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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Tuesday, March 25, 2008
MORNING:
"Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?"
-- Luke 22:48
"The kisses of an enemy are deceitful." Let me be on my guard when the
world puts on a loving face, for it will, if possible, betray me as it
did my Master, with a kiss. Whenever a man is about to stab religion,
he usually professes very great reverence for it. Let me beware of the
sleek-faced hypocrisy which is armour-bearer to heresy and infidelity.
Knowing the deceivableness of unrighteousness, let me be wise as a
serpent to detect and avoid the designs of the enemy. The young man,
void of understanding, was led astray by the kiss of the strange woman:
may my soul be so graciously instructed all this day, that "the much
fair speech" of the world may have no effect upon me. Holy Spirit, let
me not, a poor frail son of man, be betrayed with a kiss!
But what if I should be guilty of the same accursed sin as Judas, that
son of perdition? I have been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus;
I am a member of his visible Church; I sit at the communion table: all
these are so many kisses of my lips. Am I sincere in them? If not, I am
a base traitor. Do I live in the world as carelessly as others do, and
yet make a profession of being a follower of Jesus? Then I must expose
religion to ridicule, and lead men to speak evil of the holy name by
which I am called. Surely if I act thus inconsistently I am a Judas,
and it were better for me that I had never been born. Dare I hope that
I am clear in this matter? Then, O Lord, keep me so. O Lord, make me
sincere and true. Preserve me from every false way. Never let me betray
my Saviour. I do love thee, Jesus, and though I often grieve thee, yet
I would desire to abide faithful even unto death. O God, forbid that I
should be a high-soaring professor, and then fall at last into the lake
of fire, because I betrayed my Master with a kiss.
EVENING:
"The Son of man."
-- John 3:13
How constantly our Master used the title, the "Son of man!" If he had
chosen, he might always have spoken of himself as the Son of God, the
Everlasting Father, the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Prince of Peace;
but behold the lowliness of Jesus! He prefers to call himself the Son
of man. Let us learn a lesson of humility from our Saviour; let us
never court great titles nor proud degrees. There is here, however, a
far sweeter thought. Jesus loved manhood so much, that he delighted to
honour it; and since it is a high honour, and indeed, the greatest
dignity of manhood, that Jesus is the Son of man, he is wont to display
this name, that he may as it were hang royal stars upon the breast of
manhood, and show forth the love of God to Abraham's seed. Son of
man-whenever he said that word, he shed a halo round the head of Adam's
children. Yet there is perhaps a more precious thought still. Jesus
Christ called himself the Son of man to express his oneness and
sympathy with his people. He thus reminds us that he is the one whom we
may approach without fear. As a man, we may take to him all our griefs
and troubles, for he knows them by experience; in that he himself hath
suffered as the "Son of man," he is able to succour and comfort us. All
hail, thou blessed Jesus! inasmuch as thou art evermore using the sweet
name which acknowledges that thou art a brother and a near kinsman, it
is to us a dear token of thy grace, thy humility, thy love.
"Oh see how Jesus trusts himself
Unto our childish love,
As though by his free ways with us
Our earnestness to prove!
His sacred name a common word
On earth he loves to hear;
There is no majesty in him
Which love may not come near."
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