It's been a few weeks since I sent out a "thought." Yahoo tightened their controls and was blocking me from sending them. Therefore I had to find an alternative way of sending them out. We will see how this goes! With that being said, I send you this thought.
It comes to you from one of
the most beloved of Puritan preachers -- Richard Sibbes.
He was Spurgeon's favorite because his writings were always so comforting and
Gospel-saturated. It is found in his booklet "Christ is Best."
It was actually preached at
the funeral of a friend. Michael
Reeves, who writes the forward to the booklet, sums it's message
up well:"In dead religion, one can easily talk of receiving 'grace' so as
to 'get to heaven.' Paul does not. Instead of departing and be
'in heaven,' Paul says he desires to depart and be 'with Christ.' For,
says Sibbes, 'heaven is not heaven without Christ.' In other words, true
faith is not about buying into some abstract system of salvation (even one paid
for by Christ); first and foremost it is about the Spirit bringing me to know,
love, and desire Christ himself... hearts begin to desire Christ above all when
they sense how much he loves us sinners, how much he has suffered for our
forgiveness, how unfathomably kind and merciful he is and has been. We love him
because he first loved us (I John 4:19)." And those brought to
love him because of his great love them, yearn not solely
for heaven,
but for heaven because it is there that
they will be with the Christ they have come
to love. I have taken the liberty to change some antiquated terms and explain
others. Enjoy.
"For
me to live is Christ and to die is gain... Yet what shall I choose? I
do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with
Christ , which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that
I remain in the body." Philippians 1:21-24
"Death
is but a departing. The word death [in the Greek] means 'loosing from the
shore, or removing a ship to another coast' [Luke 8:38, 2 Timothy 4:6, Phil.
1:23]. We must all be loosed from our houses of clay and be carried to
another place, to heaven. Paul labors to sweeten so harsh a thing as
death, by comfortable expressions of it. It is but a sleep, a going home, a
laying aside our earthly tabernacle...
Some
things are desirable for themselves, like happiness and holiness. Some things
are not desirable for themselves, but because they make a way to better
things... Medicine is not desired for itself, but for the health it
brings. And just as we desire health for itself, and medicine for health,
so to be with Christ is a thing desirable of itself.
Yet
because we cannot come to Christ but by the dark passage of death, Paul says, I
desire to depart that my death may be a passage to Christ. Death was the object
of St. Paul's desire so far as it made a way for better things. To be
with Christ who came from heaven to be here on earth with us and descended that
we should ascend; to be with him who has done and suffered so much for us;
to be with Christ who delighted to be with us; to be with Christ who emptied
himself and became of no reputation, becoming poor to make us rich; to be
with Christ our husband, now in heaven -- that all of him may be gained in
heaven -- this was the thing Paul desired.
Question: Why does he not say, "I desire to be in heaven?" Answer: Because heaven would not
be heaven without Christ. It is better to be any place with Christ than to
be in heaven itself if he were not there. All delicacies without Christ are but
as a funeral banquet. Where the master of the feast is away, there is
nothing but solemnness. What is all without Christ? I say the joys
of heaven are not the joys of heaven without Christ. He is the very
heaven of heaven.
True
love is carried to the person. It is adulterous love to love the thing (or
the gift) more than the person. St. Paul loved the person of Christ
because he felt the sweet experience that Christ loved him. His love was but a
reflection of Christ's loving him first. He loved to see Christ, to
embrace him, and enjoy him who had done so much and suffered so much for his
soul -- who had forgiven him so many sins.
To
be with Christ is best of all. To be with Christ is to be at the
spring-head of all happiness. It is to be in our proper element. Every creature
thinks itself best when in its own element. That is the place it thrives
in and enjoys its happiness in. And Christ is the element of a
Christian.
Again,
it is far better, because to be with Christ is to have the marriage
consummated. Is not marriage better than the contract? Is not home better
than absence? To be with Christ is to be at home. Is not triumph better than to
be in conflict? But to be with Christ is to triumph over all enemies, to be out
of Satan's reach.
Is
not perfection better than imperfection? Here all is but imperfect, but
in heaven there is perfection. Therefore that is much better than any good
below, for all are but shadows here, there is reality. What are
riches? What are the worm-eaten pleasures of the world? What are
the honors of the earth but mere shadows of good? 'At the right hand
of God are pleasures indeed' (Ps. 16:11), honors indeed, riches indeed; there
is reality...
It
is better to be with Christ than enjoy the graces and comforts of the Holy
Spirit here. Why? Because they are all stained and mixed. Here our peace
is interrupted with desertion and trouble. Here the joys of the Holy Spirit are
mingled with sorrow. Here the grace in a man is mixed with combat of flesh and
spirit, but in heaven there is pure peace, pure joy, pure grace; for what is
glory but the perfection of grace? Grace indeed is glory here, but it is
glory mixed with conflict. It is imperfect. My friends, perfection
is better than imperfection, therefore to be with Christ is far better.
Is
it not far better to die and be with Christ, than to live a conflicting
life here? Why should we then fear death, which is but a passage to
Christ?... It is but a departure to a better condition. It is but as
Jordan to the Children of Israel, by which they passed into Canaan... It
is but the Red Sea by which we pass from Egypt to the promised land. Death
is ours and for our good. It ends all our misery and sin. It is the
suburbs of heaven. It lets us into those joys above."
Sibbes shared all this
to comfort and encourage those present at the funeral of his friend Mr.
Christopher Sherland (1593-1632).
Death, though the final
enemy, has been defeated, and made by the sufferings, death and
resurrection of Jesus, the gateway into his immediate presence. It is the
Jordan we must cross. It is the passageway through the Red Sea to the promised
land. It is the gateway to true and everlasting life and eternal
pleasures at Christ's right hand. In Him, as the author of Hebrews tells us,
God has "freed
those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (Hebrews
2:15).
In the Bonds of our
Blessed Hope, Pastor Jeff
