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daily devotional
Evening ...
Romans 6:6
That henceforth we should not serve sin.
Christian, what hast thou to do with sin? Hath it not cost thee enough
already? Burnt child, wilt thou play with the fire? What! when thou hast
already been between the jaws of the lion, wilt thou step a second time into
his den? Hast thou not had enough of the old serpent? Did he not poison all thy
veins once, and wilt thou play upon the hole of the asp, and put thy hand upon
the cockatrice's den a second time? Oh, be not so mad! so foolish! Did sin ever
yield thee real pleasure? Didst thou find solid satisfaction in it? If so, go
back to thine old drudgery, and wear the chain again, if it delight thee. But
inasmuch as sin did never give thee what it promised to bestow, but deluded
thee with lies, be not a second time snared by the old fowler-be free, and let
the remembrance of thy ancient bondage forbid thee to enter the net again! It
is contrary to the designs of eternal love, which all have an eye to thy purity
and holiness; therefore run not counter to the purposes of thy Lord. Another
thought should restrain thee from sin. Christians can never sin cheaply; they
pay a heavy price for iniquity. Transgression destroys peace of mind, obscures
fellowship with Jesus, hinders prayer, brings darkness over the soul; therefore
be not the serf and bondman of sin. There is yet a higher argument: each time
you "serve sin" you have "Crucified the Lord afresh, and put Him to an open
shame." Can you bear that thought? Oh! if you have fallen into any special sin
during this day, it may be my Master has sent this admonition this evening, to
bring you back before you have backslidden very far. Turn thee to Jesus anew;
He has not forgotten His love to thee; His grace is still the same. With
weeping and repentance, come thou to His footstool, and thou shalt be once more
received into His heart; thou shalt be set upon a rock again, and thy goings
shall be established.
Morning ...
2 Samuel 15:23
The king also himself passed over the brook Kidron.
David passed that gloomy brook when flying with his mourning company from his
traitor son. The man after God's own heart was not exempt from trouble, nay,
his life was full of it. He was both the Lord's Anointed, and the Lord's
Afflicted. Why then should we expect to escape? At sorrow's gates the noblest
of our race have waited with ashes on their heads, wherefore then should we
complain as though some strange thing had happened unto us? The KING of kings
himself was not favoured with a more cheerful or royal road. He passed over the
filthy ditch of Kidron, through which the filth of Jerusalem flowed. God had
one Son without sin, but not a single child without the rod. It is a great joy
to believe that Jesus has been tempted in all points like as we are. What is
our Kidron this morning? Is it a faithless friend, a sad bereavement, a
slanderous reproach, a dark foreboding? The King has passed over all these. Is
it bodily pain, poverty, persecution, or contempt? Over each of these Kidrons
the King has gone before us. "In all our afflictions He was afflicted." The
idea of strangeness in our trials must be banished at once and for ever, for He
who is the Head of all saints, knows by experience the grief which we think so
peculiar. All the citizens of Zion must be free of the Honourable Company of
Mourners, of which the Prince Immanuel is Head and Captain. Notwithstanding the
abasement of David, he yet returned in triumph to his city, and David's Lord
arose victorious from the grave; let us then be of good courage, for we also
shall win the day. We shall yet with joy draw water out of the wells of
salvation, though now for a season we have to pass by the noxious streams of
sin and sorrow. Courage, soldiers of the Cross, the King himself triumphed
after going over Kidron, and so shall you.
Luke 4:31-39
(31) And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the
sabbath days. (32) And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was
with power. (33) And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an
unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, (34) Saying, Let us alone; what
have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I
know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God. (35) And Jesus rebuked him,
saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him
in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not. (36) And they were all
amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with
authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. (37)
And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about. (38)
And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's
wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. (39)
And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately
she arose and ministered unto them.
What Jesus did on the first Sabbath of His ministry is to signal an
attack against the forces of evil. He began a holy war to free mankind from
Satan and sin. The demon knew it, which is why it reacted the way it did. It
threw a tantrum. If we would put what the demon said into modern, colloquial
terms, it snapped at Jesus, "Why are You interfering here?" And Jesus came
right back, with authority, "Shut your mouth! And come out of him."
The demon was not about to give up easily. It was probably a strong
demon, but it did obey its Master and came out-yet not without trashing the man
around. Fortunately, the man was not hurt.
So the first shot that was fired in this war was a spiritual healing:
Jesus liberated a man from a demon on the Sabbath day. He may have done a few
other things before, but this was the first public act as part of His ministry.
This began the war for control of the earth, for the right to rule over
it after He had defeated the demons' master, Satan. Jesus was showing that the
demons would not fare any better than he. By casting out the demon, He restored
order and peace to the congregation, as the possessed man had been causing
trouble.
The second thing He did, then, was a physical healing that resulted in
service to others. This unfortunate woman, who was bound by a disease, is
relieved of it by Jesus Christ. Then she rose and immediately served everybody
else. This ought to give us a clue-those of us who receive healing-as to what
we are supposed to do with our healing. We are to rise and serve.
Here, in a nutshell, are major principles by which our Sabbath activities
can be judged. The Sabbath is for redemption, liberty, joy, peace, and service
that comes through fellowship and instruction that reorients our devotion to
the right direction.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From The Fourth Commandment (Part 2)
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