A Daily Devotional

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Assurance Before God

"And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him." (1 John 3:19)

There is a chain of reasoning in this context that is important to understand. Our hearts will be "assured" before God (3:19) if we love the brethren in "deed and in truth" (3:18). A lack of that heart assurance condemns us (3:20). If our heart does not condemn us, then we will have "confidence toward God" (3:21).

It is worth noting that John uses the word "love" 26 times in this little letter. The word "know" is used 31 times, but the word "assure" is used only once (our text) and the word for "confidence" just four times. In each case, the promises of boldness in prayer or trust in answered prayer--these promises are based on our obedience.

Apparently, the key to an effective relationship with God, especially the key to a confidence in our prayer life, is a ready, visible, and instant response to God's requirements for the believer. To the degree that we abide in Him (2:28), we will be confident when He returns. Our ready love for the brethren will keep us bold before God in our prayers (3:21), and our Christlike lifestyle will give us boldness at the judgment (4:17).

Meanwhile, absolute and steady belief in God's salvation will remove any doubt that God hears us when we pray (5:14).

There is a continuing loop in these messages. We gain confidence as we "do" truth. We find more boldness as we understand God's answers to our needs and prayers for others. That, in turn, increases our confidence that God is listening to our prayers, making our hearts all the more confident in our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

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The Gods Shall Perish

"Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens." (Jeremiah 10:11)

This is a unique verse. Jeremiah, the second longest book in the Bible, is written in Hebrew except for this one verse! Why would Jeremiah make this remarkable exception here?

This verse was written in Aramaic, which was the official language of the great Babylonian empire--the world's chief nation at that time. The Babylonians, as prophesied by Jeremiah, were soon to be used as a weapon in God's hand to punish His chosen people, carrying them into exile and captivity, and the main reason for such punishment was apostasy. They had corrupted the worship of the true Creator God with the teachings and idols of the Babylonians and all the other nations around them who had rejected God.

Jeremiah had repeatedly condemned this apostasy, showing that God's people were to be punished by the very nations whose religious philosophies had so attracted them.

But those nations needed also to understand that this was not because of their own strength nor the merits of their own gods. Thus, Jeremiah appropriately inserted a special word to be conveyed
to the Babylonians, in their own official tongue. Only the true God, who made the heavens and the earth, is in control of the heavens and the earth.

The same type of warning, delivered in the "official" language of the modern world ("science?"), is needed even more today than it was in Jeremiah's day. Today's "gods"--Marx, Darwin, etc.--are even less deserving of trust than Zeus or Baal, and yet professing Christians have gone after them in droves. It is urgent that we call them back to the true Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ, urging them--before God's judgment falls once again--to repudiate every vestige of evolutionary humanism.

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Where Is Jesus Now?

"Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not." (Matthew 24:26)

The above warning was given by Christ in His famous Olivet discourse about His future second coming, right after He had predicted that many "false Christs" would first come, deceiving many (v. 24). That prediction has been fulfilled many times during the following centuries, but He Himself has not yet returned, in spite of the claims of these latter days.

However, His present location is no secret. After His resurrection and final instructions to His disciples, "he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God" (Mark 16:19). We must remember that He arose bodily from the grave, then ascended bodily to God's throne, and that "this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven" (Acts 1:11) will return. Until He returns, therefore, He is seated bodily at the right hand of the presence of the triune God in heaven. In fact, there are no less than 21 references in the Bible to the Lord Jesus now being at the right hand of God.

It is not strictly correct to say or sing that Jesus can come into our hearts, unless it is clearly understood that He is there symbolically in the presence of the indwelling Spirit of Christ. In this way, "God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts" (Galatians 4:6), so that "Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith" (Ephesians 3:17).

In the physical sense, however, the Lord Jesus Christ, still in His physical, but now immortal, body, is at "the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3) and will remain there until He returns physically back to fulfill all the remaining promises in the Scriptures and to establish the kingdom for which He created us.

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In the Days of Thy Youth

"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." (Ecclesiastes 12:1)

Here is the wisest counsel a young person can receive. Though it was first written many years ago, it is more relevant than ever today when young people are being bombarded daily with the propaganda and practices of evolutionary humanism. They urgently need to realize that despite these pressures, they are not products of chance, with pleasure their only aim in life. They are special creations of God, with a high and holy purpose destined for them by their Creator.

If they will only recognize this fact, acknowledging God, in Christ, as Creator and Savior while they are young, trusting and obeying His word as they mature, they can anticipate a life of fulfillment. "I have been young, and now am old," David said, "yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread" (Psalm 37:25).

If they refuse their Creator in the days of their youth, however, then it will become increasingly difficult to remember their Creator as the years go by. Few are converted in later life. They can only anticipate the bitterness and regrets of old age and death, as described so vividly in the verses following our text. Under the figure of a decaying house symbolizing their aging bodies, the forlorn picture is drawn of fading eyesight, trembling hands, buckling knees, sleepless nights, easy irritability, increasing senility, and other aspects of approaching death--all with no pleasure in them, because they long ago had forgotten their Creator. Remember now thy Creator, young man, young woman! Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). Therefore, "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12).

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Saving Faith and True Creation

"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." (Hebrews 11:3)

This is the very first object and example of faith in the Bible's great "faith chapter," Hebrews 11. This fact strongly argues that any truly meaningful and effective faith must be founded, first of all, on the revealed fact of special creation--creation ex nihilo--not creation through some protracted, naturalistic, imaginary process of evolution. All of the "worlds" (Greek, aion--that is, the "space/times"--the continuum of space and time which constitutes the physical cosmos) were simply called into existence by God's omnipotent Word. "He spake, and it was done" (Psalm 33:9). In no way did He have to start with some chaotic form of matter already in existence. Jesus Christ--the Word of God (John 1:14)--created space and time as well as matter/energy. "By Him were all things created" (Colossians 1:16). "Without Him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3).

Right at the end of the previous chapter, the apostle asserts that "the just shall live by faith" (Hebrews 10:38) and concludes by speaking of those "that believe |literally 'have faith'| to the saving of the soul" (v. 39). Following immediately then is his definition of faith, and after that the great progression of objects and examples of faith in Hebrews 11. Heading the list of these, of course, is faith in the special creation of all things by the Word of God. The necessary conclusion is that a "living" faith and "saving" faith must be founded, first of all, on the fact of supernatural creation of all things by God in the beginning.

Evolution is also based on faith, but it is contrary to Scripture and to true science. "Theistic evolution" is a false faith, and those Christians who believe such things should carefully examine their hearts in the light of God's Word.

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Many False Prophets

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." (1 John 4:1)

There is an unusual emphasis in the New Testament about false prophets. The Greek word pseudoprophetes appears 11 times and has no corresponding word in the Old Testament.

Of the 298 usages of "prophet" in the Hebrew Scriptures, eight of them are connected to "false" prophets, and only in relation to visions and dreams. In the New Testament, the pseudoprophetes are workers of "miracles" and "signs and wonders."

John gives the warning to "try the spirits" because many false prophets are now here. Prior to Christ's coming, the false "dreamer" (Deuteronomy 13:1-5) would readily be exposed when his prophecy did not come about. Such a false prophet was to be executed!

But the prophets of the "last time" (1 John 2:18) will perform great wonders (Matthew 24:24) and can "seduce . . . even the elect" (Mark 13:22).

Here's the problem; they come from among Christians! Peter warns us in 2 Peter 2:1-3 in five ways:

    * They come from a "Christian" background.
    * They deny the biblical Lord Jesus in some way.
    * They will become very popular, especially with emotionally motivated people.
    * They will degrade doctrines of the Bible.
    * They will stimulate greed to attract followers.

We are warned to test every one of them, and when they do not abide in the doctrine of Christ, we are to reject their teaching and not have any fellowship with them (2 John 9-11). They are dangerous (Matthew 7:15)!

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Praying According to His Will

"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." (1 John 5:14-15)

This promise is comprehensive and unlimited--a tremendous assurance of answered prayer. But there is one proviso--according to His will! There are a number of Christians who, with all good intentions, have argued that it evidences a lack of faith to add the qualification "if it be thy will" to one's prayer. But this can hardly be true in light of the example of Christ Himself, when he "prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39).

The question is how to know whether or not we are praying according to God's will. One key, of course, is to search the Scriptures. God's will can never contradict His Word, and it is foolish to ask God to do something which the Scriptures themselves forbid. "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts" (James 4:3).

When, however, we sincerely desire God's will to be done, and so far as can be determined there is no biblical or personal barrier hindering our prayer, then we can pray in confidence even if we yet don't know for certain God's will in the matter. "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: But the Spirit |himself| maketh intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:26-28).

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The Integrity of the Written Word

"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you." (Deuteronomy 4:2)

In addition to the numerous times when the writers of the Bible asserted that what they wrote came directly from God (e.g., Leviticus 1:1; Jeremiah 1:4; Revelation 1:1), there are at least four warnings against tampering with these revealed words.

The first is our text above, in which Moses commanded neither to add to nor diminish from anything he had written. This warning was supplemented later with the following: "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it" (Deuteronomy 12:32).

Moses was the first writer of the Bible and it was appropriate that he should give such a warning. The last was John, and his warning was even more severe, at the very end of the whole body of Scripture. "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life" (Revelation 22:18-19).

Since John was the last apostle, it is clear that this warning is against any later attempt to add some new "revelation" to the now-complete Word of God.

Then, very near the middle of the Bible, there is this: "Every word of God is pure: . . . Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar" (Proverbs 30:5-6). And remember also the words of Christ: "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18). So don't mess with the Word of God!

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Sweet Naamah

"Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green." (Song of Solomon 1:16)

These words begin King Solomon's tender expressions of love to his beautiful young wife. Solomon wrote a thousand and five songs (1 Kings 4:32), but apparently this was his favorite, for he called it his "song of songs" (Song 1:1), and it clearly centered on his beloved, whom he called "my sister, my spouse" no less than four times (Song 4:9-12; 5:1), thereby intimating both their spiritual and marital relationship.

Rehoboam was Solomon's only son, as far as recorded, and his mother's name was Naamah (2 Chronicles 12:13), meaning "pleasant." Since he was 41 years old when he inherited Solomon's throne and since Solomon had only reigned 40 years (2 Chronicles 9:30), the marriage of Solomon and Naamah must have been formalized when Solomon was quite young, long before he was married to Pharoah's daughter or any of his other 700 wives. Naamah was then and always his one real love, in spite of his spiritual defections in old age. His counsel to young men near the end of his life was: "Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days . . . of thy vanity" (Ecclesiastes 9:9).

Note that Solomon called her "fair" and "beloved" in our text, and then "pleasant." The Hebrew word for "pleasant" is very similarly to "Naamah" as though Solomon were calling her by a shortened form of her name as a term of endearment. The same word is occasionally translated "sweet." Naamah was surely a sweet, pleasant maiden, but also a capable woman in mind and heart, fit to become a queen.

Solomon's song for and about her is an inspired ode to true marital love and thus can even be a figurative testimony to the love of Christ, the "greater than Solomon" for His church.

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Dinosaurs and the Bible

"Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He moveth his tail like a cedar: . . . His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God." (Job 40:15-19)

In this remarkable passage, the Lord has been urging Job and his three philosophizing friends to consider all the marvelous evidences of God's power and wisdom in nature. Finally he calls their attention to "behemoth" (from a Hebrew word meaning "gigantic beast"), the greatest land animal God ever made--"chief of the ways of God."

Commentators who have tried to identify a living animal as behemoth have called it either an elephant or a hippopotamus, but it is obvious that neither of these animals "moveth his tail like a cedar." The other descriptions are also inappropriate. It should be obvious that the behemoth is an extinct animal, very probably a great dinosaur. This would be obvious were it not for the widespread evolutionary delusion that dinosaurs became extinct 70 million years ago, with man evolving only about a million years ago. Modern creation scientists, however, have published many well-documented evidences that dinosaurs existed contemporaneously with early humans up to relatively recent times, and that these supposed evolutionary eons of time are pure fiction. Early men, such as Job, could indeed marvel at this gigantic creature of God and also rejoice in God's ability to control the great problems of life as well as His sincere concern with every individual need of His people.

It is also worth noting that there are several references to dragons in the Bible, as well as in ancient traditions everywhere, and it is likely these also reflect the memories of dinosaurs retained by early tribes after the Flood.

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He Hath Chosen Us

"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." (Ephesians 1:4)

Although we cannot really understand how God could choose us (same Greek word as "elected") before the creation of the world, we can rejoice in the fact and praise Him for "his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Timothy 1:9). The testimony of the preceding verse (Ephesians 1:3) is that we have received "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ," all "according to the good pleasure of his will" (v. 5), "according to the riches of his grace" (v. 7), and "according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself" (v. 9). It must thus all be "to the praise of the glory of his grace" (v. 6).

It is clear from this passage that God's choice of us was not simply a matter of His foreseeing our choice of Him, but was a choice solely by His own will and grace: "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit . . ." (John 15:16). This in no wise lessens our own responsibility to trust in Christ and to believe "the gospel of your salvation" (Ephesians 1:12-13), even though in our finite minds we cannot understand how to correlate these two concepts. Both are true, because both are taught in His Word, and both are occasions for rejoicing because they reflect both His love and His omnipotence.

God told Jeremiah: "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (Jeremiah 31:3). Before the world began, God knew each of us and loved us, and prepared to die to save us from our sins, and then to draw us to Himself. "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it" (Psalm 139:6). We can only thank and praise Him, and then seek earnestly to live fully for Him, all our days.

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The Enduring Work of God

". . . whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him." (Ecclesiastes 3:14)

God is both omniscient and omnipotent. He has the wisdom to know what is best to do, and the power to do it. Thus, He makes no mistakes and never needs to go back and revise or redirect something He started. What He does is forever!

This fundamental principle has many profound implications. It anticipates the basic scientific law of conservation, the most important and universal law of science. The basic physical entities which comprise and organize all natural processes--energy, mass, momentum, electric charge--are all "conserved" throughout nature, being neither created nor destroyed in the present natural order of things.

The same applies to the basic kinds of plants and animals--evolutionists to the contrary notwithstanding. "After its kind" is the universal law of reproduction, and there is not the slightest evidence in the real data of biology that this law has ever been violated, or even could be violated.

And it also applies to the created cosmos, as a whole. Many Scriptures (e.g., Psalm 148:1-6) assure us that the sun, moon, and stars, as well as the renewed earth, will continue to function through all the endless ages to come. Nothing can defeat God's primeval purposes in creating them.

Most of all, it applies to our great salvation: "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish" (John 10:28). "The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him" (Psalm 103:17). "His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away" (Daniel 7:14). "My salvation shall be for ever" (Isaiah 51:6). "The word of our God shall stand for ever" (Isaiah 40:.

The remarkable principle of universal conservation is given "that men should fear before him."

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Spirit of Antichrist

"And this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world." (1 John 4:3)

The four passages in the New Testament that use this term are unique to the apostle John (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; and 2 John 1:7).The term itself is a transliteration of the Greek compound word anti plus christos, meaning one who is "against" Christ.

John distinguishes between "the" Antichrist (1 John 2:18) and the "many" antichrists against whom we are continually fighting today.

Although a sincere Christian should be aware of the Antichrist (the "man of sin" in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10), far more caution is urged to identify and fight the spirit of antichrist that is already here!

To begin with, it should be noted that there is no specific word for "spirit" in 1 John 4:3. The English word is supplied by the translators to clarify the obvious meaning of the text, that it is the attitude or character of antichrist of which we are to be wary. Those who have this spirit are liars (1 John 2:22), mainly because they refuse to accept the truth that Jesus is the Christ.

Further rejection of that truth centers around denial of the incarnation of Christ, that Jesus is the Creator God come in human flesh (1 John 4:3 and 2 John 1:7). Those who would deny that truth embrace the very core of all lies and become anti Christ.

Such persons are like the thief and the robber who harm the sheep (John 10:1), embrace another gospel (Galatians 1:6-9), and teach other doctrines (1 Timothy 1:3-7).

From such as these we are to turn away (2 Timothy 3:5).

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The Great Commission

"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15)

The so-called "great commission" of the Lord to His disciples is found in somewhat different form in each of the four gospels and in still another form in the first chapter of Acts. To get the full message of the commission, all five must be analyzed and organized together.

The most familiar statement is in Mark 16:15 above. This was in the upper room and must have followed the words recorded by John: "Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you" (John 20:21).

The commission was then further defined as recorded in Luke 24:47-48: "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things."

Still later, on a mountain in Galilee, He told the disciples (literally): "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20). Not only were they to preach the saving gospel, implemented by true repentance unto remission of sins, based on His death, burial, and resurrection (Luke 24:46), but then to "disciple" them, baptize them, and indoctrinate them in all His teachings.

Finally, just before His ascension, He summarized the commission once again: "ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:. Above all, we are to go and to witness to all people in all places, as God enables.

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Sinning Against the Lord

"And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." (2 Samuel 12:13)

A basic truth is expressed in this confession of David's: Every sin--not only the sin of blasphemy or of unbelief--is essentially a sin against the Lord and His nature of absolute righteousness.

This does not mean, of course, that sin hurts no one except God. In David's case, his sin resulted in the murder of a faithful soldier, Uriah; the implication of Bathsheba in David's adultery; and then the death of his infant son. It probably also contributed to the subsequent sins of two other sons of David, Amnon and Absalom. Furthermore, as Nathan said, it had "given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme" (v. 14).

Nevertheless, it was, above all else, a sin against God. God had chosen David as king and had blessed him abundantly, yet David was not content and elected to make his own decisions in rebellion against the will of God and the Word of God. But when he was made to realize, by Nathan, what he had done, he immediately repented of his sin, and thereby received forgiveness.

God, in His grace, has made a wonderful provision for forgiveness and restoration, because "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." Therefore, "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:7, 9).

Confession must be specific and sincere, of course, not general and superficial to be effective. But if this is done, then we can exclaim joyfully with David: "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered," because he first, as he said, "acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid" (Psalm 32:1, 5).