Category Archives: General

In your daily walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, how do you picture yourself? Have you ever pictured yourself as a wall of bronze? Well, after reading today’s word of encouragement, I believe you will!

I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you.

(Jeremiah 15:20)

Notice the work of grace in the life of the believer. The Lord does not say that we are to make ourselves like a fortified wall of bronze through our own efforts. He assures us that this is all the work of our Great God. And when God says He will make you a wall of bronze, you can be assured, that is exactly what He will do in your life!

In a day when the witness of far too many in the church is so thoroughly diluted by worldliness, we need believers who truly are like fortified walls of bronze, Christians who can withstand the slings and arrows of the evil one. We need believers who are not afraid to be “politically incorrect” and stand for the truth claims of Christianity. We need believers who have been made strong in the Lord through the preaching of the whole counsel of God, Christians who are not “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14).

I have learned that those who love the doctrines of grace are those who possess the doctrines of grace. They understand that the same grace that saved them is the same grace that is sanctifying them, fortifying them in the face of increasing unbelief and even outright hostility from the world around them.

Please don’t miss the last part of the Lord’s words to Jeremiah: even when you have been made as a wall of bronze, God is still with you! The reason we cannot be overcome is because our God is with us . . . our God is in us . . . and our God is for us! Make no mistake, God is the One who rescues; God is the One who saves; and it is God who sanctifies us and makes us as a wall of bronze.

So regardless of where this finds you today and what storm winds may be swirling around you, remember that God has made you a fortified wall of bronze. You will not be blown over! “I will strengthen you and help you,” He has promised us; “I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). You shall stand firm because your God is with you every step of the way. Even if all around you is crumbling, you can rest in the promised truth that you will stand in your place and not be moved.

Praise God this day for this splendid truth: God has fortified you and He continues to strengthen you, moment by moment!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Perhaps the title to this article caught your attention as a “typo.” You may have thought I meant to write “Faithful to Forgive.” Not so fast! Inasmuch as our God is faithful to forgive, He has also promised to be faithful to forget.

Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.

(Hebrews 10:17)

God is not forgetful like we are. If you’re like me, you forget where you left your car keys…you forget to bring the shopping list to the store…you forget where you left the remote control for the TV. This is not the case with God! God is omniscient; He knows all.

So what is the writer of Hebrews telling us? He is saying that our God is so gracious, He will never bring up any of our past sins to accuse us. He has placed our transgressions as far away from us as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). He has hurled our iniquities into the depths of the sea, never to be seen again (Micah 7:19). Every sin has been nailed to the cross and covered by the blood of Jesus.

In his devotional, Faith’s Checkbook, Charles Spurgeon, often called “the prince of preachers,” put it this way:

According to this gracious covenant, the Lord treats His people as if they had never sinned. Practically, He forgets all their trespasses. Sins of all kinds He treats as if they had never been, as if they were quite erased from His memory. Oh, miracle of grace! God does here that which in certain aspects is impossible to Him. His mercy works miracles that far transcend all other miracles.

I remember hearing this truth expressed this same way as it relates to our justification . . . when we are justified (declared righteous) by God, it’s just as if we’d never sinned. What a God we serve! Because of the cross work of Christ, we who are in Him—by grace through faith—are clothed in the righteousness of Christ and seen by God the Father as perfectly holy. God will never remind us of our past sins.

If you are struggling with feelings of guilt from any past sin, commit Hebrews 10:17 to memory and keep it at the forefront of your thinking every time the devil causes you to think about it. Remember, as long as the devil can keep you focused on some past sin, he succeeds in keeping you from faithfully serving God in the present.

When we appropriate God’s incredible promise to forget all our sins, it strengthens us to treat the past as a school. We can and should take every lesson from the past, but we are never to live there. God has chosen to “remember no more” every time we turned away from Him. Knowing that our spiritual slate has not just been cleaned, but actually broken and thrown away, we are freed to make forward progress in serving our Lord. We are freed from the strongholds of past sins.

If this message finds you in the grip of any past guilt, take that guilt to the cross and lay it at the nail-pierced feet of Jesus. You have been buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in the newness of life . . . His life, not your life. You live under the victorious banner of the finished work of Jesus Christ, and that includes the truth that God sees you just as He sees His Son Jesus: He sees you as perfect in every way!

Let that truth set you free from anything that has you chained to the past.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

John’s gospel tells us about the seven signs—seven miracles that Jesus performed which, in a word, provided the credentials to back up His claim. And what was His claim? Jesus claimed to be God! He made this claim in a number of ways, most profoundly through His seven great “I AM” statements:

• I am the bread of life
• I am the light of the world
• I am the gate
• I am the good shepherd
• I am the resurrection and the life
• I am the way, the truth, and the life
• I am the true vine

These “I AM” statements echoed Exodus 3:14, where God revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush. When Jesus repeating these words, He was making it crystal clear that He was God incarnate. And that is why the religious leaders sought so many times to put Him to death and ultimately nailed Him to a cross.

The seven miracles Jesus performed were proof that confirmed Jesus as the promised Messiah, who had come into this world to save His people from their sins. Here are those seven miracles, along with a statement of practical application to your life today, right where this finds you.

• Turning water into wine – Jesus is the answer for our disappointments
• Healing the nobleman’s son – Jesus is the answer for our doubts
• Healing the paralyzed man at the pool – Jesus is the answer for our disabilities
• Feeding of the 5,000 – Jesus is the answer for our daily bread
• Jesus walks on water – Jesus is the answer for our despair
• Healing of the man born blind – Jesus is the answer for our darkness
• Raising Lazarus from the dead – Jesus is the answer for our date with death

Now, Jesus is not the answer to many questions in life, such as what job we should have, the kind of car we should drive, the clothes we should wear, the food we should eat, who to marry, where we should live, and countless others. But when it comes to the major questions in life that matter most? Jesus is the answer and each one of the Master’s Miracles provides us with a map in which to find them.

Keep looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

We in the West have a tendency to count our temporal blessings far more often than we do any of the spiritual ones. Yet if we had not one temporal blessing to speak of, we would still be blessed beyond measure.

Habakkuk knew this truth; the question today is . . . Do we?

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

(Habakkuk 3:17-18)

Let us fully understand what Habakkuk, who was a member of an agricultural culture, was saying. I’m sure that many of you reading these words are urban dwellers like I am, and we might not immediately realize the horror Habakkuk was describing for anyone in that culture. If all the crops failed and the herds had all died off or fled, the people of Israel would be facing ruin and an awful, lingering death. And yet Habakkuk was saying that even in the midst of utter disaster—when everything around him failed and fell to the ground—he would still be blessed because God was his ultimate blessing.

The condition of Habakkuk’s soul would be marked by rejoicing and joyfulness. Habakkuk would look past his temporal provision to his eternal promise . . . God would always be his Savior.

The only way that we will truly know if we are able to respond like Habakkuk is when we actually lose some blessing of value. When something we value is taken away, how do we respond to God and those around us? When the sky is blue and the clouds are fleecy and the sun is brightly shining, it is easy to speak of the glory of our God. But what happens when the storm winds begin to blow our way? What happens when what we have been holding on to so tightly in this life slips through our clenched fists?

Habakkuk knew the secret to true joy on this side of the grave. He kept his focus on the One who had given him every blessing. Habakkuk knew that everything he had was a gift from his God, and he also knew that the Giver of every gift was infinitely more valuable than all the gifts added up together. Even in losing every temporal blessing, Habakkuk still had the only thing he truly needed: his God!

Sadly, many in the church today find this truth hard to accept. We get so caught up in the temporal blessings God gives us that we begin to look for our identity, hope, purpose, and meaning in the gifts . . . rather than in the Giver. Then when one or more gifts are taken away, we feel like we are adrift out on the open ocean, with no safe harbor in sight.

Where does this find you today? Are you in a season of abundant blessing? Pause and name those blessings one by one, thanking God for all of them. Are you in a season of scarcity and lack? Pause and remember that God has promised to meet your needs, not your wants, and what God has promised He will always fulfill. You are blessed far beyond temporal blessings, so learn to look past the gifts to the Giver of every good and perfect gift. That’s when you will begin tapping into a joy that simply cannot be shaken.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

It is not uncommon for me to counsel with men and women who believe that God is not able to use them because of their youth—either their physical age or their time walking with the Lord. The Bible, however, tells us this belief is not true. We are never too young to be used by God.

Consider the prophet Jeremiah; he frankly acknowledged his sense of inadequacy:

“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

(Jeremiah 1:6-8)

Jeremiah was a young man who did not feel up to the task of speaking for his God. This is a common ailment among many of our youth today. Satan loves to convince young people that God is not ready to use them because of their age. This is one of the sharpest tools in Satan’s tool box. And yet God says, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’” Why? Because wherever God sends us to speak on His behalf, He goes with us. What any of our youth lack in age, God makes up for in “almighty assurance” that we go in the strength of our God.

If you read the passage from Jeremiah closely you will notice two things: Jeremiah did not have to find an audience to serve or create a message to speak; God chose the audience for Jeremiah and determined the words he would speak. And what was true for the prophet Jeremiah more than 2,600 years ago is just as true for all of us today—especially for young people. Everyone we meet is a divine appointment. There are no accidents in life and we never randomly “bump into people.” God arranges the meeting and creates the message. We simply must be faithful to answer the call.

This is just as true for those who are young in the faith. Far too many tell me that they need more training and education to serve God. NOT TRUE! Education and training are certainly good things, and as Christians we become students for life. But our service to God is to begin the moment we are saved. And our service begins by telling others what God has done for us in raising us from death to life.

Listen: God knows the numbers of hairs on your head and He knows your age, both chronologically and how long you have been walking with Jesus. He knows exactly what you know and will equip you for everything He calls you to.

You and I will never approach the level of wisdom that God gave Solomon. But fear not! God knows exactly what He is doing in calling you at your current age today. My years as a pastor have taught me that God calls the equipped by equipping the called, and victory is assured because God is with us!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Did you know that God knows EVERYTHING about you—every secret you would not want to share with anybody—and yet He still loves you UNCONDITIONALLY? As I have said before, If that doesn’t light the fire of your faith . . . your wood’s wet!

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go call your husband and come back.” I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

(John 4:15-18)

This is John’s account of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. It is one of the most beautiful pictures of God’s grace in all of sacred Scripture. Here is a woman scorned by everyone who knew her. She would not come to the well when all the other women were there because of their disdain and her shame. She came at the hottest time of the day, hoping to see no one while she drew her water. She had no idea that she was right on time for her divine appointment with Jesus, who was waiting to shower His grace upon her shame-filled life.

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”

(John 4:25-26)

The woman ran back to town, completely forgetting her water jar, running right into the midst of all those she had been so careful to avoid, and told them all, “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” John 4:39 reports that this Samaritan woman evangelized her town and many came to faith in Jesus because of her testimony! For the very first time in her life, she was “naked and unashamed” as she stood before the Holy One of God.

What was true for this Samaritan woman is true for me and you today. We are all “naked” before God. Remember, Jesus knew what the Pharisees were thinking and frequently commented on it (Matthew 9:4, Mark 2:8, Luke 5:22). Yet we are still loved unconditionally. Jesus knows our every thought, word, deed, and desire, and He still loves us!

This kind of “Almighty awareness” should be a source of tremendous comfort to us. To be fully known and completely loved is the desire of every heart; only in Christ can we find this kind of love. Jesus was in a habit of showering down his love on the lowest in society—outcasts like the Samaritan woman—and it drove the religious establishment absolutely mad. They could not bring themselves to associate with “sinners,” because they simply could not see the sin in their own lives. The log in their eyes blinded them to this truth.

So . . . regardless of where this finds you today, whether you are climbing to the summit or crushed under the waves of challenge, the Almighty is aware of every aspect of your life and is absolutely, 100% for you. And if Jesus is for you, it really doesn’t matter what comes up against you . . . even thoughts of past mistakes!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

At first glance, you might think that with a title like this on a day like today—April 1st—there must be a joke lurking in here somewhere. I promise you, this is no April Fools’ prank! Death is indeed life when we are dying for our Savior. In calling us to die, Jesus is giving us true life and rescuing us from certain death.

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

(Luke 9:23-26)

The serpent in the Garden of Eden promised life to Adam and Eve if they would simply turn away from God. What they actually got was death. Death masqueraded as life, but no life was to be found; instead Adam and Eve found themselves on the run away from the One who had given them life.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

(Proverbs 14:12)

Not trusting in God seemed right to Adam and Eve, but in the end it delivered only death. You and I often find ourselves in the very same place. When we trust in ourselves rather than our God, it seems right to us at the time. When God appears to be slow in responding to our plans, it seems right to bypass God and make our own way. But in the end, it leads to death. Oh, we won’t drop dead on the spot! But we become dead inside; we die spiritually, just as our first parents did. It’s likely that all of you reading this have experienced this very thing on more than one occasion.

When Jesus said, “Deny yourself,” He was giving us the key to real life on this side of the grave. Death to self is life to the Savior. Death to our agenda is life to God’s agenda. Death to our goals is life to God’s goals. Death to our will is life to God’s will. When we say NO to ourselves, we are saying YES to God, and that is the only place we will find life. Death to self keeps us from the all-too-common condition of spiritual suicide.

Remember, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it,” and we try saving our lives when we insist on sitting on the throne of our lives. We miss out on the life Jesus is calling us to live. But “whoever loses his life for me will save it” is the result of keeping our Savior on the throne of our lives.

So . . . when is death life? Death is life when we are laying our lives down for the One who laid His life down for us. Living for the One who is the way, the truth, and the life is the key to finding and experiencing the life Jesus died to set us free to live!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

There is nothing sillier and more sinful than for the creature to attempt to rise above the Creator, an act which we clearly see in the sin of self-sufficiency. To forget God and flatter man is a scourge among the saints today.

But this is not for you! I pray today’s message will encourage the slaying of self-sufficiency, a sin with which you and I must deal daily.

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

(John 15:4-5)

The sin of self-sufficiency is an attempt to rob God of His glory. It seeks to exalt man and cast down our glorious Savior. Make no mistake, it is a fool’s errand. Both the Bible and personal experience impart the same truth: apart from Jesus we can do nothing! And this is not only true of unbelievers who are outside of the faith; this is just as true for the saints of God who have put their trust in Jesus Christ but slip into the sin of self-sufficiency. That’s you . . . and me . . . and all of us!

Notice what our Lord not say; He did not say:

• Apart from me you can do some things
• Apart from me you can do little things
• Apart from me you can do virtually nothing

John’s gospel lays the axe at the root of our self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing . . . that is, we can do nothing that pleases our God. To be sure, there is much we can do in this world: we can work, we can play, we can serve. But it is as the chaff is to the wheat. It adds nothing to God’s economy because it was not done for His glory. As Isaiah 64:6 declares, “All our righteous acts are filthy rags.”

The spiritual life is beyond both the natural man and the spiritual man who works in his natural strength. By ourselves, we are sufficient for absolutely nothing. It is only when we remain connected to Christ that we can do things that matter and bring glory to God.

So . . . what have you been depending on lately? Have you been trusting in your Savior and His strength? Or have you been caught in the snare of self-sufficiency? Jesus would not have sent His Holy Spirit if we could do what God wanted us to do in our own strength. It is the ministry of the Spirit of God to give us all the strength we need to do all God is calling us to do. We are to work in the power of the Holy Spirit; we are to play in the power of the Holy Spirit; we are to serve in the power of the Holy Spirit. Never are we to depend upon ourselves for the forward progress we desire to make in this life.

Why is this so? Because apart from Jesus . . . WE CAN DO NOTHING!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, the day which celebrates our Lord Jesus Christ walking out of His grave. It is, quite simply, the most important day in the history of the world.

It was not long after that first Easter Sunday that the disciples and followers of Jesus Christ started to greet one another with a new saying: “CHRIST IS RISEN . . . HE IS RISEN INDEED!” In this one short statement of truth, the entire Gospel message is summed up.

He has risen! He is not here.

(Mark 16:6)

Jesus is the only religious leader in history who made the claim that after He suffered and died, He would rise from the dead three days later. Every other religious leader is still in the grave! Dr. D. James Kennedy captured this idea beautifully in a sermon titled “Message from an Empty Tomb” . . .

You may go to the tomb of Mohammed, and they will tell you, “Here lie the bones of the great prophet.”

You may go the tomb of Napoleon, and they will say, “Here lie the bones of the emperor of France.”

You may go to Moscow and see the tomb of Lenin, and they will say, “Here lie the bones of the great founder of Soviet Communism.”

But you may go to the tomb of Jesus, and they will tell you, and you may walk in and see for yourself, “Here lie the bones of no one. He is not here. He is risen, as he said he would.”

The message from the empty tomb is a message of hope.

Only in Christianity do we find the leader walking out of His grave, just as He said He would do. On that first Easter morning, Jesus Christ became the death of death; because of this truth, death no longer holds any power over those who place their trust in Jesus.

You see, if Jesus did not rise from the dead, Christianity is a dead religion, our faith is futile, and all our sharing of the good news of the Gospel is in vain. But the grave is not the end of the story for Jesus and His followers. It is only the place where we pass from this life to the next. Absence from the body means that we find ourselves present with our Lord, because Jesus is alive and well, sitting at the right hand of God the Father. The world has never heard any greater news!

And sharing that news is what you and I are to be busy doing, just as the angel instructed the women at the empty tomb: “Go and tell . . . !” We are to go and tell the world about the One who rose from the grave. We are to go and tell the world about the One who is coming back to finish what He started. We are to go and tell the world what the Lord has done for us.

Think about it this way: we immediately tell our friends and family about a good movie we went to see or a great meal we ate at a new restaurant. Why would we not tell EVERYONE about a dead man who got up and walked out of His grave, the God-man who is offering eternal life to all who put their trust in Him?

When was the last time you told someone about Jesus Christ? There really is no more important message we could share with anyone, other than this truth:

HE IS RISEN . . . HE IS RISEN INDEED!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Today is Good Friday—Holy Friday—the Friday immediately preceding Easter Sunday, the day we commemorate the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a dark, dreadful day . . . the day that sinful men tortured an innocent man—truly the only innocent Man who ever lived—until He breathed out His last.

And yet . . . it is a glorious, exultant day, as well! The apostle Paul wrote,

God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

(Romans 5:8)

Notice what Paul did not say in this verse. He did not say that Christ died for us when we got everything right. He did not say that Christ died for us when we got cleaned up. Nor did he say that Christ died for us when we were worthy of His sacrifice. He did not say that Christ died for us when we had earned His love. Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, recorded that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.

Have you ever wondered why that terrible day when Jesus was crucified is referred to as “good”? To be sure, there was nothing good in what the religious leaders, the Roman authorities, and the wicked unbelievers did to Jesus. The betrayal of Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane was not good. The false accusations made against our Lord were not good. Peter denying three times that he knew Jesus was not good. The scourging, the crown of thorns, and the nine-inch nails were not good. The Prince of Peace hanging on a cross, shivering in agony, laboring for every breath, was not good. However, the results rooted in all of this “bad” were good—unbelievably good—because what Jesus did throughout this monumental weekend paved the way for our salvation.

Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.

(1 Peter 3:18)

Now, inasmuch as the Bible does not command us to remember the day Jesus was crucified every year, it does command us to remember Christ’s death by participating in the Lord’s Supper. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11, “Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

The question I must ask you now is this: Is today Good Friday for you? Have you placed your trust—by grace through faith— in the atoning sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on your behalf? Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 that all that Jesus did from Good Friday to Easter morning is “of first importance.”

Is this weekend of first importance to you? If not, I echo Paul by imploring you, on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!