Daily Devotional Readings
'Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.' Hatred is the selfish principle of an unregenerate man. It may be varnished by religion and smoothed by hypocrisy, but it is a subterranean storm, continually stirring up mischief and evil. Hatred creates or keeps alive carnal strifes. It causes coldness. It creates disharmony. It stirs up 'envyings and evil surinisings'. Hatred carps at the least infirmity in others and aggravates the least fault. Hatred resents the most trifling offence. It is provoked by the least imaginary wrong. 'An ungodly man diggeth up evil.' Such strifes are kindled to the great dishonour of God. They mar the beauty of the gospel. Let us resist this evil of the old man by watchfulness and prayer 'and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God'.
Love is the fruit of the Spirit. It covers a multitude of evils. Let us study I Corinthians 13 in all its detail, and make it the pattern for our lives. Let this be the mirror of our hearts and the standard of our profession. Love covers, overlooks, speedily forgives and forgets. Love invents reasons to avoid strife. Love puts the best possible construction on doubtful matters. Love seeks unity and agreement. Love does not rigidly examine a brother's failures. It will not deliberately expose a brother's faults. It refuses to uncover the sins of another.
To refrain from gross slander, while leaving room for needless and unkind doubt, is not covering sin. Nor is the 'seven-times forgiveness' the true standard of love. Love, like its divine Author, covers all sins.. Who among us does not need the full extent of this covering? What is our brother's evil against us, compared with our sin against God? Can we hesitate to blot out our brother's few pounds, who look for a covering for our debt of ten million pounds to God? Let us imitate Christ's spirit of forbearing, forgiving, self-sacrificing love: 'Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.' 'And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover a multitude of sins.'
'Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.' Believer, I say, don't forget what you are by nature, and what you were when God called you to life in Christ. Though God has so freely forgiven us of our sins that they will never be remembered against us any more for ever, the prophet here teaches us that we must not forget them, lest we forget what the Lord has done for us by his loving grace.
Let us always remember who we were, where we were, and what we were when God saved us by his grace. We were ourselves the fallen sons of Adam, rebels before God. We were lost and ruined in this perishing world. Like Ezekiel's deserted infant, we were helpless, polluted and perishing. We were dead in trespasses and sins. Physically, we were alive, alive to our lusts, alive to the world, alive to Satan, alive to sin. But spiritually, we were dead, dead to righteousness, dead to truth, dead to Christ, dead to God. In a word, by nature, we were sinners. Sinners by birth, sinners by choice, sinners in heart, sinners in practice, sinners against God, sinners against men, we were nothing but perishing, hell-deserving sinners.
Remember also your merciful Deliverer. We could never deliver ourselves. No man or angel could deliver us. But the God-man, Jesus Christ, has delivered us. There came the Deliverer out of Zion, and he turned away all our transgressions. He delivered us from the curse of the law by his sacrifice of blood in our place. And he delivered us from the powerful bondage of sin by his sovereign power in regeneration. Blessed be God, he did not leave us to our own free will. 'But God', in loving, merciful, sovereign and saving power intervened in our lives. He stopped us in our mad race towards hell and arrested us by his grace! 'By grace ye are saved!'
Now, child of God, don't ever forget: 'Salvation is of the Lord.' To the triune God alone we ascribe all honour, majesty, praise and dominion.
Paul tells us that if we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. And he makes it plain that he is not telling us that we should be seeking some sort of a 'deeper life experience'. Walking in the Spirit, according to the apostle Paul, is the most practical thing in the world. To walk in the Spirit is to be motivated in life by the Spirit of adoption, faith and love, rather than by legal fear. 'If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law' (Gal. 5:18). Just as an intoxicated man is under the control of wine, the child of God is to be under the control of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18). If you and I are led by the Spirit of Christ and under his influence, there are three things which will mark our lives. These are not the works of the flesh. They are not things produced by us. Rather, they are the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
1. Joy in our own hearts. 'Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord' (Eph. 5:19). Being united to Christ by faith, through the operation of the Spirit of God, the children of God have joy. We rejoice in the Lord. We rejoice in what he has done for us. And we rejoice in what he is doing in the world around us. Our songs of praise are but outward expressions of inward joy.
2. Thanksgiving towards God. 'Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ' (Eph. 5:20). Those who are born of God live by faith and not by sight. This faith, which is the fruit of the Spirit, gives us confidence in God's power, providence and promises. We therefore give thanks for all things, knowing that God has promised and will accomplish nothing but good for them who are in Christ.
3. Humiliation before our fellow man. 'Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God' (Eph. 5:2 1). The true believer is one who has learned submission. He submits to Christ as King. And that submission makes him submissive towards others. He does not demand his 'human rights'. Rather, he submits his rights to the rights of others. 'This I say, brethren, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.'
This heavenly calling, of which all of God's elect are partakers, is that sovereign and gracious work of the Holy Spirit which brings men to life and faith in Jesus Christ. This is the effectual and irresistible operation of God the Holy Spirit. When we talk about the Holy Spirit's effectual call, we are not saying that God saves sinners against their will. We simply mean that when the Holy Spirit is sent on an errand of mercy into a man's heart, he never fails to bring that man to Christ. He so changes the sinner's nature that he is perfectly willing to receive Christ as Lord and Saviour.
1. There is a heavenly calling which is always effectual, bringing men to salvation and life. To be sure there is a true and sincere call which goes forth in the preaching of the gospel which men resist. 'Many are called, but few are chosen.' But there is a heavenly calling which always brings salvation. 'Whom he called, them he also justified.' 'Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.' 'Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee.' It is this calling which distinguishes the believer from the unbeliever. To the unbelieving Jew, Christ crucified is a stumbling-block. To the unbelieving Greek, he is foolishness. 'But unto them which are called,' Christ is 'the power of God and the wisdom of God'.
2. This heavenly and effectual call is necessary for the salvation of men. It is necessary because of man's nature. By nature man has neither the will nor the ability to come to Christ for salvation (John 5:40; 6:44). If God the Holy Spirit does not effectually call a man to Christ, he never will nor can come. It is necessary because of the purpose of God. We are 'called according to his purpose'. God has determined to save his elect. But they cannot be saved without his omnipotent call. It is also necessary because of the purchase of Christ. If the Holy Spirit did not call to life those whom Christ has purchased, the Son of God would be robbed of the satisfaction of his soul.
No man by nature will ever, of his own accord, come to Christ and be saved. He has neither the will nor the ability, in himself, to do so. If language means anything, this is an evident truth of Holy Scripture. 'Ye will not come to me that ye might have life.' 'No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.' Yet many do come, so many that in the last day our Lord shall have gathered around him a great multitude which no man can number, even ten thousand times ten thousand. When will sinners, who will not and cannot of themselves do so, come to Christ and be saved? The answer is found in Psalm 110:3: 'Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.'
In this world, among the fallen mass of humanity, there is a people who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ - 'thy people'. They were chosen by him in eternal election, given to him as their Surety in the covenant of grace and redeemed by him at the cross of Calvary. They are his people. Every one of them will willingly come to him in the day of his power. There is a day appointed by God for each of his elect, a day when he will draw them to Christ by the invincible power of irresistible grace. There comes a time when the Good Shepherd must and will seek his lost sheep and effectually bring each of them into his fold. Like the millions of dew drops of the morning, all who were chosen and redeemed by Christ will be brought forth into life in the morning of his grace. Mysteriously, divinely, the multitudes of Christ's people will be made willing and will come to him for life.
Can we be sure that Christ will see of the travail of his soul with satisfaction? Can we be sure that all of God's elect will come to Christ and be saved? Indeed we can! It is written of our Lord: 'Thou hast the dew of thy youth.' King Jesus does not grow old. His purpose does not change. His vision is not dimmed. His power has not diminished. He is God over all and blessed for ever. Like himself, his grace is immutable. He will not fail! He will have his redeemed ones. When all is done, when all the Lord's enemies are in hell, when all his decress have been accomplished, Christ will stand before the Father with all the hosts of his people to present them before the presence of his glory, saying, 'Lo, I and the children thou hast given me.'
It is not possible that the Son of God could fail in his work of redemption. 'By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.' 'He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.' We believe, according to Scripture, that our Lord died as a Substitute for sinners, that he fully satisfied the law of God in our place and finished the work of redemption. And every soul for whom the Son of God suffered and died will be with him in glory. He did not make us redeemable, reconcilable and pardonable. He redeemed, reconciled and pardoned his people!
The Word of God nowhere suggests, as many blasphemously assert, that Christ died trying to save those who finally perish in hell. It is time we laid the axe to the root of the tree. I solemnly lay these seven charges against the doctrine of universal redemption and against all who preach that doctrine.
1. Universal redemption would make the blood of Christ of none effect. It says that the blood of Christ did not actually accomplish and secure anything, but only made certain things possible.
2. Universal redemption would destroy the love of God. It makes God's love meaningless and changeable. Does God at one time love a man enough to slay his own Son for him and at another time hate that man enough to send him to hell?
3. Universal redemption would destroy the justice of God. Where is the justice of God if he can punish the same offence twice, once in Christ and again in the soul for whom Christ died?
4. Universal redemption would destroy the wisdom of God, What wisdom can there be in God devising a plan to save every person in the world, when he knew that in the end that plan would fail?
5. Universal redemption would rob God of his glory in saving sinners. if, after all, it is my faith rather than Christ's blood that redeems my soul, why should I give him the praise?
7. Universal redemption would provide a sinner with no motive to love and serve Christ. If he loved me no more than he loved Judas, why should I love him any more than Judas did? Why should I serve him?
John began his letter to the seven churches of Asia with a benediction of grace: 'Grace be unto you. 'Then his loving heart arose to grateful adoration. He adored Christ because of who he is and what he has done. Our blessed Saviour is 'the faithful witness' and the first-begotten from the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth'. And he has done marvelous things for us. He loved us. He redeemed us. And he has made us kings and priests to God. The Son of God takes such stuff as he finds in the dunghill of fallen humanity and makes for himself kings and priests unto God I And now John's adoration arises to expectation: 'Behold, he cometh!' Like John, our reverence should be deepened and our adoration increased by the conviction of the speediness of Christ's glorious advent: the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Heaven, is coming in all the glory and majesty of his eternal Godhead, to the delight of his people and the dismay of his enemies.
1. King Jesus is coming! The second coming is an absolute certainty. It is not a matter of speculation or debate. As surely as he came to die, he will come to reign. That very one who died at Calvary will come again to reign upon the earth. Who shall prevent him? His heart is with his bride and he will surely come to her. Notice John puts it in the present tense: 'He is coming.' Every event of providence is a footstep of the King in his descent. He is coming and soon he will appear!
2. King Jesus is coming in majestic glory. Once he came in humiliation. In humiliation he died. But he will never be humbled again. When Christ comes, he will ride upon the clouds of glory and it is no secret matter. 'Every eye shall see him.' All the redeemed shall see him. All his enemies shall see him.
3. King Jesus is coming in triumphant judgement. At that glorious day, the Son of God will gather all his redeemed unto himself. And he will case himself of all his adversaries. And he shall reign for ever. Hallelujah! 'Even so. Amen.'
God 'delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us'. The word 'salvation' is the all-inclusive word of the gospel. It includes everything that is required to bring a sinful soul into the glorious and eternal union of life with Christ in heaven. Paul's deliverance from physical death gives us an illustration of spiritual salvation in three stages. It is a mistake to view salvation in only one aspect as being the whole. The Primitive Baptists err in making the decree of God alone salvation. The fundamentalists err in making the new birth alone salvation. If we would view it rightly, we must look upon salvation from start to finish as the work of God, recalling the past, observing the present and anticipating the future.
1. We have been saved (2 Tim. 1:9). In one sense of the word, our salvation is eternal. God's elect have always been viewed by him in Christ, 'accepted in the beloved'. In the decree of God we were eternally called, justified and glorified. To be sure, all of God's elect were redeemed, justified and sanctified at Calvary. Redemption was not only an act of mercy. It was a legal transfer. Our sins were imputed to Christ and his righteousness was imputed to us. And we were saved by the new birth. Repentance and faith are as necessary for salvation as election and redemption. All who were chosen and redeemed will in God's time be born again. They will all repent and believe the gospel. At Calvary, Christ saved us from the penalty of sin. In the new birth he saved us from the dominion of sin.
2. We are now being saved (Phil. 1:6, 2:13). While we are upon the earth, the Holy Spirit is performing within us that work of sanctification which will result in glorification.
3. We trust that we shall yet be saved (Rom. 8:23; 13:11). Not until we are brought before the throne of God in perfect holiness and purity, in body and soul, will our salvation be complete. But complete it will be. God will not fail in his work. The future is as sure as the past.
Every Sunday people gather in public assemblies all around the world and they have been doing so for many years. But what is the purpose of our public gathering as a church? One obvious answer to that question is that God has commanded it. We must not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. But that is only a very minor reason for God's true children as they gather together. It is true that we love the fellowship of the saints and that we need this fellowship for our own spiritual growth. But this is not the primary reason for our public assembly.
Whether we gather on Sunday morning, Sunday night or Wednesday night, the purpose of our public assembly is that we may worship God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
As often as we come together, let us celebrate the praises of our covenant God. In our singing, our praying, our preaching and our hearing, it should be our goal to praise our triune God for his grace and glory. For another thing, when we come together, we should come seeking a message from God. Our hearts long to hear the Lord speaking to us through the Word. We want a message from Christ to comfort and challenge, assure and search, abase and uplift, wound and heal our hearts. And when we come together as a church, let us come to be instructed by God. Beloved, we need to be constantly taught of God. We need to be taught our weakness and sin. We need to be taught Christ's love and grace, his ability to redeem, his willingness to forgive, his power to save, his promises to comfort, his strength to preserve and his merits to glorify.
As often as we gather in our public assembly of worship, may it please our God to fill our hearts with praise to him for his covenant grace, his redeeming love, his sanctifying presence and his saving fulness.
Our Lord had pressed upon his hearers the great truths of the gospel. He told them plainly that he was God the eternal Son. He taught them man's complete spiritual depravity and inability. He explained to them the fact that salvation is altogether by God's sovereign grace. And he insisted that no man is born again except that man who is joined to Christ by a living and vital union of faith. But those men who followed Christ only for material gain, or out of a religious curiosity, or because they had eaten the miraculously produced loaves, were offended at his doctrine. And 'from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him'.
Then our Lord turned to the twelve and asked this searching question: 'Will ye also go away?' Now I put the question to you. Many have gone away. It is likely that many more will yet do so. I fear that some who appear to be devoted today might become offended because of the gospel tomorrow and go back, go back to the world's way. Will you?
But this I know, those who are truly born again, those who have experienced the grace of God, been redeemed by the blood of Christ and been called to life by the Holy Spirit cannot go away. Those who truly know Christ can never leave him. We know our desperate need of him. Therefore God's elect return with this satisfying answer: 'Lord, to whom shall we go?' Sometimes we are tempted and the world tugs hard at our hearts. But we know that no one can satisfy our need and our heart's desire but Christ. Christ alone has the words of eternal life. He is the life itself and the way to life. We believe and are sure that Jesus of Nazareth is that Christ whom God has sent. He is God's anointed Prophet, Priest and King. He is the promised Redeemer. He is the Son of the living God. The law cannot help us. The world cannot satisfy us. We must cling to Christ. He is all.
It is common today for preachers to say that the law is the believer's rule of life. Very few people would tell us that the law is a means of justification. But many insist upon bringing the children of God back under the yoke of bondage for sanctification.
Not only is it unwise, it is a sinful practice, contrary to the faith of the gospel, for a believer to make the law a basis for his life before God. Our acceptance before God is entirely the work of Christ. He is all our righteousness, both in justification and in sanctification. If you do anything, whether it be circumcision, the keeping of the sabbath, or even purity of conduct, in order to be accepted by God, you are fallen from grace! And Christ shall profit you nothing!
In Jesus Christ, by virtue of his representative obedience and substitutionary death, we are free from the law. We have no curse from the law, no covenant with the law, no condemnation by the law and no commitment to the law. Does that mean that we are lawless? Can we now sin without fear? Perish the thought! We live by the commandment of God. 'And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.' We trust Christ alone for our entire acceptance before God. And we walk before our brethren in love. These are 'those things that are pleasing in his sight'.
Many answers are given to that question in the Word of God. But the apostle here gives four excellent reasons for doing so. Having commended Gaius for his good work in this regard, John encourages him to continue with these reasons.
1. It is a work pleasing to God. John told Gaius that when one of God's servants came through town, not only was he to care for him while he was there, but he was to 'bring' him 'forward' on his journey. That is to say, he was to provide such things as the preacher needed to carry on his mission. This is a 'godly sort' of work. The margin reads, 'worthy of God'. It is a work with which God is pleased. God delights to see those who love Christ showing their love by generosity towards his servants.
2. We should do it 'for his name's sake'. There is one thing that compels the true servant of God to take his wife and children to a far-off place to preach the gospel, leaving relatives and friends behind, He has a burning jealousy for the name of Christ. He preaches the gospel so that men everywhere may bow down, trust and worship at the name of Christ (Rom. 1: 1, 5). Our Lord is so highly honoured by the service of such men that he says that what we do for them, we do for him (Matt. 10:40-42).
3. They have no other means of support. 'They went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles." Our Lord expressly forbids his servants to beg for support, especially from the unbeliever (Matt. 10:5-10; Luke 10:1-7). And Paul condemned those pretentious servants of Christ who merely peddled the gospel (2 Cor. 2:17; 1 Thess. 2:5-9). You can mark this down: if God is in a work, God will support it through the generosity of his people. And no servant of God should have to provide a piece of bread for himself. The people of God ought to take care of him.
4. What is more, by our loving and generous support of God's servants we become 'fellow-helpers to the truth'. When we supply a man's needs so that he can preach the gospel, we become allies with him in the work! What a privilege!
'All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.' Here our Lord teaches us the twin truths of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. These two truths are not enemies; they are friends. We do not have to choose one or the other. Both are true. Any man who believes either, as it is taught in the Scriptures, must believe the other.
God has a people whom he will save. As surely as the Bible is true, God has a people whom he has chosen and who are redeemed by the blood of Christ. All of these must and will, in due time, be brought to Christ in true faith, by the sovereign will and power of God. God's purpose will never be thwarted. His will cannot be overturned. His grace will not be frustrated. And it is equally true that whosoever comes to Christ by faith will have eternal life. The Son of God himself says that he will not refuse any sinner who comes to him in true faith! Jesus Christ is both able and willing to save to the uttermost all that come to the Father- by him. If you go to hell, you will have no one to blame but yourself' 'You have been invited to Christ. God himself invites you. But you would not come! Nothing but your sinful will keeps you from him!
To all who come to Christ, having been given to him in eternal election and by irresistible grace, this promise is given: 'I will in no wise cast [them] out.' Here is the security of God's elect! Jesus Christ says, 'I will never, no never, under any circumstances, for any reason, at any time, under any pretence, cast out of my arms, my love, my power, my favour or my grace any sinner who comes to me!' More secure is no one ever than the loved ones of the Saviour. The Good Shepherd keeps his own sheep. He will not lose one of them!
Without question, God's grace in Christ is both certain and free. Will you come to Christ and receive grace from the hands of the sovereign Lord? Or will you perish in your proud unbelief?
We rejoice in the fact that all the blessings of the covenant are sealed to us by the redeeming blood of Christ. Since God has reconciled us to himself, while we were yet enemies, through the sacrifice of his Son, we are confident that lie will freely give us all things in Christ.
This promise gives us confidence in our pilgrimage here upon the earth. And it fills Our hearts with joyful anticipation with regard to heaven. Children of God, this is our promise for all of eternity: 'All things are yours.' I read of no secondary joys in heaven. There are no back settlements in the heavenly Canaan. There are no second-class citizens in the heavenly Jerusalem. Whoever invented the doctrine of degrees in heaven knew nothing of free grace. All the saints shall see the Saviour's face. What more can any child of God desire?
Heaven, in all its fulness, is altogether the reward of grace, and not of debt. All the people of God are loved with the same love, perfectly. There are no degrees in God's perfect love. They were all chosen in Christ at the same time and elected to the same glory. All the blessings of the covenant were given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began. All the promises of God in Christ Jesus are 'Yea' and 'Amen' to all the elect. We are all redeemed with the same price, the precious blood of Christ. And by that blood, the Lord has blotted out all our transgressions, iniquities and sins, so that he has promised never to remember them against us any more for ever. In Christ we are all perfectly justified and made righteous. We are made the very righteousness of God in him. And we are all the sons of God by eternal adoption and faith in Christ. All the saints of God are made kings and priests unto the Lord. Child of God, our only grounds of acceptance before God is Christ. We shall be like him, without spot or wrinkle, perfect in righteousness and glory. Can there be any degrees in perfect glory? Certainly not! This is the promise given to those who believe, both for time and eternity: 'All things are yours!'
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Read I Corinthians 9:1-18
Read Isaiah 55:1-13
Read 1 Samuel 30:1-6, 17-25
Grace Baptist Church
Danville, Ky.