Morning By Morning #310

No weapon forged against you will prevail.

Isaiah 54:17

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

November 5 is a notable date in English history due to two great events of God’s deliverance. On this day in 1605 the plot of Guy Fawkes and other Roman Catholics to destroy England’s Houses of Parliament was uncovered and defeated.

While for our princes they prepare,

In caverns deep a burning snare,

He shot from heaven a piercing ray,

And the dark treachery brought to day.

Author unknown

Today is also the anniversary of the landing of William III at Torbay, England, in 1688. He crossed England, gathering support to quash the idea of having a Roman Catholic on the English throne, and religious liberty was secured.

Thus, today should be celebrated, not with the wild revelry of pagans but with the songs of the saints. Our Puritan forefathers were quite devout in making today a special time of thanksgiving. In fact, a record of Matthew Henry’s sermons preached in celebration of this day still exists. Our Protestant sense and our love of liberty should make us regard this anniversary with holy gratitude. May our hearts and mouths exclaim, “We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago” (Ps. 44:1).

Lord, You have made our nation the home of the gospel, and when the enemy has risen against it, You have shielded it. Help us to offer repeated songs to You for Your many works of deliverance. Grant us a greater and greater hatred of anything that is anti-Christ, and hasten the day of the extinction of all heresies. Until then and forever may we believe Your promise, “No weapon forged against you will prevail.”

May the heart of everyone who loves the gospel of Jesus be burdened today to plead for the destruction of false doctrines and the advancement of God’s truth. And may each of us search for any Roman Catholic planks of self-righteousness—doctrines of works-based salvation—that may be concealed within our hearts and remove them at once.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

In the nearly 150 years since Spurgeon wrote these devotions, much has changed. In fact, within twenty-two years of their publication, on October 28, 1887, Spurgeon withdrew from the Baptist Union over what was known as the Down-Grade Controversy. He wrote in “The Sword and the Trowel,” regarding many pastors and their preaching: “Natural theology frequently took the place that the great truths of the Gospel ought to have held, and the sermons became more and more Christ-less. Corresponding results in the character and life, first of the preachers and then of the people, were only too plainly apparent.”

Pastors were questioning the authority of Scripture, and Spurgeon declared war on this heresy. And like Paul he preached God’s inspired Word in its simplicity: “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). May we too take a stand for God’s truth!