301 But now those who are younger than I make sport of me; those whose fathers I would not have put with the dogs of my flocks. 2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me? all force is gone from them. 3 They are wasted for need of food, biting the dry earth; their only hope of life is in the waste land. 4 They are pulling off the salt leaves from the brushwood, and making a meal of roots. 5 They are sent out from among their townsmen, men are crying after them as thieves 6 They have to get a resting-place in the hollows of the valleys, in holes of the earth and rocks. 7 They make noises like asses among the brushwood; they get together under the thorns. 8 They are sons of shame, and of men without a name, who have been forced out of the land. 9 And now I have become their song, and I am a word of shame to them. 10 I am disgusting to them; they keep away from me, and put marks of shame on me. 11 For he has made loose the cord of my bow, and put me to shame; he has sent down my flag to the earth before me. 12 The lines of his men of war put themselves in order, and make high their ways of destruction against me: 13 They have made waste my roads, with a view to my destruction; his bowmen come round about me; 14 As through a wide broken place in the wall they come on, I am overturned by the shock of their attack.
15 Fears have come on me; my hope is gone like the wind, and my well-being like a cloud. 16 But now my soul is turned to water in me, days of trouble overtake me: 17 The flesh is gone from my bones, and they give me no rest; there is no end to my pains. 18 With great force he takes a grip of my clothing, pulling me by the neck of my coat. 19 Truly God has made me low, even to the earth, and I have become like dust. 20 You give no answer to my cry, and take no note of my prayer. 21 You have become cruel to me; the strength of your hand is hard on me. 22 Lifting me up, you make me go on the wings of the wind; I am broken up by the storm. 23 For I am certain that you will send me back to death, and to the meeting-place ordered for all living. 24 Has not my hand been stretched out in help to the poor? have I not been a saviour to him in his trouble? 25 Have I not been weeping for the crushed? and was not my soul sad for him who was in need? 26 For I was looking for good, and evil came; I was waiting for light, and it became dark. 27 My feelings are strongly moved, and give me no rest; days of trouble have overtaken me. 28 I go about in dark clothing, uncomforted; I get up in the public place, crying out for help. 29 I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches. 30 My skin is black and dropping off me; and my bones are burning with the heat of my disease. 31 And my music has been turned to sorrow, and the sound of my pipe into the noise of weeping.
311 I made an agreement with my eyes; how then might my eyes be looking on a virgin? 2 For what is God's reward from on high, or the heritage given by the Ruler of all from heaven? 3 Is it not trouble for the sinner, and destruction for the evil-doers? 4 Does he not see my ways, and are not my steps all numbered? 5 If I have gone in false ways, or my foot has been quick in working deceit; 6 (Let me be measured in upright scales, and let God see my righteousness:) 7 If my steps have been turned out of the way, or if my heart went after my eyes, or if the property of another is in my hands; 8 Let me put seed in the earth for another to have the fruit of it, and let my produce be uprooted.
9 If my heart went after another man's wife, or if I was waiting secretly at my neighbour's door; 10 Then let my wife give pleasure to another man and let others make use of her body. 11 For that would be a crime; it would be an act for which punishment would be measured out by the judges: 12 It would be a fire burning even to destruction, and taking away all my produce. 13 If I did wrong in the cause of my man-servant, or my woman-servant, when they went to law with me; 14 What then will I do when God comes as my judge? and what answer may I give to his questions? 15 Did not God make him as well as me? did he not give us life in our mothers' bodies?
16 If I kept back the desire of the poor; if the widow's eye was looking for help to no purpose; 17 If I kept my food for myself, and did not give some of it to the child with no father; 18 (For I was cared for by God as by a father from my earliest days; he was my guide from the body of my mother;) 19 If I saw one near to death for need of clothing, and that the poor had nothing covering him; 20 If his back did not give me a blessing, and the wool of my sheep did not make him warm; 21 If my hand had been lifted up against him who had done no wrong, when I saw that I was supported by the judges; 22 May my arm be pulled from my body, and be broken from its base. 23 For the fear of God kept me back, and because of his power I might not do such things.
24 If I made gold my hope, or if I ever said to the best gold, I have put my faith in you; 25 If I was glad because my wealth was great, and because my hand had got together a great store; 26 If, when I saw the sun shining, and the moon moving on its bright way, 27 A secret feeling of worship came into my heart, and my hand gave kisses from my mouth; 28 That would have been another sin to be rewarded with punishment by the judges; for I would have been false to God on high. 29 If I was glad at the trouble of my hater, and gave cries of joy when evil overtook him; 30 (For I did not let my mouth give way to sin, in putting a curse on his life;) 31 If the men of my tent did not say, Who has not had full measure of his meat? 32 The traveller did not take his night's rest in the street, and my doors were open to anyone on a journey;
33 If I kept my evil doings covered, and my sin in the secret of my breast, 34 For fear of the great body of people, or for fear that families might make sport of me, so that I kept quiet, and did not go out of my door; 35 If only God would give ear to me, and the Ruler of all would give me an answer! or if what he has against me had been put in writing! 36 Truly I would take up the book in my hands; it would be to me as a crown; 37 I would make clear the number of my steps, I would put it before him like a prince! The words of Job are ended. 38 If my land has made an outcry against me, or the ploughed earth has been in sorrow; 39 If I have taken its produce without payment, causing the death of its owners; 40 Then in place of grain let thorns come up, and in place of barley evil-smelling plants.
26 My brothers, children of the family of Abraham, and those among you who have the fear of God, to us the word of this salvation is sent. 27 For the men of Jerusalem and their rulers, having no knowledge of him, or of the sayings of the prophets which come to their ears every Sabbath day, gave effect to them by judging him. 28 And though no cause of death was seen in him, they made a request to Pilate that he might be put to death. 29 And when they had done all the things said in the Writings about him, they took him down from the tree, and put him in the place of the dead. 30 But God gave him back from the dead: 31 And for a number of days he was seen by those who came with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses before the people. 32 And we are giving you the good news of the undertaking made to the fathers, 33 Which God has now put into effect for our children, by sending Jesus; as it says in the second Psalm, You are my Son; this day I have given you being. 34 And about his coming back from the dead, never again to go to destruction, he has said these words, I will give you the holy and certain mercies of David. 35 Because he says in another Psalm, You will not let your Holy One see destruction. 36 Now David, having done God's work for his generation, went to sleep, and was put with his fathers, and his body came to destruction: 37 But he, who was lifted up by God, did not see destruction. 38 And so, let it be clear to you, my brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is offered to you: 39 And through him everyone who has faith is made free from all those things, from which the law of Moses was not able to make you free. 40 So take care that these words of the prophets do not come true for you; 41 See, you doubters, have wonder and come to your end; for I will do a thing in your days to which you will not give belief, even if it is made clear to you.
42 And when they went out, they made a request that these words might be said to them again on the Sabbath after. 43 Now when the meeting was ended, a number of the Jews and of the God-fearing Gentiles who had become Jews, went after Paul and Barnabas: who put before them how important it was to keep on in the grace of God. 44 And on the Sabbath after, almost all the town came together to give hearing to the word of God. 45 But when the Jews saw such a great number of people, they were full of envy and said evil words against Paul's preaching. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas without fear said, It was necessary for the word of God to be given to you first; but because you will have nothing to do with it, and have no desire for eternal life, it will now be offered to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has given us orders, saying, I have given you for a light to the Gentiles so that you may be for salvation to the ends of the earth. 48 And the Gentiles, hearing this, were glad and gave glory to the word of God: and those marked out by God for eternal life had faith. 49 And the word of the Lord went through all the country. 50 But the Jews, working up the feelings of the God-fearing women of high position and of the chief men of the town, got an attack started against Paul and Barnabas, driving them out of those parts. 51 But they, shaking off the dust of that place from their feet, came to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were full of joy and of the Holy Spirit.
(Read Acts 13:14-31)
When we come together to worship God, we must do it, not only by prayer and praise, but by the reading and hearing of the word of God. The bare reading of the Scriptures in public assemblies is not enough; they should be expounded, and the people exhorted out of them. This is helping people in doing that which is necessary to make the word profitable, to apply it to themselves. Every thing is touched upon in this sermon, which might best prevail with Jews to receive and embrace Christ as the promised Messiah. And every view, however short or faint, of the Lord's dealings with his church, reminds us of his mercy and long-suffering, and of man's ingratitude and perverseness. Paul passes from David to the Son of David, and shows that this Jesus is his promised Seed; a Saviour to do that for them, which the judges of old could not do, to save them from their sins, their worst enemies. When the apostles preached Christ as the Saviour, they were so far from concealing his death, that they always preached Christ crucified. Our complete separation from sin, is represented by our being buried with Christ. But he rose again from the dead, and saw no corruption: this was the great truth to be preached.
(Read Acts 13:32-37)
The resurrection of Christ was the great proof of his being the Son of God. It was not possible he should be held by death, because he was the Son of God, and therefore had life in himself, which he could not lay down but with a design to take it again. The sure mercies of David are that everlasting life, of which the resurrection was a sure pledge; and the blessings of redemption in Christ are a certain earnest, even in this world. David was a great blessing to the age wherein he lived. We were not born for ourselves, but there are those living around us, to whom we must study to be serviceable. Yet here is the difference; Christ was to serve all generations. May we look to Him who is declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead, that by faith in him we may walk with God, and serve our generation according to his will; and when death comes, may we fall asleep in him, with a joyful hope of a blessed resurrection.
(Read Acts 13:38-41)
Let all that hear the gospel of Christ, know these two things: 1. That through this Man, who died and rose again, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. Your sins, though many and great, may be forgiven, and they may be so without any injury to God's honour. 2. It is by Christ only that those who believe in him, and none else, are justified from all things; from all the guilt and stain of sin, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. The great concern of convinced sinners is, to be justified, to be acquitted from all their guilt, and accepted as righteous in God's sight, for if any is left charged upon the sinner, he is undone. By Jesus Christ we obtain a complete justification; for by him a complete atonement was made for sin. We are justified, not only by him as our Judge but by him as the Lord our Righteousness. What the law could not do for us, in that it was weak, the gospel of Christ does. This is the most needful blessing, bringing in every other. The threatenings are warnings; what we are told will come upon impenitent sinners, is designed to awaken us to beware lest it come upon us. It ruins many, that they despise religion. Those that will not wonder and be saved, shall wonder and perish.
(Read Acts 13:42-52)
The Jews opposed the doctrine the apostles preached; and when they could find no objection, they blasphemed Christ and his gospel. Commonly those who begin with contradicting, end with blaspheming. But when adversaries of Christ's cause are daring, its advocates should be the bolder. And while many judge themselves unworthy of eternal life, others, who appear less likely, desire to hear more of the glad tidings of salvation. This is according to what was foretold in the Old Testament. What light, what power, what a treasure does this gospel bring with it! How excellent are its truths, its precepts, its promises! Those came to Christ whom the Father drew, and to whom the Spirit made the gospel call effectual, Romans 8:30. As many as were disposed to eternal life, as many as had concern about their eternal state, and aimed to make sure of eternal life, believed in Christ, in whom God has treasured up that life, and who is the only Way to it; and it was the grace of God that wrought it in them. It is good to see honourable women devout; the less they have to do in the world, the more they should do for their own souls, and the souls of others: but it is sad, when, under colour of devotion to God, they try to show hatred to Christ. And the more we relish the comforts and encouragements we meet with in the power of godliness, and the fuller our hearts are of them, the better prepared we are to face difficulties in the profession of godliness.
