Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/mhcc21/v23100

Text File | 1994-03-02 | 4KB | 70 lines

23111
 #40-55. Let not those that receive mercy from God, be thereby
 made bold to sin, for the mercies they receive will hasten its
 punishment; yet let not those who are under Divine rebukes for
 sin, be discouraged from repentance. The Holy One of Israel will
 do what is most for his own glory, and what is most for their
 good. Their forgetting former favours, led them to limit God for
 the future. God made his own people to go forth like sheep; and
 guided them in the wilderness, as a shepherd his flock, with all
 care and tenderness. Thus the true Joshua, even Jesus, brings
 his church out of the wilderness; but no earthly Canaan, no
 worldly advantages, should make us forget that the church is in
 the wilderness while in this world, and that there remaineth a
 far more glorious rest for the people of God.

23127
 #56-72 After the Israelites were settled in Canaan, the children
 were like their fathers. God gave them his testimonies, but they
 turned back. Presumptuous sins render even Israelites hateful to
 God's holiness, and exposed to his justice. Those whom the Lord
 forsakes become an easy prey to the destroyer. And sooner or
 later, God will disgrace his enemies. He set a good government
 over his people; a monarch after his own heart. With good reason
 does the psalmist make this finishing, crowning instance of
 God's favour to Israel; for David was a type of Christ, the
 great and good Shepherd, who was humbled first, and then
 exalted; and of whom it was foretold, that he should be filled
 with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. On the uprightness
 of his heart, and the skilfulness of his hands, all his subjects
 may rely; and of the increase of his government and peace there
 shall be no end. Every trial of human nature hitherto, confirms
 the testimony of Scripture, that the heart is deceitful above
 all things, and desperately wicked, and nothing but being
 created anew by the Holy Ghost can cure the ungodliness of any.
23144
 * The deplorable condition of the people of God. (1-5) A
 petition for relief. (6-13)

 #1-5 God is complained to: whither should children go but to a
 Father able and willing to help them? See what a change sin made
 in the holy city, when the heathen were suffered to pour in upon
 them. God's own people defiled it by their sins, therefore he
 suffered their enemies to defile it by their insolence. They
 desired that God would be reconciled. Those who desire God's
 favour as better than life, cannot but dread his wrath as worse
 than death. In every affliction we should first beseech the Lord
 to cleanse away the guilt of our sins; then he will visit us
 with his tender mercies.

23149
 #6-13 Those who persist in ignorance of God, and neglect of
 prayer, are the ungodly. How unrighteous soever men were, the
 Lord was righteous in permitting them to do what they did.
 Deliverances from trouble are mercies indeed, when grounded upon
 the pardon of sin; we should therefore be more earnest in prayer
 for the removal of our sins than for the removal of afflictions.
 They had no hopes but from God's mercies, his tender mercies.
 They plead no merit, they pretend to none, but, Help us for the
 glory of thy name; pardon us for thy name's sake. The Christian
 forgets not that he is often bound in the chain of his sins. The
 world to him is a prison; sentence of death is passed upon him,
 and he knows not how soon it may be executed. How fervently
 should he at all times pray, O let the sighing of a prisoner
 come before thee, according to the greatness of thy power
 preserve thou those that are appointed to die! How glorious will
 the day be, when, triumphant over sin and sorrow, the church
 beholds the adversary disarmed for ever! while that church
 shall, from age to age, sing the praises of her great Shepherd
 and Bishop, her King and her God.