THE ISSUE HAS BEEN SETTLED Tune "STAND UP, STAND UP FOR JESUS" 7.6.7.6. double Words by JIM BYRD
1. How can God’s truth and justice, And love and mercy meet? How can a poor, vile sinner, Be perfect and complete? For God is pure and holy, And man is wretchedness; How can a fallen sinner, Be perfect righteousness?
2. The Son of God, our Savior, Full satisfaction made; The ransom price demanded, The Lamb of God has paid. The law cannot condemn those Whose sins the Savior bore; For justice that is silenced, Can never cry for more.
3. O wondrous cleansing fountain, That washed away our sin; O righteousness most precious, Which Jesus Christ brought in. The issue had been settled, Our God is satisfied; And every blood-bought sinner, Is fully justified.
4. O what a wondrous story, O what a joyful sound; The gospel of redemption - Salvation here is found. Now resting in the Savior, Sweet comfort in Him find; So let us trust Him always, Our all to Him resigned.
SCRIPTURE READINGS TODAY: MORNING: GALATIANS 3:1-14 EVENING: JOHN 8:1-11
"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." (Jeremiah 23:5-6)
THE FIRST ANNULLED - THE SECOND ESTABLISHED "Then said He, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second" (Hebrews 10:9). "Taketh away" means abolished, removed and annulled. "May establish" means to cause to stand firm; to permanently set in place. Christ appeared to do the Father’s will of redemption and took away the old ceremonies, ordinances, sabbath days and offerings of the Old Testament. Before His coming, those things were certainly useful, instructive and good in their own way, but with the death and resurrection of the Savior, they lost their usefulness because they were only "a shadow of good things to come" (Hebrews 10:1), but Christ is the substance. In fact, not only are those things no longer needed, but to bring them back would be a return to ritualism which would be idolatrous. In keeping with the context of the book of Hebrews, what are those things Christ has abolished, and what has He set in place for all of His chosen people?
1. He has taken away the first covenant in which life was conditioned upon the obedience of man. "This do and live; disobey and die." "In that he saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away" (Hebrews 8:13). "He is the Mediator of the new testament" (Hebrews 9:15). Christ has fulfilled every condition and stipulation of the second or new covenant; His is "the blood of the everlasting covenant" (Hebrews 13:20).
2. He has taken away the first priesthood. Aaron was a mortal, sinful man who needed to offer a sacrifice for his own sins before he could offer a sacrifice for the sins of others (Hebrews 7:27). Our Lord abolished that priesthood and established a second or better priesthood for He is that Great High Priest, "holy, harmless and undefiled" (Hebrews 7:26), who offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice, even the sacrifice of Himself. Though He died, "He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
3. He has taken away the first sacrifices which were ineffectual to put sin away or give peace to the conscience of any worshiper (read Hebrews 10:3-4). "But this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:12-14). –Pastor Jim Byrd
The longer I live, the more I feel that if there was one thing left undone, if the devil were not conquered, sin not expiated, justice not satisfied, the law not honored and magnified, death not overcome, and every burden carried, I should not have a ray of hope. I see and feel now that if one hair breath is left for me to do to merit heaven, or bring as a plea before God, I am undone forever and ever. –John Warburton