God Reigns Over His Church

How good it is to know that God is reigning over everything! At least it should be. God’s children should find it natural to entrust all their personal affairs to the care of the Most High. It should be just as natural for them to commit the Church of God and all its affairs to Him.

We may think of young David when the Philistines had invaded Israel, with Goliath, the well-armed giant, as the most prominent of their troops. In the face of Goliath’s repeated challenges, King Saul – whom we cannot imagine would be ready to trust in the Most High’s control over everything – was terrified, along with his people. But when David came on the scene, he was an exception. He had experience of some of the wonderful consequences of trusting in the Lord; he told Saul: “The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine” (1 Sam 17:37).

David did not go against Goliath in his own strength; he was not trusting in any human power. In response to Goliath’s threats and curses, David said, “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied” (v 45). Goliath was no doubt trusting in his weapons and in his own strength, but David – though making use of a sling and a stone, and he chose smooth stones – was trusting in the true God. He was not looking to anything except the power and the faithfulness of the true God, the God who really exists, the God who reigns over everything.

Goliath defied the armies of Israel and, in doing so, he was defying the God of Israel, at least implicitly. Today, in Western-type societies, God has been increasingly rejected. People know about God, at least in some minimal way, but by and large they assume they can ignore Him; they pay no attention to His authority over them. Yet His authority is real – His authority over every single individual that has ever existed, or will exist.

That authority stems from the fact that God created all things – and we must hold firmly to the creatorship of God as a fact. One of the most effective weapons that has been used to undermine the authority of the true God during

the past 150+ years has been the theory of evolution. Recent generations have been deceived into believing that they do not need God and that they are under no obligation to obey Him, and in many cases the wish has been father to the thought. What we are left with is a society where despair has become tragically common; hence the increasing rates of suicide.

It should be obvious that individuals do need God, and society needs God; but there is a roaring lion going about seeking whom he may devour. Satan is ruthless; his great aim is to bring multitudes – whole generations if he could accomplish that – down to eternal destruction by preventing them from benefiting from the gospel. “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor 4:4).

Where does this leave the Church of God today? In the face of such powerful opposition, and Satan is hugely powerful, must we not expect the Church to be completely overwhelmed when we consider how weak she is at present? But David was weak in comparison with Goliath, and he did not give up in despair, as the other Israelites were close to doing. He knew that God is infinitely powerful and can give deliverance, and David was willing to trust in Him, while using the instruments that were available: the five smooth stones from the brook, of which he only needed to use one.

Today’s Church is fundamentally in the same position. It has resources, but what are they in comparison with those available to the world? For instance, the Church has no power to pass laws which would require obedience from entire nations, or even from significant parts of them. And large parts of the professing Church would have no wish to pass scriptural legislation. The Church has no worthwhile influence over the media or over popular opinion, and those parts of the Church which are committed to the inspiration, infallibility and reliability of Scripture are small in comparison with those parts which reject the full authority of God’s revelation.

But Paul reminds the Church that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds” (2 Cor 10:4); her weapons are spiritual. Just as the individual is to take “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Eph 6:17), so the Church, and individual preachers, are to make use of this spiritual weapon, which has so often shown itself immensely powerful in pulling down Satan’s strongholds.

Accordingly, preachers are particularly to make known, from the Word of God, the seriousness of the human condition as fallen in Adam and going on in sin, so that people unchanged by God’s grace are, without exception, condemned to eternal punishment. Preachers are further to proclaim, from the same source, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, the Son

of God, who came into the world to suffer and die as the substitute for sinners. And preachers, as Christ’s ambassadors, are to call their hearers to believe in Him who sent them, using such words as these, words that He has given them to use: “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Is 45:22).

Matthew Henry’s Commentary speaks of “ignorance, prejudices, beloved lusts” as “Satan’s strongholds in the souls of some; vain imaginations, carnal reasonings and high thoughts, or proud conceits, in others”. These people “exalt themselves against the knowledge of God; that is, by these ways the devil endeavours to keep men from faith and obedience to the gospel, and secures his possession of the hearts of men, as his own house or property. But . . . these strongholds are pulled down by the gospel as the means, through the grace and power of God accompanying it as the principal efficient cause. Note, the conversion of the soul is the conquest of Satan in that soul.” Satan is powerful; God is infinitely more so.

Satan’s kingdom received a severe blow on the Day of Pentecost. It was the first outpouring of the Spirit in New Testament times, when the preaching of the Word, by Peter and the other apostles, was powerfully applied to 3000 souls. They were delivered from Satan’s kingdom and brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

When Saul of Tarsus was delivered from following the ways of self-righteousness and brought out of Satan’s kingdom, he was commissioned by Christ Himself to go to the Gentiles. He was sent “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified” (Acts 26:18). He was to take the sword of the Spirit, apparently so weak, and by divine power wield it with great effects.

David might well have been despised by the watching Philistines, as he went against Goliath with only a sling and five stones; his actions might well have been dismissed as foolishness. So proclaiming the gospel has often been dismissed as “the foolishness of preaching”, but time and again through history it has pleased God to use it “to save them that believe” (1 Cor 1:21), and He will continue to do so.

Times of revival have shown that preaching the gospel is certainly not a foolish activity, and the Day of judgement will confirm this. In spite of all the opposition, God is indeed still reigning over all the affairs of His Church. The Church is therefore to continue its God-given activity of making known the good news about Christ and salvation through Him, and the people of God are to continue to pray earnestly for the blessing of the Lord of hosts on the means He has appointed for pulling down Satan’s strongholds.

Christ’s Invitation to the Labouring (7)¹

A Sermon by Thomas Boston

Matthew 11:28. Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

3. To explain the nature of the rest which Christ graciously promises and which He actually gives to such labouring and heavy-laden sinners as truly come to Him. Here it must be observed that there is a rest which such sinners may have in Christ – a rest here and a rest hereafter. In this life there is a fourfold rest to be had in Christ:

1. A rest from sin. The rest Christ gives from sin is twofold:

(1.) A rest from the guilt of sin. Guilt is a poison, infecting the conscience, and making it suffer because it can get no rest, as in the case of Cain and Judas, and also those who “were pricked in their hearts” (Acts 2:37). When this festers and cannot be removed, it is the gnawing worm in hell. Christ gives rest from it; His blood purges the conscience from dead works (Heb 9:14). When the conscience is like the raging sea, it is stilled by Him: “I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him” (Is 57:18,19). The soul finds this rest in the wounds of Christ, for “with His stripes we are healed” (Is 53:5). The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, cleanses from all sin. The soul dipped in this fountain is washed from this poison and is delivered from this sting of guilt.

(2.) A rest from the reigning power of sin: “Sin shall not have dominion over you” (Rom 6:14). Sin on the throne makes a soul confused and restless, like the raging sea, continually casting out mire and dirt. By the efficacy of His Spirit, Christ turns sin off the throne and restores rest to the soul. He casts down these Egyptian taskmasters, and thus the soul enters into his rest: “he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His” (Heb 4:10). In the day when the soul comes to Christ, He acts like a King, setting all in order in the kingdom, that was a mere heap of confusion before His accession to the throne.

1. A rest from the law; not that He makes them lawless, but that He takes off them the insupportable yoke of the law and gives them rest. He gives them rest:

¹The final part of the last sermon on this text, reprinted, with editing, from Boston’s Works, vol 9. The first part of this discourse appeared in June, when Boston made deductions from the various parts of the text, concluding with the point: “Christ allows sinners to come to Him rather on account of how desperate their case is than otherwise”.

(1.) From the burden of law duties, which are exacted in all perfection, under the pain of the curse, while no strength is furnished wherewith to fulfill them: “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ” (Rom 7:4). This is the yoke on all men’s necks naturally; Christ put His neck in this yoke and bare it, satisfying the law’s demands completely, and so He frees all that come to Him from this service. Christ carries His people outside the dominions of the law.

(2.) From the curse of the law: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Gal 3:13). “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). Those that have come to Him, He takes off them that curse which they are under and gives them His blessing, which He has merited. He carries them from Mount Sinai to Mount Zion, where they hear the blood of Jesus speaking peace, silencing the demand of vengeance and affording a refuge for the oppressed.

1. A rest from that weary labour in which people are engaged when in quest of happiness, leading the souls to the enjoyment of God: “Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee” (Ps 116:7). God leads to Himself, the fountain of all perfection, the soul that is restless in seeking happiness among created things. He opens their eyes, as He did Hagar’s to see the well, and brings them into the enjoyment of all good in Him, uniting the soul with Himself; where the soul finds:

(1.) A rest of satisfaction from Christ, which the soul can find in no other quarter whatever, for it finds a rest of satisfaction from Him, when by faith it receives consolations from Him. In these there is an object adequate to all the desires of the soul, answering all its needs. Thus: “A good man shall be satisfied from himself” (Prov 14:14). “I have all and abound” (Phil 4:18).

(2.) A rest in Christ of settled abode, inasmuch that the soul does not go among created things for satisfaction as it used to do: “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (Jn 4:14). Christ becomes precious to the soul. Like the released lady that did not so much as look on, or take notice of, Cyrus, notwithstanding the noble part he acted, but on her husband, who said he would redeem her with his own life. “The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field, the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”

1. A rest in relation to troubles.

(1.) Christ gives rest from troubles in the world, now and then, when He sees fit: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivereth them out of them all” (Ps 34:19). Zion’s God reigns, let whoever will be on

the throne; and when He speaks peace, neither devils nor men can create trouble for His people; for “who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?” (Lam 3:37). Then is no such security from trouble as the godly have, but that is from heaven and not from earth.

(2.) Therefore Christ gives rest in trouble. “These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). You may, indeed you shall, meet with troubles, but He can make you get sweet rest in your souls; even when you are on a bed of thorns as to the outward man, He can give His people sweet rest. How can these things be? some may ask. In answer,

[1.] Christ gives His people in trouble an inward rest; that is an inward tranquillity of mind in the midst of trouble: “Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. But Thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and He heard me out of His holy hill. Selah. I laid me down and slept; I awaked, for the Lord sustained me” (Ps 3:1-5). Christ can make the believer as a vessel of water tossed here and there, yet not jumbled. There was a greater calm with the three men in the furnace than with the king in the palace (Dan 3:24). Fear may be on every side when there is none in the centre, because Christ makes a blessed calm in their hearts.

[2.] Christ gives in trouble a rest of contentment. Paul says, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Phil 4:11). This is not only the duty, but the privilege, of believers. If the lot of the godly is not brought up to their spirit, Christ will bring their spirit down to their lot; and there must needs be rest where the spirit of the man and his lot meet: “They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied” (Ps 37:19).

[3.] Then follows a rest of satisfaction in the enjoyment of better things. What though the world has a bitter taste in their mouths? Christ can hold a cup of consolation to them in that very instant, the sweetness of which will master the bitterness of the other. He says, “Your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (Jn 16:20). Paul says, “Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world” (2 Cor 1:12). They are not indeed pieces of wood, to be unmoved with troubles, but their sorrow is drowned in spiritual joy: “as sorrowful yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor 6:10), even as the joy of the wicked is but as joy². Troubles may raise

²Not actually joy, just like it.

a mutiny of lusts within, but the peace of God quells them: it keeps their “hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”.

[4.] Christ gives a rest, in confidence of a blessed outcome: “For the which cause I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (2 Tim 1:12). The soul in Christ has the promise to rest on; and however dark a side the cloud may have, faith will see through it; though they may sink deep, they will never drown who have a promise to bear them up.

Thus, you see, they rest in Christ in trouble; and this rest is a most secure rest, where people may rest confidently: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee” (Is 26:3). The wicked may have rest, but not with God’s good will; therefore the more rest, the more dangerous is their case: “For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape” (1 Th 5:3). But there is perfect security in Christ, even in the worst of times (Song 3:7,8).

Again, it is a rest that is rooted so firmly that the soul can never be deprived of it: “The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness, and assurance for ever” (Is 32:17). How soon the rest of the wicked is broken and their candle put out! But although this may meet with some disturbance through temptations, as the clouds may go over the sun, yet it shall be as sure as the sun is fixed in the firmament; it will be proof against the disturbances of the world, against the temptations and accusations of the devil; yes, against the demands of justice and the threatening of the law.

Then in the life to come, He will give complete rest to all who come to Him: “There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God” (Heb 4:9). He will give their bodies rest in the grave (Is 57:2), and give both soul and body rest in heaven hereafter; and that is a rest beyond expression.

If it should be asked, Who is it that gives this rest? This is answered in our text: Christ says to such labouring and heavy-laden sinners, “I will give you rest”, and He is able to make good His word. To give this rest is His prerogative; they that obtain it must get it from His hands. For illustrating and confirming this, consider:

1. No creature can give rest to a restless soul. Nothing in them, or all that can be obtained from them, can give it: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity” (Ecc 1:2). Men, even the best of men, cannot do it. Ministers may be directed to speak a word in season, but only the Lord Himself can make that word effectual (2 Sam 12:13 compared with Ps 51).

No, angels cannot do it; it requires a creating power: “I have seen his ways, and will heal him” (Is 57:18).

1. There can be no rest to the soul without returning to a reconciled God, for it is impossible for the soul to find true rest elsewhere; and there is no returning to God but by Christ: “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (Jn 14:6). He is the only ladder by which the soul can ascend to heaven.

2. Christ is the great Lord Treasurer of heaven. The fullness of power is lodged in Him: “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth” (Mt 28:18). No one can get anything from heaven, in the way of spiritual favour, but what comes through His hands, “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement unto the Son” (Jn 5:22). Jesus also has “the keys of hell and death” (Rev 1:18).

3. He is the storehouse, where the treasure is laid up and out of which all needful supplies come: “Of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace” (Jn 1:16).

4. Glorious types illustrate this: Joseph (Gen 41:40-44); Joshua, who brought the people to the rest in Canaan.

5. Christ sustains this high character: He is the “author and finisher of our faith” (Heb 12:2).

6. It is reasonable that it should be so, He has purchased this rest with His blood, and therefore there is a high propriety that He should be the giver, the dispenser of this glorious blessing.

4. Some practical application of the whole subject. To enlarge here would be improper, as a practical application has been made of the several parts of the subject all along, as they have been considered. At the same time, your attention may be called to the following brief hints. From what has been observed, you have had set before you,

1. A melancholy picture of the miserable state of all mankind by nature; they are “labouring and heavy laden”, they have various burdens lying on them: the burden of sin, the burden of the law, a burden often of fears, of terrors, arising from the former. While thus heavy laden, they are labouring, striving to ease themselves of their burdens, struggling hard to get rid of them, while after all they are only labouring in vain in the fire, wearying themselves in the greatness of their way, spending their “money for that which is not bread, and [their] labour for that which satisfieth not”, instead of obtaining the least ease or quiet. Their situation is in this way rendered more and more grievous and distressing, their burdens become heavier than they can bear, and their labour is rendered quite intolerable.

2. We may learn a special ingredient in the misery of those that thus labour

and are heavy laden. They are under the law as a covenant of works, which requires the full tally of bricks without providing the least straw with which to make them. They are under the hardest taskmasters, who are constantly saying, Give, give, to those who are unable to work. What is still worse, they are without Christ, without God, and so without hope in the world. It is only Jesus that can help them; while far from Him and enemies to Him, they have no other prospect than to perish eternally.

1. But here is opened up a door of hope, even for such as are labouring and heavy laden, whatever their characters or conditions have been, or whatever they may be at present, though they may have long laboured in vain and spent their strength for nothing. However heavy, numerous and continued these burdens may be – though in their view, their condition may not only be distressing and deplorable, but even almost desperate – there is here a door of hope opened up to such sinners. On Jesus is their help laid; it is to be found in and from Him. He is saying, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else”. “Hearken unto Me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness.” No, He speaks to such expressly by name; without excluding a single individual, whatever his present character or condition may be. His gracious words are, “Come unto Me, all ye,” all of you, and each of you, “that labour, and are heavy laden,” and in coming to Me, you shall without doubt have rest.

2. The indispensable duty of all the hearers of the gospel is pointed out to us. It is to come to Jesus; to comply with the gracious call and invitation here given. It is true that, in the text, it is addressed only to the labouring and heavy laden; but is not this a character common to all hearers of the gospel? Are not all more or less in this situation, a situation so far from being desirable that it is exceedingly uncomfortable? If such then would consult their present or eternal welfare; if they would hearken to the gracious call, the kind invitation which Christ gives them; if they would obey heaven’s great command, it must be admitted that it is their bounden duty to come to Jesus – that is, to believe on Him; for it is only in the exercise of faith as coming to Him, and according as faith is in exercise, that any can be freed from their heavy burdens, or be released from that vain and irksome labour in which they are engaged.

Let all such then be exhorted to cease from the labour which does not satisfy; from these fruitless attempts which they are engaged in, to rid themselves from these heavy burdens under which they are weighed down. Be exhorted to come to Jesus, cast all your burdens and cares upon Him. He is able and willing to sustain both you and your burdens, whatever they are. Come to Him then as you are, as labouring and heavy laden. The most cordial

welcome is afforded to all such; the greater your burdens and the more pressing your necessities are, in the way of putting your case unreservedly in His hand and under His management, you may in due time assuredly expect a comfortable outcome. He hates putting away. Whosoever will may come, and him that comes to Him, He will in no wise cast out. “Come unto Me,” He says, “all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Repentance and Faith¹

John Owen

Hebrews 6:1. Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God.

Repentance from dead works. This expression, “dead works”, is exclusive to the Apostle and to this epistle (see 9:14). Elsewhere he speaks of men being “dead in trespasses and sins”. What he there ascribes to their persons he here ascribes to their works. The sins of unregenerate people are called “dead works” in respect of their nature; they proceed from a state of spiritual death. And in respect of their end, they are dead because deadly; they procure death and end in death. What is required, and what they were taught, in relation to these “dead works” is repentance.

Repentance is the first thing required of those who take upon them the profession of the gospel. Without this, whatever is attempted or attained is only a dishonour to Christ and a disappointment to men. This is the method of preaching, confirmed by the command and example of Christ Himself: “Repent and believe the gospel”. And almost all the sermons that we find – not only of John the Baptist in a way of preparation for the declaration of the gospel, but of the apostles also in pressing the actual reception of it on Jews and Gentiles – have this as their first principle: the necessity of repentance. Hence it is said in the preaching of the gospel: “God . . . commandeth all men everywhere to repent”.

It is therefore evident that this was the first doctrinal principle which was pressed on, and fixed in, the minds of men as to their duty, when first instructed in the gospel. The supreme original cause of repentance is the goodwill, grace and bounty of God. It is directly bestowed on the souls of men by Jesus Christ as a fruit of His death; and the nature of it is expressed in the conversion of the Gentiles – it is “unto life” (Acts 11:18). Repentance is a

¹Taken with editing from “An Abridgement”, by M J Tryon, of Owen’s Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews.

change of mind concerning “dead works”, everything that has the nature of sin is now seen to be evil – evil in itself, evil to the sinner, evil in its present effects and consequences. Repentance respects the will and affections; the change of the will, or taking away the will to sin, is the principal part of repentance; it is a repentance from dead works, that is, in relinquishing them.

No interest in Christ or Christian religion is to be obtained without “repentance from dead works”; the Lord Jesus came not only to save men from their sins, but to turn them from their sins – to turn them from their sins that they may be saved from them. That any person living in sin without repentance should have an interest in Christ is inconsistent with the glory of God and the honour of Jesus Christ.

And of faith toward God. Repentance is coupled with faith; they can never be severed. Where the one is, there is the other; and where either is absent there is neither, whatever is pretended. The whole is expressed by “Repent ye, and believe the gospel”. Hence you read that Paul testified both to Jews and Greeks “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”.

Faith in God as to accomplishing the great promise, in sending His Son Jesus Christ to save us from our sins, is the great fundamental principle of our interest in and profession of the gospel. The promise of sending Jesus Christ was the first express engagement that God ever made of His faithfulness and veracity to any creatures. Hence this was the first and immediate object of faith in man after the Fall. The first thing proposed to man was to believe in God, with respect to His faithfulness in the future accomplishment of this promise; and faith concerning its actual accomplishment is the first thing required of us. This is the greatest promise that God ever gave to the children of men, and therefore faith in Him in relation to this is both necessary to us and tends greatly to His glory.