We Honor What We Enjoy

If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth.” (Isaiah 58:13–14)

It is possible to pursue God without glorifying God. If we want our quest to honor God, we must pursue him for the joy of fellowship with him.

Consider the Sabbath as an illustration of this. The Lord rebukes his people for seeking their own pleasure on his holy day. “Turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day.” But what does he mean? Does he mean that we should not seek our joy on the Lord’s Day? No, because the next thing he says is, “Call the Sabbath a delight.” And in verse 14, “You shall take delight in the Lord.” So what he is criticizing is that they are delighting in their own business on the Sabbath rather than delighting in the beauty of their God and the rest and holiness that this day stands for.

He’s not rebuking their hedonism. He’s rebuking the weakness of it. As C. S. Lewis said, “We are far too easily pleased.” They have settled for secular interests and thus honor them above the Lord.

Notice that calling the Sabbath “a delight” is parallel to calling the holy day of the Lord “honorable.” “If you . . . call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable . . .” This simply means you honor what you delight in. Or you glorify what you enjoy.

The enjoyment of God and the glorification of God are one. His eternal purpose and our eternal pleasure unite in one experience of worship. This is what the Lord’s Day is for. Indeed, this is what all of life is for.

John Piper

Is God’s Love Conditional?

[God] gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. (James 4:6–8)

James teaches us that there is a precious experience of “more grace” and God “drawing near” to us. Surely this is a wonderful experience — more grace and a special nearness of God. But I ask: is this experience of the love of God unconditional? No. It is not. It is conditional on our humbling ourselves and our drawing near to God. God “gives [more] grace to the humble. . . . Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”

There are precious experiences of the love of God that require that we fight pride, seek humility, and cherish the nearness of God. Those are the conditions. Of course, the conditions themselves are the work of God in us. But they are no less conditions we fulfill.

If this is true, I fear that the unqualified, biblically careless reassurances today that God’s love is all unconditional may stop people from doing the very things the Bible says they need to do in order to enjoy all the peace that they so desperately crave. In trying to give peace through “unconditionality” we may be cutting people off from the very remedy the Bible prescribes.

To be sure, let us proclaim, loud and clear, that the divine love of election, and the divine love of Christ’s death, and the divine love of our regeneration — our new birth — are all absolutely unconditional.

And let us declare untiringly the good news that our justification is based on the worth of Christ’s obedience and sacrifice, not ours (Romans 5:19, “as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous”).

But let us also declare the biblical truth that the fullest and sweetest experiences of the grace of God and the nearness of God will be enjoyed by those who daily humble themselves and draw near to God.

John Piper 

Don’t Let An Election Steal Your Song

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:3-4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Habakkuk cried out in verse 1, “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto Thee of violence, and Thou wilt not save?’” He says, “God, I have been praying and praying. Why is Heaven silent? Why don’t You hear my prayer?”

Then he realized, in such a day, the just are going to live by faith.

Put your faith in God—that He is King evermore. That’s how you’ll live in this day and age. Faith is what keeps us going in dark days.

Faith sees beyond the physical to the spiritual, beyond the present to the future, beyond the temporary to the eternal. Faith does not judge by the appearances of the hour.

Don’t lose your faith. Faith cannot fail. Sin cannot win. Faith is the only message that will see us through, the only force that can change anything.

If we want a better land and life, we have to live by faith. Government cannot make us better; only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can do that.

ACTION POINT:

When Habakkuk wrote his book, he said, “It’s for an appointed time” (Habakkuk 2:3). I believe it was for today. He said, “Tell the minister of music not to stop singing.” Don’t let anything steal your song. Keep on singing. Keep on praising. Keep on believing. Keep on loving. Our God reigns! “And the just will live by his faith.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Love One Another Gladly

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

No one has ever felt unloved because he was told that the attainment of his joy would make another person happy. I have never been accused of selfishness when justifying a kindness on the basis that it delights me. On the contrary, loving acts are genuine to the degree that they are not done begrudgingly.

And the good alternative to begrudgingly is not neutrally or dutifully, but gladly. The authentic heart of love loves kindness (Micah 6:8); it doesn’t just do kindness. Christian Hedonism forces this truth into consideration.

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. (1 John 5:2–4)

Read these sentences in reverse order and notice the logic. First, being born of God gives a power that conquers the world. This is given as the ground or basis (notice the word “For”) for the statement that the commandments of God are not burdensome.

So, being born of God gives a power that conquers our worldly aversion to the will of God. Now his commandments are not “burdensome,” but are the desire and delight of our heart. This is the love of God: not just that we do his commandments, but also that they are not burdensome.

Then in verse 2 the evidence of the genuineness of our love for the children of God is said to be the love of God. What does this teach us about our love for the children of God?

Since love for God is doing his will gladly rather than with a sense of burden, and since love for God is the measure of the genuineness of our love for the children of God, therefore our love for the children of God must also be done gladly rather than begrudgingly.

Christian Hedonism stands squarely in the service of love, for it presses us on to glad obedience, not just begrudging obedience.

John Piper 

When you vote today, follow 5 principles….

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Therefore, to Him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. James 4:17

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Today in the US is an important election day. I trust God every one of you will vote. Dr. Francis Schaeffer, a brilliant mind and one of the foremost Christian thinkers of our time, gave us 5 principles to keep in mind when we vote. These principles have nothing to do with personalities or political parties. They are principles. 

1. The dignity of human life. 

2. The importance of the traditional family. 

3. Religious freedom of speech in schools, both public and private.

4. Human rights and the need for justice in our world. 

5. The compassionate use of accumulated wealth.

These five principles ought to be in the heart and mind of every child of God. Pray over these; then based on God’s Word, make your determination. God will give you wisdom in this matter.

ACTION POINT:

Pray it from your heart, “God, bless America, and God, give us space to repent. And may the ones of Your choosing be elected to lead us.” Remember, “to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Do You Neglect Your Salvation?

How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? (Hebrews 2:3)

Is there a sense of greatness in your mind about your salvation? Or do you neglect it?

Do you respond to the greatness of your salvation? Or do you treat it the way you treat your last will and testament, or the title to your car, or the deed on your house? You signed it once and it is in a file drawer somewhere, but it is not a really great thing in your mind. You rarely think about it. It has no daily effect on you. Basically, you neglect it.

But when you neglect your great salvation, what are you really neglecting? Here’s what he is saying when he says, “Don’t neglect your great salvation!”

Don’t neglect being loved by God.

Don’t neglect being forgiven and accepted and protected and strengthened and guided by almighty God.

Don’t neglect the sacrifice of Christ’s life on the cross.

Don’t neglect the free gift of righteousness imputed by faith.

Don’t neglect the removal of God’s wrath and the reconciled smile of God.

Don’t neglect the indwelling Holy Spirit and the fellowship and friendship of the living Christ.

Don’t neglect the radiance of God’s glory in the face of Jesus.

Don’t neglect the free access to the throne of grace.

Don’t neglect the inexhaustible treasure of God’s promises.

This is indeed a great salvation. Neglecting it is very evil. Don’t neglect so great a salvation. Because if you do, will there be an escape from judgment? That’s what the writer asks: “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”

So, being a Christian is a very serious business — not a sour business, but a serious business. We should be blood-earnest about being happy in our great salvation.

We will not be deflected by this world into the fleeting and suicidal pleasures of sin. We will not neglect our eternal joy in God — which is what the goal of this salvation is. We will gouge out our eyes rather than be lured away from such a great salvation.

John Piper

Are You Going to Be A Dropout Citizen?

“Five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight;” Leviticus 26:8

When it comes to the political scene and government, there are some people who have dropped out all together. They have the idea that if you get involved in government, somehow that’s the “social gospel.” They see the political scene as being dirty and worldly. And some have been intimidated by the great debate between church and state. And so people have just hunkered down, trying to “hold on till Jesus comes.” 

We can’t drop out. Edward Everett Hale, author of the story “The Man Without a Country” once wrote:

“I am only one, 

But still I am one.

I cannot do everything, 

But still I can do something.

And because I cannot do everything,

I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”

I am only one in a small voice.  But a lot of small voices together can do something. Believe that and act upon it. Jesus said, “Occupy till I come.”

Is there someone who has wronged you and you seek revenge? Do you have a need to have your rights exalted above others? Read and apply the truth of Philippians 2:3-11.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers