Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/mhcc00/v02700

Text File | 1994-03-02 | 6KB | 98 lines

02711
 #29-38 Christ tells his disciples to observe the signs of the
 times, which they might judge by. He charges them to look upon
 the ruin of the Jewish nation as near. Yet this race and family
 of Abraham shall not be rooted out; it shall survive as a
 nation, and be found as prophesied, when the Son of man shall be
 revealed. He cautions them against being secure and sensual.
 This command is given to all Christ's disciples, Take heed to
 yourselves, that ye be not overpowered by temptations, nor
 betrayed by your own corruptions. We cannot be safe, if we are
 carnally secure. Our danger is, lest the day of death and of
 judgment should come upon us when we are not prepared. Lest,
 when we are called to meet our Lord, that be the furthest from
 our thoughts, which ought to be nearest our hearts. For so it
 will come upon the most of men, who dwell upon the earth, and
 mind earthly things only, and have no converse with heaven. It
 will be a terror and a destruction to them. Here see what should
 be our aim, that we may be accounted worthy to escape all those
 things; that when the judgements of God are abroad, we may not
 be in the common calamity, or it may not be that to us which it
 is to others. Do you ask how you may be found worthy to stand
 before Christ at that day? Those who never yet sought Christ,
 let them now go unto him; those who never yet were humbled for
 their sins, let them now begin; those who have already begun,
 let them go forward and be kept humbled. Watch therefore, and
 pray always. Watch against sin; watch in every duty, and make
 the most of every opportunity to do good. Pray always: those
 shall be accounted worthy to live a life of praise in the other
 world, who live a life of prayer in this world. May we begin,
 employ, and conclude each day attending to Christ's word,
 obeying his precepts, and following his example, that whenever
 he comes we may be found watching.
02721
 * The treachery of Judas. (1-6) The passover. (7-18) The Lord's
 supper instituted. (19,20) Christ admonishes the disciples.
 (21-38) Christ's agony in the garden. (39-46) Christ betrayed.
 (47-53) The fall of Peter. (54-62) Christ confesses himself to
 be the Son of God. (63-71)

 #1-6 Christ knew all men, and had wise and holy ends in taking
 Judas to be a disciple. How he who knew Christ so well, came to
 betray him, we are here told; Satan entered into Judas. It is
 hard to say whether more mischief is done to Christ's kingdom,
 by the power of its open enemies, or by the treachery of its
 pretended friends; but without the latter, its enemies could not
 do so much evil as they do.

02727
 #7-18 Christ kept the ordinances of the law, particularly that
 of the passover, to teach us to observe his gospel institutions,
 and most of all that of the Lord's supper. Those who go upon
 Christ's word, need not fear disappointment. According to the
 orders given them, the disciples got all ready for the passover.
 Jesus bids this passover welcome. He desired it, though he knew
 his sufferings would follow, because it was in order to his
 Father's glory and man's redemption. He takes his leave of all
 passovers, signifying thereby his doing away all the ordinances
 of the ceremonial law, of which the passover was one of the
 earliest and chief. That type was laid aside, because now in the
 kingdom of God the substance was come.

02739
 #19,20 The Lord's supper is a sign or memorial of Christ already
 come, who by dying delivered us; his death is in special manner
 set before us in that ordinance, by which we are reminded of it.
 The breaking of Christ's body as a sacrifice for us, is therein
 brought to our remembrance by the breaking of bread. Nothing can
 be more nourishing and satisfying to the soul, than the doctrine
 of Christ's making atonement for sin, and the assurance of an
 interest in that atonement. Therefore we do this in remembrance
 of what He did for us, when he died for us; and for a memorial
 of what we do, in joining ourselves to him in an everlasting
 covenant. The shedding of Christ's blood, by which the atonement
 was made, is represented by the wine in the cup.

02741
 #21-38 How unbecoming is the worldly ambition of being the
 greatest, to the character of a follower of Jesus, who took upon
 him the form of a servant, and humbled himself to the death of
 the cross! In the way to eternal happiness, we must expect to be
 assaulted and sifted by Satan. If he cannot destroy, he will try
 to disgrace or distress us. Nothing more certainly forebodes a
 fall, in a professed follower of Christ, than self-confidence,
 with disregard to warnings, and contempt of danger. Unless we
 watch and pray always, we may be drawn in the course of the day
 into those sins which we were in the morning most resolved
 against. If believers were left to themselves, they would fall;
 but they are kept by the power of God, and the prayer of Christ.
 Our Lord gave notice of a very great change of circumstances now
 approaching. The disciples must not expect that their friends
 would be kind to them as they had been. Therefore, he that has a
 purse, let him take it, for he may need it. They must now expect
 that their enemies would be more fierce than they had been, and
 they would need weapons. At the time the apostles understood
 Christ to mean real weapons, but he spake only of the weapons of
 the spiritual warfare. The sword of the Spirit is the sword with
 which the disciples of Christ must furnish themselves.