When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: “I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there shall I be also.”
~Martin Luther~
1703-1758. Reformed Preacher and Theologian in New England.
[The] resurrection of Christ is the most joyful event that ever came to pass; because hereby Christ rested from the great and difficult work of purchasing redemption, and received God’s testimony, that it was finished. The death of Christ was the greatest and most wonderful event that ever came to pass; but that has a great deal in it that is sorrowful. But by the resurrection of Christ, that sorrow is turned into joy. The Head of the church, in that great event, enters on the possession of eternal life; and the whole church is, as it were, begotten again to a lively hope, 1 Pet. 1:3. Weeping had continued for a night, but now joy cometh in the morning.
~Jonathan Edwards~
The Works of Jonathan Edwards Vol. 1: A History of the Work of Redemption (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 585-586.
Many may be met with who know God, but never glorify him as God, because they never adore him, and worship him, with the love of their hearts. They go to church or to some place of worship regularly, and sing psalms and hymns, and they may even have family-prayer at home; but their heart has never adored the living God with living love. Their worship has a name to live, but it is dead. They present to the Lord all the external harvest of worship, but the corn is gone, only the straw and the husk are there. And what is the value of your husky prayers? your prayers without a kernel, made up of the straw of words, and the chaff of formality? What is the value of professions of loyalty from a rebel? What is the worth of professed friendship to God when your heart is at enmity against him? Is it not a mockery of God to present to him a sacrifice “where not the heart is found”? When the Lord has to say—They come as my people, and they sit as my people, and they sing as my people, but their heart is far from me,—can he take any pleasure in them? May not God thus complain of many? Oh, let it not be so with you! I know that there are some here against whom that charge would lie if we preferred it—that they know God, but they do not glorify him as God, for they do not love him. The name and service of God are much on their tongues, but they do not delight in him, they do not hunger and thirst after him, they do not find prayer and praise to be their very element, but such service as they render is merely lip-service, the unwilling homage of bond-slaves, and not the delighted service of those who are the children of God. Oh, my brethren, if we accept Jehovah as the living God, let us give him the utmost love of our souls. Will you call a man brother, and then treat him like a dog? Dare you call God your God, and then act towards him as though he were not worthy of a thought? With what joy does David cry, “I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds”! This is the kind of spirit with which to deal with the Lord. Oh, to rejoice in God all the day, and to make him our exceeding joy! Thus, and thus only, do we glorify him as God. Without the fire of love no incense will ever rise from the censer of praise. If we do not delight in God we do not fitly adore God.
Charles Spurgeon
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 30 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1884), 65. Vol. 30, Sermon No. 1,763; Titled: Knowledge, Worship, Gratitude Click here for a free PDF of this sermon.
1707-1788. English leader of the Methodist movement along with brother John Wesley.
“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea” – Matthew 2:1
HAPPY the place, but happier still
The heart where Christ is born:
The heart which He vouchsafes to fill
Need neither sin nor mourn;
No city could with Bethlehem share
The honour of His birth,
But every soul by faith may bear
The Lord of heaven and earth.
~Charles Wesley~
The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, ed. G. Osborn, vol. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), 142.
The incarnation is that great work of God in which the wisdom, goodness, power, mercy, and glory of God shine forth in a most excellent manner. What wisdom, goodness, and power is manifested in bringing a sinner back to a holy God by way of the most sublime manifestation of His justice; by a Person who is both God and man; through such a way of suffering; and by leading the sinner to such a felicity in ways which pass all understanding! All this the holy angels observe, and it is an element of their felicity to perceive the perfections of God in the work of redemption revealed by the incarnation. “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph. 3:10). Mary perceived all this and said, “For He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His Name; and His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with His arm” (Luke 1:49–51).
One ought thus to meditate upon the incarnation, in order to discern clearly these and other attributes of God, approving of them with holy adoration and joyously magnifying God with the holy angels, saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).
~Wilhelmus à Brakel~
The Christian’s Reasonable Service, ed. Joel R. Beeke, trans. Bartel Elshout, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 1992), 513-514.
(4) You who yearn for Jesus, however, in order to be justified and sanctified by Him, even if it is accompanied by much darkness, fear, anxiety, and concern (John 6:40); you, in whose heart Jesus dwells by faith, so that your desires are repeatedly drawn towards Him (Eph. 3:17); you, in whom Jesus has been formed (Gal. 4:19) and in whom Jesus lives (Gal. 2:20), so that He is all your joy and desire, generating within you a hatred towards sin, a desire to walk as He walked, and perceiving within you a battle between spirit and flesh; you, who love Jesus (1 John 4:19)—you have reason to be assured that He has been born for you. Therefore you have double reason to rejoice with delightful and unspeakable joy, and to jubilate concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus in the flesh.
Fifthly, come therefore, and acknowledge Him as your Lord. “Kiss the Son” (Psa. 2:12), “For He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him” (Psa. 45:11). Surrender yourself to Him, seek to please Him, fear Him, serve Him, and hold Him before you as your only and perfect example, and thus follow in His footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21).
As one must consider the Lord Jesus as being very God—and thus interact with Him with awe, reverence, fear, confidence, and in a worshipful frame—one may and must likewise have fellowship with Him as man, as being our brother, “for … He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2:11). Such fellowship with Him the bride desired. “O that Thou wert as my brother!” (Song of Sol. 8:1). Since He has become our brother, we may and must have fellowship with Him as such, always viewing Him as being in such a relationship to us, “For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one” (Heb. 2:11). He is flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones. This yields boldness and familiarity to bring all our needs before Him who, being man Himself, understands man’s frame of mind when he suffers pain and is troubled in both soul and body. He can and does have compassion with them (Heb. 2:17; 4:15). This familiarity makes the heart tender. It gives boldness to approach unto Him and commune with Him in human fashion as speaking to a man, commending our cause to Him, and on the basis of His Godhead entrusting it to Him. This in turn will stir up the heart in sweet love towards Him.
~Wilhelmus à Brakel~
The Christian’s Reasonable Service, ed. Joel R. Beeke, trans. Bartel Elshout, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 1992), 516.
Another part of God’s fulness which he communicates, is his happiness. This happiness consists in enjoying and rejoicing in himself; and so does also the creature’s happiness. It is a participation of what is in God; and God and his glory are the objective ground of it. The happiness of the creature consists in rejoicing in God; by which also God is magnified and exalted. Joy, or the exulting of the heart in God’s glory, is one thing that belongs to praise. So that God is all in all, with respect to each part of that communication of the divine fulness which is made to the creature. What is communicated is divine, or something of God; and each communication is of that nature, that the creature to whom it is made, is thereby conformed to God, and united to him: and that in proportion as the communication is greater or less. And the communication itself is no other, in the very nature of it, than that wherein the very honour, exaltation, and praise of God consists.
~Jonathan Edwards~
The Works of Jonathan Edwards Vol. 1 (Peabody, MA; Hendrickson Publishers, Inc; 2007) p. 101. The End For Which God Created The World
First, I would bid you stand and see the place where the Lord lay with emotions of deep sorrow. O come, my beloved brother, thy Jesus once lay there. He was a murdered man, my soul, and thou the murderer.
“Ah, you, my sins, my cruel sins,
His chief tormentors were,
Each of my crimes became a nail,
And unbelief the spear.”
“Alas! and did my Saviour bleed?
And did my Sov’reign die?”
I slew him—this right hand struck the dagger to his heart. My deeds slew Christ. Alas! I slew my best beloved: I killed him who loved me with an everlasting love. Ye eyes, why do ye refuse to weep when ye see Jesus’ body mangled and torn? Oh! give vent to your sorrow, Christians, for ye have good reason to do so…
My soul was drowning. From heaven’s high portals he saw me sinking in the depths of hell. He plunged in.
“He SANK beneath his heavy woes,
To raise me to a crown;
There’s ne’er a gift his hand bestows.
But cost his heart a groan.”
Ah! we may indeed regret our sin, since it slew Jesus.
Now, Christian, change thy note a moment. “Come, see the place where the Lord lay,” with joy and gladness. He does not lie there now. Weep, when ye see the tomb of Christ, but rejoice because it is empty. Thy sin slew him, but his divinity raised him up. Thy guilt hath murdered him, but his righteousness hath restored him. Oh! he hath burst the bonds of death; he hath ungirt the cerements of the tomb, and hath come out more than conqueror, crushing death beneath his feet. Rejoice, O Christian, for he is not there—he is risen.
~Charles Spurgeon~
The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, Vol. I (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1855), 137. eBook. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 18; Titled: The Tomb of Jesus; Delivered on Sabbath Morning, April 8th, 1855.
2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. – Acts 8:2
Surely that man which denieth that we ought to rejoice over the gifts of God is more like a block than a man; therefore, we may no less lawfully sorrow when they be taken away. And lest I pass the compass of this present place, Paul doth not altogether forbid men mourning, when any of their friends are taken away by death, but he would have a difference between them and the unbelievers; because hope ought to be to them a comfort and a remedy against impatience. For the beginning of death caused us to sorrow for good causes; but because we know that we have life restored to us in Christ, we have that which is sufficient to appease our sorrow.
~John Calvin~
Calvin’s Commentaries – Acts (Spokane, WA; Olive Tree Bible Software; http://www.olivetree.com) Commentary on Acts 8:2
The Old Guys 
Matthew Henry – Reason for Great Joy
5 Feb44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. – Acts 10:44-46
The preaching of the gospel to Cornelius was a thing which we poor sinners of the Gentiles have reason to reflect upon with a great deal of joy and thankfulness; for it was the bringing of light to us who sat in darkness.
~Matthew Henry~
Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (Spokane, WA; Olive Tree Bible Software) Commentary on Acts 11
Books by Matthew Henry
Kindle Books
Other Matthew Henry Quotes at The Old Guys
Tags: Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible