9/26/2022 Yesterday Tomorrow
Nahum 1 - 3
Nahum 1
Nahum 1:1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.God’s Wrath Against Nineveh
2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
the LORD is avenging and wrathful;
the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries
and keeps wrath for his enemies.
3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,
and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither;
the bloom of Lebanon withers.
5 The mountains quake before him;
the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
the world and all who dwell in it.
6 Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
7 The LORD is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
8 But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries,
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
9 What do you plot against the LORD?
He will make a complete end;
trouble will not rise up a second time.
10 For they are like entangled thorns,
like drunkards as they drink;
they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
11 From you came one
who plotted evil against the LORD,
a worthless counselor.
12 Thus says the LORD,
“Though they are at full strength and many,
they will be cut down and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.
13 And now I will break his yoke from off you
and will burst your bonds apart.”
14 The LORD has given commandment about you:
“No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from the house of your gods I will cut off
the carved image and the metal image.
I will make your grave, for you are vile.”
15 Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him
who brings good news,
who publishes peace!
Keep your feasts, O Judah;
fulfill your vows,
for never again shall the worthless pass through you;
he is utterly cut off.
Nahum 2
The Destruction of Nineveh
Nahum 2:1 The scatterer has come up against you.
Man the ramparts;
watch the road;
dress for battle;
collect all your strength.
2 For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob
as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
and ruined their branches.
3 The shield of his mighty men is red;
his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
on the day he musters them;
the cypress spears are brandished.
4 The chariots race madly through the streets;
they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches;
they dart like lightning.
5 He remembers his officers;
they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
the siege tower is set up.
6 The river gates are opened;
the palace melts away;
7 its mistress is stripped; she is carried off,
her slave girls lamenting,
moaning like doves
and beating their breasts.
8 Nineveh is like a pool
whose waters run away.
“Halt! Halt!” they cry,
but none turns back.
9 Plunder the silver,
plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
or of the wealth of all precious things.
10 Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
Hearts melt and knees tremble;
anguish is in all loins;
all faces grow pale!
11 Where is the lions’ den,
the feeding place of the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
where his cubs were, with none to disturb?
12 The lion tore enough for his cubs
and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.
Nahum 3
Woe to Nineveh
Nahum 3:1 Woe to the bloody city,
all full of lies and plunder—
no end to the prey!
2 The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel,
galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3 Horsemen charging,
flashing sword and glittering spear,
hosts of slain,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble over the bodies!
4 And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute,
graceful and of deadly charms,
who betrays nations with her whorings,
and peoples with her charms.
5 Behold, I am against you,
declares the LORD of hosts,
and will lift up your skirts over your face;
and I will make nations look at your nakedness
and kingdoms at your shame.
6 I will throw filth at you
and treat you with contempt
and make you a spectacle.
7 And all who look at you will shrink from you and say,
“Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?”
Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8 Are you better than Thebes
that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
her rampart a sea,
and water her wall?
9 Cush was her strength;
Egypt too, and that without limit;
Put and the Libyans were her helpers.
10 Yet she became an exile;
she went into captivity;
her infants were dashed in pieces
at the head of every street;
for her honored men lots were cast,
and all her great men were bound in chains.
11 You also will be drunken;
you will go into hiding;
you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are like fig trees
with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
13 Behold, your troops
are women in your midst.
The gates of your land
are wide open to your enemies;
fire has devoured your bars.
14 Draw water for the siege;
strengthen your forts;
go into the clay;
tread the mortar;
take hold of the brick mold!
15 There will the fire devour you;
the sword will cut you off.
It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust;
multiply like the grasshopper!
16 You increased your merchants
more than the stars of the heavens.
The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
17 Your princes are like grasshoppers,
your scribes like clouds of locusts
settling on the fences
in a day of cold—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
no one knows where they are.
18 Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria;
your nobles slumber.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with none to gather them.
19 There is no easing your hurt;
your wound is grievous.
All who hear the news about you
clap their hands over you.
For upon whom has not come
your unceasing evil?
What I'm Reading
Martyrdom Today
By George Robinson 3/01/2014
Persecution. Jesus said that His followers should expect it (John 15:20; 2 Tim. 3:12) and that those who experience it are blessed (Matt. 5:10–12). In our First World society, persecution may mean mocking, slander, or alienation from friends and family. However, the church extends far beyond our circles to include dozens of countries around the world. In much of the Majority World, Christians are experiencing persecution in the form of harassment, beatings, and even martyrdom.
The Risk of Belief
Over the past fifteen years, my work has been primarily focused on evangelism, disciple-making, and church planting in places where those activities are either strongly discouraged or even outlawed. Specifically, I have worked alongside national believers in South and Southeast Asia reaching out with the gospel to Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh people groups. Many of my national partners were raised in those religions, but came to repentance and faith in Christ through the bold spread of the gospel.
These are not just my brothers and sisters in Christ. They are yours as well. And most, if not all, daily risk paying for their faith dearly, not only with social repercussions, but some with physical abuse, imprisonment, or even death.
In one South Asian country where I have worked, there was a mass shooting at a Christian school, multiple church bombings, and countless stories of brothers and sisters who have been threatened and abused because of their faith in Jesus. I served alongside a dear friend and encouraged him in his work, only to see him forced out of the country by those who felt threatened by his gospel ministry. In another country I worked alongside a brother who was tied up, beaten and left for dead — by his own family members — because of his decision to leave Islam and follow Jesus. Last year, as I led a small group of students and a few national friends in sharing the gospel, we were met by threats of arrest and assault by a radical Hindu group that had tracked our location via hacking a social media website.
The difference between me and my national brothers and sisters is that I can get on a plane and fly back to the United States, where, at least for now, the likelihood of persecution is very limited. Our suffering brothers and sisters around the world have an even greater hope than an American passport — they have been promised the very presence of Jesus in the midst of their suffering (2 Cor. 4:9).
The Call for Christians
Today, an estimated two hundred million Christians worldwide face harsh persecution each year in dozens of countries on nearly every continent. Bill Bright once said that more Christians have suffered persecution and martyrdom since the beginning of the twentieth century than in all of the rest of church history to that point.
What should our response be? Always, our response should be informed prayer; and whenever possible, we should promote and participate in gospel-centered action.
It is impossible to pray for situations about which we are unaware. The gospel is offensive to those who are perishing (1 Cor. 1:18); therefore, one of the primary motives behind persecution is to eliminate the voice of a person who is heralding the gospel or to discourage the spread of the gospel. This means that thousands of persecution stories go untold because voices are hushed by the roar of oppression.
There are several organizations that exist to give a global voice to those who are enduring persecution (see www.persecution.org and www.persecution.com). Those resources intend to mobilize both informed prayer and gospel-centered action. There are also several books that tell the stories of persecuted Christ followers, both in church history (Foxe's Book of Martyrs) and in modern times (The Privilege of Persecution: (And Other Things the Global Church Knows That We Don`t)
by Carl Moeller and David Hegg; The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected
by Nik Ripken). I recommend that you become familiar with these and other gospel-centered resources so that your prayers for the persecuted can be specific and substantive.
The Scriptures beckon all Christians not only to pray informed prayers for the persecuted but also to engage in gospel-centered action on behalf of the persecuted. This action begins with standing alongside the persecuted so as to encourage them. The author of Hebrews was writing to a group of Christians who had grown weary and discouraged by the opposition they were facing. He reminded them of a time when they had personally been persecuted or had, even at great cost, stood with others who were enduring persecution (10:32–39). Their key to enduring earthly persecution was none other than the hope of the gospel and the return of King Jesus to establish His kingdom. Then in Hebrews 11, the writer unfolds a long list of those whose faith in God led to relative peace and sometimes prosperity followed by references to many who, with faith in the same God, endured harsh persecution and martyrdom. Standing with the persecuted may in fact be costly like it was for the audience of the letter to the Hebrews. But for those who have experienced the wonderful rescue of Christ, there will be no limit to our own gospel-motivated sacrificial service of others. You and I have need of endurance — and we can both encourage it and grow in it through informed prayers and gospel-centered action for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.
Dream a Little Dream
By R.C. Sproul Jr. 3/01/2014
It is a great thing to dream great dreams. A small vision of God and His kingdom will birth a small vision of the future. Jesus, who has already overcome the world, promised His followers that they would do greater things even than He (John 14:12). John Knox was not content merely to minister to those stray sheep who might wander into his fold. Instead his heart cried out, “Give me Scotland, or I die!” That is a big dream indeed.
Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, warned us against worrying about the petty things of this world, the very things that tend to hold our attention— what we will eat, what we will wear. We are inveterate worriers and insatiable spenders, which together mean that we tend to fret over funds. Jesus calls us, however, not to worry over such things. Our Father in heaven knows what we need, and He provides for us. What we ought to be focused on is the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.
Scotland is, of course, a commonwealth in the kingdom of God. Knox’s desire that her citizens would be brought into that kingdom, that they would be dressed in the righteousness of the King is good and proper, even exemplary. “Give me Scotland or I die!” was not a cry Knox should have been ashamed of. As we dream big, however, we would do well to understand the nature of the kingdom and how it is brought forth. We would be wise to learn to discern the difference between the brightness of our King’s glory and the brightness of the spotlight. There is a very thin line, one I suspect we all are tempted to dance along, between wanting to do great things for the kingdom and wanting to be great in the kingdom.
When we read of the legacy of men like Knox, the influence first of the Reformation on Scotland and from there the influence of Scotland on the rest of the world, it is all too easy to get stars in our eyes. What if, we wonder, God would be pleased to use me the way He used Knox? What if I were able to do great things for the kingdom, the kind of great things that will have believers in five hundred years commemorating my life, cataloging my accomplishments, carving my bust in marble? We may not be worrying about what we will eat and what we will drink, but we end up worrying as the disciples did, wondering what will be my place, my stature, my rank in His kingdom?
In the kingdom we are called to seek, however, the great things are the small things. Grand national reformations and great sweeping revivals are astonishing gifts from our heavenly Father. But the Son told us the kingdom is like unto a mustard seed. He told us that if we would be first, we must needs be last. Are we not susceptible to the temptation to miss on the little things while pursuing the big? How many missionary kids’ souls have been neglected on the altar of a grand vision? How many pastors’ children have come in second to their father’s ambition, masked as “kingdomseeking”? And how many of these passionate parents wish they could go back and devote themselves to that which is seen by the world — and by the worldly in the church — as small and insignificant?
When Knox set about establishing the Kirk in Scotland, the first man that he ordained to gospel ministry was Robert Campbell Sproul, my direct ancestor. Scotland and Knox are to me not distant tributaries in the stream of church history. The history of the Scottish Reformation is my family’s history. As such, I resonate with the heart cry of Knox — “Give me Scotland or I die!” I like to believe that had I been there, I would have stood ready to march with Knox into the fray, ready later to join the Scottish Worthies who refused to bend the knee to prelacy (episcopal governance) from the Church of England, and were rewarded with martyrdom. But as I look at my own life and God’s call on it, I find myself with a very different heart cry. No one will study my legacy as they do Knox. But if they did, my prayer is that it will be said of me not that I said, “Give me America, or I die!” but that I prayed, “Take my children, or I die!”
The Robert Campbell Sproul that matters most to me is not my ancestor, but my descendant, my son. And with him, Darby, Shannon, Delaney, Erin Claire, Maili, Reilly, and Donovan. My great hope is that my Father in heaven would be pleased to use me not only to raise these children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, but that He would use me to raise them to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. My prayer is that my covenant children would by His grace keep covenant to their children, their children’s children, and as many as are afar off.
I want to do great things for the kingdom. Those great things, however, are loving, training, and teaching the greatest things in the kingdom — His children whom He has put under my care. For of such is the kingdom of God.
R.C. Sproul Jr. Books | Go to Books Page
Glorifying God in the Routines
By Gloria Furman 3/01/2014
Kiss, hug, monkey blanket, book, pray. That’s the summation of my preschool-age son’s bedtime routine. His simple bedtime routine must mean the world to him because if I miss a beat or shake up the order, he lets me know that the universe is falling apart. If you want accountability for keeping a disciplined routine, just let preschoolers know of your intentions, and they will tirelessly remind you to stay the course.
Order and predictability go a long way to reassure young children that their world is stable. Routines work the same way in reassuring us big kids, too. Consider how disconcerting your morning would be if the coffeemaker suddenly sputtered sparks onto the countertop and broke.
When Life Seems Boring
Although we can all appreciate the stability that routines bring (Thank you, God, for causing the sun to rise this morning), a life of “all things ordinary” may sound, well … boring. We live in the mundane, and life-altering, dramatic moments are, by definition, extraordinary. Whatever your “normal” is, I think we can all agree that that’s where we live. Even so, we long for significant work, unique callings, and uncommon opportunities.
It’s tempting to view everyday life as a monotonous cycle of making your bed only to lie in it again. Our perspective on the everyday business of our lives is important because when we forget about God’s activity in the world, we become functionally hopeless. What’s the point of anything if “all is vanity”? Often our view of the ordinary is ruled by the “have-to’s”: I have to take out the trash; I have to go to work; I have to change another diaper; and so on. We hear Paul’s instruction of “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31) and we wonder how that squares with the “have-to’s” of our everyday lives. Grace sheds light on our mundane. Grace can transform the “have-to’s” into “get-to’s” as we live for His glory.
Here are just three of the ways the grace of God governs the areas of our lives that seem ordinary and unimportant:
1. We get to live outside of the garden. Live. We get to live. Let your heart soar with thankfulness as you consider that God continues to give us life even though we have all sinned against His holiness. Let your mind be blown by the reality that Jesus is currently, intentionally holding our very lives together by the word of His power. The gracious gift of life in spite of our sin is overwhelming. Surely this mercy is cause for unceasing praise to our Creator. Job teaches us that whatever condition our lives are in, God is to be praised. As recipients of such astonishing grace, far be it from us to lament that life is boring. Instead, let us spill over with praise to the Author of Life with our every breath.
2. We get to live forever in Christ. Each of us is just a breath away from meeting the Lord face-to-face. Because of Jesus’ atoning death on the cross, we will behold our God and live, and we will live forever in His presence where there is fullness of joy. In the meantime, we are comforted by the indwelling Holy Spirit and we can have fellowship with God even now. God uses ordinary means to conform us to the image of His beloved Son. This is just one way the gospel of grace gives new meaning to the seemingly unimportant routines.
3. We get to participate in God’s cosmic plan. The penal substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, His resurrection from the dead, and His subsequent exaltation above every name change how we view our ordinary lives because, indeed, they change everything. In order to experience joy in the work that God has for us, we must seek to understand the mystery of God’s will that He purposes “to unite all things in [Christ]” (Eph. 1:9– 10). While we’re tempted to fret over arranging our schedules perfectly, Jesus is infallibly putting the cosmos back in order. This big-picture theology of God’s cosmic plan sees through the morning commute and the dishes piled up in the sink to scan the horizon of the new heavens and the new earth. What remarkable grace we’ve been given to participate in God’s plan to reconcile all things to Himself (1 Cor. 15:27–28).
Stamp Eternity on Our Eyeballs
An eternal perspective is something you carry around in your heart. With the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know the hope to which God has called you. Look through this lens of eternity when you’re tempted to walk by sight. Watch how the grace of God transforms the way you see another business trip, another potty training accident, another afternoon in gridlock traffic, another meeting, another bill, or another load of laundry. Enduring joy can be had in the ordinary stuff of life today because everything you’ve been given was ordained by Jesus, exists for Jesus, and will testify forever in eternity as a tribute to His glorious grace.
Gloria Furman Books:
- Missional Motherhood: The Everyday Ministry of Motherhood in the Grand Plan of God
- Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full: Gospel Meditations for Busy Moms
- Alive in Him: How Being Embraced by the Love of Christ Changes Everything
- Word-Filled Women's Ministry: Loving and Serving the Church (The Gospel Coalition)
- The Pastor's Wife: Strengthened by Grace for a Life of Love
- Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home
- Missional Motherhood - Bible Study Book: The Everyday Ministry of Motherhood in the Grand Plan of God
The Reformation Isn’t Over
By James White 3/01/2014
“You do not want to end up on the wrong side of history.” This platitude has been granted prognostic status in our day, though one could properly question its fundamental truthfulness. It reflects, however, the prevailing attitude of Western culture, a pragmatism that enshrines in the judgment of “history” (whatever that means in this context) the final arbiter of morality, goodness, and worth. Often this phrase is being urged upon the church to “move on” from opposing homosexuality or the redefinition of marriage.
But this adage also captures the general attitude of a large portion of the population on both sides of the Tiber River to the Reformation and the continuing battle over the issues that gave it birth. Isn’t it time to just move on? Can’t we lay aside our differences for a greater good? Aren’t we a small enough minority now in the midst of a tsunami of secularism and the rising tide of Islam? Shouldn’t we be looking for unity, not for more reasons to remain separate? That was what I heard in seminary.
We dare not dismiss the weight that these rhetorical questions carry with many within our congregations, and even among the clergy. At the same time, we must recognize the responsibility that is ours as heirs of the great struggle that was the Reformation. Can we betray those who came before us? What would such a betrayal involve? Are we really willing to assert that the great and momentous beliefs they fought for are no longer as important as we once thought?
The election of a new bishop of Rome in 2013 shed new light on the state of these questions in the minds of many who profess to be “evangelicals” and “biblical” in their faith and orientation. One well-known evangelical leader communicated with his followers electronically that we should be praying that God would “guide” the process of the selection of a new pope. In most venues, the objection that there is nothing remotely biblical about a “supreme pontiff” who is to be venerated as the “vicar of Christ on earth” or the “holy father” found little expression outside of those whose strongest feelings on the matter are borne of prejudice rather than conviction. And once the selection was made, many in the evangelical camp expressed pleasure at the selection, if for no other reason than Francis I has seemed significantly more, well, human — or at least less imperial — than Benedict XVI.
But very little of the public response was prompted by a passionate commitment to, say, the solas of the Reformation, or a knowledgeable, informed rejection of Rome’s soteriology over against a deep-seated love of the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone.
Should the Reformation continue to hold a place of importance in the church that faces such immense opposition as that coming from radical, gospel-hating secularism? Wouldn’t a united front, free from partisan bickering, help the cause of Christ? The answer has to be, “Of course the Reformation remains important, and, in fact, its work must continue in our day, and into the future as well.”
The reason is not hard to see, even if it seems hidden to many in our day. Wonderfully nebulous catchphrases like “the cause of Christ” often hide the truth: the cause of Christ is the glorification of the triune God through the redemption of a particular people through the cross-work of Jesus Christ, which is a rather Puritan way of saying, “The cause of Christ is the gospel.” Each of the emphases of the Reformation, summed up in the solas, is focused upon protecting the integrity and identity of the gospel itself. Without the inspiration, authority, harmony, and sufficiency of Scripture, we do not know the gospel (sola Scriptura). Without the freedom of grace and the fullness of the provision of the work of Christ, we have no saving message (sola fide). And so on.
The Reformation fought a battle that each and every generation is called to fight simply because each and every generation is made up of the fallen sons and daughters of Adam, and hence there will always be those who seek to detract from the singular glory of God in the gospel through the addition of man’s authority, man’s merit, man’s sovereignty. Is this not the meaning of semper reformanda, the church always reforming, always seeking to hear more clearly, walk more closely, to her Lord?
With the ebb and flow of human history, the forces arrayed against the church and her Lord and the particular front upon which the battle rages hottest will change. Rome’s theology has evolved and her arguments have been modified, but the issues remain very much what they were when Luther and Eck battled at Leipzig, only modified and complicated. God’s kingship, man’s depravity and enslavement to sin, and the insatiable desire of sinners to control the grace of God will always be present. And today, the sufficiency, clarity, and authority of Scripture are at the forefront, just as they were then. The need for the Reformation will end when the church no longer faces foes inside and out who seek to distort her purpose, her mission, her message, and her authority. Till then, semper reformanda.
James White Books:
- The Forgotten Trinity
- The King James Only Controversy: Can You Trust Modern Translations?
- Grieving: Your Path Back to Peace (Crisis Points)
- What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur'an
- The Potter's Freedom: A Defense of the Reformation and the Rebuttal of Norman Geisler's Chosen But Free
- Is the Mormon My Brother?
- Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bible's Accuracy, Authority and Authenticity
- The Roman Catholic Controversy
- Letters to a Mormon Elder
- The God Who Justifies
- The Sovereign Grace of God
- Drawn By the Father
- Pulpit Crimes: The Criminal Mishandling of God's Word
- Justification by Faith
- The Same Sex Controversy: Defending and Clarifying the Bible's Message About Homosexuality
- Answers to Catholic Claims: A Discussion of Biblical Authority
- The Fatal Flaw: Do the teachings of Roman Catholicism Deny the Gospel?
- Debating Calvinism: Five Points, Two Views
- Mary-Another Redeemer?
- What's With the Mutant in the Microscope: Stuff to Know When Science Says Your Uncle Is a Monkey
- What's With the Dudes at the Door?
- From Toronto to Emmaus: The Empty Tomb and the Journey from Skepticism to Faith
- Answers to Catholic Claims: A Discussion of Biblical Authority
- God's Sovereign Grace
Preach the Word
By Jon Payne 4/01/2014
In the original Table Talk, a collection of informal theological conversations at Martin Luther’s dinner table, the German Reformer gave the following advice to a young minister: “When you are to preach, speak with God and say, ‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in Thine honor. I wish to speak about Thee, glorify Thee, [and] praise Thy name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that Thou mayest make it good.’”
This simple prayer provides a tiny glimpse into Luther’s theology of preaching. More importantly, it underscores to pastors in every age that faithful preaching must be about God, for the glory of God, and in utter dependence upon God.
First, the content of our preaching must be centered on the nature and works of God (2 Cor. 4:5–6). Evangelical preaching today can often be shallow, therapeutic, and man-centered. It commonly lacks theological substance and gravitas. Personal stories and amusing anecdotes crowd the sermon, leaving God as an afterthought. The gospel, the grand theme of Scripture, is vague at best.
Biblical preaching, however, always and unmistakably makes the triune God and His marvelous works of creation, providence, and redemption the main subject matter. God is the main subject of the Bible, and thus should be the central focus of our preaching. Why is Peter’s Pentecost sermon, for example, so powerful and memorable (Acts 2:14–41)? Why were so many who heard it “cut to the heart” with Spirit-wrought conviction? It is because Peter’s sermon boldly and skillfully directed the people’s attention to almighty God, His Word, and the fulfillment of His redemptive purposes in Christ. Moreover, it is in light of God’s mighty acts of judgment and salvation that the Apostle clearly communicated the need for sinners to turn from their rebellious ways and receive Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
The Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy (and all lawfully ordained ministers) to “preach the word” (2 Tim. 4:2). If ministers faithfully carry out this biblical mandate, their preaching will be full of God—and nothing will stir the heart of the church unto faith and obedience like a weekly view of God in the preaching of His life-transforming Word.
Second, the ultimate aim of our preaching must be the glory and praise of God. Strictly speaking, the preaching of the Word is not primarily for the salvation of sinners. Instead, preaching is first and foremost for the glory of God—a doxological event that magnifies our Lord’s sublime character and awesome deeds. Thomas Watson said, “God is superlative good … better than anything you can put in competition with him.” Shouldn’t the content of our preaching communicate this glorious reality?
We were created “to glorify God and enjoy him forever” (WSC Q&A 1; see Isa. 43:7). Biblical preaching, therefore, must underscore this foundational purpose, inspiring both preacher and hearer to joyfully “declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised” (Ps. 96:3–4a).
Third, preaching must be carried out in utter dependence upon God. Pastors should not rely upon their talents, intellect, or personality. Rather, from the study to the pulpit we must earnestly and humbly pray for a “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” in the preaching of the Word (1 Cor. 2:4b). Indeed, apart from the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, law and gospel will fall on deaf ears and stony hearts. In the end, preaching will never be effectual unless God makes it so (Ezek. 37:1–14). There is no place for pride or self-reliance in either the preparation or the act of preaching. Apart from Christ and the life-giving Holy Spirit, we can do nothing (John 15:5b).
Preaching is a primary means of grace appointed by God to regenerate, sanctify, nourish, and comfort the souls of His elect in Christ (1 Cor. 1:21; 1 Peter 1:23–25). In confessional terms, it is
… an effectual means of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners; of driving them out of themselves, and drawing them unto Christ; of conforming them unto his image; and subduing them to his will; of strengthening them against temptations and corruptions; of building them up in grace; and establishing their hearts in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation. (WLC Q&A 155)
No task, therefore, is of greater importance for the minister or the church than the faithful proclamation of the whole counsel of God (Acts 6:4; 20:27).
Even so, as a church planter, I experience the daily temptation to make sermon preparation and preaching a secondary matter. Of course, it is no different for pastors in established churches. Ministry is busy. Being mindful of this, let us, as ministers, renew our vow to faithfully “preach the Word.” Let us trust God’s promise to employ the foolishness of preaching for the advancement of his kingdom. And may we receive with humility the Wittenberg Reformer’s sage advice to pray that our preaching would be chiefly about God, to the glory and praise of God, and in prayerful dependence upon Him. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36).
Jon Payne Books:
- A Faith Worth Teaching: The Heidelberg Catechism's Enduring Heritage
- In The Splendor Of Holiness: Rediscovering the Beauty of Reformed Worship for the 21st Century
- Ephesians (Lectio Continua)
- Lectio Continua Commentary: Hebrews
- Lectio Continua: Galatians (Expository Commentary)
- Lectio Continua: First Corinthians (Expository Commentary)
- Revelation (Lectio Continua Expository Commentary on the New Testament)
- A Faith Worth Teaching: The Heidelberg Catechism's Enduring Heritage
- John Owen on the Lord's Supper
Why Theological Study Is for Everyone
By Jared Wilson 4/01/2014
Every Christian must be a theologian. In a variety of ways, this is something I tell my church often. And the looks I get from some surprised souls are the evidence that I have not yet adequately communicated that the purposeful theological study of God by lay people is important.
Many times the confused responses come from a misunderstanding of what is meant in this context by theology. So I tell my church what I don’t mean. When I say every Christian must be a theologian, I don’t mean that every Christian must be an academic or that every Christian must be a scholar or that every Christian must work hard at giving the impression of being a know-it-all. We all basically understand what is meant in the biblical warning that “knowledge puffs up” (1 Cor. 8:1). Nobody likes an egghead.
But the answer to formal scholasticism or dry intellectualism is not a neglect of theological study. Laypeople have no biblical warrant to leave the duty of doctrine up to pastors and professors alone. Therefore, I remind my church that theology — coming from the Greek words theos (God) and logos (word) — simply means “the knowledge (or study) of God.” If you’re a Christian, you must by definition know God. Christians are disciples of Jesus; they are student-followers of Jesus. The longer we follow Him, the more we learn about Him and, consequently, the more deeply we come to know Him.
There are at least three primary reasons why every Christian ought to be a theologian.
First, theological study of God is commanded. Having a mind lovingly dedicated to God is required most notably in the great commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). Loving God with all of our minds certainly means more than theological study, but it certainly does not mean less than that.
Second, the theological study of God is vital to salvation. Now, of course, I do not mean that intellectual pursuit merits salvation. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone (Eph. 2:8) totally apart from any works of our own (Rom. 3:28), which includes any intellectual exertion. But at the same time, the faith by which we are justified, the faith that receives the completeness of Christ’s finished work and thus His perfect righteousness, is a reasonable faith. Faith may not be the same as rationality, but this does not mean that faith in God is irrational.
Saving faith is a gift from God (Eph. 2:8; Rom. 12:3), but it is not some amorphous, information-free spiritual vacuum. The exercise of faith is predicated on information—initially, the historical announcement of the good news of what Jesus has done—and the strengthening of faith is built on information, as well.
Our continued growth in the grace of God, our perseverance as saints, is vitally connected to our pursuit of the knowledge of God’s character and God’s works as revealed in God’s Word. Contrary to the way some idolaters of doubt would have you believe, the Christian faith is founded on facts. Hebrews 11:1 reminds us that for the Christian, faith is not some leap into the dark. Instead, it is inextricably connected to assurance and conviction. It stands to reason that the more theological facts we feast on in the Word, the more assurance and conviction — and thus the more faith — we will cultivate.
Paul tells his young protégé Timothy, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Tim. 4:16). He is reminding Timothy that the sanctification resulting in continual discipleship to Christ necessarily includes intense study of God’s Word.
Third, the study of God authenticates and fuels worship. True Christians are not those who believe in some vague God nor trust in vague spiritual platitudes. True Christians are those who believe in the triune God of the holy Scriptures and have placed their trust by the real Spirit in the real Savior—Jesus—as proclaimed in the specific words of the historical gospel.
Knowing the right information about God is just one way we authenticate our Christianity. Intentionally or consistently err in the vital facts about God, and you jeopardize the veracity of your claim truly to know God. This is why we must pursue theological robustness not just in our pastor’s preaching but in our church’s music and in our church’s prayers, both corporate and private.
But theological study goes deeper than simply authenticating our worship as true and godly — it also fuels this worship. We must remember what Jesus explained to the Samaritan woman at the well:
True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:23–24)
We are changed deeply in heart and, therefore, our behavior when we seek deeply after the things of God with our brains. The Bible says so: “Do not be conformed to this world,” Paul writes. “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” (Rom. 12:2). The transformation begins with a renewing of our minds. As John Piper has said, “The theological mind exists to throw logs into the furnace of our affections for Christ.”
Purposeful theological study of God, as an expression of love for God, cannot help but deepen our love for God. The more we read, study, meditate on, and prayerfully apply the word of God, the more we will find ourselves in awe of Him. Like a great ship on the horizon, the closer we get, the larger He looms.
The Coming of the Kingdom part 36
By Dr. Andrew Woods 04/22/2015
We began scrutinizing New Testament texts that "kingdom now" theologians employ in an attempt to argue that the kingdom is a present reality in order to show that none of these passages teach a present form of the kingdom. We have examined the typical texts from the Gospels, Acts, Paul's letters, the general epistles, and Revelation that are typically used by "kingdom now" theologians. At this point, we largely find ourselves in agreement with the following statement by E.R. Craven. Concerning a present, spiritual establishment of the kingdom, Craven notes, "There is no critically undisputed passage in the Scriptures which declares, or necessarily implies, even a partial establishment in New Testament times." [1] We then began to take a look at some other miscellaneous arguments used by "kingdom now" theologians.
Argument From Silence
Since the biblical text itself fails to positively teach or convey the notion of a present spiritual establishment of the Messianic kingdom of God upon the earth, it is common for "kingdom now" theologians to appeal to an argument from silence. According to this line of thought, since the New Testament fails to mention or emphasize a future earthly kingdom, then the promise of a future terrestrial rule of Christ has somehow been cancelled. Since this promise of a future earthly reign of Christ is cancelled, due to this alleged silence, the Bible's kingdom promises are being fulfilled now in the present Church Age. In the last installment we observed that such thinking represents a logical fallacy known as an "argument from silence" where it is incorrectly assumed that silence on a matter is the same thing as a cancellation of it.
The New Testament's Reaffirmation Of The Land Promises
Furthermore, beyond using faulty logic, the "kingdom now" theologian is wrong in assuming that the New Testament is completely silent on the subject of the restoration of Israel's terrestrial kingdom promises. While not emphasizing this truth to the same degree as is found in the pages of the Old Testament, the New Testament still affirms this truth in several places. For example, Luke 21:24 says, "...Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled". The mere existence of the preposition "until" (achri) implies a time when Gentile dominion over Jerusalem will come to an end and Israel will be restored to her rightful place of rulership over the nations. Matthew 23:38-39 similarly says, "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'" Here, Christ speaks to the unbelieving first-century Jewish leadership. As in Luke 21:24, the conjunction "until" (heōs) again implies a time when the nation will pray Psalm 118:26 and consequently see Christ again leaving their house no longer in desolation ( Matt. 24:31; 25:31 ). Christ's promise in Matthew 19:28 also reaffirms the future land promises: "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." This verse teaches that the resurrected apostles will reign over Israel's twelve tribes. Just as each tribe was allotted land in Old Testament times ( Josh. 13-21 ), tribal land allocation will also be the reality in the future kingdom age ( Ezek. 47-48 ).
Surely Paul speaks of the future kingdom promises through Israel in Romans 11:25-27:
...that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob." "This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins."
Notice Paul's express assertion that Israel's hardening is only partial, as well as his affirmation of Israel's future deliverance and forgiveness. Paul also discloses God's intention to keep His covenantal obligations to Israel. The Davidic Covenant seems to be in view in 11:26b by mention of the Messianic deliverer ( Isa. 59:20 ). Similarly, the Abrahamic Covenant appears in Romans 11:27a with its allusion to Isaiah 59:21 and Genesis 17:4. The New Covenant seems to be referred to in Romans 11:27b when it cites Jeremiah 31:31. Thus, these verses furnish a clear reaffirmation of the Old Testament kingdom promises.
New Testament reaffirmation of the land promises is also implied in the Apocalypse. In Revelation 7:4-8, we learn of how God will use 144,000 Jews to evangelize the world during the Tribulation ( Rev. 7:9-17 ). Here, we are specifically told that 12,000 Jewish evangelists will come from each of these twelve tribes. In Revelation 14:4, these Jewish evangelists are called the "first fruits." In Israel's harvest cycle, the first fruits of the harvest guaranteed that the general harvest would also come in. In the same way, the conversion of these 144,000 Jews guarantees that the rest of the Jewish remnant will also be converted ( Zech. 12:10; 13:8-9 ).
Moreover, Revelation 20:7-10 speaks of a final, failed satanic rebellion at the end of the Millennial kingdom as described in Revelation 20:9: "And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them." Notice that this satanic attack is aimed at the "beloved city." Although not identified by name, this designation is a clear reference to the city of Jerusalem since the descriptor "beloved" city or an equivalent statement is used repeatedly in the Psalms to depict Jerusalem ( Ps. 78:68; 87:2 ). [2] Even Simcox and Ladd, while simultaneously arguing against a literal fulfillment of the temple and sacrifices mentioned in Ezekiel 40–48, indicate that Jerusalem is clearly in view in Revelation 20:9. [3] The reason that Satan attacks Jerusalem in this final battle is because God, during the Millennial kingdom, will fulfill His promise of making Israel and Jerusalem head over the nations ( Deut. 28:13; Isa. 2:2-3; Zech. 14:16-18 ). Because Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular will be the headquarters or the nerve center of the Millennial kingdom, this special city will become the object of Satan's wrath during this final battle. Robert Thomas explains, "At the end of the Millennium that city will be Satan's prime objective with his rebel army, because Israel will be a leader among the nations." [4] Finally, it is interesting to note that the gates in the eternal city or the New Jerusalem will be named after the twelve tribes of Israel ( Rev. 21:12 ). Such naming seems to once again reaffirm God's intention to fulfill all that He has purposed to do through His covenanted nation Israel.
In sum, while it is true that that the New Testament is not as clear as the Old Testament on the subject of God's future kingdom promises through Israel, the "kingdom now" theologian errs in asserting that the New Testament is completely silent on this matter. As has been demonstrated, the New Testament reaffirms God's Old Testament kingdom promises at several junctures. However, even if the New Testament remained silent on this matter, that fact in and of itself would be insufficient to establish "kingdom now" theology. Mere silence of the New Testament should not be equated with an overt cancellation.
Focus Upon The Eternal State
Other "kingdom now" theologians note how the New Testament writers seem to focus the believers' hope on the New Jerusalem and the Eternal State rather than Christ's earthly kingdom ( Gal. 4:26; Heb. 11:10, 16; 12:22; 2 Pet. 3:13 ). According to this argument, such a focus conveys a cancellation of the earthly kingdom promises. According to the Knox Seminary Open Letter to Evangelicals:
Simon Peter spoke of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus in conjunction with the final judgment and the punishment of sinners. Instructively, this same Simon Peter, the Apostle to the Circumcision, says nothing about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel in the land of Palestine. Instead, as his readers contemplate the promise of Jesus' Second Coming, he fixes their hope upon the new heavens and the new earth, in which righteousness dwells. [5]
However, this view again represents an argument from silence since nowhere in these Eternal State passages do we find an overt cancellation of the Old Testament kingdom and land promises. Moreover, the New Testament's emphasis on the Eternal State may even represent a tacit reaffirmation of the land promises since they will chronologically precede the establishment of the Eternal state ( Rev. 20:1-10; 21-22 ). Mark Hitchcock explains:
Christ will rule over His kingdom on this present earth for one thousand years, and He will reign forever. The future kingdom of God has two parts or phases. Phase one is the millennial reign of Christ on this earth ( Revelation 20:1-6 ), and phase two is the eternal state ( Rev. 22:5 ). As I once heard it described, the Millennium is the front porch of eternity. [6]
Through its focus on the Eternal State, the totality of New Testament revelation indicates that the Eternal State will one day become a reality only after it is preceded by the fulfillment of the earthly kingdom promises. Thus, the New Testament's focus on the Eternal State merely communicates the end of the matter without neglecting the beginning of the kingdom or the one-thousand year earthly reign of Christ, which chronologically precedes God's eternal rule. In other words, New Testament certainty of the Eternal State simultaneously communicates certainty of the preceding earthly kingdom.
Continue Reading (Part 37 on Sept 27 web page)ENDNOTES
[1] E.R. Craven, "Excursus on the Basileia," in The Revelation of John (A commentary on the Holy Scriptures ... by J.P. Lange ... Tr. from the German, rev., enl., and ed. by P. Schaff) (New York: Scribner, 1874), 97.[2] Robert Thomas, Revelation 8-22 Exegetical Commentary (Wycliffe Exegetical Commentary)
[3] W.H. Simcox, The Revelation of S. John the Divine with Notes and Introductions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1893), 185; George Eldon Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), 270.
[4] Robert L. Thomas, "A Classical Dispensationalist View of Revelation," in Four Views on the Book of Revelation, ed. C. Marvin Pate (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 207.
[5] http://www.bible-researcher.com/openletter.html
[6] Mark Hitchcock, 101 Answers to the Most Asked Questions about the End Times (End Times Answers)
Dr. Andrew Woods Books
Note I copied this article from The Bible Prophecy Blog.
Dr. Andrew Woods Ministry Page, YouTube Channel, and Church.
By John Walvoord (1990)
Christ Jesus, the Future Judge
2 Timothy 4:1. In support of his solemn charge to Timothy to live for God, Paul called attention to the fact that Timothy would be judged by Jesus Christ at the time of His appearing. Though Paul speaks of the judgment of living and dead as if they occur at the same time, Scriptures make clear that the dead will not be judged until the end of the millennial kingdom ( Rev. 20:11–15 ).
The Promise of Being Brought Safely to Christ’s Heavenly Kingdom
2 Timothy 4:18. Following his exhortation to Timothy and his evaluation of some who did not share Paul’s devotion to God, Paul stated his assurance, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen” (v. 18 ). As is clear from history, shortly after writing this to Timothy, Paul was beheaded, but this does not contradict his anticipated promise that God would rescue him. The point is that through his execution Paul was immediately brought safely to the presence of the Lord where he would be free from all the limitations and problems of this life. What from the human point of view is a tragedy is often God’s gracious provision for His own in view of His plans for them in eternity to come.
Titus 2:13. The epistle of Paul to Titus was largely concerned with pastoral counsel and advice, as Titus was one of Paul’s fellow workers. In appealing to Titus, Paul stated that the gospel of salvation “teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (v. 12 ). As we live our lives in this world, we have a wonderful hope. As Paul expressed it, “while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (v. 13 ). This hope, obviously, related to the rapture of the church rather than the second coming of Christ to set up His kingdom, but the question has been raised as to why it is described as a “glorious appearing.” At his second coming Jesus will appear in a glorious event described in Revelation 19:11–16, an event that all the world will see ( 1:7 ). On the other hand, the rapture of the church is never described as visible to the world. The question therefore remains: How can the rapture be described as a glorious event, as an event that reveals the glory of God? The answer is quite simple.
While the world will not see the glory of Christ at the time of the rapture, as they will at the time of the second coming, at the rapture Christians will behold Him in His glory, and to them it will be a glorious appearing. As stated in 1 John 3:2, “What we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
Christians will necessarily need to be changed into bodies that are sinless in order to behold the Lord in His holy glory. The fact that we will “see him as he is,” that is, His glorious person, is evidence in John that the Christians will have been transformed, which will make it possible for them to see Him in His glory. The expectation of seeing Christ as He is in glory is another reason to turn away from the glory of this world and live Christian lives before God while we are waiting for His coming.
Paul’s epistle to Philemon concerned the return of Onesimus, who had escaped from Philemon even though he was a slave, but now had become a Christian and had ministered to Paul. The epistle does not have any allusion to the prophetic future.
Prophecy In The Epistle To The Hebrews
The purpose of the epistle to the Hebrews was to confirm the Christian Jews in their faith and to support the teaching that the Christian faith superseded Judaism and fulfilled it. In general, the epistle serves to prove that the Christian faith was better, that Christ’s priesthood was better than that of Aaron’s, and that the new covenant of grace was better than the Mosaic covenant. The epistle was an encouragement to the Christian Jews to remain true to the Christian faith.
Because of its major theme, Hebrews is not devoted to prophecy, but as is always true of any declaration of the Christian faith, the prophetic future of a Christian serves to confirm the importance of living for Christ now.
The Throne of God Is Forever
Hebrews 1:1–9. In comparing Christ to angels, the superiority of Christ is demonstrated by a number of facts. Christ is the Son, having been begotten of the Father (v. 5 ), and angels are instructed to worship Him (v. 6 ). In contrast to angels, who are made ministers, the Son has a throne forever and is superior to all others: “But about the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy’” (vv. 8–9 ). Christ is superior to angels inasmuch as His throne is for eternity because He is the Son of God.
Christ, the Creator Who Exists Forever
Hebrews 1:10–12. Not only the throne of Christ continues forever, but He also continues forever as the Creator. Though creation will be destroyed, Jesus Christ remains the same forever. “O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end” (vv. 10–12 ).
The Promise of Entering into God’s Rest
Hebrews 3:7–11; 4:1–11. Israel had failed to enter into the rest of the faith and the blessing of trusting God for redemption. Because of this, God declared that they would not enter into His rest ( 3:11; cf. vv. 7–10 ).
Readers of the epistle are warned of the danger of falling short of perfect faith and rest in Christ: “Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith” ( 4:1–2 ). As “God rested from all his work on the seventh day” (v. 4 ), there is a place for believers also to rest in faith in God for their salvation, but the offer is limited in time, and the danger is not entering by faith into God’s rest.
This is defined: “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience” (vv. 9–11 ). In the fuller revelation given in the New Testament, believers may now understand their rest in God, in contrast to many in Israel in the Old Testament who did not enter into their rest.
The Promise of the Better Covenant in Christ
Hebrews 8:6–13. The Mosaic covenant had its limitations, both in its promises, which did not offer salvation, and in its duration because it served only for a time. By contrast, a Christian trusting in Christ has a better new covenant, of which Christ is the Mediator: “But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises” (v. 6 ). The new covenant for Christians is better than the Mosaic covenant ( 7:19; Rom. 8:3–4 ) because its promises are unconditional ( Heb. 8:10, 12 ); it brings personal revelation of divine truth to every believer (v. 11 ); it secures forgiveness of sins (v. 12; 10:17 ); it depends on a redemption wrought by Christ on the cross ( 1 Cor. 11:25; Heb. 9:11–12, 18–23 ); and it secures for Israel certain forgiveness and restoration in the future ( 10:9; cf. Jer. 31:31–40 ).
In support of the superiority of the new covenant for Christians, evidence was given that even the Old Testament anticipated the passing of the Mosaic covenant and the introduction of a new covenant with Israel and the house of Judah ( Heb. 8:8 ). Israel’s new covenant was not like the Mosaic covenant, which was temporary and conditional. Instead, as the Lord stated, “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (v. 10, c.f., Jer. 31:33 ).
Israel was also promised universal revelation of God’s grace to them: “No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (vv. 11–12 ). This was revealed to be fulfilled in the millennium. The fact that these promises were made to Israel, forming a new covenant replacing the Mosaic covenant, is further evidence that those who put their confidence in the Mosaic covenant are trusting something that is already antiquated: “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and is obsolete and aging will soon disappear” (v. 13 ).
Interpreters of this covenant of Israel have had difficulty because of the question as to where the church, the believers of the present age, comes in. Some have held that the church is the true Israel and therefore inherits the promise along with Israel; others hold that the covenant is with Israel but that the church derives blessing from the covenant of Israel. None of these solutions seem to solve the problem of how the church can have a new covenant that is different in its qualifications from the new covenant with Israel.
Today, it is still necessary to carry the gospel to one’s neighbor, for all do not know the gospel. This is evidence that the new covenant with Israel is not now being fulfilled. The question is: Why does this epistle quote this prophecy from Jeremiah 31:31–34 in full here?
It is most important in understanding this Scripture to realize that the epistle to the Hebrews does not claim that the church is inheriting the covenant with Israel; it claims only one aspect of the covenant, namely, that the covenant with Israel is a new covenant, and as such even the Old Testament predicted that the Mosaic covenant would be superseded. No other application is made in this context. This should have persuaded professing Christians among the Jews that they should not return to Moses.
Though scholars will continue to differ in their explanations, the simple solution to the whole problem is the fact that when Christ died on the cross, He provided grace, that is, unmerited favor with God for those who put their trust in Him, including forgiveness, eternal life, and promise of eternity in the presence of God. In a world that is run by law, including moral law, this new aspect is introduced and made possible by the fact that Christ died for the sins of the world on the cross. This doctrine of God’s grace, of course, had its application in the Old Testament by faith.
Even under the Law, Israelites were forgiven when they confessed their sins. Salvation was possible in the Old Testament, not on the basis of keeping the Law but on the basis of faith in a God who is gracious. This anticipated, of course, the fact that Christ would die on the cross for the sins of the whole world.
Accordingly, the best solution to the problem is to recognize that Christ introduced by His death on the cross this covenant of grace, which has many applications. One of its principal applications was to Israel in the Old Testament. It should be clear from Scripture that Israel’s restoration in the future and deliverance at the second coming of Christ will not be due to any merit on their part but stems from the fact that God is a gracious God. The new covenant, mentioned in Jeremiah 31, is a gracious covenant, based on God’s grace, not on human merit.
The grace of God extended to Israel does not exhaust the grace of God. In the present age, Jews and Gentiles alike come to Christ in faith and are saved, forgiven, and given eternal life on the basis of the grace that is extended to them through the death of Christ.
The covenant of grace, accordingly, is extended principally to Israel in the Old Testament, to the church in the present age, and will be manifested in the gracious restoration of Israel in the future. The one act of dying on the cross makes it possible for Christ to extend grace to those who do not deserve it. This concept of grace, stemming from the death of Christ, can be extended to all acts of God’s forgiveness and mercy, from Adam to the last human being in the world. Accordingly, while God’s rule in different ages may be different, as under the Mosaic law it was a rule of righteousness and in the present age a rule of grace, it is not necessary to confuse God’s promises to Israel with God’s promises to the church in that both these sets of promises stem from the death of Christ without complication to the others.
The salvation of any individual, from Adam to those in the present time and in the future, is based on grace, and forgiveness of those once saved as they fall short of the holiness of God is likewise made possible by the grace of God. This, however, should have been convincing evidence to Jewish Christians who were pondering whether their new relationship to Christ was better than their relationship to Moses. In every particular the New Testament application of grace exceeds that which was true in the Old Testament under Moses.
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Read The Psalms In "1" Year
Psalm 106
Give Thanks to the LORD, for He Is Good106
7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt,
did not consider your wondrous works;
they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love,
but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
that he might make known his mighty power.
9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry,
and he led them through the deep as through a desert.
10 So he saved them from the hand of the foe
and redeemed them from the power of the enemy.
11 And the waters covered their adversaries;
not one of them was left.
12 Then they believed his words;
they sang his praise.
The Continual Burnt Offering (1 Corinthians 6:11)
By H.A. Ironside - 1941
September 26
1 Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. ESVA hard field presents a challenge to the man of faith. He delights in that challenge because he knows that God works, not with what He finds, but with what He brings. His Spirit is able to break down and save the most indifferent or the most contentious men. Athens was the center of Greek culture — a veneer of learning that covered but did not destroy the wickedness of paganism, which caused and even pretended to sanctify the vilest practices. Corinth was notorious for its vice and corruption. To “Corinthianize” was a synonym for a life given over to shame and sensuality of the most degrading character. The worship of the gods of Greece produced no change in the lives of their devotees. Religion and immorality went hand in hand. The gods themselves were but deifications of lust and ambition. Those who worshipped them were like them.
But to these cities Paul came with a message which he knew to be the dynamic of God (Romans 1:16), mighty to the destruction of Satanic strongholds and powerful in building new and holy lives. These new lives would demonstrate the might of the Spirit of God to renew and regenerate the most depraved of mankind, as well as those who gloried in their self righteousness and supposed superiority. No new message was needed. It was the story of the cross - Jesus Christ and Him crucified — which revolutionized multitudes in Corinth and resulted in the establishment of a strong and highly gifted church of God in that iniquitous city.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ESV
O’er this wide waste I loved to roam,
My back to God and heaven and home,
Till Jesus met me far astray,
And beckoned me to come away.
He said on Calv’ry’s cross He died,
A sacrifice for sin was made,
And all because He loved me so,
Then how could I do else but go?
- Good Samaritan 1
- Good Samaritan 2
- Good Samaritan 3
Devotionals, notes, poetry and more
Learn to be content
(Sept 26) Bob Gass
‘I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.’
(Php 4:1) Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. ESV
Discontentment is a trap that can ensnare you and rob you of joy and fulfilment. That’s why the Bible says you must learn to be content ‘whatever the circumstances’. The notion that a bigger car or a bigger house or a bigger salary will bring you contentment is a myth. There will always be something ‘bigger and better’ out there. There will always be people who have more than you, so you’ll never be able to get off the treadmill. That’s not to imply you should be satisfied with being enslaved to debt or destructive habits, or settle for complacency and mediocrity and not fulfil the call of God on your life. Not at all! You must keep working to improve yourself, while remaining totally dependent on God to bless you, promote you, and meet your needs. Contentment means not coveting another person’s position, possessions, or personality. Your security and self-worth should be based on who you are in Christ, not what you have in material assets. What a great way to live! Paul lived like that. He said, ‘I’ve learned…to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am’ (vv. 11-13 MSG). Each day you have a choice to make regarding your attitude. So, the word for you today is: learn to be content.
Is 45-46
Philip 4
UCB The Word For Today
by Bill Federer
The board of the oldest institution of higher learning in America, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, declared its purpose was to “train a literate clergy.” Ten of its twelve presidents prior to the Revolution were ministers, and over fifty percent of the seventeenth-century graduates became ministers. The Rules and Precepts for the students, which were adopted this day, September, 26, 1642, stated: “Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the maine end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternall life.” The name of the College was Harvard.
American Minuteby P.T. Forsyth, (1848-1921)
If there must be in the Church a communion of belief, there must be there also a communion of prayer. For the communion of prayer is the very first form the communion of belief takes. It is in this direction that Church unity lies. It lies behind prayer, in something to which prayer gives effect, in that which is the source and soul of prayer—in our relation with God in Christ, in our new creation. Prayer for Church unity will not bring that unity; but that which stirs, and founds, and wings prayer will. And prayer is its chief exercise. The true Church is just as wide as the community of Christian prayer, i.e. of due response to the Gospel of our reconcilement and communion with God. And it is a thing almost dreadful that Christians who pray to the same God, Christ, and Saviour should refuse to unite in prayer because of institutional differences.
A prayer is also a promise. Every true prayer carries with it a vow. If it do not, it is not in earnest. It is not of a piece with life. Can we pray in earnest if we do not in the act commit ourselves to do our best to bring about the answer? Can we escape some king of hypocrisy? This is especially so with intercession. What is the value of praying for the poor if all the rest of our time and interest is given only to becoming rich? Where is the honesty of praying for our country if in our most active hours we are chiefly occupied in making something out of it, if we are strange to all sacrifice for it? Prayer is one form of sacrifice, but if it is the only form it is vain oblation. If we pray for our child that he may have God’s blessing, we are really promising that nothing shall be lacking on our part to be a divine blessing to him. And if we have no kind of religious relation to him (as plenty of Christian parents have none), our prayer is quite unreal, and its failure should not be a surprise. To pray for God’s kingdom is also so engage ourselves to service and sacrifice for it. To begin our prayer with a petition for the hallowing of God’s name and to have no real and prime place for holiness in our life or faith is not sincere. The prayer of the vindictive for forgiveness is mockery, like the prayer for daily bread from a wheat-cornerer. No such man could say the Lord’s Prayer but to his judgment. What would happen to the Church if the Lord’s Prayer became a test for membership as thoroughly as the Creeds have been? The Lord’s Prayer is also a vow to the Lord. None but a Christian can pray it, or should. Great worship of God is also a great engagement of ourselves, a great committal of our action. To begin the day with prayer is but a formality unless it go on in prayer, unless for the rest of it we pray in deed what we began in word. One has said that while prayer is the day’s best beginning it must not be like the handsome title-page of a worthless book.
“Thy will be done.” Unless that were the spirit of all our prayer, how should we have courage to pray if we know ourselves at all, or if we have come to a time when we can have some retrospect on our prayers and their fate? Without this committal to the wisdom of God, prayer would be a very dangerous weapon in proportion as it was effective. No true God could promise us an answer to our every prayer. No Father of mankind could. The rain that saved my crop might ruin my neighbour’s. It would paralyse prayer to be sure that it would prevail as it is offered, certainly and at once. We should be terrified at the power put into our foolish hands. Nothing would do more to cure us of a belief in our own wisdom than the granting of some of our eager prayers. And nothing could humiliate us more than to have God say when the fulfilment of our desire brought leanness to our souls. “Well, you have it.” It is what He has said to many. But He said more, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
--- Forsyth, P. T. (1848-1921).
Compiled by Richard S. Adams
Faith is the whole being
turning Godward
and coming to rest
in the eternal certainties.
--- George H. Morrison
Faith is a quickening spirit,
it has insight;
and religious density betrays its absence,
being often the victim of the sermon
instead of the alumnus of the Gospel.
--- P.T. Forsyth The Soul of Prayer
Peace is more than just the absence of war. True peace is justice. True peace is freedom. And true peace dictates the recognition of human rights.
--- Ronald Reagan
Now we can stop lying to ourselves. We are saved from our own self-deception the moment we say with the tax collector, God be merciful to me, a sinner (Luke 18:13)
--- James Bryan Smith Embracing the Love of God: The Path and Promise of Christian Life
Thanks to Meir Yona
CHAPTER 5.
A Description Of The Temple.
1. Now this temple, as I have already said, was built upon a strong hill. At first the plain at the top was hardly sufficient for the holy house and the altar, for the ground about it was very uneven, and like a precipice; but when king Solomon, who was the person that built the temple, had built a wall to it on its east side, there was then added one cloister founded on a bank cast up for it, and on the other parts the holy house stood naked. But in future ages the people added new banks, 12 and the hill became a larger plain. They then broke down the wall on the north side, and took in as much as sufficed afterward for the compass of the entire temple. And when they had built walls on three sides of the temple round about, from the bottom of the hill, and had performed a work that was greater than could be hoped for, [in which work long ages were spent by them, as well as all their sacred treasures were exhausted, which were still replenished by those tributes which were sent to God from the whole habitable earth,] they then encompassed their upper courts with cloisters, as well as they [afterward] did the lowest [court of the] temple. The lowest part of this was erected to the height of three hundred cubits, and in some places more; yet did not the entire depth of the foundations appear, for they brought earth, and filled up the valleys, as being desirous to make them on a level with the narrow streets of the city; wherein they made use of stones of forty cubits in magnitude; for the great plenty of money they then had, and the liberality of the people, made this attempt of theirs to succeed to an incredible degree; and what could not be so much as hoped for as ever to be accomplished, was, by perseverance and length of time, brought to perfection.
2. Now for the works that were above these foundations, these were not unworthy of such foundations; for all the cloisters were double, and the pillars to them belonging were twenty-five cubits in height, and supported the cloisters. These pillars were of one entire stone each of them, and that stone was white marble; and the roofs were adorned with cedar, curiously graven. The natural magnificence, and excellent polish, and the harmony of the joints in these cloisters, afforded a prospect that was very remarkable; nor was it on the outside adorned with any work of the painter or engraver. The cloisters [of the outmost court] were in breadth thirty cubits, while the entire compass of it was by measure six furlongs, including the tower of Antonia; those entire courts that were exposed to the air were laid with stones of all sorts. When you go through these [first] cloisters, unto the second [court of the] temple, there was a partition made of stone all round, whose height was three cubits: its construction was very elegant; upon it stood pillars, at equal distances from one another, declaring the law of purity, some in Greek, and some in Roman letters, that "no foreigner should go within that sanctuary" for that second [court of the] temple was called "the Sanctuary," and was ascended to by fourteen steps from the first court. This court was four-square, and had a wall about it peculiar to itself; the height of its buildings, although it were on the outside forty cubits, 13 was hidden by the steps, and on the inside that height was but twenty-five cubits; for it being built over against a higher part of the hill with steps, it was no further to be entirely discerned within, being covered by the hill itself. Beyond these thirteen steps there was the distance of ten cubits; this was all plain; whence there were other steps, each of five cubits a-piece, that led to the gates, which gates on the north and south sides were eight, on each of those sides four, and of necessity two on the east. For since there was a partition built for the women on that side, as the proper place wherein they were to worship, there was a necessity for a second gate for them: this gate was cut out of its wall, over against the first gate. There was also on the other sides one southern and one northern gate, through which was a passage into the court of the women; for as to the other gates, the women were not allowed to pass through them; nor when they went through their own gate could they go beyond their own wall. This place was allotted to the women of our own country, and of other countries, provided they were of the same nation, and that equally. The western part of this court had no gate at all, but the wall was built entire on that side. But then the cloisters which were betwixt the gates extended from the wall inward, before the chambers; for they were supported by very fine and large pillars. These cloisters were single, and, excepting their magnitude, were no way inferior to those of the lower court.
3. Now nine of these gates were on every side covered over with gold and silver, as were the jambs of their doors and their lintels; but there was one gate that was without the [inward court of the] holy house, which was of Corinthian brass, and greatly excelled those that were only covered over with silver and gold. Each gate had two doors, whose height was severally thirty cubits, and their breadth fifteen. However, they had large spaces within of thirty cubits, and had on each side rooms, and those, both in breadth and in length, built like towers, and their height was above forty cubits. Two pillars did also support these rooms, and were in circumference twelve cubits. Now the magnitudes of the other gates were equal one to another; but that over the Corinthian gate, which opened on the east over against the gate of the holy house itself, was much larger; for its height was fifty cubits; and its doors were forty cubits; and it was adorned after a most costly manner, as having much richer and thicker plates of silver and gold upon them than the other. These nine gates had that silver and gold poured upon them by Alexander, the father of Tiberius. Now there were fifteen steps, which led away from the wall of the court of the women to this greater gate; whereas those that led thither from the other gates were five steps shorter.
4. As to the holy house itself, which was placed in the midst [of the inmost court], that most sacred part of the temple, it was ascended to by twelve steps; and in front its height and its breadth were equal, and each a hundred cubits, though it was behind forty cubits narrower; for on its front it had what may be styled shoulders on each side, that passed twenty cubits further. Its first gate was seventy cubits high, and twenty-five cubits broad; but this gate had no doors; for it represented the universal visibility of heaven, and that it cannot be excluded from any place. Its front was covered with gold all over, and through it the first part of the house, that was more inward, did all of it appear; which, as it was very large, so did all the parts about the more inward gate appear to shine to those that saw them; but then, as the entire house was divided into two parts within, it was only the first part of it that was open to our view. Its height extended all along to ninety cubits in height, and its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty. But that gate which was at this end of the first part of the house was, as we have already observed, all over covered with gold, as was its whole wall about it; it had also golden vines above it, from which clusters of grapes hung as tall as a man's height. But then this house, as it was divided into two parts, the inner part was lower than the appearance of the outer, and had golden doors of fifty-five cubits altitude, and sixteen in breadth; but before these doors there was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue, and fine linen, and scarlet, and purple, and of a contexture that was truly wonderful. Nor was this mixture of colors without its mystical interpretation, but was a kind of image of the universe; for by the scarlet there seemed to be enigmatically signified fire, by the fine flax the earth, by the blue the air, and by the purple the sea; two of them having their colors the foundation of this resemblance; but the fine flax and the purple have their own origin for that foundation, the earth producing the one, and the sea the other. This curtain had also embroidered upon it all that was mystical in the heavens, excepting that of the [twelve] signs, representing living creatures.
by D.H. Stern
than to share the house with a nagging wife.
Complete Jewish Bible : An English Version of the Tanakh (Old Testament) and B'Rit Hadashah (New Testament)
The unblameable attitude
If … thou rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee … --- Matthew 5:23.
If when you come to the altar, there you remember that your brother has anything against you, not—If you rake up something by a morbid sensitiveness, but—“If thou rememberest,” that is, it is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God: “first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” Never object to the intense sensitiveness of the Spirit of God in you when He is educating you down to the scruple.
“First be reconciled to thy brother …” Our Lord’s direction is simple—“first be reconciled.” Go back the way you came, go the way indicated to you by the conviction given at the altar; have an attitude of mind and a temper of soul to the one who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural as breathing. Jesus does not mention the other person, He says—you go. There is no question of your rights. The stamp of the saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus.
“And then come and offer thy gift.” The process is clearly marked. First, the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, then the sudden checking by the sensitiveness of the Holy Spirit, and the stoppage at the point of conviction; then the way of obedience to the word of God, constructing an unblameable attitude of mind and temper to the one with whom you have been in the wrong; then the glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God.
to the Galatians
In order, in conclusion, to emphasize the pervasive influence of the cross, namely that we cannot eliminate it from any area of our thinking or living, we shall look through Paul’s letter to the Galatians. There are two main reasons for this choice. First, it is arguably his first letter. This is not the place to assess the pros and cons of the ‘South Galatian’ and ‘North Galatian’ theories. The similarity of the contents with the letter to the Romans may suggest the later date, but the situation presupposed in Galatians fits the Acts chronology much better and strongly favours the earlier date. In this case the letter was written about AD 48, within fifteen years of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Secondly, the gospel according to Paul in Galatians (which he defends, along with his apostolic authority, as coming from God, not man) focuses on the cross. Indeed the letter contains seven striking affirmations about the death of Jesus, each of which illumines a different facet of it. When we put them together, we have an amazingly comprehensive grasp of the pervasive influence of the cross.
the Poetry of RS Thomas
After The Lecture
I am asking the difficult question. I need help.
I'm not asking from ill will.
I have no desire to see you coping
Or not coping with the unmanageable coils
Of a problem frivolously called up.
I've read your books, had glimpses of a climate
That is rigorous, though not too hard
For the spirit. I may have grown
Since reading them; there is no scale
To judge by, neither is the soul
Measurable. I know all the tropes
Of religion, how God is not there
To go to; how time is what we buy
With his absence, and how we look
Through the near end of the binocular at pain,
Evil, deformity, I have tried
Bandaging my sharp eyes
With humility, but still the hearing
Of the ear holds; from as far off as Tibet
The cries come.
From one not to be penned
In a concept, and differing in kind
From the human; whose attributes are the negations
Of thought; who holds us at bay with
His symbols, the opposed emblems
Of hawk and dove, what can my prayers win
For the kindred souls brought close to the bone
To be tortured, and burning, burning
Through history with their own strange light?
The Teacher's Commentary
It was early when the apostle rolled over on his pallet and saw the shafts of Morning sunlight sifting through the shutters.
The confrontation over Peter’s sudden unwillingness to eat with Gentile converts (Gal. 2:12) had heightened Paul’s awareness of the dangers facing the young church. Then messengers had come, reporting that delegations of Christian Pharisees had visited the cities where churches had been planted. They taught that the Gentile Christians must place themselves under the Law of Israel, and many were obeying them.
Deeply burdened, Paul had called a number of the brothers together and prayed with them through most of the night.
Now, fully awake, Paul decided to act. Filled with a deep sense of urgency, he found a pen and papyrus sheets and attacked the task he had set himself. His pen raced; passionate phrases appeared. All the churches in southern Galatia must receive a copy of this, his first letter of instruction and his first attempt to set down a theology for the new Christian movement.
“Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ” (1:1). These Judaizers claimed to be authorized by the Jerusalem church. As if man’s authorization counted!
Deuteronomy 31:14
A hundred deaths but not one bit of envy!
BIBLE TEXT / Deuteronomy 31:14 / The Lord said to Moses: The time is drawing near for you to die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that I may instruct him. Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting.
MIDRASH TEXT / Deuteronomy Rabbah 9, 9 / Call Joshua. He said to Him, “Master of the World, let Joshua take my position, so I can live.” The Holy One, praised is He, said, “Do to him what he does to you.” Moses immediately arose and went to Joshua’s house. Joshua was afraid and said, “Moses, my master come to me.” They went out for a walk, Moses walking to the left of Joshua. They entered the Tent of Meeting, the pillar of cloud came down and separated them. When the pillar of cloud left, Moses went to Joshua and said, “What did the Word say to you?” Joshua said to him, “When the Word used to reveal itself to you, did I know what it spoke to you?” At that moment Moses cried out, saying, “A hundred deaths but not one bit of envy!” And Solomon has explained it, “For love is as fierce as death, jealousy as severe as Sheol” (Song of Songs 8:6, authors’ translation)—the love that Moses had for Joshua [was as fierce as death], and the jealousy Moses had for Joshua [was as severe as Sheol]. When he [Moses] accepted that he would die, the Holy One, praised is He, began to appease him. He [God] said to him, “I swear [lit., by your life]! In this world you led My children, so too in the world to come, through you I will lead them.” From where [is the proof]? As it says, “Then his people will remember the ancient days, and Moses” (Isaiah 63:11, authors’ translation).
CONTEXT / How does a human being act when he or she knows death is near? For Moses, according to the Torah, it was with quiet acceptance. In the Midrash, however, the Rabbis imagine a very different reaction. They picture Moses trying to save his life by making a deal with God: “Master of the World, let Joshua take my position, so I can live. I’ll give up my job as leader of the people, and in return, let me not die.”
God agrees to the suggestion. Moses and Joshua will switch positions. Following accepted protocol, Moses immediately arose and went to Joshua’s house, and not vice versa. Joshua at first has great difficulty treating his former master as his disciple: Joshua was afraid and said, “Moses, my master, come to me.” Moses even walks to the left of Joshua, in accordance with proper etiquette. But when God, through the pillar of cloud, reveals a divine message (“the Word”) only to Joshua, Moses feels left out. He asks Joshua, “What did the Word say to you?” And Moses is put in his place. Joshua, it seems, has quickly gotten accustomed to his new superior role and isn’t about to share the privileges of his office with anyone.
Moses is terribly hurt. “A hundred deaths but not one bit of envy! I would rather die a hundred times than experience even one taste of envy!” Moses retracts the deal with God and prepares for death. The prooftext for how hurt Moses is comes from Song of Songs: “For love is as fierce as death, jealousy as severe as Sheol.” Sheol is, in biblical thought, the dark place beneath the earth where all souls go for eternal repose after death.
God consoles Moses. Note God’s opening word: He [God] said to him, “I swear [lit., by your life]! The word חַיֶיךָ/ḥayyekha, “by your life,” is an idiomatic expression used when someone is about to swear an oath. How ironic: We humans usually swear using God as the ultimate reference point. God swears using Moses. This expression has both a positive and a negative side. How painful it must have been for Moses to hear God say, at the moment he accepts death, that his life is so fleeting. At the same time, by making Moses the point of reference—“by your life!”—God is saying, in essence, “You will be around in the future.” Though he must die, he will live again and serve as leader of the people. The basis for that promise comes from the Rabbis’ noticing that the verb in Isaiah is in the future tense: וַיִּזְכֹּר/va-yizkor, “Then his people will remember the ancient days, and Moses.”
September 26
How great is God—beyond our understanding!
--- Job 36:26.
I cannot read the Bible without seeing that God has moved his believers in the direction of courage and sacrifice. (Preaching Through the Bible)
In the direction of courage, this is not mere animal courage, for then the argument might be matched by many gods whose names are spelled without capitals. No, this is moral courage, noble heroism, fierce rebuke of personal and national corruption, lofty and inspiring judgment of all good and all evil.
The God idea made mean people valiant soldier-prophets; it broadened the piping voice of the timid inquirer into the thunder of the national teacher and leader. For brass it brought gold; for iron, silver; for wood, brass; and for stones, iron. Instead of the thorn it brought up the fir tree and instead of the brier the myrtle tree, and it made the bush burn with fire.
Wherever the God idea took complete possession of the mind, every faculty was lifted up to a new capacity and borne on to heroic attempts and conquests. The saints who received it conquered kingdoms, administered justice, gained what was promised, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames. Their weakness was turned to strength, they became powerful in battle, they routed foreign armies.
Any idea that inspired life and hope in humankind is to be examined with reverent care. The quality of the courage determines its value and the value of the idea that excited and sustained it.
What is true of the courage is true also of the sacrifice, which has ever followed the acceptance of the God idea. This is not the showy and fanatical sacrifice of mere bloodletting. Many a juggernaut, great and small, drinks the blood of its devotees.
But spiritual discipline, self-renunciation, the esteeming of others better than one’s self, the suppression of selfishness—these are the practical uses of the God idea. It is not a barren sentiment.
It arouses courage. It necessitates self-sacrifice. It touches the imagination as with fire. It deepens every thought. It sanctifies the universe. It makes heaven possible. Unknown, unknowable. Yes, but not therefore unusable or unprofitable.
--- Joseph Parker
How One Sermon Killed Another
At age 18, while studying in a city near his home, Aeneas Sylvius de’ Piccolomini heard a friar preaching. He was impressed and entered church life, but without giving up his vices. Aeneas worked his way up the religious ladder, and was elected as Pope Pius II at age 53. He understood world politics as few did, and he was brilliant. He was a grammarian, geographer, historian, novelist, and orator. But he wasn’t pious. He wrote explicit love stories, fathered children here and there, and instructed young men in ways to “indulge” themselves.
He also had something to say to princes. On September 26, 1460 Pius called European leaders together in Mantua to discuss his life’s dream—a new crusade against the Turks. He preached three hours at the opening session, telling the princes they must emulate Stephen, Peter, and Andrew who were willing to lay down their lives in holy warfare. The Turks have robbed Christianity of its greatest treasures, he said—Jerusalem, where Christ lived; Bethlehem, where he was born; the Jordan River, where he was baptized; Calvary, where he was crucified; Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians. Joshua had fought for this land. So had Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson. Earlier crusaders had demolished Muslim strongholds and liberated Christian sites. “O! That Godfrey were once more present, and Baldwin and the other mighty men who broke through the ranks of the Turks and regained Jerusalem!”
His message greatly stirred the assembly, and for a moment the princes appeared ready to rush from the room to undertake a new crusade. But the pope was followed by another preacher, Cardinal Bessarion, who spoke for another three hours. By the end of the day, the princes were so worn out by the preaching they had no passion for the cause.
The congress became mired in political rivalry, and the promises made there were never kept; the days of the crusades were over. Yet Pope Pius continued dreaming of one, and his dying words were, “Pray for me, for I am a sinner. Bid my brethren continue this holy expedition.”
It takes strong winds to move a large sailing ship, but the captain uses only a small rudder to make it go in any direction. Our tongues are small too, and yet they brag about big things.
--- James 3:4,5a.
Daily Readings / CHARLES H. SPURGEON
Morning - September 26
“The myrtle trees that were in the bottom.” --- Zechariah 1:8.
The vision in this chapter describes the condition of Israel in Zechariah’s day; but being interpreted in its aspect towards us, it describes the Church of God as we find it now in the world. The Church is compared to a myrtle grove flourishing in a valley. It is hidden, unobserved, secreted; courting no honour and attracting no observation from the careless gazer. The Church, like her head, has a glory, but it is concealed from carnal eyes, for the time of her breaking forth in all her splendour is not yet come. The idea of tranquil security is also suggested to us: for the myrtle grove in the valley is still and calm, while the storm sweeps over the mountain summits. Tempests spend their force upon the craggy peaks of the Alps, but down yonder where flows the stream which maketh glad the city of our God, the myrtles flourish by the still waters, all unshaken by the impetuous wind. How great is the inward tranquility of God’s Church! Even when opposed and persecuted, she has a peace which the world gives not, and which, therefore, it cannot take away: the peace of God which passeth all understanding keeps the hearts and minds of God’s people. Does not the metaphor forcibly picture the peaceful, perpetual growth of the saints? The myrtle sheds not her leaves, she is always green; and the Church in her worst time still hath a blessed verdure of grace about her; nay, she has sometimes exhibited most verdure when her winter has been sharpest. She has prospered most when her adversities have been most severe. Hence the text hints at victory. The myrtle is the emblem of peace, and a significant token of triumph. The brows of conquerors were bound with myrtle and with laurel; and is not the Church ever victorious? Is not every Christian more than a conqueror through him that loved him? Living in peace, do not the saints fall asleep in the arms of victory?
Evening - September 26
“Howl, fir tree, for the cedar is fallen.” --- Zechariah 11:2.
When in the forest there is heard the crash of a falling oak, it is a sign that the woodman is abroad, and every tree in the whole company may tremble lest to-morrow the sharp edge of the axe should find it out. We are all like trees marked for the axe, and the fall of one should remind us that for every one, whether great as the cedar, or humble as the fir, the appointed hour is stealing on apace. I trust we do not, by often hearing of death, become callous to it. May we never be like the birds in the steeple, which build their nests when the bells are tolling, and sleep quietly when the solemn funeral peals are startling the air. May we regard death as the most weighty of all events, and be sobered by its approach. It ill behoves us to sport while our eternal destiny hangs on a thread. The sword is out of its scabbard—let us not trifle; it is furbished, and the edge is sharp—let us not play with it. He who does not prepare for death is more than an ordinary fool, he is a madman. When the voice of God is heard among the trees of the garden, let fig tree and sycamore, and elm and cedar, alike hear the sound thereof.
Be ready, servant of Christ, for thy Master comes on a sudden, when an ungodly world least expects him. See to it that thou be faithful in his work, for the grave shall soon be digged for thee. Be ready, parents, see that your children are brought up in the fear of God, for they must soon be orphans; be ready, men of business, take care that your affairs are correct, and that you serve God with all your hearts, for the days of your terrestrial service will soon be ended, and you will be called to give account for the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or whether they be evil. May we all prepare for the tribunal of the great King with a care which shall be rewarded with the gracious commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant”
September 26
WHEN ALL THY MERCIES, O MY GOD
Joseph Addison, 1672–1719
Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endureth forever. (1 Chronicles 16:11 KJV)
A reflection upon God’s blessings will always result in a response of worship and praise; a neglect of gratitude will eventually produce a lifestyle of self-centeredness.
Joseph Addison, the author of this hymn, wrote this introduction for his text:
If gratitude is due from man to man, how much more from man to his Maker. The Supreme being does not only confer upon us those bounties which proceed immediately from His hand, but even those benefits which are conveyed to us by others. Any blessing which we enjoy, by what means soever derived, is the gift of Him who is the great author of good and the Father of mercies.
Joseph Addison was recognized in his era as one of England’s literary greats. He was not only a writer and a moralist, but a man of affairs in his government. He was elected to Parliament and then appointed successively as Under Secretary, Secretary for Ireland, and finally Secretary of State.
These words are thought to have been written by Joseph Addison following his rescue from a shipwreck during a storm off the Coast of Genoa, Italy. The hymn originally had 13 stanzas. It was published on August 9, 1712, in a London daily paper, The Spectator, of which Addison served for a time as editor. The surviving four stanzas have since provided God’s people with a meaningful aid in expressing grateful worship to God for all of His enduring mercies:
When all Thy mercies, O my God, my rising soul surveys, transported with the view I’m lost in wonder, love and praise.
Unnumbered comforts to my soul Thy tender care bestowed before my infant heart conceived from whom those comforts flowed.
When worn with sickness, oft hast Thou with health renewed my face; and, when in sins and sorrows bowed, revived my soul with grace.
Thru ev’ry period of my life Thy goodness I’ll pursue, and after death, in distant worlds, the glorious theme renew.
For Today: Psalm 63:1-5; 86:5–17; 89:1; 103:8–14; James 3:17
Reflect with this author upon God’s mercy of comfort, His mercy of physical and spiritual healing, His mercy of reviving grace—then, respond to Him with grateful expressions of worship and praise. Allow this hymn to help ---
Stephen Charnock
DISCOURSE VI - ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD
4. If God be immutable, it is sad news to those that are resolved in wickedness, or careless of returning to that duty he requires.
Sinners must not expect that God will alter his will, make a breach upon his nature, and violate his own word to gratify their lusts.
No, it is not reasonable God should dishonor himself to secure them, and cease to be God, that they may continue to be wicked, by
changing his own nature, that they may be unchanged in their vanity. God is the same; goodness is as amiable in his sight, and sin as
abominable in his eyes now, as it was at the beginning of the world. Being the same God, he is the same enemy to the wicked as the
same friend to the righteous. He is the same in knowledge, and cannot forget sinful acts. He is the same in will, and cannot approve of
unrighteous practices. Goodness cannot but be always the object of his love, and wickedness cannot but be always the object of his
hatred: and as his aversion to sin is always the same, so as he hath been in his judgments upon sinners, the same he will be still; for the
same perfection of immutability belongs to his justice for the punishment of sin, as to his holiness for his disaffection to sin. Though
the covenant of works was changeable by the crime of man violating it, yet it was unchangeable in regard of God’s justice vindicating
it, which is inflexible in the punishment of the breaches of his law. The law had a preceptive part, and a minatory part: when man
changed the observation of the precept, the righteous nature of God could not null the execution of the threatening; he could not,
upon the account of this perfection, neglect his just word, and countenance the unrighteous transgression. Though there were no
more rational creatures in being but Adam and Eve, yet God subjected them to that death he had assured them of: and from this
immutability of his will, ariseth the necessity of the suffering of the Son of God for the relief of the apostate creature. His will in the
second covenant is as unchangeable as that in the first, only repentance is settled as the condition of the second, which was not
indulged in the first; and without repentance, the sinner must irrevocably perish, or God must change his nature: there must be a
change in man; there can be none in God; his bow is bent, his arrows are ready, if the wicked do not turn (Psalm 7:11). There is not
an atheist, an hypocrite, a profane person, that ever was upon the earth, but God’s soul abhorred him as such, and the like he will
abhor forever; while any therefore continue so, they may sooner expect the heavens should roll as they please, the sun stand still at
their order, the stars change their course at their beck, than that God should change his nature, which is opposite to profaneness and
vanity; “Who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?” (Job 9:4.)
Use 2. Of comfort. The immutability of a good God is a strong ground of consolation. Subjects wish a good prince to live forever, as
being loth to change him, but care not how soon they are rid of an oppressor. This unchangeableness of God’s will shows him as ready
to accept any that come to him as ever he was; so that we may with confidence make our address to him, since he cannot change his
affections to goodness. The fear of change in a friend hinders a full reliance upon him; an assurance of stability encourages hope and
confidence. This attribute is the strongest prop for faith in all our addresses; it is not a single perfection, but the glory of all those that
belong to his nature; for he is unchangeable in his love (Jer. 31:3), in his truth (Psalm 117:2). The more solemn revelation of himself in this name, Jehovah, which signifies chiefly his eternity and immutability, was to support the Israelites’ faith in expectation of a
deliverance from Egypt, that he had not retracted his purpose, and his promise made to Abraham for giving Canaan to his posterity
(Exod. 3:14–17). Herein is the basis and strength of all his promises; therefore, saith the Psalmist, “Those that know thy name, will
put their trust in thee” (Psalm 9:10): those that are spiritually acquainted with thy name, Jehovah, and have a true sense of it upon
their hearts, will put their trust in thee. His goodness could not be distrusted, if his unchangeableness were well apprehended and
considered. All distrust would fly before it, as darkness before the sun; it only gets advantage of us when we are not well grounded in
his name; and if ever we trusted God, we have the same reason to trust him forever: (Isa. 26:4) “Trust in the Lord forever, for in the
Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength;” or, as it is in the Hebrew, “a Rock of Ages,” that is, perpetually unchangeable. We find the
traces of God’s immutability in the creatures. He has, by his peremptory decree, set bounds to the sea: “Hitherto shalt thou come, but
no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed” (Job 38:11). Do we fear the sea overflowing us in this island? No, because of his
fixed decree. And is not his promise in his Word as unchangeable as his word concerning inanimate things, as good a ground to rest upon?
1. The covenant stands unchangeable. Mutable creatures break their leagues and covenants, and snap them asunder like Samson’s
cords, when they are not accommodated to their interests. But an unchangeable God keeps his: “The mountains shall depart, and the
hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, nor shall the covenant of my peace be removed” (Isa. 54:10). The
heaven and earth shall sooner fall asunder, and the strongest and firmest parts of the creation crumble to dust, sooner than one iota of
my covenant shall fail. It depends upon the unchangeableness of his will and the unchangeableness of his word, and, therefore, is
called “the immutability of his counsel” (Heb. 6:17). It is the fruit of the everlasting purpose of God; whence the apostle links purpose
and grace together (2 Tim. 1:9). A covenant with a nation may be changeable, because it may not be built upon the eternal purpose of
God, “to put his fear in the heart;” but with respect to the creature’s obedience. Thus God chose Jerusalem as the place wherein he
would “dwell forever” (Psalm 132:14), yet he threatens to depart from them when they had broken covenant with him; “and the glory
of the Lord went up from the midst of the city to the mountain on the east side” (Ezek. 11:33). The covenant of grace doth not run, “I
will be your God if you will be my people;” but “I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Hos. 2:19, &c.) “I will betroth thee
to me forever; I, will say, Thou art my people, and they shall say, Thou art my God.” His everlasting purpose is, to write his laws in
the hearts of the elect. He puts a condition to his covenant of grace, the condition of faith, and he resolves to work that condition in
the hearts of the elect; and, therefore, believers have two immutable pillars for their support, stronger than those erected by Solomon
at the porch of the temple (1 Kings 7:21), called Jakin and Boaz, to note the firmness of that building dedicated to God; these are
election, or the standing. counsel of God, and the covenant of grace. He will not revoke the covenant, and blot the names of his elect
out of the book of life.
2. Perseverance is ascertained. It consists not with the majesty of God to call a person effectually to himself to-day, to make him fit
for his eternal love, to give him faith, and take away that faith to-morrow. His effectual call is the fruit of his eternal election, and that
counsel hath no other foundation but his constant and unchangeable will; a foundation that stands sure, and, therefore, called the
foundation of God, and not of the creature; “the foundation of God stands sure, the Lord knows who are his” (2 Tim. 2:19). It is not
founded upon our own natural strength; it may be then subject to change, as all the products of nature are. The fallen angels had
created grace in their innocency, but lost it by their fall. Were this the foundation of the creature, it might soon be shaken; since man,
after his revolt, can ascribe nothing constant to himself, but his own inconstancy. But the foundation is not in the infirmity of nature,
but the strength of grace, and of the grace of God, who is immutable, who wants not virtue to be able, nor kindness to be willing, to
reserve his own foundation. To what purpose doth our Saviour tell his disciples their names “were written in heaven” (Luke 10:20),
but to mark the infallible certainty of their salvation by an opposition to those things which perish, and have their “names written in
the earth” (Jer. 17:23); or upon the sand, where they may be defaced? And why should Christ order his disciples to rejoice that their
names were written in heaven, if God were changeable to blot them out again? or why should the apostle assure us, that though God
had rejected the greatest part of the Jews, he had not, therefore, rejected his people elected according to his purpose and immutable
counsel; because there are none of the elect of God but will come to salvation? For, saith he, the “election hath obtained it” (Rom.
11:7); that is, all those that are of the election have obtained it, and the others are hardened. Where the seal of sanctification is
stamped, it is a testimony of God’s election, and that foundation shall stand sure: “The foundation of the Lord stands sure, having this
seal, the Lord knows who are his;” that is the foundation, the “naming the name of Christ,” or believing in Christ, and “departing from
iniquity,” is the seal. As it is impossible when God calls those things that are not, but that they should spring up into being and appear
before him; so it is impossible but that the seed of God, by his eternal purpose, should be brought to a spiritual life, and that calling
cannot be retracted; for that “gift and calling is without repentance” (Rom. 11:29). And when repentance is removed from God in
regard of some works, the immutability of those works is declared; and the reason of that immutability is their pure dependence on
the eternal favor and unchangeable grace of God “purposed in himself” (Eph. 1:9, 11), and not upon the mutability of the creature.
Hence their happiness is not as patents among men, quam diu bene se gesserint, so long as they behave themselves well; but they
have a promise that they shall behave themselves so as never wholly to depart from God (Jer. 32:40): “I will make an everlasting
covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not
depart from me.” God will not turn from them, to do them good, and promiseth that they shall not turn from him forever, or forsake
him. And the bottom of it is the everlasting covenant, and, therefore, believing and sealing for security are linked together (Eph. 1:13).
And when God doth inwardly teach us his law, he puts in a will not to depart from it: (Psalm 119:102) “I have not departed from thy
judgments;” what is the reason? “For thou hast taught me.”
3. By this eternal happiness is insured. This is the inference made from the eternity and unchangeableness of God in the verse
following the text (ver. 28): “The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.” This is the
sole conclusion drawn from those perfections of God solemnly asserted before. The children which the prophets and apostles have
begotten to thee, shall be totally delivered from the relics of their apostasy, and the punishment due to them, and rendered partakers of
immortality with thee, as sons to dwell in their Father’s house forever. The Spirit begins a spiritual life here, to fit for an immutable life
in glory hereafter, where believers shall be placed upon a throne that cannot be shaken, and possess a crown that shall not be taken off
their heads forever.
Use 3. Of exhortation. 1. Let a sense of the changeableness and uncertainty of all other things beside God, be upon us. There are as
many changes as there are figures in the world. The whole fashion of the world is a transient thing; every man may say as Job,
“Changes and war are against me” (Job 10:17). Lot chose the plain of Sodom, because it was the richer soil. He was but a little tine
there before he was taken prisoner, and his substance made the spoil of his enemies. That is again restored; but a while after, fire from
heaven devours his wealth, though his person was secured from the judgment by a special Providence. We burn with a desire to settle
ourselves, but mistake the way, and build castles in the air, which vanish like bubbles of soap in water. And, therefore,
(1.) Let not our thoughts dwell much upon them. Do but consider those souls that are in the possession of an unchangeable God, that
behold his never-fading glory! Would it not be a kind of hell to them to have their thoughts starting out to these things, or find any
desire in themselves to the changeable trifles of the earth? Nay, have we not reason to think that they cover their faces with shame,
that ever they should have such a weakness of spirit when they were here below, as to spend more thoughts upon them than were
necessary for this present life; much more that they should at any time value and court them above an unchangeable good? Do they
not disdain themselves that they should ever debase the immutable perfections of God, as to have neglecting thoughts of him at any
time, for the entertainment of such a mean and inconstant rival?
(2.) Much less should we trust in them, or rejoice in them. The best things are mutable, and things of such a nature are not fit objects
of confidence. Trust not in riches, they have their wanes as well as increases; they rise sometimes like a torrent, and flow in upon men,
but resemble also a torrent in as sudden a fall and departure, and leave nothing but slime behind them. Trust not in honor; all the
honor and applause in the world is no better than an inheritance of wind, which the pilot is not sure of, but shifts from one corner to
another, and stands not perpetually in the same point of the heavens. How, in a few ages did the house of David, a great monarch,
and a man after God’s own heart, descend to a mean condition, and all the glory of that house shut up in the stock of a carpenter? ( The Hebrew for carpenter is the same for a stone cutter.) David’s sheep-hook was turned into a seeptre, and the sceptre by the same hand of Providence turned into a hatchet in Joseph his
descendant. Rejoice not immoderately in wisdom; that, and learning languish with age. A wound in the head may impair that which
is the glory of man. If an organ be out of frame, folly may succeed, and all a man’s prudence be wound up in an irrecoverable dotage.
Nebuchadnezzar was no fool, yet, by a sudden hand of God, he became not only a fool or a madman, but a kind of brute. Rejoice not
in strength; that decays, and a mighty man may live to see his strong arm withered, and a grasshopper to become a burthen (Eccles.
12:5): “The strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders shall cease because they are few” (ver. 3): nor rejoice in children; they
are like birds upon a tree, that make a little chirping music, and presently fall into the fowler’s net. Little did Job expect such sad news
as the loss of all his progeny at a blow, when the messenger knocked at his gate; and such changes happen oftentimes when our
expectations of comfort, and a contentment in them, are at the highest. How often doth a string crack when the musician hath
wound it up to a just height for a tune, and all his pains and delight marred in a moment! Nay, all these things change while we are
using them, like ice that melts between our fingers, and flowers that wither while we are smelling to them. The apostle gave them a
good title when he called them “uncertain riches,” and thought it a strong argument to dissuade them from trusting in them (1 Tim.
6:17). The wealth of the merchant depends upon the winds and waves, and the revenue of the husbandman upon the clouds; and
since they depend upon those things which are used to express the most changeableness, they can be no fit object for trust. Besides,
God sometimes kindles a fire under all a man’s glory, which doth insensibly consume it (Isa. 10:16); and while we have them, the fear
of losing them renders us not very happy in the fruition of them; we can scarce tell whether they are contentments or no, because
sorrow follows them so close at the heels. It is not an unnecessary exhortation for good men; the best men have been apt to place too
much trust in them. David thought himself immutable in his prosperity, and such thoughts could not be without some immoderate
outlets of the heart to them, and confidences in them; and Job promised himself to die in his nest, and “multiply his days as the sand,”
without any interruption (Job 29:18, 19, &c.); but he was mistaken and disappointed. Let me add this: trust not in men, who are as
inconstant as anything else, and often change their most ardent affections into implacable hatred; and though their affections may
not be changed, the power to help you may. Haman’s friends, that depended on him one day, were crest-fallen the next, when their
patron was to exchange his chariot of state for an ignominious gallows.
(3.) Prefer an immutable God before mutable creatures. Is it not a horrible thing to see what we are, and what we possess, daily
crumbling to dust, and in a continual flux from us, and not seek out something that is permanent, and always abide the same, for our
portion? In God, or Wisdom, which is Christ, there is substance (Prov. 8:21), in which respect he is opposed to all the things in the
world, that are but shadows, that are shorter or longer, according to the motion of the sun; mutable also, by every little body that
intervenes. God is subject to no decay within, to no force without; nothing in his own nature can change him from what he is, and
there is no power above can hinder him from being what he will to the soul. He is an ocean of all perfection: he wants nothing
without himself to render him blessed, which may allure him to a change. His creatures can want nothing out of him to make them
happy, whereby they may be enticed to prefer anything before him. If we enjoy other things, it is by God’s donation, who can as well
withdraw them as bestow them; and it is but a reasonable, as well as a necessary thing, to endeavor the enjoyment of the immutable
Benefactor, rather than his revocable gifts. If the creatures had a sufficient virtue in themselves to ravish our thoughts and engross
our souls; yet when we take a prospect of a fixed and unchangeable Being, what beauty, what strength have any of those things to vie
with him? How can they bear up and maintain their interest against a lively thought and sense of God? All the glory of them would
fly before him like that of the stars before the sun. They were once nothing, they may be nothing again; as their own nature brought
them not out of nothing, so their nature secures them not from being reduced to nothing. What an unhappiness is it to have our
affections set upon that which retains something of its non esse with its esse, its not being with its being; that lives indeed, but in a
continual flux, and may lose that pleasurableness to-morrow which charms us to-day?
Jon Courson
Nahum | Jon Courson
03-15-1989
Jon Courson | Jon Courson
Paul LeBoutillier
Nahum
A prophecy against Assyria
08-03-2022 | Paul LeBoutillier
Paul LeBoutillier | Calvary Chapel Ontario, Oregon
Brett Meador | Athey Creek
Brett Meador | Athey Creek
Nahum 1:7 - God Is Good
s2-382 | 03-06-2022
Nahum 1 - 3
m2-389 | 03-09-2022
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