1. The act of aversion.(1) For his,, course.. "Let the wicked forsake his" way."(2) As it reaches to a man's mind. The unrighteous man his thoughts." The law of God does reach to our thoughts for ordering and regulating them. The thoughts of men are the proper issue and emanation of their souls, and so for that reason more especially to be rectified in them. The thoughts are such as whereto the Gospel and ministry of the Word does especially extend itself (Hebrews 4:12; 2 Corinthians 10:5). God Himself is a searcher and trier of the thoughts and inward man.

2. The act of conversion. "Let him return unto the Lord." This is the nature of true repentance — it is a turning from sin to God.

II. THE PROMISE or argument to enforce this counsel and invitation. That is taken from God's readiness to the forgiveness of sin upon that condition.

(T. Horton, D. D.)

1. As to matter of opinion. Take a man in his natural condition, and he has many strange conceits in his head, whilst he so remains (Romans 1:21).(1) The thoughts of sin — when a man is converted he forsakes these. In his natural condition, he many times makes nothing of sin. "Fools make a mock of sin."(2) So, also, his thoughts of grace, and godliness and godly men.(3) So again, for his thoughts of God Himself, he must forsake these and think otherwise of Him.

2. As to matter of contemplation, he must forsake his thoughts here also. Take a carnal man, and where are all his thoughts? What is that which his mind does most run on? Why, upon the world, and the things of the world.

3. As to matter of contrivance and design. Wicked men, as they are full of vain meditations, so they are commonly full of sinful devices. And they are still laying a train for future wickedness in themselves — "making provisions for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof."

(T. Horton, D. D.)

II. HIS COUNSEL. "Let the wicked forsake," etc. We have ways in common; but we have ways that are individual and peculiar to ourselves. Every man has his way of thinking, and reasoning, and imagining, and feeling, and willing, and acting. Now, "the wicked setteth himself in a way that is not good," and God says, "Get out of it, forsake it." This advice is based upon the following facts. The way of the wicked and the thoughts of the unrighteous are absolutely wrong. They are injurious — injurious to the wicked man himself, Further, repentance now is possible; for the Son of the Father now speaking to the wicked man, is exalted to give repentance and remission of sins. Further, God Himself seeks it. This advice requires —

1. Self-inspection. It asks the wicked man to look at his way. It says to him, Look back — it has been a rough way, sometimes covered, it is true, with bright green grass, and with soft enticing moss; but the flints have come through it all, and have made the feet often bleed: so that if the wicked man will look back, he will find blood-marks on his way, an evidence that the way of transgressors is hard. The wicked man is not only to look at his way, but the unrighteous man at his thoughts. He is to consider his purposes.

2. The admission of truth as to the character of the way, and as to the nature of the thoughts. It is quite possible that a wicked man looking back, and seeing his path to be hard, will try to forget it. God says, admit the truth.

3. The resistance of an inclination to go on.

4. Submission to the conviction that the way is evil, and the abandonment of every unrighteous purpose, with actual departure from the path of open and actual transgression. It is just possible that in the midst of a multitude of transgressions, there is one master sin; and that master sin, it may be, the key-stone of all your transgressions. Take that away, and your habits of sinning are broken up. This advice requires appeal to God for mercy, and for help and reconciliation.

III. THE COUNSELLED. If you take a Concordance and look through it at the word "wicked," I think you will be astonished to find how often the winked are recognized in Holy Scripture, and men often talk about the wicked. But God and men do not always mean the same thing. Men unduly limit the application of this word. They call the immoral wicked, and only the immoral. Now hear what the Lord says in describing a wicked man. "God is not in all his thoughts;" so that he is a wicked man who does not recognize God in God's own world.

IV. THE PROMISE OR ASSURANCE BY WHICH THIS ADVICE IS SANCTIONED AND SUSTAINED. It is like the promise made to faith; you must believe in order to realize the promise. It is like the promise made to repentance: you must repent in order to realize the promise. The promise is conditional; and yet, mark, it is sure. The promise is made, further, to characters. There is, therefore, an indefiniteness about it which may well encourage you. It is not necessary I should go into your wickedness, or that I should at all define or describe your thoughts.

(S. Martin.)

I. THE NECESSITY OF CONVERSION. " Right about face!" is the marching order for every sinner.

1. This will be at once evident when I ask, How would it be consistent with the holiness of God for Him to put aside our past sin, and then to allow us to go on sinning as we did before?

2. Neither is there a single case in fact, nor one emblem in parable, that would lead any man to hope that he could keep his sins, and yet be saved.

3. Besides, our common-sense tells us that it would be highly dangerous to society if men were to be pardoned, and yet were not to be renewed in character and lira.

4. Moreover, it would be a serious injury to the man himself, I have come to the conclusion that the very worst form of character is produced in the man who, for some reason or other, thinks himself to be a favourite of Heaven, and yet continues to indulge in sin.

II. THE NATURE OF THIS CONVERSION. How is it described here?

1. It deals with the life. "Let the wicked forsake his way." It is "his way" that he is to forsake; that is his natural way, the way in which he says he was brought up, the way that his natural affections, and propensities, and passions lead him. He must forsake this way, even though it is the way in which he has walked these thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, or even eighty years; he will have to get out of this way, however much he may delight in it. "I will tell you what I will do," says one; "I will still keep to my old way, but I will not travel quite so rapidly in it. I will not live such a fast life as I have done." I tell thee that thou must forsake that old way, of thine altogether if thou wouldst be saved. "That is pretty strong language, says some one. Do you think so? I shall have to use still stronger expressions presently, for the next point concerning the nature of this repentance is that —

2. It deals with the man's thoughts. In thought, is often the very essence of sin. A deed might in itself be colourless; but the motive for doing it — the thought at the back of it — puts the venom, and virus, and guilt into the deed. As that is the case, what sort of thoughts must the unrighteous man give up? He must give up a great many fine opinions of which he is very proud; his opinion about God, for instance. To the ungodly man it is often quite a treat to sit down, and think of what he calls the jolly days of his youth, when he sowed his wild oats. We must also forsake our thoughts in the sense of turning from all purposes of evil. That, indeed, is the main meaning of the Hebrew word used here: "Let the unrighteous man forsake his purposes." You say that you will do this or that, without any thought of whether God would have it so or not. Possibly it is your purpose, as you express it, "to have your fling." You have come up from the country, young man, you are pleased that you have got away from your mother's apron strings, and now you are going to have your own way. Forsake all such thoughts, I implore you.

3. The text further says, "and let him return unto the Lord,- so that this conversion deals with the sinner in his relation to God. He who would find mercy must return to God to obtain it.(1) You must begin to think about God.(2) Then you must yield to Him, give up your will to His will; and, doing that, you must pray to Him, cry to Him for mercy; and then you must trust Him. Especially, you must accept His way of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.

III. THE GOSPEL OF THIS CONVERSION. Possibly somebody says, "You have been preaching to us the law, sir." No, I have not. The law says nothing about repentance. The law curses you from the very first moment when you have broken it. That gracious message, Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out," is not the utterance of law, but of the Gospel.

1. The Gospel of it lies in the fact that God has promised that He will abundantly pardon those who turn from their evil ways.

2. Not only does God bid men turn to Him, but He enables them to turn to Him; so the Gospel of this passage is, that God the Holy Ghost is freely given to sinners to turn them, first in their hearts, and then in their lives.

3. Jesus Christ Himself came into the world on purpose that this Divine Spirit might be given in connection with the exercise, by men, of faith in Him.

4. God gave His Son, Jesus Christ, to offer a full and complete atonement for sin.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. SOMETHING FOR MAN TO DO. Here are three things the prophet declares to be necessary. They are not three, but one; each merges into the other, and it is only as the final one is obeyed that the former ones are obeyed; and yet let us take them in their sequence.

1. "Let the wicked forsake his way."

2. "The unrighteous man his thoughts.

3. "Let him return unto the Lord." As a matter of fact, the prophet here is beginning in the outer reaches of life, passing to the inner circle, until he comes to the central fact of man's nature. We will begin in this outer court. The Hebrew word translated "way" at this point means a beaten track, the way along which a man habitually walks; and it is used figuratively in Hebrew writings of the general set and direction of a man's life, and the prophet says that the first thing a man has to do if he is to come back into the garden is to leave his way, the outward set, and direction of his life. Then he comes to another word, "Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts," and the Hebrew word here means literally a web, figuratively a plan, a conception, an ideal. So that the prophet now has come to something deeper than the outward set of a man's life. He is to give that up by giving up his inward conception of life. And how is a man to give up his outward way and the inward conception, and why is a man to give up his outward way, and his inward conception? He is to give it up by returning, to the Lord, and he is to give it up because it is not the Lord's way and the Lord's thought. Notice what immediately follows this seventh verse. In the Authorized Version, at ver. 8, there is a paragraph mark that we need to dispense with. The paragraph mark is put in to indicate the fact that the prophet there begins a new subject. As a matter of fact, he does nothing of the sort; he goes right on with the same subject. Here we are touching the fundamental question of sin. When the prophet calls a man to forsake his way, it is not that he asks him to give up drinking, or thieving, or lying, or impurity. "All we like sheep have .gone astray; we. have turned, every one to his own way." That is the essence of sin. The essential trouble is not that a man drinks, or swears; it is that he has elected to go his own way, instead of God's way. The underlying root sin of humanity is rebellion against the government of God. That sin may manifest itself in vulgar forms, against which we sign pledges; or it may manifest itself in the cultured and refined paganism that attempts to live without prayer and without worship. I will tell you, in the name of God, what is the trouble in your life! It is godless, that is the trouble. I will tell you why you are in the desert. You have turned your back upon God. I will tell you why you are never satisfied with water or bread. It is because you have left the place of intimate and first-hand relationship to God. Do you want to get from the desert, back to God? Forsake your way; take His. Give up your thought; take His. "But," says some man in his pride, "why should I give up my way, and take God's way? And why should I give up my thought, and take God's thought?" Go right on, and see what the prophet says (ver. 8). God's thought for you is the thought of Heaven. Yours is the thought of earth. God thinks infinitely more of you than you think of yourself. Yours is a degraded estimate of your own life. Will you say, "Yes, that true, I will return to the Lord." Then I know immediately your face is set toward God's high conception, toward God's great highway, the next consciousness will be that of your sin, the wasted years will come sweeping back upon you like an avalanche. If, indeed, thou art at this wicket gate, and thy face is set back toward, God then hear the evangel, "He will" have mercy. He will abundantly pardon.

II. SOMETHING THAT GOD WILL DO. You are to do what He tells you, and He will do what He promises. You arc to obey; that is repentance. You are to trust Him; that is faith. That is the whole programme of salvation.

(G. C. Morgan, D. D.)

1. It introduces the man of evil deeds.

2. We have likewise the portrait of the man of unholy purposes. What a mirror the text holds up to society!

II. AN EARLIEST EXHORTATION.

1. "Let the wicked forsake," etc. The sinner is required to forsake, to abandon his sin.

2. "Let him return unto the Lord." The sinner lives abnormally, unnaturally. He is a prodigal away from home, a wandering sheep beyond the protection of the fold, a lost piece of silver. Hence religion is a return to God, to first relations, to natural courses of behaviour. Sinners are like wandering stars escaped from their orbit. Conversion restores them to their proper place in the onward sweep of the Divine purpose. The text is a disclosure of the nature of true repentance and of saving faith.

III. AN EXCEEDING GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISE.

1. "And He will have mercy upon him." Mercy is God's wealth. "Rich in mercy."

2. "Abundantly pardon." What music is in these words!

(Homiletic Review.)

(F. Delitzsch, D. D.)

II. THE TRUE NATURE OF REPENTANCE.

(J. Taylor, LL. D.)

(D. L. Moody.)

1. God has His thoughts — thoughts about Himself — the universe; about all actualities and possibilities. Some of His thoughts have been embodied and their forms destroyed, centuries ago Some are now embodied in creation, In historical events, in redemption, etc. Some are yet to be embodied in new universes, etc. And some will never take form. There is an infinite ocean of thought in the Divine mind that has never yet taken form, and never will.

2. God has His ways. He has settled methods of action. He has a method of creating, governing, destroying, and saving. Hence science and art, which imply settled methods.

3. Man has his thoughts. He is full of thought, of some sort or other; he thinks by a necessity of his nature; his power to think is the glory of his nature.

4. Man too has his ways. He has his methods of doing things.

II. BETWEEN THE THOUGHTS AND WAYS OF WICKED AND UNRIGHTEOUS MEN AND THOSE OF GOD THERE IS AN IMMENSE MORAL DISPARITY. "My thoughts are not your thoughts," etc. We say moral disparity, for natural disparity must exist by an eternal necessity. We may mention two points of moral difference. One in relation to being in general, and the other in relation to enemies.

1. As to the former, God's thoughts and ways are concerned for the general happiness, those of wicked men for personal ends.

2. As to the latter, God's thoughts are concerned for the pardon of the offender, those of the wicked for punishment.(1) God graciously offers pardon to the offender. Do the wicked do so?(2) God graciously offers pardon to offenders much beneath Him. Do the wicked do so?(3) God graciously offers pardon to offenders who have repeatedly rejected His overtures. Do the wicked do so?(4) God graciously offers pardon through a wonderful sacrifice — His Son. Would the wicked do so?

III. THE MORAL DISPARITY BETWEEN THE THOUGHTS AND WAYS OF WICKED MEN AND THOSE OF GOD RENDERS A CHANGE ON THE PART OF THE FORMER URGENTLY NECESSARY. " Let the wicked," etc. Why? Because "My thoughts," etc. Two thoughts are implied here, and will show the strength of this reason.

1. A moral disparity of thought and way between the creature and the Creator is eternally incompatible with the creature's well-being. God's thoughts and ways are the resistless forces of the universe. He who thinks and acts contrary battles against every wind and wave of being and the mighty Spirit in all. He must be crushed.

2. The removal of this disparity will never take place by any change on God's part. The words imply this, and it is a great truth. God cannot change, and there is no need for Him to change. Here, then, is the argument; if a moral disparity exists, and if the removal is essential to our well-being, and if God cannot change, "let the wicked," etc.

IV. THIS GREAT CHANGE ON THE PART OF THE WICKED IS ENCOURAGED BY THE ASSURANCE THAT GOD WILL MERCIFULLY DEAL WITH HIM ON HIS RETURN. "He will have mercy on him;" "He will abundantly pardon."

(Homilist.)

1. God knows us more thoroughly than any human being; He knows the worst of us, and He knows the great hidden element of character which is only occasionally betrayed.

2. Ha knows the motives, and knows that there are bad motives even for good actions.

3. He judges our sins by an infinitely higher standard than man's.

II. WHY GOD IS, JUST BECAUSE OF THAT DIFFERENCE, INFINITELY MORE LIKELY TO FORGIVE.

1. Among men the best and purest are not the severest censors and judges, for human goodness is the more merciful in proportion as it approaches nearer to perfection.

2. In God there is no fictional irascibility or resentment. Christ's life on earth was the story of a long, silent, immovable patience, of absolute lifelong superiority to personal feeling.

3. Although to justice or righteousness it is some satisfaction that a bad man should be miserable, yet it is another nobler and sweeter satisfaction that he should become a good man.

(J. Caird, D. D.)

I. AN EXHORTATION TO REPENTANCE. Here, in few words, we are given plainly to understand in what genuine repentance consists.

II. THE PROMISE OF PARDON ANNEXED TO THE EXHORTATION. If the wicked will forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord, He will have mercy upon him, and will abundantly pardon him. Repentance is here enjoined as a prerequisite to pardon. And do not other passages of Scripture speak the same language? We must not, however. suppose that there, is anything meritorious, in our repentance. It possesses no virtue or efficacy to expiate our guilt. It Is our bounden duty, but it makes no compensation for past failures; no atonement for past transgressions. It is itself the gift of God, who has exalted His beloved Son to be a Prince and a Saviour, in order to bestow it on the rebellious. It can therefore deserve nothing. Nevertheless, it is to the penitent alone that God extends His pardoning mercy. Why? It would be enough to answer, that such is the good pleasure of His will; but we can also add, that the penitent alone is qualified to receive and appreciate the blessing. But it may be asked, How can God be favour-able to the sinner? For an answer we must turn to the Gospel of His grace, which alone informs us how He can be a just God and yet a Saviour.

III. AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO LAY HOLD OF THE PROMISE. What answer do you make?

1. Some one, perhaps, in the brokenness of his heart may reply, "Yes, I must believe that God is indeed merciful and gracious. I perceive also that He can, in the Son of His love, be a just God and a Saviour. But, alas! my sins have been so numerous that, though He may forgive others, I cannot persuade myself He will extend pardon to me." But what saith God? "My thoughts are not your thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My thoughts higher than your thoughts."

2. " But," says another, "my sins have been not only numerous, but highly aggravated." If you had sinned so often and so heinously against your fellow-creatures, you might well despair of forgiveness. It is too much, alas I our way to retaliate evil for evil. But "your ways are not My ways," etc.

3. I seem to hear a third in anguish of spirit exclaiming, "I am one of those awful characters known in Scripture by the name of backsliders." The words here translated "abundantly pardon," are rendered on the margin "multiply to pardon." The Lord will pardon, not once only, but again, and again, and again. Conclusion: It is painful to think that any one should be so wicked, and so lost to every grateful feeling, as to pervert such a subject. Yet it is a fact that many are guilty of so doing. There are two characters especially who come under this charge. One of them is the hardened and impenitent transgressor, who takes encouragement to proceed in his sinful career from the consideration that God is merciful, and will not fail to pardon him at the last.

2. The other is the antinomian professor of religion, who professes to know God, but in works denies Him, and endeavours to lull conscience to rest by extolling His sovereign and superabounding grace. The grace of God was never meant to embolden us in a course of transgression; nor does it ever produce this effect on those who know it in truth.

(D. Rees.)

(J. R. Miller, D. D.)

II. THE ABUNDANCE OF GOD'S PARDONING MERCY MAY BE ARGUED FROM HIS BENEVOLENCE. The goodness of God — i.e. His whole character — is intent on the promotion of the greatest good. When this end demands the punishment of sin, this goodness dictates it, and in this consists what we call justice. When this end is the pardon of the sinner, the same goodness dictates it, and in this consists mercy.

III. THE ABUNDANCE OF GOD'S PARDONING MERCY MAY BE EVINCED FROM THE RICHES OF HIS FORBEARANCE AND LONGSUFFERING. Consider —

1. The objects of the Divine forbearance; a world, our whole species in rebellion.

2. Its design; their repentance and salvation with eternal glory.

3. Its circumstances; how easy for Omnipotence to break the thread that holds us over the pit, and yet He spares us — He spares sinners, while He regards them with all the abhorrence that is due to sin — He spares them, while He can glorify Himself in their instant and eternal destruction — He spares them, when in the midst of great and repeated provocations, when, from the very patience of God, they derive only hardihood in rebellion — He spares them that He may use every possible means for their conversion and salvation. He comes to them in His Word and in His providence; by the chastisements and the bounties of His hand; by every moment's preservation; in the counsels and prayers and example of the pious; in visible displays of His eternal power and Godhead; by the heralds of the Cross, who warn them night and day with tears; in the opened gates of heaven, and the uncovered mouth of the pit; in full displays of the beauty and glory and sufficiency of an incarnate Saviour. Why these efforts to bring to repentance, if He has no mercy for the penitent?

(N. W. Taylor, D. D.)

I. GOD DOES ABUNDANTLY PARDON. We will turn that truth over and over, and see it in many lights.

1. The pardon of God may well be abundant, for it wells up from an infinite fountain; "mercy, which endureth for ever."

2. The objects to which this pardon has been extended are abundant too. Well is it said, "He will abundantly pardon," for God has already pardoned sinners more numerous than can be estimated by human arithmetic.

3. His pardon is abundant when we consider the abundance of the sins which the love of God blots out.(1) Sins of thought — rebellious thoughts, proud thoughts, blasphemous thoughts, atheistical thoughts, covetous thoughts, lustful thoughts, impatient thoughts, cruel thoughts, false thoughts, thoughts of ill memory, and dreams of an unholy future; what swarms are there l Moreover, the omission of thoughts which should have been, such as thoughts of repentance, gratitude, reverence, faith, and the like, these are equally numerous: with the double list my roll is written within and without with a hideous catalogue. As the gnats which swarm the air at eventide, so numerous are the transgressions of the mind.(2) Sins of word. What words have vexed the pure and holy ear of God! Words against Himself, against His Son, against His law and Gospel, against our neighbour, against everything that is good and true! Words proud and hectoring, words defiant and obstinate, words untruthful, words lascivious, words of vanity, and words of wilful unbelief.(3) Sins of deed, which in very truth are but the fruits which grow out of sins of thought.(4) Perhaps the sins we do not know are more numerous than the sins we are conscious of. Conscience may not be properly enlightened, and hence many a thing may not seem to be sinful which really is so; but God's clear eye perceiveth everything that is obnoxious to His holy law. Innumerable sins are forgiven by one word from the lips of Divine love.

4. We can see the truth of this in the abundant sin of those sins which are pardoned. Did you ever find a spider's nest just when the young spiders have all come to life, it is a city of spiders; now, such is any one sin, it. is .a colony of iniquities, a living mass of offence. In addition to there being many sins in one sin, I want you to remember how much virus of sin we sometimes manage to stow await in a sin. A man has done wrong and smarted for it, yet he does the very same thing again wilfully, against his own conscience and against the warning he has received. A man will sometimes acknowledge what a fool he has been, and yet play the fool again. Some men sin for no motive whatever — for mere wantonness of sin.

5. The Lord "abundantly pardons," when we consider the abundant means of pardon which he has been ever pleased to provide for sinners.

6. The abundant ease of the terms of pardon. "Let the wicked forsake," etc., that is all! No man can expect to be forgiven if he goes on with his sin.

7. The abundance of this pardon may be seen in the fulness of it.

8. He doth "abundantly pardon," because of the abundant blessings which attend that pardon.

II. THE INFERENCES WHICH FLOW OUT OF ABUNDANT PARDON.

1. There is no room for anybody to despair.

2. There is a loud call to every one who has not repented to do so; for who would be so base as to offend so good, so kind a Lord?

3. If there is anybody in this house the text especially calls, it is the biggest sinner here; because there cannot be abundant pardon where there is not abundant sin.

4. For such a forgiving God we ought in return to have great love.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

(D. L. Moody.)

(G. Campbell Morgan, D. D.)

     1055   God, grace and mercy
     6028   sin, deliverance from
     6029   sin, forgiveness
     6667   grace, in OT
     6688   mercy, demonstration of God's
     6733   repentance, nature of
     8261   generosity, God's
     8710   atheism

Isaiah 55:6-7

     2425   gospel, requirements
     5048   opportunities, and salvation
     6627   conversion, nature of
     6734   repentance, importance

Isaiah 55:6-8

     8764   forgetting God

Isaiah 55:6-9

     8604   prayer, response to God

Isaiah 55:7-9

     5036   mind, of God
     5191   thought

December 14. "Instead of the Thorn Shall Come up the Fir Tree" (Isa. Lv. 13).
"Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree" (Isa. lv. 13). Difficulties and obstacles are God's challenges to faith. When hindrances confront us in the path of duty we are to recognize them as vessels for faith to fill with the fulness and all-sufficiency of Jesus, and as we go forward, simply and fully trusting Him, we may be tested, we may have to wait and let patience have her perfect work, but we shall surely find at last the stone rolled away, and the Lord waiting to render unto us double …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The Great Proclamation
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.'--ISAIAH lv.1. The meaning of the word preach is 'proclaim like a herald'; or, what is perhaps more familiar to most of us, like a town-crier; with a loud voice, clearly and plainly delivering the message. Now, there are other notions of a sermon than that; and there is other work which ministers have to do, of an educational kind. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

God's Ways and Man's
'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. 9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.'-- ISAIAH lv. 8, 9. Scripture gives us no revelations concerning God merely in order that we may know about Him. These words are grand poetry and noble theology, but they are meant practically and in fiery earnestness. The 'for' at the beginning of each clause points us back to the previous …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Free Salvation
I. In the first place, then, I have to preach, to-night, WINE AND MILK--"Come buy wine and milk." There we have a description of the gospel--wine that maketh glad the heart of man; milk, the one thing and the only thing in the world which contains all the essentials of life. The strongest man might live on milk, for in it. there is everything which is needed for the human frame--for bone, for sinew, for nerve, for muscle, for flesh--all is there. There you have a double description. The gospel is …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

The Need and Nature of Conversion
"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."--Isaiah 55:7. SOME years ago,[3]* I preached from the last four words of this verse, laying special stress upon the abundant pardon which is given to repenting sinners through the rich mercy of our God. On this occasion, I am going to put the emphasis upon the first part of the verse, speaking more upon the necessity …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 48: 1902

A God-Given Field (1894-1900)
"Lord, there is none beside thee to help, between the mighty and him that hath no strength; help us, O Lord our God; for we rely on thee, and in thy name are come against this multitude" (2 Chron. 14:11). THE story of the opening of Changte is so connected by a chain of prayer that to give isolated instances of prayer would be to break the chain. * * * * * A few months after our arrival in China an old, experienced missionary kindly volunteered to conduct Mr. Goforth and …
Rosalind Goforth—How I Know God Answers Prayer

The Covenant of Grace
Q-20: DID GOD LEAVE ALL MANKIND TO PERISH 1N THE ESTATE OF SIN AND MISERY? A: No! He entered into a covenant of grace to deliver the elect out of that state, and to bring them into a state of grace by a Redeemer. 'I will make an everlasting covenant with you.' Isa 55:5. Man being by his fall plunged into a labyrinth of misery, and having no way left to recover himself, God was pleased to enter into a new covenant with him, and to restore him to life by a Redeemer. The great proposition I shall go …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

A New Agency Needed
"My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."[3] How true are these words! When the LORD is bringing in great blessing in the best possible way, how oftentimes our unbelieving hearts are feeling, if not saying, like Jacob of old, "All these things are against me." Or we are filled with fear, as were the disciples when the LORD, walking on the …
James Hudson Taylor—A Retrospect

My Beloved is Mine and I am His; He Feedeth among the Lilies.
O inconceivable happiness of a soul wholly and unreservedly devoted to her beloved, and to whom the Well-beloved is all! The Spouse is here so enamored of the goodness and caresses of the Bridegroom manifested for the purpose of obliging her to leave herself, that she thinks she has already arrived at the height of felicity and summit of perfection, and that her marriage is now to take place. She says that her Beloved is hers, to dispose of as pleases Him, and that she is His, for the whole extent …
Madame Guyon—Song of Songs of Solomon

The Warmly Affectionate Dutch
Sunday, 22.--I went to the new church, so called still, though four or five hundred years old. It is larger, higher, and better illuminated than most of our cathedrals. The screen that divides the church from the choir is of polished brass and shines like gold. I understood the Psalms that were sung, and the text well, and a little of the sermon which Mr. De H. delivered with great earnestness. At two I began the service at the English church, an elegant building, about the size of West Street Chapel. …
John Wesley—The Journal of John Wesley

The Passing and the Permanent
'For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.'--ISAIAH liv, 10.-- There is something of music in the very sound of these words. The stately march of the grand English translation lends itself with wonderful beauty to the melody of Isaiah's words. But the thought that lies below them, sweeping as it does through the whole creation, and parting all things …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Immanuel
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name IMMANUEL , God with us. T here is a signature of wisdom and power impressed upon the works of God, which evidently distinguishes them from the feeble imitations of men. Not only the splendour of the sun, but the glimmering light of the glow-worm proclaims His glory. The structure and growth of a blade of grass, are the effects of the same power which produced the fabric of the heavens and the earth. In His Word likewise He is …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

"And this is his Commandment," &C.
1 John iii. 23.--"And this is his commandment," &c. There are different tempers of mind among men, some more smooth and pliable, others more refractory and froward. Some may be persuaded by love, who cannot be constrained by fear. With some a request will more prevail than a command. Others again are of a harsher disposition. Love and condescension doth rather embolden them, and therefore they must be restrained with the bridle of authority. It would seem that the Lord hath some regard to this in …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Introduction, with Some General Observations from the Cohesion.
Doubtless it is always useful, yea, necessary, for the children of God to know the right way of making use of Christ, who is made all things to them which they need, even "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," 1 Cor. i. 30. But it is never more necessary for believers to be clear and distinct in this matter, than when Satan, by all means, is seeking to pervert the right ways of the Lord, and, one way or other, to lead souls away, and draw them off Christ; knowing that, if he prevail …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Conversion of all that Come.
"Turn Thou me and I shall be turned." --Jer. xxxi. 18. The elect, born again and effectually called, converts himself. To remain unconverted is impossible; but he inclines his ear, he turns his face to the blessed God, he is converted in the fullest sense of the word. In conversion the fact of cooperation on the part of the saved sinner assumes a clearly defined and perceptible character. In regeneration there was none; in the calling there was a beginning of it; in conversion proper it became a …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Boasted Merit of Works Subversive Both of the Glory of God, in Bestowing Righteousness, and of the Certainty of Salvation.
1. After a brief recapitulation, the question, Whether or not good works merit favor with God, considered. 2. First answer, fixing the meaning of the term Merit. This term improperly applied to works, but used in a good sense, as by Augustine, Chrysostom, Bernard. 3. A second answer to the question. First by a negative, then by a concession. In the rewarding of works what to be attributed to God, and what to man. Why good works please God, and are advantageous to those who do them. The ingratitude …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

The Credibility of Scripture Sufficiently Proved in So Far as Natural Reason Admits.
1. Secondary helps to establish the credibility of Scripture. I. The arrangement of the sacred volume. II. Its dignity. III. Its truth. IV. Its simplicity. V. Its efficacy. 2. The majesty conspicuous in the writings of the Prophets. 3. Special proofs from the Old Testament. I. The antiquity of the Books of Moses. 4. This antiquity contrasted with the dreams of the Egyptians. II. The majesty of the Books of Moses. 5. The miracles and prophecies of Moses. A profane objection refuted. 6. Another profane …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Memoir of John Bunyan
THE FIRST PERIOD. THIS GREAT MAN DESCENDED FROM IGNOBLE PARENTS--BORN IN POVERTY--HIS EDUCATION AND EVIL HABITS--FOLLOWS HIS FATHER'S BUSINESS AS A BRAZIER--ENLISTS FOR A SOLDIER--RETURNS FROM THE WARS AND OBTAINS AN AMIABLE, RELIGIOUS WIFE--HER DOWER. 'We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.'--2 Cor 4:7 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.'--Isaiah 55:8. 'Though ye have lien among the …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

"Come unto Me, all Ye that Labour, and are Wearied," &C.
Matth. xi. 28.--"Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are wearied," &c. It is the great misery of Christians in this life, that they have such poor, narrow, and limited spirits, that are not fit to receive the truth of the gospel in its full comprehension; from whence manifold misapprehensions in judgment, and stumbling in practice proceed. The beauty and life of things consist in their entire union with one another, and in the conjunction of all their parts. Therefore it would not be a fit way …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Water of Life;
OR, A DISCOURSE SHOWING THE RICHNESS AND GLORY OF THE GRACE AND SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL, AS SET FORTH IN SCRIPTURE BY THIS TERM, THE WATER OF LIFE. BY JOHN BUNYAN. 'And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.'--Revelation 22:17 London: Printed for Nathanael Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, 1688. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. Often, and in every age, the children of God have dared to doubt the sufficiency of divine grace; whether it was vast enough to reach their condition--to cleanse …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

"Whereby we Cry, Abba, Father. "
Rom. viii. 15.--"Whereby we cry, Abba, Father." All that know any thing of religion, must needs know and confess that there is no exercise either more suitable to him that professeth it, or more needful for him, than to give himself to the exercise of prayer. But that which is confessed by all, and as to the outward performance gone about by many, I fear is yet a mystery sealed up from us, as the true and living nature of it. There is much of it expressed here in few words, "whereby we cry, Abba, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning