Truth For Life Program
Alistair Begg Devotional
C. H. Spurgeon Devotional
One-Year Bible Reading Plan
The Old Testament said Christ would be called the Prince of Peace. But in the New Testament, Jesus admits He comes to bring division! Is He contradicting Himself? Find out as we investigate another question God asks, on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg.
From the Sermon
“Do You Think I Came to Bring Peace?”
Luke 12:49–53 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 29:05 • ID: 2475
Entering God’s Kingdom
When we read the Gospels, we discover that a large part of Jesus’ ministry involved preaching the good news of God’s kingdom. He traveled through towns and villages telling people, essentially, There is a kingdom, and I’m the King. You’re not in the kingdom yet—but if you’ll follow Me, you will be the King’s subject and a citizen of the kingdom.
When we pray “Your kingdom come” (Luke 11:2), therefore, our desire should be that men and women would be brought into Christ’s kingdom by new birth—that they would become committed followers of Jesus. We pray for those who live in rebellion against God to be “delivered … from the domain of darkness and transferred … to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). Jesus made it perfectly clear that the only way to enter into His kingdom is by this new birth.
Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus in John 3 underscores this truth. Nicodemus was a religious man, a man of authority and influence—and yet he was still restless, still seeking. As he engaged Jesus in conversation, Jesus pointed out the necessary prerequisite for both seeing and entering His kingdom: to be born again by the Spirit. This new birth is brought about, He said, not by nature but as a result of God’s Spirit working a miracle in the human heart. No one is able to enter the kingdom without Him working in them; no one is too far away from the kingdom for Him to work in them.
When we pray for God’s kingdom to come, we are asking for eyes to be opened and ears to be unstopped so that men and women may be born again. The King is coming to usher in His everlasting kingdom, and the King is at work today by His Spirit to bring men and women into that kingdom. Until the day of our King’s return, may your awareness of the way people enter Christ’s kingdom produce increasing wonder over your own conversion and a burning passion to pray that the Spirit would do what only He can in the hearts of the lost.
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?
You Must Be Born Again
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named hNicodemus, ia ruler of the Jews. 2This man came to Jesus1 jby night and said to him, k“Rabbi, lwe know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do munless God is with him.” 3Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is nborn oagain2 he cannot psee the kingdom of God.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born qof water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6rThat which is born of the flesh is sflesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.3 7tDo not marvel that I said to you, ‘You4 must be born uagain.’ 8vThe wind5 blows wwhere it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9Nicodemus said to him, x“How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel yand yet you do not understand these things? 11Truly, truly, I say to you, zwe speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but zyou6 do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13aNo one has bascended into heaven except che who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.7 14And das Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man ebe lifted up, 15that whoever believes fin him gmay have eternal life.8
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 Provision
There is grain for sale in Egypt.
Famine pinched all the nations, and it seemed inevitable that Jacob and his family should suffer great want; but the God of providence, who never forgets the objects of electing love, had stored a granary for His people by giving the Egyptians warning of the scarcity and leading them to treasure up the grain from the years of plenty. Little did Jacob expect deliverance from Egypt, but there was grain in store for him.
Believer, though all things are apparently against you, rest assured that God has made a reservation on your behalf; in the roll of your griefs there is a saving clause. Somehow He will deliver you, and somewhere He will provide for you. Your rescue may come from a very unexpected source, but help will definitely come in your extremity, and you will magnify the name of the Lord. If men do not feed you, ravens will; and if the earth does not yield wheat, heaven will drop manna.
Therefore be of good courage, and rest quietly in the Lord. God can make the sun rise in the west if He pleases and can make the source of distress a channel of delight. The grain in Egypt was all in the hands of the beloved Joseph; he opened or closed the granaries at will. And so the riches of providence are all in the absolute power of our Lord Jesus, who will dispense them generously to His people. Joseph was abundantly ready to help his own family; and Jesus is unceasing in His faithful care for His brethren.
Our responsibility is to go after the help that is provided for us: We must not sit still in despondency, but stir ourselves. Prayer will bring us quickly into the presence of our royal Brother. Once before His throne we have only to ask and receive. His stores are not exhausted; there is still grain: His heart is not hard; He will give the grain to us. Lord, forgive our unbelief, and this evening constrain us to draw largely from Your fullness and receive grace for grace.
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 May 21
Men and Vows
1Moses spoke to fthe heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the Lord has commanded. 2gIf a man vows a vow to the Lord, or hswears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. iHe shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
Women and Vows
3“If a woman vows a vow to the Lord and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father's house in her youth, 4and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. 5But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the Lord will forgive her, because her father opposed her.
6“If she marries a husband, while under her jvows or any thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she has bound herself, 7and her husband hears of it and says nothing to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her pledges by which she has bound herself shall stand. 8But if, on the day that her husband comes to hear of it, he opposes her, then he makes void her jvow that was on her, and the thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she bound herself. kAnd the Lord will forgive her. 9(But any vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, anything by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.) 10And if she vowed in her husband's house or bound herself by a pledge with an oath, 11and her husband heard of it and said nothing to her and did not oppose her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she bound herself shall stand. 12But if her husband makes them null and void on the day that he hears them, then whatever proceeds out of her lips concerning her vows or concerning her pledge of herself shall not stand. Her husband has made them void, and lthe Lord will forgive her. 13Any vow and any binding oath to afflict herself,1 her husband may establish,2 or her husband may make void. 14But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day, then he establishes all her vows or all her pledges that are upon her. He has established them, because he said nothing to her on the day that he heard of them. 15But if he makes them null and void after he has heard of them, then mhe shall bear her iniquity.”
16These are the statutes that the Lord commanded Moses about a man and his wife and about a father and his daughter while she is in her youth within her father's house.
Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause
A Maskil1 of rAsaph.
1O God, why do you scast us off forever?
Why does your anger tsmoke against uthe sheep of your pasture?
2vRemember your congregation, which you have wpurchased of old,
which you have xredeemed to be ythe tribe of your heritage!
Remember Mount Zion, zwhere you have dwelt.
3Direct your steps to athe perpetual ruins;
the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!
4Your foes have broared in the midst of your meeting place;
cthey set up their down signs for esigns.
5They were like those who swing faxes
in a forest of trees.2
6And all its gcarved wood
they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
7They hset your sanctuary on fire;
they iprofaned jthe dwelling place of your name,
bringing it down to the ground.
8They ksaid to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;
they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9We do not see our lsigns;
mthere is no longer any prophet,
and there is none among us who knows how long.
10How long, O God, nis the foe to scoff?
Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11Why odo you hold back your hand, your right hand?
Take it from the fold of your garment3 and destroy them!
12Yet pGod my King is from of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13You qdivided the sea by your might;
you rbroke the heads of sthe sea monsters4 on the waters.
14You crushed the heads of tLeviathan;
you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15You usplit open springs and brooks;
you vdried up ever-flowing streams.
16Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you have established wthe heavenly lights and the sun.
17You have xfixed all the boundaries of the earth;
you have made ysummer and winter.
18zRemember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
and aa foolish people reviles your name.
19Do not deliver the soul of your bdove to the wild beasts;
cdo not forget the life of your poor forever.
20Have regard for dthe covenant,
for ethe dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
21Let not fthe downtrodden gturn back in shame;
let hthe poor and needy praise your name.
22Arise, O God, idefend your cause;
jremember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
23Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
kthe uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!
An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem
1The voracle concerning wthe valley of vision.
What do you mean that you have gone up,
all of you, to the housetops,
2you who are full of shoutings,
tumultuous city, xexultant town?
Your slain are ynot slain with the sword
or dead in battle.
3zAll your leaders have fled together;
without the bow they were captured.
All of you who were found were captured,
though they had fled far away.
4Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
alet me weep bitter tears;
do not labor to comfort me
concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5bFor the Lord God of hosts has ca day
of tumult and dtrampling and econfusion
in wthe valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
and a shouting to the mountains.
6And fElam bore the quiver
with chariots and horsemen,
and gKir uncovered the shield.
7Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
8He has taken away hthe covering of Judah.
In that day you looked to ithe weapons of the House of the Forest, 9and you saw that jthe breaches of the city of David were many. kYou collected the waters of the lower pool, 10and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11kYou made a reservoir between lthe two walls for the water of mthe old pool. But nyou did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.
12In that day othe Lord God of hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for pbaldness and qwearing sackcloth;
13and behold, joy and gladness,
killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
eating flesh and drinking wine.
r“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”
14The Lord of hosts shas revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely tthis iniquity will not be atoned for you uuntil you die,”
says the Lord God of hosts.
15Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to vShebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16What have you to do here, and whom have you here, wthat you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you xwho cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. yHe will seize firm hold on you 18and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be zyour glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19aI will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20In that day I will call my servant bEliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21and bI will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be ca father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22And I will place don his shoulder ethe key of the house of David. fHe shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23And I will fasten him glike a peg in a secure place, and he will become ha throne of honor to his father's house. 24And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, gthe peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”
The Day of the Lord Will Come
1This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them gI am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2hthat you should remember the predictions of ithe holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come jin the last days with scoffing, kfollowing their own sinful desires. 4lThey will say, “Where is the promise of mhis coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth nwas formed out of water and through water oby the word of God, 6and that by means of these the world that then existed pwas deluged with water and qperished. 7But by the same word rthe heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and sdestruction of the ungodly.
8But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and ta thousand years as one day. 9uThe Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise vas some count slowness, but wis patient toward you,1 xnot wishing that any should perish, but ythat all should reach repentance. 10But zthe day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then athe heavens will pass away with a roar, and bthe heavenly bodies2 will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.3
11Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, cwhat sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12dwaiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and ethe heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13But according to his promise we are waiting for fnew heavens and a new earth gin which righteousness dwells.
Final Words
14hTherefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him iwithout spot or jblemish, and kat peace. 15And count lthe patience of our Lord as salvation, just as mour beloved brother Paul also wrote to you naccording to the wisdom given him, 16as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. oThere are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, pas they do the other Scriptures. 17You therefore, beloved, qknowing this beforehand, rtake care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18But sgrow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. tTo him be the glory both now and to the day of ueternity. Amen.
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