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Fall 2018, 40 Days of Prayer, Day 4

Psalm 2:4-6

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The Lord scoffs at them.
5 Then He will speak to them in His anger
And terrify them in His fury, saying,
6 “But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”

The Lord Scoffs at Rebellious Mankind

Roman emperor Diocletian hated Christians and the Christ they worshiped. He made it his goal to expunge worship of the one true God from the earth around the year 300AD. He even built a monument to himself stating that he had “extinguished the name of Christians” within his territories. The God of Creation takes notice of such rebellion. And though all of humanity is united in opposition to His authority, He laughs. He is not at all concerned by our combined military might nor our fierce resolve to remain defiant. He is enthroned in heaven, far beyond our puny reach.

If we think about it, mankind's effort to break His hold is laughable. We are completely dependent on Him. He created us and the planet we live on. If He removed His sustaining hand, we would all vanish as if we'd never existed. In Exodus 19 and 20 God spoke the 10 Commandments at Mount Sinai and the whole Hebrew nation heard His voice. God gave the Law to Israel so they would know what He required of them. He provided the Law so that would know how to garner His blessing and avoid His wrath. This was an act of mercy on God’s part yet the people were terrified. The sound of His voice scared them so badly they said to Moses “let not God speak to us, or we will die”.

God spoke directly to mankind again around 1300 years later when He sent another King to rule over all the earth subordinating all people, from the mightiest emperor to the lowliest slave. When God sent this King of kings to Jerusalem, Zion, His holy mountain, His majesty was veiled and yet He still struck fear into the heart of Herod the Great. Even mighty Rome was confused, not knowing what to do with this King. Yet this time His voice was pitched in human tones that did not cause terror. In fact, even little children were drawn to Jesus. Again God provided humanity with principles that would spare us from His wrath if we would only embrace His beloved Son. God in His mercy, spoke softly to rebellious hearts like yours and mine.

The Son, very God of very God, is the Heir of all creation. He is the sovereign Lord and one day He will return to the earth He created. This time He will not be meek and mild. He will rule and reign with all authority and power. In righteous wrath He will subjugate all who oppose Him.

Prayer Focus

Lord Jesus, we acknowledge You as the rightful king of all creation, regardless of what the world around us says. We welcome You to the throne of our hearts and we proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We long for the day when you return and take your rightful place as King of kings and Lord of lords.

From Charles Wesley’s Sermon, Salvation by Faith, Preached at St. Mary's, Oxford, before the University, on June 18, 1738
And being saved from guilt, we are saved from fear. Not indeed from a fear of offending; but from all fear; from that fear which has torment; from fear of punishment; from fear of the wrath of God, whom they now no longer regard as a severe Master, but as a loving Father. "They have not received again the spirit of bondage, but the Spirit of adoption, where they cry, Abba, Father: the Spirit himself also bearing witness with their spirits, that they are the children of God." They are also saved from the fear. Thus they have "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. They rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts, through the Holy Spirit, which is given to them." And hereby they are persuaded (though perhaps not at all times, nor with the same fullness of persuasion), that "neither death, nor life, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate them from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Fall 2018, 40 Days of Prayer, Day 3

Psalm 2:1-3
1 Why are the nations in an uproar
And the peoples devising a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!”

The Rage of Nations
From the first line, the psalmist (David) sets an antagonistic tone. He tells us that the nations have found a common enemy, one so powerful they have to end their normal aggression against each other to make a united assault against a common foe. He claims sovereignty over all the earth and that galls them fiercely. They cannot and will not live under His oppressive regime. Realizing this, the political leaders have met and the usual equivocations and diplomatic double speak have, for once, been set aside. These national leaders, kings and rulers, have together declared war against God.

And it’s not just the ruling class of the nations that are hostile; the citizens, the common people are also aggressively plotting to carry on the war. One gets the impression that the common folk are committed partisans, willing to fight on their own soil, if necessary, to defy their Creator. All the people of the earth have great antipathy toward the Lord and His Anointed. They hate His authority and they will not bow down to Him. In their disdain, people think that by standing together they can stand against Him.

Long before Jesus was born, the teachers of the Law, the rulers of the Jewish people had identified this psalm as messianic. Yet when they witnessed His miracles and heard His words they rejected the One about whom it was written. You may recall that in Acts 4 Peter quoted this passage in response to his arrest following the healing of the lame beggar at the Gate Beautiful. Peter declared that both the Jews and the Gentiles were against the Lord and His Anointed. And so they were. We know what happened to early followers of Christ. The New Testament and church tradition tell us how they were treated. Today we also live among peoples and nations who hate God and His Son and who will not bow down nor even acknowledge Him. We know this because we see it, and if we think back a little way, we can even remember our own full-throated defiance of God.

Fortunately, today the Father is in the business of extending grace to all who will believe in His Anointed. As those who have received this grace, we have two main jobs. First, we are to worship and obey Him. Unfortunately, we often find ourselves siding with our neighbors and our leaders (both cultural and political), quietly denying His authority over us, applauding the things they applaud. As James 3 tells us, brothers and sisters, this should not be so. In Romans 8 Paul reminds us that we are no longer of the flesh which is at enmity with God. We have the great privilege and the great obligation to set our minds on the things of the Spirit. So our first responsibility is to think and speak and live as one who loves God and lives according to the Spirit. Sometimes that is very hard to do simply because we forget to Whom we belong. May we this day, keep the Author and Perfecter of our faith at the forefront or our minds.

The second responsibility involves the very people who are at war with our Sovereign Lord. He told us in John 20 (and other places) that they would not only hate Him but us as well. But we are not to hate them or go to war against them. Instead we are to share the Good News with them so that they too might be saved. This too is hard. People don’t want to hear about Jesus and truthfully, I’m not that thrilled about telling them. I’ve read a little history. But if I take my first responsibility seriously, I will have to take this one seriously as well.

Prayer Focus
Father, You are good and kind and we love You. Thank You for calling us to be Your children, extending grace while we were busy waging war against You. Please gently teach us to be obedient to You, to love the righteous cords that bind our words and our thoughts and our actions. Accept our flawed worship and work in us to conform us to the image of Your Son. Please give us the opportunity and the desire to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Help us to tell others that they too can have peace with You through Jesus Your Son.

From Charles Wesley’s Sermon, Salvation by Faith, Preached at St. Mary's, Oxford, before the University, on June 18, 1738
II. What is salvation through faith? 1. It is a salvation right now. It is something attainable, yes, actually attained, on earth, by those who are partakers of this faith. For the Apostle said to the believers at Ephesus, and in these words speaks to the believers of all generations, not, “You shall be” (though that is also true), but, "You are saved through faith." 2. You are saved (to comprise all in one word) from sin. This is the salvation which is through faith. This is that great salvation foretold by the angel, before God brought his First-begotten into the world: "You will call his name Jesus; for he will save his people from their sins." And neither here, nor in other parts of holy scripture, is there any limitation or restriction. All his people, or, "all that believe in him," he will save from all their sins; from original and actual, past and present sin, "of the body and of the spirit." Through faith that is in him, they are saved both from the guilt and from the power of it. 3. From the guilt of all past sin: whereas all the world is guilty before God, that if he should "mark what is done that is sin, there is none that could stand;" and "by the law comes" only "the knowledge of sin," but no deliverance from sin, so that, "by" fulfilling "the deeds of the law, no one can be justified in his sight": now, "the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ, is manifested to all that believe." Now, "they are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ." "God has set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of the sins." Now Christ has taken away "the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." He has "blotted out the handwriting that was against us, taking it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." "There is therefore no condemnation now to those who" believe "in Christ Jesus."

Fall 2018, 40 Days of Prayer, Day 2

"How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” Psalm 1

The Benefits of the Blessed Life

When presented with choices in life, we often analyze the options to determine the best course.  When we make decisions based on the immediate pleasures of life, we are at risk of choosing paths that lead to loss and even destruction.  When we make choices to honor God and reject the sinful influences around us, we place ourselves under God’s blessing.  In the midst of our choices, when we deny our short-term pleasures and embrace God’s long-term priorities, there is this constant question: Is a life of submission to the will of God really worth it?  Is it really worth living counter to the culture?  Is it really worth it to deny our natural sin bent and embrace God’s priorities?  The psalmist provides for us a risk/benefit analysis.  Many businesses make decisions following this type of analytical thinking.  What is the benefit to us both now and in the future if we choose a particular path?  According to Psalm 1, the righteous, those who submit to the will of God, the ones that follow His Word, will have a blessing that lasts forever.  Their righteous choices will be forever credited to their account by God. 

How about the life poorly lived?  What happens to the life when lived like the three characters mentioned in verse 1, the wicked, sinners, and scoffers?  We see in the last verse of this psalm, “for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”  All the choices made by those outside God’s righteous standards are lost forever.  The decisions that seemed to be so good, right, important and pleasurable in the moment will perish.  In his commentary on the psalms, Spurgeon wrote about this last verse.  “The righteous carve their name upon the rock, but the wicked write their remembrance in the sand.  The righteous ploughs the earth, and sows a harvest here which shall never by fully reaped until they enter the enjoyments of eternity; but as for the wicked, they plough the sea, and though there may seem to be a shining trail behind his keel, yet the waves shall pass over it, and the place that knew them shall know them no more forever.”  I love the portrait painted by Spurgeon.  It’s not merely the wicked that are lost, but all that they do, the paths they take, the legacy of their lives, all of it will evaporate.  Culturally, the choices made by those walking outside God’s will seem so appealing.  Those who live outside the will of God may feel like they are really living.  This text tells us that the paths of unrighteous living are lost to the sands of time.  But we must constantly consider the promises in this text that the blessings of God on the righteous will last forever. 

Prayer Focus

Lord, please give me wisdom to understand Your will.  Grant me the power to make choices that honor You.  Protect my heart and my mind from the sinful desires in my own life.  Protect my heart and mind from the sinful desires of the culture all around me.  Set my mind on the everlasting blessing promised in these verses.

From Charles Wesley’s Sermon, Salvation by Faith, Preached at St. Mary's, Oxford, before the University, on June 18, 1738

"By grace are you saved through faith." Eph. 2:8.

If then sinful people find favor with God, it is "grace upon grace!" If God bestowed fresh blessings upon us, yes, the greatest of all blessings, salvation; what can we say to these things, but, "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!" Here "God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died" to save us "By grace" then "are you saved through faith." Grace is the source, faith the condition, of salvation. Now, that we do not fall short of the grace of God, it concerns us to carefully inquire, First, what faith is saving faith? Primarily, it is not the faith of the lost. God requires the lost to believe, "that God is; that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him;" and that he is to be sought by glorifying him as God, by giving him thanks for all things, and by a careful practice of moral virtue, of justice, mercy, and truth, toward their fellow creatures. A Greek or Roman, therefore, yes, even a Scythian, was without excuse if he did not believe this much: the being and attributes of God, a future state of reward and punishment, and the obligatory nature of moral virtue. For this is barely the faith of the lost. Secondly, it is not the faith of a devil, though this goes much farther than that of the lost. For the devil believes, not only that there is a wise and powerful God, gracious to reward, and just to punish; but also, that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ, the Savior of the world. So we find him declaring, in express terms, "I know who You are; the Holy One of God" (Luke 4:34). Nor can we doubt that the Devil believed that all those words which came out of the mouth of the Holy One. This much the great enemy of God and humanity believes, and trembles in believing, --that God was made himself known; that he will "tread all enemies under his feet;" and that "all Scripture was given by inspiration of God." This is as far as the faith of a devil goes. 3. Thirdly. the faith through which we are saved, is not barely that which the Apostles themselves had while Christ was upon earth; though they so believed on him as to "leave all and follow him;" although they had then power to work miracles, to "heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease;" yes, they had then "power and authority over all devils;" and, which is beyond all this, were sent by their Master to "preach the kingdom of God." 4. What faith is it then through which we are saved? It may be answered, first, in general, it is a faith in Christ: Christ, and God through Christ, are the proper objects of saving faith. Therefore, it is sufficiently, absolutely distinguished from the faith either of ancient or modern unbelievers and from the faith of a devil: it is not a speculative, rational thing, a cold, lifeless assent, a train of ideas in the head; but a disposition of the heart. For thus says the Scripture, "With the heart people believe unto righteousness;" and, "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." 5. And thus it differs from that faith which the Apostles themselves had while our Lord was on earth, in that it acknowledges what they did not yet know, the necessity and merit of his death, and the power of his resurrection. It acknowledges his death as the only sufficient means of redeeming us from death eternal, and his resurrection as the restoration of us all to life and immortality; inasmuch as he "was delivered for our sins, and rose again for our justification." Christian faith is then, not only an assent of the mind to the whole gospel of Christ, but also a full reliance on the death of Christ; a trust in the merits of his life, death, and resurrection; a trust in him as our atonement and our life, as given for us, and living in us; and, in consequence, a closing with him, and cleaving to him, as our "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," or, in one word, he is our “salvation.”