August 19, 2007
Scripture:
Scripture:
Isaiah 52:14, 53:5—Imagine that face, filled with grace and love and kindness; here we see the hatred of man’s heart, to destroy that beyond recognition. The face that looked at Peter after he had denied the Lord, that face of love, looked at him and broke his heart. Here we see man destroy that; stricken, smitten, and afflicted.
Ministry—Gordon Burgess
Can we look back at Isaiah 52 once more; that phrase from verse 14 impressed me this morning: “his visage was so marred more than any man.” I understand from commentaries that they ripped His beard off, taking the skin, so that it was not recognizable as a human face. But then, when He was on the cross looking out at the crowd around Him, He said, “Father, forgive them.” What a spirit of forgiveness, and in such a condition! Now I want to look at v. 11 of the next chapter: “He shall see of [the fruit of] the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” On the cross, He looked at the crowd and forgave them. But in a coming day, when He will have all His own around Him, all that He went through—all the pain, shame, disfigurement, and judgement—will be past and as He looks at that crowd gathered around Him, He will be satisfied. We will look at Him in all His glory and see Him face to face for the first time. I think of my son-in-law, who is blind; he will see Him too. What a wonderful day that will be, when we are gathered around the Lord. He will be satisfied; incidentally, we will be satisfied as well.
Children’s Meeting—Gordon Burgess
EG Hymn 308 – I love to hear the story,
Prayer
I have been talking about “God is”; but some of the attributes of God are somewhat difficult, so I have decided to change topics. Today I want to talk about a story you have all heard, but I want to emphasise four points. This story is about three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Daniel 3:1–30
This is an amazing story! But does it relate at all to our lives? Well, we can have an unshakable faith in God; He is the same today as He was for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Although we do not have to face fire, we have difficulties and trials as well. Can God help us in these circumstances? Yes, we have an unfailing Friend, who can deliver us out of any problem we might have.
Reading Meeting
I Peter 1:13–2:3
These verses tie together, because we have been going over the fact that we are redeemed by the blood of Christ. Not only are we redeemed, but we also find that in this redemption we are purified (v. 22) by a purification that comes through the truth. Salvation brings a new life and a new nature to us; the very word of that brings salvation brings our new nature and manner of life as well. Here we find the fact that through obedience, with the Spirit, there are aspects of our old life that are dealt with and our new life can show love for the brethren. One example of this is Cain and Abel. Cain slew his brother; he had no affection. Abel had faith and love for God. We can see these two natures. We need to let our new nature be operative. We need to love the brethren “with a pure heart fervently.” A nice thing about these verses at the end is that they show the place the Word of God had in our blessing. We are thankful for the blood, but the way it came to us was through the Word of God. Peter makes this point at the beginning of v. 23: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God.” In v. 18, we are not redeemed by the corruptible, the tradition of the fathers. That was not acceptable to God; He sent the blood of Christ. When you buy a bag of seeds, it will have a number om the package that tells you what percent of the seeds in the manufacturer’s testing germinated. You won’t ever find 100%, although often that is what you will get. In the Word of God, we always get 100% germination, if it falls on good soil. Like the parable, there are the sower, the seed, and the soil. Peter is writing to Christians; for them, the good seed fell on good soil. But even good soil can bring forth different yields. Also, some of the soil had thorns; we’ll see how we have to do our weeding. So we are born from the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, “which liveth and abideth for ever.” How good to have something so absolutely pure and potent. What an encouragement to spend time in the Word, not because we need to be saved, but because we need it to live by.
V. 22 tells us that our souls are purified by obeying the truth through the Spirit. V. 24 tells us that man in the flesh will wither and die; it is like grass that grows, turns brown, and dies. James says it is like a vapour. Only the Word of God “abideth forever.” Quite a contrast! But all this makes it clear that life is short; we need to redeem what time we have in “obeying the truth through the Spirit.” The Jewish religion had much to do with the flesh; now these Christians had something that wasn’t going to fail. They used to go to a prophet to get the word of God; but now we have a living, abiding book that bears fruit. “But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”
EG, Hymn 102 – Life at best is very brief,
Prayer