Warragul Presbyterian Church

Exodus 32:1-14, Galatians 2:11-21

Our guest speaker this week is Brian Harvey from PYV.

Are you trying to please the wrong people and trying not to cause offence to anyone?

It may seem good and right to live your life, aspiring to reach a very high standard of excellence, but who are you trying to please?

If your standard is less than perfection, then it doesn’t matter how good your intentions are, or how virtuous you may become through your own efforts to please God; they will be in vain.

Our salvation isn’t achieved by pleasing others or trying to live a good and moral life. 

Trying to keep the law to achieve righteousness will always, and has already ended in failure. 

It doesn’t matter how good you are at law keeping, it is useless to save. No one is ever justified by trying to keep parts of the law.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to find salvation. It is the only way to be made righteous by God.

Galatians 1:10 – 2:14

What is the source of truth?

When someone makes truth claims, it is incumbent upon them to reveal their source so that the facts can be verified and so that we aren’t deceived.

Paul makes his case for the true gospel in his letter to the Galatians.

The gospel he preached was not second hand information received from other Apostles in Jerusalem. His doctrine was received directly from the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

There was such a miraculous change in Paul from persecutor of Jesus’ followers to being the God appointed Apostle to the Gentiles, that the truth of his conversion account and what he preached is validated.

Can there be two gospels? One for Jews and another for Gentiles? Is Paul teaching a different gospel to that of the Apostle Peter?

Paul clearly isn’t trying to please men of authority within the church, but his Lord. He knows that what he is preaching is the truth and he is not afraid of calling out those who are being inconsistent and hypocritical or trying to bring new Christians back under the law.

Some Jews are seen by Paul, separating themselves from Gentiles and treating them as inferior. They were distorting what had been accomplished by Christ’s finished work, and so he exposed their hypocracy.

Only Jesus is the true source of the gospel.

Acts 13:26-52, Galatians 1:1-10

One of the highest virtues of our culture is tolerance. Trying to find the lowest common denominator to try and get along. Often the pursuit of truth is set aside to accomodate the personal feelings of others.

The truth of the gospel is unchanging.  There is only one gospel. It can’t be added to or taken away from to make it more palatable to the hearer.

The Apostle Paul and his co workers write to the Galatians to remind them of the true gospel. He is astonished that they are so quickly deserting the only one who can save them; turning to a distorted gospel.

Sometimes we don’t feel guilty even though we are.  We are all legally guilty before God because of the sins we have committed against him.

We are only justified through Christ alone who gave himself to deliver us, according to the will of our God and Father. 

Why do we continually try to add to Christ’s finished work by selectively reintroducing and trying to obey parts of the old Mosaic law?

Are we slaves to Christ or are we simply trying to please others through an outward display of morality?

It is so important to understand and live out the true gospel, because this is how we will honour our Lord and Saviour and truly be more loving to others in our culture.

Daniel 11:2-12:13

What possible comfort could there be in knowing when bad things are going to happen?

We see history unfolding as the truth of the vision of the future is explained to Daniel. After the exiles to Babylon return to Jerusalem the problems will continue.

The faithless Jews amongst the Israelites will give up on the Holy covenant and will side with Antiochus. The faithful will stand firm and take action.

This is a pattern of things to come. An enraged man of lawlessness who will oppress those who seek to worship the true and living God is yet to come, but he will be destroyed by the Lord Jesus Christ and all those who have their names written in the book of life will be raised to everlasting life.

Our comfort is in knowing that God is in control.

Daniel 10:1-11:1

After his previous vision, Daniel is seen mourning and fasting and praying. Then he receives a final vision. It occurred during the month when Israel was to celebrate the Passover. But Daniel was greatly distressed and troubled; not celebrating.

When we read of encounters with God in the Bible, they are terrifying events. Daniel and his men experienced such an encounter. The men who were with Daniel fled trembling and hid themselves. Daniel’s strength left him and his body went into a deep sleep until he was strengthened by the hand of God’s messenger who revealed the truth of God’s word to him and of God’s love towards Daniel.

“O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.”

Leviticus 25:1-18, Daniel 9:15-27

This is a complex passage from the book of Daniel and many have tried to use it in an attempt to predict the sequence of events related to the end of this world as we know it, and to predict the timing of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Can this passage of scripture honestly be used to tell us the future of Western civilisation, or do we need to look at this text more closely through the eyes of Daniel the Israelite?

One of the reasons Israel was exiled from the promised land was because of the exploitation of the land by the children of Israel. They failed to follow the commands of YHWH and to give the land the rest as stipulated by him.

It is explained to Daniel that the exile is not completed, simply with a return to Jerusalem and rebuilding everything from scratch. Many things still need to occur to bring about everlasting righteousness.

Listen to the following talk by Ray Patchett as he gives us a clear and helpful explanation.

Jeremiah 29:1-14, Daniel 9:1-19

We can learn much on how to pray by reading in the scriptures, the prayers of the Lord’s faithful servants .

Jeremiah wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the exiles living in Babylon, exhorting them to build and plant and marry and multiply and seek after the welfare of their enemies, the captors of Israel and destroyers of Jerusalem and to pray on behalf of Babylon where they were to dwell for seventy years.

Daniel, meditating on the writings of Jeremiah towards the end of the exile, realised that the prophesied seventy year exile in Babylon was nearing its completion and he prayed to the Lord, humbling himself and confessing the sins of Israel, and asking that the Lord God would remember His covenant promises and keep His commitment to restore Israel’s fortunes and return the exiles to Jerusalem for the sake and honour of his own name.

How should we pray in accordance with the will of the Lord in the times in which we live?

We must consider the name of God’s Son first and foremost; that honour and glory would be given to the Lord Jesus Christ and that his name would be restored and greatly esteemed in our culture and that His Kingdom would come, and that the earth would be filled with His glory.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, Daniel 8:1-27

In this latest vision of Daniel, it was revealed to him that kingdoms would continue to rise and be overthrown, and the trouble for Israel after the Babylonian exile would be far from over.

The focus in this chapter narrows to two empires; the ‘Ram’ or Medo-Persian Empire and the ‘Goat’ or Greek Empire. Alexander The Great of Greece, conquered the world by the age of 26, but he then died in his early thirties. His empire was divided up amongst four of his generals (four horns) before his death. From one of these four horns grew another little horn, Antiochus Epiphanies, who boasted of himself and defied God; even setting himself in the place of God. He turned his attention towards the land of Israel and its surrounds. He violated the holy temple at Jerusalem and caused worship to cease, putting to death anyone who continued to practice Judaism.

Here we see a pattern of lawlessness which will be repeated time and time again until the end of human government. A boastful ruler, ‘the man of lawlessness’ is destined to appear on the world stage, who will also defy God with his boasting and hatred of God. He will set himself in the place of God. He will be a great deceiver who will cause fearful destruction against mighty men and he will prevail over God’s people, destroying many. However, he will be judged and destroyed, but by no human hand.

It is better to be prepared. It is better to know what’s coming…

Recommended reading for historical context.
Available on Librivox Audio Books
Apocrypha/Deuterocanon: 1 Maccabees

Daniel 7:1-28, Revelation 13:1-18

Daniel has visions of four great human kingdoms in the form of mutant beasts which alarm him greatly. The fourth beast is described as terrifying, dreadful, exceedingly strong, fierce and devouring.

On the head of the fourth beast there grew a horn which boasted loudly of itself and yet another beast which gives its support to the little horn as it wages war upon the saints. An example of the worst of governments opposing The Most High God.

The Ancient Of Days sits in judgement and he demonstrates his rule and authority over all earthly kingdoms and rulers.

The Son of Man (the name Jesus Christ most identified himself with) will have dominion over all and will destroy the beast.  His kingdom will never end and his saints shall receive and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.
The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
and those who fear your name,
both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

Daniel 6:1-28

Daniel was a man of integrity. His enemies couldn’t find anything they could use against him to bring him down from his high position in government.

Daniel’s enemies plotted against him. They appealed to King Darius’ ego to entrap Daniel. A new law was enacted which couldn’t be revoked and it meant that Daniel would be prohibited from praying to YHWH

Daniel remained firm in his faith  and continued to pray to the living God in defiance of the foolish law signed by King Darius which lead to his being thrown to the lions.

But God is sovereign, “He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, [and it was] he who has saved Daniel
from the power of the lions.”

King Darius then sentenced Daniel’s enemies and their families to be cast into the Den of lions.

Among the Persians, all the kindred were involved in the guilt of one culprit. The Mosaic law expressly forbade this (De 24:16; 2Ki 14:6).

The following talk was prepared by Jason Chan, but due to illness was delivered by Andrew Jackson on his behalf.