Grace for the Race

I will betroth you to me forever . . .  (Hosea 2:19)

When was the last time you considered the promise in today’s passage? Make no mistake, it will prove to be a source of both unimaginable comfort and uncommon challenge when it is rightly received and understood.

God in Christ has promised to maintain your marriage relationship with Him forever. Notice that Hosea does not say that your betrothal is based on anything you do in your relationship with God. He does not offer His marriage pledge because of anything you have done to earn it. God does not extend His promise so long as you remain faithful and obedient to Him. Your betrothal is a result of His eternal affection and love for you that will never diminish, no matter what you do. You need not fear that your bridegroom will ever file for divorce, for His pledge to you was written in His precious blood. We are betrothed to Christ forever—not because of our faithfulness to Him, but rather, because of His faithfulness to us.

Since we did nothing to earn our way into this relationship with Jesus, we can do nothing to work our way out of it. It is all of grace, from beginning to end, which means we are eternally secure in our relationship with our Savior. Is there any greater comfort for us in this world?

But along with this comfort, we must see the challenge that comes with it. When we understand the power of this promise, we should desire nothing less than to live a life of total obedience and surrender to the will of our Bridegroom. Because God so loved us, should we not be doing everything in our power to so love Him back? The believer’s betrothal should challenge us to live a life that is pleasing and acceptable to our Bridegroom, not because of anything we hope to get, but rather, because of everything we have already been given. We have been completely forgiven. We have been adopted into His family of faith. We have been promised an inheritance. These truths should challenge us to live for nothing smaller than Jesus, regardless of the cost or circumstance. And when we do, we will experience the true purpose of our existence—living as the bride of the Bridegroom, eternally betrothed—and what God has brought together in holy union, nothing in the universe can ever separate.

Let this cosmic comfort challenge you today to renew your vows to your Bridegroom, with the confident assurance that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion—not because of your undying faithfulness to Him, but because He died out of His love and faithfulness to you.

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

The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground . . . (Genesis 2:7)

The Genesis creation account tells us that God saw all that He had made, and it was “very good” . . . and that included mankind. To be sure, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, the world and everything in it was broken under the weight of their sin. Yet mankind, though marred and stained by sin, still bears the image of the God who created them, which means that every person has dignity, value, and worth. So, as it has been wisely observed, “That God created us from dust is no reason to treat another person like dirt.”

Have you been treated like dirt lately? Or perhaps you treated someone else like dirt?

As image-bearers of the Most-High God, we are all equal in the sight of God. We are equal in our dignity in creation, as well as in our depravity after the fall. Yet even in our sin-stained, fallen condition, we must remember that we are the only creatures in all creation who bear the image of the Creator.

The implications of this truth when it comes to living out the Gospel are profound. Every person you meet, every person you see, every person ever created is an image-bearer of God, designed to live a life that brings honor and glory to the Creator. And yet we know that only those who have been born again by the Spirit of God can live such a life, which means that it is our duty and privilege to bring the Gospel to bear on every aspect of our lives. We are to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with all those with whom we come in contact.

Seeing others—all others—as image-bearers of God should impact everything about our human relationships with everyone we meet. Whenever we look at someone, we must see him or her as God sees that person: made in His image and for His glory.

In The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis rightly observed —

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

To sum up Lewis’s observation, when we encounter any person, we must see that person as created in the image of God and treat them accordingly. Every person matters to God, which means every person must matter to us. We must go out of our way to point them toward the stairway to heaven, which is Jesus Christ. Never do we bring more glory to God—and that is what we were created for—then when we share the good news of the Gospel. The extent that your life is marked by sharing the truth of Jesus Christ will make it abundantly clear whether you treasure others as divine dust . . . or despise them as nothing more than dirt.

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

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)

During His wilderness experience, Jesus was tempted by the devil three times, and on each occasion Jesus rebuffed Satan by quoting the Scripture. To be sure, there is immense power in the Word of God, for it is the food of the faithful!

Here is something striking to note about today’s verse: Jesus had gone forty days and forty nights without eating any food. Many people throughout the ages have fasted for weeks, but here we see that inasmuch as we can survive without physical sustenance for a time, we simply cannot go without the spiritual sustenance that comes from the mouth of God.

By the Word of the Lord all things were created; God spoke, and the world came into existence. But God’s Word not only created; it continues to keep all things alive. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3). Our bodies, if deprived of food for too long, will eventually die. But our soul, if deprived of the Word of God, begins to die very quickly. I once heard a man say, “If I go a day without reading the Bible, I know it; if I go a couple of days without reading the Word, my wife will know it; if I go several days without the Word of God, everyone around me will know it.”

As one who has trained athletes for decades, I have always stressed that the importance of sound nutrition cannot be overstated if peak performance is to be achieved. The same is true for the child of God. If we are to be live at the peak of our God-given abilities, we must make a steady diet of the Word of God. Our heart’s cry should echo Peter, who said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

The opening verses of John’s gospel tell us that Jesus is the Word of God and that His Word is the eternal life that is promised to us when we cross the Jordan. But we must never forget that Scripture also gives us life in the here and now. God’s Word gives us all we need to be all that God is calling us to be. It is the Word of God that teaches us and trains us to walk in the light, as He is in the Light, and it is the Word of God that rebukes us and corrects us when we stray from God’s path.

How is it with you? Have you been feasting on the food of the faithful? Has the Bible become the light for your everyday walk? All the books in the entire world cannot give you what God’s Book provides. Every book on every shelf in every library is dead. Only the Word of God is living and active and able to do for you what no other written document in the world can do: teach you to walk in the way that God desires for you and make you more like Jesus. So let us prize every word that comes from the mouth of God above all the delicacies the world offers.

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

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. (Genesis 6:9)

When we think about Noah and his century-long ark-building project, we see him exactly as he is portrayed in our Scripture today: walking faithfully with God. But we all must remember that, just like a baby in the natural world who is learning to walk and taking his first steps, Noah had to learn how to walk in the spiritual world with his God. And what was true for Noah is true for you and me and all who have received the free gift of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Learning to walk by faith is not something that happens in a day . . . or even in a year or two! No, learning to walk by faith happens daily.

Each day we walk with God is but another step of faith; along the way, we are confronted with the same sort of challenges that the baby faces. At the beginning of our spiritual walk, we find that our spiritual legs are as weak and wobbly as our physical legs were when we took our first steps. After the baby begins to walk, the next challenge he faces is obstacles in the way that cause him to stumble. So too with our walk of faith; every day we walk with God we face challenges and obstacles that impede our forward progress. Yet we must prayerfully keep going, and God will ultimately lead us past everything that stands in our way.

The life of the believer is a life of learning how to walk with our God. Sometimes we walk well and rapidly advance down the path of life, but at other times we stumble and slowly slog our way along the avenue of adversity. This was true for every hero of the faith we read about in the Bible. Whether you are reading the Old Testament or the New, you see people like Noah, Sarah, Moses, Joshua, and David, Mary, Peter, James, and John, all who needed to learn how to walk by faith with God. And so must we all.

How has it been with you lately? Is your walk weak and wobbly, like the baby? Or strong and sturdy, like the athlete? Have you fallen and feel like you can’t get up? Remember, Christian, learning to walk by faith takes a lifetime. Along the way you will have times of joyful forward progress . . . and times of dismal failure. Never forget that God is walking with you, He who promised never to leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). In those weak and wobbly moments when you fall, just as Peter went from walking on water to slipping beneath the sea, God is faithful to reach out and take you by the hand to make sure you fall forward toward your glorious eternal destiny.

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

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139:14)

Even a cursory glance through sacred Scripture provides some sad examples of those who resented the relationship that others had with God. Cain resented his brother Able’s relationship with God, and it ended in murder. Jacob resented the relationship his brother Esau had with his father as firstborn, and so Jacob deceived Esau to obtain his father’s blessing. We even see the disciples of Christ arguing over which of them would be greatest in the kingdom of heaven . . . at the very time when Jesus was on His way to the cross to die for their sins!

Because we are uniquely made by God, we all experience our relationship with Him in unique ways. To resent the relationship that someone else has with God is an offense to the One who created us. We’ll frequently hear people say, “I wish I had his gift of singing” or “If only I had the gift of administration/hospitality/teaching that so-and-so has.” One of the most common laments I hear is, “I just can’t pray in public like she can.” All these statements are evidence of relationship resentment that is simmering because of the differences we see in others.

But this is not for you! Psalm 139 tells us to praise God because we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We did not come rolling off some automated Almighty assembly line exactly like those before us and after us. We are purposefully made by God and wired to witness for Him in a way like no one else. There is only one YOU in the entire world, and your relationship with Him will be completely different than anyone else’s. God’s plan for your life is YOUR plan. He designed it specifically for you to walk in and witness for Him. Remember, “God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be” (1 Corinthians 12:18). There are no “accidents” in God’s plan; He made you just as He wants you to be.

Have you been dealing with any relationship resentment lately? If you have, know that this is nothing more than Satan working to take your eyes off of Jesus and put them on yourself. There are plenty of others who have done that! James and John had walked and talked intimately with Jesus for more than three years, yet they sent their mother to ask Jesus to give them the chief seats in the kingdom of God (Matthew 20:20). The key to avoiding this scheme of the adversary is to keep your eyes on Jesus, knowing that He is working both in you and through you to bring glory to God and good to all others.

Peter is a rich source of sermon illustrations; his heart was filled with love for Jesus, yet often he would veer off the spiritual path and tumble into a ditch . . . much like you and me! One minute Peter would be walking on water, looking straight into the eyes of Jesus, and the next he would glance fearfully at his circumstances and start to sink.

I often preach on Jesus’ sweet restoration of Peter to fellowship with Him after Peter had denied the Lord on the night of His arrest. How Peter’s heart must have raced with love at the grace of our God! And yet, while Scripture doesn’t come right out and say so, it seems that Peter turned right around and lapsed into relationship resentment. Peter had told Jesus three times, “I love you” (thus wiping away his three denials of the Lord), and Jesus told Peter how his death would glorify God. Then Jesus commanded, “Follow me!” At that point –

Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. . . . When Peter saw [John], he asked, “Lord, what about him?”

Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” (John 21:20-22)

Jesus had different relationships with Peter and John and different plans for each of them, but that didn’t mean that Peter’s path was any less valued by God. Be encouraged by the relationship you have with your Redeemer, no matter how different it may be from His relationship with others. He died on a cross to make it possible! Surely that should be reason to rejoice in your relationship with Him . . . and feel no resentment.

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

The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him. (Proverbs 15:8)

If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, I’m sure you’d utter a heartfelt “Amen” whenever I speak of the importance of prayer in our lives. Today’s verse describes the prayer that pleases God.

Before we take a look at that, however, let us consider that today’s verse also indicates that there is prayer that does not please God, and that is prayer that is not according to the will of God. It is prayer that is not rooted in glorifying God. Prayer that does not please God is uttered by a person who is seeking to expand the cause of his own kingdom rather than the kingdom of God. It is prayer that is man-centered rather than God-centered.

The prayer of the upright, on the other hand, is pleasing to God. In his devotional, Faith’s Checkbook, Charles Spurgeon explained it this way:

Our first concern is to be “upright.” Neither bending this way nor that, continue upright: not crooked with policy, nor prostrate by yielding to evil, be upright in strict integrity and straightforwardness. If we begin to shuffle and shift, we will be left to shift for ourselves. If we try crooked ways, we will find that we cannot pray; and if we pretend to do so, we will find our prayers shut out of heaven. Are we acting in a straight line and thus following out the Lord’s revealed will? Then let us pray much and pray in faith. If our prayer is God’s delight, let us not stint Him in that which gives Him pleasure.

To be “upright” is to be right up close and personal with our Lord Jesus Christ, living according to His will in our lives. An upright life is marked by obedience (as imperfect as our obedience will always be) seeking to accomplish God’s plan and purpose for our lives. God has no interest in our sacrifices of time, talent, or treasure, no matter how great, if we are not walking upright in the truth of His Word. Our God is pleased to hear from those who find their pleasure in Him.

What has your heart been beating for lately? Has it been beating for yourself . . . or for your Savior?

Remember, we are not only given the privilege to come boldly before the throne of grace, we are commanded to do so. Our lives should be marked by prayers that flow from a heart that is beating for nothing smaller than Jesus. Remember that James assured us that . . .

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

The prayer of the upright is powerful, effective, and pleasing to God. May this be the confession of our lives!

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

Who do you belong to? (1 Samuel 30:13)

There is no neutral ground when it comes to spiritual matters: either we belong to the prince of this world or to the Prince of Peace. Either we live and serve under the banner of the Savior or in the clutches of Satan. The question before us today is one of monumental significance, and it must be answered by each one of us: Who do you belong to?

To come up with the answer, all we need to do is check our hearts as it relates to two “T’s” . . . Trust and Treasure.

TRUST –

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

(Proverbs 3:5)

In what are you trusting for the forgiveness of your sins and for life eternal? You can either trust in yourself—your good works, your integrity, your merit before God—or you can place your trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone.

This choice is brought forth in stark contrast by Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14). The Pharisee was confident in his own righteousness, but the tax collector was confident in God alone. And our Lord made it clear that the tax collector, not the Pharisee, was justified and in a right, saving relationship with God.

TREASURE –

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

(Matthew 6:21)

First, notice this truth: Jesus makes it crystal clear that we are all “treasure hunters”—we are all seeking some kind of treasure—and where we find our treasure, that is where our hearts will ultimately long to be.

Where is your treasure located? Do you seek the things of this world that rust and decay and that you will one day leave behind? Or does your heart beat for things of the next world that God in Christ is preparing for you to enjoy for eternity? Remember, Jesus is the treasure of all treasures, and you can enjoy Him on both sides of the grave—imperfectly now, but perfectly for eternity.

So I ask you again: Who do you belong to? Who or what has control of your heart? What company do you keep? Whose work are you doing? Does your heart beat for Jesus? Or for something else?

One final question: How would those closest to you answer these questions for you? The elders and the teachers of the law watched the behavior of Peter and John; we read in Acts 4:13 that “Whey they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

Can the same be said of you and me? Who we belong to will be evident to all those who are watching.

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

He led them by a straight way. (Psalm 107:7)

The promise we have before us today should be a source of tremendous encouragement. Our Lord leads us by a straight way that is designed for our good and His glory. The straight way is the way of security . . . the way of sanctification . . . and the way of supernatural strength. But we must remember this truth: The straight way is not a soft way that leads us into a life of ease and comfort.

Our Lord Jesus knew nothing of the soft way of life. The straight way for Jesus was a way of difficulty and distress . . . sorrow and suffering . . . pain and persecution . . . affliction and abandonment . . . and ultimately death on a cruel Roman cross. The straight way promises to be a hard way for every disciple of Christ. As it was for the Master, so it will be for His followers.

“Remember the words I spoke to you,” Jesus said: “‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:20).They gave our Lord a crown of thorns. Should we expect a crown of glory? May God forbid it!

Our God is loving and good, and He has promised that all things will ultimately work together for our good, so we can trust Him even when we cannot trace Him. Job could not trace the Lord in his life when he lost his health, his wealth, and all ten of his children, but he trusted God in spite of his unexplained and unimaginable circumstances. “Though He slay me,” Job said, “I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15).

God has assured us that every experience He takes us through is designed to conform us into the likeness of His beloved Son. He has not promised, however, that every experience will be pleasant or that it will be explained. We must remember that God’s ways are not our ways and that God has promised to complete the work He has begun in us. If we could only see what God sees in us today, we would receive every experience with great joy and thanksgiving.

How has the Lord been leading you lately? Remember, the straight way is designed to bring us to the end of ourselves. As John the Baptist said, we must decrease and He must increase. This does not happen when we are living a life of ease and comfort, traveling the soft, sunny path toward the Celestial City. It happens as God fashions us in the furnace of affliction and as we are hammered on the anvil of the Almighty, one strike at a time, as He shapes and conforms us into the perfect resemblance of Jesus.

Let us praise our God this day and every day that He leads us by a straight way, the way that makes us most like our Savior! In truth, we would never choose this way for ourselves.

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

One of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1)

We live in a “plugged-in” generation. We are constantly plugged in to our computers, phones, and tablets, whether we are in our cars, at the dinner table, or exercising. We stay plugged in at the movies, at sporting events, on vacation . . . and even when we are in our quiet time of Scripture reading and prayer with our Lord. It seems as if we cannot exist apart from the ever-expanding world of technology that is available to us today. It’s common for people to approach me after a church service and assure me that when they are looking at their phones during the sermon, they are following the Scripture readings on their Bible “app,” not checking their email.

Unfortunately, as plugged in as we are with all of our technology resources, we are often disconnected from the relationships that matter most at the deepest level of the heart. If we would take our eyes off the screen for a moment and look around us, we might see someone who desperately needs our attention. Perhaps we should all conduct a “technology fast” from time to time and reconnect with those vitally important relationships.

I have learned from personal experience that when I am unplugged, I am uplifted. Jesus did not carry a smartphone with Him when walking the streets of Palestine, but He was totally plugged into the world around Him. From giving sight to the blind to making the lame walk to cleansing lepers to bringing the dead back to life to teaching the truth of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, Jesus met the needs of the thousands of people who pushed in around Him. And yet we read that He frequently took time to “unplug” and be uplifted by His Father in heaven.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. (Mark 1:35)

Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. (Luke 4:16)

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. (Luke 6:12)

From personal prayer to public worship, Jesus knew the importance of unplugging in order to be uplifted. The question is, Do we? It really is an easy question to answer; simply look at the time you are spending focused on your relationship with the Lord. How consistent is your prayer life? Is corporate worship your weekly habit? Remember this: Not only do the people who matter most to us deserve a little more of our attention . . . so does our Lord!

The more we unplug from the world and plug into the Word, the more uplifted we will be.

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

They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. (Isaiah 40:31)

I’m sure you’re familiar with the phrase “Hitting the wall.” Loosely defined, it means reaching a mental block that yammers at you that you cannot go on. Marathon runners say it happens at about the 20-mile mark. In my experience as an athlete, coach, and trainer, I have found that most competitive athletes in all different arenas know the experience of hitting the wall. They say that the pain and fatigue become so great that they feel like they really have run headfirst into a brick wall. Focus is lost and the desire to press on disappears.

As a pastor, I have found that we all hit the wall from time to time in a variety of ways.

• In our careers
• In our marriages
• In our finances
• In our health
• In our service to God

Moses hit the wall after the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush, calling him to lead the children of Israel out of their bondage; Moses tried every excuse in the book to keep from going back to Egypt. Elijah hit the wall after his great victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel; he asked God to take his life because Jezebel had sworn vengeance. Peter hit the wall when he was accused by a servant girl in the courtyard on the night Jesus was betrayed; he denied knowing Jesus three times. Yet, in their “wall-hitting experiences,” each of these heroes of the faith found the Lord to be faithful to renew their strength to keep going.

Regardless of where this message finds you today, keep the promise of today’s verse before you. Whatever “wall” you may be facing, the Lord will renew your strength if you will trust in Him and wait on Him. It really is an issue of trust. If we are trusting in ourselves when we hit the wall, we will ultimately collapse. But if we are trusting in our Savior when we hit the wall, we will be renewed and restored . . . edified and encouraged . . . strengthened and sustained.

Do you remember that Jesus Himself hit the wall in the Garden of Gethsemane? In His darkest hour He cried out to His Father in heaven, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Jesus prayed and waited on His Father in heaven, and He was strengthened to take our nails, our crown of thorns, our cross, and our death. And on that glorious third day, the ground began to shake and the stone was rolled away, and Jesus walked out of the grave and into our hearts.

The witness of the wall is that God is faithful. He has promised never to leave us or forsake us, and He assures us He will meet us at our every point of need.

Have you reached the point where you believe you can’t go on? Remember the witness of the wall, and you can be sure that you will be renewed. Trust in His promise!

God is not a man, that he should lie,

nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Does he speak and then not act?

Does he promise and not fulfill? (Numbers 23:19)

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