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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007
MORNING:
"Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the
Lord."
-- Zechariah 3:1
In Joshua the high priest we see a picture of each and every child of
God, who has been made nigh by the blood of Christ, and has been taught
to minister in holy things, and enter into that which is within the
veil. Jesus has made us priests and kings unto God, and even here upon
earth we exercise the priesthood of consecrated living and hallowed
service. But this high priest is said to be "standing before the angel
of the Lord," that is, standing to minister. This should be the
perpetual position of every true believer. Every place is now God's
temple, and his people can as truly serve him in their daily
employments as in his house. They are to be always "ministering,"
offering the spiritual sacrifice of prayer and praise, and presenting
themselves a "living sacrifice." But notice where it is that Joshua
stands to minister, it is before the angel of Jehovah. It is only
through a mediator that we poor defiled ones can ever become priests
unto God. I present what I have before the messenger, the angel of the
covenant, the Lord Jesus; and through him my prayers find acceptance
wrapped up in his prayers; my praises become sweet as they are bound up
with bundles of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia from Christ's own garden.
If I can bring him nothing but my tears, he will put them with his own
tears in his own bottle for he once wept; if I can bring him nothing
but my groans and sighs, he will accept these as an acceptable
sacrifice, for he once was broken in heart, and sighed heavily in
spirit. I myself, standing in him, am accepted in the Beloved; and all
my polluted works, though in themselves only objects of divine
abhorrence, are so received, that God smelleth a sweet savour. He is
content and I am blessed. See, then, the position of the Christian-"a
priest- standing-before the angel of the Lord."
EVENING:
"The forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his
grace."
-- Ephesians 1:7
Could there be a sweeter word in any language than that word
"forgiveness," when it sounds in a guilty sinner's ear, like the silver
notes of jubilee to the captive Israelite? Blessed, for ever blessed be
that dear star of pardon which shines into the condemned cell, and
gives the perishing a gleam of hope amid the midnight of despair! Can
it be possible that sin, such sin as mine, can be forgiven, forgiven
altogether, and for ever? Hell is my portion as a sinner-there is no
possibility of my escaping from it while sin remains upon me-can the
load of guilt be uplifted, the crimson stain removed? Can the
adamantine stones of my prison-house ever be loosed from their
mortices, or the doors be lifted from their hinges? Jesus tells me that
I may yet be clear. For ever blessed be the revelation of atoning love
which not only tells me that pardon is possible, but that it is secured
to all who rest in Jesus. I have believed in the appointed
propitiation, even Jesus crucified, and therefore my sins are at this
moment, and for ever, forgiven by virtue of his substitutionary pains
and death. What joy is this! What bliss to be a perfectly pardoned
soul! My soul dedicates all her powers to him who of his own
unpurchased love became my surety, and wrought out for me redemption
through his blood. What riches of grace does free forgiveness exhibit!
To forgive at all, to forgive fully, to forgive freely, to forgive for
ever! Here is a constellation of wonders; and when I think of how great
my sins were, how dear were the precious drops which cleansed me from
them, and how gracious was the method by which pardon was sealed home
to me, I am in a maze of wondering worshipping affection. I bow before
the throne which absolves me, I clasp the cross which delivers me, I
serve henceforth all my days the Incarnate God, through whom I am this
night a pardoned soul.
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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