Interpret → Preach
For the service
John Wesley’s own Explanatory Notes Upon the Old and New Testament on the day’s readings — his verse-by-verse commentary, not a summary of it. Read the full edition ↗
first Isaiah 6:1-8
- v.1I saw — In a vision. The Lord - The Divine Majesty as he subsisteth in three persons. His train - His royal and judicial robe; for he is represented as a judge.
- v.2Stood — As ministers attending upon their Lord. Seraphim - An order of holy angels, thus called from fire and burning, which this word properly signifies; to represent either their nature, which is bright and glorious, subtile, and pure; or their property, of fervent zeal for God's service and glory. Covered - Out of profound reverence.
- v.3Cried — Singing in consort. Holy - This is repeated thrice, to intimate the Trinity of persons united in the Divine essence. Glory - Of the effects and demonstrations of his glorious holiness, as well as of his power, wisdom, and goodness.
- v.4The posts — Together with the door itself. Such violent motions were commonly tokens of God's anger. Smoak - Which elsewhere is a token of God's presence and acceptance, but here of his anger.
- v.5l am — I am a great sinner, as many other ways, so particularly by my lips. I am an unclean branch of an unclean tree; besides my own uncleanness, I have both by my omissions and commissions involved myself in the guilt of their sins. Have seen - The sight of this glorious and holy God gives me cause to fear that he is come to judgment against me.
- v.6Flew — By God's command. A coal - Both a token and an instrument of purification. The altar - Of burnt-offering.
- v.7Laid it — So as only to touch my lips, and not to burn them; which God could easily effect. Lo - This is a sign that I have pardoned and purged the uncleanness of thy lips.
- v.8Who — To deliver the following message. The change of the number, I and us, is very remarkable; and both being meant of one and the same Lord, do sufficiently intimate a plurality of persons in the Godhead.
psalm Psalm 29
- v.1Ye — Ye potentates and rulers of the earth. Glory - By an humble and thankful acknowledgment of it.
- v.2Give, &c. — The honour which he deserves: own him as the Almighty, and the only true God. Holiness - Or, in his holy and beautiful house.
- v.3The waters — Above in the clouds, which are called waters, Gen. i, 7 chap. xviii, 11. The Divine power displays itself in those high places, which are far above the reach of all earthly potentates. Many - Upon the clouds, in which there are vast treasures of water, and upon which God is said to sit or ride, chap. xviii, 10, 11; civ, 3.
- v.5Lebanon — A place famous for strong and lofty cedars.
- v.6Them — The cedars; which being broken by the thunder, the parts of them are suddenly and violently hurled hither and thither. Sirion - An high mountain beyond Jordan joining to Lebanon. Lebanon and Sirion are said to skip or leap, both here, and chap. cxiv, 4, by a poetical hyperbole.
- v.7The flames — The lightnings.
- v.8Kadesh — An eminent wilderness, vast and terrible, and well known to the Israelites, and wherein possibly they had seen, and observed some such effects of thunder.
- v.9To calve — Through the terror it causes, which hastens the birth. He names the hinds, because they bring forth their young with difficulty, Job xxxix, 1, 2. Discovereth - Hebrew. maketh bare, of its trees, which it breaks or strips of their leaves. Glory - Having shewed the terrible effects of God's power in other places, he now shews the blessed privilege of God's people, that are praising God in his temple, when the rest of the world are trembling under the tokens of his displeasure.
- v.10The flood — The most violent waters, which sometimes fall from the clouds upon the earth. These are fitly mentioned, as being many times the companions of great thunders. And this may be alleged as another reason, why God's people praised him in his temple, because as he sends terrible tempests and thunders, so he also restrains and over-rules them. Sitteth - He doth sit, and will sit as king forever, sending such tempests when it pleaseth him. He praises God for delivering him, and exhorts others to praise him, ver. 1-5. Recollects his former security, and his prayer when in trouble, ver. 6-10. And stirs himself up to thankfulness, ver. 11, 12. A Psalm and song, at the dedication of the house of David. Title of the psalm. Song - A psalm to be sung with the voice to an instrument. David - At the dedication of David's house, which was built, 2 Sam. v, 11, and doubtless was dedicated, as God had commanded.
second Romans 8:12-17
- v.12We are not debtors to the flesh — We ought not to follow it.
- v.13The deeds of the flesh — Not only evil actions, but evil desires, tempers, thoughts. If ye mortify - Kill, destroy these. Ye shall live - The life of faith more abundantly here, and hereafter the life of glory.
- v.14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God — In all the ways of righteousness. They are the sons of God - Here St. Paul enters upon the description of those blessings which he comprises, ver. 30, in the word glorified; though, indeed, he does not describe mere glory, but that which is still mingled with the cross. The sum is, through sufferings to glory.
- v.15For ye — Who are real Christians. Have not received the spirit of bondage - The Holy Ghost was not properly a spirit of bondage, even in the time of the Old Testament. Yet there was something of bondage remaining even in those who then had received the Spirit. Again - As the Jews did before. We - All and every believer. Cry - The word denotes a vehement speaking, with desire, confidence, constancy. Abba, Father - The latter word explains the former. By using both the Syriac and the Greek word, St. Paul seems to point out the joint cry both of the Jewish and gentile believers. The spirit of bondage here seems directly to mean, those operations of the Holy Spirit by which the soul, on its first conviction, feels itself in bondage to sin, to the world, to Satan, and obnoxious to the wrath of God. This, therefore, and the Spirit of adoption, are one and the same Spirit, only manifesting itself in various operations, according to the various circumstances of the persons.
- v.16The same Spirit beareth witness with our spirit — With the spirit of every true believer, by a testimony distinct from that of his own spirit, or the testimony of a good conscience. Happy they who enjoy this clear and constant.
- v.17Joint heirs — That we may know it is a great inheritance which God will give us for he hath given a great one to his Son. If we suffer with him - Willingly and cheerfully, for righteousness' sake. This is a new proposition, referring to what follows.
gospel John 3:1-17
- v.1A ruler — One of the great council.
- v.2The same came — Through desire; but by night - Through shame: We know - Even we rulers and Pharisees.
- v.3Jesus answered — That knowledge will not avail thee unless thou be born again - Otherwise thou canst not see, that is, experience and enjoy, either the inward or the glorious kingdom of God. In this solemn discourse our Lord shows, that no external profession, no ceremonial ordinances or privileges of birth, could entitle any to the blessings of the Messiah's kingdom: that an entire change of heart as well as of life was necessary for that purpose: that this could only be wrought in man by the almighty power of God: that every man born into the world was by nature in a state of sin, condemnation, and misery: that the free mercy of God had given his Son to deliver them from it, and to raise them to a blessed immortality: that all mankind, Gentiles as well as Jews, might share in these benefits, procured by his being lifted up on the cross, and to be received by faith in him: but that if they rejected him, their eternal, aggravated condemnation, would be the certain consequence. Except a man be born again - If our Lord by being born again means only reformation of life, instead of making any new discovery, he has only thrown a great deal of obscurity on what was before plain and obvious.
- v.4When he is old — As Nicodemus himself was.
- v.5Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit — Except he experience that great inward change by the Spirit, and be baptized (wherever baptism can be had) as the outward sign and means of it.
- v.6That which is born of the flesh is flesh — Mere flesh, void of the Spirit, yea, at enmity with it; And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit - Is spiritual, heavenly, divine, like its Author.
- v.7Ye must be born again — To be born again, is to be inwardly changed from all sinfulness to all holiness. It is fitly so called, because as great a change then passes on the soul as passes on the body when it is born into the world.
- v.8The wind bloweth — According to its own nature, not thy will, and thou hearest the sound thereof - Thou art sure it doth blow, but canst not explain the particular manner of its acting. So is every one that is born of the Spirit - The fact is plain, the manner of his operations inexplicable.
- v.11We speak what we know — I and all that believe in me.
- v.12Earthly things — Things done on earth; such as the new birth, and the present privileges of the children of God. Heavenly things - Such as the eternity of the Son, and the unity of the Father, Son, and Spirit.
- v.13For no one — For here you must rely on my single testimony, whereas there you have a cloud of witnesses: Hath gone up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven. Who is in heaven - Therefore he is omnipresent; else he could not be in heaven and on earth at once. This is a plain instance of what is usually termed the communication of properties between the Divine and human nature; whereby what is proper to the Divine nature is spoken concerning the human, and what is proper to the human is, as here, spoken of the Divine.
- v.14And as Moses — And even this single witness will soon be taken from you; yea, and in a most ignominious manner. Num. xxi, 8, 9.
- v.15That whosoever — He must be lifted up, that hereby he may purchase salvation for all believers: all those who look to him by faith recover spiritual health, even as all that looked at that serpent recovered bodily health.
- v.16Yea, and this was the very design of God's love in sending him into the world. Whosoever believeth on him — With that faith which worketh by love, and hold fast the beginning of his confidence steadfast to the end. God so loved the world - That is, all men under heaven; even those that despise his love, and will for that cause finally perish. Otherwise not to believe would be no sin to them. For what should they believe? Ought they to believe that Christ was given for them? Then he was given for them. He gave his only Son - Truly and seriously. And the Son of God gave himself, Gal. iv, 4, truly and seriously.
- v.17God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world — Although many accuse him of it.