A MONTHLY READING OF
INSIGHTS FROM RENOWNED CHRISTIANS
SEPTEMBER
Day 1
THE LORD'S COMING
ALEXANDER REESE
Until the second quarter of the nineteenth century, general agreement existed among premillennial advocates of our Lord's Coming concerning the main outlines of the prophetic future. Amid differences of opinion on the interpretation of the Apocalypse and other portions of Scripture, the following scheme stood out as fairly representative of the school.
1. The approaching Advent of Christ to this world will be visible, personal, and glorious.
2. This Advent, though in itself a single crisis, will be accompanied and followed by a variety of phenomena bearing upon the history of the Church, of Israel, and the world. Believers who survive until the Advent will be transfigured and translated to meet the approaching Lord, together with the saints raised and changed at the first resurrection. Immediately following this, Antichrist and his allies will be slain, and Israel--the covenant people--will repent and be saved by looking upon Him whom they pierced.
3. Thereupon, the Messianic Kingdom of prophecy, which as the Apocalypse informs us will last for a thousand years, will be established in power and great glory in a transfigured world. The nations will turn to God, war and oppression cease, and righteousness and peace cover the earth.
4. At the conclusion of the kingly rule of Christ and His saints, the rest of the dead will be raised, the Last Judgment ensue, and a new and eternal world be created.
5. No distinction was made between the Coming of our Lord, His Appearing, Revelation, and Day, because these were all held to be synonymous, or at least related, terms, signifying always the one Advent in glory at the beginning of the Messianic Kingdom.
6. While the Coming of Christ--no matter how long the present dispensation may last--is the true and proper hope of the Church in every generation, it is nevertheless conditioned by the prior fulfillment of certain signs or events in the history of the Kingdom of God: the Gospel has first to be preached to all nations, the Apostasy and the Man of Sin be revealed, and the Great Tribulation come to pass. Then shall the Lord come.
7. The Church of Christ will not be removed from the earth until the Advent of Christ at the very end of the present Age. The Rapture and the Appearing take place at the same crisis; hence, Christians of that generation will be exposed to the final affliction under Antichrist.
Such is a fair statement of the fundamentals of Premillennialism as it has obtained since the close of the Apostolic Age. There have been differences of opinion on details and subsidiary points, but the main outline is as I have given it.
These views were held in the main by Irenaeus (the "grandpupil" of the Apostle John), Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and the primitive Christians generally, until the rise of the Catholic, political Church in the West. Since the beginning of the last century, what a galaxy of preachers, theologians, and expositors have appeared to maintain the ancient faith! The fact that so many eminent men reached similar conclusions regarding the subject of Christ's Coming and Kingdom creates a strong presumption that such views are scriptural, and that nothing plainly taught in Scripture and essential to the Church's hope was overlooked.
The Approaching Advent of Christ
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Day 2
TRIBULATION ARGUMENTS CONSIDERED
SAMUEL P. TREGELLES
The Lord Jesus gives a warning of an unequaled tribulation which shall immediately precede His coming in glory: "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened...Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (Matthew 24:21-30)
Some have said, "What a fearful prospect it is if the Church shall be in this tribulation! Can we suppose it possible that the Lord can permit any part of this suffering to fall on His redeemed and believing people? Is it not more fitting, more in accordance with His dealings in grace towards them, that they should be removed to be with Him before this trouble sets in?" And by such thinking any theory is judged admissible which shall exclude the Church from sharing at all in this suffering or from being on earth at the time.
We cannot draw conclusions in this transcendental manner. Thus Peter argued and spoke when his Master foretold "that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." It was nature, and not spirituality, that led Peter to think in this way of the sufferings of his Lord, rather than of the promise of His resurrection. "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!" Should not our Lord’s rebuke to Peter check all such reasonings, especially when He speaks of His followers taking up their cross and losing their lives, but having before them the promise that the "Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father?" We can never set our opinion of what is fitting in opposition to any direct statement of the Lord.
But is suffering and trial so strange a lot for the people of Christ? "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." How continually did the apostles teach that "we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God." "No one should be shaken by these afflictions: for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. For, in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation." If, then, certain tribulations are to be expected as the common experience of the faithful servants of Christ, why should it seem strange that they should be instructed concerning the great and final tribulation? Why should it be thought that they must previously be taken away?
"Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from? These are the ones who came out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple." The gathered assembly of those whose robes have been washed and made white in the blood of atonement are set forth as those who have passed through great tribulation. It is so spoken of as their characteristic; as if the last scene on earth in which they had been regarded was one marked by tribulation.
It has been asked, "If the great tribulation is an affliction for Israel and a punishment for the Gentiles, how can the Church be in it?" In this inquiry, two fallacies are assumed: First, that this tribulation is part of the outpouring of judgment; and second, that the Church, while in the world, is exempted from part of the suffering which falls on men or on nations. Concerning the first, for believers there is no penal suffering, because Christ in life and in death endured for His people all that is penal. As regards the second, any disciplinary sorrow on Israel or on the nations before Christ comes has, in part at least, a corrective character: it ought to lead to repentance. And from this, the last tribulation (though of a very special kind) is not to be excepted. However, in this last tribulation Christ is very mindful of His people: "for the elect’s sake, those days shall be shortened." Besides this, they are warned of that time, in order that they may at once flee away from the scene of suffering. Those who believe that these warnings are intended for Christians may, by obeying the word of the Lord, be locally removed from the fierceness of the trial.
Thus the Lord desires that His people should be enabled to endure; that in obedience to Him, they should watch the coming on of this tribulation, and that they should know that, however they may in part be sharers in it, His own coming is to follow at once.
The Hope of Christ's Second Coming
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Day 3
JESUS WORKS ON THE SABBATH
J. C. RYLE
"For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, 'My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.' Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God." John 5:17,18
This seems to have been the first reply which our Lord made when charged with breaking the fourth commandment. It was a short, simple justification of the lawfulness of doing works of mercy on the Sabbath: "My Father has been working until now," that is, from the beginning of creation up to the present time, "and I have been working."
I can see only one meaning in this pithy sentence: "My Father in heaven is continually working works of mercy and kindness in his providential government of the world: in supplying the needs of all his creatures, in maintaining the whole fabric of the earth in perfection, in giving rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, in preserving and sustaining life. All this he does on Sabbaths as well as weekdays. Were he to cease from such works, the whole world would be full of confusion. When he rested from his works of creation, he did not rest from his works of providence. I also, who am his beloved Son, claim the right to work works of mercy on the Sabbath. In working such works, I do not break the Sabbath any more than my Father does. My Father appointed the fourth commandment to be honored, and yet never ceased to cause the sun to rise and the grass to grow on the Sabbath. I also, who claim to be One with the Father, honor the Sabbath, but I do not abstain from works of mercy upon it."
Two things should be observed. One is the plain practical lesson that the Sabbath was not meant to be a day of total idleness and entire cessation from all kinds of work. "The Sabbath was made for man,"--for his benefit, comfort, and advantage. Works of mercy and of real necessity to man's life and animal existence on the Sabbath day were never intended to be forbidden. Second is our Lord's assertion of his own divinity and equality with God the Father. When he said, "My Father works, and I also work," he evidently meant much more than bringing forward his Father's example, though that, of course, is contained in his argument and justifies all Christians in doing works of mercy on Sundays. What he meant was, "I am the beloved Son of God; I and my Father are One in essence, dignity, honor, and authority. Whatever he does, I also do and have a right to do. He works, and I also work. He gave you the Sabbath, and it is his day. I too, as one with him, am Lord of the Sabbath." That the Jews saw this to be the meaning of his words seems clear from the next verse. Augustine remarks, "Behold, the Jews understood what the Arians would not understand."
There are few chapters in the Bible where we feel our own shallowness of understanding and discover so completely the insufficiency of all human language to express "the deep things of God." Men often say they want explanations of the mysteries of the Christian faith, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the person of Christ and the like. "I want more light," says proud man. God gives him his desires in this chapter. But behold, we are dazzled by the very light we wanted and find we have not eyes to take it in.
Ryle's Expository Thoughts on the Gospel
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Day 4
ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD
EDWARD GRIFFIN
Enoch was the father of the long-lived Methuselah, and the great grandfather of Noah. It is said of him that he walked with God, after the birth of Methuselah, three hundred years. It was a long time for a man to support a holy life and communion with God without any relapse worthy of notice. It is difficult for Christians now to do this for a single day, and so how remarkable then that he should have done it for the long space of three hundred years. Such approval did his extraordinary piety gain him, that when the time came for him to leave the world, God translated him, as he afterwards did Elijah, and suffered him not to taste the bitterness of death.
We all know what it is for two friends to walk together, engaged in close and interesting conversation. This is the figure by which is represented the intercourse of Enoch with his God for three hundred years. The figure is well adapted. The hidden life of the Christian, his retired habit of devotion, his separation from the world (living, as it were, in the other world while dwelling in this), and his daily, intimate, unseen communion with God are very fitly represented by two intimate friends walking together. They are engrossed with each other, unmindful of all the world besides, unseeing and unseen. This general thought comprehends several particulars.
When two friends thus walk together, their communion is secret. So is the communion between the Christian and his God. The world wonders what the Christian finds to employ himself with when alone. They wonder what supports him under trials and renders his countenance cheerful, when they looked for sadness. Let them know that he draws his comforts from another world, where the changes and trials of the present state do not reach him.
When two friends thus walk together, their conversation is kind and sweet. The man who walks with God pours into his Father's ear all his desires and complaints, and receives his kind and comforting answers in return.
When two friends thus walk together, their wills and governing feelings are the same, for "how can two walk together except they be agreed?" They keep the same course and are advancing towards the same object. The man who walks with God is conformed to him in moral character. Benevolence reigns in his heart, and his open arms embrace the universe. Like God, his feelings are in accordance with the holy law. He loves righteousness and hates iniquity.
The glory of his Father, the prosperity of Zion, and the happiness of the universe constitute the one indivisible object of his pursuit. He is delighted with the government of God and has no controversy with him who shall reign. His will is swallowed up in the divine will. He wishes not to select for himself, but chooses that his heavenly Father should select for him. He is "careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving," he makes his requests known unto God.
The man who walks with God walks humbly. Otherwise, God will not walk with him, for "the proud he knows afar off." The whole of man's duty is summed up in doing justly, in loving mercy, and in walking "humbly" with his God. The Christian, even though intimate with his Maker, does not approach him with familiar boldness. The more he sees of God, the more abased he is. "I have heard of thee," said Job, "by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee; wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."
The man who walks with God exercises a living faith. This, according to the apostle, was the mainspring of all those graces which gained Enoch the reputation of walking with God. "By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him."
We are apt to think that we are not expected to aim at the superior piety of the ancient saints. But why paralyze every power by such a stupid mistake. Is not God as worthy of obedience now as in the days of old? Have the increased displays of his mercy in the Gospel impaired his claims? Has the affecting scene of Calvary rendered him less lovely in the eyes of sinners? Are the means used with mankind less than in the patriarchal age? Are the happy consequences of a walk with God worn out by time?
When so many saints were enraptured with communion with God, why, then, should we content ourselves with being scarcely alive?
theoldtimegospel.org/master/master_40.html
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Day 5
SINNERS WELCOME TO COME TO CHRIST
ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER
"He who comes to me, I will by no means cast out." No, though your sins are very great, the kind Redeemer will not cast you out. Even if what you think about yourself were sometimes true--that you are the greatest sinner who ever lived upon the earth--he will not cast you out. "His blood cleanses from all sin." No one was ever saved because his sins were small; no one was ever rejected because his sins were great. Where sin abounds, grace shall much more abound. If your guilt is very enormous, the greater honor will redound to that Deliverer who plucks such a brand from the burning.
But is there not one sin which never has pardon, neither in this world nor in that which is to come? There is. But no one who commits that sin ever desires to come to Christ. Yet even that sin would not be unpardonable if the sinner who is burdened with its guilt should come to him. It is not unpardonable because the blood of Christ has not adequate efficacy to remove it; it is unpardonable because the miserable blasphemer is abandoned by the Spirit of God to his own malignity, and therefore never does nor can desire to believe on Christ.
Christ will not cast you off because you have long continued to sin against God, though it be to gray hairs and the decrepitude of old age. It is indeed a wicked thing to continue even one day in rebellion against the King of heaven, and no one can calculate the debt of guilt incurred by spending a long life in continued acts of transgression. But however long you may have continued in rebellion, and however black and long the catalog of your sins, yet if you will now turn to God by a sincere repentance and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall not be cast out. He that cannot lie has declared, "He who comes to me I will by no means cast out." Aged sinner, you are not excluded. God has set before you an open door which no man has a right or power to shut. If you should be shut out, it will be by your own unbelief. Enter, then, without delay or hesitation. None can less afford to delay than the aged sinner. Now is the time. Now or never. You have, as it were, one foot already in the grave. Your opportunities will soon be over. Strive, then, I entreat you, to enter in at the strait gate.
But you ask whether a man may not outlive his day of grace and be given over to judicial blindness before life is ended. Undoubtedly he may. But as I said before, such a one, I believe, is never found inquiring what he must do to be saved. As long as we are in the body, we have the overtures of mercy made to us by the authority of God, and whether we be young or old, he that comes shall not be cast out. Take him at his word. Venture on him. If you stay away you must perish. But see, the golden scepter is held out. This affords full assurance that if you draw near and touch it, you shall live.
Some hesitate to come because they feel themselves so vile and unworthy. They cannot be persuaded that so great and holy a being as the Son of God will look with favor on creatures so abominably polluted and stained with iniquity. Such feelings as these very naturally arise in the minds of those made sensible of the sinful defilement of their nature. But they are most unreasonable when we take into view the character of Jesus Christ and the errand on which he came into the world. If he had become incarnate and had died on the cross only for the benefit of the pure and righteous, then this excuse would have some validity. But when we know that he is a Savior of sinners, that he came to seek and save the lost, and that he is the Physician of the sick, we must pronounce this objection most unreasonable. If you were not a sinful, polluted, helpless, and miserable creature, this Savior would not be suited to you. The deeper you are sunk in sin and misery, the greater reason you have for coming to one who is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.
One may be ready to say, "I'll admit that none ever come to Christ until they experience conviction of sin, but I have no conviction, or none worth mentioning. My mind is so blind that I can perceive nothing clearly, and my heart is so hard that what I do see to be true I cannot feel. If only I could experience some tender relenting, could get this adamant heart broken into contrition, could even feel pungent pain or alarm on account of my sins, my case would not appear so hopeless. But how can I come to Christ with this blind and stupid heart?"
Now, my friend, I beg you to consider that this blindness and unyielding hardness is the very core of your iniquity. But to be convinced that you are thus blind and stupid is true conviction of sin. If you felt as you wish to feel, you would not think your heart so wicked as you now see it to be. And the truth is, that you are now in a better situation to come to Christ than you would be if you had less conviction of the hardness and stubbornness of your heart. The use of conviction is to show your need of a Savior, to set clearly before your mind your utterly helpless and hopeless condition in yourself, to let you see that a holy God would be perfectly just in leaving you to your own fruitless efforts and in punishing you forever for your sins.
The convinced sinner finds it very hard to believe that a free and full salvation is offered to him and that Christ stands ready to receive him, not only to pardon all his sins, but to give him a sure title to a heavenly inheritance. It seems almost impossible that he should be thus highly favored, and therefore, when he should with humble confidence lay hold on eternal life, he stands hesitating and demurring. He is prone to think that there must be some mistake and that this good news cannot be true, at least, in relation to himself. But when the truth stands out clearly revealed, he begins to understand the absolute and perfect freeness of salvation. He understands how it is that Christ receives the coming sinner just as he is, in all his guilt and vileness. Then he cannot but rejoice and wonder at the suitableness of the plan of salvation to his own character.
All they who come are drawn by the Father. "No man," says Christ, "can come unto me except the Father which sent me draws him." Those who do truly come are such as were given to Christ by the Father. "All that the Father gives me shall come to me." Now this drawing of the Father is the fruit of his everlasting love. "We love him, because he first loved us." And surely Christ will not cast out those whom the Father has loved and given to him and effectually drawn by his grace.
But you may be ready to reply, "How shall I know that I am of the number given by the Father to the Son?" I answer: You need no other or better evidence of it than your being willing to come. Surely you know that you did not make yourself willing. If you have come to Christ, or are willing to come, I am sure you will ascribe it entirely to the grace of God. The choice did not commence with you, but with him. "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." Christ concurs with the Father in this drawing, for he says, "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." Surely he will not cast out the poor penitent whom he has drawn! No, never. "He who comes to me I will by no means cast out."
lrmarshall.org/Reformed/alexander_sinnerswelcome.html
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Day 6
THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD
JOHN CALVIN
"And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt." Genesis 45:7,8
This is a remarkable passage. We are taught that the right course of events is never so disturbed by the depravity and wickedness of men but that God can direct them to a good end. We are also instructed in what manner and for what purpose we must consider the providence of God. Men of inquisitive minds argue against God's providence. They do not regard the end designed, but invent every absurdity to sully the justice of God. As soon as it is declared that God holds the government of the whole world in his hands, and that nothing is done but by his will and authority, they who think with little reverence of the mysteries of God break forth into frivolous and injurious questions. As a consequence, good men are ashamed to confess that what men undertake cannot be accomplished, except by the will of God. They fear that unbridled tongues will claim that either God is the author of sin, or that wicked men are not to be accused of crime, seeing they fulfill the counsel of God.
It is right to maintain what is declared by the clear testimonies of Scripture: Whatever men may contrive, yet, amid all their tumult God from heaven overrules their counsels and attempts. In short, God does, by their hands, what he has himself decreed. I speak of evils with respect to men who propose nothing else but to act perversely. As this vice dwells in them, so ought the whole blame also be laid upon them. But God works in a marvelous way, that from their wickedness he may bring forth his perfect righteousness. This method of acting is secret and far above our understanding. Therefore, it is not surprising that our carnal nature should rise against it. Much more diligently must we be on our guard that we do not attempt to reduce this lofty standard to the measure of our own littleness. Let this sentiment remain fixed with us, that while the lust of men exults and drives them here and there, God is the ruler. He, by his secret rein, directs their motions wherever he pleases. At the same time, however, it must also be maintained that no vice can attach itself to God's providence, and that his decrees have no affinity with the crimes of men.
A most illustrious example of this principle is placed before our eyes in this history. Joseph was sold by his brothers. For what reason? Because they wished, by any means whatever, to ruin and kill him. The same work is ascribed to God, but for a very different end; namely, that in a time of famine the family of Jacob might have an unexpected supply of food. Therefore, God willed that Joseph should be as one dead, for a short time, in order that he (God) might bring him forth from the grave as the preserver of life. Though God seems, at the beginning, to do the same thing as the wicked brothers, yet there is a wide distance between their wickedness and his admirable judgment.
Let us now examine the words of Joseph. For the consolation of his brothers, he seems to draw the veil of oblivion over their fault. But we know that men are not exempt from guilt, even though God may, beyond expectation, bring what they wickedly attempt to a good and happy issue. Joseph neither traces their fault to God as its cause, nor absolves them from it. Those whose consciences accuse them of evil derive no advantage from the pretense that the providence of God exonerates them from blame.
We see that Joseph was a skillful interpreter of the providence of God when he borrowed from it an argument for granting forgiveness to his brothers. The magnitude of the crime committed against him might have so incensed him that he would burn with a desire for revenge. But when he reflects that their wickedness had been overruled by the wonderful goodness of God, he forgets the injury received and kindly embraces his brothers, whose dishonor God had covered with his grace. Truly, love is ingenious in hiding the faults of others.
Joseph is carried forward to another view of the case; namely, that he had been divinely chosen to help his brothers. He not only remits their offense, but from an earnest desire to discharge his duty, he delivers them from fear and anxiety as well as from want. This is the reason why he asserts that he was ordained to preserve you a posterity. That is, to preserve them alive, and that by an excellent and wonderful deliverance.
In saying that he is a father to Pharaoh, Joseph is not carried away with empty boasting, as vain men are accustomed to be. Nor does he make an ostentatious display of his wealth. But he proves from an event so great and incredible, that he had not obtained the post by accident or by human means. Rather, by the wonderful counsel of God, a lofty throne had been raised for him from which he might aid his father and his whole family.
Calvin's Commentary
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Day 7
"WOE TO YOU, CHORAZIN!"
MATTHEW HENRY
"Then he began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." Matthew 11:20-24
The sin charged against these cities was not a sin against the moral law, for then an appeal would have been made to the gospel. But it was a sin against the gospel--the remedial law--and this is impenitence. They were reproached with the most shameful, ungrateful thing that could be: they repented not. Willful impenitence is the great damning sin of multitudes that enjoy the gospel, and which (more than any other) sinners will be upbraided with to eternity. Christ does not say because they believed not--for some kind of faith many had (that Christ was a teacher come from God)--but because they repented not. Their faith did not prevail to the transforming of their hearts and the reforming of their lives.
Let us see the aggravation of this sin. These were the cities in which most of Christ's mighty works were done, for thereabouts had been his principal residence for some time. Some places enjoy the means of grace in greater plenty, power, and purity than others. God is a free agent and acts so in all his disposals, both as the God of nature and as the God of grace, both common and distinguishing. The stronger inducements we have to repent, the more heinous is the impenitence and the more severe will be the reckoning. Christ keeps account of the mighty works done among us and of the gracious works done for us by which we should be led to repentance.
Now Chorazin and Bethsaida are here compared with Tyre and Sidon, two maritime cities we read much of in the Old Testament. They had been brought to ruin, but began to flourish again. These cities bordered upon Galilee, but they bore an ill name among the Jews because of their idolatry and other wickedness. Christ sometimes went into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, but never there. The Jews would have taken it as reprehensible if he had. Therefore, Christ, in order to convince and humble the Jews, here shows that Tyre and Sidon would not have been so bad as Chorazin and Bethsaida if they had had the same word preached and the same miracles worked among them. They would have repented, and that long ago, as Nineveh did, in sackcloth and ashes. Christ, who knows the hearts of all men, knew that if he had gone and lived and preached among them, he should have done more good there than where he was. Our repentance is slow and delayed, but theirs would have been speedy--they would have repented long ago. Ours has been slight and superficial, but theirs would have been deep and serious--in sackcloth and ashes. Yet we must observe, with an awful adoration of the divine sovereignty, that the Tyrians and Sidonians will justly perish in their sin, though, if they had had the means of grace, they would have repented. God is a debtor to no man.
Capernaum is here condemned with an emphasis. "And you, Capernaum, hold up your hand and hear your doom." Capernaum, above all the cities of Israel, was dignified with Christ's most usual residence. It was like Shiloh of old, the place where God chose to put his name, and it fared with it as with Shiloh. Christ's miracles in Capernaum were daily bread, and as the manna of old, were despised. We have here that city's doom: "You who are exalted to heaven shall be brought down to hell." Those who enjoy the gospel in power and purity are thereby exalted to heaven. They have a great honor for the present and a great advantage for eternity. They are lifted up toward heaven, but if, notwithstanding, they still cleave to the earth, they have only themselves to thank if they are not lifted up into heaven. Gospel advantages abused will sink sinners so much the lower into hell.
We have it here put in comparison with the doom of Sodom, a place more remarkable both for sin and ruin than perhaps any other. Yet Christ here tells us that Capernaum's means would have saved Sodom. If these miracles had been done among the Sodomites, even as bad as the Sodomites were, they would have repented and their city would have remained unto his day. It would have remained a monument of sparing mercy rather than of destroying justice. Upon true repentance through Christ, even the greatest sin shall be pardoned and the greatest ruin prevented, that of Sodom not excepted. Angels were sent to Sodom, but the city was destroyed. If Christ had been sent there, the city would have remained. Sodom's ruin will, therefore, be less at the great day of judgment than Capernaum's. Sodom will have many things to answer for, but not for the sin of neglecting Christ, as Capernaum will.
We who now have the written word in our hands, the gospel preached, the gospel ordinances administered, and who live under the dispensation of the Spirit, have advantages not inferior to those of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. And the account in the great day will be accordingly. The professors of this age, whether they go to heaven or hell, will be the greatest debtors in either of these two places. If to heaven, they will be the greatest debtors to divine mercy for those rich means that brought them there. If to hell, they will be the greatest debtors to divine justice for those rich means that would have kept them from there.
Matthew Henry's Commentary
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Day 8
THE STORM AT SEA
CHARLES SPURGEON
"Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him and said, 'What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.'" Jonah 1:5,6
Of all the men in the ship, Jonah was the person who ought most to have been awake. Nevertheless, he was not only asleep, but fast asleep. All the creaking of the cordage, the dashing of the waves, the howling of the winds, the straining of the timbers, and the shouting of the mariners did not arouse him. He was fast locked in the arms of sleep. See here, in Jonah's heavy slumber, the effect of sin. No noxious drug can give such deadly sleep as sin. The body never knows so dead a sleep when under the influence of opiates as the soul does when sin has cast it into slumber. If men could be awakened to the evils, the danger, the desperate punishment of sin, sin would not be half so deadly as it is.
Nor is sin the only cradle in which evil rocks the soul. The world, too, casts men into slumber. The world is an enchanted ground, and happy is that Christian who is able to survive the deadening influence of business and the soporific influence which creeps over the minds of men whose merchandise increases, whose houses are filled with the riches of nations. What downy pillows and beds of ease does the world provide for those whom she entraps!
A second time I would arouse you by reminding you that in the halcyon times in which we live, men are earnestly craving for our prayers; men are longing for deliverance. In Jonah's ship every man was a pleader, every person was praying. Even though I cannot say this of the world that lies in the wicked one, yet, to a very great extent, it is true that the masses are longing to hear the words of life. Shall we sleep now? Shall we be idle now? Will you draw back in this day of hopefulness and refrain to sow the seed when the field is plowed and ready for the grain?
Very solemnly and earnestly would I now address myself to slumbering sinners, those careless ones at ease on the brink of ruin. Unconverted and yet unconcerned; exposed to the wrath of God but fearless; on the edge of perdition but merry; condemned already, but mirthful like revelers at a feast. Let me attempt to disturb your quiet by remarking, first, that your sleep is utterly incomprehensible to those who are awake. We were once as foolish as you are, but when we began to perceive things in their true light, it was the wonder of wonders to us how we could have been so much at ease in so perilous a position. The man who sports upon the gallows, laughs when being consumed in the fire, or jests with his head upon the block, is not more a marvel than you. You are a sinner and you are mortal. Time eats away your life and hurries you to the grave. The sun does not stand still but speeds on day after day bearing you to the tomb. A mortal man, and yet you sleep! How dire the stupor which death cannot startle.
But remember--you are an immortal. This makes it the more grievous that you should sleep. You shall not die when you die, but you shall live again forever. Oh, eternity, a deep without a bottom and without a shore; a sea of fire lashed to an eternal storm; a mountain without a summit! It is madness, insanity, to despise the warnings of eternity. For you there will be no harps of angels, no songs of saints, no melodies of joy, no face of Christ to be seen with rapture. Eternal and exceeding weights of glory you are spurning, and yet you sleep!
"We may as well sleep," you say, "for there's no hope for us." No, sinner, no! Blessed be God, you cannot say that! Have I not often told you that "He is willing to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by him?" I have set the door open before you and I have entreated you to come in. Nay, I have labored to compel you to come in, that his house may be filled. Even now I utter again the same message, "Whosoever will let him come and take the water of life freely." Trust in Jesus, and you shall be saved. Your despair is wicked, for it makes God a liar; your despondency is sinful, for it doubts the truth of him who cannot lie. Sinner, trust him and you shall be saved this day. God help you to throw yourself upon the covenanted promises of God in Christ, and trusting his precious blood, he will save you now and save you forever.
spurgeon.org/sermons/0469.htm
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Day 9
PATIENCE
"Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God
and into the patient waiting for Christ."
II Thessalonians 3:5Quite a lot is said about the grace and duty of "patient waiting" in the Scriptures. Yet, there is comparatively little of it in the lives of most Christians, which fact is not only displeasing and dishonoring to God, but detrimental to their own spiritual condition. Few have any clear scriptural conception of what "patient waiting" actually consists, for there has not been sufficient definite and practical teaching on it. Consequently, the thoughts of few rise any higher than those of the natural man. We shall, therefore, consider something of what God’s Word teaches on this most necessary fruit of divine grace.
The Savior himself exhorted us, "By your patience possess your souls," and His apostle declared, "You have need of patience." Patience is a most necessary grace for the Christian. This requires little proof, for the experience of every believer confirms it. Some difficulty accompanies every duty and the putting forth of every grace, not only because the commandments of God run counter to our corruptions, but also because they run counter to the spirit and course of this world. Therefore, patience is required to perform our duties consistently. To swim against the tide of popular sentiment, to be willing to be deemed singular, to plod along the narrow way (which is an uphill course throughout), and not to faint near the end, calls for much fortitude and endurance.
There is a threefold patience spoken of in Scripture. First, a laboring patience, which consists in our doing the will of God in self-denying obedience, however irksome it proves to the flesh. In the parable of the sower, Christ defined the stony-ground hearers as those "which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away." He described the thorny-ground hearers as they who "are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection." But He declared that the good-ground hearers are they who "having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience."
Second, there is a suffering patience, which meekly bears affliction and does not rebel against whatever God has appointed for us. Where that grace is exercised, the soul does not faint in the time of adversity nor turn back in the day of battle. When the dispensations of divine providence are most trying to flesh and blood, and we are tempted to resist them, we are enabled to say, "What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" Piety does not exempt any from trouble and sorrow, but it does enable us to make manifest the sufficiency of divine grace in all conditions and circumstances. As God is honored by the exercise of our love and zeal in performing His precepts, so He is greatly glorified by our quietness and submission when He calls upon us to experience suffering. Our fidelity to Him must be tested by enduring evil as well as in doing good, and the exercise of patience is as much needed for an uncomplaining and unflagging bearing of the one as it is for the joyous and unremitting performance of the other.
The third is a waiting patience, which consists of quietly tarrying for God’s pleasure after we have both done the preceptive will of God and fulfilled His providential will. Some find this more difficult to exercise than either of the former, yet it is required of us. "Be not slothful, but followers of them who through patience inherit the promises." "For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." God has anticipatory mercies, which come without our tarrying for them. He also has rewarding mercies, which must be waited for. He is pleased to test our patience, and often there is no reward for doing His will unless we do wait. Though God is never behind his time, He seldom comes at ours.
This patient waiting for God’s time to appear on our behalf is as much the saint’s duty as is a steady persistence in rendering obedience to God’s commandments, and in meekly bearing His afflictions. It is the prerogative of God to date all events as well as to do all things for us. Our "times" as well as ourselves and all our affairs are in His hand. The Lord is the disposer of all things, in regard to not only their means and instruments, but also in regard to their seasons: "To everything there is a season, and a time unto every purpose under the heaven." And God requires us to acquiesce to his timetable, defer to his good pleasure, bow to his sovereignty, confide in his wisdom, and to not fret and fume because He is slower than we desire in undertaking for us. It is not sufficient that we make known our requests; we must also "rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him." We must realize that our welfare is in safer hands than our own and behave ourselves accordingly, composing our spirit, stifling the unrest of our hearts, and resisting all the workings of unbelief.
pbministries.org/books/pink/Gleanings_Paul/paul.htm
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Day 10
THE BIBLE ABOVE ALL PRICE
EDWARD PAYSON
The interest which the Bible excites by its antiquity will be greatly increased if we consider the violent and persevering opposition it has encountered, and the almost innumerable enemies it has resisted and overcome. Consider a rock, which has braved the ocean’s rage for centuries, saying, "This far shall you come, but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped." With still greater interest, think of a fortress which, during thousands of years, had been constantly assaulted by successive generations of enemies. Around her walls millions have perished, and the utmost efforts of human force and ingenuity have been excited in vain to overthrow her. The Bible is such a rock, such a fortress.
For thousands of years this volume has withstood not only the iron tooth of time, which devours men and their works together, but all the physical and intellectual strength of man. Pretended friends have endeavored to corrupt and betray it; kings and princes have perseveringly sought to banish it from the world; the civil and military powers of the greatest empires have been joined together for its destruction; the fires of persecution have often been lighted to consume it and its friends together; and at many seasons, death, in some horrid form, has been the almost certain consequence of affording it an asylum from the cry of its enemies.
The Bible has been almost incessantly assailed by weapons of a different kind, which, to any other book, would be far more dangerous than fire or sword. In these assaults, wit and ridicule have wasted all their shafts; misguided reason has been compelled, though reluctantly, to lend her aid; the arsenals of learning have been emptied to arm her for the contest; and in search of means to prosecute it with success, recourse has been had, not only to remote ages and distant lands, but even to the bowels of the earth and the region of the stars. Yet still the object of all these attacks remains uninjured, while one army after another of its assailants has melted away. Though the Bible has been ridiculed more bitterly, misrepresented more grossly, opposed more rancorously, and burnt more frequently than any other book, and perhaps than all other books united, it is so far from sinking under the efforts of its enemies that the probability of its surviving until the final consummation of all things is now evidently much greater than ever. The rain has descended, the floods have come, the storm has arisen and beat upon it, but the Bible falls not, for it is founded upon a rock. Like the burning bush, it has ever been in the flames yet is still unconsumed. This is a sufficient proof, were there no other, that He who dwelt in the bush preserves the Bible.
pbministries.org/articles/;ayson/the_works_vol_2/sermon_01.htm
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Day 11
THE LOVE OF GOD
JOHN GILL
"Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." (Romans 5:5)
What we are to understand by "the love of God?" This may be understood either actively or passively. Actively, of the love wherewith we love God. Or, passively, of the love wherewith we are loved by God. I shall consider them both.
Love is the sum and substance of the moral law; at least, it is the main and principal part thereof, as may easily be collected from our Lord’s answer to the lawyer’s question, "Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?" Christ’s answer is, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." Love to God, urged under the gospel dispensation, is the same with that enjoined by the law of Moses. Christ and Moses agree in this, as appears from Deut. 6:4,5: "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." This is no new commandment of the gospel. It is only renewed under the gospel dispensation and pressed with stronger motives.
Let it be observed that every man by nature is destitute of love to God. There is not only a lack of affection, but even an aversion to him, yea, an enmity against him. "For the carnal mind is enmity against God." In Romans chapter one, it is written of the heathens (who were left of God and given up to their own lusts) that they were not only hateful to God, but that they were haters of God. Likewise, in the account the apostle gives of the degeneracy which shall be in the latter day, Paul says, "Men shall be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." This is the case of all mankind, even of God’s elect themselves while in a state of nature. For they, as well as others, are enemies in their minds, by wicked works. They live in a state of rebellion and commit open acts of hostility against the God of heaven.
Let it be further observed that love to God is a grace implanted in the heart by the Spirit of God. This is one of the fruits of the Spirit and is mentioned at the head of them: "The fruit of the Spirit is love." It is, with other graces, wrought in the soul at regeneration. Love is usually most warm, active, and vigorous at the time of conversion.
This leads me to observe that the fervor of this love often abates, though the grace itself can never be lost. This frequently arises from the abounding of sin, both in ourselves and others. "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." Very often it arises from an immoderate pursuit after the things of this world. Hence the apostle John advises us not to love the world, neither the things that are in the world, for, says he, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." That is, there is but little evidence of love to God in that man’s heart whose affections are set upon the things of this world. These things, though they cannot destroy the grace where it is once wrought, yet may strike a very great chill upon it. "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love." He does not say because you have lost it, but because you have left it. And this, all the people of God (more or less) will sooner or later experience to their great sorrow, especially in the day in which we live.
There is great need to pray that the Lord would direct our hearts into this love; that he would work upon our hearts and excite our love to God, stir and blow it into a flame. This he does by showing us the vanity of all earthly enjoyments, and by revealing what God is in himself and to his people. A sense of this invigorates our love, ravishes our souls, and obliges us to say with the Psalmist, "Whom have I in heaven but thee; and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee."
By "the love of God" we also understand God’s love to us. As to its origin, it is free and sovereign. He did not set his love upon us because of any loveliness in us, or because of any love in us to him. No other reason can be given of God’s loving his people but his own sovereign good will and pleasure. This may not seem to you a sufficient reason, yet it is what the Holy Ghost thought fit to reveal, and we should be satisfied with it. "The LORD did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the fewest of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you."
God’s love is special and discriminating. He loves some and not others. It is true that he has a general love and regard to all his creatures. He is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. They all share in the bounties of his providence. He makes his sun to shine on the evil and on the good. He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. But then, he has chosen Jacob unto himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure. As I said before, no other reason can be given for this distinction which God makes among the lost sons of Adam but his own sovereign will, let a wrangling world say what they please.
As to its commencement, it is from eternity. God has loved his people with an everlasting love, and therefore with loving-kindness he draws them to himself in time. Many are the instances which might be given in proof of the antiquity of this love. His choosing them in Christ before the foundation of the world was an act of his love. His entering into an everlasting covenant with his Son on the account of those he chose, his setting Christ up as the Mediator of that Covenant from everlasting, and his donation of grace to them, in him, before the world began are so many demonstrations of his early love to them.
As to the degree of God's love, it is unparalleled. It appears very great in the conversion of a poor sinner. "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ." But in sending his Son to die for sinners, it appears yet greater. "But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Never was love to God, to Christ, to his gospel, people, ways, and ordinances, more cold than it is now. Great need there is to have it revived and increased, and nothing can more effectually do it than this: to have our hearts directed into the Love of God.
pbministries.org/books/gill/Sermons&Tracts/sermon_10.htm
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Day 12
TWO BLIND MEN HEALED
MATTHEW HENRY
"When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, 'Son of David, have mercy on us!' And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, 'Do you believe that I am able to do this?' They said to Him, 'Yes, Lord,' Then He touched their eyes, saying, 'According to your faith let it be to you.' And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, 'See that no one knows it.'" Matthew 9:27,30
Let us observe here the confession of faith which Christ drew from these two blind men. When they came to him for mercy, he asked, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" Faith is the great condition of Christ's favors. They who would receive the mercy of Christ must firmly believe the power of Christ. What we would have him do for us, we must be fully assured that he is able to do. They followed Christ, and followed him crying, but the great question is, Do you believe? Nature may work fervency, but it is only grace that can work faith, and spiritual blessings are obtained only by faith.
The blind men had intimated their faith in the office of Christ--as the Son of David--and in his mercy. But Christ demands likewise a profession of faith in his power. "Do you believe that I am able?" Christ will have the glory of his power ascribed to him by all those who hope to have the benefit of it. "Believe you that I am able, not only to prevail with God for it as a prophet, but that I am able to do it by my own power?" This will amount to their belief of his being not only the Son of David, but the Son of God.
When they begged for a cure, he did not inquire into their wealth--whether they were able to pay him--nor into their reputation, but he inquired into their faith: "According to your faith let it be to you." This speaks of Christ's knowledge of the sincerity of their faith and his acceptance and approbation of it. It is a great comfort to true believers that Jesus knows their faith and is well pleased with it. Though it be weak, though others do not discern it, though they themselves are ready to question it, it is known to him.
Christ insists upon their faith as necessary for their cure. "If you believe, take what you come for." They who apply themselves to Jesus Christ shall be dealt with according to their faith, not according to their fancies or profession. True believers may be sure to find all the favor which is offered in the gospel, but our comforts ebb or flow according as our faith is strong or weak. We are not straitened in Christ, so let us not then be straitened in ourselves.
To Christ's question they give an immediate answer. "Yes, Lord." Though he had kept them in suspense and had not helped them at first, they honestly imputed this delay to his wisdom, not to his weakness. The treasures of mercy that are laid up in the power of Christ are laid out for those that trust in him. "Then he touched their eyes...and their eyes were opened."
Jesus charges the men to keep their healing private, and thus sets us an example of humility and lowliness of mind. In the good we do, we must not seek our own praise, but only the glory of God. It must be more our care and endeavor to be useful than to be known and observed to be so. Some think that Christ, in keeping it private, showed his displeasure against the people of Capernaum, who had seen so many miracles and yet believed not. The silencing of those who should proclaim the works of Christ is a judgment to any place or people. Christ is just in denying the means of conviction to those who are obstinate in their infidelity, and to shroud the light from those that shut their eyes against it. Christ also commanded it for his own preservation. The more he was proclaimed, the more jealous would the rulers of the Jews be of his growing interest among the people. Another reason, which is very considerable, is that Christ sometimes concealed his miracles because he would not indulge that pernicious conceit, which obtained among the Jews, that their Messiah should be a temporal prince. Christ refrained from giving occasion to the people to attempt the setting up of his kingdom by tumults and seditions. But after his resurrection (which was the full proof of his mission), when his spiritual kingdom was set up, then that danger was over and his miracles must be published to all nations.
Matthew Henry's Commentary
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Day 13
THE HALLWAY TO THE SAINTS' REST
RICHARD BAXTER
The hallway to heaven is not barricaded anymore. The flaming sword no longer bars the passage to Paradise, for Christ has provided the way in. The porch of this temple is magnificent, and the gate of it is called "Beautiful." Here are the four corners of this porch of Paradise.
The Second Coming of Christ. For our sake, Christ came into the world. He suffered, died, rose, and ascended. For our sake, he will return. He will come again to receive us unto himself, that where he is, there we may be also. We have his word, his many promises, and his ordinances, which show forth his death until he comes. We have his Spirit to direct, sanctify, and comfort until he returns. He that would come to suffer will surely come to triumph. He that would come to purchase will surely come to possess. O fellow Christians, what a day that will be when we, who have been kept prisoners by sin, shall be brought out by the Lord himself!
The Resurrection of the Body. The second event that leads to Paradise is Christ's great work of raising the body from the dust and uniting it again with the soul. Unbelief may ask, "Shall all these scattered bones and dust become a man?" Let me with reverence answer for God. Is it not as easy to raise the dead as to make heaven and earth out of nothing? Let us lie down in peace and take our rest; it will not be an everlasting night nor endless sleep. Lay down cheerfully this clod of mortality; you shall undoubtedly receive it again as immortal. Lay down freely this earthly body; you shall receive it again, a heavenly body. The grave that could not keep our Lord cannot keep us. He arose for us, and by the same power will cause us to arise.
The Judgment. The third corner of this porch at the entrance to Paradise is the judgment, where the saints shall first be acquitted and then with Christ judge the world. Then shall the world behold the goodness and severity of God--on those who perish, severity; but to His chosen ones, goodness.
Sinners shall see the Lord Jesus whom they neglected, whose Word they disobeyed, whose ministers they abused, whose servants they hated, now sitting to judge them. Their own consciences shall cry out against them and call to their remembrance all their misdoings. Which way will the wretched sinner look? Who can imagine the terrible thoughts of his heart? Now the world cannot help him, his old companions cannot, the saints neither can nor will. Only the Lord Jesus can, but there is the misery--He will not. Time was, sinner, when Christ would have saved you, but you would not have Him. Now you want Christ's help when it is too late. I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead at His appearing, that you seriously ponder these things now.
But why are you trembling, O humble recipient of grace? He that would not lose one Noah in the flood nor overlook one Lot in Sodom, will He forget you at that day? "The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished" (2 Pet. 2:9). He knows how to make the same day the greatest terror to His enemies and yet the greatest joy to His friends. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:1). What wonderful joy, that our dear Lord who loves us, and whom we love, shall be our Judge! Will a man fear to be judged by his dearest friend, or a wife by her own husband? Christian, did Christ come down and suffer, and weep, and bleed, and die for you, and will He now condemn you? Was He judged, condemned, and executed in your place, and now will He himself condemn you? Let the terror of the Judgment Day be ever so great, surely our Lord can mean no harm to us at all.
The Coronation. The last preparation for the saints' everlasting rest is their royal coronation and receiving of the kingdom. Our Lord's own proper title is "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" (1 Tim. 6:15). Our position is to be kings and to reign with Him (Rev. 1:6). We will not be flattered with empty titles, but dignified with real authority. The Lord himself will give us possession with this word of congratulation: "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord" (Matt. 25:23).
theoldtimegospel.org/continued/pur_hall.html
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Day 14
THE TRINITY
LORAINE BOETTNER
The doctrine of the Trinity is perhaps the most mysterious and difficult doctrine that is presented to us in the entire range of Scripture. We can know only as much concerning the inner nature of the Godhead as has been revealed to us in the Scriptures. The tri-personality of God is exclusively a truth of revelation, and one which lies outside the realm of natural reason. Its height and depth and length and breadth are immeasurable by reason of the fact that the finite is dealing with the Infinite. As well might we expect to confine the ocean within a teacup as to place a full explanation of the nature of God within the limits of our feeble human minds. We do hope, however, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to set forth in a plain simple way, yet as fully as the limitations of our finite minds and language will permit, the truth concerning it, and to guard it against the errors and heresies which have prevailed at one time or another in the history of the Church. While we are not able fully to comprehend the Divine mind, we nevertheless have been created in the image of God and therefore have the right, within limits, to conceive of God according to the analogy of our own nature, and we should be able to grasp enough of this sublime revelation which God has been pleased to give concerning himself to make a considerable advance in our spiritual growth. Since in the study of this doctrine we are absolutely dependent on revelation (there being nothing else quite similar to or analogous with it in our own consciousness or in the material world), and since the subject of our study is transcendently sacred--that subject being the innermost nature of the infinitely righteous and transcendent God--our attitude should be that of disciples who, with true humility and reverence, are ready to receive implicitly whatever God has seen fit to reveal.
Since God is the Creator, Preserver and final Disposer of all things, the one in whom we live and move and have our being, our knowledge of him must be basic and fundamental to all our knowledge. In answer to the question, "What is God?", the Scriptures reveal him to us, in the first place, as a rational and righteous Spirit, infinite in his attributes of wisdom, being, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth; and in the second place they reveal him to us as one who exists eternally as three "Persons", these three Persons, however, being one in substance and existing in the most perfect unity of thought and purpose. It is evident, moreover, that if God does thus exist in three Persons, each of whom has his distinctive part in the works of creation, providence, redemption and grace, that fact governs his activity in all spheres of his work and, consequently, the doctrine which treats of the nature of his Person must seriously affect all true theology and philosophy. Doctrines vital to the Christian system, such as those of the Deity and Person of Christ, the Incarnation, the Atonement, etc., are so inextricably interwoven with that of the Tri-unity of God that they cannot be properly understood apart from it.
Assuming that our readers acknowledge Theism as the accepted form of belief, and that God is personal, we would state the doctrine of the Trinity under the following heads: (1) THERE IS BUT ONE LIVING AND TRUE GOD. One of the most common objections alleged against the doctrine of the Trinity is that it involves tritheism, or a belief in three Gods. The fact of the matter, however, is that it stands unalterably opposed to tritheism as well as to every other form of polytheism. Scripture, reason and conscience are in perfect agreement that there is but one self-existent, eternal, supreme Being in whom all of the divine attributes or perfections inhere and from whom they cannot be separated. That both the Old and the New Testament do teach the unity of God is clearly set forth in the following verses: "Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah" (Deut. 6:4). "Thus says Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God" (Isa. 44:6). The Decalogue, which is the foundation of the moral and religious code of Christianity as well as of Judaism, has as its first and greatest commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exod. 20:3). "I and the Father are one," said Jesus (John 10:30). "You believe that God is one; you do well" (Jas. 2:19). "We know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no God but one" (I Cor. 8:4). There is but "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all" (Eph. 4:5, 6). "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (Rev. 22: 13). From Genesis to Revelation God is declared to be one.
That the universe is a unit is the settled conclusion of modern science and philosophy. With this, of course, goes the corollary that the God who created it and who rules it is one. Astronomers tell us, for instance, that the same principles which govern in our solar system are also found in the millions of stars which are trillions of miles away. Physicists analyze the light that comes from the sun and from the distant stars and tell us that not only are the same elements (such as iron, carbon, oxygen, etc.) which are found on the earth also found in them, but that these elements are found in practically the same proportion as here. From the law of gravitation we learn that every material object in the universe attracts every other material object with a force which is directly proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. Hence every grain of sand in the desert and on the seashore is linked up with every sun in the universe. The sluggish earth mounts upward to meet the falling snowflake. The microscope reveals marvels just as wonderful as those revealed by the telescope, and everywhere it is the same unified system. The Unitarians, certainly, have no monopoly on the doctrine of the unity of God. Trinitarians hold this just as definitely. The unity of God is one of the basic postulates of theism, and no system can possibly be true which teaches otherwise.
(II) WHILE GOD IN HIS INNERMOST NATURE IS ONE, HE, NEVERTHELESS, EXISTS AS THREE PERSONS. The best concise definition of the doctrine of the Trinity, so far as we are aware, is that found in the Westminster Shorter Catechism: "There are three persons within the Godhead; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory." We would prefer, however, to use the term "Spirit" rather than "Ghost," since a ghost is commonly understood to be a spirit that once had a body but lost it, and the Holy Spirit has never possessed a body of any kind.
We have seen that the Scriptures teach that there is but one true and living God. They teach with equal clearness that this one God exists as three distinct Persons: as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. First, the Father is God: "To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things" (I Cor. 8:6). "Because God the Father has set his seal on him (the Son)" (John 6:27). "According to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (I Pet. 1:2 ). "That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:11). "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God" (John 20:17). "But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth" (John 4:23).
Second, the Son is God: "Of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God" (Rom. 9:5). "For in Him (Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9). "Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God" (John 20:28). "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). Christ assumed power over the Sabbath, and "called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God" (John 5:18). He assumed the prerogatives of God in forgiving sins (Mark 2:5). "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).
Third, the Holy Spirit is God: "Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?...You have not lied unto men, but unto God" (Acts 5:3,4). "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall bear witness of me" (John 15:26). In the Baptismal Formula, "Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19), and in the Apostolic Benediction, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all" (II Cor. 13:14), the Holy Spirit is placed on a plane of absolute equality with the Father and the Son as Deity, and is regarded equally with them as the source of all power and blessing.
There are many, even among professedly Christian people, who have no higher conception of the Holy Spirit than that of an impersonal, mysterious, supernatural power or influence of God. It is true that in the Old Testament, where the emphasis was upon the unity of God, the references to the Spirit, while not incapable of being applied to a distinct person, were more generally understood to designate simply God's power or influence. But in the more advanced revelation of the New Testament, the distinct personality of the Holy Spirit is clearly seen. No longer can He be looked upon as merely a divine power or influence, but as a divine Person.
lgmarshall.org/Boettner/boettner_trinity.html
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Day 15
THE FOURFOLD WITNESS
J. C. RYLE
"There is another who bears witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesses of me is true. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth...But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given me to finish--the very works that I do--bear witness of me that the Father has sent me. And the Father himself, who sent me, has testified of me...You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of me." (John 5:32-39)
In these verses from the fifth chapter of John's gospel, we see the proof of our Lord Jesus Christ being the promised Messiah, set forth before the Jews in one view. Four different witnesses are brought forward, four kinds of evidence are offered: His Father in heaven, John the Baptist, the miraculous works He had done, and the Scriptures which the Jews professed to honor. Each and all are named by our Lord as testifying that He was the Christ, the Son of God. Hard must those hearts have been which could hear such testimony and yet remain unmoved! But it only proves the truth of the old saying that unbelief does not arise so much from lack of evidence, as from lack of will to believe.
Let us observe for one thing in this passage, the honor Christ puts on His faithful SERVANTS. See how He speaks of John the Baptist. "He bore witness of the truth"--"He was a burning and a shining light." John had probably passed away from his earthly labors when these words were spoken. He had been persecuted, imprisoned, and put to death by Herod with none interfering, none trying to prevent his murder. But this murdered disciple was not forgotten by his Divine Master. If no one else remembered him, Jesus did. He had honored Christ, and Christ honored him.
These things ought not to be overlooked. They are written to teach us that Christ cares for all His believing people and never forgets them. Forgotten and despised by the world, perhaps, they are never forgotten by their Savior. He knows where they dwell, and what their trials are. A book of remembrance is written for them. "Their tears are all in His bottle." (Psalm 56:8.) Their names are engraved on the palms of His hands. He notices all they do for Him in this evil world, though they think it not worth notice, and He will confess it one day publicly, before His Father and the holy angels. He that bore witness to John the Baptist never changes. Let believers remember this. In their worst estate they may boldly say with David, "I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me."
Let us observe, for another thing, the honor Christ puts upon MIRACLES, as an evidence of His being the Messiah. He says, "The works which the Father has given me...bear witness of me that the Father has sent me." The miracles of the Lord receive far less attention, in the present day, as proofs of His Divine mission than they ought to do. Too many regard them with a silent incredulity, as things which, not having seen, they cannot be expected to care for. Not a few openly avow that they do not believe in the possibility of such things as miracles, and would like to strike them out of the Bible as weak stories, which, like burdensome lumber, should be cast overboard in order to lighten the ship. But, after all, there is no getting over the fact that in the days when our Lord was upon earth, his miracles produced an immense effect on the minds of men. They aroused attention to him who worked them. They excited inquiry, if they did not convert. They were so many, so public, and so incapable of being explained away, that our Lord's enemies could only say that they were done by satanic agency. That they were done, they could not deny. "This man," they said, "does many miracles." (John 11:47.) The facts which wise men pretend to deny now, no one pretended to deny eighteen hundred years ago.
Five things should always be noted about our Lord's miracles. (1) Their number: they were not a few only, but very many indeed. (2) Their greatness: they were not little, but mighty interferences with the ordinary course of nature. (3) Their publicity: they were generally not done in a corner, but in open day and before many witnesses, and often before enemies. (4) Their character: they were almost always works of love, mercy, and compassion; helpful and beneficial to man and not mere barren exhibitions of power. (5) Their direct appeal to men's senses: they were visible and would bear any examination. The difference between them and the boasted miracles of the Church of Rome, on all these points, is striking and instructive.
Let the enemies of the Bible take our Lord's last and greatest miracle--his own resurrection from the dead--and disprove it if they can. When they have done that, it will be time to consider what they say about miracles in general. They have never answered the evidence of it yet, and they never will. Let the friends of the Bible not be moved by objections against miracles until that one miracle has been fairly disposed of. If that is proved unassailable, they need not care much for quibbling arguments against other miracles. If Christ did really rise from the dead by His own power, there is none of His mighty works which man need hesitate to believe.
Let us observe, lastly, in these verses, the honor that Christ puts upon the SCRIPTURES. He refers to them, in concluding his list of evidences, as the great witnesses to him. "Search the Scriptures," he says. "These are they which testify of me." The Scriptures of which our Lord speaks are, of course, the Old Testament. And his words show the important truth which too many are apt to overlook, that every part of our Bible is meant to teach us about Christ. Christ is not merely in the Gospels and Epistles. Christ is to be found directly and indirectly in the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets. In the promises to Adam, Abraham, Moses, and David--in the types and emblems of the ceremonial law--in the predictions of Isaiah and the other prophets--Jesus, the Messiah, is everywhere to be found in the Old Testament.
How is it that men see these things so little? The answer is plain. They do not "search the Scriptures." They do not dig into that wondrous mine of wisdom and knowledge, and seek to become acquainted with its contents. Simple, regular reading of the Bible is the grand secret of establishment in the faith. Ignorance of the Scriptures is the root of all error.
And now what will men believe, if they do not believe the Divine mission of Christ? Great indeed is the obstinacy of infidelity. A cloud of witnesses testify that Jesus was the Son of God. To talk of lacking evidence is childish folly. The plain truth is, that the chief seat of unbelief is the heart. Many do not wish to believe, and therefore remain unbelievers.
Ryle's Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
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Day 16
THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE
JOHN J. SCRUBY
A brief account of the origin of the doctrine known as the pre-tribulational rapture of the Church should prove enlightening to all, and especially to those who adhere to that belief.
In the early part of the nineteenth century, the "Irvingite" movement came into existence. Among other things which distinguished the Irvingites (so named after their leader), was their alleged speaking in tongues and receiving inspired messages from the Holy Spirit through their supposed "prophets" and "prophetesses". The work went well for awhile, but gradually errors and extravagances crept in, the work fell into disrepute, and at last it died an apparently well-deserved death, if one may judge from certain statements that have come down from those days. (There were many "confessions" by disillusioned adherents of the movement who declared that they had come to realize that frequently, at least, while speaking in tongues or allegedly giving messages in the Spirit, they were really under demon control.)
In one of the Irvingite meetings, a woman, professedly under the influence of the Spirit of God, gave a message to the effect that the Church would not go through the Great Tribulation, as had always been supposed, but would be raptured before it. Since at that time the Irvingites believed all such messages were divinely inspired, of course they had to believe this one too, although it contradicted what they had learned from the Scriptures and what had always, until then, been taught as "the faith once delivered to the saints." Later, as stated, many of them came to question the origin of these messages, then afterward to attribute them to demons (because of accompanying "manifestations"), and finally to reject them. Then an era of sanity followed, and Irvingism died, the good in the movement perishing with the bad.
But this particular message--that the Church would be raptured before the Tribulation--had fallen into soil favorable to its rapid and stupendous growth. That soil was the "weak flesh" of man. No matter that the spirit of the Christians of the first eighteen centuries had been willing to face the horrors of the Great Tribulation for their Lord's glory and their own resultant blessing. Had they known of any Biblical teaching that held out the hope of escape by removal from these ever-threatening horrors, certainly they would have caught at this hope and emphasized this teaching. But in none of the writings of any Christians during those eighteen centuries do we find so much as a hint of such a hope or such a doctrine.
The doctrine of the pre-tribulational rapture might also have perished with the other errors of Irvingism if not for an incident which gave it new impetus. A few earnest men in Dublin, Ireland, gave themselves to independent study of the Scriptures. While doing so, they came to see the prominence which the Scriptures give to the second coming of Christ, and they at once began to preach Christ's coming as imminent--seeing that it was then eighteen hundred years since the formation of the Church to whom this doctrine had been given as an inspiring force. But when emphasizing the imminence of the coming of Christ, they were confronted with a difficulty, namely, the words of Christ in Matthew 24:29,30: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." For three years this passage tended to dampen their ardor when declaring the imminence of the Coming, for they realized that not only was the Tribulation not then in sight, but also that its immediately antecedent events were conspicuous by their absence.
Finally a minister came to them from England, named Tweedy, who taught that Jesus' discourse in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew's Gospel was intended for the Jews alone, not for the Church, and so he gave them the doctrine of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, as we know it today. This seemed to them to be a happy solution to their problem. They proceeded with their "Imminent Coming" teaching, led by that eminent man J. N. Darby, whose piety and scholarship gave prestige to the doctrine, and it forged to the front in spite of opposition from prominent believers such as S. P. Tregelles, Charles H. Spurgeon, George Mueller of Bristol, and others.
The Great Tribulation, the Church's Supreme Test
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Day 17
MATTHEW 24 INTENDED FOR CHRISTIANS
FRANK H. WHITE
It is often objected that the prophetic instructions and warnings given by our Lord in Matthew 24 have no direct bearing on ourselves as present-day believers. Rather, the disciples, including Peter, James, and John (who had forsaken all and followed Christ), were representatives not of "The Church of the Firstborn," but of a future "Jewish Remnant" who will be found in the place of testimony during the last Great Tribulation.
That our Lord, in Matthew 24, was not addressing Jews as such is abundantly clear from the concluding verses of chapter 23, which indeed seem expressly recorded to warn us against such a thought, marking, as they do, the close of the Savior's personal ministry in Jerusalem. These verses contain his solemn and significant declaration that they (the Jewish people) should see him no more until his return in glory. "For I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"
After speaking these words, it is written, "Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came to Him." These are the disciples of whom Christ witnessed, "You are those who have continued with Me in My trials," (Luke 22:28). A little afterward, Christ says, "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you," (John 15:15). These are the very same disciples of whom he afterward testified, "They have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me," (John 17:6-8). They are the very same disciples for whom he prayed, "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me," (John 17:24).
If such disciples were not Christians proper, and so do not properly represent us in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21--wherein the Lord instructed them with respect to circumstances that should surround them after his departure and after they should have received the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven--when do they represent us, if at all?
If we reject our Lord's counsel in the above Scriptures, can we consistently claim his comfort in John 13 to 17? Were not the Apostles quite as much Jews by nature and by earthly location when that precious promise, recorded for us in John 14:3, fell on their ears: "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am there you may be also." Were they not quite as much Jews when he said a few hours before, "Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that He is near--at the doors!" (Mark 13:28,29). And as if anticipating the teaching against which we contend, Christ adds, "And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!" (Mark 13:37).
Quoted by John Scruby in The Great Tribulation, The Church's Supreme Test
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Day 18
PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY
ARTHUR W. PINK
"And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine." (Ephesians 4:14)
It is the studied judgment of this writer, and he is by no means alone, that doctrinal preaching is the most pressing need of the churches today. During the past fifty years a lot has been said about, and much prayer has been made for, a God-sent revival, but it is to be feared that that term is often used very loosely and unintelligently. Unless we are mistaken, if the question, "A revival of what?" were put forth," a considerable variety of answers would be given. Personally, we would say a revival of old-fashioned piety, of practical godliness, of fuller conformity to the holy image of Christ. The revival we need is a deliverance from that spiritual apathy and laxity which now characterizes the average Christian, a return to self-denial and closer walking with God, a quickening of our graces, and the becoming more fruitful in the bringing forth of good works. Whether or not Scripture predicts such a revival, we know not. Two things, however, we are sure of: (1) that whatever the future may hold for this world, God will maintain a testimony unto Himself and preserve a godly seed on earth until the end of human history; (2) that there must be a return to doctrinal preaching before there will be any improvement in practice.
Both the teaching of God’s Word and the testimony of ecclesiastical history testify clearly to the deep importance and great value of doctrinal instruction, and the lamentable consequences of a prolonged absence of the same. Doctrinal preaching is designed to enlighten the understanding, to instruct the mind, to inform the judgment. It is that which supplies motives to gratitude and furnishes incentives unto good works. There can be no soundness in the Faith if the fundamental articles of the Faith be not known and, in some measure at least, understood. Those fundamental articles are denominated "the first principles of the oracles of God," or basic truths of Scripture, and are absolutely necessary unto salvation. The Divine inspiration and authority of the Holy Scriptures, the ever-blessed Trinity in unity, the two natures united in the one person of the Lord Jesus Christ, His finished work and all-sufficient sacrifice, the fall resulting in our lost condition, regeneration, gratuitous justification--these are some of the principal pillars which support the temple of Truth and without which it cannot stand. Of old, God complained, "My people are destroyed [cut off] for lack of knowledge," and declared, "Therefore My people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst."
During the past century there was an increasingly marked departure from doctrinal preaching. Creeds and confessions of faith were disparaged and regarded as obsolete. The study of theology was largely displaced by engaging the mind with science, psychology and sociology. The cry was raised, "Give us Christ, and not Christianity," and many superficial minds concluded that such a demand was both a spiritual and a pertinent one. In reality it was an absurdity, an imaginary distinction without any vital difference. A scriptural concept of Christ in His theanthropic person, His mediatorial character, His official relation to God’s elect, and His redemptive work for them, can be formed only as He is contemplated in His essential Godhead, His unique humanity, His covenant headship, and as the Prophet, Priest and King of His Church. Sufficient attention has not been given to that repeated expression "the doctrine of Christ," which comprehends the whole teaching of Scripture concerning His wondrous person and His so-great salvation. Nor has due weight been given to those words "the mystery of Christ," which refer to the deep things revealed of Him in the Word of Truth.
The most conclusive evidences for the Divine origin of Christianity, as well as the chief glory, appear in its doctrines, for they cannot be of human invention. The ineffable and incomprehensible Trinity in unity, the incarnation of the Son of God, the death of the Prince of life, that His obedience and sufferings satisfied Divine justice and expiated our offenses, the Holy Spirit making the believer His temple, and our union with Christ, are sublime and lofty truths.
There is today much preaching, but sadly little teaching. It is the task of the teacher to declare all the counsel of God, to show the relation of one part of it to another, to present the whole range of Truth. By this the hearer’s mental horizon will be widened, his sense of proportion promoted, and the beautiful harmony of the whole be demonstrated. It is his business not only to avow but to evince, not simply to affirm but to establish what he affirms. Of the apostle Paul we read that he "reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead." He was eminently qualified for such a task, both by nature and by grace. He was not only a man of God, but a man of genius and learning. He made considerable use of his reasoning faculty. He did not ask his hearers to believe anything that he averred without evidence, but furnished proof of what he taught.
Alas, very, very few now preach the doctrine of Christ in all its parts and branches, in all its causes and effects, in all its bearings and dependences. Yet there can be no better furniture for the spiritual mind than right and clear apprehensions thereof. Our preservation from error lies therein; our spiritual fruitfulness depends thereon. Doctrine is the mold into which the mind is cast, from which it receives its impressions. As the nature of the seed sown determines what will be the harvest, so the substance of what is preached is seen in the lives of those who sit regularly under it. Where are the purity, the piety, the zeal, that close walking with God and uprightness before men which were so pronounced in Christendom during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Yet the preaching of the Reformers and Puritans was principally doctrinal, and, under God, it produced such a love of the Truth that thousands willingly suffered persecution and great privations, and hazarded their lives, rather than repudiate the doctrines and ordinances of Christ. To say it matters not what a man believes so long as his practice is good is utterly erroneous. Indifference to the Truth betrays a heart that is not right with God.
pbministries.org/books/pink/Practical/prac_07.htm
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Day 19
A MAN OF SORROWS
EDWARD PAYSON
"He is despised and rejected by men,
a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."
Isaiah 53:3It is here predicted that Christ should be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. That this prediction was literally fulfilled, no one need be told. It may, however, be necessary to correct a mistake which has deprived this man of sorrows of much of that sympathy which his unexampled sufferings would otherwise have excited.
Many have supposed that Christ's sufferings were apparent rather than real; or at least, that his abundant consolations and his knowledge of the happy consequences that would result from his death rendered his sorrows comparatively light, and almost converted them to joys. But never was a supposition more erroneous. Jesus Christ was as truly man as any of us. As man, he was susceptible to grief and keenly alive to pain and reproach. As to divine consolations and supports, they were at all times bestowed on him in a very sparing manner, and in the season of his greatest extremity, entirely withheld. Although a knowledge of the happy consequences which would result from his sufferings rendered him willing to endure them, it did not, in the smallest degree, take off their edge or render him insensible to pain. No, his sufferings, instead of being less, were incomparably greater than they appeared to be. No finite mind can conceive of their extent. There was not one of the human race ever so entitled to the appellation of Man of Sorrows as the man Christ Jesus.
Consider how exceedingly painful it must have been for such a person as Christ to live in a world like ours. He was perfectly holy, harmless, and undefiled, and thus could not look on sin without the deepest abhorrence. Yet during the whole period of his residence on earth, he was continually surrounded by sin, and his feelings were, every moment, tortured with the hateful sight of human depravity.
Christ had the power to search men's hearts, and, therefore, he saw unspeakably more sin in the world than any mere man could discover. We discover sin only when it displays itself in words and actions. But he saw all the hidden wickedness of the heart, the depths of that fountain of iniquity from which all the bitter streams of vice and misery flow. Every man that approached him was transparent to his eye. In his best friends he saw more sin than we can discover in the most abandoned reprobates.
Christ saw, in a far clearer light than we can, the dreadful consequences of sin. His feelings of compassion were not blunted by that selfish insensibility which enables us to bear with composure the sight of human distress. The temporal and eternal calamities of the whole human race, and of every individual among them, seemed to be collected and laid upon him. He saw at one glance the whole mighty aggregate of human guilt and human wretchedness, and his boundless benevolence and compassion made it all his own.
The perfect contrast between the heavens which he had left, and the world into which he came, made a residence on this earth peculiarly painful to his feelings. In heaven he had seen nothing but holiness, happiness and love. In this world he saw little but wickedness, hatred and misery. In heaven he was crowned with glory, honor, and majesty, surrounded by throngs of adoring angels. But here on earth he found himself plunged into poverty, wretchedness and contempt, surrounded by malignant, implacable enemies.
My friends, picture to yourselves a prince educated with care and tenderness in his father’s court, a place where he hears nothing but sounds of pleasure and praise and sees nothing but scenes of honor and magnificence. Now picture him again, this time sent alone to labor as a slave in a rebellious province, a place where he and his father are hated and despised.
Think of a person of the most delicate and refined taste. Think of him going from the bosom of his family and the magnificent abodes of a polished city to spend his life in the filthy huts of the most degraded and barbarous savages, compelled daily to witness the disgusting scenes of cruelty and brutality which are there exhibited.
Think again of a man endowed with the tenderest sensibilities compelled to live on a field of battle, among the corpses of the dead and the groans of the dying. Or picture a man shut up for years in a madhouse with wretched maniacs, where only the burst of infuriated passions, the wild laugh of madness, and the shrieks and ravings of despair are to be heard. Picture these scenes, and you will have but a faint conception of what this world presented to our Saviour; of the contrast between it and the heaven he left, of the sorrows which embittered every moment of his earthly existence, and of the love which induced him voluntarily to submit to such sorrows.
Our Saviour was a man of sorrows when we consider the reception he met with from those whom he came to save. Had they received him with that gratitude and respect which he deserved, and permitted him to rescue them from their miseries, it would have been some alleviation of his sorrows. There were a few, indeed, who received him with affection and respect, but by far the greater part of his countrymen treated with the utmost cruelty and contempt. To a noble, ingenuous mind, nothing is so cutting, so torturous as such conduct. To see himself despised, slandered, and persecuted with implacable malice by the very beings whom he was laboring to save--to see all his endeavors to save them frustrated by their own incorrigible folly and wickedness--to see them filling to the brim their cup of criminality and wrath and sinking into eternal perdition--these must have been distressing indeed. Once and again he wept in the bitterness of his soul over rebellious Jerusalem, exclaiming, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes."
Our Saviour had a clear view and constant anticipation of the dreadful agonies in which his life was to terminate. He was not ignorant, as we happily are, of the miseries which were before him. Every night, when he lay down to rest, the scourge, the crown of thorns, and the cross were present to his mind. How deeply the prospect affected him is evident from his own language: "But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!"
Such, my friends, are the circumstances which prove that our Saviour was, during life, a man of sorrows. Of the sorrows of his death we shall say nothing. The bitter agonies of that never-to-be-forgotten hour, the torturing scourge, the lacerating nails, and the racking cross we shall pass in silence. Nor shall we now bring into view the tenfold horrors which overwhelmed his soul, rendering it exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. These we have often attempted to describe to you, though here description must always fail. Enough has been said to show the justice of that exclamation which the prophet utters in the person of Christ: "Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none."
pbministries.org/articles/payson/the_works_vol_3/sermon_55.htm
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Day 20
DANIEL'S PRAYER FOR THE PEOPLE
JOHN CALVIN
"And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, 'O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments...O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face...to the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him." (Daniel 9:4-9)
Whenever we ask for pardon, the testimony of repentance ought to precede our request; for God announces that he will be propitious and easily entreated when men seriously and heartily repent. It is impossible for us to pray rightly unless we humble ourselves before God. This humility is a preparation for repentance. Daniel, therefore, sets before him the majesty of God, to urge both himself and others to cast themselves down before the Almighty, that they may really feel penitent before him. God is, he says, great and awesome. Too often we are careless in prayer and treat it as a mere matter of outward observance. The pious must humble their minds to prevent their aspiring to any self-exaltation or being puffed up with any self-confidence. Unless we appear in his sight with fear and trembling, and become truly humbled in his presence, it is impossible to obtain anything from God.
We must here notice the real condition of the people: the Israelites were in exile. We know how hard that tyranny was, how they were oppressed by the most cruel reproaches and disgrace, and how brutally they were treated by their conquerors. This might have impelled many to cry out, as doubtless they really did, "What does God want with us? What better are we for being chosen as his peculiar people?" Thus the Jews might complain with the most bitter grief, with the weariness of the weight of punishment which God had inflicted upon them. But Daniel presents himself before God, not to object or murmur, but only to entreat his pardon.
"We have done wickedly." Although we are easily induced to confess ourselves guilty before God, yet it is hard to find one who is affected with serious remorse; and those who do excel in this, who purely and reverently fear God, are still very dull and cold in recounting their sins. Scarcely do they acknowledge even one sin in a hundred. Of those which do come into their minds, they do not fully estimate their tremendous guilt, and although they perceive themselves worthy of a hundred deaths, yet they are not touched with bitterness; they do not loathe their own iniquities. Let us learn from this how far we are from penitence when we only verbally acknowledge our guilt. There are very few who prostrate themselves before God as they ought.
"Righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face." We cannot praise God, especially while he chastises us and punishes us for our sins, unless we become ashamed of our sins and feel ourselves destitute of all righteousness. Whoever cannot bear this self-condemnation displays his willingness to contend against God.
Daniel betakes himself to God's mercy as to a sacred asylum. It is not sufficient to acknowledge and confess our sins, unless we are supported by a confidence of our obtaining pardon from God's mercy. Recognition of a fault is without the slightest profit unless it has the hope of pardon. Daniel rests this hope of pardon on the very nature of God, who is full of mercy, inclined to clemency and pardon, and exercises much forbearance. To God belongs lovingkindness, and therefore, since he can never deny himself, he will always be merciful. This attribute is inseparable from his eternal essence. However we may have rebelled against him, yet he will never cast away nor disdain our prayers.
We may conclude from this passage that no prayers are lawful or rightly composed unless they consist of these two members. First, all who approach God ought to cast themselves down before him, acknowledging that they are deserving of a thousand deaths. Next, in order to emerge from this abyss of despair and to rise up to the hope of pardon, they should call upon God without fear or doubt, but rather with firm and stable confidence. For what is left, but for us to throw ourselves with all our trust upon the clemency and goodness of God, since he has borne witness to his being propitious to sinners who truly and heartily implore his favor!
Calvin's Commentary
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Day 21
TESTS OF DISCIPLESHIP
(Part One)WILLIAM BEVERIDGE
"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself,
take up his Cross, and follow me."
Matthew 16:24Did we but understand the true meaning of these words and order our lives accordingly, we should know what it is to be true Christians. I shall thus endeavor to give the true meaning of them, in their order.
"Let him deny himself." The self-denial here spoken of is properly opposed to self-love, or that corrupt and vicious habit of the soul whereby we are apt to admire and prefer our own fancies, wills, desires, interests, and such like, before Christ himself. He commands that we do not indulge or gratify ourselves in anything that stands in opposition to, or comes into competition with, his interest in the world, howsoever near and dear it may be to us. I shall show you more particularly what it is in yourselves that you are to deny.
First, you must deny your own reasoning in matters of divine Revelation. Use your reasoning no farther than to search into the grounds and motives for believing them to be revealed by God. We, who by all our art and cunning cannot understand the reasons for the most common and obvious things in nature, must not think to comprehend the great mysteries of the Gospel. These mysteries are not contrary to our reason, but are infinitely above them. He that would be wise unto salvation must look upon himself as a fool, and must not rely upon his own judgment but only upon God’s Testimony. It is reason enough to believe it because God has said it.
I know this is a hard doctrine to flesh and blood, for as Job tells us, "Vain man would be wise, though he is born like a wild ass’s colt." By nature we are foolish, vain and ignorant. We can no more understand the great mysteries of the Gospel than a wild ass’s colt can understand a mathematical demonstration. Yet we think ourselves so very wise as to comprehend within the narrow compass of our finite and shallow capacities matters of the highest, yea of an infinite, nature.
You must deny your own wills. Our wills, it is true, at first were made upright and perfect, in every way corresponding to the will of God himself. But being now perverted and corrupt with sin, our wills are naturally inclined toward evil. Instead of choosing the good and refusing the evil, we are generally apt to choose the evil and refuse the good. Yet, as crooked and perverse as our wills are, we cannot endure having them crossed or thwarted in anything, but must have our own way in everything. Christ himself denied his own most pure and perfect will, that his Father’s will might be accomplished. How much more cause have we to deny our wills, which by nature prefer that which is evil and destructive to us before that which is truly good and advantageous for us?
We must deny ourselves the use and enjoyment of our estates and earthly possessions whenever they come into competition with God's glory. We must be willing and ready to abandon and renounce whatever we have, rather than renounce our interest in Christ. Indeed, he is not worthy to be Christ’s disciple who does not prefer him before all things. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
We must deny ourselves those sins, especially those lusts, in which we still indulge ourselves. It is vain to pretend to be true Christians so long as we live in any one known sin, with any love to it or delight in it. It is very rare to find a man that is not inclined to any. Ordinarily, every man has his darling, his beloved sin, his own sin, as David himself once had (though he afterward kept himself from it). So I fear that all of my readers have some sin, which he may in a peculiar manner call his own, and upon which his thoughts run most often, which he labors most after, and which he takes most pleasure in. It is a sin of which he is most loath to be reproved for, and by which he is most easily overcome. So long as we live in any known sin, it is that sin and not Christ that is our Master.
If we desire to follow after Christ, we must deny and renounce all our self-righteousness. I look upon this as a very great work of self-denial, for naturally we are all prone to boast of our own good works and to pride ourselves with the conceit of our own righteousness. Though we be ever so sinful, we would gladly be accounted righteous not only by men, but by God himself. This is the reason why justification by faith in Christ has so many adversaries in the world. Mankind, in general, being so much in love with themselves and doting upon what they themselves can do, think that have no need of any other righteousness besides their own.
We are hard-hearted indeed if we cannot deny ourselves for him who denied himself for us, who laid down his own life to redeem ours. Can we not deny ourselves so much as a fancy, a conceit, a sin or lust for him? Let us begin now and indulge our flesh no longer, but deny ourselves whatever God has been pleased to forbid. And for that end, let us endeavor each day more and more to live above ourselves, above the temper of our bodies, and above the allurements of the world. Let us live as those who believe and profess that we are not our own, but Christ’s; his by Creation, by Preservation, and by Redemption. It is he that has purchased and redeemed us with his own Blood.
Private Thoughts Upon a Christian Life
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Day 22
TESTS OF DISCIPLESHIP
(Part Two)WILLIAM BEVERIDGE
In taking up one's cross, we are to understand those troubles or calamities, inward or outward, which we meet with in the performance of our duty to God or man. Christ does not invite us to an earthly paradise of idleness and outward pleasures, as if we had nothing to do or suffer for him. Even as men we cannot but find many crosses in the world. As Christians we must expect even more, for Christ himself has told us that in the world we shall have tribulation. Therefore, whatever we meet with is no more than what we are to look for, especially if we walk uprightly. We must not think to be carried to heaven with popular applause, nor to swim through a deluge of carnal pleasures into the haven of everlasting happiness. No, we must look to be tossed to and fro in this world, as in a raging and tempestuous ocean. Not that we should run into danger, but we should balk no duty to avoid it. We must be willing and ready to undergo the greatest suffering rather than to commit the least sin, and to run the greatest danger rather than neglect the smallest duty. If, while walking in the narrow path of holiness, there happens to lie a Cross in the way, we must not avoid it, but we must patiently take it up and carry it. If it be a little heavy at first, it will soon grow lighter and will not hinder, but rather further, our progress toward heaven. Let it be noted, however, that not every trouble we meet with in the world is the cross of Christ. We may suffer for our own fancy or humor, or perhaps for our own sin. If so, it is our own cross and not Christ’s. We have only ourselves to thank for it.
We may assure ourselves that God requires no more of us than what he has himself undergone, so we can suffer nothing for him but what he has suffered before for us. Have we grief and trouble in our hearts? So had he. Have we pains in our bodies? So had he. Are we derided and scoffed at? So was he. Are we arraigned or condemned, yea, do we suffer death itself? It is no more than what our Lord and Master endured. Remember what he told us when he was upon the earth: "A disciple is not above his master, nor a servant above his lord." If we be Christ’s disciples, we cannot expect to fare better in the world than Christ himself did. Neither, indeed, can we fare so badly, for it is impossible that we should undergo as much for him as he has undergone for us. Ours are only the sufferings of men, his the sufferings of one who was God as well as man. Therefore, we need not think it below us to stoop down and take up the cross of Christ, since Christ carried it before us. He has so blessed and sanctified the cross that it has now become an honorable, an advantageous, yes, a pleasant cross to them that bear it patiently. Whatever we can do or suffer for Christ here will be fully recompensed with glory hereafter.
I fear there are but few, if any, among us who are not conscious that they live either in the constant neglect of some known duty, or in the frequent commission of some beloved sin. The cross would never have been imposed upon us if it were not indispensably necessary for us. Therefore, if we are what we pretend to be--real and true Christians--let us manifest it to the world and to our own consciences by denying ourselves whatever Christ has denied us, and observing whatever he has commanded us. Self-denial, though unpleasant, is a most necessary duty. The cross, though it be ever so heavy, is but for a short time and has nothing less than a Crown annexed to it.
Private Thoughts Upon a Christian Life
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Day 23
SUFFERING: AN HONOR FOR THE CHRISTIAN
HENRY W. FROST
"Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake." Philippians 1:27-29
"Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." John 15:20The principle of Christians facing the Antichrist and enduring his persecutions is written large in the Scriptures. It is made very clear that the Church has always stood before and in opposition to antichrists, and has always suffered persecution from systems ruled by such. For the Church, therefore, to go into the days of the Antichrist and be called upon to endure his hatred and harassments, is but for her to pass from one phase of an experience into another, the difference being not in kind, but in degree. Moreover, the fact that Christians have faced past antichrists and suffered because of them presents strong, presumptive evidence that they will face the future Antichrist and suffer because of him. Whatever may be true in regard to this last, it is unmistakably plain that suffering on the part of the Church, because of antichrists, is not inconsistent but, rather, wholly harmonious with the thought and fact of God's most tender love. The question of divine love permitting such suffering, therefore, is not one which needs to be considered.
The thought is often expressed, and still more often felt, that God loves his saints too well to allow them to stand face-to-face with the Antichrist and to pass through the Great Tribulation. If Scripture and experience teach this, all controversy, of course, is immediately ended. But do they? Did God love Christ too well to forbid His standing before His antichrist and passing through His great tribulation? Did God love Peter, James, John, and Paul too well for them to suffer, or the apostolic Church, the Church of the Reformation, or the more modern Christians of Armenia, Madagascar, and China? It is a historical fact that the Church, from apostolic days to the present, has always faced antichrists and has frequently passed through periods of tribulation. The Scripture makes it plain that this will be her appointed portion to the end of her earthly pilgrimage (Acts 14:22, Rom. 8:35-39, I Thess. 3:4).
There is no occasion, then, for surprise on the part of the Church when an antichrist arises and persecution comes. As a matter of fact, there is more need for surprise when there are no antichrists and persecutions. Indeed, this latter is so true that Christians may well question, in times of universal quiet and peace, if things are with them spiritually as they ought to be. For it is suffering, not comfort, that is the appointed lot of God's heritage, even as Paul said, "For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." And again, "We must through many tribulations enter into the kingdom of God."
On God's side, there has been granted to the modern Church a breathing space in order that there might be ample and unhindered opportunity to pass through divinely opened doors. But as for the saints, the vast majority have accepted the breathing space but then refused to pass through these open doors. Therefore, these saints have, over time, come to conclude that the prosperity of quiet and ease from suffering is not only their lot, but also their right. What a shock it was in 1900 when the Boxer movement broke over their cherished kin like a devastating storm! In those days of sorrow, many a soul secretly demanded to know from God what he was doing. His only answer was the allowance of further torture and death, until the storm passed. Since then he has given another, and even more dreadful, answer to questioning souls, as France, Germany, Turkey and Armenia bear witness.
It is evident that He who has for a time turned the usual state of suffering into the unusual state of peace, will in coming days turn this unusual state of peace into the usual state of suffering. Accumulating evidence indicates that the Church, which had torment in the old days but has sat at ease in the new, will be called upon to reenter blood-stained paths and follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
Quoted by John Scruby in The Great Tribulation, The Church's Supreme Test
A note from Mr. Scruby, whose book was published in 1933: "As will be observed, Brother Frost wrote those words (his book was published in 1924) before the God-hating, Christ-rejecting, Bible-despising government of recently so-called "Holy Russia," (so called because of the alleged Christian piety of its people), began its church destroying, Bible destroying, and saint-persecuting work as part of its avowed purpose to make that country one-hundred percent atheistic and antichristian; something which no other government in all the history of the world had ever attempted to do. If one may believe just half the stories that have come out of Soviet Russia, then many of the saints there have already had to face as "great tribulation" as any saint will be called upon to face during the Great Tribulation itself.
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Day 24
THE TRANSFIGURATION
ALEXANDER BRUCE
The transfiguration is one of those passages in the Saviour’s earthly history which an expositor would rather pass over in reverent silence. Who is able fully to speak of that wondrous nightscene among the mountains of Hermon? The traditional scene of the transfiguration was Mount Tabor, where heaven was for a few brief moments let down to earth. There the mortal body of Jesus, being transfigured, shone with celestial brightness, and the spirits of just men made perfect appeared and held converse with Him respecting His approaching passion. And a voice came forth from the excellent glory, pronouncing Him to be God’s well-beloved Son. It is too high for us, this august spectacle, we cannot attain unto it. Its grandeur oppresses and stupefies; its mystery surpasses our comprehension; its glory is ineffable.
The transfiguration, to be understood, must be viewed in connection with the announcement made by Jesus shortly before concerning His death. This is evident from the simple fact that the three evangelists note the time of its occurrence with reference to that announcement and the conversation which accompanied it. All tell how, within six or eight days thereafter, Jesus took three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John, and brought them into a high mountain and was transfigured before them. The Gospel historians' minute accuracy here signifies in effect, “While the foregoing communications and discourses concerning the cross were fresh in the thoughts of all the parties, the wondrous events we are now to relate took place.” The relative date, in fact, is a finger post pointing back to the conversation on the passion, and saying, “If you desire to understand what follows, remember what went before.”
This inference is fully borne out by a statement made by Luke respecting the subject of the conversation on the holy mount between Jesus and His celestial visitants. "And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem." That exit, so different from their own in its circumstances and consequences, was the theme of their talk. They had appeared to Jesus to converse with Him about it, and when they ceased speaking, they took their departure for the abodes of the blessed. How long the conference lasted, we do not know, but the subject was sufficiently suggestive of interesting topics of conversation: the surprising contrast between the death of Moses, which was immediate and painless (while his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated), and the painful and ignominious death to be endured by Jesus; the not less remarkable contrast between the manner of Elijah’s departure from the earth, translated to heaven without tasting death at all (making a triumphant exit out of the world in a chariot of fire), and the way by which Jesus should enter into glory, the via dolorosa of the cross. Why this privilege of exemption from death or its bitterness granted to the representatives of the law and the prophets, and why denied to Him who was the end both of the law and prophecy? On these points, and others of kindred nature, the two celestial messengers, enlightened by the clear light of heaven, may have held intelligent and sympathetic converse with the Son of man, to the refreshment of His weary, saddened, solitary soul.
Luke further records that, previous to His transfiguration, Jesus had been engaged in prayer. It was the same as that prayer in the garden. The cup of death was present to the mind of Jesus, the cross was visible to His spiritual eye, and He prayed for nerve to drink, for courage to endure. The attendance of the three confidential disciples, Peter, James, and John, significantly hints at the similarity of the two occasions. The Master took these disciples with Him into the mount, as He afterwards took them into the garden, that He might not be altogether destitute of company and kindly sympathy as He walked through the valley of the shadow of death, and felt the horror and the loneliness of the situation.
It is now clear how we must view the transfiguration scene in relation to Jesus. It was an aid to faith and patience, specially vouchsafed to the meek and lowly Son of man in answer to His prayers, to cheer Him on His sorrowful path towards Jerusalem and Calvary. Three distinct aids to His faith were supplied in the experiences of that wondrous night. The first was a foretaste of the glory with which He should be rewarded after His passion, for His voluntary humiliation and obedience unto death. For the moment He was, as it were, raptured up into heaven, where He had been before He came into the world; for His face shone like the sun, and His raiment was white as the pure untrodden snow on the high alpine summits of Hermon. “Be of good cheer,” said that sudden flood of celestial light, “the suffering will soon be past, and Thou shall enter into Thine eternal joy!”
A second source of comfort to Jesus was the assurance that the mystery of the cross was understood and appreciated by saints in heaven, even if not by the darkened minds of sinful men on earth. He greatly needed such comfort, for among the men then living (His chosen disciples no exception), there was not one to whom He could speak on that theme with any hope of eliciting an intelligent and sympathetic response. Only a few days ago He had ascertained, by painful experience, the utter incapacity of the twelve to comprehend the mystery of His passion, or even to believe in it as a certain fact. Speaking with the great lawgiver and the great prophet of Israel on the subject of His death was doubtless a real solace to the spirit of Jesus. We know how He comforted Himself at other times with the thought of being understood in heaven, if not on earth. When heartless Pharisees called in question His conduct in receiving sinners, He sought at once His defense and consolation in the blessed fact that there was joy in heaven at least, whatever there might be among them, over one penitent sinner. Surely, then, we may believe that when He looked forward to His own decease--the crowning evidence of His love for sinners--it was a comfort to His heart to think, “Up yonder they know that I am to suffer, and comprehend the reason why, and watch with eager interest to see how I move on with unfaltering step, with my face steadfastly set to go to Jerusalem.”
A third, and the chief solace to the heart of Jesus, was the approving voice of His heavenly Father. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," declaring in effect His satisfaction with the way in which His Son had glorified His name hitherto, and His confidence that He would not fail to crown His career of obedience by a God-glorifying death.
Training of the Twelve
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Day 25
THE DAY OF PENTECOST
JOHN DICK
Pentecost is a Greek word signifying the fiftieth day. It is the name of that grand festival which the Israelites were commanded to celebrate fifty days after the passover, in commemoration of the giving of the law. Having delivered his people from Egypt, God led them through the Red Sea into the wilderness to the spot which he had chosen for displaying the tokens of his Majesty. There he descended to the top of Sinai--a rugged and barren mountain--and from the midst of darkness and devouring fire proclaimed his law with a voice which filled with terror the immense multitude assembled at its base. At the same time, he enjoined, by the ministry of Moses, that system of ordinances and statutes which was the foundation of the civil and ecclesiastical polity of the Jews. But this system was destined to give place to a new and better dispensation. Aaron and his sons were to retire from the altar when a priest of another order should appear. By a more excellent sacrifice than that of rams and bullocks, this priest would make a true atonement for the sins of the people. That priest had now come, and by the oblation of himself “had perfected forever them that are sanctified.”
It was with a design to signify this change that Pentecost was chosen for the effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles of Christ. On the anniversary of the promulgation of the ancient law, they were enabled to publish the good news of the reign of the Messiah, not to the inhabitants of Jerusalem alone, but “to men of every nation under heaven,” in their own language. To every reflecting mind, this interposition of God himself in a miraculous manner, to qualify the Apostles at this particular time to preach a new religion, was an unequivocal declaration that the old religion, having served its purpose, was to be no longer obligatory. Thus Pentecost was again rendered illustrious as the commencement of a new era.
Our attention is next called to the subjects of this miracle, or the persons upon whom the Holy Ghost descended. “They were all with one accord in one place.” Some suppose that the historian refers to the hundred and twenty disciples mentioned in verse 15 of chapter one. Others maintain that the reference goes no farther back than the last verse of the previous chapter, in which mention is made of Matthias and the eleven Apostles. This seems, indeed, to be more probable, because it was not to all the disciples but to the Apostles only that Christ made the promise which was now performed.
Let us now consider the account of the miracle. In the first place, we must take notice of the external signs, which were two: one addressed to the eye, the other to the ear. We read that “suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.” Air in motion is an emblem of the Holy Spirit and his operations. When speaking on this subject to Nicodemus, our Lord used the following comparison: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." A wind from heaven was a significant sign to the Apostles; a sign which must have immediately suggested the idea of the spirit and his influences, and have led them to expect that now the promise of their Saviour should be performed. It may be thought that a gentle breeze would have been a more proper emblem of the Holy Ghost; that it would have accorded better with the purpose of his descent and with the mild and gracious nature of the new dispensation. But this fancy will be dismissed as soon as we reflect that his coming was to be productive of the most astonishing effects, in endowing the minds of the Apostles with extraordinary powers, and in bearing down the opposition made to the truth. At the same time, the noise served to collect together the people to witness the miracle. It was confined to a particular spot, and filled the house in which the Apostles were assembled.
The other sign which accompanied this miracle is described as cloven tongues like as of fire, that sat upon each of them. When John announced the approach of the Messiah, he said to the people, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” We are not to understand something distinct from the Holy Ghost, but his influences, which are represented under the metaphor of fire. The languages which the Apostles were now enabled to speak would communicate to the world that heavenly doctrine which would humble the proud, comfort the dejected, inspire the timid with invincible courage, and, with an energy unknown to philosophy, kindle the living fire of devotion in the coldest and most unfeeling heart.
We proceed to inquire into the nature of the miracle. “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” The general effect is manifest, namely, the communication of the knowledge of languages, with which the Apostles were formerly unacquainted. Language is composed of articulate sounds which signify certain ideas. A sound can convey no information to the hearer until he has learned its meaning. Hence the acquisition of a foreign language requires close application and frequent practice. What increases the difficulty is, that in all languages, the same word has sometimes a variety of meanings, so that if it be not skilfully used, it may suggest a sense very different from that which it is our intention to express. Those who have engaged in the study of languages can attest that it is an arduous task when one aims at a thorough acquaintance. The sounds of a foreign language are, in some instances, so different from those to which we have been accustomed that we feel ourselves at a loss to pronounce them. Unless we begin to learn in an early period of life, when our organs are flexible, we can hardly ever speak in such a manner as to please the ear of a native.
These remarks are intended to show the astonishing nature of the miracle which was performed on the day of Pentecost. The Apostles were illiterate men, who understood no language but that of their own country, and could speak it only according to the rude dialect of Galilee. They had never thought of learning the languages of foreigners. It is probable that even the names of some of the nations mentioned had not reached their ears. Yet, in a moment were those men inspired with the knowledge of an immense number of words, which they had never heard before, and with the knowledge not only of the words, but of the connected ideas, and of the structure, the arrangement, and the peculiar phrases of the languages to which they belonged. At the same time, their organs were rendered capable of adapting themselves to sounds different from each other, as well as from those to which they had been familiarized from their infancy. Notwithstanding this diversity, there was not the smallest confusion in their minds, nor were they in danger of mixing the words of different languages together, but they spoke each as distinctly as if they had been acquainted with it alone. How great must have been the astonishment of this mixed multitude, to hear themselves unexpectedly addressed in the languages of the countries from which they respectively came!
Let us consider our interest in this miraculous dispensation, and the obligations which we are under to be thankful for it. It was preparatory to the accomplishment of the gracious design of heaven toward the nations of the world who were perishing without a vision, but to whom the salvation of God was now to be revealed. The new law from Zion was promulgated in a diversity of languages to signify that it was intended to be universal. “Let us sing a new song to the Lord, because he has done marvelous things. The Lord has made known his salvation: his righteousness has he openly showed in the sight of the heathen.”
Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles
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Day 26
SPIRITUAL DECAY
PHILIP DODDRIDGE
"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12,13)
I will now describe the case of a Christian who is declining in religion. I must observe that it chiefly consists in a forgetfulness of divine objects, and a remissness in those various duties to which we stand engaged by that solemn surrender which we have made of ourselves to the service of God. There will be a variety of symptoms, according to the different circumstances and relations in which the Christian is placed, but some will be of a more universal kind. It will be peculiarly proper to touch on these.
Should you, my reader, fall into this state, it will probably first manifest itself by a failure in the duties of private prayer. Not that they will be wholly omitted, but that they will be run over in a cold and formal manner. Sloth, or some other snare, will prevail so upon you that you will have no convenient time for prayer. Some favorite book you are desirous to read, some correspondence that you choose to carry on, or some other amusement will present itself and plead to be taken care of first. Secret prayer will be hurried over and, perhaps, the reading of the Scriptures quite neglected. You will plead that it is but this one time, but the same allowance will be made a second and a third, and it will grow more easy and familiar to you each time than it was the last. And thus God will be mocked, your own soul will be defrauded of its spiritual meals, the word of God will be slighted. Secret prayer itself will become a burden rather than a delight; a trifling ceremony rather than a devout homage fit for the acceptance of “our Father who is in heaven.”
If immediate and resolute measures be not taken, these declensions will reach the acts of social worship. You will feel the effects in your family and in public ordinances. Wandering thoughts will eat out the very heart of these duties. It is not the privilege of the most eminent Christians to be entirely free from them, but in these circumstances you will find but few intervals of strict attention, or anything which wears the appearance of inward devotion. When these heartless duties are concluded, there will scarce be a reflection made of how little God has been enjoyed in them, how little he has been honored by them. Perhaps the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, being so admirably adapted to fix the attention of the soul and to excite its warmest exercise of holy affections, may be the last ordinance in which these declensions will be felt.
When your love to God our Father and to the Lord Jesus Christ fails, your fervor of Christian affection to your brethren in Christ will proportionately decline. Your concern for usefulness in life will abate, especially where anything is to be done for spiritual edification. You will find one excuse or another for the neglect of religious discourse, perhaps not only among neighbors and Christian friends when very convenient opportunities are presented, but even with regard to those who are members of your own families, and to those who, if you are fixed in the superior relations of life, are committed to your care. With this remissness, an attachment either to sensual pleasures or to worldly business will increase. For the soul must have something to employ it and something to delight itself in. As it turns to either of these, temptations of one sort or another will present themselves.
As soon as you perceive the first symptoms of these declensions, I urge you to be on your guard. Endeavor as speedily as possible to recover yourself. The remedy must begin where the first cause prevailed, that is, in the closet of secret prayer. Take some time for recollection, and ask your own conscience, seriously, how matters stand between the blessed God and your soul? Are they as they once were, or as you could wish them to be if you saw your life just drawing to a close and were to pass immediately into the eternal state? One serious thought of eternity shames a thousand vain excuses with which, in the forgetfulness of it, we are ready to delude our own souls. And when you feel that secret misgiving of heart which will naturally arise, do not endeavor to palliate [conceal the gravity of] the matter, but honestly fall under the conviction and be humbled for it. Pour out your heart before God and seek the renewed influences of his Spirit and grace. Return with more exactness to secret devotion and to self-examination. Read the Scripture with yet greater diligence. Labor to anchor it into your heart. Employ yourself, at seasons of leisure, in reading practical and devotional books, in which the mind and heart of the pious author is transfused into the work, and in which you can, as it were, taste the genuine spirit of Christianity.
To conclude, take the first opportunity of making an approach to the table of the Lord, sparing neither time nor pains in the most serious preparation for it. There renew your covenant with God, put your soul anew into the hands of Christ, and endeavor to view the wonders of his dying love in such a manner as may rekindle the languishing flame and quicken you to more vigorous resolution “to live unto him who died for you.” Rest not until you have obtained as confirmed a state of religion as you ever knew. Rest not until you have made a greater progress than before, for it is only by a zeal to go forward that you can be secure from the danger of going backward and revolting more and more.
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Day 27
HUMILITY
FRANÇOIS FENELON
What a mercy is humiliation to a soul that receives it with a steadfast faith! There are a thousand blessings in it for ourselves and for others, for our Lord bestows his grace upon the humble. Humility renders us charitable toward our neighbor. Nothing will make us so tender and indulgent to the faults of others as a view of our own.
Two things produce humility when combined. The first is a sight of the abyss of wretchedness from which the all-powerful hand of God has snatched us, and over which he still holds us, as it were, suspended in the air. The other is the presence of that God who is ALL.
Our faults, even those most difficult to bear, will all be of service to us if we make use of them for our humiliation without relaxing our efforts to correct them. It does no good to be discouraged. Discouragement is the result of a disappointed and despairing self-love. The true method of profiting by the humiliation of our faults is to behold them, in all their deformity, without losing our hope in God and without having any confidence in ourselves.
We must bear with ourselves without either flattery or discouragement. This is a mean seldom attained, for we either expect great things of ourselves and of our good intentions, or we wholly despair. We must hope nothing for self, but wait for everything from God. Utter despair of ourselves (in consequence of a conviction of our helplessness) and unbounded confidence in God are the true foundations of the spiritual edifice.
That is a false humility which, acknowledging itself unworthy of the gifts of God, dares not confidently expect them. True humility consists in a deep view of our utter unworthiness and in an absolute abandonment to God, without the slightest doubt that He will do the greatest things in us. Those who are truly humble will be surprised to hear anything exalted of themselves. They are mild and peaceful, of a contrite and humble heart, merciful and compassionate, quiet, cheerful, obedient, watchful, fervent in spirit, and incapable of strife. They always take the lowest place, rejoice when they are despised, and consider every one superior to themselves. They are lenient to the faults of others in view of their own, and very far from preferring themselves before anyone. We may judge of our advancement in humility by the delight we have in humiliations and contempt.
Spiritual Progress
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Day 28
THE CURE FOR CARE
JOHN HENRY JOWETT
"Do not fret because of evildoers,
nor be envious of the workers of iniquity."
Psalm 37:1"Do not fret.” Do not get into a perilous heat about things. And yet, if ever heat were justified, it was surely justified in the circumstances outlined in this psalm. Evildoers were moving about clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day. Workers of iniquity were climbing into the supreme places of power and were exercising tyranny over their less fortunate brethren. Sinful men and women were stalking through the land in the pride of life, basking in the light and comfort of great prosperity. And good men were becoming heated and fretful.
“Do not fret.” Do not get unduly heated! Keep cool! Fretting only heats the bearings, it does not generate the steam. It is no help to a train for the axles to get hot--their heat is only a hindrance. The best contribution which the axles can make to the progress of the train is to keep cool. Fretfulness is just the heating of the axles; it is heat in the wrong place; it is heat becoming a source of weakness rather than strength.
Now, when the axles get heated, it is because of unnecessary friction; dry surfaces are grinding together which ought to be kept in smooth cooperation by a delicate cushion of oil. And is it not a suggestive fact that this word “fret” is closely akin to the word “friction,” and is indicative of the absence of the anointing oil of the grace of God? In fretfulness, thought is grinding against thought, desire against desire, will against will. A little bit of grit gets into the bearings (some slight disappointment, some ingratitude, some discourtesy) and the smooth working of the life is checked. Friction begets heat, and with the heat most dangerous conditions are created.
We can never really foresee what kind of disaster this perilous heat may lead to. The psalmist points out some of the stages of increasing destructiveness to which this unclean fire assuredly leads. It is somewhat strange--and yet not strange--that the second piece of counsel in this psalm is concerned with the disposition of envy. It is not put there as an irrelevance, but indicates a possible succession. Fretfulness frequently leads to jealousy. For what is jealousy? Jealousy is heat out of place. The jealous man and the zealous man are somewhat akin, but in the case of the zealous man, the fire is clean; in the other, it is unclean. It is the difference between fervor and fever. Fretfulness creates the unclean fire of envy.
Now see the further stage proclaimed by the psalmist: "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret--it only causes harm." The fire is now burning furiously, noisily in the fierceness of its wrath. What shall we expect as the climax of all this? Men who have worked themselves into envy and anger will be led into the very evil they originally resented.
How, then, is fretfulness to be cured? The psalmist brings in the heavenly to correct the earthly. This psalm is full of “the Lord!" “The Lord” is the refrain of almost every verse, as though it were only in the power of the heavenly that this dangerous fire could be subdued. Let us look at the counsel in detail.
“Trust in the Lord.” It is helpful to remember that the word which is here translated “trust” is elsewhere in the Old Testament translated “careless.” “Be careless in the Lord!” Instead of carrying a load of care, let care be absent! It is the carelessness of little children running about the house in the assurance of their father’s providence and love. It is the singing disposition that leaves something for the parent to do. Assume that He is working as well as yourself, and working even when things appear to be adverse.
“Delight yourself also in the Lord.” The literal significance is, “Seek for delicacies in the Lord.” Yes, and if we only set about with ardent purpose to discover the delicacies of the Lord’s table, we should have no time and no inclination to fret. But this is just what the majority of us do not do. We take the crumbs from the Master’s table, and we have no taste of the excellent delicacies. Now the delicacies of anything are not found in the elementary stages; we have to move forward to the advanced. The delicacies of music are not found in the first half-dozen lessons; it is only in the later stages that we come to the exquisite. And so it is in art, and so it is in literature, and so it is with the “things of the Lord.” “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.” Let us be ambitious for the excellent!
“Commit thy way unto the Lord.” Any pure purpose, any worthy ambition, any duty, anything we have to do, any road we have to tread, all our outgoings--commit them to Him. Let us have His companionship from the very outset of the journey. What am I purposing for tomorrow? What am I setting out to do? Have I committed it to the Lord, or am I setting out upon a solitary journey? If I am going out alone, fretfulness will encounter me before I have gone many steps in the way. If I go out in the company of Jesus, I shall have the peace that passes understanding, and the heat of my life will be the ardor of an intense devotion.
“Rest in the Lord.” Having trusted in the Lord, delighted in the Lord, and committed my way unto the Lord, let me now just “rest.” Don’t worry. Whatever happens, just refer it to the Lord! If it be anything injurious, He will suppress it. If it be anything containing helpful ministry, He will adapt it to our need. This is the cure for care.
Silver Lining: Messages of Hope and Cheer
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Day 29
THE FLOOD
A TYPE OF THE DAY OF THE LORDJOHN J. SCRUBY
I will now show that the Flood (recorded in Genesis chapter 7) did not typify the Great Tribulation itself, but the Day of the Lord, which day will terminate that Great Tribulation.
Notice first, that in this type there is seen no person who typifies the Antichrist, the central figure of the Tribulation. Second, that there is nothing in the type to show the various deadly happenings which are so prominently connected with the Tribulation; viz., war, pestilence, famine, demon locusts, scorching heat, etc. The Flood was one swift, destroying judgment and was not, as will be the Tribulation, a series of tormenting judgments. Third, that the Flood came not at the beginning, nor in the middle, but at the end of the "seven days." These seven days typify the last seven years of this present age. Fourth, that there is an utter absence of anything to show that Noah and his family were persecuted by any of their contemporaries, whereas the bitter and deadly persecution of the saints is one of the most outstanding characteristics of the Tribulation. This is not to say that Noah and his family were not persecuted, but only that if they were, the type does not show it; and this for the simple reason that it is not a Tribulation type.
About five years, perhaps less, before the Flood came, the Lord instructed Noah how to prepare for its coming, in order to ensure the safety of himself and his household. Noah acted upon those instructions. Finally, all was in readiness with the exception of a few finishing touches. "Then the Lord said to Noah, 'Come into the ark, you and all your household...for after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights," Gen. 7:1,4.
Noah and his family did not enter into the ark on the day the Lord gave him this command, nor was it intended that they should; but they proceeded to lead or drive the beasts into the ark and to see that they were safely stowed, and to attend to various other last-minute matters. Then, when everything to the last minute detail had been done, and just as the deluge swept upon them, Noah and his family rushed into the ark, just in time to escape the destroying waters, and the Lord closed the door. Let me try to describe it for you.
"Wife, sons, daughters," cried Noah, "the Lord has just informed me that we have only seven more days in which to get everything in order before the flood comes, so we must hurry, for there is much yet to do." And no matter how fast they may have labored before, now that they knew only one more week remained, they redoubled their efforts. Unquestionably, in addition to superintending the "round up" and arranging for the stowing of the creatures in the ark, Noah, like a traveler going with a large family on a first long journey, found a multitude of last-minute things to attend to, and they had to be attended to quickly.
The unbiased reader will readily see that the purpose of the warning--"For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth"--was to induce Noah to hasten and conclude these final matters. Here we have typified what the Church will be doing during the last seven years of this age. We will not be sitting idly by (shut up in the ark waiting for the Flood to come, as some erroneously think), but will be busy working, and more busy than ever, making final preparations for meeting the Tribulation-climaxing judgments of the Day of the Lord.
It is recorded, "In the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened...On the very same day Noah and Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ark," Gen. 7:11,13. The last hour of the last of the seven days had come. Apparently, Noah and his family were still outside the ark, seeing that nothing had been left undone, that nothing had been overlooked. Then, suddenly, "the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened," and the deluge was on. If anything were now undone, it was too late to attend to it. Rushing to the ark, "driven by the waters of the deluge," Noah and his family entered and the Lord shut them in, just in time to prevent the inrush of the judgment waters, and perhaps also of a multitude of death-doomed jeering sinners who may have assembled, attracted by the unusual activities of Noah and his family during these last seven days. "On the very same day," mark you, Noah and his family entered the ark. What "very same day?" The very same day on which the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven opened. In verse 7 it is recorded, "So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood." This last sentence is very suggestive, for it indicates that Noah and his family were driven into the ark by the threatening waters.
As Noah entered the ark at the end of the seven days, so the rapture of the church will follow the tribulation. Because the Flood did not come until the very end of those seven days, it cannot typify the Tribulation, for the Tribulation is to begin in the middle of the last seven years of this age.
The Great Tribulation, The Church's Supreme Test
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Day 30
THE ARK AND UZZAH
ALEXANDER MACLAREN
"So they set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart...And when they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error, and he died there by the ark of God. And David became angry because of the LORD'S outbreak against Uzzah." (2 Samuel 6:3-8)
From this text in 2 Samuel, let us picture the glad procession streaming out of the little city buried amidst the woods, the cart drawn by meek oxen and loaded with the unadorned wooden chest. In the midst are the two sons or descendants of its faithful custodian, honored to be the teamsters. We see King David, with the harp which had cheered him in many a sad hour of exile, and the crowd "making a joyful noise before the Lord." It was a wild scene, in which there was a dangerous resemblance to the frantic jubilations of idolatrous worship. No doubt there were true hearts in that crowd, and none truer than David’s. No doubt we have to beware of applying our Christian standards to these early times, and must let a good deal that is sensuous and turbid pass, as, no doubt, God let it pass. But confession of sin, in leaving the ark so long forgotten, would have been better than this tumultuous joy. If there had been more trembling in it, it would not have passed so soon into wild terror. Still, on the other hand, that rejoicing crowd does represent, though in crude form, the effect which the consciousness of God’s presence should ever have. His felt nearness should be, as the Psalmist says, ‘the gladness of my joy.’
At some bad place in the rocky and steep track, the oxen stumbled or were restive. Uzzah, who was driving while his brother went in front to pilot the way, naturally stretched out his hand to steady his freight, just as if it had been a sack of corn; and, as if he had touched an electric wire, fell dead, as the story graphically says, by the ark of God. What confusion and panic would now agitate the joyous singers, and how their songs would die on their lips!
What harm was there in Uzzah’s action? It was most natural, and, in one point of view, commendable. Any careful waggoner would have done the same with any valuable article he had in charge. Yes, and that was just the point of his error and sin, that he saw no difference between the ark and any other valuable article. His intention to help was right enough, but there was profound insensibility to the awful sacredness of the ark, on which even its Levitical bearers were forbidden to lay hands. All his life Uzzah had been accustomed to its presence. It had been one of the familiar pieces of furniture in Abinadab’s house, and, no doubt, familiarity had had its usual effect.
Do none of us ministers, teachers, and others, to whom the gospel and the worship and ordinances of the Church have been familiar from infancy, treat them in the same fashion? Many a hand is laid on the ark, sometimes to keep it from falling, with more criminal carelessness of its sacredness than Uzzah showed. Note too, how swiftly an irreverent habit of treating holy things grows. The first error was in breaking the commanded order for removal of the ark by the Levites. Once in the cart, the rest follows. The smallest breach in the feeling of awe and reverence will soon lead to more complete profanation. There is nothing more delicate than the sense of awe. Trifled with ever so little, it speedily disappears.
Expositions of Holy Scripture, the Book of Second Samuel
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