Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You. Sermons
The prayer of a being who had kept his rights can be. We are able to conceive that the prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ were acceptable to God when presented on the ground of his own right to be heard. He never prayed in any other name than his own. I. MAN HAS, IN A SENSE, LOST HIS RIGHTS. It is necessary to deal with this point carefully. Things are virtually lost when they are undervalued, put aside, and unused. They remain, but are as treasures left in the lumber-room, while the house is filled with other interests. Man has rights in God, rights of prayer, by virtue of his very being and primary relations with God. And these he can never absolutely lose. They are part of him - part of his necessary being. But he may undervalue them, and put them out of consideration, so that they may be virtually lost. He has, therefore, as a practical fact, no rights to plead in prayer. He cannot plead his creation; for he has come to neglect or defy his Creator. He cannot plead his sonship; for he is not offering the obedience of a son. He cannot plead the Divine promises; for he is not meeting the conditions on which the promises depend. II. MAN HAS, IN FACT, PUT HIS WRONGS IN PLACE OF HIS RIGHTS. And man's wrong is his willfulness. The dependent being has tried to force himself into independence. The son has become a self-willed prodigal. And now, if man wants to pray, he cannot do it without carrying his wrong into the presence of God; and, whether he knows it or not, that wrong is the pica which alone God can hear. The thoughtful man feels this; it is the fact for every man. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." God would hear a man's prayers if the man had his rights. He cannot hear when a man only brings his wrongs. III. MAN MUST, IN ORDER TO PRAY ACCEPTABLY, HAVE HIS RIGHTS RESTORED TO HIM. That is, restored to active power and use. It is an important and suggestive aspect of the redemptive work of Christ, that it is the mastery of man's self-willed wrong, and the recovery, into active power, of man's natural rights. Christ is making men what God meant them to be, and what he is; and such men may base prayer on their rights. - R.T. Quicken me, O Lord. In the New Testament the word "quicken" sets forth an idea which is at the very core of religion. Dead in trespasses and sins originally, the man, as Christ makes him, is alive for evermore. Regeneration is a quickening; sanctification is the continuance and evolution of that quickening which began in the new birth. It is a remarkable thing that the same word "quicken" should occur in the Old Testament only in the Psalms, and there almost always as a prayer. The great advantage of the prayers for quickening, and the expressions about it in the Psalms is, that they show us the meaning of the idea and instruct us about it. What quickening is comes out in the result; and the result is variously expressed thus — quicken us and "we will call in Thy name," and again quicken me, and "so I shall keep the testimony of Thy mouth"; or, again, as a cure for worldliness the prayer is offered, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; quicken Thou me in Thy way." The idea in these prayers is, that the praying soul does not care as it ought for these good things, but knows and confesses that this is a great defect; and consequently asks that it may have the power to care for them. You may remember the case of Darwin, who tells that through devotion to study he lost his interest in music and poetry, going so far as to say that the power to appreciate these which he used to have had died out for want of use. He was sorry for this, and he might be supposed to wish for and even to pray for the restoration of that faculty so exquisitely delightful and so much to be desired. He might be supposed to take steps to re-awaken it. His feeling, if not his words, would be, "Quicken me in this; make me sensitive in this. Let my ear have the power to appreciate, and my heart the sensitiveness to feel the power of music and of genuine poetry. Quicken me." That is just what the prayer means in higher matters still. Each one of us has lost many faculties and powers through sin. Our heart is hardened. We cannot see the good, the beauty of some things that are really good. Nothing is more common than to see this illustrated in different ways in different men. How many have a taste for what is intellectual, artistic, natural — for works of philanthropy and charity? How many have the ear that can hear the cry of the needy, or the heart to feel for the oppressed? Are not some so unpitiful and uncharitable, and cruel that they are not aware of their heartlessness? Surely then this is the time when with deep humility and penitence the prayer should be offered for quickening; that the things to which the soul is now sensitive and rejoices should cease to delight, and that the power should be given, or should be restored, of delighting in the true, the good, the beautiful as these are approved of God, and of all right men. Surely the heart's cry should be — "Quicken me so that my soul will respond as the soul of Christ to the will of the Father, and to the deep necessities of those in sin and suffering. Quicken me that I may so prize the good that my soul shall, as the soul of Christ, pity the lost, the perishing, the sinful. Quicken me, so that my present insensitiveness, and callousness, and very blindness should disappear, and something of the gentleness, the penitence, the pitifulness, the self-sacrificingness of Christ may be awakened in my soul. Quicken me that I may be a man, not a monster — a man with a heart and a conscience; and not a mere human animal with a covetous eye, a grasping hand, and a selfish, unsympathetic nature. Quicken me that in me the image of God may be renewed, the lost likeness restored, and the family tie of sonship reconstituted. () In the winter and early spring there seems to be no life in the garden and field and forest. Everything looks dead — twice dead. But it is not so really. Under the surface roots are full of ferment, seeds are swelling, and within the bark of the trees is as much movement as m a city's noisy streets. Every fibre is tingling with vital force, and the sap is coursing along the minute channels, and all that is wanted is the breath of the south wind, the warmth of the smiling sun, and the branches will burst into buds, and the earth break out with laughing flowers. So in souls that seem dead, twice dead, the Spirit of God is often at work, and one earnest heaven-sent message calls out the buds of penitence and faith, and it is seen as a very garden of the Lord. Spiritual winter may hold a springtide of blessing and resurrection glory in its chill grasp, but He who commands both can easily transform the one into the other. People David, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Enter, Judged, Judgment, Justified, Righteous, Servant, Sight, UprightOutline 1. David prays for favor in judgment
3. He complains of his grief
5. He strengthens his faith by meditation and prayer
7. He prays for grace
9. For deliverance
10. For sanctification
12. For destruction of his enemies
Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 143:2 5816 consciousness
6023 sin, universality
6677 justification, necessity
8369 worthiness
8822 self-justification Library The Prayer of Prayers
'Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God! Thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.'--PSALM cxliii. 10. These two clauses mean substantially the same thing. The Psalmist's longings are expressed in the first of them in plain words, and in the second in a figure. 'To do God's will' is to be in 'the land of uprightness.' That phrase, in its literal application, means a stretch of level country, and hence is naturally employed as an emblem of a moral or religious condition. A life …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureThe Third Rule to be Added Is: that He who Comes into the Presence Of...
The third rule to be added is: that he who comes into the presence of God to pray must divest himself of all vainglorious thoughts, lay aside all idea of worth; in short, discard all self-confidence, humbly giving God the whole glory, lest by arrogating anything, however little, to himself, vain pride cause him to turn away his face. Of this submission, which casts down all haughtiness, we have numerous examples in the servants of God. The holier they are, the more humbly they prostrate themselves …
John Calvin—Of Prayer--A Perpetual Exercise of Faith Earnest Supplication, under Trials of Faith. --Ps. cxliii.
Earnest Supplication, under Trials of Faith.--Ps. cxliii. Hear me, O Lord! in my distress, Hear me in truth and righteousness; For, at Thy bar of judgment tried, None living can be justified. Lord! I have foes without, within, The world, the flesh, indwelling sin, Life's daily ills, temptation's power, And Satan roaring to devour. These, these, my fainting soul surround, My strength is smitten to the ground; Like those long dead, beneath their weight, Crush'd is my heart, and desolate. Yet in …
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns Tell Me, O Thou whom My Soul Loveth, Where Thou Feedest, Where Thou Reposest at Midday, Lest I Should Begin to Wander after the Flocks of Thy Companions.
O Thou whom my soul loveth! exclaims this poor affianced one, thus obliged to leave the sweet employment within, to be engaged about external matters of the lowest description; O Thou, whom I love so much the more as I find my love more thwarted; ah, show me where Thou feedest Thy flocks, and with what food Thou satisfiest the souls that are so blessed as to be under Thy care! We know that when Thou wert upon earth, Thy meat and drink was to do the will of Thy Father (John iv. 34), and now Thy meat …
Madame Guyon—Song of Songs of Solomon The Law Given, not to Retain a People for Itself, but to Keep Alive the Hope of Salvation in Christ Until his Advent.
1. The whole system of religion delivered by the hand of Moses, in many ways pointed to Christ. This exemplified in the case of sacrifices, ablutions, and an endless series of ceremonies. This proved, 1. By the declared purpose of God; 2. By the nature of the ceremonies themselves; 3. From the nature of God; 4. From the grace offered to the Jews; 5. From the consecration of the priests. 2. Proof continued. 6. From a consideration of the kingdom erected in the family of David. 7. From the end of the …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion The Tests of Love to God
LET us test ourselves impartially whether we are in the number of those that love God. For the deciding of this, as our love will be best seen by the fruits of it, I shall lay down fourteen signs, or fruits, of love to God, and it concerns us to search carefully whether any of these fruits grow in our garden. 1. The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial Of Having Confidence in God when Evil Words are Cast at Us
"My Son, stand fast and believe in Me. For what are words but words? They fly through the air, but they bruise no stone. If thou are guilty, think how thou wouldst gladly amend thyself; if thou knowest nothing against thyself, consider that thou wilt gladly bear this for God's sake. It is little enough that thou sometimes hast to bear hard words, for thou art not yet able to bear hard blows. And wherefore do such trivial matters go to thine heart, except that thou art yet carnal, and regardest …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ Concerning the Sacrament of Penance
In this third part I shall speak of the sacrament of penance. By the tracts and disputations which I have published on this subject I have given offence to very many, and have amply expressed my own opinions. I must now briefly repeat these statements, in order to unveil the tyranny which attacks us on this point as unsparingly as in the sacrament of the bread. In these two sacraments gain and lucre find a place, and therefore the avarice of the shepherds has raged to an incredible extent against …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation The Early Life of Malachy. Having Been Admitted to Holy Orders He Associates with Malchus
[Sidenote: 1095.] 1. Our Malachy, born in Ireland,[134] of a barbarous people, was brought up there, and there received his education. But from the barbarism of his birth he contracted no taint, any more than the fishes of the sea from their native salt. But how delightful to reflect, that uncultured barbarism should have produced for us so worthy[135] a fellow-citizen with the saints and member of the household of God.[136] He who brings honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock[137] …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh The Man after God's Own Heart
"A man after mine own heart, who shall fulfil all my will."--ACTS xiii. 22. A BIBLE STUDY ON THE IDEAL OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE No man can be making much of his life who has not a very definite conception of what he is living for. And if you ask, at random, a dozen men what is the end of their life, you will be surprised to find how few have formed to themselves more than the most dim idea. The question of the summum bonum has ever been the most difficult for the human mind to grasp. What shall a man …
Henry Drummond—The Ideal Life Its Meaning
Deliverance from the condemning sentence of the Divine Law is the fundamental blessing in Divine salvation: so long as we continue under the curse, we can neither be holy nor happy. But as to the precise nature of that deliverance, as to exactly what it consists of, as to the ground on which it is obtained, and as to the means whereby it is secured, much confusion now obtains. Most of the errors which have been prevalent on this subject arose from the lack of a clear view of the thing itself, and …
Arthur W. Pink—The Doctrine of Justification Of Prayer --A Perpetual Exercise of Faith. The Daily Benefits Derived from It.
1. A general summary of what is contained in the previous part of the work. A transition to the doctrine of prayer. Its connection with the subject of faith. 2. Prayer defined. Its necessity and use. 3. Objection, that prayer seems useless, because God already knows our wants. Answer, from the institution and end of prayer. Confirmation by example. Its necessity and propriety. Perpetually reminds us of our duty, and leads to meditation on divine providence. Conclusion. Prayer a most useful exercise. …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate,
CLEARLY EXPLAINED, AND LARGELY IMPROVED, FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL BELIEVERS. 1 John 2:1--"And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." By JOHN BUNYAN, Author of "The Pilgrim's Progress." London: Printed for Dorman Newman, at the King's Arms, in the Poultry, 1689. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This is one of the most interesting of Bunyan's treatises, to edit which required the Bible at my right hand, and a law dictionary on my left. It was very frequently republished; …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Question of the Contemplative Life
I. Is the Contemplative Life wholly confined to the Intellect, or does the Will enter into it? S. Thomas, On the Beatific Vision, I., xii. 7 ad 3m II. Do the Moral Virtues pertain to the Contemplative Life? S. Augustine, Of the City of God, xix. 19 III. Does the Contemplative Life comprise many Acts? S. Augustine, Of the Perfection of Human Righteousness, viii. 18 " Ep., cxxx. ad probam IV. Does the Contemplative Life consist solely in the Contemplation of God, or in the Consideration …
St. Thomas Aquinas—On Prayer and The Contemplative Life A Treatise on Good Works
I. We ought first to know that there are no good works except those which God has commanded, even as there is no sin except that which God has forbidden. Therefore whoever wishes to know and to do good works needs nothing else than to know God's commandments. Thus Christ says, Matthew xix, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." And when the young man asks Him, Matthew xix, what he shall do that he may inherit eternal life, Christ sets before him naught else but the Ten Commandments. …
Dr. Martin Luther—A Treatise on Good Works The Beginning of Justification. In what Sense Progressive.
1. Men either idolatrous, profane, hypocritical, or regenerate. 1. Idolaters void of righteousness, full of unrighteousness, and hence in the sight of God altogether wretched and undone. 2. Still a great difference in the characters of men. This difference manifested. 1. In the gifts of God. 2. In the distinction between honorable and base. 3. In the blessings of he present life. 3. All human virtue, how praiseworthy soever it may appear, is corrupted. 1. By impurity of heart. 2. By the absence of …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion Second Great Group of Parables.
(Probably in Peræa.) Subdivision G. Concerning Offenses, Faith, and Service. ^C Luke XVII. 1-10. ^c 1 And he said unto the disciples [Jesus here ceases to speak to the Pharisees, and begins a new series of sayings addressed to the disciples, which sayings are, however, pertinent to the occasion, and not wholly disconnected with what he has just been saying], It is impossible [in a world where Pharisees abound, etc.--I. Cor. xi. 19] but that occasions of stumbling should come; but woe unto him, …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Psalm 143:2 NIV
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