Acts 3:26

Acts 3:26

Here, in few words, is the plan proposed by our heavenly Father to make us happy, a plan well worthy to be considered.

I. God does not secure happiness to his people by making all of them rich. Instead of saying "Blessed are ye rich," he says, "Blessed are the poor."

II. Our heavenly Father does not propose to make us happy by bestowing on us the empty honours of the world.

III. God's plan for making His people happy does not consist in affording them a large share of worldly pleasure.

IV. There can be no salvation for us unless we are delivered from our sins. God only makes men happy by making them holy. The object of the coming of the Son of God in the flesh was that "He might save His people from their sins."

J. N. Norton, Old Paths,p. 159.

Note:

I. The boldness and loftiness of the claim which is here made for Jesus Christ.

II. The dawning vision of a kingdom of world-wide blessings.

III. The purely spiritual conception of what Christ's blessing is "To bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities."

A. Maclaren, A Year's Ministry,1st series, p. 245.

References: Acts 3:26. W. Hay Aitken, Around the Cross,p. 97; Homilist,2nd series, vol. iv., p. 377; C. J. Vaughan, Church of the First Days,vol. i., p. 130. Acts 3:26. Christian World Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 190; T. M. Herbert, Sketches of Sermons,p. 55.