“Brownie points” with God?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Have you ever laid your head on the pillow at the end of a long day and satisfyingly said, “Well, I was a good person today, so if I died tonight I will go to Heaven.”

If being religious could get you into Heaven, then why was a religious man like Paul struck down on the road to Damascus? Why was he asked by the Lord, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” (Acts 9:4b).

More importantly, if we could save ourselves with our good deeds, God did not need to send His only Son into the world as a sacrifice for the likes of you and me. No, it is Jesus’ righteousness and His alone that saves us.

ACTION POINT:

Take stock: What “religious” things are you doing, hoping to score a few more “brownie points” with God? This is what is called “works doctrine.”—that by your good works you’ll do enough to qualify and crack open that door to Heaven. Abandon it. Come to Jesus and say, “Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to Thy cross I cling.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Jesus Died for This Moment

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

When the alarm went off at 4:59 this morning, I had a split-second thought of the utter realness of dying and standing before an utterly holy God with nothing to commend me but my own life.

The horror of it was only surpassed by the flash of reality: Jesus Christ died for this very moment.

Then it was gone.

My immediate sense was: This is the essence of what happens whenever someone is converted. This is how Jesus Christ is discovered to be real. This is how a person comes to cherish the love of Christ. Suddenly, for the first time, they see and feel, with the eyes of their heart, the undeniable reality of having to meet God with a guilty conscience.

The impact of that vision is devastating. It causes us to know that our only hope is a Mediator. Standing alone, with nothing to commend us but our own sinful life, we are utterly lost. If there is any hope for eternity in the presence of this God, we will need a Redeemer, a Substitute, a Savior.

At this point of terrible crisis, nothing shines like the gospel of Jesus Christ — “who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). In the split second before he was there, I was granted to see the all-engulfing darkness and horror of the judgment — not a theological inference, not a merely rational conclusion, not a mere thought, but a glimpse with the inward eye full of knowing and feeling and certainty.

Our God is a consuming fire. He will not look upon evil. We are utterly lost. My guilt was so huge, so real, so unquestioned in that split second, that there is not even the remotest possibility of making excuses. It was sudden and all-enveloping and infinitely hopeless.

In this instant Jesus is all that matters. O Christ! O Christ! Can my heart contain the wave of gratitude?! O Gift of God, my desperate and only Need!

John Piper 

Flee!!!

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is outside the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 1 Corinthians 6:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The sin of immorality is not a sin we are told to fight in the Bible—it’s a sin we’re told to flee! (See 2 Timothy 2:22). God tells us to get out of a compromising situation. Read what Joseph did when he was approached by Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39:7-18. He fled!

If there is a person who works in your office and that person is flirting with you, knowing you’re married, it would be better for you to quit your job than to stay in that office. If they’re married and you’re single—ditto!

“But—my job!”

But—your purity!

ACTION POINT:

Perhaps something else is going on—maybe you’re fighting a pornography addiction, and you’re alone in your motel room with free X-rated movies. Do you sneak a peek? Don’t try to test how far you can come to the edge without falling over. See how far you can stay away!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

A Six-Point Summary of the Gospel

Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18)

Here’s a summary of the gospel to help you understand it and enjoy it and share it!

1) God created us for his glory.

“Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory” (Isaiah 43:6–7). God made all of us in his own image so that we would image forth, or reflect, his character and moral beauty.

2) Therefore every human should live for God’s glory.

“Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). The way to live for the glory of God is to love him (Matthew 22:37), trust him (Romans 4:20), be thankful to him (Psalm 50:23), obey him (Matthew 5:16), and treasure him above all things (Philippians 3:8; Matthew 10:37). When we do these things we image forth God’s glory.

3) Nevertheless, we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him . . . and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images” (Romans 1:21–23). None of us has loved or trusted or thanked or obeyed or treasured God as we ought.

4) Therefore we all deserve eternal punishment.

“The wages of sin is (eternal) death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Those who did not obey the Lord Jesus “will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46).

5) Yet, in his great mercy, God sent his only Son Jesus Christ into the world to provide for sinners the way of eternal life.

“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

6) Therefore eternal life is a free gift to all who will trust in Christ as Lord and Savior and supreme Treasure of their lives.

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).

John Piper 

Looking for a great church?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Any great church is built on these four things. Each begin with the letter B. 

The Book - the inspired, infallible Word of God. 

The Blood – the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The Birth – the new birth.

The Blessed Hope – the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

God tells us in Hebrews 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” He wants us to find a Bible-believing church and connect with the people there.

ACTION POINT:

If you’re looking for a church, first find out what stand they take on the Book, the Blood, the Birth, and the Blessed Hope. Or if they take any stand at all. If they don’t believe in these 4 foundational pillars of the faith, saturate that place with your absence. Then look for a church that does.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Why We Must Hold Fast Our Hope

When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. (Hebrews 6:17–18)

God is not inconsistent. He does not exert himself with promises, and oaths, and the blood of his Son, simply to anchor down one end of our security while leaving the other to dangle in the air.

The salvation Jesus obtained by his blood was everything it takes to save his people, not just part of it.

So we are prone to ask, Why does the writer encourage us to hold fast to our hope (Hebrews 6:18)? If our holding fast was obtained and irrevocably secured by the blood of Jesus — which it was (that’s the difference between the new covenant and the old) — then why does God tell us to hold fast?

The answer is this:

What Christ bought for us when he died was not the freedom from having to hold fast, but the enabling power to hold fast.

What he bought was not the nullification of our wills as though we didn’t have to hold fast, but the empowering of our wills so that we want to hold fast.

What he bought was not the canceling of the commandment to hold fast, but the fulfillment of the commandment to hold fast.

What he bought was not the end of exhortation, but the triumph of exhortation.

He died so that you would do exactly what Paul did in Philippians 3:12, “I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” It is not foolishness, it is the gospel, to tell a sinner to do what Christ alone can enable him to do; namely, hope in God.

So I exhort you with all my heart: Reach out and take hold of that for which you have been taken hold of by Christ, and hold it fast with all your might — which he mightily works in you.

John Piper 

20/20 vision but ZERO insight

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus saith unto Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” Jesus answered, “Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.” John 3:3-6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

If you know someone who’s not a Christian, don’t try to argue with them. Nobody was ever argued into the kingdom of Heaven. Anything someone can argue you into, you can be argued out of. The problem is, they cannot see.  Would you scold a blind man for not seeing? On the other hand, a blind man would be foolish to say there’s no light just because he cannot see it.

There is light, but man needs more than light. He needs sight. “...Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of Heaven.” He may have 20/20 sight, but spiritually he’s blind. “Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:18). The eyes may be fine, but the heart is blind.

There are people you have shared the Gospel with—perhaps even members of your own family—but they haven’t a clue as to what it’s all about, and they never will, until the Holy Spirit opens their understanding.

ACTION POINT:

It takes more than preaching to get somebody saved; it takes the work of the Holy Spirit of God. Pray: “O God, open the eyes of those who have been blinded, that the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the image of God, might shine unto them.” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Before I ever preach, I get on my knees and pray, “O, God, for those who need Jesus Christ, give them sight.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers