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TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by; the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou iisest up” (Deut. 6:4-7). The Lord Jesus probably also learned the verse from the Old Testament which is our memory verse today: “Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you” (Deut. 5:33). The Saviour did more than learn these rules; He obeyed each one of them. Because Jesus obeyed his Fa ther’s commandments, God’s Word says: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52). As Jesus grew in body, His love for, and obedience to, God developed. Because He hid God’s Word in His heart, He became wiser as He became taller. Jesus’ friends and His Father in Heaven were well pleased with Him. Are you hiding God’s Word in your heart each day? Are you obeying the verse James 1:22: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only” ? If you are, then, as Jesus did, you will grow not only in age and size, but in wisddm and in favor with God and man. LESSON FOR JULY 14, 1946 Jesus Demands Loyalty to God LESSON MATERIAL: Ex. 20:3-6; Josh. 14:16, 22-24; Luke 14:25-27. GOLDEN TEXT: “ No man can serve two masters: for either he wiil hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt. 6:24). Outline and Exposition . . I. . . T he R eason for L oyalty (Ex. 20:3-6) God is s u p r e m e ; He can have neither-rivals nor equals (v. 3). He is a spiritual, not a physical Being, (v. 4). Of necessity, He is jealous 6f His own, permitting no divided love or service (v. 5). Loyalty to God springs from love to Him (v. 6). Love and obedience always go together; love is the inner urge, obedience the outer manifesta tion. Love is obedience in the heart; obedience is love in action. II. T he P rofession of L oyalty (J osh . 24:16, 22-24) “God forbid that we should for sake the Lord” (v. 16). While piously making such a profession, the Israel ites actually had with them other gods hidden in their belongings. Then they readily professed they had chosen the true God (v. 22). To prove the reality of this profession, they were told to put away the strange gods from among them and to be obedient and to worship the “Lord God of Israel” (v. 23). Their final profession, “The Lord
our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey,” continually bore wit ness against them (v. 24). Alas, that they so quickly ceased to serve their God and to hearken to His voice! Then, as now, profession without reality only increased the sin.
assumed, because of loyalty to Christ. Friends, pleasure; even loved ones, all are to be “loved less” than Christ who is to be the supreme object followed (v. 27). To be well pleasing unto Him will be the motto of the one who is loyal to God. Points and Problems 1. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). If it is won dered why such a negative command ment as this occupies first place in the Decalogue, the problem is at least par tially solved when one considers the paganism with which the Israelites had been surrounded all the time they had been in Egypt. The gods of heathenism were everywhere. Archae ologists' c o n t i n u e to unearth evi dence of the worship of more and more deities; already about 2,200 have come to light. Remembrance of these gods undoubtedly followed Israel after they had been delivered from Egypt. Today man’s greatest temptation is to substitute an idol for the worship of the one true God. 2. “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them” (Ex. 20:5). Some have pressed the prohibition of verse four so .far as to make it wrong even to tolerate pictures of Christ, rep resentations of the tabernacle or any thing of the sort. Such persons even frown upon the use of flannelgraph illustrations in teaching, for, say they, does not the Scripture forbid the mak ing of “any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath” ? Of course, the answer to this objection is that the mere con struction of these articles is not sin ful, but that the making of them for purposes of worship is. Under the direction of Moses himself, who re ceived commandment from God, fig ures of the cherubim and other repre sentations of heavenly things were made and never condemned. 3. “Put away the strange gods . . . and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel” (Josh. 24:23). The twofold character of the godly life is here set forth. Again and again throughout the Scriptures, the nega tive and positive aspects of godliness are stressed. There is a putting off . and a putting on. The garments of sin must be discarded, and the gar ments of righteousness donned. Com pare Col. 3:5-14. Satan and all his co horts must be repudiated and God en throned. For the Children S erving O ur G od E xodus 20:3, 5a; J oshua 24:16, 22, 24; M atthew 4:10b MEMORY VERSE: “The Lord our God will we serve” (Josh. 24:24). When God led the Jewish people from a country where they had been
WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT?
A college professor, be ing ferried across a stream, asked the boatman, "Do you understand philoso. phx? ” “No, never heard of it.” "Then one-quarter of your life is gone. Do you understand geology?” “No.” “Then one-half of your life is gone. Do you un derstand astronomy?” "No.” “Then three-quarters of your life is gone.” Presently the boattipped over and both fell into the water. * “Can you swim?" asked the boatman. “No.” “Then the whole of your life is gone.” We may have culture, education,' even morality, but unless we have been made new creatures by the blood of Jesus, we are but helpless and undone. Wes ley, it is said, preached three hundred times from the words, “Ye must be born again.” When asked why he used it sb often he replied, “ Because ye must be born again!” Log of the Good Ship Grace
in. T he D emand for L oyalty (L uke 14:25-27)
The Lord must be pre-eminent, above the dearest of earth. The “hate not” is an Orientalism, meaning “ love less.” Self-preservation, the first law of nature, gives way to preserva tion of the interests of the Lord, which is the first law of grace. The practice of loyalty consists in taking up the cross and following Christ. The cross is something that could be set aside, but is voluntarily
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