2. How watchful should we be against the remains of our corrupt nature !
[Whilst we are in this world, we still carry about with us "a body of sin and death," and many corrupt propensities, against which we must be ever on our guard. We are but " in part renewed." " The flesh still lusteth against the Spirit, as well as the Spirit against the flesh*." And Satan has still power to tempt us, yea, and " will sift us all as wheat," if our blessed Lord do not interpose for our help. We see in Demas, how prone the carnal heart is to relapse into the love of earthly things ; and we know very little of ourselves, if we have not learned, by our own manifold backslidings, that we are yet in danger of" turning back unto perdition11," and of " losing all the things which we have wrought*." I would say then, " Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation y:" " and take to you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to with- stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand2" ]
.n Luke xi. 21, 22. ° Isai. xlix. 9. p Luke iv. 18, 19.
i 1 John i. 7. r 2 Cor. xii. 9. » Isai. xlv. 17.
1 Gal. v. 17. u Heb. x. 38, 39. * 2 John, vcr. 8.
y Matt. xxvi. 11. z Eph. vi. 12, 13.
Isai. xliv. 22. Return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
ON occasions of public worship we generally ex- pect a set discourse from man. But on the present occasion, I wish you to place man altogether out of the question, and to listen to a few words addressed to you by Jesus Christ himself. It is he who is speak- ing in the passage before us, and who, addressing, as it were, every one of us by name, urges us by the most forcible of all considerations to return to him. True indeed the words in the first instance were deli- vered to the Jews, who, notwithstanding all that Je- hovah, the only true God, had done for them, were prone to idolatry ; and who were absurd enough to cut down a tree, and fashion it after the image of a man, and, after having roasted their food with a part of it, to worship the residue of it as a god. Yet, in- stead of denouncing his heaviest judgments against them, our Lord says, " O Jacob and Israel, thou art my servant : O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy trans- gressions, and as a cloud thy sins : return unto me ; for I have redeemed thee." Now though we are not gross idolaters as the Israelites were, we may very fitly consider the words of our text as addressed to ourselves, since every one of us has lived in spiritual idolatry, " loving and serving the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for evermore."
Let us then consider,
I. The invitation, " Return unto me."
That we have all departed from God is evident from what the Prophet Isaiah says, " All we like sheep have gone astray, every one to his own waya." Thus though, as to the particular ways which we have pursued, we may differ, one having rushed into all manner of gross sins, whilst another has walked in a
a Isai. liii. 6.