GOD’S WORD FOR OCTOBER 11

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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FACE LIKE FLINT

Isaiah 50:6-7

“I gave My back to those who struck Me,

And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;

I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.

For the Lord God will help Me;

Therefore I will not be disgraced;

Therefore I have set My face like a flint,

And I know that I will not be ashamed.”

These are, in prophecy, the words of the Messiah.  This is the language of Christ Jesus, the promised Deliverer, whom God sent into the world to be the one and only Savior.  This is the declaration of Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews – it is He who said in prophecy, “I have set My face like a flint” and afterwards carried it out in actual life.

Luke seems to have had this passage in his mind when he wrote about our Lord.  “when the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51).

There is the same meaning in the two passages, and I cannot help feeling that the words recorded by Isaiah were brought to the memory of Luke by the Holy Spirit when he penned that expression.  The fact is that our Master, even from eternity, resolved to save His people, and nothing could keep Him from the accomplishment of His purpose.

From eternity, He foresaw that we would fall from our first estate, and He entered into covenant engagements to redeem us.  From the pledge He gave of old, He never pulled back.  Time rolled on, and humanity fell and afterwards multiplied upon the face of the earth, but Christ’s delights were still with the human race.  Often, in one form or another, He would visit this earth to converse with Abraham or to wrestle with Jacob or to speak with Joshua or to walk in the burning fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  He was always anticipating the time when He should actually assume human nature and fulfill His covenant engagements.

At last, the appointed hour arrived, and then He did not disdain the virgin’s womb or the Bethlehem   manger or the workshop of Nazareth.  Even as a child, He said, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?  (Luke 2:49).  The set purpose of redeeming His people was an all-consuming passion that ever burned within His soul.  For what He once said to His disciples, He felt always:  “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” (12:50)  He felt bound and hampered until He could get to His chief work – He longed to be at it.  With wholehearted passion, He desired to eat that last Passover meal on the evening of Himself becoming God’s Passover Lamb.

Reflect on this passage in the letter to the Hebrews:  “…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame”  (Hebrews 12:2).  His joys were many:  1.  The joy of saving immortal souls; 2.  The joy of vindicating the broken law of God;  3. The joy of breaking down the power of evil in the world and setting up a kingdom of goodness and of love; 4 the joy of bringing a remedy for all humanity’s diseases – a cure-all for their miseries; 5.  The joy of gathering unto Himself a multitude that no one can number – redeemed by blood out of every nation and family and tongue, who should glorify God for ever and ever.

We serve a  Master who steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem in order that He might accomplish the one great purpose for which He came to earth and from which He could not be turned.  Therefore, we ought to be faithful to Him and to partake as far as we can of His Spirit.  Does He not seem to rebuke us without saying a word – for His face was set like a flint, while our faces speak up for Him, or perhaps when we are too ashamed to do so?  If we truly follow such a Lord as Christ is, we also ought to be flinty-faced for all holy purposes, and I ask you, dear friends, to pray to God the Holy Spirit to make you so.

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Ecclesiastes 3:11

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

John 17:3

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Deuteronomy 33:27

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, And will say, ‘Destroy!’

John 18:37

Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

John 17:1-5

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,  as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.  And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.  I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.  And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

John 17:7-10

Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.  For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.

 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.  And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.

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