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November 1975 Third reading meeting.
31.
Uh, we are. We are.
All right.
Now our world is suffering.
All right.
We're all in the world. Take away all of the night the children of Jay Gains that once found us by Jesus, Mariven, or strangers on earth, Our home is in Heaven 234.
Did we finish the ninth verse?
Read from verse 10.
First Peter Chapter 2, verse 10.
Which in time passed for a lot of people, but are now the people of God, which have not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
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Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul, having a conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you with evil doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme.
Or under governors, as under them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing he may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as a servant of God.
Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God, Honor the king.
Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward. For this is thank worthy if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
Glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently.
But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
For even here unto where he called because Christ also suffered for us, leave us an example that he should follow his depth, who didn't know sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.
Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again what he sovereignly threatened not, but committed himself to him, the judges, righteously.
Whose own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, The way, being dead to sins, should live under righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed, for ye were a sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
My brother asked if we were finished with the ninth verse. I would just like to comment on the last part of the verse that perhaps we didn't touch on and that is about the light.
It's remarkable how the Christian position is seen in the first epistle of John and in the light, is it not? And I was thinking of Philippians.
The second second chapter.
Where it says.
In the 15 first.
Among whom?
I think it should read among whom you appear.
As lights in the world.
It's a lovely thought to think of The Believer.
Now in the light and for as far as the world is concerned, that light is reflected to this world, among whom ye appear as lights in the world, and so it isn't a question of effort.
It's a question of what the believer is here in this world. He's been placed here. We've been brought into this marvelous light, and that light reflects to the world and the only way the world knows now.
About the Lord Jesus is through the believer, through the assembly here on earth.
Remember old brother saying this about the?
The the end of that verse out of darkness into his marvelous light that it was a comparative darkness, that is is comparing Judaism with Christianity.
That is the very best that they had in the day's world when you contrast that with.
The light and liberty and blessings that have been brought to the finished work of Christ Knowing as we do.
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Our sins forgiven, and knowing that we have a man in the glorious our glorious head.
And one could enumerate all the blessings that have come in now the the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament.
Has actually come and completed the work and gone to glory, taking his seat on high.
At these Hebrews or these Jewish believers?
Were reminded of the great superiority of.
That which they had been brought into in comparison, it was just like darkness.
Compared to what they now possess in a written, glorified Christ course, if we think of of this blessing in connection with them, why is equally to have for the enjoyment of every believer?
And should really thrill our hearts to think that we have the very highest blessings that God ever.
Intended for his creature, Man.
Mr. Berry, I have a question with regard to that.
Work Darkness in the ninth of the chapter we're reading.
Is that that word darkness there the same as we have in the first chapter of John's Gospel?
And the light shineth in darkness.
The darkness comprehended it not.
It seems to me it's a different thought there. It's the moral darkness.
That John is Speaking of there.
It really speaks of a physical impossibility.
That light could shine into a into a place just as all you turn the lights out of off in this room.
And then turn them on at night. Well, immediately the darkness gives way to the light. But here was something that.
Was impossible in nature that when the true light of God.
And the glorious person of his son shone into this dark scene. The world was just as dark as it was before the Lord came, and that light shone.
In in this world the darkness comprehended. It did not. It didn't remove the darkness, It was still there. It shows in the most solemn, most awful way.
The moral darkness that man is in in this sin, his sins in this scene.
That moral darkness, of course, manifests itself in different ways.
There are the heathen pagans going on with idolatry. Well, that's a that's a Pagan darkness. And then.
Like the Colossians, they were taken up with philosophy. Well, that's a kind of a darkness too. So there are different kinds of darkness in the world, but it's all darkness. When a man is in the unsaved state, he's he's in darkness and he is darkness.
But when we're saved, the Lord says, Now, your life in the Lord.
And it's a wonderful thing for anyone, whether it's the Jews in darkness or the Pagan in darkness, or the philosopher in darkness. As soon as he comes to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior, he's in the light and he is light.
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Striking to the Scripture says man loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil, and that love of darkness is becoming more and more evident around us. Men are trying to throw off all restraint in order that the darkness that they love and the deeds that accompany that darkness may be practiced without any.
Troubling of their conscience.
Well, I wonder if it will at last be realized, We read in the 16th of Revelation.
That that his Kingdom was filled with darkness.
Filled with darkness, it seems to me to suggest that this which man now pretends to seek, after the removal of all restraint, the taking away of every inhibition, in order that the darkness that he loves may envelope him, is going to be realized. But it does say, in connection with that very plague, that they gnawed their tongues for pain.
To me, that's the strongest indication of suffering in the Book of Revelation, and it accompanies the plague of darkness. I have just wondered, does it suggest that the darkness that you and I see creeping in all around us?
And against which we have been warned, is going to develop to that terrible situation where the Kingdom of the beast is full of darkness. But will man be satisfied with this? He loved darkness. He rejected the light. When the Kingdom of the beast is filled with darkness, instead of being pleased with it, they will gnaw their tongues for pain. And the moral darkness that is enveloping this poor world, I fear, is going to result in this very situation that we read about in the 16th of Revelation.
And it will result in the most horrible suffering to mankind.
Am I right in thinking that the darkness there in Revelation 16 is probably of that sort?
I think you are very right brother.
Six picture of that? I think so.
Can you speak of the blackness of darkness forever?
Will the unbelievers go? What a solemn thing to be in a place like that, the blackness of darkness forever.
And then the Old Testament God dwelled in thick darkness. And perhaps that's partly the meaning here.
Have called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, even on the on the breastplate of the priest that we were Speaking of this morning. The first stone was the Ruby, I believe.
And we find in Revelation the first stone is a clear stone.
In the first stone Book of Revelation. So it shows us the difference of the light penetrating now clearly.
To all the creation, but especially here, so that there is a sense in which there was darkness in the Old Testament in contrast to the New, but the passage our brother Barry was referring to in Second Corinthians.
3.
Contrasting Judaism with Christianity, there we have the glory that excel it, and that's connected with light. I believe there was glory. There was real glory connected with the giving of the law. It was it was attended by the the entire company of angels, I suppose myriads of angels and where they.
Elders of Israel met.
In the 25th of Exodus.
There was a pavement of sapphire stone.
Where the where the throne of God was.
And they they they saw God and did even drink. Not in his full character, of course. But they did see God, and there was glory attending it.
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But the apostle in describing this in this third chapter of Second Corinthians.
He set before us the glory that excelleth, and that's seen in the face of Jesus Christ in the third chapter. In the 4th chapter there's a glory that excels at all, and even though the old was attended with glory, it would be darkness compared with what we have in the 3rd and 4th chapters of Second Corinthians.
Would you say, Brother Lundeen, that God dwelling in thick darkness in the Old Testament? Because the veil was there that shut out the holy of holies which was the dwelling place of God. But when the Lord Jesus died on the cross, it says the veil was rent from top to bottom.
To see on the other part of the Tabernacle there was the seven branch candlesticks.
Well, that was a light, truly the light of the Spirit shining there. But behind that was this curtain where God dwelt in thick darkness. But as soon as the Lord has expired on the cross, that veil is rent, and the light from the Candlestick shines, strike into the very place where God's dwelling was between the cherry bombs.
And if I understand this rightly, all through the Old Testament man was under probation.
God was testing man out to see if there was anything in man that he could produce for God, but the cross proved that it was impossible after man had crucified the one that did nothing but good down here.
By then.
Instead of God's counsels and purposes being hidden behind the veil, now all God's counsels and purposes have come out into the full light that's revealed by the Spirit, so that now we're not in darkness in any way As to God's purposes which he has purposed in Christ. We can look right into the future we know.
All that God has purpose.
His whole plan is now fully revealed and by the spirit we can enter into.
All the mind and thoughts of God that he has had in his purposes from all eternity. Now is that right, brother?
And isn't it a wonderful thought that we are now where the veil is rent as our little hymn says, our souls draw near unto a throne of grace. The merits of the Lord appear. They fill the holy place. What a marvelous thing it is that in connection with our testimony and our privileges that we're where there's a rental.
Knowing between US and all God's thoughts is revealed everything now, and we just need the appetite and desire and and the communion, so that by the Spirit we can enter more and more into the purposes and counsels of God.
I don't want to make a far fetched comparison, but I enjoy it A little illustrations Some time ago we've been considering called Out of Darkness into his Marvelous light. I was visiting with Brother Cool in Enola, PA Those of you who've been there know that he's quite interested in stones, cutting and polishing stones and he'll take you into this room and show You Beautiful stones that he's cut and polished.
And you're just filled with amazement as you look at these beautiful stones.
After I had exhausted all the words I could think of in admiring these stones, he suddenly switched off the light and turned on a sort of invisible light, which they call black light. And you shouldn't have seen those stones. I thought they were beautiful before, but in this black light.
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They glow each with an individual color and splendor. That just made me.
Gas with amazement. There was in the midst of that darkness, a beauty that shone from each one of those stones that was just breathtaking.
Well, we know that by the grace of God we have been brought out of darkness into his marvelous light. But we also know that we are passing through a world that is characterized by a terrible darkness. It's growing darker all the time. They can't see or comprehend the wondrous light of God in which we have, by the grace of God, been brought.
But this ought not to hinder the display of that which I trust may be seen by the eyes of this world. Even in that dark room there was a beauty that left me amazed and beloved as the darkness increases as these dear young people go off to school, to the office, to the shop, wherever it may be, no matter how dark the atmosphere there can be by the grace of God.
The beauty and loveliness of Christ displayed by you in that dark atmosphere. And I thought of it as I sat in that little room with Brother Cool and saw those stone shine so beautifully in the dark.
And we'll all be in its perfection and the heavenly city, won't it? Because all those stones were mentioned there as adorning the walls of the heavenly city. And does not that represent each believer and the light that shines. It reflects not anything that is that is in the stone itself, but it's really what's in Christ.
Is reflected there and that scene of unending glory and beauty. So each believer will be reflecting some special.
Grace that we see in our blessed Lord, but as you say, it should be seen in each believer down here, and the more we walk in communion and dependence it will be seen.
And that really is what takes us into the next part of the.
Of the chapter which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
As quoted from the book of Hosea.
That has a special application to Israel, doesn't it? And the Peter's writing to the Jew.
And although it's for us still, I believe that the first application in that passage was to Israel. There's another verse in the same chapter that the apostle Paul uses in in the 11Th chapter, isn't it of Romans? And there we have it changed again a little bit. And he refers to the sons of God there, I believe.
Quote from one passage in Hosea and Peter from.
Another passage, and as you say, the one where he speaks of sons, it has to do with especially with the Gentiles brought into blessing.
You can look it up sometime and we believe it's in the end of the first chapter and the end of the second chapter, or remember correctly.
Refers to the Gentiles is found in the first chapter in tenth verse and the part that refers to Israel in the last verse of the second chapter.
Well, Paul speaks about our being vessels of mercy of four, prepared unto glory.
I read somewhere years ago that they thought of grace is being given what we don't deserve. For grace are you saved? But mercy is being spared from what we do deserve. So what do we deserve? Nothing but the banishment in without eternal darkness we were Speaking of but God in His great mercy.
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Asparagus. And instead of leaving a slope, groping our way, having set us free from the guilt, why, he has brought us into this marvelous light. And now?
And now all we can say about ourselves is that we're just vessels of mercy. But how is it that we are brought into such a wonderful place? Therefore prepared, God in His counsels had already marked us out, or this special place of blessing and privilege that we are brought into?
Brother Londin you mentioning.
About this being Israel primarily, how do you explain the?
Part in the 10th verse, but are now the people of God.
You're referring to Hosea 1.
Quoting from our tenth verse of our chapter.
Do I?
Peter uses it in connection with the Jews in the 10th verse of the second chapter, Peter.
Who on the day of Pentecost, A little Remnant Who received the Spirit?
They were brought into a special place, a blessing, as we've noticed before in the chapter, as the people of God.
This had been promised long before, but they were brought into it, and a special way, the day of Pentecost.
Now there will be an early.
And a latter rain. There has been a partial of the early rain where a remnant is brought into blessing and Paul speaks of himself as having pre trusted so that Israel will come into the blessing in the coming day as the people of God. But that will be the earthly portion.
But in the passage in the 10th verse of the first chapter of Hosea.
There's a special application to the Gentiles has been pointed out.
As you have in the 11Th chapter of Romans.
There we find that Paul brings in the thought of the sons of God.
Connecting with Romans the 10th chapter and.
Our level chapter, I guess it is.
No, it's the sorry, it's the 9th chapter Romans.
It says in the 24th verse or the 23rd verse.
That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had a four prepared unto glory, even us whom he have called not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, as he said also in really, Hosea, I will call him my people, which were not my people, and her beloved, which is not beloved.
And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it is set unto them ye are not my people.
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There shall they be called the children.
Of the living God.
Now I'm not sure whether the correct translation there was children or sons, but the thought is sons. At least it's sons in Hosea, the first chapter and 10th verse, and it's done here in Roman.
Well, we have a very practical verse in the 11Th verse of our chapter. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust. Which war against the soul cure bringing out something, Brother Anderson, about strangers and pilgrims?
At the beginning of our meetings yesterday, maybe you would be willing to repeat that.
Or we have the two thoughts here which are brought out in Peter's ministry. He brings the glory before us, and then he speaks of our journey to the glory and our presence here in this sea, which is a desert place, a wilderness.
Well, the word strangers brings before us that we're in a place where we don't belong. We're in the wilderness, we're in this world, we don't belong here. And it's a desert place, like the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness.
They were in a place that they didn't really belong in. It was just a matter of passing through it and going into the land of Canaan. But because they needed testing, the Lord had to leave them there for 40 years.
In that wilderness. But there were strangers there. They didn't belong there, and neither do we belong in the world. We belong to heaven.
But the the Pilgrim part indicates that we're on a journey. Because when you speak of a Pilgrim, you think of somebody that's going somewhere. He has certain a certain place in view, some object in view where he's going. And so the apostle Peter brings before us the glory, that's where we're going. But while we're here in this scene, we're strangers, but as pilgrims were on our way to glory.
Nice to know too, that we're not asked to.
Act in a capacity that is not true of us. That is, we are already constituted citizens of the land to which we're traveling. We're not just simply told here in this world with no other change to act like strangers and children. We actually are. We actually are, For the very light and nature that we possess is heavenly in its origin as well as in its destiny.
And it's not too difficult to act as a stranger in a Pilgrim. When you're in some faraway land where you know very well you don't belong, you're quite happy to have that feeling that you're only a stranger in a Pilgrim there. But if someone came to me in the very town where I live and told me to act like a stranger and Pilgrim there, it would be the most difficult, if not impossible. But here we have been constituted citizens of the land to which we're traveling.
So when Paul refers to this matter in the second of Ephesians, he says, now, therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, Peter says, I beseech you therefore, as strangers and pilgrims. It's no contradiction. Paul is talking about that wonderful home up there. We're already citizens of that home. That's our proper dwelling place. We're not strangers and foreigners to that citizenship or to that home. But when Peter speaks of our sojourn here.
He reminds us to act as strangers and pilgrims because our real home and citizenship is already up there.
The hymn that we were singing, Lord, since we sing as pilgrims, oh, give us Pilgrim ways, low thoughts of self, befitting Proclaimers of thy praise. And so the thoughtful Peter is making use of our.
Stranger ship and are being pilgrims to exercise us as to our walking ways for he goes on to say here.
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Abstained from flakily lusts which war against the soul.
That plain language and we can.
Bring it home to our own consciences because we have a sinful nature, the old nature that desires.
The corrupt things that belong to this sinful evil age. And we need this warning because.
We are in danger of align the old nature who act and who produce those terrible wrecks and things.
That dishonor the Lord.
Abstain from fleshly lust, and what?
Clear language it is which war against the soul. We know how in the war that the one who is warring against another country, they do anything. There's nothing too low or too mean that they won't do to win the victory. Well, Satan is leading on marshalling a whole force of enmity against what will be a blessing to our souls.
And if we allow these fleshly lusts to have their way in our lives, and they're not constantly judging every appearance of the desires of that which is evil in our nature.
Why the Blessing of Our Souls is Endangered.
Well, these flesh with lust.
Indulged in will make a soul sick. Sick in our soul.
I suppose that's one result of the fleshly lust. Warring against the soul makes us sick, and we lose our appetite for spiritual things, for the word of God, and for communion and fellowship with the Lord and fellowship with our brethren, And we lose an appetite for going to the meetings. We don't have a desire to be where the Word of God is opened up. We don't have a desire to be at a prayer meeting.
It causes us to be sick in our souls. We're ill and all. What? What are we to do when we get into a state like that?
Well, we certainly need to listen to what the Word of God says and let it exercise our soul.
If we get into a state where we're so sick, I trust God will be faithful to us and make us realize.
And sometimes, perhaps most of the time, we don't realize how far we are away from the Lord, what a poor state of soul we're in. And the sad thing about it is, it's a vicious circle to get into a poor state of soul. You don't realize how.
Poor state of soul you're in, and then you get worse and worse.
May the Lord have mercy upon us, and may he be gracious to us and faithful to to speak to our hearts and to our consciences. And may we have before us the loveliness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, there's nothing that can heal our souls better than that just to have Christ before us. And I believe that's why.
It's so important in the gospel to preach Christ, and in in the meetings to have Christ before us. And certainly this is what the Apostle Peter has brought before us here, Christ himself, as being the precious 1 The preciousness.
That word lust is is also translated desire, isn't it? And there are three methods of attack by Satan.
The world and the flesh and the devil. We have fleshly lusts here.
I suppose brethren, that.
If there is a breakdown, complete, and the testimony of God, it will be by. This means that Satan will come in and.
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You know when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin. Scripture says that's the end of the road, and we find that in the message of the.
Seed that sown. You have the seed that falls into the wayside, well, that's the enemy. Direct attack of the enemy. That's Satan. But then it falls also on the the harder Stony ground. That's the flesh that resists the word of God. And then you have the the world in connection with that which is sown.
Among thorns is the cares of this life that.
That would hinder the soul from receiving the truth. Now I know that those three cases mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew 13.
That particular application to receiving the gospel, but I believe the principle is the same for the believer that there is such a thing as.
As allowing the word to fall by the wayside.
Or hardening the heart against the Word. And that's what happens when we allow the flesh to have its way. We will Our hearts will become hard against the Word of God, and we refuse to act upon it. And the result is there's no blessing in the soul.
Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they mean by your good works, which they shall, behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
I'm sure we all understand that conversation means far more than just our top. It means our whole manner of life.
And here it has to do with an honest walk before men, for the Gentile here speaks about those in the world.
And so the Christian is the upright.
And honest and not pull a fast deal of it or be.
Be known as a man that you can't trust. So that's commanded here and that speaks louder than words to the unbeliever. And so it says here that.
Though they may laugh at you as to your being odd and peculiar and.
From other people. Yet it speaks about they may glorify God in the day of visitation. I take that to mean that.
When?
Those who are watching the Christians and see that their way of living is upright and honest in God fearing way. When they're in trouble, who do they turn to?
They have a conscience, and it's softened and observed that it's the very peculiar people that maybe they laughed at when everything was going wrong in their lives, but when trouble and calamities happened, well then they turned to these very ones for help in the time of their distress.
Is that brightness to the meaning of the day of visitation?
Yes, I think it is.
They get into trouble. They realize they don't know what to do.
Thereafter. Which end? But they know where to go. They've been watching.
They've been watching The Child of God and they know where to go to get help. Well, I believe God has his way in that too.
God has a way of turning these people to the place where they can really get help for their soul.
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I remember a case down in Kentucky when our brother, Clifford Brown was first visiting us.
That he went into a Barber shop.
And the man came in a storekeeper and he says it's hot as hell. And Brother Brown just quietly remarked he said hell is an awful reality and gave him a serious word on the light. Way to use that word.
Well, years afterwards, several years afterwards, Brother Brown and brother Macmillan were holding a tent meeting in the country and this store keeper of Mr. Reed.
Got to drinking until he saw snakes in his boots and he was nearly beside himself. Well, where did he want to turn? He wanted to see Brother Brown and nobody else. He drove miles. In those days there weren't any gravel or paved roads, so he drove his Model T miles through the mud to try to get to see that man that spoke to him faithfully.
About the danger of hell, that was a reality. Well, why was it he knew that man was real? He spoke to his conscience. But until he got to drinking to in such a way that he got in such serious trouble, he was losing his business and his home was in a terrible disorder. And there he wanted to find some help in his need.
I suppose verse 11.
Refers more to the inward side of things, the inward life. But here in verse 12 it's the outward, the testimony to those outside.
God doesn't leave anything out.
He brings in everything that we need.
This matter of honesty is pretty rare in the world today too, isn't it? And one who would seek to conduct his ways in full. Honesty is truly looked upon today as being an odd individual. But what our brother Barry said is true. They they take notice of it. They know why such an one is trying to turn in a proper income tax return or whatever, whatever else it may be.
And these words are very, very needful. When we see dishonesty and cutting corners so terribly prevalent all around us, and we begin to wonder, well, are we really supposed to be that upright? Are we really supposed to be that honest and careful? Well, here's the unchanging word of God, and I believe it's well for us to abide by it.
Other Brown, also on time, said that we should make out our income tax with the judgment seat of Christ before us.
Our income tax report.
Maybe I shouldn't mention this, but I remember one time quite a number of years ago.
UH, businessman in the office.
Was transacting business with me and told me how to enter it on my books so that.
There's very situation would be a little easier for me.
And I said to him, you don't mind. I'd like to keep my books as though the Lord was looking over my shoulders. He got quite annoyed. He said. I'm trying to make it easier for all those I'm calling on. But you know, about a year later I got a long distance phone call from his secretary, who was a devout Roman Catholic. He said they've just taken Mr. So and so to the hospital for an emergency operation. And just as they took him out.
He asked me to phone you. He wants you to.
To to pray for him. It was pretty hard for her to say it.
But excuse the personal reference, but his true brethren, it's right. It's right here, isn't it? In the day of visitation, I dropped everything and went to the hospital to call on that man. And by the grace of God, he confessed the Lord before he underwent the surge.
01:00:16
Well, I suppose 1St 13 is connected with what we're talking about making out income tax and anything like that connected with the government.
And if we're trying to avoid doing what the government wants us to do, we're not submitting ourselves to every ordinance of man. And it's for the Lords sake, for the Lords sake.
Well, it dropped down to the 15th verse, for so is the will of God. That was well doing, ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
What a wonderful way to silence.
Attacks that's made from a believer. Not in words, not justifying oneself.
But just proving by one's walk and honest living that all their accusations are false.
What does that mean?
As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
How's that mean, Brother Lundy? I was wondering myself.
I'm sure you have a thought on.
Someone else has a thought on it.
We are never to use our liberty as Christians to defend our wrong action or position. You get something of that in Galatians, I believe.
The and Galatians the.
5th chapter.
In the 13th verse and, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty only. Use not your liberty for an occasion to the place, but by love serve one another well. The Christian knows that his sins are eternally forgiven. I'm saved. I have a clear title to heaven.
I'm not under the law, I'm under grace. But we should never take advantage of the wonderful place we occupy in grace.
To, as he said, to make a cloak just.
To neglect the.
Walk among men that's honoring to the Lord.
I don't know if I'm making that free that clear.
If a believer had a good reputation in business and others trusted him for his his attitude, and knowing that he used that very reputation to to do some underhanded deal, that I believe would be using that as a cloak, wouldn't it?
01:05:08
I think you've got the real answer, brother Miriam, thank you for.
Malice is also the first thing mentioned in verse one. It is not laying aside all malice and here a cloak of malice or maliciousness.
We do find ourselves surrounded by those who are spoken of in verse 16 as foolish men or, the new translation reads, Senseless men and perhaps if we're not watchful.
Even though we might outwardly conduct ourselves in an honest way, yet we might entertain malice in our four deceitful hearts against those who are spoken of here in the verses and even that which is hidden in the heart.
Is never, never, never to be left unjust, even though it may be a very.
Foolish or Anja situations that we face have excused the reference that I know of. We've all heard my father make again and again. Never go to bed with an unkind feeling towards anyone St. or Sinner, no matter how badly they treat you. And we may sometimes feel ourselves utterly condemned if we have malice toward a brother or sister, but perhaps fail to judge the malice that might be in our poor deceitful hearts.
Against those whom we feel are of this world and are perhaps acting in a very unreasonable way toward us, we're to judge even that, are we not?
Well then we get in the 17th verse. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Dear God, honor the king.
Would someone bring out what is meant by Love the Brotherhood?
Well, it's not what we're in as Saints of God. We're in the brotherhood.
Now there are worldly organizations where they use that very expression, a brotherhood of people, a brotherhood of men.
Well, they they lookout for one another. They care for one another. Of course, you're not in a worldly way, but very in a very sincere and earnest way too.
Here we belong to a brotherhood of the Saints of God. We're brethren, the Lord said, All ye are brethren, One is your master, and all ye are brethren.
Well, if we let the love of God really fill our hearts, we will love the brotherhood. Now the love of God has been shed abroad in our heart. That love is there. Divine love.
And we can love the Brotherhood.
But.
As Peter brings out here, if we allow now us and God hypocrisies, envies, evil speakings, this can bring in ruin.
That is, it destroys or hinders.
Our love from flowing out to our brethren.
In fact, these things are the very opposite of loving the Brotherhood.
Speaking speaking evil of our brethren, that certainly isn't manifesting love to our brethren. So we see we end here in this epistle. We get both sides up. We get God's thoughts about how we should go on together in contrast to the way the flesh wants to go on together.
I was thinking that little short verse.
The acted upon what happy Christians we would be.
For it covers quite a range of.
Honor all men those that.
Have to be respected. And then what Brother Anderson is bringing out about love? The brotherhood, then the fear of God.
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How important that is we think of of.
Of Joseph when he was tempted, well, apparently he could committed a sin. No one was there to see it. But he had the fear of God. He knew he'd have to answer to God if he was guilty of that sin, and that preserved him, although he had to suffer for it and become a prisoner. But God honored him and preserved him through it all. Well, how important that word is.
It God, God sees me.
That whether we're in the dark or in the light that there's a holy God that's looking down and he's marking all our actions and all our ways. So then the left side of things and then honor the king that's the subject to the powers that be. Well, one walking in that light of that verse is one that is surely in a very remarkable state.
Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, isn't it? That's the very first point that the thief brought out in his confession on the cross. He said to the other thief, Dost thou not fear God?
That's the beginning of wisdom.
For the for man and regardless of what.
Condition he's in, whether he's a Sinner or whether he's a believer.
We're the fear of God, are we not? And also that first part of the verse.
It's proper that we honor all men. I know it says honor the king at the end of the verse, but I was thinking of Paul when he was before Nero and the other.
Rulers. He gave them their place of honor, did he not? And I believe this is really what the Christian should show to all men. We don't judge their motives. We don't take up their evils. If they have evils, we honor them in the measure in which we can. And we're really not to speak against the ruler of our people either, are we?
Paul tells us in Romans chapter 13, the powers that be are ordained of God. And I believe we keep that in mind that any ruling and any power has been put there by God that helps us to be submissive to them, to honor them, to really respect them and give them the place that God has given them. But I think that's a good thing that her brother Lundeen brings out, that we can't bow to the evils.
That they might want us to do, like with Daniel. Well, Daniel respected King Nebuchadnezzar, but he wouldn't eat that food that was set before him because no doubt it was there was meat there that had been offered to idols and he wouldn't bow down to to that or stoop to that because it would be bowing down to an idol, as it were, and so he wouldn't partake of that food.
And no doubt it was food that had been forbidden by God himself, and so he was honoring God in that case above the word of the king.
Janya was in a peculiar position there, but he did something like Nehemiah.
He prayed first, and sometimes it's very difficult to make these decisions and spur the moment. But we find Nehemiah as he stood before the king. He prayed, didn't he? And so did Daniel. And.
He was preserved and and the king accepted.
This because the heart of the king is in the hands of the Lord.
As the rivers of water, eternity, whether so ever he will. Now I suppose the next verse refers to slaves, does it not, particularly as they had in those days and.
We find that in Roman history that there was a time when there was a rebellion of the slaves.
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It might have been at this time, I don't know. And they were executed on crosses, I understand.
Because of the rebellion to show the others.
That they will stop rebel against the authority, but here the Christian position.
A servant who's a Christian.
Who was a slave? He was not to rebel.
He was not to be independent, he was to be subject to his master and with all fear.
Because.
He was really doing it unto the Lord, is the thought, is it not? We give that another passage as well. Whatever we do, we do it unto the Lord. He did respect his master with fear, but still he had a master who was higher than that.
And whatever he did to his earthly master.
Was was that which he would do, or the Lord himself, if he was walking upright?
I noticed the comment that Ken Darby makes in his new translation. He says household servants not necessarily slaves. I take that to me that it could include household servants too.
As well as the slaves. So that would come right down to us, wouldn't it, in our being servants to to someone else. Now there are many, I'm sure in this room that are employed in different places by different ones, and in that way they are in a service serving somebody else, and so I suppose it could extend to them too.
Now we're getting near the end of our meeting. Perhaps we will get on to the 21St 1St.
Or even here unto where you you call, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps.
Probably. Isn't that when writing to the slaves to point out Christ as a pattern for his walk, not only for those who were successful in other circumstances, a master of the slave, but for the slave himself the price was a pattern for him, because indeed the Lord Jesus.
Took upon himself.
The form of a servant or a bond slave. Then, being found in faction as a man, he humbled himself.
So whatever path of life we may be in, the Lord has given us as a pattern.
For our walk.
We couldn't have a more perfect pattern, could we? And indeed he is writing to believers here and not walking in his steps as any thought of the way a Sinner gets saved.
I remember hearing of a man that.
Was a modernist, and he was insisting.
With a true Christian that the only the way a Sinner could get saved was by following the life of Christ, he said. Well, it's written that we're to walk in his steps. Well, said this Christian, have you taken the first step? He said. What do you mean? Well, what is the first step?
Who did no sin as you lived up to that? Have you ever sinned? No. He used to talk about walking in the steps of Christ to be saved. If you haven't taken the first step, you know you're a Sinner.
So it's only addressed here to believers.
The sufferings of Christ in atonement, as we have in the 21St verse, the 24th verse.
He bear our sins. But do you think Peter is also referring to what we have in the Psalms? That is, when we see Christ in the Psalms, often we see Him.
Setting a pattern for his earthly people in the coming day when there will go through the the suffering that that nation will experience in the tribulation period and he gives a pattern for them there.
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As to how they should act under these sufferings and trials that they pass through, we couldn't have any part in the 24th verse, but we could have a part in those sufferings for Christ sake.
And.
The persecution that will come upon the Jew. I'm sure that the Psalms will be a help to him in that day, but he'll see Christ then, if he's a real believer, and he'll see in it the pattern.
For himself as he passes through these trials.
It's really, isn't it? To see how.
The three great epistle writers, Paul, Peter and John, speak of the perfect, sinless humanity of Christ.
Oh, and the 4th chapter of Hebrews. He's Speaking of that great high priest. He speaks of his sympathy that he was in cried in every way but says set apart.
Well, John and his successful third chapter he said, who did no sin.
No, Peter says. Who did no sin, John says.
I'll just turn to it in the third chapter.
He fell.
The fifth verse.
You know that he was manifest to take away our sins, and in him is no sin or another translation is in him Sin is not well. John is always dealing with the nature, isn't it? He had a nature that was perfectly holy and sinless. But when Peter is bringing the Lord Jesus before us as a pattern.
He says who did no sin. He not only had no sin in his nature, but in his life he was perfectly sinless. Every act of the Lord was perfect.
Even in this submission, which is commended to us here, the Lord seems to have set a beautiful example. He could, of course, have come from the glory straight to the cross and accomplished redemption.
And return home again. But he chose to begin his journey at Bethlehem. He chose to grow up and to live in this world, surrounded by that which was so contrary to him in every way. But I was thinking of that occasion, when he was left behind in the temple, and his mother came back and found him and said.
Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
Well, Lord, the answer was wisty, Not that I must be about my father's business. He had said thy father and I as thought thee, and his reply was wispy. Not that I must be about my father's business.
He realized, of course, the incorrectness of that which she had just said to him. And yet how respectful is the reply that he gives? And then it immediately says.
He went down to Nazareth, and was subject unto them, Oh, I I think this is so lovely subject. Unto them there was the Lord Jesus, who at that early age could tell his mother, wished he not that I must be about my father's business.
He had received a rebuke from his mother, which was really not not quite called for or accurate, but he went down and was subject to them. Subject to his parents? Isn't that a beautiful?
Early indication of the precious pattern that he himself has established for a step by step through the whole journey, and were called upon to follow in his steps.
I think we should be well established in this as to weigh down expresses it in Him. Sin was not, that is, the Lord had no sinful nature. This teaching that is spreading in Christendom that Christ could have sinned and didn't sin is really an attack on the person of Christ. No, Christ couldn't have seen it.
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And his trial in the wilderness was just to bring out the perfection.
Of his holy nature.
Oh, we need that last verse.
We need the Lord as the shepherd and Bishop of our souls.
When we think of him as a shepherd, we think of the one that gave his life for the sheep.
When we think of them as the Bishop, we think of him as the one governs our line, directs our ways, and we need both. We need to think of him as a shepherd who loves the sheep gave himself for them, and think of him as the Bishop, the overseer of our souls. And we surely need to be need that oversight until we're home safely in the glory.
Oh.