30th November
“First Posted 3rd November 2021” Pray (ACts) Read - 1 Samuel 5:1-5 Message - Alan Burke It use to be when you broke stuff it got fixed, alright we do that still with some things like cars but do you remember the man who use to fix toasters, it might have been a woman who fixed yours but I remember a man. I didn’t know his name but when the toaster, the kettle, the TV broke, when I was a wain the thing got taken your ‘your man’, you know your man who fixed things. Now it’s just easier to throw it out and sure we can get it on line next day delivery sure. Well Dagon was off with your man getting fixed because the Lord God had so throughly broken him into pieces, I wonder though what they did without cement and super glue, anyway that’s not the point. The point is that Dagon the one who was supposed to be sovereign over all lay in bits, and the Lord God had defeated him. Even without his people, in a foreign land, the Lord his working out his purposes, his people could have done with dwelling more of the question that they asked in light of their initial defeat to the Philistines when four thousand were dead, when they asked… “Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today?” If they had understood that what the Lord required of them, their task, like ours is to honour him in all of lives, to remain faithful rather than trying to twist his arm to do our bidding and do what we want. The Lord was not powerless, he is not powerless and he will have the victory. The ark was in Ashdod because the people had failed to live according to God’s way, they had turned from him, they had been faithless. What we are to do is to be faithful, to honour God, to live according to his ways, turning to him in his power, putting him first in our lives, living according to his will in this age of darkness. As the church, what we need to know is that the Lord has the victory. The evil age that is under the influence of Satan, that is ever increasingly hostile to the Lord and his people, tells us to change, that we need to sort ourselves out otherwise we will be on the wrong side of history, we need to compromise if we want to survive and have anything to offer. But what we are to do is to remain faithful to the Lord God and to stand abasing the schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6:11). That we are to be faithful, knowing that the Lord will do it in his own time, he will do what he wants, he will make his glory known for he is not some powerless Dagon or the idols and false gods of this world he is the Lord God almighty. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q11 What are God’ s works of providence? God’ s works of providence are, his most holy, (Ps. 145:17) wise, (Ps. 104:24, Isa. 28:29) and powerful preserving, (Heb. 1:3) and governing all his creatures, and all their actions. (Ps. 103:19, Matt. 10:29–31)
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29th November 2022
Pray (ACts) Read (Hebrews 11v20) Message (Scott Woodburn) The story of Isaac and his two sons is a famous one and although the Apostle doesn't fill in the blanks it is well worth a trip down memory lane. In Genesis we meet Abraham's son Isaac and his wife Rebekah and in turn we meet their twin boys Esau and Jacob. The boys wrestled together in their mother's womb and the Lord told Rebekah “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” What did the Lord mean? His covenant promise would continue through the younger brother Jacob rather than the older brother Esau. As the boys grew, Isaac favoured his older son who was a hunter of game while Rebekah favoured Jacob. This tension would eventually manifest itself in Jacob deceiving his father. Rebekah heard her husband promise his blessing to Esau and immediately leapt into action. She wanted the blessing to come to Jacob and so she made tasty food for her favourite son to present to his dad. Jacob then came before his father pretending to be his hairy brother by wearing goat skins and Esau's clothes. The result was that the near blind Isaac thought Jacob was Esau and blessed his younger son by saying “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed! May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!” Later he would be enraged by this deception and Esau would weep bitterly. Nevertheless he would have this to say over his older son Esau “Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck.” Isaac's words were clear - the older brother would for a time serve the younger brother. The younger brother would know prosperity and nations would bow down to his descendants. If you read the story of this troubled family in Genesis 27 you will see that it is a tale of division, deception, anger and threatened violence. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. His brother made sure by stealing the birthright anyway. A wife moved against her husband and a son constantly lied to his father. It is a tragic tale and yet here in Hebrews 11 the Apostle reminds us of faith. Isaac may have been deceived and tricked by his wife and son but Scripture interprets Scripture and tells us that Isaac nevertheless pronounced blessings on both his sons by faith. Isaac understood that God was doing a work in his family. The Lord was clear that two nations would come from the two boys. The older brother Esau would be followed by the Edomites whist the younger brother Jacob would be followed by the Israelites. It would be Jacob's descendants who would inherit the promised land and from them eventually would come the Saviour. Brothers and sisters, we often act abysmally to one another. How many families have been divided by deception and trickery? How many of us have acted in sinful ways towards someone we are supposed to love? We even see it in church. How often do we slander fellow Christians? Sometimes we are as hasty as Esau, as sneaky as Rebekah and as deceptive as Jacob. I thank God that the success of His promises don't depend on us or our wavering faith nor is God's plan of redemption derailed by our sinful actions. He is faithful even when we aren't and He will surely bring His work to completion. Thanks be to God. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q10 How did God create man? God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures. 28th November
“First Posted 27th October 2021” Pray (ACts) Read - 1 Samuel 4:19-22 Message - Alan Burke From a human perspective what is going on here in chapter four keeps getting worse and worse. Israel had been defeated, thirty four thousand lay dead, including Eli’s sons, the ark of the Lord was captured and Eli had been dethroned and lay dead. Now we are told of the daughter in law of Eli who was the wife of Phinehas who was pregnant. The shock of the news of what had happened sent her into labour. Notice though that it is not the news of either the death of her father in law or her husband that induces this labour, it is the loss of the ark. This is a heart wrenching scene, as we are told she was so overcome by her labour pains that she was dying. The women with her were trying to give her comfort in the midst of it all tell her that it is a son, but she didn’t pay any attention to it. Even though the birth of a son would normally have been a time of great rejoicing but this isn’t a time for rejoicing, how could it be, she’s a widow, there is no family left, she would have been destitute as a result and her son was an orphan. And she named the son Ichabod, saying the Glory has departed from Israel. Just so we do not miss what is really going on, so we don’t think that it is the loss of her husband or her father in law, just so we don’t think her distress is because she is a widow leaving an orphan, we are told twice the reason, she named her son Ichabod for the Glory of the Lord had departed from Israel for the ark was captured. This woman grief is great, it is hard for us to understand the significance of what had happened, in the midst of her loss, as she was dying it was the Loss of the ark of the Lord that was what grieved and worried this woman most. The Glory of the Lord had departed from Israel, this doesn’t mean that the Lord was no longer present in any sense, after all God is Spirit (Jn 4:24) and there is no place that he is not, he is omnipresent, he is the one who sustains all that there is, there is no place that he is absent from in his creation (Ps 139:7-12). Yes symbolically the Lord had left Israel, but that does not mean that he had left everyone in the covenant community, he was there with his faithful people who knew and loved him, he remained with the faithful remnant, even though the nation as a whole had turned from him there was still the likes of Elkanah, Hannah, Samuel and many others who aren’t mentioned (Ps 23:4). Rather as we are told that the Glory of the Lord had departed, it is that he had taken his blessing from them, no longer would he protect them from harm, they had ceased to obey him. This warning also comes to us in the letters to the churches in the book of Revelation (2-3), for there the Lord had threatened to remove their lamp stand, the warning went out… “If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from it’s place” (Rev 2:5). It is a warning that the Lord would remove his glory, it is a warning to us, to every place that claims to be a church of Christ. If the church of Jesus Christ ceases to obey God’s word, if it begins to tolerate sin and error, if it allows the behaviour of the people to go unchecked, it if turns the worship of God into a circus, then the Lord will remove his lamp stand if they do not repent! Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q9 What is the work of creation? The work of creation is, God’ s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good. (Gen. 1, Heb. 11:3) 26th November 2022
Pray (ACts) Read (Hebrews 11v11-16) Message (Scott Woodburn) Do you remember how Eve rejoiced at the birth of her son Cain? She had no clue that Cain would be a faithless murderer but she did know that God had promised a child who would crush the head of Satan. So with the promise of God ringing in her soul she declared "I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord!" Cain wasn't the promised Saviour but his brother Seth would be included in the family tree of the promised Lord. Abraham would be mentioned in that family tree as well and miraculously so too would his son Isaac. What was so miraculous about the birth of Isaac? His mother Sarah and his father Abraham were well past age when Sarah fell pregnant with her firstborn son (v11). Indeed when Sarah heard God's promise to bless her with a child she laughed. How could a woman of 90 and a man of 100 have a child? But Sarah's laughter would cease. She believed God and considered that He was faithful to all that He promised (v11). Sarah miraculously conceived, Isaac was born and from this wee family came descendants as many as the stars in the sky and as the grains of sand by the sea (v12). Amazingly you and I are considered descendants of Abraham by virtue of our saving faith in Christ. We may not be physically related to him but we share the faith of Abraham and his wife Sarah. Paul explains it this way "If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise." (Galatians 3v29) Abraham, Sarah and Issac all died without seeing the glorious fulfilment of God's promises but they "greeted them from afar" (v13). In other words they knew that even though they were strangers and exiles on earth they had a homeland and a country which was heavenly (v16). All of the Lord's promises may not have been fulfilled in their lifetime but regardless they knew that the promises of God were unshakeable and they would surely come to pass. Faith believes that God can raise the dead. Faith believes that the Lord can bless an elderly couple with a child. Faith believes extraordinary and unseen things but faith in Christ is never misplaced and the faithful will never be put to shame. Brothers and sisters, God is not ashamed of the faithful. We are at the same time justified yet sinful and on this side of glory we will fail constantly but the Lord remains unashamed of those who have believed His promises. We may know many hard days throughout the duration of our lives but our God has prepared for us a heavenly city (v16). We will dwell there at peace and we will never leave, it will be a place without sin or doubt or fear., a place were righteousness dwells and a place where Christ walks with His people. I'm looking forward to that place. My faith is in Christ and my prayer is "come quickly Lord Jesus" Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q8 How doth God execute his decrees? God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence. 25th November
Pray (ACts) Read - Romans 3:4-5 Message - Alan Burke At the time to the Jews God’s righteousness was tied to his commitment to His covenant. Think of it like this, God has said he’d do it so it’s guaranteed because God said it. God said He would deliver His people, therefore that deliverance was guaranteed by the fact of God’s own righteousness. Therefore why not sin more then, our unrighteousness makes God look even better and God is unjust for bringing wrath on us. The forgets that God is a righteous God and because of it He is also wrathful, to be righteous He must deal with sin, it is a manifestation of His goodness that He deals with sin, that there are consequences for sin. The same kind of thinking and argument is used today, it might sound a little bit different, but it is the same premise. “God’s love isn’t he, he’s good, he hates sin but he loves the sinner and he loves him unconditionally.” This attitude among many that their sin doesn’t matter to God, it just shows how loving God is. Sadly there are many so called ministers and teachers who send people to hell happy, who are happy to preach a universalism, that everyone goes to heaven. What they preach isn’t based on the teaching of scripture, it’s just they don’t like the concept of hell. Jesus himself when speaking of the final judgement in Matthew 25 said he will separate people, one from another, sheep from goats, those who have rejected him face the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matthew 25). Paul is addressing the wrong view of grace among some, surmised in v8 “Let us do evil that good may result”. There is a more modern theological term for this objection because sadly it is one that is repeated throughout the history of the church but it is a failure to understand and appreciate the purpose and place of the law of God in the life of his people, whether that was the Jews of which Paul spoke of here or if it is us today. The theological term is antinomianism, it is named after a 16th century sect but it is the same issue that Paul was dealing with here in this argument. For the believer, one who has understood the gospel of God, who has tasted union with Jesus Christ Himself then it leads to a new love and obedience to the law of God. An obedience that comes from faith (1:5). There is a reason why we are told in James faith without works is dead, because if that obedience is not seen in our lives then we can try to fool ourselves but even the dogs on the street can see something doesn’t add up. For anyone who thinks that falsehood enhances God’s faithfulness, that our sin shows God’s grace all the more, then there is an issue. Salvation is a matter of the head and heart, we believe it, we know it, we respond to it. Antinomianism shows that the heart has not understood the truth of the gospel and not responded to it. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q7 What are the decrees of God? The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. (Eph. 1:4,11, Rom. 9:22–23) 24th November 2022
Pray (ACts) Read (Hebrews 11v8-10 & 17-19) Message (Scott Woodburn) There are few more remarkable figures in the Bible than Abraham and it isn't hyperbole to say that I could write devotions about him for the next month at the very least. I'll not do that but instead we'll think today briefly about the faith of Abraham. The Apostle says that Abraham's faith could be seen in how he believed God even when most of us would hesitate. Abraham was called to go out to place that he would receive as an inheritance (v8). The only difficulty with this command was that Abraham didn't know where he was going. Nevertheless Abraham left the city of Ur and headed for the land of Canaan. When he arrived in Canaan he and his family lived there in tents, heirs of God's promise (v9). Abraham knew that the Lord had given the land to him and his ancestors and yet even so they still lived like pilgrims. Why was this? Because Abraham knew that the promises of God spoke of a greater reality than just a patch of land. Paul puts it this way "he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God." (v10) The land of Canaan, also called the land of promise was a glimpse of the heavenly realities. Abraham knew that the hope of the one who followed God was greater by far than any earthly fulfilment. Heaven is the city that we look forward to. It has foundations that will never be shaken and it has been designed and built by God (v10). When we consider heaven we think of clouds and angels and harps and white robes. But we actually believe that after Christ's return the heavens and the earth will be restored to their pre-fall glory. The church will dwell with Christ and we will live in the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness dwells. Equally we won't be floating around as spirits with no body - when Christ returns He will raise us to life. We will dwell in heaven with body and soul reunited forever. We believe in the resurrection and Abraham believed it too. By faith he offered to take his son Isaac's life because he knew that God could raise the child from the dead (v19). The claim of the resurrection is an extraordinary one and for many it sounds like ludicrous nonsense. I hear all the time that this life is all we have, death will come and then all we'll be is food for the worms. I don't believe this and you shouldn't either. Abraham believed the promises of God and we believe the same ones. The Christian's eternal home will be beautiful indeed. I can only imagine what it will be like to walk in the valleys of heaven. I can only dream of the extraordinary beauty of the new creation. I can only dimly comprehend will it will be like to see Jesus and yet because I have received Christ by faith, one day I will be in the place designed and built by God. I will be there body and soul and on that day which will never end I will realise what it is to be truly human. This life isn't all there is. Something greater is coming and it is claimed by saving faith in Jesus. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q6 How many persons are there in the Godhead? There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. 23rd November
Pray (ACts) Read - Romans 3:3-4 (Focus v3) Message - Alan Burke Today we make a contract in many situations, party a says they will do this, party b says that they will do this in return. Like a phone contract for example, you phone provider whoever it is provides you a service that is dependant on you keeping your side of the contract which is of course paying the bill or putting ‘credit’ on your phone. The provider will only provide you with the service if you keep your obligation. The Jews were the people of God they even had the sign of the promises of God in circumcision, but the promises are only effectual if they are embraced, you need to believe in the promise, you need to have faith, you need to receive the promise, the problem is they hadn’t. God’s people had obligations they were faithless to the promise of God, we see the pattern throughout Scripture, God has to constantly call His people back, His people did not keep their side of the covenant, they did not love the Lord their God with all their heart. Faith is not just believing in something to be true it is living in response, that is why if you look back to Romans 1:5 we are reminded that we are called to the obedience that comes from faith. To this objection Paul says not at all, these things do not nullify God’s faithfulness, just because His people did not have faith does not nullify the years of God’s continuing faithfulness to the promises that he had made and He kept in spite of their faithlessness. For God is true and every man a liar. That may not sit well with you but all men are liars, all mankind, humanity, men women and children we are all promise breakers, only God is the one who has kept His promise completely. As Christians this day, for those of us who love the Lord it should not surprise us, God is true we are not, we break promises, we lie, thankfully our salvation isn’t dependant on us it is dependant on God himself through Jesus Christ. For God cannot lie because he is truth, he cannot lie, just because we do does not mean that God does. Just because his people were faithless, they did not have faith, does not mean that God’s faithfulness was nullified. Again fast forward to today, we are not Jews but Christians, we are likewise though the covenant people of God today. The sign of the promises of the covenant has changed, from circumcision to baptism, the sign and seal today is baptism. If some who were baptised did not come to faith should we simply do away with baptism? Should we forget the signs that God has given us? No because baptism does not guarantee salvation rather it is an expression of God’s promise to all who believe. It points to God’s promises, His faithfulness not to ours, if no one who was ever baptised had faith it doesn’t nullify God’s faithfulness because God has kept His part of the covenant, it is we who haven’t kept our obligation. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q5 What is God? God is a Spirit, (John 4:24) infinite, (Job 11:7–9) eternal, (Ps. 90:2) and unchangeable, (James 1:17) in his being, (Exod. 3:14)wisdom, (Ps. 147:5) power, (Rev. 4:8) holiness, (Rev. 15:4) justice, goodness, and truth. (Exod. 34:6–7) 22nd November 2022
Pray (ACts) Read (Hebrews 11v7) Message (Scott Woodburn) The earth was an incredibly wicked place in the days of Noah, so much so that the Lord decreed that He would bring destruction upon sinful humanity. But in the midst of the rebellion and depravity Noah was described as a righteous man blameless in his generation. Noah like Abel and Enoch before him was a man of faith. What did Noah's faith look like? The Lord God warned Noah of the judgement to come and although Noah could only imagine the scale of God's judgement, he believed God and out of reverent fear he started to build the ark (v7). The fear of God was evident in Noah's life and the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom (Proverbs 9v10). The fear of God doesn't cause you to run and hide under the bed because God is some sort of tyrant. The true fear of God acknowledges God as Lord and Saviour and it seeks to honour Him above all things. The true fear of God knows God as Father and seeks to please and obey Him rather than to sin against Him. Noah feared God rightly and sought to honour Him in the midst of a wicked generation. I'm sure the act of building an ark brought much ridicule upon Noah's shoulders. Imagine building a boat in your garden and warning people that you were doing it because God's judgement was coming. You'd be the talk of Ballynahinch - "Did you hear about the mad man who says a flood is going to destroy the world? What a fool!" But Noah was no fool. He couldn't see the coming flood but he believed God and built an ark in response. This ark had a dual purpose. Firstly, the ark was a visible reminder of God's coming wrath. It took Noah decades to build the ark and as it grew before the eyes of the people they had an opportunity to enquire about salvation. They had an opportunity to repent and flee from God's wrath. Yet out of all the people on the earth only Noah and his family would board the ark and be saved. Not much has changed. How many churches will preach the Gospel this coming Lord's Day? In Ballynahinch you can barely walk 100 metres without finding a fellowship where the Gospel is loved and proclaimed. But the churches aren't full, the people do not heed the warning and repentance is seen as word of a by gone age. My friends you must heed the warning of the Gospel. The one who rejects Christ will not be saved and they will surely see hell. Christ is the true ark and all who rest in Him will be brought safely through the coming storm of God's judgement. Secondly, the building of the ark made Noah an heir of righteousness which comes by faith (v7). How was Noah saved? By grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Noah believed the promises of God even though he couldn't yet see the substance. Noah was considered righteous not by works but by faith. The earth remains an incredibly wicked place but the Lord has promised that He will never again flood the earth. Instead the next judgement will be by fire and on the great and terrible day of Christ's return there will be nowhere to hide...except in Christ. He is our ark and He has already set sail - He is coming and coming soon - blessed are all who take refuge in Him. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q4 What is God? God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. 21st November
Pray (ACts) Read - Romans 3:1-2 Message - Alan Burke So far in the book of Romans Paul has been making it clear that what ever we may think is reason for our own confidence before the Lord, no matter who we are we have none! Unless that is of course our confidence is in the Jesus Christ and what he has done. What Paul has been doing is the dismantling work, the wrecking work, tearing down all the nonsense that people choose to believe, he wants to remove the false assurance, the false security, false comfort and presumptions that many people have in their relationship with God or more often their presumed relationship with God that isn’t based on fact, rather it a figment of their own imagination. Last week Paul had been addressing specifically the relationship of the Jews with the Law, but the name of God was being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of them (2:24), as well addressing Circumcision and the confidence that was placed in the sign,. As Paul did he reminded them that a man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, it must be inwardly (1:28-29). Ultimately the problem was religion, for they had a deficient understanding, they had the sign of the covenant without the inward reality so it was meaningless. The question now posed by Paul is one that would no doubt been raised from what he had just said in chapter 2 is that of advantage. Asking what advantage is there in being a Jew and circumcision? The answer comes and it is clear, in every way there is advantage! Look to what he says in v2, “First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God”. Now I have the NIV, if you have the ESV or KJV, they both says “Chiefly” instead of “First of all”, simple reason, the Greek word used literally means first, but notice there was no second, so this is not a first of a argument of, first, second, third that Paul rhymes off to deal with this objection rather it is chiefly, the first of important and it’s not that the Jews were better off in every way economically, politically, strategically, socially, militarily, it might have been the case for those things at different times in their history but those things are neither here nor there, they didn’t matter, but what did is that they were entrusted with the very word of God. You’ll read oracles in some translations. What was chiefly of their advantage was that they had the word of God, they had His orioles, they had his revealed will, the living and active Word of God, namely, the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament. While both Jew and Gentiles are both equally guilty because of their sin, the Jews themselves had an advantage that the Gentiles did not have, that the nations around did not have, they had the word of God. For throughout points to the need of salvation by another, it speaks of God’s promised Messiah, the seed of the woman, the Lord of David. God had been making clear to His people that what they needed to do above all things is to put their faith in Him. I want to take this passage from a different angle as we close. Now Paul as you can see is talking about the advantage of being a Jew or the value of being circumcised. We are not Jewish culturally, nor are we circumcised, but if you are reading this you more than likely have grown up in the church of Jesus Christ and would identify as a Christian one who has been given the covenant sign and seal of baptism. Do you know that you have so many advantages that there are people that surround you do not have. But identifying as a Christian and being baptised does not save. I’m often confronted with people who have attached some superstitious nonsense to baptism and the Lord’s supper, but these things do not guarantee salvation, if Paul was writing today he would remind us that membership, baptism, the Lord’s supper does not guarantee salvation, Jesus warned we may honour him with our lips but our hearts are far from Him, what we need just as the Jews need was faith, to have a heart transformed by the person and work of Jesus Christ. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q3 What do the scriptures principally teach? The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. (2 Tim. 1:13, 2 Tim. 3:16) 19th November 2022
Pray (ACts) Read (Hebrews 11v5-6) Message (Scott Woodburn) Enoch is a man in the Bible who we know incredibly little about. We could tell hours’ worth of stories about Paul. Elijah and his life could fill a book and even a foreign king like Nebuchadnezzar gets more than a few words...and yet Enoch has a couple of mentions and then that's that. But when we read what the Lord tells us in His Word about Enoch it should cause us to marvel. We learn a little bit about his family in Genesis 5. His dad was called Jared (v18) and Enoch had brothers and sisters (v19). Like many in those early days of humanity Enoch's dad lived for a very long time, God tells us Jared was 962 before he died (v20). Enoch has his own family too. We know that he had various sons and daughters and one in particular is named Methuselah (v21). Yet while it is wonderful to hear about family members and long life, the truly amazing thing about Enoch is that his life could be summed up in just four simple words..."Enoch walked with God" (v24). Just like Abel, Enoch in was a man of faith. Paul tells us that too in Hebrews 11v5. Enoch loved the Lord, he served the Lord, he praised the Lord. Now we can't fill in the blanks about this man with any certainty. We can't tell any stories about his preaching or if God used him to do amazing things. Yet those four words tell us everything we need to know..."Enoch walked with God". Enoch loved the Lord in life and did not taste death for he had pleased God. Amazingly the Lord tells us in Genesis 5v24 that Enoch "was not", in Hebrews 11v5 we read that he was spared death. This little known man walked with the Lord and then was taken to heaven where he rejoices to this day. How Enoch finished his life is not the normal situation. The Bible tells us that only Enoch and Elijah finished their time on earth by being taken into heaven by God. The rest of us will one day die and after that comes eternity in heaven or in hell (Hebrews 9v27). So, in the here and now what does this little known man of faith called Enoch say to us? Firstly, don't worry about your bucket list. It's good to plan and dream but there are much more important things in life than climbing Mount Everest or having ten children. Make the most of today and in everything give God the glory (Colossians 3v17). I like to sum this up with the reformation phrase SOLI DEO GLORIA. To God alone the glory. Secondly, don't take life for granted. It may be short or long but tomorrow isn't guaranteed for anyone. Instead put first things first (Matthew 6v31-33). Finally, don't fixate on how Enoch entered heaven, as amazing as it was. I've heard endless debates about Enoch and Elijah and how they finished their time on earth. Instead in response to Enoch ask yourself these four words..."Do I love Jesus?" Think of what your family will say about you in seventy years...will they say..."Dad walked with God"? I hope so. Will the speak at your funeral of your saving faith? I hope so. Will they remember you fondly as someone who knew the surpassing worth of trusting Christ? I hope so. We will do many things in life, we might be famous, books might be written about all our adventures but the most important issue is whether or not we walk with the Lord. Without faith it is impossible to please God. We simply must believe that not only does He exist but He rewards those who seek Him (v6). Start walking with Christ and keep walking with Christ - there's nothing more important. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q2 What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him? The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him. |
Alan
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