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
Have you ever gotten that call? “I’m sorry to tell you this, but so-and-so has died.” Even when their end is expected due to illness and poor health, it’s always a shock to me. This person that I knew, a soul, a personality, someone who mattered. They were someone’s father, or mother, or sister, or brother, or friend. Then the call comes and we learn that they we can no longer talk to them. We cannot laugh or cry with them. There will be no more invitations to dinner, handshakes at church, or greetings on the street around town.
Whether young or old, the time always seems short. For older folks we say things like “well they lived to a good old age.” Do we actually believe that? I don’t. When death comes I clench my jaw in frustration at this great enemy of ours. For the Christian I rejoice that they are released from the bondage of sin fully and finally, and are present with the Lord in his glory. For the sinner I weep at what they now must experience for eternity.
“If it were told any of us here that within two days he shall die, it would startle us, the best of us all; it would make us look about us: but who of us all knows certainly that he shall live two hours? The time, as it is short, so it is uncertain, and here is the wondrous folly of our nature, that we will take so much time to come in trust, as though we should live so long, and make a covenant with death.”
Application / Further Discussion
Time is not something we possess, it is something we experience. We measure how long we are here by time. I have been here 35 years. I do not have 35 years, though. We spend the time God gives us as he gives it. When he stops giving it, we die. Like a conveyor belt, we consume it as it comes down the line until nothing else comes and the line shuts down. There is no warehouse in which we can store years or decades. As Sibbes says, who of us knows certainly that he will live two hours? Just two hours?
Let me ask you directly what I am getting at: Why are you here? You can recite to me what you know intellectually about living for God and sharing Jesus Christ, or perhaps you’d say something else. Does your answer match your actions? Certainly we must work and be productive members of society. Many of us have families we take care of and enjoy. There are things we like to do. What I am asking is, why do you do those things the way you do? What drives you at work? What makes you the father, mother, husband, wife, or friend that you are? How do you pursue your hobbies?
There are essentially two ways to do those things. You can do them for yourself, desiring your pleasure above others. Many would object to this picture of their motivations. The alternative is to do all things for God, who desires your highest good in him. Again, what drives you to do what you do? What is that belief in your heart that motivates you at work, home, and elsewhere? Is it a belief in the one true God and a desire to obey and give glory to him in all things, or is it a desire to be comfortable, safe, secure, happy, fulfilled in yourself?
Time is short. Very short. Time for a gut check, friends. Are you fooling about with sex and drink and money, as CS Lewis said, because your desires are too weak? We are at war with ourselves and our desires. We wage war on sin, seeking its death and the glory of God in our loving obedience. At least I hope we do.
Live your life, be a good family member or spouse or friend. Work hard. Enjoy God’s creation. Only, do this for the glory of God and with thanks for what he has given. Do not be the fool who sought to build more barns and live the high life. God doesn’t think too well of that type of wealth hoarding American dream. “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’” (Luke 12:20)
Why are you here? For God, or for you?
“What is this little time given us for? To provide for eternity, world without end. And we trifle it away about this thing and that thing to no purpose; we fill it up with vanity, and with sin, which is worse. In this little time we do that, that in a long time we cannot undo again. That is our madness and folly.”
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Last week, we read A Christian’s Portion.
Next week, we read Yea and Amen, also known as Precious Promises.
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