October 25, 2009
Scripture:
Scripture:
Romans 6:3-4 This morning we’ve been thinking about entering the Holy of Holies as we’ve remembered the Lord’s death. He went to that cross and shed His blood in order to wash our sins away. That’s wondrous, but that did not complete the work. He wasn’t left on the cross; He was put into the grave. In South Eastern Jerusalem there is a valley which was used as a garbage dump. There were fires burning there all the time. Under the Roman rule, most crucified prisoners were thrown into this dump. But not Jesus. Isaiah 53:9. In the regular procedure, Jesus would have been thrown into the garbage valley. But He wasn’t! Two of the members of the Sanhedrin (the supreme court of Israel at the time) didn’t agree with putting Jesus to death. They were Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. After Jesus died, Joseph begged Pilate to give him His body, and Pilate let him have it. He then wrapped it in linen and put it in his own new tomb. A stone was rolled in front of the entrance and sealed.
Jesus died and went down into the grave, so that those who are saved, God also sees as dead and buried. “But hold on,” you say, “I can still find the old nature active within me!” Yes, unfortunately, our sin nature will never die while we are here on earth. However, we must reckon that our old man is crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6). If we read the Bible daily and meditate on it, then we can have victory over sin. We must reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive into God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:11). Our new nature doesn’t sin. That is how we stand before God.
He sees no sin in us! If, in the past, we committed a really bad sin; Satan likes to bring that back to our remembrance and try to condemn us with it. At such a time we must remember what Romans 8:1 says. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” We can then tell Satan “My sin is gone!”, and we can have joy and victory. Satan wants to rob us of our joy and communion with God. Our old Adam nature is in the grave. We have a new life of joy and power, and we shouldn’t allow Satan to make us unhappy.
This is the reason that we can enter into Heaven; because the Lord has died, washed us from our sins, and released us from our old Adam nature. We’re not totally free from it, and we won’t be until the Lord comes and takes us to Heaven. In the mean time, may we realize what He has done for us and enjoy it!
Hymn 248 - O Happy Day
Prayer
Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. He was 86 when Ishmael was born. That’s a fourteen year difference. God promised Isaac before Ishmael was born. Yet Abraham had to wait and wait and wait before God finally gave him Isaac.
Genesis 22:1-2
Now, let’s pretend that we have never read this story before. How do you suppose we would think it would end? Abraham has finally got his promised son. He loves his son. He has a ‘father loves the son’ relationship. This is the first mention of love in the Bible. In John 17 we hear of another ‘Father loves the Son’ relationship. In that passage it’s the Heavenly Father loving His Son, the Lord Jesus. Can we see a little picture of that here in Genesis? If that’s the first mention of love in the Bible, then what’s the second mention? It’s just two chapters later when it tells us that Isaac loved Rebekah. That’s a picture of Christ loving the church.
But back to our story. What do you think Abraham said? He could have said, “No, I’ve waited too long!” or “I love my son too much” or “Let’s talk about this”. But what did he really say? Nothing! Not a word! This is a hard test, and Abraham passed with flying colours. V4. He didn’t speak, but he went into action. We can count five things that Abraham did that morning. This was absolute, immediate, total obedience. God had said, “I’ll give you a son”, but now He’s taking him back. But God didn’t only promise a son. He promised seed, a family tree, as vast as the stars. Abraham still had faith. Romans 4:17. Physically speaking, Abraham and Sarah were dead in regards to having children. v18a. When everything looked hopeless, Abraham still believed. We often hear the saying, “Where there’s life there’s hope.” Abraham would say, “Where there’s death; there’s still hope, if God’s involved.”
V18^b^. Now, if Isaac died, and didn’t come back to life, who would have the biggest problem? It was God who promised him, so He would be the One losing His glory.
Let’s have faith like Abraham. Let’s be like the person who said, “God says it, I believe it, and that settles it.”
We talked last week about how the timing of this event was very appropriate: now that the Jews had built the altar, the temple, and the wall, they called for the book of the law. This is the first time we hear of Ezra in this book; since he is a scribe, it is right for him to read the book. That was his gift. It has been said that the servant of the Lord should be willing to be silent when he is not needed, but willing to speak when he is needed.
What is important about the first day of the seventh month? This was the beginning of the feast of trumpets. This is a type of the people of Israel returning to the land of Israel after the rapture. What we are seeing here in Nehemiah is a microcosm of that event. Side note: It has been said that to get a good understanding of Bible prophecy, learn about the three sevens: the seven feasts of Jehovah (Leviticus 23), the seven parables of the kingdom (Matthew 13) and the seven letters to the churches (Revelation 2 & 3). So we see that the Jews are getting back to God’s word. It’s important that we are in the Word, too. But it’s doubly important that we do so in a right position before God.
We read similar verses at the beginning of Ezra 3; they held the feast of trumpets there as well. These were, however, different people. The feast of trumpets speaks of revival. In Ezra, it was a revival of worship. In Nehemiah, it was a revival of God’s word.
It’s amazing to see their interest in God’s word: they listened from morning to midday. And we saw last week that it was not just the elders; it was men and women, and everyone who was old enough to understand. This shows us that the Bible is a very unique book; many of us have been reading it our entire lives and are still learning things from it. It is still like new; there isn’t going to be another version. The Jews are reading the book of the law; God has given us a book of grace. Yet even though it was the law, they were still eager to hear it: they had to raise Ezra up on a pulpit so all could hear. They had a true respect for God’s word; when Ezra opened the book, they all stood. We should be quite thankful we have God’s word, and that we can openly read it in our country. When we don’t read it, we lose out; we should be feeding on it daily.
Hymn - The B-I-B-L-E
The B-I-B-L-E
Yes, that’s the Book for me;
I stand alone on the Word of God.
The B-I-B-L-E
The B-L-O-O-D
That Jesus shed for me
His life He gave my soul to save
The B-L-O-O-D
Prayer