September,' 1942
THE K I NG ’S BUS I NES S
340
“Loyalty to Christ” perhaps, as the lesson title puts it. But more exactly, I think, it is the only hope of men such as we are, utterly lost and help less apart from Christ. Golden Text Illustration P hilippian s 3 :7 Like many other young men whom Christ has claimed as His followers, Francis of Assisi had shown a defi nite quality, of leadership in his form er life of wealth. Before becoming a Christian, he was head of a club of gay and worldly yoting companions. But the talent for influencing oth ers, even when applied to his spiritual efforts, seemed* as nothing in his eyes after he yielded to the Lord, Some one asked how he could accomplish ■ so much. “This may be why,” he said, “The^Lord looked down from heaven and said, ‘Where can’ll firid the weak est, littlest, meanest man on earth?’ Then He saw me and said, ‘I have found him, I will work through him; he Will not be proud of it. He will see I am only using him because of his insignificance.’”—Selected. Jesus' Friend Matthew M ark 2:14-17 MEMORY VERSE: “I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved” (Psa. 119:47). . APPROACH: A Sunday-school teach er had asked her class members to find out Who lived next to. them and to invite all the children to Sunday- school. Each one came back the next 5 -blYISIOn “Why not?” “He’s too bad to come to Sunday- school.” I guess James didn’t know that Sun day-school is just the place to bring bad boys. God knows how to make thqm good. LESSON STORY: When the Lord Jesus was upon earth, He called a special group of men to be His fol lowers, and to go about teaching oth ers. These He called disciples. Mat thew was one of these men. When Jesus went to Matthew’s home, many publicans and sinners came, too—peo ple whom Matthew had known before he was a Christian. Matthew wanted them to meet his nëw Friend, Jesus. Some people criticized Jesus for eat ing with sinners. How do you think Jesus answered them? He said, “They that are whole haye no need of the physician, but they S u n d a y with a new pupil, except James. “Didn’t you find any one near you, James?” a s k e d the teacher. “Yes,” J a rne s n o d d e d , “but I didn’t w a n t to bring him.”
(v. 52). Like their modern successors, they rejected the blood. Third, after- they had rejected the truths of His virgin birth and atoning death, the Lord speaks of them as un believers (v. 64), and then falls back -on the stern truth of God’s sovereign will in election,. “No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father” (v. 65). This was the final blow. If to these men the truths of His virgin birth and atoning death were “hard” sayings (v. 60), this truth Of God’s absolute sover eignty in saving men was utterly ab horrent and unacceptable. They would have'none of it. It brought'the'final’ break. They turned their-backs on Him and walked “no more” with Him. •», The centuries have w r o u g h t no change in unregenerate human na ture. The natural m a n ■still .hates above all else the humbling truth that God is sovereign in all His ways, that man can do nothing to help save his poor soul, that his only hope is in the sovereign grace of God., To this day, if we preach this great truth, it still divides men into two classes. The one class say, “We will have none of it.” The others say with Peter (in answer to the Lord’s question, “Will ye also go away?”), “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life” (vS. 67, 68). I am;sure that -Peter also had found the truth of God’s sovereignty a hard saying. No more than the other dis ciples did hq understand its deep mys tery. But Peter .was a true -believer. He was saying this: Regardless of the mystery and difficulty of the truth that He -teaches, I shall take Christ, If -we left Him,. where else, could we gq? To keep ori following Him, under such eircumstahces, rriay be called
were the camp followers, always found among the true people of God. They are the ^people who join the church because it promises to bring them temporal a n d material advantages, but they have little or no interest in spiritual and heavenly things. At the first real test they are likely to turn their backs on the Lord and go back to the world to which they have al ways belonged (cf. 1 John 2:19). 2. We should notice the immediate occasion which led these disciples to go back and walk no more with Christ. It was the high spiritual truth taught by the Lord that offended these false disciples. They could not stand the truth. A careful study of preceding verses reveals their antagonistic re action to the truth which finally came to its tragic climax in verse 66. We can even identify the particular truths which led to their separation from Christ. First, the Lord claimed He was the Bread which came down from heaven (v. 41). His.«hearers understood clearly the implication of His virgin, birth in this claim, for they “murmured” at Him, saying, “Is riot this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and moth er we know? how is it then that he saith, I came dpwn from, heaven?” (v. 42).,, These false disciples did not like the truth of Christ’s heavenly origin through the virgin birth, just as it is disliked by some so-called dis ciples today. " Second, the Loçd claimed He would give His flesh for the life of the world, and they must eat of it to have' life (v. 51). Their reaction to this doctrine of b l o o d atonement was to strive among themselves, saying, “How -can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
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V I C T O R Y
O ve r . . .
Temptation Monotony Loneliness Despair Satan Sin Tears Worry War , Hail Orders Filled Promptly
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