Morning  “Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” /

2 Peter 3:18

“Grow in grace”–not in one grace only, but in all grace. Grow in that

root-grace, faith. Believe the promises more firmly than you have done. Let

faith increase in fulness, constancy, simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask that

your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every

thought, word, and deed. Grow likewise in humility. Seek to lie very low, and

know more of your own nothingness. As you grow downward in humility, seek also

to grow upward–having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate

fellowship with Jesus. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to “grow in the

knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.” He who grows not in the knowledge of

Jesus, refuses to be blessed. To know him is “life eternal,” and to advance in

the knowledge of him is to increase in happiness. He who does not long to know

more of Christ, knows nothing of him yet. Whoever hath sipped this wine will

thirst for more, for although Christ doth satisfy, yet it is such a

satisfaction, that the appetite is not cloyed, but whetted. If you know the

love of Jesus–as the hart panteth for the water-brooks, so will you pant

after deeper draughts of his love. If you do not desire to know him better,

then you love him not, for love always cries, “Nearer, nearer.” Absence from

Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven. Rest not then content

without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. Seek to know more of him in his

divine nature, in his human relationship, in his finished work, in his death,

in his resurrection, in his present glorious intercession, and in his future

royal advent. Abide hard by the Cross, and search the mystery of his wounds.

An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect apprehension of his love to

us is one of the best tests of growth in grace.

 

Evening  “And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.” / Genesis 42:8

This morning our desires went forth for growth in our acquaintance with the

Lord Jesus; it may be well tonight to consider a kindred topic, namely, our

heavenly Joseph’s knowledge of us. This was most blessedly perfect long before

we had the slightest knowledge of him. “His eyes beheld our substance, yet

being imperfect, and in his book all our members were written, when as yet

there was none of them.” Before we had a being in the world we had a being in

his heart. When we were enemies to him, he knew us, our misery, our madness,

and our wickedness. When we wept bitterly in despairing repentance, and viewed

him only as a judge and a ruler, he viewed us as his brethren well beloved,

and his bowels yearned towards us. He never mistook his chosen, but always

beheld them as objects of his infinite affection. “The Lord knoweth them that

are his,” is as true of the prodigals who are feeding swine as of the children

who sit at the table.

But, alas! we knew not our royal Brother, and out of this ignorance grew a

host of sins. We withheld our hearts from him, and allowed him no entrance to

our love. We mistrusted him, and gave no credit to his words. We rebelled

against him, and paid him no loving homage. The Sun of Righteousness shone

forth, and we could not see him. Heaven came down to earth, and earth

perceived it not. Let God be praised, those days are over with us; yet even

now it is but little that we know of Jesus compared with what he knows of us.

We have but begun to study him, but he knoweth us altogether. It is a blessed

circumstance that the ignorance is not on his side, for then it would be a

hopeless case for us. He will not say to us, “I never knew you,” but he will

confess our names in the day of his appearing, and meanwhile will manifest

himself to us as he doth not unto the world.