Jesus Was Forsaken for Us

PRAY OVER THIS

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning?”

Psalm 22:1

 

PONDER THIS

When Jesus Christ went to the cross, He was the sin-bearer. He who knew no sin, God made to be sin for us. And my sin, your sin, all sin was placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Habakkuk 1:13 says that God’s eyes are too pure to look upon sin. God turns His face from sin. The Lord Jesus Christ became the sin-bearer for us, and He had to suffer the penalty. The penalty for sin is to be forsaken by God. Jesus on the cross said, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

He who had been in the bosom of eternity past was forsaken by God the Father. King David, who wrote this psalm, said in Psalm 23:4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” When Jesus Christ died, He walked that lonesome valley all by Himself, so that we would not.

How does it humble you to remember Jesus was forsaken by God so you would not be?

How should this motivate us to tell others of the great love of Jesus?

PRACTICE THIS

Share with someone about the love of Jesus that was poured out on the cross.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

As Sure as God’s Love for His Son

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

God strips every pain of its destructive power. You must believe this or you will not thrive, or perhaps even survive, as a Christian, in the pressures and temptations of modern life.

There is so much pain, so many setbacks and discouragements, so many controversies and pressures. I do not know where I would turn, if I did not believe that almighty God is taking every setback and every discouragement and every controversy and every pressure and every pain, and stripping it of its destructive power, and making it work for the enlargement of my joy in God.

Listen to Paul’s astonishing words in 1 Corinthians 3:21–23, “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” The world is ours. Life is ours. Death is ours. Which I take to mean: God reigns so supremely on behalf of his elect that everything which faces us in a lifetime of obedience and ministry will be subdued by the mighty hand of God and made the servant of our holiness and our everlasting joy in God.

If God is for us, and if God is God, then it is true that nothing can succeed against us. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all will infallibly and freely with him give us all things — all things — the world, life, death, and God himself.

Romans 8:32 is a precious friend. The promise of God’s future grace is simply overwhelming. But all-important is the foundation: I have called it the logic of heaven. Here is a place to stand against all obstacles. God did not spare his own Son! Therefore! Therefore! The logic of heaven! Therefore, how much more will he not spare any effort to give us all that Christ died to purchase — all things, all good, and all bad working for our good!

It is as sure as the certainty that he loved his Son!

John Piper 

Bible Study

Psalm 38:8

    [8] I am feeble and crushed;

        I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

Isaiah 59:11-13

    [11] We all growl like bears;

        we moan and moan like doves;

    we hope for justice, but there is none;

        for salvation, but it is far from us. 

    [12] For our transgressions are multiplied before you,

        and our sins testify against us;

    for our transgressions are with us,

        and we know our iniquities: 

    [13] transgressing, and denying the LORD,

        and turning back from following our God,

    speaking oppression and revolt,

        conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.

Hebrews 5:7-10

[7] In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. [8] Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. [9] And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, [10] being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Philippians 2:8-11

[8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

God Uses Broken Things

PRAY OVER THIS

“Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him.” Genesis 32:25

 

PONDER THIS

Did you know God likes broken things? People throw broken things away, but God rarely uses anything until He first breaks it. David said in the Psalms: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). Some of us are not being used by God because we’ve never been broken. If God breaks you and you become broken bread and poured out wine, He will use you. God took a little boy’s lunch and broke it and fed the multitudes. Mary took an alabaster box of ointment and broke it and lavished her love upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The prophet Jeremiah said: “Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns” (Jeremiah 4:3). You’ll never have the crop you ought to until you put the plow in, until the old clods are broken. Even the Lord Jesus Christ took the bread at the last supper and said: “This is My body which is broken for you.” People throw broken things away. God uses broken things for His glory.

What are the “broken things” in your story?

How have you seen God use even what is broken in your life?

PRACTICE THIS

Share the way God has redeemed broken parts of your life with another person this week.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

When Everyone Deserts You

At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (2 Timothy 4:16–18)

This morning I was lingering over these magnificent and heartbreaking words. Paul is in custody in Rome. So far as we know, he was never released. His last letter comes to an end like this.

Consider and be astounded!

He is deserted: “no one came to stand by me.” He is an old man. A loyal servant. In a foreign city, far from home. Surrounded by enemies. In danger of death. Why? Answer: So he could write this precious sentence for our discouraged, or fearful, or lonely souls: “But the Lord stood by me!”

Oh, how I love those words! When you are deserted by close friends, do you cry out against God? Are the people in your life, then, really your god? Or do you take courage in this magnificent truth: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20) — no matter who deserts you? Do you strengthen your heart with this inexorable oath: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5)?

Then let us say, “The Lord stood by me!”

Question: What was threatened in 2 Timothy 4:18? Answer: that Paul might not attain the Lord’s heavenly kingdom! But over against the threat Paul cries, “The Lord will . . . bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.”

Question: How was Paul’s attaining the heavenly kingdom threatened? Answer: “evil deeds.” “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.”

Question: How could an evil deed threaten Paul’s attaining the heavenly kingdom? Answer: by tempting him to forsake his allegiance to Christ through disobedience.

Question: Was this temptation the “lion’s mouth” from which he was rescued? Answer: Yes. “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9).

Question: So who gets the glory that Paul did not yield to this satanic temptation, but endured to the end in faith and obedience? Answer: “To him [the Lord] belong glory and dominion forever and ever” (1 Peter 5:10). “To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (2 Timothy 4:18).

Question: Why? Wasn’t it Paul who stood firm? Answer: “The Lord stood by me and strengthened me!”

John Piper 

Bible Study

Acts 27:23-25

[23] For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, [24] and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ [25] So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.

Acts 9:14-16

[14] And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” [15] But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. [16] For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

Psalm 22:21-22

        [21]     Save me from the mouth of the lion!

    You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!

    [22] I will tell of your name to my brothers;

        in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:

Matthew 10:19-20

[19] When they deliver you over, 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. [20] For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Coming Back to God

PRAY OVER THIS

“By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.” Hebrews 11:20

 

PONDER THIS

Isaac loved God in his youth but got away from God. He messed up his family, and then came back to God. There are two lessons here. Number one: Never mistake the moment for the man. This is what we see with Isaac trying to bless the wrong son. This was not the true Isaac. The true Isaac was the one we read about in Hebrews 11. When God came to write about his life, God did not write about his life through the lens of his failures. Aren’t you glad God remembers our iniquities against us no more? Aren’t you glad God does not mistake the moment for the man? God knew Isaac loved Him, and Isaac came back to God. That can happen to you too. You can be a person of God and get away from God and mess up your family, but you can also come back to the will of God. Where is He calling you back today?

What are some moments from your life that you hope aren’t taken as “the whole story” about you?

Where is God calling you back to Himself today? How will you respond?

PRACTICE THIS

Take some time to journal about a low moment in your life that God used as a means of redemption over time.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers