Works (Vol 4) - Newton - XLIX - Sermon XLIX (The chorus of angels)

Required reading
The Works (Vol 4) of John Newton (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Sermon XLIX (The chorus of angels).

My summary
This week Newton preaches on: 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.' (Rev 5:12)

Newton considers:
(i) why the lamb was slain (for the redeemed);
(ii) how he was slain (in power, wisdom, riches, strength, honour, glory, blessing.

What grabbed me
I enjoyed Newton's appeal to unbelievers: 'Let us, therefore, take up a lamentation for those who slight the glorious Redeemer, and refuse him the honour due to his name. Their mistake should excite, not our anger or scorn, but our pity and prayers. Are there any such amongst us ? Alas, my fellow-sinners, you know not what you do ! Alas, you know him not, nor do you know yourselves ! I am well aware that a thousand arguments of mine will not persuade you ; but I can simply tell you what would soon make you at least desirous of adopting our sentiments upon this subject. If he who has that power over the heart which I have been speaking of, was pleased to give you this moment a sense of the holiness and authority of God, and of your conduct towards him as his creatures, your strongest objections to the high honours we attribute to the Saviour would this moment fall to the ground ; and you would be immediately convinced, that either Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life, or that you must perish. You would no longer expect mercy, but in a way perfectly consonant with the righteousness and truth of God, declared in his word, and with the honour and purity of his moral government. This would lead you to perceive the necessity of an atonement, and the insufficiency of any atonement but that which the Lamb of God has made by the sacrifice of himself; and that the efficacy even of his mediation depends upon his divine character. The Scriptural doctrines of the depravity of man, the malignity of sin, the eternal power and Godhead of the Saviour, the necessity and efficacy of his mediation, and the inevitable, extreme, and endless misery of those who finally reject him, are so closely connected, that if the first be rightly understood, it will open the mind to the reception of the rest. But, till the first be known and felt, the importance and certainty of the others will be suspected, if not openly denied. '

The doctrines of God cannot be taken or left as we please.

Next week's reading
Read Sermon L (The universal chorus).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.