Hernando Presbyterian Church (ARP)
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Map Directions
  • Bulletin Information
  • Sermons Audio
  • Sun.School Audio
  • Sun.Night Audio
  • Special Music Audio
  • Pilgrim's Progess Audio
  • Devotionals and Essays
    • ARP Evangelism Devotionals
    • Devotionals Daily
    • Don Yancey
    • George and Sally Lauderdale
    • Miles Mckee
  • Minister's Musings
    • Devotional
    • Papers
  • Hymn Poetry
    • Poetry 1
    • Poetry 2
    • Poetry 3
    • Poetry 4
  • Christian Quotes
    • Faith and Gospel
    • Forgiveness and Love and Service
    • Living in the Atomic Age (1948)
    • Miscellaneous
    • Prayer and Praise
    • The Bible and The Lord Jesus Christ
  • Howard King Writings
    • The Gospel of Grace
    • Biblical Agrarianism
    • Devotional Writings
    • Days of Noah- Audio Lesson
    • History/Theology >
      • Audio- Margaret of Navarre
    • Satire
    • Social Issues
    • The Kingdom of God: 3 Lesson Series
    • What's Wrong with Dispensationalim? --- Audio
  • Land of Links
  • Galleries
  • What is an ARP?
  • Salvation and the Gospel
  • Hernando and Vicinity Pics
    • Arkabutla Lake
    • Cedar Hill Farm
    • Chucalissa
    • Hernando and Desoto County
    • Memphis Zoo
    • Northern Mississippi Venues
    • Tunica Riverpark
    • Western Tennessee Venues

The Jerusalem Lament

7/21/2016

0 Comments

 
“Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that kills the prophets and stones them which are sent unto you, how often have I desired to gather your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not …….” Matthew 23:37
 
Before He spoke these words, Jesus had made a scathing, verbal assault on the hypocritical Pharisees. To the unenlightened, Christ’s words seem rude, sarcastic and belligerent. According to Him, these religious leaders were a cluster of hypocrites, snakes and murderers.  One might be excused for thinking that Jesus had overstepped the mark by adopting such an unfitting, hostile attitude.  How unbecoming for a man of God!  But then, the sobering thought comes to us that this was no mere man speaking, this was God in full articulate flow.  And these cutting indictments are exactly what God thinks of a veneered religion that conceals a wicked heart. So much for ‘Gentle Jesus meek and mild’!  However, we should not be surprised by His tone, for in using this manner of speech, He is once more demonstrating His eternal Deity. We read of the Almighty in Psalms 2 that;
“He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.” 
When God laughs, it’s not funny!

However, Christ then turns from his polemic with the Pharisees and mourns over Jerusalem saying these remarkable words,
 
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not” (Matthew 23:37).

The key word in this verse is “gathered” (episunago). In essence, Jesus is again referencing His eternal Godhead. It is the nature of God to gather and to cover.  Indeed, Jesus, in this passage, is claiming to be the God of Psalm 91:4 where it is said of Him that, “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”

If Christ was merely a man, this kind of language, once more, represents him as a religious nutcase.  When He says, ‘How often,’ it implies that He had an age-long desire to gather the city to Himself. If He had His beginning, in Bethlehem, this would have been a ludicrous statement. Furthermore, can you imagine any mere carpenter who doubled as a country preacher presenting himself as the place of safety for an entire city? How absurd!
But, it was God Himself who in His unchanging love for Jerusalem had sent them prophets time and time again.  Jesus, therefore, is speaking as the eternal Deity. Once more I defer to the wisdom of Mr. Spurgeon,
 
“Some, who have found difficulties in this lament, have said that it was the language of Christ as man. I beg to put in a very decided negative to that; it is, and it must be, the utterance of the Son of man, the Son of God, the Christ in his complex person as human and divine. I am not going into any of the difficulties just now; but you could not fully understand this passage, from any point of view, unless you believed it to be the language of one who was both God and man.”
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit “I Would, But You Would Not” Sermon No. 2381
 
And that’s the Gospel Truth!

0 Comments

Seeing the Father

7/15/2016

0 Comments

 
“In Christ the invisible God has become visible. Whoever sees Him sees the Father (John 14:9). Whoever wants to know who God is and what He is must behold the Christ. As Christ is, such is the Father.” 
Herman Bavinck: The Divine and Human Natures of Christ

Have you ever tried witnessing to a person who hates the doctrine of Christ’s deity?  They smugly say, “Well, of course, Jesus never claimed to be God, he merely claimed to be the Son of God! Oh really? The next time this happens, take them to the Scripture and show them this, “Philip said unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.  Jesus said unto him, “Have I been so long a time with you, and yet you have not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the Father; and why do you say then, Show us the Father? John 14:8-9.

It doesn’t get any simpler than this! Philip had had enough of these references to the Father and asked Jesus plainly to, “Show us the Father.” Christ’s response is astonishing. He says, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me has seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? 

Was Jesus mistaken about His own identity? Was He simply a good man with a God -consciousness? Or was He merely a man possessed by God? Call it whatever way you will, if Jesus is wrong about being the God/Man, He’s a fruitcake!  Listen to what He boldly declares, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.”  In other words, He’s saying, “Philip I’m the visible image of the invisible God. Philip, you don’t have to guess anymore about what God is like, I am God in human form.” 

This is stout stuff! Jesus most clearly and without ambivalence claimed to be God. John writes at the beginning of his gospel;  “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John: 1:18).

 The word translated ‘declared’ is of utmost interest. It is the Greek word ‘exegeomai’ from which we get the English words exegete and exegesis.  When a preacher exegetes a passage of scripture, he brings out all that is contained in the verses.  He declares what is there.  He dares not read into the passage things that are not there otherwise he would be practicing eisegesis and not exegesis.  Christ, according to John 1:18, is the exegesis of God. He has fully declared him.  Is it any wonder then that He can say to Philip “If you have seen me you have seen the Father?”  Horatius Bonar astutely remarks;

“Christ’s person is a revelation of God.  Christ’s work is a revelation of God.  He is in the Father and the Father is in Him.  His words and works are the words and works of the Father.  In the manger, He showed us God.  In the synagogue of Nazareth, He showed us God.  At Jacob’s well, He showed us God.  At the tomb of Lazarus, He showed us God.  On Olivet, as He wept over Jerusalem, He showed us God.  On the cross, He showed us God.  In His resurrection He showed us God.  If we say with Philip “Show us the Father and it is sufficient for us,” He answers, “Have I been so long a time with you and yet hast thou not known me? He that has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:8-9).  This God, whom Christ reveals as the God of righteous grace and gracious righteousness, is the God with whom we have to do.” 
Horatius Bonar: God’s Way of Peace: Chapter 3

Do we understand the incarnation (God becoming man)? I for one do not.  It is a mystery (1 Timothy 3:16).  I can’t explain it, but I can declare it.  God came here Himself, became one of us and yet remained fully God.  Then as one of us, as a real and genuine human, He surrendered Himself to the ignominious death of the cross.  No wonder the hymn writer declares, “Hallelujah, what a Saviour!”

And that’s the Gospel Truth!

0 Comments

Eternal Life

7/8/2016

0 Comments

 
There are those who say that Jesus was an enlightened teacher, but not God.  Well, of course, He was a brilliant teacher. Just think of His influence compared to that of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.  They taught for a total of 130 years, but Jesus taught for only 3. Yet those 3 years turned the world upside down and impacted more people than did Plato and the boys put together. 
 
But, Jesus was more than an excellent teacher; He was God manifest in the flesh.  This means that He was the greatest teacher ever. And, in addition to teaching, He did things worthy of Deity.  For example, He gave the gift of eternal life. Which of the other praiseworthy teachers of the past gave the gift of eternal life?  Not Plato, not Socrates, not Aristotle---none of them.
 
And while we are considering this, let’s ask, just who exactly is qualified to give eternal life? Even someone who has not read the Bible knows the answer to that one.  The only one who can give eternal life is someone who has it to give.  I can neither give eternal life to you nor can you give it to me….we are somewhat deficient in the eternal life department.  But God is the possessor of eternal life, and if ever we are to be given it, we must be given it by God. That’s why we are informed in Romans 6:23 that, whereas the wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life.  No one else but God can give eternal life.  Moses for all his thundering could not give it, Isaiah for all his holy living couldn’t give it, Jeremiah in spite of his immense compassion couldn’t give it, none of the Prophets, Priests or Kings of Israel could give it, for it wasn’t theirs to give.


Then along came Jesus.  This man refused to be put into the category of merely a good teacher. One day, as He sat talking to His disciples about sheep and shepherding, he fixed His gaze on them and announced,
 
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” John 10:27-28.

Did you hear that? “I give unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish!” So what’s He saying here … He’s saying, “I’m God.”A man who is merely a good teacher, in spite of other abilities, cannot give eternal life to anyone. Only God can give eternal life, for the gift of God is eternal life-----so if Jesus is telling the truth, then He is God.  I like what John Gill has to say on this subject,
 
“Christ gives eternal life to his sheep ---- he gives them himself, who is the true God and eternal life, and whoever has him has life; he gives them the knowledge of himself, which is life eternal; and he gives them his righteousness, which is their justification of life, or what entitles them to eternal life;  --- this is a pure gift, it is of grace, and not of works; and it is in the gift of Christ as Mediator, who has power to give it to as many as the Father has given him.”         ----John Gill: Exposition of the Bible.
 
When Jesus claimed the ability to give eternal life to His sheep, He was declaring his infinite Deity.  He was putting Himself on an equal footing with God!  And this was a legitimate exercise on which to embark since He was the eternal God walking around in human form.   However, if Christ were not the eternal God manifest in the flesh we, once more, must denounce Him as a madman or an evil worker.  If He’s not God, He’s a fraud!  Making those outlandish claims, yet having no power to back them up, qualifies him as one of the greatest kooks of all time!  But if He is God, trust Him with your soul, follow Him and worship Him.
 
"Come All Harmonious Tongues
Your noblest music bring;
"Tis Christ the everlasting God,
And Christ the man we sing."
 
And that’s the Gospel Truth!

0 Comments

    Miles McKee

    Minister of the Gospel. From County Wexford, Ireland. Currently residing in Spain.

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2020
    February 2020
    September 2019
    January 2018
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed