Address—A.C. Hayhoe
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Like you to turn with me tonight, please, to the book of the act.
To a very familiar.
Little account in the 20th chapter of the book of the Act.
Acts Chapter 20.
Verse 7.
And upon the first day of the week.
When the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.
Ready to depart on the Morrow and continued his speech until midnight.
And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together, and there sat in a window as certain young man named Utica being fallen into a deep sleep. And as Paul was long preaching, he sat down with sleep and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.
And Paul went down and fell on him.
And embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed, and they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.
I believe considering these verses slowly we might see in them.
That which could be a very, very needful lesson to all of us, and that which perhaps I hope may direct us and encourage us.
You notice that it says upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread. I feel sometimes we become accustomed to certain privileges and forget how much we owe to the very wondrous grace of God that has established these privileges for us.
The first day of the week you and I wake up, I trust with gladness of heart to realize this is the Lord's Day.
But I'm sure there's not one of us that realizes as we ought, to the wonder and the privilege of that first day of the week and the triumph that it really represents. For it reminds us, does it not, of the end of that which once held ******* over guilty men by the matchless grace of God, by the finished work of Christ?
You and I have been delivered forever from that which held us in captivity and in *******.
And as we look upon that open grave, that empty tomb, and realize that on that first day of the week our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ rose from among the dead, I hope it makes that day very, very real and precious to every one of us.
Living as we do in a land where the first day of the week is called Sunday and is set apart, perhaps perhaps doesn't give to us the significance that it ought to have to us. I remember quite a good many years ago.
I was.
In another land and I was confronted with a group of Muhammadan.
And having a little time to converse with them, I asked them if they prayed. Yes, they said promptly. Indeed we do. Where do you pray? Over in Yonder mosque? To whom do you pray? To the Prophet Mohammed?
To the Prophet Muhammad, is he dead or alive? Oh, he's dead. How long ago did he die? And they promptly told me, and I said, does it not seem strange to you to pray to someone who has been dead so long? Well, it didn't seem strange to them at all. But I know it sounds strange to you, and it did to me. And I tell you it came before my soul with a fresh delight and a real gladness that it is our privilege, yours and mine.
To know that our Savior who lay in that grave rose from among the dead, and on the first day of the week we see him living triumphant over death. And on that first day of the week, we here see the disciples coming together to break bread. This is the day that the Scripture calls the Lord's Day.
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Now, I'm sure you've noticed that there is but one mention in God's Word of.
The Lord's Day there is but one mention in God's Word of the Lord's Table, and there is but one mention of the Lord's Supper. I hope those three things are very precious to you. I hope they mean a lot to you. The Lord's Day, the Lord's Table, the Lord's Supper, and yet each of them is only mentioned one. You know, if we were.
Back to the Old Testament, we would find that God had to remind His people over and over again other restrictions and responsibilities of the Sabbath day. How many times? I have no idea, but you and I know that over and over and over again they were reminded of that solemn day.
But you and I are told once and only once of the Lord's Day.
The Lords Table and the Lords Supper. But when someone that you love very much makes mention one of something that would be very, very delightful to them, you really don't need to be told the second time, do you? It registers immediately.
You recognize that once here is something that would bring joy, delight, gladness to the heart of One whom I love. O beloved brother, beloved sister, young or old, isn't there something sweet about the fact that He just makes one mention of this and leaves it to your heart and to mind to respond promptly to the glad and sweet claims of the Lord's?
First day of the week. What a wonderful privilege it is to be able to come forth on that first day of the week to break bread.
Now, I want to be careful in what I say. I don't want to be in any way critical, but I believe this is important. They came together not to worship the Lord, but to break bread. That was the purpose of their coming together. I'm quite sure that it's proper. It's in order. There would be something wrong.
If our coming together in the presence of the Lord Jesus, with the privilege before us of breaking bread in response to his request.
There would be something wrong if this did not produce that worship of which He is so worthy. But, beloved, I believe that God's Word would suggest to us here that the purpose of our coming together on this first day of the week ought to be to break bread. It ought not to be a secondary thing, but rather the delight of our hearts as we leave our homes and come to this or that place.
Where he has said his name in order that we might share together the glad and happy privilege of breaking bread, well, there is a second thing that I think is indicated here.
Paul preached unto them.
I believe there's a significance here, for I believe it sets them apart as a company of people who appreciated, who valued, who had an ear for the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Now I think you and I realize that in the religious world around about us, the particular ministry entrusted to the Apostle Paul has.
Very little claim upon the hearts of so many.
And when that which was specially entrusted to Paul is presented, they turn a deaf ear to it all. That was Paul wrote that or Paul said that, and they find various excuses for turning a deaf ear to the marvelous truth.
That was entrusted by a risen and an ascended Savior to his servant Paul. Paul did not know the Lord Jesus after the flesh here on earth. His first meeting with the Lord Jesus was the sound of that voice from heaven that addressed Paul on the road to Damascus. And Paul was caught up to the 3rd heaven to receive that special communication of truth that I hope, beloved, means.
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A great deal to you and I hope also to me.
Why was he caught up to the 3rd heaven to receive such a revelation of truth? Oh dear fellow believer, that's the origin. That's the source of the sweet and blessed truth entrusted to God's beloved people that I, I feel, should lift us from this poor world through which we're journeying and called us to rejoice in the wonder of being already.
Citizens of that land to which we're traveling.
Fellow citizens, with the Saints and of the household of God, From whose pen do such words come? The pen of the apostle Paul. Where did he hear such things? Not from his fellow disciples, not from the lips of the Lord Jesus while here on earth, but from that One who was up there in the 3rd heaven. Is there not a danger that we become accustomed to these statements and fail to think about them? The 3rd heaven.
Where is that?
While you read in Genesis chapter one, I believe of the creation of the 1St and the 2nd heaven, the starry heavens that challenge the search of man, and the atmospheric heavens or the firmament as it is called in Genesis chapter one. We read both of those heavens in that first chapter, but where do you read of the origin of the 3rd heaven?
You will search your Bible and you will not find it I believe.
That it's beyond the boundary of all that is created, beyond the 1St and 2nd heaven, Beyond all that has been created, is the eternal dwelling place of a God who knows my name and loves me. Beyond all that has been created is that home of uncreated glory in which the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, has been received and from which He communicated.
His servant Paul, the precious and significant truth that I hope means a great deal to your heart and I hope also to mine. I was just meditating and enjoying the other day the three distinct mentions of the ascending of the Lord Jesus and.
What shall I say the significance of the wording that is used? He is spoken of as having passed into the heavens.
And in connection with this, he has control over all that is taking part in this world, angels and principalities and powers being made subject unto him. All that goes on in this world as regards the authorities and principalities and powers are all under the control of Him who not only rose from among the dead, but is passed into the heavens. That's the language, I believe, of Second Peter.
But then we also read that he passed through the heavens.
Doesn't that sound a bit more exalted still through the heavens, And for what purpose? In order that you and I might have a merciful, faithful, sympathetic, understanding High Priest up Yonder in the glory. I believe to my heart, it would suggest that that which concerns you, my dear brother, that which concerns you, my dear sister.
Calls for a greater term of exaltation.
The man which concerns the control over all that is going on in this poor world.
He passed into the heavens as the one who has control over all principalities and powers, but He passed through the heavens in order that as a merciful High Priest, he might care for you and me from day-to-day. But then, far above all heavens, For what purpose is this language used? There He sits as head over all things to the Church.
Which is his body. Oh, when I think of that place of supreme exaltation, when I see the Apostle Paul not caught up into the heavens or through the heavens, but up there into the 3rd heaven, in order that he might receive this marvelous communication of truth, it thrills my soul. And at the same time it saddens me. It thrills my soul to realize.
That it concerns that which unites me together by God's matchless grace, in bonds of eternal relationship with every other believer.
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For together we are living stones in the Church of God. Together we are made members of the very body of Christ. These things were communicated to the apostle Paul. And I say here I see a company of people on the first day of the week gathered together to break bread, listening to and enjoying.
The precious ministry and trusted to the Apostle Paul.
But then the third thing significant about them is this, that they met together in an upper chamber. We know from having read the story that it was the 3rd loft.
And I might pause here to remark that as far as I know, there are only two hints of description.
As to the kind of place in which the Lords people met.
One is a large upper room and the other is 1/3 loft.
Neither one seems to suggest anything that you would point out to your friends as being this is the place where I meet. There's something about it that has sort of a Pilgrim character, a large upper room, the third loft, the third loft, that indicates a very real degree of separation, does it not? I think perhaps in this connection we might consider it as a picture of death and resurrection.
1/3 lot leaving behind completely and absolutely all the religious activity that was going on around them.
And dear fellow believer.
You and I who know the joy of being gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Know that the enjoyment of His sweet and happy privilege involves separation. Separation to the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, bearing His name alone. Now I know that the very sound of the word separation causes some folks to shudder as though it were a restricting term.
And it were going to involve some very, very difficult steps to take. But I believe when it comes to the claim of a heart that really loves and a heart that responds to that love, separation is not difficult, but very, very, very precious. We read in the 43rd chapter of Isaiah.
I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name.
Thou art mine. Does that sound?
Awkward. Or does that sound sweet and precious?
Oh, I don't want to say anything that would sound out of place, but I know if you could just picture someone that you love very, very, very much.
Reaching out and taking your hand and saying thou art mine. Would you find that difficult to listen to?
Would you consider that that involved a claim that was going to be awkward for you to recognize? Dear young people, dear brother, dear sister, let me tell you this. There's someone who loves you with a love that shines far above any human affection that has reached out a Pearson hand to me and said to me.
I have called thee by thy name.
Thou art mine. Who said that to me?
None other than the one who was nailed to the cross in love to me, the eternal Son of the living God has said to me, Thou art mine. Should there be, should there be some response in my heart to this, to be separated to the one who said that to me and paid such a price in order that he might claim me as his own? Should there, I say, be a response in my heart and yours also to such a claim?
And is that response difficult?
Forgive me for repeating what I know you have heard before, but I think every time I attend a wedding I experience this same feeling over again as I see a couple stand side by side and turn and glance at one another with that happy look of love. And then I hear a challenge like this addressed to one and then the other. Do you promise that? Forsaking.
All other you will cleave to him only so long as he both shall live.
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You've heard that, and I've heard it pretty often too over the years. And I've never heard any hesitation in the reply. I've always heard the reply. I do, I will. There's no hesitation about it. There's no thought in the heart of either one or the other. This is going to involve separation. This is going to involve a kind of ******* of some kind. Not for one moment.
The claims of love are recognized, hands are joined, and those bombs are expressed there in the sight of all others, all beloved. There's One who loved you and me, One who went to Calvary Cross to redeem you and me. He has claimed us as his very own, and now I believe we see in this picture.
A company of those who have responded to those claims. They're called disciples.
And on the first day of the week, we see them gathered together in that third loft, leaving behind all that was going on around them, separating themselves, I believe, with gladness of heart.
To the person in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there they met.
But there was a sad, sad interruption that entered into this picture.
And in verse seven we read ready to depart on the moral. Now those words used to trouble me, ready to depart on the Morrow. And in reading them I used to think, why does it say on the moral, Are we waiting for tomorrow to go home? Are we not ready to leave right now?
I couldn't quite fathom the significance of those words. Ready to depart on the moral?
But I read it again and again, and it began to present to me a picture that I want to try to present to you tonight, for I feel it might be helpful, it might be encouraging.
Paul continues his speech until midnight and there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together.
Now comes verse nine and the sadness of it. There is sat in a window. A certain young man named Utica is being fallen into a deep sleep.
And as Paul's long preaching, he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft.
And was taken up.
I'm going to digress here a moment to introduce a practical thought in connection with this experience before we try to fit it into the picture.
And the thought is this. Here was a young man who had the spiritual energy.
To go up those flights of stairs, to be found within the company, to be under the sound of the ministry of the Apostle Paul, to be numbered among those who met that day, to break bread. But the first thing he did that was rather questionable was to seat himself.
In the window.
I wonder if this would perhaps?
Perhaps suggest a certain responsibility that I ought to feel and perhaps we all ought to feel. Have you ever seen this happen? Have you ever seen among those with whom you meet someone whom you feel is in danger of a fall, someone who perhaps seems to want to keep one eye on that which is going on out there in the world?
And one eye, perhaps directed toward the people of God.
One ear tuned to what's going on out there and the other ear halfway listening to what Paul is saying in the 1St place. It's a very, very dangerous position, a very, very dangerous attitude. And I have wondered as I read this story, I have kind of wondered why there wasn't someone there who moved, who moved over and said Uticus, come and sit by me.
You're in a dangerous position.
This is a challenge to my own soul, for over the years I have seen those who have fallen out the window. I have seen those who once enjoyed this happy place and privilege and they're gone. But it didn't happen suddenly. You know very well it didn't happen suddenly. And I feel myself solemnly chargeable with some of those occasions when I think of those whose faces I saw at the meeting and I see them there.
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Why didn't someone go and put their arm around Euticus and say Uticus, come and sit by me? That's a risky place for you to be.
Furthermore, I doubt very, very much if Utica was wide awake one moment and sound asleep the next. It doesn't happen that way. You found yourself dozing off and meeting, I suppose. I know I have. And it doesn't happen all at once. The voice kind of fades out, and then it comes back, and then it fades out again, and you find your head nodding and you try so hard to stay awake. You don't fall asleep suddenly.
And I quite expect, as Utica sat there in the window, his head may have nodded a few times.
And I doubt not. There may have been those present who saw it happening, maybe even nudged the person next to them and said, look at that young man, he's going to fall out the window if he's not careful. But no one did anything about it. No one got up and went over and said, you, Dickus, watch out, you're going to have a fall. Don't you think it would have been a kindness? Maybe it would have disturbed things a little bit, but I'm sure you'll realize that it would have been a kindness.
There was a dear old brother in the meeting back in Ottawa.
Who loved the young people with a very, very watchful, careful, prayerful love. His name was RJ Watson.
And I can remember from time to time when the arm of that fear, faithful old man, would be laid on my shoulder, and a faithful word would be addressed to me. Why?
Because he loved me, that's why.
Oh, you'll excuse one occasion.
It doesn't sound like much, for in those days it was considered quite the thing to have a white handkerchief sticking out of your pocket, and I'm afraid I was one of the first ones to do it.
And brother Watson.
Knew very well that this was just a sign.
That I might be heading in the wrong direction.
Sure enough as I might expect it after meeting, that dear man, because he loved me, came up and reached out his hand with a big broad smile. And as he grasped my hand with one hand, he tucked the handkerchief in with the other, and said, Glad to see you at meeting Albert. And away he went. Why did he do that?
He wasn't trying to be rude, he wasn't trying to be funny. He loved my soul and every little thing that he thought about us that he felt might lead us in the wrong direction, he loved and he cared enough to speak to us in such a wise and loving way too. I love the memory of that brother. I remember one day he come into where I was working.
And he had tears in his eyes. I said, Brother Watson, what's happened?
Well he said I just saw sister so and so passed by on the street and I said but what happened? Why do you look so sad Albert? I'm afraid, I'm afraid I saw she passed by the 1St signs of trying to make herself.
Appear as those who do not love the Lord.
I was so surprised that young sister that he was speaking about wasn't even gathered to the Lord's name, nor was anyone in her family. She was just someone who, from the Sunday School effort, had been attending the meeting and attending them faithfully and rejoiced in the Lord. But he had seen, and he discerned rightly, he had seen the first sign of turning towards those things which would lead her astray. And she was led astray. She wandered away. She missed the path.
She's with the Lord now.
But I Revere the memory of that brother.
He was the kind of man who would have gone over and put his arm around Eudicus and said, Uticus, sit by me. And then when I see this man fall out the window and they go down and find him their lifeless. Or how would you feel? How would I feel if I had seen the signs of it coming and failed to be faithful in shepherding? Dear young people, just let me pass this message on to you.
If some dear brother, If some dear sister.
Comes to you with such a word. Don't resent it. Don't resent it. Perhaps they may not present it to you in a way that would make you recognize love, but take it from the Lord and remember Utica.
I believe the incident here is more than simply a warning of how very, very easily any one of us can slip from this place of precious privilege.
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Back down to the level which we once had left. But I believe it's a picture also of a history of the testimony from the day of Pentecost until that glad moment so near at hand when we're going to see the face of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice that the story begins with a company of disciples gathered together in that upper room. 3 things characterize them.
Complete separation from that which was going on around them religiously and in every other sphere. They were separated from it. Then also they were listening to and valuing them.
And they were breaking bread.
Both three things characterize this original testimony. But then there comes the darkness of midnight.
That testimony seems to be interrupted by a dark midnight and by a fall right back down to the level that they had left, and such a tragic fall that it says he was taken up dead. Now what a picture. Instead of this happy testimony continuing, there is this grievous interruption.
The darkness of midnight, a fall back down to the level that had been left.
And an apparent lifelessness. And isn't this the way it has taken place? Is it not sadly true that that testimony which began so brightly, and we read of it in the book of the Act, we read the letters addressed to the gathered believers in the epistle, and we see the privileges that they were enjoying and the separation that they experienced.
But there came and it it came too soon.
A darkness. A very sad and real and long period of darkness during which to the natural eye, there was nothing but absolute lifelessness. There's a dead body lying on the level of the street and the midnight darkness is upon them.
Hall embraces him and says trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him. And I have no doubt that during those dark ages the eye of God could see a very real evidence of life which was not observed perhaps by the historians who wrote about it. But the eye of God could see the light that continued through the whole years of darkness. But thank God, the story didn't end there. The story doesn't end.
A midnight. The story ends, as we notice, with a break of day. Beloved, this was God's purpose from the very beginning. And I'm sure you've noticed that the very first day of recorded time is written in these words. The evening and the morning where the first day.
I remember inquiring of my Sunday School teacher in Ottawa years ago. Mr. Warricker, that's backwards, is it not? The evening and the morning were the first day, wasn't perhaps the right way for me to put it to my Sunday School teacher, but that's what I said. Is that not backwards? Why we would say in the morning and the evening were the first day and Mr. Warrior couldn't answer the question.
But I believe you know the answer. God's intention, beloved, is.
And it will be gloriously realized that his timetable is going to end with a break of day. And the first recorded day of time was an evening followed by a morning. Man has chosen that his day begins at midnight. And of course it ends also at midnight. But not so with God. I say again, the first day of recorded time ended with.
A morning.
Break of day and so does this happy picture we're looking at. Notice now in verse 11 when he therefore was come up again by the grace of God, there is a restoration now to that same place of separation which was enjoyed at the beginning before the midnight hour came.
Come up again, oh beloved, can we not thank God for this, for His grace and His faithfulness?
That has restored a testimony by which we find ourselves called, according to the pages of this precious book, to know the wondrous joy of being gathered outside of that which man has arranged away from all his boasted names and efforts. To know again the wondrous, precious, sweet privilege of being gathered around a person, and unto the precious name of our Lord.
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Savior Jesus Christ.
Is this something that we profess with a little bit of embarrassment? I hope not. If you ever feel embarrassed to tell anyone that you're gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, surely that name has lost its wonder, its worthiness, and its charm to you. Surely it ought to be a joy to your soul to confess that name, even if it's adore to Him.
You confess it, don't expect it to be a popular confession in this world, because you and I know that the confession of that name and the joy and wonder of being gathered to that name is that which in itself condemns the systems of men.
I remember one time being called to the home of one of the highest church dignitaries in Ottawa.
He was a man greatly looked up to by all his.
Fellow clergymen because he had a title that to excel them all. His wife was an invalid and was not able to come to the office and so I went to the house.
And after I'd done what I could and the man had proven himself to be one of the most polished gentlemen I had ever met, oh, he was just continually bowing. And he was so grateful for all that I had done and this kind of thing. And I thought I must not leave this house until I say something for my blessed Lord. And I looked around for something that would give me an opening without annoying this gentleman.
And I spotted a Bible, so I pointed to it and I said, Sir.
I love that book.
Right away he looked at me with suspicion.
And he picked up a prayer book and handed it to me and said, here's a good book.
You know, I had never had a prayer book in my hand in my life and I didn't know what might be in it, so I didn't say anything.
And again he looked at me with deepening suspicion, and he said, What church do you belong to?
How should I answer that? How would you answer that? Should I feel embarrassed? Should I feel humbled? I tell you, beloved, it was a joy to my soul to answer that question. I said, Sir, I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm gathered to his precious name.
And you know what he did? I'm sad to tell you what he did. He turned immediately to the front door of that fine home and just held it open without a word. And I walked out the door and I heard it closed behind me and I was out to stay. And I stood on the porch and said to myself, What did I do? What did I say? To change that man from a polished gentleman to one who would act so rudely?
And I recall the words that I had spoken, and I've repeated them to you. I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm gathered to his precious name. Oh dearly beloved brothers and sisters.
Let us thank God for the privilege of such a confession. Let us thank God for His grace and His faithfulness that has restored to you and me in these last days of waiting the marvelous, the wondrous privilege of being gathered thus.
Some of us, and I'm numbered among them, and thank God for parents and grandparents who paid a price for such a step.
And some of us have come into it so easily. I'm numbered among them. I was brought up to know nothing else, nothing else in all my life.
In all my life, I've never sat down in a church and heard a sermon.
Missed something, beloved, I stand here to say by the matchless grace of God, that I thank Him forever, picking me up and redeeming my unworthy soul. But oh, how I thank Him for the joy of being gathered to His precious name when I was a young fellow and sat back there in the meetings in Ottawa and saw that company passing the loaf and the cup among them.
I looked upon them and longed that I might be numbered among them.
But I knew there was a hindrance. I was not worthy. Oh yes, I was the Lords. I knew I was forgiven. I could give an answer to anyone that asked me on that score. But I was not worthy to sit among those who were remembering the Lord. And so I sat and watched from week to week and began to think within myself, How long am I going to have to wait? What am I going to have to do before I am at last worthy?
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I said to myself, will there ever come a day?
When I will say now I am worthy to sit up there.
And take of that loaf and of that cup, if I were to ask any of those who are sharing in this privilege.
Would they say to me, yes, there came a day when I felt worthy. I knew very well, as I considered it, that such a day would never, never come. And I knew, as I knelt before God in this precious book and thanked Him for having redeemed my soul at that infinite cost, that He who had loved me and died to redeem me had not only made me worthy.
But had invited me, had invited me. And I thank God that the day came at last.
And I'm surprised at the courage it took. Yes, I am. I'm surprised at the courage it took. I went first to my own father and said, father, I would like to remember the Lord.
Well, he said, son, I'm thankful for your desire. I think it would be well if you mentioned it perhaps to some other brother in the meeting. I would sooner not bring your name, my son's name, before my brethren. And you know, it took many months before I had the courage to go and ask one of those other brothers.
I don't say this dear brethren, I trust with any other thought than to encourage perhaps the heart of any here who may truly love the Lord Jesus but feel a timidity in this matter. The time is short, the moment of our Lords return is so near at hand, and the wonderful privilege of remembering our Lord Jesus in death is that which cannot be fulfilled up there in the glory.
It's a privilege that many of us are going to look back upon with deep, deep Thanksgiving to the Lord when we see Him face to face and hear the worshipping host of the redeemed praise His name forever. Don't you think that there will be just that sweet and special understanding between your heart and His that while you were yet here in the place of His rejection?
You bore his name.
You remembered him in death.
I don't want to make a comparison that perhaps is a bit out of place, but I sometimes think of dear married who brought 1 LB of ointment.
And poured it upon her beloved one, the Lord Jesus.
And the Scripture says of that ointment that it was very costly, and it speaks of the sweet and precious odor of that ointment that filled all the house where they were sitting. How much ointment was there? 1 LB. And you remember, after he was gone, there came Nicodemus and Joseph. And what did they bring?
£100.
Was it very costly? No mention is made of the cost of it. What about the older? The perfume of it? No mention made. He was gone. He was dead.
£100 No mention as to whether it cost a lot. No mention of its odor. O beloved, excuse the illustration, but it touches my heart to think that there's something so sweet, so precious about being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus right here and now, where he was cast out and rejected.
And in a world that has never, never changed its mind nor repentance.
There has been restored by the grace of God, as I believe we see in this precious little picture.
The wondrous privilege of being in that place of separation. And let me repeat it, if you truly love him, you'll be glad to be separated to him and to him alone.
It will be no problem to turn away from that which would not be suited to the one.
Whose name you bear and whose love has stirred your heart. You wouldn't want to be found in the company of those who don't love your precious Savior. Oh, just let me say one more word about this happy privilege and challenge of separation. Dear young people, I have a wife at home whom I love very, very dearly. Now I'm going to ask you to suppose that during my absence from home.
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The neighbors break into that home, brutally beat my wife, drag her outside the town and put her to death.
And I come home.
And I see absolutely no evidence of sorrow or repentance with anyone of them. They know what they're they've done that. There's no sign of repentance. And after some time they decide to get together and have a little party.
And their procedure at the party hasn't anything about it that would perhaps be considered wicked or wrong.
And they invite me to be a guest with them.
At their party.
Would it be a difficult decision for me to make?
Would I wonder whether I ought to go or not? And if they laid down to conditions? One was this. We don't want you to say anything kindly about your wife while you're here. We might put up with it once, possibly twice, but that would be it. If you mention your wife with love, we'll have to ask you not to come back again. And while you're here, you might hear us say some pretty rude things about your wife too. But we're in the habit of talking that way, so you'll just have to excuse it now.
And enjoy the evening with us. But I consider separation from such an invitation to be any great difficulty. Would there be any hesitation? Would there be any question in my heart as to whether I ought to go or ought not to go? That wouldn't be the point. Loyalty to what I love would answer that immediately. Beloved young people, as I look around in this world, I see the friendly hand of invitation stretched out towards so many of you and that which they offer you.
Not seem to be that which is in itself wicked or sinful or wrong, but in loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose face they spit, in hatred, whom they nail to the cross of Calvary. Can you, can I reach out and join hands with those from whom loyalty to our blessed Savior would cause us to walk in separation?
Well, I say, I see this company restored again to the place of separation.
Breaking of bread is mentioned again too. I don't suppose they remember the Lord on these two successive days. I really feel that in verse 7 the remembrance of the Lord is referred to. I expect that in verse 11 They partook of some food together. However, I believe the Spirit of God chose to use the term breaking bread.
On both occasions in order that this picture might be complete.
Now, I don't say there's anything unscriptural about breaking bread on two successive days. I've done it more than once. I've broken bread more than once in the same day and enjoyed the sweetness of it too. But I believe that this picture presents to us a restored company in that place of separation, once again breaking bread, once again listening to the faithful ministry of the beloved Apostle Paul. But it says nothing.
Now about ready to depart on the moral, it says until the break of day. Oh dear fellow believer, is this not where we now stand? By God's matchless grace, By God's matchless grace, I say, restored to that place which was established long ago outside the camp, gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In separation from that which is contrary to the word of God.
Privilege to break bread in remembrance of our blessed, precious Savior.
Listening to and I hope valuing the voice, the ministry of the apostle Paul. And the picture ends with the break of day and it's going to end with that picture at any moment.
You remember that when the children of Israel long ago built that glorious temple, and then their temple was destroyed and they themselves were carried away into captivity by the matchless grace of God, a remnant of them were restored again to that same place where once they had been gathered. The foundation of the House of the Lord was laid. There. The prophet Haggai encouraged them as the Lord promised His presence in their midst.
But there was one thing lacking.
And I wonder if I might make mention of this.
In the days of Solomon's glorious temple, there was a visible sign of the Lord's presence among them. That cloud of glory dwelt there over that temple, and anyone could take a look and see the visible outward sign of the presence of the Lord in the days of Solomon's glory. But after the captivity and the restoration again.
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To that same place, and there the House of the Lord is built, and there the Lord says through his servant Haggai.
With you, saith the Lord. Yet that visible sign of the Lord's presence was not restored, was not granted to them. I believe that if we look back to the time of Pentecost, we see not only those things which we have spoken of, but I believe we also see the outward and visible sign of the Lord's presence.
Healing tongue.
And such things as marked the presence of the Lord.
But when the midnight has passed and the grace of God has restored a testimony, it is entirely false and wrong and dangerous to expect to look for, to pray for, to ask for a return of that visible sign which existed at Pentecost.
I believe, and I know you will accept this word of warning. I believe that we see all around us today that which is a dangerous, very dangerous effort to look at those outward signs that existed long ago. I believe it's an entire mistake and a failure to recognize that we are about a restored remnant. And I trust that the Saints of God may be spared from tampering with any such thing.
Doth permit me to say I had no notion of saying such a thing when I stood here, But permit me to say, dear brethren, and particularly perhaps the dear young people who are faced with this, that anything?
Anything that is supernatural that does not have the full and complete support of the Word of God, avoid it as you would avoid the devil himself. Avoid it, don't tamper with it. Don't even out of curiosity try to investigate it. Leave it alone. Anything that is supernatural that does not have a full and complete support of the Word of God. I am not surprised to see Satan openly.
Revealing himself in his last days.
You remember that it was the last of the three presentations in the temptation to the Lord Jesus that Satan came right out and revealed who he was and demanded worship from the Lord. Now over the years Satan has been leading his deluded followers down the broad road to destruction, and he has been deceiving them all the way. He has been offering them one form of entertainment and attraction after another.
The kind of hiding himself, but it seems to me to be a very significant evidence that we are at the end of our journey.
When I see that Satan no longer is trying to hide himself, why should he? He's right at the end of the road, and he knows it too. I believe he knows that he's at the end of the road, doesn't need to disguise himself any more. He doesn't need to take any further steps. I believe he's led his deluded followers to the very brink of hell, and now he has come right out in the open, has revealed himself, identified himself, and demands worship.
Again, I say, dear young people, this may seem like something way over Yonder that you and I would dread to have anything to do with, and I hope it is.
But in the meantime, I believe the devil has a very cleverly disguised staircase from the very truth of God to the very darkness of his own Kingdom. And I believe you and I do well to stick to the precious living Word of God and not tamper with any of these things.
Can we not thank God with all our heart then for the precious and wonderful privilege?
Of enjoying together that restored and wondrous delight being gathered in separation from that which this world boasts. Of breaking bread, listening to, and, I trust, valuing and walking in the ministry of the Apostle Paul and waiting together for that glad and wondrous moment, the break of day. Shall we just look to the Lord in prayer?