Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/mhcc00/v00950

Text File | 1994-03-01 | 7KB | 123 lines

00957
 #47-56 No enemies are so much to be abhorred as those professed
 disciples that betray Christ with a kiss. God has no need of our
 services, much less of our sins, to bring about his purposes.
 Though Christ was crucified through weakness, it was voluntary
 weakness; he submitted to death. If he had not been willing to
 suffer, they could not conquer him. It was a great sin for those
 who had left all to follow Jesus; now to leave him for they knew
 not what. What folly, for fear of death to flee from Him, whom
 they knew and acknowledged to be the Fountain of life!

00967
 #57-68 Jesus was hurried into Jerusalem. It looks ill, and bodes
 worse, when those who are willing to be Christ's disciples, are
 not willing to be known to be so. Here began Peter's denying
 him: for to follow Christ afar off, is to begin to go back from
 him. It is more our concern to prepare for the end, whatever it
 may be, than curiously to ask what the end will be. The event is
 God's, but the duty is ours. Now the Scriptures were fulfilled,
 which said, False witnesses are risen up against me. Christ was
 accused, that we might not be condemned; and if at any time we
 suffer thus, let us remember we cannot expect to fare better
 than our Master. When Christ was made sin for us, he was silent,
 and left it to his blood to speak. Hitherto Jesus had seldom
 professed expressly to be the Christ, the Son of God; the tenor
 of his doctrine spoke it, and his miracles proved it; but now he
 would not omit to make an open confession of it. It would have
 looked like declining his sufferings. He thus confessed, as an
 example and encouragement to his followers, to confess him
 before men, whatever hazard they ran. Disdain, cruel mocking,
 and abhorrence, are the sure portion of the disciple as they
 were of the Master, from such as would buffet and deride the
 Lord of glory. These things were exactly foretold in the
 fiftieth chapter of Isaiah. Let us confess Christ's name, and
 bear the reproach, and he will confess us before his Father's
 throne.

00979
 #69-75 Peter's sin is truly related, for the Scriptures deal
 faithfully. Bad company leads to sin: those who needlessly
 thrust themselves into it, may expect to be tempted and
 ensnared, as Peter. They scarcely can come out of such company
 without guilt or grief, or both. It is a great fault to be shy
 of Christ; and to dissemble our knowledge of him, when we are
 called to own him, is, in effect, to deny him. Peter's sin was
 aggravated; but he fell into the sin by surprise, not as Judas,
 with design. But conscience should be to us as the crowing of
 the cock, to put us in mind of the sins we had forgotten. Peter
 was thus left to fall, to abate his self-confidence, and render
 him more modest, humble, compassionate, and useful to others.
 The event has taught believers many things ever since, and if
 infidels, Pharisees, and hypocrites stumble at it or abuse it,
 it is at their peril. Little do we know how we should act in
 very difficult situations, if we were left to ourselves. Let
 him, therefore, that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he
 fall; let us all distrust our own hearts, and rely wholly on the
 Lord. Peter wept bitterly. Sorrow for sin must not be slight,
 but great and deep. Peter, who wept so bitterly for denying
 Christ, never denied him again, but confessed him often in the
 face of danger. True repentance for any sin will be shown by the
 contrary grace and duty; that is a sign of our sorrowing not
 only bitterly, but sincerely.
00986
 * Christ delivered to Pilate, The despair of Judas. (1-10)
 Christ before Pilate. (11-25) Barabbas loosed, Christ mocked.
 (26-30) Christ led to be crucified. (31-34) He is crucified.
 (35-44) The death of Christ. (45-50) Events at the crucifixion.
 (51-56) The burial of Christ. (57-61) The sepulchre secured.
 (62-66)

 #1-10 Wicked men see little of the consequences of their crimes
 when they commit them, but they must answer for them all. In the
 fullest manner Judas acknowledged to the chief priests that he
 had sinned, and betrayed an innocent person. This was full
 testimony to the character of Christ; but the rulers were
 hardened. Casting down the money, Judas departed, and went and
 hanged himself, not being able to bear the terror of Divine
 wrath, and the anguish of despair. There is little doubt but
 that the death of Judas was before that of our blessed Lord. But
 was it nothing to them that they had thirsted after this blood,
 and hired Judas to betray it, and had condemned it to be shed
 unjustly? Thus do fools make a mock at sin. Thus many make light
 of Christ crucified. And it is a common instance of the
 deceitfulness of our hearts, to make light of our own sin by
 dwelling upon other people's sins. But the judgment of God is
 according to truth. Many apply this passage of the buying the
 piece of ground, with the money Judas brought back, to signify
 the favour intended by the blood of Christ to strangers, and
 sinners of the Gentiles. It fulfilled a prophecy, #Zec 11:12|.
 Judas went far toward repentance, yet it was not to salvation.
 He confessed, but not to God; he did not go to him, and say, I
 have sinned, Father, against heaven. Let none be satisfied with
 such partial convictions as a man may have, and yet remain full
 of pride, enmity, and rebellion.

00996
 #11-25 Having no malice against Jesus, Pilate urged him to clear
 himself, and laboured to get him discharged. The message from
 his wife was a warning. God has many ways of giving checks to
 sinners, in their sinful pursuits, and it is a great mercy to
 have such checks from Providence, from faithful friends, and
 from our own consciences. O do not this abominable thing which
 the Lord hates! is what we may hear said to us, when we are
 entering into temptation, if we will but regard it. Being
 overruled by the priests, the people made choice of Barabbas.
 Multitudes who choose the world, rather than God, for their
 ruler and portion, thus choose their own delusions. The Jews
 were so bent upon the death of Christ, that Pilate thought it
 would be dangerous to refuse. And this struggle shows the power
 of conscience even on the worst men. Yet all was so ordered to
 make it evident that Christ suffered for no fault of his own,
 but for the sins of his people. How vain for Pilate to expect to
 free himself from the guilt of the innocent blood of a righteous
 person, whom he was by his office bound to protect! The Jews'
 curse upon themselves has been awfully answered in the
 sufferings of their nation. None could bear the sin of others,
 except Him that had no sin of his own to answer for. And are we
 not all concerned? Is not Barabbas preferred to Jesus, when
 sinners reject salvation that they may retain their darling
 sins, which rob God of his glory, and murder their souls? The
 blood of Christ is now upon us for good, through mercy, by the
 Jews' rejection of it. O let us flee to it for refuge!