If I bear witness of Myself My witness is not true.
There is another that beareth witness of Me
The witnesses of the Son
I. A GREAT WITNESS, His forerunner. The Baptist as a witness for Christ was
1. Human (John 5:34; cf. John 3:31).
2. Brilliant. While he lasted he was like the lamp that gave light to the whole household of the Jewish people. So should every Christian in his place as parent, master, teacher, citizen, be a blazing torch, or, at least, a useful lamp, to guide others to Christ (Matthew 5:16; Philippians 2:15).
3. Acceptable. For a time the people buzzed round him like moths round a Luke 3:15). He was therefore a witness of their own selection, and hence one that might be supposed to be impartial.
4. Transcient. So Christ’s witnesses can seldom count on protracted popularity (Hebrews 7:23).
5. Yet permanent (John 5:33). A word truly spoken for Christ never dies.
II. A GREATER WITNESS. His works.
1. More exalted in its origin (John 5:34; cf. John 3:31). John’s was from earth, Christ’s from heaven.
2. More direct in its expression. Christ’s works, being the Father’s, proceeded straight from Him without passing through a subsidiary messenger as John.
3. More conclusive in its significance. John’s was necessarily imperfect, he being but human. But Christ’s works were such as the Father only could John 3:2; John 14:10-11). The inference from John 5:36; John 5:39 wasirresistible that Christ was the Son of God.
III. THE GREATEST WITNESS. His Father.
1. The Scriptures the medium of the Father’s testimony (John 5:39; John 5:46).
2. The Scriptures the Father’s testimony par excellence. The Father speaks in them by the Holy Ghost. To reject them is to reject the last and highest form of evidence God can give. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
The witness bearer
We are not informed whether our Lord’s opponents expressed their feelings, but knowing all things, He replied to their secret objections that the testimony was valid, inasmuch as He was not alone in bearing it (John 5:31). Such testimony could not be given by any man (John 5:34); it could be given so as to be on a footing of equality with His own only by “another” such as Himself, viz., the “Father.” The testimony was
1. “Of another,” implying distinctness of personality, and yet equality of testimony in value.
2. That of the God of Truth, known to Christ, who is in the bosom of the Father as it cannot be known to men. Consider, then, the Father’s testimony to Jesus by John.
I. THEY HAD SENT TO JOHN (verse 33). Some of them, perhaps, had themselves been deputies (John 1:19). By taking this step they had manifested a high opinion of John’s testimony. What authority, then, ought that testimony to have on the subject they had submitted to him?
II. JOHN BORE WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. John repudiated the Messiahship of himself, but announced Jesus as the “Lamb of God.” Had they put by this testimony? They were now reminded of it.
III. THE AUTHORITY OF GOD’S TESTIMONY WAS NOT HIS, BUT THAT OF HIM THAT HAD SENT HIM (verse 34). Man of himself was not equal to the task of witnessing to the glory of Christ. “No man knoweth the Son but the Father.” Man may be employed to proclaim what God is pleased to communicate, but the authority is not his, but God’s. John was sent from God to bear witness of the light. How vain, then, to speak of the authority of the Church in the Roman sense. It abides in the Word which she is commissioned to proclaim, and in that only.
IV. JOHN’S PLACE AND HONOUR IN SUCH A CAUSE (verse 35).
1. He was a burning and shining lamp, a vessel prepared and ordained to diffuse light. The oil of grace in his heart was kindled from above, not from below. All ministers of Christ are of a similar character.
2. The Jews had rejoiced in this light, and had acknowledged John as a messenger from God. It was for a season only, however. John’s ministry was short, and their willingness to rejoice in it was shorter still. When they found that he was the herald of no political deliverer, when they understood the conditions of entering the kingdom John predicted, and when he pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God, they gave him up.
Lessons:
1. Have we received the gospel as the Word of God? It is only when we hear God in the Word that we hear at all.
2. Were we once more willing to rejoice in the gospel than we are now? (A. Beith, D. D.)
Christ’s witnesses
God alone can testify touching the nature of a Divine relation. Christ has the witness of
I. THE BAPTIST. His predicted forerunner.
II. HIS MIRACLES.
III. THE FATHER.
1. At His baptism (Matthew 3:17).
2. At His transfiguration (Luke 9:35).
3. In the temple (John 12:29).
IV. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
1. Old Testament.
2. New.
V. HIS DISCIPLES in whom He dwells.
VI. HIS ENEMIES, the rancour and persistence of whose opposition is a testimony to His Person and worth. (J. W. Burn.)
The witness of the Old Testament Scriptures to Jesus Christ
I. They witness to Him BY THE GREAT NEED OF A SAVIOUR, revealed by the lives and expressed in the words of the noblest of men.
II. They witness to Him BY THE UNSATISFYING EXPEDIENTS to which men resorted to meet that need--law, ritual, sacrifice.
III. They witness to Him BY TURNING MEN’S THOUGHTS from the past and the present to the future. The golden age of Israel was ever before her, not behind.
IV. They witness to Him BY THE UNREALIZED IDEALS of Prophet, King, and Priest, which Christ alone fulfilled.
1. As Prophet, He spoke with authority.
2. As King, He wrought with authority.
3. As Priest, He forgave with authority. (C. M. Hardy, B. A.)
These things I say, that ye might be saved
Have an object
A minister once had the celebrated Andrew Fuller as a hearer. After service, both were invited to a neighbouring house for refreshment. The preacher, who evidently thought he had made no failure, was desirous to ascertain Mr. Fuller’s opinion of his effort. The veteran divine seemed unwilling to be drawn out upon that subject, and for some time took no notice of his younger brother’s allusions and hints. At length a remark was made of so inviting a character as that Mr. Fuller could not well avoid making some reply. He said, “I gave close attention to your sermon, and tried to ascertain at what you were aiming it: what was your object?” Several years afterwards that preacher referred to Mr. Fuller’s inquiry as a cutting reproof which he deeply felt, and which had the effect of changing essentially the character of both his motives and his labours. (Clerical Anecdotes.)
He was a burning and a shining light
I. In the ANALOGY employed by our Lord we have the threefold characteristic of a Christian minister--light, heat, and lustre. Re is a living lantern. “Light in the Lord.”
1. The first qualification for a Christian teacher is that he sees. He has heard the voice, “Let there be light,” and the voice has divided the light from the darkness.
2. The Christian doctrine is that the world and human nature are dark, and that Christianity is a light shining in a dark place.
3. In harmony with this view, every Christian man, and especially the Christian teacher, should be a light-bringer, none the less so because his temperament and character are called to a different routine of duties, or develop a varied order of excellences. There may be more or less of the red flare of human passion or the beautiful white light of love. Light is one, but it shines through various affecting media. There is light
(1) In the eye, by which we know sensible objects;
(2) In the understanding, by which we know scientific relations and are able to reason, etc.;
(3) In the will, which affects the whole range of our moral vision;
(4) but we see most clearly when we see through our affections.
4. But the Christian, like John, must be a burning and shining light--the marriage of knowledge and zeal; the white and red lights of life; impetuosity and prudence; Peter and John going up to the temple; the jewels on the high priest’s breastplate; the gorgeous red of the ruby, the soft blue of the sardonyx, the cataract splendour of the diamond.
II. Our Lord permits the designation to wear the form of EULOGY. John was an extraordinary teacher every way.
1. When any insist on ecclesiastical authority, I like to point to John the Baptist. How strangely he must have startled the ordinary opinions of his day. To the priests his mission must have appeared most heretical and disorderly. How strange that the conservators of religion are ever the last to learn the meanings of a great revelation. But when the Word of the Lord burns in the heart of a prophet he cannot hold back.
2. John was no dreamer, but never did prophet appear more so, proclaiming the visionary kingdom at hand. In the nature of things the light would not be comprehended by the darkness. Suddenly, in the death state of the Jewish nation, John rose. “The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent ye.” God’s turning to man the plea for man’s turning to God--the sum and seal of the gospel lies in that.
III. GENERALIZATIONS. The burning and the shining light was
1. Before his age. The age was one of formalism and religious apathy. John was the impersonation of reality and earnestness. The most dreadful sight on earth is that of a preaching machine, yet that is often preferred to a prophet.
2. He was banished from society by his convictions. All men who leave the formalism of the present moment must make up their minds for the desert. But it is there we learn our true strength and the meaning of our mission.
3. He died a martyr to his faithfulness. (Paxton Hood.)
Sacrifice and submission
Suppose it were certainly predicted of your child that he should grow up the servant of other men, that he should have none of this world’s honours, and that his life should be made up of sacrifice and submission; would you not conceive it a dreary prospect? This prospect was realized in John; but the Master pronounced it grand. The poet sings, “Lives of great men all remind us,” etc. Thousands of young people have read these lines with hopefulness; of full-grown persons with misgiving; of the old who have wished that they had never heard them. But what are the elements of a grand life? There are easy, pleasant, showy, restless, plodding, successful, and average lives; but of grand lives two only are possible, both realized in Christ and in those who are like Him.
I. THE LIFE OF SACRIFICE. There are those in this world whom God calls to live for others, and the wants of others are to them the gate of everlasting glory. It may be the poor, sick, penitent, orphan, one’s country, church, household, pariah, city, or hamlet. Human want is everywhere. To resolve to live for others, to give time, wealth, prayers, that others not so fortunate may be helped, cared for, taught, and that not grudgingly or of necessity, nor for profession or pay or praise, and on the first motion, and in faith--that is the way to make life sublime. And it is sublime because
1. It contradicts the desires of the heart, which never go that way by themselves, and involves that most glorious of victories, the conquest of self.
2. Because it is like the life of Christ and of those who have loved Him best.
II. THE LIFE OF HOLY SUBMISSION. In this life there is what is called the inevitable. Often this takes a formidable shape, and seems as if it might wreck the whole life. The wider the range of this enemy of peace, the greater the trial to a sensitive and eager spirit. But submission to the inevitable must take the form of intelligent resignation to the will of God to ennoble life. To this end
1. The mind must be kept in check by the thought of God.
2. The spirit of complaint be checked.
3. The habit of cheerfulness cultivated.
Lessons:
1. One of warning to the prosperous: the one thing in their life which could have given it grandeur is lacking, and failure will be written on it at last without sacrifice and submission.
2. One of consolation to the unfortunate: acceptance of one’s lot as from God, and making the best of it, makes it glorious.
3. Put, then, away mock heroic ideas of grandeur. There are lofty lives where the world cannot see, but God can; and noble lives, although covered with this world’s tinsel glory, which will one day utterly fade away. (Morgan Dix, D. D.)
Light
The Word is a hand-lamp. Candles of tallow were first used, then lamps with wicks of flax were universally substituted. The ancients, in the absence of tables, used candlesticks from twelve inches to five feet high, made of wood, bronze, marble, silver and gold, with several branches. That of Antiochus was adorned with jewels set in chains. They were made in the form of lilies, seals, vines, and other figures. Lamps were used in marriage ceremonies, and placed in sepulchres. Olive oil was used, which on festive occasions was highly perfumed. Sometimes the lamps were held by the domestics standing round the table. Emblematically ministers are called candles (Zechariah 4:1-14.; Revelation 1:1-20; Revelation 11:4). The Rabbis were called “Candles of the Law; Lamps of the Light.” Light and fire were symbols of John 1:4; John 3:20). Lamps are required only in the sun’s absence, so at Christ’s coming John disappears. The Church is symbolized under the sign of a candlestick (Revelation 1:20). Caravans in the desert at night are preceded by a brilliant lantern, which lights all who follow. Should the bearer be careless, “Let your light shine” sounds from all. Christ was never called, like John, a “light-bearer”; the word light as applied to Him is entirely different. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
The light and the lamp
Just as Christ was not a Light, but the Light, so John was not a lamp, but the lamp; he was the friend and servant of the Bridegroom, who was to go before Him with the torch of his testimony. Burning like fire, his call to repentance penetrated into the hearts of men; brightly shining, full of gospel truth, he went before, lighting the way which led to the Lamb of God. (R. Besser, D. D.)
The torch-bearer
John was not a permanent sun; he was the torch which cannot burn without consuming itself. Critics have interpreted the article as signifying the torch par excellence, as alluding to Sir 48:1, “the word (of Elias) shone like a torch,” and as comparing John to the well.known retch-bearer who walked before the bridegroom in a nuptial procession; but the article simply means the light, of which there never was more than one in the house, (F. Godet, D. D.)
The lamp that burneth and shineth
The two epithets express the same idea; that of the ephemeral brilliance of a torch which wastes as it gives light. The imperfect “was” proves that the torch is now extinguished. John was imprisoned or dead. (F. Godet, D. D.)
A lamp shines by burning, and burns in shining; the sun wastes not while raying forth its beams. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
Burning and shining lives
Some shine but do not burn; others burn but do not shine. True grace in the soul does both. Basil thundered in his preaching and lightened in his life. Of the martyrs Rogers and Bradford it was difficult to decide whether their eloquence or their holiness shone the brighter. (Van Doren.)
Let your light shine
As I have seen the glowworm at late evening, by the silent side of an empty English lane, mount some tall spike of grass and turn its tiny lamp, content to hang, head downwards, itself unseen, so that the exquisite soft green light which God had given it might be visible in its loveliness; so may one find in this world’s lowly and unfrequented paths Christ’s light-bearers, who shed each his own sweet love-light round a narrow circle of the dark, that the wayfarer who sees may praise, not his unsightly and, sooth to say, concealed self, but that great Father in heaven who lit this faint taper upon earth, even as He lit the nobler fires which burn far up in heaven. But just as I have shut the poor glowworm in a dark box or under an inverted dish, yet found that it spent all its radiance there unseen, only for sake of love, and because shine it must: so will the true soul, whom his Lord shall chance to imprison from shedding light on any human eye, rejoice no less to let his devout affections and gracious deeds be seen of Him who looks through the densest cover, and knows how to bestow an open reward. (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D.)
Christians must shine
Christians I it is your duty not only to be good, but to shine; and, of all the lights which you kindle on the face, joy will reach furthest out to sea, where troubled mariners are seeking the shore. Even in your deepest griefs, rejoice in God. As waves phosphoresce, let joys flash from the swing of the sorrows of your souls. (H. W. Beecher.)
The benefit of light
The man who carries a lantern in a dark night can have friends all around him, walking safely by the help of its rays, and he not defrauded. So he who has the God-given light of hope in his breast can help on many others in this world’s darkness, not to his own loss, but to their precious gain. (H. W. Beecher.)
The value of light
A blacksmith can do nothing when his fire is out, and in this respect he is the type of a minister. If all the lights in the outside world are quenched, the lamp which burns in the sanctuary ought still to remain undimmed. For that fire no curfew must ever be rung.
Burning and shining lights
Paul, Peter, James, or John--Luke, Mark, Matthew, or Apollos--Andrew, Philip, Barnabas, or Stephen--each would be a burning and shining light: in one the lustre might dart from the pen, in another from the tongue; from one might flash the lightnings of eloquence, from another the more quiet beam of lucid exposition. St. Bernard may illuminate a court, or Thomas a Kempis a cloister; Wickliffe may lighten a rectory or a kingdom; Luther may blaze over an age; Brainerd and Elliott may spend their fiery light in rousing the latent emotions of Indian tribes; or Williams, in identifying Christianity to savages with the arts of life; Whitfield may be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, echoless as soon as uttered; Madame Chantal, the glorious Elizabeth of Hungary, or the lovely Florence Nightingale, may show how the Tabitha and Dorcas spirit is not confined to any age, to cottage, or to court. But the fact about Christianity is, that it turns all its possessors, all its sound-hearted professors, into burning and shining lights. (Paxton Hood.)
The self-consuming life
As a burning and shining light while illuminating others consumes itself, so Christian teachers should sacrifice themselves in the service of God for their fellow-men. (Zeisius.)
Ye were willing for a season to rejoice in His light.
Jesus compares the Jews to children who, instead of taking advantage of the precious moments during which the torch burns to accomplish an indispensable task, do nothing but dance and play the fool in its light till it goes out. It is impossible to characterize better the vain and childish satisfaction which the national pride has found for the moment in the appearance of this extraordinary man, and the absence of the serious fruits of repentance and faith which it was intended to produce. “Instead of being yourselves led to faith by John, you made him an object of curiosity. You pleased yourselves with him.” Comp. Luke 7:24, etc., which charges them with making it an amusing spectacle, and closes by comparing them to a group of children playing in the market-place. (F. Godet, D. D.)
Playing with the light
“All you ever seriously contemplated was to leap, dance, make sport of, like gnats in the twilight, like flies round a lamp, like dancers at a wedding.” The phrase marked not the progress of the Baptist’s career, but the short-lived character of their favourable mood towards him, or the celerity with which their satisfaction in the radiance emitted by him turned into disgust. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
Regeneration better than admiration
The Jews were pleased enough with the thrilling excitement of his ministry, and experienced the delight of a new and powerful sensation. But when John struck deep they forsook him, and never mourned when the martyr perished; as children sport with fire till they are burned, then they cast it aside. Thus the Athenians sought profane amusement in Paul’s preaching (Acts 17:19), Thus popular preachers are followed by thousands who will the next day be found at the gaming table, the racecourse, or the theatre. Not admiration, but regeneration is what a minister should seek for. (Van Doren.)
I have greater witness than that of John
The Greater Witness
Jesus was competent to bear witness to His own glory; so was the Father and the Holy Ghost. Each did, and they alone are competent witnesses. Besides the testimony of the Father through John there were
I. TWO OTHER FORMS IN WHICH THE FATHER BORE WITNESS.
1. By the works which He gave Jesus to finish (verse 36). John’s mission served its end by calling attention to them: the works themselves are now put in evidence.
(1) What were they? Not miracles merely, but all that required to be performed for man’s salvation.
(2) In what sense were they “given” Him?
(a) In the everlasting covenant;
(b) When He was instituted in His mediatorial office;
(c) In token not only of the Father’s love for the elect, but for His Son.
(3) They were given Him to finish. Not to enter on and fail to accomplish. All heaven and earth were entitled to act on the assurance that there could be but one issue.
(4) Yet the works were His, done by His own inherent, personal, almighty power, and of His independent sovereign will.
(5) These works bore witness that the Father had sent Him. They were evidences not of an ordinary prophetic, but of an extraordinary Messianic mission.
2. The Father had directly borne witness to Him (verse 17): Here also was testimony greater than John’s.
(1) Christ doubtless referred to His baptism. Never had such a testimony been borne before. “Unto which of the angels,” etc. The Father’s voice was heard; the emblem cf the Spirit was seen; the image of the invisible God was revealed. Thus the triune Jehovah visited the East. It was a descent more glorious than on Sinai. Jesus now appealed to it.
(2) The Jews sought after a sign. Here was one. It had not been given in a corner. It bore testimony to the Only Begotten, but notwithstanding, the Jews remained in their unbelief.
3. This constituted their great sin which led ultimately to the cross. Unbelief is no less an evil in us. The evidence that Jesus is the Messiah is complete: who of us believes it unto salvation? What then if we be guilty of crucifying Christ afresh.
II. CHRIST’S APPEAL TO THE JEWS ON THIS SUBJECT FOR THEIR CONVICTION consists of three charges. 1 (verse 37). The Saviour spoke here of all the ways in which the Father had testified of Him. The Father’s voice was uttered through Moses, the prophets, John, at Jordan and through the “works.” But to them it was as though it had never spoken. They enjoyed such opportunities as their fathers never enjoyed. Some of these, however, had heard and seen. Abraham, Jacob, Moses. 2 (verse 38). It was their national boast that they had the Scriptures, and a deep though superstitious regard for them. But they had not the word abiding in them. It was not so with all, however, e.g., Mary, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, Andrew, Philip, Nathanael. How common now the former case, how rare the latter, and the consequent acceptance or rejection of Christ. 3 (verses 39, 40).
(1) He praised them for the duty. But how much depends on the spirit and aim of the search. Theirs was fruitless through prejudice.
(2) They searched but did not come to the eternal life. Their discovery was an hallucination. How sad to read and hear about Christ and not find Him. (A. Beith, D. D.)
The Son’s complaint against His own
I. A GRAVE INDICTMENT.
1. Nonacceptance of His Father’s ambassador (John 5:38).
2. Unwillingness to partake of His salvation (John 5:40).
3. Rejection of His gracious message (John 5:47).
II. A SUFFICIENT PROOF.
1. They entirely misconceived the nature and use of the Bible (John 5:39). That which had been given them so as to prepare them for Christ they had failed to understand. They beheld in it a sort of superior talisman that endowed them with eternal life. They never dreamed of searching it for light to lead them to the Son. It is possible for a Christian to make a Saviour of the Scriptures rather than of Christ.
2. They were devoid of true love to God. They made much profession of knowledge and zeal for God’s law, but had no sincere regard for the
Lawgiver. This was evinced by the fact that though they had the law it was not within them (John 5:38).
3. They were wholly out of sympathy with such a Saviour as Christ professed to be (John 5:43). Had He come as a temporal deliverer they would have rallied to His standard; but because He came in His Father’s name and with His Father’s love, and to do His Father’s work, they would have none of Him. What a melancholy tale for that day and for this.
4. They were completely absorbed in their own personal ambitions (John 5:44), and so were incapable of appreciating Christ.
5. They were thoroughly steeped in scepticism even in regard to Moses (John 5:46-47). Hence their unbelief in Him of whom Moses wrote, though not excusable, was not surprising.
III. A FEARFUL FATE.
1. To be accused to the Father (John 5:45), to be impeached before the high tribunal of heaven as those who had dishonoured the Father’s majesty in despising His Son.
2. To be prosecuted by Moses, the very law-giver in whom they had trusted.
3. To be deserted by the Son. Appalling retribution. Lessons:
1. A call to self-examination.
2. A note of warning. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
The works which the Father hath given Me.--The declaration of this relation of the Father and the Son is peculiar to St. John. The Father hath given
I. ALL THINGS INTO HIS HAND (John 3:35; John 13:3).
II. ALL JUDGMENT (John 5:22; John 5:27).
III. TO HAVE LIFE IN HIMSELF (John 5:26).
IV. A COMPANY OF FAITHFUL SERVANTS (John 6:39; cf John 6:65; John 7:2; John 7:6; John 7:9; John 7:12; John 7:24).
V. COMMANDMENT WHAT TO SAY (John 12:49) AND TO DO (John 14:31, John 17:7, etc.).
VI. AUTHORITY OVER ALL FLESH (John 17:2).
VII. HIS NAME (John 17:11, etc.).
VIII. HIS GLORY (Joh 17:24, cf. John 17:22). (Canon Westcott.)
Search the Scriptures.--I rather construe it in the indicative sense, “ye search,” upon these reasons
1. Because of what is said in the verse itself, ye think ye have eternal life in them; in which words our Saviour intendeth not so much to show what they might have in the Scriptures, for then it had been proper to have said, In them ye have eternal life, as He meaneth to touch upon the erroneous conceit of the Jews, who thought they obtained eternal life by the study of the law ex opere operato.
2. Because of the context in the verse following, which lieth fairer in this sense, Ye study the Scriptures scrutinously, and they are they that testify of Me, and yet ye will not borne unto Me--than taken thus: Search ye the Scriptures, for they testify of Me, and ye will not come to Me.
Besides, consider
1. That Christ is speaking to the doctors of the Sanhedrim, the most acute, diligent, and curious searchers of the Scripture of all the nation. Men that made that their glory and employment; and howsoever it was their arrogancy that they thought their skill in Scripture more than indeed it was, yet was their diligence and scrutinousness in it real and constant even to admiration. It was exceedingly in fashion among the nation to be great Scripture men, but especially the great masters of the Sanhedrim were reputed as the very foundations of the law and pillars of instruction, as Maimony styles them in the treatise “Mamrim,” cap. 1. And therefore it cannot be proper to think that Christ in this clause sets them to the study of the Scripture, upon which they spent all their wits and time already, as confessing their studiousness, yet showeth them how unprofitably they did it and to little purpose.
2. They did exceeding copiously and accurately observe and take up the prophecies in Scripture that were of the Messias, and though they missed in expounding some particulars concerning Him, yet did they well enough know that the Scriptures did testify of Him abundantly.
3. The word that is used, ἐρευνᾶτε, which betokeneth a narrow search, seemeth to be intended purposely to answer the word דרשׁ, which they themselves attribute to themselves in their unfolding of the Scriptures. (J. Lightfoot, D. D.)
Search the Scriptures
I. WHAT ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND BY THE SCRIPTURES?
1. Man had at first as perfect a knowledge of God as was necessary for him Ecclesiastes 7:29).
2. This knowledge was impaired by the fall, so that a Divine revelation became requisite for his instruction in duty and the way and means to happiness.
3. Here a God revealed His will to Adam (Genesis 3:15).
4. This was handed down by tradition for 2,500 years, and the long lives of the patriarchs preserved it incorrupt. Methusaleh lived 243 years with Adam, and 98 with Shem, who lived 50 years with Isaac.
5. Man’s life being shortened, God wrote His law by Moses (Psalms 90:10).
6. For the clearing of it He inspired prophets continually (Hebrews 1:1; Numbers 27:21).
7. When Christ came’ He inspired others to record His works and doctrine John 14:26).
8. Hence the Scripture is contained in the books of the Old and New Testaments.
(1) The Old in number thirty-nine, which the Jews reduced to thirty-two, and they divide them in this manner:
(a) The Pentateuch.
(b) The Prophets.
(c) The Hagiographa.
(2) The New Testament consisting of
(a) Gospels,
(b) Acts,
(c) Epistles,
(d) Apocalypse.
9. These are all that make up the canon; and that the Apocrypha is no part thereof is plain (Hebrews 1:1; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Ephesians 2:20).
(a) Malachi was the last prophet.
(b) From reason. They are neither of the Old nor New Testaments, in many places they contradict both, and they do not speak as from God.
(c) From the Fathers.
II. WHY ARE WE TO SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES?
1. Because they are the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 1:20-21).
(1) Probably
(a) From their antiquity.
(b) The simplicity of the penmen (Exodus 32:1-35.; Numbers 11:11-14; Numbers 12:3).
(c) Their low quality (Amos 7:14; Matthew 9:9; Acts 4:13).
(d) Their high doctrine as Trinity, Creation, Fall, Incarnation, etc.
(e) Fulfilment of prophecy. Genesis 3:15 was given 4,000 years before its fulfilment; Genesis 12:3 almost 2,000; Genesis 15:13-14,400. So Daniel 9:24; Genesis 49:10.
(f) Their speaking with so much majesty and authority (1 Corinthians 1:17).
(g) Their efficacy and power to convert (Psalms 19:7-8; Hebrews 4:12).
(h) The hatred of wicked men against them (John 15:19).
(2) Certainly
(a) If this be not God’s word there is none.
(b) God hath attested it by miracles.
(c) If they were not from God, then either from Satan or man. Not from Satan, for they destroy his kingdom (James 4:7). Not from men; good men would not cheat the world, bad men would not condemn themselves.
(3) The use. If the Scriptures are the Word of God, then
(a) Here is terror to the wicked (Isaiah 48:22).
(b) Comfort to the godly (Matthew 5:2-4).
(c) Counsel to all. Wherefore: Reverence them; believe them; prize Psalms 19:10; Proverbs 2:14-15); be thankful for them; conform your lives to them; delight in reading them Psalms 1:2; Psalms 19:10).
2. Because they contain all things necessary to be known and believed, explicitly or implicity; which appears
(1) from Scripture.
(a) God is their Author, and therefore they are like Himself--perfect (2 Timothy 3:16).
(b) They furnish the man of God unto all good works (2 Timothy 3:17; Psalms 19:7).
(c) They contain the whole counsel of God (Deuteronomy 4:2, Revelation 22:18-19; Galatians 1:8-9).
(d) Christ and His apostles taught nothing but Scripture (Lu Acts 17:2; Acts 26:22).
(2) From reason. If all things necessary are not in Scripture, then there is something which I have no certainty of, and then the Scriptures would be in vain (John 20:21).
III. ARE ALL BOUND TO SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES? Yes.
1. God commands all (Deuteronomy 31:11-12; Colossians 3:16).
2. God commends it (Acts 17:11; 2 Corinthians 1:13; 2 Timothy 3:15).
3. They were written to be read of all (Romans 15:4); and were, therefore, first written in the vulgar tongues.
4. The knowledge of the Scriptures keeps from error (Matthew 22:29).
5. All are bound to mind their salvation.
IV. HOW MUST WE SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES?
1. With reverence and devotion.
2. With attention and understanding (Acts 8:30).
3. With affection (Acts 2:37).
4. With fear (2 Kings 22:11-13).
5. With faith (Hebrews 4:2).
6. With delight (Psalms 1:2; Psalms 119:103).
7. To a right and good end.
8. Constantly (Psalms 1:2).
V. USES.
1. Reproof to such as neglect to search the Scriptures.
2. The highest encouragement and motive thereunto.
(1) There is none so ignorant but this will make him wise (2 Timothy 3:15; Psalms 19:7).
(2) There is no heart so sinful but this will cleanse it (Psalms 19:7).
3. No soul so dejected, but here it may find comfort (Psalms 94:19).
4. It is horrible ingratitude not to read what God hath written, and we shall have to answer for it. (Bp. Beveridge.)
Search the Scriptures
I. WHAT ARE THE SCRIPTURES?
1. The Word of God. In the sense in which the words of man are his, and reveal his thoughts, will, purposes, the Scriptures are the Word of God. He is their Author, and they rest on His authority. This is opposed
(1) To the Deistical.
(2) To the Rationalistic.
(3) To the Quaker views.
2. From this it follows that they are
(1) infallible;
(2) holy;
(3) powerful;
(4) consistent;
(5) the appointed means of salvation. We are enlightened, begotten, sanctified, and saved by the truth.
3. They are complete, containing all the extant revelation of God.
4. They are plain, so that every one can learn for himself what God says.
II. WE SHOULD KNOW WHAT WE SEEK WHEN WE SEARCH. We should search
1. For knowledge of God, Christ, truth, duty.
2. For consolation.
3. For holiness.
III. HOW ARE WE TO SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES?
1. Reverently and submissively, with fixed determination to believe every truth they affirm. Everything is right which they affirm, and wrong which they condemn. We are not to sit in judgment on Scripture.
2. With diligence.
(1) Studying them much.
(2) Consecutively.
(3) What they teach on particular subjects.
(4) Availing ourselves of every Aid; fixing right principles, and availing ourselves of All subsidiary means.
3. With dependence; convinced that without Divine guidance we shall obtain neither right speculative knowledge, nor right spiritual views.
4. Therefore with prayer previous and continued.
5. With self-application. (C. Hodge, D. D.)
Search the Scriptures
I. THE DIRECTION.
1. Not merely possess.
2. Nor survey.
3. But search as the woman for the lost piece of silver.
II. THE SUBJECT OF SEARCH. The Scriptures not merely theirs, but ours.
1. Between sixty and seventy writings, composed at intervals of hundreds of years, yet with one chain of truth, one message.
2. The original source of even the nineteenth century’s history, biography, and science.
3. The only guide for the soul of man.
III. THE OBJECT OF THE SEARCH
1. May we not search for scientific truth (Acts 17:26).
2. For our own family records from Adam to John.
3. For the Divine message to our individual soul.
4. More especially for the life and the testimony here mentioned. In, through, and by the Scriptures, eternal life is to be had. Life is the joy of every living creature, therefore search for it in the Scriptures that reveal it by testifying of Him who is “the Life.”
IV. METHOD OF SEARCH.
1. Fairly, without foregone prepossession.
2. Prayerfully.
3. Regularly.
4. Comprehensively. (Pulpit Analyst.)
Search the Scriptures
I. WHY.
1. Because it is Divine in its origin.
(1) This it claims to be (Heb 1:1-2; 2 Peter 1:21; 2 Timothy 4:16).
(2) This it can be proved to be from its fulfilled prophecies and its unique teaching.
2. Because it gives us correct ideas of our condition.
(1) Our sinfulness.
(2) The possibility and way of our salvation.
3. Because it makes us acquainted with our enemies and our dangers.
(1) It exposes the wiles of the devil.
(2) It furnishes us with weapons.
(3) It throws light on our dark and perilous way.
II. How?
1. With prayer. Prayer gives insight to the searcher, and opens up the depths.
2. With an upright intention of submitting to the will of God. Not going with the desire to nourish preoccupied fancies; nor as a controversialist for polemical weapons, but to know what God has said.
3. Regularly and diligently.
(1) By ourselves.
(2) With our families. (T. Snell.)
Search the Scriptures
1. Christ’s Scriptures were those of the Old Testament.
2. Of these Christ said, “They contain eternal life.” Hence
(1) If you admit the New you must accept the Old, for Christ endorses it.
(2) In the New it is the same truth and life as in the Old.
3. What a far better Bible is ours. Two witnesses to one Christ--first in figure, then in historical reality.
4. Remember what the Bible really is. God in His love desired to make Himself known to His creatures; so He gave His Son, “the express image of His Person.” How could we know the Son? Only by the Holy Ghost, who testifies of Him in the Scriptures. The Scriptures
I. MAKE KNOWN OURSELVES. With this end, St. James says they are a mirror. There we can see our real selves.
II. REVEAL SELF’S ANTIDOTE. Christ in His saving mission as promised, and as come, and as coming again.
III. PROVIDE AN ORACLE TO RESOLVE DOUBTS; to check difficult questions; to show daily duty.
IV. REND THE VIEW OF FUTURITY. Conclusion: How many of you could pass an examination in the facts and truths of the Bible? Shall a soldier not know the articles of war? Shall a scholar not know his grammar? “ Search the Scriptures.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Children’s sermon
The Bible means the book, the book of books. Scriptures mean writings, the marks them out from all others. Search means hunt, dig. Why search? Because
I. THEY ARE THE WORD OF GOD. When you are absent from home you write to your parents, and although they do not see you they know from your handwriting, signature, and expressions that it is yours. God takes strange methods sometimes to convince men that the Bible comes from Him. A young man, an infidel, had to carry a large sum of money through a forest. He lost his way, and was benighted. He came to a cottage and obtained shelter. The owner was a rough-looking man, which made him afraid for his treasure. So he resolved to stay up all night and guard it. By and by the man reached down the Bible, upon which a load was taken from the traveller’s mind. He knew he was safe in the house of a Bible reader. This led him to be a Christian.
II. THEY MAKE KNOWN A SAVIOUR. A pious widow had a large family, all of whom became followers of the Saviour but one, a wild lad who went to sea. His mother gave him a Testament, and wrote his name and her own on the back. The ship was lost, and years passed by without any tidings. Eventually a sailor begged at the widow’s door, and gave an account of his life. He had been shipwrecked, and with another had been cast on a desert island. His companion read day after day in a little book his mother had given him. “He wept a good deal over his sins, and gave himself up to the Saviour and soon afterwards died, and gave me the book.” The book was produced, and it was the very one the widow had given to her boy.
III. THEY TEACH US HOW TO LIVE.
1. As ever in the sight of God. “Thou God seest me.”
2. To be obedient and useful.
IV. THEY SHOW US THE WAY TO HEAVEN. (E. Woods.)
The duty and advantage of searching the Scriptures
The supreme Authority in religion here sweeps away
(1) the dishonourable reflections of the infidel;
(2) the servile restraints of the superstitious;
(3) the wild fancies of the enthusiast. For how can Christianity be accused of conspiring to keep the world in ignorance when its injunction is, Read and investigate, making it therefore a duty to learn to read and to reason? How can it be charged with enslaving the mind by delivering it over to priestcraft, when its Author commanded a promiscuous audience to search for themselves? How can it be charged with fanaticism, when we are charged to bring all our sentiments and feelings to an inspired standard to be regulated? No! the most formidable foe to ignorance, and the most active stimulant to knowledge; that which best secures for the awakened mind the full enjoyment of its rights and the freedom of its inquiries, and the best safeguard against the perversion of our reason is the Bible.
I. To THE BIBLE Christ points while He says, “Search,” etc.
1. The Scriptures are a mine of wealth.
2. We should therefore search them as men digging for hid treasure.
(1) This suggests that its discoveries do not all lie on the surface to be obtained by a casual glance. Books partake of the qualities of their author. If the mind be profound, so will be the writing. What depths then may be expected in a volume inspired by God.
(2) Yet with all this depth there is the utmost simplicity. The Scriptures first instruct our childhood, and to the last engage the mature reflections of old age; before we can understand any other book we may read this to profit; and after we have exhausted all others, we still find something here to learn.
(3) But if searching implies difficulty, then careful and frequent perusal is required; and this should be accompanied with the comparison of one part of Scripture with another, and with the use of every available help and with prayer.
(4) This searching does not preclude hearing.
II. The Saviour here points TO OURSELVES and reminds us of our professed principles. “In these Scriptures ye think ye have eternal life.” He appeals
1. To the principle that in the Scriptures we have eternal life. How fondly we cling to life; yet we must soon part with it. We aspire, therefore, to a continuance after this present state, and nothing short of eternity can satisfy our cravings. What then will discover and guarantee this to us? Not the speculations of reason, but the revelation of God. This discloses to us the duration and blessedness of eternal life. What a motive then to search it to find this pearl of great price.
2. To persons, for “you yourselves judge that you have eternal life in the Scriptures”:
(1) to those who neglect it altogether;
(2) to those who keep it as a gilded toy;
(3) to those who only read it on Sundays;
(4) to those who pay no more honour to it than they do to their catechism, prayer book, or favourite author;
(5) to those who study it superficially or partially, or for the support of their own private views.
III. The Saviour here points TO HIMSELF as He says, “These Scriptures testify of Me.” Note
1. The fact that we have here the testimony of Jesus. This is declared to be “the spirit of prophecy,” or the soul of revelation. As the single principle of gravitation throws light on the whole system of the universe, so the discovery of Christ and His salvation explains the whole record of Scripture.
2. The argument which thence arises
(1) That the Scriptures by testifying of Christ afford us eternal life. He whom they reveal came not only to convince us of the fact and the grandeur of our immortality, “I came that ye might have life,” etc.
(2) That the Scriptures deserve to be diligently searched. What folly for a man who yearns for heaven to neglect the only means of getting there! (J. Bennett, D. D.)
The necessity of searching the Scriptures
Truth must be sought, and that with care and diligence, before we find it. Jewels do not use to lie upon the surface of the earth. Highways are seldom paved with gold. What is worth our finding calls for the greatest search. Prejudice is the wrong bias of the soul, that effectually keeps it from coming near the mark of truth; nay, sets it at the greatest distance from it. They are few in the world, that look after truth with their own eyes; most make use of spectacles of other’s making, which causes them so seldom to behold the proper lineaments in the face of truth; which the several tinctures from education, authority, custom, and predisposition do exceedingly hinder men from discerning (John 7:48; St. Luke 11:52). (Bp. Stillingfleet.)
Blank pages of the Bible
I dare say none of you ever saw a kind of ink used for secret writing. Common ink, you know, leaves a very plain mark on the paper; but this ink of which I am speaking fades away directly it is used, and the paper seems to be blank. But if that sheet of paper is held to the fire, the writing comes out, and can be read easily. Now to a great many people the pages of the Bible, especially of the Old Testament, seem all blank, without any beauty or interest.. But if you learn to read God’s word with care and intelligence, above all, if you pray to God to show you the true meaning, the pages which seemed blank before will be full of interest for you. (H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.)
Practical searching
Search the Scriptures, not as thou wouldst make a concordance, but an application; as thou wouldst search a wardrobe, not to make an inventory of it, but to find in it something fit for thy wearing. (J. Donne, D. D.)
Scriptural investigation
1. The Sadducees “erred, not knowing the Scriptures,” and this is the source of error all time through.
2. Christ made the Scriptures His constant rule and guide, and so, therefore, should we.
I. IT IS EVERY MAN’S DUTY TO SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES. God’s purpose in vouchsafing the Scriptures was in consequence of our fall, and the necessity of a new birth in Christ Jesus; and their characteristic feature is to lead men to a practical knowledge of these two great truths. If man had continued in a state of innocence he would not have needed an outward revelation, because God’s law was originally written on his heart; but since his fall, without such a revelation he could never have known how God could be reconciled. This revelation, then, is suited to his wants as a fallen creature, and that is sufficient evidence of its divinity. The infidel desires a sign, but no sign shall be given him but this, and if this is not enough, he would not believe though one rose from the dead.
II. SOME SUITABLE INSTRUCTION WHEREBY THE SCRIPTURES MAY BE STUDIED WITH PROFIT.
1. Have in view the one end for which they were written, to show the way of salvation through Christ. Always look for Christ; in Old Testament prophecies, etc., and in New Testament teaching.
2. Search with a humble disposition, for God hides its meaning from the wise in their own eyes, and reveals it to babes who desire “the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby.”
3. Search with a sincere intention to put in practice what you read. “If any man will do His will,” etc. But to those who read without a desire to keep the commandments, but only for amusement or cavil, God will never reveal Himself although they search to the end of time.
4. Make an application of everything you read, and this will make “all Scripture profitable for reproof,” etc.
5. Labour to obtain the influence of their Divine Author. It was for the want of this that the disciples fell into frequent and inexcusable mistakes. Therefore begin by praying that the Spirit who guides into all truth may assist you, and close by praying that He may engraft the truth on your heart.
6. Read diligently, thoroughly, daily. (H. J. Newbery, M. A.)
The inexhaustible treasures of Scripture
In the Dresden gallery of royal gems there is a silver egg: touch a spring, and it opens, disclosing a golden chicken; touch the chicken, and it opens, disclosing a crown studded with gems; touch the crown, and it opens, disclosing a magnificent diamond ring. So it is with the Bible; as we study it, we touch successive springs, disclosing exhaustless treasures. (G. D. Boardman.)
The importance of Scripture study
The Bible should be diligently studied because of
I. ITS ORIGIN. Divine (2 Timothy 3:10).
II. IT IS FOLLOWED BY THE QUICKENING SPIRIT OF GOD.
III. IT IS FITTED FOR ALL PEOPLE.
1. There is no nation wherever located or however educated for whom it has not just what they need.
2. It is adapted to all varieties of moral development.
IV. THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN GIVE SO MUCH LIGHT TO THE WORLD.
1. It is like the sun; all other lights are like candles, oil, gas, or electricity.
2. Its effects, like those of the sun, are to kindle all other lights.
3. Like the sun it gives life, beauty, etc.
V. ITS AMPLITUDE REQUIRES CLOSE AND PERSEVERING ATTENTION. Who can study a picture-gallery or inspect a building to profit with one visit? The miner requires years before he can exhaust the mine. So the Bible.
VI. IT WILL ASSIST MORE THAN ANY OTHER BOOK IN FORMING A CLEAR, TERSE LITERARY STYLE. The greatest writers and speakers have been indebted to it.
VII. THE BIBLE IS A LIBRARY IN ITSELF. The fewness of the books is no objection. An old doctor uses few medicines.
VIII. THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE WILL INTRODUCE YOU TO GOOD SOCIETY. Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, our blessed Lord, etc.
IX. THE BIBLE IS IMMUTABLE.
1. In doctrine.
2. In language.
3. In influence.
Persecutors have destroyed it, and infidels argued it out of existence; but it still lives and they are gone.
X. IT IS INEXHAUSTIBLE. All physical growth has a law of limitation, but there is no limit to the growth of the soul. For the expanding needs of our spiritual nature the, Bible has an infinite supply. You can master every other book; the Bible never.
XI. IT TESTIFIES OF GOD.
XII. IT REVEALS ETERNAL LIFE. Sin is the germ of death; the Word plants the seed of never failing vitality. (H. M. Scudder, D. D.)
How we should study the Bible
I. PERSONALLY. Commentaries and lesson-helps are sometimes a hindrance. We must do our own thinking, evolving for ourselves what God has involved.
1. We must compare Scripture with Scripture, for the Bible is its own best commentator. The Gospels supplement each other; the Acts explain the Epistles; both covenants form one Divine unity.
2. Master the principles which be at the foundation of Hebrew poetry and prophecy, particularly the principle of parallelism; for while our rhyme is that of sound, the Hebrew is that of thought.
3. Learn the geography and natural history of the Bible. A true map is in a sense a part of the Bible.
4. We must put forth all our mental powers to perceive acutely, conceive accurately, reason closely, and express clearly. We must learn how to trace analogies, bring out real points, follow the outline of arguments, detect links, and observe general drifts.
5. We ought to summon the aid of imagination to realize actors and scenes.
6. But let us beware of the old sin of letter worship; that killeth, only the Spirit giveth life. Seek the essential under the incidental, the central under the superficial, the eternal under the transcient.
II. HUMBLY; with docility of spirit; stripping ourselves of preconceptions; searching not for the confirmation of our opinions but for the truth of God. Only the pure in heart, those of unmixed pellucid motives shall see God. “The meek He will guide in judgment.”
III. PRAYERFULLY. Scholarship is but a telescope, and telescopes are of no use to the blind or in the dark. The spirit must illuminate our understandings and guide into all the truth.
IV. EXECUTIVELY. Do the truth as well as study it; in fact, this is the only way of knowing and believing it. (G. D. Boardman, D. D.)
Bible study
The Bible should be studied
I. CRITICALLY. We are all possessed of judgment and reason, and God intends us to employ them. A large number of passages have come to be used in a conventional sense, which is not their real sense. It is the latter we ought to find. Make, then, the Greek Testament an object of study; or, if not, a good commentary.
II. CONSECUTIVELY. We do not do the Bible justice if we read a scrap here and a scrap there. The Epistle to the Romans, e.g., as all letters, should be read straight on. If you can only master a few verses keep to them, but do not let the chain be broken.
III. OCCASIONALLY. Carry a little Testament about with you to refresh you as you take a glass of water when you are thirsty between meals..
IV. TOPICALLY. Take the subject of justification and see what Paul says, and then James, and then John. Don’t be afraid of controverted subjects. Work them out for yourself, not from treatises or sermons, but God’s Word.
V. EXPERIMENTALLY. When you read a passage ask yourself. With what lesson am I impressed? Don’t be content with being interested, try and get something for edification.
VI. DEVOTIONALLY. If we want a real feast let us go down upon our knees, spread the Bible open before us, and realize that God is speaking to us. This is where the Jews failed in spite of all their critical care and reverence, “Ye have not His word abiding in you.” Many people use their Bibles as superstitiously as any Chinaman uses his praying machine. “I have read my chapter this morning, and my conscience is satisfied.” But how much good has it done you? Just as much as counting the beads of a rosary; i.e., none, unless you have found in it a living Saviour. (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)
The testimony of the Scriptures to Christ
I. As making atonement for sin, and thus providing THE GROUND OF LIFE.
II. As procuring the influences of the Spirit, and thus providing THE MEANS OF LIFE.
III. As exhibiting a perfect humanity, and thus providing THE MODEL OF LIFE.
IV. As overcoming death, and thus providing THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
How to study the Bible
To some the Bible is uninteresting and unprofitable because they read too fast. Among the insects which subsist on the sweet sap of flowers there are two very different classes. One is remarkable for its imposing plumage, which shows in the sunbeams like the dust of gems; and as you watch its jaunty gyrations over the fields, and its minuet dance from flower to flower, you cannot help admiring its graceful activity, for it is plainly getting over a good deal of ground. But in the same field there is another worker, whose brown vest and strong straightforward flight may not have arrested your eye. His fluttering neighbour darts down here and there, and sips elegantly wherever he can find a drop of ready nectar; but this dingy plodder makes a point of alighting everywhere, and wherever he alights he either finds honey or makes it. If the flower-cup be deep, he goes down to the bottom; if its dragon mouth be shut, he thrusts its lips asunder; and if the nectar be peculiar or recondite, he explores all about till he discovers it, and then, having ascertained the knack of it, joyful as one who has found great spoil, he sings his way down into its luscious recesses. His rival of the painted velvet wing has no patience for such dull and long-winded details. But what is the end? Why, the one died last October along with the flowers; the other is warm in his hive to-night amidst the fragrant stores which he gathered beneath the bright beams of summer. To which do you belong?--the butterflies or the bees? Do you search the Scriptures or only skim them? (J. Hamilton, D. D.)
The Bible to be studied often and lovingly
Lord Bacon tells us of a certain bishop who used to bathe regularly twice every day, and on being asked why he bathed thus often, replied, “Because I cannot conveniently do it three times.” If those who loved the Scriptures were asked why they read the Bible so often, they might honestly reply, “Because we cannot find time to read them oftener.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Superstition use of the Bible
The Bible is some- times used as a book of magic. Many open it at random, expecting to be guided by the first passage that they see, as Peter was told to open the mouth of the first fish that came up and he would find in it a piece of money. A missionary of high standing was cured of this superstition by consulting the Bible in an important matter of Christian duty, and the passage that met his gaze was, “Hell from beneath is moved to meet thee at thy coming.” (J. M.Buckley, D. D.)
The advantage of unfettered Bible study
It was a glorious hour in England when the Bible was unchained, when every man could hear and read in his own tongue, wherein he was born, the history it told of the doings of God with man. Freedom sprang to light whenever the book went, and at its touch imagination stirred and awoke to life. A fresh world of thought and feeling, the world of the Oriental heart, opened out its riches to the poet and the philosopher. New blood streamed through the veins of English literature. Not only intellectual, but political freedom deepened wherever its words were heard and its principles received. It gave new force to the struggle against tyranny. It gave fresh impulse to political progress. It made cruelty, injustice, the oppression of the weak, the corruption of the great and the small, more hateful and intolerable. It initiated reform; it was the standard of all noble revolution. Our civil freedom--accelerating as it goes--has always taken much of its impulse from the book of true liberty, true fraternity, true equality. And it is not only intellectual freedom or political freedom which have gained their living force from this book. Higher than the imagination of the poet, the intellect of the philosopher, and the patriotism of the citizen, is the immortal spirit which abides in man. The spiritual being of man lay crippled and unmoved in England, like the lame beggar of old at the beautiful gate of the temple. When the Bible was put into the hands of every man in the country, it came, like Peter and John of old, to the heart of England, and proclaimed the gospel of Christ Jesus. Straightway the soul of England received strength, and entered into the temple of spiritual freedom, walking, and leaping, and praising God. Far and wide the book penetrated into the homes of England, and the fetters which had been bound on the spirits of men mouldered into the dust from whence they came. Religious freedom was the Bible’s child. (S. A. Brooke, M. A.)
The Bible interpreted by love
You have heard of the story of the blind girl who, when her fingers became callous, cut her finger-tips to make them more sensitive. This, however, only made them harder, and then she could not read her Bible at all. At last, after bitter weeping, she kissed her Bible a farewell. To her intense joy, that kiss revealed to her the fact that she could read the raised words with a touch of her lips. Ever after she kissed into her soul that precious Word. (H. M. Scudder, D. D.)
Christ in the Bible
I know that men sneer at the idea that Christ is traceable everywhere in the Scriptures. A wealthy man builds and furnishes a house for the reception of his much-loved bride. When she enters it she finds that all the rooms and all the furniture, from the least to the greatest, bear signs that she was thought of. Will she sit patiently under a sneer at her acknowledgment of the forethought of the bridegroom for her needs and tastes? Will she not point out the proofs, above and below, in common and peculiar things, and reassert that she sees the signs of his perfect knowledge and love everywhere? And shall we be frightened by a sneer from affirming that God, who built up all the books of the Bible, saw His end, and made reference to that end in every stage of revelation--that Christ is everywhere? Does not our Lord support the idea when He says to the Pharisees, “Search the Scriptures, for these are they that testify of Me”? And “Ye will not come to Me that ye may have life” is a mournful form in which He explains their utter misconception of the Scriptures. May that saying not be applicable to us! Let us read the Bible to find Christ. (D. G. Watt, M. A.)
Christ in the Bible
There was once a famous artist who made a wonderful shield, and worked his own name so cleverly into it, that it could not be removed without destroying the shield. The Bible is like that shield, and the name of Jesus is so worked into it that we find it everywhere. Have you ever seen a photographic artist take one of those sun-pictures which are now so common? Well, at first there was no picture, only a piece of glass with a kind of white cloud upon it. But presently, as the artist poured certain chemicals upon it, a picture began to come out of the mist; first one feature, then another, till you saw the likeness of a friend. The Old Testament Scriptures sometimes appear strange and uninteresting to you; there is a mist over them as it were. But as you study the words, or hear them explained, gradually new beauties, new features, come out, and you find a likeness. Whose likeness, my children? The likeness of Jesus Christ. Have you ever seen a kaleidoscope? When you hold it to your eye and turn it round, you see a number of pieces of coloured glass which form all kinds of beautiful patterns, such as stars, and crowns, and fountains, and flowers. The Bible is very like a kaleidoscope. When you look carefully into it, the more you turn over its pages and study them, the more beautiful things you find there; and remember that all these beautiful things will show you something about Jesus. Whether you are reading in the Old Testament or in the New, whether you study the law or the prophets, or read about the Judges or the Kings, you will find something about Jesus. He said, “Search the Scriptures, for they are they which testify of Me.” Whenever you read your Bible do so with one object--always read looking for Jesus. (H. J.Wilmot Buxton.)
Christ the interpreter of the Bible
In the vision of the apocalyptic book sealed with seven seals, one only out of all on earth or in heaven was able to break the seals and read the scroll: it was He who is alike the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God. And He is still the only one who is able to interpret His own volume. We must consult Him, then, if we would understand His Word.
Search the Scriptures
It is said of some of the mines of Cornwall that the deeper they are sunk the richer they prove; and though some lodes have been followed a thousand and even fifteen hundred feet, they have not come to an end. Such is the Book of God. It is a mine of wealth which can never be exhausted. The deeper we sink into it, the richer it becomes. (Charles Graham.)
The Bible worth searching
There is gold in the rocks which fringe the Pass of the Splugen, gold even in the stones which mend the roads, but there is too little of it to be worth extracting. Alas! how like too many books and sermons! Not so the Scriptures; they are much fine gold; their very dust is precious.
Christ the gem of the Scriptures
What the pin is when the diamond has dropped from its setting, that is the Bible when its emotive truths have been taken away. What a babe’s clothes are when the babe has slipped out of them into death, and the mother’s arms clasp only raiment, would be the Bible if the Babe of Bethlehem and the truths of deep-heartedness that clothed His life should slip out of it.
The Bible handy
Dear friends, fly to this comfort with speed in every time of trouble; get to be familiar with God’s Word, that you may do so. I have found it helpful to carry “Clarke’s Precious Promises” in my pocket, so as to refer to it in the hour of trial. If you go into the market, and are likely to do a ready-money business, you always take a cheque-book with you; so carry precious promises with you, that you may plead the word which suits your case. I have turned to promises for the sick when I have been of that number, or to promises to the poor, the despondent, the weary, and such like, according to my own condition, and I have always found a Scripture fitted to my case. I do not want a promise made to the sick when I am perfectly well; I do not want balm for a broken heart when my soul is rejoicing in the Lord; but it is very handy to know where to lay your hand upon suitable words of cheer when necessity arises. Thus the external comfort of the Christian is the Word of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The test of truth
A man offers you a note. You are not quite sure about it. You say to him, “I don’t know. Hold on; I’ll let you know in half an hour”; and away you run, round the corner. Your lawyer lives near by. You show him the note. “Such a one offered me this. I thought I’d just speak to you about it. What would you do?” “Better have nothing to do with it,” says the lawyer, shaking his head. You run back, and say to the man, “I’ve concluded not to take that note.” Then some transaction is urged upon you. You hesitate. You don’t know exactly whether it will stand in law. “Wait,” you say, “wait a minute--I can’t decide yet”; and away you go, round the corner. “Oh, yes,” says your lawyer, “that’s all perfectly right and safe”; and back you run, and the matter is settled. He is the “man of your counsel.” Just in this way should you consult the Bible in regard to all the actions of your life.
The Scriptures without comment
There is a story told concerning John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Good Thomas Scott, the commentator, wrote notes to it: he thought the “Pilgrim’s Progress” a difficult book, and he would make it clear. A pious cottager in his parish had the book, and she was reading it when her minister called. He said to her, “Oh, I see, you are reading Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress.’ Do you understand it?” She answered innocently enough, “Oh, yes, sir, I understand Mr. Bunyan very well, and I hope that one day I shall be able to understand your explanations.”
The wonders of Scripture
The boy holds his ball of twine in his hand, and thinks it is not much, he can clasp it so easily; but when he begins to unroll it, and his wind-borne kite mounts higher and higher, till at length that which on the ground was taller than he is now no bigger than his hand, he is astonished to see how long it is. So there are little texts which look small in your palm, but, when caught up upon some experience, they unfold themselves, and stretch out until there is no measuring their length. (H. W.Beecher.)
The Bible first
A business man sat at his fireside in the city. Near by him, playing on the floor, was his only child, a beautiful little boy. It was early in the morning. The day’s task was not begun, and while waiting for his breakfast the father took up the daily paper to read. The dear child came and climbed up on his father’s knee, and, laying his hand gently on the paper, looked lovingly up into his face and said, “No, no, papa, Bible first, Bible first, papa.” Very soon after this dear child was taken sick, and died. As that father stood by the coffin in which his dead darling lay, and when he laid him in the grave, he seemed to hear his gentle voice repeating those simple words, “No, no, papa, Bible first.” He never forgot those words. They were ringing in his ears all the time lie made them the rule of his life.
A search warrant
“What warrant have you to read the Bible for yourself?” was the demand of another priest of a new convert to the true faith. “Och!” was the answer, “I’ve a search warrant” (John 5:39).
Diligent seeking will be rewarded by joyous finding
A friend of mine had been told that the Word of Life was contained in his Bible. He went quickly home, and he said, “If it is there, I will find it.” He began with Genesis, and read on further, until in due course of time he reached that good evangelical chapter, Isaiah lift. He read carefully until he came to the words, “By His stripes we are healed.” “That is it,” said he; “I have it now; we are healed; I am healed. There is no hoping or wishing, or ‘perhaps,’ or ‘but,’ or ‘if’--we are healed.” (Dr. Mackay.)
Heathen testimony to the excellence of the Scriptures
A Hindoo paper, published in Bengal, speaks as follows of the excellence of the Bible:--“It is the best and most excellent of all English books, and there is not its like in the English language. As every joint of the sugarcane, from the root to the top, is full of sweetness, so every page of the Bible is fraught with the most precious instruction. A portion of this book would yield to you more of sound morality than a thousand other treatises on the same subject. In short, if anybody studies the English language with a view to gaining wisdom, there is not another book which is more worthy of being read than the Bible.”
How to search the Scriptures
As the apes in the story, who, finding a glow-worm on a very cold night, took it for a spark of fire, and heaped up sticks upon it to warm themselves by, but all in vain, so do they lose their labour that, in the warrantable search of Divine truth, busy themselves about sounds of words and incoherent Scripture sentences; when, partly from depravedness of mind, partly frown ignorance, partly from instability, suddenness, and haste, they make a snatch, and run away with that which looks somewhat like the sense of Scripture, and so deceive their own souls, crying out, like the mathematician in Athens, “I have found it, I have found it,” when indeed they have found nothing to the purpose nor anything to the true information of themselves or others in the ways of God and goodness.
Bible facts
The learned Prince of Granada, heir to the’ Spanish throne, imprisoned by order of the Crown lest he should aspire to the sovereignty, was kept in solitary confinement in the old prison at the Place of Skulls, Madrid. After thirty-three years in this living tomb death came to his release, and the following remarkable researches marked with an old nail on the rough walls of his cell, told how the brain sought employment during those weary years:--“In the Bible the word Lord is found 1,853 times; the word Jehovah 6,855 times, and the word reverend but once--in Psalms 111:9. The 8th verse of Psalms 117:1-2, is the middle verse of the Esther 8:9 is the longest verse, and John 11:35 the shortest. In Psalms 107:1-43, the 8th, 15th, 21st and 31st verses are alike. Each verse of Psalms 136:1-26. ends alike. No words with more than six syllables are found in the Bible. Isaiah 37:1-38, and 2 Kings 19:1-37 are alike. The word girl occurs only in Joel 3:3. There are found in both Testaments 3,586,483 letters, 773,693 words, 31,373 verses, 1,179 Chapter s, and 66 books.” (W. Baxendale.)
Origin of the Bible Society
Mary Jones was the daughter of a poor weaver living in a humble dwelling at the foot of Cadet Idris. She was born in 1782, and early in life began to learn her father’s trade. She attended a Sunday-school, and was soon distinguished by her readiness to learn and repeat large portions of the Word of God. As yet, although there had been many editions of the Welsh Bible published, it was an exception to see a copy in a poor man’s house in Wales. The nearest Bible was two miles distant from Mary Jones’s house. She had permission to read it as often as she chose. Meanwhile she carefully set aside all her pence, determined if possible to buy a Bible of her own. After years of saving she succeeded in making up the sum necessary to buy a copy of the Welsh Bible. She ascertained that Bale was the nearest town in which a copy might be got; and it was twenty-five miles away. But nothing daunted the girl set off, and walked all the way foot-bare, carrying her boots in a bag in order to put them on just before entering Bale. She arrived at Bale late in the evening--too late to see Mr. Charles, from whom the Bible was to be had. In themorning she went to Mr. Charles, and he was touched by her simple story. He said: “I am sorry that you have come all the way to obtain a Bible, seeing I have no copy to give you. All the Bibles I received from London have been sold months since, excepting one or two which I have promised to keep for friends.” Mary Jones wept bitterly. The disappointment was too much for her. But Mr. Charles could not withstand her tears, and he at last gave her one of the promised Bibles. Mary placed the Bible in her bag, and bade good-bye to the good Mr. Charles, feeling grateful to him for letting her have what she considered the greatest of treasures. Her visit to Mr. Charles left a lasting impression on both. Often afterwards did Mr. Charles refer to that touching incident to convince his English friends of the intense craving of the Welsh nation for the word of life. In December, 1802, Mr. Charles laid before the Committee of the Religious Tract Society the pressing needs of his country; and related the story of Mary Jones. The story awakened sympathy in every breast, and it was then resolved, not only to have a Bible Society for Wales, but a Bible Society for all nations.
This was the origin of the Bible Society. Who would have thought that little Mary Jones’s journey to Bala would have supplied the important link which, until then, had been wanting in the chain of events before the Bible Society could spring into being? Mary lived to an old age. The Bible she bought at Bala was by her bedside when she passed away. She no longer required to read it. She knew all its promises and consolations by heart. This Bible has recently been handed over to the British and Foreign Bible Society with the formation of which it has so sacred a connection. An open Bible is engraved on her tombstone with the words, “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Then come these words:--“Mary, widow of Thomas Lewis, weaver, Bryncrwg, who died December 28th, 1864. Aged 82. This tombstone was erected by contributions of the Calvinistic Methodists in the district, and other friends, in respect to her memory, as the Welsh girl, Mary Jones, who walked from Abergwynolwyn to Bala, in the year 1802, when sixteen years of age, to procure a Bible of the Rev. Thomas Charles, B.A. A circumstance which led to the establishment of the British and Foreign Bible Society.” (Clerical Anecdotes.)
Dr. Johnson’s dying counsel
Dr. Johnson said to a young gentleman who visited him on his deathbed, “Young man, attend to the voice of one who has possessed a certain degree of fame in the world, and who is about to stand before his Maker. Read the Bible every day of your life.” (W. Baxendale.)
Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life
Man’s happiness dependent on his coming to Christ
You have read the lives of wise and good men, and yet without any conception that they were anything else, and that with all their excellences they had corresponding defects. Now, if Jesus Christ was a mere man you would have the same impression on reading His memoirs. But this is not the case. Who can read our text and feel that Christ was merely a wise and good man?
I. THE FINAL SALVATION OF MAN IS MADE DEPENDENT ON HIS COMING TO CHRIST.
1. Christ is a unique Being who exists in a condition unlike any other, not a condition of simple humanity or simple Divinity, but one who combines the attributes of both.
2. To sustain the character of Saviour it was necessary that He should suffer the just for the unjust, and that He should have the power to remit sin and confer eternal life.
3. To secure the benefits the sinner is required to come to Christ, not corporeally, speculatively, but by personal application of enlightened faith.
4. This Christ required in the days of His flesh, and He requires it now.
(1) There must be an acknowledgment cf His power to confer the blessing--just the same as when you apply for a favour to your friend. You insulthim if you disbelieve in his power.
(2) You must renounce your trust in everything else but your own need and His clemency. Does the pauper require a little wealth to qualify him for asking relief?
5. Coming in contact accidentally or designedly with others sometimes leads to unanticipated and important results. Chance meetings have been full of weal or woe. But no meeting was ever fraught with such effects as the meeting of a sinner with his Saviour. Take the case of the impotent man; that of any saved man.
(1) Internal: guilt removed, conscience allayed, passions quelled, apprehension destroyed, and instead peace, joy, hope, etc.
(2) External: the drunkard is made sober, etc.
6. Not only are the results extraordinary, they are satisfactory. The mind is at ease, and sometimes rises to transport; and there is not the slightest wish to have this occurrence undone.
II. Strange as it may appear MEN WILL NOT COME TO CHRIST THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE LIFE.
1. Why?
(1) Some are too proud to come. There is nothing more offensive to the pride of a man of intellect or social virtue to be told that he must come in the same way as the publicans and the harlots.
(2) Some say they cannot, and wait for Divine assistance. That is conveyed with the command. Come, and you will have power to come, as the withered hand was bestowed by stretching it forth.
2. This refusal is extraordinary.
(1) Man in all his stages--as child, youth, man--regards the temporal future with growing solicitude. Why not, then, the eternal?
(2) This eternal future is vastly more important, and is forfeited by not coming to Christ. Imagine a condemned criminal not accepting an offer like this!
3. This refusal is so extraordinary that it deserves to be recorded. Write down, then, solemnly--“I will not come to Christ,” etc. (T. East.)
Coming to Christ for life
Suppose a legislator, anxious to deter his subjects from crime, were to threaten confiscation of property. An individual offends and is punished. Suppose the children to tread in the steps of the father, and the legislator to have devised a method without encroaching on the principles of rectitude, by which the forfeited inheritance might be restored on easy terms, what would you think of the children if they despised the blessing and rejected the offer? And yet that was the case with the Jews, and is the case with the sinner. Perhaps you may conclude that you have obeyed this invitation because you are a professor of Christianity, but you have not unless you are a real Christian in heart and conduct.
I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH HINDER SOME FROM COMING TO CHRIST.
1. Disbelief in Christ’s Divine mission.
(1) But shall a man be condemned because he does not apply for salvation to one in whom he disbelieves? No, but fop disbelieving that God has commissioned that One to be a Saviour.
(2) But shall he be condemned because a certain impression is not produced upon him, and because the evidence is insufficient? Yes, if through his own culpability, which is the case where the gospel is preached in its purity and simplicity.
2. The Pharisees abstained because they were self-righteous--a reason which keeps many away still.
3. Others are deterred by the cares of the world. They have no time for it, and besides industry is a part of religion; they come to church, and what time can be spared should be spent in enjoyment.
4. Others come not because bound by the chains of criminal practice.
5. With some youth is the impediment. I will some day, but there is plenty of time.
6. With others age is the obstacle. It is now too late to change, and the meetness of declining years co-operates with mental repugnance.
II. IS WHAT MANNER. AND WITH WHAT DISPOSITIONS ARE WE TO COME.
1. With a sense of sin, its guilt and power.
2. With a conviction of our own impotence and deservedness of punishment.
3. With a desire to be saved.
4. With a faith in Christ’s power and willingness to save.
5. With a determination to be obedient to Christ’s commands.
III. PRACTICAL APPLICATION.
1. To sinners. Come at once.
2. To disciples. Show that you have come by fulfilling the duties you owe to Christ. (T. Gisborne, M. A.)
Coming to Christ the only means of salvation
I. WHAT IS MEANT HERE BY LIFE? As death is put for evil, so is life for all that is good (Deuteronomy 30:15). And seeing that the happiness which God hath prepared for His people consists in the full enjoyment of all that is good, it is called life; and eternal life, because it shall last for ever. Though it be perfected only in the other world it is begun in this. At our new birth, when we are made God’s children by adoption and grace the Holy Spirit is breathed into us and becomes the principle of eternal life in John 5:47; Joh 5:54; John 5:24; 1 John 3:15).
II. THIS LIFE IS TO BE HAD IN CHRIST JESUS, AND IN HIM ONLY (John 17:2, John 14:6; Colossians 3:4; 1 John 5:20). All things related to it are founded in Him. He purchased life for us, promised it to us, prepares it for us and us for it, and bestows it upon us. To make this clear
1. Man created in the image of God was immortal; but the first man in whom all the rest were contained by sinning made himself and his posterity obnoxious to the death God had threatened.
2. But Jesus Christ, the second Adam, having taken away the sin of the world, hath thereby abolished death, so that man by Him may have life again.
3. Christ being now by the right hand of God, exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, confers upon the penitent believer this life.
III. THOSE WHO WOULD HAVE THIS LIFE MUST GO TO CHRIST FOR IT.
1. By coming to Him He means believing in Him as
(1) Our Prophet, assenting to all He has revealed to us.
(2) Our Lord and Master, obeying all that He commands.
(3) Our Priest, and trusting in His merits.
2. By thus coming to Him He gives us grace to repent, power to resist temptation, His Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth, to strengthen our faith, and to guide us to heaven.
IV. NEVERTHELESS MEN WILL NOT GO TO CHRIST FOR LIFE.
1. The truth of this proposition is proved by our Lord’s assertion, and is confirmed by experience.
2. The reasons.
(1) Because men are so stupid as not to care for it; they look no further than what just lies before them, and go on eating and drinking, and sleeping and playing, till death comes and carries them to a place they never thought of in their lives (Deuteronomy 32:28-29).
(2) But if they cannot with all their art keep their conscience quiet they flatter themselves with hopes that they will do well enough without troubling themselves about going to Christ, for they are moral.
(3) And of those who have some sense of their sins many think that their good works counter- balance them.
(4) But there are others who are poisoned with heretical opinions, denying Christ’s Divinity and Atonement.
(5) The greatest reason, however, is that they have things which they deem of greater moment (Luke 14:18-20; but Matthew 16:26). (Bp. Beveridge.)
I. LIFE IS ONLY TO BE FOUND IN CHRIST (verse 39).
How to come to Christ, and the great hindrance
1. Not in the letter of the Word, but in the Living Word; not in an idea, but in a Person. Many are now satisfied with an imaginary Christ.
2. Why? Because they have never known the want of a real Christ. If they felt the pangs of hunger they could never be satisfied with wax fruit.
3. The real Christ differs from the ideal in that He is a living Christ, and can communicate the life that is in Himself.
4. Vain all your self- satisfaction, morality, prayers, etc., if you have not life from Him.
II. THE WAY TO OBTAIN THIS LIFE IS BY COMING TO CHRIST.
1. There are various steps in this process indicated by great Scripture words.
(1) “Coming” to the Cross.
(2) “Looking” away from everything to Christ.
(3) “Believing” that He died for us.
(4) “Receiving” Him in all His fulness.
(5) “Embracing,” grasping, or holding Him fast.
2. These are acts of faith, so you must
(1) Believe the record that He is “the Lamb of God,” etc.
(2) Believe that He has given you your discharge in full. You can only do this by committing all your sins to Him.
III. LIFELESS SINNERS DO NOT COME TO CHRIST BECAUSE THEY WILL NOT. (W. J.Chapman, M. A.)
The great refusal
I. WHY IS IT THAT WE WILL NOT COME TO CHRIST FOR LIFE?
1. Negatively. Not
(1) from any want of sufficiency in Christ to meet our need (John 5:21-29).
(2) From any want of evidence that He is the eternal life (verses 3139).
(3) From any want of consciousness of the need of life (John 5:39).
We all want something we have not, and few are so besotted as not to feel their need of heaven.
2. Positively. Prejudice and enmity against Himself, arising from self-righteousness and unbelief. He gives four reasons for this.
(1) John 5:41. The Lord Jesus is not fashionable in the world.
(2) John 5:42. If you only knew how God delights in Christ, and is honoured by Him, you would love and admire Christ too.
(3) John 5:44. The thing that keeps many back is the knowledge that he would be sneered at.
(4) John 5:46. We don’t believe our Bibles, and therefore do not come to Christ for life.
II. CHRIST SETS BEFORE US THREE WEIGHTY MATTERS.
1. The great want of our souls is life. We think that reformation, good resolutions, a certain amount of sorrow, will do when Life is wanted; for the Bible is in nothing more emphatic than that man is dead in trespasses and sins. Consequently words, works, prayers, repentance, are all dead till we come to Christ. That is the begin- ning of religion.
2. The great duty and privilege of every sinner.
(1) We must come to Christ because
(a) God commands it;
(b) it is the end of Christ’s coming;
(c) the purpose of gospel preaching;
(d) the object of the mission of the Spirit.
(2) It is our privilege to come
(a)because life is to be had on the easiest terms;
(b) because all men, without exception, may receive it.
(3) But what is coming? Taking Him at His word and pleading His promise. You want no further warrant than your need and His invitation.
3. The great folly of infatuated sinners. Health proclaimed to diseased souls, life to dead souls; when the world, pleasure, evil calls, they go, but God calls in vain. What is this but folly?
Conclusion:
1. Christ says, “Come unto Me”: not to ministers, priests, ordinances: men readily go to them.
2. Not to go to Christ for life is to reject Him. (Marcus Rainsford.)
The lamentations of Jesus
I. Men, apart from the salvation of God, are in a state of DEATH.
1. In this plaint of the Saviour’s the true condition of sinners is seen in awful distinctness. He knew what was in man.
2. The estimate of man’s state and prospects is of vital importance. To deny or neglect is
(1) to accuse Christ of coming into the world on a needless errand;
(2) to reject the only offer of deliver- ance.
II. In order to pass from death to life we must COME TO JESUS.
1. On our part it is not a word, but an act. A dead-letter knowledge destitute of moving power pervades and paralyzes the Church.
2. Beware lest you lose yourself in any mist which may gather round the expression, “Come unto Me.” In the experience of life we frequently pass over from one confidence to another, and we do this as really and potentially as we come in body from one place to another. It is not an incapacity to understand such a change, it is unwillingness to make it.
III. In order to live NOTHING MORE IS NEEDED than to come to Jesus.
1. No preliminary qualification is demanded. None are excluded for the presence of one quality or the absence of another.
2. To go conclusively off from self and all other confidences and cleave to the Son of God as all your salvation is all that is necessary.
3. The effects which the change produces have not produced the change.
4. It is not the coming to Christ and a better obedience that will bring life to the dead. Coming to Christ is itself alone this.
IV. Those who are spiritually dead are NOT WILLING to come to Christ for life.
1. This seems strange, and the Lord Himself wondered at their unbelief.
2. The human nature of the question is graphically represented in the history of Naaman. Most men would do difficult things willingly for the sake of what they call heaven; but they are unwilling to do the easy thing God requires.
3. The want lies in the will.
V. Jesus COMPLAINS that they will not come to Him for life.
1. Here the Saviour opens His heart that He may look in and see the love that fills it.
2. The upper side of religion is not a sentiment, hut a fact; such also must its under side be. The one is Christ’s coming into the world to die for us; the other is our coming to Christ to live in Him. Mercy let down from heaven must be grasped by the needy on earth while it is within their reach.
3. When you neglect this great salvation you mar the Saviour’s joy. (W. Arnot, D. D.)
Refusing life
I. THE UNWILLINGNESS OF MEN TO COME TO CHRIST. What is the cause of this reluctance?
1. It is not the Saviour’s fault. He not only invited but went, and does so to-day.
2. Scoffers say it arises from the visionary nature of the gift which Christ offers.
3. What too despondent friends of religion say amounts to the same thing, viz., that men are too gross and worldly to care for such a thing as immortality. But how then shall we account for the pilgrimages and endless mortifications of devotees.
4. No, the cause lies deeper, even in the sinfulness of the human heart. Just as darkness is opposed to light, so is sin to holiness.
II. WHAT IT IS THAT MEN GAIN BY COMING TO CHRIST.
1. It is inferred that life out of Christ is transient, unsubstantial, and must die. However fair and moral a man’s outward life may be, if sin is busy in his heart he must perish.
2. But if you come to Christ in heart you shall obtain life,
(1) The life of holiness.
(2) Of Christ.
(3) Of heaven.
III. THE GREATNESS OF THIS GAIN OUGHT TO REMOVE ALL UNWILLINGNESS TO COME TO CHRIST. Those Who obtain life obtain
1. Perfect security, and all things work together for their good--loss, sickness, bereavement, death.
2. Constant progress in time and in eternity.
3. Happiness now and for ever. (G. Colborne, Ph. D.)
Unwillingness to come to Christ
I. THE PLAN OF SALVATION, coming to Christ. There must be personal contact between Christ and your spirit. Faith, like a hand, must spiritually grasp Him.
1. The text implies that we are to come to Jesus Christ for everything, for life includes all that is needful to salvation and salvation itself.
2. Christ gives us actual spiritual life and judicial life, so that we are saved from condemnation.
3. This way of coming to Christ is the only way, for “there is none other name,” etc.
4. It is a sure and open way. None have ever tried it and failed. The Fountain has never been closed.
II. YOUR POSITION IN REFERENCE TO THIS PLAN OF SALVATION.
1. I would have you get alone and say deliberately, “I will not come,” etc.
2. You will not because you have not.
(1) Some of you say softly, “I cannot.” This is the same as “will not.” If you had the will you would have the power.
(2) Others, “I dare not.” Turn that the other way, “I dare not refuse to come.”
3. Think of what you are spurning.
(1) Life eternal, and the day will come when you will think with anguish that you have despised it.
(2) Christ Himself, incarnate, dying, glorified.
(3) You refuse to come to Him. Not to Sinai, but to Calvary.
Salvation is worth Christ dying for, but not worth your thinking about.
4. Think of why you will not come.
(1) Do you hope to find salvation somewhere else? This is what the Jews did and failed: so will you.
(2) Is it some secret sin?
(3) Sheer frivolity perhaps. If you must play, play with something cheaper than the blood of Christ, something less precious than your souls.
III. WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT OF THIS? I suppose some of you think you will come to Jesus some day. Why not now? Every day adds to the chances that you never will come to Christ. And if not you must die eternally. What is that? Ask those who know--Dives.
IV. LET US HOPE THAT THERE WILL BE A CHANCE TO-NIGHT.
1. You may come. Christ invites; the Spirit and the Bride say,
Come!
2. Respond, “I will come.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Men by nature unwilling to come to Christ
I. MEN BY NATURE ARE FAR FROM CHRIST. In respect of
1. Knowledge.
2. Union.
3. Participation.
4. Converse.
II. SINNERS ARE UNWILLING TO COME TO CHRIST.
1. Many think they have already come.
2. Many do not fully apprehend their need of Christ. They think it enough to be sorry, reformed, mean well, etc.
3. Many are too busy, and so have no leisure for such a journey: pleasure, business, care, etc., prevent (Luke 14:1-35.).
4. Many will not part with that which keeps them at a distance from
Christ, viz., sin.
5. Many are possessed with prejudice against Christ as represented in the gospel.
III. THE USES.
1. Of information.
(1) Man’s wretchedness.
(2) Man’s helplessness to deliver himself.
(3) The sufficiency of Christ and His salvation.
2. For examination. Those who come to Christ
(1) Are sorry that they were so long ere they came to Him.
(2) Are acquainted with the way to Christ, having walked in it.
(3) Have a high esteem of Christ.
(4) Are in a new condition.
(5) Walk with Christ.
(6) Are at a greater distance from sin and the world.
(7) Have renounced their own righteousness.
3. Of exhortation. Consider
(1) The necessity of coming to Christ.
(a) You are under the power of Satan.
(b) You are under the guilt of sin.
(c) You are under God’s wrath.
(d) You are under the curse.
(e) The justice of God is engaged to destroy you.
(f) Your outward enjoyments and accommodations in the world are uncomfortable, unsanctified, accursed.
(2) The advantage of coming to Christ--freedom from all these disadvantages; and
(a) Union with Him, real, happy, everlasting.
(b) Communion with Him.
(c) Participation of Him in all He is and all He has: His obedience, miracles, prayers, resurrection, etc.
(3) The equity of coming to Christ.
(a) You lose nothing, but gain enough by it: health from sickness, liberty from captivity, beauty instead of deformity, sanity for madness.
(b) He waits till you come, condescendingly, industriously, patiently.
(4) The danger of not coming: the guilt of soul murder. If you will not come to Christ
(a) He will come against you either in a severer way to reclaim you or to destroy you.
(b) He will depart from you, and you know not how soon.
(c) You shall not come hereafter.
(d) Ye shall not have life.
IV. THE CONVERSE. Those that come to Christ will have life. What life? All that is opposite to the death Adam brought into the world. Those who come to Christ
1. Have another kind of temporal life.
(1) In respect of its tenure. The sinner’s title is common providence; the saint’s that of the covenant of grace.
(2) In respect of its blessing. Life is not a blessing special but in Christ.
(3) In respect of its comfort.
(4) In respect of its usefulness.
2. Spiritual life.
(1) The life of righteousness (Romans 5:18).
(2) The life of holiness in its principles, increase, acts, continuance.
3. Eternal life in respect to
(l) Its title
(2) Hope.
(3) Earnest.
(4) Possession.
Conclusion: Have you this life? If so, where there is life there is
1. Breath;
2. Motion;
3. Sense--seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting. (D. Clarkson, B. D.)
The reasons why men do not come to Christ
I. THEY PLACE NO VALUE ON THE BLESSINGS HE OFFERS. These blessings are
1. Remote.
2. Of a spiritual nature.
(1) Pardon of sin.
(2) Peace of conscience.
(3) A joyful hope of immortality.
(4) Holiness.
II. THEY HAVE NO CONFIDENCE IN THE POWER OF CHRIST TO GRANT THE BLESSINGS HE PROMISES.
III. THEY OBJECT TO THE TERMS UPON WHICH HE OFFERS SALVATION.
1. Self-denial and the taking up of the cross.
2. Repentance.
3. Faith.
4. Purity and spirituality. (J. Venn, M. A.)
Christ’s lamentation over those who will not come to Him
The discourse from which these words have been taken arose out of a conflict between our blessed Lord and the Pharisees respecting the observance of the Sabbath.
I. We have, in the words before us, CHRIST’S EXPLANATION OF MAN’S INVETERATE SPIRITUAL MALADY.
1. Apart from Christ, men are spiritually dead. In forms, more or less repulsive, we find spiritual death wherever we look, in the world at large or in our own circle of friends. Intellectual life is not wanting. Never, perhaps, was there a period in the history of our race when intellectual life existed in a form more vigorous. Moral life is not wanting. One of the indirect results of the spread of the gospel is to enlighten the conscience even of those who do not receive it. But they have no spiritual life. God is not the object of their supreme affection. And, alas! this spiritual death is not confined to the world. Look for a moment at the Church.
2. Now, what is our Lord’s explanation of the solemn fact that spiritual death thus so generally obtains, notwithstanding that He has brought life within the reach of men and offered it to them in His gospel? He does not say that it is because they have never read the revelation of the Father’s love in Him, that they are as they are. But He says, “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.”
3. But let us look at this solemn truth as it affects the anxious inquirer after salvation. It is only because men do not come to Christ for salvation, and therefore have no life, that the ordinances of the house of prayer are so often, and to so many, empty, fruitless exercises. Again: with how many questions does the inquirer after salvation often trouble and perplex his mind, from all of which he would be delivered, if he would only come for life simply and in faith to Christ. For instance, he sometimes perplexes himself as to the nature of conversion, and wonders, and asks himself whether it has taken place in his case. Regeneration takes place in the very act of receiving Christ as our life. Coming to Jesus for life and salvation is not the result, but the very means of the new birth.
II. We have in the words of our text, CHRIST’S LAMENTATION OVER THE CAUSE OF THE CONTINUED SPIRITUAL DEATH OF MEN. “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” I cannot discern, my brethren-, in the utterance of these words by our blessed Lord, the tones of wrath. Oh, no! sadness must have covered His face with gloom as, looking over the reckless multitude, He said, “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” Christ might justly have spoken in anger. He would probably have done so had He been less holy and Divine than He was.
1. This complaint seems to open to us the very heart of Christ in its aspect towards men. It reveals to us the intensity of His love. The greatest joy He can possess is to impart Divine life to sinners, who are perishing because they have it not. The greatest grief which can oppress Him is to find His love, which would have given this life, despised and spurned. This has been so beautifully illustrated by a living writer, by a reference to one of the most familiar scenes of domestic life, that I must adopt his illustration, though not in his words. One of the deepest joys of a mother’s heart is to nourish her babe from her own breast. It is a double grief! He grieves for the death of the dead, and the loss of His own life-giving! How deep and tender, therefore, the love of Jesus for perishing men!
2. In the second place, the complaint of Jesus suggests the solemn thought that the sinner’s death is the sinner’s fault! Possibly, you sometimes think that a portion of the fault, at least, may lie upon your minister. Possibly you sometimes blame the Church. There are so many frailties in those who compose it, that they are a stumbling block in you! The fault of your death is not to be found anywhere but in yourself! (E. J. Hartland.)
Hindrances to conversion
I. Some refuse Christ from IGNORANCE OF THEIR TRUE SPIRITUAL CONDITION. Content with lip-knowledge. Need to realize that “respectability is not conversion.”
II. Some are hindered by what they deem OPPOSING FORCES.
1. Pre-occupation.
2. Mistaken ideas of religion.
3. Inconsistency of professing Christians.
4. Fears--of God, of man, of self, of the danger of falling.
III. All these are SUMMED UP IN CHRIST’S WORDS, “Ye will not.” How long is this to last? Why give everything to gain the world, and take no step to save your soul?
IV. YOUR LOSS IS LIFE. Christ came to rescue from death. Appreciate His love by appropriating His salvation. (John Edwards.)
Christ alone is rejected
When the dove was weary she recollected the ark, and flew into Noah’s hand at once: there are weary souls who know the Ark, but will not fly to it. When an Israelite had slain, inadvertently, his fellow, he knew the city of refuge, he feared the avenger of blood, and he fled along the road to the place of safety; but multitudes know the refuge, and every Sabbath we set up the sign-posts along the road, but yet they come not to find salvation. The destitute waifs and strays of the streets of London find out the night refuge and ask for shelter: they cluster round our workhouse doors like sparrows under the eaves of a building on a rainy day; they piteously crave for lodging and a crust of bread; yet crowds of poor benighted spirits, when the house of mercy is lighted up, and the invitation is plainly written in bold letters, “Whosoever will, let him turn in hither,” will not come, but prove the truth of Watts’s verse: “Thousands make a wretched choice, And rather starve than come.” ‘Tis strange, ‘tis passing strange, ‘tis wonderful! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Shall we refuse life?
Many years ago, when the great war was raging m America between the Northern and Southern States, no cotton came to supply the Lancashire mills, and hundreds of thousands of people were reduced to great poverty and suffering for want of food and clothing. Oh! how fervently they prayed that the war might soon be over, and that God would send them “cotton.” At last the war closed, and the sea was again white with the sails of cotton-bringing ships, and soon a railway train laden with the precious thing arrived at Preston, in Lancashire. The town was filled with joy, and when the first load of cotton was brought through the streets on a dray, the people went out by hundreds to welcome it. They marched on either side of it, and many of them kissed the bales of cotton as they moved along, and sang: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow,” for now there would be work, and food, and comfort. And when in the year 1871 the gates of the famine-stricken Paris were thrown open after the terrible siege, and a drove of fat cattle were driven along the streets to be killed for food, the women rushed from their doors and, throwing their arms around the necks of the sleek oxen, kissed them a welcome to their ruined city, for their coming was life to them and to their children. And is not Jesus “Life” to us? Is He not a thousand times more to us than cotton or cattle were to the people of Preston and Paris? And shall we refuse Him, or receive Him coldly? What think you? (R. Brewin.)
Sinners will not come to Christ
Since I have been watching the sea a wind has sprung up, and suddenly the ocean is dotted with ships. This little town has a harbour, and trading vessels of small tonnage evidently expect a storm, for here they come. Like sea-fowl borne on white wings they are flying for the harbour. Differing in their tacking, yet it is evident that they are all making for one spot. How beautiful it is to see them enter the haven, cast anchor, and rest! Oh, that our fellow-men were equally wise as to spiritual things! A thousand signs betoken the approaching tempest; they know there is a place of refuge, will they not hasten to it? They will suffer loss, nay, they will be wrecked totally, if they try to weather the last dread storm; the harbour is free, there is time to reach it, there is ample room within its shelter; why will they refuse the safety? Ah me! this is cause for tears. Are my fellow-creatures mad? Do they despise Jesus, the appointed haven of souls? Do they so despise Him as to perish to show their contempt? My God, help me to mourn for them, if I cannot persuade them, and do Thou give them understanding enough to accept their own lives. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Sinners will not come to Christ
If there is any man here who says, “I cannot come,” I beg him to express himself properly, and speak out the sad fact as it ought to be spoken. Here is the style: “Unhappy wretch, I cannot come to Christ! Millions in heaven have come, but I cannot come. My mother died in a good hope; but, ‘Mother, I cannot come.’ My father has gone home to be with Jesus; but I cannot come.” I thank God that this statement is not true; but if you say it, and believe it, you ought never to rest any more; for if you cannot come to Christ, you are the unhappiest person in the world. May I ask you to do another thing? If you still intend to say, “I cannot come,” will you speak the truth now? Will you alter a word, and get nearer the truth? Say, “I will not come.” “I cannot come,” is Greek, or double Dutch; but the plain English is, “I will not come.” I wish you would say that rather than the other, because the recoil of saying, “I will not come: I will not believe in Jesus: I will not repent of sin: I will not turn from my wicked ways”--the recoil, I say, from that might be blessed by God to you to make you see your desperate state. I wish you would then cry, “I cannot sit down and make my own damnation sure by saying that I will not come to Christ.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ’s desertions and complaints
Jesus, Mediator between God and man, suffers two desertions, and utters two complaints. On that side, God forsook Him; and on this side, man. The answer to the first desertion, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” came in a strong cry from His dying lips; the answer to the second is written here, “Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life.” The desertion by the Father in the utmost agony of the Son was the greater--was inconceivably, infinitely great; but the lower and lesser--the desertion by sinners whom He seeks that He may save--pierces His heart more painfully, because the last desertion makes the first for that case of no avail. When we come to Him for life, He sees, He tastes of the travail of His soul and is satisfied; when we refuse, He complains that so far His soul has travailed in vain. The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord “risen from the dead”; the Lord is gladder when He sees disciples coming to Himself as doves to their windows. (W. Arnot, D. D.)
Will, the seat of inability
Nelson could not see the signal for suspending battle because he placed the glass to his blind eye, and man cannot see the truth as it is in Jesus because he has no mind to do so. Ungodly men are, as the country people say, “like the hogs in a harvest field,” who come not out for all their shouting; they cannot hear because they have no will to hear. Want of will causes paralysis of every faculty. In spiritual things man is utterly unable because resolvedly unwilling. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Will--not violated by grace
When we see a casket wrenched open, the hinges torn away, or the clasp destroyed, we mark at once the hand of the spoiler; but when we observe another casket deftly opened with a master-key, and the sparkling contents revealed, we note the hand of the owner. Conversion is not, as some suppose, a violent opening of the heart by grace, in which will, reason, and judgment are all ignored or crushed. This is too barbarous a method for him who comes not as a plunderer to his prey, but as a possessor to his treasure. In conversion, the Lord who made the human heart deals with it according to its nature and constitution. His key insinuates itself into the wards; the will is not enslaved but enfranchised; the reason is not blinded but enlightened, and the whole man is made to act with a glorious liberty which it never knew till it fell under the restraints of grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)