August 16, 2009
Scripture:
Revelation 1:5 & 6
The hymn we just sang, number five, was probably inspired by this passage. All through the Old Testament, whenever the Children of Israel sinned they had to offer up an animal. But Jesus realized that this would never make the comers thereunto perfect; so in His deep love, He offered Himself to God as the Lamb. The more correct reading of this passage is ‘loveth us’, for it is a continual love. I believe that we can’t really understand what sin is to God; and how much He wanted us to be free from it. Animals couldn’t free us, so He had to send His Son. His love was so deep that He was willing to go through all that pain and shame. He went down into death, and after three days rose again, breaking its bonds. He has made us a kingdom of priests. It may be hard for us to understand sin; but it’s just as hard to understand the opposite. We have been washed and been made a kingdom of priests. It’s precious that He would have nothing less than that we would be washed and become priests to Him and His Father. For all eternity we will be praising Him for what He has done!
Hymn 333 - Come to the Saviour, make no delay
Prayer
Last time we saw how God make a promise to Abram. Have your parents ever made you a promise? I’m sure you can think of a few promises they have made. When someone promises to do something, they really intend to do it. What was God’s promise to Abram? Read Genesis 15:5. God promised that Abram’s seed would be as the stars; that means that his children and descendants would be more than we could count. We don’t know how many stars there are, and we don’t know how many children of Israel have lived and died over the years.
Has God ever made a promise to you? We can find very many promises in the Bible. One is “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” (Hebrews 13:5). That’s a very precious promise; it’s one of many promises that start with “I will.” Did you know that salvation is a promise? Read Acts 16:31 and ch. 2:38 & 39. I have a little book entitled “Exceeding great and precious promises.” That’s what we have. I have a few promises that I really enjoy. One is in Proverbs 3:5 & 6. To acknowledge the Lord is to let Him have the place of Lordship in your life that He deserves, to let Him get involved in all you do. When we do this, He promises to direct our lives. He has a plan for each one of us, and we should want to follow it.
Another one of my favourites is in Isaiah 55:11. You’ll have to know that for many years, when I lived in Montreal, I would print and send tracts all over the world. We sent thousands of tracts out, but very rarely did we hear of anyone getting saved. I claimed this promise for those tracts. We can know that God’s word will never go out and not accomplish what God has planned for it.
You know, I sometimes like to mark special promises in my Bible. I use this mark. It’s a ‘dp,’ which stands for ‘divine promise.’ How good to know that when God makes promises, He will always keep them. We’ll see that for Abram, as we continue to look at his story.
Reading Meeting — Nehemiah 4:14 - 23 We saw last week how the Jews knew about the possibility of a surprise attack, and how Nehemiah prepared the people so that they could carry on the work. They needed to be mentally and physically prepared, so he told them not to be afraid, to remember the Lord, and to be strong. The enemy likes to intimidate us; he likes to make us back down. It’s easy to say, “Don’t be afraid”; but Nehemiah backed this up with “remember the Lord.” We too can know that “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”
Nehemiah encourages them to fight for their brethren, their sons, their wives, and so on. Unfortunately, some today fight against their brethren. However, Nehemiah highlighted the importance of defending their families from the enemy. Satan wants families; we must defend our families and pass the truth on to them.
V. 17: Their work now consists of construction and defence. God has given each one of us a job for Him (Mark 13:34). As we work for Him, we must have our weapons ready. We should have the sword of the Spirit at our sides, as the Jews had their sword. Read Ephesians 6:13; to stand is to stand for something; and when we do that, opposition will certainly come; then we have to withstand. We need to fight the good fight of faith. And faith is really the key: we can know a lot, but it is of no value to do it in our own strength. The Lord will frustrate the enemy when we have faith.
Hymn 380 - Standing by a purpose true
Prayer