the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Spiritual Treasury For The Children of God
Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.- Psalms 63:3.
Forsake all, and possess all. Give up all, and enjoy all. This is the doctrine of Jesus, and the experience of faith. So we overcome the world, by preferring the love of Christ to every thing beside. Most blessed enthusiasm! really tasting that the Lord is gracious-truly feeling the comforts of his love- actually partaking of fellowship with Jesus-communion of the Holy Spirit-freely conversing with the Father of all consolations-O how transporting to the Spirit! how ravishing to the soul! With what holy indifference does the enraptured heart look down upon the objects of sense! The gilded toys of time, that so attract the views-the glittering vanities of life, that so enslave earthly minds-the empty shadows of sense, that so bewitch the heart; yea, life itself, with all its comforts, what are all, compared to one moment’s enjoyment of the loving-kindness of the Lord! In competition, as shadow to substance; in worth, as the dust of the earth to the gold of Ophir. Sense is but short-lived fancy: Faith is reality and substance; for it brings love, the kindness of love, yea, the God of loving kindness himself into the sinner’s heart. This changeth a fallen son of Adam into a glorious saint in Christ; a miserable sinner into a comfortable, holy, humble praiser of our covenant LORD.
Thus it is when the soul hath found God in Christ, who is its life, its glory, its treasure, its heaven, its all. But this knowledge consists, not only in ecstasy of soul and rapturous sensations, but faith is a habitual principle; love is an active grace; hope has a purifying efficacy. Not only are the lips opened in praise, the tongue loosed, to speak of the glory of Jesus, but the life, the practice, the conversation, will also be favoured with the grace of truth, as an evidence that we know his love, and have been with Jesus. So we prove that he has taught us wisdom, not to prefer heaven to earth in word only, but in conduct also. Therefore, having received all from him freely, in love and by grace, we desire to do what he has commanded; to avoid what he has forbidden. The fruits of righteousness are by him, to the glory of God the Father; therefore we pray to be filled with them. The works of the flesh, the works of darkness, we desire to mortify, and have no fellowship with, because contrary to love, and the enjoyment of it-"We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."- 1 John 4:16.
Of all the joys we mortals know,
Jesus, thy love exceeds the rest:
Love, the blest blessing here below,
And nearest image of the blest.
Sweet are my thoughts and soft my cares,
When the celestial flame I feel:
In all my thoughts, and all my fears,
There’s something kind and pleasing still.
Ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30.
Who are thus sealed? every believer in Christ. This was shewed in the last meditation. This sealing, here and elsewhere, is spoken of as a thing done. Ye are, ye were, God hath sealed us. (2 Corinthians 1:22.) If all believers are not sealed, it is absurd to exhort them: “grieve not the Spirit, whereby ye are sealed.” Know, believer, that this is your inestimable privilege. Rejoice in it. Give the Lord the glory of it. O may the Spirit, the sealer, help us to make some improvement of it. (1st.) Are all believers sealed unto the day of redemption? then is their state safe, and their salvation sure. “The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.” (2 Timothy 2:19.) They shall be mine, saith the Lord, when I make up my jewels, etc. (Malachi 3:17.) It is horrid blasphemy to assert any soul may go to hell, whom the Spirit has sealed with the broad seal of heaven. (2d.) Are we thus sealed by the Spirit? then let our souls adore his eternal power and godhead, and praise him for his work in us. What power, short of omnipotent, could open our blind eyes, quicken our dead souls, subdue our rebellious wills, and bring our proud, self-righteous hearts, to submit to the righteousness of Christ, and to receive him for our whole salvation? Has the Spirit sealed us as the sons of God, and possessed our hearts with the peace of God, through faith in Christ? (3d.) Beware that you do not grieve the Spirit. Do we bear the impress of the Spirit’s seal upon our hearts? O ye sealed ones of God, be singular for God. Be exemplary in your lives before God. Consider, whose image and superscription you bear. Sink not below your dignity. Shun vanity fair. Avoid what gratifies the flesh. Flee the scenes of folly. Leave them to souls who know not the love of your Saviour. Live in the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit. (4th.) Sealed believer, know that this sealing of the Spirit is the finishing grace of the covenant of love. Now “you are complete in Christ.” (Colossians 2:10.) Your title is clear to the heavenly inheritance. Live by faith upon the comfort of it. Reject all doubts and fears concerning it. Soon you shall possess it. Lay hold on eternal life. (1 Timothy 6:12.)
May the blest Spirit in my heart
Sweetly diffuse abroad
The love of God, th’ incarnate God,
Who bought me with his blood.
O may I never once forget
What a poor worm I am:
From death and hell redeem’d by blood,
The blood of God’s dear Lamb.
