Apr 14
19
“O Thou Son of the Blessed! Grace stripped Thee of thy glory. Grace brought Thee down from heaven. Grace made Thee bear such burdens of sin, such burdens of curse as are unspeakable. Grace was in Thy heart. Grace came bubbling up from Thy bleeding side. Grace was in Thy tears. Grace was in Thy prayers. Grace streamed from Thy thorn-crowned brow! Grace came forth with the nails that pierced Thee, with the thorns that pricked Thee! Oh, here are unsearchable riches of grace! Grace to make sinners happy! Grace to make angels wonder! Grace to make devils astonished!”
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BANNER
In a figurative language, Christ is said to be an ensign, or standard, to his people. (Isa. xi. 10, 12.) Hence, the Psalmist, in allusion to Christ, “Thou hast given a banner to them that feared thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.” (Ps. lx. 4.) And when Moses built an altar, after the victory obtained over Amalek, he called the name of it JEHOVAH Nissi; that is, the Lord is my banner. And what Lord but Christ? Were not both the altar and the banner tokens of the Lord Jesus Christ? (Exod. xvii. 15.) Hence, the church speaks, in allusion to Christ, “In the name of our God, we set up our banners.” (Ps. xx. 5.) And hence also, the church, when beheld in her warlike appearance, fighting in the strength of her Lord, is said to be, “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” (Song vi. 4. 10.) It is very blessed to eye Christ in this most glorious character, as JEHOVAH’S banner to his people, for their waging war with sin, death, and hell. He is lifted up from everlasting, in the glories of his person, as the church’s Husband from all eternity. Hence, the Standard-bearer among ten thousand, under whose shadow all his redeemed are safe, and made more than conquerors through Him that loveth them. Reader! believer! friend! are we under this almighty Banner? Hath the Lord Jesus brought us to his banqueting house, and is his banner over us of love? Oh, then, let us sit down under his shadow, for, surely, all his fruit is sweet to our taste! Sure banner of peace with God, and good will towards men! See Jehovah Nissi.
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JEHOVAH NISSI
(Exod. xvii. 15.) The margin of our Bible renders it, “This is the Lord my banner.” There is somewhat uncommonly beautiful and striking in this blessed name of our covenant God in Christ. No doubt, Christ himself is his people’s banner; for so the Lord described him, (Isa. xiii. 2.) and as a leader and commander to the people. (Isa. lv. 4.) Now in every point of view this is most blessed; for as a banner displayed is a signal of war, so when the believer takes Christ for his banner, he declares war with sin, death, hell, and the grave, and takes to him the whole armour of God; moreover, he fights in sure and certain hope of victory, because Jesus hath already gotten to himself the victory, and his own arm hath brought to him salvation. So that when JEHOVAH Nissi is the banner under which we fight, we are “more than conquerors through him that loveth us.” Never may I go forth against the Amaleks of the present day, without JEHOVAH Nissi as my banner; but with him, and under him, wage an everlasting war against the enemies of God and his Christ.
Hearing the Gospel –James Smith
“Take heed how you hear!” Luke 8:18
The gospel is a message sent from God to man; it is directed to everyone who hears it, and is as much intended for each, as if every man’s name were appended to it. No one has therefore a right to say, “I am not interested in it, it does not concern me;” nor can any one be justified in refusing to listen to it. It is sent to all, it is addressed to every creature; and it proves either a savor of life unto life, or a savor of death unto death. Every man is either softened or hardened by the gospel; it always has an effect — but not always the same effect; therefore, “take heed how you hear!”
The gospel should be heard with close attention, for it is the Word of God — and not the word of man.
It should be listened to with deep seriousness; for it speaks of the most solemn and important subjects.
The thoughts should be exercised upon it, for it is deep, and conveys the thoughts of God.
It should be heard with prayer; for as the Holy Spirit alone can unfold and apply it to the heart, so that it shall work effectually — prayer should ascend while we are hearing, that the Holy Spirit would take of the things of Christ and show them unto us.
It should be mixed with faith, or be cordially and heartily believed; it demands our credence, it calls for the confidence of the heart, and should be received with warm affections.
Every one should hear for himself, as though there was no one present but himself to listen to the Word; and should hear as if death was at his back, judgment before his face, and eternity opening in the distance before him.
“Take heed how you hear!” for there are many thoughtless people, who hear the word — but understand it not!
There are many trifling hearers, whom Satan amuses even while they profess to listen to the voice of God!
There are many prayerless hearers, on whom the Word falls as good seed upon a barren rock!
There are many unbelieving hearers — and the Word does not profit them, because they have no faith!
There are many who hear for others, instead of themselves, and imagine that the Word is suited to those around them, forgetting that it is God’s message to them!
So many are hardened by the Word, and become twice dead, like trees plucked up by the roots, and dried in the summer’s sun.
“Take heed how you hear!” for all is not done when you have heard; you are accountable for the use you make of the Word, and must answer for the use or abuse of it before God. God will not allow any one to trifle with His gospel, slight His mercy, and insult His messages with importunity. He is a jealous God. He will maintain His right. He will avenge His injured grace!
The gospel brings a vast responsibility with it, and places us in very solemn circumstances. It brings God near to us; by it He speaks with us; and we either welcome Him — or say, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of your ways.”
“Take heed what you hear.” Compare it with God’s written Word; for many false teachers have gone out into the world.” Imitate the noble Bereans, who searched the Scriptures daily, to see if what an Apostle preached corresponded therewith. We are solemnly bound to compare the preacher’s message — with God’s Word; and receive or reject it, in proportion as it corresponds with or differs from it. We shall be judged by the Word of God; which Word of God, in His kind and gracious providence, has put into our hands, in our own mother tongue.
“Blessed are they who hear the Word of God — and keep it;” who . . .
hide it in their hearts,
write it on their memories,
embrace it with their affections,
and obey it in their lives.
It is a blessing to have an opportunity to hear it;
a greater blessing to have an inclination to embrace it;
but the greatest blessing of all is, to be conformed to it in our hearts and lives.
Such are indeed blessed; for they have . . .
a lamp, to enlighten their darkness;
a map, to mark out their road;
plentiful provision for their souls, and
eternal life in promise and prospect!
Reader, is this blessedness yours? Do you hear the Word of God as a message sent to you from God? Do you hear it regularly, thoughtfully, prayerfully, with faith, for yourself? Do you keep it, in your thoughts, in your affections, in your life?
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THE SUPREME RULE OF JESUS
“This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose”—
“Zion, your God reigns!” Isaiah 52:7
“I have installed My King on Zion, my holy hill.” Psalm 2:6
God’s gracious palm-trees of promise are not designed for comfort and refreshment to the individual believer alone. He has an outlook from under their grateful shade on the Church’s far horizon. Delightful and elevating is that topic of consolation which our motto-verses suggest!
In the context from which the former of the two is taken, the prophet, in heavenly vision, beholds the swift-footed Gospel messengers speeding from country to country, from race to race, carrying the tidings of salvation round the globe. He sees a whole world brought under the beneficent reign of the Prince of Peace, and can exclaim (ver. 10)—”The Lord will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” The Church does not end her efforts until every mountain and valley is gladdened with the feet of these evangelists, with trumpet-tongue proclaiming the commands of her Great King.
And what is the opening theme of those who are thus swift to act as His delegates? What is their brief watchword for the children of Zion?—”Your GOD REIGNS!” Happier, more blessed words there cannot be. Messiah rules over His Church and over the nations. “Yet have I set My King on My holy hill of Zion.” What a comfort to the Church universal; that amid political complexities: it may be the prevalence and triumph of human tyranny and wrong; all which concerns her is under His omnipotent supervision; that He is controlling every event for her ultimate welfare. ‘Kings and potentates,’ says M’Cheyne, ‘are only like Hiram’s workmen in Lebanon cutting down trees to prepare a highway for the King’s chariot.’
‘The sacramental host,’ His true people throughout all the world, need be in no fear—giving way like Israel in Egypt to precipitate panic; for in front and from behind they have an Almighty guardian. And especially His ministers, ‘the armor-bearers of Jehovah,’ need never fear the ultimate success of their proclamation of the good tidings; the issue of the conflict is in the Lord’s hands. They can take as their battle-song the motto inscribed on the altar erected shortly after Israel left their Elim encampment, “Jehovah Nissi” (“The Lord is my banner”).
And that which is the theme of encouragement to the Church universal, is equally so to each separate member of that Church. There are times, amid the mysteries of daily life—amid startling providences—baffling dispensations, when the old moorings threaten to give way, or have momentarily given way, and we feel ourselves drifting out on the joyless sea of human doubt and distrust. All is dark around—no rift in the cloud, no star in the midnight sky—and in the anguish of bitter unbelief we are tempted to mutter the querulous complaint, “Where is my God now?” Or, if God lives and reigns, does He live as a God of terror? does He answer to the fire-god of the Phoenician in his Baal-worship; or to the Jupiter-god of the Roman, armed with the thunderbolt and forked lightning? or, in the fantasies of a later philosophy, has He abdicated His throne, and left man and his fortunes to wild chance, to be driven, things of fate, here and there on the fitful waters—the vessel without a pilot, the world without a ruler?
No! the chart of Providence containing the fortunes of the nations, as well as all that concerns His Church and people, is in the keeping of the Christ of Calvary. “The Lord is king!
Let the nations tremble! He sits on his throne between the cherubim. Let the whole earth quake!” It is He who mingles every drop in the cup, and lights every furnace, and orders every trial, and draws every tear. Oh! what would many have been in those gloomy hours of despair, when the props of existence were shaking underneath them—(what they thought were life’s strongholds giving way like the yielding rafters beneath their feet)—what would they have been, but for the sustaining assurance that that roll of human destiny is in the hand of the Lord who died for them?
Especially to the mourner in Zion, how cheering the assurance, that all which concerns him and his, is under His Savior’s control and sovereignty! On those gloomy, sterile mountains of trial, on which “every tree is burned up, and all the green grass burned up,” glad is this announcement, borne by the messengers of consolation. There are other “good tidings of good”—grander and more glorious gospel promises, embracing the hopes “full of immortality;” but how the soul, amid the ruins of its joy—the dust of its desolation, clings to this elementary truth, that it was no sudden accident or chance which overturned its fondest fabrics, and made “the city lie deserted that was once so full of people.” But that every form of outer calamity, fever and disease, lightning and tempest, plague, pestilence, and famine, are so many arrows in the quiver of God. “Zion! your God reigns!”
We may not now, and do not now, see the wisdom and faithfulness of many of His dealings. Many an Elim of blessing may be mistaken for a Marah of bitterness and sorrow. We may even, at times, lose the footsteps of the Sovereign Ruler, and the cry of the smitten heart may be, “Truly You are a God that hides Yourself.” But the arm, for the present slumbering, will in due time “awake;” the arm, now concealed, will in due time be “made bare;” the purposes now hidden will be unfolded; and each of the children of Zion will come to be “joyful in their King.”
“Know well, my soul, God’s hand controls
Whatever thou fearest;
Round Him in calmest music rolls
Whatever thou hearest.
“And that cloud itself, which now before thee
Lies dark in view,
Shall, with beams of light from the inner glory,
Be stricken through.”
“The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.” MacDuff