July 1924
T H É K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
437
can you tell me what this bell on top of the clock is for? To wake us up in the morning. That is right. Now we do not need the bell in the day time when ELEMENTARY. we are awake, but when we want to get Mabel 1 1 . Merrill up at a certain time in the morning, we set the clock so the bell will ring at that time. If when we hear the bell, we at once arise, it will waken us every morning, but if we do not heed its warning, and sleep on, or go to sleep again, we shall soon fail to hear the bell ring. So our conscience tells us when we are tempted to do wrong, and if we listen to its voice, Satan will have no power over us, but if we do not heed its voice, it will be easier each time to do wrong. Jesus said “ no,” each time, to Satan, the tempter. Xjesson Story.—Who can tell me what God said about His Son Jesus, in our story last week? Constance, you may tell us. Now today we are to learn another wonderful lesson from Jesus, our Saviour. He shows us how to win a battle against the great enemy, Satan. He had just been baptized, and heard His Heavenly Father say He was well pleased with Him, and then the Holy Spirit of God led Him into a wild and lonely place called a wilderness, where no one lived. There was no one to offer Him food, and for forty days and nights Jesus was in this lonely place, but the Heavenly Father was with Him, so He was not alone. Then Satan came also, to see if he could not make the Lord Jesus do something wrong. Satan knew He would be hungry with no food to eat, and listen, now, how Satan tempted Jesus. There were many stones in the place, and Satan said, “ If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made into bread.” ; Satan knew that Jesus had power to do this, and he wished to make him use this power for Himself, in a selfish way, because He was hun gry. But Jesus our Saviour, the Son of God, knew the Bible perfectly, so He had an answer ready. Jesus told Satan it was written in the Bible that man should not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. What God said was more important to live by than bread for the body, so Satan could not get Jesus to do wrong. But he was not satisfied so he tried again to get Jesus to show His power just to show off what He could do. (Give in detail Satan taking Jesus to high tower on temple, emphasizing wrong use of the blessings God gives us). Again Jesus used the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit, and Satan was beaten. Then Satan took Jesus up on a high mountain to show Him all the kingdoms of the world, promising to give them to Him, if He would only worship him, (Satan). Now see what Jesus answers this third time. He tells Satan to go away, and again He told him it was written in the Bible, that the Lord God was the only one to be worshipped. It was a dreadful thing for Satan to ask the Son of God to worship him, but Jesus knew how to conquer by using the powerful sword, the Word of God. Satan found he could do nothing with Jesus the Son of God, so he left Him, and angels came and fed Jesus and cared for Him. Jesus would not obey Satan, but He would use His power to glorify God, His Heavenly Father. He looked to Him to lead and guide and feed Him, and God sent the angels to look after Him. Satan was like an enemy beaten in battle and driven away. Our memory verse teaches us that the way to conquer is to ask Jesus to help us, and to use the sword, which is the Word of God. Prayer.
AUGUST 3, 1924 THE FIRST DISCIPLES OF JESUS Golden Text: “ Jesus saith unto him, Follow me.” John 1:43. Lesson Text: John 1:35-51. Devotional Reading: Proverbs 3:13-18.
OME AND SEE John 1 :39 ■ John 1:45 V ^ a r k y THE NEWS Matt. 28:19, 20 In Africa the word for Interpreter means “Passing the Word Along.” ' I ALL OTHERS
The first five disciples of Jesus were John, Andrew, Peter, Philip and Nathanael. Their true life begins when they find Jesus and unite their fortune with His future. This is the case with every child of God. The Gospel shows what it is by what it does. If lifts rough un- LESSON couth fishermen into Apostleship and EXPOSITION leadership. Where did it find them? P. W. Farr Where did it leave them? This is a stand ing argument for the Divine character and power of the Gospel. The different ways in which these five disciples were brought to Christ suggest the various forms of Christian work which are open to us today and upon which we may expect the Divine blessing. The first and second of these disciples were won to Christ by John the Baptist and were converted by a sermon. It has pleased God, by the foolish ness of preaching to save them that believe. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. We may ex pect every Gospel sermon to have this effect. John the Baptist who won the first converts to Christ was a preacher who hid himself behind Christ and preached Christ rather than himself. The substance of his.sermon is given in a single sentence, “ Behold thè Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” John was the son of a priest and he presented Christ as the anti-type of the Lamb offered in daily sacrifice. The figure was plain and easily under stood. In other words he preached the cross. It is the cross that convicts men of sin. Preaching that ignores or denies the cross has no converting power. John, the Apostle of love, is the first convert. He saw Christ as the Lamb of God which taketh away the-sin of the world and this view of the Saviour stayed with him throughout his life. Throughout his Epistles he exalts the blood which cleanses from all sin. He refers again and again to the sacrificial death and the great propitiation. In the Apocalypse he calls Christ the Lamb of God more than thirty times. These are the writ ings of his old age and they show how his first views of Christ remained with him to the end. How important it is that a Christian should have a clear, correct and complete view of Christ when he is converted! The third disciple was brought to Christ through per sonal effort and family influence. Andrew made it his business to go after his brother Simon, tell him his own experience and invite him to Christ. It was worth a life time of effort to bring a man like Peter to Christ. Peter’s conversion meant the Day of Pentecost and the sermon that converted three thousand souls. It meant the con version of Cornelius and the opening of the kingdom to the Gentile world. It meant the two precious Epistles that enrich the pages of the New Testament. We can live in
Made with FlippingBook HTML5