Seventh Sunday after Trinity 03 August anno domini 2025 Holy Communion
The Epistle. Romans 6:19-23 The Gospel. St. Mark 8:1-6
LORD of all power and might, who art the author and
giver of all good things; Graft in our hearts the love
of thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with
all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
# 450, 609, 156
Today I would like to take a slightly different approach to the message derived from the readings set aside for this 7th Sunday after Trinity. I am borrowing from the commentary and musings of one of the most famous preachers of the Nineteenth Century; Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
He was known as the “Prince of Preachers”. His church in London was filled to capacity for every service offered over each week’s schedule. He also left a legacy of different writings, all from the Reformed view. He collected 732+ daily verses and devotional, one for morning and one for evening reading, these were later published and became a classic. His “Morning & Evening” is still published and available from many sites, including major Christian resource retailers.
Spurgeon’s devotional for today is the following:
The people that do know their God shall be strong.
~Daniel 11:32
Every believer understands that to know God is the highest and best form of knowledge; and this spiritual knowledge is a source of strength to the Christian. It strengthens his faith. Believers are constantly spoken of in the Scriptures as being persons who are enlightened and taught of the Lord; they are said to "have an unction from the Holy One," and it is the Spirit's peculiar office to lead them into all truth, and all this for the increase and the fostering of their faith.
If we study the reading from the Epistle we can strengthen this concept with the concrete truths about sin. 19I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
20For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
The practice of sin, the acceptance of a sinful life, the stubborn and willful giving into sin is for a Christian aberrance. Flee from the clutches of sin. As Joseph did when he was cornered in the apartment of Potiphar’s wife, we too, must run away. 21What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
And finally, awful consequence of sin: 23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
But as we continue with Spurgeon’s commentary, there is a cure for this fatal disease, it is the Love of God the Father who sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to die in our place for this dreadful malady, SIN.
Knowledge strengthens love, as well as faith. Knowledge opens the door, and then through that door we see our Saviour. Or, to use another similitude, knowledge paints the portrait of Jesus, and when we see that portrait then we love Him, we cannot love a Christ whom we do not know, at least, in some degree. If we know but little of the excellences of Jesus, what He has done for us, and what He is doing now, we cannot love Him much; but the more we know Him, the more we shall love Him.
Of course, Spurgeon is referring to the very gift of God, his Son, as a sin-sacrifice, a once and for all sacrifice, for the sins of the world. Given once on the Cross, now a work completely finished. This is what Christ has done for us.
Knowledge also strengthens hope. How can we hope for a thing if we do not know of its existence? Hope may be the telescope, but till we receive instruction, our ignorance stands in the front of the glass, and we can see nothing whatever; knowledge removes the interposing object, and when we look through the bright optic glass we discern the glory to be revealed, and anticipate it with joyous confidence. Knowledge supplies us reasons for patience. How shall we have patience unless we know something of the sympathy of Christ, and understand the good which is to come out of the correction which our heavenly Father sends us? Nor is there one single grace of the Christian which, under God, will not be fostered and brought to perfection by holy knowledge. How important, then, is it that we should grow not only in grace, but in the "knowledge" of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.*
As we re-read our Epistle and Gospel selections for today { Romans 6:19-23 St. Mark 8:1-6}
let us reflect on the devotional that Spurgeon wrote for this day. We can always ‘mine’ new understandings and insights from a reading and re-reading of the Word of God. Not a new interpretation, but understanding. When you keep the scripture in context, don’t take it out and torture it into your understanding of what it means, then you will be further along in the understanding of holy knowledge. We need to grow, not only in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, but also in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as in all things spiritual, this takes time and daily readings of the Word of God. The Bible is our guide book, it is our communications link to the God of Creation, the God of Redemption, the God, our Heavenly Father.
Let us daily walk in that knowledge, let us daily seek him who saved us from perdition, let us worship him in beauty and holiness.
Let us pray:
ALMIGHTY God, the supreme Governor of all things, whose power no creature is able to resist, to whom it belongeth justly to punish sinners, and to be merciful to those who truly repent; Save and deliver us, we humbly beseech thee, from the hands of our enemies; that we, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore from all perils, to glorify thee, who art the only giver of all victory; through the merits of thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
O GOD, merciful and compassionate, who art ever ready to hear the prayers of those who put their trust in thee; Graciously hearken to us who call upon thee, and grant us thy help in this our need; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
* from Morning & Evening, C.H. Spurgeon
Hendrickson Publications, © 1991
