Works (Vol 1) - Sibbes - VII - Sword of the wicked

Required reading
The Works Volume 1 by Richard Sibbes (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Sibbes Works Vol 1 by reading 'The sword of the wicked'.

My summary
Today we read a helpful sermon on Psalm 42:10, 'As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? (Psa 42:10)'.

Basically Sibbes spends the sermon considering two things in the verse:
(i) The carriage and disposition and expression of others to David;
(ii) And David's affection towards it, how he was disposed towards it, how he did bear it.

What grabbed me
Sibbes made a very good point about how sneaky Satan is when he asks a troubled Christian 'Where is your God?': 'For the devil knows well enough, that as long as God and the soul join together, it is in vain to trouble any man ; therefore he labours to put jealousies, to accuse God to man, and man to God. He knows there is nothing in the world can stand against God. As long as we make God our confidence, all his enterprises are in vain. His scope is therefore to shake our affiance in God : Where is thy God ? So he dealt with the Head of the church, our blessed Saviour himself, when he came to tempt him. '. If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread,' Matt. iv. 3. He comes with an if; he laboured to shake him in his sonship. The devil, since he was divided from God himself eternally, is become a spirit of division ; he labours to divide the Son from the Father ; he labours to divide even God the Father from his own Son : If thou be the Son of God. So he labours to sever Christians from their head, Christ ; subjects from their princes, and princes from their subjects ; friends from friends, and one from another ; he is a spirit of division : Where is thy God ? There was his scope, to breed division, if he could, between his heart and God, that he might call God into jealousy, as if he had not regarded him : thou hast taken a great deal of pains in serving thy God ; thou seest how he regards thee now : Where is thy God ?'

Don't listen to his seeds of doubt!

Next week's reading
Continue Sibbes Works Vol 1 by commencing 'The soul's conflict with itself' by reading 'To the Christian reader' and Chapters 1 (General observations upon the text) and 2 (Discouragements from without).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.