November 26, 2006
Scripture:
Part of a verse came before me, coming from Isaiah 53; let’s turn to this scripture to stir our hearts to worship. This continues with what we have been speaking about; the verse that comes to my mind is v. 11. Our brother read John 11:24, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Now, if I can use Mr. Darby’s translation, v. 11 would read, “He shalt see of the fruit of the travail of his soul.” You know, when we think of the Lord Jesus, we are reminded that He took body like a man; He was body, soul, and spirit. Man took that body and laid much affliction on it, but it was what God did to His soul that was important. As we read in v. 10, He made “his soul an offering for sin.” He bore all of God’s judgement, and then said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” and gave up the ghost. We are the fruit He sees, and He is satisfied. May this cause our hearts to worship. To use that word alone again, “Thou alone art worthy, ceaseless praises to receive.”
EG Hymn 341 – Jesus bids us shine Prayer • When I last spoke, I didn’t finish with the meal offering, so I would like to continue that today. Last time, I gave you a list of the graces of the Lord, pictured in the frankincense. We said that the Lord was 1) Perfect in Obedience; 2) Perfect in Dependence; 3)Perfect in Meekness; 4)Perfect in Kindness; 5)Perfect in Sympathy; and 6)Perfect in Humility. Today I want to add one more to that list: The Lord was also 7) Perfect in Love. His love is so deep that it brought Him to the cross to bear our sin’s punishment. There are other ingredients in the meal offering (Leviticus 2) and I would like to speak about a few of those. There is the fine flour, v.1. Fine flour is white, pure. It pictures the spotless, sinless humanity of the Lord. It can be hard for us to understand this perfectly, because we are sinful. John 6:33 talks about the bread of God, the Lord, made of that fine flour. Next we have the instruction not to put leaven in the meal offering, v.5. Leaven speaks of evil (I Corinthians 5:8). To have no leaven is a type of sincerity and truth. There was no leaven in the Lord Jesus Christ. V. 13 tells us that the offering was seasoned with salt. In bread, salt slows the action of the yeast, or leaven, so the bread does not rise too fast. We are to be the salt of the earth, by standing for the Lord and letting people know we are Christians. If we do this, we will have an effect on the unbelievers around us. They were also told to put no honey in the meal offering, v.
Hebrews 12:5–11 • When you think of chastening, you think of discipline. Here, this particular action has three words: rebuke, scourge, and chasten. While the first two only appear once each, chasten is used six times. This word connotes the idea of child-training, “my son.” It also has the thought of instruction. When we think of training, it fits into our example of a race. Racers have coaches who help them train. Mr. N. Burgess once worked with a man who was an oarsman for the Canadian team. He would train vigorously every day, no doubt in a lot of agony; but in the end, he won the junior medal. We can see God’s plan for us here; He wants us to win the race, and He chooses the way of chastening to train us for it. We aren’t all in the same course, but we are all working toward the same goal. But the opposite can happen in this training if we don’t persevere: we give up. That’s why it is important to press on. Different athletes will have different parts of the race that they find challenging, and we each have different problems in life. After the race, they will review a video of the race with the coach. When the coach points out something, they don’t take it as criticism (despise, v.5) or give up (faint, v.5); they will train and prepare for the next race. God will train us where we need it most, obviously for our good. He does it because we are His children, and never gives us a trial above what we are able to bear. And not only are these trial from a loving Father, but they are for a loving purpose. He has the end in view. And what is that end? “That we might be partakers of his holiness” and yield “the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” He wants us to be like Him. We should realize that, while not all the reason will be clear, when we get rewarded in Heaven, we will be thankful for all the Lord let us go through. As v. 9 says, He knows what is good for us more than any earthly father can, and if we reverence our fathers here, how much more should we our Heavenly Father? The act of chastening is towards the old nature, which dies very slowly. The Lord knows that it isn’t easy for us; fathers don’t enjoy chastening their children, yet it is a blessing when it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Usually as a parent, there is a rule that is taught and a consequence established. If a child disobeys, he knows why there is a consequence. It isn’t always that way with the child of God. That may be part of the exercise, asking yourself, “How must I change?” Yet not all trials are correction; sometimes they may be to keep us from evil, or not because there is no fruit, but to bring more; God wants us to reach our full potential. In some cases we won’t know why until we actually get to Heaven. EG Hymn 282 – What a friend we have in Jesus, Prayer