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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING http://www.heartlight.org/
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Friday, May 15, 2009
MORNING:
"All that believe are justified."
-- Acts 13:39
The believer in Christ receives a present justification. Faith does not
produce this fruit by-and-by, but now. So far as justification is the
result of faith, it is given to the soul in the moment when it closes
with Christ, and accepts him as its all in all. Are they who stand
before the throne of God justified now?-so are we, as truly and as
clearly justified as they who walk in white and sing melodious praises
to celestial harps. The thief upon the cross was justified the moment
that he turned the eye of faith to Jesus; and Paul, the aged, after
years of service, was not more justified than was the thief with no
service at all. We are to-day accepted in the Beloved, to-day absolved
from sin, to-day acquitted at the bar of God. Oh! soul-transporting
thought! There are some clusters of Eshcol's vine which we shall not be
able to gather till we enter heaven; but this is a bough which runneth
over the wall. This is not as the corn of the land, which we can never
eat till we cross the Jordan; but this is part of the manna in the
wilderness, a portion of our daily nutriment with which God supplies us
in our journeying to and fro. We are now-even now pardoned; even now
are our sins put away; even now we stand in the sight of God accepted,
as though we had never been guilty. "There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." There is not a sin in
the Book of God, even now, against one of his people. Who dareth to lay
anything to their charge? There is neither speck, nor spot, nor
wrinkle, nor any such thing remaining upon any one believer in the
matter of justification in the sight of the Judge of all the earth. Let
present privilege awaken us to present duty, and now, while life lasts,
let us spend and be spent for our sweet Lord Jesus.
EVENING:
"Made perfect."
-- Hebrews 12:23
Recollect that there are two kinds of perfection which the Christian
needs-the perfection of justification in the person of Jesus, and the
perfection of sanctification wrought in him by the Holy Spirit. At
present, corruption yet remains even in the breasts of the
regenerate-experience soon teaches us this. Within us are still lusts
and evil imaginations. But I rejoice to know that the day is coming
when God shall finish the work which he has begun; and he shall present
my soul, not only perfect in Christ, but perfect through the Spirit,
without spot or blemish, or any such thing. Can it be true that this
poor sinful heart of mine is to become holy even as God is holy? Can it
be that this spirit, which often cries, "O wretched man that I am! who
shall deliver me from the body of this sin and death?" shall get rid of
sin and death-that I shall have no evil things to vex my ears, and no
unholy thoughts to disturb my peace? Oh, happy hour! may it be
hastened! When I cross the Jordan, the work of sanctification will be
finished; but not till that moment shall I even claim perfection in
myself. Then my spirit shall have its last baptism in the Holy Spirit's
fire. Methinks I long to die to receive that last and final
purification which shall usher me into heaven. Not an angel more pure
than I shall be, for I shall be able to say, in a double sense, "I am
clean," through Jesus' blood, and through the Spirit's work. Oh, how
should we extol the power of the Holy Ghost in thus making us fit to
stand before our Father in heaven! Yet let not the hope of perfection
hereafter make us content with imperfection now. If it does this, our
hope cannot be genuine; for a good hope is a purifying thing, even now.
The work of grace must be abiding in us now or it cannot be perfected
then. Let us pray to "be filled with the Spirit," that we may bring
forth increasingly the fruits of righteousness.
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MORNING & EVENING from HEARTLIGHT /\/\
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