June 1, 2008
Scriptures
Ministry
Can we turn to Hebrews again? V.1 “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” That has been our thought this morning, a clear conscience. Can we connect this with Romans 8? Earlier, at the beginning of this chapter, we were reading about “no condemnation”. V 34: “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Then we get another question. V 35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” There is no separation. It would be terrible to be in God’s presence if we didn’t have “no condemnation”. But now we do have purged consciences, and in His presence is fullness of joy; no separation!
We’ll continue with the seven letters to the churches; well, which one are we at this week today? We’ll look at Philadelphia, which means Brotherly Love. As we have noticed, these letters represent all the history pf the church from beginning to end, and the last four churches all continue down to the Lord’s coming. We talked about Thyatira (Catholicism) and Sardis (Protestantism); both of them degenerated over time. When we talked about Ephesus, we found that they had lost their first love. In Philadelphia, we will see a little returning of that love. Read Revelation 3:7 – 13. In v. 8, we see that Philadelphia has a little strength; this means there were very few people there. Philadelphia was known for keeping the word and not denying the Lord’s name. It is important to read the word, but even more important to keep it. Also, it is important to not deny His name. Most Christian groups today have taken a name, even others who meet in ways similar to the way we do. This is wrong, because they are not meeting to the Lord’s name only. Also, many register the buildings they meet in under these names, and are given tax exemptions; yet, this is not biblical.
V. 10 — we know about the tribulation. If you were engaged to someone, would you want them to go through the tribulation? No; and the Lord doesn’t either. He will come to take His bride away before God brings judgement on this world. And the Lord says He will come for His bride quickly, v. 11. That was written about two-thousand years ago; has He come quickly? He will come in God’s perfect timing, and not a moment late. Because of this, we are given instructions: we are to hold fast the truth God has given us, so that we do not lose it. If we don’t follow that truth, Satan can take it away from us.
When we are raptured from the earth, we will stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ and be judged and rewarded for our works here on earth. This should motivate us to live out the truth we have been given and to do things for the Lord; if we do them with the motivation of receiving a reward, we will not get one, though. Then there will be the marriage supper of the Lamb, v. 12.
it is a blessing to be part of Philadelphia today, to gather with those who keep his word and do not deny His name; yet, we can’t be proud of our position, but endeavour to go on in humility.
Last week, we talked about the divine promises. Interestingly, salvation is a promise; it has a condition, but it is still a promise. And as we have said, God cannot break His promises.
Corruption is one of the characteristics of the world we live in: corruption and violence. It’s much the same as it was in Noah’s day, when God looked into the hearts of men and saw the wickedness of it. Violence is manifest in so many ways: in wars, on our city streets, and even in our own anger. Corruption is in all the media and entertainment, but it is also in business, and even the government. Peter tells us here, it is all because of lust; what is lust? More generally, it is man’s natural, carnal will, apart from God. It is the opposite of the divine nature. We must escape that corruption. Escape has the connotation of having been taken captive, but getting away. We need to do that daily; the enemy is always ready to take us captive as soon as we let down our guard. How important it is to study the word of God and keep it, which will in turn keep us from the bondage of sin. Corruption is worse than a land-mine; corruption comes from within: we have an old nature with carnal habits. It loves the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Pride is really a big part of corruption; it is preoccupation with self. Read I Peter 5:5; if we have pride in our lives, God will be resisting us. James tells us to resist the devil, but how can we do that if God is resisting us. Peter gives us instruction here in the next few verses. But we need to be humble; may we always be conscience of the snares of the enemy! We have read that God’s promises are sure. God wants us to be strong against the enemy. He has said, “The joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10); “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15).
V. 5 — Peter has told us a lot already, but “besides all this” we are to be diligent. Without diligence, not much will be done; but we must be diligent in the right things. Peter gives us a list of things that we are to be diligent in. He uses the word add, but that is not really a correct translation; we already have these things in our new nature. They just need to be activated; we can’t let our old nature overrun them.
Hymn 370 – Yield not to temptation
Prayer