Built on the Rock

Here are some inspirational quotes from some notable (some even considered genius-level smart) people to start your day off with: 

• “Follow your heart, and listen when it speaks to you.” – Susanna Tamaro
• “There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – Steve Jobs
• “If you don’t follow your heart, you might spend the rest of your life wishing you had.” – Anonymous
• “Follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs
• “Follow your heart, never surrender your dreams. Always believe in yourself and let God do the rest.” – Anonymous

And now for a quick review that applies to every one of the above quotes: they’re all wrong and heretical at best. Especially the last one that has the gall to rope God into it. 

If you spend this day only remembering one thing from this post, remember this: check everything against Scripture. If it doesn’t align, it’s not of God. If it claims to be from God and it isn’t Biblical, it’s heresy. This is black and white, right or wrong, and I’ll say it one more time: if something claims to be from God, or includes Him, but goes against His Word, it is heresy. It doesn’t matter who says it, it could be your spouse, parent, or even pastor. Everyone on this planet is capable of heresy, even unintentionally. Ever hear the old saying, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions”? (Prov. 14:12; Matt. 7:13)

So let’s put these quotes about following your heart up against Scripture to see if they hold up. Specifically, I want to look at Jeremiah 17:9, today’s Verse of the Day. You see, Jeremiah knew that if he ended up trusting himself that he would end up cursed, but if he trusted in the Lord he would end up blessed – but his heart betrayed him: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” The human heart cannot be trusted, healed, or understood. It will forever be devious, incurable, and inscrutable. This verse gives us one of the most powerful statements regarding our depravity in all of the Bible: “The heart is deceitful above ALL things.”

If you haven’t heard of the doctrine of total depravity, it means that every human to ever exist is sinful through and through. No part of us remains untouched by sin. That includes our mind, will, emotions, conscience, and heart. C.S. Lewis wrote in his introduction to The Screwtape Letters:

Lastly, today, let’s look at the very next verse to gain a better context of verse 9. “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (v. 10). This should terrify you.

Do you see what is happening here? “The heart is deceitful above all things” – “I the LORD search the heart.” Our depravity is placed right up against God’s justice. God answers Jeremiah’s question “who can understand it (the heart)?” The unknowable heart is known to God.

I don’t know about you, but the absolute last person I want to trust and wager my happiness on is myself. I will mess up. I will fail myself. If I’m...

The number 4 is huge here in this verse. This is the fourth instance where Jesus evokes the “I am” terminology which implies that he is divine. “I am the bread of life” (6:35). “I am the Light of the world” (8:12). “I am the door of the sheep” (10:7). “I am the good shepherd” (10:11, 14). Four times in these verses Jesus repeats that He lays down His life (10:11, 15, 17, 18). In the first two, He repeats that He lays down His life for His sheep. The last two times, He emphasizes that He lays down His life so that He may take it up again. Now, let’s look at four things here:

1) Jesus was selfless (Heb. 12:2; Rom. 5:7-8; John 10:18)

2) Jesus’ death was sacrificial (2 Cor. 5:21)

3) Jesus’ death was specific (Eph. 5:25, John 10:29, John 6:37, 39; John 3:16; John 4:42, Rev. 22:17; John 6:39; 10:28).

4) Jesus’ death was successful (Romans 4:25)

Many ask the question, “Why follow Jesus?” As we see throughout the Bible that following Him may result in trials, persecution, or even martyrdom. We see in Psalm 73 that the author was honest about struggling with the same question. He looked at the wicked who seemed to be prospering and though (Psa. 73:13a), “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure…” The abundant life that Jesus gives consists in having God Himself as our portion, both now and forever. That’s why you should follow Jesus as your good shepherd.

This verse can be broken down into two sections: "He heals the brokenhearted..." and "...and binds up their wounds."

"He heals the brokenhearted..." Psalm 34:18 uses a similar language, "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted..." God knows the righteous - his eyes see us, his ears hear us, He Himself is near to us, and He rescues us.

"...and binds up their wounds" We are dependent upon the healing from Christ. Like I mentioned yesterday when we talked about being unable to search our soul ourselves to treat the root cause of our sin, we see further proof here that we are unable to spiritually heal ourselves. Only through faith in Jesus are healed through His sacrifice.

This simple 9-word verse is extremely powerful and comforting as a believer. The Lord is not only a builder, but a healer. Christ heals all by his blood, stripes, and wounds even though we do not deserve it.

Many misinterpret and take this verse (out of context) to mean that those who believe do not have fewer troubles. This is not what we're being told here by the Psalmist whatsoever. Nowhere in the Bible are we promised an easier life by believing in Jesus. Look at his closest followers, one died a natural death at an old age (even though he was in exile on Patmos).

We're told in John 15:18 by Jesus, "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you."

Jesus heals the brokenhearted. Being a Christian isn't easy, but the joy of having God by our side as we go through life is immeasurable.

Sources:

Gill, John. "Commentary on Psalms 147:3". "The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/psalms-147.html. 1999.

This section in 1 John is the backbone of John’s letter (4:11-19). We learn from this passage that the primary way that Christians are to be recognized is by love. And the love that Scripture refers to goes far beyond what we may merely feel, but what we subsequently do for others, or our actions.

Yesterday we talked about how there are no amount of works we could possibly do that would gain us entrance to an eternity with God, but that it is only through faith that we are made right through the actions of Jesus Christ. We went on to say that the evidence of a truly transformed life is evident in our actions. Today, we’re looking at what embodies those actions. True, godly love is the most powerful evidence of being “born again” as a child of God. This love comes from God who loved us before we ever loved Him. It’s when we are living in obedience to Him, according to our love, we can be confident in our relationship with Him.

As we break down this verse, there’s something that I want to make sure that you’re noticing. John differentiates knowing and believing, citing both as important. We see in many modern churches today that believing in God has been emphasized far over knowing God. This is a dangerous place for the modern church to be as it can lead to people who accept Jesus, yet do not live for Him. Simply put, these people may be “born of God,” but they show no evidence of actually “abiding” in Him.

The inverse of this concept is also true. Many churches/denominations will emphasize knowing God through worship experiences, service to others, etc., yet completely fail to emphasize salvation to their congregation. This is also highly dangerous, as it could lead to people not having any solid relationship with Christ at all, as their concept of God is based on human beings.

So, to reiterate, John is telling us that to “know and to believe” are essential in the life of a Christian believer. In order to be saved, we must believe in who Christ really is. And we must “know” Him through our obedience and fellowship.

To further define, John is telling us that the experience of abiding in God, that is the experience of salvation, is manifested and preserved through abiding in love. If we look back just a couple of verses to 1 John 4:12, it says, “If we love one another, God abides in us.”

John Piper says it beautifully, “…there is an aroma about God that can’t be concealed. It’s the aroma of love. When he comes into your life, the aroma comes into your life. The aroma is the sign of God’s saving presence, and if you smell it, you know he is there. You have assurance. If you don’t smell it, then you lose assurance and you cry out to God to cause his love to abound in your heart.”

Consider this: pleasures never lie. We can verbally fool others, and try to be as convincing as possible, but ultimately pleasure is the whistle-blower of the heart, because “pleasure is the measure of our treasure.” With this being said, John Piper puts it in an amazing way, it’s “not what we dutifully will but what we passionately want [that] reveals our excellence or evil.” And while it’s important that we recognize our own mistakes, shortcomings, and sinful nature there’s a hard truth to be realized here in this passage: our own introspection and self-evaluations are not enough. When we rely on our own self-diagnoses of the soul, we tend to treat the symptoms and not the root causes. You may be following along with me when I say that for me, I often will think far too highly of myself one second, and then drastically swing to beating myself down with condemnation the next.

The great thing is that I don’t have to search my soul by myself.

Similar to when Jesus knew the sin and heart of Peter in John 21:15-20, He too knows our hearts, sins, and failure to love Him. The beautiful thing, however, is that His death and subsequent resurrection purchased the full forgiveness of all of our sins. These are words that should never be far from our thoughts (including v. 24). “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” Sin, by its nature, dulls our hearts and minds to God’s grace. It blurs our vision. When we come to God with this prayer of David, we can have the diagnosis and treatment provided by the Lord instead of ourselves.

Sources:

Bloom, J. (2018, January 16). Lord, Revive My First Love. Retrieved September 05, 2020, from https://www.desiringgod.org/art…/lord-revive-my-first-love

Hamilton, I. (2015, September 1). When I Don’t Feel Forgiven by Ian Hamilton. Retrieved September 05, 2020, from https://www.ligonier.org/…/when-i-dont-feel-forgiven/

Piper, J. (2012). The pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s delight in being God. CO Springs, CO, Multnomah Books.

In this verse, when we read that God has “set eternity into man’s heart,” this means that we can never be completely satisfied with earthly pleasures and pursuits. Because we were created in God’s image, we (1) have a spiritual thirst, (2) have eternal value, and (3) nothing but the eternal God can truly satisfy us. God has built in us a restless yearning for the kind of perfect world that can only be found in his perfect rule. He has given us a glimpse of the perfection of his creation, but it is only a glimpse; we cannot see into the future or comprehend everything. So we must trust God now and do what the Bible instructs on earth.

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28

Have you heard of the beatitudes? They are the 8 blessings that Jesus teaches during the Sermon on the Mount. This verse, Matthew 11:28, is an echo of the first beatitude that Jesus teaches us, (Matthew 5:3).

This verse is an open invitation to all to hear, yet phrased in an extremely specific way. Even though this invitation is open to all, we see that the only ones who will respond are those who are burdened by their “own spiritual bankruptcy and the weight of trying to save themselves from the law” (John MacArthur). We see here that our stubbornness and our sinful rebellion from God (through sin) would lead to us forever refusing to acknowledge Jesus’ divinity and our own depth of spiritual poverty. It’s through God’s grace that we’ve been given a sovereign awakening and saved through Jesus’ sacrifice.

Look at the verse immediately preceding Matthew 11:28 (v. 27). We see Jesus telling us directly that it’s through the sovereign work of God that our salvation exists. He’s telling us exactly how it was given to us. I don’t want you to think that Jesus is contradicting himself here, because He’s absolutely not.

This divine election of God’s sovereign work calling us to salvation does not make Jesus’ free offer to all in the next two verses contradictory.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:29-30

“…you will find rest…” In other words, we will find rest from the endless, and fruitless efforts to try to save ourselves by works of the law. Jesus is telling us here that through Him is permanent respite in the grace of God that is separate from our works (Matthew 11:30).

So, we are able to understand through the Bible and Jesus’ words that by no act of our own, can we earn our salvation. There is nothing we can do to earn God’s grace. And to think that there is, lessens the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and lessons the gift of grace from God. Instead, we should find comfort and rest as believers in the gift of God’s grace. We can find comfort and rest in Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross.

Spend today reflecting on what an absolutely incredible gift God’s grace is to us, especially in the light that with Jesus’ sacrifice, we would never know the kind of rest for our souls that His gift brings.

The first phrase that we need to look at in this verse is “…the peace of God…” This simply means that inner calm or tranquility is something that is promised to any Christian who has a thankful attitude that is based on our unwavering confidence (or faith) that God is able and willing to do what is best for us.

Similarly, look at Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Look also at the phrase, “surpasses all understanding.” There are things about God that we won’t understand. Things that we are not designed to be able to fathom – and while it can be frustrating to try to think about them, ultimately you need to understand that it is good that we don’t understand God completely.

In order to fully understand God, that would mean that we would need to be His intellectual equals, something that we’re told in the Bible that a) is impossible and b) God doesn’t tolerate the pretense of anyone who claims to understand anything on the same level that he does (Job 40:6 – 41:34).

So when we read, “surpasses all understanding” this is a great thing, because it means that the origin of the peace that we will experience is divine in origin. That this peace will transcend all human intellect, analysis, or insight should bring you unbelievable comfort.

“…will guard…” the original word for this is similar to English in that it was a military term that means “to keep watch over.” As John MacArthur puts it, “God’s peace guards believers from anxiety, doubt, fear, and distress.”

“hearts…minds” In this last half of the verse, we see Paul making a clear distinction between the two terms. In fact, what he is doing here is giving us a comprehensive statement that refers to the entire inner person.

To put this verse in the terms as we’ve talked about: Because of a Christian’s union with Jesus, He guards his inner person with His peace.

As you go about your day, I want you to think about this verse and what it means. Think about the peace that we’re able to feel and comfort through our belief in Jesus as our savior. It’s incredible.

Today is going to get deep, as we’re going to look at a basic introduction to the Doctrine of Justification. Let’s start with a pretty simple, yet important statement: our justification before God is completely separate from any good works we’ve done in our life. We can’t earn our way into heaven (John 14:6), and therefore for us to be justified in the eyes of God we must receive the payment Jesus made through his crucifixion. We do this by our faith in His completed work.

Now that we’ve laid the groundwork, it’s time for us to dive just a little deeper into two different types of justification that apply to this verse:

1. Forensic Justification

2. Synthetic Justification

1. Forensic Justification: This means that our justification is legal. God sees us as just in His court because His son, Jesus lived a perfect life and we are made right through our faith in Him alone. And it’s important to note that we’re able to receive this justification through faith alone, as there is no way that we can earn our justification (no matter how hard we try sometimes). Even though we are legally justified through our faith in Jesus, that does not mean that we are not still sinners. We live simultaneously just and yet as sinners. It is through Jesus that this sinfulness is cleared in the eyes of God.

2. Synthetic Justification: This means that there are two elements that have been added together to form a synthesis. The synthesis is that we are justified only because of the work of Jesus Christ that is added to us through our belief in Him. If we were to stand before God without this faith in Jesus, we would be condemned (Gal. 2:16, 3:24; John 5:24, 14:6; Mark 7:21; Rom. 5:1, Phil. 3:9, Eph. 2:8-9).

Some teach a “faith and works” doctrine, or also called Analytic Justification, saying that God looks at two things: our faith in Jesus, and our works after we believed in Him to see if we appropriated the grace of Christ. Further, this doctrine teaches that if we aren’t good enough, we may have to spend time in purgatory to become better before being allowed into heaven (Sproul). To be blunt, that isn’t remotely what Scripture says (James 5:24, Acts 13:39, 2 Corinthians 5:19-21).

Our admittance to Heaven is solely based on the work that Christ adds to us through our faith in Him. It isn’t through anything that we can do or any change in character that we may have.

As we wrap up, please do not take this as a statement saying that Christians aren’t to have a noticeable change in...

First, we need to establish what “the law” that Romans 13:10 refers to is. If we don’t understand why the Law applies to us, then the rest of the verse fails to bear any credence. We see that throughout the New Testament, the term “law” most often refers to what is commanded of the Israelites throughout the first five books of the Old Testament (or the Pentateuch). Second, it’s essential also to understand that Jesus did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). Many people think that because we believe in Him and are therefore saved, that the Law no longer applies. This thinking is known as “justification by faith,” and Paul speaks directly to this. In Romans 3:29-31, we see that just because we have faith, we are not to throw away the Law.

I have a question for you: If we believe in Christ and aren’t able to uphold the Law, are we still saved?

Absolutely we are (Ephesians 2:8). Paul teaches us that “justification by faith alone does not overthrow or do away with the Law, but it’s the exact opposite. It’s through our justification of faith that the Law is upheld in the eyes of God. It is through justification by faith alone that the Law’s true purpose is revealed, and that we are provided a way in fulfilling it.

So when we accept Christ (our justification), our hearts are sanctified (Acts 26:18) to keep the Law, and yes, we will do so imperfectly, but as Christians, we should see us aiming at the target. If you miss the process in which this occurs, then you miss everything. The sanctification of our hearts follows our justification (or accepting of Christ). So, it is through our belief and acceptance of Christ that we uphold the Law, and once we receive the Holy Spirit (the sanctification), only then can we be able to aim at the target in an attempt to do what the Law requires.

Simply put, it’s the justified who do what God commands, although we won’t ever do it perfectly, and we’ll never be able to do it in a way that merits our righteousness before the Lord (if you feel weird about that, that’s pride). It is only through our belief and faith in Jesus that we can be seen as righteous, and through our belief and faith in Jesus that our hearts are prepared to attempt to uphold the Law.

So, let’s look at this verse in a new light now, as we have a deeper understanding of the Law that Paul is referring to. As Christians, it is our desire to uphold the Law, and Paul is outright telling us how to do that. We should treat others with the same care that we have for ourselves (aka, the Golden Rule, Matthew 7:12), and we will not violate any of God’s laws regarding interpersonal relationships.

Take a look at James 2:8, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well.” The phrase “royal law” can also be thought of as God’s “sovereign law.”

A law can be defined as something that binds our actions. For example, it’s against the Law to speed; it’s against the law to murder; it’s against the law to jaywalk; it’s against the law to not pay taxes. So when James says that in order to uphold the “sovereign law” you should “love your neighbor as...