Burbank Conference: 2000
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Hebrews 1:5-8
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B2.
With first time to complete the thought of Hebrews one verse 5.
For unto which of the angels that he had any time thou art my son, this day have I begun me, And again I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son.
And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he said, and let all the angels of God worship him.
And of the angels he said, Who make it his Angel spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the sun he said, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness, is the scepter of thy Kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
And thou, Lord, in the beginnings hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands.
They shall perish.
But thou remainest.
And they shall wax old as death of garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up.
And they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
But to which of the angels said? He at anytime said on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
Are they not all ministering spirits and forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
Twice.
In this portion that was read.
We have those two words.
Thou art.
That's God speaking to the Son.
And expresses.
In the second person of the verb to be.
What is expressed in the first person? When he says I am, Jesus says I am.
The bread of life. We had that in this past meeting and other places. So yeah, I am. That's the eternal, and it's the Son. He is the eternal. Thou art. That's the eternal Son. And if you go to the 11TH chapter, we have the third person. I just bring in these simple things.
That point to the person.
00:05:02
In three ways, no matter what the chance is in the.
11TH chapter.
And.
The sixth verse.
Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. I think that's so beautiful. He is gone. The Son is gone too.
That's a present thing. Thou art my son.
This day have I begotten thee. How many make a mistake and think he wasn't a son till he was born a man, but he was always a son, always the eternal Son of God. And if you turn to Isaiah, it's a thing known by all of us. But it's good to read the one verse or part.
Isaiah 9 and verse six. I only have to read the first phrase.
For unto us a child is born. Unto us our son is born. So that is what it says. Your ears picked it up right away. A son is given.
Child was born, but a son of God is given for us. Isn't that a beautiful way, The perfection in the word of God?
This is a very important point in the NIV translation, it reads.
You are my son. This day I have become your father and that's very serious error.
In the genealogies, they would say that instead of saying Abraham begat Isaac, Abraham became the father of Isaac, who became the father of Jacob, and so on. Well, that's all right with the human family. When it comes to the Lord, it involves a very serious error because he didn't ever become his father. He was always the father and he was always the son. So that's a very serious error. They do have the correct.
Rendering down at the bottom on the NIV, but they put the wrong rendering it in the in the text and that's very serious.
Whereas that's the way the NIV does sometimes. But the Dewey or the Confraternity, which is a very good translation. Both.
But they put the meaning down at the bottom, which counters the word of God. They print the word right, but to tell you what it means under the line. So I always tell the Catholics, you've got an excellent translation. Just never look below the line. You'll be safe.
Said what man does, isn't it?
The Watchtower Society, That's Jones. Witnesses. The New World Translation reads the same as the NIV. You are my son this day. If I've become your father. Very serious error. Now that that goes in line with their doctrine. And it's of course, deadly error.
So when it says Thou art my son, that's the relation that he had to God from all eternity. He is the eternal Son of God. But when it says this day, have I begotten thee that refers to his incarnation? Is that right? Could you say some more about that?
Very good. It occurs in Psalm 2. It occurs in Acts 13 and Hebrews One and Hebrews 5. Those are the four instances where that passage occurs three times quoted in the New Testament from the Old, and it always refers to the Incarnation.
You might just just to let's go, let's go back to Acts 13 for a minute to look at that. That's important.
In Acts 13.
Verse 32.
And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, and that he hath raised up Jesus. Now the word again should not be there really doesn't make any sense in that He hath raised up Jesus, He raised him up as the Messiah on earth. That's what that is saying as it is also written in the second Psalm. Lord my son, this day of I begotten see thee. So that refers to the incarnation. Then the next verse makes that very clear.
And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise he quotes an entirely different Old Testament verse. I will give you the sure mercies of David. So the the quote from Psalm 2 This day have I begotten. He refers to him being raised up on earth as the Messiah.
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Well, in Luke chapter one.
We have in verse 30 and 31130 and 31 The angels said unto Mary, Fear not, Mary, for thou has found favor with God, and behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus.
That's his name as Son of Man. He took the title Son of Man because.
Not only was he a man, but it's not a title of of prominence among the people. The Son of man shall do this. The Son of man shall do that. But notice in verse 35. And the Angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall over shadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of these.
Be called the Son of God? Well, we could go on with many references. But he is the Son of God. How wonderful that is. But when he was born he took the title Son of Man Incarnation God in flesh. Marvelous isn't it? I want to read two more verses in Acts 13 which really give the force of verse 33 where it says in that he hath raised up Jesus.
Is it also written in the second sum in verse 22? And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king? That's not referring to resurrection of David, it's just he raised him up to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will of this man's seed. David's seed have God, according to his promise raised unto Israel a savior Jesus.
That's the thought. In verse 33 he raised him to be a savior, and then in verse 34 you have the resurrection.
You think God would reveal these things to us, mere creatures?
It's marvelous, isn't it? And he gave us and the ability to believe it, and then he gave us the teacher to explain it, the Holy Spirit in us. It is so grand, you know. Then the mystery that Paul revealed, All these things are ours to know. Not only that, he lets us know what's going to happen here when we're gone and what we're going to do when we get there. And all kinds of things.
It it's just precious when you think how he no longer calls us servants, the Lord said. But I call you friends. Why? Well, because the servant doesn't know all that his Lord is going to do. But a friend, he tells all in that wonderful friend.
I'd like to make a suggestion and that is that.
Who take part so often should give room for others to express some thoughts and not not speak too quickly.
A time of a little silence and reflection and meditation upon what's been said is very profitable.
I'll ask the question.
When is this in the sixth verse?
When he bringeth in the first begotten end of the world, he said let all the angels of God worship him.
You have a thought on that? Well, I think it's future, yes. I don't think it's his birth.
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It's still future. Isn't it wonderful to think about God's going to bring His first Begotten and display Him as a head over all creation? As the only begotten each of the Son eternally? As the first Begotten, He's the head of all creation.
He's going to be brought here and displayed in glory in the position he has.
If we look.
At the last verse of John One, I think we have a double.
Direction there as to.
Let all the angels of God worship him.
That is in John.
One and the last verse.
We have the heavens opened in that coming day.
To display who is the center of everything and the angels are there.
We might say, going both up and down in that day, let's read that last verse of John one. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. How God delighted, show his only begotten Son as the Son of man.
And I think that this is the center of the eternal company, or at least the.
Millennial Company.
Heaven and earth.
The angels all are claiming him.
Ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
He'll have rough into subjection all things under God.
He literally wrapped the Kingdom to God and the Father.
And.
All sin will have been removed before the day of God.
The Son of Man is the one that does that.
So we look on to the time when angels.
Going up and down heaven and earth, Jesus, the Son of Man.
The center of the fixed scene of glory.
Would that refer to the Millennium? Right now there's quite a distance between earth and heaven, but in the Millennium there will be the distance will be much shorter. That will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and in the eternal state. They all, as it were, coalesced into one that much closer. But the angels of God ascending seems that He's ruling from heaven ascending and then descending on the Son of Man. He seems to go back and forth between these two spirits.
Is that is that a right thought? Yes, I think so. Aren't the very in trying to get us to understand the measurement? I guess it's in Revelation.
144,000 furlongs.
If I'm thinking right in the 21St chapter, I believe it is 12,000 furlongs. Here's the amount of numbers over here, I believe you 12,000 furlongs, Armpit said. That's the distance from Lake Superior over to the Pacific Ocean. And then you go South, that same distance. You go back east, that same distance, and you go back north and you come to the place of the beginning, only you got to go up that far too.
That's the millennial.
Size. That's listed there. 12,000 furlongs. Well, 1800 miles. How much is 1500? Well, he had 2000, his number, but that was better, correct?
Well, aren't that gone.
Well, you're just trying to think of a distance 1500 or 2000 miles straight up and then that big a cube.
Its perfection in creation. A cube is perfection in creation.
And that blessed man is going to be the center of that.
And everything is going to serve him. The angels are creatures who have been preserved unfold. I'd like to add a couple of things more about John's Gospel which are wonderful to me that in the first verse of the gospel, let's read the first verse of John's gospel.
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The subject comes up with this one last verse of the first chapter, but the first verse.
Says in the beginning was the word.
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And he agreed a little further if you want to.
What the scripture is?
Presenting before us is the eternity or the Infinity of his person.
The word we've had about that. Now you go to the last.
Verse of John's Gospel and it is entirely different, but these verses seem to.
Tell us a lot about what's coming.
The last verse of John 21 Says.
And there are many other things which Jesus did.
To which if they should be.
Written.
I everyone, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. So let it be, brethren. We got to believe that literally what Jesus has done as the eternal person is the Infinity of His works. We've been through two of his works this morning. Creation that we know a little bit about and redemption, redemption being the greatest.
But here we have in the first verse of John the eternity of his person, and in the last verse we have the Infinity of what he has done. You can't. You can't understand it, but we can believe it. How blessed is this book?
I'd like to make a comment on the verse.
5:00 and 6:00.
For under which of the angels said he at any time thou art my son this day have I begotten thee? Never said that to an Angel. That's, as we've said, the Incarnation. Then the next expression. And again I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son. And Luke's gospel it says that holy thing.
Which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God, so that little baby.
That entered into this world the sun had become Incarnate, is the Son of God. He doesn't cease to be the Son. When he became a man, it says in Philippians 2 That he emptied himself. But he didn't empty himself of his sonship. He carried his sonship into time. He was the Son from all eternity. He was the Son as well as a man. And that's why it goes on to say, I again I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.
So as a man down here, the God was to him a Father and he was the Son That changed, that had not changed, that remained. And then the next verse, and again when he brings in the first begotten into the world, he saith that's that's still future as you pointed out. But all the angels of God worship him. So you've got the you've got the the incarnation. He's entering into the world. Some may have thought that when he entered into this world he ceased to be the Son.
And the other teaching is. And Bob pointed out that he didn't become the son until he became a man. Well, those are both wrong. He remains the son in manhood. And father says I'll be to him a father. He should be to me a son. That never changed.
Regarding Philippians 2 That has been mentioned.
When the Lord Jesus Christ.
Was the Son, and eternity, as the second person of God had within the councils of grace the Father, Son, and Spirit. God in three persons determined that.
The Lord Jesus Christ would come into this world and demand circumstances, God.
Manifest in the flesh, as has been said. And so when he did come.
It's been wrenching that he came and that holy thing was the Son of God.
When he took his place as the servant of Jehovah is baptism.
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Heaven again was opened. We heard heaven opened there in John One heaven.
Is open and the Voice declared. This is my beloved son.
There he is still in sunshine sonship as a man at his birth, at his baptism.
And then we see him on the mount.
And we hear the same elocution from heaven. This is my beloved Son. This is the future.
When he comes as Lord of Lord and kings of kings, he is the Son.
And in the first chapter of the book of Romans, verse 4 declared to be the Son of God by the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection.
The dead So he always was the son. He was son when he was born.
Their entire life and his resurrection. And he is at God's right hand as the Son of God and the Son of Man as the Philippians. 2 He was God, and he became man. He always was God. He was not always men. He became something that he never was when he took on humanity, but he never ceased.
To be the Son of God, even when he was dead.
That's deity. That's God. He couldn't die, but as man he could.
Well, what a tremendous thing He is the Son in Eternity. He is a son in the atom life, and even though he left that, he's the Son when he comes forth in the new life.
I'd like to ask a question about verse five. It says This day, Have I begotten thee?
Is that the same as we have in other scriptures where it says that the Lord Jesus?
Is the only begotten son, or is that somewhat different?
The only Begotten Son is not related to time at all. It's what he always was. It's He's of the same essence as God and as the Father. That's the point in Only Begotten. It's not that he was begotten at some point, some distant point in the past. No, He the only Begotten the Son, is his sonship from all eternity, bringing out that he is of the same substance, the same essence as God the Father.
And then another.
What is the difference between only begotten and 1St begotten?
First, begotten is a time related statement only begotten as no time you can apply to.
First begotten from the dead. That's in resurrection, isn't it?
He forgotten is what he was forever and 1St Begotten is what his relationship in connection with all creation. That's right Bob, you got the right thing there. He has the the preeminent place in connection with all creation and she is in Colossians 1 where it speaks of him being the first begotten.
First born of all creation, and then first born from among the dead. In other words, he has the preeminent place in connection with those two things.
Not only in those two things, but in everything it says in Colossians chapter one.
You're referring you to that in everything. He might have the preeminence right first the first place.
Connection with that I think it's nice to look at what Steven says when he looks up and sees heaven opened in Acts 7.
Because there are two things about it.
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Interesting that this mob that was stoning him in the 54th verse.
In the in the 55th verse.
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, that this is the report.
The scripture says that he saw when he looked up there, but when Steven talks, he leaves out pardon, and I think that makes it exceedingly precious.
Verse 56 He said. Behold, I see heaven opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God, as it were, that that man was everything. To Stephen the glory might be wonderful, but he was greater than the glory.
He is the glory, yes. Got him that says that.
Angels are of a higher order in the original creation than man.
But isn't it wonderful that in that future day when the Lord Jesus is brought into the world, angels are going to bow and worship him?
Yes, they do now, but oh brethren, what a privilege that we are worshippers as well.
To understand something of the glory of his person.
To bow at his feet.
To adore him, to worship him. We worship a man, a real man, and in that coming day, all.
The universe is going to bow and worship the angels, and all creation is going to bow at the name of Jesus.
What is worship? Can we define that?
It's an old English word which means worship.
The worthiness of the one.
We adore it's not so much.
We praise him sometimes, It's been said, for what he has done.
We worship them for who He is. Worthship or worship is the recognition and appreciation of who He is in His glorious person. Oh brethren, how can we ever elevate?
A mere man to a place that takes the place of this person that we're talking about.
Some helpful verses as to worship our Philippians 3 and the 1St 3 verses.
Philippians 31 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. It starts right there with the object before the soul. The Lord rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same things unto you to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is saved.
Then he gives 3 warnings. Beware of dogs, those that rip and tear anything.
We were of evil workers. Well, we think we see them sometimes, but beware of the concession refers to.
Man using a kind of a Band-Aid to fix up the old flesh, which won't work.
To fix the old flesh doesn't mean cut it off, but patch it up.
Beware of that.
Then the third verse is the nearest to what worship is. It's what where it comes from. We are the circumcision. Is the people marked out, set apart.
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Which worship God in or by the spirit. It's only born again souls that can worship. It's the action of the spirit produced in the soul in the mind of the believer that's enjoying Christ and.
Rejoice in Christ Jesus.
Worship God in the Spirit or by the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. Again, it points to the One.
Who is the king? Who is the man? The man Jesus, who has done that work? Then it tells us once again have no confidence in the place because the place so often thinks it can do something, so often it thinks it can do something. To please God in the flesh profiteth nothing. So those three things are kind of a recipe for what worship is.
Can the flesh seek God? No man in the flesh shall see God. I think of the Scripture. S double Ek. Well, we're told to seek him.
What percentage do? Well, there's lots of Christians. There's lots of believers. I'm talking about the flesh. We started out as men, and the spirit of God acts in the soul through the gospel to see Him and were born again as we heard in the address. Then we've got the Spirit, and the more we know Him, the more we want to know him.
To answer the question that was asked for the verses scripture, it says in Romans chapter 8 the mind, the flesh is enmity against God and is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. Therefore they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
There has to be divine life begotten in the soul by the sovereign act of God. For a man to seek God, there is none that seeketh after God. That's the natural state of man. But there are those who do seek him, because God is wrought in their souls and convicted them of sin, and they're looking for a savior. But the natural man does not seek God, and the flesh cannot please God. That's a pretty plain statement, isn't it?
In the 4th chapter of John's Gospel we have a nice illustration of that, starting with the 19th verse. The woman is speaking to the Lord there, and we read. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and he say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto the curve. Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain or yet in Jerusalem worship the Father.
He worship, ye know not what for salvation.
Well, we know that what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, For the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
In spirit, because God is a spirit, isn't it? And that's his nature. And it's in truth, because it's according to the revelation of God to be true worshippers it there must be the revelation of God, and we have the revelation of God in Christ. Now, having received the revelation of God knowing who our God really is, then we can worship in spirit and in truth.
Being occupied with Christ and a heart that's full of Christ produces worship.
When my dad is.
Lord Jesus ever refused worship.
And there was a brother in Denver.
Some years ago that was asked that and he spent a Lord's Day Afternoon.
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After meeting, searching with scriptures and finding every reference.
Made for the fact that the Lord Jesus never refused worship.
And I had a list of them. I don't have them now. Most of them. I think there was about 7 in the book of Matthew and the Gospel of Matthew where you have.
Those instances where there were those that came to him.
Either after being healed, I think of the 10 lepers one comes back.
Field and read that seven different times, I believe at least in the gospel, certainly most of them in Matthew 1 instance that I never quite understood and that was the instance where to heal the demoniac and.
He came, I think it says in that portion he came worshipping.
And the Lord Jesus heals him, and calls out to the demon of the spirit.
And they enter into the swine, I believe it is.
I'm not sure if that was an instance where he didn't refuse worship simply because of where because of the source of the worship from a demon perhaps? I'm not clear on that, but he picked up at least seven different instances where the Lord Jesus.
Was worshipped and he there's no record to my knowledge.
The Lord Jesus ever refused worship, another indication of indeed who he was.
When John in Revelation 19 and 22 fell down to worship the Angel, the Angel said stand up. I am my fellow servant worship God. So the fact that the Lord Jesus received worship proves clearly he was God because to worship a creature is idolatry. If he if he wasn't God, then all Christians are idolaters because we worship him.
I think Brother Bob, that you struck on the keywords to the question that Brother Bob Tony asked what is worship? This is something that I struggle with myself. Almost 40 years ago was I worshipping God as I should? And it seemed to me that worship is that which emanates from man up to God by the Spirit.
In that direction.
Now we see a lot of buildings around that will have a sign out front and it will say on their morning worship.
I used to go to one of those places.
It said Morning Worship.
And yet, in truth, perhaps only part, and a very small part of the things that took place in that building were worship.
So worship is that which the Spirit generates in our hearts, the goes up to God in adoration of Him and of his Son, the Lord Jesus.
And where I come from, the region you'll find signs on the summer months Morning Worship on Thursday night for weekenders.
Not true worship. That's getting rid of God quickly so they can have a happy time on the weekend. But they call it worship. God never needed a servant. Never. A servant is not worship, and many things man is doing is not worship. They may call it that, but you know, Saul said to Samuel. What's the problem? We just kept the sheep.
And the goats to worship. What's wrong with worship? The answer is beautiful.
Thou hast rejected the word of God, and God has rejected thee.
Worship. And we say that any worship that ever comes from these hearts or lips of ours is strictly and only that which God himself has produced in our hearts. So of thine own give we unto Thee.
That's pictured beautifully in that fountain that we were talking about in the 4th of John.
And the fountain is the result of that which comes down from heaven and gets into the.
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Higher regions of the Earth.
Goes down through the crevices in the rocks and builds up a pressure.
And pains the point of relief, and it flows back up to the same level as the pressure is.
That's a true picture of worship. It's what comes from God and gets down into our hearts and minds.
The assimilation of who Christ is and what He has done.
Coming from God builds up a pressure in the soul, and he has to open his mouth and return it to God. And God receives it. That which has come from God and worked in our hearts and in our souls, that we may with one mind and with one mouth, glorify God.
That's why in the 4th of John it is the water springing up. It's the question of worship. It's water rising to its own level. Like you say, it's that which is produced by the spirit of God and then regenerate. Man is not born by the spirit of God. How can he produce spirit filled worship? You cannot. It is that which is produced by the spirit of God. And I think we have to recognize, brethren, that in whatever measure.
A soul and where whatever part he may be.
Has received the revelation of the.
Who the Lord Jesus is, There can be worship that is acceptable to God if it is produced by the Spirit of God.
You have the man in the 9th chapter of John the blind Man. When he was given his sight, he didn't have a much knowledge of who Jesus was. He didn't even know if he was a Sinner or not. That's not too educated as to who the Lord Jesus is. But when the Lord Jesus revealed himself to him and said, Believeth thou in the Son of God, He said, Lord, who is he? That I might believe on him?
And the Lord Jesus said, it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believed and he worshipped him. So it's a matter of when we receive the revelation of who the person of the sun is, then the response of the Spirit is worship to him. That's the thing that's important to see.
I'm thinking of that verse that you referred to and he did not reverse the recite receipt of his site.
He works 10.
Acts 17.
24 God that made the world and all things therein. We've been discussing that this morning, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things, including a worship.
Now now the worship aspect.
By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God.
Continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name, and the 16th verse is part of worship. It's good works for brethren Titus. Two at the end tells us we were redeemed unto good works.
That's the purpose. But to do good and to communicate, Forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased rather than that's as much the part of our worship as all of it. There with a loaf and cup, we can't separate the baskets. Some thought it'd be more convenient to put them at the door when they leave, and doesn't cause confusion. And so on. Just drop the money in when you leave.
That separates that part of worship from it, not according to God. But what are we talking about? God doesn't leave anything up to man. Not they especially worship. There is a way to worship Bob to go back to what you were telling us about Acts 17. He dwelleth not in temples made with hands, the building in which.
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The Saints of God are brought together.
With the Lord in the midst has no.
Description in the New Testament.
It's a place. And then it says neither is worship with men's hands.
Musical instruments are not spiritual music. They might be pleasing to our ears, but they're not for God. So we don't improve on what God has given to us. And the point that's so nice is to think that God is seeking worshippers. He's not exactly seeking worship. That's what the worshippers do when they come together in His presence. What he wants is the person.
And it's a great joy to have his.
Words and his person deep in the soul enjoyed.
Like I heard about.
To godly brothers.
And.
One of them was just meditating on Christ.
He is sitting there meditating and all of a sudden, he said.
Oh, if you only knew him, you couldn't help but enjoy him. He didn't mention anything.
Then about worship in spirit and in truth in the early days of Eric Smith in Bolivia.
An assembly was formed.
Down in the middle part of the country, maybe Atocha doesn't matter to us up here.
But there was a little gathering form to the name of the Lord Jesus.
And they were going on well, and over on the other side of the city was quite a large evangelical group.
And they had a man come down from Canada or the US and found out about the little bitty group that was over on the other side. Gathered in the Lord's name, they came over and talked to one of the brothers gathered the Lord's name.
And earnestly said, oh, you ought to be over here with us. We are two or three hundred. The dear old brother in a just a quiet voice as can you have any more of Christ with your two or three hundred than we have with a two or three that stopped Christ is all we had that today. And if he is all in the soul, there's going to be worship there's going to be a return to.
The one who wants to worship from the worshippers. Why was Max and Effie Priestly in Fort Dale, Sydney, Australia so particular when they found out that God has a place that his person and a way to worship?
And they are so careful about that table. It's the Lord's table, and so careful about the emblems. And there's just two of them.
You know the Springs, Arthur and Iris Springs in New Orleans They were worshipping, they said in their kitchen with their daughters. They had separated. They did that for 17 years.
And when a brother answering their question told them you are worshipping an independence.
You know what they did? They didn't do it again until an assembly was formed there, till they were received in Pensacola, and then an assembly was formed.
And they worship.
There is a way. The man, the man in the 17th of Luke.
When he was healed of his leprosy and he was a Samaritan, he wasn't a Jew.
He is healed of his leprosy. He was so full of gratitude it says that he returned and fell down at his feet Jesus feet and gave him thanks. And Jesus says about him that he returned to give God glory. Now that's worship. Giving God glory is worship. And what an example we have. And the Lord says of him and he was a Samaritan. Real comment.
00:55:04
I was about to say that which triggered our discussion on worship and has brought out some nice thoughts was making the angels of God to worship him.
Maybe we could go on and pursue the chapter. Though we have enjoyed some of the comments as to worship and helped us to understand the angels worship certainly is not what we've been talking about. It's the believers, the members of Christ, body worshipping.
But is not the angels worship connected with their service?
Maybe we could go ahead with our chapter.
I'd like to make a remark.
About what you have just said, turning to the last chapter in the Bible.
And I'll just say that I heard Armstead, Barry give this definition about the service that's referred to.
In the third verse, it might be good to read the 1St 3 verses of Revelation 22.
He showed me a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
And in the midst of the street of Iran, on either side of the river was there the tree of Life.
Which bear trail manner of fruit and healing her fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. This is the millennial city.
And then it says and there was number more curse.
But the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it of this statement.
And his servants shall serve him.
Armstrong said he believed that was the service of worship and that's all that's left to do when everything else is fixed up. Just pure worship. Worship to the one who has done everything.
Just one last thought on that. Hebrews 13. I know I'm talking too much. I'm sorry. But Hebrews 13 it goes along with with Genesis 22, where the Lord says I will sing praises in the midst of my congregation. And in Hebrews he says I will sing phrases in the mix of my assembly. And now in Hebrews here 13 where we were.
How can he do that?
Well, 15 By him, therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. I don't want to take time, but I suggest you look at Isaiah 15 or Isaiah 57, verse 15 I the Lord create the fruit of your lips.
It isn't even from us, but that's how he sings phrases in the midst of the assembly.
Beautiful, isn't it?
That's worship.
There's a beautiful expression in the eighth verse of our chapter, so precious for our hearts unto the sun.
Under the sun.
If we would stop and just meditate a little on that expression under the sun.
All it fills our hearts and notice what it says. And we go back to the fifth verse. We find that God is speaking here under the sun, he said. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness, is a scepter of thy Kingdom. It's going to be under the sun for all eternity and it's truly not about us, it's all about him.
And it will be forever.
Wonder if we might connect them versus in Ephesians with the thought.
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Ephesians chapter 3.
Verse 8.
Unto me who am less than the least of All Saints, is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles.
The unsearchable riches of Christ.
Verse 11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Verse 16 That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory.
Verse 19 To know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
Verse 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
According to the power that worketh in US, unto him be glory be worship. Can we say that in the church by Christ, by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end?
That is this glory unto God by the church and the church.
Has already begun, but it is the work of him who works in US.
Above all let me ask or think and it is done in US.
So it is a real work in my soul yourself.
But it goes beyond beyond all creature intelligence.
Up to unsearchable riches.
Riches of the glory of God, the love of Christ that passes knowledge.
And they above all that we ask or think, the Spirit of God is working this now.
And he does it in his own way.
So that, as we've heard ascending up from this poor world, are those thoughts that are worthy to enter into the presence of him who has all glory.
And he does it in the church. As we've heard, there is individual Thanksgiving and individual praise and so forth. But there is a worship that is for the church and that's what we've been hearing that corporate worship.
Beloved, just think of it. The flesh can't do this. The highest thought the flesh would have is, well, let's make him a king. That's what they said. Well, that's nice.
So it doesn't reach the glory says due to him.
And then to be gathered under the name of the Lord Jesus.
Leaves outside that exercise to be gathered unto his name, Leaves outside man and his thoughts.
Come over to where Christ is in the midst.
But then we've also had mentioned another verse.
That by one mouth.
That is, as we come together.
That worship is being produced is a unifying of our hearts. Bring us all to the same thoughts in the presence of that one who is worthy, so that one brother, one mouth.
Can speak for everybody.
Now that's the work only the Spirit of God can do.
You know when they went up the stairs on the day of Pentecost, they went up a group, they came down a body. And one big difference in a group and a body is a group has Minnie Mouse and a body has one and that work.
Where the gathered Saints with the Lord Jesus in the midst to bring one mouth.
Those hearts that find themselves in his presence.
And they enjoy that which is above all that we ask for things.
The spirit of God in that in the heart, then produces that one mouth, one brother, lifting up those words of Thanksgiving, expressing the thoughts of many hearts.
01:05:11
Well, only the Spirit of God could do such a thing, and that's the vehicle that God has set on earth, the only worthy vehicle.
They can express Thanksgiving, worship to him who exceeds every thought that man could ever have the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our gimbal.
Contains many hymns.
That were written.
4/18.
Before there were any gathered to the Lord's name. Are we saying there was no worship?
To God, to the Father and four brethren, God has always had a phase, remnant, testimony always.
Let's read a verse in the 9th of John.
The commandment is exceeding broad and in my own soul I don't think there's any limit of time or place or numbers about worship. Here's the blind man that had been healed and had his eyes open and he hadn't seen the Lord Jesus yet in the 9th of John.
And Jesus heard verse 35, That he had it cast him out. When he had found him. He said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered, and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it's either talketh with thee. And he said, Lord.
I believe and he worshiped him.
Matthew chapter 2. It's interesting, brethren, just to read these verses.
About the Wise Men, verse 11.
The Spirit of God was not here as a person and dwelling believers. The Spirit of God as God is always in all times producing worship for God.
11 It says, when they it is the wise men were come into the house. They saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him. When they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
In chapter 28 of the same gospel.
And verse 16.
Then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee.
Into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw him.
They worshipped him.
Worship is produced by seeing him and appreciating.
In some small measure that we may the glory.
Of his person.
152.
Hebrews 2:1-10
Reading
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And suffering to.
The land.
On Saturday, a nice comment was made.
About how the second chapter.
Has such wonderful ministry in connection with the first chapter. I would like to suggest that we read the second chapter of Hebrews today.
Thank you brother. I had expected the same exercise.
Hebrews Chapter 2.
Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard.
Lest at anytime we should let them slip.
For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast in every transgression and disobedience, received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that hurt him, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.
For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come where we speak.
But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Thou mayest him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory and honour, and it set him over the works of thy hands.
Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet, For in that he put all in subjection under him he left nothing that is not but under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God, should taste death.
For every man.
Before it became him, For whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings?
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For both he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified are all of one.
For which 'cause he is not ashamed to call them, brethren saying.
I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And again I will put my trust in him. And again behold, I and the children which God hath given me.
For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.
That through death he might destroy him That had the power of death, That is the devil.
And deliver them who through fear of death, were all their lifetimes subject to *******.
Where verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren.
That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.
To make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
For in him For in that he himself have suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.
Of course, the first word is a conjunction that connects the second chapter with the 1St.
And what we have heard and understood in the first chapter were to hold on to it. Don't let it slip away.
Even in one place, we're told, perhaps it's due to earnestly.
Contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints.
Hold that fast. Puts down half that no man take thy crown was said to those overcomers in one of the churches.
It's so easy.
Just to give up, to lose energy, to hold the faith once delivered to the Saints the precious word of God.
And don't you think it's so charming when it comes to salvation and the gospel it says in the.
Middle to the third verse. Well, I'll read the whole verse. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Oh, it's a great salvation because it's a great God that gives it. Now how did it come first? This tells us which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord.
The one whom we enjoyed yesterday or the day before about Simeon picking that babe up in his arms. Mine eyes have seen thy salvation. That's the person. And he talked about it. He preached it, and he had followers that preached it, confirmed unto us by them that heard him.
The 12 were left to carry on on the earth.
In the early part of the book of Acts we have seen how that Satan.
Perhaps would have liked to have had those disciples, those followers of the Lord.
To be crucified to the Lord in his power.
Sustained everyone of them that they didn't have a cross to die because they had to work to carry on. Now who's carrying on the gospel today?
Peace, brethren, Saints of God, The greatest message that's ever been given, The gospel of our salvation.
You read to us.
Yesterday, Matthew 11, such a profound statement.
No man knoweth the Son but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. But it doesn't say anything about revealing who the Son is.
Who he is is beyond creature understanding.
He is God and man. In one person we sang his glory. Not only God's Son in manhood, he had his full part and the union of both joined in one form, the fountain of love in his heart. Some of the worst heresies in the church have developed in trying to dissect his person, and I think we make a mistake when we read some of these verses that we had before us in the first chapter.
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And saying well that's his deity and that's his humanity. I think that's that's a mistake. When we when we do that we're trying to make trying to make that which is beyond creature understanding understood to our own minds. He is God and man in one person.
Cannot be divided and take the statements as God gives them to us in His precious word, realizing that there is, there is in Him that which is beyond our understanding and he is God and man in one person. We can't fathom that. That's why it says only the Father knows Him. In that sense we know the Father revealed in the Son He is simply the adorable God.
And the Spirit didn't become a man. He's he's God. But the second person of the Trinity became a man. And that's that's a truth that is so beyond us. All of Christendom celebrates that today.
Of the birth of Christ, the incarnation, tremendous, tremendous truth, God and Man United in one person, and just bringing that before us, that we do not try to dissect that person because we can't fathom that.
But just to realize that there is that in Him which is far beyond our understanding and we just worship. Is that why the children of Israel were never to look into the Ark?
And a thing, isn't it?
The Ark was Acacia wood or ******** wood overlaid with gold, wasn't it? God and man again in tight. And it's it's not to be touched, it's not to be looked into. It's it's to be revered and adored and worshipped. He is to be just like two of those servants that are spoken about in the beginning of our first chapter.
The prophets can God and.
Spoken in diverse manners in time passed under the fathers by the prophets, but two of those that were used much in the Old Testament Revelation, where Moses and Joshua. And when they met the Lord they took their shoes off their feet didn't dare come any nearer.
That holy one.
Worship him, Believe him.
And praise him.
But it's something we can't understand. That him is so beautiful that Chuck gave out the glory isn't neat. His glory, not only God's Son and man, knew, he had his full part. Sometimes we say, I hope correctly, that Jesus is just as perfect as a man as he is as God. He's that perfect one, a perfect man. Let's believe that and go on. And then he brings us the gospel. He began with the gospel.
In our chapter here, Brother Clem, that statement you just made, he's as perfect in his manhood as he is in his deity. That answers the question, Could Jesus have sinned? The very question is blasphemous. I mean to to even raise the question is blasphemy. The person that does so, and many teachers and Christendom teach that. Or they all say didn't sin, but he could have no impossible perfection cannot sin.
And he was perfect. Whether you look at him in the divine, under the human side of his person. Again we we have to use these feeble expressions to express something that is infinite. The Lord himself expressed a good deal about it. I think when he foretold this way, the Prince of this world cometh and he has nothing in me. There was one thing in Jesus that the enemy could get ahold of.
Not put it into a simple statement like this.
And the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We see everything that man should be to God, and we see everything that God is to man.
00:15:05
While we can't dissect the person of the Lord Jesus, it is beautiful to think, brethren, that his glorious person is the food of our souls, whether as the manna, that small round thing that fell on the dew in the desert, it was to be taken and eaten. And this is the food of our souls to take scripture in its simplicity as it speaks about the glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And justice simply to absorb it into our souls, to eat it is so important. This is the food of our souls, or as the Passover lamb, or as the old corn of the land, in whatever aspect he is presented. And I think what you're saying check is simply that when we have scripture given to us that speaks as to his person, that we leave it in a simple way as possible in the very words of Scripture.
As soon as I start reasoning and trying to explain, I am apt to err. But in the measure that it's left, in the very words of Scripture, there it is in its purest form of truth, and that needs to be taken and enjoyed. Brethren, this is our food.
In the process.
Of taking in in a natural way there are two elements.
There is injection, that's the taking in, and there is digesting, that is the making it good. So we come to the word of God, and we ingest that which God has given us as food for our souls. And then we meditate on that which we have read and taken in, and make the truth our own, so that it not only gets into our hearts, but into our ways and actions. And we have then the enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the simplicity, as has been expressed in the language of Scripture. And we can't do no better than to stay with what the Word of God says.
There was a real danger with these Hebrew Christians of apostasy, and this seems to be part of what is addressed here in the first verses of this chapter. In fact, Mr. Darby's translation in that verse, one instead of putting let them slip lest we should slip away, and it's the thought of apostasy.
When the Christian testimony was at its beginning in the Book of the Acts, it became such a mighty work of the Spirit of God that those that sought there was a danger of joining with it, simply because they saw it was a irresistible work of God.
And when Paul went to Jerusalem, he was told, Thou seest how many thousands of Jews there are that believe and are all zealous of the law. And there was the danger that there were those who had accepted that in an outward way, without inward reality. And there was a danger that they would turn back again from Christ to the Jewish religion. And so this is what is addressed all through the book of the Hebrews.
I think it was mentioned the other day those verses in Hebrews chapter 10 where it says if we sin willfully after that we had have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. It's dealing with those who are apostates. Those who have received doesn't say they've received the truth, but they've received the knowledge of the truth.
Can an unsaved person and unregenerate person receive the knowledge of the truth? It's the matter of the head merely. And yes, that can happen and it has happened. And if there's no real hard work, then that type of a person returns back from Christ.
To a form of religion that is apostasy. And there's a real danger, if it's not a hard work, even in this company that is gathered together here, that there are those who have made a profession of faith in Christ, without real, without reality in the heart. And then so it should be something that searches us. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
00:20:27
You're sitting there in your chair. You know that you haven't made it a personal matter of faith in the Lord Jesus. You just taken outward position amongst God's people. Beware. Listen to these words. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
Neglect this was. This was a word addressed to those that had made profession of faith in Jesus being the Messiah.
And they knew that the law was given by Moses. They knew that the Old Testament revelation was from God.
They had that the Gentiles didn't have anything that they could they could go back to and cling to. But the Jews had this, this Old Testament revelation, the light and the measure of light that God had given in the Old Testament that they could cling to. And their danger was that they would cling to the to the old and neglect the new in the 6th chapter, he says.
Let me read it Chapter 6 and verse one. Having therefore leaving, leaving, therefore the principles.
Of the beginning of Christ, I believe it reads in the new translation. Let us go on unto what unto perfection? That's Christian truth. Let us go on to all those precious truths that he is unfolding in this epistle. To the Hebrews, showing the the exceeding excellencies of Christ and his work, and and all that's associated with himself, and and that the Judaistic religion that they were so tied up with.
And clinging to naturally it just contained the shadows of the types and the and the that which pointed forward to the reality. And now he says, let us go on to to perfection, to the reality which is Christ himself and all that he has done. And so he says, don't neglect so great salvation in clinging to the old. Let's go on to the new, to the real, to the reality, to the substance which we have in Christ.
There's really no answer to the question, is there? How shall we escape if we neglect? There is no escape unless that neglect.
Through repentance is reversed and received the the message that the Lord Jesus Christ presented when he was here, and that was confirmed to us by those who heard him. I put it this way in a simple way.
Lord Jesus Christ sowed the seed of Christianity while he was here.
The disciples who heard that presentation have carried that message on to us.
And the Holy Spirit came.
Having been sent when the Lord Jesus Christ was glorified.
And now the water of God's blessing is upon that precious, incorruptible seed.
And the result is eternal life and Christianity as it presented in the Word of God.
And God accompanied that blessing at the beginning of this Christian age with signs and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost. I think it is helpful to understand that that was what God used in his relationship with the Jewish people When he sent Moses back into the land of Egypt to deliver his people, he gave him.
Specific signs.
He was to throw down his rod and it became a serpent and he took the serpent by the tail and became a rod. There were definite signs that God used with his, with the Jewish people. And that's why at the beginning of the Christian age there were those signs given. And today in the Christian world, there's so much talked about. It's not understood that they were signs to the Jewish people, says in First Corinthians 1.
The Jews seek after a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But the Jewish people were used to those signs when they came out of the land of Egypt. What a tremendous sign. God through the Moses rod opened the way right through the middle of the Red Sea. What a tremendous sign of God's power. And so at the beginning of the Christian age, when the testimony was majorly to the Jew because the gospel was to the Jew 1St and after to the Greek, God did give signs.
00:25:30
To let those people know this work is of God, and so that's what we have in verse four. God bore witness to the fact that this was of Him by signs and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his will. But it's not really necessary in today's world, because the major part of the Christian testimony is not to Jewish people today.
It's to the Gentiles. It's to the ends of the Earth now.
Save is important also to note that at that time the word of God was not complete, but as we had before us on Saturday, it was given to the Apostle Paul to complete the word of God. And today we have no need of those signs, because we have the Word of God in its completeness, Nothing more to be added.
So those movements in Christendom today that say they have prophets that can and and apostles, even the apostles and prophets which were the foundation of the church, were in the 1St century period. They didn't continue on. They laid the foundation. And then we have the teachers and the shepherds and the evangelists to continue on, but the Canon of scripture is closed.
All that God has been pleased to reveal has been revealed. We don't look for fresh revelations and any movement that is doing that is wrong, Absolutely wrong. And if you you're you get in touch with such a movement, then leave it because it's wrong. Don't, don't dabble in it. It gets snared by things that when we see that it's wrong, close. The book brother was talking to me and he was reading a pamphlet and he read this statement. It was written by CA Coates and the statement was the the servant of the Lord must be aggressive.
He said what?
Close the book, put it down and I'm not going to read him again. He saw that was error serving. The Lord must be gentle and and meek as like he was. But if you see error, don't continue with it. close it, set it aside, burn it. Because if you the more you go into it, the more apartment you are to be ensnared by it.
It is very instructive, the little statements of the word of God.
Correctly been stated that the Holy Spirit confirmed these things by these works of power according to His will. This is deity ascribed to the Holy Spirit which we know. He is the Father quickens whom He will, and He's given the Son that authority. So that the Son quickens whom he will is his sovereignty applied to God the Father and the Son. And here we have it.
Ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
The brother, the brother just told me this and I enjoyed it so much I'll pass it on. The sister was witnessing to a Jew and he said to her, I have my religion. And she stepped right up to him and she said, and I have Christ. I have Christ.
And he went home and that that those I have, Christ, those words wouldn't leave him and he ended up being saved. What a difference between religion and Christ. And that's the difference between the the old order of things that Paul is teaching from in Hebrews and unfolding the new order of things in Christ.
We had in chapter one some very specific.
00:30:04
Ministry A tribute to the Angels.
Here is not to angels that he has.
Subjected the world to come the habitable world.
Which to man?
That blessed one who became a man and died as a man, and is at God's right hand, is a man is he to whom everything has been committed.
Aware that all things had been committed to him of his Father, that he came from God.
And he went to God. John, Chapter 13. We see that it passed angels fine not only to subject the habitable world, but as we get a little later in the chapter. It was not they that he laid hold of her blessing, it was those of Abraham Seed. He became a man and brought man into association with himself in resurrection. And that's the epitome of God's blessing and revelation to man about which we have been reminded.
So it is to man that God has subjected this entire universe.
This verse tells us of a day to come.
The millennial scene is going to be ministered over by man, and of course the head of that will be Christ.
These next few verses are quoted to us from Psalms. And there I take it that it's a picture of man put on earth by God, and the creation that God had put there, given to man under man's objection. But here it's strictly of Christ.
The person of the Lord Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, is true that you and I are lower than the angels. But the Lord Jesus took that same position, and in the second chapter of Philippians it says that he took on him the form of a servant. And then being in fashion as a man, that tells us what we are, doesn't it? But here it's a picture of when the Lord Jesus takes his rightful place.
And then you and I, as with him, are going to reign with him. It's going to be in the hands of man, not in the hands of angels.
The first verse of Isaiah 32 tells us about the control in that day.
Isaiah 32, verse one.
Behold a king.
When they were interviewing Jesus before Pilate, art thou I came? Then he says, thou sayest that which I am a king. Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and Princess shall rule in judgment or in equity. We shall be associated with him who reigns in that day.
That is an interesting expression, The world to come, and I suppose that means the millennial age when we will, as you say, when the Lord Jesus will come to take his rightful place to reign supreme from sea to sea, and we, like you say, will be associated with him there. But, brethren, it is not this present world that we have been made for. We are here.
Merely as pilgrims and strangers passing through it to try to get involved into political movements and trying to rectify things that are so wrong. And I think we should feel that they are so wrong, brethren, it's proper. But to get into movements to rectify them is not to recognize what God has in mind. He has in mind in putting his Son in place of supreme power.
In that world to come, doesn't it thrill your soul, brother and sister to realize the day is coming when every wrong is going to be righted and righted not according to our thoughts, but write it according to God's thoughts. He will reign in righteousness and we are going to witness the introduction into this world government, the Prince.
00:35:03
Of the kings of the earth. Oh, what a tremendous display of power. When Jesus comes back again to take the reins of government and we are going to accompany them. We are going to be eyewitnesses of that moment when Jesus comes to reign. Is that what Paul is saying when he charges the Corinthians this way?
Ye have reigned as kings without us, and would to God that ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. We're not to reign in this world as it is now.
And if he can pray the Lord's prayer, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done well. It's certainly not done by man. It will be done by that one who reigns in righteousness in a world to come.
The king of which mention has just made in Isaiah, is described in the little prophet Micah, as to the character of the one who will be the ruler. Mike of chapter 5 and verse 2. And thou Bethlehem after the little, to be among the thousands of Judah. Out of these shall come forth unto me who is to be ruler in Israel. And here it is.
Who is going forth is from an old from days of eternity, from the days of eternity.
The one whoever was in the Godhead came a man, and he is to be the very one one who inhabits eternity. Just to be the man over whom to whom this entire world to come is going to be subjective.
You are speaking, Bob, of the righteousness that is going to come.
And they are taken from the 8th bomb. Why is it that the author of the Hebrews doesn't give us?
That my only statement here, one in a certain place, I must have known that David was the writer.
Made prophecy the mom of David. Why is David's name not making sure?
That brings rise to a certain times that we may not know where a scripture is written and it gives life to quota scripture, if we may not know where it is written for a guidance for our own lives too. Because sometimes we don't know where the scripture is found, but we do know that it is, and it set forth a principle in our lives.
That was given to me years ago by a brother. Very helpful.
Is there a distinction between the man that's mentioned from verse six through the better part of eight? And then it says, but now we see not yet all things put under him. I kind of understood that the first part really represented Adam and then Adam's race, and then it brings out the thought that it brings in Christ. But now we see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels.
Two distinct things there. You get man who was made lower than the angels, and then you get Christ, who took a place.
And was made lower than the angels. I'm asking that as a question.
No, I think it's good because he's writing to the Hebrews.
And our book begins with those.
That speaking by the under the fathers, by the prophets in the Old Testament, and the whole of the history of Christ coming, is in the Old Testament.
Indeed.
When sin.
The woman seed should bruise the servant's head. The seed of the woman that's Christ goes clear back to that. But when you come to the New Testament, it begins with the two great patriarchs of the Jewish race.
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The book of the.
Generation of Jesus man, Christ the King.
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David. There's the king, the son of Abraham. That's the man of the faith. So that in writing to these Hebrews they had reverence in the Old Testament to tell them who Jesus was when he came. But he came into his own. His own received him not.
But the Gospel spreads out, and, as we've heard on the Jews.
Rejected it. The blessing ran over the wall and came to us Gentiles.
Now let's hear what the Word of God is saying to us.
This Eight Psalm Brother Ed is interesting to read. Perhaps just to read it a little bit.
The fourth verse on it says, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And what is, and the Son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels has crowned him with glory and honor. Thou hast made him to have dominion over the works of thy hands.
Thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yay, and the beasts of the field, and the foul of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatsoever pass it through the paths of the sea. Oh, Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. In other words, when God created the original creation and put man there, he was put in that position to have dominion.
Over all the creation. And he did have it. But when sin came in, things got out of order. And so today can we say that we have.
Dominion over these animals, sheep and oxen perhaps we can say, but the beasts of the field, those wild animals, the fowls of the air, do we have control over them, The fish of the sea. And so man is lost, part of that dominion, but in the Lord Jesus.
He will take that position again perfectly, and the Lord Jesus showed that when he was here when he wrote on that.
Cold of a donkey that was not tamed, and he showed that he had dominion over that animal when Peter was asked for the tribute money. The Lord is never seen as having any money in his possession down here.
That he, as the one who had dominion, commanded a fish to go get exactly the right piece of money on the bottom of that sea and bring it and take hold of Peters Hook and bring it to him. So he showed he had dominion. And So what was lost in the original creation, the Lord Jesus is going to take as the Son of Man.
This scripture about concerning dominion, doesn't it really show that it was always in Christ that God's thoughts were wrapped up in?
Not Adam.
All of the promises of God in him are, yeah, and in him are men. And that's exactly.
Points up what our brother has just said to us, that he is the first thought of the Father's heart just called my attention that the Lord Jesus Christ. In his temptation it is said of him that he was with the wild beasts. We were visiting at the room about it yesterday or day before. And one brother has written here is a man to whom Eden was never lost. He had control over the lower creation.
Go back for a moment to that fifth verse.
For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection.
World to come, but he's put it in subjection to a man. And in Psalms 18 and the 44th verse we get one of at least four and possibly 5 verses in Scripture that tell us exactly the same thing. As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me, the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.
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Darkest translation, it says faint obedience.
And so as Bob was speaking about the righteousness that is going to be in that day of the Millennium, it's going to be righteousness reigning, not dwelling. We don't find that till we come to the eternal state. But in the Millennium, righteousness is going to reign and man is going to subject himself.
He may do it under duress, and he may do it by feigning obedience, but nevertheless he is going to submit himself.
To that one and the rule during the Millennium, we won't have to have locks on our doors.
I'm saying this because we're not going to be here, but I'm just making an application. We won't have locks on our doors, we won't need to have any policemen, we won't need to have anyone that takes care of the wicked, because the wicked are going to be taken care of every morning, every morning and so.
We've often heard that because of our environmental problems, because of the way we are brought up, that man is wicked, but you've given the right environment and he's going to be good. Well, that's a lie, because during the Millennium there's going to be no wickedness allowed and man will not have an environment that is harsh. Every man will sit under his own fig tree, but at the end of the Millennium he rises in rebellion against the God of Glory.
And that proves that man is incorrigible, always has been, always will be, apart from the grace of God.
It's interesting to think, brethren, that today God does use angelic beans to influence.
In government circles and.
Paul Wilson gave an address a number of years ago. Really is interesting. I don't know where you can get it, but it is on the powers of darkness and you spoke on Daniel 10. And if you look at that chapter, we're not going to, we don't have to look at it now, but you'll see that Daniel is praying for three weeks. And finally after three weeks, an Angel comes to him and says that he had.
Been heard the first day he had uttered his petition, but that since he was with the Prince of Persia, I think it was.
Resisting the power of evil in that government circle that he couldn't come at, at that particular moment and that when he returned he was going to go to the Prince of Greece. And the way it's explained is that it was at the time when the Persian Empire was coming to its.
And it was going towards the Greek Empire. So God has those agents in government circles that are unseen agents influencing according to what he allows and what he doesn't allow. And it is not that is going to be the way the world is governed in the world to come. The world to come will be by men and by you and me, dear brethren, wonderful thing to be associated with the Lord Jesus in that.
Glory of the day to come, but today it's governed by angels, you and me, as believers in the Lord Jesus. When we see things out of order, we have far more clout than getting involved in political agendas by getting down on our knees.
And entering in before the throne of grace, because there's a man there in the glory who commands everything by the word of his power, even now, even though it is not openly so. Still he has the last word. He is head over all things to the Church, which is his body. He has the control of everything in his hands right now, and although he does not directly intervene, he does overrule.
By means of angelic power.
Pray for them, to obey them, to pay them.
What's the third?
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Hey, pray, pay and be subject to that. I didn't obey that. Pray, pay and obey. That's the way you remember.
Beyond that, we're out of our we're we're not, we're not on Christian ground when we go beyond that.
There is little doubt from what has been brought before us that all things have been put under him. And it was suggested to us from the Corinthians that now is not the reigning time. And so the writer brings that before us in saying that we do not now see all things put under him in the counsel of God. From his word we know this is a is a fact, but the time for his taking His Kingdom.
Is yet to come. But we do see a blessed man at God's right hand, and the glory given the highest place. Wherefore God had highly exalted him, and given him a name that which is above every name, That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So while he has not yet received that to which he is destined, when he takes his Kingdom from his Father's hand, we can then.
As has been mentioned earlier in these readings, wait with patience as he waits. And so Paul says that our we should be directed into the patience of the Christ. We don't see them all put under him now. We see it in the purpose of God, but we do see the Lord Jesus at God's right hand, and that's.
The object of our occupation to keep us going on in this scene want to say to I think it's helpful to understand that we're living in a day when Christians do get involved in the political arena a lot. And I really believe it's important for us to understand that it is because of the system of doctrine they have been taught.
Dispensational teaching has been given up and instead of that.
Who's taught the covenant theology, which does not distinguish between Israel and the church. And so they look back into the Old Testament and they say, well, Daniel was in a high position of authority in government. There was. Joseph was in the high position. Why not we? And they make it appear that we are shirking our responsibility by not getting involved. And I have to say, brethren, that according to that system of.
Teaching. They are doing what is consistent with that teaching, but that is not the proper teaching. Proper teaching is that we are the Church, a heavenly body, a very distinct from Israel, which was an earthly people destined for blessing in the earth. We are not an earthly people. We live here in the earth. We're passing through it. But we're just pilgrims and strangers. Our home is in heaven.
Our citizenship is in heaven. Our blessing is all heavenly blessing.
And I think we need to enjoy these things, brethren, and then realize that our place is not here. But they do what they do. And we need to understand this because of a system of teaching that is not correct. Lord, help us to lay hold on the teaching of the word of God, the dispensational teaching that we have. There they are. They have a Christianized Judaism.
And in the first verse, chapter 3, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, that's what you've been talking about.
That's the Christians calling, isn't it? Not an earthly one that was Judaism. But ours is heavenly. And the man that we're, that is the object before us, is in heaven. Rejected here, cast out. And we have to remember that he's rejected here. There were two men. Someone asked a Christian, do you vote? Well, my man was rejected.
Who were you that I released unto you? Jesus, whom he called King of the Jews or Barabbas? And they said, Brabus, release Barabbas.
By Jesus. And that's that's our position. They've crucified the one that ought to reign, the one who will reign. And so we don't take part in a system that will not have him as the king.
One brother labored amongst us has been the glory for a while.
The world chose Barabbas and they have had to live with the spirit of Barabbas ever since.
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And that's the spirit that is operative in their political arena.
The focus in the verse that Chuck was bringing before us in the third chapter and the first verse is the same.
With some titles added to it that we have, we see Jesus in our chapter in the ninth verse.
We're to focus on him so that in the third chapter in the first verse, what are we to do? Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling considered, considered. Set your focus on him. Where is he? Who is he? Oh, he's everything.
But especially in this book, he's the apostle and high priest of our profession. So that we have said, I believe yesterday, the day before that, really.
This book has no name put to it because Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles.
If it had been anybody that had the right to write it, it would have been Peter. He was the apostle to the Jews.
But in this book, it goes up higher. Jesus is the apostle. He's a sentiment of God.
And so these words are coming to us more or less directly from him. And he's a high priest of our profession as our first hymn son today brought before us. And he, where is he now? He's seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. And when he entered there, he was saluted of God as high priest after the order of Melchizedek. And he's there representing us, the rejected one, but representing us, bringing us a a redeemed people through a wilderness.
This is not our home. Just we're on the way. Where to? To where he is.
So this is the wilderness book we're into, and we need this kind of teaching to help us to get through it. And the goal before us is the important thing. Consider him. We see Jesus, He's at the end of the race, the wonderful thing in the race that we're in. It's endurance, not competitive, and everyone is going to be the winner. Every believer is going to win.
We're all going to get to that goal. We're on the way. We believe that it's not very far off.
The best way to understand what the Christians position is, is as He is. Even so are we in this world rejected here we will be to the world has hated me and will hate you. And they are not of the world as I am not of the world, and received up into glory by God. And that's where our portion is. That's where our heavenly citizenship is. That's where our heavenly calling is. It's there where He is.
So his place in glory defines our place, doesn't it? And his place on earth rejected, defines our place. And and those that get involved in politics and all of the social reforms of this world making it a better place to live in is doing it without Christ. He's not here, they won't have him.
Back in our ninth verse, we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the Angel.
For the suffering of death.
To think that he came down to our race so that he could die because that was the sentence for our sins.
A little lower than the angels, he passed the angels by. There's no redemption for fallen angels. There is for fallen men.
It's the Good Samaritan who came right where that poor wounded man lied in the ditch. It says the priest saw him, passed by the Levite, looked on him and passed by the Samaritan as he journeyed, came where he was. Isn't that amazing, brethren?
Our God has come to right where we are, but in this chapter we have that he as a man, the Lord Jesus as a man, has gone into the glory of God, and that should really thrill our souls to think that in the highest place in the universe, the highest position of glory and honor and authority, there sits a real man of flesh and bones.
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We see Jesus by faith. We can see Him there. Brethren, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, and so but these physical eyes, we don't see him, but we read about it in the scriptures and it becomes so real that we can actually say we see Jesus There He is, brethren. That's the object of faith. This is what Christianity.
Really is. It may not be real physically, but it is real.
It is real. And when we know the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, as you've said, he becomes real to our heart.
And that's what is intended for us to understand in the 11TH chapter when it says that faith is the evidence of things not seen. The Lord Jesus Christ at God's right hand is made real to us by faith. It gives substance. Faith gives substance to what we cannot see, and He is just as real to us as if we were able to behold Him with our eyes because we see it in God's word.
Leander verse 9 speaks of his being.
Put to death.
King James says for every man, Mr. Darby says for everything. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ is so fast that it not only encompasses every man, but it encompasses the purging of the universe that had been defiled by sin the heavens by virtue of the enemy's accessibility there.
Have been defiled, and so he is the Lamb of God, not only takes the case of sinners.
But it takes away the sin of the world. Work of the Lord Jesus Christ is so fast that it is for everything.
In the first atom you get this picture and God created.
The the earth. And He formed it.
Planted the the, the herbs and the trees and all the beauty that's in it. Everything that would be pleasing to man. He formed a man from the dust of the earth.
Given supremacy over all of his creation and goes into death and then he gets a wife, he gets a bride. That's to be.
His to share all these beauties that God had given him to enjoy within the person of Christ. He came down and he passed the angels, and then he died. The whole thing is reversed. First he dies, then he bypasses the angels again, and then he gets a bride, and then he begins to form again the new creation so that he could take possession of it and.
Then we'll see all things put under him. We'll see man bowing at his feet. We'll see creation.
All things having been, he tasted death for all things. We'll see everything that he died for once again laid at the feet in in in his Lordship over all things by him coming down into this world and dying. It's a tremendous, beautiful truth to see the reversal of those things.
How the first atom failed so miserably. And yet in the new creation, the last Adam will have accomplished everything for the glory of the spot.
Might be good too.
Contrast a little more. We've heard about heavenly blessings and heavenly calling. I was thinking of first Peter One.
Because James picks up these people in the next step.
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And James has a burden on his heart to tell them about God the giver.
He's the giver of every good and perfect gift.
He writes to the people, as under his hand of government, as scattered.
They were, as it were. As David, who lived a portion of his life with the Sword of God in his house. So did the people, but James picks them up.
And brings them before God, who gives. And he says to all men liberally, and does not fuss at us, or reproach, reproach not.
But he also says if you lack wisdom, you can't go back to Moses.
Ask God. There is a new thing. There is something more.
And I was thinking of that as Peter picks up the thought.
Chapter One.
Verse 9.
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul. Now the Jewish people did not have salvation of the soul. We read on a little farther of which salvation.
Prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them to signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that could follow unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you.
With the Holy Ghost bent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into?
Whole new thing.
That exceeded all that they knew of Indiana, those times because it's linked with our portion in Christ, the sufferings and the glory after his sufferings.
That's the salvation that we have. Salvation of the soul.
Another one I was thinking of is Philippians chapter one.
This verse has impressed me some lately. We know that in Ephesians it was read a couple days ago unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask, or think according to the power that worketh in US.
Philippians 1/6.
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work.
In you.
Will perform it or complete it, perfect it, until the day of Jesus Christ.
That is the work that the Spirit of God is doing in you and in me.
And we read in this same epistle farther on, it is God who worketh in you both will and to do of his good pleasure is the same book where it tells us we wait for the Lord Jesus as Savior, who will take these bodies of humiliation and take them where they belong, up to be with Him in glory. But this verse has a beginning and an end in it.
He that has begun a good work in you will finish it. And I believe until there's a whole different from the thought of unto that is, it's not just a point of time that God is working toward in our hearts.
But it's to be with Christ.
And again, we've heard of Covenant theology. I don't know how they would understand the Rapture. I probably they would have to deny it.
Because the Rapture was that mystery which gives the church a different end.
From Israel, just like the day of Pentecost, we see it at a different beginning From Israel began on the Pentecost. So from the time God begins to work in you and in me, He has a goal before him. That is that moment when I see Jesus.
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The moment of the Rapture.
Which goes beyond what Paul is bringing in Hebrews, which is he's coming back to rule and reign, which is connected with the Covenant theology.
All of it one time this way, covenant theology is knowing God for what he does.
But we know Jesus. That's knowing God for what he is.
We know and worship Him, and our goal before our hearts is not to see the world straight, but to see the Lord Jesus in the day of Jesus Christ when he appears as Savior.
Take this body.
There to be with him.
So different from what any Jew would ever have thought of.
That is this great salvation, so great salvation, that Paul was mentioned.
Would bring before us there in Hebrews, and in resurrection we know he became author of eternal salvation.
All those that believe in Him, and that's our portion, It's linked up directly with Christ the mystery.
Which was never revealed in the Old Testament. And we come back with him when he takes all these glories that belong to him out of the Old Testament. Come back with him into the sea, when everything will be made straight made right.
A little while ago.
My brother said as he is.
So are we in this world now if we look at this tenth verse.
It became him.
For whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many?
Sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. It wasn't that the Son of God was not ever perfect. He always was. He couldn't have been our Savior if he wasn't, but He entered him to that.
By experience, so that he might sympathize with us.
In what sin has brought.
Even death. Now he is alive, and when he brings many sons to glory, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. What a tremendous work God has done in Christ. And the heart's desire of God and the Lord Jesus is to bring many sons to glory. I'd like to tell you that we're almost there.
But when I look at you, you don't look very perfect, and neither do I, even less. But we're going to have a new body that's suited for that place when Mary saw Jesus in resurrection in the 20th of John.
There was the first man in the new creation.
There he stood.
A real man, as Bob said while ago, flesh and bones.
Doesn't say anything about blood. He had given that to redeem us. Now we cannot or I cannot understand a man standing without the natural life of blood. But we believe it, and it's an eternal life.
And the blessed thing about it for me to think about it is that.
God has said I make all things new.
And we get part of that new creation when we believe the gospel, we get an eternal life that can never die. We've reached this quite a bit, and we ought to think about it. We get that part of the new creation when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a brother is quoted he's begun a good work, will perform it under the day of Jesus Christ. Is that when the Lord comes?
He's going to bring about the salvation, the redemption of the body. We can't go into that glory scene until we get that.
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Who have blessed to think that it could be today he is able to do all things.
According to the work of mighty power, whereby He is able to subdue all things unto himself, we're going to get the rest of the new creation when He comes for us.
And I suppose that's when the day of Jesus Christ will begin for us to see him.
And be like him fully.
The end of that 10th, 1St.
Captain of the salvation perfect through sufferings as the dude with the 18th verse and the 16th verse of the 4th chapter, doesn't it? It's not as you say, Clem. It's not a matter of him being made perfect, he was perfect. But it's in connection with his priesthood, his care of you and me and another scripture in Hebrews. Also that he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Well, was he ever disobedience? No.
But he learned because he was the one that always gave the orders. He didn't take orders, but as a man he was the subject. 1 And so that's what we have there. And so now he is capable of feeling our feelings. That's why he is such a great high priest. He is the only one that knows what death is. We know what it does.
To think of him coming and learning by experience what death is.
But it couldn't hold him.
Every.
God.
Bad.
In the surrender.
Of life.
The world is lost.
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Park the Fires of Angels Friday.
Morning.
Slave.
Night and night.
You know, I read brilliant with you.
Hebrews 2:11-18
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
And Jesus richly meet not to our eyes is light so dear, no earthly tie so sweet #159.
Chapter 2, verse 11.
For both he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified are all of one, for which 'cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
And again I will put my trust in him, and again behold I and the children which God hath given me.
For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same that through that he might destroy him that had the power of death. That is the devil.
And deliver them who through fear of death, where all their lifetime subject to *******.
For verily he took not on him the nature of angels.
But he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.
To make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.
Trained and it's like.
One in kind.
Like as we have been like the first man Adam, we shall be like Christ.
We can say Eric Smith used to say this to us, every believer.
Can know and say I am in Christ.
Those departed Saints were gone there with Christ.
And we, when we arrive there, are going to be like Christ in Christ.
With Christ the departed Saints, and then in that glory scene like him.
It is absolutely beyond our comprehension to realize.
That the Lord Jesus Christ.
Took our place in death in order that he might give us his place in life.
And that life into which He has brought us is His life in resurrection.
So that is the basis of his being able of the apostle being able to say here that he that sanctifies that is the Lord Jesus Christ, who by his death and resurrection has brought us to God. And we who are in the benefit of all the work that he accomplished, are all of one kind, as has been said, our dear sisters who are somewhat more familiar with the.
Clothing business. And some of us would recognize what we talk about a die lot. You go to the clothing store to buy material and you have to pay attention to the dialogue. Well, we are all in the same dialogue with this Blessed One who has sanctified us and brought us before God that has set us apart to Himself. He sanctified himself in the glory in order that He might bring us. Therefore He is, but we're all in one.
00:05:27
Company and one kind.
As what brought before us here in this verse 11.
In the last part of this verse.
I know that we all probably know this, but you want to keep your conversation, right? And it says for which course he is not ashamed to call them Brethren, we don't want to turn that around and call him by that name, do we?
He's far above us.
I wonder if the ninth verse of the previous chapter would be a commentary on that. I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
I don't know of any places in the Bible where it uses an adjective with God or with Christ. You don't find dear Lord, it's not needed.
Pull in Reverend as his name.
And he is to be held in reverence in the assembly of the Saints.
And all of them that are about him.
But he calls us Brethren.
Oh, how wonderful that is.
We can rejoice in that.
Then the Lord takes up.
3 quotations from preceding scriptures.
Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren.
In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
That's the first one.
And this is one of the two mentions of the Church in Hebrews. The other one was in the 12TH chapter Church of the First Born, which are written in heaven.
Church is not the main subject of this book. It's the Lord.
Focus upon him.
How good that last meeting put our focus upon him and much of the time this meeting.
So doesn't he change one word here, in the midst of the church will I sing? Praise unto thee, How is that in the sums, the 22nd song?
What does it say then?
Congregation midst of the congregation. Now he uses the word church.
Comes right down to the Church of the first born, those who are written in heaven.
Then he says in verse 13 again.
I will put my trust in him.
We will find the answer to this in the 17th of John.
In the Lord's Prayer to the Father, he entrusts.
The church to his father's care.
In.
Verse 11.
He says now I am no more in this world, but these are in the world. He looks at himself as going up to heaven then, and I come to thee now. He He puts his trust in the Father for our keeping. While he's there, he never leaves us comfortless.
He says Holy Father keep through thine own name. We know God is our Father.
Those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.
00:10:02
While I was with him in the world, I kept him. Isn't that nice to see that in prayer?
In the 17th of John.
The Blessed Lord entrusts his own to the keeping of the Father.
And again, I will put my trust in him.
Now the next one, the third quotation from Scripture.
And again, behold, I and the children which God hath given me.
We'd like to think of this.
As him bringing us into the Father's house.
I'm sure it fits.
Just think of it, beloved.
Many sons to glory, Bring him. He's going to get us there.
And we like to think of that as the sun.
Bringing us in and.
Stretching out his arms toward the church and saying.
Here they are.
Introduced into the Father's house.
Nothing can be more blessed than that.
We're going to get into the father's house and be introduced their children, children of God.
In John chapter one John chapter 2.
When the apostle writes to his little children.
Those dear to his heart.
And that affectionate expression little children, because their sins are forgiven them, and because they know the father.
It is essential to Christianity, according as it has been revealed.
In the New Testament, and as we've had brought before us in these meetings that we enter into and enjoy God as our Father.
He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
In resurrection.
He said to dear Mary, out of whom he had cast 7 demons.
Go unto my brethren, and say, they might send unto my Father, and your Father, and my God, and your God.
So that we are brought into the same blessed relationship in the family of God that he himself enjoys.
So complete is that relationship sealed by our introduction into the Father's house by that blessed One, as has just been brought before us that twice in the Epistles, once in the Epistle to the Romans, and again in the Epistle to to Galatians, the Holy Spirit enables us to use the same intimate term of endearment that the Lord Jesus Christ used when He prayed in the Garden.
ABBA father, how important it is beloved that we enter into and enjoy the intimacy of relationship as God has fought.
What, You were referring to Yule in his?
Speech to Mary in resurrection and what he said.
It was the first time it was possible to make that statement where the work was all done whereby we could be brought into the family of God and whereby we can know God is our Father.
My father and your father.
My God and your God.
The Old Testament Saints knew God, but they didn't address him knowing his father, did they?
That's family relationship based upon the work all done.
And the Spirit of God uniting us to Christ.
There is a very practical result from the enjoyment of this intimacy to which we referred.
And it's contrasted with what the disciples were taught to pray.
And the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ in chapter 17 of John.
That we've had mentioned already.
Teach us to pray and the expression is our Father who art in heaven.
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The very address of God in that prayer denotes a distance between the disciples and the Father that is in heaven.
But we have been brought to the father's house, we have brought in, we have been brought into that relationship.
That God is our Father, and so when the Lord Jesus Christ begins that prayer, it's very conversationally, said Father.
And this is the way that we address our God, not as someone who as at a distance from us, but those who have been brought right into the intimate circle of the family fellowship, and that is in heaven. We are raised up together and seated together in the heavenlies in Christ.
That's where we are. That's our position before God, and that's what we need to realize.
And that's the reason we don't address him in that distant relationship. God is our Father in heaven. No, you're in heaven and he is there, and we address him as Father.
And other things you notice referring back to John 17.
He starts the prayer.
Father.
Forget which verse that was.
Without any.
Thing before it.
Oh, Father verse 5.
But when he talks?
About us.
He adds in verse 11, Holy Father.
I state that because we had been.
Unholy.
To get into his presence, we have to.
Might, say, be partakers of His Holiness. It's his work so perfect that he can refer to it that way. But He would just have us remember when we talked about God as Father. Always He is holy, so should we be.
Just as a passing comment in relation to how the Lord Jesus Christ addresses the Father in respect to us when he addresses the Father in respect to the world, it's old righteous Father. So there is an element, dear Saints of God, in which we should address our Father with intelligence relative to those for whom we are praying.
In this epistle.
I want to go back to the ninth verse of Hebrews 1.
Brother Ernie pointed it out.
Even thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And then in Zechariah 13 and verse 7.
It says a waco's sword against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. He is Jehovah's fellow because he is God, He is.
Of the same substance, same kind, the same essence as the Father. And we are his fellows because he became a true man, didn't he? He took.
Of human nature, seen a part, of course, but it's still human nature. And so we are. We are his fellows and I think.
That's the thought there in verse eleven of our chapter. Both he that sanctifieth, that's the Lord.
And they who are sanctified are all of one of one substance. So. So we're called his fellows, for which 'cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren.
It's not so much the relationship of our relationship to God is our Father in Hebrews, but it's more to God. The High Priest is to God, and the Advocate is to the Father.
And it's our approach to God that's before us in Hebrews, and it's he who was the Son of God, whom God sent, and who is now declared by him. And so we are we have a nature that is of the same kind as the sun.
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And so we're he sanctifies us. He's the sanctifier and we are the sanctified ones. He's not ashamed to call us brethren. Because of that, we've been brought so near. It's more the nearness of nature, I think, that we have here rather than relationship, which you have more in John's gospel. But they're very close, I know. But.
They're all of one of one kind.
It was said of 1 lump of 1 substance.
Wonderful expression. Some of these expressions are very deep and profound. It's always not ashamed to call us brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church, where I sing praise unto thee, And I put my trust in him. And again behold, I and the children which God has given me.
That that 14th verse is very, very precious. For as much then as the children, I've just spoken of us as the children in verse 13, Behold, I am the children which God hath given me. He'll present us before God the Father, and he'll say that. And what a will will be the trophy of his grace, the trophies of his grace, for as much then as the children.
Are partakers of flesh and blood.
He also himself likewise took part of the same That's how he can call us his fellows.
We are his fellows because he came to where we were and he became one of us true men. His humanity was not a special, unique, separately created humanity that was absolutely holy. Some have taught that trying to preserve the holiness of the Lords humanity so that he didn't contract any of the evil of his mother's sin nature. Well, the Holy Spirit prevented that the power of the highest overshadowed here.
And that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. The Spirit of God preserved Christ's humanity as being holy. But it was true humanity. It wasn't a separate created humanity. Then he wouldn't be. He wouldn't be of the same kind as we are. But we're of one kind, and so we have.
A humanity. And when Adam fell, he was just as much a man after he fell as he was before he fell.
But the state of his humanity changed from innocence to sinfulness.
But the state of Christ, humanity was holy. Neither innocent nor sinful, but holy. But it's true humanity. He became a true man, and so he calls us brethren. And we're of the same kind as he is in, in that sense of having the same human nature.
He's just as much a man with respect to us as he is Jehovah's fellow with respect to Jehovah. He is of the same essence of God himself, because he's God. It's a tremendous thought to think of these things.
A body hast thou prepared me?
That was married.
But in type, it was Israel. Let's go to the Romans 9. I think it's so nice to see the loveliness of the way that's spoken of in Romans 9.
He's a real man, as you're saying.
Born of a woman.
What does it say in Romans 9 beginning with?
Verse 4.
Might read verse 3 to get the statement of Paul and to his.
Brethren, his kinsmen and then go on to verse verse three. I could wish myself were a curse from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the place. I cannot understand that love, but I believe it. That's Paul for his fellow Jews and he says who are Israelites?
To whom pertain at the adoption and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law and the service of God, and the promises of this verse, whose are the fathers?
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And all of whom as concerning the flesh, Christ came to his overall God blessed earth that verse whose are the fathers. We had that in the first chapter in the first verse.
Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is overall God, He came of Israel, born of Israel.
He sat on the cross looking at his mother.
Woman, Behold thy son.
God has a special love for Israel.
He still has a special love for Israel.
Because his son came of Israel.
He is called Jews and we're reading the book of Hebrews. There are human and natural relationships that God set up and it's just nice to see them.
It doesn't change the eternal aspect of the holiness. He always was the Son of God, but he became a man, and the body was prepared, conceived of the Holy Ghost, but born of Mary, born of Israel. Whichever way you want to look at it, that fifth verse in Romans 9, whose are the Fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh, that's his humanity, isn't it?
Christ came and now we have His deity whose overall God bless it forever. Amen again the mystery of this person. It's all true, isn't it all through the scriptures?
And like you were saying, this 14th verse is very, very comprehensive.
You just revel when you think of this verse, for as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood.
That's God. That's the Lord looking at you, and I of the atom race at only that life, flesh and blood.
He also himself likewise took part of the same that through death.
That's the only way he could die and bear the sentence that we had earned the wages of sin is death.
He took that form so that he could pay that debt. What a marvelous plan is God's for salvation.
And what for that through death he might destroy?
Him that had the power of death, that is the devil.
And delivered them, whose, through fear of death, were all their lifetimes subject to *******.
Well, he was going to destroy the devil.
He hath abolished sin and brought life an incorruptibility to light through the Gospel.
So he he dies that through death he takes, he takes away the.
Judgment of sin, which is death, which was introduced.
By Satan, who tempted Adam, Adam and Eve the pair.
Say God does know that he shall be come as God, knowing good and evil. I may not be quoting that right, but that was the substance of it.
And after it was done.
God comes and looks back there.
This is all in Genesis and he says now the Trinity talking.
Behold the man.
Let's go back and read those verses. Behold the man. It's so wonderful to see how that.
Was treated there when sin came in and when we got a conscience.
So.
Behold.
The man.
Is become as one of us? Somebody tell me where I'm supposed to look. Which were which chapter John 19 and five.
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3rd of Genesis and 22nd verse, 22nd verse. There it is.
This is what the Trinity are talking about.
And they say, behold the man. Now that was what they were called in the 5th chapter. Adam, behold the man.
Is become as one of us. The knowledge that God has of good and evil has been acquired through sin without the power to control, and it's a catastrophe and the whole world explains it.
But God at that time to know good and evil. Now God put the stop the things, lest he put forth his hand and take hold, take also of the tree of the life, and eat and live forever. He put cherubim to guard that place.
What a horrible thing it would have been in this world if everybody that was born and raised the center still lived. You couldn't. It couldn't be. God wasn't going to let it happen, so.
Man acquired the knowledge of good and evil and conscience, and I think our conscience is the proper entrance of the truth into our souls to give us light to know how we should be.
Truth needs to get into our consciences and stir us up.
And perhaps we needed every day. Well our 14th verse of John of Hebrews 2 again.
For as much then as the children, that's the children of Adam, I suppose. Here are particulars of flesh and blood. He also himself liked part of the saying. He became a real man, life of flesh and blood.
That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them so.
Satan has lost that power.
Of death.
He brought life an incorruptible bullet to light through the gospel.
Speaking of the occasion in Genesis 3, and what a beautiful picture shows up there. Because at that very time when man sinned and lost his innocence, God immediately steps in. And here's what he says. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed, and her seed, and it as Christ shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heels.
Think of it. Genesis 3 God. Of course we know that it was long before this, that the thought, the intent of God was already established long before this. But he brings it out in the very first part of the book, that there is going to be one who will come up of the woman, the seed of the woman who is going to redeem man.
You also made a statement that it had to be in the 14th verse, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. It had to be. And don't we get the proof and evidence of that in the garden, father, if it be possible?
That just cut fast from me.
But it wasn't. It wasn't possible. It had to be. It had to be.
And he was given a body. A body was given to him for the express purpose of going to California. You could almost say that for Christ to gain the victory, there was no shortcut. He had to go that road, become a man.
That could die.
And that would because it was in God's mind, it was in God's plan to save.
Their own grace.
But one perfect man.
The only one he became a man.
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And he walked steadfastly to the cross. The first man was tested as a full grown man.
The second man had to be tested as a full grown man.
But he had to grow up from childhood to be a faithful and merciful high priest in things pertaining to God so they could make reconciliation for the people and feel the feelings that we passed. Jesus knows what a what a baby is. He knows what a boy is, what a 12 year old is.
Was that 30 years old man was and when he was full grown, he entered into his ministry.
And was allowed to be tested of Satan and conquered Satan with the word of God.
But there in Luke, I think it was tested. Says he departed from him for a season.
And perhaps what you referred to as the Garden. Is that so, David, that St. was allowed to get back to the Lord again and impress upon him the horrors of death.
I'm sure that it was in view of the.
Cross that we find him in the garden in view of the scene of what was going to take place.
Which he knew very well, if it be possible. Amazing statement.
He tasted death, as none of us will ever taste it, and it was through death that he destroyed him that had the power of death. The devil. Beautiful picture in the Old Testament. And David and Goliath when David used the sling and the stone and Goliath fell on his face. But then it is.
He pulls Goliath's sword out of his sheep and cuts off his head with his own sword. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus.
Defeating Satan with that which Satan himself had used to keep in captivity, those that were all their lifetime subject to ******* through fear and.
It's interesting, the new translation reads. There, in First Samuel 17, he killed him completely.
And that's what the Lord Jesus did at the cross. He completely destroyed him that had the power of death.
What a victory we stand in brethren. We will never taste death like Jesus tasted it. Death may touch these bodies, but really, truly death. We will never die in the sense that the Lord Jesus face to death for us.
51St have reference primarily to the Old Testament states.
Thinking as an example.
As high as the 38th chapter of Isaiah here to die, you know, even though he was a man in face.
Ruben, I believe you're absolutely right. The Old Testament Saints, the more godly they were, the more they feared death.
They stepped from a life Into Darkness. They did not step into light. They went from this life Into Darkness. They did not know what we know. They didn't have what we have in first Thessalonians. 4 They didn't know that. And so the more godly they were, the more they knew that God hated sin and had to judge sin. And they didn't realize. And you know, Martha was a picture of that, wasn't it? She says. I know that there will be the resurrection of the dead at the end.
The age or the end of the time and the Lord. Jesus had to correct her on that. I am the resurrection of boy Second Timothy two or Second Timothy 110 has been quoted. Maybe it'd be good to read that again, because really deals with exactly what you're talking about.
Reading from the ninth verse, it says Second Timothy 19, who has saved us and called us with unholy calling, not according to our works.
According to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel. In other words, the Lord Jesus going into death brought.
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To light.
Brought to light, life and immortality through the gospel. So not only is him who had the power of that annulled destroyed, but death itself is abolished. Isn't that wonderful? The place of the Lord Jesus has brought us to. I'd like to read two other scriptures in connection with that.
In Romans 8.
Verse 38 Connection with Death. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I am persuaded that that death cannot separate us from his love. And then in First Corinthians 3.
Verse 21 Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours. And hear Christ's and Christ is God's death to the Christian is not the king of terrors.
With nothing but a big black hole behind it. To the unsaved. I mean it's it's a king of terrorists. It's not that the Christian it's a door of entrance into the presence of the Lord. And it's not to be feared. It's it's something which Paul says in Philippians I have.
I have to choose, If I had to choose, between remaining here in the body or departing and being with Christ, which is far better, he'd rather depart and be with Christ. But he said it's necessary, for your sakes, that I remain so He stayed here a bit longer to help the Saints on. But death is not something the Christian fears at all. It's it's it's his servant now ushering him into the very presence of the Lord. That's very precious.
When Mark checked in First Corinthians 15. Another thing about death at the end of the 54th verse.
Death is swallowed up in victory.
I'd like to read. I'd like to read 2 notes in the Darby translation on verse 14. Now you're going to have to listen very carefully to get this.
Since therefore the children partake of blood and flesh, and he has a note for partake coin O'Neill, which is the word fellowship, communion, that is, they are in that condition.
They are in that condition.
Partake.
As their common lot, the children, we all partake of flesh and blood. That's the condition.
Only way we can come. There's no other way we can come. But then it goes on to say.
He also in like manner took part in, took part in. Now that's a different word and the note says it's he's got 3 words in English to describe the one word in Greek took part in. And he says there is an intended difference here between the words for partake Connell and took part in Matecho verse 14.
The first.
The first referring to the children, is a common equal sharing of the nature. The 2nd referring to Christ means he took a part in it, and refers always to something outside myself which I take or take apart. In the first word refers to a joint participation in that which belongs to me, or to known fellowship.
That's what the children partake of the second is used in chapter 513 Partakes of Milk, 1St Corinthians 910, where the Reaper gets a share in the flowers. Hope First Corinthians 10/17 where we partake of the loaf.
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And that's that. I'm not going to read any more of the note, but yeah, that's going to be well worth it. Read the notes and understand those notes are very, very precious and give you an insight.
I I get questions all the time, and a person asks a question and I say to myself, when they're they don't ever read the new translation. If they read the new translation, they know the answer to that because it's right there. But it takes diligence, doesn't it? And study, and the reward is wonderful.
Hey, you've read that. Tell us simply the difference. Well, we we, we we commonly share the flesh and blood. That's the only way that's common to us. That's natural to us. He took a part in it from without. He was outside of that sphere of existence. And then he entered it by grace and takes a part in it and becomes a true man. But he wasn't. He wasn't in that state originally.
He the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, so he took a part in it.
And He came to where we were. That's the only way He could save us. That's the only way He could reach us, is to become one of us and take a part in the very basic nature that is ours, sin apart. And He did that. He did, by grace, take a part in it, something that we have no control over. When we're brought into the world by birth, we're just we just partake of it as a common lot of mankind. But He an infinite grace.
Became a servant and took a part in that.
Which we are so that he could he could reach us, he couldn't save us any other way.
Similar thoughts in some of the verses we've already read.
Referring to.
John 114 The Word was made flesh or became flesh.
And dwelt among us full of grace and truth, and there in Genesis 322, where we are reading.
The Trinity looked at the first man and they say.
Behold, a man is become, he hadn't been before, as one of us to know good and evil is become.
But man could not control that.
That knowledge of good and evil.
And went on to sin, which brought great remedy, great pain in this world for these 6000 years.
But the victories gained by Christ.
And to deliver them who through fear of death, were all their lifetimes subject to *******.
Fear of death.
It's everywhere. We have life that's given to us and we want to keep it.
It belongs to God.
And we wanted and it's right that we should want it, but sin works in US.
Those old timers Methuselah lived between 969 years old. God let them live a long time. Then well they let the earth get filled up and he shortened alive because of the corruption and sin in the world. But last of all Christ came and think of the victory. He has abolished death. The sting is gone because he gives eternal life.
When we get eternal life, we shouldn't fear death.
Not that we want to die. I would say circumstances we want to get out of. But as Chuck has said, it's a possession. For us, death is a possession. The worst thing that death can do to a believer is to usher him into the presence of God, a messenger to get us there. These are right thoughts about these things because crisis gained the victory.
Well, why did he? Why in this 14th verse? Why did he take a part in the same that through death? The only way he could go into death, the only way he could die, is to become a man. If he had become an Angel, he couldn't die. He couldn't have reached us. He would have been a descent from deity, an infinite descent from deity to become any kind of a creature. But the only way he could save us and deliver us from the power of Satan and destroy Satan in his power, which is the power of death that he has over man, is to become a man himself and to die.
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And to die, go into death. That's the stronghold of Satan's power. He went into the very stronghold of Satan's power. And he he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Ephesians 4 He went right down into that power and came out victorious in resurrection. And Satans power was vanquished and destroyed there. Interesting what it says in Leviticus.
The life of the flesh is in the blood.
And I have given it to you upon the altar, for it is the blood that make it an atonement for the soul that expresses what Chucks been saying. The Lord had to put away sin.
So he took the life that we have.
And died in that life, and arose victorious in an eternal life, and gives that to us.
All these things are involved in these verses. The depth of the plan of God, the deliverance, the victory is just tremendous.
In Romans 8 and three we get.
The measure.
To which the Lord Jesus Christ came, and partaking of the same for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
There, one brother has said about that is as close as the human mind can conceive.
Of that holy man becoming like us. But he did take real humanity, and as far as a human mind can conceive, it was in order that he could be a sin offering to accomplish what all of the order under Judaism could not accomplish. You know, law never brought a soul to God and never had.
If there had been a law that could have given life, and Christ died in vain, but here is that plastic one who came as near to us as to be made in the lateness of our flesh, and through death annulled the power of death. Annulment is making something as though it had never been.
Divorce and separation. It's common in this world to hear.
Well, it's only human descent. It's only human to fail, because man doesn't know humanity in any other state but the fallen sinful state that we're in, that man is in. But we're going to spend eternity as men and women. Well, I don't know how it's going to be. I'm not going. I don't know. We're going to spend eternity with the Lord in bodies redeemed and glorified, and we'll be perfectly human.
But we'll never sin, never sin. Humanity, apart from sin was the Garden of Eden. And we're like, well, we'll be not in an innocent state, but in a holy state for all eternity. And it's not necessary to attach sinfulness to humanity. The Lord was a true human, but He was sinless. He was. He was, you might say, more human, according to God's thoughts of humanity than we are, because we're in a sinful state. And that's never that was never God's intention, was it?
That was never God's design in the 1St place. He didn't create man a Sinner. He fell.
The Son of God was manifested to undo or annull the works of the devil. He brought in sin.
But here comes the last Adam, the 2nd man, the Son of God.
Out of heaven, to undo and to deliver.
It's deliverance that we enjoy, beloved, because the Lord Jesus Christ's heel was crushed in the language of Genesis 3IN crushing the head whose heel was bruised, and crushing the head of him who had the power of death, he died. But he, being the infinite person that he was, death had no claim over him. He burst the bonds of death. He brought himself forth again out of that borrowed tomb and has LED.
Those who were in captivity.
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In triumph we are delivered from the consequences of sin. The wages of sin is death. He died and annulled the power of him who had that authority and set us free.
And in the last book, Revelation, in the first chapter in the 18th verse. I think we've quoted it before, but we'll quote it again, Jesus the victor.
Stating I am.
His title he that liveth.
Eternal life and was dead.
Impossible for him to live, to die as God.
But he wanted us. So what did he have to do? He had to take on our limitations, our natural body. The life of the flesh was in the blood. He acquired that body. It was prepared for him. He lived in it, and he died in it. And he drove. He arose in the same body, but with a different life. I noticed Bob this morning mentioning that.
That he has a body.
Of flesh and bones doesn't say anything about.
That's what he says in the end of one of the Gospels. Handle me and see where spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have a real body. We can't understand that. But the life of that new body is not blood, it's spirit.
Resurrection life. Resurrection life. What a marvelous thing, that.
God didn't look down and if we were to read other scriptures like Jude and other and.
Genesis and other places we'd find that there were fallen angels, but God didn't look down upon them and send a savior for them. He looked upon a man in his fallen state.
And as John 316 tells us, that he.
For God so loved the world. That's not the world physically, that's the world as humanity.
And what a marvelous thing he passed angels by. He came down far, far, far lower than angels, down to where you and I were, and met us in our need. That's what we have in that 16th verse.
God said to Abraham, and thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. So he laid hold of the seed of Abraham, had a call to our attention, the son of David and the son of Abraham there is the Jew and the Gentile brought in, but here it's the seed of Abraham, so that every man who will simply trust the Lord Jesus Christ can be brought into this blessing portion that we've been considering.
He didn't espouse the cause of angels, so he didn't take hold of angels by the hand. That's a literal rendering of that 16th verse and an undertake for them. No. He espoused the cause. The seed of Abraham, Seed of faith, those that have faith. Abraham was the man of faith, isn't it?
God had prepared you.
Man. And he prepared the earth.
Poor man.
And the poor first race was deceived.
God looked at that.
Deception.
And found the guilt, I think in.
Who wanted to take over and have the world in his power in the fallen state?
But no God had another plan.
And it was to make himself known in three ways.
Lord makes himself known in this book.
And he makes himself known as the eternal God.
And then he makes himself known as God is light.
And then he makes himself known as God is love.
I don't think there's more that we can know about God. He is the eternal, He is light, and he is loved not to make himself known as love. He's done that in four ways, and we often speak of that. And the first one is easy, and we love it. That's John 316. That's his love of compassion. He was his creature.
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Deceived and groveling down here in this world.
And groaning and dying.
Oh, he came down in compassion. That's his love of compassion.
But then, and we've been having it in these verses, there's the love of relationship.
Now you and I were all children to start with, and our parents, if we knew them, loved us. And we begat children and we love them.
God makes himself known in that relationship. That love is the love of relationships. And in that we get some testing. By God, it's the 12TH of Hebrews. You might just turn to it a little bit because.
It's part of the way of knowing God.
In relationship.
We'll start with the fifth verse.
And he had forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, that starts children.
My son, despise not the allocationing of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. Now notice what it says. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Oh, he works with his children to train us up. He loves us as children. That's a that's a love of relationship. So we know a little bit more about God and God of love and compassion now in relationships.
Then.
If we go to John.
I have to look at the chapter.
John, perhaps it's 14.
1St is the love of compassion, then the love of relationship, and then the love for obedience. And it's worth it. Jesus says, Therefore doth my father love me? Which chap is that? John 10. All right, now we got the place 17.
It's a love for obedience.
Read a few verses here.
We always start with the other sheep in verse 16 because that refers to us Gentiles.
Another sheep I have which are not of this old them also I must bring in their who is working to get us.
And they shall hear my voice, and there shall be 1 flock and one shepherd. Then the Lord says this therefore, that my Father love me because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. But he could say, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Therefore does my father Let me? What do you think about? Doesn't say, Well, didn't God love that perfect Son? Of course he did. Always. He loved him perfectly.
But the son gave the father an added reason to love him.
Because he went into death is an added cause obedient unto death, the love of God has made known perhaps greater there yet.
But then there's another one, and that's love of communion, and that is in the 14th of John. I just state these four ways in which the love of God is made known in John 14.
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There are two verses to read.
21.
And 23 John 1421 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me now he that loveth me shall be loved of my fault. There's the love of God the Father coming out towards you the obedient. 1.
He that keeps his commandments, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Now the 23rd verse, practically the same. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loved me, he will keep my words. The proof of our love is obedience.
Then what? And my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him, brethren. That's right now in the beginning of this chapter 14.
The Lord talks about going away and coming again.
He shall see me well here, as it were, The heart of God of love, who loves his children, loves obedient children, does not want to wait until he gets the family into heaven.
But it comes to us in communion. The love of communion is enjoyed as we contemplate the love of God toward us. So the love of God is made known in compassion, in relationship, and for obedience and for the joy of communion. The Father and the children are the Lord and the children, the Lord and his brethren.
The love of God.
We've been talking about the.
Death of Christ.
And when we look at that scripture in John 10.
Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
The end of the 81St?
I will read the 18th verse between. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down on myself. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again, this commandment.
Have I received of my father.
This was something that took place back in eternity.
They haul.
Purpose of God bringing a world into being and putting man upon it.
Was to have a right for his son, I believe.
And God was never taken by surprise.
Was never caught short, never caught flat footed, as we say. And in eternity, before this world was ever made, we have this John 1017 and 18.
And therefore does my Father love me, because the whole purpose of God in bringing this world into existence and having man upon it.
Was to apply for his son a bride and the only way it could be done was this.
The Lord Jesus coming and giving himself. I'd like to ask you a question on that point is that?
The substance or the sense of the 6th chapter of Isaiah.
For you, half Holy, Holy, holy. That's the Trinity.
Maybe we should look at that. It's not so well known, but I'm kind of asking a question. But I've enjoyed it myself in the sense that David's giving us here.
It's more than Isaiah himself.
It's typical of the Trinity and their plan for us, the year that is. I had died.
That looks at it as the end of the flesh.
I saw the Lord standing, sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Look where the setting is.
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The Lord sitting upon his throne high and lifted up, And his train filled the temple, and above it stood the Seraphim. Those are the angels that guard.
Or there, which had six wings.
With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
That is, the created beings, when they're in the presence of God, seek to hide themselves.
Cover themselves up.
But they're useful between the diplomats.
And one cried unto another, and said.
Holy, holy, Holy, that's the Trinity, is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory. They look on to that time. Perhaps it's always there.
The post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with smoke then, the Prophet says.
Woe is me.
For I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
One of the Seraphims flew unto him, having a cold, live cold, with his hand, which he had taken with tongs from off the elder, and fleeted upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched my lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged. Now this is definitely the Prophet being prepared to carry his message.
But then it says also I heard a voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who shall go for us? That's the plural of the Trinity, Holy, Holy, Holy. There was another thought.
Who shall go for us then? Said I. This is the voice of Christ in the past of eternity. Here am I. Send me. So he came. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
What about Bruce? Is that?
There is a thought that I would like to add in a general way to something that has already been expressed here on more than one occasion.
And it is that has been expressed, That which has been expressed is the Excellency and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I would like to add to that, especially in this book of Hebrews, the superiority of Christ.
We have him set forth in all the Excellency and glory, but is in order to prove his superiority to every facet, for every aspect, for every element of anything that was.
In the Jews, in the history of the Jewish religion, here he is his superiority.
Just a general comment that applies to the entire book of Hebrews.
I'd like to comment a little more on the excellent that are in the Earth going to the.
16th Psalm, where we have definitely the Lord Jesus has the perfect.
Dependent Man.
He's the model in Psalm One, but here it goes a little farther.
And brings in the excellent that are in the earth. And that's us by reason of what he has done in our chapter to bring us there, like in the 16th Psalm, just a few verses at the beginning.
Preserve me, O God, for indeed do I put my trust. Now. That's Jesus, the perfect dependent man. He wouldn't make one move without getting a word from his father.
Then he says, O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord.
Thou art, my Lord, my goodness extendeth not unto thee, but.
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To the Saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent in whom is almighty light, we've had the fact that God wanted sons, and He brings them in life is all His plan.
Well, there was one son.
As we had it yet, the mount of Transfiguration.
This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased that comes out in Matthew 3 as well.
But I like the language of this 16th song.
Because.
Yet finally, says almighty life, and I believe, brother, as God's heart had extended to us in the same love that he had for his only begotten Son, to bring us in there like him. So the language here is the dependent man.
He didn't get the goodness of God the first time he came. He must delivered by the determinant council on foreknowledge of God to go into death to redeem us. But he's getting us by the grace of God. He's got us if we're saved. And so he looks at us and he says.
My goodness extendeth not to thee, that's to the Lord. He went into judgment.
Where does his goodness extend to the Saints, And what does He call them that are in the earth? The Saints to the excellent. Don't be afraid of that. It's God's words about his children. He calls the Saints. He says they're excellent, they're in the earth, and it fills up God's delight to get the whole family in there. Behold, I and the children which God hath given me. That goes, go ahead. That goes with Hebrews 217.
Go ahead with that where wherefore in all things it behooves him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation in uttering for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered. Being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.
Beautiful in all things. It behooves him to be made like unto his brethren. And now he's our merciful and faithful high priest on high ever living to intercede for us. And he's made propitiation for our sins. And now he can soccer us and and bring us through the temptations and trials of the wilderness journey. That's that's the way this chapter ends, doesn't it? Beautiful.
We're Speaking of.
God wanting children. Let's read in John I John 1 Epistle, John and the first verse.
3rd Chapter Behold, what manner of love the Father hath to spill upon us, that we should be called, that should read children of God. Therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not Beloved. Now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. We're going to be just like him.
Comment was made earlier about As he is, so are we in this world.
He is basking at this very moment in the love and.
In the presence of a holy God, he's basking in his father's presence and all the love that is being bestowed upon him as He is. So are we, this one. We come under that same banner of love, and in that datacom, we're not going to be any different. We're going to be like him. I know we're not going to be gods. No, that's not the thought here at all. But we're going to be beloved as he is beloved.
Isn't that wonderful, Brethren, that he in the mean time, as we are passing through a wilderness where there is temptation on every side, he is a merciful and faithful high priest He became, and part of the reason he became flesh and blood partook of it was that so that he could become a faithful and merciful He understands.
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The path that we are passing through. He knew what it meant to be tired. He knew what it meant to be hungry, thirsty. He knew what it meant to be alone.
It's a lot of lonely people in this world, and sometimes there's people that are in the middle of a big group of people and they're still lonely. He knew what it means to be alone. He knows what it means to be alone. And I love that 18th verse in that he himself hath suffered being tempted. He is able to succor them that are tempted.
Are getting through the wilderness pathway is not a question of our own strength.
It is a question of that man who intercedes our cause at God's right hand.
In the Spanish translation it reads in verse 18, he is powerful to help those that are tempted. There is no situation you or I will ever get into in the pathway of faith, but that he is able to keep us in that situation. He gets so such a consolation as we go through.
Situations.
Of life here that are difficult, brethren. Again, it is because of the power of his intercession that we can go on. When Moses in the wilderness told Joshua to take men and fight with Amalek, Moses stood on the hill and held up his hands.
And Aaron on one side and her on the other, held up his hands.
So that Joshua could undo Amalek.
Joshua might have thought that it was his military tactics down there that gained the victory, but really it was another person that was involved in it. It was that man that was holding his hands up. Moses hands were weary.
Our great high priest hands will never be weary. They're up, brethren, and we can trust in him. He is able.
To succor them that are tempted, let's sing #64.
Like Jesus, in that place of light and love supreme once man of sorrows, full of grace, heavens blessed and endless theme. That's hymn #64.
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We have.
No.
I can't hear you.
And when I was believing.
Christ our Object
YP Address—C. Hendricks
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Singing 124.
Jesus, the one who trod the earth.
The lowly subject 1. Obedience unto death was Thine God's well beloved Son Jesus. What memories thrill our hearts of thy blessed footprints here, while now to heaven our eyes we turn and gaze upon thee there 124.
Excuse me?
Thank you so much.
We had some very precious things before us from Hebrews 1.
I was lying awake quite a bit last night.
Pondering asking the Lord for this is quite a responsibility to be addressing so many.
What to speak on?
Just an hour.
Turn to second Peter chapter one.
Two Peter chapter one.
And verse 16.
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables.
When we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory.
This is my beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy mouth.
Why does he? Why does he tell them?
That we have not followed cunningly devised fables.
In the Epistle of Jude.
The fourth verse, it says certain men have crept in unnoticed amongst the Christian company, ungodly men.
Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. They're guilty of two things. And we see those two things every everywhere about us today denying the authority of the Lord.
And free reign for the flesh, turning the grace of God into loose living. If you don't have anyone to answer to 1 Sovereign Ruler such as the Lord Jesus, then you can do as you please. And this is the New Age movement. This is the philosophy of the day that we're living in.
And young people, you who are going to college and school, high school and college and universities, you will meet with those that do everything that they can do to undermine.
The authority of Scripture. They even go so far as to attack.
The Lord Jesus to the point of saying that he never actually lived. It was a it was a concocted story that men of a later day came up with and he's just a figment of man's imagination.
Now I want you to consider that we're going to look at that in Scripture, and we're going to look at what he said when he was here in this world, Those wonderful words that proceeded out of his mouth we had in Hebrews One God has spoken to us in the person of his Son. And John's Gospel starts with in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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The same was in the beginning with God the Word, the very expression of God, and all that God gave him to express when he was here below the Word of God.
I turned back with me to John Chapter 7.
John's Gospel Chapter 7.
And verse 32.
The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him. And the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. And then we go down to verse 45 Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees. And they said unto them, Why have you not brought him?
The officers answered. Never man spake like this man. They were used to listening to the Pharisees, and they didn't speak with authority. But this man spoke with authority. He knew whereof he was speaking.
And I want you to consider this, especially young people. It's addressed to all, of course.
Could anyone of the sons of men who are fallen sinners?
Have created the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Absolutely impossible. Could anyone have?
With cunningly devised, Fables put the words in his mouth.
Which he spoke when he was here again, utterly impossible. Never man spake like this man. I spoke on this once, more than once, shortly, but we have an hour this afternoon so we can look at more passages this afternoon. Let's turn back to John, Chapter 3, John's Gospel, Chapter 3. And we're going to, we're going to to look at what?
He said what the writer of this gospel says, he said.
And the other Gospels as well. But I'm going to concentrate on John's Gospel.
We know the account. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Now whenever you you read these two words, verily, verily, he's He's trying to get your attention. What he's going to say is very important, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus.
Though he was a ruler of the Jews and a master in Israel, yet he didn't understand the Lord's words at all.
He took them in a natural sense, which was absurd. And so he says, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Of course not, Jesus answered. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, he doesn't answer his question directly, but he expands upon the term born again. And he says, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, You must be born again now. He's not saying to Nicodemus, you have to turn over a new leaf and amend your ways like we we, we see people do on New Year's.
They make New Year's resolutions, which they always break, but he's saying that.
In order to see and enter the Kingdom of God, you need a completely new life, a new nature that you are not capable of even seeing the Kingdom of God with the eyesight that you have by nature.
Now just consider for a moment if some men who were sinners had written this. Would they have written such words? Of course not. They condemn all of us.
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Because they say that by the 1St birth, we're all gone, we're all lost and we need to be born again. We need a new life.
Born of water and of the Spirit. The water is the word of God. Peter tells us that he says, being born again, knob of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever the Spirit of God, using the word of God, bringing it to bear upon the conscience of the individual, and when that word is brought home in power to the soul of man.
A wonderful thing.
Happens that person is born again. He believes the word.
Faith is there, life is there, and he becomes a new creature in Christ.
A new creature in Christ.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
And flesh can never be changed into spirit. You can train it, you can educate it, you can sublimate it, you can give it every possible advantage.
But it's still flesh, and they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
That which is born of the spirit is spirit. It partakes of the nature of the source, its spirit, and that is what is required in order to see and enter the Kingdom of God in college. Your professors, your teachers, your instructors, if they haven't been born again, they can't see nor enter the Kingdom of God. They might be very educated and they might be very intelligent and have far more smarts than you have. But when it comes to this book.
The natural man understand this, not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned.
So man by nature is outside of the realm of the spirit, of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is entered by the new birth and by believing the word of God. Now let's go on a little bit, he says. Marvel. Not that I said unto thee. Now he's speaking through Nicodemus personally, but then he expands it, and he says he must be born again, You Jews.
You see, the Jews could say we have Abraham for our father, and they thought that that was all that they took and they were better than the Gentiles because.
The Gentiles couldn't say such a thing. And he says to Nicodemus, You Jews, all of you need a new life, a new birth, a new beginning with God. You can't count upon your natural heritage, because it won't get you into the Kingdom of God. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, and canst not tell When it cometh and whither it goeth, so is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master, a teacher of Israel, and knows not these things?
Ezekiel said that God would give them a new heart and that was a picture of of course the new birth. But now notice verse 11 very profound verse is probably the most profound verse in the whole Gospel of John.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee.
We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen, and he received not our witness. And then he goes back to the singular. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe? If I tell you of heavenly things, Who's the we in verse 11? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, You into thee, Nicodemus, we speak.
That we do know now. Only God knows. Only God knows intrinsically and essentially.
We learn and we can say we know when we speak according to scripture, but we don't have it in ourselves.
God does we speak, that we do know, but we as the Trinity, the we as the, the knowledge of divine persons. And the Lord speaks as one of them, the Father, the Son. And then in John 1415 and 16 the Spirit of God has brought in all three persons involved in this week.
We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen.
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And what about us? And ye receive not our witness? Now that's the state that man is in by nature. He does not receive the truth that God brings to him very solemn indictment upon that.
Man is incorrigibly evil is lost, and there's nothing sound, there's no soundness to him from the from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, nothing but wounds and bruises and totifying sores. No good in man we speak that we do know, God says and testify that we have seen and you receive not our witness. That's man's state. And unless the Father draws us.
We will not come.
If I've told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe? If I tell you of heavenly things? No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Now these are these are the words that the Lord Jesus spoke. Can you fancy? It's absolutely impossible for a man to have written verse 11, to have put those words into a fictitious Jesus that never really lived and existed. We speak, that we do know and testify that we have seen and you receive not our witness. No, He spoke those words. He was a true man and he was hearing this world. And if, if I can do one thing this afternoon.
To increase your strength in your faith that you realize that this is indeed the word of God, and the one that we believe on is indeed the Son of God, the eternal Son of God. And he said what he said, and he meant what he said.
Wonderful to have the truth.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of man be lifted up. I believe the Lord still speaking here, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have eternal life, And then that well known verse John 316 That we all know. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Before we get apart from this chapter, I want to just read you the last verses of chapter 2.
It says in verse 23 of chapter 2. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men and needed not that it should testify of man. For he knew what was in man. He knew that man was evil from the very root of his nature.
Now chapter 3 should start with a but but there was a Man of the Pharisees.
Nicknamed Nicodemus, he seemed to be an exercised soul. Well, let's go on to the 4th chapter. We're looking at words that the Blessed Lord spoke never man fake like this man in the 4th chapter.
We know the account. I won't read it all just to save time.
Verse He had asked this woman of Samaria for a drink of water. Give me to drink the end of verse 7. Verse nine. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being at you, ask his drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans? Jesus answered, and said unto her.
Oftentimes he's asked questions that he does not answer directly, but he makes a statement that immediately awakens in the soul of this woman a response, he says. If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
Immediately, she says.
Sir, thou hast nothing to draw within the well as deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her.
Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Now you know what I mean. You know what he meant, Whosoever drinketh of this water.
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Shall thirst again.
We know what that is. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well, or a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. Oh, she wanted that, Sir, The woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hitherto draw.
Neverman spake like this man never man spake words such as he spoke.
These were not invented. This was not a person that was the result of cunningly devised fables. Never in 1000 million years could that be true.
This man one said it this way. It would take a perfect man to create Jesus. A perfect man would take perfection to create perfection. And we're so far from perfection in ourselves. Now he was here, a real person. Why is this book so hated? Because he who is the truth tells us exactly what we don't want to hear by nature. It tells us what we are.
It tells us that we need a new life, a new beginning altogether. You can't mend the old life.
Then try to do that and they deceive themselves into saying we are seekers after truth. That's not true at all. If they were, they would receive him.
They would receive this Blessed One.
So she wants this water. Ah, but there was something needed. Now, who would have thought of this if they were writing the story from scratch?
Sir, she, he says to her. Go call my husband.
And come hit her.
The woman asked her to say I have no husband.
Of course he knew that Jesus said unto her, Thou his head well, well, thou hast had five husbands. And ye whom thou hast is not thy husband, and that sets thou truly.
And then she says, Sir, I perceive thou art a prophet.
And she turns the story into a religious one. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where man ought to worship.
And the Lord says, ye worship, you know not what we know. What we worship for salvation is of the Jews. The Savior came from that nation, came from that people.
But the hour cometh, he says, When And now is when ye shall, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father.
In spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Never man speak like this, man such words as this.
Words of truth, words of intense.
Value I want to ask each one of us here this afternoon. You know him? You know this man?
You know this man who spake as no man ever spake in job.
It says, Acquaint now thyself with him, Be at peace, thereby good shall come unto thee. Paul said in Philippians 3 that I may know him.
Power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering, that I may know Him. Do you know him? The way you get to know a person is you. You. You're in their company, You talk to them, they talk to you. You hear what they have to say. And as they utter words, you know something about the heart. Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, and as we hear what He said, precious, wonderful truths.
That came forth from that blessed one We not only know who Jesus is, we know who the Father is. We know who God is.
Because he's the perfect expression of God.
That in Hebrews one, didn't we? God speaking to us in the person of his Son?
The woman then leaves her water pot, goes into the city and says come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? Indeed he was.
00:25:07
Well, let's not dwell too long on anyone of these portions.
In the 5th chapter.
In the 1St, 5th chapter he had just.
An infinite man.
Verse eight, he says to him, who is at the pool of Bethesda, he says.
Rise up, take up thy dead and walk.
And immediately the man responded. It doesn't say he had any faith he wasn't looking for.
Anything to happen to him? And yet the Lord immediately did this.
He didn't even know who it was.
Afterward, Jesus findeth him in the temple, verse 14, and said unto him, Behold, art made whole.
Sin no more, lest the worst thing come unto thee. Verse 17 He says These very profound words. Jesus answered them. My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Then answered Jesus, and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself. He had become a man. He'd taken the position of a servant, and it would have been improper for him to have acted independently. So he doesn't do anything of himself. But what he seeks the Father do, or what things so ever he do it, these also do it to some likewise these were words to telling telling us of the place that he took, and lowly grace, and becoming a man.
Well the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them Even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, That all men notice this verse, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Can you imagine some man?
Fabricating this story and writing such words that came forth out of his mouth. Of course not impossible.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me an everlasting life, shall not come into condemnation or judgment, but is passed from death unto life.
Verily, verily, here's another. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. They that hear shall live The Son of God's voice. He makes his voice heard in the soul of a dead Sinner, and he lives.
He lives. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
Only God can do that. Only God can effect such a marvelous transformation. It's another way of speaking about the new birth communication of life by the voice of the Son of God. Though hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, and he hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man. Now listen to these words. Marvel not at this, He says, For this the hour it is coming in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice.
And shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil.
Unto the resurrection of damnation.
Nevermind. Speak like this. Man speaks with authority, knows the end from the beginning, can look into the future and speak of it as with the certainty as the past or the present.
Because of who he is.
And yet he was here as a man. If he hadn't become a man, we wouldn't be able to get a hold of him. We wouldn't be able to to understand God, that he had remained in the in the inscrutable essence of Deity in the form of God. We wouldn't really be able to understand him. So what does He do? The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
It came to where we were. He became a man. He laid aside the form of God and assumed the form of a servant. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
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Do you know him?
Do you know him? Don't you want to know him more? Don't you want to know him better when I was coming out here yesterday, Thursday?
Two days ago.
Left at three, picked up my grandson at 3:30 and Laura came with me and she took Steve's car home and I took Steve's to say Louis. We went to meeting at in the evening and then we went to Turkey's house. We stayed there for the night. We woke up Friday morning in Saint Louis, two above 0.
And had drove us to the airport, drops Steve off and then dropped me off and when I got to Phoenix it was 60 above 62, in fact a rise of 60°. When I got to Burbank it was 64.
Sitting next to me when I took my seat on the plane from Saint Louis to Phoenix, there was some clothes on the outside, seats next to the window. I sat next to the hallway, to the pathway in the center, and I noticed there was a book lying there. And I saw the name of the author, Kim Lehane, Not somebody. They know who he is. I've never read any of his works. I've heard a little bit about him and he's written 8.
Fiction. Christian fiction, Novels.
And the first one was quite stirring. And it turns out that the person that was right across the aisle for me, they had the same book. They were reading the same book. And the person that was right in front of the lady that was sitting next to me, they had his first book. And the people that were sitting behind me, they were Christians too. So we had quite a few Christians. And I introduced myself. I stuck a tract in this book and then when she opened it up and found the tract, I said I put that there.
And I'm a Christian. Do you know the Lord Jesus as your savior? Oh, we sure do.
She and her husband.
They were all reading this book, a Christian fiction novel.
That was the only one reading this book.
This isn't fiction. This is not cunningly devised fables. This is the word of truth.
Every word of God is pure. Every word of God is true. And I had the better part. We had a nice talk.
But how often do you read this book? Don't you want to get to know him better?
Don't you want to get to **** to know your savior?
Listen to what he said. Listen to his words.
Trace his footsteps. Everything he said was given to him from the Father. You know the father all about the Father. I don't know how many times I've been asked will we ever see the father in John 12 he said. He that seeth me seeth Father.
Philip said, Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. And he says, Have I been so long time with you?
And yet hast thou not known me, Philip, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, Yes, will see the Father in the Son.
And we're going to be in the presence of that glorified man for all eternity.
When you get into his presence.
Don't you want to enter the presence of one whom you know real well?
You know him. You've heard his words. You know what he's like. You've traced his footsteps in the four Gospels.
You know the Fathers. What characterized the Fathers is that you have known him that is from the beginning. That's Christ as he was down here. The epistle of John starts out that which was from the beginning, Christ down here, which we've heard, John says we heard him, which we've seen with our eyes.
We've seen with our eyes he was here, a real man, which we've looked upon. We've contemplated him. He wasn't just a passing vision or a voice from heaven. No, he was a man down here.
And John says, We heard him, we saw him, we looked upon him, our hands handled him of the word of life, For the life was manifested. And we have seen and declare unto you that eternal life that was with the Father.
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And was manifested to us.
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship was with the Father and the Son.
And we're so foolish. I'm so foolish that I've allowed myself times too often to go out after the trash of this world.
Not everything is bad morally.
But it's of no eternal value.
But everything you learn of him.
Everything.
You hear that? He said.
You know more of him.
The world knows nothing of him.
I was privileged to be reading the book that told me about him.
How often do you read that book?
Yes, he was a true man. He was here. He spoke these blessed words. If you come home and the Bible is sitting on the table and the newspapers right next to it, what do you pick up?
Generally, it's the wrong one.
Oh, if we could fortify ourselves and lay aside the the trash of this world and fill our souls with Christ.
With the precious truth of God.
It's not a legal thing. You can't force anyone to do it.
It has to be a desire, Desire in our hearts.
Let's turn to Chapter 6.
In chapter 6.
He says in verse 20.
27 Labor not for the meat which perisheth these are his words. But for that meat, that food which endureth unto everlasting life, which the son of man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed.
And said they unto him, Here's a wonderful question they put to him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God?
Dad always wants to do something, doesn't he? He wants to to feel that he's done his part. And notice the answer, Jesus answered and said unto them. This is the work of God.
That ye believe on him whom he has sent.
Sent one of the Father to reveal the Father to believe on him.
If that's been your experience and you've received him and believed on him, have faith in him.
You're on the right road now. On that road, you want to know more of him. You want to become better acquainted with him.
You want to know so much of him that you become like him.
Live in his presence. You walk with them as you go down the road.
Lord Jesus, walk with me, talk to me and you have sweet communion.
Do you know anything of that?
We're living in a world that's full of trinkets, worthless trinkets to dazzle the eyes of the youth especially.
These things are really of any of no eternal value whatsoever. But what you learn of Him, the better acquainted you become of Him, that's something you'll have for all eternity.
Going to be in the presence of that man. You're going to gaze upon the face where we're going to gaze upon the face of that blessed man.
Will we be embarrassed? What would be in our glorified bodies?
But.
If there is one regret we could have in heaven, it would be that I didn't that I didn't get to know him better.
The fathers are characterized by.
Knowing Him, that is from the beginning. That's all it says. It repeats it twice. Nothing more. To add to that, Christ is everything to the Fathers.
What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent. Now notice this next verse. They said therefore unto him, What sign show us thou, that we may see and believe thee? What does thou work? He had just fed, 5000.
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With five loaves and two fishes, and I asked him for a sign for a miracle.
Blind Underneath is sure to error and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter.
You will make it plain. Statement was made this morning which was wrong.
It doesn't matter who said it. It's not important. It was wrong.
Because it imputed to man some good motive, and he has none.
There's none that doeth good. Don't act on outside of Christ.
Man can't do anything. Yeah, build any building. You can't do anything. That's for the glory of God, everything that man does for the glory of man.
The glorious man.
We're here for the glory of God.
So they asked him what sign our fathers did eat man in the desert. As it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. They were probably saying, that was a lot greater than what you just did with the five loaves and two fishes. Moses gave them bread for the whole wilderness journey. And what does the Lord say? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven. But my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven, For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven.
And give us life unto the world. A fabrication of man's mind, No.
These were words that were spoken by the godman.
I ask you one question again. Do you know this man?
Do you want to know him better?
I do, and yet I'm still guilty of foolish things.
Wasting time on things with no eternal value. Some are very necessary, we know that.
Don't make them the object before your soul.
Set Christ before your soul.
Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, But my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread, than he had awakened their appetite, their desire, just like the woman in John 4.
Or give me that water that I thirst not, neither come hit her to draw. And so they say the same thing. Lord Evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them.
I am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger.
And he that believeth on me.
Never thirst What works?
He's the giver. He's the giver. He gives eternal life. He gives the bread of life.
Great giver. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Christ gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins. He's given us the Holy Spirit, everything that is for blessing.
But I said unto you, that ye also have seen me.
And believe not verse 38 For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. You can search the world over, Search the world over. Spend the rest of your time looking for that person that came down from heaven not to do his own will, but the will of the Father that sent him. You'll not find him because he's not here. He was here.
Yes, he was. And he spoke these precious words, and everything he said was the truth, for he was the truth.
Well, I'm going to go to the 7th chapter.
The 7th chapter.
He says in verse 16 Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine, my teaching is not fine, but his that sent me any man will do his will. He shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak.
Of myself.
Sent to the Father to reveal the Father, and he did it in perfection.
Now in the 7th chapter, verse 37, in the last day, listen to these words that he spoke that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man first let him come unto me and drink.
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He that believeth on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly, out of this inmost being shall flow rivers of living water.
But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost who is not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified, never man.
Speak like this, man.
Chapter 8.
Verse 12 Then spake Jesus again. Oh, how wonderful to hear what he said. He the Word, this gospel that begins with him as the Word, the one that told us in words what God is like.
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness.
But you'll have the light of life.
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Is the light and if we follow him.
We will walk in the light, John tells us in his first epistle. He says. If we walk in the light.
As he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanseth us from all sin, three essential basic truths of the Christians position. He walks in the light, he has fellowship with one another, and the blood cleanses.
From all sin making him fit for that light.
He's the light of the world.
The.
Now, towards the end of the chapter, think of these words that he spoke.
Verse.
31 verse 30 As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Then said Jesus to those that which believed on him. If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples? Indeed, you can't continue in His word if you don't know His words, if you don't know what he said, if he doesn't, you don't know what expresses himself.
You know that you'll know what's pleasing to him, and you'll know what's not pleasing to him without him even telling you. Because he's already told you it's right here. It's right here. Not What would Jesus do that thing? That's that depends on what I think he would do, or what did he do.
Do you want to know how to walk? You ask. What did Jesus do? And it's all here. It's all here, but you've got to search for it.
And is there.
Verse 32 And ye shall know the truth.
And the truth shall make you free.
They answered him. We, the Abraham's seed, were never in ******* to any man. Can you imagine a Jew the leader, saying that they were in ******* to the Egyptians? They were in ******* to the to the Babylonians. They were in ******* to the Beads and Persians. They were in ******* to the Grecians, and now to the Roman Empire. And they said we were never in ******* to any man.
Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin, he goes to something far deeper, A deeper, deeper, deeper ******* than just to an external enemy.
This the the the ******* to sin.
And the servant abideth ever, Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house forever. But the son abideth ever. If the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free Indeed are you free?
Are you free from sin? Are you free from from the evil that's all around you in this world? Because you've got Christ as your life. You've got Christ as your object. You've got Christ as your.
Your liberty, your truth.
The truth living in a day when there's no such thing as absolute truth.
In the 18th chapter of this gospel, and I'll just you don't have to turn to it. I'll just read it to you. He's standing before Pilate.
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Verse 37 verse 36 Jesus answered John 1836. My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews? But now is my Kingdom not from hence? Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then?
Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king, and when he says that, he's saying very strongly, yes, that's the truth.
To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? I can hear the sneer in his voice. What is truth or no such thing as truth? Absolute truth. Everything is relative. Everything is expendable. Everything is negotiable.
No, there is the truth. Brother wrote a book and he set before the reader the the the the basic principles of Christianity and the truth. And this this liberal New Age interviewer said to him, Well, Mr. Smith, I'll call him. How do I know that what you wrote is the truth?
And he says, Madam, you can never know that what I wrote is the truth if you don't know the truth yourself.
And you can never know the truth yourself if there is not a truth to death.
And here's the truth. Thy word is truth. The Lord Jesus is the truth. The Spirit of God is the truth. And if they if they speak not according to this word, it's because there's no light in them.
Don't listen to them.
Man is out to destroy. Your soul is out to lead you Into Darkness. You're in it already if you're not saved. But if you are saved, you're in the light. Walk in the light. Learn more of Christ.
I am the light of the world. Notice what he says.
The son Therefore verse 36 of chapter 8 shall make you free. Ye shall be free indeed.
I know that ye are Abraham's seed, but she seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my father, and you do that which you've seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I've heard from God. This did not, Abraham ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they unto him, We have my fornication.
With one Father, even God.
Jesus said unto them, If God were your father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither am I of myself. But he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot under hear my word, Ye are your father the devil. Stronger words were never spoken. Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there's no truth in him.
When he speaketh the lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, the father of thee, because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of you convinces me of sin? Which of us would dare to say such a thing? Who can convince me of sin? Be easy.
Would be easy because we're all sinners. But he says Which of you can convince with me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me? He that is of God hipeth God's word. He therefore hear them not because you are not of God.
And that was more than they could stand.
No, man is not a seeker after truth.
They crucified him who was the truth.
I remember when I was a young man.
Pumping gas gas station and it's tracked to the.
Driver got into a conversation with him and he said, well, he said I told him what I believed and gave him the gospel and he said, oh, that's all right, but I don't believe that way. Every one of us has a different belief and we'll all get to heaven, our own way. And as long as you're sincere, get to heaven.
And I said, no. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father, but by me. And then he was about to leave. And he said, by the way, this was in Wilmette. That's the second suburb north of Chicago even since the first one. And he said, how do I get to Evanston from here?
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And I said, just take any roads you want. As long as you're sincere, you'll get there.
And he said, no, that won't work. I said, That's right, it won't work. You just told me that. So we can get to heaven on your sincerity, even if you're on the wrong Rd. No. How can man be so foolish about spiritual things and so sensible about mundane things?
I wish we had more time.
Precious savior.
Precious savior.
174.
174 in closing.
Get Your Eyes on Jesus
YP Address—R. Thonney
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
74.
Opatient Spotless 1.
Our hearts and meekness train.
To bear thy yoke, and learn of thee, that we may rest obtain Jesus.
Outward enough, the mind and heart to fill.
Thy patient life to calm the soul.
Thy love, its fear dispel. O fix our earnest gaze, so, holy Lord, on thee, that with Thy beauty occupied we elsewhere.
None may see this is a prayer and we're going to pray after.
We sing this hymn, but let's just keep in mind that this is a prayer.
As we sing it.
Full patient is mindless 1.
Ours is being as rain today.
All day long way.
I'd like to read a verse first of all in Psalm 40.
Excuse me. Psalm 34.
In verse 5.
They looked unto him.
And were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed.
Want to speak this afternoon? Not in anything that profound, perhaps, but simply of the importance.
Dear young people, and it applies to us all of keeping our eyes on the Lord.
We've been.
Thinking and talking in our readings about the Lord Jesus in his many glories.
As the Son of God and as the Son of man, tremendous to think about.
Tremendous to meditate about, and we've been noticing that this is what Christianity really is.
It's not a religion. It's not.
A mere doctrine. It's not a philosophy. It's a real living person that you and I can know personally and.
To look at him is so important in the Christian life. I remember I was brought up in the meeting and I remember from my young days.
How much that has been repeated? Keep your eyes on the Lord.
And I guess it didn't really register for quite a while, but I kept hearing that message. Keep your eyes on the Lord.
And I am more and more convinced as time goes on that the root of a lot of our problems is that we get our eyes off the Lord.
On to it may be, brethren, and you know.
Satan knows that that is the source of power in the Christian testimony, and so he may try to get you occupied with brethren for good or for bad, it doesn't matter in whatever way. But if he gets you occupied with brethren, he's got you away from the source of power.
And it's something I struggle with to this day. I don't know that I'll ever be free of this struggle while I'm down here.
But there are so many ways to get distracted. But Christianity is.
Christ, dear young person, and dear older brother and sister in the Lord Jesus too.
In all his glories, in all his sufficiency.
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In whatever circumstance I may be passing through at the moment.
They looked unto him, and were lightened, and their countenance and their faces were not.
Ashamed. Another verse to kind of reinforce this in John's Gospel chapter one.
Like to read 2 verses in this chapter and then make a comment that was made.
Some time ago that has really been a help to me.
John 129 Very well known verse.
The next day John seeth Jesus, coming unto him.
And saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Now verse 36 and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God, the comment that was made.
That I have enjoyed so much is simply this one.
Look to Jesus saves the soul every.
After Look is the power of Christian living.
Let me repeat it one looked to Jesus saves the soul every after look is the power of Christian living.
So many times I hear young people, sometimes older people too, say.
I just don't have it. I just don't have the strength to walk like I know I should walk. You know what? I never have had the strength to walk like I should walk.
It's not a matter of what I am, it's a matter of what he is.
And so, dear young people might desire this afternoon.
Is that you would.
Take your eyes off me, take your eyes off all the rest around. Put your eyes on the Lord Jesus. There's another verse in the Psalms that says, O magnify the Lord with me. What happens when you magnify something?
You get it bigger. I understand that printers use a magnifying glass when they're printing, and they'll often take a sheet that they printed and put a magnifying glass on there, and when you magnify it, you see the defects of the print shot.
You magnify men and you're going to see the defects.
Doesn't matter how nice.
And how congenial and how gifted the brother, her sister may be. You're going to see defects when you magnify them. But magnify the Lord, and all you're going to see is perfection. You can magnify them as much as you want. All you'll see is perfection. And I love to go through the Gospels.
Reading through the gospels and see how the Lord Jesus was put under scrutiny, intense scrutiny.
Those lawyers, those doctors of the law, those Pharisees are they surrounded him, seeing if they could find anything they could accuse him of. They went away baffled, totally baffled. Here was a man that was completely perfect. They couldn't find any defect in him.
Dear young person, get your eyes on the Lord Jesus. You're not going to be disappointed if you have your eyes on Him. You will not be made ashamed if your confidence is truly in Him. Sometimes I've been made ashamed, but in reflecting I have found that although I thought my confidence was in the Lord, there was still a lot of self-confidence in my heart.
And that's why the Lord allowed me to get into a situation where I has made ashamed. But in any measure that you truly trust in this one, we're talking about the Lord. You're not going to be made ashamed. It won't happen. And so let's go to another verse to reinforce this again in Second Corinthians. This verse was already read during this conference, Second Corinthians chapter 3.
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And verse 18.
Before I read the verse, I want to give the context of the chapter.
Paul in this chapter is contrasting the Old Covenant with the new.
He's contrasting law with grace.
And.
He's mentioning earlier in the chapter how that Moses, when he was went up into the mountain. You remember how Moses went up into the mountain and he said to God, let me see thy glory.
And God said, no one shall see my face and live.
But he says there is a place by me, and I'll put you in the cleft of the rock and I'll put my hand over it.
And I'll pass by, and when I pass by I'll take my hand off, and you'll see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. And it was so wonderful what Moses saw, that when he came off of that mountain, here's my face was shining. He didn't realize it. And there's something to think about, dear young person, if you really get your eyes on the Lord and occupied with him.
You're not going to be occupied with what testimony you are to others, you're only going to be thinking about him. Moses face shone and he went down into the camp with that shining face.
And the people were scared of him, so he put a veil on his face. When he went into the presence of the Lord, he took the veil off.
When he came out, he put it on.
But then Paul says here at the end of the chapter, notice verse 18, we all this is a portion for every believer, not some spiritual ones only, no for every believer. We all with open or unveiled face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory.
Even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Now the contrast between law where Moses face shone at the manifestation of the glory at that time.
With what we have in Christianity, we see Jesus.
With unveiled face, the revelation of who our God is in all its glory is complete, and it's for you and I to enjoy it in its fullness. That's Christianity. To know God in the fullest sense of the word, in the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, not with any veil in between. With unveiled face. So what a privilege.
To know God in that way. And what does that do to you and me?
Says we are changed into the same image from glory to glory. There's a transformation that takes place in the measure that you and I are looking at the Lord Jesus. You know, we can look at each other and we can pick at our faults and we all have our faults and our problems.
And our shortcomings.
But that isn't what's going to really.
Transform us. It's looking with unveiled face on the Lord Jesus. More you're occupied with Him, the more there's going to be a transformation that takes place in your life and mine. Oh, how hard it seems it is to learn this lesson.
The dear young people, this is Christianity. It's not what we are, it's what he is.
I've said this before and I'd like to repeat it.
Judaism.
In a brief way.
We could say it is it was what man was for God. He was to produce for God and he failed miserably failed.
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That test ended with man hanging his creator on a cross and God in effect said the tests over. No more tests you failed.
Now I'm going to show you.
Who I am and Christianity is the revelation of the heart of God.
And he opens the floodgates of blessing.
He reveals to us who our God is.
I'm convinced again, I say, dear young people, that our problems, whether it's individual or collective.
Come from a lack of understanding who our God is, really, practically speaking.
So here's something that will transform with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are changed. This is something for the youngest as well as the oldest. And to me it's beautiful at times seeing young children.
That have in their simplicity grasped something of this. It's not for any particular age group. You young children, you young people, don't be looking at the older ones and saying this applies to them. It really doesn't apply to me yet. I haven't got to that level. No, it says we all.
It belongs to us all.
The Lord help us.
Sometimes I've been challenged by some sister, some young person.
The enjoyment in their souls of the person of the Lord Jesus.
Think I may have told you about a sister I met down in?
Columbia.
She got to know our brother, Pepe Gomez.
Our baby brother, Pepe Gomez is a jeweler and he set stones and rings and.
This particular woman was from a very wealthy family. Her husband is.
An eminent lawyer in the city of Bogota, Colombia gives legal counsel to the presidents of the country, his well known lawyer and how they had him dupe their brother Pepe Gomez do some work for him and he delivered the job to the house and when he was delivering it, he said this woman said to him express to him how empty she felt, how terribly empty.
The rather Pepe didn't make much comment. He just said, well, the answer's in the Bible. If you want to read a Bible, the answer's there. And she got a hold of a Bible and she started reading it and she told me how that.
She started reading it early in the morning. She kept up at 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning and read. And she said I got to the point where I couldn't hold the tears back. Zahrad, I couldn't hold him back. I just streamed down my face.
She got to know the Lord through reading the Scripture. She had no contact with any other believer for four years. She finally met Pepe Gomez again. She was a real believer. But I tell you, it's a challenge.
I'm afraid I don't get up at those hours to read the Scripture, but there was a woman who challenged me because she had got a glimpse of the glory of the Lord. It's not what she is. It's not what I am. It's not what any other brother is. It's what he is, That man who sits in highest glory at the right hand of God. Get your eyes on him, dear young people. It's the secret of going on. It's the secret of power in the Christian life. There's no power in ourselves.
It's only power in him.
I'd like to go to some practical illustrations of this.
Let's go to Matthew chapter 14 to begin with.
Kind of a well known story in the life of Peter.
In his relationship with the Lord Jesus.
Verse 23 of Matthew 14 and when he had sent.
The multitudes away, that's the Lord Jesus. He went up into a mountain apart.
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To pray. When the evening was come, he was there alone.
But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves, for the wind was contrary.
That's our experience in life down here in this world. We meet up with contrary winds.
Verse 25 And in the 4th watch of the night Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit. And they cried out for fear. And straightway Jesus spake unto them saying.
Be of good cheer it is I be not afraid. And Peter answered him, and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
And he said come.
And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
When he saw the wind, boisterous, he was afraid.
And beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hands, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
And when they were coming to the ship, the wind ceased.
I love this story of Peter. You know, Peter was always right out front. He was making his mistakes. I'm afraid I'm a lot like Peter.
But we sure learn a lot from Peter's life, from Peter's mistakes.
And here he is, and the Lord is coming across the waters. The Lord is always above the storm.
He is not.
Under pressure of a storm, we get under pressure in adverse circumstances. The waves trouble us. But the Lord says it's I be not afraid.
His presence is what comforts and he says, and then Peter says in verse 28, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
And the Lord gave him one word. Come.
You know, faith is based on the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
And faith is not just some fuzzy thing in the back of our mind.
It is.
A confidence in what God says.
Make sure if you're going to act, not to act on what some other brother says about scripture.
But act on scripture itself.
That's faith.
And so the Lord gave him one word. Come Peter was a fisherman. He knew a lot about fishing and boats in the water. I don't think he had ever walked on water before. But you know, faith is something that is.
Beautifully.
Simply obedient. It just does what it says. Peter didn't start reasoning. Now I'm not sure how to to walk on water. I've never done it before. He just steps out of the boat and walks on the water to go to Jesus. But notice what happens verse 30 when he saw the wind boisterous.
I don't suppose he saw the wind exactly, it must have been the waves he saw. But it's interesting that the scripture puts it this way. He saw the wind boisterous, and the wind evidently was probably whipping up the waves as it does in a storm like that.
But Peter got looking at the waves and he started sinking, and that happened so often.
In the Christian life, we get our eyes off the Lord. We start looking at the waves.
Faith does not base itself on circumstances, it always bases itself on the Word of God. That is so important to get a hold of dear young people. Scripture says in Second Corinthians chapter 5 we walk by faith, not by sight. Does that mean I close my eyes when I'm walking along? No, God has given you eyesight and you're to use it.
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But it means we do not base our decisions upon the things that we see around.
We are guided in our decisions by what God has said and if Peter would have continued.
Is simple obedience walking as he was told to do. To come come means to get closer to Jesus.
Then he wouldn't have had any problem, but he started looking at the wave.
And I tell you, dear brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus.
I get that sinking feeling sometimes when I get looking around.
At the problems.
And the circumstances I'm going through.
I'm just like Peter.
I start sinking.
Until I get back.
To simply grasping what his word has told me all the time.
And oh, how important that is. You know, there's a lament in the book of Isaiah that I enjoy reading. Think it is chapter 64.
And the lament is this. There is none that stirreth up himself to lay hold on thee.
How do you lay hold on God?
You know how you do it? By His word.
God is faithful, always faithful to His word, and when he promises something, he stands by it. But God, if he puts faith into your heart, dear young person, is going to test that faith. It's inevitable. You're going to be tested in the faith that He's given you. And so Peter.
Starts sinking.
Notice it doesn't say that he got that far in. I don't think he sank that far.
But he prayed a little short prayer.
Lord save me 3 words and Spanish is just two words.
Young people.
It's important to learn to pray short prayers.
Praying is not something that's long necessarily.
Somebody said Peter would have prayed a long prayer. He might have been.
A few feet under by the time he got done, but his prayer was short and the Lord was right there to take his hand. And I don't think he sank under very far. But the Lord is right in a hand. Dear young people, He's there. He's promised to be with us always.
Says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Isn't that a wonderful promise? I was talking to a young sister some time ago and she says, but I don't feel like the Lord's with me. I feel like he's abandoned me. I said, do your feelings ever change? Yeah.
Well, what would you rather trust, your feelings or the word of God that never changes?
I guess I'd better trust the Word of God. Yeah, I guess you'd better. And that's the best way, Dear young people, don't trust your feelings. His promise to always be right there, there. Peter had trouble because he got his eyes off the Lord. Let's go over to the 17th chapter for another example in Peter's life.
Peter was in the group of three of the apostles that the Lord often took with him when he didn't take the other.
9.
Matthew 17 and verse one. And after six days Jesus taketh Peter.
And James and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here.
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If thou wilt, let us make here 3 tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. Well, he yet spake. Behold a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. When the disciples heard it, they fell on their face.
And we're so afraid. Jesus came and touched them, said arise and be not afraid. When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only.
Here's a beautiful experience in the life of Peter.
It's taken up into the Mount of Transfiguration in the Lord Jesus.
In a preview of the coming glory of the Kingdom.
Of the world to come that we were talking about this morning in the reading.
His transfigured, his face shines as the sun, his raiment is white as the light. And there is Moses, and there is Elias. I'm sure it must have been a tremendously wonderful thing for Peter and James and John to see Moses and Elijah, those men that were so.
Relied on in the Jewish economy those that were so they so boasted in the fact that they were followers of these men.
And I suppose in all the Old Testament there were no men who so mightily were used of God in in the nation of Israel. Moses, who took the children of Israel from the land of Egypt to the borders of the land of Canaan, and Elijah, who converted all the nation of Israel back to the Lord God of their fathers in one afternoon.
Tremendous men of faith.
And I'm going to look forward to seeing Moses and Elias when I get home to heaven, too. Let me tell you, it's going to be wonderful to see them. But you know.
Peter starts talking.
And, you know, sometimes we start talking.
Before we know what to say, and that's what happened to Peter.
And it says actually in another gospel not he didn't know what to say, but he starts talking and I suppose that's the way of a leader. He gets talking sometimes and he says, Lord, it's good for us to be here. Sure it was nice to be there, but then what he says, let us make 3 tabernacles, one for thee. Put the Lord first.
And one for Moses and one for Elias.
But brethren, in the things of God there can be no rival, there can be no one that comes even close to the glory of God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus.
And that must be.
Understood. That must be learned in our lives here.
And we learn it in different ways. And I have to say.
The Lord has in His mercy put me through some hard times to help me to learn it. Not that I can say I've learned it completely yet.
But the wonderful thing to know that there's one, and one only, who is supreme, the one we should be looking at. Peter had unconsciously taking his eyes off the glory of that central figure and put them on Moses and Elijah, Something I'm afraid a lot of us would have done in the same circumstances.
Immediately.
Those two are lost from sight. A cloud comes and covers them and a voice comes out of that cloud saying.
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This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Here ye him.
Oh, why is it that it takes so long for us to learn this lesson that Jesus and Jesus alone must be supreme in the Christian life?
They fell on their faces and were sore afraid. Brethren, if we compare anyone in our minds to the Lord Jesus.
We need to do what these disciples did, fall on their faces. We don't understand in whose presence we are. Who is anyone the most gifted brother?
Who is he in comparison with God's beloved Son?
Dear young people.
Do you come to the local Bible reading and prayer meeting in your local assembly or is that too much?
Do you, have you learned the importance of being there? Because he is there? Member perhaps? I've told it before.
In Peru one time we were visiting a little town called Atacocha, little mining town in the High Andes of Peru, and we got there Lord's Day morning. I you have to walk in cross a mountain pass from another town called Mill Pole and we got there about 9:00 in the morning. I think the meeting was maybe breaking the bread was to be about 11:00.
And the brother met us at the door. Oh, it's so nice to see you, brother.
Come in, come in, I'm going to run and call all the brethren.
Mr. Jim, Brother.
Please don't call anybody.
Let's see how many come, because Jesus is going to be here.
Is it possible?
That some wouldn't come.
I'm afraid that happens because.
Because we, like Peter, have a tendency to get our eyes on some gifted brother, brother. It won't work for as much as those two or three that are gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus.
Our feeble don't have a whole lot to say. There is a blessing.
In simply being in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
Lord help us to get our eyes on Him. I'd like to go over to the Old Testament too for a couple of examples.
Getting our eyes on the Lord.
In second Kings chapter.
Two, I think it is.
A story about Elijah and Elijah for time. We're going to have to.
Tell some of the story, but Elijah was going to be taken home.
And you'll remember that he was.
The second man that we know about in the Bible that was taken into glory without dying.
A natural death.
Elijah had complained about the people of God.
You know, it's a real lesson to me, dear brother and sister and the Lord Jesus.
For his rebellious and as willful as the people of God may be.
God still loves His people and He will not allow anybody lightly to speak evil of Him.
Elijah had stood up in a tremendous way against the prophets of Baal, and had.
Shown the people that Jehovah was the true God.
And destroyed those false prophets of Baal. But then he got his eyes on a poor woman.
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Jezebel and she says I'll take the Elijah's head off just like he took those prophets heads off.
And when you get your eyes off the Lord instead of the God of Israel.
Elijah takes off running, and he ran a long ways.
And he was all discouraged. And when the Lord came to say, What are you doing here, Elijah?
He says.
I've been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts. I only I am left and they seek my life to take it away.
In the New Testament, it is the only sin of a new of an Old Testament believer that is mentioned in the New Testament that he pled against Israel with God.
Serious thing to do.
Lord help us. Dear brethren, many of our brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus are scattered in diverse Christian denominations and affiliations.
If they're real believers, they're part of the body of Christ the Lord. Help us not to speak against them.
We can recognize their errors perhaps, but always plead for the people of God because God loves them. And as soon as most as Elijah said, I only I am left God says Elijah.
Amongst others, anoint Elisha to be prophet in your room. I'm taking you home, Elijah.
O brethren, this lesson falls heavily on my heart. Be careful not to speak against the people of God, for as much as they may be willful and wayward and stiff necked, don't speak against them. Pray for them. Anyhow, Elijah is going to go home, and Elijah is accompanying him here, and he goes on a little circuit from Gilgal to Bethel.
To Jericho and then down to the Jordan. And notice verse nine of chapter 2, Second Kings 2. Verse nine came to pass. When they were gone over that Elijah said unto Elijah.
Ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast ask a hard thing. Nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee, but if not, it shall not be so. And it came to pass as they went on.
Still went on and talked, that behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more, took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
Just to present this thought, dear young people, that as they were going.
Elisha asked. The double portion of Elijah's spirit would be upon him.
And Elijah said it's a hard thing you've asked, but if you see me go, it will be so. If not, it won't be so.
And I've thought about it. I can imagine that.
Elisha was pretty careful to keep his eyes on Elijah.
He might have got distracted in one side with something that was going on. It didn't have to be anything that important. But if he got distracted, Elisha would have been gone. He would have missed it.
He kept his eyes on him and here comes a chariot of fire. He doesn't go in a chariot of fire. Sometimes paintings.
Picture Elijah going in a chariot of fire doesn't go in a light cherry to fire, he's parted in a cherry to fire, and he goes up in a whirlwind into heaven.
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And he sees it, and he gets the double portion.
Brethren, I like to think of the double portion as this.
Elijah could go, say as he went back, I knew a man who walked through this world and then went up into heaven. I saw him walk in this world. I saw him going to heaven. And in that same way, dear young people, we can have the double portion. As we look in the Gospels, we see the Lord Jesus Christ, God's beloved Son, walking through this world.
In complete perfection. And at the end of the Gospels, it's recorded in the book of the Acts as well and some in the epistles. We read that he walked right into the throne room of the universe. I like to say it.
Into God's presence and sat down. A glorious man sat down by the rights that he had in virtue of what he did on Calvary.
By virtue of his person and his work, he went and sat down at God's right hand.
Oh and a portion for our souls. We know that man that walked through this world.
We know that man that walked right into the presence of God and sat down on the right hand of God. I like to think of it in that way. The double portion can be ours as well. Like to look at another brief portion in chapter 20 of Second Chronicles another.
Situation of crises in the life of Jehoshaphat.
We don't have time to read a whole lot, but Jehoshaphat was one of the faithful kings of Israel. Didn't mean he didn't have his problems. He had to be reproved in chapter 19 by Jehovah Jehu, the son of Hananiah Dasir. But in chapter 20, there's a tremendous crisis that arises in Judah. The children of Moab and the children of Ammon come up against Jehoshaphat to Bible.
A tremendous multitude and notice verse 3. Jehovah Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaim the fast throughout all Judah.
And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord, even out of all the cities of Judah that came to seek the Lord. Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the House of the Lord before the new court.
And said, Oh Lord God of our fathers, art thou not God in heaven, and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the earth? And in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee in this beautiful How Jehoshaphat?
Turns not to some mighty king of the Assyrians.
But he turns directly to the Lord. What is your reaction when you have problems in your life?
I know it's natural in a certain way to turn to our parents and it should be that way.
Sometimes we turn to some older brother and I don't say we ignore what an older brother might have to offer, but may the 1St reaction of our heart to turn to the Lord.
Think I've told this story before, but it was such a reproof to me when I first lived in Bolivia. There's a brother there that in the city, in the town of Montero who had bad asthma attacks and.
Especially when the South wind blew. The South wind in South America is the cold wind, and when it blows, it cold blows cold.
And every time it blew, he'd get a bad asthma attack. And one day.
I was there in my home in Montero. This little boy comes running over and says.
Come quick. My dad's calling you and I ran over there and there he was, sitting in bed gasping for breath.
And I reacted as an American might react. I said, oh, brother, what can I do for you? I'll run and get my Jeep and we'll take you to the hospital.
Between gas, he says, Brother, get down on your knees and pray.
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It was a real reproof to me, but that's the way we're trained to react in the United States of America. Run for help.
What better help to run to the Lord? That's what Jehoshaphat did. Notice what he says down further. It's so beautiful.
Verse 12 Oh our God, wilt thou not judge them?
For we have no might against this great company that cometh against us neither nor we what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee. That's the source, dear young people, if we can learn to do that, to turn to the Lord in those moments of crises, to lay ourselves in His hands, to lay hold on the promises of God, you'll notice.
If you read this whole portion that he does, that, he'll always hold on the promises of God, and then they went out, there was an answer from God's prophets, the brother read.
Earlier in verse 20, Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. Believe his prophets.
So shall ye prosper.
And they went out. And who was the first company to go out? It was those that learned to praise the Lord. They went out praising the Lord, and the Lord gave the victory. And I want to encourage you, dear young people and older ones too. Let's make it more a part of our life to praise the Lord. It seems like our lives are so busy, we can't stop. A moment to sing of hymn of praise.
I don't say we do it every day in our house, but I like to try to make it a practice that we stop at some moment of the day to lift a hymn of praise to our God. Oh, how important that is. Learn to praise Him. Even when things go rough and contrary, learn to praise Him. It's a real secret. And Jehoshaphat and his army when they got to the battlefield.
All they had to do was gather the spoils of battle. That's all that was left to do. Our God is a great God, dear young people. We have reason to trust Him. We really do. Keep your eyes on Him, whatever happens. Just want to turn to one more place in Luke chapter 24.
This is a case of a couple that were walking away from Jerusalem after the Lord had died.
And he had risen that morning, but they didn't seem to know yet that he had risen. We're going to have to just tell the story briefly. But they were discouraged, downright discouraged.
They're going to Emmaus, a place they understand is about 7 miles from Jerusalem. I calculated take two to three hours to walk there and the Lord Jesus comes up in his resurrection and he walks with them. I think this is so extremely beautiful. Dear brethren, in seeking to be a help, what an example this is to those who may have gotten discouraged and gone away from the divine center. Lord, help us to meditate on this.
The Lord Jesus in his gentle way comes up.
And says why are you sad?
He knew what they were sad. Why did he have to ask? It's important let a person get out the sorrow they may feel in their souls.
And then when they had got done talking, and they talked for quite a while, why he says, oh, fools and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And for the rest of that journey he talked through the Old Testament scriptures that they had. Then of all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. I would really love to hear him go through the book of Leviticus and explain some of those things that I don't understand yet. But.
Oh, it must have been a tremendous thing. And it says later that their hearts were burning in them. They were still going the wrong direction.
And think of this. He never said stop. You're going the wrong way. Turn around. Go back. No, he never said it. He never did. Isn't this a lesson?
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They get to masks and they constrain him to go in to stay with him.
And he goes in.
And they sit down to me.
And he takes bread.
And he blesses it, and he breaks it, and he gives it to them.
Suggest that perhaps in that moment of giving them those pieces of bread, they may have seen his hands, but at any rate, it says in verse 31, their eyes were opened and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight.
They got their eyes opened as to who he was.
And when their eyes were opened, there was number question as to where they belonged.
No complaining, it's 7 miles back to Jerusalem and maybe we'll go back tomorrow morning. No, that same hour of the night they went straight back. They knew where they belonged. And brethren, when souls get away from the divine center, sometimes there may be necessity of answering some question of principles. I don't say that may not be, But the major problem is that we've got our eyes off the Lord.
And we need to show them Jesus.
And when they get their eyes open as to who he really is, they will know where they belong.
I'm convinced of it. Dirham brother and sister, get your eyes on the Lord Jesus.
It's the power of Christian life. We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Let's pray, gracious Father.
Bless Thy word, we pray these dear young people.
Dear older ones, to help us, each one we confess how easily we get distracted by this world tensely whirled around us. Help us, Lord Jesus, to keep our eyes on Thee. So we ask for Thy blessing upon Thy precious word in the meetings still remaining today, and for all thy dear people, O Father, how we look forward to that day when everyone of Thy redeemed.
Is going to be gathered together in one. Practically, it should be so now, but we thank Thee that it will be so in that coming day. We ask for blessing, Gracious Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Glories of Grace and Power
Address—C.I. Buchanan
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We will ask God's blessing.
To introduce what I'd like to speak of, let's turn to the 84th Psalm.
And the.
11TH verse.
For the Lord God is a son and shield.
The Lord will give grace and.
Glory.
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Grace and glory.
Tremendous to think of them.
And how are we going to learn about them?
Come God's blessed book.
How did you as a believer get to know that verse we just quoted He?
Know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is he your Lord Jesus Christ?
Though he was rich in glory, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that when he was crucified and buried, he was in a borrowed grave.
He didn't even take possession of that place, but he went into death.
Because we as sinners had earned those wages through sin and being a God of love.
He wanted a lot of children like his only begotten Son, and he had a way to get it to bring us into that glory.
Oh, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Some brother remarked about the riches of His Grace this morning.
Let's turn well, I want to get another verse in Proverbs while we're, I mean, in Psalm 4, we're here. Let's go to the 90th Psalm and pick it up and read it because it'll come in later.
In the 90th Psalm.
This won't sound very good to some of you. The ninth verse.
All our days are passed away in thy wrath.
We spend our years.
As a tale that is told.
The days of our years are three score and 10.
And if by reading of strength they be 4 score, yet is their strength labor and sorrow?
Now let's back up to the fourth verse.
For 1000 years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is passed, and as a watch in the night. This seemed to be a gauge that God has said in the scriptures so that we can partially understand time.
I believe through experience if your past three score and 10.
The strength is a little bit of Labor and sorrow.
All the years carry their weight because of sin.
And yet God in love.
Gives us joy and peace and fellowship in His grace. He's a giving God. He just loves to give.
So there is the riches of His grace, and there is the glory of His grace. Let's look at that In Ephesians 1. The riches of His grace is listed there, but the glory of His grace is what I want to get ahold of.
Because I believe that if you and I.
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Are going to know.
What glory is, we're going to learn it in grace.
Because the manifest glory like God showed to the children of Israel when he brought them out of Egypt, they passed through the Red Sea, and that glory displayed then became a shelter to them. And their enemies could not come near them, but they had light, and they had light in their dwellings. And the glory cloud opened up the Red Sea.
Typical of death and LED them through that.
And the Angel of his presence bare them, and carried the mall. The days of old. Isaiah 63. Nine. What a God of grace displayed in the glory, to keep that earthly people, and to bring them out from their enemies, carry them through the wilderness, guide them, present their murmurings, correct them, and bring them all the way in.
And then?
Provide himself a dwelling in the midst of them.
To shelter them.
From the law that was given, you remember that Moses went up twice.
To the mount to get the.
The written law.
And when he came down the first time, he found the company in less than six weeks, bowing down to idols made with hands.
Moses had those.
2 stones.
Written in document form. And when he saw the company there in idolatry, he had the wisdom of God to break those stones and not carry them into the camp. It would have been death to everyone.
But the law, the Word of God, abides forever. So he went back the second time.
And they got the written law. They came down that time he put it in an ark.
In the ark. Then he could bring it into the camp.
Well, here, and we were going to read in, in Ephesians one about grace and the glory of his grace.
In Ephesians one the sixth verse.
Says this.
We must read a little bit more here to get the sense out of it. It is so rich. Verse three, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that one who is rich became poor.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame. Look what it says before Him.
In love, He wanted us to be in His presence.
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children born of God, as we heard in this platform yesterday.
We may get up to a verse that shows us that.
Adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. Now the next verse says, to the praise of the glory of his grace. What an expression.
To the praise of the glory of His grace. I don't think with our natural eyes God is going to show us that glory.
He could that he showed to Israel.
Because I would suggest we have more.
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And grace.
God dealt with them in grace.
But it was a rigid kind of grace under the law.
The law was fulfilled in Christ.
And Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. That test is over. We get the righteousness of Christ as a gift of free grace. Read this sixth verse again to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved.
Peter writes about the God of all grace.
And John, it says, grace upon grace.
And it says grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
It's a known factor, and the glory of that grace approaches as much as I can get a hold of glory. The glory of that grace He gives and gives and gives.
Now there's another glory, and for that we will go to.
First Thessalonians.
Two Thessalonians 1.
And you may be surprised at this glory.
But the two of them express a quite a lot, and we're going to need to get into that side of things too. 2nd Thessalonians 1.
9.
I'll read the verse and then I'll back up and read a little bit more.
2nd Thessalonians 19.
You shall be punished with everlasting.
Destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.
I'll say to you who preach the gospel, who announce it to your neighbors, who talk to them.
There is not a person that you've ever talked to that you cannot truthfully say you, you, you. You will be forever and forever an example of the power of God.
In one way or another.
That's the truth.
The two ways that you will be an example of the power of God is the power to save and the power to judge.
I think we ought to turn to two verses that were read from this platform yesterday to get into that a little bit more definitely as to who is one who has the right to judge. In the 5th of John's Gospel there are two verses to read.
Which present the one who is the judge?
Dearly beloved Saints and anybody that's not a St.
There is salvation today.
And the happiness of knowing Jesus.
As Savior.
And if you don't get a hold of that in confession, you're going to find out he has the power to judge.
In the 5th chapter of John.
The two verses to pick out are.
The 22nd.
We'll read that.
For the Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment under the sun.
I'll read the next verse. Two, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son on earth, not the Father which hath sent him. Then the 27th verse.
The I'll read the 26th to the Father. As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, and hath given him a authority.
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To execute judgment also because he is the Son of man. We'll get into verses later that will show some of that judgment and who it is that is the judge. But in thinking of this.
I think it's wonderful to see how God gains the victory.
Over what the 1St man had brought in.
Do you remember Jesus says in one place, or it says about Him? Then I restored that which I took, not away.
Satan took away the authority in this earth. He stole the dominion from the first man.
Adam and Eve, his wife. He called their name Adam.
Satan claimed that, and when he tempted the Lord, he offered him all the Kingdom of the world in a moment of time, and said, This is delivered unto me. Well, that was true, but how did he get it? He stole it.
And that just seems ever since that God has lost out.
The poor first man and all these millions that are in the world today are living in ******* and suffering and sin and sorrow and death, and we're not excluded from those things entirely. But oh, God is so gracious when you know him, his Father, and he points through to better things in grace that he brings us to. But to think here God is taking authority.
In the second man.
The second man, he's going to be the judge and fix this place up. Oh, the ruin is great.
Along with that, we're going to try to show a few things that point to the time in which we live. And as an aside to that, let's turn to Luke chapter 21 and read the 20th verse.
For you all are noticing what is going on over in Israel.
Where God's earthly people?
In unbelief are assembling at the sight of the cross.
They were told not to go back to the site of the crime, but they are getting there and look what it says in Luke 21 verse 20.
And I think this verse is especially for us here today.
When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is not.
On the US.
Cruiser destroyer got to Yemeni.
The enemies there blew a hole in it that cost 1 or 200 million to fix up What a warship that was and will be.
How about the armies of the Israelis?
The rest of the nations over there fear them.
And in thinking about these things in a natural sense.
This nation has shown friendship to God's earthly people.
And naturally speaking, God behind it, the armies, the the military of this world, the whole world is scared of it. Well, it's right now today. Well, that's something to indicate that the Lord's coming. But let's go to other scriptures about that.
Let's go to the book of Hosea.
The 5th chapter.
You know, it's lovely to notice that when failure comes in.
In any time with God's people, He follows it with prophecy to tell what is going to be.
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It'll cheer you up just to see that.
Think, for instance of the first sin.
And.
What was said to the devil?
Who had brought in that sin?
And.
Adam and Eve.
Adam was the guilty one, even though Eve was first to partake of the forbidden fruit, and they gained the knowledge of good and evil. They grasped after that half truth to be as God's knowing good and evil. Our race has had that conscience ever since, but never the power to do the good.
Are they refused the evil?
But in pronouncing to Satan.
God said, On thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shall be thy meat, and the woman seed shall bruise thy head. That's Christ, That's prophecy. The seed of the woman gains the victory over Satan. But Satan?
Bruised the heel of the race.
And you and I have been stumbling around on this earth and everybody else.
Ever since not able to walk rightly, I mean uprightly, and to do the good and refuse the evil. Well, that's just an example of the prophecy. But in Hosea the 5th chapter there was Ephraim.
Figurative, I suppose, of the 10 tribes. And earlier in the book it says Ephraim is joined to idols. Let him alone. God was tired of working with that rebellious people.
These hundreds and hundreds of years, he said, let him alone.
We find something different in the last part of the book and maybe we should turn to that to finish that thing about Ephraim joined to idols in the last chapter of Hosita.
There is wonderful progress.
And wonderful development.
Notice.
Just the eighth verse, Ephraim is going to be brought to the place where they act like this.
Ephraim shall say God works with it. What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, the Lord God, and observed him and am like a green ferkrie from me is thy fruit found the fruit of the lips. Giving thanks to his name for us back in the 5th chapter to pick up what we started to bring out.
The 14th verse to get the character of the way God is acting toward them and this juncture for I will be unto Eve Rim as a lion.
And as a young lion to the House of Judah.
I even I will tear and go away. I will take away and none shall rescue him. I will return. Now this is the Lord God talking and we can think of it this way. I will go and return to my place. That is the Lord God left and he went up to heaven.
Didn't interfere with him much.
For a long time.
Until I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction, they will seek me early. I want to say to this company at this juncture, I believe that we are in the most favored position than any people on the earth have ever been in.
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And all the time that man has been here.
And it's because heaven is so near. Heaven is so near.
The grace that brings us there.
Going on here.
The last verse of the 5th chapter again I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense. It's going to take affliction to do it and that's what the rest of the verse says.
And they acknowledge their events and seek my faith in their affliction. Will they seek me early? Perhaps the most prophesied part of time is the seven years of the Tribulation. All of the Psalms is about that. And in much of the Bible and the New Testament too, the acknowledging of their offense through affliction. We're near to that.
But we haven't got to it yet. But then the Lord says, come.
As our brother said in the Sunday school this morning, come, would you want to come to him?
He's begging Israel come.
And let us return unto the Lord.
Maybe they're saying that for he hath torn, and he will heal us.
He has smitten and he will bind this up. There seems to be faith and hope in the remnant of Israel that's brought through the affliction. They come to this and acknowledge their fence and they're wanting healing.
Now we get a promise here.
After two days.
Will he revive us? It's a promise in the Bible. In the third day, he will raise us up.
And we shall live in his sight.
It's this simple.
One day is with the Lord's 1000 years and 1000 years as one day.
In dealing with his earthly people again.
He'll pass them through.
The Tribulation.
And.
Then he'll bring them into the third day.
He will raise this up and we shall live in His sight. The Jews, the dear Jews, the poor Jews, won't get that blessing until they acknowledge their offense. God is able to get them out of them.
Now the question is, or the statement is, if the third day is 1000 years, what are the two days?
Present. It's the two days since the cross. We'll get the scriptures that talk about the 1000 years later on.
But this is so impressive.
We have a dear old brother back in Illinois.
Who's already lived in two different centuries.
He lived at the end of the 19th century and went into the 20th.
And all of us here have lived in the 20th century.
If we're around 10 more days, brethren, we're going to be in another sensory and in another Millennium.
Oh, it's so exciting.
To think that now we're going by our calendar, which we have to go by, and we're not setting dates for God because, as an old brother wrote back in the past century, anyone who sets a time for the Lord to come is wrong in spirit.
Leo.
Well, nevertheless, these things show up in scriptures to stir our hearts about when we're living and what's going on, and the grace of God that saves and saves and saves who will all will come to Him in faith.
Seeking to get heaven filled up with Saints.
And it will be filled.
Not wanting anyone.
To go to judgment now, let's go to the book of.
Revelation. We're going to have to shorten up a few things, but this is so interesting. That's all right.
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Let's go to the book of On the way to Revelation. Let's stop in.
I Ecclesiastes and read a verse. I write this book of Ecclesiastes and charming. Oh no, I don't know much about it.
But I've been impressed with the last chapter.
And the second verse.
And the 13th verse. So we'll read the second verse.
Of Ecclesiastes 11, give a portion to seven and also to 8.
For thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. What does that mean? Give a portion to seven and also to 8. I don't know, but I'm going to look at some things that I enjoy with it. Now the next to the last verse of Ecclesiastes is let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God. Now that's the shortest sentence in the Bible. In first Peter two, I think it is 7 letters.
Dear God, do you fear God?
By the grace of God, I do.
Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. That's man as man. Now over to Revelation chapter 19 and we're going to pick up.
One of the sevens and go to the 8th.
As the visions are given to John in packness.
And it starts with heaven opened.
I think we mentioned yesterday something about heaven opened in the last verse of John One. There are four times when it's opened that I can tell you about. One is when the Lord came down and entered into baptism, the heavens were open for.
Heaven to look down on the earth and see.
A man receiving the Spirit of God. Heaven was looking at a man on the earth. Marvelous.
Stephen, I'll say, looked up in the 7th chapter.
And saw heaven open. I think we referred to this yesterday.
And.
There was the glory of God.
But when he talks, he says, I see heaven open and.
Jesus.
On the right end of God, standing there, yet waiting to come back. Oh how sweet that is.
The first martyr looking up and God opened them. Look at where Jesus is the man.
Where we're going to pick it up now is.
Heaven opened.
For him to come out and clean up the mess that's here on the earth through sin. And there are 7 visions consecutive that take up what the judge, what the judge has to do.
So we'll read them slowly.
In the 11TH verse of Revelation 19 it says, I saw heaven opened, and behold a White Horse, and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true.
In righteousness he does judge and make war. His eyes were the flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no man knew but he himself.
He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood. He is the judge, and his name is called the Word of God. His name is called the Word of God.
We know who he is now. There's more of the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses clothed in fine linen, white and clean, And out of his mouth singular goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nation.
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron. He shall. And he credits the wine Press of the fierce and wrath of Almighty God. He has on his vest and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There's no doubt who this is, but there are armies that follow him.
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As one of the psalms might be the 32nd but I don't need to turn to it, it says.
I guess I'm going to have to pick this up.
I guess I'm going to have to leave it, but it says a king shall reign in righteousness and Princess rule in equity. It's the company that comes out of heaven with Christ when he takes possession. That's what he's doing in the part we're reading. Let's go back and go on with Revelation.
Now we started with and I saw in verse 11, that's the first vision we get the second one starting with verse 17, they all start with and I saw and I saw an Angel standing in the sun. And he cried with a loud voice saying, To all the fellows that fly in the heavens in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves together under the supper of the great.
God, that he may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men.
And the place of horses.
Of them that sit on them, and the place of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. That's one vision. Isn't it dreadful to read what's going on here? What judgments they are, They are necessary to cleanse this earth for the King to reign in righteousness. And he does it well. That's the second one. Now we go to the third and the 19th verse.
And I saw the beast. You've heard about the beast.
And the kings of the earth and their armies.
Gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army, that imperial head of the power on earth. Now what happens? And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet is.
Is contemporary.
That wrought miracles before him.
Which he had, with which he had deceived, them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image, these both were cast alive into a lake of fire.
The brother David talked about that this Sunday school burning with brimstone, and the remnant were slain with the sword that sat upon of him that sat upon the horse which.
With which sword proceeded out of his mouth. Think of that. That's the word of God.
And all the panels were filled with that flesh.
This is the man who is the judge taking care of all of this. Those two great beasts cast into the lake of fire.
Now the 20th chapter has another and I saw.
This is the 4th vision, an Angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Delayed all on the dragon and that old serpent. These are all statements about.
00:40:02
This person which is the devil and Satan and bound him 1000 years.
I'm going to say to you that here is the Millennium. They are the 1000 years, and it says 1000 years in five consecutive verses. And I don't know of any other place in the Bible where the Millennium is mentioned, but it's very impressive.
And it's during the time of Christ's reign here.
And Satan is tied up.
He's bound in the bottomless pit.
And cast him into the bottomless pit, the third verse, and shut him up, and set a seat upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the 1000 years. There it is again should be fulfilled. And after that he must be loosed a little season.
He's going to be used once more. That is, Satan is going to be, but he's tied up.
During the time when that king reigns in righteousness.
Just try to imagine.
How much better the earth would be if there were no devil to tempt us? We can't, but God is going to prove the 1St man without the devil to tempt him to see what he can do.
Going on and reading another part of the vision, another vision, verse four. And I saw Thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them, and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus.
And the Word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark in their foreheads or in their hands. And they lived and reigned with grace 1000 years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Now this is the most blessed thing to contemplate.
There is going to be a resurrection and we're going to have a part in it.
Even as Jesus said to Mary and Martha as he approached Lazarus grave.
He that believeth in me, that's the believer.
Though he were dead, yet shall he live.
And he that liveth and believeth in me.
Shall never die.
There are millions of us believers who will not go through the article of death. It's a blessed thing to think about, but we'll get to change.
And so the company for the Kingdom is being brought together.
In Revelry in One Corinthians 15 it says about Christ.
Christ the first fruits, that's resurrection afterwards, they that are Christ that is coming, That's those that have just passed through death from Abel on down to the last one.
At the time of his coming. But there's a little supplement to that, people that have that heavenly part.
In the companies that are faithful and die in the tribulation period.
And they too are raised.
It's like the gleanings of the border of the field when you get the.
Truth of this in Leviticus.
You can look it up for yourself, but it doesn't come to me. There is a supplement to the first resurrection after we are caught in to those who were supposed to go ahead and live on the earth.
But they're cut off through the instigation of Satan, or no, through their own selves. But they're raised and they lived and reigned with Christ 1000 years.
That's the end of verse 4 going on. The rest of the dead lived not till the 1000 years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on set. The second death hath no power, but they shall be priests.
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Of God.
And of Christ and shall reign.
With him 1000 years.
And when the 1000 years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breast of the.
Earth encompassed the camp of the Saints about.
The beloved city. Do you remember we spoke yesterday, I think about the millennial picture.
Of the earthly Saints and the heavenly Saints interconnected, we by grace will be part of the heavenly Saints. And we use either 1500 or 2000 as a number and drew a cube out of that. Now that's a huge place.
It's a way of thinking about the heavenly Saints.
And the thousand years of Christ's reign, and the earthly people down here being yet tested as to a perfect government and no Satan, how would they get along?
Thousands, maybe millions of them are alive at the end of the thousand years, but amongst them?
There are found a lot of pretenders.
They're just feigned obedience.
And we won't go to the verse, but it's in the Psalms.
Either 1844 or 4418. Those that feign obedience.
Such is the heart of man that it can't produce.
Even having a perfect government, Christ reigning, and no devil to tempt them, the old flesh comes out.
And so Satan gathers them together, and they they fight against that king.
Well, that takes care of those around the earth.
Now we come to two more. And I saw on verse 11 and I saw a great white throne in him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.
And there was found no more place for them.
What a thing, what a power.
There's a great white throne.
This takes care of the wicked dead.
Man has a never dying soul.
And death of the body is not the end for these people, nor is it the end for us, but we are going to get a more blessed scripture for ourselves to go on and read about that a little further. I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, verse 12. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which are written in the books, plural. There's a record of your life and mine according to their works. This is judgment of the works.
Rewards for the living people. The sea gave up the dead, no one can hide from God which were in it, and death and hell were delivered.
Up delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works. Then there's one more thing.
Man can't hide from God in death that's brought out.
There's going to come a time when there's no more need for death or hell, and we're about to read about it.
Verse 14 and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death this ever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now we read about 7 visions they all start with and I saw.
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Give a portion to seven and also to 8. There is an eighth one coming up here.
In the next chapter and it is absolutely wonderful.
And I saw a new habit and a new earth, for the 1St heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more seed. Now John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared the bright adorn for her husband. And I heard of a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with him.
They shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, their God.
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, for the former things are passed away.
Neither sat upon the throne, said, behold, I make all things new. Well, we're running out of time, but we've come to a more very blessed place. This is the day of God. He's going to make all things new. I would like to.
See what Paul says about this and what Peter says about it. Turning to 2nd Corinthians, No First Corinthians.
Uh.
Why? I'll get it in a minute. Second Corinthians by.
This relates to what was said from this platform yesterday a little bit.
2nd Corinthians 517.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, or there is a new creation.
All old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath committed to us the ministry of reconciliation.
You know, we have part in those things that are new.
If we're going to get a life that will go into this time, we're going to get it now. That's new life given, you know, when the Lord comes, if he comes yet today, nobody's going to get a new life that already has it. Nobody's going to get a new life. You already got it or you won't go any further, but you're going to get a new body. That's the blessedness of the gospel.
And it seems that Paul introduces that.
John takes it up and fills it.
I have another scripture in Peter. Second Peter.
Paul and John and Peter all talk about this making all things new in Second Peter.
And this is the day of God. We'll read 2 verses 12 and 13.
Looking for Are you looking for this?
And hasting under the coming of the day of God. That's what we read about in that 8th. And I saw wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Now that's where we're headed.
I would like to, with your permission, add 3 scriptures of advice or exhortation.
Present simple things. Turn back to Second Chronicles 20.
And the 20th verse.
One of the very.
Lovely things that are said back in those days of Israel under the kings.
Particularly the last part of the verse.
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But his second Chronicles 20 and verse 20.
So in the days of Jehoshaphat. And they rose early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness of Toccoa. And as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me. We heard about that yesterday. Hear me.
O Judah and ye inhabitant of Jerusalem, now here's the exhortation.
Believe.
In the Lord.
Your God, so shall ye be established.
Believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
Now let's go to the end of the resurrection chapter one Corinthians 15 and see what the last verse.
Says I think you all enjoy reading this chapter and seeing that there are 57 verses of doctrine.
On one verse of exhortation, he didn't come down heavy on exhortation, but it is very, very important for us. So we want to add these words of exhortation, the words of Jehoshaphat.
And the words.
Oh, by the Spirit of God in First Corinthians 15.
We will read the last two verses. Thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have the victory.
The victory over death. The victory over sin, the victory over Satan.
The victory over the world. We're still tested down here, aren't we? We still have the old nature.
And so we need the exhortation. So what is it?
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, stay in this place where the truth is.
Always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
On the farm back there, we had one field. The river overflowed almost every 3rd or 4th year, and we'd go out there and plant it and get the corn up about a foot high and the river had come over. There wasn't a thing left. It was a lost work. You never can do that kind of work when you're working for God. There's always something coming from it. Be steadfast.
Unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Open Mtg.
Open—E. Tonn, R. Bauman, R. Ruga
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83 in the offenders.
I'm thinking especially at verses 2 and verse 3, which I'd like to read.
I look to him.
The lamb till sight and do the Savior to my heart.
To him I look who calms my fear.
Nor from himself.
I look until his precious mouth.
My every thought control.
It's fast constraining influence, food or body. Spirit Soul number 83 in the back of the book.
Every person.
Are they in verse 22?
But with all.
Prepare me also a lodging.
And back in Luke.
22.
Verse 9.
And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare?
First I was read last night in Isaiah.
Isaiah 57.
Verse 15.
For this set the high and lofty one that inhabits it, eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also, that is of a contrite and humble spirit.
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And last verse in Galatians.
Here.
Galatians, chapter 4.
And verse 19.
My little children I whom I travail and birth again until.
Christ before in you.
Let's pray to read from the first Epistle to John.
Word to introduce.
What the Lord has on my heart.
Simple statement from chapter 4.
It's a simple statement, but it's a profound 1.
That's often the way the word of God is addressed to us.
Very simple terms.
Bringing before our hearts.
The deep truth of God.
The apostle says to the Corinthians that.
Quoting from Isaiah's prophecy, I have not seen nor heard, neither entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for them that love him.
And that's all Isaiah could say.
The Apostle Paul goes on to tell us, but God has.
Reveal them unto us by the Spirit. And the Spirit searches the depths of God. God has told out his entire heart.
Sending the Lord Jesus Christ to be the savior of the world. And that's what I'm going to read in one John 4 and 14.
The last part of the verse 14 The Father.
Sent the Son to be the Savior.
Of the world.
The first verse of chapter.
One of John says in the beginning.
That takes us back to this point.
To which John refers in this 4th chapter.
And 14th verse, the deep counsels of love and grace within the Godhead before.
The world was made.
Isaiah's property prophecy gives us a glimpse in chapter 6.
When those councils were being formed.
The Father, as it were, said, Who shall I send?
And we hear those precious words.
Of the son here am I send me.
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
There's another very simple statement with a great deal of profundity in it in the first Epistle to Timothy.
That is a sequel to the father sending the son.
And it is first Timothy 1.
And verse 15.
Christ Jesus came into the world.
To save sinners.
The Father sent and the Son came.
Within those deep counsels of grace and love and blessing.
Flowing out of the heart of God came.
The marvelous.
Thought that the Lord Jesus Christ would come.
Because these sinners.
And that lets each one of us in, doesn't it?
00:10:02
We often say in the Gospel.
The more you can prove me the Sinner, the more I can prove Christ is for me.
And so we have these two profound statements.
Expressed in such simple terms.
That the Father sent the Son.
And the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ came. We have had reference to his coming into man's circumstances born.
Into this world by natural birth.
He was supernaturally conceived, the Holy Spirit coming upon the Virgin to begat that holy thing that should be born of the Virgin, and he was the Son of God.
He was naturally preserved from partaking of the sin nature.
During his.
Fetal period.
But it says in God's word that when the fullness of time was come, she brought forth her son.
And so he came. A very man. Reference was made to that second chapter of Philippians, where he was certainly on equality with God within the Godhead, and was not a thing to be grasped at and held on to, so as to not give it up To come into this scene and becoming a man, he became what he never had been, but he never relinquished what he always was.
And what he always shall be now as God and man.
United in one person, he is at God's right hand, as we sometimes say.
Exhausted for a work well done, wherefore God has highly exalted him, and given him a name that which is above every name.
That at the name of Jesus, what did the Lord Jesus? What did the Angel say to the disciples as they gazed up into glory after the Lord Jesus Christ had been engulfed in the clouds? This same Jesus.
And so God has given him a name. And what name is that Jesus? When that infant was born, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
What was inscribed across the cross? This is Jesus of Nazareth. And so this blessed man, who came into man's circumstances in creation, ordered more than angels in order to die for creatures. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Well, this pretty much.
Sets the.
Basis for what? I would like to just make three connections, one in Galatians chapter one and verse 4.
Excuse me, There's one other statement I would like to make in connection with the Father sending the Son and the and the Christ coming into the world is found in John chapter 10, where it says, therefore does my father love me because that I might I lay down my life that I might take it again.
The Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
And he in giving himself, which is the theme of three references.
I want to bring before you gave himself, and the giving of himself.
He, if you can think of it as possibility, gave new springs of affection for the Father, that this the Son would lay down his life, that he might take it again. We said that this takes us back into the councils of God and eternity, and so it is without reference in John Chapter 10, this commandment, this authority.
I received along with the Father.
Consequently.
It was decided that he would lay down his life and take it again.
True. The report in Acts chapter 2 is that by cruel hands, wicked men.
By the determinant counsel of God crucified him.
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But it was by the determinate counsel of God.
What did he say to Pilate? I was to have no authority.
Over me except he was given me of heaven. So we are going to read from Galatians chapter one and verse 4.
Beloved, these are things that we would never.
To think of.
If God hadn't recorded them for us and His word.
We just must be thankful that God has preserved His word for us until now.
And in a language and in a translation that can give us confidence that we are listening to the word of God.
What we read in this precious book is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ would say to us if He were here.
And what God, if he were to oracularly open heaven and declare, what would he say?
He said it in his precious word.
The Apostle, we were reminded yesterday, was given to complete the word of God.
The entire thought of God in revelation to man was that man should be exalted at God's right hand and sinners.
Would be associated with him there.
We are united to him now by the Spirit, we are told.
When Speaking of the assembly in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians.
We are soon beloved to be united to him in glory.
Galatians chapter one and verse 4. It's a very precious verse to me.
Because it is the verse God used to bring me into peace with himself.
And it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the activity of grace when he was here.
Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God?
God is not willing that any should perish.
And so unwilling was he that any should perish, he sent the Son to be the savior.
And here we see the Lord Jesus Christ giving him self.
One of the distinctive characteristics of Christianity is that when the veil was rent, when the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross from the top to bottom, that veil that symbolized the whole Judaistic system was rent, and God was no longer clothed in thick darkness.
He came out end to the light.
And we are drawn by tender cords of love out of our nature's darkness. Into His marvelous life the apostle teaches us that we once were darkness, but now are we light in the Lord.
We've been reminded about exhortations. The exhortation that follows the high holy privilege of being Children of Light is Walk is Children of Light.
So the Lord Jesus Christ here.
Gives himself for our sins.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture.
And was buried, and rose again.
This is the basis of our peace with God. So I have used this little expression that he gave himself for our sins as the Lord Jesus, giving himself to meet the needs of our hearts.
Our hearts were deceitful and desperately wicked and only known of God. Who can know the.
God says, I try the reins to God that we have to answer.
But here the Lord Jesus Christ gives himself for those sins in order that we might.
Not have to answer to God anymore, the Lord Jesus Christ answered to God for me.
And he is enough.
The heart.
And mind to fill every need of the human heart is met in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his answering to God for my sins and yours. The storm broke on that blessed head we sang this morning. He has been engulfed by the storm of God's judgment for the satisfaction of my sins, so that now.
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I have absolute liberty in the presence of the Holy Ghost.
Gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world. The enemy came in early.
And gained ascendancy in this world. So he is the God of this world.
And now there is a means of deliverance from this present.
Evil world. The world hasn't improved since it crucified Christ. The Princess had been known, the Princess of this world.
They would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. The enemy had blinded their minds.
But so the Lord Jesus gave himself.
For our sins that he might deliver us from this present scene.
We sometimes say when we preach the gospel.
That the death of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary.
Settles the penalty of our sins.
It is an issue that has already been settled, that is salvation in its past aspect.
Believing the simple truth of God, that the old man has been crucified, receiving that by faith in the soul.
Delivers you and me from the power of sin in our life.
The Holy Spirit has been given.
And the Spirit wars against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit, in order that we should not do the things that we would.
The principle of flesh is still there. It has been condemned.
I often say it has to be reckoned with. How do we reckon? We reckon it dead because that's how God reckons it. Sin in the flesh has been condemned.
Christ doing what the law could not do because of the impotence of the flesh God is sending his Son.
Has condemned sin in the flesh, in order that we might walk not in the flesh but in the Spirit. So every supply has been furnished, so that we do not have to yield. We have deliverance from the present power of sin in the life.
We are very soon, we believe, to hear the shout that calls us up to glory.
And then, beloved, we will be delivered from the very presence of sin.
We are in the midst of it here we see it on every hand. Darling little children, old men and women and all ages.
But soon.
Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.
Do you look at yourself as a fair one? God does. And so we have the Lord Jesus Christ giving himself for our sins, to meet the needs of our hearts and to deliver us from this wretched scene through which we pass the scene that rejected and crucified the Lord of glory.
Well, in order to allow time for others, I'm going to read another portion in Titus.
Chapter 2.
Titus, chapter 2 and verse 14.
It says.
Who gave himself for us?
Does it speak to your heart, beloved, that he had his heart set upon you?
He gave himself for us.
That he might redeem us.
From all iniquity.
A little 14 year old asked me what is iniquity?
Do you need ask?
God cannot look upon iniquity. There's those things that we perpetrate, those things that we do.
A dishonor God defiled the mind and the body. That's iniquity.
He gave himself that He might redeem us, that He might buy us back from the results of sin that has captivated us until we found Him as our Savior, redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself.
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A peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Purify unto himself the objects of the heart of that blessed warmth, who would lay himself bare to Jehovah's sword, in order that he might have you and me as the prize of his labor.
Doesn't it bow our hearts and worship and adoration to read that when he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, is it possible that he could be satisfied with the likes of us?
It stunned me on occasion years ago when a brother said to me, God has never been disappointed in you.
You dear young people that are hearing these words, does it sound?
Odd to you that God is never disappointed in you and the brother said because he knew.
What you were when he took you up.
And so we have him giving himself for us that he might.
Purifies unto himself.
Luke 15 We have the shepherd going out into the mountain and seeking the sheep.
That's what the Lord Jesus Christ did when He came into the world to save sinners. The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost. That's those of us who have already.
Had too long an experience in sin and one of the other Gospels, it says he came to save that which was lost, that you dear children.
Who may not have delved into the depths of sin as some of us.
Ah, he is sufficient for every soul. I have enjoyed the thought so much that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is so vast.
That not one soul must go to hell. But the Pharisees came to the Lord Jesus, and he had to say to them, you would not come to me, that you might have life. The will of man is that which keeps men from blessing.
The work is sufficient, as the apostle Paul writes to the Romans, It is unto all, and it is upon all those who believe. So he gave himself for us, that he might redeem us, and that he might purify us unto himself. A peculiar people, a special treasure for himself. And so I have equated this verse with the expression here.
He gave himself for us to the satisfaction of his own heart.
We heard something about those.
Who sought salvation in their works.
Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy, as He saved us.
But we read that by grace are we saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is a gift of God.
Lest any man should boast, but we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.
And so he has purified us unto himself, that he might have us as his special treasurer.
And he says, you and me as the Father has sent me into the world.
Even so have I sent you into the world. He delivered us.
Out of this present world associated us with himself in resurrection and in glory.
And as heavenly citizens, he has sent us back to represent him in this scene.
To beseech men in his stead be reconciled to God. And so we preached the gospel. When we come to meetings like this, when we encounter individuals in the lobby or on the street or in the serving line, we announced the gospel. Because it's the gospel by which God calls What does he say? What does the apostle say to Timothy? He's called you by the gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we gave. He gave himself.
For us here.
In order that he might purify us.
And have for himself a very special treasure.
When the merchantmen found the Pearl of great price.
He gave him all that he had to secure it for himself, The prize.
Of the labor of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ as you and me.
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Him in glory, in order that he could say, Behold, I and the children of God.
Thou has given me.
And oh, they love it. Not one is lost, he says. And so we will all be in glory with him for the satisfaction of his own heart.
3rd connection is in Ephesians chapter 5.
And verse 2.
Walk in love with Christ. Also hath loved us, and hath given himself.
For us.
An offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.
Here we have the Lord Jesus Christ giving himself for us the objects of His love.
The ones he sought and found.
For the satisfaction of God's heart.
We read in the first of the Leviticus of that burnt offering, a sweet savour offering that is ascended up wholly to God. We see in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ that perfect.
Obedience unto death Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified. In him is the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing all that lay before him.
Setting his face as a Flint to go to Jerusalem, not being deterred from the suffering that he knew lay ahead of him for the satisfaction of God's heart.
As a sweet smelling savior that sacrificed on that cruel cross went up to God.
For the satisfaction of His Holiness against sin. Oh, it's a wonderful thing that Christ died for our sins.
The greater aspect of his work is that he satisfied the holy claims of God against sin.
So that the entire universe that had been filed by sin is going to be purged by the perfection of the work of that blessed man at Calvary, for the satisfaction of God's heart. His holy claims have been met. And now the grace can go out indiscriminately to whosoever will can come and take the water of life, freely be brought into God's family as children, be sealed in the place of sonship, made fit to be partakers of the portion of the Saints in light, in order that the Father might have his house filled.
So we have the three references. Christ gave himself for our sins, for the satisfaction of our own heart, of our own needs and our hearts. He gave himself for us to purify unto himself a peculiar people for the satisfaction of his own heart. And he went up as a sweet smelling savour to God, as a sacrifice to the satisfaction of God's heart.
Turn to Job, the book of Job.
Just take the second on chapter one and we'll take the last chapter. Leave all the middle out of it. The Job is a wonderful book.
The Lord said in verse 8, When he's talking to Satan, the Lord said unto Satan, chapter one, hast thou set thine heart, the word consider in the margin set thine heart on my servant Job. There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and assureth.
Evil and I can add a righteous man.
Job was a St. a Saint of God. He didn't know all these others. Abraham, Moses the different, but he was a St. He believed God. I want to turn to Ezekiel 14, I said. He was a righteous man, and I think it's good to get that settled.
Then I read the last Ezekiel 14.
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Verse 12 The word of the Lord came again.
To me saying, Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out my hand upon it, and I will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send a famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it. Now in this little portion God threatens the four sore judgments that he uses to chastise his people.
Israel later the four sore Judgments. And the first is famine. We have it several times. The Lord called for a famine. The Lord called for a dearth. You'll have that many times. All right. And now 14 of 14. Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own soul by their righteousness.
Says the Lord God. And if I cause noisome beasts to come?
Verse 16 Though these three men were in it, as I lived, says the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters. They only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate. Next. The sword, though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves.
And next of course, the pestilence, and the same thing, the four sword judgments. But the principle I want to get at is Joseph was a righteous man.
Now, I've talked to a lot of preachers, believe it or not, who do not believe Job was real. They say he's a myth made-up by God to illustrate many points, and they're proud of that thought I was in a.
A hearing in court for the commitment of a woman and there was a a Bishop. I don't think it was the Archbishop, but he was there. He was a Catholic Bishop and he was representing the parents of this woman. And so when the judge took a recess, he and I began to talk and I found out that he didn't have life, but he said.
Jordan, at that time of year is always shallow enough to walk through.
No problem. Of course he's got that solved. And then I started to talk to him about joke, and he took that principle. Job isn't real. It's just a fictitious person made-up by God for teaching.
But I said, God says Job is a righteous man, He said, I don't believe that. I said you think Daniel was a St. or a child of God. Oh yes, Daniel was. Well, I said, do you think who was that other one? Noah. Noah was real and a child of God? Oh yes. What about joke? No. So I read that portion in Ezekiel 14 and all I said to that.
That Bishop.
When I see Joel, I'm going to tell him what you said. He's not real.
Well, anyway, this is job. Oh, you can learn a lot from this. But I want to now go back to the last chapter of jokes. So we go click.
And in the last chapter of Joe, by the way.
Job was all that God said he was.
None like him in all the earth. Why did God chastise Job so?
Job didn't know himself. That's it. Everything it says in here, especially, I think, chapter 38.
About Job was true. Everything he did was true. Wonderful man.
But he was happy with Joe.
God was going to work on that until he could be used by Joe. And now in the last chapter, this is God the Lord speaking Jehovah.
And Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that thou canst do everything.
And that no thought can be withholding from thee took a long time to bring job to that point.
You know, Job once told his three friends, so-called. Oh, I wish there was a book written of the things I've done. I would wear it on my head like a trophy when I face God. That was joke. It was all true what he did. But think about the prize. Well, now he realizes God knows all his thoughts. What does Elsie say? Verse 6. Wherefore I abhor myself.
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And repent in dust and ashes.
Everybody has to get to verse six in their life before they're saved. That's it. And Paul stayed there. You know, Paul had that wonderful thought that I think we have to have every morning and every noon and every night again and again. I know that in me that is my flesh is no good thing. That's it. That's a good verse. I know. But in my flesh, that is in me, that is my flesh is no good thing. So what did God say?
Well now, God said to the three friends so-called.
Job shall pray for you. For him I will accept.
I won't accept you, lest I deal with you after your folly. Well, they thought they were very godly people. They thought they were very religious. They worshipped. But after your folly, in that she have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. What did Job say? So wonderful.
I abhor myself and I repent and dust and ashes, that's what he said.
God loves that God can take him as one of his own and use him to pray for his three friends that so abused him for 30 or some chapters. So Joe prayed for his friends, now 10, and Job turned the captivity and Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had.
Before.
You know.
Job was the richest man in his region or territory. None like him. He had everything.
12 Though the Lord blessed the latter end of job more than his beginning, for he had pardon me, for he had 14,000 sheep.
He had 7000 before.
And he had 6000 camels, he had 3000 before, and he had 1000 yoke of oxen. He had 500 yoke before, and he had 1000 chiases. He had 500 before.
Now you know at this point I'm going to tell you Job's name has a double meaning. Many names in the word of God has double meaning.
Like Bethany and Bob won't go into them all, but they have double job's double meaning.
Is the cry of Let's see the cry.
Of anguish and the other is really not anguish. The cry of woe and the other meaning is I will exclaim and now for 41 Chapters it was the cry of wool. Think of it and starting at verse 13 it's the last meaning I will exclaim. And there's more come out of the verses from 13 to 17 than all the 1St 40 chapters.
Isn't that something? Well, a lot of truth there, but not for Joe daughters. That's exactly what he had at the beginning. Not double here, but you know, it's a beautiful thought to start with.
He had seven sons and three daughters to begin with. Of course 7 is the heavenly number of perfection and that speaks of his sons. And with three daughters you have God the Godhead coming in. 10 of course is the number of responsibility to God and I think that tells us Joel was a responsible St. for God and his children.
Were also or also belong to the Lord that wonderful? No, they were saved. They were saved. And now he said he only got the same amount back as he lost. But that isn't true. He still has the 10 up in heaven.
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Though he's got double Isn't that wonderful? You know when Satan took everything Job had?
And the last thing was left was his ten children, who were very.
Compassionate one to the other. And whenever they ate or had a little time festival together, all of them came together. And the brothers whose heart they were in invited whose house they were in invited all the daughters. And so they were that kind. And so when Job says take his children, Job, I mean Satan wanted to take his children, but you know, although he could do all that to Job's husbandry and to Job himself.
Oils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, where he had to sit and dump the natches and scrape with with what do you call those things? Broken pieces of pottery scrape his body. Well, Satan did that, but the Lord always sets the limit. He told Satan, do what you want with my servant Joe, but you kind of have him. And so when he wanted to kill his children.
God gave him his wish.
But he wouldn't let him take him. He took them.
You know it, says Nahum, 13. The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and the storm, and so he sent a whirlwind and it hit all four corners of the House of the Elder's son when they were all in there at once. And he took them all home to glory in that life story, I think it is. So now Job's got 10 more.
And this is the beauty. This is, I will explain. Job now can tell you something that is so prophetic.
And he called the name of the first daughter Jemima. And you know what it means.
It really speaks of the person of the Christ. It means handsome as the day. That's what it means.
It has already the son of God in mind here the second daughter he called Acacia, which is really Kashia, the same word.
And this speaks, of course, of the Son of Man, the Person.
As a man which brings in the work of Christ too, and.
Cashier means the sweet perfume of the sanctuary.
Isn't that really what Christ is? Isn't that what we offered up to God just a few hours ago?
I just want to read that in Ephesians. I'll get back quick, Ephesians, because I don't want to say it without the word of God. Ephesians and Chapter 5. I'll be brief here.
Verse two beginning with Christ, Ephesians 5 Two Christ also has loved us and have given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for Cassia for a sweet.
Smelling savour, brethren. That's what went up when breaking of bread. It was a sweet smelling savour to God. That's the person of the Son of God and the Son of Man.
That we remembered him both ways. And the last daughter in the name of the third was Karen Hoppich. What does that speak of his bride? The body of Christ. It means a child of beauty.
In that something, a child of beauty. That's us. That is us. Look around. That's us. When he found one Pearl of great price, he sold all that he had and bought it.
Child of beauty and so, and in all the land where no women found so fair as the daughters of Job, and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
After this, lived job. After this lived job.
It was an old man when this happened.
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140 years.
And saw his sons and his son's sons even 4 generations.
You know 100 is the number of salvation.
Job was saved in the sense of Old Testament scripture. He was the Lord's.
And 40 of course is the complete testing. 40 is the number of complete testing. Job was tested by God fully.
So Job died, being old and full of days. Now I just want to read one verse and I'll get down. James 5, James 5.
Chapter 5.
Verse 7.
Be patient therefore, brethren, under the coming of the Lord.
Behold the husband one waited for the precious fruit. There is patience, brethren, required as we go through this wicked world and this evil world but apart from it. But notice verse 8. Be also patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draws nigh then.
Verse 11 Behold, we count them happy.
Which endure ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.
Pardon me?
I was going to take you to Hebrews 12 and little, whom the Lord loveth He chastises, but I won't get into that.
Really. Clem got up, he said. You're rich.
In which way are we rich?
Many of us in that rich materially, he must have meant in Christ.
What about proof? Was she rich only in her association with Boaz?
What about the position of Rahab?
This sinful woman.
Who became a woman of faith? Only in her association with Salman was she rich.
I don't mean to be an exhorter of the Saints. That's not my line.
That time and again we have the admonition from the Word of God.
Not to be covetous.
And just look at a few scriptures.
The first just after the 5th of Ephesians our brother Yule referred to there.
Continuing on to the next verse.
He read verse 2, Ephesians chapter 2, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and the sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour the next verse, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness.
Let it not be once named among you, as becometh Saints.
More direct words of Our Lord in the 12TH chapter. Looks thoughtful.
Luke, Chapter 12.
Verse 15.
Luke 1215 And he said unto them.
Take heed and beware of covetousness.
What is covetousness? That is, the desire to have that which God has not been pleased to give me.
And need not necessarily be material things. It could be.
Gift or ability, although we are enjoined in the word of God in First Corinthians.
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Desire Earnestly the best gifts. Covet the best gifts, that is, to serve one another in love.
This man in this 12TH chapter of Luke desired more than what he had.
And God called him a fool. It's foolish to desire to have an accumulation of that which this world has, because we came and empty handed and we're not going to take anything with us.
In the Word of God we have examples of those who were men of faith, if they were anything but covetous.
You take Abraham.
When there was a strike between his herdmen and lots of herdsmen. Why? Abraham said, You know if you turn to the right, I'll go to the left, If you want to go to the left, I'll go to the right. This man wasn't concerned with accumulating more. God had blessed him abundantly, and he knew that these things came from the Lord.
You may reason and say, well you know, if I get a good job and accumulate a lot of money, I can use that for the Lord.
Is that the way Moses reasoned when he was in line for good position in Egypt? He forsook Egypt, and all the court and all the the privileges that that position would have afforded him. He chose rather to identify himself with the people of God.
Here's a verse in the beginning of Exodus.
Oh, maybe about chapter 18.
Excellent counsel given by his father-in-law.
Next to this chapter 18, he counsels Moses to choose him out. Men. Verse 21. Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men such as fear, God, men of truth. Notice these next two words hating.
Covetousness.
And place such over them to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, and rulers of 50s and rulers of 10s.
Hating covetousness. Do we hate covetousness?
You know, sometimes you travel in other countries and the people are so poor they will steal anything. Everything has to be kept locked up. You're so poor and sometimes you hardly blame them. You wish you can give them the shirt off your back. They're so poor.
Here Moses followed the example, because later you remember the rebellion of Korra, Dathan and Abiram. Moses was able to tell them I have not taken a single *** from them. Moses set a good example. He was not a covetous man.
My brother Bob was reading about Job.
If you were to turn, maybe just for a moment, to the 31St chapter of Job, I believe it is.
Well, see if he was a covetous man.
Look how kind and generous and Loving and Job was in the 31St chapter.
Verse 19 I read just a few verses.
I have seen any perish for want of clothing or any poor without covering.
If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep.
If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless when I saw my help negate.
Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade and mine arm be broken from the bone. You see, Job was very generous. He gave of all his substance.
He was a liberal man, is one thing he feared, and that was destruction from God.
And the very thing that he feared came upon him, because God saw some root of pride in Job's life. He attributed his goodness to himself, and God saw that that that had to be judged. And it was brought out whom the Lord loveth. He chasteneth. Our brother Bob was going to speak on that, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Job was a man who.
Is kind and loving, and God rewarded him. Have you ever done anything for the Lord and found that God shortchanged you? Dear young people, why not devote your lives to the Lord? The world is going to teach you otherwise. Go to school, get a good education, a good job, and leave the things of the Lord till later on in your life.
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Lord says just the opposite. He says, Son, give me thine heart. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.
The 30s chapter Proverbs. I think there's another scripture that touches on the same subject.
Proverbs.
Chapter 30.
Verse 7.
Two things have are required of thee. Deny me them, not before I die. Remove far from a vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me What a prayer that is day by day, lest I be full and deny thee, and say, who is the Lord you know of. Anyone ever said that? Pharaoh said that Who is the Lord that I should serve him? And that was what became.
Israel the Lord warned them that they would, if they prospered in the land, lest they forget him and Deuteronomy 32 Who is the Lord, unless I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain?
How many men can you think of that have fallen through covetousness? They stole, they took the money of the Lord. They ruined their testimony could no longer be used by the Lord. You know, to covet is almost as natural as breathing.
In fact, the Apostle Paul said that concerning the law, he was blameless except one point.
Romans Chapter 7 is it. Let's look at that.
7th chapter of Romans I believe.
Verse 7 Roman 7/7.
That's how we say then, Mr. Lawson, God forbid, nay, I had not known sin, or had conscience of sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law had said. Thou shalt not covet and exclude him, because Paul just naturally coveted he desired this, that and the other thing. How can we possibly overcome this terrible sin, dear brethren, that plagues us in our lives, especially in this country in which we live with? There is so much materialism.
When you go to other countries and you see people and starving, they don't have the wherewithal to eat. There's only one way.
Look through the grace of God. Is that what the Apostle Paul did?
The 20th chapter of Acts. Let's see how Paul overcame this if he did.
Paul in chapter 20 and bidding farewell to the Ephesian elders.
Look at verse 32.
Now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace.
Which is able to build you up and to give you inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Notice this verse. I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. Yet you yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me I have showed you all things that soul laboring.
You ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus. How he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. You know you may search through the gospels, and you'll search in vain to find those words of the Lord Jesus. It is more blessed to give than to receive, and yet the whole tenor of the Lord's life was to give.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, That though he was rich, he became poor. That we through his poverty might be rich? Our brother says we're rich. I tell you something.
My father now with the Lord.
He told me that when he was a boy, he said. I always dreamed of being a rich man when I grew up.
And my dad was poor, he said. When I grew up, I wanted to be rich.
And then he said, One day I found the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. And you know what I found out through the word of God that is far richer than I ever dreamed I would be. He had all things in Christ. Dear brethren, the Lord has granted us so much, May he help us to consider others. Those who have little as the Lord Himself considered us and gave himself for us.
01:05:20
100 and one 301.
Or else is in there.
And mine should be.
Titles party because I'm like favorite the 2nd 1.
But gorgeous and I can hear you.
And grace and the fall.
Where do you go?
And I'm not flying.
For our God bring I spin on the heart.
Perhaps we could sing 168 with the same penalty, or two 168.
The night is far.
Away. So why do you mean glory? For the heart is the God.
Rejoice Managing.
The Lord of God now bring twice for the God make of Jesus Christ.
To us, today we're going to land three women.
I don't want to welcome you.
01:10:05
And I'm glad you're here, Cross.
I'm crowning the love of the boys and will be there.
His father and he prays.
Lord.
Everybody.
It is OK. It is going to come tomorrow.
Christmas.
Lights.
Square one time.
While your name is grace and flock.
Gospel
Gospel—A. Coleman
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Can you open our gospel meeting tonight by saying hymn #17 #17 from your Gospel? Him, she.
Have you any room for Jesus?
He who bore the Lord of sin.
As he knocks and asks, admission Sinner, will you let him in room for Jesus, Lord of glory?
He said now his word obeyed. Swing the heart star widely open bid he mentor while you may let's say #17.
God no living Father, we thank you for another gospel meeting tonight. And we thank thee that we come proclaim this wonderful news of salvation to a lost world. And we thank thee tonight that Lord Jesus thought it's come into this world and go to that cross of Calvary and there to die for poor lost Persian sinners such as we. And we thank thee that daughters love us, love us with an everlasting love.
And we thank thee that we can. We've often seen inscribed upon the cross we see in shock. You know, this is a very touching hymn that we've just sung.
And for each and every one of us here tonight, and especially for the young people, especially for the children, especially for those that don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Savior, it's just as if the Lord Jesus was asking you tonight.
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Have you got any room for me?
Have you got any room for me? The Lord Jesus is asking you tonight. Have you got any room for you, for me? Have you got any time for me? You know, there's there's room for business and there's room for pleasure and there's room for relaxation and there's room for this and room for that. You know, it's a busy world in which we are living today and our, our days are crammed with everything to do. And some have often said that the day isn't long enough.
And there's so much to do.
But you know the Lord Jesus is asking you tonight. We got any room for me? I died on Calvary's cross for you. I loved you and I gave myself for you. I suffered on the cross for you. Have you got any room for you for for me? You know there's time when we can.
Go up the mountain, we go skiing. You know what he's saying to you.
I made that snow for you so you could go skiing. How about your garden? I made that garden for you so that you could have all those vegetables in your garden, all those plants in your garden. I made all this for you. That sun that's shining, I made that for you. That rain that is coming, I made that for you. What about what about? What about you? Have you got time for me? Have you got time for me? Think of it. What a loving Savior, What a loving God.
And think of it, of how his arms are all stretched to you tonight, and he say it to you, coming to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. His arms rope stretch to this world tonight. God has not has not long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Lengthen and off the day of grace so that the gospel could go forth once more tonight. What a wonderful God we have.
Oh, it amazes me to see the long-suffering of a of a holy God. And over and over again I've told the story of that.
Alaska Airlines going down into the water about a year ago and God allowed the gospel to go forth in that airliner is that airliner was going down into the sea 9 minutes they had to accept.
That gospel, it was going forth. God be merciful to me as Sinner. That's all they had to say.
And it had to come from the heart, and God allowed those 90 passengers in that.
In that great airliner to hear the gospel once more, once more, once more. And God is allowing you to hear the gospel once more, even though it's going to be evil. He's allowing you to hear the gospel once more. Just as he went with that, with that airliner. I'm going to give you another test. Maybe your life was all wrapped up in all your business and your pleasure and you were coming from some.
Pleasure a place in this world. I'm going to give you another chance to be safe. We're not loving God. What a loving God give you another chance to be saved. And here you are tonight here in the gospel meeting and God is giving you another chance to be saved. Dear young boy or young girl here tonight God is giving you another chance to be saved tonight. He says, behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is that day of salvation.
He wants you to come and come tonight. Tomorrow might be too late, be forever too late. Maybe tomorrow if you put it off the question of your soul salvation. And so his arms are outstretched to you, and he wants you to save you tonight. He's gone to Calvary Cross.
And he said, and he suffered for their Calvary's Cross for you he could say it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. What a wonderful work that was accomplished for you and I at Calvary's cross. Surely I can sing tonight. It is finished. Yes, indeed, finished. Every jot Sinner. This is all you need. Tell me, is it not? You just have to come as a guilty lost Sinner before a holy God tonight. And we're going to look at some verses tonight.
I have in my heart that I want to preach the gospel on one verse tonight.
There's going to be other companion verses to go along with it, but this first was forcibly put before me this past summer, and there was a little incident that happened in Newfoundland, and since then I've been thinking about this first for the last month I've been.
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Thinking a lot about it and I would like you to go with me to one well known verse that everyone here I believe can quote it off by heart. No, it's not John 316. Indeed, that is a beautiful verse and one of the most beautiful verses in the Word of God. But this verse I want to Peach on tonight is Romans 10:00 and 9:00. So when we go to Romans chapter 10.
And first night.
But we'll start with verse 8.
But what said that the Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart? That is the Word of Faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Or the Scripture said, whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him for whosoever.
Shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved. Are you saved? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior? There it is that last verse. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ it says in Acts 412. It says neither is there salvation in any other.
For there is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved, the name of Jesus, that name which is about every name.
But it says here for what saith it? The word is nigh thee. Oh, that's beautiful. You know, the gospel is available. It's available to everyone. And you know, we live in the North American continent and I believe.
That the gospel goes out all over North America, and I don't believe there are many places in North America where the gospel hasn't been heard.
There may be some small places, but I don't know of them. It's available. It's on the television, it's on the radio, it's on the billboards, it's in gospel practice. It's coming from the pulpits, coming from gospel preachers.
On the street corner, everywhere, God wants you to hear this wonderful news of salvation.
He wants it to be available to you tonight. It's available to you. You know, you can go to some of the parts of North America where it's very, very isolated. I've been way up in northern Labrador. And you think, well, would you, would they have heard it up there? Yes, they did. In the, in the village of Maine and the most northern part of Labrador. They heard it in the last century. It's been heard, The gospel's been heard and it was received.
All over it's available. And so there's no excuse for man. I can't say I never heard the gospel before. I never heard it before and you know.
The children of the Saints have heard it over and over and over again. And you know if you've rejected it, you're more responsible for than one that has very seldom heard it or only heard it for the first time. You're more responsible.
And all we just beg for your precious soul tonight, dear young one, here tonight, if you're still in your sins, won't you come to Christ tonight? Tomorrow, maybe too late. It's available to you. The Word is 90 even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
00:15:06
We're going to talk a lot about mouths and hearts tonight. Each one of us here tonight have a mouth. We had to suffer not too long ago. We used our mouth. We have a heart. Each one of us have a heart, and we are living souls here tonight. And dear, dear one, tonight, are you a saved soul? Are you a lost soul? Are you a saved soul or are you a lost soul? Have you ever come to the realization that you've sinned against the holy God?
You have sinned because the word of God says plainly all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And those sins have separated you from a holy God, that all thanks be unto God for the precious blood of Christ that cleanseth us from all sin. My sins are all gone, washed in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that I'm saved. I know that I'm going to heaven.
Says in first John 513 These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. He doesn't want you to guess that your salvation, He wants you to know and have the assurance.
Through know your sins are all forgiven and that you're on your way to heaven is something more than gold. That's the way we see it in Newfoundland. To know your sins are all forgiven and that you're on your way to heaven is something more than gold. Oh, how wonderful. It's something more than gold to know Christ as your Savior. Many say, oh, it's a dull life to be a Christian. You don't go to shows, you don't go to movies, you don't go to dances, you don't go to all those worldly things.
Oh no, it's the most exciting life.
Wonderful to know Christ as my own personal Savior and to know that my future settles in Christ, in Christ. And if the Lord Jesus were to come tonight, I would go to me with Him in the glory.
Think of that, that shot that is going to take place maybe tonight, maybe tonight the Lord himself is going to descend from heaven with a shout in the voice of the Archangel, and the dead in Christ going to be raised 1St. And then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord? You know, there was a young boy a long time ago, I've relayed this story over and over again. And he sat at the and he stood at the grave of his grandmother.
And that boy is standing in front of you right now.
My grandmother Coleman passed away and she was special to me and I stood beside her grave and those verses in First Thessalonians were read and I wasn't. I didn't know the Lord as my Savior. I had put it off. I was probably a boy of about 8 years old. And as I stood there beside his grave, not, not seeing my grandmother again in this scene.
And then the preacher read those verses, and then he said, Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
I said that's not very comforting to me. That's not very comforting to me does to read those words of the coming of the Lord Jesus wasn't comforting to me because of the Lord Jesus had to come. I would be forever lost. Think of that, but all thing God that he saved my precious soul. I have to say.
Late days and there were years wasted, years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified. Oh what wasted years you'll have if you don't accept Christ as your savior.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. That's positive, isn't it? That's simple, that's simple. Why isn't it that that so many people are not safe because they don't want to?
Thou shalt be saved. This positive is wonderful. He didn't ask us to do something complicated to get saved. It says. It only says a simple thing. Believe and live, believe and live, believe and the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
00:20:15
Have you confessed the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior? Have you done it?
There's never a better moment than right now.
You can be saved raiding your seat tonight. All you have to do is bow your head before holy God and ask the Lord Jesus to save you from your sins. He will save you, He will save you. He will save you Now. You ever heard the story of Red Tam? He thought he was one of the worst people alive.
I very very bad Sinner.
But you know a verse was quoted to him, and the verse was John 637. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. You can be the worst person here in Los Angeles or Burbank, and the Lord Jesus to receive you. He'll receive you, and you come just as you are, like the songwriter says, just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bids me come to thee.
O Lamb of God.
I come and said that's all he wants. He wants you to come to him as a guilty, lost Sinner. For the Scripture says whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
For verse 13 For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved, whosoever that you mean, everybody else.
My name is there read in that whosoever is there in John 316, isn't it? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Oh, what a wonderful verse to quote to a lost world, to a quote to a lost Sinner. Do you know the author of that verse? You know the very middle word of that verse?
Is the Lord Jesus?
Is our Lord Jesus. Do you know that precious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the author of that wonderful verse?
Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I want you to turn with me now to James chapter 4.
James Chapter 4.
Verse 13 go to now he that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain, whereas you know not what will be on the moral. Do you know where you'll be tomorrow? That's what he's saying to you tonight. He says boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. For what is your life? Oh what a question, what is your life?
You know what he he answers that right away. It's even a vapor that appeareth for little time, but then it is gone and then vanisheth away. Think of it. Our life is just like that. You know, I look back in my life, another year I'm going to be 3 score and 10 and I look back and I said why? It just went flew by, it flew by.
Thank God I know Christ is my own personal savior and my future is in Christ.
It vanisheth away, for that you might ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing as evil. Now this verse.
Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not is sin. I would like to apply the verse this way. You know the gospel. You dear one here tonight, have heard the gospel. I believe everyone here, maybe there's an exception, have never heard the gospel, but you have heard.
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The Gospel.
To him that knoweth to do good, and do it not, To Him it is a sin. And did it not, and received it not? What a solemn thing to.
Mocked the grace of God.
To put off the question of your soul salvation, to say no to the Lord Jesus.
To wait for another convenient season.
What a solemn thing.
Isaiah 118.
Isaiah 118 come now. Oh, you know, those are two beautiful words, aren't they? Come, come, come. I believe that's one of God's favorite words. You find it all the way through the word of God, you know, and Genesis Chapter 7, verse one, he says, come thou in all thy house into the ark. That's beautiful. Oh, he loves to save families, loves to save families.
He loves to bless families and that's what we have here tonight. Many, many families here tonight blessed.
Say thank God, Hallelujah, what a savior, Come now, right now, tomorrow may be too late. There's an urgency in the gospel. I love that verse, John 737 that was read earlier today. And that last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, oh, think of the heart of the Lord Jesus standing there that day.
If any man first let him come to be and drink and drink. Oh, he satisfy it belonging soul. What a savior, what a savior, What you have received this wonderful person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. What's this mean? What does this mean? Does this mean I argue this out with the Lord? Oh no, no, I believe what it means is this. I've heard it said this way. He does the talking.
And I do the listening, He does the talking, and I do the listening. Listen to His precious word that is being preached tonight and that you're hearing His precious word. The word of God liveth and abideth, and forever heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. It's not the words of the speaker that saves, it's the words of the Word of God. The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword.
Listen to what he's saying to you tonight. Open those ears and listen.
Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be of scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Can you think of anything more whiter than snow? We have snow in Richmond the other day. Beautiful, isn't it, to wake up in the morning and see the snow on the ground? But can you think of something whiter than snow? Oh, you know, David could say, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
My sins all gone, washed in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a savior though they be. Read like Crimson, they shall be as well. What a what a wonderful provision, what a wonderful Savior that we have to proclaim tonight.
Turn to Jeremiah chapter 29.
Jeremiah 29.
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Verse 13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye search for me with all your heart, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, he shall seek me and fight me, if you search for me with all your heart. Think of that.
With all your heart, not just half a heart, with all your heart. Oh, I love this wonderful book of Jeremiah. I preached the gospel from this so many times. Jeremiah, there he was pleading for the nation of Israel over and over again. He's told and he's told to go and preach to the nation of Israel. Upcoming judgment was coming, was going to come upon them. And he faithfully preached over and over again.
Never flinched from that.
And all that we might be faithful in preaching the gospel to a lost world and never give up.
He shall seek me and find me when He search for me. With all your heart has often been said. A seeking Sinner and a seeking Savior will always be. You'll meet the Savior if you look for this, you'll find Him.
He wants to be found, He wants to be found. What a lovely person that we have to proclaim to night. Do you know this wonderful person?
Isaiah chapter 57.
But.
Isaiah 57.
This beautiful verse.
Beloved here tonight re disperse slowly, carefully.
What a beautiful verse, verse 15.
Plus Seth, the high and lofty one that inhabits this eternity. Who is this, the Lord Jesus Christ?
Whose name is holy? He's holy.
And cannot look upon sin. Think of that. He cannot look upon sin. Your sins have separated you from a holy God.
I dwell in the high and holy place with Him also. That is about contrite and humble spirit. You want to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, come on His terms.
Contrite. Humble.
Before him, before him, contrite, humble before him.
Have you come like that, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved as a guilty lost Sinner? The prodigal son could say, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in my sight, and no more worthy to be called thy son.
But think of the Father throwing his arms around that lad and kissing him, Bring forth the best robe and put on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and they began to be married. For all eternity will be with the Lord Jesus, praising Him, worshiping him, thanking Him for what He has done for us, for saving us, saving us, and making us His. What a wonderful thing it is to be a child of God.
Wonderful, beautiful. I just have to say Hallelujah. What a savior, that He saved my precious soul. Can you say that tonight as He saved your precious soul? Do you know Christ as your own personal savior tonight? Oh, there's an awful urgency to it.
Tomorrow may be too late.
Acts Chapter 8.
00:35:14
The Ethiopian eunuch, a black man God delights to save black people too. He likes to save white people too. All red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight. Here's the black man, verse 37.
And Philip said, If thou believe us with all thine heart, there it is, Romans 10 and nine again, If thou believe us with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Do you believe that?
Have you told the Lord Jesus that? Have you told them that?
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Isaiah 29.
Verse 13 Wherefore the Lord said, For as much as this, people draw near to me with their mouth, and their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the precept of men.
How about that?
Is it just with your lips or is it with both?
But if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, and believe in thine heart.
It's very important, dear one.
Well, I said I was going to I.
I was going to tell you about the incident that caused me to take up this scripture tonight.
It's one of the sweetest things that I have ever witnessed in my life.
There was a bus accident in Newfoundland.
I don't know whether that was part of it. The Spirit of God worked. And I thank, I'm so thankful for that. Wonderful to see the workings of the Spirit of God in a soul.
There was a gospel meeting.
The next night in the tent and there were two little boys sitting up front.
And those two little boys were just glued to the speaker.
The gospel was being preached. You know, sometimes as you're preaching the gospel, you can look around the room and you can see some that are not even misty.
Or probably got their attention somewhere else. Or maybe something in their lap.
But these two little boys were just glued to the speaker. And he was.
Giving him the gospel. One boy was 9, the other boy was 10.
The next day, these two little boys, we fanned out with our cars, but because we didn't have a bus and we found out with our cars and it was my duty to pick up these two little boys.
One in the front seat and one in the back seat.
And as we were going back to the gospel tent and my hearing is not good and especially in a car, but I picked up something that this little boy in the back seat was trying to kill me. I suppose the Spirit of God was.
Getting my attention. Here's the little boy in the back seat and he was telling me something and this is what he was telling me, he says. You know, I wanted to get saved last night.
But I didn't know what to tell the Lord. I didn't know what to tell Him.
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You know, he had already said, I didn't know what to tell the Lord, the Lord.
I believe he is already a quickened soul.
Batten precious name that Lord, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus as Lord.
Free now, eh? There was a gospel meeting that morning. I was asked to open up the gospel meeting for the singing and I felt led to go to Romans 10:00 and 9:00 because I could. I could just detect that there was a work going on in this young lad's soul.
And I didn't know what to tell the Lord, He said, and there it is, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus said Lord, And I said, you have to mean it. You have to mean it. It has to come from your heart. And you're 1:00 tonight.
Even though you come from a Christian home, Oregon, what kind of a home you came from, you have to meet it.
It has to be real with you.
It's very important. It has to come from the heart.
A little while later, my brother got up and preached the gospel, my brother Doug Barry. And you know what? He spoke on the Spirit of God working again.
The Philippian jailer What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. You've heard that story over and over again, haven't you?
But have you accepted that story? Have you accepted it? It's so simple. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That young lad accepted Christ as his Savior that very day.
And he was telling us later.
When we talked to him, I'll tell it to you. Newfoundland language.
He says to me, he says yes, but you have to sense what you mean. You have to sense what you means.
That young boy got saved that night. How about you tonight?
Have you says what you mean?
Is it real with you? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior? Have you come just like that little boy did? Maybe there's a little boy here tonight, nine years old.
That still doesn't know Christ as your own personal savior. How about a young boy? Do you know Christ is your savior? This little boy came from a poor home, came from a poor little fishing village.
You come from pretty good homes. I believe you have every opportunity to be saved growing up in Christian homes. My house. You should thank God for Christian parents that have prayed for you. My mother still prays for me. I know she does even though she's 95.
Wonderful. Is that to have Christian parents? You ever thank the Lord for those Christian parents that you've got that have raised you under the sound of the word of God?
I was raised that way.
But have you accepted Christ as your Savior? You can't come on your parents merit. You have to come just like your parents did, as a guilty lost Sinner, an individual before a holy God, an individual before a holy God. And so I say to you tonight, won't she come tonight?
Tonight, tomorrow might be too late. Might be too late tomorrow.
I want to turn to one last passage. We have this in our reading not too long ago, Judges chapter 12.
And for the sake of.
Time I'm going to read from verse five. And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites. And it was so when those ether mites which were escape set. Let me go over that. The man of Gilead said unto them, Art thou an Ephraimite? And he said, nay. And they said unto him, Say now chivalrous.
00:45:02
And he said Sybilis, for he could not frame to pronounce it right, and they took him and slew him.
In the passages of Jordan and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites 42,000 men. Now think of this.
42,000 men perished.
Because they could not frame to say the word Shibboleth dear. 1:00 tonight.
Are you a child of God? Are you a Christian? Are you real? You see, there were some here that weren't real and their speech betrayed them.
And 42,000 of them died perished because they could not say that word properly.
Now, dear friend, tonight over and over again I quoted Romans 10 and nine. That dear one, tonight is your siblings. Can you quote that verse from the heart? Can you quote it before a holy God?
Who delights to save, and who wants to save you? Tonight? I'm going to quote that verse again right now before this gospel meeting ends. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
What a salvation.
That we offer a lost world tonight. What a savior that we offer a lost world tonight. There's a Savior on high in the glory. A Savior who suffered on Calvary St. A Saviour as willing to save now as ever.
His arm is almighty, His love great and free. Oh come now to Jesus, that dear loving Savior. Receive him this moment and peace shall be thine him #10.
There is a savior.
I don't think it's real.
Bad. If you're going to get to all of us watching the house, on the House, on the House. I'm going to take three 60s and 10 minutes at the club. I'm at the club. OK, it's a challenge. It's all in the bridge and teachers.
A little bit in the House of Jesus.
A Walk Through the Cemetery
Gospel—D. Liening
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
From everyone to the gospel meeting tonight. And could we begin by singing #25 Life at best is very brief, like the falling of a leaf, like the binding of a sheath. Be in time #25.
Life at best is very brief, like the falling of the lake, like the binding of the sea.
Behind.
And your eyes delayed.
In mind.
I would also like to sing a hymn from the back of our hymn sheet.
As we were praying tonight for the gospel meeting, why, there was more than one prayer that went up for the dear children. And we just want you to know that you're not forgotten tonight as we preach this word. And we long for the salvation of those that might be three or four or even 7. So let's say #41 please. In the back of the hymn sheet.
Around the throne of God in heaven will many children.
Big children whose sins are all forgiven Well, and the anthem praising.
Glory.
Glory.
In shining from some spots less quietly to one without the rain.
During the course of the meetings, as we have had them.
We've talked somewhat about the subject of death.
I verily believe that there's probably one time in the history of all of our souls.
When our heart has been particularly soft.
In the light of time and eternity.
And that's in the presence of death.
On May 29th of this year.
I was in next in a room next to a man who was expiring.
And I was reading my Bible that morning. It was my father, and he was on his 12TH day since his stroke.
And.
I noticed he stopped breathing.
And I went in and.
He was just passing into the presence of the Lord.
So I went in and called my wife and my sister and we all came out and difficult as it was.
We had the comfort that my father was with the Lord.
And.
Some 16 years earlier, my mother passed that way as well.
And you know.
There's not one person in this room.
That can avoid or get out of the appointment of that moment.
I know.
That we'd like to think that the Lord is going to come.
And praise God if he comes tonight.
But you know, even at that.
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It tells us that the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds.
But we know from other scriptures.
That just because you're alive in your body tonight.
Does not mean that you're going to go up at that moment.
Because the scriptures faithfully declare they that are Christ.
At his coming.
Now, it doesn't make any difference if you were saved last night or if you've been saved for many, many years. If you are Christ, you are going with Him. Praise Him for it. It's our hope tonight.
But we know from Matthew 25.
That there are going to be those who had a lamp of profession.
And they were able to disguise themselves. Maybe it wasn't their purpose to fool anybody.
But nevertheless, when that call came, behold the bridegroom.
They went out to meet him. All of them did, but there were those that had no oil in their lamp.
And they were left behind for judgment.
It's a solemn thing.
And our purpose tonight, beloved friends.
Is to somehow by the grace of God.
Give you to consider the fact that if God has spoken, it's final. It's final. We know we're living in a day when courtroom scenes are multiplied one after another.
And men.
Maybe they get what they deserve, maybe they don't.
And it may take 15 or 20 years before justice is finally carried out, but you know, we're dealing with one tonight, who is the eternal God.
And as the eternal God.
He knows everything.
You know, I just recently was called on to be in a courtroom scene.
And.
Thankfully, the jury only had to.
Be on duty for about 6 hours.
And it was so solemn to me because in that courtroom is a copy of this blessed book.
And I wasn't required to put my hand on this book because I had not to be a witness who was called. I was on the jury.
The young man who was there.
He was 19 years old.
He was in the state penitentiary.
And actually, I think that the reason he did what he did, and I'm not going to tell you.
But the reason he did what he did is because he just wanted to have some time out of the pen.
And so he committed a felony or a misdemeanor, I guess we might say, in the pen that required them to take him out and bring him into the city.
Well before he went up.
To be questioned.
The judge asked him.
And actually, as I remember now, I don't know if he had his hand on the Scriptures, but he did say, do you promise?
To tell the truth.
And nothing but the truth.
He said I do.
Well, what was so solemn?
Was that the man that he committed the felony with? And three or four witnesses had already given their testimony, and there were twelve of us on the jury, and all of us but one were, were convinced that he was guilty.
And he got up on that witness stand. I can just see him in my mind's eye. And the prosecuting attorney asked him several questions.
And then she said, do you remember? And I'll just pull a date out of the hat, August 24th.
In the afternoon, do you remember doing what you did?
Said you know what, I really can't remember.
I almost laughed out loud.
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And yet, dear friends, when I thought of the moment.
When the dead shall stand before.
The Son of Man, because all judgment has been committed to our Lord Jesus.
Do you think for a minute that somebody is going to say.
I can't remember if I did that or not.
No.
And I don't know how far to.
Just say what a person will have at that moment, but you know.
Time and sense is all over then.
And those that stand there will stand there with bodies that have been raised from the dead. They will lay in their graves for 1000 years after the day of the Blessed Rapture. And after the 1000 years are over, they are going to be plucked from their places.
And God's waiting station shall I say, in the grave, in that place of departed spirits.
And that spirit and soul is going to be reunited with their body.
And I saw the dead small and great stand.
Before the Great White Throne, all friends.
If I could take you physically.
And hold you up before the Great White Throne tonight. I would do it.
But God's Word says it's going to be.
And will you dare to night trifle?
With the fact that you have to meet your maker.
There is no way that you will get out of that appointment.
You know, we find it easy to lie to one another.
The scripture tells us before it ever happened, as God was.
Giving a panoramic view of the ways of men in the 11TH of Daniel and he says 2 Kings were sitting across the table telling lies to each other.
God saw that.
Course, it hadn't even happened yet, but he said it was going to happen and it did.
He knows everything from the beginning to the end and you know.
I can remember, and I have to say this, dear friends.
That I was raised in a religious system where nobody ever told me I was a Sinner.
Do you find that difficult to believe?
I'm not.
Being critical, I trust.
But it was a stark fact.
And it wasn't until probably my junior or senior year in high school.
That I went to a meeting for young people and there I saw.
And experience what my conscience already told me.
But it was told me that night that I was a Sinner before God.
Praise the Lord for that.
And we are here tonight to seek to convict you of sin.
We know that's the Spirit's work, but still it tells us in the book of Acts that they so spake that many believed.
And.
There is not going to be one sin that is going to be passed over.
But the glad tidings tonight is.
That the Lord Jesus once suffered the justice for the unjust, that he might bring them to God.
We are not speaking tonight a message of condemnation. We have a message of life and forgiveness and peace.
But the fact remains.
That all things are naked and open.
Unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
And you know, if you're a believer tonight, and I know I'm speaking to many of the Saints of God in this room.
Even that wonderful truth.
Is a marvelous, marvelous help for a walk with the Lord Jesus.
Yes, he sees me. He knows my thoughts afar off.
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And thank God.
There's not one thought that shall not be.
Given, accounted for, accounted for in that day, but I know that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
And I'm going to quote you another verse.
Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you.
The forgiveness of sins. Now let me ask you, do you have a record?
That has not been atoned for.
Is there one sitting in this room tonight that has a record before the eye of God?
It still stands there, written with an indelible ink that can never, ever, ever for time and eternity be erased, and unless it's cleared by the pardoning grace of God through the blood of the Lord Jesus. If you do, hearken tonight.
We have spoken about the Lord's coming.
And you know, it could come in an instant tonight, in an instant.
Would you be left behind?
Boys and girls, listen to me.
Would you be left behind?
Answer that in your little heart.
The Lord Jesus wants you. He even said, Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of heaven. He does not want you to perish.
He wants you to be saved to night.
I'd like to again now take our thoughts back to what the Lord has given us in our meeting meetings. This is a gospel meeting, but I'd like to take up the subject of death.
And the power of death. We started about that when I spoke about my dear father.
Let's go to the Gospel of Luke.
Chapter 8.
Luke chapter 8.
And we're going to follow.
The blessed footsteps of the Savior, the Lord Jesus.
We're going to start with verse 26.
Luke's Gospel.
Chapter 8. Verse 26.
Maybe we should say just a word here.
That in verse 22, in verse through verse 25, we have the Lord Jesus on His way to a certain physical location, a point on this in the area of Palestine.
And I know I'm going to be saying things that are very common to us, but maybe there are some here tonight that are not aware of Satan's devices, the apostle Paul, who was a very honored servant of God, who was used mightily to bring the gospel to thousands of souls.
Said we sought to come to you once and again.
But Satan hindered us.
And then again when he spoke about a little difficulty that one of the assemblies.
Had that he had been used by God to bring them the gospel, he said.
In connection with that difficulty, we are not ignorant of his devices.
You know Satan is a divider.
He's a divider.
And he is a deceiver.
And he is a liar.
And he is a murderer.
He's a persecutor.
And as the Lord Jesus was on his way to this country of the Gadarenes, all of a sudden, a sudden squeal, or ***** I guess they say, came up on the water and it looked like the boat was going to be sunk.
00:20:00
We are not ignorant of his devices. And I just want to tell you something, dear friends. We'd like to have life so that it would be let us eat, drink, and be merry. Who cares? But you know something, The Lord allows this malignant spirit, this one that our brother faithfully told us about this afternoon, that he saw our precious Savior exalted in this very room.
And he did not like that.
And also he has his Dukes.
And he wants to keep his dupes in chains, fettered, bound, never to get loose until they draw their last breath and they descend into the realms of the lost.
The Lord Jesus was on the boat and all of a sudden the wind came up.
And the waters filled that boat.
Why did Satan do that? Because he was seeking to hinder somebody that God had in mind for blessing.
We are not ignorant of his devices.
And I want to say again.
Perhaps you're here tonight. I don't know everyone that's in this room, but maybe you're here tonight and you've known something of the turmoils of life.
And you have known some of these squalls on the sea of life. And I want to suggest to you that your life is very much observed not only by the God of heaven who is interested in your soul, but you're also being observed by the one who is the Prince of darkness, Satan himself.
And there are times when you may be very close to being in a position where.
Perhaps somebody has invited you to a meeting, somebody has encouraged you to come and hear the word of God, and all of a sudden something happens to your car. The phone rings.
Something. It could be a multitude of things I want to tell you.
That that one who hates your soul will do everything in his power to keep you.
From coming to the Lord.
Well, this is the way it was, but you know, there was one that was mightier than this malignant person. And the Lord Jesus rose from the bottom of that ship, and he rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and there was a call.
And if you've had some deep, deep troubles in your life, there's only one person in this universe that can come and bring a calm into your life.
There are a lot of men's organizations out there that will try to get you to be a help to you.
There was a man that I worked with a number of times.
His life was a shambles.
And he went to a certain organization.
But you know what?
That organization just did a patch up job.
They did not convict him of sin.
And now he can quote me verses from this Bible.
And his life is still a sham.
He's on his way to hell.
But we're not here to try to patch up anything.
Let's own in the presence of God, dear friends, that we have a need.
And that's the very thing that this organization tries to do.
Is to get them to admit they have a need. But you know what?
I don't think there's anybody that's known the sorrows of this life who doesn't say, well, yeah, I have a need, all right.
But it's only for time.
You have a need for eternity.
And the Lord Jesus is the answer to your needs.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Now we come to verse 26. And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city, a certain man, which had devils, demons, long time, and wear no clothes.
Neither abode in any house that in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God Most High, I beseech thee, torment me not.
00:25:08
For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.
For oftentimes it caught him, and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters, and he break the bands and was driven of the devil into the wilderness. I'd like to stop there.
As we said earlier as we began this meeting.
There is a time when the heart goes tender, and that's when we go to the House of mourning.
The scripture says it's better to go to the House of mourning than to the House of feasting. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
And we, you and I know if we've had any experience in this life at all that just let our wallet get full and see how independent we become.
I remember a brother telling me, in fact, he told us at a conference in the Dominican Republic.
That they had gone to a baptism.
I wish I could remember the portion they were reading at the time, but this brother said they came down to the waters.
And this man wanted to be baptized, and so they got him down in the water, and he was just about ready to be put under, and he reached in his pocket.
OK, put me under.
And down he went.
Up went his wallet.
And you know the brother that told that story, he faithfully showed how that man does not like to be bereft of sustenance and succor and support and resources.
And even though that man had believed in the Lord, he wasn't quite ready to have his money go down with him.
Well, that really struck me.
The House of mourning.
It was some time ago.
And we had been through a funeral.
And after the graveside service was over, I took a little stroll through the tombs.
We've read about a man who dwelt in the tombs.
And it was so interesting because as you would go from tombstone to tombstone, you would see either indifference.
Or some trite philosophy of life. Or you'd see a very definite expression.
Of faith in Christ.
Well, I went by this one tomb and this wasn't just one length sitting down in the ground. They've had a big base on it.
And there was a man that probably was 10 feet tall and there was a big musket standing in his hand like this kind of reminded one of the pilgrims possibly.
And the epitaph on that tombstone said this.
Here.
Lies a woodsman of the world.
Here lies a woodsman of the world.
You know, my thoughts went back to a man who had a reputation before God, and that was this, that Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord.
Nimrod, a mighty hunter. Before the Lord went out, he spread out his Kingdom.
And in the stealth and ability to manipulate people and to overcome people's ideas, he established, I think, at least five cities in the Old World, Baba, which Babylon was one of them.
Tremendous, man.
Where is he tonight?
And now here's his.
Shall I say his progeny?
Here lies the woodsmen of the world.
Oh, I just thought.
What does it mean?
What does it mean to to have the praise of men after you pass out of this world, when the moment you take your last breath, it's over, It's over.
And then what Christ thinks of you?
Will mean everything.
Will he be able to say to you in that coming day, Behold I and the children which God hath given me?
00:30:02
Or will you be one of those who are cast into the lake of fire that burneth with fire and brimstone forever and ever?
Our brother Miguel this morning.
Took me to a graveyard.
And I have been wanting to do this for a long time.
And we went to two sections of this graveyard, one for Gentiles and one for Jews.
And I'd like to read. The reason I did this is because I want to read some things to you.
As to some of these epitaphs that we read together.
Now it was obvious that there were some epitaphs that were like stamps.
And I got the impression that the people that make these things.
Have a book that you can choose something to put on your gravestone.
I'm not belittling that, but.
Because there were several of them. And thank God for this.
The Lord is my shepherd. We saw that one a number of times.
Do you think that person passed out of this world without hope?
I like to think that that person, during the course of their life, had experienced those moments when there were roadblocks.
When there were times when they didn't know what to do.
But the Lord was their shepherd, and they passed out of this world experiencing the blessedness of that.
Now there was one in Spanish.
This one said thanks to the life that has given me so much.
Thanks to the life that has given me so much.
I didn't get a tinge of.
Of life out of that.
Is it in your heart tonight?
To just enjoy life.
To just be in this world, to to have what life will bring to you.
You know I want to tell you.
And I believe it's the testimony of everyone in this room tonight that knows my Savior that they will tell you that there is no fulfillment in this world like knowing the Lord Jesus.
Is that right, brethren?
I expect to see some nods. Amen. There is no fulfillment. I don't care what department of the world you've tried. There is no fulfillment.
Like being able to look up to our blessed Savior and have a living relationship with one who lives forevermore, who changes not.
Who is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother?
In all our failures and all our.
He is one.
Who never changes.
What a savior. Is he yours tonight?
Here's one until the Daybreak and the shadows flee away.
This one had been reading the Song of Solomon.
And I like to think that this one is just waiting until the Daybreak, till the resurrection.
The next one was Now believe me, there are many others besides these, but this one says asleep till Jesus comes.
You know, I believe that one thing that makes.
A lost soul, so miserable is that because as they dwell among the tombs of this world.
They have the witness that there are people there that have found the Savior. You know, I had a testimony of a man. This man, I shouldn't call him a man. He's a brother. And he told us this.
He said I can remember in the days of my flesh, before I was the Lord's, he said. If I saw somebody standing over there having a good time and enjoying life, he said I felt like I wanted to go over and smash their face.
Under whose power was he?
00:35:02
The Devil.
And you know, that's the way it is. Satan has a way of hardening the heart.
That when you see and you know you don't have what those Christians have, you hate them.
You wish you could get them out of your life.
And I believe that the misery that this poor man had as he dwelt among the tombs was he had the witness of what I'm telling you to night.
Now here's a beautiful one.
Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.
There's two crowns of life in the word of God.
One for those that lived in the days of Smyrna, where the Lord allowed.
10 series of kings, not successive necessarily, but there were 10 kings, and the Lord allowed them to vent their Pagan wrath against the Christian testimony. Many of the Lord's dear people suffered martyrdom at that time. The Lord told them, Be thou faithful unto death.
But there's also another Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life.
And as to those that endure temptation, and I believe there's a wonderful witness in this, this was a lady. And I don't know if this was her heart's expression or not, but perhaps she knew what it was to endure temptation in this world.
You know the natural tendency is when something goes wrong.
Be it calamity or whatever, there will always be someone to say curse God and die.
That happened to the man that our brother spoke about here the other day.
Curse God and die.
You haven't been made to go through things like that.
Well, you know that, dear man.
Job. He was like, he was like Jacob.
And I trust I'm not saying too much, but.
Jacob said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.
And, you know, perhaps you have been brought to this meeting here tonight.
And maybe you have felt the hand of God upon your life.
Perhaps you know the thwartings of your will.
It would be a wonderful thing if you would say to the Lord, don't let me go until I have the blessing. Help me to understand, help me to have this word and understand that what you are telling me.
The Lord Jesus came into this world to save you.
Now I noticed this was more than once, but I love this expression.
One clear call for me that was on that tombstone 1 clear call for me.
You know something, The Scriptures faithfully tell us that everyone in this very room tonight is not going to stay in this world one second beyond what God.
Has predestined you to be here, on this world, in this earth.
You have an appointment and God knows when it is. I don't. He does. When you are going to take your last breath, whether it be it peacefully or be it in violence, and when you come to that moment, there's going to be 1 clear call for you and you will not miss it.
May it be that that one clear call when you pass from this world?
That you'll be able to say, I know Jesus as my savior, he died for me, Another one said. Whither Savior Jesus Christ?
Now I'm going to not have enough time.
But this was.
This was really sad.
Here is a man that lived on this earth for 89 years.
On his tombstone says this.
No criticism, no advice.
Think about that.
No criticism.
No advice.
No, I'm not very good at philosophy.
But I would just leave that with you.
00:40:03
Did this poor man leave this world?
Not being able to tell anybody anything.
And you know, there was a man that passed from time to eternity in Luke 16.
You know what he said.
Go tell, my brethren.
Warn them.
As they come to this place, he had some advice to give.
And you know this man, if he passed out of this world in his sin, he has some very definite advice to give now.
He will never return from that place of outer darkness.
Oh dear friends, I cannot, I cannot impress you enough with the reality of what these things mean.
The word of God is faithful, and the Lord is faithful, and he's watchful over His word to perform it. Hath he not spoken, and shall he not do it?
And if he says that the Sinner that dies in his sins will pass into judgment because the Scripture says.
After death, a judgment.
It's going to happen.
Don't trifle with the truth of God, It will happen.
A wife and a mother of 36 years.
On her tombstone has said thy will be done.
In all friends, and I'm speaking to any that may not be saved here tonight. Do you see? Have you heard something that might touch your heart to realize what you're missing if you don't know this person?
You know, I know a man who was a Lieutenant Colonel in the army. He was an alcoholic.
He had an awful life, you might say. It was almost like naming the Syrian a great captain before his master. But he had a problem.
And this man had a problem.
And one night a friend of his encouraged him to go to a Bible study on the base. A certain chaplain was opening the scriptures to the men.
In that dear chaplain, one day we're going to meet him. I don't know his name.
But you know what he talked about that night?
Was that the Lord Jesus was a man living in the glory of God?
He stressed it over and over and over again.
I am he that was dead and am alive forevermore. And you know that, Lieutenant Colonel.
He had always thought that Jesus was a man that was here on earth and he died and as far as he was concerned, that was the end of it.
But the Lord Jesus is a living man tonight in the glory of God.
And, you know, when he went home that night, something had happened to him. You know, it wasn't a verse of Scripture.
It wasn't a virus, but it was a fact that Jesus was a living man. And from that moment he had a desire to read the Word of God and he read it. And he read it like the one that we had the testimony of today, or maybe it was yesterday when they got their Bible, they started to read it.
And that dear man passed from death unto life.
Blessed be God.
Here is the boy of 23 years of age.
This is in the Jewish cemetery now.
Says a boy of rare qualities.
And you know, Father Miguel and I, as we trudge through that, those tombs this morning.
Of all the tombs in the Jewish section.
There was only one.
That gave us any hope that they knew the Lord, and on their tombstone it said the Lord is my shepherd.
00:45:03
Jesus.
Is the Christ?
The Son of the living God.
He came from heaven to his own, to the Jewish nation.
As their Messiah as prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures.
They refused him. It doesn't change the fact that he was the promised Messiah to his people.
And I can only hope that that dear soul truly knew him as her shepherd. But I wonder if there's a young man here tonight that's a boy of rare qualities.
Is there one here tonight that knows very well that if they could exploit their abilities, they would go to the top in this world?
They might have a hundred, 200, maybe 1000 people underneath them because of their rare qualities.
What does it mean?
Our dear friends, life at best is very brief and it makes no difference before the eye of God whether you're a street sweeper or whether you have the potential to be great in this world.
On the tombstone of the beloved servant of God it says this.
Unknown.
Yet well known and then if I am not mistaken how it goes underneath it says.
Maybe somebody can help me?
Lord, let my life be only this.
To serve thee here on earth unknown, then share thy heavenly bliss.
I have never been there to that cemetery in Bournemouth.
But it serves me that that's what it says.
You know.
It's a wonderful thing to be a servant of the Lord, and we often relegate our dear brethren that go around as the servants of the Lord.
But all how I desire to night beloved younger ones.
And each of us that we would have a sense.
That if there is salvation for us by the grace of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
By His mercy, He has saved us.
That each of you and myself.
That we would have a sense that we would like to be.
As that tombstone says, Lord, let my life be only this.
To serve thee here unknown, then share thy heavenly bless.
The day is coming when the Lord is going to evaluate everything that was done for Him.
How we would long to hear him say well done.
Here's another one. He always left them laughing.
He always left them laughing.
I don't know if there's anyone here tonight that perhaps considers themselves the life of the party.
But you know, how would you like that to be on your tombstone? He always left them laughing.
There's only weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in that scene.
Where there's only darkness.
And wailing.
You know the blessed Savior was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and yet I have no doubt, as others have expressed it, that He was the happiest man on earth. As Mr. Bellitt put, It was joy to thee while here on earth to mark the progress of that birth that leads poor sinners into light forth from the gloom of nature's night. It was joy to thee to hail the bold approach of faith.
Oh yes, such is the heart of our Savior God, the Lord Jesus.
And you know, I have yet to see this one.
But in our cemetery in Walla Walla.
We have the most triumphant and yet through the avenue of weakness.
A triumphant victory that God accomplished in our midst. There he was, the death of a young man in his 20s.
And he felt like he couldn't cope with life and so he ended his life.
00:50:00
But you know, dear friends.
He left a little note to his family.
And I can't tell you what that note said.
But one of the expressions that he made in that note, May God have mercy on my soul.
On that dear young man's tombstone says this.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.
It wasn't big enough to put the rest of the verse, which says.
And the Lord delivered him out of all his troubles.
You know I want to give you tonight through the word of God.
The fact that God desires to save your soul.
And if you would be willing to cry as a poor man, he would deliver you out of all your troubles. How blessed it is we had to day. It's just one look.
And there is salvation for eternity.
And every after look at that blessed person is the power of living. Yes, Lord Jesus can not only save your soul, it is by grace that he saves through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.
But he can take you in those habits that chain you, like this poor man that the Lord cast these demons out of.
And he can deliver you.
And you know, I just want to finish if I can find this part of the verse.
In chapter 8 we haven't finished reading it, but I just like to read verse 35.
When they found out how the Lord Jesus saved this poor man.
Then they went out to see what was done, and came to Jesus, and found the man out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, And they were afraid.
They were afraid. Oh, dear friends, I know I can speak from experience that what kept me from the Lord as a young man is because I was afraid. I was afraid.
What was I afraid of?
I was afraid he couldn't fill my cup.
And I was afraid I would lose some friends.
These people saw this dear man from a demoniac possessed by a legion of demons, and they were gone forever and they were afraid.
Dear, dear friend, tonight, are you afraid?
The scripture says that God is love.
And that he will not rest in this world.
Because he wants your soul, He wants your life, He wants your all.
And the Lord Jesus said, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work as the blessed Lord walk through the misery of this world. He could not rest.
Until he reached out to these poor souls and gave them the offer of life and showed them the path of life.
Well, you know what this dear man, he went back to the city from which he came, and he related to them what great things that the Lord had done for him. And these people in their fear, when the Lord Jesus came back, notice in verse 40. For they were all waiting for him. Such is the triumph of the grace of God. Dear friends, tonight are we all waiting for Him?
He's soon to come.
He's soon coming, and may you, if you see, if you see someone, pass from death unto life.
May it be a go to your conscience that you might join that holy band and onto glory. Go and be waiting for him as well. I invite you. You know, there was a dear man who, oh, I could go on. He was a funeral director. He was a young man. He was picking up his father's business. And there was a young boy who, the very day that he was taken at six years of old, said to his mother, oh, Mother, won't heaven be glorious?
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And he described in his little mind what heaven would be like.
That day he walked across the road. He looked both ways. His mother had cautioned him to be careful. He went out there and he looked into the mailbox and there was nothing there. And he stopped and he looked both ways.
And he ran for all he was worth to get across to the other side. And he was home with his saviour. A car hit him.
The young man that was the funeral director, he was in his sins at the time and he observed dear Brent and Vicky as they.
Brought their little sunshine boy, as they called him. Is that right? Their little sunshine boy?
Oh, Rainbow, their little rainbow boy. As they brought in the UN and they were there and this funeral director, this young man in his 20s, he couldn't believe the peace that they had.
Well, it was probably 10 years that he got saved. He had a friend that was faithfully telling him about the Lord. And you know what, one night he was just sitting on his bed with his wife and he got to talking to her and he said, you know, honey, I'd like to be saved. I'd like to come to the Lord. What do I have to do to to get saved?
And she said all you have to do is ask him.
And he was saved on his bed that night.
And you know, I was with this dear man not too long ago and he said, you know, when I saw that couple bring that little baby in, he said, I, I couldn't, it was just beyond me why they could be so peaceful. But he said, now I know, you know, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God and we know the one that can give peace. That's beyond all understanding. Will you come to this precious Savior tonight?
Shall we thank you.
Your Heart Conditioon
Gospel—B. Clark
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For him, that's.
Said just what our brother said, there is a Savior on high in the glory #10 him #10.
There is a Savior on high in the glory, the Savior who suffered on Calvary's tree. A Savior is willing to save now as ever. His arm is almighty, His love great and free. Oh, come now to Jesus, that dear loving Savior.
Receive him this moment, and peace shall be thine #10 if someone will start at least.
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We ask the Lords help.
Gracious God our Father, we thank Thee that we can come before Thee at such a time as we consider the solemnity of the hour before us. We think, our Father, of what we have just sung, that there is a Savior on high in the glory, and how we thank thee for that precious Savior, thine only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
That one who by himself purged our sins and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
We thank Thee that He is there waiting, as we were singing in patience for sinners to trust him, and says Lord, and invites them to come. Come unto me, all ye that labor, and our heavy laden, and I will give you rest. We thank Thee, precious Savior, that thou art holding that door open. Thou can say I have set before the unopened door, and no man can shut it. And so we're thankful that heaven's door stands open tonight for any Sinner of who would repent and own themselves as such.
To enter in, I could say, Precious Savior, I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved. We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, that the invitation can still go out even in this late day. We think of the nearness of thy coming, Lord Jesus, as thou was promised. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. And how near that day is, precious Savior, when thou wilt rise up and shut to the door. But we think of how awful for any.
Who are still in their sins at that moment when that door shuts. And I word reminds us, when once the master of the house hath risen up and shut to the door.
There will be those who will begin to stand without and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But, oh precious Savior, we think of the answer that they will receive. I know you not once ye are. And so we cry to thee that if there is any soul in this room tonight to whom that moment Lord Jesus would mean eternal doom, or if they were to leave this world to death, that would mean sudden doom for them. We cry.
That as Thy precious word is opened up, that Thy Spirit would take Thy word and bring it home in all of its convicting power to such a soul. That they might see themselves as lost and guilty, And that they might see that precious Saviour who is on high in the glory tonight, that they might receive him by faith in their heart. We cry to Thee for help tonight, Lord Jesus, owning our weakness, but we thank Thee that Thy strength is made perfect in our weakness.
And so we commend this hour to thee, knowing precious Savior, of thy earnest desire for the salvation of the lost.
Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so we count upon thee, and we earnestly pray that thy Spirit would have liberty to night to use thy precious word for the salvation of some lost souls in this room. We commend our hour to thee, Lord Jesus, as we thank thee for thy matchless love and for thy finished work. And we thank thee, Lord Jesus, in thy most precious and holy name. Amen.
Perhaps we could sing another hymn #26 #26 There is life in a look at the Crucified One. There is life at this moment for thee. Then look, Sinner, look unto him, be saved unto him who was nailed to the tree. Look, look, look and live. There's life and a look at the crucified One. There's life at this moment for thee. Perhaps we could sing.
Verses 1, three and five, someone would start at least.
I'm still afraid and my entry is safe and I feel better to go to one's nail. Thrilled to my 323.
Where is my.
I have just realized.
One, there is life that's small. You have 40.
Sinks my continuity needs to have sometimes unlikely, unlikely together.
And I am now, whenever I swallow the rest of South America elsewhere and fly slantedly, light by light, just as clear as they live.
Perhaps we could begin the gospel meeting tonight by reading some verses that were read to us yesterday in the second chapter of Luke's gospel, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2.
Beginning with verse 25, Luke 2 and 25.
And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost was upon him, and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple, when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him, after the custom of the law.
Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now let us thou thy servant, depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
Now skip down to the middle of verse 34. Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel. The end of verse 35 that the thoughts of many hearts.
May be revealed.
Unless we read these few verses together tonight from the word of God, we noticed two things. First of all, we noticed that salvation, the salvation that we seek to offer to you tonight, dear Sinner, anyone that's in this room and their sins. For you're either here tonight in your sins or in Christ. The only two possible conditions for any person in this room to be.
In Christ or in your sins, you have to be in one of them. You cannot be in both. And for those of you who are here tonight without Christ, without salvation, we seek to offer it to you tonight, as does God, full and free. But we find in these verses that salvation is a person.
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When Simeon saw this child Jesus.
He could say, Mine eyes have seen thy salvation. And so we find that salvation is a person. It's not a doctrine, it's not a creed. It is not fables. As we heard yesterday afternoon. The Bible says we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But were eyewitnesses of His Majesty, for he received from God the Father honor and glory.
When there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Nor we have not followed cunningly devised fables to night. Salvation is not that, and it's certainly not religion. Please, dear soul, do not look for a religion for salvation. Religion has never saved the soul, and it never will.
In fact, as far as I know, the word religion appears only five times in the Word of God.
And four out of those five times that we read the word religion, it's in connection with those who are lost, those who are on the broad road to destruction on the way to hell, like millions of souls in this world tonight marching down the broad road to destruction with their religion. In Galatians 1, Paul says, Speaking of the days before he was saved. He have heard of my conversation in times past in the Jews religion. I'll let beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it.
And profited in the Jews religion above many mine equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the tradition of my Father's.
In the first chapter of James we read this. If any man among you seemeth to be religious.
And bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, This man's religion.
Is vain, worthless, empty man's religion? Paul also in the 26th chapter of Acts says how that after the most straightest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And then in just a couple verses down he says I verily thought with myself to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. You see my friend tonight, religion and Christ do not mix. Religion and salvation do not mix.
Salvation is a person. There was a lady who handed a man a gospel tract one time.
And the man looked at it, and then in disdain he said to her, Lady, I have my religion.
And she looked up into his face and said, and I have Christ. And some time later that man couldn't get that answer out of his mind. And he ended up getting saved some time later. And he was preaching the gospel one night. And into the room walked the very lady who had handed him that gospel paper. And he spoke to her after the meeting. And he said, do you remember handing a paper to a man? And he named the time and the place. And she remembered. And he said, well, now I have Christ, too.
You, you do you have this glorious Person who is salvation? Jesus the Son of God, is he your Savior tonight? Do you know him? The Bible says he that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. In the very end of John's Gospel chapter 3, we read he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
The Son of God or the wrath of God? Which is it for you, dear Sinner, tonight, even as you sit here in this room? The Son of God, is he your Savior? Or is it the wrath of God that abides upon you even now? How solemn. Oh, what a savior. The Bible says there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, a person. He is the man, the coming man.
Before whom each knee must bow, Earth's rightful King and sovereign Lord, though scorned and hated. Now man of the world, which thou be blessed, Let Christ be your trust. You need him, He alone can save, and bow to him you must.
Confess him ere his anger burn. Escape his iron nun can believe on him. God's glorious Son, the exalted coming man, is he your Savior to night the Lord Jesus, the one whom we present to you. And the Bible constantly presents salvation to you as a person.
I think there's only three verses in the Word of God that connect our believing for salvation with the work, and we in no way mean to make little of the work of Christ on Calvary's cross. It's the only way whereby a lost Sinner can enter into the presence of divine holiness.
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It was an awesome work, a work that none other could do, the work that the Lord Jesus Christ finished on the cross of Calvary.
Bible says whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever.
Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. And God doeth it that men should fear before Him. And so it's an awesome work. But what the Word of God presents to you as salvation tonight is a person.
In the third chapter of Romans it says, Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith by His blood.
You see, there we have believing in connection with the work.
We have to in First Thessalonians the 4th chapter if ye believe that Jesus died and rose again.
Even so, them also which believe in Jesus will God bring with him a second verse which connects believing with the work, the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we have in the 6th chapter of John's Gospel the Lord Jesus saying, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Again Speaking of the appropriation of the work of Christ to the soul, but every other verse.
In the Bible that I know of connects believing with a person, connects believing for salvation with this glorious man, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him.
A person should not perish but have everlasting life.
Peter in the 4th chapter of Acts says, Be it known unto all, unto all the people of Israel.
But through the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom he crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him.
That this man stand here before you whole. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. You see, dear friend, it's a person in the 13th chapter of that same book.
Says, Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, through the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and through this man, Jesus through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him a person, all that believe are justified from all things, from the which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Salvation tonight, dear friend that God offers to you, is a person, a living man, one who's on high in the glory.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the one who loves you and who gave himself for you. And you remember that in the 9th chapter of John there was a man there who was born blind. And the Lord Jesus opened the eyes of that man. It got him in a lot of trouble with the religious leaders of the day. And they interrogated him. And finally they came to the conclusion and said, We know that God spake unto Moses, but As for this fellow, we know not from whence he is. And that blind man didn't know very much.
He said, He said, Why hearing is a marvelous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
Since the world began, was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one who was born blind? If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. And those religious leaders said, Thou art altogether born in sin, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.
Jesus heard that they had cast them out, and it says, when he found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
And that blind man said, Who is he, Lord?
That I might believe on him. And the Lord Jesus said, thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. The man said, I believe, and he worshipped him a person. The Lord Jesus, the one whom we proclaim to you tonight is the only savior for sinners. The Bible says the Jews require a sign in the Greeks seek after wisdom. We preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and under the Greeks foolishness. But under them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God.
And the wisdom of God, oh what a Savior he is. Is he yours? Is he yours? But you sit here tonight in your sins, still rejecting this glorious man whom the Father would present to you to night, the one who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree. We have him tonight, this person, the Lord Jesus.
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Can you confess him as your Lord? The Bible says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.
Shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. Can you do that? Can you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
There are two ladies that came to my door one time and before I realized who they were or what they were doing, they had their bags opened and some books out and one of them was launched into her spiel and her doctrine. And so I politely interrupted her and said pardon me ma'am.
But can you say to me that Jesus Christ is my personal Savior and my Lord?
And the lady stopped and she signed the question to her partner, who was a deaf woman, and she signed the question to her. And then she turned to me and said, yes, we believe that he's the Savior of the world. And she began again to launch into her teaching. And again I interrupted and said, but I didn't ask you that. I said, can you say to me Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior?
She folded up her papers and packed her bags and turned and walked away.
What about you?
Can you say that the Lord Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior? And if you can't, my friend, you're in peril.
Because if any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says, let him be accursed.
Well, we pray that before this meeting comes to a close that you will be able to confess Christ as your Lord, that you'll call upon him tonight, even where you are. For the Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Won't you call upon him tonight? If you're here in your sins, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while ye is near. Let the wicked forsake his way in the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord.
He will have mercy upon him and to our God He will abundantly pardon. Won't you do that tonight before it's too late? The time is short, The coming of the Lord draws nigh. Or you may get out on the freeway and be killed.
Then it's too late. You must decide in time where you are going to spend eternity, and for eternity you will exist.
You're only passing a short time in this life, but then you are going to enter into eternity.
James says, What is your life? It is even as a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanishes away.
And then eternity.
Well, salvation, a person, person of the Lord Jesus Christ, my precious Savior, one whom I highly recommend to you. He's more than just one who has saved me from the penalty of my sins. He saves also from the power of sin.
The companion day by day.
Oh, what a savior he is, and I trust that he's yours tonight. And if not, I trust that he'll be yours before this meeting even closes.
Well, the second thing that we found in these verses is that through this one Jesus, the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed.
You see, this one is the eternal Son of God.
And while this verse may be referring to Calvary's cross, where indeed we see the thoughts of many hearts revealed.
Perhaps we could apply it in the Gospel tonight at the Lord Jesus. He is the one through whom the thoughts of your heart.
Is revealed all the children of men he knows. He knows the very thoughts and intents of your heart. Even as you sit here tonight, be sure of it. His eyes are upon the ways of man, and he pondereth all his goings. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
No, my friend, the thoughts of your heart are fully revealed in the presence of this Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord searcheth all the hearts, He understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts, the Bible says.
He says in the 17th chapter of Jeremiah. I, the Lord, search the hearts. I try the reins.
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Because nothing can be hidden from his all seeing eye. Every thought of your heart, my friend, he says. I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.
He knows who in this room tonight is real and who's a fake. He knows those in this room who are sitting here in their sins, passing as Christians.
You remember in the second chapter of John where it says that when he was in Jerusalem?
At the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in His name when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and He had not that any should testify of man. For He knew what was in man, and He knows what is in you tonight, what is in your heart.
He knows if you're real, he's the one through whom the thoughts of many hearts revealed.
And that's what we'd like to look at tonight. There's some different heart conditions that the Word of God reveals.
It's something that we hear a lot about these days, heart condition.
And the Word of God speaks of many hard conditions. And if we were to turn back to the very first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis.
And the 6th chapter.
We will read here.
Of a heart condition.
Genesis chapter 6.
1St 5.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Verse 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Here we have an evil heart.
An evil heart.
This heart condition is universal. This is a heart condition that every single person in this room has tonight.
This is a hard condition that you were born with.
An evil heart, the psalmist could say, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me? And he says later on, I think it's in the 58th Psalm, the wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they be born. Speaking lies, isn't it? So? Wasn't it so with you? Did you have to have someone teach you and train you how to lie?
Or was that something that you could do the moment you could talk?
You see, because you were born with this heart condition.
An evil heart. And I know that this is not a popular way to preach. I know that men don't like to hear this kind of thing.
The Bible says to preach the word.
The word of God says, that prophet that hath a dream, let him tell the dream, but he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. And so we're living in a day that the Bible says, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.
They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
But we just noticed at the beginning of this meeting that we have not followed cunningly devised fables. And so there's men occupying the pulpits of the land who tickle the itching ears are the ones they preach to, and they stay away from the truth of the Word of God, that we're born with an evil heart.
But that's what the Word of God says, and that's a hard condition that you have tonight.
Whether you're saved or lost, you have that hard condition. But if you're lost in your sins, it's the only heart condition that you have an evil heart. It's not the only one will notice some others, but that's all you have is a heart that's evil continually.
Is that as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, Even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. Neither at any time used we flattering words.
And so I'm sorry that it's not too flattering to stand up here and to tell you that you have an evil heart, but it's the truth of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ opened up your heart and mind in the 7th chapter of Mark's Gospel. And he says, therefore, from within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness and evil eye, blasphemies, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and they defile the man.
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That's your heart and mind, my friend by nature. I remember some years ago when a notorious serial killer was executed in the state of Florida. And I understand that they had doctors standing by so that as soon as that man died, they could go in and remove the brain from his head and study it to see if they could find out why it was this man turned into a serial killer.
But I think that they were about 18 inches high. They should have gone in and opened up his heart like the Lord Jesus did in the 7th chapter of Mark.
That's why that man was the way he was, because that's what's in our hearts by nature.
And don't fool yourself. That's what's in yours. There isn't anything that was in that man's heart that's not in yours.
Because as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.
Don't compare yourself, my friend, with those who you think are worse than you. We're all the same.
A heart that's only evil continually. What a dreadful heart condition. But the good news of the gospel is that you don't have to be bound by that wicked heart. God offers to you salvation tonight. I say not only from the penalty of sin, but also from the power of sin.
The Bible says for what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and.
Force in condemned, sin in the flesh, and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus will set you free from the law of sin and death. If you come to Christ tonight, if you'll have this glorious man as your Savior, he'll set you free. If the Son therefore shall make you free, shall be free indeed.
See your Savior tonight. Are you still living in the ******* of that evil heart of yours? Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
I say there's 1A Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who longs to set you free.
From the power of sin to set you free and deliver you from this hard condition, an evil heart.
But if you sit here tonight without the Savior, and you will not come to that glorious man, you will not come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then it's probably because you have another heart condition, and we'll find that if we turn to the 16th chapter of the Book of Proverbs.
Proverbs, chapter 16.
Proverbs 16 and five. Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord.
Though hand joined in hand, he shall not be unpunished.
It's another hard condition, dear friend. A proud heart. You came into this world with a heart that was only evil continually.
And now as you've gone on through life, you've added another condition, another heart condition, and that is a proud heart. Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. And I would suggest to you that if you will not come to the Lord Jesus Christ tonight, it's because you're too proud. It's because you don't want to come. It's because you think that there's something in you that is good enough.
This heart condition.
Proves fatal, because it says in the 10th chapter of Psalms, the wicked through the pride of his heart.
Will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts.
Solemn, isn't it? The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. Is that your condition tonight? Do you sit here in your sins?
Too proud to own yourself as a worthless Sinner, lost and guilty one who cannot extricate himself from the power of sin. Is there too much pride in your heart to allow you to do that? You're going to go on in your sins instead.
00:40:02
Rejecting the Savior that God offers to you tonight.
A solemn the Lord Jesus said, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter the Kingdom heaven.
The pride in your heart just won't allow you to do that, will it?
Solemn. Do you remember in the book of Job that man Job?
And how for some 38 chapters, he sought to justify himself before God.
And he was no doubt probably the best specimen of a man that the earth could produce at that time.
God's testimony of that man was that he was perfect and upright man, one that feared God in his cute evil.
But God saw deep down in Job's heart there was pride. See a hint of it perhaps in the first chapter when he offered sacrifices, he says, for his children, He says, because it may be that they have sinned. But there doesn't seem to be any thought in in Job's mind at that point that he had. But at any rate, there was pride in his heart. And it comes out in the way that he seeks to justify himself. He says, I will say to God, do not condemn me. Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.
He said till I die I will not remove my integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go.
He said he breaketh me with his Tempest and multiplied my wounds without cause.
Proud man.
But that was until he got into the presence of divine holiness.
And then no longer was it a case of Job saying, I am clean without iniquity, without transgression, neither is there iniquity in me. Nor then he changed. And he said, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes see at thee, Wherefore I abhor myself.
Can it be that you can sit here in your sins tonight and feel comfortable even in the presence of divine holiness with the piercing eyes of God?
Looking into your soul.
You can't be consciously in his presence and feel proud. That's him possible. We find that with Job. We find that with Isaiah, who when he finds himself in the presence of God, he says woe is me, for I am undone.
For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the king.
The Lord of Hosts.
There's a servant of God in the Bible named Daniel, one of perhaps only two men in the Bible of whom we have no recorded failure. Wonderful prophet he was, but he finds himself consciously in the presence of God, and what does he say? Wherefore I was left alone and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me.
And my comeliness was turned in me into corruption and I retained no strength.
That's how it is when you consciously get into the presence of Christ. One who knows everything you've ever done, one who has heard and knows every word you've ever uttered, one who knows every thought that you've ever thought. How can you consciously be in the presence of such holiness and such majesty and feel good about yourself if you're not saved is not possible. And so we pray tonight that the Spirit of God would bring you consciously into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ so that you'll see your true condition.
And reach out and accept the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. He longs to save you, He loves you, He died for you.
He gave everything he had in order to save your precious soul, my friend. He gave his hands to the nails of the cross. He gave his feet to the nails of the cross. He gave his back to the smiters.
He gave his cheeks to those who had plucked off hair. He gave his head to the crown of thorns.
He gave his side to the Roman spearhead. He gave his precious blood down to the dirt of the ground.
He gave his mother to the disciple John. He gave his spirit back to God.
He gave his life a ransom for all to be testified in due time. I say he gave everything that he had in order to save you.
Will you come tonight? Are you going to despise such love and such grace and such mercy as that?
Don't do it.
00:45:00
Come to the Lord Jesus.
This one who loves you and who died to redeem you.
Get that, get rid of that proud heart, and humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, so that He might exalt you in due time, for he that humbleth Himself shall be exalted.
You come to the Lord Jesus tonight. Well, perhaps we could look over in the third chapter of the book of Hebrews where we'll find another heart condition.
Hebrews, chapter 3.
Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 7.
Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith today.
If ye will hear his voice.
Harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness.
Harden not your heart. Here's a third heart condition they hardened heart.
And it's our prayer tonight that there is not no one in this room that has this heart condition.
But we're afraid there may be.
Because I doubt very much if there's any person sitting in this room tonight who's hearing the gospel of the grace of God for the very first time.
I'm sure that each one in this room has heard this message before.
Most of you, perhaps all of you, were here last night and heard the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God.
Proclaim to you, and you know there's a very sad downward progression in the book of Hebrews.
It speaks of those who neglect so great salvation, and a little later on we read of those refusing, and then we read of those despising.
To think it's the second chapter of this book where it says.
For if the words spoken by angels was steadfast in every transgression, and disobedience received, they just recompense a reward. How shall we escape, we neglect so great salvation?
Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. And so there are those of you in this room tonight who heard the gospel preached last night, and maybe you neglected. You're back to night.
And maybe tonight you plan on getting up out of your seat, refusing. The Bible says, See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven?
Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. Oh, don't refuse the one who speaks from heaven tonight, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who's on high in the glory, and the Spirit of God, who would take the Word and bring it home to you. Don't refuse it.
Perhaps you're going to refuse it tonight and come back tomorrow night.
And perhaps tomorrow night, despise it.
Oh, how solemn he that despised Moses law died without mercy.
Under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith He was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite under the spirit of grace, hopeless condition for those who despise and turn away from the truth, and reject it, and go on in their sins to a Christless eternity.
Oh, my friend, I'll solemn today if he will hear his voice harden not your hearts.
You know, it says in the second chapter of Second Peter, if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. It's a solemn thing for you to sit under the sound of the gospel.
Time after time and to continue to reject it. And if you go on rejecting it and land in a crisis eternity, God says it would be better if you had never known the way of righteousness. Why?
00:50:03
Oh, because of the responsibility that is yours, having known the truth and turned away.
The Bible says, that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
Why did the Lord Jesus Christ say of Judas the Son of man goeth, as it is written of him?
But woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It had been good for that man if he had not been born. Why did he say that? Why would it be a better thing if Judas had never been born? Because there was one who despised the Savior. There was one who despised the works of Christ. He saw the Lord Jesus day after day performing the works of God, works that none other could do, and he despised them.
He despised the words of Christ. He was present when the Lord Jesus put to silence the ignorance of foolish men time and time again.
He was present when the Lord Jesus gave the famous Sermon on the Mount. He was present at the Olivet Discourse. He heard all the words of Christ and he despised them, and moreover, he despised the warnings of the Lord Jesus.
And now Judas is in a lost eternity.
No nearer out than when he went in, and he'll be there forever.
And the Lord Jesus says good word for that man, if he had not been born. Oh, how solemn, how solemn. Don't let that be you, dear Sinner. Tonight, don't despise the grace of God and walk out of here in your sins, when tonight the grace of God offers you salvation through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our precious savior. Don't despise it.
Well, we'll turn quickly to the 4th chapter of Luke's Gospel.
Where we find another heart condition.
One perhaps with whom with which you're familiar, Luke chapter 4 and verse 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the broken hearted.
A broken hearted This is a hard condition that's extremely prevalent in the world in which we live. The Earth's broken hearts all around us.
You don't have to look very far, dear friend, before you run in to someone with this heart condition.
The world is filled with broken hearts.
Because of what sin has brought into this world.
Oh, if we were to go up and down the rows of this room tonight and everyone was to unfold to us the trials and the sorrows through which they pass through in their short lifetime, it would be 1 unbearable tale of sorrow and woe.
Broken hearts. And the Lord Jesus Christ, when he came into this world, he came to heal that sorrow which sin had brought in, and God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and the Lord Jesus was that Man of sorrows.
And acquainted with grief. Every step of his pathway, he ran into it, didn't he?
Broken heart. He came to heal them. And maybe there's someone in this room tonight and the bottom has dropped out of your life. Maybe your life is all in a tangled mess and you sit here tonight with a broken heart. May we point you to the one who came to heal.
The broken hearted May we point you to the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who can indeed bind up that broken heart of yours. Oh what a savior he is. He came to heal the broken hearted. The Bible says in the 8th chapter of Matthew, who himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses. Never was there a person that the Lord Jesus healed, but what he didn't enter into the sorrow that that sickness caused.
He's the one who can heal the broken hearted. And I say if there's one such in this room tonight, or if you come to the Lord Jesus and find out how it is that this glorious, precious Savior can heal your broken heart. Now one last verse in the book of Hebrews again.
The 10th chapter I think it is.
00:55:05
Hebrews, chapter 10.
This.
Heart condition that we have here, which we trust every person in this room will have before this meeting is over because this, what we're going to read in Hebrews chapter 10, is the answer to all the other heart conditions that we've read about. It's the answer and the remedy for an evil heart, for a proud heart, for a hardened heart, for a broken heart and whatever other heart condition the Bible speaks of, and there are many others.
Here's the answer. Here's the remedy for the Mall Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 22.
Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith having.
Our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Here we have a sprinkled heart.
It speaks of the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, that can cleanse from all sin. It speaks of the application of that precious blood to your heart, whatever condition it's in. If you're in your sins, you must have a sprinkled heart or you go to a lost eternity.
The sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. It will cleanse you from all sin.
And the Word of God uses every word that you can think of when it comes to the sins of those who have put their trust in that glorious man.
The Bible says that those sins are cleansed, that they're washed, that they're forgiven, that they're removed, that they're taken away, that they're remembered no more. Every word that you can think of, the Word of God uses in order to give assurance to the soul who has put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and that precious blood that was poured out of Calvary.
To wash you from every stain of sin. Do you have a sprinkle heart tonight, dear friend?
Or we would pray that if you don't, that even where you sit, you might call upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
And take shelter under that precious blood, that blood which God so values that he can say when I see the blood.
I will Passover you.
All the Savior is Jesus the Lord. Won't you come and receive Him tonight by faith in your heart? Let's pray.
Our Father, we thank thee for thy beloved Son, that glorious, precious Savior, that one who sits at thy right hand tonight and knocks and says, if any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and Sup with him and he with me. We pray Thee, precious Savior, that if there is any in this room who are still refusing.
Thee a Savior, we cry to thee.
That Thou art use Thy precious word that has been spoken tonight to give them deceive, Lord Jesus, their lost and ruined condition and the terrible peril that they are in, and that they might reach out, Lord Jesus, and receive tonight the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We pray for Thy blessing on Thy word here and wherever it's gone forth in truth, we commend it to Thee for blessing.
Daniel's Three Friends
Children—D. Whitaker
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Where's another one?
OK, this little girl right here.
46.
You know, children, there's meetings at this conference for the lost. That's the gospel meeting. We had a gospel meeting last night that I enjoyed very, very much.
Then there's meetings for the young people and the gospel meeting the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his beauty and his glory and perfection is presented.
To a lost soul, to lost now. In the young people's meeting we present the Lord Jesus and all of His.
Glory and beauty to the young people and in a reading meeting we present the Lord Jesus and all of His wondrous work and power to one another. And then in a prayer meeting we present ourselves to the Lord Jesus with our needs.
But in the morning meeting, we're going to do something a little bit different. We're going to present the Lord Jesus of all of his beauty and all of his glory to his Father.
I like that thought. Well, this is for the children. We want to present the Lord Jesus to the children. OK, who has another one?
Let's see, we haven't called on you yet.
40 all right.
OK, first and last #40.
Jesus loves me.
So there's no.
What I mean in 5000 with each other?
It is what else they execution. Oh my God, standards.
Are lost make.
Much love with clouds. I have to go to hell and I want to make it for the sport. This boy had a song.
Which one was it, 4747?
Someone start that.
47.
And they that feared the Lord spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord, And that day when I make up my jewels, my special treasure, and I will spare them as a man's spirit, his own son that serveth him.
Isn't there a version, a New Testament that says something like this? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him Of course all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who has another one Here we have a OK, this OK 41.
About family, no sterile breasts and there's pretty good to me.
Pretty.
Good.
Just take your step in love to where the way let's see him now watch him that most gracious, lovely most of the life and we need to make me worry.
Beautiful.
All right, let's pray and we're going to ask the Lord for these children here. We're going to also ask the Lord for Brother Forrest Atkins. That broke his hip last night and he's suffering. We won't afraid for him too. Let's commit ourselves to God.
Well, do we have any A plus?
Students in Well, maybe I shouldn't ask that. Do we have any good students in here? If you're a good student, raise your hand. There's Oh, good, good. OK, All right, fine. So we have some good students here.
Do any of you children ever study a different language?
Oh wow, what language do you study?
Spanish. OK, now there's a lot of children back here too. I wish they were all sitting up here in front. And I'm sorry that my back is towards you.
00:10:09
OK, then I have another question. Do we have any John? Anybody by the name of John here? Raise your hand high. If there's a John, if someone point him out to me. Oh, there's one John. OK, see, do we have any Davids?
Oh boy, we're running.
OK. Do we have any Denny's?
Do we have a Danny?
Whoa.
Neither did Danny.
Well, that's OK, we'll make it.
All right, I was just going to tell you a story about some straight A students. This is a true story, and it happened.
On the other side of the world, actually, it's just South of the city of Baghdad, about 58 miles along a river.
In Iraq, what's called Iraq, there was some students there that were given a three-year scholarship and they were very intelligent young people. They loved God. They loved God. And that's so important that at an early age they had gotten the scriptures out and they said seek the Lord while he while, while you're young, while you're young. And they did, they did while they were young well.
These young men, they were given a three-year scholarship, all expenses paid including their meals.
And it was quite an interesting time they had there.
They were given subject of science. Which one of you young people have had science in your school?
Raise your hand if you've had a science class.
OK, there's one.
Only one. There's another one. OK, all right. And literature studying what people have written. How about do we know there's a girl here that's had.
A foreign language study.
And social studies, have you ever heard that word social studies, where you study how people act and their culture, what they do? Well, these handsome young men, they were in this class and they had a job opportunity when they got out.
That they could have a very important job, but they had to complete their studies.
Correctly. And they had to do it because at the end of the three-year there was an examination coming up. And if they passed the examination, they would be able to fill this very important job position. That's a lot like these young people here today. And I'd like to think of these, these young fellows, they, they had their, their minds were set and they were dedicated. And when they went into this school, you know, there was also in this school where they were going, I must say.
There were some very important people, young people, and they were also studying along with these poor fellows and.
This is a true story, by the way. They were thrown right in there in the midst of them. But these young men, they had a purpose, and their purpose was to get through that school without being.
Turned over to the ways of the country. Let's see, I'm not sure who.
What God they had at that time down there? But anyway, in different countries they have different gods who are in Malawi and they have a Muslim government. And I was talking to 1000 children there, amazed me and they listened very carefully and they were very thankful to hear what was said by brother Reuben others.
And at the end of the talk I thought, why? We're from a country where God is on the money and God is it's a Christian country, but you couldn't get up and preach the gospel in a school.
Because they would let you. But here's a here's a Muslim country and the man says please come talk to us more about Jesus. Please come talk to us more about the Lord Jesus. And so I told the children in my country we can't do that. Hooray for Malawi. That's what I told him in the El clapped. They thought that was fun. I did too.
00:15:02
Well, these men, here they were, they were in all these classes and when they were young, they must have read a scripture. My son, give me thine heart because they made it clear through those three years without being turned aside or tainted. Isn't that something? Well, now, could you turn with me, please to Daniel, chapter one.
Now let's see how accurate my story was.
Daniel, Chapter one.
The third year.
Of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.
And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with part of the vessels of the House of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the House of his God. And he brought the vessels into the treasure House of his God.
And the king spake unto espionage the master of the eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel.
Oh, that's what I'm talking about. That's why I needed a Daniel here a few minutes ago. I wanted to set him down here and then I was going to let let him select three friends of his. But we have no Daniels in here today. That seems a little strange. Young children, that is.
All right, children, verse four in whom was number blemish. Oh my, how easy it is we go through this world to get blemished. Now I was sitting next to brother ton back there opening meeting and he looked over at me and he said, you know these ladies that he sees their faces. Well, actually everybody, the faces of these sisters in here were full of joy. He says I go to the prison, the women's prison, he says, and the faces are so sad.
All their faces have been blemished with sin.
Sin well look at these children to whom was no blemish, but well favored. Oh young people, we've been well favored, skillful in all wisdom. These were a plus students cunning and knowledge and understanding scientists science class they had to go through and there were then here we have they had the ability to stand in the King's palace. They would probably had classes on the how to present themselves.
And they were to learn the tongue of the Chaldeans. They, this little girl is learning Spanish. And these fellows were learning the tongue of the Chaldeans. See, it's kind of like today, isn't it?
Well, here they were. They were given everything they needed, and they were given some of the King's food.
And they were there's a lot to be said here, but we and we want to get on with a story because we want to talk about the fiery furnace part of this story. But anyway, we get back here to verse eight that says Daniel purposed in his heart doesn't say that his three friends did.
Says Daniel purposed in his heart and it just seems like he's taking the lead here. You know, we love, some of us love to follow. Now if there's a young man or there's a young woman here that's going to purpose in their heart to follow the Lord you're going to bring. Wouldn't be wonderful if you brought three or four or five with you. Well, that seems to be the case here. Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a King's meat. I think it's back in the Levitical law. They weren't supposed to eat certain things.
Well, this young man was true to what he knew Daniel and he wouldn't. He said to this man that was over him. He said no, we'd rather not, rather not. We don't want to eat. Well. This man said I have to feed you correctly because when the king looks on you, he wants to make sure that you look in strong and sturdy and healthy. Well, he said, just let us have what we used usually eat. We don't want to eat the King's meat.
We don't want to be defiled with what he eats. We're Jewish boys. And then.
The man said, OK, but I'll have to check you out for 10 days. Oh, that's fine. So they had a little test that was a 10 day test. And you know something, they passed that test. They're passing all their tests, aren't they? Well, some of these were moral tests, some were academic tests, but they were tests nevertheless. Well.
00:20:00
Now we get on down here and these men got their names changed and that gives you the thought that this king wanted to kind of take over. Now let her get these names straight. Hananiah, Michelle. And what's the last one?
Go ahead, I'll take a big person on this one, Hananiah, Michelle and.
Azariah. Now we're going to get down to the names that were given them.
Shadrach. I did somebody in here have a dog by the name of Shadrach?
A Shadrach and then the other one was.
Meshach and the other one was.
Abednego, there you have it. And when these men got their names changed, these young men got their names changed. It's like the king is saying, well, you belong to me now.
I've changed your name. You know there's different ones in the Bible got their name changed.
And it means that somebody has authority over them. Well, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they got their names changed, but did that change their hearts?
Oh, no, They had purpose of heart. Now when you children, you boys get out there and you play football and there's a bunch of boys standing in front of there.
And that ball is handed off to you and you start to run.
Are you running? Is are you running? Why are you running? Why are you going? Which direction are you going? There we go. I got it out. You're going to a goal and you go as hard and as fast as you can and you use every bit of energy to get to the goal.
Now I will say this, there's lots of us here in school, lots of us young people in school. And if you're, if you don't have a goal, that is to get your education.
So you can get your job or whatever it is the Lord has for you if you don't have a goal.
You're going to get turned aside. Something's going to get you this way or someone's going to get you this, just like in football, boys.
Or your friends is going to be out there and he's going to try to get you, but you want to get around him. So that's what it's like in school. Well, these boys made it through all the school and here they are.
I kind of lost my train of thought a little bit here, but at the end of it all they were found out to be 10 times better.
Whoa, 10 times better than all of those others that they were there now the Lord helped them and gave them special wisdom.
Well, we get on now to the.
3rd chapter.
Here we have these boys. Hearts weren't changed at all. Their hearts were fixed, trusting in the Lord.
Nebuchadnezzar the King.
Made an image.
Everybody have Daniel three, they made an image whose height was 3 score cubits. You know, that's just as tall as these towers they call towers out here that we're staying in. Most of us 90 feet tall. That's how tall this tower went up in the in the plain of Durate was on a flat plain and everybody could stand back and they could say, wow, look at that tower. It's big and it's pretty and it's great.
It was covered with gold and everybody was told. I will read it here. The Nebuchadnezzar, the king, sent to gather together the Princess, the governors, the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the councillors, the sheriff's and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image. It's a false religion.
Which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the Princess, the governors, the captains, the judges, the treasures, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. This is a man made contraption. Now innocent idol. It's very, very important looking. And this man wanted to unite this huge Kingdom under this one religion.
Now I'd have to maybe let somebody else explain what the modern day is the equivalent to this, but it seems like to me that the God of this world is in the process of blinding the minds of those that believe not.
00:25:02
Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, the image of God, should shine unto them, they should be saved. And the devil is bringing them all down, not just bend the knee. These men had to fall down.
Fall down all the way down. It reminds me of a story man that came into my business and he was talking about being saved. God had been speaking through his heart about being saved.
And he knew that if he didn't get saved, he was on his road to hell. Terrible thought. And he was a proud man. And he thought about that. He went in his room.
And he put one knee on the floor.
And he started thinking, she said.
I want to be saved but my other knee won't hit the floor.
My other knee won't get down. He thought about that. He didn't want to completely yield his heart to Christ.
And so he realized, if I go out of this room with just one knee down and that's it, and I have it completely, I'm going to go to hell. I'm lost.
He took his hands like this, and he jammed his other knee down into the floor, and he cried. The sinner's prayer. You know what that sinner's prayer is? God be merciful to me.
Not the neighbor, not the man down the street, not the fellow classmate. God be merciful to me, the Sinner.
And he was saved and he came and he told me about it.
There's six charts on the back wall of this room.
And.
What would you think if instead of the normal announcements, someone came or I stood up here and made some announcements? Or Brother Wally or Brother Dave, who typically make the different announcements about activities. Or Brother John, perhaps tomorrow and made the announcement that if you find yourself in the middle of a softball game with the pitch coming towards you.
And all of a sudden everyone else on the field disappears, including those that are seated on the side.
Or if you were to find your cabin empty in the morning.
With the things left behind from those that were there. And you were to say, oh, I overslept. And you came over to the eating area and you found that it was also emptying. You came over to the meeting area, found it was empty. Went up to the ball fields, found them empty. Or perhaps you were sitting in a meeting.
And.
You were to find yourself.
Completely alone, look around you and find that there are bibles on the seats, perhaps many of them having fallen where they are if they were held out in front, fall into the floor.
Keys, wallets, everyone of the things that we have that are all going to be left behind.
What if the announcement was made that you were free to?
Take the keys of whatever vehicle you could find and you could drive that vehicle away because it was number longer going to be of any use to its owner.
You could take and you've got permission to take what money is in my wallet because I won't need it anymore because the event that is going to happen, and I don't know when it's going to happen, but it might happen tonight the brother Dave reminded us that perhaps seems that people have been saying for years, and they have that this event is going to happen. They've been saying it for about 2000 years that the Lord Jesus is coming back because that's a promise that he made.
The thing is this.
Your flew jets and things like that around. But he was a proud man, but he knew that he that pride had to go and he got both those knees on the floor and repentance. Well, this king here, he wanted everybody go further than that. He wanted to bow down all the way with her face right on the ground, fall down.
Well.
00:30:01
So what time a man calls out, he says, when you hear the sound of the music?
All kinds of music. Flutes, harps, sack butts, sultry dulcimer.
You know, today you could probably add a few more guitars and so on and so on. Whatever you fall down.
And you worship the golden image with which the king has set up. And, you know, let me ask you a question. What happens if what was supposed to happen to these men if they didn't fall down and worship what was going to happen? Let's see here. Oh, we got a lot of hands going up this time. How about this boy right here?
That's exactly right.
Oh, now there's a decision. These men, up to this point, have had their hearts and minds fixed, resting in God. What about this Now What about this?
Do you think they could have turned to the book of Isaiah?
And they could have found there when thou passes through the fire.
I'll be with thee.
My clothes shall not be burned. Yeah, there's a burst that says that.
Hmm. They had the Old Testament there and they were reading it. Much of it.
And this was a fearful time and this, oh, they might have got to that verse that says.
If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.
And whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.
Oh.
It took time to gather all those people together from all these provinces, and there was time for these men to get off in the presence of God, get the word of God out and study it. Now. Is God going to take us through this? This is serious, This is our life.
What is going to happen to us? Oh, and one would encourage the other. I can't just say.
Oh, perfect peace are those that have the essay. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon thee. They had the word of God, and they could open it up together. I could imagine them sitting there thinking about this. Yeah, I've seen that image. It's big and everybody's falling down to it. Now. Children, I've only got 15 minutes, but I'd like to take an hour and 15 minutes to tell you I can't.
But I'd like to take time to tell you that this world, the God of this world, wants you to bow down.
That's right.
And you know something, it's not asking you to give up any of the things that you've been taught on your mother's knee.
This world is not this man. Didn't this king didn't ask these men to give up what they had learned from the Bible?
Just said one thing and it was simple, very easy to do, and you'd save yourself so much trouble if you did it. All you had to do was fall down before that image.
Bow yourself before that image. That means you're pledging allegiance.
To that new God that this evil king had set up.
Oh my, what a time of trial that must have been.
Shall we or shall we not? That's the question that they had on their hearts that day.
Well, they said, we're not careful to answer thee. Oh, they came out with such a that's a beautiful, beautiful thing. You know, I think about this. If the king would have asked them to be careful when they drove their Chariots down the streets of Babylon that they not go too fast, you know, I think these men would have said, well, yes, that's right. That's what the king would have us do, and we're going to do that.
The king would have had him do this or that. They would have done it. But when it came to.
Submitting themselves to this false God? No Sir.
Resolution in their minds and hearts.
Now this made this king furious, Yes.
But you know something, he says. I know I'm a regular guy. I'm going to give them another chance, you know. It says the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, they said. Really, they said. Give you another chance, fellows. One more chance here. We might have misunderstood your intentions, but we want you to bow down. And the consequences are that fiery furnace over there. Well, we're not careful to answer thee. And you know something you have, you children, you young people.
00:35:16
All of us.
There's one thing we need to be careful. Not careful. I like that expression. It looks at it through the back door. Not careful.
No, a mind is fixed, the heart is stayed trusting in the Lord. And they said, no, we're not careful, we know what we're going to do.
Well, this made they didn't bow, and this made that man very.
Furious. And you know something, if you don't go the way of the devil, he's going to be angry with you.
And so he was, he said, you turn that furnace up seven times hotter than it's ever been heated before. It's supposed to be red hot, but you make it white hot. And I can see that furnace, the fire belching out of that thing. We can look over there. What a fearful sight. Put yourself in their shoes. Terrible. Except their heart was trusting in God.
You know something? There's a verse in the Psalms that says the word of the Lord.
Pure words tried in a furnace of earth, purified 7 times. Oh yes.
Well.
They were bound in their clothes, everything on them that they had in their daily life, nothing had changed. They were wrapped up. They were bound up with these ropes, I take it, and.
These three, these mighty men and his army came and they picked up these three young men. I'm sure Daniel was praying somewhere. I don't know where he was, but these three men were right there and they were picked up and they were.
Run and cast into that burning fiery furnace.
And the men that threw them in there, what happened to them? Was anybody remember? Oh, look at this, OK, This boy here, they died. What were you going to say?
They burned, yeah.
That's really a story in it. Well, they burned, but then everybody's watching this and they look in there. What do they see? Didn't the king say something like this? He said to us, he says to the men. He said, didn't we cast three men into the fire?
That's right, O King. But they said, I see four in there, and the 4th is like the Son of God. Oh, when thou walk us through the fire, I'll be with thee, and I won't touch thee. And you know when those men were called out of that fire.
You think if they'd had clothes on that God wasn't happy with that? Those clothes would have been burned up in that fire.
I think so, but no, God was happy with everything they had on because they came out with everything that they had on.
The fire passed, didn't touch him, couldn't even smell it on him.
No, no. And so these men, they could have stepped out and they could have said, well you see this is what happens when you follow God. No, they were just quiet. And this man by the way, they might have read that verse as let another man praise thee and not thine own lips.
Well, the king, Oh my, the king will really impress that king. And it was used for a tremendous testimony and a tremendous blessing in his Kingdom. Well, there's so much that could be said.
This one that walked with them in the fire. And you know, this world has a lot of tests and a lot of trials. And I guarantee you're going to go through some of them. And if you've got any years behind, you've already gone through them. You'll find that the Lord Jesus will go through them with you and go through them with you. Oh, that's beautiful.
Well.
I could say a lot could be said. These men, they didn't want to set any wicked thing before their eyes. There was that idol there, but they said no. And this music that they had, you know, there's all kinds of music in this world, young people. It has all kinds of music. Today. It just seems like it's running this modern culture in which we're in. The music is motivating it and running it. And that music takes these poor people down, down, down. And tell their faces are so sad. We see them every day.
Hearts are broken and homes are broken. God is left out of their life. Christ means nothing to them.
00:40:06
I want to tell you a story.
This man's name is Bill. I've talked about him about it maybe a couple of years ago.
Bill Spears is his name. He's kind of the opposite of these three, these poor young men. Bill Spears lived in Scotland and he had a very heavy Scottish accent.
About 25 years ago.
Well, maybe 35 years ago, he moved to the United States from Scotland.
And he came into the business that Brother Brimlow had.
And I listened to his story, he said, oh, I see you fellas are Christians here.
We had persons on the walls.
And yes, he said, well, church, did you go to? And we tried to explain to him a little bit about the position we're in and just a sentence or two. Oh, he says, do you fellas use the JND Bible?
I said well we have the J&D by how do you know about that? Well, he said I used to know some Christians up in northern Scotland. He said they would, they used the J&D Bible, he says, and they would go down the beaches.
Scotland, he says they were called Plymouth Brethren and he said they would go down to the beaches and they would preach the gospel on the beaches. You know, I was a wee lad, he said I would go down and listen to them, he says. And this man pulled out a stopwatch big watch and he was preaching about that watch.
He says see the Tina's watching. There was a dials on it. You know, the big hand and the little hand. They were right there. They weren't moving, but there they were.
And then he says that look at this, and he opened that watch, that Scottish preacher opened that watch up and he says, look, there was nothing inside. It was empty.
He says I remember what he preached about that day. I said that's interesting. Well I said what about you? And he gave me some. I forget how he answered that question this 25 years ago, but I didn't get a clear answer out of him. I would have loved to have heard him say I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, He's my savior. Well, as the time goes on, I watched this man Bill Spears get older and older and his hair got whiter.
And wider. And we'd visit with him over the years. He'd come in once every other year or so, and we'd try to tell him about the Lord. And you know something he would start talking about faith without works is dead. And he felt that he had the works. He wanted to do the works part of them. And faith. Oh yeah. But he wanted to do the works. I didn't sense that he was a saved soul.
If you think back about maybe four or five, six months ago, a Sunday school paper came out and Bill Spears was featured in that Sunday school paper, a man that had heard the gospel.
And never took up with it. His mommy prayed for him. And he said, my mother and father prayed for me, prayed for me. They're dead and gone now. Well, now, four or five days ago, he came in again. I was surprised to see him. His hair's all white. And he told me not too long ago, he said, you know, this last year has been the most miserable year of my life. Oh, I said, Bill, have you bowed your knees to Christ?
Well, he said. You know, we've talked about this before, Dave, he said.
We have our different ways of looking at it. I said no, Bill, you have to bow your knees to the Lord Jesus. You have to tell him I'm a poor, lost and guilty Sinner. You have to remember what your mother and father. He went to his Southern Sunday school up there. He went to and when he was a little boy he went to a Sunday school similar to this and he heard the Gospel. But he never has yet to this very day, to this very moment, as far as I know, he has not bowed his knees.
And he brought me a little year end present. I said well you know, But he said you don't get into this year end thing. And I said no, no, I really don't.
Bill But I said, I'll take it in the spirit of kindness from you and some little cookies. I said, Oh, but Bill, I put my arm around him. He was kind of stiff. He didn't want to talk about it, but I said you need to bow your knees to the Lord Jesus like the brother was preaching last night. Oh, that was refreshing to my soul.
I said have you made? Have you ever made with your lips? Have you ever said Lord Jesus, I am a poor lost, guilty Sinner, I need to be saved. Answer your mothers and fathers prayers. Have you ever gone on your knees and said Lord Jesus save my soul. And Bill, he couldn't give me a clear answer. And he's very old, nose is red and he's just so old. I feel so sad for him because I'm afraid.
00:45:13
Born and raised in a Christian home, heard the gospel preaching when he was a little boy and can explain to me the illustrations that he heard 55 years ago on the beaches of Scotland when faithful men of God preached the gospel. And he's still saying no. And if he doesn't get saved, he's on his road to hell. I hate to say that. Pray for Bill Spears.
Well, Natura says. Not the condition of anybody in this room this morning.
The Lord Jesus is standing. He's standing. He's saying come. And you know what the word come means? That means somebody's looking for you know that.
Lord Jesus, that word come is used. Doesn't that what means someone says come, that means someone wants you to want you to go to them?
Looking for you The Lord Jesus is looking for you today. He wants you to be saved.
Well, May God bless these words. Shall we pray?
Stewardship
YP Sing Address—G. Whitaker, R. Thonney
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I've kind of got.
The subject on my heart, that would be along the lines of service, service to Christ. And I would imagine that in a crowd of young people this size that there might be a considerable number who are thinking, if they haven't voiced it out loud to anybody, at least thinking in their own hearts, what does the Lord want with my life and who are just absolutely serious.
We're not playing any games with the Lord Jesus.
But genuinely want to know how they can be of some service to him. Well, it's with that in mind that I think maybe we better lay down a little groundwork First off.
Simply because when we start talking about doing things, it would be very easy for somebody that wasn't particularly exercised before God about this to get on the bandwagon and sort of jump in and say, yeah, I'm going to join that effort. And pretty soon here he is. Or she is going right along with the rest without any particular exercise.
And when the Spirit of God starts turning, turning inside the conscience, we can say, well, look at I'm doing this, I'm doing that, I'm all right, don't worry me with all these fine details. And we might just lose out because we think we're doing God's will. We really haven't come at it from the right direction.
With that beginning, can you turn to the book of Proverbs?
Book of Proverbs, chapter 23.
I also might say that.
There's a wide range of things in connection with service. You've got the people, you know, like we've heard just this day, Ruben Ruga and a few others plan to go down to Venezuela here in just a couple of weeks or less. And there's some brethren over in Malawi right at this moment. And you know, when we're young, I don't suppose we think that larger thought and maybe we're just thinking how can I serve the Lord Jesus on a part time basis? I don't mean that derogatory. I mean.
It's not going to be full time, but in my spare time, what can I do to please him? How can I be a help to God's people so.
Some might say, well, I don't have too much to offer in the way of resources.
I wish there was just some little thing, you know. It doesn't have to be big. The Lord takes note of that. He's on your side. He'll show you.
Whichever, wherever you are, whether you've been on the job force and have a bank account, you're willing to spend some of it for the Lord and go thither and yawn and spend your $2000.00 for an airplane ticket.
$1000 for a car rental and they go plowing up through Malawi anywhere on down to just some little thing. Let's talk about that wide range of possibilities.
Proverbs 2326 First off.
My son, give me thine heart.
You know, after listening to that wonderful gospel message tonight, we all know the way of salvation, don't we?
Now its case. Question is what have we done about it?
Have we accepted it? Do we know Jesus Christ as Savior? If not?
We're not talking to you particularly. Tonight I'd like to address Christians, ones who know God as their Father.
What does God want from each Christian? Your time? Your talents?
Your resources, Money.
If you're out there and Christendom, those preachers would be after your money. What does God want from you?
He wants your heart, your heart.
Brother Alan Coleman in the Gospel tonight, he said. Do you have any room in your heart for the Lord Jesus?
That's just not the day you are saved. That's every day from then on, all through life. What are we going to do? Well, that's something. Come in to crowd Jesus over into the corner. He's deserving all of our heart, not just some little tiny spot in it. So this question, give me thine heart. What have you done about that? Is the thing we can ask ourselves every single day of our lives.
00:05:28
What is it today for us?
What he says my son.
Are you his Son? If you're not God's Son, you first need to solve that question. Open your heart for salvation. Then you can talk about serving Him after you've handled that detail. It's not a small detail. It's an extremely important detail. It's a matter of life or death.
What does it mean to give your heart?
Well, I'd say it would be an unconditional surrender.
All of you, body, soul, spirit, you hold nothing in reserve.
Give it all to Jesus.
Have we done that? You might say, Well, I gave my heart to Jesus when I got saved, didn't I? Well, yes.
But the question now is maybe that was some months or weeks or years ago.
How is it today?
Have things come in and kind of push the Lord Jesus into one corner where he doesn't have much say in our life, much impact on the way we think and act.
Well, if you answer that question about is Jesus your Lord? And you say, Oh yes. And I say, well, just a minute, I'd like to get a second opinion on that. I'm going to go to your best friend and see what he has to say about that. And so I go to your best friend and I say, what about that is so and so really.
Taking Jesus as their Lord and if that person would say.
Oh yeah, if you were around that person very long you would see for sure Jesus is his Lord or her Lord. Wouldn't that be nice to have a recommendation like that from your best friend?
That's what the Lord Jesus is looking for. And what an encouragement to see young folk going on just plainly obvious that Jesus Christ is Lord of their life.
Well, give the Lord all of your heart unconditionally.
Psalm 1079 says For He satisfieth the longing soul. Did you come to this conference with a longing soul?
Did you come here with a sense in your soul from practical experience?
That this world is a barren wilderness for the Christian. That there is nothing here to satisfy.
Well, you've made some real progress. Don't stop now. Keep going.
We need to feel that God is talking directly to our consciences.
My son, give me thy heart.
God knows that if He has this unconditional surrender of your heart, He has your entire being everything about you.
Your resources, everything.
This matter of a total surrender. Get comfortable with it, because it's the secret to happiness.
We all like to be happy, don't we?
That happiness and obedience go together, don't they?
We need to give our lives entirely to him, with nothing being held in reserve.
You know we have a wonderful example in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to look at.
Think about him for a minute.
In John 118 it says the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father.
00:10:09
Can you just picture that?
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.
Would you say in that context if you picture the will of the Lord Jesus being pitted against his Father's will?
That's that clashes. There's no such thing. He could not be resting in the bosom of his father if that were the case, could he? Absolutely not.
Giving my heart implies that I no longer insist on my will, or that I have no will at all.
That would be the preferred thing.
Now, what is it that destroys fellowship between two individuals? It's to have two wills in opposition to one another, trying to make them work together. It does not work, does it? Tell me about it. You and your parents. Sometimes you get wills that clash once in a while.
That's not the way to happiness and Jesus never exercised his own will. It was always his Father's will. Let's look at a verse here. I'm thinking of John 530. Jesus said I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father.
I'll just go through these rather quickly, Romans 15, three says.
For even Christ, please, not himself.
You know Christ existed in this world for one purpose, for the sake of His Father.
To do His will. Isn't that a beautiful example for you and I to follow in regards our wills?
Psalm 40 verse eight says I delight to do thy will, Oh my God.
Hebrews 10 and nine says, Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.
So there was a perfect communion between the Sun and the Father.
He had given his heart to his father.
Perhaps there are some of us that have been thinking or exercised about how perhaps we might have been holding the Lord at arm's length in our lives and just doing our own thing, doing our own will. And maybe the Spirit of God is troubling our consciences about that kind of behavior.
Oh, and so we might say then, oh, I wish I could know what the Lord's will for my life was. I wish I know what He wanted me to do so maybe I could get occupied with doing and forgetting about the important things God's issue with me and my life.
That's not where we want to come from when we talk about serving the Lord. It isn't kind of something to hide behind so we can go on.
With habits and a manner of life that does not please the Lord.
Well, I'll tell you, I can tell you exactly what the Lord's will is for you. Does that surprise you? First Thessalonians 4? Please turn the 1St Thessalonians 4.
And in verse 3.
The first part for this is the will of God. Here it is. You want to know the will of God.
Even your sanctification.
There it is in black and white.
You want to know God's will. It's your sanctification.
What does sanctification mean? It's a daily process looked at as a progressive thing. It means being daily more and more separated or set apart for God.
1St Thessalonians 523 talks about that. We may be sanctified wholly. It doesn't all happen at once. It's an ongoing thing. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God, if we'll read it in our hearts to bring us more into conformity with His Son.
00:15:13
You know, wonderful thing the Spirit of God does in our lives.
Well, it all goes right back to what we started with my son. Give me thine heart.
So he wants to work on our affections, our habits, and all that concerns our life.
So if you feel that the Spirit of God is speaking to you.
Listen, don't ignore it. Don't try to brush it aside and with God's help, seek to clean house as it were. It isn't that we're trying to clean up our old nature, that's incorrigible. It's it's not improvable.
It's living in our new life that we have as Christians.
And oh how we need to pray for help on a daily basis that we would walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
That is an impossible task without God's help.
So it's an ongoing and a progressive thing. You know, God would rather have us become more and more conformed.
To the image of his dear son and for us to be busy doing something.
If I did something, then that would give me some credit or some merit for a future day.
But it's all by grace, and it's through faith. Doing has nothing to do with salvation.
But if we let it, our old man would get in there and try to make something out of doing, and we want to be sure we're clearly understood on that score tonight.
Well, you might say, oh, but I have given my heart. I know what you're saying to me, and I've done it, and I want to do it in a continuing basis daily. But I feel sort of at a loss to know what small thing I can do for Him. And I feel that I don't have much in the way of talents or resources to give to the Lord, but I wish I could do something. Well, that's a wonderful frame of mind and soul to be coming from.
Luke 2219 says this. And how about this this do in remembrance of me, Do you want to do something?
Are you at the Lord's table tomorrow morning in the other room? Will you be gathered around the Lord Jesus Christ and breaking bread and offering up praise worship in your hearts to Him? Don't you suppose that's a priority on God's list of things that are valuable?
This do in remembrance of Maine. It's not much point in worrying about going to Africa or any other place before we handle these necessary things that God has plainly stated.
This do in remembrance of me.
While He would love first of all, to have our praise and our worship.
Turn to Hebrews 1315.
Read that in the meeting today, didn't we?
Hebrews 1315 says by Him. Therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. How wonderful to have a thankful heart, a thankful heart, and to offer up that praise that the Lord Jesus deserves from us.
Are we impressed with what the Lord Jesus did for us on Calvary's cross? Are we remembering Him and His death? Does that mean something to us? Oh, we should be quick to praise Him. Young brothers, if you are in that state of soul that is exercised, don't be afraid to give out of Him to to lift your voice up in prayer and praise in the assembly.
Be encouraged.
Well, So what can we bring to the Lord Jesus? Well, anything that we have received from Him we can bring. Our willing heart, our praise, our Thanksgiving, our prayers, our time, our talents, our aptitudes, financially. However the Lord has blessed you, you can bring.
00:20:16
Remember the story in the Gospels about the widow who cast into the treasury her two mites? Just the tiniest of coin, if you will. Jesus was there. He saw what happened. Do you think he was impressed? Oh, I should say he was. He made a particular note to comment on it. He says, Do you see this, lady?
She's cast in all her living, all she has.
Did it matter that it was just pennies? Not to God?
It was that willingness in her heart to give all she had. So whatever we have, God knows where it's coming from. It doesn't have to be $1000. It can be pennies. And if it's coming from a heart that's right means lots to him.
It's incredible what he values has such encouraging a thing to think about this poor widow who gave everything she had. Just think it's spoken about her all around the world.
Well.
This unselfish thought of her heart God values.
And the Lord notices what you want to do, and he'll take note of his. Don't notice of it. Don't think that little things you do for the Lord go by unnoticed. Maybe your brethren don't notice it. But remember, the Lord notices it. He cares.
So if you want to be a helper for the Lord, you first must be aware of some need somewhere, don't you? A need is generally what triggers some action.
Some situation that is begging for a helping hand.
You know, some needs are just private. Maybe you're the only person that knows about it. Maybe there's an old lady somewhere that needs some help and you're aware of what's needed and you don't tell anybody. You just go ahead and whatever is needed, you do it, sort of do it on the side. You're the only person that knows. Maybe she and of course the Lord knows. That's sweet to be able to do things that way. Other needs, they're more of a public thing and maybe everybody knows about it and.
Maybe it's a group effort to kind of fill in and help out on a need.
So there's different ways things come to our attention and we can respond as as the Lord would bring them to our attention.
But I'd like to tell you of a need in connection with the spreading of the gospel, and I'm thinking of Malawi, Africa.
Now we've received, I see my brother in the backroom there. We've received quite a few letters from Malawi. We had the privilege of being there earlier this year and we've received letters from brethren.
Who are telling us we need more materials to give away?
To the lost Gospel text, send thousands of them.
You say gospel text. I thought that's just what the old ladies did in their spare time. Well, I can see where you might be coming from to think that because what's a gospel text to you? You got so many doodads and things around you that are more interesting to look at and think about that a sheet of paper with a gospel verse maybe doesn't mean that much. Let me try to explain to you, maybe to give you a little different perspective on where these people are coming from.
You go and on the hillside here and there you see little villages, little grass thatched roofs poking up above the corn fields. And if you would go in through them, you'd see a dozen little huts, perhaps in a circle, and there'd be some made out of bricks, some out of mud. And they'd most all of them have grass thatched roofs. And hey, there'd be no paved Rd. coming up to these places. It's just a footpath.
And the highest tech thing you'd ever see in the whole place would be a bicycle.
That would be stretching it. There's no electricity, there's no running water.
There's no refrigerators or appliances. You look inside the house, there's no furniture, there's nothing on the walls, there's no books, there's no Bible, just a bamboo mat you roll out when it comes time to go to bed.
00:25:17
Now, if you offer somebody that comes from that circumstance a beautifully colored gospel text.
Something like this, they would say oh thank you and be if you come back later you'd find it hanging on their wall. That'd be the only thing in the whole house that had a speck of color to it.
Well, like I said in the beginning, you could worry yourself about, well, maybe I would like to go to Africa someday, but I don't know where I'm going to come up with the 3000 bucks for minimum it's going to take to make that trip. So maybe you put that in the back of your mind. But like I said, there's just a whole lot of things you could do that would help the situation. So if that was the task at hand and you said.
That's the I do want to help. How can we go about helping these brethren that have expressed a need?
Let me tell you how one brother told Dave and I how he handles this matter of giving away a text like this.
He said, what I like to do is not stand up in the marketplace and let everybody know I got a stack of these things, you'll just get mobbed. So he said what I like to do is have him hidden in my bag and I'll see an individual and I'll pull it out and I'll say I'd like to give you one of these. Oh, look at that. And he was medicine will say, can you please read this to me? And so the person will respond and perhaps read that verse.
And medicine said, I'll say to him, Will you explain what that means?
And so the man will sit there, and he'll scratch his head a little bit, and he'll try to explain what he thinks that gospel verse means. Now he's already read God's Word and he's thinking about it.
Medicine says, here, let me have that, let me read it to you. So medicine will read the verse to him. And he says, do you know what that really means? And the guys will be piqued in his attention. And he says, this is what that means. And he'll go into the gospel and tell this man the way of salvation. Why, while he has his rapt attention. So when the man finally leaves with this in his hand.
He's got a scripture verse that he has thought about and has had explained to him, and the Scripture says, the entrance of thy word bringeth light. So perhaps this little seed is planted in his heart, and off he goes, and the seed is planted, and somebody will come along a little later and water it, and God will cause it to grow.
You know.
Let me look up one more thing here.
If you elect to do something like this for the Lord and you know somebody is going to end up being blessed as a result.
No one thing for sure the enemy is going to oppose it. Guarantee.
So if you and some of your friends have an exercise to do something like this, the first thing you're going to need is prayer.
Because the enemy will try to goof the project up in some way. So you need God's help and guidance.
You know the second thing, you're going to need somebody that's working with you that is not afraid to encourage you in what you're doing because the enemy is going to see to it that you become discouraged.
You're doing what? Gospel texts?
You mean you would spend your time and money in a group sitting around making gospel texts for some natives in Africa that you've never met? That's got to be really stupid. I mean, those are the kind of things that's going to come to you. If you're not careful, you'll be discouraged and say, oh, well, you know, we could be out having fun or something. Why are we sitting around doing this? So you need somebody who can pray for you, and you need somebody who can be an encouragement to you.
It's very important. So what talents do you have to bring to this activity if you choose to take up with it well?
There's patience and perseverance. You're going to do thousands of them. Wow, prayer. Now, if you have a talent to say a buyer, a purchasing agent, somebody needs to get out there and get materials and somebody is going to be good on a telephone. You got to find somewhere to pick up these 4 colored pictures of scenery or flowers or birds and animals that can be adapted to this kind of an effort. You've got to really scramble through the Yellow Pages and find out where do you get rid of your old calendars that ran out in 2000 when the 2000 ones came out? I need to get my hands on those scenery pictures. So that takes a guy with some determination who can really handle those phones and go after it.
00:30:42
And then there's people with artistic bent. Hey, if you've got a color on a back sheet that's yellow and you need one, something that blends, so this yellow border blends with what's on this side, you got some artistic ability. Hey, it comes in handy right here. Then you've got people that need to glue this thing together. You've got people that need to download files of this printed text off the computer or e-mail and get it printed. Well, there's just all kinds of stuff that can be done and glue them together and.
Then if you want to be the person that takes them over to Africa to help distribute them, well, that's your business too. But there's a wide range of things that you can help with if you think the Lord wants you to do that. And that's something I just challenge you to pray about. Like you say, there's just a real need there and there's people who, if you can get them to them, they will be glad to distribute them in a prayerful manner and the Lord will bless it.
Do you want to be given credit for helping in the salvation of souls?
What a tremendous privilege that is. So I think I'll stop at that and say only further that should anybody have an interest in this kind of a thing, I'd be happy to talk to you offline. I can give you a typed up description of how these things go together. The text we have printed up are in 3 languages in English.
In Tombuca and Chichiwa, those are the two main languages of Malawi.
We have these verses all on the computer with boxes around them so that you can use your paper cutter to scissor them out and stick them on. So pretty much you get in business with.
500 sheets of rainbow colored bond paper, 8 1/2 by 11 and a bunch of glue sticks. I mean, that's a low budget project, but if you want to make thousands of them, it runs into some money. But that's where you be exercised before the Lord. Maybe you want to get into that, maybe you don't. But what I want to do now is commend us to the Lord and thank you for listening.
This evening about Father.
Let's pray, Father.
Like to speak this evening, Father.
Like to speak this evening about stewardship and let's go to Luke chapter 16.
About this subject This is a chapter that talks about.
An unjust steward.
But it has a lesson that I want to leave with you.
And I'm not going to read the whole portion, but it's about a rich man who has a steward. You know what a steward is? I don't know if they call him that.
Today in today's world, a manager, maybe a business manager, but he was one who was in charge of all his master's goods and it came to the masters attention that he was wasting some of the goods. And so the master called him and said.
Not going to be able to keep you any longer. We're going to put you out of your job. You've got so much time to put the counts in order and give a count of what you've done and then you're out of a job. And so he says in verse three, notice the steward said within himself, What shall I do?
He still has his master's goods in his hands.
For a little while longer and he says verse four, I am resolved what to do.
That when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. And so he calls one of his Lord's debtors.
And he reduces the debt from 100 down to 50. Pretty good reduction. And I'm sure he made a fairly good friend by making that transaction. It wasn't a right transaction.
00:35:12
And the next one was 100 measures of wheat, and he reduced that down to 80 measures of wheat.
I'm sure he made another friend by doing that transaction as well. The point we want to get to down verse 8, The Lord, that's his master commended the unjust steward. He didn't commend them for having done wrong, but what did he commend him for? He had done wisely. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you.
Make to yourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
That verse is a little bit hard to understand, and the King James translation, I'm going to paraphrase it a little bit of what I've gotten out of it. In the Darby translation, it says make to yourselves friend of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails ye may be received into the everlasting habitations. The point is that we need to use what is in our power here and now in view of that future time when we're going to have to let loose of everything.
That we have here and now. So he made use of what was in his hands.
While he had it, the 100 measures of oil that were owed to his master.
The 100 measures of wheat, it was in his hands. And so I want to talk about this.
You young people have a lot going for you in today's world. You've got commodities to use, to trade with, to use in view of eternity's day. My challenge to you tonight is to live using what is in your power in view of that eternal day.
You know, the people of this world, it says the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.
What is the vision that a man of this world has?
Generally speaking, he doesn't look much further than his retirement.
And when he gets old, Ansley has a big retirement account. He makes his investments wisely so that when the time comes, he's got a good nest egg to live on when he gets up there.
But the children of light have a vision that extends.
Far beyond old age, it extends to that eternal day.
That we know we're going to enter in all its glory. And so ofttimes the children of this world are wiser in how they prepare for the future than the children of light who have all eternity in front of them. And I say, if you are merely living for present earthly advantage, your short sighted young person.
You have a vision before your soul that is far beyond anything that this world has. Eternity and eternities day. Be careful how you trade with your commodities so that when you come to have to let loose of everything down here, you have something stored away in that eternal day that will last you forever.
Now I'd like to ask what kind of commodities, and I'm going to ask you to give me some ideas here. What kind of commodities?
Do you have to trade with?
Come on, I need some answers, maybe I'll give you.
One thing that I'm thinking about and that the word of God talks about.
Oh, there's one time when I had jotted down on a little list I made before this lady. What's another commodity that you have that you can trade with?
What?
Health and strength, OK Youth strength, very good.
00:40:06
I put down another one.
Your spirit, soul and body is something you can use. You have it now. There's going to be a time when you're going to have to let loose of your body that you have here in this world.
You're not going to be able to keep it forever. What's another commodity we have?
That we can use for these brief years that we have down here.
For eternity.
Come on, there's quite a few more.
Talents very good.
What do you mean by talents? Give me an idea.
Abilities. Give me an example of an ability or a talent.
Anybody.
That would be 1.
Music.
There's an ability that some people have other people can't carry a tune in them in a bushel basket.
That's an ability. It's a natural ability. It's not a spiritual gift. It's a natural ability. But soon, you know, young people, we're going to stand before the Lord and he's going to say to you, I gave you natural abilities. I gave you, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus, spiritual gifts. What did you do with those things that I gave you? And don't go saying in that day, I didn't know. Nobody ever told me I had that.
Now we're going to talk about it tonight and we're responsible to use what we have been given for a few brief years. And let me tell you, life is pretty brief. I can't believe I'm up in my mid 50s now. Can't believe it.
Time, I mean, it goes fast. You probably look at me and say I'm kind of an oldie. That's what my kids say to me.
But.
It seemed like yesterday I was a teenager and let me tell you, you'll turn around and you'll be as old as I am. The Lord doesn't come. Life goes flying by. And it's important to have a sense in your soul that God has given you something and that's something that God has given you. You need to use it in view of that day when you're going to have to let loose of your stewardship while we're down here.
We are stewards of what God has put into our hands and we need to use it in view.
Of that day.
Another thing is our material possessions.
We are responsible for what God has put into our hands.
Can be our car, can be our money, any of those things are not ours if we both.
Speak about our.
Bodies, our souls and our spirit. Let's go to 1St Thessalonians chapter 5.
And verse 23 the very God of peace sanctify you holy, and I pray God your whole spirit.
And soul and body be preserved, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So you and I are all composed of three parts.
Spirit, soul and body. The spirit part of us. What's that? That is the intelligent part of our being. An animal doesn't have the capacity to reason like man does. That's the spirits part of our being, and it's the part of our being that has relationship with God. If sin is not there to interrupt it.
And So what do I do with my spirit? Let's glorify God. And to me, it's one of the things I was thinking about when we were talking about worship yesterday. It is one of the most thrilling occupations that a human being can engage in is to worship God.
00:45:19
And I tell you, it's a thrill if you know what it means. It's something we not only do.
Collectively, when we come together to remember the Lord in his death, it's something that should be.
Engaged in every day of our lives, do you use that spirit to glorify your God?
You know, we live in a culture and a society that is extremely self-centered. And I see it so plainly written across the youth of our country that they're empty because they're self-centered. And I tell you, I'd have to be occupied with myself, centered in myself.
It would be awfully empty.
Business.
We've got something far greater to fill these parts of ours.
It's that God, who is greater than the whole universe, that we.
Live it and form a part of and that God I have learned to know in the Lord Jesus. And every day it is my privilege to raise my voice in the praise of my God. And I like to try to do it in our home when I can. I don't say I do it every day, but I like to make a practice that at some point during the day I stop and sing the praise of my God.
Do it. Make it a practice in your life. Sometimes I do it when I'm traveling down a road. I don't know what the other people that might pass my car think I'm doing. It doesn't matter too much what they think about me.
Oh, it's a tremendous privilege to sing a hymn like How Great Thou Art to God.
Just stop and sing it. Praise Him. That's why he's put us in this world, to glorify Him. And that's.
A spirit activity, An activity or a spirit. Use your spirit to glorify God. Not only spirit. Your soul. Your soul is the part of your being that is the seed of your affections, your likes, your dislikes. Cultivate likes and dislikes according to the Word of God, because the God who made us and knows how we function has given us guidelines in the Word of God.
Don't allow your likes and dislikes to be guided by this world's ideas and their thoughts. Let it be guided by the Word of God and then our bodies to use our bodies for Him. Remember, He bought not only your spirit and soul, He bought your body with His precious blood.
If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, and I'm talking basically to you who are believers in the Lord Jesus.
Your body belongs to the Lord Jesus as well.
Dear young people.
Paul told Timothy.
Keep thyself pure. We're living in a world of a lot of sexual immorality.
Keep yourself pure for the Lord Jesus.
Use this body for him.
It's not that there isn't a place for sexual relations within marriage.
There is a very real place for it, a proper place for it, but outside of the marriage bond, it is something that is prohibited. The God who knows how we function has set up those guidelines and if somebody has given the illustration.
It's like a river, like the Mississippi River. We're out here in the West, the Columbia River.
As long as that river stays in its banks, it's an extremely useful piece of water. But if it floods and goes outside the banks, it is extremely destructive. Keep yourself pure. Use your body for the Lord. In view of that day. Maybe you say I don't have much money. You have a body, you have health.
00:50:02
You have strength, you have youth.
I tell you one of the happiest periods of my life when I was still single.
Was when I spent time tramping over the Andes of South America.
As a young brother.
My desire was to.
Preach the gospel and sometimes with a native brother we would take off for two or three weeks.
Beyond the end of any road.
There were just dirt trails and mule trails back into those areas of southern Peru.
And we would take a day at a time to visit each town and leave literature in each home in the towns and preach the gospel each evening. It was tremendous physical activity.
And it was my joy to use some of the energy the Lord gave me.
And something I do not regret, I don't think I'll ever regret it. There were people that heard the gospel that never had heard it before. Still remember, up on the high Andes we were crossing a huge plane about 12,000 feet altitude.
And across the flame came running a man and his wife.
And his boy and we stopped to see what they wanted. They thought we were.
Prospectors looking for minerals and they thought they'd offer their services for some money, but the brother that was with me gave him the gospel and he was giving him the gospel and the Quechua Indian language, which they understood.
And all of a sudden the lady broke down and started crying. And of course I couldn't understand what she was saying. But the brother told me afterwards that she said up here we just live like animals, nobody cares for us. Nobody's ever told us that story before.
There was a privilege to be able to tell those people for the first time about the Lord Jesus.
And there's many areas of the earth that are still unreached.
Dear young people, are you interested in making it good in the United States of America? Making good on the American Dream? Are you going to look beyond life here in this world?
To something that will last forever. In that eternal day, I challenge you to not live for present advantage for live for what lasts for ever.
So that's something you can do with your body. You can use your strength. Maybe you say, well, I can't go anywhere. I say, young person, just put yourself at the Lord's disposition. Say to the Lord. Lord, if there's something I can do, I want to be ready for your use. And when he shows you something to do, however menial.
However insignificant it might seem, however unnoticed to it.
Heartily as to the Lord, and I tell you, when you're faithful in that which is little, He will give you more. That's what it says in this chapter about stewardship.
I'd like to talk about the commodity of time as well. Let's go to.
Ephesians chapter 5.
Time is an interesting commodity. I'm not sure we understand it.
We treat it as a constant in our thinking.
According to Einstein's theory of relativity, it is not a constant, it is a variable. Kind of interesting thing to think about.
But we treat it in our thinking as a constant.
And we have time.
And we need to think how do we use our time?
Some of you are going to school, you have classes, some of you've got jobs. You've got to be at work at a certain time in the morning, you get off at a certain time in the afternoon.
00:55:11
And so there are things that we have to do in life. There are moments that we are free and we have time to dispose of. Let's read in chapter 5 of Ephesians verse 16 says redeeming the time because the days are evil. How do you redeem the time? Redeem means.
Pay a price.
To buy back, and it is to buy the moments for God. And I like to think of it in this way, young people.
We're living in Satans world. Satan is the God and Prince of this world, and so if you're going to just kind of calmly float through this light, Satan's got a whole bunch of activities.
To occupy all your time so that nothing counts for eternity. Pleasures, sports, a lot of things that in themselves are not wrong. But if you just let yourself aimlessly float through life, your life is not going to count for anything. And to me it is one of the most tragic things is to see a person come to the end of his life.
And say I've lived my life.
I wasted the whole thing.
Now there's nothing ahead for me. Don't do it. God gives you moments of reflection so that you can buy back those moments. It's going to cost you something.
And so you've got to go to work at 7:00 in the morning.
Wouldn't it be good to get up and spend some time reading the word first?
And praying.
You're going to have to get up a little bit earlier.
If you have to leave at 7, you're going to have to get up maybe an hour earlier.
And I know it's pretty tough on some people to have to get up early.
Boot themselves out of bed. But that's what it means. Pain. A price.
To make moments for God. That's what it means.
Are you going to redeem the time? I can say, dear young people, I trust I don't.
I'm not boasting about it, but I just want to encourage you before I was married, After you get married, there's a lot of other relationships and activities that crowd in.
But before you're married, you're going to have time to dedicate to reading the word. And before I was married, I took a time when I was employed in Chicago.
Got up an hour earlier to spend 1/2 an hour reading the word and reading some of the ministry about the word and 1/2 an hour to pray. I'll never regret having taken that time.
Sure, I didn't get as much sleep. I had to discipline myself to get out of that bed when I wanted to turn over and sleep some more. It would have been a lot easier to do that. I don't regret having booted myself out of bed and gotten over there to my desk where I had my Bible and my books. Having done that, redeem the time. Use those extra moments.
For the Lord, think about others. There's a lot of older widow sisters around the country. You don't understand what it means to them to have a young person drop in and say, hey, I just passing by and I thought I'd say hi. Is there something I can do around the house? Maybe for you that kind of thing means a tremendous amount and it's going to be.
Put to your account in that eternal day. You may not get any.
Material advantage for it here, but I tell you it will stand to your account in that day if you can just think of others the needs that there are around.
01:00:01
Now in this country, it's tragic to say, but there's a lot of opportunity amongst youth. Several places in the East now there are.
Open doors into youth detention homes.
In Lawrenceville, where we come from, we go across the river into Indiana, Vincennes IN, there's a youth village population of about 150 youth from 12 years old to 17 years old. And those kids have done about everything in the book, I mean about everything and.
And they are totally disorientated.
And since they're under lock and key, they listen a lot better than kids listen in the meetings, let me tell you.
And some of them are downright serious.
Can you take some time to look up those centers where youth are detained? They're ready to listen.
It takes time, yeah. It takes us three hours when we go in there to spend time in different sections of that youth detention village that I tell you, it's been a real blessing to be able to go in and see some of those kids.
Encouraged in the right direction, we can't do much, but we can show some love to them.
The next thing I wanted to talk about is your knowledge, and a lot of you have.
Studied in college or some other school.
You have knowledge. You have, like someone said, talents that you can use for the Lord.
And God is going to ask you to give account for how you have used those talents one day, and according to your faithfulness in the use of your talents, so will be relegated your position in the coming Kingdom of the Lord Jesus.
In that millennial day, very clear teaching of that in Matthew's Gospel, or no, I should say in I think it's Luke's Gospel. The one that gained 10 from the one that was given him was put over 10 cities. The one that gained 5 from the one that was given him was put over 5 cities. A clear teaching to show that your position.
In the millennial Kingdom is determined by how you use the talents that the Lord has given you now. And those are not merely spiritual things, those are your natural talents God has given you.
Use them. Not merely for things down here, use them.
For the Lord and for that eternal day.
I may have mentioned to some of you that I was quite impressed coming back from Bolivia. Hey, what time is this supposed to be over in, Wally?
5 minutes, OK.
Coming back from Bolivia, I think it was a couple years ago on the plane and I was sitting beside a young girl. She was coming back from Bolivia as well on the plane. She was a Peace Corps worker and she was an agricultural engineer and she had been out in the way, out of the way places in the river valleys of Sucre, Bolivia.
Using her natural talents to teach those poor people out there.
To how to grow bitter crops.
I was impressed that here was a young girl as an agricultural engineer up here. I'm sure she could have gotten a pretty good job. You know what she's making under the Peace Corps doing that? About 300 bucks a month. That's not too much money, is it?
I was impressed, I said, man, where's our young people?
Why can't they use some of the knowledge the Lord has given them to go out into the other areas? And I see that when you go out, not as a missionary merely, but go out with some natural talent, you have a way of communicating to the people that really gets across.
Lord challenge our hearts to use what we have for Him. There's one of the things I wanted to mention is our material possessions.
01:05:05
And I'm touching this because it's part of what Scripture speaks about. And please, don't anybody think that I'm begging for money up here because I'm not. The Lord takes care of his people. But what I'm saying is we need to be exercised to use what the Lord puts in our hands for him. And when I see the percentage figures of what we spend for our own pleasure.
And our own desires up here. It scares me how we are going to look when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
And I challenge you young people, figure it out sometime.
The money that you make.
On your job, what percentage do you give to the Lord?
The possessions you have? What percentage?
Is used for your own material pleasure and desires. And what percentage are you using for the Lord?
I love to the story of Letourneau. He was a man. Somebody may have read his story Mover of Men and Mountains. He was a Christian man who built big earth moving equipment.
And he started as a believer, giving 10% of his profits to the Lord. God prospered him in such a way that he.
Got to the point he gave 20%, then 30%. Finally he got up to where he was giving actually 90% to the Lord's work and living off the 10%.
And I see if we can realize that everything the Lord puts into our hands, Sure, I've got to have a car in a car that functions, but you have to have the latest model and the best and the fastest car. Is that going to stand you? Instead, when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, are you going to say, Lord, I had to have the fastest car?
I'm just saying, dear young people.
We're not going to be here much longer. We're going to be raptured home to see the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we're going to give a count in that day for everything that is in our position right now. My challenge to you is.
Use what you have in your power right now in view of that eternal day. I just want to say before I close at the end of this chapter 16 of Luke is the story of the rich man and Lazarus.
And since the theme of the whole chapter is stewardship, when a reason seems to be given why the rich man was in hell.
And Lazarus in Abraham's bosom.
It says, Son, remember thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things, and Lazarus is evil things.
And now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
It seems to be the reason that he just used his goods for present enjoyment and advantage and didn't think of that future day. And I think it's put that way. We know that a person is lost because of their lack of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and a person is saved because he has put his faith in the Lord Jesus. But it's put that way in that chapter because the theme of the chapter is stewardship.
How are you using what is in your hands right now in view of the future day? The Lord help us, Lord, challenge us so that when we get to that moment we will have a deposit on account in that heavenly bank that we will not be ashamed. The apostle Paul says I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have been believed.
And am persuaded.
That he is able to keep that which I have committed is really my deposit.
Against that day, Paul lost everything here.
01:10:02
But he had all on deposit for that day. Tremendous.
To be able to say that, I don't think I can say that in that same measure. But that's my desire. And that's the challenge I present to you young people tonight. Think about it. Let's just pray.
Hebrews 1:1-4
The Glory of His Person and Work
Address—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Let's turn to Hebrews 1. Hebrews chapter 1.
God, who at sundry times, and in diverse manners to the fathers by the prophets.
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things.
By whom also He made the world's, who being the brightness of His glory.
And the express image of this person and upholding all things by the word of his power.
When He had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For under which of the angels, said he, at any time Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.
Then again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.
And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him, and of the angels he saith, who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.
But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever.
And that forever a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands.
They shall perish, but thou remainest, and they all shall wax old as doth A garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed.
But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
But to which of the angels said he, At anytime sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience.
Received a just recompense of reward. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? God also bearing the witness, both with signs and wonders, and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will.
For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection.
The world to come whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man? That thou art mindful of Him? Are the Son of man that thou visitest Him? Thou madeest Him a little lower than the angels. Thou crannest Him with glory and honor, and it set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet.
For him that he put all in subjection under him he left nothing that is not put under him.
But now we see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.
Crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. For it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.
For both ye that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause?
He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee, and again I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I am the children which God hath given me. For as much then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same.
That through death he might destroy him. That had the power of death. That is the devil.
00:05:01
And deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to *******. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation or propitiation for the sins of the people.
For in that he himself had suffered being tempted.
He is able to succor them that are tempted. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.
Epistle to the Hebrews was written to professing Jews.
Those that had embraced Jesus as their Messiah, but there was a danger that some of them might go back, come to the wrong conclusion that Jesus was not the true Messiah.
And so he says in the first verse of chapter 2. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard less than anytime we should let them slip or slip away from them. The danger in this epistle is apostasy. It's mentioned quite often.
They were exposed to the highest truth, and these first two chapters that I've read bring before us what we've sung in our in our hymn, His glory. Not only God's Son in manhood, He had his full part, and the union of both joined in one form, the fountain of love in his heart.
So this epistle is talking about a person.
Who is God and man? Very God and very man.
There was absolutely necessary that this be.
This be understood.
And that it was their faith.
Faith in him, not just as a man.
To get the force of what I'm saying, turn back to Matthew 22 for a moment. Matthew 22.
Verse 41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them saying, What think he of Christ?
Whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David, He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying?
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?
And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
He's quoting the 110th Psalm to them. And what thinking of Christ, the Messiah, the United 1 Whose son is He? And they rightly answered the Son of David, and indeed he is in his humanity.
But then he asked him another question, How then that David in spirit called him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord David speaking in that Psalm. He wrote it, and called him, My Lord Messiah, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
If they would then call him Lord, how is he his Son? They could not answer that. That's the mystery of this person, these Pharisees, these learned religious men among the Jews. They knew that the Messiah would be the Son of David, but that he was the Son of God.
In fact, when he claimed to be the Son of God, they accused him of blasphemy.
He made himself the Son of God.
No, that's what they said.
He's worthy of death because he made himself the Son of God. Actually, he made himself the Son of man.
He became a man. He entered into time. Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. Thou art my Son is what he always was. This day of I begotten thee was a point in time when he entered.
Humanity became a man, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. They did not understand that. And so Paul, the author of this epistle to the Hebrews.
Sets before them the most basic, fundamental truth of all, who Jesus really is.
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God and man and one person, and he said, if you believe not that I am he.
Ye shall die in your sins. So it is a fundamental principle, a fundamental truth of the Word of God. And if you answer it wrongly, if your faith comes short of this, you're lost.
You're lost.
Except you believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. These are the words of him who was.
And is the truth.
What he's doing in this epistle to the Hebrews, he's making comparisons, but they are more contrasts, contrasting the truth of Christianity with Judaism.
Both Christianity and Judaism has a priest. They had many priests. In the Old Testament we have a priest, our Lord Jesus. They both had sacrifices, Christ, one sacrifice infinitely better than all the others. In fact, all the others pointed to that now accomplished, which has put away our sins infinitely better and and higher than the angels.
Turn back a minute to Act 7, Acts 7.
Stephen is going over the history of Israel with these Jewish leaders and he closes his message. Verse 51. He says, ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.
As your father did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your father's persecuted? And they have slain them, which showed before of the coming of the just one of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers who have received the law.
By the disposition of angels. The ministry of angels.
And have not kept it.
Galatians 3 Notice how the angels were mentioned and they heard him up to that point, and then they closed their ears and stoned him to death.
In Galatians 3 verse 18 for if the inheritance be of the law.
It is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law?
It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.
And it was ordained by angels in the hand of the mediator.
So the angels were very active in connection with the giving of the law, turning over back to Hebrews. Now in the 2nd chapter, verse 4, it says, For if the words spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape?
If we neglect so great salvation, so the angels are mentioned in connection with the giving of the law.
They were instruments in its giving, and they were thought very highly of in the Jewish economy.
And so he sets before us in this chapter. He is infinitely greater than the angels.
He is greater than Moses, He is greater than Abraham, He is greater than Aaron the priest, and on and on and on.
And that's what they needed to learn. That's what they needed to be established in. That's what we all need to be established in. Because we can have a lot of truth, but if we're not clear and sound as to his person and his work.
We're not really saved, especially his person.
So He starts out in this Epistle, God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time passed unto the fathers by the prophets. Now He spoke in differently tremendous truth hath in these last days. At the end of the days, when the prophets spoke and the Messiah was about to be introduced. Now He's been introduced at the end of these days.
God has spoken to us by.
Are in the person of his son, not just a prophet, not just some messenger from a man like we are, but spoken to us in the person of his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things.
Here the Son of God has committed this world entered time.
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Entered his own creation. Become a man, the anointed one, the Christ. There were three offices in the Old Testament that were anointed, the prophet, the priest, and the king. And these are offices which the Lord Jesus as man will occupy. But he has a glory that is far greater than that, and that is, he's the eternal Son of God.
So God hath in these last days spoken unto us personally.
Not now through an Angel, or not now through some prophets, but in the person of His Son.
Whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world's this one.
Is the air of all things the one who will inherit all things as man?
He laid aside his glory and came into this scene. It's like a Prince who says to his father, the king.
I'm going to answer the Kingdom, but not as king or as Prince. I'm going to answer it as a commoner lays off his princely robe and he enters it as one of the people and gains great honors when here.
And he becomes the heir of all things, not because he was the King's son, Prince.
But because of what he won, what he earned when he was here, well, that's what the blessed Lord has done. He's the heir of all things. And more than that, by whom also he made the world's that goes back to his deity. Only God can create, only God can speak and bring it into being. For this very epistle says by faith we understand.
That the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that that which is seen.
Should not take its origin from things which appear. He just spoke the world's into existence. 33rd Psalm.
He spake and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. He said let there be.
And there was, it's beautiful, the imagery that's used in this chapter. He created it by his hands and his fingers and elsewhere and some places it says just by speaking.
The infinite power that resides in His person, by whom also he made the world. Now that's a Hebrew expression for the universe. The world's the universe.
He's the creator.
Who being the brightness, the effulgence, the outshining of His glory?
And the express image of his person. That's not quite really what it says in the original, it says the expression.
Of his substance, God's substance.
He was and his God, and only God can express and reveal God.
But He did it in the condition of a man. No man had seen God at anytime, the only begotten Son.
Who's in the bosom of the Father? He hath declared Him. He did it as a man. The only way we could ever really know God is that He had to come to where we were.
He had to become one of us.
He had remained in inscrutable deity and an unapproachable light, whom no man hath seen nor can see.
No man, no creature. We really wouldn't know God, but we do. We have the inestimable privilege of it being said of us. We know Him.
We know who God is. Remember? Philip asked. Show us the Father in it. Suffice with us. I've been asked that question many times. Will we see the Father? Well, here's the answer to that question. The Lord answered it. Hast thou been so long time with me, Philip? And thou hast not known me.
He that hath seen me had seen the Father, and the way we will see the Father is in the Person.
Of the Son. He's the very image, He's the very expression, the very word of God telling us all about him and revealing Him to us.
To see him is to see the Father, see his beauties, to see all that moral qualities.
That are his revealed to us in a man.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in that man bodily, says Colossians 28.
And we have similar truth here. And So what he's doing in this wonderful first chapter is he's opening up to these professing believers from amongst the Jews.
The glories of the sun, both in deity as God and also in his humanity.
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For the glory of his humanity is indeed marvelous to think that he who was in the form of God laid that aside for the form of a servant. That's what he did.
And as we read the four Gospels, we see a man, a perfect man, that never did anything for himself, never did his own will, always the will of his Father. He was here for the Father. He said, As the living Father hath sent me, and I live on account of the Father, Even so he that eateth me shall live on account of me. He said the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always.
Those things that please him, you can't say that. I can't say that. But he said it and he expressed the truth. I do always those things that please Him. What a delight it was for the Father to look down upon an object on earth that did everything altogether and only for him. He had ears just for the Father's voice, and we received instruction daily.
As he went about his pathway of perfect obedience.
Perfect obedience as a servant, Had he failed in one point just once, all would have been lost. Our our salvation depends upon perfect obedience. He had to be perfect in every.
Detail of his pathway. And of course he was the only perfect man that ever lived.
God over all, blessed forever.
He made the world's by Him, and who being the brightness of His glory, the outshining of the glory of God.
And the expression of his substance, literally.
And upholding all things by the word of his power. It already has said he made the world's by him. Why does it repeat that he upholds all things by the word of his power? Because I believe that some have the idea that when God created the universe, it's like winding up a watch and getting it going and spinning and all that. And then he retired from it and, and let it go on its own. Not so. No, that's not the that's not what we have presented here.
Not only did he start it, but he maintains it.
Not only did he create it, but he's the great maintainer of it. He upholds the everything by the word of his power. Should he cease to do that, everything would fly apart. Remember that little verse in John 15? He said, Without me you can do nothing.
We have pondered that recently.
I can't take my next breath without him. Neither can you. I can't take a step, I can't lift my hand. I can't open my mouth to speak. I can do nothing without him.
He is the Sustainer, the upholder, the Creator, but he upholds and sustains by the word of His power.
What a person. They had to get ahold of this. They had to come to faith in who He is, Not just the son of David, but David's Lord.
David's Lord upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by Himself purged our sins.
It's not wrong, This is the way this reads, but our sins is. I don't think it's really there because the point is not.
Right here in this passage. Not what he's done for us, but what he has done.
The new translation says when he had made purgation for sins. In other words, he's bringing before us in chapter 1 The glories of his person and the glories of his work.
The infinite value of it before it's even applied to you and me.
Of course it is for us, and that's brought out later in this epistle.
When he had by himself purged our sins or made purgation for sins.
He sat down.
Sat himself down.
Here it's not God that sat him down, but he sits himself down. He enters the glory.
This person is so infinitely great. He does the work. Puts our sins away, puts sins away.
He enters the glory, and he sits himself down at the right hand of the majesty on high. He has the right entitled to that place, and he occupies it. It's not something given to him here, it's something that he takes because of who he is.
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Of course it was given to him. That's another aspect of the truth. I'm not denying that for a moment, but just bringing out how that what's with the view we have in this chapter is the greatness of his person, the greatness of his humiliation in becoming a man, in the greatness of his work. When he had by himself purged our sins, He sat himself down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
Four times in this epistle.
Do we read of this? It's all. Each time it's presented a little bit different. Here it is. He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Look at the 8th chapter for the second occurrence of that verse one. Now the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. We have such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty.
In the heavens, a fuller expression than we have in chapter 1. Chapter 10. Chapter 10.
And verse.
12/10/12 Excuse me, but this man, after he had sacrificed, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, and that's where the comma should be. Forever sat down on the right hand of God.
And the last occurrence is in the 12TH chapter.
And verse 2 looking unto Jesus.
The author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him.
Endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. So we have He seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, seated at the right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens, seated at the right hand of the of God, and seated at the right hand of the throne of God. That's where he is now.
And he set himself down in this first chapter.
Taking that place now, verse 4 the angels are brought in being made not quite right. Taking a place new translation so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. This person so intimately great, far above the angels. The angels had so much to do with the giving of the law. But now here we have the one by whom came grace and truth. The law was given by.
But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, and so he took a place so much better than the angels, as he hath by an inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they Friend. Of which of the angels said he, at any time Thou art my Son.
This day have I begotten thee. When it speaks of being begotten it in a point of time, that's always the incarnation. Always.
This day have I begotten thee is when he became a man. Thou art my Son is what He always was. He never became that. That was His eternal sonship. So you have his deity and his humanity and that expression.
But to the angels he never said such a thing. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Now The angels are called sons of God in Scripture. Job says that when the earth was created, the angels, the morning stars, sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, and those were angels. But he never singles out as an Angel and says, Thou art my Son never. They were just angels by they were just sons of God by creation.
Adam is called in the genealogy and Luke the Son of God, and he was the Son of God by creation.
He came right from the hand of God, just like the angels came right from the hand of God.
And we're sons of God by redemption.
But there's only one, only begotten Son of God, and He's the Creator. He's the upholder, sustainer of the universe, and He is our Savior.
Wonderful.
That we can say that I trust everyone here in the room tonight can say yes, he's my savior.
Precious Savior.
Under which of the angels said he, At anytime Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And again I will be to him a Father, He shall be to me a Son. He's quoting Old Testament passages, bringing them to bear upon the Lord Jesus, who he is. And again, now notice this one, when He bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God.
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Worship Him.
That all the angels of God worship him. He is no Angel, as some blasphemously teach. Oh no, the angels are to worship him. Angels are creatures. They are servants. And when?
John even.
Made the mistake of falling down before an Angel. Book of Revelation. The Angel said stand up.
I'm my fellow servant.
Worship God. God only used to be worshipped and the fact that the Lord Jesus received worship.
Proves that he is indeed God.
The angels didn't when John went to worship them.
They didn't receive it, they rebuked it.
So here we find the angels worshipping him.
Verse 6 again, again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, that's a coming day when the Lord Jesus will return in his glory and be brought into this world. The Word will be and let all the angels of God worship him.
And of the angels, he saith They're just creatures who maketh his Angel spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. They're swift, They're very strong. One Angel in the Old Testament slew 185,000 in one night.
When Peter cut off the ear of Malchus, the Lord said, Put thy sword into the sheath.
I could call for 10,000 legions of angels if I wanted to.
He didn't need an Angel.
But the angels were active.
We realize the activity of angels and how much they are involved oftentimes in our life.
Probably don't realize it most of the time.
But they are. But he's infinitely above angels. And these Jews that made so much of angels, they had to realize that he's not an Angel. He's not a he's not an Angel at all.
Though he became a man, a man who is a creature. It's interesting that the Word of God never calls him a creature, does it? He's the creator. He took the creature place when he became a man. Yes, but it never says even as to his body. It says a body has thou prepared me prepared for him, the Son of God, in which he could, that body in which he could suffer, in which he could die for our sins.
And bring us to God.
Of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God. Now here we have God the Father addressing his Son, and he says to him, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Who are his fellows? Well, those who believe on him.
His fellows.
He's called in Zachariah, he's called Jehovah's fellow, and here we're called his fellows. Jehovah's fellow as God, his fellows as men.
And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth.
And the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest, and they all shall wax holders doth of Dartmouth. And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed.
But thou art the same, the unchanging 1.
And thy years shall not fail.
Now turn back to the 102nd Psalm from which this is quoted.
Very interesting to see the context.
The 102nd Psalm, there's much about the the Messiah and the first part of the Psalm, but I'm going to begin at verse 23. It's a Messiah speaking as man, of course, and he says he weakened my strength in the way he shortened my days. I said, Oh my God, take me not away in the midst of my days.
Now right there is a break, and here you have the answer of God to Him.
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That blessed man, he says, take me not away in the midst of my days, and here's God's answer to him. Thy years are throughout all generations of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. That's that's. This is a very passage that's quoted there in Hebrews 1 applying to the Messiah.
They shall perish, but thou shalt endure. Yeah, all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture. Shalt thou change them?
And they shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.
Going back to Hebrews one what a person we have before us here.
Verse 13.
But to which of the angels said he at any time sit on my right hand?
Until I make thine enemies thy footstool. He only said that to his Son, to the Messiah.
Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them? Who shall be heirs of salvation?
Maybe some of you can think of events in your life that were angelic preservation.
They're ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them, who shall be heirs of salvation.
I think I can think of some instances in my life before I was ever saved. Remember, as a young boy, I was about 7. My parents had just bought a new car and a girl in the neighborhood my age, We were playing cops and robbers. And we went into the garage and we sat in the car and dialed up the radio that was to be the speedometer. And I said, that's make this more real.
So I went into the house, opened my mom's purse.
Took the keys to the car out, went out to the car, closed the garage door, make sure that it was shut and started the engine.
And that was much more fun, much more realistic, and I could pump the accelerator and the injured race and we were really.
Having fun playing cops and robbers right at that instant.
My mother said where is Chucky?
Now who put that in her mind? I wasn't saved. She wasn't saved.
She rushed. She looked at her purse. Keys were gone. She rushed to the garage and here we were, still conscious, still sitting there, and not too much longer. We would have been dead.
Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them? Who shall be heirs of salvation?
We little realize how many times, even before we were ever saved, we were preserved by angelic interference. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should.
Let them slip. That's the danger that they had so important this, these truths, they get a hold of this person that he's been talking about who is very God and very man.
The Creator of the universe, the upholder, the Sustainer of all things. Our very breath is in His hands. They would never, never let that slip if it was real. The words spoken by angels was steadfast. That was the law, the Old Testament, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward. This is not the word spoken by angels now, not by prophets even. It's spoken by the sun. God has spoken in Son.
And when we read the Gospels, we read his words.
Never man spake like this man.
Oh, how wonderful to hear his words as he spoke them, the very words of God, the Word speaking the very mind of God to us, if the word spoken by angels was steadfast.
How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, that which has been spoken to us in sun, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him, God also, bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will. Again the angels are mentioned.
Important that he shows them that this person that he's talking about is infinitely.
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Greater than the angels, for under the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak.
The coming day, the millennial reign, when Christ will reign 1000 years, is all to be placed under the headship of a man, not angels.
A man is going to be there's going to be a change of administration.
Up to this point, the angels were the ones that God used to administer his affairs, but now it's going to be this blessed man.
But one in a certain place testified saying, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the Son of man, that thou visitest him. Now this is a quote from the 8th Psalm and it's they're referring to Adam, but also there's a reference to the Lord Jesus as man. And where the transmission, the transposition takes place is sometimes hard to say. Let's read it. Thou made his Tim a little lower than the angels.
Thou crownest him with glory and honor.
Did set him over the works of thy hands?
Everything was placed under Adam's authority. That's what Satan wanted. He want everything under his authority. And when God placed everything under the authority of a man, Satan was enraged and he he set about to destroy that family, did everything that he could attack the weaker vessel. The woman brought in sin and then God responds and said, you brought in sin by the woman. I'm going to bring the Savior in by the woman.
The seed of the woman shall bruise and crush your head.
And so he was born. Our blessed Lord was born of a woman.
How wonderful the weaker vessel.
Crucified in weakness, living by the power of God.
Thou made his Tim a little lower than the angels were, 7 Thou crownest him with glory and honor. It set him over the works of Thy hands. Who is he talking about, Adam, or is he talking about Christ? Well, just read on. That was put all things in subjection under His feet. Hearing that, He put all in subjection under Him. He left nothing that is not put under Him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him, but we see Jesus now. He's gone from the first man to the second man.
The last Adam, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.
Where is he now? Crowned with glory and honor, but he by the grace of God.
Should taste death for every man, for it became him God.
For whom are all things, and by whom are all things? In bringing many sons unto glory?
To make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. The perfect state is the resurrection state to which this refers.
For both he that sanctifieth, that's Christ, He's the sanctifier, and they who are sanctified, that's us.
Are all of 1.
One substance oneness, one family, for which 'cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto Thee. And again I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I am the children which God hath given me. For as much then, as the children are particulars of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise.
Took part of the same. He became a man.
He who was God over all, blessed forever. He entered this scene. He's telling them this.
They can't put it together in their minds. God and man in one person. None of us really can. But it's the truth of Scripture, and that's our faith to believe God's word.
For as much then as the children are particulars of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to *******. For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels, or He did not take angels by the hand, He did not espouse their cause.
He bypassed the angels. He went below the angels and became a man.
Became a servant, but he could have become an Angel. But no, he didn't. He became a man, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
So he espoused the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things, that is, those that have faith, the seed of Abraham are those that have faith. He is the father of believers.
Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren.
That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest and things pertaining to God.
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To make propitiations the right word there for the sins of the people. For in that He himself hath suffered.
Being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. I'm just going to read a little bit into the 3rd chapter because there he's contrasted with Moses.
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle the sent one, and the high Priest The Apostle is He was sent from the Godhead down into this world, and the high Priest his manhood.
He's a high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him as also Moses was faithful in all his house. That's God's house it's talking about.
For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house is the Creator.
For every house is builded by some man, but he that built all things is God.
Establishing again in another way that this person that he's talking about is indeed God.
And Moses fairly was faithful in all God's house as a servant.
For a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after, but Christ as a son over.
His house, the word own is really throws the thought out. It's God's house all the way through here.
Christ is the Son over God's house. Whose house are we? We who have made profession? But notice what He says there, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your Father's tempted me and proved me.
And saw my works 40 years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always earn their heart. They have not known my way. So I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, here's the warning. You get it all through the Epistle to the Hebrews. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. So there's these warnings.
They've made profession.
Sets before them the greatness of this person, the greatness of his work, and we haven't had time to go through all that.
But there was a danger that through unbelief, just like their fathers, they fell in the wilderness. They didn't make it to the promised land. Well, that would be true some of them if they gave up faith in the Lord Jesus. What a wonderful person.
We have before us.
The End
Occupation with Christ the Power of Christianity
They Looked unto Him