Welcome to Take Number 6 of the Attributes of God by A.W. Pink, as read by Michael Wyatt. This Reformation audio resource is a production of Stillwaters Revival Books. There is no copyright on this material and we encourage you to reproduce it and pass it on to your friends. Many free resources, as well as our complete mail order catalog containing classic and contemporary Puritan Reformed books, CDs and much more at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. You can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6L3T5. If you do not have a web connection, please request a free printed catalog. If you do have a web connection and would like to be added to our email list, please send an email to add at swrb.com with the word add in the subject line. And now to the reading of the Attributes of God by A.W. Pink, which we pray and hope you find to be a great blessing and draws you near to the Lord Jesus Christ. Continuing on with chapter 16, the wrath of God. Again, that the wrath of God is a divine perfection is plainly demonstrated by what we read in Psalm 95 verse 11. Unto whom I swear in my wrath. There are two occasions of God swearing and making promises. Genesis 22.16 and in pronouncing judgments. Deuteronomy 1.34 and following. In the former he swears in mercy to his children. In the latter he swears to to deprive a wicked generation of its inheritance because of murmuring and unbelief. An oath is for solemn confirmation. Hebrews 6.16 In Genesis 22.16 God says, By myself have I sworn. In Psalm 89.35 He declares, Once have I sworn by my holiness. While in Psalm 95.11 He affirms, I swear in my wrath thus the great Jehovah himself appeals to his wrath thus claiming as a perfection wrath equal to his holiness he swears by the one as much as by the other again as in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily Colossians 2.9 and as all the divine perfections are illustriously displayed by him John 1.18, therefore we do read of the wrath of the Lamb, Revelation 6.16. The wrath of God is a perfection of the divine character upon which we need to frequently meditate. First, that our hearts may be duly impressed by God's detestation of sin. We are ever prone to regard sin lightly, to gloss over its hideousness, to make excuses for it. But the more we study and ponder God's abhorrence of sin and his frightful vengeance upon it, the more likely are we to realize its heinousness. Secondly, to beget a true fear in our souls for God, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12.28.29 We cannot serve him acceptably unless there is due reverence for his awful majesty and godly fear of his righteous anger, and these are best promoted by frequently calling to mind that our God is a consuming fire. Thirdly, to draw out our souls in fervent praise for our having been delivered from the wrath to come. 1 Thessalonians 1.10 Our readiness or our reluctance to meditate upon the wrath of God becomes a sure test of our heart's true attitude towards Him. If we do not truly rejoice in God for what He is in Himself, and that because of all the perfections which are eternally resonant in Him, then how dwelleth the love of God in us? Each of us needs to be most prayerfully on his guard against devising an image of God in our thoughts, which is patterned after our own evil inclinations. Of old, the Lord complained, Thou thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself. If we rejoice not at the remembrance of his holiness, If we rejoice not to know that in the soon coming day God will make a most glorious display of His wrath by taking vengeance upon all who now oppose Him, it is proof positive that our hearts are not in subjection to Him, that we are yet in our sins, and that we are on the way to the everlasting burnings. Rejoice, all ye nations, Gentiles, His people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries." Deuteronomy 32.43 And again we read, I heard a voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia, salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God. For true and righteous are his judgments, for he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia, Revelation 9 verses 1 to 3. Great will be the rejoicing of the saints in that day when the Lord shall vindicate his majesty, exercise his awful dominion, magnify his justice, and overthrow the proud rebels who have dared to defy him. If thou, Lord, should markest iniquity or impute iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Psalm 130 verse 3 Well may each of us ask this question, for it is written, The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment. Psalm 1 verse 5 How sorely was Christ's soul exercised with thoughts of God's markings the iniquity of his people, when they were upon him He was amazed and very heavy, Mark 14.33. His awful agony, His bloody sweat, His strong cries and supplications, Hebrews 5.7. His reiterated prayers, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. His last dreadful cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? All manifest but fearful apprehensions He had of what it was for God to mark iniquities. Well may poor sinners cry out, Lord, who shall stand when the Son of God Himself so trembled beneath the weight of His wrath? If Thou, my reader, hast not fled for refuge to Christ, the only Savior, how wilt Thou do in the swelling of the Jordan? When I consider how the goodness of God is abused by the greatest part of mankind, I cannot but be of his mind that said, the greatest miracle in the world is God's patience and bounty to an ungrateful world. If a prince hath an enemy got into one of his towns, he doth not send him in provisions, but lay close siege to the place, and doth what he can to starve him. But the great God that could wink all His enemies into destruction bears with them and is at daily cost to maintain them. Well may He command us to bless them that curse us, who Himself does good to the evil and unthankful. But think not, sinners, that you shall escape thus. God's mill goes slow, but grinds small. The more admirable His patience and bounty now is, the more dreadful and unsupportable will that fury be which arises out of his abused goodness. Nothing smoother than the sea, yet when stirred into a tempest, nothing rages more. Nothing so sweet as the patience and goodness of God, and nothing so terrible as his wrath when it takes fire. " Then flee, my reader, flee to Christ, flee from the wrath to come, Matthew 3. 7, err it be too late. Do not, we earnestly beseech you, suppose that this message is intended for somebody else. It is to you. Do not be contented by thinking you have already fled to Christ. Make certain. Beg the Lord to search your heart and show yourself. " A word to preachers. Brethren, we do in our oral ministry preach on this solemn subject as much as we Do we in our oral ministry preach on this solemn subject as much as we ought? The Old Testament prophets frequently told their hearers that their wicked lies provoked the Holy One of Israel, and that they were treasuring up for themselves wrath against the Day of Wrath. And conditions in the world are no better now than they were then. Nothing is so calculated to arouse the careless and carnal professors to search their hearts as to enlarge upon the fact that God is angry with the wicked every day. Psalm 11 7 verse 11 The forerunner of Christ warned his hearers to flee from the wrath to come. Matthew 3 7 The Savior bade his auditors fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Luke 12 5 The Apostle Paul said, Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men 2 Corinthians 5.11 Faithfulness demands that we speak as plainly about hell as about heaven. Chapter 17 The Contemplation of God In the previous chapters we have had in review some of the wondrous and lovely perfections of the divine character. From this most feeble and faulty contemplation of his attributes, it should be evident to us all that God is, first, an incomprehensible being and lost in wonder at his infinite greatness, we are constrained to adopt the words of Zophar. Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as heaven, what canst thou do? Deeper than hell, what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. Job 11 verses 7-9 When we turn our thoughts to God's eternity, His immateriality, His omnipresence, His almightiness, our minds are overwhelmed. But the incomprehensibility of the divine nature is not a reason why we should desist from reverent inquiry and prayerful strivings to apprehend what He has so graciously revealed to Himself in His Word. Because we are unable to acquire perfect knowledge, it would be folly to say we will therefore make no efforts to attain to any degree of it. It has been well said that nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity. The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity." The proper study of the Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can engage the intention of a child of God is the name, nature, the person, the doings, the existence of the great God which he calls his Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the divinity. It is a subject so vast that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity, so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can comprehend and grapple with, and then we feel a kind of self-contentment and go on our way with the thought, Behold, I am wise. But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumb line cannot sound its depth and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought, I am but of yesterday, and know nothing. Sermon on Malachi 3.6 Yes, the incomprehensibility of the divine nature should teach us humility, caution, and reverence. After all our searching and meditations, we have to say with Job, Lo, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion has heard of him. Job 26.14 When Moses besought Jehovah for a sight of his glory, he answered him, I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and, as another has rightly said, the name is the collection of his attributes. Rightly did the Puritan John Howey declare, The notion, therefore, we can hence form of his glory is only such as we have of a large volume by a brief synopsis, or of a spacious country by a little landscape. He hath here given us a true report of Himself, but not a full, such as will secure our apprehensions, being guided thereby from error, but not from ignorance. We can apply our minds to contemplate the several perfections whereby the blessed God discovers to us His being, and can in our thoughts attribute them all to Him, though we have still but low and defective conceptions of each one. Yet so far as our apprehensions can correspond to the discovery that he affords us of his several excellencies, we have a present view of his glory." As the difference is indeed great between the knowledge of God which his saints have in this life and that which they shall have in heaven, yet as the former should not be undervalued because it is imperfect, so the latter is not to be magnified above its reality. True, the Scriptures declare that we shall see face to face and know even as we are known. But to infer from this that we shall then know God as fully as He knows us is to be misled by the mere sound of words and to disregard the restriction of that knowledge that our finiteness necessarily requires. There is a vast difference between the saints being glorified and their being made divine in their glorified state. In their glorified state, Christians will still be finite creatures, and therefore never able to fully comprehend the Infinite God. The saints in heaven will see God with the eye of the mind, for he will always be invisible to the bodily eye. They will see Him more clearly than they could see Him by reason and faith, and more extensively than all His works and dispensations had hitherto revealed Him. But their minds will not be so enlarged as to be capable of contemplating at once or in detail the whole excellence of His nature. To comprehend infinite perfection they must become infinite themselves. Even in heaven their knowledge will be partial, but at the same time their happiness will be complete, because their knowledge will be perfect in this sense, that it will be adequate to the capacity of the subject, although it will not exhaust the fullness of the object. We believe that it will be progressive, and that as their views expand, their blessedness will increase, but it will never reach a limit beyond which there is nothing to be discovered, and when ages after ages have passed away, he will still be the incomprehensible God." Secondly, from a review of the perfections of God, it appears that He is an all-sufficient being. He is all-sufficient in Himself and to Himself. As the first of beings, He could receive nothing from another, nor be limited by the power of another. Being infinite, He is possessed of all possible perfection. When the Triune God existed all alone, He was all to Himself. His understanding, His love, His energies found an adequate object in Himself. Had he stood in need of anything external, he would not have been independent, and therefore he would not have been God. He created all things and that for himself. Yet it was not in order to supply a lack, but that he might communicate life and happiness to angels and men, and admit them to the vision of his glory. True, he demands the allegiance and service of his intelligent creatures, yet he derives no benefit from their offices. All the advantage redounds to themselves. Job 22, 2 and 3. He makes use of means and instruments to accomplish his ends, yet not from a deficiency of power, but oftentimes to more strikingly display his power through the feebleness of the instruments. The all-sufficiency of God makes him to be the supreme object which is ever to be sought unto. True happiness consists only in the enjoyment of God. His favor is life, and His loving kindness is better than life. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in Him." Lamentations 3.24 His love, His grace, and His glory are the chief objects of the saints' desire and the springs of their highest satisfaction. There be many that say, Who will show us any good, Lord? Lift thou up thy light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. Psalm 4, 6, and 7. Yea, the Christian, when in his right mind, is able to say, Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the lavines. The labor of the olive shall fail. and the field shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the Lord, in the God of my salvation." Habakkuk 3.17-18 Thirdly, from a review of the perfections of God, it appears that He is the supreme sovereign of the universe. It has been rightly said, quoting John Dick now, no dominion is so absolute as that which is founded on creation. He who might not have made anything had a right to make all things according to his own pleasure. In the exercise of his uncontrolled power he has made some parts of creation mere inanimate matter of grosser or more refined texture, indistinguished by different qualities, but all inert and unconscious. He has given organization to other parts and made them susceptible of growth and expansion but still without life in the proper sense of the term. To others he has given not only organization but conscious existence, organs of sense and self-motive power. To these he has added in man the gift of reason and an immortal spirit by which he is allied to a higher order of beings who are placed in the superior regions. over the world which He has created, He sways the scepter of omnipotence. I praised and honored Him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And He doeth according to His will in the army of heavens and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou? A creature considered as such has no rights. He can demand nothing from his Maker, and in whatever manner he may be treated he has no title to complain. Yet, when thinking of the absolute dominion of God over all, we ought never to lose sight of his moral perfections. God is just and good and ever does that which is right. Nevertheless, He exercises His sovereignty according to His own imperial and righteous pleasure. He assigns every creature his place as seemeth good in His own sight. He orders the very circumstances of each according to His own counsels. He molds each vessel according to His own uninfluenced determination. He has mercy on whom He wills and whom He wills He hardens. Whoever we are, our life and everything is held at his disposal. To the Christian, he is a tender father. To the rebellious sinner, he will yet be a consuming fire. Now unto the King Eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. 1 Timothy 1.17 Chapter 19 The Bounties of God I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 1 Corinthians 2.9 How often this passage is quoted only that far, how rarely are the words added. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. Why is this? It is because so few of God's people search out and enjoy what the Spirit has revealed in the Word about those things which God has prepared for them that love Him. If we were more occupied with God's riches than with our poverty, Christ's fullness than our emptiness, the divine bounties than our leanness, on what a different plane of experience we would live! We are much impressed by noting some of the riches of His grace. It is striking to note that our Christian life starts at a marriage feast. Just as Christ's first miracle was wrought at one, the word to us is, Come, for all things are now ready. Excuse me, the quote earlier regarding Matthew is actually Matthew 22 verse 10. Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatling are killed, and all things are ready. Come unto the marriage. Matthew 22 verse 4. Observe the I have prepared agreeing with the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. First Corinthians 2.9. Notice the already confirming God hath revealed them unto us 1st Corinthians 2.10 mark the my dinner my oxen and my fatlings for all things are of God 2nd Corinthians 5.18 the creature contributes nothing all is provided for him finally way the come unto thee marriage the figure is very blessed it speaks of joy festivity feasting Practically, the same figure is employed by Christ again in Luke 15. There he pictures the penitent prodigal welcomed home by the Father. No sooner is he clothed and fitted for the house than the words go forth, Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and be merry. And we are told they began to be merry. In the parable, that merriment met with no reverse, since it is portrayed without a break and without a bound. Then we may conclude that this newborn joy ought to characterize all this festive scene, as truly, so now, as soon, it will be in glory. A beautiful type of the lavish manner in which God bestows His bounties unto His people is found in Genesis 9 verse 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things." This was Jehovah's response to the sweet savor which he had just smelled. It is most important that we should note the connection and perceive the ground on which God so freely bestowed all things upon the patriarch. At the close of Genesis 8, Noah built an altar unto the Lord and presented burnt offerings. At the beginning of Genesis 9 we learn God's answer, which blessedly foreshadowed the unmeasured portion bestowed upon the new creation, the members of which have been blessed with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. These blessings are based upon God's estimate of the value of Christ's sacrifice of Himself. The abiding worth of that sacrifice is immeasurable and illimitable. as immeasurable as the personal excellencies of the Son, as illimitable as the Father's delight in Him. The nature and extent of those blessings which accrue to God's elect on the ground of Christ's finished work are intimated by the substantives and adjectives employed by the Holy Spirit when He describes the profuseness of the divine bounties already bestowed upon us and which we shall enjoy forever. We take first God's grace. Not only are we told of the riches of His grace, Ephesians 1.7, and of the exceeding riches of His grace, Ephesians 2.7, but also we read that it has abounded unto many and that we receive abundance of grace. Yes, that grace has superabounded. Romans 5.15 and 17 through 20. the limitless wealth of divine grace flowing forth and multiplying itself in its objects. The foundation or moving cause of this is found in John 1. When the Only Begotten Son became flesh and tabernacled here for a season, it was as one who was full of grace and truth. Because we have been made joint heirs with Him, it is written, And of His fullness have all we received in grace for grace. take again God's love. There have been neither reserve nor restraint in the outflow of His love to its loveless, unlovely objects. He has loved His people with an everlasting love, Jeremiah 31.3. Wondrously He manifested it, for when the fullness of time was come, He sent forth His Son, born of a woman. He did so love the world as to give His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Therefore we read of His great love wherewith He loved us, Ephesians 2.4. The Greek word translated great is rendered plenteous, Matthew 9.37, and abundant, 1 Peter 1.3. Love unmeasured that passes knowledge fills our lives with its unceasing ministrations ever active in priesthood and advocacy on high, how truly it is love abundant. Our present theme is inexhaustible. Our Lord came here that his people might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10.10 This was first made good when Christ, as the head of the new creation and the beginning of the creation of God, Revelation 3.14, breathed on His disciples, received ye the Holy Spirit. It was the risen Savior communicating His resurrection life to His own. Compare Genesis 2-7 for the beginning of the Old Creation. So too, when that same One who down here received the Spirit without measure, John 3-34, ascended on high as the glorified man, He baptized His people in the Holy Spirit, Acts 2. As the Apostle Paul assures Gentile saints, he shed on us abundantly, Titus 3.6. Once more he emphasized the profuseness of God's bounties. Consider now his confidences. The Lord Jesus said to his disciples, Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you, John 15, 15. There are things which the angels desire to look into, 1 Peter 1.12, yet they have been made known to us by God's Spirit. What a word in Ephesians, wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, Ephesians 1.8-9. This may be termed the abundance of his counsels. Once more consider the exercise and display of His power. Paul prayed that we might know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe according to the workings of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. Ephesians 1 19-20 Here was the might of God working transcendently in an objective way, its correlative is recorded in Ephesians 3.20, now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. Clearly this is the highest putting forth of energy, working subjectively in such lavish measure. Then God hath blessed his people, as the Apostle wrote to the Colossians concerning him. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete, filled, or full in him." Colossians 2, 9, and 10. But it is one thing to know intellectually of these bounties of God. It is quite another, by faith, to make them our own. It is one thing to be familiar with the letter of them, it is another to live in the power and to be the personal expression of them. What shall our response be to such divine munificence? Surely it is that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. Surely it is that we should abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. It is only here that hope finds its sphere of exercise, since only in the saints will it receive full fruition. If God speaks so uniformly of the very character of our blessing, whether it be His grace, His love, His life imparted to us, His confidences, His power, His mercy, 1 Peter 1.3 and following, is being so abundant it must be because He wants to impress our hearts with the exuberance of the bounties He has bestowed on us. The practical effect of this on our souls should cause us to joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 5.11, to draw out all that is within us in true worship, to fit us for a closer and deeper fellowship with Him. And God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. 2 Corinthians 9.8 Chapter 20 The Gifts of God A giving God, what a concept! To our regret our familiarity with it often dulls our sense of wonderment at it. There is nothing that resembles such a concept in the religions of heathendom. Very much to the contrary, their deities are portrayed as monsters of cruelty and greed, always exacting painful sacrifices from deluded devotees. But the God of Scripture is portrayed as the Father of mercies, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. 1 Timothy 6.17 It is true that He has His own rights, the rights of His holiness and proprietorship. Nor does he rescind them, but rather enforces them. But what we would contemplate here is something which transcends reason and had never entered our minds to conceive. The divine claimer is at once the divine meter. He required satisfaction of his broken law, and he himself supplied it. His just claims are met by his own grace. He who asks for sacrifices from us, may the supreme sacrifice for us. God is both the demander and the donor, the requirer and the provider. 1. The Gift of His Son Of old the language of prophecy announced, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. Accordingly, the angels announced to the shepherds at the time of his advent, Unto you is born this day a Savior, Luke 2.11. That gift was the supreme exemplification of the divine benignity. In this was manifest the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love. not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation of our sins, 1 John 4, 9 and 10. That was the guarantee of all other blessings, as the Apostle argued from the greater to the less, assuring us that Christ is at once the pledge and channel of every other mercy. He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with him also freely give us all things." Romans 8.32 God did not withhold his choice's treasure, the darling of his bosom, but freely yielded him up, and the love that spared not him will not begrudge anything that is for the good of his people. 2. The Gift of His Spirit The Son is God's all-inclusive gift. As Manton said, Christ cometh not to us empty-handed. His person and His benefits are not divided. He came to purchase all manner of blessings for us. The greatest of these is the Holy Spirit, who applies and communicates what the Lord Jesus obtained for His people. God pardoned and justified His elect in Old Testament times on the ground of the atonement which His Son should make at the appointed time. On the same basis, He communicated to them the Spirit, Numbers 9.25 and Nehemiah 9.20. Otherwise, none would have been regenerated, fitted for communion with God, or enabled to bring forth spiritual fruit. But he then wrought more secretly, rather than in demonstration and in power, came as the dew, rather than was poured out copiously, was restricted to Israel, rather than communicated to Gentiles also. The Spirit in His fullness was God's ascension gift to Christ, Acts 2.33, and Christ's coronation gift to His church, John 16.7. The gift of the Spirit was purchased for His people by Christ, see Galatians 3.13.14, and note carefully the second that in verse 14. Every blessing we receive is through the merits and mediation of Christ. 3. The Gift of Life For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6.23 There is a double antithesis between these two things. First, the justice of God will render unto the wicked what is due them for their sins, but His mercy bestows upon His people what they do not deserve. Second, eternal death follows as a natural and inevitable consequence from what is in and done by its objects. Not so eternal life, for it is bestowed without any consideration of something in or from its subjects. It is communicated and sustained gratuitously. Eternal life is a free bounty, not only unmerited, but also unsolicited by us. For in every instance God has reason to say, I am found of them that sought me not." Isaiah 65-1. Compare with Romans 3-11. The recipient is wholly passive. He does not act, but is acted upon when he is brought from death unto life. Eternal life, a spiritual life now, a life of glory hereafter, is sovereignly and freely bestowed by God. Yet it is also a blessing communicated by him unto his elect because the Lord Jesus Christ paid the price of redemption. Yes, it is actually dispensed by Christ. I give unto them, not merely offer, eternal life. John 10.28. See also John 17.3. 4. The gift of spiritual understanding. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true. 1 John 5.20. What is communicated to the saint when he is born again is wholly spiritual and exactly suited for taking in the scriptural knowledge of Christ. It is not an entirely new faculty which is then imparted, but rather the renewing of the original one, fitting it for the apprehension of new objects. It consists of an internal illumination, a divine light that shines in our hearts, enabling us to discern the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ. Though we are not now admitted into a corporeal sight of Christ, yet He has made a living reality to those who have been quickened into newness of life. By this divine renewing of the understanding, we can now perceive the peerless excellency and perfect suitability of Christ. The knowledge we have of Him is seeded in the understanding that fires the affection, sanctifies the will, and raises the mind into being fixed upon Him. Such spiritual understanding is not attained by any efforts of ours, but is a supernatural bestowment, a divine gift conferred upon the elect, which admits them into the secrets of the Most High. This Reformation audio resource is a production of Stillwaters Revival Books. Many free resources, as well as SWRB's complete mail-order catalog containing classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, CDs, and much more at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com, by phone at 780-450-3730. by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6L3T5. If you do not have a web connection, please request a free printed catalog. If you have a web connection and would like to be added to our email list, please send an email to add at swrb.com with the word add in the subject line. This book, The Attributes of God, by A.W. Pink, is available from Stillwater's Revival Books in softcover format at a discount in our A-Z author listings. Please don't forget to look over the 62 CDs that make up our Reformation and Puritan Bookshelf CD sets if you visit our website at swrb.com. These CDs are a great way to build a major reform library at a fraction of the cost of the printed books.