Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

place."
sight."
am."
vinity"
ye."
was Peter after his denial
count himself still a disciple
Did he
Christ
would not have His attitude toward of
fenders misunderstood. He said, "And
Peter."
Where the women found him, we
do not know. But we find him again
with the disciples, and we follow the
story as he stood valiently for the truth
as it is in Christ Jesus. Those two
words, "And Peter," have brought hope
to many sinner who thought they had
sinned beyond hope.
I Cor. 15:3
Paul gives three stages in Christ's
sacrifical work for us. He died for our
sins; He was buried; He rose from the
dead on the third day. All this was as
it had been foretold in the scriptures.
Life on the third day. Gen. 1:9; Land
appeared above the water, and there
was life "And it was the third day."
Gen. 40:13; "Yet within three days shall
Pharoah lift up thy head, and restore
thee unto thy
Gen. 42:18. "And
Joseph said unto them the third day,
This do and live." Hoshea 6:2; "And
the third day he will raise us up, and
we will live in his
Jonah also
found life after three days. That the
resurrection on the third day
was or
dained for Christ could not have been
more plainly foretold.
Dr. Clarence McCartney sees a special
significance in Christ's appearance to
James and also to Peter, as recorded in
Luke 24:34. "As between the Peter of
the denial and the Peter of the Day of
Pentecost, so between the James who
did not believe in Jesus and the James
who led the church in Jerusalem, and
who in all probability commences the
letter that bears his name by describ
ing himself as 'James, the slave of the
Lord Jesus Christ, there stands one
great fact, the appearance unto him of
the Lord."
(From Peloubet's Notes.)
Was Peter one of the two who journey
ed to Emmaus There are many in each
generation in the class with Peter and
Paul who can say with Paul, "By the
Grace of God, I am what I
We are told so little and yet so much
about our resurrection bodies. Two
things are known by universal observa
tion about our present bodies. First, they
will die. Second, they will return to
dust or ashes. We may delay, slightly,
the natural death. We may retard the
decay of the body. Still, we know that
eventually our body will die and de
cay. What a marvelous change, when
these bodies have put on immortality,
and incorruption! With Christ's resur
rection, death lost the battle, and the
grave has no sting. There is now no
condemnation to them that are in Christ
Jesus. Death has now no power to harm
those who share in Christ's life, death,
and resurrection.
March 23, 1955
I Cor. 15:27,28.
In closing this marvelous chapter on
the resurrection and what it means to
us, Paul voices his thanks to God who
gives us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ; and encourages us to stand
fast, and not allow ourselves to be
moved from Christ, and to labor al
ways abundantly in the Lord's work.
And as a special encouragement he as
sures us that our work will not be in
vain in the Lord.
PRAYER MEETING TOPIC
AprU 13, 1955
"OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN"
Rom. 8:15-16
Paul D. McCracken, D.D.
Psalms
119:1-4, page 308
103:5-8, page 247
68:1, 4-6, page 162
103:11, 14, 15, page 244
COMMENTS
With this topic this evening we begin
a series of nine studies on "PRAYER"
which will follow, in general, the out
line of the "Lord's Prayer" (Matt. 6:9-
13), although other scripture texts will
be used.
Of all the material available which I
have studied in this connection there are
two authors which, in my judgment, are
outstanding, and well worthwhile. The
first is "the old reliable" Matthew Hen
ry, and those of you (especially Prayer
Meeting leaders) who have access to his
commentaries, will find his material on
the "Preface" to the Lord's Prayer very
helpful. In my set it is Vol. V, page 42.
The other author is the Rev. Thomas
Watson. As a part of his "Body of Di
he deals at length and in great
detail, in a question and answer method,
with the Lord's Prayer. Here are some
of his interesting statements about the
general introduction to the prayer,
"After this manner therefore pray
"Our Lord Jesus, in these words, pre
scribed to His disciples and us a direc
tory for prayer. The Ten Command
ments are the rule of our life, the
Creed is the sum of our faith, and the
Lord's Prayer is
prayer. Christ said not,
the pattern of our
'After these
words, pray ye'; but 'After this man
ner'; that is, let this be the rule and
model according to which ye frame
your prayers. As the Moral Law was
written with the finger of God, so this
prayer was dropped from the lips of the
Son of God. Never was there prayer so
admirably and curiously composed as
this. As Solomon's Song, for its excel
lency, is called the "Song of Songs" so
may this well be called the 'Prayer of
Prayers.'
Let it be the model and pat
tern of all our prayers."
And now I am taking the liberty of
passing on to you, in summary, and al
most verbatim, his questions and an
swers (in brief) on this subject "Our
Father in Heaven." Look up and study
the references.
I. In what sense is God a Father
1. By Creation Acts 17:28; Mai. 2:10
(But God is also Father to devils by
creation)
2. By Election Eph. 1:4
3. By Special Grace I John 3 :9
FT. What is that which makes God our
1. Faith Gal. 3:26
Father
(Any unbeliever may
call God his
creator and his judge, but not his
Father)
IDT. Wherein doth it appear that God is
the Best Father
1. He is the most ancient Dan. 7:9
2. He is perfect Matt. 5:48; James 5:17
3. In respect of Wisdom I Tim. 1:17;
Rom. 8:28
4. He is most loving I John 4:16; Zeph.
3:17
5. For riches Eph. 3 :8
6. He can reform His children Peter,
Mary Magdalene, Paul, etc.
7. He never dies I Tim. 6:16; Rev. 1:8
IV. Wherein lies the dignity of such as
have God for their Father
1. They have great honor and esteem
Isa. 43:4; Mai. 3:17; Phil 4:3
2. They have honorable titles Ps. 16:3;
Isa. 46:13; Rev. 1:6; Rev. 6:11.
3. They are heirs Rom. 8:16-17; Heb.
1:14; John 14:2; Rev. 3:21
4. They are equal in honor to the angels
Luke 20:36
V. How may we know God is our
Father
1. By having a filial disposition that
(a) Hates sin
(b) Shows sympathy Ps. 119:158
(c) Loves and honors the Heavenly
Father Mai. 1:6
2. By resembling Him Judges 8:18;
Col. 3:10; Ex. 15:11
3. By having His Spirit in us Gal. 4:6;
Acts 9:11
VI. Wherein lies the happiness of hav
ing God for our Father
1. He will teach us Isa. 48:17; Ps. 17:
17; Ps. 112:5
2. He loves us II Cor. 1:3; Eph. 3:19;
I Pet. 5:7
3. He is full of sympathy Ps. 103:13
4. He will correct us Jer. 30:11; I
Cor. 10:13
5. He will mingle mercy with afflic
tion Gen. 9:13
6. The evil one shall not prevail Rom.
16:20
7. No evil shall befall us Ps. 91:10;
Luke 10:19
189