Bible Study

Exodus 12:5

[5] Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,

Hebrews 9:14-15

[14] how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

[15] Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

John 1:29

[29] The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Acts 20:28

[28] Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Glory Is the Goal

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2)

Seeing the glory of God is our ultimate hope. “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). God will “present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24).

He will “make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:23). He “calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:12). “Our blessed hope [is] the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

Jesus, in all his person and work, is the incarnation and ultimate revelation of the glory of God. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). “Father, I desire that they . . . may be with me where I am, to see my glory” Jesus prays in John 17:24.

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed” (1 Peter 5:1). “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

“We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7). “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). “Those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30).

Seeing and sharing in God’s glory is our ultimate hope through the gospel of Christ.

Such a hope, that is really known and treasured, has a huge and decisive effect on our present values and choices and actions.

Get to know the glory of God. Study the glory of God and the glory of Christ. Study the glory of the world that reveals the glory of God, and the glory of the gospel that reveals the glory of Christ.

Treasure the glory of God in all things and above all things.

Study your soul. Know the glory you are seduced by, and know why you treasure glories that are not God’s glory.

Study your own soul to know how to make the glories of the world collapse like the pagan idol Dagon in 1 Samuel 5:4. Let all glories that distract you from the glory of God shatter in pitiful pieces on the floor of the world’s temples. Treasure the glory of God above all this world.

John Piper

Hope for the New Year and Eternity

“. . . knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

1 PETER 1:18-21

 

PONDER THIS

Jesus came to Earth that we might go to Heaven. He was born of a virgin that we might be born again. He was made the Son of Man that you and I might become sons and daughters of God. He died for us. He was a special Lamb. He was a slain Lamb. He was a saving Lamb. In this Christmas season, have you been to Jesus for His cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?

In just a few days we’ll have a new year. Most will be thinking about plans for a new year—what you’re going to be doing, thinking, and your ambitions and goals. He alone is worthy of your love. He alone is worthy of your life. He alone is worthy of your deepest loyalty.

How does Christ the lamb give you hope? What are some other things you have tried to put your hope in?

What does it look like to fully trust in the grace of Jesus? What are some things that hold you back?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray for the coming year and make spiritual goals for how you want to prioritize growth in your faith in the year to come.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Bible Study

Revelation 14:3-4

[3] and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. [4] It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb,

Revelation 14:6

[6] Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.

Revelation 5:9

[9] And they sang a new song, saying, 

    “Worthy are you to take the scroll

        and to open its seals,

    for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God

        from every tribe and language and people and nation,

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!”

What Is Your Aim?

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. . . . And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17)

When you get up in the morning and you face the day, what do you say to yourself about your hopes for the day? When you look from the beginning of the day to the end of the day, what do you want to happen because you have lived?

If you say, “I don’t even think like that. I just get up and do what I’ve got to do,” then you are cutting yourself off from a basic means of grace and a source of guidance and strength and fruitfulness and joy. It is crystal clear in the Bible, including these texts, that God means for us to aim consciously at something significant in our days.

God’s revealed will for you is that when you get up in the morning, you don’t drift aimlessly through the day letting mere circumstances alone dictate what you do, but that you aim at something — that you focus on a certain kind of purpose. I’m talking about children here, and teenagers, and adults — single, married, widowed, moms, and every trade and every profession.

Aimlessness is akin to lifelessness. Dead leaves in the back yard may move around more than anything else — more than the dog, more than the children. The wind blows this way, they go this way. The wind blows that way, they go that way. They tumble, they bounce, they skip, they press against a fence, but they have no aim whatsoever. They are full of motion and empty of life.

God did not create humans in his image to be aimless, like lifeless leaves blown around in the backyard of life. He created us to be purposeful — to have a focus and an aim for all our days. What is yours today? What is yours for the new year? A good place to start is 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

John Piper 

The Lamb Holds the Victory

“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!’” REVELATION 5:11-12

 

PONDER THIS

I heard of a man who worked in a slaughterhouse where they processed beef cattle. The man thought nothing of his job until one day the slaughterhouse began to process lambs. And a lamb came through the chute, and he said, “It was my responsibility to cut the throat of that lamb. I’d never done that before. I’d watch the steers as they would wrestle and fight, but the little lamb just laid his neck back. I laid down my knife, and I resigned from my job. I couldn’t do that. I could not take the life of a little lamb so meek, so mild.”

God used a mild little lamb to deliver His people from Egypt. Do you know what the symbol of Egypt was? It was a serpent. Not so long ago, I visited the British Museum in London. I wanted to see the section on Egyptology. I wanted to see the crowns the Pharaohs would wear. On Pharaoh’s crown and scepter, you see a serpent coiled up. This is the battle—between a seemingly defenseless, gentle, meek, mild lamb and a venomous, hissing, poisonous serpent. God gave victory to the lamb, the one who laid down His life.

How is Jesus’ victory unexpected according to the ways of the world?

How do you struggle to live in gentleness and meekness like Jesus?

PRACTICE THIS

Praise God for working in unexpected ways, most of all through the Lamb of God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

 

Bible Study

2 Samuel 22:32

    [32] “For who is God, but the LORD?

        And who is a rock, except our God?

2 Samuel 22:2

[2] He said, 

    “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,

Psalm 33:20-21

    [20] Our soul waits for the LORD;

        he is our help and our shield. 

    [21] For our heart is glad in him,

        because we trust in his holy name.

Psalm 27:1

Of David.

    [1] The LORD is my light and my salvation;

        whom shall I fear?

    The LORD is the stronghold of my life;

        of whom shall I be afraid?