God Forgives and Is Still Just

Nathan the prophet comes to David after his adultery and murder and says, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.” (2 Samuel 12:13–14)

This is outrageous. Uriah is dead. Bathsheba is raped. The baby will die. And Nathan says, “The Lord has put away your sin.”

Just like that? David committed adultery. He ordered murder. He lied. He “despised the word of the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:9). He scorned God. And the Lord simply “put away [his] sin”?!

What kind of a righteous Judge is God? You don’t just pass over rape and murder and lying. Righteous judges don’t do that.

This was one of Paul’s greatest theological problems — very different from the ones people struggle with today: how can God forgive sin and still be righteous? Here is what Paul said in Romans 3:25–26:

God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

In other words, the outrage that we feel when God seems to simply pass over David’s sin would be good outrage if God were simply sweeping David’s sin under the rug. He is not.

God sees, from the time of David, down the centuries to the death of his Son, Jesus Christ, who would die in David’s place, so that David’s faith in God’s mercy and God’s future redeeming work unites David with Christ. And in God’s all-knowing mind, David’s sins are counted as Christ’s sins and Christ’s righteousness is counted as his righteousness, and God justly passes over David’s sin for Christ’s sake.

The death of the Son of God is outrageous enough, and the glory of God that it upholds is great enough, that God is vindicated in passing over David’s adultery and murder and lying. And ours.

And so God maintains his perfect righteousness and justice while at the same time showing mercy to those who have faith in Jesus, no matter how many or how monstrous their sins. This is unspeakably good news.

John Piper 

Faith: Our Link to Promise and Victory

BIBLE MEDITATION:

I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Joshua in the Old Testament is an illustration of Jesus. In fact, Joshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus. He is our heavenly Joshua leading us into the land of promise and victory. And what is this victory? It is a victory of faith.

Joshua faced a lot of challenges, but perhaps his greatest was taking Jericho. Likewise, the devil has placed in each of our lives a very special “Jericho,” looming like an impossible barrier between us and what we believe God wants for us. There seems to be a Jericho standing between us and the dreams of our youth God’s will for our lives the very best ambition of our hearts.

Our Jericho stands and shouts its defiance: “You would have made it, had it not been for me. I'm here in all my strength to keep you from entering into that land of promise.”

You know what your Jericho is. It may be an unhealthy body. An unhappy marriage. An unholy life. Old age, lack of education, past defeats, or some fear. Something insurmountable that we cannot overcome, keeps us from conquering the land God has given us.

When you face your Jericho, you can do one of two things:

give up, turn around, go back, and die in the wilderness of unbelief

or do as Joshua did: face that fortress by faith and conquer it

Nothing more, nothing less, will achieve the victory in our lives but faith.

ACTION POINT:

Victory is not achieved by fighting. Victory is received by faith. You see, when God has a gigantic task He wants us to perform, He gives us the faith to perform it. Your faith links your nothingness to God’s almightiness and victory is yours for the taking!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Soul Captures

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.  - Proverbs 11:30

What is God's command to us?

18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." - Matthew 28:18-20

Speak the gospel!

It holds the truth of Jesus and how He alone brings salvation!

Don't hold to silly religious rules!

The law kills but the spirit offers mercy!

You are a living testament of God's Son!

who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. - 2 Corinthians 3:6

3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. - 2 Corinthians 3:3-4

And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. - Daniel 12:3

let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. - James 5:20

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.

21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.

22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. - 1 Corinthians 9:19-22

Three Examples of How Faith Fulfills Good Resolves

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power. (2 Thessalonians 1:11)

When Paul says that God fulfills our good resolves by his power through faith (he calls our acts “works of faith”), he means that we defeat sin and we do righteousness by faith, that is, by being satisfied with all that God promises to be for us in Christ in the next five minutes, five months, five decades, and into eternity.

Here are three examples of how this might look in your life:

If you set your heart to give sacrificially and generously, the power of God to fulfill this resolve will come to you as you trust his future grace in the promise, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). And the promise, “Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6). And the promise, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).

If you set your heart to renounce pornography, the power of God to fulfill this resolve will come to you as you trust his future grace in the promise, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). “It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29). Much better. Wonderfully better. All-satisfyingly better.

And if you set your heart to speak out for Christ when the opportunity comes, the power of God to fulfill this resolve will come to you as you trust his future grace in the promise, “Do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour” (Matthew 10:19).

May God increase our daily faith in the precious promises of God — promises of his inexhaustible, blood-bought, Christ-exalting future grace.

John Piper 

We’re only on the threshold of knowing Jesus

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. Psalm 102:25

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I’ve been preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ for more than fifty years, but I feel I’m just on the threshold of discovering Him. I want to move closer and closer to Him and learn more and more about Him.

Do you know what Paul said at the end of his ministry? That he “may know God” (see Philippians 3:10). Did he know God? Yes, but even after years of ministry, he knew so little about Him—there was so much more to know.

Let me ask you a question. Did Christopher Columbus discover America? Well, he touched on the shores of America. But even today there are thousands of unnamed lakes, forests, and more where no one has yet completely explored.

In a similar way, there is so much for us yet to discover in Christ.

ACTION POINT:

You may have “touched on” Christ, but God’s plan is that you know Him more and more each day.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

You Can't Earn Grace

What a sweet gift, the grace given by Christ to all who trust Him for salvation.

It's not something we earn!

Our works can never be worthy!

Grace comes from Jesus, the shedding of His precious blood is the only thing that covers our sin!

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. - 1 Corinthians 1:17

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-

6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:4-10

3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. - Romans 8:3-4

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. - Romans 11:6

Never Give Up-Fight Hard

Fight hard for faith and family.

Never give up!

2 "'I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. - Revelation 2:2-3

Stand steady!

Point out false teaching!

Endure!

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. - Revelation 2:4

Keep God first!

Don't just love Him for His gifts.

Love Him just because!

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. - Revelation 2:5

Go back to the moment when you first loved Him!

Repent!

Pray!

Fast!

Ask for forgiveness!

Sin separates!

Walk with Him!

Talk with Him!

Don't get far away from God!

Search for truth!

Jesus died for you!!!

Thank you Pastor Waid!