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Umm.
How about you? I don't know whatever you need to do that. I don't know if it's, uh.
Umm, the retaining did anything? Yeah, they were called.
We look up to the.
We have sung our longing spirits cry.
And yet we feel all our failure, our feebleness.
Often, uh.
We walked by sight and not.
In the flesh rather than the spirit.
For that new life that thou hast given to us in sovereign grace.
That Newman.
That new creation which were part of laws.
Longs to be fed from heavenly springs.
Long to be fed with Christ.
Response to thy precious words.
Loves to walk in obedience to Thy will.
Loves to have Christ.
Or it's object and we do pray.
That Thou, within thy sovereign grace, grant us to be fed with food that is convenient for us, that would feed that you like we have in Christ.
Let us know our needs and all the circumstances of each individual pathway here.
And none of us is sufficient.
To give forth that that would meet those needs.
We thank either the sufficiency in Christ our head.
To meet those needs in this land of drought and dirt.
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To lift our spirits above this scene.
To give us the energy.
To the path of faith.
So we just look to thee, our eyes are haunting, as Thou art direct to the portion of Thy precious word that would be suitable.
Lord Jesus.
To think of that phrase, Lord of heaven and earth.
Oh Lord Jesus, we look forward to that day when thou be manifest to this world, not only Lord of Heaven, but Lord of Earth as well.
And I will set all things right.
We will not, uh, walk through a defiled fee and any longer.
Valid no longer be the one cast out and rejected, but the.
That son of man's supreme or overall things.
Our hearts only that now, Lord Jesus.
May it be real in a practical way in our day by day life, Lord of them.
So we commit ourselves to the looking, to the Lord Jesus as Head of the Body.
New Minister by every joint of supply that which is needed.
We thank you for thy grief.
Good evening, thanks our God our Father, and ask these things in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
This morning, you're a fervent.
The brother read to us from First Thessalonians chapter 5.
That is a lovely chapter filled with instruction through the breathing field. It may be profitable to look into that portion for the readings.
First Thessalonians, chapter 5.
But of the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as the thief in the night.
For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
Ye are all the children of light and the children of day. We are not of the night, nor of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and Fern helmets, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also ye do.
And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you and the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves.
Now we exhort your brethren, warn them that are unruly, Comfort the feeble minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesying, Prove all things, Hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearances of evil.
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And the very God of peace sanctify you holy.
And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
The times and the seasons.
You know, when the Lord was here on earth and the disciples asked him about that in Acts chapter one, the Lord said to them, it is not for you to know the times for the seasons.
That's because the Holy Spirit was not yet given. You find that in the second chapter.
Well, at this point the apostle Paul was not afraid, was he, to give to these new babes in Christ The full truth as to the revelation of God was revealed to him concerning the course of this world. What will take place after the believer is gone? And it certainly isn't that. A very bright prospect, is it present? We don't read in the Word of God that Christianity is going to convert the world and make it a better place in which to live. Oh no, we see things getting worse and worse.
And an awful time is in view for this world.
And evidently the apostle brought these things before the Thessalonians when he was there because he says, you know, it's not really.
Necessary for me to write these things, you know perfectly.
They should recall what the apostle Paul had told him that we are very thankful that it's recorded here.
So that we can know as well as the fulfillment who's prophesied in the Old Testament and read about it in Daniel Chapter 9. You know, uh, the dear servant of God was given to see what would take place at the end of time. And here it's confirmed to us in the New Testament as well.
Second of fiscal to Timothy.
Fall Rd. pulled past the form of sound words which thou assertively.
Another translation has have an outline of an outline I think of sound truth, And as Reuben was saying, it's encouraging to see that in spite of the little amount of time the apostle Paul had was easy in these converts, they had laid hold of an outline of sound truth.
And that's a very, uh, sound and useful way for us to learn too, is to get an outline of things and then little by little, meeting by meeting, week by week, year by year for Lord Carrie's week, add little pieces. Really, the Lord gives it to us. And if we have a, a sound outline, the pieces go into their proper place and our understanding deepens in our enjoyment, deepens of the precious things of God.
From Roost, do we look for signs and times or is our hope something different?
Or does this take place after the rapture?
Well, essentially our hope is in a person Christ Jesus, our hope says.
So we're really not looking so much for events as we are for the appearing of a person who has come into our lives and delivered us from so great a death.
Has told us He knows all about us and yet loves us thoroughly anyway, and has, uh, insured us that we're going to spend eternity with Him. Enjoy. And in a place where sin can never come. That's the believer's hope, what the Scriptures call the blessed hope. To be with Christ, to be with Him, and to be like Him.
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I used to be a little mystified when Brother Lundin used to tell us that prophecy concerned the earth, and the years went on, I understood better.
What he meant that God has a purpose concerning the earth, He's going to bring that purpose to pass.
The end of the ages, the Lord Jesus is going to come into this world and take his rightful place and rule over this world to God's glory and be a priest upon his throne in the rising of the sons of the going down of the Seine. The Lord's name is going to be like incense in every nation. And that's a wonderful, uh, anticipation that we have to see him finally have his rightful place. But as believers now we're really.
Not an earthly people were a heavenly people. We have a heavenly hope and.
And even our the essence of our life is heavenly was considered to be seated in the heavenlies in Christ and we wait for one who's going to take us to our proper place, which is heaven. And so even though we're waiting for the Lord to come and take us to be with himself, we're not unmindful and God does have a purpose with his earth. He's going to bring it to pass. And the apostle in the first verse here referred to those times and seasons that have to do.
With God's purposes with the earth.
Uses that expression in verse 2.
Yourselves know perfectly.
In the fourth chapter it was one of them, the Saints, who passed off. And Paul says, I would not have you to be ignorant.
Here's a different expression yourselves know perfectly you know the day of the Lord is mentioned at least 35 times in the Old Testament. If you turn like to the second chapter of Joel, the 2nd chapter of Isaiah, those chapters are just filled.
With the day of the Lord, that's the day of judgment, isn't it expressed in the day of the Lord is not the Lord coming for his own? Uh, that's the Lord coming in judgment upon this world. And uh, so he says here yourselves know perfectly that they would know from the Old Testament that meant repeatedly the Lord was going to come in judgment upon this world, not only for their sin, but to think that when finally the Lord says.
We love some saying they will reverence my son. Imagine the guilt attached to rejection of the Lord of glory. The day of the Lord is about to come, brethren. Now it becomes us to walk in separation and that which is under the judgment of God.
Sure, the residents all noticed that you have a change of the pronouns here.
Ye yourselves verse one and two, but verse three it changes. It's they them and they verse four, it goes back again, Ye reverend and you are. Some of these verses apply to the world and others apply to the same entirely different destiny for two two different groups of people. We're not of this world even as the Lord is not of this world.
The Apostle Paul had been a very short time with the Thessalonians and probably this is the first epistle that the apostle wrote and, uh, through persecution.
And the circumstances ordered of God, he was only able to stay there, perhaps just a few weeks at the most.
And so in the first chapter he rehearses how they had received the gospel.
And how it was known in the region all around that they had turned from dead idols to serve the living God. But it adds a he adds something in verse 10. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
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Those things they knew perfectly what they had to be instructed in was in chapter 4. And that's where he says, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, in verse 13.
The coming of the Lord.
In loneliness and grace.
When he was born in Bethlehem was his first coming. His second coming is when he comes in power and glory. He appeared here in Lonely Guys. He's going to appear again in power and glory.
And the Word of God only looks at 2 Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first has taken place, the 2nd is yet to come.
And so the Thessalonians had been instructed in the fact that there was a second coming of the Lord Jesus, and they were waiting for him.
They were waiting for him to come in power and glory, and when some died, when some fell asleep in Christ, their concern was they're going to miss out. We're here waiting for the Lord to come back in power and glory and to set up the Kingdom, and we're going to reign with Him, and these are going to miss out. They're in the grave.
And the apostle opens up to them.
That the Lord, when he comes is going to bring all His own with Him and this is how it's going to be accomplished. He's going to raise the debt. He's gonna catch up the living. They're going to then proceed with him in His glorious appearing in this earth and reign with Him in the establishment of that Kingdom. The seven-year tribulation isn't taken up here. All those things are passed over. It's just is coming and we're going to come with Him. It's as if the picture that the apostle gives is the Lord is on his way from glory to this scene.
And on his way, because he's going to bring us with him, he catches us up, catches us up to meet him on the way down.
Now we know from other scriptures that there is a seven-year at least seven-year period in the interval between when we're caught up to when he actually appears in the Lord, but that's how it's presented in this epistle. There's only one second coming of the Lord, but his others have said in two installments 1 to catch us up to meet him on the way to his appearance. Events transpired on the way to that period the.
No doubt the judgment seat of Christ, the tribulation unfolds in this world at the end of which He does appear in all his Saints with him. And that's what he's calling here. The day of the Lord that they knew perfectly. They were expecting His coming in power and glory and the day of man now man that's having his way outwardly.
But the day of the Lord, the Lord is going to have His way and He's going to set all things right. They knew perfectly that that day was coming. That day was going to come as a thief in the night to this world. When He catches us up, He comes and meets us as a bridegroom, not as a deep. That part of His coming is for the affections of the believer. We look for our bridegroom. The part of it coming in power and glory is also for our longing hearts to see Him have His rightful place. We long to see Him who was cast out and rejected finally.
Have his rightful place and it's the day of reward as well. For faithful service to this world. It comes as a feast.
In Sardis, in Revelation, the warning to them was that there was not a turning about from their pathway because of the empty dead profession of that church, that he would come upon them as the thief in the night as well. And so the professing church is going to share in the judgment of this world when he comes as a thief in the night. But will all true believers will already be with him.
1St chapter.
Uh, just to pick it up in verse 7.
Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall also conform you unto the end.
That you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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And then in the second official first chapter.
14 in the middle ye are.
We are your rejoicing, even as you also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.
So there are other passages which speak of a very wonder wonderful aspect of this time when the Lord Jesus displaces the 1St man and in power takes over the headship of all things on this earth that Stephen was speaking about.
The day of Christ, the day when all the upside down things that are exist now are turned right side up and instead of uh, evil being promoted is good and good being.
Presented his evil.
Things are seen in their right way and up is up and down is down, and light is light and darkness is darkness. And the Lord Jesus is going to be head over all that. And there's going to be a display of what God had in his heart all along for man. A display of what he had in his heart morally as to purity, as to righteousness and love. And then we'll be blessed by this in this period of time when God heads up all things on the earth under the Lord Jesus Christ.
Will last for 1000 years. I think it's 1000 years because Revelation, I think it's chapter 24, five, maybe six times it says the 1000 years, the 1000 years. So I'm not a brilliant person, but I take from that that it's going to be 1000 years.
And so God will.
Uh, afford himself, so to speak, that amount of time to display his own glory and his love for man in that way. But the transition from where we are today when men rule.
Into that time when Christ is heads over all things outwardly is a is a terrible transition. Time, which I believe the Old Testament prophets speak of, is the day of the Lord. It's a day of of wrath. It's a day of tumult.
In a day when the Lord bears the lighting down of his arm and he comes and he says in the, uh, in the prophet Isaiah, he stains the pride of all man's glory. And it'll be as it's just briefly referred to here.
The Lord coming as a thief in the night. Nobody wants to be surprised by Thief in the night.
There's the element of surprise that the Lord were to come during this meeting when it's not as a thief in the night that He would come for us. But when He comes in this world, there will be a series of events like the world has never seen. The world has seen floods and tornadoes and pestilence and famine and all kinds of war as the result of man's sin, but it has never seen the wrath of God from heaven.
The Lord Jesus tasted wrath of Calvary's cross, and this world has never seen God's wrath and they will see it in that horrible time when in, as I say for lack of a better word, in transition, the Lord takes that power to himself.
And he himself displaces the 1St man and everything having to do with him.
He takes his place as a priest upon his throne. So there's a certain sense in which the day of the Lord refers to that, those momentous times of transition, uttering, ushering in the wonderful time of peace.
The day of Christ, the display of things that are good and blessed.
He uses the figure in that third verse of.
Sudden destruction coming upon them as travail upon a woman with child. It's a figure that everybody understands worldwide. I don't care where you go, they all understand it. Connection with childbirth is suffering. Uh, that is childbirth. Notice these children born. I believe that there will be a great multitude of.
Gentiles as well as Jews that will be saved to get that in the 7th chapter of the revelation, out of all nations that will be saved during the tribulation, a child will be born at this time. Uh, it will be a different gospel today. The gospel of the grace of God is being proclaimed, but then it will be the gospel of the Kingdom that the Lord is coming to set up his Kingdom here on earth. Primarily, we'll probably use his Jewish presence to initiate the preaching of that gospel.
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And they'll go forth everywhere preaching, and many will believe that that the Lord is coming. And, uh, they'll show their faith by the way they receive those messengers that the Lord sends forth. And, uh, they'll be born again and they'll enter into the earthly Kingdom, I believe, uh, a time of blessing coming out of great tribulation.
The Lord speaks of those days to the disciples, and he says man's heart will be failing them for fear for those things that are coming upon the earth. And so there's an expectation.
Upcoming judgment for the thought of a travel of a woman in, uh, labor, as well as that. Once that begins, there's no reversal, there's no escape. Once in the grip of that process of Labor and delivery, it's not going to stop.
They say peace and safety, but it doesn't say there is peace and safety then sudden destruction. It's just that they say it.
And so isn't that what the leaders of this world say today? Isn't that how they get their votes? They get their followers? They preach peace and safety, but they have no power to bring it about. There's only one who's going to bring that about?
What a interesting.
The touching thing it was when the Lord set up Israel as a nation.
Gave them their inheritances and assigned cities of refuge in different places so that a person who.
I think it says killed someone unaware that is an accident happened.
And they were entitled to flee to the city of refuge.
Uh, suppose.
You know, we're two of us are working together and inadvertently the axe head comes off where someone is accidentally killed. Family not understanding may desire vengeance upon that. Who killed our brother, our father or my husband? Well, the the person who experienced that, who had that happen can flee to the city of refuge and find shelter there.
Until, uh, it says the depth of a high priest.
And so it was, So it is really today that the Lord Jesus himself is that city of reference. When Paul writes to the Hebrews, he uses that very analogy. He says Ye have pledged for refuge, to lay hold of the whole which is before you.
And so it's God's desire that not any would be would be lost. God's desire is that all men would be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.
So the Lord Jesus stretched forth, stretches forth his hand all the day, and entreats men and women and country after country, day after day, to save themselves from this condemned world that is doomed to experience this sudden destruction, and individually to flee and to find shelter in the city of refuge, which is Christ.
The Lord Jesus encourages all to come and says Whosoever shall call upon my name shall be saved. You won't turn aside a single person who calls upon him by faith. That's the gospel, the good news of the grace of God and the Sinner today. There comes a time when sudden destruction overtakes, grows.
At that point the solemn Scripture will be true of them, that they shall not escape.
There's an escape available now. It will not be then they shall not.
Psalm 100 and thir 105, verse 38 says Egypt was glad when they that is the children of Israel who parted.
In the in connection with our passage here, they will say peace and safety. Don't you think, Reverend, that the world will be happy once we're gone to think that the Christian, you know, like a foreign in their side, we're proving.
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Telling them their ways are sinful, that they must repent, that there is no good in man. I think they will be glad when Christians depart from the scene are taken up to glory just like the Egyptians were urgent upon the children of Israel to depart unless they all be dead men. You know, I don't think the world will miss us once we're gone, but neither will we miss the world and they will be entered into uh, faithful give place to sight as we just sang and it said, you know, we won't have to exercise faith any longer. Everything will be visibly.
Before us.
So verse 4 teaches us that it's not just our destiny, it's our present place.
Love and often think of that part of the hymn in the little clock, where it says we stand accepted in the place that none but Christ be claimed, like the Gospel tract. But if we stand where the fire has already been, place of safety.
So it's not just that we have safety as our destiny, but we're safe now.
And one of the wonderful truths of the gospel is that we're safe already. We're accepted already. We have as a present possession already the forgiveness of sins if we put our trust in Christ. And God would not have us live in fear of our acceptance. He wants us to know that it's been settled when we put our trust in Christ. So. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness.
That that day should overtake you as the thief.
You're not in that place anymore that we once inhabited. We've been taken out of the Kingdom of darkness and we've been translated into the Kingdom of the Son of his love. And even though he, you know, you may work in the city and take the subway and bustle your way down the sidewalk or, or go to a, a large high school where there's kids coming and going and you don't look any different from anybody else in general, but you're in a different place. God sees you now.
As a child of light, if you're a believer and you are in the light in a place that your next door neighbor or the boy or girl the next desk over is not in if they're not in price.
Again, you see that illustrated, don't you? And with the Egyptians there in Exodus chapter 10?
And uh, verse it says in verse 23.
That there was darkness in all the land of Egypt three days, verse 23. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days. But notice the end of that verse. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. Well, President, we're not in darkness, are we? Uh, God has been pleased to reveal these things to us as our present position.
And enjoyment through it is by, it is by faith. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but uh, we believe this by faith. And God has been pleased to tell us what's to come upon this world, that we need not be fearful either. The Lord is able to keep in perfect peace. The mind that is stayed on him should be so thankful for the Bible.
A sister once asked me and I'd like to ask the question.
I think she's been reading perhaps this passage and not understanding what we've just been talking about, but she said that asked me, uh, do you think we should be getting ready for the tribulation? How would you answer that question?
This church period that we live in.
As I get we touched a bit on earlier forms. No part.
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Of the times and seasons that have to do with this earth.
It forms no part of the prophecy in the Old Testament that has to do with this earth, including the Tribulation.
And though we see things about us that do remind us.
Of what is yet to come on this earth, we see, uh, Israel back in the land and unbelief, not under the power of Messiah. We see the, uh, states of Europe coming closer together in a sort of union.
Yeah. Do you know tomorrow all that could fall apart. Israel could be driven back out of that land. It could go back to what it was.
100 years ago.
There could be 20 states in that union tomorrow, there could be 30 in it. The next day it could go back to two.
The prophetic clock has not yet started, and none of those things that we see form any part.
Annie Park.
Of the prophetic word of God.
And so it'd be pretty useless for us to prepare for the tribulation, even if we looked around and we saw things that seemed to remind us of what is to come, we're going to be caught up out of it. And so this epistle wonderfully takes up that very thought from the first chapter.
Which hath, who hath delivered us from the wrath to come? That is not eternal judgment in the lake of fire that he's Speaking of, that they were delivered from. That is the wrath of God that is yet to come upon this world, because of what they did to his beloved Son.
And they've been delivered from that wrath to come.
And so I believe too in verse nine of our chapter, for God hath not appointed us to wrath.
But to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the thought of we have a present possession of salvation. Now we read in Ephesians that this is salvation from coming judgment.
Not only are we delivered from the raft to come, God hasn't even appointed us to it.
We're not going to pass through it.
Death and judgment are behind us. Christ bore it on the cross, and we're never going to endure the wrath of God, and we're never going to stand before Him in judgment.
We're never going to stand before him and judgment, even like those sheep and goats in Matthew chapters and 25.
That stand before the Son of Man in his glory to find out what their eternal destiny is. We know what it is now. We're not going to even stand before Him in judgment. In that way it's behind us. It would dishonor the work of Christ on Calvary. Whoever thinks that we are going to pass through.
And under the wrath of God, all we may feel the wrath of man, we may endure all kinds of persecution and tribulation and suffering for Christ and for righteousness and maybe even for our own failures. But that's not the wrath of God. That's not the judgment of God. No, we've been delivered from all that.
7853 Revelation chapter 3 and verse 10.
I also got to keep it from the hour ago and he said which will come upon all the world pride us as well, all good.
Illustrated in the Old Testament with Enoch and Noah. Enoch being kept from the flood, being transported to glory, and Noah, a picture of the Saints who will be kept through the tribulation, right? They go through it. But our portion is is that of Enoch. We'll be caught up. We see that picture there.
So in the fourth verse here where it says ye are not in darkness.
The thought is not a question of ignorance, it's a question of your moral condition, right?
That we are safe. That we're in the light.
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That we have peace with God and that we have been put into a new position.
Not a question of our knowledge about things. It's a question of what Christ has already done for us.
I've often thought, Robert, you know.
Weather a St. Christian knows it or not, this is their position in Christ. How many there are who feel they can lose their salvation but they really are trusting in the shed blood of Christ. Whether they feel there they can be lost or not, they're still going to be with the Lord in glory. You know, they should know it. You know, I don't see how they can preach the gospel if they're not sure of their own salvation, but yet they go out and preach the gospel and.
Temerity.
But, uh, this is our position in Christ, as you say, and we should be wise as to it, you know?
My own heart was converted by where it talks about the children of life. Question I want to ask my own heart is how much do I walk in that life? It's likely children sing in Sunday school this little light of mine after many nights.
That brings us, I guess, to verse 6, doesn't it? The word, therefore.
The pattern in the New Testament epistles in general is that our standing is put before us first.
And all that Christ has done for us and all the privileges and blessings that pertain to that, and then the practical responsibilities.
And are presented in exhortations and admonishment.
Following that, so grace has put us into this wonderful place of light and love.
And so in verse six, it says therefore, in light of the fact that we've been put in such a place.
It becomes us and not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober. There's different ways that the word sleep is used in the scriptures and even in this epistle.
Verse seven for they that sleep sleep in the night is natural sleep that everyone will experience tonight hopefully.
Lay down and sleep and get up in the morning.
And then there's the sleep that is referred to in the previous chapter, where if the Lord takes my life and I die, I'm looked upon as asleep in Jesus. It has to do with my body.
The real me who I am, goes to be with the Lord, and it would be said of me absent from the body present with the Lord.
But as to my body?
Sleep and so there's that sense too but here in verse six therefore let us not sleep as do others its moral and if I forget what I'm really all about I forget who I am and who I belong to and the price that's been paid for my redemption and.
Then my practical life will show that I have forgotten, and I will slip down in the tone and character of my life and my thoughts and my attitude to be like, uh, another regular person of the world. Except I'll probably be more unhappy.
And so that is looked upon as being morally asleep.
You remember that in the voyage that Paul took at the end of the book of Acts, he, he stood forth and he made that pronouncement and said, whose I am and whom I serve.
The Apostle Paul was in the good of of who he belonged to and what his life was really all about, essentially.
When we lose that sense, then we we morally slip back and we're looked upon, even though a true believer, as being asleep.
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I think in Ephesians chapter 5, where that exhortation comes the weight. Verse 14 Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from among the dead, and Christ shall give thee light is an exhortation to that very.
Condition that I might some fearlessness let myself get into.
I might look even though I am sleeping. I might look like a dead person even though I'm a believer morally. I may look like the world.
But the the goodness of God.
Like it says in Psalm 23, he restoreth my soul.
Same thought is brought out in the tenth verse.
Quoting through new translation who died for us that whether we are watching, we should always have that blessed hope before us present or sleep as you were bringing out Bruce. If we passed out of this body. You know the Christian is always seen as being asleep in Christ. Our friend Lazarus sleeping now whoever we're still living, watching we're asleep. We should live together with him. So you have those 3 definitions of sleep right in this very chapter, don't you? It's often been said that.
Words find their meaning by their context though. Uh, these words, sleep mean different things according to the context of the word.
Well, instead of sleeping in verse six, we were exhorted to do 2 Things, to watch and to be sober.
I don't believe the main force is to watch.
And to awake every morning to every day to have that.
Possess that hope is a real thing in our hearts that perhaps today could be the day when, uh, faith will be laid aside as an unneeded thing and I'll be ushered into the presence of the Lord and, and see him face to face. My whole earthly career will be over and yours in a moment.
And like the hymn writer says, forgotten then, in glad surprise, will be our years of weeping.
So we watch for him, but I suspect.
Primarily here the plot is watching.
Uh, ourselves and as a guy I used to work for always used to tell me.
Get about this far from my face at times. And he says, son, pay attention.
And then I see Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he, he'd get me again, something that he'd almost grabbed my chin. He says. I'm I'm telling you, son, you need to pay attention.
It was George, I said. George, I got it. Well, I guess he perceived that I was distractible and he knew that what we were doing for work was somewhat dangerous and he wanted to be sure I had my wits about.
Well, we need to have our wits about us as believers too.
Peter writes to the Saints as well, in joining us. To be watchful and to be sober. For Satan himself walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist, steadfast in the faith. A similar thought.
So we need to be to be sober and to watch what we're about because there are pitfalls, there are dangers. There are things that can cause us to dishonor the Lord, cause us to incur, uh, sorrow and unhappiness.
That is not easily remedied in this light down here.
We're also to watch out for one another.
So in Hebrews, there's the uh.
I can find it real quick. Uh, I think it's in Hebrews 12 verse 15.
00:55:07
The early part of Hebrews 12 looking under Jesus.
And then in verse 15, looking diligently.
Keep our wits about us to keep our feet under us, so to speak, spiritually, but also for our brethren. Am I my brother's keeper? Yes.
You are uh, sister. The other day copied me on a letter she wrote.
To someone who had criticized the local assembly and she said one of the things that she said I enjoyed was that I value the sense of accountability that I have in the meeting where I go gathered together to the Lord's name. The sense of accountability where people know me and they look out for me and and they're not afraid to check up on me. And that's a wonderful thing, looking diligently.
Not casually, but diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God.
Failing of the grace of God is not repeated before hitting your thumb with a hammer and saying a bad word. Failing of the grace of God is losing the sense in your soul that God is for you.
That he loves you. He is 100% for you in everything that he is.
And that the circumstances in our life are allowed from him from his point of view of love interested in our.
In our thoughts, In our moral character. In in who we are and who we are becoming.
And if we lose that sense of God being for us, then bitterness comes in.
Bitterness is a is a tough weed to get rid of.
There are many warnings in the evening.
Thistles to the Saints.
Be careful that bitterness doesn't any root of bitterness springing up trouble you thereby many be defiled.
These things are in opposites to each other. Having the sense of grace in my soul.
Bitterness. So we need to look out for one another in that respect. And I'm sure there are other things which we that you would think of under the exhortation to watch.
Verse 11 May look very much wherefore comfort yourselves.
They look very much like 418 where for comfort one another but it's not.
It's a much stronger word if you have the new translation, it says wherefore I adjure you.
Now to adjure someone, that's the same thing as it's like putting someone under an oath. Remember, the high priest adjured the Lord Jesus Christ to answer him, put him under an oath, and the Lord did reply here, the Saints were adjourned to edify one another. That's something Brevin that has to be impressed upon us. Uh, in the 13th chapter of Revelation, it says suffer.
The words of exhortation, we don't like it when someone gives the word of exhortation, but here he says, uh, even as also you do. Evidently this was their practice there at Thessaloniki.
Minister the word of God to one another. And it was necessary, wasn't it, that they they bring the scriptures before them because it's very easy to turn aside. There are few admonitions later on in this chapter.
I don't know if we'll get to that later on, but uh, even you take the Ephesians where fall gets in the highest truth concerning the church, and at the end of that chapter, uh, he has to reprove them. We're constantly reminded, aren't we, from that we not only have all these things in price, but we have the old nature that has to be kept in the place of death. We have to be reminded of these things.
141.
Nsnoise.
Good morning.
Somewhere and I'll be able to grow up.
Go to bed.
01:05:02
Read a verse in the Revelation.
Revelation, Revelation chapter one and verse 3.
Rita's and they that hear the words of this prophecy.
Those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand to mend ourselves to the Lord.
Our blessed God and loving Father.
We thank Thee for this reading meeting that we've just had. We thank Thee for Thy Holy Spirit leading Thy brethren and guiding us.
We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for all the blessings that thou have blessed us with.
Set our ours in thee.
Thank you for bringing us into thy wonderful family. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that we are the children of light.
Lord Jesus, we thank Thee that we are not of the night and that we are not of the darkness.
But we are children of the light, we are children of the light, and we are children of day. And we thank you for this, Lord Jesus, and we thank you that we have the light of the Scriptures to guide us and to see the pathway.
For us to to be a light and a lamp unto our feet. Lord Jesus, we thank you for this and alight to our path Lord Jesus and we just pray that thou continue to give us grace and guidance for the remainder of the day.
We thank you for all the doubts.
So we just looked at me, Ukraine, we ask you and I know the most precious and worthy name, Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, Amen. Amen.