Keep Your Self in the Love of God

January 19 - Keep yourself in the love of God.  Jude 21

   The love of God, like every other attribute and perfection of Jehovah, is everlasting and unchangeable:  even as the essence of God himself.  This love is manifested to his people in Christ Jesus.  He is the object in whom they are viewed and loved by the Father.  As "Jesus is the same yesturday, to-day, and forever;" so is God's love toward them.  Time, with all its concurring circumstances, can make no alteration or change, increase or diminution herein.   But, as to the sense and enjoyment of this love, the word of truth and experience of this love, the word of truth and experience of saints plainly testify of its ebbing and flowing, its fervor and abatement in the soul.  Hence the necessity of those tender calls, kind warnings, and loving counsels, addressed to believers in the word of truth; because they are ever to be active, as those who are made alive to God, and have thier senses exercised to discern between good and evil.  Exhortations excite jealousy and quicken diligence.  The enjoyment of the love of God is our heaven below;  to keep ourselves in the happiness.  Keep ourselves in the love of God!  Yes.  How?  Use every means which love commands.  Avoid all things which love forbids.  Account not this legal.  Those who do, have only the notion of love in the head, but are strangers to the constraints of God's love in the heart.
   Would you ever enjoy love, O Christian?  Be much in meditation upon it, think daily, constantly of that unparalleled instance of it:  God so loved the world as to give his only begotton Son Jesus, to atone for sin by his precious blood, to justify sinners by his perfect righteousness.   Dost thou know this by the Gospel?  This is love revealed.  Dost thou beleive this, in thine heart, by the Spirit?  This is love felt and enjoyed.  ALL, all flows from the rich, transcendently rich love of God in Christ Jesus.  O be concerned daily to keep thy soul in and under a lively sense of this love!  and also keep thyself, by this love, from all worldly and forbidden indulgences.  Thy flesh may covet them;  but by love of God, by his mercies in Christ Jesus, and for thy soul's sake, abstain from them.  Know verily, as hurtful food will impair the health of the body;  so these things will as certainly rob thy soul of its peace, damp the warm sense of God's love, and render thee indifferent and lifeless to the enjoyment of the love of God.  Thus saith the God of love, "Consider your ways."  Haggai 1:5

From  "A SPIRITUAL TREASURY for the CHILDREN OF GOD" - American Tract Society 1770

January 10th "A Spiritual Treasury"

For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.  Psalm 30:5

     Verily, here is a glorious assemblage of comforting truths, like a reviving cordial of rich compounds, to enliven drooping spirits.  Too often do God's children judge of their Father's love from corrupt ideas. Through the carnality of their natures, the depravity of their judgment, the weakness of their faith, the uncertainty of their frames and feelings, and the artful insinuations of Satan, their loving Father is considered as an implacable Being, full of wrath and anger against them.  But this is contrary to God's revelation of himself in Christ, as a God of Love.  So also is it injurious and hurtful to the souls of his children.  For it damps their love, distresses their spirits, deadens the exercise of their graces, and hinders their increase in holiness, the essence of which is founded in the love of God.  Therefore, such views come not from God.  But hereby Satan gains an advantage, and triumphs over poor souls with "There, there, so would I have it." 

     What can the trembling sinner do?  Whither can he fly?  What course can he take?  All legal efforts are vain;  from self and nature no hope can spring.  What can he think?  Truly, stand amazed that he is out of hell.  He cannot sink lower in his views of himself than are his just deserts; yet he can never be in his own sight so miserable but that the grace of God in Christ is all-sufficient to afford hope and help.  In  nature's despair grace triumphs.  A sense of momentary anger heightens returning favor.  The joy of the morning is improved by a past night of sorrow.  God ever rests unchangeable in his love to his people.  This is the essence of Gospel grace and truth.  That we vary and fluctuate in our apprehension of his love is natural to our very existence.  "But we have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts." 2 Peter 1:19.  "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Rev. 19:10.   The favor of God to sinners is in Christ, that is their life; the life and spring of all their graces and comforts.  God in Christ is the Christian's highest glory and greatest triumph.  For his love is unchangeably the same to Christ, and to all who are united to him by the Holy Spirit, and one with him by precious faith.  "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, rejoice." Philippians 4:4

A Spiritual Treasury - January 7, late 1700's

Mine iniquities are gone over mine head:  as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.  Psalm 38:4

     They who think lightly of sin, and account iniquity a trifling thing, evidently show that the God of this world hath blinded their eyes to the infinite atonement of Jesus, and hardened their hearts through the deceitfulness of sin; therefore they are insensible of grief, and have no godly sorrow for sin.  But when Jesus is known in the heart, sin is truly abhorred, forsaken, and overcome.
     It is most distressing to the regenerate soul, when the load of guilt and the burden of sin are suffered to lie, day after day, upon the conscience.  The insupportable agony of such a state none know but those who have experienced it.  One may ask, is not this contradictory to that comforting assertion, "There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus?" Romans 8:1; inconsistent with that triumphant challenge, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" Romans 8:33.  We answer, No, for though charge and condemnation for sin may be brought by Satan, the accuser of the brethren; the law may condemn, and our own spirits must confess we are sinners; yet our covenant God hath no condemnation against us.  He hath laid all our iniquities upon JESUS; and this is the full and free charter of his covenant concerning all his children, "Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more."  Jeremiah 31:34.  O, say some, this will take away all fear of sinning, and all dread of guilt!  Most impious charge against the God of grace and love!  BUt who say this?  They who reject God's truth, and believe not his everlasting love; but judge from their own corrupt principles.  But regenerate souls groan under the burden of sin; and because love prevails, sin is hated and self abhorred.
     Jesus is the only balm of Gilead, the only Physician for sin-distressed, sore-burdened, heavy-ladened souls.  We may seek rest from other objects, but all in vain.  Nothing can quiet and relieve the distressed soul but this one truth:  JESUS hath actually borne, fully suffered, perfectly atoned for all the sins of his people.  So that The Lord has discharged all their sins, and will remember not one sin against them.  O, when one beholds this general release!  Every debt cancelled by Jesus' blood, and God acquitting from every accusation of law and conscience, then our souls return to their rest.  this is the faith of God's elect.  And while kept simple, loving, faithful to Him, we live by His grace, feast on His love, and holy longing inspire our hearts to enjoy him in glory. O Then

                                        "Sin(my worst enemy before)

                                          Shall vex my eyes and ears no more: 

                                          My inward foes shall all be slain, 

                                          Nor Satan break my peace again. 

                                          Then shall I see, and hear, and know

                                           All I desired and wished below;

                                           And every power find sweet employ

                                           In that eternal world of Joy."

A Spiritual Treasury written in 1740

The following comes from a daily devotional published by the American Bible Society in the late 1700's.

"We See Jesus."  Hebrews 2:9

    Fine sights of human pomp and worldly grandeur captivate and ravish worldly minds.  It is common to hear persons say, "O, I could sit all night to see a find play!"  But one sight of the matchless charms and dazzling glories of our Saviour makes all ofther things appear mean and contemptible.  We turn our eyes from them and say, "I put away these childish things; I have a heavenly object, infinitely superior to such low and perishing vanities."
    I know one, who having heard that faithful minister of Christ, Mr Whitefield, when he first preached in the fields, [about 1740] upwards of thirty years ago, on being asked  which he liked best, to hear him preach, or see Vauxhall? profanely replied, "Whitefield only preaches of heaven, but Vauxhall is heaven itself."  Poor soul! he was then blind t o his want of Christ, and to his glory and excellency.  But, to the glory of his rich grace, that poor sinner is out of hell, and can now happily join the faithful in saying, we SEE JESUS.  So then, the once profane sinner is changed into the "enthusiast."  Enthusiasm to see JESUS! 
    The esssence of the Gospel, the joy of sinners, and the glory of faith consist in this sight.  What is life itself withou it?  Alas, we have lost all righteousness, holiness and happiness, in ourselves; but we see all these, with heaven and glory, restored to us in Christ.  O blessed day! Happy hour! Joyful Moment! when the sight of our inestimably precious Saviour first saluted the eys of our mind and became the object of our faith!  It was the beginning of day;  yea, our birth-day to eternal blessedness.
    This sight is a feast to our souls all the year.  We delight to begin the year with seeing Jesus.  We salute one another with "I wish you a happy new year."  What mean we, but I wish you to see Jesus?  What can make the year happy without this?  This creates heaven in the soul.  Then it is a happy year indeed.  But without this precious view of faith we can get no ease from the burden of sin, and our souls must be miserable.  This world can afford us no real happiness.  The thoughts of death will torment us; and the view of judgment fill us with dread and terror.  But, O happy sinners, who can bless God with Simeon, and say, "Mine eyes have seen thy salvation!" - Luke 2:30.  I see Christ:  he is all my salvation and all my desire.  Ye heaven-born, highly-favored souls, well may ye say, "Time, hasten on; years, roll round; moments, fly swiftly; and bring me to the full enjoyment of my beloved Saviour in his kingdom of glory." 
    We See Jesus, who saw us, loved us, pitied and saved us when dead in our sins, cursed by the law, and polluted in our blood.  We  look back and see him an outcast babe, a despised MAN, crucified as a vile malefactor, bearing our sins on the cross, made a sacrifice for our souls, and redeeming us to God by the blood.  We glory in him as the only atonement for our sins and our one righteousness to justify our souls; for he is THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS - Jeremiah 23:6.  We look up and see JESUS crowned with glory and honor, pleading our cause and interceding for our persons at the right hand of God, and ever living to save us to the uttermost.  We look forward to judgment; awful day! we see
                                       "A trembling world, and a devouring God."
But, O how bright the prospect! We see JESUS coming with power and great glory to receive us to his kingdom, that where he is there we may be also.
      Do we thus SEE JESUS by FAITH as revealed in the Word of Truth?  Then we are new creatures in him.  We are called, with Moses, "to endure as seeing Him who is invisible." - Hebrews 11:27.  We are exhorted to "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."- Hebrews 12:1,2.  Thus we obey the will of God our Father, who commands us, "Behold mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth," - Isaiah 42:1, "beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." -  Matthew 3:17