August 21, 2011
Scripture:
Scripture:
Ephesians 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” It’s because, in v. 5, “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.” So now, He is our God and Father, too.
Hymn 370 - Yield not to temptation
Prayer
1 Samuel 28, 29
As we’ve seen, David had gone into the land of the Philistines, even the very city that Goliath was from. While David was in Gath, King Achish gathered together his army to go and fight Israel. He asked David if he would come to fight with him. But he had been anointed to be the king of Israel!
This reminds me of a story, about two siblings: a boy and a girl. Their grandmother was coming to visit them, and they hadn’t ever met her before. On the afternoon that she was to arrive, their mother asked them to go to the store to buy milk. Now, these children were from a Christian family and they were taught to be loving and kind. On their way to the store they met a group of children playing in the street. They knew they shouldn’t, but they started to play with these children anyway. Soon, an elderly lady came along, and these children started to throw rocks at her. Unfortunately, the two children started to throw rocks too, and the boy threw one that hit the lady’s hand. He felt bad about it, but they hurried on to the store, finished their errand, and went home. When they got home, they were shocked to find out that the elderly lady was their grandmother. David had gotten himself into a similar situation, hadn’t he? He was with the wrong crowd, and now he was being asked to fight against his own country. What is going happen?
Before we find out what David did, our chapter tells us about Saul. When Saul found out that the Philistines were coming, he was frightened. Samuel had died so he couldn’t ask him what was going to happen. In the rest of chapter 28, Saul went to a person who had a familiar spirit. This isn’t something a Christian should do. Saul found out that his kingdom was going to be taken away, and that David was going to get it.
Back to David and Achish: as Achish gathered his army some of his men noticed David and his men. They went over to Achish and asked why they were there. Achish said that David and his men had been with him for three years and he found no fault in them. But they didn’t like it. They were afraid of David switching sides in the middle of the battle. They remembered that David was the one who had killed Goliath. Achish went to David and told him that he didn’t have any problem with him, but the other lords didn’t feel safe, and so he should just go home. We see that the Lord was protecting David from having to fight against his own country.
Our lesson from David today is that sometimes others may encourage us to get into activities that the Lord doesn’t want us to take part in. We sang the hymn “Yield not to temptation,” and the Lord is able to help us do just that. May He keep us and help us to honour Him in everything we do.
Luke 6:43-49
The Lord is still talking to His disciples, and here He talks about fruit bearing. At this point, the disciples didn’t have the Holy Spirit, and they didn’t know about the New and Old Natures. Our New Nature brings forth good fruit, and our Old Nature produces bad fruit. These Natures conflict, and we may find ourselves bearing both types of fruit. The Lord didn’t tell the disciples all this, though, but He told them that there were good trees and bad trees.
This tells us that life has a nature. We were born with an old nature that commits sins. In John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be “born again”. Once we are born again, we get a new life that has a new nature; and that new nature brings new behaviour with it. The Lord used trees as an example of this. A good tree is like a person with good behaviour, while a corrupt tree is like a person with bad behaviour. Israel started out as a good tree, but they turned bad and God allowed them to be carried away captive. The Lord was telling the disciples “There are two ways you can go.”
So we have our behaviour, but verse 45 also mentions our words. Our behaviour and our words show what is in our heart. In the law, you needed at least two witnesses to condemn a person to death. In life, we have our words and our behaviour as witnesses of who we are; unless our words and our actions contradict each other. Jesus’ behaviour and words showed that His heart was pure and right. Proverbs tells us “Keep thy heart more than anything that is guarded” (Proverbs 4:23 DT).
James 3:8-12 tells us: “The tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.” A tree that produces two types of fruit is like a person that displays two natures. We need to reckon our old nature dead, and live in our Christ-like nature that can’t sin. As the saying goes, we need to starve the raven (our old nature) and feed the dove (our new nature). What are we feeding on? The Enemy can supply us with lots of raven food; but we need to value what is truly worthwhile. We have been given a treasure. It’s easy to tell what is in the heart by what a person talks about. What does their heart overflow with? We must be sure that we don’t display two characters.
The Lord address those with a double nature in verse 46. He told them, “What you say may contradicts what you do.” It’s easy to say things like “The Lord is my shepherd”, or to pray and say “Lord” (which means “Master”) when Christ isn’t our Master, and we don’t do what He says. The Lord is looking for obedience. May our words and our actions be in accordance with who we call Lord.
The rest of the chapter is a graphic illustration of the consequences of the two types of life we can live.
Verse 47 gives us three important words: come, hear, and do. We must take time to come to the Lord, to hear what He has to say, and then to apply that to our lives. Our Lord then went on to show that life is like building a house. Each life - like the houses we read of here - will be tested; and sometimes violently. How each person has lived will determine the outcome of the test. Matthew tells us that the wise man dug deep and laid the foundation for his house on the rock. For us, the rock is Christ.
“On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.”
Jesus is not only the foundation for salvation, but He’s also the foundation for all of life. When tested by the waters, this wise man’s house stood firm. If we build on Christ for our foundation, we can have security throughout the vicissitudes of life.
The house of the foolish man, which didn’t have a foundation, fell in the stream.The Lord has provided a graphic picture of a life that fell in Judas Iscariot. He ended his life by hanging himself, and his bowels gushed out. When all is done, we want to sail into port in full sail, not as a smashed boat. Paul could say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7), while Saul had to admit, “I have played the fool” (1 Samuel 26:21). We must ask ourselves, “Do my actions count for eternity?” We need to work at our jobs and do them as to the Lord, (“if any would not work, neither should he eat.” 1 Thessalonians 3:10) but we must remember that there is something more important. We need to put the Lord first in our lives.
Hymn 7 - My hope on nothing less is built
Prayer