In one short statement Paul sums up both the gravity and the scope of the human condition.

What is the great damage that sin inflicts? Worst of all, sin causes us to fall short—not just of parental expectations or personal potential—but of the glory, or praise, of God. God will not praise anything that is flawed, that is evil, that is contrary to the perfection and goodness of His nature. And so God will never be satisfied with the sin-stained actions of sinful people. In other words, it is impossible for us to please God on our own.

How widespread is this problem? It is absolute; it is universal. “All have sinned” and so all have fallen short of the good standard of the righteous God. There are not exceptions to this pitiful human plight. Every human is in need of alien, other-worldly righteousness in order to please God.

The only solution to this universal and dire condition of humanity, Paul tells us, is “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe” (3:22). Only the perfect righteousness of God can earn the praise of God; but that righteousness is by faith of Jesus Christ, to all who believe.

Are you still hoping to please God with your own goodness, which falls infinitely short of God’s good standard? Or are you trusting in the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ?

That a virgin would bring forth a son is astounding; that Jesus will certainly save His people is reassuring; that God would condescend to be with us is humbling. But there is another point that Matthew purposefully interjects into the inspired account of Jesus’ birth, and it is this: “all this was done, that it might be fulfilled.”

When you think of Biblical prophecy, do you think of God describing events that will later come to pass, or of God declaring that events will later come to pass? In other words, is prophecy simply God “looking down through the tunnel of time,” seeing what is going to happen, and reporting what he sees? Or is prophecy the declaration of God, based upon his almighty power and wisdom, of what he has foreordained to happen?

If we speculated that prophecy is merely description based on foresight, then we would expect Matthew to say something like this: “so God had spoken all these things by the prophet because they were going to happen later.” But Matthew actually says the opposite! “All this was done, that it might be fulfilled…” All these things happened, Matthew says, because God said they were going to happen!

From Matthew’s careful wording in this story, we learn that God’s word is more certain, more secure, more immovable than any event on earth. Reality itself must conform to the perfect purpose and plan of God. And this choice of words by Matthew is no mistake or anomaly. Matthew uses the exact same phrase—“that it might be fulfilled”—no less than ten times throughout his gospel!

Clearly, Matthew intends for us to see God’s omnipotence shaping reality with his Word. Is that the way you view the world around you today?

Because the exact significance of any particular number is ultimately nothing more than an educated guess, trying to read into every number, or certain numbers every time, an infallible lesson or implication is an extreme that we should avoid. However, considering this caution, many Bible students agree on the following symbolism behind certain numbers:

The number one suggests unity or beginnings. Paul wrote, “There is one body and one Spirit, . . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:4-5). Jesus Christ is called the “firstborn from the dead” (Revelation 1:5).

The number three denotes completeness and/or the Trinity. Jesus rose the third day, Jonah spent three days and nights in the whale’s belly, Peter denied Christ three times, and Jesus prayed three times to the Father before He was taken to be crucified. John wrote, “There are three that bare record in heaven…” (1 John 5:7).

The number seven denotes perfection. God created the seven-day week and the seventh-day Sabbath. Jacob served seven years for Rachel. God gave Israel seven annual Sabbaths and seven festivals to observe. In Revelation, John records Jesus’ seven letters to the seven churches.

The number twelve may also have unique significance, as it seems to suggest organizational beginnings and governmental completeness. God established the twelve tribes of Israel and Jesus inaugurated His church by anointing twelve apostles to lead it.

The number forty denotes a time of testing or trial. In Noah’s day it rained on the earth for forty days and nights. Israel wandered in the wilderness forty years. Moses’ life consisted of three distinct fourty-year periods. Christ was tempted for forty days in the wilderness.

Several other numbers may also have spiritual significance: for instance, five (grace), six (man), eleven (incompleteness or disorder), and thirteen (backsliding or rebellion).

While it is helpful to keep these observations in mind while studying God’s Word, it is important in any Bible study to remember that “the main things are the plain things.” We ought not become so preoccupied with Bible codes (which don’t exist) or underlying themes (which do exist) that we are distracted from the clear teaching and application of God’s sufficient Word (Psalm 119:130; Titus 3:3-9).

The only think constant in this world is change. Fashions change; people change; governments change; even the earth’s topography changes over time.

But God does not change; he is immutable. Although he is a person, he reminds us that he is not a human and therefore does not change his mind as humans do (Numbers 23:19).

It is this unique attribute of God that inspired David to compare God to a rock (mountain); he is stable, solid, reliable, firm, immovable. David asks the rhetorical question, “Who is God, save the Lord? and who is a rock, save our God?” (2 Samuel 22:32).

It is also this remarkable, eternally-the-same nature of God which God himself showcases in the proper name by which he describes himself to Moses: “I am that I am” (Exodus 3:14). God has always been, is now, and will always be the same. Therefore he is the great “I AM” — not “I was” or “I will be”, but from eternity past to eternity future, God says, “I AM”.

James points us to this invariableness of God in order to comfort and encourage us. The God who never changes will always make good on his promises. Nothing will get in his way, he will never need to reconsider.

This includes the wonderful work of salvation that he has begun in you, believer! He that has begun a good work in you will continue it to the end (Philippians 1:6).

From June 15 to June 27th a team of volunteers from our church ministered in Tamil Nadu, India. During the course of our visit, we were able to visit numerous churches, 4 orphanages, 3 children’s tuition centers, 3 medical clinics, and 2 sewing centers — all of which are being used mightily by God to share the gospel in poverty stricken areas.

I was thankful and amazed to see how God has been blessing the efforts there to the glory of Jesus Christ. As you may know, the Baptist Witness is translated into Tamil each month and it was a thrill to meet faithful readers, whether in small home prayer groups in Salem or in a children’s tuition center in the Yercaud mountains. What a blessing to see and hear first hand how the Lord has been using these, and other sermons and literature from our ministry, to convert and instruct and encourage so many!

Brother Guna, and the other dedicated ministers associated with the Good Samaritan Trust, have tirelessly been laboring to get out the gospel of Christ in every place possible. Besides the work in the state of Tamil Nadu that we visited, they also have been blessed to establish numerous preaching points in the state of Andrapradesh.

But the blessings on our trip were not automatic, of course. In fact, after our first full day in the Salem area, I was somewhat discouraged and disheartened, feeling keenly my own great weakness and inability to empower all the ministry that needed to be done. That night I wrote in my journal:

“Lord, please answer the prayers you seem to be indicting! I cannot express the weakness and feebleness I feel. God give me more faith in you, that you can move, reach, touch, enflame hearts anyway, anywhere. Bless me with the wisdom and strength to compliment, and not hinder, the means your  Spirit might use. But, oh, to see you move mightily and soon! Grow us all.”

But what a blessing to write the very next day:

“Wow! God answers prayer! I went to bed weeping last night, feeling so unable to bless this trip…today was an amazing, above-and-beyond answer.”

A big part of that for me was this event: we were coming from sharing the gospel at a sewing center where a group of Hindu women had been very receptive, on our way back to the Veppamarathur church and orphanage. We stopped by the new home of Elizabeth and Zachariah, a precious couple whose amazing conversion had been shared with me during my last trip here.

While we were there, they introduced us to Zachariah’s brother and his wife, with whom they had been sharing the gospel and taking with them to church for several weeks. They told Guna they were ready to be baptized, and he assured them it would be done soon.

We drove a couple of miles on to the church and spent some time there visiting and praying in the shade of a grassy hill; when we walked back to the church grounds, this same couple was waiting – they had walked there, with their clothes, and were graciously insistent that we baptize them as soon as possible!

Not knowing the extent of their understanding, I shared a gospel summary and baptism lesson from Romans 6, emphasizing the need for a changed life – the more I shared, the more excited she became! Zachariah and Elizabeth said the whole community had seen the change in their life since they had started attending church with them. Apparently the husband had been a daily drunkard who had previously abused his wife and children severely. But since they had begun to embrace the gospel of Christ, he had entirely quit drinking and had been transformed into a loving and dedicated husband and father.

According to Christian custom in India, I gave the couple their new and Christian names: Aquila and Priscilla. I exhorted them to be members like this mighty and godly couple from the New Testament church. Then I was blessed to baptize them, with smiles and tears still on their faces.

This was just one of countless examples during our trip of the Spirit’s moving in mighty and evident ways. It was refreshing to see the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to convict and comfort in the midst of any culture or spiritual captivity. My prayer is that that we will see similar signs of the power and advancement of the kingdom of Christ in this nation, starkly setting his church on the cultural horizon — a city on a hill that can not be hidden.

The exact same event described by Jesus as being a dreadful and terrible day for some, who will quake with fear, is promised to others as a day of deliverance.

When the Son of man, Jesus Christ, returns to earth in all his power and glory, it will be the end of everything as we know it. On the one hand, for those who have sought their satisfaction in material things, it will be the end of all their hopes. On the other hand, for those who have been diligently seeking first the kingdom of God, it will be a deliverance from the afflictions and cares of this world.

How will it be for you? Are you laying up for yourself treasures here on earth, as Jesus warned us against, where moth and rust and thieves are able to corrupt and steal our heart’s treasure? Or is your heart’s treasure in heaven and all of your resources devoted to that which is eternal?

Will the coming of Christ be fearful, and the loss of all you have? Or will it be the joyful return on a careful and lifelong investment? It all depends on how you are living now, on what your priorities are now, on where your faith is now.

If your faith is now in Jesus Christ, and you are fervently following his ways, then when you see him coming in all his glory, look up! Your redemption is almost here.

This profession of faith comes from the lips of one of the most unlikely characters in the Bible — a prostitute, a heathen, and a citizen of an enemy nation to God’s people. But it is exactly the unexpectedness of her faith which makes her such a source of biblical comfort and admonition. 

On the one hand, Rahab shows us there is no valid excuse for unbelief in the one true God. Rahab’s faith in the one true God was the reason she did not perish with the unbelieving heathen who surrounded her in Jericho, Hebrews reminds us. Also, James uses Rahab as an example of one whose genuine faith is shown by concrete acts of obedience and sacrifice.

When Rahab heard the report of all that God had done for his people—delivering them out of Egypt, drying up the Jordan, conquering powerful kings—she trusted that this was the one true God in heaven and in earth. If Rahab could come out of such a conflicting and hostile society, to such a potent and unyielding faith, then it proves no circumstantial or cultural barrier is strong enough to overcome genuine faith in the one true God. 

There is also great comfort in the story of Rahab, particularly for those who are saved out of sinful lifestyles. Here was a promiscuous woman, with dubious connections, and a dark and pagan past who was used of the Lord to deliver his people and eventually even usher in the Christ.

What a powerful witness Rahab is of God’s ability to forgive, to cleanse, and even to use those who come to him by faith. May your faith lead you to courageous and sacrificial obedience today, in the knowledge of Christ’s cleansing and healing power for your past.

As we consider this text we first look at the man. Paul was transformed by Jesus Christ.  He had opposed the gospel; he had persecuted the church. But when Christ met him on the road to Damascus he was changed and was surrendered to Christ, desiring above everything else to know Him better and serve Him diligently.

We then see the message. He was not bringing a message to make people feel good about themselves, but was preaching the gospel of Christ which brings hope to fallen sinners. Every doctrine which he taught and every practical admonition he gave was connected to the person of Jesus Christ.

And then we see the method. He was not depending on oratorical ability or philosophical explanation, he was depending on the power of the Spirit to use the message effectively.

This centurion knew authority when he saw it. He himself commanded one hundred men, and he had witnessed countless examples of power and authority within the ranks of the Roman army. And he knew Jesus had it.

As a result, the centurion did not come pleading his worth (although the Jews made the mistake of pleading his merit to Jesus). He knew that there was no claim he could make upon Jesus’ power; if Jesus healed, it would be because he wished to heal, not because the centurion deserved the favor.

Further, the centurion had such confidence in Jesus’ authority that he knew Jesus could do what had not even been seen or done yet, apparently. Jesus had so far only healed in person, but the centurion knew that anyone who could heal personally could also heal from a distance if he so desired. “Speak the word only” was all that Jesus had to do and the centurion knew his servant would be healed.

Jesus’ reply to the centurion is just as remarkable as the centurion’s statement. Jesus exclaimed, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel” (v.10). This is quite a compliment, coming from anyone. But for Jesus himself to marvel at the centurion’s faith tells us it is certainly something to emulate ourselves.

When you come to God in prayer, do you see yourself as deserving his favor or do you realize that you are not even worthy to come before him in the first place? No matter what displays of power or answered prayer you have seen in the past, do you have faith that he is able to do even more than you have witnessed?

Has history taught us any lesson more clearly or convincingly than that death is inevitable? Even for Methuselah there would finally be a 970^th year that he would not see: despite his unique longevity, his remarkable story would still reach its eventual conclusion. The only two people in the entire history of mankind that have evaded death—Enoch and Elijah—are perhaps most well known for the very fact that they so unexpectedly escaped death’s inescapable clutches.

We frantically attempt to entertain away, or dye away, or exercise away death’s calling card: age. Yet, in the back of each of our minds, there is an ever-present awareness that our days are finite; it shows in the choices that we make regarding retirement, life insurance, and even mortgages (there’s a reason why you’ve never heard of a hundred-year mortgage!).

The recognition of our own frailty is apparently one of the lessons that God would have us draw from our experience in this world: “Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am” (Psalm 39:4). This awareness should lead us to a serious contemplation of the meaning and purpose for our life.

What is the meaning of life? A question often asked, but rarely with any real desire to be confronted with the answer. John reveals to us, in the heart-cry of the heavenly throng, why we are here: “thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11). We are here to please our Creator, to do his good pleasure each day of our lives. As our Creator, he is always worthy to receive all that we have to give.