“Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.” Lamentations 3:39, 40 I believe in my conscience there are thousands of professors who have never known in the whole course of their religious profession what it is … Read more
“My soul followeth hard after thee.” Psalm 63:8 The Lord (we would speak with reverence) does not suffer himself at first to be overtaken. The more the soul follows after him, the more he seems to withdraw himself, and thus he draws it more earnestly on the pursuit. He means to be overtaken in the … Read more
“That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:4 A person may be “in the flesh,” as indeed we all are, and yet not “walk after it.” To walk after it implies, a setting it up as a pattern, and walking … Read more
“Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.” Psalm 90:8 Thus Moses the man of God testified, and so Job found it: “For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth” (Job 13:26). But though the Lord sets his … Read more
“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.” 1 Peter 1:2 Peter declares that we are “elect unto obedience.” Election unto eternal life, unto salvation, unto the blood of sprinkling many gladly … Read more
“By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” Proverbs 16:6 There is a very close and intimate connection between godly fear and being “holy in all manner of conversation.” When do we drop into levity of conversation? When do light and frothy words fall from our lips? When do any of those hasty … Read more
“Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.” 1 Peter 1:17 Our life here is but a vapour. We are but pilgrims and strangers on this earthly ball, mere sojourners, without fixed or settled habitation, and passing through this world as not our home or resting-place. The Apostle, therefore, bids us pass this time, … Read more
“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” Psalm 119:130 The word “simple” means literally something which is not folded or twisted together. But owing to the treacherous and desperately deceitful heart of man, all, without exception, in a state of nature are the reverse of this. All their plots … Read more
“And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not.” Jeremiah 45:5 Whatever schemes and projects the Lord’s people may devise that they may prosper and get on in the world, he rarely suffers their plans to thrive. He knows well to what consequences it would lead;—that this ivy creeping round the stem would, as … Read more
“And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” Ephesians 1:22, 23 In the mind of God, and as chosen in Christ, the Church is a perfect body. It is, … Read more
“The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.” Romans 11:7 Those that are blinded by the god of this world, have no knowledge of what power and feeling and savour and dew are; they see not these things, they are blind to their reality, they are dead to their importance; but the living … Read more
“But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble.” Psalm 37:39 Times of trouble try the saint of God, and they are meant to do so; that is the very purpose why they are sent, for “the Lord trieth the righteous.” Still the promise holds … Read more