May 9, 2010
Scripture:
Scripture:
1 John 2:1-2
Just a brief thought on propitiation. Sin was an incredible insult to God. God is holy, and cannot abide sin. The Lord Jesus realized this problem, and that’s why He came to Earth and the cross; in order to deal with the sin question. He was the thrice holy, spotless Lamb of God; yet He came as a man, in order to take care of sin at the cross. While He was there, God poured out the punishment for sin upon Him. He vented all His indignation for our sins upon Christ. This is hard to understand, but this is what propitiation is; and it satisfied God. Jesus made it possible for God to accept sinners. All the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament came from a sin-cursed Earth. The Lord Jesus came from heaven, that thrice holy place. He was sinless, and the blood that He shed for you and me was sinless. This blood cleanses us from all sin. When He dealt with sin, and allowed God to vent all His anger for sin, that was propitiation. When He died, washed us from our sins, and bought us back from Satan; that was redemption.
No wonder Peter calls it the “precious blood of Christ”. It’s without price. May these things cause us to love Him and to give Him our whole hearts and lives.
Hymn 227 - I was a Wandering Sheep
Prayer
Today, I’d like to talk to you about sheep. An adult sheep is, of course, called a sheep; and a young sheep is called a lamb. You can buy lamb meat at the store, and sheep meat is called mutton.
Isaiah 53:3 This passage is talking about Jesus as the Lamb of God. Jesus went through all that pain and sorrow at the cross for you and me. Truly He was a man of sorrows.
Vv.4-5. When Jesus was on the cross, He took our sins on Himself. God smote Him for our sins, instead of smiting us. This should make us love Him very much. We are healed, because Jesus has taken away the judgement for our sins.
V6. We have done what we wanted to do. This wasn’t pleasing to God, but Jesus has suffered for the sin of the whole world.
V7. There was once a man in our meeting who lived in Perth and kept sheep. One day, he wanted to kill one of his sheep for meat, so he and a friend went out to the barn, got the sheep, and killed it. Not once did the sheep make a sound. Just before they crucified Jesus, they whipped him. Now you or I would scream or groan, but not Jesus. He was silent, bearing everything for you and me. This should make us want to love him.
John 10:1-5 Where these shepherds would keep their sheep for the night was rather like a small barn, there would be walls around, but no roof. Several shepherds would put. In the morning, the shepherd would come. The porter would know him and let him in. A robber, trying to steal some sheep, would have to climb the wall. The shepherd would then call his sheep, and his sheep would recognize his voice and follow him. The other sheep wouldn’t. And it even says that the shepherd calls his sheep by name. Our Shepherd knows our names. Do we follow His voice, the Bible? The sheep follow the shepherd, because he will lead them to food and safety. We can trust our Shepherd to do the same. We must make sure that we don’t follow other people, because they will try to lead us astray.
Vv.6-9. As we come to know Jesus as the Door, we can go in and out. The sheep would go out to find food, and come in for safety. It’s the same for us.
V.11. Jesus did this for us. He has given His life on the cross, so that we might have eternal life.
Sheep are interesting creatures. If you have a line of sheep, and you hold a rod in front of the first sheep, he will jump it. Then the second sheep will jump it, and then the third. You can then take the rod away and the rest of the sheep will still jump! They follow those that go before, and we should follow the good example of our elders.
So sheep can teach us many valuable things. I hope that you will think about them some more, and learn more about following our Lord.
We saw last week how they dedicated the wall to God; we saw the two groups walking around each side of the wall and noticed how this whole event brought great joy, v. 43.
In I Chronicles 15, we see a similar situation; David was bringing the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. Read v. 13 - 15; everything was done in due order. That’s what we’re talking about in Nehemiah. Order is very important to God. And this order brought joy, v. 16.
By establishing what God had commanded, the Jews could have order and joy. And we get the description of their rejoicing in v. 43. They were having joy in worshipping where the Lord had set His name. Today, there should be joy in the due order of following scripture. It’s important to distinguish between personal joy and collective joy. When we gather, we can have personal joy in the Lord; but we cannot have corporate joy if we are not gathered in due order. We should want that complete joy in the house of God. It’s not that individual joy is wrong; but we should have both.
The joy of the Lord depends on your state of soul. But joy in the assembly depends on truth being upheld in the assembly. The group in Nehemiah’s time had the joy of the Lord because they followed the law. They wanted to be as faithful as David was. It was music to God’s ears. We should have an even greater joy than they did, because we are not under that law.
We read in vv. 45 & 47 about purification and sanctification. They wanted things to be right for the One that was in their midst. they sought to give the Lord his portion. They did this through sacrifices, songs, and music. After so many years, they were restoring what had been lost.
Hymn 179 - Nothing but Christ, as on we tread
Prayer