December 24, 2006

Morning Meeting

• Hymn 252 – Sweet the moments which, in blessing

• Scripture:

  • Leviticus 1:9, 4
  • Judges 14:14
  • Song of Solomon 2:3
• Hymn 137 – O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head!
• Scripture – Ephesians 5:2
• Prayer
• Scripture – Exodus 15:23 to 25
• Hymn 216 – Lord, we rejoice that Thou art gone
• Hymn 80 – (v. 2 first) – On earth the song begins

• Prayer

  Children’s Meeting—Gordon Burgess

EG Hymn 355 – Safe in Christ, the weakest child, Prayer • We have been looking at the Peace Offering, in Leviticus 3. It is interesting to note how many people are involved: God, the offerer, Aaron and his sons, the offering priest, the offerer’s friends. Each had a part of the offering.

1. All the fat was for God—we mentioned last week how the fat signifies the energy of the Spirit.
2. The breast was for Aaron and his Sons—the breast speaks of love and Aaron and his sons are a type of all believers; as Christians, we can enjoy the Lord’s love for us and for His Father.
3. The right shoulder was for the offering priest.
4. The rest of the offering was for the offerer and his friends. When we look at the Lord’s work on the cross, we see that He took away three things: 1) our sins, 2) our sin nature, 3) our tendency to be children of Adam. If that is all taken away, what remains? Nothing but the sweet savour to God, in which we are accepted. It is through that we get our ground of peace. God sees us in all the sweetness of that sacrifice of the Lord. He savours that sweetness, and we should too. We cannot do so properly here; but when we get to Heaven and have our glorified bodies, we will be able to understand and enjoy it all. It should touch our hearts and have an effect on our lives now. We remember what the Lord has done, for the Lord’s Supper is not so much of doctrine as it is with the affection of our hearts for the Lord and the Father. We are in communion with God, as were the many participants of the Peace Offering, and that is why this is sometimes called the Communion Offering. Let’s close by looking at Leviticus 7. This is sometimes called the law of the Peace Offering. V. 30 tells us about the wave offering. In this part of the Peace Offering, the priest would take the breast and wave it horizontally before God. We can wave the love of Christ before God, as we do on Lord’s Day mornings. V. 32 tells us about the heave offering. Here, the priest would heave the right shoulder vertically before God. The right shoulder speaks of strength. Even though the Lord was meek and mild, He still had the strength to go to the cross to die for us. So I trust that as we have looked at the Peace Offering, it has made us appreciate more what the Lord has done for us.

Reading Meeting

Hebrews 12:22–26 • We are still looking at the passage that brings two mountains before us. We have gone through Mt. Sinai; last week we began to look at Zion. We saw that these two mountains were representative. Sinai was the law, but when the Lord came and accomplished His work (Zion), faith came in place of the works, and grace instead of the law. These two pictures were given here to warn and to win. Sinai was given to warn, and Zion to win, because there were those that were going back to Judaism. Zion is future hope; we are not there yet. We have to run the race to get there. Now we noticed that there are eight points on Mt. Zion; last week we went through the first two. The third is “to the innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly.” Have you ever thought much about angels? In the Old Testament, we have references to 1) the angel of the Lord, who was a visible sign of God, 2) hosts of angels, 3) fallen angels or evil spirits, and 4) angels of the churches, in Revelation. Angels were created before the world was. Lucifer was an angel, but he wanted to be higher than God was and was cast out of Heaven, taking a group of angels with him. It has been said that angels are spirits, animals are bodies and souls, but man is all three. God is a spirit, but he became a man so he could plead our case. It is hard to imagine the whole angelic host; Revelation tells us there were “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,” (Revelation 5:11). We know the names of a few of these angels: Michael and Gabriel. They were arch-angels, which might suggest that there is a hierarchy. We have been keeping a number of these angels busy! Along these lines, we could ask, what are cherubim and seraphim? Are they a class of angel? Angels are not redeemed creatures; they were fit for the presence and service of God since their creation. The fourth thing on our list is “to the … church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.” Throughout the epistles, we hear of the body of Christ, the assembly, the house of God, and so on. We don’t hear those terms much in Hebrews, but here we do. This is the category into which we fit. Because of what the Lord has done, He is the firstborn, and in two ways: 1) He is the firstborn in position, and 2) He is the firstborn in resurrection. Because of His work, there is an assembly of saved people. He is the “firstborn among many brethren”; we are in those many brethren. This list started out with Mt. Zion, at a level the Hebrew Christians could understand, and we have moved into the heavens. We have been brought to the heavenly Jerusalem, the angelic host, and now the church of the firstborn. Our list will go on, continuing the population of heaven. It is a wonderful passage; it is “out of this world!” EG Hymn 213 – Thou my everlasting portion, Prayer [pic]