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I #275.
Our God is light.
Although we go across the fastest wild, our Jesus footsteps ever show the past for every child.
Now where it's not most gracious Lord, though we may weary grow in season with a sustaining word, our gifts, our hearts to know 275.
Our God is life.
Three right now I'm tired of the.
Measure.
Of shedding.
Those cold drinks raining.
If you can give me a meeting, maybe I'll scroll. Praise God strawberry down.
The road.
And stop breathing.
Desire to continue start the Second Timothy chapter 2 and maybe read from verse 3.
Stop.
Second Timothy, chapter 2, verse 2.
Battle of four endure hardening as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangled himself with the affairs of this life.
That he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strives for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The husband man that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruit. Consider what I'd say in the Lord. Give the understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ is the seed of David was raised from the dead, according to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds with the word of God is not found.
00:05:26
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation, which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful thing, for if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him.
If we suffer, we shall also reign with them. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we believe not, yet He abides faithful, He cannot deny himself of these things. Put them in remembrance, charging them before the war that they strive not about words to no prophet, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to show thyself approved unto God, A Workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word through.
But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat, as doth a canker of whom is Hymenaeus and Thyletus. So concerning the truth have aired, saying that the resurrection is passed already, and overthrow the faith of some.
Nevertheless the foundation of God stand ashore, having this eel, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that name it the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood in a burst, and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purrs himself in these, he shall be a vessel 1 To honor, sanctified, and need for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.
Lee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity.
Piece with them that call the Lord out of a pure heart, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do in gender strikes, and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle. 1 to all men apartment to teach patients in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance, the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.
Who are taken after by him at his will.
Just a few remarks on the back, uh, backward and Lopez verse 2 is.
Not on his order.
Thing switched out as heard of me among many witnesses. I was commented this morning that.
There is the the danger of not holding the truth in all its.
Entirety Paul's doctrine and the special revelations which were committed to the apostles.
Are very important.
Uh, so I think there's a word of caution in order here that we watch the source of the ministry that we receive because there's a lot of error abroad and we're, uh, aware of that.
Now, uh.
We, umm, we are formed by the ministry that we sit under and, uh.
Umm, there is, uh, many godly Christians outside of those gathered to the Lord's name. But I just want to caution on that point that if we don't, if we're not careful, we're going to pick up some wrong interpretations of the Word of God by those that are in the camp to speak plainly. Nice.
Maybe godly Christians personally, but.
They have not followed the.
The teachings of the apostle Paul, you know, in Christendom, Paul's doctrine is largely, uh, set aside. They are not walking in it now. We're no better, as we mentioned this morning, but the Lord has in his grace brought us to that place of his appointment where the cruise is held in its purity. We need to maintain that by the grace of God and to be nourished up in the words of the of good teaching, good doctor, you know, doctrine is very important.
00:10:12
In the life of the believer, uh, many groups, they say doctrine doesn't matter. We're all one and uh, we're all serving the same master and so on. That's true. But doctrine forms our lives, forms our practice. You can't have proper practice in your life if you don't have good doctors. And this is what the apostle emphasizes in these two pastoral epistles to Timothy.
Uh.
To, uh, if you give them a mandate and give them some clear, uh, uh.
Warnings here, uh, to the, uh, to be careful, to be faithful. We need them too because there's a lot of error out there. There's a lot of error in Christendom today. And if we're not careful, we're going to, uh, pick up doctrines or teachings that are not according to the truth of God. So we mentioned this morning about the witnesses and, uh.
The fact that we don't have now.
Umm, ordained elders. We don't have any ordaining authority. Now, contrary to what some practice, we don't ordain a person, but there is a gift. Of course, the gifts were never ordained anyway, but there are gifts in the Church of God that we are to recognize.
An offended Christ.
Received the Holy Spirit the second time.
Ephesians 4 showered down those Yes, no man's authority is necessary for the exercise of a gift that you have received from an ascended Christ. No man's authority is is necessary. Then you have a gift. Every brother and every sister in the room here is a servant of the Lord and the minister of the Lord. Now not all are in the public place.
That all have the work to do in the assembly and the body of Christ. Every man to every man is worth.
So, umm.
There are those that have a public gift and as we spoke this morning, we are to recognize and honor them. Uh.
And profit from their ministry so.
Those gifts are now in exercise in the Church of God. Not all of them. We don't have apostles and prophets. We don't have miraculous gifts, but we have all that is necessary for the edification, the, uh, the building up, the, uh, the, the exhortation, the building up in the uh.
Umm, the growth of the, uh, of the Church of God, uh.
Through the gifts that an ascended Christ has imparted to his people and we should be exercised that we are fulfilling that little work that the Lord has given us to do in the assembly or in the gospel of whatever it is to exercise that gift, that ability that the Lord has given. As every man has received the gift or the ability, Even so minister the same one to another.
As good stewards, the manifold grace of God and just few remarks on the.
32.
I think 1St Corinthians 14 make the good John look at what you just said and also to.
There's an answer in a sense that in my mind that the penis raised this morning in that second verse, First Corinthians 14 go teaching others, learning, and so on.
A familiar versus.
Verse 29 Let the prophet speak two or three, and let the other judge if anything be revealed to another first holy speeds. For you may all prophecy one by one, that all may learn.
And all may be comforted what comes in here that it all may learn. We know that the church doesn't teach the church doesn't talk and it's taught as you see here, Paul is bringing it out. It's the liberty of the Spirit of God and coming together as we do that one thing can be revealed to military city by this wasn't happening in Corinth. They were introducing all kinds of things and we have a remark that there's all kinds of things coming in and there were.
00:15:13
Doing that in verse 26, it says that you see, how is it then, brethren, when you come together, every one of you, at the song, at the doctrine, at the tongue, at the revelation of interpretation, and all things be done on to edify.
They were.
Bringing things in.
There weren't reasoning out of the Scriptures. They're bringing things in. And so there was a mixture here in Corinth and we know what the problems were and the Saints were very, very much a distress and we say because of it. But the answer is in teaching to be first of all, that says verse 30. If anything, we revealed to another citizen by Chambra that I think is lying about ourselves in our.
Personal readings.
If we are into the Word and the Spirit can bring something before us and we just learned, and we can bring it out as the one that sits by, and then what we all can learn as it says in the next verse there that Paul may learn.
It's the Spirit of God that teaches you.
Not the church. And so it's.
It's good to be careful of those things that come in in these days that we don't reason into the scriptures, but reason other scriptures.
We've only got about two more readings. It would be nice to try to carry on. We've only done 2 verses so far.
All right.
Well, there's a reason why the, uh, soldier is brought in at this particular time. He says, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And that is if, uh, you've been given a very valuable deposit of truth, something that it costs Christ to give the church to bring us into such blessing. And then it was revealed by Apostle Paul as a deposit of truth from the risen Christ and glory, and he delivered it to Timothy to umm.
Safely.
Umm, I think as the Mr. Darby's translation says, uh, and trust the same and trust, uh, the faithful man. Well, you don't give somebody who's not faithful, you don't give them something valuable to carry from one place to another. If you, we don't have time to read it, but if you looked in as Ezra chapter 8, the, I think it's Ezra gave the vessels of the temple to that were carried into Babel and he gave them to the different priests to carry from Babylon back over to Jerusalem along journey.
Was very valuable. It's a picture to us in Scripture of those that were given a deposit of truth and umm in connection with the person and the work of the Lord Jesus. And umm, they gave it to Ezra, gave these priests this deposit and they carried it and were entrusted with it. And then when they got to the other end in Jerusalem, it was all weighed out to see whether they brought it all back. That was all there. And so you and I have sat under the ministry.
Of those older brethren that have passed on, they walked. They sought to walk and pause doctrine. They sought to teach us one other generation in connection with the things of God and umm, they desired us to walk in a right way in the Christian testimony in the day that we live in. And as her brother John has said, if we don't have good doctrine, we won't walk in the right way. We won't walk in accordance to the heavenly calling of the church today.
Will become earthly minded and have earthly minded aspirations. Will give us the, the, uh, present hope of the Lord's coming. All those things, we need them all. And so now if I have this deposit of truth to carry forth in connection with being gathered to the Lord's name and, uh, the proper timing of the Lord's coming and, umm, the mystery of Christ in the church and all those things.
We're gonna face some opposition. And so he brings in this teaching and connection with the soldier and they're going to be required some endurance because you're going to face opposition. If you go and tell someone that you know, perhaps at work, and you tell them the Lord your, the next great event that you're waiting for is the coming of the Lord. Well, maybe they have imbibed some other doctrine that's afoot in the Christian testimony and they oppose you and there may be some that, umm.
00:20:13
Even in the assembly where things should be really clear and a clear a clear ring to the truth of God and those that are feeding on perhaps campfish materials and get mixed up and they're going there may be opposition that even arises from within. And so there's it's necessary to endure and to umm as a good soldier of Jesus Christ not to have any.
False.
Umm, ideas? That's going to be an easy journey.
I was noticing, Brother Robert, that in the new translation it says take thy share of suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. We have a pretty easy going Christianity here in this country. We don't face much opposition. I was just mentioning to a brother a few moments ago about a sister who was a Christian brought up in Iran and she's married to a Christian, but she had Muslim relatives.
And they went to the authorities and told them that she had converted from, uh, Islam to Christianity. And so they arrested her. And as I understand it, as I speak, she is condemned to flogging and death by hanging. And they said all you have to do is deny that you're a Christian and we won't carry this out. And she said, no, I love the Lord Jesus and I won't change. So they jailed her and her.
22 month old, umm, I think Son is with her in the prison. She's awaiting death. Well, she knows what it is to suffer. And the apostle says here in the third chapter, doesn't he, in the 11Th verse, persecutions, afflictions which came unto me at Antioch and at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured. But out of them all the Lord delivered me. So Paul knew what it was to suffer, didn't they?
And I almost trembled to speak about this because we really know very little about facing opposition in this country, don't we? But I but Paul says always that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Perhaps the reason we don't face more is because of our unfaithfulness, but we're to be as soldiers were to endure, aren't we? We're to take our share of suffering.
It certainly doesn't mean to take up weapons and fight against those who oppose. It doesn't.
And we're fighting a spiritual warfare. We have an Ephesians.
And, uh, we need to sort of the spirit helmet of salvation. We need the spiritual weapons as we go through the light here. And, uh.
Certainly they did experience hardness. We see it in this chapter. There were those that were.
Speaking out that there was no resurrection. And then we read in Corinthians that some were saying the resurrection.
With no resurrection and here we have resurrection passed already over to the base of some. And so you mentioned earlier about the bad teaching that's going around today. And these calls, the apostles, doctors given up in these truths that we value and hold precious are being set aside and the vain babblings as they're referred to here are are coming in.
And so we need to enjoy the hardness we're not to.
Take up weapons of fight back and that matters. But to leave it with the Lord. The Lord was her perfect example. He committed everything to the Father, even Judith when he approached me to say, friend, you know, he, he, he never fought back. And we see that with your with the apostle Paul.
Because it gets, uh, report chapter.
Instead of the 14 first Alexander the Copper Smith, they'd be much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works.
He's, uh, he's into a, a fight with this, this person, even though he had withstood them, it caused him a lot of grief. You get left with the Lord.
00:25:03
Yeah, a few years ago, uh, there was a man I met with, Christian man who was passing out cracks and doing that type of work.
And I had a visit with them in our own home, and he started telling me how the church replaced Israel in the earth. And I had never heard of this doctrine and it's quite confusing.
But uh, Lord, give me a an insight out out of it. But uh.
That's one thing I think that should be made clear, that the Church is a heavenly as a heavenly calling.
And we're not replacing Israel at all, but Israel would be taken up again after that time.
That after the rapture.
But let me let me someone could explain that a little bit just so.
They wouldn't find themselves like I did without any instruction.
The whole idea of what you mentioned can rapidly christened them today, namely, but the blessings of Israel are now transferred to the Church, that we are a moral force to build a better world, and that through the preaching of the gospel the Kingdom will be established. That's basically what you say.
And it's, uh, widespread increasing them today. So it resents the original book on, you know, you relieve that error, uh.
And umm, it's, it's the confusion. First of all, they don't see dispensational teaching, therefore they can't understand scripture. Umm, and there's other errors associated with it, often the denial of the rapture and other things. But we don't want to be critical. But these things are.
Extent among us now among imprisonment where they are being promulgated and we need to be careful, but.
Uh, we do have the whole truth of God. We don't want to get into something deeply prophetic this afternoon, but there are dispensations in Scripture. God is not dealing with the church as he dealt in the days of the the law. There was a dispensation of the law. There was a dispensation of grace that we are in now, which will come to a close when the Lord gets the shout and we are raptured into the glory and there's a dispensation of the Millennium.
There are there are distinct ways in which God acted at different times.
Of the history of the world and you can use those is going to leave us in a, uh, in a very in perplexity. We're not going to be able to understand scripture if we don't see.
To put it, uh, briefly, that God has two purposes before him, the blessing of an earthly people and the blessing of the heavenly people, and they are distinct. As our brother mentioned, the church is a heavenly company. We are strangers and pilgrims here. We're not here.
As a, uh, correctly, social injustices that we see on every hand or if you have part in the whole political system of the world today, we are called out of this you and Gentile made into reformed into one new creation of one body.
And so we are here to preach the gospel, definitely. That's what we have come brought before us here. How often we get entangled with the things of this world.
Business or education or whatever it may be not morally wrong, but things that consume our time and.
Deprive us of the the opportunities to serve the war as as we should. So entanglement here.
Using the figure the apostle is here, a soldier is one priority is to obey his commander. That's what is before him first and foremost. To obey his commander and to be ready at a moment's notice to, uh, step into service. Doesn't think of him own comfort.
Of, uh, of what he would like to do. He has a, he has a, a mandate to serve his country and to be obedient to his commander. We're just thinking of that verse in Luke's Gospel, chapter 8 and along this line of Zachary Buncombe Madrid. Some of us don't know very much of this, but see the blessed Lord in his pathway verse one came to pass after your word and went throughout every city and village.
00:30:14
Preaching and showing the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God, the Clover with him. What sacrificing the life of the blessed Lord. Every town and village never thought of himself his own comfort. He was here represent his Father to preach the glad tidings, albeit was the gospel of the Kingdom. But the principle is is given to us here to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
So what the apostles really bringing before Timothy here is that the enemy is going to use different tactics to take us out of the warfare, take us out of the battle. In actual warfare, there are snipers and there's, uh, different, uh, ruses that the enemy might use to, umm, dispatch or to disable those that are soldiers and to get them out of the conflict. And so the enemy is trying to.
Uh, work with each one of us in some way to get us so that we're, umm, immobilized and incapable spiritually of defending the truth.
Incapable of enjoyment, incapable of defending it, Incapable perhaps, or unfaithful to him passing it on.
Let's see here, one of the tactics was that there would be an entanglement that would come in and just tie someone all up. You might say, that's a little expression that we use, isn't it? Someone's all tied up with whatever it might be. When I was a young boy, young man, instead of reading the scriptures until, you know, I was 18, maybe 19 before I really started to use it to read the scriptures.
I was entangled with hockey. It was awful. It was an addiction. But to be able to be taken up with the things of God, there are going to have to be other sacrifices made so that I can you or I or anyone else that's a believer that says that to please him who have been chosen, uh, chosen him to be a soldier or Mr. Darby's translation, Enlisted, you're enlisted.
And, umm, you have a, a commander, you have responsibilities, You're a, part of a battalion, perhaps, uh, a little assembly and, uh, there are those responsibilities. You're enlisted.
And there's either good soldiers, bad soldiers, there's a soldier you would trust your life with, another soldier you might not trust your life with.
Brother, uh, Carl Fromm was in the Vietnam conflict and he said that umm, the first day that he was actually there went into the jungles of South Vietnam and umm, someone had to take the lead as they marched through the jungle and umm, they said, Carl, you're, you take the lead this time.
So he started marching up there. He got his machine done and he no longer he, he hadn't been doing this for two minutes. And one of the Vietcong N Vietnamese ran across the path and into the Bush and he just was so startled. He just kind of stood there. Well, the experienced man behind him, umm, they knew what to do. They dispatched the, the enemy. Well, you know, the enemy has just got all kinds of bruises to try to take you out of the conflict.
Might be, you know, let's speak plainly, maybe it's a girl, maybe it's a guy, uh, he's interested in the girl that's not spiritually minded. Maybe it's a young sister and, uh, she's not as exercised in the things of God she should be. And a young man at school that shows attention to her. The enemy doesn't care how he takes you out of the conflict. He just wants to take you out. And so here one of the things might be to be occupied with earthly things.
Hobbies.
And other things, but to forget that we were enlisted in this, uh, battle, the spiritual conflict at the time that we were saved by the grace of God saved. We switched sides. We're no longer under the influence of the power of the enemy. We've got new loyalties now to the one who bought us with his own precious blood, loved us enough to lay down his own life. We can trust him with ours. And so he says.
Be aware of those ruses that the enemy has to take you out of the conflict.
00:35:04
I wonder what the application of verse five would be for us.
Well, as we mentioned in the first meeting, it's really a reference to an Olympic runner or some, uh, one that was striving for masteries in this world. And if we were to want to be a part of the Olympic team, we would, uh, if we were a swimmer, we'd want to eat, drink, sleep, swimming. And it was just the all consuming that would be the one focus of our lives. We would give ourselves to all that training and sacrifice to make sure that we acquired the prize.
And so here it says, if a man also strives for masteries, so do we take our Christianity seriously? It's just kind of a sideline. It's like one of those things we do on Lord's Day. It's, uh, we, we kind of get it together with some of these brethren and so on. It's, it's kind of, it's almost like a hobby. But umm, the apostle speaks here as if Christianity was the main thing. That's the main principle of life.
And the thought is that Christ died for my sins.
Enlisted me in this, uh, spiritual warfare and there's a prize if I devote myself to the cause of Christ, there's going to be a prize at the end of life. There's going to be a meeting at the judgment seat of Christ and there's going to be a reward given. And so he says there's a good way and a bad way to run to to run the race. You might must accept it yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. So we need to.
Run the race according to rules.
And there are guidelines given in the Word of God as to how we should conduct ourselves in gospel work.
And in ministry is the truth of God, we're reading some of the principles. It's not to be a free for all. Your opinion doesn't count, in my opinion. And we just try to come up with some way of doing things that appeals to us. God has given us the principles and the word of God.
I think we have a good example. A few years ago there was a runner from Canada, I can't remember his name, might have been Johnson, but he won the gold medal in.
And it's against the, the rules of the Olympics to use steroids in order to get the, uh, in order to, umm, participate. So he lost his gold medal. And I think that's the point, isn't it? We might. I remember Mr. Hagel used to quote that little expression. Only one life will will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. He said that's not exactly true. Only what's done for Christ in obedience to the word of God will last.
Uh, yes, we should do all for the Lord's glory, but if it's not done in obedience to the word of God, there won't be a reward for it. And so just like Johnson lost the gold medal, the Lord doesn't want us to lose the time we say the gold medal in a coming day because we didn't strive lawfully. We need to go by the word of God. Could we also, uh, say that, uh, well, I always think of this as, uh.
This particular uh thought and passage.
Excuse me, We're on a narrow path and every believer is on that narrow path and, uh.
You know, it's so easy to go in one ditch or the other, you know, and there's a ditch in each side. There's a ditch of legalism and the other ditches.
Looseness and, uh, worldliness and, but he wants us on the straight and narrow and that's a happy path. Umm, so, you know, uh, we see that we're gonna have, uh, loss and, uh, you know, I know I'm gonna have much loss at the judgment seat of Christ and I, I can't wait to, uh, be there and haven't dealt with and, and, uh, you know, it's just like, umm.
We have to be careful both digits, don't we?
You know.
It has to be done with grace.
That's the narrow, narrow path.
You know, there was, uh, I, I think we understand cheating in sports. I, I don't think that's the question. The question is how does it apply to us as Christians particularly believe in the work? And, uh, but there's no shortage of examples of strive of, uh, striving unlawfully, you might say, umm, some really, there are some really bizarre examples and I wouldn't wanna go there, but.
00:40:16
Uh, I can think of some Christian groups that, for example, you know, when rock music became very popular, when I got saved, that was the period of the early 70s and.
And so, uh, there were places that would hire bands, rock bands to come in and, and entertain in order to bring in people to hear the gospel. So they had the rock band perform and then there might be a Gothel message. I think that's an example of, of driving unlawfully. I mean, that's that, that's just one example. And you know, the Lord can use anything. Some of us get saved in, in, in, uh.
Context that probably some of us wouldn't agree with in it, but we got saved. We heard the word.
Believed it and we got genuinely saved. That doesn't justify the way it was done. The Lord uses the devil too, as an extreme example. So you, you can't say because the Lord uses something that that justifies it. And I believe Paul is telling Timothy, no shortcuts, you know?
Don't. Don't use gimmicks. Don't use the world. Don't you know? Go outside of.
Your own.
Holiness, don't compromise your own holiness in some fashion in order to try and, uh, accomplish something. Quote, quote for the Lord. You know, Stan, I used to hear that, uh, little saying too. And, uh, I used to think it would be better said.
Doing things for the ward, but we have the Lord himself saying many have come to me in that day and they said I did all these things in your name and what's he going to say?
I don't know you.
You go and you did all these things in my name. I never told you to do them.
So, uh, probably better said only what's done in price.
Timothy was, uh, he was one that, uh, the apostle Paul could trust with.
He, uh, he said he had no man like minded. He would naturally care for the welfare of the Saints.
So he knew Timothy's heart that he and that's where it starts to believe in the heart and the mind.
No, no man like minded tells us in Corinthians that we have the mind of Christ and we have that from His word. We know his mind, His read his word, we learn what the Lord wants from us according to the word of God. I believe that's what it means here to strive and then the bounds of scripture, not to go outside.
There's an Old Testament example, and I oftentimes enjoy looking, uh, for the, in these principles, for an Old Testament example that illustrates the point. And if you turn to ex uh, Deuteronomy chapter 22, you get a little bit of an illustration, as it were.
Deuteronomy chapter 22 and umm verse 9.
Thou shalt not so thy vineyard with divers seeds. That means two different kinds of seeds.
Lest the fruit of iced seed which thou hast sold, and the fruit of thy vineyards be defiled, Mr. Darby in his translation translates it be forfeited. So you don't have to use mix the seeds in your work for the Lord. The vineyard speech is a place of fruitfulness for God. So you want to do a little work for the Lord. Don't mix it with the flesh. Don't mix it with those that perhaps don't walk in the truth.
And umm, remain, have a pure work, one that agrees with the principles of the Word of God. And if you need to have a companion in the work of the Lord in connection with the gospel or whatever it might be, have a companion that walks in the truth of God with you, walk with you and minister the truth. Because someone like a brother said he got saved. Maybe there was a rock band playing. God didn't send the rock band, didn't bless the rock band. He blessed his word. Someone got saved.
Somebody who hired the rock band isn't going to get a reward. That's what he's saying here.
Because let and the fruit as I've been here to be defiled, He would have, the Lord would have loved to get a full reward, but he can't give a full reward. And when we see him at the judgment seat of Christ, we mixed ourselves up in all kinds of stuff. He's going to look into our face. He's saying we'll put this on the burn pile over here. Is that OK? We'll put it on the burn pile. We'll give you a reward for this. It was done in obedience and in a conjunction with the plain teaching of the word of God. We can give you a reward for this.
00:45:33
You know, in Hammer Bay we have a big burn pile. We're only allowed to burn after November the 1St. And so we have a front end loader, the Jonathan run this, uh, little business that, uh, works for that do some work in repairing cottages and so on. So you get an old dock, you get all kinds of stuff. And by the time November comes, you need the front end loader to put this stuff up on the Laverne pile.
And it burns at the end of the season. After November the first, it burns hot.
We need to make sure that in our own work for the Lord, whatever we're doing in a affection for Christ is done in purity and obedience to the word of God. How we do what we do is just as important as what we do. I just want to mention too, brother says that you know, the rest of those groups is not the plot of fuel with an ox not and uh.
Mask, but, uh, you know, first Corinthians, uh, uh, uh, four, uh, then shall every man have praise of God. And so it's a wonderful thing to meditate upon that we're all going to have the praise of God and, uh, it really encourages us, umm.
Who want to do his will?
Much more, uh, wouldn't you say? So, yes, he's going to reward motives, yeah, as well as the deeds that are done. So it's nice to have the right motive.
And to also strive lawfully. I think this is really what the apostle was bringing before us here. I think another example from the Old Testament was concerning David.
Who had the desire to bring the park to Jerusalem? And David, I believe, had a good desire. And of course the art was the expression of God's presence in Israel.
So he goes and he doesn't consult though with the Lord about this. He consults with the people of Israel.
And The upshot is, yeah, let's bring the art back. But what do they do? They build a new car.
Dirty part and they have a couple of men Ohio and Aza. They're driving the car now. It might have looked real good and I was just noticing in First Chronicles 13 and verse eight it says David and all Israel played before God with all their.
Might and we're seeing and with harsh sultry timber symbols trumpets. So there was this great outward display and celebration which might have appeared very wonderful. But did God appreciate this? Not in the least. Why they weren't bringing the art back in the God-given way. You turn back to numbers.
You find very plainly the Ark was to be carried by the Levites, just in black and white, in numbers, and also.
It was.
The Levites, as I say, to be carrying the power to not on a.
Cart, as expedient as that might seem to put the arch on wheels well.
We know the story. And of course.
As it tries to study the arc when the oxygen stumbled and the anger the Lord was kindled.
And other with smoke it's like.
Is the one that's upholding the universe is the creator of the universe, and he's upholding the universe? Does he need some mere creature to help him out? You might say, to stay on even keel? I think the thought is blasphemous.
Well, you know, I think David acknowledged his sin.
00:50:04
And, uh, God is ready to forgive. And I think David repented of what he had done, and now he wants to bring the ark again, but this time God's way. And so the Levites, they carry the ark on their shoulders and it tells us that.
David brought the Arc home to himself.
To the city.
And, uh, the wonderful thing is though, it says in verse, uh.
26 First Chronicles 1526 incidents came to pass when God helped the levites that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, that they offered seven Bullock 7 ramps. We see God helped the Levites.
And I believe that God's instructions always come with His enablement. He never asked us to do anything but what He's going to help us to do it.
As hard as it may seem, if He has asked you or me to do something, you can be sure He's going to help us through. He's going to help us to do it. And when we do things God's way, then worship is a result too. It says here that they offer seven bullets, 7 ramps. This is such a beautiful ending to the whole story. But it's all a matter of obedience, I believe, to God's will. That brings blessing, are they not?
Copying what the heathen had done.
Well, he originally they had put the arc on a on a new cart. That's right. And they were just copying what the heater had done. And there's a danger with us of copying the way people do things that.
So we stay in a worldly way or whatever.
Well, the heated didn't know any better than to do what they did.
But the Israelites?
He knew better and so there's a responsibility, I believe that.
God held the Israelite tomb.
Now he speaks as a husbandman or the farmer. We have uh, a husband is, uh, brings the the thought in the English language with the husband is one that has responsibility.
And he's responsible, the husband is responsible for the fruitfulness of his household. He has responsibility in connection with his wife, in connection with his children, and in connection with the order of the home. But here it's uh, husbandman that laborers and perhaps have just suggested that, uh, in the House of God we have responsibility and he gives this, umm, work of service and connection with farming.
That the husbandmen, that laborers must be. I'm gonna read it in Mr. Darby's translation. It reads just a little clearer. The husband must husband and must labor before partaking of the fruits.
Consider or think what I say, and the Lord will give the understanding in all things and so.
Timothy was going to have to labor and umm, sometimes.
We looked for results before we could look for results.
My father-in-law used to tell us of how, uh, his mother gave him when he was a little guy in Hammer Bay. You know, we just, we still have snow piles, uh, where the snow plows plowed. The snow is still not gone as the middle of May. But he took out, took one of these little seeds of corn out right beside the, the house and they were planting gardens. So he planted a seed right beside the house in little garden and he watered it faithfully and so on.
Just a little guy and uh, he came out.
And pretty soon you saw a little shoot green chute come up and oh, he longed to to see what was under that soil. He wondered what was underneath it. And umm, he had a little patience, maybe for a day or two. He said finally, you know, this little shoot just came up just long enough and he just had to see what was under it. And he yanked it up and roots and all, and we saw what was under there. And then he put it back down and, and tried to pat it all back down, make sure that it would grow again while it didn't.
And so there's a work of God going on in your soul.
And there's a work of God going on in our children and our young people. Let's be very careful not to rip up and try to find out what's really going on down there, but less water it with prayer and with love.
00:55:11
I think there's another verse, Brother Robert, that sort of helps with this. First we had an internal just the other night, James 5 and verse 7.
James 5, verse seven. It says, Be patient, therefore, Brennan, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he received the early and latter rain.
So as you say, sometimes we look for quick results, don't we? But, umm, the farmer has to wait from maybe June right through to October before he gets, uh, the crop. And another verse says palming plant in a polished water, but God gives the increase. So it might be my responsibility to plant, but might be someone else that will reap. But uh, the coming day will show the true results, won't it?
This is the truth in the gospel work as well, isn't it? I'm not an example of connecting with gospel work. There are others perhaps in this room that know how to do gospel work in our gifted evangelists. But I had a man in business that I didn't work, uh, business with. He was a printer. His name is Dan Strong, lives in Ohio and uh, for years he printed our materials and, uh, brought up, born, brought up Roman Catholic and umm, so every time we went out for lunch, we gave thanks for our meal and then would speak of the Lord and give him gospel and so on. He listened politely and so on.
And this went on and nine years later he got saved sitting in his car alone on a Friday night in the rain. His daughter got saved and she sent him a letter. He showed me the letter, the one page letter. She sent him a Bible and came into my office and he was weeping because he was reading this letter and he didn't know. He said, tell me what again? Tell me again what it means to be saved.
So it means to be saved from the judgment of God. And he said he sat in his car that that that night he wouldn't get out of his car until he got saved himself. But nine years went by. We don't know what there were others that were involved and gave the gospel and the Lord watered it, as you say. And so perhaps we might be guilty of cutting off the ears sometimes because we just won't let someone else do the watering. And it's gods that gives the increase.
So just do the little part that God gave you to do and don't look for results right away. We'll see the results sooner than we think. Very lovely brother.
Well, actually, that's brought me for us here, isn't it that, uh, the Lord Jesus, what's the result really? Did he see at the end of his life?
They all persisted in fled 1 denied him another, uh, betrayed him. Uh, there wasn't, you might say, a lot of visible results from the Lord's halfway down here, but they were seen in resurrection. So, umm, we often been reminded of that. Well, Stan will remember it.
Don't count your converts before you get to heaven, because you'll count too few. Sow the good seed, water it with prayer, be faithful, leave the results with the Lord and be manifested that day. So the apostle says.
Because there must be labor before, uh, the fruit, uh, is manifest. And, uh, the Lord can give us understanding of all these things. I was thinking also that we cannot lose our, our, our, uh, eternal salvation. That is something that cannot be forfeited even though we are unfaithful and depart from the Lord. But we can lose our reward. The crown speaks of the reward.
And already the judgment seat of Christ has been mentioned.
However our lives are going to be reviewed. There's going to be a manifestation of our lives.
At that, uh, at that, appearing, uh, before the judgment seat of Christ. It's not judicial, nothing to do with punishment for our sins, but our lives are going to be manifest reviewed.
And, uh, Bruce Anthony mentions it reviewing, uh, rewarding rejoicing. It'll be the awards. Joy to reward any little active service in our lives.
01:00:08
A couple of cold waters, a thought upon his name, is all recorded in the Book of Remembrance.
But we're not gonna see the reward down here necessarily. Of course, we do have the, the, uh, the, uh, encouragement in our souls. If we serve the Lord, he gives us some, uh, umm, some recompense in our own souls down here. But the full result we have to leave until the judgment seat of Christ when everything will come to light. I've been noticing lately in the, uh, rewards given to the.
Umm, those who uh.
Shared in Davis Rejection. We'll look at it now, but Second Timothy a Second Samuel chapter 23 gives you the names of.
David's Mighty Men, and it's a very interesting study. There's thirty, I think there's 37 men, 37 places there. But there's one place that is not vacant. There's there's one name that is not given there.
They're all driven listed. Some were more devoted to the Lord than others, and David was established in his Kingdom in peace and that tranquility. Then these were gathered before him and the reward was given.
For their faithfulness. You can read it there, but there's one missing there. There's.
One place that is blank. We don't know who it is. Was it Jonathan? Was it Joab? I guess that's not the point. The point is someone did not get the reward there. Who? Uh, David said.
Desired to uh.
To umm, uh, acknowledge and reward, but the place is the name is missing back. So the thought is that we should live in view of that day. Our lives will be manifested as there might be a vantage meets with the Lord's approval and uh.
Will be uh for his.
I was just going to mention, uh, about their, uh, brother, uh, number of years ago picked up a bra.
Brother bus stop and, uh, sitting in the yard and he said, uh, I meant, I mentioned this because Timothy was, uh, he was a resident and I think we all had have her moments. Where were Timothy and we missed the opportunity a lot of times. And, uh, but anyway, umm, there's a, there's a little note that Derby has said redeeming the time for today's review. He says not redeeming the time in the usual sense of the word of, but take taking advantage of every available opportunity.
And so the brother, sister, let me see your tracks, brother. I said, OK, he was looking up to me. Oh, that's good, that's good. He, he says, uh, this one, this one's a good hair. I said, well, that's my favorite track, one of my favorites. These are all that takes a lot of bravery to give that up. And I didn't think so, but it encouraged me so much because that was one of the easy tracks I found to give out. You know, a lot of times you give it a track and you're nervous, you know, so umm, but when you follow through, the Lord takes over. He, he's the one, the Spirit of God just takes over the whole situation.
And it's very encouraging to that was a defendant's encouragement to me.
In the word of the Lord, those little things, they mean so much to Him.
And we've taken about an hour to, uh, to, uh, fulfill verse 7.
Considering what I say, we've been considering for about an hour those three, those three, uh, analogies.
But again, I just repeat in verse eight, it changes the meaning a little bit, but it's to remember Jesus Christ.
I that's verse 8 and chapter 2. Remember Jesus Christ of the seed of David raised from the dead and.
It is to remember Him and always to It is the Lord's person that will adjust this property in all things.
So it looked like the Lawrence had a wasted life. It looked like his followers had forsaken him, as we've already mentioned, looked like Paul's life was about to be snuffed out all day of Asia forsaken him. There were a few that were now who might say that had received his teaching and that we're, uh, glad to be heavenly citizens and, uh, recognized that, uh, the value of the heavenly calling of the church that, umm.
01:05:15
He gives this, uh, as encouragement to Timothy and he says in verse 10, therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sake that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And I believe that salvation here is not your eternal salvation, having your sins forgiven, because if you are a believer, you already have that salvation, but you need to have your life. Your life practically needs to be saved and we.
Brother Gordon used to often tell us that it was possible to have a saved soul and a lost life, and you need to save your life.
From this world and from the influences of the world and from the tactics of the enemy to DI to divert your activities, to divert your attentions, the enemy is going to see by some route to get you to give up. But he says, Paul says I endure all things and for the elect's sake and for your sake and for mine, that's why he was endured. The elect here really is another word. It's an English word that means the chosen.
And, uh, I think if I'm right, the, somebody can correct me, but I believe every time it says the elect, you could translate the same word chosen. And it's always in connection with individuals. It's never in connection with a group of people, always an individual. So he's saying everyone in the individual Christian testimony, not only in the day that he lives in, but in the day that we live in, he suffered, he endured, he took the punishment, the abuse.
Of this world so that you would have the truth of God. And you remember Paul was imprisoned in his house. He was under house arrest, perhaps in some prisons for a little while, but then their house arrest in Acts chapter 28. So he had reasonably comfortable circumstances when he wrote the epistles, some of the epistles.
But then when he came here into the dungeon, different story, but he was enduring, and it brought out the sweetness of Christ in his life as he endured. And so it's only the suffering that the Lord allows in your life, the endurance to make you tougher, as it were. To build character is only gonna produce sweetness, or it'll produce bitterness. It'll make you better or it'll make you bitter. And you don't see the bitterness in Paul's life. It's wonderful.
To see this example that he gave us.
Isn't it, uh, just think of the weight of the end of verse nine in light of the fact where we are today?
Here was here was Paul in prison, and he writes to Timothy and says the word of God is not bound. And we're holding that very statement in our hand.
As are millions of people. And that word, it can be in anyone's language.
The word of God is not bound. Did he have any idea?
How true that statement was.
And it kind of makes you think of what's been said about gospel work and what effects we may not we have, may have no idea what kind of effect a little act of faith may have on people.
But Paul, when he and glory, you know, aren't you gonna wanna go up and say when you said this, did you have any idea?
Where this would go?
Quite astounding.
To think of Gospel and Christianity, the basis of Christianity was spread across Europe by that one man.
And he had no radio or television or even printed page. You didn't even have the printed page. Have you ever? Everything had to be copied out by hand.
But he took that gospel message that was built on after his death and.
Europe was Christianized.
And all them giant temples today are nothing but piles of rubble.
Of Apollo and all those great so-called gods. It's all gone of course, and now where people are turning back to those things, aren't they?
At the beginning of what was called.
And a few that helped him.
I read somewhere recently that in these prisons where the apostle was is the way that they let the food and water into it is a little hole that was above and.
01:10:09
The water and the food were let down.
And that's what he had, the food that he had to eat at this last place that he was prior to being executed. Now, they don't know these things in detail, but I read that from someone who's written about history in connection with this. I remember our brother Lundeen commenting on the these prison epistles he said that God had to bring.
Call to nothing so that Christ could be everything.
And that's.
You know it was the end of man in the flesh, so to speak, just before leaving this world, that we might have the richness of these prison epistles.
Salvation, uh, is sometimes spoken of in as a future uh.
For, umm, enjoyment, uh.
Gaining salvation issues in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Sometimes Paul looks at looks at at this word of that.
For future, uh, blessing, there's the salvation of the soul.
Uh, through the work of Christ and through the faith and the sacrifice that we made, there's salvation along the way each day. We need, uh, we need to avail ourselves of the probation that God has made many difficulties and trials that we need to be saved from or saved through. Uh, that's a present aspect.
But there is a future aspect of salvation that we have not yet entered into. Uh, that will be the salvation of our bodies. Uh, that's when we will enjoy eternal life in its fullness. We have eternal life now. Are we enjoying it? Well, we have hindrances down here, but the day is coming though we're, you'll enjoy.
The salvation of our bodies.
And we'll, uh, be able to enjoy eternal life and the presence of the Lord without any hindrance.
I think you have that same thought, don't you? Uh, brother John and 1St Thessalonians 5 and verse, umm 9.
For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that the salvation of the body? That's the thought there. And the future aspect there. Yeah, the future aspect and the wrath spoken out in that chapter, I would think would speak of, uh, the tribulation, wouldn't it?
Yeah.
We sing #191.
We need, throughout the walk of faith, the same free grace, let's say.
OK.
01:15:57
So we'll get anything instead of the.
Time.
That all that dividend we need to pray.
Dreaming in the world.