Tag Archives: Sibbes

Richard Sibbes on Sanctification for ‘the Average Joe’

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Richard Sibbes’ The Bruised Reed has been good.

It is a book about sanctification. It is for those who are weak, who struggle, who are not self-sufficient spiritual giants. It is for those who find themselves crawling the race sometimes instead of running. It is for sinners who believe Jesus and want to believe Him more. It is for those who really only have a grain of mustard seed. The bruised reeds, the smoking flax’s. 

It is about Jesus… His sovereign gentleness not to devour the lowliest. He is a kind Savior. A patient Savior. A glorious Provider of everything we could ever need. In Him there is no lack, no weakness, no deficiency. He is our all. He is the worker of all this in us. He does all that He wants and He does it all well. He is the founder and the perfecter. 

 

And, if the wicked spirit is never idle in those whom God has delivered up to him, we cannot think that the Holy Spirit will be idle in those leading and government is committed to him. No, as he dwells in them, so he will drive out all that rise up against him, until he is all in all.

What is spiritual is eternal. Truth is a beam of Christ’s Spirit, both in itself and as it is engrafted into the soul. Therefore it, and the grace wrought by it, though little, will prevail. A little thing in the hand of a giant will do great things. A little faith strengthened by Christ will work wonders.

Richard Sibbes, 92.

That is, He who began it will complete it (Phi 1:6).

I could not last an hour if that were not true.

“The Battle We Fight is Thine”– Jesus Christ is Better and Greater

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Nothing is stronger than humility, which goes out of itself, or weaker than pride, which rests on its own foundation. Frustra nititur qui non innititur (He strives in vain who is not dependent). And this should be particularly observed because naturally we aspire to a kind of divinity, in setting about actions in the strength of our own abilities; whereas Christ says, ‘Without me ye’, the apostles, who were in a state of grace, ‘can do nothing’ (John 15:5). He does not say, you can do a little, but nothing. Of ourselves, how easily we are overcome! How weak we are to resist! We are as reeds shaken with every wind. We shake at the very noise and thought of poverty, disgrace or losses. We give in immeditately. We have no power over or eyes, tongues, thoughts or affections, but let sin pass in and out. How soon we are overcome by evil, whereas we should overcome evil with good…. Therefore in all, especially difficult encounters, let us lift up our hearts to Christ, who has Spirit enough for us all, in all our exigencies, and say with good Jehoshaphat, ‘We have not might… neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee’ (2 Chron. 20:12); the battle we fight is thine.

Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed, 114-115

‘What Is’ Does Not Seem To Be… But It Still Is!

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Richard Sibbes writes about the victory of the church through Jesus Christ. He raises a needful objection…

Objection: If this is so, why is it thus with the church of God, and with many a gracious Christian? The victory seems to be with the enemy.

To understand this, we should remember, firstly, that God’s children usually, in their troubles, overcome by suffering. Here lambs overcome lions, and doves eagles, by suffering, that herein they may be conformable to Christ, who conquered most when he suffered most. Together with Christ’s kingdom of patience there was a kingdom of power.

Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed, 94.