Grace Gems for JULY, 2020
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Afflictions serve to . . .
(Thomas Brooks)
God's house of correction, is His school of instruction.
"Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey Your Word." Psalm 119:67
"It was good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn Your decrees." Psalm 119:71
Afflictions serve to . . .
revive and recover decayed graces,
inflame that love that is cold,
quicken that faith that is decaying,
animate those hopes that are withering, and
put life into those joy and comforts that are languishing.
Afflictions serve to keep the hearts of the saints humble and tender.
Afflictions lift up the soul to more rich, clear, and full enjoyments of God.
Afflictions are God's furnace by which He cleanses His people from their dross!
Afflictions are God's sweet preservatives to keep the saints from sin, which is a greater evil than Hell itself.
Afflictions serve to bring the saints nearer to God, and to make them more earnest in prayer.Trials make the promise sweet;
Trials give new life to prayer;
Bring me to my Savior's feet,
Lay me low and keep me there!
William Cowper~ ~ ~ ~
What is it to be a Christian?
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(Samuel Davies)
"The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch." Acts 11:26
What is it to be a Christian?
1. To be a Christian-is to depart from iniquity. To this, the name obliges us; and without this we have no right to the name. "Let every one who names the name of Christ, depart from iniquity!" 2 Timothy 2:19. That is, let him depart from iniquity, or not even dare to take that sacred name!
Christ was perfectly free from sin. He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." His followers also shall be perfectly free from sin, in a little time! Before long, they will enter into the pure regions of perfect holiness, and will drop all their sins, along with their mortal bodies-into the grave!
But this, alas! is not their character in the present state, but the remains of sin still cleave to them! Yet even in the present state, they are laboring after perfection in holiness. Nothing can satisfy them, until they are fully conformed to the image of God's dear Son!
They are hourly conflicting with every temptation, and vigorously resisting every iniquity in its most alluring forms. And, though sin is perpetually struggling for the mastery, and sometimes, in an inadvertent hour, gets an advantage over them-yet, they are assisted with divine grace, so that no sin has any habitual dominion over them. Romans 6:14
Hence they are free from the gross vices of the age, and are men of good morals. This is their habitual, universal character; and to pretend to be Christians without this prerequisite, is the greatest absurdity!
What then shall we think of the debauched, defrauding, worldly, profligate, profane 'Christians', who have overrun the Christian world? Can there be a greater contradiction?
A loyal subject in arms against his sovereign;
an ignorant scholar;
a sober drunkard;
a charitable miser;
an honest thief-
are not greater absurdities, or more direct contradictions!
To depart from iniquity, is essential to Christianity-and without it there can be no such thing as a Christian!
There was nothing that Christ was so remote from-as sin! And therefore, for those that indulge themselves in sin-and yet to wear His name, is just as absurd and ridiculous as for an illiterate dunce to call himself a university professor!
Therefore, if you will not renounce iniquity-then renounce the Christian name! You cannot consistently retain both!
Alexander the Great had a fellow in his army who had his same name-but was a mere coward. "Either be like me," said Alexander to him, "or lay aside my name!"
You servants of sin, it is in vain for you to wear the name of Christ! It renders you the more ridiculous, and only aggravates your guilt! You may with as much propriety call yourselves 'princes' or 'kings'; as 'Christians'-while you are so unlike Christ!
You are a scandal to His precious name!2. To be a Christian-is to deny yourselves, and take up the cross, and follow Christ.
These are the terms of discipleship fixed by Christ Himself:
"He said to them all: If any man will come after Me, let him
deny himself, and
take up his cross daily,
and follow Me!" Luke 9:23
To deny ourselves, is to abstain from the pleasures of sin, to moderate our sensual appetites, to deny our own interest for the sake of Christ. In short, it is to sacrifice everything inconsistent with our duty to Him, when these come in competition.
To take up our cross, is to bear sufferings, to encounter difficulties, and break through them all-in imitation of Jesus Christ, and for His sake.
To follow Christ, is to trace His steps, and imitate His example-whatever it costs us.
This is the essential character of every true Christian.
What then shall we think of those crowds among us, who retain the Christian name-and yet will not deny themselves of their sensual pleasures, nor part with their temporal interests, for the sake of Christ? Who are so far from being willing to lay down their lives, that they cannot stand the force of a laugh or a sneer for the cause of Christ-but immediately stumble and fall away?
Are they Christians, whom the commands of Christ cannot restrain from what their depraved hearts desire? No! A Christian, without self-denial, mortification, and a supreme love to Jesus Christ-is as great a contradiction as . . .
fire without heat,
a sun without light,
a hero without courage,
or a friend without love!
Does not this strip some of you of the Christian name, and prove that you have no right at all to it?
3. To be a Christian-is to be a follower or imitator of Christ.
"He left us an example, that we should follow His steps!" 1 Peter 2:21
Christ is the model for every Christian.
Paul tells us that believers will be conformed to His image, Romans 8:29; and that the same mind must be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5
Christ's heart glowed with love to His Father! He delighted in universal obedience to Him; it was His food and drink to do the Father's will, even in the most painful and self-denying instances! He abounded in devotion, in prayer, meditation and every pious duty.
He was also full of every grace and virtue towards mankind! He was . . .
meek and humble,
kind and benevolent,
just and charitable,
merciful and compassionate,
towards all. Beneficence to the souls and bodies of men was the business of His life, for He went about doing good. Acts 10:38
In regard to Himself-He was patient and resigned, and yet undaunted and brave under sufferings. He had all His appetites and passions under proper government. He was heavenly-minded-above this world in heart, while He dwelt in it.
This is an imperfect sketch of His amiable character; and in these things every one who deserves to be called after His name, does in some measure resemble and imitate Him. This is not only his earnest endeavor-but what he actually attains, though in a much inferior degree; and his imperfections are the grief of his heart.
This resemblance and imitation of Christ is essential to the very being of a Christian, and without it, all profession is a vain pretense!
Does your Christianity, my friends, stand this test? May one know that you belong to Christ-by your living like Him, and manifesting the same temper and spirit?
Alas! would not some of you with more propriety be called:
Epicureans-from Epicurus, the sensual atheistic philosopher; or
Mammonites-from Mammon, the imaginary god of riches; or
Bacchanalians-from Bacchus, the god of wine;
rather than Christians-from Christ, the most perfect pattern of living holiness and virtue that was ever exhibited in the world!
If you claim the name of Christians, then where is . . .
that ardent devotion,
that affectionate love to God,
that zeal for His glory,
that alacrity in His service,
that resignation to His will,
that generous benevolence to mankind,
that zeal to promote their best interests,
that meekness and forbearance under ill usage,
that unwearied activity in doing good to all,
that self-denial and heavenly-mindedness
which shone so conspicuous in Christ, whose holy name you bear?
Alas! while you are destitute of those graces, and yet wear his name-you only mock it, and turn it into a reproach both to Him and yourselves!
"Whoever claims to live in Him, must walk as Jesus did." 1 John 2:6~ ~ ~ ~
Riches and Poverty!
(J.C. Ryle, "Riches and Poverty!")
Many in every age have disturbed society by stirring up the poor against the rich. But so long as the world is under the present order of things, universal equality cannot be attained.
So long as . . .
some are wise, and some are foolish;
some are strong, and some are weak;
some are healthy, and some are diseased;
so long as children reap the fruit of their parent's misconduct;
so long as sun, and rain, and heat, and cold, and wind, and waves, and drought, and blight, and storm, and tempest are beyond man's control-so long will there be inequality in this world.
Take all the property in England by force this day, and divide it equally among the inhabitants. Give every person over twenty years old an equal portion. Let all share alike, and begin the world over again. Do this, and see where you would be at the end of fifty years. You would just have come round to the point where you began! You would just find things as unequal as before!
Some would have worked-and some would have been lazy;
some would have been always careless-and some always scheming;
some would have sold-and others would have bought;
some would have wasted-and others would have saved.
And the end would be that some would be rich-and others would be poor.
We might as well say . . .
that all people ought to be of the same height, weight, strength, and cleverness;
or that all oak trees ought to be of the same shape and size;
or that all blades of grass ought to be of the same length
-as that all people were meant to be equal.
Settle it in your mind that the main cause of all the suffering you see around you, is sin. Sin is the grand cause . . .
of the enormous luxury of the rich-and the painful degradation of the poor;
of the heartless selfishness of the highest classes-and the helpless poverty of the lowest.
Sin must be first cast out of the world;
the hearts of all people must be renewed and sanctified;
the devil must be bound;
the Prince of Peace must come down and take His great power and reign
-all this must be before there ever can be universal happiness, or the gulf be filled up which now divides the rich and poor.
Beware of expecting a millennium to be brought about . . .
by any method of government,
by any system of education,
or by any political party.
Labor to do good to all men; pity your poorer brethren, and help every reasonable endeavor to raise them from their low estate. Do not slacken your hand from any endeavor . . .
to increase knowledge,
to promote morality,
to improve the temporal condition of the poor.
But never, never forget . . .
that you live in a fallen world,
that sin is all around you,
and that the devil is abroad.~ ~ ~ ~
It is but a little sin!
(Thomas Brooks)
"So that Satan will not outsmart us-for we are familiar with his evil schemes." 2 Corinthians 2:11
"Ah!" says Satan, "It is but a little sin-a little pride, a little worldliness, a little lust, etc. You may commit it without any danger to your soul. It is but a little one."
But there is great danger, yes, many times most danger, in the smallest sins.
Greater sins sooner startle the soul, and awaken and rouse up the soul to repentance, than lesser sins do. Little sins often slide into the soul, and breed, and work secretly and indiscernibly in the soul-until they come to be so strong as to trample upon the soul, and to cut the throat of the soul!
Little sins multiplied, become great sins. There is nothing less than a grain of sand, yet there is nothing heavier than the sand of the sea when multiplied.
Little sins are very dangerous!
A little leaven, leavens the whole lump.
A little hole in the ship, sinks it.
A small breach in a dyke, carries away all before it.
A little stab at the heart, kills a man.
Many are eternally undone by the 'little sins', as they call them, that are nourished in their own bosoms.
A little sin, without a great deal of mercy, will damn a man!
If the serpent sneaks in his head, he will draw in his whole body after him!
Though the scorpion is little, yet will it sting a lion to death!
Just so, a little sin may at once bar the door of Heaven, and open the gates of Hell!
The least sin is contrary . . .
to the law of God,
to the nature of God,
to the being of God,
and to the glory of God!
Therefore it is often punished severely by God.
The least sin will damn us-if not pardoned by the death of Christ!
John Flavel:
Perhaps the smallness of the sin is urged as a reason why you may commit it: "It is . . .
but a little sin,
but a small matter,
but a trifle!"
But, if you commit this little sin-you will offend a great God! Is there any little Hell to torment little sinners in? No! The least sinners in Hell are full of misery! There is great wrath treasured up for those whom the world regard as little sinners.
The less the sin-the less the inducement you should have to commit it. Will you provoke God for a trifle? Will you destroy your peace, wound your conscience, and grieve the Spirit-all for nothing? What madness is this!~ ~ ~ ~
The choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian!
(Thomas Brooks)
If it is not the aim of your heart to practice what you read, to what end do you read?
To increase your own condemnation? If your light and knowledge is not turned into practice, the more knowing man you are, the more miserable man you will be in the day of recompense! Your light and knowledge will be . . .
that rod that will eternally lash you,
and that scorpion that will forever bite you,
and that worm that will everlastingly gnaw you!
Therefore read and labor to know, that you may DO-or else you are undone for ever!
Remember, it is not hasty reading, but serious meditating upon holy and heavenly truths, that make them prove sweet and profitable to the soul.
It is not the bee's touching of the flower that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon the flower that draws out the sweet.~ ~ ~ ~
Your conscience will not always sleep!
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(Samuel Davies, "Divine Mercy to Mourning Penitents")
"They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them." Romans 2:15
The principal means which God uses in conversion, is that of conscience; and indeed without this, all the rest are in vain. Outward afflictions are of service-only as they tend to awaken the conscience from its lethargy to a faithful discharge of its duty. It is conscience which makes the sinner sensible of his misery and scourges him. The lashes of a guilty conscience are intolerable; and some under them have chosen strangling and suicide, rather than life.
Conscience is a serpent in his bosom, which bites and gnaws his heart; and he can no more avoid it, than he can fly from himself!
Let not such of you as have never been tortured with its remorse, congratulate yourselves upon your happiness, for you are not innocents! Your conscience will not always sleep! It will not always lie torpid and inactive, like a snake benumbed with cold, in your bosom!
It will awaken you either to your conversion-or condemnation!
Either the fire of God's wrath flaming from His law will enliven it in this world-to sting you with medicinal anguish; or the unquenchable fire of His vengeance in the lake of fire and brimstone will thaw it into life-and then it will horribly rage in your bosom, and diffuse its tormenting poison through your whole frame! And then it will become a never-dying worm, and prey upon your hearts forever!~ ~ ~ ~
The school of spiritual knowledge
(Octavius Winslow, "Trial, A Help Heavenward")
The school of trial is the school of spiritual knowledge.
"Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord; and teach out of Your law."
Oh yes, in severe trials we learn more of . . .
God's power to support us,
His wisdom to guide us,
His love to comfort us,
in a degree we could not have learned but in the way of trial!
In affliction, we grow in a knowledge of ourselves, learning more of our superficial attainments, shallow experience, and limited grace. We learn, too, more of our weakness, emptiness, and vileness-the plough-share of trial penetrating deep into the heart and turning up its veiled iniquity. And oh, how does this deeper self-knowledge lay us low, humble and abase us. And when our self-sufficiency and our self-seeking and our self-glorying is thus mowed down-then the showers of the Savior's grace descend "as rain upon the mown grass," and so we advance in knowledge and holiness heavenward.
Trial, too, increases our acquaintance with Christ. We know more of the Lord Jesus through one sanctified affliction, than by all the treatises the human pen ever wrote! Christ is only savingly known, as He is known personally and experimentally.
Books cannot teach Him,
sermons cannot teach Him,
lectures cannot teach Him.
They may aid our information and correct our views-but to know Him as He is, and as we ought, we must have personal dealings with Him.
Our sins must bring us to His sin-atoning blood,
our condemnation must bring us to His righteousness,
our corruptions must bring us to His grace,
our needs must bring us to His fullness,
our weakness must bring us to His strength,
our sorrow must bring us to His sympathy, and
His own loveliness and love must attract us to Himself.
And oh, in one hour, in a single transaction, in a lone sorrow, which has brought us to Jesus-who can estimate how rapidly and to what an extent we have grown in a knowledge of His person and work, His character and love?
Oh yes, times of trial are times of growth in experimental knowledge. We see God and Jesus and truth from new standpoints, and in a different light; and we thank the Lord for the storm which dispelled the mist which hid all this glory, unveiling so lovely a landscape and so serene a sky to our view.
I have seen more of my own vileness,
and known more of Jesus,
and have penetrated deeper into the heart of God,
and have a clearer understanding of revealed truth,
and have learned more of the mysteries of the divine life
-on this bed of sickness, in this time of bereaved sorrow, in this dark cloud that has overshadowed me-than in all my life before!~ ~ ~ ~
Such a god should be derided, not worshiped!
(William S. Plumer, "Providence Asserted" 1856)
"Our God is in Heaven; He does whatever pleases Him!" Psalm 115:3
"The Lord does whatever pleases Him, throughout all Heaven and earth, and on the seas and in their depths." Psalm 135:6
To deny God's providence is as atheistic as to deny His existence.
Nothing more derogatory to the character of God can possibly be said, than that He does not rule His world.
The world may as well be without a God, as have one who is incompetent to rule it.
A God, who neither sees, nor hears, nor knows, nor cares, nor helps, nor saves-is a vanity, and can never claim homage from intelligent men. Such a god should be derided, not worshiped!
"The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble!" Psalm 99:1
"Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns!" Revelation 19:6~ ~ ~ ~
What are all your sorrows, your cares, and your losses?
(John Angell James, 1785-1859)
"Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him!" Romans 5:9
What are all your sorrows, your cares, and your losses-viewed in the light of this happy condition?
You tell me of your poverty and many privations.
I will reply, "Yes, but then think of your justification!"
You tell me of your disappointed hopes and blasted schemes.
"Yes, but you are justified!"
You tell me of your change of circumstances, and the painful contrast of the present with the past.
"Yes, but you are justified!"
You tell me of your friends departed, and your now desolate condition.
"Yes, but you are justified!"
Thus, to every tale of want or woe, when that tale comes from the lips of a believer in Christ-I will bring up that one sweet, soothing melody for the troubled spirit-justification by faith!
"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ!" Romans 5:1~ ~ ~ ~
Where shall you find a rock?
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(Samuel Davies, "Jesus Christ, the Only Foundation" 1757)
"The present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men! The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be burned up!" 2 Peter 3:7, 10
The fiery deluge of divine vengeance, which has been gathering and swelling for thousands of years; but has been, as it were, restrained and kept within bounds by divine patience-shall then rise so high as to burst through all restraints, and overwhelm the guilty globe, and turn it into a universal ocean of liquid fire! This resistless torrent shall sweep away all the refuges of lies, and those who trusted in them-into the gulf of remediless destruction!
Well my friends, where shall we find a support to bear us up in this tremendous day? Where shall we find a rock to build upon, that we may be able to stand the shock, and remain safe and unmoved-in the wreck of dissolving worlds? What can uphold us-when this vast machine of our world, formed with so much skill and strength by the hands of a divine Architect, shall be broken up and fall to pieces?
Now, now is the time for us to find the refuge; it will be too late when all created supports are swept away, and this solid globe itself is dissolved beneath our feet into a sea of fire!
And where will you look? Where will you turn? This earth, and all its riches, honors, and pleasures-will prove to be but a quicksand in that day! Your friends and relations, were they ever so great or powerful-can then afford you no support! Therefore, think-where shall you find a rock on which you may build a happiness that will stand the shock in that dreadful day?
Everything else besides Christ . . .
is sliding sand,
is yielding air,
is a breaking bubble!
In that dread day . . .
wealth will prove to be a vain shadow,
honor will prove to be an empty breath,
pleasure will prove to be a delusive dream,
your own righteousness will prove to be a spider's web!
If we rely on these, disappointment and doom are inevitable!
Nothing but Christ, nothing but Christ, can stably support us in that dread day!
"He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress-I will never be shaken!" Psalm 62:2
His righteousness is infinitely perfect, equal to the highest demands of the divine law-and therefore a firm, immovable ground of trust. We may safely venture the weight of our eternal all-upon this rock! It will stand forever, without giving way under the heaviest pressure; without being broken by the most violent shock. Let thousands, let millions, with all the mountainous weight of guilt upon them, build upon this foundation, and they shall never be moved!
The firm foundations, the stately columns, the majestic buildings of Nineveh, Babylon and Persia, and all the magnificent structures of antiquity, though formed of the most durable stone, and promising immortality-are now shattered into ten thousand fragments, or lying in ruinous heaps!
But here in Christ, is a foundation for immortal souls-a foundation that will remain the same to all eternity! His righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, His strength an everlasting strength, and Himself the everlasting Father. He ever lives to make intercession for His people, and therefore he is able to save to the uttermost, to the uttermost point of duration-all who come unto God by Him!
Millions and millions of depraved, wretched, ruined creatures-have always found Him perfectly able, and as perfectly willing . . .
to expiate the most enormous guilt;
to deliver from the most inveterate corruptions;
and to save to the very uttermost!
Ten thousand times ten thousand, have built their hopes upon this rock-and it has never failed so much as one of them! Manasseh, Paul, and Mary Magdalen, and thousands more atrocious sinners-have ventured upon this all-sufficient rock with all their load of sin upon them, and found it able to sustain them!~ ~ ~ ~
If you really believe that all things under the sun are vanity
(Thomas Brooks)
"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher; "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" Ecclesiastes 1:2
If you really believe that all things under the sun are vanity, why do you spend more thoughts and time on the world-than you do on Christ, Heaven and your immortal souls?
That man is doubtless upon the brink of ruin, whose worldly business eats up all his thoughts of God, of Christ, of Heaven, of eternity, and of his soul; who can find time for anything-but none to meet with God in his closet!
A man may have enough of this world to sink him, but he can never have enough to satisfy him.
Sorrow attends worldly joy,
danger attends worldly safety,
loss attends worldly labors,
tears attend worldly purposes.
"Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." Ecclesiastes 12:13-14~ ~ ~ ~
Sin shall be unmasked!
(Thomas Brooks)
Sin so bewitches the soul, that it makes the soul call . . .
evil good, and good evil;
bitter sweet, and sweet bitter;
light darkness, and darkness light.
Ah, souls! When you shall lie upon a dying bed, and stand before a judgment-seat-sin shall be unmasked, and its dress and robes shall then be taken off! Then it shall appear more vile, filthy, and terrible than Hell itself!
Then that which formerly appeared . . .
most sweet, will appear most bitter,
most beautiful, will appear most ugly,
most delightful, will then appear most dreadful to the soul!
"Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of Me," declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty." Jeremiah 2:19
~ ~ ~ ~
Who is this amazing spectacle of woe and torture?
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(Samuel Davies, "The Preaching of Christ Crucified, the Means of Salvation")
"Christ died for the ungodly!" Romans 5:6
In the cross of Christ, God's hatred to sin is manifested in the most striking light-and the evil of sin is exposed in the most dreadful colors! Now it appears, that such is the divine hatred against all sin, that God can by no means forgive sin, without punishment; and that all the infinite benevolence of His nature towards His creatures cannot prevail upon Him to pardon the least sin-without an adequate atonement.
Nay, now it appears that when so malignant and abominable a thing is but imputed to His dear Son, His co-equal, His darling, His favorite-that even He could not escape unpunished, but was made a monument of vindictive justice to all worlds!
What can more strongly expose the evil of sin-than the cross of Christ? Sin is such an intolerably malignant and abominable thing, that even a God of infinite mercy and grace cannot let the least instance of it pass unpunished!
It was not a small thing which could arm God's justice against the Son of His love. Though He was perfectly innocent in Himself-yet when He was made sin for us-God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up unto death-the shameful, tormenting, and accursed death of the cross!
Go, you fools, who make a mock at sin!
Go and learn its malignity and demerit-at the cross of Jesus!
WHO is it that hangs there writhing in the agonies of death . . .
His hands and feet pierced with nails,
His side gashed with a spear,
His face bruised with blows,
drenched with tears and blood,
His heart melting like wax,
His whole frame racked and disjointed,
forsaken by His friends, and even by His Father,
tempted by devils,
and insulted by men?
Who is this amazing spectacle of woe and torture? It is . . .
Jesus, the eternal Word of God,
God's Elect, in whom His soul delights,
God's beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased!
And WHAT has He done? He did no wickedness; He knew no sin-but was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.
And WHY then, all these dreadful sufferings from Heaven, earth, and Hell?
Why, He only stood in the law-place of sinners-He only received their sin by imputation.
And you see what it has brought upon Him!
You see how low it has reduced Him!
What a horrid evil must that be-which has such tremendous consequences, even upon the Darling of Heaven!
Oh! what still more dreadful havoc would SIN have made, if it had been punished upon the sinner himself in his own person! Surely all the various miseries which have been inflicted upon our guilty world in all ages, and even all the punishments of Hell-do not so loudly proclaim the terrible desert and malignity of sin, as the cross of Christ!
The infinite malignity of sin and God's hatred to it, appear nowhere in so striking and dreadful a light-as in the cross of Christ! Let a reasonable creature take but one serious view of that cross-and surely he must ever after tremble at the thought of the least sin!~ ~ ~ ~
All will be pure, unmingled happiness-or pure, unmingled misery!
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("Life's Shortness and Vanity", A funeral sermon by Samuel Davies)
"Then they will go away to eternal punishment-but the righteous to eternal life!" Matthew 25:46
In this present world, our good and evil are blended. Our happiness has some bitter ingredients, and our miseries have some agreeable mitigations.
But in the eternal world, good and evil shall be entirely and forever separated! All will be pure, unmingled happiness-or pure, unmingled misery!
But what gives infinite importance to these joys and sorrows is-that they are enjoyed or suffered in the eternal world, and they are themselves eternal. Eternal joys! Eternal pains! Joys and pains that will last as long as the King eternal and immortal will live to distribute them! As long as our immortal spirits will live to feel them! Oh what joys and pains are these!
And these eternal joys or pains, my friends-are awaiting every one of us! These pleasures, or these pains-are felt this moment by all our friends and acquaintances who have died before us! And in a little, little while-you and I must feel them!
Alas! What then, have we to do with time and earth? Are the pleasures and pains of this world-worthy to be compared with eternal pleasures and pains? "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!"
The enjoyments and sufferings,
the labors and pursuits,
the laughter and tears of the present state
-are all nothing in comparison. What is the loss of an estate, or of a dear relative-compared to the loss of a blissful immortality?
And if our heavenly inheritance is secure-what does it matter, even if we should be reduced into Job's forlorn situation? What does it matter, even if we are poor, sickly, racked with pains, and submerged in every human misery? Heaven will more than make amends for all!
But if we have no evidences of a title to Heaven, the sense of these transitory distresses may be swallowed up in the fear of the horrible miseries of eternity!
Alas! What does it avail-that we play away a few years in mirth and gaiety, in grandeur and pleasure-if when these few years have fled, we lift up our eyes in Hell, tormented in eternal flames!
Oh what are all these transitory things-to a candidate for eternity!
An heir of everlasting happiness-or everlasting misery!
If we spend our immortality in eternal misery-what sorry comfort will it be that we laughed, and played, and frolicked away our few years upon earth!
As Christians, we are to be nobly indifferent to all the little amusements and pleasures of so short an earthly life.
"Then they will go away to eternal punishment-but the righteous to eternal life!" Matthew 25:46
~ ~ ~ ~
The plague of unsatisfiedness
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of covetousness; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Luke 12:15
Covetousness is . . .
a very great and grievous sin;
a mother sin;
a breeding sin;
a sin which has all sin in its womb;
a very vile and heinous sin;
the root of all evil.
Covetousness makes the soul earthly-which should be celestial.
Covetousness is an evil which subjects men to the basest and vilest evils.
Covetousness makes a man a fool! "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" Luke 12:20
Covetousness robs a man of all true peace, comfort, contentment and quiet.
Covetousness brings men into snares which drown their souls in perdition.
Covetousness renders men unsatisfied under all their outward enjoyments. Though a covetous wretch has enough to sink him-yet he can never have enough to satisfy him. First he wishes for a bag full, and then a chest full, and then a room full, and then a house full, etc.
The plague of unsatisfiedness-is the great plague which covetous men are under. Certainly you shall as soon fill a triangle with a circle, and a chest with grace-as you shall be able to fill and satisfy a covetous mind with money.
A covetous man is like a swine-which is good for nothing while it lives.
The horse is good to carry,
the ox is good to draw,
the sheep is good for cloth,
the cow is good to give milk,
and the dog is good to guard the house-
but the hog is good for nothing while he lives!
Just so, a covetous man is only serviceable when he is dead. That scripture often proves true, "the riches of a sinner are laid up for the just." Job 27:17
No sin lays men under greater woes!
"People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs!" 1 Timothy 6:9-10~ ~ ~ ~
Tears have a voice!
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
"The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping." Psalm 6:8
Tears have a voice. God has an eye upon a man's tears, as well as upon his prayers. Penitent tears are divine ambassadors, which never return from the throne of grace without answers of grace. Peter said nothing, but went out and wept bitterly-and obtained mercy. Tears are a kind of silent prayers, which will at last prevail for mercy.
A sinner's face never shines so beautiful, as when it is bedewed with penitential tears.
"I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears!" Isaiah 38:5~ ~ ~ ~
Spit out the sweet morsels of sin!
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
"When He comes, He will convict the world about sin." John 16:8
A man never comes . . .
to see his sins,
nor to be sick of his sins,
nor to loathe his sins,
nor to arraign his sins,
nor to condemn his sins,
nor to judge himself for his sins-
until he comes to be possessed by the Holy Spirit.
A man never comes . . .
to spit out the sweet morsels of sin,
to make a sacrifice of his only Isaac,
to hack his trembling Agag in pieces,
to strangle his Delilah,
and in good earnest to set upon an utter extirpation of his most cherished sins-until the Spirit of holiness comes upon him. Until the Holy Spirit falls upon the hearts of sinners, they will never be turned out of . . .
their pride,
their formality,
their carnality,
their sensuality,
their security.
To make a man holy-is greater than to create a world! It can be done by none but by the Holy Spirit. It is the great work of the Spirit to shape and form holiness in all the vessels of glory.
The Spirit sweetly and strongly moves His people . . .
to mind holiness,
to fall in love with holiness,
to press after holiness,
to leave off their sins,
to turn to God,
to embrace Christ,
to tremble at threatenings,
to embrace promises.~ ~ ~ ~
Well, trifle a little longer!
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(Samuel Davies, "The Danger of Lukewarmness in Religion")
"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold-I am going to vomit you out of My mouth!" Revelation 3:15-16
Are lukewarmness and indifference a suitable temper with respect to a HAPPINESS far exceeding the utmost bounds of our present thoughts and wishes; a happiness equal to the largest capacities of our souls in their most improved and perfect state; a happiness beyond the grave, when all the enjoyments of this transitory life have taken an eternal flight from us; a happiness that will last as long as our immortal spirits, and never fade or fly from us?
Or are lukewarmness and indifference a suitable temper with respect to a MISERY beyond expression, beyond conception dreadful; a misery inflicted by a God of almighty power and inexorable justice upon all obstinate, incorrigible rebels for numberless, willful and daring provocations; inflicted on purpose to show His wrath and make His power known? A misery proceeding from the united fury of divine indignation, of the turbulent passions of a guilty conscience, of malicious tormenting devils? A misery (who can bear up under the horror of the thought!) that shall last as long as the eternal God shall live to inflict it-as long as sin shall continue evil to deserve it-as long as an immortal spirit shall endure to bear it-a misery that shall never be mitigated, never intermitted, never, never, never see an end?
And remember, that a state of eternal happiness or misery is not far remote from us-but near us, just before us! The next year, the next hour, or the next moment-we may enter into it!
Oh, sirs, does an apathetic, careless attitude befit us in such a solemn situation? Is a state of such eternal happiness-or such misery; is such a state which we must shortly enter-a matter of indifference to us? Oh, can you be lukewarm about such matters? Was such a exceeding stupidity ever seen under the canopy of Heaven, or even in the regions of Hell-which abound with monstrous and horrid beings? No! the vilest demons below cannot make light of these things! Mortals! can you trifle about them?
Well, trifle a little longer-and your trifling will be over, forever! You may now be indifferent about the improving of your time; but time is determined to continue its rapid course, and hurry you into the ocean of eternity, though you should continue sleeping and dreaming through all the passage!
Therefore awake, arise-before your doom is unchangeably fixed!
Let the criminal, condemned to die tomorrow, be indifferent about a pardon; let a drowning man be careless about catching at the only plank that can save him; but oh, do not be careless and indifferent about eternity-and such amazing realities as Heaven and Hell!
If you disbelieve these things-you are infidels.
If you believe these things, and yet are unaffected with them-you are worse than infidels! Not even Hell itself can find a precedent of such a conduct. The devils believe-and tremble! You believe-and trifle with things whose very name strikes solemnity and awe through Heaven and Hell.~ ~ ~ ~
Murder all his hearers at once!
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
"The leaders of the people have led them down the path of destruction!" Isaiah 9:16
Take heed of settling yourselves under an unholy minister-of one whose life gives the lie to his doctrine. An unholy preacher is the greatest destroyer of the souls of men! He who preaches well, but lives bad-does what he can, to murder all his hearers at once! There is no greater bar to holiness, than ministers' unholy lives. An unholy life mars the soundest and the sweetest doctrine. The sins of teachers are the teachers of sins!
An unholy minister is the greatest pest, the worst plague, and the greatest mischief-that can be to a people; for his enormities, his wickednesses, will have the strongest influences upon the souls and lives of men-to make them eternally miserable. His falls will be the fall and ruin of many; for people are prone to . . .
live more by examples-than by precepts;
mind more what the minister does-than what he says;
eye more how he walks-than how he talks.
Let a minister be ever so learned, solid, quaint, elegant, zealous, judicious, sententious, etc.-yet if he is carnal, covetous, worldly, vain, and loose in his life and walk, his hearers will rather slight and abhor the holy things of God.
When the preacher departs out of the way of holiness, the people will quickly wander from all that is good. He whose life is not a standing reproof to sin-will, by his life, encourage sinners more and more in a way of sin. There is nothing which keeps men so off from the love of holiness, and from the pursuing after holiness-than the unholy lives of their ministers.
"Watch your life and doctrine closely." 1 Timothy 4:16
"Set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12
"In everything set them an example by doing what is good." Titus 2:7~ ~ ~ ~
Those who hunt after it are dogs!
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
Though of all losses, the loss of the soul is the greatest, the saddest, the sorest, the heaviest, and the most intolerable, inconceivable, and irrecoverable loss-yet a man bewitched with the world will run the hazard of losing his eternal soul, of damning it-to enjoy the world.
Men who are bewitched with this world in these days, oh, how do they prefer their sensual delights, their brutish contentments, and their carnal enjoyments-before the beauties of holiness, and before heavenly glory, where holiness sparkles and shines in all its refulgence, and where their souls might be abundantly satisfied and delighted with . . .
the most ravishing joys,
the most surpassing delights and
the most transcendent pleasures which are at God's right hand!
The Arabic proverb says that "The world is a carcass-and those who hunt after it are dogs!" If this proverb is true, what a multitude of professors will be found to be dogs . . .
who hunt more after earth-than heaven;
who hunt more after terrestrial things-than celestial things;
who hunt more after worldly nothingnesses and emptinesses
-than they do after those fullnesses and sweetnesses which are in God, Christ, Heaven, and holiness!~ ~ ~ ~
Painted holiness
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers; therefore you shall receive the greater damnation." Matthew 23:14
Who had a greater name for holiness,
and who made a greater show of holiness,
and who did more despise and insult other men for the lack of holiness
-than the Scribes and Pharisees? And who so miserable now-as they?
Pretended holiness will double-damn souls at last!
None have so large a portion in Hell as hypocrites have. No man at last will be found so miserable, as he . . .
who has the name of a saint upon him-but not the divine nature in him;
who has a profession of holiness upon him-but no principles of holiness in him;
who has a form of godliness-but not the power;
who can cry up godliness-but in practice denies it;
who is a professor outwardly-but an atheist, a pagan, a devil inwardly.
Artificial sanctity is double iniquity! He who professes piety without being pious, and godliness without being godly; he who makes counterfeit holiness a cloak to impiety, and a midwife to iniquity; he who is . . .
a Jacob without-and an Esau within,
a David without-and a Saul within,
a John without-and a Judas within,
a saint without-and a Satan within,
an angel without-and a devil within,
is ripened for the worst of torments!
Sirs, do not deceive your own souls!
A painted sword shall as soon defend a man,
and a painted mint shall as soon enrich a man,
and a painted fire shall as soon warm a man,
and a painted friend shall as soon counsel a man,
and a painted horse shall as soon carry a man,
and a painted feast shall as soon nourish a man,
and a painted house shall as soon shelter a man
-as a painted holiness shall save a man!
He who now thinks to put off God with a painted holiness, shall not fare so well at last-as to be put off with a painted happiness. The lowest, the hottest, and the darkest habitation in Hell will be his portion-whose religion lies all in shows and shadows.
Well, spiritual counterfeits, remember this-it will not be long . . .
before Christ will unmask you;
before He will uncloak you;
before He will disrobe you;
before He will take off your masks, your cloaks, and turn your rotten insides outward-to your eternal shame and reproach before all the world!~ ~ ~ ~
These Gergesites had rather lose Christ, than lose their porkers!
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
"When they saw Him, they pleaded with Him to leave their region." Matthew 8:34
A man bewitched with the world will prefer the most base and contemptible things before the Lord Jesus Christ. He will, with the Gergesenes, prefer his swine before a Savior, Matthew 8:28-34.
When they saw what a sad market their hogs were brought to, they desired Christ to depart out of their country. These Gergesites had rather lose Christ, than lose their porkers! They had rather that the devil should possess their souls-than that Jesus should drown their pigs. They prefer their swine, before their salvation!
They present a wretched petition for their own damnation; they pleaded with Him to leave their region. Though there is no misery, no plague, no curse, no wrath, no Hell-compared to Christ's departure from a people; yet men bewitched with the world will desire this. "When they saw Him, they pleaded with Him to leave their region." Matthew 8:34~ ~ ~ ~
Turned into beasts, birds, stones, trees, or air!
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
"Our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:29
Chaff and stubble cannot stand before that God, who is a consuming fire. Oh, how will the ungodly tremble and quake when the whole frame of heaven and earth shall break in pieces, and be set in a flame about their ears! Oh . . .
what trouble of mind,
what horror and terror of conscience,
what weeping and wailing,
what crying and roaring,
what wringing of hands,
what tearing of hair, and
what gnashing of teeth,
will there be among the ungodly in this day-when they shall see their sins charged upon them on the one side-and divine justice terrifying them on the other side!
When they shall look upward, and there see an angry God frowning upon them;
and look downward, and there see Hell gaping ready to receive them;
and look inward, and there find conscience accusing and gnawing of them!
When they shall look on their right hand, and there behold the holy angels standing with so many flaming swords to keep them out of Heaven; and look on their left hand, and there behold the devil and his demons ready to drag them down to the lowest Hell! Oh, now how will they wish for the rocks to fall upon them, and the mountains to cover them! How will they wish that they had never been born; or that they might now be unborn! How will they now wish that their immortal souls were mortal; or that they might be turned into beasts, birds, stones, trees, or air-or anything rather than what they are!
Alas! what heart is able to conceive, or what tongue is able to express-the fear and dread, the horror and terror, the astonishment and amazement, which will fall upon all ungodly people in that day!
"For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thessalonians 5:9~ ~ ~ ~
The dregs of old age!
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
"Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs!" Numbers 23:10
Many desire to repent when old age comes, when . . .
their wits are cracked,
their souls distracted,
their senses stupefied,
their hearts bewildered,
their minds darkened and
their bodies diseased and distempered.
Oh, then they think that they will be able to leap into Heaven, with a "Lord have mercy upon me" in their mouths. Even though they have lived like devils-yet they hope they shall die like saints!
Do you think, O vain man-that after you have spent your time, and wasted your strength, and exhausted your energies in the work of Satan, and in the service of your lusts-that God will receive you to His grace and favor? If you do thus flatter yourself-it is ten thousand to one that you will deceive yourself! Though true repentance is never too late-yet late repentance is seldom true. Ah, how many millions are now in Hell-who have thought, and resolved, and said that they would repent hereafter-but that hereafter never came!
You say "Tomorrow, tomorrow I will repent," when you know not what a tomorrow will bring forth. Alas! how many thousand ways may death surprise you before tomorrow comes! Though there is but one way to come into the world-yet there are a thousand thousand ways to be sent out of the world. Oh, the diseases, the hazards, the dangers, the accidents, the deaths-which daily, which hourly attend the life of man!
Ah friends! it is a dangerous thing to make repentance to be the task of old age.
The longer any man defers his repentance, the more difficult it will be for him to repent:
his heart will every day grow more and more hard,
and his will more and more perverse,
and his judgment more and more corrupted,
and his affections more and more disordered,
and his conscience more and more benumbed or enraged,
and his whole life more and more defiled and debauched.
Friends, do not deceive yourselves! Old age is but a tottering and sinking foundation for you to build your eternal hopes and happiness upon-your eternal making or marring upon! Are the dog-days of old age-are the trembling hands, the wrinkled face, the failing eyes, the gasping lungs, the fainting heart, the feeble knees, and the broken down legs-are these a sacrifice worthy of a majestic God? Is a body full of sores, aches, and diseases-and a soul full of sin-an offering worthy of a holy God? Surely not!
Oh, what madness, what wickedness is this: to serve Satan, your lusts, and this world with full dishes-and to put off God with scraps! To serve Satan, your lusts, and this world in the flower, in the prime and primrose of your days-and to put off God with the dregs of old age! Oh, do not let Satan deceive you, do not let your own hearts delude you!~ ~ ~ ~
The beauty and glory of a Christian!
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
Holiness will render you most beautiful and amiable. As holiness is the beauty of God, and the beauty of angels-so it is the beauty and glory of a Christian also. Holiness casts such a beauty upon man, as makes him very amiable and desirable.
The redness of the rose, the whiteness of the lily, and all the beauties of the natural universe-are but deformities compared to that beauty which holiness puts upon us. If all natural beauty were contracted into one beauty-yet it would be but an obscure and an unlovely beauty, compared to that beauty which holiness puts upon us!
Holiness is lovely, yes-loveliness itself. Purity is a Christian's splendor and glory. There is no beauty compared to that of sanctity; nothing beautifies and bespangles a man like holiness.
Holiness is so attractive and so lovely a thing-that it draws all eyes and hearts to an admiration of it. Holiness is so great a beauty-that it puts a beauty upon all other excellencies in a man. That holiness is a very beautiful thing, and that it makes all those beautiful who have it-is a truth that no devil can deny!
"Demetrius," says Plutarch, "was so lovely of face, that no painter was able to draw him." Just so, holiness puts so rare a beauty upon man-that no painter under heaven is able to draw him!
Scipio Africanus was so lovely a person, that the Spaniards stood amazed at his loveliness. Holiness puts such a loveliness, and such an amiableness upon a person-that many admire it, and stand amazed at it.
O sirs, as ever you would be amiable and desirable-be holy!
As ever you would be attractive and lovely-be holy!
As ever you would outshine the sun in splendor and glory-labor to be holy!
Many have ventured their names, their estates, their liberties, their lives, yes, their very souls-to enjoy a lovely Bathsheba, an attractive Helena, a beautiful Diana, a lovely Cleopatra, etc.-whose beauties have been but clay, well-colored. Oh, how much more, then, should you be provoked to labor and venture your all for holiness-which will imprint upon you that most excellent and most exquisite beauty; which will go to the grave and to glory with you; yes, which will render you not only amiable and excellent in the eyes of men-but also lovely and lovely in the eyes of God!
Unholy souls are . . .
foul souls,
ugly souls,
deformed souls,
withered souls,
wrinkled souls,
altogether unlovely souls.~ ~ ~ ~
The richest man in the world!
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
"Having nothing-and yet possessing all things." 2 Corinthians 6:10
This is a riddle the world cannot understand.
A holy man cannot be a poor man.
A holy man is always the richest man.
The riches of a Christian have no bottom.
All a saint's bags, are bottomless bags.
Experience tells us that unholy men's bags, purses, coffers, and mints-may be drawn dry. But the treasury, the riches of a saint-can never be exhausted, for he possesses all things in Christ and with Christ! The Christian has the God of all-he has Him who has all.
Though he has nothing in hand-yet he has all things in hope. A holy man is the richest man in the world, for he has the great and glorious God engaged by many thousand promises . . .
to own him,
to bless him,
to stand by him,
to give grace and glory to him, and
to withhold nothing from him that may be good for him.
When wicked men brag of their great possessions and riches-a holy man may make his boast of God, and say, "God is mine! God is mine! He is my great all; He is my all in all; and therefore I am richer and a greater possessor than any wicked man in the world-yes, than all wicked men in the world put together!"~ ~ ~ ~
Without holiness
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity; or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
"Without holiness no one will see the Lord." Hebrews 12:14
To 'see' implies both vision and fruition. Without holiness, no man-be he high or low, noble or ignoble, rich or poor, etc., shall ever come to a blessed acquaintance with God here, or to a glorious fruition and enjoyment of God hereafter. Oh,
how great a misery,
how great a punishment,
how great an affliction,
how great a trouble and torment,
how great a tribulation,
how great a Hell
-will it be for all unholy people to be forever and ever banished the court of Heaven, and to be shut out from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power-and to be everlastingly confined to the prison of Hell, and to the society and company of that damned crew who will be still a-cursing and a-blaspheming God, and adding to one another's torments!
Ah, friends! without holiness all is lost . . .
your soul is lost,
Christ is lost,
God is lost,
Heaven is lost,
glory is lost!
What are all other losses, compared to these losses?
Well, sirs, if none of these arguments can prevail with you to labor after holiness, I must conclude . . .
that divine justice has hardened you,
that Satan has blinded you,
that your lusts have besotted you,
that this world has bewitched you;
and that it would have been ten thousand thousand times better for you, to have never been born, than . . .
to live without holiness,
and to die without holiness,
and to be everlastingly damned for lack of holiness!
"Without holiness no one will see the Lord." Hebrews 12:14~ ~ ~ ~
You should follow in His steps
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity; or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)
"He who says he abides in Him, ought himself also to walk even as He walked." 1 John 2:6
Christians are to set all Christ's moral actions before them as a pattern for their imitation. In Christ's life, a Christian may behold the picture or lineaments of all virtues-and accordingly he ought to order his life in this world.
To walk as Christ walked is to walk . . .
humbly,
holily,
justly,
meekly,
lovingly,
fruitfully,
faithfully,
uprightly.
To walk as Christ walked is to . . .
slight the world,
despise the world,
make a footstool of the world,
to live above the world,
and to triumph over the world as Christ did.
To walk as Christ walked is . . .
to love those who hate us,
to pray for those who persecute us,
to bless those who curse us,
and to do good to those who do evil to us.
To walk as Christ walked is to be patient, and silent, and submissive, and thankful-under . . .
the vilest reproaches,
the heaviest afflictions,
and the greatest sufferings.
"Leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps." 1 Peter 2:21~ ~ ~ ~
28 Motives to Love Jesus!
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(Thomas Doolittle, "Love to Christ Necessary to Escape the Curse at His Coming!" 1693)#1. Can you find a more EXCELLENT OBJECT for your love, than Jesus?
If you search through the whole creation, could you find any like Him? Are riches, honors, pleasures, or other relationships comparable to Jesus, whom you ought to love supremely? Should not the highest good be the best object of your love? Can you love lesser things, and not the greatest good? Is not all the goodness in the creature but as a drop compared to the sea, as a candle compared to the sun, as a speck of sand compared to a mountain-when compared to the goodness that is in Jesus? If David were worth ten thousand other men-then is not Jesus, David's Lord, better than all the world?#2. Is not Jesus the most SUITABLE GOOD for you?
Is liberty so suitable to a captive man, or bread to a hungry man, or health to a sick man, or ease to a suffering man-as Jesus is to a sinful man? Were you not lost, undone and in danger to be eternally damned? Jesus was your Savior, your Keeper and your Redeemer. "The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost!" "Therefore He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him." Jesus is "Mighty to save!"Were you not ignorant, dark and blind, not knowing the way to Heaven and eternal happiness? Did not you weary yourself trying to find the gate of life, and yet missed it when you had done all you could? Jesus became your Teacher and your Guide, to infallibly direct you to Heaven. He anointed your eyes with His eye-salve, even though you were born blind, and then He gave you spiritual sight. Now you are able to see your lost estate, the beauty of Jesus, and the way of salvation.
Were you not sick, and full of spiritual diseases-abounding with soul-ailments? Were you not sick and near to eternal death? Jesus was your able and skillful Physician. None whom He has undertaken to cure, has ever yet perished under His hands. For rather than you justly die of your soul's disease, He made a potion for you out of His own blood, which, when you drank it, you were made totally well. Therefore He came to be your soul-physician, that He might save incurable sinners like yourself.
Were you not indebted to God? Did not you owe millions to Him, yet had not a penny to pay? If God were to demand payment from you, would it not have proven your damnation? If His justice were to pursue you, and death arrest you-would not your soul be seized and thrown into the prison of Hell, from where you would never have been delivered, until you had paid the last penny you owe, which would never be? But now that Jesus has loved you, He has become your Substitute and made full payment for your unpayable sin-debt!
Were you not spiritually polluted and vile? Had not the leprosy of sin spread over your understanding, your will, your conscience, your memory and all your affections? So that you were defiled all over, and lay wallowing in your blood, cast out because you were so loathsome to God? In this filthy state, you could never enter into the holy kingdom of God. But Jesus loved you, took away your filthy rags, and gave you a change of clothing made of His perfect righteousness. You said to Him, "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean." He in love said to you, "I am willing, be clean!" He bathed you in His own blood, and cleansed you from all your sins. Yes, though your sins were as scarlet, they became as white as snow; though they were red like crimson, they became as white as wool.
Were you not a captive to Satan and to sin-drudging elbow deep in the loathsome service of sin? Was not your bondage worse than that of the Israelites in Egypt? And were not Satan and sin as cruel and tyrannical as Pharaoh and his task-masters? Did you not love your chains of sin? Were you not at ease in your shackles? Do you remember how Jesus released you from your fetters? Jesus became your Redeemer and made you free-and then you were free indeed!
Were you not an enemy to God? You were born His enemy, and then continued to live as His adversary. Had you died in this condition, your soul would have been alienated from God forever. But now Jesus has become your blessed peacemaker, and by the blood of His cross He reconciled you to God.
Were you not spiritually dead? Had you not lost the holy image of God? Though you were dead, Jesus gave you spiritual life and eternal glory.
Now, if this was your desperate condition, and Jesus helped you in every respect-then how suitable is He to you? Is not His suitableness to you a foundation for love, and a motive to love Him? What an argument is this to win your heart to Jesus!
You were lost, but Jesus saved you!
You were ignorant, but Jesus taught you!
You were sick, but Jesus healed you!
You were polluted, but Jesus cleansed you!
You were a captive to sin and Satan, but Jesus freed you!
You were an enemy of God, but Jesus reconciled you!
You were spiritually dead, and Jesus gave you spiritual life!Oh, you never found one so suitable for you! Now, even now, He should be loved by you. O, Jesus is the most excellent object for your love, and you should no longer withhold your devotion from Him.
#3. Is not Jesus the most SATISFYING GOOD to you?
You were destitute, and He supplied you.
You were empty, and He filled you.
You were poor, and He enriched you.
O to love such a Savior!#4. Is not Jesus the most DURABLE GOOD to you?
When your riches, pleasures, honors and friends shall fail you-Jesus will never fail you!
#5. Is not Jesus a SPECIAL GOOD to you?
He was given by special love, to a chosen people, and brings with Him incredible privileges! All other things you might love are as common to lost people, as well as to the saved. Though a worldly man, whose heart and hands and house, are full of the world, might say, "Riches are mine"-yet he cannot truly say, "Jesus is mine". Let Jesus have the best of your love, because you are the object of His special, electing, redemptive love!#6. Is not Jesus the most NECESSARY GOOD to you?
Do you need food so much when you are hungry,
or liberty so much when you are in prison,
or medicine so much when you are sick-
as much as Jesus when you are a sinner?You could never have been truly happy, pardoned, reconciled, and forever saved without Jesus. Jesus is needful, because without Him, your sin-sick soul would have no cure. He gave you the choicest and the richest cordial. And when you die, He will secure your departing soul. And after death, He will be your friend forever. When all worldly things shall leave you at your grave, Jesus will be yours forever!
#7. Is not Jesus the most PROFITABLE GOOD to you?
For when you have Him, you have all. Then . . .
God is yours,
and the Spirit is yours,
and the promises are yours,
and all the privileges of Scripture are yours,
and Heaven itself shall be forever yours!#8. Is not Jesus the most DELIGHTFUL GOOD?
Some people delight in what they see, some in what they hear, some in what they eat, and some in recreation or amusements. But the delight of knowing Jesus surpasses them all. He is altogether and supremely delightful!#9. Is not Jesus a SURE GOOD?
Other things God may give, and afterwards call for them back again, "Therefore I will take away My grain when it ripens, and My new wine when it is ready. I will take back My wool and my linen..." Hosea 2:9. But God never said, "I gave such a man my Jesus, but I will take Him away." God may take riches out of your hand; but if you once receive the Lord Jesus, God will never take Jesus out of your heart.#10. Has not Jesus DESERVED your love-by what He has suffered, done, given, purchased, promised and prepared for you?
Behold the wounds which He has endured for you!
Behold the crown of thorns on His head, that there may be a crown of glory upon your head!
Behold Him dying, that you might live!
Behold Him suffering, that you may be saved!
Behold Him poor, that you may be made rich with the best, surest and most durable of riches.
Behold Him condemned, that you may be absolved!
Behold Him in an agony, that you might have rest and ease in glory.
Behold Him bearing the cross, and the cross bearing Him-that you might not bear the curse!
Behold Him bearing the Father's wrath-that you might be made the subject of His grace, and the object of His everlasting love!And now tell me-does not this Jesus deserve your love? Should you love any other like Him, when none other has done so much for you as He has done? Does the small kindness of a fellow creature draw out your love-and shall not all these great things that Jesus has done for you, kindle a fire of love towards Him? How can you bear not to love Him?
#11. Is not love to Jesus the BEST love you can attain?
It is a pity, that any other object should have your greatest love.#12. Is not love to Jesus the SWEETEST love?
The one who loves other things instead of Jesus, loves nothing but vanity-and to love vanity will prove troublesome. He who loves riches has disturbing sorrow, fretting fears, and perplexing, anxious cares.So without love to Jesus, love to other things will always be a bitter love. Oh now, how sorry I am that ever I loved the world as I have done-that ever I loved my pleasures, my sin as I have done. But you will never have cause to say, I am sorry that ever I loved Jesus. Never was such a word ever heard. Those who never repent of their love to the world and sin-their worldly love will certainly end in sorrow, and with bitterness of soul be sadly lamented in Hell. But what contentment, satisfaction, delight, comfort and joy is there in the loving of Jesus! None can tell so well, as those who love Him.
#13. Is not love to Jesus the SAFEST love?
You cannot sin in loving Jesus-except it be in the smallness of it, and not loving Him more. You might have fear and trembling in loving other things, and say, "Do not I sin by over-loving this?" But you can never love Jesus too much.#14. Is not love to Jesus the SUREST love?
Love to other things is often turned into hatred-love today, and hate tomorrow. But love to Jesus remains firm. Jesus is the surest object of your love-neither men, nor death, nor demons, can take Him away from you. Though others might keep us from reading His Word, none can keep us from loving Jesus.#15. Is not love to Jesus the NOBLEST love?
Love to pleasures, love to the world and to sin-are base and polluted loves. Love to Jesus is most sublime and lofty. Jesus is the most noble object for your love!#16. Is not love to Jesus the most ENDURING love?
It is a love that shall never end. Before long, everyone will be done loving this world-even those who love it most and have their hearts most set upon it. Those who now have their hearts full of earth, shall soon have their mouths full of earth, when their bodies lie rotting in the earth-then they will be done loving it. Death, which ends their life in this world-shall end their love to this world!But you, the true lover of Jesus, shall never be done loving Him. It is sweet to love Jesus, but this makes it even more sweet-to think you shall ALWAYS love Him-love Him in life, love Him in death and love Him after death. Oh blessed love that shall never be lost, but last forever!
What can those who never loved Jesus in this world, love in the next world? What can damned souls in Hell love?
Can they love God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, angels or believers? No! their hatred to all these is, and shall be, more deeply rooted in them than it ever was while upon earth.
Can they love their location in Hell? No, they will wish they never had come there.
Can they love the pains of Hell? No, they grieve and groan under these torments, and are weary to bear them.
Can they love the devils in Hell? No, they curse them for tempting them to the sin which brought them to their place in Hell.
Can they love their companions in Hell? No, they are an aggravation of one another's misery.
Can they love their sin in Hell? Alas! all that was pleasurable in sin is gone, and only the pain and sting of sin remain.
Can they love their being in Hell? They had rather die than live, and cease to be at all-than to continue to be in Hell.
Oh loathsome place, where there is, and can be, no love!
Oh! how lovely is Heaven to us! Where love reigns and where love lives! Our life shall be forever a life of love!
Dear Lord! save me from Hell, because in Hell there is no love to You, nor to anything that is good. Sweet Savior! lead me in the way to Heaven, and bring me there, where love to You shall live and last forever!
#17. Is it not the WISEST CHOICE to love Jesus, and not the things of this world?
Everyone loves something. And do those act as rational creatures, as men endued with reason-who do not love Jesus, but give their affections to the world and sin? They love that which cannot love them back, nor satisfy them, and which they must soon part with. "He who loves silver shall never be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This is also meaningless." "Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand." "We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out."Might you not be rich today, and poor tomorrow?
Healthy today, and sick tomorrow?
In honor today, and in disgrace tomorrow?
Was it not so with Haman?When you have riches and love them, you are not sure to keep them. Will you set your eyes, your heart and your love, "upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings, and fly away as an eagle towards heaven." Death carries the lovers of this world far away-far from the things they love. The pleasures of sin, and also the profits of the world, are but for a season; and when the season is over, they are gone! But Jesus will never leave you, nor ever forsake you!
#18. Can you do anything less than love Jesus-and can you do anything more?
Jesus has done such great things for you, is it not a small thing that Jesus should have your love in return? If Jesus had asked you to lay down your life for Him, had He called you to give your bodies to be burned for Him-would you not have done it? How much more when He says, "just let your hearts but burn in love unto Me"-when that burning will not be painful, but delightful!When Naaman came to the prophet to be cleansed of his leprosy, being directed to go and wash in the Jordan that he should be clean-in anger he went away. But his servant came to Him and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather, then, when He says unto you-wash, and be clean?" In the same way, if Jesus had required some great thing, that you might escape great torments, and be partaker of His great salvation-would you not have gladly done it? How much rather, then, when He says, "Love Me, and be saved?"
When you have received a great kindness from a friend whom you cannot repay, do you not say, "I cannot do less than love him". Yet this small thing of loving Jesus is of greater value to Him than all else. You pray to Him, but to love Him is better. A heart full of love means more to Jesus than a thousand prayers full of the most eloquent expressions, without love. You study His Word, but to love Him is better. You might suffer for Him, but to love to Him is better. Should you give all your goods to the poor, and your body to the fire for Him-yet to give your heart and to love Him is still better. And, indeed, except all the former things proceed from love and are accompanied with love-they are not pleasing to Jesus.
#19. Will you love worldly things, which you might easily love too much-and not Jesus whom you can never love too much?
You might love your riches, your relations, your pleasures, yourself, your liberty and your life too much. In these things your love might easily be too much and transgress the lawful bounds. And indeed, so much love as you give to these things, more than to Jesus-is too much love. But if you were able to bear it, and could you love Jesus with as much love as all the angels in Heaven love Him-it would not be too much love for Him. Many have complained they loved Christ too little, but no one ever said that Jesus had too much of their love. God blames you, and your conscience accuses you-for your inordinate love to things on earth. But neither God nor conscience will condemn you for the highest degrees of love to Jesus.#20. To truly love YOURSELVES, you must love Jesus supremely.
Does that man truly love himself, who does not regard the salvation of his soul-who ruins himself, and damns himself, and shuts himself out of Heaven? Does that man truly love himself, who exposes himself to the wrath of God, to the damnation of Hell, and to banishment from the glorious presence of the blessed God? All these things a man brings upon himself for lack of love to Jesus. If then you desire to truly love yourself, you must love Jesus supremely.#21. Are not all the Christian duties sometimes tedious to you, for lack of love to Jesus?
Do you find it a burden to pray-or a burden to hear or read the Word of God? Is it a burden to you to meditate upon God and Christ, and things above? It is all because of smallness of love to Jesus. For love makes hard things easy, and heavy labor to be light.#22. Does not Jesus DESERVE your love?
Do you not owe it to Him?Is it not due to Him by virtue of creation? Did not He give your being to you?
By virtue of preservation, has not Jesus kept you out of the grave and Hell until this day? Justice would have hewn you down, and wrath would have condemned you long ago. And who has procured a pardon for you but Christ? That you are on this side the torments of the damned, not beyond praying, and hearing, and hoping-is all through Christ's securing for you longer time. Except by virtue of Jesus' provision for you, you would not have had a rag for your back, nor a morsel for your mouth, nor sleep for your eyes.
By virtue of redemption, when you were worse than nothing-did not He lay down His soul, His life, His blood, as a ransom price for you?
If your love is due to Him in so many ways, what injustice will it be for you to deny Jesus that which is His due? Are you not careful to give to everyone what you owe them? And does it not ease your mind, that though you are not rich, yet you have given every one his due? Do you not work, and care, and save to give to all what you owe them-and shall Jesus be the only one to whom you will be unjust? If you have not enough to satisfy all your creditors, yet if there is one whom you love and bear more respect unto-how sure you will be to repay that one first. You should say, "Though I cannot do as much as I would like, yet Jesus shall not be a loser by me. He shall have my heart and love!"
#23. Is it not great condescension in Jesus, that He will so kindly accept your love?
Shall one so great, accept of the love of one so inferior?
Shall one so holy, accept the love of one that is so sinful?
Shall one so glorious, accept the love of one so vile?
Do great men value the love of beggars?
Do princes value the love of peasants?
Would a man of noble birth and wealth, marry a diseased and deformed woman clothed in rags?I think, considering who Jesus is, and who you are-that you should say, "If Jesus will allow me, I will love Him." Allow you! Not only so, but He gives you a command to love Him, and that upon pain and peril of everlasting damnation!
#24. You should never have any cause or reason to be ashamed to love Jesus.
Is not the time coming, and the day hastening, when . . .
covetous men shall be ashamed of loving the world,
and voluptuous men ashamed of loving their pleasures,
and ambitious men ashamed of loving their honors?
For is it not a horrid shame, that a rational creature should be so debased as to love sin which is most loathsome, and not to love Jesus who is most lovely? That he should love deformity, and not beauty?Oh shame, shame! It is a shame that sin should have such esteem, and Jesus such great contempt put upon Him. But shame shall before long confound these now shameless wretches, when they shall cry out, "We are ashamed that we loved filthy lucre, and not Jesus-that we loved houses, lands, lusts, and not Jesus. This is the confusion of our faces, and shame covers us-that we should be so foolish, and so blind, that we had not sense, nor reason, to distinguish between sin, which is the greatest and most odious evil-and Jesus who is the greatest and most lovely good."
But the time will never come, the day will never be-that a gracious soul shall be ashamed of his sincere love to Jesus Christ.
#25. Is not love to Jesus the most PROFITABLE love?
"What is a man profited, if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" By loving Jesus you shall have such a gain that no man can value, that no mind can estimate, that no mathematician, by all his numbers and figures, can compute-even . . .
pardon of innumerable sins,
the favor of an infinite and holy God,
deliverance from inconceivable torments,
possession of endless bliss, and
more than I, or any man, can describe or comprehend!#26. Is not love to Jesus the most universally NECESSARY love?
One man loves one thing, and a second another, and a third another. But there is no necessity that all men should love any one thing-except for Jesus, and things pertaining to our having and enjoying Him. Love to Jesus is absolutely necessary for poor and rich, for great and small, for noble and low-born, for learned and unlearned, for slave and free.#27. Is not love to Jesus the best help against the TEMPTATIONS of Satan?
Is not Satan your enemy? Is not your heart sometimes anxious to yield to him? But love to Jesus would garrison your hearts, fortify your souls, and make you courageous and resolute against all the batteries of Satan and the assaults of sin. It would make you watchful against the allurements and amusements of the world, so that you would say, "Shall I offend my dearest Lord? Shall I displease Him who has done me such good, such everlasting good? Oh! how can I do this great evil, and sin against Him whom I love!" Do you not find that love forbids, and exceedingly restrains-from grieving, offending or wronging the one whom you entirely love?
#28. Will not love to Jesus best help us to PERSEVERE in the Christian race?
When trials, suffering and persecution come, only those who truly love Jesus will be able to endure.
CONCLUSION
What shall I say to advance Jesus in your esteem, that you might love Him? Is He not a comprehensive good? Is He not eminently all? There is no goodness in the creature, but it is formally, or virtually, in Jesus.
Is there wisdom in the creature? There is more in Jesus.
Is there beauty or power in the creature? There is much more in Jesus.
"For it pleased the Father, that in Him should all fullness dwell." Jesus is "full of grace and truth." This is the One whom I beg you to love. This is He who is altogether lovely and desirable.Consider now, I plead with you-can you ever imagine a better offer than Jesus? Can you find a better match for your soul? Can you say all this, or any one of all these things-concerning the objects you have loved previous to Jesus?
Oh then say, "I never understood the loveliness of Christ before this! How has sin fooled me! How has the world bewitched me! How has my foolish wicked heart deceived me-that I have lavished my love upon the creature and sin-when there was a Christ to love! Such a Christ to love! Such a good as is not to be found in all the world! Now He alone shall have my heart, my love-my all!"
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Pithy gems from Thomas Watson #3
What good will it do a man when he is in Hell, that others think he has gone to Heaven?
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Godliness consists in a harmony between holy principles and holy practices.
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How can the unrepentant sinner be merry, who is heir to all God's curses, and does not know how soon he may take up his lodgings among the damned?
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The more bitterness we taste in sin, the more sweetness we shall taste in Christ!
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Christ is never sincerely loved, until sin is sincerely loathed!
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He a fool, who minds his recreation more than his salvation!
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The greatest judgment God lays upon a man in this life, is to let him sin without hindrance.
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He who hides one rebel in his house is a traitor to the Crown.
Just so, he who indulges one sin is a traitorous hypocrite.
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It is better to go with difficulty to Heaven, than with ease to Hell! "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able!" Luke 13:24
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True happiness consists not in beauty, honor, riches (the world's trinity)-but in the forgiveness of sin. "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!" Psalm 32:1