OBSERVATION!

Even the best of men, the chosen generation, the people of God, need to be exhorted to keep from the worst sins. And fleshly lusts are most destructive to man’s soul. It is a sore judgment to be given up to them.

There is a day of visitation coming, wherein God may call the living dead to repentance by his word and his grace; then many will glorify God, and the holy lives of his chosen people will have promoted the happy change.

COMMENTARY!

There can be no true peace, where there is not true grace; and where grace goeth before, peace will follow.

This blessing is in the name of God, of the Holy Trinity. It is an act of adoration. The Father is first named; he is described as the Jehovah who is, and who was, and who is to come, eternal, unchangeable.

The Holy Spirit is called the Seven Spirits, the perfect Spirit of God, in whom there is a diversity of gifts and operations.

The Lord Jesus Christ was from eternity, a Witness to all the counsels of God. He is the first-born from the dead, who will, by his own power, raise up his people. He is the prince of the kings of the earth; by him, their counsels are overruled, and to him, they are accountable.

OBSERVATION!

Sin leaves a stain of guilt and pollution upon the soul. Nothing can fetch out this stain, but the blood of Christ; Christ shed his own blood to satisfy Divine justice and purchase pardon and purity for his people. Christ has made believers kings and priests to God and his Father.

As such, they overcome the world, mortify sin, govern their own spirits, resist Satan, prevail with God in prayer, and shall judge the world.

COMMENTARY!

It ill becomes any men, but especially men of God, to set their hearts upon the things of this world; men of God should be taken up with the things of God.

There must be a conflict with corruption, temptations, and the powers of darkness.

Eternal life is the crown proposed for our encouragement. We are called to lay hold thereon.

OBSERVATION!

The combat is not against human enemies, nor against our own corrupt nature only; we have to deal with an enemy who has a thousand ways of beguiling unstable souls.

The devils assault us in the things that belong to our souls and labour to deface the heavenly image in our hearts. We must resolve by God’s grace, not to yield to Satan.

COMMENTARY!

Resist him, and he will flee. If we give way, he will get ground. If we distrust either our cause, or our Leader, or our armour, we give him advantage.

Our Lord declared Peter to be blessed, as the teaching of God made him differ from his unbelieving countrymen. Christ added that he had named him Peter, in allusion to his stability or firmness in professing the truth.

The word translated “rock,” is not the same word as Peter but is of a similar meaning.

Nothing can be more wrong than to suppose that Christ meant the person of Peter was the rock. Without doubt, Christ himself is the Rock, the tried foundation of the church; and woe to him that attempts to lay any other!

CLOSING OBSERVATION!

Evil-speaking is a sign of malice and guile in the heart; and hinders our profiting by the word of God. A new life needs suitable food. Infants desire milk, and make the best endeavours for it which they are able to do; such must be a Christian’s desires after the word of God.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is very merciful to us miserable sinners; and he has a fulness of grace. But even the best of God’s servants, in this life, have only a taste of the consolations of God.

CLOSING COMMENTARY!

Christ is called a stone to teach his servants that he is their protection and security, the foundation on which they are built. He is precious in the excellence of his nature, the dignity of his office, and the glory of his services.

All true believers are a holy priesthood; sacred to God, serviceable to others, endowed with heavenly gifts and graces. But the most spiritual sacrifices of the best in prayer and praise are not acceptable, except through Jesus Christ. Christ is the chief cornerstone that unites the whole number of believers into one everlasting temple and bears the weight of the whole fabric.

Elected, or chosen, for a foundation that is everlasting. Precious beyond compare, by all that can give worth. To be built on Christ means, to believe in him; but in this many deceive themselves, they consider not what it is, nor the necessity of it, to partake of the salvation he has wrought.

Though the frame of the world was falling to pieces, that man who is built on this foundation may hear it without fear. He shall not be confounded. The believing soul makes haste to Christ, but it never finds cause to hasten from him. All true Christians are a chosen generation; they make one family, a people distinct from the world: of another spirit, principle, and practice; which they could never be, if they were not chosen in Christ to be such, and sanctified by his Spirit.

Robert a humble obedient servant to Yeshua and his Father in heaven Yahewa. And all of God’s children say Amen and Amen.