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172.
Will teach us more of thy blessed ways thou holy.
Of God 172.
Oh, Gee, oh.
Praise God.
Could we also sing the last two verses of number two, 25225 versus 4 and five? What air thou deniest? Oh, give us thy grace.
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Read a few verses.
In verse and Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 45.
Verse 5.
And seekest thou great things for thyself?
Seek them not.
In the book of Psalms.
Psalm 34.
And verse 3.
O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name. Together I sought the Lord, and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears.
And invert and Chapter 27, Psalm 27.
Verse 4.
One thing if I desire to the Lord, that will I seek out.
That I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord is too quiet in this temple.
Prayer Meeting two different portions out of Second Corinthians, Chapter 4.
Were read in.
One we have.
God having a message for us and Satan opposing it.
To keep us from entering into that which God has for us. And in the end we of that same chapter we have a contrast between temporal things or present things and eternal things. And I would suggest that perhaps would be the mind of the Lord for us to consider that chapter.
That's very good, brother Dawn. I had exactly the same thought. You took the words practically out of my mouth, so.
I would just add an Amen to that.
Chops together.
2nd Corinthians chapter 4 beginning at verse one.
Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commanding ourselves to every man's conscience.
In the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves.
But Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants, for Jesus sake, for God who commanded the light to shine our darkness.
Hath shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
That the Excellency of the Power may be of God and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair.
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Persecuted but not forsaken.
Cast down but not destroyed, always the bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body, for we which live are always delivered unto death, for Jesus sake. That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal plush. So then.
Death worketh in US, but life in you.
We have the same spirit of faith according as it is written, I believe, and therefore have I spoken. We also believe, and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up also us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you for all things.
Are for your sakes.
That the abundant grace might through the Thanksgiving of many redone to the glory of God, for which us we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us.
Are far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not for the things which are for the things which are seen, but are the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
What's being brought before us in this chapter begins in the previous chapter, and I just like to make a connection for us back in chapter 3.
We won't dwell on it, but.
In verse 14 of chapter three, we have some words that are spoken about the Jewish people.
The children of Abraham and it says in verse 14 but their minds were blinded.
For until this day remain at the same veil, untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ.
Even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, but we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.
Are changed unto the same image from glory to glory.
Even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Verse 14 where we started it says their minds were blinded. In the chapter we just read, we have the same thought expressed in verse 4, the God of this world that blinded the minds.
And I just want to emphasize that point as we begin and that is.
It is very possible probable that there are people sitting in this room who are blind.
And if you are, you are blind, because you have not yet seen in your heart the Lord Jesus and who he is and what God has provided for you through him.
The Jewish person who read the Old Testament scriptures, it says his mind was blinded because he didn't see Christ, God's son, in those words, those scriptures and when the Lord Jesus came.
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The only way the blindness or the veil over the eyes could be removed.
Was when it said the veil is done away in Christ, as it were. God opened the veil. God opened the curtains, so that in seeing the Lord Jesus Christ the blindness might be turned to sight and they might see. And in our chapter Satan is working. He would work with every soul in this room to blind your eyes and mine.
To seeing God's beloved Son.
And God, on the other hand, is working in this room to open the eyes of our hearts, if they aren't already.
To see the Lord Jesus Christ and who he is and what he means to God and what God means him, wants him to mean to us. And we trust that by the power of the Spirit of God this morning, whether we're young or old.
God would enable us to look upon the glory of the person of the Lord Jesus, and if we do as it says in the last verse of the previous chapter, God will work in us to change us.
To actually change what we are, that we might enter into the fellowship with God and all that God desires for our good.
Christian ministry is to look up into heaven and see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's our position here on earth. We look up into heaven and that's where we get our ministry from. All blessing comes from that that source. There's a comparison here.
In this, in this chapter with the previous chapter of the Way, Moses went up and saw the glory of God.
When he at the time he received the 10 commandments, and when Moses had been up there 40 days, when he came down the second time, his face shone. His face shone because he'd been with God. It shone so bright. He had to put a veil over his face because the people couldn't contemplate it. It was a glory that could not be beheld.
At that point of time. But now the glory can come out in the openness and fullness in the Christian ministry. And so Paul was one who was caught up, saw the Lord in heaven, and he commenced to us that ministry. And so it is what gives us power to be the function is to.
Get into God's presence to behold the glory of the Lord.
And then from that position we are able to go out and minister, that's the Christian ministry.
It's quite interesting. Here we see we are reminded about the mind. In this case, these people of all the minds were blinded. And then we see here in the first verse of our chapter we see the word we faint not. I like to connect that with the verse we know very well in Hebrews chapter 12. He's turned to Hebrews chapter 12. This will read movement.
Chapter 12 What I'm going to do is I'm going to read the latter part of verse three, and then I'm going to read verse two and three together, the latter part of Hebrews 12, verse three, he says. Lest ye be we read and faint in your minds. It's kind of interesting how scripture here talk about fainting in our minds.
We know that when once, from the physical sense of painting, we know when someone is weary, we can see it on the faces. We know when someone is so weary that they're ready to faint, we need to help them. In fact, often in a case when when when we are weary and ready to fade, we find that we not at our own strength.
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To deliver ourselves, we know one of this illusion often is to get food and water to help ones who's weary. And if you ever been weary, you'll find that you don't feel like eating, which is what you need the most. But here it says that lest he be weary and things in your mind. How many here perhaps we can see that are weary.
Physical weariness we can see.
But whatever the weariness in our mind, I share that with a brother one time and he look at me and he said, you're talking about me. I said no, I was just sharing this portion. He said for years. And I was weary, but nobody knows that. And then not just weary, but stained, or how we need to be careful and help. 11 Another there, perhaps some here who are weary.
Why do you think we have problems in our lives? Why do you think that? There seems to be no way out of our difficulties. We become weary and faint. Now let's go back to the beginning of these two verses and see perhaps the solution is already there. Let's read verses verses two and three together with a portion that we just read verse two, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher.
Our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him that endure such contradiction of sinners against himself.
Lest he be weary.
And fade in your minds. Our brother just finished expressing that the help we have is from above what we need help. We look up to where our help is here, I believe. Please express it even a little bit better than we can with our words. Look unto Jesus, oh why are we fainting? Why are we weary? Is it not because often we forget to look up from where our true resource is?
Have we forgotten to look here, Look unto Jesus, Oh the author and finisher of our faith are your faith. Are you really and doubting in your faith? Here's one who is the author and finisher. We have the previous chapter in Hebrew here, Hebrews here that talked about all these faithful men of all and the example of it all. It's not our topic here to go into it this this morning, but here, the one who would give the little measure of faith.
That we have. We know faith, Thomas, by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Here's the one who is the Word himself. He is the author and finisher of that. And what did he do? We have to look and be remembered by the joy that he had before him, that he paid the great price to redeem us, to draw us, to bring us into the family of God.
And when we consider him, brethren, we are to consider him, and when we do, the contrary happen, lest he be weary and think in your mind.
Well, the word. Here in 2nd Corinthians 4, we get the same word, and anyone can look this up if you have a mind to. But it's the same word in the original, at both the beginning and the end of the chapter, and it has the thought of becoming discouraged or losing heart.
And the apostle recognized the tendency to that. And as our brother Dawn has brought out, it's mentioned twice in the chapter because there are reasons why we can faint and why we shouldn't faint, And that's why I believe this chapter is particularly important for us today.
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There are different ways of looking at Corinthians, but I would suggest something that I have enjoyed and that is in the first epistle the apostle has to address many different problems, and one by one he goes through those difficulties in Corinth and exercises their hearts, in some cases having to tell them the remedy for it. But finally at the end of the chapter he uses one final.
Piece of bad teaching.
To bring out, I believe, what was really on his heart, and that is a risen Christ in glory, the resurrection of Christ, and all of the wonderful results of that going right on into the eternal state.
But then when he writes the 2nd Epistle, I would suggest this thought, not the only thought, but a way of looking at it, That in the second Epistle of Corinthians you have all the power of a risen Christ in glory brought to bear on the circumstances and difficulties of life down here. The problems haven't gone away.
Just because we are looking to a risen Christ in glory doesn't mean that the pathway is necessarily smooth.
And so he has to start in the second epistle by talking about sorrow. He has to address the question of the one that had to be put away from the Lord's table. And now they needed to restore him. Later on in this epistle he has to talk about those that evidently had not repented of serious sin in the past, and there was an ongoing hindrance in their lives on that account.
But that doesn't alter the fact that the epistle generally brings before us all the power of a risen Christ in glory, brought to bear on the difficulties of life down here. Well, I suggest this chapter brings that before us. And the one thing that is so necessary here that we have already mentioned is that.
There be the looking up by faith and seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The appreciation that his spirit is here to change us, as we have in the last verse of the third chapter, from glory to glory, and that everything down here that God allows in your life and mind is ultimately directed toward that end.
The way Moses and Israel handled the inability of God to come out in fullness was they put a veil over Moses face so the glory couldn't be totally seen. But the way it's handled in the New Testament is there's no the veil's taken away, but the change goes on in US brethren. We're the ones that got to change, and the way is open for change.
And to make us in such a way that we can behold the glory of the Lord the New. This is New Testament doctrine. We can we can be brought into the presence of God.
In in all God's holiness is still shines bright.
But there there is a need for change practically in US and then when that change takes place.
Why our lives become a demonstration or a light that shines out as it describes a little later in our chapter.
IS300 men.
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To defeat an enemy that was over 1,000,000 people.
They had lights in a picture and I believe that's what we have in the seventh verse.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
That the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. And I'm afraid that too many of us feel that the Excellency of the powers in us, but that earthen vessel had to be broken before that light could shine out. And I believe that's true right today, as it was in that day.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels, and what this means is that we don't have any power in ourselves, that that earthen vessel has to be broken, that the Excellency of the power may be of God. You've been talking about the power that's given to us in the second epistle, and that's true. However, it's all of God and not of us. The moment we think we've got any power in ourselves is when we're going to fail.
And when we're going to deny?
The glory that's in Christ. The thing is, the earthen vessels must be broken.
And the Lord Jesus was tempted on earth.
One of the temptations that he faced was Satan presented to him all the glories of this world.
And said, these can be yours, I'll give them to you if you will bow down to me.
And it's that same temptation in a perhaps.
Is faced every young person and every adult here in this room that satans effort is to present the glories of this world to the heart and said, do you want it?
I'm here to give it to you.
And so from the time we go to school, we have all that this world has to offer us, presented to us as as that which is the natural thing for us to see for our happiness in this life here on earth.
And it's presented to us for me.
It's for me my happiness.
My joy, my pleasure, is the focus of that which is presented, because there is in us that natural desire to have for ourselves.
And what's the result? We're blind or blind?
If we follow it.
In contrast to that.
God steps in and he presents himself to us and his glory in the person of the Son, the Lord Jesus.
I'll just make a comment that helped me many years ago. Glory is not a word that we use too often, but glory means the display of excellence.
God displays himself in all the Excellency of what he is, man. In the same way, if he has a Kingdom, if he has something that's wonderful, he wants us to see and enjoy and appreciate something. He has the Excellency maybe of his automobile or his house or something else that he has.
God presents to us the Excellency of the Lord Jesus.
And it's such an important thing because it shifts the focus of our lives from ourselves and our own glory.
To being occupied with someone who is outside of us and his glory.
And until that, you might say, our eyes are opened to see and be occupied with, not ourselves, not something for our own glory.
Which keeps us blinded in Satans.
Play pin if you will, but it opens it out that we have. We're changed because we no longer have to live a self-centered life, The scope of our interest being only this world, but we have opened to us by God to enjoy, to focus on, to follow after.
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A person that satisfies God and God says if you occupy yourself with him.
You'll find the happiness your soul deserves desires for now and forever.
And your life will no longer be for yourself, but it'll be a life lived for me, for God, for my son, and for his pleasure.
Because it can't be seen with the natural eye, there's a constant pressure.
In us that causes us to faint. If we're not sustained by the mercy of God. There's a constant pull in us in all of our lives to go back to the things which can be seen with the natural eye and not continue to focus on the eternal things that God is opened up to the eyes of our hearts.
In that connection, Don could, and I don't mean to single you out, but maybe we could have something on the practical side of this, the last verse of the third chapter says. But we all will open face beholding. And those words, as in a glass, really shouldn't be there. It could simply read we all with open face beholding the glory of the Lord.
And then in our chapter it says in verse 6 the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
You mentioned that it couldn't be seen with the natural eye. What does this mean practically to us?
Not that just the young people need it, we all need it. But seeing there is a large proportion of young people here, what do those expressions mean in a practical way in our lives?
How do we behold the glory of the Lord?
In the Old Testament, the glory of the Lord was not revealed. It could not be seen. It was hidden.
There were types and pictures and shadows as we see in the New Testament, and now we can because the veil is lifted from us. We can go back to the Old Testament and see the glory of the Lord there, but it could not be seen.
Until Christ came.
But God has revealed himself to man in all the Excellency that he is.
And the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and when we read the word of God.
And occupy our hearts with that person as presented to us in the word of God. We see a display of glory, a display of excellence.
That.
Can totally, completely captivate our hearts.
I just want to say it. I've said it many times.
Because not to make a point about television.
I remember a brother when I was a teenager and I went to a conference one time, and at the conference this brother said something that has been the most helpful and profound for my own soul, at least statement about it that I've ever heard, he said. Brethren, in my room where I'm staying, there's a television set.
I have. When I go home to that room tonight, I have absolutely no desire to turn it on.
As a teenager, that caught my attention, he said.
I have in the word of God and in my occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ something that has so.
Satisfied my heart.
That I have no interest in.
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What that machine, if you will, has to offer to me?
I simply presented as there is.
There can be in our practical lives.
And enjoyment and an appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ that so captivates, so takes hold of the heart that all the things that may attract the natural eye in this world.
Don't compare.
Do not compare, but if our eyes are blinded, if we only see the natural, then the Lord Jesus might seem dull, uninteresting.
OK, to get out, not go to hell and someday go to heaven and so on.
But if God's delight is to practically occupy the heart which governs our practical lives, whatever's got your heart is what's controlling your life in an everyday sense. It's a practical thing. Sometimes we say I got problems with the day, you know, tell me something how to get through today if the Lord Jesus.
Is the enjoyment of the heart. When you get up in the morning, it's going to control the practical activities of that day.
And now God says, I took my son from the earth, and I brought him into the heavens, and I've given him the place of honor at my right hand. And my plans are that his honor, his glory, is going to.
Eventually be that which rules the world, and it will rule heaven.
And he's God is at where? Says Let me show him to you.
And I say, Bill, it's practical. You know, it's practical. It's that enjoyment of the Lord Jesus in the heart that is the most practical thing that controls my daily life.
Two, it's the occupation with him that changes my life. I cannot change my life by myself.
I need a person, I need a power to change me. And God says look at my son, the occupied with him, and I will change you.
This world in the world we lived in, Satan used many tools to distract us from the enjoyment of Christ. We were just enjoying our brother telling us how we need to enjoy Christ and be filled with it. But on the other hand, especially for many of us who are younger here, you'll find a Satan's tool is to keep you occupied. The best way for Satan to keep you occupied is.
Keep you busy.
And if we are not consciously praying and asking the Lord for help, you will find that we will get occupied more and more repairs of this world. You may say I'm only going to school well to find out when you're going to school.
That the school work can keep you occupied. You have to study in the morning before you go. You go to school. You spend a day at school.
Then you come back, you have to study some more and do some more homework, and by the time that's done is laid and you're tired. So another day go on, another cycle comes on and we forget that we have to spend time with the Lord. Then you may say, well, I only have four years left of college. When I get through with this college education, then it will be better.
When I start to work. And then you'll find when you go to work the world demands more and more of your time and you'll find a cycle repeats again And some might say, well, wait till I have a family and then you'll find a Satan. Use that you with a family that there's time demanded more and more and we're often so tired that we're weary physically and we forget.
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To set the time aside to be with the Lord. Oh, young people, look at your schedule. Is there any room you know? Sometimes in the gospel we sing that Emma room for business, room for pleasure than we sing Have you any room for Jesus? Or we know how how important it is when it comes to the gospel of his grace. Now your Christian walk.
Your Christian life.
Look in your your calendar schedule, How much time out of that 24 hours of a day have we set aside so that the Lord would have time with you to reveal more of His word, His love, and the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ? We need to be conscious of this and enjoy Him while we can otherwise.
Who would become weary, as we talked about here, from his word?
The folks that I heard in a tape from I think 1958 from our late Brother AG Hayhoe, and it may be similar to the comment that Brother Don mentioned.
On the cake, our brother HEA Ho was visiting in a large city and someone asked him, have you seen the picture show that was there last night? Have you seen the picture show? And he replied, if you could see the pictures show that was before my soul, you wouldn't ask me that question.
Or perhaps few of us feel like we can really enter into that. But he had something, an object before his soul.
And I was thinking of two verses book. In the book of Proverbs it says keep thy heart without all diligence, for out of it there are the issues of life. And in the book of Matthew it's the light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be singled, thy whole body shall be full of light.
And these are two areas where we can easily fail. We need to guard our hearts more than anything that is guarded, to keep our hearts with all diligence. And we need to have a single eye. And if we fail to have a single eye, we'll fail. The light of the body is the eye. If, therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. So the Lord would desire to open our eyes, to remove the blindness and to occupy ourselves.
With the person of his beloved Son.
How do we occupy ourselves with the portion of Christ?
In Romans chapter 12 and the second verse that tells us about the renewing of your mind and the way you renew your mind is by reading the word of God, no other way.
You may have all kinds of thoughts, and being what we are, we do have, But to put those thoughts in the right order and in the right category, you must read the word of God. Do you want to learn about the person of Christ? Read about him in the Gospels.
All the way through the character, the kindness, the honesty, all of those attributes that are godly attributes that are God are there. You want to renew your mind. You want to get your occupation with Christ and read about him. Don't do it just by thinking. Read about him. Get the truth as it is in the word of God.
It's a good example. If we were to take a very brief outline of the book of Philippians, it would tell us that in the very first chapter, the apostle outlined to us that the Lord Jesus Christ is our life. We have to have that before us, that he is our life. The second chapter of the book of Philippians tell us that he is our example of our pattern, so we follow after that perfect one.
In the third chapter of the book of Philippians.
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He made it that the Lord Jesus Christ is our object, or when we have the object we often follow that. So we follow after Christ Jesus as our object. And then in the 4th chapter, as many of us already know, that he speaks of the Lord Jesus as our strength. So when we know that and realize that we have no strength of our own we depended on His, then it would be a lot easier to follow Him.
I believe our brother read before the meeting the verse in Psalms chapter 27. David of oh, the psalmist of all would say he said one thing have I desire of the Lord. Do we want to occupy our hearts with him, learn that one thing? And what was that one thing that he desire of he desired to dwell in the house?
Of the Lord, He would like to inquire in His temple. Can we say that for our hearts? You know, we we mentioned here about Moses, there's something interesting we find Moses, as we mentioned when they came down his face, shone. Well, I believe too, when we occupy our hearts, our thoughts, when we spend our time with our blessed Savior.
The evidence would be there, just like Moses did, that the light of his face shone. So we know that the fruit that we are to exhibit, the characteristics of our blessed Savior, will shine as we spend more time with them so others can be encouraged by.
Could we suggest to in a practical way that there are two sides to that?
On the one hand.
Every true believer has new life in Christ, a life that wants to enjoy the things of Christ, a life that delights to learn more about him. Every true believer has the Spirit of God indwelling him today, that Spirit which as the Lord Jesus himself said, is here to testify of him to teach us more of himself.
He shall not speak of himself. No, but he occupies our hearts with Christ, and so in that sense it is not a matter of exerting effort in order.
To be changed from glory to glory.
As we get here, it's simply a matter of removing the hindrances. Our brethren brought that out once, he said. I do not have to exert effort on an apple tree in order to get it to produce its fruit.
All it needs is reasonable soil in which to grow and a reasonable amount of rainfall, a reasonable amount of sunlight and good weather, and there they are. But he said I can hinder that tree in various ways and so there are hindrances that we need to remove.
On the other hand, and this is going back to my late father-in-law, Albert Hayhoe.
He once remarked, and I remember well as a young brother really taking it to heart, I trust he said, Remember that it takes effort on your part to learn more of Christ and to know him better, because the Lord knows that we value something much more if we have had to put a bit of effort into it than if it's always handed to us.
Without any effort. Every parent here knows that we know very well that our children value things if they have worked a little for them, and the Lord knows that too. And so I can remember, and this indeed goes back a long way, reading about how late Brother JB Dunlop of Canada many years ago in the 1860s was exercised and he said the verse that exercised him as a young man was.
The soul of the diligent shall be made fact. And he said, I determined that if I were I would be diligent in the things of God in order to learn more, and his life bore fruit. To that, as we know well, I suggest there are those two things. On the one hand, everything of Christ that you and I know and enjoy and walk in is of the power of the Spirit of God.
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Energizing that new life in US.
To learn more of him and walk in the good of it. But there is effort on our part that God encourages and likes to see. So it takes effort, as their brother Dave Imbo was saying, To read the word of God to get up a little earlier in the morning. To spend time in prayer, To set my mind, as it says in Colossians chapter 3 on him and on all that he is.
Rather than allowing it just to wander onto anything in this world. And I believe both of those things have a practical application in our lives, don't they?
Add little to that.
Of diligence. And put another word in here, Opportunity. I was thinking of Zacchaeus, the story of Zacchaeus. He wanted to see Jesus, and he was diligent about it. He made a little effort. He went and climbed a tree.
But before he did that, he was looking for the opportunity. And if God, if we have a heart to seek the Lord, God will give the opportunities. And so the Lord provided the opportunity. Jesus was coming that way and Zacchaeus made the effort. He took advantage of the opportunity and climbed a tree. What was the result?
The Lord had far more interest in Zacchaeus than Zacchaeus had in him. And the Lord said to Zacchaeus, today I'm going to abide to your house. Now we've talked about taking time.
Are trying to find time to spend with the Lord. If we look for opportunities and make the effort, he will help us find the time. Zacchaeus spent time with the Lord that day in his house because he looked for the opportunity and made the effort. God is not only interested in spending time with us.
He's interested in spending eternity with us.
The other day we were looking at Romans. It's really striking. At the end of Romans 11, there's a great doxology where Lord Paul says, who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has first given to him? And it should be recognized unto him again. For of him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. And that's of course the end. That's the conclusion of the whole first half, so to speak, of the book of Romans. For everything is on God's sight. He does everything. The only thing we do is sin and mess things up.
But then right after that, after Paul makes it clear everything is on God's side, then he goes on. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, and present your bodies. We would think there's only the one side. If God's already done everything, we don't need to do anything. But right after that Paul says we need to present and and looking through the the whole last two chapters of Romans is very striking. Everything's imperative. Do this, do this. You know. It has a bunch of different things he's describing. Don't don't think we highly themselves. And you ought to think.
Love one another. So many imperatives. Things we're supposed to do.
So if you really have to be balanced on the one side, we recognize everything is of God, it's all his responsibility. But on the other hand, that doesn't mean we don't have a responsibility. But if we're going to gain price, if we're going to enjoy him, it really depends on our labor, our diligence, our exercise to pursue him in an aggressive way.
Question regarding a little bit of what we've been talking about. We've kind of thrown around a cliche.
To be occupied with Christ.
And when I think about that word, or when I hear that cliche, I I think about sitting down and contemplatively meditating on this person on who he is.
And I was wondering, you know, when I'm at work and I'm doing the shipping at ET, if I'm sitting around and just meditating on who he is and I'm not going to get too much work done?
01:00:07
And I was wondering.
What does it really mean to be occupied with Christ? Is it something that we can do throughout the day, not just when we have the Bible open before us?
Well, I think that's a very good question. And I have thought of that same thing of course for some years and I think on the one hand.
Yes.
When we are concentrating on our work, perhaps at that very time our concentration cannot immediately be on something to do with the word of God. But I would suggest that the great thing is to have nothing between my soul and the Lord, and that is to have.
No one judged thought, no unjudged word, no unjudged action that comes between me and the Lord.
Then if my mind for the moment has to be on whatever piece of work has been in my line, I can concentrate on that and if somebody, and I'll use an example, perhaps that would have to do with myself if I were doing surgery.
My concentration had to be 100% on that surgery and if somebody started to ask me a question, which they didn't.
Excuse me?
They didn't usually, but if someone asks me a question.
About something on Scripture in the middle of a complicated operation, I would have to say I'm sorry I can't do two things at the same time. That is very true, and I believe the Lord recognizes that.
But the great thing is, when my mind is free, where does it go? Where do I allow it to go? And what fills my heart? There are times when I am away from home and my concentration of necessity has to be on something that I'm involved in.
The work of the Lord, but when my mind is suddenly free after a meeting.
Where does my heart go? You know where it goes. If my wife isn't with me, it goes back home to where she is. It doesn't take an effort. It doesn't. I don't have to say, oh, Bill, don't look at this or don't look at that, because my heart is there.
And I suggest the great thing is not to allow that which comes between US and the Lord, so that immediately when our hearts and minds can be free from what is necessary in this world.
There is no hindrance, no difficulty with the Spirit of God immediately giving me the enjoyment of Christ.
You've been on the road longer than some of us, Brother Dave. Would you agree with that?
I do indeed.
A scripture speaks about a manner of life, a conversation.
Let your conversation be thus and thus. Conversation really means manner of life. What is our manner of life if our manner of life is occupied with what Christ is? That's what I believe is the thought. And it isn't that our thoughts can be wrapped up entirely at all times as.
Bill has just said, but what happens when it is free? What happens when your mind is free? You know, the early, early brethren says being let go, They were prisoners. Being let go, they went to their own company.
And if you take a cork and put it in a bottle and push it to the bottom of a bottle of water and you'd let it go, it pops to the top. Well, that's a Christian's manner of life.
01:05:02
This world around us.
None of us, I don't believe, are ignorant as to the character of this world.
At our work, at our school, or wherever it is, we're constantly being bombarded with it. You know, the Apostle Paul said that if you had to get away from all these things, then ye needs must be out of this world. So we are amongst the wickedness of this world, but our minds don't need to be occupied with it, Old Brother Hayhoe used to say, you know, the birds can fly over your head, but they don't need to build a nest in your hair.
And so that's the character.
If your occupation is with Christ.
Your minds are going to be renewed. That's Romans chapter 12.
Let's get back to our chapter we're about through with this morning. But you know that second verse. That second verse, I believe, is very important.
The Apostle Paul said he had a ministry and he did, and everyone that picks up the word of God and wants to help his brethren has a ministry.
But the second verse is important that the character in which we have our manner of life is in comportment with that second verse. Just read it and think about it.
Everyone that has anything to do with helping your brother, it's very important.
When Satan offered to the Lord in the temptation of the Kingdom of the world and the glory of them, he was using dishonesty, craftiness, and so forth.
And presenting that to the Lord, the Lord could not and would not accept it on those terms. And so Christianity doesn't need to use those things. That's the way of the world.
But our ministry?
Is in holiness and in in righteousness. And we were speaking about, well, how do you show forth the glories of the Lord in your daily work? And so on. How do you you have to have your mind on on the Lord? I believe that when Moses came down from the mount the second time.
I don't know that he was. I think his mind was probably occupied with the problems he saw around them because it was a bad situation in Israel when he came down.
But he had been on the mount, and they had seen the Lord and the glory, and his face shone. His face didn't shine because he was actively thinking necessarily about the Lord, but he'd been there, and it had its effect on him and how he behaved. And so it shown out by how he be reacted to the situations he came into contact with when he was with Israel.
And so in our daily life, if we've been with the Lord, it will show out in our job and how we do it. Even though we're not actively thinking necessarily about the Lord we have, we must think about our daily duties of life. But if our hearts have been filled with Christ, it will shine out in how we do our job. And we will do our job for the purpose of glorifying the Lord.
And people will see it.
That way we can join the two thoughts, occupation with Christ and living.
For Christ.
And if my heart is occupied with him, then you might say in the practical responsibilities of daily life, it's an opportunity to live that which I've been occupied with we see in the Lord Jesus.
In his personal life he could say, I do always those things which please the Father, and consequently every detail of his daily life was lived in such a way that it was in fellowship with the heart and will of God.
01:10:03
And if we're occupied with the Lord Jesus, we can go through the daily occupation of life.
In fellowship with him, even if it's not in our minds consciously thinking of him at that moment. Nonetheless there's a sense in our souls that we're what we're doing is for him, heartily is unto him according to his will.
And if a need arises like it did when?
Nehemiah, I guess it was came before the king and and the king asked him a question and immediately he prays and answers the king. Pretty short prayer I'm sure. But his occupation, his fellowship with God was such that in a moment of need if Bill's operating on somebody and suddenly he doesn't know what to do, he can say, Lord help me.
And keep on going with that which is occupied, these occupied with, and consequently there is the practical sense in which even when it comes, you might say to the end of the day, there can be a shared enjoyment that this day was spent.
According to his will, that which was done was done as unto himself. And you might say, one can put one's head down on the pillow and go to rest.
But if the day has been lived for self, and then it comes to put one's head on the pillow, oftentimes the rest is not there.
And I don't know if I have it exactly right, but it's been a practical help and I'll just share it. And I believe it goes like this. There was a farmer that was out in his field and he was concerned about his service for the Lord as he was working in his field and he was before the Lord about it. And he looked up and he saw in the clouds the shape of APC.
In the clouds. And he felt for sure that God was telling him preach Christ. And so he went and shared that with someone that he felt that God was telling him. Preach Christ, his brother said to him. Well, maybe he was telling you plow corn.
So it is that we can go through our day-to-day life with whatever responsibilities God has laid out before us, still in the enjoyment of the Lord and in His service.
Time is gone, but just one more little comment too, and that is that it brings before us further down in the chapter, always bearing about in the body.
What the dying of the Lord Jesus?
If I am going to enjoy Christ and all that he is, my affections must be engaged. And if my affections are engaged, then I will want to know more of Him, God's purposes in Him, and everything that concerns him. And that is, I believe, what Paul is bringing before us here.
246.