”When they had sung a hymn…”
- Matthew 26:30

‘No man ever spoke like this Man,’ and possibly the same might be true of Christ’s singing, ‘never man sang like this man.’ Did angels listen then as did the prisoners to the singing of Paul and Silas at Philippi?

Christ sang, and the disciples joined. They were, most of them, fishermen, and fishermen are remarkable for their hearty singing. O to have heard the discourses! O to have heard that prayer (John 17)! And O to have heard that hymn! The singing would be heard outside, and perhaps the young man (Mark 14:51) who followed them to the Garden of Gethsemane may have crept near to listen. Would not you?

Christ’s singing showed the reality of His humanity. Aristotle said of his god Jupiter, that no one ever heard of his singing; it would be beneath him. But Jesus sang, and showed He was truly one of us.

We like a hymn — especially in affliction (Acts 16:25; Ps. 42:8; Job 35:10). Martyrs have sung going to the stake, and there is a tradition that the three youths in the fiery furnace sang aloud. A hymn is more unselfish than a prayer; it expresses gratitude and love. Hence, heaven is peculiarly the place of song, for all is unselfish there.

Christ is on the eve of the most terrible conflict ever witnessed — tonight and tomorrow the Garden and the Cross! He summons to His help every aid. His eye is on the Father’s glory. He bathes Himself in it and is refreshed for conflict.

What did He sing? All writers agree that it was Psalm 118. For two thousand years the Jews have concluded the Passover by singing this Psalm. If you glance over it you will see how appropriate it is, and it came in course at the Passover. What shall we sing? The Lord will tell you as occasion calls for. As it is written, ‘His song shall be with me,’ as well as ‘My prayer’ (Ps. 42:8).

When did He sing? After the solemn Passover service and the Supper, and just before the scenes of the Garden, with Calvary in view. We are not told in the Gospels of Christ singing until now — perhaps because His doing so in these circumstances was so peculiar and so fitted to instruct us. His last note was a cheerful note, though He knew what was in the future. Much more should ours be so.

Let us try unselfishly, like Jesus, to keep our friends from sorrow as long as we can. In the face of difficulties, sing to the Lord. If you have a dread of what is coming, sing, instead of brooding over it. If you are like the Master — singing before He went to the Garden — you will be enabled to go fearlessly forward.

When will He sing again? When all sorrow and conflict are over (Ps. 22:23, 69:30, 118:21). It will be the day of the Song of Moses and the Lamb. When He comes again Christ will lead that great multitude of the redeemed whom no man can number, in the song of praise. He will sing over completed redemption at the sea of glass, as did Moses at the Red Sea.

After they had sung this hymn they seem all to have been so elated, in such spirits, so full of joy, that the Master had to put in a word of warning. ‘All of you shall be offended because of Me this night.’ But, so like the Master, He added, ‘But I will not forsake you. I will go before you into Galilee.’ But the silly sheep who were to be scattered did not believe Him.

Do not blame Peter too much, for they all joined in saying, ‘Though I should die with You,’ etc. Christ did not contradict them. He knew the corruption of their heart; He knew what would happen. When they said this they were full of feeling. Let us not lay too much stress on feeling and emotion when we come to the Lord’s Table. Put stress upon this: That the Shepherd’s heart will never change toward you. ‘Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.’

- Andrew Bonar

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Thank you to everyone who visited Bible Study Planet in June. God bless you all!

Here are June’s Top 10 Most Popular Studies and Features…

Most Popular Bible Studies
1) Are All Sins Equal?
2) Four Ways To Enjoy This Day
3) A Tender Heart
4) The Royal Gospel Of Matthew
5) The Power Of Our Words
6) If You Think God Cannot Love You
7) Run Over By Shadows
8) Eight Ways God Sees Us
9) He Gathers The Lambs
10) My King, Do You Know Him?

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10) Words Of Hope

“I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.” - Revelation 2:17

 
In ancient times they used to decide cases by white and black stones. The judges did not give their verdict upon the prisoner by oral testimony, “guilty,” or “not guilty,” as in our country, but by dropping into an urn a white stone to express their opinion that the prisoner was innocent, or a black stone to declare their judgment that the prisoner was guilty.
 
The Lord has made use of this figure. He says, “To him who overcomes I will give a white stone;” that is, I will give into his conscience a sentence of acquittal. As the white stone was dropped into the urn, so peace and pardon are dropped into the sinner’s bosom; and just as the judge, when he deposited the white stone in the urn, declared thereby the prisoner’s innocence.

So when the Lord is pleased to speak peace to the soul, he drops into the heart a white stone, to proclaim him discharged from the law’s accusations, and interested in his love and blood.
 
“And on the stone a new name written.” What is this new name? Is it not a new heart, a new nature–Christ in the soul the hope of glory? This is the “new name which no man knows except he that receives it.” New thoughts of Jesus, new openings up of Scripture, new meltings of heart, new softenings of spirit, everything made new by him who renews us “in the renewing of our mind”–no man knows these things but he who receives them.
 
It is all between the Lord and the soul, it is all between a pardoning God and a pardoned sinner; it is all mercy, all grace, all love, from first to last. Grace began, grace carries on, and grace finishes it; grace must have all the glory, and grace must crown the work with eternal victory.
 
- J. C. Philpot

“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. . . .Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” -Hebrews 10:22-23

The Scriptures teach that we can know with absolute certainty that we have the life of God within us (1 John 4:13). This confidence is not based on inner feelings or outward signs. Rather, this “blessed assurance” is founded upon the promises of a faithful God and this inspired Word. It depends not on the amount of our faith but on the object of our faith–Christ Himself!

Though she become blind at six weeks of age through improper medical treatment, Fanny Crosby wrote more than eight thousand gospel song texts in her lifetime of ninety-five years. Her many favorites such as “Blessed Assurance” have been an important part of evangelical worship for the past century.

Often the themes for Fanny Crosby’’s texts were suggested by visiting ministers who wished to have a new song on a particular subject. As she once said, “Our home is a beehive of activity with so many friends dropping in and requesting a new hymn for some special occasion.”

At other times musician friends would first compose the music and then ask Fanny for matching words. Such was the prompting for the hymn “Blessed Assurance.” One day Mrs. Joseph (Phoebe) Knapp, who was an amateur musician, the daughter of a noted Methodist evangelist, and a close personal friend, visited Fanny in her New York home.

“Oh Fanny, I have had a new melody racing through my mind for some time now, and I just can”t think of anything else. Let me play it for you and perhaps you can help me with the words.”

After kneeling in prayer and clutching her little Bible, the blind poetess stood to her feet with face aglow: “Why, that music says, ”Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine. . . .””

Soon the words began to flow from her heart, and there was born another of the more than eight thousand gospel hymns by this godly woman, the “queen of gospel music.” And still today our hearts are inspired and our spirits lifted as we sing this musical testimony together.

Only eternity will reveal fully the host of individuals whose lives have been spiritually changed and enriched through the texts of Fanny Jane Crosby’’s many hymns.

“Beware of despairing about yourself. You are commanded to put your trust in God and not yourself.” -Augustine (354-430)

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You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. - Micah 7:19

As soon as a person believes in Christ Jesus, their sins are gone from them, and gone away for ever.

They are blotted out now. What if a man owes a hundred dollars? If he has a receipt for it, he is free, it is blotted out, there is an erasure made in the book, and the debt is gone.

Though the person committed sin the debt has been paid before the debt was even acquired, he is no more a debtor to the law of God. Doesn’t Scripture say, that God has cast his people’s sins into the depths of the sea?

Now, if they are in the depths of the sea, they cannot be on his people too. Blessed be his name, in the day when he casts our sins into the depth of the sea, he views us as pure in his sight, and we stand accepted in the beloved.

Then he says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12) They cannot be removed and be here still. Then if you believe in Christ, you are no more in the sight of God a sinner, you are accepted as though you were perfect, as though you had at kept the law, for Christ has kept it, and his righteousness is yours. You have broken it, but your sin is his, he has been punished for it and you have been pardoned from it.

- Charles Spurgeon

It’s possible to be very religious, and firm, and persevering in all Christian duties, even to be sanctified, and be a brave defender and preacher of holiness, to be orthodox, and blameless in outward life, and very zealous in good works, and yet to be greatly lacking in tenderness of spirit, that all-subduing, all melting love, which streamed out from the eyes and voice of Jesus.

Many Christians seem loaded with good fruits, but the fruit tastes rotten. There is a touch of vinegar in their sanctity. Their very purity has an icy coldness to it. Their testimonies are straight and definite, but they lack the melting quality.

Their prayers are intelligent and strong and pointed, but they lack the heart-piercing pity of the dying Jesus. The summer heat in them is lacking. They preach eloquently and explain with utmost nicety what is actual and original sin and what is pardon and purity, but they lack the burning flame, that interior furnace of throbbing love, that sighs and weeps and breaks down under the shivering heat of all-consuming love.

Tenderness of spirit makes its home in the bosom of Jesus. It feels all things from God’s standpoint, and lives to receive and transmit the spotless sympathies and affections of Jesus. It understands the words of the Holy Spirit, Tenderness must be in the very nature, and forgiveness is but the behavior of that nature. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)

- G.D. Watson

“He shall gather the lambs with His arm.”
-Isaiah 40:11

Our good Shepherd has in His flock a variety of experiences, some are strong in the Lord, and others are weak in faith, but He is impartial in His care for all His sheep, and the weakest lamb is as dear to Him as the most advanced of the flock.

Lambs are wont to lag behind, prone to wander, and apt to grow weary, but from all the danger of these infirmities the Shepherd protects them with His arm of power.

He finds newborn souls, like young lambs, ready to perish - He nourishes them till life becomes vigorous; He finds weak minds ready to faint and die - He consoles them and renews their strength.

All the little ones He gathers, for it is not the will of our heavenly Father that one of them should perish. What a quick eye He must have to see them all! What a tender heart to care for them all! What a far reaching and potent arm, to gather them all!

In His lifetime on earth He was a great gatherer of the weaker sort, and now that He dwells in heaven, His loving heart yearns towards the meek and contrite, the timid and feeble, the fearful and fainting here below. How gently did He gather me to Himself, to His truth, to His blood, to His love, to His church!

With what effectual grace did He compel me to come to Himself! Since my first conversion, how frequently has He restored me from my wanderings, and once again folded me within the circle of His everlasting arm!

The best of all is, that He does it all Himself personally, not delegating the task of love, but condescending Himself to rescue and preserve His most unworthy servant.

How shall I love Him enough or serve Him worthily? I would love to make His name great unto the ends of the earth, but what can my feebleness do for Him? Great Shepherd, add to Your mercies this one other, a heart to love you more as I should.

- Charles Spurgeon

We began with the Royal Messiah presented in Matthew. Then we looked at the Suffering Messiah presented in Mark. Yesterday, we studied the Pure Messiah presented in Luke and today we’ll finish up by exploring the Divine Messiah presented in John.

The Messiah is an eternal being in Micah 5:2, comes to His temple in Malachi 3:1, and is sent by the Father and Holy Spirit in Isaiah 48:12,16-17. He is called the Mighty God in Isaiah 9:6.

“I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior,” God tells us in Isaiah 43:11.

And again in Isaiah 63:16 we read, “You, O LORD, are our Father; Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.”

The Old Testament makes it very clear that it’s God who saves us from the judgment of sin. He alone is the Savior. And so when the ultimate fulfillment of redemption was to take place, when the Messiah finally arrived, He could only be God.

This is the Divine Messiah presented in the Gospel of John.

John calls Jesus “The Word” and tells us the Word is God in John 1:1. He is the creator of all things in John 1:3.

In John 5 Jesus is almost killed for declaring Himself equal with God in verse 18. He claims to see God and is shown all things by Him in verses 19-20. He claims to be the final judge of all in verse 22. He commands that all honor the Son just as they honor the Father in verse 23. He claims He’ll one day raise the dead in verse 25 and claims His will is identical to the Father’s in verse 30.

In chapter 10 Jesus is nearly stoned for again claiming to be God. In chapter 19 He is crucified because He claimed to be the Son of God.

But in chapter 20 Jesus’ tomb is empty because He is God and death cannot contain Him.

Today we’re going to look at the messianic theme of a perfect human Messiah and how that theme is presented in Luke. Tomorrow we’ll wrap up by exploring the theme of a divine Messiah, which is presented in John.

In the Old Testament we find that the Messiah is not punished for His transgressions and iniquities but ours in Isaiah 53:2. He is innocent, not committing any violence nor speaking any deceit in Isaiah 53:9.

He is referred to as “The Holy One of Israel” in Isaiah 48:17 and called “The Lord Our Righteousness” in Jeremiah 23:5-6. He is equal with God, and sits at His right hand in Psalm 110:1

This is the Pure Messiah presented in the Gospel of Luke.

Luke presents Jesus as Perfect Man — although he’s careful to also present Him as Perfect God (Luke 1:32). He traces Jesus’ genealogy back to Adam, tells us the most about His mother, infancy, childhood and highlights Jesus’ love of individuals and social outcasts.

Twenty four times Luke refers to Jesus as the Son of man — a title which speaks of His relationship with mankind. Because He is the Son of Man He is able to be mankind’s kinsmen redeemer.

A kinsmen redeemer was a close relative who would purchase back something a relative had sold because of debt. Man, in a sense, sold his salvation to pay the sin debt he owed.

By becoming a Man, and living a perfect life, Christ was qualified to become our kinsmen redeemer and purchase us back from sin.

“The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10

Tomorrow: The Divine Messiah of John.

Read Part 1 of this series: The Royal Messiah of Matthew
Read Part 2 of this series: The Suffering Messiah of Mark

Though a King, the Messiah was prophesied to be rejected. He’s despised, rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief and one who was to be despised in Isaiah 53:1-3. He is a sanctuary for some but a stone of stumbling for others in Isaiah 8:14.

The Messiah was also to be a sacrifice. He was to be cut off (or killed), but not for Himself, Daniel 9:26 tells us. He’s wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, His soul a sin offering, the Lord lays our sin on Him, and He makes intercession on our behalf in Isaiah 53.

This is the Suffering Messiah presented to us in the Gospel of Mark.

The Gospel of Mark can be divided into two sections: The Service of the Servant (Chapters 1-13), and the Sacrifice of the Servant (Chapters14-16).

Mark focuses more on what Jesus did rather than what He said. We find more miracles than parables. Three times in the first chapter alone we find Jesus healing people. Overall, Mark records nineteen miracles in only sixteen chapters. Most of these miracles involve Jesus feeding the poor and healing the sick. “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,” Mark 10:45 tells us.

In chapter 11 we find Jesus willingly entering Jerusalem knowing He would be crucified there. Judas plots to betray Him and the Apostles forsake Him in chapter 14. Jesus is alone as He is tried, beaten and sent to the cross in chapters 15.

In chapter 16, after He is resurrected, Jesus seeks out those who left Him, restores their faith, and sends them out into the world to tell about the Servant Messiah who suffered and died for those He loved.

Tomorrow: The Pure Gospel Of Luke

Read Part 1 of this series: The Royal Messiah of Matthew