December 31, 2006
Scripture:
Can we just look back at that portion that was read in Luke 7; something struck me while it was being read: “There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both” (vv. 41 & 42). We can draw a parallel between these men and us. We were lost, shapen in iniquity, having nothing to pay. On Calvary, Jesus paid the debt we owed. As we read, I thought that these two debtors were forgiven—wonderful! But we have also been brought into a relationship with God; we can call His Father our Father. Remember the words between the Bride and Groom in the Song of Solomon; this is more than forgiveness. How much do we enter into our portion with the Lord? I’m sure we fall far short.
EG Hymn 308 – I love to hear the story, Prayer • Last time we talked about how Noah built an altar and sent up a sweet savour to God. Suppose you were Noah, and had come out of the ark after all that judgement; what would you like to hear from God? It could be a bit frightening to come out of the ark; you might want God to promise that He wouldn’t do that again. That is exactly what God did. After God smelled the sweet savour (Genesis 8:21), he said that he would not curse the ground again, and that (v.22) there would always be seasons and days from then on. Now let’s jump to Genesis 9:12. Here God promises to give a token, or sign, to seal His covenant. It was a rainbow. Where was this rainbow? It was in the clouds, the place the judgement had come from. God made a rainbow by having white light split into different colours when it went through a prism, the raindrops in this case. You will always see a rainbow in a cloud; the rainbow speaks of grace, which covers the cloud of judgement. So God promised through that bow of grace that He would never flood the entire earth again. It is wonderful to see that God is still keeping the promise He made hundreds of year ago. Read vv. 13–15: “I will remember my covenant.” God sees His token and we can see it too. Do we have any other tokens to remember by? This morning we remembered the cross through the bread and wine. In that we remember another time judgement fell—on the Lord. God also remembers this, and we can as well.
Hebrews 12:22–25 • We have been speaking about Mt. Zion, and saw a few points on our list. We saw the heavenly Jerusalem, which took us to Heaven. We looked at the innumerable company of angels. Next is the church of the firstborn. This is where we fit in, where we see ourselves. It seems that this part of the list has an ascending order of importance. You would think that angels are more important than we are, since they don’t need a saviour. Yet we are more important to God, who comes right after we do. It is interesting to see how the church is brought out: “church of the firstborn.” The Lord is the firstborn from the dead, but this also has the thought of preeminence. The next part of that phrase is, “which are written in heaven,” meaning in the Book of Life. It is precious to think of what it will be like in that heavenly city; there will be numerous populations, as we can see from this list: God, Jesus, Old Testament saints. But we will be the ones who really identify with the Lord Jesus Christ, the pre-eminent one. Next on the list is, “God the Judge of all.” We could ask why God is brought out as a judge. He can be seen that way; for example, Abraham asked, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). God being brought before us this way will remind us of the condition of things. For us, “death and judgement are behind us.” During the Millennium, God will be Judge and must act in that capacity over the earth. Another interesting thing is that before the Lord came and accomplished His work, it was possible for people to be saved. This is the next point: “the spirits of just men made perfect.” These are Old Testament saints. Their belief was a bit different than ours, since they didn’t have the cross; but they did believe and trust in God. They did need faith; we can see this in the lives of David, Moses, Joshua, and others. Old Testament saints will have a place in Heaven. Some will have their place on earth as well, being brought back by the Lord to fill a role in Israel. Next we have “Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.” That covenant will come into effect in the Millennium. We will not be under this second covenant then, but we can experience the blessings of it now. Lastly we have, “the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance; the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has been sprinkled on the mercy seat and is the ground of grace. His blood is perfect in the sight of God and through it we find mercy. That completes our list of Mt. Zion. It gives us a small view of heaven and shows us that God has the future all planned. EG Hymn 333 – Come to the Saviour, make no delay, Prayer