Burbank Conference: 2003
Table of Contents
Hebrews 1:1-4
Reading
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Guide us, oh thou gracious savior.
Pilgrims, through this barren land we are weak, but thou art mighty. Hold us with thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, beat us now and evermore 276.
Psalm, Chapter 50.
And verse 5.
Just the first part of the verse.
Gather my Saints together unto me.
Now if I can just remember some of the comments that our brother made when he drafted the letter that was sent out.
He said it's important to see that the verse says gather the people together unto me.
How important?
That is to be impressed upon our hearts.
We've come, brethren, not you just come to a convention hall to have some Bible readings. It's wonderful of that, as that might be.
And here they have seminars too. We're not here to have seminars.
It does make a difference, doesn't it, when we think of coming together by the Holy Spirit?
Gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That worthy name, the only name worthy of being gathered to.
He is the head of his body, the church.
This is his desire spoken in this verse.
Gather the people together.
Unto me.
If there are those here that have come with needs and burdens.
Sorrows.
Emptiness.
Hunger as our brother Doug Red.
The Lord Jesus Christ filled those who were hungry.
And they went home happy.
I was walking out of the door this morning and Justice noticed the.
Little Christian calendar our sister so devotedly constructs for us.
I believe guided many times by the hand of the Holy Spirit.
And I believe it was Psalm 23 verse 2.
He leadeth me, and he maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the stills waters.
He restoreth.
My soul.
He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
But notice.
He is with those that he asks to lie down in green pastures, and beside the still waters he restores the soul. He leads those in paths of righteousness. It is his desire if there are those that are empty, those that are hungry.
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Those that need refreshment or restoration.
Or if you've been walking in a path of unrighteousness.
He wants.
To bring you back to himself.
That is the purpose of these meetings, beloved Brethren.
To be here to answer to his request, gather the people together unto me.
He is the one that can satisfy every longing of our heart.
As he ministers to us through the power and liberty of the Holy Spirit, let's just pray together.
Connection with what our brother Dave brought before us.
Southern If it might be good to consider 1St and 2nd chapter of Hebrews in these readings, perhaps today we could consider the first chapter. The Lord leaves us here, and the brethren felt it's the mind of the Lord. Perhaps tomorrow we could consider the second chapter. But Hebrews brings before us the man in the glory and brethren. Isn't that what we need before our souls? While we're waiting for His coming, I just make that suggestion.
One verse one.
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets half 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 his 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 so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said, He at any time thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee? 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 saith, who maketh his angels fierce, and his ministers a flame of fire, But under the sun he sat by throne, O God, is forever and ever. The 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 slayed the foundation of the earth.
And the heavens are the works of thine hands they shall perish. But thou remainest they all shall wax old, as doth the garment, and as the Vester shall thou hold them up, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same. In thy years shall not fail. But to which of the angels said he at any time Said 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 the heirs of salvation?
Well, just as an introduction to this chapter, we know that Hebrews opens to us the heavens so that by faith we can look up and see the Lord Jesus where He is now.
When the Lord Jesus was here and walked as a man here in this world, we find that there were occasions where the heavens opened up, and on those occasions it wasn't so much that earth could look up, but that heaven could look down and be occupied with the only perfect man. Whoever walked here in this world and a voice would declare on occasion. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, How heaven delighted to look down and gaze on that blessed one, be occupied.
With the person of Christ here in this world. But brethren, as we know, the Lord Jesus is not here in this world the way he was.
When he walked amongst men 2000 years ago. But isn't it a blessed thing that heaven is open now? Not so much that heaven can look down, although that's true. But Hebrews opens up to us, the heavens, so that by faith we can look up and be occupied with the one that God would always occupy his people with. And brethren, there are so many trials, sometimes in our personal lives, and the family often in the assembly.
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But isn't it wonderful to lift our eyes above the horizons of this sad world, the circumstances of life, and to look off to the man in the glory and let him fill our gaze and fill our hearts? And I believe this is what is going to give us courage to go on in these last moments before we see him face to face. And so this was simply my exercise in suggesting this portion. Our brother read to us concerning how we see Christ in our midst. Here he's we're gathered to a person.
And and that's true. And we need to have that much before our souls. But, oh, brethren, too, to look up into the open heavens, we sometimes sing a little hymn. Oh, fix our earnest gaze so holy Lord on thee, that with thy beauty occupied we elsewhere none may see. Well it may be while we as we take up this portion.
In Romans 9 want to read a few verses Romans Chapter 9.
Paul says in verse two that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. Or I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, or my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.
Who are Israelites now? Here he lays out the blessings that they had and that came through that nation.
My kinsmen, according to the flesh, he had a love for them.
That was tremendously wonderful.
He had been schooled in the religion of Judaism.
Pharisee of the Pharisees. And he had a deep love for his brethren, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants, and the giving of the law and the service of God, and the promises whose are the fathers.
And now notice how he ends this list and as concerning.
The flesh Christ came, who is overlaw. God blessed forever. Amen. Now the Jews had all these things, and their crowning glory was the Christ who came.
And as a nation, they rejected him.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is written to the Hebrews to the Jews.
And it's written to those who had outwardly, professedly.
Received the Lord Jesus Christ as the true Messiah.
And what he's showing in this epistle to the Hebrews is the better things of Christianity as compared with all that they had in Judaism. He's not writing to Gentiles that had nothing but false gods, and they were idolaters. He's writing to the people of God of old, those that were in that position. And their crowning glory was the Christ who came, whose God over all blessed forever. And so he starts out this epistle.
In Hebrews God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time, passed under the fathers by the prophets, they knew all those prophetic writings. They were well schooled in them. Now he's spoken in the person of his Son.
Their crowning glory, and he's addressing those that professedly had received him as such. But there was a danger that some of them might turn back to Judaism.
And that would become They would become an apostate if they did that. So he sets before them the the grandeur of the the wonders of the person. First thing he sets before them is the person and the work of Christ. Both are there in these verses.
And the Excellency the better things of Christianity over Judaism.
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There was a hard thing for Jews who had been given the law, the 10 commandments through Moses, and all the ceremonial laws, and all the regulations and all that. And they had the very presence of God in their midst, the Shekinah glory, and they had the law. The Gentiles had nothing.
But their crowning glory was the coming of the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah.
And the nation had rejected him.
And now he writes this epistle, this apostle that was sent to the Gentiles, and he had such a burden for the his people. After the flesh he was given the privilege. Paul was given the privilege of addressing 1 epistle specifically to his brethren.
After the flesh. And he exalts Christ all the way through and magnifies him. What would keep any of them from going back to Judaism was to see the excellencies that are in Christ, and all that's associated with the new order of blessing that we've been brought into. But this is not an epistle addressed to Gentiles, though we appropriate these things for ourselves, and rightly so.
But they are addressed to the Jews, to the Hebrews, and the first thing that he brings before them is the person of the Son, Person of the Christ.
If you're not right in that.
You're not right in anything. You're not writing anything if you don't understand who he is. He's not just a good prophet. He was that. He's not just a great teacher. He was that. He's not just a man. He was that. But he is God over all. Blessed forever become a man.
And they had to receive that.
And everyone of us has to receive that truth and know who he is.
He said to the Jews, what think he of Christ, whose Son is He, when he was here below? And they answered rightly, the Pharisees, they said, the Son of David.
That was true. He is the son of David. You remember Bartimaeus? He said, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. He was the son of David. How then doth David in spirit, quoting the 110th Psalm call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, David says, God the Father speaking to God, the Son says to his Son as man sit at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool if David call him Lord.
How is he his son?
They could not. They couldn't answer that. That the most school teachers in Judaism couldn't answer that. God and man in one person. And you fathom that. Can we fathom that?
No, but we believe it. It's the foundation of the of the church.
Again in Matthew 16.
He said, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am? Some say thou art John the Baptist, Jeremiah, Sir Elias, or one of the prophets. But whom say you that I am? And Simon Peter answered, Beautiful, beautiful, thou art the Christ.
The Son of the living God, the Christ in his manhood, the Son of the living God. In his deity he confessed both truths, that he is David's son and David's Lord.
Blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood. It's not revealed this unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.
And then he says, Thou art Peter just a little stone. But on this rock what you have confessed, Peter, I will build my church. Gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The church is founded upon the truth of who Jesus is.
You don't have that. You have nothing.
The Apostle Paul wrote, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew 1St and then to the Gentile. You know Paul was the apostle to the Gentile, but he put the Jew first.
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One time he did not have the mind of the Lord in doing it.
That's a different story. But most times he did, when he went to a city or a town, he went to the synagogue first. If there was no fruit for Christ there, he went to the Gentiles, but he believed in that to the Jew first. Now if you look at Romans 3, you'll see that Paul preached to the Gentiles and was amazed.
The Gentiles were being saved right and left, but the Jews rejected primarily and so he says verse one. What advantage did I say? Chapter 3? What advantage then hath the Jew or what prophet is there of circumcision?
Much every way he answers his own question chiefly because.
Unto them were committed the oracles of God.
Brethren, they had half the book. You have it all.
Unto you is committed the word of God. And then he says.
For what if some did not believe?
Shall their unbelieve.
Make the faith of God without effect.
God forbid.
Yeah, let God be true.
And every man a liar. Pretty strong, isn't it? But the Jews had every sign and every prophecy of the coming Christ and who he is and where he'll be born and what would happen to him. They had it all. And when he gave them a parable.
When the Lord himself gave them a parable about, I gotta think a minute, which parable this was. But they they took account, the religious leaders took account that he spake these things of them.
Were they responsible?
They were responsible. Are you? We are more responsible.
That's Paul. Paul wrote the Hebrews. It don't tell us that does not tell us that in the in the book of Hebrews because Paul took a back place in this. But I think in in Peter it tells us. I think it's second Peter and.
Verse Chapter 3, Second Peter, chapter three. I think this is it.
I got to look for it a minute.
Second Peter 3.
Verse 16 Thank you.
Would you want to read it? And also in all His epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction? Well, I think it'd be 15, not 16, brother, in account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul, also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you.
And also in all his epistles Under who the Jews? When did he write to the Jews? No place except the Hebrews. I think that 15th verse would bring it out, don't you? Thank you. Thank you for finding it.
It was said that.
The first chapter presents to the Hebrews the first of Christ.
To keep them, to guide them, to lead them. Well, is it not presented to each and everyone of us today in the same way? It's the only thing that's going to keep anyone in this scene in the path going on to the glory of the Lord. Is the vision of the person of Christ and who he is in glory the only thing that will keep us?
And Christianity is that, isn't it? It's attraction to the person of Christ.
And I think there's a real application for us. Even though it was written to the Jewish people, they as believers were part of the same church that we belong to as well. And so it applies very directly to us, and especially in this day in which we live, in which Christendom has become a great house.
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Of which we are apart, brethren. But so often the tendency is to get occupied with forms and ceremonies and and organizational structures, and not realize that it really is to the person of Christ that God is calling us into fellowship. That's His purpose. That's why we've been called into the fellowship of his sons, Jesus Christ our Lord.
So it's so vital that we have our hearts attracted and attached to His glorious person. All those shadows of the Old Testament prefigured Christ, but now the reality had come, and the person of the Lord Jesus.
Are we going to embrace shadows when we have the reality that was what they were in danger of doing?
And we today are in danger of the same thing, of getting so occupied with forms and.
The way we do things that we do not remember that we are called into the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Son of God made flesh.
Oh, what a privilege, brethren, to be occupied.
With him it's not that the precious precious truth that in the first verse of our chapter.
In the times past he's spoken unto the fathers by the prophets. Now the next verse should read have at the end of these days the days in which he was speaking by the prophets. He has introduced his son, He has sent him the the reading in these last days sounds like Second Timothy 3 And it's not that at all. It's not the last days of the church. Period.
It's the end of the days in which these prophets pointed forward to in their writings, the coming of the Messiah. Then he has appeared at the end of those days, and so we don't have Old Testament prophets anymore. He has come and God has spoken now not by a prophet, but by the person of his son, the highest authority in the universe. I have one son. Perhaps they will reverence him. I just want to say this too, in connection with what Bob said.
That it's not that we disregard the types and the shadows in the Old Testament, because those types and shadows by illustration, bring before us in a very real way the person and the work of Christ, because this has already been said. All those types and shadows, the sacrifices, their rights, and the ordinance of the Levitical Law and all that was committed to Israel. It all, in one way or another, speaks.
Of Christ, I'll repeat a little illustration that I know some recently heard me use.
But it just helped me in this regard because we want to encourage our hearts to read the Old Testament. Be familiar with those types and shadows. They'll help you in your understanding of the person and work of Christ. When I was engaged to the one who promised to be my wife, there were about 2000 miles between us for the next 10 months between the engagement and the wedding. And so I had on my desk at home a large photograph.
Given to me by the one who had promised to be my wife and for those months between the engagement and the wedding.
That photograph assumed a very important place in my life.
Because we were separated by many miles. But we'll suppose that after I get got married, you came into my home and you found that I was more occupied with the photograph, the picture, than I was with the one who was now my wife. Why you'd rebuke me, you'd say, Jim, that's just a picture. Now you've got her with you. The one of whom this was just a picture is with you. Why are you more occupied with the picture?
Than with the one who shall your wife. And perhaps that helps us to understand, just in a little way. Because it's not that I threw out the picture. I still have the photograph. I still have it up on the wall, and I still value it. And I look at it from time to time. And so we value those types and shadows in the Old Testament. But we see that they were just pale reflections and feeble foreshadows of the one who was really in the heart of God, who came forth in the fullness of time.
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And so the apostles sought to bring this before these Hebrew believers, because they had something better now. And what was the better thing? Why they had Christ. And the apostle says these just pointed forward to that. But now you have Christ, and your occupation needs to be with him, not the forms and ceremonies and the things that were right and proper in their place. And they were they were right and proper in their place.
And as Chuck said, it was hard for the Hebrew believers to give those things up. And isn't it beautiful? The Spirit of God takes 13 long chapters to just very patiently go over every part of the old order of things, and to explain very carefully that while it was good, right, and proper, in its place, you have something better. Brethren, if you just allow me to, I'd like to go back to Acts in connection with what I think it was, our brother, Chuck said. Because I think again.
It's a prelude to what we have here, and it really helps us to understand the character of things in the book of Hebrews. Go back to Acts 7 just for a moment.
I won't read much here, but we know the context of this chapter. This is really the spirit of God's last appeal to the Jewish nation as a nation. Steven, a man full of the Holy Ghost, speaks to the leaders of that nation, and as these leaders listen to him, they're cut to the quick and they eventually gnash on him with their teeth and they stone him. What I want to notice is a little expression in verse 56.
Well, I'll read verse 55. But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, behold, I see heavens open, the heavens open, and the Spirit of man standing.
Son of Man. The Son of man. I'm sorry, The Son of man standing on the right hand of God. And what I want to point out here is that God gave 2 great testimonies to the nation of Israel. The Son, when he walked here in this world, and at the end of it they cried away with him, crucify him. They did not want the Lord Jesus and they took him outside the walls of Jerusalem, that city that deteriorated to such a point that it had religion without Christ.
Because it is possible to have religion without Christ. And they took him outside those walls and they nailed him to a Roman cross.
But God gave another testimony to the nation before he set them aside. It was the testimony of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit. And I believe that the culmination of that rejection is the stoning of Steven. It's what the Lord Jesus said. They sent a messenger after him saying we will not have this man to reign over us. That's what they did in the stoning of Stephen. And at this point, I believe the nation was then set aside in the gospel.
Began to go out beyond the walls of Judaism to the Gentile. Such was his desire for the blessing of this nation, that he had told his own that the gospel was to begin with those very people who were going to nail him to a Roman cross and reject him. What I want to point out is that when Stephen looked up, he saw the Son of Man not seated but standing at the right hand of God, standing ready to come back and to bless that nation.
Had they accepted, received the testimony of Stephen in the power of the Holy Spirit. But when we come to the book of Hebrews now, because as we say, the stoning of Steven was the final culmination for Israel, it was the sin against the Holy Ghost, and God had nothing more for that nation at that time. He will bless them on the grounds of grace in the coming day, but at that time it was nothing more. And now we come to Hebrews and we see the Lord Jesus.
Not standing at the right hand of God, but four times in this book he is seated at the right hand of God.
Here in the 8th chapter as our High Priest, in the 10th chapter having offered himself as the supreme sacrifice, and in the 12Th chapter as the object for faith as we go through this world, but not standing ready to come back and bless a particular nation.
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Seated as the resource for those who had stepped outside the walls of Jerusalem of Judaism.
Save themselves from that untoward generation and stepped outside of that.
And not only for them, brethren, but for you and for me today. And I just say again, let's look up and have Christ before our souls, Brethren, He is everything Hebrews begins with God.
Genesis begins with God, but you know Genesis ends with death.
A Kirk? A coffin. In Egypt, that's where it ends.
Hebrews begins with God and ends with grace. Why? In between God and grace is Christ and the blood, the precious blood of Jesus. And Paul emphasizes that throughout this book, contrary of course to Genesis, is Hebrews both beginning with God, one ending with death, one ending with grace.
And it's a blood that makes the difference and faith in it. By grace are you saved through faith, that's not of yourself. It's a gift of God. So grace is what really brings it all to us.
Verse one we have the Old Testament. In verse two, we have the New Testament.
And this beautiful brethren in these two verses two and three the little phrases.
To.
Meditate on them the tremendous wealth there is as to the glory of the person of the Son of God. And I'd like to say too, that in chapter one we have the Lord Jesus presented as God.
In chapter two we have him as man. Those things are.
The glorious truth of his person fully God, fully man in one glorious person, Oh, how rich these little phrases are starts in the middle of verse two. He has appointed heir of all things, and then it says by whom also he made the world's. Why does it put it in that order?
He is going to take the inheritance in a future day, but why does it put that before? It speaks about the creation of the world.
Just suggest that in the councils those eternal purposes of God.
It was all settled before there was any world in existence that the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, would form the grand center of all God's purposes. So he is the one that is appointed heir of all things.
And then by whom also he made the world think of the tremendous?
Power that is manifested in creation. We're talking here about the first creation that it speaks of in Genesis Chapter one.
He spoke and it was done. The tremendous size of the universe, it boggles our minds. Man cannot find the edge of it as far out as he looks. But here's the person.
Who spoke it all into existence by the word of His power. This is the person we're talking about, brethren.
But this one that spoke spoke as a man. He's the Son, all right, the Creator of all things. But when he did, the speaking that's spoken of in these in the second verse, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us by his Son. It was this man down here, the four Gospels, that was when he spoke. And instead of the prophets speaking, God himself came in human form.
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And spoke that person, the Son. He's unique of the Persons in the Trinity. There's the Father and the Spirit too, but they remained in Deity. But here's one that didn't remain in Deity, though he was in the form of God, thought it not something to be grasped after, but he emptied himself and became took upon him the form of a servant.
And it's added in his servant character that he came.
And spoke and did the work.
He was not speaking from heaven, speaking here on earth in that Blessed One who became Incarnate as the God Man. When we think of the creation of the universe, we think of great power. But to turn to Ephesians Chapter One.
And the power that demonstrated there goes far, far beyond.
Any power that it took to create the universe. Ephesians Chapter One, verse 19.
And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward? Who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places? The work of salvation, the work of redeeming your soul, goes far, far beyond any power that was needed in the creation of this universe.
Let's remember, brethren, the Jews still adhere to the Old Testament strongly. For many years I had much to do with Jews, and I used to bring try to bring out Christ in the Old Testament. And because I I went early to pick up my mail.
You seem to like our book, Brother Bauman, and I didn't like him calling me brother, but I said it's not your book, it's 1/2 of mine.
You seem to like our book.
It's not your book. It's 1/2 of mine. You've got the treasure chest. I've got the key that opens it. And so we got around circles. They they don't like to get to Isaiah 53, just like the the Ethiopian eunuch, they do not.
They need somebody to make it clear to them. And you know, it was made clear to the eunuch and he went back with Christ for all Ethiopia, wonderful one that. But they can understand those things because they're partially blinded. They have not the spirit of God, but they sure adhere to that book and they know it. They like to talk about Abraham.
I told them Abraham's my father. You're not a Jew.
Boy, right away. Chastisement, I said. He wasn't either.
Of course, you get a lot of a lot of scoring there, but they're still in hearing and Paul was astounded with all the signs and wonders of the Christ, their Messiah, who they crucified get saved. And it used to bother me.
Because I love those men I did.
But they can't get saved.
Unto all in that he hath raised him from among the dead.
Some believe 32, some believe not. Isn't that the way it is today?
The third verse we get the.
Excellency of his glory, the person of Christ, who being the brightness of his story, the brightness of the glory of God.
And the express image of his person? No deviation. They're exactly alike.
They are one and upholding all things by the word of his power, of the fact that we're here today.
Because the Lord Jesus sits as king and glorious ruler of this universe.
Please keep all things in its proper location, and when he had by himself first our sins the only story that's in the word of God, here it is.
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Forged our sins when he made the world's, he was not a man.
He was God, and only God and only in the form of God when he made the world's. But the person that he's talking about is the one that became a man. That man, that person made the world's not as man but as God. But it's the same person. There are two persons, the same person. When he became a man, he took manhood. He took humanity into union with his deity. So he is God and man and one person.
And that's what he's talking about. He goes back and forth about what he did when he was God and what he did and is doing as man. And we have that in Hebrews. That's what they had to get ahold of. That's what they had to believe and understand that the Messiah is not just a man.
He's God and man in one person. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And when I read that, I think what a marvelous privilege it must have been for John and others to see the Lord Jesus walking here in this world, the one who fully showed out. He was the express image of his person. Can anyone say that they've ever had a child? Who was the express image?
Of his person we say, Well, that's the spitting image of his father. No trouble to tell whose son he is, but the Lord Jesus. At the end of his pathway he said, Have I been so long time with you? And hast thou not known me? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father and the 17th of John, He said, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
And to be glorified is to have every attribute and every quality.
That makes up a person's being brought into full display. And as the Lord Jesus walked here in this world, every attribute, every quality of God was, every glory was brought into full display. Is there any doubt as to who God is, as to his glory? No. The Lord Jesus walking here as a man, He was the express image of his person. But brethren, he's going to, he has right and title as heir in two ways.
He has right and title because he's the eternal Son and he has right and title as to being creator. But we're going to find two in this chapter. He has write and title as to redemption. I think it's nice to see those two things. He by whom also he made the worlds and he has right and title in that regard. But he also has right entitled because he's made the purification for sin and he's going to take it all back someday. Brethren in redemption. It's been purchased but not redeemed yet.
He's going to take it all back in redemption because he gave himself at Calvary's Cross and that's what you find in the 4th and 5th chapter of Revelation. In the 4th chapter, it's his right and title as to being creator. In the 5th chapter it goes beyond that. It's his right entitle because he's Redeemer. I just say that because if you noticed in verse 3, if in Mr. Darby's translation, it's a broader thought than just having purged our sins.
It's true, he has purged our sins if we've availed ourselves of the work of Calvary, he's purged our sins. But he has made the purification for sin. And when he takes it back in a coming day by right entitled, it will be the fulfillment of what John the Baptist said when he saw the Lord Jesus walking here in this world. He said, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. That hasn't happened yet.
He's taken away our sins, but he hasn't taken sin from this world yet. But there's a day coming when this world is not going to feel the effects of sin the way it does now because the Lord Jesus is coming. It says whose right it is and he's going to reign and he's going to take it all back. The inheritance is his by right, by right as creator, by right as to redemption. I want to read a correction here.
And I'm reading Mr. Darby's translation. Verse three says, who being the effulgence King James, the brightness of his glory, And now this next expression and the expression of his substance.
Instead of of of his person, of his substance and he has a note and he said clearly substance essential being not person.
00:50:10
It is of God, not of the Father. Now when you when you when you get the Father and ministry on the Father, it's John's Gospel. The Son always speaks of his Father, his Father, and he was the expression of the Father. Very words he spoke were the Father's words and the works he performed were the Father's works. But here it's it's it's really a deeper thought than that. He is a very expression of the essential being of God himself and that that's in a man.
That's in a man. That's that's a thought. That is. And that's Romans. I think it was 5.
18181 That's the only one, and it's because they brought up the phrase from verse 4, but he said don't give up the King James Version.
Many of our dear.
Brother and who preceded us said the same thing. And let's don't think that there's others to match it. I don't believe there are.
Isn't it beautiful, brethren, to these first two phrases of verse 3, to think about him? Like Jim said was, it was wonderful for the apostles to contemplate it as they lived with the Lord Jesus and walked with him and listened to him. But it is our privilege too. As we go back to the Gospels and muse over what we see presented to us there, we too have.
The same privilege of viewing this one who was.
The full outshining of the glory of God. It was veiled with a human veil. And as man looked at him, they said, we know who he is. He's the Carpenter or the Carpenter son, But that was the human veil they saw. But in him that glory shone out. The moral glory could not be hid, but there were times when even his.
Glory, his official glory on the Mount of Transfiguration, is shown out.
When they came to take him, and he said, I am that was his Godhead glory, they fell backward to the ground. It was a little glimpse of who he really was. They couldn't grasp it. But isn't it a privilege, brethren, to go back to the Gospels and to look at the Lord Jesus, how he had time to pick up little children?
In his arms. And bless them disciples wanted to shoot them away.
The Lord had time for little children.
What does that tell you about our God? Does He have time for you and your little problems?
Yes, she does. He's interested in every detail. When that poor woman of Samaria came out to draw water, there was a man sitting on the side of the well.
Wearied with his journey. Does God get weary?
No, but as a man he was weary, and as such he now can sympathize with us when we get weary. Oh brethren, it's so beautiful. Just to muse over all that is given to us in the Gospels. He is the express image of his person, the full expression of what God is.
We see in the person of the Lord Jesus you want to know what kind of a God you have.
Look at Jesus there you will see it in full display. You know when God made man in the beginning, He made him in his image and likeness. Man was a representative in God of God in the first creation, but he fell. But the Lord Jesus is the image in Colossians, it says.
Of the invisible God, God in his essential being is invisible. But in the Lord Jesus we have what is visible now. We can see and hear who he is God in the essence of his being. And you know it never says to the Lord Jesus that he was the likeness of God because that would deny his deity.
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It does say in Philippians chapter 2 That he was made.
In the likeness of men, so he took a human form.
But he was and is God in every sense of his being.
Never when he became a man did he leave equality with God. He left, Perhaps you could say the outward form of that physician that he as God occupied. But he was always and is always God over all things, blessed forever. It is true in chapter 2, verse nine. Don't have to turn to it. We see Jesus.
But, you know, it's not as John, James and Peter did. There's a difference, although I do think it's more marvelous what we have on Lord's Day Morning. We'll see him.
Clearly and very wonderfully. We'll see him, no doubt about it now. But what did Peter and James and John see? They saw more than just see it. They read.
First John with me. First John, chapter one. This is John speaking that which was from the beginning.
The Word of God.
But like to comment on.
Few verses that.
And looking over in connection with the Lord's glory.
In Genesis chapter 37.
We read in verse 3 now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age.
And he made him a coat of many colors.
I believe that would speak speak to us of the very glories of the Lord Jesus.
We can speak of the Lord's essential glory.
And then there were the acquired glories that the Lord Jesus also had, and I believe that that's brought before us in the 45th chapter of that same book.
And Joseph gives instruction to his brethren. There in verse 12 it says, And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you, And ye shall tell my Father of all my glory in Egypt. And that has been our privilege this morning, has it not? To speak about all of those glories We've spoken about the essential glories.
That the Lord Jesus possessed and we would think of those acquired goals and.
We think of the Lord's death upon the cross of Calvary, and we have brought before us in that the aspect too of the burnt offering, that which brought glory to God the Father. And so the Lord Jesus has brought before us.
In such a beautiful way in this chapter.
Verse four being made so much better than the angels, as he hath in here by inheritance.
Obtained a more excellent name than they Mankind. You likes to make comparisons, don't they? And.
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We see here that the Lord Jesus had a more excellent name than they. And if we go down to verse six, we see that the Lord Jesus is the first born not in respect to time, but in respect to person, isn't he? And so the Lord Jesus is brought before us in that first position. And just very briefly, I'd like to turn to another verse.
In the 6th chapter.
Of the book of Daniel that would bring before us that truth.
And type.
In verse.
Daniel 6 and over these 3 presidents, of whom Daniel was first, that the Princess might give account unto them, and the king should have no damage.
Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and Princess. That's what we have brought before some Colossians 1-2, isn't it? One that's preferred above all?
There was a sister some years ago in in Atlanta. I recall brother Albert Hale noting an account. Apparently the sister had done some good deed in the community.
And the newspaper was sending reporters to that sister's house to.
Get a little story. Apparently the sister had text on almost every square inch of her wall.
And.
The reporters had come not only to interview her, but to bring her a plaque or an award that was made-up especially for her. And when the reporters came in to present this award, they looked at the wall and said we'd like to find a place to put this.
And.
They looked around and they said maybe we could take one of these off the wall. And he reached up. The reporter reached up to take a text off the wall and was the text. And that all things he might have the preeminence. And as the sister saw this reporter reaching up to take it off the wall, she said, Oh no, not that one, That's special to me. So may the Lord Jesus be very real and special to each one of us today.
Well, the Lord is not in this world the way he was when he walked here over 2000 years ago. And we find here that he's now seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. And in that tremendous brethren to think about. You know, the resurrection, the ascension and glorification of Christ are really God's. Amen to the work of Calvary. They're the gods. Amen to the work that the Lord Jesus did here. The Lord Jesus glorified God in his pathway.
And in the work of redemption. And God has glorified him, raised him from the dead, and seated him at his own right hand. Do you want proof this morning that God is satisfied with His Son and the work that was accomplished here? All you have to do is look up into the opened heavens and see where God has seated him, because after the Lord Jesus in resurrection remained on earth long enough to give ample testimony to his own as to his bodily resurrection.
Then there came a moment when he lifted up his hands and blessed them, and his feet left the mount of Olives, and the cloud received him out of their sight, and they saw him no more. But brethren, again this morning we can look up without a cloud between by faith, and we can see the Lord Jesus not as they saw him here, as has already been said, but seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, and the resources that we have in an ascended Christ today.
Are far, far greater than even what the disciples had when they accompanied with the Lord Jesus when he was here. In fact, the Lord Jesus told them before he went away that he needed to go away because if he didn't go away, they would never really have the ability and capacity to take in and enjoy the things that he had for them in Christianity. And that he was going to send the Spirit of God as that link between the members here on earth and his and the head in glory.
And we can look up by faith. We're linked to Him as members of his body. We look up by faith. We have resources, tremendous resources, in the person of Christ. Not here in this world, brethren, but there, in the glory at the right hand of power, sits a man marvelous to think about. There is a man already in the glory. He's there as God's beloved Son. He's there as the one who glorified God.
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Here on earth, and God has set him there and he says, now you just look up, you're going to see him another day.
We're going to see him face to face, But he says, you look up now and be occupied with that one. I think of the Kim we used to sing when we were young people. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. There's nothing will wean our hearts from this world but that more than occupation with the man who seated at God's right hand. There's a couple of verses, a couple of expressions in the.
Third verse that we're passing over and they're very, very precious. He's the expression of his substance and then it says and upholding all things by the word of his power. He didn't just create the universe and set everything spinning and then retire like the deists say.
No, he he is maintaining everything in its proper order. He upholds all things Colossians. One says that by him all things subsist.
You can't take your next breath. Neither can I without him. We can't do anything without him, he said. Without me he can do nothing. And that's literally, absolutely a fact and true. We can't do a thing without him. We owe everything to him, and he upholds all things by the word of his power. That little baby in in the the stable in Bethlehem, there was upholding all things by the word of his power.
At the time when he had become a man, the Word had become flesh. We can't fathom that, but that's the truth. And then it says when he had it should read by himself.
It does say that when he had by himself purged our sins, the work is looked at as or purged sins, as Jim has brought out. It's it's not so much what he's done for me or for you, but it's the work itself that is being brought before us.
The person himself, and then the work that he did, He made purgation for sin. That's the value of the work. And then of course applying it to us, we have our sins forgiven and all that that follows. But what he's dwelling on here in Hebrews One is the glory of his person and the glory of his work. He did it himself and and it it's, it's it all flows from who He is and what He has done. Then he sat himself down.
On the right hand of God, other scriptures says that God sent him there, God set him there. But here he sits himself down at the right hand of God. It's it's all himself, isn't it? The glory of who he is and what he has done made purgation for sins. Then he sits down himself.
At the right hand of God and then these verses that we've gone on to being made or taking a place.
So much better than the angels not being made. Not that he was put into that place, but he took it himself. He took that place himself by so much better than the angels. It all flows from the greatness of his person, doesn't it? Just to confirm what you say, Chuck and Lester be some question. It's that second himself that Mister Darby adds. He sat himself down and I just like to say a word about that, because as Chuck said, there's two sides to it. God has seated him there.
Showing his satisfaction with his son, but the Lord Jesus has taken his place and sat himself down. Perhaps I can just use a little illustration. When I was in business, I would often be called to do a job for a large corporation or company, and I would go in and I would service or install equipment as the contract required. And when the job was over, I always had an interview with the man who hired me, be he the plant foreman or the president or the owner of the company.
I would be taken into his office to sit down in his presence, to go over the work and to present my invoice. But I must say that it was rarely with a feeling of real confidence that I ever sat down in the presence of that individual. Because there was always in the back of my mind that maybe the job hadn't been done to his satisfaction. Maybe I'd left something out. Maybe I had inadvertently missed something or hadn't included something that he felt should have been part of the contract.
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And so it was, rarely with a feeling of real confidence. But think of it, brethren, the Lord Jesus knowing that everything had been done, not just to the satisfaction of God, that's true, but to the glory of God, knowing that nothing was undone of what was given him to do. Here he leaves this world, and he returns to the Father, to God, and in perfect confidence he can see himself down.
Think of the feeling that must have passed between God the Father and the Son.
As the Lord Jesus sat down, God, satisfied and glorified, seats him there. The sun in perfect confidence takes his place, but a feeling must have passed between them. And now God says, This is the one that I want you to be occupied with. This brethren. The man at the right hand of God is the man that God would always occupy his people with because of the rights he had. Having completely accomplished the work, he sits himself down.
Just like to refer back to the previous phrase.
Too, when he had by himself purged our sins. No brethren. How that is so touching. There was no one else that could be there. He was completely alone on that cross hanging there.
Even forsaken by God.
By himself.
He purged our sins, purged sin. But oh, we have to stand at a distance when we think of the tremendous.
Value of that work of redemption, that work of purging sin during those three hours of darkness now. No wonder he has the right to walk into the very glory of God.
And set himself down at God's right hand, brethren.
Coming to verse 4, which we'll begin with no doubt, next time we come to a keyword in Hebrew, it's, I believe, the key. It's better, And you know, it says being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than angels. You know you're going to find everything.
The Jews had something better, Paul presents.
And the word better, you'll see 13 times, I believe as we go through. We're not going through it but that's it. In fact that brings in his son better, but for us it brings in responsibility. 13 times you'll find let us, let us now you know it says so much better name than the angels.
I had visited many times because I wanted my children.
To sit down in the presence in in Florida, Tampa of brother Eric Smith and TH Jackson, the two of them together.
Nothing but Christ, of course. Beautiful. But Eric told me this, and I don't mind repeating it when he was in Bolivia. A younger man, he was occupied in a way, with angels.
And he said he was going to write an infinitive work on angels.
He had many cards, cards after cards, as he translated this into the Inca and other things you know.
He told me that wasn't long until the Lord really let him know.
You don't become occupied with angels.
Will be come up to occupy with my son, he said. I destroyed all those cards.
And I haven't had a problem since with angels, so we sing #4.
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Where God had built the mountains or raised the fruitful hills, before we filled the fountains that feed the running rails in thee from everlasting the wonderful I am found pleasures never wasting, And wisdom is thy name #4.
Hebrews 2:1-5
Reading
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This in reference to those hymns and not to our subsequent reading.
In Hebrews the last chapter.
In the eighth verse, Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 8.
Hebrews 2:6
Reading
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110 Oh God, thou now has glorified thy holy, blessed, eternal Son. The Nazarene, the crucified now sits exalted on thy throne. To him in faith we cry aloud, Worthy art thou?
Lamb of God 110.
150 We all rise.
On one and verse 51.
Stephanie Ham barely, barely attend you.
Hereafter.
Chelsea have an open.
Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
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And chapter 3.
Chapter 3. Verse 13.
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven.
Even the Son of Man.
Which is income.
And chapter 6.
And verse 62.
What if you shall see the Son of Man stand up where he was before?
The facts forgot.
Perhaps we can start with verse 6.
Hebrews, chapter 2, verse 6.
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 madeest Him a little lower than the angels. Thou promised Him with glory and honor, and it set him over the works of Thy hands. Thou spit all things in subjection under His feet, for in 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, but under Him.
But we see Jesus, who has 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 sufferings.
For both he that sanctify it, 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, 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 *******.
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 behooves him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest, and 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 suffer them that are tempted.
Just as a little addendum to something that was said this morning in connection with there being no thought in corners of our hearts as to this being the reigning time. Now, I would like to just add a comment or two because, well, that's true. The Lord Jesus and these verses we've read make it very clear He does not have His rightful place in this world yet. Yet, brethren, He wants that place in our hearts. You know, we sometimes sing a little hymn, rain Thou within our hearts alone.
And so outwardly the Lord Jesus is not reigning. But when we were young people, we used to sing a little hymn. Lord of my life, I crown thee now thine shall the glory be.
I don't like to speak of myself, but some time ago my teenager said to me in somewhat of an exasperated spirit. She said, well, dad, what do you want from me? I said I don't want anything from you.
All I want is you to get up every morning and say, yes, Lord and brethren, if we would get up every morning with a fresh glimpse of Christ and the glory, the one who's crowned there with glory and honor, seated at the right hand of God and with a fresh glimpse of him, say yes, Lord, rain thou within our hearts alone, perhaps it would make a great difference in our lives. And so He wants that place in our lives now. He's going to have it in this world in a coming day.
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But let's give him that place in our hearts while we wait that time.
When we receive Him as our Lord and Savior, we are saying that we are under His authority. Absolutely. He is the highest authority that we have to answer to. There are other subordinate authorities, but He is the highest.
Lord Jesus Christ, we look at Psalm 8, verse 3.
And four and five, I think part of six. I I think we have what we begin with in this Hebrew chapter. When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon, and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man Now there the word is Enoch, which means mortal man. What is mortal man?
Is really what it is that thou art mindful of Him and the Son of Man.
That's the second man, the last Adam that thou visited him for. Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and has crowned him with glory and honor. Thou made him to have dominion over the works of thy hands.
Now if you turn to job after 38, I believe in job, it brings something out. Very beautiful on this.
38, I think it's first 33.
I would just admit it's job 717. Is that the one you're looking for? 3833? Thank you though.
You may be right, and if it is, I'll jump back.
I thought it was job 38.
Job maybe it's reverse 3330 it is 38 and verse 33. I'm sorry, but I appreciate your help. Job 3833 Noah's thou the ordinances of heaven.
You know, the heavens are under an ordinance. Everybody up there is going according to God's plan and purpose. They're all going different directions, many of them different philosophies. It puzzles man. Can't thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
Of course, there was 40 questions here and Job couldn't answer any of them.
Dominion of the heavens was set in the earth. When Simeon held that babe in his arms, he was holding the one who had the dominion of the heavens, all the power of heaven itself. And so it's a very beautiful thing, this verse we're starting with in Hebrews.
I think it's good to see that the Lord Jesus, as far as God's concerned, is already in that place of preeminence He is.
There in at God's right hand and notice the way it puts it brother, and it's beautiful to get a hold of it. It says thou mayest him a little lower than the angels verse 7.
Thou crownest him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of thy hands.
Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. As far as God's concerned, it's already done. And there's a number of places in Scripture that speak of it. And it thrills the soul to just get a hold of the fact that our Lord Jesus occupies that place here and now. We don't see it, as it says, here.
So in the world around us.
That remains for a coming day, but the truth is that He occupies that place here and now. Look at a few verses that just thrill the heart. Matthew 28 before.
He leaves the disciples, he says in verse 21. He speaks of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
00:20:09
Who is gone into heaven?
And he's on the right hand of God.
Angels.
And authorities and powers being made subject unto him. Oh, what a beautiful thing this is, brethren, to realize that even if something takes place that seems negative for us, if there would be legislation against believers in the United States, we can accept it from the hand of one who is far above all principality and power and might and dominion.
He has ordered that circumstance for our own good. Paul the apostle speaks of himself.
As the prisoner of Jesus Christ, he could have said, and it would have been true.
Prisoner of the Roman Empire. But Paul looked beyond that.
And he recognized the Lord had allowed circumstances.
Seemingly to go against him, but it really was the hand of the Lord up there above ordering his circumstances. Oh, what piece it gives to realize that He right here and now, brethren, occupies that place of highest glory, and he and he occupies it as a man. He always had it as God. Everything was always subject to him.
As Godfather, the Son of the Holy Spirit. But here's the one that left that height of glory and emptied himself and took upon him of his form of God, and took upon him the form of a servant, and went through everything down here in perfect obedience and submission to the will of the Father who had sent him, accomplishing all in that place of dependence and loneliness. And now he's been.
Glorified.
Insulted and put in the highest place, the man Christ Jesus, the glorified man. That's what he's talking about, isn't it? The end of Ephesians one, He raised him. The same power. Not the same power, excuse me, not the same power that was exercised in the creation, but the power that took a man that lay in death, having gone into death for our sins, and then raised him and glorified him. And now that man, everything is subjected to that man, the one that took the lowest place.
Is now given the highest place we see by faith all things put under his feet, but we don't see it in fact, not now it will be in fact fully done. But I was thinking the next verse we see Jesus. Do you ever wonder what the Father's like God the Father.
I know you know what God the Father is like. He that has seen me has seen the Father. I think that truth is so precious. I'll not want to know one more thing about God the Father. When I get to glory. I know what He's like. It's beautiful to think of it. We see Jesus and brethren.
Tomorrow morning.
We're going to see him more clearly than we ever do during the week, and I think every time we break bread, it gets better and clearer himself. Now I just want to give you one verse on that.
First John 18. First John 18.
No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.
1St chapter of the Gospel. No. Yeah. John 118. I'm sorry. John 1 senior moment. Forgive me. They're getting more regular. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.
He has declared Him, perfectly manifested Him. If you've seen the sun, you've seen the Father. You know the Son, you know the Father. I think that truth is so precious. What is so?
00:25:07
The dominion that we have had brought before us. It's instructive to sometimes look at contrast.
And justice noticing a verse in Daniel chapter 2.
In connection with the dominion that was given to Nebuchadnezzar, and it stands in stark contrast.
To that of the Lord Jesus, and verse 37 it says, Thou, O King, art a king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a Kingdom, power and strength and glory. It's instructive to notice the source, the one who gave Nebuchadnezzar that power.
But then in verse 38 it says, And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made the ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. Well, we say that He wasn't given dominion over the flesh of the sea. And Jonah we could see the Lord directing a great fish to where Jonah would be.
We see when the disciples had to pay tax money, they were directed to a fish with a coin in its mouth. When the disciples were hungry and were fishing, he could tell them which side of the boat to cast their net. And so the Lord exercises that full dominion, doesn't it? And stands in blessed contrast to this one.
Who is brought before us as this head of gold in Daniel? And so as you said before, Brother Jim, it's often.
Interesting to note the contrasts that are brought before us in the scriptures. Didn't mean to cut you off, brother Chuck. So Oh no, you didn't cut me off. That's right. I was just going to say that.
This to me, is the most tremendous truth that we can conceive of, and it's beyond our conceiving of it.
He didn't just become a man.
To accomplish the work of redemption, to put our sins away, to die for our sins and then rise and then be exalted and then reign for 1000 years as a glorified man over this world and then go back to deity entirely. But he remains a man forever. Can you fathom that?
He remains a man forever and as we are in His presence, as has been pointed out, you know, show, as Philip said, show us the Father and it sufficeth us. Have you been so long time with me Phillip, and has not seen me?
Either has seen me, has seen the Father. God is the invisible God. We can't see him, but He became visible when he became a man. And as we gaze upon that blessed man for all eternity gives presence.
You'll see God, for all the fullness of the Godhead, dwells in that man shot. What you've just said about his remaining man. I believe we have that in First Christians 15, don't we? Exactly. I'll just read it. First Corinthians 15 and verse 25. For he must reign. That's what we've been discussing this afternoon. Jilly. I've put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted.
Which did put all things under him, and when all things shall be subdued unto him then.
Shall the Son also Himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all and in all, if not that the Lord Jesus has put Himself in a position any lower? Not at all. But He remains a man. His reigning is over. He's going to spend eternity with His bride from that moment on. What a beautiful picture of the glory and worth of that Person whom we know as our Savior.
Well, we see him crowned with glory and honor, and so we look up into the opened heavens by faith, and we see that Blessed One crowned in that way. And it's interesting that the word crown in the New Testament is.
00:30:02
In every incident except three, and all three exceptions are in the Book of Revelation. But in all instances except 3, the word crown in the original denotes that which is given as a reward or that which is earned.
Interesting to follow the three times that you have the Lord Jesus crowned.
We find He was crowned here in this world at the end of His pathway. Among other things, they plotted a crown of thorns and put it on His blessed head. And the word for crown there is the same word that's used here in Hebrews. In other words, at the end of his pathway, that this world awarded the Lord Jesus with a crown of thorns. That's what the Jews thought of their king when they put that crown on His head.
And bowed the knee and said, Hail King of the Jews. Did they really believe he was their king? No, it was said in utter mockery and derision. And so this world awarded him with a crown of thorns and the last glimpse that this world got of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Was hanging on a cross of shame crowned with a crown of thorns. But here we find the heavens are opened so that by faith we can look up and see him crowned with a crown of glory. It's just as if God would say, if this world has awarded my Son with a crown of thorns, you look up and you see how I've awarded him. This is my estimation of my beloved Son and God's reward to the one who glorified him here on the earth.
Is to crown him with glory and honor. Just to complete the thought, the other time you find him crowned is in Revelation 19.
For again the heavens are opened to reveal that Blessed One coming forth.
Not in lowliness and grace, the way he came the first time, but coming forth in power and glory. And he's crowned with many crowns. But the word is different there. The word there. Mr. Darby translates it diadems. It's that which is worn by right and title as by royal birth. That is when he comes the second time and appears in this world, He's coming. Who's right? It is they questioned his right and title the first time he came.
And at the end awarded him with a crown of thorns. But there will be no question in that day as to His right and title to take up every aspect of the work of executing righteous judgment here in this world. And think of it, brethren, and throw your heart to think when He comes forth again, it's crowned with many diadems. And every knee is going to bow and tongue confess. And we're going to come with him, associated with him, and reign with Him in that day. So what a thrill to look up and see him now crowned with glory and honor, and to think that this world, in the coming day when every eye sees him, is going to see him crowned with many diadems.
And what effect should this have upon us? I was thinking of First Timothy.
Chapter 3.
And the last verse of that chapter.
And without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit scene of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. But not notice the verse just before that. But if I carry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
What a blessed thing that is. God was manifest in the flesh.
He walked through this world as a man. He became a man and the person of the Lord Jesus.
The Son, the eternal Son, became a man. He walked through this world as a man. He went to the cross as a man. He died and he rose again as a man and will remain a man for all eternity, that he might enjoy our company.
Well, He put everything under his feet. I love that, Don't you? Now turn to sound and verse and Psalm 115.
And verse 16.
The heaven, even the heavens are the Lords, but the earth has he given to the children of men. Now man doesn't like what God gave him. He wants to get outside the realm. And I say every time, I'm no rocket scientist, that's for sure. I don't understand it. But every time land moves into God's heavens.
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For a purpose.
That is selfish or pride. God cuts off the trip. God will let man use his intelligence because God gave it to us such as the telephone. What did Graham Bell say What has God wrought? God didn't mind that you know, and when when they send things up there into God's heavens, he'll allow it if we want to make.
A. A. A platform.
To tell us when a hurricane is coming, that's a good 'cause he lets it be. But when we go to Mars for finding life?
God doesn't allow us, you know, 80% of those set up by Russia, United States or who they don't know what happened to them.
This last one to say they're searching, they're searching for it, but God just gobbles it up. He doesn't let man get away when he's doing it for pride or against his word. And I believe it. You know, I shouldn't bring this out too strongly, but Challenge Your Deep was a mission of pride. They were going to take the teacher of the year and have all children watching TV.
To see what they can do.
17 seconds. God allowed them. That was all. You know, it's really solid. The heaven and the heavens of heaven, it says, are the Lords. What the earth has he given to the children of men?
He is so great and justice, looking at the 113th Psalm.
And it says in verse 6, verse five, Who is like unto the Lord our God?
Who dwelleth on high? Who humblest himself to behold the things that are in heaven?
And in Earth, just to look at these things, he's humbling himself to do that. And he did infinitely more by becoming one of us.
Well, He didn't subject that world to come to angels. It was important for these Jews that he was writing to, to understand that, because they formed such a prominent part of Judaism. Not to angels half. He subjected the world to come where we speak, but one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man? Thou art mindful of Him or the Son of Man, that thou visitest him. Thou mayest Him a little lower than the angels. He went below them in creatorial order. Man is of a lower creatorial order than the angels.
They're great, greater in strength and power.
And.
Says Al Maestim, a little lower than the angels. I'll crownest him with glory and honor. And it set him over the works of thy hands. That's that. Blessed man Alice put all things in subjection under his feet, for in 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. They're all, they've all been put under him by his right and title, but he hasn't taken it all yet.
And he will someday, won't he? And when he reigns, every nation on the face of the earth, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, you name it, they'll be subject to him. And they must own his authority. And every nation that doesn't will be destroyed.
They won't be Buddhist or Hindu nations in that day, will they?
So he won't tolerate that anymore, will he?
We can't preach a gospel without the word eternity in our heart.
And our mouth, that's the purpose of the gospel, isn't it? Eternity, you know, it only appears once in this book, and that's all. Eternity appears once because it cannot exist without the one that inhabits eternity. Turn to Isaiah 57. I'll just read the verse. We'll get the majesty of our Savior here. Verse 15 of Isaiah 57.
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For thus says the high and lofty one, our brother Chuck just brought it out, how he was made lower than than low could be humble. But thus says the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity. That's the only reason there's an eternity. There could be none without him who's eternal.
And that beautiful whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a kind contrite and a humble spirit, to revive and to revive the heart of the contrite one. But I will not contend forever.
Time is short, brother.
Eternity is ahead. I just want to make this comment. No argument about it now.
In the new translation by Mr. Darby, eternity occurs over 20 times and you can check that out in the concordance of what Bob just said is correct in the King James Bible. Other times this the King James renders that same word everlasting, from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. And in the new translation that reads from eternity to eternity, thou art God and it occurs a number of times over 20I counted them.
But it's a wonderful term. It's that which is beyond time, isn't it? Eternity.
Help me in connection with the connection that must be before the last part of the ninth verse, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. Where is the beginning of that thought, of which that must be the conclusion?
I think he tasted death for all things.
Not just men, am I right? I agree with that, but that's not my question. Yeah, but let's get it straight to start with.
OK.
To have an expression that says that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.
It doesn't go back to the 7th verse. Almeida him a little lower than the angels, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
New translation says everything.
Which is, as you point out, the broader, broader expression.
We need some help, Bruce. Help us.
Parentheses there.
Elucidate.
But we see Jesus now there's a parenthesis, as I understand it, who was made a little lower than the angels for the crown, for the suffering of death crowned. Then I think that's where the parenthesis stops. Then it comes in with what you say, that he might, by the grace of God, should taste death for everything. So there is a parenthesis in the middle of that verse that might help.
Fiddle a What verse? Verse 9.
There is.
I'm looking at Darby's translation.
Is it there? I thought it was.
I use Mr. Kelly's translation.
To me, the thought that's implied is that.
He became man that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for everything. But I'm not trying to add to scripture what's not there, so I'm missing something.
Maybe I'm missing this discussion here, but it seems to me that the Lord Jesus had to become man in order to be the sacrifice that would put away sin. I agree entirely, and I think that that is what this is saying. He was made a little lower than the Angel, that is as a man. So the suffering of death. Now he's crowned with glory and honor.
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And that's just a statement of fact. But if you're heap for the suffering of death, that he by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.
That's why to me it seems very plain and simple and straightforward. Well, the 8th of Proverbs says all things are plain to him that understand this. And you did, and now I do Thank you, I'm sincere, thank you. Secret things belong to the Lord too.
Sometimes, you know, in the meetings such as this, with such knowledge of God's Word and such ability to elucidate on it, one is sometimes careful to open their mouth.
But at that time, I felt free to do so.
Just to go back to the comments that was made about it being a broader thought than every man, I know we mentioned this I think yesterday in the readings, but I believe it's important to see again that it's not just for every man but for everything, because this has already been said in these meetings. The Lord Jesus is going to take everything back not only on the grounds of His being Creator, His right and title as to creation, but His right entitle as to redemption.
This world is going to feel the effects of redemption in a coming day. And really, in Revelation 5, the notes of praise that are sounded there are far deeper and greater than the notes of praise that you have in Revelation 4.
Perhaps just go to that for a minute because it was pointed out in Revelation 4 it is right entitled as to being Creator, but Revelation 5 is his right entitle as to redemption. And just notice in the end of Revelation 4 the last verse.
They say thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive. Now notice this glory and honor and power, and why? Because for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. But now just keep that in mind and go to the fifth chapter where we have redemption, and we have the redeemed giving glory and honor and all creation praising for because of redemption.
Notice verse 12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. Now count these things to receive one power, two riches, 3 wisdom, 4 strength, 5 honor, 6 glory, 7 blessing. It's complete, isn't it? In redemption, beautiful. You have it too in Colossians one. Let me read it.
Verse 19 It pleased the Godhead.
Correctly rendered, that in him the Lord Jesus should all fullness dwell, and notice these verses, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself for him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And then he says, And you that were sometimes alienated in enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled. So you have the you, and you have the things.
That are brought into blessing subjection to him through the work of cross. Just notice too Chuck in that connection in the tents of Hebrews, because in the 10th of Hebrews. Now he brings it down to us. Just let me read here, because here we have the Lord Jesus seated again the right hand of God.
Verse 12. Hebrews 1012. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies he made his footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's us, isn't it? So this is not as broad a thought as you get in the second chapter. It's interesting here that the Lord Jesus seated at the right hand of God.
It even tells us what he's thinking about because we've been saying how that God is looking forward to the day.
When his Son will reign supreme and have his rightful place, the Lord Jesus is looking forward to it too, And he's sitting at the right hand of God, looking forward and thinking about the day when his enemies will be made his footstool and he'll have his rightful place in this world. But we're brought into blessing now by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. I like to read a verse out of Ephesians just to put this into perspective. And I'll say at the beginning that I've always had the sense that the work of the Lord Jesus.
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At Calvary not only dealt with the sin of men which we're dealing on and this earth. And so I'll read this verse. It's well known it's where the we have the warriors armor in Ephesians chapter 6, but it says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies.
And I think the work of the Lord Jesus in Calvary dealt with all of that, with the sin of the might, say the whole creation, the universe, not just this earth.
And well, the heavens are not cleaning his sight, it says. And Satan rebelled and he's and his angels with him, they've rebelled. And so that all has to be at home. That all has to be dealt with. And the work of Christ has has handled it so that all things will be brought into subjection to Him. That's the point.
To me, I think of the Lord Jesus as our advocate in the heavenlies, and Satan is up there as the accuser of the present, and we take such wonderful comfort in that thought. But there are elements, I might say, of this universe that are beyond our comprehension and knowledge. I mean, they're intimated by those things, but I've always understood that the Lord Jesus redemptive work cleaned the whole creation of sins.
To the honor of the Father. And then as we know at the very end, it's all going to be given to God. So we though, as humans walking this earth, feeling our own sinful nature, focused on our redemption with great gratitude, rightfully. But I think the work of the Lord Jesus far exceeds and might say our redemption, wonderful as that is.
So there won't be a single stain of sin remaining in the new heavens and the new earth.
That's that's the point I was trying to make.
That's absolutely true, because in Revelation 21, verse four, that verse could not be written if that weren't true.
Revelation 21 Four, which is the eternal state?
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. There shall be no more death.
Neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.
The former things are passed away. That's the work of Christ that did that. Verse five wipes out all the sin, all the sorrow, all the sadness, and in that day it'll be all gone. Read the next verse too. You go ahead. I don't have it open. You go ahead.
He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
And he said unto me, Write, for these words are the true, are true and faithful.
Next verses it is done.
That's not today, that's not tomorrow. That's the eternal state in Revelation 21.
Brother in our meeting is going to close. I was hoping to hear some words about verse 9, the thought of our Lord.
It well I'll read verse 10 for it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and that's our Lord Jesus, and bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect.
Through suffering. Does that mean that the captain of our salvation, the Lord Jesus, wasn't perfect?
Not in the sense of this verse, no. Well, that's what I would like to hear something about.
Although I have some thoughts about it, we know that the word perfect as we find it in the scriptures doesn't mean without error or perfection. It generally means maturity or full experience. Maybe that's not a good definition, but we are made perfect. Not that we're flawless, but by experience in growing embrace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. We are mature believers.
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But here it says the Lord Jesus to make the captain of their salvation perfect. Now experience through suffering.
I take that to be in this sense that the Lord Jesus as divine, the Son of God, the eternal Son of God, didn't become man until he was born of Mary. And he never had the experiences of men such as we have of weariness, disappointment, things of that nature. And it's the fact that he experienced a life as men that he can sympathize with us. He understands now.
What it means. So I think it's in that sense that the Lord Jesus gained that experience. And I'll give you an illustration too. We.
Value the thought of having a savior who knows our condition, our state, the various things we feel, disappointment, weariness, and so on. And it's like a soldier here's a private general goes by in a car with the flag waving with four stars.
And he says, what does he know about what I'm doing here? But if that's general had been a private and gone through those things and that private knew it, how much more he would have respect and value for that general. So I liken this to our precious Savior. It means so much to me to think that in the glory it's going to be a man. We're going to look upon him as the one that was crucified. We know what he went through. We know how he was rejected by the Jews. He was abused, stood upon, He was disappointed.
He wept over Jerusalem. That's our savior. I can't picture myself in heaven, perfect as it is.
Without that man being there, I couldn't relate to a perfect, immortal, eternal, all powerful God. He'd be so remote. As a matter of fact, there are verses I always think of when I think of heaven and the Lord Jesus. We might just look at it. We I think and mention these meetings of this type before, but they're at the end of the first epistle to Timothy in the last chapter Speaking of all Lord Jesus.
Now it speaks about until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, that's verse 14, chapter 6, which in his time He shall show, who lives the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, who only have immortality, dwelling in the light which no man needs, an approach unto whom no man need have seen nor can see.
To whom be honor and power everlasting. So if that were what we have as a prospect, unapproachable Savior, heaven would not be as attractive. But now to know that this man who suffered for us is the one we're going to see. I take great delight in the verse in the first John that says when we see him, we shall be like him. Just think of that and then we'll know as we're known.
Not only will I be physically, you might say, like them, but I'll have now divine judgment. So if the judgment seat of Christ, where we have the wood, hay and stumble, I'll be able to say Amen when those worthless deeds of this life of mine are put into that bonfire, because I'll be having his judgment right now. There are things that come up in our lives where we're not clear. We can pray about it, surely, but in that day we'll know as we're known.
And so not only will we have be like Him physically, but will have his judgments will be perfectly suited for that, but will be with the one we can look upon, not what we just read at the end of First Timothy. Let me just add to that read. I want to read verse 10 in the new translation. And then the note is very helpful. For it became Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect.
The leader of their salvation through suffering. Now here's the note. Make perfect.
In Hebrews, has the force of doing all required to initiate.
Into an office to make a person fit to be installed in the office. It is sometimes translated, consecrated.
There's nothing to do with the integrity of this person but that he's brought into that position, made perfect in that sense. You get that in the 5th chapter, just just to bear out another incident in Scripture or in the art book in the 5th chapter. I'll just read it verse nine or verse eight. Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered and being made perfect.
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He became the author of eternal salvation unto them, all them.
That obey them. So that's the same thought, isn't it, Brother Chuck? Fully qualified to save us and bring us all the way to glory.
By experience.
Not only save us from the penalty of sin, but to save us through this world as a great high priest as we pass through it. And that's what he's introducing in the rest of the chapter, the question of his priest priesthood. He is our great high priest to help us in our weaknesses and in our infirmities. We need someone.
To help us.
And goes on to the end of the chapter for in that he himself.
Verse 18 hath suffered being tempted. He is able, beautiful to think about it. He is able to succor, to help them that are tempted. We have someone to help us when there is temptation. I like the Spanish translation. It says instead of he is able, it puts it he is powerful.
To help those that are tempted sometimes I've talked to young people that have gotten into difficulty in their Christian life.
And I sometimes ask him what happened.
Number one, saying the temptation was strong, the flesh was weak and I fell. I said, yes, that's true, but what happened to the Lord Jesus? Wasn't he strong enough to help you in that moment of need? You sin because you wanted to sin. And brethren, if there's just that simple dependence on him in our weakness.
In our need, weakness and infirmity in itself is not sin.
Sin comes in when we give place and use that as an excuse. That becomes sin, but it in itself is not sin. We have one at God's right hand who is pleading for us all the time.
The Lord said to Peter, I have prayed for thee that thy faith sail not. And if Peter had only availed himself of that resource, it could have saved him that bitter experience of denying his Lord three times with oaths and curses. Thank God, Peter was a true child of God, true believer, and there was restoration, but he didn't avail himself of the resource that he had in the Lord Jesus. And when we sin, it's because we don't avail ourselves of the high priestly work.
Of the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God, the place of power. And isn't it wonderful, brethren, to realize that he was in all points, tempted like as we are? Do you realize there's nothing that you pass through in the path of faith and service that the Lord Jesus as a man hasn't felt himself? And he's not only with us in the circumstances of life and the trials we have that this afternoon He's a present help. But isn't it more wonderful to have someone with you in a trial?
That's been through a similar circumstance. That person empathizes with you. That person understands what you're going through. It's more than just having someone with you. You say that person knows. And so the Lord Jesus is not only with us, but he was in all points.
And I want to say this very guardedly, the Lord Jesus could have come as a full grown man, gone to Calvary Cross and accomplished the work of eternal redemption. But he didn't do that. He chose to grow up in this world. He knew what it was to be a child growing up in this world. There's some children here. You say sometimes nobody understands me or has time for me. I'm just a child. The Lord Jesus was a child growing up in this world.
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Young people sometimes say, well, nobody understands me, my parents don't understand me, the older brother don't understand me sometimes. The Lord Jesus knew what it was to be a young person growing up in this world. He knew what it was to be thirsty, weary, hungry. He knew what it was to feel reproached. He could say, reproach have broken my heart. And we sometimes sing a hymn that sums it up so very well. With joy we meditate the grace God's high priest above, his heart is filled with tenderness.
His very name is Love. He in the days of feeble flesh poured out His cries and tears, and though ascended, feels afresh what every member bears. Could we read that verse that you've just been quoting again in the 4th chapter of Hebrews, and verse 15? For we have not. And High Priest, which cannot be touched.
Feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are.
Now the last part yet without sin there was number sin in him and the next verse. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. If we accept and use the high priesthood of Christ, we'll never have to use what we have in first John chapter 2 verses one and two. We have this privilege. Each and every one of us has this privilege to come to the throne of grace in the time of need.
Kim, I I think you've made a serious mistake in what you said.
God could not have created the Lord Jesus of a full grown man. The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. A virgin shall conceive and bear a son. There's no other way that he could have come but through the virgin. It had to be that way, otherwise he would have partaken of a humanity that was different than ours. He derived his humanity through his mother. He had no earthly father, but that connects him with us. You know there are those that that deny that and they say that.
Well.
The Roman Catholics have invented the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary that she was born without sin and that gets rid of the the the problem. If she had was a Sinner, how come that wasn't transmitted onto her son? And so they make her stimulus and that just moves the problem back one generation. How did she get sinless? That makes it even worse because she had a sinful sinful father and a sinful mother.
But the answer is given, How could she, a Sinner, produce a sinless holy child? The answer is given in Luke Beautiful, beautiful verse. Luke one verse 34 Then said Mary unto the Angel, How shall this be seeing? I know not a man. Now notice the answer. The Angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, the Holy Ghost.
Shall come upon thee. And now he takes the place of a man, that is, she is begotten of the Holy Ghost she conceived, and the Holy Ghost begat that child in her womb. 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 thee shall be called the Son of God. That one verse answers all those false.
The theories that a special creation was made by God and placed in her womb and she just incubated it. No, no, she conceived as any woman does but by the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost is holy, and he preserved that child absolutely holy. So it's not enough to say that Jesus did not sin, but he could not sin. He was the holy one of God.
Which cannot sin and if you don't believe that you know there's so many that that that have imbibed that error in Christendom leaders. They they say that he could have sinned. No, he could not have sinned. Anyone that thinks that doesn't really understand his holy humanity. His holy humanity was sinless, incapable of sinning and it was preserved that way by the Holy Ghost.
Jesus Christ not only did not commit the sin of Commission, but he couldn't commit the sin of omission. And we talk about sin, thinking of Commission, an act or something we did, but you know, omission is just as much as sin as Commission in God's thoughts. I'll just give you one verse. It would be James chapter 4.
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And verse 17.
Therefore to him that Noah to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin.
You don't have to do a thing to sin, brethren, but Jesus Christ never committed a sin of Commission or omission. He couldn't.
But we can and I think we do more omission than Commission myself. It's not enough to say, excuse me, I it's not enough to say, well, he couldn't have sinned because he was God. You see the people they say, well, God can't sin. No, but in his humanity he could sin. No, no, no, no. How could God Incarnate sin? The very thought is is horrible to think and that humanity.
Just leaving, leaving aside for a moment that He was God, but His humanity was holy. It was different. Humanity has existed in three states. Garden of Eden, innocent, sinless, but capable of sinning. Adam and Eve, and they did sin, sinful, and that's what we partake of. And holy humanity, that was the Lord's different than innocent humanity. Holy humanity is sinless and incapable of sinning, and that applies to His humanity.
As to his humanity, he could not say very important to get straight on that. I have a question here. Perhaps you can help me with this In that 4th chapter that we've read he was in all points. I think it's good to put together in this connection 3 outstanding scriptures concerning the sinless humanity of Christ. We and it's interesting to notice the three New Testament writers that God uses depend these words by inspiration.
God often puts the put the writers in certain circumstances to give weight to what they wrote by inspiration. And Paul, the apostle Paul who was the intellectual, the learned one, he says of the Lord Jesus, he knew no sin.
That's one thing. But then Peter says he did no sin. Peter was the doer. Peter was an active sort of of man, and the Spirit of God uses him to record he did no sin. But his brother Chuck said there are those who will give consent to that. But John, who takes up the person of Christ, who gets right to the heart of the matter, takes up the eternity of his person and his deity. He doesn't just say he knew no sin.
Nor does he just say he did no sin, but in him was number sin.
And it's important to get right to the heart of the matter and see that in Him was no sin. The wicked 1 Cometh and findeth nothing in me. That's it. All what his Savior he is. I've enjoyed the little example that someone gave years ago about a bucket of water and a bucket of gasoline and temptation being a little match. Well, what happens when you put that match let match into the water?
There's no response. Our presence, Savior, there's no response to sin. But in the gasoline, it's more like us, isn't it? There is a response.
The argument they give saying he could have sent his, it wasn't a temptation then, well, this is the best example I can give to show that that's a false reasoning is a a person takes two pieces of gold and gives it to the jeweler. He said one of these two pieces is real gold and the other one's fool's gold. Would you tell me which is which? So he takes the real gold, he puts it in the nitric acid and brings it out untouched. He said that's real stuff. And he puts the pool scold in and it's eaten up by the acid and he says that's false.
And now what's the real goal? Not tested in the same way as the other one. They both went through the same testing, but the testing the Lord went through was to prove that He was real gold in His humanity. It's a good illustration. I say absolutely Amen. And I'm not trying to pull chemistry on you.
But there is a combination of nitric acid and hydrochloric that will dissolve gold. There isn't any metal known to man that some combination of acids couldn't, couldn't dissolve. But the story, your story is not lost because there is, there is no circumstance of addition of acids or hydrochloric or height of phosphoric whatever that had any effect on that blessed man.
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And as such, brethren, and let's try to get to this because this is such a comfort and a help to us to understand as such.
Is our great High Priest to help us through the circumstances that we are passing through? Never has there been a time of such violence and corruption. Is it possible for me to go through this life without?
Having to sin with him as my great High priest.
It is possible. I'm not saying I don't sin, but it is possible. One other verse.
In connection with this high priesthood that is so beautiful in the 7th chapter.
Verse 24 But this man, because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able. It's not a matter of my ability, brethren, it's a matter of his ability. And if it's that in focus, we can go through this world with him interceding for us. He is able to save them to the uttermost.
Frederic Smith used to say all the way home, I like that.
He's able to save us all the way home that come unto God by Him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. There he is on high, with his hands lifted up in intercessions for us.
Oh, brethren, the Lord grant that we can just look up and enjoy in the depths of our souls the power of that man at God's right hand who has his hands lifted up for us. We can go on to please the Lord. It is a possibility. It is the way marked out for us because of His presence there.
Everything #100.
100.
The Secret of the Nazarite
Address—C. Hendricks
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Which fadeth away were not of the night, but children of day. The change that once bound us by Jesus, our riven, were strangers on earth. Our home is in heaven. Someone raised a tune, please.
The word of my patience that is waiting for the Lord. I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. That expression, those that dwell upon the earth, is found over and over again in the Book of Revelation, the earth dwellers that speaks of those who are apostate Christians, and they don't go on with the Lord. We're talking a lot about apostasy in Hebrews.
This temptation, this trial that will come upon all the world, is to try them to dwell upon the earth, the earth dwellers, they preferred earth to heaven and the truly a true Philadelphia.
Is a heavenly man.
A spiritual man, a true Philadelphian.
Verse 11 Behold, I come quickly.
That's the promise.
Hold that fast. Which thou hast that no man take thy crown. Now that's that's a key verse. That's what I want to. I want to have you remember this, he says to us, to those who are.
Either in Philadelphia, if that's true of you, the state of your soul, or later to see it, he says Hold fast to to the Philadelphia, and hold fast what you have that no man take thy crown. What is the crown of the.
Philadelphia, we want to see a look at that.
And then quickly, verse 14, the Angel of the Church of the Laodicean's right. These things say at the Amen, the faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of God. And that's the way he presents himself to Laodicea. Laodicea means the people's rights. Philadelphia is brotherly love, and it makes everything of Christ. A Philadelphian makes everything of Christ and the Laodicean everything of self.
Laodicea means the people's rights.
And Philadelphia is concerned with the rights of Christ. He's the Amen, he's the faithful and true witness, and he's the beginning of the creation of God. That's the new creation. And not one of those was true of Laodicea. He doesn't have anything good to say about Laodicea, and he commends Philadelphia completely.
I know thy works. Thou art neither cold nor hot.
You can't get into a worse state than that.
Neither cold nor hot, I would thou work colder hat, he said. I'd rather you were totally against me, or totally for me, but not this wishy washy in between thing which is the latitudinarian spirit of Laodicea.
So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I'll spew the out of my mouth. It's disgusting to him. And he'll spit it out. He won't retain it. He'd disown it. When I read some of these things, I say, well, there's not a saved soul here, but there was. There was. There were some there that that were his. Because he says in verse 19, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten you tell us therefore and repent. And then he says he's knocking at the door of Laodicea. That's not the door of the heart. It's it's the door of that church.
He's outside. He's not there inside in Philadelphia's right there. He's in the midst and they're gathered to his name as the one who's in the midst.
They value the word of God, value it of Philadelphia. Later, the scene doesn't value it at all.
You couldn't have a Laodicea after Sardis. Sardis was a partial recovery of the truth. That's the Protestant Reformation, the all sufficiency of the Bible and justification by faith apart from works. Wonderful truths that were recovered but not the whole truth. They resorted to earthly governments to protect them against the tyranny of Rome. But the Lord presents himself to Philadelphia as having the key of David. He's the one that opens and shuts and no one can shut when he is opened and so on. And the Philadelphia doesn't go to man.
To protect them against the enemy that goes to the Lord.
To the Lord. That's what characterizes Philadelphia.
And all these statements I'm making, to whom do you go when you have a problem? Do you go to the Lord? Do you go to men?
He says.
Notice what the Laodicean thinks of himself, because I'll say it's verse 17. I am rich and increased with goods.
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And have need of nothing. That's what Laodicean thinks of himself, and this is what the Lord thinks of them. And thou knowest not first thing he says about the lay of the scene. You don't know, You do not know your condition.
Thou knowest not.
That thou art wretched.
And miserable, and poor and blind and naked.
That was the condition that he saw.
What they solved themselves, They were self satisfied. They were filled with themselves. We're in a we're in a country that is gospel hardened. A country that has had the truth. Europe, England.
It's Laodicea everywhere you look in these countries.
Self satisfying. So on. I don't want to pause too much here. I want you to go back with me to number six. Number six?
The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them.
When either man or woman shall separate themselves to a vow of vowel of the Nazareth.
To separate themselves unto the Lord.
Now the Lord Jesus is the true Nazarite this word Nazarite.
Notice it's Naz Arkansas and an it at the end comes from the root. Nazar NAZARI don't know how to pronounce the Hebrew word and it means consecration. It means separation.
Devotedness.
Consecration, separation sometimes, and I don't think we're going to have time sometimes, it's translated crown, the word crown.
What was the crown of the Nazarite? His separation to God.
Separation to God.
The word diadem or crown in connection with the priesthood when they were consecrated is that is that word. It's it's that same word that comes from Nazarite. And when they crowned a king, they put the crown on the King's head and that set him apart. That separated him from the rest. He was set apart by that crown. And that's that same word and it it means separation or consecration.
The Philadelphians were Nazarites.
And everyone of us that is born of God and called a Saint of God is a Nazarite.
We're going to look at 2 Nazarites in scripture. One was a very failing Nazarite, but he was a Nazarite. He was born that way.
Samson.
And the one that was that was true to his Nazarite ship.
Was the Apostle Paul.
We want to look at those two. They were both Nazarites, and every child of God who has received Christ as Savior is positionally A Nazarite. Paul writes to the called Saints. The Saints by calling? What does that word St. mean? It means a holy one.
The holy 1A Nazarite one who separated from Well, let's read on verse three. He shall separate himself three things from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink. Neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dried all the days of his separation. Shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husks.
Now that's the first thing he's not to partake of anything that comes from the vine.
Speaks of natural joy and so on. And I'm not even going to try to define what it speaks of, but to leave that with you.
And then the next thing.
Verse 5 All the days of the vow of his separation, there shall be no razor. There shall no razor come upon his head.
Until the days be fulfilled in the which he separated himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy.
And shall let the locks of the hair of his head.
Grow. That's the second thing. The first thing is not to eat of anything coming from the fruit of the vine, strong drink or even grapes or even even greet juice, so on not to have anything coming from the vine. And then he was to let his hair grow. And the first verse says when either a man or a woman well over the woman lets her hair grow. That's what the New Testament said. That's her glory, that's her glory. And it's a shame for a man to have long hair.
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But what is how long hair speak of? It speaks of dependence, subjection, weakness.
Woman is the weaker vessel and when the man takes.
His mother for his brother or for his sister when they die because the consecration.
Of his God is upon his head all the days of his separation. He is holy unto the Lord. You see these three things in the Lord Jesus? They came to him, And they said, Thy mother and thy brother stand without, desiring to speak with thee. And he said, Who's my mother? Who are my brethren? But he that heareth the word of God, and doeth that.
He sets aside the natural for the spiritual.
And he denies to himself that which is naturally pleasing to him, fruit of the vine. And he even takes upon himself, if he's a man, that which is a shame for the man.
Weakness. Philadelphia, it says. It says there in Philadelphia that has a little strength. It's just a picture of weakness.
Wasn't some great ecclesiastical movement that you see all around us in system, just a few here and there, gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, weakness, but the delight of His heart.
Don't look at numbers.
What do you have? What do you have in the systems out there? So much entertainment. We were talking about that between meetings, gyms, basketball, courts.
I don't even know all that they have. And some of these things, entertainments, the fruit of the vine, something that appeals to the natural man.
That's right, he abstains from all that.
And he lets his hair grow.
Shame for a man. I remember a young man at a picnic after the Denver conference. He had long hair way down to his waist, and I sat next to him. I said I'd like to read you a scripture. Sure, he said.
And I read in the scripture in First Corinthians 11 it's a shame for a man to have long hair.
And he said, is that in the Bible? I said sure, look at it. And I gave it to him to read.
And he read it. The next time I saw him. He had short hair. I don't know if it was because of that little discussion, but he never knew that. He never had heard that from the word of God. Well, it speaks of subjection. And the blessed Lord when when he was in deity, he was in the form of God. It says in Hebrews 5, He learned obedience by the things which he suffered. He became a Nazarite. He became subject.
In the spiritual sense, he had long hair. He was crucified in weakness and raised by the power of God.
Weakness. What could be more weak than a man crucified on a cross?
And more shameful.
He was a Nazarite. So was Samson. Not a true one, not a faithful one.
But we all If you're a Saint of God, you're in Ezra.
So when he writes to Philadelphia, he's writing to the Nazarites.
Are we true to our?
Position.
OK. That's all I want to touch on in numbers. Now turn to judges and.
Judges 13.
The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines 40 years.
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And there was a certain man of Zora, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoa. And his wife was barren, and bear not. And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold, now thou art bare, and embarrass not, but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.
Now therefore, beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine, nor strong, drink and eat not any unclean thing for loathe. So he's telling this woman that she's not to drink, strong, drink, or wine.
Thou shall conceive and bear a son, and a razor shall come on his head.
For he the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb. So he was born in Nazarite. And when you've been born again, you're born in Azurite. Whether you're true to it in your life is another question.
Child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel.
Out of the hand of the Philistines.
Then the Angel going down to verse seven, he said unto me, She says, Behold, I shall conceive.
And bear a son, And now drink no wine, or strong drink neither. Eat any unclean thing, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. When you get saved, you are different.
You're different.
Totally different.
You have a new life.
Sins are all forgiven. You have a new master, Lord Jesus Christ. When you own him, Lord, you're saying he is the one that's going to direct my entire life. He's Lord. He comes over the authority of father and mother and government and and and the teacher in school. He is Lord. He's top authority. The other authorities were to be subject to in their place.
But if it conflicts with his authority over your soul, he comes first.
You're changed. You're different. You're not the same.
When you come, when you get saved right out of the world like I did when I was 19, there was a tremendous change and I noticed it and everyone noticed it. But when you're raised in a in the meeting and you get saved.
I like when a person asks someone that's been raised in the meeting, when did you get saved? I think what they ought to say is, well, I always believed. I always believed Mommy and Daddy. That's what they told me and I believed it. I didn't question it.
And there's a group in Christendom that says if you can't point to the day and the hour when you got saved, you're not saved. That's nonsense.
What you want to be able to say to him, I know I'm saved right now. That's the important thing. I know I'm saved right now. Can't point to the time. I can say June 17th, 1947. That's when I know by my bed reached up and said, Lord Jesus, I accept thee as my savior. I remember that. But many of you don't have an experience like that and it doesn't matter. The point is, the important point is are you saved now? Then you are a Nazarite. You're a St. and that's the ones that Paul writes to.
The ones who are called Saints, Saints by divine calling.
And you can't change that. You belong to him. You're a Nazarite. Now let's go over to the 16th chapter of Judges.
Samson had one great weakness, and that was women.
That was his downfall.
Verse 4.
It came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the Lords of the Philistines came up unto her and said unto her, Entice him and see wherein his great strength lieth. And by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him, and we will give thee, every one of us, 1100 pieces of silver. The Lords of the Philistines, they couldn't look at Samson and determine where his great strength came from.
You see pictures of my painters of Samson and he's bulging in his muscles and so on.
And you'd say, well, there's great strength come from his strong physique. No, you can come from that at all.
Where does strength come from? Of course it came from the Lord. But what was the secret of it? Something that is the weakest part of our body? Your hair.
Your hair. Unless you spray it with something that holds it stiff, it will just fall down.
Wind will blow it everywhere.
Weakest part of your body, The very last thing that anyone would think is the source of your strength.
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When I am weak, then am I strong?
That's a principle in Scripture that is so important for us to get a hold of when we're weak, when we're consciously weak in ourselves.
Are strong.
Most gladly, therefore, will thy glory, Paul says, after he had asked three times. Take away this, take away this thorn in the flesh, messenger of Satan, he says, most gladly will I glory in my infirmities.
That the power of Christ may rest upon me. What is the strength of Philadelphia?
Its separation.
As soon as we.
Give that up the path of separation in our individual lives, in our collective life.
We've lost our Nazarite ship character well.
To want to get ahead of myself.
Verse 6.
Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.
And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with 7 green widths that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.
Then the Lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green widths, which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson, And he broke the widths, as a thread of toe was broken when it toucheth the fire.
So his strength was not known. And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies. Now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound? And he said to her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man delighted There Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson.
There were liars in wait abiding in the chamber, and he break them from off his arms like a threat.
Delilah said to Samson. Hitherto thou hast mocked me and told me lies.
Tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound? How could how could he be so stupid?
How could he?
Obvious, It was obvious what she was up to.
He said unto her. If thou weaveest the seven locks of my head with the web, now he's getting much closer to the source of his strength. It's in his hair now. He's getting real close.
And she fashioned it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson, And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web. And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? Thou has mocked me these three times, and has not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death.
That he told her all his heart.
And said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head, For I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. And if I be shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.
And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the Lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once.
For he had showed me all his heart. Then the Lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand, and she made him sleep upon her knees.
And she called for a man and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head. Seven locks of his head.
He had the perfect testimony to his strength right up here.
And they shaved it off.
And she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself.
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That the Lord was departed from him.
To the laodicean the Lord says, Thou knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked.
The Laodicean doesn't know his condition. Thou sayest thy rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not.
That's the condition that you see here with Samson.
The Philistines took him and put out his eyes. What does it say about Laodicea? They're blind.
Poor, blind and naked.
Brought him down to Giza, bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house, howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved. Then the Lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their God, and to rejoice. For they said our God hath delivered Samson our enemy, into our hands. And when the people saw him, they praised their God. They attributed this victory over Samson to their God, not to his unfaithfulness.
In telling the secret of his strength.
After all, what could be more foolish to the natural men to say the secret of your strengths and your hair in your hair? No one would ever have guessed that.
The secret of our strength, beloved, is in our dependence on the Lord and our separation from the world. That's the secret of our strength. Once we give that up, our hair is cut.
They offered a great sacrifice unto Dagon their God, and to rejoice. For they said, our God hath delivered Samson our enemy, into our hand. And when the people saw him, they praised their God. For they said our God hath delivered into our hands our enemy and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.
Came to pass when their hearts were merry that they said call for Samson that he may make us sport, and they called for Samson out of the prison house. He entertained them.
And he made them sport, and they set him between the pillars. And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand. Suffer me that I may feel the pillars, whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them I.
See him with his arms outstretched, with his arms around those pillars. Now the house was full of men and women, and all the Lords of the Philistines were there, and there were upon the roof about 3000 men and women that beheld while Samson made sport.
Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord, God, Remember Me, I pray thee and strengthen me. I pray the only this once, O God.
That I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
Samson took hold. Is there recovery? Is there recovery for?
One like this, yes.
Yes, there is.
Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and on which it was borne up, and the one with his right hand, the other with his left. Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines, and he bowed himself with all his might. And the house fell upon the Lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which slew in his life.
Then his brethren in all the House of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zora and Estiel, in the sparing place of Manoa. His father, and he judged Israel 20 years.
Sad.
Said when? That which?
Was characterized as.
A Philadelphian movement.
Gives up its separation to the Lord.
And embraces the enemy.
To the enemy.
Secret of our strength is not in our muscles, not in our physique, not in our natural strength.
But when we're weak that way, we're strong consciousness that there's no strength in me.
It's all in him.
The Lord Jesus is the true Nazarite.
Two separated men.
They came to him and said, We know that thou cares not for any man. They were trying to trap him by flattering him, or by threatening him or whatever reason. They didn't know who they were up against.
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Jesus did not commit himself unto men, because he knew all men and he needed not needed not that any should testify of man. How often we we fail speak myself we fail in in going to human resources when the Lord has the answers.
All right. Now let's turn to the New Testament.
Let's turn to 1St Corinthians 4.
1St Corinthians 4.
Here you have.
The Apostle Paul who was a true Nazarite.
He says, verse one, Let a man sow account of us, says of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of men's judgment or day. Yeah, I judge not my own self, for I know nothing by myself or against myself. Yet am I not hereby justified by he that judges me? Is the Lord, therefore judge nothing?
He that judges me is the Lord that he stood before the Lord, that he lived his life before the Lord for his approval. He wasn't moved by the opinions of men, whether they were in his favor or against him. That was the Lord himself. No one could change his course. No one could deviate him 'cause him to deviate from a path of obedience. And and Paul was probably.
Of justice, a normal man like you and me, the closest to it. As he said, imitate me, Follow me or imitate me as I follow Christ. Imitate Christ.
Therefore judge nothing before the time till the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God.
And these things, brethren, I have transferred to myself, I've.
Left off in a figure I have transferred to myself and to a policy, he said in verse five of Chapter 3. Who is Paul? Who is Apollo's but ministers by whom ye have believed?
One saith I am of Paul, another I have a policy says, and he puts his name in there and Apollo's name in there.
They weren't the ones that were setting themselves up at Corinth to be somebody. They were false apostles, deceitful workers. But he puts his name in there.
To illustrate the principle. These things, brethren, I have transferred to myself into Apollos, for your sakes, that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it?
Now these next passages, these next verses, so important, I don't think I can expound upon them. Let the power of the word of God reach your soul and speak to your conscience and heart, he says to these Corinthians. Now ye are full.
Now ye are rich.
Sounds like Laodicea, doesn't it?
You have reigned as kings without us, you might say. It sounds like he's writing to.
The Saints in the United States of America.
Now you're full, Now you're rich, You have reigned as kings without us, and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
Now here's a great contrast. Now here comes a real Nazarite.
One that lived it.
For I think that God hath set forth us not just himself, but the other apostles. The apostles last, as it were appointed to death.
Where we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels and to men.
I'm speaking to an audience and I'm very much aware, and I'm just as included in this comment as any of you. Many of you don't understand what this means. It's not true of you.
Many Saints in other countries not true of us, not much.
Lee goes on to say what he went through. We are fools, for Christ's sake.
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You experience that. If you're faithful, you will.
But you are wise in Christ.
We are weak, Paul says. But ye are strong.
Your honorable, but we are despised.
Even under this present hour, we both hunger and thirst and are naked. I don't know anything about that.
I don't think many of us do.
He went through this daily in his Nazarite ship.
And are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. I think we all have that.
And labor, working with our own hands, being reviled, we bless. He wouldn't take anything from the Corinthians. They were a rich assembly and they could have easily ministered to him and kept him well taken care of. But there were those there the same He's just out for your money. So he didn't take from that assembly, took from the Philippians. They were poor.
Took from them.
So he worked for his own fare.
We labor working with our own hands being reviled. We bless he didn't have a wife and children, so he had a little easier that way. But not easy. Being persecuted, we suffer it. Being defamed, we entreat we are made as the filth of the world and are the off scarring of all things under this day. You know, beloved, many of our brethren in other lands know what that is. You know what that is. They're made as the filth of the world. They're despised.
I write not these things to shame you.
But as my beloved sons, I warn you.
Though ye have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers?
For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel.
Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
Do we follow him? Do we imitate him? Do I?
Very, very little.
Let's turn to the 2nd to the 6th chapter of the second Epistle.
6th chapter of the Two Epistle.
We then, as workers together with him, beseech you.
That she received not the grace of God in vain.
For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I suckered thee, Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold.
Now is the day of salvation giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed.
But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in laborers, in watchings, in fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love, unfeigned, by the Word of truth, by the power of God.
By the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well known, as dying, and behold, we live as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you. Our heart is enlarged, or it's not that it was narrowed and has to get larger. But he's telling it, telling that our heart is expanded towards you. You're not straightened in US, you're straightened in your own bowels. They had listened to these, these enemies there at Corinth, to Paul. They didn't like his message. They didn't like him, and they were. They were speaking against him.
And he says our affections towards you have not lessened.
But yours towards us have.
Now for a recompense in the same I speak as unto my children, be also enlarged, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Here comes that separation.
That ought to characterize a true Nazarite testimony, a true Philadelphian testimony.
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel, an unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them.
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And be ye separate. That's the Nazarite.
Saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.
Remember, that was the third thing that the Nazarite was not to do. Touch death.
And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you. Wasn't he their father already? Yes. But he said, I will be a father to you. I will play the Father's part to you when you're separate from these things that are displeasing to me.
I will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Verse one of Chapter 7 belongs with this.
Having therefore these promises, he's promising to play the father's part towards us when we're separate from the world.
Dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh.
And spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Tremendous passages, now the 11Th chapter, the 11Th chapter of Second Corinthians.
He had his enemies there, and I'll just begin with verse 22, he says. Are they Hebrews? Yes, so am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. He met with all kinds of opposition from his Jewish brethren, and there he's describing them.
Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.
Are they ministers of Christ? Then? He has to say, I speak as a fool. There weren't they weren't ministers of Christ at all.
They were false apostles, he says. Going back to verse 13, he says Such are false apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of light. It is no great thing of his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works, when we stand for the Lord in separation from all that is of man.
All that is pleasing to man, the great juice and the fruit of the vine. Everything that man enjoys and loves.
If that's what we allow ourselves to get taken up with.
We violated our commitment to him when we got saved.
We became Nazarites, whether we're good ones.
Or bad ones.
Notice his list here, verse 23. Are they ministers of Christ? Are speakers of fool, though they weren't true ministers at all, I more abundantly in Labour's more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons, more frequent in deaths OFT.
Of the Jews five times received I-40 stripes save 1 Thrice. Was I beaten with rods once. Was I stoned thrice. I suffered shipwreck a night and a day. I have been in the deep in journeyings, often in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.
In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often in cold and nakedness, beside those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
Now this man that's writing this.
Was educated at the feet of Gamaliel. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
Probably never had a callus on his hands. He was a man of the upper crust.
They said Rabbi, Rabbi, he wasn't a Galilean fisherman like the other apostles.
That were hard working fishermen with all kinds of evidences of their hard work. No, he was the upper crust and hardly ever had anything that was displeasing to the flesh. He's the one.
00:45:14
That goes through these things.
Talk about being committed.
Dedicated, Separated.
We don't even come close. I don't even come close. Not even close. I don't think many of us do.
There are some in other lands that experience some of these things.
The Lord Jesus said not where to lay his head.
Be following him.
We sang we are not of the world which fadeth away.
Not of the world.
The Lord said, if the world hates you, he know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore the world hated you. The time cometh when he that killeth. You will think that he doeth God's service. That was Saul of Tarsus. That's his man. We're reading about Saul of Tarsus. He was doing that to the Christians. He hated them. He hated the name of Jesus.
Now he's the greatest apostle and the greatest sufferer. I don't think there's anyone.
It could even come close to what he went through Indiana. His sufferings, the Lord told Ananias in an Acts 9 is that I will show him what great things he must suffer for my name's sake.
And he was a faithful man. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.
Well.
Just about in.
What is meant?
What is meant? Read it again.
And if Revelation 3?
Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast which thou hast, and no man take thy crown. What is it the Philadelphian has he? Has the truth recovered that had been lost amidst the ecclesiastical rubble of Christendom? He has that you've been brought up in a company where that truth, we've had it before us in our two days previously in conference precious truths.
That you won't get anywhere else. Thank God we're still able to meet.
What's your crown?
But your crown turn back to Jeremiah 7.
Jeremiah 7.
What was Samson's crown?
His long hair.
That marked him out as being a Nazarite.
Had marked him out as being a Nazarite, A separated man, a consecrated man.
A St.
Now in Jeremiah 7.
I'll just read from.
Oh, I'll start at verse 25, since the day that your father's came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day.
I have even sent unto you all my servants, the prophets at Jehovah, speaking to Israel here.
Daily rising up early and sending them, yet they hearkened not unto me.
Nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck, they did worse than their fathers. Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee. Thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee, but thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction. Truth is perished Laodicean condition that we have here.
And is cut off from thy mouth. And those verse 29 he says, Cut off thine hair. O Jerusalem, you're no longer, you no longer can wear the symbol of being a Nazarite, A separated one. Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, cast it away, take up a lamentation on high places, for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation.
Of his wrath, for the children of Judah have done evil in my sight.
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Saith the Lord. They have set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name to pollute it, and so on and so on.
Cut off thy hair, he tells them. You're not, you're not Nazarite. You're not true to it.
Your hair.
Is your crime Cut it off.
And when we align ourselves with the world with the religious world, if.
Take up with their waves. Take up with.
The things they're doing.
That are not in the word of God.
We've lost our hair.
We've lost our separation.
That's Laodicea.
They only see a nauseous to Christ.
Which are you? I know if you're saved if you're a St. positionally.
But Samson was a pretty miserable Nazareth.
He lost his eyes. He lost his discernment.
He lost everything.
Because he gave up the secret.
To the enemy of his strength, which was separation, the long hair.
If we do that.
With all the truth we have.
We're no longer practically Nazarites.
Solemn, isn't it?
Oh, I have so much more, but this will have to do.
Do you have a Mr. Darby translation? Look up #6.
And I just copied this from it. Nazarite consecration. Separation from the Hebrew root, not Sir. And it's rendered crown. Consecration. Diadem. Those are the words. It's rendered in its rendered hair there in Jeremiah. Or it was his long hair, his weakness, his being ashamed for a man to have. That was his shame. And when we walked with the Lord, that's what they'll think of us. That's what they thought of Paul.
That's what they thought of him, the off scouring of all things unto this day.
And he's the man that used to say Rabbi, Rabbi.
They revered him. Now they despise him.
Do we do we in this land?
Experience that well, all that will have godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, and if we're faithful to him, we'll experience some of it.
Some of it not like Paul did. None of us can come close to what he went through in his service for the Lord.
We're not of the world.
Which fadeth away.
I'll just close with a part of a poem. It's called The Young Christian.
And yet, outside the camp, tis there my savior died. It was the world that cast him forth and saw Him crucified. Can I take part with those who nailed him to a tree where His name is never praised? Is there the place for me? Nay, world, I turn away, though thou seem fair and good.
That friendly, outstretched hand of thine is stained with Jesus blood.
If in thy least device I stoop to take apart all unawares, thy influence steals God's presence from my heart, and Azurite with his head cut off, his hair cut off.
And.
Both eyes put out.
That's how Samson ended up.
Reset. Let's pray.
Our God and our Father.
A Tale of Two Cities
YP Address—D. Nicolet
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Afternoon.
Very well known hymn #82 hymn number.
82 Jesus.
Alone, artworthy.
Take to speak about with the Lord's help.
Two, perhaps we could say 3 cities.
Cities are mentioned frequently in the Word of God, and there are many, many.
Valuable lessons that we can learn from considering the subject of cities, Some of those cities have very.
Negative connotations. Some have very positive connotations and lessons. If I were to use the name, for instance, Babylon, you would get a definite response or thought in your heart. Sodom and Gomorrah, Jericho. And so there are cities mentioned in the word of God that carries some very, very solemn and vital lessons.
There are other cities. Nazareth, Bethlehem.
Jerusalem. And so we could go on. And there are very precious and wonderful thoughts connected with them.
With the Lord's help this afternoon I'd like to speak, as I said, about a couple.
But really not spend a lot of time on the cities themselves, but I'd like to.
Speak about really your part, beloved young people and dear Christians.
In the third one. But let's look at those two cities, or at least references to them.
Very well known.
We'll start in Genesis chapter.
4.
Genesis Chapter 4.
And verse 16.
And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bear Enoch. And he builded a city, and called the name of the city.
After the name of his son Enoch.
I'm going to talk about these cities as to their names. This is the first one, first city mentioned in the word of God and its name is Enoch. Now the next city we're going to look at is perhaps referred to by a variety of names, but we'll look at the one that's mentioned in the last chapter of Ezekiel.
The last chapter of Ezekiel.
And I'm just going to read the last phrase.
Of the 35th verse of Ezekiel, chapter 48.
And the name of the city from that day shall be the Lord is there.
Or if I understand properly from Mr. Darby's translation, that could be called Jehovah Shama.
Jehovah.
And Enoch. Now we know that this city, this references the glory of this millennial city is Jerusalem, sometimes called Zion.
Called, sometimes called the City of David.
What I want to speak about, with the Lord's help this afternoon, is.
The third reference to a city and beloved young people? That's you.
And I'm making an application of a city as to what characterizes and what ought to characterize our lives as Christians.
The City of Enoch.
Or the Lord is there.
And the happiness and fruitfulness and joy that you're going to experience in your life if the Lord should leave us here any little time.
Will depend very largely this afternoon on whether you can, in honesty before God, say that your life is called by this name or characterized by this name. Jehovah Shama, the Lord is there.
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Or by the city that characterizes the world in which we Live Today. I don't want to spend much time on it, but let's go back for just a moment to Genesis chapter 4 and notice.
Briefly.
Something about that city.
Enoch.
Because you have a choice to make this afternoon my beloved young people, and so do I.
That my life is going to be characterized by what characterized this city.
Or it's going to be characterized by?
The Lord is there. We're going to turn to a few other scriptures, but I want you to notice in Genesis chapter 4 and verse 19 that the first thing that characterized the city Enoch was there was no heart satisfaction to be found there.
Lamech needed two wives.
He didn't find.
Satisfaction in what God instituted.
His affections weren't satisfied. Beloved young people this afternoon, are your affection satisfied?
I want you to ask yourself these questions.
I'm asking myself the same things. Is your heart satisfied? Lamex wasn't. He needed two wives now?
The things that we're about to read are not, in themselves, necessarily bad. In fact, I'd say they're needful.
But they're necessarily bad, and they're not needful if they're things that characterize your life as the sources of satisfaction. So the next thing is.
The character of business, if I can just say it that way, I think it's been referred to many times that way. They that dwell in tents and have cattle that characterize the city. Enoch, there was business there.
Nothing wrong with a career. Certainly nothing wrong with working. And I might say, beloved young people that if you are going to work, if the Lord has LED you into some career or profession of some sort, whether it's working with computers, whether it's working on a farm, whatever it is.
Remember that verse. Whatsoever you do, do it heartily, is unto the Lord. You better be the best you can at what the Lord has given you to do, because it's a dishonor to the Lord to be to do your work less than the best you can do. That's not the issue. The issue is the work that the Lord's given you to do. Do you look at us at it as that which is going to satisfy your heart when nothing else can?
That's the City of Enoch. And then the next thing was entertainment.
Is that what you're looking for this afternoon? To satisfy your heart? Is there anything wrong with music? Anything wrong with art? Anything wrong with all that?
Is related to that area.
In itself.
Apart from the defiling ways that man corrupts it, no, and there most certainly isn't.
But if you're looking for entertainment this afternoon as that which is going to characterize your life.
As it characterized this city, Enoch.
You're looking in the wrong place. And then technology and science, all of them that.
In verse 22 every artificer in brass and iron.
We live in a wonderfully interesting, complex and exciting age technologically.
Is there something wrong with that? We can thank technology. We can thank the Lord, first of all for bringing us all here safely. But you would consider the kinds of technology that it took to get you here.
There's a brother sitting here. I don't mean to embarrass him, but I don't know very much about what he does. But I know that he often sits in a room that directs those airplanes that many of you flew here on. And that room that he sits in is many miles away from here. And yet, because of technology, the airplane that you came in on and by the grace of God above all, landed safely.
00:10:05
Or the car that you drove in and we could go on and on and on. Is there anything wrong with that?
Only if you're looking for it to satisfy as the source, to satisfy your heart. Because after this city, Enoch couldn't be satisfied with its affections. After it couldn't be satisfied with profession. The careers after it couldn't be satisfied with entertainment. After it couldn't be satisfied with technology.
It also ended up being a place.
That was a place where people got hurt.
Now that's the world that looks so bright and sparkling this afternoon that's beckoning to you.
And I'm going to suggest, beloved young people, that your life is going to be characterized.
By that city, Enoch and all that it has that looks so good, that is, in essence, if it's a source of satisfaction, so empty.
Your life is either characterized by that board of schooling or it's going to be characterized by Jehovah Shama. But before we get to that and and develop that a bit more.
I want to look at some other verses that relate to the city of Jerusalem that I believe is referred to in the last verse of Ezekiel in its millennial glory when the Lord Jesus Christ reigns there as King Supreme in this world and that city that right now today is undergoing such problems with terrorism and unrest, which is probably causing the root, if I can say it this way, politically, of the terrorism and unrest throughout this whole world.
That city is going to be the center of 1000 years of glory and peace.
And it will be called by the name Jehovah. The Lord is there.
I'd like for my life and yours this afternoon, beloved young people, that our lives might be characterized by that as we walk through this world right now, for however long the Lord has determined you and I are going to walk through this scene, but I want to look at that city.
The first mention of it, as far as I know, is in Joshua. Let's take a quick look at that.
At least the first name in the sense of Jerusalem.
Joshua.
Chapter 10 and I'm just going to read a few words from verse one.
Joshua chapter 10 and verse one.
When atonized King of Jerusalem.
Now I believe that's the first time that this city that is called by the name of the Lord Jehovah Shama.
As its name, Jerusalem is mentioned and it's mentioned as being ruled by a king.
Who is connected with idolatry and hated the children, The people of God.
Now I want you to turn over with me. We won't dwell on that. I want you to turn over with me to. We could turn to a couple of these, but let's turn over to 2nd Quran or first Chronicles.
First Chronicles, Chapter 11.
And then we're going to turn to one more verse before going into the subject that I had on my heart. These are introductory.
So Jerusalem, the first mention of it is mentioned as being ruled by this idolatrous, wicked king who hated and wanted to fight against the people of God.
First Chronicles, Chapter 11.
And we'll start with verse four and David and all Israel went to Jerusalem.
David is a man after God's own heart, a beautiful picture often in Scripture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Which is Jebus. Now there's another name.
There were a race of people, the Jebusites, who lived in that city, and here's what they said.
And the habitants, verse five of Jesus said to David, Thou shalt not come.
Hit her.
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You're not welcome here, David. Now, there's some other interesting verses in another passage relating to this, but I just want to make this point.
Jerusalem was David's rightful place to reign, and he took it.
And he's a picture of the Lord Jesus.
Who has the rights to reign in this world and has been cast out?
And beloved young people that want him to be cast out of your life as a Christian. And you say, well, I know him as savior.
And I answer what has often been said. You can know Jesus Christ as your savior.
And not allow him to be the Lord of your life to rule.
In a place that he deserves and owns and deserves to rule in.
And so David took this place called Jebus, and it was called the City of David. So there's another name.
It's called the city of David and David dwelled in the castle. Verse 7, therefore they called.
It the City of David. Now one last verse.
You see what we're finding.
No mention of a king in the city Enoch.
Unfulfilled affections.
All sorts of things to satisfy the heart, which really didn't.
And even hurt and fighting.
Lack of peace wounding all of that, but there was number King.
And that's the world, beloved young people that you and I are walking through today. A world.
Characterized by what characterized the people of God. Even in the days of the judges, there was number king in Israel.
For every man did that which was right in his own eyes. What's right in your eyes in terms of morality?
Do it.
What do you really want to do with your life? Don't let anybody hold you back.
Life is short. Play hard and on and on and on. The lies go in Enochs, the city, Enoch.
But there's another city where?
David is going to reign a picture of the Lord Jesus.
And there's going to be a fight to keep him from reigning there.
And if you're a Christian this afternoon sitting here, you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and you want to live for Christ. You want your life to be a city where the it's knowing that the Lord is there, that David, as it were in type, reigns in your life, has authority, rules in your life for blessing.
There's going to be a battle.
I want to read one last verse about Jerusalem, which to me is exceedingly sad. And then we're going to talk a little bit, as time allows beloved young people for the rest of the hour about building.
What the enemy is trying to destroy if you're here this afternoon and you know the Lord Jesus Christ and Savior, I say again.
That there is an enemy that does not want you to have and enjoy and walk in the blessings that the Lord Jesus wants you to have and enjoy.
And the only way you're going to be able to enjoy and walk in those blessings is to see that he and he alone is the king.
The ruler that that city your life is characterized by, the Lord is there.
Not by what characterized the city Enoch.
I want you to turn with me to Luke.
This is a heartbreaking verse. It's the divinely inspired word of God, and so there's something to learn from it.
Luke chapter.
19.
The Lord Jesus has come to Jerusalem. This is great David's greater son.
This is the one that David pictured and typified, and he has now come to be received as king in Jerusalem.
00:20:04
And we heard about that this morning. Had he been received?
The blessings that would have come. The glory of the Kingdom that would have been set up.
But when the rightful king came?
They spit in his face.
And they hung him on a cross outside the city.
And they said as the Jebusites said to David.
You're not coming in here.
Delivered young people. May I speak very plainly.
Are there any of you sitting here who know the Lord Jesus Christ and Savior, but you have reserved a part of your life, a part of that city, And you're saying, in effect, maybe perhaps not in words, but in effect, you're saying to the Lord Jesus this is a part of the city you're not coming to. I've reserved it for myself.
Well, I want to tell you what is going through, if I may say this reverently, When the Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem to be received there as king, to set up the glory of that Kingdom, and to bring that promised blessing and to do all that had been promised, he was there. He was ready to do it.
Here's what it says.
Verse 37 of Luke chapter 19. And when he Jesus was come nigh near even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice.
You know, I don't know if in the city Enoch there was any rejoicing. There were things that people tried to find joy in, but it doesn't say there is rejoicing. It says I've slain a young man to my hurt, to my wounding. That doesn't sound like rejoicing to me.
But here is the real the true king coming now to be received, and the people that in faith recognize this begin rejoicing.
If you turn, allow whatever word you want to use your life that city.
Called by your name.
To be called by the name of the Lord this afternoon. Give him the full rights of reign in your life.
I'm going to tell you the rejoicing is going to begin.
And it's a rejoicing.
That all of this world, with all of its interesting things, will never be able to supply.
Because it's a rejoicing that begins and has no end but the Lord Jesus, that King, the king.
The one.
That we might say in a coming day will be referred to, and that city is Jehovah Shama. The Lord is there.
Notice verse 41. So sad, so solemn.
And when he Jesus was come, I'm going to misread this verse to emphasize a thought.
When he Jesus was come into the city, he beheld the city and wept.
Over it.
He wasn't welcome there. He came near the city.
Now it's true. Historically, he entered into the city and he cleansed the temple. Make not my father's house and House of merchandise.
But it wasn't long after this that he was carried out of that city. Oregon LED out of that city rather, and hung on a cross.
So he comes near the city.
He's wanting to bless that city.
And he knows that there's going to be rejection, and he weeps over it.
Beloved young people.
There perhaps our parents here who have burdened hearts.
There perhaps our brothers and sisters in Christ here.
Grandpas and grandmas, aunts and uncles, friends, brethren.
Whose hearts are heavy and burdened.
For some of you.
But none of them.
And I speak as a dad and as a grandpa.
None of them.
Come close.
00:25:01
To grieving.
The way the Lord Jesus grieves.
Over one of his own.
Who will not allow him?
To come into that city.
And rain.
We won't turn to it.
But you can read in Acts when Philip the evangelist went down to the city Samaria and he preached the gospel and the Samaritans received it, it says there was great joy in that city.
Is the Lord Jesus grieving over your life this afternoon?
I'm not talking about your brethren.
Our dad and mom, our grandpa and grandma.
Although that certainly.
Is a valid consideration.
My question to you beloved young people is.
When the Lord Jesus has drawn near to you that he might bring blessing into your life.
That he might open those floodgates of heaven.
And bless you with a satisfaction and a joy and a rejoicing and a fulfillment and a purpose of life, such as this world is madly.
Finding.
As he draws near to do that to you, beloved young people, beloved Christian, sitting here this afternoon.
Does he know as he looks into your heart that there's rejection, that there's a wall built up?
That he's not going to be received.
That he's not going to be Lord of your life, and I say in the application that he is not going to be king.
That your life is not going to be named.
You know, this morning we read in Hebrews about this glorious person.
Perhaps you said in a lot of conferences, and you've heard Hebrews 1 ministered on.
And this morning comments were made, I believe, about.
That most excellent name. I want to turn to that for just a moment.
Back to Hebrews chapter one, because I want to read it directly from the inspired word of God.
Being made verse four, chapter one, so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name.
If we would turn to James, we won't. You would read where James is rebuking.
Those who bear that name, and he's saying that blasphemy is called.
That their actions were causing that worthy name to be blasphemy. That excellent name. That worthy name. And in Philippians, if we return to it, you would read those verses often quoted, that God, every knee is going to bow before that one who's been given a name that is above every name.
So what is it this afternoon, beloved young people? Is it Enoch? Is that the name that morally characterizes you? Looking for some sort of source of affection to satisfy your heart? Looking for something in this world to excite and to give you purpose and getting hurt in the process?
Is that the name, or is the excellent worthy name above every name?
The name by which you are called.
Or perhaps I can say it this way, the name by which you with your heart want to be called.
I hope it is.
I hope higher.
That someone.
No, not someone.
That God.
Can look in his grace and perfection.
And wisdom and love.
At your life as a city, and say the name of the Lord is there.
00:30:02
Excellent, worthy name above every name.
Well, I want to.
Do something very quickly and very briefly.
I want to look at this city.
In between the time that David.
Had taken it from the Jebusites, and that place that was one time referred to as Jeebus, that was ruled by an idolatrous king, an Ibiza.
From that time that David took it and it was called the City of David.
And it was God's center.
In between that time and the time we read of in the end of Ezekiel, when that city.
Is called by the name Jehovah.
Because of sin and rebellion and disobedience.
That city was ruined. The action has been ruined in history many times.
But I want to look briefly at the book of Nehemiah, because in the book of Nehemiah we find something very wonderful and very encouraging. We find that place being rebuilt.
And so beloved young people, beloved brethren.
The one standing here, and all of us in some measure, have known what that is.
To find Christian life, Christian testimony, Christian happiness, wave, or grow cold.
That doesn't have to stay that way.
It can be rebuilt.
And I'm going to go very quickly because it would be impossible in the.
Time left to even begin to go into detail.
But the Book of Nehemiah is a book of rebuilding a city.
Worship had been the temple had been rebuilt in Ezra.
There was a relationship with God reestablished, if I can say it that way.
And now the place where that worship was carried out, That city.
Is going to be rebuilt.
You can't rebuild your lives, beloved young people.
If Christ isn't your Savior.
That's the world's philosophy, that this time of the year we get ready to start making New Year's resolution and turn over new leaves and start again and do better and on and on and on. That's not what I'm talking about.
That the approach to God, the way to worship God, had already been taken care of.
Can say it that way. In Ezra the temple was rebuilt.
There was a relationship, a way to offer sacrifices and praise and worship to God.
And that's what he wants first.
And So what I'm about to say.
I fear to say it in this way, but really the few things perhaps the Lord might give us in the remaining moments.
Aren't directed at you if you don't know Christ as your Savior.
And I'm pretty well convinced I'm absolutely assured of one, and pretty well convinced of two facts.
I'm absolutely convinced, for I know it's true, that God knows everyone in this room.
The condition of your heart as to whether or not you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
And I'm pretty well convinced you do too.
But we're going to leave that and we're going to see how a city.
That had been destroyed by an enemy because of disobedience and disregard for the precious word of God.
Was rebuilt.
And that's what I want for myself.
That's what I want for you beloved young people.
I want you to freshly today before God's say, by the grace of God.
If.
My life to this point has not been characterized as a city with the name. The Lord is there by the grace of God.
00:35:08
I want to rebuild it.
And all what blessing?
In chapter one of Nehemiah. These will just be quick references.
There was one who had a care.
He wanted to know the condition.
Of this city called Jerusalem.
And those that dwelled in it, Beloved young people.
Does it bother you that your brethren are concerned about how you're doing?
Does it frustrate you or turn you off?
To know that your brethren really do care how you're getting along.
Well, they do, and it shouldn't.
But there's one typified here, I believe, by Nehemiah, the Lord Jesus.
Who's infinitely more concerned?
Sometimes our consciences bother us about things that we've allowed in our lives. Why?
Well, can I apply it this way? That it just might be the Lord expressing His concern for what I've allowed in my life? And what is it?
What does it result in?
Verse 3.
Nehemiah 1 The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
That's a pretty heavy price to pay beloved young people for disregarding the word of God, because perhaps you didn't like the one who ministered it.
Or worse yet, you took a look at the city, Enoch, and decided.
I think I'd like to try some of those things.
I think that would satisfy me.
And if our trip into LA and into other large cities that we've traveled through as any indication, there's a lot that looks very inviting in the city of Enoch.
I don't want to embarrass his brothers, I won't mention his name, but this morning he was talking to me about going down to one of the well known beaches with his some of his family, walking on the boardwalk and walking on the beach.
I'll get corrected afterwards if this is wrong. I think this is the first time.
That they were visited out here.
And this is what struck him, not the beauty of the ocean.
In the sand.
And the trees and the.
Warmth, The weather. But what struck him was the number of homeless people sitting on the boardwalk in the beggars with their hands out. And I'm not saying that sarcastically or in a denigrating way at all.
Because there but for the grace of God.
Go I.
But have you taken a good look at the city, Enoch?
A few years ago, we rode the train in to downtown Los Angeles from Iowa.
And because I used to teach commercial art and design, I was quite awestruck by the kind of graffiti that was painted all over the bridges in the city of Los Angeles downtown.
And I have no hesitation to say it was some incredibly talented art that wasn't supposed to be there, but it was beautiful.
And the other thing that struck me.
Was how people could enjoy living under those bridges and cardboard boxes.
I have never seen any billboards advertising in Los Angeles picturing a person living in a cardboard box, have you?
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What are you looking for, beloved young people?
Here is a city that because of disobedience to the word of God, that could have been flourishing and.
The glory of the center of the world.
Was destroyed.
Gates.
To protect it.
Rather wall a wall to protect it, broken down gates to control and allow blessing to come in and to get rid of unwanted things.
Burned and broken down.
In great affliction and reproach.
And so people say I tried this Christian thing, but it's a bunch of legalities and a bunch of rules.
And I'm going to try the world.
You know, you got it backwards. It's because there was a heart that we all have. It's called the flesh.
That reaches out and wants that.
And this is what it gets.
Beloved young people, you know this as well as I do. You don't get what you see on the billboards for trying what they advertise.
This is what you get.
Burn gates and broken walls.
And great affliction and reproach.
And by the grace of God, still this afternoon.
There's somebody.
That wants to help you rebuild.
Here's what he went through. He wept.
He fasted. He prayed.
And he confessed his sin. Now you're saying, wait a minute, Doug, Lord Jesus is sinless.
Yeah, He is the eternal, spotless, sinless, holy Son of God who was made sin for might for me on.
He confessed and bore my sins.
I'm Calvary's cross and if that doesn't qualify him to make me happy in my life, I don't know what does.
Nehemiah confessed.
And wet.
And went back to rebuild.
If you read this chapter, you'll read some of the most beautiful pictures of the Lord Jesus.
How he was at Jerusalem for three days.
That's what it costs my savior.
So that I don't have to have a life called Enoch.
I can have a life with a city called the Lord. Is there Jehovah Shammer?
He was in that grave.
Three days and three nights because of me.
But he's not there anymore.
And he fully entered in because he went out at night and he looked at all the destruction. There wasn't anything that he missed.
And then he comes to the people and he says, let's rebuild.
I want to read those verses.
And I would like my beloved young people for you this afternoon to hear the Lord Jesus gently. May I say, I don't want to fall prey to imagination, but would you imagine him sitting next to his arm around you in love, A heart of love that you could never describe, understand, or express for all eternity? And he's there right now.
And he's saying this to you. Put your name here.
Verse 17.
This is Nehemiah speaking, and you put your name in the word them. Then I said unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in? Do you think it doesn't matter to the heart of the Lord Jesus?
That sorrow has come into your life.
Nehemiah was the King's cup bearer. I say this very reverently and carefully. He had a soft, cushy job.
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His job was back in the palace in Babylon I guess, and he just had to keep the king happy.
Just bring him wine and make him happy.
But he is identifying with a condition of ruin. He didn't say. You see the distress you're in, you know, beloved brethren.
Can I say this in love to all of us?
Let's learn how to point our finger less.
At our brethren when they fail.
And identify with them more and learn how to say the distress that we're in.
If one member suffers, the whole body suffers with it.
How about identifying with the distress just as much as identifying?
With the joy.
You see the distress that we are in, How Jerusalem lieth waits, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Come, let us.
You got the Lord with you. If you want to build a wall around a city that's going to be a city of joy, you've got the Lord with you. He wants to build. I say, Reverend, he wants to build with you.
He's not saying you go out and take care of it. You messed it up.
He's saying let's build.
Can you feel his arm around you this afternoon?
Same to you. Let's be open.
Then I told them verse 18 of the hand of my God, which was good upon me, as also the King's words, which he had spoken unto me.
And they said, let us rise up and build.
So they strengthened their hands.
For this good work.
Draw me, we will run after thee.
All beloved young people. I'm going to make a little different application now.
It's just one of you.
This afternoon would say I'm going to rebuild.
I think you'd find there would be some others.
That would say, you know.
I think I want to do some rebuilding too.
Let's build.
Well, Chapter 2 or chapter three are gates that have often been gone over. I'm not not even going to try to go over them in time. We have.
Going to mention this though, there are 10 gates in chapter 3. That's responsibility.
You know you can build a wall of separation, and if you only have a wall that keeps you separated from the world and no gates, you're not going to be a very happy Christian. You might be a happy hermit, but you aren't going to be a happy Christian.
You're going to have to get some gates into the wall so that blessing can come in and things that are inside that you don't want can be gotten rid of, and that's why there was a gate, for instance, called the Dung Gate.
The gate starts with the sheep gate because my sheep hear my voice.
And I know them.
And they follow me.
That's the gate it begins with and it goes through and you follow those gates. There's ten of them.
And so there is responsibility connected with your building, the walls and the gates. And the Lord wants you to take responsibility. I'm going to say this carefully. I don't mean to be glib or sarcastic, but you got all the responsibility for messing your life up if you have. I have to bear the responsibility. I have to confess my sin. And that's what what I'm told in First John. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive him. Not if we excuse our sins. That's what this world is all about.
With all due respect to.
Our dear brother Bauman, retired lawyer. That seems to be the big thing with lawyers these days.
Is trying to figure out how to make the jury believe that it was everybody else's fault except the person that committed the crime.
No, it's my fault.
I sinned. I decided to disobey. I decided to do my own thing. I decided to do what I wanted to do.
And I got a ruined city with broken walls and burned gates.
And it's not called the Lord is there.
And so the building begins.
And I'm responsible.
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The Lord is with me, but I be responsible. I can get those gates set up, but there are two other gates. We won't look at them in terms of reading them. One is in Nehemiah 8 and that's called the gate, Ephraim, that's not mentioned in here and one is in, I think it's in Nehemiah 12. It's the last gate mentioned. It's called the prison gate.
And so there's really a total of 12 gates in this city. And that's right and proper, because what God wants to do in your life, in this world is see that there is an administration of blessing.
He wants to do that.
He doesn't want you just to walk bearing responsibility, but he wants you to see.
That your life can be a place where blessing is administered, the blessing of God, blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
And enjoying those exceeding great and precious promises that he's given.
Now.
All through Nehemiah, there are enemies.
That are trying to stop this work and then our few remaining minutes I'm going to look at one specific 1. Sanballat and Tobiah are the chief enemies I take it. From what I've been able to understand I stand corrected on this. But I take it one was a Moabite, one was an Ammonite.
I believe that Sanballat was an ammonite.
No, no, I think he was a Moabite.
And I think Tobiah was an Ammonite.
We could go into that, but you will find something. Just a point I want to point out.
They are grieved when they find out that someone is coming back to rebuild and beloved young people. If you decide to rebuild your life, the Lord is going to be with you, but there's going to be enemies.
That are going to be grieved that you're trying to rebuild your life, that God might be.
Recognize there, and you might be blessed.
But he that is in you is greater than he that is in the world. And I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. You can do it. You'll notice if you follow through Nehemiah that the list of enemies doesn't get less, it gets greater. It starts with two in it. I think at one place there's at least five that are mentioned.
But I want you to notice one, specifically one thing that the enemies did.
In chapter 4.
It came to pass, verse one, that when Sam Bella heard that we builded the wall, he was wrought. You know, they started by mocking and beloved young people. If you decide to walk with Christ, you're going to get mocked. People are going to laugh at you for wanting to live a Christian life. May I say real briefly, I want beloved young people. I want you to understand something.
We all understand the immorality that's going on in this world today. We all understand that it's not just tolerated, it's expected as normal. But I think what at least some of us who are older don't understand, and I think we need to, is that it's not just accepted as normal. Immorality today is celebrated.
It's a celebration of life.
And if you decide to rebuild your city with walls and gates to keep that out.
To enjoy what God wants you to enjoy, you're going to get laughed at, but you're also going to get fought with. And that's what chapter 4 begins. But notice this verse, verse two. And he spake before his brother in the army of Samaria and said, what do these feeble Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in today? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? Now get this. Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him and said even that which they build. If a fox go up, he shall break it down, he shall break down their Stonewall that was meant to be.
A sarcastic rebuke? A ridicule. Why that wall they're building? A fox could knock it down.
I've never been over to Jerusalem. Some of you perhaps have. I think what's left of those walls look pretty solid.
But you know what this enemy was, right?
A fox could knock it down because that's what begins the process of destroying the walls and the gates is the little foxes that spoil the vine.
The little sins, the little unjust things in your life that you let go and you let slice, that's no big deal. I'm not down on Skid Row. I'm not under that bridge. I'm not going into that *** place.
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That's not where it starts.
It starts with the little foxes, and if you let one of the little foxes in, that Stonewall is going to get broken down.
Well, there's a whole bunch more, and I would commend Nehemiah to you, but I want to finish with Chapter 8, the Watergate. Everyone is standing there before the Watergate and they hear the word of God read. That's the key, beloved young people, to stand before God. That's a sign of respect and interest.
And to listen to the word of God, and when it was their consciousness were tender, because when they first heard it they wept. But I want you to see this.
The priests and Levites said, don't weep, this is a day of gladness. And then at verse 10 he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, send portions onto them for whom nothing is prepared. And later in that chapter you find that they not only do that, but they enjoy the Feast of Tabernacles. That's that coming day of rest.
Richness of the person of Christ.
Drink the sweet. It's enjoying his work.
Out of the eater came forth meat. Out of the strong came forth sweetness. It's the person of Christ. Eat the fat. It's the work of Christ. Drink the sweet, and then it's the gospel. Take it out to somebody. Take a portion to those for whom nothing was prepared. And what's the result?
There was peace in that city.
There was joy and satisfaction and there was peace. So what's it going to be, beloved young people?
Is it going to be in Europe with your life, the city of Enid?
Or is it going to be morally Jehovah Shama? The Lord is there?
Let's pray.
This Present World, Present Truth, Help, Rain
YP Address—J. Hyland
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June with him #166.
Lord, thou has drawn us after thee. Now let us run and never tire.
Thy present shall our comfort be Thyself, our hope, our soul desire, our present Savior. Love nor fear nor sin can come if thou art near. I realize that afternoon meetings are sometimes the most difficult, and so I'm going to suggest we stand up to sing this hymn 166 And if someone would please start it.
Let's turn first of all this afternoon to the book of Galatians. We're going to begin by connecting 3 portions of the Word of God. The first one is in Galatians chapter one.
Galatians chapter one.
We're going to begin by reading the last four words of verse 3.
Our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins.
That he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. Just hold your finger here. We'll come right back. We're going to read a portion in the Book of Titus.
Titus, Chapter 2.
Titus, chapter 2 and verse 11.
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.
Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. And one more portion for now, just back in Second Timothy.
Second Timothy Chapter 4.
And verse 10.
For demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.
Well, I have it on my heart this afternoon and speaking to the dear young people to take up this little word present in various contexts in which it appears in the word of God. And my exercise simply is to bring the truth of God right where we are today. Because, you know, I was once a young person sitting in meetings like this, listening to the older brother and minister the word. Many of those brethren are safe home with the Lord Jesus now.
Many of them are gone, but I used to sit and think as they ministered the word. Is it really possible to go on? Those brethren don't understand sometimes how difficult it is. They don't seem to realize the difficulties and the problems that we face at school and in the world. Well, maybe I don't understand today the difficulties and problems that you young people are facing. I realize that the darkness, morally and spiritually, is deepening over the Western world every hour.
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And I realize you're facing things that I never had to face before, things where we have to say in the language of Scripture. We've not passed this way heretofore. But young people, while I may not understand where you are at this present time, I have, I trust in some measure at least learned that the Lord is sufficient, that the Lord is able to bring us through. He's able to preserve you for His glory. And so this is my exercise in looking at these verses.
But we began here in the book of Galatians, because we find here that he brings before us the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself. Now there's a very similar expression in the third chapter, where it speaks of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. But there in that chapter it's more the motive. Isn't it wonderful that the Lord Jesus gave himself on Calvary's cross out of love for you and for me?
And we want to say at the beginning of this meeting, if there's a young person here and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, oh, the way of blessing is open for you, Come and receive him. He wants to save your soul, wash your sins away, give you a happy, fruitful life here, and take you to that happy home in heaven. And isn't it wonderful to be able to repeat with the apostle Paul, the Son of God who loved me?
And gave himself for me. And he was a young couple, and they had that text hanging in their home, in their living room. And one time a man came in to transact some business with them. And when they were out of the room, he was sitting there just reading that text over and over again to himself, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And when they came back in the room, he said, no wonder you're happy if you really believe that.
And we really do believe it this afternoon. We know it's true. And if you can appropriate that for yourself, then you have the joy of the Lord. But here we find something a little different. If it's the motive in the third chapter here it's the cause. Why did he have to give himself for us? Well, it was that he might deliver us from this present evil world. And there's a different motive here too. Here it's the will of.
Of God.
Father, because you know his first motive, and it's interesting that this is first in Galatians. First, it's the motive of His doing the Father's will. Second, it's love to you and to me. But God would always guard this in the word very carefully, that there was even a greater motive than his love for His for those that he would delight to call his own. And that was my delight, is to do Thy will.
Oh God, that's what took him to the cross. But there was a great need as well. We needed to be delivered from this present evil world. Because, you know, if we're not saved here this afternoon, we are without hope and without God in the world We belong to this world. The children of Israel, as their history opens in the book of Exodus. They were in ******* in Egypt and under Pharaoh. Egypt's a very graphic picture to us of this world.
Pharaoh is a graphic picture to us in the Old Testament of the enemy Satan. And that's what we are by nature. We're under the ******* of this world and Satan. But you know, if we know the Lord Jesus as our savior here we no longer belong to this world. Because later on we find in the book of Galatians, it tells us that it's really the cross of Christ that separates us from this world. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. And the Lord Jesus expressed it in such a precious way in the 17th chapter of John, where he said, they are not of this world, even as I am not of this world. And I want to impress this on our hearts, all our hearts. But again for the young people to realize that if you belong to the Lord Jesus, you've been delivered from this world, and it's coming judgment, and you don't belong to this world.
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And we have no business getting involved in the things of this world, things from which we have been delivered from. We're not a moral force to change the world. We're not here for the betterment of this world.
Sometime ago, some weeks ago, I was in the city of Denver visiting my brethren there, and I met a young couple with some young people and children, sweet Christian couple.
But this brother said to me with his young son standing beside him, he said, You know, I have no greater aspiration than my son here. Grow up to be an American senator and be a moral force on Capitol Hill.
We are not of this world. This world is under judgment, It's reserved under fire. And man has built a vast system of things in independence of God. And I would just suggest young people that if we would spend more time.
Propagating the gospel. It would have more effect than trying to plot, card and lobby against all the abuses of humanity and many of the things, many things I don't agree with.
But what man needs is not reformation. He needs a change of heart. And so we've been delivered from this present evil world. But then I read also in the Book of Titus, because here we find something else.
In Titus chapter two, he speaks again of this present world. But here we find the grace of God brought in because you know, if we've been delivered from this present evil world, isn't it simply the grace of God? Why is it this afternoon we can sit here as those who are a heavenly people, those who have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, and those who are on their way to glory.
And those who are joint heirs with Christ and so on. Is it because there's anything special in US? No.
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, and so it's only His grace that we can we can claim.
And here he tells us that grace, because it's grace that's the teacher here.
Grace teaches us to live soberly, righteously, godly, when in this present world.
You know, sometimes I think, especially as young people, we look around and we say, well, you know, it was all right for the older brethren to tell us that we needed to live soberly, righteously, godly, and that we needed to walk in a way that was in keeping with the word of God and obedience to the Lord and so on, But what about now?
This verse tells us that we can live for God's glory and that there can be piety exhibited in our lives when.
In this present world, I want to impress this on our hearts right now. This brings us right down to the end of 2003 because we might say, well, it was all right for Paul to tell Titus that in his day. It was all right for our grandfathers to preach that in their day. But this brings it right down to the time we live in. Because young people, there's never been a time so dark that we can't live for God's glory with the resources that he has given us if the day ever gets so dark.
That we can't live soberly, righteously, godly in this present world. Then the Lord Jesus will take us out. But until then, we have all things that pertain unto life and godliness, and I just want to encourage you to go on for the Lord. We don't have to fall into the moral degradation that we see all around us. We don't have to compromise. We don't even have to become desensitized.
To evil and sin.
That is the tendency of the day, isn't it? We used to hear the illustration of the frog being boiled slowly and how he didn't even realize that he was being boiled. You know, I believe that there is a device in many homes that desensitizes us to evil.
You know what I'm talking about and I remember when that particular commodity, I don't remember, but I remember hearing about.
00:15:05
When that particular commodity was becoming accessible in the homes of people.
It was a salesman.
Came to the home.
Of our brother Albert Hayhoe in the town of Smiths Falls, where I live.
And this salesman was determined to sell Brother Hey Ho, one of these devices.
And finally, in desperation, he said to brother Hey Ho, he said if you buy this item, you can bring the world right into your home, Brother Hale said. That's the very thing I'm trying to keep out.
And I believe that that very thing has been Satan's great tool to desensitize us to sin. Things have been, over the years, introduced so slowly and insidiously that people who sit in front of it every day and watch it don't even realize how bad it is.
That's just a little aside, but it burdens my heart. Young people, keep yourself pure. You know, in Romans it doesn't just talk about those who participate in evil, but those who find pleasure in others that do it. We need to be very, very careful and so we can live soberly, righteously, godly in this present world.
Mr. Darby says this present course of things.
Are you going to go against the course of this world? You know, naturally speaking, we once followed the course of this world, but we don't have to follow the course of this world anymore. I know it's tough, young people. I know you hear and see things every day that defile, that discourage you, that vex your soul. I know it's tough and we can't isolate ourselves in this world.
But we can go against the course of this world. It's often been pointed out that what two of the characteristics of a clean fish under the Levitical order of things was that they had fins and scales.
Scales to protect them from the elements fins so they could go against.
The tide.
God has provided so that you can go against the tide. We have all things that pertain.
Unto life and godliness. But then there's something else he immediately says, and you'll notice it's all part of the same sentence, looking for the blessed hope.
There's nothing will preserve us and keep us pure like having that hope before us, you know, it's our object that forms our character, isn't it?
And what is your object? What is your hope? Now don't misunderstand me. It's good to work hard at school, and we need to have goals as far as school and education, a job, whatever it might be. But what, really is our hope? What is really our focus? Do we get up every morning thinking that this might be the day when the Lord Jesus would come, Will come?
Watching, not just waiting, but watching for His return. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find not just waiting, but watching. We need to be watching.
Some of you have heard me use this illustration, but when I was growing up we lived out on the highway. Just out of Smith's Falls was a busy highway and there was a big plate glass window in my parents home.
And on a day when we were expecting company, particularly if it was company that we as children enjoyed having in the home, you would find particularly my sister, who was next to me and myself every once in a while at that window looking overlooking the highway, and we would be looking down in the direction that we knew that company was going to arrive from. We weren't just waiting for that company to come. We were watching and we would watch a wild count, a few cars, and then pretty soon we'd go back to whatever we were doing. But in a little while you'd find us back and we were looking down the road again.
Are we really looking for the blessed hope in that way? And not only for the blessed hope, but as was mentioned this morning, the glorious appearing to realize that there's a day coming when sin isn't going to be open and rampant the way it is today. Open rebellion, for the most part, is going to be put down because sentence against an evil work is going to be speedily executed at that time. You know it's not speedily executed today.
00:20:03
And Ecclesiastes tells us that's why it's thoroughly set in the heart of man to do evil.
But there's a day coming when it is going to be speedily executed morning by morning, and I don't think it's going to take many mornings for people to fall into line when they see how swift and how severe the judgment is.
And so we need to be looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing. But now I want to go on and speak of something else in connection with the word present.
Before I do that, I do want to mention the verse I read in Second Timothy chapter 4.
Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world or this present age. Now it's interesting here the Demas is a man we're not told a great deal about. We find 3 brief mentions of Demas in the word of God we find in Philemon. He's listed with the fellow laborers of the Apostle Paul we find in Colossians he's mentioned in conjunction.
With Luke, Luke and Dimas sending a greeting. But here we find at the end of Paul's life something very sad.
In connection with demas.
In Colossians, he could link Luke and Demas together.
Here he could say only Luke is with me and he had to say of Demas.
He's forsaken me, having loved this present world, not this present evil world. I don't suppose the Demas parted company as one of the fellow laborers of the Apostle Paul because of any gross sin. I don't suppose he got into any of the degradation that this world gets into today, but something, some spirit of the age. We're not told what it was, but something came in.
To to take the heart of demas away.
To divide his affections, perhaps so that he didn't follow on with the apostle Paul.
Isn't that very sad?
You know, Barnabas went down and exhorted the early believers that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. And what I want to simply point out in reading this is that it's one thing young people to make a good start, It's another thing to continue on. I love a little statement at the end of Daniel, one just slightly out of context, but it says, and Daniel continued, I like that. And you know when you read the life of Daniel, Daniel, he did continue.
You come over to the 6th chapter and beyond, and there he is, no longer a young person, but there he is, an old man, and he's going on with the Lord as a man of prayer and a man of the Word.
But what about you? I realize none of us have finished our course.
And all, I just want to encourage you.
To seek that purpose of heart.
That you might be preserved and that you might go on in the truth. A little time that's left. Young people were almost home.
I dare say many of you may never.
Reach my age.
The Lord Jesus is coming.
All seek grace and strength to go on. That it might not be said of you that you've forsaken and gone your own way, that something came in of the world to take your heart away. Because Satan is vying for your attention. He's vying for your affections, and he's not going to give up.
But I want to speak to something else now in connection with this thought of present.
Let's go over now to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 8 I believe.
Romans chapter 8.
And verse 18.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time.
Are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed. Really ought to read to us. Just hold your finger here. I want to read a verse in Lukes Gospel as well. Luke chapter 18.
00:25:11
Luke, chapter 18 and verse 28.
Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all and followed thee. And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the Kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come life everlasting. I would like to read part of the same incident in Mark's Gospel, where you get some added details. Mark chapter 10.
Mark chapter 10 and verse 30. But he shall receive 100 fold. Now in this time houses and Brethren, and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecution, and in the world to come eternal life. Well, we spoke of this present world, but now we have some scriptures that bring before us this present time and again this brings us down right where we are. I think sometimes the tendency of our hearts is to think.
Well, you know, we're the only ones that have ever had to face these kinds of problems. We're the only ones that have had to go through these kinds of circumstances. But, you know, when you trace through the word of God, you find stories of men and women and young people who were faced with all kinds of similar situations to what we passed through. Because, you know, it's never been easy to follow the Lord. It's never been easy to live for God's glory in this world.
It takes exercise. We use that word, exercise, and exercise denotes the thought of energy. We've got to put forth energy, and it takes spiritual energy to live in days like these. But it always did. It's never been easy. Was it easy for those three young men in Daniel? One. No. They were faced with tremendous difficulties and decisions. Was it easy for Caleb in his day? No.
Was it easy for the Apostle Paul in his day and the brethren that were alive then? No. Was it easy for our forefathers to live for God's glory? No. We live in a world where it says our adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion, walked about.
Seeking whom he may devour. You know he'll never take our salvation, but he can discourage us. I suggest in application that's the roaring lion character of Satan. For us today, Satans great desire is to discourage and confuse and weary the people of God. And we find here in Romans chapter 8, we have our present state contrasted with what is going to follow. You know, in Scripture there's contrast.
The Bible is a book of contrast. I just passed that along to those who are younger. It has helped me in my study of the word of God to realize that often the truth is taken up by contrast, and it's good to notice those contrasts as you read through the Word of God. And so we have a contrast here, the present time, our present state of things contrasted with that which is ahead, the coming glory. And so he says, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time.
Now, young people, I don't know anything really about suffering. You know, we sit here this afternoon on very comfortable chairs in a climate controlled building. We enjoy three good meals. We have a comfortable bed waiting for us tonight. We know, I know little about suffering. Not only that, but we're not afraid this afternoon of someone busting down the door and coming in and arresting us or shooting us for having Bible meetings. You know, some of our brethren.
Are passing through circumstances like that. But you know, we are still here in this world. We're with bodies of humiliation. As this chapter goes on to explain. We're here in a groaning creation. In our prayer meetings the previous, the past two mornings, we've had something before us of the suffering of our brethren. Just a few things and a few individuals mentioned for prayer because of the circumstances they're going through.
And I know, have no doubt there are brethren here, there are young people here, even boys and girls.
00:30:03
Who are suffering in one way or another. You're going through some trauma, some real circumstance in your life. And you know, we never want to underestimate those trials and difficulties, nor do we ever want to become callous to them. They're allowed in our lives, and they're allowed for a purpose to teach us in his schooling, sometimes in his chastening and admonishment. And we never want to be indifferent to those things that God allows in our lives and those burdens and those cares. But isn't it wonderful to think of the glory ahead?
There's a time coming when there's going to be no suffering. Suffering is for this life, for this time. But there's a time coming when suffering is going to be done away with. Can you imagine a sphere of things where there's nothing to bother you, either from without or within? You can't imagine it, can you? You know, when we're younger, it's more the cares of life and getting through school, passing those exams later on, trying to provide for our families, making a living.
So our brethren here are a little older and they're finding more. It's more the physical things that are coming in.
Remember visiting with our brother Dawn Rule, one time, older sister in the nursing home. And we were talking about this and how there was a time coming when all these things that we experience now are going to be passed. And she had stood up to say goodbye to us. We were ready to leave. And I said, you know, sister, when the Lord Jesus comes and we leave this world and we leave time behind, you're not even going to need those glasses. She threw them on the bed. She said, I'm ready to go.
I thought that was very nice. You know, we're just going to leave it all behind. But all if we could just have a little vision of what's ahead, a little sense in our souls of the glory that we're going to see there in that coming day, as we finally young people look into his precious face, what's going to captivate us in the Father's house and for eternity?
All when we get one look at his blessed face, I don't believe we're going to take our eyes off him for all eternity. He is going to be the center he is what's going to captivate our hearts and our gaze as our song of praise flows out to him in that day. And it says in Proverbs, where there is no vision, the people perish. Why is it the things of this life?
Become so, I become so attached to Why is it sometimes we get so discouraged as we pass through the trials and circumstances of this life?
Well, I suggest that one reason at least, is because we don't have a sense in our souls of the glory that's going to fall, the glory that's going to be revealed to us.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. And then we read in the book of Luke here this little incident.
When the Lord Jesus was here in the life of Peter and the other disciples.
And Peter says to him, here we've left all and followed thee. Now you might ponder, why did Peter say this? Well.
Perhaps the first thing comes to mind is Peter was always saying things perhaps he should have thought about first. However, I'm glad that Peter said the things he did, because the things that Peter said have cleared up many things for me, and perhaps they have for you too, in regard to the answers that the Lord Jesus so patiently gave Peter.
But I've wondered too, if there isn't another reason why it was Peter that made this statement here. Because you know, Peter, of all the apostles that company with the Lord while he was here on this earth, Peter is the only one that we know of from Scripture that had a family. We know that because there was a time when his mother-in-law lay sick of a fever. And, you know, Peter perhaps looked at the other disciples and said, well, I've left a lot more than the others to follow the Lord.
I'd rather be home with my wife, and I've left the comforts of home and family to follow the Lord. I've really left a lot. What did Peter really leave? Well, he left a boat and a broken neck when the Lord called him. But you know, sometimes things get out of focus and we think those things of life and maybe some little sacrifice that we feel we've made to follow the Lord, those things become greater again.
Because we've lost the perspective. And so the Lord Jesus very patiently answers Peter here to show him, Peter, if you've given up anything, what you've gained is far greater, you know. That's why I read in Mark's Gospel, because the Lord told Peter there, if you've left family, if you've left a wife or children or mother or father, I have another relationship. You're brought into a new relationship.
00:35:18
Mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters in the family of God.
I suppose most in this room I would never know if the Lord hadn't saved me and saved you.
And, you know, there are times when I feel closer to those who are my brothers and sisters in Christ and my mothers and fathers in Christ. And I'm thankful for them, but I feel closer to them than some of my own flesh and blood by natural ties because of that bond that we have in Christ. And so he tells Peter, if you've given up anything to follow me, I'll make it up to you. I'll give you a hundredfold. You know, that's 10,000%. That's a lot, isn't it?
But let's make it very clear.
That he doesn't promise us material prosperity if we're going to follow him. That is not what the Lord was referring to.
I think sometimes there is the thought that if we're faithful and follow the Lord.
He'll prosper us with a nice home and a three car garage, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but that's not what the Lord was telling Peter, he said. You'll have something for now and for eternity that is far greater than anything. You think you've given up to follow me.
John Wesley one time was passing one of the great Manor houses in England.
And he stopped to converse with the gardener who was keeping the grounds. And the gardener took him around and showed him the beautiful grounds and something of that great estate.
And when they were through.
John Wesley said to the gardener.
He said. I too have a liking for these things, but there's another world.
Young people, there's another world. What are you building for? Are you building just for the things of time, the things that are temporal, or are you building for eternity?
I know we've heard the story. We'll repeat it. The story of William Kelly, and I believe it was his nephew who was attending one of the great universities in England. I don't know if it was Cambridge or Oxford, but one of the celebrated universities of the day.
And this young man was studying Greek.
And the professor realized very quickly that this young man was getting some tutoring outside the classroom because of his excelling in the subject. And so he questioned the young man. He said, you're doing so well in Greek, you must be getting some help. And this young man confessed that his uncle, William William Kelly, whose commentaries are right behind you.
He confessed that his uncle William was helping him with his studies. And so the professor, the Dean of the college, made an appointment to interview William Kelly. And he was astounded in the presence of one of the great minds of England that time, William Kelly. And finally he leaned across his desk and he said, Mr. Kelly, you could be a great man in this world.
And Mr. Kelly looked him straight in the eye, and he said, Which world?
Which world are we simply building for time, or are we building for eternity? All the Lord Jesus is interested in us, right where we are now, and he'll provide for us. But it's interesting too in Mark's gospel that he adds the little expression with persecution, again, showing that he doesn't promise that everything is going to be smooth sailing and sunshine and roses. And you know, there are many of our brethren in this world tonight, today, this afternoon.
Who are suffering real physical persecution and martyrdom because of their testimony for Christ? Are they any less faithful? No, no.
All they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Let's go to Second Peter.
Two Peter chapter one.
00:40:07
Two Peter, chapter one and verse 12.
Wherefore, I will not be negligent, to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
Well, here we have the expression, the present truth. You know, young people, this book we hold in our hands this afternoon, the truth of God. It is the present truth. It is relevant for the day in which we live. This book does not change because again, I think sometimes the tendency of our heart is to say when the truth is ministered, well, that was all right for a day. Days gone by, that was fine in the horse and buggy days, that was fine back then.
But the truth of God stands for all time, and it is a red light.
It is a warning if someone comes along and tells you there's fresh truth just at the end of the dispensation of the grace of God.
You know, it's never a principle with God to give fresh light at the end of a dispensation. He always gives it at the beginning of a dispensation, and at the end, when there's failure, he brings in judgment because of it.
If someone comes along and tells you they've got fresh light, fresh revelation and I have heard people say that.
It's a warning to you. Peter here says I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, the truth of God. Now, it's interesting that this is not said in the first epistle, but the second epistle, because second epistles always denote failure and ruin. They're always days of weakness. And what is it that's going to be? What is it that's going to preserve us in days when the truth is being undermined?
When there is a great attempt by the enemy to subvert our souls and turn us from the precious truth of God, what is it that's going to preserve us? It is to be well rooted and grounded in the fundamental principles of the Word of God.
Are you reading the word of God?
Are you letting it form your thoughts?
Not looking for something new, but the present truth and as our brother Chuck and others have reminded us several times in these meetings, to go back.
To that those books in the back there, and to go back to that which God caused men to write.
That exalts Christ and brings out the truth for us.
I never knew Brother Chapter Brown, but I heard a quote from him.
He said he had an exercise to pass on the truth of God.
With the same purity in which he had received it himself.
I thought that was very good not to try to give some different slant to things, not to try to bring out something different or even in a different way. And I'm not saying that we need to, don't need to be exercised as to presentation and presenting the truth in a way that's relevant to the day in which we live. But the point I want to make young people is that this book does not change. And when Jude wrote of appalling days of apostasy and giving up of the truth.
Days, as we had this morning, that are very parallel to the days in which we live.
He began his exhortation by saying this, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation.
It was needful for me that I write unto you, and exhort you that she earnestly contend for the faith.
Once delivered to the Saints that which was set forth at the beginning, the Apostle Paul said to the Philippians, To write the same things to you, to me is not grievous, and for you it is safe.
I've had the privilege of sitting in conferences most of my life.
I have no doubt. I've heard Hebrews one and two expounded many times and you have no doubt too. And other portions and things that we bring out that we've heard again and again and again. Do we make apologies for that? No. Peter said I'm going to remind you of it. And he said to the Saints, even though you're established in it and going on in it, I'm going to tell you again, we need it again and again and again. We need to be reminded of these things.
00:45:02
But before we pass on, I just want to say again, and I cannot stress this too much, it is the present truth.
It does not change with time or because of culture. God has given it to us, and truth is truth.
Let's go to Psalm 46.
Psalm 46 and verse one.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present health in trouble.
Well, here we have a present health.
I've enjoyed this portion many times in the circumstances of life because isn't it wonderful young people?
To have someone who is always available, You know, we have a God, we have a savior who's always available. There's nothing, I suppose, more frustrating than calling up the doctor or the lawyer or whoever it might be and not getting them in, you say. I know they could be a help to me, but they're not available, I might tell you. Well, you know, if you're ever in such and such a problem, just give me a call and I'll come and help you. And then the problem arises and you call me.
And you get my answering machine that says I'm out of town for the weekend. I'm not available. You see, I know he could help me, but he wasn't a present help. And young people, I know you're going through some struggles. I know there are some of you right on the verge of decisions that are going to have an impact and affect you for the rest of your life. But I want to encourage you as to the truth of this verse, that there's one who's there that's always ready to help when Peter was sinking on the water.
All he did was cry out. Lord, save me. Isn't it beautiful what it says? And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand. He was right there. He was a present Help. That's really the thrust of the verse in Philippians that says the Lord is at hand. He's right there, the psalmist said, Thou hast hold of me by my right hand that will guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me the glory Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
And I want to encourage you to walk every day in the conscious sense.
Of the Lord's presence with you. You know we don't have to pray and ask the Lord to be with us. He's promised to never leave us nor forsake us. But what we do need to pray every morning is that we would walk in the conscious sense of the Lord's presence with us so that we can talk to him, commune with him, feel his hand in your hand.
That we can turn to him in any problem, in any difficulty. And not only is he available as a present help, but he's always able. You might call me and I might be home and I listen to your problem and I say I'm sorry I can't help you on this one. But there's no problem. There's no trouble that you can bring to the Lord that he isn't able for he's able for any situation. You ever go to the doctor and he reviews your case. Maybe he's always helped you in the past.
But he says this one's too much for me. Oh, there's one who's of present help. He gives power to the faith and to those that have no might. He increases strength. You ever feel like you just had no might? He increases strength. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. That is the eagle. If there's a problem, why, it just rises up and he soars above it. The Lord can help us to do that, you say? No, I can't seem to get above the problem.
They shall run and not be weary, you know you can't get above it. But the running person? He's running and he's finding daily strength, you say? No, I'm not even running. Well, they shall walk and not faint. Even if we're just down to walking, the Lord is sufficient. He's a present help in time of trouble. There's lots of troubles. We're not home yet. It's not all smooth sailing, but we have one who's a present health. One last portion in the book of the acts.
Acts, Chapter 28.
Acts, chapter 28 and verse one. And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita, and the barbarian people showed us no little kindness, where they kindled a fire and received us everyone because of the present rain and because of the cold. And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, there came a Viper out of the heat and fastened on his hand.
00:50:12
Now, brethren and young people, in reading this portion, I just want to make a little application and I don't want to go too far with applications and illustrations.
But I pondered this little scene, and you can picture it. Here were those Paul and those who were with him washed up on this island. They'd had a very rough voyage. They'd just come through the sea. Now they're washed up on the shore. And there were those. God made sure there were those to take them in and take care of them. And we find that they kindle a fire because of the present rain and because of the cold. Now again, what I'm going to say is simply an application.
But I thought of the present rain and the cold in a spiritual sense. Don't we feel it sometimes? You say there's a lot of coldness, there's a lot of indifference to the truth. But what do we find here with the apostle Paul? You know, the apostle Paul might have sat back at this point and said, well, I've been through a lot and I've just had the trauma of being cast into the sea, and I'm cold and wet and tired and hungry. I'm just going to sit back now.
And let somebody else take care of things. Is that what Paul did? No, indeed.
Paul rises and he goes out, and he gathers a little bundle of sticks.
And he takes those sticks and he puts it on the fire for the warmth of those that were with him, he said. There's a lot of coldness in the little assembly I come from. There's a lot of weakness. There's a lot of indifference.
Young person, what are you doing about it? Are you just going to sit back and say, well, they need to show me a little more love and a little more care in the assembly?
That's not what Paul did. Paul got up and he gathered some sticks. It took effort, it took energy. But he gathered some sticks and he put them on the fire for the heat and warmth of others. You know, young people, you can do that in the little assembly you're going back to if the Lord leaves us here.
Do you realize?
That it doesn't take much sometimes to be a help in the assembly.
I'm talking to brothers and sisters alike. Do you know how much your brethren would value if, instead of after tea meeting, you went outside for a walk? You stayed behind and gathered up the silverware or wiped the tables? You know how much that would mean to your brethren?
You know how much it would mean.
If you went over to the meeting room some afternoon and.
Vacuum the carpet. Made sure the chairs were straightened.
That's putting a little stick on the fire. And you know, as Paul put this bundle of sticks on the fire, not only did those who were with him.
Receive warmth and encouragement. But Paul was able to sit down with them and feel the warmth of this fire as well. You want to be encouraged in your soul. Be a hell. Gather a few sticks. Maybe there is coldness. Maybe it is the present rain.
But gather a few sticks.
You'll find that not only will it be a great encouragement and help to your brethren.
But you will be encouraged, and you will be refreshed in your own soul.
As you show that care, that practical love that is so very, very necessary for the ongoing function of the assembly that you come from.
We've looked at these verses very quickly this afternoon, young people.
We've just scratched out a few things from the word of God. Go back over them.
Be exercised to go on for the Lord's glory right now, right here where we are. We're living in wonderful days, days right at the end when the Lord Jesus is going to come. They're difficult days, but let's seek to go on in this present world for His glory, knowing that He has given us the present truth, that He's a present hell, that we have resources in himself.
That we can live soberly, righteously, godly in this present age until he comes. Let's pray our God and Father.
Jesus, Your Saviour or Your Judge
Gospel—R. Thonney
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3 1/2 years of life.
The Jewish people found excuse to.
Falsely accuse him and take him to pilot the Roman governor of those days. And even though Pilate pronounced again and again that he found no fault in him, he ended up condemning him to the most awful death possible.
You know, when I think of John 316, I don't think so much of A Manger where he laid when he was born. I think of a Christ that man awarded him at the end of his life. They took him outside the city of Jerusalem.
And in our mind's eye, we can picture the scene he.
Bearing his cross went forth, His head was crowned with thorns, His face was so marred more than any man's.
His back was plowed upon by the Romans scourge, and they stretched out his hands on that cross and nailed them to that cross. You know, the gruesomeness of crucifixion. I think we in this Western world where we try to minimize suffering, don't have much idea of the awfulness that it was.
But I understand when they crucified people in those days.
They drove a spike through what we would call the wrist, where the nerves go through to the hands. You can imagine the excruciating pain as they drove those spikes through the hands of the Son of God.
And they hung him up for everybody to mock into Jiren. They came to him, they spit on him, and there he hung, according to our calculations, from approximately 9:00 in the morning.
He died approximately what we would calculate 3:00 in the afternoon, from 9:00 till 12.
Men were passing in front of him.
Mocking.
And trying to make him suffer in every way possible.
Not only were there the physical sufferings of crucifixion, those awful sufferings, but there were the sufferings of His soul, the reproach that broke his heart. He says, Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of pity, and I look for some to take pity. And there were none, and for comforters that I found none.
They said if he be the Son of God, let him come down from the cross.
And we will believe him.
Did God deliver him? You know, I've often said.
Since I have two boys if one day sitting at home.
I lookout through the window and I see somebody beating up on one of my boys outside. You think I could sit there and just watch it happen?
No way I'd go out there. I'd say, hey, you beat up on me, but you don't beat up on my boy.
Why did God allow them to do that to His beloved Son? Didn't He love him? Yes, He loved him more than we can ever understand.
Why did he leave him to suffer there?
Here's the answer, friend for God, soul, love of the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, there he hangs.
An abject misery, those physical sufferings of suffering, of a broken heart.
00:05:00
But something else happened on that cross. At 12 noon, everything got dark, according to the record of Scripture.
And for three hours.
We cannot see what was happening from 12 noon to 3:00 PM.
But the prophet Isaiah tells us exactly what was happening in those three hours.
He says in Isaiah 53 five he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him.
And with I had stripes, we are healed.
God cannot Passover sin lightly. He could not allow one small little sin into heaven. It would call in question his holy character. Absolutely impossible that that should happen.
Sometimes God is presented as a being who lifts up the rug and sweeps our stuff underneath.
Our sins underneath and says we'll just forget about it.
Can't happen.
Every sin that has ever been committed on planet Earth.
Must receive from the hand of God himself. It's just judgment and will. It will take place. Every sin that is ever been committed on this planet will receive from the hand of God. It's just judgment.
But in those three hours when Jesus was hanging there on that cross.
God remembered every sin I had ever committed.
Or was going to commit.
Because it happened nearly 2000 years ago and God laid those sins on Jesus.
One by one they were laid on him, and God took the rod of his judgment.
And in those three hours, the full storm.
Of divine judgment broken.
Of that holy sin bearer on that cross.
All the waves and billows of divine judgment rolled over him. He exhausted those that judgment that was rightly against me. And before he died he said it is finished all the judgment that was against me as a guilty Sinner.
It's gone. It's finished.
In the Old Testament.
The fire consumed the sacrifices.
But in the case of Jesus.
The sacrifice consumed the fire. There is no more judgment to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Jesus died, and Scripture says so clearly here.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
Can you put yourself in that statement? That's what faith does. And then you can have full and free forgiveness of sins from the hand of God.
God's justice has been satisfied and as a result, now God offers full and free salvation to whosoever will believe.
After Jesus had died, a soldier came up to the cross.
And he was commissioned to make sure that the three who had been crucified that day.
Were dead and he comes up to the first thief and breaks his legs and that thief dies. He goes around to the other thief on the other side and breaks his legs.
That thief dies. He comes to Jesus.
Jesus was already dead.
But he takes his fear, and he plunges it into the side of that dead savior, and out of his side flows blood and water.
00:10:01
Yesterday we heard that verse that was quoted from the book of Leviticus.
It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul, Another verse in the New Testament said. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission, no forgiveness of sins.
God demands blood, I know.
That that's not a pleasant thing to think about, but it must be the blood of a sacrifice that God will accept. The only thing that can remove sin from the eye of God is the blood. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses us from all sins.
Oh, the power of that blood.
Think I've told the story before, but I'd like to tell it again of a.
Brother I met in southern Mexico a number of years ago. His name was Synovial Ruiz.
He had been in his unsaved.
And he had killed 21 People.
In his unsaved days as a bandager, he wandered the hills of southern Mexico, the state of Oaxaca, killing, burning houses, stealing.
The government gave orders.
Get Synovial Ruiz dead or alive.
He recognized his life was in danger. Down in Oaxaca, they build their little gospel halls with sticks.
Pause sometimes, you might say stuck in the dirt for the walls.
And in this particular place.
He stood on the outside because he could look in. At night when the Lantern, kerosene Lantern was lit, he could look in and he could listen from the outside and he heard that verse. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Is it possible? I've done so much evil, is it possible?
He asked a brother when he had a chance, and he showed him in the Bible, Yes Sir, he says right there, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Sin.
Accepted Christ as his Savior. Then he went and presented himself to the authorities.
The army authorities that were looking for him and they took him into custody.
And I'm not sure why, but after a time in custody, they let him loose and he passed the rest of his days in southern Mexico without any trouble. Any further trouble. I was privileged to know that. Dear man, you would never guess the blood of Jesus has power to cleanse the vilest Sinner.
A few years ago.
Synovial when I went down there, I heard.
That he had gone home to be with the Lord Jesus.
Think of it, a man going right into the presence of God, a man that had committed so much sin. How in the world can God be just and let a man like that into heaven?
Because Jesus died to pay the price for his.
That price was paid in full. How do I know? How can we know you know why? Because God raised Jesus from the dead.
He was here in this world for 40 days after his resurrection.
They ate. They drank with him.
They handled him.
It was not a spirit that they saw, it was a man of flesh and bones and after 40 days God continued to raise him and raised him to the highest pinnacle of glory. Jesus as a man sits at the right hand of God tonight.
00:15:12
Mighty to save, Are you saved?
You know, it concerns me greatly.
That there are, perhaps, are those here tonight.
Who say they're Christians?
But really never have come to grips with the question of their sins before God. We're living in a day of a lot of permissiveness. Anything goes.
And evil is getting more and more rampant.
Sexual immorality. Homosexuality. What God calls an abomination.
People wink at it and defend it.
The time is coming, and we believe coming shortly, when God is going to cut it off.
You can fool around today, maybe you get away with it, but let me assure you, the time is soon coming when Jesus is going to come back again to judge this world in righteousness.
The day is appointed, the judge is appointed. You must meet Jesus. There is no way that you can avoid meeting Jesus. Maybe you say, I don't believe it.
That changes nothing. Scripture tells us clearly.
That you will meet with Jesus.
Either as a savior, you can accept Him to be saved from your sins tonight, or you will meet Him as your judge.
And I'd like to go tonight.
The Book of Revelation, because you know when the Lord Jesus is presented so often in this world, he's presented in the way he was known.
When he came the first time in meekness, in lowliness.
He did not defend himself.
When his creature man reached out and hit him in the face, when they came up and spit square in his face, he did not react.
And people think.
That that's the way they can deal with Jesus.
That's the way they dealt with him once.
But let me assure you, friend, that that's not going to be always the case. Let's go to the Book of Revelation, chapter one, and I'd like to read to you what is the Revelation of Jesus Christ? Jesus is coming again.
First of all, he's coming to.
Rapture to catch out of this world.
All those who have truly believed in Him as their savior.
Have you come to grips with the question of your sins? Are you ready for that day? The Lord Jesus is coming, and He's coming at any moment.
Let me quote you those verses that are so wonderful. It says the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God, And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord that is going to take place.
At any moment, there is no sign that needs to be.
Fulfilled. For that to take place, that can happen at any moment now. It's going to be one of the most awful things.
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For people who do not know Jesus as savior if they're sitting.
In a room like this and that takes place one moment to the next.
You're going to be left sitting in your chair there. You're going to wonder what happened. All of a sudden, so many disappeared. All you're going to see is their clothes left. They're going to be gone. You'll realize.
That the opportunity, the Day of grace, has closed. Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation.
Are you ready?
That's going to happen.
Be warned, it's going to happen.
But after that happens, there's going to follow a time of unparalleled trouble in this world. People think that this world is seeing awful times in the Second World War, but they call the Holocaust.
They have seen nothing in comparison with what is going to happen. And you know what scares me? That this world in general is completely asleep as to the fact that we are treading the very edge of the day of Grace.
Something else that concerns me too.
Most Christians are completely asleep As to it too. Can I say that I am awake as I should be?
I cannot pronounce that judgment. Only the Lord can.
Church of Laodicea thought they were rich, increased with goods.
And had need of nothing. And the Lord had to tell them that totally the opposite was true.
We stand before God. We don't have to do with brethren, we have to do with God.
Do you realize that?
You cannot escape that fact.
Jesus is going to come again, and when he comes.
He's not going to come as he came the first time. Let's read.
How he is presented here in Revelation chapter one.
He is standing in the midst.
12.
Of seven golden candlesticks, it says here. Let me just read from the beginning of verse 12.
I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw 7 golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man.
And it's a question of judgment, the Lord Jesus, who is appointed to be the judge of that future day.
Does not take the title of the Son of God. He is that, but he takes the title of Son of Man.
When men and women are called to that judgment seat.
They're going to see a man sitting on that throne.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
So he takes the title of Son of Man.
Clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paths with a golden girdle. This is the way a judge dresses.
Is taking the character of a judge here.
No, my friend, no for sure that if you refuse to have to do with Jesus.
As Savior you must do with Him as your judge.
What else?
His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow.
Great age experience, He knows you through and through.
His eyes were as a flame of fire, extremely penetrating.
I look at you out across the audience tonight and you're all well dressed and you're all listening pretty well.
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But God looks at you, the Lord Jesus looks at you in a different way. He sees right straight through you. He understands your thoughts, those secrets of your heart that you say I don't want anybody knowing that he knows it. All things are naked and open to the eyes of him. We have with whom we have to do you cannot avoid.
His penetrating gaze.
He sees you through and through. This is the one you must deal with in a future day if you refuse to accept Jesus as your Savior.
His feet like unto fine brass.
As they burn as if they burned in a furnace. Brass in the scripture.
Is figurative of divine righteousness in judgment.
And his feet speak of his ways.
His voice as the sound of many waters. He has a way of making himself heard. You know God doesn't want to speak drastically to you, but if you refuse to listen when he speaks gently.
He will speak louder and louder.
Remember hearing the story of a man on the East Coast who worked in the ship building docks and one day he fell from off the scaffold 3 stories up.
And he landed on his head on a pile of bricks.
Broke his neck.
He woke up in the hospital.
Paralyzed from the neck down.
But it was the means that he got straight with God.
And he said after that, thank God he made me listen, He had to break my neck to make me less. Thank God he made me listen.
Friends, God is speaking to you tonight in His precious word that we're reading here. Are you listening?
Or are you just putting on the front of listening respectfully and then go out and quench the voice of the Spirit of God as He speaks to you?
God has his ways of making.
Himself heard.
He had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth with a sharp 2 edged sword. That's his word, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
Supreme power and authority.
This is the one you must meet if you refuse to do with Jesus as your savior. No way of avoiding it. Sooner or later you must come face to face with that man on the throne.
I'd like to go over to the 19th chapter because here we have.
The moment when Jesus is going to come riding out of heaven.
To establish his Kingdom.
You know before we start reading these verses to make this statement that we are preaching tonight the gospel of the grace of God.
God is a God of all grace.
He wants to save you, but there is no way you can avoid.
Dealing with the question of your sins.
And before he comes again, before Jesus comes again in these verses that we're going to read.
It's at the end of a time of trouble in this world that's called great tribulation. He's going to come back again. He's going to take over the governments of this world. Governments of this world do their best to try to keep order.
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They can't do it. They can't do it. Jesus is coming back to set things straight according to God's principles of righteousness.
But before he comes back, there's going to be another gospel preached during those seven years of tribulation. It's called the Gospel of the Kingdom.
We preach the gospel of the grace of God, we tell people.
If you accept Christ, you have the forgiveness of all your sins you have.
Justification by faith. Before God, you have eternal life. You have a home in heaven. That's the gospel of the grace of God. But after Jesus comes and takes all his people home to heaven during that time of tribulation, there's going to be another message preached. It's the message that John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus himself preached at the beginning of his earthly ministry.
It's called the Gospel of the Kingdom. It will be perhaps a simple message. It will be simply straighten out your ways, repent of your sins because the king is coming and he's not going to tolerate sin.
He is going to gather the weed into his garner and he is going to burn the chaff.
With unquenchable fire.
It's the gospel.
Of the Kingdom.
And that gospel is going to be preached. But I want to sound a word of warning to anybody here who thinks that they're going to wait until that time and accept that gospel. You have heard the gospel of the grace of God and have said no to Jesus.
After that, after the rapture takes place, after the Lord Jesus takes all his own home to heaven.
There is going to be a man that arises by the power of Satan in this world. He's called Antichrist and God is going to send through him.
Strong delusion.
That all those that did not receive the love of the truth.
Would be condemned.
God means business when He makes an offer to you.
Don't slight his offer, it's extremely important.
Now let's read.
What happens here when Jesus comes again? Revelation chapter 19 and verse 11.
And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a White Horse.
And he that sat upon him was called faithful.
And true and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns.
And he had a name written, which no man knew but he himself.
And he was clothed with a vesture dipped.
In blood and his name is called the word.
Of.
And the armies which were in heaven.
Followed him upon white forces, clothed in fine linen.
White and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written.
King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
And I saw an Angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls.
00:35:05
That fly in the midst of heaven.
Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God.
That ye may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains.
In the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond.
Both small and great. And I saw the beast. The beast is a political.
Figure of the coming day. He's called a beast because he doesn't want to have anything to do with heaven. He just looks at earth.
And the kings of the earth, those that are under his power and their armies.
Gathered together to make war against.
That sat on the horse and against his army. Think of it when Jesus comes writing out of heaven.
Finally, at long last, Jesus comes.
They're going to get together probably the most powerful armies.
That this world has ever seen on display, and they're going to go to fight with Jesus.
Man's heart, naturally has not changed. They don't want.
Jesus.
And that's the picture that Scripture paints faithfully.
That will happen shortly.
What happens?
Verse 20 The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet.
Or the Antichrist that wrought miracles before him, with which he had deceived them, that received the mark of the beast.
And then that worshipped his image. These both were cast.
Alive into a lake of fire, burning.
With Brimstone.
The remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat on the horse.
Which sword proceedeth out of his mouth, and all the fowls that were fulfilled.
With their flesh.
This is the beginning of the great day of the Battle of God Almighty.
And as they array their armies and shoot their missiles against Jesus.
One after another, those armies is going to fall flat on their faces.
And the leaders are going to be taken, red handed and cast into the lake of fire. Jesus is coming back to establish His Kingdom here in this world. And it thrills my heart to know that God is going to.
Fulfill this, he's going to make his own son that was so dishonored #1 authority in this world.
These things are shortly to come to pass, Scripture tells us.
I don't know if you believe him. I don't see any other option but to believe them. There is no other way to understand this book, but it's going to happen.
And it's going to happen shortly. I plead with you to not fool around with God.
Maybe, you say, well, maybe I'll have died by that time. I won't have to meet him when he comes back.
You still cannot avoid Jesus.
You must meet him.
Let's go over one more chapter to chapter 20.
We're going to read a few verses.
Of what takes place, we don't have time to read in detail the 20th chapter.
That if you would read it, you would read that. The rain.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ in this world is going to last one.
1000 years.
And then at the end of those years.
Let's read from verse 11 of this chapter.
It says here I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it. Jesus, necessarily Jesus.
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From whose face? The earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. This is the end of this present world as we know it, The end of the heavens and the earth as we know it. They're going to be folded up. They're going to be changed. There's a end for them all.
And here in space, suspended, is a great white throne, God in all his purity.
And it says here.
Verse 12 I saw the dead.
Small and great stand before God and the books were opened.
Which is and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life?
And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books.
According to their works, and the sea gave up the dead which were in it.
And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works.
And death and hell were cast into the Lake of Fire.
This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.
Picture it in your minds eye friend, the awful finality of this that is going to take place. God has told us about it beforehand that you and I may be warned not to come to this end. Jesus died. Salvation full and free is offered to all. There is no need for you to come to this end.
But if you refuse to do with Jesus.
As a savior.
You still must meet him as the judge.
And in that day you will stand there before God and the books.
Will be open. God keeps books. God is a God of detail.
Everything you have ever said, everything you have ever done, every thought you have ever entertained in your mind, written faithfully in those books. You know, there's lots of things that people tell me that I did years ago. Frankly, I totally forgot about it.
But God doesn't forget.
And there are written, every single one. And the dead were judged out of those things written in the books. There they stand, spirit, soul and body before God, before the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're judged. But there's one other book, the Book of Life.
And according to other scriptures in that book are written the names.
Of all those who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Picture it. There stands somebody before that throne.
Perhaps somebody who sat in a gospel meeting?
Here the 27th of December, 2003.
And said I'll think about it. I don't want to accept him now.
And before they had another opportunity, they were taken away in death.
They are going to be raised to stand before Jesus.
In that day and the books are going to be read, you know, there's no time there, no need to hurry through all the records.
Take him all in minute detail.
And it's going to be evident.
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Your guilt before God, you will have not one word to say back to God. It will be evident that God wanted with all His heart to save your soul. 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. And you determined.
To disobey God and go your own way to hell. It isn't God's fault. It will be evident it's your fault.
And it says whosoever was not found written in the Book of Light was.
Cast into the Lake of Fire.
The lake is an enclosure. There is no exit to the lake of fire. And as the soul is hurled cast into the lake of fire, into the blackness of darkness forever, as he fades, as the light fades, the last phase he sees is the face of Jesus, the one who died to save him.
God is love. He's done everything he possibly could to save your soul. He's roadblocked the road to hell with the cross of Christ, he said. Don't go that route. There is another way.
But if you stubbornly resist his pleas that you repent of your sins and come to Jesus in simple faith, that will be your end.
You know, there's a number of other believers here in this room tonight.
And I want to unite with every true believer in this room tonight.
To invite you to come home to Jesus.
Don't wait. Any luck? We're living in serious times.
You don't know it's going to happen tomorrow. I plead with you with all my heart.
And unite with all those who are believers in this room to come to Jesus.
Before it's forever too late.
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. Let's pray.
Gracious.
God Is Light and God Is Love
Gospel—S. Jacobsen
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By singing #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, and be saved unto him who is nailed to the tree.
I'd appreciate a glass of water.
Please someone please start #26.
Turn first of all to the first chapter of the First Epistle of John, just for an expression.
In the fifth verse and then an expression in the 4th chapter.
In the eighth verse, so first John, the first chapter.
And the fifth verse, just three words.
God is light. Now let's turn to 1St John, the 4th chapter.
And three words at the end of the eighth verse, the 4th chapter, and the eighth verse. God is love.
These.
The nature of God and I have on my heart in presenting the gospel to present that which brings out that God is light, which exposes.
No one has ever been saved and never will be saved by simply knowing that God is light. Because light exposes, and that's exactly what God intended, that the soul come into the presence of God and recognize that there is nothing hid from God. God is light, but God is love. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So I'd like this this evening to make an appeal.
What? He didn't realize that there was two cups there already, but he'll get a special reward for a cup of cold water.
I would like to make an appeal.
On behalf of God through the Word, on the basis of God is light and God is love. The first appeal is in connection with recognizing that there is a God, and he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. But we recognize that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Now let's turn before we turn to the Old Testament. Let's turn to Romans, the 10th chapter.
And there's a beautiful expression in that verse.
Chapter.
We'll read 2 verses, Romans 10/9 and verse 10.
Romans 10/9 and 10 If thou shalt, confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.
See, we preach that it says so on the 8th, 1St we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
00:05:02
For with the heart.
Not the conscience. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
It strikes me, and I want to present it that way this evening, that I want you, first of all, as if you had never heard the gospel. And there may be those here that haven't, but for those that have, we want to present it in connection with God is light.
And it condemns you as a lost, hell deserving Sinner. But now in connection with what it says in this verse, the 10th verse, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. And I would like to present starting with the Old Testament, because in the Old Testament there's prophecy concerning the coming of the Savior, and there's types. And sometimes I'm not quite sure.
Which to call it, whether it's a prophecy because it's so clear, or whether it's just a type, but in connection with what there is in the Old Testament. And then we'll come into the new and pick up the story of the cross. God forbid that I should glory saving the cross.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ I preached not anything other than Christ and Him crucified. And I want to say this at the very beginning if the story, the true story of the Lord Jesus in coming from Godhead's fullest glory.
And suffering at the hand of man which did not save you, and at the hand of God.
If it doesn't touch your heart, nothing else can. But we want you to know that as.
A lost hell deserving center. It's God is light and is exposing exactly what you are.
But then God is love. Now let's turn back to Exodus. Excuse me, Genesis, the 22nd chapter.
And there is one of these stories in the Old Testament.
That brings before us so fully, because see, God in the Old Testament has given us to see what is necessary, that you as a Law Center are brought to salvation. It shows us that there is a sacrifice that must be offered. There's a substitute. And these are terms that in Christianity it's a vocabulary every.
Branch of industry has its.
Vocabulary. And that's a vocabulary of Christianity, a substitute, someone to take the place. And that's what we'll find in these scriptures. And so we turn to Genesis 22. And God did try, Abraham take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of.
And Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his *** and took two of his young men with him.
And Isaac, his son.
And clave the wood for the burnt offering.
The first time in Scripture that the burnt offering and the wood are brought together.
One of the last in cash with the wood offering is the last verse of the Book of Nehemiah.
Beautiful development of the truth of God in connection with the continual burnt offering mentioned relatively little in scripture. It's in Exodus. Is it Exodus and Leviticus numbers. Then it skips to Chronicles and then it goes into Ezra and Nehemiah. And what's the picture of the continual burnt offering? See, these are terms that are used in the Old Testament to help us to understand when we get to the New.
Why was it necessary that the Son of God should become the Son of Man? Because there was a need for a sacrifice. One that God was completely satisfied in the Old Testament was an animal, and so we find that.
00:10:05
There, Abraham and the sixth verse took the wood of the burnt offering, and we're going to find out about a little more in Leviticus, the first chapter.
But now we find a beautiful statement in the seventh verse. And Isaac spake unto Abraham and his father, and said, my father.
And he said, Here am I, my son.
And he said, Behold the fire.
And the wood?
But where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
And Abraham said my son.
God will provide himself.
A lamb for a burnt offering.
So they went, both of them, together. And I ask, and I suppose I know the question, I know the answer to the question, and so do you. Is that prophecy or is it a type? Well, we could say without any question that the 53rd of Isaiah is a prophecy. But all this is so rich, so full of what the heart of God is seeking to bring out in the Old Testament, so that when we come into the New, we see.
That there's a need of a substitute. And so there was for Isaac. He did not have to be killed. But it tells me in the 11Th of Hebrews that the faith of Abraham was so great that he received him back from resurrection and all we see again in the Old Testament about resurrection. So we found already that there is a necessity for a substitute. Who is the substitute? You know, the lights flickered for a while.
This afternoon, and if the lights flickered, the power went off. We might have to disband. So I want to establish that the Lord Jesus is the substitute that God sent from Godhead's fullest glory down to Calvary's depth of wool. And so it is. Here we find the fire.
We find an altar.
We find fire, we find wood, and we find the sacrifice.
From the altar up to the burnt offering, the wood and all the intensity of the suffering that the Blessed Lord went through. From the hand of man, you say. Indeed he did.
And you know rightly, if you and I were to read the portions in the New Testament to tell about what man did to the Blessed Lord, I don't know that you and I should.
Leave our handkerchiefs in our pockets because we'd have to wipe the tears from our eyes.
But you know, it's not emotion, you know, but it's a heart that is affected by what the Lord Jesus did on the cross. And so here.
But where is the lamb for a burnt offering, My son? God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went.
Both of them.
Together.
And so there was a substitute. So let's go on. Let's go on to the book of Exodus in the 12Th chapter. And there once again, the word of God is preparing us, as it were, for the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
And there's a reason for that sacrifice in the 12Th chapter is that there was an Angel that was going to go through and there was going to be one found dead in every household unless.
Let's find out what was the provision.
Third verse In the 10th day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb according to the House of their fathers.
A lamb for a house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according to his eating your lamb shall be without blemish. Notice in Peter it says without blemish and without spot a male of the first year. And so they were to take, they were to kill it.
There is another very significant point that we're finding from the Old Testament that God is preparing.
Our hearts for understanding that Jesus must die, he must as the sacrifice. And so here they shall kill it. In the evening they shall take of the blood. Oh, now we find another divine statement that prepares our hearts.
00:15:11
Shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. You know, I remind myself, and I'll mention it to you, that there's a verse in the last chapter of Luke that the Blessed Lord after the resurrection went and walked a few miles.
Maybe an hour or two. And he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures.
The things concerning himself. So we're just choosing a few of them so that when we come, we're going to take up Mark 8, Mark 9, Mark 10, and then we're going to go into the gospel of Mark and catch with the Lord being.
Forsaken of his. And then we're going to go to the Gospel of John.
And find the only gospel, because it's Christ, is the burnt offering that mentions about the blood and then the resurrection. But that's what's on our heart. But here there is a substitute again, isn't that a wonderful subject? And you know, if there's anyone here that thinks that they can do for salvation on their own, that's in the face of what we found already in Genesis 22 and Exodus 12, that there was no necessity.
For a substitute Here it's an animal, but we find in Gospel of John the first chapter that the Blessed Lord is called.
The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Let's turn to the first chapter of Leviticus.
We've anticipated that a bit.
A very similar expression in the ninth verse.
The 13th verse and the 17th verse. But for the sake of of brevity, let's just read the 8th and 9th verses of the first chapter of Leviticus.
And we might say that this being the burnt offering.
Is that offering, which was entirely to God. And that's the Gospel of John. And we'll find, as we've said, that only in the Gospel of John does the soldier with a spear Pierce his side. Wonderful connections. And so here, let's read it.
And the priests, Aaron's son, shall lay the parts the head.
And the fact in order upon the wood.
That is, on the fire which is upon the altar.
But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water, and the priest shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord.
Was it necessary according to the 40th Psalm, that in the volume of the book it is written of me?
Book. Is that When was it written? Could we say rightly?
Is that it was the Councils of the Trinity.
Past eternity.
And if we were to take that perspective of before there was time and bring it into the focus of time, we see that though it's quoted in the 40th Psalm and then we find throughout Genesis and Exodus.
And now in Leviticus, we're getting so much closer than it was in connection with that statement. In the 40th Psalm in the volume of the book, it was written of me. But now we see that God is giving to an earthly people.
A form of approach.
Of worship.
That involved an animal.
A clean animal, but an animal that would have to die.
And bloodshed, because let's turn to the 17th chapter of John's of Leviticus and we'll see why according to God's principle, we find in the 17th chapter.
And the 11Th verse. See. These are divine principles.
Then I believe that we're finding in types in prophecy, especially when we turn later to Isaiah 53. So this is a divine statement, a divine principle. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
00:20:24
Before we get to the New Testament, I would like to ask a question of myself and of each of you.
Is there anyone that we find throughout the Old Testament and as we move into the New, is there anyone qualified to?
To be the Lamb of God except for the Lord Jesus.
You know neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men.
Whereby we must be saved.
Little man that's probably no taller than this. Maybe up to here.
You go into his watch shop and he's standing on a little stool and.
I can still see over his head.
Born in Vietnam.
Some dear St. of God gave him a Bible a few years ago.
I drop in once in a while. He is close to where I buy my gasoline, strangely enough, from.
Everyone of them is a Muslim.
But let that be as it may, this man.
Is not.
And he has more questions, more statements. The final one was.
Is there a God?
Is there a God?
Known by creation and connection with His eternal power and Godhead.
And so here the life of the flesh God is making a statement.
Of principle, if you will, on which we're going to find.
In the 8th chapter, the 9th chapter and the 10th chapter of Mark.
That the Lord is showing us closer and closer and closer to the cross. But this is the principle. We know it from Leviticus 1711, that we found that there has to be a substitute, and so that substitute that God is going to offer has offered. And throughout the whole of the Old Testament we recognize that it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Presented to us in the New Testament and he's the substitute and he's going to have to die.
And his blood is going to have to be shed, and there's going to be resurrection.
Let's turn to the 53rd of of Isaiah and there we'll find it.
And this now. There's others, but this is now.
Prophecy.
Let's read from the fifth verse.
Before we read it.
This anticipate the man having gone from Ethiopia to Jerusalem and not having gotten much. But what he did get was a copy of the 53rd of Isaiah, and he got a great deal, but he didn't get anything for his soul, and so God allowed Philip the Evangelist to go down and understand us what thou readest.
And so, beginning at the same Scripture, he preached unto him, Jesus.
And so we know without a doubt that the 53rd of Isaiah is prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Philip began at the same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus fifth verse, 53rd chapter. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him.
And with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way.
And the Lord hath laid on him.
The iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. His broad as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears, is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
00:25:04
This is anticipating verse after verse in the New Testament in connection with the Lord's trial.
Is your heart won by a man under those circumstances that could act as the Blessed Lord did? All to think of how with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. And I want your conscience to be reached, as to God is light, because you're a Sinner and we were born that way. But I want your heart to be enlarged. I want your heart to be affected. I want your heart to be touched.
By God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
And to think of what that man blessed man with a capital M What a blessed man. And if we trace through here, we see it fully prophesied. He is oppressed, and he was afflicted in the seventh verse. He is an opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. So he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison, and from judgment wasn't given a fair trial.
And who shall declare his generation? What does that mean? That means that there was a condemned man. He he could have people that would stand up for him, and recount what things that they knew about him, which offset the judgments against him. Who shall declare his generation? There wasn't anyone, for he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he was, and he made his grave with the wicked.
He's put into the grave and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
What about resurrection?
You know, if you didn't know it was in this chapter, I believe that you would read it and you would reread it, and you would reread it, because it would seem inconsistent for God to give a record in prophecy so beautiful, so complete without resurrection. So let's read the 10th verse, and there it is. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.
He shall see his seed, he shall.
Prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
He shall prolong his days rightly. It was said today in the readings that the resurrection was God's stamp of approval upon the person, the work, and the love of His beloved Son. You and I stand in all of the perfection of his work, his person, his love. He is our righteousness before God, and we know that God.
As approved of that work because of the that verse that was mentioned in the reading this afternoon. But God raised him from the dead, complete, divine, eternal satisfaction on the part of God, concerning again the person, the work, and the love.
Of his beloved son. And here it is He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper. In his hand he shall see of the fruit of the travel of his soul, and shall be satisfied by his knowledge, shall he instruct many unrighteousness, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great.
Who are they?
If there's anyone here and the sound of my voice that has not accepted the Lord Jesus as their personal savior, they first need, and I'm I'm reemphasizing this. They need to see God is light to expose what's in your heart and mind by nature and that God is, and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes.
And be killed.
And after three days rise again, he began to teach them.
That this, let's reread it, that the Son of Man must suffer many things.
And be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed.
And after three days rise again.
What did we have? We had Genesis 22.
00:30:04
In connection with a substitute for Isaac.
Burnt offering the wood which is the fire and.
And then we had Exodus, the 12Th chapter, in connection with the Lamb.
Without blemish, not without spot. But the Blessed Lord was without blemish, and without spot, and we had.
The life of the flesh is in the blood, and we've given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for the soul, for it is the blood.
That maketh an atonement for the soul. We don't have the blood mentioned here, I know that. But he was killed and after three days we have the resurrection we had in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. Now let's turn to the 9th chapter of Mark.
31St verse.
For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of Man is delivered into the hands of men.
And they shall kill him.
And after that he is killed, he shall rise.
The third day.
Much the same.
How many times have each of us?
Heard the gospel and if there's someone here for the first time.
Oh, there are individuals that would be delighted beside myself to talk to anyone afterwards. Don't leave this room undecided If it hasn't been made clear. It isn't. And I say it reverently. It's not God's fault because it's so clear. But you know.
If there's a fog over the eyes.
Light gets diffused, but all to think of what it means to see that blessed One that could say, Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Give you rest.
All the pain of the human heart, that when they recognize that they're lost and they don't want to give in to what the spirit of God, through the word of God is speaking. For I'm meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke, in contrast to the yoke of the law, for my yoke is easy.
And my burden is light because he carries it for us. And so let's turn to the 10th chapter.
32nd verse.
And they were in the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went before them.
And they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. And he took again the 12 and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests.
And unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death.
And shall deliver him to the Gentiles.
And they shall mock him.
And shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him.
And shall kill him.
And the third day.
He shall rise again.
The intent.
Of the heart of man was to kill him.
But they didn't.
Now that's not in contradiction to what's said. That was their desire. What is it, the 21St Psalm? Let me turn to that.
The intended evil against thee, the imagined A mischievous device which they're not able to perform. The heart of man wanted to kill him. For what reason? In the 8th chapter of the Gospel of John, the Blessed Lord said, who convinced me of sin? Only a person that was absolutely out of his mind would could ever say such a thing.
00:35:17
See, the Lord Jesus said things that were so far beyond what man has ever said that he's either exactly what he said he was, or he's the greatest liar that ever lived. One or the other don't take a neutral position because there is none and we believe by the word of God.
And the teaching of Scripture that Jesus was exactly what he said he was.
The eternal Son of God is the Messiah, he said to that dear woman at the well.
I that he that speaketh unto thee, and he.
All to think of the revelation to that dear woman, isn't it beautiful? You know, this is an aside, but I think it's important.
In Matthew the only mention made of Samaria or Samaritans is in the 10th chapter, and the Lord instructed his disciples not to go in the way of the Samaritans only mentioned.
In mark is not mentioned at all.
Now what's left?
The Lord is the Son of man.
And the Gospel of John is the son of.
Son of man in Luke, Son of God in John. And there's that story of the man that fell among thieves and it was the Samaritan. Now in the Gospel of John, he must needs go through Samaria. Now let's let's act as if we're speaking to an Orthodox Jew of that day and he would become very irate. He does not have to go either going north to South or South to north.
To go from Galilee to Judah, he does not have to go through Samaria. He crosses the.
The Jordan and he goes up a well recognized path. We can see that in the 19th chapter of Matthew. Let me read it.
And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee.
And came into the coast of Judea.
Beyond Jordan.
Well recognized the Orthodox Jew of that day so despised A Samaritan that he wouldn't go anywhere near the city. He crossed the Jordan and went up that pathway. Well known and then came back. But in the Gospel of John it says he must needs go through Samaria and there's a need here this evening for you and you know, if you're saved or lost.
And the Lord must needs come and.
Portray himself to your heart. Remember the conscience.
Accepts that God is light, the heart accepts that God is love and God's manifestation of his heart is shown in connection with his beloved Son. We found in the 9th chapter that the Lord picked up the little children and it says in essence he folds them in his arms.
Sharing with a brother that's the heart of God, and the heart of God is told out.
In connection with what the Lord Jesus came during his ministry.
And then the cross, the resurrection going back to the glory.
So now we've read in Mark 8-9 and ten. The Lord is telling explicitly, most explicitly in the 10th chapter, and I made an emphasis on purpose.
They shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles.
And they shall mock him.
And shall scourge him.
And shall spit upon him.
And shall kill him, and the third day he shall rise again.
Who be in the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, when he had by himself purged our sins, to think of it of who he was. And as he walked down any St. that he went down, there was not a Halo. It says, according to the 53rd of Isaiah, that when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him, and so it's not a question of.
00:40:25
Natural beauty. We're never told how tall, anything of that kind.
But all to think of those that were touched by what he did. But remember in our time is very almost gone.
I want to make it very clear.
That there was number suffering from the hand of man.
That was intended. It is used of God or is a part of.
Your salvation.
And so let's go to those portions that are, let's turn to the 14th of the book of Mark.
The 15th chapter of the book of Mark and the 34th verse.
33rd verse and I want to mention.
The points that are so significant in connection with.
The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He was forsaken of God.
He gave up his life.
The soldier with his spear pierced his side loving hands, took him down and put him into the grave. He was raised the third day he had ministry here on earth until he went back to the father, it says in What Is it First Timothy 3 received up.
Not into glory. It's not a place where, but it's the manner of the reception received up in glory. Marvelous to think that God from past eternity had ordained and was written in the volume of the book that that blessed man was going to become a man. He was going to walk through this scene and go to the cross and he was going to be taken up after what, 40 days, it was going to be received up in glory.
All can and I don't want to speculate.
Because that's all I think it says in Scripture, but received up in glory. Think of the reception if all the angels of God shall worship him again. We don't need to imagine. I'm not trying to get your mind or mind to imagine, but to think of the reception that that Blessed One received after having become a man, walk through this earth as a man went through the cross, as a man went into the grave as a man was raised and went back to glory.
And that's the savior.
God is light, reaches your conscience. God is love in connection with the Lord. Jesus reaches your heart, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the confession, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So let's go on.
37th verse And Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost, and the veil of the temple was rent and twained from the top to the bottom. And in the few remaining minutes let's turn to John.
19.
Because each of the Gospels.
I turned to the wrong book, John 19.
Verse 30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said.
It is finished.
And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.
Then came the soldiers in the 32nd verse, and break the legs of the 1St and of the other, which was crucified with him.
But when they came.
To Jesus.
But when they came.
To Jesus.
And saw that he was dead already. They break not his legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came throughout blood and water. And he that saw it bear record, And his record is true, And he knoweth that he Seth true, that you might believe.
00:45:07
Didn't we establish by Scripture that there was a necessity for a substitute?
And that that substitute must die, and the blood must be shed.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I've given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for the soul.
It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Don't we see it satisfied now? All of God's requirements given in prophecy and types in the Old Testament to think if we could count the number of verses that have to do with that which is essential to our salvation, certainly touches our hearts and catch was suffering from man.
It's an incredible.
Verses that are mentioned in connection with.
All the blessing that God ever intended for Israel, the nations of the Church.
Is all embodied in the person and work.
Of the Lord Jesus upon the cross, death and resurrection and ascension to the Father's right hand. Do you want to add something to that? Each one of us that are here would like to add one word.
A man.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever.
Believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
I hesitated because I was thinking of one more verse. And then we're through.
In Two Corinthians 4 and verse 6.
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
Has shined in our hearts to give the light.
Of the knowledge of the glory of God.
In the face of Jesus Christ.
I don't believe that any of the effects.
Of the cross.
His face. His head. His back.
The nail prints.
The only thing that is recorded, I believe afterwards is the spirit, the hole in his side and in his hands and his feet.
I can't answer why, but to think of what they did to his face, to think of what they did to his back.
But here, let's read it again and we're through. But I want to make my point.
That what are these wounds in thine hands? What are these wounds? A Lamb, as it had been slain. To think of what God's thoughts are concerning his beloved Son.
A freshly slain Lamb in Revelation, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The Son of God, who loved me and gave.
Himself for me.
#2 Come tis Jesus gently calling, ye with care and toil, oppressed with your guilt. How air appalling. Come, and I will give you rest for your sin. He once has suffered on the cross the work was done, and the word by God now uttered to each weary soul.
Is calm. Someone please start #2 in the hymn sheet.
Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness?
Has shined in our hearts to give the light.
Of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face.
Of Jesus Christ, for God and Father, we thank thee for the gift of Thy beloved Son thanks.
John 3
Gospel—B. Anstey
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.
For six on the hem sheet.
Number six on the hymn sheet God and Mercy sent His Son.
To a world by sin undone, Jesus Christ was crucified twice. For sinners, Jesus died number six.
In the world.
Let's open our Bibles to the third chapter of John's Gospel.
John's Gospel chapter 3 and I like to read 17 verses.
Beginning with the 1St.
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, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee.
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I say unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind blow it where it listeth, or where it wills, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence 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 teacher, a master, or a teacher of Israel? And knoweth not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak what we know, and testify what we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you of earthly things, and you believe not, how shall you 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. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of man.
Be lifted up now whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever.
Or have eternal life 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. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
Here we have an account of the Lord Jesus meeting with one of the rulers of the Pharisees.
On a dark night. And I think it's very striking and interesting to read this Gospel of John that we've read from tonight. You know, it's much different than the other gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, which are sometimes called the synoptic gospels because they give us a synopsis of the Lorde life from beginning to the end. John doesn't do that exactly, and there's many differences, but one that I think is so striking and interesting is that in the synoptic gospels, the first three, we find the Lord Jesus preaching to the multitudes.
And to the thousands and giving parables and teaching. And but in John's Gospel, quite the difference. We find him with individuals. Chapter after chapter we read of encounters that he makes with individuals like this man that we read here. He's not spending his time in John's gospel with the multitudes. He's spending his time with individuals. And this just tells us, friends, that God is interested in the individual.
00:05:23
He's interested in you, where you are in your life, and you're not lost in the crowd with him.
Even though this world is filled with some 6 billion people, you're not lost in the crowd with him. He knows all about you and he loves you, and he cares about you, and he's interested in your blessing as an individual. You may find that hard to believe, that God can have time to think about you, just some insignificant person as you might think yourself to be. But it's true. God loves you. The Lord Jesus loves you, and he's got time.
For you. And he's interested in making a blessing in your life. You know, I heard a story one time of an old man. His name was Mr. Klein. He had lived his life in a way that I hope none of us here would do. He lived his life without the Lord Jesus Christ. He had no time for the gospel or any such things like that. And as he became an old man, still living without the saving knowledge of the blessed Savior, one day he went for a walk and he went walking along the side.
A Chapel where there was a gospel hall and they were singing on the inside some gospel hymn and the windows were slightly open and he could hear them through the window but he had no time for that. But as he ambled along in his old age, he heard them singing a favorite old gospel hymn that Jesus died for all mankind. And they sang that over and over again. Jesus died for all mankind.
Well, he thought he heard them singing through the windows. Jesus died for old man Klein, he said. How could that be? And he listened again. And sure enough, they sang that chorus again. Jesus died for all mankind, he thought they were saying. Jesus died for old mankind. Well, he couldn't stand that any longer. He thought, this is amazing that God knows about me. He's got all those people singing about me. So he thought I'd better go in and find out what's going on.
So he went inside and he heard words whereby he might be saved. And that's what we hope you'll hear here tonight. Words from the blessed Savior, whereby you might be saved. And so there's just a little incident on how God can single out an individual and make His love known to them.
In this chapter we come across a man who is a very religious leader of the Pharisees.
A ruler of the Jews were told, and he comes to Jesus by night, and he says to the Lord Jesus that he knew that he was a teacher.
And what he was looking for was some good teaching. He thought that if he could just get some good teaching from the Lord Jesus that he could live a better life and do good.
And God would be more pleased with him. But friends, it was not good teaching that this man needed.
It was a new life, and that's the same with you all. The teaching that you could get, religious teaching that you could get is not going to be something that will help you with regard to the eternal issues that your soul faces, even if you had the best teacher of all. You have a nature friend that cannot receive or perceive the things of God. And so this man, why he thought that if he could just go to the Lord Jesus and he recognized that he was a great teacher.
That if he could just get some good religious teaching from him why he would be able to please God better.
And do well and be accepted, the Lord Jesus had to tell him.
That accept a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. And in this chapter and the verses that I've read to you tonight, we have some great lessons that the Lord Jesus taught this man that I want to communicate to you tonight.
And the first one is in that third verse and that is the total depravity of man in the flesh. In the flesh is a term that is used in the Bible to describe the fallen sin nature that every man, woman and child in this world has. And what the Lord Jesus was teaching him here in this verse was the total depravity of man.
So depraved as his fallen nature.
Is that he cannot even understand things to do with the Kingdom of God.
00:10:06
So marred by sin is that fallen nature that it cannot perceive or understand the things to do with God. You know, the Bible tells us that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. More than that, the Bible tells us that there is an enemy of our souls, the devil himself, who is the God of this world, who has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine unto them.
And so we find that men without Christ are doubly blind. The nature has no capacity for the things of God. And there is this Angel of fallen Angel, the devil himself, who is doing all he can to dilute and to blind the minds of men and women so that they do not understand the things to do with God. Even this religious leader was in the dark. But friends were here to tell you that God has power to open blind eyes.
To turn you from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God.
So how wonderful it is that we have a Savior to present to you tonight that can bring light to your dark soul and give you understanding as to how you can be saved and blessed and on your road to heaven. So He teaches him this very important lesson. This is the first lesson that we need to get a hold of, and that is that in ourselves we are totally depraved.
You know, the Bible tells us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It also tells us that there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
And the effect of sin has blinded the mind and the nature.
Man all together so that he cannot see or perceive the things to do.
But the Kingdom of God? Well, Nicodemus asked them, how can this be?
How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter through his mother's womb? He'd be born again. There's a testament to the fact that he was in the dark about this. The Lord Jesus was seeking to communicate some spiritual lesson to him, and he was thinking on the lines of nature, lost completely the train of thought that the Lord was teaching. And that just shows us that the natural mind receiveth, not the things of the Spirit of God. So the Lord Jesus teaches him another great point.
And that's in verse 5, when he said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water.
And of the Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. And so here with the Lord Jesus teaches him that the new birth cannot be obtained by any effort of our own.
Yes, God has two great agents by which He imparts life to men, the water and the Spirit.
And these two great agents work together.
And communicate divine life whereby a man enters the Kingdom of God. And so entrance into the Kingdom of God is by no effort by man himself. It is by the power of God and the word of God. Now we find in these two great agents the water and the Spirit. That is simply that the Spirit of God takes the word of God and applies it to the soul, and thereby is communicated.
A divine life. A new divine life that has capacity.
To understand divine things whereby a man is brought into.
The Kingdom of God. How wonderful.
There are many people that are trying to enter the Kingdom of God on their own efforts.
Seeking to turn over a new leaf in their life to get religious or at this time of year, you know where people try to have their New Year's resolutions and they figure that they're going to try to do better and hopefully that this will please God and make them a better person in this world and all that kind of thing. But it is by the word of God and the Spirit of God that a man is born again. Now, there are some people that will tell you that the water here would mean.
Baptism that you have to be baptized to get saved, and they would point to this verse. But friends, that's not what the water is referring to here. This couldn't be Christian baptism because the Lord Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus of things that he ought to have known as found in the Old Testament, and Christian baptism is not in the Old Testament. More than that, Christian baptism wasn't even introduced yet, so he could not be referring to baptism.
00:15:14
When he spoke of the water. No. Water throughout the scripture is a figure of the Word of God, as we find in Ephesians chapter 5 by the washing of the water by the Word. And so when he speaks of the water here, he's not only Speaking of the instrument, the Word of God, but the effect that the Word of God has in a soul, of cleansing the soul.
What we speak of as moral cleansing, that's the power of the Word of God imparting life to a soul. Then in the next verse, the Lord Jesus taught him another great lesson, and that is the fact that the old nature and the new nature cannot be improved.
So bad is the fallen nature of man that God himself.
Has given up and any attempt to improve or to rehabilitate that nature, no God is starting all together over all together with men and gives them a new life through the new birth, he says. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. What he's saying here now is that that nature, whatever we do with it, it is always going to remain flesh as it was in the beginning. We can educate a person, we can teach them good morals.
We can.
Send them to finishing school, whatever the case may be, But at the bottom of it, the heart is still filled with sins and lusts and corruption. There's no change to the flesh. And this is a lesson that is so difficult for men to accept because they like to think that there's some good in man. But God has told us that there is no good in man, and we need to realize that the good that God can bring.
Through Christ the Savior and the gift that He has brought of eternal life. And so we find here that that which is born of the flesh is flesh.
Years ago, a man by the name of AJ Pollock told the story of a man that he knew that was passing through.
Northern Italy.
Many years ago and he was passing from 1 village to another and he was, he was getting dark and he was not going to get to the destination that he was seeking. And he realized that he was going to have to turn in somewhere and get to a place to rest for that night. And So what happened was that he spotted a little house there in the countryside and he went up and asked him if he could stay there in their place because he knew he could not get to the town which he was going.
At that late hour, they were kind enough to give them a room, and so they put them in this room.
And gave him a Lantern. And he thanked them and went to bed. And as he was getting ready to go to bed, he looked down at the floor, and he thought, this is a dirty floor. He thought to himself, maybe I should ask the woman of the house to come in here and clean this up a little bit. But then he thought, well, I better not do that, because beggars can't be choosers after all they've put me up in this house. So he went to bed, and in the morning when he got up, and the sunlight shone in the room.
And it was illuminated. And he looked down at that floor and he discovered that it was a mud floor.
And he thought to himself, now, what good would it have been if I would have asked the lady of the House to come in here and scrub this floor down?
Would it have helped? No, of course not. It would have made it worse. All the scrubbing that that woman could have done would have made that floor no better, only worse. And you know, it's just the same with the fallen nature of man. They've tried every kind of rehabilitation. There could be religion, everything in the name of religion, to make men better. But it has never been improved. Yet that which is flesh is flesh. That which is born of the flesh.
Is flesh.
Yes, we cannot improve.
That fallen nature. Let me illustrate it this way.
Suppose we had over here in the corner of this room, a big pigsty full of mud and water, just a big mucky thing over there.
And this store over here, we bring in a pig, and we bring that pig in and we bring them down to one of these chairs here. We sit them on the chair here, And if that pig could understand us, we would say to that pig. Now listen.
We understand the pigs like mud, and we know there's a mud style over there, but we want to give you some good teaching. We want to help you become a better pig.
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We hear that your nature is such that you love mud, but we believe that if we could just give you some better teaching where we could clean you up and make you an awful lot more respectable. Perhaps we get some graphs and charts up here and we give them a real good lecture as to how we can make that pig behave an awful lot better and not be fooling around with mud like that. And after lecturing that pig up and down, what would happen is he'd jump down from that chair and he would smell that mud and just go straight over there.
And take a flying leap in the mud.
All the lecturing we could do would never change his nature. And if he could speak, he'd probably say why It's my nature. I love the man, and it's true. You can't change his nature and you can't change the nature of man either.
Suppose over in this corner we had a pool of water, a little pond, and over in this door here comes in a duck.
We bring that duck in here and put them on a chair and we tell them now we know that you ducks like water. And we've been thinking about this and we feel you need some better teaching, some good teaching. And we give that duck a real lecture as to how he should stay away from water and don't fool around with water like that. It gets you all wet and everything. Whatever we say to him, what's going to happen, he's going to look up at us and say, I don't know what you mean. You get off that chair and take a flying leap in that water as soon as he had a first chance to do it, and he would say the same thing. It's my nature.
I love the water.
You can't change nature.
Now suppose through this door here we bring a man or a woman. We have them sit down in these chairs here.
And we start in on them and we tell them to listen. We want to give you some good religious teaching, you know, make you a better man or a woman in this community, make you a respectable person, really get you to be an honorable person. Now we know out there in this world, there's a lot of nightlife and a lot of sin, a lot of corruption, but we don't want you to do that anymore. We're going to correct this, and we give them all the reasons why on our boards here and maybe an overhead projector or something and a real lecture as to how they can clean up their life.
And tell them to quit this carousing and bad language and all that kind of thing.
What would happen?
If they had not Christ as their savior.
And know nothing about the new birth that we're speaking about. Tonight, they'd say, I don't know what you mean. I couldn't do that for all, my all my life. I couldn't live the Christian life. I'd fall off the wagon in a minute and we tell them that we're going to make you a clean person with all some good teaching.
They'd say you're taking my life away from me. Why, That's exactly what I love. That's my life.
And it is indeed. And so friends were not here to try to moralize. We're not here to try to present some program to rehabilitate the habits that you may have or the vices. Whatever it is that you're in ******* to, we're here to point you to Christ. And he said that he can make you free. He can set you free from the power of sin.
And even a Christian, when a person receives Christ as a savior, still that nature does not change.
No, indeed it doesn't. When I was in Ontario one time, many years ago, an old brother came up to me who had been a Christian for many years.
And he came ambling up to me and he said, you know, I've never lost my temper.
After all this time.
I thought, that isn't pride.
Here's a man telling me he's never lost his temper. Then he went on and said I've still got it after all these years.
He realized that nature doesn't change, but we're thankful to say that when you come to Christ, God has made provision.
That we can live above the propensities of the fallen nature and live for the glory of God.
But you won't be able to do it. Dear friend, if you have never been saved. You can't live the Christian life until you get the Christian life. And we're here tonight to tell you how you can be saved and have that eternal life. Well, how wonderful. The Lord Jesus goes on and teaches him another great lesson. Verse 8.
Here he says, the wind blows where it listeth or where it wills, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst tell it whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Now the Lord Jesus teaches them another great lesson, and that is that new birth is not an emotional experience, some memorable experience that we can point to in our lives. You know, people like to come to a religious meeting and have a real buzz, as they say, and have an experience.
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And to point to that as if they've had some real change in their life. But the Lord Jesus is saying here that new birth evidences itself and result. It is not something that we experience as far as something that we feel in our hearts or in our minds. Yes, when God imparts life to our soul, it is a silent work. And the point that the Lord Jesus is making in this eighth verse is that new birth evidences itself in result.
Just as the wind blows, where it goes, wherever it wants. We cannot see the wind, but we know that it's there because we see the effects of it.
Just as we see the leaves blowing in the wind, or we see snow flying and so on, we know there's wind.
We can feel it, but we can't see it. So it is as the spirit of God works with a man's soul or a woman's soul, or with a child's soul.
And so we're not to look for some experience, some feeling, some bells or whatever they talk about. No new birth evidence is itself end result. And the three great results that we like to see in a person who gets saved is this. Obedience to God, Love for the Lord Jesus.
And a desire to be with his people. I'd far rather be rather listen to a person speak about how much they love the Lord Jesus and love his people as an evidence that they have passed from death unto life than to hear someone talk about how they went to some revival meeting and they really got going and they had a wonderful time.
So we're not here to have an experienced friends. We're here to point you to Christ. We're here to point you to the Savior. We want you to have a personal relationship with him and to know what it is to have your sins put away and to have that eternal life. Well, Nicodemus is still in the dark. He says, well, how can these things be? And the Lord Jesus goes on and says that being a teacher in Israel, he ought to know these things. That is, he should have known from the Old Testament scriptures.
The subject of new birth. But apparently he did not know this. And so this just shows us that even though a person may be religious and even be a teacher in religion, doesn't mean that they have the light of the truth of the gospel of God.
There are many people in this world that are pointing, telling you that they have the way and the truth. But be wary, be careful. There are 1000 voices in this world that are all claiming to have the truth. But if it's not founded on this book that I'm reading from tonight, the word of God there is because there is no light in them. We're told from the prophet Isaiah. The Lord Jesus then goes on to speak to him about eternal life.
And he shows that eternal life is a heavenly gift, and he would desire that Nicodemus would come to know that. And for the possession of eternal life that requires 2 Things. That is the firstly, the knowledge of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then secondly to believe that testimony.
And so he goes on in verse 13 to speak about his person. Apparently Nicodemus did not realize whose presence he was in.
And I suspect tonight, if you've come in here and you don't know much about things of God, you may not realize who's present you're in here tonight too. For the Lord Jesus is here whether you can't see him, and he's here to save you, to receive you to himself. At any rate, we find in verse 13 that he reveals to him the glory of his person. He says no man has sent it up to heaven, but he that has come down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.
Now the Gospel of John is devoted to bringing out the essentials of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son. In the first chapter we read of Him being the creator of all things. All things were made by Him, and without him were not anything made that was made. Yes, the Lord Jesus is the Creator. This brings before us the fact of his person as being.
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Omnipotent All powerful.
All the worlds are held in his hand. He spoke them into existence with his own words in chapter 2. Now in verse 25 we learned another great attribute of Christ and his glory, and that is, it says there that he knows what is in every man He needed not that any man should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Now here we have his omniscience, that is his all knowing power and wisdom.
Not only is he all powerful, he is all wise and all knowing. He knows everything to do with man and friend. May I just remind you, he knows all about your life too. He's kept an unabridged record of your life, knows everything you've ever done. He knows where you were last night, he knows what you were doing. And he loves you.
And he wants you to be saved tonight. And then in the third chapter, the verse that I read, 13 we have another attribute of the Lord Jesus, and that is his omnipresence, the fact that he was not only in heaven, he was on earth at the same time. For he is all present everywhere. While he was speaking with Nicodemus that night He was in heaven. He is everywhere. He is a divine person and a savior.
How wonderful the Lord Jesus was now Speaking of the glory of his person.
Then he goes on and speaks in verse 14 of his work, and he points back to an incident in the Old Testament that Nicodemus should have known of and did, I believe. And that is the story of Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness, and he alludes to that as being that correlates with that, with the fact that the Lord Jesus himself was going to be lifted up on the cross and die at the end of his life. And so this brings before us the work of Christ on the cross.
This is the first reference to it I believe in the gospel.
The Lord Jesus knew that that would be the end of his life in this world.
And what was that work that he accomplished at the cross? Well, it was there that God took up the whole question of sin once and for all and forever, and settled it for his own glory and for the blessing of man. Jesus Christ came into this world to be a savior, to be the sin bearer, and was there in those hours of darkness on the cross that God meted out the judgment for sin and for sinners who would receive him as their Savior. God, who knew our sins, laid them on him, all of them.
And he bore them all under the judgment of God. And there was in his death on the cross and in those atoning sufferings that he passed through a full payment rendered to God for the whole outbreak of sin and the creation. This is what the Bible calls propitiation. And yes, the claims of divine justice were satisfied by all what the Lord Jesus passed through as a sacrifice for sin.
And that has given God the liberty to be able to come out to men freely, and to offer a pardon and forgiveness to whosoever will, because the price of sin was paid. And for every person that comes to Christ and receives them as a savior, they can know him as their substitute, The one who has taken their place under judgment and has borne in his body their sins. Isn't that wonderful? So now he brings before Nicodemus.
His work that He would accomplish. But yet there is one more thing, as I said, and that is to believe that testimony. It's not enough that the Lord Jesus has made a provision that we could be saved by going to the cross. We have to do something about that in the sense that we have to believe that testimony. So the Lord goes on in verse 15 and says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. And so now Nicodemus has heard words whereby he could have eternal life by believing.
On what? The Lord Jesus.
Who in the Lord Jesus is and what the Lord Jesus was about to do upon the cross?
And these two things, I say friends, are what are so necessary that a person get ahold of and understand that they should have the gift of eternal life. And so the Lord Jesus goes on and says, 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. Yes, he tells him now the motive for why God would ever do this and make this wonderful provision for man is because God so loved the world.
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And friend let you remember these words were not said after God put man in the world.
No. They were said 4000 years after God looked down upon the history of man, which was nothing but sin and corruption and violence. He could say God so loved the world. You might think that well maybe he could have said that in the Garden of Eden. God so loved the world.
Or in those early years after Adam was expelled from the Garden. But no, it was after 4000 years.
Of God looking down upon fallen guilty man during his own will and sin.
And violence and corruption. He could say God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. You know there's a verse in the book of Job, chapter 34. It tells us that if God chose to gather his breath and his spirit to himself and thought only of himself and retracted his breath and his spirit to himself, that all flesh.
Would perish alike immediately.
Because the very existence of this world as it goes on is dependent on the power of God himself. God could have looked down, you know, friend, and said, I'm going to pull the plug on this whole world because it's so filled with sin and men are so dishonored. He could have thought of himself and he would have been righteous. He would have been just rather to do that. But we're here to tell your friends that God did not think only of himself. He thought of you and he thought of me and he loved you with an everlasting love.
And He did not pull the plug, so to speak, in this old world. Instead, he reached down and took the very dearest object of his bosom. The Lord Jesus Christ is only begotten Son and sent him into this world to be the Savior, to show men how interested He is in their salvation. So friends were here to tell you tonight that we're talking about a God that loves you with an infinite love so great that he was willing to send his Son to be a sacrifice for you that you could get saved.
And enter heaven and have eternal life. That's how much God loves you.
Yes, God loves you, but he hates your sins, and your sins need to be put away. And the way they get put away, friends, is coming to the Lord Jesus Christ and receiving him as your Savior and believing that on the cross he took your place under the judgment of God and has settled that question forever.
And wouldn't it be right that we should give him our thanks for doing that? And so, right now, here in this audience tonight, if you'd like to be saved, you can send up a swift prayer tonight and thank him for dying for you. Thank him for loving you, that he would spare his son to come into this world. And what did it cost his son? That you might be saved. That I might be saved all the untold agonies of Calvary when he was forsaken of God and under the judgment of God.
Because he loved you, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And he loves you too. Friends, He loves you so much He doesn't want to see you go on in your life. Because there's a time coming when you're going to have to give an account to God for the way you have behaved. And if you have not been saved, you have not had the sin question taken care of. You're going to have to bear the judgment of your own sins, because God is a just God, and every sin and transgression has to receive a just recompense of reward.
Tells us. And so either you're going to have to get right with God in an acceptable substitute, Jesus Christ the Savior, or you'll have to bear your own sins. And it makes me not happy at all to tell you that there is such a place as hell. That's a place that God had made for the devil and his angels. He had no thought that men could ever end up that we should end up there. But there are so many men that have no interest in the things of God, and what is going to happen is that they are going to end in that place. Don't let it happen to you when God has made such a provision as this.
How wonderful. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son two parts to this verse. We might say verse 16, God's part and your part.
First two things with regard to God. God so loved that He gave. God did the loving and the giving. Now your part is the latter part of the verse. Now whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You do the bleeding and the having. God has done the loving and the giving. You can do the bleeding and the having. How wonderful, How simple.
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You know this verse has been broken up so wonderfully in this way. God. Well, there's the greatest person.
So loved. There's the greatest motive the world. There's the greatest amount of people, some 6 billion. Now we understand.
That he gave. There's the greatest act, his only begotten son. There's the greatest gift.
That whosoever there is the greatest invitation that God is offering believeth in him there is the greatest simplicity.
All you have to do is believe.
Should not perish. There is the greatest deliverance. But have everlasting life. There's the greatest possession. But you know, it says believeth in him. There's the greatest simplicity. Even a child can believe in a simple way on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, one time many years ago, we were down in the downtown of Vancouver and we were passing our gospel tracts and with a brother that was newly converted and he didn't have a great depth of knowledge of the scriptures, but he knew the Lord Jesus loved him. And that's enough to be able to tell other people. I'll tell you.
We came across an intellectual man. He said I have been in, I thought he said 58 countries in this world and he was very proud of it. He had new 7 or 8 languages and this man was incredible. He was a very well educated man and he couldn't stand the idea that we told him that he needed to get saved and he was a Sinner. Well, I tried to explain to him in my, I guess in my theological way, whatever. And I was getting nowhere. Well, this brother that was with me, he looked at him and he was so earnest with him and he said, man, all you have to do is believe.
And I'm telling you, he said through two or three times, All you have to do is believe. That's all he could say. He didn't know much more. All you have to do is believe. And all my intellectual argument with this man was getting nowhere. This dear brother next to me he's pleading, was just reaching right into that man's heart. And he couldn't stand it anymore. And he turned on his heels and he walked away because the simplicity of it was too good.
Too simple for his great mind. Now friend, what's your excuse for being a Sinner and not yet have been saved?
You know, the Bible tells us that my spirit shall not always strive with man.
There's a day coming that the Lord is going to bring this world into judgment, to cleanse it all together, to set up for the righteous reign of Christ himself. And he wants you to close in with that offer of salvation before it's too late. And there's only one person that can give you that salvation. It's Jesus Christ himself, and the blood that he has shed upon the cross has made that full provision.
Many years ago there was an old sister that was in the hospital. She knew the Lord well and she was getting near death's door. And as she was getting to the last, the nurses realized that she was coming to the end. And so they called for the chaplain of the hospital to come. The man came into the room and he said, I've come to forgive you your sins. He was a Catholic.
She said what?
He said. I've come to forgive you your sins.
He said. Could I see your hand?
He didn't know what she was talking about. She stuck out his hand. She felt his hand, She put it down and she said, you imposter.
The only one that can forgive my sins has got a nail print in his hand.
And friends is still true tonight. The only one that's got the power to forgive your sins has got a nail print in his hand. And he received those wounds because he died upon the cross for you. Well, I trust that you will come in to the blessing by receiving the Savior here tonight. One more verse 17. God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Now there's the first time we read of the word saved in this account.
He's spoken about being born again. He's spoken about eternal life. Now he's speaking about saved, and that refers to deliverance. Deliverance for every kind of danger that there might be. And the danger that we're concerned about here tonight, friend, is the danger of your soul, but your soul, the peril that your soul is in, the danger of passing eternally ruined into Satan's hell. That's what the word perish means when it says should not perish but have everlasting life.
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People make an acronym out of that word. Perish, PERISH, passed, eternally ruined into Satan's hell. Sometimes your people saying sinners hell no, God didn't make sinners hell. He made a hell for Satan and his angels. Sinners get there because they refuse the gospel of God's grace. But God is not willing that any should perish but at all should come to repentance. And repentance means to have a changed mind about your ideas and about what you think about.
God wants you to have a changed mind tonight and to turn to Christ and to be saved. That 17th verse tells us this one grand thing, that when the Lord Jesus came into this world, he did not come to be a judge. He came to be a savior, and he wants to save your soul. But I'll tell you this, there are other verses in this book that I could read to you that their Christ is going to come again, what we call the Second coming. And when he comes at his appearing, he is going to judge the world in righteousness in that day.
And then that day, if you are found in your sins, he is going to have to cast you.
Into outer darkness, Yes, my spirit shall not always strive with man, he has said. There's a day coming, a day of reckoning when you're going to have to get right, going to stand right before God. And if you're not yet saved, you're going to pass eternally ruined into Satan's hell. May God give you the grace to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ tonight before it's too late. Is there someone here that would like to be saved tonight?
I'm not asking you to come down here and have an altar call or some Christians do or anything like that.
But as I pray.
You pray. You send up a swift little prayer in your own language to him and tell him that you want to be saved and to be a Christian, and to know what it is to have the joy of your sins forgiven.
Now let's pray.
Open Mtg.
Open—B. Christensen, R. Bauman, S. Jacobsen
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250.
Before we pray, brethren, could we look at the Book of Psalms?
Let's look at a verse in Psalms and a verse in the book of Acts.
Psalms 23.
Verse 2.
He maketh me.
To lie down.
In green pastures.
He leadeth me.
Beside.
Is still waters.
Acts Chapter 13.
I'd like to read part of verse 15 and 16, and I would like to read it from Mr. Darby's translation.
Starting at the end of verse 15.
Brethren.
If ye have any word of exhortation to the people, speak.
And Paul?
Rising up.
And making a sign with the hand said.
Israelites. But then this phrase, ye that fear, God hearken, Let's pray.
They come up before.
Everyone here this afternoon but.
Over the past few years, the Lord has.
Laid a burden on my heart concerning the lack of shepherding.
And I speak myself.
As one who has failed in this.
Just recently.
Number of brethren in our assembly.
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Got together and composed a letter.
To a young brother who left the Lord's stable.
And in this letter.
We acknowledge that we had failed in our capacity.
As pastors and shepherds.
I believe that there was that realization.
That if we had acted in the fear of the Lord and not in the fear of men.
That this young brother would still possibly be gathered together.
At the Lord's Table.
Might we just look at a few verses this afternoon?
One of the first verses that I would like to look at is in the book of Jeremiah.
Chapter 38.
Our brother mentioned.
The weakness and the sad state.
In Jeremiah's time.
And in the chapter following the chapter that our brother Chuck read.
We read that there were those that were not valiant for the truth.
But God raised up one at this time, and that one.
Was Jeremiah.
Was he an understood man?
I believe what we read in chapter 38 would indicate that he was not.
Understood, and not merely understood, but there were those.
That stood against him, to oppose him.
And in verse four, we see that there was an outright lie.
That was told concerning Jeremiah, and let's just read that verse.
Verse four of chapter 38 of Jeremiah. Therefore the Princess saith unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death, referring to Jeremiah.
For thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city.
And the hands of all the people in speaking such words unto them.
I mean, they were referring to such words. I believe that they were referring to the words of encouragement that Jeremiah was seeking to give to those in that land.
And then they go on to say, For this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.
We see that this was an outright lie, and we see.
Jeremiah.
Imprisoned.
But we see something of the character of Jeremiah.
He spoke words of encouragement and so it should be with us. We likewise should seek to speak words of encouragement to those roundabout, whether it's a word of encouragement to the young.
Or a word of encouragement to the old.
I believe the Lord would have us do so. Let's go to the book of Nehemiah.
I'd like to read.
A few verses in chapter 2. Our brother Jim referred to several chapters in Nehemiah the other day.
But in verse 10.
There's mention made again of this King's Cup era.
Nehemiah. There were those that sought to oppose him.
And verse 10 it says, when sand bow up the horror night. And Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man.
For what purpose? To seek the welfare of the children of Israel? A man come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
And if we read further on in the chapter, we'll see something of that ruin. We see the walls in disrepair, we see the gates in disrepair, we see the towers in disrepair, and later on we see a sad mixture.
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The children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod and half in the speech of the Jews. Language.
Such was a stake in the day of Nehemiah, but it's encouraging to see that there was one that sought the welfare of the children of Israel.
In Genesis, one of the earliest questions that is asked am I my brother's keeper?
Am I my brother's keeper? And that's a certain question.
To each one of us today.
In One Corinthians chapter 12.
We read that.
The members should have the same care.
One for another that the member should have the same.
Care.
In Two Corinthians.
Chapter 8 we read of Titus.
And it says of Titus, Titus had the same.
Earnest care, The same earnest care. I believe in another.
Translation.
It said that he cared with genuine feeling.
We do a lot today out of pretense.
We're not real.
And I think that the world.
Can tell this?
I think those in the assembly can tell this as well.
But may we have that same earnest care the Titus had?
For his brother.
Also in Two Corinthians.
We have another expression used is inward affection.
Is inward affection.
And as our brother Chuck was speaking and referring to those verses in Second Corinthians Chapter 11.
I again was especially impressed.
Might we turn to that chapter? 2 Corinthians Chapter 11?
We have an accounting of what the apostle Paul suffered.
We have an account of the shipwrecks, the beatings.
But then in verse 28 it says besides those things that are without.
That which cometh upon me daily.
The care.
Of the churches.
The care of the churches.
Is this our concern? Is this your concern and your assembly? Is this my concern in my assembly?
I speak to my own heart.
But it was something that.
Was a burden to the Apostle Paul.
I don't intend to be brief, but I would like to just refer to one other scripture.
In the Book of Astor.
Esther is a very interesting little book.
We do not have the name of God specifically mentioned in this book, but we see God working behind the scenes.
We see Esther placed providentially on the throne.
And another individual comes to the forefront in this book.
It wasn't Haman the one who sought to honor himself, but we have the lowly despised 1 Mordecai, and Mordecai, I believe, was working behind the scenes.
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And sometimes the work of a pastor or shepherd might not be the most prominent. It might be a work behind the scenes. There may be some that don't appreciate that work, but it's a valued work. And so we have this statement at the end of the book of Aster.
Verse three of chapter 10. For Mordecai the Jew was next unto a Hazueras.
And great among the Jews.
And accepted among the multitude of his brethren.
Seeking the wealth of his people.
And speaking peace to all his seed.
May that same spirit that characterized Nehemiah.
That characterized Titus.
That characterize the Apostle Paul.
That same spirit here that characterized Nehemiah be found amongst us.
In the Old Testament we read of shepherds or pastors that did not care for the sheep.
That just enriched themselves, and in John's Gospel we read of the higher length.
When the time of trouble came, what happened to the hireling, the hireling plague? But we are thankful, therefore, that Good Shepherd, that Good Shepherd that gave his life for the sheep. Well, may we just consider these things and may we seek to be an encouragement.
To those around about us, may we speak words of encouragement.
May we do acts of encouragement and we know.
That the whole body of Christ thus will be edified.
Genesis chapter one, verse one.
In the beginning, God created.
Simple statement of creation.
First, John, don't turn to it. One one that which was from the beginning. That's incarnation.
John 11.
In the beginning was that's beyond all imagination. So you'll have creation, incarnation, and beyond all imagination. He always was, you know.
A marvelous simplicity here. In the beginning, God created. It's so emphatic, positive, and direct that there's no room for man's reasoning or objections. Nothing but believe it by faith. If you don't, it'll be a muddle for the rest of your life until you believe it by faith. And all was in God's thoughts and purpose.
Before anything was, that is.
That's a beautiful thought, isn't it? You were included. Everyone that belongs to Christ was included by name in the thoughts of God. Before anything was, that is.
Moreover.
The church, the formation of the church, was specifically in God's thoughts. You get that in Psalm 139. I'm not going to turn to it, but you can. You can read it yourself some other time. And now we'll turn to Proverbs 8, Proverbs 8.
And we'll read from verse. And Proverbs 8 we'll read from verse.
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Well, you can hardly know where to start in Proverbs 8.
26 While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of this world, when he prepared the heavens, I was there, and when he set a compass upon the face of the depth, and when he established the clouds above, and when he strengthened the fountains of the deep.
When He gave to the sea His decree, and when the water should not pass His commandment, and when He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before him.
Rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth. And my delights were with the sons of men.
This is Jehovah speaking.
Jesus is Jehovah. We can't say Jehovah is Jesus, but we can say Jesus is Jehovah. This is he speaking.
His delights were with the sons of men. Children of men could be just about as well, you know.
The one speaking is the one that said I wisdom dwell. That's who's speaking.
Rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth. My delights.
We're with the sons of men.
Everything we enjoy, brethren, today of this Marvelous Universe.
And our Earth, with its stars and the planets and a great variety of grasses and the plants and the shrubs, whatever trees and streams and rivers, ponds and oceans, you could keep going. And the living things in the sea and the living creatures on the land and in the air in that beautiful and.
Really. Of the rocks and minerals and all by the word of his mouth.
He spake and it was he commanded. It stood fast and we're told.
Let all that inhabit, all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
For he spake and it was done. He commanded. It stood fast. You stand in awe of God.
Do you fear God?
I'm talking about a reverential respect of who he is.
You know, unless one fears God, he can't be saved. He has to realize that God is.
Don't have to understand all the details, but he has to realize that God is, You know, Psalm 19 brings enough in the first verses to save any soul in Africa. India. Doesn't matter if they believe it, God will give them the rest. That's the truth. Many have gotten saved before missionaries reached them or when God marvelously moved a missionary in because they believed.
Psalm 4, Psalm 19, One to four. All right, I won't get into that now.
We'll we'll turn to Genesis 2 again now Genesis 2.
And.
Let's see.
I'll start with verse 4.
Nice they got them lined up.
Verse four. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth in heaven.
And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For the Lord God had not caused it to reign upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground, but there went up amidst from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
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And the Lord God formed a man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, And man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden.
Planted a garden.
Everything else was by the word of his mouth. But you know, when you plant a garden that's very special. Did you ever think of that? Plant it a garden. You know, there exists many fabulous gardens. As I traveled around the world, I enjoyed them.
Food cart I think are Bouchard Garden, Victoria Island, I think over there in British Columbia or someplace. But I was there, didn't see it all, couldn't see it all.
Gardens and you know.
There was an Orchid gardens of Singapore. It's just fabulous. Not one of each kind of orchid. A garden of each kind of orchid in the whole world. Everyone represented there. Ottawa, Canada, Pella, Iowa at the time of tulips. Fabulous, colorful gardens of tulips. I've seen them both out of this world, you know.
Canadian and England small front yard gardens. Have you seen them?
They're really all original, something wonderful about those just little things with walls. But they're so beautiful gardens, you know, they're everywhere in New Mexico, Arizona, cat dye and desert gardens. They balloon. It's really beautiful. And then there's the botanical gardens. Every place I go there's botanical gardens.
In all the countries and states of this United States, there's gardens and, you know, one other thing.
There's an air garden, I don't know if you've seen them, but all the plants are not in the ground, they're in the air.
And they just grow beautifully. Air gardens. Well, I just thought it's beautiful to think of that. But God when he created.
Everything was perfect. If you could have a picnic, then it couldn't be spoiled by rain, that's for sure. It never rained. Everything watered just perfectly from the earth up. And so it was lovely creation. But you know, that didn't satisfy God. It said God planted a garden in Eden. Now Eden, of course, means a place of delight.
That would have been enough for Adam and Eve, wouldn't you think? But not for our Father, no. He wanted something just very special for Adam and Eve. And so.
He planted a garden. I think about planting, you know, that's different than creation.
You know a garden. Every garden has four peas. Their first.
Planned. They're purposed and planned, and then they're placed and planted. That's what God did for Adam. He wanted him to enjoy this wonderful, special thing in Eden.
Who would think Adam would sin with a thing like that, You know, But man does not enjoy all God did. Why? Why doesn't he? Well, Isaiah, let's see 66 three. They have chosen their own way, that's why they don't enjoy it. It says in Proverbs, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death. That's what they choose.
They weren't happy in that beautiful garden in Eden, in creation. Think about that.
Now in Isaiah 65, I'll carry that one thought further.
Isaiah 65 and verse two I think. Isaiah.
65.
And verse 2.
I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way that was not good after their own thoughts of people that provoked me to anger continually to my face. That sacrifice in gardens. Think about that. These are peoples gardens you know.
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And burneth incense upon altars of brick.
Manufactured by Man. Man's altar today Man's table. And not of stone. It's a brick.
Which remain among the graves and lodge in the monuments, which eat swines, flesh and broth of abominable things is in their vessels. You know it says in Isaiah, I'm not going to turn to all these because somebody else needs a turn. But Isaiah one, I think it's the 2nd to 4th verse. I'm not sure they have rebelled against me, says the Lord. They are gone away backwards.
Now that's what they've done after God did all that in creation and planting a garden for Adam and Eve. Well, turn to Matthew chapter 15, I think Matthew.
Chapter 15.
And.
Verse. I think it's 13.
In 13 But Jesus answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.
There are those in the gardens that were not planted by God, and they'll be rooted up. Who's he talking about? He's talking about the Pharisees here, the religious leaders of that day.
If they're not planted by God in the gardens of the Lord, they'll be rooted up. They won't last. Now in John 17 it says, you know, that's the Lords prayer. The Lord thank God, what for them whom thou hast given me.
Everyone that's planted is a gift of God to His Son.
Are you planted by God? I want to use another thought on that one Corinthians 12. I think it is. That's the body of Christ, chapter one Corinthians 12 and.
I'll find it here quick.
And verse 18.
But now hath God set.
Now that word is very important.
Set means purposely and permanently done. It's the same thought as planted by God. Now has God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it has pleased him.
We're talking about plants in these gardens. It's very beautiful. You know, in the Song of Solomon, I shouldn't say that the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's.
You know boys and girls, he wrote 1004 songs, don't you? And the Spirit of God chose just one to put right in the heart of the Word of God.
That's right, rejected all the others, but this one is the Song of Songs.
Anyways, in the Song of Songs, they're called Lilies. You know, when the bride was saved, her name became Lily, and every believer's name is Lily.
As according to Song of Solomon.
Isn't that beautiful? What's Bubble Lily is pure white. It's beautiful to look apart.
That's everyone that's in Christ.
You're white, all a beautiful to look upon. Isn't that nice? That's why God lets you be at His table, the Lord's table. He doesn't see you as the Sinner saved by grace. He sees you as part of His Son, and He sees you in all the preciousness and beauty of His Son.
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Your lilies, Well, all right, those are in the garden. So he says. Blow north wind and South breezes on my gardens so that they produce fruit and fragrance for me.
Isn't that something he says Blow north wind? You know the assemblies are his gardens. I guess you've got that by now, didn't you? Anyway, I'll tell you if you don't know it.
He blows on assemblies, he gives the problems and troubles. So the assemblies have the best prayer meeting they ever had. Everybody's together on their knees. We experience that just not long ago in Cottonwood.
We placed everything on the table and we prayed to the Lord about it.
You know, North wind hit us hard. Yeah, it did.
Oh my. Within the day we had the answer.
By surprise? Of course not.
And then he says in the South breeze, because he knows just the proportion to bring fragrance of the lilies in his gardens. And that lovely, he does it. He takes care of it that way. But I don't want to get off on a tangent. Turn to John chapter 19, John's Gospel chapter 19 and verse 41. Now this is an important verse.
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a guard, and in that garden a new sepulcher, wherein was never man laid.
Isn't that a beautiful verse when you have the cross in view? There was a garden, you know. Our Lord, when he was crucified, was provided a garden, and in that garden a sepulcher for him to be buried, wherein never man laid.
God took care of that. Yeah. Isn't that beautiful? The Father had prepared it all, and it was ready for his beloved Son when he died. And he included was a rich man's sepulchre. I think that is so beautiful. Isaiah 53, nine.
They appointed his grave with the wicked.
But he was with the rich in his death. God made sure that a rich man's sepulchre. Doesn't that make your heart just?
Beat and beat and beat with joy. It does mine. How wonderful. Now every prophecy, every type and thing in the Old Testament was fulfilled in Jesus Christ death, and in the garden and in the new sepulchre, in a rich man's place for internment, and where never man was laid. That's Old Testament truth.
Oh, how could the Jews miss this?
How did they miss it?
They use this.
They had their own way. They didn't follow the word of God. They didn't believe it all either.
That's terrible, isn't it? Now, in John? Well, I'm going to say this. This garden.
Was not such a garden as the Lord himself provided for man? It wasn't like that, no.
Because there was years, about 6000 years, of the effects and ravages of sin.
And so that's where God had to put the garden, whereas the Lord put the garden for man in Eden before sin came in.
What a beautiful gardener would have been, but but God made sure his son had a garden. But you know, there's something and I believe it's John 2015. I think the verse is this, there was a gardener.
You know what? That's the only place in this book.
I'd emphasize this book. I don't know about other translations, I don't play with them.
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But in this book, you hold your hand. It's the only place gardener is mentioned.
Never wonder why.
I'll tell you why, because there was weeds in the garden and there was thorns and thistles, the result of sin, and there had to be a gardener to keep down those and take care of the garden.
But thank God there was a garden for the Lord when he died, a place where he could go and be a part from the din and evil of this world and be in communion with his Father.
Isn't that nice? He provided a beautiful garden for man, but God provided a garden for him.
But it was in this world.
This sin cursed world and they had to have a gardener.
And I repeat, that's the only place you're going to find Gardner in this book. And I'll have to always say that because I don't read other translations. I don't know that. All right.
Let me see, let's go to Song of Songs just for one reference. That will help Song of Songs before I think Song of Songs.
Chapter 4.
All right, Twelve Song of Songs, chapter 4, verse 12.
A garden. Enclosed is my sister, my spouse of spring. Shut up. A fountain sealed. Who's he talking about? The church. I know the church isn't in the Old Testament.
But it's pointing to the church primarily. It's the congregation of Israel.
But in type, it's the church today.
Notice.
A garden enclosed.
Isn't that nice? It's protected from the defilement of this world. Is my spouse a spring? Shut up. A fountain sealed. It's enclosed. It's protected from defilement. That's what he thinks of his garden, and I think it's beautiful. Notice 15. A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, streams from Lebanon.
The place of whiteness, Purity.
But he has many gardens.
Continuous flow of fragrance to the Lord Jesus Christ.
From his gardens. Isn't that nice? Are you a plant in the garden?
Yeah, your your, your purpose, your plan and your plan to don't think you aren't, you know, turn over to 8 and 13 in the same book. Song, last song, eight. I think it's 13.
Thou that dwelleth in the gardens, does the Lord Jesus dwell in the gardens?
Hey, where two or three are gathered together under my name, where am I?
In the midst of them, He dwells there. If you ever get that realization, that's where He wants to be.
In a garden God prepared for him today. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's now at the right hand of God.
His father, he has gardens and I think it's beautiful. He prepared a garden for Adam, but he has gardens now for himself, and it's filled with lilies in which he finds all his delights and in which he may dwell.
He can only dwell in a holy place, remember that.
That's very important. Now note at his death there were disciples. It said all his disciples forsook him. Yes, there were disciples. I think it's nice. However, they were secret disciples until then.
This is exercising, isn't it?
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I'm just going to say it. Secret disciples.
Isn't that a terrible name? Secret disciples. One was Nicodemus.
His name means victorious. Why? Only one reason. Christ is risen. That's his victory. Nicodemus didn't that nice? Well, he was a learned leader of the Jews, probably the best taught down here. Jesus confronted. He was an honorable counselor.
He was part of the Sanhedrin.
The High Court among Israel.
Quite a man. Joseph of Arimathea was the other. Joseph means ad thou Jehovah.
Don't forget Jesus is Jehovah.
And Arimathea means a high place or the hill of Calvary. That's the only way you can add Jehovah or Jesus in your life. The hill of Calvary. Now these two men had such beautiful names.
It's hard to believe that they were saved, but they were secret disciples. Isn't that hard to believe?
Are you a secret disciple? I hope done they're here. You know, hide around the back and don't let anybody know you're going to meet the Lord.
Or they say where you go every Sunday morning, you tell them what church you go to or that you're going to church. I hope not.
No, no, we are the church. Never forget that we're going to meeting. Don't be ashamed of that.
I have many that say I don't want to offend my neighbor so I just tell them I'm going to church.
But you are offending the Lord, I say, what's the Who's your neighbor?
The Lord doesn't want us to do such things, you know? That's awful. That's off the point, all right.
Both of these men were secret disciples, but they were members of the Sanhedrin, the High Consul, the ruling body in Israel. Think of that.
It is not what you are. It is not how rich you may be.
It is not how much you know that means anything to the Lord.
But both of these men had faith. Isn't that nice?
And if you have faith the Lord is going to use you, He's going to use you. You may not know.
He's going to use you if you have faith.
He'll make sure you're indwelt by the Spirit of God. These men weren't, but the Spirit was upon them and they used the Lord used them and they're beautiful. Well.
You know, there are disciples today. Now I don't go so far to saying every St. is a Nazarite. In fact, I go so far as saying there are no Nazarites today. OK, we seek to have a Nazarite character.
All right, but there are many disciples, followers of Jesus.
But I want to say this, some are empty professions only.
They're not real. They're disciples. I mean, we're Christians too, just like everybody else in the United States.
What a statement, huh?
Well.
That's John 664 to 66. I think I better read it so I don't just say something and I can't back up John six. I think it's 64 to 66.
66 is the final, you know, 666. All right, John, 6 and 64.
But there are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except that we're given unto him by my Father.
Who gives faith to everyone that he plans and now 6666. Is that a familiar number here it is from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with Jesus. That's enough said. I don't talk on that. You just take it. The second group, our disciples indeed, not profession only.
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Indeed.
I think that's beautiful, don't you? They're real. They're vital, They're useful to God and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's 831. Might as well turn to it. I wasn't going to try to watch the time. I don't even know where the clock is. OK, I'll hurry, 831.
I just wasn't going to use these, but I think I shouldn't just say disciples indeed.
Eight of John 31. Let's see.
All right.
And many of the people. I hope this is where it is or at my end said it. Or 8:30.
Pages stick together. No, it didn't sound right. Pardon me. 31 OK then, said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him. If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed?
It's so easy. It's a clear definition, isn't it? Was it safe in Revelation 3 for Philadelphia? They kept my word, that's all. Wasn't much, was it? Do you keep his word or what you like in it? That's the problem. What you like, you know?
Well, it's enough of that, all right. There is disciples, indeed, the third group, secret disciples, you know, there's mental hindrances. There was mental hindrances to Joseph and to Nicodemus.
They said if you say you believe in Christ.
Jesus, you're kicked out of the synagogue.
It's a mental problem, isn't it? It's not no problem to Christ because.
When the beggar? I shouldn't say that when the blind man born blind was kicked out of the synagogue, he ended up right in the hands of Jesus.
I hope that if any of you are mixed up in such things, you're kicked out quick because you'll end up in the hands of Jesus. Isn't it nice? Well, I I hope they all come out.
Turn to Luke 9. I was going to use some others here, but a little lower time. Luke nine. Chapter nine I think is at the end. Luke 9.
I thought I have a drink of water.
Like I have a drink of water to flip a page.
No, OK.
Let's see, it's verse 57. And it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
A lot of you have that same thought, I hope.
And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests.
But the Son of Man has not wherewith to lay his head.
And he said to another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my Father. And Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead.
But go thou and preach the Kingdom of God. And another also said.
Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at the at home, at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God. These three had mental problems, that's all. The word of God clears it all up, doesn't it?
I don't think his father was dead now. I shouldn't bring my thoughts in. But the elder son had to stay until the father was buried. So he was going to be there a long time. He wasn't just overnight. You know, this is the way man is. You know, I have a duty to my father. I get rid of it by saying carbon.
Don't have to take care of them anymore. That's man's way. All right. I shouldn't take time on that. Turn to Luke 22. I'm going. I'm really getting worked up here and I'll be done a minute. Luke 22.
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You know the most important thing?
To our Father is where and how we should worship. Never forget that.
The most important once you're saved, is where will you worship?
Now in Luke 22.
At first I'll say Jeremiah 42.
The remnant came to the prophet and said.
Where and what?
They want to know where they should be and what they should do.
And you know the Lord answered them, but not till 10 days. He could have answered them right away. I don't want to take a lot of time on that. You read it Jeremiah 42 But He did answer them.
He said stay here where you are, in the land of my choosing. It was beautiful, wasn't it? They said we will not stay.
And then I what did they ask for? Well, go on, I won't say anymore. The reminiscent and he's told them now in 817 John 817. Don't turn to it. If we had it brought out in these meetings. If any man will do my will, he shall know the doctrine.
I can't think of anything more simple, can you?
No, there isn't anything more simple. You don't have to study, take books home at night or anything. You'll know the doctrine if you do the will of God, That's all.
Now Luke 22, you know, verse 7, then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed, all before it says the Passover shall be killed. And it wasn't they, they forgot so many Passovers, so many years. It was ridiculous. But must hear why absolutely essential. That's what must means.
When the Passover must be killed?
And what did he say to the disciples?
Go prepare. And what did they say? Verse nine? I think it is where.
That's so simple, isn't it? And what did he say there?
Go and they say where and he says there and then it says.
Verse 13 They went and found, and they made ready.
You know, it's so simple.
Everyone who's gathered when a circuitous route, I'm surprised I used to keep a list of all I met who it's impossible for them to have found the place except by the Spirit of God using the word of God.
I met one up in the Maritimes at what is now.
Dartmouth, but it was then called something else and it was back in the.
Hinder part of the province and it was in the back of a group of stores and you had to walk up about 20 steps and then it was one room back there. And I'll tell you, nobody could find it except the Spirit of God with the word of God guided them. I talked to a man who was there.
But I better not get into that story. It's a long one. At any rate, this is it. They went, they found, and they made ready. What do you do to make ready?
Be there simple, isn't it? And when the hour was come, verse 14.
Now I'm going to just say I'm using J&D. He placed himself at the table.
Not sat down with his disciples or apostles, He placed himself at the table.
I think that's so precious, don't you?
Well, in the midst really. I better be careful here. I don't want to go too long.
Go to, I'll finish. Go to Isaiah. I'd like to spend some time on Luke 22, but there's no time Isaiah.
Chapter 30. I think Isaiah 30. I think I better finish here pretty soon. I'm sorry I'm going so long here. Isaiah 30.
01:00:05
All right and verse.
18 I think, therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you.
You know, isn't that beautiful? He'll wait so he can show grace. He'll have mercy. That's what we've received. And it says in Deuteronomy 30, I think it's verse 15, you can all turn yourself. See, I have set before you or thee this day, life and death, blessing and cursing. And you know, the Lord doesn't leave it there. You all know the rest, don't you? He tells you what to do.
He doesn't give you a choice, he tells you what to do.
Choose life that thou may live.
Into the first portion, Ezekiel the 14th chapter.
Ezekiel the 14th chapter and the 14th verse.
Even before we read it, that's the portion. And then there's one in Jeremiah 36.
In keeping with what our brother Bruce mentioned in connection with.
Someone that God raises up.
In a time of difficulty.
Have run.
We find in this verse that there are three men.
And we'll find in Jeremiah 36 a very difficult time. And there are three men that that the Spirit of God puts together, and he puts them together in a certain order.
It would be wise if we put someone else before ourselves, but if the Spirit of God has put names together in Scripture.
We don't scramble them. And so let's read Ezekiel 1414 and you'll see that each one of these people, these men were according to what our brother Bruce had brought out were.
A light shining for God in a difficult time. And they were not intimidated by others. They were not.
They were unwilling to bend to the circumstances in which they were, but so let's read it. Though these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness at the Lord God.
Random. We've picked Noah. I should be more careful. If you and I were doing it, it would have been random and I'm not sure that but what I would have put.
Done differently. So let's take it just as the word of God has given us. And isn't it beautiful that if we took each individual man that in his day he was a light and he was not dissuaded by the circumstances around him, but.
If you put the three together, what a beautiful picture of the sequence of a Christian's life, Noah, it's very, very clear that speaking to us of salvation and Daniel in connection with fidelity.
And that's all that's necessary. If I was composing it or if there was a consensus. Yeah, that's beautiful. You're saved. And then there is the life of Daniel. Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose. True.
Then there's a job.
Some of you in your assembly may attempt, and it certainly is the Word of God, to take up the book of Job and to think of all of those verses and all that God is allowing Job to go through with his three friends, but to think of the end. And you know, brethren, there is certainly salvation for each of us because that's the way we get into the ark.
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Is Christ?
And Daniel what a wonderful story is the story of Daniel fidelity and he had an influence on others, but when it came to the.
The prayer.
And being put in the lions den, he was alone, but his three friends were separate from him. And so we have an influence on one another. And may it be in the spirit that our brother Bruce spoke of that we have that influence. And I can say Amen to what he said and apply it to myself that there hasn't been that spirit. But we can desire it, can't we now?
We do have a few moments.
Noah, Daniel and Job. It's a picture.
From beginning to end of what you and I as believers experience salvation, there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And Daniel you desire because of the Spirit of God living inside. You have a desire to be a Daniel.
Not standing here saying that I'm an example of a Daniel, but I would say that for each one of us.
There is that desire to be faithful and we that's all that's necessary. I'm not going to have any problems in life. It doesn't say that even Daniel had his problems, but when we bring in Job, we bring in a level of intensity of what God does in each of our lives because he wants.
Us to be completely rid.
Of what is of cell, I know some of you by your last name. I know your last names and I know my last name. And we all stem from Adam. And so we haven't any one of us anything to be too proud of. But you know, God took Job and he allowed circumstances in that man's life to work out and to result. And what does God do today? And I say this very tenderly.
I'm not here to tell you.
Or any family. Why? A certain thing has happened and we've prayed for Valerie. I'm not about to talk to her husband that I know or her brother, who's right over here. I know exactly why. Forget it. I won't even propose the rest of the sentence. But we know that in the language of the New Testament that we're being conformed to the image.
Of his son and that work is going to be complete when we see him So that's Noah, Daniel and Jobe. Now let's turn to Jeremiah, the 36th chapter.
Now there's a meaning to the names of those three, but we won't go back to to try to pick it up.
Now Jeremiah 36 and verse 25.
Talk about difficult times. And it's a time when it would have been very well to have let the king do as he pleased, because he was taking a role of what Jeremiah had written, or at least had been written by someone else for Jeremiah. And in the 22nd verse of Jeremiah 36, now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass that when Yehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife and cast it into the fire.
That was on the heart.
I don't want to believe that there was a circumstance that El Nathan on the 25th and De Lei and Gemariah had to endure.
It says in the 24th verse, Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king nor any of his servants that heard all these words.
01:10:06
Nevertheless, L Nathan and Delia and Gemmaria had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll, but he would not hear them now. What do these three names mean?
El Nathan means given of God. Delia means drawn or made free in Gemmaria means completed.
Isn't that also a beautiful picture of the pathway of the believer for you and for me?
Given of God, is there anything of faith in ourselves that.
That yes, I was born in a Christian family, my father faithfully, I could go on and it wouldn't be true, but that's not why I got saved. It was what God gave individually and then.
Made free once we're saved, God wants us to be.
Not in *******. And those verses in Hebrews 2. Now this is not meant to be very intense.
But I was disappointed that we didn't cover some of those last verses. Deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to *******. You know, whether it's the 7th of Romans or variations of those things, the Lord wants us to be drawn and made free. And then what about the first one of the verses in the first of Philippians that says he will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ? And so here is another.
Sequence of three men that God chose and put them in a certain order.
But I've left something out.
Left something very important. Let's turn. I think it's the 16th chapter of Jeremiah.
No, I'm not finding it.
26 chapter verse 22.
God has set the members of the body that has pleased him, and we are thankful for that member Jeremiah 26.
Same king.
Now let's read it now.
The parents of El Nathan gave him that name.
And they wanted him to be an example.
Of what God has given. And they must have been terribly disappointed if they knew about it. And starting with the 21St verse. And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the Princess heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when you ride you heard it. He was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt. And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, saying, Al Nathan the son of Akbar, and certain men with him into Egypt. And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king, who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.
Nevertheless, the hand of Hayachim, the son of Chapin, was with Jeremiah that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.
That ends the history, as far as you and I are concerned, of El Nathan. His parents had a hope for him, but it wasn't fulfilled. He was an accomplice to murder.
Is he an unlikely candidate for being one of the three in our 36th chapter he had he not only was restored and there may be individuals here that certainly I'm not trying to say that you were a murderer or an accomplice, but you may be restored after having missed the path.
Morally, spiritually encounter with being gathered to the Lord's name and you know the sweetness of restoration and you know God can use you. We'll use you is using you and so now let's turn back. Do we know what worked in El Nathan's life as a result of.
Of what we find in the 26th chapter and then we find in the 36 TH. I'm not sure we do. So let's go back to Jeremiah 36 and let's re emphasize these three men again in the spirit of what Bruce had mentioned. Maybe an extension of it, maybe a parallel, but I think there's something there. L Nathan.
01:15:19
He had been restored and he was an influence for that which was of God in a difficult time. I think it was the same king, but you know, he was faithful and then he was associated with a man whose name means drawn or made free, and Gemariah means completed. And so that's the pathway of the believer.
To think of the difficulty of a Noah.
A Daniel and a job. But now it's El, Nathan and Eli and Gemmaria.
And so we can say by the grace of God, that God puts certain ones together and you know, there may be failure.
As our brother Bruce suggested, but it doesn't mean that we can't be restored and useful and there can be others that will pick up and we can be associated with in our assembly and in the circumstances of life well.
That's all.
Three men.
Noah, Daniel and Job what a picture of our life as a believer salvation, fidelity, but that's not all he wants to winnow out what we are by nature and that's the book of Job all to think of the wonderful end and that's what the Lord wants for you and for me is to take every circumstance so that there is that purification so that.
It's more and more like his beloved son. And then in Jeremiah 36.
These three men, whose names mean.
Given of God, drawn or made free and completed. You know, brethren.
The pathway.
Is soon to be completed in the glory.
For he has said a little while, a very little while, and he that shall come, will come.
And will not delay.
Continue thou in the things that thou hast heard of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Soon he comes. Even so come, Lord Jesus.
#18 in the appendix.
Is it so?
Hard.
It seems like.
A achievement.
Why Do We Sin?
Children—E. Munck
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.
Will help us too, isn't that right?
Now the children's hymns are in the back of this folder, so if you have.
From the back, that would be great and we'll just start in.
OK. Have you got one, Luke?
Maybe someone else who got one. Which one? Number 44? We'll get on on to yours #44 that's a favorite. I can remember singing that when I was a little boy.
Now I can say of the children of men, nobody ever has called me before.
Strategy and.
Sun, whosoever said to be that, I am sure that he sent him for me.
Tell him again.
Smell it again.
Salvation Salary.
Boys and girls, I'd like to have you sing as loud as you can. You know, when you get old like me, your voice starts to sound like rusty iron, but your voices are nice and clear and we should hear you sing.
So help us, Luke, which one did you have?
OK, that's good. Which one was that 29?
#29.
Ruler came to Jesus by night and I can the way of salvation and light. The Master made answering questions that way. He must be hard again.
He must be born again.
He must be born again.
Now.
There is a lot of work thought it's not an undeveloped out there in five seasons of the Lord and let not dispensing to you we have made he must be born again.
You must be born again.
He must be poor again.
My girl here will be staying up to the knees.
They must be born again.
00:05:03
Oh yeah, some blood let her this morning else rest and see when Father and sunglass on love the blessed. But I can't breathe. I see him give way enough till you give us a word again.
He must be born again.
I will be fairly safe to sleep very much before nothing.
Boys and girls, I want to ask a question.
Why do boys and girls and older persons sin?
Why do we do it?
Do you boys and girls sin?
Do you sin?
Why?
That's a good question. I want you to think about that a little bit.
But you know, the reason we sin is because we're sinners.
You know you don't get pairs off a thorn Bush.
You don't get.
Apples off an orange tree.
But you know, you get sin coming from sinners, don't you?
That's right.
Who's got another one? This boy. Which one? Do you know which one that is?
Huh #42 well, let's look.
How precious this song is.
For when the water came with high price, God's plan, not God.
Near the sand, the salt precision.
The Salvation.
Grow his wall.
Which one number 40?
#40.
Jesus loves me.
And she's not a slightly yes, she's my son, she's me.
Trying to smile with me. Yeah, she's not a cloudy, but I won't tell you so.
He's got a lot of seeing you on the mind.
And he went to phase three as well. Way to hold me near near the time.
He's he's safe from everything on.
Let's see, let's let's speak.
Never let you 'cause I have to stop this meeting. Yeah. This means I'm slaughtered in my own campus. In his soul.
00:10:03
Yes, I love seeing my feet still when I very easily can yell right there. Shining and playing sunlight time so much. Be where I live, yeah.
My, my tree. Yeah, she's on the spot screaming. Yeah, I'm stealing. That's not a feeling that I will tell you. So maybe that'll be enough for right now. And we'll just what's the next thing you usually do at Sunday school?
OK.
Right, that's right. We look to the Lord and ask His help.
I asked the question why do we sin?
You know, two weeks ago or was it 3 weeks ago? Can anybody tell me?
What the verse was.
It was found in Psalms 46.
Verse one.
God is our refuge and strength.
A very present health in trouble.
Have you ever been in trouble?
Have you looked?
Well, you know, I was in trouble one time too.
You know, I was going to school one time and I saw a little boy. Well, he wasn't a little boy. I was a little boy and he was a little boy. And you know what happened? He dropped a dime on the playground and I thought, and I took it, put it in my pocket.
Do you think it's OK if you don't get caught?
Did you know that?
God sees everything that we do.
And sometimes we think maybe we can get away with something.
But you know, there's something inside of us that keeps working.
And you know what that is?
Can you tell me what it is inside of us that keeps working?
Conscience. Conscience. You know, I took that dime and I went to the store and I bought some candy with it.
But you know, that night I couldn't sleep.
I was in trouble. Did anybody see me do it?
No, no, I could have got away with it, but there was something working in my in there and I couldn't stand it any longer. And I cried out. Mama, I stole a dime.
You know.
My mom gave me another dime to take back to that boy to try to make it right. But you know, there was something that was done then that day that was another mark against me. A sin. Why do we sin?
Because we're sinners.
And you know something, boys and girls?
God, there was one time a man and his son, they thought they could steal some apples and so they got a wheelbarrow.
And they thought they could get away with it. The neighbor had a nice apple tree and they thought they would get away with it. And so they took this wheelbarrow and they lifted it up and went like this.
You're gonna get caught. You're gonna get caught. You're gonna get caught. You know, the wheel was squeaking and that's what it was saying. You're gonna get caught. You're gonna get caught.
00:15:03
You're gonna get caught. You're gonna get caught. You're gonna get caught. Boys and girls, you know sin is serious. I want to read a scripture to you that's found in Romans chapter 5.
12.
Says, Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world.
And death by sin and death.
By sin, you know.
You don't have any Gray hairs yet?
But boys and girls, some of us have Gray hairs and some of us have wrinkles in our faces.
Why? Because we're sinners.
We are born sinners, and we sin because we are sinners.
Here it says, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
Solemn, isn't it?
Anyway, these father and the son, what did they do? They climbed up in the apple tree. They pulled the apples down. They filled the thing full of apples. And they all, they were glad they got them. But you know, they didn't know that the farmers was still at home. They thought he'd gone to town and they get away with it. But the farmer came out and he said, you, you've stolen my apples. I want you to wheel them over to the barn there.
And put them in my barn so they lifted the wheelbarrow up.
What did the wheelbarrows say as they were Wheeling it away? What?
No, said I told you so. I told you so. I told you so. I told you so. I told you so. Do you think, boys and girls, that we can get away with any sins? There's one scripture that tells us.
Thou God theest me.
How serious that is. And you know, one time I about, I think it was about.
50 years ago.
I was coming home from work.
And, you know, I saw a police car.
And in the back of the police car.
There was a man who was weeping, He was crying and I just felt so sorry for the man. You know why?
Because he'd stolen something and the police caught him and they put him in the police car and they were going to take him to jail.
What though? We probably stole a lot of money. Yeah, he probably did. Well, I saw that the police had a, a, a case with him.
And so he had to go to jail.
You know, boys and girls, sometimes things happen to us and.
We get caught, but you know, in a way it's a good thing to get caught.
You know why?
Be sure your sins will find you out.
That's serious, isn't it? Just a second. We're going to look a little further.
Says, For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned. After the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come? Well.
Here's the verse that I want, but not as the offense.
So also is the free gift.
Now that's kind of hard to understand, but you know, if God was to deal with us.
After our sins.
What's open to us?
What's open to us?
The jaws of hell.
00:20:02
How serious that is? You know I'm one time bought a car from a man. His name was John Felix Darby.
And that man, I tried to bring the gospel before him and he said to me, you know, there's one thing I can't understand.
And he and he said, you know what it is? It says it's hell. I can't understand that God would send sinners to hell. And I told that man, I said, you know why you can't understand it? It's because both you and I are so immersed in sin. We don't see the awfulness of it, but God sees the awfulness of sin.
And he's decreed that hell is the only portion for sinners in their sins.
Oh, how serious that is.
Boys and girls, you know we sang together. A little child of seven or even three or four may enter into heaven through Christ the open door. Oh thank God, the Lord Jesus could say I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved.
Oh, the door is opened. But what did it cost God to open that door? What did it cost God to open that door? Can you tell me? Pardon me? His son's life. His son's life.
Oh, you know.
Man may kick against the penalty of sin, but if God didn't spare his Son.
If God, the holy God, the thrice holy God, before whom the heavens are not clean.
Didn't spare his son so that you might have a savior.
Where is your excuse?
Now here again, but not as the offense, so also is the free gift.
You know, that's quite a statement. So also is the free gift. You know, there was a man one time walking through the woods and he came to a place and there was a spring of water and there was a man standing there, free water, free water. But you have to buy a penny cup. Was it free?
Was it free? No, it wasn't free. You know, there was one time a Danish boy, he was raised in Sunday school and he had different ones saying are you saved?
You know, it bothered him, It troubled him. And that boy, he.
Was one time.
He didn't feel his sins and he didn't know whether he could be saved because he didn't feel his sins. And it troubled him and he wanted to be saved, but he didn't feel his sins. And he thought he had to feel his sins real badly. And one time he got on the Street car and there was a man who was evidently drinking and he knew he was a Sinner. And that man, he was gone. He was kind of weeping because of his sins.
And this young Danish boy, he said he came to him and he told him. He says, well, you know, the Lord Jesus died for you, the Lord Jesus died for you, and you can be saved by just putting your trust in him. You know the man, he listened, you know he got saved. But you know what? That boy discovered that the Lord Jesus had died for him too, that he could be saved by putting his trust in him.
And, you know, they got off the Street car at the corner and they hugged each other because they were new brothers in Christ. And, you know, there was the pastor's son. He was standing at the corner and he looked at them. He says, my, what a strange thing that is.
All boys and girls, you know if your sins trouble you or if it troubles you because you don't feel your sins enough, I want to tell you.
00:25:04
The free gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. You don't have to beg God to bring you to heaven. No, God has already made the way open. Thank God for that. You know, there was one time, a little boy, he was raised in a family that went to the prairies in the old days. And this family, the father and the mother, they staked out some ground.
And they work that ground because it was free for them and they started as homestead. But you know the father, he got sick.
And he died.
You know the Mama, she was overloaded. She had to keep on with the farm work. You know what she did? She worked and worked and she got sick and she died and left that boy all alone.
You know, the little boy thought, What can I do? I'm out here alone. But, you know, I've got an uncle in Chicago. And so he thought, you know, if I can get to Chicago, my uncle will take care of me. And so he thought, well, what am I going to do? So he went down to the railroad, and he saw and listened. Pretty soon there was a train.
Pretty soon he could hear the train coming and it went whoo, whoo, whoo.
What does that mean when a train does that?
No, it means that it's going away crossing. And so pretty soon that train started coming into the into the railroad station. And boy, he was glad to see it. It was eastbound. It was going to Chicago. And pretty soon he thought, well, you know, how am I going to get to Chicago? I, I don't have a ticket. I wish I had a ticket. But you know, the station, the conductor as that train stood there.
Just waiting there, people got off the train and they got on the train. Pretty soon he heard the conductor say something. What did he say?
All aboard, All aboard.
Saying all aboard, he says that means me. So he just got on the train and pretty soon the train started off.
Down the track it went.
Pretty soon the conductor, he went through the cars, says tickets please. Tickets please.
People show their ticket.
You know what? They didn't show their faces. They showed their ticket.
You know, boys and girls, that boy, he didn't have a ticket. And the conductor said to him, what right of you to get on this train? Where's your ticket? You didn't buy a ticket. You get off the train, you little cheat.
Boys and girls, you know we have to have a ticket to get to heaven.
But you know, we don't have a ticket.
Unless we have the Lord Jesus. But you know, we have something else.
We have an invitation by God to come.
To the Lord Jesus.
But anyway, this conductor says you get off at the next station.
So the little boy he was felt pretty bad.
He got off the train, but you know, he had to get to Chicago.
And boys and girls, if we're not saved, we'll go to hell. But we need to. But how are we going to manage it?
Again, pretty soon the conductor says all aboard.
He said he said all aboard. He wasn't me. It was him that said all aboard. So on the train he climbed again.
But he soon the conductor came around.
The little boy says, Sir, I don't have any ticket, but you said all aboard. And he says.
00:30:08
I don't know what to do. I have to get to Chicago because winter is coming and my uncle will take care of me. You know the conductor, He listened to his story and he felt sorry for him. But you know, boys and girls.
The Lord Jesus, God the Father, has felt sorry for us.
If it wasn't for that, that God cared for us.
He did. He wouldn't have made that way. Open to heaven. And so we read in the word of God, for God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son, He gave the darling of his bosom on the altar for you and for me.
He said that whosoever believeth in him.
God doesn't say you have to be good enough, It doesn't say you have to be bad enough, it doesn't say you can fit yourself in any way. All the fitness that you have is God supplied through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank God for the love of God that has provided the sacrifice so that God could be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. You know that conductor, he felt sorry for that boy. You know what he did? He says I'll see that you get to Chicago, even if I have to pay for the ticket myself.
So that little boy, he got to Chicago. Now I'd just like to read.
A couple of more verses and they're found in the Book of Revelation.
You know, revelation is the judgments of God on this ungodly world, and we heard about it last night.
How solemn it is that God is going to judge this world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Boys and girls, you know we don't naturally love the Lord Jesus, but it's not because we love the Lord Jesus that we're saved, but it's because God and His love for us has given the Lord Jesus that we might be saved. Are we sometimes sing that chorus, Little child, do you love Jesus?
I will ask your heart today be your answer what it may all God has loved us and he's made that provision for us.
Because he set his love on us. Thank God we do love him because he first loved us. But I'd like to read 2 verses Revelation.
Chapter 20 I have to find it real quick.
21 verse 6.
And he saith unto me, It is done. I am the alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life. Freely I will give, I will give. Ah, we don't have to buy a penny cup to get to heaven.
Why?
Because we're too poor to buy a penny cup. We're too poor to buy a penny cup. What does it mean to be lost? All it means to be beyond recovery. I can't patch myself up in any way to stand before God, but God says I will give unto him. That is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life. Freely turn the page in the next chapter it says.
Verse 17 And the Spirit and the bride, they come.
And let him that heareth say come, and let him that is athirst come. Are you thirsty?
Well, it doesn't end there, it says, and whosoever will.
Let him take the water of life. Really. Is that free enough? Can it be more free than that? No, it can't.
Our salvation, boys and girls, is of the Lord. He's made the full provision. And you have an invitation. Oh, that's your ticket. The grace and the sufficiency that is in God is your ticket. You show that? Do you show that to the conductor?
00:35:20
You'll be let through. Jesus died that you might have.
Life. Jesus died to put away your sins. If you come to Him just as you are, with nothing to pay, He'll take you to himself because he's invited you. Did he make a mistake?
No, the Lord didn't make a mistake. Oh, thank God. Sometimes we wonder, did he make a mistake? But no, he didn't make a mistake because he raised the Lord Jesus again from the dead. And the Lord Jesus is now in heaven. And was he saying to boys and girls?
Come on to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Maybe we have time for a couple more hymns.
Do you know Do you know the hymn?
With that.
#19.
Let's see if that we know that one.
I think that's a good him #19.
They might all have found and found, and they are alone. The happy sun joy. A high thought song.
Till no one falls now. Now before I cry, shall I start?
I tried the program ancestors for what I thought. What were you saying?
I would like to live in a great place. What happened to me? I was like, where? Now you're not crying. Black rice can't stand.
3 Exhortations from Rev. 21, Building the Wall
YP Sing Address—J. Hyland, D. Nicolet
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Well, I realize that you've had many things run before you in these meetings today. I trust that every one of us have got a little something for our souls concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I'm going to try to not speak very long this evening just to give you perhaps a spoonful more or two of something to encourage you this evening. You know, there's plenty in the word of God to encourage. We just, on an occasion like this, scrape out.
A few things here and there. What I want to do is just read 3 exhortations that are found on the last page of God's Word, the end of Revelation.
Revelation Chapter 22.
And verse 7.
Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy.
Of this book. And then notice verse 12 and behold, I come quickly.
And my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be verse 20. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly, Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Well, I just want to speak for a few moments in connection with the Lord's coming relative to these three verses that we have read.
All of which encourage us that the Lord Jesus is coming and that he's coming quickly. Now I know for young people it's perhaps hard to really grasp the thought that the Lord is coming at any minute and to live every day with that thought before our souls. I realize that there are young people here this evening who are anticipating many things. Some of you perhaps are nearing graduation, either of high school or college or university. Some of you are anticipating new careers.
Some of you are anticipating marriage, many things that we're looking forward to, many goals, many aspirations that we have. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with any of those goals, those aspirations in their proper place and proper perspective and what has exercised me young people. And this is really my burden in reading these portions. The end of God's word is to realize that everything in Christianity.
Is relative to the Lord's coming. And you don't have to be 40 some years of age or you don't have to be 70 or 80 to be looking forward to the Lord coming every day. You know, I heard of a young man and he had a little motto on his bathroom mirror. 2 words. It simply said. Perhaps today I thought that was very good. There was a young man who wanted to be reminded every morning when he got up and looked in the mirror.
That today might be the day when the Lord Jesus comes, and I want to encourage you, yes.
You need to work hard at school. Yes, you have to have some goals and objectives to.
Motivate you and to live towards, to work towards. But young people amidst all that, I want to encourage you to every day, every day of your life look up and say Lord Jesus come. You know I'd heard of yet another young brother many years ago in the days of those old roll top desks that perhaps some of you have seen. A young brother who made the habit every night when he rolled down his roll top desk at the office and went home for the night. He made it the habit of his life to audibly say.
Lord Jesus come because he wanted to be reminded as he closed the office each evening.
That perhaps before another sunrise, the Lord Jesus was going to come and he'd never have to come back to the office. He would exchange the daily grind of the office for the Father's House of rest and joy. But what I want to notice in connection with these three encouragements as to the Lord Jesus coming and coming quickly, and maybe I'll just say this too. You know, young people, we've never been closer to the Lord's coming than we are right now. And I believe, as we see things in the world developing and as we look into the Scriptures and see what characterizes the days just before the Lord Jesus comes to call his own to the Father's house, I suggest that we're just on the eve of the Lord's return.
It's going to be at any moment and do we lift up our hearts every day?
00:05:02
And say this might be the day, but I want to notice three things here in connection with these three portions.
Three things will for the sake of simplicity and remembering, 3 things that begin with R because we might say that in the first exhortation or encouragement, where in verse seven he says, behold, I come quickly. This is what we might say is in connection with reaction, because he says blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. In other words, as you and I realize that the Lord Jesus is coming and he's coming soon.
There ought to be a reaction, and what should that reaction be?
Obedience to the Word of God. Now, I have no doubt that when it says the sayings of the prophecy of this book, it's referring specifically to what has preceded here as to that which was given John as to the Revelation, as to prophetic events that are yet to unfold in this world. But I believe there's a broad application here, because tonight, in view of the Lord's coming, I want to encourage you to walk in obedience to the word of God.
You know, young people, when I was your age and sat in meetings and at things like this, I heard some of the older brethren say obedience and happiness go hand in hand. I've heard that all my life. But, you know, I wish.
I wish that when I was your age, I had really understood the import of a statement like that.
If when I was in my teens or my early 20s, I could have got a hold of a statement like that and realized the truth of it.
Young people, I stand here to tell you before God, it would have saved me a lot of sorrow. I'm still reaping today some of the things I sowed in my youth. Because when it says whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap, that's not written to unbelievers. That's written to those of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. And if you sow wild oats you're going to reap later on in your life the fruit of that it will be no other way. And yes, by the grace of God there may be restoration in our lives. We may come around.
To have convictions and see things clearly that we didn't see when we were younger, but we will still reap the fruit of what we sow when we're young. All young people, I plead with you tonight with all my heart. Don't do it. Learn to be looking for the Lord's coming every day and learn that in view of the fact that he has said I am coming quickly, He also tells us in light of that.
To obey his word. To keep the sayings of this book. What book? This book that we hold in our hands tonight. The word of God. Do you want to be a happy Christian? Do you want to be a fruitful Christian? Do you want to have power in your life? There will be no other way. But then obedience to the word of God and not just reading of the word of God, That's important. You know there's an interesting verse in the 143rd Psalm. You can look it up sometime.
I think it's the tenth verse says this. Teach me to do thy will, not just teach me thy will. David said that in the 27th Psalm. Teach me thy way. But in the 143rd Psalm it was more than that. Teach me to do thy will. You know, I'm afraid that many of us, and I realize some of you perhaps have not come from Christian homes, but many of us have come from Christian homes. We've heard the truth of God at the dinner table. We've heard it at the meetings. We've heard it from our parents.
We know it.
It's not a question of whether we know it or not.
But are we obeying? Are we? Like David? Who said teach me to do thy will? There's a vast difference.
Between knowing and doing. But the joy and the blessing, I repeat, will only come as you walk in obedience to the word of God, in view of the fact that the Lord Jesus is coming at any moment. So this is the first thing. He's coming quickly. There ought to be a reaction, and in light of his soon return, the reaction ought to be that we walk in obedience to His word. But then we have something else in the 12Th verse.
Here's the 2nd encouragement, confirmation of his soon return. And here he says, and my reward is with me. So if we have reaction in the seventh verse, we have reward here in the 12Th verse. Because you know young people, if you seek to walk in obedience to the word of God, you'll get a reward. Not down here necessarily, but every time you act in obedience to God's word.
00:10:26
There's a book of remembrance in heaven opened to the page with your name on it.
And under your name, so much does he value that obedience.
That he jots it down in his book of remembrance. And he says, I'm going to give a reward in that coming day. You know, I look forward to that day. We have some brethren, some young people, some brothers and sisters, some assemblies in various parts of North America that on an ongoing basis compile gospel literature for us.
Do all kinds of things to help propagate the work.
I've just been to an assembly where they compile forests on an annual basis, about 120,000 gospel booklets.
And, you know, I'm looking forward to the day when I stand at the judgment seat of Christ and everybody, if I can put it this way, everybody that's worked on that project is going to get a share of the pie. Someone made sure the tracks were there. Someone made sure the messages of love were there. Someone bought the paper, Someone ran the printer, someone had the electric stapler going. And everyone is going to get a reward. It says my reward is with me. And you know, young people when we get to heaven.
So much is he going to desire to give us reward for faithfulness. He's going to have it right with them. He's not going to delay.
You know, I travel a lot by myself. I'm away from my family more than I care to admit. But you know, whenever I go home, whether I'm gone for a weekend or whether I'm gone for a month, I always have something in my bag for my wife and children. And you know, when I get home from a trip, it doesn't matter if the plane lands at 11:00 at night or whatever time of the day it is. I don't want to have to wait to give them those little things. As soon as I'm with them, I want to open my bag because I delight to bring them those little things.
And you know, the Lord Jesus is going to find such joy, such delight in saying, well done, thou good and faithful servant, that I believe as soon as we get home to glory, the judgment seat of Christ for believers is going to take place. And he's going to bring out those rewards, and he's going to reward us.
You know everybody's going to have a reward. Every man shall have praise of God, but you know it's good.
As we go about from day-to-day. And again, I know school absorbs you. I know it takes all you've got to survive in the work a day world today.
But all just to take the time to do those little things for the Lord Jesus to live, to please him, to serve him again. This is what's going to bring joy. These are the things that are going to last. Yes, you need to get your marks. Yes, you need to get through school. Yes, you need to do your work at the office or the shop. Hardly is unto the Lord. Scripture exhorts us to those things over and over and over again. But don't let it so absorb your soul and your being.
That you don't have time to serve the Lord. You don't have time to walk in obedience to His word. Are you going to give him the pleasure in that day of commending and rewarding? And so his reward is with him to give to every man. There's going to be nobody that doesn't get a reward. You know, if we go to awards ceremonies sometimes, and a lot of people go away disappointed, only a handful get a reward. If we go to an athletic event and only one team, or only three or four people get the reward.
But when we get to heaven, he's going to have a reward for every one of us. He's going to sort it all out. And I just marvel that he's going to find something to commend and reward each one of his foreign young people again. The Lord is coming. He's coming quickly. What's going to matter when you stand before him? What's going to matter? How well you planned your life, how well you got along down here, know what's going to matter. Are those things done for him? You've heard this little poem often. I've heard it all my life.
Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. I look into the faces of so much energy. You know, I don't know how you look at me, but I don't consider myself old. Although I realize I'm not one of the young people. But you know, my energies are beginning to wane. I'm not 30 anymore. I don't have the energy I did when I was 30. I don't have the energy I did when I was 20. You're at your prime. You're at your peak. God wants the best years of your life.
00:15:23
He wants to reward you for those things that are done while you're young. Yes, while we're older too, but while you're young.
Oh, there's more to life than just getting through school and getting a good job. Settling down in a nice suburban area of town and coming to all the meetings. That's wonderful. It's important. But all I want to encourage you serve the Lord in view of his soon return.
Walk in obedience to his word, serve him, and then he, I say, will have the joy of commending. But then we find he comes down to the end of the book, one last confirmation before the word of God closes. He which testifies these things saith.
Surely I come quickly now. This is not response. This is not reaction. This is not reward. This is response. Amen. Even so. Come Lord Jesus.
Is there that response from your heart and mind? You know, it's interesting to me that he repeats this statement. Behold or surely. I come quickly, three times before he gets a response. But you know, young people, when he gets the response, he doesn't repeat it again. To me, it's just as if he says, now that's what I've been looking for. That's what I wanted. I wanted that response. Now I know there's lots of problems and sometimes we look up and we want the Lord to come because.
Maybe we're not looking forward to those midterm exams. Maybe we're not looking forward to that shuffle at work, and there might be a layoff slip on our desk. Maybe we're not looking forward to some problem that we think is going to manifest itself and we're going to have to deal with. And we say, Lord come, well, that's OK, We're looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. But young people, he wants the response of our hearts from a heart that is so attracted to himself that we want nothing less.
Than to be physically in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Does your heart go out so much to the person of Christ that you want nothing less to be with him there in the Father's house? I see young men and young ladies together this evening. It's wonderful. Some of you, no doubt have been looking forward to this time. You say, oh, it'll be just wonderful to see so and so again. It'll be just wonderful to see that young lady again and be with her for the weekend.
Or that young man again, and be with him for a few days. Is that the kind of heart we have in connection with our blessed bridegroom, the one who loved us so much that he gave himself at Calvary's cross? And so he says, surely I come quickly and there's an immediate response. And he closes the book. Well, not quite. There's something else. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen, in other words.
If we're left here another few days, another few moments, His grace is going to carry us through. You know, it says in the 84th Psalm, the Lord will give grace and glory. Grace is what meets our present need and glory is what comes at the end. But I just want to, in closing, point out something else I've enjoyed in connection with these last two verses of God's Word. You know, the last words, the last recorded words of the Lord Jesus in Scripture, are the promise of His coming.
To my own soul, that's exceedingly precious.
The last recorded words of the Lord Jesus are surely I come quickly. The last recorded words of the believer, the Saint of God, are even. So come Lord Jesus. Let me put it this way. We have the last promise. Surely I come quickly, we have the last prayer.
Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus, and we have the last provision.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so I just want to leave you with these thoughts. Oh young people, the Lord is coming. It's a marvelous hope. Make it a reality in your life. Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. Oh, may the hope of the Lord's coming be a reality, and may it so grip our souls that there's a reaction. Obedience to His word. There's encouragement in realizing we're going to get a reward.
If there is any faithfulness and then that response that he so desires.
Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus.
00:20:03
Nehemiah, where we spoke from the other I guess it was Friday afternoon.
And this is going to kind of form the.
Um structure.
But I want to talk a little bit about tonight to you beloved young people through.
3 short phrases before we pray Nehemiah chapter 1-2 words in verse 3.
Great affliction.
OK, great affliction.
Nehemiah, chapter 6.
And.
Verse.
Three in the middle of the verse, 2 words. Great work.
And Nehemiah chapter 8.
And verse 17.
The end Last three verses or words of verse 17.
Very great gladness.
Great affliction, great work, very great gladness. Now, I don't know about you, but.
I like those last three words best of all.
Let's pray.
I begged the apartment. I'm going to apologize to the beloved young people who had to sit through the little chat we had yesterday afternoon. When I talked about those two cities, The city of Cain that Cain built called Enoch. He named it after his son Enoch. And then we talked about the city of God, if I can say that, Jerusalem. But we found that verse in the end of Ezekiel where that city was named.
The Lord is there or in the margin that reads Jehovah Shama.
Two cities Enoch, Jehovah, Shamma, and beloved young people. Tonight your life is like one of those two cities.
In one city, nobody ruled. People did what they wanted. And the reason nobody ruled and people did what they wanted was because the one who built that city did it After he willingly walked away from the presence of God. That was Cain. Cain willingly left the presence of God and said I'm going to be happy without God. I don't need him.
I hope nobody here tonight.
Has a life or is building a life that's marked with that thought. I don't need God.
The other city, Jehovah Shamma. The Lord is there.
Is a city that's gone through a lot of different stages. It's been built. It's been destroyed. It's been built. It's been destroyed. It's God's city. It's Jerusalem. It's where the Lord Jesus Christ is going to reign. You and I are looking at each other tonight. He's going to set his feet down in that city in Jerusalem.
That we're reading about in the papers today and all that's going on. He's going to, as a man, stand in that city and reign as its king. And it's going to be a beautiful, incredibly perfect, wonderful time. And it will be said the Lord is there now, beloved young people. What my burden tonight is in going back to Nehemiah for a little while is that I want you to be encouraged. I don't.
I don't want to say I don't care.
But it's not an issue to me of what's going on in your life. The issue is, do you want to have a life that's characterized by a city that the Lord is there? Because if He is all of the blessings of His presence you are going to have.
And I want to encourage you tonight to do what Nehemiah did, because that first verse we read was the condition of that city of God, great affliction and reproach because of disobedience.
And the guy standing here tonight talking to you has had 60 years of experience of knowing how to disobey.
And I'm one of those.
That brother Bob tonight was talking about that Jesus hung on the cross for and shed his blood for and washed my sins away.
00:25:11
And I'm here to tell you that when the Lord Jesus said in John 13 and verse 17, if you know these things, have the idea to do them, he meant it.
He wants you to have a happy life. He doesn't want your life, if you know him as savior, to be marked by great affliction and reproach and beloved young people. Tonight you heard a gospel I can't say anymore. I hope every single one of you here in this room tonight knows Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
I'm going to talk to you as those who do, God knows. And as I said yesterday, I'm pretty well convinced you know too.
I'm going to talk to you as though you belong to the Lord Jesus and that it would be his desire to reign as king in your life as he will reign as king in Jerusalem when it's said of Jerusalem the Lord is there.
That is his desire, and I'm going to talk to you about that tonight. And affliction and reproach happened to that city because the people that dwelt there were disobedient to God and all, I'm going to say beloved young people, in the 60 years of my life I found that I can never, ever be happy when I'm being disobedient to God.
There, you know, they were talking about humanism today.
Humanism is doing what I want to do because I'm the most important, without reference to God's thoughts.
And beloved young people, if that's the path you want to walk, there's going to be plenty of encouragement for you out in that world. But you answer this question in your heart. You take a good, deep, long look at that world out there at that city that cane built.
And you ask yourself if there's real happiness and satisfaction there.
So I want to tell you tonight that if the city that the Lord Jesus rightfully owns and ought to rightfully be reigning as king is broken down its walls, broken down, it's in affliction and great reproach, that that's not the way the Lord wants it to remain and it doesn't need to remain that way.
OK, so much for the teachers review of the past lesson.
Now what I want to do is, I want to talk to you starting in Nehemiah chapter six. We didn't get to that in the talk the other day. I'm actually going to start in Nehemiah chapter 5, because between great affliction and great reproach, which is Nehemiah one, and very great gladness, which is Nehemiah 8 in his, which is what the Lord wants for every one of us.
In between those two things is something called very is something called great work.
And beloved young people.
There is some work to do to build that wall and those gates that will preserve you and protect you from the influences that would ruin your life.
And would at the same time allow the blessings that God wants you to have to come into your life.
And so I want to start tonight by telling you.
As we talk about Nehemiah, he sets an example. You can look at him as a picture of the Lord Jesus seeking to work in your life, but I also want to.
Have you looked at him as setting an example for you to follow?
In the work that needs to be done.
Now, first of all, the end of I'm not going to read a lot of verses and I'm not going to take a lot of time. But the End of Nehemiah chapter 5 talks about Nehemiah, who is the governor in Jerusalem while he was doing this building. There's a strange name. You read about it in Ezra and Nehemiah, sometimes the governor that is the leader, the ruler that was in charge, he's called the Tirshafa. I think that's the way you pronounce it.
But he's the guy that's in charge, and the king of Babylon said to Nehemiah. You go back there, you're in charge, and then he said this, and the people that you're in charge of owe you.
They got paid taxes.
They got to support you.
00:30:00
And the last verses of the 5th chapter of Nehemiah.
Are one of the most beautiful encouragements for you beloved young people. If tonight you want to build.
A life, a city that the Lord is there where you'll have very great gladness. This is just how much the Lord wants you to have that.
I want you to look in Nehemiah chapter 5 and verse.
14 Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the 20th year, even on to the two and 30th year of art deserves.
King, that is, 12 years. I and my brethren had not eaten the bread of the governor.
In other words, Nehemiah came back there. He had the right to expect the people that he was governing to pay his way, to pay his salary, to pay taxes. But for 12 years he had been back there working for them, and he hadn't asked anything. He wasn't asking them to give to him. Look at verse.
17.
Nehemiah 5, verse 17. Moreover, there were at my table in 150 of the Jews and rulers besides those that came unto us from among the heathen that are about us now. That which was prepared for me daily was 1 ox. Six choice sheep. Also fowls were prepared for me once in 10 days store all sorts of wine. Yet for all this required I, not the bread of the governor.
You know what? Nehemiah came back there to rule them, to help them build This city that could be called the Lord is there. And he said, I'm not coming back to take from you, I'm coming back to you. And that's the heart of my Lord Jesus.
He didn't come into this world to take, to require to say you owe me. Now we do.
We're responsible before God, but in grace, he came and he said I'm not coming to take, I'm coming.
To give.
And I want to tell you, beloved young people, he spreads an incredible table.
You know, all of these things that Nehemiah Table had prepared, that those people came and they got to enjoy. That didn't come cheap.
That was expensive, fair. That was good food and that was wonderful joy.
It says once in 10 days, store all sorts of wine. You know, sometimes the world tells you, you become a Christian. You're going to not have any fun. You've got to give that all up. You can't do this. You can't go there. You can't say that. You can't dress like that. You can't look like that.
And the Lord Jesus is saying I didn't hang on the cross to make you miserable.
I hung on the cross to save your soul and to give you all sorts of joy.
Do you believe that?
Test the table, Nehemiah, spread. But it's nothing to what the Lord Jesus is spreading. Wants to spread to give you tonight if you want to tell him, Lord Jesus, I want this city to be the place where you rule. I want to be called in my life. The Lord is there.
Well, there's some work that's got to be done, But I want to tell you before the work is done, God the blessed and Savior, the Lord Jesus, gives this full, wonderful supply. And I want your beloved young people don't believe what I say. Believe what he says and sit down at His table and enjoy. And when I talk about His table, I'm talking about all the blessings he wants to bring into your life. Sit down at that table and start eating and start drinking.
What the Lord Jesus Christ has for you.
And start finding out what real joy is. You know, if you're going to do a work for the Lord, you're going to need some energy and some strength and he's going to give it to you. Well, in the next chapter I'm, I'm going to talk a little bit about this chapter and then just a little bit about the.
The great work and the very great gladness, and I don't intend to go any further tonight, but I want to point something out before we before we're going to start talking about Chapter 6.
Want to point something out that it's in this chapter in the middle of the book of Nehemiah that the wall gets finished.
And yet, there are seven more chapters of things that take place in Nehemiah after this wall gets built. And let's go back a minute. I'm sorry guys. Teachers always are doing this. Let's review this.
00:35:10
A wall is built to keep out, to protect, to separate. OK, you want a wall to keep yourself protected and separated from something that's going to harm you.
You want gates.
That are lockable and have bars which these gates did to allow you to control.
What gets in and what you get rid of, OK, And our lives need that. We need a good, strong wall to protect us from influences that are going to harm us. And we need gates that we can open and close to allow blessing in.
And to get rid of stuff that's in, that we really don't want, that's not really going to make us happy. Now in this 6th chapter, the wall is finished.
The work is done. And yet there's still more. Seven more chapters. Why? Well, let me just suggest this beloved young people. I'm not just talking about someone. If there's someone here tonight that has had failure in your life and you want to do some rebuilding, the Lord is there with this table of supply and joy in his presence, and he's with you, and he's going to and he's going to be with you and he's going to rebuild with you. That's true.
But if you're here tonight and you just want to say, I want the Lord in my life, I want to have that city that it's called Jehovah is there.
He's going to be with you for that. But you know what?
Even when you're doing that, the problems aren't over.
Living the Christian life is not a toboggan ride on a snowy hill with no trees, rocks or bumps on the way down.
But the difference is from the 6th chapter on after the wall is rebuilt.
And the problems were there. And the enemies are still trying to cause problems, that the wall is there and they're protected. And tonight that's what I want you to see. It's not that. If you say, OK, I'll try what the guy has said tonight, I really want the Lord to come into my life. And then everything is just going to be peachy, keen, rosy and easy the rest of the way. No, but you're going to have the Lord Jesus with you, because the Lord is there.
And you tell me, you think this in your mind, the United States out loud, but you tell me who is going to be able to take away your joy and happiness? If the Lord Jesus is reigning his king in your life and He's there, Who's going to be able to rob you of the blessing he wants to give you? If he's really there? If he knows these things, happy are ye if you do them? If that's really so, that's the Lord Jesus Christ who said that? Is there something in this world that can make him a liar?
Let God be true in every man a liar. OK, let's quickly look at a few things in chapter 6, and we'll be done.
It says. And now it came to pass from the Sandbelt and Tobi and Jisha and the Arabian and the rest of our enemies heard that I builded the wall reading the first verse of Chapter 6, and there was no breach left therein. You know, sometimes beloved young people, we say, OK, yeah, I'll be a Christian, but I'm going to leave a few little cracks, a few breaches, because I don't want to. I don't want to be too legal.
And I don't want to be too weird. I don't want to be too different. So I'll get this wall built, but there's going to be a few openings in it, not gates breaches.
Don't do that.
Don't do that because the world can get in to those breaches real easily. If you're going to build the wall, and I want you to build the wall, build the whole wall. And so it says here that the breeches.
There weren't any left. There wasn't any way for that enemy to get in. And it says San Ballot and Jason did something, and this is what the world will seek to do to you tonight. And this is what the Lord Jesus wants to encourage you to guard against, San Valid. And G Shim said unto me, That's unto Nehemiah, Let's put you there, put your name there. You're building this, this wall around the city of your life. That Christ can be there and rule and you can be happy.
And so here come the enemies and they say, hey, come let us meet in one of the villages. Let's read that verse 2. Come let us meet together in someone of the villages in the plain of Arnold. But they thought to do me mischief. In other words, the world says, OK, you got the wall built, we can't get in, so you come on out.
00:40:00
You come on out where we are, Let's get together. We can walk together. We can figure out how to be kind of happy together. You can have your religion and you can have some fun with us. But you got to leave the wall. You got to leave the city where the wall is and come out to us. And the place you're going to meet us is the plane of I'm going to, I'm going to change the pronunciation of that. Oh, no.
And that's what you say.
And that's all you have to say.
Oh no, I'm not leaving this place where Jesus Christ, my Savior, is ruling as king.
Because you've got nothing out there for me. Well, they thought to do me mischief. Now here's the message. I sent messages on them saying I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down.
Sorry.
Tonight, you heard.
About the eternal Son of God.
Who became a man?
And he stretched out his hands on a cross.
And he, as it were, said, I'm doing a great work. I cannot come down when people were walking by mocking him and saying, if thou be the Son of God, come down.
And he said I can't come down. I'm doing a great work.
And that great work was paying for my sins.
At Calvary's Cross.
Now, beloved young people, can you look at your life and say, I'm not compromising with the world, I'm doing a great work? You know what the great work is you're doing? You're setting up a life where Christ reigns supreme as king, as Lord and has full rights and full control in your life. And that's a great work. And if you're going to leave that, believe me, you're not going to be going up.
You don't leave the presence of the Lord Jesus beloved young people and go up to the level of the world.
You leave the presence of the Lord Jesus and you go down to Jericho.
And on the way down you get smacked real good and hard.
And the world, when it's done getting out of you what it wants, leaves you half dead because it doesn't need you for anything anymore. It's got what it can out of you and it just leaves you.
Don't leave the great work of building a life separated to the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who can give you happiness and satisfaction and go down to compromise with this world. We've said it before. You guys are probably turning green, being sick, carrying it. I'm going to say it again.
Don't buy into this.
Junk called tolerance.
That's compromise.
You don't need to tolerate anything that God doesn't tolerate.
You don't need to tolerate anything that Jesus Christ doesn't tolerate.
Because you belong to him. And if you're going to be happy, truly happy, truly blessed, if he's going to be truly the Lord in your life, the ruler in your in that, the king in that city, if it's going to be truly said, the Lord is there.
There's not room for tolerance of wickedness.
I don't care what the world says, and I don't care who in the world says it because, you know, a little later on in here we're going to find that some of the people of God, prophets of prophetess and prophets, were even telling Nehemiah to do this. Sometimes even people who say they're Christians and they may even be Christians try to get you to leave the protection of that wall and that great work you're doing, building a place where Christ rules and come down well.
I want to finish but it says here.
You know Sanballat, this jerk. I'm sorry. I shouldn't say that. I'm not sorry. He is a jerk.
He doesn't give up.
Four times he tells, he tells Nehemiah, come on down. And then the fifth time he writes a letter to him, he says, well, if you all listen to my message, I'll put it in writing. Can you read young people? You've got billboards all over this city and all over this country where you live that are sending you the message. Come on down.
Are you? You know the enemy isn't going to give up. Don't expect them to.
00:45:03
To just remember where they want to meet you and say it to him. Oh no.
And he says, you're what you're doing is you're trying to be rebellious. You're trying to get the Jews to rebel. You want to be the king. You want to be important. And you're going to preach that there's a king in Jerusalem now, and these words are going to be reported to the king, and you're going to get in trouble. That's a loose paraphrase of verse 7.
And then he says once again the 5th time, Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together. Let me ask you something.
To loving young people, will you please answer this in your hearts tonight? What kind of counsel that's worth taking? Will the world give you that Walk by the cross of Jesus Christ and laugh at him as he hung there in his attitude.
What kind of counsel do they have for you?
And that's what he's saying. He's saying you're going to set, you want to have your own little city and you want to set a king up and you're going to get in trouble because there's a king in this world and he's not going to put up with that. Well, you know what? This guy is right? Jesus Christ. I want him to be king in my life.
You want to be king in your life. That's not going to make the Prince of the power of the air, the Prince of this world happy.
You know what? I don't care.
Because I already found out in the word of God that he that is in you is greater than he that is in the world. So this was a really hollow threat. And I don't need to be together with the world. I don't need to take counsel with her. I don't need to listen to him. I got Jesus.
Who have you got?
To make you happy.
The world can city for the Lord Jesus.
OK, last verse.
Second to the last verse, if you read in verse 14 and 15 and so on, all these verses, they're trying to make Nehemiah scared to do the one thing that's going to make him happy. Don't let the world don't let its ways. Don't let its its advertising, its slogans. Don't let it scare you into thinking if I walk a Christian life, I'm not going to be happy.
It's the opposite way around.
But it says here verse 15, so the wall of chapter 6. So the wall was finished in the 20th and the 5th day of the month. ELU in 50 and two days. And then it talks about how the enemies were cast on said take out it done anyway. In spite of our of our mocking, in spite of our laughing, in spite of our threats, in spite of our attacks, they got the wall built.
And if you set your heart to building a happy Christian life with Christ as the king, the center, the Lord of your life, I'll tell you something. If the Lord leaves us here, you're going to get it done. If that's what you're building, if that's what you're setting in your heart, and you want that, you'll get it done.
Now last verse in chapter 8 and we talked about this in the in the address on Friday about how the people stood at the Watergate and they heard the word of God. Read Beloved young People, This is your guidebook. Here it is.
When I.
Used to teach computer graphics dependent on the software package we had.
I would hold up a packet of papers, instructions, or a booklet and I'd say this is your guidebook. Follow it and you know, it's the strangest thing. The people who listen to what I said and followed the guidebook usually got A's and the people who were out partying the weekend before and they had their heads down on their desk in front of their computer terminal, sleeping. Here's the strangest thing. They got these.
Here's the guide book. If ye know these things, happy are ye. If ye do them, it's so beautiful and it's so simple. Read it and do it. How can I do it? Do you know Jesus as your savior? Well, there's something else wonderful about you. Then you've got the Spirit of God dwelling in your heart.
And he gives you the power to do it.
The good kind. The right kind of do it.
He gives you the power for that.
And so.
They stand before the Watergate and they hear the word of God.
00:50:02
And it really touches their hearts and they start weeping and and the word is don't weep, be happy. God wants you to be happy. And they decide to believe God instead of believing the world.
And you know what, beloved young people? That's why in the end of verse 17 it says.
And there was very great gladness.
There was very great gladness because the people did one very simple thing. They listened to the word of God and believed it.
And that city, I'm going to say morally, even though there were problems and difficulties that happened, they were overcome because it was now a city with wall, with a wall and with gates, and it could be properly said the Lord's name.
The Lord is the king in your life, the Lord of your life, if he's there.
There will be some problems, but you think there will be anything that he can't handle.
Will you always be there? I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He said that if you're not sure about that, you argue with him about that. That's what he's saying. I won't leave you or forsake you. And he said one other thing. Jesus Christ the same.
Yesterday, when he died on the cross. Today, when you're struggling and maybe failing, and forever, when if you know him as savior, you're going to be with him, enjoy. He's the same. Trust him. Build the wall. Put in the gates.
And be called in your life. The Lord is there, all beloved young people.
To leave this book and follow it and find out what very great gladness is all about.
Sing
This Present Time
Hebrews 1:5
Hebrews Practical Lessons
Three Exhortations