Evening Prayer December 10

Father in Heaven,
 
Holy are You, Lord God Almighty! You alone are worthy to receive glory and honor and power; for You have created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created. You are our Rock, our refuge, our shelter in times of storm. We stand in awe and wonder before You. There is no one nor is there anything that can compare with You. Before You all else pales into insignificance.
 
How often is it that we set goals in our lives, for a wide variety of things, but pay little or no attention to eternal goals? We are guilty of taking You for granted, Lord. We have this idea that You've got everything covered, so there's nothing left for us to do. And while You do, indeed, have many things covered, we still have our part to play in our lives today, and this is where we've failed. Help us, Lord, to take stock of where we are and where we're going so we can set proper goals to accomplish a life for You. 
 
We stand before You, Lord, in complete surrender, offering our hearts completely to You. We thank You for Your merciful grace that saves and forgives us even though we are far from ever being worthy. Our hearts filled with gratitude, we love You, Lord, with every fiber of our being. We worship You, Lord, with our whole heart. We adore You, Lord, with all that is within us as we bless Your holy name.
 
To You who sits on the throne, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and power forever and ever.
 
Amen

Evening Devotion December 10

By C.H. Spurgeon
 
"Whose heart the Lord opened." — Act_16:14
 
In Lydia's conversion there are many points of interest. It was brought about by providential circumstances. She was a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, but just at the right time for hearing Paul we find her at Philippi; providence, which is the handmaid of grace, led her to the right spot. Again, grace was preparing her soul for the blessing-grace preparing for grace. She did not know the Saviour, but as a Jewess, she knew many truths which were excellent stepping-stones to a knowledge of Jesus. Her conversion took place in the use of the means. On the Sabbath she went when prayer was wont to be made, and there prayer was heard. Never neglect the means of grace; God may bless us when we are not in his house, but we have the greater reason to hope that he will when we are in communion with his saints. Observe the words, "Whose heart the Lord opened." She did not open her own heart. Her prayers did not do it; Paul did not do it. The Lord himself must open the heart, to receive the things which make for our peace. He alone can put the key into the hole of the door and open it, and get admittance for himself. He is the heart's master as he is the heart's maker. The first outward evidence of the opened heart was obedience. As soon as Lydia had believed in Jesus, she was baptized. It is a sweet sign of a humble and broken heart, when the child of God is willing to obey a command which is not essential to his salvation, which is not forced upon him by a selfish fear of condemnation, but is a simple act of obedience and of communion with his Master. The next evidence was love, manifesting itself in acts of grateful kindness to the apostles. Love to the saints has ever been a mark of the true convert. Those who do nothing for Christ or his church, give but sorry evidence of an "opened" heart. Lord, evermore give me an opened heart.
 

Ecclesiastes 2:3

 

I investigated how to cheer up my body with wine, while my heart was still guiding me with wisdom, in order to grasp folly until I might experience what is good for sons of men to do under heaven during the number of days that they might have life.
Ecclesiastes 2:3 Modern English Version (MEV)
 
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I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine,.... Not in an immoderate way, so as to intoxicate himself with it, in which there can be no pleasure, nor any show of happiness; but in a moderate, yet liberal way, so as to be innocently cheerful and pleasant, and hereby try what good and happiness were to be possessed in this way. By "wine" is meant, not that only, but everything eatable and drinkable that is good; it signifies what is called good living, good eating and drinking: Solomon always lived well; was brought up as a prince, and, when he came to the throne, lived like a king; but being increased in riches, and willing to make trial of the good that was in all the creatures of God, to see if any happiness was in them; determines to keep a better table still, and resolved to have everything to eat or drink that could be had, cost what it will; of Solomon's daily provision for his household, see 1Ki_4:22; the Midrash interprets it, of the wine of the law. It may be rendered, "I sought in mine heart to draw out my flesh with wine", or "my body" (y); to extend it, and make it fat and plump; which might be reduced to skin and bones, to a mere skeleton, through severe studies after wisdom and knowledge. The Targum is,
 
"I sought in my heart to draw my flesh into the house of the feast of wine;''
 
as if there was a reluctance in him to such a conduct; and that he as it were put a force upon himself, in order to make the experiment;
 
(yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom); or, "yet my heart led me in wisdom" (z): he was guided and governed by wisdom in this research of happiness; he was upon his guard, that he did not go into any sinful extravagancies, or criminal excesses in eating and drinking;
 
and to lay hold on folly; that he might better know what folly was, and what was the folly of the sons of men to place their happiness in such things; or rather, he studiously sought to lay hold on folly, to restrain it, and himself from it, that it might not have the ascendant over him; so that he would not be able to form a right judgment whether there is any real happiness in this sort of pleasure, or not, he is, speaking of; for the epicure, the voluptuous person, is no judge of it;
 
till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life; where the "summum bonum", or chief happiness of man lies; and which he should endeavour to seek after and pursue, that he might enjoy it throughout the whole of his life, while in this world: and that he might still more fully know it, if possible, he did the following things.
 
(y) למשוך ביין את בשרי "ut diducerem vino carnem meam", Piscator; "ut protraherem, et inde distenderem carnem meam", Rambachius. (z) ולבי נהג בחכמה "et cor meam ducens in sapientia", Montanus; "interim cor meum ducens in sapientiam", Drusius.
 
John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible
 
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Imagine a pastor, who is planning on giving a sermon about a particular sin, deciding that the best way for him to gain a better insight into that sin would be to go out and engage in that sin to experience for himself what it was all about. Foolishness, right?
 

Luke 1:35

 

The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. Therefore the Holy One who will be born will be called the Son of God.
Luke 1:35 Modern English Version (MEV)
 
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And the angel answered and said unto her,.... The angel gave her an account of the manner in which what he had said should be effected, as well as observed some things for the strengthening of her faith,
 
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. The words, "upon thee", are left out in the Syriac and Persic versions; but are retained in others, and in all copies: the formation of Christ's human nature, though common to all the three persons, yet is particularly, and most properly ascribed to the Spirit; not to the first person, the Father, lest it should be thought that he is only the Father of him, as man; nor to the second person, the Son, since it is to him that the human nature is personally united; but to the third person, the Spirit, who is the sanctifier; and who separated, and sanctified it, the first moment of its conception, and preserved it from the taint of original sin. His coming upon the virgin must be understood in consistence with his omnipresence, and immensity; and cannot design any local motion, but an effectual operation in forming the human nature of her flesh and substance; and not in the ordinary manner in which he is concerned in the formation of all men, Job_33:4 but in an extraordinary way, not to be conceived of, and explained. The phrase most plainly answers to בא על, in frequent use with the Jews (x), as expressive of coition,
 
And the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. By "the power of the Highest" is not meant the Lord Jesus Christ, who is sometimes called the power of God; but rather the Holy Ghost, as before, who is styled the finger of God, and power from on high, Luk_11:20 unless it should be thought that the perfection of divine power common to all the three persons is intended: and so points out the means by which the wondrous thing should be performed, even by the power of God; and which should not only be employed in forming the human nature of Christ, but in protecting the virgin from any suspicion and charge of sin, and defending her innocence and virtue, by moving upon Joseph to take her to wife. In the word, "overshadow", some think there is an allusion to the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters, in Gen_1:2 when, מרחפת, he brooded upon them, as the word may be rendered; and which is the sense of it, according to the Jewish writers (y) as a hen, or any other bird broods on its eggs to exclude its young: and others have thought the allusion may be to הופת חתנים, (z), "the nuptial covering": which was a veil, or canopy, like a tent, supported on four staves, under which the bridegroom and bride were betrothed; or, as Dr. Lightfoot thinks, it is a modest phrase alluding to the conjugal embraces, signified by a man's spreading the skirt of his garment over the woman, which Ruth desired of Boaz, Rut_3:9 though the Jewish writers say (a), that phrase is לשון נישואין expressive of the act of marriage, or taking to wife. The phrase of being מטללין ברוח נבואה "overshadowed", or "covered with the spirit of prophecy", as the virgin also was, is used by the Targumist, on 1Ch_2:55.
 
therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. The human nature of Christ is here called a "thing"; for it was not a person; it never subsisted of itself, but was taken at once into union with the person of the Son of God, otherwise there would be two persons in Christ, whereas he is God, and man, in one person; and it is said to be "holy", being free from that original pollution and sin, in which all that descend from Adam, by ordinary generation, are conceived, and brought forth; and is, moreover, said to be born of a virgin, "of thee", or "out of thee". Christ's flesh was formed out of the Virgin's; he took flesh of her; his body did not descend from heaven, or pass through her, as water through a pipe, as some heretics of old said: nor did his human nature, either as to soul or body, pre-exist his incarnation; but in the fulness of time he was made of a woman, and took a true body of her, and a reasonable soul, into union with his divine person; and "therefore should be called the Son of God": not that he was now to become the "the Son of God"; he was so before his incarnation, and even from all eternity; but he was now to be manifested as such in human nature: nor does the angel predict, that he should, for this reason, be called the Son of God; for he never was, on this account, so called, either by himself, or others: nor is the particle, "therefore", causal, but consequential: the angel is not giving a reason why Christ should be the Son of God, but why he should be owned, and acknowledged, as such by his people: who would infer, and conclude from his wonderful conception and birth, that he is the "Emmanuel", God with us, the child that was to be born, and the Son given, whose name should be Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, &c. Isa_7:14. Moreover, the word, "also", is not to be overlooked; and the sense is, that seeing that human nature, which should be born of the virgin, would be united to the Son of God, it likewise should bear the same name, being in personal union with him, who was so from all eternity,
 
(x) Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7, sect. 4. & passim alibi (y) R. Sol. Jarchi, R. Aben Ezra, & R. Levi ben Gerson in Gen. 1. 2. (z) T. Bab. Sota, fol. 49. 2. Vid. David de Pomis, Lex. Heb p. 67. 2. (a) Targum, Jarchi, & Aben Ezra in loc.
 
John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible
 
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We get ourselves too tied up in knots over things that can’t be satisfactorily explained. The church has warred for centuries over this issue. The sad part about that is that because of all the noise surrounding the conception and birth of Jesus, we tend to miss the real point of the story, which is that Heaven and earth come together in the person of Jesus, something that was previously restricted to the Holy of Holies in the Temple. Jesus is, quite literally, the Temple in human form.
 

The Peculiar Sleep Of The Beloved

 

By C.H. Spurgeon
 
“For so He gives His beloved sleep.”
Psalm 127:2
 
THE sleep of the body is the gift of God. So said Homer of old, when he described it as descending from the clouds and resting on the tents of the warriors around old Troy. And so sang Virgil, when he spoke of Palinurus falling asleep upon the prow of the ship. Sleep is the gift of God. We think that we lay our heads upon our pillows and compose our bodies in a peaceful posture and that, therefore, we naturally and necessarily sleep. But it is not so. Sleep is the gift of God and not a man would close his eyes did not God put His fingers on his eyelids–did not the Almighty send a soft and balmy influence over his frame which lulled his thoughts into quiescence, making him enter into that blissful state of rest which we call sleep.
 
True, there are some drugs and narcotics whereby men can poison themselves well near to death and then call it sleep. But the sleep of the healthy body is the gift of God. He bestows it, He rocks the cradle for us every night. He draws the curtain of darkness. He bids the sun shut up his burning eyes and then He comes and says, “Sleep, sleep My child. I give you sleep.” Have you not known what it is at times to lie upon your bed and strive to slumber? And as it is said of Darius, so might it be said of you–“The king sent for his musicians, but his sleep went from him.” You have attempted it, but you could not do it. It is beyond your power to procure a healthy repose.
 
You imagine if you fix your mind upon a certain subject until it shall engross your attention you will then sleep. But you find yourself unable to do so. Ten thousand things drive through your brain as if the whole earth were agitated before you. You see all things you ever beheld dancing in a wild phantasmagoria before your eyes. You close your eyes, but still you see. And there are things in your ears and head and brain which will not let you sleep. It is God alone who alike seals up the sea boy’s eyes upon the giddy mast and gives the monarch rest–for with all appliances and means to boot, he could not rest without the aid of God. It is God who steeps the mind in oblivion and bids us slumber, that our bodies may be refreshed, so that for tomorrow’s toil we may rise recruited and strengthened.
 
O my Friends, how thankful should we be for sleep. Sleep is the best physician that I know of. Sleep has healed more pains of wearied bones than the most eminent physicians upon earth. It is the best medicine–the choicest thing of all the names which are written in all the lists of pharmacy. There is nothing like sleep! What a mercy it is that it belongs alike to all! God does not make sleep the gift of the rich man. He does not give it merely to the noble, or the rich, so that they can keep it as a peculiar luxury for themselves. He bestows it upon all. Yes, if there is a difference, the sleep of the laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much.
 
He who toils, sleeps all the sounder for his toil. While luxurious effeminacy cannot rest, tossing itself from side to side upon a bed of eider down, The hard-working laborer, with his strong and powerful limbs worn out and tired, throws himself upon his hard couch and sleeps–and waking, thanks God that he has been refreshed! You know not, my Friends, how much you owe to God, that He gives you rest at night. If you had sleepless nights, you would then value the blessing. If for weeks you lay tossing on your weary bed, you then would thank God for your favor. And as it is the gift of God, it is a gift most precious–one that cannot be valued until it is taken away. Yes, even then we cannot appreciate it as we ought.
 
The Psalmist says there are some men who deny themselves sleep. For purposes of gain, or ambition, they rise up early and sit up late. Some of us who are here present may have been guilty of the same thing. We have risen early in the morning that we might turn over the ponderous volume, in order to acquire knowledge. We have sat at night until our burned-out lamp has chidden us and told us that the sun was rising–while our eyes have ached, our brain has throbbed, our heart has palpitated. We have been weary and worn out. We have risen up early and sat up late and have in that way come to eat the bread of sorrow. Many of you business men are toiling in that style.
 
We do not condemn you for it. We do not forbid rising up early and sitting up late. But we remind you of this text–“It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows–for so He gives His beloved sleep.” And it is of this sleep, that God gives to His beloved, that we mean to speak this morning, as God shall help us–a sleep peculiar to the children of God–a sleep which He gives to “His beloved.”
 
Sleep is sometimes used in a bad sense in the Word of God, to express the condition of carnal and worldly men. Some men have the sleep of carnal ease and sloth–of whom Solomon tells us they are unwise sons that slumber in the harvest, causing shame, so that when the harvest is spent and the summer is ended, they are not saved. Sleep often expresses a state of sloth, of deadness, of indifference, in which all ungodly men are found, according to the words, “It is time for us to awake out of sleep.” “Let us not sleep as do others, but let us who are of the day be sober.”
 
There are many who are sleeping the sluggard’s sleep, who are resting upon the bed of sloth. But an awful waking shall it be to them when they shall find that the time of their probation has been wasted. That the golden sands of their life have dropped unheeded from the hourglass. And that they have come into that world where there are no acts of pardon passed, no hope, no refuge, no salvation.
 
In other places you find sleep used as the figure of carnal security in which so many are found. Look at Saul, lying asleep in fleshly security–not like David, when he said, “I will lay me down and sleep, for You Lord make me to dwell in safety.” Abner lay there and all the troops lay around him, but Abner slept. Sleep on, Saul, sleep on. But there is an Abishai standing at your pillow and with a spear in his hand he says, “Let me smite him even to the earth at once.” Still he sleeps. He knows it not. Such are many of you, sleeping in jeopardy of your soul. Satan is standing, the Law is ready, vengeance is eager and all are saying, “Shall I smite him? I will smite him this once and he shall never wake again.”
 
Christ says, “Stay, Vengeance, stay.” Lo, the spear is even now quivering–“Stay, spare him yet another year in the hope that he may yet wake from the long sleep of his sin.” Like Sisera, I tell you, Sinner, you are sleeping in the tent of the Destroyer. You may have eaten butter and honey out of a lordly dish, but you are sleeping on the doorstep of Hell. Even now the enemy is lifting up the hammer and the nail to smite you through your temples and fasten you to the earth, that there you may lie forever in the death of everlasting torment–if it may be called a death.
 
Then there is also mentioned in Scripture a sleep of lust, like that which Samson had when he lost his locks and such sleep as many have when they indulge in sin and wake to find themselves stripped, lost and ruined. There is also the sleep of negligence such as the virgins had, when it is said, “they all slumbered and slept.” And the sleep of sorrow, which overcame Peter, James and John. But none of these are the gifts of God. They are incident to the frailty of our nature. They come upon us because we are fallen men. They creep over us because we are the sons of a lost and ruined parent. These sleeps are not the benisons of God. Nor does He bestow them on His beloved. We now come to tell you what those sleeps are, which He does bestow.
 
First, there is a miraculous sleep which God has sometimes given to His beloved–which He does not NOW grant.Into that kind of miraculous sleep, or rather trance, fell Adam when he slept sorrowingly and alone. But when he awoke he was no more so, for God had given him that best gift which He had then bestowed on man. The same sleep Abram had when it is said that a deep sleep came on him. He laid down and saw a smoking furnace and a burning lamp, while a voice said to him, “Fear not, Abram. I am your Shield and your exceeding great Reward.”
Such a hallowed sleep also was that of Jacob, when, with a stone for his pillow, the hedges for his curtains, the heavens for his canopy, the winds for his music and the beasts for his servants, he laid down and slumbered. Dreaming, he saw a ladder set upon the earth, the top of which reached to Heaven. The angels of God were ascending and descending upon it. Such a sleep had Joseph when He dreamed that the other sheaves made obeisance to his sheaf and that the sun, moon and seven stars were subject unto him.
 
So oftentimes did David rest, when his sleep was sweet unto him, as we have just read. And such a sleep was that of Daniel when he said, “I was asleep upon my face and behold the Lord said unto me, Arise and stand upon your feet.” And such, moreover, was the sleep of the reputed father of our blessed Lord, when in a vision of the night an angel said unto him, “Arise, Joseph and take the young child and His mother and flee into Egypt, for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”
 
These are miraculous slumbers. God’s angel has touched His servants with the magic wand of sleep and they have slept, not simply as we do, but slept a wondrous sleep. They have dived into the tenfold depths of slumber, they have plunged into a sea of sleep where they have seen the invisible, talked with the unknown and heard mystic and wondrous sounds–and when they have awoke, they have said, “What a sleep! Surely, my sleep was sweet unto me.” “So He gives His beloved sleep.”
 
But, nowadays, we do not have such sleeps as these. Many persons dream very wonderful things but most people dream nonsense. Some persons put faith in dreams–and, certainly God does warn us in dreams and visions even now. I am sure He does. There is not a man but can mention one or more instances of a warning, or a benefit, he has received in a dream. But we never trust dreams. We remember what Rowland Hill said to a lady, who knew she was a child of God, because she dreamed such-and-such a thing–“Never mind, ma'am, what you did when you were asleep. Let us see what you will do when you are awake.”
 
That is my opinion of dreams. I never will believe a man to be a Christian merely because he has dreamed himself one. For a dreamy religion will make a man a dreamer all his life–and such dreamers will have an awful waking at last, if that is all they have to trust to.
 
II. He gives His beloved, in the second place, the sleep of a quiet conscience. I think most of you saw that splendid picture in the Exhibition of the Royal Academy–the Sleep of Argyle–where he lay slumbering on the very morning before his execution. You saw some noblemen standing there, looking at him, almost with compunction. The jailer is there, with his keys rattling–but positively the man sleeps, though tomorrow morning his head shall be severed from his body and a man shall hold it up and say, “This was the head of a traitor.”
 
He slept because he had a quiet conscience–for he had done no wrong. Then look at Peter. Did you ever notice that remarkable passage where it is said that Herod intended to bring out Peter on the morrow, but, behold, as Peter was sleeping between two guards, the angel smote him? Sleeping between two guards, when on the morrow he was to be crucified or slain! He cared not, for his heart was clear. He had committed no ill. He could say, “If it is right to serve God or man, judge you.” And, therefore, he laid down and slept.
 
O Sirs! Do you know what the sleep of a quiet conscience is? Have you ever stood out and been the butt of calumny–pelted by all men? The object of scorn–the laugh, the song of the drunkard? And have you known what it is, after all, to sleep, as if you cared for nothing, because your heart was pure? Ah, you who are in debt! You who are dishonest–you who love not God and love not Christ–I wonder you can sleep, for sin does put pricking thorns in the pillow. Sin puts a dagger in a man’s bed so that whichever way he turns it pricks him.
 
But a quiet conscience is the sweetest music that can fill the soul to sleep. The demon of restlessness does not come to that man’s bed who has a quiet conscience–a conscience right with God–who can sing–
 
“With the world, myself and You,
I, before I sleep, at peace shall be.”
“So He gives His beloved sleep.”
 
But let me tell you who have no knowledge of your election in Christ Jesus, no trust in the ransom of a Savior’s blood–you who have never been called by the Holy Spirit. You who never were regenerated and born again–let me tell you that you do not know this slumber.
 
You may say your conscience is quiet. You may say you do no man any wrong and that you believe at the bar of God you shall have little to account for. But, Sirs, you know you have sinned. And your virtues cannot atone for your vices. You know that the soul that sins, if it sins but once, must die. If the picture has a single flaw, it is not a perfect one. If you have sinned but once, you shall be dammed for it, unless you have something to take away that one sin.
 
You do not know this sleep, but the Christian does–for all his sins were numbered on the “scapegoat’s head of old.” Christ has died for all his sins, however great or enormous and there is not now a sin written against him in the Book of God. “I, even I,” says God, “am He that blots out your transgressions for My name’s sake and I will not remember your sins.” Now you may sleep. For “so He gives His beloved sleep.”
 
III. Again–there is the sleep of contentment which the Christian enjoys. How few people in this world are satisfied. No man ever need fear offering a reward of a thousand pounds to a contented man. For if anyone came to claim the reward, he would of course prove his discontent. We are all in a measure, I suspect, dissatisfied with our lot. The great majority of mankind are always on the wing. They never settle, they never light on any tree to build their nest–they are always flittering from one to the other. This tree is not green enough, that one is not high enough, this one is not beautiful enough, that one is not picturesque enough.
 
So they are ever on the wing and never build a peaceful nest at all. The Christian builds his nest. And as the noble Luther said, “Like yon little bird upon the tree, he has fed himself tonight–he knows not where his breakfast is tomorrow. He sits there while the winds rock the tree–he shuts his eyes, puts his head under his wing and sleeps. And when he awakes in the morning, sings–
 
‘Mortals cease from toil and sorrow;
God provides for the morrow.’"
 
How few there are who have that blessed contentment–who can say, “I want nothing else, I want but little here below–yes, I long for nothing more–I am satisfied–I am content.”
 
You sung a beautiful hymn just now, but I suspect that many of you had no right to it, because you did not feel it–
 
“With Your will I leave the rest
Grant me but this one request.
Both in life and death to prove
Tokens of Your special love.”
 
Could you say there was nothing you wanted on earth, save Jesus? Did you mean that you are perfectly content–that you had the sleep of contentment? Ah, no. You, who are apprentices, are sighing till you shall be journeymen. You who are journeymen, are groaning to be masters. Masters are longing till they shall retire from business and when they have retired, they are longing that all their children shall be settled in life.
 
Man always looks for a yet beyond–he is a mariner who never gets to port–an arrow which never reaches the target. Ah, the Christian has sleep. One night I could not rest and in the wild wanderings of my thoughts I met this text and communed with it–“So He gives His beloved sleep.” In my reverie, as I was on the border of the land of dreams, methought I was in a castle. Around its massive walls there ran a deep moat. Watchmen paced the walls both day and night. It was a fine old fortress, bidding defiance to the foe. But I was not happy in it. I thought I lay upon a couch.
 
And scarcely had I closed my eyes, before a trumpet blew, “To arms! To arms!” And when the danger was overpass I lay me down again. “To arms! To arms!” once more resounded and again I started up. Never could I rest. I thought I had my armor on and moved about perpetually clad in mail, rushing each hour to the castle top, aroused by some fresh alarm. At one time a foe was coming from the west. At another, from the east. I thought I had a treasure somewhere down in some deep part of the castle and all my care was to guard it. I dreaded, I feared, I trembled lest it should be taken from me.
 
I awoke and I thought I would not live in such a tower as that for all its grandeur. It was the Castle of Discontent, the Castle of Ambition in which man never rests. It is ever “To arms! To arms! To arms!” There is a foe here or a foe there. His dear-loved treasure must be guarded. Sleep never crossed the drawbridge of the castle of discontent. Then I thought I would supplant it by another reverie. I was in a cottage. It was in what poets call a beautiful and pleasant place but I cared not for that. I had no treasure in the world, save one sparkling jewel on my breast. And I thought I put my hand on that and went to sleep, nor did I wake till morning light.
 
That treasure was a quiet conscience and the love of God–“the peace that passes all understanding.” I slept, because I slept in the House of Content, satisfied with what I had. Go, you overreaching misers! Go, you grasping ambitious men! I envy not your life of inquietude. The sleep of statesmen is often broken. The dream of the miser is always evil. The sleep of the man who loves gain is never hearty, but God “gives,” by contentment, “His beloved sleep.”
 
IV. Once more–God gives His beloved the sleep of quietness of soul as to the future. O that dark future! That future! That future! The present may be well but ah, the next wind may wither all the flowers and where shall I be? Clutch your gold, miser, for “riches make to themselves wings and flee away.” Hug that babe to your breast, mother, for the rough hand of death may rob you of it. Look at your fame and wonder at it, O you man of ambition! But one slight report shall wound you to the heart and you shall sink as low as ever you have been lifted high by the voices of the multitude.
 
The future! All persons have need to dread the future, except the Christian. God gives to His beloved a happy sleep
 
“What may be my future lot,
High or low concerns me not;
This does set my heart at rest,
What my God appoints is best.”
 
Whether I am to live or die is no matter to me. Whether I am to be the “offspring of all things,” or “the man whom the king delights to honor,” matters not to me. All alike is provided by my Father if He does but give it. “So He gives His beloved sleep.”
 
How many of you have arrived at that happy point that you have no wish of your own at all? It is a sweet thing to have but one wish, but it is a better thing to have no wish at all–to be all lost in the present enjoyment of Christ and the future anticipation of the vision of His face. O my Soul! What would the future be to you if you had not Christ? If it is a bitter and a dark future, what matters it, so long as Christ your Lord sanctifies it and the Holy Spirit still gives you courage energy and strength?
 
It is a blessed thing to be able to say with Madame Guyon–
 
“To me ‘tis equal, whether love ordained,
My life or death, appoint me pain or ease;
My soul perceives no real ill in pain
In ease or health, no real good she sees.
One good she covets and that good alone,
To choose Your will, from selfish bias free,
And to prefer a cottage to a throne,
And grief to comfort, if it pleases You.
That we should bear the Cross is your command–
Die to the world and live to sin no more.
Suffer unmoved beneath the rudest hand,
As pleased when shipwrecked, as when safe on shore.”
 
It is a happy condition to attain. “So He gives His beloved sleep.” Ah, if you have a self-will in your hearts, pray to God to uproot it. Have you self-love? Beseech the Holy Spirit to turn it out. For if you will always will to do as God wills you must be happy.
 
I have heard of some good old woman in a cottage, who had nothing but a piece of bread and a little water. Lifting up her hands, she said, as a blessing, “What? All this and Christ, too?” It is “all this,” compared with what we deserve. And I have read of someone dying, who was asked if he wished to live or die and he said, “I have no wish at all about it.” “But if you might wish, which would you choose?” “I would not choose at all.” “But if God bade you choose?” “I would beg God to choose for me, for I should not know which to take.” Happy state! Happy state! To be perfectly content–
 
“To lie passive in His hand,
And know no will but His.”
 
“So He gives His beloved sleep.”
 
In the fifth place–there is the sleep of security. Solomon slept with armed men round his bed and thus slumberedsecurely. But Solomon’s father slept one night on the bare ground–not in a palace–with no moat round his castle wall–and he slept quite as safely as his son, for David said, “I laid me down and slept and I awaked, for the Lord sustained me.”
Now, some persons never feel secure in this world at all. I query whether one half of my hearers feel themselves so. Suppose I burst out in a moment and sing this–
 
“I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy but not more secure,
Are the glorified spirits in Heaven,”
 
you would say, that is too high doctrine. And I would reply, very likely it is for you, but it is the Truth of God and it is sweet doctrine for me. I love to know that if I am predestinated according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, I must be saved if I was purchased by the Son’s blood.
 
I cannot be lost, for it would be impossible for Jesus Christ to lose one whom He has redeemed, otherwise He would be dissatisfied with His labors. I know that where He has begun the good work He will carry it on. I never fear that I shall fall away, or be lost. My only fear is lest I should not have been right at first. But, provided I am right, if I am really a child of God, I might believe that the sun would be smitten with madness and go reeling through the universe like a drunken man before I may perish.
 
I might believe that the stars would run from their courses and instead of marching with their measured tramp, as now they do, whirl on in wild courses like the dance of Bacchanals. I could even conceive that this great universe might all subside in God, “even as a moment’s foam subsides again upon the wave that bears it.” But neither reason, heresy, logic, eloquence, nor a conclave of divines, shall make me pay a moment’s attention to the vile suggestion that a child of God may ever perish. Hence I tread this earth with confidence.
 
Arguing a little while ago with an Arminian, he said, “Sir you ought to be a happy man, for if what you say IS true, why you are as secure of being in Heaven as if you were there.” I said, “Yes, I know it.” “Then you ought to live above cares and tribulations and sing happily from morning to night.” I said, “So I ought and so I will, God helping me.” This is security. “He gives His beloved sleep.” To know that if I died I should enter Heaven–to be as sure as I am of my own existence that God, having loved me with an everlasting love and He being immutable, will never hate me if He has once loved me. To know that I must enter the kingdom of glory–is not this enough to make all burdens light and give me the hind’s feet wherewith I may stand upon my high places? Happy state of security! “So He gives His beloved sleep.”
 
And there is a sleep, my dear Friends, of security which is enjoyed on earth even in the midst of the greatest troubles. Do you remember that passage in the book of Ezekiel where it is said, “They shall dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods”? A strange place to sleep in! “In the woods.” There is a wolf over yonder. There is a tiger in the jungle, an eagle is soaring in the air. A horde of robbers dwell in the dark forest. “Never mind,” says the child of God–
 
“He that has made his refuge God,
Shall find a most secure abode;
Shall walk all day beneath His shade,
And there at night shall rest his head.”
 
I have often admired Martin Luther and wondered at his composure. When all men spoke so ill of him, what did he say? Turn to that Psalm–“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble; therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” In a far inferior manner I have been called to stand up in the position of Martin Luther and have been made the butt of slander, a mark for laughter and scorn. But it has not broken my spirit yet, nor will it, while I am enabled to enjoy that latent state of–“So He gives His beloved sleep.”
 
But thus far I beg to inform all those who choose to slander or speak ill of me that they are very welcome to do so till they are tired of it. My motto is cedo nulli–I yield to none. I have not courted any man’s love. I asked no man to attendmy ministry. I preach what I like and when I like and as I like. Oh, happy state–to be bold, though downcast and distressed–to go and bend my knee and tell my Father all and then to come down from my chamber and say–
 
“If on my face, for Your dear name,
Shame and reproach shall be,
I’ll hail reproach and welcome shame,
For You’ll remember me.”
 
VI. The last sleep God gives His beloved, is the sleep of a happy dismission. I have stood by the graves of many servants of the Lord. I have buried some of the excellent of the earth. And when I bid farewell to my brother down below there slumbering in his coffin, I usually commence my speech with those words, “So He gives His beloved sleep.” Dear servants of Jesus! There I see them! What can I say of them, but that “so He gives His beloved sleep”? Oh, happy sleep! This world is a state of tossing to and fro. But in that grave they rest. No sorrows there. No sighs. No groans to mingle with the songs that warble from immortal tongues.
 
Well may I address the dead thus–“My Brother, oftentimes have you fought the battles of this world. You have had your cares, your trials and your troubles. But now you are gone–not to worlds unknown but to yonder land of light and glory. Sleep on, Brother! Your soul sleeps not, for you are in Heaven! But your body sleeps. Death has laid you in your last couch. It may be cold, but it is sanctified. It may be damp, but it is safe. And on the resurrection morning, when the archangel shall set his trumpet to his mouth, you shall rise.
 
“Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord–yes, says the Spirit, for they rest from their labors and their works do follow them.” “Sleep on in your grave, my Brother, for you shall rise to glory.” “So He gives His beloved sleep.”
 
Some of you fear to die and have good reason to do so, for death for you would be the beginning of sorrows. And as it approaches you might hear the voice of the angel of the Apocalypse–“One woe is past, but behold two woes more are to come.” If, Sirs, you were to die unprepared and unconverted and unsaved, “There remains nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation.” I need not speak like a Boanerges, for it is to you a well known Truth that without God, without Christ, “strangers from the commonwealth of Israel,” your portion must be among the damned–the Fiends–the tortured–the shrieking ghosts–the wandering souls who find no rest–
 
“ On waves of burning brimstone tossed,
Forever, O forever lost!”
 
“The wrath to come!” “The wrath to come!” “The wrath to come!” But, beloved Christian Brothers and Sisters, why do you fear to die? Come let me take your hand–
 
“ To you and me by grace ‘tis given
To know the Savior’s precious name;
And shortly we shall meet in Heaven
Our end, our hope, our way the same.”
 
Do you know that Heaven is just across that narrow stream? Are you afraid to plunge in and swim across? Do you fear to be drowned? I feel the bottom–it is good. Do you think you shall sink? Hear the voice of the Spirit–“Fear not, I am with you, be not dismayed, I am your God–when you pass through the river, I will be with you and the floods shall not overflow you.”
 
Death is the gate of endless joys and do you dread to enter there? What? Fear to be emancipated from corruption? Oh, say not so, but rather gladly lay down and sleep in Jesus and be blessed. I have finished expounding my subject. There is only one question I want to ask of you before you pass out of those doors. Do you seriously and solemnly believe that you belong to the “beloved” here mentioned? I may be impertinent in asking such a question. I have been accused of that before now and I have never denied it. I rather take the credit of it than not.
 
But seriously and solemnly I ask you–Do you know yourselves to be among the beloved? And if it happens that you want a test, allow me to give you three tests, very briefly and I have done. It has been said that there are three kinds of preachers–doctrinal preachers, experimental preachers and practical preachers. Now I think there are three things that make up a Christian–true doctrine, real experience and good practice. Now, then, as to your doctrine. You may tell whether you are the Lord’s beloved partly by that. Some think it matters not what a man believes. Excuse me–Truth IS ALWAYS precious and the least atom of Truth is worth searching out.
 
Now-a-days the sects do not clash so much as they did. Perhaps that is good, but there is one evil about it. People do not read their Bibles so much as they did. They think we are all right. Now I believe we may be all right in the main, but we cannot be all right where we contradict one another. And it becomes every man to search the Bible to see which is right. I am not afraid to submit my Calvinism, or my doctrine of Believer’s Baptism, to the searching of the Bible. A learned lord, an infidel, once said to Whitfield, “Sir, I am an infidel, I do not believe the Bible, but if the Bible is true, you are right and your Arminian opponents are wrong. If the Bible is the Word of God, the doctrines of grace are true.”
 
He added that if any man would grant him the Bible to be the Truth, he would challenge him to disprove Calvinism, the doctrines of original sin, election, effectual calling, final perseverance and all those great truths which are called Calvinism–though Calvin was not the author of them, but simply an able writer and preacher upon the subject. These are, I believe, the essential doctrines of the Gospel that is in Jesus Christ. Now, I do not ask you whether you believe all this–it is possible you may not–but I believe you will before you enter Heaven.
 
I am persuaded, that as God may have washed your hearts, He will wash your brains before you enter Heaven. He will make you right in your doctrines. But I must enquire whether you read your Bibles. I am not finding fault with you this morning for differing from me. I may be wrong–but I want to know whether you search the Scriptures to find what is Truth. And if you are not a reader of the Bible, if you take doctrines second-hand, if you go to chapel and say, “I do
 
If it is God’s Truth let us have it exalted. It may not suit you, but let me remind you that the Truth that is in Jesus never was palatable to carnal men and I believe never will be. The reason you love it not is because it cuts too much at your pride. It lets you down too low. Search yourselves, then, in doctrine. Then take care that you remember the experimental test. I am afraid there is very little experimental religion among us–but where there is true doctrine there ought always to be a vital experience. Sirs, try yourselves by the experimental test.
 
Have you ever had an experience of your wretchedness, of your depravity, your inability, your death in sin? Have you ever felt life in Christ, an experience of the light of God’s countenance, of wrestling with corruption? Have you had a grace-given Holy Spirit-implanted experience of a communion with Christ? If so, then you are right on the experimental test.
 
And, to conclude, take care of the practical test. “Faith without works is deed being alone.” He that walks in sin is a child of the devil and he that walks in righteousness is a child of light. Do not think because you believe the right doctrines, therefore you are right. There are many that believe right, act wrong and they perish. “Be not deceived. God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.”
 
I have done. Now let me beseech you by the frailty of your own lives–by the shortness of time–by the dreadful realities of eternity–by the sins you have committed–by the pardon that you need–by the blood and wounds of Jesus–by His second coming to judge the world in righteousness–by the glories of Heaven–by the awful horrors of Hell–by time–by eternity–by all that is good–by all that is sacred–let me beg of you, as you love your own souls, to search and see whether you are among the beloved, to whom He gives sleep. God bless you. Adapted from The C.H. Spurgeon Collection, Version 1.0, Ages Software, 1.800.297.4307
 
PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS SERMON
 
TO BRING MANY TO A SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST.

James 1:9

 

Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted,
James 1:9 Modern English Version (MEV)
 
******************
 
Let the brother of low degree - This verse seems to introduce a new topic, which has no other connection with what precedes than that the apostle is discussing the general subject of trials. Compare Jas_1:2. Turning from the consideration of trials in general, he passes to the consideration of a particular kind of trials, that which results from a change of circumstances in life, from poverty to affluence, and from affluence to poverty. The idea which seems to have been in the mind of the apostle is, that there is a great and important trial of faith in any reverse of circumstances; a trial in being elevated from poverty to riches, or in being depressed from a state of affluence to want. Wherever change occurs in the external circumstances of life, there a man’s religion is put to the test, and there he should feel that God is trying the reality of his faith. The phrase “of low degree” (ταπεινὸς tapeinos) means one in humble circumstances; one of lowly rank or employment; one in a condition of dependence or poverty. It stands here particularly opposed to one who is rich; and the apostle doubtless had his eye, in the use of this word, on those who had been poor.
 
Rejoice - Margin, “glory.” Not because, being made rich, he has the means of sensual gratification and indulgence; not because he will now be regarded as a rich man, and will feel that he is above want; not even because he will have the means of doing good to others. Neither of these was the idea in the mind of the apostle; but it was, that the poor man that is made rich should rejoice because his faith and the reality of his religion are now tried; because a test is furnished which will show, in the new circumstances in which he is placed, whether his piety is genuine. In fact, there is almost no trial of religion which is more certain and decisive than that furnished by a sudden transition from poverty to affluence from adversity to prosperity, from sickness to health. There is much religion in the world that will bear the ills of poverty, sickness, and persecution, or that will bear the temptations arising from prosperity, and even affluence, which will not bear the transition from one to the other; as there is many a human frame that could become accustomed to bear either the steady heat of the equator, or the intense cold of the north, that could not bear a rapid transition from the one to the other. See this thought illustrated in the notes at Php_4:12.
 
In that he is exalted - A good man might rejoice in such a transition, because it would furnish him the means of being more extensively useful; most persons would rejoice because such a condition is that for which men commonly aim, and because it would furnish them the means of display, of sensual gratification, or of ease; but neither of these is the idea of the apostle. The thing in which we are to rejoice in the transitions of life is, that a test is furnished of our piety; that a trial is applied to it which enables us to determine whether it is genuine. The most important thing conceivable for us is to know whether we are true Christians, and we should rejoice in everything that will enable us to settle this point.
 
(Yet it seems not at all likely that an Apostle would exhort a poor man to rejoice in his exaltation to wealth. An exhortation to fear and trembling appears more suitable. Wealth brings along with it so many dangerous temptations, that a man must have greater confidence in his faith and stability than he ought to have, who can rejoice in its acquisition, simply as furnishing occasion to try him: the same may be said of poverty, or of the transition front riches to poverty. The spirit of Agar is more suitable to the humility of piety, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain, “Pro_30:8-9. Besides, there is no necessity for resorting to this interpretation. The words will, without any straining, bear another sense, which is both excellent in itself, and suitable in its connection. The poor man, or man in humble life, may well rejoice “in that he is exalted” to the dignity of a child of God, and heir of glory.
 
If he be depressed with his humble rank in this life, let him but think of his spiritual elevation, of his relation to God and Christ, and he shall have an antidote for his dejection. What is the world’s dignity in comparison of his! The rich man, or the man of rank, on the other hand, has reason to rejoice “in that he is made low” through the possession of a meek and humble spirit which his affluence illustrates, but neither destroys nor impairs. It would be matter of grief were he otherwise minded; since all his adventitious splendor is as evanescent as the flower which, forming for a time the crown of the green stalk on which it hangs, perishes before it. This falls admirably in with the design of the Apostle, which was to fortify Christians against trial. Every condition in life had its own trials. The two great conditions of poverty and wealth had theirs; but Christianity guards against the danger, both of the one state and of the other. It elevates the poor under his depression, and humbles the rich in his elevation, and bids both rejoice in its power to shield and bless them. The passage in this view is conceived in the same spirit with one of Paul, in which he beautifully balances the respective conditions of slaves and freemen, by honoring the former with the appellation of the Lord’s freemen, and imposing on the latter that of Christ’s servants, 1Co_7:22.)
 
Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
 
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This is a word that isn’t very popular, even within Christian circles. It would certainly fall on deaf ears among those who adhere to the so-called ‘prosperity gospel.’ For some reason we just can’t shake the idea that health, wealth and prosperity are signs of God’s blessing, while hunger, poverty and homelessness are not. Jesus himself taught that idea needed to be turned on its head, and James is continuing with that same line of thought, if only we’d listen.
 

Exodus 1:15

The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah,
Exodus 1:15 Modern English Version (MEV)
 
*****************
 
And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives,.... It is difficult to say who these midwives were, whether Egyptian or Hebrew women. Josephus is of opinion that they were Egyptians, and indeed those the king was most likely to succeed with; and it may seem improbable that he should offer such a thing to Hebrew women, who he could never think would ever comply with it, through promises or threatenings; and the answer they afterwards gave him, that the Hebrew women were not as the Egyptian women, looks as if they were of the latter: and yet, after all, it is more likely that these midwives were Hebrew women, their names are Hebrew; and besides, they are not said to be the midwives of Hebrew women, but Hebrew midwives; nor does it seem probable that the Hebrew women should have Egyptian midwives, and not those of their own nation; and they were such as feared the Lord; and the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem are express for it, and they pretend to tell us who they were: "of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah"; the one, they say, was Jochebed, the wife of Amram, and mother of Moses and Aaron, and the other Miriam their sister; and this is the sense of many of the Jewish writers (f): but whatever may be said for Jochebed, it is not credible that Miriam should be a midwife, who was but a girl, or maid, at this time, about seven years of age, as the following chapter shows, and much less one of so much repute as to be spoke to by the king. It may seem strange, that only two should be spoke to on this account, when, as Aben Ezra supposes, there might be five hundred of them: to which it may be answered, that these were the most noted in their profession, and the king began with these, that if he could succeed with them, he would go on to prevail on others, or engage them to use their interest with others to do the like; or these might be the midwives of the principal ladies among the Israelites, in one of whose families, according as his magicians had told, as the Targum of Jonathan observes, should be born a son, by whom the land of Egypt would be destroyed; of which Josephus (g) also takes notice; and therefore he might be chiefly solicitous to destroy the male children of such families; but Aben Ezra thinks, that these two were the chief over the rest of the midwives, and who collected and paid to the king the tribute out of their salaries, which was laid upon them, and so he had an opportunity of conversing with them on this subject.
(f) T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 11. 2. Midrash Kohelet, fol. 74. 1. Jarchi in loc. (g) Ut supra. (Antiq. l. 2. c. 9. sect. 1.)
 
John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible
 

Morning Devotion December 10

 By C.H. Spurgeon
 
"So shall we ever be with the Lord." — 1Th_4:17
 
Even the sweetest visits from Christ, how short they are-and how transitory! One moment our eyes see him, and we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, but again a little time and we do not see him, for our beloved withdraws himself from us; like a roe or a young hart he leaps over the mountains of division; he is gone to the land of spices, and feeds no more among the lilies.
 
"If to-day he deigns to bless us
With a sense of pardoned sin,
He to-morrow may distress us,
Make us feel the plague within."
 
Oh, how sweet the prospect of the time when we shall not behold him at a distance, but see him face to face: when he shall not be as a wayfaring man tarrying but for a night, but shall eternally enfold us in the bosom of his glory. We shall not see him for a little season, but
 
"Millions of years our wondering eyes,
Shall o'er our Saviour's beauties rove;
And myriad ages we'll adore,
The wonders of his love."
 
In heaven there shall be no interruptions from care or sin; no weeping shall dim our eyes; no earthly business shall distract our happy thoughts; we shall have nothing to hinder us from gazing for ever on the Sun of Righteousness with unwearied eyes. Oh, if it be so sweet to see him now and then, how sweet to gaze on that blessed face for aye, and never have a cloud rolling between, and never have to turn one's eyes away to look on a world of weariness and woe! Blest day, when wilt thou dawn? Rise, O unsetting sun! The joys of sense may leave us as soon as they will, for this shall make glorious amends. If to die is but to enter into uninterrupted communion with Jesus, then death is indeed gain, and the black drop is swallowed up in a sea of victory.

Morning Prayer December 10

Father in Heaven,
 
Holy are You, Lord God Almighty! You alone are worthy to receive glory and honor and power; for You have created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created. You are our Rock, our refuge, our shelter in times of storm. We stand in awe and wonder before You. There is no one nor is there anything that can compare with You. Before You all else pales into insignificance.
 
There are really only two things that You've given us to do; to love You, and to love others, yet it often seems they are too much for us. You gave everything for us, and in return we promise our love, but with conditions that You would do this, or that, for us. And, as far as loving others, we usually compare them against a long list of qualifications before we deem them deserving of our love. Open our eyes and our hearts, Lord, before it's too late for us.
 
We stand before You, Lord, in complete surrender, offering our hearts completely to You. We thank You for Your merciful grace that saves and forgives us even though we are far from ever being worthy. Our hearts filled with gratitude, we love You, Lord, with every fiber of our being. We worship You, Lord, with our whole heart. We adore You, Lord, with all that is within us as we bless Your holy name.
 
To You who sits on the throne, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and power forever and ever.
 
Amen