August 12, 2007

(Psalm 103:11-12)

MORNING WORSHIP:

10:00 Bible Study: Video sermon by Richard Warmack

11:00 Service: Video sermon by Bill Parker

Birthdays: Ashlyn Jones – August 14^th., Kathryn Wages – August 19^th.

THE DEATH OF THE CROSS

Thus truly was he "brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he opens not his mouth." (Isa. 53:7.) What heart can conceive, what tongue express what his holy soul endured when "the Lord laid upon him the iniquities of us all?" In the garden of Gethsemane, what a load of guilt, what a weight of sin, what an intolerable burden of the wrath of God did that sacred humanity endure, until the pressure of sorrow and woe forced the drops of blood to fall as sweat from his brow. The human nature, in its weakness recoiled, as it were, from the cup of anguish put into his hand. His body could scarce bear the load that pressed him down; his soul, under the waves and billows of God's wrath, sank in deep mire where there was no standing, and came into deep waters where the floods overflowed him. (Psalm 69:1, 2.)

And how could it be otherwise when that sacred humanity was enduring all the wrath of God, suffering the very pangs of hell, and wading in all the depths of guilt and terror? When the blessed Lord was made sin (or a sin-offering) for us, he endured in his holy soul all the pangs of distress, horror, alarm, misery, and guilt that the elect would have felt in hell forever; and not only as any one of them would have felt, but as the collective whole would have experienced under the outpouring of the everlasting wrath of God. The anguish, the distress, the darkness, the condemnation, the shame, the guilt, the unutterable horror, that any or all of his quickened family have ever experienced under a sense of God's wrath, the curse of the law, and the terrors of hell, are only faint, feeble reflections of what the Lord felt in the garden and on the cross; for there were attendant circumstances in his case which are not, and indeed cannot be in theirs, and which made the distress and agony of his holy soul, both in nature and degree, such as none but he could feel or know. He as the eternal Son of God, who had lain in his bosom before all worlds, had known all the blessedness and happiness of the love and favor of the Father—his own Father, shining upon him, for he was "by him as one brought up with him, and was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him." (Prov. 8:30.) When, then, instead of love he felt his displeasure, instead of the beams of his favor he experienced the frowns and terrors of his wrath, instead of the light of his countenance he tasted the darkness and gloom of desertion—what heart can conceive, what tongue express the bitter anguish which must have wrung the soul of our suffering Surety under this agonizing experience? A few drops of the wrath of God let down into the conscience of a child of God have made many a living soul cry out, "While I suffer your terrors I am distracted; your fierce wrath goes over me; your terrors have cut me off." (Psalm 88:15, 16.)

by J. C. Philpot - (1802-1869)

DEFILING THE TEMPLE OF GOD

“If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.’ 1 Corinthians 3:17

The most common interpretation of defiling the temple of God is that the temple represents the individual bodies of believers, and therefore you better be careful what you put in them. It is true that our bodies are the Lord’s, and we should care for them (health and sanity) being ever mindful that we are not our own, but we are bought with a price-1 Corinthians 6:20. Nevertheless, in this context, the temple is not the individual body of believers, but the Church of the redeemed. When Paul writes, ‘which temple ye are,’ temple is singular and ‘ye’ is plural. It is referring to that body of believers that the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed at Calvary, and whose righteous obedience imputed once for all to them upon, completion of His death at the cross, is ALL their holiness.

So how is it that any man might be guilty of defiling the temple, and in so doing God will destroy? The previous context is with reference to preachers who rather than exalt the Person and work of the Lord Jesus, and uphold His honor and glory, bring into the church strange doctrine (Leviticus 10:1), and thereby introduce a way of worship and doctrine that is contrary to what God has ordained and revealed in His Word. Here are three different ways that men have historically defiled the temple of God and God has destroyed the works of their hands

1. By the wisdom of the world, and through philosophy, and vain deceit, Col. 2:8. A little leaven leavens the whole lump, and there are those who introduce it quietly and subtly into their preaching that eventually leads hearers’ minds away from the inspired word into traditions, customs, and natural thinking regarding God, salvation, and eternal matters. Slowly but surely, men and their commentaries or denominational traditions become the standard, and not the Word of God.

2. By bringing in false doctrines, errors, and heresies, and corrupting minds from the simplicity that is in Christ. Beware of those who would diminish in any way the sanctity, honor, glory and perfection of Christ’s person as the sinless one- Heb. 7:26 Beware of those who would make righteousness, holiness, or acceptance with God on any other foundation than that imputed in His effectual death alone- 1 Cor. 1:30, and revealed in the heart by the Spirit of God- Romans 1:17. Beware of those who insist on conditions of righteousness and what men must do, or have in them, in order to make their acceptance with God a reality. NO! The temple IS holy because of its great High Priest and His effectual sacrifice alone, by whom we have been made, accepted in the Beloved, Eph. 1:7.

3. By causing factions and divisions among the brethren, preferring their own honor, or the honor of men above the truth, John 5:44-47, and putting their own authority above the Lord’s in their dealings with His sheep, forgetting whose sheep they are, I Peter 5:2,3.

Thankfully, all that are the Lord’s, whom He has chosen in grace, redeemed and justified by His blood and righteousness imputed, and called by His blessed Holy Spirit, can never be removed from that foundation. All others will find themselves in opposition to God Himself, and must most certainly be destroyed.