We begin a new communion series this Sunday, having finished the three Psalms, 137-139. We turn our attention to Isaiah 55 for 2014: “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” I am about 90% sure we will be singing Joseph Hart’s hymn, ‘Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Wretched,” with the tune from the old Trinity Hymnal, ‘Caersalem.’ This is a wonderful song which we might make a monthly feature as we come to the Lord’s Table. In doing a little bit of research on the author’s life (actually, rabbit-trailing), and learning of how, after much wandering, the Lord drew him to Himself under the ministry of George Whitefield, I came across this remark reflective of the two wrong paths he had trodden before finding the Way. He says:
“Pharisaic zeal and Antinomian security are the two engines of Satan, with which he grinds the church in all ages, as betwixt the upper and the nether millstone. The space between them is much narrower and harder to find than most men imagine. It is a path which the vulture’s eye hath not seen; and none can show it us but the Holy Spirit.”
May the Lord keep you from lifeless legalism and graceless license, and may the love of God and the law of the Lord both have their proper and full place in your heart and life.