Truth For Life Program
Alistair Begg Devotional
C. H. Spurgeon Devotional
One-Year Bible Reading Plan
Audio PlayerHow can a religious person who’s well-versed in Scripture still be without hope and without God? That was the case for a Jewish leader who questioned Jesus under the cover of nighttime. Hear Christ’s striking response, on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg.
From the Sermon
Chosen by God
In William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, the character Portia delivers a soliloquy that illustrates the playwright’s regard for the principles of mercy and forgiveness:
Though justice be thy plea, consider this:
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy.[1]
When considering the doctrine of election—that God “predestined us for adoption”—we need to ask not “Why would God not choose everyone?” but rather “Why would God choose to have mercy on anyone?” The truth is, if justice alone were served, we would all face condemnation, for condemnation is what our sin deserves. Yet in His love for us, God chose that we “should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). He did not choose us because of anything in us (which would be the occasion for pride in ourselves) but simply because of the love that is in Him (which should cause us to praise and worship Him).
One effect that an understanding of our election has on us as Christians is that it compels us to take our sin ever more seriously, for the purpose of Him choosing us is that “we should be holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1:4). In other words, while He didn’t choose us because we are holy, we have been chosen in order that we might become holy. There is something dreadfully wrong when a belief in the electing love of God results in our declaring the right to live in any way we choose. In fact, individuals who consistently, continually live in sin yet claim salvation show that they have not understood God or His gospel at all.
By contrast, the evidence that we have been chosen by God, set apart for Him, and ministered to by Him through the Holy Spirit is ultimately seen as we are increasingly conformed to the image of His Son. Growth in moral purity is the ultimate indication of a deep devotion to Jesus Christ. A genuine interest in and wonder at the electing love of God produces in us a conformity to Jesus’ own beauty.
What will we expect to see in the lives of people who truly understand this? Likely not bravado, self-centered talk, or empty defenses of the Christian faith. No—we will see humility coexisting with security, their conversation full of Christ instead of themselves, and lives of joy and sacrifice. That can be, and should be, what you see in yourself, imperfectly but increasingly. And that is what will grow in you to the extent that you say to yourself with a smile and a sense of awe, “It is not that I chose Him; He chose me.”
How is God calling me to think differently?
How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?
What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?
The Ten Commandments
1zAnd aGod spoke all these words, saying,
2b“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3c“You shall have no other gods before1 me.
4d“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5eYou shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am fa jealous God, gvisiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing steadfast love to thousands2 of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7h“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8i“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9jSix days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10but the kseventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the lsojourner who is within your gates. 11For min six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12n“Honor your father and your mother, othat your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
14q“You shall not commit adultery.
15r“You shall not steal.
16s“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17t“You shall not covet uyour neighbor's house; vyou shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”
18Now when all the people saw wthe thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid4 and trembled, and they stood far off 19and said to Moses, x“You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20yMoses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to ztest you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” 21The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the athick darkness where God was.
Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company, thegoodbook.com. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, 2022, The Good Book Company.
God's Right Hand
...Who is at the right hand of God.
He who was once despised and rejected by men now occupies the honorable position of a beloved and honored Son. The right hand of God is the place of majesty and favor. Our Lord Jesus is His people's representative. When He died for them, they had rest; when He rose again for them, they had liberty; when He sat down at His Father's right hand, they had favor and honor and dignity. The raising and elevation of Christ is the elevation, the acceptance, and the glorifying of all His people, for He is their head and representative. This sitting at the right hand of God, then, is to be viewed as the reception of the Representative and therefore the acceptance of our souls.
Believer, this is why you are free from condemnation. "Who is he that condemneth?" [KJV]. Who will condemn those men who are in Jesus at the right hand of God?
The right hand is the place of power. Christ at the right hand of God has all the power in heaven and on earth. Who will fight against the people who have such power vested in their Captain? My soul, what can destroy you if Omnipotence is your helper? If the protection of the Almighty covers you, what sword can harm you?
Be sure of this: If Jesus is your all-prevailing King and has trampled your enemies beneath His feet, if sin, death, and hell are all defeated by Him, and you are represented in Him, there exists no possibility of your being destroyed.
Jesus' tremendous name
Puts all our foes to flight:
Jesus, the meek, the angry Lamb,
A Lion is in fight.By all hell's host withstood;
We all hell's host o'erthrow;
And conquering them, through Jesus' blood
We still to conquer go.
Devotional material is taken from Morning and Evening, written by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg. Copyright © 2003, Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org. Used by Truth For Life with written permission.
Daily Bible Reading for April 21
The Sabbath Year
1wThe Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into xthe land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. 3For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, 4but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5yYou shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6The Sabbath of the land1 shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves2 and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, 7and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: zall its yield shall be for food.
The Year of Jubilee
8“You shall count seven weeks3 of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. 9Then you shall sound athe loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. bOn the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. 10And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and cproclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of dyou shall return to his clan. 11That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it eyou shall neither sow nor reap ywhat grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. 12For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. fYou may eat the produce of the field.4
13d“In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. 14And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, gyou shall not wrong one another. 15hYou shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. 16If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. 17iYou shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.
18j“Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then kyou will dwell in the land securely. 19lThe land will yield its fruit, and myou will eat your fill kand dwell in it securely. 20And if you say, n‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if owe may not sow or gather in our crop?’ 21I will pcommand my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. 22qWhen you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of rthe old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.
Redemption of Property
23“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for sthe land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. 24And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.
25“If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, tthen his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. 26If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, 27let uhim calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. 28But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall vbe released, and whe shall return to his property.
29“If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. 30If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the buyer, throughout his generations; vit shall not be released in the jubilee. 31But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and vthey shall be released in the jubilee. 32As for xthe cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem at any time the houses in the cities they possess. 33And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city they possess shall be released in the jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. 34But the fields yof pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession forever.
Kindness for Poor Brothers
35“If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, zyou shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. 36aTake no interest from him or profit, but bfear your God, that your brother may live beside you. 37aYou shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. 38cI am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39d“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: 40he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41vThen he shall go out from you, ehe and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return fto the possession of his fathers. 42For they are gmy servants,5 whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43hYou shall not rule over him iruthlessly but jshall fear your God. 44As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. 45kYou may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. 46You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel lyou shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.
Redeeming a Poor Man
47“If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and myour brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger's clan, 48then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, 49or his uncle or his cousin may nredeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he ogrows rich he may redeem himself. 50He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be prated as the time of a hired worker. 51If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. 52If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. 53He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. lHe shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. 54And if he is not redeemed by these means, then qhe and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. 55For it is rto me that the people of Israel are servants.6 They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Blessed Are the Forgiven
A Maskil1 of David.
1jBlessed is the one whose ktransgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2Blessed is the man against whom the Lord lcounts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit mthere is no deceit.
3For when I kept silent, my nbones wasted away
through my ogroaning all day long.
4For day and night your phand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up2 as by the heat of summer. Selah
5I qacknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I rwill confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
6Therefore let everyone who is sgodly
offer prayer to you at a time when you tmay be found;
surely in the rush of ugreat waters,
they shall not reach him.
7You are a vhiding place for me;
you preserve me from wtrouble;
you surround me with xshouts of deliverance. Selah
8I will yinstruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will zcounsel you with my eye upon you.
9aBe not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bbit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.
10cMany are the sorrows of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds the one who dtrusts in the Lord.
11eBe glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,
Keep the King's Command
1Who is like the wise?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
zA man's wisdom makes his face shine,
and athe hardness of his face is changed.
2I say:1 Keep the king's command, because of bGod's oath to him.2 3Be not hasty to cgo from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. 4For the word of the king is supreme, and dwho may say to him, “What are you doing?” 5Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way.3 6For there is a time and a way efor everything, although man's trouble4 lies heavy on him. 7For he fdoes not know what is to be, for gwho can tell him how it will be? 8No man has power to hretain the spirit, ior power over the day of death. There is no jdischarge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. 9kAll this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.
Those Who Fear God Will Do Well
10Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of lthe holy place and were mpraised5 in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.6 11Because nthe sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, othe heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. 12Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and pprolongs his life, yet I know that qit will be well with rthose who fear God, because they fear before him. 13But it will snot be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like ta shadow, because he does not fear before God.
Man Cannot Know God's Ways
14There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people uto whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people vto whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15And I commend joy, for man whas nothing better under the sun but to xeat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.
16When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see ythe business that is done on earth, how neither zday nor night do one's eyes see sleep, 17then I saw all the work of God, that aman cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, bhe cannot find it out.
Preach the Word
1hI charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, iwho is to judge the living and the dead, and by jhis appearing and his kingdom: 2preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; kreprove, rebuke, and lexhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3mFor the time is coming when people will not endure nsound1 teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4and owill turn away from listening to the truth and pwander off into myths. 5As for you, qalways be sober-minded, rendure suffering, do the work of san evangelist, tfulfill your ministry.
6For uI am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my vdeparture has come. 7wI have fought the good fight, xI have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Henceforth there is ylaid up for me zthe crown of righteousness, which the Lord, athe righteous judge, will award to me on bthat day, and not only to me but also to all cwho have loved his appearing.
Personal Instructions
9dDo your best to come to me soon. 10For eDemas, fin love with gthis present world, hhas deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia,2 iTitus to Dalmatia. 11hLuke alone is with me. Get jMark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. 12kTychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. 14lAlexander the coppersmith did me great harm; mthe Lord will repay him according to his deeds. 15Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. 16At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. nMay it not be charged against them! 17But othe Lord stood by me and pstrengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and qall the Gentiles might hear it. So rI was rescued sfrom the lion's mouth. 18The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. tTo him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Final Greetings
19Greet uPrisca and Aquila, and vthe household of Onesiphorus. 20Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left wTrophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. 21xDo your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.3
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