August 12, 2007
Revelation 1:5 & 6—If the Lord came to be the “brightness of His glory and the express image of his person,” then He is indeed the faithful witness. The part of about kings and priests is the part that struck me. Worthy is He to be praised, both for who He is and for what He has done! He has made us a kingdom of priests unto God.
Ministry—Norman Burgess
Let’s go back for a moment to the first chapter of Revelation. When we read this passage previously, I was struck by three things. Verses 5 & 6 say that He “loved us,” “washed us,” and “made us.” How precious! As we have the Lord before us, we find the reason that we can offer up praise to Him: He loved us. More accurately, He loves us; this speaks of our nearness or dearness to Him. He washed us; this is our fitness: “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12). He made us kings and priest. He made us to function as priests so we can offer the sacrifices of praise that He is so worthy to receive. Let us praise Him for our nearness, fitness, and rightful service.
Children’s Meeting—Norman Burgess
EG Hymn 330 – A message came from Heaven
Prayer
Does anyone have a good riddle? What is greater than God, more wicked than the devil, the rich need it, the poor have it, and if you eat it, you’ll die? Nothing. What is a riddle? It’s a question with a tricky answer. Does anyone know of a riddle in the Bible? Samson told a riddle; turn to Judges 14. Samson was a judge of Israel; he was a very strong man. He did not always do what was right, but in this chapter, we can see him as a picture of the Lord. As this chapter begins, Samson is attracted to a young woman, but she is a Philistine. His parents try to coax him out of it, but Samson will not be persuaded. Read v. 5. So Samson and his parents set out to visit this girl; while they are going by the vineyards of Timnath, a young lion jumps at Samson. What do you think that lion wanted to do? He was probably going to kill and eat Samson. Is Samson in trouble? Read v. 6. Samson rent, or tore the lion in pieces; but He didn’t tell his parents. So, v.7, they visited the Philistine woman and she pleased Samson. They went home, but before long, Samson was going back to see her. As he went by Timnath, he must have wondered if the carcase of the lion was still there, because he found it and discovered that a swarm of bees had made a nest in it. He took some and gave some to his parents as well; but he didn’t tell them where it came from. Read vv. 10 & 11. Now Samson held a feast, and 30 young Philistine men came. We find, in vv. 12 & 13, that Samson is going to tell them the riddle; if they get it, he will give them each a prize, otherwise they must each give him a prize. V. 14 tells us the riddle: “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” They were supposed to tell him what he was talking about. Let’s look at the riddle for a moment; what do you think the eater and the strong is? The lion; what is the meat and sweetness? The honey. In the Bible, what do lions usually typify? Satan; for example, in Psalm 22, the Lord says, “Save me from the lion’s mouth.” When the soldiers nailed the Lord to the cross, Satan was at work. What is Samson a picture of? The Lord; and when Satan tried to do his worst, God was able to turn it around for good. At Calvary, when Satan tried to destroy the Lord, Jesus destroyed the one who had the power of death, the eater. Now we can have the sweetness, salvation. God has allowed the strength of the enemy to be turned into honey.
Reading Meeting
I Peter 1:18–25
We have had quite a line–up of special truths in the practical part of our chapter; we have discussed obedience, holiness, redemption, and the precious blood of Christ. Now we have purification. Purification is part of salvation’s package deal. There are two aspects of purification here: one is the purifying that comes when we are saved. The other is keeping ourselves pure is our daily walk. Sin in our flesh has to be dealt with; we are going through a defiling environment. Purity is not the current diet of the media today. Keeping ourselves pure involves scripture; “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word” (Psalm 119:9). It is also through the help of the Spirit that we can live pure lives. This purity in our lives should bring about a love for the brethren: “unto unfeigned love of the brethren.” Under the law, the Jews were commanded to love their neighbour as themselves, but were given nothing to do it with. We are given the same command, but God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us show the fruit of the Spirit: love.
This theme continues in v. 23 with being born again. We said that the Word of God has a purifying effect on our lives. But it is also the way we receive our new life. When we present the gospel to someone, how important it is to present it as it is in the Bible. The story is told of a brother who led a woman to the Lord, mainly through one verse. A while later he asked her if she had ever doubted her salvation. She replied, “Whenever I do, I just go back and read that verse; it hasn’t changed.” In preaching the gospel, our reasoning, logic, and stories may help, but our message must be anchored in the Word of God. How precious that the scriptures, like seeds, can grow and bear the fruit of salvation in our lives! Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). That water is the Word. But although we have a new life, the Spirit and the Word, we still have our old nature; we can’t kill it, but we need to reckon it as dead. When you plant a seed, the fruit shows the character of the seed; if our old nature is reckoned dead, our new nature will produce that good fruit.
Verse 23 ends with, “the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” At the end of the dark ages, when people were beginning to translate the Bible into known languages, many people got saved just because they had a Bible to read. To make someone a Christian, all you need to do is give them a Bible; to make someone a Jehovah’s Witness, you need many other books as well. The Bible is a living book, and the Spirit of God will use it to convict people. Will we have a physical copy of the Bible in Heaven? It “abideth for ever.” We may, but we will be with the One who is called the Word: “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). We sang this morning “Thou are the everlasting Word.” But the thing that is so amazing about the Bibles we hold today is that even though they were written so many years ago, we aren’t expecting a revision. There are no surprises. We can be sure of what will happen because the scriptures tell us all about it.
We said that we still have our old nature. When we die, we will lose that and be able to live in Heaven in the fullness of our new nature, our new life. But we can do that in part here and now, because we have the Spirit of God, the Word of God, and the love of God.
EG Hymn 345 – Jesus loves the little children,
Prayer