Morning Service: 9:15am
Theme: A decree of salvation
1. A people in misery
2. The wisdom of the king
3. A joyful message
Psalter 60:1-5
Esther 8:1-17 (11)
Psalter 224:1-6
Psalter 92:1-3
Psalter 422:5-6
Evening Service: 6pm
Theme: The treasure in earthen vessels
1. The treasure
2. The earthen vessels
3. The excellency of the power
Psalter 175:1-4
2 Corinthians 4:1-18 (7)
Psalter 73:1-6
Psalter 135:1-5
Psalter 347:3-4
Psalter 417:1-3
Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity. Lam. 2:14.
Now, this passage ought to be carefully noticed: Jeremiah spoke of the fallacies of the false prophets, which he said were insipid: he now expresses how they had deceived the people, even because they disclosed not their iniquities. Let us then know that there is nothing more necessary than to be warned, that being conscious of our iniquities we may repent. And this was the chief benefit to be derived from the teaching of the prophets. For the other part, the foretelling of future things would have had but little effect had not the prophets preached respecting the vengeance of God, — had they not exhorted the people to repentance, — had they not bidden them by faith to embrace the mercy of God. Then Jeremiah in a manner detects the false doctrines of those who had corrupted the prophetic doctrine, by saying that they had not disclosed iniquities. Let us then learn by this mark how to distinguish between the faithful servants of God and impostors. For the Lord by his word summons us before his tribunal, and would have our iniquities discovered, that we may loathe ourselves, and thus open an entrance for mercy. But when what is brought before us only tickles our ears and feeds our curiosity, and, at the same time, buries all our iniquities, let us then know that the refined things which vastly please men are insipid and useless. Let, then, the doctrine of repentance be approved by us, the doctrine which leads us to God’s tribunal, so that being cast down in ourselves we may flee to his mercy.
He afterwards adds, that they might turn back thy captivity; some prefer, “thy defection” — and this meaning is not unsuitable; but the Prophet, I have no doubt, refers to punishment rather than to a crime. Then the captivity of the people would have been reversed had the people in time repented; for we obviate God’s wrath by repentance: “If we judge ourselves,” says Paul, “we shall not be judged.” (1 Corinthians 11:31.) As, then, miserable men anticipate God’s judgment when they become judges of themselves, the Prophet does not without reason say that the false prophets had not disclosed their iniquities, so that they might remain quiet in their own country, and never be driven into exile. How so? for God would have been thus pacified, that is, had the people willingly turned to him, as it is said in Isaiah,
“And be converted, and I should heal them.” (Isaiah 6:10.)
Conversion, then, is said there to lead to healing; for as fire when fuel is withdrawn is extinguished, so also when we cease to sin fuel is not supplied to God’s wrath. We now, then, perceive the meaning of the Prophet; he, in short, intimates that people had been destroyed because they sought falsehoods.
John Calvin
Theme: The gospel has to go to the gentiles
1. God is guiding
2. God is persuading
3. God’s counsel happens
Psalter 175:1-4
Acts 10:1-23 (19)
Psalter 442:1-5
Psalter 270:1-4
Psalter 172:1-4
Theme: Glory unto God and not unto man
Psalter 266:1-3
Psalm 115:1-18 (1) HC LD 52 qa 128
Psalter 408:1-3
Psalter 309:1-4
Psalter 415:6-7
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction
shall drive it far from him. Prov. 22:15.
But whence the origin of this foolishness? “Look unto the rock whence we are hewn.” Look unto “Adam” our father, and unto “Eve that bare us.” (Isa. 51:1, 2.) As is the root, so are the branches. As is the fountain, so are the waters. Our nature was poisoned at the spring. Our sinful parent, having lost God’s image, could only “beget a son after his image” -a sinner begetting a sinner. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6), and could be nothing else. Now “who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” The creature therefore is produced into being with a radical enmity to God;–“by nature” therefore “a child of wrath.” (Eph. 2:3.) The entail is held from “our first father,” and can never be cut off. There is no division of this sad inheritance. Each of his children has the whole. His Maker testifies, that he is “a transgressor from the womb, that his heart is evil from his youth.” In shame he acknowledges the testimony–“Behold! I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Ps. 51:5.) If the joy of a child’s birth blot out the remembrance of its pain and sorrow, yet must not this joy be chastened in the humbling recollection of what the child brings into the world–foolishness? That self-will, that proud independence, that shakes the very foundations of society, is the birth-sin of our fallen nature. Nor does it lie only on the surface, like some childish habits, easily corrected. It is bound in the child’s heart,’ held firmly there by chains invincible to human power.’ It is incorporated into his very nature. And so various are its forms, so subtle its workings, that the wisest parent is often at a loss how to detect and treat the evil.
The prescribed remedy, however, is clear. It is vain to bid the foolishness depart. And little inclination is there in the child himself to drive it far away. The rod of correction is distinctly named, and repeatedly inculcated, as God’s own means for this important end.
And surely the thought of having been an instrument of producing nature envenomed against a God of love must constrain the parent to use the means thus divinely appointed for destroying the deadly poison.
Only let the child see, that, as with our heavenly Father, love is the ruling principle; that we follow the example of the wisest and best of parents, that we use his rod for driving men from foolishness; that, like him, we “chasten, not for our pleasure, but for our child’s profit” (Heb. 12:10); not from caprice or passion, but from tenderness to his soul. Use the Lord’s means, and we can then, what otherwise we cannot do, wait in faith for the promised blessing. Many a stirring movement of the flesh will be restrained. Man’s will will be put down, and God’s will gain the supremacy. Shame of sin will issue in abhorrence; and in this sorrow and humiliation the path of wisdom will be chosen, loved, and followed.
Charles Bridges
Morning Service: 9:15am
Theme: Preaching with the fullness of the Spirit
1. The fullness of Pentecost
2. The preaching of Peter
3. The promise of the gospel
Psalter 427:6-7
Acts 2:1-24 (21)
Psalter 163:1-3
Psalter 72:1-4
Psalter 94:1-6
Evening Service: 6pm
Theme: A word for Zerubbabel
Psalter 447
Zech. 4
Psalter 368
Psalter 210
Psalter 346
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction
shall drive it far from him. Prov. 22:15.
What parent, what instructor of children, will not bear sad, but decisive, testimony to the foolishness of the child? ‘A little innocent’ –is the miscalled name of fondness and fancy. One only of Adam’s race, and he–adored be his name! preserved by his holy conception (Luke, 1:35)–lays claim to it. Foolishness is the birthright of all besides. The early development of waywardness and passion, even before the power of speech; before the child is capable of observing and imitating those around him–is a touching, but undeniable, evidence of the innate principle. Resistance therefore cannot begin too early. Education should commence even in the cradle.
Observe–it is foolishness, not childishness. That might belong to an unfallen child. No moral guilt attaches to the recollection “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.” (1 Cor. 13:11.) A child is to be punished as Mr. Scott wisely observed–‘not for being a child, but for being a sinning child.’ Comparative ignorance, the imperfect and gradual opening of the faculties, constitute the nature, not the sinfulness of the child. The holy “child increased in wisdom.” (Luke 2:52.) But foolishness is the mighty propensity to evil–imbibing wrong principles, forming bad habits, entering into an ungodly course. It means the very root and essence of sin in a fallen nature–the folly of being revolted from a God of love. It includes all the sins of which a child is capable-lying, deceit, willfulness, perverseness, want of submission to authority–a fearful aptness for evil, and revulsion against good. It is not the sheet of pure white paper; not the innocent, or even the tractable, creature, easily guided by proper means, that we have before us; but a little heart full of sin, containing all the seeds of future evil, multiplying to a fruitful harvest.
We delight in our children’s harmless play. We would make ourselves one with them in their sportiveness. But this foolishness–visible every hour before our eyes–never let it be a subject of sport, but of deep and constant sadness. Nor let childhood plead as an excuse for this foolishness. Children’s sins may not be chargeable with the guilt of adult responsibility; yet God has awfully shewn, that they are sins against Himself. The judgment on the “little children” of Bethel is enough to make “both the ears of” thoughtless parents “to tingle.” (2 Kings 2:23, 24)
Charles Bridges
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Morning Service: 9:15am
Theme: An empty place among the apostles
1. The place of Judas
2. Scripture fulfilled
3. Prayer for guidance
Psalter 150:1-4
Acts 1:15-26 (16)
Psalter 301:1-4
Psalter 187:1-4
Psalter 422:3-4
Evening Service: 6pm
Theme: Lead us not into temptation
Psalter 159:1-4
2 Samuel 11:1-13 (2) HC LD52 qa127
Psalter 120:1-4
Psalter 141:1-4
Psalter 428:9-10