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“And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counsellor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom.” (2 Samuel 15:12)

Ahithophel stands as a cautionary tale for the dangerous downward spiral that bitterness and unforgiveness and a life-consuming personal vendetta will end up destroying your own life. In the Bible narrative, Ahithophel begins as a wise counselor to king David. His counsel and wisdom was so well regarded by both David and the people that “it was as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God” (2 Sam. 16:23). It would be fair to say he was the wisest counselor in all the kingdom. However, Ahithophel went from David’s trusted counselor to his bitter enemy joining Absalom’s rebellion and plotting how he can help Absalom destroy David. What happened to cause this drastic change?

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“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17)

How amazing and precious is it that the sovereign God of this universe thinks about me? We read earlier in this chapter that God is intimately acquainted with even the apparently mundane actions of our lives. Even our downsitting and our uprising (Ps. 139:2), God’s children getting up and down, in and out of bed, God is aware of these and every action of our lives. However, God does not just have knowledge of the events of our lives, but God is actively thinking about each of his children individually! How precious to know he’s thinking about me! And he’s thinking about you!

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We are saved eternally solely by the unconditional, sovereign grace of God bestowed upon his children (2 Tim. 1:9, Eph. 2:8-9), and the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross (John 19:30, Heb. 9:12). However, there are other ways in which the child of God can feel the power of their eternal salvation in their lives here and now. How do we “lay hold” of the eternal life (1 Tim. 6:12) we rightfully have in Christ? For those already given spiritual life by God’s sovereign work in regeneration, how do we live and lay hold on the “abundant life” (John 10:10) that the Lord has for his children here in the kingdom of God? The first step to laying hold on the blessings of eternal life and pressing into the abundant life is to believe in Christ, publicly confess that belief before the church, and be baptized. If we see one professing belief in Christ, that is evidence they have already been born again by the immediate work of the Holy Spirit in their soul. The scriptures consistently affirm that belief is the evidence that one has already been born again (1 John 5:1, John 5:24, 6:47, 1:12-13), never the cause that initiates regeneration. Although belief is not the means of the new birth, there is a powerful deliverance and peace that floods the soul of God’s child when they profess belief and are baptized that they have never felt in their heart and soul before. This powerful experience of joy and peace in their heart feels like they “got saved” the day they believed. That is because they did “get saved” that day they believed and were baptized. That is not when they were born again, but that was the day they felt the power of God’s peace flood their soul that delivered them from bondage, shame, fear, ignorance, and many other things. That is why many of God’s children describe their experience in belief and baptism as “When I got saved…” They felt a deliverance and salvation in their soul they never felt before, but that was the effect of their obedience to God in belief rather than when they were born again from death to life. This salvation in gospel obedience highlights the necessity in distinguishing two different aspects of salvation in scripture: 1) eternal salvation that is accomplished solely by grace and the finished work of Christ, and 2) conditional time salvation where the child of God lays hold on the salvation that is rightfully theirs here in the course of time in their life and they feel deliverance, peace, and joy in their heart in their experience of discipleship.

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It is a very common struggle in this world for God’s children to wonder “am I really saved?” Let me first say before we dig into this lesson, that is never a question that a person will ever ask that is unregenerate, so just your desire to ask that question is evidence that you are already born again and the Spirit inside you is stirring for you to ask that question. God gave us the scriptures and the gospel that we would have “assurance” of our salvation; that we would “know” we have eternal life. That language of “I know” I am saved has got a lot of attention in Christian circles. Some might even say that you cannot “know” you are saved. This thought runs in direct contradiction to the assurances to “know” you are saved that we will study in 1st John. It is not prideful or presumptuous to use Biblical language that we can “know” we have eternal life. God does not intend for his children to be constantly doubting if they are his child or not and if he really loves them or not. To put it another way, I want my children to “know” I love them and never to doubt that. I want to verbally tell them I love them, but there are other ways they can see through my actions that I love them, and I want them to be assured to have total confidence of how much I love them. In a much greater sense, it’s obvious that God wants us to “know” he loves us, and he has given us great assurances to examine to “know” how much God truly loves us. We will study some specific language from the epistle of 1st John of actions where we can “know” we have eternal life.

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As we begin to make New Year’s Resolutions for the upcoming year in 2026, arguably no resolution is more important than a renewed commitment to the reading and study of God’s word. We hope you will embark with us on this one-year Bible reading plan designed to read your Bible all the way through in the next year.

Click here to view and download a PDF of the 2026 One Year Bible Reading Plan

To aid you in reading God’s word, you might consider downloading this Bible Timeline of the Old and New Testament to place each passage of scripture in the appropriate historical context.

Click here to view and download a PDF of the Biblical Timeline of the Old and New Testament

“Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:” (1 Pet. 2:23)

One of the most challenging things to do in our lives is to follow the example of Jesus Christ when we are reviled, slandered, and bore false witness against. The Savior did not render railing for railing (1 Pet. 3:9), but as a lamb dumb before his shearer, he opened not his mouth (Isaiah 53:7). Instead of defending himself against every false witness, Christ “committed himself to him that judgeth righteously”. We see from Christ, Stephen, and Paul’s examples that false witnesses are a house of cards that will eventually fold in upon themselves. As with Christ, the false witnesses did not agree together and even Pilate could see these were just unfounded lies. If we commend ourselves over to the righteous judgment of the Lord, then he will ensure that the lies of the devil collapse under their own weight and our righteous character is defended.

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The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart in the ten plagues against Egypt is a very interesting study in the intersection between God’s sovereignty, God’s will, and also man’s responsibility and man’s sin. We are told that God turns the king’s heart whithersoever he will, and this is very clear with Pharaoh. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” (Prov. 21:1) Who is responsible for the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart – God, Pharaoh, or just the general disposition of stubborn men and the unregenerate in this world? The answer is “Yes”. All three are true.

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During the early 1800’s it was a time of great outpouring of God’s Spirit and additions to the Baptist Church. From 1801 to 1802 AD in the churches of Kentucky, about 6,000 persons were baptized within about an 8 month period. During the same two-year period in the Kehukee Association in North Carolina, about 1,500 members were baptized into their churches. Within 18 months beginning in 1812, Elder Wilson Thompson baptized some 400 to 500 persons into Bethel Church in Missouri. In 1829, Elder John Leland wrote, “In the south part of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, there are more than a thousand Baptist churches, now existing, which arose from that beginning” (referring to the constitution of Sandy Creek Church in North Carolina by Elders Daniel Marshall and Shubal Stearns in 1755.) This period of growth continued for many years until, unfortunately, in response to the great number of additions and baptisms, the unscriptural necessity of “missions” to continue to convert men to the church was introduced. This caused the division between the Old School, Primitive Baptists, and the New School, Missionary Baptist in the 1830’s. (numbers and quotes above are taken from Hassell’s History)

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“Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.” (Haggai 1:7)

In America, we want the “effects” of revival without the uncomfortable and life rearranging “causes” of revival. We all want to see new converts come to the truth, baptisms, churches growing, even churches being planted; we all want to see the effects of revival. However, we are unwilling to deeply and intimately evaluate the areas of our life that need to change and repent of the actions that initiate such a revival. Radical repentance – not just casually feeling sorry for some of our actions but radical, life rearranging changes in our lives – is one of the great causes of revival that we are unwilling to undertake. THERE IS NO REVIVAL WITHOUT RADICAL REPENTANCE.

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“O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.” (Habakkuk 3:2)

This prayer of Habakkuk should set the tone for our prayers every day, but especially during the times we are living in today. It seems we live in a culture very similar to Habakkuk’s day, bemoaning the reality of ungodliness and justifiably frustrated with the wickedness in the culture around us. We question like Habakkuk, “O Lord how long?” How long will you seemingly not answer the prayers of your people and allow wickedness to continue to wax greater and greater every day? God, why are you allowing all of this violence and iniquity to occur (Hab. 1:1-4)?

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