Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: February 17th

A dispensation of the gospel. - 1 Corinthians 9:17.

HERE we have for our contemplation “a dispensation of the gospel.” The great trumpet is to be “blown.” For what use would a trumpet be otherwise? And what is the reasoning of the apostle? “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How, then, shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher!” And “when the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Our Saviour himself, when on earth, preached personally; “he preached peace to them that were far off and to them that were nigh.” By this it was that, in the beginning of the gospel, nations were converted from Paganism to Christianity. By this, at the time of the Reformation, men were converted from Popery to Protestantism. What did Knox in Scotland? And thus has it been among us. More than a century ago, a band of men, whose hearts the Lord had touched, went forth to preach the everlasting gospel. Wherever they found a place or a congregation, they preached, and, “Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” It is quite impossible now to calculate how great and extensive has been the influence of their labours. And how is it now?

Take the members of a Christian church: you will find most of them called to God by the instrumentality of a preached gospel. One would say, “Ah, sir, you cannot imagine what a poor, dead, stupid creature I was as to all the things of God, till I heard a sermon which came to me like a clap of thunder, and led me to cry, What must I do to be saved?” A second would say, “You cannot imagine what a proud, self-righteous Pharisee I was, till I heard a sermon which, like a scythe, mowed down all my hopes, and left me at the foot of the cross, saying, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.” But who is to blow this trumpet? Men, and not angels.

There is a difference between the administration of the law and the dispensation of the gospel. The law was “ordained by angels in the hand of a Mediator.” One produced the darkness, another shook the mountain, another rolled the thunders, another inscribed the law on tables of stone, &c. “But unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak,” that is, the economy of the gospel.

In reading the Acts of the Apostles we shall find that it was so all along. Though an angel appeared to Cornelius, it was only to tell him to send for Peter, who would instruct him in all that was necessary. An angel was employed to deliver Peter and John from prison. What a fine preacher he would have been had he gone among the people! But no; he said to the apostles, “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.” We can never sufficiently admire the wisdom of God in this arrangement. Had angels been employed to preach the gospel, their greatness would have made us afraid; we should have been dazzled and overawed. But, now that we have this treasure in earthen vessels, the excellency of the power appears to be of God. The victory achieved over the proud foe appears more humbling now that he “stills the enemy and the avenger, by ordaining strength out of the mouths of babes and sucklings.”

Angels could not speak to us from experience, but, as some indeed do, by mere rote. They know nothing of godly sorrow for sin, or of the exercise of Christ for pardon. They are ignorant of the Christian warfare; they could not weep or sympathize with us in their addresses; the thing could not go from heart to heart as it is among us now.

This is all my salvation, and all my desire. - 2 Samuel 23:5.

ALL my salvation requires to be done, and all my salvation requires to be given, is included in the everlasting covenant. And how much is required! Is the pardon of my sin necessary? There it is: “I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” Is holiness necessary? There it is: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness; and from all your idols will I cleanse you, and a new heart will I give you.” Is strength necessary? “The Lord is my strength and my song, and has become my salvation,” and he will put strength in us. Is grace necessary? The covenant gives it. Is glory necessary? It provides it. Is God necessary himself, with all his relations and attributes? There is the grand provision in the covenant: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

So therefore all the Lord’s people have each a God for himself; a God to guide, to guard, and to supply all their need from his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. David also says, “This covenant of Salvation is all my desire.” The believer desires to comprehend, with all saints, what is its height, and depth, and length, and breadth. He desires more of all this salvation, but not more than all its rich and glorious provisions. If we regard this as the supreme good, it will be all our desire to know more clearly our interest in this covenant, and to feel more richly an experience of its blessings, and to live more entirely according to its motives and encouragements. If we thus regard the blessings of this well-ordered covenant, our hold of other things will be loosened; and we shall sing, with Doddridge:-

“All my capacious powers can wish

In this doth richly meet;

Nor to my eyes is light so clear,

Nor friendship half so sweet.”