M&E Wednesday

Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
by C. H. Spurgeon
Wednesday Morning, March 30

He was numbered with the transgressors.

Isaiah 53:12

Why did Jesus suffer himself to be enrolled amongst sinners? This wonderful condescension was justified by many powerful reasons. In such a character he could the better become their advocate. In some trials there is an identification of the counsellor with the client, nor can they be looked upon in the eye of the law as apart from one another. Now, when the sinner is brought to the bar, Jesus appears there himself. He stands to answer the accusation. He points to his side, his hands, his feet, and challenges Justice to bring anything against the sinners whom he represents; he pleads his blood, and pleads so triumphantly, being numbered with them and having a part with them, that the Judge proclaims, Let them go their way; deliver them from going down into the pit, for he hath found a ransom. Our Lord Jesus was numbered with the transgressors in order that they might feel their hearts drawn towards him. Who can be afraid of one who is written in the same list with us? Surely we may come boldly to him, and confess our guilt. He who is numbered with us cannot condemn us. Was he not put down in the transgressor's list that we might be written in the red roll of the saints? He was holy, and written among the holy; we were guilty, and numbered among the guilty; he transfers his name from yonder list to this black indictment, and our names are taken from the indictment and written in the roll of acceptance, for there is a complete transfer made between Jesus and his people. All our estate of misery and sin Jesus has taken; and all that Jesus has comes to us. His righteousness, his blood, and everything that he hath he gives us as our dowry. Rejoice, believer, in your union to him who was numbered among the transgressors; and prove that you are truly saved by being manifestly numbered with those who are new creatures in him.

Evening, March 30

Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.

Lamentations 3:40

The spouse who fondly loves her absent husband longs for his return; a long protracted separation from her lord is a semi-death to her spirit: and so with souls who love the Saviour much, theymust see his face, they cannot bear that he should be away upon the mountains of Bether, and no more hold communion with them. A reproaching glance, an uplifted finger will be grievous to loving children, who fear to offend their tender father, and are only happy in his smile. Beloved, it was so once with you. A text of Scripture, a threatening, a touch of the rod of affliction, and you went to your Father's feet, crying, Show me wherefore thou contendest with me? Is it so now? Are you content to follow Jesus afar off? Can you contemplate suspended communion with Christ without alarm? Can you bear to have your Beloved walking contrary to you, because you walk contrary to him? Have your sins separated between you and your God, and is your heart at rest? O let me affectionately warn you, for it is a grievous thing when we can live contentedly without the present enjoyment of the Saviour's face. Let us labour to feel what an evil thing this is--little love to our own dying Saviour, little joy in our precious Jesus, little fellowship with the Beloved! Hold a true Lent in your souls, while you sorrow over your hardness of heart. Do not stop at sorrow! Remember where you first received salvation. Go at once to the cross. There, and there only, can you get your spirit quickened. No matter how hard, how insensible, how dead we may have become, let us go again in all the rags and poverty, and defilement of our natural condition. Let us clasp that cross, let us look into those languid eyes, let us bathe in that fountain filled with blood--this will bring back to us our first love; this will restore the simplicity of our faith, and the tenderness of our heart.

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MORNING THOUGHTS, or
DAILY WALKING WITH GOD

By Octavius Winslow

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." Hebrews 10:19.

In all true prayer great stress should be laid on the blood of Jesus; perhaps no evidence distinguishes a declension in the power and spirituality of prayer more strongly than an overlooking of this. Where the atoning blood is kept out of view, not recognized, not pleaded, not made the grand plea, there is a deficiency of power in prayer. Words are nothing, fluency of expression nothing, niceties of language and brilliancy of thought nothing, and even apparent fervor nothing, where the blood of Christ- the new and the living way of access to God, the grand plea that moves Omnipotence, that gives admission within the holy of holies- is slighted, undervalued, and not made the groundwork of every petition. Oh, how much is this overlooked in our prayers, how is the atoning blood of Immanuel slighted! How little mention we hear of it in the sanctuary, in the pulpit, in the social circle! whereas it is this that makes prayer what it is with God. All prayer is acceptable with God, and only so, as it comes up perfumed with the blood of Christ; all prayer is answered as it urges the blood of Christ as its plea; it is the blood of Christ that satisfies justice, and meets all the demands of the law against us; it is the blood of Christ that purchases and brings down every blessing into the soul; it is the blood of Christ that sues for the fulfilment of His last will and testament, every precious legacy of which comes to us solely on account of His death; this it is, too, that gives us boldness at the throne of grace. How can a poor sinner dare approach with out this? How can he look up, how can he ask, how can he present himself before a holy God, but as he brings in the hand of faith the precious blood of Jesus? Outside of Christ, God can hold no communication with us; all communion is suspended, every avenue of approach is closed, all blessing is withheld. God has crowned His dearly beloved Son, and He will have us crown Him too; and never do we place a brighter crown upon His blessed head, than when we plead His finished righteousness as the ground of our acceptance, and His atoning blood as our great argument for the bestowment of all blessing with God. If, then, dear reader, you feel yourself to be a poor, vile, unholy sinner; if a backslider, whose feet have wandered from the Lord, in whose soul the spirit of prayer has declined, and yet still feel some secret longing to return, and dare not, because so vile, so unholy, so backsliding; yet you may return, "having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." Come, for the blood of Jesus pleads; return, for the blood of Christ gives you a welcome. "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

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You and God's Law: How's the Relationship Going?

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Author: Daryl Wingerd

God's true people are saved by His grace, but they are distinguished from the rest by their relationship with His moral standard of conduct as revealed in Scripture—His law. Those who are truly His people have always been known for their affectionate submission to His authority and will.  

 

The Old Testament Israelites were "God's people" as a nation. Through Moses, He gave them laws concerning how they were to conduct themselves in the land He was giving them. They promised to obey (Ex. 24:3; Deut. 5:27), but soon fell from that promise and began disobeying God just like everyone else around them.

 

Through other Old Testament prophets, God revealed His intention to eventually remedy this deplorable situation by creating a new people for Himself. He promised to do this by giving them new hearts—hearts that love Him and are inclined to obey His commands (cf. Ez. 36:26). Jeremiah describes the same promise like this:

 

I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people (Jer. 31:33).    

 

Even in the midst of Israel's nearly universal disobedience, there were examples of righteousness—people who genuinely loved God and His law. Think of Moses, Samuel, David, Elijah, the 7,000 men in Elijah's day who refused to bow their knee to Baal, even Zacharias and Elizabeth, who are described in Luke 1:6 as "righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord" (Luke 1:6).

 

Believers today have this same relationship with God's moral standard of conduct. They love it, they learn it, and they live it as a matter of practice. However, we can no longer adequately understand God's moral standard of conduct (i.e., His law) by looking exclusively at the Old Testament. If we are to rightly discern God's moral will for His people, we must view all of Scripture through the interpretive lens of the New Testament and the words of Christ. So when I refer to the believer's relationship with God's law from this point forward, I am not referring exclusively to the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Instead I mean "the moral will of God in the whole Bible, as interpreted from a New Testament perspective."    

 

The book of Psalms is found in the Old Testament, but two of the Psalms in particular—Psalms 1 and 119—illustrate in a timeless way the true believer's relationship with God and His law. These psalmists were undoubtedly reflecting at the time on the law of the old covenant—the law of Moses. But believers today should relate to these two psalms in light of God's final revelation of His law in Christ and the New Testament.

 

Psalm 1 briefly depicts the difference between two kinds of people: the wicked who ignore and violate God's law, and the righteous who delight in His law and therefore obey it. The much longer Psalm 119 is a glorious and inspiring expression of the way a man thinks and acts when the law of the Lord has been written on his heart. Here are a few highlights to compare with your own relationship with God and His law:

 

With all my heart I have sought You; do not let me wander from Your commandments. (v. 10)

 

The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. (v. 72)

 

        O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. (v. 97)

 

How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (v. 103)

 

        Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (v. 105)

 

The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting. (v. 160)

 

These are one believer's personal expressions, but they represent the pattern for every true believer's relationship with God's moral will for His people. Every true Christian has God's law written on his or her heart in this way. The psalmist never claims perfection in this, and neither should we. But every real Christian can identify with this man's profound love for God, deep dependence on His revealed truth, and earnest desire to please Him.

 

For the true Christian, learning and keeping God's law is a pleasure, not a chore. Rather than being discouraged by your own shortcomings in this regard, meditate carefully and patiently on this vital passage of Scripture. Think of it as a means of fine-tuning your relationship with Jesus who bought you and now commands your obedience. I have never done this myself without being spiritually strengthened and encouraged toward greater devotion and a more joyful desire to please Him.

 

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. (John 14:15)

 

Copyright © 2011 Daryl Wingerd.
Permission granted for reproduction in exact form. All other uses require written permission.
Find more free articles at www.BulletinInserts.org, a ministry of Christian Communicators Worldwide: www.CCWtoday.org

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