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The love of God, our Savior, all will be well.
With the love of God.
Will be my.
Three, 9857.
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Transformers 2:01.
Uh. What do you want to do? Because, umm.
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5.
Second Peter chapter one and verse 5.
And besides this giving all diligence, add to 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 these things be in you and abound. They make you, that you 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, you shall never fall, for so 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 it meet 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 endeavour that ye may be able after my deceased, 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 such a voice to Him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
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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, whereunto 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 spake.
As they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
The previous reading meeting the 1St 4 verses, we really have the provisions of the grace of God.
But starting here in verse five, it's the practical character of putting them into practice.
We can sit here this weekend and we do with appreciation for God's provision for us to sit here and listen and to have the work of God by His Spirit take place in our souls. But whether the truth that's been before us this weekend and the various meetings is going to benefit us really or not, it's going to come on. I'm going to say Monday, but I guess I should say Tuesday for most of us.
And that is, are we going to carry it out practically in our daily lives? Is it going to be good in US? Or is it just something that we enjoyed for the weekend and then we put it aside as we go back to our daily life? But what's before us in this reading is that which needs to be put in practice. And so he says, reading Mr. Darby's translation on that first verse, it starts. But for this very reason also.
Using therewith all diligence and so there's the need for us in view of.
What's been said before to be diligent in the making use of the provisions that God has made for us. And then Peter, just to look, we won't get there, but looking ahead to the second chapter, he immediately introduces the fact that they're false teachers and those false teachers were coming in among them. And so we have access, whether we want it or not now to constant barrage of false thinking.
False teaching.
In the world and every sphere of life, it seems like in Christian circles and Christian literature and so on, and the radio, television, everywhere, there is a constant set of man's thoughts being put out as if they were Gods thoughts. And they're not in many cases. And so these things are here to provision us and protect us.
From that which is false.
Never encourages laziness in any aspect of our lives, whether it's our practical lives, our home life, whether it's our school work, our business life, we're to be diligent. Whatever our hand does, we're to be diligent in it and do it to the glory of God. And it's no different in our spiritual life either. Thinking of how James brings before us faith in operation or practical faith.
And he says there be doers of the Word and not hearers only. And so, as Dawn said, if we come to these meetings and we listen to the Word, but we don't put it in practice when we go home later this week, then we've really lost in what God has intended. And it's not so much in this verse that we're to add these things. Sometimes these things are likened to building blocks and we add one row and then another. But that's not really the thought and.
When you read it in Mr. Darby's translation, he doesn't use the word add. These things are elements of practical Christianity that are going to cause us to bear fruit in the end. And so if you think of it more in rather than building blocks, if you think of it more, suppose in connection with an apple tree in the at the right season, there's a bud appears on the end of the branch, and that bud in time with the proper.
Sun and rain and drawing the.
Minerals from the soil up through the roots in the trunk of that tree and all the elements that are necessary. Eventually it's going to blossom. And then again, if there are the the proper balance of the elements that are needed, pretty soon you're going to have fruit and you get a mature apple in the end that is delicious to eat. And I think that's more of the sense of what he's saying here, that if, if these if we give diligence to these things.
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And these elements are part of our daily Christian life. What is the end result? We're not going to be unfruitful. There is going to be fruit in our Christian life, but we can't expect to have the end result, which is fruit, if there isn't diligence. And so perhaps a little different, but Paul said to Timothy, to exercise yourself under godliness. Exercise takes diligence, it takes discipline.
A young person gets up a little bit earlier to go to the gym and workout, or he stays after school to exercise because he has some.
Wants to make the track team or the football team or whatever it does, that takes diligence and energy. Well, if it takes diligence and energy for physical exercise, then it takes spiritual diligence and energy for spiritual exercise. The results, as I say, being fruit in our lives.
But it fits with what's being said. We might read that by these he might be partakers of the divine nature. We might read that as thinking, well, if I work hard at this, I might become a partaker of the divine nature. But that word partake is translated variously in the Scriptures, and one is translated fellowship or communion. And so I'll walk should be in communion with that new nature that we possess. So it's not about.
Obtaining a new life, but living the life that we have. And as Jim said, if you look at this list and you think it's a spiritual progression where you can progress from one to the next, you kind of missed the point because you can say I don't have to love because I'm not there yet.
But at Mr. Dave, he has a little footnote. He says the sense is not only this, but also. And so if you think about it, we begin with faith and that makes sense, but with faith, we need spiritual courage because that's the sense of virtue. I believe some have, uh, I noticed Mr. Wolfson, uh.
To translate the spiritual energy, but beyond faith, we need spiritual energy and uh, we talked a lot about knowledge yesterday here, uh, in, in connection in particular.
With verse two, through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
As perhaps suggest that knowledge here is a little more general than what we have back in verse two and I.
After some of the things we said yesterday, I wouldn't want anyone to go away thinking, I know, Jim, you did touch on this that well, I don't really need to to have. I don't really need to read ministry because I don't need to be out to enunciate this doctrine or that doctrine. Well, I can't emphasize more how important it is that we add not to just our faith and the spiritual courage we have, but knowledge as well. It's so key that.
Young people read Ministry, and I asked someone yesterday, how do you encourage someone that's not naturally a reader? Well, you have resources today that we've never had before. You can download thousands, thousands of meetings off the Internet and put it on the MP3 player. It might take up a few bites that you can't use for this song or that, but probably more profitable to you, so there's no excuse.
Of lack of knowledge. It's it's there, it's accessible.
Village Room.
And I translate it into my native language where I grew up into. I know exactly what it meant.
At diligent person.
Does not waste any time.
I asked a brother who is.
Full time in the single alert. How he started his day.
And he?
First thing when I get up, I pray.
And then?
I divert as much time as I can to prayer.
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And I make up my mind what I'm going to do during that day.
But is under schedule.
And that also that translated in daily life when I was working.
There were people who were diligent in their jobs.
They did not hang around gossiping. They did not smoke cigarettes.
They put their mind to their work.
And when we translate it into spiritual.
Behavior.
Then we read verse 3.
The things that God has given us pertaining unto life, we think of spiritual life.
We spend our time and set it aside to the reading of the Word, to praying whenever we can.
I mean now to those who are retired.
Those who have a steady job, well, they have to put their mind through their job.
Start on time, finish on time.
And do what they are told.
And these people, they will certainly make progress.
You will see also people make progress in spiritual things.
I see young people and that I don't blame them for doing that, but they come sometimes in a worship meeting and bring their coffee cup.
And in other meetings and zipping coffee, well, that's not diligence.
When we are.
With the Lord, we also have to be diligent in what we are doing and what we are thinking.
Not being just happy, go lucky and do whatever we please. We have to be diligent in spiritual things. Just the same way we cannot go and just do whatever we like at any time we like it. Then we cannot put our minds to that what we.
Actually should do and what we know we have to do.
And then and another word very important here is virtue.
I really can't explain what virtue is because.
Uh, mainly when we think of virtual, we think of AI do at least at a virtuous woman, what does she like? And we look at scriptures, We find all kinds of scriptures to talk about that, especially the last chapter of Proverbs, for instance.
Or when we think of Samuel, the mother of Samuel.
What she did?
But these are virtual things.
And, and we think of scripture, we look at these things in scripture, we can find what these people did and we can translate it into what we should do in the things of the Lord.
Let me just a little portion in Proverbs that might sum up in a helpful way by illustration what we've been saying.
In Proverbs chapter 24.
And verse 30, Proverbs chapter 24, and verse 30. I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the Stonewall thereof was broken down. Then I saw and considered it well. I looked upon it and received instruction yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth, and I want as an armed man so.
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Here by illustration, we see the result of one who is slothful in natural things. Why? There's no reaping at the end. He lets his vineyard go. There's not going to be fruit, Fruit as far as the vineyard would perhaps speak of our joy in the Lord, our worship, our praise. If he doesn't sow his field properly, there isn't going to be that food for himself and for his family. At the end of it, the walls broken down, the enemy gets in. We can see the result of a farmer or a husbandman being slothful.
In his business. Now apply that in our spiritual life. Why is there often no fruit in our lives, No joy, no praise?
Why isn't there always the spiritual food that we should have? Why isn't the enemy makes an inroad and the wall is broken down?
Well, it's perhaps because there isn't this diligence that we've been Speaking of.
Seven first Timothy chapter 4 says in verse 13, Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on the hands of the presbytery while Paul was instructing Timothy. And one of the ways that he was going to be able to be a help among the people of God was to be in attendance at the meetings, really to give attendance to the public reading of the Scriptures.
And to exhortation and to doctrine, to teaching of Scripture. And so there is a diligence to be, umm, demonstrated, I believe in our own souls, perhaps as when we're younger, but as we get older as well, to attend the assembly meetings. You know, Brother Gordon used to sometimes say that in Acts 242, he, he believed that it was perhaps the key to those three assembly meetings that we so often attend. They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship.
In the breaking of bread and in prayers. And so there was a steadfastness going on.
With a value for being in the presence of God. And we want to think the statement was made yesterday that it's a lovely thing for us to desire to be in the presence of the Lord where there's liberty of the Spirit at a reading meeting to be taught of God himself by the Spirit. And so there needs to be diligence. We need to be in attendance. We need to give attendance to that individually. But here in our chapter, there's needs to be a diligence. It's not.
God isn't going to reward us for a sloppy way that we take up things, and the Spirit of God is never going to bring to mind something that we've never read. We need to read the scriptures, and it's good to read ministry, but we need to read the scriptures too. And we're not going to be even in our own private meditations. We're not going to get everything that we need. We need the apostles doctrine and fellowship. We need that reading meeting, but we need to be taught in connection with the written ministry that we have as well. We need to value it.
Mm-hmm. OK.
Where he starts this list of things, he mentions three things.
Faith, virtue and knowledge. And I believe that those three things are things that in general or have already been brought before them as provisions in the 1St 4 verses.
And so in the faith he's going back to verse one, we have obtained like precious faith.
Umm, don't wanna unsettle anyone's thoughts on the verse, but the faith here is the same thought as in James where it says Ernest, I'm sorry, Jude where it says earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints. What's before him is the Christian faith and it's a precious faith to us. It's not so much the individual trust in God that.
UMM involves our salvation, but we have been entrusted with the Christian faith to live it out, to walk in it, and then he says in verse.
Umm 3 Through the knowledge of him that called us to glory and virtue. The glory is that which is the object before us at the end of the road. It's that heavenly glory and the everlasting Kingdom.
It's that glory associated with his manifestation in the coming day of the Millennium and that's put before us is something that is to occupy our thoughts and our hearts and our lives. Are we living for today or are we living in view of the future? Are we wise concerning the use of our time as re it relates to what's going to last, or are we occupying our time and energy solely in that which?
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Is going to pass away or is it going to be that everlasting Kingdom that will endure? We're called to that. We're called by that. But then he says, I've made provision of virtue for you. And as Nick has already mentioned yesterday and today, it's that moral courage, it's that spiritual energy that is pro provision of God for us to actively lay hold of these things in a practical way.
We don't have in second Peter, the Holy Spirit brought before us as the agent, but it is the that divine power that gives us the moral courage to overcome the difficulties and those things that would hinder us in the flesh and in the path and it's given to us to walk in. And so to the knowledge that is necessary is a provision of God. We need to learn it.
We need to lay hold of it, but it's there for us. God has it.
As part of that provision to us. And so then he says in this verse six or verse five, he says you need to use diligence.
To make use of it, I'd like to put it this way.
Mark Twain was asked by somebody one time. He was an ungodly man and he was not a believer. And I never read anything that ever made me think he ever became one.
But someone asked him, Mark Twain, They said to him, uh, does it bother you?
The things in the Bible that you don't know. And he said no, What bothers me is the things I do know.
And I want to apply it this way. Brethren, we're all going to leave this facility in a day or so and go on with the normal patterns of life. Are we going to put into practice the things we have learned and do know?
Or are we going to simply say it, Well, I'm not very advanced. I haven't learned this yet, and I haven't learned that. But it's the things that we have learned and know that we are to put in practice. And then, as Scripture says, the diligent soul shall be made fat. That is, there will be added in our understanding and in the practice of that moral courage, there will be growth.
In us. But if we don't, if we allow the idea I don't know much or I this or I that, to say I'm not ready yet to do this or that. That's the very thing that will keep us from being diligent because we will not put into practice what we do know, and it's in general.
Our lives find plateaus that are not bound by what we don't know, they're bound by what we have not put into practice that we do know. And I would encourage each one of us to be exercised if there's a barrier in our lives to going on in these things in an everyday way. I suggest in most cases we are very well aware of the answer to that barrier and there's something unjudged in our.
Walk in our pattern of life that we have not put into practice at this point. That is the hindrance to going on. And so the Lord said to those that wanted to know and so on, He said, if any man will to know his will, no.
That's not what he said. He said if any man will to do his will, he shall know. And sometimes we lack knowledge because we lack practice. And if we would practice, then more would be added in the sense of knowledge and growth and strength and so on that he's bringing before us.
At that time, wasn't there, there was, uh, in chapter 88 of Acts, it says, uh, Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. And so there was real reason to have to, for this exhortation to have virtue, that is, uh, a spiritual courage is being brought out. And uh, then there was a temperance, self-control.
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And they were going to have to realize that there was going to be not only a conflict in connection with the spiritual courage, but they were going to have to exercise self-control in how they conducted themselves in their testimony. Then endurance, patience, translated endurance. So you and I don't suffer that persecution. But Peter was speaking from experience here. And the Spirit of God uses them to give them this little outline of what should characterize the what is their walk in faith? And it embodies as you said.
The entire body of truth that they had embraced.
Yeah, on every imaginations, constantly on imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. A lot of times we think of bringing every thought in captivity, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, to those thoughts that pertain to maybe moral subjects, things that we shouldn't really be dwelling on, but in the case of the Corinthians.
I believe in the context in which it's given, it's bringing into captivity the thoughts of man. Any thought of man is going to be opposed.
To God.
And so with our knowledge, we need to be very careful. There needs to be that self-control and not let our thoughts just run off, but let them be guided by the Spirit of God.
Would teach us to let our desires and appetites go, that if it feels good we should follow that and nobody's to restrain us. And self-control is not the spirit of the age in which we live. Indulgence is the spirit of the age. But a proper knowledge of the truth is going to give us the proper balance and self-control. You ever notice maybe a young person he comes to know the Lord or.
Maybe he comes to the point in his life where he really gives himself to the Lord as far as the.
Lordship of Christ in his life, and sometimes there's an imbalance.
Sometimes the pendulum swings from one side to the other, but as he goes, he or she goes on and they get a they read their Bible and they get into the company of the Lord and they learn more of his ways. What happens? Why there becomes that evenness and consistency and self-control. You know our brethren in other countries sometimes have a very simple way of putting things and sometimes the homey way. But I enjoyed what Brother Garvin said one time in Saint Vincent. We were taking up this portion in a reading meeting at a conference there and we came to this word temperance and he said.
It's knowing how much in everything. I thought that was a very good way to put it. Brethren, do we know how much in everything? You know, we think of it self-control sometimes in connection with things that will be a detriment, things that are bad, we might say, or things that are immoral or impure. But I believe there's another side. There needs to be a balance in spiritual things too. As I say, sometimes a young person, maybe they get there's an imbalance and they become very rigid in what they feel they should or shouldn't be doing and others of their peers should or shouldn't be doing but.
Those things need to level out. There needs to be temperance in those things. And so knowing how much in everything, that really answered to me what the word temperance really is.
Umm. The word virtue always seems sort of nebulous to me. And, uh.
We heard moral courage was it, And spiritual energy.
And but when it talks about the woman who touched the hem of the Lord's garment, he he said he felt virtue going out of him.
And whether it's the proper application I don't know, but I I've been confused so I looked it up a little bit.
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And what I found was that virtue was.
Or is.
Where I read the power of God?
Itself.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
But the power of God itself being virtue when it's translated into our lives.
It's then moral power, moral curve, courage to it's moral energy, but it comes from God. We don't make it on our own.
Virtue is, might I say.
Maybe I'm wrong. The essence of God.
He is who He is when He comes into our lives.
An axe. It is virtue.
According to his divine power he has given.
He is the source of it. It's not. These things are not things that we can generate within ourselves. We can't just sit down and say, well, I have decided this is going to be my character. I'm going to be loving and temperate and kind and this and that and the other from now on.
The all good.
Comes from God in his own nature.
And in fact, the capstone of these things is just looking ahead is charity in verse seven. And God alone is the source of that love. It's in himself, and it flows from himself to us. And so the power of good is in God, and it flows from himself to ourselves.
And without it we are insufficient the creatures to do.
Right to do good, to be according to what God is.
Then that divine nature that we read about is that which is holy in its character. But where did it come from? It comes from God, and it's God imparting to us to share in that so that we can have it in us. But it's all important to recognize, as Tim Mentor says, that it virtue and all the rest of these things.
Again, in the heart of God.
Or like brotherly love in the list, uh, that is a human character. And you can find brotherly love among men, but if it isn't controlled by divine love, it will get out of its balance, it will get corrupted. It will not be the way it should be. It won't be faithful. And so.
Sometimes the truth of God is put aside by brotherly love.
Because it's not being controlled by divine love active in us. But if divine love is active within our souls, then our brotherly love will not be spoiled or not be unfaithful to God, or will not set aside the truth of God. But man in general, He has a measure of brotherly love, but it isn't. It doesn't operate as it should because it is not kept in balance with these other truths.
Translation as he referred to it earlier in verse five, it says, But for this very reason also using therewith all diligence in your faith have also virtue in virtue, knowledge in knowledge, temperance in temperance, endurance in endurance, godliness in godliness, brotherly love in brotherly love, love for these things existing and abounding in you, make you to be neither idle nor unfruitful as regards the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so God is the source of those things, and so we are given the liberty and the instruction to use them for his glory, that we might be fruitful.
And so the next thing is endurance, isn't it, as we had in Mr. Darby's translation, and often you have in our Bibles, the word patience really has the thrust of endurance. So in Hebrews we're told to run with endurance, the race that is set before us. And I realize there are brethren here this afternoon who have been in the path of endurance far longer than I have, but it is a path of, of endurance. It's not going to be easy.
00:40:09
We talked about exercise and a young person getting up and going to the gym to workout in the morning or in staying behind in the evening. But it takes that young person endurance to reach a certain level of training. They don't just all of a sudden achieve a certain level by doing it for a few days or a few weeks. No, it might take months or even years. An Olympic athlete trains for years and years.
Well, they're growing up within view, the object of being chosen by the country to be on the Olympic team and hopefully participate and win a medal and so on. But it's a it, it takes endurance for that athlete to reach their desired goal. And so for the Christian pathway, it's a pathway of endurance and have often said to those who are younger, don't think it's going to become any less enduring as you get older.
Don't think it's going to become easier. I realize that there are situations unique to you.
I realize there are situations unique to the day in which we live and that young people are facing things today that maybe we faced in a little different way or things weren't quite so open or whatever it might be. But those of us who are older, we face unique things too. And those things are just take just as much endurance or patience if we're going to run lap by lap the the race that is set before us.
And we never get out of the race this side of heaven. We're always in the race, the last life and the last step of the race isn't going to be till we end in glory. We're always going to be in the race of endurance in one way or another. And so he brings this out here, he says to knowledge temperance, to temperance endurance, and then to endurance godliness.
In a practical sense, it means don't give up.
One, one thing, I, I think that does come with age and I, I'm not saying I am old, but it's steadiness. When you run a, a long distance race, it doesn't help to start off in a Sprint. But we do, don't we? When we're young, we tend to get fired up about something and and then we get discouraged because maybe others don't see it. Maybe nothing comes of it so early on in life. Our life seems to be like a pendulum swing one way and the other.
And so we need to be encouraged to endure, not to give up, not to, not to get discouraged, but to press on. And I know I've said it many times, but I've been encouraged. I was encouraged when I was in my 20s and reading ministry on the Song of Solomon, because you see one who at one point is sleeping and the next point there's energy there. And she's tried and it's just a, a good book to meditate on and, and to be encouraged by it and understand that we do have these highs and lows, these valleys in our life, but it's normal.
Part of our maturity in the ways of God with us as we get older. Maybe or hopefully those valleys don't become so deep, but just be encouraged to press on.
Tell the story on my wife. She's heard it many times so I think she's.
Going to be able to handle it when she was a girl she used to go to the window when her father was due home from work and it was always a cheer to his heart to see her and when he looked up and saw his daughter in the window watching for him to.
Umm, arrive but one one day was he walked down the street. She wasn't in the window.
And when he got in the house, he found her sitting there playing with her toys and he commented on the fact that she wasn't watching and she responded while she was waiting.
I think what we have in the race of endurance sometimes is, yes, we know what the end of the journey is, we are looking for or waiting for the Lord to come and the coming glory. But sometimes the passage of time it is very easy to get our eye and our thoughts distracted from the true goal.
00:45:15
In her case, watching for daddy to come home. In our case, looking for the Lord.
And so we settled down with our toys. Yes, we're waiting, but while we wait, well, we have some toys to play with that'll sort of help us pass the time. And when we become too preoccupied with those things, then the patients starts to wear out because it doesn't have the the freshness.
Of the object in view and of the goal before us. And so it's good for us to ask ourselves, as we again trying to be practical about it, are we truly in the joyful daily watching mode? Or are we playing with our toys while we wait?
The thing two went.
I get up in the morning. I used to.
Put on the heat for the water pot to make hot water for tea and then start praying and all of a sudden the cattle blew and and whistled.
What was that interrupted my prayer? I had to turn it off and then I got all mixed up. Where did I quit praying?
So I I learned bro, don't do that.
I like what we have in uh, Isaiah 40 in uh.
Where it says, But they, they wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings of Eagles, and they shall run, and not be wary.
And they shall walk and not faint. So when I ran my marathon a few years back.
There were eight stations along the way and one just can't hardly run a full blown marathon, especially in with in my advanced old age without stopping at some of these aid stations.
And that's what our brother Jim was bringing out this, this afternoon. And we need that time alone to refresh your spiritually or we're not going to have that endurance. We're not going to have that patience. Uh, we need that waiting time, don't we, to wait on the Lord to what? To renew our strength, How important that is.
Portion Virgil and, and maybe, maybe I can read it again because I, I thought of it in connection with what our brother Nick said. And I think it goes along with, uh, what we've said about endurance and so on. Let me just read a couple of verse here at the end of Isaiah 40.
Umm, I'll, I'll read from verse 28. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth?
Fainteth not neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint and them to them that have no might He increases strength. You say, how can I go on and endure? I'm faced with all kinds of hurdles. It's like the the the man that goes out to run the marathon and there's all kinds of hurdles and miles and all that kind of thing. Well, he give us it says in verse 29, he gives power to the faint unto them that have no mighty increase the strength.
Now this is what I want to notice. Even the youth shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall. Youth and Scripture speaks of natural energy and we're glad to see natural energy says the glory of young men is their strength and we're glad to see that. I love to see a young man go out and exhibit natural strength. I'm past that now. I'm like Nick, I'm not old, but I'm older and I, I'm, I'm getting past that. And I appreciate, I'm glad to have a young brother with me to lift those 50 LB.
Boxes of books and bibles that were transporting from 1 island to another.
But natural strength even of youth isn't enough to endure in the path of faith today.
The enemy is no match for us even in natural youth, but there are three things and this is what I was thinking when Nick was speaking, because we can apply this in two ways. We can apply it to three. First of all, to the three stages of life. Let's just read it verse 31. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Now notice these three things. They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. You know that might apply to the youth youth. This seems to be able to mount up and no matter what happens.
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Some obstacle and they can mount up like the eagle. Why? If there's a problem, he just soars above it and he's up there above the problem.
Sometimes we see the youth, they're able to overcome obstacles that we would have to say.
Well, I'm to a stage in life that's just too much for me now. But then it says they shall run and not be weary. And this might speak of perhaps those that would consider themselves middle age. And I know middle age gets keeps getting pushed up a little farther all the time, but some of us still consider ourself middle age. Maybe we can't always rise above the problem. But the running person, he can't rise above it, but he's still running and he's finding daily strength as I stay, so so shall I strength be. But maybe there's some hero a little further along, little older. I'm not even running.
Well, I say to my older brethren, you shall walk and not faint. Maybe you are just down to walking, but the Lord is sufficient. He's able for every period of our lives. But then maybe we can take these three things and apply them to different stages of any of our lives. Sometimes we feel like we can get above the problem. Other times we're feeling like we're just down to running. But maybe maybe there's even a young person. You say I'm just down to walking. I, I'm not even able to run in this situation. Well, don't give up.
They shall walk and not think. Wherever we are in our spiritual or Christian experience, the Lord is sufficient and we can endure. Why? Because we have it in ourselves? No, because we have these things as resources and supplies to get us through to the end.
Add to that on the last one in verse six and to endurance godliness.
We've had a little bit about godliness before us. It's.
Everything that's lived with respect to, in respect, and with respect to God. I had some neighbors across the street for a number of years that I considered ungodly because they were nice people. They had nice children. They were concerned about their kids and where they went and what they did and so on, even as teenagers. But they simply lived their lives without reference to God. They were ungodly. God had no.
Point of reference In their life there was no evidence of any respect for God or anything to do with him. Others would say they were nice people, perhaps even moral people, and so on, as far as their relationship with their fellow man, But they were ungodly. Their lives were governed by other motives than that which was of interest to God and his purposes. But.
Godliness is that character of life in which everything is lived.
With respect to God, everything, even eating, we're gonna after this go eat. And if there's godliness in us, there's going to be eating to the glory of God and stopping when we can't eat to his glory, and so on.
That that is in it. Well, the point I wanna make in connection with Isaiah 40, in connection with this is this.
Isaiah 40 that we've been reading in is a chapter that is primarily bringing before us God versus idolatry.
God versus idolatry and the children of Israel had taken up with idols.
And so he is contrasting himself, God to idols. And the point I believe partially in the end of the chapter is there is no strength of life in idolatry that is to give up, to allow to come into my life something that has the character of an idol, something that.
Is going to govern my heart, my actions, my motives.
Whatever it is, and it can, we all know we're talking about thing, not physical idols, but I can make an idol of my children. I can make an idol of my job. I can make an idol almost anything. Anything that comes be that is more important to my heart practically than God is an idol.
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And the moment idolatry enters into the heart, it saps the energy of the soul to walk with God. It replaces human energy with a provision of God to walk in a way that would please him. And consequently there is no endurance in it. You faint, if you will, because you can't run the Christian life.
Not just with a weight, but with the weight of idolatry. And it'll it, it destroys the soul. And so May God help us to judge ourselves in anything that will destroy our lives because of idolatry. And the idea that we can walk with God and walk with our idol. We won't, We'll lose.
We will not be able to overcome that weight.
Chapter 12, verse one that you allude to, it says let us run with patience or with endurance.
The race that is set before us. And so there is only one race and it is a race, as it were, that's presented from earth to heaven itself. And uh, these are instructions given to us to be able to run that race with endurance. But it's only one race. And as you say, the heart cannot be divided. We cannot have a divided heart to run that race if our brother Virgil was running that marathon.
And he wanted to do something else at the same time. It would be impossible to be able to come into the finish line of that marathon. But, umm, these are practical things for us to consider. There is only one race. God isn't saying, uh, choose a race that you would like to run. Choose the race of an architect. Choose the race of, uh, uh, business or whatever it might be and, uh, seek to apply yourself to that. No, it's, uh, we need to provide all things honest in the sight of God and man.
But there is one race that counts, and everyone of us are engaged in that, uh, that race heavenward. And it's earth that we're leaving behind.
In one mother point I'd like to bring out is that is one thing I had to realize that I had to keep moving. If I had stopped too long, I wouldn't have been moving much after that. But uh, and that's what, uh, adverse that we read in Isaiah really brings out is the point is that we have to keep moving. Even if we slow down to a walk, sometimes we're encouraged in scripture to keep moving it. That's the whole point of the race is to keep moving.
Does too, if you had crossed into another's path or tried to trip an, a fellow athlete, you would have been disqualified. And so he says, uh, he brings in brotherly, brotherly love or brotherly kindness here. And I think that's very significant because in Hebrews where he brings before us the race, there are two things. There's the, the object, the goal, and that's Christ, the one who began and completed the race in perfection.
But at the very beginning of the next chapter, what does he say? Let brotherly love continue.
And so the two things are brought together here. And so, brethren, we are in a race. It's a race of endurance.
And we ought to consider our fellow runner, too. There are others in the race. Are we seeking to help them along? Maybe they need a maybe they need a little help over a hurdle. Maybe they need a little hand to help them over a rough spot. Are we willing to go that mile for for our brother? And so he says, brotherly kindness and then love. Well, maybe there's a brother or a sister and maybe they're not always so lovable. Maybe they kind of get in our way or great on our nerves. Well, he says.
You need lovers, you need divine love because divine love is consistent. It's easy sometimes to show brotherly love or kindness to those who reciprocate, but it's a different matter when we have to show divine love. And so the two things. But I, I just thought of that in connection with an athletic event. There always is that consideration. Yes, you're striving for the goal and so on, but there's that consideration of others that are in the race.
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During mile 20 of that race, I, I really wanted to give up, but I was so encouraged by my fellow runners. They'd come up to me and they pat me on the back and, and they'd even stop. They could keep going. They were faster than me and had more endeavour, but they would stop and walk with me, encourage me and pat me on the back and say come on, let's, let's, let's start running again. That's a wonderful point to bring out.
Connect Divine love.
That is the last of this set, uh, charity it's called in the King James like to turn to 1St John chapter 4.
First John chapter 4 and verse 16.
We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in Him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world.
Umm. It's not all brought out in these verses that I've just read, but I believe it's quite.
Important to enjoy the truth that's brought before us in first John about Divine Love. As we go through it, and as is presented to us in that epistle, we know that divine love has its one and only source. It's what God is.
It's his character, it governs his.
Ways his heart is what he is.
It is consistent with himself in holiness.
It is not resident in US as independent of him and that's the point I want to make.
We we have received a divine nature and in that nature we can receive that love. It can flow into us from its source and from its source as it flows into us. It may be flow out to others, but it always is connected with its source. And the difficulty can happen in our lives if we allow something.
To keep that flow.
From coming into us by our walk our ways, God is not going to allow that love to flow in and through us unhindered by sin and evil and unjudged things in our lives.
And so everything that we have as far as patience and so on, will and these other characteristics that we have before us will be properly governed if the love of God is free in its fellowship. Our fellowship with God is free so that he may cause his love to flow in US and.
It's so important because if it's if that truth is is enjoyed in the soul, we realize that how dependent a creature we are. And it's a preservative from pride because pride says, look at me, see what I've attained to. But when it comes to the divine love of God, there's no place to say what I've attained to, but rather there is simply the.
Appreciation in the soul.
That God is love, and when there is not a hindrance to it, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. But if the Spirit, if in us there is something that's unjudged, then instead of the divine love being shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit, the Spirit has to stop and say, no, I can't right now. I have to occupy with that sin. I have to bring you to that point where you will judge that which is the hindrance.
So that you and God can have.
Fellowship together again, and so that that love may be free in its activity in the soul. And so even charity has its practical, very important practical side to it. It is that love of God which He delights to occupy our hearts, put in our hearts to express to Him and to others.
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But it's something in which there must be the fellowship of light with God in order for it to to be active as it should be.
So May God help us that we not allow anything to hinder His pleasure in shedding abroad in our hearts His love.
Taught them this, didn't he? In Matthew's Gospel chapter five, he says in verse 43, you have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you. And so it was in the Jewish economy they did hate their enemies and you read that in the Psalms how they they hate their enemies and they pray for.
Destruction and for judgment to fall upon their enemies, well, that's not the Christian position. And here Peter instructs them about this love. And that's one of the things that characterizes Christianity, is that there's love for all mankind. God so loved the world. And so even these Jews who were suffering persecution and were scattered abroad throughout the nations at that time, they might be embittered, they might be tempted to be bitter about those things, but.
It was, as you say, the fruit of the Spirit, the very first thing that's mentioned in Galatians 5/22.
Is love. And here it is at the end of this exhortation. Love taps it up.