From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional
Evening ...
Isaiah 26:4
Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.
Seeing that we have such a God to trust to, let us rest upon Him with all our
weight; let us resolutely drive out all unbelief, and endeavour to get rid of
doubts and fears, which so much mar our comfort; since there is no excuse for
fear where God is the foundation of our trust. A loving parent would be sorely
grieved if his child could not trust him; and how ungenerous, how unkind is our
conduct when we put so little confidence in our heavenly Father who has never
failed us, and who never will. It were well if doubting were banished from the
household of God; but it is to be feared that old Unbelief is as nimble
nowadays as when the psalmist asked, "Is His mercy clean gone for ever? Will He
be favourable no more?" David had not made any very lengthy trial of the mighty
sword of the giant Goliath, and yet he said, "There is none like it." He had
tried it once in the hour of his youthful victory, and it had proved itself to
be of the right metal, and therefore he praised it ever afterwards; even so
should we speak well of our God, there is none like unto Him in the heaven
above or the earth beneath; "To whom then will ye liken Me, or shall I be
equal? saith the Holy One." There is no rock like unto the rock of Jacob, our
enemies themselves being judges. So far from suffering doubts to live in our
hearts, we will take the whole detestable crew, as Elijah did the prophets of
Baal, and slay them over the brook; and for a stream to kill them at, we will
select the sacred torrent which wells forth from our Saviour's wounded side. We
have been in many trials, but we have never yet been cast where we could not
find in our God all that we needed. Let us then be encouraged to trust in the
Lord for ever, assured that His ever lasting strength will be, as it has been,
our succour and stay.
James 2:11-13
(11) For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill.
Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a
transgressor of the law. (12) So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be
judged by the law of liberty. (13) For he shall have judgment without mercy,
that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
James highlights the importance of mercy in keeping the spirit of the
law. He exhorts us to speak and act as those who are to be judged by "a law of
liberty," so that he sets no limit to the range of the law-meaning it covers
all aspects of life.
In James 4:11, he warns us against speaking against the law or judging
the law, that is, to assume the place of judge instead of "doer of the law."
Our efforts should not be in judging someone else and whether or not they are
keeping the law. However, we should be looking inwardly to determine whether or
not we are doing what is required-not only in the letter of the law but
especially in it spirit.
James would not have used such language unless he had a profound
conviction of the perfection of the law as a rule of life for the saints
redeemed from its condemnation. Thus, we can call it the perfect law of
liberty-the royal law. Many Christians do not look at the law of God as being
perfect. They pick and choose which parts of the law they will obey, ones they
feel most comfortable with, and they ignore the rest. Yet the apostle says in
James 2:10 that if we break one, we break them all.
All sin is lawlessness, as I John 3:4 states, and the sum of all
lawkeeping is love of God and love of the brethren ( Matthew 22:36-40; Romans
13:8-10), so the summary of the old law is echoed and endorsed. And it is
continued-because Christ did not come to destroy the law but to magnify it (
Matthew 5:17-18; Isaiah 42:21).
Martin G. Collins
From The Law's Purpose and Intent
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
daily devotional
Evening ...
Psalm 24:4
He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul
unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
Outward practical holiness is a very precious mark of grace. It is to be
feared that many professors have perverted the doctrine of justification by
faith in such a way as to treat good works with contempt; if so, they will
receive everlasting contempt at the last great day. If our hands are not clean,
let us wash them in Jesus' precious blood, and so let us lift up pure hands
unto God. But "clean hands"will not suffice, unless they are connected with "a
pure heart." True religion is heart-work. We may wash the outside of the cup
and the platter as long as we please, but if the inward parts be filthy, we are
filthy altogether in the sight of God, for our hearts are more truly ourselves
than our hands are; the very life of our being lies in the inner nature, and
hence the imperative need of purity within. The pure in heart shall see God,
all others are but blind bats. The man who is born for heaven "hath not lifted
up his soul unto vanity." All men have their joys, by which their souls are
lifted up; the worldling lifts up his soul in carnal delights, which are mere
empty vanities; but the saint loves more substantial things; like Jehoshaphat,
he is lifted up in the ways of the Lord. He who is content with husks, will be
reckoned with the swine. Does the world satisfy thee? Then thou hast thy reward
and portion in this life; make much of it, for thou shalt know no other joy.
"Nor sworn deceitfully." The saints are men of honour still. The Christian
man's word is his only oath; but that is as good as twenty oaths of other men.
False speaking will shut any man out of heaven, for a liar shall not enter into
God's house, whatever may be his professions or doings. Reader, does the text
before us condemn thee, or dost thou hope to ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Nehemiah 5:14-15
(14) Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in
the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even unto the two and thirtieth year
of Artaxerxes the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brethren have not eaten
the bread of the governor. (15) But the former governors that had been before
me were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine,
beside forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bare rule over the
people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God.
Few of us know much about Nehemiah or the times he lived in. Our mental
picture of him is that he was austere, harsh, and perhaps even pharisaical.
From what the Bible presents of him, he was undoubtedly serious about his
responsibilities, brave, and circumspect, and he loved and feared God. His
character displays a lofty nobleness. Regardless of our estimation, God thinks
highly of him, and his life was so remarkable He included a few vignettes of it
in His Word for our instruction.
When the Persian king appointed him governor of the Jewish exiles who
had returned to Palestine from Babylon, Nehemiah discovered that the governors
before him were in the habit of "squeezing" the people for their own gain.
Nobody would have wondered if Nehemiah had done the same. Is that not the way
people in government operate? Everybody does it! The people would have simply
shrugged their shoulders, fully expecting it as the way things are done. It was
the custom. Nehemiah's standard, however, was exceedingly higher: His hands
must be absolutely clean.
Why did he do it? He feared God! Nehemiah's way of living reached down
into the nitty-gritty of everyday life and may have involved considerable
sacrifice. He would not operate the way the world does. Certainly, the laborer
is worthy of his hire, but sometimes sacrifices must be made, and Nehemiah
determined this was one of them. He would not conform to what everyone else
did. Several other vignettes from the same book confirm this was not a one-time
occurrence. Unless we are willing to say, "No," to what everybody else is
doing, and do it often, our Christian life will be static from its outset.
God and the world do not have the same perspectives on how to live
life. Once we have the right standards, God's standards, saying, "No," to
ourselves is of paramount importance if we want to put on the image of God and
remove the image of this world. The world, combined with our own carnality,
keeps pressuring us to conform to its attitudes and ways, and if we are
passive, it is easy for us to drift with its way of thinking. We must make
choices. Sometimes, they are very difficult because of the sacrifice involved.
In them, we will show whether we respect God and His purpose or this world.
The fear of God must become a foundation stone to us, one of the kind
of nobility and strength of character Nehemiah possessed. It does not matter
whether the issue is losing weight because of gluttony or eliminating debt
because of covetousness. The world takes little notice of God until trouble is
already upon them. But we must learn to do all things to glorify God, and it
takes deeply respecting Him to do this. Honestly, would Jesus allow Himself to
drift from His focus on glorifying God to become obese or in debt to the point
of bankruptcy? His respect for-fear of-God would not permit Him to do these
things.
The Christian has to rip himself from the world's way of thinking and
doing. He must be a nonconformist in this regard. He must always understand
that the world, though mentioning God frequently, does not fear Him, as its
conduct shows. Romans 3:18 asserts, "There is no fear of God before their
eyes." A Christian must consciously march to the beat of a different drummer.
Why do we not all conduct our life the way Nehemiah did? Partly because
of laziness, to a degree because of cowardice, and sometimes because of
ignorance. At times, we are so out of touch with God, we become swept up in
sinful activity before we are aware what is going on. Yet, at other times, we
fail because of this powerful sheep characteristic to give in to the impulse of
the moment because everybody else is doing it. There is no tyranny like the
tyranny of the majority. It can be every bit as harsh as the tyranny of a
despot. Either can put us into bondage. Unless we are willing to look at things
through the eyes of God and stand on our own two feet because we fear Him, we
will be just as helplessly enslaved to the opinions of the hour as ever.
It is a historical truism that truth on an issue often lies with the
minority. The opinions and ways of the majority are often impulsive, taking the
path of least resistance without being concerned about the long-range effects.
Those in the minority usually have the advantage of thinking things through
because they know their ideas will be unpopular and resisted, and so they
prepare themselves better.
God is most concerned about how things end, the conclusion of a matter.
He wants us to understand what the fruit of an action will be. Nehemiah was
willing to be different, a non-conformist if conforming was wrong. His respect
for God and what God thought was greater than his fear of what men would think
of him or what he would have to deny himself.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From The Elements of Motivation (Part One): Fear
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