Spurgeon: February PM
* 02/10/PM
"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and,
as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee."
--Isaiah 44:22
Attentively observe THE INSTRUCTIVE SIMILITUDE: our sins are
like a cloud . As clouds are of many shapes and shades, so are
our transgressions. As clouds obscure the light of the sun, and
darken the landscape beneath, so do our sins hide from us the
light of Jehovah's face, and cause us to sit in the shadow of
death. They are earth-born things, and rise from the miry
places of our nature; and when so collected that their measure
is full, they threaten us with storm and tempest. Alas! that,
unlike clouds, our sins yield us no genial showers, but rather
threaten to deluge us with a fiery flood of destruction. O ye
black clouds of sin, how can it be fair weather with our souls
while ye remain?
Let our joyful eye dwell upon THE NOTABLE ACT of divine
mercy--"blotting out." God Himself appears upon the scene, and
in divine benignity, instead of manifesting His anger, reveals
His grace: He at once and for ever effectually removes the
mischief, not by blowing away the cloud, but by blotting it out
from existence once for all. Against the justified man no sin
remains, the great transaction of the cross has eternally
removed His transgressions from him. On Calvary's summit the
great deed, by which the sin of all the chosen was for ever put
away, was completely and effectually performed.
Practically let us obey THE GRACIOUS COMMAND, " return unto
me ."Why should pardoned sinners live at a distance from their
God? If we have been forgiven all our sins, let no legal fear
withhold us from the boldest access to our Lord. Let
backslidings be bemoaned, but let us not persevere in them. To
the greatest possible nearness of communion with the Lord, let
us, in the power of the Holy Spirit, strive mightily to return.
O Lord, this night restore us!