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Daily devotions for 07-18-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Assured Election
Evening Title: Strike Sin
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Morning: Assured Election
"Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God." --1 Thessalonians 1:4
Many persons want to know their election before they look to Christ, but they
cannot learn it thus, it is only to be discovered by "looking unto Jesus." If
you desire to ascertain your own election;--after the following manner, shall
you assure your heart before God. Do you feel yourself to be a lost, guilty
sinner? go straightway to the cross of Christ, and tell Jesus so, and tell Him
that you have read in the Bible, "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise
cast out."
Tell Him that He has said, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Look to
Jesus and believe on Him, and you shall make proof of your election directly,
for so surely as thou believest, thou
art elect.
If you will give yourself wholly up to Christ and trust Him, then you are one
of God's chosen ones; but if you stop and say, "I want to know first whether I
am elect," you ask you know not what.
Go to Jesus, be you never so guilty, just as you are. Leave all curious inquiry
about election alone. Go straight to Christ and hide in His wounds, and you
shall know your election.
The assurance of the Holy Spirit shall be given to you, so that you shall be
able to say, "I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed to Him." Christ was at the everlasting
council: He can tell you whether you were chosen or not; but you cannot find it
out in any other way. Go and put your trust in Him, and His answer will be--"I
have loved thee with an everlasting love,
therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."
There will be no doubt about His having chosen you, when you have chosen Him.
"Sons we are through God's election, Who in Jesus Christ believe."
Evening: Strike Sin
"Let not one of them escape." --1 Kings 18:40
When the prophet Elijah had received the answer to his prayer, and the fire
from heaven had consumed the sacrifice in the presence of all the people, he
called upon the assembled Israelites to take the priests of Baal, and sternly
cried, "Let not one of them escape." He took them all down to the brook Kishon,
and slew them there. So must it be with our sins--they are all doomed, not one
must be preserved. Our darling sin must die. Spare it not for its much crying.
Strike, though it be as dear as an Isaac. Strike, for God struck at sin when it
was laid upon His own Son.
With stern unflinching purpose must you condemn to death that sin which was
once the idol of your heart. Do you ask how you are to accomplish this?
Jesus will be your power. You have grace to overcome sin given you in the
covenant of grace; you have strength to win the victory in the crusade against
inward lusts, because Christ Jesus has promised to be with you even unto the
end.
If you would triumph over darkness, set yourself in the presence of the Sun of
Righteousness.
There is no place so well adapted for the discovery of sin, and recovery from
its power and guilt, as the immediate presence of God. Job never knew how to
get rid of sin half so well as he did when his eye of faith rested upon God,
and then he abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes.
The fine gold of the Christian is oft becoming dim. We need the sacred fire to
consume the dross. Let us fly to our God, He is a consuming fire; He will not
consume our spirit, but our sins. Let the goodness of God excite us to a sacred
jealousy, and to a holy revenge against those iniquities which are hateful in
His sight.
Go forth to battle with Amalek in His strength, and utterly destroy the
accursed crew: let not one of them escape.
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Spurgeon's Morning & Evening Devotions
Morning, July 19
"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God."
- Romans 8:28
Upon some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance, that
God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He believes that
an invisible hand is always on the world's tiller, and that wherever providence
may drift, Jehovah steers it.
That re-assuring knowledge prepares him for everything. He looks over the
raging waters and sees the spirit of Jesus treading the billows, and he hears a
voice saying, "It is I, be not afraid."
He knows too that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is confident that
there can be no accidents, no mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not
to arise.
He can say, "If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should lose than
have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the kindest thing
that could befall to me if God ordains it." "We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God." The Christian does not merely hold
this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of fact.
Everything has worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed in fit
proportions have worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet have cleansed
out the proud flesh and facilitated the healing. Every event as yet has worked
out the most divinely
blessed results; and so, believing that God rules all, that he governs wisely,
that he brings good out of evil, the believer's heart is assured, and he is
enabled calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the spirit
of true resignation pray, "Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as it comes
from thee; never came there an ill portion from thy table to any of thy
children. "
"Say not my soul, 'From whence can God relieve my care?'
Remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere.
His method is sublime, his heart profoundly kind,
God never is before his time, and never is behind."
Evening, July 19
"Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?" - Numbers 32:6
Kindred has its obligations. The Reubenites and Gadites would have been
unbrotherly if they had claimed the land which had been conquered, and had left
the rest of the people to fight for their portions alone. We have received much
by means of the efforts and sufferings of the saints in years gone by, and if
we do not make some return to the church of Christ by giving her our best
energies, we are unworthy to be enrolled in her ranks.
Others are combating the errors of the age manfully, or excavating perishing
ones from amid the ruins of the fall, and if we fold our hands in idleness we
had need be warned, lest the curse of Meroz fall upon us. The Master of the
vineyard saith, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" What is the idler's
excuse?
Personal service of Jesus becomes all the more the duty of all because it is
cheerfully and abundantly rendered by some. The toils of devoted missionaries
and fervent ministers shame us if we sit still in indolence.
Shrinking from trial is the temptation of those who are at ease in Zion: they
would fain escape the cross and yet wear the crown; to them the question for
this evening's meditation is very applicable. If the most precious are tried in
the fire, are we to
escape the crucible? If the diamond must be vexed upon the wheel, are we to be
made perfect without suffering? Who hath commanded the wind to cease from
blowing because our bark is on the deep?
Why and wherefore should we be treated better than our Lord? The firstborn felt
the rod, and why not the younger brethren? It is a cowardly pride which would
choose a downy pillow and a silken couch for a soldier of the cross. Wiser far
is he who, being first resigned to the divine will, groweth by the energy of
grace to be pleased with it, and so learns to gather lilies at the cross foot,
and, like Samson, to find honey in the lion.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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