Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/mhcc00/v00150

Text File | 1994-03-02 | 12KB | 197 lines

00154
 #16-18 Religious fasting is a duty required of the disciples of
 Christ, but it is not so much a duty itself, as a means to
 dispose us for other duties. Fasting is the humbling of the
 soul, #Ps 35:13|; that is the inside of the duty; let that,
 therefore, be thy principal care, and as to the outside of it,
 covet not to let it be seen. God sees in secret, and will reward
 openly.

00157
 #19-24 Worldly-mindedness is a common and fatal symptom of
 hypocrisy, for by no sin can Satan have a surer and faster hold
 of the soul, under the cloak of a profession of religion.
 Something the soul will have, which it looks upon as the best
 thing; in which it has pleasure and confidence above other
 things. Christ counsels to make our best things the joys and
 glories of the other world, those things not seen which are
 eternal, and to place our happiness in them. There are treasures
 in heaven. It is our wisdom to give all diligence to make our
 title to eternal life sure through Jesus Christ, and to look on
 all things here below, as not worthy to be compared with it, and
 to be content with nothing short of it. It is happiness above
 and beyond the changes and chances of time, an inheritance
 incorruptible. The worldly man is wrong in his first principle;
 therefore all his reasonings and actions therefrom must be
 wrong. It is equally to be applied to false religion; that which
 is deemed light is thick darkness. This is an awful, but a
 common case; we should therefore carefully examine our leading
 principles by the word of God, with earnest prayer for the
 teaching of his Spirit. A man may do some service to two
 masters, but he can devote himself to the service of no more
 than one. God requires the whole heart, and will not share it
 with the world. When two masters oppose each other, no man can
 serve both. He who holds to the world and loves it, must despise
 God; he who loves God, must give up the friendship of the world.

00163
 #25-34 There is scarcely any sin against which our Lord Jesus
 more warns his disciples, than disquieting, distracting,
 distrustful cares about the things of this life. This often
 ensnares the poor as much as the love of wealth does the rich.
 But there is a carefulness about temporal things which is a
 duty, though we must not carry these lawful cares too far. Take
 no thought for your life. Not about the length of it; but refer
 it to God to lengthen or shorten it as he pleases; our times are
 in his hand, and they are in a good hand. Not about the comforts
 of this life; but leave it to God to make it bitter or sweet as
 he pleases. Food and raiment God has promised, therefore we may
 expect them. Take no thought for the morrow, for the time to
 come. Be not anxious for the future, how you shall live next
 year, or when you are old, or what you shall leave behind you.
 As we must not boast of tomorrow, so we must not care for
 to-morrow, or the events of it. God has given us life, and has
 given us the body. And what can he not do for us, who did that?
 If we take care about our souls and for eternity, which are more
 than the body and its life, we may leave it to God to provide
 for us food and raiment, which are less. Improve this as an
 encouragement to trust in God. We must reconcile ourselves to
 our worldly estate, as we do to our stature. We cannot alter the
 disposals of Providence, therefore we must submit and resign
 ourselves to them. Thoughtfulness for our souls is the best cure
 of thoughtfulness for the world. Seek first the kingdom of God,
 and make religion your business: say not that this is the way to
 starve; no, it is the way to be well provided for, even in this
 world. The conclusion of the whole matter is, that it is the
 will and command of the Lord Jesus, that by daily prayers we may
 get strength to bear us up under our daily troubles, and to arm
 us against the temptations that attend them, and then let none
 of these things move us. Happy are those who take the Lord for
 their God, and make full proof of it by trusting themselves
 wholly to his wise disposal. Let thy Spirit convince us of sin
 in the want of this disposition, and take away the worldliness
 of our hearts.
00173
 * Christ reproves rash judgment. (1-6) Encouragements to prayer.
 (7-11) The broad and narrow way. (12-14) Against false prophets.
 (15-20) To be doers of the word, not hearers only. (21-29)

 #1-6 We must judge ourselves, and judge of our own acts, but not
 make our word a law to everybody. We must not judge rashly, nor
 pass judgment upon our brother without any ground. We must not
 make the worst of people. Here is a just reproof to those who
 quarrel with their brethren for small faults, while they allow
 themselves in greater ones. Some sins are as motes, while others
 are as beams; some as a gnat, others as a camel. Not that there
 is any sin little; if it be a mote, or splinter, it is in the
 eye; if a gnat, it is in the throat; both are painful and
 dangerous, and we cannot be easy or well till they are got out.
 That which charity teaches us to call but a splinter in our
 brother's eye, true repentance and godly sorrow will teach us to
 call a beam in our own. It is as strange that a man can be in a
 sinful, miserable condition, and not be aware of it, as that a
 man should have a beam in his eye, and not consider it; but the
 god of this world blinds their minds. Here is a good rule for
 reprovers; first reform thyself.

00179
 #7-11 Prayer is the appointed means for obtaining what we need.
 Pray; pray often; make a business of prayer, and be serious and
 earnest in it. Ask, as a beggar asks alms. Ask, as a traveller
 asks the way. Seek, as for a thing of value that we have lost;
 or as the merchantman that seeks goodly pearls. Knock, as he
 that desires to enter into the house knocks at the door. Sin has
 shut and barred the door against us; by prayer we knock.
 Whatever you pray for, according to the promise, shall be given
 you, if God see it fit for you, and what would you have more?
 This is made to apply to all that pray aright; every one that
 asketh receiveth, whether Jew or Gentile, young or old, rich or
 poor, high or low, master or servant, learned or unlearned, all
 are alike welcome to the throne of grace, if they come in faith.
 It is explained by a comparison taken from earthly parents, and
 their readiness to give their children what they ask. Parents
 are often foolishly fond, but God is all-wise; he knows what we
 need, what we desire, and what is fit for us. Let us never
 suppose our heavenly Father would bid us pray, and then refuse
 to hear, or give us what would be hurtful.

00184
 #12-14 Christ came to teach us, not only what we are to know and
 believe, but what we are to do; not only toward God, but toward
 men; not only toward those of our party and persuasion, but
 toward men in general, all with whom we have to do. We must do
 that to our neighbour which we ourselves acknowledge to be fit
 and reasonable. We must, in our dealings with men, suppose
 ourselves in the same case and circumstances with those we have
 to do with, and act accordingly. There are but two ways right
 and wrong, good and evil; the way to heaven and the way to hell;
 in the one or other of these all are walking: there is no middle
 place hereafter, no middle way now. All the children of men are
 saints or sinners, godly or ungodly. See concerning the way of
 sin and sinners, that the gate is wide, and stands open. You may
 go in at this gate with all your lusts about you; it gives no
 check to appetites or passions. It is a broad way; there are
 many paths in it; there is choice of sinful ways. There is a
 large company in this way. But what profit is there in being
 willing to go to hell with others, because they will not go to
 heaven with us? The way to eternal life is narrow. We are not in
 heaven as soon as we are got through the strait gate. Self must
 be denied, the body kept under, and corruptions mortified. Daily
 temptations must be resisted; duties must be done. We must watch
 in all things, and walk with care; and we must go through much
 tribulation. And yet this way should invite us all; it leads to
 life: to present comfort in the favour of God, which is the life
 of the soul; to eternal bliss, the hope of which at the end of
 our way, should make all the difficulties of the road easy to
 us. This plain declaration of Christ has been disregarded by
 many who have taken pains to explain it away; but in all ages
 the real disciple of Christ has been looked on as a singular,
 unfashionable character; and all that have sided with the
 greater number, have gone on in the broad road to destruction.
 If we would serve God, we must be firm in our religion. Can we
 often hear of the strait gate and the narrow way, and how few
 there are that find it, without being in pain for ourselves, or
 considering whether we are entered on the narrow way, and what
 progress we are making in it?

00187
 #15-20 Nothing so much prevents men from entering the strait
 gate, and becoming true followers of Christ, as the carnal,
 soothing, flattering doctrines of those who oppose the truth.
 They may be known by the drift and effects of their doctrines.
 Some part of their temper and conduct is contrary to the mind of
 Christ. Those opinions come not from God that lead to sin.

00193
 #21-29 Christ here shows that it will not be enough to own him
 for our Master, only in word and tongue. It is necessary to our
 happiness that we believe in Christ, that we repent of sin, that
 we live a holy life, that we love one another. This is his will,
 even our sanctification. Let us take heed of resting in outward
 privileges and doings, lest we deceive ourselves, and perish
 eternally, as multitudes do, with a lie in our right hand. Let
 every one that names the name of Christ, depart from all sin.
 There are others, whose religion rests in bare hearing, and it
 goes no further; their heads are filled with empty notions.
 These two sorts of hearers are represented as two builders. This
 parable teaches us to hear and do the sayings of the Lord Jesus:
 some may seem hard to flesh and blood, but they must be done.
 Christ is laid for a foundation, and every thing besides Christ
 is sand. Some build their hopes upon worldly prosperity; others
 upon an outward profession of religion. Upon these they venture;
 but they are all sand, too weak to bear such a fabric as our
 hopes of heaven. There is a storm coming that will try every
 man's work. When God takes away the soul, where is the hope of
 the hypocrite? The house fell in the storm, when the builder had
 most need of it, and expected it would be a shelter to him. It
 fell when it was too late to build another. May the Lord make us
 wise builders for eternity. Then nothing shall separate us from
 the love of Christ Jesus. The multitudes were astonished at the
 wisdom and power of Christ's doctrine. And this sermon, ever so
 often read over, is always new. Every word proves its Author to
 be Divine. Let us be more and more decided and earnest, making
 some one or other of these blessednesses and Christian graces
 the main subject of our thoughts, even for weeks together. Let
 us not rest in general and confused desires after them, whereby
 we grasp at all, but catch nothing.