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“As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness,” Psalm 17:15.

I read Psalm 17 on the Lord’s Day morning past and then began a study of the verse 15. When time for the morning prayer meeting came round, I walked the few yards down to the church. The prayer meeting was opened by the singing of this psalm, which would indicate that the elder leading the prayer meeting also follows Robert Murray M‘Cheyne’s Bible Reading Calendar, something I recommend to all.

This psalm comes from the pen of David. God has been pleased to pass on to ensuing generations much blessed instruction through  the psalms and songs of the King of Israel of old.

Every one of the inspired psalms abounds with divine instruction on all things spiritual and related to the experiences of the saints of God. For this reason they have been a favourite portion of God’s Word to consult in times of perplexity, trouble and fear.

As one who holds to the Presbyterian form of church government and polity, I know how much the Psalms have meant to my forefathers in times of tribulation and distress. We sing still with joy the metrical form of the Psalms as compiled and arranged by our 17th century forefathers.

Today’s generation of Free Presbyterians need to make sure that this holy practice does not diminish or die!

In our verse there is given to the people of God a wonderful picture of the happy prospect that is theirs through the grace of God. What the future holds for the believer has ever been revealed by the Lord to His people. Thus Job, who had no written record of God’s Word, was able to say with assurance: “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me,” Job 19:25-27. There is so much in these words that it would take many sermons to expound them all!

Job was acquainted with the truth of the Redeemer and His then present existence. He knew of His second coming to this earth (which indicates he knew of His first coming) to rise up in power to rule the earth for that is implied in the Hebrew word translated ‘he shall stand’. (more…)

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek,” Romans 1:16.

This is a text that I am sure every true gospel preacher has preached from at least once. Most will have visited it many times in their ministry. It is a wonderful compendium of gospel truth!

The apostle Paul was truly a great man though he never attained to the realms by which worldly men today measure ‘greatness’!

Those whose faces and names frequently, if not ‘ad nauseam’, appear in news reports, will undoubtedly be forgotten, long before 2000 days are passed, never mind 2000 years!

It is believed that it was around AD 68 that the great man was put to death by the Roman Caesar, Nero. It is believed that he was converted to Christ (Acts 9:1-18) around about the early AD 30s. That means that he lived as a Christian and fervently served the Lord for some 35 years.

In those years, he left an indelible mark upon human history. He is still a guide, an inspiration, a pattern (1 Timothy 1:16)  and an example to the countless millions of Christians who have sought to obey the gospel Paul preached and follow Christ.

In our verse Paul speaks of being unashamed of the gospel. Without doubt there were many things regarding himself that Paul was ashamed of. He said of himself, “I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God,” 1 Corinthians 15:9. Paul never forgot his shameful pre-conversion days. His heart burned with a hatred for Christ, His Word and His people. His spirit is displayed to us in Acts 9:1. “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord,” Acts 9:1. He was ‘dragon-like’ in his fury against God and His people!

I recall, while a ministerial student (1965-68), Dr John Douglas, in our English Bible studies, saying it was likely that the memory of his former fury against the Lord that motivated him in his gospel labours and spurred him on so that he could later rightly claim, with due acknowledgement of God’s grace in it all: “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me,” 1 Corinthians 15:10.

He not only surpassed the labours of his fellow apostles, but I believe that he suffered for Christ more than they all. Of this he was warned on the day of his conversion. The Lord sent Ananias, a disciple in Damascus, to help Paul (or Saul as he was then known). “But the Lord said unto him (Ananias), Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: for I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake,” Acts 9:15-16.

And suffer he did as he later testified. “In labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?” 2 Corinthians 11:23-29.

These words tell us of his zeal for the Lord, his indifference to what he had to endure to spread the gospel, his courage and his patient endurance. He is indeed an example for every Christian today.

Please come to the famous verse 16. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek and note:

I. WHATEVER PAUL HAD TO BE ASHAMED OF IT WAS NOT THE GOSPEL!

He tells us why he was not ashamed of the gospel. (more…)