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"In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, 'There is no God.' His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them. He says in his heart, 'I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity'" (Psalm 10:4-6).

THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO DISREGARD GOD. In addition to the obvious atheism of denying that God exists, there are many other varieties of atheism. In fact, millions of religious people are guilty of the kind of attitude reflected in Psalm 10 (and Psalm 14). They say they believe, but their lives are independent of Him. In my opinion, there is no worse sin than this “pious atheism.” It is at the heart of many other sins, and it is the soul-cancer eating away inwardly at so many “good” people who are living “well-adjusted” lives in one of the advanced nations of the world.

“IN THE PRIDE OF HIS FACE” (V.4). It is nothing but arrogant to think that because we prosper, our self-management must be working well for us. And Christ’s letter to Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22) shows just how deluded Christians themselves can be about this.

“I SHALL NOT BE MOVED . . . I SHALL NOT MEET ADVERSITY” (V.6). If we’ve shoved God out of the way and gotten away with it, we may think we’re bullet-proof. But “I shall not be moved” is a poor prophecy.

“GOD HAS FORGOTTEN, HE HAS HIDDEN HIS FACE, HE WILL NEVER SEE IT” (V.11). We figure we can squeeze in some years of disobedience and get back on track later. God isn’t paying attention. He won’t notice.

“YOU WILL NOT CALL TO ACCOUNT” (V.13). In our foolish pride we suppose that we won’t have to answer to God, or if we do, that event is so far in the future it doesn’t make any practical difference.

But obviously, living this way is a foolish enterprise (Psalm 14:1; Luke 12:20). In the long run, it will not succeed. It is a precarious life, a house of cards that is going to collapse eventually.

But this pride is also satanic. The man in Psalm 10 does not worship Satan directly, but he is doing the very thing Satan wants us all to do: manage our own lives. And that pride is what has led us onto the downward slope of destruction. Since he can make it look so respectable and progressive, I imagine Satan is quite proud of it.

"For a thing to be satanic does not mean that it is abominable and immoral; the satanically-managed man is . . . absolutely self-governed and has no need of God" (Oswald Chambers).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy" (Leviticus 11:45).

BEGINNING WITH ABRAHAM, GOD BUILT A FAMILY THROUGH WHICH HE WOULD BRING INTO THE WORLD HIS SON, THE MESSIAH (“ANOINTED ONE”). When Abraham’s family became numerous enough to be a nation, He delivered them from slavery in Egypt and established them in the land He had promised to Abraham. But prior to their entry into this land, God gave them this remarkable command: “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

The root idea of “holiness” is “separateness.” Synonyms that come to mind are distinctness, uniqueness, unlikeness, and difference. Unfortunately, we often limit our discussions about holiness to moral purity, but moral purity is only one of the ways that those who belong to God are to be separate. God’s holiness does not consist solely in His moral difference; it includes every way in which His character is different from that of His adversaries. And if He commands us to be holy, we must learn to have a character that is distinct in the same ways that His character is distinct.

Israel’s separateness from the world of its day anticipated the holiness of God’s redeemed people in Christ, made up of Jews and Gentiles. Writing to Christians in the Roman Empire living under the threat of persecution, Peter quoted from Leviticus 11:45: “As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15,16).

Sometimes holiness requires physical separation (and we are extremely foolish if we don’t understand this). But with or without physical separation, holiness requires that our principles, our values, and our decision-making — i.e., our character — be different. And how could it not be? If we’ve repented of our rebellion against God, will that not make us unlike those still in rebellion? James asked it this way: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (James 4:4). For you and me today, this is an issue that requires some serious thinking and courageous choices.

"It is time for us Christians to face up to our responsibility for holiness . . . It might be well if we stopped using the terms victory and defeat to describe our progress in holiness. Rather we should use the terms obedience and disobedience" (Jerry Bridges).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt" (Exodus 12:12,13).

READY TO LEAVE EGYPT AS SOON AS THE WORD CAME, ISRAEL HAD BEEN TOLD TO STAY IN THEIR HOMES AND WAIT. Each family had eaten their Passover lamb, according to God’s command, and the blood of the lambs had been put on the doorposts of their dwellings. As God went through the land in judgment that night, the people of Israel waited, trusting the protection of God’s promise: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”

Blood represents life, and the sacrifice of the lambs that night was a vivid reminder that death is the consequence of sin (Genesis 2:16,17). If the one who sins is not to die, the blood (i.e., the life) of another must be offered, one without sin and not under the penalty of death. Now, if the Hebrews were spared God’s judgment on that night, it wasn’t because they were free of idolatry (Joshua 24:14). It was in grace and mercy that God exempted them — “passing over” those in the homes where a lamb had been slain. This is a powerful object lesson. What can we learn from it about the gospel of Christ?

In the New Testament, there was an occasion when John the Baptist saw Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Unlike the lambs in Egypt, which by themselves could never take away sin, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, providing our full atonement. And if it was God’s right to say that He would spare only those who put the blood on their doorposts, He can also set the conditions upon which His Son’s blood will provide atonement. In neither case do those spared deserve to be spared. But in His mercy, God “passes over” those who will reverently accept the conditions of His grace. Before time began, it was always His plan to make this gift possible.

Before lambs bled in Egypt, One was given.
Before the worm tore Eden, pain was faced.
Somewhere, before earth’s cornerstone was placed,
a hammer crashed in heaven — nails were driven.
(Keith Patman).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you" (Deuteronomy 4:2).

THE FACT THAT GOD HAS SPOKEN TO MANKIND IS A MARVELOUS REALITY. But not satisfied with the contents of God’s revelation, the human race has always had a tendency to “improve” His instructions, trimming away the objectionable parts and adding in other things more suitable. But Moses reminded Israel of the seriousness of this error. Speaking to the nation prior to their entrance into Canaan, he said, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it.” As someone has said, “Where God puts a period, we are not to put a question mark.”

On the side of “adding to,” the problem is that we tend to make rules where God has not. Concerning the gospel, for example, if I decided that to receive the forgiveness of sins a person had to be born in Brazil, I would have added to what God has revealed. But an example of “taking away” would be saying that the act of baptism, commanded by God, is not necessary, perhaps arguing that it’s “a good idea” to be baptized but it’s not required for one’s forgiveness.

Obviously, we need to be careful to take God’s word as it is — making it neither more nor less restrictive than it is. Our study of the Scriptures must be diligent, and our attitude that of young Samuel: “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears” (1 Samuel 3:9,10).

If we accept that God has, in fact, revealed His will, the question is not whether we’d like to modify it but whether we’re going to do it. And this confrontation with the word of God is a test of our character. There can be no salvation for us if we won’t humble ourselves before God, and it is in our attitude toward the commandments of God that we get some of our first feedback as to how far along the road of humility we are. If we would be so presumptuous as to add to God’s word or take away from it, then we’ve got some adjustments to make before any further steps can be taken in accepting the gospel. No doubt this need for adjustment is one reason that relatively “few” (Matthew 7:13,14) will follow Christ.

"Once you and I are face to face with the Word of God . . . we can only accept or reject it. Jesus becomes the two-edged sword that cuts right down the middle, dividing us into believers and nonbelievers" (John Powell).

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"It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:26).

THERE WAS, NO DOUBT, MORE THAN ONE PURPOSE IN GOD’S GIVING THE LAW OF MOSES TO THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. But one thing was not in His purpose: to give them a tool whereby they could, as sinful people, work their way back into a perfect relationship with Him. No person who is guilty of sin, regardless of when he lived or what expression of God’s law he lived under, has ever been able to keep enough of God’s commandments to regain the perfection of holiness necessary for eternal life. By law-keeping, we can’t pile up enough credits to counterbalance our debits. It simply can’t be done.

But the penalty of sin is death (Genesis 2:16,17; Romans 5:12), and God cannot set aside that law arbitrarily. If He desires to save us from our sins, how can He do that? Is there any way He can maintain His own justice and at the same time justify us from our lawlessness? The answer, of course, is the cross of Christ. By taking upon Himself the death that was our due, He satisfied the law’s demand, but He also made it possible to forgive us and treat us as if we had not sinned. In this way, God became both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

It was a masterful plan, but it was very costly. It required the ultimate sacrifice on God’s part, and our wildest dreams are not enough to imagine that kind of love. Yet the plan also has a requirement on our end: we must be willing to accept it on God’s terms. We must give up the idea that we can ever be righteous enough to save ourselves — we have to accept that we will be saved “not because of works done by us in righteousness” (Titus 3:5) but by a “righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:9).

Obviously, such a plan leaves no room for us to boast. No human being, from Adam and Eve until the end of time, will ever have succeeded in being good enough to tip the scales of justice in their favor. It was on the cross of Christ that God tipped those scales — and it is in Christ that we enjoy the benefits of that.

"In the self-offering of Christ, God's own righteousness is vindicated and the believing sinner is justified. For Christ occupies a unique position as God's representative with man and man's representative with God. As the representative Man He absorbs the judgment incurred by human sin; as the representative of God He conveys God’s pardoning grace to men" (F. F. Bruce).

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"One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, 'We have found the Messiah' (which means Christ)" (John 1:40,41).

TO BE A JEW IN FIRST-CENTURY JUDEA WAS TO BE IN A CULTURE OF GREAT CHANGE. Politically, socially, and religiously, the pot was boiling with trends and movements. If you cared about what was right, you would have had a number of decisions to make.

As various individuals turned up claiming to be the Messiah of Jewish prophecy, their conflicting claims needed to be examined. Were any of these people telling the truth? You could have been cynical (as many people are today in the face of religious confusion) or, realizing what was at stake, you could have dug in, studied the Scriptures carefully, and looked for the right answers.

But think for a moment about the hope involved in these world-changing events. Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12, for example, and ask yourself how you would feel if you lived at the same time as Andrew and found out that the person in Isaiah’s prophecy had been born and was now proclaiming the gospel. Could there have been a more exciting prospect than the idea that the Messiah might actually have come into the world? If you, like Andrew, could truthfully say, “We have found the Messiah,” would you not be as thrilled as he was? Andrew did not yet understand much of what was involved in Jesus’ messiahship, but he had seen enough to know that Jesus was the One the prophets had predicted. And he was eager to share the news.

Andrew’s example is one we should meditate on. Perceiving that Jesus was the Messiah, he first found his brother and broke the news to him. As one of the twelve who would become the Lord’s apostles, Andrew would later preach the gospel to many people, but he began with his brother. Those closest to us may not listen as receptively as Peter listened to Andrew, but they should be the first ones with whom we share the exciting truth.

"Andrew is characteristically the man who was always introducing others to Jesus. There are only three times in the gospel story when Andrew is brought into the centre of the stage. There is this incident here, in which he brings Peter to Jesus. There is the incident in John 6:8,9 when he brings to Jesus the boy with the five loaves and two small fishes. And there is the incident in John 12:22 when he brings the enquiring Greeks into the presence of Jesus. It was Andrew’s great joy to bring others to Jesus" (William Barclay).

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"Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people" (Genesis 49:9,10 NKJV).

WHEN JACOB BLESSED HIS SONS BEFORE HE DIED, HE UTTERED A VERY PARTICULAR PROPHECY CONCERNING THE TRIBE OF JUDAH. “Gather together,” he said to his sons, “that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days” (Genesis 49:1 NKJV). The expression “the last days” is a familiar prophetic expression, so Jacob was being moved by God’s Spirit as he made these pronouncements to his sons. This is seen most clearly in his words concerning Judah: the time would come when a person from Judah would arise and “to Him shall be the obedience of the people.”

Judah was the tribe from which David later came, and it was to David that God made this promise: “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom . . . your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:12-16 NKJV).

Genesis 49:9,10 looked ahead to the kingship of David — and more importantly, it looked beyond that to an even greater King. Jacob’s prophecy meant that Judah would be the royal tribe, the tribe which held the “scepter” (the rod in the hand of a king symbolizing his sovereignty). But there would come another King whose sovereignty would extend far beyond that of any other Davidic king. “To Him shall be the obedience of the people,” said Jacob.

Jacob said that Judah would be a “lion.” It is no coincidence that Jesus is described in Revelation 5:5 as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David.” He is the King foretold by Jacob when he blessed his sons. His is an eternal kingdom that overarches every other kingdom that has ever existed. Since this kingdom is not “of this world” (John 18:36), it has no earthly throne or apparatus — yet all the kingdoms of this world rise and fall at the will of this King.

". . . we are more than justified in concluding that [Genesis 49:10] is a messianic text that adds to the Messiah’s credentials the fact that he will govern, not only the nation of Israel, but all the nations of the world. The reason he can claim such a high prerogative is because it is his right to do so, for all rule and authority are derived from him" (Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.).

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View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/saints-july-6/

"To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father" (Colossians 1:2).

THE WORD “SAINTS” IS A DESIGNATION FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD. As we see in the text above, Paul addressed his letter to Colossae to “the saints and faithful brothers in Christ” in that place. (Notice the same usage in Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; and other letters.) All of the biblical terms used for God’s people are helpful to study, since they give us important information about what God expects of those who are committed to Him. Today, however, let’s focus on “saints” (and also “faithful brothers”).

MEANING. To be a “saint” is to be “separate.” A saint has accepted God’s call to be redeemed from sin — seeking salvation, he has obeyed the gospel. But since not everyone has done that, those who have done so are “set apart.” They are in a unique category, and they have a distinct identity. The apostle Peter put it this way: “you are . . . a people for [God’s] own possession” (1 Peter 2:9).

PRIVILEGE. Considering the price that had to be paid for our sins, it is the highest of privileges to be among the saints. There is no room for a condescending attitude, for no one who is in Christ deserves to be there. All are there by God’s grace. But surely, we can’t appreciate God’s grace and fail to see the honor which it bestows.

RESPONSIBILITY. There are certain things — love for God and moral purity, for example — that are expected of those set apart for Him. God is patient, but ultimately, He will disown those of His saints who reject His lordship over their lives (Matthew 7:21-23).

But finally, notice that Paul also describes the saints in Colossae as “faithful brothers.” In Christ, our common attachment to God as our Father creates a bond between us as siblings. We love those who, like us, have been baptized into Christ’s death and are being prepared for an eternity with Him (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). In this family, each of the siblings is a saint. Set apart unto God, each has accepted both the privilege and the responsibility of living in this world as a person reserved exclusively for God.

"[The word 'brothers'] is a beautiful description of that surprising new fellowship which the church constituted. It was composed of masters and slaves, of rich and poor, of Greeks and barbarians, of Gentiles and Jews; yet all these members recognized themselves as forming an actual brotherhood, a household of faith" (Charles R. Erdman).

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". . . so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:7).

PAUL’S MEMORABLE STATEMENT OF HOPE IN THIS VERSE IS SET IN THE CONTEXT OF A LARGER STATEMENT ABOUT GOD’S SALVATION. After speaking in v.3 of our sinfulness, he said that “when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us” (vv.4,5). To be in Christ is not to occupy some position which we have achieved by our own goodness; it is to have been rescued by a God whose tender love reached out and saved us.

In v.7, then, Paul wrote that those who are in Christ have been “justified.” This language is from the courtroom, and it describes the fact that in forgiving us, God moved us from being “guilty” before His law to being “innocent.” We stood before Him as lawbreakers, but He now treats us as those who have kept His law.

As Paul emphasizes, it was “by his grace” that God justified us. He “saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” (v.5). How humbling this is! And yet, the way in which it humbles us is not humiliating. It energizes us, filling us with a wholesome desire to spend the rest of our days expressing our gratitude to God for His kindness.

The result of God’s justification is that we are “heirs.” Far beyond the greatness of any legacy we could receive from an earthly father, our inheritance from God is valuable in the highest sense of that word. When the time comes, we will hear Christ say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).

As heirs, we envision our inheritance daily: we live fervently and serve faithfully in “the hope of eternal life.” The life we enjoy in Christ right now is a foretaste of the banquet that is coming, and we should be extremely thankful for it. But our inheritance is still ahead, so we must not lose our focus. “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13 NKJV).

"In the cross is health, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is heavenly sweetness, in the cross strength of mind, in the cross joy of the Spirit, in the cross the height of virtue, in the cross perfection of holiness. There is no health of the soul, no hope of eternal life, save in the cross" (Thomas à Kempis).

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". . . from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" (Revelation 1:5,6).

HERE, IN JUST TWO VERSES, IS A WORLD OF TRUTH ABOUT JESUS CHRIST. In his greeting to the seven churches of Asia at the beginning of Revelation, the apostle John ascribed glorious praise and honor to “him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” We could spend a rich lifetime pondering these two verses, learning more deeply to appreciate the King of kings and Lord of lords who has given us salvation and eternal hope.

THE FAITHFUL WITNESS. One of the claims of Jesus was that, having come from the Father, He brought us information about heavenly things that we could not know about otherwise. Speaking of Jesus, John the Baptist said, “He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony” (John 3:31,32). And Jesus Himself said, “I speak of what I have seen with my Father” (John 8:38). So when Jesus is described as “the faithful witness,” the point is that His testimony is true — whatever Jesus said about God can be believed and trusted.

THE FIRSTBORN OF THE DEAD. When He was raised from the dead, Jesus became the “firstfruits” (or “guarantee”) of our own resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20,23). He has broken the power of death, the worst weapon of Satan (John 11:25,26; Hebrews 2:14,15).

THE RULER OF KINGS ON EARTH. Jesus has been given “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). Earthly rulers are all answerable to Him; none is independent of His power. The kingdoms of men rise and fall only with His permission, and at any instant He can depose any ruler whose power stands against His eternal purposes (Psalm 2:1-12; Daniel 2:44; 7:13,14; Revelation 11:15).

Here, then, is One whom we may love and worship. “To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.” Eternal with God the Father, He is the Alpha and the Omega. The world was created through Him, and He is moving history toward its final destination. For us, salvation means this: being found “in Christ” when He returns.

"Christ himself is living at the heart of the world; and his total mystery -- that of creation, incarnation, redemption, and resurrection -- embodies and animates all of life and all of history" (Michael Quoist).

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View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/strong-statements-kingdom-july-3/

"Then, hearing this, a number of his disciples said, 'This is a hard saying; who is able to take in such teaching?'" (John 6:60 Bible in Basic English).

JESUS’ TEACHINGS WERE NOT ALWAYS EASY. Some of His sayings were, for various reasons, hard to understand, but other things He taught were simply hard to accept. As the disciples said in the text above, “Who is able to take in such teaching?” Let’s look at some of Jesus’ bold statements concerning the kingdom of God.

“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). The disciples may have been shocked to hear this. How could anyone’s righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees, of all people?

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). The kingdom could not be entered without accepting the lordship of Christ, but more would be involved in accepting it than a merely verbal acknowledgment of His authority.

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24). Material wealth does not, by itself, disqualify us from the kingdom, but its tendency is to pull us away from God, and most people allow that to happen.

“The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits” (Matthew 21:43). Blessings not used are eventually taken away (Isaiah 5:1-7), and so it is with God’s kingdom. If we don’t say yes to its invitation, there are others who will.

“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). It is a strong dose of medicine to hear the Lord say that some are not “fit” for the kingdom, but that’s the truth. And we are the ones who decide whether we’re fit or not.

If we find ourselves challenged by what Jesus taught concerning the kingdom, it’s because we need to be challenged. Whether we will allow God to rule in our hearts or not is the central concern of the gospel. And it’s not a comfortable subject because, truth to tell, there is still in our hearts a good bit of resistance to God’s rule.

"The importance of this subject may be inferred from the fact that the New Testament contains more than 100 references to the kingdom. Jesus spent the three and one-half years of His ministry 'preaching the gospel of the kingdom' (Matthew 4:23). Everything He said and did during this period of His life was related to the kingdom" (Sewell Hall).

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"The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen" (2 Timothy 4:18).

IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD SOMETHING THAT EXISTS IN THIS WORLD OR IS IT SOMETHING THAT WILL EXIST IN ETERNITY? The answer, if we let the Scriptures be our authority, is that it is both.

PRESENT. The Scriptures clearly teach that the kingdom is a present reality. Jesus said it was “at hand” (Mark 1:15), and in Mark 9:1, He said, “There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” The kingdom began on the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection (Acts 1:1-2:47), and it has existed ever since. Anyone can be in the kingdom who accepts the requirements of God’s forgiveness and lives under the loving rule of God. Paul wrote that God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).

FUTURE. The Scriptures also teach that the kingdom is a future reality, one the saints greatly anticipate but have not yet entered into (2 Timothy 4:18). Peter urged his fellow Christians to “be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10,11).

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul wrote at length about our resurrection when Christ returns. The events surrounding Christ’s return will conclude the history of this world and bring it to its climax. For those who have obeyed the gospel and remained faithful to the commitment they made, that will be the time when they pass from the kingdom of God in this world to His kingdom in eternity. “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (vv.24-26).

"To say that we are in the kingdom implies that we have submitted our lives unto the rule of God in His Son. But God’s rule was never intended to be confined in space and time, for it is an eternal kingdom. We simply submit to God’s rule now so that we may live under the rule and care of God forever. We enter the kingdom now . . . in order that we may 'be heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him' (James 2:5)" (Tommy Poarch).

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"And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind" (1 Chronicles 28:9).

SOLOMON WOULD BE A NEW KING WITH SOME SERIOUS RESPONSIBILITIES. His father David having subdued all the surrounding enemies of Israel, Solomon (whose name meant “peace”) would have to lead his people in the rightful, godly enjoyment of the peace that David had made possible. But not only that, he was also charged with building the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem which David had planned and made provision for. So in his charge to Solomon, David encouraged his son with the most important advice he could have given him: “know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind.”

KNOW THE GOD OF YOUR FATHER AND SERVE HIM. Human beings can’t “know” God in the same sense that we know one another, but God’s character can be known through His revelation of Himself. On the basis of this knowledge, it is possible to enter into a deep personal relationship with God, and no one illustrates that any more than David. Yet God must also be “served”; that is, He must be obeyed. That is the essence of what made David a man after God’s own heart. Unlike his predecessor Saul, David could be counted on to carry out the Lord’s instructions. Even in his repentance, David’s disposition was to bow humbly before God’s law.

WITH A WHOLE HEART AND WITH A WILLING MIND. A “whole heart” is one that is given to God completely, with no place in the heart reserved for other gods. Likewise, a “willing mind” is one that serves God gratefully rather than grudgingly. When these two are combined — a whole heart and a willing mind — a person’s character is well on its way to the purity of devotion that God desires.

But all of these traits result from personal choice. David would not have charged Solomon to know God and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind if Solomon could not have chosen to have that kind of character. Excuses are futile. It is our hearts that God is seeking, and it is only we who can give our hearts to Him.

"And what kind of habitation pleases God? What must our natures be like before he can feel at home within us? He asks nothing but a pure heart and a single mind. He asks no rich paneling, no rugs from the Orient, no art treasures from afar. He desires but sincerity, transparency, humility, and love. He will see to the rest" (A. W. Tozer).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth -- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation" (John 5:28,29 NKJV).

RESURRECTION! The very word stirs the soul — it is the very essence of the gospel. It was Jesus who said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). So Paul wrote these unforgettable lines, speaking for all who have obeyed the gospel and live in hope: “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51,52).

But resurrection is a double-edged sword. Go back and read our text in John 5:28,29. There, Jesus said that “the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” For some, the resurrection will be one of “life,” but to others it will be one of “condemnation.” Human beings have eternal souls — souls that will spend eternity, if not with God, then away from Him.

In Revelation 21:8, the eternal destiny of those who have refused God’s salvation is called “the second death.” Jesus said that to suffer that death is far worse than to die physically: “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12:4,5). And when He taught on hell, He used graphic language. At the judgment, the ungodly will hear the words, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). These, Jesus said, “will go away into eternal punishment” (v.46).

Our human freedom entails accountability to our Creator. And if, in the end, we have rejected Him, it will be useless to deny the choices we made. While there is time, let’s make the right choice.

"Hell is paved with great granite blocks hewn from the hearts of those who said, 'I can do no other'" (Heywood Broun).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed" (2 Thessalonians 1:9,10).

THE STARK TRUTH IS THAT OUR CHOICES WITH REGARD TO GOD WILL HAVE ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES. Having been created in the image of an eternal God, we also are eternal. Whether we accept Him or reject Him, we will live eternally. And as Paul taught in the text above, those who reject God will have an eternity “away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”

The doctrine of eternal punishment is not acceptable to the modern mind. The current trend, even among conservative Christians, is toward “universalism,” the belief that all human beings are going to be saved (or at least that the unsaved will simply be annihilated rather than punished eternally). Francis Chan worded it well: “Does everyone go to heaven? Based on what I hear at funerals, the answer is an overwhelming ‘Yes!’ How many funerals have you attended where this was even in question?” Yet, as Chan has forcefully argued, the Bible simply cannot be taken seriously if the reality of eternal punishment is not accepted.

Unfortunately, many people do not take the Bible seriously. Universalism is fueled not by biblical exegesis but by emotional preferences. Hell is simply incongruent with the way people want to feel about God. As Arthur Climenhaga has said, “The issue of the new universalism is no longer ‘God hath spoken’ but ‘Man hath reasoned.’” So this debate presents a challenge. Will we let Jesus be our Teacher in texts like Matthew 10:28 or will we not?

The knowledge that those who are lost right now will, if they fail to receive salvation in the gospel of Christ, be lost in eternity is the reason our evangelism should be so urgent. So let me ask you: is the reason why we Christians are not any more urgent in our evangelism the fact that we don’t really believe the lost will be lost? Why is there so little passion to rescue the lost? Concerning hell, non-Christians need to accept what the Scriptures teach — and the evidence suggests that many Christians need to believe it too.

"The true universalism of the Bible is the call to universal evangelism in obedience to Christ’s universal commission. It is the conviction not that all men will be saved in the end, but that all men must hear the gospel" (John Stott).

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"Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, "Show us the Father"?'" (John 14:9).

NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUR CONCEPT OF GOD. What we think of our Creator — both His character and His will — is the principal force that shapes our lives. Since ideas have consequences, the bigger the subject, the more our ideas need to be true. There being no bigger subject than God, we should be extremely careful. In the end, the way we have lived will have been the outworking of our real (not our pretended) beliefs about God.

When Jesus said that “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32), He had more in mind than just the truth about God’s plan of salvation. I believe He meant, first and foremost, the truth about God Himself. The path that He has designed for our redemption must be accepted (untruths about God’s plan are deadly), but out of all the errors that must be corrected, none are more crucial than wrong ideas about God. The problem of sin arose when we started acting on the basis of falsehoods about Him, and if the problem is to be fixed, those falsehoods must be rooted out of our thinking.

So let me ask you a practical question: what do you think about the “love of God”? And more importantly, where did you get those ideas? Most of us have some concept of what love is and how it behaves, but unfortunately those notions have often been picked up from pop psychology, pop theology, and even pop culture. Rather than letting our definition of love be formed by God, we imagine love as the world has taught us to see it, and we then transfer that shallow, sentimental view to God. Even when we flatter ourselves that we’ve gone beyond the worldly view to an understanding of “unconditional” love, we are still limited by the world’s concept of what love would actually do in specific situations. Clearly, our minds are still fettered by a good bit of untruth.

Nothing about Jesus was more revolutionary than His exemplification of love. If we take all of what He did (and not just our favorite parts), even our most “advanced” ideas about love will be disrupted. It will be a disturbing, and truly liberating, experience.

"The Christian does not understand God in terms of love; he understands love in terms of God as seen in Christ" (Joseph Fletcher).

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"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost" (1 Timothy 1:15).

EVEN BEFORE JESUS DIED, PEOPLE DISAGREED AS TO WHAT HIS PURPOSE WAS. And those disagreements continue today. Whatever He may have done or not done, what was it that He intended to do? What was His mission (and His apostles’ mission) in this world? What is the main point of the gospel of Christ? In other words, if the gospel is the solution, what is the problem that it was meant to solve?

Writing to his young coworker Timothy, Paul left no doubt about the object of Jesus’ work: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). This echoes Jesus’ own words, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Many secondary benefits flow from the forgiveness of our sins, but we must never forget the message Christ commanded to be preached in His name. Paul never forgot it, because many years later he recalled that Christ had sent him to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18). Christ ordered Paul to preach a specific message — and that message was about the forgiveness of sins.

But going back to 1 Timothy 1:15, did you notice what Paul said about himself? Christ came into the world to save sinners, “of whom I am the foremost.” If we see the gospel as providing what others need most, the forgiveness of their sins, each of us should see our own need for the gospel very personally. And when forgiven, we must not suppose it took any less of God’s grace to forgive us than might have been required for a really “sinful” person.

So let’s not misunderstand what Jesus came to do, and in our preaching, let’s not misrepresent what the gospel offers. Tempted to get lost in details and side issues, let’s come back to the center. The cancer the gospel proposes to cure is this: our sins against God.

"We shall never understand anything of our Lord's preaching and ministry unless we continually keep in mind what exactly and exclusively his errand was in this world. Sin was his errand in this world, and it was his only errand. He would never have been in this world, either preaching or doing anything else, but for sin. He could have done everything else for us without coming down into this world at all; everything else but take away our sin" (Alexander White).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15).

IF YOU HAD DOUBTS ABOUT THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, WHAT IF SOMEONE TOLD YOU THAT HE HAD COME FROM THE PRESENCE OF GOD AND COULD PERSONALLY VOUCH FOR GOD’S EXISTENCE? And suppose that person gave compelling evidence that he was telling the truth? Well, that is exactly what we have in the case of Jesus.

If (1) Jesus of Nazareth lived in the world as a real person, we need to pay attention to the historical data that can be known about Him. And if (2) a historical case can be made for the fact that His resurrection actually occurred, then He was not just a man but the Son of God. This crucial fact means that (3) of all the people who have ever lived, Jesus is the one who had the most direct information about God: everything Jesus said about God should inform our thinking on this, the most important issue in our lives.

Jesus is described as “the faithful witness” (Revelation 1:5), which means He told the truth in everything He reported to mankind about God. He claimed He came from God, had direct knowledge of Him, and bore accurate testimony about Him. To one audience, He said, “I speak of what I have seen with my Father” (John 8:38). And He said to His disciples, “All that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

These are bold claims, but the resurrection proved them to be true. If Jesus said God is real, His testimony should supersede any doubts we may have, since we’ve never been where God is. If Jesus, by His teaching and example, contradicts our opinions about the nature of God, He was in a better position to know what God is like than we are. If Jesus gave commandments for our obedience, these must be seen as having the authority of God. And finally, if Jesus taught that God’s plan for our salvation was based on His death, we can stake our lives on that. It simply can’t be emphasized too much: Jesus is the ultimate proof of God — and of God’s true nature.

"Jesus' claim to speak the things which he had 'seen' in the Father's presence (John 8:38) echoes his language in John 6:46: 'he who comes from God, he has seen the Father' . . . But no one can speak of heavenly realities except one who has come down from heaven and imparts to his hearers on earth what he has seen and heard in that transcendent realm" (F. F. Bruce).

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"'For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,' says the Lord, who has compassion on you" (Isaiah 54:10).

ONE OF THE GREAT ANCHORS OF OUR CONFIDENCE IN GOD IS THE STEADFASTNESS OF HIS LOVE. Unlike our human love, which is tragically fickle and fluctuating, God’s love will still be there though “the mountains may depart and the hills be removed.”

The Hebrew noun hesed is translated as “steadfast love” by some modern translations. Like many of the most meaningful words in any language, hesed is almost impossible to translate. There is no rendering for it that is entirely satisfactory, so translators have struggled to do it justice. Basically, hesed meant “mercy,” and in many contexts it comes close to the idea of “grace.” And yet it also has the connotation of “kindness.” To make matters even more complicated, when used in reference to God, hesed often connotes the covenantal aspect of God’s love, hence “steadfast love.” God’s love is enduring. It is, as Lois Tverberg says, “long acting love.”

It would often take a sentence in English to say what Hebrew could say in one word, hesed — but for today’s meditation, let’s stick with “steadfast love.” Because God has entered into a “covenant” or “contract” with us, we can count on Him to be loving, kind, merciful, and gracious to us because He promised He would.

The steadfastness of God’s love does not mean He will never discipline us. Indeed it is His love that will move Him to discipline us when that is what we need (Hebrews 12:5-11). Nor does God’s love mean He will not banish us from His presence in eternity if we persist in our earthly resistance to Him and refuse His offer of salvation. But until we have completely exhausted our opportunity to come back to Him and died in our rejection of His forgiveness, He will not give up on us. He will keep His covenant.

I don’t know about you, but I’m mighty glad that God’s love is steadfast. Were it not for His lovingkindness, this weak son of His would have been disinherited long, long ago. And, in Christ, I yearn for the sweet day when I shall be able to thank Him more properly.

"The love of God is consistent and cannot be altered or deterred. His love stands firmly fixed as the motive for all He asks and for all He provides. His love never changes" (Dee Bowman).

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"On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight" (Acts 20:7).

IN THIS VERSE, WE FIND THE CHRISTIANS IN THE CHURCH AT TROAS DOING SOMETHING THAT WAS MORE IMPORTANT IN THOSE DAYS THAN MANY PEOPLE THINK IT IS TODAY. They gathered together on the first day of the week to “break bread,” which in this context is a reference to what we know appropriately as the “Lord’s Supper.”

The Lord’s Supper is a partaking of unleavened bread and fruit of the vine in memory of Jesus’ death for our sins. The bread represents Christ’s body which was crucified and the fruit of the vine, the blood which He shed. It was instituted by Christ on the night before His execution (Matthew 26:26-29), and we find more teaching about it in texts like 1 Corinthians 10:16,17 and 11:17-34.

IN THE ASSEMBLY. The Lord’s Supper is not a private observance. Every word spoken about it in the New Testament presumes that it is to be done when the Lord’s people have come together.

EVERY LORD’S DAY. Just as it is linked to the assembly, it is also linked to the first day of the week — the Lord’s Day — that being the day of the Lord’s resurrection (Luke 24:1-3) and the day, a few weeks later, when the gospel was first preached in its completeness (Acts 2:1-4). And it was every Lord’s Day, as we infer from Acts 20:7 (see also 1 Corinthians 16:1,2; Revelation 1:10). Historically, it was sometime later before the Supper was separated from the Lord’s Day.

But this essay is not meant as a general discussion of the Lord’s Supper; it is written to emphasize the connection between the Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s people. Against the argument that one may be a Christian and not have anything to do with a local congregation, this is a point that needs to be pondered. If we reject “organized” religion and adopt the “spiritual but not religious” approach, where does that leave the Lord’s Supper? It is not Christianity that we are practicing today if we don’t take seriously an observance that, in the New Testament, was so extremely important to Christians on the first day of every week.

O Father, bless this solemn day,
When we assemble, sing and pray,
To honor Christ, Thine only Son,
Who tasted death for everyone.
(Craig A. Roberts)

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"Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain" (2 Corinthians 6:1).

IN THE SCRIPTURES, ONE OF THE MOST TOUCHING CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD IS THE FERVENCY WITH WHICH HE APPEALS TO HUMAN BEINGS. In many dire circumstances, God is shown pleading with people to let Him save them. But there was always a choice to be made by those needing God’s help: would they receive God’s grace or not? The basic situation of mankind is summed up well in Paul’s heartfelt exhortation to his brethren in Corinth in which he said, “We appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.”

Sadly, there are those (many of whom I admire for their sincerity) who teach that God’s grace cannot be rejected. Believing that we are born with the “original sin” of Adam’s transgression and are so depraved in our nature that we couldn’t even respond to an offer of salvation if we tried, these teachers insist that God must decide who will be saved — and those whom He decides to save, He infuses with the “enabling power” of the Holy Spirit. This grace is “irresistible” by the recipients, or so says the doctrine. God having decided who will be saved, the chosen ones do not have the power to reject the saving influence which God sends upon them. But surely, many have refused God’s efforts to win their hearts. When, for example, Jesus lamented Jerusalem’s rejection of Him (Matthew 23:37), it is woefully inadequate to say that, since they refused, it must not have really been salvation that He was offering them.

As with all the concepts that are central to Calvinism, the doctrine of irresistible grace rests on a mistaken notion of God’s sovereignty. The Calvinist argues that if anyone can say no to God, that means God is not sovereign. In other words, if we can, by the exercise of our will, keep God from saving us, that means God is not all-powerful. But actually, that argument is the one which limits God. It says that God could not have decided to make creatures endowed with a free will. But that is exactly what God did when He created us. And the result is that those who accept Him, whether many or few, do so freely and lovingly — rather than under the compulsion of their “irresistible” programming.

"It is a denial of the sovereignty of God to say that He could not create persons capable of freely rejecting him" (Curtis Byers).

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"Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies" (Romans 8:33).

TO “ELECT” IS TO “CHOOSE.” So if we were talking about our salvation by God and we said that it’s a matter of His “election” or “choosing,” what would we mean? John Calvin (and various others before him) argued that before God created the world He chose which individuals would be saved. Yet it goes far beyond the truth concerning God’s election in Romans 8:33 to teach that God unconditionally elected some individuals to salvation. Each of these terms makes a difference. Let’s take them in reverse order:

SALVATION. The Scriptures teach that, before the boys were born, God chose Jacob and not his twin brother, Esau, to father the family through whom the Messiah would come into the world (Romans 9:10-12). So yes, God did choose some persons to play specific roles in His plan to bring about salvation. But that is very different than choosing those persons to be eternally saved or lost.

INDIVIDUALS. Paul spoke of the Colossians as “God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved” (3:12). Salvation is surely a matter of God’s choice, and His divine prerogative is where the emphasis should always be kept. It was God who chose whom He would save, but what He chose was a class of people defined by a criterion: the “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5). This group is open to all who will obey. No one is barred by an eternal, unchangeable edict of God.

UNCONDITIONAL. In the New Testament, people decided whether they would obey the gospel or not (Acts 2:40,41). Yet without any conditions that can be accepted or rejected, the gospel “call” is not really an invitation. Indeed, the whole enterprise of evangelism is meaningless if God has ordained who will be saved and salvation is not contingent on anyone’s decision as to the gospel’s requirements.

If the Bible teaches anything about God, it teaches that He acts with justice — He “shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34). But if Calvinism is true, T. W. Brents was correct when he said that God cannot possibly be considered a fair and righteous judge.

"But if the doctrine . . . is true — that before the foundation of the world was laid, according to an immutable and eternal purpose of His own, without any foresight of faith, good works, or any thing else in man, God unconditionally elected some men and angels to eternal life, and at the same time foreordained the residue to dishonor and eternal wrath — then we know not how to avoid the conclusion that He is a respecter of persons" (T. W. Brents).

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"The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself" (Ezekiel 18:20).

IN THIS OFTEN-QUOTED TEXT, A PRINCIPLE OF GREAT IMPORTANCE IS ENUNCIATED: THE PRINCIPLE OF INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY. Our eternal destiny will be determined not by the deeds of others but by our own. As for righteousness, we won’t go to heaven just because we’re in a group of good people, and as for sin, we won’t be sentenced to death because of someone else’s ungodliness.

Physically, we die as a consequence of Adam’s removal from access to the tree of life (Genesis 3:22-24). The false doctrine of Calvinistic “original sin,” however, goes much further than this. It teaches that we are all born guilty of the sin that Adam committed. Standing under the condemnation of God for what Adam did, we are in a lost spiritual condition because of our eldest forefather.

If original sin were true, there is no reasonable way the principle found in Ezekiel 18:20 could be said to be valid. In the world we presently live in, it’s an obvious fact that we can be impacted by other people’s sins. Every day, people are hurt by the deeds of others, either directly or indirectly. But to say that even as infants we are guilty of Adam’s sin and are in a lost spiritual condition because of what Adam did is to make a cruel joke out of Ezekiel’s statement, “The wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” The wickedness of Adam would not only be “upon” us; it would be upon us in a much more devastating way than is ever the case when we suffer in this life as a consequence of someone else’s sin.

To make matters worse, the doctrine of original sin is part of a package of other beliefs, as we will see in the next two readings. These doctrines, if true, would mean we are cosmic game pieces, moved around by a God who decides who will be saved and who will not. But thankfully, the gospel of Christ tells a different story.

"Behind these errors is the long history of a misconception of the grace of God that denies man has free will, and accepts the doctrine of total hereditary depravity. The idea is that man is so depraved and wholly separated from God that without miraculous aid he can do nothing to bring about his redemption. The idea finally ends in the doctrine of preservation: once God has saved a person, He could never allow him to be lost" (Robert F. Turner).

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View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/lessons-from-naaman-june-20/

"So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, 'Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean' . . . So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean" (2 Kings 5:9,10,14).

NAAMAN WANTED TO BE CLEANSED FROM HIS LEPROSY, BUT HE DIDN’T LIKE WHAT HE WAS TOLD TO DO. When Elisha told him to dip himself in the Jordan River seven times, not only would such a menial act have been a blow to his pride, but he would not have seen any logical connection between the command and the benefit he hoped to receive. So he balked. But when his servants persuaded him to humble himself and obey Elisha, “his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”

If we’re honest, we probably see something of ourselves in Naaman. If God were to require of us something grand and glorious, our obedience would be prompt. And if we think we see why God would require something (the instruction “makes sense” to us), we are willing to go along with Him. But when God commands things that seem lowly, arbitrary, or irrational, we dismiss those items as “works” only a legalist would view as “required.”

The fact is, it takes humility as well as trust to do things God’s way. If we only obey when it suits us and when the act commends itself to our sense of logic, we are not really obeying God — we are doing as we please. And such self-will is what got us into trouble in the first place. If God is ever going to be allowed back on the throne of our hearts, obedience is the thing we must learn.

Naaman’s obedience certainly did not earn him the cleansing of his leprosy. It had no “merit” that would cure him. But there is no denying this: if he had not been humble enough to accept the conditions that were stipulated, his leprosy would have remained.

An old adage says, “Understanding can wait; obedience cannot.” Abraham wouldn’t have understood why he should offer up Isaac, Noah wouldn’t have understood what a flood was, and Israel wouldn’t have understood going in circles around Jericho. But it was in their obedience that God would have started making sense to them.

"Obedience is the key that unlocks the door to every profound spiritual experience" (Dorothy Kerin).

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View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/where-i-am-you-may-be-also-june-19/

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also" (John 14:1-3).

IT IS EXTREMELY ENCOURAGING FOR US TO READ OF THE DEPTH OF JESUS’ CONCERN FOR HIS DISCIPLES. As He came down to the bitter end of His life, even on the night before He knew He would be crucified the next day, His concern was for them — to comfort them, reassure them, and establish hope in their hearts. In the Gospel of John, we hear Him saying, “You have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22). And, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (16:33).

So in our text in John 14:1, we find the familiar words, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” But what idea did He want them to be encouraged by? He wanted them to keep in mind that, although He would be leaving, He would come back and take them to His eternal abode. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (v.3).

This is the hope that lies at the heart of the gospel of Christ. Having responded obediently to the gospel and been reconciled to God, we can anticipate the time when our Lord will return for us. And when He does, He will take us to be with Him forevermore.

Whatever imagery may be used to portray eternity with God, this should be the aspect of it that moves us most deeply: we will be with God. Having lived all our lives in this broken world, frustrated by our inability to have direct, face-to-face access to our Father, imagine what it will be like to actually be with Him!

To be with God where He is, of course, will require the removal of the imperfections that remain within us at present: the sinful attitudes, ungodly habits, and broken relationships. We will need to be, as one of my favorite songs says, “mended and whole.” But therein will lie the joy of heaven. Our relationship with God, our Heavenly Father, will have been perfected — and sin will no longer interfere with the exchange of love between us and Him!

"Where imperfection ceaseth, heaven begins" (Philip James Bailey).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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". . . as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man" (Acts 17:28,29).

THE WORLD WE LIVE IN IS FULL OF WONDERS. It is, as Tolkien said, “full of strange creatures beyond count.” But surely, the strangest of these by far is the human race. Human beings are so different from any of the other creatures, the more we learn about our human qualities, the more we see just how wide the gap is. (If you want to read a book that will make you think, get a copy of Mortimer J. Adler’s The Difference of Man and the Difference It Makes.)

In Acts 17:28,29, Paul pointed out that the personal nature we know we possess is a clue to the nature of God. The Greek poets had acknowledged that we are the “offspring” of God. If that’s true, Paul argued, how can we think God is any less personal than we are? He was right. If we have personal minds, those minds can’t be explained by impersonal forces. Even if our physical brains could have evolved, what scientists call the “mind” is a phenomenon the brain simply cannot produce by itself.

Today, neuroscience believes it is making progress in explaining human consciousness in completely naturalistic, biological terms. We are told that it’s only a matter of time before science discovers how the physical brain produces the “mind.” But honestly, the campaign promises of that bold project will be hard to fulfill.

Human “personhood” is very familiar to us (it may be hard to define, but we know it when we see it), and it can’t be explained from below itself — its origin can only be from above itself. The non-personal could never have produced the personal, no matter how many trillions of years it had to work with. And our physical brains can never be, all by themselves, the generative source of our rational thought and free will. In our heart of hearts, we know this. We know that what we are can only be explained by the creative act of a Personal Being who had the power to make us in His image.

"I can't understand man, Agnos, without invoking the transcendent, the supernatural, the immaterial . . . Augustine once confessed, 'The manner in which the spirit is united to the body cannot be understood by man, but it is the essence of man.' Even with theism man remains a puzzle, but to me the puzzle is augmented geometrically if theism is false" (Arlie J. Hoover).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures" (Acts 17:2).

IN THE TEXT ABOVE, NOTICE THE STANDARD OF AUTHORITY TO WHICH PAUL APPEALED. With the task of convincing a Jewish audience that Jesus’ claims were true, he “reasoned with them from the Scriptures.” If Jesus was the promised Messiah, everything about Him would match up with the portrait of the Messiah in the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures. And if the case for Jesus could not be made from the Scriptures, it would be reasonable for Paul’s Jewish hearers, and everyone else, to reject the gospel.

The Scriptures are our only worthy standard. Having originated in the mind of God (John 5:39; 2 Timothy 3:16,17; 2 Peter 1:20,21), the Scriptures are able to make us “wise for salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15). To say that they are dependable is a considerable understatement. Jesus went so far as to say, “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). So these writings are no ordinary documents. To disregard the authority with which God speaks to us in the Scriptures is to do a very foolish thing. In all the great issues of life, it is the standard of the Scriptures that must govern us.

When we are considering controversial matters, it is hard to keep our feelings from influencing our decisions. When I served on the jury for a very sensitive child molestation trial many years ago, I well remember the judge’s instructions to the jury: “Your decision should be based solely on the evidence, not on your feelings, preferences, or personal opinions.” She was right. And when it comes to questions about our relationship to God, it is even more important to have an objective standard by which to measure.

At this point in history, however, few people believe there is any objective standard by which we can navigate. Most people assume that personal feelings and experience are the “voice of God” within them. But God has not left us to the chaos of such subjective uncertainty, and His servant David was on the right track long ago. “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7).

"We must guard against grounding our spiritual commitment on the quicksands of fluctuating experiences. Experience . . . must be constantly tested and verified by the objective truths of the Word of God" (Erwin W. Lutzer).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them" (Matthew 13:5-7).

IN THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER, JESUS MADE THE POINT THAT THOSE WHO HEAR THE GOSPEL DON’T ALL HAVE THE SAME KIND OF HEART. He used the analogy of four different kinds of soil — just as the seed sown by a farmer doesn’t always fall on productive soil, the gospel doesn’t always fall into receptive hearts.

(1) ALONG THE PATH (VV.4,19). Some seed is picked up by the birds and never germinates at all. This is the person whose lack of interest in understanding the truth gives it no chance to affect him.

(2) ROCKY GROUND (VV.5,6,20,21). Some seed falls into soil that is shallow, resulting in short-rooted plants that die when the sun gets hot. This is the person who is not a commitment keeper, so when it comes to the gospel, he can’t be counted on to remain steadfast. Hardship causes him to change his mind about the Lord.

(3) AMONG THE THORNS (VV.7,22). Some seed sprouts but the plants are choked by thorns. “The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (v.22).

(4) GOOD SOIL (VV.8,23). Other seed, however, falls into fertile ground. It germinates, grows, and produces a crop. In Luke’s account, Jesus said this soil is like those who “hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). This kind of hearer is obviously the one Jesus sought, and He often found such hearers in unlikely places.

But how often do we, when we think of the Parable of the Sower, raise the question of our own receptivity to God’s word? It may be that for all our talk about the need for honesty and courage, we ourselves do not bow before the truth as receptively as we should. To be frank, it is a rare human being who is willing to follow the truth wherever it goes (and sadly, we preachers are often the least willing). Today, as we contemplate obeying the gospel, let’s challenge ourselves. God does not decide what kind of heart we have; we decide. So let’s make the decision a good one.

"A sound head, an honest heart, and an humble spirit are the three best guides through time and to eternity" (Sir Walter Scott).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, 'We will hear you again about this'" (Acts 17:32).

THERE IS NO PROPOSITION SO COMPELLING THAT EVERYONE ACCEPTS IT. No matter what is affirmed, some objection or other is always possible. So with any idea, the question is not whether anyone can come up with objections but whether those objections are valid. Taking an opinion poll won’t help us much either. Regardless of which way the opinions of the majority may be running, the only question worth asking is always: is this idea true?

In Acts 17, when Paul was asked to speak to a group of philosophers in Athens about Jesus Christ, he first talked about the nature of God. But as his argument progressed, he came to Jesus’ resurrection. At this point, “some mocked,” while others said, “We will hear you again about this.” They all heard the same words — but the response of the audience was a split decision. In the end, the gospel was not received as obediently in Athens as it was elsewhere, and perhaps that is not surprising. But Paul’s preaching was acted on affirmatively by some who heard it: “some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them” (v.34).

Today, we could make a long list of objections that people offer to the resurrection of Christ. Some of these are based on misunderstandings which can be cleared up, while others come from a lack of acquaintance with the evidence. But there is one objection that can’t be overcome by supplying additional evidence: the belief that the resurrection cannot have taken place. If a person approaches the question maintaining that such a thing is inherently impossible, he will not believe it no matter how much evidence there is.

So when it comes to miracles, and especially the resurrection, our presuppositions are crucial. In an age of astonishing discoveries, haven’t we learned to use the word “impossible” very sparingly? It is a strange world, is it not? Let us, then, be open-minded enough to admit the possibility that the resurrection could have happened — and then have the courage to assess the historical evidence fairly.

"If anything extraordinary seems to have happened, we can always say that we have been the victims of an illusion. If we hold a philosophy which excludes the supernatural, this is what we always shall say" (C. S. Lewis).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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". . . because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).

CONCERNING GOD, THE IDEAS OF “ACCOUNTABILITY” AND “JUDGMENT” ARE NOT CONGENIAL TO THE MODERN MIND. Those who believe there is a God do not usually think in terms of being judged by Him, such that their eternal destiny will be dependent on that judgment. Yet God’s judgment is one of the things affirmed about Him in the Scriptures. Consider the text in Acts 17:16-34.

In this passage, there is the account of Paul’s presentation of the gospel of Christ in Athens. Invited to speak to a group of philosophical inquirers, Paul talked first about the nature of God as a personal Creator, and then he spoke of God’s judgment.

A time has been appointed, Paul said in v.31, when the world will be judged by God. And this will be done “in righteousness,” which is to say, God’s verdict will be exactly the right verdict in every case, rendered in perfect justice. What is more, Paul said that God has entrusted this judgment into the hands of “a man whom he has appointed.” This is Jesus Christ, and “of this [God] has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

The resurrection established the truth of many things, not the least of which is Jesus’ deity: His identity as the Son of God. But Paul shows that Christ’s resurrection also verified His role as the One before whom we must stand in judgment. If someone wanted proof that judgment is coming — and that Jesus will be the Judge — no greater proof would be possible than His resurrection.

This, then, is one of the Messiah’s roles. In addition to being our High Priest and King, He is our Judge. “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:26,27). For those who have accepted the gospel faithfully, the coming judgment holds no fear, only love. But one way or the other, judgment is coming. Of that we may be sure.

"Paul does not refer directly to the human figure -- the 'one like a son of man' -- of Daniel 7:13; but this is "the man" whom he has in mind, the one in whom God’s eternal purpose finds its fulfillment, the one to whom the Father has given 'authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man' (John 5:27)" (F. F. Bruce).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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"And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised" (1 Corinthians 15:14,15).

THERE IS A VERSION OF “CHRISTIANITY” IN WHICH ALL OF THE MIRACLES ARE ELIMINATED FROM THE SCRIPTURES. Many people today take it for granted, based on their philosophy and worldview, that such a thing as a miracle is simply impossible, so the scriptural accounts of Jesus’ miracles are assumed to be fictitious.

In particular, the resurrection of Jesus is held to be a legend — an idea created by later Christians and injected into the accounts of Jesus’ life and death. Many ministers who occupy pulpits on Sunday morning may preach on the resurrection, but if you ask them privately, they will tell you they don’t believe it literally took place.

But what do we have left if we leave the resurrection out of the gospel of Christ? Not much. We may have a positive-mental-attitude system of emotional uplift and benevolent motivation, but we do not have the Christian message of salvation, for originally that gospel promised the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Paul spoke with remarkable candor when he wrote to the church in Corinth that if Christ was not raised from the dead, “our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We [the apostles] are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ.” Some seem to think that it is only in modern times that people began doubting the resurrection, but as Paul indicates, many people doubted it from the start. And he is very clear as to the choice we must make: either we accept that the resurrection occurred and obey the gospel that is based upon it — or we deny the resurrection and dispense with the gospel as nothing more than a myth whose believers are “most to be pitied” (v.19).

Like it or not, sin is real and we are lost. But no alternative to Christ is available for our forgiveness. “If Christ has not been raised . . . you are still in your sins” (v.17). To be sure, wishful thinking must not make our decision. If the gospel is false, we must face the facts. But let’s not water down what’s at stake here: hope vs. no hope.

"The resurrection of Jesus is at the heart of apostolic preaching and upon it rests the truth of the gospel" (Paul Earnhart).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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