Bible Study

Matthew 5:12-14

[12] Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

[13] “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

[14] “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

1 Peter 1:6-9

[6] In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, [7] so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. [8] Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, [9] obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Hebrews 10:36-38

[36] For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. [37] For, 

    “Yet a little while,

        and the coming one will come and will not delay; 

    [38] but my righteous one shall live by faith,

        and if he shrinks back,

    my soul has no pleasure in him.”

Romans 5:3-6

[3] Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, [4] and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, [5] and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

[6] For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

How Do We Attain the Truth?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Buy the truth, and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding.” (Proverbs 23:23)

 

PONDER THIS

Believing in Jesus is the first step in attaining truth; we must also abide in His Word through discipleship. Discipleship is costly—it costs time, discipline, and obedience; but ignorance is far more costly. We must study the Bible for enlightenment. If we know in knowledge but not in grace, we will be dangerous to ourselves and to others.

Truth is to your spirit what food is to your body, what light is to your eyes, what melody is to your ears.

We also study Scripture for our enjoyment; reading the Bible should not be perceived as a punishment, but as a privilege. We read for our personal enrichment, to sharpen our minds and strengthen our wills. We read Scripture for our enablement, to grow in our faith and fellowship with others.

Finally, we must preserve the truth; guarding it against those who will deny, distort, dilute and defile the Bible. We do this by proclaiming the Gospel truth.

Why must believing in Jesus and valuing Scripture go hand in hand?

Are you more likely to view reading the Bible as a punishment or as a privilege? Why?

PRACTICE THIS

Take time today to read the Bible in an unhurried manner, seeking to enjoy the privilege of studying God’s Word.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

God’s Plan for Martyrs

They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Revelation 6:11)

For almost three hundred years, Christianity grew in soil that was wet with the blood of the martyrs.

Until the Emperor Trajan (about AD 98), persecution was permitted but not legal. From Trajan to Decius (about AD 250), persecution was legal. From Decius, who hated the Christians and feared their impact on his reforms, until the first edict of toleration in 311, the persecution was not only legal but widespread and general.

One writer described the situation in this third period:

Horror spread everywhere through the congregations; and the number of lapsi [the ones who renounced their faith when threatened] . . . was enormous. There was no lack, however, of such as remained firm, and suffered martyrdom rather than yielding; and, as the persecution grew wider and more intense, the enthusiasm of the Christians and their power of resistance grew stronger and stronger.

So, for three hundred years, to be a Christian was an act of immense risk to your life and possessions and family. It was a test of what you loved more. And at the extremity of that test was martyrdom.

And above that martyrdom was a sovereign God who said there is an appointed number of martyrs. They have a special role to play in planting and empowering the church. They have a special role to play in shutting the mouth of Satan, who constantly says that the people of God serve him only because life goes better. That’s the point of Job 1:9–11.

Martyrdom is not something accidental. It is not taking God off guard. It is not unexpected. And it is emphatically not a strategic defeat for the cause of Christ.

It may look like defeat. But it is part of a plan in heaven that no human strategist would ever conceive or could ever design. And this plan will triumph for all those who endure to the end by faith in God’s all-sufficient grace.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Hebrews 11:39-40

[39] And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, [40] since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Revelation 7:9-10

[9] After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, [10] and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Revelation 14:12-14

[12] Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.(2)

[13] And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

[14] Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand.

Footnotes

(2) 14:12 Greek *and the faith of Jesus*

Revelation 3:4-5

[4] Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. [5] The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

Do You Treasure Truth?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Buy the truth, and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding.” Proverbs 23:23

 

PONDER THIS

In our time, it is not values that we desperately need, but virtue. We must be able to differentiate truth and fact. We acquire facts, but learn truth. Facts deal with knowledge, and knowledge can double, but truth never changes and is settled for eternity. We must make a habit of treasuring truth.

We must prize the truth, for it is indispensable, absolute, and attainable through the Word of God. It is not enough just to know it; knowledge without transformation avails nothing. We must see the transforming power behind it, through the Holy Spirit.

Salvation is free, but truth is costly; you pay a price to have truth. John 8:31-32 says, “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’”

Have you learned the difference between facts and truth?

Why must the Word of God be the foundation of truth in our lives?

PRACTICE THIS

Take time to journal today some ways that the truth of God has set you free.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Why We Don’t Lose Heart

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

Paul can’t see the way he used to (and there were no glasses). He can’t hear the way he used to (and there were no hearing aids). He doesn’t recover from beatings the way he used to (and there were no antibiotics). His strength, walking from town to town, doesn’t hold up the way it used to. He sees the wrinkles in his face and neck. His memory is not as good. And he admits that this is a threat to his faith and joy and courage.

But he does not lose heart. Why?

He doesn’t lose heart because his inner man is being renewed. How?

The renewing of his heart comes from something very strange: it comes from looking at what he can’t see.

We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

This is Paul’s way of not losing heart: looking at what he cannot see. What, then, did he see when he looked?

A few verses later in 2 Corinthians 5:7, he says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” This doesn’t mean that he leaps into the dark without evidence of what’s there. It means that for now the most precious and important realities in the world are beyond our physical senses.

We “look” at these unseen things through the gospel. We strengthen our hearts — we renew our courage — by fixing our gaze on the invisible, objective truth that we see in the testimony of those who saw Christ face to face.

“God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” We see this as it shines in our heart through the gospel.

We became Christians when this happened — whether we understood this or not. And with Paul we need to go on seeing with the eyes of the heart, so that we not lose heart.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Romans 7:22-24

[22] For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, [23] but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. [24] Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Isaiah 40:30-31

    [30] Even youths shall faint and be weary,

        and young men shall fall exhausted; 

    [31] but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;

        they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

    they shall run and not be weary;

        they shall walk and not faint.

Romans 12:2-3

[2] Do not be conformed to this world,(3) but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.(4)

[3] For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Footnotes

(3) 12:2 Greek *age*

(4) 12:2 Or *what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God*

Acts 20:24

[24] But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.