Wednesday, October 26, 2022

 

Wednesday, October 26, 2022


Psalms 137; 138

Nehemiah 5:1-13

2 Peter 2:1-11


The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial.


One of the side-effects of God’s softening of our hearts is that we become zealous for God’s will. In his first letter, Peter wrote words of encouragement for the church besieged by enemies from without. Now in his second letter, he is encouraging us to stay firm despite attacks from those among us, “secretly bringing in destructive opinions”.


Our rocky fortress, protecting us in all trials, is our Lord. There is a long list of evils Peter has given us to avoid. Flip them around and we learn what is good; to see if there are any virtues we display that can give us encouragement in our own walk. A church pleasing to God therefore teaches truth; approves and celebrates her Master; is generous; speaks truthfully; bows to authority; and is sexually clean. We can probably recognise in all of these points places where we have stumbled ourselves, yet Christ has been victorious over these in us, and therefore will be victorious over them everywhere else. “The sharpest conflict which the soul has is between the conscience and God’s justice. Now if the conscience, sprinkled with the blood of Christ, has prevailed over assaults fetched from the justice of God, now satisfied by Christ, it will prevail over all opposition whatsoever”. (Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed)


Our God is mighty to save, and will protect us. The Lord Jesus defeated the greatest enemy we have, sin and death, so some sexually licentious false teachers are no match for our Captain. The encouragement for us is the same as the lesson: focus on Jesus, on our own walk with Him, and getting closer to Him, because He reigns over all and will be vindicated in His justice.


A theme in popular media is the tension between means and ends, but we suffer no such tension, because when it comes to God’s intentions for us, the means are the ends. Living godly lives, resting in the peace of Jesus, loving one another and speaking truthfully is what God desires for us. Jesus is the One who saves the world. We keep our eyes and ears open so as to better enjoy the victorious state in which He has placed us.






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