May 13, 2007
Can we turn to John 1 once again; I was thinking about how we had Abraham and Isaac, a type of the Lord Jesus. We read the expression, “thy son, thine only son … whom thou lovest.” John 1:14 says “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” One translation says, “the glory of an only begotten of a Father.” What a relationship: closeness and intimacy! In v. 18, we read, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” We sang, “Son of God, Thy Father’s bosom ever was Thy dwelling-place.” One writer says that the bosom is a hiding place of inexpressible love, beyond glory, for glory can be seen, and this can not. He was ever in the bosom of the Father, but He was sent to declare the Father’s love to us. That love was shown fully at Calvary. He came to do the will of His Father, and the Father could say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” He was a perfect expression of the Father’s love. It reminds me of a hymn in Book 2, number 200 (it’s not in our little booklet):
Father, how precious unto Thee Is Thy beloved Son, In whom Thou dost perfection see, Thy holy, blessed One!
When He in flesh the desert passed, He loved to do Thy will; His food it was, through to the last, Thy pleasure to fulfil.
Only-begotten, He revealed Thyself unto Thy praise: The Father, until then concealed, Was seen in all His ways. As in His life, so in His death, He was devoted still; For us in love resigned His breath, Obedient to Thy will.
He glorified Thee on the earth: Thy work by Him was done; And Thou, who knewest all His worth, Didst glorify Thy Son.
Now crowned and seated on Thy throne, He is Thy joy and rest; And we who are through grace Thine own In Him are fully blest. He, preciousness itself to Thee, To us is precious too; We every beauty in Him see, And Thine own glory view.
What a precious opportunity to worship Him; “Lamb of God, our souls adore Thee while upon Thy face we gaze; there the Father’s love and glory shine in all their brightest rays.”
EG Hymn 313 – God is in Heaven, can He hear Prayer • Last time we were talking about walking in the light; today, I’d like to speak about walking in darkness. Walking in darkness is walking in the world. II Corinthians 4:4 says that Satan, the god of this world, has blinded those who aren’t saved. These people are living for themselves, for their flesh. What is the flesh? It is man’s sinful nature, something we all have, even Christians. That is what makes it possible for us to walk in darkness. These unsaved people love certain things that, as Christians, should not capture our hearts. These might include:
I Peter 1:3–9 • This morning we were thinking of the Lamb of God. It is because He died and rose again that we can have this living hope. All the other sacrifices in the Old Testament did not rise again, which is why they didn’t give any lasting hope. That word begotten, in v. 3, is interesting. In the French, it is translated as regenerated; the NASB says born again. Through the resurrection, we are reborn. We were “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). Now we have a living hope. This portion has a few hooks for us to hang our thoughts on: we have a living hope (v.3), a lasting hope (v.4), and a looming hope (v.5). As we mentioned, the people Peter was writing to were converted Jews. They were like the Hebrews in the wilderness, going towards a new hope. We are still in a similar position. We are living in Egypt, the world; but we are having wilderness experiences. And through all this, we can have a foretaste of home, the Promised Land. Our hope is a lasting hope. In this world we live in, there is much corruption. How precious to know there is an incorruptible hope waiting for us. “Oh bright and blessed scenes, where sin can never come.” When you get an inheritance here, it usually fades away rather quickly. If you receive a large inheritance, you may fade away before you are finished with it. But this inheritance will never fade away, and we will have all eternity to enjoy it, we will never fade away. And, until that time, it is kept by the power of God. The very hand that holds the universe is the power that preserves both us and our inheritance. He reserves it in Heaven for us, where we will receive it after the salvation of our bodies, when we finally put our feet down on the golden street and are safe at last. The end of v. 5 says that it’s all ready; we are just waiting for the last one to be ushered in before we all can enjoy it. We really can’t comprehend what it will be like: a place where there is no sin, no suffering, no sadness. We will have a new life and a new body; we will always be satisfied. EG Hymn 166 – In hope we life our wishful, longing eyes, Prayer