September 7, 2008
Read John 3:14 & 15. These words were spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He had already told Nicodemus that “Ye must be born again.” It was imperative if Nicodemus wanted to see the Kingdom of God. The other ‘must’ is “the Son of Man must be lifted up.” We’ve seen the lifting up of the Son of Man this morning. Oh, how our hearts bow in gratitude! The One who came down in Philippians 2 to take up our cause, in our likeness, would die on the cross. In another Scripture we read “If I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me”. Not just one nation, All men, “Unto me.” Oh, the drawing to Himself. The Cross is the center of two eternities. We are on the opposite side of the cross, from that which Nicodemus was on. We gather in remembrance. We are part of the ‘whosoever’. We can live in that blessing divine. What a privilege.
Hymn 366 –We are little children, very young indeed,
Prayer
Last time I spoke, we had a picture of two trees in the Garden of Eden; what were their names? There was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life. We talked about how Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and how God had said the punishment for that was death. They were in a beautiful garden, but they had brought in sin; let’s see what happens.
Read Genesis 3:6 & 7. Adam and Eve realized that they had sinned, and now they wanted to hide themselves. So, they sewed together fig leaves to try to cover themselves. In v. 8, the worst thing possible happened: the Lord God came into the Garden. They had done their best to cover themselves, and now tried to hide themselves behind the trees in the Garden. It’s sad: the creature that God made to be able to communicate with Him is now hiding from Him, v. 9.
Let’s jump to the end of the story. God said that Adam and Eve would have to die if they ate from that tree. Did they? A substitute took their place. What’s a substitute? It’s is someone or something that takes the place of someone or something else. In v. 21 we find that God clothed Adam and Eve with coats of skin. Where did God get the skin? It would have come from an animal; but that animal would have had to die. That was the substitute.
So when God says to us, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die,’ is there any substitute? The Lord Jesus Christ can cover us from sin. There are two things we can see in this. The first is that God will not give us what we deserve; that’s mercy. The second thing is that He will give us what we don’t deserve; that’s grace. The story is told of a French family who lived during the reign of Napoleon. The father and both sons were soldiers in Napoleon’s army, and in the course of time both the father and the older son were killed in battle. One day, the younger son was imprisoned for treason and was going to be killed. The poor mother went to Napoleon and explained how her husband and son had been killed and how her younger son was now going to die; then she begged for mercy. Napoleon responded, “Your son is guilty, and justice demands that he be executed!” She replied, “I didn’t ask for justice; I asked for mercy.” “But he doesn’t deserve mercy!” The mother said, “If he deserved it, it wouldn’t be mercy.” How thankful we should be that God has not given us what we deserve.
Thoughts from Dennis Fox, with remarks from other brothers
I’ve recently been enjoying some thoughts on Genesis 13 at home and thought we might share that portion now. Read Genesis 13:1 – 18. All of us are familiar with this chapter. We also know what happens in the next chapter, when Lot loses all he owns and is taken captive, and Abraham comes to rescue him. We have just seen how Adam & Eve made a choice and how they had to take the consequences that came because of it. Here we see a good example of how important it is to let our faith in the Lord guide us to the right choice. In v. 10, Lot lifted up his eyes; it was a personal action. He had to make a choice, and his motive was self-interest. He wanted what would be best for him. And in the next chapter, Lot lost what he chose, and everything else he had. Abraham, in contrast, waited until God told him to lift up his eyes, v. 14. And he received God’s blessing.
Abraham and Lot were both believers, and both were considered righteous (We find out that Lot had a righteous soul in II Peter, but we would not guess this otherwise). Yet, they are quite different. We can see three stages in Lot’s life here: 1) he saw, v. 10; 2) he chose (he journeyed), v. 11; and 3) he dwelt, v.12. Eve’s choice started when she saw that the tree was good for food. In both cases, it was the lust of the eyes that caused them to make the wrong choice. In II Corinthians 5:7, we are told to walk by faith, and not by sight. When we let the Lord make the decision, He will give us what is best for us. Read Luke 10:38 – 42. Lot chose what could be taken away from Him. Mary was satisfied with Jesus, and her portion was not taken away. No matter how little or how great the decision we need to make, if we have faith and wait on the Lord, things will go well for us. The Lord should have our heart, as He did Mary’s; Lot’s heart was somewhere else.
Read John 16:22. When we are satisfied with the Lord, no man can take that joy from us. Lot’s things were material items, that could all be taken away. Abraham left his decision-making to God, and he received an everlasting inheritance. God told him to look to the North, East, West and South; his portion had no limit. Also, it was to be his forever. Lot, on the other hand, made his own limited decision and got a limited portion of what really wasn’t valuable to him.
Read I Peter 1:8. This was part of Abraham’s portion. He lifted up his eyes and saw God’s best. In v. 17, God tells him to walk through the land; he had to claim the blessing God had given him; the children of Israel had to do the same when they conquered the land later. He went to Hebron, which means “Communion,” There he built an altar to the Lord.
It seems that Lot was a hindrance to Abraham; it wasn’t until he was gone that God blessed Abraham with the whole land of Canaan. This was the beginning of much blessing; Abraham became the father of the children of Israel, through whom the Lord was born.
There were other people who made good choices in the scriptures; there was Moses, who chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” There was Ruth, who chose a God she did not know.
He cares, He loves, He knows,
Nothing His sight can dim;
he gives the very best to those
who leave the choice to Him.
Hymn 10 – Faith is a very simple thing
Prayer