Works (Vol 4) - Newton - I - Sermon I (The consolation)

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

My summary
Today we start Newton's collection of sermons.

Newton's first sermon is on Isaiah 40:1-2 'Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.'

Newton's sermon is basically a response to the popularity of Handel's 'Messiah'.  He says 'I apprehend, that true Christians, without the assistance of either vocal or instrumental music, may find greater pleasure in a humble contemplation, on the words of the Messiah, than they can derive from the utmost efforts of musical genius. '

Newton gives us his own overview of his sermon on the text: 'This comfortable message consists of two parts. First, the removal of evil ; her warfare is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned. Secondly, A promise of good more than eqivalent to all her affections ; she hath received at the Lord's hand double for all her sins. '

What grabbed me
I liked Newton's conclusion: 'To be capable of the comfort my text proposes, the mind must be in a suitable disposition. A free pardon is a comfort to a malefactor, but it implies guilt ; and therefore they who have no apprehension that they have broken the laws, would be rather offended than comforted, by an offer of pardon. This is one principal cause of that neglect, yea, contempt, which the Gospel of the grace of God meets with from the world. If we could suppose that a company of people who were all trembling under an apprehension of his displeasure, constrained to confess the justice of the sentence, but not as yet informed of any way to escape, were to hear this message for the first time, and to be fully assured of its truth and authority, they would receive it as life from the dead. But it is to be feared, that for want of knowing themselves, and their real state in the sight of him with whom they have to do, many persons, who have received pleasure from the music of the Messiah, have neither found, nor expected, nor desired to find, any comfort from the words. '

To find a great saviour, we need to know we are great sinners.

Next week's reading
Read Sermon II (The harbinger).

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