‘“Having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust.”—2 Peter 1:4’
‘Banish for ever all thought of indulging the
flesh if you would live in the power of your risen Lord. It were ill that a man
who is alive in Christ should dwell in the corruption of sin. “Why seek ye the
living among the dead?” said the angel to Magdalene. Should the living dwell in
the sepulcher? Should divine life be immured in the charnel house of fleshly
lust? How can we partake of the cup of the Lord and yet drink the cup of
Belial? Surely, believer, from open lusts and sins you are delivered: have you
also escaped from the more secret and delusive lime-twigs of the Satanic
fowler? Have you come forth from the lust of pride? Have you escaped from
slothfulness? Have you clean escaped from carnal security? Are you seeking day
by day to live above worldliness, the pride of life, and the ensnaring vice of
avarice? Remember, it is for this that you have been enriched with the
treasures of God. If you be indeed the chosen of God, and beloved by Him, do
not suffer all the lavish treasure of grace to be wasted upon you. Follow after
holiness; it is the Christian’s crown and glory. An unholy church! It is
useless to the world, and of no esteem among men. It is an abomination, hell’s
laughter, heaven’s abhorrence. The worst evils which have ever come upon the
world have been brought upon her by an unholy church. O Christian, the vows of
God are upon you. You are God’s priest: act as such. You are God’s king: reign
over your lusts. You are God’s chosen: do not associate with Belial. Heaven is
your portion: live like a heavenly spirit, so shall you prove that you have
true faith in Jesus, for there cannot be faith in the heart unless there be
holiness in the life.’
‘“Lord, I desire to live as one
Who bears a blood-bought name,
As one who fears but grieving Thee,
And knows no other shame.”’
-Charles Haddon Spurgeon June 26—Evening; page 357; Morning and
Evening, Hendrickson Publishers
(Peabody, Massachusetts; 1993)
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