Year One, April 10

The LORD Looks On the Heart1

1 Corinthians 10:1-12

1For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, (A great deal of spiritual guidance is lost if we allow ourselves to remain ignorant about Old Testament history. God intended us to learn many practical lessons from the Israelites. They had the law and the special privilege of being the chosen people of Jehovah and yet they perished. We should pay attention, to prevent the same thing from happening to us. Were we baptized with water when we began our religious life? So were they. At the Red Sea, with the cloud above them and the sea on either side, they were buried in baptism with their leader.) 3and all ate the same spiritual food, 4and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.

This resembles the Lord’s Supper. They ate manna and drank from the rock that was split open. The bread and wine of the Communion Service also represent him whose flesh is true food and whose blood is true drink.2

5Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. (They died, even though they took part in the sacrifices and other things that God told them to do.  We will also fall unless, by faith, we steer clear of their fault of unbelief.)

6Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (Our baptism, our taking part in the Lord’s Supper, and other benefits of being church members, may make us think we are safe from God’s anger, but we must take heed, because far more is needed.)

In the Psalms we find the same lesson set to music.

  

Psalm 95

1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;

let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;

let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

3 For the LORD is a great God,

and a great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;

the heights of the mountains are his also.

5 The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

7 For he is our God,

and we are the people of his pasture,

and the sheep of his hand.

Today, if you hear his voice

8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,

as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

9 when your fathers put me to the test

and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

10 For forty years I loathed that generation

and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,

and they have not known my ways.”

11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,

“They shall not enter my rest.”

They were his people on the outside. They were given every advantage to make them worthy to be called God’s chosen people. But they never became a spiritual people. Their privileges were of no use and they died in the wilderness. Let us beware of depending on anything short of saving faith and a real change of heart. “You must be born again.”3

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¹ 1 Samuel 16:7

² John 6:55 - Jesus said, “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”

³ John 3:7

Year One, April 9

My Presence Will Go With You1

Exodus 33:1-7; 12-23

1The LORD said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ 2I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

4When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. (The people still had some conscience left. When Moses spoke to them it was evident, but, like the morning dew, it only lasted a short time.) 5For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” (As if the Lord did not know how to show mercy to unrepentant sinners.) 6Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

This must always happen before mercy. Pride must remove her disguise, self-righteousness must throw off her cloak and self-importance must take off its jingling jewelry.

7Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

They were not worthy to have the Lord stay in the center of their community. The Lord did not leave them completely, but he went into the outer circle. All who would seek the Lord must go outside the camp. The lesson is clear and it is still true today.

12Moses said to the LORD, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (The Lord gives us his presence now and rest at the end of life’s journey. What a precious promise!) 15And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

17And the LORD said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” (We have received grace and that grace is what guarantees answers to our prayers.) 18Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. (We see that the sovereignty of his grace is the very glory of God. Why do people quarrel with it?) 20But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

Nowhere else can God be spiritually seen, except from the Rock of ages cleft for us.2 We now see only the edge of his garments, but even this glimpse delights us. How sweet to know that however little we see of God, yet it is God, our Father.

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¹ Exodus 33:14

² A reference to the hymn Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me written by Augustus Toplady in 1776. A cleft is a hollow place in a rock. The story is told that, one day Toplady was overtaken by a thunderstorm and ran to a limestone rock formation where he took shelter in a “cleft” and wrote his now famous hymn.

Year One, April 8

If Anyone Does Sin, We Have an Advocate1

Exodus 32:15-20; 30-35

15Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. 16The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. (It is no small difficulty to leave fellowship with God to battle with other people’s sins. This can happen to us even today. May the Lord prepare us for it.) 17When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”

Joshua was a soldier and therefore, his thoughts ran that way, but Moses knew better. It would be far better to hear the noise of war with spiritual enemies, than the sound of rebellion against the Lord.

18But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” 19And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.

Moses is never blamed for this. His action represented his great hatred of sin and his zeal for the Lord of hosts. He felt that the tablets, which were written with God’s finger, would be polluted by being brought among such a people.

20He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.

Moses shows the greatest contempt for their idol by making them drink it. Is it not strange beyond belief that followers of the Roman Catholic Church of our day actually worship the wafer and then eat it? They imagine that it is great religious respect to eat something they claim is divine.

This is a wonderful example of the influence of one man. In the midst of thousands of idolaters, Moses was able to tear down their idol, deface it, grind it to powder, mix it with water, and force the people to drink it. God was with him or the stubborn and pigheaded mob would have resisted him. He was very clear in his action. He did not tolerate idol worship for a moment.  This decision, no doubt, gave him great influence for good among the people.

30The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” (His one thought was to do them good. He was like our Lord Jesus, a faithful Intercessor.)

31So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32But now, if you will forgive their sin--but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” (This was splendid self-sacrifice, of which we find a similar case in the apostle Paul. Moses meant what he said, but we must not judge his expressions by cold-blooded logic. It was the warm overflow of a tender heart.) 33But the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.” (This is the voice of the law threatening to blot out the sinner, but the gospel freely blots out the sin.) 34“But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.” (The Lord refused to be personally present with the tribes of Israel, but graciously promised to assign an angel to direct them. This was sad news for Moses, who knew the value of the divine presence; and to the people themselves it was dreadful news, especially the part that the Lord would visit them for sin.)

35Then the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.

The people were the real makers of the idol. Aaron was only the person they used to create the idol. Neither the people nor Aaron are excused. The guilt of each is clearly stated. It was sad to see such a man as Aaron go so far off the correct path. Lord, keep each one of us by your Holy Spirit.

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¹ 1 John 2:1

Year One, April 7

Keep Yourselves From Idols1

Exodus 32:1-14

1When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

They were so undependable that they could not be trusted alone. Worse than that, they were terribly ungrateful. They forgot their God and gave Moses the credit for delivering them and even to him they were disgustingly thankless. They called him “this Moses,” as if they despised him and did so to the face of his own brother. They must have been in a state of wild rebellion, to insult both their great leader and his brother in this way. The fact was, they were so totally unspiritual that they could not live in peace unless they had something they could see to call their god. They lacked the faith that sees him who is invisible.

2So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

Shame on Aaron for giving in to them! What idolatry to think that the infinite Jehovah looks like a young bull that has horns and hoofs. They went back to old Egyptian idolatry and set up an ox as the symbol of the God of power.

5When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” (That is, a feast to Jehovah. They still claimed to worship Jehovah, but broke the second commandment by making an idol in the form of an ox.) 6And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

7And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” (Who is surprised that the Lord resented the insult offered to him by the people who owed him so much?) 9And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” (If Moses had been an ambitious or selfish man, this was a great opportunity for him; but he loved the people better than himself.)

11But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? (Notice the heart of his plea: God had called them Moses’ people {verse 7}, but he will not have it so, he calls them, “your people,” and begs the Lord to not be angry with them.) 12Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. (Moses appeals here to the name and honor of God. This is pleading with force!) 13“Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever,’” (His third master plea is “the promise” confirmed by oath. The one who can plead the promises of God will succeed.) 14And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people. (If Moses succeeded as Mediator,2 how much more will the Lord Jesus, who prays for guilty sinners.)

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¹ 1 John 5:21

² mediator - a person who attempts to make people involved in a conflict come to an agreement; a go-between. As used in the Bible, Jesus Christ intercedes between God the Father and Christians; that is, he prays for them.

Year One, April 6

You Shall Be Holy, For I Am Holy1

Exodus 30:11-16

11The LORD said to Moses, 12“When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the LORD when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. (Every census included a purchase price for each person counted. Every one of the Lord’s people was to be redeemed as a reminder to all generations that redemption is absolutely necessary for God to accept us. If we had not been bought with a price, the fierce plagues of divine judgment would have followed us even to the lowest hell.) 13Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel1 according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the LORD.”

God places his own value on people, because he knows their worth best. How much we owe is not left for us to decide based on what we think it should be. The Lord’s own will is what determines what our debt is. What we owe is what we owe, because HE requires it.

14Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the LORD offering. 15“The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the LORD’s offering to make atonement for your lives.”

Believers differ in knowledge, gifts and graces, but they are all redeemed with the same price. The lowest believer was bought with the same blood as the foremost of the apostles. The poor, the unknown, the disabled, the illiterate, are as dear to the heart of Jesus as the richest and most gifted saint. What a sweet thought! Here is the true equality. “His righteousness is unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference.”3 Let us all equally bless and love the Lord by whose blood we are equally redeemed.

16“You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the LORD, so as to make atonement for your lives.” (The atonement money was both a reminder of their relationship with the Lord as well as a reminder of their great obligation to serve their Redeemer.)

The apostle Peter explains that, when the Lord Jesus purchased our salvation with his precious blood, we became obligated to live a life pleasing to God.

  

1 Peter 1:15-21

15As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (The heart of true religion is living our lives in a way that reflects the Lord we worship.) 17And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, (Let a childlike fear of offending your Great Father always hold you back from sin. “Blessed is the man who fears always.”4) 18knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

The same price that redeems us from destruction also redeems us from our pointless way of life. This price is no less than the heart’s blood of the Son of God. Until the world can offer us something more precious than the blood of Jesus, we will feel ourselves obligated by bonds of love to walk in holiness, and see Jesus praised.

20He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Jesus’ love to us is not something new. He was appointed to redeem us before worlds began. Do not let this world charm you with its constant claim of new and exciting things. It was a real love of concern that brought Jesus to earth to be our suffering substitute. Let our love be real too; not in word only, but in deed and in truth. Oh to be a redeemed family and to live like it. The Lord grant it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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¹ 1 Peter 1:16

² shekel - about 2/5 ounce

³ Quoted from The English Preacher circa 1831

⁴ Commentary of the Book of Proverbs by Moses Stuart 1852

Year One, April 5

Our Fellowship Is With the Father1

Exodus 24:1-15, 18

1Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. 2Moses alone shall come near to the LORD, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”

Under the law, even those who were favored the most were not allowed to come very near to God. Even when he said, “Come near to Jehovah,” it was added, “but the others shall not come near.” How different the gospel is! “But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far-off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”2

3Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.” (Their tongues went faster than their lives.  People are swift at promising, but limping in performing.) 4And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. 6And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw (or sprinkled) against the altar. 7Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

The blood is the main thing in all fellowship with God. No road is open to us but the crimson one. Peace comes where the blood of Jesus falls, but without that we are unclean and unable to have fellowship with God. Dear friends, has the blood of Jesus ever been sprinkled on you? Faith applies the blood. Do you have that faith?

9Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank. (When the blood was on them, they could come near, and enjoy quiet fellowship that even included eating and drinking. What they saw is not explained to us except for one detail; they saw the bright blue pavement beneath the sacred feet. All of our knowledge falls below the glory of our God. “For now we see in a mirror dimly,” but the day is coming when we will see him “face to face.”3)

12The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. (Moses enjoyed a higher degree of fellowship than any other man. He went up alone into the cloud. There are elect ones out of the elect who the Master brings very close to Himself, to “walk in the light as he is in the light.”4 To be highly favored in this way is the best honor and the greatest joy.) 14And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”

15Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. (This was a delightful retreat for Moses, who would now, for a while, forget his responsibility for the people.)

18Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. (O sweet time of fellowship with heaven. Six weeks with God! What a rest! Alas, Moses needed it, because the people were rebelling down below and making trouble for their leader’s heart.)

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¹ 1 John 1:3

² Ephesians 2:13

³ 1 Corinthians 13:12

⁴ 1 John 1:7

Year One, April 4

We Have Also Obtained Access By Faith1

After being given the law on Mount Sinai, Moses received instructions about public worship and sacrifices. All of these things pointed to spiritual matters. Therefore, we will read the New Testament summary of it found in

  

Hebrews 9:1-14

1Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. 2For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. 3Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place (or Holy of Holies), 4having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. 5Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

6These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, 7but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. (The greatest of the Jewish high priests had to admit that they were sinners themselves and they had to present sin-offerings for themselves as well as for the people. But our Lord Jesus has no sin of his own; which is part of the reason he was able to bear our sin.)

8By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9(which is symbolic for the present age). (The Most Holy Place was not open to all everyone, but only to Jews; and not to all Jews, but only to priests; and not to all priests, but only to the high priest; and not even to him at all times, or indeed at any time, but only on one solitary day in the year.) According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper (That is, they could not atone for sin. Therefore these gifts and sacrifices could not give peace to the conscience), 10but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

These washings and regulations were a shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Light of the World appeared, the reason for these dim images was over. The time of reformation is now. Jesus is the completion and fulfillment of the ceremonial law. Is it not amazing that anyone would wish to undo this reformation and go back to the uselessness of trying to keep the law?  Even worse, many professing Christians want us to practice the follies of the Roman Catholic Church in our own places of worship.

11But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. (Our Lord’s offering is never to be repeated. It has been presented once and the result has been the absolute eternal redemption of all for whom he bled as a substitute. Oh what joy to see Jesus behind the second curtain, in the Most Holy Place, with a perfect offering, and to know that the one sacrifice has saved us.)

13For if the blood of goats and bulls, and sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Who can answer this question, “How much more?” It is a glorious declaration. Jesus can most certainly remove our sins. Beloved, has he removed yours? Answer as if you were answering before the living God!

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¹ Romans 5:2

Year One, April 3

Whoever Believes and Is Baptized Will Be Saved1

We have selected for our present reading a portion that illustrates the difference between the law and the gospel.

  

Romans 10:1-21

1Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

The true spirit of Christianity is that of love and sympathy. It leads to prayer even for persecutors and to hope for the most stubborn of people. Paul prayed for the Jews.

2I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

Do not deny the good points in others, even if they are not all we could wish them to be.

3For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Christ fulfills the law’s purpose for us. When we have HIM we have all the law requires.

5For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Precious gospel. Not doing, but believing, saves us. We do not have to do or feel great things but simply to trust.)

10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”2  (Think about this verse. It should comfort even the most depressed seeker. Real prayer will be heard sooner or later.)

14How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”3 16But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”4 17So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Be determined to continue attending the gospel ministry and be committed to listen carefully, because it is the way that faith comes.)

18But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for

“Their voice has gone out to all the earth,

and their words to the ends of the world.”5

Sadly, not all hearers become believers. Most hear with deaf ears and do not obey the truth.

19But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,

“I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;

with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”6

20Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,

“I have been found by those who did not seek me;

I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”7

Sovereign grace sometimes saves the most unlikely people. At the same time those who sit under a gospel ministry may harden their hearts and perish. Beware of thinking outward advantages are enough. You must have real faith in Jesus.

21But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”8 (They were sincerely warned and lovingly invited. Yet it was all for nothing. Will this be the case with any of this household? May it never be!)

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¹ Mark 16:16

² Joel 2:32

³ Isaiah 52:7

⁴ Isaiah 53:1

⁵ Psalm 19:4

⁶ Deuteronomy 32:21

⁷ Isaiah 65:1

⁸ Isaiah 65:2