Evening, April 6
Go To Morning Reading
“In the name of the Lord I will destroy them.”
Psalm 118:12
Our Lord Jesus, by his death, did not purchase a right to a part of
us only, but to the entire man. He contemplated in his passion the
sanctification of us wholly, spirit, soul, and body; that in this
triple kingdom he himself might reign supreme without a rival. It
is the business of the newborn nature which God has given to the regenerate
to assert the rights of the Lord Jesus Christ. My soul, so far as
thou art a child of God, thou must conquer all the rest of thyself
which yet remains unblest; thou must subdue all thy powers and passions
to the silver sceptre of Jesus’ gracious reign, and thou must never be satisfied till he who is King
by purchase becomes also King by gracious coronation, and reigns in
thee supreme. Seeing, then, that sin has no right to any part of us,
we go about a good and lawful warfare when we seek, in the name of
God, to drive it out. O my body, thou art a member of Christ: shall
I tolerate thy subjection to the prince of darkness? O my soul, Christ
has suffered for thy sins, and redeemed thee with his most precious
blood: shall I suffer thy memory to become a storehouse of evil, or
thy passions to be firebrands of iniquity? Shall I surrender my judgment
to be perverted by error, or my will to be led in fetters of iniquity?
No, my soul, thou art Christ's, and sin hath no right to thee.
Be courageous concerning this, O Christian! be not dispirited, as
though your spiritual enemies could never be destroyed. You are able
to overcome them—not in your own strength—the weakest of them would be too much for you in that; but you can
and shall overcome them through the blood of the Lamb. Do not ask,
“How shall I dispossess them, for they are greater and mightier than
I?” but go to the strong for strength, wait humbly upon God, and the
mighty God of Jacob will surely come to the rescue, and you shall
sing of victory through his grace.