Fall 2018, 40 Days of Prayer, Day 6
Psalm 2:10-12
10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
Take warning, O judges of the earth.
11 Worship the Lord with reverence
And rejoice with trembling.
12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
The Gracious Extension of an Olive Branch
God is long suffering in His forbearance - He is not slow as some count slowness, waiting patiently for kings and rulers to discover the error of their ways. He has even offered counsel to the rulers of the earth, those who incite their subjects against God and His Anointed One. God urges discernment on these kings, for man cannot fight God. In His goodness, the Father prefers to show mercy and grace rather than justice and wrath. He graciously calls them and all people to repent of their defiance and instead worship His Son.
We who call Him Lord have the great privilege of worshiping Him. We were created (and recreated) for this. We personally know the God of Creation. He is a friend of sinners like us. He sticks closer than a brother and will never leave us nor forsake us. We hold these promises dear. We who are truly called by His name are a tiny minority. We have escaped His wrath but the multitudes who surround us are still objects of that wrath. What will happen to them on the great and terrible day of the Lord? His anger will be upon them and they will perish.
Out of pity for the objects of His wrath, He told us to go and make disciples of all nations. All who accept the Gospel will be able to avoid the judgment that is coming. The Gospel is God’s offer of mercy for all who will embrace it. To do homage to the Son means to give Him fealty – which in turn means to pledge to be faithful to Him and to be obedient. So how are we doing, personally, in the task He left us to? Are we discipling anyone? Am I sharing the Gospel with someone who may not want to hear about Christ but desperately needs to hear of God’s grace?
When we gather on Sunday, are we eager and prepared to worship? Do we worship Him with reverence? Do we worship at all? Do we rejoice with trembling? Do we rejoice at all? Oh come, let us adore Him and set Him upon the throne of our hearts. He is our Lord and Master and we must long for His appearing. Church, worship your King.
Prayer Focus
Father, You are good and kind. Your patience and longsuffering leave us humbled and grateful. Holy Spirit, we thank You for living in us, for guiding us, for reminding us, for teaching us. Jesus, we worship and adore you. Thank You for reconciling us to the Father. Triune God, we praise You, holy, exalted, sovereign, and beautiful. We love You Lord.
From Sermon on Justification by Faith by John Wesley
"To him that does not work, but believes on him that justified the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness." Romans 4:5.
For as, "by one man's disobedience," all "were made sinners;" so, by that offence of one, "judgment came upon all men to condemnation." (Romans v. 12) 7. We were in this state of condemnation, even all of humanity, when "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end we might not perish, but have everlasting life." In the fullness of time he was made Man, another common Head of mankind, a second general Parent and Representative of the whole human race. And as such it was that "he bore our griefs," "the Lord laying upon him the iniquities of us all." Then was he "wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities." "He made his soul an offering for sin:" He poured out his blood for the transgressors: He "bare our sins in his own body on the tree," that by his stripes we might be healed: And by that one oblation of himself, once offered, he hath redeemed me and all mankind; having thereby "made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." 8. In consideration of this, that the Son of God has "tasted death for every man," God has now "reconciled the world to himself, not imputing to them their" former "trespasses." And thus, "as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification." So that, for the sake of his well-beloved Son, of what he has done and suffered for us, God now grants, on one only condition, (which himself also enables us to perform,) both to remit the punishment due to our sins, to reinstate us in his favor, and to restore our dead souls to spiritual life, as the earnest of life eternal. 9. This, therefore, is the general ground of the whole doctrine of justification. By the sin of the first Adam, who was not only the father, but likewise the representative, of us all, we all fell short of the favor of God; we all became children of wrath; or, as the Apostle expresses it, "judgment came upon all men to condemnation." Even so, by the sacrifice for sin made by the Second Adam, as the Representative of us all, God is so far reconciled to all the world, that he hath given them a new covenant; the plain condition whereof being once fulfilled, "there is no more condemnation" for us, but "we are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ."