A Daily Devotional

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Defending The Gospel


“But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel” (Philippians 1:17).

Many Christians today decry the use of apologetics or evidences in Christian witnessing, feeling it is somehow dishonoring to the Lord or to the Scriptures to try to defend them.

But as our text indicates, the apostle Paul did not agree with this. The gospel does need defending, and he was set for its defense against the attacks of its adversaries. He also told his disciples that “in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace” (Philippians 1:7).

The Greek word translated “defense” is apologia, from which we derive our English word “apologetics.” It is a legal term, meaning the case made by a defense attorney on behalf of a defendant under attack by a prosecutor. Thus, the apostle is saying: “I am set to give an apologetic for the gospel—a logical, systematic (scientific if necessary) defense of the gospel against all the attacks of its adversaries.”

Since we are “partakers” with him in this defense, we also need to be set for its defense. We must “be ready always to give an answer (same word, apologia) to every man that asketh (us) a reason of the hope that is in (us)” (I Peter 3:15). Any Christian who shares his faith with the unsaved has encountered many who cannot believe the simple plan of salvation until his questions are answered. We must be familiar with the “many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3) of the deity of Christ and His power to save, both as omnipotent Creator and sin-bearing Savior. We must “search the Scriptures daily” and also study the “witness” He has given in the creation (Acts 17:11; 14:17) if we are to do this effectively, bringing forth fruit that will “remain” (John 15:16) instead of fruit that has withered away, “because it had no root” (Mark 4:6). The gospel is under vicious attack today, so may God help us to be among its victorious defenders.

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Profit And Loss


“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

In these materialistic days, many people have become abnormally occupied with investments and returns, capital gains and losses, balance sheets and cash flows. This is nothing new, of course. The prevalence of covetousness is so universal, in one form or another, that God had to place a prohibition on it in the Ten Commandments.

The Lord Jesus made a heart-searching comparison one day, when He posed a surprising question relative to divine bookkeeping. Not even the riches of all the world could purchase one human soul, yet men often seem willing to sacrifice their souls in pursuit of riches. Is such an exchange really a sound investment? Merely to ask the question is to answer it.

Earning wealth is good, if it is acquired honorably and by the will of God, but coveting wealth and hoarding wealth are foolish sins. Here is another of many divine profit-and-loss statements: “There is (he) that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is (he) that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches” (Proverbs 13:7). The true measure of profit and loss is the balance sheet kept up in heaven. One must first glean an account there, however, and this means coming to God empty-handed, on the basis of Christ’s free gift of His own riches. “Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (II Corinthians 8:9). He died for us, that we might live through Him.

Then, once our heavenly account is established, here is real investment counseling: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth . . . : But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, . . . for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19–21).

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For Our Transgressions


“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

The 53rd chapter of Isaiah (actually the chapter should begin at Isaiah 52:13) contains the clearest and fullest exposition of the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ for our sins to be found in all the Bible. Our text verse is the central verse of this chapter, which, in turn, is the central chapter of Isaiah’s second division, Chapters 40–66.

Although the chapter-and-verse divisions of the Bible were not part of the original inspired text, it almost seems that some of them—notably here in Isaiah—were somehow providentially guided. Part I of Isaiah contains 39 chapters and Part II 27 chapters, just as the Old and New Testaments have 39 and 27 books, respectively. Likewise, the major themes of the two Testaments—law and judgment in the Old, grace and salvation in the New—respectively dominate the two divisions of Isaiah. Many other correlations can be discerned—for example the second division begins with the prophecy of John the Baptist and ends with the prophecy of the new heavens and the new earth, just as the New Testament does.

Be that as it may, this central verse of the central chapter of Isaiah’s salvation division surely displays the very heart of the gospel. Christ was “wounded” (literally “thrust through,” as with great spikes) and “bruised” (literally “crushed to death”) for our sins. On the other hand, we receive “peace” with God because He was chastised (i.e., “disciplined”) in our place, and we are forever “healed” of our lethal sin-sickness because He received the “stripes” (i.e., great welts caused by severe blows) that should have been ours. What wondrous love is this!

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The Old Paths And The Good Way


“Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein” (Jeremiah 6:16).

Ever since the rise of modern science, and especially since the resurgence of ancient paganism in the guise of modern evolutionary “science,” there has developed a sort of social compulsion to follow after whatever seems to be new. There are new philosophies and new religions and “modernized” versions of traditional doctrines—always some new idea. But the eternal God does not change with the times. With Him, there “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:.

No one questions the value of true advances in science and technology. In fact, this is implicit in the primeval dominion mandate to “subdue” the earth (Genesis 1:28). All these “new” trends in morality and religion, however, are really only ancient immoralities and ancient evolutionism refurbished in modern terminology.

It is such as these that the prophet deplored. The “old paths” constitute the “good way,” and God’s people will never find true soul-rest until they “walk therein.” “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set” (Proverbs 22:28). The New Testament similarly rebukes all those idle “philosophers” who “spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing” (Acts 17:18,21). When the true gospel comes, however, it is genuine “good news” to all who are not merely curious to hear “this new doctrine” (Acts 17:19), but who will appropriate it for themselves by faith. This new doctrine, in fact, is not new at all, but is that “hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2).

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What Time Is It?


“Peter saith unto Him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered . . . What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter” (John 13:6,7).

Jesus knew He had come from God and was going to God (v.3)—the past and the future. He also understood principles that would successfully govern the present lives of those who would follow Him. When He attempted to model one of His most precious life principles (servanthood), impetuous Peter said, “Never! No way will you ever wash my feet!” (v..

Peter had several lessons to learn that day. Jesus, ever loving and ever wise, assured him that He had a plan which was for more than just the future—it even spanned the present. Peter obviously didn’t understand in the “now,” but he would understand “later.”

Jesus added that growth in perception hinged on one thing—submission. “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me” (v.. To Peter, submission was a humiliating price to pay—but the alternative was unbearable.

It’s not easy to let the Lord do something strange and seemingly untimely in our lives or in another’s. Sometimes He goes against reason—sometimes we think He has lost control. Has He forgotten what time it is? But just as He paused to remind Peter, Jesus might lovingly look up from His work clothes and earthly utensils and say to us, “You do not understand now what I am doing, but you will understand later. Submit to me in this one thing now, so you can continue being my disciple.” Our hearts may struggle momentarily, but the yearning to be His disciple cries out a glad “Yes! Yes! I will yield! Even though it doesn’t seem right just now; even if I don’t understand, you, Lord, haven’t forgotten the time. You alone can see from the perspective of past, present, and future, and I will only understand later, as you teach me. Lord, do what you want to do in my life.”

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Good Affliction


“It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes” (Psalm 119:71).

This seems like a strange testimony. Affliction is often accompanied by complaining or discouragement, but seldom by a statement of satisfaction and thankfulness, such as in our text for today. Nevertheless, in terms of the long-range goal of character development, afflictions are good for us, helping to make us more Christ-like, and preparing us for our ministry of service to Him in the age to come (Revelation 22:3), if only we profit from them and submit to them as we should.

“Before I was afflicted I went astray:” testifies the psalmist, “but now have I kept thy Word. . . . This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy Word hath quickened me” (Psalm 119:67,50). Such testimonies have been echoed innumerable times throughout the centuries, as godly men and women have drawn closer to the Lord through His comforting Word during times of affliction than they ever were during times of ease.

In fact, afflictions often draw even the unsaved to the Lord. They would never come when things are going well, but many do come when, in times of sorrow or rejection, they are forced to the end of their resources. It is then that “godly sorrow (literally, ‘sorrow from God’) worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of” (II Corinthians 7:10).

As God’s people suffered in ancient times, it was said: “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them” (Isaiah 63:9). Although no such affliction “for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11).

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The Two Ways



“For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish” (Psalm 1:6).

This concluding verse of the first psalm outlines the inescapable truth that there are only two roads and two destinations to which they lead in eternity. The word “way” (Hebrew derek) means “road.” There is only one way leading to heaven—the way of the righteous, and one way leading to hell—the way of the ungodly.

This is a very common word in Scripture, but it is significant that its first occurrence is in Genesis 3:24, referring to “the way of the tree of life.” Once expelled from the Garden of Eden because of their rebellion, Adam and Eve no longer could travel that “way” of life, and began to die.

The equivalent Greek word in the New Testament is hodos, also meaning “road,” and it, too, occurs quite frequently. Its literal meaning—that of an actual roadway—lends itself very easily to the figure of a style of life whose practice leads inevitably to a certain destiny. Since there are only two basic ways of looking at life—the God-centered viewpoint and the man-centered viewpoint—there are only two ways of life, the way of the godly and the way of the ungodly. The one leads to life; the other to death. There is no other way.

The Lord Jesus taught: “Enter ye in at the strait (i.e., ‘narrow’) gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13,14).

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25). But what is the way of the righteous, that leads to life? “I am the Way,” said the Lord Jesus: “no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). “This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isaiah 30:21).

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Rebels against the Light


"They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof" (Job 24:13).

One of the most common objections to the Christian gospel is our insistence that belief in Christ is necessary for salvation. What about those who never hear of Christ -- are they lost as well as those who willfully reject Him?

Because of this problem, a number of evangelicals are now saying that people in other religions can be saved if they live up to whatever light they have, whether in nature or conscience or religion. The problem is that they do not live up to the light they have. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19).

There is, indeed, much light in the creation. In fact, Romans 1:20 says these evidences "from the creation of the world are clearly seen" -- in fact, so clearly seen that men are "without excuse" when they reject this light. But reject it they have. They "changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things" (v.23). In fact, "all have sinned" (Romans 3:23) and thus are lost without Christ.

But are there some who accept and follow whatever light they have, and will God save them? Consider the testimony of Cornelius. He was "A devout man, and one that feared God" (Acts 10:2), and Peter was sent to him by God to tell him about Christ. "In every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him," Peter said (v.35). Cornelius was not actually saved, however, until he personally believed on Christ. The implication may be that God will send more light by some "Peter" to those few who do believe and obey what light they already have. Once they finally hear of Christ and His great salvation, they will gladly receive Him and be saved -- but not before.

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The Sin Of Laziness

“As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed” (Proverbs 26:14).

This is one of the more colorful of numerous colorful verses in the book of Proverbs which rebukes the sin of laziness. Note a few of the others:

“The way of the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns” (Proverbs 15:19).

“A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again” (Proverbs 19:24).

“The desire of the slothful killeth him, for his hands refuse to labor” (Proverbs 21:25).

“The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets” (Proverbs 22:13).

“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: . . . How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? . . . Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man” (Proverbs 6:6,9,10,11).

“As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him” (Proverbs 10:26).

“The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing” (Proverbs 20:4).

The writer of Proverbs had little sympathy for lazy people and their self-induced problems! It seems he continually devised new figures of speech with which to shame them into action. Indolence is a distressing characteristic in anyone, but it is inexcusable in a Christian. “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have shewed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire . . . That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:10–12).

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Hannah’s Portion


“And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions: But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the L SIZE="-1">ORD had shut up her womb” (I Samuel 1:4,5).

Elkanah, a Levite, had two wives, Peninnah and Hannah. Peninnah was blessed with sons and daughters by Elkanah, but Hannah was barren, up to the verses studied here. This barrenness was not for a lack of love on her husband’s part, for he loved her more than his other wife, but rather because “the LORD had shut up her womb.” Added to that, Peninnah taunted Hannah about her inability to bear children.

Hannah took her petition directly to God (v.10). She “poured out (her) soul before the LORD” (v.15). Watching this anguished soul was Eli, the descendant of Aaron, who was a priest and a judge in Israel. She explained her grief and Eli blessed her by asking God to grant her petition. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16).

Soon Hannah conceived and delivered a son, whom we know now to be Samuel (which means “asked of God”). Her vow at the time of her petition was to give Samuel back to the Lord—which she did, after he was weaned.

Consider the outcome of the prayer of this righteous person: a blessing to the nation Israel, God turning the hearts of the people back to Him, and a promise to Hannah to fulfill her motherhood. Her portion from Elkanah was a “worthy portion,” but her portion from the Lord was even greater. Expectant prayer to God out of a right heart brings much blessing.

Her gift to God, Samuel, follows the Luke 6:38 principle: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.”

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Songs In The Night


“Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the L SIZE="-1">ORD will command His loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life” (Psalm 42:7,8).

There are times in the life of a believer when he seems about to sink under great avalanches of trouble and sorrow. But then “I call to remembrance my song in the night” (Psalm 77:6), and God answers once again. In the book of Psalms, the theme of conflict and suffering is prominent, but there is always also the note of hope and ultimate triumph.

The very first psalm, for example, notes the conflict of the righteous with the ungodly, but promises that “the way of the ungodly shall perish” (v.6). The second psalm foretells the final rebellion of the heathen against God and His anointed, but assures us that God will “vex them in His sore displeasure” (vs.2,5). In Psalm 3, the believer says: “Many are they that rise up against me.” But then he remembers that “salvation belongeth unto the LORD” (vs.1,8). He cries in the 4th psalm: “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer” (v.1).

In Psalm 5, immediately after the first imprecation in the psalms (“Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions”), occurs the first specific mention of singing in the book of psalms: “Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice; let them ever shout (literally ‘sing’) for joy, because thou defendest them” (vs.10,11).

The Lord Jesus and His disciples sang a psalm, even as they went out into the night of His betrayal and condemnation (Mark 14:26). This is His gracious promise: “Ye shall have a song, as in the night. . . . And the LORD shall cause His glorious voice to be heard” (Isaiah 30:29,30).

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Meditation

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1:.

This well-known verse contains the first use of the Hebrew verb for “meditate” (hagah) in the Bible and, significantly, it is a command to meditate on the Scriptures. Such meditation is not mere quietness or daydreaming, but is thoughtfulness with a purpose—to obey “all that is written therein.”

Meditation for its own sake, without being centered on God’s Word, is often useless or even harmful. Witness the Western proliferation of Eastern “meditation cults” (T.M., etc.) in recent years, which lead their devotees into pantheism and occultism. Isaiah 8:19 warns against “wizards that peep, and that mutter [same word as ‘meditate’].” “Why do . . . the people imagine [same word] a vain thing?” (Psalm 2:1).

The blessed man is the one whose “delight is in the law of the LORD; and in His law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2). That is, only if we are continually guided by the Holy Scriptures will we be happy and successful.

In the New Testament, the Greek word for “meditate” (melatao) is used only twice. Once, it is translated “imagine” (Acts 4:25) and is in a quotation of Psalm 2:1, as above. The last time it is used, however, its emphasis reverts back to the context of its first usage, as in our text above. Paul commands us: “Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. . . . Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all” (I Timothy 4:13,15). Modern meditationists say that the goal of meditation is to clear our minds of “things,” but God wants us to meditate on “these things”—the life-giving, life-directing doctrines of His Word.

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The Remarkable Burial Of Jesus



“Joseph of Arimathaea, an honorable counselor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus” (Mark 15:43).

The account of the burial of Jesus by two members of the Sanhedrin, Joseph and Nicodemus, is one of the most mysteriously fascinating records in the Bible. Joseph was “a rich man of Arimathaea” (not Jerusalem), so how did he happen to have available “his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock” (Matthew 27:57,60) to receive the body of Jesus? Why would he labor so to prepare his own tomb within sight and sound of Calvary, where the ugly crucifixion of criminals was such a frequent occurrence? He had even planted a garden there! And how could the elderly Nicodemus immediately carry “a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight” (John 19:39) to meet Joseph who had also bought fine linen with which to bury Him? Joseph had gone to Pilate so soon after his death that “Pilate marvelled if he were already dead” (Mark 15:44).

It seems the only plausible answer to such questions is to assume that these two secret disciples of the Lord had planned far ahead of time to perform this special ministry. Somehow, they knew He must be crucified, so they prepared the tomb and the burial materials in advance. When He was arrested and condemned, they waited in the tomb until He died, then immediately went into action. Once He died, unbelieving eyes never saw Him again, nor did unbelieving hands ever touch Him. The two friends gave Him an honorable burial, and then are never mentioned again.

Somehow they must have known they were ordained by God to fulfill the 700-year-old prophecy of Isaiah 53:9. “And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death.” They did what they could for their Savior.

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Looking Or Looked At?

“Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).

The “hypocrites” of Matthew 6, although they had set themselves up as the religious leaders of the Jews, were motivated solely by a desire to appear religious before others. Jesus repeatedly condemned them in passages such as “all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries . . . and love the uppermost rooms at feasts . . . and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi” (Matthew 23:5–7). “They love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men” (Matthew 6:5). John the Baptist called the Pharisees and the Sadducees a “generation of vipers” (Matthew 3:7) and Jesus said they appeared “beautiful outward,” but were “within full of dead men’s bones” (Matthew 23:27). In their prideful concern to appear righteous, they neglected to look to the Righteous One in their midst whom the God they claimed to represent had provided that they “might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21).

It is far more necessary to look “unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2) than to worry about being looked at by others. This is not to say we do not care about others. The Christian’s outward, selfless look at the needs of others includes the “look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal” (John 4:35,36).

The scribes and Pharisees had their reward, for they were seen of men, but the reward of the laborer in the soul harvest awaits him in eternity, when the One he has looked to says, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

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The God Who Provides

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 15:13).

God’s provisions for the believer include far more than physical necessities. These are indicated by seven beautiful titles ascribed to Him in the New Testament: The God of love: First of all, we need love, and “God is love” (I John 4:. Then “the fruit of the Spirit is love” in our lives (Galatians 5:22) because He Himself is “the God of love and peace” (II Corinthians 13:11). The God of all grace: God saves us by His grace, and then we need to “grow in grace” (II Peter 3:18). This we can do because “the God of all grace . . . hath called us unto His eternal glory” (I Peter 5:10). The God of peace: He satisfies the need for peace of soul in the believer’s life and He is called “the God of peace” five times in the New Testament (Romans 15:33; 16:20; Philippians 4:9; I Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 13:20). The God of all comfort: Our God is called “the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort,” because He “comforteth us in all our tribulation,” thus enabling us also to provide comfort to others “by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God” (II Corinthians 1:3,4). The God of patience: We do “have need of patience” (Hebrews 10:36), and this need also is supplied by “the God of patience and consolation” (Romans 15:5). The God of glory: It was “the God of glory” who first called Abraham (Acts 7:2), and through the Word, we also “are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Corinthians 3:18). The God of hope: By His Spirit, He fills us with joy and peace, with power, and abundant hope—blessing us “with all spiritual blessings . . . in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).