How Believers Will Be Judged

 I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. (Revelation 20:12)

What about the last judgment? Will our sins be remembered? Will they be revealed? Anthony Hoekema puts it wisely like this: “The failures and shortcomings of . . . believers . . . will enter into the picture on the Day of Judgment. But — and this is the important point — the sins and shortcomings of believers will be revealed in the judgment as forgiven sins, whose guilt has been totally covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.”

Picture it like this. God has a file on every person (the “books” of Revelation 20:12). All you’ve ever done or said (Matthew 12:36) is recorded there with a grade (from “A” to “F”). When you stand before “the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10) to be judged “for what [you have] done in the body, whether good or evil,” God will open the file and lay out the tests with their grades. He will pull out all the “F’s” and put them in a pile. Then he will take all the “D’s” and “C’s” and pull the good parts of the test out and place them with the “A’s”, then put the bad with the “F’s.” Then he will take all the “B’s” and “A’s” and pull the bad parts out of them and put them in the “F” pile, and put all the good parts in the “A” pile.

Then he will open another file (“the book of life”) and find your name, because you are in Christ through faith. Behind your name will be a wood-stick match made from the cross of Jesus. He will take the match, light it, and set the “F” pile, with all your failures and deficiencies, on fire and burn them up. They will not condemn you, and they will not reward you.

Then he will take from your “book of life” file a sealed envelope marked “free and gracious bonus: life!” and put it on the “A” pile (see Mark 4:24 and Luke 6:38). Then he will hold up the entire pile and declare, “By this your life bears witness to the grace of my Father, the worth of my blood, and the fruit of my Spirit. These bear witness that your life is eternal. And according to these you will have your rewards. Enter into the everlasting joy of your Master.”

THE WORD, OUR WORK, AND THE GRACE OF GOD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 10, 2024.

SUBJECT : THE WORD, OUR WORK, AND THE GRACE OF GOD!

Memory verse: "And if by grace, then no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work."(Romans 11 vs 6.)

READ: Romans 7 vs 15 - 25:

7:15: For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that ain't do.

7:16: If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

7:17: But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

7:18: For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.

7:19: For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.

7:20: Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

7:21: I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

7:22: For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

7:23: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

7:24: O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 

7:25: I thank God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

INTIMATION:

Revelation into, and the understanding of the grace of God starts with the understanding of the dynamics of the Word of God, and limitations of our work. The grace of God enables the working of the Word of God in our lives. Without the grace of God the Word of God would not profit us anything. The Word of God could be frustrating when we try to work the Word rather than the Word work in us. The most frustrating aspect of the Word of God is that it keeps convicting most believers. Incidentally this is what the Word should do to us. But how do we react to, and handle the conviction?

As the Word would convict us of our wrong doings, we turn completely to our Lord for the grace to change, instead of relying on our self will or efforts to change. When the Word convicts you in one thing or the other (which it ought to do), turn to God completely to accomplish the change you desire through His grace (unmerited favor). Do not get frustrated when the devil will come to minister condemnation (which it ought to) because the devil's mission is "to steal, and to kill, and to destroy" (John 10 vs 10). Remind the devil of what Christ had already wrought for us in redemption; "There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus..." (Romans 8 vs 1.) 

When we look into the Word and see our need to change from our sinful ways, let us then turn to Christ for the grace to bring about that change in us. We will pray earnestly, and seek the grace of God to allow the Spirit of the Lord come into our lives and cause the things to happen that needed to happen as we believed Him and exercised our faith. We cannot do it all by our own power.

We are not alone in this predicament. In the passage we read today the apostle Paul states his struggle with sin. He understood that self-determination, that is, struggling in one's own strength, doesn't succeed. He found himself sinning in ways that weren't even attractive to him. He knew it requires more than his strength to get rid of the sin.

When you try to change yourself, trying to make yourself be everything the Word said you ought to be, you get frustrated because you cannot do it by your will power, but only by the grace of God. You have to submit yourself to the Lord and wait patiently on Him to accomplish all He planned for you. Trying to do something about something you can't do anything about is frustrating. It takes the grace of God to change to what the Word wants you to be. It is not automatic but gradual, being changed from glory to glory (Second Corinthians 3 vs 18). You conquer your enemies little by little (Deuteronomy 7 vs 22). When convicted by the Word, allow God (trust and surrender yourself to Him) to walk His perfect Will in your life.

Becoming a Christian doesn't stamp out all sin and temptation from a person's life. Being 'born again' takes a moment of faith, but becoming like Christ is a lifelong process. No one in the world is innocent; no one deserves to be saved. All of us must depend totally on the work of Christ, that is, the grace of God, for our salvation. We cannot earn it by our behavior.

We must never underestimate the power of sin and attempt to fight it in our own strength. Instead of trying to overcome sin with our own human willpower, we must take hold of God's provision for victory over sin; the Holy Spirit, who, by the grace of God, lives within us and gives us the power to overcome sin. And even when we fall, He lovingly reaches out to help us up.

There is great tension in daily Christian experience. The conflict is that we agree with God's commands but cannot do them. As a result, we are painfully aware of our sin. The inward struggle with sin was as real to the apostle Paul as it is for us. From the apostle Paul, we learn what to do about it. Whenever we are overwhelmed by the spiritual battle, we should return to the beginnings of our spiritual lives, remembering how we have been freed from sin by Jesus Christ. When we feel confused and overwhelmed by sin's appeal, let us claim the freedom Christ gave us. It is only His power and grace that can lift us to victory.

Prayer: Abba Father, give me the grace to live above sin. Keep me back from those presumptuous sins that easily ensnare me and let them not have dominion over me, in Jesus' Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Only a Little While

 After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (1 Peter 5:10)

Sometimes in the midst of the afflictions and ordinary stresses of daily life, we may cry out, “How long, O Lord? I can’t see beyond today’s pain. What will tomorrow bring? Will you be there for that affliction too?”

This question is utterly urgent, because Jesus said, “The one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13). We tremble at the thought of being among “those who shrink back and are destroyed” (Hebrews 10:39). We are not playing games. Suffering is a horrible threat to faith in God’s future grace.

Therefore, it is a wonderful thing to hear Peter promise the afflicted and weary Christians, “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10).

The assurance that he will not delay beyond what we can endure, and that he will abolish the flaws we bemoan, and that he will establish forever what has tottered so long — that assurance comes from the God of “all grace.” 

God is not the God of some grace — like bygone grace. He is “the God of all grace” — including the infinite, inexhaustible stores of future grace that we need to endure to the end.

Faith in that future grace, strengthened by the memory of past grace, is the key to enduring on the narrow and hard road that leads to life.

UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY JANUARY 09, 2024.

SUBJECT : UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM!

Memory verse: "He answered and said unto them, Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” (Matthew 13 vs 11.) 

READ: First Corinthians 2 vs 6 - 16 :

2:6: However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

2:7: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,

2:8: which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

2:9: But as it is written, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

2:10: But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

2:11: For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

2:12: Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

INTIMATION:

The mysteries of the kingdom are the knowledge that is outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension, and can be made known only by Divine revelation, and is made known in a manner and at a time appointed by God, and to those only who are illumined by His Spirit. In the ordinary sense a mystery implies knowledge withheld; its Scriptural significance is truth revealed. Hence the terms especially associated with the subject are “made known,” “manifested,” “revealed,” “preached,” “understand,” “dispensation.” 

The definition given above may be best illustrated by the following passage; “the mystery which has been hidden from all ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints” (Colossians 1 vs 26). The mystery is used of: (a) spiritual truth generally, as revealed in the gospel. Among the ancientGreeks “the mysteries” were religious rites and ceremonies practiced by secret societies into which any one who so desired might be received. Those who were initiated into these “mysteries” became possessors of certain knowledge, which was not imparted to the uninitiated, and were called ‘the perfected.’

In the passage we read today, the apostle Paul has these ‘mysteries’ in mind and presents the gospel in contrast thereto. Here ‘the perfected’ are, of course, the believers, who alone can perceive the things revealed in the Scriptures.

b) Christ, who is God Himself revealed under the conditions of human life, and submitting even to death, but subsequently raised from among the dead, that the will of God to co-ordinate the universe in Him, and subject it to Him, might in due time be accomplished, as declared in the gospel.

(c) the Church, which is Christ’s Body, that is, the union of redeemed persons with God in Christ. (d) the rapture into the presence of Christ of those members of the Church which is His Body who shall be alive in the earth at His ‘Parousia’—His second coming (First Corinthians 15 vs 51). (e) the operation of those hidden forces that either retard or accelerate the kingdom of God (Matthew 13 vs 11; Mark 4 vs 11). (f) the cause of the present condition of Israel (Romans 11 vs 25). (g) the spirit of disobedience to God. (h) the ways of God in grace.

These mysteries; the secret or hidden truths of the kingdom reign of God were being revealed to those who were willing to listen and learn. However, for those who would not listen to Jesus, the truth concerning the kingdom reign would not be revealed simply because they would not listen to Jesus. 

God revealed the eternal plan of salvation to all men through Jesus. Through the grace of the gospel that was revealed on the cross (Titus 2 vs 11), God is able to establish our hearts in Christ Jesus. Therefore, it is upon the foundation of the event of the death of Jesus for our sins and His resurrection for our hope that we spiritually stand justified before God (see First Corinthians 15 vs 1 - 5). Upon the foundation of the fact of the gospel event we are emotionally assured that we will be raised in the end to walk with Jesus in a heavenly environment. 

Before the world was created, God had planned the events of the cross and resurrection. The mystery of the gospel (mystery of the kingdom), however, was not revealed to man until the coming of Jesus. Neither was it revealed to Satan. If the gospel event had been revealed to Satan, then he surely would not have moved the people against Jesus to have Him crucified. The fact that Jesus was crucified is evidence that Satan had no idea that the cross was indeed the plan of God to make Jesus the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. 

The mystery (also known as the mystery of Christ) was the eternal plan of redemption that God has now revealed through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. It was not revealed in times before the coming of Jesus. It has been revealed in these times in order that men might understand God’s plan that all men be reconciled to Him through Jesus (See First Corinthians 2 vs 10 - 13). The mystery of Christ (God) is God’s plan of grace that was revealed on the cross for the salvation of all men. It was unknown until its revelation to the apostles by the Holy Spirit. 

The humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ in other to accomplish His mission on earth reveals the heart of the gospel “the mystery of godliness” (the secret of how we become godly). Jesus incarnation (manifested in the flesh—Jesus was a man) is the basis of our being right with God. His resurrection showed that the Holy Spirit’s power was in Him. We can’t please God on our own; we must depend on Christ. As a man, Jesus lived a perfect life, and so He is a perfect example of how to live. As God, Jesus gives us the power to do what is right. It is possible to live a godly life through following Christ. 

God’s “hidden wisdom” was His offer of salvation to all people. Originally unknown to humanity, this plan became crystal clear when Jesus rose from the dead. His resurrection proved that He had power over sin and death and could offer us this power as well. God’s plan, however, is still hidden to unbelievers because they either refuse to accept it, choose to ignore it, or simply haven’t heard about it. 

All Christians ought to open their mouths for Jesus. It is the obligation of those who have been washed with the blood of the Lamb to proclaim to all an answer for their problem of sin and death. The fact that one has been saved out of his spiritual death in sin by the grace of God obligates him to proclaim the mystery of Christ to others. With the knowledge of the grace of God comes the responsibility of sharing God’s grace. 

Prayer: Abba Father, You have revealed Your eternal plan for our redemption through Jesus Christ Your Son who came as a propitiation for our sins. Endue me with the revelational knowledge; my eyes of understanding being enlightened, to know the reason and hope of Your calling, and the riches of the glory of Your inheritance in the saints, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Gain What You Cannot Lose

 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)

Here are two great incentives from Jesus to become a World Christian and to dedicate yourself to the cause of Frontier Missions. As a goer or a sender.

1. Every impossibility with men is possible with God (Mark 10:27). The conversion of hardened sinners will be the work of God and will accord with his sovereign plan. We need not fear or fret over our weakness. The battle is the Lord’s, and he will give the victory.

2. Christ promises to work for us, and to be for us so much that, when our missionary life is over, we will not be able to say we’ve sacrificed anything (Mark 10:29–30).

When we follow his missionary prescription, we discover that even the painful side effects work to improve our condition. Our spiritual health, our joy, improves a hundredfold. And when we die, we do not die. We gain eternal life.

I do not appeal to you to screw up your courage and sacrifice for Christ. I appeal to you to renounce all you have, to obtain life that satisfies your deepest longings. I appeal to you to count all things as rubbish for the surpassing value of standing in the service of the King of kings. I appeal to you to take off your store-bought rags and put on the garments of God’s ambassadors.

I promise you persecutions and privations — but remember the joy! “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10).

On January 8, 1956, five Waorani Indians of Ecuador killed Jim Elliot and his four missionary companions as they were trying to bring the gospel to the Waorani tribe of sixty people.

Four young wives lost husbands and nine children lost their fathers. Elisabeth Elliot wrote that the world called it a nightmare of tragedy. Then she added, “The world did not recognize the truth of the second clause in Jim Elliot’s credo: ‘He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.’”

GOD WORKS IN YOU TO PLEASE HIM!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

 

MONDAY JANUARY 08, 2024.

SUBJECT: GOD WORKS IN YOU TO PLEASE HIM!

Memory verse: “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2 vs 13.)

READ: Hebrews 13 vs 20 - 21:

13:20: Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

13:21: make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

INTIMATION: 

To please God is to do His will; to walk in accordance with His precepts. It’s on this pivot that all that pertains to life and godliness revolve. God works in us as we have responded to His work for us. He worked for us through the cross; the gift of His only begotten Son as a propitiation for our sins. We are sinners who had no hopes of saving ourselves from God’s condemnation. But Christ came, took our place, paid the wages we owed—the wages of sin which is death. And died fro our sins to salvage us—set us free—from the consequences of sin and death, and separation from God. 

It is on this premise that we work out our salvation in appreciation of what Christ has done for us. Our sense of gratitude for the work of God in reference to our salvation, therefore, should move us into action. In this way God is living in us. When we are motivated into action by the redemptive work of God, then we work according to His purposes. And when we work according to the purposes of God, it is God who works in us. Christians do not work in order to be saved. They work out their salvation because they are saved. When we respond to the sacrificial blood of Jesus on the cross, then it is God who is working in us. 

God has not left us alone in our struggles to do His will—to obey His laws. He wants to come alongside us and be within us to help, hence His gift of the Holy Spirit—our Helper. God gives us the desire and the power to do what pleases Him. As a believer, you are not left to your own resources to cope with problems. God created you for His specific purposes that are predetermined by Him, even before the foundation of the world. Consequently, only Him can work out His plan and purpose in you. 

In Ephesians 1 vs 11, the Scripture says, “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” God is sovereign and in control of all things. He works all things in us according the counsel of His will. God’s purposes for the believers cannot be thwarted, no matter how hard Satan tries, or what he brings our way.

Jesus gave us the assurances when He said, in John 6 vs 37 - 40, “All the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Godhead—the Trinity—in union with one another, is at work in the world, and in every believer. God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit never work independently of the other. The will of the Father (Loving Father) is accomplished by the Son (our Sacrificial Savior) with the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit (our Faithful Companion). Thus, anyone who makes a sincere commitment to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior is secure in God’s promises, even the promise of everlasting life with Him. 

God’s work for us began when Christ died on the cross in our place. His work in us began when we first believed. Now, the Holy Spirit—our Helper—lives in us, enabling us to be more like Christ every day, helping us accomplish the will of God for us. This is the Christian growth and maturity that began when we accepted Jesus, and continues until Christ returns to perfect us and take us home to the Father.

Sometimes, by human assessment, you feel as though you aren’t making progress in your spiritual life, especially when sometimes you fall into sin. But be of good cheer, it is a gradual process that will only come to perfection when Christ returns. Now, look at this Scripture, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1 vs 6.) Be confident that when God starts a project, He completes it! God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us grow in grace until He has completed His work in our lives. Never let your shortcomings, and your feeling of incompleteness, or distress becloud you of God’s promise and provision.

All that is required of the believer is to believe Him and keep His commandments. The same commandments He has sent an Helper—the Holy Spirit—to help us in our weaknesses. God works in us to make us the kind of people that would please Him, and He equips us to do the kind of work that would please Him. Yours is to yield to the total control of the Spirit that His fruit will be fully manifested in you—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. In the real sense of it, He does all things. What a benevolent Father!

Prayer: Abba Father, I surrender completely to You. Work Your work in me that I may be complete in every good work to do Your will and please You at all times, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!I

Grace Denied and Supplied

 Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)

The need for inner strength arises not just from the depletions of everyday stress, but from the suffering and afflictions that come from time to time. And they do come.

Suffering is inevitably added to heart-weariness on the way to heaven. When it comes, the heart may waver and the narrow way that leads to life may look impossibly hard. It’s hard enough to have a narrow road and steep hills that test the old jalopy’s strength to the limit. But what shall we do when the car breaks down?

Paul cried out three times with this question because of some affliction in his life. He asked for relief from his thorn in the flesh. But God’s grace did not come in the form he asked. It came in another form. Christ answered, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Here we see grace given in the form of Christ’s sustaining power in unrelieved affliction — one grace given, we could say, within the circle of another grace denied. And Paul responded with faith in the sufficiency of this future grace: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

God often blesses us with a “grace given” in the circle of “grace denied.” 

For example, on a beastly hot day in July, the water pump on our car stopped working, and twenty miles from any town we were stranded on the interstate in Tennessee.

I had prayed that morning that the car would work well and that we would come to our destination safely. Now the car had died. The grace of trouble-free travel had been denied. No one was stopping as we stood around our car. Then my son Abraham (about eleven at the time) said, “Daddy, we should pray.” So we bowed behind the car and asked God for some future grace — a help in time of need. When we looked up, a pickup truck had pulled over.

The driver was a mechanic who worked about twenty miles away. He said he would be willing to go get the parts and come back and fix the car. I rode with him to town and was able to share the gospel with him. We were on our way in about five hours.

Now the remarkable thing about that answer to our prayer is that it came inside the circle of a prayer denied. We asked for a trouble-free trip. God gave us trouble. But in the midst of a grace denied, we got a grace supplied. And I am learning to trust God’s wisdom in giving the grace that is best for me and for unbelieving mechanics and for the watching faith of eleven-year-old boys.

We should not be surprised that God gives us wonderful graces in the midst of suffering that we had asked him to spare us. He knows best how to apportion his grace for our good and for his glory.