July 19, 2015
Ministry:
Earlier our brother read from Isaiah 53. It is a marvellous chapter, when you see all the Lord has borne for us. Now let’s turn to Isaiah 54. It starts with the word “sing.” God has lifted the burden of sin, and has given us something to sing about. Read v. 1. Now let’s turn to ch. 55:1. It is precious to stop and think that the Lord came and provided righteousness for us: we, who had no righteousness, no claim for it either. He is just and the justifier. He gave us righteousness and made the ground to give it by giving His son. So we sing. How blessed is the result of what the Lord has done to bring us where us are.
Lord’s Day July 19, 2015
Children’s Meeting - Philip Burgess
Hymn 341 - Jesus bids us shine
Prayer
We have come to the end of Nehemiah; Nehemiah is the last history book in the Old Testament. If we take a look back a chapter 10. we see that the Children of Israel had made several covenants with God. But as we read today’s chapter, we will see that they have already broken them. After being encouraged and wanting to do what was right, they had fallen away.
John 15:5
Philippians 4:13
When we have the Lord as our Saviour, we have the Holy Spirit within us to help strengthen us. We need the Lord to help us follow the truth.
Nehemiah 13:1-7, 10-12, 14-20, 22-26, 28-31
The people had gathered together to read the book of Moses, but among them were some of the Ammonites and Moabites. The Lord had told the Children of Israel that these people were not allowed to be among them. They had not greeted the Children of Israel with bread and water, and had tried to curse them. These peoples were related to Israel, but God had said they were not allowed.
This is a reminder to us. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. We must be separated from things around. The Lord was an example of this. He traveled around all the time interacting with other people, but He kept Himself for God. When we are with people or involved in activities, we must remember to keep ourselves from things that are not pleasing to the Lord.
The Children of Israel had to separate themselves from the mixed multitude. They followed God’s instructions.
Some of the Children of Israel had made friendships with the wrong people. Tobiah had been one of the men who had tried to stop the building of the wall. He was an enemy. The priest who had the oversight of the temple’s chambers had given Tobiah a room in the temple to live in. The room he had been given had stored items for the Levites’ items for their sacrifices. But now it had been given to Tobiah. Nehemiah had just returned from Babylon. And when he found out what had happened he went and cast all of Tobiah’s things out of the room and had it cleansed. Then he returned the items to the room.
Who you are around affects your life. We must be careful to guard our friendships.
Next Nehemiah set people to help get all the tithes and offerings in order.
Nehemiah was a man of prayer, and he often turned to God in prayer. We must be looking to God to help keep what has been done in our life, so we don’t slide away.
The Sabbath was to be kept holy. But the Children of Israel were not doing things according to what Nehemiah had read. They were buying and selling things on the Sabbath day. So Nehemiah had to put them in their place as well. The Children of Israel had been slowly slipping away.
Nehemiah also found out that there had been wrong marriages. The Children of Israel were letting their children marry others who weren’t Jewish. Their children didn’t speak the Jews’ language. Nehemiah had to remind them that this was wrong, and wasn’t allowed. They were not to give their daughters to heathen sons or let their sons marry heathen daughters. He reminded them what happened to Solomon when he fell in love with the wrong women.
You might also remember Sanballat. He was another enemy of the Children of Israel who had tried to stop the building of the wall. Now Nehemiah found out one of the priest’s sons was Saballat’s son-in-law. This was not right, so Nehemiah chased the man from him, and set things right.
This brings the book of Nehemiah to an end. It closes with a prayer. Nehemiah asked the Lord to remember him for good. Nehemiah was remembered. It is written here so we can remember and learn from him.
There will be a reward for what we do in life. The Lord says, “Them that honour Me, I will honour”. In our own flesh we can’t do anything. We can’t follow the Lord in our own strength. We need the Lord of help us.
So this is the end of Nehemiah. Hopefully we have learned some lessons that will be of help to us. Nehemiah was a man of prayer. He depended on the Lord and served and honoured Him. May we do that as well!
Ephesians 2:11-22
Last week we saw that works couldn’t earn salvation, but were important afterward. Ravi Zacharias says that the equation isn’t faith + works = salvation, it’s faith = salvation + works. We got salvation for free, but there is much work to do for the Lord after we’re saved.
We were created in Christ Jesus unto good works, and this brings up a topic that we don’t talk often about: New Creation. There are a couple of passages that talk about it, but the clearest is 2 Corinthians 5:14-18. We were all dead—as is evidenced by the fact that Christ died for all— but those saved have been resurrected with Christ. The world rejected Christ, and so now we deal with a Christ in glory, not a Christ in the flesh. Since our resurrection, we are also no longer people of the flesh, but spiritual people—in Christ—as Ephesians has told us. We are a new creation, due to the work that God accomplished through Christ. The first creation is obviously still around, but now we can enjoy the new creation that God has provided.
Christ accomplished a work on the cross. He made the first creation, but now there is a new one. Just this past week (on July 14th, 2015) the space craft New Horizons flew by Pluto; a scientific breakthrough. The vastness of space is astonishing, and the project coordinators were thrilled and excited about what they had done and what they were learning. Our new creation, though, is just as amazing! God Himself came down to Earth to save you and me. Sometimes these things just seem like words and sentences, but in reality they are incredible truths that we should be excited about!
These truths bring us up to God’s level; far above all natural creation. 2 Corinthians 5:18 tells us that “all things are of God.” When we were born, we were born into the first creation, under Adam. He is the head of the old creation. Then Christ came, and after His resurrection became head of a new race. We were aliens to God, but have been reconciled to Him through Christ. Now, as new creatures, God needs us to be ambassadors for Christ to the rest of the world.
We are Christ’s workmanship. What a work it took to make us in Christ! We are no longer under Adam and death; Christ has accomplished His work, and we are under Him.
What is the difference between new birth and new creation? The new birth gives individuals a new life and nature; but the new creation gives the whole church a new position in heavenly places. It’s an extension of new birth.
Man was able to fall and ruin the Old Creation, but since Christ has died, risen, and is Head of the new creation, it’s not possible for man to mess it up. We would, if we could, for we’re prone to do that.
Christ is our head, and we are His body; therefore there are good works for us to do. God has already “prepared” (Darby translation) good works that we are to walk in.
In the first creation, there were Jews and Gentiles. In the second creation, though, there is oneness. We are all God’s workmanship in Christ. In the next segment of Ephesians 2, we will see how far off from God we were, and now how “nearer we cannot be”.
Hymn 44 — Just as I am—without one plea
Prayer