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.