A MONTHLY READING OF
INSIGHTS FROM RENOWNED CHRISTIANS
August
Day 1
GOD CAN BE KNOWN
THROUGH THE WORKING OF THE UNIVERSEJohn Calvin
"Listen to this, O Job;
stand still and consider the wondrous works of God."
Job 37:14God shows himself in the structure of the universe so clearly that men need only open their eyes to see him in his works. It is true that men cannot fully grasp his essence, for it is hidden from them. But there are clear and certain marks of his glory in what he has made. We have no excuse for not knowing him. We may turn our eyes to whatever part of creation we wish and see it glisten with something of the glory he has given it. The apostle Paul tells us that God has shown himself to men in the works of his hands, so that the invisible things of him--his eternal power and Godhead--are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.
There are so many things that show his wisdom. It is true that scientists can now search more deeply into the secrets of divine wisdom. They can use their knowledge to observe the movement of the stars and planets, sun and moon. They can measure their distance and admire their grandeur. But that does not mean that we who are not scientists have an excuse for not recognizing the maker of these things. We have eyes. We can see how many, how varied, and how orderly these heavenly bodies are. Quite clearly, God has revealed his wisdom in his wonderful works to ALL mankind.
In the same way, it takes a carefully trained doctor to fully recognize the structure, beauty, and usefulness of the human body. Yet it is admitted by all that the framework of the body proves the great skill of its maker. Truly, "God is not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27). Now, if we only need go as far as our own body to find the handiwork of God, we are inexcusable in our laziness if we refuse to seek him. In fact, this shows just how ungrateful men are. They have within themselves God's great works and immeasurable gifts, and swell with pride that they are so gifted. They should be praising the giver.
Let us admire God's wonderful works. By his power he holds up the heaven and earth. He makes the sky shake with thunder, and lights it up with lightning. He stirs up the air with storms and calms them in a moment. He gives a boundary to the roaring waves of the sea, lashes them up to fury with wild winds and again brings peace. The power of God leads us to think of his eternity. He from whom all things come must be eternal. He must have existence within himself.
We can also see God's work in human affairs. He is kind to all men, and yet he shows his working in such a way that he is plainly and constantly good to the righteous and severe to the wicked. He shows himself in punishment of crime and, just as clearly, as protector and avenger of innocence. The fact that he sometimes allows the wicked to triumph for awhile, and the innocent to suffer hardship and be oppressed by the wicked, does not hide his justice. In contrast to this thought, we should learn when he punishes one crime that he hates all crimes. And when we see that he leaves many for the present unpunished, we should learn that there is a judgment to come when they will be punished.
When we truly know God, we will look forward to the future life. When we know that God's present goodness and severity are incomplete, we must conclude that this life is only the beginning. There will be a fuller display of mercy and judgment in the world to come. When we see godly people suffer affliction from the wicked while the wicked live in comfort, we are right to think there will be another life when both good and bad will receive the treatment that is right for them.
Augustine wisely said, "If every sin were now visited with punishment, we might think that there was no judgment to come; and if no sin were immediately punished, we might think that there was no such thing as divine power and care."
In spite of the fact that God clearly displays his immortal power in his handiwork, mankind does not learn from the lesson. We do not look often on the natural things around and think of their maker. Too often we speak of events as chance instead of realizing they are God's work. The works of creation shine around us like lamps to show forth the glory of their maker. But they shine in vain. We do not take enough notice of them. Yet because they are there, we cannot say we had no way to know God. Notwithstanding, God has most graciously given us another guide, a brighter light, to bring us to the true knowledge of our creator. That light is the scriptures.
Biblical Christianity
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Day 2
CHRIST ETERNAL
J. C. Ryle
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." John 1:1-5
The five verses now before us contain a statement of matchless sublimity concerning the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. He it is, beyond all question, whom St. John means when he speaks of "the Word." No doubt there are heights and depths in that statement which are far beyond man's understanding. And yet there are plain lessons in it, which every Christian would do well to treasure up in his mind.
We learn, firstly, that our Lord Jesus Christ is eternal. St. John tells us that "in the beginning was the Word." He did not begin to exist when the heavens and the earth were made. Much less did He begin to exist when the Gospel was brought into the world. He had glory with the Father "before the world was," (John 17:5). He was existing when matter was first created and before time began. He was "before all things," (Col. 1:17). He was from all eternity.
We learn, secondly, that our Lord Jesus Christ is a Person distinct from God the Father, and yet one with Him. St. John tells us that "the Word was with God." The Father and the Word, though two persons, are joined by an ineffable union. Where God the Father was from all eternity, there also was the Word, even God the Son--their glory equal, their majesty co-eternal, and yet their Godhead one. This is a great mystery! Happy is he who can receive it as a little child, without attempting to explain it.
We learn, thirdly, that the Lord Jesus Christ is very God. St. John tells us that "the Word was God." He is not merely a created angel, or a being inferior to God the Father and invested by Him with power to redeem sinners. He is nothing less than perfect God, equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds.
We learn, fourthly, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things. St. John tells us that "by Him were all things made, and without Him was not anything made that was made." So far from being a creature of God, as some heretics have falsely asserted, He is the Being who made the worlds and all that they contain.
We learn, lastly, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of all spiritual life and light. St. John tells us that "in Him was life, and the life was the light of men." He is the eternal fountain from which alone the sons of men have ever derived life. Whatever spiritual life and light Adam and Eve possessed before the fall, was from Christ. Whatever deliverance from sin and spiritual death any child of Adam has ever enjoyed since the fall, whatever light of conscience of understanding anyone has obtained, all has flowed from Christ. The vast majority of mankind in every age have refused to know Him, have forgotten the fall and their own need of a Saviour. The light has been constantly shining "in darkness." Most have "not comprehended the light." But if any men and women out of the countless millions of mankind have ever had spiritual life and light, they have owed all to Christ.
Such is a brief summary of the leading lessons which these wonderful verses appear to contain. There is much in them, without controversy, which is above our reason; but there is nothing contrary to it. There is much that we cannot explain and must be content humbly to believe. Let us, however, never forget that there are plain practical consequences flowing from the passage, which we can never grasp too firmly or know too well.
Would we know, for one thing, the exceeding sinfulness of sin? Let us often read these first five verses of St. John's Gospel. Let us mark what kind of Being the Redeemer of mankind must needs be in order to provide eternal redemption for sinners. If no one less than the Eternal God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, could take away the sin of the world, sin must be a far more abominable thing in the sight of God than most men suppose. The right measure of sin's sinfulness is the dignity of Him who came into the world to save sinners. If Christ is so great, then sin must indeed be sinful!
Would we know the strength of a true Christian's foundation for hope? Let us often read these first five verses of St. John's Gospel. Let us mark that the Savior in whom the believer is bid to trust is nothing less than the Eternal God, One able to save to the uttermost all that come to the Father by Him. He was "with God," and "was God," is also "Emmanuel, God with us." Let us thank God that our help is laid on One that is mighty. In ourselves we are great sinners. But in Jesus Christ we have a great Savior. He is a strong foundation stone, able to bear the weight of a world's sin. He that believes on Him shall not be confounded.
Ryle's Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
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Day 3
THE SINNER'S REFUGE
Charles Spurgeon
"Then you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there." Numbers 35:11
There are two things mentioned in Scripture which I do not believe God ever approved, but which, finding they were deep-seated, he did not forbid to the Jews. One was polygamy. The practice of marrying many wives had become so established that though God abhorred the thing himself, yet he allowed and permitted it to his people, the Jews, because he foresaw they would inevitably have broken the commandment even if he had made a command that they should have but one wife. It was even so with this matter of blood vengeance. It was so deeply seated in the mind that God, instead of refusing to the Jews what they regarded as the privilege of taking vengeance, passed a commandment which rendered it almost impossible for a man to be killed unless he were really a murderer. He appointed six cities, at convenient distances, so that when one man killed another by accident, he might at once flee to one of these cities. And though he must live there all his life, yet the avenger of blood could never touch him if he were innocent. He must have a fair trial, but even if he were found innocent, even then he must stay within the city into which the avenger of blood could not by any possibility come.
You must allow me to picture a scene. You see that man in the field? He has been at work and now has taken an ox-goad in his hand to use in some part of his husbandry. Unfortunately, instead of doing what he desires to do, he strikes a companion of his and he falls down dead! You see the poor man with horror on his face. He is a guiltless man, but, oh, what misery he feels when he sees the corpse lying at his feet. A pang shoots through his heart such as you and I have never felt--horror, dread, desolation! Who can describe the horror of a man at seeing his companion fall before him? Words are incapable of expressing the anguish of his spirit. He looks upon him, takes him up, and ascertains that he is really dead.
What next? Do you not see him? In a moment he flies out of the field where he was at labor and runs along the road with all his might. He has many miles before him, six long hours of hard running, and just as he passes the gate he turns his head, and there is the man's brother! He has just come into the field and seen his brother lying dead. Oh, can you conceive how the man's heart palpitates with fear? He has a little start upon the road. He just barely sees the other, with red face, hot and fiery, rushing out of the field with the ox-goad in his hand and running after him. The way lies through the village where the man's father lives, yet how he rushes through the streets. He does not even stop to bid goodbye to his wife nor kiss his children. But on, on he flies for his very life.
The dead man's brother calls his father and his other friends, and they all rush after him. Now there is a troop on the road. The man is still flying ahead, no rest for him. Though one of his pursuers rests, the others still track him. There is a horse in the village. They take it and pursue him. If they can find any animal that can assist their swiftness, they will take it. Can you not conceive him crying, "O, that I had wings that I might fly?" See how he spurns the earth beneath his feet! He stops not even so much as to wet his mouth. The sun is scorching him, but it is still on, on, on! He casts aside one garment after another. Still he rushes on, and the pursuers are behind him. He feels like the poor stag pursued by the hounds. He knows they are eager for his blood and that if they do but once overtake him, it will be a word, a blow--dead! See how he speeds his way!
Now do you see him? A city is rising into sight. He can see the towers of the city of refuge. His weary feet almost refuse to carry him further, the veins are standing out on his brow like whipcords. The blood spurts from his nostrils, he is straining to the utmost as he rushes on, and faster he would go if he were master of more strength.
The pursuers are after him, they have almost reached him. But see and rejoice! He has just gotten to the outskirts of the city. There is the line of demarcation, and he leaps over it and falls senseless to the ground. There is joy in his heart. The pursuers come and look at him, but they dare not slay him. The knives are in their hands, and the stones too, but they dare not touch him. He is safe, he is secure. His running has been just fast enough. He has just managed to leap into the kingdom of life and avoid death.
Sinner, that picture I have given you is a picture of yourself, in all but the man's guiltlessness, for you are a guilty man. Oh, if you did but know that the avenger of blood is after you! Oh, that God would give you grace that you could have a sense of your danger tonight, then you would not stop a solitary instant without flying to Christ. You would say, "Take me away where mercy is to be found," and you would neither sleep nor slumber until you had found in Christ a refuge for your spirit. Let me pick out one of you to be a case for all the rest. There is a young man here who is guilty. He knows himself to be a great transgressor. Young man, certainly as you are guilty, the avenger of blood is after you. Oh, he is a horrid thing, that avenger--God's fiery law. Did you ever see it? It speaks words of flame. If this avenger gets hold of you, it will not be temporal death merely; it will be death eternally. If the law gets its hand on you, you are damned. Can you describe the billows of eternal wrath, the lake of fire, the bottomless pit? No, you cannot know how dreadful these things are. Surely, if you could, you would be up on your feet and off for life, eternal life. Such stolid stupidity, sottish ignorance, and worse than brutal ignorance that makes men sit down in their sins and rest content!
I may have one here who is just awakened to see his sin as if it were a murdered corpse beneath his feet. God has shown you your guilt, and he sent me tonight to tell you that there is a refuge for you. Though you are guilty, he is good. Though you have revolted and rebelled, he will have mercy on those that repent and trust in the merits of his Son. And now he has bid me say to you, "Fly, fly, fly!" In God's name I say to you, fly to Christ. He has bid me warn you tonight against delays. He has bid me remind you that death surprises men when least they expect it. He has bid me warn you that the avenger will not spare, neither will his eye pity. His sword was forged for vengeance, and vengeance it will have. And he has bid me exhort you by the terrors of the law, by the day of judgment, by the wrath to come, by the uncertainty of life and the nearness of death, this night to fly to Christ.
Remember, none but Jesus can save you. But if God shall enable you to see your danger and fly to Christ, he will have mercy upon you forever, and the avenger of blood will never find you out, no, not even when the red lightnings shall be flashing from the hand of God in the day of Judgment. That city of refuge shall shelter you, and in the heart of Jesus, triumphant, blessed, secure, you shall sing the righteousness and the blood of Christ who sheltered sinners from the wrath to come.
Spurgeon's Sermons, Vol. 3
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Day 4
ROMANS 12:1
(PART 1)Robert Smith Candlish
"I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."
Believers in Christ are consecrated to God. This is the first element in their relation to him, the second being separation from the world. They are addressed as priests, called to execute a priestly office--to "present a sacrifice." And this implies consecration to God. In one view, it is a high calling. "You are a royal priesthood," is the testimony of the Apostle Peter. "Thou has redeemed us to God by thy blood," is the new song of the saved, "and has made us unto our God kings and priests." In another view, it is a humble position. A priest is ordained to minister and serve at the altar. In this passage, it is not so much the high dignity of the priestly office as its humble ministry that is brought out. Still it is, in every view of it, a sacred position, a position of consecration to God.
Paul has been touching some of those deep, dread mysteries which shroud in impenetrable gloom the eternal throne and the eternal world, mysteries which only thicken into darker midnight the more we try to pierce them. For the sovereignty of God, in its bearing on the ultimate issues of his providence and on the final destinies of the creatures, whom he has made intelligent and free, must ever be inscrutable. Paul, accordingly, closes the great argument which he has been maintaining for the Divine prerogative with a solemn ejaculation implying utter impotency and prostration: "0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" To silence, however, where he cannot satisfy, he appeals abruptly to any who would still raise questions. By what right, he asks, do you presume to judge or to interrogate the Supreme? Have you been in his confidence from the first? Or must he advise with you? Or have you any such claim on him as to lay him under an obligation to give you satisfaction? "For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been his counselor? or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?" Are you the Lord's confidants? Are you the Lord's counselors? Are you the Lord's creditors? If not, how are you entitled to pry into those "secret things" which "belong to the Lord your God?" "The things which are revealed belong to you and to your children." But as to the secret things which belong to him, he is not in any way bound to you. Nor with reference to them can you demand that he reveal more of his plans to you than he sees fit. "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen."
Your becoming attitude is to be that of the Psalmist: "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and forever" (Psalm 131). We are then in our right place when, instead of aspiring to master as critics the whole mind and will of God, we thankfully consent to learn as children what it is his pleasure to teach. He is not dependent on us. He is not indebted to us. The dependence and the debt of obligation are all on our side. We are not competent to dictate or give lessons to him. We are children and scholars under his training, and the training is for service. We are to be, not advisers or judges, but ministers, servants, priests. "I beseech you, therefore, brethren," that instead of aspiring to be the confidants, counselors, or creditors of the Lord, to assume the office and discharge the functions of the priesthood. For the priesthood is to be considered as a ministry and service. It was to Him with whom we are associated in its exercise. "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." So he came to do the business of his priesthood. So we are summoned to do the business of our priesthood. The business of his priesthood was to "give his life a ransom for many." The business of our priesthood is to "present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service."
From this general account of what consecrated Christians have to do in the character of priests, the following particulars may be drawn out in detail:
1. There is to be a sacrifice: "I beseech you, brethren, that you present a sacrifice."
2. It must be a sacrifice that fulfills two conditions: it must be such as may righteously find acceptance in the sight of God--be "acceptable to God"--and such as may reasonably be required and expected at the hands of man--"a reasonable service."
3. If it is to fulfill these two conditions, the sacrifice must possess the two qualities of life and holiness, for such a sacrifice alone can be acceptable to God, and such a sacrifice alone can be your reasonable service.
4. The substance or matter of the sacrifice is indicated: it is to consist of "your bodies," your persons, yourselves.
5. The motive which prompts this sacrifice is also indicated: "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God."
Under these headings the sacrifice which we as Christians, bearing the character of priests, have to present to God may be considered, and the connection and correspondence as well as the difference between it and the sacrifice of Christ may be traced. The connection and correspondence will be found, if we rightly apprehend the Spirit's teaching, to be very close.
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Day 5
ROMANS 12:1
(PART 2)Robert Smith Candlish
THE SACRIFICE: ITS NATURE "I beseech you that you present a sacrifice." There is to be a sacrifice. Priests are not to approach God empty handed. "Bring an offering and come into his courts," so runs their summons. This law applies to the High Priest as well as to ordinary priests. It applies preeminently to the High Priest. "For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer" (Heb. 8:3). Christians who are priests, and Christ who alone is the High Priest, have this in common: they as well as he have to present a sacrifice. But there is a wide and essential distinction. Any sacrifice which we as priests can present must be of an entirely different nature from what Christ, the High Priest, presents. His sacrifice is, in the strict and proper sense of the term, a sacrifice of atonement. His sacrifice alone can be so. Our sacrifice is a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise. This is a distinction recognized in the Levitical economy. In that economy, there were atoning sacrifices designed to be effectual for the expiation of guilt and the reconciliation of offenders to God. Of this kind, in particular, were the sacrifices appointed for the great annual day of atonement, when the high priest entered within the veil with the blood of bulls and of goats, "which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people."
The sacrifice of Christ is represented in the New Testament as exactly of the same character with these sacrifices, only infinitely more efficacious. Thus the Apostle writing to the Hebrews reasons: "For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (9:13,14). In the offering of a sacrifice of this kind, Christ our High Priest stands alone. Into his ministry of atonement--his propitiatory work--we may not, as priests, intrude.
But there were sacrifices of another kind under the law: sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving offered in acknowledgment of the sovereignty and bounty of God, and as pledges of dependence and gratitude. These sacrifices had nothing to do with the canceling of guilt and the restoration of the guilty party to favor. They did not make peace. They proceeded on the faith of peace being otherwise made by a previous sacrifice of atonement.
And this now is our ministry as priests. This is all our ministry. The ministry of atonement is not ours, either for others or for ourselves; that ministry Christ alone exercises. All the more may the ministry of thank offering be ours. For our pardon and peace, our acceptance and justification, we have nothing to offer, we have nothing to give. The Apostle calls for no sacrifice at our hands for the purpose of cleansing us from sin and restoring us to favor. So far as that matter is concerned, he uniformly points our view exclusively to the one and only sacrifice of the one and only High Priest: "We are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5: 20,21).
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Day 6
ROMANS 12:1
(PART 3)Robert Smith Candlish
THE SACRIFICE: ITS CONDITIONS If there is to be a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise, proceeding upon the faith of a sacrifice of atonement having been offered and accepted, let it be a suitable sacrifice. Let it be a sacrifice that fulfills these two indispensable conditions: As regards him to whom it is presented, "acceptable to God." As regards you who present it, "your reasonable service."
It may with equal justice be said that the sacrifice of atonement which our great High Priest has to present must fulfill these two conditions. To that sacrifice also--to that sacrifice primarily--they apply as conditions. When a ransom was to be found for sinful man, it was necessary, on the one hand, that it should be such a ransom as might be worthy of God to accept; on the other hand, it should be such a ransom that might reasonably be expected to be offered on behalf of reasonable creatures. The character and nature of the offended party (God, the holy lawgiver and righteous judge), the character and nature of the offending party (man, a free and intelligent being made in the image of God), and the relation between the parties (implying just condemnation on the one side and guilty enmity on the other), all must be taken into account. The sacrifice must bear some adequate proportion or suitable relation to the majesty of violated law and the unforced responsibility of its violators. It must have in it worth and value enough to meet the case of God's sovereign authority having been outraged, and it must also meet the case of man's conscience having become burdened and defiled. It must be sufficient to satisfy Divine justice; sufficient also to assuage the anguish of genuine remorse and shame.
Tried by this test, it is easy to see how the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin. The substitution of a senseless, unconsenting animal as a victim or ransom in the room and stead of a race which has intelligently and willfully sinned is felt to be an utterly inadequate atonement. There is no propriety or suitableness in the idea of the death of such a substitute being accepted as an equivalent for the execution of the sentence upon the guilty. The law cannot in that way be vindicated. The Lawgiver cannot, on that ground, be warranted in treating offenders as if they had never sinned, or as if they had themselves suffered the penalty and come out pure and upright. Nor can such a vicarious endurance of my punishment by a bull or goat satisfy my own conviction of right and my own consciousness of wrong. Whatever may come of my controversy with my Maker, I instinctively feel that these animal sacrifices cannot avail for its settlement, and neither can any formal observances that I may be inclined to put in their place.
"God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." He is weary and impatient of all other worship. "My son, give me thy heart," is his demand. He redeems us to himself by the blood of Christ and renews us by the power of the Holy Ghost, that we may be in a condition, and may be made willing, to give him our heart. Through that one sacrifice of propitiation presented by the High Priest on our behalf, there is peace, friendship, and reconciliation. All our guilt is expiated; all our sin is purged. We are no longer treated as guilty criminals under a respite. We are accepted as righteous in the sight of God; we are adopted as children in his Son; we receive "the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father."
Knowing God who is a spirit, and knowing ourselves as spiritual men, may we not decide and determine for ourselves what sort of sacrifice is suitable and appropriate, what is worthy of God, what is worthy of ourselves, what sort of sacrifice may God be expected to accept, what sort of sacrifice may be regarded as our "reasonable service?" Tried by such a test, how miserably will many a sacrifice and service that we are apt to present to God fail and be found wanting! Form, ceremony, routine, heartless prayers (however long), ostentatious alms (however large), bodily exercise (whether in the way of easy compliance with outward rites or in the way of painful inward self-mortification), enforced obedience, reluctant abstinence from pleasure, and the cold and cheerless performance of duty can we bring to this criterion. Is it such a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that a reconciled God and Father should, in fairness, be asked to accept? Is it such a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that we, his reconciled children, may be reasonably asked to offer? Is it such a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that should signalize and seal so thorough a repairing of the breach caused by sin between our God and us? If the universal moral instinct of all men feels that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin, surely the universal spiritual instinct of all those whose sins are taken away by the blood of a better ransom is that formal worship (or obedience rendered in the spirit of bondage) is not the sacrifice which a redeeming God can worthily accept. It is not a "reasonable service" on the part of the people whom he redeems.
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Day 7
ROMANS 12:1
(PART 4)Robert Smith Candlish
THE SACRIFICE: ITS QUALITIES The sacrifice which Christians present as priests must possess two qualities which formal worship, or obedience rendered in the spirit of bondage, is sure to lack. It must possess the qualities of life and holiness. Without these qualities it cannot fulfill the two indispensable conditions of being an acceptable offering to God or, on our part, a reasonable service. The sacrifice must be living and holy: "I beseech you that you present a living sacrifice, holy."
It was necessary that the sacrifice of atonement which our High Priest was ordained to present should possess these two qualities. It must have in it life and holiness. And what life? Not merely animal life, the life that is common to all sentient and moving creatures. Not merely, in addition to that, intelligent life, the life that characterizes all beings capable of thought and voluntary choice. But spiritual life; life in the highest sense. The very life which was lost when those fell (on whose behalf the sacrifice of atonement is presented) into that state which makes a sacrifice of atonement necessary. If a ransom is to be found--an adequate and suitable substitute for those who have become dead under God's sentence of righteous condemnation--it must be a ransom having the life which they once had, exempt and free from the death which they have incurred. A living sacrifice of atonement alone can suffice, a sacrifice of atonement having the quality of that life which consists in a right standing with God, in complete exemption from his condemnation. The sacrifice must be holy also. As it must have life forfeited by no guilt, liable to no sentence of death, so it must have holiness tainted by no corruption. "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world," is a welcome call to sinners.
The sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving which we as priests are to be always presenting must be "a living sacrifice, holy." It must partake of the character of the sacrifice of atonement. It is by faith in the sacrifice of atonement that we present the sacrifice of praise. This last sacrifice is the fruit of the first, and indeed, in some sense, a continuation of it. We cannot, in such circumstances, think of presenting any sacrifice of praise that is not in keeping and in harmony with the High Priest's sacrifice of atonement. We cannot ask God to accept, nor offer as our reasonable service, any tribute of gratitude, any sacrifice of thanksgiving that does not possess the qualities which impart worth and efficacy to the High Priest's great propitiation. Ours, like his, must be a sacrifice, living and holy.
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Day 8
ROMANS 12:1
(CONCLUSION)Robert Smith Candlish
THE SACRIFICE: ITS MATTER The next inquiry relates to the substance or matter of the sacrifice. What shall it be? Our bodies. "I beseech you...that ye present your bodies." The same phraseology is used when it is the High Priest's sacrifice of atonement that is in question. "We are sanctified," it is said, we are cleansed from the guilt of sin, "through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb. 10:10). It is the entire person of Christ that is there meant. He offered himself; that was his sacrifice of atonement. The offering of ourselves is our sacrifice of thanksgiving.
But how can there be any parallel or analogy here? How can there be any correspondence in respect of life and holiness between Christ's person, offered as a sacrifice of atonement, and mine, offered as a sacrifice of praise? That Christ the High Priest may offer his body as a sacrifice of atonement, living and holy, I can understand.
Now, our sacrifice of praise must partake of the qualities of his sacrifice of atonement. It must be living and holy. But how may that be if it is our bodies, our persons, ourselves, that we are to present as the sacrifice? I am asked to present a thank offering and sacrifice of praise. It is a just demand, a gracious invitation. But the sacrifice, I am told, must be living and holy. Certainly, I answer, it is most right and fitting that it should be so. But I am further told that it must be myself, myself bodily, my very self. Are life and holiness in me that I should furnish in my own person the material of this sacrifice? I am lost and dead in sin. I am carnal, sold under sin. In me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing.
But it must be. It is yourself that God will have as a thank offering. He will accept no other thank offering at your hands. Do not say that there is no life in you. Is not Christ in you?
Believers in Christ, called to be priests, present yourselves a sacrifice as the great High Priest presents himself a sacrifice. Let your ministry and his be one. Are not you and he now intimately, inseparably one? When you present yourselves a sacrifice, are you not presenting him, even as when he presents himself a sacrifice he is presenting you? He presents himself as crucified for you; he presents you as crucified with him. You now present yourselves, yet not yourselves; it is Christ in you that you present. The Spirit, making you one with Christ by faith, makes you partakers of Christ's life. And when through the Spirit you present yourselves a sacrifice, he takes of what is Christ's in you and shows it to God. May not this be an acceptable thank offering? Redeemed and regenerated saints of God, is not this your reasonable service? Let your presentation of yourselves as a sacrifice of thanksgiving be always going on in the sanctuary here below, the deep and sacred shrine of a believing heart. In the sacrifice of thankfulness, it is Christ living in you, and you become partakers of his holiness.
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Day 9
THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION
Arthur W. Pink
"Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. You will say to me then, Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will? But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God?" (Romans 9:28,19)
Election is a foundational doctrine. In the past, many of the ablest teachers were accustomed to commence their systematic theology with a presentation of the attributes of God, and then a contemplation of His eternal decrees; and it is our studied conviction, after perusing the writings of many of our moderns, that the method followed by their predecessors cannot be improved upon. God existed before man, and His eternal purpose long antedated His works in time. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18). The divine councils went before creation. As a builder draws his plans before he begins to build, so the great Architect predestinated everything before a single creature was called into existence. Nor has God kept this a secret locked in His own bosom. It has pleased Him to make known in His Word the everlasting counsels of His grace, His design in the same, and the grand end He has in view.
When a building is in course of construction, onlookers are often at a loss to perceive the reason for many of the details. As yet, they discern no order or design; everything appears to be in confusion. But if they could carefully scan the builder’s "plan" and visualize the finished production, much that had puzzled them would become clear. It is the same with the outworking of God’s eternal purpose. Unless we are acquainted with His eternal decrees, history remains an insoluble enigma. God is not working at random; the gospel has been sent forth on no uncertain mission; the final outcome in the conflict between good and evil has not been left indeterminate; how many are to be saved or lost depends not on the will of the creature. Everything was infallibly determined and immutably fixed by God from the beginning, and all that happens in time is but the accomplishment of what was ordained in eternity.
The grand truth of election, then, takes us back to the beginning of all things. It antedated the entrance of sin into the universe, the fall of man, the advent of Christ, and the proclamation of the gospel. A right understanding of it, especially in its relation to the everlasting covenant, is absolutely essential if we are to be preserved from fundamental error. If the foundation itself be faulty, then the building erected on it cannot be sound; and if we err in our conceptions of this basic truth, then just in proportion as we do so will our grasp of all other truth be inaccurate. God’s dealings with Jew and Gentile, His object in sending His Son into this world, His design by the gospel, yea, the whole of His providential dealings, cannot be seen in their proper perspective till they are viewed in the light of His eternal election.
It is a difficult doctrine, and this in three respects, the first being in the understanding of it. Unless we are privileged to sit under the ministry of some Spirit-taught servant of God who presents the truth to us systematically, then great pains and diligence are called for in the searching of the Scriptures, so that we may collect and tabulate their scattered statements on this subject. It has not pleased the Holy Spirit to give us one complete and orderly setting forth of the doctrine of election, but instead "here a little, there a little"--in typical history, in psalm and prophecy, in the great prayer of Christ (John 17), in the epistles of the apostles. Second, it is a difficult doctrine in the acceptation of it. This presents a much greater difficulty, for when the mind perceives what the Scriptures reveal thereon, the heart is loath to receive such a humbling and flesh-withering truth. How earnestly we need to pray for God to subdue our enmity against Him and our prejudice against His truth. Third, it is difficult in the proclamation of it. No novice is competent to present this subject in its scriptural perspective and proportions.
But notwithstanding, these difficulties should not discourage us, still less deter us, from an honest and serious effort to understand and heartily receive all that God has been pleased to reveal thereon. Difficulties are designed to humble us, to exercise us, to make us feel our need of wisdom from on high. It is not easy to arrive at a clear and adequate grasp of any of the great doctrines of Holy Writ, and God never intended it should be so. Truth has to be "bought" (Prov. 23:23). Alas, that so few are willing to pay the price, namely, devotion to the prayerful study of the Word. These difficulties are not insurmountable, for the Spirit has been given to God’s people to guide them into all truth. Equally so for the minister of the Word. A humble waiting upon God, coupled with a diligent effort to be a workman that needs not to be ashamed, will in due time fit him to expound this truth to the glory of God and the blessing of his hearers.
It is an important doctrine, as is evident from various considerations. Perhaps we can express most impressively the momentousness of this truth by pointing out that, apart from eternal election, there had never been any Jesus Christ and, therefore, no divine gospel. For if God had never chosen a people unto salvation, He had never sent His Son; and if He had sent no Saviour, none had ever been saved. Thus, the gospel itself originated in this vital matter of election. "But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation" (2 Thess. 2:13). And why are we "bound to give thanks?" Because election is the root of all blessings, the spring of every mercy that the soul receives. If election be taken away, everything is taken away. For those who have any spiritual blessing are they who have all spiritual blessings, "according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:3, 4).
It was well said by Calvin, "We shall never be clearly convinced, as we ought to be, that our salvation flows from the fountain of God’s free mercy until we are acquainted with His eternal election, which illustrates the grace of God by this comparison: that He adopts not all promiscuously to the hope of salvation, but He gives to some what He refuses to others. Ignorance of this principle detracts from the divine glory and diminishes real humility. If, then, we need to be recalled to the origin of election to prove that we obtain salvation from no other source than the mere good pleasure of God, then they who desire to extinguish this principle do all they can to obscure what ought to be magnificently and loudly celebrated."
It is a blessed doctrine, for election is the spring of all blessings. This is made unmistakably clear by Ephesians 1:3,4. First, the Holy Spirit declares that the saints have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. Then He proceeds to show why and how they were so blessed: it is according as God has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Election in Christ, therefore, precedes being blessed with all spiritual blessings, for we are blessed with them only as being in Him, and we are only in Him as chosen in Him. We see, then, what a grand and glorious truth this is, for all our hopes and prospects belong to it. Election, though distinct and personal, is not, as is sometimes carelessly stated, a mere abstract choice of persons unto eternal salvation irrespective of union with their Covenant-Head, but a choice of them in Christ. It therefore implies every other blessing, and all other blessings are given only through it and in accordance with it.
Rightly understood, there is nothing so calculated to impart comfort and courage, strength and security, as a heart-apprehension of this truth. To be assured that I am one of the high favorites of Heaven imparts the confidence that God most certainly will supply my every need and make all things work together for my good. The knowledge that God has predestinated me unto eternal glory supplies an absolute guarantee that no efforts of Satan can possibly bring about my destruction, for if the great God be for me, who can be against me! It brings great peace to the preacher, for he now discovers that God has not sent him forth to draw a bow at random, but that His Word shall accomplish that which He pleases and shall prosper whereto He sends it (Isa. 55:11). And what encouragement it should afford the awakened sinner. As he learns that election is solely a matter of divine grace, hope is kindled in his heart. As he discovers that election singled out some of the vilest of the vile to be the monuments of divine mercy, why then should he despair?
It is a distasteful doctrine. One would naturally think that a truth so God-honoring, Christ-exalting, and so blessed, would have been cordially espoused by all professing Christians who had it clearly presented to them. In view of the fact that the terms "predestinated," "elect," and "chosen," occur so frequently in the Word, one would surely conclude that all who claim to accept the Scriptures as divinely inspired would receive with implicit faith this grand truth, referring the act itself--as becomes sinful and ignorant creatures so to do--unto the sovereign good pleasure of God. But such is far, very far from being the actual case. No doctrine is so detested by proud human nature as this one, a doctrine which makes nothing of the creature and everything of the Creator. Yea, at no other point is the enmity of the carnal mind so blatantly and hotly evident.
We commenced our addresses in Australia by saying, "I am going to speak tonight on one of the most hated doctrines of the Bible, namely, that of God’s sovereign election." Since then we have encircled this globe, and have come into more or less close contact with thousands of people belonging to many denominations, and thousands more of professing Christians attached to none, and today the only change we would make in that statement is, that while the truth of eternal punishment is the one most objectionable to non-professors, that of God’s sovereign election is the truth most loathed and reviled by the majority of those claiming to be believers. Let it be plainly announced to them that salvation originated not in the will of man but in the will of God (see John 1:13; Rom. 9:16), that were it not so none would or could be saved--for as the result of the fall man has lost all desire and will unto that which is good (John 5:40; Rom. 3:11)--, and that even the elect themselves have to be made willing (Ps. 110:3), and loud will be the cries of indignation raised against such teaching.
It is at this point the issue is drawn. Merit-mongers will not allow the supremacy of the divine will and the impotency unto good of the human will. Consequently, they who are the most bitter in denouncing election by the sovereign pleasure of God are the warmest in crying up the freewill of fallen man. In the decrees of the council of Trent--wherein the Papacy definitely defined her position on the leading points raised by the Reformers and which Rome has never rescinded--occurs the following: "If any one should affirm that since the fall of Adam man’s free will is lost, let him be accursed." It was for their faithful adherence to the truth of election, with all that it involves, that Bradford and hundreds of others were burned at the stake by the agents of the pope.
But whatever aversion men may now have to this blessed truth, they will be compelled to hear it in the last day, hear it as the voice of final, unalterable, and eternal decision. When death and hades, the sea and dry land, shall give up the dead, then shall the Book of Life--the register in which was recorded from before the foundation of the world the whole election of grace--be opened in the presence of angels and demons, in the presence of the saved and of the lost, and that voice shall sound to the highest arches of Heaven, to the lowest depths of hell, to the uttermost bound of the universe: "And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:15). Thus, this truth which is hated by the non-elect above all others is the one that shall ring in the ears of the lost as they enter their eternal doom! Ah, my reader, the reason why people do not receive and duly prize the truth of election is because they do not feel their due need of it.
It is a separating doctrine. The preaching of the sovereignty of God, as exercised by Him in foreordaining the eternal destiny of each of His creatures, serves as an effectual flail to divide the chaff from the wheat. "He that is of God hears God’s words" (John 8:47), yes, no matter how contrary they may be to his ideas. It is one of the marks of the regenerate that they set to their seal that God is true. Nor do they pick and choose, as will religious hypocrites. Once they perceive a truth is clearly taught in the Word, even though it be utterly opposed to their own reason and inclinations, they humbly bow to it and implicitly receive it, and would do so though not another person in the whole world believed it. But it is far otherwise with the unregenerate. As the apostle declares, "They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God: he that knows God hears us; he that is not of God hears not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error" (1 John 4:5, 6).
We know of nothing so devisive between the sheep and the goats as a faithful exposition of this doctrine. If a servant of God accepts some new charge, and he wishes to ascertain which of his people desire the pure milk of the Word and which prefer the Devil’s substitutes, let him deliver a series of sermons on this subject, and it will quickly be the means of "taking forth the precious from the vile" (Jer. 15:19). It was thus in the experience of the Divine Preacher. When Christ announced "no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father," we are told, "from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him" (John 6:65, 66). True it is that by no means all who intellectually receive "Calvinism" as a philosophy or theology give evidence (in their daily lives) of regeneration. Yet equally true is it that those who continue to cavil [raise irritating and trivial objections] against, and steadfastly refuse, any part of the truth are not entitled to be regarded as Christians.
It is a neglected doctrine. Though occupying so prominent a place in the Word of God, it is today but little preached and still less understood. Of course, it is not to be expected that the "higher critics" and their blinded dupes should preach that which makes nothing of man; but even among those who wish to be looked up to as "orthodox" and "evangelical," there are scarcely any who give this grand truth a real place in either their pulpit ministrations or their writings. In some cases, this is due to ignorance: not having been taught it in the seminary, and certainly not in the "Bible Institutes," they have never perceived its great importance and value. But in too many cases, it is a desire to be popular with their hearers which muzzles their mouths. Nevertheless, neither ignorance, prejudice, nor enmity can do away with the doctrine itself or lessen its vital momentousness.
In bringing to a close these introductory remarks, let it be pointed out that this blessed doctrine needs to be handled reverently. It is not a subject to be reasoned about and speculated upon, but approached in a spirit of holy awe and devotion. It is to be handled soberly. "When thou art in disputation, engaged upon a just quarrel to vindicate the truth of God from heresy and distortion, look into thy heart, set a watch on thy lips, beware of wild fire in thy zeal" (E. Reynolds, 1648). Nevertheless, this truth is to be dealt with uncompromisingly and plainly, irrespective of the fear or favor of man, confidently leaving all "results" in the hand of God. May it be graciously granted us to write in a manner pleasing to God, and you to receive whatever is from Himself.
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Day 10
THE FOLLY OF THE COVETOUS MAN
WILLIAM LAW
Real happiness is only to be had from the greatest degrees of piety, the greatest denials of our passions, and the strictest rules of religion. This truth will appear from a consideration of human misery. If we look into the world and view the anxiety and troubles of human life, we shall find that they are all owing to our own violent and irreligious passions. Now all trouble and uneasiness is founded in the desire of worldly things. Would we know the true cause of our troubles and anxiety, we must find out the cause of our desire, because that which creates and increases our desire does in the same degree create and increase our trouble and uneasiness.
God Almighty has sent us into the world with very few needs. Meat and drink and clothing are the only things necessary in life, and as these are only our present needs, so the present world is well furnished to supply them. If a man had half the world in his power, he can make no more of it than this. As he needs it only to support an animal life, so is it unable to do anything else for him or to afford him any other happiness. This is the state of man--born with few needs and into a large world very capable of supplying them. One would reasonably suppose that men should pass their lives in contentment and thankfulness to God, at least that they should be free from violent anxieties and vexations, as being placed in a world that has more than enough to relieve all their needs.
But if to all this we add that this short life, thus furnished with all that we need in it, is only a short passage to eternal glory (where we shall be clothed with the brightness of angels and enter into the joys of God), we might still more reasonably expect that human life should be a state of peace and joy and delight in God. It would certainly be so if reason had its full power over us. But, alas, though God, nature, and reason make human life thus free from needs and so full of happiness, yet our passions create a new world of evils and fill human life with imaginary needs. The man of pride has a thousand desires which only his own pride has created, and these render him as full of trouble as if God had created him with a thousand appetites without creating anything that was proper to satisfy them. Envy and ambition have also their endless desires which grieve the souls of men, and by their contradictory motions render them foolishly miserable. Let any complaining, grievous man tell you the ground of his anxiety, and you will plainly see that he is the author of his own torment; that he is vexing himself at some imaginary evil which will cease to torment him as soon as he is content to be who God and nature and reason require him to be.
If you should see a man passing his days in anxiety because he could not walk upon the water or catch birds as they fly by, you would readily confess that he had only himself to thank for such vexation. But now, if you look into all the most tormenting anxieties of life, you will find them all just as absurd. People are only tormented by their own folly, and they vex themselves at things which no more concern them than walking upon the water or catching birds. Can you conceive of anything more silly and extravagant than a man racking his brains and studying night and day how to fly? Wandering from his own house and home, wearying himself with climbing upon every hill, cringing and courting everybody he meets to lift him up from the ground, bruising himself with continual falls and at last breaking his own neck? Would you not readily own that such a one was disturbed only by his own folly? Wherever you see an ambitious man, there you see this vain and senseless flier.
Again, consider a man who has a large pond of water yet living in continual thirst, not allowing himself half a drink for fear of decreasing his water supply. You see him wasting his time and strength continually fetching water for his pond. He is always thirsty, even though he has in his hand a bucket of water. He watches constantly in order to catch every drop of rain, gapes after every cloud, and runs greedily into every mire and mud hole in hopes of water. He is always studying how to make every ditch empty itself into his pond. You see him grow gray and old in these anxious labors and, at last, he ends a careful, thirsty life by falling into his own pond. Would you not say that such a man was not only the author of all his own vexations, but was foolish enough to be reckoned among idiots and madmen? But yet, foolish and absurd as this picture is, it does not represent half the follies and absurd anxieties of the covetous man.
I could now easily proceed to show the same effects of all our other passions, and make it plainly appear that all our miseries, vexations, and complaints are entirely of our own making in the same absurd manner as in these instances of the covetous and ambitious man. Look where you will, you will see all worldly vexations just like the vexation of him who was always in the mire and mud in search of water to drink, when he had at home more than was sufficient for a hundred horses.
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life
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Day 11
WATER TURNED TO WINE
J. C. RYLE
In John 2:1-11, we read of a miracle which should always possess a special interest in the eyes of a true Christian. It is the first, in order of time, of the many mighty works which Jesus did when He was upon earth. We are distinctly told, "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee." Like every other miracle which John was inspired to record, it is related with great minuteness and particularity. And, like every other miracle in John's Gospel, it is rich in spiritual lessons.
We learn, firstly, from these verses, how honorable in the sight of Christ is the estate of matrimony. To be present at a marriage was almost the first public act of our Lord's earthly ministry. Marriage is not a sacrament, as the Church of Rome asserts. It is simply a state of life ordained by God for man's benefit. But it is a state which ought never to be spoken of with levity or regarded with disrespect. The Prayerbook service has well described it as "an honorable estate, instituted of God in the time of man's innocency, and signifying unto us the mystical union that is between Christ and his Church." Society is never in a healthy condition, and true religion never flourishes in that land where the marriage tie is lightly esteemed. They who lightly esteem it have not the mind of Christ. He who "beautified and adorned the estate of matrimony by His presence and first miracle wrought in Cana of Galilee," is One who is always of one mind. "Marriage," says the Holy Spirit by Paul, "is honorable in all." One thing, however, ought not to be forgotten. Marriage is a step which so seriously affects the temporal happiness and spiritual welfare of two immortal souls that it ought never to be taken in hand "unadvisedly, lightly, wantonly, and without due consideration." To be truly happy, it should be undertaken "reverently, discreetly, soberly, and in the fear of God." Christ's blessing and presence are essential to a happy wedding. The marriage at which there is no place for Christ and His disciples is not one that can justly be expected to prosper.
We learn, secondly, from these verses, that there are times when it is lawful to be merry and rejoice. Our Lord Himself sanctioned a wedding-feast by His own presence. He did not refuse to be a guest at "a marriage in Cana of Galilee." "A feast," it is written, "is made for laughter, and wine makes merry." Our Lord, in the passage before us, approves both the feast and the use of wine.
True religion was never meant to make men melancholy. On the contrary, it was intended to increase real joy and happiness among men. The servant of Christ unquestionably ought to have nothing to do with races, balls, theaters, and such-like amusements, which tend to frivolity and indulgence, if not to sin. But he has no right to hand over innocent recreations and family gatherings to the devil and the world. The Christian who withdraws entirely from the society of his fellow-men and walks the earth with a face as melancholy as if he was always attending a funeral, does injury to the cause of the Gospel. A cheerful, kindly spirit is a great recommendation to a believer. It is a real misfortune to Christianity when a Christian cannot smile. A merry heart and a readiness to take part in all innocent mirth are gifts of inestimable value. They go far to soften prejudices, to take up stumbling-blocks out of the way, and to make way for Christ and the Gospel.
The subject, no doubt, is a difficult and delicate one. On no point of Christian practice is it so hard to hit the balance between that which is lawful and that which is unlawful, between that which is right and that which is wrong. It is very hard indeed to be both merry and wise. High spirits soon degenerate into levity. Acceptance of many invitations to feasts soon leads to waste of time and begets leanness of soul. Frequent eating and drinking at other men's tables soon lowers a Christian's tone of religion. Going often into company is a heavy strain on spirituality of heart. Here, if anywhere, God's children have need to be on their guard. Each must know his own strength and natural temperament, and act accordingly. One believer can go without risk where another cannot. Happy is he who can use his Christian liberty without abusing it! It is possible to be sorely wounded in soul at marriage feasts and the tables of friends.
One golden rule on the subject may be laid down, the use of which will save us much trouble. Let us take care that we always go to feasts in the spirit of our divine Master, and that we never go where He would not have gone. Like Him, let us endeavor to be always "about our Father's business." Like Him, let us willingly promote joy and gladness, but let us strive that it may be sinless joy, if not joy in the Lord. Let us endeavor to bring the salt of grace into every company, and to drop the word in season in every ear we address. Much good may be done in society by giving a healthy tone to conversation. Let us never be ashamed to show our colors and to make men see whose we are and whom we serve. We may well say, "Who is sufficient for these things?" But if Christ went to a marriage feast in Cana, there is surely something that Christians can do on similar occasions. Let them only remember that if they go where their Master went, they must go in their Master's spirit.
We learn, lastly, from these verses, the Almighty power of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are told of a miracle which He wrought at the marriage feast when the wine failed. By a mere act of will He changed water into wine, and so supplied the need of all the guests. The manner in which the miracle was worked deserves special notice. We are not told of any outward visible action which preceded or accompanied it. It is not said that He touched the waterpots containing the water that was made wine. It is not said that He commanded the water to change its qualities or that He prayed to His Father in Heaven. He simply willed the change, and it took place. We read of no prophet or apostle in the Bible who ever worked a miracle after this fashion. He who could do such a mighty work, in such a manner, was nothing less than very God.
It is a comfortable thought that the same almighty power of will which our Lord here displayed is still exercised on behalf of His believing people. They have no need of His bodily presence to maintain their cause. They have no reason to be cast down because they cannot see Him with their eyes interceding for them, or touch Him with their hands that they may cling to Him for safety. If He "wills" their salvation and the daily supply of all their spiritual need, they are as safe and well provided for as if they saw Him standing by them. Christ's will is as mighty and effectual as Christ's deed. The will of Him who could say to the Father, "I will that they whom you have given me be with me where I am," is a will that has all power in heaven and earth, and must prevail.
Happy are those who, like the disciples, believe on Him by whom this miracle was wrought. A greater marriage feast than that of Cana will one day be held, when Christ Himself will be the bridegroom and believers will be the bride. A greater glory will one day be manifested, when Jesus shall take to Himself His great power and reign. Blessed will they be in that day who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!
Ryle's Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
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Day 12
MAN'S DISTRESS
ANDREW MURRAY
"0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 7:24,25)
You know the wonderful location that this text has in the epistle to the Romans. It stands here at the end of the seventh chapter as the gateway into the eighth. In the first sixteen verses of the eighth chapter, the name of the Holy Spirit is found sixteen times. You have there the description and promise of the life that a child of God can live in the power of the Holy Spirit. This begins in the second verse: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." From that, Paul goes on to speak of the great privileges of the child of God who is to be led by the Spirit of God. The gateway into all this is found at the end of chapter seven: "0 wretched man that I am!" There you have the words of a man who has come to the end of himself. He has in the previous verses described how he had struggled and wrestled in his own power to obey the holy law of God and had failed. But in answer to his own questions, he now finds the true answer and cries out, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
I want to describe the path by which a man can be led out of the spirit of bondage into the spirit of liberty. You know how distinctly it is said, "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear." We are continually warned that this is the great danger of the Christian life--to go again into bondage. I want to describe the path by which a man can get out of bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Indeed, I want to describe the man himself. Notice first, that these words are the language of a regenerate man; second, of a weak man; third, of a wretched man; and fourth, of a man on the border of complete liberty.
THE REGENERATE MAN. There is much evidence of regeneration from the fourteenth verse of chapter seven to the twenty-third verse: "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me." That is the language of a regenerate man, a man who knows that his heart and nature have been renewed and that sin is now a power in him that is not himself. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man." That again is the language of a regenerate man. He dares to say when he does evil, "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells me." It is of great importance to understand this.
In the first two great sections of the epistle, Paul deals with justification and sanctification. In dealing with justification, he lays the foundation of the doctrine in the teaching about sin. He does not speak of the singular sin, but of the plural--sins--the actual transgressions. In the second part of the fifth chapter, he begins to deal with sin, not as actual transgression but as a power. Just imagine what a loss it would have been to us if we did not have this second half of the seventh chapter of the epistle to the Romans; if Paul had omitted in his teaching this vital question of the sinfulness of the believer. We should have missed the question we all want answered as to sin in the believer. What is the answer? The regenerate man is one in whom the will has been renewed, and who can say, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man."
THE WEAK MAN. Here is the great mistake made by many Christians. They think that when there is a renewed will, it is enough. But that is not the case. This regenerate man tells us: "I will to do what is good, but the power to perform I find not." How often people tell us that if you set yourself determinedly, you can perform what you will! But this man was as determined as any man can be, and yet he made the confession, "To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not." But, you ask, "How is it God makes a regenerate man utter such a confession, he being with a right will, with a heart that longs to do good, and longs to do its very utmost to love God?"
Let us look at this question. What has God given us our will for? The will of man is nothing but an empty vessel in which the power of God is to be made manifest. Man must seek in God all that is to be. You have it in the second chapter of Philippians, and you have it here also, that God's work is to work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Here is a man who appears to say, "God has not worked to do in me." But we are taught that God works both to will and to do. How is the apparent contradiction to be reconciled?
You will find that in this passage, Romans 7:6-25, the name of the Holy Spirit does not occur once nor does the name of Christ occur. The man is wrestling and struggling to fulfill God's law. Instead of the Holy Spirit and Christ, the law is mentioned nearly twenty times. It shows a believer doing his very best to obey the law of God with his regenerate will. Not only this, but you will find that the little words, "I, me, my," occur more than forty times. It is the regenerate "I" in its weakness seeking to obey the law without being filled with the Spirit. This is the experience of almost every saint. After conversion, a man begins to do his best and fails. But if we are brought into the full light, we no longer need to fail. Nor need we fail at all if we have received the Spirit in His fullness.
God allows that failure so that the regenerate man should be taught his own utter inability. It is in the course of this struggle that the sense of our utter sinfulness comes to us. It is God's way of dealing with us. He allows man to strive to fulfill the law so that, as he strives and wrestles, he may be brought to this: "I am a regenerate child of God, but I am utterly helpless to obey His law." See what strong words are used all through the chapter to describe this condition: "I am carnal, sold under sin;" "I see another law in my members bringing me into captivity;" and last of all, "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" This believer, who bows here in deep contrition, is utterly unable to obey the law of God.
THE WRETCHED MAN. Not only is the man who makes this confession a regenerate and a weak man, but he is also a wretched man. He is utterly unhappy and miserable. What is it that makes him so utterly miserable? It is because God has given him a nature that loves Him. He is deeply wretched because he feels he is not obeying his God. He says, with brokenness of heart, "It is not I that do it, but I am under the awful power of sin, which is holding me down. It is I, and yet not I. Alas! it is myself, so closely am I bound up with it and so closely is it intertwined with my very nature." Blessed be God when a man learns to say, "0 wretched man that I am!" from the depth of his heart. He is on the way to the eighth chapter of Romans. There are many who make this confession a pillow for sin. They say that if Paul had to confess his weakness and helplessness in this way, who are they that they should try to do better? So the call to holiness is quietly set aside. Pray God that every one of us would learn to say these words in the very spirit in which they are written here! When we hear sin spoken of as the abominable thing that God hates, do not many of us wince before the word? If only all Christians who go on sinning would take this verse to heart. If only we would take it into our hearts every time we say sharp things, and every time we sin against the Lord God and against the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray God that we could forget everything else and cry out, "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
Why should you say this whenever you commit sin? Because it is when a man is brought to this confession that deliverance is at hand. And remember, it was not only the sense of being weak and taken captive that made him wretched. It was, above all, the sense of sinning against his God. The law was doing its work, making sin exceedingly sinful in his sight. Once every sin gives new intensity to the sense of wretchedness, and we feel our whole state as one of not only helplessness but actual, exceeding sinfulness, we will be pressed not only to ask, "Who shall deliver us?" but to cry, "I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord."
THE ALMOST-DELIVERED MAN. The man has tried to obey the beautiful law of God. He has loved it, he has wept over his sin, and he has tried to conquer. He has tried to overcome fault after fault, but every time has ended in failure. What did he mean by "the body of this death"? Did he mean, my body when I die? Surely not. In the eighth chapter you have the answer to this question in the words, "If you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live." That is the body of death from which he is seeking deliverance.
And now he is on the brink of deliverance! In 7:23 we have the words, "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." It is a captive that cries, "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" He is a man who feels himself bound. But look to the contrast in the second verse of chapter eight: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." That is the deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord, the liberty to the captive which the Spirit brings. Can you keep captive any longer a man made free by the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus"?
But, you say, the regenerate man did not have the Spirit of Jesus when he spoke in the sixth chapter. Yes, he did [but did] not know what the Holy Spirit could do for him. God does not work by His Spirit as He works by a blind force in nature. He leads His people on as reasonable, intelligent beings. Therefore, when He wants to give us that Holy Spirit whom He has promised, He first brings us to the end of self, brings us to the conviction that though we have been striving to obey the law, we have failed. When we have come to the end of that, then He shows us that in the Holy Spirit we have the power of obedience, the power of victory, and the power of real holiness. God works to will, and He is ready to work to do, but many Christians misunderstand this. They think because they have the will, it is enough, and that now they are able to do. This is not so. The new will is a permanent gift, an attribute of the new nature. The power to do is not a permanent gift, but must be received each moment from the Holy Spirit. It is the man who is conscious of his own weakness as a believer who will learn that by the Holy Spirit he can live a holy life. This man is on the brink of that great deliverance; the way has been prepared for the glorious eighth chapter.
I now ask this solemn question: Where are you living? With you, is it, "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?" with now-and-then a little experience of the power of the Holy Spirit? Or is it, "I thank God through Jesus Christ! The law of the Spirit has set me free from the law of sin and of death"? What the Holy Spirit does is to give the victory. "If you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live". It is He who, when the heart is opened wide to receive Him, comes in and reigns there, and mortifies the deeds of the body, day by day, hour by hour, and moment by moment. Remember, dear friend, what we need is to come to decision and action. There are in Scripture two very different sorts of Christians. The Bible speaks about yielding to the flesh, and that is the life of tens of thousands of believers. All their lack of joy in the Holy Spirit and their lack of the liberty He gives is just owing to the flesh. The Spirit is within them, but the flesh rules the life. To be led by the Spirit of God is what they need. If only I could make every child of His realize what it means that the everlasting God has given His dear Son, Christ Jesus, to watch over you every day, and that what you have to do is to trust. If only I could make His children understand that the work of the Holy Spirit is to enable you every moment to remember Jesus, and to trust Him! The Spirit has come to keep the link with Him unbroken every moment. Praise God for the Holy Spirit!
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Day 13
A CHAT ABOUT COMMENTARIES
CHARLES SPURGEON
In order to be able to expound the Scriptures, and as an aid to your pulpit studies, you will need to be familiar with the commentators: a glorious army, let me tell you, whose acquaintance will be your delight and profit. Of course, you are not such wiseacres as to think or say that you can expound Scripture without assistance from the works of divines and learned men who have labored before you in the field of exposition. If you are of that opinion, pray remain so, for you are not worth the trouble of conversion. Like a little coterie [clique] who thinks as you, you would resent the attempt as an insult to your infallibility. It seems odd that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves should think so little of what he has revealed to others. My chat this afternoon is not for these great originals, but for you who are content to learn from holy men, taught of God, and mighty in the Scriptures.
It has been the fashion of late years to speak against the use of commentaries. If there were any fear that the expositions of Matthew Henry, Gill, Scott, and others would be exalted into Christian Targums, we would join the chorus of objectors, but the existence or approach of such a danger we do not suspect. The temptations of our times lie rather in empty pretensions to novelty of sentiment than in a slavish following of accepted guides. A respectable acquaintance with the opinions of the giants of the past might have saved many an erratic thinker from wild interpretations and outrageous inferences. Usually we have found the despisers of commentaries to be men who have no sort of acquaintance with them; in their case, it is the opposite of familiarity which has bred contempt.
It is true there are a number of expositions of the whole Bible which are hardly worth shelf room. They aim at too much and fail altogether. The authors have spread a little learning over a vast surface and have badly attempted for the entire Scriptures what they might have accomplished for one book with tolerable success. But who will deny the preeminent value of such expositions as those of Calvin, Ness, Henry, Trapp, Poole, and Bengel, which are as deep as they are broad? And yet further, who can pretend to biblical learning who has not made himself familiar with the great writers who spent a life in explaining some one sacred book? Without attempting to give in detail the names of all, I intend in a familiar talk to mention the more notable.
First among the mighty for general usefulness we are bound to mention the man whose name is a household word, MATTHEW HENRY. He is most pious and pithy, sound and sensible, suggestive and sober, terse and trustworthy. You will find him to be glittering with metaphors, rich in analogies, overflowing with illustrations, superabundant in reflections. He delights in apposition and alliteration. He is usually plain, quaint, and full of pith. He sees right through a text directly. Apparently he is not critical, but he quietly gives the result of an accurate critical knowledge of the original fully up to the best critics of his time. He is not versed in the manners and customs of the East, for the Holy Land was not so accessible as in our day, but he is deeply spiritual, heavenly, and profitable, finding good matter in every text, and from all deducing most practical and judicious lessons. His is a kind of commentary to be placed where I saw it, in the old meeting house at Chester--chained in the vestry for anybody and everybody to read. It is the poor man's commentary, the old Christian's companion, suitable to everybody, instructive to all. You are aware, perhaps, that the latter part of the New Testament was completed by other hands, the good man having gone the way of all flesh. The writers have executed their work exceedingly well, have worked in much of the matter which Henry had collected, and have done their best to follow his methods, but their combined production is far inferior to Matthew Henry himself, and any reader will soon detect the difference. Every minister ought to read Matthew Henry entirely and carefully through once at least.
It would not be possible for me too earnestly to press upon you the importance of reading the expositions of that prince among men, JOHN CALVIN. I have often felt inclined to cry out with Father Simon, a Roman Catholic, "Calvin possessed a sublime genius", and with Scaliger, "Oh! how well has Calvin reached the meaning of the prophets--no one better." You will find forty-two or more goodly volumes worth their weight in gold. Of all commentators, I believe John Calvin to be the most candid. In his expositions he is not always what moderns would call Calvinistic. That is to say, where Scripture maintains the doctrine of predestination and grace, he flinches in no degree, but inasmuch as some Scriptures bear the impress of human free action and responsibility, he does not shun to expound their meaning in all fairness and integrity. He was no trimmer and pruner of texts. He gave their meaning as far as he knew it. His honest intention was to translate the Hebrew and the Greek originals as accurately as he possibly could, and then to give the meaning which would naturally be conveyed by such Greek and Hebrew words. He labored, in fact, to declare not his own mind upon the Spirit's words, but the mind of the Spirit as couched in those words. Dr. King very truly says of him, "No writer ever dealt more fairly and honestly by the Word of God. He is scrupulously careful to let it speak for itself, and to guard against every tendency of his own mind to put upon it a questionable meaning for the sake of establishing some doctrine which he feels to be important, or some theory which he is anxious to uphold. This is one of his prime excellences."
A very distinguished place is due to DR. GILL. Beyond all controversy, Gill was one of the most able Hebraists of his day, and in other matters no mean proficient. When an opponent in controversy had ventured to call him "a botcher in divinity", the good doctor, being compelled to become a fool in glorying, gave such a list of his attainments as must have covered his accuser with confusion. His great work on the Holy Scriptures is greatly prized at the present day by the best authorities, which is conclusive evidence of its value, since the set of the current of theological thought is quite contrary to that of Dr. Gill. Probably no man since Gill's days has at all equaled him in the matter of Rabbinical learning. Say what you will about that lore, it has its value. Of course, a man has to rake among perfect dunghills and dust heaps, but there are a few jewels which the world could not afford to miss. Gill was a master cinder-sifter among the Targums, the Talmuds, the Mishna, and the Gemara. Richly did he deserve the degree of which he said, "I never bought it, nor thought it, nor sought it." He was always at work. It is difficult to say when he slept, for he wrote 10,000 folio pages of theology. The portrait of him which belongs to this church (and hangs in my private vestry and from which all the published portraits have been engraved) represents him, after an interview with an Arminian gentleman, turning up his nose in a most expressive manner as if he could not endure even the smell of freewill. In some such a vein he wrote his commentary. He hunts Arminianism throughout the whole of it. His frequent method of reflection is, "This text does not mean this", nobody ever thought it did; "It does not mean that", only two or three heretics ever imagined it did; and again it does not mean a third thing, or a fourth, or a fifth absurdity. But, at last, he thinks it does mean so-and-so and tells you so in a methodical, sermon-like manner. For good, sound, massive, sober sense in commenting, who can excel Gill?
Gentlemen, if you want something full of marrow and fatness, cheering to your own hearts by way of comment and likely to help you in giving to your hearers rich expositions, buy DR. HAWKER'S POOR MAN'S COMMENTARY. Dr. Hawker was the very least of commentators in the matter of criticism. He had no critical capacity and no ability whatever as an interpreter of the letter. But he sees Jesus, and that is a sacred gift which is most precious whether the owner be a critic or no. It is to be confessed that he occasionally sees Jesus where Jesus is not legitimately to be seen. He allows his reason to be mastered by his affections, which, vice as it is, is not the worst fault in the world. There is always such a savor of the Lord Jesus Christ in Dr. Hawker that you cannot read him without profit. He has the peculiar idea that Christ is in every Psalm, and this often leads him totally astray, because he attributes expressions to the Saviour which really shock the holy mind to imagine our Lord's using. However, not as a substantial dish, but as a condiment, place the Plymouth vicar's work on the table. His writing is all sugar, and you will know how to use it--not devouring it in lumps, but using it to flavor other things.
I must also add to the list A COMMENTARY, CRITICAL, EXPERIMENTAL, AND PRACTICAL, ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. Of this I have a very high opinion. It is the joint work of Dr. Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and Dr. David Brown. It is to some extent a compilation and condensation of other men's thoughts, but it is sufficiently original to claim a place in every minister's library. Indeed, it contains so great a variety of information that if a man had no other exposition, he would find himself at no great loss if he possessed this and used it diligently.
spurgeon.org/misc/c&cl1.htm
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Day 14
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
MATTHEW HENRY
"So it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried." (Luke 16:22)
Death is the common lot of rich and poor, godly and ungodly. There they meet together. One dies in his full strength, and another in the bitterness of his soul, but they shall lie down alike in the dust. Death favors not man for his poverty. Saints die that they may bring their sorrow to an end and may enter upon their joys. Sinners die that they may go to give their account. It concerns both rich and poor to prepare for death, for it waits for them both.
The beggar died first. God often takes godly people out of the world, when he leaves the wicked to flourish still. It was an advantage to the beggar that such a speedy end was put to his miseries, and, since he could find no other shelter or resting place, he was hid in the grave where the weary are at rest.
The rich man died and was buried. Nothing is said of the interment of the poor man. They dug a hole anywhere and tumbled his body in, without any solemnity. He was buried with the burial of an ass. It is well if they that let the dogs lick his sores did not let them gnaw his bones. But the rich man had a pompous funeral, lay in state, had a train of mourners to attend him to his grave and a stately monument set up over it. Probably he had a funeral oration in praise of him, his generous way of living, and the good table he kept--which those would commend who had feasted at it. It is said (in Job) of the wicked man, that he is brought to the grave with no small ado, laid in the tomb, and the clods of the valley, were it possible, are made sweet to him.
The beggar died and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. How much did the honor done to his soul by this convoy of it to its rest exceed the honor done to the rich man by the carrying of his body with so much magnificence to its grave. Observe that his soul existed in a state of separation from the body. It did not die or fall asleep with the body. His candle was not put out with him, but lived, acted, and knew what it did and what was done to it. His soul removed to another world, to the world of spirits. It returned to God who gave it, to its native country. This is implied in its being carried. It was carried by angels. They are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation, not only while they live but when they die, and have a charge concerning them to bear them up in their hands. One angel, one would think, would be sufficient, but here are more, as many as were sent for Elijah. What were the bearers at the rich man's funeral, though probably those of the first rank, in comparison with Lazarus's bearers?
It was carried into Abraham's bosom. The Jews expressed the happiness of the righteous at death in three ways: they go to the garden of Eden, they go to be under the throne of glory, and they go to the bosom of Abraham. This poor Lazarus, who might not be admitted within the rich man's gate, is conducted into the dining room, into the bedchamber, of the heavenly palace.
"Then he [the rich man] cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me...for I am tormented in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received good things.'" This is a cutting word--remember. The memories of damned souls will be their tormentors, and conscience will then be awakened and stirred up to do its office, which here they would not allow it to do. Now sinners are called upon to remember, but they do not, will not, and find ways to avoid it. What a dreadful peal will this ring in our ears, "Son, remember the many warnings that were given you not to come to this place of torment, but which you would not regard. Remember the fair offers made to you of eternal life and glory which you would not accept."
He is now reminded that in his own lifetime he received his good things. Abraham does not tell him that he had abused them, but that he had received them. "Remember what a bountiful benefactor God has been to you, how ready he was to do you good. You cannot therefore say that he owes you anything, no, not a drop of water. What he gave you, you received, and that was all. You never gave a thankful acknowledgment of them, much less did you ever make any grateful return for them or improvement of them. You received them and used them as if they had been your own. They were your reward, your consolation, the penny you had agreed on. You lived for the good things of your lifetime and had no thought of better things in another life, and therefore you have no reason to expect them. The day of your good things is past and gone, and now is the day of your evil things, of recompense for all your evil deeds."
Matthew Henry's Commentary
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Day 15
HOLY COVETEOUSNESS
SAMUEL LOGAN BRENGLE
"Covet earnestly the best gifts," wrote Paul to his officers and soldiers at Corinth. Not the highest promotions, not the best positions, but "the best gifts," which God bestows upon the people who earnestly covet them and diligently seek Him. Nero sat upon the throne of the world. He held the highest position in the reach of man. But a poor, despised Jew in a dungeon in Rome, whose head Nero cut off as a dog's head, possessed the best gifts. While Nero's name rots, Paul's name and works are a foundation upon which the righteous continuously build. There were deacons, archdeacons, and venerable archdeacons, bishops, and archbishops in England some hundreds of years ago, who held high places and power and to whom other men bowed low. But a poor, despised tinker in the filthy Bedford jail had coveted earnestly and received "the best gifts." While these church dignitaries are forgotten by the mass of men, the world knows and loves the saintly tinker, John Bunyan, and is ever being made better and lifted nearer to God by his wise works and words.
Comrades, you and I should seek these best gifts with all our hearts, and we should be satisfied with nothing short of them. It makes but little difference what our position and rank. If we have these gifts, we shall have a name and bless the world, but without them we shall prove to be only a sham.
What are these gifts? There is one which, in a sense, includes them all--the gift of the Holy Ghost. Have you received the Holy Ghost? Is He dwelling in your heart? Covet Him. Live not a day without His blessed presence in you.
Then there is the gift of wisdom. Covet this. The world is full of foolish men and women who don't know how to save themselves, nor how to promote salvation and peace among their fellow foolish ones who stumble along in darkness and perish in their folly. The world needs wise men--men who know when to speak, what to say, when to be silent, who know God and His way and walk in it. God gives wisdom to those that seek Him. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God...and it shall be given him," if he ask in faith without wavering. Nothing will so distinguish a man and exalt him among his fellows as fullness of wisdom.
There are several marks by which to know this heavenly wisdom. James tells us what they are. The wisdom that is from above is first "pure." The man who is truly wise will keep himself pure. He will flee from all impurity in thought, word, and act. Filthy habits of every kind are broken and put away by this heavenly wisdom.
It is "peaceable." The man who has this gift and wisdom from God does not meddle with strife. He seeks peace and runs after it. He is essentially a peacemaker. He has learned the secret of the soft answer which turns away wrath. He is not quick to take offense.
It is "gentle." The man who lives in the Spirit of this world may be rough and boorish, but he who is wise from above is gentle and considerate. This gentleness may exist in the same heart with lion-like strength and determination. Jesus was as "a Lamb slain," but He was also "the Lion of the tribe of Judah." He was gentle as a mother, and at the same time immeasurably strong.
It is "easy to be entreated." Though he is sinned against seventy times seven in a day, yet this heavenly-wise man stands ready to forgive. His heart is an exhaustless fountain of good will. While, if it be his lot to rule, he rules with diligence, and, if necessary, with vigor. Yet he counts not his life dear unto himself, but is willing to lay it down for the good of his brethren.
It is "full of mercy and good fruits." Like his Heavenly Father, he is rich in mercy.
It is "without partiality." He is not a party man. He rises above party and class prejudice and is a lover of all men. He stands for the fair deal.
And it is "without hypocrisy." There is no guile in his heart, no white lies on his tongue, no double-dealing in his actions. He is square and open and above-board in all his ways and dealings. He lives in constant readiness for the Judgment Day. Blessed be God for such wisdom, which He waits to bestow upon all those who covet it, and who ask for it in faith. Covet wisdom.
Then there is the gift of faith. Covet faith. In every man there is, in some measure, the power to believe, but added to this is a gift of faith which God bestows upon those who diligently seek Him. Covet this, O my comrades! Be steady, strong, intelligent believers. Cultivate faith. Stir it up in your hearts as you stir up the fire in your stove. Feed your faith on God's Word. I once heard a mighty evangelist say that he used to pray and pray for faith, but one day he read, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Then he began to study God's Word and hide it in his heart, and his faith began to grow and grow until through faith his works girded the globe. Covet faith.
There is the gift of the spirit of prayer. Anybody can pray, if he will, but how few have the spirit of prayer! How few make a business of prayer, and wrestle with God for blessing and power and wisdom! Real prayer is something more than a form of words, or a hasty address to God just after breakfast, before the meeting, or before going to bed at night. It is an intense, intelligent, persistent council with the Lord in which we wait on Him, and reason and argue and plead our cause and listen for His reply and will not let Him go till He blesses us. But how few pray in this way! Let us covet earnestly and cultivate diligently the spirit of prayer.
We should also covet the spirit of prophecy--that ability to speak to the hearts and minds of men so that they shall see and feel that God is in us and in our words. We may not be able to preach like the General, but there is probably not one of us but might preach and prophesy far more pungently, powerfully and persuasively than we do if we earnestly coveted this gift, and sought it in fervent prayer, faithful study, and constant and deep meditation. God would help us, and how greatly it would add to our power and usefulness! Let us earnestly covet this gift, asking God to touch our lips with fire and with grace.
Above all, covet a heart that is full, flaming and overflowing with love. Pray for love. Stir up what love you have. Exercise love. It is good for us to take the Bible and, with a concordance, hunt out the word love until we know all the Bible says on the subject. And then with a heart full of love, we can pour it out on the children, soldiers, backsliders, cranky folks, and poor loveless sinners until that wondrous text has its fulfillment: "Let them that love Him be as the sun when he goes forth in His might." How the frost and snows melt, the frozen earth thaws, the trees burst into bud and leaf, the flowers blossom, the birds sing, and all nature wakes to a revelry of life and joy when the sun goes forth in his might! Then indeed we shall be a blessing. Souls dead in trespasses and sin shall come to life under our loving ministry and message. The weak shall be made strong, the sorrowing shall receive Divine comfort, the ignorant shall be taught, and heavenly light shall illumine those that are in darkness. Let us then "covet earnestly the best gifts."
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Day 16
THE VISION OF DRY BONES
ROBERT MURRAY M'CHEYNE
"The hand of the LORD came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. And He said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' So I answered, 'O Lord GOD, You know.' Again He said to me,'Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, “O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: ‘Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live’"....Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.’" (Ezekiel 37:1-5, 11)
In early life, the prophet Ezekiel had been witness to sieges and battlefields. He had himself experienced many of the horrors and calamities of war, and this seems to have tinged his natural character in such a way that his prophecies, more than those of any other prophet, are full of terrific images and visions of dreadful things. In these words we have the description of a vision which, for grandeur and terrible sublimity, is perhaps unequaled in any other part of the Bible.
He describes himself as set down by God in the midst of a valley that was full of bones. It seemed as if he were stationed in the midst of some spacious battlefield, where thousands and tens of thousands had been slain and none left behind to bury them. The eagles had many a time gathered over the carcasses, and none frightened them away; and the wolves of the mountains had eaten the flesh of these mighty men and drunk the blood of princes. The rains of heaven had bleached them, and the winds that sighed over the open valley had made them bare. Many a summer sun had whitened and dried the bones. As the prophet went round to view the dismal scene, these two thoughts arose in his mind: "Behold, they are very many; and, lo, they are very dry."
If the place had not been an open valley, it might have seemed, to his wondering gaze, like some vast repository for dead bodies; as if the wanton hand of violence had rifled the vast cemeteries of Egypt and cast forth the mummied bones of other ages to bleach and whiten in the light of heaven. How expressive are the brief words of the seer: "Behold, they are very many; and, lo, they are very dry!" No doubt there was an awful silence spread over this scene of desolateness and death; but the voice of his heavenly guide breaks in upon his ear: "Son of man, can these bones live?"
How strange a question was this to ask concerning dry, whitened bones! When Jesus said of the damsel, "She is not dead, but sleeps," they laughed him to scorn. But here were not bodies newly dead, but bones--bare, whitened bones. They were not even skeletons, for bones were separated from their adjoining bones, and yet God asks, "Can these bones live?" Had he asked this question of the world, they would have laughed a louder laugh of scorn. But he asked it of one who, though once dead, had himself been made alive by God, and he answered, "O Lord God, you know." They cannot live of themselves, for they are dead and dry; but if you will put your living Spirit into them, they shall live. So, then, you only know.
Receiving this answer of faith, God bids Ezekiel to prophesy to these bones, and say unto them: "O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord."
Had the prophet walked by sight and not by faith, he would have staggered at this promise through unbelief. Had he been a worshiper of reason, he would have argued, "These bones have no ears to hear, why should I preach to them, Hear the word of the Lord"? But no. He believed God rather than himself. He had been taught "the exceeding greatness of his mighty power," and therefore he obeyed. "So I prophesied as I was commanded."
If the scene which Ezekiel first beheld was dismal and desolate, the scene which now opened on his eyes was more dismal and revolting still: "And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them." If it was a hideous sight before (to see the valley full of bones all cleansed by the rains and winds and whitened in the summer suns), how much more hideous now to see these slain ones with bone joined to sinews and skin upon them, but yet with no breath! Here was a battlefield indeed with its thousands of unburied dead--masses of unbreathing flesh, cold and immovable, ready only to putrify, every hand stiff and motionless, every bosom without a heave, every eye glazed and lifeless, every tongue cold and silent as the grave.
But the voice of God again breaks the silence: "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live." Before, Ezekiel had bent over the dead, dry bones and preached unto them--a vast but lifeless congregation. Now he lifts his head and raises his eyes, for his word is to the living Spirit of God. Unbelief might have whispered to him, "To whom are you going to prophesy now?" Reason might have argued, "What sense is there in speaking to the invisible wind, to one whom you see not?" But he staggered not at the word through unbelief. "So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army."
The first application made of this vision is to the restoration of the Jews. It teaches that, at present, they are like dry bones in the open valley: scattered over all lands, very many and very dry, without any life to God. It teaches that the preaching of Jesus, though foolishness to the world, is to be the means of their awakening, and that prayer to the all-quickening Spirit is to be the means of their new life. It teaches that when these means are used with them, God's ancient people shall yet stand up and be an exceeding great army; shall be as they used to be when they marched through the wilderness, when God went before them in the pillar of cloud; that they shall then be led back to their own land and planted in their own land, and not plucked up any more.
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Day 17
SENTIMENT AND EMOTION
SAMUEL P. TREGELLES
There is sternness in the truth of God which might almost seem like harsh severity, when it is regarded by those whose thoughts on the subject of revelation have been formed in a great measure from sentiment and emotion. An imaginative feeling may exist, and this may be so cherished that even the Scripture is only used for sentimental purposes. The force of definite truth is by no means felt, because the mind has sunk into a kind of spiritual reverie. Indeed, there is a disposition to avoid definite truth. Thus, when the details of revealed promises and purposes are stated from the Word of God, there is a feeling that there is but little, if anything, in them that is really edifying or that can afford nourishment for spiritual life. Consequently, dreamy indefinite thoughts of God's love are cherished, a view is taken of the person and work of Christ and of His coming glory as may stir up spiritual emotions, or what are supposed to be such. But it must never be forgotten that holiness is not the only thing taught us respecting the Holy Ghost: He is the Spirit of Truth as well as the Holy Spirit of God. We are not to accredit any supposed holiness irrespective of truth.
Emotional religion has always a tendency to make feeling the standard of what should be received or rejected as truth. A certain kind of feeling--approaching to mysticism--is that which is allowed to rule the judgment as to what God has revealed. Sometimes these indefinite claims to spirituality are accepted by others. The doctrines of such teachers are supposed to be worthy of all acceptance, not because they are found in Holy Scripture, but because they are said to be true by such holy and devoted men. But if we would judge according to God, we must test all claims to holiness and devotion by means of truth.
It is very manifest that the doctrine of a secret coming of Christ and a secret removal of the Church to be with Him is peculiarly suited to those who cherish the religion of sentiment. What more cheering (they say) than the thought that the Lord may take His people to Himself at any moment? What more animating than the belief that this may take place this very day? And when anyone brings them to Scripture and tries to point out the revealed hope of the Lord's coming, it seems as if there were nothing but coldness in the teaching. They ask if such chilling doctrines can be consistent with love to the Lord. But know that whatever makes the feelings sit in judgment on Scripture and leads to the avoidance of the force of that Scripture teaching which is not in accordance with such feelings, must, however apparently sanctified and spiritual, be of nature and not of God. Are we to seek to be guided by other hopes than those which animated the Apostolic Church? They knew that days of darkness would set in before Christ's coming. They were instructed respecting the many Antichrists and the final Antichrist. But so far from their hope of the coming of the Lord and of resurrection being thus set aside, they were able to look onward through the darkness to the brightness of the morning.
It may freely be owned that those who think it right to expect the Lord at any moment, and who sternly condemn others who maintain that His appointed signals shall take place first, have often in their hearts much real love to Him. But let such remember the prayers of the Apostle: "That your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment." It is not only of importance that love should be rightly directed as to its object, but there should also be in the soul real spiritual intelligence.
A wife has the promise of her husband's return from a distant country, and she has his written directions for the rule of the house during his absence. Part of these directions includes a statement how his return shall be expected--that a letter will arrive first to say by what ship he will come. There would be no lack of love on her part if she sought to be occupied by-by-day as he directed. She would show that she believed that the promised letter should come and that he would then himself arrive by the appointed vessel. No one could reproach her for lack of love to her husband if she were not on the tiptoe of momentary expectation. But if the wife were to say that the part of her husband's directions related to the servants and not to her, and if she were to be constantly on the shore expecting her husband's landing and refused to simply attend to what her husband had said, she would show that she was a visionary and not one guided by the simple intelligence of her husband's mind. Feeling would have led away from true obedience.
Those who sentimentally make the secret rapture the center of all their thoughts, have habitually shown how utterly their love fails toward any Christians who object to this theory. They often speak of them as if such were devoid of lov