Are you trying to help God out?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth [credits, counts as] righteousness without works.” Romans 4:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The same year America declared its independence from England, Augustus Toplady, an Anglican minister, wrote a beloved hymn that has stood the test of time, “Rock of Ages.”  It expresses our complete dependence upon God. The third verse says, “Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to the cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Savior, or I die.”

It’s hard sometimes to let go of our sins AND our righteous deeds in order to completely trust in God for our salvation.

Did you know there is something about human nature that doesn’t want to do this? We want to somehow “help” God by contributing our good deeds. And yet, “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6b).

ACTION POINT:

Lay your knapsack of righteous works at His feet. Pray, “Only You, God, can make me righteous. Wash me, Savior, or I die.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Ignorance Guarantees Ungodliness

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. (2 Peter 1:3)

I am amazed at the power that the Bible attributes to knowledge.

Listen again to 2 Peter 1:3: “[God’s] divine power has granted . . . all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”

Literally, all the power available from God to live and be godly comes through knowledge! Amazing! What a premium we should put on doctrine and instruction in the Scriptures! Life and godliness are at stake.

Not that knowing guarantees godliness. It doesn’t. But it seems that ignorance guarantees ungodliness. Because, Peter says, the divine power that leads to godliness is given through the knowledge of God.

Here are three implications, a warning, and an exhortation.

1. Read! Read! Read! But beware of wasting your time on theological foam and suds. Read rich doctrinal books about “the one who called you to his glory and excellence.”

2. Ponder! Ponder! Slow down. Take time to think about what the Bible means when you read it. Ask questions. Keep a journal. Let yourself be humbly troubled by puzzling things. The deepest insights come from trying to see the unifying root of two apparently antagonistic branches on the tree of truth.

3. Discuss. Discuss. Be a part of a small group that cares passionately about the truth. Not a group that just likes to talk and raise problems. But a group that believes there are biblical answers to biblical problems, and they can be found.

Warning: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6).“They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Romans 10:2). So beware of the deadly effects of ignorance.

Exhortation: “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord” (Hosea 6:3).

John Piper 

Can you add to what Jesus did?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Titus 3:5

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Paul said, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:7-8).

What does Paul mean by loss? He means that even good things are bad things if they become a substitute for the best thing. In the win/loss column, put another “L” for LOSS.

Suppose you’re on a plane trip. The plane is going down and you grab your knapsack instead of your parachute and jump out. Is the knapsack bad? No, it’s just not the best choice to save your life.

The worst form of badness may be human goodness when that human goodness becomes a substitute for the new birth.

ACTION POINT:

No knapsack full of “works of righteousness” will save you. Cast yourself completely upon the work of redemption—the work of the cross. You cannot add to what Jesus did.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Satan’s Candy Store

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. (1 Peter 4:1)

First it puzzles. Did Christ have to cease from sin? No! “He committed no sin” (1 Peter 2:22).

Then it clicks. When we arm ourselves with the thought that Christ suffered for us, we realize that we died with him. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). When we die with him, we cease to sin.

It’s just like Romans 6. “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. . . . So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:6–7, 11).

Peter says, “Arm yourselves with this thought!”

Paul says, “Consider yourselves dead!”

The weapon for our warfare against sin is this thought — this consideration.

When the temptations of Satan come — to lust, to steal, to lie, to covet, to envy, to retaliate, to put down, to fear — arm yourself with this thought: When my Lord suffered and died to free me from sin, I died to sin!

When Satan says to you, Why deny yourself the pleasure of lust? Why deal with this mess, which you could avoid by lying? Why not go ahead and get that harmless luxury you covet? Why not seek justice by returning the same hurt you just received?

Answer him: The Son of God suffered (really suffered!) to deliver me from sinning. I cannot believe he suffered to make me miserable. Therefore, what he died to purchase must be more wonderful than the pleasures of sin. Since I trust him, my susceptibility to your allurements has shriveled up and died.

Satan, be gone! My mouth doesn’t drool any more when I walk by your candy store.

John Piper 

What stands between you and forgiveness?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

People have the idea today that it’s okay to live in immorality and God is going to overlook their little indiscretions.

Is that so?

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). God doesn’t miss a beat of our lives. He is the righteous judge and will judge accordingly (see Hebrews 13:4).

“Well, Pastor, does that mean if I’ve done any of the things in this passage, I can’t be saved?”

No, it doesn’t. First Corinthians 6:11 promises: “And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

Hallelujah! Note the past-tense there: “…such WERE some of you…” There is no sin so awful that the blood of Christ cannot cleanse. He makes the vilest sinner clean.

ACTION POINT:

Nothing—not your worst offense—stands between you and the Cross…between you and forgiveness…between you and a loving Heavenly Father. Nothing but your hesitation. Come to Him. He longs to receive you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God’s Best Promise

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

The most far-reaching promise of God’s future grace is found in Romans 8:32. This is the most precious verse in the Bible to me. Part of the reason is that the promise in it is so all-encompassing that it stands ready to help me at virtually every turn in my life and ministry. There never has been, and never will be, a circumstance in my life where this promise is irrelevant.

By itself that all-encompassing promise would probably not make the verse most precious. There are other such sweeping promises such as Psalm 84:11: “No good thing does [God] withhold from those who walk uprightly.” And 1 Corinthians 3:21–23: “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” It is difficult to overstate the spectacular sweep and scope of these promises.

But what puts Romans 8:32 in a class by itself is the logic that gives rise to the promise and makes it as solid and unshakable as God’s love for his infinitely admirable Son.

Romans 8:32 contains a foundation and guarantee that is so strong and so solid and so secure that there is absolutely no possibility that the promise could ever be broken. This is what makes it an ever-present strength in times of great turmoil. Whatever else gives way, whatever else disappoints, whatever else fails, this all-encompassing promise of future grace can never fail.

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all . . . ” That’s the foundation. If this is true, says the logic of heaven, then God will, with absolute certainty, give all things to those for whom he gave his Son!

John Piper 

“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