Address—B. Brockmeier Jr.
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.
With 250 and the echoes of grace.
Oh Lord, we would delight in thee, and on thy care depend to thee in every trouble. Flee are safe on sailing, friend. Notice also the third stanza, which we don't have in the little flock. Why should we thirst for aught below? Father is a fountain near a fountain, Which doth ever flow the fainting heart to cheer #250.
Like to read about a half dozen references to begin with to lead into the subject that I would like to take up this evening. The first would be in First Kings chapter 5.
First Kings chapter 5 and verse 13.
And King Solomon raised a levee out of all Israel, and the levee was 30,000 men.
And he sent them to Lebanon 10,000 a month by courses, a month they were in Lebanon and two months at home and at Aniram was over the levee. And Solomon had three score and 10,000 that bear burdens and four score. 1000 healers in the mountains beside the chief of Solomons officers which were over the work. 3300 which ruled over the people that wrought in the work.
Now turn to Nehemiah chapter 4.
Nehemiah chapter 4 and verse 7.
But it came to pass that when San Valid, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites and the Ashtonites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made-up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it. Nevertheless we made our prayer into God, and set a watch against them day and night because of them. And Judas said, the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish.
So that we are not able to build the wall. And our adversary said, They shall not know, neither see till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease.
And primarily thinking of that expression in verse 10. And Judah said the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed.
Or the strength of the burden bearers. Faileth. I'll turn to Matthew, Chapter 11.
Matthew 11 and those well known verses.
28 through 30.
Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden.
If you notice Mr. Darby's translation, it says ye that labor in our burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. And ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Turn to the 23rd chapter now.
Matthew 23 Then speak Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat all. Therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do, but do not ye after their works, For they say and do not.
For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born, and lay them on men's shoulders.
But they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
And a complimentary passage in Luke 11.
Luke 11 and verse 45.
Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying, Thou reproachest us also. And he said, Woe unto you also, lawyers, for ye laid men with burdens grievous to be born, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. And finally in Galatians chapter 6.
Galatians chapter 6 and verse 2.
Bear ye one another's burdens and soul fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden.
00:05:23
Well, perhaps you noticed the thought of burdens mentioned in each of these references, and I would like to take that thought up in a general way to begin with and then make a few comments. And then more particularly, I would like to look at the service of one of the sons of Levi.
You recall when God brought his people?
Out of Egypt into the wilderness. And he established that Tabernacle. There was three sons of Levi, Gershon, Kohath, and Marari that were assigned specific burdens to carry through the Tabernacle, through the wilderness. They each had a particular burden to bear, a particular service that they needed to attend to. For instance, the coauthites carried all the holy vessels.
The Gershonites. They carried the curtains and coverings and so on.
And the moral rights covered or that carried rather the boards and the bases and the bars and the pegs and things along that line, that which gave the structure to the Tabernacle. But before we get into that in detail, I just wanted to notice a few verses here with respect to burdens.
Because the first reference we had had to do with Solomon building the temple. And those, you might say, were the glory days of Israel, just as in Acts chapter 2, we see, you might say, the glory days of the church. Very brief in number, we might add. But it's a beautiful thing to read that early chapter of Acts, those early chapters of Acts, and to see the power with which the testimony was carried on there. And they were all with one accord in one place.
And there was an abundance even go to the 13th chapter. I've been struck with this and it brings out five prophets or teachers there in the assembly at Antioch. Saul or Paul was one of them. And there was four other capable brother in there, Barnabas, yet another Simeon, Lucius and Tim and I believe was the others. So there was there was real a real wealth and abundance in that assembly at Antioch. And we see the mighty power there was in the prayer meanings.
Well, we have a little bit in picture here in First Kings.
And we find that there was such abundance as the House of God was being built that Solomon recruited 30,000 sent him up to do service. You work a month and take two months off because that was the abundance. There was more than enough to to take care of the burdens that had to do with the House of God.
But you know, we don't live in days like that. We don't live in days when.
We work a month and take two months off in the Lord's things. You know, Paul can speak about the burden of the assemblies that pressed upon him daily, daily, not monthly, not once a quarter, but daily. And we find here that Solomon had 70,000 men that had the service of bearing burdens. There was an abundance, but we're not living in those days. We live rather in the days.
Such as we read about in Nehemiah chapter 4.
Now you recall what happened after God established his testimony in Israel and power and glory and Solomon. We know the slide began quickly and before Solomon's son had ended his generation, there was a horrible split in the Kingdom of Israel and 10 tribes went with Jeroboam and only two remained at the divine center.
And we know that things did not improve, although there were some happy moments in the reigns of Hezekiah and also Josiah. But as the testimony wound down there at the very end, there was a godly king Josiah that was raised up. But Josiah made a fatal mistake. And that was there was warfare going on, and Josiah thought he would get involved with that warfare.
And the king of Egypt had to reprove him, and say for bear thee from meddling with God.
And Josiah didn't listen, and I believe three times Josiah heard those words. For bear thee for meddling with God. Josiah, this is not your concern. Stay out of it. But Josiah got involved and we know that in that battle an Archer unaware slew him and he died. And then after that there was 4 kings, young men. They took over the reins of administration of the Kingdom of Israel. Jehoi has Jehoiakim or Eliakim.
Jehoiakim or he's also spoken of as Jeconiah or Konaya. And then the final king was Zedekiah.
00:10:00
Who rebelled against God? Governmental hand of the king of Babylon coming down against them. He fought against the government of God. When Jeremiah told him to submit, he fought. And the result? The sad result of Zedekiah. The last thing he saw before he had his eyes put out was his two sons slain in front of him.
Lost everything because of his rebellion because it was refusal to submit to the government of God.
He lost his children, He lost his eyesight, and he lost his liberty. And now we find that he was taken down to Babylon, place of religious confusion and type. And so that was how the Kingdom of Israel, how it ended up. And they, the people of God, those two tribes, went into captivity. But God in his grace recovered a remnant from those two tribes to come back to Jerusalem some 70 years later, and they established the temple and as the old men.
As they saw the glory of the temple, there was number glory to the temple, not what it was in former days. There was rejoicing, but it was a far cry from what it was before. Ezra Haggai rather encouraged them to look on to see the coming glory of that house. But then after Ezra built the temple, we find that Nehemiah took about the most difficult work of restoring separation to the people of God, building the walls again to protect.
The inheritance that God would give to his people. And we find here that when this exercise took effect that there was immediate opposition.
And it's most instructive in the book of Nehemiah to find the character of opposition from these enemies of the people of God, because their tactics are the same today, because we find that these enemies of God, first they get angry, then they try the intimidation tactic, then they say, we're going to report you for rebellion to the king. And then what do they do? They flatter them, Then they get sweet. Then they say, well, let's just meet and have a little discussion about this. They try every tactic to try to stop the.
Of the Lord but Nehemiah and these men of God understood what was going on and they refused every attempt of the enemy to corrupt the work there at Jerusalem and it was a difficult work. They had the enemy from without trying to stop this work of separation and stopped to that there might be mingling and it's a whole another subject in the book of Nehemiah of how the enemy came in to Jerusalem and upset things, but we find.
Here, Judah said the strength of the burden bears faileth. Now what was the burden that they had to take up was there, It says there was much rubbish and I would suggest that rubbish was what remained.
Sennacherib or from Nebuchadnezzar as he as he moved in there with his with his host some. No, it wasn't it wasn't Snacker, it wasn't Nebuchadnezzar and the king of Babylon. They came in and destroyed the.
The Temple and all that was in Jerusalem there that this rubbish perhaps still remained.
From this sad devastation, and so is the people of God sought to begin to clear things out. It was a real burden. And as they considered the government of God that had come upon them, justly so because of their ways, carrying all this rubbish out was a real burden to them. And it caused the bearers of burden strength to fail. But I'd also like to make a practical application here.
You know, sometimes perhaps you wonder why is it that I'm not making any spiritual progress?
Why isn't there any joy in my life? How come the word of God is dry to me?
How come I find no delight in seeking the Lord's face and how come there's I would rather be anywhere else but that At the assembly prayer meeting, why do you thought sometimes like this come up in our hearts? I would suggest it's because there's rubbish in our life and we need to get that and we need to bear the burden of clearing out that rubbish in our life because it hinders us in going on to please the Lord and all the things. And you know what I'm talking about, all the rubbish that we bring into our life, it just dampens us.
Crowds out the things of God. And so there's just a glimmer of desire and our hearts to the precious things of Christ. Oh, it's a burden. But these men and then we know that they completed the work, but there was a need and sometimes we perhaps we even feel it today with so many trials that come upon us.
It just seems like, as it says in Ecclesiastes, the clouds return after the rain. No sooner is one storm dawn, here comes the next one. What's going to happen next? And all the strength of the burden bearers faileth. Well, perhaps we feel like that. And so that's why I'd like to pursue the thought of bearing burdens a little bit tonight. And also particularly the service of Murari.
00:15:05
What we also read in Matthew 11 because they're the Lord Jesus says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden are burdened.
And I will give you rest.
Now that's a wonderful application in the gospel, and we often use it that way.
Oh, don't we see it, the sorrow and the sadness that is written on men's face. They're burdened down with sin. The Lord wants to give them rest. But oh, how stubborn our hearts can be. And perhaps there's even one in the room tonight. You're a Sinner before God and you know it, and you're not happy. Then. How can you be happy when you know at the end of the path is eternal judgment is the wrath of God? Oh, the Lord Jesus wants to give you rest of heart. All He wants you to find rest and give you that.
Rest knowing that your sins are forgiven. Oh, there's no rest. There's no peace to the wicked.
All once you come and embrace the Savior and find that rest and knowing your sins are forever gone through the blood of Christ. But you know, even as believers we sometimes get heavy the burdens bear us down and the Lord would invite us to to say, let me say come unto me, I will give you rest and then he speaks in the.
The next verse take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Now what is the yoke? You know a yoke is what brings two oxen together. And I just thought of it in this way that the Lord says my burden is light. It's not a heavy burden, but there is a burden and I believe the yoke is this that if they felt sense of the Lord's presence with us as we go throughout.
Day, it's a light burden, it's a yoke, but there's an acknowledgment that we are united and we are connected with another. We're walking in fellowship with the Lord. And has it ever happened? Perhaps you were tempted to say something that you perhaps shouldn't say, but yet you had the sense that the Lord was with you and you felt a restraining hand upon you, that there was some impression on your heart. They said, I better not say that.
I better not do that. I better not go there. What was it? Well, it was the yoke of walking with the Lord and His presence with you, and it put a check.
Upon you. Oh, it's sad when we throw that off, when we throw off restraint, but that's the path of rest. And the Lord says, yes, I have a burden for you. But it's light. It's light. I was thinking, as Dave was speaking this afternoon, he referred to Genesis 49 about Issachar. There it says he saw that rest was good and the land was pleasant. Now what does it say? He became a servant to tribute.
And it says, I think in the verse before Issachar is a Bony *** couching down between 2 burdens. 2 burdens.
You know, the Lord wants us to have one burden, that is the burden of pleasing Him. And it's a light burden. But sometimes we get couched down because there's two burdens. And maybe it's because we take on a burden that the Lord wouldn't have. And maybe it's because of this occur. If we look at that in a typical way, in a prophetic way, how the Jews have sought to get land and they have given themselves unto tribute in order to get that pleasant land, but they're never going to get the land that way. It's not by toil that they get the land, it's when God.
Gives it to them that they have rest and they have peace. But oh, how many times we find ourselves under burdens or under tribute because we're seeking to attain things that the Lord hasn't given us, perhaps his material things and we labor and toil for it. And what happens we couch down between two burdens. Well, I also wanted to read those verses in Matthew 23 and and also in Luke 11.
Because there you have the the work of the Pharisee now.
The Pharisee.
Is known for, was known for his legality. There was three things the Pharisee wanted everybody to know about. You have it in the, I think the 6th chapter of Matthew. The one thing is when the Pharisee prayed, he wanted to make sure he had an audience that everyone could see how spiritual he was. He was a man of prayer and he wanted all to recognize it. And the Lord said he has his reward. The Lord's instruction for us in prayers go into the closet.
Don't make a great display about it. Go in there where you're not, not interrupted. But the Pharisee made a great show of prayer and then he also made a great show of giving. Anything wrong with prayer or anything wrong with giving? No on both counts. Of course not. But when the Pharisee gave, he wanted to make sure the trumpet sounded and everybody would see just how largely he gave, just how generous and just how sacrificial he really was. He wanted that to be known among his peers. And then the other thing the Pharisee did was he fasted.
And he had a long face showing his self denial, showing how he would refuse that which even would properly belong to Him. So steadfast was he with his spiritual zeal, but it was all the flesh because he did it for the eye of man. Is prayer right? Absolutely. Is giving right? Absolutely. Is fasting right? Absolutely. But it's not for the eye of man, it's for the eye of God. Now these Pharisees, you see, there is a hype, there was a.
00:20:27
A hypocritical way about them because what they did was they bound burdens that were heavy to be born on others.
And that's the principle of legality, it's been said that the law demands.
And grace supplies.
I thought of it in this way just from my own observation.
It has seemed to me, and sometimes those that cry legal quote, UN quote are often themselves the chief offenders. Now what I mean by that is this. There may be someone seeking to walk in the fear of God and dependence upon God and with exercise and walking in a path of separation from the world, and that may bother some consciences. And so the label of legal is put on that particular soul.
But you know, and that it can be so we can take up a very.
Uh, you know, a path like a monk or a hermit. And it's not separation according to the mind of God.
And there's room for for for admonition in that regard. But you know, sometimes there is I may, I may put a label of legal on somebody when in fact is simply to ease my conscience, when that person may in all fear of God, be seeking to please the Lord. But what is it that governs me? I'm walking in a very worldly, in a carnal way. What is it that stops me from doing something? It certainly isn't the fear of God.
Why? It's just a legal principle that that that I'm guiding my life by.
Oh, if we're walking in the fear of God and seeking to please the Lord, we're going to be happy, and there will be a far truer path of separation to the world than anything the Pharisees could drum up. Because it was all for the eye of man, and their work was to bind burdens upon others. It's a wretched principle to put burdens on others that God does not put upon them. And what does the Lord say?
And you don't even turn a finger to help, lift a finger to help as they lift a.
Um.
You know I lost my reference.
Well, that's all right. Thoughts there her dad growing up now and then maybe some of you did too. Why don't you turn a finger to help? Well, that's what the Pharisees, they didn't turn a finger to help. And the Lord had to reprimand the the doctors of the law in that same way. Oh, let's not be burden binders. Let's be burden bearers. That's what the Lord would have. That's grace. That's Christianity. And that's what I read in Galatians chapter 6 because there was a region.
Where?
Bad doctrine swept. It wasn't just in a single locality. Now, because bad doctrine is like that, it was in a region, it spread, it spread around to these different assemblies in the Galatians, in the Galatia region. And so the Lord speaks to them. He says, bury you, one another's burdens and soul fulfill the law of Christ. Now that wasn't characteristic of the law of Moses. It certainly wasn't what the Pharisees were trying to do.
No, they were binding burdens. They were making life, sheer drudgery and sheer hardship for their brethren because of these things that they would hoist upon them.
But that's not Christianity. Christianity is bury one another's burdens and soul fulfill the law of Christ not beautiful the law of Christ. That's Christianity is to help fear 1 anothers burdens.
And then in the fifth verse we read about every man shall bear his own burden. Notice recently that in Mr. Darby's translation he has a note stating those two words for burdens are different. And the one verse of one burden where bear you one another's burdens. It's the same word that's used in Matthew chapter 20 about those that labored and had borne the heat of the day. It was a very great burden. And that's what we have in verse.
Two, but the verse in the burden spoken of in verse five is the same word that's used in Matthew 11 from my burden is light.
And Brother Bill was missing the other night that these two burdens, the one would have to be due to something that is excessive, something that is, you might say above and beyond, while the other burden would have to deal with the normal responsibilities of life. And so we see that we each have that responsibility. But in a day when burdens are greater and the strength of the burden bearers faileth and there's not 30,000 or 70,000 burden bearers.
00:25:09
God would seek to reach our hearts that we might take up with the thought of bearing one another's burdens. Now, I've taken much more time than I intended to, so let's turn back to Numbers chapter 3.
And look at the burden of the Marorite.
Numbers chapter 3 and verse.
36.
And under the custody in charge of the sons of Mariah shall be the boards of the Tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and the sockets thereof, and all the vessels thereof, and all that service thereto, and the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords.
That will be sufficient. That gives us what the burden of the mirror right is.
Now, as I say, each of these burdens of the different sons of Levi and I don't want to be taking a side trip here about that. It's very it's very beautiful. The Suns the coauthites that have to do with carrying the holy and the precious things of God to the wilderness. And really it's a privilege for us brethren to do that the precious truths as far as the person of Christ and the work of Christ and the fellowship into which he's brought us.
And our position in Christ, all these things, these precious truths that God is entrusted and committed to the assembly.
It is our privilege to be true coauthites and carry these things throughout the wilderness. Koath's name means assembly, and how good to walk in the truth of the assembly and of the precious truth of God. And it's a burden. It's a burden, isn't it? Especially when it's challenged, especially when it's attacked, especially when the day wears long. That's a burden to carry these things. And then there was the Gershonite. His name means stranger in the work of the Gershonite was to carry the coverings of the Tabernacle and also the curtains.
And the curtains would give, you might say those white curtains would set apart the Tabernacle from the wilderness, and it would give character to the people of God. And it was the testimony of the people of God to the world, that path of righteousness and path of purity that the people of God should pursue through this world. And then those coverings to protect the Tabernacle, which was the House of God where God dwelled, that we might have that.
Exercise and that desire and that burden that we walk through this world that we properly reflect.
Christ here in this world, that we walk according to the truth of what a Christian is here in this world, and that we protect that which God has given us with respect to the House of God. But then this moral right, His name means bitter, and his work is most instructive because he was to carry the boards, the bars and the bases, or I think it says sockets in the King James here. And what would that suggest to us?
Will the bars I'm not going to take the time to read in Exodus 36. We simply don't have time for it.
But we find that the bars, they stood up right, 10 cubits, and they were a cubit and a half wide, and underneath those bars were two bases or two sockets of silver. Now those boards, I believe would suggest to us, the people of God, there is a difference between the Tabernacle and the temple. We know that the House of God is presented in a couple of different ways to us in Scripture, and we find in Peter's epistles how the House of God we're spoken of as living stones.
But in the Tabernacle it seems to be more of the thought of the boards which likewise would represent the people of God.
Now those boards were 10 cubits high. That would speak of responsibility to God.
And we each our responsibility to stand before God. You might say there's that 10 cubits high to stand in our responsibility before God. But then they were a cubit and a half wide. And justice this quick thought that 1/2 in Scripture often speaks to that which is not complete. And so the cubits, these boards were a cubit and a half wide, that is, they weren't complete without the other boards. And so, brethren, we need one another, don't we?
Sometimes we like to get on the path or we don't think we need anybody, but you know, the Lord brings things into our lives and we find out, yes.
We do need our brethren, don't we?
Think of Paul right when he was first converted, and there they were circling around the city, ready to kill him. His brother led him out of the window in a basket, down so he could escape. The great apostle Paul spoken then, of course, is still Saul. There he was hanging in the basket, dangling by his brother down the side of the wall. And it seems to me here was Paul who was so mightily raised up and used of the Lord. He had to learn.
00:30:07
Important principle right at the beginning of his of his service for the Lord, and that is you need your brethren Paul.
There was number miracles there. He was dependent on his brethren to get him down as there he was completely dependent on the Lord. Yes, they depended on his brethren in the basket above him. And so God brings these things into our life sometimes where we realize we may want to go it alone, but God brings us in to say, no, you need your brother. You're only a cubit and a half wide. You're not. You can't go it alone.
Well, the moral right he was to carry these bars, these the boards through the wilderness that would speak of the Saints, of the Saints of God.
His name means bitter, and it seems to me in this way that.
Put it in the lines of the hymn. I think it's 187 and little flock, oh Lord, thou 2 once hasted this weary desert through once fully tried and tasted its bitterness and woe. So there's a bitterness that the Lord felt in this world. I'm not talking about this bitter sphere or we won't forgive somebody or something like that. I'm talking about the bitterness of the way. And Murari felt that.
He felt the bitterness of the pathway you might say that his brother were going through and it was a burden upon him.
And sometimes it's that way. Well, this isn't it, brethren. We know there's a burden and we, we just, we know there's not anything we can do to help our brethren. And what does it do? We just fall on our knees because we know the only one we can turn to is the Lord himself of whom we sunk we.
It's good if we come to that point, to bear the burden when we come to the point where the needs and the hurts among the people of God become bitter in our own soul where we're felt. But there's something else as well as far as burying the bars, the boards. Rather there was bearing the bars and bearing the bases. And I'd just like to say a few words on this because it is so important. The enemy wants to come in and divide now the bases.
Were used that the boards might stand upright.
How many of the Saints of God have fallen because there hasn't been the bases underneath them? Murari carried the bases that the people of God might stand, that the that the boards might stand upright. And then he also carried the bars because the bars would tend to fall apart without being linked together with these, with these bars. And this was the work of them, all right. And this should be what should weigh on our hearts and be a burden to us, not only the needs of the Saints, but that the Saints might stand.
Before God and responsibility in a way to bring him glory and pleasure, and also that they might be united together with a bar.
And so I'd like to just briefly as we, as we closeout the meeting tonight, to go to the New Testament and just look at a few of the epistles and find some bases and find some bars that would cause the Saints of God to stand and that would also cause our hearts to be knit together in love.
Turn first to Acts 20.
I know that's not an epistle, but we have the thought.
Acts chapter 20 and Justice, verse 32.
Paul speaking to the elders of Ephesus. And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Well, you know those those sockets of silver or those bases of silver.
Those there was two under each, under each board, and there's so many lovely thoughts I believe we could draw from them. Perhaps it speaks of the death and the resurrection of Christ.
But in this chapter, in this verse, I'd like to apply it two things needed to cause to enable the Saints of God to stand upright. It's what Paul commended the the believers there too.
To God and the word of His grace.
They might say prayer in the word of God.
That we cannot stand properly if we're not reading the word of God and we're not praying.
I've mentioned this but it comes to mind and we'll just use it as an application. Spoke to a brother earlier this week and said how are you doing? Are you still reading the word? He said no. He said I'm in an all time spiritual low. I'm still praying but he wasn't standing.
He's fallen, but he wasn't reading the word of God. There is in my memory a very distinct.
00:35:06
Impression.
About 2025 years ago, my late Grandpa Brockmire used to drive down for dinner on Lord's Day afternoon and he had a friend whose name was Irwin Moon. Dr. Irwin Moon, some of you may have heard of him, that was made many Christian films. He was quite a scientist and made many Christian films and they even showed him. I remember in elementary school they would show these films carefully edited, taking the part out about God and creation and so on out of the film.
But there were some very interesting films that he that he developed. One was on bees and another one was on.
The River of Life, I think it was called, about the circulatory system and all wonderful documentaries you might call them. And so one day my folks said to my grandpa, would you like to go up and see Irwin Moon? He said, yes, I'd like to see that. I haven't seen him in many years. And so we, we drove up in Hacienda Heights and one large day afternoon and we, we visited there. It was quite, a, quite a happy visit.
And.
Then my grandpa and Doctor Moon began to speak about some sister that they both knew. And Irwin Moon said, he said that sister gave me my first Bible, and she wrote in the flyleaf of that Bible something that's been a real blessing to me. And it was this, and perhaps you've heard of this before, but it was this. This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.
And if we go headlong into sin, it's because we've neglected either or both the word of God in prayer.
We need those two bases of silver to support us that we might stand.
Upright for the glory of God. And then there was you might see the bars, which is able to give you an inheritance among all of them that are sanctified. Because God doesn't just expect us to go on as a free agent, Mavericks, doing what we think is right before the Lord. He has brought us into a fellowship one with another. We are united among all them that are sanctified. God is called out of the nations, the people for himself and has united them together.
When all God wants the bars that were united together.
Turn to Romans 15 as well now.
Romans, chapter 15.
I'm sorry, Chapter 161625.
Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest. We'll stop right there. Two things, the gospel and the mystery.
Paul's gospel, he said in Romans 11. He purposed to come to them in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
And how good to read the Epistle to the Romans, and be established in the fullness of the Gospel of Christ, that not only are my sins gone and put away, but that sin nature within me has been condemned at the cross of Christ. In my standing before God is a child of Adam, is gone and done away with, and now I stand before God as a new man.
The fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. But there was also the mystery of Christ and the church, the unsearchable riches of Christ. It has to do with the body of Christ. Now God has made one new man out of Jew and Gentile, uniting them together in one body and one new man. And again, it's the collective side of thing. So we need the gospel, truly, but we also need the mystery of Christ in the church. One time a brother was speaking to me. He had gotten cold, and I think he had left the gathering at the time.
And he was referring to a brother's ministry and he says all that brother talks about is the assembly. And I said, yes, all that brother talks about is the mystery. All that brother talks about is the unsearchable riches of Christ. He said, well, you have a point. Yes, but the trouble is often is with our hearts. And I'm not saying we can't emphasize one line of truth and neglect of all others, and that's not right either, but how God would desire that we're established in the gospel and in the mystery.
There's so many more verses I'd like to turn to, but.
I'll just grab a couple more and we'll close here. 1St Corinthians 1.
I hope I'm making clear what I'm trying to bring out about the basis. It is that which would cause the Saints of God to stand.
In their personal responsibility for the Lord that we don't take tumbles and we don't lie as a fallen board in the wilderness. That's the basis. So now here we're going to read about some bars. First Corinthians chapter one and verse 10.
00:40:13
Now I beseech your brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and there be no divisions among you, but that she perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are the House of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
I'll stop there. We know the context. We know what was going on there in Corinth. There is these little factions, these little, little schisms that we're developing and working.
There were those that were going on, no part of any faction.
But there were these factions that were developing because man was being followed. And that's the sure consequence whenever man replaces Christ or whenever an idea or some pet.
Theme of of things takes the place of Christ.
And so Paul beseeches them that they would be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. This is the bars of the Tabernacle. And how can this be? Why have we read in Exodus 36 we'd find there was one bar that shot through all the boards. I believe it's a picture to us of the Spirit of God that touches us all, that indwells us all, that unites us all together. The Spirit of God must be given His place if the Saints of God are going to be bound together.
But you know, also on those boards there was these little tenants that connected one board to another. And you know, in practical ways there are brethren that we are closer to for one reason or another than others. There's these tenons we need to be knit together in love. But these bars, there was that one bar that shot all the way through. There were these other bars that connected the boards. And perhaps we have those in Ephesians chapter 4.
Perhaps we'll just turn to it.
Those things that would keep the Saints of God bound together, that there wouldn't be schisms and a pulling apart.
Ephesians 4 and verse one speaks of walking worthily, of the vocation wherever we're called, with all loneliness. There's one bar in meekness, there's another bar with long-suffering, there's a third bar and forbearing one another in love. That's the 4th bar. And then endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace is in the 5th bar. That's not original with me, but I've enjoyed it. The unity of the Spirit. What is that? I don't know if I can describe it, but I think it's what we read in Acts 2 describes what the.
Of the Spirit is they are all together, with one accord in one place.
One accord in one place, the Saints gathered together on the truth to express the one body, but even more than that, because they were the 1 accord. And how can that be so? How can there be the bars that would unite us together? Why with the meekness, the long-suffering, for burying one another in love with all loneliness?
This is how the Lord can keep us united together. And although we might have that burden of the moral right that we might desire, that our brethren might stand, that there is the prominence of the Word of God and prayer in our life, that there is the appreciation for the gospel truly, but also the mystery, also the Church of God. Not that it's the Church of God exclusively and nothing for the gospel, but there's both that we might stand.
And, as Paul could tell, the Corinthians.
He did not want to have dominion over their face, but as helpers of their joy, by faith ye stand.
Oh, we don't stand walking in somebody else's exercises. We stand by walking in personal faith before the Lord, whether conscience exercise before him, walking in the truth as the Spirit of God makes it known to us, so that we have those bases. And then likewise, brethren, we have the bars because we know how the enemy loves to divide and how the wolf loves to scatter. We need those bars that would unite us together, that we might be perfectly joined together.
In the same mind and in the same judgment, and that we might bear the burden of moral right carrying those boards.
Having a burden for the people of God and all the sorrows that we pass through.
That we might be sustained in the wilderness, that we might not.