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Second Peter, chapter one, verse 5.
And besides this, giving all villages after your faith, virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to 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 shall make you, that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he unlocked these things his blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the to make your calling and election sure, or if you do these things, ye shall never fail fall.
For so an entrance shall be administered 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 hath showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that he may be able, after my deceit, to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came country voice to him from the excellent glory.
This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.
On this voice which came from heaven, we heard when we were with Him in the holy mountain. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Whereof ye do well, let ye take heed.
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I don't know light that shineth in a dark place, until the day gone and the day star arise in your heart.
Knowing that first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, where the prophecy came not in no time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake that they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Does this take us back to verse 3 where it says, umm, divine is that his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and violence. And then in verse five, and besides this giving all diligence, so we are to give diligence to add, to expand upon the thought.
Well, I'm sure that it is.
I think it's important that we understand that there is a a paragraph marker in the Jan Darby translation at verse 5 where we began reading today, and in the 1St 4 verses as we mentioned this morning.
We have God's part in preserving of his Saints in an evil day, and He's made these various provisions for us, which we touched on.
But from verse five onward, we have our part.
And we need to be exercised and give as well. You'll notice how it says that, uh, he has given unto us all things that pretended to let him go on his verse 3, verse four, He's given unto us the greatest promises. And now in verse five, that word give is mentioned again. Only it's not God giving, it's us giving. We need to give energy and diligence with regard to being preserved in the evil path in the evil days. And umm.
He mentions three things in particular. Perhaps you'll see more, but first of all, there should be an exercise in our part to have the moral qualities that would mark a godly life, which is what you get in verses 5 through 11.
Then we need to have the exercise of being established in the present truth. That's verses 12 and 1314. But lastly, in the latter verses of the chapter we have another third thing, and that is the necessity of keeping.
The coming glory before our souls that is God's glorious end, and the display of Kingdom glory where Christ will reign over all these things are going to keep us in the pathway.
So God has made full provision for us to be preserved in the past. The question we might ask is, well, why is it that we have a day of ruin and so many have not been preserved and there's so much failure that we look within our own hearts, we see the same thing?
Well, it's simple. It couldn't be a fault on God's part. Of course not.
The problem is in our part, we have not given the diligence and the things that he brings before us in the latter part of this chapter, and as a result, there has been failure on our part.
But if we feel we fail, then so we should realize that.
He's a God that will help us to rise up and to be overcomers in spite of failure.
There's never an excuse for failure in our lives, is there? And when you and I stand at the judgment seat of Christ, we will never be able to offer God an excuse of the Lord Jesus, an excuse for any failure in our lives, and will never be able to say, well, the Lord, the day was so dark that we didn't have the resources to live in the darkness of the day in which we found ourselves in the moral ruin around us. Because we're going to realize then that we had all the resources at our disposal. But just in connection with what's been said, I'd like to go back to the illustration we used this morning.
Of sending out the men on a job with the tool kit, because I might be able, might have been able to send my men out on the job with all the tools they needed. Maybe I did supply everything that was needed.
But if they didn't open the tool kit and reach into the tool kit, they weren't going to be able to perform the job or to perform the job properly. No, there had to be diligence on their part to utilize the tools that were supplied for them. And so it's interesting as this paragraph in our chapter begins, if I just read it, Mr. Darby's translation, but for this very reason, also using their with all diligence.
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And so it connected, as Ken said, with what goes before. Everything is there. The tool kit is full. The Divine tool kit is full, as it were, But now there has to be the opening of that tool kit.
And brethren, it's only by the grace of God I realize that we utilize what God has given to us. It's God that works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. If there's been any measure of utilizing the resources that God has provided in our lives, I realize that it's only the grace of God that has worked in US. However, there has to be that spiritual exercise and energy exhibited.
And God never encourages laziness in any aspect of our Christian life.
Whether it's our practical Christian life, whether it's our spiritual Christian life.
There's always got to be that energy. That's why David in the 27th Psalm, he makes 2 statements that go very well necessarily together. He says one thing, have I desired.
Well that's good. You know sometimes I hear it said about someone. Well they have a nice desire. Well desire is good, but the slugger desires and has nothing we can desire if after these meetings are over this evening.
We can have every desire to go back to our homes or where we're staying, but if we don't do something about it, we could sit here till tomorrow morning. No, David said one thing. If I desire that, will I seek after? He realized there had to be.
And energy put forth if he was going to accomplish or enjoy that which he desired.
And so for you and for me, there needs to be that diligence that he introduces here in this very practical section. And again, it's not what here, what we give God or what, uh, we give God, uh, it's what we do. And I should say, it's not what God is doing so much. He's done everything, but it's what we are to do now in light of the fact of what God has done and supplied for us.
He mentioned 7 qualities, moral qualities that are necessarily to be added to our faith. He assumes faith in the Saints, so he doesn't count that as one.
It begins with virtue, then knowledge, then temperance which is self-control, then endurance which is patience, godliness, then brotherly kindness and charity which is love. These things are necessary in the Christian pathway and.
They are only going to be, uh, ours. If there's exercise, it doesn't just sneak up on us one day and we're godly. If it's not, you may run into a godly Christian. It's because Scripture, as scripture says the person has been exercised about it. It says exercise thyself. Rather untrue.
That's something that just happens without the soul being exercised. And so the first thing is, as he mentions here, besides this giving all diligence, add in your face, not to your face, but in your face. Virtue. What's virtue? Virtue is the courage to stand on our convictions. Moral courage is so needed. Remember Christianity, the whole theme of Christianity is so opposite the world. We're going against the stream that we're going to need courage to stand on the convictions that we have.
And what we've been taught from the Word of God. And Peter says this is where you need to begin. Add this in your faith.
Would you say these are sequential as well? You can't begin with the end. And you, he doesn't, uh, with a list like this, he doesn't, uh, begin, uh, haphazardly, but very, very, in an orderly fashion. He lays things out very carefully. And so it's, uh, to our faith. We have faith in Christ. We have, uh, the, the world doesn't want us to live by faith, but by sight. And it also brings in the fact that we need to have our loyalties.
In connection with our fidelity associated with Christ, we need to be loyal to Christ in our thoughts and our actions. And so here he begins with faith and virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience very methodically goes out and I wonder if it's just building blocks. You can't just take umm and jumble this all up and start with the patience or start with temperance, but in a very careful way begins with faith in Christ.
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And then that virtue, that spiritual energy that we should have and are exhorted to exercise, and then knowledge.
In this matter of courage, it's not limiting to the men is if you might think that.
But we all often enjoy the virtuous woman in properly. I understand that that word in the Hebrew virtuous.
How to thought of once a woman of courage and conviction is for the birds, and then she acts on that.
And it it really is quite a testimony because perhaps with a week or pass holder before and here having a sense of being weaker.
And encouraged by, uh, the woman that we get in Second Samuel Chapter 20.
Second Samuel, chapter 20.
That time there's warfare and and there are those that are following after the command Stephens from victory and they go to this tower and they hold up in the tower.
And everyone in the tower is going to lose their life, except for there's this woman that comes out.
And it's kind of remarkable in verse 16, it says in Christ a wise one out of the city here, here I say unto you, Joel, come near, hit her that I may speak with thee when he would come here and turn. The woman said ourselves, Joel, after he's been answered by him and uh, she speaks, umm.
Why, Master said, far be it from me that I should swallow up or destroy.
And he said, well, read it, the matter's not so, But a man's not easy, and she does not a victory by name Have lifted up his hand against the King, against David. Deliver him only, and I'll depart from the city.
New stuff in the woman, She's talking to the general that way, and she says to him, his head is going to be delivered up. How is she going to go back in that tower and convince all those people that they need to take the head of the man that they're following? But she does.
It says in verse 22 That the woman went into all the people, their wisdom, and they cut off the head of Sheba, the son of Victory. He passed it out to Joab. We leave a trumpet.
The retirement of the city of a man's with him John returned to Jerusalem.
We have in Luke's Gospel chapter 6 verse 19 in connection with the Lord Jesus. It says the whole multitude. In verse 19, Luke 619 the whole multitude sought to touch him, for there went virtue out of him.
And heal them all. So in connection with the Lord Jesus, there was moral energy, there were spiritual energy. And uh, what you and I should be characterized as by is spiritual energy. We're flowing, we're living against the current of this world. And it will take spiritual energy and it will take spiritual courage to walk against this world. But it has to be done in faith. And if we don't have faith in, with a view as to what the end of the pathway is, then it really will be an empty thing.
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But it really is for Christ that really has to be with Christ as the object before our hearts, and that's what faith thinks before us.
And then it has to be according to knowledge too, doesn't it? We've already commented on this this morning. But there's much that appear, may appear pious in a person's life, but if it's not done according to knowledge, it's on a very shaky ground. We're told in Romans to present our bodies a living sacrifice.
Wholly acceptable unto God, which is your intelligent service. Because again, as we said this morning, Christianity.
Is marked by intelligence, and I say that because there's many things done today even in the name of the Lord Jesus. But when you go to the Word of God, you find it's not done according to God's Word.
You know we're never justified in doing anything, even in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Without the authority on the basis of the word for what we do. So that's why in the 138 Psalm it says thou hast magnified thy word above thy name. Sometimes people say, well, the only thing that matters is that souls get saved. Wonderful that souls get saved. But if we're going to live for the Lord and the testimony for the Lord, it must be in a way that conforms to the word of God. So we we've made many comments on that already, I realize, but.
He brings in knowledge here at the end of verse 5. So it's not just moral cour, it's not just moral courage. And uh, it's not just faith and moral courage, but it has to be according to knowledge as well.
And again, where are we going to get this knowledge? It's all here for us in the word of God. Could you explain why in the King James it says add, but it doesn't seem to be that that thought it's.
Yes, it's misleading to think that it's uh, steps or something. These features are to be added in our faith or we in our faith. Umm, more like branches of a tree. They all grow on the tree at the same speed at the same time.
I think you could probably add to that, but the word add here, it doesn't is misleading. It makes you think that there's sort of steps involved or something.
God wants evenness and consistency in our lives. You know, sometimes we tend to be extremists. I thought of what Robert read to us earlier in the address, and I know it's only an application.
But it's like it says of ethrium. Ephriam is a cake not turned. You know, you put a cake on the griddle and it gets too well done on one side and not enough on the other.
And that's what we often are by nature. We get off on one tangent of something, or we get off one characteristic shows up more in our lives than the other. And the Lord Jesus, as a man, he was the fine flower.
There was an evenness and consistency in his life. These virtues and those glories and attributes that shone out in the life of the Lord Jesus, there was an evenness and consistency in it.
They were seen in their perfect perfection in him. Well, they ought to we ought to seek by grace. And I know again, we'll never reach the same perfection of the Lord Jesus. But those things, whether they're those, these things that are listed here, the fruit of the Spirit that's listed in Galatians, which again are just attributes of the person of Christ. Those things ought to if we are walking in a proper way with proper exercise.
They there will be no unevenness or there will be less unevenness in our lives, and those things will each shine out consistently.
The brother used to say we have all the virtues of Christ undeveloped. We do have a life, and these things are characteristic of that life, aren't they?
But they're undeveloped. So he's saying cultivate these things.
And that's what spiritual exercise really is. It's the development of those things. We we think of it in a natural sense because someone quoted the verse about exercising ourselves unto godliness. But if you notice the verse before, it's making a little contrast there. He says bodily exercise profits for a little time, and it does. We all need exercise, but exercise in natural things takes energy and consistency. It takes discipline.
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A young man or a young lady, they maybe get up early in the morning and they go down and they work out or they go for a run. That takes discipline. Maybe they're not by nature mourning people, but they want to keep healthy and they sit at a computer all day at the office. So they get up and they discipline themselves. Umm, young man, he goes up, goes to the weight room and he disciplines himself every day to lift weights. And as he lifts weights each every week, perhaps he adds a little to the, uh, to, to the weights. There's a development there.
You don't go into the weight room and expect to lift 150 lbs over your head the first day. The first day, No, it there's a development that takes place. A runner doesn't go out to train and expect to run a marathon in a month. No, there's months and months and years of of training and maybe they take part in smaller races 1St and then they develop those certain muscles and those certain lung capacity and whatever.
Well, that's what we're saying, brother. There needs to be the spiritual exercise, which takes energy and discipline. You know, if you're gonna have a knowledge of Scripture, you're gonna have to discipline yourself to take a little time every day to.
To read it, you're going to utilize any of the tools we've spoken about. You're going to have to take a little time. Prayer, one of those wonderful tools we spoke of this morning, takes time, takes exercise, takes energy of faith. Christianity is not easy. The Christian race is not easy. And that's why he speaks here of patience or patience often in our King James Bible is better translated endurance, and that's the way it is here.
Again, the marathon runner. He has to learn to pace himself and endure mile after mile, laugh after laugh. The Christian race, it says let us run with endurance. The race that is set before us.
So it's not the easy path, but it's the blessed and the happy path and the fruitful path.
You said that virtue, we can have this.
Moral energy, but it can be misguided and so we need knowledge to rightly know how the thoughts of of God is how to use it. But then it says to knowledge temperance.
There's a there's a danger in just wanting knowledge too, isn't it? Knowledge puffeth up, so there's a need of having temperance or self-control. Say a word about that.
How does that kind of, uh.
Keep us from being puffed up with the knowledge that we have.
What'd you say, Jim?
Well, I enjoyed a little definition that Brother Garvin Seymour serves the Lord in the Caribbean gave. We were taking up this very chapter one time at a conference in Dixon Village, Saint Vincent, and we came to this temperance and this is very simple, but I enjoyed it, he said, knowing how much in everything.
I thought that was very good to know how much in everything, and this is contrary to the spirit of the age in which we live.
Because the spirit of the age in which we live is to indulge, and if it feels good, do it. If you want more, go after it. Reach for your your dreams, get as much of whatever this world is a playground in which to indulge yourself and you only have one life and so on. Temperance is not what characterizes the age. Now I'm not criticizing, but you go down to the fast food place. You want the biggie size and you want the liter and 1/2 or the two liter drink or what, whatever.
There's no temperance in that, and that's only one aspect of things. But brethren, like Paul said, all things were lawful but not expedient. And, and there's too much of different things, certain things too. We can go too much.
One way or or the other? So temperance is knowing how much in everything. How would that temperate knowledge? Would that be walking in or carrying it out or?
The knowledge or what?
In the end of verse 4, you have the word lust for just used and having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And lust really is unbridled lust. It's just no control. But a believer's life is really characterized, ought to be characterized by control, self-control. That's our responsibility. But really we ought to be under the control of the Spirit of God.
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But here is it. It is our responsibility, self-control, and instead of using knowledge to be puffed up and umm, to present ourselves with being something, it's really to control ourselves and to use that knowledge to exalt Christ.
And to walk in a Christ like way.
I hear, I heard of an instant where this man was quite well taught in the scriptures, but somebody went into the store where he was there and, and he had a basket full of cheese and, and, uh.
Why? Well, it wasn't Temperance. There wasn't. He had the knowledge, but he wasn't walking in it. And.
There are things just to qualify our remarks too. As you say, there are things that Scripture speaks against too. And so we want to be careful when we make the comments we have. And again, you won't have the knowledge.
Of what is actually forbidden, there are things that are forbidden.
I'll speak very plainly, brother.
Sexual conduct outside the marriage tie is not to be handled in temperance. It's absolutely forbidden. Fornication and adultery are forbidden. You've got to have the, the knowledge. Then there are other things that are not forbidden, but they are to be with temperance. They're in, in, in, in moderation. And so the word of God is the govern, isn't it? It's it, it's the, it's the guide. It tells us what is forbidden. It tells us what we can do.
It tells us how much it answers every question for every aspect of our practical Christian life.
On one side it prevents us from going into legality and the other into leniency.
Good, Very good.
Another thing that you should notice in these, uh, verses is the word.
2222 all through it, but if you read it in the Jan Darby translation, he does not have those words there at all. Add an add to is not there.
And so it's just one thing after another here mentioned. And, uh, he goes from self-control, which is what temperance is, which is the fruit of the spirit. Galatians 5 tells us that then to patients, which should be translated endurance.
Endurance is very important. We need to endure, be able to be, to be tough, to be able to accept the fact that we're going against the grain of the course of this world. And you know, we all wanna be well thought of, but Christianity is not something that's popular, that is faithful. Christianity, if it's lived by God's people, is not popular in this world. So if you're looking to win a popularity contest with your worldly friends or people you work with or go to school with, it's not gonna work.
You have to endure the reproach that's connected with the name of Christ and you when you set out the Christian pathway. We need to be prepared to accept this kind of thing because it's normal to Christianity.
That's endurance.
In Hebrews 13 we get the verse. Let us go forth, therefore unto him outside the camp, bearing His reproach would be.
A form of endurance wouldn't. It could bear his reproach. You can continue on anything.
And we are to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, Timothy was told, because we are in a war zone. We're, we're, we're in a, we're, we're in Pharaoh's land as Robert was bringing before us. We have an enemy, a powerful enemy. And that's why we're to put on the armor of God. But we are to endure hardness. And brethren, don't expect that the Christian life is going to get any easier. I sometimes say to the young people.
They look at us who are a little older and a little further along in the path of faith and they think perhaps it's going to get any get easier. Well, the, the, the temptations, the difficulties may be different than what you're facing, but they're, they're no easier. In fact, when I was in Egypt recently, you know, the brethren were saying, you know, life is tough over here, it's harsh and so on. I said, let's illustrate it this way. If you've got 10 problems over here in Egypt.
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We've got 10 problems over where I come from. They may be 10 different problems. I just pulled 10 as a number. But I said we may, they may be different problems, but they're just as real. The enemy is just as busy. The situations are just as real for us. They may be very different. And the brethren said, yes, we, we understand that. And so whatever age we are in our Christian life, wherever we live in the world, the enemy is busy. He's opposed to Christianity.
And we are not going to be done with Christian warfare as long as we're here in this world.
Run with endurance the race that is set before you. Hebrews 12.
It is a very needed quality when we're in an enemy's land.
Then godliness.
Godliness is simply being like God in character.
And as we've already mentioned, this comes through exercise as well.
Mm-hmm.
That I was just looking at the new translation and, uh, because I was thinking of a verse that says where you have need of patience and after you've done the will of God, you might receive the promises. But it is, and it's endurance. And, uh, might be an illustration of that 32nd verse of, uh, Hebrews 10. Uh, read it in a new translation, but call to mind the earlier days in which having been enlightened, he endured much conflict of suffering on the one hand.
When you were made a spectacle both in reproaches and afflictions, and on the other, when you became partakers of those who were passing through them, for you both sympathized with prisoners and accepted the joy.
You became partakers of those.
The plundered your goods, knowing that you have for yourselves a better substance and an abiding 1 Cast not away, therefore your confidence, which has great recompense.
For you have need of endurance in order that having done the will of God, He might receive the promises for yet a little while. He that comes will come, and will not delay. So it seems like.
They, they were exuberant when they started, but that was kind of waning and, uh, that's the way with us, you know?
We get tired, you know, uh, we wait, we, we think the Lord is coming and uh, he doesn't come. So we kind of, uh.
Get weary and but you have a need of endurance.
So let's let's tell I'm gonna ask for a little help on this because there might be some here saying, well, what do we endure?
In North America, some of us have been to countries where the endurance is very real. Our our brethren in Egypt, when they meet at night, it it's it's done very circumspectly. When we have meetings, we have it in a different brothers flat in a different part of the city each night.
Under lock and key we don't sing so that we don't raise any.
Any suspect from any of the apartments above us or below us or or around us?
They, the brothers told me when.
In the morning when we get up, our main concern is for our wives and daughters till we're all home and accounted for at night. They can't evangelize openly. All these things. And like some of the things Brother Vern has read to us and Paul endured. He endured things at Ephesus from what he people he called beasts and so on. But now let's bring it right home to where we are this afternoon. We're sitting in this beautiful facility.
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We've got air conditioning, climate control, we've had wonderful meals provided by our brethren. We're not afraid of the authorities coming in and busting down the door and arresting us or shooting us because we're having a Bible meeting.
We're not going to be afraid tonight to preach the gospel. We could go out on the streets if we had the moral courage and have a street meeting and give out some tracks, and we wouldn't be afraid of being arrested or stoned like the apostles or in the early brethren who are not afraid of being burnt at the stake. So we talk about endurance and I'll quote a verse. All they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
That's pretty definite. Not might, but shall. But we're not suffering persecution in the general way we think of persecution this afternoon. Now, what does that verse mean? What are we talking about?
For us practically here today in North America when we talk about endurance.
Brothers, help us out.
We're being tempted to give up. Thank you That that's really the, uh, the temptation of the game is to is to give up, fit in and drift home.
We were in, in, uh, we were down in Phoenix, uh, this winter and uh, on Thursday we would drive up the Cottonwood. My wife and I, we doubled the assembly on Thursday night. But here's a brother who is well taught, enjoying the Lord and he's, uh, he's vibrant and it just, sometimes his wife is there. So there's three, there's him, his wife and George.
Uh, you know, uh, but uh.
You know, he values George because George is always there and, uh, they have the, when, uh, they have a prayer meeting and it's uh, lively, but, uh, that man is going on the same thing in, in, uh, Colorado Springs, my brother Bill White.
So those are the things that and and of course, you know, you take the persecution of those who are believers, you know, why are you going on like that? You know, why don't you come and act like the rest of us?
I'll give you another example. I was in the assembly out east and uh, brother and, uh, another brother, two brothers would come to the reading prayer meeting very faithfully on Wednesday night. Two of them, their wives weren't that terribly interested. And there are other brethren in the area. Well, they're not that interested. They come to the meeting room every Wednesday night for a reading meeting and a prayer meeting. I was sitting in this brother's house and I said brother.
Why don't you, uh, perhaps consider, uh, meeting in one of your homes and then you don't have to unlock the meeting room and heat it up and so on and so forth and so on. And he said this to me. He says, brother, I fear God.
Brother, I fear God. We're going to meet in the meeting room and we're going to be in the presence of God. We're going to read the scriptures in the presence of God. We're going to read and we're going to pray in the presence of God. I fear God. I tell you that assembly has prospered.
And there has been more growth. If there was a little more endurance, a little more devotion to Christ, there would be more, uh, blessing among us. And that litany of things that you just told us that we have, I remember what a brother used to often say, prosperity, thou enemy of the Christian to endure and not let that take over in your life because we have it so well, it what the tendency is to get taken up with the things in this world.
Just good things and forget the Lord altogether. And it goes back to what Brother Ken said earlier. There's always a reproach in the measure in which we are faithful to the Lord, whether it's in our personal lives, whether it's collectively as you brought out. There's always going to be a reproach connected with our testimony for Christ. We may not fear being stoned as we walk down the street or arrested for our testimony, but there's going to be the sneer. There's going to be the misunderstanding.
00:45:03
And sometimes persecution is, for us at least, is more connected with reproach than being physical. Another thing too interesting, when you take up the armor of God, it doesn't say to put on the armor of God that we would be able to stand against the power or the onslaught of the devil. That is not what it says. When the Knights put on their armor back in the in years ago to go out to battle, they put on their armors of to withstand the onslaught of the enemy.
But it says to withstand the Wiles of the devil. Isn't that interesting? The Wiles of the devil are often more successful, at least for us in the Western world, than the onslaught of the enemy that in a physical and practical way that many of our brethren, uh, experience. I want to read one more verse in this connection in Revelation chapter 21.
Revelation chapter 21 and verse seven. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. Are these things. It's the things he's been Speaking of in connection with eternity. And I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
It's interesting to notice the overcoming here because the overcoming in the seven to the churches earlier on the overcoming there is in connection with something very specific.
In regard to each assembly, sometimes it was physical persecution, there were other circumstances, giving up of the truth, compromise and so on. And the overcomer there, the overcoming there, and the overcomer, it's always in connection with something very specific. But I suggest the overcoming here is a little more general. The overcoming here is just the general grind of life and brother. And I believe that the enemy can use just the general grind of life.
You know, I watch people in the airports and the business lounges every week. Businessmen in the top echelon of the political and corporate world, they are just overwhelmed by keeping up in business.
And the enemy can come in with that which is not wrong in itself, but just as we say, to tread water in society and keep our head above water and survive in the workaday world in which we find ourselves.
But, brethren, even in the pressure of life in North America, the Western world.
We can still be overcomers. We can endure, as we, as we've been been saying, and in spite of whatever opposition there may be, whether it's subtle or whether it's not so subtle, the Lord is sufficient. And as we've been saying, the resources are there. What is the power for endurance?
Tell us 10. I believe it's the person. Mm-hmm.
If you go back to that verse that I quoted in Hebrews 12, it supports what you say, looking off unto Jesus the author and finisher the faith. Then it talks about enduring the run with the patience or endurance of the race. It's the only thing that's going to give us the energy we need to keep our eye fixed on the person that's before us.
We often, uh, emphasize the plate and it's good, but we can emphasize the place to the exclusion of the person.
And if the person comes first, the place will follow after and.
Gain as much importance to us, but let's not, uh, let's not umm, emphasize the place per SE to the exclusion of Christ himself. Because if we do, He's not going to be there.
And there's only one way too that these moral qualities are going to be exhibited in our lives, and that's occupation with the person. I just want to turn to the to 2nd Corinthians 3 and I, I think this is borne out.
Because sometimes we might say, well, these things don't seem to be manifest in my life. How can I really manifest these things in in my life? Because as we've been saying, these things are really those attributes of the person of Christ himself, those things that evenly and consistently shone out, those moral glories that they saw when they saw the Lord Jesus walking here in this world.
But here's another key, and it goes along with what we had, what Bruce quoted to us in Hebrews looking unto Jesus. But notice the last verse of chapter three of Second Corinthians. But we all with open face, beholding us in a glass, the glory of the Lord. Or if you notice Mr. Darby's translation, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled faith are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as the by the Spirit of the Lord.
00:50:27
You know, sometimes we might try within ourselves to generate some of these attributes and qualities and so on. That's not going to work. What is going to work? What scene of Christ in your life and mind is in the measure in which we are occupied with Christ, where He is now and His glory. You know, Moses, when he was in the presence of God on the mount and he came out, He had to veil his face.
They couldn't look on him. Why? Because his face shone as a result of being in the presence of his God on the mouth. He didn't try to make his face shone. In fact, it says he wished not that his face shone.
It was the unconscious reflection of being in the presence of God. And these things will be unconsciously reflected in your life and mind. And I again, I don't want to take away from the exercise and the diligence and so on, but there will be an unconscious reflection of the moral qualities of Christ in your life and mind only in the measure in which we're looking unto Jesus. We're looking at him with unveiled faith. Moses had to veil his face.
The veil has been removed for us. We can look full in His wonderful face and be occupied with Himself, that those things might give testimony in our lives. Let me give you a verse in Hebrews 11 which will show the power for endurance. Turn with me to Hebrews 11 and verse 27.
Talking about Moses by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.
For he endured as seeing him was invisible. He added his the focus of his life and faith was on him who was invisible. And it gave him to be able to endure the hardship the the reproach, the.
Persecution that was going to follow in standing up against the king.
If one can read their experiences and to other people, and it's not difficulty, it's not it's not difficult when we're here to be occupied with the Lord. Where I find difficulty is driving down the road.
Or what I'm doing other things when I leave this place and there's so many other things to occupy that it's very difficult or uses. You need diligence to be thinking about the things of the Lord and to be in his presence. We used to hear all the time at the conference. There's no substitute for communion. I think that's.
What that verse, eighteenth verse of the third chapter means, you know, we're we're taking up with him in glory. But to keep your mind on those things, it's it takes diligence, at least if one can speak for others.
Well, what about verse 7?
Brotherly kindness and charity.
Why are these important for in in the mix of preserving us? Because that's the context of the chapter, remember?
Help us.
What was the question again?
Restate the question. I'm asking a question. Yeah. What was it? We restate it, please. Oh, I see.
Well, it says Brotherly kindness and brotherly Kindness charity. There's two things there.
And I'm asking why are these features necessary?
In the mix of our being preserved in an evil day. Because that's the context of the chapter.
Well, when is filet, O love, The other is agape love. And so our love for our brethren is necessary. We love our brethren. It's proof that we are the Lords, and we ought to, we're responsible to love our brethren and to grow in that love, but also in connection with the charity. It's agape love, it's a subtle disposition of love, it's divine love. And so you and I have.
00:55:03
The capacity, don't we, to love as Christ loved? And so instead of, uh, umm.
Oh, what is it? Uh.
It's like Steven praying for those that were stoning him, he said.
Lord Jesus.
I was gonna read it so I don't misquote it.
He they stoned Steven, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice. Lord lay not there this sin to their charge. And when he had said that he fell asleep, was that not?
Really agape love, that was charity. That was a subtle disposition before God. He was going to love his enemies and he was going to love them even unto death. It was really mirroring picturing, uh, the love of Christ. But then we're it's necessary to walk in friendship and fellowship with our brethren as well.
We cannot bypass the first, uh, of the list that we have for this and go right directly to loving our brother. I believe the, the, the love that is shown to our brethren is the fruit of applying all these other things to our place and, uh, because that is the nature of God.
So, uh, that, that is not the first thing that's given in our list here. You mentioned before, Robert, that there is a, a, a, an order, uh, by in, in which it is given. We don't, it's not just multiple, but we're thrown in there. We couldn't mix this up and still have the same thought. So the end of that list, you might say, is, uh, loving our brother because these characters have been, uh, manifested in our life.
And so it starts with the individual. We can be no more collectively than we are individually.
And so it starts with the individual, but then it says in Romans, no man lives to himself and no man dies to himself. And so there's the collective, collective side of things. And our love one for another, expressed in a practical and a real way, is often the world's greatest testimony. The Lord said by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if you keep my word. No, that's not what he said.
If you have love one for another. And so when there's that brotherly love, that practical love, and you notice it's brotherly love here first, but it doesn't stop there, then love. You know, we're going to preach the gospel tonight. Why? Because I trust we have a love for sinners as well, that our love goes beyond just the Christian circle. God loves the world. He desires the blessing of all men, and we ought to have that as well.
And so there's love in the Christian circle, there's brotherly love, sometimes that breaks down, but then there's divine love, as Robert has said. But it goes, as I say, beyond just the Christian circle, where to have a love for all men.
And desire their eternal blessing. So is it I'm asking this now Is it to to live in the element of love being expressed? That would be the preserving element. Is that what you're?
Well, it has to start with with our with ourselves, But then there's the practical expression, brotherly love. We can't carry on brotherly love without interacting with our brethren and expressing it in a practical way. And that's what we're talking about here. It's living practical Christianity in a day of ruin and giving testimony in a in a day, in a day of ruin, that there's reality. And how's the world going to know that there's reality?
They're going if it's only if they see it. How are our brethren going to know if there's reality in our lives? It's as we express in a practical way, that brotherly love you might enjoy divine love in your soul as an individual.
But brotherly love brings in others. It's the our interaction of the practical expression of love in a care one for another. So again in Hebrews, he says, let brotherly love continue.
The very practical thing, what, what don't you think, Bruce, is it, is it something that, uh, uh, brotherly love can deteriorate? So it's relative, but there's one thing that's even above that and that's agape love. So we might, it might deteriorate into, we just, uh, you know, love our brethren and, and, uh, go on with them, uh, when they're going on with something that doesn't please the Lord, but love for God would, uh, balance that out.
01:00:03
I think you get something relatively or something that is like that. Not exactly, but if you turn to Luke 414, it's a very revealing, uh, uh, God forbid that anybody would ever say anything about family. You know, God is the, uh, author of it and where to respect it. But relatively, uh, the 26th verse, if any man come to me.
And hate not his father.
And his mother, his wife, and his children and brethren and sisters. Yeah, in his own life also. He cannot be my disciple. It's relative. Christ first. If anything, there's a danger of allowing these things to supersede that. So. So he says.
The 27th verse. And whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot, cannot be my disciple, not, cannot be, uh, a child of God, but a disciple. You know, salvation costs us nothing, absolutely nothing. We are saved by the work of Christ, by the grace of Christ, by faith in Christ alone, discipleship.
May cost you everything.
So I think it's relative is, is is that?
Oh, what were you? What was your thought on it? I didn't have a thought, but I'm glad to get that. But I might say I love you. That's one thing. But if there isn't a practical manifestation of that love in our interactions one with another, then you say, well, that there's no testimony in that. There's no reality in that. And that's again, what brotherly love is. It's just, it's the display of it practically one with another. It's a little different, but you think of the, the.
Umm, the story of the Samaritan. The priest and the Levite went. They came along and they looked and they might have said, well poor man, we love them, but not much we can do for them. They were but when the Samaritan came.
He not only had compassion on him, it says he went to him and he bound up his wounds. And he didn't just leave him in the ditch with bound up wounds. He put him on his own beast. He brought him to the inn. He paid to have somebody take care of him.
That was the practical manifestation of the compassion or love that the Samaritan had for the man in the ditch. So what does it mean to hate your mother and your father and your brother and your sister? Is that too strong a word here?
It's really the sense of valuing one relationship above all other relationships.
And really giving Christ the 1St place, the world has an expression family 1St and that's not true. It's really that Christ that in all things he might have the preeminence. And so we have family responsibility, don't we says children obey your parents and it says that husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And so we have those responsibilities, but those claims cannot supersede.
What we have and responsibility Godward and know how the Lord loves us and desires that we would walk in the same fashion as he did. He uh, loved the Father and even when it comes to ourselves, having loved his own, which were in the world, He loved them unto the end, but never in defiance of the word of God in any way. And so this is really why he brings that out in Luke chapter 14 is that that one relationship would be of value to us above all other relationships.
Is there a, did the Lord display this? I, I'm, I'm asking, uh, in uh, Matthew 16 and the 17th verse. And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed are thou, you know, he, maybe I should have started up above, but we all know, uh, the 14th verse, uh, he'd ask them. He asked them, what do pins say? Who do men say that I am? And uh, and then the 15th verse he said, he said unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now here is the Lord.
Giving us affirmation to that Jesus said unto said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood, if not revealed this unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven now there is a love to to Peter, but.
01:05:03
When Peter said.
In the 21St verse, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem.
And suffer many things of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes will be killed and be raised again a third day. Then Peter took him, and he began to rebuke him. The Lord. Now the Lord is going to be faithful.
And to God his Father, and he, so he, he said, get thee behind me, say.
That was it was.
To honor.
His father above the person of peace. And I believe that you get an example of that. You know, brotherly kindness ought to be shown.
But it can deteriorate into displeasing the Lord.
In going on with something our brother that is not a God.
Let me take time to just tell you one little story that I think will touch your heart. At least it touched mine during the revolution, the two revolutions and overthrows of government that they had in Egypt over the last four, four years.
I continue to visit my brethren there and there are about 3 wealthy brethren in the assembly there in Cairo. And they are not only wealth, very wealthy even by our standards, but they have family and connection either in North America or Europe. And those brothers told me during the height of the revolution, they said, you know, Jim, we could put our family on a plane tomorrow and leave and get out.
But we won't leave our brethren behind. We're here to care for our brethren, and we feel before the Lord that we're here to be with our our brethren. They can't leave. We can support them financially, that we can encourage them in the Lord. We can take care of them in every way, and we won't leave without them. I thought what a beautiful example of brotherly love in its proper context. They had such a love for their brother.
That though they could leave a very difficult situation for them and their families, they wouldn't do it. Now I've never been put in that kind of test, so I don't know what I would do. But I thought that is a modern day example of brotherly love, brotherly kindness and a care one for another.
200 and 96296.
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01:10:04
Hi.