Daily Devotional

February 18

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Right in our own eyes—or God's?

Those who ignore God's word; who refuse to consider the gospel, with its light and its knowledge; who keep away from God's house and every form of instruction with respect to these matters; who argue that all that is necessary is that one should be sincere, that one should pay one's twenty shillings in the pound, give to charity, be friendly and affable—they are trusting to their own zeal, and to their own ideas, and are refusing to be enlightened as to what God really demands.

To them we must say what Paul said to his contemporaries, that having done all, they are simply establishing their own righteousness. We are not questioning their sincerity or their honesty.... But the vital question is, What is the value of it all? It is not God's way. It is not God's idea of righteousness but simply their own.
Surely the essence of wisdom is that before we begin to act at all, or to attempt to please God, we should discover what it is that God has to say about the matter. We must first learn His idea of righteousness, His demands.

But the men and women of today, like the Jews of old, take their orders everywhere except from God's word. They rely upon the statements of certain modern writers and live lives according to their own ideas rather than according to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. But let them go on.... Let them establish their own righteousness and refuse the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the day will surely come when they will discover that "that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15).

The vital question to ask, therefore, is, Whom are we really pleasing? Is it ourselves or God? Have we yielded to His way? Can we say that we have submitted our wills and surrendered them to Him?

Truth Unchanged, Unchanging, pp. 66-8

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“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”