Daily Devotional Readings
Our redemption was purposed by God in eternity. Both the sacrifice of Christ and the results of that sacrifice were purposed by God before the foundation of the world. From all eternity God looked upon his Son as 'the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world'; and he looked upon his chosen people in Christ as men and women redeemed, justified, reconciled and accepted in him. In the mind and purpose of God the work of redemption was finished before the worlds were made (1 Peter 1:18-20; 2 Tim. 1:9)
The redemption of God's elect was actually accomplished by the death of Christ at Calvary. When our Saviour cried, 'It is finished!', the work was done. We were redeemed. The prophet Daniel described Christ as the Messiah, the Prince, that one who must come 'to finish the transgressions, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in an everlasting righteousness' (Dan. 9:24). Either Christ has actually accomplished these things for his covenant people, or he is not that Messiah of whom Daniel spoke. He has finished the transgression of his people by dying for it. He has made an end of sins by putting them away. He has reconciled us to God by satisfying the claims of God's offended justice against us. And he has brought in and everlasting righteousness by his perfect obedience to the law as our Representative,
It is this redemption, purposed by God in eternity and accomplished by Christ at Calvary, which the Holy Spirit applies to the hearts of sinners in regeneration, creating faith in Christ (2 Cor. 4:6; Heb. 9:14). If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ this day, God's distinguishing grace towards you in redemption is the cause of your faith. If you believe, God purposed to redeem you in eternity. If you believe, the Lord Jesus Christ died for you and purchased you at Calvary. With his own precious blood he redeemed you particularly. With his own precious blood he redeemed you effectually. How you ought to love him! How you ought to praise him! How you ought to give yourself to him! He loved you and gave himself for you!
Because he was made to be sin, the Lord Jesus Christ bore the consequence of our sin. Christ answered for our sins at the bar of God's justice. He paid the full penalty of the law for our sins. When justice came to punish sin and found it, upon Christ, it arrested him and bruised him so sorely that he sweat blood through the pores of his body. Justice took Immanuel, like a malefactor, off to the hall of judgement. There was none to declare his innocence, or plead for his release. He was brutally beaten given over to the Roman soldiers. He was publicly stripped, abused, mocked, derided and spat upon. They took him out to the hill of doom and nailed him to the cross. They lifted him up, hanging between heaven and earth, and watched him die. Thus, Christ 'his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree'. Because he bore our sins, the sword of God's justice was drawn against him and the cup of wrath was poured out upon him. He took the place of the guilty, became the guilty, became guilty and bore the penalty of guilt that we deserve. The Son of God was crushed to death beneath the wheel of divine justice!
Now since the Lord Jesus Christ has borne our sins and satisfied the claims of justice against sin for us, we do not bear them. God laid our sins upon his Son and exacted sin's penalty from him. God charged his Son with our sins. Justice will not allow God to charge sin to his people. God transferred our sins to his Son. He will not transfer them back to us again. God punished his Son for our sins. He will never punish us for sin. Justice will not allow the same crime to be punished twice. Righteousness will not allow the same debt to be paid twice. The law, the justice and the righteousness of God punished all my sin in Christ my Surety and will never punish me. 'Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin' (Rom. 4:8). God will never impute sin to those for whom Christ died. He will never charge a believing soul with sin; because Christ bore our sins away!
Our Lord said, 'Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh' (Matt. 12:34). That which a man knows, he can explain. That which a man believes, he can tell. That which a man has experienced, he can put into words. If you cannot tell anyone what you believe and why you believe it, it is very likely that you do not really believe. There are multitudes who say, 'I believe in Jesus Christ.' Almost everyone does. The devils believe in hell, but they do not know him. They are not saved. And those people who say they believe in Jesus Christ are like the devils they are not saved. There are very few people in the church or out of it who can tell you anything about the Lord Jesus Christ. They cannot answer the most simple, basic, elementary questions about the person and work of Christ: 'Who is he? What did he do? Why did he do it? Where is he now? What is he doing there? There is a reason for man's ignorance in these matters. He simply does not know Christ. You cannot tell what you do not know any more than you can come back from where you have not been. If you know Christ, you can come and will confess Christ. That which a man has experienced in his heart, he can and will confess with his mouth.
A faith that I cannot explain is no faith at all. Peter says, 'Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear' (1 Peter 3:15). A hope that I cannot explain is it false hope. A salvation that I cannot confess with my mouth, according to the Word of God, is no salvation at all. I do not say that a man must have great learning and knowledge in order to be saved. I do not say that a person must be a good speaker to be a child of God. But I do say that a person who has a good hope of salvation in Christ must be able to tell what his hope is. Where in the New Testament do you ever find that men were called Christians who knew nothing about Christianity?
Our confession of Christ must be according to the Word of God. I have no reason to believe that I am a child of God unless I can open the Bible and show you why, and upon what basis, I have such a hope.
This is what I am saying: if you are a child of God, you can tell how you came to be a child of God (I John 3:1-3). If you are redeemed, you can explain how you were redeemed (Gal. 3:13). If you are justified, you can declare how God can be just and yet justify the ungodly (Rom. 3:24-26). If you have faith in Christ, you can explain what faith in Christ is (John 3:14-15). If you have experienced the grace of God in salvation, you call explain how it is that God saves sinners by his almighty, free grace in Christ (Eph. 2:8-9; 2 Tim. 1:9).
If I am saved, if I am a child of God, I must be able to confess and declare my faith to you, and I will. I want to tell you three things which I know, three things which I have experienced, three things which I believe, according to the Word of God.
1. I believe that all men were ruined by the fall of our father Adam. Adam was the federal head and representative of our race before God. When he sinned, we sinned. When he fell, we fell. When he died, we died. 'Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned' (Rom. 5:12).
2. I believe in redemption by the blood of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, bore our sins in his own body on the cross, suffering the just penalty of sin in his own body on the cross, suffering the just penalty of sin as our Substitute, and obtained eternal redemption for all God's elect, by his sin-atoning sacrifice (Isa. 53:10-11; 2 Cor. 5:21).
3. I believe in regeneration by the irresistible power and grace of the Holy Spirit. In the time of God's appointment the Holy Spirit sovereignty gives eternal life to God's elect, producing faith in them (Psa. 65:4; John 3:8).
Know this: all of God's people are blessed of God. You may be poor, you may have no material possessions to call your own, you may be sickly, in constant bodily pain and ready to die, but if you are in Christ, if you are a child of God, you are blessed, blessed of God with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.
Children of God, we are blessed!
We are blessed according to the purpose of God. 'God hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began' (2 Tim. 1:9). 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:3).
All the blessings of God's grace and glory, for time and eternity, were freely given to all believers by God's eternal electing love: 'According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him: in love having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will' (Eph. 1:4-5). God in his eternal purpose gave us and guaranteed the accomplishment of all these blessings in his people: adoption, justification, acceptance, redemption, forgiveness, regeneration andf all the fulness of eternal glory. Do you see how blessed you are? What more could anyone desire? And all of this God has done for us 'to the praise of the glory of his grace' (Eph. 1:6).
We are blessed by the providence of God. To all true believers, all who are chosen of God, redeemed by Christ and called by the Holy Spirit, it is promised that all things, both the evil that darkens our days and the good that lights our way, work together for our spiritual and eternal good. Child of God, our heavenly Father has promised us good and nothing but good, for time and eternity. He has promised that nothing will ever happen except that which will have a good effect upon his own. 'There shall no evil happen to the just' (Prov. 12:2 1). Yes, we do experience things which seem to the eye of flesh to be evil, things which cause us pain, heartache and sorrow. But God will see to it that these things, and all things, work together for our good. God is as good as his word and faith takes God at his word. By our own experience, by the Word of God and by the inner witness of the Spirit, 'We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose' (Rom. 8:28). It is not true that all things will just happen to turn out for good. But it is true that all things work together, according to God's wisdom, purpose and power, for the good of his elect. And soon we shall see that it has been true.
And we shall be blessed in the presence of God. When our life's journey is over, we shall stand before God perfectly holy and perfectly righteous, being washed in the blood of Christ and robed in his righteousness. Through the imputed righteousness of Christ, God has 'made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light' (Col. 1: 12). All the blessings of eternal glory which were promised to us in the covenant of grace, earned for us by the righteousness of Christ, purchased for us by the blood of Christ and claimed for us by the ascension of Christ into heaven will be ours in real possession. Not one of God's children will lack any portion of the heavenly inheritance. In Christ we are worthy of all and we shall have all. We are blessed indeed!
What is baptism? It is a public confession of faith in Christ. By baptism, believers symbolically show their union with Christ in his death, his burial and his resurrection. Going down into the water, we confess that we are crucified with Christ. The old man, being dead to the law through the body of Christ, is buried in the watery grave. Coming up out of the watery grave, we testify that we have been raised with Christ to the newness of life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Who should be baptized? Baptism in the New Testament was never administered to anyone but believers. I refuse to baptize babies, or unbelievers, because it was never done in the New Testament. Only those who believe the gospel are to be baptized (Acts 2:4 1; 8:37). Show me one case in the Bible where any baby was ever baptized, and I will start baptizing babies tomorrow.
How is baptism to be performed? Some say, 'Sprinkle'. Some say, 'Pour'. The Bible says, 'Baptize'. The word 'baptize' means to immerse, to dip, or to plunge into water. Baptism is a burial of believers in water. Not until you can bury a man by sprinkling a few grains of sand in his face can you baptize a man by sprinkling a few drops of water on him. Immersion is not a mode of baptism. Immersion is baptism. Anything other than immersion is not baptism. Why be so dogmatic? Because I recognize the authority of the Word of God. Show me one case where baptism was administered by the apostles by 'sprinkling', and I will start sprinkling believers and quit baptizing them. But, unless you can find at least one example of 'baptism by sprinkling' in the New Testament, you must not tolerate such a practice. (Read Matt. 3:13-17; Acts 8:38; Col. 2:12.) Baptism is the immersion of believers in water as a public confession of faith in Christ.
Can a person be saved without baptism? The answer to that question is obvious. All of God's people are saved without baptism. We are saved, like that penitent thief, by grace alone (Eph. 2:8-9). Yet no saved person will refuse to obey Christ and follow him in baptism.
This is my testimony. This is my confession of faith. This is my hope. By the grace of God I am what I am.' It is certain that I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I desire to be. And I am not what I hope to be. But blessed be God, I am not what I once was. God has mercifully brought me up out of the deep miry clay and set my feet upon the Rock, Christ Jesus. He has saved my soul. And now it is my desire to extol and honour his matchless, free, sovereign and distinguishing grace, because 'By the grace of God I am what I am.' It is my heart's great joy to ascribe my salvation entirely to the grace of God.
This is my doctrinal confession. Do you want to know what is the sum and substance of my doctrine? Do you want to know the essence of all that I believe? It is just this: 'By the grace of God I am what I am.' Let me put it in such it way that you cannot mistake my meaning. Salvation is altogether the work of God's grace. Salvation is not in any degree whatsoever the work of man. Salvation is not by man's will, but by God's will. Salvation is not man's work, but God's work. Salvation is not accomplished by man's decision, but by the grace of God. Like Jonah, all of God's people have learned that 'Salvation is of the Lord!' (Jonah 2:9.) 'For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works lest any man should boast' Eph. 2:8-9). '[God] hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began' (2 Tim. 1:9). Grace elected me. Grace redeemed me. Grace sought me. Grace give me life. Grace revealed Christ in me. Grace gave me faith. Grace taught me to pray. Grace preserves me. From beginning to end, salvation is by the grace of God. With the apostle Paul, I freely and gladly renounce all human merit. I am not what I am as the result of any thing good which God foresaw would be in me. Like all other men, there is nothing good in me by nature. I am not what I am as the result of anything I have done. Like all men, I was without strength. But 'By the grace of God I am what I am.'
We have a very gracious God indeed. He makes delight a duty. He commands us to do that which is most pleasant. God commands his people to rejoice. Have you not read that commandment in the Scriptures? 'Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you' (1 Thess. 5:16-18). Again we are exhorted: 'Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice' (Phil. 4:4). If you are a child of God, you should be a person full of joy. You are chosen of God, redeemed by blood and regenerated by grace. Why shouldn't you rejoice? Is it possible for a man to know the love and grace of God and not rejoice? I do not suggest that you be light-hearted to the point of being frivolous. We must take life, and our responsibilities in it, seriously. I do not suggest that you should rejoice in your heartaches and sorrows. But I do say that men and women of faith can and should rejoice, even in the midst of their sorrows. I cannot rejoice in pain, but I can rejoice in my God, who sends me the pain. I am addressing you who are the people of God. Do you want a reason to rejoice?
Child of God, rejoice because your greatest trouble is past. Your sin and guilt are gone. Why shouldn't you rejoice? God took your sin and put it on his own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ took your sin and washed it away in his own precious blood. Oh, if you ever get hold of this, you will rejoice - God has put away your sin! God no longer charges you with sin. 'As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us' (Ps. 103:12). Our God declares, 'I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins ... I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins ... for I have redeemed thee' (Isa. 43:25; 44:22). 'There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus' (Rom. 8: 1). 'Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin' (Rom. 4:8). I can and will rejoice in my God, for he has put away my sin!
You may well rejoice in the Lord because Satan, your soul's great enemy, is defeated. That fiend of hell who roars against your soul is a defeated foe. All he can do is roar. Christ broke the arm of his power at the cross. He has, once and for all, cast the accuser down. Satan has no power against your soul. He is bound by the chain of Christ's power. When our Lord died, he said, 'Now shall the prince of this world be cast out' (John 12:31). 'And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly' (Rom. 16:20).
You can rejoice in the midst of your many temptations because your indwelling sin, the old man of the flesh, is doomed. So long as we are here upon this earth, we shall have to put up with this old carnal nature. The lusts of the flesh will be with us so long as we live in this flesh. But that old man is doomed.
You may well rejoice because your God rules this world. That one who loved me and gave himself for me holds the reins of universal dominion. Everything in this world is ruled by the hand that was nailed to the tree for me. Surely, he will do me good. He will see to it that 'all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose' (Rom. 8:28).
Rejoice! You live upon a bank which can never be broken. The bank of heaven, the treasury of infinite grace is open to you. 'Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need' (Heb. 4:16).
Yes, you can rejoice, even in the midst of your trials, because you are not alone. The eye of the Lord is upon you. The Comforter is within you. Beneath you are the everlasting arms of divine grace and strength. And the Lord God himself is with you. 'The Lord is at hand' (Phil. 4:5). He promises, 'I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee' (Heb. 13:5).
If you are a believer, if you are in Christ, you may well rejoice because all your troubles will soon be over. We shall soon leave this world of sorrow and enter into that glory land, where 'God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes' (Rev. 21:4).
These verses of inspiration tell us several things about the Lord's Supper. It is a symbolic remembrance of Christ. Just as the Jewish Passover symbolically portrayed the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the Lord's Supper symbolically reminds the children of God of our salvation and redemption by the righteous life and sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The elements to be used in observing the Lord's Supper are wine and unleavened bread. It is not proper to use grape juice or fizzy drinks. To use those things is to make a mockery of the ordinance. We use wine, because wine was used by our Lord when he instituted the Supper. Being fermented, all impurities are removed from the wine. Therefore it is a suitable representative of our Lord's precious blood, by which we are redeemed. As the wine was crushed from the grape in the winepress, so the blood of Christ poured out of his body when he was crushed in death as our Substitute in the winepress of divine justice. The unleavened bread represents the spotless humanity of Christ, his sinless body, which was sacrificed for us. The unleavened bread has no impurities in it, even as our Lord was without sin. As a man he lived in perfect righteousness for us. Only wine and unleavened bread can be used in the observance of the Lord's Supper, because this is the way it was done in the New Testament, and only wine and unleavened bread can truly represent the body and blood of Christ.
And the Lord's Supper is to be observed often by all true believers. No unbeliever is permitted to receive the Lord's Supper, because the unbeliever does not discern the Lord's body. But no believer is to be refused admittance to the Lord's Table. This is not an ordinance to be guarded by the local church. It is the Lord's Table, open to all the Lord's children, just as it was in the New Testament (Acts 20:1-7). We who believe are worthy to come to the Lord's Supper, because we are in Christ. In him we are worthy. And we are commanded to come often. Not to come would be disobedience to our Saviour.
The apostle, John writes to us as the children of God in this world, and says, 'My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.' These are two of the most precious, most comforting, most soul-cheering verses to be found in the whole Word of God. Yet they remind us of a very sad fact, which we must never, forget.
All of God's children in this world, at their very best, are still sinners. 'My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.' Children of God, do not sin. We should never sin. We must oppose sin and resist it. It is an astonishing thing to realize that men and women who are loved of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ and regenerated by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit need to be urged not to sin. But the admonition is needed by us all: 'Do not sin!' Yet John knew very well that all of God's saints in this world do sin. Therefore he says, 'If any man sin. 'The apostle uses gentle language, but he knew that we would sin. It was John who said, 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not, in us' (I John 1:8). So long as we live in this world, in this body of flesh, we shall sin. Sin is what we are by nature. Sin is mixed with all we do. Sin mars even our best deeds. 'We are all as an unclean thing; and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags' (Isa. 64:6). All of God's people in this world have learned to confess, with the apostle Paul, 'I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing' (Rom. 7:18). Every believer mournfully cries, 'O wretched man that I am!' (Rom. 7:24), because every believer knows himself to be a vile sinner.
We do sin, but John assures us that our sins will never deprive us of our interest in Christ. Notice John's words: 'If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.' Yes, my friend, though we do sin, we have an Advocate with the Father still. The text does not read, 'If any man sin, he has forfeited his advocate with the Father. 'It says, 'We have an advocate,' sinners though we are! All the sin a believer ever has committed, or ever can commit, cannot destroy his interest in Christ. We may, any one of us, fall into some dreadful, shameful, sorrowful transgression. God forbid that it should ever happen. But there is no sin, no evil thought, imagination, or deed, of which you and I are not capable. Yet if we do sin, these horrible, treasonable acts can never tear us from our Saviour's heart. Aren't you glad that God 'hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities'? (Ps. 103: 10.) Child of God, I tell you plainly that the Lord Jesus Christ will never forsake his wandering sheep! He will not leave his erring child! I say, do not sin. May God strengthen you with grace to resist sin and to hate evil. But when you do sin, do not despairs God still declares, 'I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed' (Mal. 3:6). Mark this down as a solid pillar of gospel truth: notwithstanding all our sin, we are perfectly justified, accepted, righteous and beloved in Christ.
John also gives us a reason for this blessed assurance. God has provided his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as an advocate for his sinning people. 'We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins.' God will never charge his believing children with sin, because Christ has completely satisfied the justice of God for us, and he pleads the merits of his righteousness and blood for us in heaven.
The only righteous person in this world is that person who has been made righteous by God himself. Only God can produce righteousness suitable to God and only God can make men righteous in his sight. How does God make sinners righteous?
God has made all of his elect righteous by imputing the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ to us. This imputed righteousness is an act of God's grace in redemption. Because the Lord Jesus Christ lived in righteousness upon the earth as our Representative and died under the penalty of God's law as our Substitute, the law and justice of God declare that we are righteous. The very righteousness of Christ, his perfect obedience to God as a man, has been imputed to us. That is to say, righteousness has been laid to our account. In exactly the same manner as our sins were imputed to Christ, his righteousness has been imputed to us. When God made Christ to be sin for us, he charged him with our sin. The Son of God became responsible to the law for the sins of his elect people. And the penalty of sin was exacted from him. He died under the wrath of God because of our sin. Even so, God leaving imputed the righteousness of Christ to us who believe, we have become responsible for righteousness in the sight of God's law. And we shall receive the just reward of the law for righteousness: eternal life and everlasting glory. As our works of sin were made to be our Lord's, so his works of righteousness have been made ours. As he received the reward of our sin, we must receive the reward of his righteousness. That is substitution.
Our righteousness before God is an unalterable fact of divine justice. It is perfect righteousness and it never varies in degree. In Christ we are righteous! Our righteousness is the righteousness of Christ, our Substitute. Child of God, can you realize this? Your standing, your acceptance with God never change, God is always well pleased with you in his Son! If you are truly one with Christ by faith, you are a righteous person.
The God of heaven is not like men think he is. God is not helpless; he is almighty. God is not frustrated; he is sovereign. God is not subject to man's will; man is subject to God's will. God is not in your hands; you are in God's hands. 'Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased' (Ps. 115:3). God says, 'I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure ... I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it' (Isa. 46:9-11).
God Almighty does not want to save everyone in the world. Stop and think for a minute. If God really wanted to save everyone in the world, everyone in the world would be saved. He is God. God is not trying to save everybody. Almighty God never tries to do anything. Whatever God puts forth his hand to do is done. 'None can stay his hand' (Dan. 4:35). He is God. If God tried to save everybody, everybody would be saved. Who can thwart his purpose? Who can resist his power? Find me the man, or the demon, who can successfully thwart the purpose of God, resist the power of God and frustrate the grace of God, and I will worship him, for he is almighty.
The fact is God wants to save and does save some men. It has been God's purpose from eternity to save those people whom he has chosen, and God's eternal purpose cannot be defeated. God's elect people must and will be saved. God himself declares, 'It shall come to pass.' He does not say, 'It may come to pass.' He does not say, 'I hope it will come to pass.' He does not say, 'It will come to pass, if man will exercise his free will and bring it to pass; but if man does not give me permission, my hands are tied and I can do nothing.' Our God declares, 'It shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God' (Hos. 1: 10). I love the 'shalls' and 'wills' of Almighty God. He says, 'I will be your God, and ye shall be my people,' and he brings it to pass.
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