Christ and in his work-" I am well pleased;" not merely III. THE PRIVILEGES OF BELIEVERS WERE HERE RATI FIED AND CONFIRMED IN THE PERSON OF JESUS. 1. We view Him here as our federal Head and Repre sentative. This principle is admitted and understood in respect to his sufferings, passion, death. We there all see him fulfilling the law for us-bearing the penalty and curse for usbleeding and dying for us, as our head and substitute; and he bears precisely the same office here, and in all he did for us: we are in him by faith, and we were in him in the purpose and covenant of God, when he thus "fulfilled all righteousness" for us; what he did, we did: his work and merit is all ours, if we are his! 2. In this capacity he received the Holy Ghost. The Spirit descended on him as the head of the body, his Church: it was the anointing of the most holy; and the rich perfume flows down to the skirts of his clothing, to the meanest and poorest of his people. As the anointing of the high priest, (Psalm cxxxiii. 2,) all supplies of grace are in him; and "out of him must all we receive," &c. (John i. 16.) "We are sanctified in Christ Jesus," (1 Cor. i. 2,) because "He was sanctified by the Father," (John x. 36); and when his work was accomplished, he claimed this reward of his sufferings; and "from the right hand of God," &c. "he shed forth" the Holy Spirit on his Church on the day of Pentecost. (Acts ii. 33.) 3. In this character, as our Representative, the Father delighted in him, and therefore delights in his people. "well God beholds his people in Christ: he views them through him as a medium of sight; and therefore he is as pleased" in them as he was in Him! "Behold my servant, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth!" (Isaiah xlii. 1.) Here God delights in Christ! "The Lord delighteth in thee," (Isaiah Ixii. 4): here God delights in his people; they are "accepted in the beloved," (Ephes. i. 6,) and beloved in Him! The Holy Trinity loves the believer, (John xiv. 23,) and dwells in him! "The upright in their way are his delight." (Prov. xi. 20.) "The Lord taketh pleasure in his people," (Psalm cxlix. 4.) He loves sinners, the ungodly, with the love of pity; but when penitent, pardoned, renewed, and united with Christ, He loves them with the love of complacency: He sees in them the image of his own dear Son, and He pronounces it, once more, “very good!" 1. What a practical view of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is presented in this subject! The Holy Three uniting in the mysterious work of man's salvation! Each office, and each person, absolutely necessary for its accomplishment. The Father loving, sending, and accepting his dear Son: That Son coming, humbling himself, submitting to deep humiliation : The Holy Spirit filling him with his plenary inspiration; yet but One God! Oh! profound mystery! May we with deep reverence receive and believe it! 2. Have we any personal interest in this great work? Have you felt your need of so great a salvation? Are you persuaded that there is no way of access to the Father, but through the Son, and by the Holy Ghost? We shall never learn the doctrine of the Trinity as a theory, until we have worked it out, so to speak, in our own experience, as sinners lost and guilty, needing the blood of atonement, and the waters of purification! Be once deeply convinced of sin, and you will then see there is no salvation for you but in a Triune Jehovah ! 3. If we receive, believe, and value these truths, oh let us be anxious to exhibit their power in our lives! Children of such a God and Father-disciples of such a Saviour-recipients of such a Spirit-what manner of persons should they be? If God delight in us, how holy, how unblameable, how irreproachable should we be! We ought to be, and we may be! For all grace is thus to be obtained by diligent prayer and walking with God! Only let us steadily gaze on him by faith, in his word, his sacraments, and in meditation; "and we shall be changed to the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of our God." (2 Cor. iii. 18.) XLIV. THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE UPRIGHT. Psalm lxxxiv. 11. For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. PUBLIC WORSHIP-not merely as it existed in the splendid ceremonial of the Old Law-but even in the simplicity of the Gospel Dispensation, possesses much that is calculated to awaken religious sympathies: a crowded congregation-animated responses-social psalmody-and perhaps exciting preaching, combine to produce grateful sensations, and lead many to echo the words of this psalm-" How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts!" and yet it is possible that many persons who are thus pleased and gratified, and perhaps congratulate themselves upon the evidence thus afforded them of their spirituality of mind, are at the same time not under the influence of genuine devotion. Superstition and religious sensibility, or even romance, are very accurate counterfeits of pure spirituality; and the sensations of the carnal mind amidst such associations and excitements, often strongly resemble the operations of grace in the soul, while they are to be wholly distinguished from them. The spiritual believer, like David, delights in the house and worship of God, only because they unite him with God himself: it is not the pleasurable sensations excited by outward causes, but the presence of God in the soul, which he craves. "His flesh and heart cry out for the living God," and for ordinances, that they may lead him to the living God. David delighted in the courts of the Lord, and thought one day there better than a thousand elsewhere, because he knew God "as a sun and shield; as the God who gives grace and glory-withholding no good thing from those who walk uprightly." Delightful reflections are here suggested relative to the character of God may the Holy Spirit apply them to our hearts, while we consider I. WHAT GOD IS TO HIS PEOPLE: 66 a sun and shield." II. WHAT GOD DOES FOR HIS PEOPLE: "He gives them grace and glory." III. THE CHARACTER WHICH HIS PEOPLE BEAR: walk uprightly." "they I. WHAT GOD IS TO HIS PEOPLE: 66 a sun and shield: -glorious and expressive metaphors, denoting the benefits which God bestows on them that love him. -splendid luminary; shining in his strength and brightness it is not to be wondered that ignorant and unenlightened man has been so prone to worship it. It is chosen as an emblem of Jehovah, who is "as the light of the morning when the sun ariseth," &c. (2 Sam. xxiii. 4.) (a) It is the source of light: ushers in the day; the stars cease from their brightness-darkness flees away-and man goeth forth to his labour until the evening. So is Christ to his people, and God in Him! All is dark in the soul, until "the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings." (Mal. iv. 2.) In themselves his people are and must ever be as dark as the black mountains of rock; their light is all derived: if they "walk in their brightness," as the moon, it is in borrowed glory like hers! If they shall be hereafter as the stars in the firmament, it will be but as reflectors of the Great Sun: a Sun not to this planetary system alone, but to the universe of saints! (b) It is the source of warmth and heat: all is cold and chilled without the warm rays of the sun in its absence, frost nips, congeals, hardens. So is it the love of Christ alone which can warm the hearts of his people. How cold and dead are they without him! how full of life and animation when he warms their hearts! (c) Consolation and cheerfulness are diffused by the sun's rays. Who does not know this and feel it? All animated nature delights in sunshine; from the little gnat that dances in its beams to man himself! His physical frame, his animal spirits, are affected by it-a dark, cloudy, cold day, disheartens and dispirits; while bright and glorious weather cheers and gladdens him! And what is the soul when Christ ceases to shine upon it? How dark, how sad, how cheerless! And when the clouds disperse, and he reappears, "then are his disciples glad!" (d) Fertility and vegetation wait upon sunlight and heat: they cannot proceed without them; and where the sun's rays are brightest and warmest, there vegetation is most luxuriant. And by whom are the people of God made fruitful, but by Christ? "From me is thy fruit found," (Hosea xiv. 8); "I create the fruit of the lips." (Isaiah lvii. 19.) His love constrains to obedience-union with him animates to exertion: "Abide in me, so shall ye bring forth much fruit.” (John xv. 5.) (e) Emblem of faithfulness is the unwearied sun: as long as the world lasts will he shine upon us: (Jer. xxxi. 35, 36, and xxxiii. 20, 21): it is a covenant that cannot be broken; the faithful seasons shall not fail. Nor will Christ forsake his people this sun shall shine when time shall be no more: it may be obscured by clouds, it may be eclipsed by unbelief, and the soul may be benighted, but the sun shines on, and angels walk in the light thereof; and his people shall at length walk with them, and gaze upon it for ever! 2. God is his people's "shield!" Man needs one! Exposed to a thousand dangers in mind and body; such calamities, troubles, sorrows, many enemies, and in himself so defenceless, oh for a shield! A believer needs one. He knows of enemies, "who are not flesh and blood," who thirst for his soul's ruin: from within too, bosom traitors, inbred lusts, outward excitements to sin, men and devils, and his own heart, and he more helpless than infancy; oh for some protecting shield! God is such a shield to his people: "Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield." (Gen. xv. 1.) "O people, saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help." (Deut. xxxiii. 29.) When they say, "there is no help for me in God; . O Lord, thou art my shield ;" "Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous: with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield," (Psalm iii. 2, 3; v. 11, 12; and cxv. 9-11.) He is as a wall of fire about his people; none can touch them. Little do his people know what dangers they thus escape! What invisible conflicts there are for us between good and evil angels! what machinations of men and devils frustrated! "The wicked plotteth against the just," but the Lord frustrates his schemes. When we are safe in heaven, then we shall look back, and our hearts will sicken, even there, to review the fearful and utter destruction we have narrowly escaped! as travellers survey with horror, at the returning dawn, the fearful passes they have traversed in the darkness of night. II. WHAT GOD DOES FOR HIS PEOPLE. 1. He "gives them grace: Blessed, comprehensive word! "GRACE!" It seems to comprise all that God can give or man receive! God's free favour, goodness, benevolence! Awakening grace: to arouse the slumbering and the careless; to convince of sin, and bring the soul in guilty before God: imparting repent |