INSIGHTS & NOTES FROM
CHAPTER 20
"A hypocritical attendance on God & his ordinances is so far from being pleasing to him that it is provoking." "As the foundation of our blessedness is laid in God's choosing us, so the first step towards it is God's making himself known to us." "They rebelled against God, not only refused to comply with his particular precepts, but shook off their allegiance, & in effect told him that they would be at liberty to worship what God they pleased." "It is better to be at liberty in a wilderness than bond-slaves in a land of plenty, to enjoy God & ourselves in solitude than to lose both in a crowd" "...it is the Lord that sanctifies us, makes us holy (that is, truly happy) here, & prepares us to be happy (that is, perfectly holy) hereafter." "The bias of the mind towards the world & the flesh, the money & the belly (those 2 great objects of spiritual idolatry), is the root of bitterness from which springs all disobedience to the divine law. The heart that goes after those idols despises God's judgments." "It is owing purely to the mercy of God that he has not long ago made an end of us." "...the bad examples of parents must be made use of by their children for admonition, & not for imitation." "...those who will not live & flourish as they might in their obedience should die & perish in their disobedience." "Those that will not be bound by the precepts of the law shall be bound by the sentence of it" "God sometimes makes sin to be its own punishment, & yet is not the author of sin; & there needs no more to make men miserable than to give them up to their own vile appetites & passions." "Those who will not acknowledge God as the Lord their ruler shall be made to acknowledge him as the Lord their judge when it is too late." "It is a great aggravation of sin when men will not take warning by the mischievous consequences of sin in those that have gone before them; this is blaspheming God." "It is only integrity & uprightness that will preserve men, & recommend them to God & man." "There is no shaking off God's dominion; rule he will, either with the golden sceptre or with the iron rod; & those that will not yield to the power of his grace shall be made to sink under the power of his wrath." "...there will come a distinguishing day, when God will separate between the precious & the vile" "Those who think to serve themselves by sin will find in the end that they have but enslaved themselves to sin." "All the favours we receive from God should lead us into a more intimate acquaintance with him." "Those that should have been as the garden of the Lord, & his vineyard, had become like a forest, all overgrown with briers & thorns; & those that are so, that bring not forth the fruits of righteousness, God's word prophesies against." "When God will ruin a nation, who or what can save it?" "It is a comfort to us, when people speak ill of us unjustly, that we have a God to complain to." CHAPTER 21 "When we speak to people about their souls we should study plainness, & express ourselves as we may be the best understood." "Ministers, if they would affect others with the things they speak of, must show that they are themselves in the greatest sincerity affected with them, & must submit to that which may create uneasiness to themselves, so that it will promote the ends of their ministry." "Those who have God for them when flesh & heart fail have him to be the strength of their heart" "While good men are quiet, not only from evil, but from the fear of it, wicked men are disturbed not only with the sword, but with the terrors of it, arising from a consciousness of their own guilt." "Ruin comes gradually, but at last comes effectually, upon a provoking people." "Should we now make mirth, when the hand of God has gone out against us, when God's judgments are abroad in the land & be by them calls to weeping & mourning? Isaiah 22:11, 13 "God remembers former iniquities against those only who by the present discoveries of their wickedness show that they do not repent of them." "Those who will not be taken with the word of God's grace shall at last be taken by the hand of his wrath." "Though those who are wicked & profane may flourish awhile, yet their day will come to fall." "Men lose their dignity by their iniquity." "Those that feed themselves with a self-conceit in the day of their prosperity prepare matter for a self-reproach in the day of their calamity." "Wicked men make themselves fuel to the fire of God's wrath; they are consumed by it, & it is inflamed by them." CHAPTER 22 "Sinners do that which provokes God because they forget him; they forget their descent from him, dependence on him, & obligations to him; they forget how valuable his favour is, which they make themselves unfit for, & how formidable his wrath, which they make themselves obnoxious to." "There is a day coming when God will deal with sinners, a day of visitation." "Those that resolve to be their own masters, let them expect no other comfort & happiness than what their own hands can furnish them with, & a miserable portion it will prove." "Sinners, & especially degenerate professors, are in God's account as dross, vile, & contemptible, & of no account, as the evil figs which could not be eaten, they were so evil. They are useless & fit for nothing; of no consistency with themselves & no service to man." "Those who draw men to wickedness, & encourage them in it, are the devourers & murderers of their souls." "The profanation of the honour of the scriptures... is a profanation of the honour of God himself, who is interested in them." "There is a way of standing in the gap, & making up the breach against the judgments of God, by repentance, & prayer, & reformation." "When God is coming forth against a sinful people to destroy them he expects some to intercede for them, & enquires if there be but one that does; so much is it his desire & delight to show mercy." CHAPTER 23 "To convince sinners of the evil of sin, & of their misery & danger by reason of it, there is need of line upon line" "Those who have been in profession the people of God, but have revolted from him, have a great deal to answer for more than those who never made any such profession." "The devil will for ever be a tormentor of those impenitent sinners who now hearken to him & comply with him as a tempter." "Those may justly expect God's judgments upon themselves who do not take warning by his judgments upon others, who see in others what is the end of sin & yet continue to make a light matter of it." "Those who, instead of reflecting upon their former sins with sorrow & shame, reflect upon them with pleasure & pride... in effect bid defiance to repentance." "Sin alienates God's mind from the sinner, & justly, for it is the alienation of the sinner's mind from God; but woe, & a thousand woes, to those from whom God's mind is alienated; for whom he turns from he will turn against." "If men deal ever so hatefully, ever so furiously, with us, yet, if we have God on our side, we need not fear them; they can do us no real hurt." "When God is about to ruin a people he makes their judges fools & pours contempt on their princes" "Forgetfulness of God, & a contempt of him, of his eye upon us & authority over us, are at the bottom of all our treacherous adulterous departures from him." "Those hearts go a whoring from God that take a complacency in the pomp of the world & put a confidence in its wealth, & in an arm of flesh. Jeremiah 17:5." "Smite the scorner & the simple will beware." "...God is the Lord a God that judges in the earth, & with whom there is no respect of persons." Matthew Henry's Commentary: Isaiah to Malachi, Mac Donald, pgs. 862 - 895.
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AuthorCross Preaching Pentecostal Pastor. Husband to Tonia, Father to 3 beautiful girls, Monica, Zoe & Briana, & Grandfather to Wesley & Elliott Archives
September 2023
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