TRIED IN GOD'S GRACE
Psalm 11:4-5
Although it is claimed that God loves everybody and has a grace that rests upon more than those whom He chose eternally in Christ, the Scriptures teach something quite different. In Psalm 11:4-5 we read: "The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: His eyes be hold His eyelids try, the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth."
We find here a sharp contrast. The human race is divided into the righteous and the wicked. The righteous God tries, but the wicked He hates. That He tries the righteous does not mean that He tries to get them to accept Christ. It does not mean that He tries to find out what is in their hearts. No, His throne is heaven, and from there He knows all that happens below Him and has power to give Christ and His blessings to whomsoever He wills. He need not and does not try to get men to help Him get men to believe in Christ.
That He tries the righteous means that they are already righteous in Christ and that He purifies them as silver is tried by fire. And those who trust in God will see that, when the wicked bend their bows to shoot their arrows, God is purifying His church and polishing her members so that they can reflect His glory more fully.
Our flesh does not like these trials; but through these afflictions God purifies and strengthens the faith of those who were chosen in Christ. Those outside of Christ, the wicked unbelievers whom He hates, He punishes; and the fire He sends upon them destroys them. Rather than building them up, He is casting them down to everlasting punishment. Listen to our versification:
The Lord in His temple shall ever abide;
His throne is eternal, whatever betide.
The children of men He beholds from on high,
The wicked to punish, the righteous to try.
These trials are a blessing to His church. The prosperity and wealth of the unbelievers will bring them to everlasting woe.
Read:
II Corinthians 4
- II
Corinthians 5:1-2
Psalter versification: 20:2
Daily Meditations
on
the
Heidelberg Catechism
Song
for Meditation: Psalter number 270
Why not sing along??
****
Through
the Bible in One Year
Read
today:
Daniel 8:1-27
1 John 2:1-17
Psalm 120:1-7
Proverbs 28:25-26
****
Quote
for Reflection:
"
... experience is ... said to be the mistress of fools because those are fools that will
not learn till they are taught by experience, and particularly till they are taught the
danger of associating with wicked people ... See how pernicious a thing it is to join in
friendship and society with evil-doers. It is a hard matter to break off from it. A man
may much better keep himself from being taken in the snare than recover himself out of
it." --Matthew Henry on Jehoshaphat
A REASON FOR WEEPING
Psalm 137:1-2
There were times when God's people in the Old Testament dispensation sang lustily and enthusiastically. Just read Exodus 15 and note how they sang after God brought them safely across the Red Sea and destroyed all of Egypt's army.
But there also were times when there was bitter weeping among these children of God. Listen to what we read in Psalm 137:1, 2: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof." They were no longer in the land God promised them. They were in the bondage of Babylon and remembered the blessings they enjoyed in Canaan, and their ready access to God's temple which now was in ruins.
Not for one minute should we find fault with them for this sorrow. In fact their sorrow ought to be ours today. We have every reason for singing today:
By Babel's streams we sat and wept,
For mem'ry still to Zion clung;
The winds alone our harpstrings swept,
That on the drooping willows hung.
If we only open our eyes and see the church's situation today, we have abundant reason to weep. Her bondage is not in the city of Babylon. She does not weep because her temple is in ruins and Jerusalem's walls are a pile of broken stones. But today so much of what is called the church of Christ is in the bondage of Satan. And although our church buildings are in good condition, the truth concerning Christ has been so greatly corrupted that we, remembering the truth God gave His church in ages gone by, have reason to weep bitterly. The faith once delivered to the saints is crumbling, the pillars of the truth are tumbling down in many churches.
Does this fill you with sadness? Is your harp hanging on the willows because of the doctrines boldly and widely proclaimed that militate against that faith once delivered to the saints?
Read:
Psalm 137
Psalter versification: 379:1
Daily Meditations
on
the
Heidelberg Catechism
Song
for Meditation: Psalter number 25
Why not sing along??
****
Through
the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Daniel 9
;
Daniel 10
;
Daniel 11:1
1 John 2:18-22
;
1 John 3:1-6
Psalm 121:1-8
Proverbs 28:27-28
****
Quote
for Reflection:
"The whole gospel is contained in Christ." John Calvin
SATAN'S CHANGE OF TACTICS
Psalm 137:3
A truth we ought never to forget is that Satan will change his tactics, and even reverse them, if it serves his devilish purpose of seeking to destroy the church of Christ.
When God gave the Israelites over to suffer the Babylonian captivity, Satan sought to ridicule the believers. We read in Psalm 137:3: "For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saving, Sing us one of the songs of Zion." Our versification presents it thus:
There our rude captors, flushed with pride,
A song required to mock our wrongs;
Our spoilers called for mirth, and cried,
Come, sing us one of Zion's songs.
Today Satan still tries to turn God's people away from Him by ridicule and sarcasm. But today he also gets men in the church to produce songs that corrupt the truth and are not Zion's songs. This he does cleverly so that some words and phrases in the songs are the truth: but there are also words and phrases that destroy faith in Christ. And he appeals to the flesh by means of melodies, harmonies, and rhythms that also the unbelievers enjoy.
The question is whether we today respond as the believers did in Babylon and say, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" (verse 4). How shall we sing with words that are strange to the faith in Christ, and that do not praise God? Does it hurt you and do you keep silent when others sing the songs of Satan as though they were the songs of Zion and of God?
Does it grieve you to hear those in churches sing of a Christ Who is frustrated by those whom He wants to save, because they will not fulfill the conditions upon which their salvation depends?
We do well to examine our songs carefully to he sure that they are songs of God, songs that praise Him. Satan wants us to believe that God depends upon us. As far as such songs are concerned: Be silent!
Read:
Romans 9
Psalter versification: 379:2
Daily Meditations
on
the
Heidelberg Catechism
Song
for Meditation: Psalter number 72
Why not sing along??
****
Through the Bible in One
Year
Read today:
Daniel 11:2-35
1 John 3:7-24
Psalm 122:1-9
Proverbs 29:1
****
Quote
for Reflection:
"Suppose, Christian, the furnace be seven times hotter; it is but to make you seven times better. Fiery trial makes golden Christians." Dyer
BLEST WITH SALVATION
Psalm 3:8
No child of God denies that the world and all that it contains belongs to God. The Scriptures begin by impressing upon our minds that God made it all and did so out of nothing. But every child of God should also say with David, "Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: Thy blessing is upon Thy people. Selah" Psalm 3:8. We sing it thus:
Salvation to the Lord belongs,
In Him His saints are blest;
O let Thy blessing evermore
Upon Thy people rest.
Now that salvation belongs to God certainly means that all the credit for it is His. He realized every part of it, and in no way and to no degree, and not for the slightest fraction of a moment, does man help God save him. God, the Creator of all, in no way is ever saved from disappointment by the work of the creatures He made.
Our Savior's name is Jesus. That name comes from the Hebrew words Jehovah and salvation. Did not the angel tell Joseph that the child that would be born to Mary must be called Jesus "for He shall save His people from their sins"? Matthew 1:21.
The word Selah means: Pause and think this over. Surely in this present day and age we ought to give serious thought to this truth. Salvation belongs to God. He realizes it in its smallest detail. Therefore He should receive all the praise and thanksgiving for this tremendously important work.
So often we hear men deny this truth in their preaching and witnessing. Emphatically and correctly they say that He wants to save. But we must go a step further, He saves and does not simply try to save. Never does He fail to save even one of those He sets out to save. He is not dependent upon the will of the man He sets out to save. He commands faith and does not plead with man to believe in order that He may save him.
Let us reject any idea that God is ever frustrated by man. Salvation belongs to God. It is His gift to us, and we give Him nothing for it. Man does not let God save him. God blesses us with full salvation.
Read:
Psalm 3
Psalter versification: 5:5
Daily Meditations
on
the
Heidelberg Catechism
Song
for Meditation: Psalter number 190
Why not sing along??
****
Through
the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Daniel 11:36-45
;
Daniel
12
1 John 4:1-21
Psalm 123:1-4
Proverbs 29:2-4
****
Quote
for Reflection:
“There
is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love Thee for Thine own sake,
whose joy Thou Thyself art. And this is the
happy life, to rejoice to Thee, of Thee, for Thee; this it is, and there is no
other.”
The Confessions of St. Augustine (354-430)
SEEING THE FOUNTAIN OF ETERNAL LIFE
Psalm 36:9
No child ever had anything to say as to whether he would or would not be conceived and born. No man or woman can decide that a child is going to be born to them. They may be very desirous of having a child, and there may seem to be no reason why they cannot have one. But whether they will or not depends upon God's will.
Concerning God, David writes in Psalm 36:9: "For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light shall we see light." We therefore sing:
The fountain of eternal life
I found alone with Thee,
And in the brightness of Thy light
We clearly light shall see.
This is so important for us to remember when we are considering being born again with the everlasting life of the kingdom of heaven. As surely as no child is born physically at its request, so surely no man is born again with spiritual life because he asked for it. He cannot ask for it, or even want it, until it has already been given to him. He was not here physically before his natural birth, and therefore could not ask for it. There was likewise no spiritual life in him that could want to ask for a rebirth, until he had already been born again. Christ earned it for us, and God eternally decreed that we would have it.
Is it not God Who speaks here through David and says that the fountain of life is with Him? Yesterday we saw that salvation belongs to God. It is His work from beginning to end; and all the credit, the praise and thanksgiving for it must be given to God. Being born again is the beginning of that salvation in us. It is a free gift that we do not even want until it has been begun in us.
And since even the desire for it is God's gift to us, we owe Him everlasting praise and thanksgiving. Not one drop of the water of everlasting life that comes out of this fountain of life comes from us. Before we receive life out of it, we cannot even see that Christ is that Fountain of Life. Did not those not born again crucify Christ, this Fountain of Life? Born again, we see Christ as that whole source of our new heavenly life.
Read:
Psalm 36
Psalter versification: 94:4
Daily Meditations
on
the
Heidelberg Catechism
Song
for Meditation: Psalter number 412
Why not sing along??
****
Through
the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Hosea 1
;
Hosea 2
;
Hosea 3:1-5
1 John 5:1-21
Psalm 124:1-8
Proverbs 29:5-8
***
Quote
for Reflection:
"In
the old dispensation, Moses alone beheld the Glory of the Lord; and the skin of his face
was changed. In the new dispensation, we all beheld that glory; and, by the grace of the
Spirit, we are changed, made like unto the Lord. We are changed spiritually through the
means of looking at His image in the mirror of the Scriptures. And the injunction which
follows if plain: cover not your faces; close not the Scriptures; look steadfastly in
them, for they make us free and wise unto salvation ." Homer C. Hoeksema
LIGHT FOR OUR LIFE
Psalm 36:9
So completely do we depend upon God for our salvation, that we receive not one part of it that did not come from God, and was given us because He wanted us to have it. As surely as every heartbeat comes from Him, as surely as all our sunshine comes from Him, so every aspect and phase of our salvation comes from God as a free gift.
In Psalm 36:9, which we considered briefly yesterday, David wrote: ''For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light." That. last clause surely presents an awesome and wonderful truth. In God's light we see light. If God does not turn on the light, we are not going to see any of the works of salvation which He performed for us in His Son, and in us by His Son's Spirit. The cross will mean nothing to us. We will not really know what a blessing is but will continue to call the things lying under the curse blessings. The works of darkness we will call beautiful. Worldly fools we will call wise.
Having caused us to be born again God also enlightens us and makes us see His work for us in Christ understand it, and call it beautiful. In God's light we shall see what spiritually is light and not darkness. We shall see Christ as "the light to lighten the Gentiles" Luke 2:32. Then we will sing:
Lord to me Thy ways make known
Guide in truth and teach Thou me;
Thou my Savior art alone,
All the day I wait for Thee.
We need life: but we also need instruction. We must be spiritually alive; but we must also receive spiritual enlightenment. We are saved by grace: but we are saved in order to be able to serve God and praise and magnify His name. It is good that we have been saved; but we are saved in order to do good and must be called away from our unbelief and evil works.
Therefore we must see God as God, but also as our Savior. We must see Christ and the truth that is in Him. The new life we received must be activated. With spiritual light shining in our souls we shall walk in the light and reveal ourselves as children or light.
Read:
Psalm 25
Psalter versification: 67:1
Daily Meditations
on
the
Heidelberg Catechism
Song
for Meditation: Psalter number 149
Why not sing along??
****
Through the Bible in One
Year
Read today:
Hosea 4
;
Hosea 5:1-15
2 John 1:1-13
Psalm 125:1-5
Proverbs 29:9-11
****
Quote
for Reflection:
“Praise is quite inevitable in view of what we have already seen in this
Epistle. If we realize truly what “grace” and “peace” mean we cannot
help praising…There is no more true test of our Christian profession than to discover
how prominent this note of praise and thanksgiving is in our life. Is it to be found
welling up out of our hearts and experience as it invariably did with the Apostle Paul? Is
it constantly breaking forth in us and manifest in our lives? …All must surely agree
that it is impossible to read through the New Testament without seeing that this is to be
the supreme thing in the Christian life. It must of necessity be so, because if this
gospel is true, that God has sent His own Son into the world to do for us the things we
have been considering, then you would expect Christians to be entirely different from
unbelievers; you would expect them to live in a relationship to God that would be evident
to all, and that should above everything else produce this quality of joy…Hence we
find this constant exhortation in the New Testament to praise God and offer up
thanksgiving. This is what differentiates us from the world. The world is very miserable
and unhappy; it is full of cursing and complaints. But praise, thanksgiving and
contentment mark out the Christian and show that he is no longer “of the world”.
M. Lloyd-Jones on the “praise” of
Ephesians 1:3
and our lives
TRUST AND THANKFULNESS
Psalm 71:1,2
That which has no life can be moved. Lofty mountain peaks have been moved by earthquakes and volcanoes. But only that which has life can either move itself or produce movement within itself. The living seed sends a shoot upward and roots downward. The tree sends nourishment from the roots to the tip of its leaves.
Applied spiritually we can say that the child of God who has been born again with the new life of the kingdom of heaven, and has been enlightened by the call of the Spirit of Christ, is going to produce conscious, willing activity.
We read of this in Psalm 71:1-2. David writes: "In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in Thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline Thine ear unto me, and save me." Our versification states it thus:
In Thee, O Lord, I put my trust;
Shamed let me never be:
O save me in Thy righteousness,
Give ear and rescue me.
Here plainly we have the activity of faith in God as our Savior in Christ. Faith is trust, for it is not only a certain knowledge but also an assured confidence. God as our Light gives us knowledge, and by the act of faith we declare it to be certain, true revelation of fact. And faith is absolutely sure and confident that what God promises will happen.
Faith moves us to pray to God, clinging tightly to His promises, running to Him for the blessings of salvation which He promises us. God is the one Who gave us a new spiritual life. He enlightened our minds with the truth as it is in Christ. But now also it is God Who gives us faith. He works in us that trust and confidence.
How much thanks then do we not owe God! How powerful and full of love He is to do all this to those who, before they were born again, hated Him and walked in rebellion against Him! Surely we are saved by grace and are called to be thankful for such a blessed and sure salvation.
Read:
Psalm 71
Psalter versification: 190 :1
Daily Meditations
on
the
Heidelberg Catechism
Song
for Meditation: Psalter number 54
Why not sing along??
****
Through
the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Hosea 6
;
Hosea 7
;
Hosea 8
;
Hosea 9:1-17
3 John 1:1-15
Psalm 126:1-6
Proverbs 29:12-14
****
Quote
for Reflection:
"‘As for me,’ underlines divine
commitment. The covenant does not rest on human wish or need but on divine
determination."
OUR INIQUITY FORGIVEN
Psalm 85:2
One truth that we must embrace and hold tightly is expressed beautifully by David in Psalm 85:2. There he wrote: "Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of Thy people, Thou hast covered all their sin. Selah." For here we have the legal basis for all the blessings of salvation.
We are guilty in Adam and have walked in a multitude of our own sins. The wages of sin is death, and it opens the doors of hell with all its woe. How then can we be born again? What right do we have to let the light of God's grace fall on us? On what basis can we trust God to bestow on us as much as one blessing?
The answer is beautifully stated in our versification:
Lord, Thou hast favor shown Thy land;
Restored again Thy captive band;
Thy people's sins Thou pardoned hast;
And all their guilt hast covered o'er,
Removed from them Thy anger sore,
All Thy fierce wrath behind Thee cast.
It is wonderful that God delivers us from the punishment of sin; but more important it is that He delivers us from the guilt that calls for this punishment. And note that God forgave our iniquity. He covered our sins. He covered us with the robes of righteousness of Christ.
He is the unchangeable, righteous Judge Who will keep His word to Adam that in the day man sins, he deserves death. That word He will keep, and therefore He sent His Son to suffer the punishment and blot out our guilt.
How thankful then we ought to be as we approach the day when we celebrate the birth of that Son.
Forgiven in the righteousness of the cross of Christ we can be born again and, by the Spirit of Christ, enlightened in regard to this wonder of God's grace. And then faith in God and His Son may be and is given to us.
Read:
Psalm 85
Psalter versification: 231:1
Daily Meditations
on
the
Heidelberg Catechism
Song
for Meditation: Psalter number 91
Why not sing along??
****
Through
the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Hosea 10
;
Hosea 11
;
Hosea 12
;
Hosea 13
;
Hosea 14
Jude 1:1-25
Psalm 127:1-5
Proverbs 29:15-17
****
Quote
for Reflection:
"Raising
covenant children is arguably the most important thing that Christians do in the Kingdom.
God has chosen in His sovereign wisdom and mercy to make the church herself the
‘seedbed of election.’
SALVATION'S INEVITABLE FRUIT
Psalm 5:3, 4
Precious things cost a lot of money. That which is worthless you can pick up without giving as much as a penny. But this must not lead us to think that because salvation is a free gift it has little or no value. It is the most precious gift that can be given to man. Although it costs us nothing, it cost God the extremely great price of the death of His only begotten Son.
The preciousness of that gift of salvation is to be seen in that which those whom God saves are made capable of doing. Of that we read in Psalm 5:3 , 4: '"My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up. For Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with Thee.
Note that David not only prays each day, but he begins every day with a prayer. He also reveals his own displeasure with sin and his love for God. That will always happen when God, on the basis of the cross of Christ, has caused one to be born again, made him to know the truth and to trust in God. In other words sanctification, or making a man holy, will always follow a rebirth. That new life will always manifest itself in a holy walk. And even as the heartbeat reveals life of the body, walking in holiness reveals a new life in the soul.
Look then at your life. Can you sing with David?
In the fullness of Thy grace
To Thy house I will repair,
Bowing toward Thy holy place,
In Thy fear will worship there.
Lead me in Thy righteousness,
Let my foes assail in vain;
Lest my feet be turned aside
Make Thy way before me plain.
If you can find any of that in your life, you have assurance that you have been born again and have the inevitable fruit of a rebirth.
If you find only a little of that holiness, by all means do as David did. Each morning pray to God to keep you from all pleasure in sin. Pray the first thing each morning that God may make you appreciate that precious gift of salvation by His grace.
Read:
Psalm 5
Psalter versification: 10:1
Daily Meditations
on
the
Heidelberg Catechism
Song
for Meditation: Psalter number 130
Why not sing along??
****
Through
the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Joel 1
;
Joel 2
;
Joel 3:1-21
Revelation 1:1-20
Psalm 128:1-6
Proverbs 29:18
****
Quote
for Reflection:
Elisha "called for a musician, a
devout musician, one accustomed to play upon his harp and sing psalms to it. To hear
God’s praises sweetly sung, as David had appointed, would cheer his spirits, and
settle his mind, and help to put him into a right frame both to speak to him and to hear
from him."
GLORY FOR THE NEWBORN CHILD OF GOD
Psalm 63:11
A beautiful truth that a born again child of God can and will sing is stated in these words:
My Savior 'neath Thy sheltering wings,
My soul delights to dwell;
Still closer to Thy side I press,
For near Thee all is well.
My soul shall conquer every foe,
Upholden by Thy hand;
Thy people shall rejoice in God,
Thy saints in glory stand.
This is the versification of Psalm 63:11. In this verse David wrote: ''But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by Him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped."
We should note two elements here. The born again child of God will "rejoice in God" and "shall glory." For the last step in the work of salvation for the child of God is that God glorifies him and gives him the heavenly joy of a covenant life of fellowship with God.
Now glory is the radiation, the shining forth of virtue. That lies ahead for every child of God. Not only will he receive a glorified body, like that of Christ, wherein his new man in Christ shall have a life of bliss, but he will rejoice in fellowship with God.
Glory makes us rejoice. The curse brings us tears and sorrow. That will all be behind us when we reach the glory promised us. Now already we have protection. As David wrote in verse 7: "Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice." Satan and his servants cannot keep the reborn child of God from reaching that heavenly glory. And reaching that glory with both body and soul, he will have an endless life of heavenly bliss.
Our new life wants that covenant fellowship with God. That is the blessedness that every reborn child of God hopes to obtain. That he will reach, and then he will rejoice in the Lord and shall have glory that never fades.
What a work of salvation it is then that God wrought in Christ! What a great praise and thanksgiving we owe Him and will in that glory be able to bring to Him!
Read:
Psalm 63
Psalter versification: 163:3
Daily Meditations
on
the
Heidelberg Catechism
Song
for Meditation: Psalter number 21
Why not sing along??
****
Through
the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Amos 1
;
Amos 2
;
Amos 3:1-15
Revelation 2:1-17
Psalm 129:1-8
Proverbs 29:19-20
****
Quote
for Reflection:
"How
sweet is it to godly minds to be assured, not only by word, but by sight, that they obtain
so much favour with the Heavenly Father that their offspring are within His care?"
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to:
December 11