Homilist Deuteronomy 9:4-5 Speak not you in your heart, after that the LORD your God has cast them out from before you, saying… Mercy, not merit, is the cause of all the blessings of our being. I. This is true of our SECULAR POSSESSIONS. If we say that our comfortable homes, our freedom from temporal anxiety, and our possession of a competency, have come to us as the result of industrious efforts and economical habits, that they are our reward for honest labour: the reply is — 1. That to such a reward we have no right. We are sinners, and justly deserve not only destitution but destruction. 2. That both the materials of labour, and the power to labour, which have brought us these comforts, are to be ascribed to God's mercy. II. This is true of OUR RELIGIOUS ADVANTAGES. Bibles, sanctuaries, religious literature. "The tender mercies of our God have visited us." III. This is true of OUR CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. IV. This is true of OUR SPIRITUAL USEFULNESS. "Not by might, nor by power," etc. V. This is true of OUR HEAVENLY INHERITANCE. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. |
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