8: 34. Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin -37. Ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. -42. If God were your father ye would love me. -47. He that is of God heareth God's words; ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. 9: 22. They agreed that if any man confessed that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. ACTS 7: 51. Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears: ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye: which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the JUST ONE; of whom ye have now been the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law, by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. JOB 21: 13. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? III. Degree of Hostility. 1. Resists the Strongest Inducements. ISA. 1: 4. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it: but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, a me ; we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto And I am weary to bear them. when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you, yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. How is the faithful city become an harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: and I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed. | of a strange vine unto me? For arise, if they can save thee in the 9: 13. For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, nei-thou hast made thee? Let them ther do they seek the LORD of hosts. Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. Therefore the LORD shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evil-doer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of sinoke. Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother. And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm: Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. JER. 2: 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the LORD God of hosts. For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant Be T3: 5. Will he reserve his anger forever? will he keep it to the end?, Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest. But 7: 23. But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers. AMOS 4: 6. And I also have given : LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green ; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city; one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. I have smitten you with 22: 13. Woe unto him that buildblasting and mildew when your eth his house by unrighteousness, gardens and your vineyards and and his chambers by wrong; that your fig-trees and your olive-trees useth his neighbor's service without increased, the palmerworm devourwages, and giveth him not for his ed them: yet have ye not returned work; that saith, I will build me a unto me, saith the LORD. I have wide house and large chambers, and sent among you the pestilence after cutteth him out windows; and it is the manner of Egypt: your young ceiled with cedar, and painted with men have I slain with the sword, vermilion. Shalt thou reign, beand have taken away your horses; cause thou closest thyself in cedar? and I have made the stink of your Did not thy father eat and drink, camps to come up unto your nostrils: and do judgment and justice, and yet have ye not returned unto me, then it was well with him? He saith the LORD. I have overthrown judged the cause of the poor and some of you, as God overthrew Sod- needy; then it was well with him: om and Gomorrah, and ye were as was not this to know me? saith the a firebrand plucked out of the burn- LORD. But thine eyes and thine ing: yet have ye not returned unto heart are not but for thy covetousme, saith the LORD. Therefore,ness, and for to shed innocent blood, thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and for oppression, and for violence, and because I will do this unto thee, to do it. prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. JER. 25: 4. And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers forever and ever: and go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands: and I will do you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. ¶ 17 5. Thus saith the LORD; cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the 5: 23. But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have. withholden good things from you. For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit; therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so; and what will ye do in the end thereof? LUKE 16: 31. If they hear not Moses and the prophets; neither would they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. LEV. 26:14. But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; and if ye shall de- | spise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will | not do all my commandments; but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass : and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven. 2. It resists the strongest obligation. ISA. 1: 2. Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth, for the LORD hath spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know; my people doth not consider. 5: 1. Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song to my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? and now, go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: and I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; for the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! 49: 14. But Zion said, the LORD hath forsaken me, and my LORD hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. T54: 5. For thy Maker is thy husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall be called. For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. JER. 3: 14. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion and I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. 31: 3. The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets. ROM. 5: 8. God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. JOHN 15: 13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 1 COR. 6:19. Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God, in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. 2 PET. 2: 1. For there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you.... denying the LORD that bought them, and bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ACTS 20: 28. Feed the church of God... which he hath purchased with his own blood. 3. It resists conviction. JOHN 3: 18. He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation; that light|| has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. ROM. 7:22. I delight in the law of God, after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.-12. The law is holy; and the commandment holy and just and good. - 14. For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. JOHN 15: 22. If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin: but now have they no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no other man did, they had not had sin. Ex. 8 15. But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said. 4. It is unremitting and impenitent. ISA. 22: 12. And in that day did the LORD God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we shall die. And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the LORD God of hosts. JER. 8: 5. Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle. ECCL. 8: 11. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily; therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil. ISA. 26: 10. Let favor be shown to the wicked; yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of unrighteousness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD. Ps. 58: 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, |