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Oh God.
We must.
Joy.
May only with us.
We lost.
God of the Christ.
Made for you.
Oh.
Verse 4. All right.
First floor.
Second Peter, one verse 4, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.
That by thee she might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through life. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and knowledge temperance, and to temperance, patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful.
In the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, he shall never fall. For sow an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior.
Jesus Christ, wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things.
Though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yeah, I think in me, as long as I am in this Tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we.
00:05:08
Made no one unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What were eyewitnesses of His Majesty?
For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven, we heard when we were with Him in the holy Mount.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Where unto ye do well, that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Children of Israel certainly had great promises given to them in the Old Testament.
But Peter contrasts what was given now to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he says that these promises are whereby are given unto us the greatest promise, great and precious promises. Darby translates that the greatest and precious promises, the promises they had of old brethren, could be corrupted. It was defiled.
It faded away and they lost it. But none of these things are true of the promises that are made to the believer today. It's reserved in heaven for us, incorruptible, undefiled, and it will not fade away. So these certainly are far greater promises that we have today than were made to the fathers of old.
Israel will have a special place in the Millennium, but there will be no Israel in the eternal state, will there? There will be no nations. And so we've been called by glory and virtue. And so to the darkest act of man, the darkest hour of this eternities history, if we can put it that way, shone out the glory of God at the cross of Christ. And it's by this that we have these great promises.
So he's really contrasting that to lust.
Because lust is me wanting something that God has not given to me.
And wanting to have it. And So what does that lead to? Corruption. And the world is full of corruption because man wants maybe something that is even right, but was not given to him. And he craves something that's not his. And I just leave. The world is full of corruption because it's full of unsatisfied affections. But we have promises, greatest promises. And what does it lead to? We're going to be, you know, we're partakers of the divine nature.
We're going to enjoy, we're not going to be alone and in corruption.
But we're going to be fellow partakers, we're going to have a lot cast together with those that enjoy these things.
These promises were established before first foundation was laid.
And the comment was made in connection with the knowledge of God and justice to kind of enforce it a little bit. And that is to realize that God has never had to learn anything that's hard for us to grasp. And to think of his counsels that he would put man on the earth, He would come to total ruin and he would look at his counsels and said, how can this ever come about working with material like this?
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God didn't have to learn anything. He set those promises.
And he is given to them, to us as his people. And I'm glad that he chose a rough fisherman to be the writer. I believe that when Peter was out on the Sea of Galilee and the net broke and he lost the big catch of fishes, he probably didn't say too nice a words.
In fact, he denied the Lord with those and curses which perhaps had a root back in his early life that he never judged.
Completely. And so it broke out on the night of the Lord's betrayal.
And when anything is made public in any of our lives, there's been an extended route that is we've never let it grow, get stronger, and then one day it breaks out in the open and we are all of a sudden kind of surprised we didn't know what this was all about. But if we stop and think, the point I'm getting at is him being a rough fisherman to use language like.
Precious to catch that word. Precious. That's a word that a rough fisherman wouldn't use. But now God has wrought with him. He has that divine nature.
And I begins to speak the language of heaven. We have to have that nature before we can do that. Otherwise we speak the language of the world and it's vernacular.
Some of the things that we have a promise is I think, and one of the ones I deploy your attention to is chapter 10 of Hebrews where it says in verse 18.
I'm sorry, verse 19.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, and having an high priest over the House of God, let us draw near with her true heart and full assurance of faith. The story comes to me of George Mueller.
He was on a ship, I believe this story goes, and a thick fog has set in.
And he was apprehensive as because he had a meeting, I think in maybe Canada or someplace, they wanted to talk to the captain and they told the captain, he said I have a meeting, he said.
At such and such a date, and the captain says, well, he says it's impossible. I said we can't move. We got thick fall and George Miller said, well, let's go down. He said, well, I want to pray about it. And he went down to the captain's quarters and George Miller, well, the captain said, well, it's impossible.
I think that Georgeville was said to him. He said I have access to my father's throne. He said for 57 years he said he has listened and taken care of me and I want to bring it beforehand and he did. They got down to captains quarters and George Miller prayed that God would lift the fall. He said I have to. He told the captain he had to be there. He said I've never been late for a meeting in 57 years. He says he said my heavenly, my heavenly Father will will see to her that I'm going to make it so when he got done praying.
The captain started to pray and and George Newell ladies hand on his shoulders, he said no, don't pray.
He said, you don't think that the Lord can do it anyhow. He said, decide that the Lord has already answered my prayer. He said, let's go up on deck, Went up on deck. The fog was clear. He cleared away. But it reminds me of the precious promises that we have. We have something that the world doesn't have.
The world might have power, they might have all the resources that they're disposed, but we have something that they don't have. We have access into the very holiest through the veil, the rent veil, we can have access to our golf. That's why to me, that's one of the precious promises that are given and are given to us.
We know we are going to be like him, for we shall see him as He is. And so really this next verse should more properly be read for this very reason. Let us add to our faith, because we're going to be like Christ in that day. It is all, and that is the incentive. For this very reason, we should add to our faith.
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Give all diligence to add to our faith virtue.
It's moral excellence.
Moral purity.
It is important to understand that.
And it's not like a step here.
To add.
Faith and the next step is virtue.
The point is that these characteristics, all at the same time, could be manifesting themselves.
That's the teaching here, I believe, and I'm quoting what I've learned from those scriptures better than you, so.
It is important to have faith but also have courage.
Courage.
And knowledge.
You know you might have the right desire, but what about spiritual intelligence? Knowledge.
And then just be careful.
Don't try to impress people with your knowledge or post in it in your own mind.
Temperance has to go along with it.
Patience. Patience. You know someone.
Quoted that word once and he says patience.
He dragged it all, you know. You know, we need that kind of characteristic. Some of us by nature are perhaps.
More patient than others. You know, some of us might have more of a problem with that and maybe with the one or the other of these characteristics, but the teaching is that we should be exercised that all of these things mentioned.
Unfold themselves and demonstrate themselves or are demonstrated in our lives at the same time.
This book that we hold in our hands is filled with promises from Genesis to Revelation.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy past. That is a promise. All the promises of God in him are Amen. Quoting it wrong. It's second Corinthians one. All the promises of God in him are yay, and in him Amen under the glory of God by us. So in the verse three that we have before us in this chapter.
That he's given unto us divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Is that not really in the word itself that we have in our hands under the direction of the Spirit of God, and he cannot deny himself. And it's a wonderful thing from the time the children are young to learn verses.
To have these to cling to in their lives. And so here it says, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.
So light and immortality are brought to light through the gospel in the Old Testament.
The truth of salvation was not fully revealed, but it is brought to us in the New Testament, isn't it? So I wonder if that isn't one of the things that perhaps Peter is referring to here.
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. The light of Christianity has brought a revelation that the Saints in the Old Testament didn't have. Is that not right?
E.
I think that's a very good day because as we've had mentioned to us, Israel did have promises in the Old Testament and they counted on them. And as we know, they were extremely disappointed when the Messiah that they expected would set up a Kingdom and bring in the blessing instead was crucified and was rejected by the nation.
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And now what? Well, we know the two on the way to Emmaus were typical, perhaps of those who were expecting deliverance, and they were totally discouraged, thought everything was lost. But what has God brought in? He's brought in the greatest promises, promises that man could never have had on this earth, and which connect with a risen Christ in glory, and then all of these other things.
Are to be in our lives as a result of that. Well, what a blessed thing that is. And it's because those promises are a present or should be a present living reality in our lives. It is because Christ is before us as the one in whom all those promises are. Yeah, and all men that you and I can have the energy and the grace to Add all these things together as we have brought before us in these next verses.
The same Brother Heinzer, things not so much unfolded in succession, but things that should be displayed in the believers life all at once. And I think that's in connection with the apostle saying we're partakers of the divine nature. Every believer is a partaker of the divine nature, and that's the very life and nature of the sun. And so every moral virtue that was displayed in that perfect life here below that eternal life.
We possess as believers now each also have the Spirit of Christ in US, and that's the Spirit of God and his power to form Christ in US and to develop those attributes of that divine nature that we possess and bring them out into display.
Is that not what we have in Galatians 5 in connection with the fruit of the Spirit?
It's interesting to me that in that chapter the fruit is singular and that it speaks of the fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, all those things.
Come from the fruit of the it's the fruit of the Spirit. And they will, if we're walking in the Spirit, they will all be displayed in it.
They're adding things here.
In the list that is given, it doesn't say join to your faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience. It says join to your faith virtue and to your virtue knowledge and to your knowledge temperance. It. It seems to be connecting these things together for us because it's a perfect circle. We mentioned the cruise of the Spirit. It starts with love. And here's the last one mentioned. Is love the character of things that are balanced one with another and all wrapped up in love?
If someone had virtue without knowledge, he would have virtue and ignorance. And it's much better to have virtue and knowledge. And somebody might have knowledge but very be very intemperate and be excessive. He needed to have knowledge coupled with temperance, and then temperance with patience, and patience with godliness. And we just bring these things together as they interact because they're perfect in Christ. They need to be made perfect in us too. And that part of it, it's a process, isn't it, that we are conscious that all these things need to be found in US.
That's really why it's more properly translated in in virtue. In knowledge. Many Saints have virtue. They really are horrified perhaps by abortion and they go out and protest and do all kinds of things. But it's not in knowledge that they're acting. It's virtue. They're horrified by that sort of thing. And so I just use that as an example. So it is in knowledge that that that is true. Temperance is self-control and patience is going along with others that.
You know, patiently as we understand, but I can't be patient with others if I'm not self controlled myself.
And so this list of things as Brother Heinz has brought before us should all be present in the Believer all at once. But the order here, and we hesitate even to say it, the order here is not haphazard, is it? The order here is such that each quality that follows the one before brings in that which corrects.
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Perhaps the wrong tendency of the previous one if it is used in an improper way. And so faith needs moral courage or virtue and virtue as it says here needs knowledge and knowledge needs temperance and self-control. All should be present at once. But the Spirit of God puts them down here. And I like the way you put it, Brother Michelle Piet, that they all come in a full circle, but yet the Spirit of God is bringing before.
The believer these various things in an order, in order to show us the tendencies that are all too common in our hearts of having, shall we say, a moral.
Character in US which is not balanced properly by other things, and what God is looking for in you and me is a proper living out of His character in US.
Well, we have, as our brother has mentioned, brother Steve Stewart has mentioned the capacity to do that with the new life in Christ that we have. But then there are things that have to be, you might say, remembered in view of all of these things. And so the order is important here and it is something that we need to pay attention to because, as I say, each one that follows the other is that which.
Shall we say balances and perhaps corrects and modifies the one before, in order that it might not come out in an extreme or fanatical way, but rather in keeping with the character of God as exhibited in Christ?
We also say that these precious promises that many people make promises to us, they don't keep them. But I like to think of this, the precious promises that sometimes we stumble, sometimes we fall.
Sometimes they might wander the promise to stand there. We might fail him, but he will never fail us.
I've read like the story of others in the assembly have heard me tell the story. I was going to the hospital, visiting someone who was dying and, and get in the hospital and I come in contact with this priest. I guess it was a priest, it was a clergyman and his collar, white collar, so forth. Well, we got talking and we talked about that. And if I remember correctly, I said, you know, one day I said somebody will be coming in here and visit you and help me visit me.
We'll be we'll be ready to die and then went on. I tried a witness to him and I said to him, I said, well, I'll tell you one thing. I said I'm writing and I said there's a little him that says Dane is the thought of man to marry in heaven by prayer to only Jesus. Precious blood can give admission there. None can without the blood of Jesus be forgiven, which is resting in the blood alone that fits the soul for heaven. And I enjoy what he said to me and it was startled me. It surprised me as we parted company.
He lifted up his little arm. He was a very small man, small in stature. He looked right directly at me and he said he will never fail you.
And I just took that as a wonderful saying that I remember it. The promises of God will never fail us. We might fail him, but he'll bring us back. Thank the Lord for that. We have many inches into Scripture where we see people who didn't always function in the area of virtue and the patience and temperance and so forth. But we have to have time to grow growth. And I think that's when it says here we're partakers of the divine nature.
We partake of that as we go on in life they go his little him. I guess we've probably probably heard of this on it more of Jesus would I know more of his grace to others show that's.
That we walk here.
I think we can say this, that if it's not in knowledge, it's not virtue.
If I may have a deal for something, but if it's not according to the word of God, then it's not virtue. If it's not brotherly love and godliness, if it's not brotherly love in divine love, then it's not really brotherly love. And so that's why it's not, as her brother said, not like steps, but they're together. And so we need, we need to know what the word of God teaches if there's to be virtue. Because a lot of people when they brought the Lord.
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To the the woman, to the Lord, and said, this woman's taking an adultery.
And by our Lord, she ought to die. That sounds like they're defending virtue, but it wasn't virtue. There's a lot of wickedness connected with it. And so we find here that it's virtue in knowledge and in knowledge self-control, and in self-control patients and godliness.
Brotherly kindness and charity. Divine love.
We find some of the Saints in the Word of God that are kind of the exemplary in these each one of these things. And it's been suggested that in virtue or moral courage, we have David as an example of moral courage to go down to the valley of Elah and to be king and so on. In knowledge we have Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived in this world.
Except for the Lord Jesus.
And then in Temperance we have Paul and how he could speak about keeping.
Under his body.
Temperance is a very important thing in our life and Paul really exemplified that. And then impatience. Our minds go to job and all that job passed through.
Patience is a wonderful virtue, is it not?
And then in godliness, perhaps we have Daniel, one of an excellent spirit that feared God, that could go through deep things, so deep that he was ill from it. And then to have the Angel come and say, Oh man, greatly beloved.
And then in.
Brotherly kindness. I think of Jonathan as a real example of.
His love for David, that he could give him everything except his shoes. And he loved David.
And it's a wonderful love, a filial love, if we could put it that way. But then we come, I believe it's love in the new translation, charity love. And we think of the apostle John, that was really the theme of his ministry, was that wonderful influence and flow of divine love that has the capacity to love.
Another without expecting return. Well, these are examples that we have that are nice to consider and have.
Their life and influence come over our souls and affect us.
Yet, and everyone of those illustrations you gave Ron, I can think of a failure at each except Daniel. There's no recorded value at Daniel. The only one in whom we do find perfection is in crime state.
Between the two translations is.
Perhaps I don't know quite what to say, but if we read the King James Version, it tends to, it tends to have us read from the top to the bottom of the list because we're adding, or so it appears as we read it, adding one to the other in that sense. But if we look at it in the Darby translation that has already been mentioned, it's in one have the other. And that almost would be like the example of a little egg within an egg or doll within a doll finding one inside the other.
And that would lead us perhaps to read from the bottom of the list to the top. And if we do that, you look at the last one and that's love, and you read back up to the top. And love is what produces all of these things, and in an order that is perhaps somewhat different from reading in the other direction.
And perhaps the thought in giving all diligence is perhaps not so much trying to add these things, but the Lord's saying.
Enjoy the multifaceted nature of the faith which we've been given.
To explore the dimensions of faith as these characteristics express them.
But I don't know which is the right direction to read it in.
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P.
It's wonderful to show brotherly love. It's also wonderful to be on the receiving end of it.
And I think that it's very important the story comes in my mind. I intended once a very important meeting and I, I've heard about this person that had my same name as I had. The man that run this meeting was a very capable, competent person that was on the habitat destruction and the various things that had to do with dredging at the Delaware River. And so when we were sitting around the round table, just we can't hear you brother, the issue.
With discussing the issue, this gentleman that was chairing the meeting come over to brought a man over to me and he and he looked, looked down, he said to the man, this is Clyde Roberts. Well, I knew who the man was because I had heard about him and he had told me before. But this man, I knew I was waiting. I knew that he wasn't going to introduce himself to me because I could look at him and tell that he was what I would call and insufferable snob. He is a highly professional man.
Of note, and so forth.
And he just wanted to see this other person look an old commercial fisherman with, with no status and, but, but that, that's not what what we're talking about. We're talking about showing law. And another incident comes in my mind that I was on a ship. We were investigating things and there was a lot of people on the ship. And the friend of mine that I know from New Jersey, the director of the fisheries was on that ship. But we had people from Maine to Florida.
And they were all professional people and scientists and so forth. But but.
This this man that the the hand of the fisheries, they treated me like I was, I was a royalty. Why he come over and we sat down and he talked. We went and and it was kind of crowded, you know, and went up and he got me a piece of cake and brought it back and we talked some more about I said how wonderful that this man would condescend.
The men of low estate and I think that's what we have to do with our brother too. It was contest sentiment of low estate and not not trying to.
Look at the other type of people and, and, and, and get up on a higher level. And I, I know of people, and not in our meeting, but I know people in the various denominations, but they got their nose up in the air so high and they would not consider, you know, fellowship.
Or showing love and kindness to somebody who was below them all. They would go through the motions. But when it says here that we should.
Brotherly love and add to that, of course, charity, but but these are some of the things that God wants to produce in US. He wants us to be real.
And can't descend the men of lower state.
These things that they have found in us, it tells us in the 8 verse.
That we shall not be idle, that barren everybody notes as idle or unfruitful. So these things be in us. We have this divine nature. We're partakers of it and it, the use of it or the living out of it will bring out activity, will be busy and will be fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I know that there's one aspect to it is in the increase of the growth and the knowledge of him. But if I tell someone I know the Lord Jesus my Savior.
Well, there should be activity in my life and fruit in my life that manifests the reality of the knowledge of Him, shouldn't there?
Included says in John 15, He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit, without me can do nothing. The Lords desire that we bring forth fruit. If these things abound in us, we won't be idle, we'll be busy in the Lords things.
This is intended to be very practical, isn't it? Because we know that Peter's epistles bring before us the House of God and the government of God, and ultimately the judgment of God on this world. And in the latter part of this second epistle we get the very serious side of God's judgment on this world. But for the believer, the House of God brings before us responsibility and walk, doesn't it?
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And that is so necessary.
We all have heard the expression, and it bears repeating, that the only Bible that many people in this world read is what they see in the life of the believer. And so here in this verse it says in the.
The eighth verse that says.
For it these things be in you, and abound. They make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful.
In the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that expression knowledge there is the same as is in the third verse where it talks about full knowledge. Well if we really have known Christ.
There ought to be the display of it in our lives. There ought to be that which characterizes us, the exhibition of that divine nature, so that when the world sees you and me, they will see a reflection of Christ. Well, that's, that's a lot to ask, isn't it? And yet He has given us, as we've already heard, new life in Him that is capable of that.
So we're not told simply to try to do these things. We're told have these things because we have every capacity in Christ to be able to carry them out. Well, it's a big responsibility, isn't it? And no doubt Peter felt that very keenly in his own soul. There had been failure, as we've heard just a few moments ago in his life. There had been the perhaps going back to some of those things in deportment, in language that had characterized him before he met the Lord.
And unhappily they came out and he knew what he was talking about when he talked about the corruption that is in the world. But now he says you don't need to be barren or unfruitful. Your life can show out these things before the world if you're willing to walk with the Lord. Well, it's it's something very, very practical for each one of us and most needed, isn't it?
Line as to ourselves.
And short sighted as to God's ways and purposes. That's how that has been explained. Cannot see a far off you know.
That is so important that we are not blind as to ourselves.
But that we also are not short sighted, that we see beyond us and enter into that which God's purposes are.
And have intelligent about these things, but then all said to forget.
The sins from which we have been purged. Not that we should always.
Dwell on our past shameful life, but don't forget that the grace of God has hurt us from it. And that's why what do we do on Lords Day morning? We thank the Lord, thank the Father for sending the sun, and thank the Lord Jesus for dying for us to cleanse us from our sin. Not only did he bear our sins in his body on the tree.
He was made sin, that evil principle. And so, but we better remember the grace that has been shown to us when the grace of God perched us and cleansed us from all of our sins, all our sins so great and many in his blood are washed away. You know, wonderful to think of that statement in that hymn and.
So the Lord Jesus by his word.
Has done that, and we better remember that it will make us thankful.
The bill was perched from our scent, forgot that we've been perched from our sins. I think one of the saddest things with my my own experience, and I suppose it might be drunk all this is that we forgot that we have encouraged sometimes from our our sins. Sometimes we can look down upon other people and have too high an opinion of ourselves, but.
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We if God put everyone of us in hell.
We could lift up our voices and say, oh God, thou art a righteous God. That's what we deserve. And many times we we look at people and say, Oh well, that person doesn't meet my expectation and look what they've done in life, you know? So what we should do is go and look in the mirror and realize that we deserve hell and judgment.
Themselves, all of the students, you can't forget that we've been purged from our own. The whole sins. Let's see what it says here.
Yeah, and they're blind. They cannot see a far off and have forgotten that they were purged from their old sins. I cannot find fault. I cannot look down upon somebody else because they have done this or they have done that. I gotta look in the mirror and I can see why somebody worse than they are. I can esteem other men better themselves because I know what I was.
I can give you the benefit of the doubt.
When he said to the other disciples in John 21, I go fishing.
Make that statement in faith, and the Lord asks him the next morning, Children, have you any meat? I suppose he was pretty embarrassed when he had the answer no.
Still bearing untruthful. They caught nothing. He wasn't walking in faith.
And it speaks about blindness here. It's a moral blindness that will come upon us if we allow the flesh to act. In fact, John and his epistle in chapter 2 and verse 11, it says if you hate your brother, you're in darkness and you walk in darkness and you don't know where you're going because that darkness has blinded your eyes. It's a moral darkness that the Lord will bring upon us if we don't judge the flesh. What happened to Samson?
When he didn't judge the flesh jealous and judges 16 at the Tolstoy's put out his eyes.
Bill Ward used to remind us that you had to pass Morally through Philadelphia to get to Laodicea.
And you find there in Philadelphia's simple desire to keep his word and not deny his name, but in laid us here there was a self satisfaction, a self complacency. I'm enriched, increased with need goods, and I have need of nothing. And what did it lead to? It led to blindness.
And we often use those verses, behold, I stand at the door and knock in connection with the gospel. But it's really he's really speaking to those that are professively the Assembly of God.
You were going to say something wrong.
But you're mentioning about the government of God. I just wonder what our impressions are of the government of God if we were asked.
Would our thoughts be that the government of God is a perfect government? If it is, that's right, it's a perfect government. But the offending of that government is what we don't want to do. For he that soweth to the flesh out of the flesh reap corruption.
I remember seeing a young man.
Coming along and I just was kind of touched by him, his happy countenance, and I said to him, what makes you happy? He says, because I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. I said, well, where did he find you? He found me down in the gutter. And there's one thing I don't want to go back. And so we might think, well, the government of God, now that we're Christians, it operates in a different way.
But no, the government of God is still the same, and the offending of that government is going to bring consequences into anyone's life. But to be established in the fact that it's a perfect government. You know, we'd like to have a perfect government. We have never seen it in our lifetime, but it's going to be set up in the coming Kingdom glory, when Christ is going to reign in righteousness over the earth and the inhabitants of earth will be happy.
They will be joyful, they will be industrious, but woe be tight. Anybody that's feigning obedience, circumstances are going to come along when they're going to expose themselves, and they'll be dead corpses the next morning.
00:50:05
So the government of God is a serious thing, but let us not have negative thoughts against it. That is a wonderful government. And so if we if we're going to have negative things against that government, we're going to be suffering from it as Christians and go back.
Don't you think for Iran that God in his mercy has not always dealt with us as He would be justified in his government to deal with us, right? He has shown mercy.
And grace. What's the difference between mercy and grace? Mercy doesn't give us what we deserve, and grace gives us what we don't deserve. You know, if God would have dealt with us strictly on a righteous basis, there would be no hope with us. But he has shown mercy. He's a God of mercy. But we better remember, whatsoever a man soweth that also he shall reap. We see that in David's life.
You know in other examples he shall restore fourfold.
He did restore, you know, he spoke his own judgment. But.
A wonderful that in his grace and mercy he doesn't always deal with us according to what we deserve, but he has dealt in the Lord with that. You know, the Lord Jesus, he bore all of our sins in his body on the tree. But I think here it's especially that which we might do after we are saved.
You know, and how sad that there are things in our lives many times.
That make it necessary for the God for God to deal with us in government and he is a righteous judge and.
In the coming day at the Millennium, he will judge sin every morning. Life has already indicated no one will get away with anything.
But this is the day of grace.
And so he would at the present time deal with grace. And he does, you know, so we don't know how everybody in this room stands towards God. Are you right with God?
Are you saved?
What about as a Christian?
Is there sin in your life? Remember you have to do with the God that is a righteous judge and he is judging things and his government might bring things upon us that we have.
Sought and He allows us to reap it, you know. But it's wonderful that He doesn't always make us reap what we have sowed.
Three things in this night verse he that lacketh these things in whom these things are not found. None of these things are found in him. He's blind. He cannot see a far off and I'd forgotten he was purged from his sin from his old sin or as it reads in the Darby Virgin it says he has forgotten the purification of his sins the apostle Paul.
Life that I now live, I live in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me and this one who's called blind. We don't find faith if also Paul had a living faith in a person that had given himself for it and he hadn't forgotten the purification of his old sins. He said according to being a Sinner he was the chief of sinners and he remembered what he was a blasphemer that he was acting in ignorance that was present to the apostles soul throughout his life I believe.
But he went on well, this one here, there's three things. He's blind, he can't see a far off, and he's forgotten about the past. But the believer who's walking with the Lord, you'll never forget. We've been reminded from week to week and what a precious time we can have in fellowship with the Father. Going back to Calvary and musing over an infinite word by an infinite person. We're never going to exhaust. And it just lifts up our hearts and praise and worship and it's going to do that for eternity when we get there, won't it?
What about the present?
Well, if we're walking with the Lord, we'll have discernment who's going to be before us and what we do is going to be Him.
His smile, the desire to please him, we're not going to be blind. We're going to have discernment from him. And as we look afar off, how far can we see? We can see eternity. We can see the Lord by faith right into heaven by now. And that's who we're going to be with. So the believer who has these things in him, he has a blessed horse. He looks back and he sees Christ on the cross, and he looks already looks at Christ in the glory coming for him. And now he looks at Christ in the face of Jesus Christ and is transformed in the same image from glory to glory.
00:55:27
Did you say this was a back slider in this purse or how would you look at that?
Most likely I would think. It seems like he's a believer. What the question comes in my mind, is it a matter of degree?
Is it ultimately, you know, a completely blinded or is it maybe partially blinded? I'm just wondering. I mean.
Well, we know the scripture says that the one who is without Christ.
Is blind the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
Blinded them to what? Not so much to the fact that he is a lost guilty Sinner, but more a blindness to the glory of Christ. And could we suggest that when it says here being blind or short sighted, the thought, I agree with everything that's been said and how we have to go through Philadelphia morally to get to Laodicea. That is very true. But I suggest what we have here can be taken in a very basic way.
And that is, do I have a present or eternal view of things?
These virtues, if I could use that expression, that are listed earlier in verses six or five and 6:00 and 7:00.
Which one of us would want to stand up and say that they're easy to achieve? I believe we can say that everything that the new life in Christ wants to exhibit in our lives, every fresh grace that God tries to work in us, will find its corresponding antagonist in some aspect of my old sinful self.
And that's why.
If I could refer to what Brother Heinz said.
Jimmy Smith said what he said. Why? Because the old sinful self doesn't get any better, and the more you want to live for the Lord. And we say this.
I don't want to single out the young people because I didn't always appreciate it some years ago when I was in that place, but it's important to remember that it will not get easier as you want to live for Christ. It will get harder. The old sinful self energized by Satan will push harder and harder and harder in order to try and assert itself the more you try and carry out these things in your life. And it's not.
Very difficult.
To say this is too hard in that way we become short sighted because we say I'm going to take the easy way out, but then I'm looking at the temporal situation, not eternity. And God says I want you to have an eternal view of things. And so as our brother has mentioned, it is a matter of degree because.
Technically you can't be blind and short sighted at the same time. You're either blind or you're not blind. But the thought is that ultimately there are degrees of blindness in the believer's life.
That come about because the devil holds out the present advantage instead of allowing me to look at the future, which is an eternal view of things.
That command itself.
How do we make Our Calling and elections sure, Bill?
Well, I'd like to hear the thoughts of others, but we know that in Christ Our Calling an election is sure. But I believe the question is, do I live and walk in the present enjoyment of it? Is it a reality in my soul? We know that no believer, no true believer can ever be lost. But it's not that that will keep me in the past of pleasing to the Lord. It's the enjoyment of what I possess.
That makes the difference, and if my walk is careless, I'll lose the enjoyment. Is that the thought?
You demonstrate the way we live, that we are the call of God, that we are the elect of God. That was sovereign grace that choose us, and in his Son, you know that was not because of anything good in US, but we can demonstrate now that we are.
01:00:11
Called that we are elected.
And God does not just pick us up, He also has made us sane, you know, Saints by calling. And so we can live and demonstrate that we are the God of God, that God has elected us. He hasn't just picked us up, He has made us what we are in Christ.
We've all had the experience of somebody saying to us.
Well, he's a real Christian, even an ungodly man says well, he's a real Christian and they identify him as what he is another maybe you may know a brother and he said well, he's just a big hypocrite. And so I believe that's what we're bringing out here. To put it simply, is it's true that Our Calling an election are sure it was as we read in the first epistle. It was really with God before.
Time.
But we're to demonstrate it.
I just want to say this in connection with blindness because often and we've all had this experience, you're talking to somebody about something and you quote a verse of Scripture and they say, well, I don't see it that way. I see it differently than you do. I think we've all had that experience. I sometimes feel like asking the person, I don't care how you see it, how does it read? What does it say? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And people will say, well, you see it that way and I see it this way.
Forward is the word of God, say.
And you really walk away with the real realization that the person does not see what scripture plainly says.
And we're disobedient to the word of God. Then we're going to be like that. We're going to say, well, I just don't see it that way. And the word of God plainly says it.
The Word of God is not written for those that need a PhD in order to understand it. Little children can understand it. Unless you become as little children, you cannot enter the Lord says, and we don't need to be very bright intellectually to appreciate the Word of God, but we do need, what we do need is the Spirit of God. You know, he opens up the Scripture. We have that in John's Gospel, you know.
So.
But we don't have to be very bright intellectually in order to benefit from the Word of God. Even children can benefit from the Word of God. And as they grow and get older, they will appreciate more. And so it is with us, you know, but we have to be exercised about these things. We have to be in these things, you know, read the Bible every day.
Meditate on it. You know, we cannot overemphasize that two children read the Bible. Are they encouraged to read the Bible for themselves? I've told you that story. If you heard it, forgive me, but my granddaughter came to me one time when they were visiting. She said, OPA, let's read the Bible. You know, she was about 10 years old. I said, where are you reading?
She said. I'm reading in the book of Exodus.
And she sat down every day and read me a chapter of the book of Exodus while she was there. I was so pleased that she came and said, let's read the word of God. I hope all of you young people and even children get into the habit of reading the Bible for yourself every day. I'll give you a little example of what you said about a child understanding and blindness. I once asked, I don't often take the Sunday school, there's others more capable in the assembly. But I once asked the children, what's the difference between what Abraham had and you had?
Little girl put up her hand, She said Abraham sins were covered and mine are gone. Well, she saw what FW Grant didn't see, and he caused a terrible division among the gathered Saints over that very thing, the possession of eternal life. And yet it was something that that child could see, that her sins were gone and Abrahams recovered until the cross.
And so the truth is, you say it doesn't need to take a pH D to see it, but we can cause a mammoth amount of problems and be governmentally blinded if we don't accept what God's Word says.
01:05:04
That dog that walked through here reminded me of verse of Scripture that perhaps that I think is found in Philippians where it says beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the confession. But these are the things that would pull us down. These are the things that would deprive us of living that fullness with the Lord intends for us to live all these various things that he mentioned here.
Beware of dogs now dolls in scripture, basically I mean they're nice pets and all we love them, but a dog is a shameful animal and when the apostle tells us beware of this, I believe he wants would have us to understand be careful who you make friends with beware of evil workers they can only pull you down when you.
Analyze or a person and you and that person is is going to.
Dampen your spirit and the Lord or is going to potentially to lead you astray. You might come right down to what we have right here. You you might let this thing have an influence upon you to the point where you know you're blind and you cannot see it far off. There's another verse that that comes into mind and I, I was thinking in Second Thessalonians. I think it's the third chapter.
Verse two I believe.
First second set belongs I'm sorry and verse 2.
It says, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith, but the Lord is faithful who will establish you and keep you from evil. But our part is to make sure that when we walk in here below, that we don't have relationships and so forth that would bring us down if we if we give us bad habits.
Could we just?
The expression ye shall never fall. Is that a promise?
You are going to keep that promise. Is it a promise that we're interested in? I believe we are. Are we don't? Go ahead.
I was just going to finish the same thought because our time is up, but it's nice to include this.
12Th or 11Th verse here. And the apostle says, as you say, we will never fall. Well, which one of us would stand up and say that?
We've arrived there, but nevertheless it is a promise of God. If that new life is allowed to display itself, we won't fall and that abundant entrance will be given to us. Into what?
Well, the Israelite looked for an earthly Kingdom, and they were very disappointed when it seemed to be eluding their grasp. But here's.
As it says here, an everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
That's something even better. And we know that the thought of the Kingdom often connects itself with a moral state, doesn't it? That was the real problem with Israel. They weren't in a moral state to have the Kingdom. They thought they could take it in their sinful condition. Having disobeyed God, brought down His government upon them, and yet they felt that because they were His chosen people, they could take the Kingdom in that way. Now you and I have been made fit for that everlasting Kingdom.
But God wants us to have that abundant entrance into it now.
We don't see a visible Kingdom today, but there is one coming, and morally, you and I can demonstrate the character that is in keeping with those who recognize and honor the rightful king.
Mr. Lundin used to remind us that every action has present and eternal consequences, and Paul could say he'd receive mercy of the Lord to be found faithful.
278.
Save your way long.
01:10:05
Only.
Gone for my hair and be.
Oh.
No.
Father, we just do empty. There's a the shortness of our salvation and that there is entrance and that we do not need to be blind that we can see. We just do thank thee that there are things that we can have in our lives and things to add and to.
Have those traits, characteristics of Christianity seen in us? We just do praise the reading of Thy word.
Together on it that just might grow up unto thee, Lord Jesus, that we might grow grace and knowledge for our Lord Jesus Christ, whose name we pray and give thanks. Amen.