September 09, 2024

“I lift up my eyes to the hills.From where does my help come?My help comes from the LORD,who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1–2

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Copyright © 2024 , Truth For Life. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The ESV® Bible
(The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing
ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 Certain questions are crucial to the Christian faith: How does someone become a Christian? What do Christians believe? How should Christians behave? The Bible provides clear answers to each. But there’s another question, often overlooked, that’s equally crucial and to which the Bible gives sure guidance. It’s this: Where does a Christian belong? The question raises the issue of church membership.

It seems like only yesterday that we were enjoying Memorial Day parades and looking forward to summer. Now here we are: the school runs have returned, and already Labor Day is in the rearview mirror. Furthermore, the general election is fast approaching, and the tension in the country is building.

September 02, 2024

“Make Christ the source, the center, and the circumference of your soul’s whole range of delight.” —C.H. Spurgeon

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Copyright © 2024 , Truth For Life. All rights reserved.

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If you’ve been waiting for Alistair to write a children’s book, we have great news: he’s just released C Is for Christian: An A to Z Treasury of Who We Are in Christ! This colorfully illustrated book leads children ages five and older through the wonderful benefits and joys of being a Christian.

In His High Priestly Prayer, recorded in John 17, Jesus prayed for Himself and all His followers—including believers today. In the sermon “Before the World Existed,” Alistair Begg examines the eternal nature of Jesus’ request for glory and the victorious report He shared as He prayed to the Father. Because of His immense love for sinners, God the Father planned the work of salvation, God the Son accomplished it on the cross, and God the Spirit applies the reality of redemption to all who believe and trust in Christ. In the following excerpt, Alistair reminds us that these realities are folly until our eyes have been opened to behold God’s glory.
The Bible’s explanation of our world, which starts with God and goes from there through our rebellion and so on—you may not like it, but it certainly coheres. Jesus is, in that context, asking his Father, “I want you, Father, to glorify me again in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed”—the glory of the coequal, undivided Godhead, the Trinity, enjoying one another. God created the world, but he didn’t have to create it. God did not create the world because he needed a world. God created the world out of the depth of his own being. In the reality of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live within the mutuality of perfect love. Everything else is an extrapolation from that.
And in the incarnation, it involved in some measure Jesus laying aside that shared glory of eternity. When we sing about it in—I think we sang the hymn last week—Wesley’s hymn, “Emptied himself of all but love,”  it’s a very difficult line there, and I sympathize with Wesley, because he wasn’t sure just how to say that, because he wanted to say more than that. Because Jesus, in taking to himself humanity, emptied something of himself. And so Jesus now says, “Father, I’m looking forward to the glory. I’m looking forward to being back with you.”
If Jesus were a mere man, this is ludicrous. Have you considered that? I mean, if Jesus is a Galilean carpenter—somehow or another, the world has hung on to his recollection, and some crazy people throughout the world still revere his memory, and so on—if that is all we’re dealing with, it is actually a measure of the incapacity of our minds to worship, to follow, and to obey him.
And that is why, you see, when we talk with our friends and neighbors, if a person is going to come to know God—to know God—they’re not going to know God as a result of rationalism, nor are they going to come to know God as a result of a kind of irrational mysticism—so, “Ohm” down in the park with your yoga mat or whatever else it is, feeling very much and understanding what people are saying: “I’m intuitively engaged in this kind of thing.” Fine. That’s okay. But what we’re discovering here in the Bible is something very, very different.
It is as we consider the words and the works of the one who is here praying to his Father that we then are made to understand that God has made himself known finally, unmistakably, savingly in a real, historical man—not in a mantra, not in a philosophy, not in a scheme, but in a man. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,”  tired, hungry, sad, joyful, whatever. “And we,” say his friends, “we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, … full of grace and truth.” 
Only those who have faith see the glory of God in his Word and in his works. If you do not see something of the glory of God, if you do not marvel at the wonder of all that he has given you, if you do not give thanks for your food from a genuine sense of the awareness of his provision, if you do not see God’s glory, the chances are it is because you are unconverted—interested, engaged, from time to time emotionally stirred, but unconverted.

“Come unto Me, ye weary, And I will give you rest.” O blessed voice of Jesus, Which comes to hearts oppressed! It tells of benediction, Of pardon, grace, and peace, Of joy that hath no ending, Of love which cannot cease.

In the church’s mission to further the Gospel, Christians’ behavior plays an important role. Knowing this, Paul coached Titus to stress the ways his congregation should be ready to do good. Only the grace of a saving God changes immoral people into those who uphold the rule of the law, love peace, and consider others’ needs.In his sermon titled “Living in Society,” Alistair Begg teaches that our cultural influence comes through neither political insurrection nor religious haughtiness but our Spirit-enabled goodness. The following is an excerpt from a message that was originally preached on May 3, 1992:
Not only does the Gospel have an impact within the home and within the marketplace, but it also has an impact within the broader question of the Christian’s relationship to the state, or to the judicial authorities—to the government of the land. And it is to this issue that Paul now turns in the first two verses of Titus 3: What is the public duty of the Christian to be?
It is very clear from the opening verses of chapter 3 that Christian behavior in contemporary society was of utmost importance for the furtherance of the Gospel. The way the Christians were seen to behave in the community of their days was vitally linked to the impact of the Gospel. And what was true then is true tonight: the behavior of Christians on the television screens of our land and in the headlines of our newspapers is directly related, either for good or for ill, to the impact of the Gospel. And therefore, it is a matter of great import that Christians would come to a sane understanding of what it means to have Christian citizenship.
The believers for whom Titus was responsible were not in need of new information, but they were in need of a reminder. And it is a reminder to us as well tonight that the responsibility of one who teaches the Scriptures is not so much the responsibility of innovation, but it is that of reminder. Titus is to “stress these things,” as verse 8 says, to which we’ll come in a later study. He is to “stress these things.” What things? Well, all the things that he has been saying, not least of all the information that is here provided in chapter 3.
It is very clear from the opening verses of chapter 3 that Christian behavior in contemporary society was of utmost importance for the furtherance of the Gospel.
The stress, I think you would agree, is that “those who have trusted in God” will “devote themselves to doing … good.” This is the overriding emphasis of much of these three brief chapters.
For example, in verse 5, he is concerned “that no one will malign the word of God.” That is in 2:5. Or as J. B. Phillips paraphrases it, Paul says to Titus, Make sure that you stress these things so that those under your care will be “a good advertisement for the Christian faith.”
…
What is a Christian citizen to look like? Let me tell you very briefly.
Number one—and you search the text to see if this bears justification with what you have before you—the Christian in society should be clearly seen to uphold the rule of law by being obviously subject to the authorities and internally marked by a heart obedience to the things that have been established as the parameters for society. The Christian should, of all people, recognize the chaos that ensues when law is disregarded.
Now, someone wants immediately to say—and I know this: a bell is already ringing in some of your minds, so let’s allow the bell to ring and be done with it. The bell is already ringing for you, and it’s ringing Acts 5:29: “What about when Peter and John said, ‘We must obey God rather than [obey] men’?” Well, what about it? That was perfectly right, and that is perfectly true. The instruction that was given to Peter and John was “You must no longer teach the truth of Jesus Christ.” When the state says that, we must obey God rather than men. That is the exception. But, loved ones, in the history of the church, there is a proclivity to call down the exception clause to allow us to do all manner of things that we feel we ought to do while missing the fact that the call of Scripture is to live exceptional lives. The Christian is to uphold the rule of law.
Secondly, the Christian in society should be marked by an eagerness to render whatever good service they can. Okay? “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient.” That’s point one. “To be ready to do whatever is good.” That’s point two. And it is out of an awareness of this truth that some of the greatest social and educational advances have come in the history of the Western world. It was because believers understood the implications of what it means to be eager to do good that, in doing good within their culture, they brought about situations that were beneficial to humanity. And as much as it is trendy in this nation to knock the welfare state, may I remind you that the welfare state in Britain was established as a result of dreadful need and was established by Christian people endeavoring to be eager to do what is good and recognizing that government has a place in caring for those from whom it draws taxes. And tonight, as God looks upon our culture, he expects, as salt and light in our society, that Christians of all people magnify an eagerness to do what is good.
Thirdly, the Christian in society should be clearly distanced from insulting and abusive language as it relates to his fellow man. We are not to slander anyone. Slander is a sin whereby we seek to exalt ourselves by defaming others, and in doing so, we destroy relationships.
Fourthly, the Christian in society is not to be a fighter. The word here that is translated in your NIV “to be peaceable” is the Greek word amachos, which means “absence of fighting” or “without fighting.” The Christian is to resist the temptation to take the law into his own hands and mete out punishment. If we had time to take this as a seminar, there is much that we could speak about this past week as it relates to these principles right now. The Christian is to resist the temptation to take the law into his own hands and to mete out punishment.
Fifthly, the Christian in society must display consideration. Notice the little word there, and consider it: “slander[ing] no one” and amachos, without fighting, and displaying consideration—that is, that we are to be filled with a spirit of sweet reasonableness towards the fallen. We should be prepared to yield personal advantage in order to express help and consideration for others.
The Christian is to resist the temptation to take the law into his own hands and mete out punishment.
And sixthly, the Christian in society is to display a humility which is marked by meekness. The word here, as I studied it, is the word praotēs, which means patient trust in the midst of difficult circumstances. Therefore, the Christian is one who is to be prepared to patiently bear the wrong done to him while acting quickly to alleviate the wrong done to others. That’s what this word means. It means someone who is not immediately in defense of themselves and arguing for their rights but somebody who has such a humble heart that when they see the rights of others being abused, they are quick to their defense and to their aid. It is the spirit of humility which produces that in a person.

August 26, 2024

“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?’ … For from him and through him and to him are all things.” Romans 11:34, 36

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Copyright © 2024 , Truth For Life. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The ESV® Bible
(The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing
ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 When the hour had come for the fulfillment of Jesus’ earthly ministry, He turned to God the Father in prayer. Alistair explores this pivotal historical moment by taking a closer look at what Jesus asked, the work He was assigned to do, and the way He assured believers of the nature of eternal life. While the world may view the cross of Christ as an emblem of defeat, Scripture reveals how it’s at Calvary that God’s ultimate power, love, mercy—and glory—were displayed. In this brief excerpt from “The Hour Has Come,” Alistair reminds us that genuine belief is an essential element of salvation.