Prepare for Worship | The Softening Power of the Gospel
Last Sunday, Pastor Jeremy Chasteen showed us that only Jesus can cleanse a defiled heart from Matthew 15:10-20.
Read: Matthew 21:28-32
This Sunday, Pastor Ken Lewis will show that the hard heart is resistant to Jesus from Matthew 21:28-32. As you prepare for our Sunday gathering, let this devotion from Spurgeon lead you to examine your own heart before the Lord and further experience the softening power of the gospel.
Reflect: “The Softening Power of the Gospel”
“All the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.” — Ezekiel 3:7
Are there no exceptions? No, not one. Even God’s chosen are described in this way. If the best are so bad, then what must the worst be like? Come, my heart, consider to what extent you share in this universal accusation; as you think, prepare to be ashamed of those things of which you are guilty.
The first charge is impudence, or hardness of forehead, an absence of holy shame, an unholy boldness in evil. Before my conversion, I could sin and feel no regret, hear of my guilt and remain unhumbled, and even confess my iniquity without any accompanying humiliation. When a sinner goes to God’s house and pretends to pray to Him and praise Him, he displays a brazen-facedness of the worst kind! Sadly, since the day of my new birth I have doubted my Lord to His face, murmured unblushingly in His presence, worshiped Him in a slovenly manner, and sinned without bewailing myself on account of it. If my forehead were not like a diamond, harder than flint, I would display more holy fear and a far deeper contrition of spirit. Woe is me, for I am one of the impudent house of Israel.
The second charge is hard-heartedness, and I dare not attempt to plead innocent here. Once I had nothing but a heart of stone, and although through grace I now have a new and fleshy heart, much of my former stubbornness remains. I am not affected by the death of Jesus as I ought to be; neither am I moved as I should be by the lostness of my fellowmen, the wickedness of the times, the chastisement of my heavenly Father, and my own failures. O that my heart would melt at the recital of my Savior’s sufferings and death. Would to God I were rid of this dreadful burden within me, this hateful body of death. Blessed be the name of the Lord, the disease is not incurable; the Savior’s precious blood is the universal remedy, and it will effectually soften me, even me, until my heart melts as wax before the fire.
April 28th, Evening Reading, in Morning and Evening, by C. H. Spurgeon.
Sing: Song List for Sunday
1. “The Cup Was Not Removed,” Arr. The Worship Initiative
2. “Abide,” Arr. The Worship Initiative
3. “Your Will Be Done,” by CityAlight
4. “Come Unto Jesus,” by Laura Story