Extract from
e-Sword- the sword of the LORD with an electronic edge.
Through the Bible Day by Day.(F.B Meyer)
February 26
Morning
"Salvation is of the Lord." —
Jon_2:9
Salvation is the work of God. It is he alone who quickens the soul
"dead in trespasses and sins," and it is he also who maintains the
soul in its spiritual life. He is both "Alpha and Omega."
"Salvation is of the Lord." If I am prayerful, God makes me
prayerful; if I have graces, they are God's gifts to me; if I hold on in a
consistent life, it is because he upholds me with his hand. I do nothing
whatever towards my own preservation, except what God himself first does in me.
Whatever I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, that is
my own; but wherein I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and completely. If I
have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord's strength nerved my arm. Do I live
before men a consecrated life? It is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. Am I
sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God's Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I
weaned from the world? I am weaned by God's chastisements sanctified to my
good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels
were fashioned by heavenly art. I find in God all that I want; but I find in
myself nothing but sin and misery. "He only is my rock and my
salvation." Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me
unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I
live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus
Christ himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat and drink? Am I
continually receiving fresh increase of strength? Where do I gather my might?
My help cometh from heaven's hills: without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch
cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I
abide in him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning
in my closet: "Salvation is of the Lord."
Reference Verses
Jonah 2:9
I will sacrifice: Gen_35:3;
Psa_50:14, Psa_50:23, Psa_66:13-15,
Psa_107:22, Psa_116:17-18; Jer_33:11;
Hos_14:2; Rom_12:1;
Heb_13:15
I will pay: Deu_23:18;
2Sa_15:7; Job_22:27;
Ecc_5:4-5
Salvation: Psa_3:8,
Psa_37:39-40, Psa_68:20; Isa_45:17;
Joh_4:22; Act_4:12;
Rev_7:10
Extract from
e-Sword- the sword of the LORD with an electronic edge.
Through the Bible Day by Day.(F.B Meyer)
Evening
"Behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall
pronounce him clean that hath the plague." —
Lev_13:13
Strange enough this regulation appears, yet there was wisdom in it, for
the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound. This
evening it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of so singular a
rule. We, too, are lepers, and may read the law of the leper as applicable to
ourselves. When a man sees himself to be altogether lost and ruined, covered
all over with the defilement of sin, and in no part free from pollution; when
he disclaims all righteousness of his own, and pleads guilty before the Lord,
then he is clean through the blood of Jesus, and the grace of God. Hidden,
unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is the true leprosy; but when sin is seen and
felt, it has received its deathblow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon
the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness, or
more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are "nothing else
but sin," for no confession short of this will be the whole truth; and if
the Holy Spirit be at work with us, convincing us of sin, there will be no
difficulty about making such an acknowledgment -it will spring spontaneously
from our lips. What comfort does the text afford to truly awakened sinners: the
very circumstance which so grievously discouraged them is here turned into a
sign and symptom of a hopeful state! Stripping comes before clothing; digging
out the foundation is the first thing in building-and a thorough sense of sin
is one of the earliest works of grace in the heart. O thou poor leprous sinner,
utterly destitute of a sound spot, take heart from the text, and come as thou
art to Jesus-
"For let our debts be what they may, however great or small,
As soon as we have nought to pay, our Lord forgives us all.
'Tis perfect poverty alone that sets the soul at large:
While we can call one mite our own, we have no full discharge."
Reference Verses
Leviticus
13:13
if the leprosy: It may seem strange that the
partial leper should be pronounced unclean, and the person totally covered with
the disease clean. This was probably owing to a different species or stage of
the disease; the partial being contagious, the total not. That there are two
different species, or degrees, of the disease described here, is sufficiently
evident. In one, the person was all covered with a white enamelled scurf; in
the other, there was a quick raw flesh in the risings. On this account, the one
was deemed unclean, or contagious, the other not; for contact with the quick
raw flesh would be more likely to communicate the disease, than the touch of
the hard dry scurf. The ichor proceeding from the former, when brought into
contact with the flesh of another, would soon be taken into constitution by
means of the absorbent vessels; but where the surface was perfectly dry; the
absorbent vessels of another, coming in contact with the diseased man, could
imbibe nothing, and there was consequently but little or no danger of
infection. This is the learned Dr. Mead's view of the subject; who thus
accounts for the circumstances mentioned in the text.
he is clean: Isa_64:6;
Joh_9:41
Extract from
e-Sword- the sword of the LORD with an electronic edge.
Through the Bible Day by Day.(F.B Meyer)
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