September 24, 2006
Scripture:
Could we look for a moment at the ninth chapter of Acts; I was thinking of the v. 3, in which Saul is going to persecute the Christians. “And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (vv. 3 & 4). I just wanted to contrast this with what I read earlier about darkness at Calvary. Saul was on the way to persecute Christians, and the Lord Jesus appeared to him, and His glory was so bright that it blinded him. That glory was shrouded at Calvary. We sang, “Haste the day of thine appearing.” Will we have the same experience at that time? No, we will have new bodies that will be able to see Him. In John 17, Jesus prayed that we would be able to behold His glory. Why? Because He knows that as soon as will behold Him, we will be captivated by it. How do I know this? We can see a picture of it in the Queen of Sheba, who came to see Solomon. When she had seen it all, she exclaimed, “The half had not been told me.” We know a little bit of the Lord’s glory, but when we get to heaven, we will find that we do not even know half. There is so much in His glory, we can hardly speak about it; it is so wondrous, so amazing. When He appears, we will be changed and have his glory and be revealed to the world to reign with Him. This should cause us to adore Him. “Haste the day of Thine appearing,” “Come, Lord Jesus, come, Amen.”
EG Hymn 335 – I am so glad that our Father in Heaven Prayer • Last time, we looked at a few of God’s gifts to us: His Son, faith, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit. Today I wasn’t to look at our response to those gifts. We can give the Lord things, too; can you think of someone who gave gifts to the Lord? The wise men brought gold, frankincense and myrrh. So what are some of the things we can give to the Lord? Turn to Psalm 100:4. There is a story in the New Testament about 10 lepers whom Jesus healed. Only one of them came back to thank Him. The Lord does much for us everyday; we should always be giving thanksgiving. Most of all, we can be thankful for our Saviour. Now, read Romans 12:1. We can give our bodies to God, to do things for the Lord, good works. We can give out tracts, help the elderly and weak. My grandmother couldn’t do much, but she wanted to be helpful and so she would fold napkins. Finally, turn to Proverbs 23:26. Maybe this one should have been first. What do you think of when you think of a heart? Love; when you love someone, you want to be near them; we should want to be close to the Lord. When the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon, she brought him gifts, and she opened her heart to him, and he answered her questions. May we open our hearts to the Lord.
Hebrews 11:29–32 • We have been looking at the worthies of faith. Last time, we looked at the story of the Passover. Everyone in Egypt deserved punishment, but those who believed God’s Word through Moses were richly blessed: when God saw the blood on the door, He passed over. That is only half of the story. When the children of Israel left slavery, God wanted them to come out of Egypt, but they were blocked by the Read Sea. Another situation was facing them; just as they were helpless in leaving Egypt alone, they were helpless in crossing the Red Sea. A few of the people we have been reading about failed at certain times, and the children of Israel were no different: if we read the account in Exodus, they were fearful. Yet God sees their faith; maybe the faith began when the Red Sea parted. It would have taken faith even then, for the walls of water were certainly formidable, and couldn’t have looked too solid. And they were able to cross on dry ground; God had not only parted the water, but He had also dried the sea bed. Here, God does not act like a Judge, but like a Saviour. Our Salvation is by blood and power. Israel was saved by blood in Egypt, by power at the Red Sea. We are saved by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in I Corinthians 1:18, we read that the gospel is the power of God. When you go to Calvary, you don’t see much of God’s power: the Lord Jesus was taken in weakness and defeat and nailed to a cross to die. The power was seen at His resurrection. We can see resurrection at the Red Sea: the Lord Jesus Christ went down into death, but He came back up. At the Jordan River, where they put 12 stones in the river and 12 on the bank, we see a picture of the Lord dying, and we with Him. The Egyptians tried to go through the Rea Sea, but they were drowned. At Calvary, Satan was defeated; he is not dead and still can do much harm, but He is defeated, ch 2:14. Satan no longer has the power of death over the believer. The Lord has delivered us from both sin and death, ch 2:15. In the Garden of Eden, the death sentence was passed on Adam and Eve; but Satan has lost his death power. The enemy hosts were dealt their killing blow and drowned in the Red Sea. When the Israelites crossed, there was dry land; but the Egyptians’ chariots got stuck in the mire. Dry land is a picture of resurrection. Jonah was vomited onto dry land on the third day; on the third day, God created dry land. It was the third day when the Lord rose from the dead. Now, what we have been reading in Hebrews 11 is in chronological order, but between vv. 29 – 30, there is a gap of over 40 years, jumping all the time in the wilderness. Was there no faith there? In the wilderness, the children of Israel failed over and over again. Yet Jericho is a great example of faith. It was the first city they met once they crossed Jordan, and it had a thick wall—so thick that Rahab could live in it—for protection. The Israelites paraded around Jericho each day for 6 days—it must have looked so foolish. Yet the people of Jericho were frightened (so Rahab told the spies). They had heard how Israel had crossed the Red Sea and defeated Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites. Yet it did look foolish; we might seem foolish coming here each week to remember the Lord and read the Bible. What Israel was doing probably seemed foolish to them, but God’s ways are not our ways. There is immense blessing by being on the winning side. EG Hymn 146 – All the path the saints are treading, Prayer