Back Contents Next

They Understand Themselves Correctly

{Sermons on Ephesians 5:15

The Doctrine Explained

Precisians Are Proved to Be Not Fools

The Characteristics of Wise People Are Found in Them

They Understand Themselves Correctly}


The first characteristic of wise people that Precisians have is that they understand themselves correctly. In this, they understand two things in particular.



They Understand What Is Valuable to Them

{Sermons on Ephesians 5:15

The Doctrine Explained

Precisians Are Proved to Be Not Fools

The Characteristics of Wise People Are Found in Them

They Understand Themselves Correctly

They Understand What Is Valuable}


The first particular in which wise people understand themselves correctly is that they understand what is truly valuable to them. We say of a wise person that he is a person who understands himself and who understands what he must do. Christians are people of understanding; they understand what that one thing is for which they live. In the pursuit and secure attainment of that one thing, if they prosper, they know they will be happy, whatever else may go wrong. And if they miscarry in that one thing, they know they are undone, whatever else may go well. They know there is just one thing needed and that that one thing is their eternal rest: the blessedness to come, the happiness of the other world, and the obtaining and enjoyment of God for the portion of their souls. Be mine, O God, and I have what I look for, whether in Heaven or earth. “Whom have I in Heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:25 ESV). “There are many who say, ‘Who will show us some good?’ Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!” (Psalm 4:6 ESV). “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13–14 ESV). Christians have just one thing about which they are concerned: God is all they must regard. They have this one thing in their eyes; they see before them where their happiness lies and they are able to say, “Whom have I in Heaven but you?” or “What have I but you?” This one thing is in their hearts: “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”90 (Psalm 27:4 NKJV). Further, this one thing determines and governs their work and life. “But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13–14 NKJV). Sinners, you who think yourselves so wise, you are a company of poor mistaken creatures who are mistaken in what you value. You are in the world for reasons you do not know. You do not know what you are required to do here. You are those people whom God looks upon: “The Lord looks down from Heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God” (Psalm 14:2 NKJV). God looks to see if any know and understand that their great business on earth is God and their only happiness is in God. And thus they apply themselves to seeking God. But behold, they are all out of the way; there are none among them who understand that seeking God is their great concern. Therefore they are all out of the way and quite distant from that work that they were sent to earth to do. It is no wonder you shoot so far off; you mistake your target. It is no wonder you do not know what to do when you do not know what you should do. Is this the work you came into the world for: to eat, drink, sleep, buy, and sell; to marry and bring forth children, then load yourselves and them with ill-gotten gains (Habakkuk 2:6)?91 Did you come into the world to sport, play, riot, and laugh; and to spend your days in mere vanity and foolery? Are there no higher things than these, things that God has set before you and that are more worthy of your choice and labor? Have you no souls to mind, souls that are immortal? And are there not lasting riches, abiding pleasures, and an enduring substance that may be had—things that must be had for your souls to stay alive so that they will not be eternally miserable? And do you not understand that your souls are of more value than your perishing carcasses and that therefore making provision for your souls is of far higher consequence than pampering your bodies? Will the loss of your souls be recompensed by all your bodily pleasures and plenty? Is it not the case that saving your souls will balance and make amends for any losses, crosses, or miscarriages in your fleshly concerns? If you do not understand this, at least do not judge to be fools those who do understand.

They Understand Their Way

{Sermons on Ephesians 5:15

The Doctrine Explained

Precisians Are Proved to Be Not Fools

The Characteristics of Wise People Are Found in Them

They Understand Themselves Correctly

They Understand Their Way}


The second particular in which wise people understand themselves is that they understand their way. “The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is deceit” (Proverbs 14:8 NKJV). The wisdom of a merchant gives him skill to choose and deal in the right and richest commodities that will bring in the greatest and most certain gain. But his wisdom also gives him understanding of the specialized knowledge of his occupation by which he may procure these commodities on the best and surest terms and to know the best way of dealing and transporting them. By being acquainted with the Scriptures, and by being trained in the school of Christ, Christians come to understand their calling, the mystery of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16). They have not only learned to prize the salvation of God and the glory and blessedness of the world to come, but are well acquainted with the way that leads to it. Carnal people are ignorant of the way, even though they understand in general that Christianity is the way to salvation. Yet these poor miserable creatures mistake their religion. They think that any little smatterings of the knowledge of God and some profession of faith and repentance is enough religion to bring them into Heaven. This is the more so if it is joined with some little outward92 devotion and now and then calling upon God for mercy.93 They think this is enough “Christianity” to bring them to Heaven. They think anything more than this is more than enough. These are fools indeed if we may believe the Scripture. “Surely they are poor, they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the Lord” (Jeremiah 5:4). Sinners are wise enough in their own ways; they know the ways of sin, lying, oppression, and unrighteousness. They sufficiently know the way to wealth, honor, and temporal preferment. They have studied and traveled these ways and are well acquainted with them. But all this while they are foolish children. Surely they are foolish; they do not know the way of the Lord. Christians are wise, and in this is their wisdom: they know the way of the Lord. They have a light coming from outside of them showing them the good way. They have a voice behind them that tells them, “This is the way. Walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21). They have made it their business to inquire about, study, and travel this way. Surely these are wise; they know the way of the Lord and they know their way to Heaven. If they do not know the way to be rich in this world, they still know the way to be rich toward God. If they do not know how to be famous in the world, they do know how to live honestly. If they do not know how to please people, they do know how to please God. If they cannot have a good relationship with the world, they do know how to keep a good conscience in the world. If they do not know how to escape trouble and affliction, they do know how to suffer it. If they do not know how to escape the wrath of people, they do know how to escape the wrath of God to come. If this is wisdom—to be skilled in the matters of Christianity, righteousness, faith, and a good conscience; and to have found out the way of life by which to escape from Hell beneath—then these godly people are wise people. Surely they are wise; they know the way of the Lord.


Objection:

But you will ask why your own way is not the right way just as well as that of precise Christians? Why may not your way of religion be as good of a way as theirs? Why not as wise and as safe as theirs?


Answer: Are you willing to think for yourself?94 If you do so, you will answer this objection yourselves. Their religion and yours are not two ways of Christianity with the same basic principles, being thus one and the same Christianity. The difference between them and you is this: You take up only a little part of that Christianity that you both profess. And you have only a little to do with that little of Christianity that you do take up. Only a little do you give heed to, study, or are exercised in that which you count your religion. The precise ones take up the entirety of Christianity, and they give themselves entirely to the study and practice of it. They make it their business to search the Scriptures that they may understand the will and way of the Lord and then govern their hearts and order their lives in all things according to it. So now, if you will answer two easy questions you will thus be able to answer the objection yourself. The first question is: who are most likely to be right?

This is not a hard question, and I hope you will acknowledge it to be settled. The second question is as easy: who is more likely to be right?

Answer just these two questions, and then you yourself will be able to give a reason why it is more likely that precise Christians will be in the right than you and those like you. Show yourselves mature. You are among a company of poor creatures who have spent your time in ignorance and idleness with respect to the matters of God and your souls. You interact only a little with that form of religion that you yourselves say that if you do it, you will be saved. You say you must believe, repent of your sins, and pray to God for forgiveness. But are not many of you great strangers to these things? It may be, if you consider it, that you have often gone whole days and weeks and have scarcely ever prayed, no, not even after your own fashion. You have had few thoughts of repentance or asking God for forgiveness.95 You eat and drink, go out and come in, lie down and rise up, and never so as much look up to God for His mercy and blessing. In the meantime, precise Christians make praying, reading, and hearing sermons and paying attention to God, their souls, and their eternal estate their daily study and business. Now what an unreasonable thing it is to imagine that those who only slightly attend to their religion or anything of religion should be just as likely to understand it as those who make it their daily work.96 Oh, beloved, how can you be so confident that you are in the right, when you never seriously inquire whether you are right or not? And how can you think that you have any wisdom when you trust a matter of such weight and importance to a mere presumption? You have a strong conceit that you are as wise as others, in as good a state, and in as good a way; upon this conceit you venture your souls. Friends, you are a sad wonder to me. I greatly wonder that people should think that carelessness is as good as diligence, that licentiousness is as good as strictness, and that the loose, blind, easy way that people take up is as good and sure a way as the strict and industrious way of the despised saints. I wonder more that any should even deem these false ways a better and more certain way of life. I very much wonder how people who believe and know anything of the Scriptures can make themselves think that the senseless, dull, lifeless way in which they satisfy themselves can give any of them the least hope of salvation.

90house, temple: Heaven.

91The KJV mistranslates עַבְטִיט [ʿǎḇṭîṭ] as “thick clay,” the phrase Alleine used. As translated correctly elsewhere, it means pledges, that is, loan collateral. NASB translates as “loans.” ESV and NKJV translate as “pledges.” This is a difficult passage, but the fact that woe is pronounced on him who heaps up what is not his seems to support the idea of theft via some kind of unjust loans, perhaps by usury or failure to return pledges (collateral). The editor has translated accordingly.

92outward: in this context, not from the heart.

93Cry all they want, those not in union with the Lord Jesus Christ cannot obtain mercy because mercy is only available through Christ.

94Alleine wrote in an age when rational thought and logic reigned. Such nonsense as the Hegelian dialectic, moral relativism, and post-modernism were unknown. God’s created universe reflects His perfectly rational and logical character and being. This is the reason that, to the amazement of unbelieving physicists, mathematics accurately describes the laws of nature. There is absolutely nothing in good science, mathematics, or observable phenomena, much less in the Holy Bible, to support any notion of moral relativism. Because people are made by a rational God in His image, the only valid way to think is to think logically and rationally. It is said in a certain large city that there are only two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead. This aphorism reflects what we all know: the laws of God’s nature are fixed and inflexible, and to forget it or pretend otherwise leads to harm. God’s moral laws are even more inflexible than His natural laws. There is only one religion that leads to God: biblical Christianity. There is only one way to eternal life: Jesus Christ. There is only one saving way to believe in Jesus Christ: as He is displayed and offered to us in the Gospel of the Holy Bible. There is only one way to live for the Lord Jesus: precisely according to His Word. To pretend in one’s vain imagination that there exists any actual alternative is as asinine as dashing blindfolded across a busy highway filled with fast-moving rush-hour traffic. Therefore, think.

95The reader should carefully distinguish between that initial saving faith, repentance to life, and cry to God for salvation; and the necessary continual ongoing exercise of faith, repentance from and mortification of sin, and praying without ceasing. In this case, the lack of the latter is evidence for the lack of the former.

96The editor wishes to point out that this is not just a matter of scholarly ability or time spent in studies, but rather, God will reveal Himself and His will to those who truly seek Him.

Back Contents Next