Sunday - Matthew 23-24 Monday - Matthew 25-26 Tuesday - Matthew 27-28 Wednesday- Mark 1-3 Thursday - Mark 4-5 Friday - Mark 6-7 Saturday - Mark 8-9
“Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” (Psalm 130:7-8)
Whiter than Snow You took a white sheet of paper and laid it upon the snow, and you were perfectly surprised to see the clean, white paper to be somewhat yellow or brown in comparison with the snow’s dazzling whiteness; but David says, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). You see, snow is only earthly whiteness, only created whiteness, but the whiteness which Christ gives us when He washes us in His blood, is divine whiteness; the whiteness is the righteousness of God Himself. –copied
The Ground of Forgiveness It is quite impossible that a divinely convicted conscience can enjoy true repose until the ground of forgiveness is clearly seen. There may be certain vague thoughts respecting the mercy and goodness of God - this there may be; but until the convicted soul is led to see how God can be just and yet the Justifier - how He can be a just God and yet a Savior - how He has been glorified with respect to sin - how all the divine attributes have been harmonized, it must be a stranger to the peace of God which truly passeth all understanding. A conscience on which the light of divine truth has poured itself in convicting power, feels and owns that sin can never enter into the presence of God - that sin, wherever it is found, can only be met by the just judgment of a sin-hating God. Hence, until the divine method of dealing with sin is understood and believed, there must be intense anxiety. Sin is a reality, God’s holiness a reality, conscience a reality, judgment to come a reality. All these things must be looked at and duly considered. Justice must be satisfied; conscience, purged; Satan, silenced. How is all this to be done? Only by the cross of Jesus. Here, then, we have the true ground of divine forgiveness - the precious atonement of Christ. In that atonement I see sin condemned, justice satisfied, the law magnified, the sinner saved, the adversary confounded. A just God dealt with sin at the cross, in order that a justifying God might deal with the sinner on the new and everlasting ground of resurrection. God could not tolerate or pass over a single jot or tittle of sin; but He could put it away. He has condemned sin. He has poured out His righteous wrath upon sin, in order that He might pour the everlasting beams of His favor upon the believing sinner. Precious record! May every anxious sinner read it with the eye of faith. It is a record which must impart settled peace to the heart. God has been satisfied as to sin. This is enough for me. Here my guilty, troubled conscience finds sweet repose. I have seen my sins rising like a dark mountain before me, threatening me with eternal wrath; but the blood of Jesus has blotted them all out from God’s view. They are gone, and gone forever - sunk as lead into the mighty waters of divine forgiveness, and I am free - as free as the One who was nailed to the cross for my sins, but who is now on the throne without them. Such, then, is the ground of divine forgiveness. What a solid ground! Who or what can touch it? Justice has owned it. The troubled conscience may rest in it. Satan must acknowledge it. God has revealed Himself as the Justifier, and faith walks in the light and power of that revelation. Nothing can be simpler, nothing clearer, nothing more satisfactory. Anxious reader, does thy conscience need something more to satisfy it than that which satisfied the inflexible justice of God? Is not the ground on which God reveals Himself as a righteous Justifier sufficiently strong for thee to stand upon as a justified sinner? What sayest thou, friend? Art thou satisfied? Is Christ sufficient for thee? Christ is sufficient for God, may He be sufficient for thee likewise. Then - but not until then - wilt thou be truly happy. –copied