June 24, 2007
Scripture:
Scripture:
A Scripture comes before me in I John 2. In v. 13 we have three levels of Christian maturity: fathers, young men, and children. “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.” How precious, how tender this is as we think of Christian maturity. As far as John is concerned, where do you begin? It starts with knowing the Father. He doesn’t say knowing God, although that is important. “Father” brings it into a relationship; a father loves, cares, provides, watches over, does everything a father is expected to do. How precious that, as little children, we can come to the Father. And how amazing that the God of the Universe wants us to enjoy that relationship, worshipping Him in spirit and truth! His desire is for us to enter into the fullness of that adoption—blessed truth!
EG Hymn 341 – Jesus bids us shine Prayer We’ve been following the cloud that the children of Israel followed from the time they came out of Egypt, all through the wilderness, and into the Promised Land. Last time, we saw the cloud descending upon the temple Solomon built. That must have been wonderful, to live in a land with the very presence of God in it. They didn’t have to move anymore; they were established. Do you think that this was very precious to them? After all, they were the only nation in the world that God had chosen. They were the only ones who could communicate with Him through sacrifices and so on. Let’s see if they always followed God. Turn to Ezekiel 8. Israel had many kings through the years, and not all of them were good. Some of them didn’t want to obey the laws—like the Ten Commandments—that God had put into place. So God had to discipline them, and the way He did it was by having foreign nations take them captive. At this time, there are some Jews in Jerusalem, many in Babylon, and a few in the King Nebuchadnezzar’s court. Where would you like to be? Read Ezekiel 8:1–4, 9–10, & 12–17. Ezekiel was in Babylon, but God gave Him a vision of what was going on in Jerusalem. The cloud we have been following is called the glory of God here. But as we get further along in these verses, it seems things get worse: first they are worshipping the Image of Jealousy, then creepy-crawlies. Then it was idol-worship in the dark, and finally worshipping Tammuz (another idol) and the Sun. They worshipped the Sun, but turned their backs on its Creator. This is serious. What do you think the Lord will do about this?
Turn to ch.10:1–4, 18. In v. 3, we find that the cloud is still in the tabernacle, in the Holy of Holies. But then in v. 4 it moves to the threshold, right near the door. If it is moving towards the door, what is it planning to do? It could be leaving! This should wake the people up, don’t you think? They should realize that God doesn’t like what they’re doing. But it doesn’t say they did anything. In v. 18, the cloud moved to the east gate of Jerusalem. This should alarm the people, no? Well, read Ezekiel 11:22–23. The cloud moved to a mountain outside the city. Then we never hear of it again. The presence of God had left Israel.
But this is the God that brought them out of Egypt, across the Read Sea, and through the wilderness. This is the God that gave them manna from heaven and water from the rock. This is the God that brought them across the Jordan and helped them conquer the land. This is the God that wanted them to worship Him; but now He had gone, and nobody cared. Is the presence of God important to us? We need it just as much as they did. The children of Israel let things come between them and their worship. Yet we know that if we have faith and follow God’s word—though there be only a few—God will be there.
I Peter 1:13–16 We said last week that the first twelve verses of our chapter hold some very precious instruction. Then we have a “wherefore”: some practical application based on what we have learned. First of all, we are to “gird up the loins of your mind.” What does this mean, and how can we do it? In Bible times, they would wear a long flowing robe with a girdle. When you wanted to do work, you would tuck the hem of the garment into the girdle. How do we do this for our minds? One reason they might have girded their loins was to get it out of the way; it would be an impediment in labour. We have to get rid of obstacles in our life that would hinder us; we have to “set [our] minds on things above” (Colossians 3:2, new translation). There is a battle for our minds. We have an old nature, a raven, that loves to eat carrion. We’ve all heard it before, “Feed the dove, starve the raven.” Satan has everything to hinder our progress; He knows exactly what will make us fail. Another reason they might gird up the loins is to keep the garment clean and uncontaminated; and we are called to be holy, as we’ll see in a few verses. That is being “not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2).One definition of “gird up the loins” is “a call to action.” After all we have learned, there is a call to action. We are in a battle for our minds. These are definitely reasons to “set [our] minds on things above.” But how do we do that? How do we make this a working proposition? If we are able to get a glimpse of the glory of the Lord, that should set our minds. And how do we do that? It is only through spending time in the Word. We must take the time to occupy ourselves with Him, to read, pray, and praise. Our minds will be renewed. We have the Holy Spirit to help us with this process. But there is a bit more to it than that. We can ask ourselves at any time of day, what are you thinking about? It is precious to read a passage and meditate each morning. But then we must go to business, school—life. Is that wrong? No, we have responsibilities here. But we shouldn’t let that take over our minds completely. We can think of it as working for our highest Master. Worries and cares can also come into our minds and we might find ourselves thinking about them more than we should. It’s important to be occupied with Him.
Next we are exhorted to “be sober.” This can mean to be serious and sensible; when the world is so frivolous and flippant, we are called not to be. But we will see it means more than that.
EG Hymn 350 – I will make you fishers of men, Prayer