September 10, 2006
Scripture:
Can we turn to the epistle of the Ephesians, chapter 1, starting at v. 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence …” (vv. 3- 8). In these verses, it is the reference to the grace of God that came before me. As we have been reminded in this chapter, God is acting for His good pleasure and delight; the wonder of it all is that the blessing comes to us—not just temporal blessings, but spiritual; not just earthly, but heavenly; not in Adam, but in Christ. And this passage reminds us that in time past, God’s sovereignty chose us to receive these blessings. So we have the glory of His grace and the riches of His grace. In the riches of His grace, we see that we have received the forgiveness of sins. Wonderful principle—forgiveness; and all according to the riches of His grace! It makes us realize what we have been brought into. The first verse we read this morning was II Corinthians 8:9. God has brought us into the riches of His grace at a cost: the Lord Jesus Christ. But more than these eternal blessings is the glory of His grace. It has made us accepted … in Christ? That would be typical of Ephesians, but it says, “In the beloved.” It goes further, I believe. Christ is at God’s right hand, and God sees us in Christ; we are in God’s presence. But when God sees us in the Beloved One who is so close to His heart, we are accepted into God’s heart. It is good to know that salvation is not by works, but by His grace, and that we have been brought in to share the riches of His grace and the glory of His grace. How wonderful is grace—God’s grace!
EG Hymn 363 – Long ago, a flood was coming, Prayer • Today I would like to speak a bit about Noah. First, I want you to tell me what is missing in my drawing of the ark. It is missing the door and the window; I’d like to talk about the door and window of the ark. Let’s turn to Genesis 6, and read vv. 14–16. Pitch is like tar, to make the boat waterproof. How long is a cubit? There are two cubits; a profane cubit is about 19.5 inches and a sacred cubit is about 25 inches. But look at v. 16; how many doors and windows are there? It says, “A window … the door.” The door was in the side of the ark, and the window, we have reason to believe, was in the top. That door was for the animals to come in; how did Noah get all the animals? God must have sent them for Him. The day finally came when Noah was finished the ark and God told him to get into the ark with his family, Genesis 7:1. Vv. 2 & 3 tell us he brought seven pairs of clean animals and two pairs of unclean animals. So when it came time to put all the animals into the ark, was Noah out there prodding and directing them? Vv. 7–9 tell us that Noah went in first, and the animals all came in unto him. Read vv. 13–16. Finally, the Lord shut the door. We have to stop now, but next time we will look at the ark’s window.
Hebrews 11:24–31 • Last time we saw how Moses forsook Egypt, “not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible,” (v. 27). He saw someone Who was invisible. We all know that, “Thou God seest me,” but how many of us go on seeing God through the eyes of faith? How necessary it is to always have God before us. That’s how Moses could forsake Egypt; if he compared himself to Pharaoh, he was nothing. But he compared Pharaoh to God, who was everything. Pharaoh had all the power in the country at his disposal. Moses had denied his relationship with him; the one they brought up as an ally was now their enemy. Pharaoh was an atheist and idolater, and Moses came to give him a message from God. When Moses killed the Egyptian (in his own strength), he looked around to see if anyone was watching. But now, looking to God for his power, he has a new boldness that will even stand up to Pharaoh. That phrase in v. 26, “greater riches”, is a wonderful phrase. Moses could have had all the power and affluence of the palace in Egypt, but He realized that there were greater riches in the Lord, to be had only by giving up the temporal ones. We spoke of some of those this morning: the riches of His grace. V. 28—It is interesting to see what God considers faith, but it is equally remarkable what God leaves out. Between vv. 27 & 28 are 40 years in the desert. Was there no faith there? Those were Moses training grounds for faith. Between vv. 29 & 30, there were 40 years in the wilderness that are not mentioned at all. Yet Moses was faithful for keeping the passover; didn’t all Israel keep it? Moses’ faith is being highlighted here. Moses has been forecasting all the plagues to Pharaoh, and finally they had come to the last one; God said He would make a difference between the Israelites and the Egyptians. The Israelites were really no better than the Egyptians; you can see this if you read Ezekiel 20:2–8. God had cut off the Israelites completely; He was not listening to them. You might think that they were going on with God, but they had become just like the Egyptians. Yet still God wanted to make a difference. This is a marvelous truth when you see how adverse the children of Israel were. Here it says that through faith Moses kept the Passover, but the Kelly translation says “instituted the passover.” It took faith to set it up because they needed to believe that the blood would cover them. But what happened in Egypt only happened once; after that, the passover was just a memorial feast. The Lord only had to die once; his sacrifice was satisfactory. But each week we do have a memorial. In history, Roman Catholicism believed in transubstantiation, the theory that the bread and wine actually turned into the Lord’s body and blood, thus having an atonement each week. We remember a risen Lord. EG Hymn 366 – We are little children, very young indeed, Prayer