Pearls and Diamonds

I didn't read many books in 2024. I mostly stuck to my Bible. I say this not out of any measure of personal piety whatsoever, but out of neediness. Crazy as it may sound, my favorite book I read last year was written by a Puritan. It is one of the most helpful I've ever read outside of the Bible, for me it is up there with J.I. Packer's "Knowing God" and is actually a series of sermons written by the famous theologian Richard Sibbes. The book is based on Matthew 12:20 - Isaiah's prophecy of the bruised reed and the smoking flax: 

"Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,

my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.

I will put my Spirit upon him, 

and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

He will not quarrel or cry aloud, 

nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;

a bruised reed he will not break,

and a smoldering wick he will not quench,

until he brings justice to victory;

and in his name the Gentiles will hope." ( Matthew 12:18-21 ) 

I think Charles Spurgeon said it so well in his quote listed on the back cover of the book that "the heavenly Doctor Sibbes" scatters pearls and diamonds with both hands. 

"The Bruised Reed" is a thin book, divided into sections, so it can easily be used as a daily devotional if that's something you're looking to add to your mornings or evenings. Sibbs lived from 1577 - 1635; however, the language is easy to comprehend even if the richness and beauty of its content take time and effort to absorb. It's well worth the meditation. 

The Scriptures reveal many firm and serious depictions of our Lord Jesus. There's the one in Psalm 2 that says, "Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled." Before it says, "Blessed are all who take refuge in him." 

There's Jesus at the final judgment in Matthew 25 coming in his glory with all the angels and then sitting on his glorious throne saying to the goats on his left, "Depart from me you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." 

Then who can forget John's description in Revelation 1 of Jesus in his long robe and golden sash with his hair like white wool and his eyes like a flame of fire. His voice is like the roar of many waters, out of his mouth comes a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face like the sun shining in full strength. 

If you're like me, maybe you tend to focus on these powerful images and forget as Sibbs reminds his congregants, "There's more mercy in Christ than sin in us."  The cross proves that this is true. 

Like Dr. Packer reminds us in "Knowing God," and Chesterton in "Orthodoxy" ( 2nd favorite last year, thanks, Johnny ) we must hold both truths in our hands and live within the tension of God's sovereign will and man's responsibility; we must also live within the complexity of his severity and his mercy. He's both. 

We need him to be both, and He is. If we refuse to live in this tension and attempt to explain in our limited human thinking how our all-mighty, sovereign God rules and governs his universe, we can land in aberrant territory, embracing the open theism view that has seeped into the western church in the past few decades. 

Christ is severe, yet merciful. 

Sibbs points out the first bruising we undergo is when the weight of our sin is realized, and when we understand the helplessness of the condition we are born into because of the fallen state of mankind. If we aren't grieved over our sin against a holy God and crushed by the law, we aren't ready to hear the Gospel. 

We have to know we are bruised.  

After our conversion, even before our progressive sanctification process starts, already life has wounded us. We come to faith bruised, and in our weaknesses and struggles with sin, in the still fresh wounds of our past abuse and the present lingering of pain, Christ promises not to break us. There is no part of our pain that his love can not heal. 

So gentle and tender is Christ's love that he likens himself to a mother hen longing to gather and protect her chicks beneath her warm wings, against soft feathers, as he laments over Jerusalem. ( Matthew 23:37-39 ) 

Our Lord knows what it's like to wear human flesh, he understands the temptations we face, the sin we struggle to overcome. He knows that life is fragile hanging by a thread and painful. He promises not to break us. 

At times we feel our faith is so small and weak, but we can trust that Christ will not quench our little smoking wicks. "First because this spark is from heaven:" Sibbs reminds us, "It is his own, it is kindled by his own Spirit. And secondly, it tends to the glory of his powerful grace in his children that he preserves light in the midst of darkness, a spark in the midst of the swelling waters of corruption." 

"Ungodly spirits, ignorant of God's ways in bringing his children to heaven, censure broken hearted Christians as miserable persons, whereas God is doing a gracious, good work with them. It is no easy matter to bring a man from nature to grace, and from grace to glory, so unyielding and intractable are our hearts." 

"In pursuing his calling, Christ will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, in which more is meant than spoken, for he will not only not break nor quench, but he will cherish those with whom he deals." 

This is the mercy and love of our Savior. 

Pearls and diamonds. 

💜