Open—Robert Boulard
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I'd like to speak this afternoon just briefly on a couple of portions of Scripture.
But to open up the subject, let's turn to Exodus chapter one.
Have Romans chapter 12 and verses 1-2 and three particularly on my heart this afternoon. But I just want to paint a picture, as it were. In the book of Exodus, we have a little picture given to us of man in his condition of hopelessness.
And the Scriptures give us that picture not only hopelessness, but impossibility of his situation and how in sovereignty and divine goodness and grace of God He intervened that there might be fruit for himself, that his people might be delivered and that they might be delivered to his praise and glory forever. Well, let's just read from Exodus chapter one and verse eight. It says now there are rows up a king.
King over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass that when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them.
With their burdens and to they built for Pharaoh, treasure, cities, Python And Ramses.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew, and they were grieved because of the children of Israel. Let's just turn to chapter 3 then, and verse 7.
Perhaps we if you just hold your page there, I'd like to read chapter one, verse 13.
Exodus One, and verse 13. The Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor, and made their lives bitter with hard ******* and mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor. And then chapter 3, verse seven. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land, and a large unto a land flowing with milk and honey. And then to Exodus chapter 21. We're being referred to several times in these meetings, but never read, I don't believe.
Exodus chapter 21 and verse two. If thou buy in Hebrew servant six years, he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons and daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself.
And if the servant shall plainly say.
I love my master. I am my wife and my children. I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him into the unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the door and unto the door of the post doorpost, that his master shall bore his ear through with an all, and he shall serve him forever.
And then in Romans chapter 12.
Verses 1.
Two and three particularly.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
For I say, through the grace given unto me, that every man.
To every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Well, we have this little picture given to us in the book of Exodus, and it is a hopeless condition. And we've read in our reading meetings in Ephesians chapter 2, and we've had there in the very first verse a picture of the.
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Degradation of man and his hopeless, impossible situation. And in the grace and the sovereignty of our God there was in the heart of God and love for His people. He saw His people and he saw the rigor and the distress of His people as they served a taskmaster that hated them and desired to destroy them. Their lives were bitter and there was hard *******.
They served with rigor and it says that he afflicted them. It really that word affliction oftentimes brings before us the picture that he abused them. And you know, those that are in Satan's world, those that are without God, without hope in this world and are living to please themselves are being abused by Satan. And God saw the this in this little picture.
These slaves that could never deliver themselves.
They were slaves and they were serving Egypt, serving Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, a picture of Satan and the God and the Prince of this world. And it's the Lord himself in chapter 3 and verse seven that says I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters. For I know their sorrows. I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. And then I read in Exodus chapter 21, we get that little.
Picture of Christ. And it's already been mentioned. It's the only point, the only time in the Scripture that we really have a fulfillment of this judgment. The very first one of the judgments that is spoken of here in chapter 21 is about this Hebrew servant. It's a picture of Christ himself. And so he came into this world. He was born into this world.
And just turned to Philippians chapter 2. We often read it.
But I just want to bring something out that Christopher Willis brings out in his little book called I believe it's hidden treasures. He says in Philippians chapter 2 and verse. Let's read verse five. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation.
And took upon him the form.
Of a servant he makes the comment that this word could be translated slave.
He took him upon him the form of a slave, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also has highly exalted him, and give him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus.
Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Well, I read these portions of scripture to paint the little picture of the hopelessness of man's condition and how our blessed Savior saw us and our need and came down into this scene and took our place as it were, and became a slave. He became a slave to His Father's love, to his Father's desire that there might be those that are in this scene that would be.
Out of that scene, brought out of that ******* to sin and ******* to corruption, ******* to the enemy of our souls who wanted to continue to oppress his people. And the Lord Jesus himself came down and as I say, became a slave. You know, I just give you a little illustration, a feeble illustration, but.
When my some of you know that I'm allergic to dogs and cats.
Quite allergic. There are some dogs that I can tolerate, some that have hair and instead of fur and my daughter wanted a little dog and so she looked through the newspapers and.
Several weeks there was an advertisement in the newspaper for a little dog that fit the description that I might be able to tolerate. And after several weeks they went the the price kept dropping and they finally they went and they saw this little dog. Little.
I think they call it a lapse of who Little white dog. And they came to see this little dog and it was in the front hall of a home in an enclosure, a wire enclosure. And it had to be abused. They picked up that little dog and.
They were outside and speaking with the previous owner and the little dog had.
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What's put down on the ground and the owner, after the discussions of price and delivery and so on, they left the the scene and went into the house and closed the door. And the little dog stood on the grass there with my wife and with her daughter. And it didn't know where to go. It didn't know whether to go back into the house or whether to continue to look towards my daughter or my wife.
And finally, you know, my wife picked up that little dog.
And they cradled it, brought it home and cried all the way home. And the first time I saw the little dog, it, it was so afraid of a hand. Put the hand towards the dog and it lay down flat on the floor and and screamed. I never heard a dog scream before. But that dog was afraid, deathly afraid of a human hand. Deathly afraid. I can't even use a, a fly swatter anymore. But that dog was enslaved.
And was abused and I want to just paint this picture that that dog now.
As.
It's at the house in Hammer Bay, and there's one master that that dog has. It's Janet, my wife. And that dog follows Janet. She'll do her ironing and she'll sit right there. She'll lie down by Janet. She'll go downstairs, do the laundry. She'll walk down follower. She'll follow her all over the place. She'll be cooking supper and that dog is just right at her heels, just following her from one place to another. She will not.
Even in his Janet goes shopping. She sits at the front door and she waits and she watches. She diligently watches and she waits for Janet to come back home. Oh, there was a picture. I just paint that little picture of 1A little animal that was abused. And now there's that desire of heart in that little animal to be right where Janet is. Well, here we have in Hebrews or in Romans chapter 12.
This picture given to us. I painted this little picture in Exodus chapter one and chapter 3.
In this little illustration of this little dog, and you know we have in the book of Romans the picture of the depravity of the human condition and the hopelessness of man before God, and that God himself has delivered man because of the work of the Lord Jesus. And here.
The language of Scripture says I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. I just want to comment on these each of these words you know it's a very strange to me that.
The language of Scripture is like this. I beseech you. You and I have been delivered from slavery, from ******* from the ******* of corruption of sin, and from ******* to Satan himself. We've been set free, taken up out of the House of bond, as it were, and set outside of that House of *******. And it's as if we're.
We're standing on the grass looking back at the world that we've just been delivered from.
And looking forward, perhaps not knowing maybe what the future brings. We don't know what the future brings, but there is that.
Hesitancy on our part.
Because the Spirit of God would strive with us. And in Christianity, God is not going to demand your heart or mind. He's not going to demand that we follow him. He's going to beg. He's going to beseech. In the French translation, it says, I exhort you. He just would encourage and exhort, he says.
What does he do? He says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, wasn't that nice? Brethren, You know, it's just a picture of our relationship as sons of God to the Lord Jesus himself with and with one another. And so he doesn't address this to the world. He addresses it to those that belong to the Lord Jesus. And he says, brethren, the Apostle Paul, he says, you know, you've been delivered from slavery.
There was a hopeless situation.
And now you've set, been set into freedom and freedom to please the Lord, to live for him, and he begs us and beseeches us as brethren, those that are in relationship to himself. Isn't that lovely? You there, as you sit in your seat, are seen in the dignity of a Son of God.
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A daughter of God, heir of God, joint heir with Christ. What a dignity, what a position of blessing and favor that we occupy. But then he says here, by the mercies of God or by the compassions of God. I often think you know of Mark's gospel chapter one, in connection with the compassions of the Lord. It speaks there particularly in Mark's gospel of the compassionate Savior.
And it says.
In chapter one.
And, umm.
Verse 41 Well, let's read verse 40. There came a leopard to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will be thou clean. All this man in a hopeless, impossible situation, because of the compassion and love of the Lord Jesus came right where he was.
And set them free. You know, there's a man in Jericho that was just outside of Jericho.
I think it's Luke chapter 19, maybe 18, and the Lord came right to where he was.
It's right at the end of.
Chapter 18.
Blind Bartimaeus. It doesn't give his name there.
But it says a little bit into the story in verse 42 or 43. Well, let's read verse 42, Luke 18 and verse 42. Jesus saith unto him, Receive thy sight, thy faith has saved thee. And immediately he received his sight and followed him. Well, it says in Mark's gospel that they went up to Jerusalem. He followed him.
You know the Lord Jesus is seen in Luke's Gospel as walking all the way.
From through the land of Israel and walking towards Jerusalem. And this blind man was healed. The Lord had compassion on him too. And as soon as he was healed and set free from the ******* of what sin had wrought in his life, as soon as he was set free, he followed the Lord.
That lovely, what a lovely picture for us as soon as we're set free and have an understanding that we're set free from the ******* of sin and the Satan in this world and the effects of what sin is brought into this world. What a lovely attitude it would be if we saw those compassions of Christ and enjoyed them and followed Him. Well, it says that you present your bodies a living.
Sacrifice.
A presentation.
Is going to be made in your life and mine. And God is beseeching. He's asking, He's exhorting, encouraging that you might make a presentation to him.
He's not going to demand it, you know. That brother told me a little story I'll recount to you as a little illustration. There was a young lady.
About 90 years ago. And she was.
Perhaps in her teenage, early, early teenage years and she.
Had a desire to please the Lord. Brother said that he went to a class reunion and this woman.
Was a teacher at a school that he went to and she stood up at the front of the room as 100 years old.
100 years old, she stood up at the room at the class reunion and she told her story. And she began by telling the story of how she had dedicated her life to the Lord, that she had presented her life a living sacrifice to the Lord. And she said that she had made two decisions in life as a young lady as she was just beginning her Christian life. And that is.
One would be that she was going to present her life to the Lord.
And that he was going to be able to use it any way that he wanted to. And the second thing is that she was going to read the Word of God and she was going to bow to the truth of the Word of God as he brought it before her. And so she stood there and she said that. And so, you know, this presentation brings before us, you know, a sacrifice. And it's a presentation of that.
A sacrifice speaks of that which is of immense value to us.
And we present it to another. We take of what's exceeding precious, exceedingly, precious, exceedingly fragile exceedingly. It's just going to pass away so quickly. What is your life but a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanishes away? Well, this girl could tell the story almost 100 years later that she had presented her life to the Lord Jesus. And you know, dear beloved brethren.
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Your life and mine will be a loss for eternity if we don't present our lives to the Lord.
There needs to be a presentation, there needs to be an act, a decision, as it were.
An actual event, if I could put it that way, of coming into the presence of the Lord and saying.
I present my life and offering a living sacrifice. You know a brother used to say to us when we were young brother Gordon Hale used to refer to Leviticus chapter 27. I just want to read a couple of verses there. In Leviticus chapter 27 it says it gives an estimation of the value of the sacrifice of human sacrifice. If I could use that terminology and it says here in verse chapter 27 of.
Leviticus and verse three it says thy estimation shall be of the mail from 20 years old even unto 60 years old even my estimation shall be 50 shekels of silver. And then drop down to verse seven and if it be from 60 years old and above, if it be a male, then my estimation shall be 15 shekels.
And for the female, 10 shekels. Well, I just want to say this.
Don't wait too long to offer your sacrifice, a living sacrifice, your life to the Lord. And he doesn't want. He's not a hard taskmaster. You know, the Lord came into this scene and he came to be a slave. He came to be a servant, and he's a slave forever. He's going to sit down. We're going to sit down in his presence. He's going to serve his own.
Forever, and you know when the Lord was young.
It says in Luke chapter 2 That Mary and Joseph came to present the Lord. They came to present him to Jerusalem. They came to present him to the Lord. Is not nice language. They came to present him to the Lord, and so he was presented to the Lord. Our young ones, oftentimes we have that influence in their lives that we can bring them into the presence of the Lord, present them to the Lord, as it were, for a blessing.
But this is something that everyone of us needs to do, ought to do, and it's what the Lord wants. Could I use this terminology? The Lord doesn't want your money.
He perhaps doesn't even want your service. He wants your heart. He wants your life. He doesn't want a part of the life. He wants all of it. And he wants it as soon as he can get it, as it were. And unless it's not, unless it's given to him in its entirety, then there won't be that fruit for him, and there won't be that happiness in your own soul that there ought to be. Well, just continue here. It says holy.
The sacrifice he desires is holy, and holiness is a separation from sin.
And a delight in that which is good, not nice. He wants us to have a separation from that which is evil in his sight, and a delight in that which is good. And then it says acceptable unto God, acceptable and acceptable, acceptable sacrifice. He wants that from us. How are we going to know what's acceptable to Him?
Why? We're going to read the Word of God, and we're going to know.
And discern what is acceptable unto himself. And it says here what is it's your reasonable sacrifice, your reasonable service, intelligent service. And so there's the the discernment as to what is actually reasonable, actually in intelligence, spiritual intelligence, what we ought to do with our bodies, with our lives.
Oh, isn't it lovely that the Lord Jesus came? It says.
And we read, we perhaps referred to it several times during this conference that.
He bear our sins in His own body on the tree, in His own body on the tree. Oh, wouldn't it be nice if every one of us in this room this afternoon would make a decision to present our lives, the remainder of our lives, just present it to the Lord and to desire that He might have His way with us. So it says here, be not conformed to this world.
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And so the world has a mold, and it wants to press the Christian. It wants to press the unbeliever into its mold.
Some of us have dealt in the manufacturing industry with the injection molds and so on. And you have a block of steel, a base, and then perhaps a couple of slides. And if you wanted to mold something, you, you carve into the steel the impression of the object that you want to manufacture. Well, you Satan, the God and the Prince of this world, he wants to manufacture those images that will not represent Christ, that will not reflect his glory, those that will.
Outwardly manifest the systems of this world and that will never glorify Christ Oh God wants us to be conformed to the image of his own son. It says conformed be not conformed to this world. So you know I just point out in verse one there's a call to action there but now he tells us in verse two how he would desire us to do it to accomplish it so be not conformed that's the.
Expression of our faith in Christ. Don't it can't be. It can't be formed by the image of this world. It says be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so there's an inward, the outward is the conformed. And I understand that the transformed is the inside. And so God wants your inside, your innermost feelings, your innermost.
Your soul.
The Spirit to be formed, transformed into the image of his Son. And so it says, the renewing, or perhaps you might say the renovation of the mind. That's what it means to be renewed. A renovation. No longer thinking the way the world thinks, no longer satisfied with what this world has, but having Christ before us as an object, bright and fair to fill and satisfy the heart.
And having the mind renovated to think just.
Like Christ, then it says that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Well is the will of God.
Something that we're proving out in a practical way in our lives.
God wants us to prove out practically in our lives day-to-day what is his will. And it says here it's a goodwill good. You know, I think of that in connection with.
The 84th Psalm at the end of the 84th Thomas says no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. God is good, and he desires the good of his people, and he will not withhold good from you or for me. His will is good. And then it says.
Acceptable. His will is acceptable. It's acceptable to God and it's acceptable. It ought to be acceptable to you and I, and then it's perfect. As for God, His way is perfect, but the will of God is perfect. And God in his love for us and His Son. And it was his will to send his Son perfect will. And now He desires us to seek and to prove out practically in our lives.
That good, that acceptable and perfect will of God. And so.
I just give this.
Little illustration I just want to read a little poem. I was in Rio Ferry not too long ago and I mentioned just a line at this little him.
And I'm going to read you this hymn.
Brother and sister in Los Angeles in Shadow Hills gave me a CD and it had this little him in it says This is your all on the altar. You have longed for sweet peace, and for faith to increase, and have earnestly, fervently prayed, but you cannot have rest or be perfectly blessed until all on the altar is laid. Is your all on the altar of sacrifice?
Your heart does the Spirit control. You can only be blessed and have peace and sweet rest as you yield to Him. Your body and soul would you walk with the Lord in the light of His Word and have peace and contentment. Alway you must do His sweet will to be free from all I'll on the altar. You're all you must lay. Oh, we never can know what the Lord will bestow of the blessings for which we have prayed.
Till our body and soul He does fully control, and are all on the altar is laid you can who can tell all the love He will send from above, and how happy our hearts will be made of the fellowship suite we shall share at His feet. When are all on the altar is laid? Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid? Your heart does the spirit control?
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You can only be blessed and have peace and sweet rest as you yield Him.
Your body and soul, beloved brethren.
Let's make the decision this afternoon to present our lives a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto our God. He set us free from the ******* of sin, from a cruel taskmaster, from a wasted life. He set us outside of that city of destruction. And now he's looking to see as to whether he's won our hearts. And there is nothing more that God could have done to win.
Heart or mind and to have us willingly.
Yield our bodies a living sacrifice in this scene while we watch and we wait for him. Well, may we do that. May we wait and watch and make that offering.