In the Nick of Time

Sunday, June 29, 2014

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Hebrews 4:14–16

The grace that God gives us to face the pressures of life arrives on His schedule rather than on ours. In commenting on this passage in Hebrews, Dr. G. Campbell Morgan wrote, “I am never tired of pointing out that the Greek phrase translated ‘in time of need’ is a colloquialism, of which ‘in the nick of time’ is the exact equivalent. Grace just when and where I need it. You are attacked by temptation, and at the moment of assault you look to Him, and the grace is there to help.”

This is such a wonderful promise for us to hold tightly when we are in difficulty. While we tend to think that it would be better to have everything settled in advance and know exactly how things will work out, God knows that we need to trust Him. So often we are placed in situations and circumstances where it is easy for us to feel that God has forgotten His promises to us. Yet, in truth, that never happens.

The mistaken idea that bad things only happen to bad people is an old one—that is what Job’s friends told him after he lost everything in Satan’s attack. What we have is not a guarantee that things will turn out as we think they should, but rather that in the perfect timing of God...in the “nick of time”...His grace will be there when we need it most.

Today's Growth Principle
God has never failed one of His children, and His grace will be sufficient for whatever you need today.

Old Testament Reading

Job 17-19

CHAPTER 17

¹ My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me. ² Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation? ³ Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me? ⁴ For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them. ⁵ He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail. ⁶ He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret. ⁷ Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow. ⁸ Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite. ⁹ The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

¹⁰ But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you. ¹¹ My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart. ¹² They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness. ¹³ If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. ¹⁴ I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. ¹⁵ And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it? ¹⁶ They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

CHAPTER 18

¹ Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, ² How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak. ³ Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight? ⁴ He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?

⁵ Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine. ⁶ The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him. ⁷ The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down. ⁸ For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare. ⁹ The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him. ¹⁰ The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.

¹¹ Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet. ¹² His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side. ¹³ It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength. ¹⁴ His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors. ¹⁵ It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. ¹⁶ His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off. ¹⁷ His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street. ¹⁸ He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. ¹⁹ He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings. ²⁰ They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted. ²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

CHAPTER 19

¹ Then Job answered and said, ² How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? ³ These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me. ⁴ And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself. ⁵ If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach: ⁶ Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. ⁷ Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

⁸ He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. ⁹ He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. ¹⁰ He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. ¹¹ He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. ¹² His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle. ¹³ He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. ¹⁴ My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. ¹⁵ They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. ¹⁶ I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. ¹⁷ My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body. ¹⁸ Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. ¹⁹ All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me. ²⁰ My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. ²¹ Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. ²² Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³ Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! ²⁴ That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! ²⁵ For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: ²⁶ And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: ²⁷ Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. ²⁸ But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? ²⁹ Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

New Testament Reading

Acts 10:1-23

¹ There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, ² A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. ³ He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. ⁴ And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. ⁵ And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: ⁶ He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. ⁷ And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually; ⁸ And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa.

⁹ On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: ¹⁰ And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, ¹¹ And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: ¹² Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. ¹³ And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. ¹⁴ But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. ¹⁵ And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. ¹⁶ This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven. ¹⁷ Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made enquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate, ¹⁸ And called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there.

¹⁹ While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee. ²⁰ Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them. ²¹ Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius; and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come? ²² And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee. ²³ Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him.

Proverbs Reading

Proverbs 30

¹ The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal, ² Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. ³ I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. ⁴ Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell? ⁵ Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. ⁶ Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. ⁷ Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: ⁸ Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: ⁹ Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. ¹⁰ Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty. ¹¹ There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. ¹² There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. ¹³ There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. ¹⁴ There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men. ¹⁵ The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: ¹⁶ The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough. ¹⁷ The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it. ¹⁸ There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: ¹⁹ The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid. ²⁰ Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness. ²¹ For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear: ²² For a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat; ²³ For an odious woman when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress. ²⁴ There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: ²⁵ The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; ²⁶ The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; ²⁷ The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; ²⁸ The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces. ²⁹ There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going: ³⁰ A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any; ³¹ A greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up. ³² If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth. ³³ Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.