"The creditor has come to take my two sons to be bondmen."—2 Kings 4:1.
My soul, how does this affect you? Are you in debt? By nature and by practice, you were miserably so, unless the debt has been cancelled. As a creature, and as a sinful creature, you are in yourself forever insolvent. You have nothing to pay and are completely unable to ever pay. And how much do you owe to my Lord? Alas, my soul, you owe millions of debts to your Almighty Creditor. The law you have broken; justice demands retribution; conscience condemns; Satan accuses; and the creditor has come to take not only your two sons but both parts of you, soul and body, to the prison of death and hell, unless some almighty Surety has stepped in and paid the dreadful debt so that you may be free.
At death, and at the judgment that follows, either everlasting release or everlasting imprisonment will take place. And who knows whether the decision may come tomorrow? Indeed, whether the same sentence that went forth to the rich man in the gospel has not already been issued concerning you—"This night your soul shall be required of you!" Pause, my soul! Is it not high time to flee to the Prophet, even the Prince of Prophets, the Lord Jesus, to tell him your situation and seek his deliverance?
Listen, does he say, as the prophet did to the poor woman, "What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" Is not Jesus with you? Is not his fullness suited to your emptiness? Do you have him with you in the house? Then shut the door; bring, bring, my soul, all your empty vessels—Jesus will fill them all. And his generosity will not stop until all your vessels are filled; indeed, every vessel will run out before his grace runs out. And when you are full of Jesus, live on Jesus, and see that Jesus has paid your Almighty Creditor and left enough for you to live on forever.
Oh, the rapture and the joy, when the Almighty Creditor comes, whether at midnight, at cockcrow, or in the morning, to know that the dreadful debt is paid and to hear him say, "Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom."
August 28—Evening—John 14:24
"The word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me."—John 14:24.
My soul, have you ever fully and thoroughly considered that sweet and precious teaching of your Lord, who, as Mediator, when on earth, consistently showed to his disciples in all his discourses and conversations? I mean, that all he was, all he had, and all he dispensed were the blessings and gifts of his Father, through him, to his people. Even if you have meditated on this most blessed aspect of the gospel deeply and often, it will still reveal new glories with every fresh reflection on it. So, sit down this delightful summer evening and take another look at it.
Jesus comes to his people in his Father's name, and he says in this beautiful scripture that his very words are not his own, but the Father's. So much of the Father's heart is in Christ—in all of Christ, in all he says, and in all he does. What is Jesus doing in all his ministry on earth, and even now in his sovereignty in heaven, but revealing to his redeemed the Father's love, grace, and mercy toward his people in him? Did he not come forth from the bosom of the Father, full of grace and truth, as if to reveal to us what lies in the Father's heart—the love and mercy toward his people in the wonders of redemption? And is not Jesus still, in every renewed manifestation, teaching his redeemed the same?
If all that the Father has belongs to our Jesus, and all the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells in him, we should never receive any of his good and blessed gifts without acknowledging the Father's love in them. Wouldn't this make every blessing doubly sweet and increasingly precious? If Jesus himself is the gift of the Father, shall I not enjoy the Father in all that Jesus bestows? And since I can have no direct communion with the Father except through him, won't the mercies gain a special blessedness and value when they come to my poor soul through Jesus's hands, as the generous dispenser of them?
Indeed, will I not find a flavour that could never have been known otherwise, in receiving them from and through Jesus? Being convinced that no one comes to the Father except through him, and that if he had not opened a new and living way by his blood, I would never have known the Father's love or the Redeemer's grace. Dear Lord Jesus, may your blessed Spirit help me always to keep these precious truths in remembrance. Then I shall truly enjoy both your person and your gifts. I will not, like the apostle, pray for a sight of the Father distinct from you, for I will be perfectly satisfied and convinced that in seeing you, I see the Father also; and from now on, I know him and have seen him. "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift."
