Jul 14
5
PROOF AND TRIUMPH OF LOVE
“This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose”—
“He loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
Travelers tell us that it is those palm trees whose stems have been broken by the sweep of the tempest which are generally seen to shoot forth the largest and most sheltering branches. The “corn of wheat” in the divine parable, by falling into the ground and dying, brought forth “much fruit.” So is it from the death of Jesus that the new and glorious life of God’s people is derived—”I came that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Reader, are you able fully to accept and appropriate this sublime truth? to view it, not as a beautiful figure, a typical fiction, but as a sober reality. “He loved me, and gave Himself FOR me;” that He surrendered His life’s blood, in order to have the right to say, as He beckons under the shelter of the Elim palm-grove, “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.”
In obeying the gracious invitation, rejoice, too, that the negotiation is completed, the Substitute has been provided, the ransom has been paid. It is not a matter which now remains in suspense and unaccomplished. Many on earth have noble and lofty intentions which have never been fulfilled. Many a high enterprise has been thought of; but the enthusiasm wears past, the opportunity is lost, or the resolve is strangled at the birth. Not so this Great Salvation. What Christ undertook He has performed. He does not utter the unavailing soliloquy and lament in His heavenly palace, over an apostate world, which David did on the occasion of the death of his ruined child, “Would God I had died for you.” He has died; He has fulfilled His covenant-pledge as our Surety. Our mortgaged inheritance has been recovered. The prophetic words have become now the utterance of an historic fact—He HAS seen of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied!
Well do we know that this doctrine is in these modern times disliked by many; by not a few rejected. Many prefer coming with Cain’s bloodless offerings of thanksgiving (the deist sacrifice) rather than, like Abel, bringing the bleating victim from his fold. They are willing to behold Christ the Son; not Christ the “Lamb of God.” They build the temple while they disown the altar. But it is not the philosophic divinity which consists in the glorification of mere virtue—it is not eliminating these peculiar doctrines of the cross, and substituting cold negations—that will pacify conscience. The most familiar of lines embody, in simple language, the only Scripture creed—the only accepted and acceptable ‘Song of the pardoned’—
“When from the dust of death I rise
To take my mansion in the skies,
This all my hope, this all my plea,
That Jesus lived and died for me.”
See how He has “blotted out the handwriting that was against you, and has taken it out of the way, nailing it to His cross!” See how God, the injured Creditor, has cancelled your obligations! Never again, in point of law, can your multitude of sins appear—they are obliterated forever. “I will forgive,” says He (what man often does not), “your wickedness and will remember your sins no more” (Heb. 3:12). Let the mightiest angel in heaven be delegated to go in quest of these pardoned sins! Let him roam creation! Let him search every corner of the earth, and every cavern of the ocean. He will come back from the mission with the tidings—”Search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found.” He is faithful who promised—”I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist” (Isa. 44:22). John MacDuff.
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The Poor Satisfied! James Smith, 1860
“I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.” Psalm 132:15
It is astonishing, when we think of the greatness and glory of God, that he would pay any attention to such insignificant and vile worms as we are. And yet it would appear from his word, that he pays more attention to us, than to any other part of his creation! Israel, and the land of promise, represented the Church of God and her privileges. Therefore we read, “The Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his habitation.” As a man chooses some lovely spot for his residence, and sets his heart upon it — so the Lord has chosen his people, and set his heart upon dwelling among them. “This is my rest forever, here will I dwell; for I have desired it.” God finds rest and refreshment among his people, and desires to have them with him entirely and eternally. “I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.”Precious promise!
TO WHOM IS IT MADE?
To Zion, or the Church founded on the rock. The temple which typified the Church, was built on a rocky eminence; and the Church herself, is built on the rock Christ. Christ in his glorious person, finished work, and various offices, is the one and only foundation of his Church. On him, all the persons and interests of his people rest. He bears up the whole fabric of saving mercy. All the materials were . . .
chosen by him,
purchased by him,
collected by him, and
are united together by him.
It is his Church — and a costly Church it has been to him. To this Church, in all places, at all times, this promise belongs.
To the poor he pays special attention.
To the poor he speaks loving words.
For the poor he has made special provision.
To the poor he gives his richest blessings.
His poor are hungry, and long for bread;
they are penniless, and cannot procure it;
they are dependent on him to supply it.
They must beg or starve — appeal to him or perish.
The poor in spirit are precious in his sight.
The hungry and thirsty are blessed, and shall be filled.
The Lord regards the poor, “He will satisfy his poor with bread.”
WHAT DOES THIS PROMISE CONTAIN?
It is the promise of a blessing. God loves to bless his people. To bless their persons. To bless their bread and their water. To bless all they have, and bless them in all they do. He has made provision for his people in his ordinances. They present Jesus the bread of life. They are wells of salvation. They bring us into the presence of God, and set before us the feast which God has made. The gospel contains their provision. Here is . .
pardon and peace,
righteousness and strength,
light and life,
relief and deliverance.
Here is the great supper of the great King, made to commemorate the marriage of his Son. The promises especially contain the provision he has made for us. Provision . . .
for every need,
for every day,
for every place,
for every circumstance.
Full supplies.
Free supplies.
Ever fresh supplies.
This provision God will bless — even his ordinances, his gospel, and his promises. When God blesses them — they impart light, infuse strength, and work our deliverance. Christ meets with his people–and manifests himself to his people. They are the galleries in which he walks. The chambers in which he rests. The palace in which he is enthroned. Every believer can say, “We have seen the goings of our God, even the goings of our king in the sanctuary.”
With his blessing, a little goes a great way, and lasts a long while. Everything is to us what God’s blessing makes it, even his own ordinances and word. We need not only the means — but his blessing with them. By blessing his provision, he will satisfy his poor with bread. He will give them the true bread from Heaven, and his blessing with it, and then they feed upon it, enjoy it, and are fully satisfied with it. It just suits the craving desires of the soul.
It is sufficient to meet and supply all their needs. It gives them satisfaction — they are content, they desire nothing more. The health of the soul is not good, if we do not relish the bread of life. The state of the heart is not satisfactory, if we are not satisfied with Christ, and with Christ alone. We may enjoy music, we may admire flowers — but they are not food; so there are many things we may like in their places — but if the mind is spiritual, nothing will satisfy it but spiritual provision.
What a mercy it is to be stripped of everything of our own. To be emptied of self and self-importance. To feel that we are absolutely dependent on the Divine bounty. To have to look to God for all, and to have to look to God always. The poorer we are in self — the more we shall enjoy God’s provision, and the more we shall relish the bread of God. Nothing in self — we shall find all in Christ. But even for God’s people, there is no satisfaction — but as they feed on the bread of life.
The promises of God are food for the soul; let us therefore believe them, feed on them, and expect to be strengthened and nourished by them.
Poor sinner, you have no food for your soul, but husks, yet there is bread enough in our Father’s house and to spare, and you may have it for asking for. You have no satisfaction in anything you do or possess; neither can you have, until you are found among Zion’s poor, and then you will find, that God abundantly blesses her provision, and satisfies her poor with bread.
Jesus! you are the living bread, By which our needy souls are fed;
In you alone your Children find Enough to fill the empty mind.
Without this bread I starve and die, No other can my need supply;
But this will suit my wretched ease, Abroad, at home, in every place.
This precious food my heart revives;What strength, what nourishment it gives!
O! let me evermore be fed With this divine celestial bread!