July 8, 2007
Prayer
EG Hymn 201 – When we walk with the Lord, Prayer Today I’d like to speak about “God is trustworthy.” Trustworthy means worthy of bring trusted. If a man borrowed money from a friend, promising to pay Him back at a certain date but defaulted, he would be untrustworthy. There are two things in this matter: ways and words. Do your ways back up your words? Who was completely trustworthy? It was the Lord; while He was on this earth His walk and words matched each other perfectly. He was 100% trustworthy. Turn to Psalm 119:160. This is talking about absolute truth. There is no shadow of a doubt with God. In our world, many people don’t tell the complete truth often; but God’s work is sure. Read Romans 3:4. This is a contrast: Human beings can be liars, but God cannot. If you go to a library, you will find a section called “fiction”; it is made up stories. The opposite of that is fact. The things we read about the Lord’s life are all fact. His miracles are fact; think about how He turned the water into wine instantaneously, a process that normally took months. That really happened. His death is fact, although some would like to say that it is not. His resurrection is fact; again, some would say it is not, but it is 100 % true, so that we can base our lives on it. His ascension was fact. He actually went up to Heaven, against gravity, through space. One thing has not happened yet: His return. But we can be sure it will, because God has said it will happen and He is trustworthy. There was a man named Blondin who used to walk a tightrope over Niagara Falls. One day He went across pushing a wheelbarrow with a groove in the wheel (to fit over the rope). When he got to the other side, he asked a man watching, “Do you think I can push this wheelbarrow across?” “Yes; I just saw you do it.” Blondin replied, “Get in.” But the man refused; he didn’t trust Blondin. We can trust God and His purpose for our lives. Read Proverbs 3:5 & 6. This verse doesn’t say trust with your mind, but your heart. Even if God’s way doesn’t seem logical, we can trust it all. When you reach my age, there are some things you can’t do; you really learn to trust the Lord. If we really love the Lord, we will trust Him.
Address—Simon KempWe heard a little bit about trust with the children, and trust is a little part, now, of a short message for the older ones. Let’s turn together to Psalm 51; we’ll read some short scriptures to begin with. This is David here; read vv. 14–17 & 19. Let’s turn now to Exodus 12:21; here the children of Israel are in Egypt, in captivity, and Moses has received the instruction for the children of Israel to prepare for the Passover. Read vv. 21–24. Turn to I Corinthians 5:7 & 8: “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast.” We’ve read about the feast of the Passover, which the children of Israel were instructed to keep forever. We, too, have a feast, a feast of remembrance. The Lord Jesus asked us to remember Him; and in love, it’s for us to respond. Not all Christians do respond in that particular point. It’s common among many groups of Christians that there be some that don’t remember the Lord expressly in partaking of those emblems, and that’s the case for some amongst our group too. If we look back at the story in Exodus, the children of Israel were under threat of death if they didn’t keep that feast. We are not under threat of death if we don’t keep our feast; that’s one reason why some Christians never do actually remember the Lord by partaking of those emblems. There’s another reason, though, a much more common reason that is very understandable, and that is the sense that I’m just not quite worthy enough, or there are sins that I’ve done, mistakes that I’ve made, that really disqualify me from partaking of that feast of remembrance. You know, we are all sinners; we all have a sinful nature and have all sinned. Some of us have sinned in worse ways than others. That feast of remembrance that is ours to keep is for sinners saved by grace. What qualify us to remember the Lord are our “sinner-ship” and the fact that we’ve trusted Christ to forgive our sins. We have trusted in that work on the cross as being good enough and acceptable to a sin-hating God to qualify us to stand in His presence, to enter His holy place in prayer, and, in a coming day, to dwell in His holy presence forever; we’ve trusted in that. If that work of Christ has qualified us to stand before God, it certainly qualifies us to partake of those emblems on a Lord’s Day morning. You know, happily, none of us here is half so bad a sinner as poor David was; in that psalm he cried to God and said, “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness.” He has murdered and committed adultery, two very atrocious sins of the worst order. But He perceived something because He knew God; He perceived that the path to forgiveness and acceptance started with brokenness, humility, and contrition. In v. 17 he says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” He knew that, providing he was contrite and broken, the sacrifice on his behalf would be accepted by God. And David rejoiced in the efficacy of the sacrifice of the highest order, which was the whole bullock (v. 19). The bullock expresses strength; it spoke of Christ in that regard: His strength and power. It spoke of the power of the finished work of Christ on the cross, to cleanse us from sin. A powerful sacrifice brings a powerful forgiveness, sufficient for David to get up off his knees and stand before God and go forth and serve God as king and be restored to communion with God. A sense of our unworthiness, “sinner-ship”, and past failures may hold us back from remembering the Lord in the express way that He desired: “My body, eat of it; by blood; drink of it.” But you know, so often we don’t move forward because we to fail to fully grasp the power of the sacrifice of Christ for us. It was sufficient to ody, eat of it; by blood; drink of it.‘m folowing e . on a l’y wheel ()ecause God has said it will happen and He is trustworthplacate, to turn aside the wrath of a God Who was angry against sin, Who had to punish sin, and Who had to punish sinners. That anger all fell upon Christ. And the virtue of His person, work, and perfect life here on earth was sufficient to take away the anger of God against sin. Now if the principle of that was good enough to enable David, in faith, to stand upon his feet, and go forth restored after committing such sin, then confidence in the finished work of Christ as our sacrifice is sufficient for us to partake of those emblems. David had a massive guilt hanging over him, greater than any single one of us here could possibly have; yet he went forth, and he was restored, And restoration and full participation stands available for every single one of us here. “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast.” There is that little word here “let,” which means that I present these thoughts with gentleness; there is no edge in my intention, the Lord laid it much upon my heart. It’s not expressly a commandment that the Lord gave when He said “remember me.” It was His heartfelt desire, His deep desire, that He expressed to His disciples: “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer.” If we really know and truly love Him, we enter into an appreciation of the depths of that desire that we partake in, in the remembrance of Himself. This “let” here adds a certain gentleness; it’s just like the let that we find in Colossians 3:15: “let the peace of God rule in your hearts” Why is it worded like that? God desires that we allow His peace to rule in our hearts; but so often we, with the weakness of our minds and heart, allow obstacles to prevent the peace of God ruling in our hearts. Our part is to ensure that there are no obstacles, that we take them out of the way to allow the peace of God to rule in our hearts. What obstacles to hold us back from partaking in those emblems of remembrance? Embodied in the sense of this word let is the divine desire that we may remove those obstacles and keep that feast; the Lord Jesus will be well pleased and glorified. We are qualified to do so. Search the New Testament; what do you find that qualifies us for remembering the Lord in His death? Remarkable little; there are very few criteria that have to be in place before we can be found there in happy fellowship and freedom. And let us avail ourselves, in full confidence, of the power of our sacrifice. The children of Israel certainly availed themselves of the virtue of that blood that was sprinkled on the lintel and sideposts; they didn’t hesitate. It was the commandment of God that they do so, and they were under instruction; furthermore, it was a sentence of death if they didn’t. Now, they obeyed a commandment; ours is not so much a commandment to obey as a desire to respond to. And credit is given us for doing so, more than it ever was to them. They were extended deliverance if they obeyed; if they didn’t they were destroyed. For us, we are brought into happy fellowship with the Lord Jesus and we receive the blessings of faith that are conferred upon all those who respond in love and obedience to Him Who is unseen; as the Lord said to His disciples, “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” We don’t see the Lord in our midst; we believe He is there. We feel His desire—“remember me”—and if we respond, if we allow no obstacle to get in the way, if we avail ourselves of the power of the sacrifice which He has made, We can be in happy participation in that feast of remembrance. “Let us keep the feast.”
EG Hymn 57 – “Almost persuaded” now to believe, Prayer