A MONTHLY READING OF
INSIGHTS FROM RENOWNED CHRISTIANS
MAY
Day 1
A SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 24
S. D. Gordon
Let us keep in mind that this is our Lord's anwer to the questions about His coming, the full-end of the age, and the destruction of Jerusalem, which in their (the disciples') minds was connected with His coming.
The Olivet Talk, in Matthew's account of it, may be easily grouped under three general headings, after the introductory bit out of which it all grew.
The first of these may be called the tribulation group of paragraphs. It runs from verses four to forty-four of chapter twenty-four. In it our Lord speaks of a time of great distress or tribulation coming to the whole earth. This is the uppermost thought through the whole section. This is apt to come as a distinct surprise to one who is listening for something about His coming again. Yet this is the first thing He speaks of in answering the questions abaout when He will come.
There are five distinct paragraphs in this tribulation section.
The first paragraph runs through verses four to eight. It cautions against evil men coming under the pretence of being Christ, and gives the general characteristics of the tribulation in its beginnings as wars, rumors or wars, famines, and earthquakes.
The second paragraph runs through verses nine to fourteen inclusive. It tells of great tribulation coming to the Lord's followers. It helps here to remember who these disciples are representatively--not the Jewish nation but the Church. The Church will suffer during this awful time of persecution, and some will be killed. As a result of the terrible persecution, there will be a a great testing and sifting. Many will "stumble", that is, give up their faith; false religious teachers will add to the confusion; and the love of many true Christians will grow cold. These are the general characteristics of the time for the Christian people. Then our Lord gives a clue to determining when the end of all will come--it will not be until the Gospel of the Kingdom has been preached in all the world as a testimony unto all nations.
The third paragraph runs through verses fifteen to twenty-eight. It gives the opening event of this tribulation time, by which its beginning may be surely recognized. Jesus makes a quotation from Daniel, referring to something or someone called "the abomination of desolation"; when this is seen standing in the holy place of the temple in Jerusalem, that will indicate the beginning of this great tribulation. And our Lord significantly adds "let him that readeth understand". This event will be followed by a time of awful happenings. The tribulation will be such as has never been known, and never will be again. It will be a time of such terrible experience for Christ's own followers that for their sakes it is mercifully shortened.
The fourth paragraph is a brief one but brings us to the central event we are thinking of. It runs through verses twenty-nine to thirty-one, and fixes the closing event of the tribulation time. There will be disturbances in the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars, and "the powers of the heavens (i.e., powers of physical attraction and cohesion) shall be shaken". Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. His appearance will cause mourning among all the tribes of the earth. The word translated "mourning" has in it the thought of grief. And that suggests a sorrow and penitence among men when they see and recognize the Lord Jesus in His glory. Then he sends His angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and the redeemed will be caught up into His presence from every corner of the earth.
The fifth paragraph runs through verses thirty-two to forty-four, and mingles earnest pleadings to faithfulness with additional information. The budding of the fig tree was a certain sign to them of the coming of summer, so these occurrences will be the sure indication not only of His coming but that He is near. Then comes the prophetic utterance abaout the preservation of the Jewish race until all these things shall take place. Then an assurance of the absolute certainty of these events occurring; but the secrecy of the time from all, save the Father. The people of the earth will be as unprepared and as completely taken by surprise as were the people in the days of Noah. The separation of some being caught up, and the rest being left on the earth, would come as they were busy about their common duties, utterly unexpectant of anything unusual likely to occur just then. Then is the earnest plea to live so as to be always ready for His coming however unexpected it may be when it actually occurs.
It is interesting to note that the line of division between the Jew, the nations, and Christ's followers, is distinctly drawn in this Olivet Talk.
The Jews are referred to in the third person, as "this people", Luke 21:23, as "they", Luke 21:24, and as "this race", Matt. 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32.
The nations or people of the earth generally, as distinct from Jew and from the group of Christ's followers, are referred to, likewise, in the third person, as "Gentiles".
Christ's folowers are spoken to, the second person being used. The persecution which they suffer is "for My Name's sake", Matt. 24:9; Mark 13:13; Luke 21:12. To them is promised special wisdom in need, Mark 13:11; it is they who are urged to be watchful against the evil, and for His return. Indeed the whole talk is addressed to the circle of Christ's own people, later called the Church.
Here then may be put into a few sentences the teaching of Matthew, from our Lord's own lips, regarding His return. It is to be preceded by a time of tribulation, which will be a terrible experience for all, and of sore testing and suffering for God's people. This will be introduced by an event in the Jewish world at Jerusalem, something or someone called "the abomination of desolation", set up in the holy place in the temple at Jerusalem. And it will come to an end with an unsettling or a shaking of the powers that hold the heavenly bodies in their places. Then our Lord Jesus Himself shall come openly to all, in great glory, and gather to Himself His own followers, leaving all others on the earth. His coming will find the world wholly unprepared.
Quoted by John J. Scruby in The Great Tribulation The Church's Supreme Test
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Day 2
ANGER
Matthew Henry
"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny." (Matthew 5:21-26)
Christ here explains the law of the sixth commandment according to the true intent and full extent of it. The exposition of this command which the Jewish teachers contented themselves with was, Whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. This was all they had to say upon it--that willful murderers were liable to the sword of justice and casual ones to the judgment of the city of refuge. The courts of judgment sat in the gate of their principal cities; the judges, ordinarily, were twenty-three in number. These tried, condemned and executed murderers, so that whoever killed was in danger of their judgment. Now this gloss of theirs upon this commandment was faulty for it intimated that the law of the sixth commandment was only external and forbid no more than the act of murder. It laid no restraint upon the inward lusts. This was indeed the fundamental error of the Jewish teachers--that the divine law prohibited only the sinful act and not the sinful thought.
The commandment is exceedingly broad and not to be limited by the will of men. Christ tells us that rash anger is heart murder. Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause breaks the sixth commandment. Anger is a natural passion. There are cases in which it is lawful and laudable. But it is sinful when we are angry without cause: (l) When it is without any just provocation given; for no cause or no good cause. (2) When it is without any good aim but merely to show our authority, to gratify a brutish passion, to let people know our resentments and excite ourselves to revenge. If we are at any time angry, it should be to awaken the offender to repentance and prevent his doing so again. (3) When it exceeds due bounds; when we are headstrong in our anger, violent and vehement; when we seek the hurt of those we are displeased with.
From this it is inferred that we ought carefully to preserve Christian love and peace with all our brethren, and that if at any time a breach happens, we should labor for a reconciliation by confessing our fault, humbling ourselves to him, begging his pardon, or offering satisfaction for wrong done in word or deed. Because until this be done, we are utterly unfit for communion with God in holy ordinances. The case supposed is, "That your brother has something against you;" that you have injured and offended him either in reality or in his apprehension. If you are the party offended, there need be no delay; make short work of it as there is no more to be done but to forgive him. But if the quarrel began on your side and the fault is yours, go and be reconciled before you offer your gift at the altar. God will have reconciliation made and is content to wait for the gift rather than have it offered while we are under guilt.
Until this is done, we lie exposed to much danger. It is at our peril if we do not labor after an agreement, and that quickly, upon two accounts: (l) If the offense we have done is in his body, goods, or reputation, such as will bear an action in which he may recover considerable damages, it is our wisdom and duty to our family to prevent that by a humble submission and a just and peaceable satisfaction. Otherwise he may recover it by law. In such a case, it is better to make the best terms we can than to stand it out, for it is in vain to contend with the law, and there is danger of our being crushed by it. (2) While the quarrel continues and we are unfit to bring our gift to the altar, unfit to come to the table of the Lord, so we are unfit to die. If we persist in this sin, there is danger lest we be suddenly snatched away by the wrath of God whose judgment we cannot escape. Hell is a prison for all that live and die in malice and uncharitableness, and out of that prison there is no rescue, no redemption, no escape.
This is very applicable to the great business of our reconciliation to God through Christ. (l) God is an adversary to all sinners; he has a controversy with them, an action against them. (2) It is our concern to agree with him, to acquaint ourselves with him that we may be at peace. (3) It is our wisdom to do this quickly, while we are in the way. While we are alive, we are in the way; after death it will be too late. (4) They who continue in a state of enmity to God are continually exposed to the arrests of his justice and the most dreadful instances of his wrath. Hell is the prison into which those will be cast who continue in a state of enmity. (5) Damned sinners must remain in it to eternity; they shall not depart until they have paid the last penny, and that will not be to the utmost ages of eternity: divine justice will be forever in the satisfying, but never satisfied.
Matthew Henry's Commentary
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Day 3
THE SIN OF MOSES AND AARON
Alfred Edersheim
It was indeed most fitting that at the end of the thirty-seven years' wanderings Israel should once more gather at Kadesh. There they had been scattered when the evil report that the spies had brought led to their unbelief and rebellion. And now a new generation was once more at Kadesh. Besides Joshua and Caleb, to whom entrance into the land had been specially promised, only three of the old generation still remained. These were Miriam, Moses, and Aaron. And now, just at the commencement of this fresh start, as if the more solemnly to remind them of the past, Miriam, who had led the hymn of thanksgiving and triumph on their first entering the desert, was taken away. Only Moses and Aaron were now left--weary, travel-worn pilgrims--to begin a new journey with new pilgrims who had to learn afresh the dealings of Jehovah. And this may help us to understand what happened at the very outset of their pilgrimage.
Israel was in Kadesh, or rather in the desert of Zin, the name Kadesh applying probably to the whole district as well as to a special locality. So large a number of people gathered in one place would naturally soon suffer from lack of water. Let it also be remembered that this generation knew of the wonders of the Lord chiefly by hearing; but they knew of his judgments by what they had seen of death sweeping away all who had come out of Egypt. In the hardness of their hearts, it now seemed to them as if the prospect before them was hopeless, and they were destined to suffer the same fate as their fathers. Something of this unbelieving despair appears in their cry, "Would God that we had died when our brethren died before Jehovah,"--that is, by divine judgment during these years of wandering. The remembrance of the past with its disappointments seems to find expression in their complaints. It is as if they contrasted the stay of their nation in Egypt and the hopes awakened on leaving it with the disappointment of seeing the good land almost within their grasp and then being turned back to die in the wilderness! And so the people broke forth in rebellion against Moses and Aaron.
Feelings similar to theirs seem to have taken hold even of Moses and Aaron, only in a different direction. The people despaired of success and rebelled against them. With Moses and Aaron as leaders, they would never get possession of the Land of Promise. On the other hand, Moses and Aaron also despaired of success and rebelled, as it were, against the people. Such an unbelieving people rebelling at the very outset would never be allowed to enter the land. The people felt as if the prospect before them was hopeless, and so did Moses and Aaron, although on opposite grounds. But in the final analysis, the ground of despair was precisely the same. In both cases it was really unbelief in God. The people had looked upon Moses as their leader into the land, and not upon God. Moses looked at the people as they were in themselves, instead of thinking of God who now sent them forward, secure in his promise which he would assuredly fulfill. This soon appeared in the conduct and language of Moses.
It is generally thought that the sin of Moses, in which Aaron shared, consisted in his striking the rock--and doing so twice--instead of merely speaking to it. And also in the hasty and improper language which he used: "Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?" But it seems difficult to accept this view. On the one hand, we can scarcely imagine that unbelief should have led Moses to strike rather than speak to the rock, as if the former would have been more efficacious. On the other hand, it seems strange that Moses should have been directed to "take the rod," if he were not to have used it, the more so as this had been the divinely sanctioned mode of proceeding at Rephidim. Lastly, in such a case, how could Aaron have been implicated in the sin of Moses?
Be it observed that Moses is nowhere in Scripture blamed for striking instead of speaking to the rock, while it is expressly stated that the people "angered him also at the waters of strife so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes." The other aspect of the sin of Moses was afterward expressly stated by the Lord Himself, when he pronounced on Moses and Aaron the sentence that they should not "bring this congregation into the land." It was on this ground: "Because you believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel." Thus, in their rebellion against Moses and Aaron, the people had not believed that Jehovah would bring them into the land. In their anger at the people, Moses and Aaron had not believed God, to sanctify him in his power and grace. Israel failed as the people of God; Moses as their mediator. For the first time Moses failed through unbelief by looking at the sin of the people, and thence inferring the impossibility of their inheriting the promises, instead of looking at the grace and power of God which made all things possible. Unlike Abraham in similar circumstances, he staggered at the promises. And having through unbelief failed as mediator of the people, his office was to cease, and the leading of Israel into the land was to devolve upon another.
Bible History Old Testament
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Day 4
SPIRITUAL APPETITE
Charles Spurgeon
“The full soul loathes a honeycomb;
but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.”
Proverbs 27:7It has often happened that men have been so luxuriously fed that appetite has departed from them altogether. The Israelites, when they were in the wilderness, became at last so squeamish that though they were fed with the bread of heaven and did eat angels’ food, yet they said, “Our soul loathes this light bread.” And thousands in the world are in great danger of falling into the same condition, for the rarest luxuries they do not enjoy.
The rules which apply to the bodily appetite equally hold true of the mind. We easily lose our taste for anything of which we have our fill. Many men have gone the round of amusement and now nothing can please them. In a higher order of things the same process can be observed. In the pursuit of knowledge, men may come to loathe honeycombs through sheer repletion. Many a literary man has reached such a condition of fastidiousness that the books which he can enjoy are as few as the fingers of his hand. With a toss of the head he passes by volumes with which ordinary readers are charmed. “The full soul loathes a honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.”
I should not have said so much upon this principle of our nature if it had not happened to enter into religion. Men in the things of God have not always an appetite for the sweetest and most precious truth. The gospel of Jesus revealed from heaven is full of marrow and fatness, but the condition of men’s minds is such that they cannot perceive its excellence, but regard it as a tasteless thing at best, while some even treat it as though it were wormwood and gall to them. They feed upon the husks of the world with greedy relish but turn from the provisions of mercy with disdain.
The three points of my discourse will be as follows: first, that Jesus Christ is in himself sweeter than the honeycomb; second, there are those that loathe even him; and then third, there are others who appreciate him.
Let us begin then with the assured truth that Jesus Christ is himself sweeter than the honeycomb. Whether you believe it or not, the fact remains that the incarnate Word is sweeter than honey or the honeycomb. That Jesus Christ is sweeter is clear, if we consider who he is and what he gives and does. Our Lord is the incarnation of divine love. The love of God is sweet, and Jesus is that love made manifest. “God so loved the world.” I pause to ask, how much? Where shall we see at a glance the fullness of that love? Turn your eyes to Jesus, he alone answers the question. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son.” There bleeding upon Calvary, we see the heart of the Father revealed in the pierced heart of his only-begotten Son. Jesus is the focus of the love of God. The boundless goodness of God finds its best expression in the person of the Redeemer. God is love, and when that love is concentrated in one individual that it may be afterwards diffused through multitudes, there must be an infinite sweetness in that blessed person.
Second, there are those who loathe the sweetness of our Lord. Some loathe him so as to trample on him, and this I find to be the translation given in the margin, “The full soul tramples on a honeycomb.” God have mercy upon these boastful ones who persecute his saints, revile his name and despise his gospel. If there be any such here, may sovereign mercy change their hearts, or a fearful judgment awaits them. Others show that they loathe Christ because they are always murmuring at him. If they do not find fault with the gospel itself, they rail at its ministers. Nobody can please them. John comes neither eating nor drinking and they say he has a devil; the Master comes eating and drinking and they say, behold a man gluttonous and a wine bibber. One man preaches very solemnly and they call him heavy; another mingles humor with his discourse and they accuse him of frivolity; one minister uses a lofty rhetoric, he is too flowery; another speaks in simpler style, he is vulgar. This generation, like the generations before, cannot be satisfied. But it is Jesus they are discontented with.
Often this loathing is shown by an utter indifference to the gospel. The great mass of our fellow-citizens will not attend a place of worship at all, or if they do attend, it is but seldom. And when they come they leave their hearts behind them so that the word goes in one ear and out the other. The suffering Savior is nothing to them; heaven and hell are nothing to them; whether they shall be lost or saved is nothing to them.
Perhaps some present here loathe our Lord, yet think not so. They care for Jesus, but they care so little that it leads to no practical result. Some of you after ten years of hearing the gospel are still unconverted, and after twenty years of the enjoyment of gospel privileges you still have never tasted the honey of the word. If you thought it sweet, you would have tasted of it before now. You loathe it, or else you would not let it stand right under your nose untasted for years. You must be surfeited or you would not allow this honeycomb to lie untouched so long. You have meant to eat of it, you say. Yes, but I never knew a hungry man sit without eating for six hours at a table, meaning to eat all the while. No, he lays to as soon as grace has been said, and in your case the grace has been said a great many times and yet you sit with the sweets of mercy before you and refuse to eat thereof. I cannot account for it on any other theory but that there is a secret loathing in your soul.
This loathing is manifest by many signs. There is the Bible, a book of infinite sweetness, God’s letter of love to the sons of men. Is it not dreadfully dry reading! A three-volume novel suits a great many far better. There is the gospel ministry. Sermons are dull affairs, are they not? Now I will admit that some sermons are dreary and empty as a desert, but when Christ be honestly and earnestly preached, how is it you are so weary? Others are fed, why do you complain? The meat is right enough, but you have no appetite for it for the reason given in the text. When a man loathes Christ, he finds prayer to be bondage, and if he carries it on at all, it is a very dull exercise yielding no enjoyment. As to meditation, that is a thing neglected altogether by the many godless. The Sabbath with some persons is a very weary day; they are glad when it is over.
And so I close with the third point, which is this: there are some who do appreciate the sweetness of Christ. I would to God I could find such out this morning. Hungry souls we are, brethren. What would you give to have Christ? “I would give my eyes,” says one. Give him your eyes then by looking to him and you shall have him. “What I would give,” says one, “to be delivered from my besetting sin! I hunger after holiness.” Soul, you may have deliverance from besetting sins and have it for nothing. Jesus Christ has come into the world to save his people from their sins, and looking to him he will deliver you from that disease which now makes you love sin, and he will give you a taste for holiness and a principle of holiness by the Holy Ghost, and you shall henceforth become a saint unto God. You have but to trust your soul with him and you shall have pardon, peace, holiness, heaven, God, everything.
Those who hunger are those then who know the sweetness of Christ, but they must do more than that: being hungry they must feed, for though the text does not say so, it is very clear that merely being hungry does not make meat sweet; it is only sweet when you eat it. Poor soul, if you want Christ, receive him, it is all you have to do. The bread is before you; eat it. The fitness which is needed for eating is an appetite; you have it. By holy faith, then, receive Christ and he will be sweet indeed to you.
Do not waste a good appetite upon anything less sweet than the true honeycomb. When you have got that appetite for Christ, indulge it. Do not be afraid at any time of having too much of Christ. You will never have too much grace, peace, faith, or consecration.
Pray the Lord to give appetites to others. It is a grand thing to hear of ten and twenty thousand rushing to hear the gospel. While you pray to God to give others an appetite, try and create it. How can you create it? Many an appetite has been created in the streets among poor starving wretches by their passing the place where provision is prepared. The very smell of it has made their mouths water. Tell sinners how happy you are. Tell sinners what Christ has done for you. Tell them how he has pardoned you, how he has renewed your nature. Tell them about your glorious hope. Tell them how saints can live and die triumphant in Christ, and you will set their mouth a-watering. That is half the battle. When once they have an appetite, they are sure to have the meat.
biblebb.com/files/spurgeon/1227.htm
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Day 5
PRAYERS ANSWERED BY CROSSES
John Newton
I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace,
Might more of his salvation know
And seek more earnestly his face.
'Twas he who taught me thus to pray
And he, I trust has answered prayer;
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.
I hoped that in some favored hour
At once he'd answer my request;
And by his love's constraining power
Subdue my sins and give me rest.
Instead of this, he made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part.
Yea more, with his own hand he seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds and laid me low.
Lord, why is this? I trembling cried.
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?
"'Tis in this way," the Lord replied,
"I answer prayer for grace and faith."
"These inward trials I employ,
From self and pride to set thee free.
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou may seek thy all in me."
puritansermons.com/poetry/newt_11.htm
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Day 6
WHY STUDY LOGIC?
John Robbins
Logic is not psychology. It does not describe what people think about or how they reach conclusions; it describes how they ought to think if they wish to reason correctly. It is more like arithmetic than history, for it explains the rules one must follow in order to reach correct conclusions. Logic concerns all thought; it is fundamental to all disciplines, from agriculture to astronautics. There are not several kinds of logic--one for philosophy and one for religion--but the same rules of thought that apply in politics, for example, apply also in chemistry.
The first law of logic is called the law of contradiction, but recently some people have begun to call it the law of non-contradiction; the two phrases refer to the same law. Aristotle expressed the law in these words: "The same attribute cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the same subject and in the same respect." The law is expressed symbolically as "Not both A and not-A." To suggest an example: A line may be both curved and straight, but not in the same respect. One portion of it may be curved, another portion straight, but the same portion cannot be both curved and straight.
The law of contradiction means something more. It means that every word in the sentence "The line is straight" has a specific meaning. The does not mean any, all, or no. Line does not mean dog, dandelion, or donut. Is does not mean is not. Straight does not mean white or anything else. Each word has a definite meaning. In order to have a definite meaning, a word must not only mean something, it must also not mean something. Line means line, but it also does not mean dog, sunrise, or Jerusalem. If line were to mean everything, it would mean nothing; and no one, including yourself, would have the foggiest idea what you mean when you say the word line.
What does this law and the rest of logic have to do with morality? Simply this: When the Bible says, "You shall not covet," each word has a specific meaning. Attacking logic means attacking morality. If logic is disdained, then the distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil, just and unjust, merciful and ruthless also disappear. Without logic, God’s words, "You shall do no murder," really mean: "You shall murder daily" or "Stalin was Prince of Wales." The rejection of logic means the end of morality, for morality and ethics depend on understanding. Without understanding, there can be no morality. One must understand the Ten Commandments before one can obey them. If logic is irrelevant or irreligious, moral behavior is impossible, and the "practical" religion of those who belittle logic cannot be practiced at all.
Something even worse--if anything could be worse--follows from rejecting logic. If logic does not govern all thought and expression, then one cannot tell true from false. If one rejects logic, then when the Bible says that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, and rose again the third day, these words actually mean that Jesus did not suffer, was not crucified, did not die, was not buried, and did not rise again, as well as that Attila the Hun loved chocolate cake and played golf. The distinctions between true and false, right and wrong, all disappear, for there can be no distinctions made apart from using the law of contradiction.
The rejection of logic has become very popular in the twentieth century. In matters of morality, one frequently hears that "There are no blacks and whites, only shades of gray." What this means is that there is no good or evil; all actions and alternatives are mixtures of good and evil. If one abandons logic, as many people in this century have, then one cannot distinguish good from evil and everything is permitted. The results of this rejection of logic are mass murder, war, government-caused famine, abortion, child abuse, destruction of families, crimes of all sorts. The rejection of logic has led--and must lead--to the abandonment of morality.
In matters of knowledge, we’re told that truth is relative; what’s "true" for you might not be "true" for me. Christianity is "true" for some, Buddhism is "true" for others. One result has been a growing antipathy toward Christianity, which claims that all men, not some, are sinners, and that there is only one way to God, through belief in Christ. Absolute truth--which is really a redundant phrase--has been replaced by relative truth, which is really a contradiction in terms (like square circle).
The use of logic is not optional. It is so fundamental, so basic, that those who attack it must use logic in order to attack logic. They intend the words "Logic is invalid" to have specific meanings. The opponents of logic must use the law of contradiction in order to denounce it. They must assume its truth in order to declare it false. They must present arguments to persuade us that argumentation is invalid. Wherever they turn, they are boxed in.
In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, John wrote, "In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God." The Greek word Logos is usually translated Word, but it is better translated Wisdom or Logic. Our English word logic comes from this Greek word logos. John was calling Christ the Wisdom or Logic of God. In verse nine he says that Christ is "the true light" who lights every man. Christ, the Logic of God, lights every man. Strictly speaking, there is no "mere human logic" as contrasted with a divine logic, as some would have us believe. The Logic of God lights every man; human logic is the image of God. God and man think the same way--not exactly the same thoughts, since man is sinful and God is holy--but both God and man think that two plus two is four and that A cannot be not-A. Both God and Christians think that only the substitutionary death of Christ can merit a sinner’s entrance into Heaven. The laws of logic are the way God thinks. He makes no mistakes, draws no unwarranted conclusions, constructs no invalid arguments. We do, and that is one of the reasons why we are commanded by the Apostle Paul to bring all our thoughts into captivity to Christ. We ought to think as Christ does--logically.
Why study logic? We are commanded to by Scripture. Without learning how to think properly, we shall misunderstand Scripture. A study of logic will help us avoid twisting the Scripture and trying to make it imply something it does not. The Westminster Confession says all things necessary for our faith and life are either expressly set down in Scripture or may be deduced by good and necessary consequence from Scripture. It is only through a study of logic that we can distinguish a valid deduction from an invalid deduction. Therefore, "Come, let us reason together."
lgmarshall.org/Apologetics/robbins_whylogic.html
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Day 7
WHY FOUR GOSPELS?
Arthur W. Pink
Why four Gospels? It seems strange that such a question needs to be asked at this late date. The New Testament has now been in the hands of the Lord's people for almost two thousand years, and yet, comparatively few seem to grasp the character and scope of its first four books. No part of the Scriptures has been studied more widely than have the four Gospels. Yet the fact remains that the peculiar design and character of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is rarely perceived even by those most familiar with their contents.
In carefully reading through the four Gospels, it soon becomes apparent to any reflecting mind that in none of them, nor in the four together, do we have anything approaching a complete biography of our Saviour's earthly ministry. There are great gaps in His life which none of the Evangelists profess to fill in. After the record of His infancy, nothing whatever is told us about Him till He had reached the age of twelve, and after the brief record which Luke gives of Christ as a boy in the Temple at Jerusalem, followed by the statement that His parents went to Nazareth and that there He was subject unto them, nothing further is told us about Him until He had reached the age of thirty. Even when we come to the accounts of His public ministry, it is clear that the records are but fragmentary; the Evangelists select only portions of His teachings and describe in detail but a few of His miracles. Concerning the full scope of all that was crowded into His wonderful life, John gives us some idea when he says, "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written."
If then the Gospels are not complete biographies of Christ, what are they? The first answer must be that they are four books fully inspired of God; four books written by men moved by the Holy Spirit; books that are true, flawless, perfect. The second answer is that the four Gospels are so many books, each complete in itself. Each is written with a distinctive design, and that which is included in its pages and all that is left out, is strictly subordinated to that design according to a principle of selection. In other words, nothing whatever is brought into any one of the Gospels save that which was strictly relevant and pertinent to its peculiar theme and subject, and all that was irrelevant and failed to illustrate and exemplify its theme was excluded.
The four Gospels alike present to us the person and work of our blessed Saviour, but each one views Him in a distinct relationship, and only that which served to illustrate the separate design which each Evangelist had before him found a place in his Gospel. Everything else which was not strictly germane to his immediate purpose was omitted. To make this still more simple, we will use another illustration. Suppose that today four men should undertake to write a "life" of ex-president Roosevelt, and that each one designed to present him in a different character. Suppose that the first should treat of his private and domestic life, the second deal with him as a sportsman and hunter of big game, the third depict his military prowess, and the fourth trace his political and presidential career. Now it will be seen at once that these four biographers, while writing of the life of the same man, would, nevertheless, view him in four entirely different relationships. Moreover, it will be evident that these biographers would be governed in the selection of their material by the particular purpose each one had before him. Each would include only that which was germane to his own specific viewpoint, and for the same reason each would omit that which was irrelevant. For instance, suppose it was known that Mr. Roosevelt, as a boy, had excelled in gymnastics and athletics. Which of his biographers would mention this fact? Clearly, the second one, who was depicting him as a sportsman.
The above example may serve to illustrate what we have in the four Gospels. In Matthew, Christ is presented as the Son of David, the King of the Jews, and everything in his narrative centers around this truth. This explains why the first Gospel opens with a setting forth of Christ's royal genealogy, and why in the second chapter mention is made of the journey of the wise men from the East, who came to Jerusalem inquiring "Where is He that is born King of the Jews?", and why in chapters five to seven we have what is known as "The Sermon on the Mount," but which, in reality, is the Manifesto of the King containing an enunciation of the Laws of His Kingdom.
In Mark, Christ is depicted as the Servant of Jehovah, as the One who though equal with God made Himself of no reputation and "took upon Him the form of a servant." Everything in this second Gospel contributes to this central theme, and everything foreign to it is rigidly excluded. This explains why there is no genealogy recorded in Mark, why Christ is introduced at the beginning of His public ministry (nothing being told us here of His earlier life), and why there are more miracles (deeds of service) detailed here than in any of the other Gospels.
In Luke, Christ is set forth as the Son of Man, as connected with but contrasted from the sons of men, and everything in the narrative serves to bring this out. This explains why the third Gospel traces His genealogy back to Adam, the first man; why as the perfect Man He is seen here so frequently in prayer; and why the angels are seen ministering to Him, instead of commanded by Him as they are in Matthew.
In John, Christ is revealed as the Son of God, and everything in this fourth Gospel is made to illustrate and demonstrate this Divine relationship. This explains why in the opening verse we are carried back to a point before time began, and we are shown Christ as the Word "in the beginning," with God, and Himself expressly declared to be God; why we get here so many of His Divine titles, as "The only begotten of the Father," the "Lamb of God," the "Light of the world" etc.; why we are told here that prayer should be made in His Name, and why the Holy Spirit is here said to be sent from the Son as well as from the Father.
lgmarshall.org/Pink/pink_gospels.html
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Day 8
WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?
J. Gresham Machen
The question, "What is Christianity?" has within recent years become one of the questions of popular interest of the day. To many persons the raising of the question seems to be a colossal piece of impertinence. The Christian Church, they insist, is a great organization carrying on a useful service to mankind. Why should we interfere with its efficiency by asking divisive and embarrassing questions as to what it is all for? But with such persons we cannot possibly bring ourselves to agree. Efficiency, after all, simply means doing things; and it does seem to be important to ask whether the things that are being done by our boasted ecclesiastical efficiency are good or bad. It is not enough to ask whether the Church is moving smoothly. One must also ask the question whether it is moving in the right direction.
How shall we obtain the answer to this question? The method should surely be quite plain. If we are going to tell what Christianity is, surely we must take a look at Christianity as it has actually existed in the world. To say that Christianity is this or that is very different from saying that it ought to have been this or that, or that the ideal religion, whatever its name, would be this or that. Christianity is a historical phenomenon like the State of Pennsylvania or the United States of America, and it must be investigated by historical means. It may turn out to be a good thing or a bad thing; that is another question. But if we are to tell what it is, we must take a look at it as it has actually existed in the world.
But how shall we take a look at it? It has existed through some nineteen centuries and in a thousand different forms. How can we possibly obtain a common view so as to include in our definition of it what it is and exclude from our definition what it is not? To what point in the long history of Christianity should we turn in order to discover what it really is? Surely the answer to that question is perfectly plain. If we are going to determine what any great movement is, we must turn to the beginnings of the movement. So it is with Christianity. We are not asserting at this point in our argument that the founders of the Christian movement had a right to legislate for all subsequent generations. That is a matter for further investigation. But what we are asserting now is that the founders of the Christian movement, whoever they were, did have an inalienable right to legislate for all those subsequent generations that should choose to bear the name "Christian." Conceivably we may change their program; but if we do change their program, let us use a new name. It is misleading to use the old name to designate a new thing.
Now the beginnings of Christianity constitute a fairly definite historical phenomenon about which there is a certain measure of agreement, even between historians that are themselves Christian and historians that are not. Christianity is a great movement that originated a few days after the death of Jesus of Nazareth. If some one should say that it originated at an earlier time, when Jesus first gathered His disciples about Him in Galilee, we should not be inclined to quarrel with him. Indeed, we might even say that in a sense Christianity originated still farther back, in Old Testament times when the promise was first given concerning a salvation to come. But if Christianity existed before the death of Jesus, it existed only in a preliminary form. Clearly there was a strange new beginning among the disciples of Jesus soon after Jesus' death; and at that time is to be put the beginning of the great world movement which is commonly called Christianity.
What then was Christianity at that time when it began? We can answer the question with more intelligence, perhaps, if we approach it with the fashionable modern answer to it in our mind and ask whether that answer is right or wrong. Christianity, according to that fashionable modern answer, is a life and not a doctrine. It is a life or an experience that has doctrine merely as its symbolic intellectual expression, so that while the life abides the doctrine must necessarily change from age to age.
That answer, of course, involves the most bottomless skepticism that could possibly be conceived; for if everything that we say about God or about Christ or about the future life has value merely for this generation, and if something contradictory to it may have equal value in some future generation, then the thing that we are saying right now in this generation is not true even now. A thing that is useful now may cease to be useful in some future generation, but a thing that is true now remains true beyond the end of time. To say, therefore, that doctrine is the necessarily changing expression of religious experience or religious life, is simply to give up the search for truth altogether.
Was Christianity at the beginning, in that sense, a life as distinguished from a doctrine? Christianity at the beginning certainly was a life. About that there can be no manner of doubt. The first Christians led lives very different from the lives of the people about them, and everything that did not conform to that peculiarly Christian type of life was rigidly excluded from the early Church. Let us be perfectly plain about that. But how was that Christian type of life produced? There we come to the crux of the whole question. If one thing is clear to the historian, it is that that type of life was not produced merely by exhortation or merely by the magic of personal contacts. Christian missionaries did not go around the world saying, "We have been living in contact with a wonderful person, Jesus; contact with Him has changed our lives; and we call upon you our hearers, without asking puzzling questions, without settling the meaning of His death, without asking whether He rose from the dead, simply to submit yourselves to the contagion of that wonderful personality." That is, perhaps, what many modern men might have expected the first Christian missionaries to say, but to the historian it is clear that as a matter of fact they said nothing of the kind.
What they did say is summed up in a few words in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, where, as is admitted even by historians of the most skeptical kind, Paul is giving nothing less than a summary of what he "received" from the very first disciples of Jesus in the primitive Jerusalem Church: "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried; He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures." But what is that utterance that we have just quoted? Is it not an account of facts? "Christ died, He was buried, He rose again." That is a setting forth of things that happened; it is not an exhortation but a rehearsal of events, a piece of news.
"Christ died" is a fact. But to know merely that fact never did anyone any good. It never did anyone any good to know that a Jew, who was called Christ, died on a cross in the first century of our era. But it is not in that lifeless way that the fact was rehearsed by the primitive Jerusalem Church. The primitive message was not merely that Christ died, but that Christ died for our sins. That tells not merely that Christ died, but why He died and what He accomplished when He died. It gives not merely the fact but the meaning of the fact.
Christianity at the beginning was not a life as distinguished from a doctrine, or a life that had doctrine as its changing intellectual expression, but--just the other way around--it was a life founded upon a doctrine. If that be so, if the Christian religion is founded upon historical facts, then there is something in the Christian message which can never possibly change. There is one good thing about facts--they stay put. If a thing really happened, the passage of years can never possibly make it into a thing that did not happen. If the body of Jesus really emerged from the tomb on the first Easter morning, then no possible advance of science can change that fact one whit. The advance of science may conceivably show that the alleged fact was never a fact at all. It may conceivably show that the earliest Christians were wrong when they said that Christ rose from the dead the third day. But to say that "he rose from the dead on the third day" as a statement of fact was true in the first century, but that because of the advance of science it is no longer true--that is to say what is plainly absurd. The Christian religion is founded squarely upon a message that sets forth facts. If that message is false, then the religion that is founded on it must of course be abandoned. But if it is true, then the Christian Church must still deliver the message faithfully as it did on the morning of the first Easter Day.
For our part, we adopt the latter alternative. But it is a mistake to think of us merely as "conservatives." It is a mistake to think of us as though we were holding desperately to something that is old merely because it is old and were inhospitable to what is new. As a matter of fact, we are looking not merely to a continuance of conditions that now prevail, but to a burst of new power. The Spirit of God will in God's good time again enable men to see clearly, and when they see clearly, they will be convinced that the Christian message is true. We long for the coming of that time. Now that the Christian message is so generally disbelieved or forgotten, the human race is sinking gradually into bondage. The advance in material things, extraordinary though it is, is being dearly purchased by a widespread loss of human freedom. But when the gospel is brought to light again, there will again be life and liberty for mankind.
ondoctrine.com/2jgm0003.htm
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Day 9
GROWING IN GRACE
Archibald Alexander
When there is no growth, there is no life. We have taken it for granted that among the regenerate, at the moment of their conversion, there is a difference in the vigor of the principle of spiritual life, analogous to what we observe in the natural world; and no doubt the analogy holds as it relates to growth. As some children who were weak and sickly in the first days of their existence become healthy and strong, and greatly outgrow others who commenced life with far greater advantages, so it is with the 'new man'. Some who enter on the spiritual life with a weak and wavering faith, by the blessing of God on a diligent use of means, far outstrip others who in the beginning were greatly before them.
It is often observed that there are professors who never appear to grow, but rather decline perpetually until they become, in spirit and conduct, entirely conformed to the world from whence they professed to come out. The result in regard to them is one of two things: either they retain their standing in the Church and become dead formalists--"having a name to live while they are dead", "a form of godliness while they deny the power thereof"--or they renounce their profession and abandon their connection with the Church, and openly take their stand with the enemies of Christ, not infrequently going beyond them all in daring impiety. Of all such we may confidently say, "They were not of us, or undoubtedly they would have continued with us."
That growth in grace is gradual and progressive is very evident from those Scripture passages where believers are exhorted to mortify sin and crucify the flesh, and to increase and abound in all the exercises of piety and good works. One text on this subject will be sufficient: "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." And this passage furnishes us with information as to the origin and nature of this growth: It is knowledge, even the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Just so far as any soul increases in spiritual knowledge, in the same degree it grows in grace.
Persons may advance rapidly in other kinds of knowledge and yet make no advances in piety. They may even have their minds filled with correct theoretical knowledge of divine truth, and yet its effect may not be to humble but to 'puff up'. Many an accurate and profound theologian has lived and died without a ray of saving light. The natural man, however gifted with talent or enriched with speculative knowledge, has no spiritual discernment. After all his acquisitions, he is destitute of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. But it should not be forgotten that divine illumination is not independent of the Word, but accompanies it. Those Christians, therefore, who are most diligent in attending upon the Word in public and private will be most likely to make progress in piety.
We shall here present some practical directions on how to grow in grace and progress in piety.
Set it down as a certainty that this object will never be attained without vigorous continued effort. And it must not only be desired and sought, but must be considered more important than all other pursuits, and be pursued in preference to everything else which claims your attention.
While you determine to be assiduous in the use of the appointed means of sanctification, you must have it deeply fixed in your mind that nothing can be effected in this work without the aid of the Divine Spirit. "Paul may plant and Apollos water, but it is God that gives the increase." The direction of the old divines is good: Use the means as vigorously as if you were to be saved by your own efforts, and yet trust as entirely to the grace of God as if you made use of no means whatsoever.
Be much in the perusal of the Holy Scriptures and strive to obtain clear and consistent views of the plan of redemption. Learn to contemplate the truth in its true nature, that you may receive on your soul the impression which it is calculated to make. Avoid curious and abstruse speculations respecting things unrevealed, and do not indulge a spirit of controversy.
Pray constantly and fervently for the influences of the Holy Spirit. No blessing is so particularly and emphatically promised in answer to prayer as this. And if you would receive this divine gift as a well of water springing up to everlasting life, you must not only pray, but you must watch against everything in your heart or life which has a tendency to grieve the Spirit of God. Of what use is it to pray if you indulge evil thoughts and imaginations almost without control, or if you give way to the evil passions of anger, pride, and avarice, or bridle not your tongue from evil speaking?
Practice self-denial every day. Lay a wholesome restraint upon your appetites. Be not conformed to this world. Let your dress, your house, your furniture be plain and simple as becomes a Christian. Avoid vain parade and show in everything. Govern your family with discretion. Forgive and pray for your enemies. Carry on your business with sober, judicious principles. Keep clear of speculation and surety-ships. Live peaceably with all men as much as in you lies. Be much in ejaculatory prayer. Keep your heart with all diligence. Try to turn to spiritual profit every event which occurs, and be fervently thankful for all mercies.
theoldtimegospel.org/sermons/piety.html
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Day 10
TWO VERSES CONTRASTED
Thomas Chalmers
"And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship." (Acts 27:22)
"Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, 'Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.'" (Acts 27:31)Comparing these two verses lands us in what may appear to many a very dark and unprofitable speculation. Now, our object in setting up this comparison is not to foster a tendency to meddle with matters too high for us, but to protect against the practical mischief of such a tendency. You have all heard of the doctrine of predestination. It has long been a settled article of our church. And there must be a sad deal of evasion and unfair handling of particular passages to get free of the evidence which we find for it in the Bible. And independent of Scripture altogether, the denial of this doctrine brings a number of monstrous conceptions along with it. It supposes God to make a world and not to reserve in His own hand the management of its concerns. Though it should concede to him an absolute sovereignty over all matter, it deposes Him from His sovereignty over the region of created minds, which is the far more dignified and interesting portion of His works. The greatest events in the history of the universe are those which are brought about by the agency of willing and intelligent beings, and the enemies of the doctrine invest every one of these beings with some sovereign and independent principle of freedom. Thus it may be asserted of this whole class of events that they happened, not because they were ordained of God, but because the creatures of God, by their own uncontrolled power, brought them into existence. At this rate, even He to whom we give the attribute of omniscience is not able to say at this moment what shall be the fortune or the fate of any individual, and the whole train of future history is left to the wildness of accident.
In the 22nd verse, Paul announces in absolute terms that all the men of the ship were to be saved. It was the absolute purpose of God, and no obstacle whatever could prevent its accomplishment. To Him belongs that knowledge which sees everything and that power which determines everything. He could say to His prophet, "These men will certainly be saved." Compare this with what we have in the 31st verse. By this time the sailors had given up all hope of the safety of the vessel. They had toiled, they thought, in vain. And in despair of doing any good, they ceased from working the ship and resolved to abandon her. With this in view, they let down the boat to attempt deliverance for themselves and leave the passengers to perish. Upon this, Paul, though his mind had been previously assured by an intimation of the foreknowledge and predestination of God that there should be no loss of men's lives, earnestly and urgently told the centurion that unless these men should abide in the ship they would not be saved. He had told them before, in the most unrestricted terms, that they would be saved. But this does not restrain his practical urgency now. The urgency of Paul gave an alarm and a promptitude to the mind of the centurion, and he ordered his soldiers to cut the ropes which fastened the boat to the vessel in order that the sailors, deprived of this mode of escape, might be forcibly detained among them. The soldiers obeyed, and the sailors were kept on board. The sailors now lightened the ship, took up the anchors, loosed the rudder-bands, and hoisted up the mainsail to the wind. The upshot of this long intermediate process with all its steps was that the men escaped safely to land, and the decree of God was accomplished.
Now, in the first instance, it was true in the most absolute sense of the word, that these men were to be saved. In the second instance, it was no less true that unless the sailors abode in the ship, they could not be saved. And the terms of this apparent contradiction admit of a very obvious reconciliation on the known truth that God works by instruments. He may carry every single purpose of His into immediate accomplishment by the direct energy of His own hands. But, in point of fact, this is not His general way of proceeding. He chooses rather to arrive at the accomplishment of many of His objects by a succession of steps, or by the concurrence of one or more visible installments, which require time for their operation.
The instruments He employed were men--Paul speaking to the centurion, the centurion ordering the soldiers to cut the ropes and let the boat away from the vessel, the sailors obliged to work for their own safety--these were the instruments of God, and He had as much command over them as of any others He has created. He brought about the saving of the men by means of those instruments as certainly as He brings about a good harvest by the instrumentality of favorable weather and congenial seasons. He is master of the human heart and its determinations as much as He is of the elements. He reigns in the mind of man and can turn its purposes in any way that suits His purposes. He made Paul speak. He made the centurion listen and be impressed by it. He made the soldiers obey. He made the sailors exert themselves. The conditional assertion of the 31st verse was true, but He made the assertion serve the purpose for which it was uttered. He over-ruled the condition and brought about the fulfillment of the absolute prophecy in the 22nd verse. The whole of this process was as completely overruled by Him as any other process in nature.
There is no inconsistency then between these verses. God says in one of them, by the mouth of Paul, that these men were certainly to be saved. And Paul says in the other of these verses that unless the centurion and soldiers were to do so-and-so, they should not be saved. In one of the verses, it is made to be the certain and unfailing appointment of God. In the other, it is made to depend on the centurion. There is no difficulty in all this if you would just consider that God, who made the end certain, made the means certain also. It is true that the end was certainly to happen, and it is as true that the end would not have happened without the means, but God secured the happening of both and so gave sureness and consistency to the passage before us.
newble.co.uk/chalmers/sermon8vol2.html
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Day 11
"MY BRETHREN, COUNT IT ALL JOY
WHEN YOU FALL INTO VARIOUS TRIALS"John Calvin
We are exhorted to bear trials with a cheerful mind. It was especially necessary at that time to comfort the Jews as they were almost overwhelmed with troubles. The very name of the nation was so infamous that they were hated and despised wherever they went. Their condition as Christians rendered them still more miserable because their most inveterate enemies were of their own nation. This consolation was not suited to one time only, but is always useful to believers whose life is a constant warfare on earth.
We must doubtless take trials as including all adverse things, and they are so called because they are the tests of our obedience to God. He bids the faithful, while exercised with trials, to rejoice, and not only when they fall into one temptation, but into many of various kinds. They doubtless serve to mortify our flesh, and as the vices of the flesh continually shoot up in us, so trials must necessarily be often repeated. As we labor under diseases, so it is no wonder that different remedies are applied to remove them. The Lord then afflicts us in various ways, because ambition, avarice, envy, gluttony, intemperance, excessive love of the world, and the innumerable lusts in which we abound cannot be cured by the same medicine.
When he bids us to count it all joy, it is the same as though he had said that temptations ought to be deemed as gain; as to be regarded as occasions of joy. He means, in short, that there is nothing in afflictions which ought to disturb our joy. And thus, he not only commands us to bear adversities calmly and with an even mind, but shows that there is a reason why the faithful should rejoice when pressed down by them. It is, indeed, certain, that all the senses of our nature are so formed that every trial produces in us grief and sorrow, and no one of us can so far divest himself of his nature as not to grieve and be sorrowful whenever he feels any evil. But this does not prevent the children of God from rising, by the guidance of the Spirit, above the sorrow of the flesh.
"Knowing this, that the trying of your faith produces patience." We now see why he called adversities trials--because they serve to try our faith. We ought to rejoice in afflictions because they produce fruit that ought to be highly valued, even patience. Were God not to try us but rather leave us free from trouble, there would be no fortitude of mind in bearing evils.
"But let patience have her perfect work." As boldness and courage often appear in us and soon fail, James therefore requires perseverance. "Real patience," he says, "is that which endures to the end." Work here means the effort not only to overcome in one contest, but to persevere through life. There are many, as we have said, who show at first a heroic greatness, but who shortly afterward grow weary and faint. He therefore bids those who would be perfect and entire to persevere to the end; since those, who being overcome as to patience, must by degrees be necessarily weakened and at length wholly fail.
Calvin's Commentary
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Day 12
ACHAN'S SIN
Alfred Edersheim
"But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things; so the anger of the LORD burned against the children of Israel." (Joshua 7:1)
The conquest of Jericho without a fight had given Israel a full pledge of future success. But on the other hand, it might also become a source of greatest danger if the gracious promises of God were regarded as national rights, and the presence of Jehovah as secured irrespective of the bearing of Israel toward him. It was therefore of the utmost importance that from the first it should appear that victory over the enemy was Israel's only so long as the people were faithful to the covenant of their God.
In their progress toward the interior of the land, the next fortress to be taken was Ai. Situated on a conical hill about ten miles to the west of Jericho, Ai was a comparatively smaller city numbering only 12,000 inhabitants. Yet its position was exceedingly important. Northward it commanded access to the heart of the country so that a victorious army could march unopposed into the fertile district of Samaria.
The advance now to be made by Israel was so important that Joshua deemed it a proper precaution to send men to view Ai. Their report satisfied him that only an army-corps of about 3,000 men was requisite to take the city. But the expedition proved far from successful. The men of Ai issued from the city and routed Israel, killing 36 men. Viewed in any light, the event was terribly ominous. It had been Israel's first fight west of the Jordan and their first defeat. The immediate danger likely to accrue was a combination of all their enemies round about, and the utter destruction of a host which had become dispirited. Had God's pledged promises now failed, or had he given up his covenant with Israel?
Feelings like these found expression in Joshua's appeal to God when, with rent clothes and ashes upon their heads, he and the elders of Israel lay the livelong day in humiliation and prayer before the Lord, while in the camp the hearts of the people had melted and become as water. Strange that amid this universal agitation one should have remained unmoved who, all the time, knew that he was the cause of Israel's disaster and of the mourning around. Yet his conscience must have told him that so long as it remained, the curse of his sin would follow his brethren and smite them with impotence.
It is this hardness of impenitence--itself the consequence of sin--which, when properly considered, demonstrates the rightness of the divine sentence afterward executed upon Achan. His sin was of no ordinary character. It had not only been a violation of God's express command, but daring sacrilege and profanation. And this under circumstances of the most aggravated character. Besides, Joshua had, just before the fall of Jericho, warned the people of the danger to themselves and to all Israel of taking of the accursed thing. So emphatic had been the ban pronounced upon the doomed city that it was extended to all time, and even over the entire family of any who should presume to restore Jericho as a fortress.
In the face of all this, Achan had allowed himself to be tempted! He had yielded to the lowest passion and had taken from Jericho--a city where the walls had just miraculously fallen before the Lord--a Babylonish garment (curiously woven with figures and pictures), a massive golden ornament in the shape of a tongue, and a sum of silver amounting to about 25 pounds. More than that, when it had come true as Joshua predicted, that such theft would make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it, Achan still persisted in his sin.
The tidings that the sin of one of their number had involved Israel in judgment must have rapidly spread through the camp of Israel. But even this knowledge, and the summons to sanctify themselves so that on the morrow the transgressor might be designated by the Lord, did not move Achan to repentance and confession.
And now all Israel were gathered before the Lord. First approached the princes of the twelve tribes. Each name had been written separately, and the lot that was drawn bore the name of Judah. Thus singled out, the heads of the various clans of Judah next presented themselves when the lot designated that of Zarhi. And with increasing solemnity the trial went on until finally the household of Achan was singled out by the hand of God. All this time Achan had kept silence. And now he stood alone before God and Israel, that guilty one who had troubled all. Would he at last confess and "give glory to Jehovah" by owning him as the God who sees and knows all sin, however deeply hidden?
It was in the language of sorrow, not of anger, that Joshua adjured him. It wrung from Achan a full admission of his crime. How miserable the whole thing must have sounded in his own ears when he had put the facts of his sin into naked words. How paltry the price at which he had sold himself when it was brought into the broad sunlight and "laid out before the Lord," in the sight of Joshua and of all Israel. Only one thing remained to be done. They led forth the wretched man with all his household and all that belonged to them, and all Israel stoned him. And then they burned the dead body and buried all beneath a heap of stones, alike as a memorial and a warning.
Most commentators read Joshua 7:24,25 as implying that the sons and daughters of Achan were stoned with him, supposing that his family could not have been ignorant of their father's sin. Of the latter there is, however, no indication in the text. It will also be noticed that in verse 25 the singular number is used: "All Israel stoned him;" "and they raised over him a great heap of stones." In that case, the plural number which follows ("and burned them," etc.) would refer to the oxen, asses, and sheep, and to all that Achan possessed.
Bible History Old Testament
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Day 13
THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK OF ACTS
William Ramsay
It is rare to find a narrative so simple and so little forced as that of Acts. It is a mere uncolored recital of the important facts in the briefest possible terms. The narrator's individuality and his personal feelings and preferences are almost wholly suppressed. He is entirely absorbed in his work; and he writes with the single aim to state the facts as he has learned them. It would be difficult to find a work where there is less attempt at pointing a moral or drawing a lesson from the facts. The narrator is persuaded that the facts themselves in their barest form are a perfect lesson and a complete instruction, and he feels that it would be an impertinence and even an impiety to intrude his individual views into the narrative.
It is, however, impossible for an author to hide himself completely. Even in the selection of details, his personality shows itself. So, in Acts, the author shows the true Greek feeling for the sea. He hardly ever omits to name the harbors which they sailed from or arrived at, even though little or nothing in the way of incident occurred in them. But on land journeys, he confines himself to missionary facts and gives no purely geographical information. Where any statements of a geographical character occur, they serve a distinct purpose in the narrative.
Under the surface of the narrative there moves a current of strong personal affection and enthusiastic admiration for Paul. Paul is the author's hero. His general aim is to describe the development of the church, but his affection and his interest turn to Paul, and after a time his narrative groups itself around him. Luke is keenly concerned to show that Paul was in perfect accord with the leaders among the older apostles. That is the point of view of a personal friend and disciple: full of affection and jealous of Paul's honor and reputation.
The characterization of Paul in Acts is so detailed and individualized as to prove the author's personal acquaintance. Moreover, the Paul of Acts is the Paul who appears to us in his own letters, in his ways and his thoughts, in his educated tone of polished courtesy, and in his quick and vehement temper. He appears in the extraordinary versatility and adaptability which made him at home in every society, moving at ease in all surroundings and everywhere the center of interest whether he is the Socratic dialectician in the agora of Athens, or the rhetorician in its university; whether he is conversing with kings and proconsuls, or advising in the council on shipboard, cheering a broken-spirited crew to make one more effort for life. Wherever Paul is, no one present has eyes for any but him.
The question must be fairly considered whether Luke had completed his history. There is one piece of evidence from his own hand that he had not completed it but contemplated a third book at least. His work is divided into two books, the Gospel and the Acts, but in the first opening line of the Acts he refers to the gospel as the First Discourse. Had he not contemplated a third book, we expect the term Former Discourse. In a marked position like the opening of a book, we must take the word "first" strictly.
St. Paul the Traveler and Roman Citizen
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Day 14
THE SLUGGARD
Charles Spurgeon
"I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction." (Proverbs 24:30-32)
Consider Solomon's description of a sluggard: he is "a man void of understanding." I am glad to be told by Solomon so plainly that a slothful man is void of understanding, for it is useful information. I have met with persons who thought they perfectly understood the doctrines of grace, who could accurately set forth the election of the saints, the predestination of God, the firmness of the divine decree, the necessity of the Spirit's work, and all the glorious doctrines of grace which build up the fabric of our faith. But these gentlemen have inferred from these doctrines that they have to do nothing, and thus they have become sluggards. Do-nothingism is their creed. They will not even urge other people to labor for the Lord, because, say they, "God will do his own work. Salvation is all of grace!" The notion of these sluggards is that a man is to wait and do nothing; he is to sit still and let the grass grow up to his ankles in the hope of heavenly help.
Why is he void of understanding? Is it not because he has opportunities which he does not use? His day has come, his day is going, and he lets the hours glide by to no purpose. Let me not press too hardly upon anyone, but let me ask you all to press as hardly as you can upon yourselves while you inquire each one of himself, "Am I employing the minutes as they fly?" This man had a vineyard, but he did not cultivate it; he had a field, but he did not till it. Do you, brethren, use all your opportunities?
You are not asked to do in the service of God that which is utterly beyond you, for it is expected of us according to what we have and not according to what we have not. The man of two talents is not required to bring in the interest of five, but he is expected to bring in the interest of two. Solomon's slothful man was too idle to attempt tasks which were quite within his power. Many have a number of dormant faculties of which they are scarcely aware, and many more have abilities which they are using for themselves and not for him who created them. Dear friends, if God has given us any power to do good, pray let us do it, for this is a wicked, weary world.
spurgeon.org/misc/slug.htm
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Day 15
GRACE REIGNING IN ELECTION
Horatious Bonar
"Cannot I do with you as the potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel." (Jeremiah 18:6)
"Vain man would be wise, though he be born like a wild ass's colt." Accordingly, he finds fault with election as a mere system of arbitrary partiality and favoritism. He tells us that if there be such a thing as total helplessness in man and sovereign election in God, then man is not to blame if he be lost. Man's entire apostasy and death in sin so that he cannot save himself, and God's entire supremacy so that He saves whom He will, are doctrines exceedingly distasteful to human pride. But they are Scriptural.
Why was one thief saved and the other lost? "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." God was not bound to save the one, and He had power enough to have saved the other. Neither could save himself. What made the difference? The sovereign grace of God.
Why was Paul saved and Judas lost? Was it because the former deserved to be saved and the latter lost? No, neither deserved to be saved. Was it because the one was a fitting object for the grace of God and the other not? No, the one was no more a fitting object than the other. Was it because Paul chose Christ and Judas rejected Him? Well, how was it that Paul chose Christ? Was it not because Christ chose him?
Why was it that Judea was made a land of light and Egypt remained a region of darkness? Who made the difference? Man or God? Was God unjust in leaving Egypt in the shadow of death when He made light to arise on Israel? What had Israel done to deserve a privilege like this?
None have deserved salvation. No man is more fit for it than another. God was not bound to save any. God might have saved all, yet He has only saved some. Is He then unjust in only saving some when He could have saved all? Objectors say that those who are lost are lost because they rejected Christ. But did not all reject Him at first? What made the unbelief of some give way? Was it because they willed it or because God put forth His power in them? Surely the latter. Might He not, then, have put forth His power in all and prevented any from rejecting the Saviour? Yet He did not. Why? Because so it seemed good in His sight.
Is it unjust for God to save only a few when all are equally doomed to die? If not, is there any injustice in His determining beforehand to save these few and leave the rest unsaved? Had all perished there would have been no injustice with Him. How is it possible then that there can be injustice in His resolving to save some?
There can be no grace when there is no sovereignty. Deny God's right to choose whom He will and you deny His right to save whom He will. Deny His right to save whom He will, and you deny that salvation is of grace. If salvation is made to hinge on any desert or fitness in man, seen or foreseen, grace is at an end.
One of the controversies of the present day respecting the will of God is whether His will or man's is the regulating power in the universe and the procuring cause of salvation to souls. The supremacy of God's will over individual persons and events is questioned. Things are made to turn on man's will, not on God's. Conversion is made to turn on man's will, not on God's. Man's will, not God's, is to decide what individuals are to enter heaven. Man's pen and not God's is to write the names of the saved ones in the Lamb's Book of Life! Much zeal is shown for the freedom of man's will, little jealousy seems to be left for the freedom of God's will. Men insist that it is unjust and tyrannical in God to control their wills yet see nothing unjust, nothing proud, nothing Satanic in attempting to fetter and direct the will of God. Man, it seems, cannot have his own foolish will gratified unless the all-wise God will consent to relinquish His! Such are some of the steps in the march of Atheism. Such are the preparations being made in these last days by the wily usurper for dethroning the Eternal Jehovah.
Men may call these speculations. They may condemn them as unprofitable. To the law and to the testimony! Of such speculations the Bible is full. There man is a helpless worm, and salvation from first to last is of the Lord. God's will, and not man's, is the law of the universe. If we are to maintain the gospel, if we are to hold fast to grace, if we are to preserve Jehovah's honor, we must grasp these truths with no feeble hand. For if there be no such a Being as a Supreme predetermining Jehovah, then the universe will soon be chaos. And if there be no such thing as free electing love, every minister of Christ may close his lips and every sinner upon earth sit down in mute despair.
ondoctrine.com/2bon0002,htm
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Day 16
THE MAN GOD USES
Samuel Logan Brengle
A while ago I was talking with a Christian merchant who expressed a great and important truth. He said: "People are crying to God to use them, but He cannot. They are not given up to Him; they are not humble and teachable and holy. There are plenty of people who come to me and want work in my store, but I cannot use them; they are not fit for my work. When I must have someone, I have to go and advertise, and sometimes spend days in trying to find a man who will fit into the place I want him for; and then I have to try him and prove him to know whether he will suit me or not."
The fact is, God is using everybody that He can, and using them to the full extent of their fitness for His service. So, instead of praying so much to be used, people should search themselves to know whether they are usable. God cannot use anybody and everybody who comes along any more than the merchant could. It is only those who are "sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work" that He can bless with great usefulness.
God wants men and women, and He is hunting for them everywhere. But, like the merchant, He has to pass by hundreds before He finds the right individuals. The Bible says, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." Oh, how God wants to use you! But before you ask Him again to do so, see to it that your heart is "perfect toward Him." Then you may depend upon it that God will show Himself strong in your behalf.
When God searches for a man to work in His vineyard, He does not ask, "Has he great natural abilities? Is he thoroughly educated? Is he a fine singer? Is he eloquent in prayer? Can he talk much?" But, rather, He asks, "Is his heart perfect toward Me? Is he holy? Does he love much? Is he willing to walk by faith and not by sight? Does he love Me so much, and has he such childlike confidence in My love for him, that he can trust Me to use him when he doesn't see any sign that I am using him? Will he be weary and faint when I correct him and try to fit him for greater usefulness? Or will he, like Job, cry out, 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him'?
"Does he search My word and meditate therein day and night in order to do according to all that is written therein? Does he wait on Me for My counsel and seek in everything to be led by My Spirit? Or is he stubborn and self-willed, like the horse and the mule which have to be held in with bit and bridle? Is he a man-pleaser and a time-server, or is he willing to wait for his reward? And does he seek solely for the honor that cometh from God only? Does he preach the word, and is he instant in season, out of season? Is he meek and lowly in heart and humble?" When God finds such a man, He will use him. God and that man will have such a friendly understanding with each other and such mutual s/ympathy and love and confidence, that they will at once become "workers together."
Paul was such a man, and the more they whipped him, stoned him, and tried to rid the earth of him, the more God used him. At last they shut him up in prison, but Paul declared with unshaken faith, "I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound." So he spoke God's word, and neither devils nor men could put shackles on it. But over the long centuries it pierced right through the prison walls and flew across oceans and continents bearing the glorious tidings of the blessed Gospel, overthrowing thrones and kingdoms and powers of evil, and everywhere bringing light and comfort and salvation to dark, troubled, sinful hearts. Oh, how surprised Paul will be when he receives his final reward at the general judgment day and enters into possession of all the treasures he has laid up in Heaven!
Poor, troubled soul, cheer up! Be of good courage! You think you are useless, but you do not know. Trust God! Paul saw dark days. Study his life in the Acts and the Epistles and see what conflicts and discouragements he had and take courage! Jesus said, "He that believes on Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.)" See to it that you are a believer. See to it that you are filled with the Spirit, and Jesus will see to it that out of your life shall flow rivers of holy influence and power to bless the world. And you, too, will be surprised at the reckoning day to behold the vastness of your reward as compared with the littleness of your sacrifices and your work.
theoldtimegospel.org/men/mess_theman.html
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Day 17
MAN HONORED ABOVE ANGELS
John Newton
Now let us join with hearts and tongues
And emulate the angels' songs.
Yea, sinners may address their King
In songs that angels cannot sing.
They praise the Lamb who once was slain,
But we can add a higher strain.
Not only say, "He suffered thus,
But that he suffered all for us."
When angels by transgression fell,
Justice consigned them all to hell.
But Mercy formed a wondrous plan
To save and honor fallen man.
Jesus, who passed the angels by,
Assumed our flesh to bleed and die.
And still he makes it his abode;
As man he fills the throne of God.
Our next of kin, our Brother now,
Is he to whom the angels bow.
They join with us to praise his name,
But we the nearest interest claim.
But, ah! how faint our praises rise!
Sure, 'tis the wonder of the skies
That we, who share his richest love,
So cold and unconcerned should prove.
Oh, glorious hour, it comes with speed!
When we, from sin and darkness freed
Shall see the God who died for man,
And praise him more than angels can.
puritansermons.com/poetry/newt_p04.htm
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Day 18
THE DUTIES OF PARENTS
J. C. Ryle
"Train up a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not depart from it."
Proverbs 22:6I believe that most professing Christians are acquainted with our sermon text. The sound of it is probably very familiar to your ears, like an old tune. It is likely that you have heard it, read it, talked of it, or quoted it many times. But despite it being a well-known Bible verse, how little do we regard its truth! As a minister, I cannot help remarking that there is hardly any subject about which people seem so stubborn as that about their own children. I have sometimes been absolutely astonished at the slowness of sensible Christian parents to accept the fact that their own children are at fault or deserve blame. There are many persons to whom I would much rather speak about their own sins than to tell them that their children had done anything wrong. Come now, and let me place before you seventeen hints about the proper training of children.
Train them in the way they should go and not in the way that they want to go. Remember, children are born with a definite bias toward evil, and therefore if you let them choose for themselves, they are certain to choose wrong. Our hearts are like the earth on which we walk; leave it alone and it is sure to bear weeds.
Train your child with all tenderness, affection, and patience. I do not mean that you are to spoil him, but I do mean that you should let him see that you love him. Love should be the golden thread that runs through all your actions in dealing with the child. Children are weak and tender creatures, and, as such, they need patient and considerate treatment. We must handle them delicately, like frail objects, lest by rough handling we do more harm than good. We must not expect everything at once; we must teach them as they are able to bear.
Train your children with a lasting conviction in your mind that most of it depends on you. We heavily depend on those who bring us up. We get from them a taste and a bias which clings to us most of the days of our lives. We learn the language of our mothers and fathers and learn to speak it almost without thinking, and unquestionably we catch something of their manners, ways, and mind at the same time. And all this is one of God's merciful arrangements. He gives your children a mind that will receive impressions like moist clay. He gives them a disposition at the starting point of life to believe what you tell them, and to take for granted what you advise them, and to trust your word rather than a stranger's.
Train with this thought continually before your eyes that the soul of your child is the first thing to be considered. Nothing should concern you as greatly as their eternal destiny. No part of them should be so dear to you as that part which will never die. The world with all its glory will pass away, but the spirit which dwells in those little children will outlive them all, and whether they spend eternity in happiness or misery, speaking from man's perspective, will depend a lot on you.
Train your child to have a knowledge of the Bible. You cannot make your children love the Bible, I admit. No one but the Holy Spirit can give us a heart to delight in the Word. But you can make sure that your children are acquainted with the Bible. Remember that they can never become acquainted with that blessed book too soon or too well.
Train them to have a habit of prayer. Prayer is the very life-breath of true religion. It is one of the first evidences that a man is born again. "Behold," said the Lord of Saul, in the day he sent Ananias to him; "Behold, he is praying." He had begun to pray, and that was proof enough.
Train them to be faithful and regular in attending church and the Lord’s Supper. Tell them of the duty and privilege of going to Church and joining in the prayers of the congregation; that wherever the Lord's people are gathered together, there the Lord Jesus is present in a special way.
Train them to have a habit of faith. By this I mean you should train them to believe what you say. Try to make them feel a confidence in your judgment and respect your opinions as better than their own. Teach them to feel that what they do not know now they will probably know later, and to be satisfied that there is a reason for everything you require them to do.
Train them to have a habit of obedience. This is a goal which is worth any amount of effort to attain. No habit has such an influence over our lives as this. Parents, determine to make your children obey you though it may cost you a lot of trouble and cost them many tears. Let there be no questioning, reasoning, disputing, and delaying. When you give them a command, let them clearly see that you expect them to do it.
Train them to have a habit of always speaking the truth. Speaking the truth is far less common in the world than we may suspect. The whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is a golden rule which many would do well to bear in mind.
Train them to have a habit of always redeeming the time. Idleness is the devil's best friend. It is the surest way to give him an opportunity of doing us some harm. An idle mind is like an open door, and if Satan does not come through it himself, it is certain he will throw something in to arouse bad thoughts in us. No created being was ever meant to be idle. Service and work is the appointed portion of every creature of God.
Make sure that you maintain a constant fear of being an over-indulgent parent. This is the one point out of all the rest on which you have the most need to be on your guard. It is natural to be tender and affectionate towards your own flesh and blood, and it is the excess of this very tenderness and affection which you have to fear. Be careful that it does not make you blind to your children's faults and deaf to all the advice that I am giving you. Punishment and correction are disagreeable things. Nothing is more unpleasant than giving pain to those we love, and causing them to cry. But so long as hearts are what they are, it is vain to suppose, as a general rule, that children can ever be brought up without correction.
Continually remember how God trains His children. The Bible tells us that God has an elect people, a family in this world. All of us who really believe in Christ for salvation are its members. Now God the Father is always training the members of this family for their everlasting home with Him in heaven. He acts like a farmer pruning his vines, that they may bear more fruit. He is always working out everything for our good. He allots to each of us, in His providence, the very things we need in order to bear the most fruit. Dear friend, if you want to train your children wisely, note well how God the Father trains His children.
Train them, remembering continually the influence of your own example. Instruction, advice, and commands will profit little unless they are backed up by the pattern of your own life. Your children will never believe you are serious and really wish them to obey you so long as your actions contradict your instruction.
Train them, remembering continually the power of sin. You must not expect to find your children's minds a sheet of pure white paper and to have no trouble. I warn you plainly you will find no such thing. It is painful to see how much corruption and evil there is in a young child's heart and how soon it begins to bear fruit. Violent tempers, self-will, pride, envy, irritability, passion, idleness, selfishness, deceit, cunning, lying, hypocrisy, a terrible aptitude to learn what is bad, a painful slowness to learn what is good, a readiness to pretend anything in order to gain their own ends--all these things, or some of them, you must be prepared to see even in your own flesh and blood.
Train them, remembering continually, the promises of Scripture. This point is meant to guard you against discouragement. You have an absolute promise on your side, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." It speaks of a certain time when good training will especially bear fruit--"when he is old." Surely there is comfort in this. You may not see with your own eyes the result of careful training, for you do not know what blessed fruits may spring from it long after you are dead and gone. It is not God's way to give everything at once.
Lastly, train them with continual prayer for a blessing on all you do. Without the blessing of the Lord, your best efforts will do no good. He has the hearts of all men in His hands, and unless He touches the hearts of your children by His Spirit, you will wear yourself out for nothing. Therefore, water the seed you sow in their minds with unceasing prayer. The Lord is far more willing to hear than we are to pray; far more ready to give blessings than we are to ask them. I set this matter of prayer before you as the capstone and seal of all you do.
biblebb.com/files/ryle/parentsjc.htm
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Day 19
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
Arthur W. Pink
"Who is like Thee, O LORD, among the gods?
Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?"
Exodus 15:11There was a time, if "time" it could be called, when God, in the unity of His nature (though subsisting equally in three persons), dwelt all alone. "In the beginning, God." There was no heaven, where His glory is now particularly manifested. There was no earth to engage His attention. There were no angels to sing His praises. There was no universe to be upheld by the word of His power. There was nothing, no one, but God; and that not for a day, a year, or an age, but "from everlasting."
During a past eternity God was alone--self-contained, self-sufficient, in need of nothing. Had a universe or angels or humans been necessary to Him in any way, they also would have been called into existence from all eternity. Creating them when He did added nothing to God essentially. He changes not, therefore His essential glory can be neither augmented nor diminished. God was under no constraint, no obligation, no necessity to create. That He chose to do so was purely a sovereign act on His part, caused by nothing outside Himself, determined by nothing but His own good pleasure; for He "works all things after the counsel of His own will." That He did create was simply for the manifestation of His glory.
God is no gainer even from our worship. He was in no need of that external glory of His grace which arises from His redeemed, for He is glorious enough in Himself without that. What was it that moved Him to predestinate His elect to the praise of the glory of His grace? It was "according to the good pleasure of His will."
God gains nothing from us. "If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or, if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? Your wickedness affects a man such as you, and your righteousness a son of man" (Job 35:7-8). But it certainly cannot affect God, who is all-blessed in himself. It is true that God is both honored and dishonored by men in His official character, but not in His essential being. It is equally true that God has been glorified by creation, by providence, and by redemption. We do not dare dispute this for a moment. But all of this has to do with the manifestation of His glory and the recognition of it by us. Had God so pleased, He might have continued alone for all eternity without making known His glory unto creatures.
Such a God cannot be found out by searching. He can be known only as He is revealed to the heart by the Holy Spirit through the Word. It is true that Creation demonstrates a Creator, and so plainly that men are "without excuse." Yet we still have to say with Job, "Indeed, these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?" (26:14).
theoldtimegospel.org/sermons/collect_ap02.html
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Day 20
THE LOVE CHAPTER
John Calvin
"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three;
but the greatest of these is love."
1 Corinthians 13:13The first commendation of love is this: that by patient endurance of many things, it promotes peace and harmony in the church. Near akin to this is the second excellence: gentleness and leniency. A third excellence is that it counteracts emulation [rivalry, competition], the seed of all contentions. Under emulation Paul comprehends envy. Where envy reigns, that is, where everyone is desirous to be the first or appear so, love has no place.
Another aspect of love is moderation. Paul declares it a bridle to restrain men so that they may live together in a peaceable and orderly manner. He adds that love has nothing of the nature of pride. A man, then, who is governed by love, is not puffed up with pride so as to despise others and feel satisfied with himself.
Love does not behave itself unseemly. That is, love does not exult in a foolish ostentation. It does not bluster, but observes moderation and propriety.
Love does not seek its own. From this we may infer how very far we are from having love implanted in us by nature, for we are naturally prone to have love and care for ourselves and aim at our own advantage. Nay, to speak more correctly, we rush headlong into it. The remedy for so perverse an inclination is love, which leads us to leave off caring for ourselves and feel concerned for our neighbors, so as to love them and be concerned for their welfare. In addition, to seek one's own things is to be devoted to self and to be wholly taken up with concern for one's own advantage. Paul does not here reprove every kind of care or concern for ourselves, but the excess of it which proceeds from an immoderate and blind attachment to ourselves.
Loves bears all things. By this Paul estimates that love is neither impatient nor spiteful. For to bear and endure all things is the part of forbearance: to believe and hope all things is the part of candor and kindness. As we are naturally too much devoted to self, this vice renders us morose and peevish. The effect is that everyone wishes that others should carry him upon their shoulders, but refuses for his part to assist others. The remedy for this disease is love, which makes us subject to our brethren and teaches us to apply our shoulders to their burdens. And as we are naturally spiteful, we are, consequently, also suspicious and take almost everything amiss. Love, on the other hand, calls us back to kindness so that we think favorably and candidly of our neighbors.
When Paul says "all things," we must understand him as referring to the things that ought to be endured, and in such a manner as is befitting. We are not to bear with vices so as to give our sanction to them.
Love believes all things. Not that the Christian knowingly and willingly allows himself to be imposed upon, or that he divests himself of prudence and judgment that he may be the more easily taken advantage of, but that there is simplicity and kindness in judging. The consequence will be that a Christian will reckon it better to be imposed upon by his own kindness and easy temper than to wrong his brother by an unfriendly suspicion.
Love never fails; it endures forever. We should eagerly desire an excellence that will never come to an end. And so it must be preferred before temporary and perishable gifts. Prophecies have an end, tongues fail, knowledge ceases. Hence love is more excellent than they on this ground--that while they fail, love survives.
Calvin's Commentary
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Day 21
BAD ARGUMENTS AGAINST CALVINISM
(Part 1)Gregory Koukl
Often when I talk about this issue, I'm not always making a positive case for the Reformed point of view (Calvinism). Instead, I'm frequently only trying to show that some of the objections raised against the Reformed view simply don't work. By carefully removing the bad arguments, we can get down to the more substantial concerns.
One objection that falls short makes much of the "conflict" between God's sovereignty and man's free will. I personally don't see the tremendous conflict. I think God can be sovereign and fulfill His purposes even though we act freely. One thing that allows Him to do that is His omniscience. Consider the objection: "If God is sovereign, guaranteeing certain outcomes in people's lives, then there is no free will." This is flawed thinking. It doesn't follow that if God is in full control then free acts are not possible. What is critical here is the way in which God is in control, the method He uses to guarantee the outcomes. Let me illustrate. How would you catch a criminal who is on the run? Well, you'd think about where he might go, then you'd try to be there to intercept him. Now, if you had perfect knowledge--if you knew everything--you'd not only know where he is at any given moment, but where he'll be at any moment in the future. You'd know exactly what time he'd arrive at any point along his entire route. Would you be able to catch a criminal if you knew the exact moves he was going to make? If you knew the things he was going to freely choose to do--and this is important--at any given point, would you be able to catch him? Sure you could. If you know he's going down a particular road and will come around a particular corner at a particular time, you could place your men there so that when he takes the route he freely chooses (though known by you), your men would be right there to nab him. You're in control the entire time--you're sovereign. You're able to be in control because you know every move he's going to freely make. Therefore, your plan can be perfectly executed, even though he's making his free choices.
This illustration shows that God can be completely sovereign in that He controls all final outcomes, yet human beings could still make free choices. I think there is more to God's sovereignty than described here; I think He does control our specific choices in some ways. But most of our choices are free, yet God is in control. He knows enough about our free choices to work out a plan that will encompass all our free choices and still accomplish His purposes.
This thought introduces another wrong conclusion people draw about Calvinism, and has to do with one particular thing that God seems to predetermine in our lives. Reformed theology teaches that God unilaterally decides whom He will forgive, that He chooses those who are to be saved. These are called the "elect." The objection is this: If God is responsible for our salvation, then it follows that we are predetermined machines. Another way of saying this is, "If God decides the one issue of my salvation, then He decides everything. Either everything I do is free, or nothing I do is free. If God determines my salvation, then I have no free will at all." Of course, that doesn't follow. This is an all-or-nothing fallacy. Because God determines one aspect of our lives based on His mercy doesn't mean that all aspects of our lives are merely parts of a deterministic machine. It doesn't follow that if God predestines one thing in our lives--that we go to heaven--then nothing else in our lives is freely chosen. We can do all kinds of things freely. We freely choose to sin all the time, for example. That's what makes us guilty. God simply makes a choice Himself, on His side of the ledger, to exercise grace on our behalf and allow us to have mercy and forgiveness for the sin we freely commit. If you owe me a million dollars and I choose to completely forgive the debt, how is your will violated? The debt is owed to me; it's on my side of the ledger. I can cancel it if I want. It may have a further impact on your life, that in canceling the debt you don't have to work for 20 years to pay it off. But it seems to me such an action grants you freedom, not bondage. Further, freedom usually has some limitations. Even a criminal in prison has a measure of freedom. Though some choices are restricted, it doesn't follow that he has no choices at all. In the same way, if God chooses us for forgiveness and salvation, it doesn't follow that we have become robots.
Here's a third objection: If God exercises forgiveness for some and not for others, then God is the cause of people going to hell. Once again, this is a conclusion that doesn't follow. Consider this illustration. A man is imprisoned for a crime he actually committed, yet he calls a press conference claiming to the world he's been unjustly jailed. His incarceration is not fair. Why not? "It's all the governor's fault," he says. Why is it the governor's fault? "Because the governor didn't give me a pardon. If he would give me a pardon,