Lucy Edwards, one of Jonathan’s children was with him as he lay dying of a fever he contracted from a small-pox inoculation shortly before. She heard him say:
As to my children, you are now to be left fatherless, which I hope will be an inducement to you all to seek a Father who will never fail you.
Do we as fathers live a life that would induce our children to seek The Heavenly Father who will not fail them like we do?
JOB 22: 15-17.
Hast thou marked the old way, which wicked men have trodden? Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood: which said unto god, depart from us; and what can the almighty do for them?
WIDE, says our Divine Teacher, is the gate, and broad is the way, which leadeth to destruction; and many there be who go in there at. Of this broad way Eliphaz here speaks. Inferring from the unprecedented afflictions of Job, that he must be a wicked man, he asks him whether he had duly considered the old way which had been trodden by other wicked men of former ages, who were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overthrown with a flood.
My hearers, this is an important question, a question which may be very properly addressed to all, and from which the most salutary consequences may result. If any of you have not suitably considered the way which wicked men have trodden, you may even now he ignorantly pursuing it; nor can any be sure, that he has forsaken this way, unless he knows what it is. Permit me then to address this question to you, – Have you marked, have you duly considered the way of wicked men, and the end to which it leads? If you have not, let me request your attention, while I endeavour, by the light of revelation, to trace this way, to show in what it consists, and what is its termination.
I. Let us consider the way itself. In tracing it, it will be proper to begin at its commencement. It was, you will observe, even in the time of Eliphaz, an old way, a way which had long been trodden. Indeed, it is almost as old as the human race, or as the world which they inhabit; for it was formed in the days of our first parents, at the time when they ate of the forbidden fruit. Then the wide gate, which leads into the broad way, was opened; and alas, it has never since been closed. By carefully attending to the conduct of those, who first formed the way, and first walked in it, we may learn in what it consists. It is thus described by the inspired historian: “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food; and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise; she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.”
In this account of the conduct of the first sinner we see, in the first place, selfishness, or a preference of herself to God; for had she loved him supremely, she would have chosen to obey his commands, rather than to gratify herself. This must ever be the first sin; for so long as any creature prefers God to himself, he will choose to please God rather than to gratify himself; of course, he will avoid every sin, and no temptation will induce him to offend his Maker, while he Continue reading
Barack Obama an Apostle Like Jesus Christ? – As much as it boggles my mind, there are just some things in this life that you can’t make up. This article is something I just can’t wrap my mind around.
Reflections on X – You can’t look in a mirror and at a mirror at the same time. Thought provoking article that caused me to look at my own quilt.
John Owen’s Final Words – I can only hope that my final words in this life would be such as Owen’s.
Did Jesus Turn Water into Wine or Grape Juice – Something to read and think about.
Quote:
History is not a matter of indifference in a single religion, but Christianity itself is and creates a history. Precisely because it is the perfect, absolute, and definitive religion, it is and has to be a historical religion. The reason is that Christianity regards sin not as ignorance, which can easily be overcome by some enlightenment, but as an appalling power, which produces its effects throughout the cosmos; and over against this power it brings reconciliation and redemption in the deepest and broadest sense of those terms. It brings redemption from the guilt and the stain, from all the consequences of sin, from the errors of the intellect and the impurity of the heart, from the death of soul and body. It brings that redemption not only to the individual but also, organically, to the family and generations of families, to people and society, to humanity and the world. For that reason Christianity has to be a history, rooted in facts, producing facts. The facts are the skeletal system of Christianity; specifically, the cross and the resurrection of Christ are the two mainstays on which the Christian faith rests. When that gospel is preached purely, it always includes those facts; and when the preaching of that gospel is blessed and effects faith and conversion, then, in the religious experience of sin and grace, the divinity of this history is sealed. For if Christ did not die and was not raised from the dead, our faith is vain. Those facts, accordingly, are not events that took place at some time in the past and have now lost their significance. They do not stand between us and God, keeping us separate from him. “To the New Testament writers this concentration of faith upon the historic realities of redemption does not in the least interfere with its personal character as a direct act of trust in God and in Christ. The Person is immanent in the facts, and the facts are the revelation of the Person.” – Herman Bavinck
What Does Your Church’s Statement of Faith Protect? – Thabiti Anyabwile lists 6 things a Church’s statement of faith should protect.
Watch Over Your Heart – Why is this so important? We are justified and made right before God, right? But it is still an ongoing process.
The Case for Hate – Without hate we are no longer moral.
Falling Asleep – For a Christian to die, it’s as natural as falling asleep at night.
Quote:
“For two hours they cried out, ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!'” Acts 19:34. Mere enthusiasm and persistence is worthless. – John Piper
While reading a sermon entitled Christ is Best that Richard Sibbes preached at a funeral, I came across the line I used to title this post. It made me stop and think about how this is the plight of fallen, sinful man? True life cannot be experienced outside of the saving rebirth found only in Jesus Christ. So, unregenerate man is doomed to a life of mere existence. He breathes, he eats, he enjoys all of life’s passions and desires that can be packed into the 70 or so years that is allotted to him, but in the end he dies. And it is in the dying that the final fight begins because every man knows something of eternity. The Preacher says in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” Continue reading
From Volume 3, Sermon 146 EntitledThe Good Man’s Life and Death preached on August 16, 1857:
If you would get a fair estimate of the happiness of any man, you must judge him in these two closely connected things—his life and his death. The heathen Solon said, “Call no man happy until he is dead, for you know not what changes may pass upon him in life.” We add to that—Call no man happy until he is dead, because the life that is to come, if that is miserable, shall far outweigh the highest life of happiness that has been enjoyed on earth! To estimate a man’s condition, we must take it in all its length. We must not measure that one thread which reaches from the cradle to the coffin—we must go further! We must go from the coffin to the resurrection and from the resurrection on throughout eternity. To know whether acts are profitable, I must not estimate their effects on me for the hour in which I live, but for the eternity in which I am to exist! I must not weigh matters in the scales of time. I must not calculate by the hours, minutes and seconds of the clock, but I must count and value things by the ages of eternity!
