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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING http://www.heartlight.org/
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Friday, March 6, 2009
MORNING:
"Ye must be born again."
-- John 3:7
Regeneration is a subject which lies at the very basis of salvation,
and we should be very diligent to take heed that we really are "born
again," for there are many who fancy they are, who are not. Be assured
that the name of a Christian is not the nature of a Christian; and that
being born in a Christian land, and being recognized as professing the
Christian religion is of no avail whatever, unless there be something
more added to it-the being "born again," is a matter so mysterious,
that human words cannot describe it. "The wind bloweth where it
listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence
it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the
Spirit." Nevertheless, it is a change which is known and felt: known by
works of holiness, and felt by a gracious experience. This great work
is supernatural. It is not an operation which a man performs for
himself: a new principle is infused, which works in the heart, renews
the soul, and affects the entire man. It is not a change of my name,
but a renewal of my nature, so that I am not the man I used to be, but
a new man in Christ Jesus. To wash and dress a corpse is a far
different thing from making it alive: man can do the one, God alone can
do the other. If you have then, been "born again," your acknowledgment
will be, "O Lord Jesus, the everlasting Father, thou art my spiritual
Parent; unless thy Spirit had breathed into me the breath of a new,
holy, and spiritual life, I had been to this day 'dead in trespasses
and sins.' My heavenly life is wholly derived from thee, to thee I
ascribe it. 'My life is hid with Christ in God.' It is no longer I who
live, but Christ who liveth in me." May the Lord enable us to be well
assured on this vital point, for to be unregenerate is to be unsaved,
unpardoned, without God, and without hope.
EVENING:
"Before destruction the heart of man is haughty."
-- Proverbs 18:12
It is an old and common saying, that "coming events cast their shadows
before them;" the wise man teaches us that a haughty heart is the
prophetic prelude of evil. Pride is as safely the sign of destruction
as the change of mercury in the weather-glass is the sign of rain; and
far more infallibly so than that. When men have ridden the high horse,
destruction has always overtaken them. Let David's aching heart show
that there is an eclipse of a man's glory when he dotes upon his own
greatness. 2 Sam. 24:10. See Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty builder of
Babylon, creeping on the earth, devouring grass like oxen, until his
nails had grown like bird's claws, and his hair like eagle's feathers.
Dan. 4:33. Pride made the boaster a beast, as once before it made an
angel a devil. God hates high looks, and never fails to bring them
down. All the arrows of God are aimed at proud hearts. O Christian, is
thine heart haughty this evening? For pride can get into the
Christian's heart as well as into the sinner's; it can delude him into
dreaming that he is "rich and increased in goods, and hath need of
nothing." Art thou glorying in thy graces or thy talents? Art thou
proud of thyself, that thou hast had holy frames and sweet experiences?
Mark thee, reader, there is a destruction coming to thee also. Thy
flaunting poppies of self-conceit will be pulled up by the roots, thy
mushroom graces will wither in the burning heat, and thy
self-sufficiency shall become as straw for the dunghill. If we forget
to live at the foot of the cross in deepest lowliness of spirit, God
will not forget to make us smart under his rod. A destruction will come
to thee, O unduly exalted believer, the destruction of thy joys and of
thy comforts, though there can be no destruction of thy soul.
Wherefore, "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."
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