Wandering From The Light Series

Wandering From The LIGHT

Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …

1 John 1:5-7

“This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”

And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

“Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall ever be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

Please open your Bibles to 1 John 2:3-6

John talks a lot about Jesus the Light and living in the light. He also talks about darkness which is sin and that living in sin cannot be done at the same time you are living in the light.

(refer to our memory verse above)

Are we walking in the Light of Jesus? If we are, PTL!! If we are is there danger of walking back to the darkness??

With that in mind let’s go ahead and read: 1 John 2:3-6

1 John 2:3-4

“We know that we have come to know Him [Jesus] if we keep His commands. Whoever says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.”

Do we have an example in the Bible of someone who had a very close, even an intimate relationship with the Lord and yet drifted away to his own spiritual ruin?

Also, did you know that there is a command given in the Old Testament that is a command specifically written for the kings of Israel?

This law was given so that the kings of Israel would not deviate from the Law of Moses which comes directly from the LORD God Almighty Himself.

Here is that law … Deuteronomy 17:18-19

18 When he [the king] takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees.

Those are some pretty simple commands, right? And, by the same token, it would seem that if a person has transcribed the entire Law of Moses onto a scroll and then they read it every day it would be easy to abide by those commands.

But just listen to these further commands regarding future kings of Israel!

Deuteronomy 17:14-17

14 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” 15 be sure to appoint over you a king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. 16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” 17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

Here is something we need to keep in mind as we look at these Scriptures and examples from Israel’s history.

The purpose of Israel in the Old Testament was to declare the glory of God and to call all nations to revere the name of the LORD. Our task is the very same task.

To bring glory to God that He may be honored and glorified throughout the earth.

----- A Great Number of Horses (especially from Egypt) ----

The LORD’s commanded stated that the king, “must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, ‘You are not to go back that way again.’”

1 Kings 4:26

Solomon had four thousand stalls for chariot horses, and twelve thousand horses