Tuesday: The Taking of Oaths

By James Boice

Sermon: To Tell the Truth

Scripture: Matthew 5:33-37

In this week’s lessons, we see the importance of telling the truth, and of the need to cultivate a godly heart and mind.

Theme: The Taking of Oaths

One of the earliest examples of the taking of an oath by God is in the remarkable story of the execution of His covenant with Abraham. When God had called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees into Palestine He promised that the land would be his and would belong to his seed forever. Abraham had believed God implicitly, for God is the only being in the universe who cannot lie and who has never made a mistake.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Monday: The Need for the Truth

By James Boice

Sermon: To Tell the Truth

Scripture: Matthew 5:33-37

In this week’s lessons, we see the importance of telling the truth, and of the need to cultivate a godly heart and mind.

Theme: The Need for the Truth

This is the fourth of Christ's six great illustrations of true morality in the Sermon on the Mount: victory over anger, purity in sexual matters, faithfulness in marriage, truth, selflessness, and love. It teaches the paramount importance of speaking truthfully. 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Friday: True Marriage

By James Boice

Sermon: For Time and Eternity

Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32

In this week’s lessons, we learn what faithfulness in marriage means through a dramatic illustration from the life of the prophet Hosea.

Theme: True Marriage

"In the light of this story we see the inner meaning of marriage as set forth in the Word of God. Marriage is the union of Christ and the Church. 

"Christ is the faithful one. We are the ones who slip into flirtation and then into adultery with the world. We are loved by Christ Jesus, but we are drawn aside by our own desires and seduced from our love of Christ. Such a seduction is the worst of all transgressions since it is the sin against the love of Christ. He is faithful to the end, loving us when we were unlovely, and taking us through all steps of our wandering to the place of redemption and final attachment to Himself forever. 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Thursday: God's Faithfulness

By James Boice

Sermon: For Time and Eternity

Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32

In this week’s lessons, we learn what faithfulness in marriage means through a dramatic illustration from the life of the prophet Hosea.

Theme: God’s Faithfulness

"Hosea did not act in this way because he was reflecting the love of God, and God never acts thus with those whom He has redeemed by His blood. Hosea took Gomer and led her toward their home, and as they went he said to her, 'Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.' 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Wednesday: Gomer the Slave

By James Boice

Sermon: For Time and Eternity

Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32

In this week’s lessons, we learn what faithfulness in marriage means through a dramatic illustration from the life of the prophet Hosea.

Theme: Gomer the Slave

"Does God love us like that? Listen to the story as it is recorded in the third chapter of Hosea: 'Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love this woman, beloved of her friend, this adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel.' Love her? 'Even as the LORD loves the people of Israel.' But Lord, she is a harlot, sold on the auction block as an adulterous slave! 'Go love her,' says God, 'love her, even as the Lord loves you.' 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Tuesday: Gomer and Her Lovers

By James Boice

Sermon: For Time and Eternity

Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32

In this week’s lessons, we learn what faithfulness in marriage means through a dramatic illustration from the life of the prophet Hosea.

Theme: Gomer and Her Lovers

"Hosea and Gomer had three children, and God dictated the name for each, in order to illustrate the tragedy which their willfulness would bring. Of the first child God said, 'Call his name Jezreel,’ (scattered); and God has scattered the Jews all over the world. Gomer next bore a daughter, and God said, 'Call her name Lo-ruhamah,' (not pitied), 'for I will no more have pity on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all.' Hosea was instructed to name the third child, a son, 'Lo-ammi,’ (not my people); 'For you are not my people and I am not your God' (Hosea 1:4, 6, 9). 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Monday: Hosea and Gomer

By James Boice

Sermon: For Time and Eternity

Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32

In this week’s lessons, we learn what faithfulness in marriage means through a dramatic illustration from the life of the prophet Hosea.

Theme: Hosea and Gomer

t several points in our earlier studies of the nature of Christian marriage, I pointed out that according to the Bible God has established marriage, not primarily to promote happiness among mankind or even for reproduction. He has established it primarily as an illustration of the relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and His bride, the Church. Marriage is to show that when God joins a man or a woman to Jesus Christ in salvation He does so in love and in a bond that will endure forever. 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Friday: God's Standards

By James Boice

Sermon: Divorce and Remarriage

Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32

In this week’s lessons, we look at the subjects of divorce and remarriage, and learn what the biblical standards are for those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Theme: God’s Standards

There is hardly a matter in the Christian Church today that is treated with more laxity than divorce and remarriage. As a result, it is always easy to get our standards from what other people do or say or from what we should like the Bible to say. But we must not do that. We must be people of the Book, and we must not lower its standards. 

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Thursday: Deuteronomy 24

By James Boice

Sermon: Divorce and Remarriage

Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32

In this week’s lessons, we look at the subjects of divorce and remarriage, and learn what the biblical standards are for those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Theme: Deuteronomy 24

Yesterday, we concluded with the first reason why the exception clause of fornication in both Matthew 19 and Matthew 5 does not refer to adultery.

Yesterday, we concluded with the first reason why the exception clause of fornication in both Matthew 19 and Matthew 5 does not refer to adultery. The second reason why this must be the meaning of the passages in Matthew 5:32 and 19:9 is that each is in essence an explanation of Deuteronomy 24:1-4, which teaches precisely what we have already been saying.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Wednesday: What is Fornication?

By James Boice

Sermon: Divorce and Remarriage

Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32

In this week’s lessons, we look at the subjects of divorce and remarriage, and learn what the biblical standards are for those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Theme: What Is Fornication?

At this point someone will say, "I agree with you in general terms. Certainly. that is the ideal. But what of adultery? Doesn't adultery dissolve the marriage contract? And isn't that what Jesus Christ was talking about when He made the exception ‘except for fornication’ in Matthew?" No, I do not believe that this is what Jesus was talking about either in Matthew 19 or in the Sermon on the Mount.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

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