Christmas/New Years Break

Devotions will resume January 6 with 2 Chronicles 34.

Christmas Eve Service - 5pm - 12/24/13

Welcome and Opening Prayer

“All My Heart This Night Rejoices” (#217)

Luke 2:1-17 (807)

“Away in a Manger” (#204)

Genesis 1:1-5 (1), John 1:1-14 (886)

“O Come, All Ye Faithful” (#208)

Unison Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving

O Source of all good,

What shall we give to You for the Gift of all gifts,

Your own dear Son?

He took our flesh and became the Son of Man,

In order that He should make us become with Him sons of God.

He clothed Himself in our poverty,

In order to transfer to us His riches.

He took upon Himself our weakness.

In order to strengthen us by His power.

He assumed our mortal condition,

In order to give to us immortality.

He descended to earth,

In order to raise us to heaven.

O God, let us hear good tidings of great joy,

And hearing, may we believe, rejoice, praise, and adore.

Forgive us our sins, and receive our worship this night.

In Jesus Name. Amen.

Isaiah 9:1-7 (573), 11:10 (576)

“Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” (#221)

Prayer

“The Lord's My Shining Light”

(Isaiah 60:1-3 p. 619, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee)

“Comfort, Comfort Ye My People” (#197)

Offering for Herb Shipman

Presbytery Evangelist to Farmers in

Northern Vermont

“Silent Night” (#210)

Benediction

And It Shall Come to Pass

And It Shall Come to Pass

Tune: St. Michael, S.M.

Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5, 11:1-10, 35:1-10, 7:10-16

And it shall come to pass.

The mountain of the Lord

Shall be established over all.

O Come, Let us adore!

The righteous Son of God

Became the Lord of all.

The nations shall inquire of Him.

O Come, Let us adore!

The deaf will hear His voice.

The blind shall see their Lord.

The joy of Jesus fills our hearts.

O Come, Let us adore!

As high as heav'n above,

As deep as hell below,

The virgin's Child is God with us.

O Come, Let us adore!

2 Chronicles 33

Hezekiah's son, Manasseh, rejected the good example of his father. He did much evil over his extraordinarily long reign of fifty-five years. The Chronicler recorded a fitting summary of the king's sad record of wickedness: “Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.”

Yet the great surprise in the story of Manasseh is that this pitiful king repented. It took severe discipline from the Lord, but when Manasseh was brought in chains to Babylon, he cried out to the Lord and he was heard. God brought him back to Jerusalem as king.

This evil Manasseh was a changed man. The Chronicler tells us that after God heard his desperate petition, “Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.” He was able to build a high wall for the defense of Jerusalem, and he removed the foreign gods from the city and from the Lord's temple. He restored the altar of the Lord and commanded that the people serve the Lord. Though he was not entirely successful in his efforts to lead the people in the right direction, we need to acknowledge that the king's turnaround was very dramatic.

After Manasseh's death, his son Amon reigned for two years. He also was an evil and idolatrous king, but he never repented of his wicked ways. After Manasseh and Amon, Judah would be given the gift of one of her greatest kings, Amon's son, Josiah. But after Josiah, there would be no other good king in the line of David until the coming of the Messiah.

Manasseh and Amon were both very evil kings. One repented and the other did not. All of the kings in the line of David were sinners until the coming of the Lord. They all needed to repent, but Jesus had no need to acknowledge His own sin. He had no sin. Nonetheless, the sinless Son of David learned obedience through suffering. His obedience has now been credited to all those throughout the world who call upon His Name.

Even very wicked people can find forgiveness through the Name of Jesus. But they do need to repent of their sins and believe in Him.

2 Chronicles 32

Despite the faithfulness of Hezekiah in leading the people in a great work of reformation, God brought a severe test upon Judah during his reign. The king of Assyria came against him with brash words and threats. A great many people in Judah gathered to follow Hezekiah's instructions, but with all their efforts to outsmart the Assyrians and defend Jerusalem they could never have saved the city in their own strength.

Hezekiah's words were powerful, directing the people to trust in the Lord God Almighty who would win the battle for them. Yet how could he stop the Assyrian Empire?

The Assyrian king sent ambassadors to demand the surrender of Jerusalem. They showed disrespect for both Hezekiah and for the Lord. They claimed that the God of Judah was no match for the king of Assyria. This was a fatal mistake.

King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah cried out to the Lord in this time of great need. In a most unlikely turn of events, the enemy forces were decimated by angelic intervention, the Assyrian king returned home in shame, and his own sons put him to death when he was worshiping the idols of his people. The Lord saved the people of Judah, at least for a time.

In his later years King Hezekiah faced further difficulties from bodily illness and because of his own pride. Though the Lord rescued him when he called out again to God, the king made some serious mistakes that marred these final years and set the stage for the troubles that would come to Judah from the Babylonian Empire in future decades.

There was so much good that could be said about Hezekiah, particularly when compared to his father Ahaz. Yet when God tested him toward the end of his life, leaving him to himself in order to know what was in the king's heart, Hezekiah did not shine forth as the greatest of the descendants of David.

Hezekiah's reign was a very refreshing interlude between Ahaz and Manasseh, but he was not the Messiah. When the best Son of David would come, when His Father left Him to Himself on the cross, the whole world would soon see the fulfillment of perfect godliness through His greatest achievement of holy love. If we were able to search the heart of Jesus thoroughly, we would find that He was completely without sin.

2 Chronicles 31

The worship of the Lord is supposed to be an exercise of the complete surrender of the will of God's people to the God of the universe. The Lord knows the heart. He made us and sustains us every moment of our lives. He knows the consecration of our souls as we bring ourselves before Him with all of our shortcomings.

We are weak, but the Lord is strong. When His people commit their ways to Him and trust in Him, He will act. From the simplicity of our honest worship, the Lord's strength goes forth through His people. In the days of Hezekiah they celebrated an irregular Passover to the Lord, but their hearts were consecrated to Him. From that time of worship, changes went forward throughout Israel and Judah.

Idols were destroyed. The priesthood was reestablished. Levites, the Lord's appointed worship servants, returned again to the duties that were known by their clans in the days of David and Solomon. The king and the people gave of their substance again for the work of the Lord and for the care of the weak. The Lord gave them prosperity. They sought Him first above all, and He gave them many good gifts.

All of the obedience of the people and all of the blessing from the Lord described in this chapter burst forth from the celebration of an irregular Passover that the Lord permitted them to have in the second month of the year rather than in the first month as the Law plainly required. It all began with one consecrated king that God used to send out a good word throughout Israel and Judah.

We have a great King over the household of God today. He calls us to remember the priority of divine worship. He has inspired the Scriptures for us so that we will know the way to go. He is ready to receive us despite our many problems and failings. Imagine the power that might be unleashed for good upon the earth if the people who have been baptized in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, would return to the Lord Jesus again in worship. How many that are currently in the grip of intractable difficulties might soon experience the freedom of the sons of God?

And It Shall Come to Pass - Verse 3

And It Shall Come to Pass

Tune: St. Michael, S.M.

Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5, 11:1-10, 35:1-10, 7:10-16

Verse 3 of 4

The deaf will hear His voice.

The blind shall see their Lord.

The joy of Jesus fills our hearts.

O Come, Let us adore!

2 Chronicles 30

The Lord gave a Law to Israel and Judah that they were obliged to obey. Included in that Law were regulations for worship. The celebration of the Passover was prominent among the rules that comprised the worship system that the Lord established for His people.

Passover was to be celebrated on the first month of the year as God had instructed Moses in Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23. The timing was not incidental. It was based on the Exodus from Egypt and was the time of year so many years later when Jesus, our Passover Lamb, died.

In the eighth century before the coming of the Messiah, King Hezekiah of Judah was leading his people in a great work of reformation and revival. The Passover had not been celebrated with regularity in Judah for many years. Yet the timing of the efforts of the king did not work out well for a return to the proper worship system that the Lord had ordained. The priests and the Levites could not be ready by the first month. What would the king do? More importantly, what would God, who is very serious about His Law, require of the king and the people? Amazingly, the Lord blessed His people, not based on the perfection of their outward observance, but in accord with the true desire of their hearts to serve the Lord after so many years of national apostasy.

The faithful celebrated this important festival in the second month rather than in the first. This was a decision made by an assembly of the leaders in Jerusalem, and the Lord blessed that decision. All of Israel and Judah were invited to the belated Passover. Further accommodations were made for those who were still ceremonially unclean. The feast was such a blessing that they determined to extend it for a second week.

Hezekiah's written invitation to the people had been frank and heartfelt. The king acknowledged the guilt of those who had gone before them. He spoke openly about the Lord's judgment that had come against them all, and urged everyone to repent and come back to the Lord. “Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to His sanctuary, which He has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God, that His fierce anger may turn away from you.”

The people responded to this declaration by gathering in Jerusalem for worship and the Lord blessed their obedience. God will not be mocked by pretend worship. He is very strict, but He is also very gracious and merciful. He knows our weakness, and He has made generous provision for us if we will only seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Will we have the courage that Israel and Judah had in the days of Hezekiah? Will we admit our fault, heed the call of our great King Jesus, and return to the Lord? If we will, He will not cast us away because we do not quite measure up. We will find the joy of the Lord again, and we will worship Him forever and ever.

2 Chronicles 29

After the reign of Ahaz, who brought such trouble upon Judah, it was a great joy to learn that Ahaz's son, Hezekiah, did not continue in the evil ways of his father. Hezekiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord. The Chronicler draws our attention back to good king David as the model of what a king should be. Hezekiah led the people of God in the way that David would have if he had still been alive.

Returning to the true worship of the Lord was his greatest priority. This required much work. All of the idolatry of Ahaz had to be removed from the temple area, and the temple needed to be cleansed and repaired. The temple workers, the Levites, had to be gathered and consecrated for this important task.

Hezekiah understood that serious negligence of the true worship of the Lord had led to much trouble for Judah. His aim was to set things right again. He could not do this alone. He needed the support of many other hands in order to achieve his godly goals.

The names of the Levites who led this great work at the direction of the king were recorded in this account. In only sixteen days they restored the house of God, undoing so much of the damage that had been done by Ahaz. They reported to the king that the temple, the altar of sacrifice, and all of the holy utensils were once again ready for the priests to use in accord with the Word of God.

Hezekiah led the people in doing what was required. He gathered both the leading officials and all the people. They offered up to God a sin offering “for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah.” This was for all the evil that had been done in the days of Ahaz, not only in Judah, but also “to make atonement for all Israel.”

Hezekiah also restored the musical worship practices that had come to Israel and Judah in the time of David, knowing that this expansion of worship under David “was from the Lord through His prophets.” The burnt offering was consumed before the Lord in the fire on His altar, and all the people of God worshiped the Lord with rejoicing, bowing before the Lord God Almighty.

Then, according to the summons of the king, all the people renewed covenant with God, bringing sacrifices and thank offerings to the Lord with a willing heart. So many people were desirous of worshiping the Lord according to His commandments that the work of attending to the offerings of the nation overwhelmed the number of priests who were prepared to serve.

The worship of God was restored in Jerusalem. All of this had taken place very suddenly at the beginning of Hezekiah's reign. If Hezekiah was able to lead the people in this dramatic turn of events, how can we have any doubt that Jesus, our eternal King in the line of David, is very able to bring about far greater changes in our time and place?

The church is always in need of recovering true worship and obedience in accord with the Word of Christ. We always need to remember the teaching of the one Sacrifice appointed for sin. It is always our privilege to serve Him with thankful hearts. But will we do it? We will only live for God and joyfully suffer for His Name if the Lord Jesus speaks in the midst of His people and leads us in a life of honest consecration. Our sinless King bids us to put away all the filth of former days and to follow the Word of the Lord, dedicating our lives to Him with sincerity of Christian hope. How can we do less than this for the One who died for us?

2 Chronicles 28

In the last few chapters in Second Chronicles we followed the accounts of three kings who “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,” but who had significant issues of evil and neglect that were recorded by the Chronicler. The remaining kings in the line of David prior to the exile of Judah and the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem were Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, and at the very end, the sons and grandson of Josiah. These men were among the worst and the best in the line of David.

Ahaz was definitely one of the worst. He led Judah in idolatry, making images of false gods and sacrificing his own sons as offerings to the demonic deities of other nations. His leadership in false worship was so pervasive that the Chronicler recorded that he “sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.”

Ahaz's faithlessness and disobedience brought great disaster on the people of Judah. During his days some of the leading men even from the more wicked land of Israel to the north proved to be more righteous than the king of Judah. These men of Ephraim responded to the prophetic Word of God. But Ahaz did not learn from his failures or from the Lord's discipline.

The king of Judah looked to the Assyrian Empire and to the gods of other nations for help. He also dismantled some of the holy objects of the Lord's appointed worship in Jerusalem and “shut up the doors of the house of the Lord.” These acts of brazen rebellion brought nothing but more trouble upon the nation.

Ahaz was the son of a good king, Jotham, and Ahaz's own son, Hezekiah, was a great king. But Ahaz himself did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. During these final centuries prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians we are made keenly aware of the limitations of a system of passing on royal duties from father to son upon the death of the king.

An obedient Old Testament king might do much good, but who would take his place when he was gone? Today the people of God have an eternal King in the line of David. Not only is Jesus perfect in all that He does, He will be our King forever and ever. His death on the cross was not the end of His reign, but the beginning of it. We who were once far from God have been drawn near to the Lord through the blood of Jesus. We have been gathered into the family of God, and our destiny is to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Enough Hide and Seek

December 8, 2013 Evening:

Steve Preaching

Title: A Sharp Sword and a Savior Who Knows the Truth

Old Testament Passage: Psalm 53 – God sees and knows

Gospel Passage: Mark 14:66-72 – Peter denies Jesus

Sermon Text: Hebrews 4:12 – We do not experience God's rest by being clever, cynical, or arrogant. Jesus and the Word will find us out.

Sermon Point: There is no point in hiding from Jesus and the Word. May His grace find us and keep us.

[12] For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

You cannot hide from God. His Word is alive, and He will find you out through that good Word.

The Bible is the Word of God. Jesus is the Word made flesh. There is unity between the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is living in us. The Holy Spirit is in us.

It will not be helpful to separate Jesus from the Spirit from the Bible too carefully. There is a great work from God going on inside you as the Word is preached and received. It is a living work from a living God. It is an active work that insists that we not view the Christian life as passive. It is a very sharp and holy work, insisting that God is right even if everyone else thinks that He is wrong. It is a discerning work, making distinctions that are beyond our human capacity to fully comprehend. Can we separate the soul and the spirit? But God can, and His Word will do the work to find the problem and bring healing to the willing child of God.

The Lord cares for us. He disciplines those He loves. He is not a mean Father. But He is a Father. We should be mature children that are ready to respond to the discipline of His Word. He is a surgeon that sees a growth that would harm the body in the depths of the bones of His precious disciple. He will put in the knife and cut out the offending cells. Do we dare object to that life-saving procedure?

No, we agree to the surgery. We also go back for our follow-up appointments to minimize the disfiguring and disability that would come to us by being spiritually lazy.

No act on our part can change the facts as God sees them. We may have learned how to be clever, or even have become used to a pose that could rightly be called cynical or arrogant. But we are not smarter than God. And we do not love as well as God loves.

Our Father is wise. He deserves the respect that should be given to the Uncaused Cause who came to die for us. His Word is a perfect extension of Himself, and that Word has come to us in the depths of our unseen person, that entity that lives beyond the grave. His grace will find us even there. Let us not be too clever in staying in some hiding place imagining the disciplining grace of the Word of God to be something to be rejected.

And It Shall Come to Pass - Verse 2

And It Shall Come to Pass

Tune: St. Michael, S.M.

Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5, 11:1-10, 35:1-10, 7:10-16

Verse 2 of 4

The righteous Son of God

Became the Lord of all.

The nations shall inquire of Him.

O Come, Let us adore!

2 Chronicles 27

Jotham's father, Uzziah, was exemplary for his long reign, his varied achievements, and an outbreak of foolish pride that led to leprosy. After he became leprous, his son Jotham ruled over Judah with him. Perhaps because of his contact with his father, Jotham “did not enter the temple of the Lord.” Even with such a significant shortcoming, Jotham is remembered as a king who “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.”

Despite a favorable divine assessment of the man who sat on David's throne, the Chronicler informs us that “the people still followed corrupt practices.” In a difficult era, Jotham managed to find much blessing from the Lord for Judah. He was successfully engaged in great building projects and received substantial tribute from a neighboring nation. We should not miss this important point: “Jotham became mighty because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.”

The exiles that were returning from Babylon needed to learn from these accounts of the kings from former days. Did they want the Lord's blessing as they were coming back into the land? Then they needed to structure their lives according to the Word of God.

Disciplined habits of life are important for success in any goal. We are seeking to serve the King of kings who died and rose again to establish a new world. We have been given a purpose in life that fits into His overarching divine plan. We need to live out our days with decency and discipline.

But there is more to the account of Jotham than good habits of life. Jotham ordered his ways “before the Lord his God.” Jotham's system began with the One who was first: the Almighty King, the Lord God. Keeping God first is a necessary and primary step in a godly pattern for a settled life of obedient devotion. It was an especially difficult priority for a man who did not participate in temple worship. Even though Jotham did not come together with the covenant people on Mount Zion, he lived his life before the face of Almighty God.

There were times when Jesus went off by Himself to pray. Why did He do this? Can there be any doubt that He was daily ordering His life before the Lord His God? How can we follow Him without pursuing that same pattern of divine priority? Right living in the Kingdom of Jesus includes this important directive: “Pray without ceasing.” God must always be first in our lives. We cannot build His kingdom without the practice of prayer.

2 Chronicles 26

Some kings in the history of Judah reigned for only a brief time. We have considered in an earlier chapter the account of Ahaziah who was king in Jerusalem for only one year. Ahaziah was followed by Joash who was followed by Amaziah. The next king, the great-grandson of Ahaziah, Uzziah, served as king for fifty-two years in Jerusalem. He followed in the ways of the Lord, despite a disappointing moment toward the end of his time in power. We are told that “as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.”

Once again we see the familiar pattern that the Lord brought much success to the king in international relations and domestic projects when Uzziah was faithfully following the Lord. His strength came from God. But when he became strong, he also became proud, and his pride was his downfall.

This great king who had accomplished so much over so many years was no longer content to be limited to the duties that came with his exalted office. He insisted that he be able to burn incense to the Lord, which only the Levitical priests were allowed to do. But when the priests withstood him and he resisted them, the Lord gave him leprosy. He lived as a ceremonially unclean leper until the day of his death.

Uzziah's son, Jotham, shared the kingship with his father during these years of leprosy. Uzziah's pride led to his demise, though he was still counted as a good king of Judah.

We now have a new King of the Jews who did not come in pride. Jesus had the power to cleanse lepers. He has freed us from the leprosy of our own pride and sin. We are His sons, and we shall reign with Him throughout all ages.

Our Lord was opposed by the priests and the teachers of the Law in His day, not because of any pride in Himself, but because of their envy. They claimed to be able to judge Him as a blasphemer, but they ignored the plain fact that He was bringing a new age of eternal life to the world through His teaching and His miracles. He has created a new holy temple of those who have been cleansed through the power of His blood. He alone is the Lord.

2 Chronicles 25

After the murder of Joash, the king's son Amaziah reigned in his place. He punished the servants of his father who had murdered Joash and he sought to execute justice in accord with the Word of God.

Yet he too did not follow the Lord with a whole heart. When the Lord corrected him through a prophet, he only reluctantly listened. Then after the Lord gave him victory over the Edomites, Amaziah brought the gods of Edom backed to Jerusalem and began to worship and serve these idols! When the Lord sent a prophet to confront the king, he threatened to kill him.

The Lord sent him trouble from Israel to the north. Amaziah had provoked the king of Israel in pride. The northern king sent a word of warning back to Amaziah, but he would not listen. The Chronicler tells us why these events took place: “Amaziah would not listen, for it was of God, in order that he might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought the gods of Edom.”

Judah and the city of Jerusalem suffered great loss as a result of Amaziah's disobedience and idolatry. When he turned away from the Lord a conspiracy began against him that eventually led to his death several years later.

When the true Messiah King in the line of David appeared on the scene to accomplish His holy mission, He needed to listen to the instruction of God from beginning to end. He never could have saved us if He had rejected the Lord's Word. Amaziah was more dedicated to the idols of Edom than to following the voice of the God of Judah. Jesus was faithful to His Father from beginning to end, even when the fulfillment of His ministry required the obedience of His death on the cross.

Worth Every Effort--The Rest of God

December 1, 2013 Evening:

Title: Striving Toward Rest

Old Testament Passage: Psalm 51:7-12 – Renew a right Spirit within me

Gospel Passage: Mark 14:53-65 – Jesus Before the Council

Sermon Text: Hebrews 4:11 – The path of unbelief and disobedience could be easily followed. To avoid it one must have the grace that results in striving to enter God's rest

Sermon Point: Trust and Obey

[11] Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

Many have fallen because of the disobedience of unbelief.

Because of the disobedience of unbelief in the Word of God, Adam and Eve were not able to enter the rest of the seventh day of creation. They were cast out of the garden.

Because of the disobedience of unbelief an entire generation of Jewish pilgrims died in the wilderness after being delivered out of Egypt by the mighty hand of God. They were not able to enter the rest of Canaan. Their children would be led into the land by Joshua. Even Moses was not able to go into the land.

Because of the disobedience of unbelief many have walked away from the New Testament church, preferring the autonomy of self-rule to the love of the cross. They will not submit themselves to the Lord who bids all the earth to come and worship.

We are called to do all within our power to avoid the disaster of the disobedience of unbelief. We are to strive to stay in the rest of Jesus—the holy mountain of the house of the Lord. We are to stretch toward the final temple of the Lord. We are to trust and obey.

What are we trusting?

We are trusting that Jesus is the way, and that His rest is most desirable.

What are we obeying?

We are obeying His Word—all things whatsoever that He has commanded us.

What is our confidence?

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ generously displayed every week to us by the Lord of the church when we gather together to call upon His Name.