Today’s Scripture

April 16

Luke 18:9

 

I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” ~ Luke 18:8

According to this, true faith will be mostly rare when He returns, as it was during Noah’s time (Luke 17:26), when only eight people were saved. Before His return, there will be persecution, apostasy, and unbelief (Matthew 24:9-13, Matthew 24:24). Is it rare for you to converse about Jesus Christ with other people during your day or is it rare?

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ~ Luke 18:9

This parable is rich with truth about the doctrine of justification by faith. It illustrates perfectly how a sinner who is utterly devoid of personal righteousness may be declared righteous before God instantaneously through an act of repentant faith. The parable is addressed to Pharisees who trusted their own righteousness (Luke 18:10-11). Such confidence in one’s inherent righteousness is a damning hope (Romans 10:3; Philippians 3:9), because human righteousness—even the righteousness of the most fastidious Pharisee—falls short of the divine standard (Mat_5:48). Scripture consistently teaches that sinners are justified when God’s perfect righteousness is imputed to their account (Gen 15:6; Romans 4:4-5; 2Co 5:21; Philippians 3:4-9)—and it was only on that basis that this tax collector (or anyone else) could be saved.  ~ MacArthur Bible Commentary

Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord.

And He (And He) shall lift (shall lift)

You up (higher and higher)

And He (And He) shall lift (shall lift) you up.

Up into heaven.

 

Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” ~ Luke 18:17

Become as little children is how Jesus characterized conversion. Like the Beatitudes, this verse pictures faith as the simple, helpless, trusting dependence of those who have no resources of their own. Like children, they have no achievements and no accomplishments to offer or with which to commend themselves. ~ MacArthur Bible Commentary

Read / Listen
Joshua 13:1-14:15
Luke 18:1-17
Psalm 85:1-13
Proverbs 13:7-8

 


New Testament

Luke 18:1-17

The Parable of the Persistent Widow
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
Let the Children Come to Me

 

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

 

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

 

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” ~ Luke 18:9-14

 

 

Overview: Luke 10-24  Click Here to Watch Video

 

Listen to John MacArthur on today’s scripture below

 
 
Persistent Prayer for the Lord’s Return
 Luke 18:1–8
 
The Lord knew then that a long time would go by, by our measurement, not by His.  A day with Him is 1,000 years, 1,000 years is a day because He is eternal.  But for us it’s a long time.  It was probably a long time for some of the disciples when it was just years and then when it was centuries and now it’s a couple of millennia, 2,000 years.  And continually Christ is dishonored and Christ is denied His rightful place.  And the Word of God is unappreciated and assaulted and attacked.  And Christians are treated with rejection and persecution and hostility and even martyrdom through these two millennia.  We suffer at the hands of Satan and the world and we suffer the persecution of a hostile environment and we long for Christ to come back and destroy the ungodly and destroy sin and the reign of Satan and set up His kingdom.  We want all that.  We long for all of that.  But in the intervening time the message is very clear from our Lord: Don’t lose heart. Keep praying to that end.  This is instruction for us that it’s unmistakable: at all times, at all times.  That simply means through all the events and all the seasons and all the eras and all the sweeping years that go by, we are to pray and not lose heart.  “Lose heart” comes from a Greek verb egkakeō, which means “to become weary,” “to give in” or “to become a coward,” turn coward.  It’s used only here by Luke but five times by Paul and it always has that…that meaning.  Don’t give up hope that Jesus is coming. Mockers will come, as Peter says. Where is the promise of His coming?  Denying the Second Coming.  We will be a…ridiculed for saying Jesus is coming, but He is coming.  Don’t lose heart.  Don’t become cowardly.  As Matthew 24:13 records, our Lord says “he that endures to the end shall be saved.”  It’s that enduring faith that marks the true believer.  So this is not a call to prayer in general like, “Pray without ceasing.”  That’s a call to unceasing prayer in general.  This is a call to eschatological prayer, pray that the Lord will come and pray for the strength to endure until He arrives, to endure the flesh, the world, the devil, the hostility against the gospel, persecution, rejection, and even martyrdom.  This is eschatological praying.  ~ John MacArthur
 
 
Who Can Be Right With God? Part 1
 Luke 18:9–14

Now all this talk about the kingdom then raises a very basic question: How does one get into this kingdom?  How is one made right with God?  How is one reconciled to God?  That is the big, big question and that is the question our Lord answers in this simple story.  How can a person be right with God?  This is not a new question. This is a question that plagued and haunted the people of the earliest biblical era.  Back in the book of Job written in the patriarchal period, Job chapter 9, verse 1, Job answered in truth, “I know that this is so but how can a man be right with God?”  How can we be righteous before God?  How can we be justified before God?  How can it be?

And there are some compelling reasons why the question is not easy to answer.  It is not easy to answer because we know for certain that no person, no one of us, can on our own achieve this righteousness and they understood if they understood the Old Testament at all that this is a biblical truth.  There was no way that a sinner could be righteous on his own, for the Scripture says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and the prophet also said that all our righteousness is as filthy rags.  The dilemma then is if we are sinful and God demands righteousness, how can a man be right with God?  How can we be justified?  ~ John MacArthur

 
      
   
Dr. J. Vernon McGee - Thru the Bible

Dr. J. Vernon McGee – Thru the Bible

 

16-18 – J Vernon Mcgee – Thru the Bible

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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