GOD’S WORD FOR  SEPTEMBER 19

We are using Charles Spurgeon book, “The Risen King.”  It’s a collection of well chosen excerpts from Spurgeon’s  “Easter” sermons in devotional form, put together by Jeff Medders.   Pastor Spurgeon lived from 1834 to 1892  in London, England, and had a unique gift of understanding and showing the depth of our faith.  Thus, his reverential title as the Prince of Preachers.   Even though we’re not in or near that season, every day is a good day to focus on Christ’s sacrifice and victory for us!

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REPENTANCE IS NEVER OUT OF FASHION

Matthew 4:17

“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Luke 24:47

“and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

Jesus begins His mission crying, “Repent” (Mark 1:15).  Then He ends it by saying to His successors, the apostles, “and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”  This seems to me to be not only simply an interesting fact but instructive.  With this He begins, and with this He will conclude.  He knew that repentance was, to spiritual life, a sort of Alpha and Omega – it was the duty of the beginning; it was the duty of the end.

True repentance consists of illumination, humiliation, detestation, and transformation.  Repentance sighs over the sin – confession tells it out.  Repentance feels the sin to be heavy within – confession plucks it forth and lays it before the throne of God.  Repentance is the soul in stress – confession delivers it from that stress.  Through repentance, my heart is ready to burst, and there is a fire in my bones – confession gives the heavenly fire a vent, and my soul flames upward before God.  Repentance alone has groanings which cannot be uttered – confession is the voice which expresses the groanings.

Repentance clears away the rubbish of the past temple of sin.  Holiness builds the new temple which the Lord our God shall inherit.  Repentance and the desire for holiness can never be separated.  Sin is such a troublesome companion that it will always give you heartache till you have turned it out through repentance.  Then your heart shall rest and be still.  Sin is the rough wind that tears through the forest and sways every branch of the trees back and forth.  But after repentance has come into the soul, the wind is hushed, and all is still, and the birds sing in the branches of the trees which just now creaked in the storm.  Repentance ever yields sweet peace to those who possess it.

I am a living witness that repentance is exceedingly sweet when mixed with divine hope.  But repentance without hope is hell.  It is hell to grieve for sin with the pangs of bitter remorse and yet to know that pardon can never come and mercy can never be granted.  Repentance, with the cross before its eyes, is heaven itself.

Repentance, then, has this excellency:  that it is very sweet to the soul which is made to lie beneath its shadow.  When the blood of Jesus is sprinkled on a repentant heart, even the songs of the angels and the vials full of sweet odors that smoke before the throne of the Most High are not more agreeable to God than the sighs and groans and tears of the brokenhearted repentant soul. 

So then, if you desire to please God, come before Him with many and many a tear.  “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not turn away.”  Psalm 51:17.

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2 Corinthians 12:9-10

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Psalm 19:14

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

And see if there is any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting.

Ps 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Romans 14:23b

……for whatever is not from faith is sin.

Psalm 19:13-14

Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;

Let them not have dominion over me.

Then I shall be blameless,

And I shall be innocent of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight,

O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

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