Truth For Life Program
Alistair Begg Devotional
C. H. Spurgeon Devotional
One-Year Bible Reading Plan
Planting Hedges in Marriage (Part 2 of 4)
Selected ScripturesOften, it’s care for life’s little things that greatly contributes to the success and enjoyment of our relationships. On Truth For Life, Alistair Begg teaches us how to promote and protect a healthy marriage. It’s hard work—but it’s worth it!
From the Sermon
Planting Hedges in Marriage — Part One
Selected Scriptures Sermon • Includes Transcript • 43:18 • ID: 1888
Genuine Christian Love
Film can capture magnificently the dissonance that can occur between what a character says and what’s actually going on inside their mind. It’s usually seen in a close-up on the eyes: “Well, how wonderful to see you again, Mr. Jenkins!” says her mouth, and yet from the expression, the audience realizes she doesn’t really mean it. What she really means is “I would have avoided bumping into you if I could have avoided it, Mr. Jenkins—but now I’m stuck here with you.”
What the mouth says is not necessarily what the truth is. Too many hearts have been broken and lives ruined by someone who said, “I love you” without really meaning it. True Christian love, according to Scripture, is always genuine. Paul confronts the danger of superficiality and deception by encouraging the believer to love with sincerity—that is, with a heart that matches our words. We are set free from the tyranny of acting as if we like everyone or thinking we have to be liked by everyone; and in Christ we are then also supernaturally enabled to love even those we previously wouldn’t have wanted to be near.
Indeed, Christian love, says W.E. Vine, “does not always run with the natural inclinations, nor does it spend itself only upon those for whom some affinity is discovered.”[1] In other words, it isn’t natural. What is natural is to love only those whom we deem lovable—those who are like us, fit within our framework, and meet our expectations. But genuine love isn’t conventional. It transcends the boundaries of race, intellect, and social status. It transcends all the boundaries put in place by man.
This is the love of Romans 5:8: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Sincere love can only come as a product of God’s grace. It’s a reflection of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. When God’s love shapes a believer’s life, our words and deeds will overflow with that love.
Paul’s hope was that when people saw the early church in Rome, they would say, “There’s something different about the way these people love one another.” God’s call to you in your relationships with other Christians today is the same. Do not settle for a superficial, weak, or fake love. Do not let your heart be cold even while you are saying all the right things. Let your love be genuine—by gazing at the one who loved you unto death, sinner that you are. Let your prayer be that your love would be different, and deeper, so that you can point to the one from whom all true love flows.
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?
12p“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13qGreater love has no one than this, rthat someone lay down his life for his friends. 14You are smy friends tif you do what I command you. 15uNo longer do I call you servants,1 for the servant wdoes not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for xall that I have heard from my Father yI have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but zI chose you and appointed you that you should go and abear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that bwhatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17These things I command you, cso that you will love one another.
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.
The Foundation of Our Faith
But God's firm foundation stands.
The foundation upon which our faith rests is this, that "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them."1 The great fact on which genuine faith relies is that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,"2 and that "Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God";3 "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree";4 "Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed."5 In one word, the great pillar of the Christian's hope is substitution.
The vicarious sacrifice of Christ for the guilty, Christ being made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, Christ offering up a true and proper expiatory and substitutionary sacrifice in the room, place, and stead of as many as the Father gave Him, who are known to God by name and are recognized in their own hearts by their trusting in Jesus—this is the cardinal fact of the Gospel. If this foundation were removed, what could we do? But it stands firm as the throne of God. We know it; we rest on it; we rejoice in it; and our delight is to hold it, to meditate upon it, and to proclaim it, while we desire to be stirred and moved by gratitude for it in every part of our life and conversation.
In these days a direct attack is made upon the doctrine of the Atonement. Men cannot bear substitution. They gnash their teeth at the thought of the Lamb of God bearing the sin of man. But we, who know by experience the preciousness of this truth, will proclaim it confidently and unceasingly and in defiance of them. We will neither dilute it nor change it, nor distort it in any shape or fashion. It shall still be Christ, a positive substitute, bearing human guilt and suffering in the place of men. We cannot, dare not give it up, for it is our life, and despite every controversy we affirm that "God's firm foundation stands."
1) 2 Corinthians 5:19
2) John 1:14
3) 1 Peter 3:18
4) 1 Peter 2:24
5) Isaiah 53:5
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 June 21
Offerings of Firstfruits and Tithes
1“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, 2wyou shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall xgo to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. 3And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land ythat the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ 4Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.
5“And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A zwandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, afew in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. 6And bthe Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. 7Then cwe cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8And dthe Lord brought us out of Egypt ewith a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror,1 with signs and wonders. 9And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, fa land flowing with milk and honey. 10And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. 11And gyou shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.
12“When you have finished paying all hthe tithe of your produce in the third year, which is ithe year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, 13then you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, jnor have I forgotten them. 14kI have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it lto the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. 15mLook down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’
16“This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17nYou have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. 18And the Lord has declared today that you are oa people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, 19and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor phigh above all nations qthat he has made, and that you shall be ra people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.”
Psalm 117
The Lord's Faithfulness Endures Forever
1cPraise the Lord, all nations!
Extol him, all peoples!
2For dgreat is his steadfast love toward us,
and ethe faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
bPraise the Lord!
Psalm 118
His Steadfast Love Endures Forever
1fOh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2gLet Israel say,
“His steadfast love endures forever.”
3gLet the house of Aaron say,
“His steadfast love endures forever.”
4gLet those who fear the Lord say,
“His steadfast love endures forever.”
5hOut of my distress I icalled on the Lord;
the Lord answered me and set me jfree.
6kThe Lord is on my side; lI will not fear.
What can man do to me?
7mThe Lord is on my side as my helper;
I shall nlook in triumph on those who hate me.
8oIt is better to take refuge in the Lord
pthan to trust in man.
9It is better to take refuge in the Lord
pthan to trust in princes.
10qAll nations surrounded me;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
11They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
12rThey surrounded me like bees;
they went out like sa fire among thorns;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
13I was tpushed hard,1 so that I was falling,
but the Lord helped me.
14The Lord is my strength and my song;
uhe has become my salvation.
15Glad songs of salvation
are in the tents of the righteous:
v“The right hand of the Lord wdoes valiantly,
16the right hand of the Lord exalts,
the right hand of the Lord wdoes valiantly!”
17xI shall not die, but I shall live,
and yrecount the deeds of the Lord.
18The Lord has zdisciplined me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.
19aOpen to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
20This is the gate of the Lord;
bthe righteous shall enter through it.
21I thank you that cyou have answered me
uand have become my salvation.
22dThe stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.2
23This is the Lord's doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
24This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
26eBlessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We fbless you from the house of the Lord.
27The Lord is God,
and he has made ghis light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
up to hthe horns of the altar!
28You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God; I will iextol you.
29jOh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
1gWho has believed what he has heard from us?1
And to whom has hthe arm of the Lord been revealed?
2For he grew up before him like a young plant,
iand like a root out of dry ground;
jhe had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3kHe was despised and rejected2 by men,
a man of sorrows3 and acquainted with4 grief;5
and as one from whom men hide their faces6
he was despised, and lwe esteemed him not.
4mSurely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
nsmitten by God, and afflicted.
5oBut he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
pand with his wounds we are healed.
6qAll we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
rand the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
syet he opened not his mouth;
tlike a ulamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, vwho considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9And they made his grave with the wicked
wand with a rich man in his death,
although xhe had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10Yet yit was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;7
zwhen his soul makes8 an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
athe will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see9 and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall bthe righteous one, my servant,
cmake many to be accounted righteous,
dand he shall bear their iniquities.
12eTherefore I will divide him a portion with the many,10
fand he shall divide the spoil with the strong,11
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
gyet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
1aThe book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, bthe son of David, cthe son of Abraham.
2dAbraham was the father of Isaac, and eIsaac the father of Jacob, and fJacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3and gJudah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,1 4and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5and Salmon the father of Boaz by hRahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6and iJesse the father of David the king.
And jDavid was the father of Solomon by kthe wife of Uriah, 7and lSolomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,2 8and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, mand Joram the father of Uzziah, 9and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos,3 and Amos the father of Josiah, 11and nJosiah the father of oJechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
12And after the deportation to Babylon: pJechoniah was the father of qShealtiel,4 and rShealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16and Jacob the father of sJoseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
17So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to tthe Christ fourteen generations.
The Birth of Jesus Christ
18Now the birth of uJesus Christ5 took place in this way. vWhen his mother Mary had been betrothed6 to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child wfrom the Holy Spirit. 19And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling xto put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20But as he considered these things, behold, yan angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and zyou shall call his name Jesus, afor he will save his people from their sins.” 22bAll this took place cto fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23d“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name eImmanuel”
(which means, God fwith us). 24When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And ghe called his name Jesus.
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