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If this doctrine is so, then
there are three things that we can draw on from it. And last
time we looked at, let's see, the first one was, he said, let
us be persuaded and prevailed with to enter into these paths
of wisdom that are so pleasant. If it is the case that the paths
of religion are as pleasant as we have shown them to be, then
why in the world are we not entered into them for ourselves? If it
is so pleasant, if it is so good to serve the Lord, then serve
the Lord. What's holding you back, right? Now, he takes up
a second inference. He says, let us that profess
religion study to make it more and more pleasant to ourselves. Now, this is interesting. What
this means is though religion in and of itself be pleasant,
we can make it unpleasant to ourselves. Now, we shouldn't
be too surprised by such a statement because he has told us that many
times. He has told us many times that when you get into situations,
don't blame religion. When you have a hard time, don't
blame the religion of Christ. Blame yourself. You're not applying
it rightly to yourself. You're trying to live for Christ
and live for the world at the same time. You're bringing these
troubles. Ninety nine point nine percent
of the time, you're bringing troubles upon yourself. So blame
religion. Don't don't let religion get
a bad name because you're not walking faithfully before the
Lord in it and then complain about it. Complained that it's
no good and that it's boring and that it's too hard or whatever.
Again, look to yourself, Henry was saying. So he echoed that
and hammered that nail many, many times. And he kind of says
the same thing here. If religion, the religion we profess is so
pleasant, how can we make it more pleasant to ourselves? And he lays out this first point.
He says, if God intended that his service should be a pleasure,
then let us concur with that and not walk contrary to him. Agree with God. If Christianity
is to be pleasant, then don't make it unpleasant. Don't walk
contrary to God and make it unpleasant. Rather, walk in keeping with
God, in harmony with God, as J.I. Packer once wrote, keep
in step with the Spirit and enjoy the pleasures of religion, for
certainly they come to those who walk in the ways of the Lord.
There is delight and joy and happiness for those who faithfully
walk before the Lord. Let us not only, he says, be
reconciled to our duty. That's one thing. That's one.
That's kind of an external, so to speak. Let us not only be
reconciled to our duty. Let us not only realize what
the duties are to which we are called as Christians and not
only come to the point where we say, OK, is this what I have
to do as a Christian? Then I'll do it. I'll go to church,
I'll read my Bible, I'll do this, I'll do this. They have all these
things. Don't only be reconciled to your duty, he's saying, but
rather, further than that, let us rejoice in our duty. Let us
sing at our work. Don't just resolve to walk in
the ways of the Lord. Resolve to rejoice in the ways
of the Lord. Resolve to sing. in the work of the Lord even.
That's his point and thrust of this chapter, or this section
rather, this second point. He said, now in order to help
you make religion more pleasant, consider seven directions. And this is as far as we're going
tonight, just a second one. Seven directions in order that you
may make religion more pleasant. So first of all, number one,
let us always keep up good thoughts of God and carefully watch against
hard thoughts of God. What does he mean by good thoughts
of God? Well, he means simply this, think God's thoughts after
Him. So, Van Til used to always say,
an apologist at Westminster Seminary, think God's thoughts after Him. If God says He is good, then
think Him to be good. If God says He is faithful and
He will keep His promises, then don't think contrary to that.
If God says He will deliver you in the right time, then don't
doubt that. They'll say, well, I know what
God says. But you know what? That's not how I feel. That's not how
it looks. And I don't believe it's true. It may be true for
so-and-so, but it can't be true for me because my situation is
hopeless. I've been here so long now. God's definitely forgotten
me. All these things that we begin to think. Those are hard
thoughts about God. A hard thought about God is thinking
of Him contrary to how He's revealed Himself. Think good thoughts
about God. Never think ill of God. Never
judge God in your minds based upon the conditions around you,
never judge God to be unfaithful, untrue, unloving, unkind. Any of these things that started
where? In the Garden of Eden. Right?
Wasn't this the serpent's whole thrust? God's withholding from
you. God has not told you the whole
truth. God just doesn't want you to
enjoy what He enjoys. God's holding back. Those are
hard thoughts of God, and that led our first parents into sin
when they believed such thoughts. God had told them, I've given
you everything. I've withheld nothing. And you
have the opportunity to enjoy Me forever. Just don't eat of
that tree. Do not think hard thoughts of
God. Then he expands this a little bit. He said, many who are careless
and loose in religion foolishly imagine that God is as much a
friend to sin as themselves and as indifferent whether His work
gets done or not. But it is not so, and we do God
and ourselves a great deal of wrong if we imagine it to be
so. We get to places where We become comfortable with certain
sins. Bridges' book, Respectable Sins. We become comfortable with
certain sins. We know they're sins. No one
has to tell us. We know we shouldn't be doing
it. But we've arrived at a place in our minds. We've arrived at
a place in our hearts. And we have arrived at this place
in which we're okay to live with it. We know we shouldn't. We know we should let it go.
We know we should cut off the hand that offends, but we don't.
And so we imagine that God is as OK with it, as it were, as
we are. That God is not as worried about
it as some may think He to be, because we're not that worried
about it. It'll all work out in the end, we tell ourselves.
We get to a place as well to where we think God is indifferent,
whether we honor Him, whether we obey Him, We get to a place
where we think God is indifferent about the Lord's Day, that God
is indifferent about our loving our wives, our submitting to
our husbands, that God is indifferent whether we truly exercise the
telling of the truth in all situations. We arrive at places in which
we imagine that God, as God's rebuke to Israel, you remember,
you thought I was like one of you. God says that in rebuke,
I'm not like you. You can get to a place to where
you're happy compromising. I have no compromise. So Henry
says here, that comes upon us when we become careless and loose
in our religion and we foolishly imagine that God is like us. God is not so. He takes a turn
here and he says, what more could God have done? Then he did to
convince us that he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and
ready to forgive. Let us therefore look upon God
as the God of love and let us look upon God as love. Let us
see him on a throne of grace and come boldly to him. What
Henry is saying is don't get to a place to where not only
you're OK with your sin, but you don't come to God concerned.
Recognize God has shown that He will forgive sin. God has
shown that His mercy extends from everlasting to everlasting.
God has shown that He is gracious, He is kind, He is loving. We
looked this morning at the wrath of God, the anger of God towards
sin. Henry says, don't forget the love of God, the grace of
God, the mercy of God as well. And realize that your sins are
sins. God's not okay with them. But
don't be afraid to come to Him with them, because what will
He do? He'll forgive them. He'll remove them. He'll overcome
them. He says, I'll put My Spirit in you and cause you to walk
according to My statutes. God, as much as we may not be
able to get our mind around this, because of the work of the cross,
God delights to forgive sin. God delights to forgive sin. God loves to glorify Himself
by saving the sinner who repents. That exalts God. He receives
praise and glory and honor, the angels. All of heaven rejoices,
Jesus says, at the repentance of one sinner. Why does heaven
rejoice? They rejoice to see the manifestation
of the grace and mercy of God toward the wicked. So don't imagine that God is
like you, that God is as a friend to sin as you have become. Don't
imagine that God is indifferent whether you honor His day, whether
you honor your duties, whether you fulfill your duties as a
husband, whether you fulfill your duties as a mother. Don't
imagine that God is indifferent whether you're a good employee
or a good employer. Don't imagine that God is indifferent
whether you pray, whether you read your Bible. God's not indifferent
at all about these things. God doesn't waste words. If He
tells us to be in the Scriptures, if He tells us to pray, if He
tells us to honor His name, if He tells us to be faithful in
all of our stations, He means it. And He's serious about it. And if we're not faithful in
all of these things, what assurance do we have that we are the Lord's?
What peace of conscience can we have, as we heard this morning?
How can our conscience be at rest and at ease? How can our
conscience excuse us if we're not walking in obedience? It
will accuse us and then there's no peace. So let us always keep up good
thoughts of God, and in this point, his emphasis is keep up
good thoughts of God as a God of love, a God of grace, a God
of mercy. Yes, you've sinned. Yes, you're a sinner. But come
to God. Don't stay distant from God.
Don't think hard thoughts about Him as if He would not forgive
you. Rather, think good thoughts of God. He's proven that He will
forgive you, so come to Him. There it is. I'm sorry. I said
it was Isaiah. Should have looked back here. Psalm 50 verse 21.
These things you have done and I have been silent. You thought
I was like one like yourself, but now I rebuke you and lay
the charge before you. Psalm 32, verse 5, of course,
David says, I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover
my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions
to the Lord. And you forgave the iniquity
of my sin, Selah. I acknowledged, I did not cover,
I confessed and you forgave. Isn't that beautiful? Yes, there's
sin. But it does no good to deny it.
It does no good to hide it. As we learned this morning, acknowledge
it and confess it and God forgives. Do not cover your sin. The second
thing we can do to make our walk with religion more pleasant,
let us dwell much on the promises of God. The promises of God declare
to us His goodwill and His favor. Paul says all the promises of
God are yea and amen in Jesus Christ. That means every single
promise was ultimately made to Christ, is fulfilled in Christ,
and for His sake will be fulfilled in our lives. There is no promise
in Scripture as you trust in Christ to which you cannot say,
this is mine. Everything God has promised,
he promises to those who are in Christ. So if you are certain
of your interest in Christ, then you need never doubt that his
promises pertain to you. So Henry tells us, dwell much
on these promises. They're not only promises to
grace, but they're promises of grace. Reminds us of what God
did for Abraham in Genesis 15. He did it all. God makes promises
to those who have grace. You say, well, but I don't have
grace. I'm full of sin and iniquity. My life is a mess. I can't seem
to walk straight for a single hour. Yes, there's promises to
grace, but there's also promises of grace. There's promises that
only pertain to those who walk truly and faithfully before the
Lord. But then there's promises that you will walk faithfully
before the Lord. Come back to Ezekiel 11, Ezekiel 36. I will
put My Spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in all
My statutes. So when we see ourselves struggling
and unable to walk straight for a single hour, then go to that
promise and say, Lord, You said You would cause me to walk in
Your statutes, all of them. You said You would put Your Spirit
in me to such a degree that You would cause me to obey Your commandments. And plead that promise before
the Lord. And then as you see the work of the Spirit and you
see obedience by God's grace in you, then go to Him and say,
Lord, You said that those who walk faithfully before You will
receive an inheritance. And those who walk faithfully
before You will be encouraged and enjoy the comforts of the
Spirit as they go to God. Wherever you stand as one who
enjoys the grace at work in you or one who can't see the grace
at work in you, promises are made to both sides. Promises
are made to all. So come and depend upon them.
So Henry says there is grace sufficient for every need. Apply
to ourselves these many promises and live upon them. Let these
be your soul food. And we have several of them listed
here. Genesis 15, verse one. After these things, the word
of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram. I am your shield
and your reward shall be very great. A promise to Abram is
a promise to you. A promise to Abram is a promise
to you. If you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we're told that
Abram believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
Do you believe God? Then you're in the same place
as Abram was, and this promise is to you. Genesis 17, 1 again. When Abram was 99 years old,
the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I am God Almighty. Walk
before me and be blameless. I am your Lord. I am your God. And what's the follow up of that?
Walk before Me, blameless, reminds us what we read tonight, our
vows that follow the Lord's blessing to us. Joshua 1.5, No man shall
be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as
I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you
or forsake you. Brings us back to Hebrews 13.
The Lord said He will never leave us nor forsake us. Therefore,
we can boldly say, What can man do to Me? The Lord is my God.
He will be with me. Romans 8, 28, of course, we all
know this, and we know that for those who love God, is that you?
Okay. Then all things work together
for good for those who are called according to His purpose. And
there, as we've said before, in the context, all things means
all bad things. It's in the context of talking
about suffering and trials. All trials, all bad things work
together for your good. Psalm 34, verse 10, the young
lions suffer wanton hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack
no good thing. Do you seek the Lord? Do you sincerely seek the Lord?
Then you lack no good thing. Anything and everything that's
good, you already have. Trust in the Lord. He's given
Christ. Paul says, if He gave us Christ, what will He withhold?
Nothing. Christ is the greatest blessing
of all. He is the blessing of blessings. In Him are all blessings.
God's promises are wells of salvation in which we may draw water with
joy. They will be our strength and our song. Wells of salvation. Drop your bucket of prayer and
pull up everything you need. It's free. So, if we dwell upon
the promises of God, that certainly will make our walk in this religion.
Pleasant, because God keeps His promises. For the Lord's saying
and doing are not two different things. Like we said before,
for the Lord hearing and answering prayer are not two different
things. If God hears, He answers, because He does not hear the
voice of the wicked. He hears His people, that equals answering.
In the same respect, God's promises are God's performances. It is
impossible for God to make a promise and not perform it. So even if
you can't see the performance, even if there is a chasm of difficulties
between the promise and the performance in your mind's eye, and you just
can't see how God's going to pull this off, As long as you
hold the promise, you have the guarantee of the performance
and never doubt it. Should write a book on that,
maybe. Number three, let us order the affairs of our religion with
discretion. This is a really important point.
We actually talked about this a little bit this afternoon,
or at least I made reference to it at home. Order the affairs
of your religion with discretion. Many make religion unpleasant
to themselves by their unwise management of it, doing things
out of time, tasking themselves above their strength, or undertaking
more than they can go through with, especially at first, which
is like putting new wine in old wineskins, or like over-driving
the flock, driving the young ones too much in one day, Jacob
said. For there may be overdoing in well-doing, and then it becomes
unpleasant." Henry's point is, everything has a place. As much
as we might think, oh, I'd be more holy if I just prayed all
night long and never slept. There's a place for sleep. The
Lord gives His beloved sleep. As much as we may think that
we glorify God by our work, which we do, and therefore we're going
to work, work, work, work, work. Well, we glorify God by our work,
but our work should never be so overdone that we neglect family
duties, private duties, public duties of worship in particular.
There can be overdoing in well-doing. Every task has its place. Is
it good to memorize? Absolutely. But don't try to
memorize the book of Romans when you first start out. Memorize
one verse. Is it good to meditate? Absolutely.
But don't try to meditate for six hours. Grow into that. We had some prayer time this
morning, as I mentioned, in my office. It was about 25-30 minutes. We mentioned, even as we talked
about on Wednesday night, Martin Luther. praying for two and three
hours a day. Well, don't try to be a Luther
tomorrow morning. You're not going to make it. You're going
to get very discouraged because you're going to be frustrated.
You're going to be done in two to three minutes. And you wonder,
how in the world? I can never go two to three hours.
I'm just going to quit. Well, again, as we learned on
last Wednesday night, even Martin Luther started somewhere. So
start with two minutes of prayer. Start with three minutes of prayer.
Start with three minutes of Bible reading. Start with ten minutes
of meditation. Whatever it may be, don't over tap yourself.
And a lot of times when we're new believers, we have this great
zeal which we don't want to lose, but that great zeal sometimes
shoots out of the gate and before you know it, we're flat on our
face because we've overwhelmed ourselves with all the good things
of religion rather than taking it little by little by little.
Children come out of the womb and they learn to run one step
at a time. First crawling. then walking,
then running. Christians must do the same thing.
So this is a very important point. Religion becomes unpleasant when
we overburden ourselves. Right? It becomes unpleasant. So we bring this unpleasantness
upon ourselves because we're not wisely managing the things
that God has called us to do. And so he goes on. He says, instead,
let wisdom direct us to be even and regular in our religion,
to take care that the duties of our general and our particular
calling The business of our religion and our necessary business in
the world do not interfere or entrench upon another. Right? We have to be sure that
the business of our general calling is our general calling. We're
called as Christians. And our particular calling, maybe
we're called to be a father. Maybe we're called as a mother.
Maybe we're called as a wife. Maybe we're called as a minister
or an elder. Whatever our particular calling is, These things can't
interfere with one another. We have to manage both. You can't
be such a great elder that you're a horrible father. You have to
be able to manage both. You can't be such a great Christian
spending all of your time in prayer that you're a terrible
mother neglecting your children. God hasn't called you to that.
God's called you to honor Him in all things. He's called you
to pray without ceasing, but He's also maybe called you to
be a mother of little children or a father. of little children,
whatever it may be. So we can't do it all at the
same time and we can't do it all to its greatest degree that
we may like. Rather, we have to balance things depending on
where the Lord has called us to be. We have to manage ourselves
wisely and keeping everything in its place, even and regular. Find a prayer time that fits
with your duty as a mother, your duty as an employee, your duty
as an employer. Find a place where you may honor
God as a Christian and yet not neglect the particular calling
He's given you that has its own set of duties that will pertain
to you and not to someone else. All these things have to be done.
So don't overdo it. Don't focus too much on one thing.
It all needs to be done. Find a balance. Find a place.
Honor God. That makes religion pleasant.
Otherwise, it's unpleasant, but you brought it upon yourself.
Does that make sense? It's a very important point. It's a very,
very practical and helpful point. Number four. Let us live in love
and keep up Christian charity and the communion of the saints.
For the more pleasing we are to our brethren, the more pleasant
we shall be to ourselves. Nothing makes our lives more
uncomfortable than strife and contention. Psalm 133 is blessed,
right? What a wonderful thing when the
brothers dwell in unity. How behold, how good and pleasant
it is when brothers dwell together in unity and on and on. Keep up love in your heart. How do you keep up the love of
God in your heart toward one another? Overlook offenses. Seek resolution and reconciliation
when need be. Forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive. Seventy times seven. Forgive
your brother. Forgive your sister. Don't hold
grudges. Don't seek revenge. The list goes on and on. You
know all of the verses are probably coming to your mind. How do you
keep up love? to one another. We need to live
in that love and keep up that Christian charity, he says, and
the communion of the saints. One of the worst things we can
do when things are not well between us and the brethren is separate
ourselves. Because who are you hurting?
Self. Right? If there's a problem between
you and the brethren and you separate yourself thinking that
this is the only or the best solution, you're actually hurting
yourself more. We need to be in God's house.
We need to be under the means of grace. That's where healing
comes. That's where reconciliation can
come. So keep up Christian charity. Keep up the communion of saints.
The more pleasing we are to our brethren, the more pleasant we'll
be to ourselves. Pursue. Don't sit in the corner
and wait for reconciliation. Pursue reconciliation. Don't
sit in the corner and wait to be loved. Pursue love. Be the one that takes the first
step in loving others. The first step in showing hospitality. You take the first step in extending
the right hand of fellowship. You take the first step in giving.
You take the first step in serving. So much of the time, we sit back
and wait for someone to be good to us. That's not what the Word
says. The Word says, as much as you did it to the least of
your brethren. Wouldn't it be easy if it said,
as much as they did it unto you? That'd be great. But that's not what
it says. As much as you have done it to the least of my brethren,
you did it to me. God calls you to step out. And your call to
duty does not depend upon whether the other person does his or
her duty. It's like in a marriage. The husband's responsibility
does not depend upon whether the wife does a good job. The
wife may fail her husband miserably and neglect all of her duties.
The husband is still fully charged and in no way absolved of his
duty. You can't say, well, God, if
you give me a better wife, I would do it. She doesn't deserve my
kindness or my love. You can't say such a thing at
all. And likewise, the husband may fail miserably and the wife
is still fully charged with her duties before the Lord. So this
is an important point. Exercise love. It'll be exercised
to you soon enough. Just exercise it towards others.
And that will make your religion pleasant because your conscience
will be at peace. You can go home at night knowing
that you did well, that you showed the love of Christ. And then
you can reasonably pray for the other person, can't you? Because
you know you extended love, even though it may not have been received,
etc., etc. At least you can go home praying
for that person, knowing that you did well. Otherwise, how
can you pray for that person? when you know in your conscience
all the while you're mumbling that you failed too, that you
neglected, that you made no move toward it, that you really need
to be praying for yourself. So, important point. Number five,
let us be much in the exercise of holy joy and employ ourselves
much in praise. Religion is not souring, let's
say. Religion is filled. The religion
of Christ is filled with joy and peace, with joy and happiness. So let us exercise joy. Let us
be much in praise. Let us not crowd our spiritual
joys into a corner of our hearts, nor our thankful praises into
a corner of our prayers. So they're barely seen, barely
heard. Don't just be joyful over here
and no one knows. Don't be, excuse me, thankful
over here and no one hears. Let the joy of the Lord flow
out of you. You have every reason to be filled
with joy. Rejoice. Let your life be one of testifying
that you love the Lord, that you are happy in God, that the
joy of the Lord is your strength and that you have cause for joy
because of the Lord's kindness to you. And therefore, you exercise
much praise. Live a life of delight in God. There's every reason to. We've
already seen that. Let the flowing in. Notice how he lays out several
things here. Number one, let the flowing in of every stream
of comfort lead us back to God. What that means is every good
thing you receive, whether it's the kindness of a wife, the love
of a husband, the respect of a child, the blessing of the
Word of Grace, whatever it may be, every good thing you receive,
let it draw you back to God. In other words, where does the
good thing come from? The Lord. Every good and every perfect
gift is from the Father above. So every good thing, every blessing,
be it from work, be it from a neighbor, be it a wonderful sunny day when
you needed a sunny day. A rainy day would have been more
difficult for your work. Whatever it is, every blessing you receive,
let it drive you back to God. Let it automatically open your
mouth in praise. That's point number one. Let
the flowing in of every stream of comfort lead us back to Him
to give thanks and praise because it's all from Him. Secondly,
Let the drying up of every comfort drive us back to Him as the fountain,
and let us rejoice the more in God for being deprived of that
which we used to rejoice in." Well, the first one was easier,
wasn't it? The first one was great. Let every comfort coming
into you lead you to give thanks to God. But now Henry says, let
every comfort drawn away from you also drive you to God. What does it normally drive us
to? Discontent. Anger, murmuring, complaining. It's what happened to Israel.
Think of all the comforts that were taken away from them. All
of their wonderful vegetables and all of their meat and all
of their comforts. Now they're in the wilderness. They're in
the desert. All they did was complain because their comforts
were taken away. Henry says, let the drying up
of every comfort. Someone withdraws their kindness.
Someone withdraws their love. Someone withdraws their friendship.
Someone withdraws their blessings. Whatever it is, If anything has
been dried up, let's drive you back to God as the fountain. Notice the fountain. And what
is God? The fountain that never runs
dry. So you've lost earthly comforts, but you've never lost God. Things
have been taken away. Maybe you lost a loved one. Maybe
you've lost a loved one. An earthly comfort, a very dear
comfort. It's gone. But there is an ever-flowing
fountain that never dries up. So, when the fountains of earth
dry up, go to God, and let us rejoice the more in God, because
we're deprived of that which we rejoiced in. You hear what
he's saying? You rejoiced in God, and you rejoiced in your
earthly comfort. God has taken your earthly comfort
away. What are you going to do with that joy over here? You're
going to turn it into murmuring and complaining and discontent?
Henry says, no. That joy that you rejoiced in the wife of your
youth, you rejoiced in your children, you rejoiced in your job, you
rejoiced in whatever it was, that joy should now come over
here so that this joy is increased. Does anybody do that? That's
not what we do. We want to rejoice in God and
say, Lord, you're really great. I still love you, but I'm really
mad. And I'm really sad, and I'm really grieved, and I'm never
going to get over this, and I'm never going to be the same, and
I just can't believe this is gone. And we tell everyone on
the phone, and all the emails, complaining, complaining, complaining.
It's like, wait a minute. As the Puritans used to say,
wait a minute, let me get this right. Do you still have Christ? There's nothing to complain about.
Bring it right back. You still have God. Here's the
fountain. This dried up, but it was just
this trickling stream. Of course, at some point it was
going to dry up. It can't last forever. It's earthly, it's temporal,
it's temporary. Rather, God is ever flowing.
Turn to Him. So whenever anything is taken
away from you, this should increase. And shame on us when it doesn't,
because that's really what should happen. That's not just a great
saying by Matthew Henry. That's the Scripture. Let us
be frequent and large in our thanksgiving, recounting God's
many favors, forgetting not the Lord's benefits, right? The psalmist
said, for we will have more pleasure in our religion if we but learn
to give thanks in everything. 1 Thessalonians 5.18 Give thanks
in everything. That's a charge. That's not an
option. That's not a suggestion. Thank
God for everything if you did Religion will be more pleasant.
Why? Because He explains it. Giving thanks and everything
will take half the bitterness out of every affliction. Affliction
is bitter. But it will take half the bitterness
away if you give thanks for it. And it will infuse more than
double the sweetness into every enjoyment if we will only give
thanks to God for it and praise Him for His providence. It will
take half the bitterness out of bad times and it will double
the sweetness of good times. Everything good will be doubly
so because it's from the Father. You recognize it's from His hand.
And you can thank Him for it. We talked about that before.
But every affliction will be lightened because we're thanking
God because we know He's wise and good in giving it. Can you
thank God for everything? We like to say, well, the Scripture
says thank God in everything, but it doesn't say thank God
for everything. It actually says both. My mother reminds me of
that all the time. It says praise God for everything
as well as in everything. So we need to do both of those.
I want to just real quick in here, I want to read something
for you. William Romaine, this fits right here. William Romaine's
letters, extremely, extremely dear, wonderful blessing. Listen to what he says. May the
25th, 1765. My dear friend. Having an opportunity of sending
a note by dear Mr. So-and-so, I could not withhold
my pen. What thanks ought we to give
to our gracious Lord for his mercies to you? What ought you
yourself to give? Can you look back upon any part
of your life, especially the last part of it? And is there
anything upon which you cannot write? This is mercy. Oh, it
is all from first to last to them who are chosen and called
and believe and live by faith on the Son of God. Mercy from
everlasting to everlasting, a mercy before time, a mercy in time,
a mercy beyond time. Where is the fountainhead this
spring of this mercy in the covenant of the eternal three? What gave
rise to it? Nothing but the mere grace and
free love of the divine persons. Notice how a receipt comfort.
William Romaine is telling this person, God has blessed you.
Go back to Him in thanksgiving and praise. A motive cannot rise
but in the purpose and breast of God Himself. But on whom do
the streams of this fountain flow with their quickening, comforting,
sanctifying, glorifying streams? On the miserable and none else. For none else are the objects
of mercy on such as you and me. Mercy has made a rich provision
to supply all our wants, to pardon all our sins, to save us from
all misery, to entitle us to all glory. And what is mercy
chiefly glorious in reserving all its blessings to another
world? The greatest blessings it does reserve, but not all. All are now enjoyed in reversion
by faith. and all things are working together
in Jesus' hand to bring about the full and final enjoyment,
that the mercy which is above all the works of God may have
forever and ever all the glory." What a mercy does this day call
to our remembrance. That was Saturday night. Now
he picks up on Sunday morning. The Savior, risen and ascended,
sends down the divine and faithful witness for Himself. He's speaking
of the Holy Spirit. He shall testify of me, Jesus
said. bear witness to my person, to
my work, that they are both divine, my person Jehovah self-existent,
my work as perfect as Jehovah could make it. The Holy Spirit
shall testify of my grace, how free it is, how full it is, and
shall enable the sinner, any poor wretch, however vile in
his own eyes, to trust his soul in the hands of Jesus, And having
enabled the sinner to do this, then he will testify of Jesus,
that he has received him, that he is safe in the arms and may
be happy in the enjoyment of Jesus' love. Thus he will make
the soul enamored with Jesus. There will appear such consummate
beauty and such infinite loveliness in his precious person as will
eclipse the glory of all other lovers. There will appear such
true happiness in fellowship with him as will quite dethrone
the former idols. And when the foolish heart would
depart, The Holy Spirit will not let it go. Then will he testify
of Jesus, to whom wouldst thou go? Who has eternal life to give
but him? Turn, turn again to thy rest,
O my soul. If the soul is mourning, the
Holy Spirit will testify of the joy that is in Jesus. If the
soul is burdened, cast the burden, says the Holy Spirit, on thy
Lord. If the soul has lost any creature comfort, any earthly
comfort, let it go, will say the Holy Spirit. Jesus is thy
salvation and thy great reward. We read that. If the soul be
grieved within dwelling sin, the Holy Spirit will say, it
is pardoned. And the spirit of life which
is in Jesus Christ has made you free from the law of sin and
death. Whatever the wants of the believer are, the Spirit's
office is to testify about Jesus. In Him is the thing you want. And to glorify Jesus, in Him
you have it freely. This is the office of the Holy
Spirit. Whatever you lack, whatever you need, the Holy Spirit tells
you in your heart of hearts. It's in Jesus. And whatever it
is the Holy Spirit tells you in your heart of hearts, it's
free. My friend, what mercy is this?
The Spirit Jehovah abides with you to testify of Jesus and his
perfect salvation and to glorify Jesus by enabling you to live
safe and blessed upon him, making him not only all, but also all
in all. And when he has taught you thus
to glorify Jesus, he will keep you. Oh, that is sweet. By his
almighty power to bring you to the heaven of heavens, the sight
and enjoyment of dear Jesus, eternally dear and lovely Jesus. Is it indeed so? Why then commit
yourself to this glorious Immanuel? Wait for the spirits teaching
you all his ways and showing you all are well. Remember, he
has lent you your chief earthly comfort only just so long as
he pleases. When he takes your earthly comfort
away, hush. Not a sigh. Be still and know
that I am God, a sovereign. This commands resignation. But
the Lamb's voice is all love. I take it away that you may love
me more and be happier in my love alone. Let it be so, my
dear Lord. Be Thou but present and all is
well. brings together several things
here. Looking to the Lord and trusting in Him. Everything we
need is in Christ. God does take comforts away.
He takes them away when we love them too much. He takes them
away when we depend upon them instead of on Him. He takes them
away when we make them idols. He takes them away when our love
to Him begins to dry up. He takes them away to teach us
that He is our fullness. So, whatever God has taken away,
let it drive you back to Him. Two more. Number six. Another
way by which we can make our walk with Christ pleasant, let
us act in a constant dependence upon Christ. Religion would be
more pleasant if we would but cleave to Christ and do all in
His name. The more precious Jesus is to
us, the more pleasant will every part of our work be. It will
not be a burden to read your Bible when Jesus is pleasant.
It will not be a burden to pray to God when communion with God
is pleasant. It will not be a burden to honor
the Lord's day when the Lord of that day is so pleasant to
you. The more precious He is, the
more pleasant is every part of His work. Christ was appointed
to be the consolation of Israel, and He will be that to us when
we have learned not to look for that in ourselves or in creation,
what can only be found in Him. When we begin to look to ourselves,
when we begin to look to this world, to our job, to our friends,
to our spouses, to our children. When we begin to look to anything
for those things that can be found only in Christ, we will
find a fountain dried up. It won't be there. Your soul
is so big, nothing on earth nor the whole world itself can fill
it or satisfy it. Your soul is so big, that nothing
can satisfy your soul but He who created your soul, the infinite
God. Nothing. So when we begin to
try to satisfy the longings of our hearts in anything in the
world, we will come up empty and be the more sorry for it.
Go to God. Don't look for the things that
are found in God in creation. Our songs of joy are most pleasant
when we sing of nothing but Christ. Sing of nothing but Christ. Go
to no one but Christ. Trust in no one but Christ. Lean
upon no one but Christ. Seek only from Christ the things
that you need. Everything else will dry up.
Lastly, number seven, let us converse much with the glory
that is to be revealed. They that by faith send their
hearts and best affections before them up to heaven, May in return
bring down from heaven some of those joys and pleasures that
are at God's right hand. By frequent meditations on that
rest which remains for the people of God, we now enter into that
rest and partake of the comforts of it. That is the sweetest joy
within us, which is borrowed from the joy set before us. And
we deprive ourselves very much of the comfort of our religion
in not having our eye more to that joy. If we could only set
heaven more before us, we would enjoy more of heaven here. William
Romaine said, it's the glory of mercy to reserve for heaven
its best and greatest blessings. But not all of them. We can enjoy
them. We can enjoy all the blessings
of heaven in reversion, backwards, by faith. The Spirit is the guarantee
and the deposit of an inheritance to come. The Spirit himself is
the down payment, the first fruits, guaranteeing us that we shall
receive a full inheritance. Let's look forward to a full
inheritance, but let's not miss what we already have. And that's
what makes the Lord's Day so pleasant. That's what makes public,
private and family worship also pleasant, but especially the
Lord's Day, because what are these opportunities that we have
in gathering together each week? These are four tastes of heaven.
These are foretastes of our eternal abode and eternal blessings in
worship. This is a foretaste of what is
ours forever. So, the more we delight in the
things to come, the more pleasant the things will be today. If
we see our Lord's Day, for instance, as a foretaste of our eternal
Sabbath, Not only will we long for that eternal Sabbath more,
but we'll more enjoy our Lord's Day and the blessings of the
means of grace. There is much held out for us
in that inheritance, but there is all of it given to us in Christ
and we can receive it by faith, not by sight yet, not by touch
and feel, but by faith, which again, is as real to us, as true
to us, as if we had it in possession. And that's why we can rest each
night. That's why we can lay our heads in our graves and know
that all is well. Having it by faith, we truly
do have it. If Christ is ours, all things
are ours. Life, death, Paul says, all things. We just need to believe and enjoy
the comfort of believing by God's grace. So those are seven things
that we can do. Seven helps to make religion
more pleasant. Seven directions, he says, if
we would put these into practice, we would find our walk with Christ
more pleasant. Amen.
Joy of Christianity, Lesson 16
Series Pleasantness of Religious Life
| Sermon ID | 1215211935392758 |
| Duration | 44:58 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Language | English |
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