The Mediator

Friday 10-21-16  Martínez, Argentina

Today we read: Job 9 – 10 and Acts 13 -14

S.  Job 9:32-35 "God is not a mortal like me, so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial.  If only there were a mediator who could bring us together, but there is none.  The mediator could make God stop beating me, and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment. Then I could speak to him without fear, but I cannot do that in my own strength.” NLT

O.  Job feels totally helpless before His Sovereign God.  God has allowed Satan to cause him extreme pain, loss of his children and his possessions. He feels he has no right to argue his cause with God. God is too mighty, too distant, too holy and he is but a speck of dust. He cries out for a mediator… for someone to take his case to God for him. Most scholars place Job’s life chronologically long before Moses’ and his establishment of priests whose tasks were to mediate before God for the people.  Centuries later, in God’s prefect timing (Galatians 4:4), He sent us the Mediator that Job was pleading for.

A.  Heb 12:23-24 You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. How sad to think Job’s Sovereign God seemed unreachable to him.  Job’s suffering was not taking place without God’s knowledge, but Job, just like us, could not see the whole picture. Today I can run into the arms of Jesus, my Mediator, when I am overwhelmed by sorrow or sickness!  His death destroyed that thick curtain that kept us sinners from direct contact with God. (Mark 15:37-38) NLT

P.  Oh what comfort!  What a blessing!  The door is open!  I can come running to the mercy seat.  My dark, sinful blot has been cleansed by Your shed blood, Lord Jesus.  You are interceding for me. You are on my side, my defense Mediator.  So even when in pain, suffering or sorrow, I am not alone. I place my trust in You.  Amen.

Ralph

Jesus Paid it All

John T. Grape 1868

1.    I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

o   Refrain:
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

2.    For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

3.    And now complete in Him,
My robe, His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.

4.    Lord, now indeed I find
Thy pow’r, and Thine alone,
Can change the *leper’s spots [*leopard’s]
And melt the heart of stone.

5.    When from my dying bed
My ransomed soul shall rise,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
Shall rend the vaulted skies.

6.    And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down,
All down at Jesus’ feet.