Truth For Life Program
Alistair Begg Devotional
C. H. Spurgeon Devotional
One-Year Bible Reading Plan
Naaman, the king’s commander, quickly realized how meaningless wealth and power are against leprosy. Follow his search for healing, and discover where to find the cure for “spiritual leprosy.” That’s the focus on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg.
From the Sermon
Good News in a Bad News World
2 Kings 5:1–14 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 51:27 • ID: 1875
Will He Find Fruit?
Here is a narrative which “bristles with difficulties.”[1]
What’s staggering about Jesus cursing a fig tree here is that this is a miracle of destruction. Everything else that we see Jesus doing up to this point in Mark’s Gospel has been a miracle of transformation or of restoration. Since this is a complete aberration in contrast with Jesus’ other actions, we need to dig deeper into its significance.
In the Old Testament, both the vine and the fig tree are routinely used as metaphors to describe the Israelites’ status before God. When good fruit is growing from the vine or the tree, all is well; when bad fruit or no fruit is growing, God’s people have gone astray.
As Jesus observed the utter emptiness that was represented in the religious activities at that time, these words of the prophet Micah may have come to His mind: “Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires” (Micah 7:1).
Jesus’ cursing of a fig tree, then, was far from arbitrary. This scene was an acted parable of prophetic symbolism. He used the fig tree to demonstrate the judgment that was about to fall on Jerusalem. Jesus had come to the center of religious life looking for prayerfulness and fruitfulness and had discovered neither. The barren fig tree was emblematic of a ceremonial, religious legalism that claimed to satisfy the hungry heart and to please God, but when the people committed themselves to such religion, there was nothing there to satisfy—and this act of the divine Son shows that God was far from pleased.
Does this prophetic warning hold any significance for us, who live so far away from fig trees and temples? Yes! The challenge to bear good fruit is for us as well. Yet we must also beware confusing religious observances or rule-keeping self-righteousness with true fruit. God’s people are always in danger of an empty legalism replacing a vibrant relationship. What is the way to heed the warning of the withered fig tree? Elsewhere, Jesus tells us, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit [the Father] takes away … I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:2, 5). In other words, we must look not to do better but to know Jesus more.
Is any aspect of what this fig tree represents true of your life? When Jesus comes and searches us, will He find fruit on our branches? Will He find faith? Remain humbly connected to Jesus, our Vine, and His Spirit will grow in you the very fruit for which He is looking.
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?
I Am the True Vine
1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
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.
Christ Is My Teacher
Teacher.
If the young man in the Gospel used this title in speaking to our Lord, it is only right that we should address Him in this way. He is indeed my Teacher in that He rules and teaches me. I am glad to run His errands and to sit at His feet. I am both His servant and His disciple and count it my highest honor to serve Him in this way. He is a good teacher. If He should ask me why I call Him "good," I could answer easily.
It is true that "no one is good except God alone,"1 but then He is God, and all the goodness of Deity shines in Him. In my experience I have found Him to be good, indeed so good that all the good I have has come to me through Him. He was good to me when I was dead in sin, for He raised me by His Spirit's power; He has been good to me in all my needs, trials, struggles, and sorrows. There could never be a better Teacher, for His service is freedom, His rule is love: I wish I were one thousandth part as good a servant. When He teaches me, He is unspeakably good, His doctrine is divine, His manner is gracious, His spirit is gentleness itself.
There is no error in His instruction: Pure is the golden truth that He presents, and all His teachings lead to goodness, sanctifying as well as edifying the disciple. Angels know that He is good and delight to worship at His footstool. The ancient saints proved Him to be a good Teacher, and each of them rejoiced to sing, "I am Your servant, O Lord!"
My own humble testimony must certainly be to the same effect. I will declare this before my friends and neighbors, for possibly they may be led by my testimony to seek my Lord Jesus as their Teacher. O I long that they might do so! They would never regret the decision. If they would submit to His easy yoke, they would find themselves in such royal service that they would never want to leave. The school of grace rejoices to have such a Teacher!
1) Mark 10:18.
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 2
The Greatest Commandment
1“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules1—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. 3Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.2 5You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
10“And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. 14You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you—15for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
16“You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 17You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers 19by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.
20“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. 23And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. 24And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. 25And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’
I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the Lord
A Maskil1 of Ethan the Ezrahite.
1I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever;
with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
2For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;
in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”
3You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
4‘I will establish your offspring forever,
and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah
5Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord,
your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!
6For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?
Who among the heavenly beings2 is like the Lord,
7a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones,
and awesome above all who are around him?
8O Lord God of hosts,
who is mighty as you are, O Lord,
with your faithfulness all around you?
9You rule the raging of the sea;
when its waves rise, you still them.
10You crushed Rahab like a carcass;
you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
11The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours;
the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.
12The north and the south, you have created them;
Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name.
13You have a mighty arm;
strong is your hand, high your right hand.
14Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
15Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,
who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face,
16who exult in your name all the day
and in your righteousness are exalted.
17For you are the glory of their strength;
by your favor our horn is exalted.
18For our shield belongs to the Lord,
our king to the Holy One of Israel.
19Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one,3 and said:
“I have granted help to one who is mighty;
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
20I have found David, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him,
21so that my hand shall be established with him;
my arm also shall strengthen him.
22The enemy shall not outwit him;
the wicked shall not humble him.
23I will crush his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
24My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him,
and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
25I will set his hand on the sea
and his right hand on the rivers.
26He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’
27And I will make him the firstborn,
the highest of the kings of the earth.
28My steadfast love I will keep for him forever,
and my covenant will stand firm4 for him.
29I will establish his offspring forever
and his throne as the days of the heavens.
30If his children forsake my law
and do not walk according to my rules,5
31if they violate my statutes
and do not keep my commandments,
32then I will punish their transgression with the rod
and their iniquity with stripes,
33but I will not remove from him my steadfast love
or be false to my faithfulness.
34I will not violate my covenant
or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
35Once for all I have sworn by my holiness;
I will not lie to David.
36His offspring shall endure forever,
his throne as long as the sun before me.
37Like the moon it shall be established forever,
a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah
38But now you have cast off and rejected;
you are full of wrath against your anointed.
39You have renounced the covenant with your servant;
you have defiled his crown in the dust.
40You have breached all his walls;
you have laid his strongholds in ruins.
41All who pass by plunder him;
he has become the scorn of his neighbors.
42You have exalted the right hand of his foes;
you have made all his enemies rejoice.
43You have also turned back the edge of his sword,
and you have not made him stand in battle.
44You have made his splendor to cease
and cast his throne to the ground.
45You have cut short the days of his youth;
you have covered him with shame. Selah
46How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?
How long will your wrath burn like fire?
47Remember how short my time is!
For what vanity you have created all the children of man!
48What man can live and never see death?
Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah
49Lord, where is your steadfast love of old,
which by your faithfulness you swore to David?
50Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked,
and how I bear in my heart the insults6 of all the many nations,
51with which your enemies mock, O Lord,
with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.
52Blessed be the Lord forever!
Amen and Amen.
Judgment on the Nations
1Draw near, O nations, to hear,
and give attention, O peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;
the world, and all that comes from it.
2For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,
and furious against all their host;
he has devoted them to destruction,1 has given them over for slaughter.
3Their slain shall be cast out,
and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
the mountains shall flow with their blood.
4All the host of heaven shall rot away,
and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall fall,
as leaves fall from the vine,
like leaves falling from the fig tree.
5For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom,
upon the people I have devoted to destruction.
6The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood;
it is gorged with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7Wild oxen shall fall with them,
and young steers with the mighty bulls.
Their land shall drink its fill of blood,
and their soil shall be gorged with fat.
8For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9And the streams of Edom2 shall be turned into pitch,
and her soil into sulfur;
her land shall become burning pitch.
10Night and day it shall not be quenched;
its smoke shall go up forever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
none shall pass through it forever and ever.
11But the hawk and the porcupine3 shall possess it,
the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
He shall stretch the line of confusion4 over it,
and the plumb line of emptiness.
12Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom,
and all its princes shall be nothing.
13Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of jackals,
an abode for ostriches.5
14And wild animals shall meet with hyenas;
the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;
indeed, there the night bird6 settles
and finds for herself a resting place.
15There the owl nests and lays
and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;
indeed, there the hawks are gathered,
each one with her mate.
16Seek and read from the book of the Lord:
Not one of these shall be missing;
none shall be without her mate.
For the mouth of the Lord has commanded,
and his Spirit has gathered them.
17He has cast the lot for them;
his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it forever;
from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.
The Throne in Heaven
1After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings1 and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”
9And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
11“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
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