At the Master's Feet: A Daily Devotional

By Audie G. Lewis and Zondervan

At age twenty-two, Charles Haddon Spurgeon was the most popular preacher of his day. The “Prince of Preachers” shared his pulpit with Dwight L. Moody, Hudson Taylor, and George Mueller, and was responsible for leading Oswald Chambers to Christ. His messages touched countless hearts and lives, and thousands came to Christ under his evangelistic influence. Spurgeon helped to start more than forty churches and was a major influence on Christian leaders and lay persons. At the Master’s Feet is a treasury of 366 devotions that offer a sampling of the very best of Charles Spurgeon, chosen with the modern reader’s spiritual needs in mind. It also contains a plan for reading the entire Bible through in a year. Each devotional includes a related scripture in the NIV. These classic writings will direct you on a daily journey into a deeper and more thoughtful faith in Jesus Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: May 4, 2010
• ISBN: 9780310871378

Audie G. Lewis

Audie G. Lewis es un respetado líder en el mundo de los negocios, líder laico en su iglesia y autor de cuatro libros. Lewis estudió en el Seminario Teológico Bautista del Sur y actualmente se está preparando para obtener un Doctorado en Filosofía con especialidad en Biblia y Teología por la Universidad Bautista de Luisiana.

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Introduction

As I look back upon my own history, little did I dream when first I opened my mouth for Christ, in a very humble way, that I should have the honor of bringing thousands to Jesus. Blessed, blessed be his name! He has the glory of it. But I cannot help thinking that there must be some other lad here, such a one as I was, whom he may call by his grace to do service for him. When I had a letter sent to me by the deacons of the church at New Park Street to come up to London to preach, I sent it back by the next post, telling them that they had made a mistake, that I was a lad of nineteen years of age, happy among a very poor and lowly people in Cambridgeshire who loved me, and that I did not imagine they could mean that I was to preach in London. But they returned it to me and said that they knew all about it and that I must come. Ah, what a story it has been since then of the goodness and loving-kindness of the Lord!

CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON

FROM THE SERMON THE LAD’S LOAVES

Keep to the Word of God

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the

Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

ACTS 17:11

I commend scrupulous obedience to all of you, and especially to those young people who have lately made a profession of their faith in Christ. Do not be as your fathers were, for the generation that is now going off the stage neither reads its Bible nor cares to know the Lord’s will. If people searched the Scriptures, we should find them come together in union; but the least-read book in all the world, in proportion to its circulation, is the Word of God. It is distributed everywhere, but it is read scarcely anywhere with care and attention and with a sincere resolve to follow its precepts at all hazards. You come and listen to us, and we give you little bits taken from it here and there, but you do not get a fair notion of it as a whole. How can you? Ministers make mistakes, and you follow them without inquiry. One elects this leader and another that, to the creation of varieties of opinions and even of sects, which ought not to be, and would not be if all stood fast by the standard of inspired truth. If the Bible were but read and prayed over, many errors would die a speedy death, and others would be sorely crippled. Had that inspired Book been read in the past, many errors would never have arisen. Search you, then, the Book of God, I pray you; and whatever you find there, be sure to attend thereto. At all costs, keep to the Word of God.

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 1-2

He Will Supply All Your Needs

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

PHILIPPIANS 4:19

If he will supply you, you will be supplied indeed, for God is infinite in capacity. He is infinitely wise as to the manner of his actions, and infinitely powerful as to the acts themselves. He never sleeps nor tires; he is never absent from any place but is always ready to help. Your needs come, perhaps, at very unexpected times; they may occur in the midnight of despondency or in the noonday of delight, but God is ever near to supply the surprising need. He is everywhere present and everywhere omnipotent, and he can supply all your needs, in every place, at every time, to the fullest degree. Remember that omnipotence has servants everywhere and that whenever God wishes to send you aid, he can do it without pausing to ask, How shall it be done? He has but to will it, and all the powers of heaven and earth are subservient to your necessity. With such a Helper, what case have you to doubt?

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 3-4

Priests unro the Most High

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

1 PETER 2:9

Such a one as Jesus in such a one as I am! The King of Glory in a sinner’s bosom! This is a miracle of grace, yet the manner of it is simple enough. A humble, repenting faith opens the door, and Jesus enters the heart at once. Love shuts the door with the hand of penitence, and holy watchfulness keeps out intruders. Thus is the promise made good, If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20 KJV). Meditation, contemplation, prayer, praise, and daily obedience keep the house in order for the Lord; and then follows the consecration of our entire nature to his use as a temple; the dedication of spirit, soul, and body, and all their powers, as holy vessels of the sanctuary; the writing of Holiness unto the Lord upon all that is about us, till our everyday garments become vestments, our meals sacraments, our life a ministry, and ourselves priests unto the Most High. Oh, the supreme condescension of this indwelling! He never dwelt in an angel, but he resides in a contrite spirit. There is a world of meaning in the Redeemer’s words, I in them. May we know them as Paul translates them, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 5-6

The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

1 JOHN 3:16

If you wish to be the disciple whom Jesus loved, begin soon. I suppose that John was between twenty and twenty-five when he was converted; at any rate, he was quite a young man. All the representations of him that have been handed down to us, though I attach no great value to them, yet unite in the fact of his youth. Youthful piety has the most profitable opportunity of becoming eminent piety. If you begin soon to walk with Christ, you will improve your pace, and the habit will grow upon you. He who is only made a Christian in the last few years of his life will scarcely reach to the first and highest degree, for lack of time, and from the hampering influence of old habits; but you who begin soon are planted in good soil, with a sunny aspect, and should come to maturity.

If you want to be the man whom Jesus loves, cultivate strong affection and let your nature be tender and kind. The man who is habitually cross and frequently angry cannot walk with God. A man of a quick, hot temper who never tries to check it, or a man in whom there is a malicious remembrance of injuries, like a fire smoldering amidst the embers, cannot be the companion and friend of Jesus, whose spirit is of an opposite character. A pitiful, compassionate, unselfish, generous heart is that which our Lord approves. Be willing to lay down, not only your comfort, but even your life for the brethren. Live in the joy of others, even as saints do in heaven. So shall you become a man greatly beloved.

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 7-8

Our Significance to God

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

PSALM 8:3-4

Lift up your eyes now to the heavens, and count the stars. Listen to the astronomer as he tells you those little specks of light are mighty worlds, some of them infinitely superior to this world of ours, and that there are millions upon millions of such worlds glittering in the sky, and that perhaps all these millions that we can see are only like one little corner, one little sand hill of the worlds that God has made, while throughout boundless space there may be long leagues of worlds, if I may use the expression, innumerable as the sands that belt the shore around the great and mighty deep. Now, one man in a world—how little! But one man in myriads of worlds, one man in the universe—how insignificant! And herein is love, that God should love so insignificant a creature. For what is God, compared with the worlds, their number, and their probable extent of space? God is infinitely greater than all the ideas we suggest by such comparisons. God himself is greater than all space. No conception of greatness that ever crossed a mind of the most enlarged faculties can enable us to apprehend the grandeur of God as he really is. Yet this great and glorious Being, who fills all things and sustains all things by the world of his power, condescends to rivet upon us, not his pity, mark you, not his thoughts, but the very love of his soul, which is the essence of himself, for he is love. Herein is love!

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 9-10

That Which Besets All Men

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

MATTHEW 5:45

Between us and other men there are many points of difference, but we share with them in the common infirmities, labors, sicknesses, bereavements, and necessities of our fallen race. We are outside of Eden’s gate with the rest of Adam’s family. We may be greatly beloved of God and yet be poor. God’s love to Lazarus did not prevent his lying at the rich man’s gate, nor hinder the dogs from licking his sores. Saints may be sick as well as other men; Job and David and Hezekiah felt sore diseases. Saints go into the hospital as well as sinners, for their bodies are liable to the same accidents and ailments. Such diseases as men bring upon themselves by vice, the godly escape, and therefore, as a rule, God’s people have a great advantage over the reckless and reprobate in point of health. But still, in this respect the best of men are only men, and it will often be said, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick. Upon the bodies of the godly, the elements have the same power as upon others; upon them the hot sirocco blows, or through their garments the cold penetrates; the sun scorches them in the fierceness of his summer heat, or chilling damps threaten the flame of life. In this respect, one event happens unto all, though not without mysterious and blessed differences. No screen is set around the godly to protect them from physical suffering; they are not living in the land of Goshen so that light cheers their dwellings while the dense fog hangs over the rest of the land.

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 11-12

The Steadfast Friend of Truth

He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

HEBREWS 11:26

Nowadays the truth that God has revealed seems of less account with men than their own thoughts and dreams, and they who still believe Christ’s faithful word shall have it said of them, I was a stranger, and ye took me in (Matthew 25:35 KJV). When you see revealed truth, as it were, wandering about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, and no man saith a good word for it, then is the hour come to avow it because it is Christ’s truth, and to prove your fidelity by counting the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. Oh, scorn on those who only believe what everybody else believes, just because they must be in the swim with the majority. These are but dead fish borne on the current, and they will be washed away to a shameful end. As living fish swim against the stream, so do living Christians pursue Christ’s truth against the set and current of the times, defying alike the ignorance and the culture of the age. It is the believer’s honor, the chivalry of a Christian, to be the steadfast friend of truth when all other men have forsaken it.

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 13-14

Trust and Obey

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

ROMANS 15:13

The golden lesson is that you trust him. If all power is his, lean on him. We do not lean on Christ enough. He will never sink under your weight. All the burdens that men ever had to carry, Christ carried, and he certainly will carry yours. How often we weary ourselves with walking when we might ride—I mean, we carry our troubles when we might take them to Christ. We fret, and groan, and cry, and our difficulties do not get any the less, but when we leave them with him who cares for us and begin to trust, like a child trusts its father, how light of heart and how strong of spirit we become!

Heaven is the place of rest for us, not this world of temptation and sin. Still, stand ready to suffer or to serve. At the Master’s gate watch and wait to do his bidding. Never on weekdays, and much less on Sabbath days, let your spirits be out of order for Christian service. We ought so to live that if called to die at any minute, we should not need to say a prayer—ready for heaven, ready for a life of service or for a death of glory. The true way for a Christian to live in this world is to be always as he would wish to be if Christ came at that moment, and there is a way of living in that style—simply depending upon the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, and then going out into daily service for him, moved by love to him, saying to him, Lord, show me what you would have me to do.

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 15-16

Christ Died for Sinners

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

ROMANS 3:22-23

The apostle here says that there is no difference, yet he does not mean that all men are alike in all respects. There are many and important variations among men. It would be quite untrue and unjust to say that there are no differences of character even among unregenerate men, for there are certainly many varieties and gradations of sinners. There are some who have, as it were, sold themselves to work iniquity, and there are others who have, apparently, kept the commandments of God from their youth.

There are, then, differences of character among men; and there are, no doubt, differences of disposition that show themselves very early. Some children appear from the very first to be tender and docile, while others manifest a passionate and rebellious disposition. All of us probably know some friends who are not yet converted, but they are amiable, loving, considerate, kind; they have almost everything we could wish except the one thing needful; God grant that they may soon have that also! There are, alas, others whose dispositions are the very reverse of all this; they seem disposed to everything that is bad.

There is one point in which there is no difference, and that is that all have sinned. All have forfeited every claim to personal righteousness, all must be made righteous by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to them, and all who would have that righteousness must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, for there is one way of salvation, and only one, and whatever other differences there may be, there is no difference about this matter; if we are saved at all, we must all be saved in one way.

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 17-18

Departing in Peace

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation.

LUKE 2:29-30 KJV

Simeon’s basis of hope for a peaceful departure was according to thy word, and surely no Scripture is of private interpretation or is to be reserved for one believer to the exclusion of the rest. The promises of God, which are yes and amen in Christ Jesus, are sure to all the seed: not to some of the children is the promise made, but all the grace-born are heirs. If Simeon, as a believer in the Lord, had a promise that he should depart in peace, I have also a like promise if I am in Christ.

Every believer shall in death depart in the same sense as Simeon did. The word here used is suggestive and encouraging: it may be applied either to escape from confinement, or to deliverance from toil. The Christian man in the present state is like a bird in a cage: his body imprisons his soul. But the day comes when the great Master shall open the cage door and release his prisoners, singing all the way with a rapture beyond imagination. Simeon looked upon dying as a mode of being let loose—a deliverance out of durance vile, an escape from captivity, a release from bondage. The like redemption shall be dealt unto us. God, who gave us to aspire to holiness and spirituality and to likeness to himself, never implanted those aspirations in us out of mockery. He meant to gratify these holy longings, or else he would not have excited them.

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 19-20

Citizens of Heaven on Earth

But our citizenship is in heaven.

PHILIPPIANS 3:20

What is meant by our being citizens in heaven? Why, first that we are under heaven’s government. Christ the king of heaven reigns in our hearts; the laws of glory are the laws of our consciences; our daily prayer is, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The proclamations issued from the throne of glory are freely received by us; the decrees of the Great King we cheerfully obey. We are not without law to Christ. The Spirit of God rules in our mortal bodies, grace reigns through righteousness, and we wear the easy yoke of Jesus. Oh, that he would sit as King in our hearts, like Solomon upon his throne of gold. Thine are we, Jesus, and all that we have; rule thou without a rival.

Let our lives be conformed to the glory of our citizenship. In heaven they are holy; so must we be—so are we if our citizenship is not a mere pretense. They are happy, so must we be rejoicing in the Lord always. In heaven they are obedient; so must we be, following the faintest monitions of the divine will. In heaven they are active; so should we be, both day and night praising and serving God. In heaven they are peaceful; so should we find a rest in Christ and be at peace even now. In heaven they rejoice to behold the face of Christ; so should we be always meditating upon him, studying his beauties, and desiring to look into the truths that he has taught. In heaven they are full of love; so should we love one another as brethren. In heaven they have sweet communion one with another; so should we—who though many, are one body—be everyone members one of the other.

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 21-22

Be Rich toward God

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

MATTHEW 6:19-21

Christian men, you must never covet the world’s esteem; the love of this world is not in keeping with the love of God. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15 KJV). Treat its smiles as you treat its threats, with quiet contempt. Be willing rather to be sneered at than to be approved, counting the cross of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. The men of this world were made to raise us to their seats of honor, for we are aliens and citizens of another country.

Furthermore, as aliens, it is not for us to hoard up this world’s treasures. If we are aliens, the treasures of this world are like bits of paper, of little value in our esteem; and we should lay up our treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal (Matthew 6:20 KJV). The money of this world is not current in paradise; and when we reach its blissful shore, if regret can be known, we shall wish that we had laid up more treasure in the land of our fatherhood, in the dear fatherland beyond the skies. Transport your jewels to a safer country than this world; be rich toward God rather than before men.

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 23-24

Sacred Violence

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

JAMES 5:16

Never cease your prayers. No time is ill for prayer. The glare of daylight should not tempt you to cease, and the gloom of midnight should not make you stop your cries. I know it is one of Satan’s chief objects to make the Christian cease praying, for if he could but once put up the weapon of all-prayer, he would easily vanquish us and take us for his prey. But so long as we continue to cry to the Most High, Satan knows he cannot devour the very weakest lamb of the flock. Prayer, mighty prayer, will yet prevail if it hath but time.

And while you never cease from your trust, nor from your prayer, grow more earnest in both. Let your faith be still more resolved to give up all dependence anywhere but upon God, and let your cry grow more and more vehement. It is not every knock at mercy’s gate that will open it; he who would prevail must handle the knocker well, and dash it down again, and again, and again. As the old Puritan saying goes, Cold prayers ask for a denial, but it is red-hot prayers which prevail. Bring your prayers as some ancient battering ram against the gate of heaven, and force it open with a sacred violence, for the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by storm. He who would prevail with God must take care that all his strength be thrust into his prayers.

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 25-26

In This World

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart!

I have overcome the world."

JOHN 16:33

The believer is in two places, and he lives two lives. In the text are two places spoken of, in me, and in this world. The saint’s noblest life is hid with Christ in God; this is his new life, his spiritual life, his incorruptible life, his everlasting life. Rejoice, beloved, if you are in Christ, and enjoy the privilege that belongs to that condition: that in me you may have peace. Do not be satisfied without it; it is your right through your relationship to the Prince of Peace. Because you are in Christ, your life of lives is always safe and should be always restful. Your greatest interests are all secure, for they are guaranteed by the covenant of which Jesus is the surety. Your treasure, your eternal portion, is laid up with him in heaven where neither rust nor robber can enter. Therefore, be of good cheer.

You are sorrowfully conscious that you also live another life, for you dwell in the midst of evil men, or as the text puts it, you are in the world. Even while you dwell in the sweet seclusion of domestic life, though your family has been graciously visited, and your dear ones are all believers, yet even there matters occur that make you feel that you are in the world—a world of sin and sorrow. You are not in heaven yet; do not dream that you are. It would be a pity for a sailor to expect the sea to be as stable as the land, for the sea will be the sea to the end; and the world will be the world to you as long as you are in it.

Through the Bible in One Year: Matthew 27-28

Labor for Him

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?

JAMES 2:14

Few of us can bear pain; perhaps fewer still of us can bear misrepresentation, slander, and ingratitude. These are horrible hornets that sting as with fire; men have been driven to madness by cruel scandals that have distilled from venomous tongues. Christ, throughout life, bore these and other sufferings. Let us love him as we think of how much he must have loved us. Will you try to get your souls saturated with the love of Christ? Admire the power of his love, and then pray that you may have a love somewhat akin to it in power.

We sometimes wonder why the church of God grows so slowly, but I do not wonder when I recollect what scant consecration to Christ there is in the church of God. Jesus was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief(Isaiah 53:3 KJV), but many of his disciples who profess to be altogether his are living for themselves. There are rich men who call themselves saints, and are thought to be so, whose treasures are hoarded for themselves and their families. Mayhap you have to confess you are doing nothing; do not let this day conclude till you have begun to do something for your Lord. We are talking about the church doing this and that—what is the church? The church is only the aggregation of individuals, and if any good is to be done, it must be performed by individuals, and if all individuals are idle, there is no church work done; there may be the semblance of it, but there is no real work done. Brother, sister, what are you doing for Jesus? I charge you by the nail prints of his hands, labor for him!

Through the Bible in One Year: Genesis 1-4

God Is Sovereign

Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.

JOB 38:1-4

The God of Scripture is a sovereign God; that is, he is a God who has absolute authority and absolute power to do exactly as he pleases. Over the head of God there is no law; upon his arm there is no necessity; he knows no rule but his own free and mighty will. And though he cannot be unjust and cannot do anything but good, yet is his nature absolutely free; for goodness is the freedom of God’s nature. God is not to be controlled by the will of man, nor the desires of man, nor by fate in which the superstitious believe; he is God, doing as he wills in the armies of heaven and in this lower world.

He is a God too, who gives no account of his matters; he makes his creatures just what he chooses to make them, and does with them just as he wills. And if any of them resent his acts, he says unto them: Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? (Romans 9:20-21 KJV). God is good; but God is sovereign, absolute, knowing nothing that can control him. The monarchy of this world is no constitutional and limited monarchy; it is not tyrannical, but it is absolutely in the hands of an all-wise God.

Through the Bible in One Year: Genesis 5-8

Let Christ’s Dame Endure

You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not mere men?

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.

1 CORINTHIANS 3:3-6

Do you want to have your name put to everything that you do? Mind that God does not let you have your desire and then say to you, There, you have done that unto yourself, so you can reward yourself for it. As far as ever you can, keep your own name out of all the work you do for the Lord. I used to notice in Paris that there was not a bridge or a public building without the letter N somewhere on it. Now, go through all the city, and find an N if you can. Napoleon hoped his fame would live in imperishable marble, but he had written his name in sand after all; and if any one of us shall, in our ministry, think it the all-important matter to make our own name prominent, we are on the wrong tack altogether. When George Whitefield was asked to start a new sect, he said, I do not condemn my brother Wesley for what he has done, but I cannot do the same; let my name perish, but let Christ’s name endure forever and ever.

Through the Bible in One Year: Genesis 9-12

Obedience in Little Things

His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.’

MATTHEW 25:21

Little things for Christ are often the best tests of the truth of our religion. Obedience in little things has much to do with the character of a servant. You engage a servant in your own house, and you know very well whether she be a good or bad servant that the main duties of the day are pretty sure to be attended to; the meals will be cooked, the beds will be prepared, the house will be swept, the door will be answered; but the difference between a servant who makes the house happy and another who is its plague lies in a number of small matters, which, peradventure, you could not put down on paper but which make up a very great deal of domestic comfort or discomfort, and so determine the value of a servant. So I believe it is in Christian life; I do not suppose that the most of us here would ever omit the weightier matters of the law; as Christian men we endeavor to maintain integrity and uprightness in our actions, and we try to order our households in the fear of God in great matters. But it is in the looking to the Lord upon minor details that the spirit of obedience is most displayed; it is seen in our keeping our eye up to the Lord. The really obedient spirit wishes to know the Lord’s