INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY Rom 10:12-13 Rom 12:1-6 (to “gifts”) Rev 3:14,20-22 2 Timothy 1:14; 2:1,19-22 I would like to speak about individual responsibility. I want to speak firstly of the obligation of every man, woman and child of responsible age to heed God’s call in the gospel, to repent and put their faith in Christ; […]
I have been thinking about some lines of a hymn that we often sing to the Lord Jesus,
In Thee all human graces blend,
And to Thy Father e’er ascend
As incense rare.
(Hymn 313)
From these passages we might enquire into this wonderful blend of human graces seen in perfection in the Lord Jesus. In the Old Testament, and in the Gospels and epistles, a range of different qualities are often used to describe the Lord Jesus.
Luke 23:39-43
This passage illustrates the wonder of the Gospel. I believe It is one the most wonderful demonstrations of the grace of God that you get in the whole of the Scriptures.
The prophet Haggai says, “Consider your ways” (Hag 1:5). We need to stop and consider the path we are on, and where it will lead. Do you know for sure where your path will lead? If you do not know for sure, I can tell you: you will end in a Christ-less eternity. If you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus, if you are not saved, then the fact is that you are lost. Not that you will be lost, but you are lost.
But tonight, in the glad tidings, we can tell you of a Saviour for the lost. The Lord Jesus said, “[I have] come to seek and to save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10).
This Address is about a prophet who saw the glory of God. Isaiah is the prophet most quoted in the New Testament and he had a unique impression of the glory of Christ.
Some of the glories of Christ can be seen in type through the words of Moses who asked, “Let me, I pray Thee, see Thy glory” (Ex 33:18). Moses was permitted to see God from behind. He was placed in a cleft of the rock, and God’s goodness passed before him. God is glorified in His goodness, and Moses was wonderfully privileged to be on the mount and to see the glory of God shining in Christ. But, by the Spirit, we can look upon the glory of the Lord.
I have read of two men because we learn a lot of things by contrast. Both had the same opportunity, but one went away sad, and the other went away glad! Our desire is that everyone may go away glad from this meeting tonight.
The Lord Jesus told us about two men who went up to the temple to pray (Luke 18:9‑14). One was a Pharisee – a very self-righteous, religious person. His prayer was full of himself, and how good he was compared to the other man – a tax-gatherer – who smote upon his breast and prayed saying, “O God, have compassion on me, the sinner.” Jesus said that the tax-gatherer “went down to his house justified.”
This Address is about what marked the assembly at the beginning. Earlier in the Acts we find the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost and tongues of fire sitting on each one (Acts 2:1-4). Peter (and others, but Peter in particular) preaches in the power of the Spirit, and as a result three thousand persons believed and were baptised. It was a time of great blessing and addition, and evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit. Then we find that these persons “persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers.”
It has been on my heart for some time that we should have an impression of the presence of the Lord amongst us. I sought in prayer the help of the Lord to speak together about this important matter, of having a real impression of the presence of the Lord amongst us.
I was particularly impressed with the fact that, once we have come together, we can have an impression that, really, the Lord Jesus is pleased to be with us. It is a real matter. It is not a physical one, as, of course, we know, but it is a matter of really experiencing His presence. And I thought of these passages, the first one being the passage that sets forth the conditions in which we can receive the Lord.
These Scriptures show something of what Scripture has to say about life. When Scripture speaks about life it is not, of course, speaking about the natural life which we all have and which much of creation has; Scripture is speaking of life according to God, which is imparted to us by God Himself. It is a gift of God.