From: [email protected] daily devotional
Evening...
Hosea 5:7 They have dealt treacherously against the Lord.
Believer, here is a sorrowful truth! Thou art the beloved of the Lord,
redeemed by blood, called by grace, preserved in Christ Jesus, accepted in the
Beloved, on thy way to heaven, and yet, "thou hast dealt treacherously" with
God, thy best friend; treacherously with Jesus, whose thou art; treacherously
with the Holy Spirit, by whom thou hast been quickened unto life eternal! How
treacherous you have been in the matter of vows and promises. Do you remember
the love of your espousals, that happy time-the springtide of your spiritual
life? Oh, how closely did you cling to your Master then! saying, "He shall
never charge me with indifference; my feet shall never grow slow in the way of
His service; I will not suffer my heart to wander after other loves; in Him is
every store of sweetness ineffable. I give all up for my Lord Jesus' sake." Has
it been so? Alas! if conscience speak, it will say, "He who promised so well
has performed most ill. Prayer has oftentimes been slurred-it has been short,
but not sweet; brief, but not fervent. Communion with Christ has been
forgotten. Instead of a heavenly mind, there have been carnal cares, worldly
vanities and thoughts of evil. Instead of service, there has been disobedience;
instead of fervency, lukewarmness; instead of patience, petulance; instead of
faith, confidence in an arm of flesh; and as a soldier of the cross there has
been cowardice, disobedience, and desertion, to a very shameful degree." "Thou
hast dealt treacherously." Treachery to Jesus! what words shall be used in
denouncing it? Words little avail: let our penitent thoughts execrate the sin
which is so surely in us. Treacherous to Thy wounds, O Jesus! Forgive us, and
let us not sin again! How shameful to be treacherous to Him who never forgets
us, but who this day stands with our names engraven on His breastplate before
the eternal throne.
Morning...
Ezra 7:22 Salt without prescribing how much.
Salt was used in every offering made by fire unto the Lord, and from its
preserving and purifying properties it was the grateful emblem of divine grace
in the soul. It is worthy of our attentive regard that, when Artaxerxes gave
salt to Ezra the priest, he set no limit to the quantity, and we may be quite
certain that when the King of kings distributes grace among His royal
priesthood, the supply is not cut short by Him. Often are we straitened in
ourselves, but never in the Lord. He who chooses to gather much manna will find
that he may have as much as he desires. There is no such famine in Jerusalem
that the citizens should eat their bread by weight and drink their water by
measure. Some things in the economy of grace are measured; for instance our
vinegar and gall are given us with such exactness that we never have a single
drop too much, but of the salt of grace no stint is made, "Ask what thou wilt
and it shall be given unto thee." Parents need to lock up the fruit cupboard,
and the sweet jars, but there is no need to keep the salt-box under lock and
key, for few children will eat too greedily from that. A man may have too much
money, or too much honour, but he cannot have too much grace. When Jeshurun
waxed fat in the flesh, he kicked against God, but there is no fear of a man's
becoming too full of grace: a plethora of grace is impossible. More wealth
brings more care, but more grace brings more joy. Increased wisdom is increased
sorrow, but abundance of the Spirit is fulness of joy. Believer, go to the
throne for a large supply of heavenly salt. It will season thine afflictions,
which are unsavoury without salt; it will preserve thy heart which corrupts if
salt be absent, and it will kill thy sins even as salt kills reptiles. Thou
needest much; seek much, and have much.
1 John 5:16-17
(16) If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead
to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not
leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should
pray about that. (17) All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading
to death.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Our quotation is from the King James translation, as this is the
most commonly known rendition of the verse. Here is the New King James version,
which, alas, clarifies the meaning of this truly difficult scripture only a
little:
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to
death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not
leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should
pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to
death.
There are at least two applications for these verses: the first for
people who, for one reason or another, have left the church of God, His truth,
and His way of life, and a second for those who are still actively in the
church. The most common misinterpretation of this verse is the claim that it
proves there are some sins a person can commit and not incur the penalty of
eternal death. Can this be true?
In short, no! It cannot be true. We know very well that the wages
of sin are death (Romans 6:23). To this, there can be no exceptions! God does
not categorize sins this way. Instead, the Bible distinguishes sins
differently. Through the author of the book of Hebrews, God shows us that
"willful" sin brings the second death—eternal death:
For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of
the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful
expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the
adversaries. (Hebrews 10:26-27)
Please hold onto the word, "willfully." We will come back to it
presently.
Of course, any sin can be forgiven if it is sincerely repented of,
and if it is "confessed," not to a human priest or minister, but to our
merciful God: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). Conversely,
any sin can also lead to eternal death if it is not confessed and repented of,
and if it is allowed to continue repeatedly in a person's life. A "sin not unto
death," then, is one that is confessed, repented of, and does not involve a
willful violation of God's law.
On the other hand, a person has "sinned unto death" if he has
willfully turned from God's way. It is gradually becoming clear that this whole
matter revolves around this word, "willfully" from Hebrews 10:26. The Greek
word is hekousios, and it means "voluntarily" or "willingly." The English
adverb stems from the adjective, "willful" which, according to The
Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means:
» obstinately and often perversely self-willed;
» done deliberately;
» intentional;
» unruly.
An extensive and profitable Bible study could be conducted just on
these four alternate renderings of the word, "willful." The first three
meanings generally speak for themselves, but the fourth and last one seems to
show willfulness in its true shade. Those who are unruly are continuously
unwilling to obey the rules—in this case, God's rules! They unceasingly refuse
to accept God's government and His laws.
Sin unto death may not necessarily include all those who have
apparently left the church, nor even all those who have been disfellowshipped,
but only those who have willfully rejected God's way to the extent that it is
no longer possible for them to be brought to repentance. However, this is
certainly not suggesting that it is acceptable for a person to take God's
loving mercy for granted, to think that he can leave God's church to "enjoy a
little sin" for a while, then simply jump back in at a convenient, later date.
Such devices or actions carry with them some obvious and very real dangers, and
bring to mind another well known but somewhat fearsome biblical passage:
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and
have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,
and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they
fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for
themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6:4-6)
This should be an arresting, solemn, and even terrifying warning
for any who might consider leaving God's church. Obviously, it is often very
difficult for any fellow human being to determine who has and who has not
"crossed the line." In fact, it is probably because of the extreme difficulty
of discerning when this is the case that the apostle of love writes in our
difficult scripture, "I do not say he shall pray for it" rather than the
sterner alternative command, "He shall not pray about it."
John's open-ended statement allows for a Christian's natural desire
to hope the person has not gone too far—to hope that he will repent—and he does
not prohibit intercessory prayer, even in such a case. We should rather err on
the side of praying for our errant brethren than not praying. John implies that
our prayer may be futile, but he does not say that it is a sin to pray even for
a seemingly hopeless case, as long as we do not know for sure that it is
totally hopeless.
Finally, let us bring this subject around to include those who are
still in God's church. If any of us sees or hears of a fellow church member who
is normally striving to obey God "sin a sin which is not unto death"—often out
of ignorance or weakness—we ought to ask God to help the member recognize his
error and repent of it. When we do so, God will hear and answer our prayers and
may, according to His will, "give him life": "And if we know that He hears us,
whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him"
(I John 5:15). This is the kind of concern we must have for all of our
spiritual brothers and sisters, and it is one way that we can "bear one
another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).
Through our deeper study into a relatively complex scripture, God
reveals two simple conclusions: Should we pray for a fellow member if we see or
hear of him sinning? Yes, we should. And should we pray for friends and loved
ones who have left God's truth? Again, yes, we should, for "The effective,
fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:16).
John Plunkett
From A Sin Unto Death
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daily devotional
Evening...
1 Corinthians 9:22 I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means
save some.
Paul's great object was not merely to instruct and to improve, but to save.
Anything short of this would have disappointed him; he would have men renewed
in heart, forgiven, sanctified, in fact, saved. Have our Christian labours been
aimed at anything below this great point? Then let us amend our ways, for of
what avail will it be at the last great day to have taught and moralized men if
they appear before God unsaved? Blood-red will our skirts be if through life we
have sought inferior objects, and forgotten that men needed to be saved. Paul
knew the ruin of man's natural state, and did not try to educate him, but to
save him; he saw men sinking to hell, and did not talk of refining them, but of
saving from the wrath to come. To compass their salvation, he gave himself up
with untiring zeal to telling abroad the gospel, to warning and beseeching men
to be reconciled to God. His prayers were importunate and his labours
incessant. To save souls was his consuming passion, his ambition, his calling.
He became a servant to all men, toiling for his race, feeling a woe within him
if he preached not the gospel. He laid aside his preferences to prevent
prejudice; he submitted his will in things indifferent, and if men would but
receive the gospel, he raised no questions about forms or ceremonies: the
gospel was the one all-important business with him. If he might save some he
would be content. This was the crown for which he strove, the sole and
sufficient reward of all his labours and self-denials. Dear reader, have you
and I lived to win souls at this noble rate? Are we possessed with the same
all-absorbing desire? If not, why not? Jesus died for sinners, cannot we live
for them? Where is our tenderness? Where our love to Christ, if we seek not His
honour in the salvation of men? O that the Lord would saturate us through and
through with an undying zeal for the souls of men.
Morning...
Revelation 3:4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled
their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
We may understand this to refer to justification. "They shall walk in white";
that is, they shall enjoy a constant sense of their own justification by faith;
they shall understand that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to them, that
they have all been washed and made whiter than the newly-fallen snow. Again, it
refers to joy and gladness: for white robes were holiday dresses among the
Jews. They who have not defiled their garments shall have their faces always
bright; they shall understand what Solomon meant when he said "Go thy way, eat
thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart. Let thy garments be
always white, for God hath accepted thy works." He who is accepted of God shall
wear white garments of joy and gladness, while he walks in sweet communion with
the Lord Jesus. Whence so many doubts, so much misery, and mourning? It is
because so many believers defile their garments with sin and error, and hence
they lose the joy of their salvation, and the comfortable fellowship of the
Lord Jesus, they do not here below walk in white. The promise also refers to
walking in white before the throne of God. Those who have not defiled their
garments here shall most certainly walk in white up yonder, where the
white-robed hosts sing perpetual hallelujahs to the Most High. They shall
possess joys inconceivable, happiness beyond a dream, bliss which imagination
knoweth not, blessedness which even the stretch of desire hath not reached. The
"undefiled in the way" shall have all this-not of merit, nor of works, but of
grace. They shall walk with Christ in white, for He has made them "worthy." In
His sweet company they shall drink of the living fountains of waters.
Genesis 2:1-3
(New King James Version)
(1) Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were
finished. (2) And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and
He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. (3) Then God
blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His
work which God had created and made.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Because the Sabbath is from creation—and the Creator Himself set
the pattern for man by resting on it—it has universal validity. It is not from
one of the patriarchs or Moses or from the Jews because none of these existed
when it was created. The Bible shows three times in two verses that God very
clearly inspired the seventh day, not a seventh day.
God could have ended His creative work at the end of the sixth
day because it seemed at that point as though He had provided everything man
needed for life. But He did not complete it then because all man needed was not
yet created! The Sabbath is, in fact, THE VERY CROWN of the creation week. It
is vital to man's well-being. So God created a period of rest and holy time—a
very specific period, as the context shows.
God draws our attention to four things He did on that first
Sabbath. He (1) ended His work, (2) rested, (3) blessed the seventh day, and
(4) sanctified it. He created something just as surely as He created physical
things on the other six days. He is instructing us that, on the Sabbath,
creation continued but in a different form, one not outwardly visible. To those
with understanding, the Sabbath symbolizes that God is still creating. Jesus
confirms this in John 5:17, when a dispute arises over how to keep the Sabbath.
He replies, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."
The Sabbath is an integral part of the process of creation. God
finished the physical part at the end of the sixth day. The spiritual aspect
began with the creation of the Sabbath and continues to this day. Through the
sequence of events on the first six days, God created an environment for man
and life. But God shows through the creation of the Sabbath that the
life-producing process is not complete with just the physical environment. The
Sabbath provides an important part in producing spiritual life—life with a
dimension the physical cannot supply.
The Sabbath is not an afterthought of a tremendous creation, but
a deliberate memorializing of the most enduring thing man knows: time. Time
plays a key role in God's spiritual creation. It is as if God says, "Look at
what I have made and consider that I am not yet finished creating. I am
reproducing Myself, and you can be a part of My spiritual creation."
John W. Ritenbaugh
From The Fourth Commandment (Part One) (1997)
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