Galatians 1:4

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(William Nicholson, 1862)

"He gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age!" Galatians 1:4

The sacrifice of Christ was voluntary--it must therefore have been prompted by infinite love. Redeeming love should be the favorite topic of the Christian's constant meditation.

I. Note His marvelous act:"He gave Himself!"

He came into the world which abhorred Him, disowned Him, and murdered Him!

He gave Himself to all the privations and sorrows of human life.

He gave Himself to obscurity and indigence. He was born in a stable--and had nowhere to lay His head.

He gave Himself to scorn and infamy. He was denounced . . .
as a glutton,
as a drunkard,
as insane,
as a demoniac,
as a traitor!
"Scorn has broken My heart and has left Me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none!" Psalm 69:20

He gave Himself to pain and anguish. "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering!" Isaiah 53:3. Behold His agony . . .
at Gabbatha,
at Gethsemane,
and at Golgotha!

He gave Himself to an ignominious and painful death. "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed!" Isaiah 53:5

He died the just for the unjust.

II. Note the purpose for which He gave Himself: "For our sins!"
Man is a sinner--he has transgressed the Divine law, and rendered himself accursed. Christ died to save helpless, ruined man.

He gave Himself to deliver us from . . .
sin's curse, Galatians 3:13,
sin's defilement, Ephesians 5:25-27; Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 1:9
sin's dominion, Romans 6:14,
the effects of sin in this world and in eternity.
The believer now has peace, joy, hope, and triumph.

III. Note the Design of Christ's offering: "That He might deliver us from this present evil world!"

Not totally to remove us out of the world, but to deliver us from its evil practices--from its maxims and philosophies.

To deliver us from the condemnation to which the world will be subjected.

To deliver us from attachment to this fleeting world, "For this is not your resting place, because it is defiled, it is ruined, beyond all remedy!" Micah 2:10

To influence us to look higher, accounting ourselves as "strangers and pilgrims" on earth; declaring plainly that we are "seeking a better country, that is a heavenly one!"

To deliver us when we die, from this poor world's . . .
sins,
sorrows,
trials,
sinful beings--
and to introduce us to a purer, brighter, happier world than this, where we shall reside forever!

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God Promising a Unique King

July 2

Bob Hoekstra

A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth.  (Isa_42:2-3)
Again, the promises of God cascade forth, one upon another: "He will not break . . . He will not quench . . . He will bring forth . . . He will not fail." This set of four promises confirms a unique King for the people of God. His uniqueness is seen in how He would deal with bruised reeds and smoking flaxes, as well as in the justice He would eventually establish upon the earth.
Many times, people are like bruised reeds. God has created humanity to be innately vulnerable, like reeds that grow by the river. "As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more" (Psa_103:15-16). At best, reeds are not strong. When they are bruised, they hang over limp and helpless. It is easy for an insensitive person to break a "human bruised reed" in half, virtually destroying that life. Jesus, the unique King, does not do that. "A bruised reed He will not break." The Lord Jesus can take bruised reeds and turn them into mighty spiritual trees. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted . . . to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified" (Isa_61:1, Isa_61:3).
At other times, people are like smoking flax. Their spiritual fire of hope or zeal is flickering, ready to burn out. A rough or blustering person can easily extinguish the meager spark that remains. Once again, Jesus is unique. He can gently minister to that flickering wick, even fueling it back into a spiritual blaze. The disillusioned disciples on the road to Emmaus experienced that. "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us? " (Luk_24:32).
Ultimately, His uniqueness shall be demonstrated when He sets up His kingdom on earth. Then, after man has brought forth injustice after injustice, true justice will be established throughout this world. "He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth."
Lord Jesus, I honor You as my unique King. No one but You could have dealt with my heart when I was the bruised reed and the smoking flax. No one but You can properly reverse the injustices that I have both perpetrated and endured. I bow to You, asking that You make me more like You, in Your name, Amen.

God Promising an Anointed King

July 1

Bob Hoekstra

There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.  (Isa_11:1-2)
Already, we have seen our God of promises guaranteeing to call out a people for Himself, to deliver His people from bondage, to fight for His people, and to give them an everlasting kingdom. Now, God promises an anointed king for His people.
This anointed king was promised through David's family. "There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse." Jesse was a son of Obed and the father of David. "Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David" (Ruth 4:22). This king is here given a Messianic title, Branch. "A Branch shall grow out of his roots." Other prophets had made similar prophetic promises concerning this royal Branch. "Behold, the days are coming,' says the LORD, 'That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth'  . . . I am bringing forth My Servant the Branch . . . Behold, the Man whose name is the Branch! " (Jer_23:5 and Zec_3:8; Zec_6:12).
This king ("the Branch") would serve by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. "The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him." The Spirit of God would not merely come upon Him at times (as with King Saul): "Then the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them" (1Sa_10:10). The Spirit would continually be upon Him for ministry: "The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him." Of course, this king, the Branch, would be Jesus Christ. Jesus applied a similar Messianic passage to Himself. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me" (Luk_4:18). Yes, Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the anointed King. In fact, Christ is the Greek term for "anointed One." Whereas, Messiah is the Hebrew term for the same.
The Messiah's ministry would be characterized by godly wisdom, heavenly understanding, perfect counsel, divine might, complete knowledge, and holy reverence for the Father. All of this was produced by the work of the Holy Spirit upon Him: "the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD."
Jesus, my anointed King, all that You demonstrated in Your days upon this earth are the very needs that I have in my daily life. By Your promises, through the work of Your Spirit, please supply these realities in my walk, Amen.

Too choice a flower to grow in nature's garden!

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(Charles Spurgeon)

"Godly sorrow works repentance." 2 Corinthians 7:10

Genuine, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God. Repentance is too choice a flower to grow in nature's garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters--but penitence never shows itself in sinners, unless divine grace works it in them. If you have one particle of real hatred for sin--then God must have given it you, for human nature's thorns never produced a single fig! "That which is born of the flesh is flesh!"

True repentance has a distinct reference to the Savior. When we repent of sin, we must have one eye upon sin, and another upon the cross. It will be better still, if we fix both our eyes upon Christ, and see our transgressions only in the light of His love.

True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No man may say he hates sin, if he lives in it. Repentance makes us see the evil of sin, not merely as a theory, but experimentally--just as a burnt child dreads the fire! We shall be as much afraid of sin, as a man who has lately been stopped and robbed is afraid of the thief upon the highway. And we shall shun sin, shun it in everything--not in great things only, but in little things, as men shun little vipers as well as great ones.

True mourning for sin will make us very jealous over our tongue, lest we should say a wrong word. We shall also be very watchful over our daily actions, lest in anything we offend.

Each night we shall close the day with painful confessions of shortcomings--and each morning awaken with anxious prayers, that this day God would hold us up, that we may not sin against Him.

Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day. This sorrow for sin is not intermittent. Every other sorrow yields to time--but this dear sorrow grows with our growth. It is so sweet a bitter, that we thank God we are permitted to enjoy it until we enter our eternal rest!

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Spurgeon & Chambers Devotions June 30th

Morning, June 30

“And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them.”

John 17:22

Charles Spurgeon

Behold the superlative liberality of the Lord Jesus, for he hath given us his all. Although a tithe of his possessions would have made a universe of angels rich beyond all thought, yet was he not content until he had given us all that he had. It would have been surprising grace if he had allowed us to eat the crumbs of his bounty beneath the table of his mercy; but he will do nothing by halves, he makes us sit with him and share the feast. Had he given us some small pension from his royal coffers, we should have had cause to love him eternally; but no, he will have his bride as rich as himself, and he will not have a glory or a grace in which she shall not share. He has not been content with less than making us joint-heirs with himself, so that we might have equal possessions. He has emptied all his estate into the coffers of the Church, and hath all things common with his redeemed. There is not one room in his house the key of which he will withhold from his people. He gives them full liberty to take all that he hath to be their own; he loves them to make free with his treasure, and appropriate as much as they can possibly carry. The boundless fulness of his all-sufficiency is as free to the believer as the air he breathes. Christ hath put the flagon of his love and grace to the believer’s lip, and bidden him drink on for ever; for could he drain it, he is welcome to do so, and as he cannot exhaust it, he is bidden to drink abundantly, for it is all his own. What truer proof of fellowship can heaven or earth afford?

“When I stand before the throne

Dressed in beauty not my own;

When I see thee as thou art,

Love thee with unsinning heart;

Then, Lord, shall I fully know—

Not till then—how much I owe.”

My Utmost for His Highest

June 30th

Do it now

Agree with thine adversary quickly. Matthew 5:25

Oswald Chambers

Jesus Christ is laying down this principle—Do what you know you must do, now, and do it quickly; if you do not, the inevitable process will begin to work and you will have to pay to the last farthing in pain and agony and distress. God’s laws are unalterable; there is no escape from them. The teaching of Jesus goes straight to the way we are made up.

To see that my adversary gives me my rights is natural; but Jesus says that it is a matter of eternal and imperative importance to me that I pay my adversary what I owe him. From our Lord’s standpoint it does not matter whether I am defrauded or not; what does matter is that I do not defraud. Am I insisting on my rights, or am I paying what I owe from Jesus Christ’s standpoint?

Do the thing quickly, bring yourself to judgment now. In moral and spiritual matters, you must do it at once; if you do not, the inexorable process will begin to work. God is determined to have His child as pure and clean and white as driven snow, and as long as there is disobedience in any point of His teaching, He will prevent none of the working of His spirit. Our insistence in proving that we are right is nearly always an indication that there has been some point of disobedience. No wonder the Spirit so strongly urges to keep steadfastly in the light!

“Agree with thine adversary quickly.” Have you suddenly turned a corner in any relationship and found that you had anger in your heart? Confess it quickly, quickly put it right before God, be reconciled to that one—do it now.

Evening, June 30

“Ah Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm,

and there is nothing too hard for thee.”

Jeremiah 32:17

Charles Spurgeon

At the very time when the Chaldeans surrounded Jerusalem, and when the sword, famine and pestilence had desolated the land, Jeremiah was commanded by God to purchase a field, and have the deed of transfer legally sealed and witnessed. This was a strange purchase for a rational man to make. Prudence could not justify it, for it was buying with scarcely a probability that the person purchasing could ever enjoy the possession. But it was enough for Jeremiah that his God had bidden him, for well he knew that God will be justified of all his children. He reasoned thus: “Ah, Lord God! thou canst make this plot of ground of use to me; thou canst rid this land of these oppressors; thou canst make me yet sit under my vine and my fig-tree in the heritage which I have bought; for thou didst make the heavens and the earth, and there is nothing too hard for thee.” This gave a majesty to the early saints, that they dared to do at God’s command things which carnal reason would condemn. Whether it be a Noah who is to build a ship on dry land, an Abraham who is to offer up his only son, or a Moses who is to despise the treasures of Egypt, or a Joshua who is to besiege Jericho seven days, using no weapons but the blasts of rams’ horns, they all act upon God’s command, contrary to the dictates of carnal reason; and the Lord gives them a rich reward as the result of their obedient faith. Would to God we had in the religion of these modern times a more potent infusion of this heroic faith in God. If we would venture more upon the naked promise of God, we should enter a world of wonders to which as yet we are strangers. Let Jeremiah’s place of confidence be ours—nothing is too hard for the God that created the heavens and the earth.