The truth of the matter, however, is that God’s wrath is not extreme. It is just. What is extreme is His grace. One of the clearest pictures of this in the Old Testament is found in Exodus 33 where we read:

18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And 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. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and 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.

We cannot see God’s glory and live because we are sinners. But God, in the extremity of His grace makes a way for us to not only glimpse His glory as Moses did, but to approach His throne, be in His presence, and even to dwell within us. He hides us in the cleft of the rock and protects us from His wrath. The name of that Rock is Jesus.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee;
Let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure; safe from wrath and make me pure.

These lyrics come from Rock of Ages, the 1750 hymn written by Augustus Toplady, and they carry some of the most striking images of God’s extreme grace towards sinners. The song expresses rich doctrinal truth using rich and beautiful imagery. It clearly communicates our desperate need for salvation, and it makes plain that our only hope is Jesus Christ, the Rock of Ages, who was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.

I would encourage you to read through the lyrics below. You can also buy and listen to the song here.

Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee;
Let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure; save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law’s commands;
Could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone; thou must save, and thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling;
Naked, come to thee for dress; helpless, look to thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly; wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath, when mine eyes shall close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown, see thee on thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.

Post by Jacob Deems.

I don’t consider myself a naturally compassionate person. More often than I want to admit, my selfishness and pride remind me of that daily. So anytime I do have genuine compassion, love or care for others, I am assured that it is simply God’s grace.

If you want to see true compassion, look at Jesus. One particular example is in Matthew 14. The chapter opens with the death of John the Baptist. This is the one whom Jesus described as “among those born of women there has arisen no one greater.” Now that’s a compliment.

John was the forerunner, but he was also a friend. And now John was dead. And it’s safe to assume Jesus was sad.

13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Nestled in a chapter filled with miracles, we catch a glimpse of the miraculous compassion of our Savior. No sooner than he had gotten alone, possibly to grieve over John’s death and spend time in prayer, did the crowds find Him.

If this were me, I would likely have yelled to the crowd, “Can’t you leave me alone for five minutes! One of my best friends just died!”

But he didn’t. Instead of pushing them away, Jesus “had compassion” on them.

He healed their sick. And a few verses later, he fed 5,000 men with a few fish and bread. In the midst of personal grief, He continued to serve others with His life, and eventually, His death and resurrection.

That’s compassion. That’s miraculous. That’s Jesus.

It is a brief but powerful mixture of the person of Jesus in the totality of scripture and pictures that illuminate God’s word. A great portrayal of Jesus as “the Word”.

So take a moment and sit in a seat at your own funeral.

Forget who is speaking or even who is attending. Think on this: What are they going to say about you? What will they remember? “He was a great guy. What a sense of humor!” or “She was tender and caring, a friend who always had a shoulder to cry on.”

May I suggest that Moses can help us out here. This is how the Bible describes Moses’ death:

“So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 34:5)

Moses, one of the most important leaders in Scripture – whom God used to free Israel from slavery, to part the Red Sea and then gave him the Ten Commandments. Pretty heady stuff.

So how was Moses’ spiritual resume summarized? Look at that verse again. “Servant.” That’s it. “Moses, the servant of the Lord.”

The biggest compliment that can be given in this life, the one thing that every believer should want to be said as the sum total of his life: “… He was a servant of the Lord.”

Is that the kind of life you’re living? By God’s grace and for His glory alone, may it be so.

When you read the little Old Testament Book of Ruth, you find a treasure trove of reminders of God’s sovereignty and goodness – especially in the midst of suffering.

Ruth, a foreigner, showed amazing faith and trust in the God of Israel, in the midst of her own personal struggles and tragedy… (the death of her father-in-law, her spouse, and certain poverty).

But here’s one lesson we learn from Ruth: Suffering fertilizes our faith.

Tragedy caused Ruth to trust God in a way she never would have. Tragedy can either cause our faith to grow or cause us to be bitter.

When my wife and I first got married, we planted some little azalea bushes in the front yard. One day, while we were at work, my dad came over to fertilize our lawn. In the process, he scattered the ferilizer pellets on our new bushes, which eventually killed them. What was meant to bring growth — misapplied — brought death.

Just like that fertilizer, suffering will either grow our faith or diminish it. And that depends on what we believe about God.

Rom. 5:3-4 “…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…”

Suffering well means learning to trust God in our suffering. Rejoice because God is at work in your circumstances to grow your faith, to strengthen you, to produce endurance and character and hope — all for His glory AND for our good.

Proverbs 30:8-9 - “… give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”

Wow, what a prayer. Have you ever prayed this? I have not. But I’m going to start.

“God, I don’t want either riches or poverty. If I’m rich, I will be tempted to forget you. If I’m poor, I’ll be tempted to steal. Give me food for today, and let me be completely satisfied in you.”

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. -Psalm 90:14

• Jesus is God, has always been God, all things were created through Him (John 1)
• Holy, perfect God created the world in 6 days (Genesis 1)
• God created man in His image and it was good (Genesis 2)
• Man fell into sin (Genesis 3)
• Creation/Creator (Romans 1)
• All men have sinned (Romans 3)
• The wages of sin is death (Romans 6)
• We need a Savior! A Savior is coming (Isaiah 53)
• Jesus is our Savior! The four gospels (John 20)
• Jesus lived the perfect life, obeyed the law, and ransomed the church by atoning for our sin in His finished work on the Cross (Colossians 1)
• All believers saved by faith in Christ alone (Ephesians 2)
• All those whom He saves He will keep (Romans 8 )
• Jesus will return (1 Thessalonians 4)
• All believers will be restored and we will spend eternity worshiping our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Revelation 4)
• We can pray with John in (Revelation 22) “Come Lord Jesus.”

Amen.

Deuteronomy 8:11, 17-18 – “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statues, which I command you today…Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant with he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”

“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God. … Beware lest you say in your heart …”

… that it’s because of your hard work that you have blessings in your life. Imagine sitting down with your family to eat, and praying this prayer: “Lord, I worked hard for this meal. I provided for my family. Now we are going to eat the fruit of my labor.” No one would ever pray that, right? But if we could hear the sinful attitudes that our hearts often have, that’s exactly what our prayers would sound like.

I know for me, it’s so easy to look around at anything good in my life and think that it came to fruition because of my efforts and my diligence. Then, I can look at things that are not so good and think, “God, why haven’t you fixed those things yet?” How sinful and man-centered and blind that is.

But God is gracious to remind me often of HIS grace and mercy – that HE is the one who has caused everything that is good to be good. I am learning (slowly but surely) to see the evidences of grace in my life and in the lives of others and to be constantly reminded that nothing good has come from my hand. It is all God’s work, by God’s power, for God’s glory in Christ Jesus.

And while believers are filled with the Spirit, we still deal with indwelling sin. That means the Spirit is perfect, the gifts He gives are perfect, but we are not. Therefore, how we function in these gifts is not perfect.

No matter how “gifted” we may be, or how effective the spiritual gifts are, there will always be sinful motives that want to contaminate the righteous use of that gift.

For example, consider the gift of discernment: the ability to distinguish good from evil. Those with discernment often have a better “read” on a person or situation. It is a helpful gift to the Body of Christ.

Now consider how a believer – a sinner saved by grace – who has discernment, can fall into temptations connected to the function of their gift. This can be true of every spiritual gift. But for sake of illustration, consider some “dangers of a discerner:”

1. A discerner can confuse discernment and judgment. The gift of discernment is given to help us determine true from false, true gospel from false gospel, real from fake. Discernment is not given so that we can play God Junior, pronouncing judgment on others. Spiritual discernment will be seasoned by spiritual fruit, such as love and joy and self-control.
2. A discerner can hold a grudge and struggle forgiving. Seeing truth can be a blinding thing. We can see what someone’s failings are, and forget to forgive. Our perspective on a person or situation can be skewed when we let self-righteousness guide us instead of grace, forgetting the grace we have been given.
3. A discerner can speak truth, while forgetting “truth in love.” The statement, “I just call things like I see them,” biblically translated, can really mean, “I love my perspectives more than I love people.” When we speak the truth, it should be wrapped in grace, motivated by love, in hope and faith in Christ, knowing that He is at work.
4. A discerner can become a Pharisee instead of a “watchman.” It’s easy to take the gift to see the truth, and become “sin police.” Pharisees were notorious for using a microscope on other people’s hearts, while being blind to their own. We are to be watchmen on the wall, (Ezek. 33:7-15; Titus 1:9-13), keeping our eyes on the cross so that we can rightly discern our own hearts first, always through the lens of grace.

Let us remember the inspired words of Paul. I can have all gifts and power and understanding, “but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2b).