INSIGHTS & NOTES FROM
CHAPTER 8
"...the prophet must do the part of a watchman" "The prophet must lift up his voice like a trumpet (Isaiah 58:1), & the people must hearken to the sound of the trumpet" "They have transgressed my covenant" "They have not only done foolishly, but have dealt deceitfully." "They have cast off the thing that is good. They have put away & rejected good, that is, God himself" "He is good, & does good, & is our goodness. There is none good but one, that is God, the fountain of all good." "God never casts off any till they first cast him off." "...the method of apostasy; men first cast off that which is good; then those omissions make way for commissions; & frequent actual transgressions of God's law bring men at length to an habitual renunciation of his covenant." "Those who break their covenant of friendship with God expose themselves to the enmity of all about them, to whom they make themselves a cheap & easy prey" "It is hard to cleanse from that filthiness, either of flesh or spirit, which has been long wallowed in." "They set up kings without God, & in contempt of him" "We cannot expect comfort & success in our affairs when go about them, & go on in them, without consulting God & acknowledge not him in all our ways" "What can be more absurd than for men to worship that as god, giving being & good to them, which they themselves gave being to... but could not give life to? A made god is no God." "If men will not quit the love & service of sin, yet they shall certainly lose all the delights & profits of it." "They promise themselves plenty, peace, & victory, by worshipping idols, but their expectations come to nothing. What they sow never comes up" "God often comes gradually with his judgments upon a provoking people, that he may show how slow he is to wrath, & may awaken them to repentance" "Those services only are acceptable to God which are performed according to the rule of his word, & through Jesus Christ, I Peter 2:5." "They pretended to know him, & yet forgot him, for they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, when the remembrance of him would give check to their lusts." "...none ever hardened his heart against God & prospered, nor shall they." CHAPTER 9 "The people of Israel are charged with spiritual adultery" "Those are directly disposed to spiritual idolatry that love a reward in the corn-floor better than a reward in the favour of God & eternal life." "We are likely to have small joy of any of our creature-comforts if we make not God our chief joy." "When we make the world, & the things of it, our idol & portion, above what they were designed for, it is just with God to deny us even support & nourishment from them, according to that which they were designed for, to show us our folly & correct us for it." "Those cannot expect to dwell in the Lord's land that will not be subject to the Lord's laws, nor be influenced by his love. Those have forfeited the privileges of the church that conform not to the rules of it." "They shall know then that the pretenders to prophecy, who flattered them in their sins, & rocked them asleep in their security, & told them that they should have peace though they went on, however they pretended to be spiritual men (as Ahab's prophets did, I Kings 22:24), were fools & madmen, & not prophets" "Because men receive not the love of the truth, but conceive a hatred of it, & by the multitude of their iniquities bid defiance to it, therefore God shall send them strong delusions, to believe a lie" "They had a set of worthy good ministers, that kept close to God & maintained communion with him; but now they have a race of corrupt, malignant, persecuting prophets that are the ring-leaders of all mischief." "Whatever those separate themselves to that forsake God it will certainly be a shame to them, first or last." "Those are in a woeful condition indeed whom God has forsaken." "My God will cast them away, not only out of his house, but out of his sight; he will quite abandon & reject them; they shall be cast-aways." "Worldly glory is glory that will fly away; but those that have their God their glory have in him an unfading everlasting glory." "...it is better to fall into the hands of the Lord, whose mercies are great, than into the hands of man." CHAPTER 10 "...the national sins which bring down national judgment." "They were not fruitful in the fruits of righteousness to the glory of God." "A vine is of all trees least serviceable if it do not bear fruit. It is thenceforth good for nothing." "What good there is in him is not directed to the glory of God, but he takes the praise of it to himself, & prides himself in it." "It is a great affront to God, & an abuse of his goodness, when the more mercies we receive from him the more sins we commit against him, & when the more wealth men have the more mischief they do." "They had a remaining affection in their hearts for God, but a reigning affection for their idols." "...God is the sovereign of the heart & he will by no means endure a rival; he will either have all or none." "God can make people sick of those creature-confidences which they were most fond of." "What men make idols of it is just with God to break down & spoil." "If the grace of God prevail not to destroy the love of sin in us, it is just that the providence of God should destroy the food & fuel of sin about us." "...those that would not be God's freemen shall be their enemies' slaves" "Every action is seed sown. Let them sow in righteousness; let them sow what they should sow, do what they should do, & they themselves shall have the benefit of it. Let them seek the Lord; let them look up to him for his grace, & beg of him to bless the seed sown." "If we do our part, God will do his. If we sow to ourselves in righteousness - if we be careful & diligent to do our duty, in a dependence upon his grace - he will shower down his grace upon us, will rain righteousness, the very thing that those need most who are to sow in righteousness; for by the grace of God we are what we are." "We reap not in merit, but in mercy." "It is sin that ruins soul, body, estate, all." "It is thy own wickedness that corrects thee & thy backslidings that reprove thee." CHAPTER 11 "...those that have grown old, ought often to reflect upon the goodness of God to them in their childhood." "Those whom God loves he calls out of the bondage of sin & Satan into the glorious liberty of his children." "It is God's work to draw poor souls to himself; & none can come to him except he draw them, John 6:44." "They backslide from me, from God, the chief good, the fountain of life & living waters, from their God, their owner, ruler, & benefactor, from God who never turned from them, nor was as a wilderness to them." "Those that will not return to the duties they have left cannot expect to return to the comforts they have lost." "God's counsels would have saved them, but their own counsels ruined them." "Man's compassions are nothing in comparison with the tender mercies of our God, whose thoughts & ways, in receiving returning sinners, are as much above ours as heaven is above the earth, Isaiah 55:9." "Our holy trembling at the word of Christ will draw us to him, not drive us from him." "When we see how many there are that compass God about with lies & deceit it may be a comfort to us to think that God has his remnant that cleave to him with purpose of heart, & are faithful to his saints" Matthew Henry's Commentary: Isaiah to Malachi, Mac Donald, pgs. 1163 - 1185.
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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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