Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
November 27
Morning
"Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the
Lord."—Zechariah 3:1.
In Joshua the high
priest we see a picture of each and every child of God, who has been made
nigh by the blood of Christ, and has been taught to minister in holy things,
and enter into that which is within the veil. Jesus has made us priests and
kings unto God, and even here upon earth we exercise the priesthood of consecrated
living and hallowed service. But this high priest is said to be "standing
before the angel of the Lord," that is, standing to minister. This should
be the perpetual position of every true believer. Every place is now God's
temple, and His people can as truly serve Him in their daily employments as in
His house. They are to be always "ministering," offering the
spiritual sacrifice of prayer and praise, and presenting themselves a
"living sacrifice." But notice where it is that Joshua stands to
minister, it is before the angel of Jehovah. It is only through a
mediator that we poor defiled ones can ever become priests unto God. I present
what I have before the messenger, the angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus;
and through Him my prayers find acceptance wrapped up in His prayers; my
praises become sweet as they are bound up with bundles of myrrh, and aloes, and
cassia from Christ's own garden. If I can bring Him nothing but my tears, He
will put them with His own tears in His own bottle for He once wept; if I can
bring Him nothing but my groans and sighs, He will accept these as an
acceptable sacrifice, for He once was broken in heart, and sighed heavily in
spirit. I myself, standing in Him, am accepted in the Beloved; and all my
polluted works, though in themselves only objects of divine abhorrence, are so
received, that God smelleth a sweet savour. He is content and I am blessed. See, then, the
position of the Christian—"a priest—standing—before the
angel of the Lord."
Evening
"The
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace."—Ephesians 1:7.
Could there be a sweeter
word in any language than that word "forgiveness," when it sounds in
a guilty sinner's ear, like the silver notes of jubilee to the captive
Israelite? Blessed, for ever blessed be that dear star
of pardon which shines into the condemned cell, and gives the perishing a gleam
of hope amid the midnight of despair! Can it be possible that sin, such sin as
mine, can be forgiven, forgiven altogether, and for ever?
Hell is my portion as a sinner—there is no possibility of my escaping
from it while sin remains upon me—can the load of guilt be uplifted, the
crimson stain removed? Can the adamantine stones of my prison-house ever be
loosed from their mortices, or the doors be lifted
from their hinges? Jesus tells me that I may yet be clear. For
ever blessed be the revelation of atoning love which not only tells me
that pardon is possible, but that it is secured to all who rest in Jesus. I
have believed in the appointed propitiation, even Jesus crucified, and
therefore my sins are at this moment, and for ever,
forgiven by virtue of His substitutionary pains and death. What joy is this!
What bliss to be a perfectly pardoned soul! My soul dedicates all her powers to
Him who of His own unpurchased love became my surety,
and wrought out for me redemption through His blood. What riches of grace does
free forgiveness exhibit! To forgive at all, to forgive fully, to forgive
freely, to forgive for ever! Here is a constellation
of wonders; and when I think of how great my sins were, how dear were the
precious drops which cleansed me from them, and how gracious was the method by
which pardon was sealed home to me, I am in a maze of wondering worshipping
affection. I bow before the throne which absolves me, I clasp the cross which
delivers me, I serve henceforth all my days the Incarnate God, through whom I
am this night a pardoned soul.