March 13, 2005
The last hymn we sang brought to my thoughts Revelation 5. It begins with, And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaim with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in Heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. Now go to v. 9, And they sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign over the earth. The last hymn we sang said ‘Haste the day’ when he will come to reign; we sang ‘Thou art worthy.’ It is wonderful that we can pray ‘haste the day of thine appearing’, but today we have had the privilege of coming into the holiest of all and rendering homage. We have the privilege of remembering Him. There will be a day when we will sing ‘Thou art worthy’ to take the book and open it. In Revelation we can read what happens after the book was opened. But our names are in a book, and they cannot be taken out, just like the stones in the high priest’s breastplate that had the names of the children of Israel engraved in them. We have the joy of worship, and we will be able to do that better when we have our redeemed bodies and can understand his glory better. Now look at v. 6, and I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain. The work of the Lord, though past, is always present to us and we will bow down to Him in Heaven. But we can worship now, and give praise; how much more when we get our heavenly bodies! What a time that will be! This morning it has been our privilege to be able to sing ‘Thou art worthy’. He is worthy for both what He did at Calvary and for being God’s only beloved Son. “We love Him because he first loved us.” We’ll praise Him for ever and ever!
EG Hymn 31—“Precious, precious blood of Jesus” Prayer The Story of Peter’s Boat
A young boy by the name of Peter made a little wooden boat. While he was floating his new toy in the river, it was taken downstream by the current, and he lost it. Then one day he saw it in a store window. “That’s my boat!” he told the store manager. “No,” the man replied, “It’s mine.” “But I made it!” Peter insisted. “Well, I found it, so it’s mine,” “But it’s mine!” “Fine, you can have it,” said the man, “for two dollars!” So Peter though of some ways to earn money. When he finally had two dollars, he rushed back to the store and bought his boat. “Little boat,” Peter said, “You’re twice mine: you’re mine because I made you, but you’re mine because I bought you!” Peter redeemed his boat. To redeem is to buy back. We are the Lord’s because He made us; and when we are saved, we are His because He redeemed us by His blood. I Peter 1:18, 19 Ephesians 1:5-7 Colossians 1:13, 14
Between the last time I visited you and now, I have had many temptations, but probably the most severe temptations have been in the last three weeks. This afternoon I would like to share with you some things about temptations. Read James 1:12-14. The Lord only permits temptation because he loves us, in order that we might reap the blessing of success. People may say that God tempts them, but that isn’t true. God doesn’t tempt us but he does try us. He permits temptation to see what we are made of. God is like a craftsman, Who tests the materials he is using to see how strong they really are. God does this because he loves us. God isn’t the author of temptation; Satan is. Read Genesis 3:1-7. This was a great catastrophe; when man sinned for the first time. God didn’t tempt Adam and Eve with the fruit. God had formed man with self-will. We usually associate self-will with sin, and now that sin has come in, it usually is sin. But Adam’s will, before he sinned, was in accord with God’s will. He was able to choose, but he chose God’s will. Here, God took a calculated risk by planting a tree in the garden and forbidding them to eat from it. If God hadn’t placed a prohibition on something, then everything Adam and Eve would do would be approved of God, and there would be no such thing as disobedience. So Adam and Eve had to obey by not eating the fruit. They had the capacity to disobey, though, because Lucifer had already fallen. Lucifer, ‘Son of the morning’, was a beautiful angel, so beautiful that he felt he could surpass God. As soon as he thought that, he was cast out of Heaven. He was so powerful that he had ranks of other angels to serve him, most of which fell with him. Nothing could be more devastating. Lucifer’s fall sent shockwaves throughout the universe; it changed everything. And in this fallen universe, God created a perfect earth and a man with a self-will that could choose. Man was tested. We can see here the principles of temptation come in right at the beginning. Genesis 3 shows us how the fall of man came about. First the serpent cast doubt into the Eve’s mind. God created everything certain; He is not the author of uncertainty. The first words of Satan are, “Hath God said?” Eve rightly replied by quoting the words of the Lord, “God hath said…” When we are tempted the best idea is to resort to the words of God; which are always certain. We know the rest of the story, how they ate, and fell into sin. God didn’t tempt them He tried them. Satan tempted them and he continues to tempt us. The principal thing in temptation is self- will. The Lord was tempted when he was a man. Read Matthew 4:1-4. The Lord had not only become a man, indicating weakness, but he had gone for forty days without food and water. Then the devil came to him with doubts, just like he did to Adam and Eve. He said, “If”; Satan knows each of us better than we know ourselves; he knows our weaknesses more than we do. We must find our strength in God to overcome his temptations, which are suited just for us. Satan knew Jesus’ weakness and tempted him in it. If Jesus would have listened to Satan’s advice that would have been sin. He had self-will, but since he couldn’t sin, his will was in accord with God’s. In Gethsemane, He was in agony, in conflict with His will, so much so that an angel, an inferior being to what He used to be, was sent to come and strengthen Him. Finally He said, “Not My will but Thine be one.” Read Matthew 4:5-11. We are only given tiny glimpses of the temptation of the Lord. We are not told what the Lord felt like to be the Lord Jesus. If we were, it we would be trespassing into something purely divine. But we are given a glimpse of what it meant to Him to be a man; in Gethsemane, for example. The Psalms sometimes give more profound glimpses than the New Testament. Read Hebrews 2:18. To succour is to comfort, to encourage. That’s what the Lord wants to do for us when we are in temptation. But our temptations vary widely. To succour someone, to give him sympathy, I must have gone through the same thing he has. Otherwise I can only give him empathy, which is comforting someone without having gone through what they are going through. The Lord was tempted with every possible temptation. No matter what comes our way, Jesus has gone through it. Because he is omniscient, he knows what we feel like when we are tempted. We can go to Him when there is no one else to understand. Read I Corinthians 10:13. God will not allow us to be tempted in a way that we cannot bear. We may be tempted to the limit, but no further. God will always make a way out. Sometimes we miss it, so we must ask the Lord to show us. Many times our temptations seem to go on forever and then they suddenly go away. We can then begin to reap the blessings God planned. Before I see you again, in about two weeks, many of us will be tempted. Before my next visit, we will all be tempted. They don’t go away; they’re as sure as death and taxes. If we give up our self-will the temptations will go. The Lord had angels come to revive Him after He was tempted. Jesus felt tired after His temptation. We can feel tired after temptation, too. What a perfect refreshment we have when we can go to Jesus. When I was young we used to sing, “Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin, each victory will help you, some other to win.” It doesn’t seem like that when we are going through it. Our only safe place is in the Lord. Let’s stay there!