INSIGHTS & NOTES FROM
CHAPTER 27
"God has a strong sword for the doing of this, variety of judgments sufficient to humble the proudest & break the most powerful of his enemies; & he will do it when the day of execution comes" "The world is as a fruitless worthless wilderness; but the church is enclosed as a vineyard, a peculiar place, & of value, that has great care taken of it & great pains taken with it, & from which precious fruits are gathered, wherewith they honour God & man." "Those that bring forth fruit to God are & shall be always under his protection." "We need the constant & continual waterings of the divine grace; for, if that be at any time withdrawn, we wither, & come to nothing." "God sees the sins of his people & is displeased with them; but, upon their repentance, he turns away his wrath." "Christ crucified is the power of God (I Cor. 1:24)." "Woe unto him... that strives with his Maker!" "Though God's persecuted people may be great losers, & great sufferers, for a while, yet those that oppress them will prove to be greater losers & greater sufferers at last, here or hereafter; for God will render double to them, Rev. 18:6." "Let us not despair when things are at the worst; be the winds ever so rough, ever so high, God can say unto them, Peace, be still." "When the captives rallied again, & returned to their own land, the chief thing they had their eye upon, & the first thing they applied themselves to, was the worship of God." "Liberty to worship God is the most valuable & desirable liberty" "Those that are gathered by the sounding of the gospel trumpet are brought in to worship God & added to the church; & the great trumpet of all will gather the saints together, to serve God day & night in his temple." CHAPTER 28 "What God gave them to serve him with they perverted, & abused, by making it the food & fuel of their lusts. They were puffed up with pride by it." "Those that are rich in the world are apt to be high-minded, I Tim. 6:17." "...woe to those who thus exalt themselves, for they shall be abased; their pride is the preface to their destruction." "We must say, Woe to drunkards; their condition is a woeful condition, their brutish pleasures are to be pitied, & not envied; they shall not inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. 6:10); the curse is in force against them, Deut. 29:19, 20." "Those that have God for their God have him for a crown of glory & a diadem of beauty" "It is a great mercy to any people when those that are called to places of power & public trust are qualified for their places" "For our instruction in the things of God it is requisite that we have precept upon precept & line upon line, that one precept & line should be followed, & so enforced, by another; the precept of justice must be upon the precept of piety, & the precept of charity upon that of justice." "God by his word calls us to nothing but what is really for our advantage; for the service of God is the only true rest for those that are weary of the service of sin & there is no refreshing but under the easy yoke of the Lord Jesus." "It is bad with a people when their thrones of judgment become the seats of the scornful, when rulers are scorners" "If we be at peace with God, & have made a covenant with him, we have in effect made a covenant with death that it shall come in the fittest time, that, whenever it comes, it shall be no terror to us, nor do us any real damage; death is ours if we be Christ's (I Cor. 3:22, 23)" "Honesty is the best policy." "I Peter 2:6. He that believes on him shall not be confounded; his expectations shall not be frustrated, but far out-done." "Those that make lies their refuge build upon the sand, & the building will fall when the storm comes, & bury the builder in the ruins of it. Those that make any thing their hiding place but Christ shall find that the waters will overflow it." "Evil tidings are a terror & vexation to scorners, but he whose heart is fixed, trusting in God, is not afraid of them" "Those that do not build upon Christ as their foundation, but rest in a righteousness of their own, will prove in the end thus to have deceived themselves; they can never be easy, safe, nor warm; the bed is too short, the covering is too narrow; like our first parents' fig-leaves, the shame of their nakedness will still appear." "If those that profess themselves members of God's church by their pride & scornfulness make themselves like Philistines & Canaanites, they must expect to be dealt with as such." "God's church is his husbandry, I Cor. 3. If Christ is the true vine, his Father is the husbandman (John 15:1), & he is continually by his word & ordinances cultivating it." "Afflictions are God's threshing-instruments, designed to loosen us from the world, to separate between us & our chaff, & to prepare us for use." CHAPTER 29 "Hypocrites may be found in a constant track of devout exercises, & treading around in them, & with these they may flatter themselves, but can never please God nor make their peace with him." "Those that despise God's judgments shall be humbled by them; for the proudest sinners shall either bend or break before him." "He that is greater than the heart, & knows all things, knows that though they draw nigh to him with their mouth, & honour him with their lips, yet they are not sincere worshippers." "...they removed their hearts far from God, & therefore God justly removed wisdom far from them." "See what foolish fruitless pains sinners take in their sinful ways" "A practical disbelief of God's omniscience is at the bottom of the carnal worships & of the carnal confidences of hypocrites; Psalms 94:7; Ezek. 8:12; 9:9" "If God made us, he certainly knows us, as the Psalmist shows (Ps. 139:1, 13-16)." "Those who, when they are in trouble, can truly rejoice in God, shall soon have cause given them greatly to rejoice in him." "The power of Satan, that terrible one indeed, shall be broken by the prevalency of Christ's gospel" "If God make our condition easy, we must endeavour to make his name glorious." CHAPTER 30 "...if we distrust God's providence, we do in effect withdraw ourselves from our allegiance." "See what dangers men run into that forsake God, & what dangers they will run into in pursuance of their carnal confidences" "Those that trust in God, in his power, providence, & promise, are never made ashamed of their hope" "God is true, & may be trusted, but every man a liar, & must be suspected." "We weaken ourselves, & provoke God to withdraw from us, when we make flesh our arm, for then our hearts depart from the Lord." "Those that silence good ministers, & discountenance good preaching, are justly counted, & called, rebels against God." "Those deserve to be deceived that desire to be so." "Faithful ministers will not be driven from using such expressions as are proper to awaken sinners, though they be displeasing. We must tell men that God is the Holy One of Israel, & so they shall find him, whether the will hear or whether they will forbear." "Because God is infinitely wise, those are truly happy who refer their cause to him." "These are right-hand & left-hand errors, extremes on each side virtue; the tempter is busy courting us into the by-paths. It is happy then if by the particular counsels of a faithful minister or friend, or the checks of conscience & the strivings of God's Spirit, we be set right & prevented from going wrong." "Those that join themselves to the Lord must abandon every sin, & say unto it, Get thee hence." "Such is the woeful case of those that persist in enmity to God: The wrath of God abides on them." "...when the wicked perish there is shouting; & it is with a particular satisfaction that wise & good men see the ruin of those who, like the Assyrians, have insolently bidden defiance to God & trampled upon all mankind." Matthew Henry's Commentary: Isaiah to Malachi, Mac Donald, pgs. 144 - 173.
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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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