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22 JULY (PREACHED THURSDAY 20 JULY 1775)

Who is Jesus Christ?

‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.’ Acts 16:31
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Hebrews 8:1–13

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But lest any of you are ready to say with the blind man, Who is he? [John 9:36] I shall speak something of him. The little I can speak of the LJC [Lord Jesus Christ] may be summed up in two particulars: his person and his office.
(i) His person: he is God, blessed for ever (Romans 9:5; Isaiah 9:6; John 12:41). He is man (1 Timothy 3:16) here, or named Emmanuel (Matthew 1:23). This is the great mystery of Godliness; we can see but little of the wisdom, condescension and love. The angels cannot fathom. God alone can reveal it. For this the Holy Spirit is given, that we may know the mystery of God, of the Father, and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:2–3).
(ii) His office: in general, Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5). There is no other (John 14:6). This includes his whole undertaking. We may consider:
(a) What he did as Mediator upon earth, summed up in his obedience unto death. He fulfilled the law for us—he made atonement for our sins.
(b) Now he is in his kingdom he acts the Mediator’s part, applying the benefits of his righteousness to those who believe: as a Prophet, a Priest, a King.

FOR MEDITATION: The doctrine of Jesus Christ crucified: I believe to insist much upon the great essential points of the glories of his person and offices, his wonderful love and condescension, his power, faithfulness and readiness to save, the grandeur of his works, the perfection of his example, his life, passion, death and resurrection. I say thus to enlarge much on the Names, properties, and so on, of our dear Redeemer, as it is undoubtedly the most pleasant set of topics, so the most useful and effectual, to rouse a hatred against sin, to feed the springs of grace into the heart, to animate and to furnish every believer for his spiritual warfare.
Miscellaneous Thoughts, Friday 4 August 1758

SERMON: ACTS 16:31 [3/4]

July 21st

The gateway to the kingdom

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Matthew 5:3.

Beware of placing Our Lord as a Teacher first. If Jesus Christ is a Teacher only, then all He can do is to tantalize me by erecting a standard I cannot attain. What is the use of presenting me with an ideal I cannot possibly come near? I am happier without knowing it. What is the good of telling me to be what I never can be—to be pure in heart, to do more than my duty, to be perfectly devoted to God? I must know Jesus Christ as Saviour before His teaching has any meaning for me other than that of an ideal which leads to despair. But when I am born again of the Spirit of God, I know that Jesus Christ did not come to teach only: He came to make me what He teaches I should be. The Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into any man the disposition that ruled His own life, and all the standards God gives are based on that disposition.
The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount produces despair in the natural man—the very thing Jesus means it to do. As long as we have a self-righteous, conceited notion that we can carry out Our Lord’s teaching, God will allow us to go on until we break our ignorance over some obstacle, then we are willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him. ‘Blessed are the paupers in spirit,’ that is the first principle in the kingdom of God. The bedrock in Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possession; not decisions for Jesus Christ, but a sense of absolute futility—‘I cannot begin to do it.’ Then Jesus says—‘Blessed are you.’ That is the entrance, and it does take us a long while to believe we are poor! The knowledge of our own poverty brings us on to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works.

July 21

“Let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece.” (Judges 6:39.)

THERE are degrees to faith. At one stage of Christian experience we cannot believe unless we have some sign or some great manifestation of feeling. We feel our fleece, like Gideon, and if it is wet we are willing to trust God. This may be true faith, but it is imperfect. It always looks for feeling or some token besides the Word of God. It marks quite an advance in faith when we trust God without feelings. It is blessed to believe without having any emotion.
There is a third stage of faith which even transcends that of Gideon and his fleece. The first phase of faith believes when there are favorable emotions, the second believes when there is the absence of feeling, but this third form of faith believes God and His Word when circumstances, emotions, appearances, people, and human reason all urge to the contrary. Paul exercised this faith in Acts 27:20, 25, “And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.” Notwithstanding all this Paul said, “Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer; for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.”
May God give us faith to fully trust His Word though everything else witness the other way.—C. H. P.

When is the time to trust?
Is it when all is calm,
When waves the victor’s palm,
And life is one glad psalm
Of joy and praise?
Nay! but the time to trust
Is when the waves beat high,
When storm clouds fill the sky,
And prayer is one long cry,
O help and save!

When is the time to trust?
Is it when friends are true?
Is it when comforts woo,
And in all we say and do
We meet but praise?
Nay! but the time to trust
Is when we stand alone,
And summer birds have flown,
And every prop is gone,
All else but God.

What is the time to trust?
Is it some future day,
When you have tried your way,
And learned to trust and pray
By bitter woe?
Nay! but the time to trust
Is in this moment’s need,
Poor, broken, bruised reed!
Poor, troubled soul, make speed
To trust thy God.

What is the time to trust?
Is it when hopes beat high,
When sunshine gilds the sky,
And joy and ecstasy
Fill all the heart?
Nay! but the time to trust
Is when our joy is fled,
When sorrow bows the head,
And all is cold and dead,
All else but God.
—Selected.

21 JULY (PREACHED THURSDAY 20 JULY 1775)

Believe in Him

‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.’ Acts 16:31
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Luke 12:1–12

And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made … [Acts 16:13]. In the meantime there was a poor sinner who perhaps had never been at a place of prayer in his life, nor knew what prayer meant—he was a stranger to the Apostle and the Apostle to him. How should they be brought together? To effect this the Lord permitted Satan to rage—a great mob and clamour was made, Paul and his companions beaten and delivered to the charge of this very jailer. He little thought these men were come to show him the way of salvation—he gladly executed his charge and put them in the dungeon. But at midnight while they prayed and sang, there was an earthquake, the prison doors were thrown open, and the jailer, awaking in surprise, thinking the prisoners were escaped and fearing to be punished, was going to kill himself. Paul, though he saw him not, was informed of his intention and cried out, Do thyself no harm. All these circumstances concurred to awaken his conscience; fears of another kind took of him, his heart smote him for his sins, particularly for the abuse offered to the servants of God. He sprang in trembling and cried out, Sirs, what must I do? My text is the answer to this question.
The means by which God awakens sinners are various, but all lead to this enquiry. I hope some of you are earnestly concerned about it; to you especially I address myself, Believe.
FOR MEDITATION:
A Believer, free from care,
Suddenly the prison shook,
May in chains, or dungeons, sing,
Open flew the iron doors;
If the LORD be with him there;
And the jailer, terror-struck,
And be happier than a king:
Now his captives’ help implores:
Paul and Silas thus confined,
Trembling at their feet he fell,
Though their backs were torn by whips,
‘Tell me, Sirs, what must I do
Yet possessing peace of mind,
To be saved from guilt and hell?
Sung his praise with joyful lips.
None can tell me this but you.’

SERMON: ACTS 16:31 [2/4]

July 20th

Dependent on God’s presence

They that wait upon the Lord … shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31.

There is no thrill in walking; it is the test of all the stable qualities. To “walk and not faint” is the highest reach possible for strength. The word “walk” is used in the Bible to express the character—“John looking on Jesus as He walked, said, Behold the Lamb of God!” There is never anything abstract in the Bible, it is always vivid and real. God does not say—‘Be spiritual,’ but—“Walk before Me.”
When we are in an unhealthy state physically or emotionally, we always want thrills. In the physical domain this will lead to counterfeiting the Holy Ghost; in the emotional life it leads to inordinate affection and the destruction of morality; and in the spiritual domain if we insist on getting thrills, on mounting up with wings, it will end in the destruction of spirituality.
The reality of God’s presence is not dependent on any place, but only dependent upon the determination to set the Lord always before us. Our problems come when we refuse to bank on the reality of His presence. The experience the Psalmist speaks of—“Therefore will we not fear, though …”—will be ours when once we are based on Reality; not the consciousness of God’s presence but the reality of it—‘Why, He has been here all the time.’
At critical moments it is necessary to ask guidance, but it ought to be unnecessary to be saying always—‘Oh Lord, direct me here, and there.’ Of course He will! If our commonsense decisions are not God’s order, He will press through them and check; then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of His presence.