Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: August 8th

I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. - Psalms 71:16.

NOW, we may consider this as done with regard to man, by our avowals. We are not to be ashamed of the Saviour’s words. He requires us not only to believe with the heart but to confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus, and to hold fast, not only the reality of our faith, but the profession of it. A Christian is “always to be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in him,” and to proclaim before enemies the truth of God.

In this Christians are lamentably deficient in our day. “The righteousness of God by faith” we consider as the method of a sinner’s acceptance before God. It was this in which the reformers were so agreed. They differed as to church government, as to the decrees of God, and various other things; but there was no difference here. Here they took their ground and stood firm, and, rather than deny or conceal it, they were willing to go to prison and to death. Let us also act in the same way, and, when we have opportunity, mention his “righteousness and his only,” especially when we meet with those who are awakened and converted. Let us mention his righteousness in a way of encouragement, and his righteousness only.

Let us, in answer to the question, “What must I do to be saved?” say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” They feel themselves ready to perish; and, as Solomon says, wine must he given to such; and this wine must not be diluted by qualifications and conditions, but is to be administered purely as we have it in the blessed gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ! We may refer them at once to the refuge set before them’ in the gospel. We may tell them, if they think not themselves too good, he does not think them too bad, to be saved. And if they do not exclude themselves, they are not excluded by any declarations of Scripture from hope. We may, therefore, say,-

“Let not conscience make you linger,

Nor of fitness fondly dream:

All the fitness he requireth

Is to feel your need of him.”

“Come, and welcome,”-the title which Bunyan gave to one of his books. “Come, and welcome; he is able, he is willing.” In this way we should mention his righteousness. But we consider this as done with regard to God. And if we are asked, How is this to be done with regard to him? how are we to mention his righteousness, and his only? we answer, In all our intercourse and dealings with God in a way of salvation. And there are cases in which in our dealings with him we should make mention of his righteousness, and of his only.

The first is, in our transactions with him under convictions of sin. Oh, what are the views and feelings of a man then! How eagerly does he inquire, “How shall I come before the Lord, and bow my knees before the Most High?” And what would he do then but for the divine testimony? What would he do if he did not hear a voice, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”? “We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.” “I have nothing to plead,” may the man say, “why the law, which is holy, just, and true, should not be executed upon me, but as One died for all, and as that One is more than they all, what might have been accomplished by their destruction is more than answered by his death.” Well, therefore, may the Christian say, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And, Secondly, The Christian may make mention of his righteousness, and his only, in all the fresh discoveries of guilt. These will be many. He will not only discover sin on common occasions, but in his most holy things; not only in the week, but on the Sabbath; not only on ordinary Sabbaths, but on sacramental Sabbaths: so numerous and affecting will be his views of his imperfections and his deserts too, that he will feel a broken and a contrite heart,-that he will relinquish all self-confidence, and feel self-abashed and self-abandoned; but not so as to lose his strong consolation and good hope through grace, and his union with his Lord and Saviour. “If any man sin,” says John, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Therefore he feels “boldness and access by the faith of him.”

And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. - Exodus 3:3-5.

HERE observe the attention and inquiry this extraordinary appearance awakened. “Moses said, I will turn and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” And what Moses did we should do. “I would magnify thy works,” says David, “which men behold.” “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure in them.” Let us, therefore, turn aside and contemplate the same object. Moses had here much to excite his surprise. He saw no fire around him; he saw no fire descend from heaven. How could it be? Though this was surprising, there was something still more so. The fire continued; yet not a spray or leaf of the bush was consumed. Then he found a living personage also uninjured, and addressing him from the midst of the bush. So that we see attention and inquiry was naturally and unavoidably excited in him. And when are we not in danger? When are our motives entirely pure, or our actions sinless? Even things innocent in themselves, and things that are commanded may be carried too far through our depravity, and our imperfections become injurious.

Let us observe, secondly, God’s prohibition, or rather the regulation of the disposition in Moses, to turn aside and inquire why the bush is not burned. “And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” We may observe that this was designed to be a check upon our curiosity. This principle operates naturally in us all, though in some much more than in others, and we should be careful not to give way to it, even in the common affairs of life, but much more in religious matters. There is no countenance given to this in the word of truth; for when a man asked our Saviour, “Are there few that be saved?” he did not answer him, but said to them who were present, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able;” and when Peter asked, “Lord, what shall this man do?” he said, “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” And Moses himself delivered the maxim which all religious people should remember: “the secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.”

We should be satisfied with the facts of Christianity without the philosophy of them. The religious controversies which have occupied so much time, and which have injured so many fine tempers, have commonly been concerning things too deep for human reasoning to fathom, too lofty to be inquired into without presumption, or too insignificant to merit regard.

Observe, also, that this was to be considered an intimation of the humility with which God ought to be approached. The tokens of reverence have differed in many ages and places. The taking off the shoes here was much the same as taking off the hat with us. Therefore Solomon says, “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools.” Nothing like trifling is to be indulged in drawing near to God. “I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me.” “God is greatly to be feared, and to be had in remembrance of all them that are about Him.”

We should always remember that “God is a Spirit,” and that He “seeketh such to worship Him.” And that God is to be glorified in our bodies as well as in our Spirits, which are his. “Therefore,” says the Apostle, “let us have grace whereby we may serve Him with reverence and godly fear.”