But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man. Philippians 2:7
At the present time - As to our new life in Christ, begun the day we were Saved, there are many stirring mentions of the close relationship we enjoy with our Saviour; always initiated by Him, but evoking a warm response from our hearts. Philippians 2:7 starts recounting the downward path of the Lord Jesus: “But made HIMSELF of no reputation.
Hebrews 9:14 describes the low point of His journey and its results. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered HIMSELF without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
The familiar verse, “Galatians 2:20: The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave HIMSELF for me; brings before us our individual personal intimacy with our Lord.
And this brings forth praise for the fact that He has become the chief corner stone of our personal faith, and of His Church: Ephesians 2:19-20: Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of faith, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ HIMSELF being the chief corner stone.” Lorne Perry
N.J.Hiebert - 9422
Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto. Deuteronomy 12:18
Be ye thankful Colossians 3:15
Thou that hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, a grateful heart.
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if Thy blessings had spare days;
But such a heart, whose pulse may be Thy praise.
G. Herbert
If any one would tell you the shortest, surest way to all happiness and all perfection, he must tell you to make it a rule to yourself to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you.
For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing. Could you, therefore, work miracles, you could not do more for yourself than by this thankful spirit; for it heals with a word speaking, and turns all that it touches into happiness.
William Law
N.J.Hiebert - 9423
And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we…and Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river. (Exodus1:7-22)
This was Satan’s power. The river was the place of death; and, by death, the enemy sought to frustrate the purpose of God. It has ever been thus. The serpent has at all times watched with malignant eye those instruments which God was about to use for His own gracious ends. The enemy seeking, by death, to interrupt the current of divine action.
But, blessed be God, there is something beyond death. When Satan has exhausted his power, then God begins to show Himself. The grave is the limit of Satan‘s activity; but there it is that divine activity begins. This is a glorious truth. Satan has the power of death; but God is the God of the living, and He gives life beyond the reach and power of death—a life which Satan cannot touch.
Faith knows that God is stronger than Satan, and it can therefore quietly wait for the full manifestation of that superior strength, and, in thus waiting, find its victory and its settled peace. Notes on Exodus - C. H. Mackintosh
N.J.Hiebert - 9424
Behold, I come quickly Revelation 3:11,22:12, 22:20.
A careful study of the attitude of the believer toward his absent Lord, as spoken of in various parts of the Word of God, will show that it may well be divided into three distinct parts. He WAITS, he WALKS, and he WORKS. His heart waits for Christ, His feet walk, and His hands work; thus His heart, feet, and hands are all occupied for the Lord in view of His coming.
These distinctions are by no means arbitrary; on the contrary, it will be found that wherever the coming of the Lord is spoken of, it is in connection with some one of these aspects. In Matthew 25, we get the waiting and the working; In Luke 12, principally the waiting; in Thessalonians and in Revelation, all three; in 1 Corinthians 15, the work; and in 1 John 3, rather the walk.
In (1 Thessalonians 1:10) we get the Thessalonians waiting for God’s Son from heaven. In chapter (2:20) we find the apostle speaking of the Lord’s coming in reference to his work among them, and the reward which he will get in then in the glory; while in chapter 3 we find the return of the Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints is placed in connection with a holy and God-pleasing walk. (4:1).
Plain Papers for Young Believers - A. T. Schofield
N.J.Hiebert - 9425
Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold…but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. 1 Peter 1:18-20
The death and resurrection of Christ form the new basis on which God establishes every relationship with fallen man, and the Holy Scriptures are replete with types, prophesies, and shadows all pointing to the coming One. Already, before the foundation of the world was laid, God had His Lamb in reserve. When the first man, Adam, sinned and thus failed in his responsibility towards God, it only served as an occasion for God to introduce into this world the Second Man, the Man of His counsels, the Lord from heaven.
“Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!” This was the exclamation of John the baptist, (John 1:29). God Himself must provide a Lamb, for we had none to bring. What the holiness of God required, the love of God provided in the sending of His Son. Wonderful provision for ruined sinners who now have been brought to God! “He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” (Ephesians 1:6-7)
The same One who was on the cross, bearing our sins, is now seated at the right had of the throne of God. This is the blessed proof of God‘s satisfaction with the work of putting sin away. God’s righteousness requires that all who have been redeemed will also be glorified with Christ where He is. We will be with Him and like Him, the fruit of His grace and the objects of God’s eternal pleasure. “To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.” (Jude 25). Jacob Redekop
N.J.Hiebert - 9426
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
GOD’S CONDITIONS OF SALVATION
Every one is a bankrupt sinner, owing to God a great debt, having nothing of His own with which to pay Him. There is no such thing with God as “liquidation by arrangement,” there are no assets to divide.
It is just as if a merchant owed five million dollars to his creditors, and had not two cents left to hand over to them.
In the midst of man’s extremity and need, Christ comes in and goes to the cross, God is satisfied with His own well-beloved Son and with His finished work, Christ is raised, a discharge is given, the debtor goes free. This is salvation! This is redemption! Very simple and plain: it is God’s free gift to man.
“That if though shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9) The Sower
N.J.Hiebert - 9427
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men…the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger…His name was called JESUS. Luke 2:13-21.
It is very evident that God Himself prepared everything in this world, so that all should be ready to receive His Son, and send forth the good news of the grace of God to every part of the world. But, alas, when the Son of God came to this earth, “there was no room for Him;” they sent His mother out to the stable, and there the holy Child was born. There in a stable, the only begotten Son of God came to this earth, an outcast (Jeremiah 30:17) from the beginning of His sojourn here.
“No room for Thee, Thou blessed One, the Father’s holy Child,
His well beloved, only Son, the Saviour undefiled!
No room for Thee in crowded inn that evening long ago!
‘Behold the Lamb’ who bore our sin, shut out by hearts below!”
A multitude of the heavenly host (Luke 2:13) came to announce the arrival of this divine Stranger, praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” But the only ones to hear their message were a few shepherds out on the hillside keeping watch over their sheep. Jerusalem, the city of the great King, was troubled by the news that He was born (Matthew 2:3). And the chief priests and scribes, who should have been the first to welcome Him, did not make the smallest effort to seek Him.
True, there were those who brought kingly gifts and falling down before Him did Him homage, but these were Gentile strangers. (Matthew 2:11). And old Simeon, or Anna, had a heart prepared to give a welcome to the newborn King; and Anna knew all those at Jerusalem that looked for redemption and she spoke of Him to them. I fear the number was not great. (Luke 2:25, 36-38). Such was man’s condition when God’s time arrived, when the fullness of time came.
In Romans 5:6, the Holy Spirit calls it “due time”In Mark 1:15, He sent to men the message, “The time is fulfilled.”It was God’s time, the time for the most important event that ever has happened in the history of the universe: “GOD SENT FORTH FROM HIMSELF HIS SON.” Meditations on Galatians - G. C Willis
N.J.Hiebert - 9428
I sat down under His shadow with great delight. Song of Solomon 2:3
Moses “sees Him who is invisible.” (Hebrews 11:27) This makes him decided. When we realize the presence of God Pharaoh is nothing. Where there is lack of communion there is weakness and indecision.
There is no strength but in Christ. I have none at any time except as my soul is in secret communion with Him. Now the direct power of Satan is towards this point, to keep our souls from living on Christ.
One great thing we have to seek is that communion with Christ be as strong as all the doctrines we hold or teach. Without that the doctrine itself will have no force: besides, we ourselves shall not be with God in it.
There should be a going of the soul to God in a far more intimate way than to anyone else. Communion wth saints is precious, but I must have intimacy of communion with God above all; and communion of saints will flow from communion with God.
Joy in God is communion. If living in communion with God we are not thinking of ourselves. Moses did not know his face shone when everyone else did. He had been looking up out of himself and turned towards the earth bearing upon him the light of heaven. None can be so intimately near us as God, for He is in us. Yet what an intimacy it is! Pilgrim Portions - J. N. Darby
N.J.Hiebert - 9429
The King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Psalm 24:8-10
The King of glory did not come from heaven manifesting forth His mighty power and glory, but He came of a woman, born of a woman. He took on Himself our human nature. He came under law (not under the law), that He might redeem (or, buy out) those that were under law. We may see plainly that instead of bringing Christians under law, God is really leading those who had been under law out from it. But He had to buy them out, and the cost was His well beloved Son.
No doubt this applies first of all to the Jews, and many Jewish believers then alive, who had been brought up under the law of Moses, learned what it meant to be bought out from under that law. But when the Holy Spirit says, “He came under law, that He might buy out those that were under law“ (not under the law), it tells us that Christ’s work went much further than to the Jews alone. His redemption went to the ends of the earth, for man by nature loves to put himself under law, nor was it the law of Moses alone but law of every kind from which Christ redeemed us
And so the Gentile Christians in Galatia shared in this redemption from under law. Redemption places all, that is all who believe in Christ and His work on the cross, under the benefit of that work whether they be Jews or Gentiles. In God’s sight these are bought out from under law, in order that those who were under law might be delivered from it. Before God could give to us the place and the spirit of sons He must buy us out from under law. Galatians - G. C. Willis
N.J.Hiebert - 9430
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. Proverbs 23:23
We may well cry, with the prophet, “Truth has fallen in our streets.” (Isaiah 59:14) But he who desires the approval of God above the praise of men will value it nevertheless, and be ready to purchase it at the cost of friends, reputation, possessions, yea, life itself.
Nor will he part with it whatever the suffering that may result from “earnestly contending for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (Jude 3). Rationalists may sneer, and the superstitious persecute; but he who posseses the truth will find with it wisdom, instruction and understanding such as all the wise men after the flesh are strangers to. Who exemplified what is here inculcated more than the one time rabbi of Tarsus, the apostle Paul?
“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:…that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection…” (Philippians 3:7-11) Notes on Proverbs - H. A. Ironside
N.J.Hiebert - 9431
In the beginning God. Genesis 1:1
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. Luke 24:26-27
The Bible begins by telling whence we and all things have come; it ends, by telling whither we and all things tend. It tells of the entering in of sin and woe; it gives the promise of redemption and of triumph over sin; It shows us how the way was prepared for the Deliverer; He comes; we see His salvation; we are gathered about Him; and then, just as the veil is lifted from the past in Genesis to let us see the beginning, so the veil is lifted from the future in Revelation to let us see the end.
Can we say whence the Bible has this strange completeness? Say that God is the author of the Book, that His plan thus spanned the ages, and I quite understand the matter. But apart from that there is no explanation.
When we reach “the final harmony” described in Revelation 22:3-5 “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads”, we feel instinctively that we have come to a condition of intense joy beyond which it is impossible to go. Then the vision of the poet shall have become an accomplished fact:
Every tiger madness muzzled, every serpent passion killed,
Every grim ravine a garden, every blazing desert tilled,
Robed in universal harvest, up to either pole she smiles,
Universal ocean softly washing all her warless isles.
And when all things shall be subdued unto Him…that God may be all in all. 1 Corinthians 15:28
The Wonderful World - George Henderson
N.J.Hiebert - 9432
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. Matthew 27:45
Midday was turned to midnight.No human eye could see Him on the cross during those three hours. His suffering during that holy time was veiled in darkness. No mind can fully comprehend what took place. No tongue can fully describe that awful scene. By faith, we believe. We are so thankful that He endured it! Such was His love for you and me. John M. Clegg
On Calvary we’ve adoring stood,
And gazed on that wondrous cross
Where the holy, spotless Lamb of God
Was slain in His love for us;
How our hearts have stirred at that solemn cry,
While the sun was enwrapped in night,
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”
Most blessed, most awful sight.
Our sins were laid on His sacred head,
The curse by our Lord was born;
For us a victim our Saviour bled,
And endured that death of scorn;
Himself He gave our poor hearts to win—
(Was ever love, Lord, like thine!)
From the paths of folly, and shame, and sin,
And fill them with joys divine. J. G.Deck
N.J.Hiebert - 9433
"All these things are against me." (Gen. 42:36.)"
“All things work together for good to them that love God."
(Rom. 8:28.)
In a factory building there are wheels and gearings,
There are cranks and pulleys, beltings tight or slack—
Some are whirling swiftly, some are turning slowly,
Some are thrusting forward, some are pulling back;
Some are smooth and silent, some are rough and noisy,
Pounding, rattling, clanking, moving with a jerk;
In a wild confusion in a seeming chaos,
Lifting, pushing, driving — but they do their work.
From the mightiest lever to the tiniest pinion,
All things move together for the purpose planned;
And behind the working is a mind controlling,
And a force directing, and a guiding hand.
So all things are working for the Lord's beloved:
Some things might be hurtful if alone they stood;
Some might seem to hinder; some might draw us backward;
But they work together, and they work for good,
All the thwarted longings, all the stern denials,
All the contradictions, hard to understand.
And the force that holds them, speeds them and retards them,
Stops and starts and guides them—is our Father's hand.
-Annie Johnson Flint.
N.J.Hiebert - 9434
No comments:
Post a Comment