A MONTHLY READING OF

INSIGHTS FROM RENOWNED CHRISTIANS

FEBRUARY

Day 1

"A FOOL'S WRATH IS KNOWN AT ONCE,
BUT A PRUDENT MAN COVERS SHAME"
Proverbs 12:16

Matthew Henry

Passion is folly. A fool is known by his anger (so some read it). Not but that a wise man may be angry when there is just cause for it, but then he has his anger under check and direction, is lord of his anger, whereas a fool's anger lords it over him. He that, when he is provoked, breaks out into indecent expressions in words or behavior, whose passion alters his countenance, makes him outrageous, and leads him to forget himself, Nabal certainly is his name and folly is with him. A fool's indignation is known in that day. He proclaims it openly whatever company he is in. He cannot defer showing his resentments. Those that are soon angry, that are quickly put into a flame by the least spark, have not that rule which they ought to have over their own spirits.

Meekness is wisdom. A prudent man covers shame. He covers the passion that is in his own breast. When his spirit is stirred and his heart hot within him, he keeps his mouth as with a bridle and suppresses his resentments by smothering and stifling them. Anger is shame and though a wise man be not perfectly free from it, yet he is ashamed of it, rebukes it, and suffers not the evil spirit to speak. He covers the provocation that is given him, the indignity that is done him. He winks at it, covers it as much as may be from himself, that he may not carry his resentments of it too far.

It is a kindness to ourselves and contributes to the repose of our own minds to extenuate and excuse the injuries and affronts that we receive, instead of aggravating them and making the worst of them, as we are apt to do.

Matthew Henry's Commentaries

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Day 2

TWO DIFFERENT RESURRECTIONS

J. C. Ryle

"Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the grave will hear his voice and come forth--those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation." (John 5:28,29)

These words contain one of the most distinct statements in Scripture of that great truth--the resurrection of the dead. It shall be universal and not confined to a few only. "All" in the graves shall come forth, whether old or young, rich or poor. It shall take place at Christ's command and bidding. His "voice" shall be the call that shall summon the dead from their graves. There shall be a distinction of those who rise again into two classes. Some shall rise to glory and happiness, to what is called a "resurrection of life." Some shall rise to be lost and ruined forever, to what is called a "resurrection of damnation." The doings of men shall be the test by which their final state shall be decided. "Life" shall be the portion of those that have "done good," and "damnation" the portion of those that have "done evil," in the resurrection day.

This passage condemns those who fancy that this world is all, and that this life ends everything, and that the grave is the conclusion. They are awfully mistaken. There is a resurrection and a life to come.

This passage condemns those who try to persuade us in the present day that there is no future punishment, no hell, no condemnation for the wicked in the world to come; that the love of God is lower than hell; that God is too merciful and compassionate to punish anyone. There is a resurrection, we are told, of damnation.

This passage condemns those who try to make out that the resurrection is the peculiar privilege of believers and saints, and that the wicked will be punished by complete annihilation. Both here and in Acts 24:15 we are distinctly told that both bad and good shall rise again. (In St. Paul's famous chapter about the resurrection, 1 Cor. 15, the resurrection of believers only is treated of.)

This passage condemns those who try to make out that men's lives and conduct are of little importance so long as they profess to have faith and to believe in Christ. Christ himself tells us expressly that the "doings" of men, whether good or evil, will be the evidence that shall decide whether they rise again to glory or to condemnation.

Musculus remarks that the goodness which God requires of us is not such as begins in the next world only, after the resurrection. We must have it now, and it must precede the time of judgment. It is not said, "some shall rise again that they may be made good and partakers of life," but, "they that have done good shall come forth to a resurrection of life." We should take care to be such in this life as we desire to be found in the day of judgment. He also remarks that our Lord does not say it is "those who have known or talked what is good," but "those who have actually done good" who shall come forth to a resurrection of life. Only those will be found to have "done good" who are God's elect--born again, and true believers. Nothing but true faith will bear the fruit of good works.

Calvin remarks that our Lord is not here speaking of the cause of salvation, but of the marks of the saved. That one great mark which distinguishes the elect from the reprobate is good doing.

Ryle's Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

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Day 3

PRAYER

Charles Spurgeon

"Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will declare what he has done for my soul. I cried to him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. But certainly God has heard me; he has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me!" (Psalm 66:16-20)

In looking back upon the character of our prayers, if we do it honestly, we shall be filled with wonder that God has ever answered them. There may be some who think their prayers worthy of acceptance--as the Pharisee did. But the true Christian, who sees things clearly, must surely weep over his prayers, and if he could retrace his steps, he would desire to pray more earnestly.

Remember, Christian, how cold your prayers have been. When in your closet you should have wrestled as Jacob did, your petitions instead have been faint and few--far removed from that humble, believing, persevering faith that cries, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." Yet, how wonderful to know that God has heard these cold prayers of yours, and not only heard, but answered them.

Reflect also how infrequent have been your prayers, unless you have been in trouble; then you have gone often to the mercy-seat. But when deliverance has come, what happened to your constant supplication? Yet, even though you have stopped praying as you once did, God has not stopped blessing. When you have neglected the mercy-seat, God has not deserted it, but the bright light of His glory has remained visible between the wings of the cherubim. How marvelous that the Lord should pay attention to our intermittent spasms of prayerfulness that ebb and flow with our needs. What a God He is to hear the prayers of those who come to Him when they have pressing concerns, but neglect Him when they have received a mercy; who approach Him when they are forced to come, but who almost forget to address Him when benefits are plentiful and sorrows few.

Let His gracious kindness in hearing such prayers touch our hearts, so that from now on we may be found "praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication."

Morning and Evening

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Day 4

PARABLE OF THE WORKERS IN THE VINEYARD

Alfred Edersheim

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' So they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day?' They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.' So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.' And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius." (Matthew 20:1-10)

The principle which Christ lays down in this parable is that while nothing done for him shall lose its reward, yet for one reason or another, no forecast can be made nor inferences of self-righteousness be drawn. It does not by any means follow that the most work done, at least to our seeing and judging, shall entail a greater reward. On the contrary, "many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first." And in such cases no wrong has been done; there exists no claim even in view of the promises of due acknowledgment of work. Spiritual pride and self-assertion can only be the outcome either of misunderstanding God's relation to us or else of a wrong state of mind towards others. It betokens mental or moral unfitness. The parable is an illustration and teaches nothing beyond this. Work for Christ is not a ponderable quantity--so much for so much--nor we the judges of when and why a worker has come.

Yet the parable conveys much that is new and comforting. (1) The abundance of work to be done. (2) The anxiety of the householder to secure all available laborers. (3) That it was not from unwillingness or refusal that the laborers had come at later hours, but because they had not been there and available earlier. (4) That when they had come, they were ready to go into the vineyard without promise of definite reward, simply trusting to the truth and goodness of him whom they went to serve.

When it is time to pay the laborers, the order of payment is inverse of that of labor, and this is a necessary part of the parable. If the first laborers had been paid first, they would either have gone away without knowing what was done to the last, or if they had remained, their objection could not have been urged except on the ground of manifest malevolence towards their neighbors; in other words, not that they themselves didn't receive enough, but that the others had received too much.

But it was not the scope of the parable to charge with conscious malevolence those who sought a higher reward or deemed themselves entitled to it. We note that those of the third hour did not murmur because they did not receive more than those of the eleventh hour. They had not made any bargain with the householder at the beginning, but entirely trusted him. But those of the first hour had their greed excited. Seeing what the others had received, they expected to have more than their due. They now appealed to justice, but from first to last they had justice. Their 'so much for so much' principle of claim--law, work, and pay--had been satisfied. Those laborers who, owing to the lateness of their appearance, felt they had no claim, trusted to the Master, and as they believed so it was unto them. Such a Master could not have given less to those who had come when called, trusting to his goodness and not in their deserts. Their reward was now reckoned not of work or debt, but of grace.

If all is to be placed on the new ground of grace, then the laborers who murmured were guilty either of ignorance in failing to perceive the sovereignty of grace--that it is within his power to do with his own as he wills--or else of malevolence when they looked on the Master with an evil eye. And so, in the illustrative case of the parable, 'the first shall be last, and the last first.' And in other instances also, though not in all, 'many shall be last that are first, and first that are last.'

The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

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Day 5

CHRIST'S HUMILIATION

Robert Culver

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of man. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:5-8)

From the standpoint of the Bible, God is so high that He must humble Himself even to look down 'to behold the things that are in heaven'--much more the things 'in the earth!'. It must therefore be proper to think of the Creator as humbled greatly to assume the created nature of man, even if in the normal condition of holiness rather than our abnormal condition of sin, starting right off by associating Himself with sinners in the womb of a virgin, who like every other mother beginning with Eve, was a sinner.

Though announced by angels, He was delivered to a simple peasant maiden and her poor husband, visited first by rustic shepherds and cradled in a manger for animals. His first lengthy residence was in Egypt--symbol of corruption and disease throughout Scripture. His boyhood was in a disreputable town, growing up like a plant suckling from a root in very dry social and economic ground, without recognized nobility or stately accoutrements. Let us try to think of the Lord of Glory as weighing only six to ten pounds, crying for a diaper change, suckling at a woman's breast, babbling in His cradle, learning to talk, contending with neighborhood bullies, subject to unlettered parents, known only in the neighborhood (and that as son of a village tinker), and taking his trade. In our supposedly educated society, let us try to understand the One called the very 'wisdom of God' as arriving at maturity with less than a sixth-grade education.

Once He said, 'My Father works and I do too.' Adam's work was to till the ground until sweat ran off his nose, and until he would die and return to the ground. Like Adam, Christ labored, sweated, and died.

'If it be possible, let this cup pass from me,' was Jesus' prayer in the Garden. But Calvary was only the final and most bitter of cups in His public life of humiliation. He made Himself of no worldly reputation. He became obedient to rules made for the gainsaying and disobedient, for little minds and sinful people, until He had fulfilled every one of them. That was what it meant to be 'made' of a woman, not only 'under the law' but subject to 'every ordinance of man.'

He was to be granted no exception from any humiliating legal requirement for good conduct. The law prescribed circumcision and participation in the whole ritual and sacrificial system, including three trips every year to the central sanctuary. Every one of the Mosaic requirements related to the Israelites as sinners. Jesus was innocent of any sin whatsoever, yet as 'under the law,' He patiently went through all the motion without protest.

Systematic Theology

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Day 6

MAN'S CHIEF END IS TO GLORIFY GOD
AND TO ENJOY HIM FOREVER

Thomas Watson

"Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:11-13)

How may we glorify God? We glorify God by being content in that state in which Providence has placed us. We give God the glory of his wisdom when we rest satisfied with what he carves out to us. Thus Paul glorified God. The Lord cast him into as great a variety of conditions as any man: 'in prisons more frequent, in death oft,' yet he had learned to be content. A good Christian argues thus: It is God that has put me in this condition. He could have raised me higher, if he pleased, but that might have been a snare to me. He has done it in wisdom and love; therefore, I will sit down satisfied with my condition. God counts himself much honored by such a Christian. For one to be content when he is in heaven is no wonder, but to be content under the cross is like a Christian.

We glorify God by walking cheerfully. It brings glory to God when the world sees a Christian who has within him that which can make him cheerful in the worst times. The people of God have ground for cheerfulness. They are justified and adopted, and this creates inward peace. It reflects upon a master when the servant is always drooping and sad, so when God's people hang their heads, it looks as if they did not serve a good master, or repented of their choice, which reflects dishonor on God.

It will be a great comfort in a dying hour to think we have glorified God in our lives. At the hour of death, all your earthly comforts will vanish. What is one the better for an estate that is spent? But to have conscience telling you that you have glorified God on the earth, what sweet comfort and peace will this let into your soul! The servant that has been all day working in the vineyard longs till evening comes when he shall receive his pay.

If we glorify God, he will glorify our souls forever. By raising God's glory, we increase our own.

A Body of Divinity

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Day 7

SPIRITUAL FLUCTUATIONS

Arthur W. Pink

"God will hear, and afflict them, even he who abides from of old. Because they do not change, therefore they do not fear God." (Psalm 55:19)

As there are some people who uniformly enjoy good health, so there is a class of religious professors who appear to maintain one steady level of experience. There is no rise and fall of their emotional thermometer, no ebbs and flows in the tide of their energy, no ups and downs in their history. Their faith (such as it is) does not flag, their "assurance" is never eclipsed by the dark clouds of unbelief, their zeal continues lively to the end. Does not the timid and trembling believer, whose case varies as often and as radically as the weather, frequently wish that his experience approximated far more closely that which we have just described? Surely such a uniform level of experience is greatly to be coveted. What more desirable than unruffled peace, unbroken confidence, uninterrupted joy. But all is not gold that glitters, and much that passes in the churches for the coin of Canaan lacks a genuine ring to it. Is such a peace that of the graveyard or the peace of Heaven? Is the fear of God upon such characters?

What "changes" the real Christian experiences in his conflicts with sin! At conversion it often seems as though the believer is completely delivered from all his spiritual enemies. But how soon he discovers that the Wilderness of Sin lies between him and the Promised Land. True, God grants him many a token of his favor along the way, and at each gracious reviving indwelling sin appears to slumber. But soon afterward, it awakens and rages worse than ever, and, "I am carnal, sold under sin" becomes his cry.

What "changes" the real Christian experiences in his enjoyment of the Scriptures! Often he is able to feelingly exclaim, "More to be desired are they than gold." But alas, it is by no means always so. When fellowship with God is broken, our relish is lost for his word, and it becomes more or less neglected.

What "changes" the real Christian experiences in his prayer life! One day he is favored with real freedom and his devotions are delightful, but another day he is bound in the spirit and his attempts at supplication are wearisome.

What "changes" the true Christian often experiences in his outward lot! For a time--perhaps years--the smile of Providence is upon him, and then all is drastically altered. One trouble follows swiftly upon the heels of another until the sorely tried soul is ready to say with Jacob, "All these things are against me."

But such "changes" or afflictions are helpful: they deeply exercise an honest heart. They humble him before the Lord, cause him to tread more softly, and deepen his fear of God. Continued ease and comfort produce the worst effects upon the godless, but the spiritual fluctuations to which we have alluded are part of God's discipline for the believer's growth in piety.

eternallifeministries.org

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Day 8

PLEASING GOD

Matthew Henry

"Do not say, 'I will recompense evil';
wait for the LORD, and he will save you."
Proverbs 20:22

Those that live in this world must expect to have injuries done them, affronts given them, and trouble wrongfully created them, for we dwell among briers. Now here we are told what to do when we have wrong done us.

We must not avenge ourselves, no, nor so much as think of revenge or design it. "Say not thou," no, not in your heart, "I will recompense evil" for evil. Do not please yourself with the thought that some time or other you shall have an opportunity of getting even with him. Do not wish revenge or hope for it, much less resolve upon it; no, not when the injury is fresh and the resentment of it most deep. Never say that you will do a thing which you cannot in faith pray to God to assist you in.

We must refer ourselves to God and leave it to him to plead our cause, to maintain our right, and reckon with those that do us wrong--in such a way and manner as he thinks fit and in his own due time. "Wait on the Lord," attend his pleasure, acquiesce in his will, and he does not say that he will punish him that has injured you (instead of desiring that you must forgive him and pray for him), but "he will save thee," and that is enough. He will protect you so that your passing by one injury shall not (as is commonly feared) expose you to another. Nay, he will recompense good to you to balance your trouble and encourage your patience, as David hoped when Shimei cursed him.

Matthew Henry's Commentaries

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Day 9

THE FOUNTAIN OF PRAISE

Charles Spurgeon

All my soul was dry and dead
till I learned that Jesus bled.
Bled and suffered in my place,
bearing sin in matchless grace.

Then a drop of heavenly love
fell upon me from above.
And by secret, mystic art
reached the center of my heart.

Glad the story I recount,
how that drop became a fount.
Bubbled up a living well,
made my heart begin to swell.

All within my soul was praise,
praise increasing all my days.
Praise which could not silent be,
floods were struggling to be free.

More and more the waters grew,
open wide the flood-gates flew.
Leaping forth in streams of song
flowed my happy life along.

Lo, a river clear and sweet
laved my glad, obedient feet!
Soon it rose up to my knees,
and I praised and prayed with ease.

Now my soul in praises swims,
bathes in songs, and psalms, and hymns.
Plunges down into the deeps,
all her powers in worship steeps.

Hallelujah! O my Lord,
torrents from my soul are poured!
I am carried clean away,
praising, praising all the day.

In an ocean of delight,
praising God with all my might.
Self is drowned, so let it be,
only Christ remains to me.

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Day 10

THE HUMBLE SOUL

Ebenezer Erskine

"Though the LORD is on high, yet he regards the lowly;
but the proud he knows from afar."
Psalm 138:6

The first thing proposed is to give some account of this lowliness and humility that you may know in what it consists. Now, lowliness being a relative grace, we must consider it in a threefold view: As it has a respect to ourselves, as it has a respect to others, and as it has a respect to God.

With respect to ourselves, it implies low thoughts. The humble soul has low thoughts of his own person, as David had when he wrote, "I am a worm, and no man." The humble soul has low thoughts of his pedigree: he is not like the princes of Zoan who valued themselves because they were the offspring of ancient kings. Some think there is none like them, because they are of such a clan and such a family; they have such lords and lairds for their relations. But the humble soul makes little account of all these: "Who am I," says David, "and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?"

Again, the man who is humble has low thoughts of his own abilities for any work or service he is called to perform. O, says the lowly soul, I see I am nothing, I can do nothing. I cannot of myself think a good thought. I cannot read, hear, pray, communicate, meditate, or examine myself. I see such sin and imperfection attending every duty I set about as may justly provoke a holy God to cast it back like dung upon my face. I see I cannot subdue one corruption or resist the least temptation when left to myself. I fall before it and must needs be carried down the stream like a dead fish, unless the Lord's grace be sufficient for me. The humble man has low thoughts of his attainments, whether moral or evangelical. Says Agur, "I am more brutish than any man and have not the understanding of a man." And Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, did not reckon that he had attained or that he was already perfect; but he forgets those things which were behind, reaching forth unto things that were before.

This lowliness and humility with respect to ourselves has in it a self-abhorrence, which is yet a degree beyond the former. The man sees so much sin and guilt, so much emptiness, poverty, and vileness about himself, that, with holy Job, he cries out, "Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." It has in it a singleness of heart in the discharge of duty, without vain-glory or Pharisaical ostentation. To pray, give alms, or do any duty to be seen of men, that we may procure a name to ourselves or the approbation of others, argues a proud hypocritical spirit. The humble and lowly Christian will make conscience of duty, although none in the world should see him. The more retired he is, the better he loves it.

This lowliness and humility, considered with respect to others, has this in it: a preferring of others above or before ourselves. Agreeably to this is the apostolic command: "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves." Not that a child of God should think a profane reprobate in a better state than himself, but every true child of God will see so much in himself as will make him ready to think the worst reprobate as good, or rather better, than he is by nature. And he will see that the least of saints have something in which they excel him. This was the disposition of the great apostle; he looked upon himself as the chief of sinners and the least of the saints. A humble man will not look upon the gifts and graces of others with a grudge. He rejoices to see the gifts and graces of God's Spirit abounding, and so will shun all vain comparisons of himself with others.

This lowliness and humility of soul with reference to God implies the following: We have high and admiring thoughts of the majesty of God. When God reveals himself, the man sinks into nothing in his own esteem. The humble soul will say with Moses, "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" We always have a holy fear and dread of God, especially in our immediate approaches into his presence and in the duties of his worship. The very angels cover their faces with their wings before him, crying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts."

In a word, the humble and lowly believer is content to be nothing that Christ may be all in all to him; content to be a fool that Christ may be his only wisdom; content to be as he really is in himself--a guilty condemned criminal--that Christ may be his only righteousness; content to be stripped of his filthy rags that he may be clothed with a borrowed robe. "Surely in the Lord alone have I righteousness and strength: in him will I be justified, and in him alone will I glory."

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Day 11

CONCERNING TRIBULATIONS

John Calvin

"These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world." (I John 2:15,16)

Whatever kind of tribulation presses on us, we must ever look to this end: to accustom ourselves to contempt for the present life and to be aroused thereby to meditate upon the future life. For since God knows best how much we are inclined by nature to a brutish love of this world, he uses the fittest means to draw us back and to shake off the sluggishness, lest we cling too tenaciously to that love. There is not one of us, indeed, who does not wish to seem throughout life to aspire and strive after heavenly immortality; for it is a shame for us to be no better than brute beasts, whose condition would be no whit inferior to our own, if there were not left to us hope of eternity after death.

But if you examine the plans, the efforts, the deeds of anyone, there you will find nothing else but earth. Now our blockishness arises from the fact that our minds--stunned by the empty dazzlement of riches, power, and honors--become so deadened that they can see no farther. The heart also, occupied with avarice, ambition, and lust, is so weighed down that it cannot rise up higher. In time, the whole soul, enmeshed in the allurements of the flesh, seeks its happiness on earth.

To counter this evil, the Lord instructs his followers in the vanity of this present life by continued proof of its miseries.

Calvin's Commentaries

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Day 12

"REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY
TO KEEP IT HOLY"

Thomas Watson

That we may sanctify and hallow the Sabbath by attentive hearing, beware of these two things: distraction and drowsiness.

It is said of Bernard that when he came to the church door, he would say, 'Stay here all my earthly thoughts.' Distraction hinders devotion. How often in hearing the word the thoughts dance up and down, and when the eye is on the minister the mind is upon other things. It is very sinful to give way to vain thoughts at this time because, when we are hearing the word, we are in God's special presence. To do any treasonable action in the king's presence is great impudence.

To have the heart distracted in hearing is a disrespect to God's omniscience. God is an all-seeing Spirit, and thoughts speak louder in his ears than words do in ours. To make no conscience of wandering thoughts in hearing is an affront to God's omniscience, as if he knew not our heart or did not hear the language of our thoughts.

To give way to wandering thoughts in hearing is hypocrisy. We pretend to hear what God says while our minds are quite upon another thing. 'This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their hearts far from me' (Isa. 29:13).

Vain thoughts in hearing offend God. If the king were speaking to one of his subjects, and he should not give heed to what the king says but be thinking on another matter or playing with a feather, would not the king be provoked? Vain thoughts show a great defect in our love to God. Did we love him, we should listen to his words as oracles and write them upon the table of our heart.

Take heed of drowsiness in hearing. Drowsiness shows much irreverence. How lively are many when they are about the world, but in the worship of God how drowsy, as if the devil had given them opium to make them sleep! A drowsy feeling here is very sinful. Are you not in prayer asking pardon of sin? Will the prisoner fall asleep when he is begging pardon? Is not the bread of life broken to you in the preaching of the word, and will a man fall asleep over his food? While you slept, perhaps the truth was delivered which might have converted your souls.

Sleeping is very offensive in a holy assembly. It not only grieves the Spirit of God but makes the hearts of the righteous sad. It troubles them to see anyone show such contempt of God and his worship, to see them busy in the shop but drowsy in the temple. Therefore, as Christ said, 'Could ye not watch one hour?' so, can ye not wake one hour?

Each Sabbath may be the last we shall ever keep. We may go from the place of hearing to the place of judging, and shall we not give reverent attention to the word? You must give an account for every sermon you hear. 'Give an account of thy stewardship,' Luke 16:2. So God will say, 'Give an account of thy hearing.' How can we give a good account if we have been distracted in hearing and have not taken notice of what has been said to us? The judge to whom we must give an account is God.

Let all this make us shake off distraction and drowsiness in hearing and have our ears chained to the word.

The Ten Commandments

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Day 13

HUMANISM

J. I. Packer

There is no doubt that Evangelicalism today is in a state of perplexity and unsettlement. If we go to the root of the matter, we shall find that these perplexities are all ultimately due to our having lost our grip on the biblical gospel. Without realizing it, we have during the past century bartered away that gospel for a substitute product which, though it looks similar enough in points of detail, is as a whole a decidedly different thing. We would suggest that the reason lies in its own character and content.

The new gospel fails to make men God-centered in their thoughts and God-fearing in their hearts, because this is not primarily what it is trying to do. One way of stating the difference between it and the old gospel is to say that the new gospel is too exclusively concerned to be 'helpful' to man--to bring peace, comfort, happiness, satisfaction--and too little concerned to glorify God. Whereas the chief aim of the old was to teach people to worship God, the concern of the new seems limited to making them feel better. The subject of the old gospel was God and his ways with men; the subject of the new is man and the help God gives him.

From this change of interest has sprung a change of content, for the new gospel has in effect reformulated the biblical message in the supposed interests of 'helpfulness'. Accordingly, the themes of man's natural inability to believe, of God's free election being the ultimate cause of salvation, and of Christ dying specifically for his sheep are not preached. These doctrines, it would be said, are not 'helpful'; they would drive sinners to despair by suggesting to them that it is not in their own power to be saved through Christ. (The possibility that such despair might be salutary is not considered.) Thus, we appeal to men as if they all had the ability to receive Christ at any time. We speak of God's love as if it were no more than a general willingness to receive any who will turn and trust. And we depict the Father and the Son, not as sovereignly active in drawing sinners to themselves, but as waiting in quiet impotence 'at the door of our hearts' for us to let them in.

It is undeniable that this is how we preach. Perhaps this is what we really believe. But it needs to be said with emphasis that this set of twisted half-truths is something other than the biblical gospel. To recover the old, authentic, biblical gospel, and to bring our preaching and practice back into line with it, is perhaps our most pressing present need.

Quoted in Systematic Theology by Robert Duncan Culver

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Day 14

STANDING BEFORE GOD

Augustus Toplady

"Who is able to stand before this Holy Lord God?"
1 Samuel 6:20

And yet, before this holy Lord God every soul must one day stand. "We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ," says the apostle, "that every one may receive according to the things he has done in the body." In some sense, we may be said to stand before Him now: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good."

If the Lord God, before whom each individual will shortly stand, is a holy God, we may well ask, "Who is able to stand before him? Who can abide the day of his coming or stand when he appears?" Appear he certainly will, and stand before him we inevitably must. God only knows who shall first be summoned to do this, but, first or last, the citation will be sent to all. We are no more than tenants here, removable at the pleasure of God. Death respects not persons. Old and young, rich and poor, the learned and the illiterate, the holy and the profane--all must stand before the judge. /

There are some, it is to be feared, who think little about standing before this holy Lord God. Death and judgment, with what will follow, are seldom or never the subjects of their meditation. Concern for salvation is too generally ridiculed as superstition and seriousness exploded as fanaticism. When the call is issued forth, when the warrant is made out, it will neither admit of denial or delay. Oh, that men were wise, that they understood this and would consider their latter end! Look not on what I say as words of course, but know that if they are unheeded now, a dying bed will convince you of their importance.

Let believers rejoice. The holy Lord God, to whom they must give account, is their Father, Savior, and friend. What is death to such but the accomplishment of their warfare and the commencement of an endless triumph. It is in the merits of Christ alone that we can stand with safety before God, so let us renounce self-dependence in every view and rely on him for justification and everlasting life.

Is the Lord God before whom we must appear infinitely holy? Then let us aim at holiness likewise. There is no true Christianity, that is, there is no dignity nor happiness, without it. He is not a Father in a spiritual, saving sense, to any on whose souls the Holy Spirit has not impressed his image and on whose hearts he has not inscribed his law.

lgmarshall.org

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Day 15

MAN'S WILL:
FREE YET BOUND

Walter J. Chantry

For more than fifteen hundred years the Church has engaged in a heated debate over the freedom of man's will. Some theologians, both Arminian and Calvinistic, have been quite lucid in their discussions concerning it. Others, for example Jonathan Edwards, have soared into the lofty clouds of philosophy where many a believer faints in the thin air of difficult logic and complex thought. But none is so refreshingly clear as our holy Lord. His instruction on the subject is laced with vivid illustrations to assist our groping minds.

Matthew 12:33-37 says, "Either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned."

In this passage are three verbal windows through which the light of Christ's lesson passes. Each presents a familiar scene: A tree that has fruit, a man who brings treasures out of a chest, and a stream that overflows from a fountain.

Man has a will and that will has a certain freedom. Our Lord clearly teaches that man has a power of choice. Every man has the ability to choose his own words, to decide what his actions will be. We have a faculty of self-determination in the sense that we select our own thoughts, words, and deeds. Man is free to choose what he prefers, what he desires. God never forces men to act against their wills. By workings of outward providence or of inward grace, the Lord may change men's minds, but he will not coerce a human being into thoughts, words or actions. Neither by creation nor by subsequent acts of God are man's decisions made for him; he is free to choose for himself.

When Christ stood to cry, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink," he was soliciting a willing choice of himself as satisfying drink for the soul. God urges all sinners to come just because they may come. And it is our duty to inform the sinner that he has a warrant, a right to choose Christ. Beyond this, we must assure him that he has a positive duty to embrace the Saviour. The great guilt of sinners under the gospel is that they will not come.

Although man does have a will, it is neither independent of all influences nor supreme over all other parts of his personality. Far from the will reigning over a man, the will is determined by the man's own character. It is not raised to a position of dominance over the entire man.

Man is like a tree. His heart, not his will alone, is the root. There is no possible way by which the will can choose to produce fruit contrary to the character of the root. If the root is bad, the tree is bound by its very nature to produce evil fruit. Man is like a person standing alongside his treasure chest. There is no possibility of bringing pure gold out of a box filled only with rusty steel. The contents of the heart determine what words and deeds may be brought out. Far from being neutral, the will must reach into the heart for its choices. Every thought, word and deed will partake of the nature of the treasure within. Man is like a stream which cannot rise above its source. If the fountain is polluted, the outflow will be evil.

These three illustrations alike contain the same lesson. What a man is determines what he chooses. Choices of the will always reveal the character of the heart, because the heart determines the choices. Men are not sinners because they choose to sin; they choose to sin because they are sinners. If this were not so, we could never know a tree by its fruits, nor could we judge a man's character by his acts.

Our Lord has taught that the tree must be made good. Man must be renewed in his entire character. He must have a new heart to bring forth good fruit. The will cannot make the tree good; it may only exercise liberty to be what the tree already is. The will cannot reload the treasure chest with a new kind of goods; it may only freely bring forth what is there. The will cannot cleanse the fountainhead; it may overflow only with the waters available in the soul.

While we address the wills of men in gospel preaching, they are wills bound in the grave clothes of an evil heart. But as we speak and the Lord owns his word, sinners are quickened to life by divine power. His people are made willing in the day of his power. Our glorious God, by inward, secret, transforming power, can make the tree good, the treasures good, the fountain good. Thus all glory be to God and to the Lamb! Salvation is of the Lord!

lgmarshall.org

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Day 16

THE FAITH OF STONEWALL JACKSON

Rev. William Jones

A friend was once conversing with Stonewall Jackson about the difficulty of obeying the Scripture injunction, 'pray without ceasing,' and Jackson insisted that we could so accustom ourselves to it that it could be easily obeyed. "When we take our meals, there is the grace. When I take a drink of water, I always pause as my palate receives the refreshment to lift up my heart to God in thanks and prayers for the water of life. Whenever I drop a letter into the box at the post office, I send a petition along with it for God's blessing upon its mission and upon the person to whom it is sent. When I break the seal of a letter just received, I stop to pray to God that he may prepare me for its contents and make it a messenger of good. When I go to my classroom and await the arrangement of the cadets in their places, that is my time to intercede with God for them. And so of every other familiar act of the day."

Soon after he was wounded, Major Jackson said, "You see me severely wounded, but not depressed, not unhappy. I believe it has been done according to God's holy will, and I acquiesce entirely in it. You may think it strange, but you never saw me more perfectly contented than I am today; for I am sure that my Heavenly Father designs this affliction for my good. I am perfectly satisfied that either in this life or in that which is to come, I shall discover that what is now regarded as a calamity, is a blessing. And if it appears a great calamity, as it surely will be a great inconvenience to be deprived of my arm, it will result in a great blessing. I can wait until God, who in his own time, shall make known to me the object he has in thus afflicting me. But why should I not rather rejoice in it as a blessing, and not look on it as a calamity at all? If it were in my power to replace my arm, I would not dare do it until I could know that it was the will of my Heavenly Father."

As he gradually grew worse and his physicians and friends became alarmed about his condition, he was calm, resigned, even joyous at the prospect. Noticing the sadness of his loving wife, he said to her tenderly: "I know you would gladly give your life for me, but I am perfectly resigned. Do not be sad. I hope I may yet recover. Pray for me, but always remember in your prayers to use the petition, 'Thy will be done.'" When he saw the number of surgeons who were called in, he said to his medical director, "I see from the number of physicians that you consider my condition dangerous, but I thank God that, if it is His will, I am ready to go."

Stonewall Jackson took Jesus as his Savior, his Guide, his great Example, "the Captain of his salvation," whom he followed with the unquestioning obedience of the true soldier. And having thus lived, it is not surprising that he died the glorious death which has been described. Nay, it was not death. The weary, worn, battle-scarred veteran only received an honorable discharge. He had won the victory; he only went to wear the crown of rejoicing.

chi.gospelcom.net/lives_events/pastwords/chl091.shtml

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Day 17

DIVINE HEALING

Arthur W. Pink

Is the teaching of divine healing Scriptural or unscriptural? This is a question which is not easy to answer in a single sentence.

First, it must be said that much of the teaching which has been given out on this subject is decidedly unscriptural. For example, the majority of those who emphasize divine healing insist that "it was in the Atonement"--that on the cross Christ was as truly our sickness-bearer as our sin-bearer. It was there, they teach, that he purchased healing for the body as well as salvation for the soul and, therefore, every Christian has the same right to appropriate by faith the cure of bodily disorders as he has the forgiveness of his transgressions. In support of this contention, appeal is made to Christ who "healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the Prophet: 'Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses'" (Matt. 8:16,17). Here is where the expositor is needed if the unlettered and unstable are to be preserved from jumping to an erroneous conclusion; when the mere sound of the words is likely to convey a wrong impression unless the sense be carefully ascertained.

Had those words--Christ "bare our sicknesses"--occurred in some passage in the Acts or Epistles where one of the Apostles was explaining the purpose and character of Christ's death, then we should have been obliged to regard them as meaning that the Lord Jesus vicariously endured the sicknesses of his people while on the Cross, though this would present a very great difficulty since there is no hint anywhere in the Word that the Redeemer experienced any illness at that time. But rather, Matthew 8:16,17 has reference to what transpired during the days of his public ministry, the meaning of which is that Christ employed not the virtue that was in Him to cure infirmity and sickness as a matter of mere power, but in deep pity and tenderness he entered into the condition of the sufferer. The Great Physician was no unfeeling stoic, but took upon His own spirit the sorrows and pains of those to whom he ministered. His miracles of healing cost him much in the way of sympathy and endurance. By a compassion to which we are strangers, he was afflicted by their afflictions.

If those words signified what the "divine healing" cults say they do, then they mean that in his act of healing the sick, Christ was then making atonement, which is absurd on the face of it. Again, if the healing of the body were a redemptive right which faith may humbly but boldly claim, then it necessarily follows that the believer should never die, for every time he fell ill he could plead before God the sacrifice of his son and claim healing. In such a case, why did not Paul exhort Timothy to exercise faith in the atonement rather than bid him "use a little wine for his stomach's sake," and why did Paul leave Trophimus at "Miletus sick?"

Those who hold that Christ made atonement for our sicknesses as well as for our sins are quite consistent in maintaining that deliverance from the former must be obtained in precisely the same way as salvation from the latter; that the sole means must be the exercise of faith without the introduction or addition of any works or doings of our own. The fallacy of this logical inference reveals the unsoundness of the premise. A reference to the Scriptures will at once show that while in some cases God was pleased to cure the sick without means, yet in other instances he both appointed and blessed the use of means. For the healing of the bitter waters of Marah, Moses was instructed to cast into them a tree which "the Lord showed him." When God promised to heal Hezekiah who was sick unto death, Isaiah bade the king "take a lump of figs," and we are told, "they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered."

We do not believe with "Faith-healing" fanatics that medical doctors are the special emissaries of Satan. The Holy Spirit would never have termed Luke "the beloved physician" had he been employed in the service of the devil.

eternallifeministries.org

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Day 18

SELF-INQUIRY

J. C. Ryle

We live in an age of peculiar spiritual privileges. Since the world began there never has been such an opportunity for a man's soul to be saved as there is in this century. There never were so many signs of religion in the land, so many sermons preached, so many services held in churches and chapels, so many Bibles sold, so many religious books and tracts printed, so many organizations for evangelizing mankind, so much outward respect paid to Christianity as there is now.

We also live in an age of special spiritual danger. Never perhaps since the world began has there been such an immense amount of mere outward profession of religion as there is in the present day. A painfully large proportion of all the congregations in the land consists of unconverted people who know nothing of heart-religion, never come to the Lord's Table, and never confess Christ in their daily lives. Myriads of those who are always running after preachers and crowding to hear special sermons are without a bit of real vital Christianity at home. The parable of the sower is continually receiving most vivid and painful illustrations. The way-side hearers, the stony-ground hearers, the thorny-ground hearers, abound on every side.

The life of many religious persons in this age, I fear, is nothing better than a continual course of spiritual dram-drinking [sampling of the latest fad]. They are always morbidly craving fresh excitement, and they seem to care little what it is if they only get it. All preaching seems to be the same to them, and they appear unable to "see differences" so long as they hear what is clever, have their ears tickled, and sit in a crowd. Worst of all, there are hundreds of young unestablished believers who are so infected with the same love of excitement that they actually think it a duty to be always seeking it. Insensibly almost to themselves, they take up a kind of hysterical, sensational, sentimental Christianity until they are never content with the "old paths" and, like the Athenians, are always running after something new. To see a calm-minded young believer who is not stuck up, self-confident, conceited, and more ready to teach than to learn, but who instead is content with a daily steady effort to grow up into Christ's likeness and to do Christ's work quietly and unostentatiously at home, is really becoming almost a rarity! Too many young professors, alas, behave like young recruits who have not spent all their bounty money. They show how little deep root and knowledge they have not only by their readiness to contradict older Christians, but by their over-weaning trust in their own fancied soundness and wisdom.

Surely in times like these there is a great need for self-examination. When we look around us we may well ask, "How do we do about our souls?"

sermonindex.net

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Day 19

FULL ASSURANCE OF HOPE

Harry Ironside

"For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, then do we with patience wait for it." (Romans 8:24,25)

He who has the full assurance of faith and of understanding, and knows on the authority of the word (of Him who cannot lie) that he is already justified and eternally saved now, has the hope set before him of the redemption of his body at the return of the Lord Jesus--when he will be conformed fully to the image of God's Son. This hope buoys him up as he faces the manifold trials and vicissitudes of life.

But we should by no means belittle experience. "We glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulations work patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope," (Rom. 5:3,4). The renewed man enjoys true Christian experience, which is produced by the knowledge of Christ as the one who undertakes for him in all the varied trials of the way. These are designed by God to work together for the perfecting of Christian character. It is therefore a great mistake to shrink from trouble, or to pray to be kept free from tribulation.

The story has often been told of the younger Christian who sought the counsel and help of an older brother, a minister of Christ. "Pray for me," he entreated, "that I may be given more patience." Down on their knees they dropped, and the minister pleaded with God, "O Lord, send this brother more tribulations and trials!"

"Stop!" exclaimed the other. "I did not ask you to pray that I might have tribulations, but patience."

"I understood you," was the reply. "But we are told in the Word that tribulation works patience."

It is a lesson most of us are slow to learn. But note the steps as given in the passage above: tribulation, patience; patience, experience; experience, hope. As one walks with God and learns to suffer and endure, as seeing Him who is invisible, eternal things become more real than the things of time and sense, which are everything to the merely natural man. Thus, there comes to the heart a trustful calm, a full assurance, based not upon the revealed Word alone, but upon a personal knowledge of communion with God, which gives implicit confidence as to this present life and all that lies ahead.

theoldtimegospel.org

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Day 20

GOD'S WAYS ABOVE MEN'S

Edward Payson

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Isaiah 55:9

God's thoughts and ways are not as ours respecting the best methods of dealing with his people, and carrying on the work of grace in their souls after it is begun. When God delivered his people from Egyptian bondage, if he had led them by the nearest and most direct way to Canaan, they might have reached it in a very few days. And had they been consulted, they would probably have thought the nearest way the best. But God thought otherwise. So when God converts his people from sin to holiness, he could, if he pleased, render them perfectly holy at once, and they are often ready to imagine that this would be much the better way both for his glory and their own good. But instead of adopting this method, he grants them at first but small degrees of grace, and increases it in a very slow and gradual manner. He leads them round for many years through a wilderness beset with temptations, trials, and sufferings, with a view to humble them, prove them, and show them all that is in their hearts. By the discoveries which they make of their own weakness, ignorance, and propensity to sin, their pride is humbled, their self-confidence destroyed, and their patience, meekness, and candor are increased. The Savior and his method of salvation is rendered more precious, and all ground for boasting forever excluded.

If God's thoughts and ways are thus high above ours, it must be abominable pride, impiety, folly, and presumption in us to censure them even in thought. Yet how often men do this! How often do they, at least in their hearts, find fault with God's word, murmur at his dispensations, repine under afflictions, feel dissatisfied with his manner of governing the world, and quarrel with his sovereignty in the bestowing of favors. They in effect say that God is either unwise, unkind, or unjust, and that they could conduct things in a better manner. For a child of a week old to condemn the proceedings of his parent would be nothing to this. We are told that if any man judges a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him. What folly and shame is it then for us to attempt to judge of the conduct of God when we know only so small a part of his ways, and even this part imperfectly.

An ancient writer tell us of a man who, having a house for sale, carried a brick to market to exhibit as a specimen. You may perhaps smile at his folly in supposing that any purchaser would or could judge of a whole house, which he never saw, by so small a part of it. But are not we guilty of much greater folly in attempting to form an opinion of God's conduct from that little part of it which we are able to discover?

Hence, whenever we attempt to judge God's conduct, we do in effect set ourselves up as God, knowing good and evil. Well therefore may God reply to our vain, proud, and impious objections: "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding....Would you indeed annul my judgment? Would you condemn me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God?

And while God may thus with propriety address each of us, it becomes us to reply with Job, "Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further....I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know."

spurgeon.org/~phil/stalwrts.htm

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Day 21

"WHAT MEANEST THOU, O SLEEPER?
ARISE, CALL UPON THY GOD!"
Jonah 1:6

Thomas Guthrie

In the history of Jonah we may draw many a fact materially affecting us as spiritual beings, and discover in it no faint representation of the deplorable condition in which we are found by the Gospel. Did Jonah disobey the command of God? So have we, not only in Adam our federal head, but also in the daily sins with which we stand chargeable. Did Jonah flee from the presence of the Lord? So have we, in forsaking Him who is the fountain of living waters, and hewing out for ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. Was Jonah, in consequence, exposed to imminent danger? So are we in danger of the wrath that is to come and is never to end. Was Jonah awakened to a sense of his danger in the ship, where he little dreamed of the extremity of his peril? So the Gospel raises its warning voice and proclaims to each one of us, "What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God."

All men are by nature in a state of danger. Were we to judge the truth or falsehood of this statement by our observations of the conduct (not professions) of mankind, we would be very apt to believe that it was false. Man, indeed, in private or public prayer, confesses that his soul is in danger of the coming wrath. But his concern is far less than that which he shows in the loss of the merest trifle of his worldly concerns. How many sleepless nights and anxious days, how many hours of sorrow and how many seasons of unwearied exertions will that man pass who has discovered he is in danger of falling behind in worldly matters! With what earnest expectation will he watch for, and with what joy will he welcome every favorable turn in the tide of business until he has gained a sure and steady footing!

But if the soul of man is really in danger, do we meet that danger with any intense feeling of alarm? No. Do we witness in mankind any anxious earnestness to be delivered from the impending danger? No. If such danger does exist, there is nothing in the world that occupies men less. They are more afraid of losing a pound or a penny than their souls.

Notwithstanding that our conduct in general gives very little proof of our apprehension of danger, we find unquestionable authority that the curse of a broken law has gone forth against us, and that the punishment of a broken law awaits the closing of the day of God's forbearance. He who stands charged by his conscience with the guilt of one single sin stands exposed to the curse of an offended law. Do not entertain this delusion (which is too ready to gain admission to our hearts): "Have I been such a sinner as to expose me to danger?" Rather ask yourself, "Have I been a sinner at all?"

If your eyes are opened to the storm of divine wrath which, like a black lowering cloud, is about to pour its thunders on your head, and if you feel yourself defenseless and unprepared to brave its fury, we beseech you to seek the righteousness of Jesus Christ as a shelter from the storm. There is no aspect in which your danger can be viewed in which the righteousness of Christ does not appear fit for your deliverance. Are you under the bondage of sin? The price of your redemption was paid on Calvary. Are you defiled with sin, and loathsome in your iniquity? There is a fountain opened for sin and all uncleanness.

The man of the world may pass the time of his sojourn here on earth without once feeling an internal struggle, without once smarting under the sting of an accusing conscience. But you, Christian, have chosen a path beset with the wiles of the devil. Your feet are surrounded by his snares, and you are continually exposed to his open assaults. Therefore, slumber not, for this is the enemy's country; repose not, for this is not the place of your rest.

newble.co.uk/guthrie/

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Day 22

EFFECTUAL CALLING

Charles Spurgeon

"All that the Father gives me shall come to me,
and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out."
John 6:37

This declaration involves the doctrine of election: There are some whom the Father gave to Christ. It involves the doctrine of effectual calling: These who are given must and shall come; however stoutly they may set themselves against it, yet they shall be brought out of darkness into God's marvelous light. It teaches us the indispensable necessity of faith, for even those who are given to Christ are not saved except they come to Jesus. Even they must come, for there is no other way to heaven but by the door, Christ Jesus. All that the Father gives to our Redeemer must come to Him; therefore, none can come to heaven except they come to Christ.

Oh, the power and majesty that rest in the words "will come." He does not say they have power to come, nor that they may come if they will, but they "will come." The Lord Jesus by His messengers, His Word, and His Spirit, sweetly and graciously compels men to come in that they may eat of His marriage supper. And this He does not by any violation of the free agency of man, but by the power of His grace. I may exercise power over another man's will, and yet that other man's will may be perfectly free, because the constraint is exercised in a manner accordant with the laws of the human mind. Jehovah Jesus knows how by irresistible arguments addressed to the understanding, by mighty reasons appealing to the affections, and by the mysterious influence of His Holy Spirit operating upon all the powers and passions of the soul, so to subdue the whole man. Whereas he was once rebellious, he now yields cheerfully to His government, subdued by sovereign love.

But how shall those be known whom God has chosen? By this result: that they do willingly and joyfully accept Christ and come to Him with simple and unfeigned faith, resting upon Him as all their salvation and all their desire. Reader, have you come to Jesus in this way?

Morning and Evening

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Day 23

ESAU SELLS HIS BIRTHRIGHT

Alfred Edersheim

For twenty years the union of Isaac and Rebekah had remained unblessed with children, to indicate that here also the heir of the promises must be a gift from God granted to expectant faith. At last, Jehovah listened to Isaac's entreaty for his wife, and Rebekah was now to become the mother of twin sons.

But even before their birth, a sign occurred which distressed her and induced her to inquire of Jehovah for its meaning. The answer of God indicated quite clearly that of her children "the elder shall serve the younger." It is not only reasonable, but quite necessary for the understanding of the subsequent history, to believe that Rebekah communicated the result of her inquiry to her husband, and that afterward both Esau and Jacob were also made acquainted with the fact. This alone fully accounts for the conduct of Jacob and his mother in seeking to appropriate the birthright.

When the two children were born, the red and hairy appearance of the elder procured for him the name of Esau, or "hairy," while the younger was called Jacob, or he "who takes hold by the heel," afterward adapted to mean "a supplanter," since he who takes hold by the heel trips up the other.

The appearance of the children did not belie their character when they grew up. The wild disposition of Esau, which found occupation in the roaming life of a hunter, reminds us of Ishmael; while Jacob, gentle and domestic, sought his pleasures at home. As is so often the case, Isaac and Rebekah made favorites of the sons who had the opposite of their own disposition. The quiet, retiring Isaac preferred his bold, daring, strong, roaming elder son. Rebekah, who was naturally energetic, felt chiefly drawn to the gentle son Jacob. But Isaac's preference for Esau made him reluctant to fall in with the divine arrangement, while the impetuosity of Rebekah and Jacob prompted them to bring about in their own way the fulfillment of God's promise. Thus it came that Jacob, watching his opportunities, soon found occasion to take advantage of his brother.

One day Esau returned from the chase "faint" with hunger. The sight of a mess of lentils--which to this day is a favorite dish in Syria and Egypt--induced him, unaccustomed and unable as he was to control the desires of the moment, to barter away his birthright for this red pottage. The circumstances become the more readily intelligible when we remember, besides the unbridled disposition of Esau, that it was a time of commencing famine in the land.

In regard to the conduct of the two brothers in this matter, we must note that Scripture in no way excuses nor apologizes for that of Jacob. It simply states the facts and makes neither comment nor remark upon them. But so far as Esau is concerned, only one opinion can be entertained of his conduct. We are too apt to imagine that because Jacob wronged or took advantage of Esau, therefore Esau was right. The opposite of this is the case. When we ask ourselves what Jacob intended to purchase, or Esau to sell in the birthright, we answer that in later times it conveyed a double share of the paternal possessions. In patriarchal days, it included "lordship" over the rest of the family, and especially succession to that spiritual blessing which through Abraham was to flow out into the world, together with possession of the land of Canaan and covenant-communion with Jehovah.

Esau discredited and despised what of these things was spiritual. He imagined he might still obtain, either by his father's favor or by violence, what was temporal, but yet future. That he should, for the momentary gratification of the lowest sensual appetites, have been ready to barter away such unspeakable precious and holy privileges proved him, in the language of the Epistle to the Hebrews, to have been "a profane person," and therefore quite unfitted to become the heir of the promises. For profanity consists in this: to give up that which is spiritual and unseen for the sensual gratification or amusement of the moment; to be careless of that which is holy so as to snatch the present enjoyment; in short, practically not to deem anything holy at all if it stands in the way of present pleasure.

Scripture puts it down as the bitter self-condemnation which Esau, by his conduct, pronounced upon himself: "And he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way; thus Esau despised his birthright."

Bible History Old Testament

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Day 24

"HE HAS APPOINTED A DAY ON WHICH
HE WILL JUDGE THE WORLD"
Acts 17:31

Jonathan Edwards

There are many things in the dealings of God toward the children of men which appear very mysterious if we do not view them with an eye to this last judgment.

First: God suffers the wicked to live and prosper in the world. The infinitely holy and wise Creator and Governor of the world must necessarily hate wickedness. Yet we see many wicked men spreading themselves as a green tree. They live with impunity. Things seem to go well with them, and the world smiles upon them, many of whom have not been fit to live, who have held God and religion in the greatest contempt.

Now it is very mysterious that the holy and righteous Governor of the world, whose eye beholds all the children of men, should suffer it to be so, unless we look forward to the day of judgment. And then the mystery is unraveled. For although God for the present keeps silence and seems to let them alone, yet at that time he will give suitable manifestations of his displeasure against their wickedness. They shall then receive condign [fitting] punishment.

Second: God sometimes suffers some of the best men to be in great affliction, poverty, and persecution. The wicked rule while they are subject; the wicked domineer while they serve and are oppressed. Sometimes one wicked man makes many hundreds, yea thousands, of precious saints a sacrifice to his lust and cruelty, and puts them to death for no other reason but that for which they are especially to be esteemed and commended.

Now if we look no further than the present state, these things appear strange and unaccountable. But we ought not to confine our views within such narrow limits. When God shall have put an end to the present state, these things shall all be brought to rights. Though God suffers things to be so for the present, yet they shall not proceed in this course always. Comparatively speaking, the present state of things is but for a moment. When all shall be settled and fixed by a divine judgment, the righteous shall be exalted, honored, and rewarded, and the wicked shall be depressed and put under their feet.

You who have not the fear of God before your eyes and are not afraid to sin against him, consider seriously this day of judgment. If God keep silence, and judgment be not speedily executed, it is not because God is regardless of how you live and behave yourself. Now God is invisible to you and his wrath invisible. But at the day of judgment, your eyes shall see your judge sitting on his throne.

Excerpt from sermon, The Final Judgment
ondoctrine.com/2edw0701.htm

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Day 25

CHRIST'S COMPASSION

Thomas Guthrie

"Now as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it."
Luke 19:41

There needs no other evidence of the fact that irreligion does exist among religious professors, than the cold, callous and heartless indifference with which many bear of the sins, and look upon the sorrows, of their fellow creatures. They could not do so if they were baptized into the nature as well as the name of Jesus Christ. In some cases the loss of an oxen will affect the farmer, or the loss of a few pounds on some speculation distress a merchant, or the loss of the fading charms that won admiration grieve a woman, more than the loss of immortal souls. Alas, the best of us have cause to pray for a deeper baptism in the spirit of Him who, beholding the city, wept over it!

Blessed Jesus, blessed Savior! How you left the delights of heaven and your Father's bosom on a mission of most generous mercy. Your love grudged no labor; your eye refused no pity; your ear was never shut against the story of distress; your hand was always ready to relieve the sufferer. From the cradle to the grave your whole life was passed in daily acts of loftiest self-denial, and with the blood trickling down your brows and the heavy cross on your lacerated back to save the vilest wretches and the chief of sinners, you turned to us and said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works."

Jerusalem was sealed to ruin, doomed beyond redemption. Brethren, our cities are not so. We have not to mourn as those who have no hope. The promises of the gospel shed sunlight on pious sorrows. For dark as the cloud looks, it presents one aspect to the world and another to the Christian. I stand on the side of it that lies next the sun. There, with the sun shining at my back and the black cloud in my eye, I see a radiant bow which spans its darkness and reveals its heavenly color--mercy to a fallen world.

newble.co.uk/guthrie/

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Day 26

PRESERVATION OF THE SAINTS
FROM EVIL

John Flavel

A great advantage and mercy that the saints receive from the hand of Providence is in their preservation from the snares and temptations of sin. That Providence wards off many a deadly stroke of temptation and many a mortal thrust which Satan makes at our souls, is a truth as manifest as the light that shines.

The Providence of God is the great barrier and hindrance to a world of sin, which otherwise would break forth like an overflowing flood from our corrupt natures. And so much corruption there remains in good men, that they would certainly plunge themselves under much more guilt than they do if Providence did not take greater care of them than they do of themselves. For though they make conscience of keeping themselves, and daily watch their hearts and ways, yet such is the deceitfulness of sin that if Providence did not lay blocks in their way, sin would, more frequently than it does, entangle and defile them. And this Providence does in several ways.

Sometimes by stirring up others to interpose with seasonable counsel, which effectually dissuades them from prosecuting an evil design. Thus Abigail meets David in the nick of time (I Sam. 25:34).

Sometimes by hindering the means and instruments, whereby the evil itself is prevented. Thus, when good Jehoshaphat had joined himself with that wicked King Ahaziah to build ships at Ezion-geber to go to Tarshish, God prevents the design by breaking the ships with a storm (2 Chr. 20:35-37).

Sometimes by laying some strong affliction upon the body, to prevent a worse evil. And this is the meaning of, 'I will hedge up thy way with thorns' (Hos. 2:6). Thus, Paul had a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him; and this affliction, whatever it was, was ordained to prevent pride in him (2 Cor. 12:7).

Sometimes by the better information of their minds at the sacred oracles of God. Thus, when sinful motions began to rise in Asaph's mind, from the prosperity of the wicked and his own afflicted state, he is set right again by going into the sanctuary, where God showed him how to take new measures of persons and things, to judge them by their ends and issues and not their present appearances (Ps. 73).

Sometimes by removing his people out of the way of temptation by death. In this sense we may understand that text, 'The righteous is taken away from the evil to come' (Isa. 57:1), the evil of sin as well as sufferings. When the Lord sees his people low-spirited and not able to grapple with strong trials and temptations, it is for them a merciful Providence to be released by death and set out of harm's way.

Now consider and admire the Providence of God, O ye saints, who has had more care of your souls than ever you had of them yourselves. How woeful your case had been if the Lord had not mercifully saved you from many thousand temptations that have assaulted you! I tell you, you cannot estimate the mercies you possess by means of such providences.

Walk, therefore, suitably to this obligation of Providence, and see that you thankfully own it. Do not impute your escapes from sin to accidents or to your own watchfulness or wisdom. See also that you do not tempt Providence, on the other hand, by an irregular reliance upon its care over you without taking all due care of yourselves.

Providence has been no less concerned about your bodies, and with great tenderness it has carried them in its arms through innumerable hazards and dangers. There are many hazards into which we are often cast in this world. Have not some of us fallen, and that often, into very dangerous sicknesses and diseases in which we have approached to the very brink of the grave? Have we not often had the sentence of death in ourselves, and our bodies at that time have been like a leaky ship in a storm, taking in water on every side until it was ready to sink? Yet has God preserved, repaired, and launched us out again as well as ever.

What innumerable hazards and accidents, the least of which have cut off others, has God carried us all through! Many thousands of these dangers we never saw nor were made particularly aware of, but though we did not see them, our God did, and brought us out of danger before he brought us into fear.

The Mystery of Providence

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Day 27

THE TESTS OF LOVE TO GOD

Thomas Watson

Let us test ourselves impartially whether we are in the number of those that love God. For the deciding of this, I shall lay down fourteen signs, or fruits, of love to God, and it concerns us to search carefully whether any of these fruits grow in our garden.

The musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. What are our thoughts upon most? Can we say that we are ravished with delight when we think of God? Do we contemplate Christ and glory? Oh, how far are they from being lovers of God who scarcely ever think of Him!

Desire of communion. If we love God, we prize his ordinances. He speaks to us in his word, and we speak to him in prayer. Do we desire intimacy of communion with God?

Grief. Where there is love to God, there is a grieving for our sins of unkindness against him. A child who loves his father cannot but weep for offending him. Do we grieve for our abuse of God's mercy, our non-improvement of talents? How far are they from loving God who sin daily and their hearts never smite them!

Magnanimity. Love turns cowardice into courage. Love will make one venture upon the greatest difficulties and hazards. He that loves God will stand up in his cause and be an advocate for him. He who is afraid to own Christ has but little love for him.

Sensitiveness. If we love God, our hearts ache for the dishonor done to Him by wicked men. To see not only the banks of religion, but morality broken down and a flood of wickedness coming in--to see God's sabbaths profaned and his name dishonored--if there be any love to God in us, we shall lay these things to heart.

Hatred against sin. Fire purges the dross from the metal. The fire of love purges out sin. Sin strikes not only at God's honor, but his being. Is he a friend to God who loves that which God hates? He who has any secret sin in his heart is as far from loving God as heaven and earth are distant one from another.

Crucifixion. He who is a lover of God is dead to the world. He is dead to the honors and pleasures of it. What is there in the earth that we should so set our hearts upon it?

A fear mixed with jealousy. 'Eli's heart trembled for the ark' (1 Sam. 4:13). It is not said that his heart trembled for Hophni and Phinehas, his two sons, but his heart trembled for the ark, because if the ark were taken, then the glory was departed. He that loves God is full of fear lest it should go ill with the church. He fears lest profaneness should increase. If the Sun of righteousness remove out of our horizon, what can follow but darkness?

We love what God loves. David esteemed the Word for the sweetness and value of it. That man who does not love the word, has not the least spark of love in his heart. We love God's day, his laws, his saints.

To entertain good thoughts of God. He that loves his friend construes what his friend does in the best sense. Malice interprets all in the worst sense. He that loves God has a good opinion of Him; though he afflicts sharply, the soul takes all well.

Obedience. It is a vain thing to say we love Christ if we slight his commands. Does that child love his father who refuses to obey him?

Endeavor to make God appear glorious in the eyes of others. Such as are in love will be commending and setting forth the amiableness of those whom they love. If we love God, we shall spread abroad his excellences so that we may raise his fame and esteem and induce others to love him too.

To long for Christ's appearing. 'When he shall appear, we shall be like him.' Then shall we be delivered from all our sins and fears, acquitted before men and angels, and be forever translated into the paradise of God.

To stoop to the meanest offices. Love is a humble grace; it will stoop and submit to anything whereby it may be serviceable to Christ. If we love God, we shall not think any work too mean for us by which we may be helpful to Christ's members.

All Things for Good

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Day 28

GOD'S GLORY

Charles Spurgeon

"So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. And you said, Surely the LORD our God has shown us his glory." (Deuteronomy 5:24)

"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed." (I Peter 4:12,13)

God's great design in all his works is the manifestation of his own glory. Any aim less than this would be unworthy of himself. But how shall the glory of God be manifested to such fallen creatures as we are? Man's eye is not single in its focus; he always has a side glance toward his own honor, has too high an estimate of his own powers, and so is not qualified to behold the glory of the Lord.

It is clear then that self must stand out of the way that there may be room for God to be exalted. And this is the reason why God often brings his people into straits and difficulties, that, being made conscious of their own folly and weakness, they may be fitted to behold the majesty of God when he comes to work their deliverance.

He whose life is one even and smooth path will see but little of the glory of the Lord, for he has few occasions of self-emptying and hence but little fitness for being filled with the revelation of God. They who navigate little streams and shallow creeks know but little of the God of tempests; but they who are "doing business on the great waters" see "his wondrous works in the deep."

Among the huge waves of bereavement, poverty, temptation, and reproach, we learn the power of Jehovah, because we feel the littleness of man. Thank God, then, if have been led by a rough road. It is this that has given you your experience of God's greatness and loving-kindness. Your troubles have enriched you with a wealth of knowledge to be gained by no other means. Your trials have been the crevice of the rock in which Jehovah has set you, as he did his servant Moses, that you might behold his glory as it passed by.

Praise God that you have not been left to the darkness and ignorance that continued prosperity might have involved, but that in the great fight of affliction you have been qualified for the outshinings of his glory in his wonderful dealing with you.

Morning and Evening

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