“…let your conduct be worthy of the Gospel of Christ…” — Philippians 1:27 You and I are the clothes that the Gospel wears in this world. How well are we adorning the Gospel in our lives? We are the only Christ that many will see. Are we attracting people to the Savior or are we repelling them from Him? Paul makes it very clear that it is vital that we do the former and not the latter. Here there is a shift in that first chapter of Philippians—from “I” to “you,” from personal testimony to spiritual exhortation. If you go back up the previous verses of the first chapter you will see that Paul has been giving for almost the entirety of this his own personal testimony. You see that he says, “but if I live,” and “for me to live,” and “I shall not be ashamed,” and “I know this,” and “I am set for the defense of the Gospel.” He has been giving his own personal testimony. He knows that the Philippians needed to be encouraged by hearing what was happening with him and his resoluteness in the face of his suffering, his rejoicing in Christ even in prison, but they also needed to be exhorted unto godly living. Since we may well be the only Bible many people ever “read,” it is sobering to consider that some of us may need revision. Someone once said, “Don’t be so worried about what other people think of you. Be concerned about what they think of Christ because of you.” Lord, give me the strength to live such a righteous life that people will want to know You and walk with You. My Master and Lord, help me to live a life honoring You in all ways. Help me today to do something kind for someone who does not know You… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE WILL SHOW CHRIST TO OTHERS.
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.” — 2 Timothy 4:6 God only calls a small percentage of those who follow Christ to be martyrs for Him. Certainly, Paul was one of those. Paul’s last epistle was 2 Timothy, and in the poignant 4th chapter he writes, “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.” He is ready to be offered, the sacrifice is ready to be poured out. This is now his second imprisonment. He was released after the imprisonment during which he wrote Philippians, then he continued his missionary journeys, probably traveling all the way to Spain. But now he has returned, has once more been captured, taken prisoner and thrown into a dungeon, and this time there is to be no release in this world. Paul is not afraid of death because Christ has conquered the grave. When he was drawn up out of that prison, led out of the city of Rome down the Appian Way, and the headsman’s ax flashed in the Roman sun, the Apostle Paul experienced immortality, and he received the crown of righteousness. We can indeed rejoice that in Christ death has lost its sting. Whether martyred or not, we should live for Christ in such a way that we, too, can look forward to receiving a crown of righteousness. Lord, give me strength to make my life an offering to You. Help me to avoid carrying a burden You have not given me, but also help me be ready to follow You even unto death… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE ARE A LIVING SACRIFICE.
“…sons of God, without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world. Hold forth the word of life…” — Philippians 2:15-16a Paul tells us that we should bear witness to the world, both by the lives we live and by the word which is the Gospel. This is a twofold duty and responsibility, which is laid upon every Christian, that we are to be witnesses to Him both by our lives and by our lips, that we are to shine and we are to hold forth the word of life. And so, dear friend, I would ask you, are you doing that? Did you hold forth the word of life to anyone recently? We should ask God to place opportunities in our path in which we might share the good news that has changed our lives. May God grant you the determination to say, “I will indeed determine to be a light in a dark world and hold forth the word of life to a dying world that they may hear the Gospel and be saved.” Paul says, “…that I may rejoice on the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain” (Philippians 2:16). This is an amazing openness on the part of the apostle. He calls upon them to show a godly life and to hold forth the word of life that he may rejoice in the day of Christ. May God give us the grace that we be faithful followers of Christ, shining as lights and holding forth the word of life, bringing many to the knowledge of the Savior. Jesus Christ, Light of the world, thank You for being my light and my salvation. May I hold out Your light today, both in my words and by holy living… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN BE LIGHT IN A DARK WORLD.
“These men are grumblers, complainers, who walk after their own http://lusts.their mouths speak arrogant words, and they flatter others to gain profit.” — Jude 16 All sin is ultimately against God, as David said, “Against You, You only, have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4). But it is also true that we do sin against one another very often. Paul says we should “Do all things without murmuring and disputing” (Philippians 2:14). Yet how much of what goes on in many homes, even Christian homes, involves complaining, grumbling, murmuring, and arguments? We should be serving God gladly, yielding ourselves to Him happily and cheerfully without murmuring and complaining against one another. How much of that is found in your home? How about the church? Take almost any kind of meeting that goes on in the church, how much of it is spent in murmuring, complaining, and faultfinding? So we sin against men also in this same way. And whether our relationship to God or one another, we are to do all things without murmuring and complaining. Why? “…That you may be blameless and harmless, sons of God, without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). So let us strive to be at peace with all men, as much as it depends on us. Jehovah-Shalom, You who are our peace, help us to live in peace without grumbling and fault-finding. Help us today to find the good in others and live in peace with all, as much as it is possible without compromising our core values… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN EXPERIENCE HIS PEACE.
“Do all things without murmuring and disputing…” — Philippians 2:14 When Paul tells the Philippian Christians to do all things without murmuring, we should remember that just a moment before that he told them to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. Not work for your salvation—to work it out, for it is God who is working in our hearts. How are we to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling? Well, he says that we are to do all things without murmuring and disputing. The word murmuring sounds like what it describes. The Scripture in a number of times tells us to avoid murmuring and grumbling. In John 6:41, we read “The Jews then murmured about Him, because He said, ‘I am the bread which came down from heaven.’” You can almost hear the muttering, the grumbling, the low tones, the complaining, and the discontent of them. In verse 43, just two verses further, “Jesus therefore answered them, ‘Do not murmur among yourselves.’” In I Corinthians 10:10, Paul cautions, “Neither murmur, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer.” Twice in that same verse—“neither murmur, as some of those,”—those were the Israelites in the Old Testament wanderings, and they murmured against the Lord, and they were destroyed. They murmured against Moses as well, and they were destroyed. If you know the joy of Christ in your heart, it follows that you will avoid a complaining spirit. Jesus, Bread of Life, thank You for feeding us and caring for us. Forgive us that we so often complain and murmur. Give us the strength to replace murmuring with thanksgiving… IN GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN AVOID GROUSING.
“Immediately fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. And the king saw the back of the hand that wrote.” — Daniel 5:5 As noted before, one night, Belshazzar the king of Babylon held a great drunken feast. They brought out the golden vessels and silver goblets which his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had brought from the temple in Jerusalem before he destroyed it. And so Belshazzar called for the vessels and the goblets of the temple of Jerusalem so that his lords and princes, his women and wives and concubines might drink out of the golden goblets from the temple of Jerusalem. “Where is the God of Jerusalem—where is the God of the Jews?” they might have asked. But then a detached gigantic hand appeared and wrote inscrutable words on the wall. What did they say? Only Daniel was capable of providing the correct interpretation. Belshazzar had been weighed according to God’s righteousness and was found wanting. Therefore, his kingdom was to be broken apart and given to the Medes and the Persians. While Belshazzar had been drinking from the goblets of Jerusalem, the army of the Medes and Persians had diverted the River Euphrates which flowed from one corner to the other corner of the great city of Babylon and his soldiers had come under that dry river bed. They had thrown open the mighty gates of Babylon, and now the whole hosts of the armies of the Medes and Persians had filled the city. The proud, taunting king died that very night. Babylon the great came to a sudden and final end. It is not wise to taunt the living God. Lord of the nations, You alone are holy and not to be mocked. We thank You that You do avenge and that Your justice will prevail. In Your mercy and patience, You postpone judgment, but help us to remember that it will come… BY GOD’S STRENGTH AND IN HIS TIME, NATIONS AND PEOPLE WILL BE JUDGED.
“Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine before the thousand.” — Daniel 5:1 Our text today speaks of Belshazzar the king, and the critics have fastened their talons on these words. For some time, they used to say, “Ah ha. Here again we find one of the many mistakes of the Bible.” They would claim there was no such king of Babylon as Belshazzar, and that furthermore the son of Nebuchadnezzar, which Daniel 5:2 says was Belshazzar, is conclusively proved by the monuments to be none other than Nabonidus, and that no Belshazzar is mentioned at all. They delighted to fixate on this passage. And yet the spades of the archaeologists continued to dig, and need I tell you how the story came out? The Bible has been proven right again and again. Finally, the spade of the archaeologist unturned the monuments that brought to our attention the fact that Nabonidus, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, had a son whose name was Belshazzar. But someone might object that he was not the son, but rather grandson, of Nebuchadnezzar. But the Bible calls him son. Biblical Hebrew has no word for grandson or great-grandson or great-grandfather or grandfather, but simply refers to one as father, regardless of the number of generations that have intervened. So once again the critics were proven wrong. As Werner Keller, author of the book, The Bible As History, noted in the 1950s: “…as I thought of the skeptical criticism which from the eighteenth century onward would fain have demolished the Bible altogether, there kept hammering in my brain this one sentence: ‘The Bible is right after all.’” God of truth, we thank You for the trustworthiness of Your Word. Thank You for sustaining me and feeding me Your living, holy, and eternal Word every day… BY GOD’S STRENGTH AND SUSTAINING POWER, WE ARE UPHELD BY HIS WORD.
“While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar commanded that they bring in the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which was in Jerusalem, so that the king, and his officials, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.” — Daniel 5:2 “Babylon the great.” The name is significant. It reminds us of every nation-state that has raised itself against the true God, of every nation that down through the centuries has persecuted the people of God. And King Belshazzar was the avatar, or incarnation of that very spirit of Babylon, which mocked the true God and looked contemptuously upon the rest of the people of this world. There was never before, and perhaps never since, such a city as “Babylon the great.” Its walls were 14 miles on each side and the walls rose to a height of 300 feet into the air, with towers rising higher than that and at their base the walls of Babylon were 187½ feet thick. Years before, the Babylonians had conquered the Hebrews, carried many of them off to Babylon (including Daniel), raided the temple of its silver and gold and burned it. At this drunken feast, Belshazzar and guests drank from silver goblets from the Lord’s temple. God judged them that very night as the Medes and Persians figured out a way to attack despite those massive walls. Belshazzar learned too late that God will humble the exalted and exalt the humble. God is not mocked. Everlasting God, we see mockers all around us. May we never be found in the “seat of mockers.” May we always honor and revere You as the only true http://god.please bring salvation to the mockers before it is too late. BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN ENDURE THE MOCKERS.
“To him who overcomes I will give permission to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” — Revelation 2:7 Jerry Falwell once said, having worked with Christians in the political arena for some 15 years, that he had learned something. He had learned that when Christians lose, they quit, and when they win, they quit. All politics aside, we need to learn to develop greater perseverance in our service to the Lord. We live in a world where many people are quite unstable, and they are tossed to and fro with the waves, as James talks about those who are tossed with waves of doctrine. Today, we have a crisis of character, a crisis of integrity. We need men and women who have perseverance or stick-to-it-iveness. Now a lot of people start off a lot of things well. Even Pliable was able to do that. He started off with Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress on the way to the Celestial City, and he got just as far as the Slough of Despond. Having fallen in the slough and finding himself up to his neck in mud, he, with great exertion, turned around and crawled back out the side from which he had come and made his way back to the City of Destruction. Many people start well, but soon they are seen no more. But true grit means that you keep on keeping on. It has much less to do with the size of your muscles or the measurement of your chest, but rather it is a mental or a spiritual attitude. May God give us the grace to be overcomers through Jesus Christ our Lord. Immortal God, we are so mortal, so weak, and so quick to give up. Thank You that You never give up on us. It is You who keeps us and preserves us so that we may eat of the Tree of Life in Your kingdom… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN OVERCOME AND FINISH WELL.
“Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; and before you were born I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.’” — Jeremiah 1:4-5 Since January 22, 1973, when the Supreme Court gave us abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy, America has taken the lives of more than 57 million unborn babies. This is a horrible crime for which we will give an account. At one time, I was talking with a gentleman who was involved in a suit with an abortion clinic. I suppose we really shouldn’t use the term “abortion clinic” because a clinic is someplace you go to get well. Some have used the phrase “abortion chamber.” They talk about their hygiene; they talk about the safety factor. Well, I would remind everyone that at least 50 percent of all the people that enter those institutions come out dead. I refer of course to the babies. This gentleman was talking to the man who sued him and his organization to get them to stop picketing the abortion chamber, and this young man in our church said that he would be glad to stop picketing them if he would just stop killing babies. No way. Now we have all heard that they are “pro-choice.” But there’s only one choice provided in such a place—abortion. The man in our church said that he would stop picketing the abortion center if they would simply provide a table inside the center where he might present the other choice so that people will have a true choice they can make. Of course, he was denied. There is no choice; abortion is murder for money, nothing else. Pray to end abortion. Dear Lord, thank You for the gift of life. We confess that the land is stained with the blood of the unborn. Forgive us for not doing more to stop this egregious evil in our time. Lord of life, give us the strength to continue working on behalf of life… IN GOD’S STRENGTH, WE PROVIDE LIFE-SAVING ALTERNATIVES TO ABORTION.
“For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One the many will be made righteous.” — Romans 5:19 Many today think that they are good enough to make it into heaven. But what they don’t reckon with is their actual sinfulness. They are clothed in the filthy rags of their own self-righteousness, but they are too blind to see it. How about you? You could get hit by a car and killed this very afternoon, and you could find yourself dressed for the worst ultimate, eternal disaster that you have ever even imagined. In what are you dressed? Your righteousness or Christ’s? What you have done, or what God has done for you upon the cross? John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, also wrote Justification By An Imputed Righteousness. That is what we believe. That is what Christianity is. It is justification—that by which we are accepted, pardoned, and received into paradise—justification “by an imputed righteousness.” Not an inherent righteousness, not one of our own accomplishments of our acquiring, but something which is reckoned to us but belongs to another—the righteousness of Christ. The great Count von Zinzendorf put it so very well in a familiar hymn: Jesus, thy blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress; ‘Midst flaming worlds [in the final judgment] in these arrayed, With joy shall I lift up my head. Salvation is by good works—that is, the good works of Jesus who died on behalf of sinners. Heavenly Father, thank You for dressing me in the white robe of Your Son’s imputed righteousness. Thank You, Jesus, that because of Your shed blood, I am clean and spotless without blemish or wrinkle… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE GO TO CHRIST AND BECOME CLEAN.
“…then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” — 2 Chronicles 7:14 The “spiritual state of the union”? If it were a patient, it probably would have been pronounced dead on arrival—frozen in ice—no spiritual pulse at all. This is what many think, and this is what many unbelievers find reason to rejoice over. Across our nation we see: • sexual promiscuity and perversion and rampant abortion; • television and movies, with all of their terrible demonstrations of every kind and imaginable sin; • terrorism threatening our lives; • a scandalous educational system that seems more bent on producing unbelief in God, secularism, and permissiveness than teaching students how to read and write; • endemic corruption in business corporations; • the threat of crime, violent or otherwise. But God gives the solution for a nation gone astray. He says, “When I shut up the heaven and there is no rain, or when I command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence on My people, if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14). May God give the grace that enough of His people will seek His face for true positive transformation throughout the land. Heavenly Father, we have lost our way as a nation. Forgive us for in any way being a part of the problem and not a part of the solution. Lord, give me strength for today to help pave the way toward a true national revival… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN LIVE A LIFE OF PURITY IN AN IMPURE WORLD.
“God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” — 2 Corinthians 5:21 I am perfect. I have no sin, no guilt, and am in absolutely perfect one-hundred percent obedience to every command of God in thought, word, and deed. That is my righteousness; but, of course, you realize I didn’t live it—not any of it. In fact, I ran the other way. I violated His commandments in every way. It was Christ who lived that perfect life, Christ who took away my sin, Christ who gave me His obedience that made me righteous. My righteousness is not my own. It belongs to Christ. But as Paul says, “by the obedience of One the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). How are you going to be made righteous before God? “…[B]y the obedience of One the many will be made righteous.” Theologians like to refer to what they call the active and passive obedience of Christ. His active obedience being all He did in obeying His Father through all of His earthly life. This One who could say, “… for I always do those things that please Him” (John 8:29). That white robe of obedience was woven day by day out of the pure linen of Christ’s perfect obedience with the golden thread of His deity running through it. His passive obedience was what He endured: the scourge, the thorns, the spikes, the Cross. We get from that passive obedience the word “passion”—the passion of Jesus Christ. Now His active obedience and His passive obedience make up what is known as the righteousness of Christ. He is our righteousness. Jesus-Tsidkenu, Jesus my righteousness, I praise and thank You today for counting Your righteousness as my own. Thank You, Father, for looking at me through Jesus Christ, as if I had never sinned… BY GOD’ STRENGTH AND THE BLOOD OF JESUS, WE ARE RIGHTEOUS NOW.
“…then beware lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” — Deuteronomy 6:12 America has been blessed by God, but because of our prosperity we have forgotten Him. We think we don’t have to worry; we are not going to have a bitter winter like the Pilgrims had, where half of the population is going to starve. We are not left naked upon the brink of destruction; no, we have much goods laid up for many years. We are strong and self-sufficient. America has been mightily and marvelously helped until she was strong, and America has lifted up her heart in pride and turned her back upon God and kicked against the pricks of His spirit upon their conscience and turned unto sin. President Lincoln called for a Day of Fasting and Prayer in 1863 and he reminded the nation of how it had forgotten God: “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God….We have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” Amen. Lord, give me strength for today to recognize Your hand of blessing on us. Forgive me for the pride in my heart that wants to wrest the credit from You to me. As a church and as a nation, give us the gift of repentance and a new Great Awakening… BY GOD’S STRENGTH AND FROM HIS HAND, WE HAVE WHAT WE HAVE.
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” — Proverbs 16:18 There are many people who can withstand the temptations of failure, the temptations of lack or poverty, who have discovered that they could not withstand the perils and temptations of success. How many men and women have you known who did well in their spiritual life and made great progress in studying His word in Sunday School and Bible classes? They were engaged in His work and seeking the Lord; God blessed them and they were marvelously helped, until their pride deceived them into thinking that they accomplished it all on their own. They began to say in the secret chambers of their hearts the same things that the Israelites had said after they had been delivered from Egypt. They said, “Our hand is victorious, and the Lord has not done all this” (Deuteronomy 32:27). And like the bulls of Bashan they kicked out at Jehovah who had delivered them. Therefore, God was angry with them, and He delivered them over to destruction because of their pride. I have seen people who seem to seek the Lord, but in the end it was apparently with insincere motives. God blesses them, and soon their bank accounts are bulging and their houses are large and their cars and boats are many, and they say in their own hearts, “The Lord has not done all this. No, I did it. It was my talent, my sagacity, my business acumen, that caused this to be done.” But God gives grace to the humble, and in due time He will humble the proud. Lord, give me strength for today to handle the gift of prosperity. Help me to recognize it is Your hand that has helped me. Help me to be generous with all that You have given me. Forgive me for the pride in my heart… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE RECOGNIZE HE IS THE SOURCE OF ALL GOOD THINGS.
