October 7, 2007
Scripture:
Scripture:
Ministry:
Can we go to Exodus 3 for a moment; this is a well-known story. Read vv. 1–7. This is what struck me; Moses is on the backside of the desert, far removed from Egypt. He sees a spectacle, a burning bush. Out of the midst of the bush came a voice; first it was the angel of God, but when Moses turned to see, it was God who called him. It has been said that the burning bush was like the children of Israel under taskmasters in Egypt, burning but not being consumed. “And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites” (v.8). The Lord had “come down” to deliver them. He had to come down to be in the midst of the doctors at the temple; He had to come down to be in the midst of the two thieves on the cross—how far He had to come down! He had to come down to be in the midst of His disciples. The One who was in perfect majesty on the throne of Heaven had to come down to earth—why? He came to die; how precious to gather around Him this morning, but before we could do that, he had to come down. Read v. 8 again. He came to deliver those who all their lifetime were subject to bondage. He came to deliver them out of death and into the scene we saw in Revelation 5. He came down to be in our midst so He could lift us to be with Him!
Read Psalm 103:10–12. Read II Corinthians 5:18–21. How precious that God “hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” Instead, He “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” In Genesis 45, there are four words I was thinking of; Joseph is a type of Christ, and in v.4 he says, “Come near unto me.” How much the Lord longs for us to come near to him. He died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. What love! He can say to us even today, “Come near unto me.”
EG Hymn 332 – Christ the Saviour of sinners came
Prayer
We’ll continue with Acts; In the beginning chapters, everything took place in Jerusalem; that’s where the apostles and Christians were. Then we saw how the persecution came, and the Christians were scattered. Most of this was the work of Saul. Today we’re looking at chapter 9; read vv. 1 & 2. Now Saul was getting letters to bring to Damascus, giving him permission to capture any Christians and bring them to Jerusalem He believed in God, but didn’t believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He thought he was obeying God by killing the Christians; the disciples were warned about this in John 16:2. Read vv. 3–5 of our chapter. Saul went on his way to Damascus, but as he went, a bright light—brighter than the sun at noon—shone down on him. It was as though God were trying to shine into his heart and show him what was there. I remember a story about a sailor who had committed a crime while at sea. The captain wanted him to repent, but he refused. So the captain had him put into the ship’s hold. Every few days someone would be sent to ask him if he would repent; the answer was always “no.” Finally the captain instructed to put a light in the hold; when the man saw the rats, mice, and other creatures in the hold with him, he quickly repented. This is what the Lord was trying to do to Saul. The Lord then asked, “Why are you persecuting me?” The Lord? We read that Paul was persecuting the Christians, but the Lord? We know that at Pentecost the Holy Spirit baptized the Christians into one body, with the Lord as the head. If someone stepped on your toe, your whole self would feel it; when a Christians suffers, the Lord suffers. The Lord told Saul, “You’re hurting me.” So Saul realized that he was really hurting the Lord; He realized who Jesus was, and that it was wrong to persecute the Christians. He wanted to do what was right, so he asked, “What wilt thou have me to do?” We can ask that each day; what is it the Lord wants of us. The Lord told Saul to go into the city and he would find out what to do. Read vv. 7 & 8. Saul had been blinded, and for three days, he could not see. In vv. 10–13, God spoke to a disciple in Damascus, Ananias, and told him to go to Saul. Ananias had heard of Saul and didn’t want to go to see him, but the Lord reassured him that Saul had been chosen to bring the gospel to the Gentiles, vv. 15 & 16. In v. 17, Ananias found Saul and said, “Brother Saul”—how comforting that must have been! Saul received him sight. Then in v. 20, we find Saul preaching in the synagogues. We’ll go on from here next time. It’s precious to see how God saved Saul and how Saul served Him.
I Peter 2:11–16
Up to now, Peter has been giving us doctrinal or objective truth; it is true whether we believe it or not. Now he changes to subjective truth, practical wisdom to follow. God usually will give us doctrinal truth before practical truth, and that is what we have here. How important it is to live in the power of both types of truth!
In this chapter, we hear a lot about priesthood, not only that of the Lord Jesus, but also that of the Christian. We are to function as holy priests, in service God-ward, offering spiritual sacrifices; also, as royal priests, we should minister man-ward. We saw how the Jews were God’s people and how we are his present people. We should live in the joy of that.
Now we come to verse 11, where Peter is beseeching them. Beseech is an interesting word, quite opposite to what we see in the Old Testament, where God said, “Thou shalt.” He also calls them beloved. But, then, strangers? In order to make all the previous truths work, we need to realize that we are strangers in this world. They were pilgrims; not strangers in Heaven. The priesthood the Jews knew had a tabernacle, but now they were part of God’s habitation through the Spirit. We can miss the enjoyment of this if we are focusing on the things down here. We need to set our minds on things above. But many of us are employed; we are working and expected to think about things down here. That is necessary and there is nothing wrong with it, but our hearts should be occupied with the Lord.
As we mentioned, we are strangers and pilgrims as Christians. This might remind us of Cain, who was a fugitive and a vagabond. A stranger is one away from home; a pilgrim is one going home. A fugitive is one fleeing home and a vagabond is one without a home. We aren’t homeless; we just aren’t home. Really we have two homes. In John 14, the Lord says He is going to prepare a home for us: the Father’s house. In II Corinthians 5:1, we find we have a home not made with hands, our glorified bodies. We’ll be well looked after with these. God wanted to dwell with man, so He had the Israelites make the tabernacle. They probably did a very good job … but it was not as beautiful as our home will be. What a portion we have! So while we are here, strangers, we can look forward to going home. We will leave behind all hindrances. The flesh, the old nature, the carnal part of human beings will be left behind.
But while we are here we are exhorted to abstain from fleshly lusts. There’s a war going on inside us, in our soul. Our soul is the will, mind, and emotions. Abstaining is a heavy responsibility; we need help to do it. Satan knows just what buttons to press to frustrate us—what do we have going for us. Read Romans 8:26—we can count on that. But it is easy to loosen and stray off the path. The will of God will not leave us where the grace of God cannot keep us. If we abstain from evil, God will help us: He is greater than the world.
God sees us as an inside and outside; v. 11 deals with what is inside. Verse 12, now, looks at the outside. We need to live honestly. We can relate these two views to the holy and royal priesthoods. The holy priesthood is God-ward, what we are inside. We have communion with Him; we have that access—how do we value it? Others see us in the royal priesthood, and that is the outside.
Peter usually addresses the individual, while Paul speaks to assemblies, but we can’t neglect the assembly principles here. We can “exhort one another daily” (Hebrews 3:13) to do these things. This is contrary to natural humanity. Without the help of blessings, the Word, prayer, fellowship, the Holy Spirit, it would not be possible to follow these truths. The world doesn’t understand these things. But how much we need each other! The end of verse 12 tells us why we should do this: “they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.” Mr Darby said, “Let what is on the inside be pure and the outside will reflect it.” We may think holiness is a big word, but it is really just being set apart from evil.
EG Hymn 163 –Guide us, O thou gracious Saviour,
Prayer