Bible Study

Psalm 39:4

    [4] “O LORD, make me know my end

        and what is the measure of my days;

        let me know how fleeting I am!

Psalm 90:13-17

    [13] Return, O LORD! How long?

        Have pity on your servants! 

    [14] Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,

        that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 

    [15] Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,

        and for as many years as we have seen evil. 

    [16] Let your work be shown to your servants,

        and your glorious power to their children. 

    [17] Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,

        and establish the work of our hands upon us;

        yes, establish the work of our hands!

Genesis 6:6

[6] And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

Jonah 3:9-10

[9] Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

[10] When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Are You a Procrastinator?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

(James 4:17)

 

PONDER THIS

The man described in this passage knew what he ought to do, but he didn’t do it. He’s boasting in himself and all that he’s done. He has become complacent. He is aware of God’s will, but he doesn’t want to do it. Procrastination may be the biggest problem most of us have today. It’s a very deceptive sin. You see, other sins are very obvious: drunkenness, stealing, hate, violence—these are all very obvious. But procrastination is so deceptive. Many of us think we’re doing good if we don’t do a specific list of sins. But most of us don’t think of procrastination as a sin. Yet, it is a greater sin to fail to do what you ought to do than to do what you ought not do. What is God calling you to do today, and how will you respond?

Is there anywhere you are procrastinating to show obedience to what God has called you to do?

How do you need to respond today so this will not linger in your life?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of things you know God is calling you to do. Take practical steps of obedience in these areas today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Outfitted and Empowered

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20–21)

Christ shed the blood of the eternal covenant. By this successful redemption, he obtained the blessing of his own resurrection from the dead. That is even clearer in Greek than it is in English, and here it’s clear enough: “God . . . brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus . . . by the blood of the eternal covenant.” This Jesus — raised by the blood of the covenant — is now our living Lord and Shepherd.

And because of all that, God does two things:

he equips us with everything good that we may do his will, and

he works in us that which is pleasing in his sight.

The “eternal covenant,” secured by the blood of Christ, is the new covenant. And the new covenant promise is this: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). Therefore, the blood of this covenant not only secures God’s equipping us to do his will, but also secures God working in us to make that equipping successful.

The will of God is not just written on stone or paper as a means of grace. It is worked in us. And the effect is: We feel and think and act in ways more pleasing to God.

We are still commanded to use the equipment he gives: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” But more importantly we are told why: “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13).

If we are able to please God — if we do his good pleasure — it is because the blood-bought grace of God has moved from mere equipping to omnipotent transforming.

John Piper 

Bible Study

1 Corinthians 12:4-6

[4] Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; [5] and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; [6] and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

Hebrews 13:20-21

[20] Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, [21] equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

1 Corinthians 15:10-17

[10] But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. [11] Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

[12] Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? [13] But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. [14] And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. [15] We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. [16] For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. [17] And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

1 Timothy 2:1-4

[1] First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, [2] for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. [3] This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, [4] who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Are You Planning God’s Way?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”

(James 4:13-14)

 

PONDER THIS

The man in this passage seems productive and successful. He’s doing all of this planning. It doesn’t look like he’s doing anything wrong. The Bible certainly doesn’t condemn business; it encourages it. Neither does the Bible condemn planning; it encourages it. The Bible is not against making a profit. These things are not wrong.

Look at this man and you’ll find out what was wrong with him. He left God out of his plans altogether. He’s not consulting with God. He’s not seeking the will of God. He’s like so many today. Your worship life is one thing; your business life is another thing. You’ve divided your life into the secular and the sacred. And so you come to church and worship, and then you plan your life as if there were no God. And the biggest fool is not the man who says there’s no God; the biggest fool is the man who says there is a God and then doesn’t live like it. Have you really taken God into your plans?

How much do you factor God into your plans each day?

What would it look like to do this faithfully?

PRACTICE THIS

Take out your schedule for the week. Consider what it would look like to plan your entire week with God in mind and adjust as you feel prompted by the Holy Spirit.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

A Horrible Destiny

. . . Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:10)

Do you remember the time you were lost as a child, or slipping over a precipice, or about to drown? Then suddenly you were rescued. You held on for “dear life.” You trembled for what you almost lost. You were happy. Oh, so happy, and thankful. And you trembled with joy.

That’s the way I feel at the end of the year about my rescue from God’s wrath. All day Christmas we had a fire in the fireplace. Sometimes the coals were so hot that when I stoked it my hand hurt. I pulled back and shuddered at the horrendous thought of the wrath of God against sin in hell. Oh, how unspeakably horrible that will be!

Christmas afternoon I visited a woman who had been burned over 87 percent of her body. She has been in the hospital since August. My heart broke for her. How wonderful it was to hold out hope to her from God’s word for a new body in the age to come! But I came away not only thinking about her pain in this life, but also about the everlasting pain I have been saved from through Jesus.

Test my experience with me. Is this trembling joy a fitting way to end the year? Paul was glad that “Jesus . . . delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). He warned that “for those who . . . do not obey the truth . . . there will be wrath and fury” (Romans 2:8). And “because of [sexual immorality, impurity, and covetousness] the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6).

Here at the end of the year, I am finishing my trek through the Bible and reading the last book, Revelation. It is a glorious prophecy of the triumph of God, and the everlasting joy of all who “take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17). No more tears, no more pain, no more depression, no more sorrow, no more death, no more sin (Revelation 21:4).

But oh, the horror of not repenting and not holding fast to the testimony of Jesus! The description of the wrath of God by the “apostle of love” (John) is terrifying. Those who spurn God’s love will “drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night” (Revelation 14:10–11).

“And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). Jesus will “tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Revelation 19:15). And blood will flow “from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 184 miles” (Revelation 14:20). Whatever that vision signifies, it is meant to communicate something unspeakably terrible.

I tremble with joy that I am saved! But oh, the holy wrath of God is a horrible destiny. Flee this, brothers and sisters. Flee this with all your might. And let us save as many as we can! No wonder there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous (Luke 15:7)!

John Piper 

Bible Study

2 Thessalonians 1:10

[10] when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Colossians 1:13

[13] He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

Romans 5:9

[9] Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

[16] For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. [17] Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. [18] Therefore encourage one another with these words.