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Committment

I would like to speak to you about commitment – commitment to the Lord Jesus. Commitment is a subject for those that already have believed in the Lord Jesus. It is not possible to commit to something or someone you do not believe in. So before I start, I just want to appeal to your heart, if there is anyone in this room that still does not believe in Jesus – it is not too late, and you are not in the wrong place. As a matter of fact, take your opportunity tonight, just trust in Jesus, believe in Jesus: the Man Who came from heaven to earth to die on the Cross of Calvary’s tree. And the reason He did this was because of your sins and my sins. Just trust in Him! Leave your life in His hands. Trust and believe in Him, and you will be saved immediately, now and for ever.

Fitness and Exercise

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The subject I have in mind is the believer’s fitness. And by this I mean the activity in a believers’ pathway. I feel believers should be very active, and I feel Scripture has something to say about this, so I wanted to consider together with you what Scripture tells us about being an active believer, and what is the ultimate result of this.

God’s Provision for His People

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It is clear that we are living in exceptional times, I do not need to elaborate on that, really, save to say that they are times which cause us to ask what the Lord has in mind in what He allows, and I trust also to ask what we are gaining from what He allows. I do not suppose that any of us would claim to have full answers to those questions, but in thinking about our recent experiences and about this occasion it came to me that the experiences of the children of Israel in the wilderness may have some bearing on the lessons that we, too, may need to learn.

Joy brought by walking in the Truth.

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Some weeks ago, we considered the epistles of John. I was struck with the word in 3 John verse 4 where John says, “I have no greater joy than these things that I hear of my children walking in the truth”. It is a superlative statement – I have no greater joy. I would like to consider a number of statements on the part of the epistle writers, where they speak of their joy.

Why did Jesus have to be our sacrifice?

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I want you to think tonight about a question that has been going round in my head for the last few weeks – Why did Jesus have to be our sacrifice? Why did it have to be Him?
I will share a few thoughts that have come to me. This is not intended to be a comprehensive answer to my question: I am hoping that you will come up with other answers. I have asked the Holy Spirit to help us in how we think about it.
I do not mean, what was the sacrifice for? You are all believers, you know what it was for. But, why did it have to be Him? Why could it not be something else or someone else. Why did it have to be Jesus? That is what I want you to think about tonight.
I sometimes find a helpful place to start is to look in the Bible and see what was prophesied and what has been promised. Why was the sacrifice Jesus and not something or someone else? Well, if you look in the Old Testament you will find that is because God promised it would be Jesus and He delivers on His promises.

Titles and Offices of the Lord Jesus as presented in the epistle to the Hebrews

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I just suggest these Scriptures, dear brethren, as presenting to us some of the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ, and desiring, as our brother said in prayer, that we might get some fresh views of Him and His Person and excellence. There is, of course, nothing new in Scripture; the Scripture is its own record, but we come back to it looking for what we might call fresh impressions of what the Scripture contains.

Preservation Together

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I would like to draw upon the Scriptures to turn rather more towards how the people of God may be preserved together, because there is a need for that, that we might be able to go on together in the things of the Lord, get the gain of fellowship in the things of the Lord, as sharing them, and make progress together so that there is a richer and sweeter response to God while we still remain here.

The habitation of God

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I have just a simple thought about the way in which what was on David’s heart in organising a habitation for God has been answered in the line of promises of God in a full way in the work of the Lord Jesus, and how this work is being carried on now as the house is being built. We refer, of course, to two different houses in these passages. One is a physical house that was actually built as a Temple, not by David, but by his son, as we know. And that house was meant in the exercise and desire of David to be God’s habitation amongst His people, as related to the centre of His promises in Zion, the place that God had chosen. The house that is being built now is not physical, nor localised in any particular place, but is made of living persons who have been put together by the Lord Jesus in His work. The Lord is building what will become, in true result, a habitation and pleasure of God. I thought that, following up what we had before us yesterday, and what we enjoyed together this morning, we could consider how God can find this habitation amongst His own, and how this can really be formed through what the Lord Himself is doing. I hope this thought can be developed by the brethren together.

Titles and Offices of the Lord Jesus as presented in the Epistle to the Hebrews

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I just suggest these Scriptures, dear brethren, as presenting to us some of the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ, and desiring, as our brother said in prayer, that we might get some fresh views of Him and His Person and excellence. There is, of course, nothing new in Scripture; the Scripture is its own record, but we come back to it looking for what we might call fresh impressions of what the Scripture contains.
As regards titles and offices, I think they mainly relate to the Lord Jesus. That is to say that He fills many of the needs of God as desiring to have to do with men, and, through grace, of men as desiring to have dealings with God. It may be said of the Holy Spirit, of course, that He is the Comforter and the Earnest, and maybe has other titles as well. But Scripture, I think, dwells a good deal on the titles of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Epistle to the Hebrews is one – not the only one, obviously, but one – good place to look to see what the Spirit has to say about the offices that the Lord Jesus fills.
I read these Scriptures in the order in which they occur in the Epistle, because that is just the easiest way to keep them in mind. But I did not have in mind to suggest that there was any progression through the passages we have read. They each stand by themselves, apart from the close connection that there is between chapter 3, “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession,” and what there is in chapter 8, where the apostle himself says that a summary of what has gone before is that “we have such a one High Priest Who has sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Greatness in the heavens.” And he then says that He is “Minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle.” So, I think it is good to think of the High Priest and the Minister perhaps in somewhat the same context.

Preservation

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The question has been weighing with me, dear brethren, as to how the Christian – and, indeed, the Christian company – is to be preserved. And I suggested these Scriptures – which bear, I think, upon us individually and, to some extent, together – to set on an enquiry as to how we may be preserved.
When I say ‘preserved,’ I actually mean being preserved at the most practical level of keeping our faith and our walk, in the state of the world as it now is. I am sure it was always a difficult world, but there are difficulties which are very obvious at the present time. Satan is making a definite assault on a number of things. Some of the things that are most obviously affected relate to the family and family life. I did not have in mind to go into any detail as to that, but rather that we should be alerted, freshly if necessary, to the fact that Satan is active, and that the saints, each of us, as well as the saints when together, need to be preserved.
It does not, of course, manifest itself only in its moral aspects. There is a great tide of what is secular and unbelieving, and that, too, can affect the saints if we are not careful. And we may also be in danger of simply being disheartened.
So we need to be encouraged, but not just in a vague, general way, that everything will come right in the end: we need, rather, to be quite specific that the saints do need to be preserved and that Scripture points to ways in which they can be.