April 10, 2016
Scripture:
Ministry:
Hymn 333 - Come to the Saviour, make no delay
Prayer
Proverbs 3:1-6
At the time this was written, the only part of the Bible they had was the commandments and law, but we have the whole Bible. If you receive a note from someone you love, you’ll probably keep that note and cherish it. We need to keep God’s commandments that same way, and hide them in our hearts. They will bring blessing then.
We aren’t to forsake mercy and truth, but bind them on our necks and hide them in our hearts. Mercy and truth are two characteristics of God. What does the part of binding them on your neck mean? Well, you’ve kept them with you and they’re visible. As we daily read and try to understand God’s Word it will lead us in the right path; that’s what it is to bind them upon our necks.
In verse five we are told to “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.” That is faith, and the Lord is worthy of our trust. It says, “all thine heart”: 100% of it. He is over everything and we can trust in Him.
Leaning on our own understanding is foolish. We must trust the Lord to direct our path. If we have His Word in our hearts, He will lead us in the right pathway to honor Him, but we will not always understand His path. If we look back later, though, we might be able to understand then.
Life is like a dot-to-dot picture. Each dot is a different lesson that God teaches us as we go through life. You don’t see the whole picture when you begin, but later on you can look back and see what has been made. Sometimes, God even needs to teach us the same lesson more than once!
Last week we learned about faith: Forsaking All, I Trust Him. It is trusting the Lord with all our heart, though sometimes we don’t understand. There was a time when some changes were happening at my office. One morning, in my Bible reading, I read about Peter and Cornelius. The Lord told Peter to go with Cornelius’s men, “nothing doubting.” At the time, that phrase stood out to me. Later that day, I was asked to take another position in the company. Because of what the Lord had showed me, I knew I could take the position. That position lead to other circumstances that lead to my current job. That was just one of the dots in the puzzle.
We need to trust the Lord to direct us. Though we can’t see the whole picture as we go from dot to dot, the Lord will lead if we let Him and trust Him with 100% of our heart. We find blessing by acknowledging Him. May you “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.”
Philippines 3
The early verses of this chapter give us two groups: the concision and the real circumcision. We would do well to heed Paul’s warnings about the concision. He calls it three things. “Dogs” most often refers to Gentiles, but here it refers to Jews without a proper moral conscience. Evil workers came next, and finally the concision. Apparently these people lopped parts off the law until they were comfortable with it.
Paul taught the Philippians different things, but sometimes he had to go over lessons twice, for not everyone did as he taught. Sometimes we have to go over lessons more than once, too!
Paul declared that “we” (Christians) are the circumcision. True circumcision consists in cutting off the old nature and that which disobeys God. What’s left? The new man; Christ. This is an important foundation for the rest of the chapter. It portrays Christ as our object; and we need to deal with anything that obstructs that, or gets in its way.
Having Christ as our unobstructed object will lead to proper worship; in spirit and in truth. We will rejoice in Him, and have no confidence in the flesh. We will put Him first, and can be what we’re supposed to be morally and spiritually.
It’s like when Jesus walked on the water. His disciples saw him, and knew He had supernatural power. Peter said, “If it’s really you, Lord, bid me come to you.” This sounds foolish to us, for there was nothing between Peter and Jesus but water. However, Jesus told Peter to come, and Peter walked on the water. This shows us a second power, for Peter didn’t have the ability to walk on water; that came from the Lord. As soon as Peter took his eyes off Jesus, though, and put them on the circumstances around, he sank. “Lord save me!” He cried, and we see yet a third power. Jesus’ power to save.
This is a good example for us, for walking in the Spirit is not natural to the old man. We have a risen Christ as our object, though, and He is worthy of our faith. We must look to him and have no confidence in the flesh, because we can’t do this ourselves.
Paul did not trust in his flesh, but if he did, he would have had a lot to trust in. He’d been circumcised the eighth day: the true mark of a Jew. He was born a Jew, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, not one of the 10 lost tribes. Of all the Jewish sects, he was a super- legal Pharisee, and in his zeal he persecuted the church. That’s pretty zealous! When it came to the law, he was pretty much blameless. This was a good resume, but he counted it all loss for Christ.
You can find scripture to endorse all of Paul’s actions; but in light of the present truth of grace he had to cross it all out and give himself a zero. He was living for Christ now, not gain, and he found all this loss. When he put it all in the balance, what counted was “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win [gain: DT] Christ.” He had a new accounting system; new books.
It’s contrary to our old nature, but it’s important to make accounting like this a reality in our lives. What will we lose? What will we gain? Verse three gives us the basis for it. What is of the flesh? What is of Christ? Paul said that what looked good in the natural eyes was loss in gaining Christ.
It’s like turning our hearts into safety deposit boxes. What will we put in them? What is important, what will count the most? This life is not the end; we have all of eternity before us! We need to live today in light of that, for Christ our object is there.
In 234 – Saviour lead me lest I stray
Prayer