Encouragement from Spurgeon

Though he is now with Christ, Charles Spurgeon continues to be a source of encouragement to me in my walk with the Lord.  How amazing that the seekers that went before us and the love and grace of God in them continues to be used.  His sermons are rich and always Christ exalting.  And even in his compilation of devotions, Morning and Evening, a word here, a sentence there still speaks as the "cloud of witnesses" to us who still have breath, to help us in our weariness or weakness to "walk with perseverance the race marked out for us."  Enjoy a few gems from recent devotions in October.  May you be encouraged as well!

“I will love them freely.”  Hosea 14:4

This is a death blow to all sorts of fitness.  “Lord, but my heart is hard!”  “I will love you freely.”  “But, Lord, I do not feel my need of Christ as I wish.”  “I do not love you because you feel your need.  I will love you freely.”  There are no conditions; the covenant of grace has no conditionality whatsoever!

“He shall take of Mine and shall show it to you.” John 16:15

We are too thirsty, too fain to crawl to the water brook.  A soldier is wounded in battle; it is of little use for him to know that there are those who can bind up wounds and medicines to ease pain.  He must be carried.  (Like the paralytic through the roof.)  The Spirit of truth takes the things of Jesus and applies them to us. If you labor under deep distress, the Father does not give you promises to make you drag up your heavy buckets from the well in your weakened state.  He has written them in His word and will write them on your heart.  He will manifest His love to you and by His blessed Spirit, dispel your cares and troubles.  Glorious gospel!  Which provides everything for the helpless, which draw nigh to us when we cannot reach after it—brings us grace before we seek for grace.

“He began to wash the disciple’s feet.”  John 13:5

What condescending patience when the Savior, with much long sufferings bear the oft recurring follies of His wayward disciples; day by day, hour by hour, washing away multiplied transgressions of His erring yet beloved child.  To dry up a flood of rebellion is something marvelous, but to endure the constant dripping of repeated offenses, to bear with a perpetual trying of patience, this is Divine indeed!!

“For the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us and shall be with us forever.”  2 John 2

The truth of God, once entered into the human heart and subdue it—NO power can dislodge!  We entertain it not as a guest but the master of the house.  Let us war with error—let us love and spread the truth!”

Ruth 2:3

God is very good to those who trust in Him and often surprises them with unlooked for blessings.  Chance is banished from the faith of Christians, for they see the hand of God in everything!  This is a weary world when Jesus is away!  We would do without the sun and the moon than without Him!!  But how divinely fair all things become in the glory of His presence. 

Dull Scholars

Jesus came, as I posted last, on "an errand of disinterested love."  As mentioned, He pined for souls, His love was full of mercy and grace.  Yet His love was a lonely love.  He was alone.  You may say, "well He had His disciples."

Let's think a moment about them: "dull scholars; learned slowly; what they learned, they forgot; what they remembered, they did not practice; what they practiced one time, belied at another.  They were miserable comforters.  When Jesus was with them, His was a lonely life."  (As I read that list, I see me in every phrase.  It's good to be reminded that growth may continue.)

"The world was a wilderness to Him."  We see what looked like little progress in the thousands of people He taught, when we see how rejected He was at Calvary.  Yet His love enabled Him to bear the burden and complete the work of salvation to all those who come to Him to be saved.

"A father in a house of many little children cannot tell his babies his griefs.  He looks down with joy that their toys will comfort them and their little prattle will not be broken in upon his great grief."  Jesus griefs will never be known to us completely but those we can read about in His word must be our daily desire.  That our love grow more and more in depth of insight and that we will not allow ourselves to step on the floor in the morning without expressing to Him our grateful praise.    Let us not continue like "dull scholars"!  Let us progress and may we never reject or forsake such great love.

An Errand of Disinterested Love

I wrote some notes down recently and have no idea where I read them.  But they are too good not to be shared.  So whoever wrote what I am about to share, whether dead or alive, and whatever century you are from, I praise God for the insight He has given you.   Timeless truths are always a welcome encouragement to me.

People, trying to be religious in their own way "may fancy they are honoring Christ by their misconceptions.  But Christ is never honored by that which is not true!"  Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by Me."  No one!!

"Unbelievers live merrily in the haunts of vice, hear blasphemy without horror, view lust without disgust, look on robbery or murder without abhorrence."  But those "religious" deceived mentioned above feel safe in their "misconceptions" while mistaking their way to hell.  And the truth of the matter, whether they reject Christ or make up their own way, both groups are under the bondage of sin.  And the truth of the matter is that even those who have bowed down to Christ, though on the road of sanctification, still deal with the burden of sin.  "We do not start (be startled) at sin like Jesus; do not tremble at the sinners doom as Jesus."  "There is none righteous; no not one."

Jesus came to save all who live under the bondage.  "He could see sin where we cannot see; feel the heinousness as we cannot.  Our Lord Jesus exercised His legal right and seeing us sold into bondage and our inheritance taken from us came forward to redeem both us and our lost estate.  His zeal against sin was tempered with His love for souls.  Jesus love pined within Him because men did not know their own mercies and rejected their own salvation.  It was a hard thing to come on an errand of disinterested love."

To reject that love, to ignore it is a "suicidal rejection of grace".   Let us think.  Let us consider, "how great a love the Father has lavished on us."  Come to Christ.  Love Him.  Know Him.  Grow in Him.  Know, too, that "we love Him because He first loved us."

"The Peoples"

Our pastor reminded us Sunday that our only purpose, the one most important purpose is fruit for God.  We must be all about sharing Christ with a needy world, "the peoples".  The urgency of that great purpose is expressed throughout scripture in so many ways from beginning to the end.  God's purpose for Israel was always to live out His character and represent Him to a world in need. They were to bring to the lost the message of His great love.

The book of Esther, though there is no mention of God, is clearly a book that shouts His sovereign purpose.  In chapter eight of the book, there is much rejoicing among the Jews living in Susa because of the reversal of the the King's edict to annihilate them.  But through fasting and prayer, came deliverance.  (And we know that prayer was to God and deliverance came from God.)  The resulting effect: "And many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them."

In Joshua 2:8-14,  Rahab, an unbeliever, declares, "...the fear of you has fallen upon us..."  She knew how her people viewed God's people and she sought sanctuary with this people of God.  And begged for the salvation of her family as well.  And in Matthew, Rahab is mentioned in the lineage of the Savior.  When God saves, He changes the inward man and uses Him to further that purpose.

In Exodus 15:13-18, we hear Moses and the people of Israel sing praise to God after His remarkable deliverance.  "Who is like you, O LORD...?  You led in steadfast love the people whom You have redeemed; You guided them by Your strength to Your holy abode.  The peoples have heard; they tremble... the chiefs are dismayed...trembling seizes the leaders...all the inhabitants have melted away...terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of Your arm, they are still as a stone till Your people, O LORD, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased."

As Christians, our purpose is to live lives that are living testimonies of the One true God.  May we study to show ourselves approved, workmen that are not ashamed.  May our redeemed state cause guilt and fear to weary souls in need of true peace that only comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  May "the peoples" hear and declare themselves to a merciful God Who is ready to save them.  The "fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom".

Out Of

Artaxerxes, whose heart was turned by God toward Ezra and the people of Israel, was a Persian king with great riches.  In his decree to help the people of Israel, he generously gives whatever Ezra needs to fund the trip to Jerusalem.

When God moves a man's heart, He moves it "whole-heartedly"!  Verse twenty states, "And whatever
else is required for the house of your God, which it falls to you to provide, you may provide it out of the king's treasury."  The footnote in the Reformation Study Bible says, "The amounts involved are enormous but the Persian Empire is very wealthy."

Wow!!  So God moved the heart of this very wealthy king who provided for Ezra's trip "out of" his treasures.   I'm sure Ezra was wowed by King Artaxerxes riches supplied to him for the work of God!  How much more should we be wowed by the  supplies of the Creator of the Universe.  Ephesians 3:16 says, "I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being."

God is building His temple through us.  "For we are the temple the living God." (2 Corinthians 6:16)
And "out of" His glorious riches He is giving us unlimited strength with His power to do what it takes to make our "temples" complete.  I would say wow to that for I am wowing this same God Who has been doing this throughout history and continues to do that today and forever.

King of 'All' Kings

Artaxerxes called himself king of kings.  This was a title that Persian monarchs used to indicate their supremacy over all kings.  But in the book of Ezra, where you find this phrase used by Artaxerxes (7:12), that "God is the true King of kings is implicit and also explicit elsewhere in Scripture." (Reformation Study Bible)  In fact, at the end of this chapter, Ezra gives praise to the sovereignty of God over Artaxerxes: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem."

Man may be placed in high positions by birth, by integrity or by cunning.  But it is God that is in complete control of it all.  "Sing praises to God, sing praises!  Sing praises to our King, sing praises!  For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!  God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne."  Psalm 47:6-8

Expostulate

I learned a new word from Matthew Poole: Expostulate.  It means to "reason earnestly with someone against something that person intends to do or has done".  I like it.  Especially in regard to passionate praying.  And that is exactly what Isaiah is doing in chapters 63-66.

 Isaiah expostulates with God in 63:15, "Look down and behold".  Isaiah is asking God not only to look and barely see or glance but to look with regard and respect of His poor people in captivity.  Before verse fifteen, Isaiah recounts God's past mercies on His people.  Starting with verse seven, he lists God's steadfast love, great goodness, compassion, salvation, hurts for them, pities them, lifted them up and carries them.  Now in verse fifteen, Isaiah says, "Look down", really look!  Here we are, needy and hopeless, the same ones you had mercy on before.

Then Isaiah passionately begs God in chapter 64, "Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down!!!"  (How many times would we like for God to just come?)  He continues to exalt God in 2-5, "to make Your name known...You did awesome things...no eye has seen a God besides You".  And on in verses 6-7, Isaiah confesses the sins of the people and of himself.  More details of our fallible selves versus His infallible Lordship and loving Fatherhood in verses eight through nine.  (Beautiful reading that you do well to read in the quietness of your alone time.)

God talks back to Isaiah in chapter 65 and tells Isaiah the reason for His silence: SIN.  And in case He is not clear enough, in verse 12, He says, "I called; you did not answer.  I spoke; you did not listen.  You did what was evil and chose what I did not delight."  God had already told Isaiah in 58:9 that "you shall call and the Lord will answer.  You shall cry and He will say, 'Here I am'."

And with the same steadfast love, great goodness, compassion and pity, God continues in chapter 66:2 more directions for His slow to learn followers: "this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble, contrite in spirit and trembles at My word."  In other words, one who is subdued to the will of God, poor and low in his own eyes, listening to God's word with reverence.

Do we have the same God as Isaiah?  He answers when we cry out with a passion for obedience and His glory!  Some will say, "well He actually talked to Isaiah."  I would say, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)  We draw our hope in the complete and inspired Word of God.  We see witnessed in many God's dealings with man and that's when we tremble at the Word, God's Word of truth.

Note: As I expressed in last post, if you look at Isaiah's prayer in 63 and 64 compared with Jesus pattern for prayer in Matthew and Luke, you'll see hallowed exaltation of God and His kingdom, desire for God's will, and an asking forgiveness of sins and petitions.