Daily Devotional Readings
Believer, never allow anyone to bring you into bondage again. Having been redeemed by the blood of Christ, and having your conscience purged from the guilt of sin by the application of Christ's blood to your heart, you are entirely, completely free from the law. You owed the law of God a life of perfect righteousness. Do you trust Christ? He is the Lord our Righteousness'. By his obedience to God as your Representative, Christ did what you could never do. He magnified the law and made it honourable in his life. That righteous life God imputes to you. You are perfectly righteous in Christ. You also owed the law death. Had you died, your death must have been eternal, because you could never satisfy the law's infinite justice. But Christ, the God-man, died as your Substitute, bearing your sin and, by his one sacrifice for sin, he satisfied the very justice of God. So far as God's law is concerned, you are a dead man. The law has no claim upon you. You died in Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus!' It would be as foolish for you to try to obey the law for yourself, as it would for you to try to atone for your own sins (Rom. 6:14; 7:1-4; 10:4; Gal. 3:24-26; 5:1-4; Col. 2:14- 16).
Someone will come along and try to trick you. He will say, 'Well, if you do not live by the law of Moses, you're an antinomian. You believe every man should do that which is right in his own eyes.' If you wish to be polite to the legalist (I do not suggest that you should be), you may reply, 'No my friend, we have a law to live by. Our Lord commanded us to love one another. That is our law.' Then the poor bondman will argue, 'But love is a nebulous law. YOU still must live by the rule of the Ten Commandments.' If your patience is not worn out, you might want to answer that objection too: 'Love is not nebulous at all. We have Christ as our example. He has shown us exactly how to love. Christ is the pattern we copy and the example we follow. I am quite sure that I am safe following my Lord.'
Every believer is concerned about this question. I do not think it is beyond reason or revelation to say that this is the heart and desire of every child of God. While we live in this world, we want to please and honour the God of all grace. Is there any clear, biblical answer to this question: 'How can I please and honour God?'
Many tell us that in order to please God we must physically separate ourselves from the world. Every believer understands that God's children are to be separate and distinct from the unbelieving world. We live by principles, motives and desires that the world can never comprehend. But if all it takes to please God is to alter our dress code, change our outward habits and live in seclusion from the world then anyone can please him. It takes only self-discipline, not grace. Moralists and monks have been doing these things for centuries.
Others tell us that to honour God we must live by the law of, God. It is true, if anyone could live by the law, God would be please with him, for that man would live in sinlessness and righteousness. He would be a perfect man. But God can never be pleased with a mere attempt to live by the law, no matter how sincere that man may be who tries to do so.
Some tell us that the way to please and honour God is to live a holy life. That would be a great thing. But who can do it? Of course, everyone has his own standards of holiness. Some even think they really do live in holiness. But the only true standard of holiness is God himself'. When holiness is understood, we see the utter futility of trying to perform holiness for ourselves.
We do not need to search for an answer to this question: 'How can I please and honour God?' We need not be confused by the confused opinions of men. The Lord has not left us in darkness. We please God and honour God by faith. All who believe Christ, trusting his righteousness, his blood, his providence, his grace and his intercession please and honour God, for God is pleased with his Son.
Eternal life is the gift of God's grace in Christ. It comes to men freely, as a matter of pure grace. Man does not have eternal life by nature. Eternal life does not evolve from man's sinful heart by some mysterious process of 'spiritual evolution'. It is given to men. It is performed in the heart by the power of God's sovereign grace. It is in no way a matter of debt or reward. 'The gift of God is eternal life. 'There was nothing in our hearts or conduct which caused God to bestow eternal life upon us (Jer. 31:3; Eph. 2:1-4). And there is nothing in the believer's heart or conduct which can cause God to take away the gift of eternal life (Isa. 54: 10). It is contrary to the nature of God to take away his gifts so freely bestowed upon his people in Christ (Rom. 11:29). This gift of eternal life, so freely given, is an irreversible gift. Acknowledge that eternal life is entirely the gift of God, in no way earned by or dependent upon the goodness of man, and it must be concluded that those to whom eternal life is given are eternally secure in Christ (Eccles. 3:14).
Eternal life must, of necessity, be eternal. Any child, whose reason is not perverted with human religion, readily sees that eternal life cannot be temporary. It cannot come to an end, if I have received from God the gift of eternal life, it is not possible for me, by any act or upon any grounds, to lose it and perish.
The believer's life must be eternal, because it is a life in union with the Lord Jesus Christ, We who believe are so really and truly joined to Christ that we cannot possibly perish unless he also perishes. Our union with Christ is a vital life union, immutable and indestructible. We are married to Christ, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh (Eph. 5:30). We are members of his body, the church (Eph. 1:23). Can you imagine Christ with a maimed body? Perish the thought! Yet his body would not be complete if so much as one member of his body were lost. All who are in Christ have eternal life; and they are all eternally secure in him.
All believing parents are concerned about the souls of their children. We want to see them converted, saved by the grace of God, united to Christ in eternal life. But we must be careful, especially careful with young children, not to push them into a profession of faith before their hearts are renewed by the grace of God.
We dare not set any limitations upon the grace of God. God saves his elect when he will. But the gospel of Christ is not addressed to children and youths who are incapable of making moral, reasonable, responsible decisions for themselves. The gospel is addressed to mature men and women who are capable of understanding their moral responsibility before God. The age of such maturity varies with individuals. But I think that a child who still requires the direction of his parents to determine what he should eat, where he should go, what he should wear and what he can do is incapable of understanding his moral responsibility before God.
Free-willism, easy believism and decisionism are as deadly to children as to adults. Every pastor who honestly deals with the souls of men knows that the vast majority of children who make professions of faith prove to be false. Children are especially susceptible to emotional fears of hell and the pressure to please parents, preachers and teachers. If you try, you can get your children to make a profession of faith. Do not be guilty of such treason to their souls. Wait on God to do his work of grace.
How should we minister to our children? Teach them the gospel. No one can be saved apart from a heart knowledge of gospel truth. Pray for them. Commit your children to the hands of God. Seek his grace for them. Set before them an example of faith in Christ and commitment to the gospel. As our children grow to maturity, nothing will so much influence them as the example we set before them. Wait for God to be gracious. If our sons and daughters are chosen of God and redeemed by Christ they will be born again by the Holy Spirit, at God's appointed time.
Saul had been converted by the grace of God on the Damascus Road. He had publicly confessed faith in Christ at Damascus, both by personal testimony and by public baptism. Then he came to Jerusalem and 'he assayed to join himself to the disciples'. That is to say, he applied for membership in the church at Jerusalem. The despised church of God, which Saul once hated above all people upon the earth, he now loved above all people. No sooner did he return to Jerusalem than he found the place where God's people met in the name of Christ and publicly identified himself with them by uniting with the congregation there.
Saul joined the church voluntarily. He was not recruited in a "church membership drive". No one put any pressure on him, or even asked him, to join the church. Being a believer, Saul wanted to be numbered with God's people. He considered it a privilege and an honour. 'To be joined to a church is to become an open subject of Christ's kingdom, a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, one of the family of God, and a member of the body of Christ visibly' John Gill).
Saul was fully qualified to unite with the church at Jerusalem. It is true, he had been a blasphemer and a persecutor, and his former reputation was well known. But God had forgiven him, cleansed him in the blood of Christ and received him. Therefore he was accepted by the church as a brother, beloved in Christ. He professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and was baptized as a believer. Nothing more was required to qualify him for membership in the church, and nothing less could be accepted. Church membership is for baptized (immersed) believers only.
By uniting with the local assembly at Jerusalem, Saul publicly demonstrated his commitment to those people, to their Lord and to the gospel they were commissioned of God to preach. Uniting publicly with a local assembly, the believer says, 'My heart is joined to you in Christ by the grace of God.' If you are a believer, it is both your privilege and your responsibility to confess Christ by baptism and unite with his people.
This is the charge which God gives to all who preach the gospel. The prophets of God are preeminently messengers of comfort (Isa. 52:7). We come to men in the name of God and proclaim to all who will receive it a message of blessed comfort in Jesus Christ.
Here is a word of comfort: the great God calls us 'my people'! All men and women belong to God. He who created us owns us. But there are some people in this world who are especially loved of God and belong to him, as children to a father, as a wife to her husband. God says, of all who are saved by his grace, you are 'my people'. We belong to him by special election, by particular purchase, by gracious regeneration, by his distinguishing call, by the faith which he has given us and by the bond of love which he has created.
It would seem that nothing could be more blessed than this: God says of us, you are 'my people'. Yet, here is something even more blessed and comforting: the eternal, sovereign, triune God says to us, I am 'your God'! The almighty, infinite, incomprehensible God condescends to be the personal possession of every believing sinner! He is God. I rejoice in that. But he is my God! That gives me comfort. Child of God, try to get a heart grip on this truth: God almighty is your God!
And our great God desires and, delights in the comfort of his people! just as a father finds happiness in the comfort of his children, our Father delights in our comfort. He sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to comfort mourning sinners (Isa. 61:1-3; Luke 4:17-2 1). The primary work of the Holy Spirit in this world is that of a Comforter (John 14:16; 16:17). Our heavenly Father sovereignly arranges all the affairs of providence for the spiritual, eternal comfort of his people. Let every believer grasp this blessed truth: our great God delights in our comfort John 14:1-3).
We are slow to receive it, and preachers are often afraid to proclaim it, but there is blessed comfort for sinners in the gospel. God commands his servants twice to proclaim that comfort. He says, emphatically, 'Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.' And he tells us plainly that the only source of comfort for sinners is the gospel of effectually accomplished redemption. 'Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem [the people whom he has chosen], and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins' (Isa. 40:1-2). If you trust Christ, if you cast all your hope upon his righteousness and shed blood, if you are a guilty, helpless sinner whose only hope is an all-sufficient Substitute, this gospel is for you.
Your warfare is accomplished. By the sacrifice of his own beloved Son, God has ended his controversy with you. God reconciled his people to himself, satisfying his law and justice in the life and death of Christ as the sinner's Substitute (2 Cor. 5:17-2 1). He sends his Spirit, applying the blood of Christ to the hearts of men by the gospel, creating faith and reconciling our hearts to him by irresistible grace and power (Col. 1:21). Peace was made by the blood of Christ. Peace is received and enjoyed by faith in that blood.
Your iniquity is pardoned. God has fully put away the sins of all his people by the sacrifice of his Son (Heb. 9:12). God will never hold any believing sinner accountable for sin. He held his Son accountable for us, and punished our sins to the full satisfaction of his justice in his Son.
You have received of the Lord's hand double for all your sins. The justice of God which demanded your eternal ruin has been satisfied by the blood of Christ so that in Christ you are not only pardoned but also made perfectly righteous by divine imputation. Rather than being an enemy of God, subject to and deserving his wrath, grace has made you an heir of God, fully deserving of all his benefits in Christ.
The whole human race is divided by God into two categories: those who are his people and those who are not his people; those who are elect and those who are reprobate; sheep and goats. This distinction between men was made by God in eternity and it is an irreversible distinction. Sheep will never become goats, and goats will never become sheep. The elect of God will never become reprobates and reprobates will never become the elect of God. Between the two there is a great gulf fixed. If any of Adam's fallen race is so infinitely blessed of God as to be numbered among God's people, his elect, his sheep, surely a soul to whom God has been so gracious will gladly acknowledge that the only thing distinguishing between him and those who are damned is the distinguishing grace of God (I Cor. 4:7). 'Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake, is the cry of every saved sinner. All who are saved by grace fully recognize, and rejoice in the fact, that grace alone has distinguished them from the rest of Adam's fallen race.
We who believe belong to God, we are Christ's sheep by a distinguishing election. We became the Lord's sheep by his own eternal choice. In the covenant of grace, God branded us as his sheep, set a hedge about us and secured our eternal salvation in Christ (John 10; 16). The Lord says of his sheep, 'I know them' (John 10:27). And his knowledge of his sheep is that peculiar knowledge of his own elective purpose and omniscient love. We are his, too, by a distinguishing purchase. Christ laid down his life for his sheep, in the place of his sheep, in our stead. Christ died as a Substitute for his sheep, to redeem them particularly. He died instead of his sheep dying. Because he died for us, we shall not die (John 10: 11, 15). And we belong to him by a distinguishing call. 'He calls his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.' His gracious call is personal, particular and powerful. When he calls, his sheep follow. This call of grace always results in eternal life.
The tendency among men is either to treat God's servants with contempt, as the judaizers at Galatia did Paul (Gal. 4:16), or regard them with an adoring, worshipful reverence, as Cornelius did Peter (Acts 10:25). Both of these attitudes are wrong. The faithful gospel preacher is only a man; therefore he must not be placed on a pedestal to be worshipped and followed blindly. But he is God's man, God's messenger to men; therefore he must not be despised, ignored and treated with contempt, Paul tells us plainly how the people of God should treat faithful preachers (pastors, evangelists, missionaries).
A faithful pastor is one who labours among God's people. He is not a lazy sluggard, but a diligent labourer. His time, energy and attention are consumed by the ministry of the gospel. He studies, prays and preaches, watching over the souls of God's elect as one who must give account. He has little time for anything other than the work of the gospel. Such a man, who spends his life serving the interest of men's souls, should be highly honoured by those for whom he labours (2 Thess. 3: 1, Heb. 13:7, 17; 1 Cor. 9:9-14).
'Know them which labour among you.' God's people should make it their business to become personally, even intimately, acquainted with faithful gospel preachers, especially their own pastor. Get to know the man who ministers to you. Try to know what his personal needs are, so that you can supply those needs. Try to find a way to assist him and relieve him of unnecessary burdens, so that he may more fully give himself to the work of the gospel. 'Esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake.' Every faithful gospel preacher deserves and should have the high esteem and sincere love of God's people, because of the work which he performs. He is God's spokesman and representative to you, and he should be treated as such. Those churches which develop such an attitude towards the servants of God will in great measure 'be at peace among themselves'.
Legalism is natural to man. And even among those who know better, there is ever a tendency to return to the spirit of legalistic religion. Let us beware of the evils of legalism and resist every tendency of the flesh to return to law religion.
1. The spirit of legalism causes us to seek assurance on the basis of our own works. Assurance that is based on works is false assurance. The believer's assurance is in the person and work of Christ alone. Trusting him, we have assurance.
2. The spirit of legalism causes us to neglect our duties and responsibilities because of our personal feelings of inadequacy and insufficiency. Many refuse to receive the Lord's Supper, as he has commanded us, because they feel unworthy. Many refuse to exercise gifts God has given them to preach, teach, lead the congregation in prayer, or sing, because they do not feel worthy. Who is worthy of such things? No man is in himself. But our worthiness and sufficiency are in Christ.
3. The spirit of legalism causes men to motivate God's people with threats of punishment and promises of reward. We see people beginning to neglect church attendance, fall off in their giving and neglecting other matters of personal responsibility, so we begin to scold them and warn them that they are in danger of being lost. Then they do those things they had previously neglected, not because they love Christ, but out of a sense of duty to prove they are saved. Is this not pure legalism?
4. The spirit of legalism causes us to set up rules of life for God's people which God has not given in his Word. It is the height of self-righteousness and pride for men and churches to add to the Word of God rules of life, 'acceptable Christian behaviour', for men and women who belong to God.
5. The spirit of legalism causes us to set ourselves up as judges of God's saints. Legalism produces such monstrous pride in men that they judge God's people by the inch-long yardstick of their own supposed 'holiness'. May God save us from this spirit of legalism.
These words do not mean, as many imagine, that God treats all men alike in providence and grace. He does not. 'God's grace is his own; and he dispenses it according to his own sovereign will and pleasure' (Charles Simeon). God sovereignly distinguishes men from one another (I Cor. 4:7), in election (2 Thess. 2:13), in redemption (John 10: 11, 15, 26), in providence (Rom. 8:28) and in his saving grace (2 Tim. 1:9). The illustrations of God's distinguishing grace in the Scriptures are numerous. The Lord accepted Abel but not Cain. He chose Isaac and rejected Ishmael. God loved Jacob and hated Esau. God gives light and withholds light, gives grace and withholds grace entirely according to his own sovereign will, without any regard to man's person (Matt. 11:20-26).
The text simply means that God has no regard for those things that distinguish men from one another in this world: wealth or poverty, morality or immorality, learning or ignorance, race or face, God does not prefer any man or despise any man because of his earthly condition. God's grace is entirely free and sovereign. He says, 'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy... and whom he will he hardeneth' (Rom. 9:15-18). No earthly condition, hereditary descent, outward circumstance or religious heritage will secure God's saving grace, or even make a man a likely candidate for salvation. And none of these things will keep God from saving any man, or make him less likely to be saved than others.
'God is no respecter of persons,' and neither should we be. There is no place in the church of God for the honouring of human flesh. We court none and we despise none. We receive as brethren all who worship our God. All are to be treated with equal love, care and esteem. Rich and poor, black and white, male and female – are all equals in Christ.
With these two simple words our Lord distinguishes his people from all the rest of mankind. Let men deny it as they will, and let them denounce me for preaching it if that gives them pleasure, but the God of the Bible does distinguish between men. He chooses some and passes by others. He redeems some and leaves others under the curse of the law. He calls some and rejects others. He saves some and damns others. Grace is God's prerogative. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy.
Our Lord makes this very plain. He said to the unbelieving Jews, who refused to believe him, 'Ye are not of my sheep.' And he told them plainly that God had not given them the gift of faith, because they were not numbered among his sheep. 'Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep.' The gift of faith, like all other gifts of grace, is reserved for the Lord's sheep, God's chosen, covenant people (Eph. 1:3-6).
'If you are a believer, one of that great multitude to whom God has given faith in Christ, it is because you are one of his sheep, elect and precious to the Lord. God our Saviour says of you, you are my sheep'. Truly, his grace is 'amazing grace'. In everlasting love, by sovereign, deliberate choice, the Son of God has distinguished you from all other people and made you to be his sheep, his own peculiar possession!
The Lord Jesus Christ has special grace reserved for his sheep. He does many things for his sheep, which he does not do for other men. He agreed in the covenant of grace to save his sheep John 10: 16). He laid down his life in the place of his sheep (John 10: 11, 15). Our Lord prays for his sheep (John 17:9-11, 15, 20). The Son of God calls his sheep to himself (John 10:3). The Good Shepherd knows his sheep, gives eternal life to his sheep, protects his sheep, provides for his sheep, preserves his sheep and holds his sheep in his almighty hand John 10:27-30). What a privilege it is for a believing sinner to look upon the incarnate God and say, 'The Lord is my Shepherd,' and to hear him say, 'My sheep'!
This is the great object of our hope, the great desire of our hearts, the great joy of heaven and the great fulness of our heavenly reward. The very Christ who died in our place at Calvary, fully satisfying the wrath and justice of God for us, will be seen by us. We shall literally see his face. It is delightfully true that we shall see and enjoy many things in heaven. But that which is now desired, and will then be enjoyed, above all else is the sight of Christ Himself. It seems to me that our text also implies a spiritual sight of Christ, which is far sweeter. In the next world we shall have a greater ability to see Christ than we now possess. We shall see him perfectly and know him fully. And our vision of him will be uninterrupted. The paradise of God is a heaven of pure, intense, eternal, perfect, spiritual fellowship with Christ.
In that future estate of glory and bliss we shall have a clear, undimmed vision of Christ, because everything which now hinders our sight of hall will be removed. Our many sins, our earthly cares and our sorrows in this world now prevent us from seeing our Lord as we desire. But then there will be nothing between us and our Saviour. In glory there will be nothing in our hearts to rival Christ. We shall love him as he ought to be loved, perfectly. Christ will not only be supreme, he will be all.
Why do we consider this vision of Christ the greatest bliss of heaven? Why do we place such importance upon this one aspect of our heavenly inheritance? The reason is just this: when we see the Lord's face our salvation will be complete. Every evil thing will be completely eradicated from us. When we see his face we shall be conscious of his favour. And when these eyes see his face a complete transformation will take place. 'We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' We shall see things as he sees them. We shall think as he thinks. Our will will be one with his will. Our hearts will be one with his heart. Then, when we see his face, we shall be perfectly satisfied.
It might well be said of each blood-bought believer, 'Behold how he loved him!' Child of God, Jesus Christ loves you eternally. There never was a time when he did not love you. His love for his own is without beginning and without end. It is eternal.
The Son of God loves his own peculiarly. I know that God is good and kind to all men. His benevolence reaches to all his creatures. But there is a special, family love which God has for his own elect. He loved Jacob but not Esau.
The Lord loves his people perseveringly. Though we sinned in Adam, were born in sin and lived in sin by deliberate choice, his love for us was never broken. Though we sin still, after experiencing his grace, his love does not cease or grow cold. His love is patient, longsuffering, lasting and enduring. God will never cease to love those whom he has always loved. His love is immutable.
Our Saviour loves us sacrificially. 'Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us.' He so loved us that he voluntarily laid down his life in our place! So mighty is his love that, when he knew the price of our souls was his own precious blood, he willingly poured out his life's blood to redeem us!
The Lord Jesus Christ loves all of his people savings. The love of Christ for us is much more than a wishful emotion. He so loves his own that he desires their salvation. And what he desires he has the power and wisdom to accomplish. His love is not helpless, but powerful. He will not stand idly by and allow one soul whom he loves to perish, when he has the power to save that soul!
And the Lord Jesus Christ loves his people satisfyingly. His love will be satisfied. He will never lose the object of his love. The love of Christ will in the end conquer the hearts of all his elect. This special, free and sovereign love of Christ's will satisfy all his people. He will give us all that we can need or desire for all of eternity. He will withhold no good thing from his own. In that great day which is yet to come, God's creation will stand back in awe and wonder and say, concerning his redeemed people, 'Behold how he loved them!'
Everywhere in the Scriptures the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is set forth as the work of a Substitute, one who stands in the place of another.
Christ stood as our Substitute in eternity past, as our Surety in the everlasting covenant of grace (Heb. 7:22). Before we had ever sinned, he stood as our ransom. Before we ever broke God's law, he stood as our righteousness. God the Father gave our souls, along with all the hosts of his elect, into the hands of Christ as the Surety of the covenant before the world began John 6:39; 2 Tim. 1:9).
Christ stood in our place as our federal Head and Representative as he lived in this world. The sinless life of Christ was as necessary for our redemption as his death. In his life, Christ fulfilled the holy law of God, establishing perfect righteousness for us, without which we could never be accepted before God. By his life, he brought in an everlasting righteousness for his people. His name is 'the Lord our Righteousness' (Jer. 23:6).
The Son of God stood in our place at Calvary. He died under the penalty of God's law, bearing our sin, our shame, our guilt and the wrath due to us. He died in our place, so that we should never be required to die (Gal. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21).
Jesus Christ the righteous stands in our place today as our Advocate in heaven (I John 2:1-2). His five precious wounds, the merits of his righteousness and the merits of his blood effectually secure our present and eternal welfare. God will not charge us with sin and the law cannot require punishment upon us, because Christ, the risen Lord, our Substitute, stands today as our Advocate with the Father.
And the Lord Jesus Christ himself will stand in our place, as our Substitute before God, in the day of judgement (Heb. 2:13). When God examines us, he will behold no spot or blemish in us, because his own Son performed in our place perfect righteousness and obedience, and thoroughly washed away our sins. Trusting Christ as our Substitute, we may fully expect to hear him say to us, 'Well done!'
*
Read I John 4:7-19
Read Psalm 89:19-36
Grace Baptist Church
Danville, Ky.