Second Week of Advent ~ “The Candle of Love” and “The Love of God”

 Image: Second Week of Advent ~ “The Candle of Love”

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The Candle of Love

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

    for he has visited and redeemed his people

        and has raised up a horn of salvation for us

    in the house of his servant David,

        as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

    …that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,

        might serve him without fear,

    in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.”

“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

        to give knowledge of salvation to his people

    in the forgiveness of their sins,

        because of the tender mercy of our God…”               

- Selections from Luke 1:68–79 “Benedictus”

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, 

    that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.                                                                             – John 3:16

"I have much people in this city."

— Acts 18:10

This should be a great encouragement to try to do good, since God has among the vilest of the vile, the most reprobate, the most debauched and drunken, an elect people who must be saved. When you take the Word to them, you do so because God has ordained you to be the messenger of life to their souls, and they must receive it, for so the decree of predestination runs. They are as much redeemed by blood as the saints before the eternal throne. They are Christ's property, and yet perhaps they are lovers of the ale-house, and haters of holiness; but if Jesus Christ purchased them He will have them. God is not unfaithful to forget the price which His Son has paid. He will not suffer His substitution to be in any case an ineffectual, dead thing. Tens of thousands of redeemed ones are not regenerated yet, but regenerated they must be; and this is our comfort when we go forth to them with the quickening Word of God.

Nay, more, these ungodly ones are prayed for by Christ before the throne. "Neither pray I for these alone," saith the great Intercessor, "but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word." Poor, ignorant souls, they know nothing about prayer for themselves, but Jesus prays for them. Their names are on His breastplate, and ere long they must bow their stubborn knee, breathing the penitential sigh before the throne of grace. "The time of figs is not yet." The predestinated moment has not struck; but, when it comes, they shall obey, for God will have His own; they must, for the Spirit is not to be withstood when He cometh forth with fulness of power--they must become the willing servants of the living God. "My people shall be willing in the day of my power." "He shall justify many." "He shall see of the travail of His soul." "I will divide him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong." Daily Devotional Spurgeon's Morning by Charles Haddon

Audio: Spurgeon's Morning - Saturday, December 4 AM