December 3, 2006
Scripture:
Imagine! The God of the universe, the God of eternity had the desireto make Himself known. The core thought in Hebrews 1:1 & 2 is “God … hath … spoken.” The same verses tell us He has spoken “in Son.” Where we find the Godhead expressing Itself, it is in the person of the Son. This morning we read in John 1 about the Son whose title is the Word and His earliest expression from the Godhead was creation—“All things were made by Him … ” This creation made God known in wisdom and power, but there was much more to make known, for this morning we have read in 1 John—“God is light” and “God is love.” Therefore “the Word was made flesh” so that “grace (His love) and truth (His light) came by Jesus Christ.” The light exposed the great distance between man in his sin and God in His holiness. The love spanned the gap through the cross and has brought us nigh to God.
EG Hymn 345 – Jesus loves the little children, Prayer • Last time we were talking about Noah; what did Noah build? An ark. But what else did he build. He built an altar, Genesis 8:20; what is an altar? Uncle Gord has been talking to us about the offerings. Where did they burn the offerings? On the brazen altar; God gave Moses all the details for this altar. God also gave Noah all the plans for the ark. But when it comes to Noah’s altar, we hear nothing other than the fact that he built it. Abraham, in chapter 22, built an altar of stone, so that is probably how Noah did it. So after he built it, what did he do? He sacrificed one of every clean animal, one that was suited for sacrifice. Now, God didn’t ask Noah to do this. Yet when Noah came out of the ark, he decided to do this; why? When Noah looked around after coming out of the ark, he saw the results of the flood, God’s judgement. He probably wondered “Why did God choose to save me?” So out of gratefulness and a desire to praise God, he built an altar. We, too, can ask why God chose to save us through the Lord Jesus Christ. So when Noah comes out of the ark, what he sees strikes a cord in his heart and he says, “I must offer a sacrifice.” So He does; and even though we don’t read that he added anything to perfume it, God smelled a sweet savour. It touched God’s heart. Man hadn’t changed at all, but God now had a basis to go on with man. What Noah did reminded God of what the Lord would do at Calvary. Now, can we offer a sacrifice to God? We can present our bodies a living sacrifice and be obedient to Him, (Roman 12:1). We can also offer a sacrifice of praise, (Hebrews 13:15). In this way, there is a sweet- smelling savour going up to God, and it will touch His heart.
Hebrews 12:12–17 • We’ve just gone through 6 verses about chastening; did you enjoy that? We should have, because, “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” Well, it might not have seemed to be the most uplifting passage. But now we have a “wherefore,” that connects what we have looked at with what is before us. When we read v. 12, it makes you feel like we are supposed to be going on encouraged and strengthened and so on. This puts quite an interesting slant on the verses ahead. Instead of feeling “what’s next, after going through chastening?” we are exhorted to go on with our hands and knees strong. Chastening should help us to be more useful to the Lord. What is really going to cause our hands to hang down and our knees to be feeble is what we were warned against: weights and sin. So we need to have the Lord before us. From v. 12, it seems as though the Hebrews were fainting under their chastening, and so they are encouraged. As we read this passage, there is a connecting word, “lest.” Our next appearance of it is in v. 13. Read v. 13; a flat surface is easier to walk, and according to this verse, we have some responsibility as to how this path turns out. The lame might be those weak in the faith; if we make a straight path, we will grow instead of becoming lame. So this has to do with our walk; we must be circumspect, watching where we put our feet. We can affect others by what we do (Romans 14), so we must be careful—something we do or say might make another stumble. We should walk in such a way to strengthen weaker ones, instead of hindering them. Now v. 14 exhorts us to “Follow peace with all men.” Is this possible? Well, would God ask us to do something impossible? Yet Romans 12:18 says, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” If there is not peace, it is not for the child of God to create discord. The situation might not be peaceful, but we are to follow peace all the time. “The servant of the Lord must not strive,” (II Timothy 2:24); we are to be “of one accord,” (Philippians 2:2), and “at peace among yourselves,” (I Thessalonians 5:13). Little problems can escalate into big contentions, so we must follow peace. The rest of v. 14 says, “without which no man shall see the Lord.” If we do follow peace and holiness, others will see the Lord through our example; many will never hear the gospel except through the example of Christians. Now in v. 15, we are exhorted to look diligently lest any man fail. First we are told to look to Jesus (v. 2), and now to look at others—so we are to look both ways. We aren’t looking for faults, but we are looking to encourage others. In v. 12, it is being careful about our own behaviour; now, in v. 15, it is looking in a watchful way at others. And between those, we are to “follow peace … and holiness.” But Satan loves to make all this deteriorate, so we must watch for that too. EG Hymn 370 – Yield not to temptation, Prayer[pic]