The Sunday Sermon - October 31 2010

 On the Christian Life Chapter 3 part b

By John Calvin Edited by Dr. Riktor Von Zhades

Our most merciful Father requires not only to prevent our weakness, but often to correct our past faults, that he may keep us in due obedience. Therefore, whenever we are afflicted we ought immediately to call to mind our past life. In this way we will find that the faults which we have committed are deserving of such castigation. And yet the exhortation to patience is not to be founded chiefly on the acknowledgment of sin. For Scripture supplies a far better consideration when it says, that in adversity “we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world,” (1 Corinthians 9:32) Therefore, in the very bitterness of tribulation we ought to recognize the kindness and mercy of our Father, since even then he ceases not to further our salvation. For he afflicts, not that he may ruin or destroy but rather that he may deliver us from the condemnation of the world. Let this thought lead us to what Scripture elsewhere teaches: “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth,” (Proverbs 3:11, 12.) When we perceive our Father’s rod, is it not our part to behave as obedient docile sons rather than rebelliously imitate desperate men, who are hardened in wickedness? God dooms us to destruction, if he does not, by correction, call us back when we have fallen off from him, so that it is truly said, “If ye be without chastisement,” “then are ye bastards, and not sons,” (Hebrews 12:8) We are most perverse then if we cannot bear him while he is manifesting his good-will to us, and the care which he takes of our salvation. Scripture states the difference between believers and unbelievers to be, that the latter, as the slaves of inveterate and deep-seated iniquity, only become worse and more obstinate under the lash; whereas the former, like free-born sons turn to repentance. Now, therefore, choose your class. But as I have already spoken of this subject, it is sufficient to have here briefly adverted to it.

There is singular consolation, moreover, when we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. For our thought should then be, How high the honour which God bestows upon us in distinguishing us by the special badge of his soldiers. By suffering persecution for righteousness’ sake, I mean not only striving for the defense of the Gospel, but for the defense of righteousness in any way. Whether, therefore, in maintaining the truth of God against the lies of Satan, or defending the good and innocent against the injuries of the bad, we are obliged to incur the offence and hatred of the world, so as to endanger life, fortune, or honour, let us not grieve or decline so far to spend ourselves for God; let us not think ourselves wretched in those things in which he with his own lips has pronounced us blessed, (Matthew 5:10) Poverty, indeed considered in itself, is misery; so are exile, contempt, imprisonment, ignominy: in fine, death itself is the last of all calamities. But when the favour of God breathes upon is, there is none of these things which may not turn out to our happiness. Let us then be contented with the testimony of Christ rather than with the false estimate of the flesh, and then, after the example of the Apostles, we will rejoice in being “counted worthy to suffer shame for his name,” (Acts 5:41) For why? If, while conscious of our innocence, we are deprived of our substance by the wickedness of man, we are, no doubt, humanly speaking, reduced to poverty; but in truth our riches in heaven are increased: if driven from our homes we have a more welcome reception into the family of God; if vexed and despised, we are more firmly rooted in Christ; if stigmatized by disgrace and ignominy, we have a higher place in the kingdom of God; and if we are slain, entrance is thereby given us to eternal life. The Lord having set such a price upon us, let us be ashamed to estimate ourselves at less than the shadowy and evanescent allurements of the present life.

Since by these, and similar considerations, Scripture abundantly solaces us for the ignominy or calamities which we endure in defense of righteousness, we are very ungrateful if we do not willingly and cheerfully receive them at the hand of the Lord, especially since this form of the cross is the most appropriate to believers, being that by which Christ desires to be glorified in us, as Peter also declares, (1 Peter 4:11, 14) But as to ingenuous natures, it is more bitter to suffer disgrace than a hundred deaths, Paul expressly reminds us that not only persecution, but also disgrace awaits us, “because we trust in the living God,” (1 Tim. 4:10) So in another passage he bids us, after his example, walk “by evil report and good report,” (2 Corinthians 4:8) The cheerfulness required, however, does not imply a total insensibility to pain. The saints could show no patience under the cross if they were not both tortured with pain and grievously molested. Were there no hardship in poverty, no pain in disease, no sting in ignominy, no fear in death, where would be the fortitude and moderation in enduring them? But while every one of these, by its inherent bitterness, naturally vexes the mind, the believer in this displays his fortitude, that though fully sensible of the bitterness and laboring grievously, he still withstands and struggles boldly; in this displays his patience, that though sharply stung, he is however curbed by the fear of God from breaking forth into any excess; in this displays his alacrity, that though pressed with sorrow and sadness, he rests satisfied with spiritual consolation from God.

Scriptures as used above;

1 Corinthians 11:32; Proverbs 3:11, 12; Hebrews 12:8; Matthew 5:10; Acts 5:41;
1 Peter 4:11, 14; 1 Timothy 4:10; 2 Corinthians 4:8;

The Daily Meditation - Romans 8:12-15

12 Therefore brethren, we are debtors not to the
flesh, to live after the flesh:
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but
if ye mortify the deeds of the body by the Spirit, ye
shall live. (a)
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the Spirit of bondage,
to fear again: but ye have received the Spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

(a) Editor’s note - Mortify - To destroy the organic texture of - Source Webster’s Dictionary 1913 edition

Additional related study scriptures

Isaiah 56:5-7;
Mark 14:36;
Romans 6:7, 14;
Galatians 2:20;
Galatians 5:18;
Galatians 6:8;
Ephesians 4:22;
2 Timothy 1:7;
Hebrews 2:15;
1 Peter 4:1-2, 6;
1 John 4:3;

The Daily Meditation - Romans 8:6-8

6 For the wisdom of the flesh is death: but the
wisdom of the Spirit is life and peace,
7 Because the wisdom of the flesh is enmity
against God: for it is not subject to the Law of God,
neither indeed can be. (a)
8 So then they that are in the flesh, cannot
please God.

(a) Editor’s thought - It cannot be subject to the Law because it rejects God and His wisdom and considers it of little or no importance, value, or worse, not wisdom.

Additional related study scriptures

Job 21:14;
Psalm 10:3-4, 6, 11, 13;
Psalm 14:1;
Proverbs 15:14;
Proverbs 19:3;
Isaiah 55:9;
Daniel 5:23;
Micah 4:12;
1 Corinthians 1:18, 25;
1 Corinthians 2:14;
1 Corinthians 3:19;
Galatians 6:8;
James 4:4;

The Daily Meditation - Romans 8:3-5

3 For (that that was impossible to the Law,
inasmuch as it was weak, because of the flesh) God
sending his own Son, in the similitude of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
4 That that righteousness of the Law might be
fulfilled in us, which walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit.
5 For they that are after the flesh, savor the
things of the flesh: but they that are after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit.

Additional related study scriptures

Matthew 21:37;
Mark 12:6;
John 3:6, 14-17;
Acts 3:26;
Acts 13:39;
2 Corinthians 5:21;
Galatians 4:4-6;
Galatians 5:16, 21-25;
1 John 4:9-10;

Worked hard or hardly worked?

The Daily Meditation - Romans 7:15, 20-25

Editor’s note - Today I am doing something a bit different in the study. I am going to include the actual study notes by the Puritan readers of the Geneva Translation. It never ceases to amaze me how the Word of God, is always consistent in it’s message. So dear member be prepared for a long study today.

15 For I allow not that which I do: for what I
would, that do I not: but what I hate, that do I. (a)
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I
that do it, but the sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then that when I would do good, I am
thus yoked, that evil is present with me. (b)
22 For I delight in the Law of God, concerning
the inner man. (c)
23 But I see another Law in my members, rebelling
against the law of my 1mind, and leading me captive
unto the law of sin, which is in my members. (d)
24 O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death! (e)
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Then I myself in my mind serve the Law of God,
but in my flesh the law of sin. (f)

(a) 7:15 1 He setteth himself, being regenerate, before us, for an example,
in whom may easily appear the strife of the Spirit and the flesh, and
therefore of the Law of God, and our wickedness. For since that the
Law in a man not regenerate bringeth forth death only, therefore in
him it may easily be accused: but seeing that in a man which is regenerate,
it bringeth forth good fruit, it doth better appear that evil actions
proceed not from the Law, but from sin, that is, from our corrupt nature:
And therefore the Apostle teacheth also, what the true use of the Law
is, in reproving sin in the regenerate, unto the end of the chapter, as
a little before (to wit, from the seventh verse unto this fifteenth) he
declared the use of it in them which are not regenerate.
2 The deeds of my life, saith he, answer not, nay they are contrary
to my will: Therefore by the consent of my will with the Law, and
repugnancy with the deeds of my life, it appeareth evidently, that the
Law and a right ruled do persuade one thing, but corruption which
hath her seat also in the regenerate, another thing.
3 It is to be noted, that one selfsame man is said to will and not to will,
in divers respects: to wit, he is said to will, in that, that he is regenerate
by grace: and not to will, in that, that he is not regenerate, or in that, that
he is such an one as he was born. But because the part which is regenerate,
at length becometh conqueror, therefore Paul sustaining the part
of the regenerate, speaketh in such sort as if the corruption which sinneth
willingly, were something without a man: although afterward he
granteth that this evil is in his flesh, or in his members.

(b) 7:21 1 The conclusion: As the Law of God exhorteth to goodness,
so doth the Law of sin (that is, the corruption wherein we are born)
force us to wickedness: but the Spirit, that is, our mind, in that that it
is regenerate, consenteth with the Law of God: but the flesh, that is,
the whole natural man, is bondslave to the Law of sin. Therefore to
be short, wickedness and death are not of the Law, but of sin, which
reigneth in them that are not regenerate: for they neither will, nor do
good, but will, and do evil: But in them that are regenerate, it striveth
against the Spirit or law of the mind, so that they cannot either live so
well as they would, or be so void of sin as they would.

(c) 7:22 1 The inner man, and the new man are all one, and are answerable
and set as contrary to the old man: neither doth this word, Inner
man, signify man’s mind and reason, and the old man, the powers
that are under them, as the Philosophers imagine, but by the outward
man is meant whatsoever is either without or within a man, from top
to toe, so long as that man is not born anew by the grace of God.

(d) 7:23 1 The law of the mind in this place, is not to be understood of
the mind as it is naturally, and as our mind is from our birth, but of the
mind which is renewed by the Spirit of God.

(e) 7:24 1 It is a miserable thing to be yet in part subject to sin, which
of its own nature maketh us guilty of death: but we must cry to the
Lord, who will by death itself at length make us conquerors as we are
already conquerors in Christ.
2 Wearied with miserable and continual conflict.

(f) 7:25 1 He recovereth himself, and showeth us that he resteth only
in Christ.
2 This is the true perfection of them that are born anew, to confess
that they are imperfect.

Additional related study scripture

Job 15:16;
Psalm 1:1-2;
Psalm 112:1;
Psalm 128:1;
Isaiah 64:6;
Zechariah 3:4;
Romans 6:13, 19;
Romans 7:19;
1 Corinthians 15:51-52, 57;
2 Corinthians 4:16;
Ephesians 3:16;
Galatians 5:17;
1 Peter 3:4;

The Sunday Sermon by John Calvin

On the Christian Life - Chapter 3 Part a

THE pious mind must ascend still higher, namely, whither Christ calls his disciples when he says, that every one of them must “take up his cross,” (Matthew 16:24.) Those whom the Lord has chosen and honoured with his intercourse must prepare for a hard, laborious, troubled life, a life full of many and various kinds of evils; it being the will of our heavenly Father to exercise his people in this way while putting them to the proof. Having begun this course with Christ the first-born, he continues it towards all his children. For though that Son was dear to him above others, the Son in whom he was “well pleased,” yet we see, that far from being treated gently and indulgently, we may say, that not only was he subjected to a perpetual cross while he dwelt on earth, but his whole life was nothing else than a kind of perpetual cross. The Apostle assigns the reason, “Though he was a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered,” (Hebrews 5:8.) Why then should we exempt ourselves from that condition to which Christ our Head behoved to submit; especially since he submitted on our account, that he might in his own person exhibit a model of patience? Wherefore, the Apostle declares, that all the children of God are destined to be conformed to him. Hence it affords us great consolation in hard and difficult circumstances, which men deem evil and adverse, to think that we are holding fellowship with the sufferings of Christ; that as he passed to celestial glory through a labyrinth of many woes, so we too are conducted thither through various tribulations. For, in another passage, Paul himself thus speaks, “we must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God,” (Acts 14:22) and again, “that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death,” (Romans 8: 29.) How powerfully should it soften the bitterness of the cross, to think that the more we are afflicted with adversity, the surer we are made of our fellowship with Christ; by communion with whom our sufferings are not only blessed to us, but tend greatly to the furtherance of our salvation.

We may add, that the only thing which made it necessary for our Lord to undertake to bear the cross, was to testify and prove his obedience to the Father; whereas there are many reasons which make it necessary for us to live constantly under the cross. Feeble as we are by nature, and prone to ascribe all perfection to our flesh, unless we receive as it were ocular demonstration of our weakness, we readily estimate our virtue above its proper worth, and doubt not that, whatever happens, it will stand unimpaired and invincible against all difficulties. Hence we indulge a stupid and empty confidence in the flesh, and then trusting to it wax proud against the Lord himself; as if our own faculties were sufficient without his grace. This arrogance cannot be better repressed than when He proves to us by experience, not only how great our weakness, but also our frailty is. Therefore, he visits us with disgrace, or poverty, or bereavement, or disease, or other afflictions. Feeling altogether unable to support them, we forthwith, in so far as regards ourselves, give way, and thus humbled learn to invoke his strength, which alone can enable us to bear up under a weight of affliction. Nay, even the holiest of men, however well aware that they stand not in their own strength, but by the grace of God, would feel too secure in their own fortitude and constancy, were they not brought to a more thorough knowledge of themselves by the trial of the cross. This feeling gained even upon David, “In my prosperity I Said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled,” (Psalm 30:6, 7) He confesses that in prosperity his feelings were dulled and blunted, so that, neglecting the grace of God, on which alone he ought to have depended, he leant to himself, and promised himself perpetuity. If it so happened to this great prophet, who of us should not fear and study caution? Though in tranquillity they flatter themselves with the idea of greater constancy and patience, yet, humbled by adversity, they learn the deception. Believers, I say, warned by such proofs of their diseases, make progress in humility, and, divesting themselves of a depraved confidence in the flesh, betake themselves to the grace of God, and, when they have so betaken themselves, experience the presence of the divine power, in which is ample protection.

This Paul teaches when he says that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience. God having promised that he will be with believers in tribulation, they feel the truth of the promise; while supported by his hand, they endure patiently. This they could never do by their own strength. Patience, therefore, gives the saints an experimental proof that God in reality furnishes the aid which he has promised whenever there is need. Hence also their faith is confirmed, for it were very ungrateful not to expect that in future the truth of God will be, as they have already found it, firm and constant. We now see how many advantages are at once produced by the cross. Overturning the overweening opinion we form of our own virtue, and detecting the hypocrisy in which we delight, it removes our pernicious carnal confidence, teaching us, when thus humbled, to recline on God alone, so that we neither are oppressed nor despond. Then victory is followed by hope, inasmuch as the Lord, by performing what he has promised, establishes his truth in regard to the future. Were these the only reasons, it is surely plain how necessary it is for us to bear the cross. It is of no little importance to be rid of your self-love, and made fully conscious of your weakness; so impressed with a sense of your weakness as to learn to distrust yourself—to distrust yourself so as to transfer your confidence to God, reclining on him with such heartfelt confidence as to trust in his aid, and continue invincible to the end, standing by his grace so as to perceive that he is true to his promises, and so assured of the certainty of his promises as to be strong in hope.

Another end which the Lord has in afflicting his people is to try their patience, and train them to obedience—not that they can yield obedience to him except in so far as he enables them; but he is pleased thus to attest and display striking proofs of the graces which he has conferred upon his saints, lest they should remain within unseen and unemployed. Accordingly, by bringing forward openly the strength and constancy of endurance with which he has provided his servants, he is said to try their patience. Hence the expressions that God tempted Abraham, (Genesis 21:1, 12,) and made proof of his piety by not declining to sacrifice his only son. Hence, too, Peter tells us that our faith is proved by tribulation, just as gold is tried in a furnace of fire. But who will say it is not expedient that the most excellent gift of patience which the believer has received from his God should be applied to uses by being made sure and manifest? Otherwise men would never value it according to its worth. But if God himself, to prevent the virtues which he has conferred upon believers from lurking in obscurity, nay, lying useless and perishing, does aright in supplying materials for calling them forth, there is the best reason for the afflictions of the saints, since without them their patience could not exist. I say, that by the cross they are also trained to obedience, because they are thus taught to live not according to their own wish, but at the disposal of God. Indeed, did all things proceed as they wish, they would not know what it is to follow God. Seneca mentions (De Vit. Beata, cap. xv.) that there was an old proverb when any one was exhorted to endure adversity, “Follow God“; thereby intimating, that men truly submitted to the yoke of God only when they gave their back and hand to his rod. But if it is most right that we should in all things prove our obedience to our heavenly Father, certainly we ought not to decline any method by which he trains us to obedience.

Still, however, we see not how necessary that obedience is, unless we at the same time consider how prone our carnal nature is to shake off the yoke of God whenever it has been treated with some degree of gentleness and indulgence. It just happens to it as with refractory horses, which, if kept idle for a few days at hack and manger, become ungovernable, and no longer recognize the rider, whose command before they implicitly obeyed. And we invariably become what God complains of in the people of Israel—waxing gross and fat, we kick against him who reared and nursed us, (Deuteronomy 32: 15.) The kindness of God should allure us to ponder and love his goodness; but since such is our malignity, that we are invariably corrupted by his indulgence, it is more than necessary for us to be restrained by discipline from breaking forth into such petulance. Thus, lest we become emboldened by an over-abundance of wealth; lest elated with honour, we grow proud; lest inflated with other advantages of body, or mind, or fortune, we grow insolent, the Lord himself interferes as he sees to be expedient by means of the cross, subduing and curbing the arrogance of our flesh, and that in various ways, as the advantage of each requires. For as we do not all equally labour under the same disease, so we do not all need the same difficult cure. Hence we see that all are not exercised with the same kind of cross. While the heavenly Physician treats some more gently, in the case of others he employs harsher remedies, his purpose being to provide a cure for all. Still none is left free and untouched, because he knows that all, without a single exception, are diseased.

Scriptures as used above in the order quoted

Matthew 16:24; Hebrews 5:8; Acts 14:22; Romans 8:29; Genesis 21:1, 12; Deuteronomy 32:15;