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Like to read part of the first before we pray?
Next to this.
Chapter 33.
Exodus chapter 3 and part way through verse 13.
If I have found grace in thy sight, show me now.
Or could be Show me now thy ways, that I may know thee.
Let's pray.
Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for this reminder of thy mercies that far exceed.
All we can do is say we thank Thee for Thy mercies, to allow us a time like this to come aside and to sit in Thy presence, and to open up Thy precious word. We thank the Father for the portion that has been brought before us.
We feel, father, the need of it in the day in which we're living.
The need of being shown thy ways as they were at the beginning.
The thy thoughts. So we're passing through a scene, Father, where?
That which has taken on thy name, or thy name, Lord Jesus.
Has become so.
Leavened throughout the whole.
Where?
Imitation is so great.
That it can deceive our souls as to thyself, as to Thy ways. And so as we again open up Thy scriptures, we pray as Thou knowest the needs of each in this room, each one of our hearts, that thou wouldst.
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Make known to us thy thoughts that it would draw our hearts to Thee. Lord Jesus, as we consider all that's in Thy heart, so we look to thee for help for thee hour before us, giving thee thanks for thy love, for thy grace. Thy goodness to us that finds us here this morning, finds us thine own company, those that have been redeemed.
So we just look to the Rely undertaking Father, and pray in the precious name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
I've been here yesterday we were reading in Acts chapter one and also Acts chapter 2.
Brother Steve, where did you think we got to?
Or, say it'd be nice not to Passover the Lord's ascension.
But it would be maybe just those verses and then on into chapter 2. I don't know if it's too long of a read, but I was wondering if we should read down to verse 36 of chapter 2 but maybe also read the chapter one and.
Just to get the.
Context of the ascension from.
Maybe verse 9.
Down to 14 and then on to two. Down through 36. Would that be too much or sound all right?
I don't think that's too much.
Acts chapter one, and start at verse nine. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, he, Men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? The Saint Jesus, which is taken up from you in heaven into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.
Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, whereabout both Peter and James, and John and Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, Zelotis, and Judas the brother of James. These all continue with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and married the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
Chapter 2 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven.
And now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language, and they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how? How here we every man in his own tongue, wherein we were born Parthians and Medes, Elamites, and the dwellers of Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and in Cappadocia, and Pontius, and Asia.
Fergia, Pamphilia, in Egypt and in parts of Libya, roundabout Cyrene, and the strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter standing up with the 11, lift up his voice, and said unto them, He met of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem.
Be this known unto you, and hearken to my words, for these are not drunken as you suppose seen is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God. I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants, and on my handmaidens I will pour out in these days of my spirit, and they shall prophecy.
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And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned Into Darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call in the name of the Lord shall be saved.
He, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God by among you, by miracles and wonders and signs.
Which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know him, being delivered by the determinant, council, and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should beholden of it.
For David speaketh concerning him. I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore did I my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, all my also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One, to seek corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David. That he was is both dead and buried in his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him, that at the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He's seen this before, speak of the resurrection of Christ, and his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witness. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received to the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost.
He has set forth this which he now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself. The Lord sent to. My Lord, sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ.
I have a question. Brother John was reminding us that we have the same power today as they did.
The question is, why don't we see it in our day?
I'm going to suggest do see it. We're looking for it in the outward sense of it that was intended to be a display to the children of Israel at the beginning of the Millennium that the the one who reigned.
Reigned in power and glory and what they saw it it's but the difficulty as we look the what we're looking for when we say power and for my own soul. The hymn we just sang answers the question and I'm going to read it.
And it's the answer to how the power of the Spirit of God is working in this room today. And I say with just as much power as is described in Acts 2, but with a different intent and with a different display that's not outward.
The problem with power is often we're looking at it in some outward display. But 288 we just sang.
Verse three we just sang and we just ask God in prayer. This verse is a prayer.
We sometimes sing these hymns and don't always recognize that if we're singing them intelligently, we're singing them as a prayer. And this hymn is a prayer, and we were praying as we sang. If we were entering into the truth of the hymn in verse three, we were praying Do thou.
Very God of peace, us holy, sanctified and grant us such a rich increase of power from on high to what end that we might display in healing and so on. No power is we prayed that spirit, soul and body may preserve free from sin be blameless.
Until that day, Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. That is, we were praying that there would be an increase for us of the power of the Spirit of God on high to the purpose that what we might be preserved free from staying from that power in spirit, soul and body, blameless until that great day that is coming to me. That's the answer to that question.
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I was thinking similar way. Often we like to see the outward display of power. If someone can call fire down from heaven, we say look at them. I work in the early days. We see miracles. We see right the way they spoke in tongues and various things. And today we have the word of God. I'm thinking of the commendation the Lord gave to the church. Let's turn to Revelation chapter 3.
To the Church of Philadelphia, it was very simple words on there.
Revelation 3, verse 11.
Sorry, verse 10.
Because.
Thou hast kept the word of my patience.
Oh I'm sorry, that's not the portion I was thinking of.
Verse eight. I'm sorry, so it says, I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it, for thou hast a little strength, and has kept my word, and has not denied my name. I believe this is exhibition of power from God in a quiet manner, even though just a few words.
They have kept his word. It's difficult, isn't it, in today's environment?
That to be able to keep His word. How often do we say we keep His word? We'll follow it, especially in an environment like this, when you're, among other things, when we're back at work, when you have other people saying things against the Word of God, how many have the courage to stand up? How many have the courage to correct them using the Word of God? Where to keep His word and not to deny His name? I believe that's true power in display.
And I would say, Sam, that the Lord is on them of his working. When we were at camp, you shared the story of the miraculous healing of your pup dog and the answer to the prayer of all those children that prayed for your dog. And I think so often we're not seeing and sometimes we're not seeing because we're not believing in James. It says you receive not because you ask not. So that's part of it. I think in our in our portion here where our brother was saying we should start.
He said when he had spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken up. And I think it's so important in our path of faith to realize that we have a risen Savior and there's nothing that you're going to face today, tomorrow or any day in your life that he has not said this is okay. And we sometimes look at life and we're like, this is impossible. But he knows As for God, his way is perfect and he's allowed it in our lives for our good and for his glory. And he's there. He he says in Hebrews, he ever liveth.
To make intercession for us. And he's real. It says in Second Corinthians, my grace is sufficient. And it is. And my dear, beloved young people, as you go through life and you look at all the stuff that's going on and all the choices you have, he loves you and he wants the very best for you. And if you believe him and you trust him and you put him first, you'll get the very best.
I trust this comment isn't too simple to address the question, but I found it helpful to not confuse description and prescription. And in this these passages we have a lot of description of an event, but not necessarily necessarily a prescription of something for us to do or or to expect to be doing and to to separate those two things as something described for our benefit.
And recorded for a benefit to be different from something that's a prescription for our own activities is it is helpful.
I could add that day that we live in.
If we think about the past in the history of Israel and we think of the display of power when Israel came out of Egypt.
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The crossing of the of the Red Sea. You know, the Angel destroying the first born.
The cloud. The pillar of cloud.
By day and the fire by night, the man of 40 years in the wilderness, those were all characteristics of the day in which God was working in open display.
But if we follow forward in the history of Israel, and here we are in the last days of the church, we believe.
Was very much encouraged by the verses that were read yesterday before the prayer meeting in connection with the night is far spent and the day is at hand, we find in the history of Israel if we go to the book of Ezra.
To me, it's quite significant that Ezra.
Is going back to the land and we might say a similar journey from Egypt to Canaan, from Babylon back to to Canaan to Palestine, to Israel.
And he has told the king.
A week ago and God will preserve us in the way and they're and they're caring with them a lot of valuable merchandise something that abandons would love to get their hands on and if we read.
In Ezra chapter 8.
In verse 21.
This is Ezra speaking here prior to the journey. Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Hava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a right way for us and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to require the king, a band of soldiers and horsemen, to help us against the enemy in the way, because we had spoken under the king, saying the hand of our God.
Is upon all them for good that seek Him, but his power in his wrath is against all them that forsake him. Now this verse is so simple.
Yet profound. So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was entreated of us.
Was there a pillar of?
Or fire? Was there manna? Was there any open demonstration of God's power in that journey? I would suggest no. In the providential ways of God He preserved.
Packed they didn't lose any of the goods that they brought with them all the gold and the silver was restored that to the temple and.
That journey was a demonstration of God's power, but it wasn't the same as the book of Exodus. It was entirely different. And why was it? Well, it was a day of ruin, and that's the day we live in. If we're looking for Acts chapter 2 again, I think that we have perhaps lost sight of the day in which which we live much more like the days of Ezra than the days of Moses.
But I would like to add to the days of Moses.
On the passing through the Red Sea after the Passover, there was a mighty display of power.
But then they live 40 years without that display. For them, they had to live the path of faith.
And they didn't see it again in the same way that it had originally been manifested. But the power was there. And at the end it could be looked back and say the mighty power of God preserves several million people in a desert for 40 years and provided everything they needed for daily life. He provided the manna. He provided the wells of the water in a place that had no water.
It wasn't the same outward display of the parting of the Red Sea, but it was the same power at the beginning of that journey. Acts one is the beginning of a journey. But we're not. We're in the 40 years, if you will, period of that character of journey in which the power of God, of equal power is at work, but in a different way.
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And it's the power that's preserving.
Us from our enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil. And if I could be respectful for God, He's having to use his power over time in order to do it for us because the need that we each have is so great to be preserved in the way He's preserving us.
At the same time, he's at work saving souls like he did at the beginning and through the whole period of the Day of Grace, He's gathering souls for himself to provide for his son, a bride, and it will be accomplished in the Day of Grace. And so we have to be recognizing the power is there, but also intelligent as to how it's being used.
And it will be seen in a magnificent way at the end.
Just as at the beginning of Israel's journey it was seen at the Red Sea, so when they entered the Land of Promise, it was seen at the Jordan because he parted the waters again so that these people could cross over. At the end of this period, they'll be the rapture, and it will be a tremendous display of power. But I will say this, the world won't see it. The world won't see it. It will not see it until he returns in power and glory.
And then you will see the same character of power that we have in Acts One, Acts 2.
It will be the fulfillment of that which was promised if they accepted the message of the Jew to the Jew at that time.
If I could indulge the question with one more comment. I know it's anxious, many are anxious to get on with the chapter. But in Colossians chapter one is a verse that I think speaks to what brother Don is just and and Phil just mentioned in Colossians 1.
Inverse.
In the middle.
Desire that you might be filled with the knowledge, the full knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Then verse 11 strengthen with all might, according to His glorious power. Unto what?
Unto all endurance, patience, or endurance, and long-suffering with joyfulness.
If there's an aged St. in your assembly that has gone on.
Has endured in the path of faith for decades in the midst of trial and difficulty, but they have displayed long-suffering with joyfulness. Are you, are you going to tell somebody in the next the other country or the OR the next part of the world? Come to my gathering and see this brother. There's not going to be bright lights and fireworks and all that kind of thing, but I appreciate very much.
What a brother sitting, I'm not sure who it was. Brother prayed in the beginning of the meeting about God working in US. And this is a wonderful thing as these brothers have said, where the power of God is displayed, not in Acts chapter 2 type display, but in order for us to put one foot in front of the other and continue in the path of faith with endurance, long-suffering with joyfulness. The power of God is working in in US.
To say it in this way, in our day, and it's going to end in glory.
In the wilderness, there was one other sign that wasn't mentioned yet that is was not really very visible while they were walking through the wilderness. But when they got through, they realized, oh.
Our clothes did not wax hold upon us and our feet did not swell. Elderly in the assemblies that.
As a sign of power of God.
We certainly can't do that kind of thing in our own strength.
It's recorded in other places too, but here was real a real display of power, wasn't there?
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A man who had been crucified, who laid in the grave, who saw no corruption. And if you wanted signs of power to demonstrate that resurrection, they were there. Most marked. And again, it's not recorded here in Acts. I'm just mentioning a few things.
Especially in the book of Matthew you see the power of God brought about.
In display in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And not only of the Lord Jesus, but it said, after his resurrection, what happened? There were those Saints of old who came out of their tombs and went into the holy city and appeared unto many. How could you argue with that? And so there was every display of power here in the Lord's resurrection. But here we have His ascension and what attends it?
And the promise that goes along with it.
A very wonderful thing.
The same account Luke gives in the Gospel Luke is a slight difference.
And in Luke chapter 24 and verse 51.
Says And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven.
Mr. Kelly brings out the force of that as he separated himself from them. Brother Steve Bermuda had to attend an occasion where Queen Elizabeth was going to plant a tree in Bermuda. He didn't expect it, so he wasn't prepared for it. But last minute they said you're going to help her.
And he said, thankfully, I was wearing a suit, but he said I had no idea how to speak with the queen. But he went ahead and they were separated by a long space from any of the news reporters or her attendants. And so he had a private conversation with her. And Prince Philip, after a bit, stepped up, and he had a conversation with both of them. He said suddenly there was a pause. And he said, Queen Elizabeth, step back.
And then Prince Philip stepped back and he said I realized the conversation was done and their attendance came out and took them and took them away to their waiting.
Cars.
He separated himself. He stepped back from them. That time was done. He had said all that he intended to say and needed to say.
In using Brother's illustration, the bags were packed, it was time to go, the next step was about to take place, and he stepped back in all the dignity of his person. And in Luke the thought is, is that he rises up in his own power.
He steps back. He takes the step in Acts. It's the power of God.
Taking him up. Both are true. Both are true and he ascends majestically back to heaven. 4 steps are necessary.
His death, his resurrection, his ascension, and then what was to take place next. He was going to be glorified when he went back to heaven. Those were necessary before Chapter 2 unfolds before us.
Because in John Chapter 7 says the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.
And part of the importance of that is that.
What we are part of today.
This heaven we are associated with heaven.
Everything that had gone before with Israel was with the earth, and so the.
Our life.
Our live daily lives is the separation of ourselves from everything having to do with we have to live daily life on earth, and it's a very practical and a very important thing. But our heart and our hope and our faith is all associated with a man in glory. And in fact, when the Lord Jesus was taken to the grave.
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That was the last time recorded.
That an unbeliever saw him on earth.
All the testimony to his resurrection.
That is recorded for us was by believers, and that is the separation that identifies us with Him by faith rather than by sight. The same again with the display of power that we have is the display to us is in that which is not seen, the display that will come when He returns in power and glory.
Is that display that will include the unbeliever?
But he works to bring from the state of death the unbeliever today by the preaching of the gospel, received by faith that gives life in the Spirit, sealed by the Spirit. But again, it is in a character that associates the person with heaven.
And so everything even in this transitional period.
That he has to be glorified.
Before Christianity can begin.
So that from its very beginning, the he, the glorified man in heaven, every single soul that's saved is identified with that place that he is in and his work. I want to go back to power.
For a moment.
God says I love the Forerunner.
My son and I'm going to do work in the day of grace that's going to gather a collection of people.
That will be just like him. That takes a lot of work by the Spirit to accomplish that, that every single person in this room will be just like Him when that work is finished. And we will be ourselves in that glory like himself for His pleasure. And that's what's working today. And he himself is working 24/7.
The Lord Jesus.
We slept last night but he was bowed down.
At the throne of grace interceding for us.
He's laboring.
Without stopping to accomplish the purpose of God and grace and love.
We see these conditions in verse 14 and chapter 2 verse one. They all continued with one accord.
In prayer and supplication, can we say that about our family, our marriage?
Our relationship with our children there were of 1 accord. It requires self lessness, it requires humility, it requires grace. It requires love with the women. In chapter 2 verse one it says when the day of Pentecost was fully come, we talked about waiting.
Yesterday, when it was when it was, when it was right on time.
We're so mixed up with time, but God isn't.
Everything is perfect.
As for God, His way is perfect. It can't even be improved by 5 minutes and here they are.
With one accord in one place, and they were all getting along. The spirit wasn't quenched. The spirit wasn't grieved.
And here's the opportunity so, so often in our lives, we're not experiencing that because we're not allowing the Lord to come in and work in our lives. It was, it was told about John Leben. There was a brother that came to him and he said, the Lord answers your prayers all the time in a mighty way. He doesn't answer my prayers. And John told him, brother, you need to get to work. If we're just all focused, all wrapped up in ourselves, the Lord isn't here to just babysit us. If I could say that he has a plan that he's trying to accomplish.
And he will use us if we're willing. And he is so powerful, as our brother just said, he's there. I remember last summer, we decided I'd been in a car wreck and I was in a wheelchair. And we decided, OK, we're going to have to restart the business. We don't know, you know, I can't work. All my people quit. And and I just sat in my front yard in a wheelchair and I'm like, God, this doesn't make any sense. But I know if this is going to happen, I need a technician. I need some help. Literally, I didn't look at my watch. Literally within 5 minutes, my phone rang.
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And here's a guy and he says.
I'm here for you.
Like the Lord is on the move, He does answer our prayers. He is moving in our midst because He loves us, because He wants to show us.
Show himself strong on our behalf. It's true and it happens every day.
I believe it's important to recognize here, as Dawn was saying, that from now on the Lord is really bringing the believers into the reality that Christianity consists of our late brother Clifford Brown. Some of us here remember him used to say true Christianity begins on the other side of the cloud.
And how precious that is. We see it in the last few chapters of John, beginning, I suppose, with chapter 13, where the Lord Jesus gently but firmly leads his disciples out of what they were expecting to happen on earth to take them up to heaven where he would be. Chapter 14, as we know, is the first mention of the Lord's coming.
Why?
Because He wants them to be associated with Him in the Father's house. They were all expecting an earthly blessing. And sad to say, many dear believers today get occupied. And the danger is in our hearts too, to get occupied with earthly things and earthly blessings. That's always the problem. And Satan, sad to say, has done rather a good job of bringing Christianity down to the level of the world.
And that's a mistake. But he knows very well that if he can take away from you and me the sense, the joy, the blessing of our heavenly calling.
Than he nullifies our testimony and so here the Lord through these angels to me it's very beautiful.
He shows them why, Stanji gazing up into heaven, yes, he's going to come back again, but that is the place where now you and I are to be associated. Now granted, yes, there was going to be another chance for the Jews. And so this is Jewish in character. And the coming back again that is referred to here is exactly what we get in Zechariah chapter 14.
Where the Lord in fact, does come back right to that spot, right to the Mount of Olives. And that's not just a figure that's actual, I believe, where the Mount of Olives is going to cleave in two and so on.
That will all be fulfilled and would have been fulfilled.
Had the nation believed, but at the same time he ascends to heaven.
A cloud receives them out of their sight, and that is where the Lord wants to bring you and me in Christianity.
The as you say, it's, it's as he's bringing them into this, it's gradual because there's going to be that offered Israel. But contrast this statement of the angels to what we have in Acts 7 with Steven as he's being just before he's stoned.
Verse 55 but he being full of the Holy Ghost.
Looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see that heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
The angels associated with the Jewish economy.
And so strongly so that Paul has to take up how the glories of Christ are greater than angels in Hebrews. They're involved with directing their attention for time back to the earth. But when that is done, when that has been fulfilled and Israel is a nation, rejects the testimony of the Spirit of God to risen Christ, then the Holy Spirit, not angels.
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The Holy Spirit directs Stephen's gaze back up now into an open heavens.
No cloud in between his sight and Christ, and that's really the full Christian position.
And so that's why it's transitional. He's bringing them there a little at a time, but it culminates really, Steven is a picture of the full Christian position at the end of that transitional period, looking up into heaven, seeing the glory of God and our Lord Jesus Christ there at his right hand. Place of acceptance, the place of power.
Just as a short remark, I've appreciated that at the beginning of that 7th chapter.
It's the God of glory that appears to our Father Abraham.
But when Stephen looks up.
What did he see? The God of glory? No, the glory of God. Transitional time from 1 dispensation to the next.
It's important, too, to stress that in the same manner, he's going to return not only, as her brother remarked, physically there in the Mount of Olives. His second coming is not some spiritual thing invisible, in which he is going to destroy the heavens and the earth and create a new heavens and a new earth. And the Saints will go on to populate the new earth. As a millennial teaching, if I put it in a very general way, takes up.
No, he's going to come in the same way that he left. Physically, visibly, he'll return to this earth. It's not some spiritual, nebulous thing out there. So I think it's important to lay hold of those words in the same manner as you have seen him go into heaven.
Perhaps I could make one more remark.
I have enjoyed it in connection with this chapter. Undoubtedly, as we've been bringing out, this is Jewish in character, that is the angels referred directly to the prophecy in Zechariah and to the Lord's coming back to this earth. But at the same time, I would suggest, and I don't think this is stretching a point.
That morally and spiritually.
We can apply this to ourselves.
Even though it isn't the Rapture, we can look at it in that light.
That is that the same Jesus who went up from this earth?
Is coming back again, again referring to John 14. The Lord has to tell the disciples.
I'm going away. And they were sad. They were very sad.
What are we going to do now? Of course, going on in in that chapter particularly, the Lord brings before them how that they would enjoy Him and know Him even better and in a fuller way when the Spirit came down. Then they had known Him here on earth with His bodily presence among them. But how precious it is to enjoy the fact, even you and I, in the dispensation of grace.
Now we're past all this. Now Israel as a nation has rejected the Lord.
Paul's ministry has come in and we enjoy the precious truth of the assembly, but how precious it is to know that the one who went away is the same one who's coming back. He will be a man for all eternity to enjoy your company and mine. He's glorified now, absolutely. And that is only good and right. That has to take had to take place.
But when he comes back, we will immediately recognize it.
The same Jesus that went away from us.
Few more remarks about his the time and his coming back.
Lord Jesus was presented to his own people. He was a Jew.
He was of Israel, and He was presented to them as their Messiah.
And their response to his presentation was, we will not have this man.
To reign over us. And so they.
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In working with the Gentiles because they as a nation were now under the dominance of the Gentile powers power of Rome at that time.
Together the Jew and the Gentile put him to death.
In Acts 7, after the last testimony is given.
To them, in that way they're saying as it were, did you not get the message? We said we will not have this man. So they send, as it were, Steven after him to heaven to get the message across. Didn't we say it? Well, if you didn't get it, here's Steven. We don't want the man now in the respect to his return.
God is.
Resetting.
The stage of the world. Back to the moral condition it was in when he was rejected.
That's why you see Israel as a Nation Today.
It's being reset into that place and you will see it that as well, that the Gentile powers will have their control even over the children in Israel. That is the people of the land. Why is that? Because God is going to present His Son again differently.
The same man, the same rejected one, but he is going to work first in a more hidden way with their where they seeking faith among the Israelites.
Than what we call the remnant and you see the picture of that restoration of some of them.
Then Joseph.
In Joseph's case, seven times he tries.
He weeps as he is interacting with his people that he had been sent into Egypt as it were. They thought they got him put to death. They didn't. He was carried away, but in figure the Israelites, the brothers put him to death and he's taken into Egypt and he's there hidden from them and then God providentially.
Produces the circumstances where they have to go to Egypt to get their food. And there's Joseph. They don't recognize them. Seven times he weeps in the process of restoring them to himself.
Before.
These recognized by those who were in power at that time, Pharaoh, and so on the world, if you will.
And brethren, I make this comment because it's morally.
Very significant, my own soul.
When you get to heaven, is that the last time you'll cry?
You all be in perfect circumstances.
You won't have the flesh in you anymore. There won't be any pain or sickness or anything connected with you.
So it's bliss, right? It's happiness forever.
No, not yet.
You are going to see your Lord and Savior cry as He seeks to be restored during the Tribulation period, as it's called, to a remnant of His people in Israel.
I don't believe you'll be able to be dry eyed. You will weep.
As you see the pain through which he's going, as they at first they don't recognize him, even when they recognize him, finally they're afraid of him. When their father dies and he has to weep again because the faith is not fully developed in them, But that process having taken place in the world, being restored to that moral condition, then he will appear in power in glory to all men.
And despite himself and the Millennium will begin. And so it's important for us to see that God is going to see that his Son is received, putting it back into the same place it was when he was rejected and cast out. As they, the Israelites of faith, go through that process, you'll see the fulfillment of this statement. What are these wounds?
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In thy hands they'll look upon him, and they will see the wounds in his hands, and then they see them.
They will be convicted that they collectively were responsible for putting those wounds in his hand on the cross as they nailed him there as a nation. And so it's it's important too, to see how it all ends as it began, what we have in the end of the Gospels.
In Revelation chapter one, we have a little bit more instructions as to what we have in our first chapter, verse 11 and verse seven of Revelation one. As you said, Don, behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also wish Pierce him, and all kindreds of the earth shall well because of him, Even so. Amen.
And so we'll be with them, the whole redeemed. All the Saints will ascend with him.
This is not what we say the Rapture, but His second coming that all I shall see him and will be displayed with that glory as well.
So what takes place in the beginning of chapter 2 is exactly what the Lord had told them to wait for.
That they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit and they would be endued with power from on high.
So when that day of Pentecost was fully come.
The sign that that was taking place was this tremendous as it says here in in King James rushing mighty wind.
Find Mr. Darby's notes in his translation. Speaks of a very loud breathing.
Kelly calls it a violent impetuous.
Breathing, it's different than wind. Exactly. It's a living sound because this is the Spirit of God personally coming into this world. Spirit of God had worked in the Old Testament. Times and times past came upon different ones, but He had never been here personally. In the same way the Son of God had come into this world and was personally here.
The Spirit of God now comes, and He is here personally still to this day, every bit as much as the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God was here personally in this world, now back in heaven, and He personally comes down. He fills the house. Cloven tongues like a fire appear upon those gathered in that upper room.
Do things happen in the descent of the Spirit of God? He indwelt each believer.
That was there in that upper room, but as it's expressed here, He filled the whole house. And that leads us on to Ephesians chapter 2. Read a verse there.
Patients 2.
Maybe we could read?
2 verses from Ephesians.
We'll have a chance probably to refer to it later. Verse 13 of chapter one.
And whom he also trusted after that he heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. And whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And then?
Chapter 2 and verse 22, Speaking of the church founded on the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Verse 22, in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. Two things believers were individually dealt with the Spirit of God.
But that formed them together as the House of God.
The assembly and his habitation is in the assembly, the House of God as well, individually and dwelt and corporately and dwelt as a House of God. There's one more thing that happened and the verse was read to us, I think the last reading, First Corinthians chapter 12.
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1St Corinthians 12 and verse.
12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body.
So also is Christ, for by 1 Spirit are we all baptized into one?
Body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit. And then in first Corinthians 6 it says he that is joined to the Lord is 1 spirit with the Lord. And so three things they are individually dwelled by the Spirit of God.
Corporately they formed the assembly, the House of God, the habitation of God by the Spirit, and being individually indwelt by the Spirit of God, they were all united to one another by that same Spirit, and to Christ in heaven, because he says, which is the Christ.
That comes back to chapter one and the importance of the fact that when Christ was raised from the dead, He still was indwelt by the Spirit of God. He spake those things by the Spirit of God, went back to heaven still and dwelt by the Spirit of God. And so when the believers were involved by the Spirit of God, they were united to him by one in the self same spirit. And just like you have a spirit, the spirit of a man.
In your body, and it pervades your whole body, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit indwelling Christ. Now each believer unites us together, and there is one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that pervades the whole body of Christ.
Those three things took place on this wonderful day called Pentecost.
The aspect of the believer having believed the gospel of his salvation like we each have.
And then indwelt by the Holy Spirit, as it says in Ephesians 1, is pretty well understood by most of us, I would think. And also we've been very well schooled in the truth of the one Body, Christ, the head, and you and I joined to him not by faith, but by the indwelling of the Spirit of God by 1 Spirit, but the aspect of the Holy Spirit having taken up His abode on this earth subsequent to a divine person going up on high.
There's a man in the glory, and again, there is a divine person on the earth.
And so the Holy Spirit has taken up his abode in the House of God. Not this is a different truth than Matthew 18 and 20.
In Matthew 18 and 20 we have the foretaste of what we enjoy being gathered together by the Spirit of God unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Lord Jesus says, there am I in the midst of them, of you.
But the divine person, the Holy Spirit indwells the house and this is what makes all of us who confess the name of Christ, who have been baptized unto Christ very responsible because there's a divine person in the House of God here on this earth. And just as an interesting aside that that illustrates that in first Corinthians 14 brought to mind by Stevens comments.
Let's see if I can find it here.
1St Corinthians 14 The discussion of the use of gifts.
By the Saints in assembly, when they are gathered together into one place. Verse 23, and then verse 24. But if all prophecy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest, and so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is, I believe it should be amongst you of the truth.
This was my personal experience, though I did not fall down on my face. But when I was first brought to an assembly, gathered to the Lord's name in a little farmhouse, I thought that the brethren were somehow sending people around to follow me around the whole week and knew my innermost thoughts. And I'd come to the meeting and it's just like it was all for me.
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Just like Ruth when she's in Boaz's field, the servant knew all about her.
And communicates it to Boas. It's very beautiful. And so God is amongst not just we who have the privilege of being gathered together to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in the whole house. Was driving along in a truck full of gravel with a brother in the Lord back where I'm from.
And he turned the corner in a little town, and there was a Baptist Church on the corner.
And I'm saved maybe a year or two, young babe in Christ. And he says spirit of God's not in there, brother. Spirit of God's not in there. Well, it it just kind of, yeah, I just kind of stored it there. But as years went on, I I came to see and I trust he did too. That was not a correct statement. The Spirit of God is in that divine person is in the house. We don't have as gathered to the Lord's name, exclusive title in any way to his presence.
But the math truth of Matthew 1820 as it's developed from Deuteronomy and from Genesis all the way through is a separate and a wonderful truth. So I just say that lest we be wrong in our thoughts towards the privileges that all of our brethren in Christ enjoy. Remember John Brearton, I think it was who made a comment that that to the extent that any group of Christians meeting together at lunch in the in the workplace.
Or meeting in somebody's house in the neighborhood on a Saturday morning. To the extent that they give acknowledgment to the liberty of the whole of the divine and Holy Spirit of God, there will be that liberty to take the precious things of Christ and show them unto us. Little bit of an aside, I'm sorry, but I just wanted to mention that that aspect which is less understood and well known amongst us than the other two.
We can see that the Godhead is working, always working together for the blessing of mankind. We begin. The Bible begins by in the beginning of God. We know that. And then we read that the Spirit hover on the face of those darkness. And then we find that it was God who breathed and noticed that blowing breathe into this pile of dirt.
And he became a living soul. And then we find that the work.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ, death and resurrection, as we've been reminded.
Have brought Gentiles like us into blessing.
And then now we find here in the chapter that the Spirit is a work again in dwelling in the believer. We find a Godhead, and we find a Son who gone back up to heaven on high. And the Spirit is here, is guiding and leading us. And then we will remind it that the sun in the form of the Son of Man, not the Son of God, but the Son of Man is going to come back. In like manner. The whole Godhead is here for our blessing.
With the Lord.
Oh, blessed.
Wondrous word.
What happened?
We'll pray.
Our God and our Father, we think of how thy beloved Son glorify thee here on this earth.
And our God, we think of the glory that was brought to the Calvary's cross.
And those hours of darkness, when thy beloved Son yielded himself up, whatever the cost that sin might not subsist in thy sight, rendered a satisfaction to thee, and more than that brought thee glory. More glory, infinitely more than a sin had never even entered this world.
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And thou hast straightway glorified him, raising him from among the dead, that seal of divine approval and delight. Hence now seated at thy right hand in heavenly places, our God and our Father, we think.
What flows from that place in which thou hast put him?
Flowed from that place by descending down of the Spirit of God.
In all its wonderful results.
We praise we have this portion before us. Our hearts might enter into it.
For we are, by sovereign grace, intimately involved in the glory that thy beloved Son has brought to thee, and in his coming glory and its wonderful display.
To principalities and powers, the ages to come.
Until we look to Thee and pray for Thy help to enter into these things in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.