Morning “Grieve not the Holy Spirit.” / Ephesians 4:30

All that the believer has must come from Christ, but it comes solely through

the channel of the Spirit of grace. Moreover, as all blessings thus flow to

you through the Holy Spirit, so also no good thing can come out of you in holy

thought, devout worship, or gracious act, apart from the sanctifying operation

of the same Spirit. Even if the good seed be sown in you, yet it lies dormant

except he worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Do you

desire to speak for Jesus–how can you unless the Holy Ghost touch your

tongue? Do you desire to pray? Alas! what dull work it is unless the Spirit

maketh intercession for you! Do you desire to subdue sin? Would you be holy?

Would you imitate your Master? Do you desire to rise to superlative heights of

spirituality? Are you wanting to be made like the angels of God, full of zeal

and ardour for the Master’s cause? You cannot without the Spirit–“Without me

ye can do nothing.” O branch of the vine, thou canst have no fruit without the

sap! O child of God, thou hast no life within thee apart from the life which

God gives thee through his Spirit! Then let us not grieve him or provoke him

to anger by our sin. Let us not quench him in one of his faintest motions in

our soul; let us foster every suggestion, and be ready to obey every

prompting. If the Holy Spirit be indeed so mighty, let us attempt nothing

without him; let us begin no project, and carry on no enterprise, and conclude

no transaction, without imploring his blessing. Let us do him the due homage

of feeling our entire weakness apart from him, and then depending alone upon

him, having this for our prayer, “Open thou my heart and my whole being to

thine incoming, and uphold me with thy free Spirit when I shall have received

that Spirit in my inward parts.”

 

Evening “Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.” / John 12:2

He is to be envied. It was well to be Martha and serve, but better to be

Lazarus and commune. There are times for each purpose, and each is comely in

its season, but none of the trees of the garden yield such clusters as the

vine of fellowship. To sit with Jesus, to hear his words, to mark his acts,

and receive his smiles, was such a favour as must have made Lazarus as happy

as the angels. When it has been our happy lot to feast with our Beloved in his

banqueting-hall, we would not have given half a sigh for all the kingdoms of

the world, if so much breath could have bought them.

He is to be imitated. It would have been a strange thing if Lazarus had not

been at the table where Jesus was, for he had been dead, and Jesus had raised

him. For the risen one to be absent when the Lord who gave him life was at his

house, would have been ungrateful indeed. We too were once dead, yea, and like

Lazarus stinking in the grave of sin; Jesus raised us, and by his life we

live–can we be content to live at a distance from him? Do we omit to remember

him at his table, where he deigns to feast with his brethren? Oh, this is

cruel! It behoves us to repent, and do as he has bidden us, for his least wish

should be law to us. To have lived without constant intercourse with one of

whom the Jews said, “Behold how he loved him,” would have been disgraceful to

Lazarus; is it excusable in us whom Jesus has loved with an everlasting love?

To have been cold to him who wept over his lifeless corpse, would have argued

great brutishness in Lazarus. What does it argue in us over whom the Saviour

has not only wept, but bled? Come, brethren, who read this portion, let us

return unto our heavenly Bridegroom, and ask for his Spirit that we may be on

terms of closer intimacy with him, and henceforth sit at the table with him.