January 8, 2006
Scripture:
Ministry:
Luke 22; our brother reminded us of the words of the Lord in verse 15, “And he said unto them, “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” We can see a desire flowing out from a passion for his own. I wonder if we can say anything like that about Isaiah 26:8, the speakers are different: “the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.” Can we take these words out of this passage; I wonder if we cannot say “We hear the words of love.” I trust so. Now, instead of the Lord speaking to his own, it is his own speaking to Him: “the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.”
EG Hymn 367–When He cometh, when He cometh, Prayer I John 3:2 • This verse does not speak of the rapture, but the appearing. When the Lord comes back to earth at the appearing, we will be with Him. We can learn 5 things from this verse. 1. Now are we the sons of God—Christians are all sons, or children, of God. The firstborn child of a family is called the heir. Romans 8:17 says we are all heirs. 2. Doth not yet appear—in other words, you cannot see what we will be. 3. But we know that when He shall appear—we can be absolutely 100 % sure that the Lord will appear; and when he does … 4. We shall be like Him—we will have bodies exactly like the Lord’s. He will take ordinary people and turn us into extraordinary people. 5. We shall see Him—This contrasts with point 2. At the appearing, we will see the Lord and the whole world will see us, but right now we cannot see Him.
Hebrews 9:15–22 • In v. 12 we were reading about the shortcoming of goats and calves. It says The Lord went into the Holy Place “once for all [Darby].” Also, the verse ends by saying it was, “for us.” These words are in italics because they were not there originally. It makes it sound personal, but the redemption was not just for us. All of the fallen creation will also be redeemed. We mentioned that v. 14 has the aspect of the burnt offering. II Corinthians 5:21 speaks of the sin offering; our blessing from that is righteousness. In Hebrews, our blessing is being able to serve, or worship, God. • We have been talking about the covenants. Now the writer speaks of the testament. This testament is actually a will, stating our “eternal inheritance”; we are joint-heirs with Christ. In order for the will to be probated, the testator must die. One man, relating his experiences, said that a friend had willed him a substantial amount of money, but the executor of the will deceitfully cheated him out of it. He said that if his friend was alive, he would have made sure he got it. Then another friend willed him some money, but as of that time, he had not died yet so the money didn’t do him any good. He ended by saying that the Lord has died so we can have our inheritance and has risen again to make sure we get it. Even though it was “by means of death”, He has done what was necessary for us to get it. But although he has died and risen, we still have not received our assets, which are described in I Peter 1:3–5. Our inheritance is different from that which Israel looked for in their wilderness journey. They looked for a land; they still have not got it all, since they did not obey God completely in driving all the inhabitants out of it. They will receive their complete inheritance during the Millennium. We too will get our inheritance in the future. Then in verse 18 we come to the subject of blood. That verse tells us that the 1st testament, here more properly translated covenant, was dedicated, or inaugurated, with blood. That is explained in verse 19, which is taken from Exodus 24:6 & 8 There are three uses for the blood shown here: 1. Dedication of the law, v. 19 2. Purification of the articles of the tabernacle, v. 21 3. Redemption of the people, v. 19 There is a difference between the sprinkling of blood and the shedding of blood. The shedding of blood requires the giving of life. EG Hymn 281–We wait for Thee, O Son of God Prayer