Bible Study

Isaiah 50:8-9

        [8]     He who vindicates me is near.

    Who will contend with me?

        Let us stand up together.

    Who is my adversary?

        Let him come near to me. 

    [9] Behold, the Lord GOD helps me;

        who will declare me guilty?

    Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;

        the moth will eat them up.

Revelation 12:10-11

[10] And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. [11] And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

Job 1:8-9

[8] And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” [9] Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?

Revelation 7:10

[10] and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Are You Leaving A Legacy Of Faith?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth.” Psalm 127:3-4

 

PONDER THIS

What is my responsibility as a dad? My responsibility is to shape, sharpen, and shoot arrows at the enemy. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of one’s youth. My highest ambition is not to be primarily a good pastor or a good preacher; it’s to be a good husband and a good father. If I had to choose between my profession and my family, I’d choose my family. There are many pastors and preachers in the world, but my kids only have one dad.

As a matter of fact, the Bible says that, if a man doesn’t practice it at home, he won’t be able to do it outside the home either (see 1 Timothy 3:4-5). A pastor ought to be one who has his family under his spiritual leadership. The archer of these arrows must be strong: “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior.” We’re not talking about physical strength here, because some of us could not qualify. We’re talking about spiritual strength, and any can qualify. Be strengthened in the Lord so that you can pass on the legacy of faith.

Who passed down a legacy of faith to you?

Who do you have the opportunity to share your legacy of faith with?

PRACTICE THIS

Consider ways to pass on your legacy of faith to another and take a specific action this week that moves toward that goal.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Radical Effects of the Resurrection

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:19)

Paul concludes from his hourly danger, and his daily dying, and his fighting with wild beasts, that the life he has chosen in following Jesus is foolish and pitiable if he will not be raised from the dead.

If death were the end of the matter, he says, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32). This doesn’t mean: Let’s all become gluttons and drunkards if there is no resurrection. Drunkards are pitiable too — with or without the resurrection. He means: If there is no resurrection, what makes sense is middle-class moderation to maximize earthly pleasures.

But that is not what Paul chooses. He chooses suffering, because he chooses obedience. Ananias came to Paul after his encounter with Christ on the Damascus road, with the words from the Lord Jesus, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16). Paul accepted this suffering as part of his calling.

How could Paul do it? What was the source of this radical and painful obedience? The answer is given in 1 Corinthians 15:20: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” In other words, Christ was raised, and I will be raised with him. Therefore, nothing suffered for Jesus is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).

The hope of the resurrection radically changed the way Paul lived. It freed him from materialism and consumerism. It gave him the power to go without comforts and pleasures that many people feel they must have in this life. For example, though he had the right to marry (1 Corinthians 9:5), he renounced that pleasure because he was called to bear so much suffering.

This is the way Jesus said the hope of the resurrection is supposed to change our behavior. For example, he told us to invite to our homes people who cannot pay us back in this life. How are we to be motivated to do this? “You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14).

This is a radical call for us to look hard at our present lives to see if they are shaped by the hope of the resurrection. Do we make decisions on the basis of gain in this world, or gain in the next? Do we take risks for love’s sake that can only be explained as wise if there is a resurrection?

May God help us to rededicate ourselves for a lifetime of letting the resurrection have its radical effects.

John Piper 

Bible Study

2 Timothy 3:12-13

[12] Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, [13] while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

1 Corinthians 4:9

[9] For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.

Revelation 22:11

[11] Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”

Titus 3:3-7

[3] For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. [4] But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, [5] he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, [6] whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, [7] so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

God Pours His Love Through Us

PRAY OVER THIS

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

 

PONDER THIS

Let me give you some words to remember to help you keep your marriage on track. The first one is decision. Make a decision that you’re going to live for God. God will not force His will on you. Listening to sermons will not change you unless you decide to obey the Word of God. “Choose . . . this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15). Give your heart to the Lord. The next word is dependence. It is not enough to decide, because you do not have the strength in your own power to live for God. But God can deliver you if you will depend on Him. The third word is devotion. Begin to love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul, and love your wife as yourself. After this decision and after this dependence, let God pour His love through you. You are to love each other, not if you feel like it, but because God commands it. Love for one another comes primarily from Almighty God. Fourthly, development. Continue to feed your love daily. You must nurture your love. It is a growing thing. It’s like a flower that needs to be cultivated. It needs to be protected, and its full beauty can be developed through life.

When have you had to depend on God in order to love someone else?

What does it look like to make an intentional effort to love another person?

PRACTICE THIS

If you are married, find an intentional way to nurture your marriage. If you are not married, find an intentional way to love someone else the way Jesus loves.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

When God Becomes 100% for Us

. . . among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:3)

All of God’s wrath, all of the condemnation we deserve, was poured out on Jesus. All of God’s demands for perfect righteousness were fulfilled by Christ. The moment we see (by grace!) this Treasure, and receive him in this way, his death counts as our death and his condemnation as our condemnation and his righteousness as our righteousness, and God becomes 100% irrevocably for us forever in that instant.

The question this leaves unanswered is, “Doesn’t the Bible teach that in eternity God set his favor on us in election?”

In other words, thoughtful people ask, “Did God only become 100% for us in the moment of faith and union with Christ and justification? Did he not become 100% for us in the act of election before the foundation of the world?” Paul says in Ephesians 1:4–5, “[God] chose us in [Jesus] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.”

Is God then not 100% for the elect from eternity? The answer hangs on the meaning of “100%.”

With the term “100%” I am trying to preserve a biblical truth found in several passages of Scripture. For example, in Ephesians 2:3, Paul says that Christians were “children of wrath” before they were made alive in Christ Jesus: “We all once lived [among the sons of disobedience] in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Paul is saying that, before our new birth — before we were made alive together with Christ — God’s wrath was on us. The elect were under wrath. This changed when God made us alive in Christ Jesus and awakened us to see the truth and beauty of Christ so that we received him as the one who died for us and as the one whose righteousness is counted as ours because of our union with Jesus. Before this happened to us, we were under God’s wrath. Then, because of faith in Christ and union with him, all God’s wrath was removed and he then became, in that sense, 100% for us.

Therefore, exult in the truth that God will keep you. He will get you to the end because in Christ he is 100% for you. And therefore, getting to the end does not make God to be 100% for you. It is the effect of the fact that he is already 100% for you.

John Piper 

Bible Study

1 Timothy 1:5

[5] The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Ephesians 5:2

[2] And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

1 John 3:11

Love One Another

[11] For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

Colossians 3:14

[14] And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.