Welcome to a year of reading Richard Sibbes together! The reading plan for the entire year can be accessed here. I encourage you to stick with us, allow yourself time to read, and soak in the riches of this gifted and prolific Puritan preacher. You will be edified and encouraged.
If you have trouble with how Sibbes used words, check out the Lexicons of Early Modern English for definitions from the period.
Summary/Engagement
Let us begin with the text Sibbes meditated on for this writing. “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.” Psalm 27:4.
He breaks down the verse into David’s holy and focused desire for God above all things, to dwell in God’s house, the church, forever, and that he may behold the beauty of the Lord. David’s desire was fueled by the grace of God and channeled into seeking Him above all things. “The Spirit of God in the hearts of his children is effectual in stirring up holy desires.” (219) David certainly had, Sibbes noted, many other desires in his life. Yet, the holy desire of seeking God took preeminence over all other desires. All else in life was subordinated to this one holy ambition; God himself.
David desired to be where God was. Sibbes notes that, this side of Heaven, God’s glory is most manifested in the church. God is all places, but he manifests himself uniquely in the church. He observes; “What makes heaven to be heaven, but because God is there?” (228) David desired not just the tabernacle of his day, but the very presence of God which was manifested most regularly in the tabernacle. David didn’t seek an experience or a sermon, but the very presence of God. His desire was for nothing less than God himself! Sibbes notes that in our day God is most manifested in the right preaching of the word of God, and the right administration of the ordinances of the church; the two marks of true church.
I found it amusing in this message of the desire for God which was to be experienced through the right practice of the ordinances of the church, that one objection he answered was for those who would “read at home good books and sermons and not come to the ordinances.” Some 400 years ago Sibbes was dealing with those who would rather “do church at home,” as if that were possible. Yet, as our Puritan Preacher notes, God’s promises for Christian worship are congregational in nature, and not singular. He references Matt 18:20 often in his assertion that Christian worship is neither solitary nor private.
And what was David’s goal? To behold the beauty of the Lord, who is altogether lovely.
“Christ was never more lovely to his church than when he was most deformed for his church; … when he hung upon the cross.” (231)
Application / Further Discussion
It is here that we need to do some heart work. David desired God himself and thus sought to be in his house, the church. And what did he want to do there? “To behold the beauty of the Lord.” God’s beauty is made visible in many ways, but not more completely than in his son, Jesus Christ. Christ’s substitutionary atonement for us on the cross, though brutal and cruel in execution, is a beauty that makes all other things as filthy rags in comparison. In the cross the great justice, glory, mercy, and grace of God all meet and shine forth. In the cross the church finds its ground for existing; Jesus. What agonizing beauty!
The church then is where we gather to worship and hear the right preaching of his Holy word, and witness the right observance of the ordinances of baptism and communion. Do you find the church beautiful? Certainly there are sinners there and I do not include in this the many false or heretical churches. Yet, I do mean the one, holy, blood bought church of God made up of many local churches who hold his Word high. Is going to church a chore or a privilege? Do you desire to be in the company of fellow saints? Do you desire God above all things and thus go where he may be found?
The church is beautiful and lovely because Christ bought it with his blood and sealed it with his Holy Spirit. We are now, if you are in Christ, joined together with a great cloud of witnesses to worship our Lord. We joyfully submit to his Word, sing his praises, and look forward to his coming again because his redemption is the very essence of beauty. What else is there, this side of heaven, that can compare to the glory of God manifested in his redeemed?
Oh to behold the King in his beauty! The splendor of Christ the righteous receiving worship from those whom he has purchased by his precious blood! What joy to listen to his Word preached! What delight to observe the Lord’s Supper and thus proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes! What else is there for us to do but to seek God and behold his beauty? We were made for this. Indeed, I ask with our brother Sibbes;
“What are our souls more for than to dwell in the meditation of the beauty of God?”
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Last week, we covered seven and eight in Mark Dever’s biography of Richard Sibbes.
Next week, we’ll read Sibbes’s sermon series, “The Glorious Feast of the Gospel.”
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