October 11, 2015

Morning Meeting

• Hymn 179 - Brightness of th’ eternal glory
• Scripture: Revelation 5:1-13
• Hymn 150 - Thou art the everlasting Word

• Scripture:

  • Acts 26:12 - Here we have Paul telling the story of his trip to Damascus. There is a brightness of light “that no eye hath seen.”: it was the “brightness of the eternal glory.”
  • Luke 23:32-34 - In Ephesians it says we are “to be to the praise of the glory of His grace.” There are different aspects of glory. The glory that we see here is beyond what anyone had ever seen before. May we be “to the praise of the glory of His grace.”
• Prayer
• Scripture: Philippians 2:8b - 11 - I was thinking of the thought from Luke’s gospel when the Lord is at His lowest point of shame: despised and rejected. Yet as our Brother said, “What glory!” But, also, as this chapter says, He laid aside His real glories and came in only moral glory. We were reminded in prayer that we are here to remember His death. And as we are pondering His death, our hearts will be stirred to give glory. He indeed is worthy.
• Hymn 121 - Glory unto Jesus be
• Breaking of Bread
• Hymn 80 - On earth the song begins
• Ministry: Revelation 1:5-6
• Prayer

Children’s Meeting: Norman Burgess

Hymn 355 - Safe in Christ, the weakest child

Prayer

Our topic has been Jesus is my …. So far, we have covered Jesus is my Saviour, Shepherd, Lord, and High Priest. Today, we’ll look at another one.

When I was seven years old, I took the Lord as my Saviour. I knew my sins were forgiven on the basis of the Word of God and what Christ did on Calvary. But not long after that, I found out I could still sin. Does that mean I have to get saved again? Does it matter if I sin?

When I got saved, my salvation became a connection to God; that salvation is like an unbreakable chain. But I was also given a line of communication to Him, which is like a delicate thread. When we sin, our line of communication is broken. How do we fix it?

When I was fourteen, I met some people who believed that if you sinned and died at that moment, you would go to hell. But when I read my Bible, it says I have eternal life. Now, how long is eternal life? We know it is forever. If you know the Lord as your Saviour, you are saved, no matter how far you stray. Salvation is our standing before God and it doesn’t change. Communion is my state before God, and it can change. It’s like a thermometer: it’s standing on the wall doesn’t change, but the state of the mercury inside goes up and down. We need to make sure our communion line doesn’t break.

God has provided help for us.

1 John 2:1, ch. 1:9

Our lesson today is this: Jesus is my advocate.

John wrote to God’s children, Christians. He wrote so that we wouldn’t sin; but if we do, we have an advocate. An advocate is someone who goes between. Advocate is similar to the French word for lawyer, someone who pleads the case or cause of another. If I had to go to court, I would find a lawyer to plead my cause to the prosecution. With the sins that I have committed after I’m saved, Jesus stands in God’s presence saying, “Forgive him, I died for that.” However, we need to follow I John 1:9. We must confess our sins, and we will be forgiven on the grounds of Calvary.

Psalm 23:3

Restoration! My line of communion will be restored. Jesus is your advocate, too. The weakest of us can be saved and this can’t be broken. But communion can, so don’t wait to confess. Jesus has already pleaded the cause for us. And He is faithful and just to forgive.

Reading Meeting

Ephesians 4: 13-24

As we said before, we’ve had the doctrinal part of Ephesians, and this is now the practical part. It tells us how to walk worthy of our calling. Much has been done for us, but there are things that we must put into practice, and we’ve all been given grace to do them.

We—all saved—have been given grace, but not all of us have been gifted. We thank the Lord for those He has gifted, though, and for those who serve and pray for others. We need them all!

None of us are perfect—we need Jesus as our advocate before God. Because we are in Christ, God does see us in His perfection; but at the same time He is our Father and sees our stumbling, and may need to chasten us at times. He can restore us if we fail, but that doesn’t give us a licence to!

We need to be anchored in the faith, or we will be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Also we need to be careful where we get our information. People play slight of hand with the truth, but the truth is the truth, and it doesn’t change. Take the time to search it out!

Verse 15 says that we must grow up into Jesus in all things. We grow physically, but we need to grow up spiritually in Christ, and that’s a challange. We stop growing physically, but never spiritually. We need to continually take in what we need to help us grow. As children in the faith we might be tossed about, but as mature adults, we should be rooted and grounded in Christ. We can remain children for a long time, however, if we don’t desire to grow in Christ.

On being fitly joined together, we mentioned the example of the tub last week. You can’t let things get between the slats of a wooden tub, or it will not hold water. A sad spectacle. It’s the same with the body of Christ. If we’re not acting like a unity, it’s a sad sight. We need to be fitly joined together; each of us supplying something for the others.

Wooden boats are conditioned in water. The more the water swells the wood, the tighter the joint between pieces. Similarly, we need to be soaked in the water of the Word. The more saturated we are, the closer we will be to one another. We need each other!

Hymn 163 — Guide us, oh though gracious Saviour

Prayer