Wednesday 12 June 2019

God's people are being called on to maturity.

Numbers 25:1-26:65
God's people are being called on to maturity. This is the significance of the phrase, "at least twenty years old" (Numbers 26:2,4). There are, however, many dangers. We are easily sidetracked - putting other "gods" before the Lord our God (Numbers 25:3). This turning away from the Lord is a serious matter, leading to the withdrawal of God's blessing. We can, however, continue to enjoy the Lord's blessing if, like Caleb and Joshua, we are men and women of faith (Numbers 26:64-65).

Tuesday 5 March 2019

Baptism and the Lord's Supper

The sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper - What place do they have within the total context of the Christian life? What part do they play within the total purpose of God for our lives?
The sacraments are signposts. They point us to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour. When you see a signpost marked, "Edinburgh", you are pointed in the direction of Edinburgh. The sign says, "This is the way to Edinburgh." When you see a sign that says, "Come alive with Pepsi", your attention is directed to Pepsi-Cola. The sacraments point us to Jesus. The sacraments direct our attention to Jesus. The signpost says, "This is the way to Edinburgh." The sacraments point to Jesus. They say, "He is the Way to heaven." The Pepsi-Cola advert says, "Come alive with Pepsi." The sacraments invite us to "Come alive with Jesus." When you see the sign for Edinburgh, you are not already in Edinburgh. It is possible to see the sign and yet never arrive at the place. Similarly, it is possible to receive the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper with really coming, in faith, to Christ and receiving the gift of eternal life. When you hear the words, "Come alive with Pepsi", you are not, in fact, drinking a glass of Pepsi-Cola. You can see the advert without ever tasting Pepsi-Cola. Similarly, you can partake of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper without receiving the new life which the Holy Spirit gives to all who put their trust in Jesus Christ.
The really important thing is not the outward sign. The most important thing is the inner reality. We come, in faith, to Jesus Christ. He comes to live in our hearts. It is so easy to miss the point of the sacraments. Instead of allowing them to point us to Jesus Christ and all that He has done for us, we get bogged down with self-centred thoughts: "I have been baptized", "I never miss a Communion." Whenever our thoughts focus on ourselves rather than Christ - "I have done this", "I have done that", we need to hear the warning of God's Word: "Let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12).
In a challenging passage at the start of 1 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul speaks in this way of the Old Testament people of Israel: "all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:2-4). When we read these words about being "baptized into Moses" and eating the supernatural food and the supernatural drink, our minds move quite naturally to the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. If we are tempted to congratulate ourselves, we should look on to the next verse - "Nevertheless with most of them God was not pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness" (1 Corinthians 10:3).
We live in a spiritual wilderness, a moral wilderness. if we are looking for salvation from the things that we have done - "I have been baptized", "I never miss a Communion", we will be disappointed. We will be overthrown in the wilderness, swallowed up in the moral and spiritual wilderness which surrounds us. If we are to know the saving power of God in our lives, we must learn to look beyond the sacraments to the Saviour. "It is only by forgetting yourself that you draw near to God." This is how we must learn to think about the sacraments. The focus is not so much upon ourselves - "I have been baptized", "I never miss a Communion." The focus is upon Christ. Through Him, we draw near to God. This is how we must think of the whole Christian life. Christ is the centre.
In a life centred upon Christ, where do the sacraments fit in?
Baptism is a once-for-all event. The Lord's Supper is a repeated occurrence. More frequent than the Lord's Supper is our weekly public worship. Sunday by Sunday, we gather together to worship the Lord. Week by week, there are opportunities for praying together and studying God's Word together. Day by day, we can speak to the Lord and we can read His Word. In all of this, Christ is to be the centre. We do all these things, not to prove how religious we really are but to let Christ have His way in our lives. In all that we do, we confess our own unworthiness. Without Christ, we are nothing. We do not attempt to make ourselves worthy in God's sight. It cannot be done. Aware of our own unworthiness and our need of the Saviour, we come to Christ from whom we receive the forgiveness of all our sins, the new life of the Spirit and the gift of eternal life.
If, in your thinking about the sacraments, self has intruded where Christ should be, I appeal to you, on the basis of God's Word: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God" (Ephesians 4:30), "Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19). Do not boast about the sacraments as things which you have done. Let the Holy Spirit lead you beyond the sacraments to the Saviour. Do not take it for granted that you belong to Christ because you have received the outward signs. Remember God's Word - "The Lord knows those who are His" and "Let every one who names the Name of the Lord depart from iniquity (or wrongdoing)" (2 Timothy 2:19).

Let's Help Each Other To Preach God's Love.

Jesus Christ is God’s beloved Son – the Saviour sent to us by the God of love.
‘Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, my Chosen One in whom I delight; I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations’ (Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:15-21).
These words turn our thoughts towards the Lord Jesus Christ.
At His baptism, we hear the voice of the Father – ‘This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’ At His baptism, we see ‘the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and resting on Him’ (Matthew 3:16-17).
Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s Word of prophecy: ‘All mankind shall see the Saviour sent from God’ (Luke 3:6).
After His resurrection, we hear Jesus Himself speaking. He says, ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit…’ (Matthew 28:18-20).
Let us bring Christ to the nations. Let us serve the Lord in the power of the Spirit.
Never take God’s love for granted. Let us be deeply appreciative of His love.
Read about God’s ‘steadfast love’ and rejoice in Him: ‘Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens…How precious is Your steadfast love, O God! …O continue Your steadfast love to those who know You…’ (Psalm 36:5, 7, 10).
Rejoicing in the Lord’s ‘steadfast love’ is quite different from taking His love for granted.
We dare not say, “God loves me. I can do what I like.”
We must not become like the wicked – ‘there is no fear of God before his eyes’ (Psalm 36:1).
Where there is true rejoicing in God’s ‘steadfast love’, there will also be ‘the fear of the Lord’ which ‘is the beginning of wisdom’ (Psalm 111:10).
A real appreciation of God’s ‘steadfast love’ brings with it a real awareness of our own sinfulness.
Knowing how much God loves us leads us to pray, ‘Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away’ (Psalm 36:11).
Through Jesus Christ, the God of love gives to us His wonderful redemption.
God gave His promise – ‘I will make a new covenant’ (Hebrews 8:8-12; Jeremiah 31:31-34).
God has fulfilled His promise. There is now a ‘new covenant in Jesus’blood’ (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25).
The old covenant cannot even begin to compare with the new covenant. It is only a ‘shadow.’
The new covenant is the real thing. It is ‘much more excellent’. It is ‘a better covenant’ (Hebrews 8:5-6),
The old covenant is ‘outdated’ (Hebrews 8:13). It has seen its day. Now, it’s past its ‘sell by date’!
We look at the old covenant and we say, ‘There must be more than this’.
There is more – ‘much more’.
Through ‘the blood of Christ’, ‘our hearts and lives’have been ‘cleansed’. Now, we can begin ‘to serve the living God’ (Hebrews 9:14).
‘What a wonderful redemption!’- ‘eternal redemption’ (Mission Praise, 765; Hebrews 9:12)!
Through Jesus Christ, the God of love gives to us His victory over Satan.
The Pharisees are developing their wicked plan. God is fulfilling His saving purpose (John 11:49-53).
The voice of ‘common sense’ is not always the voice of the Lord (John 12:4-6).
There is a higher wisdom than ‘common sense’. We are to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. He leads us to put Jesus at the centre of our lives.
Jesus is not suggesting that the poor are unimportant. He is emphasizing that we must not lose sight of Him.
If our concern for the poor is not truly grounded in devotion to Christ, it is not the obedience of faith (John 12:8).
The Pharisees are lying in wait for Jesus. They say, ‘The world has gone after Him’ (John 12:19). They are going after Him too – in a different way!
The crucifixion draws near. God is to be ‘glorified’ in the defeat of Satan and the salvation of sinners (John 12:28, 31-32). Jesus had ‘come’ for this ‘hour’ (John 12:27).

What are we to do when everything seems to be hopeless?

1 Kings 14:1-15:8
What are we to do when everything seems to be hopeless? – We turn to You, Lord. You are the God of hope. Our hope is in You. You can turn things around. Your love changes everything. Your love changes us. Thank You, Lord, for Your love. It’s Your love that gives us hope for the future. We look to the future – and we look to You. We say, “I know not what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.”

What, Lord, is most important to us – the person who leads us in worship, the place where we worship, or the God whom we worship?

1 Kings 8:14-53
What, Lord, is most important to us – the person who leads us in worship, the place where we worship, or the God whom we worship? We know what our answer should be – but, often, our lives tell a very different story. Help us, when we worship, to learn that nothing and no-one can ever be more important than You. May our lives start catching up with the lessons that we learn when we are reading Your Word.

No-one goes on forever.

1 Kings 1:1-53
No-one goes on forever. We read about David’s reign coming to an end, about David being replaced by Solomon (1 Kings 1:30). Help us, Lord, to pray that the future will be “greater” than the past (1 Kings 1:37,47). In all of life’s changes, help us to remember this: You are the living God (1 Kings 1:29) – the God who remains constant when everything else is changing, the God whose love is unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable.

We thank You, Lord, that You are the God of new beginnings.

1 Kings 2:1-46
We thank You, Lord, that You are the God of new beginnings. Your purpose doesn’t stand still. It moves forward. Will we move forward with You? – That, Lord, is the question that each of us must ask answer. We cannot stand still. There are two ways we can go. We can move forward with You. We can go back to the past, back to what we were before Christ saved us, before He took hold of our lives, before He began to make us new people. Dare we even think of going back to the old life? That life can’t even begin to compare with our new life in Christ. Help us, Lord, to press on into the future, Your future, the new life in Christ, eternal life.

Jesus Christ takes us out of judgment and into salvation.

Unbelievers have ridiculed “fire and brimstone” preaching. We cannot, however, allow their scornful attitude to lead us to dismiss “fire and brimstone” preaching. We dare not say that such preaching belongs to the past. We must note that the Bible preaches “fire and brimstone.” We must ask, “How does the Bible preach “fire and brimstone”?” The fact that the Bible preaches “fire and brimstone” means that this emphasis on divine judgment must not be excluded from our preaching in today’s world. The way that the Bible preaches “fire and brimstone” teaches us that we must always preach with a view to leading men and women to know Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Jesus Christ is the only way out of judgment. Jesus Christ is the only way into salvation. We hear the Gospel. we hear its promise. We hear its warning. The Gospel places us at a cross-roads. Each of us must decide. We must come to Christ. We must trust Him as our Saviour. We must come to Him, believing that He died on the Cross for us. We must come to Him and receive His free gift of the forgivenss of our sins. It is only through faith in Him that we will come to know, for ourselves, the truth of the final words of Psalm 11: “upright men will see His face” (verse 7).

Overlowing Blessing

Psalm 23 - "The Lord is my Shepherd ... "

The words are so familiar. When we start to think that we understand all that this great Psalm is saying to us, the Lord comes to with something new, something fresh, something that speaks to our hearts, something that brings blessing into our lives. What are to say about this? ~ From God to us, comes blessing, much blessing. How much blessing? Who can say? All we can say is this - It's His blessing, and His blessing "overflows" (v. 5).

The Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ

“The appearance of His face changed”; “His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning”; Peter, James and John “saw His glory” – the glory of the Son of God (Luke 9:35). The transfiguration points forward to Christ’s crucifixion: “They spoke about His departure, which He was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). It also points beyond His crucifixion to the glory of His resurrection – the glory of Christ, risen from the dead; the glory of Christ, seated at the Father’s right hand.

So Little Feeds So Many.

Andrew looked at the bread and fishes, and asked, “how far will they go among so many?” (John 6:9). He did not understand how so little could find so many - but this didn’t stop him bringing the boy, with his bread and fishes, to Jesus. This was an act of faith. Andrew says to Jesus, “Here am I. Here is the boy. Here is the bread. Here are the fishes.”
We look at the situation in today’s world. there is so much to be done – but we can do so little. what are we to do? We are to say, “Here I am, wholly available. as for me, I will serve the Lord … The fields are white unto harvest, But O, the labourers are so few, So, Lord, I give myself to help the reaping, To gather precious souls unto You” (Chris Bowater).
If Andrew is to be viewed as a man of faith, what are we to say about the boy? He could have said to Andrew, “This is mine. You’re not having it.” He could have said that, but he didn’t. the boy was ready to be led to Jesus. He wanted to give his bread and fishes to Jesus.
This is still the question to be put to people today. Will you come to Jesus? Will you give yourself to Him?
What happened when the boy came to Jesus, when he gave his bread and fishes to Jesus?  - A great miracle happened. Out of so little came so much.
What do we learn from the story of the boy who brought his bread and fishes to Jesus? – Out of small beginnings comes a mighty work of God: “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the wise … so that no one may boast before Him … Let him who boasts boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:27,29,31). When God does mighty things, let us give all the glory to Him.
May God help us to learn from the boy. May we stop saying, “This is mine. You can’t have it.” May we start giving ourselves to Jesus and giving all the glory to Him.

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