[O God of inexhaustible mercy, inexhaustible grace, unconditional love and peace that surpasses the understanding of man, help me this day to see through Your eyes, and hear with Your ears and feel with Your heart, Your spirit, Your very being, that I may comprehend You as You so desire for me, guide me this day that whether bountiful baskets of Your providence is upon me, or adversities are overwhelming me, help me Lord I pray, that I be constant in my service to You, sharing of Your graceful blessings with all those You have placed in my life directly and indirectly, Amen.]
The Lord’s people delight in the Covenant itself. It is an unfailing source of consolation to them as often as the Holy Spirit leads them into its banqueting house and waves its banner of love. They delight to contemplate the antiquity of that Covenant, remembering that before the day-star knew its place, or planets ran their round, the interests of the saints were made secure in Christ Jesus. It is peculiarly pleasing to them to remember the sureness of the Covenant, while meditating upon “the sure mercies of David.” They delight to celebrate it as “signed, and sealed, and ratified, in all things ordered well.” It often makes their heart dilate with joy to think of its immutability, as a Covenant for which neither time nor eternity, life nor death, shall ever be able to violate a Covenant as old as eternity and as everlasting as the rock of ages.
They rejoice also to feast upon the fullness of this Covenant, for they see in it all things provided for them. God is their portion, Christ their companion, the Spirit their Comforter, earth their lodge, and heaven their home. They see in it an inheritance reserved and entailed to every soul possessing an interest in its ancient and eternal deed of gift. Their eyes sparkled when they saw it as a treasure–trove in the Bible; but oh! How their souls were gladdened when they saw in the last will and testament of their divine kinsman, that it was bequeathed to them! More especially it is the pleasure of God’s people to contemplate the graciousness of this Covenant. They see that the law was made void because it was a Covenant of works and depended upon merit, but this they perceive to be enduring because grace is the basis, grace the condition, grace the strain, grace the bulwark, grace the foundation and grace the top stone! The Covenant is a treasury of wealth, a granary of food, a foundation of life, a stone–house of salvation, a charter of peace and a haven of joy.
How great the difference between Moses and Jesus! When the prophet of Horeb had been forty days upon the mountain, he underwent a kind of transfiguration, so that his countenance shone with exceeding brightness and he put a veil over his face, for the people could not endure to look upon his glory. Not so our Savior. He had been transfigured with a great glory than that of Moses, and yet, it is not written that the people were blinded by the blaze of His countenance, but rather they were amazed and running to Him, they saluted Him. The glory of the law repels but the greater glory of Jesus attracts. Though Jesus is holy and just, yet blended with His purity there is so much of truth and grace, that sinners run to Him amazed at his Goodness, fascinated by his love; they salute Him, become His disciples, and take Him to be their Lord and Master.
Children of God, it may be that just now you are blinded by the dazzling brightness of the law of God. You feel its claims on your conscience but you cannot keep it in your life. Not that you find fault with the law, on the contrary, it commands your profoundest esteem in heart and are in nowise drawn by it to God; you are rather hardened in heart and are verging towards desperation. Ah, poor heart! Turn your eye from Moses, with all his repelling splendor, and look to Jesus, resplendent with milder glories. Behold His flowing wounds and thorn-crowned head! He is the Son of God, and therein He is greater than Moses, but He is the Lord of love, and therein more tender than the lawgiver. He bore the wrath of God, and in His death revealed more of God’s justice than Sinai on a blaze but that justice is now vindicated and henceforth it is the guardian of believers in Jesus. Look to the bleeding Savior and as thou feel the attraction of His love, fly to His arms, and thou shall be saved.
Strive with all diligence to keep out that monster unbelief. It so dishonors Christ, that He will withdraw His visible presence if we insult Him by indulging it. It is true it is a weed, the seeds of which we can never entirely extract from soil, but we must aim at its root with zeal and perseverance. Among hateful things it is the most to be abhorred. Its injurious nature is so venomous that he that exercise it and he upon whom it is exercised are both hurt thereby. In thy case, O believer! It is most wicked, for the mercies of thy Lord in the past, increase thy guilt in doubting Him now. When thou dost distrust the Lord Jesus, He may well cry out, “behold I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.” This is crowning His head with thorns of the sharpest kind. It is very cruel for a well–beloved wife to mistrust a kind and faithful husband.
The sin is needless, foolish and unwarranted. Jesus has never given the slightest ground for suspicion and it is hard to be doubted by those to whom our conduct is uniformly affectionate and true. Jesus is the Son of the highest, and has unbounded wealth; it is shameful to doubt Omnipotence and distrust all sufficiency. The cattle on a thousand hills will suffice for our most hungry feeding, and the granaries of heaven are not likely to be emptied by our eating if Christ was only a cistern, we might soon exhaust His fullness but who can drain a fountain? Myriads of spirit have drawn their supplies from Him and not one of them has murmured at the scantiness of His resources. Away then, with this lying traitor, unbelief, for his only errand is to cut the bonds of communion and make us mourn an absent Savior. Bunyan tells us that unbelief has “as many lives as a cat” if so, let us kill one life now and continue the work till the whole nine are gone. Down with thee, thou traitor, my heart abhors thee.
These words have been frequently used by holy men in their hours of departure. We may profitably consider them this evening. The object of the faithful man’s solicitude in life and death is not his body or his estate, but his spirit; this is his choice treasure, if this be safe, all is well. What is this mortal state compared with the soul? The believer commits his soul to the hand of his God; it came from Him, it is His own, He has aforetime sustained it, He is able to keep it and it is most fit that He should receive it. All things are safe in Jehovah’s hands; what we entrust to the Lord will be secure, both now and in that day of day towards which we are hastening. It is peaceful living and glorious dying, to repose in the care of heaven. At all times we should commit our all to Jesus’ faithful hand; then, though life may hang on a thread and adversities may multiply as the sands of the sea, our soul shall dwell at ease and delight itself in quiet resting places.
“Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.” Redemption is a solid basis for confidence. David had not known
Sheriff G Ali
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