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- Feed Preview Abide in Christ Daily Devotional
God is Able
What is your favorite doxology in the Bible? Mine is found in Ephesians 3:20-21. The context is a prayer for God’s high purposes for His redeemed people. Paul’s prayer is that every believe...
From Despair to Hope
It is almost uncanny how the poet describes the abandonment of the sufferer by God to the scorn of evil people who mocked Him. The Hebrew poet-king wrote, But I am a worm and not a man, A repro...
The Forsaken and the Forgiven
The poignant, opening sentence in Psalm 22 reveals the disturbing fact of God’s servant crying out in God forsakenness. How could one of the members of the Godhead turn His back on another me...
Jesus Christ is the Great I AM
Jesus Christ claimed to be the “I AM.” It is the personal name of the God of the Old Testament (Exodus 3:13-14). On several occasions it is recorded that Jesus used the “I AM” formula in ...
Feasting on the Lamb
The same Passover lamb that was slain and its blood smeared on the doorpost and the lintel in the Jewish home was the lamb that the people ate for the journey out of Egypt (Ex. 12:11, 46). Ever...
Lamb of God
The focus of the life and work of Jesus Christ is found in His death and resurrection. It is the fulfillment of the great message of the coming redeemer in the Old Testament. The lamb was the p...
Jesus Christ is God
The eminent British professor and scholar C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity: I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m re...
Christ Our Redeemer
The most significant word that describes the death of Christ for sinful man is redemption. It means, “buying again,” or “buying back.” In the Bible it is used especially of purchasing a s...
Christ our Reconciliation
Adam enjoyed perfect fellowship and communion with God before he disobeyed Him in the Garden. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God that fellowship was broken, and Adam tried to hide himself from God (...
Christ our Propitiation
Please don’t let that title scare you off. That is a beautiful and profound word. Christ’s death turns away the wrath of God. The apostle Paul said Christ is our propitiation. He is a propi...
Christ our Sacrifice
The Old Testament is full of sacrifices in which an innocent animal was killed. These were substitutionary sacrifices meaning that the death of the animal was in the place of someone else. Why ...
Who Am I?
Every born again believer in Jesus Christ has a new standing before the Lord God. This eternal position never changes. It does not depend upon changes, chances or our circumstances. Romans chap...
The Power of the Resurrection Life
Christianity is Christ. It is centered in a historical person who lived, died and rose from the dead. This truth is the most important fact in history. It is essential because it demands a life...
Risen with Christ
“Death stung itself to death, when it stung Christ” –– Romaine. The greatest event that has ever occurred in history is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The work of Christ divides itself...
Dead to Sin
The apostle Paul wrote of Christ, “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to G...
No Condemnation!
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Justification is the opposite of condemnation. God declares the believing sinner to have a right r...
Are You in Adam or in Christ?
Charles Hodge asked a crucial question: “If God requires one thing, and we present another, how can we be saved? If He has revealed a method in which He can be just and yet justify the sinner, ...
The Imputed Righteousness of God
God imputes or accredits the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to the believing sinner while he is still in his sinning state. God has manifested His righteousness apart from the Law “eve...
Dying Daily and Our Life in Christ
Spiritual growth is making real in our daily experience what is already true for us in Christ. Our progressive sanctification is an ever putting off all that belongs to the old man, and putting...
Because Christ Lives
God supplies all of our spiritual needs through His infinite resources. The Holy Spirit indwells us with His power; therefore, as we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh...
Saved by His Life
We shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10). These words give us encouragement for difficult days when tempted by forces beyond ourselves, but let’s be clear as to what these words of the ap...
Righteousness for the Ungodly
It is an ugly picture and it is one that most of us do not want to view about ourselves. All are sinners. All have turned away from God. All are ungodly. All are helpless to safe themselves. Al...
God Justifies the Ungodly
The infinitely holy righteous Jehovah God justifies ungodly sinners. That is the best news I have ever received. Does that mean that God pronounces the sinner righteous, or makes a sinner rig...
The Unchanging Christ:The Same Forever
“When our Savior comes again,” wrote H. A. Ironside, “God is coming to take control of things in this world and the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh. Father, Son and the Holy S...
The Unchanging Christ: The Same Today
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). The pre-incarnate Christ changes not. It is said that Plato, the Greek philosopher proposed to his students one day, �...
Seated with Christ in Heaven
“We were made alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5). The newness of life we received, as Christians is a spiritual life imparted through our identification with Christ in His death an...
Our One Supreme Passion
Authentic Christianity is God-centered because it loves the Lord God with all the heart, mind soul and strength. Evidence of a true knowledge of God is an obsession with the glory of God manifest...
What will you do with Jesus Christ?
Our acceptance before God depends entirely on what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross and our response to Him. The Bible makes it emphatically clear if you accept Jesus Christ, God will accep...
How do You know when You are Spirit-filled?
The supreme mission of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ. He glorifies the Son by unfolding clearly the meaning of His person and atoning work. The work of the Spirit is Christocentric...
God Knows Me
God knows me, and He still wants to pursue a personal relationship with me. That is truly amazing. He knows everything about me, and still wants to enjoy my fellowship with Him. What does it me...
Do the Impossible
Jesus saw a thirty-eight year old man lying on his mat at the pool of water at Bethesda and approached him asking, “Do you wish to get well?” (John 5:5-6). Christ told the man to do the imp...
Do You have Eternal Life?
Jesus Christ said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). How do you obtain eternal life? Have you experienc...
Are You One of the Elect of God?
Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me shall come to Me; and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). The answer to the question, are you one of the elect of G...
Have You Seen the Face of God?
The disciples of Jesus saw His glory. They gazed into His character, which is the character of God. “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the begotten...
The Glory of God in Jesus Christ
What do you think God the Son would say to God the Father during the night before He would lay down His life as atonement for the sin of the world? Imagine for a moment with me what the divine ...
Saved by Grace!
Saved by grace! There is no greater majestic theme for the Christian. It eliminates all grounds of boasting. Salvation by God’s sovereign grace gives a wonderful assurance. We have security i...
Behold, What Manner of Love
Jesus wept at the tomb of His friend Lazarus. The Jewish people who saw Him responded to one another, "Behold, how He loved him" (John 11:35-36). C. H. Spurgeon said to his congregation in Lond...
Do you have a Sense of God’s Presence?
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . .” (Ephesians 3:17). A good friend asked me, “Do you fell you are adequately experiencing the presence and power of the Holy Spirit...
Do you Seek a Deeper Life with God?
The apostle Paul prayed, “That I may know Him . . .” (Philippians 3:10). The late missionary to South Africa Andrew Murray was a holy man. At one point in his life he was going through a pa...
Are You a Saint?
In His great priestly prayer Jesus was praying for His disciples, present and future. He said to His Father, “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified ...
Always in Abundant Supply
Jesus Christ is all-sufficient to meet our every need, but if He is going to meet our needs we must be wiling to recognize our needs and call upon Him. There must be a turning to Him for help. He...
Who is Jesus Christ?
In a hot debate with a group of hostile religious leaders Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56). In their rush to react in emotio...
The Lord Will Provide
Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Jesus made a startling statement stressing the fact that the ancient Jewish patriarch Abrah...
Justified Freely by God’s Grace
Grace, how sweet the sound to our sinful hearts! The Bible teaches that we are saved by the free sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ. Neither will the grace of God ever be withheld, nor will...
Why Christians Must be Holy
It is very clear in the teachings of the Scripture that no Christian is sinless (1 John 1:8-10), but it is also clear that God expects the true believer to not sin habitually. “No one who is bo...
Secure Shelter in the Storms of Life
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). The Psalmist invites us to abide in the Father’s shadow where we see only the face o...
A New Life with a New Way
The apostle Paul revealed the very core of the Christian life when he wrote: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Paul testified that his life passion is to k...
Attitudes Toward the King
What is your attitude toward the coming of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Savior of the world? Mary the expectant mother of Jesus declared in song, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit...
Wise Men Worship the King
The longer I live the more I want to be around wise men. “Wise men,” more properly, “Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem” looking for the King of the Jews (Matthew 2:1-2). Since H...
God’s Christmas Tree
God’s ultimate will is for every believer to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. The most powerful message of Christmas is the transforming grace of God in Jesus Christ. God’s Christma...
When God Invaded History
The accounts of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth are fully historical. They describe the events when the supernatural invaded the normal flow of historical events. The physician Luke tells us he ...
Faith’s Object: Jesus Christ
What is the object of my faith? What am I to believe in to receive the gift of eternal life and live with God in heaven? What must I do to be saved? The object of faith for the sinner is Jesus ...
The Genealogy of Jesus
Are you up-to-date on your genealogy? Lots of families have their own historian who wants to delve into their family history and genealogy. The Jewish people through out the early years of their ...
He Will Save His People from Their Sins
“A kind of moral relativism has taken over. Nothing is really wrong. If I have a good reason to do it, it’s not sin.” That is the modern attitude toward the righteousness of God. I get th...
A Virgin, Immanuel and the Incarnation
Ahaz was faithless. Neighboring countries of Syria and Israel banned together to fight the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Ahaz, the king of Judah, sent for the king of Assyria to come to his rescue...
Consequences of Unbelief
The gospel writer Luke described Zacharias and Elizabeth as an elderly couple, “both advanced in years,” and without children. “Elizabeth was barren.” Zechariah was a priest who married a...
The Spirit of Free Grace
Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us salvation is by the free grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;...
A Zeal for the Righteousness of God
The apostle Paul prayed to God for the salvation of those who “have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish t...
Grace
I am convinced the most important message we can ever proclaim is the free grace of God that forgives us of all our sins and gives us a perfect relationship with God. We are justified by the grac...
Trinity
The Trinity is the theological term designating one God in three persons. Even though the term is not used in the Bible, it is a correct designation for the one God self-revealed in Scripture a...
Everything for Nothing
The Hebrew prophet Isaiah offered a great invitation to everyone to come to the fountain of grace. “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. ...
Sin of Unbelief
We live in a day of tolerance. But our problem is we tolerate the wrong things. The last virtue of the ungodly is tolerance. When the ungodly have abandoned all other moral standards, the cry o...
"Look Unto Me, and be Saved"
“Look unto Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22). This is the verse the layman was preaching on the day C. H. Spurgeon placed his ...
Blessings out of Sufferings
What is your response to suffering? There is no escape from intense pressures in this life, but it helps when we get God into the picture. The apostle Peter wrote to a group of suffering Christ...
Excuses, Excuses!
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The apostle Paul and Silas responded to the jailor in the city of Philippi, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved, and your household” (Act...
Forgiveness According to the Riches of God’s Grace
The greatest peace and joy in all the world is knowing all my sins have been forgiven according to the riches of God’s free grace in Jesus Christ. We are trophies of His grace both now and thro...
God’s Everlasting Covenant of Grace
There is infinite value in the atoning blood of the Lamb of God. The new covenant with the LORD God is ratified by the blood of Jesus Christ (Matthew 26:28; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 7:22; 8:6...
Justification by Faith and Imputed Righteousness
God is a just God, and He is the justifier of the person who has faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:26). That is one of those important truths that separate historical Biblical Christianity from t...
Sleepless Nights and Stressful Days
What do you do when the pressures of daily life assail and assault you? Since the LORD God has saved you by His grace from beginning to end, why should you tremble before the lesser dangers of ...
My Cup is Running Over
God’s blessings are always a superabundance. When the “LORD is my shepherd,” “my cup runs over” in superabundance. We do not have to wait until we get to heaven to experience God’s ba...
The Spirit of Life
The Spirit of life is the life-giving Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the author and giver of life, and the life He gives is free of condemnation. There is now no condemnation for the believer in C...
Christ Our Refuge
The Bible is very clear in its declaration that individuals who are not “in Christ” are lost and under condemnation. If you are not “in Christ Jesus” you have not escaped the condemnation...
Evidence that Demands Our Faith
How do I know that God has fully accepted the death of Jesus Christ as payment for my sins? “When Jesus died, He died as my representative, and I died in Him; when He rose, He rose as my rep...
The Law and the Gospel
The gospel of grace does not nullify God’s Law; it fulfills it. In fact, it is the only way the Law of God could possibly be fulfilled. “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin s...
Commitment to Christ
When we trust or yield ourselves to Christ, there is a true commitment just like in a healthy marriage. How tragic that many many marriages are dysfunctional and are a poor example of long las...
Faith and the Bible
The Bible is God’s perfectly inspired word. The written Word testifies to God’s self-revelation in His incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. All Scripture, both Old and New Testament, is a clear testi...
But I Don’t Have Enough Faith
I often hear people say, “I am afraid I don’t know if I have enough faith.” How much faith do you need in order to be saved? The Bible does not teach that you are justified because of yo...
Righteousness apart from the Law
Because we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, God gets all the glory. Salvation is a free gift because it is a receiving of God’s righteousness apart from a...
Righteousness apart from the Law
Because we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, God gets all the glory. Salvation is a free gift because it is a receiving of God’s righteousness apart from a...
“Why Should I Let You into My Heaven?”
Let’s suppose for a moment that you died today and stood before the Lord God and He asked you, “Why should I let you into My heaven?” What would you say? What do you think you would say? ...
Where Will You Spend Eternity?
Jesus Christ made it very clear that a person’s relationship with God in this present life will determine his destiny in the life to come (Matthew 19:16-26; 7:13-23). In a parable on the las...
Eternal Life -- the Gift
Eternal Life is God’s kind of life. It is eternal because He is eternal. Nothing will ever separate the believer in Christ from the One who loves us. He gave us His free gift of eternal life th...
Perfect Atonement for Personal Sin
The most important day in the Jewish religious calendar is the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). It is to this day central to Judaism even though the sacrificial system came to an end with the des...
How do You Handle Tribulation?
Most believers in Christ throughout history of Christianity have suffered tribulation. For most it has been an ever-present reality (1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Tim. 3:12-13). The New Testament describes t...
Blessed Assurance
God does not intend for His saved child to live the Christian life without the blessed assurance of eternal life. The apostle Paul had a profound conviction that nothing will be able to separa...
Saving Faith
C. H. Spurgeon said faith has three essential ingredients: knowledge, belief and trust. There must be “a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us.” We must have certain ...
The Perfect Place of Mercy
The most important piece of furniture in the Tabernacle of Meeting in the wilderness and later the Jerusalem Temple was the Ark of the Covenant, and the lid of gold called the mercy seat or place...
The Ascension of Christ
The Gospel of Luke describes the transference of the resurrected body of Jesus from the earth to heaven in Acts 1:9-11. “And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were ...
Adopted Children of God
The term “Son of God” refers preeminently to Jesus Christ’s deity (Matt. 11:25-27; 16:16-17). He alone is one in substance and glory with God the Father. Believers in Christ, although “ad...
The Supremacy of Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the supreme Sovereign of the universe. Colossians 1:15-20 gives seven reasons why Christ is preeminent. These verses are at the heart of the epistle’s main emphasis on the ex...
All that Jesus Continues to Do
"All that Jesus began to do and teach” He continues to do and teach today. In Acts 1:1 the words “all that Jesus began to do and teach” are in the linear action. It is action still going...
Good Works for God’s Glory
Why should the believing sinner do good works? Do we do good works so we can atone for our “temporal” sins after we were baptized? Are we to do good religious works in order to make satisf...
Before and After
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Whenever any person becomes a new creature in union with...
Free Salvation
Free, but not cheap! Your salvation is a gift freely given and received from God, but it is not cheap. It is the most expensive gift you will ever receive. God comes and offers us free salv...
Sweet Sovereign Saving Grace
Do you find the topic of grace boring? Someone asked me, “Don’t you ever get tired of preaching on grace?” My response was “no,” because every other doctrine in the Christian faith i...
Dressed for the New Life
Are you dressed in grave clothes or wedding garments? Now that we have been saved by grace how then shall we live? How are we to walk in this new life? The apostle Paul uses an illustration...
A New Standard of Living
The world is not our standard for Christian living. The apostle Paul stressed, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind . . .” (Rom. 12:2). A...
Living Sacrifices
The apostle Paul gives an urgent plea to believers in Christ “to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12:1). P...
God’s Kind of Life
From God’s eternal perspective the believer in Christ is already a finished work. From our human perspective in time and space, He is continuing to work the truth deeper and deeper into our hea...
Abundant Life
Abundant life as Jesus described it is the life of God Himself. God places the new spiritual life within the individual the moment he responds to God’s grace and believes on Christ as his pe...
Finished!
The apostle John saw what was happening at the cross when Jesus was crucified. He was an eyewitness to Jesus’ death. A few moments before His death Jesus declared, “It is finished!” (John 1...
Under God’s Watchful Eye
Jesus reminds us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). What do you say to yourself when you are pressed in on every side by danger...
God is Able
What is your favorite doxology in the Bible? Mine is found in Ephesians 3:20-21. The context is a prayer for God’s high purposes for His redeemed people. Paul’s prayer is that every believ...
Christ our Propitiation
Please don’t let that title scare you off. That is a beautiful and profound word. Christ’s death turns away the wrath of God. The apostle Paul said Christ is our propitiation. He is a prop...
Christ our Sacrifice
The Old Testament is full of sacrifices in which an innocent animal was killed. These were substitutionary sacrifices meaning that the death of the animal was in the place of someone else. Why...
Who Am I?
Every born again believer in Jesus Christ has a new standing before the Lord God. This eternal position never changes. It does not depend upon changes, chances or our circumstances. Romans cha...
The Power of the Resurrection Life
Christianity is Christ. It is centered in a historical person who lived, died and rose from the dead. This truth is the most important fact in history. It is essential because it demands a lif...
Infallibly Convincing Proofs
Matthew Arnold said, “The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the best attested fact in history.” William Lyon Phelps of Yale wrote, “It may be said that the historical evidence for the resu...
Evidences of the Death of Christ
The eyewitness John keenly observed two unusual things that happen at the crucifixion of Jesus. These facts made a deep impression on him as he watched the crucifixion taking place. The crucif...
God Removed the Body
When Peter and John heard Mary Magdalene say, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him,” they took off running to the tomb of Jesus leaving ...
Limiting Christ
Do you have trouble making the transition between the historical Christ of the New Testament and the living Christ of today? In reality He is the same person. He changes not. The one whom we w...
Lord of the Living and the Dead
Jesus Christ is “Lord of both the dead and the living,” declares the apostle Paul. Those who belong to Him now will still belong to Him in the future, even beyond death. They will belong to H...
Satisfied Faith
Faith is simply taking God at His word and then acting on it. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29b). These words are for you and me because ...
Our Resurrection Hope
“The dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The resurrection of Christ gives us assurance that our loved ones who have died in Christ are currently safe in Christ and the...
From Doubt to Faith
Would you consider it a compliment if someone called you a “doubting Thomas”? Doubting is a vital ingredient in all mature critical thinking. No one really respects a gullible person. The ...
Abiding in Christ
Jesus Christ offers every believer His life. It is like the life of a vine whereby the branches draw their life from the trailing plant. The believer shares in the life of the Vine. The soul o...
What must I do to be Saved?
Salvation is the work of God alone. It is from Him, by Him and to Him. It is God's gift to man. Man’s responsibility is only to receive it by faith. The salvation of man is the display of th...
Wisdom for Trials
In the context of a discussion on trials in life the apostle James tells believers to ask God for wisdom to understand and use them for God’s glory. Divine wisdom gives us the spiritual abil...
Sanctified in Christ
The believer’s sanctification is at once both complete and incomplete. Just as we have been fully and completely justified, we have also been completely sanctified in Christ. The Bible says,...
Appropriating Christ Daily
Just as it was the supreme mission of Jesus to give eternal life, so it is the supreme responsibility of the believer to appropriate that life. God contemplates the believer even now in the im...
Accepted in the Beloved
There is always the tension in the Christian life between the “now” and the “yet to be.” However, what we are now in the eyes of God is what we shall be in practice when we stand before H...
Born Crucified, yet Alive in Christ
The Christian life is a daily putting off all that belonged to the unregenerate old self and constantly putting on all that belongs to the new life in Christ. The cross and the resurrection exten...
Baptized into Christ
The word "baptized" is not the translation of the Greek work in Romans 6:3-4, but a transliteration spelling it out in English letters. The word in the original language means to dip. The figurat...
Believer’s Baptism
The ordinance of the believer’s baptism is a marvelous picture of the Christian’s vital union, and identification with Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. There is a “wet...
Risen with Christ
“Death stung itself to death, when it stung Christ” –– Romaine. The greatest event that has ever occurred in history is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The work of Christ divides ...
Dead to Sin
The apostle Paul wrote of Christ, “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to G...
I Died
Christ died for me, and I died in Christ. Pascal said, “Everything which happened to Christ should come to pass in the soul and in the body of each Christian.” The apostle Paul declared...
Christ Died for Me
Salvation is entirely apart from any self-help. We are not saved by imitation of the crucifixion or by Christ’s example, but as Luther concluded, “that high crucifying whereby sin, the devil,...
Yes, But God
Two of the most beautiful words in the Bible are “but God.” We are totally depraved sinners who cannot earn or merit in any way, a right relationship with God. Before I became a Christian,...
"In Christ"
There are some inexplicable things that belong wholly unto God. The deepest mysteries into the majestic things that belong only unto God are found in the words “in Christ.” The recorded...
No Condemnation!
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Justification is the opposite of condemnation. God declares the believing sinner to have a right...
Are You in Adam or in Christ?
Charles Hodge asked a crucial question: “If God requires one thing, and we present another, how can we be saved? If He has revealed a method in which He can be just and yet justify the sinner, ...
The Imputed Righteousness of God
God imputes or accredits the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to the believing sinner while he is still in his sinning state. God has manifested His righteousness apart from the Law “ev...
The Lord Over Death
When I was a teenager, I enjoyed watching the weekly TV program, “You Are There.” However, there was always one part of the program that I dreaded. Every one of the great men portrayed in his...
Lordship of Christ and Our Sanctification
There is always a constant tension between the “now” and the “yet to be” in the Christian’s life. When we submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ He changes our lives. We grow in our ...
Jesus is both Lord and Messiah
Jesus Christ is my Lord. That is the greatest confession of faith you can ever make. “Jesus is Lord.” He is not one of a variety of ways to get to heaven; He is the only way because He is the...
The Problem of Evil and Suffering
The greatest theological challenge Christians face is the problem of evil and suffering. Never have we had a greater demand to think biblically. We must speak the truth with integrity when people...
God Brings Good out of Evil
Evil in our world is a reality every thinking person must face, but it need not be fatal to the Christian. The fact never changes: God is good. God is omnipotent, God is omniscient and He is o...
Why Pain and Suffering?
Researchers recently asked a cross-section of adults: “If you could ask God only one question and you knew He would give you the answer, what would you ask?” The majority of the people respon...
New Life in Christ
The most basic work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is the new birth. All of the powers and wonders of the Christian life are centered on this essential miracle of Christianity. This m...
A Good and Perfect Father
God the Father loves us just as much as He loves His Son, Jesus Christ. Since that is a true statement can we ever have another anxious thought or rebellious attitude toward Him? Because our h...
Finish Your Work, Lord
Since we are the very workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus for good works, it is imperative that we yield to His creative hand, and allow Him to finish the work He has begun. With the ne...
Seated with Christ in Heaven
“We were made alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5). The newness of life we received, as Christians is a spiritual life imparted through our identification with Christ in His death a...
Our One Supreme Passion
Authentic Christianity is God-centered because it loves the Lord God with all the heart, mind soul and strength. Evidence of a true knowledge of God is an obsession with the glory of God manifest...
What will you do with Jesus Christ?
Our acceptance before God depends entirely on what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross and our response to Him. The Bible makes it emphatically clear if you accept Jesus Christ, God will acce...
How do You know when You are Spirit-filled?
The supreme mission of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ. He glorifies the Son by unfolding clearly the meaning of His person and atoning work. The work of the Spirit is Christocentri...
God Knows Me
God knows me, and He still wants to pursue a personal relationship with me. That is truly amazing. He knows everything about me, and still wants to enjoy my fellowship with Him. What does it m...
Do the Impossible
Jesus saw a thirty-eight year old man lying on his mat at the pool of water at Bethesda and approached him asking, “Do you wish to get well?” (John 5:5-6). Christ told the man to do the im...
Do You have Eternal Life?
Jesus Christ said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). How do you obtain eternal life? Have you experienc...
Are You One of the Elect of God?
Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me shall come to Me; and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). The answer to the question, are you one of the elect of ...
Have You Seen the Face of God?
The disciples of Jesus saw His glory. They gazed into His character, which is the character of God. “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the begotten...
The Glory of God in Jesus Christ
What do you think God the Son would say to God the Father during the night before He would lay down His life as atonement for the sin of the world? Imagine for a moment with me what the divine...
Saved by Grace!
Saved by grace! There is no greater majestic theme for the Christian. It eliminates all grounds of boasting. Salvation by God’s sovereign grace gives a wonderful assurance. We have security ...
Behold, What Manner of Love
Jesus wept at the tomb of His friend Lazarus. The Jewish people who saw Him responded to one another, "Behold, how He loved him" (John 11:35-36). C. H. Spurgeon said to his congregation in Lon...
Christ our Redeemer
We have been redeemed through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. He paid an infinite price for our salvation. The price of redemption is the death of Jesus Christ. That is the inescapable fact i...
Do you have a Sense of God’s Presence?
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . .” (Ephesians 3:17). A good friend asked me, “Do you fell you are adequately experiencing the presence and power of the Holy Spiri...
Do you Seek a Deeper Life with God?
The apostle Paul prayed, “That I may know Him . . .” (Philippians 3:10). The late missionary to South Africa Andrew Murray was a holy man. At one point in his life he was going through a pain...
Are You a Saint?
In His great priestly prayer Jesus was praying for His disciples, present and future. He said to His Father, “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified ...
Always in Abundant Supply
Jesus Christ is all-sufficient to meet our every need, but if He is going to meet our needs we must be wiling to recognize our needs and call upon Him. There must be a turning to Him for help. He...
Who is Jesus Christ?
n a hot debate with a group of hostile religious leaders Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56). In their rush to react in emotio...
The Lord Will Provide
Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Jesus made a startling statement stressing the fact that the ancient Jewish patriarch Abra...
Justified Freely by God’s Grace
Grace, how sweet the sound to our sinful hearts! The Bible teaches that we are saved by the free sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ. Neither will the grace of God ever be withheld, nor wil...
Why Christians Must be Holy
It is very clear in the teachings of the Scripture that no Christian is sinless (1 John 1:8-10), but it is also clear that God expects the true believer to not sin habitually. “No one who is bo...
Secure Shelter in the Storms of Life
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). The Psalmist invites us to abide in the Father’s shadow where we see only the face ...
A New Life with a New Way
The apostle Paul revealed the very core of the Christian life when he wrote: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Paul testified that his life passion is to k...
Attitudes Toward the King
What is your attitude toward the coming of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Savior of the world? Mary the expectant mother of Jesus declared in song, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spiri...
Wise Men Worship the King
The longer I live the more I want to be around wise men. “Wise men,” more properly, “Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem” looking for the King of the Jews (Matthew 2:1-2). Since...
God’s Christmas Tree
God’s ultimate will is for every believer to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. The most powerful message of Christmas is the transforming grace of God in Jesus Christ. God’s Christm...
When God Invaded History
The accounts of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth are fully historical. They describe the events when the supernatural invaded the normal flow of historical events. The physician Luke tells us he...
The Genealogy of Jesus
Are you up-to-date on your genealogy? Lots of families have their own historian who wants to delve into their family history and genealogy. The Jewish people through out the early years of the...
He Will Save His People from Their Sins
“A kind of moral relativism has taken over. Nothing is really wrong. If I have a good reason to do it, it’s not sin.” That is the modern attitude toward the righteousness of God. I get t...
A Virgin, Immanuel and the Incarnation
Ahaz was faithless. Neighboring countries of Syria and Israel banned together to fight the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Ahaz, the king of Judah, sent for the king of Assyria to come to his rescu...
Consequences of Unbelief
The gospel writer Luke described Zacharias and Elizabeth as an elderly couple, “both advanced in years,” and without children. “Elizabeth was barren.” Zechariah was a priest who married a...
The Spirit of Free Grace
Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us salvation is by the free grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;...
A Zeal for the Righteousness of God
The apostle Paul prayed to God for the salvation of those who “have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish t...
Grace
I am convinced the most important message we can ever proclaim is the free grace of God that forgives us of all our sins and gives us a perfect relationship with God. We are justified by the grac...
Trinity
The Trinity is the theological term designating one God in three persons. Even though the term is not used in the Bible, it is a correct designation for the one God self-revealed in Scripture ...
Everything for Nothing
The Hebrew prophet Isaiah offered a great invitation to everyone to come to the fountain of grace. “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat....
Sin of Unbelief
We live in a day of tolerance. But our problem is we tolerate the wrong things. The last virtue of the ungodly is tolerance. When the ungodly have abandoned all other moral standards, the cry ...
A Christian Witness to the Whole World
I am involved in something that will still be worthwhile a million years from now because God has not revoked the great commission. Jesus said, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preac...
Fully Equipped with Knowledge, Wisdom and Understanding
When an individual is born into God’s family by faith in Jesus Christ, he is born with all that he needs to grow toward spiritual maturity. How many believers fail to realize “you are comp...
Salvation by Grace through Faith in Christ
The work of Jesus Christ as Savior is the prominent theme in the Bible. He is the promised seed of woman who will conquer Satan (Gen. 3:15). He is the promised Servant of Yahweh who would bear th...
Abide in the Holy Spirit
When the Day of Pentecost had fully come the disciples realized why Jesus ascended up into heaven. He left them in order that He might be with each one of them in a more intimate relationship. ...
The Spirit of Holiness
The God controlled person longs to see only the will of God done in and through him on earth. There can be no true holiness without being obedient to the will of God. It is His will that we be re...
The Spirit of Truth
Whenever Jesus Christ is exalted the Third Person of the Trinity is at work. The Bible emphasizes different activities for each of the three members of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit ...
The Divine Person of the Holy Spirit
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is a person, and should be treated with the respect of a divine person. He is a member of the Trinity, equal to G...
Get in the Boat with Jesus
The vital thing in discipleship is to actually follow Jesus Christ wherever He goes. Have I left the lesser loyalties to follow the higher priorities of the Kingdom of God? It is not enough...
Discipleship
The call to discipleship is on Christ’s terms, not ours. The cost of discipleship is determined by the Lord, and not by the servant. In our desperate attempt to play the numbers game in t...
Healing in the Atonement
I believe in miracles. I believe that God heals. One day all true believers in Christ will be perfectly healed. Is there “healing in the atonement” so that every believer has the “rig...
Be Imitators of God
“Be imitators of God” (Ephesians 5:1). Those words are startling, upsetting, impossible. It is “the ultimate ideal.” “Be imitators of God.” There can be no higher standard than ...
What Does God Do With Our Sins?
There is no greater joy and peace for a sinner than knowing that he or she has been ransomed, healed, restored and forgiven of all his sins. The Holy Spirit “witnesses with our spirit” giv...
Condemned!
Jesus Christ is the best gift God could ever give. God so loved the sinful, lost, depraved world that He gave His very best. Can you imagine what it would be like to reject what God conside...
God’s Greatest Gift
God has provided salvation for you in Jesus Christ. In simple, lucid language Jesus sums up the entire Gospel for Nicodemus and us in one beautiful sentence rich in content. “For God so l...
Anointed Preaching
Preaching is preaching only when the messenger is anointed with the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul tells how he arrived in the city of Corinth not dependent upon self-assurance, self-assertiven...
Preaching with Power
Pentecost changed everything (Acts 2). The disciples of Jesus Christ were powerless before Pentecost. And then things changed. Jesus promised, “You will receive power after that the Holy Spi...
Power to Obey
How many times have you herd the excuse, “But I am afraid I can’t live the Christian life”? The badge of the true disciple of Jesus Christ is obedient faith. Jesus told His disciples,...
Fellowship of the Holy Spirit
“The fellowship of the Holy Spirit” is a blessing for all believers in Christ (2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1). We do not need any new baptism of the Holy Spirit to enjoy this blessing. All thing...
Trinitarian Benediction
The apostle Paul closes Second Corinthians with a beautiful benediction in adoration of the three Persons in the Holy Trinity. This verse has been correctly called “the New Testament Trinitaria...
Underneath His Everlasting Arms
There are two realms of profound mystery that persistently assault the human soul and produce in it a sense of fear. They are the fear of the unknown future and the unfathomable present. Howev...
The Shield of Faith
Have you been under a spiritual attack lately? Have you been flamed by the evil one? Have you had your mind filled with evil thoughts, perhaps even blasphemous thoughts? You were not thinking,...
You Are The Temple of God
In the Old Testament the LORD God had a temple for His people; however, in the New Testament He has His people for a temple. The apostle Paul taught, “You are the temple of God” (I Cor. 3:...
Let’s Suppose
Do you often play the game Let’s Suppose? It goes like this: we imagine all the negative things that can possibly happen to us around a given set of circumstances in our lives. “Suppose I los...
Prayer
How do you pray in the midst of bad times? How do you approach God when everything seems to you to be going from bad to worse? What is your attitude when God answers, but not in the manner in whi...
Search Me, O God
What shall be our response to the LORD God who knows everything about us all the time? How should we respond to His abiding presence that never leaves us? Because He is all-powerful, how then sho...
Custom Made by God
Our great God and Savior knows everything, is everywhere, and is all-powerful. The LORD God knows me because He made me, and since He made me, I am responsible to Him for my actions. That’s ...
God Is An Eyewitness
The final words of Jesus just before He ascended into heaven are a constant encouragement in my ministry and should be for every Christian. “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and ...
God’s Perfect Knowledge of Us
"O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You do scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways” (Psalm 139:...
Praise To The All-Knowing God
I am often asked what is my favorite passage of Scripture. I usually reply that it is whatever I am currently studying. Romans chapter eight and the Gospels are precious to me. My favorite Psalm ...
What Is God Like?
What is God like? This is not a child’s question. There is nothing and no one with whom we can compare Him. He is in a unique category, and we can know Him only as He has chosen to reveal Hi...
What Is Your Name?
What is your name? “May I have your identification, please?” Moses asked God His name as he stood before the burning bush. God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). He is th...
The Common Grace of God
God owes us nothing. God owes us nothing, yet He has poured out His blessings on every man and woman. The two aspects of grace are available to all humanity in general and special or saving...
Either We Die or He Dies
“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The Scriptures are very clear that the wrath of God is visited upon sinners ...
The Most Important Word in the Bible
The theologian Karl Barth was asked what was the most important word in the Bible. The great thinker replied, “Hyper.” You might have thought he would have said, “love,” or agape, but ...
Super Conquerors through Christ
Satan is a very dangerous enemy. We are engaged in the spiritual battle of our lives. “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the world forces of this darkness, against ...
Who Shall Separate Us from the Love of Christ?
The greatest lesson a Christian can learn is that nothing nor anyone can ever separate him from the love of Christ. I have a missionary friend who had been in prison frequently. He was flogged...
Who Is The One Who Condemns?
“Who is the one who condemns?” (Romans 8:34) We know that Jesus Christ is pleading the case of the believing sinner in heaven. “Christ Jesus is He who died, yes rather, who was raised, w...
Who Will Bring Charge Against God’s Chosen?
“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” (Romans 8:33) This is one of the most important questions a person can ask. It is important that we get God’s answer to thi...
God Spared Not His Own Son for Us
Because God has done for our good the greatest that is conceivable, will He not therefore provide all the other blessings we need? The apostle Paul enjoys arguing from the greater to the lesse...
How Can God Not Freely Give Us All Things?
Since God is for us, who then can possibly stand against us? The Psalmist wrote, “In God I will trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Psalms 56:11) The prophet Elisha de...
Unanswerable Questions
“Who can be against us?” This is the first of several unanswerable questions the apostle Paul asked in Romans 8:31-39. To be very honest there are days when I don’t have to look very ...
Glorification of the Christian
The Christian's glorification describes their ultimate and complete conformity to the image of Christ Jesus. It is the final link in the great golden chain of salvation and it is so certain th...
Justification by Faith
The salvation of the true believer is so certain that God sees it as already done. The apostle Paul uses five verbs to outline what God has done in fulfilling His saving purpose. It is a golden c...
The Effectual Call of God
Have you responded to the effectual call of God to salvation? In his effort to encourage suffering Christians, the apostle Paul wrote, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to become...
Predestined to be Conformed to Christ
The second golden link in the chain of salvation is predestination. Like foreknowledge, predestination is one of those Biblical doctrines that provokes many a discussion, but when accepted bec...
Five Golden Links in Salvation
God is at work in all the many detailed circumstances of our lives to accomplish His eternal purpose. How much does God love us? Just let me count the many ways. Here are five to begin our que...
The Eternal Purpose of God
Where is God at work in your life? Are you going through some deep hurt, pain or suffering? Could God perhaps be doing a special work through your present circumstances? One of the greatest pr...
How Can I Know God’s Will for My Life?
“I am convinced that nothing in this world happens outside the will of God—literally nothing. There are no failures, and there are no loose ends in the ultimate plan of God.” Do you agree o...
When the Holy Spirit Groans in Prayer
The indwelling Spirit of God works in us in pray to cry out “Abba,” “Father, Daddy.” He helps us to endure sufferings so that we may patiently look forward to the final redemption of our ...
Redemption of Our Bodies
True Christianity "sets its affection on things which are above, not on things which are on the earth." True Christianity is filled with hope. The second coming is “our blessed hope” (Titu...
Groan, Groans, and Groaning
Life is full of pain, suffering and death. Each of us has our share of heartaches and hurts. Sometimes we groan under the load of suffering. In my daily ministry I see hundreds of poor people fac...
Love is Extravagant!
Tongues, prophesy, knowledge, absolute faith, philanthropy, martyrdom without God’s love in Christ results in nothing—absolute zero. Go back and read again the greatest essay ever written ...
Suffering is the Christian’s Path to Glory
Our hope as Christians is our future glory. We will have a new body patterned after the glorified body of Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:21). Our “hope of glory” is guaranteed by the present dwelling ...
The Inheritance of the Christian
The witness of the Holy Spirit gives evidence that if we are God’s “children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be ...
Pilate before the King of Kings
The King of kings was on a cross. Let that statement sink in. The King of kings was hanging on a cross. The troubling question for the Roman governor Pilate was, “Are You the King of the ...
Evidence of Members of God’s Family
Our possession of the Holy Spirit is the very essence of what it means to be a Christian. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9). Those who ...
Who Is a Christian?
“Who is a Christian?” I am asked that question often? “What is the gospel?” is another question often asked. Here is the answer the apostle Paul gives to these questions. “However, yo...
Walking in the Flesh
“The sinful mind is hostile to God” (Romans 8:7). It is impossible for a person who does not know Jesus Christ as their Savior to please God. Two different mindsets have two entirely di...
Life or Death?
Being a Christian is more than saying you agree with certain Christian teachings about sin and salvation. One is a Christian because he has been “born again.” Those who have received this spi...
Walking in the Spirit
“We are not justified by the manner of our walk, but by our being in Christ Jesus,” observed Spurgeon. The most important question to ask ourselves is, “Am I in Christ?” If the answer ...
Sin in the Life of the Christian
Proof that a person knows Christ as his Savior is not found in sinless perfection. The Bible does, however demand a changed life as evidence that a person has received new spiritual life from God...
All Sufficient Sacrifice of Jesus Christ
The very same all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ that enabled God to save us is sufficient to keep us saved for all eternity. Does sin have the power to set at naught the saving power of...
The Day I Died
God takes sin seriously. Sin is a terrible thing in the Christian’s life. That is why God did not overlook sin, but dealt with it in one complete stroke of judgment by sending Christ to die for...
Unlimited Superabounding Grace of God
Can we lose our salvation by sinning? Does God withhold His grace because of sin? Do we forfeit grace when we sin? Is it reduced because of our inability to keep from sinning? Those are seriou...
Have You Fallen from Grace?
“Grace is neither withheld nor reduced because of sin.” I have been asked many times if a born again believer can fall from the grace of God since Galatians 5:4 says, “you have fallen fr...
Salvation by Grace Alone
Saved by grace. Those are the most beautiful words to a sinner's ears. Grace is the sweet sovereign favor shown to someone who does not deserve any favor, but the exactly the very opposite. ...
Pilate before the King of Kings
The King of kings was on a cross. Let that statement sink in. The King of kings was hanging on a cross. The troubling question for the Roman governor Pilate was, “Are You the King of the ...
Peter in Heaven and Judas in Hell
Both Peter and Judas committed the same sin. They both denied their Lord and Master. But why did one go to heaven, and one go to hell? The Gospel writer Matthew is careful to compare and co...
Are You the Christ, the Son of God?
At the Jewish trial of Jesus, the high priest Caiaphas found himself in a dilemma. He was losing his case before the Roman governor Pilate. The evidence did not add up. The false witnesses did no...
How can a Christian be Lost Again?
Can a person once saved ever be lost again? Our question relates only to the person who is saved in the true Biblical sense. Eternal life is the gift of God. If one has it, he has it for et...
The Attitude of God toward the Saved
Was the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ when He died on the cross all-sufficient for God to save the sinner? Was His sacrifice sufficient for God to justly keep the sinner saved? Is God lacking...
You in Me, and I in You
Jesus said to His disciples, “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, an...
What must I do to be Saved?
Salvation is the work of God alone. It is comes from Him as a free gift. Salvation is of God, and man’s responsibility is only to receive it freely as a gift from His hand. The salvation of ...
Why Did Jesus Die?
It is an age-old question, but perhaps more important now than ever before. The heart of the apostle Paul can be expressed with the words: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross ...
God’s Problem
The greatest message God has ever delivered to sinful man is found in the cross of Jesus Christ. It is the declaration of the righteousness of God, and a demonstration that God is both “just an...
Infinite Love of God
The Lord God has chosen to fully reveal Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ. He has done it in such a way that a finite mind might grasp the essential truth of God’s infinite being (Rom. 1:19...
What does it mean to be Lost?
How does God view the individual who has never put his faith in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior? The Bible describes the estate of the unsaved person as a “children of disobedience,” �...
All Things for and Through God
Old Bishop John Ryle said truthfully: “It is not open sin, or open unbelief, which robs Christ of His professing servants, so much as the love of the world, the fear of the world, the cares of ...
The Model Prayer: Deliver Us from Evil
The last petition in the Model Prayer looks to the future when we pray, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13). That is a prayer that every believer ...
The Model Prayer: Forgive Our Debts
Why is it so hard to forgive? Only a person committed to Christ dare pray this prayer. "Forgive us our debts, as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors" (Matthew 6:12 NET). These are the mo...
The Model Prayer: Our Daily Bread
Jesus takes our physical needs seriously. In the Model Prayer He teaches us to look to our heavenly Father to supply our immediate needs. Jesus encourages us to continually depend on God for all ...
The Model Prayer: You Kingdom Come
The “Lord’s Prayer” is found in John 17; Matthew 6:9-13 is properly called “The Model Prayer” because it teaches us how to pray. Jesus did not say, “Pray in these words,” but “Pra...
The Model Prayer: Our Father
Augustine said, “Prayer calms and purifies the heart and makes it more capacious for receiving the Divine gifts. God is always ready to give us His light, but we are not always ready to receive...
Why Try to Become Perfect?
Jesus declared the highest possible standard for His followers: they must be “perfect.” “You be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The righteousness that Je...
Spiritual Prosperity
No one can live up to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Many have tried to, but it exposes our spiritual depravity. A proper view of the Sermon on the Mount always points to God’s grace...
Signs of the Times
Are you good at reading the signs of the times? Jesus said you know how to forecast the weather by observing the cloud formations, but your cannot interpret the signs of the times in which you...
Follow the Leader
“Follow Me!” Those two words together form a command found thirteen times in the Gospels. Jesus used those two simple words when He called Peter, Andrew, James and John to be His disciples...
Christianity is Christ
There is no other way to say it. Christianity is Christ. Christianity is centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ. If the focus is on anything else it is not Christianity. That great tr...
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was a great man. Jesus said of John, “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11). John was great because he saw ...
What is in a Name?
The apostle John introduces the themes he will develop in his gospel by relating them to the names he employs of Jesus in chapter one. There seems to be a progressive unfolding of his major theme...
Reincidencia
¿Alguna vez usted ha vuelto temporalmente a la incredulidad y al pecado después de que se hizo cristiano? La condición de reincidir es el resultado de la apatía espiritual o la indiferencia a...
Crucified with Christ
When Christ died on the cross the work of salvation was completed and Christ provided access for all believers into God’s holy presence. Therefore, salvation is by grace alone, through faith al...
Come with Boldness for Grace and Mercy
The main argument of the Epistle of Hebrews is that “we have a great High Priest” (Heb. 4:14; 1:3; 2:17f; 3:1; 4:14-12:3). Jesus has passed through the upper heavens to the throne of God (1:3...
Getting Near to God
The essential work of our great High priest is to bring us near to God. The Lord Jesus Christ gives us perfect confidence in drawing near to our heavenly Father. He has opened up and keeps open f...
The Infinite Glory of Jesus Christ
Our greatest need is to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and dwell in his holy presence. In the presence of the Son of God all the glories of the old covenant fade into utter insignificance....
God has Spoken!
The LORD God has not left us in the dark groping for answers to our eternal destiny and relationship with him. He has clearly revealed himself and his eternal purposes for his creation. Man wa...
¡Dios ha Hablado!
El SEÑOR Dios no nos ha dejado en la oscuridad buscando a ciegas respuestas a nuestro destino eterno y la relación con él. Se ha revelado claramente a sí mismo y sus eternos propósitos para ...
Partakers of Christ
How clearly and sweetly God speaks to us in the person of his Son Jesus Christ. He is the word incarnate who died in our place on the cross. Our hearts become soft and tender when we receive G...
A Tender Compassionate High Priest
The second greatest truth in the Bible is God became flesh and dwelt among men. The greatest is that God became man because he loved us so much that he would go to the cross and personally die fo...
What Does God See?
The apostle Paul gives us an excellent summary of the salvation God provides in Philippians 3:9. Here is the very heart of the Good News in Jesus Christ. That I may “be found in him, not bec...
Bad News – Good News
One of the basic principles of sharing Christ with your friends is that you have to present some bad news before you can share the good news. The Bible contains both bad news and good news. Th...
A Life Worthy of the Gospel
The Bible always stresses a balance between the content of one’s beliefs and the resulting conduct in one’s life. A good example is found in Ephesians 4:1-3. “I, therefore, the prisoner for...
How Bad is It?
When I go to my medical doctor with a physical complaint he will usually ask, “How bad is it?” Romans chapter three summarizes the spiritual condition of every individual apart from the gr...
Acceptable to God
How can a sinful person ever be acceptable to a holy God? God takes sin seriously; it will be severely punished unless atonement is acceptable according to God’s standard. Sin is a barrie...
Born of God
How are individuals made alive spiritually? Jesus said, "I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3 NET). The Bible teaches...
Carefully Read the Warning Label
Depravity. That is not a beautiful word. It means that the corruption of sin has extended to all aspects of our nature, including our entire being. Because of that corruption there is nothing ...
Unanswered Prayers
What is your attitude toward unanswered prayer? What do think God is trying to teach you when He chooses not to answer your sincere prayers? It is the mature Christian who wrestles with the bu...
Love is Extravagant!
Tongues, prophesy, knowledge, absolute faith, philanthropy, martyrdom without God’s love in Christ results in nothing—absolute zero. Go back and read again the greatest essay ever written ...
Justified or Condemned
You are loved by God as He loved His own Son. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by...
The Perfect Righteousness of Christ
God has provided a perfect divine righteousness for the sinner who believes what God has revealed in His Word. The believing sinner stands before God, not in his own self-righteousness which i...
God’s Saving Gospel
It is God’s gospel! It is His good news to sinners that we have the privilege of proclaiming. It is God’s good news because it is something He alone planned, announced beforehand and accompli...
The Conquering Love of Christ
Upon close examination there is only one way to explain the dramatic changes and resultant attitudes and motivations of the Jewish rabbi, Saul of Tarsus. He was a conquered man. He was in his own...
Jesus is Yahweh (Jehovah)
Jesus is Jehovah. Thomas confessed to the resurrected Christ, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Jesus accepted that confession of faith in Him. “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ exc...
Do You See What I See?
"Christ in you the hope of glory," wrote the apostle Paul. It is one of the greatest blessings of the Christian life that we share the image of Jesus Christ and go "from glory to glory." "We a...
Our Unlimited Resources in Christ
William Carey, the father of the modern missionary movement said, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” Carey’s motto is similar to D. L. Moody’s, who listened ...
God-breathed Scriptures
The Holy Spirit initiated and controlled the process of giving us the written revelation of God. The Scriptures were not merely man’s own thoughts, nor divine thoughts in their own words, bu...
Biblical Authority and Jesus
The apostle Paul accepted the fact that the Word of God was inspired, incorruptible, indestructible and indispensable. “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for repr...
The Purpose of the Scriptures
The primary purpose of the Scriptures is to point people to Jesus Christ (Luke 24:27, 32, 44-48). “The Father who sent Me has Himself testified concerning Me . . . . These are the Scriptures...
The Purpose of Miracles
The more you know about Jesus and the longer you live with Him the more you know that no human category can contain Him. He is God with us. Jesus said, “The very work that the Father has giv...
All of Grace
Grace—what a sweet fragrance. It is the greatest theme in the Bible. Abounding grace, wondrous grace, boundless grace, fountain of grace, unfailing grace, unmeasurable grace, electing grace,...
Charge it to My Account
“Charge it.” “Charge it to my account.” Those are words we hear every day in the business world. But did you know that those words have eternal significance, too? “Imputation” (...
Where Will You Spend Eternity?
Jesus Christ made it very clear that a person’s relationship with God in this present life will determine his destiny in the life to come (Matthew 19:16-26; 7:13-23). In a parable on the last...
Eternal Life -- the Gift
Eternal Life is God’s kind of life. It is eternal because He is eternal. Nothing will ever separate the believer in Christ from the One who loves us. He gave us His free gift of eternal life th...
Perfect Atonement for Personal Sin
The most important day in the Jewish religious calendar is the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). It is to this day central to Judaism even though the sacrificial system came to an end with the des...
How do You Handle Tribulation?
Most believers in Christ throughout history of Christianity have suffered tribulation. For most it has been an ever-present reality (1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Tim. 3:12-13). The New Testament describes ...
Blessed Assurance
God does not intend for His saved child to live the Christian life without the blessed assurance of eternal life. The apostle Paul had a profound conviction that nothing will be able to separa...
Saving Faith
C. H. Spurgeon said faith has three essential ingredients: knowledge, belief and trust. There must be “a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us.” We must have certain k...
The Perfect Place of Mercy
The most important piece of furniture in the Tabernacle of Meeting in the wilderness and later the Jerusalem Temple was the Ark of the Covenant, and the lid of gold called the mercy seat or place...
The Ascension of Christ
The Gospel of Luke describes the transference of the resurrected body of Jesus from the earth to heaven in Acts 1:9-11. “And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were ...
The Supremacy of Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the supreme Sovereign of the universe. Colossians 1:15-20 gives seven reasons why Christ is preeminent. These verses are at the heart of the epistle’s main emphasis on the ex...
All that Jesus Continues to Do
"All that Jesus began to do and teach” He continues to do and teach today. In Acts 1:1 the words “all that Jesus began to do and teach” are in the linear action. It is action still going ...
Good Works for God’s Glory
Why should the believing sinner do good works? Do we do good works so we can atone for our “temporal” sins after we were baptized? Are we to do good religious works in order to make satisfa...
Before and After
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Whenever any person becomes a new creature in union with...
Free Salvation
Free, but not cheap! Your salvation is a gift freely given and received from God, but it is not cheap. It is the most expensive gift you will ever receive. God comes and offers us free salva...
Sweet Sovereign Saving Grace
Do you find the topic of grace boring? Someone asked me, “Don’t you ever get tired of preaching on grace?” My response was “no,” because every other doctrine in the Christian faith is...
Dressed for the New Life
Are you dressed in grave clothes or wedding garments? Now that we have been saved by grace how then shall we live? How are we to walk in this new life? The apostle Paul uses an illustration...
A New Standard of Living
The world is not our standard for Christian living. The apostle Paul stressed, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind . . .” (Rom. 12:2). Ag...
Living Sacrifices
The apostle Paul gives an urgent plea to believers in Christ “to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12:1). P...
God’s Kind of Life
From God’s eternal perspective the believer in Christ is already a finished work. From our human perspective in time and space, He is continuing to work the truth deeper and deeper into our hea...
Abundant Life
Abundant life as Jesus described it is the life of God Himself. God places the new spiritual life within the individual the moment he responds to God’s grace and believes on Christ as his per...
Finished!
The apostle John saw what was happening at the cross when Jesus was crucified. He was an eyewitness to Jesus’ death. A few moments before His death Jesus declared, “It is finished!” (John 1...
Under God’s Watchful Eye
Jesus reminds us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). What do you say to yourself when you are pressed in on every side by dangero...
God is Able
What is your favorite doxology in the Bible? Mine is found in Ephesians 3:20-21. The context is a prayer for God’s high purposes for His redeemed people. Paul’s prayer is that every believ...
From Despair to Hope
It is almost uncanny how the poet describes the abandonment of the sufferer by God to the scorn of evil people who mocked Him. The Hebrew poet-king wrote, But I am a worm and not a man, A repr...
Jesus Christ is the Great I AM
Jesus Christ claimed to be the “I AM.” It is the personal name of the God of the Old Testament (Exodus 3:13-14). On several occasions it is recorded that Jesus used the “I AM” formula in ...
Feasting on the Lamb
The same Passover lamb that was slain and its blood smeared on the doorpost and the lintel in the Jewish home was the lamb that the people ate for the journey out of Egypt (Ex. 12:11, 46). Ever...
Lamb of God
The focus of the life and work of Jesus Christ is found in His death and resurrection. It is the fulfillment of the great message of the coming redeemer in the Old Testament. The lamb was the p...
Jesus Christ is God
The eminent British professor and scholar C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity: " I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ...
Christ our Reconciliation
Adam enjoyed perfect fellowship and communion with God before he disobeyed Him in the Garden. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God that fellowship was broken, and Adam tried to hide himself from God (...
Christ our Reconciliation
Adam enjoyed perfect fellowship and communion with God before he disobeyed Him in the Garden. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God that fellowship was broken, and Adam tried to hide himself from God (...
Christ our Propitiation
Please don’t let that title scare you off. That is a beautiful and profound word. Christ’s death turns away the wrath of God. The apostle Paul said Christ is our propitiation. He is a propi...
Who Am I?
Every born again believer in Jesus Christ has a new standing before the Lord God. This eternal position never changes. It does not depend upon changes, chances or our circumstances. Romans chap...
The Power of the Resurrection Life
Christianity is Christ. It is centered in a historical person who lived, died and rose from the dead. This truth is the most important fact in history. It is essential because it demands a life...
Infallibly Convincing Proofs
Matthew Arnold said, “The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the best attested fact in history.” William Lyon Phelps of Yale wrote, “It may be said that the historical evidence for the resur...
Evidences of the Death of Christ
The eyewitness John keenly observed two unusual things that happen at the crucifixion of Jesus. These facts made a deep impression on him as he watched the crucifixion taking place. The crucifi...
God Removed the Body
When Peter and John heard Mary Magdalene say, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him,” they took off running to the tomb of Jesus leaving ...
Limiting Christ
Do you have trouble making the transition between the historical Christ of the New Testament and the living Christ of today? In reality He is the same person. He changes not. The one whom we w...
Lord of the Living and the Dead
Jesus Christ is “Lord of both the dead and the living,” declares the apostle Paul. Those who belong to Him now will still belong to Him in the future, even beyond death. They will belong to H...
Satisfied Faith
Faith is simply taking God at His word and then acting on it. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29b). These words are for you and me because w...
Our Resurrection Hope
“The dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The resurrection of Christ gives us assurance that our loved ones who have died in Christ are currently safe in Christ and they...
From Doubt to Faith
Would you consider it a compliment if someone called you a “doubting Thomas”? Doubting is a vital ingredient in all mature critical thinking. No one really respects a gullible person. The m...
Abiding in Christ
Jesus Christ offers every believer His life. It is like the life of a vine whereby the branches draw their life from the trailing plant. The believer shares in the life of the Vine. The soul of...
Our Eternal Sanctification by the Blood of Jesus
One of the most precious and beautiful themes in the Bible is our positional or absolute sanctification by the blood of Jesus Christ. This sanctification is an unchanging and unchangeable eternal...
Have You Received the First Blessing?
The Holy Spirit does a work within the believer whereby He sanctifies us. This is an experience within the Christian. The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “ . . . you were washed...
Our Absolute and Progressive Sanctification
Can you imagine how chaotic the Christian life would be like if we believed on Christ to save us, but we had to keep ourselves saved by our own sinless life? Because of false teachings most no...
Living the Christian Life
There is only one person who can live the Christian life. Yes, it can be lived, but only by the Lord Jesus Christ. To live the Christian life you must have the right one living it. The Christi...
The Lord Over Death
When I was a teenager, I enjoyed watching the weekly TV program, “You Are There.” However, there was always one part of the program that I dreaded. Every one of the great men portrayed in his...
The Lord of History
History moves toward a steady goal because God is in control of history. Jesus Christ is Lord of all including time, kings and kingdoms. He is the Lord of history. The lordship of Jesus Christ...
Lordship of Christ and Our Sanctification
There is always a constant tension between the “now” and the “yet to be” in the Christian’s life. When we submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ He changes our lives. We grow in our ...
Jesus is both Lord and Messiah
Jesus Christ is my Lord. That is the greatest confession of faith you can ever make. “Jesus is Lord.” He is not one of a variety of ways to get to heaven; He is the only way because He is the...
The Problem of Evil and Suffering
The greatest theological challenge Christians face is the problem of evil and suffering. Never have we had a greater demand to think biblically. We must speak the truth with integrity when people...
God Brings Good out of Evil
Evil in our world is a reality every thinking person must face, but it need not be fatal to the Christian. The fact never changes: God is good. God is omnipotent, God is omniscient and He is om...
Why Pain and Suffering?
Researchers recently asked a cross-section of adults: “If you could ask God only one question and you knew He would give you the answer, what would you ask?” The majority of the people respon...
New Life in Christ
The most basic work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is the new birth. All of the powers and wonders of the Christian life are centered on this essential miracle of Christianity. This m...
A Good and Perfect Father
God the Father loves us just as much as He loves His Son, Jesus Christ. Since that is a true statement can we ever have another anxious thought or rebellious attitude toward Him? Because our he...
Finish Your Work, Lord
Since we are the very workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus for good works, it is imperative that we yield to His creative hand, and allow Him to finish the work He has begun. With the new...
Seated with Christ in Heaven
We were made alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5). The newness of life we received, as Christians is a spiritual life imparted through our identification with Christ in His death and ...
Our One Supreme Passion
Authentic Christianity is God-centered because it loves the Lord God with all the heart, mind soul and strength. Evidence of a true knowledge of God is an obsession with the glory of God manifest...
What will you do with Jesus Christ?
Our acceptance before God depends entirely on what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross and our response to Him. The Bible makes it emphatically clear if you accept Jesus Christ, God will accep...
How do You know when You are Spirit-filled?
The supreme mission of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ. He glorifies the Son by unfolding clearly the meaning of His person and atoning work. The work of the Spirit is Christocentri...
God Knows Me
God knows me, and He still wants to pursue a personal relationship with me. That is truly amazing. He knows everything about me, and still wants to enjoy my fellowship with Him. What does it m...
Do the Impossible
Jesus saw a thirty-eight year old man lying on his mat at the pool of water at Bethesda and approached him asking, “Do you wish to get well?” (John 5:5-6). Christ told the man to do the im...
Do You have Eternal Life?
Jesus Christ said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). How do you obtain eternal life? Have you experienc...
Are You One of the Elect of God?
Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me shall come to Me; and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). The answer to the question, are you one of the elect of ...
Have You Seen the Face of God?
The disciples of Jesus saw His glory. They gazed into His character, which is the character of God. “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the begotten...
The Glory of God in Jesus Christ
What do you think God the Son would say to God the Father during the night before He would lay down His life as atonement for the sin of the world? Imagine for a moment with me what the divine...
Saved by Grace!
Saved by grace! There is no greater majestic theme for the Christian. It eliminates all grounds of boasting. Salvation by God’s sovereign grace gives a wonderful assurance. We have security in ...
Behold, What Manner of Love
Jesus wept at the tomb of His friend Lazarus. The Jewish people who saw Him responded to one another, "Behold, how He loved him" (John 11:35-36). C. H. Spurgeon said to his congregation in London...
Christ our Redeemer
We have been redeemed through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. He paid an infinite price for our salvation. The price of redemption is the death of Jesus Christ. That is the inescapable fact i...
Do you have a Sense of God’s Presence?
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . .” (Ephesians 3:17). A good friend asked me, “Do you fell you are adequately experiencing the presence and power of the Holy Spirit?�...
Do you Seek a Deeper Life with God?
The apostle Paul prayed, “That I may know Him . . .” (Philippians 3:10). The late missionary to South Africa Andrew Murray was a holy man. At one point in his life he was going through a pa...
Are You a Saint?
In His great priestly prayer Jesus was praying for His disciples, present and future. He said to His Father, “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified ...
Always in Abundant Supply
Jesus Christ is all-sufficient to meet our every need, but if He is going to meet our needs we must be wiling to recognize our needs and call upon Him. There must be a turning to Him for help. He...
Who is Jesus Christ?
In a hot debate with a group of hostile religious leaders Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56). In their rush to react in emotiona...
The Lord Will Provide
Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Jesus made a startling statement stressing the fact that the ancient Jewish patriarch Abra...
Justified Freely by God’s Grace
Grace, how sweet the sound to our sinful hearts! The Bible teaches that we are saved by the free sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ. Neither will the grace of God ever be withheld, nor wil...
Why Christians Must be Holy
It is very clear in the teachings of the Scripture that no Christian is sinless (1 John 1:8-10), but it is also clear that God expects the true believer to not sin habitually. “No one who is bo...
Secure Shelter in the Storms of Life
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). The Psalmist invites us to abide in the Father’s shadow where we see only the face of ...
A New Life with a New Way
The apostle Paul revealed the very core of the Christian life when he wrote: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Paul testified that his life passion is to k...
Attitudes Toward the King
What is your attitude toward the coming of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Savior of the world? Mary the expectant mother of Jesus declared in song, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spiri...
Wise Men Worship the King
The longer I live the more I want to be around wise men. “Wise men,” more properly, “Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem” looking for the King of the Jews (Matthew 2:1-2). Since...
God’s Christmas Tree
God’s ultimate will is for every believer to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. The most powerful message of Christmas is the transforming grace of God in Jesus Christ. God’s Christm...
When God Invaded History
The accounts of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth are fully historical. They describe the events when the supernatural invaded the normal flow of historical events. The physician Luke tells us he...
The Spirit of Free Grace
Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us salvation is by the free grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;...
A Zeal for the Righteousness of God
The apostle Paul prayed to God for the salvation of those who “have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish t...
Grace
I am convinced the most important message we can ever proclaim is the free grace of God that forgives us of all our sins and gives us a perfect relationship with God. We are justified by the grac...
Trinity
The Trinity is the theological term designating one God in three persons. Even though the term is not used in the Bible, it is a correct designation for the one God self-revealed in Scripture ...
Everything for Nothing
The Hebrew prophet Isaiah offered a great invitation to everyone to come to the fountain of grace. Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. ...
Sin of Unbelief
We live in a day of tolerance. But our problem is we tolerate the wrong things. The last virtue of the ungodly is tolerance. When the ungodly have abandoned all other moral standards, the cry ...
Look Unto Me, and be Saved
Look unto Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other (Isaiah 45:22). This is the verse the layman was preaching on the day C. H. Spurgeon placed his f...
Blessings out of Sufferings
What is your response to suffering? There is no escape from intense pressures in this life, but it helps when we get God into the picture. The apostle Peter wrote to a group of suffering Chris...
Excuses, Excuses!
"Sirs, what must I do to be saved? The apostle Paul and Silas responded to the jailor in the city of Philippi, Believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved, and your household (Acts 16:...
Forgiveness According to the Riches of God's Grace
The greatest peace and joy in all the world is knowing all my sins have been forgiven according to the riches of Gods free grace in Jesus Christ. We are trophies of His grace both now and throu...
God's Everlasting Covenant of Grace
There is infinite value in the atoning blood of the Lamb of God. The new covenant with the LORD God is ratified by the blood of Jesus Christ (Matthew 26:28; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 7:22; 8:...
Justification by Faith and Imputed Righteousness
God is a just God, and He is the justifier of the person who has faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:26). That is one of those important truths that separate historical Biblical Christianity from ...
Sleepless Nights and Stressful Days
What do you do when the pressures of daily life assail and assault you? Since the LORD God has saved you by His grace from beginning to end, why should you tremble before the lesser dangers of...
"My Cup is Running Over"
Gods blessings are always a superabundance. When the LORD is my shepherd, my cup runs over in superabundance. We do not have to wait until we get to heaven to experience Gods ba...
Faith Defined: Knowledge, Belief and Trust
By grace you are saved, through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8). The grace of God is the open fountain that saves the sinner. By grace you are saved. The grace of God is an in...
Faith's Results: Justification
The person who believes in Jesus Christ is not judged, however he who does not believe is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:8). Th...
Faith's Object: Jesus Christ
What is the object of my faith? What am I to believe in to receive the gift of eternal life and live with God in heaven? What must I do to be saved? The object of faith for the sinner is Jesus...
Whose Side are You On?
Whose side are you on? That is the question Psalm one asks as it paints two portraits: one is the picture of the wicked person, and the other is the portrait or the wise man. Who is the b...
Life in Christ
There is life in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, You will not come to Me that you might have life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. I came...
Believer's Vital Union with Christ
The relationship between Christ and the believer is the nearest, dearest, closest, most intense, and most enduring relationship that can be imagined, said Spurgeon. We live because Christ liv...
The Church of Christ
All of us who are trusting in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior are members of the true church of Christ. We are members of His body. We have experienced the forgiveness of our sins, according ...
Persevering Grace
If the grace of God were suddenly taken away from you, what would you be? If God removed all of His restraints of love and grace, what would you do? True believers are preserved and cannot ...
The Sinner God Accepts
am clean through the blood of Jesus Christ. In deed, if the blood of Jesus does not cover my sin, I am eternally doomed. What the Jewish sin offering taught by metaphor, Jesus Christ fulfilled...
Come and Believe as Little Children
In one of my pastorates I brought a message on the death and resurrection to a close, and as I began to issue the invitation for all who would believe on Jesus Christ as their Savior a seventy-ye...
How Can a Person Please God?
Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). We can state the same truth by answering the question, how can man please God? The author of the Epistle of Hebrews in chapter el...
One Perfect Sacrifice for Sinners
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was completed at the cross when He shouted, It is finished! (John 19:30). It was finished and as a result it is forever done. It stands finished. Nothing els...
Prayer of the Savior for All Believers
In John chapter seventeen we are received with our great High Priest into the holiest of all. The prayer of the Savior (in John 17) rises as it proceeds and now He reaches His crowning po...
Joseph's Secret to Success
Tucked away in his father's blessing is an illustration that the blessings of the Lord are greater than anything we can imagine on this earth. One commentator has said, It is the Old Testament ...
The Carnal Mind and a New Mind
George Whitfield, the eighteenth century evangelist, was correct when he said, If the unregenerate man could enter heaven, he would be so unhappy in heaven, that he would ask God to let him run...
Our Old Carnal Sinful Nature
The Christian makes progress in sanctification in his daily life as he yields to the Holy Spirit. He is in perpetual war against the old nature or flesh. The greater power in the conflict is the ...
The Call of God to Salvation
To those who are called of God, the good news in Jesus Christ is the power of God. If you are called of God, you know it. It is a matter of pure experience between you and the risen Christ. The t...
How to Produce Works of the Flesh
The desires of the flesh produce the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:16-21). The Bible admonishes us not to gratify or carry out the desire of the flesh (v.16). How do you not fulfill the desir...
Keep on Walking by the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit suppresses the evil impulses of nature as the believer trusts Him to do so. As we cooperate with Him in the work of sanctification He enables us to be victorious in the Christian ...
A New Creation, Not Yet Perfect
The believer is a new man, a new creation, but he is a new man not yet made perfect, observes John Murray. The born again believer still has to deal with indwelling sin. He still sins even t...
Parable of the Sower
The parable of the sower sheds great light on what happens in churches when individuals make public decisions to follow Jesus Christ and then drop out of sight. Our situation is not much differen...
Absolute Truth
Josh McDowell said recently that most evangelical Christian youth in the United States no longer believe in absolute truth. In 1991, 52 percent of our born again church kids said there i...
The Lords Supper
One of my favorite worship services is the observance of the Lords Supper. I grew up in a little country church that tacked (or so it seemed) the Lords Supper on to the end of the sermon. I...
Living with Others
The Bible is filled with admonitions on how to build better relationships and how to live with other people. A few years ago I read through the Bible marking all the passages that speak of person...
God's Perfect Goal for You
C. S. Lewis said, Our Lord . . . warned people to count the cost before becoming Christians. Make no mistake, He says, if you let me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yoursel...
Reasonable, Spiritual Service of Worship
God is looking for holy vessels that are dedicated for His use alone. We have been bought with a price the infinite precious blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we now belong to God. We no lon...
Living, Holy and Acceptable Sacrifice to God
The only problem with a living sacrifice is it wants to crawl off the altar. The Christians sacrifice is to be a living, holy and acceptable sacrifice to God. The apostle Paul wrote, "The...
The Attitude of Christ
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). The Christian faith of the first century of Christianity was centered on the person and work of Jesus Chri...
Do You Have Life's Greatest Satisfaction?
One of the most delightful books I have read was Surprised by Joy in which the brilliant Cambridge scholar C. S. Lewis tells how the Hound of Heaven tracked him down and brought him to his kn...
Eternal Consequences of Critical Choices
The wages if sin is death. Those are startling words. The only wages sin pays results in death spiritually and eternally. The wages of sin is death spiritually. That means spiritual eyes t...
Are You Saved?
Have you been saved? Have you come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? It is a question that is almost exclusive to Christianity. The word saved in the Bible had three tenses. We were saved ...
Do You Have the Mind of Christ?
Have you the mind of Christ? Do I see the beauty of a holy life as Jesus saw it? Do I see lost people through His eyes? Do I understand the eternal purpose of God with the same conviction ...
Soul Prosperity
Are you as well off physically as you are spiritually? Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2). The consistent ...
Servants Have No Rights
We live in a day when everyone insists on his or her personal rights. The courts of law are full of people who feel their rights have been infringed upon grievously. It is the theme in every ...
Prayer in the Name of Jesus Christ
"About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them (Acts 16:25). These two jailbirds were beaten to a pulp, bruised and ...
The Guidance of the Holy Spirit
The apostle Paul experienced the leading of the Holy Spirit in his daily life. He saw a great spiritual principle in the Christian life. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the so...
The Witnessing Spirit
Bill Bright said, Successful witnessing is simply sharing Christ in the power of the Holy Sprit and leaving the results to God. Jesus promised all His disciples the presence of the Holy Sp...
Christian Perfection (II)
It is true that we will never be perfect in this life, but the perfections outlined by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount are still those for which we should aim and that we should increasingly att...
Christian Perfection (I)
How good does a person have to be in order to be saved? Perhaps we can best answer that question by asking, how perfect is God? Jesus said, You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is ...
A Christian Witness to the Whole World
I am involved in something that will still be worthwhile a million years from now because God has not revoked the great commission. Jesus said, And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preach...
Fully Equipped with Knowledge, Wisdom and Understanding
When an individual is born into Gods family by faith in Jesus Christ, he is born with all that he needs to grow toward spiritual maturity. How many believers fail to realize you are comple...
Salvation by Grace through Faith in Christ
The work of Jesus Christ as Savior is the prominent theme in the Bible. He is the promised seed of woman who will conquer Satan (Gen. 3:15). He is the promised Servant of Yahweh who would bear th...
Salvation from Penalty, Presence of Power of Sin
The Jewish Scriptures glories in calling God Savior (Isa. 45:15, 21; Ps. 24:5; 27:1, 9; 62:2; 65:5, 79:7; Micah 7:7; Hab. 3:18; Isa. 12:2; 17:10; 62:11). The word salvation in the Old Testa...
Hope for Desperate People
There are no hopeless helpless cases with Jesus Christ. Jesus always invites desperate, helpless, and seemingly hopeless people to come to Him. He issued the greatest invitation to all hopeles...
Be Filled With The Holy Spirit
The greatest need of the born again Christian is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. When we are under the control of the Holy Spirit, we will always glorify Jesus Christ. He will be exalted in ou...
The Bible and our Sanctification
Almost everything we do daily ultimately involves spiritual warfare. Are we depending on the human weapons, or the spiritual weapons God has provided? Our battle is not with flesh and blood (E...
A Good Clear Conscience
One of the greatest blessings for the born again Christian is the deep sense of peace with God (Phil. 4:7, 9; Col. 3:15; John 14:27). The apostle Paul wrote, I am telling the truth in Christ...
Living in the Spirit
Living in the Spirit is living a transparent life. It is a life of obedience to the LORD God, and it is the very life of Jesus Christ Himself given to us by the Holy Spirit. Has God found in y...
The Spirit of Love
God is love (1 John 4:8). His love cannot change because He does not change. His love had no beginning and never will cease. Because God is infinite, His love is infinite. His love is pure and ...
Abide in the Holy Spirit
When the Day of Pentecost had fully come the disciples realized why Jesus ascended up into heaven. He left them in order that He might be with each one of them in a more intimate relationship. ...
The Spirit of Holiness
The God controlled person longs to see only the will of God done in and through him on earth. There can be no true holiness without being obedient to the will of God. It is His will that we be re...
The Divine Person of the Holy Spirit
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is a person, and should be treated with the respect of a divine person. He is a member of the Trinity, equal to G...
Get in the Boat with Jesus
The vital thing in discipleship is to actually follow Jesus Christ wherever He goes. Have I left the lesser loyalties to follow the higher priorities of the Kingdom of God? It is not enough...
Discipleship
The call to discipleship is on Christs terms, not ours. The cost of discipleship is determined by the Lord, and not by the servant. In our desperate attempt to play the numbers game in to...
Healing in the Atonement
I believe in miracles. I believe that God heals. One day all true believers in Christ will be perfectly healed. Is there healing in the atonement so that every believer has the right...
Be Imitators of God
"Be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1). Those words are startling, upsetting, impossible. It is the ultimate ideal. Be imitators of God. There can be no higher standard than that. T...
What Does God Do With Our Sins?
There is no greater joy and peace for a sinner than knowing that he or she has been ransomed, healed, restored and forgiven of all his sins. The Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit givin...
Condemned!
Jesus Christ is the best gift God could ever give. God so loved the sinful, lost, depraved world that He gave His very best. Can you imagine what it would be like to reject what God conside...
God's Greatest Gift
God has provided salvation for you in Jesus Christ. In simple, lucid language Jesus sums up the entire Gospel for Nicodemus and us in one beautiful sentence rich in content. For God so lo...
Anointed Preaching
Preaching is preaching only when the messenger is anointed with the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul tells how he arrived in the city of Corinth not dependent upon self-assurance, self-assertiven...
Preaching with Power
Pentecost changed everything (Acts 2). The disciples of Jesus Christ were powerless before Pentecost. And then things changed. Jesus promised, You will receive power after that the Holy Spir...
Power to Obey
How many times have you herd the excuse, But I am afraid I cant live the Christian life? The badge of the true disciple of Jesus Christ is obedient faith. Jesus told His disciples, I...
Fellowship of the Holy Spirit
The fellowship of the Holy Spirit is a blessing for all believers in Christ (2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1). We do not need any new baptism of the Holy Spirit to enjoy this blessing. All things ...
Trinitarian Benediction
The apostle Paul closes Second Corinthians with a beautiful benediction in adoration of the three Persons in the Holy Trinity. This verse has been correctly called the New Testament Trinitarian...
Underneath His Everlasting Arms
There are two realms of profound mystery that persistently assault the human soul and produce in it a sense of fear. They are the fear of the unknown future and the unfathomable present. Howeve...
The Shield of Faith
Have you been under a spiritual attack lately? Have you been flamed by the evil one? Have you had your mind filled with evil thoughts, perhaps even blasphemous thoughts? You were not thinking,...
You Are The Temple of God
In the Old Testament the LORD God had a temple for His people; however, in the New Testament He has His people for a temple. The apostle Paul taught, You are the temple of God (I Cor. 3:16)...
Let's Suppose
Do you often play the game Lets Suppose? It goes like this: we imagine all the negative things that can possibly happen to us around a given set of circumstances in our lives. Suppose I lose ...
Prayer
How do you pray in the midst of bad times? How do you approach God when everything seems to you to be going from bad to worse? What is your attitude when God answers, but not in the manner in whi...
Living by Faith
Habakkuk 2:4 presents two different ways of living in strong contrast. The way of the wicked is unbelief and defiant disobeying of Gods revelation. The other is the faith in God and obedience t...
The Lord God Is My Strength
"We must interpret circumstances by God and not God by the circumstances, wrote G. Campbell Morgan. The peril of the hour is that men and women of faith may be trying to account for God by th...
As You Have Received Christ
The only way you can live the Christian life is by divine provision. Jesus said, Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33)...
Christ Our Redemption
In the wisdom of God, the plan of salvation was fully accomplished by the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Such wisdom is hidden from the wise and learned of the world, but it revealed to the humble ...
Christ Our Sanctification
The cross of Jesus Christ is a demonstration of the infinite wisdom of God. Every philosophy of life is proven by what it ultimately produces in a persons life. Gods wisdom produces perfect...
Christ Our Righteousness
One of the great majestic names of the LORD God is The LORD Our Righteousness (Jer. 33:16). Jesus Christ is our righteousness (1Corinthians 1:30). We do not and cannot attain a right relati...
Son of Man
Jesus referred to Himself a the Son of Man. He deliberately chose this title to conceal and reveal eternal truths about Himself. No other title used by Jesus of Himself so clearly testifies to...
Sin and Salvation
Whatever else man is, he is not what he was meant to be, observed G. K. Chesterton. Can you say that you have never desired to do any thing forbidden? How would you respond to a given situ...
The Kingdom of God Has Come
Jesus Christ has come; therefore, the kingdom of God has come to man. It takes the supreme power of God to overcome the strong, but not omnipotent power of Satan. Since Jesus came and drove ...
God's Perfect Knowledge of Us
O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You do scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways (Psalm 139:...
Praise To The All-Knowing God
I am often asked what is my favorite passage of Scripture. I usually reply that it is whatever I am currently studying. Romans chapter eight and the Gospels are precious to me. My favorite Psalm ...
What Is God Like?
What is God like? This is not a childs question. There is nothing and no one with whom we can compare Him. He is in a unique category, and we can know Him only as He has chosen to reveal Him...
What Is Your Name?
What is your name? May I have your identification, please? Moses asked God His name as he stood before the burning bush. God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM (Exodus 3:14). He is the et...
The Common Grace of God
God owes us nothing. God owes us nothing, yet He has poured out His blessings on every man and woman. The two aspects of grace are available to all humanity in general and special or saving...
Either We Die or He Dies
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). The Scriptures are very clear that the wrath of God is visited upon sinners or...
The Most Important Word in the Bible
The theologian Karl Barth was asked what was the most important word in the Bible. The great thinker replied, Hyper. You might have thought he would have said, love, or agape, but he d...
Super Conquerors through Christ
Satan is a very dangerous enemy. We are engaged in the spiritual battle of our lives. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the world forces of this darkness, against t...
Who Shall Separate Us From the Love Of Christ?
The greatest lesson a Christian can learn is that nothing nor anyone can ever separate him from the love of Christ. I have a missionary friend who had been in prison frequently. He was flogged...
Who Is The One Who Condemns?
Who is the one who condemns? (Romans 8:34) We know that Jesus Christ is pleading the case of the believing sinner in heaven. Christ Jesus is He who died, yes rather, who was raised, who i...
Who Will Bring Charge Against Gods Chosen?
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? (Romans 8:33) This is one of the most important questions a person can ask. It is important that we get Gods answer to this �...
God Spared Not His Own Son for Us
Because God has done for our good the greatest that is conceivable, will He not therefore provide all the other blessings we need? The apostle Paul enjoys arguing from the greater to the lesser...
How Can God Not Freely Give Us All Things?
Since God is for us, who then can possibly stand against us? The Psalmist wrote, In God I will trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Psalms 56:11) The prophet Elisha demo...
Unanswerable Questions
Who can be against us? This is the first of several unanswerable questions the apostle Paul asked in Romans 8:31-39. To be very honest there are days when I dont have to look very far...
Glorification of the Christian
The Christian's glorification describes their ultimate and complete conformity to the image of Christ Jesus. It is the final link in the great golden chain of salvation and it is so certain th...
Justification by Faith
The salvation of the true believer is so certain that God sees it as already done. The apostle Paul uses five verbs to outline what God has done in fulfilling His saving purpose. It is a golden c...
The Effectual Call of God
Have you responded to the effectual call of God to salvation? In his effort to encourage suffering Christians, the apostle Paul wrote, For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to become ...
Predestined to be Conformed to Christ
The second golden link in the chain of salvation is predestination. Like foreknowledge, predestination is one of those Biblical doctrines that provokes many a discussion, but when accepted bec...
Five Golden Links in Salvation
God is at work in all the many detailed circumstances of our lives to accomplish His eternal purpose. How much does God love us? Just let me count the many ways. Here are five to begin our que...
The Eternal Purpose of God
Where is God at work in your life? Are you going through some deep hurt, pain or suffering? Could God perhaps be doing a special work through your present circumstances? One of the greatest pr...
How Can I Know God's Will for My Life?
"I am convinced that nothing in this world happens outside the will of Godliterally nothing. There are no failures, and there are no loose ends in the ultimate plan of God. Do you agree or di...
When the Holy Spirit Groans in Prayer
The indwelling Spirit of God works in us in pray to cry out Abba, Father, Daddy. He helps us to endure sufferings so that we may patiently look forward to the final redemption of our bodi...
Redemption of Our Bodies
True Christianity "sets its affection on things which are above, not on things which are on the earth." True Christianity is filled with hope. The second coming is our blessed hope (Titus ...
Groan, Groans, and Groaning
Life is full of pain, suffering and death. Each of us has our share of heartaches and hurts. Sometimes we groan under the load of suffering. In my daily ministry I see hundreds of poor people fac...
Love is Extravagant!
Tongues, prophesy, knowledge, absolute faith, philanthropy, martyrdom without Gods love in Christ results in nothingabsolute zero. Go back and read again the greatest essay ever written on ...
Suffering is the Christian's Path to Glory
Our hope as Christians is our future glory. We will have a new body patterned after the glorified body of Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:21). Our hope of glory is guaranteed by the present dwelling of...
The Inheritance of the Christian
The witness of the Holy Spirit gives evidence that if we are God's children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glo...
Pilate before the King of Kings
The King of kings was on a cross. Let that statement sink in. The King of kings was hanging on a cross. The troubling question for the Roman governor Pilate was, Are You the King of the J...
Evidence of Members of God's Family
Our possession of the Holy Spirit is the very essence of what it means to be a Christian. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ (Romans 8:9). Those who be...
Who Is a Christian?
Who is a Christian? I am asked that question often? What is the gospel? is another question often asked. Here is the answer the apostle Paul gives to these questions. However, you ar...
Walking in the Flesh
The sinful mind is hostile to God (Romans 8:7). It is impossible for a person who does not know Jesus Christ as their Savior to please God. Two different mindsets have two entirely diff...
Life or Death?
Being a Christian is more than saying you agree with certain Christian teachings about sin and salvation. One is a Christian because he has been born again. Those who have received this spiri...
Walking in the Spirit
We are not justified by the manner of our walk, but by our being in Christ Jesus, observed Spurgeon. The most important question to ask ourselves is, Am I in Christ? If the answer is y...
The Goal of Justification
The message of salvation becomes distorted and confused when we are told to clean up your act and then God will save you. Justification is not sanctification. However, justification always...
The Spirit of Life
The Spirit of life is the life-giving Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the author and giver of life, and the life He gives is free of condemnation. There is now no condemnation for the believer in C...
Christ Our Refuge
The Bible is very clear in its declaration that individuals who are not in Christ are lost and under condemnation. If you are not in Christ Jesus you have not escaped the condemnation and...
Conflict -- Not Condemnation
It is very unfortunate that there is a chapter division separating Romans 7:25 and 8:1. C. H. Spurgeon observes correctly: We once heard a friend say, I have gone out of seventh of Romans int...
The Heart of the Gospel
The very heart of the Gospel can be stated in the words of the apostle Paul, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). As sinners we justly des...
The Final Victory Over Sin
Romans chapter eight gives a resounding triumphant song that comes forth from the anguishing question, Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Paul shouts ...
Wretched Man that I am!
Great saints down through history of Christianity have never bragged, How good I am, but Get away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man (Luke 5:8). That is the authentic lament of the true Chr...
In the Flesh or in the Spirit
Now that we have come to know Jesus Christ personally we must live differently (2 Cor. 5:17). God is at work in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure, so we must allow Him the fr...
Sin Deceives the Sinner
The fascination of the forbidden is the greatest lure of sin. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 7:11 that sin deceives the sinner. The end result of course is death. Sin deceives in such ...
Privileges of the Child of God
The apostle Paul makes it very clear, if we are saved, we are in Christ. If we are in Christ, He is in us and His life within us will inevitably turn us from sin to a life of righteousnes...
Rejoice in Our Divine Substitute
How many of my sins are covered by the atoning death of Jesus Christ? Is His death on the cross sufficient to cleanse me of every sin? Can His death alone be trusted to bring us to God? The ap...
Our Divine Suffering Substitute
The blood of Jesus Christ is all-sufficient to accomplish all that God purposed to achieve for our eternal salvation. The death of Christ shall never fail to fulfill the eternal purpose for which...
Until Death Do Us Part
The Apostle Paul tells about a lovely woman who found herself married to a demanding perfectionist. He laid the law down to her day after day. He made insistent demands on her behavior. There was...
Wages of Sin and God's Gift
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is revolutionary. It changes people's lives for the good, and it delivers them from the wrath of God. We were slaves to sin. None of us was born in righteousness. We...
Holiness made Practical
Holiness. The word frightens most people. Even Christians fear the word. Perhaps that is because religious people have abused the word. Holiness is mandatory in the life of a true Christian. I...
Whose Slave are You?
Free to serve God sounds like a paradox. Only God is totally free. There is no such thing as absolute freedom for anyone other than God. No human being is absolutely free to do anything and ev...
You Can Count on Me
Everything in the Christian life depends upon what Christ has done for us on the cross, and what He continues to do in and through us as He lives His life in us. Not only has He died for us, but ...
Sin in the Life of the Christian
Proof that a person knows Christ as his Savior is not found in sinless perfection. The Bible does, however demand a changed life as evidence that a person has received new spiritual life from God...
All Sufficient Sacrifice of Jesus Christ
The very same all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ that enabled God to save us is sufficient to keep us saved for all eternity. Does sin have the power to set at naught the saving power of...
The Day I Died
God takes sin seriously. Sin is a terrible thing in the Christian's life. That is why God did not overlook sin, but dealt with it in one complete stroke of judgment by sending Christ to die for u...
Unlimited Super Abounding Grace of God
Can we lose our salvation by sinning? Does God withhold His grace because of sin? Do we forfeit grace when we sin? Is it reduced because of our inability to keep from sinning? Those are seriou...
Have You Fallen from Grace?
Grace is neither withheld nor reduced because of sin. I have been asked many times if a born again believer can fall from the grace of God since Galatians 5:4 says, you have fallen from ...
Salvation by Grace Alone
Saved by grace. Those are the most beautiful words to a sinner's ears. Grace is the sweet sovereign favor shown to someone who does not deserve any favor, but the exactly the very opposite. ...
Pilate before the King of Kings
The King of kings was on a cross. Let that statement sink in. The King of kings was hanging on a cross. The troubling question for the Roman governor Pilate was, Are You the King of the J...
Peter in Heaven and Judas in Hell
Both Peter and Judas committed the same sin. They both denied their Lord and Master. But why did one go to heaven, and one go to hell? The Gospel writer Matthew is careful to compare and co...
Are You the Christ, the Son of God?
At the Jewish trial of Jesus, the high priest Caiaphas found himself in a dilemma. He was losing his case before the Roman governor Pilate. The evidence did not add up. The false witnesses did no...
The Attitude of God toward the Saved
Was the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ when He died on the cross all-sufficient for God to save the sinner? Was His sacrifice sufficient for God to justly keep the sinner saved? Is God lacking...
How can a Christian be Lost Again?
Can a person once saved ever be lost again? Our question relates only to the person who is saved in the true Biblical sense. Eternal life is the gift of God. If one has it, he has it for eter...
You in Me, and I in You
Jesus said to His disciples, After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and...
What must I do to be Saved?
Salvation is the work of God alone. It is comes from Him as a free gift. Salvation is of God, and mans responsibility is only to receive it freely as a gift from His hand. The salvation of m...
Why Did Jesus Die?
It is an age-old question, but perhaps more important now than ever before. The heart of the apostle Paul can be expressed with the words: God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross o...
God's Problem
The greatest message God has ever delivered to sinful man is found in the cross of Jesus Christ. It is the declaration of the righteousness of God, and a demonstration that God is both just and...
Infinite Love of God
The Lord God has chosen to fully reveal Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ. He has done it in such a way that a finite mind might grasp the essential truth of God's infinite being (Rom. 1:19-2...
The Law and the Gospel
The highest motivation for living the Christian life is the result of Gods sacrificial love for us. If we love Him we will keep His commandments (Jn. 14:15). We want to please Him because He re...
The Law and the Gospel
The gospel of grace does not nullify Gods Law; it fulfills it. In fact, it is the only way the Law of God could possibly be fulfilled. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so ...
Faith and the Bible
The Bible is Gods perfectly inspired word. The written Word testifies to Gods self-revelation in His incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. All Scripture, both Old and New Testament, is a clear testimo...
"But I Dont Have Enough Faith"
I often hear people say, I am afraid I dont know if I have enough faith. How much faith do you need in order to be saved? The Bible does not teach that you are justified because of your ...
The Redeeming Blood of Jesus
The most precious title of Christ is Redeemer. It helps us to understand what it cost Him to get this salvation for us. It is the name specifically of the Christ of the cross. He is Christ our ...
Righteousness apart from the Law
Because we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, God gets all the glory. Salvation is a free gift because it is a receiving of Gods righteousness apart from an...
Salvation by Faith in Christ
What is the most important thing you have ever learned? The issues of eternity hang on the great truth that salvation is received by grace alone, through faith alone in the saving work of Jesu...
"Why Should I Let You into My Heaven?"
Let's suppose for a moment that you died today and stood before the Lord God and He asked you, Why should I let you into My heaven? What would you say? What do you think you would say? Tha...
Justified Freely by God's Grace
Grace, how sweet the sound to our sinful hearts! The Bible teaches that we are saved by the free sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ. Neither will the grace of God ever be withheld, nor wil...
The Uniquely Unrepeatable Jesus Christ
Jesus is God. Therefore, he is uniquely unrepeatable. We often say that a person is unique; there is no one in the world like so and so. There will never be another person like that person b...
Clothed with Fig Leaves or Righteousness?
There are no secrets with God. Adam and Eve learned that the hard way. The apostle Paul reminds us, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus (Rom. 2:16). The writer of Hebrews s...
How Shall We Escape?
How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? (Hebrews 2:3) This question floods the mind with other important questions. Who is being referred to by the pronoun we? How shall we esca...
Constant, Conscious Communion with Christ
Christians are to live in constant, conscious communion with Christ. Yes, Jesus Christ literally lives within you if you have put your faith in Him as your personal Savior. The heart of Christi...
The Son of God
Jesus Christ is God. He is one with the Father, and is the partaker of the Fathers own nature and being. This is one of the deepest and most precious truths for nourishing the inner life of ...
Backsliding
Have you ever temporarily lapsed into unbelief and sin after you became a Christian? The condition of backsliding results from spiritual apathy or disregard for the truth of God's Word. It result...
Crucified with Christ
When Christ died on the cross the work of salvation was completed and Christ provided access for all believers into Gods holy presence. Therefore, salvation is by grace alone, through faith alo...
Come with Boldness for Grace and Mercy
The main argument of the Epistle of Hebrews is that we have a great High Priest (Heb. 4:14; 1:3; 2:17f; 3:1; 4:14-12:3). Jesus has passed through the upper heavens to the throne of God (1:3)....
Getting Near to God
The essential work of our great High priest is to bring us near to God. The Lord Jesus Christ gives us perfect confidence in drawing near to our heavenly Father. He has opened up and keeps open f...
The Infinite Glory of Jesus Christ
Our greatest need is to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and dwell in his holy presence. In the presence of the Son of God all the glories of the old covenant fade into utter insignificance....
Predestined to be Conformed to Christ
The second golden link in the chain of salvation is predestination. Like foreknowledge, predestination is one of those Biblical doctrines that provokes many a discussion, but when accepted beco...
Five Golden Links in Salvation
God is at work in all the many detailed circumstances of our lives to accomplish His eternal purpose. How much does God love us? Just let me count the many ways. Here are five to begin our que...
The Eternal Purpose of God
Where is God at work in your life? Are you going through some deep hurt, pain or suffering? Could God perhaps be doing a special work through your present circumstances? One of the greatest pro...
SELAH! Pause think reflect on God's Word for Today
Today's daily devotion from God's Word for the thinking person. Here is a one page reflection on practical contemporary Christian living.