as to why they should not come to Christ to be healed by Him, none will stand. All who have availed themselves of the provision God has made in Him have found healing for their needy souls. Be they black or white, Jew or Gentile, it makes no difference. The efficacy of the blood of Christ is the same. And when healed by Him what can men say but what they said here at this time: “He hath done all things well.”

For ourselves the question must arise as to what we know in our spiritual experience of the healing power of Christ. Have we come in our spiritual experience to touch the hem of His garment or to be touched by Him in the secret recesses of our soul? This is a question of the greatest importance for us. It is not enough to think of what high and great profession of religion in the world we have made, but what do we know of His gracious healing power and of the efficacy of His shed blood to take away all sin? If we have been healed by the great Physician then He will be all things to us. We will owe our all to Him. Is this true of us? Can we say in truth that Christ is all and in all to us? If not, nothing else will avail. We must be cut off from every other refuge and closed into Christ as our only refuge and hope for time and eternity. When this takes place we will see Him not only as the One who does all things well in bringing us to Himself but as the One who in His daily dealings with us in this world does all things well. If this is so in time, what will it be in eternity? What is the song of the redeemed in glory? It has many elements in it, but this is one of them — “He hath done all things well.”

Notes of a Sermon

by Ralph Erskine
“And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him.”
Luke 9: 42.

Here is the history of Christ’s healing a lunatic child, whose father came to the disciples, and they could not cure him; and now he cometh to Christ. As we ought to come to Christ ourselves for healing, so we ought to bring our children to him; and when servants and other means can do us no good, we ought to go to the Master, and look over the head of all ministers and servants. After Christ had reproached the disciples for their unbelief, he gives the poor man an encouraging word concerning his son: “Bring thy son hither.” — (Ver. 41.) Bring him to me. We ought to bring our sons and our daughters to Christ; to bring our diseases, and all our various cases, to Christ. But after this encouragement, follows a trial in the text: “As he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him.”

Hence we may observe, that people who come to Christ, and whom he undertakes to heal and help, may have their distress growing on their hand, before the deliverance come, which yet will certainly come.

It is in this case, as it was with Israel in Egypt: God saw their affliction, and undertook to come and save them; and yet, behold, before their deliverance, their bondage becomes heavier. The darkest time of the night may be before daybreak. Thus it was with Israel, in returning from Babylon, to rebuild the temple in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The king gives commandment to go and build; God stirs up the civil authority to give encouragement to them; but quickly the haters of Zion, misrepresenting the work, procure an order to cause them to desist from it. This doctrine, then, is verified both with relation to God’s public work towards a church, and his particular work on the souls of his people, as you see it was with the ruler of the synagogue, who applied to Christ in behalf of his daughter at the point of death, “that he might come and heal her.” — (Mark v. 23.) Christ went with him; but see what sad news he gets from his house: “Trouble not the Master, for your daughter is dead.” — (Ver. 35.) And now they looked upon the matter as hopeless, though yet Christ was on his way to save her.

The method we would lay down, for the farther prosecuting this subject, through Divine aid, shall be the following:—

I. We will speak a little of coming to Christ.
II. Inquire in what respects matters may grow worse with people, even when they are thus coming to Christ.
III. Inquire into the reasons whence it is that people who come to Christ for help, and whom he undertakes to help, may find their distress increase before their deliverance come.
IV. Make some application of the whole.

I. We are to speak a little of coming to Christ. There are only two things I would observe here.

1. Coming to Christ imports a view that vain is the help of man; vain is the help of creatures; vain is the help of ministers, means, and ordinances, of themselves. Thus it was here with the father of the child: “I besought thy disciples to cast him out, but they could not.” (Ver. 40.) So they who come to Christ find all other refuges fail them (Ps. 142: 4); other physicians were of no value. None come to Christ till they can do no better; yet he is content with such comers, that see there is no other help for them.

2. This coming to Christ imports a putting the work in his hand: “Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son;” he prays, and he brings him to Christ at the Lord’s call. They that truly come to Christ for help, put the work into his hand, and give him employment in his saving offices, looking on him as able, and willing, and ready to save. The disease is half cured when it is laid at Christ’s feet. Happy they who come thus to him, and intrust him with their souls, and trust him with their cases. “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass.” — (Ps. 37: 5.)

II. The second head proposed was, to inquire in what respects matters may grow worse with people, even when they are thus coming to Christ.

Here two things are recorded: — 1. Satan’s assault: “The devil threw him down.” 2. How he used him: “And tare him.”

1. They who come to Christ, before they get the deliverance which is insured to them, may meet with downcasting providences: “The devil threw him down.” They may be cast down with discouragement and despondency for a while; cast down with fears and doubts; cast down with jealous apprehensions and unbelieving thoughts. Believing souls after their coming to Christ, much more as they are coming, at first may be greatly cast down: “O my God, my soul is cast down within me.” (Ps. 42: 6.) They may be cast down with a multitude of perplexing thoughts, despairing thoughts, and manifold objections and scruples, which their minds raise, or rather unbelief frames within them.

2. They may not only be thrown down, but torn by the way: “The devil threw him down, and tare him.” Whenever a man begins to come to Christ, and the devil begins to fear he shall lose his possession, then he rages against that man, and would tear him to pieces. Therefore think it not strange that beginners in religion, and such as are coming, or but lately come, to Christ, or even those who have come formerly, and are coming again to him, may be mightily assaulted and attacked by all the powers of hell. So long as people remain at a distance from Christ, the devil does not oppose them. “He keeps the house, and the goods are in peace;” but in coming to Christ they may lay their account to be torn by torments, torn by terrors, and blasphemous suggestions; they may lay their account with fiery darts. When we expect the Lord is about to remove one burden, he may lay on another, that he may have the more mercy on us.

III. The next thing proposed was, to inquire into the reasons whence it is that people, who are coming to Christ for help, and whom he undertakes to help, may find their distress increase before their deliverance comes. Whatever malicious hand the devil has in this matter, God has a holy hand in permitting it.

1. God’s design in it is to show his wisdom and power.

It is to manifest his wisdom; how he can advance his work by the stops in the way of it; and enrich his people by impoverishing them; enlarge them by imprisoning them; and “give them meat out of the eater, and sweet out of the strong.”

It is to envince his power; how he can support them under, and deliver them from, their distresses, which would not appear so much, if their distress came not to a height. He suffers them to be dejected and torn, that his wisdom and power may appear the more evidently in lifting them up and healing them.

1. It is to check the unbelief that attends our faith in coming to Christ. Sometimes when we commit our case to him by faith, we do not exercise this faith in a patient waiting for the Lord. Christ’s first word to his people is, “Come to me,” (Matt. 11: 28); and his last word is, “Abide in me.” (John 15: 4.) It is well done to come, but, alas! we do not abide; and, therefore, to check our unbelief in coming, as if it were but one step, and going back the next step, he shows the need of going forward, by letting loose the enemy, and suffering matters to grow worse with us.

2. It is to raise the worth and esteem of his mercies in the hearts of those who come to him. We usually do not know the worth of mercy, till we are deprived of it; nor the worth of deliverance, till the distress is extremely great; help is then esteemed, when we can say, “I was brought low, and he helped me.”

3. It is to try our faith, whether or not it be such as will not only come to Christ, but also abide with him till he work the deliverance; to try if we can keep our eye upon the Deliverer, when the deliverance is delayed; our eye upon the promise, when cross providences appear; and can hope against hope. He designs the trial of faith for the present, and a more glorious issue thereafter.

IV. The last general head proposed was, to make some application. Is it so, “That people who come to Christ, and whom he undertakes to heal and help, may have their distress growing on their hand, before their deliverance come, which yet will certainly come!” Hence we may see:-

1. What a cruel enemy the devil is to immortal souls and their eternal salvation; for, whenever a soul begins to mind religion in earnest, and to come to Christ for help and deliverance, then that soul becomes the object of the devil’s spite and malice. As long as people remain graceless, and Christless, and formal, the devil will let them enjoy themselves, and lull them asleep in their security; but as soon as they begin to come to Christ, then he will attempt to cast them down and tear them, and stir up all his wicked instruments, either to discourage and ridicule them, or to tear their name and reputation to pieces, and to persecute them with tongue and hand, or to raise a hue-and-cry against them, as if they were turned distracted, and out of their wits. As they are “coming, the devil throws them down, and tears them”.

2. Hence see the reason of all the melancholy moods, heavy damps, and great discouragements, of many beginners, that are setting out in the Lord’s way. Though wisdom’s ways be ways of pleasantness, yet Satan, who is a liar from the beginning, would make the world believe that it is a bitter and unpleasant way; and that the beginning of religion is but the beginning of sorrows.

3. Hence also see the difference between the convictions of the Spirit and the temptations of Satan; and the difference between the distress of soul that arises from a law-work before conversion, and that which arises from the assaults of the enemy of our salvation: whenever conviction begins, and the soul comes to be troubled for sin, and under fear of hell and wrath, Satan indeed fishes in the muddy water, and mixes his temptations with the Spirit’s convictions; and if he can bring all convictions to nothing, either by force or fraud, he will do it, that the convinced soul may never come to Christ for a cure: Satan will stand at his right hand to resist them. But the difference between them is —

(1.) The convictions of the Spirit are before a man comes to Christ, and tend as a severe “schoolmaster to bring him to Christ.” (Gal. 3: 24). But the temptations of the devil are especially when a man is coming to Christ, in order to keep him from coming. — If the Spirit of God, by a law-work, seem as it were to cast down the man, and tear him to pieces, the design is to oblige him to go to Christ for help and healing; and to provoke him to come to the Saviour, and flee to the city of refuge. But the design of the devil’s temptations, when he throws down and tears the soul, is, that when he is coming, or as he is coming to Christ, he may detain him from coming, or discourage him in coming.

(2.) The convictions of the Spirit are humbling, tending to make the soul despair of help in himself, or in God out of Christ. The temptations of the enemy are terrifying, tending to make the soul despair of help in Christ, or in God through him: the former shuts the door of hope by the law; but the devil would shut the door of hope by the gospel.

1. There is no ground to blame religion and religious duties, notwithstanding discouragements and downcasting trials in the way of duty. Though matters grow worse with you in the way of duty, and in the way of coming to Christ, blame not yourself for coming to Christ, because the devil attacks you by the way. You have enough to charge yourself with, though you charge not yourself foolishly. It would be far worse with you if the devil and your own wicked heart should prevail to take you off from the use of promising means. When, like Peter, you cast yourself upon the water to come to Christ, be not terrified, though the devil raise a storm; the Lord Jesus “sits upon the floods, and is mightier than the noise of many waters.” (Ps. 93: 4.) Never think the worse of Christ, though matters seem to grow worse with you, when you come to him for rest, and yet find trouble; for it is the devil and the ill heart that breeds all the trouble, keep up honourable thoughts of the Lord Jesus; believe he can do for you, and wait till you find that he will do. Let all cross providences hasten you nearer to your resting-place; for all that come to him shall find rest in spite of the devil; some rest shall be enjoyed here, however disturbed by the devil from time to time, and by unbelief, until rest be perfected in heaven.

2. Hence see an evidence of a true believer and comers to Christ: if the devil be no enemy to your faith, you may know it is a false faith. Many have a faith that the devil is well enough pleased with; and therefore he never troubles them, nor it: but if you have saving faith, it will be the eyesore of hell; or if you be truly coming to Christ, you may expect the devil to be upon you. No sooner doth true faith begin, but the fight of faith begins. Some may bless themselves they were never assaulted by the devil, and yet they are but sleeping, as it were, in the devil’s cradle; he is rocking them. Try your faith; if it be from heaven, it will meet with opposition from hell: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” — (Eph. 6: 12). Therefore we are called, as part of the Christian armour, to take “the shield of faith, whereby we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” — (Ver. 16). The devil may let you go peaceably about duty; read, and pray, and communicate, because you may do these things carnally and formally, and go to hell when all is done; but if once you begin to come to Christ, or to go about any duty believably, then you are on the way to heaven, and, if the devil can, he will draw you back, and throw you down with discouragements, and tear you with temptations, either as you are coming, or after you are come. But it is always the best faith that is most opposed by the devil.

This doctrine may be applied by way of address, — 1. To those who never yet came to Christ for help and salvation. 2. To those who are coming in obedience to his call.

1. To you who never yet came to Christ for help and salvation. Oh! stay not away from him for fear of the devil, lest he throw you down and tear you. Better be thrown down by the way in coming to Christ, than thrown down to hell, with the devil at last, by the hand of God, who will throw you and the devil down to hell, if you do not come to Christ. Better that the devil tear you to pieces, when there is a Deliverer, even Jesus, at hand to deliver you from him, than that God himself tear you to pieces when there shall be none to deliver: “Consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” — (Ps. 50: 22). Come, otherwise you remain slaves to the devil and your lusts. O! be sensible of your slavery and malady! Know none can save you but our Lord Jesus Christ; he is a mighty Saviour, and a merciful one: “No name is given under heaven, whereby a sinner can be saved, but the name of Jesus.” Put the work in his hand; put your soul into his hand. Bring him here to me, says Christ to the man here. O! come and bring your children with you; hear him saying, Bring your son to me, bring your daughter to me, bring your soul and your case to me; O! bring your disease to me, bring your hard heart to me, and I will soften it; bring your filthy heart to me, and I will cleanse it; bring your heart possessed of the devil to me, and I will cast out the devil; bring your seven devils to me, and I will cast them all out.

2. We address ourselves to you who are coming in answer to his call. O! be not dismayed, though the devil throw you down, and tear you as you are coming. Here is a Saviour ready to lift up those whom the devil throws down; ready to heal whom the devil tears; ready to help all that are hurt by the old serpent. It is his office to destroy the works of the devil. You may be always sure that it is an evil spirit that is dealing with you, that would hinder you in your coming to Christ; for the voice of the Spirit of God is, “Come”; “the Spirit and the bride say, Come.” The Spirit of God, as a spirit of bondage, may cast down the soul before it come to Christ, and in order to its coming; but it is not the Spirit of God that casts down the coming believer. No; “we have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear.” — (Rom. 8: 15). After coming to Christ, and believing in him, it is only the devil that casts down and tears you. Fear not the lion of hell; here is the Lion of the tribe of Judah to defend you: it is unbelief and departing from Christ, that may bring you to the greatest danger; therefore, “fear not, only believe.”

Self-Examination

by Rev. Joseph Irons

My dear brethren, let me entreat you to begin this important business today, examine the state of your hearts before God — do not deceive yourselves, but say, has the Holy Spirit begun His gracious work in you? Has He opened the depths of human depravity to your view? Has He made you feel that your case is so desperate that nothing but sovereign grace can reach it? Has He stripped you of self-confidence and legal hope? Has He led you to Calvary and disclosed the glories of Christ to your view? And has He brought you to hunger and thirst after righteousness?

These are questions of infinite importance — they concern you for eternity, and I pray the divine Testifier of Jesus to apply them to your hearts. Can you answer them in the affirmative? then I congratulate you as “heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ”; safe, in the ark, while a deluge of persecution may surround you; “your life is hid with Christ in God”; nor can the powers of darkness, with all their malice, essentially hurt a soul beloved of God: you may expect to go “through much tribulation,” but “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Moreover, it is necessary we should examine ourselves relative to the use we are making of the means of grace. Are we induced to attend them from custom, fear or love? Custom draws a multitude of persons to church or chapel, who go and return, like the pendulum of a clock, unconscious of the rapid progress of time and the approach of eternity. Fear, like Pharaoh’s task-masters, drives nominal Israelites to their daily work, but allows them no real enjoyment in it. While love, like a heavenly magnet, draws with irresistible and delightful force the heaven-born soul to the centre of its enjoyments, and teaches it to “follow hard after God,” crying, “Draw me, I will run after Thee,” and the Father of mercies replies, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee” (Jer. 31: 3).

The Christian, with Christian graces in exercise, goes to the closet — the Bible — the house of God — and the divine ordinances with an object in view. He has wants which must be supplied, maladies he must have healed, and a tribute of love he is anxious to pay. He is a spiritual courtier, who goes to meet the King of Glory — the Prince of Peace — and the Divine Preceptor of the family of God, accompanied by the household of faith.

Say, my beloved hearers, what use are you making of the means of grace; will anything, short of personal intercourse with Jesus, satisfy you in His house? Can you be content with merely passing an opinion on the discourse? or do you come hungry, to be fed — burdened, to get relief — and conscious of your ignorance, seeking the wisdom which is from above?

What says your experience? Do you “grow in grace”? Have you become dead to the world? and can you “joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ”? Can you say, “I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste”? or do you come up to the assembly of saints, crying, “Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon”? (Song of Solomon 1: 8).

Such are some of the uses the Christian makes of the means of grace: now let conscience decide for my hearers, whether they are taught of God thus to employ them, and whether they have been thus blessed in them.

It is an awful thing to be triflers in the house of God; to “draw nigh to Him with our mouths, and honour Him with our lips, while our hearts are far from Him”; yet I fear it is a common thing, hence the necessity of self-examination to prevent self-deception.

Our estimate of the value of our privileges will appear also by reviewing our attention to prayer meetings — weekly lectures — social intercourse — and fire-side religion? Are we alive to the importance of these things? Are we constant in our attention to them? Are we spiritually engaged in them? Or are we content with a little Sabbath-day religion, lulling our consciences to sleep in carnal security and false peace? O Thou searcher of hearts, “examine us, and prove us; try our reins and our hearts.”

The Conscience

We must put a difference between a healthy and a sick conscience. A healthy conscience is that which, after examination of our ways according to the rule of God’s word, doth justly absolve us, and speak peace to us toward God. Of such a conscience it is said by Solomon, “A sound heart is the life of the flesh”, Proverbs 14: 30. By the heart he means the conscience, which ordinarily in scripture is called the heart. And “the sound conscience is the life of the flesh,” because one is in a better case, when the conscience is at peace toward God. And this blessing is upon every believer in Christ in his orderly walking. “God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1: 7. A conscience in this disposition needs not medicine, but spiritual nourishment and exercise in all Christian duties.

A sick conscience we call that which either is senseless of its own evils and dangers, sits down securely, and rests without a warrant; or which is justly wounded, and labours under the sense of its pain; or which is in ignorance of making use of the true remedy. By God’s blessing a word in season may be spoken to awaken a secure conscience, or to refresh the weary soul, and being recovered from its malady, it may be able to feed upon the bread and water of life, and work the works of God in the strength of Christ.

We must put a difference between a troubled soul and a troubled conscience. The soul comprehendeth all the powers and faculties of the man; but the conscience as we speak of it, is only one faculty of the mind, judging of the man’s moral ill or well being, and so all the cases of the conscience are cases of the soul; but all the cases of the soul are not cases of the conscience. The soul may be troubled, while the conscience is not troubled at all; yea a man may have a commendable trouble in his soul, when he sees God dishonoured, or his church in hazard, whereby his conscience is so far from being troubled, that such a holy trouble strengthen his conscience in his address to God, as is seen in many places of the Psalms.

EXTRACT FROM A SERMON by DAVID DICKSON