Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
Serving the Lord is the happiest business on earth. It brings to us great satisfaction because there is an eternal merit to this service. Jesus says to His servants in Matthew 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Lord Crucified
Lord crucified,
Give me a heart like Thine:
Teach me to love the dying souls around.
Lord, keep me heart in closest touch with Thee;
And give me love – pure Calvary love –
To bring the lost to Thee.
The old saying goes, “The business of the Lord requires haste.” The word “business” means “haste, diligence, earnestness”. In the parable of the talents, Jesus cited the one talent man who buried his talent for admonition in Matthew 25:26-27 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: 27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
A paraphrase of Romans 12:10b “in honour preferring one another” is Philippians 2:3-4 “3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. 4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”
This is the mind of Christ that the Apostle Paul tells us believers ought to have in their conduct. Our Lord Jesus Christ sets us the example in humble service and sacrifice. Philippians 2:1-2 “1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, 2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” This is the Holy Spirit’s fruit in believers’ life. It is a testimony of true spiritual life.
(1) Rock of Ages
– In the Fury of a Storm
Augustus Toplady, born in 1740, was converted in a barn in an Irish village at age sixteen after listening to a sermon. He became a minister and editor of The Gospel Magazine.
Toplady was in a field in England in 1776 when suddenly a violent storm broke out. He was far from town and shelter, but saw a large rock and hurried to it to find some relief from the brunt of the storm’s fury. In the rock, he found a crack into which he could fit. He entered it and was sheltered.
While waiting out the storm, Toplady reflected how Christ who is called our Rock of Salvation, was broken that we might find in him shelter from the coming judgment. On a card he found at his feet, he wrote the poem that began with the words, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.”
Believers are exhorted by the Apostle Paul to have brotherly love one for another. Be devoted to care one to another because we belong to the household of God. The early church showed such kind affections, brotherly kindness, one for another. Hodge says well, “No doubt, the idea is, Christians should love each other with the same sincerity and tenderness as if they were the nearest relatives.”
Members of the early church showed such brotherly affections:
Acts 2:44-46 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; 45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. 46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
The word “cleave” literally means “glue together”. It speaks of a life given to doing good.
It begins with a transformed mind through the meditation of God’s Word as the psalmist says in Psalm 1:2 “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”
Here in Psalm 1:2 is put forward a real condition, if the condition is fulfilled, then the results will surely follow. The literal translation from the Hebrew “For if in the law of the LORD is his delight or pleasure” then the result in Psalm 1:3 will come to pass, it a promise from God. If we delight in the law of the Lord and meditate upon it consistently and continually, the result is fruitfulness and prosperity of the soul, this is the promise given in verse 3 – “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
The psalmist in psalm 1:1 pronounced the man who abhors that which is evil as a blessed man. He says “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” (Psalm 1:1)
The first are ungodly, as to their mind, the second are sinners, who not only think, but carry out the workings of their evil mind. The third are scorners glorying in their wickedness and scoffing at righteousness. The first continue in that mind of taking evil counsel, the second carry it out, as the principle of their walk and the third settle down in their evil, as on a seat.
The book of Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon in the evening years of his life as a personal testimony to all posterity to teach the futility of worldly ambitions and desires in life apart from God. The only way to find true satisfaction and meaning in life is through a relationship with the living God. He says at the conclusion of his life “l was hurt and I am sharing with you, my journey of grief seeking the things of this world.”
The Apostle Paul speaks now of inter-personal relations among believers and with non-Christians that it is to be characterised by sincere love one for another. “Without dissimulation” means sincerely, genuinely, without hypocrisy. It must not be affected, pretentious like a stage actor wearing a mask. The Christian is to do good and hate evil.