the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Spiritual Treasury For The Children of God
Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.- Isaiah 7:14.
Upon this prophecy hangs the hopes of fallen sinners. Had this word failed, we were all damned forever. Horror eternal awaited us. Hell eternal must have been our doom. God must be born a babe in time, or sinful man is forever lost. But, O my fellow sinners, all hail! I congratulate you. This day is this scripture fulfilled. This virgin hath conceived. This son, this Immanuel is born, God in our nature: God with us: God for us, we behold in JESUS. He says, "I was set up from everlasting," (as the covenant head of my people)-"My delights were with the sons of men,"- Proverbs 8:23; Proverbs 8:31. O, he hath shewn how he delighted over us, how he rested for ever in his love to us. For he came to visit us in our flesh. "Verily he took not on him the nature of angels," but he became a BABE in human flesh, a MAN in stature; born to save, lived to justify, died to redeem-who? fallen angels? No. They are left reserved in chains of darkness. But unto us sinners against God, us miserable apostates from God, in the very same desperate state as devils are: behold "unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given." That we who are filthy by birth, and polluted by nature, might have a holy birth, and a sanctified nature IN HIM. "The government is upon his shoulders." He is our KING. He reigns over us, for us, and in us. Our souls and all our concerns are safe in his hands. "His name is WONDERFUL." In his conception, his birth, his person, God and man in one Christ; in his life, his death, his resurrection, ascension, and intercession, wonderful. In his love to us, and salvation of us, wonderful. "COUNSELLOR." He powerfully pleads our cause above: he sweetly counsels our hearts below to come to him; so we find blessed rest in him. "THE MIGHTY GOD." No less could save us. Jesus is the God of our salvation. "THE EVERLASTING FATHER." He begets us to himself by the word of his grace. The most tender parent on earth never loved his children as Jesus loves us. “THE PRINCE OF PEACE,"- Isaiah 9:6. He is ever at peace with us, has made peace for us, bestows his peace on us.
O, ye sinners of the human race, if as verily as the virgin conceived and brought forth this son, your hearts conceive Jesus by faith, this will bring forth holy love to Jesus. The birth of Jesus is our delicious Christmas fare. BEHOLD it, says the prophet: dwell on it in your minds, feed on it in your hearts. To conceive of our Lord becoming a babe, living in flesh for us, dying on the accursed tree to take away our sins and save our souls; while we count all other hopes vain, O this makes us keep a joyful CHRISTMAS all the year round. For this brings "glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will towards men."- Luke 2:14.
Emmanuel, GOD with us. Matthew 1:23.
This is the mystery which holy angels pry into, infernal devils envy, proud infidels reject with derision, humble sinners glory in, and which all the redeemed around the throne above are incessantly shouting, and everlastingly triumphing in.
“Till God in human flesh I see,
My thoughts no comfort find:
The holy, just, and sacred Three
Are terrors to my mind.”
This is the language of every sin-convinced, spirituallyenlightened soul. O how did we talk of God in nature’s darkness, when we were without Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world, even Atheists! But now, O wonder of converting grace! we see, we believe, we know God with us. This is the chief glory of our faith, the chief joy of our hearts. (1st.) God with us, in the eternal council and covenant before time. There he had our persons in view, our case at heart, and undertook to be our surety, our Jesus. Lo, we were then given to him by the Father; that, (2d.) in the fulness of time, he might be God with us, in our flesh. Lo, he is born. See the babe. Adore the God. Rejoice in “Emmanuel, God with us;” that, (3d.) he might accomplish that in our nature, without which we must have been eternally lost; but for which we are everlastingly saved: namely, finish transgression, make an end of sin, and bring in an everlasting righteousness-suffer, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God, (1 Peter 3:18.) This is sweet in the history; but, O how much more so, in the experience of the mystery. (4th.) God with us, living in our hearts, hopes, and affections by the Spirit, through faith. We know, we taste, we feel the reality, power, and comfort of this truth, God in Christ reconciled, not imputing our trespasses to us. (2 Corinthians 5:19.) Therefore, (5th.) God with us, to oppose all who are against us. Well might St. Paul ask, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31.) Now, may we not stand forth, and challenge all the powers of sin, earth, and hell, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?” For God the justifier, and we the justified, are one in Christ: “I in them, and thou in me,” says the Lord. (John 17:23.) Hence we meet in love, mutually embrace, and have fellowship one with another. This is the glory of Christ’s nativity, brought into our hearts. “Christ in us the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27.) This makes a joyful soul, and a happy Christmas.
Thou God, who came in mortal flesh,
The lost to seek and save:
In spirit visit us afresh-
New triumphs let us have.
