You...rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. 1 Peter 1:8
As Christians, we should not enjoy just an ordinary level of cheerfulness; we should go way beyond those of the world both in quality and quantity. Our happiness should be sweeter, higher and more constant than any carnal man. Consider the transcendent objects of our thoughts above all men. Consider your justification and sanctification through Christ. Do not even let a part of a day pass without such wonderful contemplation. Your soul deserves to have her breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, and desserts as well as your body. Your precious time will glide swiftly and easily away, like a boat with the full wind and tide. All of your days can be holidays. There is no envy of Felix's happiness, Festus' festivity, and Dives' bounty. Our life, as we enjoy spiritual blessings, is a kingly life. Yes, but does it not strip us of our joy when we stumble before our God? Certainly those who daily keep watch will not run their ship against any dangerous rock. If they do, it will not lay there long. Your faith will set you to work, weeping bitterly before the Lord to find peace of conscience. As for ordinary sins, your faith will seek daily pardon and washing, with even greater effort than a Pharisee in washing his hands. Each day we take the red lines of Christ's cross over the black lines of God's debt book. And if God looks upon the handwriting against us, he sees the bill cancelled with the precious blood of his Son. Such blood is all-sufficient to cover, nullify, abolish, and wholly take away our sins in such a way that he neither sees, will see, nor can see them as sins and debts against us. Though we cannot enter into the joys of heaven while yet on earth, we certainly do rejoice in gospel joys now. It is enough now for us to secretly enjoy all of the colours of the gospel. They are beloved above all other joys and states.
Samuel Ward, Sermons, pp. 27-30 as quoted in Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Readings, Edited by Richard Rushing, Banner of Truth Trust, 2011, Page37
Showing posts with label Samuel Ward. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Samuel Ward. Show all posts
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Love the Lord with All Your Heart - A Puritan Reading
Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Deuteronomy 6:5
We who profess and hold the precious faith of Christ in truth, do we also make him our all in all? By our tongue he may be heard, but in our lives and deeds, is he to be found? As Saviour many will own him, but as Lord few do know him. Almost anything shall come before him. Too many desire a hound, or flower in the garden, a new suit or fashionable clothes, and such other trifles as their all in all. Great is the power that mammon has in the world. In the hours of sickness let Nabal call and cry unto it, and see if it can deliver him in distress of conscience. Let Judas see what comfort his money will afford him in the day of death and judgment. Does not experience teach us to cry out 'all is vanity'? Let Christ be in all our desires and wishes, and all the haberdash-stuff the whole world has is not worthy to be valued with this jewel. Few have even some faint and languid wish: "O that Christ were mine!'; but he will not be found by such that seek him but lazily and coldly, and yet desire all the world besides. He that desires anything above him, equally with him, or without him, shall never obtain him. He will be won only when you seek him with all your soul and strength or he will not be won at all. Embrace him with both your arms of love. All of your rivers of desire together should not form a current as strong as your love for him. He suffered all for you; he should be your all in all without any rival for affection. O what a difficult virtue is this when it comes to actually practicing it, to neglect all the glistering lures and temptations of the flesh and let him be in all your joys! The whole of our duty as men is to give ourselves wholly to Christ--soul, spirit, and body, and all that is within us--dedicating and devoting ourselves to his service all the days of our lives.
Taken from Samuel Ward, Sermons, pp. 6-11 as published in Voices of the Past, Edited by Richard Rushing, Banner of Truth Trust, 2009, page 32.
We who profess and hold the precious faith of Christ in truth, do we also make him our all in all? By our tongue he may be heard, but in our lives and deeds, is he to be found? As Saviour many will own him, but as Lord few do know him. Almost anything shall come before him. Too many desire a hound, or flower in the garden, a new suit or fashionable clothes, and such other trifles as their all in all. Great is the power that mammon has in the world. In the hours of sickness let Nabal call and cry unto it, and see if it can deliver him in distress of conscience. Let Judas see what comfort his money will afford him in the day of death and judgment. Does not experience teach us to cry out 'all is vanity'? Let Christ be in all our desires and wishes, and all the haberdash-stuff the whole world has is not worthy to be valued with this jewel. Few have even some faint and languid wish: "O that Christ were mine!'; but he will not be found by such that seek him but lazily and coldly, and yet desire all the world besides. He that desires anything above him, equally with him, or without him, shall never obtain him. He will be won only when you seek him with all your soul and strength or he will not be won at all. Embrace him with both your arms of love. All of your rivers of desire together should not form a current as strong as your love for him. He suffered all for you; he should be your all in all without any rival for affection. O what a difficult virtue is this when it comes to actually practicing it, to neglect all the glistering lures and temptations of the flesh and let him be in all your joys! The whole of our duty as men is to give ourselves wholly to Christ--soul, spirit, and body, and all that is within us--dedicating and devoting ourselves to his service all the days of our lives.
Taken from Samuel Ward, Sermons, pp. 6-11 as published in Voices of the Past, Edited by Richard Rushing, Banner of Truth Trust, 2009, page 32.
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