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#218.
So.
Every time I saw a Christian.
Also 160.
#161.
Forever with the heart.
And soul of heaven and being. So I am crying.
Verse 14.
First Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 14.
Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly. Comfort the feeble minded, support the weak, Be patient toward all, 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.
In 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 appearance of evil, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved, blameless unto 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. Amen.
Just want to mention rather than rule had something special in his heart from John 17. Perhaps we can get through these verses in time to let him.
Get what he has on his heart. I think that would be good. These are short verses and I think we don't have to.
Get hung up on anything here.
They may be short, but they're profound, those seven things.
Are life changing but I totally agree with you.
In his writing speaks to these Thessalonians and he says we exhort you, you stirring them up, brethren, to warn them that are unruly comfort the feeble minded support the weak patient toward all He gives these little Nuggets and as we know when we live in this scene, we're affected by sin and everything that is.
Built or set up falls into disorder, it just decays, it falls apart and so you know the Lord Jesus in his love for his Saints is he brings out in verse 12 Those that were being oversight shepherds of God's people and the motive is love for the Lord, love for the Saints and now there might be some disorder that would creep in and he says to speak.
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To speak, to warn them, to really stir those up that are causing the difficulty among the people of God, those that are unruly. I believe the word is a military term and it's not walking in rank with your brethren, not walking consistent with the character of what it is to walk together. And so he says to warn them. That's the work of the.
Those that are in oversight comfort the feeble minded or the faint hearted. Those that are perhaps discouraged, disheartened and just about to give up, strengthen them and have a view of having a.
Have the eye out for those that are perhaps faint hearted. Support the weak. Be patient toward all. Now that's particular instruction to those that are perhaps in oversight. But it's good for all of us to recognize that these little excerpts are necessary. Now remember, the apostle Paul was speaking to this. These young Christians, they were just saved. They were just newly gathered to the Lord's name. He doesn't.
Try to correct them and correct any errors or anything. I don't think there's anything corrective in this epistle, but he just gives them little Nuggets to help them to oil the wheels, oil the chains, just oil things so that they'll run smoothly. And so it's the kindness of God that we can have this care for one another in this way.
Somebody likes to stir the pot.
There was a brother years ago in our assembly and he was funny guy and.
He used to say things to kind of get something gone, and sometimes it was funny, you know, and entertaining. But he had been good at that as an unsaved person. But now in the assembly, he would do that sometimes. And I remember talking with him and I talking to him and say, you know, yeah, sometimes it's funny, other times not so much. And you're entertaining yourself, maybe at the expense in a way that.
Isn't profitable because there are people that get offended by things like that. And I remember him taking it to heart and realizing, well, wait a minute, you know, why am I doing that? You know, for my, just for entertainment purposes. Well, if you're doing it in the assembly.
Maybe not the right place and I I know people that have a funny bone in them and they, they can do that kind of thing. But if you, if you hear about somebody and you hear somebody say they like to stir the pot.
It's often not a good thing.
And you know that they, for whatever reason.
Just seemed to want to do that kind of thing. If somebody says black, they say white. Well, that's not a good thing. It's not a good thing amongst the Saints to be doing that.
Says comforts of faint hearted in the Darby translation. And then there's a lot of people that are discouraged and we need to be sensitive brethren with our brethren and and be a help in the right direction. If there's faint heartedness, a wrong word, perhaps a strong word of exhortation is going to knock them down. So let's be sensitive as to the needs of our brethren.
Fun to make your helmet out of an overarching, overarching observation. Picking up from the end of verse 13 and then verse 23 last phrase and be at peace among yourselves and the very God of peace sanctify you holy.
And many of these things that are brought out in connection with has been a smooth assembly functioning and or as well as individual relationships. This matter of peace personally in your soul is extremely important. And what is peace? Peace is a nature that is at rest in the satisfaction of having everything that it desires.
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A dog has a nature. You give them a nice sunny front porch, a full bowl of dog food and water, a nice rug to lay on, and he curls up in the sun and that is a picture of peace. His doggy nature has everything that it wants. He scratch his head, he just thumps his tail.
We have two natures.
And if our passions.
And our will get active because there's something we want, there's something we want to correct that irritates us, and it begins to just consume us. Why doesn't this circumstance change? Why does this brother have to act this way? Why does this sister have to do that? And if we wake up thinking about it, we go to bed thinking about it, and we want to change it.
And our passions and our will are active, and we have no power.
To satisfy our own passion and gratify our own will. And it is a total lack of peace.
Now the one I'm irritated about might be going on just peacefully, but for me it's a total lack of peace.
But I have a new nature.
And that new nature is given everything that it needs from God, and it finds that satisfaction.
And those things that God gives if I exert my will enough and.
Maybe Satan gets involved and I get what I want now I've got it. Am I at peace? No, because I don't have it with a good conscience. And so I go warn that brother. That's a difficulty. But I'm irritated and I finally act in my own self will and I drop the hammer. Well, I fixed it. Am I at peace? I'm not at peace. I got what I wanted, but I don't have it in a good conscience.
Everything that God has to give us satisfies that new nature that we have without any twinge of conscience whatsoever. So he's the God of peace. He is the one who supplies everything that that new nature needs. What is it to be at peace among ourselves as to resign my will?
Being at peace among ourselves starts with me resigning my will and leaving it with the Lord. Then I can warn the unruly because I'm not coming from a place that doesn't have any peace. I can comfort the faint hearted because I'm coming from a place of peace.
And all of these things that unfold, the God of peace supplies what we need. There was a man named Ammon in the Old Testament, and he wanted a woman named Tamar, and he wanted her so badly.
That he began to pine away and lose weight. And he had a friend. We heard about good friends last night. He had a bad friend named John and Dan. And John and Deb says, don't worry, Ammon, I'll fix this up for you and you can get what you want. Well, he did. But it's after he got her. He said he hated her. And the hatred where he hated her was more than the love that he had loved her. He had no peace.
In the satisfaction and gratification of his own will. And he lost his life two years later. We want what God wants for us, and only in that way are we going to have peace. We have to resign our own wills. The God of peace will supply it.
Get yourself back. Elliott's thinking of others and the good of others, isn't it? And I find in our country, brethren, we are self-centered. That's the way our whole advertising system works, To think of yourself, what you want, what you can get.
Even Christ please, not himself.
Here's the creator of the universe. He did not please himself. O brethren, may the Lord help us. And so in these things it's thinking of others, warning them that are unruly, comforting the big hearted, supporting the weak, and be patient toward all. And then verse 15 see that none render evil for evil unto any man.
Whatever, follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. Well, how important these are to think of others. Get outside yourself. We need to be delivered from ourselves, brethren. We we are. I often say to young people, we're dead bearing and risen to grin with Christ, a person that's dead and buried, that you go out and dig them up and see how they're doing once in a while.
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No, you leave them there. Just leave them there. Our life is on the other side and our life is Christ. And so when you look up into the glory, we can say that man in the glory, that's my life. We have the we have Scripture to show that that's my life. Oh, brethren, to be delivered from ourselves is so beautiful.
It's also the fact that we don't have the wisdom to be able to deliver ourselves in some of these situations, and some of these situations will never be fixed until we're safely with the Lord. And so he presents the Lord's coming, but not to avenge ourselves that I was thinking of Romans chapter 12 here it says in verse 19, Romans 12, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place under wrath.
For it is written, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst give him drink, for in so doing thou shalt keep coals of fire on his head, and be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Well, we don't have time to expound all of that, but really the Lord is the one that has the right, the authority to exact vengeance. And in His governmental way we have the confidence. If we have faith, we have confidence in His ability.
To render correct verdict in the situation that might exist and we don't have to try to solve it ourselves. And so isn't it nice to just trust the Lord in faith with some of these situations that develop and not to exert our wills and interfere in the wisdom of God, the purpose of God for allowing that particular trial.
When you were bombarded with communications, you can get alerts on their phone and occur in a public area. You hear a beep in a ring, and sometimes you wonder if it's your own phone because the ring might sound the same. We are bombarded, but as Christians we have the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, and we need to build gateways to good and barriers to bad. Gateways to good and barriers to bad. There's about a dozen here. Between verses 14 and 23. You turn to Romans 12. There's about two dozen, so.
Sometime I would recommend reading Romans 12 and then I Thessalonians 5. There's over 35 different instructions. They're very short, sometimes three and four words, but they're very, very important. You know, people use home remedies to try to fix problems. We need to use divine home remedies again, barriers to bad, gateways to good. God has given us His word. His word is living, is powerful, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the dividing of soul and spirit sometimes.
We don't know what our problem is. A few weeks ago I knew there was something wrong. I couldn't tell my wife. Immunology pill. I tried some other thing. Finally, a few days later I figured out what it was, but I couldn't figure it out. Sometimes we need an MRI or an X-ray in a spiritual realm. A loved one a few years ago had an MRI and it turned out there was something the size of a grapefruit and it was just an accumulation of tissue and water over more than a decade and it was removed. There was it was completely benign. There was nothing wrong, but it needed to be corrected.
We need those divine X-rays and MRI's in our soul and in our experience and that's what these scriptures are. Rejoice evermore. How important is that? We need to live in daily happiness and joy in the presence of the Lord. We can rejoice no matter how dark it is, how offering, how often and Peter and James is suffering connected with joy. You want more joy. God may bring suffering because I believe often it's suffering because the flesh suffers and then God can pour into the cracks, into the holes, into the the piercings.
His doors, Jesus said to his disciples, I give you my joy, and my joy no one takes from.
God has given us everything that pertains to life in godliness. He's given us it all. We need to take hold of it, lay it, and apply it wisely. I really enjoy thinking brother, and that there are two verses in our King James Bible that have two words alone, and I like to put them together. Jesus wept. Rejoice evermore.
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Put those two together.
And I like to think of these rather than verses from 16 forward, They're, they're really commands in the New Testament sense of the word commands. He doesn't say rejoice ever more if you can. No, just rejoice evermore. Hey, how does that work when you're going through serious trial?
You know, I've often thought of fallen Silas in the prison there.
Philip by their blacks bleeding their feet into stocks and.
It doesn't say they sang right away. It wasn't until midnight that they sang praise. They prayed and sang praises to God. Can you rejoice in that kind of a circumstance? Is that a possibility?
Yes, it is.
And I say this, brethren, God has set us in such a position of favor before Him in Christ, that even the things that seem to be negative can only and always work for our own good.
And so in that impossible situation, God shook that prison and loosened all the.
The bonds of the prisoners.
And fall in silence, Come out of that prison with trophies of grace the the Philippian jailer at his household. What a tremendous thing, brethren, to realize we have reason to rejoice evermore. Look at Philippians because Philippians was written in a Roman prison and there was a lot that Paul could have been down about.
But notice what he says in verse one of chapter 3. Finally, my brethren.
Rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you. To me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
Notice chapter 4, verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord.
How often?
Alway.
Did you hear that, brother and sister? The Lord again I say, rejoice.
Yeah, we do have problems here, and I don't think we can ignore them, brethren, but the point is, if we consider that place of favor that we occupy before God in Christ, there's no way we can do anything but rejoice.
This is the command, brother. Let it be a reality in our hearts.
Being a command.
Turn to Philippians chapter 4 for a couple of verses and then we'll apply them to our chapter and to the exhortations that are given.
Philippians, Chapter 4.
You'll notice the first one has to do with the peace of God. So you can look for those words and what I read verse six. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. What's the consequence? And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
What has already been said? These things have to do with the will of God.
And here in the first the peace of God is enjoyed in the soul, when the will of God is submitted to.
And the peace of God.
We can have that same peace that God has about a matter when we submit to what the will of God is in that even if we don't understand why we still submit as this is the will of God. And if we do submit, then the consequence in our souls is we will enjoy the peace of God now.
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A little different aspect of it is found in the God of peace.
And that if you go down to verse nine, it says.
These things which he have both learned and received and heard and seen.
In me do.
And the God of peace shall be with you.
What's the keyword there do?
There is. The God of peace is with us.
When we do, Bob used the word command and in our chapter, these exhortations have the character in a New Testament sense of a command. So turn to our chapter and I'm going to just use the words that we've just had these things that you've heard and seen and so on in me do and what are they? They had seen it in the apostle Paul.
In his short time with them and now he's giving them these exhortations.
And so he says, rejoice evermore. Why does he say that? Because it's the will of God.
It's the will of God and if there is submission and doing.
There will be the peace as a result because one finds communion with God in doing his will. But there's conflict when I don't because God isn't with me in it. And so these somewhat simple exhortations have that character. He says pray without ceasing.
It's the will of God.
Do it and you will receive the benefit and blessing that he intends from it. In everything, give thanks. And in fact, he reinforces what we're just saying in it. He says this is the will of God.
In Christ Jesus concerning you and so on it goes on with the rest of them as the same character.
We know you need to remember too, that there are sorrowful situations even in this epistle. He says we sorrow not as others which have no hope. And so there are times of sorrow. And our sister Irene is sorrowing, her husband is with Christ, and she's glad that it's far better for him. But there's sorrow, there's something. So the Lord here, he speaks the Spirit of God brings before us the rejoicing evermore. That's the normal.
Course of life for a believer. There may be some exceptions, some situations that cause sorrow and so on. And the Lord grieves with us. The Lord Jesus wept as you read. Jesus wept. But the normal course of a believer should be a course of rejoicing and happiness. And so the believer should be recognizable on the street in every situation of life because he's rejoicing. His face radiates Christ, but he's also in the spirit of dependence.
He prays without ceasing, and so he's not on his knees 24 hours a day, but he spends time privately with the Lord in secret. But then he has the display of a spirit of dependence upon Christ, upon the Lord. He doesn't take out, reach out and take things that he hasn't received from the Lord, as it were. He depends upon the Lord in every circumstance and so.
These simple little instructions were given to these new believers. They were tender hearted, they had affection for Christ, they were waiting for His coming. And this is the spirit of how they ought to have been living. And He just gives them this little incursion. Isn't that wonderful? And so when we get older in the path of faith, we sometimes forget these things. So these three things really go together to rejoice evermore, to pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
So to have a joyful spirit, a dependent attitude and then a thankful spirit, it's opposite of what is existent in this world today.
The scripture mentioned seven things, and now brother alluded to these who are 7 things. In here we see seven things mentioned. The 4th should bring to our attention often to some sort of.
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Lovin or evil if it's not done properly in the fourth one. So as in the case of seven churches, the 4th church is Thyatira. In the case of seven feasts of Jehovah, you'll find that the 4th one was the meal offering with Levin in it, although it's been baked. And the seven parable will find that the middle 4th one has 11. So in this case a brother mentioned the three already.
And it was the will of God.
Then the 4th one is a quench, not the spirit. It's a mistake or it's a problem that we often fail that we may quench the spirit. It's difficult and I think some other can expand on it more. I often liken the verse in scripture. It tells us not to be like a horse nor a mule.
Because I can relate to both where sometimes we just want to go. I have so much to say. I want to say it now. Just like that race force, you put them behind the racing gate, it wants to go. And someone has to remind him that that the race hasn't started yet. It has to wait for his time.
And then there are times that would could be like that mule, pick me all you want, I'm not going to move. So we need to relate to that and be dependent on the Spirit of God. Should there be a long wait, maybe should be. Should there be something the Lord lay on your heart that you should speak up now I would encourage during the lunch hour and the break. Many younger ones have shared with me many wonderful passages.
And things that we didn't talk about, I'll relate a quick story. I've been there. I was one of you that didn't say anything. I'll show you. Did this with a brother Bob Bauman. I jumped on him one time. As a brother Bob, you should have mentioned this, this and that and that too. And brother Bob Bauman looked at me with a straight face. He said that was good, brother. You should bring it up at the next meeting.
So it's true not to quench the Spirit. It's important. Another seven things that's in the middle, the last three or the next three, if you really look at it, you can. You cannot do it without the Spirit helping. You see, we should see the whole Godhead involved, that God's will. Now the Spirit help to bring the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ out. So there with the Spirit's help, then we can prophesize.
Don't despise it. We can prove whether it is so from the word of God. And then we are told to abstain from evil. No, I don't think that's what he said is that abstain from all appearance of evil. And young people, they're often the phrase and our children used to use that. What's wrong with that? Tell me what's wrong. We can't always say what's wrong.
Because the appearance of that, sometimes even the spirit of that statement tells us that there is some rebellion spirit involved rather than staying what's wrong. So stay away from even the appearance of evil and be obedient to the Word of God.
In our chapter it says in everything give thanks.
Ephesians 5 and verse 20 says giving thanks always.
For all things and to God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So not only in all things, but for all things. And I must say rather than I have found it a real help in my own Christian life when something happens that is fairly negative to say. Thank you Lord.
I remember one time I was heading east from their West Coast with my four kids in the car, barbed flew and we were just out of Pocatello, ID and it was the winter time as following the truck and a piece of ice came off the top of that truck and flew right into my windshield. Just shattered it. Ever.
I didn't know how to react.
My first reaction, my kids told me afterwards, thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Now, Lord, help me. And so I was able to pull it over. But I was amazed, Brother, what happened? You know, when a truck's ahead of you, you generally doesn't see what's going on behind it. But that guy saw that happen and he pulled right over. It was a Pepsi truck. And he and he came back. He says, you guys all right? He said yeah.
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He says, I'm going to call my office, and he called his office and he says if you go to this address, we'll put you in a new windshield right away. Yeah, we we're delaying two or three hours, but it didn't cost us a thing to have a new windshield put in. Brethren, it helps to just accept every situation from the hand of God and say thank you, Lord, in everything. Give thanks and giving thanks for all things. This is important.
This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
And then what you were mentioning about Brother Dave Quench, not the Spirit, how important it is. Notice the Spirit is in capital. It's the Holy Spirit of God that dwells in US.
Is there to guide us not only in assembly meetings, but he's to guide us individually every day.
Cultivate the sensitivity as to the presence of the and the spirit of the Spirit of God in my in our hearts brethren, because he's there to guide us and he will give you direction that you need the Lord help us to be exercised about this.
The verses 9 keys 20 and 21 give us what our proper response should be.
To the work of the Spirit in our lives. And this too was really in connection with these young believers. They have when you're lost, you're living under the influence of the enemy. And more than we would understand, we're under the influence of the enemy, particularly when we're lost. We're slaves to sin and so on. But when we get saved, if we walk in communion with the Lord Jesus.
Independence upon him, and we have that spirit. We're rejoicing in the Lord.
The Spirit of God will be at liberty to guide and so.
Our response should be not to quench the leading of the Spirit, perhaps in gospel work or whatever it might be. But then there's another response that says in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 30, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.
Whereby, oh, chapter 4, verse 30, I'm sorry, whereby we are, ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. So grieving the Spirit of God is doing something that He didn't ask you to do and sinning, perhaps in a way that the Spirit has spoken and you have resisted and you have pressed your own will and gone ahead. And so these things are just in the tenderness. You can just see the tenderness of the apostle Paul.
And speaking to these new believers and saying the Spirit of God is going to try to work with you and don't quench that spirit. Just allow him to do his work. Despise not prophesying. So he's going to use individuals and they're going to prophecy. We might just look at the First Corinthians chapter 3. It's not a complete.
Definition of what prophesying is.
But it is a partial definition. Chapter 14 of first Corinthians. It says verse three. He that prophecy us speaketh unto men to edification. That's a building up in the things of God. Knowledge of the Scriptures exhortation stirring up the conscience is engaged then comfort, comfort of heart. Those three things particularly. But then if you look back in.
Or ahead to I'm sorry, back to Colossians. I think it's chapter 3 in Colossians. It says that we should be speaking with hymns, speaking to one another, singing, making melody in our hearts.
I can't find that. Maybe some verse, chapter 3, verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And so there are different aspects to the work of prophesying.
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And God knows how to use the word of God and to raise up individuals to prophecy, and they don't tell us what we want to hear.
They don't speak soft things, but they speak on behalf of the Lord. And so that's why the sisters cover their heads at a hymn sing is they may be prophesying, singing and the teaching and the admonishing of the Saints and so on. It's a part of the prophetic realm. And so then there's prophecy and we're to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good. I might prophecy something that's not true, not right, not according to the word of God, while we're to prove what we hear by the word of God.
And 1St Corinthians 14, the prophets speak two or three and let the others judge, not judging persons, but judge what is being said. You've got your Bible open in front of you. Is that really what it's saying? Look at it and it will be in the line if it's the right teaching. I must say, younger brethren, I want to say a word because when I was young.
I remember accompanying Brother Clem Buchanan in one of the trips and a brother spoke in a meeting and I didn't particularly like what he had to say at a centric Brother Clem Buchanan. Afterwards, when that brother speaks, I can't really hardly listen very well. He looks at me and he says despise, not prophesying.
That was a good correction for me.
He says you may not like him, but he might be saying something that you need to hear. Listen. And God uses sometimes instruments that we least expect. He used the mouth of a donkey to reprove me, disobedient prophet.
Brethren, bless not despise prophecy, but then like you say, Robert, prove all things hold fast that which is good. So we test it by the Word of God, and when we see it in the Word of God, then it's cemented into our hearts and souls. And then I think it follows on abstain from all appearance of evil, as something comes up that has the appearance of evil.
Abstain.
Think of being led by the Spirit as a brother who speaks. But then we too should think of other things. First of all, how can you be LED, especially publicly, if you're not at the reading, at the regular meetings? And I say this because we know when we go home, sometimes we find it difficult to be at all the meetings.
What happened at the prayer meeting? Should you be there?
Is the spirit they're guiding.
What about reading meetings or maybe a special meeting called for different purpose? I say this as an encouragement. You know, it's interesting. During COVID, I don't follow the US as much as Canada. We have people fighting, saying it's not good that Sunday churches are closed. They were fighting for it. You know, I'm not here to debate right or wrong because I know there are going to be different opinions. But my thought immediately turned to it was that how come they're not fighting to be at the prayer meeting or the reading meeting?
Where is our heart? Those are the prayer meeting is an assembly meeting. And as the old brethren of all used to say, in a sense that's the temperature gauge for the assembly. And you might say, well, there's so few there. Well, I think that's why you need to be there.
Well, there were many there. Well, that's why you need to be there. You should be at the prayer meeting as well.
Many conversations with young brother about this very thing. He had a lot of things to say about the problems and difficulties which no doubt were true.
But I said, why don't you be part of the solution?
But I related to him when I was in my 20s and the Lord restored me and I was back in meeting. I didn't come Wednesday nights very often.
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Brother Carl McCoy won Lord's Day morning after meeting, said Brother Sam, why don't you come to the Wednesday night meetings And I said, you really want to know? And he said, yeah, he could have laid into me his ability to do that, but he did it.
And I said to him, because the prayers don't get answered here, there's something hindering things in the meeting, the way the meetings are. I said at work, I pray with the Baptist brother and this evangelical on that one, and the prayers get answered that afternoon or the next day or the next week. Nothing gets answered here. That's how I felt.
Brother Carl said to me. He said, well, you know Brother Sam, he said, I guess then that's what we should be praying about.
And he said, would you be there next week? And I said, OK, And he started the prayer meeting next week. He mentioned a little bit about that. And he said something's hindering things here, brother. And he started off and the prayer was unbelievable. He just poured his out to God about what is hindering. All the young people are gone. Everybody's gone. All this stuff and it's dead. It seems dead. Well, if you're a young person, it's hard to go to a thing like that.
But he could have said to me, well, be part of the solution, and he kind of did because I was there the next week and I saw something take place that was authentic and real. And our brother Carl was. He just poured out his heart before God. And, you know, things began to change after that.
But I was excusing myself in a way that I shouldn't have been. But there can be a hindrance in our meetings, and those who are, are there. Maybe you ought to think about that. Maybe there ought to be some prayers about Lord. What's hindering things? What's holding things back? What is keeping young people away? Are we driving them away? And if things start changing, you'll want to be there. And after that, I did want to be there because I watched that there was something real taking place, that God was moving.
The Spirit of God began to do things and I was amazed. And he's able to do that. So there's another side to it.
And we should prayerfully consider that verse 23 and 24 kind of summarize all these exhortations. The very God of peace sanctify you holy and I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body, that's our entire being.
They preserve blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I look at that verse. I say, how in the world?
Can that happen? How can I be blameless? There's so many little fallacies in my personality and my actions. But look at verse 24. There's the answer, brethren, Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it? It's not a matter of my faithfulness, brother. It's a matter of his faithfulness.
He's going to work it out, and He is working it out in US. And so the Lord give us that confidence that on that day when we appear before Him in glory, spirit, soul, and body will be found blameless before Him. Oh, brethren, what a tremendous thing it would be. In that day. The Lord exercise our hearts, not only our body, but our soul.
And our spirit, in every sense of the word, we need to be sanctified. Sit apart for him.
The world refers to this order, doesn't it? The world you'll hear the expression in the world, body, soul and spirit. And so they pay little attention to the spirit. But the spirit is God conscious. It's the intelligence of the intelligence of man and his God conscious person that part of them. And his soul is his emotions and what he likes is he dislikes and then embodies physical.
Appreciation, ability to physically.
Enjoy this world or exist in it. The world wants to forget the spirit, but the order here is very significant, spirit, soul and body. And so we need our thoughts. It's a marvelous, you know, you should think of the tenderness. The apostle Paul to speak in this way in the Spirit of God leading him. The spirit needed to be right for everything else to be right. The Spirit 1St and then the soul, the emotions and then the body.
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In chapter one.
Genesis, a man in his own image and likeness. God is a tripartite being is.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and so He made us in His image and likeness. I sometimes say to the brethren in South America, the plant creation as a body, but has no soul nor spirit. The animal creation has a body and a soul. They can they have their likes and their dislikes. They can show affection or a lack thereof. But ask a dog about God. There's no.
Spirit there to have any sense of God or his his existence. It's only man that is spirit, soul and body.
Our time is gone, brethren. I would like to turn it to dawn, please. The last half hour we got here. Please don't you go ahead with what you have in your heart.
Let's turn to John, chapter 17.
I'm going to make remarks, but I don't intend to take 1/2 an hour's worth of remarks. And so after I make what's on my heart, I would leave it open for others to share from John 17 according to what the Lord may give them.
We've had.
This weekend and the reading meetings and occupation with the Lord's coming and practical exhortations that would characterize our lives in view of it and give us a hope for the Lord to come and.
The This morning, what brought this chapter before me particularly was this morning we had three. We sang three different hymns.
But the character of all three hymns were really in the spirit of a prayer. All three hymns we directly address. Lord, we can see by faith in Thee a prospect bright, unfailing, and so in spirit, if we were singing them.
As I trust we did, our hearts were lifted up to express to the Lord what our thoughts were in a hymn.
Which is in the spirit of a prayer. All three of the hymns had that same character.
Of direct address.
It's important when we.
22 songs, if you will, that we opened this meeting with. We're not of that character. They were spiritual songs and they were reflections that we were making on our thoughts that we trust were formed by the Spirit of God. But John 17 to me is a wonderful reverse.
And I think a very encouraging way to end our reading meetings on the weekend. What's John 17?
Well, in John 13 through John 17, the Lord Jesus is anticipating the time when he's going to be separated from His own. And so he begins to prepare them for the time when the disciples and others, ourselves included, would not be with him and where He is. And so he concludes that preparation.
With his prayer for us.
And so I think it's important for us to see what the Lord Jesus has prayed and is praying his Spirit with respect to what we've had this weekend. And it's not our side of it. We ended up the reading portion with it's God that works. And here's the perfect you appreciate. We were told to pray for one another.
Don't we appreciate this morning that the Lord Jesus is praying for us?
Who better could be praying for us this morning than the Lord Jesus? Who better could anticipate?
His coming and how he feels about it. We've had an experience over this feel about his coming and what our thoughts are as to our hope and what that hope is. What's his hope And to me if we let him.
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Tell us, as he does in this chapter in his prayer. It's a prayer.
And so I just like to look at a few things that the Lord Jesus is praying.
Then and today, for you and I, in anticipation of the moment in which he's going to give a shout.
So he says and just get the context in chapter 17 and verse one, these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come glorify thy son and the beginning of the prayer he is speaking to the Father and telling the Father and recognizing with the Father that his work here on earth that he came to do for the Father.
Is now come to a conclusion as Son of God, he could refer to it even though he hadn't physically yet been on the cross. That comes in a couple of chapters. But he prays to his Father and says, Father, I have glorified you on the earth. I have done the work which you gave me to do, and now you glorify yourself.
And so he begins that way. In verse six he says, I've manifested thy name unto the men.
Which men?
He says The men which thou gave us to me.
Out of the world.
You look at yourself this morning that way.
Do I?
I'm a person that God gave to his son and He's going to pray for me.
And you, he's going as he does here, speak for us in that context.
He cares about those that God has given him out of the world.
And so he expresses that.
And so he says.
Thou gave us the mate and so on, and expresses the thoughts. I'm not going to try to go verse by verse through the chapter.
He says in verse nine. I pray for them.
Can you leave the room this morning and with the consciousness that he just prayed to God said I pray for brother so and so and sister make it personal.
Lord, I pray for Dawn, I pray for Bob and so on. I pray for Mary and so he.
Thou hast given me those who thou hast given me. They are thine. Oh, that's a wonderful thing. He can speak to his Father and say you've given him to me. And they're mine, but they're yours too. And so we look. He's praying for us as belonging to himself.
And belonging to his father.
Better to belong to.
Is it possible? Can you imagine anybody you'd rather belong to than God the Father and God the Son?
So he says.
Verse 11, part of the prayer that is for us as we walk out of this room today and head back to whatever our other activities of life are.
He says.
They are of the world, Holy Father.
Holy Father, that's his character of his Father. And what does he ask for us in connection with it? He says keep.
Keep those that thou hast given me.
He wants us to be kept.
So.
Thus, prayer we could ever ask for to leave this room is that the Holy Father keep.
Verse 11 Through thine own name those who has given me.
The we we speak about entrusting one another to the care of the Lord.
Our Lord Jesus has the same character of his prayer. He's entrusting us.
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To Holy Father to keep us, and so he says.
Umm verse 14. I have kept them.
And the world hated them.
So what is he going to want for us? He kept them while he was here.
But he's not going to be here anymore. And So what is his prayer for us?
We weren't in the same position that these words had to do with his 12 disciples and the others that the Lord had given him and that he had part of his pathway. But his desire, as we see later in his prayer, was, does he say Lord take him out of the world? No, he doesn't. He says, I've given them thy word so they have it.
And that he then says, I pray not. Verse 15 Thou should take them out of the world.
But thou should keep them from the evil. That's the prayer of the Lord Jesus for you and I this morning.
Not to take us out of the world yet.
But to as wholly keep us from the evil. So we had an exhortation this morning and.
Abstain from every appearance of evil, and so on. We were given practical things on our side of responsibility that would contribute, if you will, to this end result.
Verse 17. Sanctify them through Thy truth, by word as truth.
What's been happening for the last couple of days?
What's the process that's been going on when you and I have been sitting here for several hours reading the Word of God and meditating together on it?
We're fulfilling this prayer.
Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth. If we have been accepting what the truth of what has been given to us over this weekend in this prayer and this, these meetings, it has a separating, a sanctifying effect because God's Word is pure and it is that which has that character for us.
Verse 19 for their sakes.
I sanctify myself.
We had earlier.
Your life's where your heart is. Where's your heart?
Your heart, at least in measure and the desire of God completely would be my heart is totally wrapped up in that person where he is outside this dirty, messy, sinful world. And so the object of the heart being I set myself apart. He does, He has, He is set apart. He's not here anymore in this sinful world, but by being where he is and being the object of our hearts, then the occupation with him.
Is a separating purifying.
Activity of his that's embedded in his prayer.
To give time for others, I'll just quickly go down maybe to.
Verse 24 Father, here's the desire of the Lord Jesus. We talk about his coming.
We've been occupied with the anticipation of the hope of it. What's his prayer about it?
What should he pray for us concerning his coming?
Father, I will.
That they also.
Whom thou hast given me.
Be with me where I am.
Does that tell you something about his coming?
You and I have a hope formed to look forward to that coming.
Does he have a hope?
Yes, he does.
Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given thee.
With me where I am and what will be the result?
Of that desire of his heart we've already had. There's nobody more patient waiting for the coming than himself. He's waited for it a little longer than anybody in this room.
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Ever has or ever will. And yet He patiently waits. And why? It's wonderful what he puts in attributes, if you will, to our hearts, when He says that they may behold my glory.
Why is say such a thing?
Because He knows that when you behold His glory, it will be the supreme satisfaction that you will ever realize.
It will perfectly, completely and forever satisfy the greatest longings of the human heart of the new man. And so to behold His glory. It's love that He has for your soul and mine, that He would have us. Behold that glory of Himself that is His alone as Son of God, that is His as man, given by God to have.
And so.
Uh, I'll stop.
Let others.
Could you explain further Dom the two?
The two.
I don't know if you'd call it titles, but that the Lord.
Uses in verse 11 and verse 25. All the rest of the times it's just Father, but he says Holy Father in verse 11, righteous Father in verse 25. And maybe I see how Holy Father fits a little bit more with keeping them.
But why is why does he use those two titles, and why are they appropriate where they are in the Lord's Prayer?
Yeah, that's not. I don't really want to. No, I've never.
Complete that I feel free to put out so I would appreciate help. Maybe anybody might be able to help.
Verse 11 I believe the importance of the holy is the keeping from it's the character of God who is holy and it is His desire that we be kept consistent with his character of holiness and He recognizes the risk that there is in a world that is unholy and hates holiness.
In Romans chapter one, the world did not want to retain God in their knowledge.
Because to retain God in man's knowledge is the conflict that I don't want to do the will of God. I want my own will and it's a sinful will. And in fact.
There is a measure in which when the believers are gone from this world the will, the world will breathe a sigh of relief.
Because that influence for holiness will be gone.
And temporarily, man will be happy that you're no longer here.
To bother his conscience if you live a holy life. And yet we're constantly in danger of being drawn into it because we still have the flesh in US.
In James chapter 2 I'll make this comment about unholiness. In James chapter 2 verse one, it speaks about flesh and desire.
And, and, and it's pretty significantly important. We know what the flesh is. It wants to do its own will, and it's a sinful will.
In that verse where it speaks of our desire, it's important to recognize that flesh gets satisfaction temporarily out of what it does.
Man does sin because he finds, at least at the moment of doing it, he has satisfaction in what he's doing. And Satan uses that. And he sins because he's doing it in a way that sometimes in its right context, is the right thing. And God put the desire there.
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That which is moral and within the marriage is a fulfillment of a natural pleasure that is of God and is wonderful in its place in the man woman relationship as husband and wife. But there's desire satisfied in it and man fulfills that desire and adultery and other forms of it, but you can't say there's not a satisfaction in the doing of it. Here. I'm going beyond verse 11, but it's the sense.
Of a Holy Father that needs that he's praying to a Holy Father in that need that we have to be separated from the sense of evil.
But I believe in the verse 25 when it's, O righteous Father, that the day is coming when the world will know and recognize that God has always acted righteously and all his affairs with man and His place with man having to do with the earth.
He has been perfectly consistent in all that he has done, but the world doesn't know it. And so he's saying to us, but you know it.
You know it.
And he recognizes that we recognize when we are made the righteousness of God in Christ as we had in the Saturday night gospel, when we are made that part of what we are learned is the truth of the righteousness of God and how that righteousness is satisfied. We understand it as a people, but the world doesn't. The world has no real clue of what righteousness really is.
The operation of the earth and the governments of the world. We pray that they would.
Act in the fear of the Lord and act righteously, but we recognize and practice.
That very often the governments of the earth are anything but righteous in their character.
That the flesh and the desires of man dominate rather than what is.
Right managing the affairs of the world.
That is interesting to hear John John 17. There are two things that are there to help sanctify us rather than the 1St is in verse 17/17/17. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.
Important to you young people. In the day in which we live, anything goes. People think truth is relative.
Brethren, when it's here, thy word is truth. That is not relative, that is absolute.
And so truth is absolute.
I think the problem is sometimes when people look at us who fail in our testimony, they say you say you have the truth.
Look what you're doing.
And so they call it in question, and maybe they might. If we are the reference point, we are not the reference point. The reference point is God's word. And of course in the Lord, the Lord Jesus said I am the way. Is that true?
Is the truth in the absolute sense of it, beyond which there is no appeal, how important it is to get that settled in your souls, young people, in the midst of a world where, say, that's just your idea?
It's not just my idea, it's what God says in His Word, and I must go by that. But I think it's important for us to keep the focus of ourselves. So that's one of the things that sanctifies. I want to ask you young people, do you read the Scriptures on your own?
You have a time when you open up the Word of God and read it for yourself, just you and the Lord. I just want to encourage you to establish that habit in your life. It's so important that will sanctify you. We live in a world that everything we hold true is being challenged. And so here's something that is absolute.
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Thy word is true.
Read it constantly. Read it consistently. I say. Don't just jump around in your Bible from one side to another.
But read it consistently if you start Matthew's Gospel.
Wherever you stop reading market and then keep on reading from there, read through the Scriptures. That way you will understand it much better. But Scripture has a sanctifying effect and that's what we've been talking about in in First Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 23. But there's another thing here in John 17 that I think is beautiful to see. And I think Don mentioned it, but I just want to focus on it a little more.
Verse 19, he says, for their sakes, I sanctify.
Myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth. Now that's His work of intercession at God's right hand. He has set himself apart in the glory to pray for us. And it's that we might be sanctified. That's why it's so serious for a child of God to get into sin.
You are more responsible than a person of the world if you sin, because you are sinning with that one.
Pleading for you at God's right hand and I don't pretend to know what he says there he says father there's Bob down there he's getting close to temptation keep him don't let him get into that and if I purposely.
Get into it. I am far more responsible. So remember that you have one who is interceding for you at God's right hand every day, every hour. Oh, what a precious thing it is to know. So there is reason that we should be sanctified, set apart, holy for God. That's why in our present day.
Against believers is to undermine the very idea that truth can be known.
That you the very idea that you can hold it in your hands, that it cannot be known, this idea that there are no absolutes, Bob said. There is, there is apologists one time.
Well, you quoted the word, but I heard what you said and it's the truth because you're repeating it. An apologist had AQ and a one time and somebody said in the Q&A there are no absolutes.
Said to him, Really, He says there are no absolutes. Are you sure?
There are no absolutes. Are you absolutely sure?
And all of a sudden, the guy paused and realized he just defeated his own argument. I want you to know that, young people, it's that easy to defeat some of these foolish things that people come up with is to push it out to its extent. Francis Schaeffer in the 70s wrote about those things, and he coined the word then that he had to coin just to make a debate with somebody or a discussion. He called it true truth.
The Word of God is true. True. It's what actually is. It is objective.
And you can prove that by pushing somebody with those kind of statements. But if you've been convinced you can't know it or that you have a sword that's made out of rubber, how do you fight? Don't let them do that. And much of the stuff on the Internet that tries to to suggest to people.
Older sister up in Iowa Falls who whose grandson keeps coming home with stuff from the Internet. He's got her doubting whether she can trust the word of God now.
Well, it's a lie, and it doesn't take long if you think it through a little bit to realize it is a lie. There are absolutes. That which actually is true is what reality actually is. And this idea, you have a truth, I have a truth, he has a truth, she has a truth. It doesn't fit the real world and no one lives that way anyway. You can point to an atheist or somebody that tries to say that. Do you live that way? Do you live as though truth can't be known? No, you don't.
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In your practical existence, day by day, they don't live that way. It might look good on a philosophy paper, but it doesn't work in real life. You know you, you think you can alter truth. Try jumping off a four story building one day, convincing yourself that you can fly. It doesn't work, not unless you provide yourself with wings or a parachute. But truth can be known. And if you believe that truth can be known, then when you do learn some things, it has a practical effect. It is a sanctifying effect. It has an effect on changing behavior and how you do.
I'm going to tell you a quick thing about a young believer who just told me this recently, he said. Something's going on in me.
He said I never used to do stuff like this. He said I was driving along and I could see a young woman running towards me. It wasn't dressed very well, covered very well. He says I never did this before. I put my hand up as I drove by. What did I do that I know why? Because he'd learned something and the Spirit of God had him put his hand up and the Lord showed him something. So Brother Bob, when you quoted that, who will do it?
He will do it. What's our side to cooperate with that by faith, right?
The fathers I notice in verse five had actually begin by saying, oh father, and I think that's how we are like when we first learned from the word of God, Oh father, we realize there is a father now. I think the Sunday school verse is that this week or last week I can remember Proverbs 9.
And tan give us a hinge to the next one. Proverbs 9 and 10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Many of us know that verse very well except we stopped there. There is there is a semi colon. We learned that it says after that and the knowledge of the holy.
Is understanding. It's good to know the word of God, but it's also good to learn what is holy.
Once you learn to holy, we now recognize there's a Holy Father now times gone, but you look down further. The Lord pray that that we be in him and he be in God. When we realize and learn to look at things from God's perspective as well, not just ours, then we can address him and understanding he's the righteous Father.
300.
By 325.
Because they could comment before we write.
17 verse 24.
The Sun's desire here, Father, I will, that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.
Why, that they may behold my glory, which thou has given me. We've talked a lot here about natural relationships and natural desires, and one of those desires is we have a desire that we would be known that there would be someone that would understand us.
First Corinthians, chapter 13.
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First Corinthians chapter 13, the very end of the chapter. For now, we see through a glass darkly.
But then face to face, now I know in part. But then shall I know?
Even as also I am known.
The Lord has asked us while we are here on this earth, to remember Him in His death.
To remember the suffering. But in heaven He desires that we see his glory.
The glory of the Creator and the glory of the Redeemer.
That's his desire, that's his thought for us to be with him, to hold his discord.
Look for that.