Lesson VI.—February 11
Golden Text: Luke 2:49. The first recorded utterance of the Lord Jesus is found here. "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" How significant are these words. He is where you, might , expect to find Him and doing what you might expect to find Him. doing. - He is in the Father's house attending to the business of His Father. He is looking after His Father's interests; that-is the pur- pose , for which He came into the world. God sent Him here (Jno. 3:16, 17). "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me" (John 6:38-40)., The will of the Father was the business to which Jesus addressed Him- self and these first words become the key to His life. The last words on the cross were, "It is finished" (Jno. 19:30). There is a striking similarity in. the words of the great apostles; At the entrance of his remarkable life h e. says, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6). At the close, among the last recorded words in his letter to Timothy, written just before his martyrdom, ha says, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course" (2 Tim. 4:7. The Lord Jesus is now in the Father's house of glory attending to the Father's in- Golden Text: Matt. 3:2. One word burns- with white heat as it falls from the lips of the fore-runner. One word claims our -close attention—the word repent. Seven times in the New Testament the word is used when it means to be con- cerned with, or not .to be careful, and fifty- five times it is used as here, to signify a change of mind. To repent is to change the mind. The message of John is like the message of Jesus (Mark 1:15), "Repent ye ' and believe the Gospel." So was the mes- sage of the twelve (Mark 6:12), "And they went and preached that men should repent." It was-the same in the opening message of Peter (Acts 2:38), "Repent and be baptized every one of you"; likewise Paul every- where, "that men should repent and turn to God (Acts 26:20). Inasmuch as men are everywhere and always the same the ..mes- sage must everywhere and always be, "Change your mind about God, change your , attitude toward God." Men have wrong opihiOns concerning God. The devil led Eve to believe that God was jealously withholding from her the hidden wisdom which would give her equality with God. Eve believed the devil's lie and from that day to this men have harbored wrong thoughts concerning God. Cain fell heir to his mother's nature a nd concluded that he Golden Text: Heb. 2:28. "He is able," is the message that rings through our souls as we study this lesson of His temptation; Weymouth beautifully translates the golden text in these words, "For inasmuch as He has Himself felt the pain of temptation and trial, He is able in- stantly to help those who are tempted and tried." The story of the life of Jesus is like a kaleidoscope as we view Him in the varied experiences through which He passed. We have scenes of joy a n i sprrow, we see
terests as they concern our complete re- demption. The life of our Lord was a busy business life. . The life of the true believer must cor- respond to that of his Master, the attitude of our hearts must be "Lord,, what wilt thou have me to do?" and then we must say, "This one thing I do." As into the life of our Lord there came the "1 must," (verse 49), "I must wort the works of Him that sent Me" (Jno. 9:4), "The Son of man must suffer many things" (Luke 9:22), "The Son of man must bè delivered" (Luke 24:7), "The Son of man must be lifted up" (Jno. 3:14), even so this word must is inevitable in our lives if we follow Him. The world is saying, what must X do to be saved, and we must go into the world and must lift up the Son of Man (Jno. 12:32). The. imperative obligation upon every Christian is to do „business for the Lord un- til He comes (Luke 19:13). The business assigned to us is simply that we are. to set forth Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah as crucified for the offenses of men, raised for their justifica- tion (Rom. 4:25), and côttiîng in glory to be the judge of the quick and dead, and we are to Warn men of impending doom. knew better than God what kind of sacri- fice should be offered. God's rejection of his offering brought out what was in Cain's heart. Wrong thinking leads to wrong liv- ing, Because men have wrong thoughts concerning God, they reject His Word, they rebel against His laws, they doubt His goodness, they believe the devil's lie con- cerning God, they harden their hearts and go farther and farther into sin. Some men believe God to be a veritable monster, oth- ers think that He is like men—weak, vacil- lating and too good to be just. There are men who profess to believe that there was no need for a Saviour, that Christ was sim- ply a good man, a great teacher. They must all repent fn their mind and their attitude toward God or they will all likewise perish. A right attitude toward God is the gate to heaven. "Except ye repent and become as little children" (Matt. 18:3. There could be no one in heaven who did not believe as God believed, without a rebellion. Men must be in harmony with the mind of God in all things if they are to dwell with Him; they must be able to see all things from God's standpoint; they must be Willing to do His will in all things, all of which can be done only by being born again (Jno. 3:3). Our message must be a well-defined one to men everywhere. "Repent ye." Him with the scepter of a ruler command- ing the waves, giving orders to demons, demanding" of disease , that, it depart and of demons that they' obey • His will; and again we see Him walking with weary steps, tired, hungry, ! thirsty; we see Him rejoic- ing in the marriage festivities and weeping over Jerusalem; we hear Him denouncing the Pharisees and rulers with those awful woes, and again we hear Him saying, "Father forgive, for they know not what they do." He is worshipped b y . t he women
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Lesson VII.—February 18
Lesson VIII.—February 25
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