Archive for the ‘October’ Category

The God of All Grace

Posted: October 25, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 Peter, Devotionals/Commentaries, October
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

John Piper asks, in a sermon “The Dominion Belongs to the God of All Grace”

roaring-lionSo can true, born again, Christians possibly be devoured by the devil? No they can’t, because true born again Christians resist the devil firm in their faith. That’s the meaning of being true born again Christians; they have the Holy Spirit inside moving them to fight the fight of faith.

If God says—which he does say in 1 Peter 1:5—that he will keep us eternally secure by his power through faith, then it is foolish and presumptuous to say, I am eternally secure without a life of faith. The promise stands sure in many wonderful passages of Scripture (Philippians 1:6; 1 Corinthians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24; Hebrews 13:20f., Romans 8:30): God will bring us safely through the jungle of this world and keep us from being devoured by the devil; and he will do it by his power through faith. Therefore the person who says, I believe I am eternally secure, and so I don’t need to resist the devil firm in my faith is contradicting God and throwing away the warrant of his assurance. Those who are called by God do not do that. They fight to the end. And that is their badge of being born of God.

Where Is Our Assurance Found?

Verse 10 shows us where our assurance is really found.

And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

What this verse promises is this: if God called you to his glory, he’s going to get you to his glory. A little suffering in between is not going to stop him.

The meaning of being a Christian is that we have been effectually called to eternal glory (cf. 1:15; 2:9). This is Peter’s way of saying what Paul said in Romans 8:30: Whom God calls he also justifies, and whom he justifies he also glorifies. Peter simply says, The One who called you to his glory will get you to his glory: he will perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. It’s a promise. You can take it for yourself if you will have it and believe it and bank on it this morning.

And I urge you to take it. When Peter says that “the God of all grace” makes this promise, he wants to help you believe that it’s for you. You may say. It can’t be for me. I’m not qualified. I’m not spiritual. Peter says, you don’t start with being qualified. You start with the God of all grace. Grace precedes qualification. You may have this promise freely, if you will believe in this God of all grace.

And he gives one last encouragement to believe it in verse 11: “To Him—to the God of all grace—be dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Dominion means superior strength. God has dominion over the devil. He is stronger than Satan. Therefore when he promises to successfully get us through the jungle of this world and bring us to glory, he can do it and will do it. Dominion belongs to the Lord.

Resist the Devil Firm in Your Faith

So when Satan roars with his suffering in your face and threatens to devour you, don’t say, “O, I’m eternally secure, this is no real threat.” Rather say, “The God of all grace has called me to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, and after I have suffered a little while from your claws and fangs, he will perfect and confirm and strengthen and establish me. He is a God of all grace. He is a God of absolute dominion. You can maul me. And you can even kill me. But you cannot devour me. He has called me to glory and he will get me to glory.”

Finding out truth too late?

Posted: October 25, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, John, October
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”
(John 7:32-36 ESV)

J. C Ryle:

It is far too much forgotten that there is such a thing as finding out truth too late. There may be convictions of sin, discoveries of our own folly, desires after peace, anxieties about heaven, fears of hell, but all too late. The teaching of Scripture on this point is clear and express. It is written in Proverbs–”Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.” (Prov. 1:28.) It is written of the foolish virgins in the parable, that when they found the door shut, they knocked in vain, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us.” (Matt. 25:11.) Dreadful as it may seem, it is possible, by continually resisting light and warnings, to sin away our own souls. It sounds frightening, but it is true.

‘We have a little sister…”

Posted: October 25, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, October, Song of Solomon
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

Ray Stedman comments on Song of Solomon 8:9

God has ordained that the delights reflected here be a part of the experience of man and woman in marriage. To ignore this is to cheapen these delights and to make sex as commonplace as cutting one’s fingernails. That which, with due restraint, is intended to be a rushing torrent of sensuous delight becomes instead a spreading flood in which one wades continually without pleasure.

wall.rampThis is clearly indicated toward the end of the book where reference is made to a sister of the bride: “We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister, on the day when she is spoken for? If she is a wall, we will build upon her a battlement of silver; but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar” (8:8,9).

The little girl may be like a wall, that is, closed to easy friendships, resistant to the approaches of others. Her family then will respond by “building upon her a battlement of silver.” A battlement is a sloping ramp by which a wall may be surmounted. In this case it was to be made of silver, which in Scripture is always a picture of redemption. The suggestion is that by teaching her the value of redemption by the love and grace of God she will be enabled to find a security that will safely accept the approaches of others and make her more open to communication.

boarded_doorHowever, “if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.” She may be like a door–open to all who come and far too easily influenced by others. In that case the role of the family is to protect her and enclose her with loving guidance that will enable her to grow and fully develop before she enters into marriage.

God Endures

Posted: October 25, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, Lamentations, October
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

Ray Stedman, concludes his comments on Lamentations 4-5:

Chapter 5 describes the humiliation of judgment, but in the end, Jeremiah comes to another flash of insight (verse 19):

But thou, O Lord, dost reign for ever;
thy throne endures to all generations. (Lamentations 5:19 RSV)

What does this mean? Well, it means that though man may even perish in sorrow, God endures. And because God endures, the great purpose and workings of God endure. God never does anything temporarily; all that he does endures forever. Jeremiah sees that what God has taught him in his grief will have a practical use. Even if he were to die in the midst of his grief, God’s purposes endure. God is simply preparing now for a work yet to come. God is not limited by time. He is eternal. His throne, his authority, endures to all generations. In practical terms, the prophet is realizing that after he has been through this time of grief, he will have learned a truth about God that will make him absolutely impervious to any other kind of test. Once he has been through this, nothing can reach him, nothing can upset him, nothing can trouble him, nothing can touch him or overthrow him. He is now ready for anything. And in God’s great purpose there will be an opportunity to use that strength.

Humble yourselves . . . casting your anxieties on God

Posted: October 24, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 Peter, Devotionals/Commentaries, October
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

John Piper, in  a sermon, “Are You Humble Enough to Be Care-free?”

Did you notice (in the NASB) the grammatical connection between [1Peter] verses 6 and 7? “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.” It’s not merely a new sentence. It’s a subordinate clause.

“Humble yourselves . . . casting your anxieties on him.”

I think this means that casting your anxieties on God is an expression of humility. It’s like saying,

  • “Eat politely . . . chewing with your mouth shut.”
  • “Drive carefully . . . keeping your eyes open.”
  • “Be generous . . . inviting someone over on Thanksgiving.”
  • “Humble yourselves . . . casting your anxieties on God.”

One way to be humble is to cast your anxieties on God. Which means that one hindrance to casting your anxieties on God is pride. Which means that undue worry about your future is probably a form of pride.

Ryle: The secret of getting the key of knowledge

Posted: October 24, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, John, October
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

John 7:17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

J.C.Ryle comments:

The difficulty of finding out “what is truth” in religion is a common subject of complaint among men. They point to the many differences which prevail among Christians on matters of doctrine, and profess to be unable to decide who is right. In thousands of cases this professed inability to find out truth becomes an excuse for living without any religion at all.

The saying of our Lord before us is one that demands the serious attention of people in this state of mind. It supplies an argument whose edge and point they will find it hard to evade. It teaches that one secret of getting the key of knowledge is to practice honestly what we know, and that if we conscientiously use the light that we now have, we shall soon find more light coming down into our minds. In short, there is a sense in which it is true, that by doing we shall come to knowing.

You can’t buy love.

Posted: October 24, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, October, Song of Solomon
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love
all the wealth of his house,
he would be utterly despised. Song of Solomon 8:7

You can’t buy love.  We see this truth repeatedly in our culture.  A person can be wealthy beyond comprehension and yet be lonely and unloved.  Spurgeon takes this a step further and says that GOD doesn’t try to buy our love with His gifts, either.

C.H. Spurgeon in a message, “Unpurchasable Love”

There are numbers of you who have health, and wealth, and many other things that so many desire, but they never make you love God, and they never will. You love them, and make idols of them very readily, but they do not lead you to love the Lord; while the children of God, who love their dear Savior, can tell you that they do not love him because of what he gives them, for if he takes from them, they love him all the same. With Job, they say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” They do not love him simply because he caresses them, for if he chastens them, they love him still, and kiss the rod with which he smites them.

Mercy in many forms

Posted: October 24, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, Lamentations, October
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, 
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; 
great is thy faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, 
“therefore I will hope in him.”
The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly 
for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he bear 
the yoke in his youth.
Let him sit alone in silence 
when he has laid it on him;
let him put his mouth in the dust – 
there may yet be hope;
let him give his cheek to the smiter, 
and be filled with insults. 
For the Lord will not 
cast off for ever,
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion 
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men. (Lamentations 3:22-33 RSV)

This beautiful passage comes in the midst of many hard, sad words. We see the compassion of the heart of God.  Compassionate judgment. Mercy in many forms.  Jeremiah says God does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men. His mercies are fresh every morning. In the middle of his own pain, Jeremiah remembers the Lord. Behind the suffering and devastation, God is at work because of His great love. Jerusalem was heading in the wrong way and God brought destruction so that he could restore it later.  In His great mercy, He planned to build it up again.  “The Lord does not cast off forever; though he causes grief, he will have compassion.”

“How would I ever have the strength and courage to die for Christ?”

Posted: October 23, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 Peter, Devotionals/Commentaries, October
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will
entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
(1 Peter 4:19 ESV)

In the introduction to his sermon, “The Holy Spirit Will Help You Die,” John Piper gives two examples of martyrs and then says:

hijack-gunI think it is very important for every one of you to think hard about what you would do if cultic terrorists hijacked your plane and before they blew it up offered to let everyone off who would say, “Jesus Christ is not my Savior and Lord.” The reason I think it is important to think about this is that the resurgence of fundamentalist, anti-Christian violence in the world makes it very possible that it will happen. But more important is the fact that thinking about your own death for Christ will help you live for Christ as you should. A true Christian must be willing to say, “I will not renounce Christ, even if it costs my life.” But as soon as we say that, it makes a whole lot of things in our lives look ridiculous. I will die for you, but I can’t find time to sit and read your teaching each day. I will die for you, but prayer doesn’t seem real. I will die for you, but I can’t talk to Jim about you at work. I will die for you, but I can’t support your cause with more than 10% of my income. One of the best ways to bring wonderful Christ-honoring changes into your life is to measure your way of life by your willingness to die for Jesus.

But if you are like me, you sometimes wonder, “How would I ever have the strength and courage to die for Christ?” So I have chosen 1 Peter 4:12–19 to encourage you—not that you will escape hardship but that you will be strong enough to endure it. The Holy Spirit will see to it. He will help you die the way you should. First, let’s clarify the situation the believers are facing. Second, we will see what Peter tells them to do in the face of this situation. Third, we will focus on the source of strength to do what he says.

To read or listen to the rest of this sermon, click here:

Not even his brothers believed in him

Posted: October 23, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, John, October
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

John 7:3-5  So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing.  For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.”  For not even his brothers believed in him.

J. C. Ryle comments:

The true servants of Christ in every age will do well to remember this. They are often surprised and troubled to find that in religion they stand alone. They are apt to fancy that it must be their own fault that all around them are not converted like themselves. They are ready to blame themselves because their families remain worldly and unbelieving. But let them look at the verse before us. In our Lord Jesus Christ there was no fault either in temper, word, or deed. Yet even Christ’s own “brethren did not believe in Him.”

Older Entries