Two Infinitely Strong and Tender Truths

“ . . . declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” (Isaiah 46:10)

The word “sovereignty” (like the word “Trinity”) does not occur in the Bible. We use it to refer to this truth: God is in ultimate control of the world from the largest international intrigue to the smallest bird-fall in the forest.

Here is how the Bible puts it: “I am God, and there is no other. . . . ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isaiah 46:9–10). And: “[God] does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:35). And: “He is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me” (Job 23:13–14). And: “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3).

One reason this doctrine is so precious to believers is that we know that God’s great desire is to show mercy and kindness to those who trust him (Ephesians 2:7; Psalm 37:3–7; Proverbs 29:25). God’s sovereignty means that this design for us cannot be frustrated. It cannot fail.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, befalls those “who love God” and “are called according to his purpose” but what is for our deepest and highest and longest good (Romans 8:28; Psalm 84:11).

This is why I like to say that the mercy and the sovereignty of God are the twin pillars of my life. They are the hope of my future, the energy of my service, the center of my theology, the bond of my marriage, the best medicine in all my sicknesses, the remedy of all my discouragements.

And when I come to die (whether sooner or later), these two truths will stand by my bed, and with infinitely strong and infinitely tender hands lift me up to God.

John Piper 

 

How Satan Serves God

Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. (James 5:11)

Behind all disease and disability is the ultimate will of God. Not that Satan is not involved — he is probably always involved in one way or another with destructive purposes (Acts 10:38). But his power is not decisive. He cannot act without God’s permission.

That is one of the points of Job’s sickness. The text makes it plain that when disease came upon Job, “Satan . . . struck Job with loathsome sores” (Job 2:7). His wife urged him to curse God. But Job said, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). And again the inspired author of the book (just as he did in 1:22) commends Job by saying, “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

In other words: This is a right view of God’s sovereignty over Satan. Satan is real and may have a hand in our calamities, but not the final hand, and not the decisive hand.

James makes clear that God had a good purpose in all Job’s afflictions: “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (James 5:11).

So, even though Satan was involved, the ultimate purpose was God’s, and it was “compassionate and merciful.”

This is the same lesson we learn from 2 Corinthians 12:7, where Paul says that his thorn in the flesh was a “messenger of Satan” and yet was given for the purpose of his own holiness — to keep him from becoming conceited. “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited!”

Now, humility is not Satan’s purpose in this affliction. Therefore, the purpose is God’s. Which means that here Satan is being used by God to accomplish his good purposes in Paul’s life. In fact, for God’s elect children, Satan cannot destroy us, and God turns all his attacks finally against him and for us.

John Piper 

You Won’t Find Fish in a Tree

“So that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’” ACTS 17:27-28

 

PONDER THIS

One distinguishing feature between Man and animals is Man has a concern for his destiny. Man is the only creature who knows he's going to die. No elephant knows he's going to die. Salmon may swim upstream, spawn, and then die, but they never think about death. They never say, “I’d better prepare for eternity.” But the Bible says God has put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

You're the distinct creation of Almighty God. God made a fish to swim in the sea. God made a bird to fly in the sky. What did God make you to do? God created you to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him. If you don't know God and you don't serve God, you have missed the purpose for which you were created. You will be like a fish in a tree or a bird underwater. If you don't know God, you have missed it all. And how can you know God? By receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord! God loves you so much. Jesus Christ died for you in agony and blood. You are no accident, and you are no animal. You are made in the image of God. You are made for His glory and for His purpose.

What are some ways you have looked for purpose in the past? What happened? What has changed since you began following Jesus?

What does it look like to live with the purpose of loving and serving God? How is that different from how you live right now?

PRACTICE THIS

Talk to a mentor in the faith and ask how he or she seeks purpose in God.

LWF Adrian Rogers 

Ruler of All Nature

 

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. (Proverbs 16:33)

In modern language we would say, “The dice are rolled on the table, and every play is decided by God.”

In other words, there are no events so small that he does not rule them for his purposes. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?” Jesus said. “And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:29–30).

Every roll of the dice in Las Vegas, every tiny bird that falls dead in a thousand forests — all of this is God’s command.

In the book of Jonah, God commands a fish to swallow a man (1:17), he commands a plant to grow for shade (4:6), and he commands a worm to kill it (4:7).

And far above the life of fish and worms, the stars take their place and hold their place at God’s command.

Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. (Isaiah 40:26)

How much more, then, the natural events of this world — from weather to disasters to disease to disability to death.

His law he enforces;

the stars in their courses

and sun in its orbit obediently shine;

the hills and the mountains,

the rivers and fountains,

the deeps of the ocean

proclaim him divine.

(“Let All Things Now Living,” Katherine Davis)

Let us therefore stand in awe and be at peace, knowing that no natural event is outside of God’s wise and good purposes, and perfect control.

John Piper 

Seven Ways God Reigns over Evil

1. Satan is just God’s lackey.

Satan is called “the ruler of this world” in John 12:31. However, other texts say things like this:

“The Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” (Daniel 4:17)

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

   he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever,

   the plans of his heart to all generations. (Psalm 33:10–11)

From which I infer: Yes, Satan is the god of this world and the ruler of this age, but not ultimately. He is a lackey with a leash underneath this great God who decides who kings are and when they’re done.

2. Unclean spirits obey Jesus.

Although unclean spirits are everywhere in the world, doing deceptive and murderous things, Jesus Christ is described as having all authority in heaven and on earth. And then you get an amazing statement like this, clearly spoken as the truth about Jesus in Mark 1:27:

“He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

You should think a long time about that. When Jesus speaks with absolute authority, the Devil does what he is told. Period. Right? That’s what it says. There aren’t seasons when Jesus is not authoritative and seasons when he is authoritative. If it says in the Bible, “Jesus commands the unclean spirits, and they obey,” they obey whenever he speaks that way.

3. God determines our suffering.

Satan is described as a roaring lion, prowling and seeking to devour people. And Peter says in 1 Peter 5:9,

Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

In other words, the jaws of the lion are suffering. Resist. He’s prowling around like a lion, seeking to devour people. Resist him, firm in your faith, because you know that the same experience of suffering is being experienced by your brethren around the world. Therefore, the suffering of Christians is the jaws of the lion coming down on them. Satan is real. Don’t mess with him. But then you read these words in the same book (1 Peter 3:17):

It is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

If God should will, the jaws will close and not before. God will decide whether they get out — not the devil, ultimately.

4. Only God gives and takes life.

Satan is a murderer from beginning to end. He’s a murderer. Has the Devil, since his fall, taken out of the hand of the Almighty the gift of life and death? He has not. Deuteronomy 32:39:

“See now that I, even I, am he,

   and there is no god beside me;

I kill and I make alive;

   I wound and I heal;

and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.”

Do you remember James 4:13–15?

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” — yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

And if he doesn’t will, I won’t. If I make it home tonight, God got me home. If I have a heart attack on the way home, God took me home. So yes, Satan is a murderer, but he does not have ultimate say on whom he murders — God does.

5. Satan cannot harm anyone without God’s permission.

When Satan wants to destroy a saint, he must get permission before he touches him. So he comes to God and says, “Job only worships you because he’s rich. If I take his camels, donkeys, servants, he’ll curse you” (see Job 1:9–11). And God gives him permission, but he puts a limit. “Don’t you touch his body” (see Job 1:12). So he kills them all. Job falls on his face: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away” (Job 1:21). Satan has to get permission to go after his body, and he gets it. But God says, “Don’t you kill him” (see Job 2:6). Isn’t that remarkable? So Satan does harm to us, but not without God’s say.

6. Jesus is sovereign over Satan’s schemes.

Satan is a great tempter in your life. He’ll tempt you before you go to bed tonight. He wants you to sin more than he wants anything. He wants to get you sinning and sinning and sinning so you make shipwreck of your life. He was behind the three denials of Peter. The Bible says this clearly. However, somebody else was also there behind them. Let me read you these amazing words from Luke 22:31. Jesus says,

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.”

It’s like Satan coming to God in the case of Job. He came to God in the case of Peter. What that means is he wants to take Peter and, through some kind of fear or sin, squish him through the grate so that Peter comes out here, and faith stays there. Then you have a faithless Peter, with faith sifted out. That’s what was going on that night. Satan wanted to make him really afraid — take all faith out of his life. That’s what Satan designed to do. Jesus continues in Luke 22:32,

“But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

He did not say, “If you turn again, I hope you’ll be a strengthener.” He was sovereign over Satan’s designs right there. “I’m praying for you, Peter. I have interceded with the almighty God, and we have decided: you will deny me three times. You will cry, and when you cry, you will repent. And when you repent, you will become a rock. And on this rock, I will build my church.”

7. Satan can blind, but God causes us to see again.

Second Corinthians 4:4: “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.” Satan is a great blinder. Some of you in this room right now are spiritually blind, meaning that you’re listening to me, and this message right now means nothing to you. You just want to get out of here because Satan has blinded your mind. You have no spiritual taste buds. Truth, like what I’m speaking here, doesn’t do anything. It might make you mad, but it doesn’t awaken worship or passion or zeal or love or resolve to obey. That’s a spiritual work of God, and Satan is a great blinder.

The question is, Is he ultimately powerful in his blinding, or does God have final say whether light breaks into your life? Two verses later, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:6:

God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

When God resolves to make lights go on in your heart, no devil can stop him.

So those are seven glimpses. I could multiply them over and over again. So here I am, back at my question about the origin of Satan’s sinfulness. Is God helpless before the will of his own angels? Is there power outside God himself that limits his rule over them? My conclusion is that, from cover to cover, the Bible presents God as governing Satan in all he does — no exceptions.

And therefore, I would never, ever biblically infer back into eternity and say, Satan got the upper hand or God was helpless. God couldn’t exert enough influence to win this guy’s allegiance. He could get yours, but he couldn’t get Satan’s? No, God holds sway over the wills of his angels. He commands evil spirits, and they obey him. Therefore, if they disobey, he ordained that they disobey — he permitted them to disobey. If God permits Satan’s fall, it isn’t because he’s helpless; it’s because he’s got a purpose for it.

John Piper

Collaboration with God

“We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.”

2 CORINTHIANS 6:1

 

PONDER THIS

The effectual prayer is rooted in the purpose of God. The prayer that gets to Heaven starts in Heaven. Prayer is God’s way of getting Heaven’s will done on Earth, not man’s way of getting man’s will done in Heaven. When we pray, we close the circuit.

Why has God allowed us to pray? Prayer is so mysterious. God knows what we have need of before we ask Him so why should I ask God for what He already knows I need? Further, God loves me. Why should I have to persuade a loving God to bless me or give me what I need? Couldn’t God do it without our praying? What is the reason for prayer?

God has given us the privilege of collaborating with Him. God in His administration of the Universe has called us as laborers together with Him. Almighty God says, “Adrian, I want you to help Me run the Universe.” You say, “That’s arrogance.” Well, then blame the Apostle Paul. He said we’re “workers together with Him.” We work together with God as we work with one another, and we work with God in administrating the Universe. God wants to move through His people. We work with Almighty God through prayer.

What is your prayer life like? Do you treat prayer as a privilege?

How does God’s invitation to collaborate with Him make you feel? What are some things in which you hear Him calling you to partner with Him in prayer?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13, concentrating on your personal eagerness to join Him in His work. Pray also for those God lays on your heart.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Trust the Artist

“Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”  ROMANS 8:27-28

 

PONDER THIS

Have you ever watched an artist paint a picture as he puts his colors on canvas? I have seen a man who can paint a beautiful painting in a half hour. He’s just splashing the colors on that canvas and mixing them. He says, “I think it needs a little more yellow.” And I say, “Man, that guy’s so good. How does he do that?” Everything just turns out good somehow. Then the guy will get some more colors and put them across the canvas I just admired. I’ll think, “You ruined it!” He put some big old splashy thing on it, and then, it just comes together; it’s a masterpiece!

Sometimes we look at what God does, as He puts His colors on the canvas, and we say, “Lord, You’re really doing good.” And then suddenly God adds that paint stroke we didn’t expect, one we can’t make sense of. So, we say, “Lord! You have messed things up.” Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever asked, “God, how did You let this happen?”

The painting process doesn’t make sense to me when I watch the artist do it, but it makes sense to him. And just because things are not making sense to you doesn’t mean they don’t make sense. And just because you can’t see God working doesn’t mean God is not working.

What is something in your life for which you are struggling to understand God’s purpose?

Do you have faith that the masterpiece God is creating in your life and in the world is beautiful?

PRACTICE THIS

Write down the things you are struggling to make sense of in your life and in the world and bring them to God in prayer.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Did God Create You to Fulfill a Purpose?

“For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” 

COLOSSIANS 1:16-17

 

PONDER THIS

Imagine you walk into the kitchen, hear a tea kettle whistling, and ask why the tea kettle is on. The person responds, “Well, the electric elements in our stove are transferring heat to the bottom of the kettle, which is a good conductor, and it’s agitating the molecules of water, causing them to expand and dance around. That eventually turns that liquid into gas or steam, which is forcing its way by expansion through the nozzle of that kettle and making a whistling sound.” That kind of response would not answer your question. A response like, “I’m making you some tea” would answer your question appropriately.

The scientist may explain what, but he never knows why. He says, “This is all happening.” But God is the why behind all of creation. He not only created it, knows what it is, and understands how it works—He also knows the design and reason for it all.

If you see a painting, you will believe in an artist. When you see a creation, you believe in a designer. And the more complex the design, the greater the designer. The beautiful thing about a work of art is that the artist is telling a story through his or her work. The artist knows what the work of art is, knows what technique was used, and knows what purpose the art is intended to fulfill.

What are some “whys” of life you wrestle with?

In what ways are you living according to God’s purpose for you?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray for a skeptic you know.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Every Calvary Step Was Love

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:16)

The love of Christ for us in his dying was as conscious as his suffering was intentional. If he was intentional in laying down his life, it was for us. It was love.

“When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1).

Every step on the Calvary road meant, “I love you.”

Therefore, to feel the love of Christ in the laying down of his life, it helps to see how utterly intentional it was.

Look at what Jesus said just after that violent moment when Peter tried to cleave the skull of the servant, but only cut off his ear.

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Matthew 26:52–54)

It is one thing to say that the details of Jesus’s death were predicted in the Old Testament. But it is much more to say that Jesus himself was making his choices precisely to see to it that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.

That is what Jesus said he was doing in Matthew 26:54. “I could escape this misery, but how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

In other words, I am not choosing to take the way out that I could take, because I know the Scriptures. I know what must take place for my people to be saved. It is my choice to fulfill all that is predicted of me in the word of God. It is my choice — every step of the way — to love my people to the uttermost. And I want them to feel this. And be utterly secure and free and radically different from the world.

John Piper 

What Is Your Aim?

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. . . . And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17)

When you get up in the morning and you face the day, what do you say to yourself about your hopes for the day? When you look from the beginning of the day to the end of the day, what do you want to happen because you have lived?

If you say, “I don’t even think like that. I just get up and do what I’ve got to do,” then you are cutting yourself off from a basic means of grace and a source of guidance and strength and fruitfulness and joy. It is crystal clear in the Bible, including these texts, that God means for us to aim consciously at something significant in our days.

God’s revealed will for you is that when you get up in the morning, you don’t drift aimlessly through the day letting mere circumstances alone dictate what you do, but that you aim at something — that you focus on a certain kind of purpose. I’m talking about children here, and teenagers, and adults — single, married, widowed, moms, and every trade and every profession.

Aimlessness is akin to lifelessness. Dead leaves in the back yard may move around more than anything else — more than the dog, more than the children. The wind blows this way, they go this way. The wind blows that way, they go that way. They tumble, they bounce, they skip, they press against a fence, but they have no aim whatsoever. They are full of motion and empty of life.

God did not create humans in his image to be aimless, like lifeless leaves blown around in the backyard of life. He created us to be purposeful — to have a focus and an aim for all our days. What is yours today? What is yours for the new year? A good place to start is 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

John Piper 

Do You Understand God’s Purpose?

PRAY OVER THIS

“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:16-18

 

PONDER THIS

You can go deeper into Jesus, but you’ll never go beyond Jesus. A Spirit-filled person, a Spirit-filled church, will make much of Jesus Christ. That’s what it’s all about. You’ll never go beyond the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit has come to promote the worship of Jesus. And, by the way, this is the key to being filled and staying filled. Some of you pray, “Dear God, fill me with the Holy Spirit.” Why do you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Well, I want to be a great preacher. God says, “I’m not interested.” You may pray “God, fill me with the Holy Spirit. I want to understand the Bible,” or “I want to be a soul winner,” or “I want to live a holy life.” Again, God says, “I’m not interested.” Even though all those things sound noble and important to God there is still something wrong. The prayer needs to be “Lord, I want Jesus Christ to be glorified in my life.” He says, “Is that what you want? That’s what I want too. Let’s get together.” God will fill you with the Holy Spirit. And, by the way, He may make you a great preacher, help you understand the Bible, help you to be a soul winner, and guide you to live a holy life. But all of those are subsets of the main thing, and that is the glory of Jesus Christ. That’s why the Holy Spirit has come. “He will not speak on His own authority. . . . He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” (See John 16:13-14.)

What does it look like to glorify Jesus with your life?

What reasons have you asked God to fill you with the Holy Spirit?

PRACTICE THIS

Share with another Christian why you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Pray together to ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

At the Bottom of It All

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. (Ephesians 1:4–5)

The experience of Charles Spurgeon is not beyond the ability of any ordinary Christian.

Spurgeon, who lived from 1834 to 1892, was a contemporary and friend of George Mueller and Hudson Taylor. He served the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London for over thirty years as the most famous pastor of his day.

His preaching was so powerful that people were converted to Christ every week. His sermons are still in print today and he is held up by many as a model soul winner.

He recalls an experience when he was sixteen that shaped his life and ministry for the rest of his days.

When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this.

I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths [the doctrines of sovereign, overcoming grace] in my own soul — when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown, on a sudden, from a babe into a man — that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, that clue to the truth of God.

One weeknight, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher’s sermon, for I did not believe it.

The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment — I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so?

Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, “I ascribe my change wholly to God.”

What about you? Do you ascribe your conversion wholly to God? Is he the bottom of it all? Does this cause you to praise the glory of his sovereign, overcoming grace?

John Piper 

God’s Purpose for Intimacy

PRAY OVER THIS

“Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well. Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be only your own, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth.”

Proverbs 5:15-18

 

PONDER THIS

God gave us sex, not only for procreation, but for fellowship, communion, joy, comfort, and mutual love. In the Bible, when a husband and wife would come together sexually, it was said that they knew one another. What does that mean? It means that sex is a form of communication that cannot be put into words. It is a way of saying “I love you” that cannot be said any other way. God’s law in Scripture is not trying to keep sex from you; God is keeping sex for you. Did you get that? Sex is a wonderful, beautiful gift from God.

If you had a piece of art from Rembrandt or Van Gogh, chances are you wouldn’t have that hanging on your family room wall. It would be in a vault somewhere. And God has protected sex because it is so intrinsically beautiful and wonderful. God is not negative concerning the sexual life; He is very positive concerning sex rightfully given. Sex is like the sod in your yard—it’s beautiful there, but take a shovel full and put it on your living room floor, and it’s just dirt. In its place it is right. Out of its place, it is so wrong.

Have you ever had a tough time trusting that God’s law was for your good? What was that like?

How has God’s law been a blessing in your life?

PRACTICE THIS

Think about the instructions in Scripture that you wrestle with the most. Ask God to help you in those areas.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Unity in Our Differences

PRAY OVER THIS

“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:27-28

 

PONDER THIS

I want to ask you a question: who is better, the man or the woman? The answer to that question is: “Yes.” A man is infinitely superior to a woman at being a man, and a woman is infinitely superior to a man at being a woman. God made us different so that He might make us one. Never forget it. Neither is superior to the other, but we are different.

You know Joyce and I are a lot alike, but Joyce and I are also very different. We have this idea that the differences we see divide us, but it is actually the opposite—it’s these differences that unite us. God made us different so that He might make us one. When we look, there are definitely some differences between men and women, and these are more than mere psychological proclivities. These are there by divine design.

What does it look like to value unity the way God does?

Do you look at differences as a good or bad thing? Why?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray and ask God to help you see differences the way He does, as part of His design for the purpose of unity in Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

How to Contemplate Calamity

“The waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me. . . . This God — his way is perfect.” (2 Samuel 22:5, 31)

After the loss of his ten children owing to a natural disaster (Job 1:19), Job said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). At the end of the book, the inspired writer confirms Job’s understanding of what happened. He says Job’s brothers and sisters “comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11).

This has several crucial implications for us — lessons for us here at the dawn of a new year — as we think about calamities in the world and in our lives — like the massive disaster that occurred December 26, 2004, in the Indian Ocean — one of the deadliest natural disasters on record with 1.7 million people made homeless, half a million injured, and over 230,000 killed.

Lesson #1. Satan is not ultimate; God is.

Satan had a hand in Job’s misery, but not the decisive hand. God gave Satan permission to afflict Job (Job 1:12; 2:6). But Job and the writer of this book treat God as the decisive cause. When Satan afflicts Job with sores, Job says to his wife, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10), and the writer calls these satanic sores “the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). So, Satan is real. Satan brings misery. But Satan is not ultimate or decisive. He is on a leash. He goes no farther than God decisively permits.

Lesson #2. Even if Satan caused that tsunami in the Indian Ocean the day after Christmas, 2004, he is not the decisive cause of over 200,000 deaths; God is.

God claims power over tsunamis in Job 38:8 and 11 when he asks Job rhetorically, “Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb . . . and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?” Psalm 89:8–9 says, “O Lord . . . you rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.” And Jesus himself has the same control today as he once did over the deadly threats of waves: “He . . . rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm” (Luke 8:24). In other words, even if Satan caused the earthquake, God could have stopped the waves. But he didn’t.

Lesson #3. Destructive calamities in this world mingle judgment and mercy.

God’s purposes are not simple. Job was a godly man and his miseries were not God’s punishment (Job 1:1, 8). Their design was purifying, not punishment (Job 42:6). James 5:11 says, “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”

But we do not know the spiritual condition of Job’s children who died. Job was certainly concerned about them (Job 1:5). God may have taken their life in judgment. We don’t know.

If that is true, then the same calamity proved in the end to be mercy for Job and judgment on his children. This double purpose is true of all calamities. They mingle judgment and mercy. They are both punishment and purification. Suffering, and even death, can be both judgment and mercy at the same time.

The clearest illustration of this is the death of Jesus. It was both judgment and mercy. It was judgment on Jesus because he bore our sins (not his own), and it was mercy toward us who trust him to bear our punishment (Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24) and be our righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Another example is the curse and miseries that have come on this earth because of the fall of Adam and Eve. Those who never believe in Christ experience it as judgment, but believers experience it as merciful, though painful — a preparation for glory. “The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope” (Romans 8:20). This is God’s subjection. This is why there are tsunamis. But this subjection to futility is “in hope.”

Lesson #4. The heart that Christ gives to his people feels compassion for those who suffer, no matter what their faith is.

When the Bible says, “Weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15), it does not add, “unless God caused the weeping.” Job’s comforters would have done better to weep with Job than talk so much. That does not change when we discover that Job’s suffering was ultimately from God. No, it is right to weep with those who suffer. Pain is pain, no matter who causes it. We are all sinners. Empathy flows not from the causes of pain, but from the company of pain. And we are all in it together.

Lesson #5. Finally, Christ calls us to show mercy to those who suffer, even if they do not deserve it.

That is the meaning of mercy — undeserved help. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). This is how Christ treated us (Romans 5:10), dying for us when we were his enemies. By that power, and with that example, we do the same.

John Piper 

Better Than Everest

We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

If you live inside this massive promise, your life is more solid and stable than Mount Everest.

Nothing can blow you over when you are inside the walls of Romans 8:28. Outside Romans 8:28, all is confusion and anxiety and fear and uncertainty. Outside this promise of God’s all-encompassing future grace, there are straw houses of drugs and pornography and dozens of futile diversions. There are slat walls and tin roofs of fragile investment strategies and fleeting insurance coverage and trivial retirement plans. There are cardboard fortifications of deadbolt locks and alarm systems and anti ballistic missiles. Outside are a thousand substitutes for Romans 8:28.

Once you walk through the door of love into the massive, unshakable structure of Romans 8:28, everything changes. There come into your life stability and depth and freedom. You simply can’t be blown over anymore. The confidence that a sovereign God governs for your good all the pain and all the pleasure that you will ever experience is an incomparable refuge and security and hope and power in your life.

When God’s people really live by the future grace of Romans 8:28 — from measles to the mortuary — they are the freest and strongest and most generous people in the world.

Their light shines and people give glory to their Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

John Piper 

We Are God’s Little Nobodies

PRAY OVER THIS

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are.” 1 Corinthians 1:27

 

PONDER THIS

God has chosen the weak things of the world. Consider the word “weak.” The word “weak” here literally means those who are physically weak, what we would call anemic, emaciated, run-down, without physical strength, or even sickly. It is these that God has used to confound the mighty. God uses nonintellectuals to confound PhDs. God uses the weak to confound the All-Americans. The word “base” means ignoble, of low degree, without the proper pedigree, not a blueblood, people from the wrong side of the tracks. God has chosen the base things of the world and things which are despised. The word “despised” means those things that are looked down upon, things that the world scorns, ridicules, and laughs at. He has also chosen the things which are not. You say, “It's not that they hate me; they don’t even know I’m here.” You, you’re included here. These are God’s little nobodies. These are the people the Bible says God has chosen. These are God’s simple people.

When was a time you felt weak, base, or despised as used in this passage?

Why is it better to be a nobody God has chosen than a somebody who does not have a relationship with God?

PRACTICE THIS

List the ways you’ve been hurt by feeling weak, base, or despised. Thank God that He chooses those like you for His purposes.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Do You Know God’s Purpose for You?

PRAY OVER THIS

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

James 1:22

 

PONDER THIS

Do you know God’s purpose for you in the Word of God? Number one, it’s to show you what you are by nature. And number two, to show you what you ought to be by God’s grace. God’s purpose in the Word of God is to make you like the Lord Jesus Christ. God is so pleased with His Son, the Lord Jesus, that He wants people just like Him.

What God is up to is making people in the image of God, the image that was marred when Adam sinned in the garden of Eden. (See Genesis 3.) But the Bible says, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). If we have put our faith in Jesus, then we are destined to be like the Lord Jesus Christ.

What are some purposes you might have for yourself that don’t match God’s purpose for you?

How is being a doer of the Word and not only a hearer connected to fulfilling God’s purpose for your life?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of things you can do according to God’s Word to grow more into the image of Jesus.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers