Month: February 2022

James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given to him.

God promises to give godly wisdom, not worldly wisdom, to those who ask. Just ask. Specifically, He is telling us to pray for wisdom in the matter of ”counting it total joy when we fall into various trials.” We need God’s wisdom to understand that this present trial is working something good in me. With wisdom we can believe that this is good for me, but not necessarily will we understand how God is working it out together for good. It is enough to trust Him to know what He is doing.

Generally, we can apply this promise to any matter about which we do not know what to do or how to think about it. The ”if” condition includes all people: we all lack wisdom. We only deceive ourselves if we think our own human wisdom can find the answer. I must admit, ”I lack wisdom;” therefore, I ask for it. It is a sure word of promise that God will give me the wisdom needed in a given matter. For He is a generous giver, and He will not scold us for asking. So use this promise: ask for wisdom; God has the solution, and He will give it to you.

James 1:3-4 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.

This is a promise of sanctification: the process that the Spirit gradually works in us to bring us closer to the holiness and perfection that God has already declared us to be because of the work of Christ. ”Become what you are!”

Sanctify means ”make holy.” Or, as James says, we will be ”perfect and entire, lacking nothing.” Of course, we will never reach holiness and perfection in this life, but we will be perfect and entire after we are transformed through physical death. However, the promise is that we will grow closer to that perfection as we grow in the faith.

Specifically, one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is promised in this verse, and that is patience. Patience works perfection. The Spirit uses the Word and the ”school of experience” to work patience. We can’t learn patience unless we have something to be patient about. Therefore, in verse 2 He says, ”Count it all joy” when you fall into various trials, testings, and temptations, because the trial is producing patience in your character. Romans 5:3: ”We rejoice in our sufferings.” for sufferings produce endurance, character, and hope, for ”God’s love has been poured into our hearts.” And we can all use more of that. Therefore, rejoice!

So trust the promise when you are going through a difficult time, because the Lord will use that short time to work in you something permanent that will be a part of your character forever. Like patience. We don’t have to ask for patience, since God will give us enough opportunities to learn it. So in a trial, we don’t complain; instead we pray and rejoice.

Acts 26:23 That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.

Paul makes his defense before Agrippa in Caesarea before being sent to Rome. He says that he is witnessing to all saying only what Moses and the prophets say. This Word says that the Christ will suffer and be the first to rise from the dead, with this promise, that He will show light to all people, Gentiles included.

The OT prophesies the suffering and resurrection of Christ, and that He shall become a light to the Gentiles, meaning all people; not one person in all the earth shall be excluded from the Light and the Life. The promise is for you and me. This Gospel Word has shown light to all of us; it is for us. The Light will shine into the darkness of our souls every day. The Holy Spirit will enlighten us with His gifts of life and salvation. He shines the light so that we may perceive the truth of the love of God.

Jesus is the first to rise from the dead. We who believe in Him will be the second. Believers have a part of the first resurrection by faith, and so we are assured we shall be part of the Final Resurrection. Revelation 20:6: ”Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection (Jesus’).” The light of the gospel reveals this hope and promise to us: we will rise again!

Acts 20:32 [I commend you to the word of grace…] to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

The second promise that comes to us from the word of grace is this: the Gospel gives you an inheritance among the saints. Among the many spiritual blessings we receive from the hearing of the gospel is an inheritance. The inheritance is the Kingdom of God, eternal life in the presence of God, a place in the new heaven and the new earth, a new name in the family of God, and the invisible Church made up of all the saints (believers in Christ). The spiritual and eternal inheritance is a fulfillment of the promise of “land” given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

An inheritance is not something that can be earned, deserved, or worked for. Inherited wealth is earned by someone else and granted as a gift to a person of the testator’s choosing, usually a family member whom he loves. In the case of God the Father, all we have to do is be born in the family. ”He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance…kept in heaven for you [1 Peter 1:3-4].”

Being born is not something we can take credit for: so also is being born again. God is the cause, and all we can do is rejoice in the gift of life, receive it with God-given faith, and thank Him for the promise every day. We are children of God and we have an inheritance kept in heaven and sealed in our hearts by the Spirit.

Acts 20:32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up.

In Paul’s farewell address to the Ephesian elders he commends them to God to keep them faithful to the faith of Christ, and to the oversight of the church, and to the preaching of the gospel. He entrusts them especially to the word of his grace, for it will build you up. ”The word of His grace” is the Gospel of Christ. The promise is this: the Gospel will build you up.

”The gospel is the power of God.” ”Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ.” “We preach Christ crucified…the power of God and the wisdom of God.” We believe this promise so that we might trust the Gospel. The preacher’s temptation, and the hearers’ mistaken desire, is to use the Law to make practical, down-to-earth, how-to messages to make people better. The Law can only convict and condemn. Only the Gospel has the power to actually change lives. Trust the word of His grace to build you up. When the world, the flesh, and the devil beats us down, we turn to the Word of Grace to build us up again. We are always in need of fixing up and restoring to wholeness. Grace does it.

Acts 17:31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he raised him from the dead.

God promises a Judgment Day; that doesn’t sound like a wonderful event, as something we are eagerly lookong forward to. But it is! If you are a believer. If you are not a believer then the certain judgment that is coming is something to dread and to fear greatly. We are all accountable to God for our sins, and the punishment is severe. So be very afraid.

We can’t wait to be judged, for the very man who loved us, died and rose for us, saved us from death and hell, forgiven our sin, and given us eternal life, is the very One who will sit on the judgment seat. We know ahead of time what His verdict for us will be: acquitted; forgiven; free; entry into the joy of the Lord. That’s promise we can live with now and forever.

The other Good News about the Judgment Day is that from that day forward into eternity all sin and evil is removed from our presence forever. It is finally and securely dispensed with forever. There shall be no more tears and sadness, no more pain and sorrow, no more death and disease, no more sin and evil, no more fear and panic, no more worry and anxiety, no more Satan and demons. All that is judged, gone, forgotten, and never to be seen again. That’s a good thing.

Because of the Judge’s resurrection God has given us assurance. This assurance is a present day reality. Such assurance is in our hearts by faith. By faith we enjoy the Judgment now.

Acts 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

A watershed moment took place in salvation history at the Jerusalem conference where the Apostles and elders decided that Gentiles could be saved and come into the Church without being circumcised. The Holy Spirit had shown the early church that both Jews and Gentiles were equally saved by grace.

This is the promise: we are all saved by the grace of Christ. All people, every single person, is saved by the grace of Christ, no matter what race, culture, nationality, language, or religion they are. Anything that separates one human from another does not separate anyone from the love of God. By grace we are saved, and by grace another person is saved when he is told about it and believes.

The grace of Christ is sufficient to save to the uttermost. Nothing that we do, nothing that we say, think, or decide can add to, or contribute to, the all-sufficient grace of Christ to save. Nothing in my hand I bring. Jesus Christ has earned salvation for me, and all others, completely, finally, and forever. His salvation is unconditionally and freely granted to all.

This promise affects our daily lives of prayer. The human in us tends to think that God will hear us if we pray more fervently, fast, give up things, make promises and sacrifices, repent more sincerely, believe more strongly, or do something. But No, God promises to hear our prayers for the same reason He saves us: by the grace of out Lord Jesus Christ. We believe Grace is enough.

Acts 14:32 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

God promises many troubles and trials for believers who enter the Kingdom, who have eternal life. That doesn’t sound like a promise we are looking forward to, but it really is a comfort and an encouragement for us. We need this promise to “continue in the faith,” and not give up when things get tough.

Trials and tribulations are to be expected, so don’t be surprised when your faith is tested. It will happen. Fiery trials are tests that will either strengthen your faith or cause you to give up on God. Remember the Parable of the Sower, where some of the seed (the word of God) fell on rocky ground (a stony heart): “they believe for a while, and in time of testing they fall away.” The devil, the world, death and sin do not want to let us go to God. The devil and his demons don’t want to let us go to God. the world doesn’t want to lose one of its own, death and the fear of death will try not to relinquish its hold, and sin wants to continue as slave master. No wonder we have trials, tribulations, and testings!

But we have the underlying promise that He will keep us in the one true faith and that ”nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It is an amazing tribute to God’s love and power that we can embrace tribulation and ”count it all joy when you meet trials [James 1:2].”

Acts 13:47 For so hath the Lord commanded us saying, i have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou should be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

Paul and Barnabas had preached the gospel to the Jews in the synagogue at Antioch, but when many of them rejected eternal life they turned to the Gentiles. Many Gentile God-fearers believed and were filled with joy. That is when Paul says that the Lord called them to be a light of the Gentiles and to be for salvation to all earth people everywhere.

That is the promise for us: salvation is for everyone everywhere, and the message of salvation is to be preached to the ends of the earth. The promise says: i heard the Gospel and I believe it; therefore, i know that I am ordained to eternal life. Jesus saves me.

Acts 13:39 By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Paul preaches the Gospel of Christ to the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia. The Law cannot justify you, because as a born sinner you will not obey it perfectly. The Law is good and it would give you a good life if you could keep it. Following the Law of God as given by Moses would make one righteous, and righteousness we must have if we are to live in God’s Presence forever.

By the Law comes the knowledge of sin, guilt, damnation, and judgment. But by the Gospel comes the gift of the righteousness of God, earned for us by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This justification is received by faith, which is also a gift worked in us by the Spirit.

Justification means to be considered just, right, holy, perfect, and righteous in God’s eyes. He sees Jesus in us. Faith sees Jesus and receives Jesus. ”Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Justification means ”just-if-I’d” never sinned. Faith sees what God sees.

The promise is: we are justified ”from all things,” that is, from guilt and shame, from excuses and self-justification, from death and hell, and from the power and lies of Satan. We cannot free ourselves from these things, no matter how ”good” a life we live. Jesus sets us free. Repent, believe, and be justified.