Sunday, October 6, 2019

The Happy God



Sound doctrine [is] in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed [that is, happy] God. (1 Timothy 1:10–11)

A great part of God’s glory is his happiness.

It was inconceivable to the apostle Paul that God could be denied infinite joy and still be all-glorious. To be infinitely glorious was to be infinitely happy. He used the phrase, “the glory of the happy God,” because it is a glorious thing for God to be as happy as he is — infinitely happy.

God’s glory consists much in the fact that he is happy beyond our wildest imagination.

This is the gospel: “the gospel of the glory of the happy God.” That’s a quote from the Bible! It is good news that God is gloriously happy.

No one would want to spend eternity with an unhappy God. If God is unhappy, then the goal of the gospel is not a happy goal, and that means it would be no gospel at all.

But, in fact, Jesus invites us to spend eternity with a happy God when he says, “Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23). Jesus lived and died that his joy — God’s joy — might be in us and our joy might be full (John 15:11; 17:13). Therefore, the gospel is “the gospel of the glory of the happy God.”

The happiness of God is first and foremost a happiness in his Son. Thus when we share in the happiness of God, we share in the very pleasure that the Father has in the Son.

This is why Jesus made the Father known to us. At the end of his great prayer in John 17, he said to his Father, “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). He made God known so that God’s pleasure in his Son might be in us and become our pleasure in him.


John Piper 

Do you need a mind clean-up?


BIBLE MEDITATION:

I will meditate in Thy precepts, and have respect unto Thy ways.
Psalm 119:15



DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Have you ever heard of a one-track mind? The devil plants a thought in our minds, and over time it becomes a belief. Before we know it, he has captured a stronghold.

Psalm 119:9 says, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word.” That word “way” really means a rut—like a chariot wheel would carve a rut into a road. Thank God there is a way of deliverance.

The Bible, God’s Word, will cleanse you (see Ephesians 5:26).

His word:

1. Reveals your sin.

2. Convicts you of your sin.

3. Leads you to the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, who cleanses us from all sin.

4. Teaches you by faith to apply the cleansing of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus said in John 15:3, "You are clean through the Word." The Bible speaks of the washing of water by the Word. And I want to tell you, the Word of God will bathe you and cleanse you.

ACTION POINT:

Picture the Lord Jesus walking through your mind, filling up a wheelbarrow full of filth, and carting it out. Hallelujah! God’s cleansing powers can sweep over your soul today. And fresh winds of the Holy Spirit can blow through the temple of your body and make you clean and pure.



LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Justice Will Be Done



Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19)

All of you have been wronged at one time or another. Most of you, probably, have been wronged seriously by someone who has never apologized or done anything sufficient to make it right.

And one of the deep hindrances to your letting go of that hurt and bitterness is the conviction — the justified conviction — that justice should be done, that the moral fabric of the universe will unravel if people can just get away with horrible wrongs and deceive everyone.

That is one of the hindrances to forgiveness and letting grudges go. It’s not the only one. We have our own sin to deal with. But it is a real one.

We feel that just to let it go would be to admit that justice simply won’t be done. And we can’t do it.

So we hold on to anger, and play the events or the words over and over again with the feelings: It shouldn’t have happened; it shouldn’t have happened; it was wrong; it was wrong. How can he (or she) be so happy when I am so miserable? It is so wrong. It is so wrong! We can’t let it go. And our bitterness starts to poison everything.

This word in Romans 12:19 is given to us by God to lift that burden from us.

“Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.” What does this mean for you?

Laying down the burden of anger, laying down the practice of nursing your hurt with feelings of being wronged — laying that down — does not mean there was no great wrong against you. There was.

But it also does not mean there is no justice. It does not mean you will not be vindicated. It does not mean they just got away with it. No they didn’t.

It means, when you lay down the burden of vengeance, God will pick it up.

This is not a subtle way of getting revenge. This is a way of giving vengeance to the One to whom it belongs. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. You lay it down. I will pick it up. Justice will be done.

What a glorious relief. I do not have to carry this burden. It is like taking a deep breath, perhaps for the first time in decades, and feeling like now at last you may be free to love.


John Piper 

The world’s best teacher is ready to train you

BIBLE MEDITATION:

I will worship toward Thy holy temple, and praise Thy name for Thy lovingkindness and for Thy truth: for Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy name.
Psalm 138:2



DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

There was a man who loved to study the Bible, and every time he came to something he didn’t understand, he asked his friend Charlie, “What does this verse mean?” One day while studying his Bible, the Holy Spirit said, “Why don’t you ask Me? I’m the one who taught Charlie.”

Now, I thank God for the Bible scholars who teach God’s Word, but the same God that teaches these men and women is the One who wants to teach you.

Pray and ask, "Teach me, O Lord, Your statutes. God, control my life. Lord, as I get my heart cleansed and committed, let my heart be controlled. Come with Your Holy Spirit, control my thoughts and guide me into Your truth."

ACTION POINT:

As you read the Bible today, I want you to ask God to help you answer these questions:

1. Is there a lesson to learn?

2. Is there a sin to avoid?

3. Is there a blessing to enjoy?

4. Is there a promise to claim?

5. Is there a new thought to carry with me?


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Friday, October 4, 2019

Joy Unbound

“I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26)

That’s what Jesus prayed the night before he died. Imagine being able to enjoy what is most enjoyable with unbounded energy and passion forever. This is not now our experience. Three things stand in the way of our complete satisfaction in this world.

One is that nothing in this created world has a personal worth great enough to meet the deepest longings of our hearts.

Another is that we lack the strength to savor the best treasures to their maximum worth.

And a third obstacle standing in the way of complete satisfaction is that our joys here come to an end. Nothing lasts. But if the aim and the prayer of Jesus in John 17:26 come true, all this will change. He prayed “that the love with which you, Father, have loved me may be in them.” God’s infinitely well-pleased love for his Son in us!

If God’s pleasure in the Son becomes our pleasure in the Son, then the object of our pleasure, Jesus, will be inexhaustible in personal worth. He will never become boring or disappointing or frustrating.

No greater treasure can be conceived than the Son of God.

Moreover, our ability to savor this inexhaustible treasure will not be limited by human weaknesses. We will enjoy the Son of God with the very enjoyment of his Father. That’s what Jesus prayed for!

God’s delight in his Son will be in us and it will be ours — our delight in the Son. And this will never end, because neither the Father nor the Son ever ends.

Their love for each other will be our love for them and therefore our loving them will never die, nor ever diminish.


John Piper 

The only thing you have that God wants



BIBLE MEDITATION:

He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.
Matthew 10:39



DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

We have nothing that God needs. Think about that.

If I were to give God my riches, I couldn’t make Him richer. He owns everything. If I were to give God my wisdom, I wouldn’t make Him wiser. He is all-wise.

If I were to give God my power, I couldn’t make God more powerful. He is omnipotent.

God wants only one thing from His children, but it’s the most precious thing we have to give—He wants our heart. If we pray to God without giving Him our heart, we are mocking Him. If we preach without giving God our heart, we are preaching in ignorance. If we say we’re a Christian without giving Him our heart, we are living a lie.

ACTION POINT:

God is saying to you today, “Give Me your heart.” How will you respond?


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Those Who Reject The Lord's Word

Man is constantly thumbing his nose at God.
Refusing to repent.
Refusing Christ and His teaching.
Refusing to obey what God commands.
Even denying that Christ alone is able to save!
Man has a great expectation of judgement!
There is hope, repent, follow Christ!

Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.  - Jeremiah 6:19

29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, 
30 would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, 
31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. 
32 For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; 
33 but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster."  - Proverbs 1:29-33

14 They say to God, 'Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. 
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?' 
16 Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me.  - Job 21:14-16

1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 
2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  - Psalm 1:1-2

18 "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. 
19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 
20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."  - Isaiah 1:18-20

5 I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, 
6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other. 
7 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.  - Isaiah 45:5-7

Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.  - Jeremiah 6:19

29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, 
30 would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, 
31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. 
32 For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; 
33 but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster."  - Proverbs 1:29-33

14 They say to God, 'Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. 
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?' 
16 Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me.  - Job 21:14-16

1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 
2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  - Psalm 1:1-2

18 "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. 
19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 
20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."  - Isaiah 1:18-20

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  - Psalm 51:7-10

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. - 1 John 1:7-10

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)
12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.
17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.
18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.
19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20 saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you."
21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,
26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. - Hebrews 9:11-28

10 and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
12 saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?"
14 I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 "Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. 
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. 
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."  - Revelation 7:10-17

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  - Psalm 51:7-10

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. - 1 John 1:7-10

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)
12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.
17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.
18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.
19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20 saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you."
21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,
26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. - Hebrews 9:11-28

10 and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
12 saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?"
14 I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 "Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. 
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. 
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."  - Revelation 7:10-17