Part 145 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 146 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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[10.] Tenthly, If you are a holy person, if you are one who has that genuine holiness, without which there is no happiness, then know for your comfort—that all your duties and services are very pleasing, delightful, and acceptable to the Lord. Acts 10:4; Mal. 3:3; 2 Tim. 2:21; and this roundly follows upon the former, for whenever a man'sperson comes to be accepted of God, and to be in favor with God—then all his services and sacrifices comes to be acceptable to God; Gen. 4:5, "And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof, and the Lord had respect unto Abel--and to his offering." God had first a respect to his person in Christ, and then to his offering; and so his sacrifice was accepted for the man, and not the man for the sacrifice: Heb. 11:4, "By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead."
God will always welcome the holy man into his presence, and he shall always have his ear at command, Isaiah 45:11; God will still be a-warming his heart, and a-cheering up his spirit, and a-satisfying of his soul, in meeting of him in all holy means, and in giving gracious answers to all his requests: Isaiah 66:5, "You welcome those who cheerfully do good, who follow godly ways." Proverbs 21:8, "The guilty walk a crooked path; the innocent travel a straight road."
When God has cleansed a man's heart, and sanctified his nature, then his work, his pious work, is right; it is then right in the eye of God, and in the account of God, and in estimation of God; and therefore his petitions are as soon granted as they are offered, (Isaiah 65:24,) and his requests performed as soon as they are mentioned. Psalm 32:5, "I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin, Selah." [Selah here is a special note of observation, to work us to a serious marking of the things which are mentioned, as things which are of special weight, and of highest concernment to us.] Holy David had an inward purpose and resolution to confess his sin—but before he could do it God throws him his pardon: "you forgave the iniquity of my sin." God loves to be beforehand with his people in acts of grace and favor. God's eye and his ear was in David's heart—before David's confession could be in his tongue.
Oh the delight of God! Oh the pleasedness of God, with the duties and services of his holy ones! Psalm 4:3, "But know that the Lord has set apart him who is godly for himself: the Lord will hear, when I call upon him," that is, the Lord will approve of my prayer, he will accept of my prayer, he will delight in my prayer, and he will answer my prayer when I call unto him; and what more can the godly man desire? Psalm 61:1, "Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer." Aquinas says that some read the words thus, "Attend unto my songs"—and so the words may be safely read from the Hebrew word, which signifies to shout or shrill out for joy—to note that the prayers of the saints are like pleasant songs and delightful strains in the ears of God. No mirth, no music can be so pleasing to us—as the prayers of the saints are pleasing to God, Cant. 2:14: Psalm 141:2, "Let my prayer come before you as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." What is more sweet, what is more pleasing, and what is more perfuming than incense? why, the prayers of the saints, as they are in the hands of a mediator, are as sweet and pleasing to God—as incense that is made up of the choicest and sweetest spices are sweet and pleasing unto us, Rev. 5:8, and 8:3-4.
1 Pet. 12, "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers;" or rather, as the Greek has it, "his ears are to their prayers," that is, when their prayers are so faint and weak that they cannot reach to God, that they cannot travel as far as heaven—then God will come down to them, and lay his ears, as it were, unto their prayers! Oh, what matter of joy and comfort is this to all the holy seed, that God will graciously bow his ears to their prayers, when he turns his back with the greatest disdain and indignation upon the most costly sacrifices of the wicked!
O precious sons of Zion! who are daily lamenting and mourning over the weaknesses which cleaves to your best services—know for your comfort and joy, that though with Moses you can but stammer out a prayer, or with Hannah weep out a prayer, or with Hezekiah chatter out a prayer, or with Paul sigh and groan out a prayer—yet the Lord will own your prayers, and accept your prayers, and delight in your prayers. [God once accepted of a handful of meal for a sacrifice, and of a bit of goat's hair for an oblation. Artaxerxes, the Persian monarch, accepted with a cheerful countenance a little water, as a present from the hand of a poor laborer, etc.]
Oh, what a rare comfort is this for a Christian, to consider, that when he is under outward needs and inward distresses; that when he has sickness upon his body, and reproach upon his name, and death knocking at his door—that in all these cases, and in all other cases, he may run to God as to a father, and tell God how it is with him, and when he has done that, he may sit down satisfied and assured of audience and acceptance in heaven! O sirs! this is a privilege of more worth than a thousand worlds! Had unsanctified people as many kingdoms to give as they have hairs on their heads, they would give them all for an interest in this privilege, when guilt and wrath is upon their consciences, and when the arrows of the Almighty stick fast in them, and when the terrors of death are round about them, and when the dreadful day of their account is every moment remembered by them. Oh! if it is so great a favor to have the ears of an earthly king at our pleasure, what a transcendent favor must it be to have his ear at our pleasure—who is King of kings and Lord of lords! and yet this favor has all his saints. But,
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