A Lifting Up of the Downcast

I was provided an audio book of this precious work by William Bridge more than 6 years ago and have acquired the very transcript with which I have printed and bound my own book. It has greatly comforted me in my distress regarding this aspect of my faith time and again, and has served well to emphasize the grace that God has graciously showered upon poor sinners via the merit of Jesus Christ's covenantal work on the cross. And as I seek to help those who are drowning in the same pit of hopelessness, I am awed with the majesty of God's sure election and His faithfulness to the everlasting covenant: 

"As godly men shall never be condemned for their sins, so their sins shall never part God and them. What seems to be the reason why some are so discouraged about their sins, but because they think they shall not only lose the face and presence of God by their sins, but that they shall lose God himself. 

But now, surely, the sins of the godly shall never part God and them. Their sins may hide God's face: but as their sins did not hinder God and them from coming together at first, so their sins shall never part God and them. Their sins may cause a strangeness between God and them, but shall never cause an enmity. Their sins may hide God's face from them, but shall never turn God's back upon them. Those whom God loves, he loves unto the end: I am the Lord that changeth not,' says he. 

And as the prophet Isaiah speaks 'As the covenant that the Lord made with Noah, such is the covenant that he makes with his people' (Isa. 54:9, 10).

Now look into Genesis, chapter 8, and you will see what the covenant is that the Lord made there with Noah, and with the world by Noah. When Noah came out of the ark, he built an altar, and sacrificed; verse 21, 'And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground for man's sake. Why? 'For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.' You would think man being evil were a good reason why God should curse the ground again; man is wicked, therefore, surely God will curse the ground again? No, saith the LORD, though you poor creatures think so, yet I, that am the God of all grace, make this covenant with the world by Noah, that I will not curse the ground any more for man's sake because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth continually.

The covenant that the Lord makes with his people is such a covenant as the Lord made with Noah; so says the prophet Isaiah. What then? Therefore if God be in covenant with a man, he shall never lie unde wrath again; for though the world sin, the world shall never be drowned again; and so, though he commit sin, he shall never lie under wrath again. Now as for the people of God, they are all in covenant with God; they are under this gracious covenant, and therefore, though the mountains may be removed, God's mercy shall never be removed from them; and though the great hills may be thrown into the sea, the people of God, once in covenant with God, shall never be thrown into hell. Tell me then, have you, that are the people of God, any just cause or reason to be cast down or to be discouraged?

If the very sins of God's people, through the over ruling hand of grace, shall be an occasion of more grace and comfort to them than ever they had in all their lives before then surely they have no reason to be discouraged in this respect. God never permits his people to fall into sin but he intends to make that sin an inlet unto further grace and comfort to them.

This you see in the first great sin that ever was committed by the children of men, the fall of Adam. The Lord himself came and preached the gospel. He preached Christ unto fallen man; and surely when God himself preached the gospel, we are to think the man was converted. Now the greatest blessing that ever the world saw was the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But how came that about?

God permits man to fall, and man's unrighteousness must usher in Christ's righteousness.

The Scripture tells us that the Lord permitted Hezekiah to fall, that Hezekiah might know all that was in his heart. He did not know his own heart before, and therefore the Lord let him fall that he might know his own heart. If you look into the Romans, chapter 11, you will find in so many words what I am now speaking; verse 32, For God hath conclude them all in unbelief.' Why? 'That he might have mercy upon all.' Oh, what a blessed design upon unbelief is here! Therefore God concludes all under unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. Sin never gains, but is a loser by every fall of the godly.

If you look into the Scripture, you will observe that when the people of God fall, usually they fail in that grace wherein they most excel. Wherein they did most excel, therein they did most miscarry. Abraham did most excel in faith, and therein he did most miscarry. Moses did most excel in meekness, and therein he did most miscarry; we read of no other sin concerning Moses but his anger. Job did most excel in patience, and therein he did most miscarry. Peter did most excel in zeal and resolution for Christ - "Though all the world forsake thee, yet will not I' - and therein he did most miscarry, denying Christ at the voice of a damsel. I say, you will observe this, that the saints fell and failed in that grace wherein they did most excel; and wherein they did most excel they did most miscarry.

What is the reason of this, but because the Lord, by the overruling hand of his grace, did make their very miscarriages, inlets and occasions to their further grace and holiness. 

God has a great revenue from the very infirmities of his people. He never permits any of his people to fall into a sin, but hath a design by that fall to break the back of that sin they do fall into. 

Now, then, have the saints and people of God any reason to be discouraged in this respect? By their sin they may be, and are often times, suspended from their comforts and use of their privileges; but by their sin they do not lose their right thereunto.

You know how it was with the leper in the times of the Old Testament, among the Jews, when he was carried out of the city or town, from his own house, by reason of his uncleanness: or now, with a man that has the plague, and is carried from his own house by reason thereof. The leper then, and the man that hath the plague or the pest now, may say Though I be removed from mine own house, and have not the use of my house, yet I have a right to my house still; and though I cannot come at the use of my land, yet I have a right to my land still. So a godly man may say as concerning his sin, This sin of mine indeed, it is a pest, and the plague of my soul, and a leprosy; but though, by this leprosy of mine, I am now suspended from the use of my comforts, yea, from the full use of my interest in Jesus Christ yet, notwithstanding I have an interest in Christ still; I have not lost my interest, still I have right to Christ; although I cannot come to the use of him as I did before, yet I have right unto Jesus Christ now, as I had before. And if all these things be so, why should a godly man be cast down or discouraged in this respect? Surely he ought not to be so."

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The Holy Spirit continually labors to preserve us as He sanctifies us into the fullness of Christ-likeness; but the world, the flesh, and the enemy also labors, not to forfeit our salvation (for in Christ that can never be,) but to at the most take our attention away from the cross and unto ourselves. When many of the Israelites were dying after being bitten by venomous serpents for the sin of complaining YHWH had Moses fashion a brasen serpent placed on a pole, and whoever looked to it was completely healed regardless of their sin. In the same manner we look to Christ on the cross, who by reason of the stripes he willingly bore on his blessed body, we are healed. Not partially but fully. And are saved. Not temporarily, but to the utmost. To whom are you looking unto? Are you look to your sin, or to the Christ who bore the punishment for it?

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;
Hebrews 12:2

Bridge, W. (2021). Thirteen Sermons on Psalm42:11: A Lifting Up In The Case of Great Sins. The Banner of Truth Trust. (Original work published 1649)