The Most Liberating Discovery

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. (Philippians 3:1)

No one had ever taught me that God is glorified by our joy in him — that joy in God is the very thing that makes our praise an honor to God, and not hypocrisy.

But Jonathan Edwards said it so clearly and powerfully:

God glorifies himself towards the creatures also [in] two ways: (1) by appearing to . . . their understanding; (2) in communicating himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying the manifestations which he makes of himself. . . . God is glorified not only by his glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. . . .

[W]hen those that see it delight in it: God is more glorified than if they only see it. . . . He that testifies his idea of God’s glory [doesn’t] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.

This was a stunning discovery for me. I must pursue joy in God if I am to glorify him as the surpassingly valuable Reality in the universe. Joy is not a mere option alongside worship. It is an essential component of worship. Indeed the very essence of worship — being glad in the glories of God.

We have a name for those who speak their praises of God when they have no pleasure in what they praise. We call them hypocrites. Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me’” (Matthew 15:7–8). This fact — that authentic praise means consummate pleasure and that the highest end of man is to drink deeply of this pleasure for God’s glory — was perhaps the most liberating discovery I have ever made.

John Piper 

Bible Study

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.  - Isaiah 9:6-7

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. - Ephesians 2:14-18

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. - 1 Corinthians 15:25

10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. - John 14:10-14

You Are Free to Sin But that Is Not Freedom

BIBLE MEDITATION

“Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” John 8:36

 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

You may say, “I don't want to belong to Jesus; I want to be free.” Well, you will only become free when you belong to Jesus Christ.

If a train says, “I don't want to run on these tracks; I want to be free,” how far do you think it will go? Here's a kite tied to a string. It says, “I don't want to be tied to a string, I want to be free.” The string breaks and down it goes. If a tree planted in the earth says, “I don't want to be planted in the earth; I want to be free,” and it's jerked up from the earth, will it live? Freedom is found in Jesus Christ.

Everything that is truly free is functioning as God made it to function. Just as a train was made to run on rails, God made you to serve the Lord Jesus Christ—to know Him, love Him, and keep His laws. Freedom is found in Jesus Christ, “for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

ACTION POINT

You are free to sin, but that's not freedom. It's only freedom to die and go to Hell. Real freedom comes from Jesus Christ. Yield your life to Jesus Christ. Then you will know the true freedom only He can give you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Make War with Unbelief

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:16–17)

When I am anxious about getting old, I battle unbelief with the promise, “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4).

When I am anxious about dying, I battle unbelief with the promise that “none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Romans 14:7–9).

When I am anxious that I may make shipwreck of faith and fall away from God, I battle unbelief with the promises, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6); and, “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

Join me in this battle! Let us make war, not with other people, but with our own unbelief. Unbelief in the promises of God is the root of anxiety, which, in turn, is the root of so many other sins. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God, Paul said in Ephesians 6:17. The shield by which we quench Satan’s fiery deceits is faith (verse 16) — faith in that very word of God. So take up the shield in your left hand and the sword in your right hand, and let us fight the good fight of faith.

Take up the Bible, ask the Holy Spirit for help, lay the promises up in your heart, and fight the good fight — to live by faith in future grace.

John Piper 

Bible Study

27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

28 for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.'  - Acts 17:27-28

9 Why should you be like a man confused, like a mighty warrior who cannot save? Yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not leave us." 

10 Thus says the LORD concerning this people: "They have loved to wander thus; they have not restrained their feet; therefore the LORD does not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins."  - Jeremiah 14:9-10

7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." 

8 Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! 

9 All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true. 

10 "You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. 

11 I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. 

12 I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and I am God.  - Isaiah 43:7-12

14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name.

15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,

16 "'After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, 

17 that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things 

18 known from of old.'

19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, - Acts 15:14-19

Are You Playing Marbles with Diamonds?

BIBLE MEDITATION

“Therefore. a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24

 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

You’ve heard of the famous South African diamond mines. It is said they were discovered when a man saw some little boys playing on the ground with shiny rocks. He watched how they splashed in the sunlight. He stopped, stooped down, picked up one of them, and found out it was a diamond.

Here were little boys playing marbles with diamonds! I'm afraid that's what people today are doing when it comes to sexual purity. God has given something so beautiful, so wonderful to us, yet we misuse it and transgress every protection He placed around this sacred gift.

Since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden, man has trampled on this treasure. In modern times, things began to spin out of control with the moral and sexual revolution of the 1960s. We were told that the parameters found in the Word of God concerning the physical relationship between a man and woman are no longer applicable. Truths and commandments revealed to us in Holy Scripture were labeled ridiculous and out of date.

What has been the result of our grasping this valuable treasure and playing with it in the dirt like marbles? Children at a younger and younger age are stripped of their innocence. Our homes are coming apart at the seams. We’re witnessing the slaughter of millions of precious unborn babies who are being put to death, depression has skyrocketed. As the family unit falls apart, more young people are taking their own lives, and our nation is in chaos.

ACTION POINT

This is the reason the Bible says, “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14).

God was saying, “Don't adulterate, don’t contaminate, something so precious and lovely.” Marriage, as God created it, is to be honored and protected. Value purity. Treasure it as a rare diamond.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Our Good Is His Glory

“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)

One common objection to Christian Hedonism is that it puts the interests of man above the glory of God — that it puts my happiness above God’s honor. But Christian Hedonism most emphatically does not do this.

To be sure, we Christian Hedonists endeavor to pursue our interest and our happiness with all our might. We endorse the resolution of the young Jonathan Edwards: “Resolved: To endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.”

But we have learned from the Bible (and from Edwards!) that God’s interest is to magnify the fullness of his glory by spilling over in mercy to us — to us sinners, who desperately need him.

Therefore, the pursuit of our interest and our happiness, even if it costs us our lives, is never above God’s interest and God’s happiness and God’s glory, but always in God’s. One of the most precious truths in the Bible is that God’s greatest interest is to glorify the wealth of his grace by making sinners happy in him — in him!

When we humble ourselves like little children and put on no airs of self-sufficiency, but run happily into the joy of our Father’s embrace, the glory of his grace is magnified and the longing of our soul is satisfied. Our interest and his glory become one.

When Jesus promises in Matthew 6:6, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you,” this is a reward he wants us to seek. He does not lure us with joy we shouldn’t have! But this reward — this joy — is the overflow of turning away from human praise, and going into our closet to seek God.

Therefore, Christian Hedonists do not put their happiness above God’s glory. They put their happiness in God himself and discover the glorious truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

John Piper