Memory takes me back in time when I was a member of a thriving church in the city of Saint John where I live, to a time when during the course of a a year we would have 1 or 2, even 3 maybe, visiting evangelists and sometimes they would stay with us upwards to a week or more. You would be in church almost every night for serfvice and it was a glorious time as we Pentecostals would say "in the Lord"...in the Lord. Then when it came to the last night, we, that is the choir would stand up and sing to the evangelist and it was always the same song..."make me a blessing, make me a blessing, to the evangelist it went,..."make him a blessing, and on it went. It made everyone feel really good. The stanza went "out of my life may Jesus shine..."
Sort of an oddity to find such sentiment today. In today's world its more like...give me a blessing; or what have You done for me lately.We live in a world that has so much and yet so little in their hearts and then there are people with out a chair to sit on. I heard about some Christian tribal people in India who haven't got very much of this world's goods and suffer tremendous persecution but they have Jesus in their hearts. I received an e-mail from a friend today who is so excited about church planting in a country that has been closed to the gospel and all he wants to be is a blessing to them. Make me a blessing, oh Savior I pray...it ought to be the cry of every Christian's heart.
About Me
Friday, February 27, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Insignificant; not important
Sometimes I look back at some old postings I have done and reflect a little to see if there might be something more I could have added to it. So this is an addition to my post on assigning value to people. God loves people, so why don't people love people? We regard some people sometimes as being, well...insignificant. Insignificant has several definitions; 1 unimportant, trifling or petty.
2 too small to be important...children? 3 of no consequence, influence or distinction...like when we discriminate in church and assign importance to some and none to others?4 without weight of character or meaning. Blind Bartemaeus, a begger to boot, was considered insignificant by some people because when he cried out to Jesus to have mercy on him, many who were part of the crowd, religious people they were, told him to shut up quite frankly. Let's pick up the narrative from the Gospel according to St. Mark...ch.10, verses 46-52: And they came to Jericho: and as He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazereth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace but he cried the more a great deal, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man saying unto him, be of good comfort, rise; He calleth thee. " WHAT A BUNCH OF HYPOCRITES. THE REST OF THE STORY OF COURSE IS THAT JESUS HEALED HIM AND GAVE HIM HIS SIGHT. Jesus placed a great deal of significance on this blind beggar.
When you are left out of the conversation do you feel insignificant? When your name is not mentioned at some function and everyone else is mentioned do you feel insignificant. Maybe it is a gathering of friends and family and you have been ignored the entire evening AND THAT CAN HURT. Remember that God puts an extreme amount of value on you and you are certainly not insignificant in His sight. He sent His only begotten Son to die in your place. You are of great significance to hin
2 too small to be important...children? 3 of no consequence, influence or distinction...like when we discriminate in church and assign importance to some and none to others?4 without weight of character or meaning. Blind Bartemaeus, a begger to boot, was considered insignificant by some people because when he cried out to Jesus to have mercy on him, many who were part of the crowd, religious people they were, told him to shut up quite frankly. Let's pick up the narrative from the Gospel according to St. Mark...ch.10, verses 46-52: And they came to Jericho: and as He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazereth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace but he cried the more a great deal, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man saying unto him, be of good comfort, rise; He calleth thee. " WHAT A BUNCH OF HYPOCRITES. THE REST OF THE STORY OF COURSE IS THAT JESUS HEALED HIM AND GAVE HIM HIS SIGHT. Jesus placed a great deal of significance on this blind beggar.
When you are left out of the conversation do you feel insignificant? When your name is not mentioned at some function and everyone else is mentioned do you feel insignificant. Maybe it is a gathering of friends and family and you have been ignored the entire evening AND THAT CAN HURT. Remember that God puts an extreme amount of value on you and you are certainly not insignificant in His sight. He sent His only begotten Son to die in your place. You are of great significance to hin
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Tonight's Bible study
My thoughts on Hebrews chapter 11 for Bible study on Tuesday night.
Read the text; all of ch. 11… In the previous chapter 10 of the book of Hebrews, the apostle leads up to this great treatise on faith by pointing out the unequivocal truth that the just shall live by faith and that means our salvation is through faith in the finished work that Jesus accomplished on the cross. Anything more is to bring judgment upon one’s self…anything less is to deny His grace and His mercy. So this whole chapter 11, the so-called “hall of faith chapter” is not about the prosperity doctrines that abound in evangelical circles today, and it is not about blabbing it and grabbing it as was so popular a while back, but it is all about going forward in this faith that was once delivered to the saints. It is all about leaving the law which through its practices could not save anybody and embracing totally the grace and mercy of God, whom Christians call Jesus. It is about Abel and Abraham and Moses looking down through the years to the cross of Jesus and embracing that work through faith for their own salvation. It is about Isaac and Jacob and through their lineage a ruler would come forth out of Zion whose going forth was from everlasting as was prophesied in Micah 5:2 . It’s about being an over comer, so let’s get down to the meat of this chapter and we see right off the top that faith is now! “Now faith is” Faith seems to always be some time in the distant future or sometime in the past. However if faith is to be faith it must be now…present; always. “Now faith is…” Faith is substance and faith is evidence.
I’m beginning to lean a little bit towards the eternal security belief that our Baptist brethren so strongly believe in. Now before you write me off , I must explain that there are some differences in that I am not propagating the so-called “unconditional eternal security” However I wish to point out that you do not “backslide” easily. Faith is substance; something tangible; something that is real, practical , something you can hold on to. And the fact is that even though we are still flesh and still have this strong tendency to sin, we can expect God through faith in His immutable Word to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the exceeding throne of His glory. We cannot fail! Because He cannot fail!
He is God! It is not my place to judge you in your walk with God. One time we judged people by the way that they dressed or cut their hair or something in their actions that did not line up with how we thought they should…you can’t do that, God looks at the heart, and without faith it is impossible to please Him…it has nothing to do with the way you look. We have to leave those things with the Lord. Believe me it isn’t easy, especially for a guy like me.We were in Morocco and met with several “workers” and stayed in some of their homes and ate with them. Beautiful people, wonderful people. One person we met had been a youth leader in his native Chile, had those long dreadlocks and tattoos all over his body, but he loved Jesus with his whole heart and he loved to win souls.
Faith is substance. Faith is evidence. Moses ,Abraham before him, Abel, they all had substance and evidence and they believed and it was accounted unto them for righteousness! Faith; wonderful, marvelous, God given faith. Faith is not just some time in the future, but it is now. By faith verse 2 says that the elders obtained a good report. Or a good testimony and it is by faith that people still obtain a good testimony today. We all know folks who have a good testimony, for example most if not all of you who are here tonight, thank God for each of you.
This chapter 11 that the apostle is giving us is not like when you go into a restaurant for a meal and you order a side dish. It is not a break from what he has been saying. Many times that is how it has been treated. It is part and parcel of this entire truth that the only way to heaven is not by works of righteousness that we have done or can do, but it is faith and faith in the once and for all time sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he gives us some examples from the O.T. of what this faith really is about.
The elders obtained a good report and we will see that as we go along. Then he says in verse 3, “By faith we understand…”Faith is not what the world often refers to as blind. Blind faith they call it. By faith we can understand how that God spoke and it was by that very creative power of His own Word that He formed this universe that we are such a tiny speck in. He said “let there be light” “and there was light” That happened on the first day of creation. It was not until the fourth day that he made the stars and all the other lights. His Word gave us light.
His spoken Word! “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by the things which are visible. Read John 1:1-3. Then Hebrews 1:1,2. He is the Head of all things, read Col. 1:16-18. And we also can understand that we have redemption through His blood even the forgiveness of sins. Back up to verses 14&15. Imagine if you will that the Creator of all the universe died on a cross in a place outside of Jerusalem called Calvary for wretched sinners like us. Only through faith can we understand this. He is the Head of the church. There could be no church until Jesus died and rose again. This earthly body, the church, is it insignificant in the light of the universe? No and a thousand times no….the great God of heaven died for it, that is He sent His only begotten Son to die…how could it ever be insignificant or not be relevant. The world is marching toward one world government, secular, humanistic and Canada is falling right in line but Jesus said “I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” We have this mental picture of the gates of hell marching against us and we are sort of standing there with our hands and arms sort of covering our heads as we receive the blows from satan’s forces but we somehow withstand it; but I believe it means that the reverse is true that the church is supposed to be invading the enemy’s territory and as we do we are knocking down the gates of hell and they cannot prevail against this mighty empowered force of the living breathing church of the living God. This is not our church…it is God’s church and the gates of hell cannot and will not prevail against it!!! You better believe it. You say “how did you get all of that out of verse 3? By faith we understand. Don’t throw away your confidence
Hebrews 10:35, there’s a great reward awaiting. Worried about your family? Don’t be. There is a great reward waiting, claim the promise of the Father…this promise is unto you and your household and as many as the Lord our God shall call, even to them that are afar off. But you must live the life before them. “if I live a holy life, shun the wrong and do the right, I know the Lord will make a way for me”
At the very beginning of time there was faith displayed in the life of a man called Abel and I think we all know the story, how that he offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain…because he understood what the sacrifice meant…he understood through faith. Faith will help you to understand…by faith we understand that the worlds were made by the Word of God, so Abel had that kind of faith that caused him to understand that there was a day coming when a once for all time sacrifice would be made and that sacrifice would require the shedding of blood for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin and Abel understood that. Cain offered the work of his own hands. It was not sufficient and it is still not sufficient. Abel’s faith was witness to the fact that he was righteous.
Verses 1-3 tells us what faith is and as we continue on to verse 4 we see what faith does. It meant that even though he (Abel) is dead his testimony lives on,” he being dead yet speaks.” And then there was Enoch. “ He was taken”, it says. Gen. 5:24 and Jude verse 14. I have always been fascinated, intrigued by this account. People knew what happened and why… the Word says “ he had this testimony…that he pleased God.” I believe that the people of Enoch’s day knew what kind of a man he was and some of them knew that the Lord took him to be with Himself. Without faith it is impossible to please Him.
So herein lies the answer from the example of a man called Enoch who shows us how to please God. Believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. We must be diligent…we must be seeking God with all of our heart. We can do no less. And this faith that Enoch lived by, walked in, is in a person, the LORD Jesus Christ. I don’t know just how much detail Enoch had; he was a prophet Jude tells us, but he pleased God. He diligently sought God.
My mind goes back to the early days of Pentecost in this city…people were diligent in their walk with God. That is why we saw folks coming to the LORD; THERE WERE MIRACLES OF HEALING. Church life was our life and God rewarded His people. It was just the way it was.
Salvation is through faith…not works. Eph 2:8 Titus 3:5 Then look at Titus 2:11-15. Salvation is through faith in what Jesus has done for us, but we still need to be diligent in our walk. This walk of faith covers every aspect of life; it is all encompassing. The just shall live …how? By faith. Where does it say it’s all right to worry? Where is there room for doubt? That is what people do when they revert back to legalistic religion, they don’t believe in the fact that Jesus blood and His blood alone will be all you ever need to obtain salvation so they try and help with their works. It is an insult to His grace. It is serious. Heb. 10:29 verse 31 says, “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
So Enoch pleased God because he believed Him and he kept His Word. The Bible tells us in the book of Jude that he was a prophet, he said “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of His saints,” He walked with God. How much more we should be in fellowship with God, we have so many more helps than Enoch did. We have the NewTestament; he didn’t…we have the church; Enoch didn’t. What is our excuse? Jude gives some good advice here…read verses 20,21. We are to keep ourselves in the love of God. We could do a whole study on these few verses. And look at the help He has for us in the benediction, verses 24&25.
The next person that is spoken of in this great hall of faith is Noah. Read verse 7 Hebrews 11. He became an heir; an heir of what? An heir of righteousness which is by faith! He and Enoch as well as Abel and Abraham along with many others lived before the law.
By faith Noah….have you ever thought about Noah much? Have you ever considered that he built a huge boat where there wasn’t even any water yet? They didn’t even know what rain was. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD He was a preacher of righteousness 2 Peter, 3:5 He really had quite a resume; preacher of righteousness, carpenter, boat builder, zoologist, explorer, he was a great man. He had quite the job experience…on the job training and guess who trained him. God was his trainer, after all nobody had ever built a boat before. But the scripture tells us that he was warned of God of things not seen as yet, was moved with fear, are we moved with that kind of Godly fear like Noah was ? He prepared an ark . He was so moved with fear that he prepared n ark for his family’s safety. Remember now that Noah preached righteousness for 120 years. Do you think he was ridiculed maybe? Would he have been made fun of? What’s the big deal about being made fun of by ignorant people anyway? He preached 120 years and only 8 souls saved and they were family. 1 Peter 3:20
Isn’t God longsuffering? Isn’t He merciful? They said where is the sign of His coming? They’re saying that today, in fact they really are past that and don’t say much at all. The North American world don’t even refer to God that much. They, we, are becoming more and more like Europe, a Godless degenerate society.
Humanistic and secular. And we hear precious little preaching concerning being ready…but we certainly cannot say that here in Calvary Temple. Our pastor is a preacher of righteousness , he is warning us and it is high time for this people to get on board. Everyone should feel welcome here but not everyone should feel comfortable. Sometimes I feel a little uncomfortable myself and I have had to repent…do you know what I’m talking about? Let’s not ever get the feeling that we are above that. Repentance is for the Christian when we sin, amen? I’ve sinned, I have failed God many times but what does it say in 1 John 1:9?
If we confess our sins.
Remember that faith is the evidence of things not seen and Noah believed that and he became an heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Read verse 7 again. Heb 11:7
Noah was a great example of what obedience and faithfulness really means. Turn to Gen. 6:22 Noah had a great heritage, his great grandfather was Enoch , his grandfather was Methusala, and his father was Lamech . You know you might think that God won’t use you because you are too old. There is no mention of Noah as a young preacher, he does not come on the scene until he is 500 years old. God still has a work for you to do, not one here tonight is too old to do what ever God wants you to do, so don’t miss the visitation of the Lord in your own life. There are still areas that God wants you to be involved in. He might want you to be a preacher of righteousness or build an “ark” or just be a comfort to somebody, be a friend in need. And some of you are just like that. By the way, Noah’s Ark was 525 feet long, 87 feet wide and 52 feet high and with all those animals inside, someone has said that it must have smelt awfully bad, but it was still the best thing afloat. And that’s like the church…it may be smelly but it’s still the best thing afloat. Noah was counted righteous because he had a faith in his God like few people in history ever had. Imagine building such a huge vessel and working on it for 100 years. Faith is substance, faith is evidence
Read the text; all of ch. 11… In the previous chapter 10 of the book of Hebrews, the apostle leads up to this great treatise on faith by pointing out the unequivocal truth that the just shall live by faith and that means our salvation is through faith in the finished work that Jesus accomplished on the cross. Anything more is to bring judgment upon one’s self…anything less is to deny His grace and His mercy. So this whole chapter 11, the so-called “hall of faith chapter” is not about the prosperity doctrines that abound in evangelical circles today, and it is not about blabbing it and grabbing it as was so popular a while back, but it is all about going forward in this faith that was once delivered to the saints. It is all about leaving the law which through its practices could not save anybody and embracing totally the grace and mercy of God, whom Christians call Jesus. It is about Abel and Abraham and Moses looking down through the years to the cross of Jesus and embracing that work through faith for their own salvation. It is about Isaac and Jacob and through their lineage a ruler would come forth out of Zion whose going forth was from everlasting as was prophesied in Micah 5:2 . It’s about being an over comer, so let’s get down to the meat of this chapter and we see right off the top that faith is now! “Now faith is” Faith seems to always be some time in the distant future or sometime in the past. However if faith is to be faith it must be now…present; always. “Now faith is…” Faith is substance and faith is evidence.
I’m beginning to lean a little bit towards the eternal security belief that our Baptist brethren so strongly believe in. Now before you write me off , I must explain that there are some differences in that I am not propagating the so-called “unconditional eternal security” However I wish to point out that you do not “backslide” easily. Faith is substance; something tangible; something that is real, practical , something you can hold on to. And the fact is that even though we are still flesh and still have this strong tendency to sin, we can expect God through faith in His immutable Word to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the exceeding throne of His glory. We cannot fail! Because He cannot fail!
He is God! It is not my place to judge you in your walk with God. One time we judged people by the way that they dressed or cut their hair or something in their actions that did not line up with how we thought they should…you can’t do that, God looks at the heart, and without faith it is impossible to please Him…it has nothing to do with the way you look. We have to leave those things with the Lord. Believe me it isn’t easy, especially for a guy like me.We were in Morocco and met with several “workers” and stayed in some of their homes and ate with them. Beautiful people, wonderful people. One person we met had been a youth leader in his native Chile, had those long dreadlocks and tattoos all over his body, but he loved Jesus with his whole heart and he loved to win souls.
Faith is substance. Faith is evidence. Moses ,Abraham before him, Abel, they all had substance and evidence and they believed and it was accounted unto them for righteousness! Faith; wonderful, marvelous, God given faith. Faith is not just some time in the future, but it is now. By faith verse 2 says that the elders obtained a good report. Or a good testimony and it is by faith that people still obtain a good testimony today. We all know folks who have a good testimony, for example most if not all of you who are here tonight, thank God for each of you.
This chapter 11 that the apostle is giving us is not like when you go into a restaurant for a meal and you order a side dish. It is not a break from what he has been saying. Many times that is how it has been treated. It is part and parcel of this entire truth that the only way to heaven is not by works of righteousness that we have done or can do, but it is faith and faith in the once and for all time sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he gives us some examples from the O.T. of what this faith really is about.
The elders obtained a good report and we will see that as we go along. Then he says in verse 3, “By faith we understand…”Faith is not what the world often refers to as blind. Blind faith they call it. By faith we can understand how that God spoke and it was by that very creative power of His own Word that He formed this universe that we are such a tiny speck in. He said “let there be light” “and there was light” That happened on the first day of creation. It was not until the fourth day that he made the stars and all the other lights. His Word gave us light.
His spoken Word! “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by the things which are visible. Read John 1:1-3. Then Hebrews 1:1,2. He is the Head of all things, read Col. 1:16-18. And we also can understand that we have redemption through His blood even the forgiveness of sins. Back up to verses 14&15. Imagine if you will that the Creator of all the universe died on a cross in a place outside of Jerusalem called Calvary for wretched sinners like us. Only through faith can we understand this. He is the Head of the church. There could be no church until Jesus died and rose again. This earthly body, the church, is it insignificant in the light of the universe? No and a thousand times no….the great God of heaven died for it, that is He sent His only begotten Son to die…how could it ever be insignificant or not be relevant. The world is marching toward one world government, secular, humanistic and Canada is falling right in line but Jesus said “I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” We have this mental picture of the gates of hell marching against us and we are sort of standing there with our hands and arms sort of covering our heads as we receive the blows from satan’s forces but we somehow withstand it; but I believe it means that the reverse is true that the church is supposed to be invading the enemy’s territory and as we do we are knocking down the gates of hell and they cannot prevail against this mighty empowered force of the living breathing church of the living God. This is not our church…it is God’s church and the gates of hell cannot and will not prevail against it!!! You better believe it. You say “how did you get all of that out of verse 3? By faith we understand. Don’t throw away your confidence
Hebrews 10:35, there’s a great reward awaiting. Worried about your family? Don’t be. There is a great reward waiting, claim the promise of the Father…this promise is unto you and your household and as many as the Lord our God shall call, even to them that are afar off. But you must live the life before them. “if I live a holy life, shun the wrong and do the right, I know the Lord will make a way for me”
At the very beginning of time there was faith displayed in the life of a man called Abel and I think we all know the story, how that he offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain…because he understood what the sacrifice meant…he understood through faith. Faith will help you to understand…by faith we understand that the worlds were made by the Word of God, so Abel had that kind of faith that caused him to understand that there was a day coming when a once for all time sacrifice would be made and that sacrifice would require the shedding of blood for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin and Abel understood that. Cain offered the work of his own hands. It was not sufficient and it is still not sufficient. Abel’s faith was witness to the fact that he was righteous.
Verses 1-3 tells us what faith is and as we continue on to verse 4 we see what faith does. It meant that even though he (Abel) is dead his testimony lives on,” he being dead yet speaks.” And then there was Enoch. “ He was taken”, it says. Gen. 5:24 and Jude verse 14. I have always been fascinated, intrigued by this account. People knew what happened and why… the Word says “ he had this testimony…that he pleased God.” I believe that the people of Enoch’s day knew what kind of a man he was and some of them knew that the Lord took him to be with Himself. Without faith it is impossible to please Him.
So herein lies the answer from the example of a man called Enoch who shows us how to please God. Believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. We must be diligent…we must be seeking God with all of our heart. We can do no less. And this faith that Enoch lived by, walked in, is in a person, the LORD Jesus Christ. I don’t know just how much detail Enoch had; he was a prophet Jude tells us, but he pleased God. He diligently sought God.
My mind goes back to the early days of Pentecost in this city…people were diligent in their walk with God. That is why we saw folks coming to the LORD; THERE WERE MIRACLES OF HEALING. Church life was our life and God rewarded His people. It was just the way it was.
Salvation is through faith…not works. Eph 2:8 Titus 3:5 Then look at Titus 2:11-15. Salvation is through faith in what Jesus has done for us, but we still need to be diligent in our walk. This walk of faith covers every aspect of life; it is all encompassing. The just shall live …how? By faith. Where does it say it’s all right to worry? Where is there room for doubt? That is what people do when they revert back to legalistic religion, they don’t believe in the fact that Jesus blood and His blood alone will be all you ever need to obtain salvation so they try and help with their works. It is an insult to His grace. It is serious. Heb. 10:29 verse 31 says, “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
So Enoch pleased God because he believed Him and he kept His Word. The Bible tells us in the book of Jude that he was a prophet, he said “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of His saints,” He walked with God. How much more we should be in fellowship with God, we have so many more helps than Enoch did. We have the NewTestament; he didn’t…we have the church; Enoch didn’t. What is our excuse? Jude gives some good advice here…read verses 20,21. We are to keep ourselves in the love of God. We could do a whole study on these few verses. And look at the help He has for us in the benediction, verses 24&25.
The next person that is spoken of in this great hall of faith is Noah. Read verse 7 Hebrews 11. He became an heir; an heir of what? An heir of righteousness which is by faith! He and Enoch as well as Abel and Abraham along with many others lived before the law.
By faith Noah….have you ever thought about Noah much? Have you ever considered that he built a huge boat where there wasn’t even any water yet? They didn’t even know what rain was. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD He was a preacher of righteousness 2 Peter, 3:5 He really had quite a resume; preacher of righteousness, carpenter, boat builder, zoologist, explorer, he was a great man. He had quite the job experience…on the job training and guess who trained him. God was his trainer, after all nobody had ever built a boat before. But the scripture tells us that he was warned of God of things not seen as yet, was moved with fear, are we moved with that kind of Godly fear like Noah was ? He prepared an ark . He was so moved with fear that he prepared n ark for his family’s safety. Remember now that Noah preached righteousness for 120 years. Do you think he was ridiculed maybe? Would he have been made fun of? What’s the big deal about being made fun of by ignorant people anyway? He preached 120 years and only 8 souls saved and they were family. 1 Peter 3:20
Isn’t God longsuffering? Isn’t He merciful? They said where is the sign of His coming? They’re saying that today, in fact they really are past that and don’t say much at all. The North American world don’t even refer to God that much. They, we, are becoming more and more like Europe, a Godless degenerate society.
Humanistic and secular. And we hear precious little preaching concerning being ready…but we certainly cannot say that here in Calvary Temple. Our pastor is a preacher of righteousness , he is warning us and it is high time for this people to get on board. Everyone should feel welcome here but not everyone should feel comfortable. Sometimes I feel a little uncomfortable myself and I have had to repent…do you know what I’m talking about? Let’s not ever get the feeling that we are above that. Repentance is for the Christian when we sin, amen? I’ve sinned, I have failed God many times but what does it say in 1 John 1:9?
If we confess our sins.
Remember that faith is the evidence of things not seen and Noah believed that and he became an heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Read verse 7 again. Heb 11:7
Noah was a great example of what obedience and faithfulness really means. Turn to Gen. 6:22 Noah had a great heritage, his great grandfather was Enoch , his grandfather was Methusala, and his father was Lamech . You know you might think that God won’t use you because you are too old. There is no mention of Noah as a young preacher, he does not come on the scene until he is 500 years old. God still has a work for you to do, not one here tonight is too old to do what ever God wants you to do, so don’t miss the visitation of the Lord in your own life. There are still areas that God wants you to be involved in. He might want you to be a preacher of righteousness or build an “ark” or just be a comfort to somebody, be a friend in need. And some of you are just like that. By the way, Noah’s Ark was 525 feet long, 87 feet wide and 52 feet high and with all those animals inside, someone has said that it must have smelt awfully bad, but it was still the best thing afloat. And that’s like the church…it may be smelly but it’s still the best thing afloat. Noah was counted righteous because he had a faith in his God like few people in history ever had. Imagine building such a huge vessel and working on it for 100 years. Faith is substance, faith is evidence
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Tuesday night study
This is from last night's Bible study at the church: According to the art of the Apothecary; the Perfumer
We are talking about the Holy Perfume or the Holy Incense that God commanded Moses to make to be used on the altar of Incense and it was to be offered ON IT day and night. The Altar of Incense as you know was located just outside the Veil in the Holy Place where the priests ministered before the Lord. It was a place of intercession and the grounds and effectiveness of the prayers made at this Altar were based upon the blood that was shed upon the Brazen Altar which was located in the outer court. Just so, the intercession of our Lord Jesus is based upon His shed blood at Calvary, the Brazen Altar being a type of Calvary.
Let’s look at some scripture here in Exodus. Firstly let’s read again Ex. 30:1-10. Sweet incense was offered on this Altar every morning and every night; it was lit by a coal from the Brazen Altar which had it’s fire started by God. Unless the fire has been started by God it is to no avail. It is a false fire; not fire at all. So the incense was burned by the fire of God. Are you seeing something here? If real revival is to come, if the real worship has begun it comes
With the Fire from Heaven. It’s the Holy Ghost and Fire!
Notice it was a perpetual offering, this burning of the sweet incense. There would
Have been a sweet aroma in that place all the time. And when you came into the Tabernacle there would be this sweet aroma hanging in the breeze and you would have known that God was in the place. When we come together in worship and that sweet aroma of praise and worship is ascending toward heaven, don’t you realize that God is in our midst? When you are driving alone sometimes and the anointing comes upon you and you begin to lift your voice in praise and you are worshipping Him, don’t you feel His sweet presence? Have you ever done that? Can’t you tell that God is in the place? Hallelujah! Sometimes my old pickup truck becomes a cathedral, a place of worship. Do you know what I am talking about? Maybe for some of you it is your kitchen that becomes your place of praise. Or your bedroom or wherever it may be…it is a perpetual sacrifice of praise that becomes a sweet aroma in God’s nostrils! Come let us offer the sacrifice of praise. Let us offer unto Him thanksgiving and the praise due to His name. There’s no place for complaint…no place for gimme prayers, only a place of prayer that edifies and lifts up and offers hope and finds mercy in a time of trouble and help in the time of need. This is a sweet aroma , a sweet incense unto our Lord. Look at Psalm 141:2. The Psalmist says here, the Psalmist in this case being David, “Let my prayer be set before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” It was a perpetual sacrifice! Hallelujah! And we should see that there is always an incense burning in the altar of our hearts. Amen? It was like the anointing oil, a holy incense. Our worship must be pure and holy unto the Lord!
Turn with me to Ex. 30:34-38, And the LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight: And thou shalt make it a perfume, after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy: and thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee.
Let’s first of all look at the ingredients and as we do we need to consider that most of these sweet spices were also quite bitter. It was an unusual mysterious mixture and carefully protected so that it would not be duplicated or used for any other purpose. It was not to be used to put on one’s body. It was beaten small..I think it speaks of travailing in prayer in times when we don’t have the answer to life’s problems. Times when our back is against the wall, so to speak and there is strong tears and even crying…travailing in prayer. Yet in the greater sense, Jesus was crushed and beaten and that offering was a sweet smell unto His Father.The incense was made of equal proportions of stacte, onycha, galbanum and frankincense. They appear to be a gum like spruce gum and the plant gave it’s life to produce this gum. Pure and holy, separated unto God.”Stacte or the Hebrew word for it “nataf” means “to drop” From the words of Job ch.36:27, “For He maketh small the drops of water; they pour down like rain to the vapour therof” Then in ch. 29 vs.22,23: After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them. And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.”Here in these verses is a picture of the dropping of words…the graciousness and seriousness of words and of course we know in the conversation of our Lord’s words how gracious and serious His words were. Luke 4:22 “And all bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?” His words were carefully chosen, they were like a refreshing new morning dew that refreshes the ground, like a fresh new snow in the country side. We may not like winter, but isn’t a fresh snow a thing of beauty. His words were like that. Multitudes listened to His words and hung on to every word that dropped as it were from His lips. His words came from a sanctified mind; sometimes it was mercy to the poor; forgiveness to the woman taken in adultery, or it could be a rebuke to the Pharisaical hypocrite. I think Jesus laughed and could see the funny side of things, but He never engaged in jokes, that is foolish jesting. Look at Matt. 5:37 and also James 5:12. God has given us the ability to speak…it is a God given privilege that’s why these Godless nations do not allow free speech. God speaks; He spoke and the worlds were made…we shall SEE That when we get into Hebrews 11.If we are to be like Jesus, we need to be careful in our speech….open mouth insert foot? Jesus never did that…He uttered words of forgiveness…the only time He said “My God” was when He was talking to His Father.
The next ingredient is “onycha”…it could be translated a herb or it is also used in reference to a shell-fish found only in the Red Sea which when ground up produced a special fragrance. If the shell fish was the true ingredient, then it would be a constant reminder of their deliverance from Egypt and the miracle of the Red Sea crossing. The onycha was a sweet fragrance unto the LORD because it typified the suffering of the LORD upon the cross as He was crushed and beaten.The third ingredient was “galbanum”, it too has been difficult to pin down to translate. The only place it is used is here…seems like it was used is here and it is surrounded in secrecy. It was also known to be, by itself a bitter, disagreeable odor that drove away pests and vermin, destructive insects,etc. However even though these ingredients were disagreeable though these ingredients were disagreeable in smell all by themselves, yet when mixed together they are a sweet smelling savour to the nostrils of God. Isn’t that a picture of the church? Alone many of us are not too desirable or attractive, I’m referring to myself here, but as a whole if we allow the grinding process and the bleeding, the discipline referred to in Hebrews 12:6-10, our lives can be partakers in His holiness and we will produce that peaceable fruit of righteousness that verse 11 refers to. It is when we are operating on our own outside the body and we do not allow the chastening process that we are bitter. Look at verse 15. Many can be defiled through one life that does not allow the mixing of the ingredients. One commentator put it this way, “constant prayer and intercession by our LORD drives away every demon and imp from successfully gathering and developing among the body of Christ Determined, yes, even bitter prolonged prayer, with fasting repentance, drives away all spiritual vermin that eat away at our spiritual lives. Every ingredient found in this incense is necessary to typify the many facets of prayer.
And then the Frankincense…we’ve talked about it before This was the incense that was applied upon the loaves of the showbread and eaten by the priests. We saw, I think that it was a bitter white substance that was taken from piercing a tree which grew in the cracks of marble rock . It required very little moisture and any fluid taken from it was at a great price. And by the way, it was also a medicine and an antidote against poison, True worship is an antidote against the poison of sin and a medicine to our bodies, is it not? What a privilege it is to the church in Saint John to have this wonderful heritage of worship that has been handed down to us. I remember also the great churches in the State of Maine and how we would gather at Bridgewater camp in Maine and the great times of worship there. Truly the lifting up of our hands in worship is as the evening sacrifice.
These ingredients were equal amounts in this mixture which the LORD God said was not to be ever copied. We see the bush or tree and the shellfish having to be broken and ground into a fine powder pointing once again to the cross of Calvary
Where Jesus truly was crushed and broken and it was a message also to the tribes of Israel that they too must look ahead to the cross, to their redemption and that is what the 11th. Chapter of Hebrews is all about, not the kind of faith preached about by the prosperity doctors but rather the faith in the finished work of Christ on Calvary. It is a summation to the message given by this book of Hebrews that without faith(in the finished work), any other faith is not faith at all; faith if you will in good works and the keeping of the law, which does not save anyone but rather puts them in bondage. And we will go there to Hebrews 11 next week. So remember when you are reading this coming week in preparation for next week that it is to be taken in it’s context of the larger picture.
We are talking about the Holy Perfume or the Holy Incense that God commanded Moses to make to be used on the altar of Incense and it was to be offered ON IT day and night. The Altar of Incense as you know was located just outside the Veil in the Holy Place where the priests ministered before the Lord. It was a place of intercession and the grounds and effectiveness of the prayers made at this Altar were based upon the blood that was shed upon the Brazen Altar which was located in the outer court. Just so, the intercession of our Lord Jesus is based upon His shed blood at Calvary, the Brazen Altar being a type of Calvary.
Let’s look at some scripture here in Exodus. Firstly let’s read again Ex. 30:1-10. Sweet incense was offered on this Altar every morning and every night; it was lit by a coal from the Brazen Altar which had it’s fire started by God. Unless the fire has been started by God it is to no avail. It is a false fire; not fire at all. So the incense was burned by the fire of God. Are you seeing something here? If real revival is to come, if the real worship has begun it comes
With the Fire from Heaven. It’s the Holy Ghost and Fire!
Notice it was a perpetual offering, this burning of the sweet incense. There would
Have been a sweet aroma in that place all the time. And when you came into the Tabernacle there would be this sweet aroma hanging in the breeze and you would have known that God was in the place. When we come together in worship and that sweet aroma of praise and worship is ascending toward heaven, don’t you realize that God is in our midst? When you are driving alone sometimes and the anointing comes upon you and you begin to lift your voice in praise and you are worshipping Him, don’t you feel His sweet presence? Have you ever done that? Can’t you tell that God is in the place? Hallelujah! Sometimes my old pickup truck becomes a cathedral, a place of worship. Do you know what I am talking about? Maybe for some of you it is your kitchen that becomes your place of praise. Or your bedroom or wherever it may be…it is a perpetual sacrifice of praise that becomes a sweet aroma in God’s nostrils! Come let us offer the sacrifice of praise. Let us offer unto Him thanksgiving and the praise due to His name. There’s no place for complaint…no place for gimme prayers, only a place of prayer that edifies and lifts up and offers hope and finds mercy in a time of trouble and help in the time of need. This is a sweet aroma , a sweet incense unto our Lord. Look at Psalm 141:2. The Psalmist says here, the Psalmist in this case being David, “Let my prayer be set before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” It was a perpetual sacrifice! Hallelujah! And we should see that there is always an incense burning in the altar of our hearts. Amen? It was like the anointing oil, a holy incense. Our worship must be pure and holy unto the Lord!
Turn with me to Ex. 30:34-38, And the LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight: And thou shalt make it a perfume, after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy: and thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee.
Let’s first of all look at the ingredients and as we do we need to consider that most of these sweet spices were also quite bitter. It was an unusual mysterious mixture and carefully protected so that it would not be duplicated or used for any other purpose. It was not to be used to put on one’s body. It was beaten small..I think it speaks of travailing in prayer in times when we don’t have the answer to life’s problems. Times when our back is against the wall, so to speak and there is strong tears and even crying…travailing in prayer. Yet in the greater sense, Jesus was crushed and beaten and that offering was a sweet smell unto His Father.The incense was made of equal proportions of stacte, onycha, galbanum and frankincense. They appear to be a gum like spruce gum and the plant gave it’s life to produce this gum. Pure and holy, separated unto God.”Stacte or the Hebrew word for it “nataf” means “to drop” From the words of Job ch.36:27, “For He maketh small the drops of water; they pour down like rain to the vapour therof” Then in ch. 29 vs.22,23: After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them. And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.”Here in these verses is a picture of the dropping of words…the graciousness and seriousness of words and of course we know in the conversation of our Lord’s words how gracious and serious His words were. Luke 4:22 “And all bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?” His words were carefully chosen, they were like a refreshing new morning dew that refreshes the ground, like a fresh new snow in the country side. We may not like winter, but isn’t a fresh snow a thing of beauty. His words were like that. Multitudes listened to His words and hung on to every word that dropped as it were from His lips. His words came from a sanctified mind; sometimes it was mercy to the poor; forgiveness to the woman taken in adultery, or it could be a rebuke to the Pharisaical hypocrite. I think Jesus laughed and could see the funny side of things, but He never engaged in jokes, that is foolish jesting. Look at Matt. 5:37 and also James 5:12. God has given us the ability to speak…it is a God given privilege that’s why these Godless nations do not allow free speech. God speaks; He spoke and the worlds were made…we shall SEE That when we get into Hebrews 11.If we are to be like Jesus, we need to be careful in our speech….open mouth insert foot? Jesus never did that…He uttered words of forgiveness…the only time He said “My God” was when He was talking to His Father.
The next ingredient is “onycha”…it could be translated a herb or it is also used in reference to a shell-fish found only in the Red Sea which when ground up produced a special fragrance. If the shell fish was the true ingredient, then it would be a constant reminder of their deliverance from Egypt and the miracle of the Red Sea crossing. The onycha was a sweet fragrance unto the LORD because it typified the suffering of the LORD upon the cross as He was crushed and beaten.The third ingredient was “galbanum”, it too has been difficult to pin down to translate. The only place it is used is here…seems like it was used is here and it is surrounded in secrecy. It was also known to be, by itself a bitter, disagreeable odor that drove away pests and vermin, destructive insects,etc. However even though these ingredients were disagreeable though these ingredients were disagreeable in smell all by themselves, yet when mixed together they are a sweet smelling savour to the nostrils of God. Isn’t that a picture of the church? Alone many of us are not too desirable or attractive, I’m referring to myself here, but as a whole if we allow the grinding process and the bleeding, the discipline referred to in Hebrews 12:6-10, our lives can be partakers in His holiness and we will produce that peaceable fruit of righteousness that verse 11 refers to. It is when we are operating on our own outside the body and we do not allow the chastening process that we are bitter. Look at verse 15. Many can be defiled through one life that does not allow the mixing of the ingredients. One commentator put it this way, “constant prayer and intercession by our LORD drives away every demon and imp from successfully gathering and developing among the body of Christ Determined, yes, even bitter prolonged prayer, with fasting repentance, drives away all spiritual vermin that eat away at our spiritual lives. Every ingredient found in this incense is necessary to typify the many facets of prayer.
And then the Frankincense…we’ve talked about it before This was the incense that was applied upon the loaves of the showbread and eaten by the priests. We saw, I think that it was a bitter white substance that was taken from piercing a tree which grew in the cracks of marble rock . It required very little moisture and any fluid taken from it was at a great price. And by the way, it was also a medicine and an antidote against poison, True worship is an antidote against the poison of sin and a medicine to our bodies, is it not? What a privilege it is to the church in Saint John to have this wonderful heritage of worship that has been handed down to us. I remember also the great churches in the State of Maine and how we would gather at Bridgewater camp in Maine and the great times of worship there. Truly the lifting up of our hands in worship is as the evening sacrifice.
These ingredients were equal amounts in this mixture which the LORD God said was not to be ever copied. We see the bush or tree and the shellfish having to be broken and ground into a fine powder pointing once again to the cross of Calvary
Where Jesus truly was crushed and broken and it was a message also to the tribes of Israel that they too must look ahead to the cross, to their redemption and that is what the 11th. Chapter of Hebrews is all about, not the kind of faith preached about by the prosperity doctors but rather the faith in the finished work of Christ on Calvary. It is a summation to the message given by this book of Hebrews that without faith(in the finished work), any other faith is not faith at all; faith if you will in good works and the keeping of the law, which does not save anyone but rather puts them in bondage. And we will go there to Hebrews 11 next week. So remember when you are reading this coming week in preparation for next week that it is to be taken in it’s context of the larger picture.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Assigning value to people
As I sit here at this keyboard this a.m. my mind going in many different directions, I am thinking about a cassette tape that I was istening to yesterday while diving my old pickup. It's too old to have a cd player so I have to listen to tapes. At least it's better than an eight track. The sermon on the tape was by one Charles Crabtree and he was talking about assigning value to people especially young people; children if you will.
He was talking about people's worth.....no not their net worth, not their stock portfolio, not the kind of house they live in and the automobile they drive, but rather their worth in God's eyes and consequently their worth in our eyes as Christians. We need to look at one another the way God looks at us. It brought to memory another song(what else). It was sung by the late Rusty Goodman and says, "if He sees when a robin falls to the ground, and He grieves when He sees it fall....how much more does He love you and I?" I left out part of that line 'cause I don't remember it all. But my point is there....if He loves a sparrow Jesus said and takes notice when it falls, what about people? People that He has made in His own image, people that He came down to earth for and took upon Himself flesh for so that He could become like us...think of it; God wanted to become like us. Why? So that He could die in our place; so that He could become a sacrifice for us and spare us from dying in our sins. People come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and we pick and choose the ones we want to befriend on that basis; what they look like, or how popular they are. Shame on us for doing that...we think we have to show off or look good to get one another's attention. I think of the story of Mother Theresa living there in Calcutta, India in a little 9' x 6' room most all of her life surrounded by human suffering with the stench of human waste in the very air she was breathing; it was a cesspool outside her door and that place was her parish. A parish of her own choosing or rather God's own choosing. An archbishop came to visit her and she took him to find a man lying there in that horrible place in the fetal position, dying, and she crouched down and cradled his filthy head in her lap and with great compassion she looked up to that archbishop and said excitedly; we have found him, we have found Jesus!
Jesus said in Matthew 25:45, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." What kind of value do we put upon each other today?
Oh it's easy to love our own isn't it? I thought of that mother in N.S. who murdered her own 12 year old daughter and I thought if someone had only brought her to the Lord, how different the outcome would have been. We live in a sin-cursed world and we need to put value on the unloved and the unsaved; we need to rescue the perishing and care for the dying...those that are perishing and dying spiritually as well as physically.
He was talking about people's worth.....no not their net worth, not their stock portfolio, not the kind of house they live in and the automobile they drive, but rather their worth in God's eyes and consequently their worth in our eyes as Christians. We need to look at one another the way God looks at us. It brought to memory another song(what else). It was sung by the late Rusty Goodman and says, "if He sees when a robin falls to the ground, and He grieves when He sees it fall....how much more does He love you and I?" I left out part of that line 'cause I don't remember it all. But my point is there....if He loves a sparrow Jesus said and takes notice when it falls, what about people? People that He has made in His own image, people that He came down to earth for and took upon Himself flesh for so that He could become like us...think of it; God wanted to become like us. Why? So that He could die in our place; so that He could become a sacrifice for us and spare us from dying in our sins. People come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and we pick and choose the ones we want to befriend on that basis; what they look like, or how popular they are. Shame on us for doing that...we think we have to show off or look good to get one another's attention. I think of the story of Mother Theresa living there in Calcutta, India in a little 9' x 6' room most all of her life surrounded by human suffering with the stench of human waste in the very air she was breathing; it was a cesspool outside her door and that place was her parish. A parish of her own choosing or rather God's own choosing. An archbishop came to visit her and she took him to find a man lying there in that horrible place in the fetal position, dying, and she crouched down and cradled his filthy head in her lap and with great compassion she looked up to that archbishop and said excitedly; we have found him, we have found Jesus!
Jesus said in Matthew 25:45, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." What kind of value do we put upon each other today?
Oh it's easy to love our own isn't it? I thought of that mother in N.S. who murdered her own 12 year old daughter and I thought if someone had only brought her to the Lord, how different the outcome would have been. We live in a sin-cursed world and we need to put value on the unloved and the unsaved; we need to rescue the perishing and care for the dying...those that are perishing and dying spiritually as well as physically.
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