Daily Devotionals

Spiritual Treasury For The Children of God

Devotional: August 7th

I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.- 1 Corinthians 11:3.

By a godly fear in the heart, the Lord keeps his people from totally departing from him. But there is ever danger from Satan, from men, yea and from brethren too, of our minds being corrupted and beguiled, so as to suffer the loss of that singleness of eye and simplicity of heart towards our dear Saviour, by which the soul is only kept happy. If the Lord’s prophet had been more jealous over himself, and more simple to his master’s voice, the fair speech of his brother had not betrayed him to disobedience and death, by the mouth of the lion. See- 1 Kings 13:24.

Could Satan so beguile Eve as to make her an instrument of death to herself, to the dear partner of her life, and to all their posterity? O disciples, "take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother, for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders."- Jeremiah 9:4. But how comes all this? Alas! because "they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth," Jeremiah 9:3. Satan’s subtlety hath robbed them of Christ’s simplicity. The abiding, comforting presence, the sweet fellowship of Jesus are obscured to their mind. Jesus is not simply and constantly lived upon. The living actings of faith, the constant outgoings of the soul, the continual looking to, and daily hanging upon Jesus for salvation from hour to hour, is not enjoyed in the heart. Corrupted minds grow clouded. Hence they lose sight of our beloved friend; sweet simplicity departs, and other objects too oft become the subjects of converse and meditation. This is an infectious disorder; it rages among the children of God; it is easily caught; simple faith in Jesus is bewildered by perplexing notions; love to Jesus grows cold by keeping at a distance from him; and once humble, simple hearts get into doubting-castle. Satan cries, "There, there, so would I have it." Though Jesus will never forsake them, yet he suffers their own folly to correct them. By their smarting he teaches them to be wiser. Chaste virgins are jealous over their eyes, their tongues, and hearts, lest they give encouragement to unlawful love. We are equally to be on our guard against the corrupt principles of proud self-righteous Pharisees, as against the licentious principles of Antinomians. Both draw from the simplicity that is in Christ. The light of the body is the eye; "if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."- Matthew 6:22.

Satan appears almost divine,

Like innocence and love;

But the old serpent lurks within,

When he assumes the dove.

Fly from the false deceiver’s tongue,

Ye sons of Adam, fly;

Our parents found the snare too strong,

Nor should the children try.

And because ye are sons, GOD hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Galatians 4:6.

It is the peculiar glory of gospel grace, that sinners are made sons of God. Here is the joyful knowledge of it, by the Spirit. Here is the precious boldness of children to God, my Father. The glory of the whole Trinity is in this verse, Lord help us to consider-the Spirit-his cry-and where he cries. (1st.) The Spirit. Mind, he is called the Spirit of Christ, the Son of God. For he comes to us from Christ, his office is to testify of Christ, to glorify him; for he takes of the things of Christ, and shews them to us. (John 16:14.) He convinces us of sin: our want of righteousness: gives us a right judgment of Christ, and his work for our salvation: leads us to Christ, begets us to a lively hope in him, and becomes to our souls, a spirit of adoption, because we are the sons of God, by faith in Christ. Then, (2d.) He gives us a cry. He becomes a spirit of grace and supplication to us. When a child is born, it soon discovers that it is alive, by its cries. God has no still-born children. As soon as Paul was converted, he prayed to God Jesus. That soul that never prayed to Christ, was never converted by his Spirit. Do you believe in and pray to Christ as over all, blessed for evermore? That is a sure and blessed evidence, that you are converted by the Spirit of Christ. For it is his cry. (3d.) Where doth he put this cry? Where the sense of our misery is: where the graces of faith, hope, love, and all religion centre, “in our hearts.” Every one can say, Our Father-Christ have mercy on us, with their lips. But God’s elect cry day and night to him, from their hearts. (Luke 18:7.) David says, “Thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee.” (2 Samuel 7:27.) The lips will soon give over crying, if there be not a cry in the heart. (4th.) What a precious cry it is! Not an angel, nor archangel in glory, hath such a cry. They cannot cry, Abba, Father. Though God created them, he never regenerated them: Christ never died for them: the Spirit never cries in their hearts, Abba, Father, in the sense which he does in us miserable sinners. “In the midst of all the terrors of the law, the thunderings of sin, the assaults of death, and the roarings of Satan, the Holy Ghost crieth, Abba, Father. This cry surmounteth the horrible cries of the law; sin, death, and the devil; it pierceth the clouds and the heavens, and ascendeth up into the ears of God,” saith Luther. Thus when we take hold of Christ by faith, we cry, through him, Abba, Father. O soul, rejoice in the love of Father, Son and Spirit, and walk worthy of the Lord, to all pleasing. Colossians 1:10.

The Spirit of his Son he sends,

Into our mournful heart.

Whereby we Abba, Father, cry,

And all our fears depart.