A Goodly Heritage

"But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:13). WHEN TRAVELLING through popish countries, where the people bow down to images of wood and stone, and where God's Word is forbidden, the mind of a believer turns to the fearful words in the preceding verses with a feeling of unutterable sadness; and, again, when the mind wanders from these desolate regions to the little flock of dear believers in happy Scotland, it realizes something of the joyful feeling with which Paul wrote these words—"But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord" (verse 13). 1. We are here taught that God is sovereign in choosing the souls that are saved. (i) He is sovereign in choosing men, and not rebel angels. We read in the Bible of two grand apostacies from God

God’s Testimony Concerning Man God knows us. He knows what we are; He knows also what He meant us to be. Upon the difference between these two states, He founds His testimony concerning us. He is too loving to say anything needlessly severe; too true to say anything untrue. Nor can He have any motive to misrepresent us; for He loves to tell of the good, not of the evil, that may be found in any of the works of His hands. He declared them good, “very good,” at first (Gen 1:31); and if He does not do so now, it is not because He would not, but because He cannot; for “all flesh has corrupted its way upon the earth” (Gen 6:12). The divine testimony concerning man is that he is a sinner. God bears witness against him, not for him. [God] testifies that “there is none righteous, no, not one”; that there is “none that doeth good”; none “that understandeth”; none that even seeks after God, and still more, none that loves Him (Psa 14:1-3; Rom 3:10-12). God speaks of man kindly, but severely; as

There seem to be many in our day who are seeking God. Yet they appear to be but feeling after Him, in order to find Him, as if He were either a distant or an unknown God. They forget that He is “not far from every one of us” (Act 17:27), for “in him we live, and move, and have our being” (v. 28). That He is not far; that He has come down; that He has come near: this is the “beginning of the gospel” (Mar 1:1). It sets aside the vain thoughts of those who think that they must bring Him near by their prayers and devout performances. He has shewn Himself to us that we may know Him, and in knowing Him, find the life of our souls. Some have tried to give directions to sinners “how to get converted,” multiplying words without wisdom, leading the sinner away from the Cross by setting him upon doing, not upon believing. Our business is not to give any such directions, but, as the apostles did, to preach Christ crucified, a present Saviour, and a present salvation. Then it is that sinners are c

"By grace are you saved. " Ephes. 2:13 Awful would have been the condition of fallen man, had he been left to work out his deliverance by the Covenant of works. The command- 'Do this, and live,' as well as the threatening- 'Transgress and die,' would have fast barred the door of hope against him. If his conformity to the divine law had been the only way of escape, despair would have made him its prey, and his doleful cry would have been: Farewell glory and happiness; farewell heaven forever! But, blessed be God, adored be his grace– he has not left us in this hopeless, helpless, and undone condition. By his Gospel he has revealed Himself to us as a just God and a Savior; just, and yet the justifier of all who believe in Jesus. A way of escape is now opened to us through the Cross of Christ. A city of refuge is prepared to receive every trembling sinner who is pursued by the avenger of blood. Lord! I feel more and more that I am a sinner; yes, the chief of sin

The holiness of God is his glory and crown. It is the blessedness of his nature. It renders him glorious in himself, and glorious to his creatures. “Holy” is more fixed as an epithet to his name than any other. This is his greatest title of honor. He is pure and unmixed light, free from all blemish in his essence, nature, and operations. He cannot be deformed by any evil. The notion of God cannot be entertained without separating from him whatever is impure and staining. Though he is majestic, eternal, almighty, wise, immutable, merciful, and whatsoever other prefections may dignify so sovereign a being, yet if we conceive him destitute of this excellent perfection, and imagine him possessed with the least contagion of evil, we make him but an infinite monster, and sully all those perfections we ascribed to him before. It is a contradiction for him to be God and to have any darkness mixed with his light. To deny his purity, makes him no God. He that says God is not holy, speaks m

Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name ( Malachi 3:16 ). These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication ( Acts 1:14 ). Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is ( Hebrews 10:25 ). READER! is there a prayer-meeting in your neighbourhood? If there is, do you attend it? If you do not, have you good reasons for staying away? Perhaps there is one just by your door, or at least within a few minutes walk of your dwelling. Do you go to it? I have known people walk many miles every week to a prayer-meeting. They did not grudge the distance. The way seemed short and pleasant. No wonder:  they were in earnest about their souls!  And if you neglect or despise such meetings, it is to be feared that you are altogether unconcerned about eternity and the kingdom to come. If you

"And he brought the other ram, the ram of consecration: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram. And he slew it; and Moses took of the blood of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot." Leviticus 8:22-23 By "the ram of consecration," is meant the ram by which Aaron and his sons were consecrated, or set apart for the service of God. The victim was selected by Moses, who was thus representing God. It was not Aaron and his sons who chose the sacrifice; it was God who made the choice for them, and presented the ram to them, that they might put their hands on it, and in so doing, acknowledge it as God's appointed sacrifice, and accept it as their substitute. Thus, the transaction of sacrifice is here, as elsewhere, shown to be  twofold . Moses, as acting for God, exhibits one part, and Aaron, as acting for the people, exhibits the other. Mose

"The Word was made flesh." John 1:14 It was "little among the thousands of Judah" (Mic. 5:2); perhaps but a shepherd-village or small market town; yet there the great purpose of God became a  fact;  "The Word was made flesh." It is in  facts  that God's purposes come to us, that we may take hold of them as real things. It is into  facts  that God translates his truth, that it may be visible, audible, tangible. It is in  facts  (as in so many seeds) that God embodies his good news, that a little child may grasp them in his hand. So was it with the miracle of our text. God took his eternal purpose and dropped it over Bethlehem in the form of a fact, a little fragment of human history. Over earth, the first promise had been hovering, for four thousand years, until at last it rested over Bethlehem, as if it said, "This is my rest; here will I dwell." The city is poor rather than rich. It is not without its attractions; but these are of

I do not see how any one with a right insight into the apostle's argument, without a theory to prop up, or with any personal consciousness of spiritual conflict, could have thought of referring this chapter to a believer's unregenerate condition, or to his transition state while groping his way to rest. It furnishes a key to an experience, which would otherwise have seemed inexplicable, the solution of perplexities which, without it, would have been a stumbling-block and a mystery. It is God's recognition of the saint's inner conflict as an indispensable process of discipline, as a development of the contrast between light and darkness, as an exhibition of the way in which God is glorified in the infirmities of His saints, and in their contests with the powers of evil. Strike out that chapter, and the existence of sin in a soul after conversion is unexplained. It accounts for the inner warfare of the forgiven man, and gives the apostle's experience as a specim