Chicago Conference: 1978
Table of Contents
Three Temptations
Gospel—C.E. Lunden
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Made through Genesis chapter 3 for one. For a few verses, perhaps chapter 2.
I'm going to speak, the Lord permitting, on three temptations tonight.
Chapter 2 of Genesis.
And verse 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
Chapter 3 and verse 6 and when the woman saw.
That the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant.
Through the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise.
It's just the fruit thereof, and their teeth. And gave also unto her husband with her.
And he did he.
And I hid myself.
And he said, Who told thee that thou hast make it? Hast thou eaten of the tree which I commanded thee that thou should not be?
And the man said, the woman whom thou gave us to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?
And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art church above all cattle.
Of every base of the field, on thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat.
All the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, if the bruise, thy head and thou shalt bruise is healed.
Under the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
Install. Thou shalt bring forth children.
And thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over these.
Verse 20.
And Adam called his wife, named Eve because she was the mother.
All living unto Adam, also unto his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothes them.
Verse 24.
So he drove out the man, and he placed the feast of the Garden of Eden Cherubims.
And a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way.
Of the tree of life.
I'm going to speak of the temptations, the three that a sale man.
In perhaps the reverse order, then they're usually spoken of.
Because the first one here includes all three, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye.
And the pride of life.
But I believe the emphasis here is on the pride of life.
When man sinned, he came into a new position.
To be as God, knowing good and evil.
Little did man discover, a little did man know that he would discover.
When he disobeyed God.
That he would make it.
Oh dear friends, tonight.
There's a day coming when you're going to stand before God and you're either going to stand close in that precious robe of Jesus Christ, or you're going to be naked in the presence of God.
One of the two.
Or precious Isaiah put to the man shall be a hiding place from the windy storm in Tempest. I didn't quote it exactly, pardon me, but nearly that a man shall be a hiding place.
Who's that man?
Jesus Christ the Savior.
Could it be tonight that there are souls in this room that have come and they have sat?
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Under the sound of the gospel of the grace of God.
Nothing about a Savior who left the glory.
Humbled himself as a man.
Came down here and walked earth path for 3 1/2 years in the midst of all the sin and shame and ruin.
Though they might be placed on a cross and die, so that you might have eternal life. And you sit there at night, beloved 1 indifferent.
Like someone said to me, So what?
Oh my friend, that's the attitude of this poor world. Why? Because the Spirit of God has never opened your eyes to see that you're on their way to hell.
If you are, you're naked before God with no covering.
That was the discovery of the man that sinned. First. I said the man because God holds the man responsible.
Oh what a place to be in before God, and then as God comes walking in the cool of the day.
In the garden what for? To have communion with his creature.
Adam has hid himself behind the trees of the garden. Were you hiding tonight?
Which tree are you behind?
Without Christ and without God, afraid of God.
Where are you tonight at award though?
Did God say it in a harsh terms? No.
No, I'm sure he doesn't.
Adam or Arthur?
Like a father would cry for his son.
What does Jesus say to Judith? The last word he said, friend, wherefore art thou come?
Oh my friend, you don't know God if you think he's a harsh man person.
You don't know him.
He is a God of love. God so loved this world that He gave His only begotten Son.
And whosoever believeth in him should not perish. You know what that perish means.
That have everlasting life perish means to be transferred from a happy state to an unhappy one forever.
That's what it means.
And all the privileges.
Dear friends that you have tonight.
In the land of prosperity.
If you went into some of these countries behind the Iron Curtain tonight with one of these, they take them away from you.
And yet you can sit here with a Bible, Yes, and one for everyone of your children.
I ask you.
Are your children saved?
May I ask you this?
Have you wept about it?
When they aren't saved.
I suppose you wonder why I make these statements.
Because, dear ones, I have that.
In A room.
Where the floor was wet with tears for soul.
Crying for the sins.
Wanting to be saved.
You don't see it today.
And how often do you see a father and mother weeping over their children unsaved?
Brother for a sister.
A young lady came to me at one of the conferences weeping over her brother. Thank God.
Thank God.
Do you know what it means to be lost?
He batted from the holy God, the God who is the only one who can provide blessing for your soul.
To be separated from him forever, without one ray of light.
Without one drop of water to quench your tongue.
With not one bit of blessing.
The constant torment, forever and ever.
You know that's what it means.
No wonder Judah cries out when Joseph keeps his brother in prison.
How can I go to my father and the lad be not with me?
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Adam, where art thou?
Where art thou? Well, we find human nature here, expressed immediately.
Passing the responsibility on one to the other.
And finally it lands on Satan. He was guilty, that's true, and so was he.
And so was Adam.
All guilty.
And dear friends, tonight I can say in the truth of the Word of God.
That all are guilty. There's none. Righteous. No, not one. There's not a person sitting in this room tonight. But what is guilty?
And so much so.
That if you and I got our just judgment.
We'd be undergoing the judgment of the eternal fire this very moment. The reason? The book of Jews.
Undergoing the judgment of eternal fire.
You know, it isn't popular to speak of judgment, and I'm not going to say much about it tonight.
But.
Does the day coming and I don't think it'll be far off.
For the streets of Chicago.
New York. Montreal, Paris.
From one end of the earth to the other.
Will be all dead bodies.
But you believe that.
Read the 25th chapter of Isaiah.
And you'll see it will be solved from one end of the earth to the other.
The judgment of God.
On those who've added testimony as we've done and rejected it.
Thank God, before that happens, you and I who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be caught away to be with him and the heavens.
20th bird.
And Adam called his wife's name Steve.
Living.
Living.
That was an act of faith.
In a scene of death.
After God had said.
In the 15 first.
I will put enmity between me and the woman, in between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise I had, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
The God speaking to the serpent.
Speaking of the.
The death of Christ.
But now the Lord Jesus comes out the picture.
Through that.
Victory over death.
And so Adam takes this up because friends without faith is impossible to please him.
He that would come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder.
Of those who diligently speaking.
I rewatched it.
Without faith, it's impossible to please him.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved.
And Adam named his wife Eve, the mother of all living.
That's the first type of the church to the Scriptures.
The mother of all living in a scene of death.
All based on that promise not to man or to the woman. To the woman, Steve.
Right.
Oh dear friend, everything depends on Christ.
The operation of the universe depended on him as he hung on that cross of Calvary.
Your precious soul depends on that work of Calvary whether you're saved or lost.
Tonight.
If you receive him, you can have all the blessings that come from that work at Calvary to reject him.
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You'll have to stand before the judge.
When you will have repeated before you God, command the fallen men everywhere to repent.
We believe the gospel.
Oh yes, it's a loving invitation for you tonight, but it's also a command.
And just as Adam just obeyed that command, your disobedience would be to reject Jesus.
As Savior.
From the heart of a loving God who sent his own Son.
And now we have a coat.
Of skin not make it anymore.
No standing before God clothed in something that God has provided.
Not your friend tonight. You may have your own religion, as you call it.
But I want to ask you, are you clothed in a garment that God has provided?
And the garment that God has provided is the result of death.
It's a code of sin.
It's on the basis of substitution. In order that you not die, someone else had to die. In this case, a type is used of an animal.
But my friends, there was a day when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world.
He was hung on a cross between 2 Thieves.
He died.
Is my substitute. Was it yours?
Are you trusting in that one and that only one way of salvation?
The precious blood of Christ and death for you.
There is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved in the precious names of Jesus.
And now we have at the end of the chapter.
Angels with a flaming sword.
Man can't get back into that garden.
Turned every way.
Nor thou.
East and West.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Feet, the way of the tree of life.
Yes, my friends, as soon as Jesus appeared, the way of life was open.
To the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And those who know him now are going to eat of that pure ripe fruit of the Tree of Life.
In the glory.
Oh, what a marvelous ending to this story of Genesis 2:00 and 3:00.
Why? Because man was righteous.
No, he's with it.
Because of love, that's why.
You and I will never know.
But it has cost God to give his Son.
You and I will never know, but it costs Jesus to go through those three hours of darkness.
Turn with me please.
To another passage in Genesis.
Dennis is 18.
We're going to speak now, the lust of the eye.
And see how this turns out.
Verse 10.
Janice says, oh, I'm sorry, Genesis 13 and 10, I'm sorry.
A lot lifted up his eyes.
And beheld all the plain of Jordan.
That it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom.
And Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as our cometh unto Zohar.
Then lot go him all the plain of Jordan and journeyed.
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Lot journey gifts were eastward.
12 verse 5010 towards Sodom. Now turn over to the.
19th chapter.
First verse And there came two angels to sodom and even.
And Locke sat in the Gate of Sodom.
A lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.
And he said, Behold now my Lord, turn in, I pray you into your servants house, not pants.
Now it's a house.
We carry all night.
Wash your feet and you shall rise up early and go on your way.
And they said nay, but we will abide in the streets all night.
Now the 12Th bird and the man said unto lot, Hast thou hear any beside son-in-law, the night sons and thy daughters? And whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place, for we will destroy this place.
Words of men, carry all night. Rest yourself till tomorrow.
The words of angels get out of this place. We will destroy this place. Oh what a difference between the words of men and the word of God.
Those who can look behind the scenes.
And warn lot of what's coming. Little did he realize Abraham knew.
Abraham knew. Why was Abraham on top of the mountain?
The previous chapter is playing.
What was he praying about?
Poor lot.
That he'd taken down into Egypt and he'd shown him the world.
The lust of the eye.
And now he wants to pray for him so he won't be destroyed in the city that's going up in flames.
Oh, how careful we need to be of our example leading others into a place.
Of destruction.
Dear young people, beware of the encampment of this world, the garden.
The pleasant things will deceive you, the lust of the eyes.
Beware.
What a solemn story this is.
When you read the book of Proverbs.
It leaves the wanton eyes in change.
That's proverb.
We do well to draw a curtain over the rest of this history.
Of life.
What does Solomon say?
Why you said I?
I withheld not my eyes from anything.
It was good.
What does his father say?
David.
You read it in the 119th Psalm what he said.
Take away mine eyes from seeing evil.
And one wrote a book on the history of what you shouldn't do.
Solomon, because he'd already done it.
Barrier.
And the other wrote a book on what you should do because he had Christ before him.
The happy.
Psalmist of Israel.
Keep my eyes from seeing evil. The lust of the eyes.
Leaves one in change.
So what a story, what a warning for our soul.
Dear friends, tonight.
Word of God says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
But our question tonight is, have you taken the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Satan?
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Don't think you can hide like Adam behind the trees of the garden because God says be sure your sins.
Will find you out, not sends your sins.
And you know what it is tonight.
Be sure your sins will find you out.
Wouldn't it be nice to have them all forgiven, all put away from forever?
And I want to tell you tonight, dear friends, if you take that precious Savior, the Lord Jesus.
God has said.
Their sins and iniquity I will remember no more.
Remember no more, never again will the sin be raised for all eternity.
You realize what a solemn thing it is to sit in a gospel meeting and hear the truth of salvation and walk out unsaved.
To hear the truth of escape.
And yet walk right into the fire, because that's what you're doing.
Little do you know what will happen as you pass out those doors tonight if you do pass out.
Little do you know.
Besides, the word of God, says he, that often being reproved and hardened at his next, will suddenly be destroyed.
Not without remedy.
With either, regardless of commandments shall be rewarded.
Oh, I've got.
Oh, how God solemnly warns us, because there is wrath. Beware lest he take thee away with a stroke.
Then a great ransom cannot deliver thee safety, only in Jesus.
Because there's no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved.
Oh, dear. One tonight I know I'm preaching to people here who are saved Mostly. Mostly saved. That is, mostly are saved, I'm sure.
But I feel, I don't know, but I feel there are some here tonight who do not know Jesus Christ as their Savior.
That should pause for a moment there one way these things in the sight of God. Are you sheltered?
Under the precious blood of Christ have you recovering before the eye, Not a man, but God, who reads the heart.
You read the 139th Psalm, you'd see a man in the presence of God, discovering that God knew all about him.
In that Psalm we see that the day and the night are alike to God, the darkness and the light, the inside and the outside, all the same to God.
He knows this all together and he loves them.
Oh, how he loved.
How do I know why? Because back in the Council of eternity is the lighter of the sons of men, we read.
Turn with me to another passage.
It's in.
Genesis The.
We're going to speak of the lust of the flesh.
We've spoken of the pride of life, we've spoken of the lust of the eye. We're going to speak of the lust of the flesh.
And Dinah, the daughter of Leah, which she barely to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
And when Shechem, the son of Hammer of the Highlight, Prince of the land, as the country saw, he took her.
Lay with her and defiled her.
In the 24th chapter of the.
Now we turn to the.
49th chapter of Genesis. 1St 48th chapter of Genesis.
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The 21St verse.
And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die, but God shall be with you.
We bring you again unto the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given to thee 1 portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.
Now Joshua Joshua 20.
4.
And 32.
And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem.
In a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hammer, the father of Shechem, for an 100 pieces of silver, and it became the inheritance.
Of the children of Joseph.
You know, dear friends.
A man who was an engineer told me this.
He said if you drop a Pebble into a large pool of water.
The ring that it makes will not stop until it reaches the furthest shore. Think of it.
The disturbance that that Pebble makes will not stop until it reaches the furthest shore.
Do you know what happens, dear friends? Should I sin?
Tremendous effect it would have on my brethren, my children, my friends, not to think.
Of God.
Sin what is it?
Who is responsible for it? Satan.
But unless you're saved tonight, you have a heart that loves to sin. You'd love to do it.
And the only thing that keeps you from it is public opinion, and that's going out the window fast.
Dear friends, tonight this may be the last gospel meeting, and some of you, dear young people, haven't confessed Christ as your Savior.
Your sin, you love it.
You will until you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. You will hide it, sure, but that's your nature and you don't have another.
You must be born again.
There's no other way.
You must have a new life.
There must be new birds.
Receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior.
Because thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead.
That shall be saved.
They they.
Lost now.
Without Christ.
What the second map to do with all this?
What does Joshua have to do with all this?
Everything.
Why were they so particular about the bones of Joseph?
Resurrection.
You may be cut off tonight. Whether you're saved, you're lost. You may be cut off. And if you're saved, oh what a glorious resurrection awaits you. You're lost. Resurrection awaits you, but not a glorious 1.
There you will stand before God, naked, no covering.
No savior, no garment. Take them away.
Cast them into outer darkness, weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth.
Oh beloved one tonight, is this what you want?
May God open your eyes to take Jesus tonight as your own personal Savior.
And now, as this story ends, it started with shame. So did yours.
Dotted mine.
I would ask anyone here tonight to raise their hand. It's proof to me that life didn't start with shame.
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All that God would tell us and show us what we are in His presence.
The only one remedy, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses from all sins.
ALL.
One portion of I given the above thy brethren, which I have taken out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow. Who is the Amorite? The Shechemite.
When did he do that?
When the sons of cruelty, Simeon and Levi, slew all the men of the city, and all was left was the widows and children.
Widowed children. That's Joseph's portion.
I know that some of you here are Christians. Understand what I mean? In the typical sense, we'll speak of need, Children speak of dependence.
That's Christ portion.
All those who take the place of need independence come into blessings. Joseph gets a double portion.
It's Shechem. That's why we read it in Joshua Shechem.
But I said this story ended well.
It started bad.
Just like your life and mine started bad. I don't care who you are in this room tonight, you're a Sinner.
On your way to hell without Christ.
There's no other way like we used to sing as young people on their way home from gospel meetings.
Hand in hand, stretched out across the plain as we walked home.
The Way of the Cross.
Leads home.
Way of the Cross leads home.
Yes, my friend, it's the way of the cross and no other way.
That leads home, Home. Oh dear one, where will your home be should you leave this world tonight?
Will it be in the arms of Jesus?
Will the father embrace you as he did the prodigal?
Or will it be like Judas? He went out and it was night.
Night, the pride of life, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh.
And like that little Pebble spreads the ring to the furthest shore. What you do and what I do.
The effects of it keeps going on and on and on. Oh, what sorrow, dear young Christian.
One false move.
Naomi tasted the fruits of it.
When she let her family down into Moab.
She lost her husband.
She lost her two sons, and then she lost one daughter-in-law. Then she woke up.
Then she turned, her eyes hearing a report.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. She heard a report.
She turns her eyes to Bethlehem, Ephrata, the land of fruitfulness, God's own land, and she takes Ruth with her.
Take one false step and you'll take someone with you. Be sure. Take one good step and you'll take someone with you. Be sure.
That's a principle of the Word of God.
Oh, blessed to walk through this world and leave a path of blessing behind us rather than one of sorrow.
But now turn to John 4, please.
He, Jesus left Judea and departed again into Galilee.
And he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria which is called Psycho or Shechem.
Near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, sapped us on the well, and it was about the 6th hour.
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There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
Give me the drink.
That's just the woman of Samaria to him. How is the South being a Jew? Ask the strength of me, which I'm a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that said to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given me living water.
The woman sat on him. Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with.
And the whale is deep, the well is deep.
For whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our Father? Jacob, which gave us the well, drank there of himself and his children cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water.
Shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I should give him shall never thirst.
The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up.
To everlasting life, Sir, give me this water.
Yes, what do we have here?
The happy ending.
To a tragic otherwise story.
Have you ever discovered the one who can take away all the shame?
Have you?
Jesus did.
Took all mine away.
As he yours.
The shame on Jacob's house was removed.
Like G.
Oh dear one, tonight have you found Jesus as your Savior, the one who can take away all your shame?
Have you?
So I would hate to close this meeting tonight, dear one, without you.
Yes, you and you.
Confessing Jesus Christ as your Savior now.
You don't have to make a demonstration.
Bow your head and confess Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior now.
Tomorrow may be too late.
All precarious life is.
Two men were hanging down the side of a precipice.
At Boulder Dam, they were drilling into the rock to secure.
The foundations for the dam.
Suspended on a line that was supposed to be at least five to 10 times stronger than needed to support the man.
There were men hide some Merlot.
And suddenly, without warning, one of the ropes snapped.
And the man came hurtling down.
To assure death.
One of his partners saw it.
And he kicked the clip and swung out, and he grabbed him in his arms and the rope held.
What was that sovereignty? That's what that was.
And dear friend, if you're saved tonight, it's a sovereign grace of God. It's not because you knew.
Anything or did anything but your sins, that's all.
But there's one thing you can do, and that's simply hold out your hand and take the safety.
Oh how marvelous the grace of God that allowed that man to kick his way away from the Cliff just in time to close this band in his arms.
Precarious.
Why do I say this? Because.
Because you could go out of this room tonight.
Never see the light of day again.
And then you go out in the blackness of darkness forever.
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Without God, without Christ.
No friends.
Is that what you want? And you can have Jesus tonight, a loving Savior, one who came all the way from the glory.
To save your precious soul. Is that what you want?
Take Jesus now.
Take him as your own personal savior. Thank God for saving your precious soul.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, the precious.
Blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses.
All sins, won't you come tonight?
World Order and What It Rests On
Address—A. Roach
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.
Genesis 4 And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and their Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she gained bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a teller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, and offering unto the Lord.
And Abel he also brought of the of the first things of his flock, and the fat thereof.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering, but unto Cain, and to his offering he had not respect.
And Cain was very raw, and his countenance fell. The Lord said unto Cain, Why out thou wroth, And why is like countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not the accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and they came to pass when they were in the field.
That Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
And the Lord sent out to Cain, Where is Abel, thy brother? He said, I know not am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.
When thou tell us the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength.
A fugitive and a Vagabond shall there be in the earth.
And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, I was driven thee.
Out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I behead, and I shall be a fugitive and a Vagabond in the earth. And it shall come the pass that everyone that findeth me shall slay me. The Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain.
Lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.
And dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bear Enoch. And he built it. A city called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch.
And unto Enoch was born Irad. Irad begotten a huge yell.
The huge yell they got Methuselah, and Methuselah begat Lamech. The Lamech took on to him two wives. The name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other Zilla and Adolph bear Jabel. He was the father of such as dwell in tents and of such as have cattle, and his brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
And Zillah, she also bare tubal canes.
An instructor of every artificer and brass and iron, and the sister of Tubal Cain.
Was Nahama Lamech said unto his wives? Ada and Zella, hear my voice. He, wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech, For I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my heart. If Cain shall be Avenged Sevenfold truly, Lamech 70 and sevenfold.
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son called his name Seth for God, said she.
Hath appointed me another seed.
Instead of Abel, whom Cain flew and asset to him also that was born a son, and he called his name Enos. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
I believe, beloved brethren, we have in this early passage of Scripture.
A complete description of the world, order of things and what it rests on, what it rests on. You know, when the Lord Jesus was here on earth, he had only two enemies. He had two external enemies. One was the world that hated him and the other was the devil.
Now you and I have 3 enemies. We've got the same two external enemies.
The world and the devil. But we've got an enemy inside that always wants to open the door to either of those two or both. Now we're warned against the world, and that's what we want to look at here. We want to see what the world system and order of things is based on. We've been warned about hedges, and how are the hedges broken down? Not only can the serpent get in, but the wild boar we get in the 80th Psalm, the wild boar, the.
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Power of the world can come in and destroy our enjoyment of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ.
We are told.
In the first Epistle of John.
Love not the world, neither the things that which are in the world.
If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him for all that is in the world.
Is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And this is not of the Father, but is of the world which passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Now the warning we get there about the world is a serious one. It's a serious one. Now. We've had before some precious things about the Church.
What a what a contrast. When we think of the world system, we've been reminded of the Church.
Place we have what a position we're in and let us remember this that every if I may try to quote from my dear brother Achi Hayhoe that every exhortation given to us in the word of God is based on what we already are in Christ. So when the 1St 3 chapters of Ephesians, what do we get a wonderful place. Our brother has outlined it for us. We come to the last three chapters we get the exhortation.
Commend the thought. At this point in the Book of Judges, when Osteo and his wife AXA were given a Southland by Caleb. They wanted springs of water, they wanted something to refresh them, they wanted something that produced fruit and you wanted Calum. Caleb give them. He gave them the upper springs and the nether springs. That is he gave them the 1St 3 chapters of Ephesians as the upper springs.
And He gave them the last three chapters as the Nether Springs. What I mean by that we need to know our precious and our wonderful and blessed standing in the precious Savior first to know what manner of men we are. Then the Spirit of God applies to Nether Springs those exhortations as to our walk and our ways here on earth. God is pleased with those that obey Him.
We know from the, I think it's the fourth Psalm. We need not turn to it. God know that God has set upon him that is godly for himself.
Can God look down on me and on you and say there's one of the godly, I can enjoy his company because he wants my thoughts. He wants when I say about my beloved son, he's so occupied with that that the world has no attraction to him. Or are these things are important? One has lived, one cannot.
Put himself in the same age group as a dear brother Smith. But one has been on the journey and on the road since 1918. And what have we found? The faithfulness of God, The graciousness and blessedness of Christ. It is a desire in any way to serve Him. He will give the grace to do it. Why? Why should we turn to the world? Why should we turn to that wine we've been hearing about? Why should we turn to that old?
Wine there, when God has given us that new wine of joy by the Spirit of God and dwelling us, what a joyful moment. As has already been expressed. If the blessed Lord came at this moment, would there might be much of a change in US morally or there'll be no change in US positionally. We were already accepted in the beloved.
But all, how wonderful it will be to see the blessed Savior. Well, now let us trace briefly in this chapter the order of things. I want to make this statement. First, we have the death of Christ twice in this chapter. We have the death of Christ in two different aspects. Are there two different aspects of Christ's death? Hold our place and turn to the second of Acts. There are many scriptures that will bear this out, and I cite 1.
Act 2.
And verse 23 him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.
That's one side of the death of Christ ye have taken, and by wicked hands are crucified.
And slain Now in the first part of that verse, it's the death of Christ according to God's purposes and counsels, according to what God had marked out in eternity for the solid foundation of your eternal blessing in mind. But when he came, did they take him with faithful hands? Did they say we know the word of God is predicted that you should die, that we should Pierce you, and we're going to do it as lovingly as we can? No, with wicked hands taken.
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And crucified and slain, He is worthy of death. The high priest said that's what men said of him. But what do we read in First Corinthians? Christ died for our sins. According to the Scriptures, He is worthy of death. That's man's estimate of the cross. He died from our sins. That's God's wonderful and gracious provision. So in this chapter we have the death of Christ. We look at it briefly in two ways.
And one of them is man's side of it and on which the whole world system is built.
The whole world system is built on the on the basis of having rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. We will not have this man to reign over us. We want Barabbas. We do not want Christ. We want the murderer. We want the insurrectionist, We want the robber.
That's what they chose and the world is getting those three things today in full measure alertness. Notice the opening of the chapter. Our brother refer to it in the gospel, but we want to look at it in relation to ourselves as Christians. We see Eve says I have gotten a man from the Lord. I believe this is in one way an expression of her faith and that she had no doubt at first the thought that this was the promised seed, the seed of the woman.
Shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.
She is enthusiastic. We will see how how more toned down she is when Seth is born.
About a different expression she uses, but at the moment let us see here she says I have gotten a man from the Lord.
Lord, Lord brings in the thought of relationship. Eve realized she stood in relationship in a moral way.
Before God, we know she disobeyed in the beginning, but she has a sense that God is one who has authority, one whom she obeys. Not simply that he's God is created, that's true, but he's Jehovah, He's the Lord, and so she speaks of him in that way. But you know, we're in a conscious relationship too. Our brother touched on it. I know he could have given us a lot more on Ephesians, and we have there the relationship we've brought into God is our Father.
What was one of the purposes that Christ gave himself for that he might redeem us in this present evil world according to the will of God the Father? That's Galatians one. Well, here then we see Eve is quite enthused. He's gotten a man from the Lord. And then when Abel is born, it may seem that she's been a little disillusioned because as our brother pointed out, Cain means acquisition or gotten possessed a possession. But she names Abel that which speaks of vanity.
Vanity lighter than air, she realizes the vanity of things. Have you and I realized the emptiness of all that is around?
It's simply air. Every man walketh in a vain show, Scripture tells us. And that's the trouble with the the old nature in us. We can seek to walk in a vain show.
I was struck some years ago by a statement our dear brother AC Brown made in the Bible reading at Montreal. I had never heard it put that way. He said, you know, it's a terrible thing for one to try to speak well of Christ in order to be thought well of himself. What would do that? The flesh. And a Christian, you know, the flesh hasn't changed, but God has put us in the place of death in relation to it so we can walk victorious over it. Well, now we see the result here we.
Now the first aspect of the death of Christ. We want to notice that first.
Abel brings the first thing of the flock. He brings that burnt offering.
The fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel into his offering. This is the death of Christ for us.
This is the death of Christ from God's side of the cross. This is God saying, here is the way, here is the Savior. He died for our sins. And then also it tells us that He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them and rose again. So in this first death, it's the death of Christ for us from God's side of the cross.
Wasn't that, beloved brethren, but occupied our souls this morning?
God's side of the cross. Yes, we had to think 2 of what men did. We cannot disassociate that whole scene, but we know from our standpoint, we were remembering the precious Savior in that way in which he gave himself and which God had given him for us. How did we remember him in life? No, we remembered Him in death. We do not remember Christ in the glory. Do not we do not remember the man walking in Galilee.
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Brother Darby has put it very nicely. He says. We remember him before his resurrection.
We remember him as a dead Christ, so we were carried back this morning to death.
The death of the blessed Savior from God's side of the cross. Well that we get first here. Now that's God's side of the cross. We're going to Passover Cain. This is not our purpose to take up these all the details here. But now we find that in verse eight that Cain talked with Abel, his brother and it came to pass when they were in the field that cane rose up against Abel, his brother and slow him.
Slow him.
What does Peter tell those Jews there? Let's turn to it. I think it's the third of Acts.
Let's read the verse Acts 3 and verse 14.
But ye denied the Holy One and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and kill the Prince or the originator of life.
Whom God hath raised from the dead, where we are witnesses. They killed the Prince of life. Now I just want to qualify this a bit so there's no misunderstanding. In the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus says no man taketh my life from me. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again.
So he was actually killed by the action of the soldiers. He would not have been laying down his life of himself. But when God charges home the guilt to man's conscience, he said you're killed who you've slain because that's what man did in effect. Actually, Christ dismissed his own spirit. And you know, if you read John 19 carefully, you'll find that he didn't die in his head droop. He bowed his head.
In full control of the situation.
Bowed his head, and then he dismissed the spirit. Had it been an ordinary death, death would have caused his head to droop. But the Lord had power over His spirit in the day of death to retain it or to let it go. And He did. And John, it's a stronger word even than in Matthew. Both in Matthew and John, the Lord dismisses His spirit with authority. But in John the word of authority is even stronger than that. In the Gospel of the Messiah, He turns his spirit over to the Father. He.
Spirit to another and so we see that while from God's standpoint Christ died, gave up his life, from man's standpoint of guilt, they killed the Prince of life. Now the whole world system is based on that. The whole world system is based on the absolute exclusion of Christ from their whole course. I don't mean they don't go to church as they say that they don't read the Bible, that some of them don't try moral principles and even try.
Say they're getting armed well with God by it, but the worldly system has no room for Christ.
When they found it the United Nations that supposed organizations were keeping the peace in San Francisco, they couldn't pray in English in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ or any language. Why? They would have offended the heathen nations that were there. Christ was left out.
And I'm going to say this, that The Sorrowful Thing to Say, the most popular book that was sold among those members of that committee that formed the United Nations.
The name of the book, if I remember it was this where to sin in San Francisco. No wonder that organization has never been able to keep peace and all that has been able to do is help dictators establish themselves. It's worked an exact reverse. They left Christ out of it. They left God out of it. They can't pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll offend the Muhammadans or what a what a terrible scene this world is. And here we see that Cain could not stand.
The presence of Abel. Abel was the man accepted before God. Cain must not have him around. And Cain is not now raw with God directly having he was wroth because the sacrifice wasn't accepted. But now he's wroth against God's man. He's hatred. His hatred goes out to Abel and what does he do? He puts him to death. He kills him.
Now from there on, we see the world system building up.
We'll see what happens. First of all, after his violence, he's insolent. God says to him, where is Abel thy brother? He says, am I my brother's keeper? He said I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? Think of a man speaking so insolently to God. People do that today. Why? Because they've rejected God's man. They don't want Christ and so they speak against God. They may use.
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A wonderful glowing terms. They may use religious terms, but they speak insolently. When they reject the word of God, we reject Christ, Savior. I don't care how polite the refusal is. I've spoken with had the opportunity to speak to many men in the business, life and otherwise as to their soul. And I've had some who are very, very, very adept at kindly turning away from the truth.
In the gospel they could do it very nicely, but they turned away. It'd be just the same as if they stamped their fist on the table and said I don't want it.
If you refuse Christ in any way, I'm speaking now that we want Christ in our life to govern it. Do we want Christ to shine upon us? I'd like to repeat that verse again and our brother spoke of here we find someone asleep among the dead. Now the world is dead.
That that entrepreneurs and sins we as Christians have life now of a dead man is lying among the slain. He doesn't look any different than the rest. Here I take my way across the battlefield, the battles over and there are many dead soldiers lying on the field. Maybe there's a wounded man. He said he's alive, but he's sleeping. He's looking at him. He said well, he's he's he's dead. He's dead with the rest of them. Well, now that's the same thing. A picture of the Christian lying down and sleeping among the dead.
And how do we do that? Well, we had some information and clarification of it already. You'd like to add the thought. It's acting like the world, living like the world, thinking like the world, doing what the world does. You know, in Deuteronomy, it says their spot is not the spot of his children. When the world looks at you and me, do they see the spot of God's children on us? Or they say, well, look, he's, he's like the rest of us. He does the same as we do. He thinks the same as we do. And.
Go to extremes and dress or manner. As our brother pointed out, these things ought not to be. God wants us to walk with Christ. There's only room in the narrow Rd. for two people, each of us and the Lord. Now here, let's go on with this scene.
As a result of this, the curse comes in and God brings a curtain. Another curse on the ground in verse 12 will now tell us the ground that shall have henceforth the elder thee her strength.
Think about His accursed upon the earth. You ever go by and see a great big factory and you look at it. So what are they making that they manufacture fertilizer, chemicals to treat the ground. Why do they have to do that? Because God cursed the ground in the days of Cain. He said, The ground shall not henceforth yield unto thee strength. So many God put strength back into it, so that that they build up an industry in order to throw back into the ground what the curse of God had taken out.
God had brought thorns and thistles for Adam, but now for Cain he takes away the strength of the ground itself, and so Cain has to toil all the more. Well, that's the world system now could be coming to now, Cain says in verse 13. My punishment is greater than I can fare.
And in the end of verse 14, he says that everyone that that findeth me shall slay me. There are other people on the earth, and Cain know it. But he knew that if they he knew that he was guilty of murder. He knew instinctively that the death penalty was rightfully his. He knew instinctively that capital punishment was the thing he deserved. Everyone that findeth me shall slay me wherever I go. I won't be able to get away from this judgment that I rightfully deserve. You know I might just in passing.
These are this is another thing the world is throwing off all restraint. If God establishes capital punishment, which he does in the 9th chapter of this book, man says that's Bob, that's barbarous. That goes back to the dark ages, and yet God established it. If God has established marriage, we'll see in this very chapter man violates it.
He violates and produces gross immorality in its place. Well here then, Cain is a fugitive in the earth, and the Lord puts a mark upon him that he should not be slain. But Cain in verse 16 went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod.
On the east.
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Of Eden you know what's striking that it was that was the side of the of the Garden of Eden that the cherry bin were placed. He goes and dwells as it were right in the in view of the judgment of God. He ignores these things. He goes out and he dwells in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. But notice he went out from the presence of the Lord. Beloved fellow Christian, young or old, we have no fellowship with darkness. We ought to have no fellowship with the world in its.
In every and its mannerisms that lead to immorality to is our brother Smith pointed out. We need to go on and walk in the manner of a Christian. But Cain, when it says he went out from the presence of the Lord simply I believe brings this before us. He went where he could forget God.
He didn't want God and his thoughts, you know, we need not turn to it. But we are all familiar with the story of Naaman.
Elisha said as the Lord liveth before whom I stand.
Now later on, Gehezi quotes part of that term self, he says as the Lord liveth, but he doesn't say before whom I stand why? Elijah was consciously in the presence of God. Elijah was dwelling in that place of blessing, that place of refreshment. Hazel was scheming something, and he couldn't say before whom I stand. He didn't want the law to discover what he was doing, though the Lord knew it. And so when there's a consciousness that we're living in.
Presence of the Lord who loves us, who died for us, has shown that infinite love all. What a motive that should be for us to walk with Him in the path of separation, whether it be individual or collectively.
So Cain goes out in the presence of the Lord, and now civilization gets built up, a city is built.
Now we got a city.
He built a city, and according to the 49th Psalm, he names it after his own. He names it after his own children. They call their lands by their names. They think their houses shall last forever. Psalm 49 gives us. And so we have that principle in Cain. He sets up a city, and he names that Rissan Enoch. Now what happened to that city? The flood swept it away. Later, nothing was left of it. If you build a city here, going to lose it all.
But here in Hebrews, we look for a city that has foundations, as Abraham did. We have no continuing city here, but Cain did. He built the city, and men do that for memorials of themselves. Now we have the family of Cain. Cain has rejected Christ. He's murdered and gotten rid of the one who represented Christ, Abel. That's man's side of the cross. They put him to death.
Cain.
As a coward runs out in the presence of God, fearful, and yet God and grace puts a mark on him. And now Cain builds up civilization without bringing God into it. Civilization is built on the absence of God. It's man's intellect. Now if we have his family developed and the genealogy leads up to Lamech.
You'll notice there's a similarity of names here that you get in the line of Seth later on. The devil's great imitator, you know.
Some of these names bring happy thoughts to us. Methuselah, Lamech, the father of Noah. But this is a different Lamech. This is a different Methuselah than Lamech Takes unto him two wives. Why? All restraint is gone. God's order is set aside. He takes two wives. Why did God create only one man and one woman?
How can our brother have ever read what he did in the 5th of Ephesians?
About the man and the wife representing Christ in the church. If God had created two women.
But I don't have two wives. The very original creation. The Lord Himself tells us that in the 19th of Matthew.
Have you not read that he which made them in the beginning made them male and female? He made one man and one woman. I remember pointing it out to a Mormon girl in Honolulu one time. Worked in the office. Oh, she said. I never thought of that. They still believed in the polygamy and all. Maybe they couldn't carry it out, but they still believed in it. God made one man and one woman because she had the church. Reform Christ and the church. But Lamech?
Spoils sets aside God's order and God's type, and he takes two wives. What is the marital state of the world today? One dreads the speak of these things.
See, in On every Hand, there's the gross wickedness and immorality it's gotten in the school books.
In the school books teaching children the evil. And what are they doing with marriage? Well, they don't even bother to get married. That's how how immoral the world has gotten. And they don't care whether they're divorced and remarried, divorced and remarried. They may have two or three wives. And that way, that was what Cain introduced, Cain's order of things. That's the world. That's what the world is getting into and all we ought not to in any way allow the spirit of that to infiltrate our own souls.
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But Elimac goes further though, while we'll before we get down there was other evil deed, we'll notice that in spite of the sin and evil and the turning away from God, there's development, there's increase of knowledge, increase of skill, increase of industry. So we have first of all, we have Jabil. He's the father of such as dwell in tents and as such as have cattle and we have the commercial world.
Here's a man in business. Now he's raising cattle. Nothing wrong with that.
Nothing wrong with being in business, but again we say that this worldly system is based.
On the rejection of Christ, it's the turning away from the Lord, and we see that man tries to make himself self-sufficient in a world that's heading toward the wrath and judgment of God. So we have the commercial line of things and then we have the arts, the Fine Arts. His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all such as handled the harp and organ.
Now I remember reading a statement by Mr. Darby, he said there's nothing wrong.
Sounds in good sounds, he says it's a question of the object that's made of them and you know even a Christian can be taken up too much with music hymn music yes, even him music. I'm just going to mention this I'm glad I can mention these things without mentioning names and places dear sister in a certain place she had a her record player going beautiful hymns but the trouble was it kept going constantly, constantly just like you go into worldly home and.
Going. You hardly know whether it's going. And the dear sister asked me about playing hymns and so forth. Well, I pointed out to it. In itself there was nothing wrong, but it can be a snare, a danger. She took advice, too, and she didn't put it on so long anymore. You know what? We can allow these little things to come in and rob us of the enjoyment of Christ. It's hard to hear the pleasant sound, but isn't it better to sit down and read the Word of God and get something from that? Well, we sometimes crowd the Bible out that way.
Seems all right. Well, anyway, Cain introduced music into the world, and we know that the world makes that an object. It becomes an object to them. Then there's the we have what we might call the industrial world in verse 22. And Zilla, she also aired Tubal Cane, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron. Now you see, God had pronounced the curse upon the earth.
And men had to plow it up. Well, here we have industry developed to make it a little easier now.
They can make instruments of brass, instruments of iron, they can plow up the ground a little easier. Man doesn't mind making his life easier down here as long as he can leave God out of it. That's the world system. You might have a great McCormick track that today or an international going through the field and doing a much better job than the the instruments. They had nothing wrong with that, with the improvements. But man uses those very things to shut God out of his life. And we see the.
World system started on that. What would you say? Didn't the flood take it all away? Yes, but when the flood receded, man reinstated the same order of things, only he added two other things to it. He added idolatry and military conquest, setting up an empire by force. Those are the two, at least the two additional things that come in after the flood. God brought in government, man, the devil got hold of government and and twisted around and put man in a position to force idolatry.
And a conqueror's neighbor conquerors the other land, Nimrod, and so on. So we see that before the Flood, this order of things was instituted. But there's another thing if Lamech was guilty of.
Deceit or corruption in verse 19, he's now guilty of violence. Now in the scriptures we find that sin takes these two forms, violence and corruption. Now what does it say of the Lord Jesus in Isaiah 53?
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. The Lord Jesus was never guilty of violence. He was never guilty of deceit. And that's the pathway to follow. But in the world that we have violence and deceit.
And one of these days the devil is going to bring two men on forward. One will be marked by violence and the other by deceit, though I'm sure they'll both be guilty of both. The beast will be characterized more by power and violence, the Antichrist by deceit under the power of the beast. God is going to see to it that man is going to get what he wants. But what do you and I want All we want? Christ. We want not only Christ to come, but the little while he leaves us here.
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If it be 5 minutes or five seconds, we want Christ now as our portion. But let us see the happy ending of this. Well, first of all, we get the the the violence of Lamech in verse 23 and he says.
I have slain a man to my wounding and a young man to my heart. That is he killed someone, two men in self-defense. I take this in self-defense. And then he presumes on God's protection. This cane be Avenged Sevenfold. Truly Lamech 70 and sevenfold Lamech is guilty of of the corruption and he's guilty of violence. And that is what the world is marked out by today. Well, let's go down and see the happy ending of this.
And Adam knew his wife again.
She bare a son and called his name Seth.
God said, She hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slow. Now we've got Christ and resurrection. Abel couldn't rise from the dead, but God replaces Abel. He brings in a new man, He brings in Seth. And so I believe Seth represents Christ risen, Christ risen. Cain might put Christ to death, as it were. He might get rid of Abel, but God will bring in that which speaks of the resurrection of Christ. Christ has been.
From the dead and I believe in Seth. We have a picture of that. Now notice that Eve doesn't say the Lord of appointed me another seed. She her mind is disabused now that thought that the seed had come. She doesn't say the Lord, the one in whom she was stood in relationship. She says God, that's the creator. God hath appointed me a seed and so Christ is the appointed one in resurrection. He comes full and as a result notice.
To Seth, to him also there was born a son. He called his name Enos. Then began men to call, or people began to call upon the name of the Lord. Cain would name his cities after his children. But these people on the line of Seth, the line of the risen Christ, if you will, they call upon the name of the Lord. That's what means something to them.
They escape through this, the corruption that is in the world, through lust. Now we had time and it was our purpose.
We could follow this through in the next chapter to find that Enoch, a descendant of Seth, walked through the midst of that wretched and wicked world, and he walked through it in clean steps. He walked with God, showing that you and I have no excuse to say the world is so bad, how can we walk through it? What was there in the earth in those days? Giants.
Wickedness, corruption, no law, no magistrate upon anyone to shame.
And Enoch walked with God. He didn't make excuses and say, well, maybe I better walk only a little bit with God. I can't do it all because the world is so bad. But Enoch walked with God, so much so that he made a prophecy against the world. He says, behold, the Lord cometh with 10 thousands of his Saints.
To execute judgment upon all them that are ungodly, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds and their ungodly speeches, which they have utterly out of against him. Enoch prophesied of coming judgment. And so we do this afternoon. We're looking for Christ to come, the risen, 1 Seth, if you will. But all there's a day of judgment coming. May we recognize the character of the world and walk in the power of what we had before us.
This afternoon keep the heads there strong. Don't let the enemy come in, whether it be the assembly or it be in your personal private life. Don't give the devil rule. That's what it says in Ephesians, and give no room to the devil. If you open the door, the devil come and occupy it. And that's what Christendom has done today. And I may just make a passing remark in the charismatic movement. They've given the devil room and he's filled the place. He's come in. The devil will take up any vacancy that Christian Christendom wants to open up to him.
But individually, where they give the devil no room, no place. But let us walk on, as our brother has pointed out, as those who are associated with Christ and glory, coming on to that wonderful day when we'll stand in the midst of the breaths and lengths and heights and depths, we'll be able to look in all directions because we'll be in the center of it all with Christ, the one who bought it for us and made it good.
Grace to All
Address—P.B. Geveden
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Will open to the first book of the Bible.
Genesis.
Chapter 10.
Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah.
Jim.
Him and Jason.
And Chapter 9, God bless Noah verse one.
And the sons?
And said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
We have here.
The mention of the three heads of the human family that would overspread the renewed Earth.
Chin and.
And Japheth.
At a much later time.
Descendants of these three.
Come to our attention in the book of Acts.
If you'll notice.
X8.
X9.
And Acts 10.
The time of the gospel had come.
And the message of God's grace was being spread abroad.
And it reaches out in its blessing to Samaria.
And next to an individual who was on the journey.
Verse 26 of chapter 8.
The Angel of the Lord speak unto Philip, saying.
Arise and go toward the South.
Under the way that goeth down from Jerusalem under Gaza, which is desert.
Dear Rose and went.
Now this could have somewhat of a gospel flavor because.
That is my more accustomed responsibility.
But it is.
A privilege to address you young people here this afternoon.
At 10 years of age, I could have been dead.
But God in his grace was pleased to raise me up so.
There is the consciousness of being here.
Sent.
Lord.
And we would indeed.
Have you to hear this word as a message from him?
We have that wonderful verse in Galatians chapter one, the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins.
That he might redeem us from this present evil world.
And this by the will of God.
Now there are just two wheels in this world. Yours.
And gods.
For my will is the same as your will, apart from God's grace.
For God's will is to bring you into blessing through the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for your sins.
That He might deliver you from this present evil world.
Now you're a man. We see a man here on a journey.
Philip asked with.
Certain responsive obedience to the direction of the Angel of the Lord and leaves a very fruitful ministry in the city of Samaria and goes down into a desert where a man was traveling on a long journey.
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He had been to Jerusalem and was returning.
He had come to Jerusalem for the worship.
And he'd been disappointed there.
Where there was nothing left in Jerusalem but religion.
And religion can never bring happiness into that soul of yours.
But Christ can, and He alone.
And he only.
So we read about this incident here.
This is a descendant of Ham.
And he's on this journey, 1000 mile journey perhaps was returning and sitting in his chair at verse 28 in red Isaiah the prophet.
Isn't that?
Very important information.
That this man.
In that distant time from our day.
Was concerned.
About his need.
He wanted to find the right way for his soul.
And he'd been on this journey, perhaps in business matters, because he was the treasurer.
Of the Queen of Ethiopia.
Candace.
And he was reading this book.
What is the book that you are reading?
In this passage my desire is to bring before you the all importance of the.
Precious Word of God.
Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this, Jarrett.
Philip run thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah.
And he raises the question, Understand us thou what thou readest.
And he said.
How can I accept some man should guide me?
We need to be guided.
And God had arranged this interview.
And right away he desires Philip to come up and sit with him. And the place of the scripture which he read was this.
He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before her, his cherub.
So opened he not his mouth.
In his humiliation his judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation?
Where his life is taken from the earth.
And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this of himself, or of some other man?
Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture.
And preached unto him Jesus.
And in that connection, shortly he is admitted as a disciple of the Lord.
And the report that we have as he returns.
Is that he went on his way rejoicing.
We do need the scriptures and he had only the prophet Isaiah.
But he was pondering the subject that he saw before him.
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And it's so good to see that Philip could begin at that same scripture and preach unto him Jesus.
There's blessing by the word of God.
In no other way does blessing come into your life except through the precious Word of God.
This was the written word that he was considering.
And we need to consider that written word too, that we might know it, be acquainted with it.
And the furnished and every good work for all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
And suitable for our use.
Now in the next chapter we have a descendant of Shem.
The proud.
Man, that was promoting Judaism.
And bent on a deadly effort to destroy Christianity.
Before he got off the ground, so to speak.
So yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.
Where's one?
Goes to the high priests and the religious authorities, that he might clothe himself.
With the proper credentials to go down to Damascus and hail men and women and bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
A journey.
The unit journey.
Paul was on the short journey.
And we are on a journey.
And our blessed Lord took a longer journey than any of us.
We read of him in the word, having walked overnight in order to arrive in the city of Maine, just as the opportune moment when as often was being taken out to the cemetery.
He said to that widow, to mother.
Of an only son.
Weep not. And he touched the beer, the coughing. And young men, I say unto thee, Arise And thee arose. And he gave that young man to his mother.
Oh, what loveliness we discover in the pathway of that blessed perfect man of God down here on this earth where man's will works its havoc.
He was obedient under the will of God and ever did those things that pleased the Father.
He's nearing the completion of his mission. For all our soul of Tarsus in this journey.
He came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round him alight from heaven.
He fell to the earth.
Her divorce saying unto him.
Saul saw why persecutors saw me.
Oh, he is a man stricken down.
At the height of his career.
When his will was strong.
And he falls to the earth.
He finds a low position, a low level.
And he is compelled to say to own, to acknowledge the Lord.
For he says, Who art thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I'm Jesus, whom thou persecute us.
It is hard for thee to kick against the ******. No doubt he had a conscience at work.
Possibly dating from the time that he held the clothes of those that threw stones against Stephen.
And put him to death.
Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
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And I had been reported by some of our reporters of this day and time. You would have read, you know, in the news article that a man was mobbed.
But that was the viewpoint on this earth. What was heaven's viewpoint? Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints. The child of God was coming home to be with his Savior.
All is stricken down, and he realizes that his course was in direct opposition to the will of God.
The acknowledges Jesus as Lord.
And inquires, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
And he's instructed about going into the city where he would learn what he should do.
So he goes on his way. Not the same as before.
All was changed.
And God's disciple in that city.
Mennonites is instructed about what had taken place on the journey.
What had happened to this man on the road to Damascus?
The chief instrument of religion against the Lord's people.
And he's informed.
Not according to the pattern that existed before, while he was breathing out threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.
He said behold a prayer.
Have you realized that?
The necessity of prayer.
The need of a dependent spirit because you're not able to steer your course through this wicked world.
You need a guide. You need a pilot. You need the instructions of the precious Word of God.
And you need communion with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, as this vessel of mercy found communion with that blessed Savior as he went along the journey in faithfulness to the Lord and in usefulness to God's people.
Now we come to Chapter 10.
And here we have.
A special work.
That came by an unusual assignment to the Apostle Peter.
White was not his custom to go to the Gentiles.
He had never eaten anything that was common or unclean.
But he was.
Given an object lesson, while he was in the trance on the housetop waiting for the preparation of the dinner down below, we fell into a trance and he saw a sheet knitted at the four corners. Let down from heaven full of all manner 4 footed beasts.
Creeping things.
And the word to him was to rise, Peter, kill and eat. And he said, Not so, Lord.
I've never eaten anything as common or unclean. He was under the regulation of the Mosaic economy.
He knew something about the 11Th of Leviticus.
So you wouldn't dare do that, but the Lord was teaching him that God is no respecter of persons. And here we have in this man the centurion.
Of.
God had a message for him.
He was to hear words whereby he would be saved.
Although he was a devout man from the beginning of the chapter or from the beginning of his life in an earlier date at least.
We read about him in that way as it opens, and about man, one that feared God with all this house, which gave much arms to the people and prayed to God. Alway those are commendable things, aren't they?
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And in them we see that which is the right attitude toward God.
But he needed the words of salvation, the full story of the work of Christ on the cross, His death, His burial, His resurrection and ascension.
And that he's there in the glory above.
This man saw him there in the 9th chapter.
And here we have Cornelius coming into blessing.
The apostle must go.
Everything was arranged in such a detailed way, so dovetailed so to speak, that he couldn't refuse to go. When the men arrived, he would go with them. And he comes to the House of Cornelius. And in verse 34, Peter opened his mouth and said.
And oh, what a statement comes out where he says, I perceive that God is no respecter of person.
But in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.
And so on.
And the facts are stated in verse 43 to him give all the prophets a witness.
That through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the word.
They have the circumcision about 6IN number which believed there were astonished.
As many as came with Peter, because on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
And in verse 47 we come to the exercise of baptism, so that these at Corinth were admitted.
Into the place of blessing on the earth that is marked out by baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Then we find here that they prayed, then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
All this was a wonderful time of blessing. It was so good that they didn't want to see it stop. And they ask her and this company of men who were the servants of the Lord, to stay there days longer.
And the nature of things to a meeting like this couldn't continue day by day indefinitely.
And neither could that. Very likely that's true. But this brings before us the fact of the sweetness of the fellowship that prevails among God's people.
And although these were Jews and they were Gentiles, and that was a division, you know that.
Existed in those days.
The Jews, the Gentile, and the Church of God.
And we're glad to go back to the beginning of things because all the confusion that we see in this religious world had not come in at that time.
Men had not yet arisen speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.
And everyone in that day was gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we read in First Corinthians those that had a responsibility when they were gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in connection with the exercise of discipline.
But you have an exercise today. You could be confused, but oh, it's so wonderful to know the sweetness of the fellowship of the children of God, where the unity of the Spirit is unbroken and the ministry of the Word is free from our glorified head up there.
We have the springing well within, but still the pools come down, the rain comes down to fill the pools.
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And this is so true.
That.
It's a privilege to be.
In that place of nearness to the Lord, where the ministry of His world is still unchecked, is unshackled by the arrangements of men.
You know the well known.
Verse of Matthew 1824, where two or three are gathered together under my name. They're mine in the midst of them.
And there's another verse that comes to mind. He that gathereth not with me scattered through abroad.
And that's a solemn responsibility. If you're not gathering to the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of his own, then you're working destruction among God's people. He that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad. That comes in an earlier chapter.
Join a day of division that has come in.
You have an exercise you should be concerned about what is suitable.
What is according to the word?
And what will please the Lord?
That eunuch needed the direction of the word.
He lacked in the understanding of it.
But he came to know the good of it because he got blessing in his soul and went on his way rejoicing.
And Saul of Tarsus, although hateful, insolent, overbearing men, breathing out slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.
They came a gentleman.
So that he looked after God's children just the same way that a nurse would cherish her own children.
Behold, he prayeth.
Prayer.
Is an essential thing. You need these two things, young people, the reading of the Word and the expression of your dependence upon the Lord in prayer.
And you also need the true fellowship of the people of God.
And you need not expect perfection among God's people, because we will never arrive at perfection until we are safely home in the glory.
But remember that we are on that journey.
And there can be much failure in it.
And as the sheep sometimes falls into the mud, it's uncomfortable. We are and we don't like to stay in that position.
And it's a delight to be recovered and restored and found in the way that leads onward.
In that way that is well pleasing to the Lord.
So you might need something like this in John 14 for instance.
John's Gospel chapter 14. Our Lord was going away, and he was making a provision for his disciples, those followers of his that were so grieved because they felt how it would be when he was gone from them.
In verse 18 he says, I will come to you.
Usually we read in verse three, I will come again and this we know that's a promise and it will be fulfilled and we are approaching that moment when our Lord will return in power.
And claim his redeemed people from this earth.
But in verse 18, I will come to you.
Is that future?
No, that's present. That's now.
You can have the privilege of the Lord's presence with you.
Right now, in the journey on the way, He will never leave thee nor forsake thee, but then you can come into this enjoyment of himself.
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The sense of the Father's love and affection, you can have that in your soul, and also the sweetness of the companionship of our blessed Lord and Savior.
I will come to you, verse 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, He it is that loveth me. This is the response of the soul to the blessed Lord, who has done so much for us.
He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.
And even more, in verse 23, Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loved me, he will keep my word.
And my father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.
Oh, it's possible for you to have the consciousness of the indwelling presence of the Father and of the Son while you're in the journey on the way.
We need that communion.
And perhaps there was none that so enjoyed it as our apostle.
Saul of Tarsus converted, changed, completely different, and gave unto us that fullness of the ministry of Christ in glory, so that we are on the journey there. And oh, he was so delighted and in communion with that blessed Savior on the way. So it was very personal and real and close.
And this can be realized by you on this journey also.
But as to the confusion that has come in because of man's will at work in this world and his will at work particularly in the religious order of things, you may need a verse like this in Second Timothy. No doubt it was put here purposely for you. Second Timothy, chapter 2.
And the verse 22.
We ought to read from 19. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure.
There is something dependable.
Having the seal of the Lord knoweth them that are his.
And let everyone that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.
That's your responsibility.
And iniquity is not just what you see down in this street.
Of a wicked city.
Iniquity can be an addressed up form, religious in its aspects, and there's nothing so bad in the eyes of God as a collegiate.
If it's wrong, it's wrong. It professes to be right, but it is wrong and wrong. It doesn't like that. He can have no pleasure in it. And your responsibility as a young man or as a young lady is to depart from iniquity. Let everyone that name it the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.
Then we see that the Christian profession has taken the character of a great house.
And their vessels under honor, and vessels under dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these rest 21, he shall be a vessel under honour sanctified meet for the masters use prepared unto every good work.
Flee also youthful lusts. There's a danger.
And these are not necessarily crude things.
Gutter like.
We also use the lusts.
Turn away from that, but follow righteousness.
There is a right way through it all.
You can please the Lord amidst all the errors that have come in.
You can be found with the exercise of faith and the development of love, where there's blessing by the knowledge of the Lord's presence and the action of His love spread to God by the Holy Ghost among His people.
So that you find the peace.
And this is with them.
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They call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
You will be able to discern if you have taken the precious word of God in your hand and have been anxious to understand it as that unique was anxious to know what.
And if you take the direction that comes from the Lord, Lord, what will thou have me to do as Paul did?
Taking up that place of dependence, you know, Jonah prayed, Daniel prayed, others prayed, and Paul prayed. Our Lord Himself prayed, as we have it seven times in Luke's Gospel.
We even have some of the prayers of the Apostle Paul recorded for our instruction. Those are wonderful prayers.
In Ephesians chapter one and chapter 3.
We don't have on record, you know, that he was saying the Lord's Prayer, so-called.
If you pray that prayer, you're really asking for our judgment to come.
So this is the word that we need.
And it's so sad when we come to the address to Thyatira in the end of the third chapter of Revelation, where our Lord is outside knocking on the door and saying, standing there and saying, If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and suffer with him, and he with me.
The Lord wants His place in your heart.
That never happened to Paul.
And we trusted. Not so in your case.
All the words and that taking that place of dependence will bring you into the realization of the blessing that you need in your soul on the journey that you're pursuing.
As we move about, we see people, those that have followed after the Lord and have gone according to His word. And sometimes they contrast is very sharp. Here's a family under their descendants and they've sought to follow the Lord and they stand out as a marked contrast to another family perhaps.
Haven't followed the Lord, they turned to this world.
It shows up.
The memory of the justice blessed.
The name of the wicked Charlotte.
Which is the better Rd.
The narrow way.
Other Broadway.
Now perhaps we ought to notice something in.
Acts 15 as connected with Acts 10, not that it's necessarily linked together in a close way.
But a question come up came up in the history of the early church.
With regard to the Gentiles and the preaching of the gospel to them.
That was necessary to have a very.
Certain decision about this.
And there was a gathering together of the elders and the apostles and the people, the Saints in Jerusalem.
And there was much discussion or much disputing about the import of this great matter, that the Gentiles ought to be circumcised and keep the law.
But they arrived at the right decision and coming down to verse 29.
And without going into the details of the beginning of the chapter.
There are necessary things in the end of the other verse.
And no greater burden was to be imposed upon the Gentiles.
Then these necessary things.
Which were true before the law of Moses was never given.
Unsuitable for them?
That you abstain from meats.
And reading that again that you abstain from meats offered to idols.
And from blood, and from things strangled.
And from fornication.
From which, if you keep yourselves, you shall do well.
Very well.
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All these are very important things.
A regulation that was suitable.
And it was not the imposition of a yoke of ******* during which they had.
Been under, and which the fathers nor we have been able to bear, as Peter describes it.
But this was for their good.
Idolatry is an outrage against God.
He's the one that he worshipped.
And he alone is to have the supreme place.
And this madman on the way to Damascus, said Lord.
Have you submitted?
Won't you surrender to Jesus as your Lord in order that you might pursue that pathway of happiness through this world that ends in eternal glory?
The blood of Abel that was shed on the ground called her vengeance God's judgment.
The blood of Jesus Christ shed at Calvary's cross calls for your blessing.
The blessing of all the descendants of Noah.
They only got blessings. Saul of Tarsus was blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ, and Cornelius received blessing. And so we have received blessing too. And how did it come to us? The precious word of God has presented the blood of Christ as the only remedy for sin.
We've been washed and cleansed in the precious flow that came from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Their calories cross.
And they were to abstain from things strangled as another way of taking life.
Slowing down the process.
And though sometimes, you know, we come to the responsibility of speaking when someone has been called away to be with his Lord and the glory.
And there are those that tell us of that assignment that is allotted to all men that we'll have to pay this debt.
Two things sure, taxes and deaths.
That's the general appointment of man.
But the servant of God should not be under the ******* of death.
Because our Lord has broken the bars of death, and when he comes.
Will be translated.
Will not pass through the article of death.
Things strangled. And that's what happens in the religious machinery of this world.
You get into something where there's a majority that rules or some other system of church order prevails.
And you lose your voice, you're overwhelmed, and you have to go along with that, which is wrong.
All the safe places with Christ in the midst, our Lord Jesus Christ gathered to his name alone.
It's better, you know, to go forth.
Locusts in Proverbs 30 without a king.
No visible head. The head of the church is Christ where his members down here.
And though it's a privilege to act according to that membership and in that testimony that the people of God are one people here in this world.
As they were in the beginning and shall be in the end, despite the fact of the visions that exist now.
So we read here these things.
That you abstain from meat suffered idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication.
Now we've had something on that order already.
The sorrow and danger of breaking through the hedges.
Man is to no woman only in the sanctity of marriage.
There is a great break in that kind of thing nowadays, so that sometimes they want to have a Daisy waiting.
And they require that no mention be made of God.
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Trying to throw off all restraint. These things are for the blessing of men, and God has ordained that these things should be.
Regulatory among his people and when we adhere to the word, if we take this precious word and seek an understanding of it and walk in that way of dependence.
Fellowship of God's people, we will find ourselves on that journey you know, that ends in a abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom, so that our path is like the just man that shineth more and more in the light of it, until that perfect day.
That's a proverb from the third chapter. So that's the entrance that we should wish.
An abundant entrance into the Everlasting Kingdom.
That Kingdom that shall never be moved.
And into the presence of our blessed Lord, who loved us and gave himself for us.
That He might deliver us from this present evil world.
And that we might to go through it. You can't correct it.
It is not possible for you to correct this world. The Lord didn't try to correct it. He didn't want his disciples to pull out the tears. Or there's a new world, there's a new order of blessing, there's a new creation, and our risen Savior is the head of that new creation and glory, and we belong to that. And only that is worthwhile, which is according to that blessed pattern of divine things.
Luke 4
Reading
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I do believe, brethren, that my own exercises would be to go on with Luke 4IN as much as we are in a day in which the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is attacked so much and his deity is lowered and he was a good man, but he wasn't God manifest in the flesh. The distinction between sin and sins and so much that we have in this 4th chapter.
I think in connection with the Lord Jesus, my own exercises would be to go ahead with a fourth of Luke. May I ask which chapter was it in Philippians that you had in mind?
Well, would it be wrong, brethren, to in reading the portion, to also read the third chapter of Philippians, just to have at least the thought before us and it will connect, I'm sure, with what we have in our passage. Would that be all right? Yes, I thought of Philippians 3IN connection with some remarks in this chat, go on with our 4th chapter of Luke, but then we will read.
Also, that one chapter, Luke's Gospel, chapter 4.
And verse one and Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan.
And was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
Being 40 days tempted of the devil, and in those days he did eat nothing, and when they were ended he afterward hungered.
And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone, that it be made bread.
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them.
For that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore will worship me, all shall be thine.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan. For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shall thou serve.
And he brought him to Jerusalem.
And set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence.
What is written He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee.
And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone.
And Jesus answering, said unto him.
It is said, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.
And there was a theme of him through all the region roundabout.
They taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.
And stood up for to read.
And there was delivered unto him the book of Isaiah. When he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down.
And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fashioned on him.
He began to say unto them, This day, is this scripture fulfilled in your ears?
And all bearing witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?
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And he said unto them, He will surely say unto me this proverb.
Physician, heal thyself.
Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
But I tell you of virtues. Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land, but under none of them was a license. They even disrupt a city of Sidon and a woman that was a widow.
And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elijah Elias the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, saving, naming the Syrian.
And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things were filled with wrath, and Rosa and thrust him out of the city, and led him into their brow of the hill were on their city was built.
And that they might cast him down headlong. But He, passing through the midst of them, went his way, and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days. And they were astonished at His doctrine, or his word was with power.
Philippians 3. Philippians chapter 3, verse one. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
Write the same things to you. To me, indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
Be aware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision.
For we are the circumcision which worship God and Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, any other man thinketh that he has, whereof he might trust in the flesh. I more circumcise the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee.
Concerning zeal persecuting the Church.
Touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless. But what things were gained to me? Those I counted loss for Christ.
Gate doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
For whom I've suffered the loss of all things, And do count them but tongue, that I may win Christ.
And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain under the resurrection of the dead.
As though I had already attained either were already perfect. But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth into those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the cries of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore as many as be perfect. Be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Swear to we have already attained. Let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk as you have heard, as you have us for an example for many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping.
That they are enemies of the cross of Christ.
Whose end is destruction, Whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame? Who mind earthly things?
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For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Those shall change our vile body, that it might be fashion blackened to His glorious body, according to the working, whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.
Would help in connecting their thoughts, you know?
When someone waves a tapestry, they always have the solid.
Threads of the War.
As some have spoken of in speaking proverbially as the silver threads, those are the basic principles in Scripture. And the loom supplies the wolf to make the garment. Now this is true as we read Scripture.
That's why it's difficult for a young person to say, well, I'm going to now, I'm going to get a hold of a certain book, but you can't do that.
It all fits together. It's woven together, but still it's woven on certain basic principles that run all the way through the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation. And I think we find the beginning of those principles.
In Genesis, which is very important for young people especially to lay hold of.
Now, the character of the book of Philippians, in a sense, is far more advanced than what we have in the Gospels. In some ways, the apostle is near the end of his journey through grace. He's been given to walk in the truths presented to us in the Gospels. In measure, he has learned some things. He speaks up.
Principles, basic principles. And in this book of Philippians, he's not bringing new doctrine.
He is giving, but giving us what is normal in Christianity.
For him it was present.
For others that was preaching the gospel.
For others, that was seeking the grace to correct their ways lest they be an offense to their brethren.
To others it was giving themselves entirely in a gracious way to help others so that the gospel might go on normal Christianity.
And so that the one of the main themes we have in this book, in this third chapter that our brothers suggested is one thing. Now there are five one things in Scripture that go together. We won't speak of them, but in this chapter that was read to us, it's a one thing I do.
He presses to the mark for the prize.
Of the like calling of God, or the calling of God on high in Christ Jesus. There's one thing before the apostle.
And this is a tremendous thing for us to discover this morning in Philippians before we go to our chapter in in Luke, and that is to have a single.
I I know. I think you'll know what I mean when I say that today we are distracted on every hand by what the world presents.
But the Christian has the privilege of writing it all off.
And having a single.
Eye. The only way to do that is to have one pure object. That's what the apostle has before him in Philippians as he presses to the mark for the prize. It's Jesus, but it's not Jesus simply.
In his experience down here, because it's Jesus at the end of the road when he sees him in all the effulgence of his glory.
All the glory that attaches to him as the glorified Christ, that's the object of the apostles heart. He wants to be like Him in every way, even if he passed a pass through death, so he can be like Him in resurrection. He wants to be just like Him now with those thoughts in mind, and they are elevated thoughts.
Warning of minding earthly things comes in at the end of the chapter, and then of how the the Lord Jesus has that tremendous power to raise us out from among the dead like He was raised out to give us bodies of glory like His own.
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But in going back to the 4th chapter of Luke.
The Spirit of God occupies us now with that object that the apostle Paul.
Shall we say in a more advanced understanding?
Is occupied with and nothing else.
He has just Christ before him here. We're learning in in Luke.
Different ways in which that gold shines out of all the perfection of the man Christ Jesus down here, no matter how how he's tested, and that only outwardly there was no possibility of touching anything else.
He was pure within and without, but for us to see that as he was touched outwardly, it only made the gold shine brighter.
Because he could not be tempted with evil. And so the enemy may try as he will, but it only shows us, and it shows us how.
In all simplicity, so that a little child could understand, the Lord meets the enemy at every turn with the pure word of God.
May I just suggest that in Luke's Gospel this may have been mentioned before, but we have it in the order in which the temptations reach man.
Not a king like in Matthew, but just man down here, just the way the temptation will reach me each day and possibly you. The way the enemy attacks because he has a method.
We get that order here, and also we get the order of our blessed Savior, of how He meets that attack of the enemy in all simplicity and dependence.
By the word of God.
Not displaying a great deal of knowledge, although he had it, but in simplicity, meeting the enemy and turning him aside. In the third chapter we've seen the perfect man anointed with the Holy Ghost.
And he's at the age of 30. That was the age of Levitical service. And before the blessed Lord goes out on that service, he is fully tested to show that there was nothing in him that Satan could reach. There was nothing in him to which that which would respond to Satan. As we remarked yesterday, the Lord had two enemies.
The world and the devil We have 3 The world, the devil and we got the flesh in us.
And it's important to see in this temptation that the Lord was not tempted to see whether He would sin, but to prove that he could not sin. Now I mention that because that's a doctrine that goes about. I remember a dear man I did business with in Honolulu. He was a Pentecostal minister and he was a dear man. I believe he was the Lords, but he had the mistaken thought, and it's a bad thought too.
That the Lord was tempted to see whether he would sin or not, and he could have sinned, but he didn't.
Now that is a surrender of the Lords impeccable nature to say that he could ascend and did not. The proof that the test proved that he could not send. And let's get hold of that. We've got the perfect sinless man exposed to the temptation in the wilderness and coming out pure gold.
And he said the break with Judaism came morally at the cross.
Historically in 70AD and doctrinally in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
In which there's that call, you know, in Hebrews. Let us go forth unto him without the camp. It's a statement that he made, and I think it's very commendable. And so Judaism did come to an end. But Judaism was originally established of God, was it not? And with all of those ordinances and ceremonies, they were of God. But they were the types and the shadows, weren't they?
Couched underneath of those forms and ceremonies.
In the Old Testament there are lovely lessons and pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we think now and speaking especially for some of the young, somebody says don't forget now that there are a lot of young people here and try to make things a little simple. Well, in the Old Testament then you will remember that when the children of Israel.
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Came through the wilderness. God gave them food. That food was manna. Manna that came down in Exodus 16.
Later on in, I think it's Joshua chapter 5, they went into the land, they crossed Jordan, they went into the land and the manna ceased and they began to eat all the old corn of the land. Now, as we say, these are lovely pictures now, but the whole truth of Christianity has come out. The Lord Jesus Christ has been crucified, He's risen, the word of God is completed, and we look back and we find out that this presents.
A2 fold way in which we as believers enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ as the old corn of the land and as the Manor. The manna ceased for the children of Israel. They ate the old corn of the land. But dear ones, you and I, as believers, all the way through this wilderness journey, we need both.
We need both, and as we read the Gospels, as we have this portion before us, we are enjoying the manner. We're enjoying the Lord Jesus Christ in his humiliation, in his walk here below, and also we need Christ in resurrection.
Ascended in glory up on high the truth of the epistles. We need both for our pathway to thank God we have them. And so we enjoy both things, the the manner and the old corner of the land. And one other thing before I I stop right now, I look over and I see you, brother Albert. And I remember one comment that you made one time. It really cheered my heart. I'd like to pass it on just now.
And Speaking of some of these Old Testament types and shadows.
And how we see the Lord Jesus Christ in all of them. For example, in Leviticus, those first chapters, there's the burnt offering, there's the meal offering, there's the peace offering, and there's the sin and the trespass offering. They all speak to us of the Lord Jesus Christ in some aspect of his death on the cross of Calvary.
And mentioning that first the burnt offering and how that all went up for the eye of God. And you remember that it could be a bullet that was offered, or it could be a sheep or a goat. And then we get to the end of that chapter and it could be a little turtle down, just a turtle down.
With the crop and the feathers taken away. And there on that big grated altar, all there is in the center of it is a little turtle dog.
And brother remark, and we would pass it on. There are ones, there are gifts in the assembly. We thank God for them. But when we come to prayer meeting for the remembrance, it isn't a question of gift. It's a question of state of soul. It's a question of our enjoying the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and coming with our baskets full. And so dear young people, the young brothers.
In the assembly, if the Lord by His Spirit would move upon your heart to give out that turtle dove offering, don't hold back. Don't hold back because even with that, it says it shall be accepted. God accepts even the feeblest accents of praise and Thanksgiving for His beloved Son.
Passes through.
Temptations, and even though the Lord gives power over them.
There still is a sense with most of us of our.
Deep inadequacy and and how?
Slowly are to really honor the Lord down here in our ways.
The Spirit of God lifts us as we read this first verse and Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost.
Full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
Now this is said of John in the 4th chapter of Revelation.
And he represents the church.
The heavens are open. The door is open in heaven, I should say, and there we see John.
Phil with the Spirit.
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It makes me think of that day, brethren, that's coming, when we'll hear the shout.
And no matter what state you and I are in as believers, this moment.
How cold we are, and it must be so.
Will be filled with the Spirit at that moment. Now we have the Spirit indwelling us.
Every believer has the youngest here as the spirit indwelling.
We may be punching or grieving the Spirit, but the Spirit is indwelling.
But here we find one who was filled with the Spirit, the Lord Jesus Himself, after the temptations.
And besides.
Was led by the Spirit.
I shouldn't have said after the temptations, I should have said after the experience of the previous chapter where the baptism and the prayers, then he's led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
Who? Who likes to be LED into?
A wilderness in the sense that we have here who likes to be LED into such a thing. And the soul would cry out and lead me not into temptation. But the Spirit of God had a reason for leading the Lord Jesus into this position, because we have set before us here just contrary to what men teach about the person of Christ and the temptations.
We have that which sets before us, a perfect man in every way. Not only that, but he now is meeting.
1 Who had control?
Of souls.
And he is going to deliver those goods.
He's going to set them free, He's going to take control of the enemy. He's going to enter his house and deliver his goods.
He's going to show superior a man, the man Christ Jesus, and he's going to show it by his answer to Satan with not one thing from himself, everything, independence upon God and actually answering by the word of God.
One argument, not one statement beyond what's written. Simply answering from scripture. And may I suggest that for the encouragement of the youngest ones here?
Some who may know one or two scriptures they learned at Sunday school.
Let me tell you something.
Those two scriptures you know are sufficient.
To meet Satan with the Lord Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy.
From two different places, but two of the quotations I believe were from the same chapter.
He didn't go into a lengthy discussion with Satan.
He simply takes the word of God because.
He knew and what we, I trust, are beginning to learn a little bit of that the Word of God and the Word of God alone is sufficient and nothing needs to be added when we meet Satan. It's sufficient. It's sufficient to meet Satan with. And if we are in communion and we have two verses and that's all we know.
It's sufficient to meet Satan that because it's on the basis of dependence.
And the Lord Jesus sets before us the example not only of obedience, but of complete dependence upon God in everything that he did, every move that he made, and every word that he said was in complete dependence upon God.
I was going to when it says led by the Spirit, it says that only one of right here, this gospel I believe led by the Spirit. He was always that defendant man always all the way through and when we get to the end of the Gospel chapters 22 and 3.
We find him led by man.
Are sent by man mentioned six times. What was the end of that? Right up to Calvary. They led him to Calvary. Well, that was led by the Spirit too, bringing the two aspects of the cross before us. But here he begins his ministry as the second man.
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The first man is of the earth, earthy, the 2nd man.
The Lord out of heaven. And here He is led by the Spirit, always led by the Spirit, All His acts by the Spirit. What an example for us. What a perfect man. And the first thing necessary for the 2nd man was that he should be tested. And the 1St man?
Was of the earth earthy. He was tested in a paradise.
But where does the spirit lead this man, the 2nd man, the man out of heaven into the wilderness. That's what the world had become. The paradise was spoiled by the 1St man. The 2nd man comes to restore that which he took, not away, and he meets the enemy.
And he conquers them, He vandifishes them here. Oh, what a wonderful man this is. What an example for us to follow.
Isn't it right here that we fail so often in expressing our dependence upon God?
And I thought about that in connection with the Lord expressing his dependence upon his father not doing anything independently of the Father.
You know, our brother was speaking about these quotations from Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy has been spoken of as the book of Obedience.
Because in it we get precepts set forth. It's a second giving of the Law, but they're set forth in such a way.
To indicate that what God expects when they go into the land of Canaan is obedient.
Well, we know what happened. The children of Israel did get and did get into the land, but they were disobedient, They failed, they lost everything. But now we find the Lord Jesus in the land, and what is He? The obedient man.
And I was thinking about the remarks concerning his sinlessness.
There's a great emphasis put upon that in different ways.
Now in the very scripture.
The Lord Jesus Christ is pointed out to us as having gone through the heavens, and he's up on high.
And yet pointed out as the high priest and he's the great high priest, He's mentioned as great high priest. This was never applied to to anyone else, but he's the great high priest, the only high priest we have now, the only priest that we need. But he's pointed pointed out to us there in heaven.
And he's sympathizing with us. He's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And what's added in connection with that in verse 15 of Hebrews 4 is yet without sin.
Yet without sin, I was thinking, as remarks were being made about the sinlessness of his person.
And that he could not sin.
This lays a foundation for us that gives us confidence. If we had to believe that he could have seen even though he didn't sin.
That would show a weakness and it wouldn't present to us a solid foundation. And really, I might have doubts about coming to Him as the great High Priest to get grace and mercy to help me in the time of need. But when I look at the Lord Jesus Christ.
About whom it says here without sin.
And Peter says.
Who did no sin?
And another says John says in him was number sin.
Paul speaks of him as a sinless one. Peter speaks of him as the sinless 1 John speaks of him as the sinless one. What a testimony to that fact that he's sinless. He did not sin. In him is no sin. He's apart from sin.
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And yet he is a man. He is a man.
And it's it's spoken to my own soul.
That that one who is God.
Become man. He feels his dependence upon God, his Father.
And he's relying upon the Word of God, you know, obedience to that word.
All how that should speak to our poor hearts.
If we get the thoughts and perhaps its unconscious with us, we get to feeling independent of God our Father. Are we better than the Lord Jesus Christ?
Can we go on in independence of the Lord, when the Lord felt His dependence upon God?
Oh how that should speak to our hearts. And I feel this, that in this present day, all the forces of all the three enemies that are raid against us are raid against us to this end.
To get us to the place where we don't feel our dependence upon the Lord. Now this comes subtly. We get so occupied with things of earth, the pressures of life come in upon us, and we forget to look to the Lord.
I believe we have to be deeply exercised about this because I find it even in my own life, I can get so busy with even the things of the Lord. I forget to be busy with the Lord Himself. I forget to spend time in His presence.
All that we might learn, this lesson of dependence as we see it here, this lesson of obedience as we see it here in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think this was brought out in a special way. In the crossing of the Children of Israel one is mentioned.
Who crossed over and was met one met this blessed man with a drawn sword in his hand. And so Josh Joshua goes up to him, thinking that he's a great general. Of course he was. He brought over a host of people with him and was very honored in that. But he's met with the drawn sword in the land and he goes up to him and.
Art Thou for us or for our adversaries? I just mentioned this because in the dealing with this question of the Person of Christ, we must forget His supremacy.
His Supreme Beloved in every sense of the word. So he says, Art thou for us or for our adversaries? And the answer is very simple. It says Nay, as captain of the host of the Lord, and I come.
And Joshua falls on his face and worships the world to him was loose the shoe from off thy foot. For the place on which thou standest is holy ground. And Josh did so.
Now there's a lesson for us concerning the Lord Jesus. Beloved, the Lord Jesus is supreme in Canaan.
Lord Jesus is supreme in the assembly.
Lord Jesus desires to be supreme in your life and mine.
And this is something we slip over and forget.
Must occupy the 1St place.
So Joshua takes the show of his foot and he finds himself in the presence of the Lord himself. What an A revelation to Joshua. What a mercy he fell on his face or that sword could have chopped him down.
And he did so.
And he takes the shoes from off his feet as if the Lord would say to you and to say to Josh and say to you, you're a great soldier. God has used you in the little way. He, in fact, he's used you in a wonderful way. But you're only a soldier. You're just a poor old soldier. You're nobody but a soldier. And I've been in the army and there's nothing more disgraceful for a soldier to be without boots, bare feet.
A barefooted soldier is a disgraceful attitude for a soldier to be in barefooted, but he this is in the presence of the Lord.
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Yes, Christ is supreme, beloved, and in the chapter we're in now.
We must not forget that here is the man Christ Jesus Supreme. How it is written. The word of God settled here in as I read the 4th of chapter I just get down on my knees and say Lord Jesus your, thou art the supreme one here.
Tempted of the say of Satan.
Turn the stones into bread. Crouch yourself down from the high pinnacle. Anything. I'll give you all this if you worship me.
No, he could not be tempted. The sinless man, God's man, the Lord Jesus Christ himself supreme. Well, I just thought of them as we go along. Let us not forget, beloved, that Christ must be supreme.
In the assembly.
Must be supreme. He must take the place first place.
To use an illustration, I thought it was good. As to the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus, He spoke of a man with a gold ring. Another man says, so that's brass. Oh no, says the man, that's gold. Well, what are they going to do? Well, they go to the jeweler and he pours some acid on the ring and it comes out pure gold. Why? Because it was gold.
The acid only proved the acid couldn't turn it into brass, it had to bring it out as pure gold. Now we're not ignorant of Satans devices and Satan presented to the Lord Jesus the same temptations that He presented in the garden.
In principle, I say, in principle, I want to be guarded as to this. In principle. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Needless to say, it never got to that proportion in the Lord's soul, for there was nothing there to respond. But Satan presents the same temptations he took up Adam and Eve. We know that with the 1St man was tempted. He was in the garden, as our brother reminded us. But in Mark's Gospel we're told that the Lord was in the wilderness with a wild beasts.
Adam was there with a tame beast. Every circumstance was against Christ and Satan waited for the most, shall we say well in his estimate would be the weakest moment. Here is a man as a personal need for food. Haven't eaten for 40 days. This temptation went on for 40 days.
Three of them are singled out for our edification and help. But this was a constant temptation for 40 solid days. And at the end, that blessed man a hunger. And Satan says, now I've got it, he's not his weakest point. Every man will satisfy his own hunger. So he says, turn those stones into bread.
No, there's nothing wrong in turning the stones into bread in itself. What made it wrong would have been the dependent man would have been taking himself out of the Father's hand to supply his own knee, and at the same time he'd be obeying the voice of the enemy. Now that's what the what Satan wants to do those two things. He wants us to hear his voice and obeying him and he wants to take us away from.
Dependence upon God the Father upon Christ too.
About the leading of the Spirit, you know, we know of this movement which becomes more and more popular, spreading throughout Christendom, the leading of the Spirit, the charismatic movement, you know, speaking in tongues and all of this. And I think this year can be.
Applied to show how to answer and how to test.
The reality of whether it is indeed the Spirit of God who so leaves as they claim, because it has to be tested by the Word of God, the Spirit of God who inspired men of old to write to us the Scriptures, will never leave any of his own to act contrary to the scriptures.
If you apply the test of scripture.
To this modern movement you will find that does not stand the test of scripture.
Abounds with.
Violations against the restrictions given by the Spirit of God and the instructions given by the Spirit of God.
As to the Spirit activity in the believer, so we find that it is not enough to stress the importance that we are led by the Spirit. The Spirit will lead always in keeping and in harmony with the Word of God.
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Near our town, and she had laundered a pamphlet by Sir Robert Anderson, and she when she returned it, she said, well.
If I'm led by the Spirit to speak publicly, I'll do it. So I asked her. I said the word of God says let the woman keep silence in the church. It's not permitted unto her to speak. Will the Spirit of God write that down in the book, in God's Word and then lead you to disobey it? There's the test, as you say, we if we lean over and try to lean only on the thought of the Spirit, we become fanatics.
If we try to just shoot the letter of the Word without any guidance of the Spirit, it's intellectualism.
We need both. We need the Spirit, and the Spirit will never lead me to do something that the Word of God condemns. That's an important principle, brother, those two things.
Are going to separately.
Acting separately.
Join both Christendom and Judaism and the worst apostasy that this world has ever known leading up to the based on the Antichrist, but they will not be combined.
They will be used separately and they'll come under a religious clothes and unless the two are used by the Spirit of God together, the Word of God and the Spirit of God teaching.
There will never be truth in the soul. Now we learn from scripture that.
Wisdom is a defense.
That's Ecclesiastes 7 and 12. Wisdom is a defense. That is, it's a protection.
As money as the defense, I'm quoting from J&D.
But the Excellency of knowledge is.
That wisdom giveth light to those that have it.
Now in Proverbs we learned that.
Understanding is the wellspring of life.
Now to apply that.
Supposing that I have gained a little knowledge from God's word, it won't do me any good till I get on my knees.
Because if I follow that path without dependence, I'm going to start using my reasoning powers.
And I'm going to get into trouble. So I drop in my knees and I say, Lord, what does this mean? And he will never fail to give us an answer. It may not be the answer we want, but at least it'll be one for our conscience.
And it's a defense. Wisdom is a defense as money is a defense.
But the Excellency of knowledge, and there is Excellency in it.
Because it's the beginning of wisdom, we're told in Proverbs.
Decency of knowledge. Is that wisdom.
Give us life to those that have the knowledge.
Now if you and I want to learn something of the things of God.
We'll have to read the Word of God now. That's all there's to it.
But if we go beyond and forget prayer, we're going to go straight because it's only that we're led by the Spirit of God, and that is through prayer.
That understanding comes.
And the result, we have discretion and prudence in our ways so that we can go through this evil world that the Lord Jesus is passing through here in this chapter that we're reading up.
Going through this evil world without being occupied with it.
Now the world is occupied with evil and the crooked ways of it, so they can get through it without getting hurt. But not the Christian.
The Christian were taught in Scripture is to be simple concerning evil.
Wise as to that which is good.
Now a teller, the bank is not all occupied with with bad money, He's occupied with good money. And when he when he gets a bad piece of money, he can detect it because it doesn't like the good. There was a young man that I talked to some time ago. Everything he wanted was get delving into things that were.
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Of the reasoning line of things.
And I warned them about it to stay with the scriptures. And he did for a while.
Having passed through some real deep trials, but finally he took it up.
And spread out in this reasoning line of things. And today he's way off.
His ruined his whole life and no testimony for Christ and no joy in his soul because he did not couple wisdom with knowledge, that is, he did not get on his knees. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God.
Who give us to all men liberally and uprateth not. Oh what a savior we have.
A devil in verse two and we've spoken a lot about the Lord Jesus here. It might call this to mind because again, we we have so much air and evil around us.
And they've made pictures of Satan, as with a, you know, big red suit, pitchfork, et cetera, and make quite a big joke of this thing. But we learn from the word of God, don't we, that this is not just an impersonal thing.
And in some theological circles even they have maintained that Satan is really the proclivity of the human heart, the evil tendencies that come from the evil heart. And can we see as we look at this chapter, if we took such a a concept, an idea, what that would suggest to us in this chapter that the Lord Jesus Christ had evil inside of him, if we accept that line of things.
But no, it's not true, and Satan is a real personality, a formidable foe, one that is arrayed against us to impede our progress as Christians. Going through this scene, I have the Bible open to Revelation 20 and verse 2. Here are some of the words spoken about this one.
He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound him 1000 years. So he's called the dragon because he is a persecutor, violence characterizing serpent for the subtleties of the enemy. He's also called the devil, which is the slander.
The accuser of the Brethren.
He Satan because he's an adversary.
Now, just a word to our conscience.
Do we do the work of the enemy?
Can a child of God, one who's redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, has a new nature, the indwelling of the Spirit of God? Can he do the work of Satan?
Matthew the 16th chapter and Peter makes that marvelous confession doubt the Christ, the Son of the living God, thou art Peter upon this rock I will build my church. You know the scriptures and within just a very few, few short verses. What do we read? The Lord is announcing that he's going to the cross and die. And Peter lays a hold of the Lord and says not so Lord.
The Lord Jesus has to speak to one of his own.
And say, get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savers, not the things that be of God, but of men. And so, dear ones, if we are not walking in communion, if we are not being led by the Spirit of God, we can sow discord amongst the brethren. We can do the work of the enemy. That malice that's in our heart to that brother, that one we won't shake hands with.
Those evil thoughts that we have, the backbiting, the whispering against one another.
The work of the enemy to divide, that we might put our faces in the dust, realize his devices, and endeavor by the grace of God to judge these things, that the Lord might work and bring blessing in our lives and in the assembly. Indicated earlier about the order of the temptation.
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In Matthew I believe you got actually the chronological order there, and in Luke you get the third temptation for 2nd.
For the reason that Satan tempts here according to moral power. In Matthew he's presented as the Messiah, but here it's the Lord is in manhood, so he arranges it to the temptations are arranged in Luke so that you have the personal temptation. His need is a man.
And then the second temptation has to do with personal glory as Son of man. And the third is this personal acceptance as Messiah. Now you'll notice in verse eight, in the last time in the second temptation given here, it says get thee behind me, Satan.
I want to point out those words do not belong in Luke because if they did, you'd be faced with the Lord commanding Satan to go away and Satan still staying there. This is actually the last temptation and I suppose the translators felt they had to bring that in from Matthew. Now in Matthew, get thee behind me. Satan belongs there, or get the hence because this temptation is put last. I just mentioned that to show the accuracy of the Word of God. So here the 1St.
Satan uses here is a man that hasn't eaten for 40 days. Here is the man I'm going to trip up. And so at the end of the 40 days he says, if thou be the Son of God, now you know, this brings in the fact that Satan would like to bring those doubts into your mind and mine. Are we actually sons of God? Are we the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus? Is that our place?
If Satan can shake our confidence.
In the blessing God has given us, then he's got the he's got his way in. And so he brings in a an aspersion of doubt here to the blessed Lord, if thou be the Son of God. Oh, we see how the Lord withstood that by, as our brother remarked, he quotes from the book of Deuteronomy, the book of obedience. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
I have one other thought we read and I believe it's in Proverbs.
Or Ecclesiastes, a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Now when the temptation in the wilderness, the Lord, binds the strongman with a threefold cord, he resists the three temptations by the word of God. And so the Lord was then free to go about and spoil the strongman's goods. This is not the defeat of Satan.
The defeat of Satan is at the cross.
But this is the binding of him, so that the Lord later could send forth disciples who could spoil the devil's goods. He could send forth men in the devil's realm with power that Satan couldn't touch. But here's the key to it. The Lord binds Satan with a threefold court.
I hope as we read these instances of his temptation and his reaction.
That it will produce in our hearts a sense of praise and worship and Thanksgiving.
That this is my precious savior who's presented here.
In all the perfection of who he was. And that it will also be to us a lesson, I'm sure intended of God, that we may bow and worship this holy, sinless, spotless Son of God, our precious Savior.
But to notice that he met these temptations with the word of God.
To notice also that he was led of the Spirit, or as we read in Marks Gospel, he was driven of the Spirit. I believe, beloved brethren, and may I say especially the beloved young people, if there is an occasion in your life or mine when we, through our own choice, are found in the presence of such fierce temptations, can we count upon the Lord?
Here he was led to the Spirit, or as we quote, driven of a spirit.
And I believe, dear Saints of God, as we are surrounded by these fierce temptations, that if we walk with the Lord, if we follow the light and leading of the Word of God.
Perhaps we would not find ourselves in some of the temptations that we meet with. Are we there because we want some particular favor? Are we there because we feel there are material opportunities? If I am where I am because I believe the Lord wants me there, I can count on Him. If I am there because I want some prestige, some greater income, or whatever.
01:00:27
I may find myself facing temptations.
And lacking in that which is needful to meet them. I say again, in as much as the Lord met these temptations with the Word of God, does it not suggest to us the absolute need of our being familiar with the Word of God? All beloved brethren, when I read in the book of Deuteronomy, from which he quotes such words as these.
Therefore thou shalt lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul. I shall find them upon my hand, that they may be as frontlets between mine eyes, and I shall teach them, my children.
Speaking of them, when thou sittest in my house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up. How much of the Word of God did they have to bring before their children? Not much. That's the book of Deuteronomy. What did the parents of those days bring before their children?
What was available of the Word of God?
Have our children been instructed in those things which we find, shall I say, in the five books of Moses? Oh, now, now, certain chapters there you wouldn't wish to read to your children. Why not? They were given a God, their God's wisdom, their God's protection. And I don't believe, my dearly beloved fathers and mothers, that you should ever come to a chapter in the word of God and say.
Are not going to read this chapter to my children. What did Timothy have read to him? His beloved mother and grandmother apparently had brought him up under the sound of the word of God. None of the New Testament was available. What was read to Timothy? The Old Testament, The stains of sin that were recorded there. I have no doubt all beloved brethren, surrounded as we are.
With that which is so dark, so difficult for our beloved children.
How thankful we ought to be that we have a holy book from which we can read for ourselves and for our children.
Butter and honey shall he eat, and he may know how to choose the good and refuse the evil. I remember how my father used to say that to us so often. Butter and honey both good, both wholesome.
Butter and honey shall he, that he may know how to choose the good and refuse the evil. This is a book of butter and honey. We can read this precious book. We can read it in the family.
And we can count on God to use the precious God-given wisdom of this book to guard our own footsteps in the face of fierce temptations and to guard our beloved families all. When we see this holy, perfect, precious Son of God facing these temptations, facing them with the Word of God, we have a pattern that I believe we should take to heart.
Let me read a verse in Joel in connection with your remarks. Brother, the third verse of Joel has impressed me much on what you are saying. Joel 13. There are four generations here in the family.
Tell ye your children of it and let your children tell their children and their children and other generation 4 generations right down the line also says that the proverbs look man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children. God expects the blessing not only to go to our own children, but as in Timothy's case, you see he was.
Generation. There was his grandmother Lois and her faith, his mother Eunice, and there was a treasure left for children's children. And it's a wonderful thing to see the grace and blessing of God not only reach our own children who have been brought up under the Word, as our brother has been mentioning here. It pays evidence and it goes down to the third generation and brings them into a blessing. God has manifested that.
01:05:01
They reverse the free again. The devil said unto him.
If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. Was the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God? Yes indeed. Could he command the stones to make them bread? Yes he could. This is the very one that brought all worlds into being, the very one that fed those multitudes perhaps over 2,000,000 for over 40 years.
In the wilderness.
The very one that was in this scene as man and open up the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf, cleanse the lepers. I say. Could he have made the stones bread? Yes he could, but not at Satan suggestion.
He was the dependent and the obedient man as Isaiah the 50th chapter. He openeth my ear morning by morning to hear as they learn. And so one other verse. Now if thou be the Son of God. This is reiterated again in the 27th of Matthew at the end of the pathway of the Lord Jesus, when he's there on the cross, and they cry out if they'll be the Son of God.
Come down from the cross.
Could he have come down from the cross again?
Was there anything that he could not do as God eternal?
If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. I have one other passage in Nehemiah 6.
And here's the answer to my soul. Nehemiah 6.
And verse three when they sent to Nehemiah and said come down and meet us in the plain of Oh no, he answers in verse three and he says I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ in delighting to do the Father's will. He turned to deaf ear to their thoughts and jeers.
And in love to your soul and mine, He paid the debt on the cross of Calvary to redeem us to God.
Luke 4
Reading
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Some of the 1St 10 verses, but I'm sure that we need to go over a little bit of it again. So it might be well to read early in the chapter. Luke's Gospel chapter 4.
And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
Being for today's tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing.
And when they were ended, he afterward hungry.
And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that he made bread.
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them.
For that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will, I give it.
If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written.
Thou shalt worship the Lord to thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence. For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee uplift at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone.
And Jesus answering, said unto him, It is said.
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.
There was a theme they went out of theme of him through all the region roundabout and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
They came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the 7th day and stood up for the read, and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he'd opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them. Let her bruise.
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister in Saddam.
The eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
He began to say unto them, This day, is this scripture fulfilled in your ears?
Obeying witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, it is not this Joseph's son?
He said unto them, You will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, he thyself.
Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
And he said, verily, I said to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
But I tell you the truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of them was a lie sense, save unto Surrepta, the city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elijah the prophet.
And none of them was cleansed. Saving name and the Syrian.
And all day in the synagogue, when they heard these things were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust him out of the city, and let him under the brow of the hill where on their city was built, but they might cast him down headlong.
But He, passing through the midst of them, went his way, and came down to Capernaum, the city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days, And they were astonished at His doctrine, for His word was with power.
00:05:13
There are three forms that temptation to say that the fifth verse shows us the devil's power, which the Lord doesn't challenge. He doesn't take up the challenge.
But the devil offers him all the kingdoms of the world. Now we bear in mind that in the second Psalm God says to the Son, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. That is, Christ had consciously the Father's promise that in his time He would receive the Kingdom from the Father.
Now the word of God that we know, the Lord Jesus.
The Word of God was his daily meditation. Now we need to be fortified with the Word of God before the temptation comes. Here the temptation comes. Christ could very well have quoted the second song and said, oh, the day is coming when the Father is going to give me the Kingdom. But we see that the Lord would not receive the Kingdom from Satan. He's waiting for the Father's time. So in the 17th of John, he says, I pray not for the world, but for them. Now it's giving me.
Out of the world. This is not the time for the Lord to pray for the world, but when the 2nd Psalm is fulfilled, he will let me declare the decree. The Lord had said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day ever begotten Thee. So we see the the the Lord Jesus Christ, as dependent upon the Father is waiting another day to take the Kingdom.
See the three forms, then that that the temptations.
Take and isn't it marvelous and wonderful that God has been pleased to give us this picture before our hearts of his own Son coming down into this condition, shall we say?
Where he can be set before us in this way to show our hearts the right path to go so there's no mistaking.
And we find, first of all, that.
The flesh is mentioned and we know that the flesh is opposed to the Spirit.
We get that in the 9th chapter, I mean in the second chapter of the first epistle of John I believe.
And the Father and the world opposed to one another.
And of course.
The devil himself opposed to Christ, but everything that has to do with that which has to do with the glory of God is seen manifested through Christ. Now you will find these three same things mentioned in the 13th of Matthew.
We find that.
They see good seed is sown and it falls into four kinds of ground.
But three that bear no fruit.
And.
We find it falls into Stony ground.
That's the flash.
That's the natural man, his flesh.
As opposed to the Spirit of God and when a man hears the gospel.
Immediately his flesh, I will not. That's the young man that said to his father when he said go work in my vineyard. I will not.
That's the flash.
But later he repented and went. Now the spirit has taken hold.
But then we have also.
The thorns and the thistles.
Not now the Stony ground, but we have where the seed was sown among thorns and thistles. That's the cares of this world.
But the first one that's mentioned is the seed sown by the wayside and the fowls of the air or the fowls of heaven pick it up.
Now that's direct wickedness on the part of Satan. That's what we have here in connection with the.
With the.
Jerusalem and the pinnacle of the temple that's connected with the pride of life.
00:10:04
The pride of life.
So that.
We might say in a younger years one is more or less affected by.
The simple things.
Bread, all that that suggests to us the lusts of the flesh, or put it this way, the desires of the flesh. It's the same meaning, I believe.
But then we get a little older. Perhaps our thoughts are not quite along the same lines.
And the world comes in.
It's not so much in ourselves, but it's now going out and laying hold of what's around us, becoming objects for us. It's the sunny South, as we put it, as we see it, another place of Scripture. It's the pleasant land. It's the things that outwardly attract us.
But oftentimes, you know how we need to be guarded, especially some of us who are older, how these Scriptures should lay hold of our hearts because it's here the enemy brings out the pride of life, the danger of going too far, the danger of allowing the enemy to make a suggestion to us to go beyond Scripture.
To go beyond the spirit of Scripture.
Because in the 4th chapter of the first Epistle of John, try the spirits. That's for the last days, try the spirits. Oh how dangerous when the spirit begins in the wrong path and then the whole being is ruined. So we have these three particular.
Temptations now the Lord Jesus Himself.
Could not be touched by any of these and the right reading here at the end is and when he had ended every temptation. This chapter gives us the whole complete outline of all temptations. I'm Speaking of the outward ones. The Lord knew nothing about what would go on inside the one who had sinned, because he never sinned.
But the outward temptations?
When he had ended.
All Temptations is the real reading. Another thing just to mention here, the Lord does not say I believe in the original. We do not find Get thee behind me Satan. We get that in the 16th chapter of Matthew.
There Peter was being used as a tool of Satan. And so he says to Peter, get back behind me, Satan.
You don't relish the things of God because the Lord is going to the cross, that it was only through the cross.
That you and I would ever have blessing. Peter didn't understand that. But here it's not get the behind me, Satan, because the Lord never asked Satan to get behind him.
No get get the hence Satan is rather the thought. But I don't even think we get that expression in this chapter. We do elsewhere.
Yeah, we might wonder. We might wonder.
Why the last part of that verse is omitted when Satan quotes it in verse 10?
For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee.
That is omitted. Then in all thy ways comes after that. That's omitted. Then he says, In their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone. Why did Satan omit that? Well, I believe Satan was aware that all of the Lords ways were ways of dependence, ways of pleasing God, so he leaves that out.
And I suppose this is something that we have to be careful of. It's so easy for us to pass over.
Some little portion of scripture.
That, perhaps, is the very thing that we need.
And but the Lord couldn't be deceived.
The Lord was aware of Satan's Wiles and subtleties. That's why it's so wonderful to have Him as our Savior and to have Him as the One who cares for us and keeps us. Because He knows just exactly what Satan is going to do, what He's going to try to do to us, how he's going to tempt us. And if we're cast upon the blessed Lord all the time, I believe it's just like we read.
00:15:11
In in first John chapter 5 where it says he that is born of God.
Keepeth himself. We might just look at that.
First John, chapter 5.
Verse 6.
80 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not.
But he that is begotten of God keepeth himself.
And that wicked one touches him not.
Well, he that's born of God has a new life in nature that's altogether.
Dependent upon God. Now if we don't go on independence upon the Lord, if we get independent feelings, where does that come from? That comes from the old nature, the sinful self.
But he that is born of God keepeth himself. That is, if we go on.
In the power of that new life that we have, and we also have the Holy Spirit who is the power of that life. If we go on in that an independence on the Lord as that new life wants to be and is dependent upon the Lord. The wicked one can't touch us, but how often he does touch us because we're going on an independence and pride. We're going on with these three things, the lust of the flesh.
Lust of the eye and the pride of life. Maybe one of them more than others, but I don't suppose there's any of us that's free from any of them at any time, in any measure. We must be careful, because we have in us that to which the things of the world can appeal.
There can appeal an appeal made to the flesh. There can be an appeal made to the eyes.
An appeal can be made to the pride of life in us. It's there. The seed of it is there because we still have the old sinful nation.
And that's why we have to walk with the Lord in communion and in self judgment, reckoning ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we're going on in communion with the Lord, we get strength, we get power to overcome, just like the Lord. In him there was that divine power to overcome when we have that same life in US.
And we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.
And I'm afraid, beloved brethren.
To use a really common expression, we don't use the Lord like we ought to.
We don't go to Him like we ought to, we don't express our dependence upon Him as we should, and we get into all kinds of difficulties. We know that their dear Saints of God getting into all kinds of scrapes and difficulties and problems today.
Why? They are not going on with the law. They are not going on in dependence upon Him. They haven't learned to trust the Lord to sustain them in their troubles and trials. They get discouraged, they say, well, I'm going to give up, and the first thing you know, they're gone. They've left the Lord's table. They've left their brethren, they've left the law.
This is going on all the time and the enemy is busy.
He wants to pull the dear St. She wants to pull us away from the Lord, away from his table.
Away from himself, and the only way we can be kept is to go on independence in the dependence of that new life. He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one touches him. Not if we're trusting the Lord dependent upon him all the time. Satan can't touch us, but when does he touch us? He touches us when the shield of faith is down. When we're not on our guard, we.
Keep up that shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, because we have that to which Satan can appeal. The flesh, the eyes, the pride of life. And we can't trust ourselves either. Trusted in his own heart is a fool.
00:20:01
Satan. How Satan twisted this quotation, he not only left out those four important words.
But he stopped short, and this is an important thing in weighing the truth. Take Psalm 91 and.
Verse 11 is where Satan quotes from.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee. Now he left out in all thy ways, because he was trying to get the Lord out of the way. But he goes on. Let's go further. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest they thou dash thy foot against the stone. But why didn't they quote what's in verse 13?
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon. Shalt thou trample on defeat. Now Satan quotes and misquotes scripture the way false teachers do. They leave out words in all thy ways he leaves out, and then they they quote short. Whenever there's someone trying to bring a false doctrine to get you and me away from the truth, away from the Lord's table, or away from the truth of eternal security, what do they do?
They leave out part of Scripture and then they stop short in the quotation. And so we see the subtlety and divisive Satan in the very way he approached the Lord. There was another thought I'd like to express. Going back to verse six. We see how Satan works there too.
He says all this power will I give thee, and the glory of them.
The glory of them. The glory of what? A world that's under sin and wretchedness.
All the heroes and mighty men of earth who have sought glory, what was it? The glory and rule over a world that was under the dominion of Satan and sin makes the difference. Who at what age it was? The devil doesn't say. And the glory and misery of them. The world was filled with misery.
He says the glory of them and that's what appeals to man and it's going to appeal. Our brother referred earlier to the beast and the Antichrist who are yet to come on the scene. Satan will offer the kingdoms of certain area of the earth to the beast and he'll accept them and he'll have all the glory of it, the honor that comes from it. But what will it be? A miserable, wretched human state of things. But when the Lord takes the Kingdom, all at a different story it'll be.
He cleaned it up before he takes it, doesn't he? Yes, yes indeed. Isaiah 66 gives us that. You mentioned brother of China, important verse in John 17, the high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus at verse 14. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world.
Even as I am not of the world now in the translation of the of verse 15 into the anchor tongue.
We've added a little word there which is in the original. I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the evil 1.
Evil 1.
And Mr. Scott used to say, if you could look into that first heaven, you'd see millions of demons there that broke heaven.
Used to say that.
And these are embassies of Satan, and I remember him taking us over to Ephesians and explaining about these powers, these.
Demon, demon power that's manifested. He first of all mentioned that our blessings are in the heavenly place in Christ, and five times these words do appear. Then he mentioned verse 10 of chapter 3.
To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God. Well, he said, Who are they? And he said, These are good angels.
And then I said, well, how is the translation of that in the original, Sir? And he said.
That to the intent, that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church, the many colored wisdom of God. That's how He put it. Then he turned us over to Ephesians 6, four verse 12, chapter 6, verse 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
00:25:00
But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places or heavenly places. So he said that first heaven is full of millions of Satan's embassies. And the remedy is given in the same chapter.
Then he took us over to one thing that very touched my soul.
He said the Lord Jesus.
Never sinned, could not sin. He did no sin, but he drew my attention to.
Some shadows that have crossed the pathway of the Son of God and have crossed the pathway, he said of every human being that ever put foot into this scene, and the first one is sorrow.
Sorrow. But I was wondering what he was going to say about that. Then he mentioned think of the sorrow of this world because of the power of Satan in it.
Think of the sorrow of this very City of London.
And then look at all the cities of this land, and then look the cities of the world, the sorrow that's caused in all the cities of where ones heart is broken to think of the sorrow even of this section of this mighty city of Chicago.
Then he drew our attention to that verse, Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, where the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. Then he went on, If you don't mind me mentioning this, because they impressed me so much. And he said, The next is Thistle.
Thistles. And he said Thistles really speak of desolation.
And if you read the book of Hosea, you'll find it there. And Thistle shall grow up upon thine altar. Everything is cursed, everything is curved. Then thorns. Well, Bolivia is the land of thorns. And as I mentioned yesterday, it's really according to botanist and a botan branch which never comes to maturity because of the lack of water.
Of rain and excessive heat of the sun.
Turns into a thorn, and you never saw thorns like the Bolivian thought. Then he mentioned the thorns that they pressed upon the brow of that blessed Son of God, and the tears came down his old face and his white beard. I'll never forget as he mentioned that the thorns that were squeezed on the brow of the Son of God. Then he went on to speak.
Of sweat. Sweat, he said, speaks of restlessness.
Restlessness.
Was it possible for the Lord to have restlessness? Father, if thou wilt remove this cup from me, Nevertheless, if thou will but as as I will, but as thou wilt, He thought of you.
And he thought of me at that moment. He thought of this dreadful, ruined.
Creation through satanic intervention and sin. Iniquity and dust. Dust, he mentioned.
Dust. The cheapest thing in the world. Dust.
But we do read that thou has brought me into the dust of death.
There's gone into death. He has beloved and and brought forth life and incorruptibility. I like that word better. We put it into the Inca tongue and incorruptibility to light through the gospel. But to make this a bit shorter, he said these are the things that have crossed the pathway of the eternal sound of the living God.
And what then? I can hear his voice. He's born the mall. He's borne them all for the same. He's born them all.
What a savior we have. And so when we turn back to Luke four, there you have that precious savior.
That blessed man.
Bearing it all.
00:30:00
It is written. It is written. It is written. It is written.
What a wonderful portion this is. It really humbles us, doesn't it? It also encourages us two brothers, doesn't it? I thought too that it was perhaps a little lesson to us to see the blessed Lord Jesus, having presented to him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. None of us will face anything of this kind.
But perhaps we might face just a little corner of this world, just a little corner of its glory.
And we find it quite a test, quite a temptation, but you know, if it's all right to picture the Lord Jesus.
On that exceeding high mountain, having presented to Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and you suddenly say to yourself, But from whence had he come? From the very glory of God's own presence, all to one who had from all eternity dwelt in that glory, to stand on that high mountain, and look at all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, How must it have appeared in his eyes?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
And all my beloved brethren and I speak to my own heart, and perhaps it may speak to yours too, as we pass through this poor, corrupt world, so soon to be judged. Satan tries to do the same to you and me. He tries to put before our eyes, before our hearts, a little little corner of this world, something of its glory. Do we find it rather hard to turn from it? Do we find it quite a test to us? It wouldn't be such a test if we had our.
Fixed upon that wondrous glory. Oh, when I see the blessed Son of God standing there and realize from whence he had come. And then I realized, that's my home too. That's where I belong. Oh, how everything else would fade away in a moment. And then I was thinking too, as I heard rather frequent mention of the omitted words.
In all thy ways Satan purposely omitted them.
To keep thee in all thy ways. Every time we say those words, somehow we think of Proverbs 3.
And if you and I want to be kept, we do well to remember the significance of those very words as they present a challenge to us. In all thy ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct Thy paths. You and I want to have our paths directed in a way that would be for the glory of God, for our happiness and blessing along the way.
Oh, let no one for one moment think that God has presented to us a restricting pathway.
In which we're going to be deprived of this or that. Indeed, it's nothing of the kind. It's a pathway filled with the richest blessing of the Lord and the end of it will be by the grace of God if we do acknowledge him in all our ways and abundant entrance and a full reward. So those little words which were omitted here purposely by Satan and misquoting or.
Short quoting the word of God are so applicable, should be so applicable to every one of us.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path back in the Old Testament there.
Is a very lovely chapter which we're all acquainted with, which brings before us in a picture the truth much of what we have here. I refer to David and Goliath, and you remember that scene there so well, how that David was just a stripling, a ready youth.
And this giant, a man of age and age.
Well, the picture is that giant, the enemy of our souls, Satan. And David, of course, is the Lord Jesus. And he goes, David goes with that sling and the pouch full of five stones, A picture, no doubt, of the five books of Moses.
And as has already been said here, David used one stone, the Lord Jesus used one book.
And the giant fell. Let's read in Luke Chapter 11.
A brother referred to Matthew 12 about the binding here. It's put a little different in Luke, but it brings the whole story out.
00:35:10
In Luke 1121, when a strongman armed well, there's Satan keepeth his palace, that's this world, the glory of them. He talks about that. But oh, there's a lot of misery too. But the glory attracts the flesh.
His goods are in peace, but when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, Here's the Lord Jesus, that's the 4th of Luke. He came upon the strongman, he overcame him with the word of God. That's the giant fell by the stone. But you remember David ran up to that giant.
And he took his own sword and cut off his head.
Now let's read on in the verse Here He taketh from him all his armor, wherein He trusted and divided his spoils. Let's go to Hebrews 2, verse 14. For as much than as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He didn't take on him the seed of Abraham of angels. He took on him the seed of Abraham. He also himself likewise took part of the same.
That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death.
That is the devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to *******. For verily, He took not on him the nature of angels, but He took on him the seed of Abraham. He passed angels by. He came to us, poor sinners. He went to meet the giant, He met Satan, He overcame him. He went on to the cross. In our chapter, we're coming to the verse. Let's notice it in our chapter.
4.
And verse 13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him.
For a little season. Oh, he returned.
I believe in the garden.
But the Lord Jesus said there the cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it?
He took even that cup from the Father. Satan, I believe, pressed it upon him. A shortcut. No, he wouldn't take it. No, he went right down into death. He took that which was the power of the enemy, and he robbed death of a sting, as our brother just quoted, and brought light and incorruptibility to light through the Gospel. Well, this is the great victor, and we share in his victory.
Over putting the same position.
As he is, so are we in this world could behave some thought not Hebrews on James chapter one.
Where we have temptations mentioned.
In verse 2.
Of chapter one my brethren counted all joy when he fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but that patients have their perfect work, that he may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Also in verse 12.
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.
For when he's tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to them. They love him. Let no man say when he is tempted. I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted thee any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and entities, then when lust has conceived.
Forth sin and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. I'm reading these verses because it's wonderful to see how perfectly the Lord Jesus went through the through the temptation we face the same, but to me it almost sounds strange, but be of course far too much Scripture says to consider a joy.
To be tempted and.
It seems to be that there is a difference even here.
In the temptation mentioned in verse 2.
And the temptations mentioned later on in this chapter one has called the temptations in verse 2, the holy temptations connected with our faith, with the enemy seeks to overthrow, but dinner is there in US which was not in our Lord.
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The sin, the flesh. And the apostle says blessed is the man that endureth temptation. And so we can learn from the Lord Jesus in the way he meant temptation, and especially when it comes to matters of faith. And there are those things where Satan seems to tempt us.
Not necessarily using the flesh, but undermining our faith. Or others might be able to explain that a little better, but doesn't this fit in here?
Beautifully to encourage us to not when we are tempted, when we are facing difficulties.
Not to be depressed and but really be thankful.
Because He will not only send these temptations, but also help us to go through them for His glory. He's got to see. As you point out, there are two kinds of temptation. Or maybe we better get hold of that well, because in the second verse, these temptations will be connected with joy.
But in the 12Th verse, the temptation is connected with endurance. That would be the trial. And we read God to tempt Abraham. It was a trial.
Of Abraham's faith. But the other temptation that's brought in as you've read, there's temptation with evil verse 13 that is not.
The same temptation as you get in the other two verses. If we're tempted with evil to do evil, why should we rejoice in that? And why should we have to endure it if the if the enemy presents a temptation, I claim the truth of Romans, 6I reckon myself to be dead indeed unto sin.
But alive unto God through Jesus Christ. We have the power by being dead to sin, to refuse it, not to endure it. But suppose you get hit with one trial after another, sickness, a loss of property or one thing or another, Why the danger is to break down. James says it's blessed if you endure that temptation, endure that trial. I think it's good to get hold of the difference between being tempted, as you say, by.
Was it in the one place tempted by trial and tempted by evil? 3 Two different things.
I think we mentioned before you get it in first, John, there's the lust of the flesh in you.
That's very prevalent, of course, lust of the flesh in you, and there's the lust of the eye in middle age.
This is also a very strong temptation, beloved.
And then latterly, last of all is the pride of life which effects we old folks.
We need your prayers.
How many of God's people have gone on well and have used been used of the Lord, and they've forgotten their nothingness and have boasted in their what they have done, and they have become as useless vessels?
The pride of life. This is a very, very grave thing, brethren, and each day God has blessed my little service of 58 years in a real way.
It is true, but brethren, let us ever remember that we are nothing.
And as Mr. Darby said, and I read it as a young man after I was laid out of sectarianism, men called of God into His service go forth from a place of strength, realizing their own nothingness.
All that impressed me. I said, Lord Jesus, may I be just that, Just that.
So we have the pride, the lust of the flesh in you, how strong it seems to be today, and the lust of the eye. You know the Indian I brought from South America below? He made failure because he wanted to live like the American people.
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He wants to possess beautiful homes. He'd been used to a very humble home. He was a humble man. He was useful and he wanted to bring his three children home to this country to be college, collegiate.
And he had a he had even a diplomatic passport to do it. The justice gave it to him because of his testimony. You know, the justice had him in his own home to give his testimony in the gospel. Think of it, the justice, he thought so much of poor Francisco. But what happened?
He's lust of the eye. He wanted to be something. He wanted to acquire something. Now this is very common, brethren, in US.
But the pride of life, well, I wrote the justice a little note saying, Justice, please cancel that passport of Francisco here.
Please cancel it. And it was canceled to this day.
Well, he did send his boys to school and some of them have graduated. One is an engineer, another accountant. I don't know what the other does. I think he's a mechanical man. But all what happened, he was a lost dynamic from that very moment because it was the love of money. He saved money to come to this country and live like the American people.
And I warned himself.
That he didn't listen.
That God put him on his back for three years until he said yes, yes.
He's a lost dynamic still, but he's in fellowship.
Brethren, tell me he's in fellowship still. But for a long time he was away, one of the first of the boys to be saved, not the first one of the first to be saved. He's now 72, more or less.
He's a lost dynamic.
Well, may we be very careful.
Oh, do pray for this old Jacob. That's all I am, beloved.
God has been pleased to use of nothing.
He has.
For which our every month fainted. Thanks.
But there are places that in the dust, if we're ever going to be any good for God, we have to be on with on the enough, with our faces in the dust. Before God, we are nothing.
Well, it says, it says concerning Jacob, speaks of Jacob.
But it does add the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. If it had been Abraham, poor Smith would have been a mess in a mess. But it's the God of Jacob is our refuge. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Isn't that sweet?
Mention about the danger of the pride of life and old age. It makes us think of what dear JG Ballot was exercised about. We I'm sure we have some of his writings over here. He's one of the.
Teaches among the gathered Saints more than 100 years ago and his younger days he he felt that the Lord would leave him here to old age.
He wanted his great concern was that he would not dishonor the Lord. And when he reached old age, now that's a word for the young, he was exercised about that, not when he got old, but when he was young. And the law did leave him here to be old, and he didn't get off the path either.
Way that the two expressions, you know that that isn't the same. I don't know Greek and I confess that.
But that one of them is a solicitation to do evil that comes from the flesh. And then the other, of course, is as a trial in order that that which God allows in order to bring out in the soul that which is of God. And you take also there are other places in Scripture. It just reminded one that sometimes.
In our English language, we only have perhaps one word there.
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Which in the Greek there are different words. For example, remember when the Lord restores Peter.
At the end of the Gospel of John, Lovest thou me? And there is what the two words AGAPAO&PHILEO in Greek and they, they're just translated the same way in our English language. But if you saw the Greek, you would see what the Lord, you know, was really saying to Peter about lovest thou me with a deep love. And Peter, he had been chastened in spirit and I liked the Lord, you know, he wouldn't he wouldn't go so far as.
I love thee with that deep love. He had had self-confidence once before. So there's a lesson in the usage of these words. God allowed the Greek language to be at that time for its precise meanings. You taking the Gospel of Matthew in the 20th chapter where the householder goes out and employs those various ones at the several hours to do his work, and then finally he says this word, friend.
He know wrong. I bargained with thee for a penny, and this is what I've given you, friend. And then there's a man who comes into the wedding without a wedding garment on, and the Lord says to him, friend.
Same gospel, the Lord says to Judas, friend in the Greek they're all the same word and they mean acquaintance. That's all just acquaintance. Far different from when the Lord says in John 15, ye are my friends. That's another word altogether which implies intimacy of relationship. And so how, how marvelous are are these words, you know, And what I wanted to say is this.
Lead up to we have in our hands the King James translation, the authorized version, and it is good.
It's fine, and I trust that by the grace of God, we'll continue to use it. And then we have Mr. Darby's translation of the Scriptures that we can use to get these fine shades of distinction. Distinction. And I believe, dear ones, that's all we need. That's all we need.
A brother right here has said that the devil is in the Bible business and many of these translations and I trust by the grace of God, if you've got them on your on your shelves, if you're just using them for reference work to show where the error is, that's one thing. But if you're using them for reading, burn them just like our brother said the other day, burn them. They're wicked they're.
They're transliterations being pawned off on the public as the word of God.
And setting the ground as it were for just doing away with the word of God. I say and I insist we have sufficient in this book. We have before us together with with shades of distinction with Mr. Darbys translation and one other thing before I'm done in verse eight of our chapter. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only.
Shalt thou serve? I know it's repeating things, dear ones.
But I don't know about you, but I'm a leaky vessel and I have to have things repeated in order to really get them in the in the mind. And how often have we seen these two things together in the Word of God? Worship 1St and then service earlier in this gospel, Luke, we have Anna and she was there in the temple and she was offering up prayers.
Then she went out and spoke.
To all of those that look for redemption in Israel, first there was the holy priesthood going up to God. Then there was the royal priesthood, that which goes out to man. And in acts, we've heard it before, but again, an axe. When they're thrown into that prison, they're exercising their holy priesthood and they're singing praises unto God. But also there's faithfulness, there's the royal priesthood, and others are.
Told of the way of salvation. Oh dear ones, and christened them again. What is it? Get somebody saved and immediately get them ready for the mission field. Get on the all filled with service. And we believe there's a place for service. But service, in order to be effectual for God, should always flow out of communion. Let worship be first and service later.
Those thoughts in mind, should we go on 1St?
Because here we have Jesus before us again, and we have one who has passed through.
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They.
The testings and he's coming now in the power of the Spirit.
Into Galilee.
And then we find that he goes into the synagogue's being glorified all of all.
And we find that he had a custom.
He came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as his custom was.
He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
Now I know that we're on Jewish ground in a way here, a transition period, but.
May I just say that we are all creatures of habit?
Now what is our custom?
Have we very fixed definite habits in the things of God?
Read the Word of God. Do we pray?
Someone made a remark the other day.
In speaking to a relative.
In connection with something that had taken place in their life, a young man.
He said I prayed. He said I haven't been praying for a long time, but I prayed and things went well with him.
Now, how much better it would have gone with him if he had continued praying instead of neglecting it. It hadn't been his custom.
Here we have a custom.
And we find in another place of the Lord Jesus that he increased in wisdom.
And stature and favor with God and man.
Now it's the man Christ Jesus that this gospel speaks of.
A man, God as he is, but as a man down here among men, he has a custom, a practice that he follows. It's a good one. And also.
We find the development.
And it was in favor with God and man. God first. Now it wasn't until the Lord Jesus touched the consciences of men.
That he lost that favor with them.
It wasn't until he began to speak, as we see a little later in this chapter.
Now that which would raise the national feeling of Israel, who now are in captivity to it, to the to the Romans.
And give them to feel this captivity. It wasn't until then that they turn against him, but they wonder at his gracious words.
And we find that until the conscience of man is reached and he's seen in his true light, well, you can get along pretty well with most anyone. But the moment you apply Christian truth, that's the truth of Christ dying for the Sinner and the truth of man's moral degradation and sin, the moment you bring in those subjects, you're going to find out that you won't have many friends in this world.
That's right, brother.
When I see this as the customs spoken out here, I'm reminded that twice in chapter two, such customs are spoken of in connection with his beloved mother and Joseph. And I think it's very, very interesting to think that even though he was of course the perfect Son of God, yet there was in his very early infancy and childhood that.
Custom. His parents go to the synagogue. According to the custom of the law, they take their dear son with them.
And I thank God for the memory, if you wish, of such customs when I was a child, to have our earliest memories associated with that which to me at the time was only accustomed. But I thank God for that custom, that prayer meeting night was prayer meeting night. Bible reading night was Bible reading night. It was the pattern of.
And family life, and although I say again, it was only accustomed when I was a child, I thank God for the custom. And when I see it here in this chapter, I'm reminded that it's twice mentioned in the second chapter during the childhood and youth of the Lord Jesus himself. As we were coming to the conference here we were going through.
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Iowa and Illinois passing along the highway.
And there were many cornfields.
On either side of the road.
And most of those corn fields were delightful to look at.
Stocks all grown up, luscious and green and beginning to set ears.
And we were talking about that, how nice they looked, how wonderful it was, what what a wonderful thing to look upon, part of God's creation.
But we were also talking about what we might call a custom in connection with those cornfields.
Having been a farmer, born, raised on the farm, I know something about what is needed to raise corn. And there are certain customs we go through, there are certain habits we follow well, there are certain natural regulations or rules perhaps that we have to follow.
First of all, the soil has to be plowed up and properly prepared.
And then in these days especially, fertilizer is applied that which nourishes the plants.
And then there has to be caretaking, too, that the weeds are removed from that cornfield. Now the farmer might say, well, this is a lot of bother and this is a wearisome thing. I'm going to just forget about this custom, these natural rules. What's going to be the result?
Well, the cornfield is not going to look very good.
If the fertilizer isn't applied, it'll look stunted. If the leaves our weeds are allowed to grow, they'll SAP all the strength and you won't see a nice looking cornfield. The corn won't grow.
Now what is the farmer interested in? He is interested in seeing that corn grow and produce corn.
What are we interested in as Christians? Are we interested in what Peter speaks of, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?
Are we interested in what we know the Lord would have us do? Produce fruit for Him for His glory? We know all of this. Yes, we are interested in those things and growing and grace and knowledge and producing fruit for the Lords honor and glory. But we have to remember that there are certain customs and habits we must follow.
And I don't know of any better custom to have than to read the word of God and meditate upon it.
And to spend time in prayer and in judging ourselves. And judging ourselves, we get rid of the weeds.
In reading the Word of God and in keeping in tune with the Lord in prayer, we are feeding our souls. There is going to be fruit.
Are we going to give up the custom? Well, this young man.
That hadn't prayed, had given up the custom of prey. He was losing out in his soul and the Lord was losing out, and the Lord misses that fruit. Oh, how it must delight the Lord to look upon a company of Christians and see them growing. Like we looked upon that field of corn with pleasure and saw it growing.
Think about the Lord's side of it. Does He appreciate it? Does it bring joy to Him? I'm sure it does. And we can be defective and deficient if we're not following this custom of reading the Word, meditating upon it, getting it into our souls, praying, talking to the Lord. We'll miss just what the Lord wants us to have and be for Him.
It's in keeping with the whole ministry.
Of the Lord Jesus here.
Particularly in Luke.
That is, he stops short of judgment as he quotes Isaiah.
Our blessed Savior came down and does not take up the subject of judgment. Now He refers to judgment. But even when the young man came and said, Master, will you tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me? Who made me a judge or a divider over you? The Lord Jesus came in lowly grace.
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With truth but grace, he leaves judgment for another day.
Judgments coming, but He stopped short in that verse in Isaiah, and He brings out all that has to do as far as could be revealed at the time of what was in the heart of God for the blessing of man. The Lord Jesus came in not only lowly grace, but He came in love to man, and He came to manifest that love which is in the heart of God.
For everyone who is in this room this afternoon.
And I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there were those in this room this afternoon who do not yet know the love of God, who do not yet know their sins. All forgiven.
The Lord Jesus came to manifest that love, and here in this first appearance, shall we say.
Of the manifestation of this aspect of things.
Where he is about to be rejected.
Actually in the 9th chapter but he's about to be rejected.
Is about to be set aside as the Messiah. He's already introducing that greater that larger sphere of things when he speaks of name in the Syrian and the woman of Sarepta. Now those are the two ministries of the Lord Jesus. One has to do with the earthly ministry.
And the other has to do with the heavenly ministry through the Apostle Paul, but they're introduced in this chapter and at the time when he stands up on this occasion.
And so that men will know that there's going to be a tremendous change when the Kingdom of God is introduced.
It's a Note 2 of Luke, the character of Luke's Gospel. To see that expression here where he had been brought up. It's a note, shall we say, of human interest. When the Lord came down from the mound of Transfiguration and healed that lunatic sun, only Luke says he he restored him to his Father. Neither Matthew nor Mark say that because we have the human side of things.
The one we just make this statement to, we have Nazareth mentioned. I believe there are four cities.
That have connection with the Blessed Lord's pathway in Bethlehem. He's born of the seed of David. That's the city of His birth. Nazareth is where He was brought up. He went down to Nazareth and was subject unto them. Then as He went out on His ministry, He went and dwelt in Capernaum. But what about Jerusalem? We see two things about that. It was the city of His rejection, the city of his death.
And yet there's a day coming when that will be the city of his power. Bethlehem is the city of David. Jerusalem is the city of David. One is the city of his birth, the other is the city of his power. And so there's a day coming when the glory of the Lord who entered Nazareth as a man here in loneliness, he's going to display his power.
Luke 24:36
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Luke's Gospel.
Chapter 2436 On. And as they thus speak, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
And he said unto them, Why are you troubled?
And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Handle me and see.
For a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me have. And when He had thus spoken, He showed unto them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them.
Have ye here enemy? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an of an honeycomb, And he took it, and did eat before them. And he said unto them, These are the words which I speak unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses.
And in the prophets.
And in the psalms concerning me.
Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures.
And said unto them, Thus it is written.
And thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.
And that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
And ye are witnesses of these things.
And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you.
But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
And he led them out as far as to Bethany.
Lifted up his hands and blessed them.
And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven.
And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.
And we're continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
Of course there is.
With intervenes between.
Luke 3 and 4 of what we read at the beginning of the Lord's ministry.
And here, where we have the risen man and his ascension into glory.
But this seems a fitting clause, and it ought to be an encouragement to all of us.
We too have a ministry and the end of it is before us here, the glory and the risen man.
Luke, of course, is so very interesting. He has written more of the New Testament than any other except Paul when we include the Acts.
And in our opening hymns and in the prayer, there was the glory, the Lord and the glory before us. We had that the Lord and something of His moral glory as a man in his service at the very beginning.
Now we have him as the risen man, the work all done entering into that glory, and we see the setting of the little company that's left on the earth, gathered at what was still then the center in Jerusalem. But going back to the first verse we read.
Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said unto them, Feast be unto you.
Now this is true church possession.
Even now.
An assembly gathered together, the Lord in the midst, and peace there. The only place on earth where we can expect peace. You say we have lots of strife. Well, there is conflict, but there's no place on earth where you can have the peace like you can in that divine center where the Lord is in the midst and the Scriptures are open, just like we have been enjoying. Oh, this is a beautiful scene we have before.
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I was thinking, as our brother mentioned the church here, what a contrast. I think it's helpful to make a contrast with how the Gospel of Matthew ends. Bethany is not seen there. They go into Galilee, into a mountain of heart, and there.
They, they worship the Lord and some doubt it's an earthly scene. There we have an earthly people on earth worshipping Christ on earth and it's not the church scene at all. And there there's no ascension because the Lord says, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. So it's striking to see that Luke brings in Bethany and gives us a glorified man in heaven.
Being worshipped by his people on earth.
But Matthew gives you an earthly people on earth worshipping their Messiah on earth. I mentioned that to show that the contrast between between the writings of the Spirit gave Matthew and Luke. But I enjoyed the thought our brother mentioned. We have that this very first verse that was read brings in the principle of the assembly, the Lord in the midst and the peace and blessing that accompanies that.
Verse of 15 You mean Jesus himself Drew dear?
And went with them.
Verse 27 and beginning at Moses and all the prophets.
Expounded unto them, and all the scriptures of things concerning himself. Verse 36. And as they thus spoke or spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst. Three times in the chapter we have Jesus Himself. Just a little word on that, dear ones. In the first instance it was those two disciples on the way to Emmaus.
And indeed, their hearts were sorrowing, grieved. What is it?
Or who was it that lifted up their hearts at such a time? And you know, you and I, we are saved. We are God's children. But we're going through a wilderness scene and there's trials and there's difficulties. Sometimes the death of a loved one, sometimes sicknesses, sometimes loss of work. All of these things can come upon.
Us, as well as the Ken, the unsaved, the lost but.
What do we have that they don't? We have Jesus, we have the Lord Jesus Christ himself to go to 1 to sustain us in all of our trials and difficulties. The second passage, dear ones, as we read the Old Testament, what is it in a law and the Psalms and the prophets?
Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, all that our eyes might be anointed with. I said, what is the real value as we read Genesis 37 to 50 of that lovely and wonderful story of Joseph? Just historical, no, but it's as it reminds us of that one who was the one beloved of the Father, the one rejected by his brethren, the one exalted to that high place. Oh, it's as it brings Christ.
Souls that there is real value. And so with all of the Scriptures, they concern himself. And now the last instance and our brethren have already touched upon it. We have in the midst of the assembly where the two or three are gathered under My name. There am I in the midst. Oh how blessed here once in the Gospel of John, I think, when the Lord appeared to his own.
Was it an upper room? Maybe there was a window there and they could look over in the distance and they could see that big magnificent temple.
With all of its grandeur.
But what was the comparison?
Your house, the Lord had said. It's empty. The Lord wasn't there. Thousands could go to it. Where was the best place where the two or three were there in the upper room and the Lord Jesus was in the midst.
Well, it is this chapter we might remark, brethren, that resurrection comes in here first, which is so essential to the understanding of our heavenly portion apart the river. Resurrection is the touchstone of everything. Now I was noticing while our brother was reading verse.
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Two, may we just go back there home and where we have the Lord Jesus, Jesus.
There's the open grave there. That's the first thing, the open grave, yes, He's no longer there. He's God. He's purged our sins and has sat down at the right hand of the magic in heaven. But as we read on a little, we notice in verses.
In verse 31, we noticed that their eyes were opened, first of all the open grave. Now their eyes were opened and they knew Him, and he vanished out of their sight.
Well, now in verse 32 we read and they said one to another. Did not our heart notice that there our heart burned within us while He talked with us, by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?
I remember a meeting in London many years ago, I might just mention this, and there was a great deal of hierarchy in that meeting.
Preparation of servants and so on. The the testimony had been developed into a kind of hierarchy, and that was the disintegration of the work in England in those early days. And I don't remember hardly anything, those learned brethren myths.
But there was one old man came up quietly.
He appeared to be a farmer. His boots were rather heavy and his coat was not so ***** and span. But he didn't get up on that platform, but he stood before the platform and he said, Brethren, have we forgotten? The Spirit of God indwells us.
And he quoted this Did not our heart burn within us? And then he broke down. Did not our heart burn within us, while He opened unto us the Scriptures? Brethren, that affected my soul more than anything else.
He opened the scriptures to.
Now this resurrection. And then there's the opening of their eyes and then the opening of the Scriptures.
And verse 46 is we read.
Then he opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures.
Well, we do know, brethren, that.
The Church is a heavenly entity. The Gospels we know very well.
Really intimate, shall we say prophetically, the assembly?
The Gospel.
The Acts of the Apostles, shall we say, introduce it in more in a historical way, the Acts of the Apostles. But when we come over to the epistles, they formally address the assembly and in the book of the Revelation they it's, it's expressed more particularly.
Now I was thinking that concerning the church here.
The beginning, beloved, is based on the resurrection, the open grave. Well, I mentioned that as the beginning. It's so important. In our meeting yesterday, we were having in Luke 4, this verse 16, He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up, and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.
And stood up for to read. Now the Sabbath day was the 7th day.
And it came around every seven days.
We don't keep the Sabbath, but we have the Lord's Day. One is thought that.
Even beginning in Luke, we have a preparation for the church. It's announced in Matthew.
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And the scene broadens out, especially in Luke. I don't want to neglect Mark or we have the precious Gospel.
Where the Son of God is brought before us as the servant who came in and took the place in particular that Israel failed in as the servant before God has given us in Isaiah. But when we come to Luke, he takes the title of the Son of man.
And the scene broadens out and there seems to be a preparation beginning in loop for the church, and especially in this portion where we have.
Read where we find that there is a Commission given to the disciples in each of the four gospels, but it is only the Commission that we have read here that was carried out.
It was carried out in the book of the Acts. Whereas our brother has brought before us, we have the Church now in between.
Luke and Axe we have John, oh, that wonderful Gospel of John, and I think it comes in there rightly, very precious way. Now I want to call your attention to John 20 in connection with our first verse.
That we have read and these thoughts.
We come together to break bread on the Lord's Day.
It's only mentioned once in Scripture.
But it's clear enough here in John's Gospel chapter 20.
We have two succeeding first days of the week.
Seven days later.
Called 8 days later here, but that's the way the Jews counted time. Let us just notice verse 19, Luke John 2019. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them peace.
Beyond her youth. Well, the same scene we're reading about in Luke, no doubt. And here it is again. One would stress true church possession, the Lord's Day and the assembly gathered together and the Lord Jesus in the midst, and peace there. Now we think of the time when this happened and it says there the doors were shut for fear of the Jews.
Let's go on down to verse 26.
After eight days, I would remind you that this is the Jewish way of counting time, counting the first day and the last day. If you count Sunday right down to Sunday again from both ends, you have eight days. This again was the Lord's Day.
After eight days, again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut. Now it doesn't say anything about for fear of the Jews. I think there was progress here, that peace had entered into their hearts. With the Lord in the midst, they could have that peace and it's just the same.
Jesus said unto them, Peace be under you. Oh, isn't it precious that we have this instruction?
We need to come together every seven days, every Lord's day. We need to be where the Lord is. We need to be reminded of him as a brother was remarking recently in Leviticus. We have the blood put on the mercy seat once and before it seven times what's for the eye of God and seven times for the eye of man you and I need to be reminded from.
Week to week of that precious blood, and he has made a provision for it. The scope of Luke's gospel, which will be helpful to us, I believe, comes out even in the way John the Baptist quotes the Old Testament. Let's go back to the third chapter a moment. In the third chapter we have John the Baptist in his ministry, quoting from Isaiah 40.
Now we make a careful comparison with math. You will find it in Matthew. Only a short portion of that quotation is given.
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But in Luke, it's given more copiously and completely, and we'll see why, I believe.
The third of Luke, and verse four, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaias the prophet saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the Lord, make his path straight. In Matthew it stops there, but here it says, Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hills shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough way shall be made smooth.
And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Now this shows us what is in view in Luke's Gospel, in Matthew, it's the Kingdom directly related to the Jew. But now it's every valley, every hill, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Now there in, in in basis is what as we see in the church. The church is composed of Jew and Gentile. We as Gentiles have been.
We are part of that all flesh. And so I believe the Spirit of God lets us see. I mention this again, particularly for the young. These are the internal marks of divine inspiration. Because Matthew could have quoted every word that Luke quoted, but he doesn't. He cuts it short because that's not his purpose. And in Matthew he speaks of the baptism with fire. Why? That's how the Kingdom will be brought in.
And Luke, he speaks of the baptism of fire.
That's how Christ universal Kingdom will be brought in Isaiah 66. But neither Mark nor John bring in the baptism of fire, because in the oneness, the gracious precious service of the Lord Jesus and the other, it's the moral glories of the Son of God. These, I repeat, are internal marks of divine inspiration. The design of each book comes out. So Luke gives us the broad ground here.
Now how about the 1St chapter?
Brother Longs are Speaking of that the 1St chapter of Luke where you get John the Baptist referred to.
In the 16 first.
And many of the children of Israel shall return to the Lord their God.
And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias.
To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.
To make ready of people prepared for the Lord.
Now turning to the wisdom is an indirect reference to what the Lord gives in chapter 1152. He won't turn to it. He rebukes the Pharisees.
And he tells them that.
They have turned away the key of knowledge.
What's that wisdom?
What does that mean? It's the person of Christ here, the one who is the wisdom of God coming down as a man among men. Because wisdom, you know, is far higher than law or anything else. It's God's own mind.
It's the way he created the world by wisdom. Now this is referring to Christ, but I'm getting at is this in our chapter we have 40 days.
The Lord is restoring His disciples. He is turning their hearts.
To the wisdom of the just.
The Lord Jesus in Luke is seen as the man.
That job, in the spirit of the remnant, cries out all that there were a days men that stood between.
There we have the answer to it in this last chapter of Luke.
Here is the days men. And what is he doing?
He's turning the hearts, that's what he's doing.
It's all right to speak about the setting up of the assemblies on the Earth, and that's a marvelous thing, and Paul had that to do.
But there's something else too.
The outward shell can breakdown.
And so John's ministry continues in the minute in the epistles. It's that which is vital.
The Lord Jesus turns the hearts. We have the advocacy of Christ in this last chapter.
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When you think of the Lord Jesus back in eternity, his delights were with the sons of men.
But as he goes walking in the garden, what has happened? He finds his creature that he was seeking companionship with hiding behind the trees in the garden.
So it's all over on that basis.
Jesus has to come and die.
Because sin has come in.
In order to be that days man who could stand between man and God, he could put his hand on man, he could put his hand on God. He is God, he is man. And now in this chapter we find the closing of these precious jewels in Luke, and they are precious.
We have in the Lord Jesus set forth by Luke, and Luke was a man, you know, who hid himself.
You very seldom hear of him because he was so taken up with the person of Christ that he doesn't.
He doesn't much speak of himself.
But he does bring before us.
And not simply the fact that there will be a church.
A testimony here on Earth.
That that there will be a heart for it. That's what he's bringing before us.
The internal thing, the moral issues that are involved.
Because beloved.
The word of God in Thessalonians says we are going to live together with Him.
And we're told we're going to be like Jesus.
Physically.
We are told also that.
Son has the inheritance and he's going to share it with his bride.
What we have in Luke is the peace offering. What's that?
If you'll recall the time when David had sinned and numbered the people.
And Aruna offered him some animals for sacrifice for a burnt offering. He said no, that won't do.
I'll have to have some for a peace offering.
And I'm going to buy it myself.
Why did he want some for a peace offering?
Wasn't it a marvelous thing to offer to God that which was so excellent to God his own Son, and all his glories? I asked. But David wanted to be in on it.
Too. That's Luke's gospel. We're going to be in on it. Brethren, it isn't just that Christ as a man is going to be in the glory with the Father. He's going to take us along with him, but he's going to take us along with him fit for his company.
Not only fit by that precious blood, but morally prepared in our souls.
And this is the picture we have in the last chapter of Luke. We have the Lord Jesus taking his disciples during those 40 days.
Occupied with them.
To restore their souls. So that fear that enters immediately as he says, peace be unto you is is dispelled. And the next scene we have, he's eating and drinking with his disciples. That's heaven, brethren, that's heaven. The last chapter of Luke gives us heaven.
It's a it's a picture to us.
Of what will happen soon, very soon, when he will say.
To us to sit down and he's coming forth to service in the glory, the man Christ Jesus. And then according to Psalm 19, figuratively, of course.
We're going out with him over the vast expanse of that inheritance of his.
Not simply as those who are subject as servants, we are servants. Nor of those who are subject as created beings to God. That's all true.
But as his own personal companions, that's Luke's gospel.
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He's a man, Christ Jesus here. He's the one that wants companionship and he will have companionship and that for all eternity and all. What a day, brethren, when we go with him to explore.
All that he created, now that he has his man to be with him as his own personal companion, that we have to be in communion. That's our chapter.
Peace offering. And it might be well to say a word about the peace offering. Some of the offerings the priests could eat. They could eat certain sin offerings, and they could eat part of the of other offerings. But in the peace offering, the man who offered it could eat of it. His friends came and ate of it.
The priest had his portion and the Lord had his portion. So the peace offering, may I mention this so that it's more understandable, is not Christ making peace by the blood of his cross? That is not the point in the peace offering. Our brother has made the point that we that we have the peace offering and the peace offering is the communion offering, sharing in common the preciousness and blessedness of Christ. I believe the nearest thing we have now to the peace offering is the.
Lord Jesus, our Lord's Day mourning, we all have part in that feast and in communion with Him.
And so we have the peace offering. We're all feeding upon the same food. We're all feeding upon Christ. I repeat that again. The peace offering is not Christ making peace by the blood of His cross. He did do that all at the same time. But the peace offering means communion. It's communion one with another, all partaking of the sacrifice, and not just the priest and not only the Lord. The Lord has this portion now when it came to Satan, sin offerings where the blood was.
The sanctuary for sin and the bodies of those beasts referring outside the camp, even the priest couldn't either that sin offering, he was absolutely forbidden to eat of that if it was a sin of an individual, and he could. But in that sin offering showing the blessedness of the work of Christ. But again, the peace offering is communion, and we have communion by feeding upon Christ in the Word of God.
You have a picture of that in The Prodigal Son, don't we?
When he comes back to the Father's house, they feasted under roasted lamb. This peace offering is the communion and the enjoyment with the Father feasting on that same one and then with one another. I also thought love it that most beautiful to see that the Lord used a woman.
Married to make her the messenger to communicate that new relationship into which.
Through the death of Christ, he has brought up my God, your God, my Father, your Father. But he himself is the messenger of peace. He's the one that himself comes to give peace to the soul, and he does that. Now you and I can't do that, but the Lord can. Whether it be that we come into the enjoyment that we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Or peace when the soul is troubled because of circumstances.
Whatever it might be, the Lord is the one that brings peace, and He does that. We find that even in Ephesians. And He came and precede. Isn't it lovely? He is the one that alone can give peace to the troubled soul, and He's the one that we can turn to, and oh, how He longs to give peace to the soul. Verse 37.
But they were terrified and afraid it. That's not peace, is it?
And suppose that they had seen a spirit. But he said unto them, Why are you troubled?
And why do thoughts arise in your heart? Behold my hands and my feet.
That it is I myself handle me and see. For a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me hath.
We are slow to learn to enter into God's thoughts. The resurrection was difficult for those disciples.
And the Lord instructs them.
Our brother in a prayer this morning made the remark, our unredeemed body. Well, I believe that's right. We're waiting for that part of the redemption, but we're going to get it. And it's difficult to understand, but the Lord, he makes it so clear here.
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There is. We're going to have a redeemed body. It will be this body change. Scripture is clear about it.
And here he says, A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
How is it that says in First Corinthians 15?
Spiritual body, soulish body and the spiritual body. Spiritual body. That's hard to understand, isn't it?
But here the Lord says.
Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. Now let's see how the language reads in Ephesians 5. It's the 30th, 1St.
For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of his bones. Uses the same words in connection with the Church.
We're going to have a redeemed body. It will be like his body of glory. We enter into it just as far as we can, and we ought to have peace about it and enjoy it.
Is the work of Christ that opens our eyes to salvation.
I'm referring to the 39th verse and it's the work of Christ that restores our souls, the sense of it in our souls.
The work that He accomplished for us on Calvary is what the Spirit of God occupies us with when He restores our soul.
Another thought here, they believed not for joy. Oftentimes the joy comes before the intelligence.
Because the Spirit of God is there. You get that principle on the 8th of.
Of Romans, because we don't always know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit is there, and the joy may come before the intelligence.
I've enjoyed comparing the piece that is mentioned here with that which is mentioned in the 20th chapter of John, and the way in which the Lord presents Himself here. They were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. He identifies Himself beautifully before them as the Risen 1, showing them His hands and His feet.
In John, there's no mention of there being terrified and affrighted.
They are there with the doors closed, for fear of the Jews. He presents himself, and says, Peace be unto you. When he had so said, he showed unto them his hand and his sides.
They have rather enjoyed this thought. Or in the 14th chapter of John he had said to them, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you A2 fold legacy I believe.
With you, my peace I give unto you.
So I believe that child of God is entitled to that twofold peace of conscience. In the knowledge that my guilt is gone, the precious blood of Christ has forever removed it. And as evidence of this, he shows them his side, the reminder of that precious blood that cleanses from all sin and gives us peace with God.
But he had also said, My peace I give unto you.
There was a piece that the Lord Jesus endured as he passed through this world, faced with many a trial, many a difficulty, and that piece was the consciousness in his soul.
Of being in the will of his Father, and knowing that that I was looking down upon him. So I believe that the child of God is entitled to a peace in the midst of whatever circumstances may come our way.
And I have enjoyed the thought that in this connection he shows them his hand. In what sense would the hands of the Lord Jesus be a basis of peace?
Well, we read in Hebrews 1, The heavens are the work of Thy hand. They remind us of a skill and order of control that has never been rested from Him. And the disciples had seen those very hands here on earth stretched forth in such deeds of tenderness, compassion, kindness, and love.
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They had seen those hands reach out to touch a defiled leper, and he was made well.
Touch blinded eyes and they were opened.
Huh. The heads of little children, that he might bless them, break the law, that he might feed the hungry multitude. And Peter could say yes. And he stretched out his hand too, to rescue me when I began to sing. All of those things he could have done without stretching out his hand. He could have spoken the word. But those hands of power and compassion were stretched out to meet the needs of those who presented themselves.
Well, in resurrection he shows them his hand.
Could He be saying to them, Remember what these hands have done before your eyes, and these same hands are going to be uplifted in the glory until I have you safely home. The last sight they had of the Lord Jesus was He was taken up from them with uplifted hands. Oh, what a basis of peace in the soul of those of us who belong to Him.
Peace in the knowledge that our guilt is gone, Thank God for that. But peace too, in whatever circumstance may come our way, because we know that there lives for us at this moment in the glory, the one who went all through this journey and is now up there with uplifted hands.
I must admit I think of that when I read of Peter being imprisoned, chained between two guarding soldiers with the prospect of being executed in the morning. Is it wrong for me to imagine Peter closing his eyes and hearing those precious words? Peter, peace be unto you, and seeing those outstretched hands, and Peter goes off to sleep.
We don't always do that, do we? We worry, we're anxious about this and that. But I feel, dear brethren, that if we just enjoy that peace which he delights to.
Give to us. It would be a precious, evident testimony to a troubled, restless world around us that we not only know our guilt is gone and we're going to be with Christ, but we can pass through circumstances that would distress and worry those who know not the Lord. Pass through them in peace. And I believe this is pleasing to the Lord and a testimony to a troubled world too.
You speak of the Lord's control of faith.
And as I've been looking at this passage of scripture.
This is what impresses me. In this whole sea, the Lord is in full control.
He has control of the whole situation. Surely that's a lesson to us.
Right now, when we're gathered together as the assembly, the Lord is in our midst.
Do we have the consciousness that he is present and that he is well able to keep all things under control?
I believe that the eyes of these that were gathered together here were fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe it was to the extent that they weren't seeing one another. They weren't looking at one another, they were looking at the Lord Jesus. Their eyes were fixed on Him.
They were watching him and they were expecting things from him.
They saw that he was in control. He was the central figure. The word is used in the midst.
Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them. He is the center.
Oh, how we need this brought home to our own hearts, how the Lord is in our midst. He is the center that we might look to Him. I think of these who come from time to time and ask that they might be at the Lord's table to remember Him.
Now I know sometimes there can be different motives, perhaps for a person wanting to come to the Lord's table and remember the Lord.
But if he has before him the Lord himself and really wants to remember the law.
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He has his eye on the Lord and he is the one he is thinking about and he wants to remember him. What a precious thing.
Now sometimes there might be those who are coming because someone else is at the Lord's Table.
Well, that's not good enough.
If we're looking at so and so as an example in our exercise, because so and so is there, that's good. But do not take your place at the Lord's table just because somebody else did. Do you see the Lord Jesus Christ there in the midst?
Are you very much aware that the Lord is there?
And do you want to be there because he is there? And do you want to be at his table to honor him, to do what he has asked us to do, to remember him?
Oh, the Lord is a central figure here, and we need grace to ask the Lord that we might keep our eye fixed upon Him until we're taken home to glory. That's very important. And I recalls in my mind as a young brother.
Gathered in the Brooklyn meeting in 1923, the older brother there, Brother Moffatt, long since with the Lord, a man who used to walk 14 miles of him, Mr. Darby Preach in Glasgow. He used to impress upon us this fact about the Lords Day morning meeting, he said As soon as I sit down, the meeting has begun from me.
Now we have a time where public responsibility commences.
But he used to point out, we don't come to sit there and talk with our brethren or read the Sunday school paper. We're there to meet the Lord. And if I'm conscious of the Lorde presence, the moment I sit down, my head will be bowed, my eyes closed perhaps, and meditating upon the Blessed One in the midst, I find.
As the years go by that in one respect, in this respect, the fine gold has become dim. We're not trying to be unduly critical, but as we go about in the different assemblies, we notice there's it isn't what it used to be. As to the absolute reverence, when I came into the Brooklyn meeting in 1923, you could hear a pin drop. I thought to myself, these people really believe that the Lord is in the midst. Well, we.
Your hearts and check this thing because the Lord is in the midst. It's His presence that makes it so valuable and precious to be there.
Were made in noticing the first Immaculate teen where two or three are gathered together.
Unto my name there am I in the midst of them. And then connecting that with the verse in the 9th chapter of Isaiah.
Where it says, His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. We find him here coming in the midst of his own, and he says, Peace be unto you. But we find that their hearts were full of joy.
Because as has already been said.
He himself was there, and it seems to my own soul that we have that brought out in that list of names, because the first one is his name shall be called. Wonderful brethren, to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is a great privilege, but to be there because he is there is so very important to have the sense in my soul.
He is wonderful that I'm in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, not occupied with my brethren, but with himself. And when we find those who has been mentioned asked to be received, so often they will speak of taking their place at the Lord's table. But if something comes in and they depart, so often we hear the expression they.
The meeting or they left the brethren. Well, it seems to me what we see is a loss of the sense of the wonderful person to whose name we're gathered. His name shall be called wonderful. Then we find it goes on to say after that, after the thought of His name being wonderful.
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Is counselor and we find when we go to the 45th verse of our chapter.
Opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. After we have that wonderful sense of himself, how precious it is to have himself open the Scriptures to us. The understanding of the Scriptures. He is our counselor and we know him as counselor. Then we find in the 49th verse it says, Behold I.
Promise of my Father unto you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. The next name in Isaiah is the Mighty God. Here he is viewed as the one who would send the Holy Spirit. That Spirit would come down on the day of Pentecost, and they would be endued with.
Power, and so it is that when we have difficulties and problems that arise.
We need to remember, it seems to my own soul, we need to remember that His name, in addition to being wonderful and counselor, is the mighty God. Then it says the everlasting Father, and we find in the 50th verse He lifted up his hands and blessed them.
The everlasting Father to my own soul brings before us a continual abiding fear.
And the Lord left them with his hands uplifted in blessing. And 2000 years later, his hands are still uplifted in blessing. His care continues, goes on and on, and he ever finally abides. The Prince of Peace, the one who came into the midst of his own and said, Peace be unto you.
Verse 41 is precious because we find out what the Lord expects from us when He's in our midst. The Lord expects something He says to them, Have you hear any meat? Have you got something that will satisfy me? Is there some portion you have that's over and beyond what you need and you can give to me? The Lord looks from the midst, and He looks for praise and worship.
I was noticing the two things that.
I mentioned here they have a broiled fish. Well, a broiled fish would indicate that which was exposed to the terrific heat of the fire. And in our worship, what do we give back to the Lord, what He's given us? We think of those intense sufferings that He went through on the cross when He endured the fire of God's wrath against sin for us. This is all brought out. But then there's the honeycomb.
I'll worship and praise Him as sweet.
Able to offer the sacrifices of praise to God, continually confessing His name.
So the Lord expects something. He asks us every Lord's Day mourning if we could hear it. Have you any meat? Have you got something for me? Have you got an overflowing cup? Yes, but would you add this too, brother?
The honey is sweet, but the honeycomb would suggest perhaps.
A little further thought.
All those 3 1/2 years.
Of the sweetness.
A communion with the Savior.
And you can liken it to each Lord's Day morning as we come together.
And if we miss one, we are going to miss something like the little bee that works and puts the sweet honey away in that six sided.
Sail with the top on it, which makes the seven and seals it and puts it away. Forgets perhaps it's there.
And then the time comes when this honeycomb is filled with all these little containers.
We've forgotten about him, perhaps.
And the Spirit of God brings them back. And now is there any presence?
And this is a picture of heaven.
Oh, brethren, what are we gathering? Are we doing what the little honey bee is doing?
Busy every moment gathering in view of that day that's coming.
All the sweetness put away for the time when we will be in His presence. What a picture we have here.
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The Honeycomb.
All the cells now ready to be opened.
Things that you and I perhaps have forgotten long ago, but that which was enjoyed in the soul.
In his presence suddenly burst forth, and that's what will bring forth that generous praise in that coming day.
As we read in the 19th of Revelation, when heaven will be filled with the praises of his servants, as it says there, the church people, the honeycomb, Let's not forget the honeycomb.
When when Samson had killed the lion, he of course lasted.
And the carcass disintegrated, but it was sort of a cavity left there where the bees could come and make their comb and deposit the honey. And so Samson comes back and he finds honey in the carcass of the lion. Well, isn't that a picture of what sweetness we get out of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that he has died?
On Calvary's cross she bore our sins in his own body on the tree.
He was judged for our sins. He laid down his life. He took the judgment that was due to sin. The soul that sinneth it shall die. And there he died. He laid down his life. And then the soldier with the spear pierced his side, and out came the blood in the water to indicate that he had laid down his life, the sign of death.
Well, when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we realize through faith in him, in his word, that will not come into condemnation, will not come into judgment.
Isn't it that sweetness that comes from the death of Christ that floods our soul to know that we've passed from death unto life? There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. All what sweetness comes to our soul? I remember when that sweetness came into my soul. Troubled, afraid of going to hell.
Worried, concerned, crying and even praying to God.
And getting nowhere until I saw that that the Lord Jesus Christ had died for me and he'd taken the judgment for me, and I just trusted Him. And that peace and that sweetness came into my soul. And we feed upon that all the time. At least that's what we come together for, is to feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, to think of Him.
To show his death.
And every time we do, we have that sweetness and we taste the sweetness. And what do we do? We give back to the Lord, thanks and praise for dying for us, taking the judgment for us that we might be saved from judgment. And we give Him thanks for this sweetness. This sweetness really fills our souls, and in a sense, we're giving it back to Him.
And all what he must think, and how he must feel about it.
When we are praising and thanking him and then saying to God.
That He has done the right thing, as we read in the 3rd or the 2nd of Philippians, exalted him to His own right hand and given him a name which is above every name. We're saying to God, Thou alone art worthy. The Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of that place that thou has given him. Well, it's the result of this sweetness that's filling our souls. We're giving back to Him and He's getting as our brother was.
In connection with the peace offering we are giving to him his portion, he is getting his portion.
The exaltation which answers to the right shoulder, that was the priest portion. That's the place that's given to the Lord Jesus Christ. We acknowledge to Him as we're in His presence, that that right hand place at the right hand of the Father belongs to Him, and he's getting his portion.
Well, it's our privilege to provide a little food for the heart of the Lord Jesus, as these disciples did.
When it comes to Ministry of the Word, remind ourselves that our eyes should not be on the gift on the veteran. Many of us here come from small assembly where there is very little gift.
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Does that mean that the Saints cannot come together for edification?
I believe faith would claim the Lord's presence in the midst, and the Lord will not put them to shame in faith. They turn to Him to look for blessing. He will open to them the scriptures, perhaps not in the depth as it would be done if there would be capable teachers amongst them, but He will feed their doors.
And it's wonderful to see that the Lord Jesus.
Refers in this passage to the Old Testament that we have a verse here that gives us to know what what really is.
Or what does the Scriptures consist of? It's Moses the prophet and the Psalms. And you know there is much reasoning among learned men questioning.
What scripture? What? What is really scripture? What is not? There are Bibles that contain books that are not at all scripture but.
He, the Lord Himself, says to us what the Scriptures really are. In verse 27 he refers to Moses and the Prophet, but in verse 44 he says Moses and the prophets and the Psalms, the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses.
The prophets and the Psalm. And so we have from the mouth of our blessed Lord Himself a word that tells us what the Scriptures are. Of course, the Old Testament we have the New now in addition to that of the Old Testament that the Jews had. And so the Lord is putting His full stamp of approval on the form of the Old Testament as they had it.
And the Jews never acknowledged the apocryphal books. In fact the very title Apocrypha indicates hidden and they didn't bring those books in as inspired at all. And if you take one glimpse at here or there in the Apocrypha, I just mentioned this in passing you, they they bear the marks of not being inspired.
They make an addition to the book of Esther. Now you read the book of Esther and the Lord isn't mentioned, and God isn't mentioned, neither under the title of God or Lord. One of the first statements in the addition is God. Man's meddling hand appears at once, introducing into the pork that which is contrary to its context. So it's good to see, as you point out, that we have the Old Testament.
Lined up here by the Lord and it's threefold character.
Just a remark or two on the last verses. So precious they worshipped him. Verse 52 in.
20 I believe it is. We read to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive. Now just think of our precious Savior putting us in the more blessed place at the worship meeting when we come together to worship the Lord. As has been said, it's not a question of gift but of giving.
We had something of that at the beginning of this meeting.
And here we have it at the close. The scene is exceedingly beautiful. They worshipped him. It begins in.
The second of Matthew, with that, with the wise men, they came and saw Mary and the young child, and they worship him. He is the only one to be worshipped and to think that He could put us in that most blessed place. And then it goes on and says they return to Jerusalem with great joy. Oh, there's great joy when we're worshiping Him and according to his.
Word and having him in the midst as we have had so much of this morning.
And that's the type here. They were continually in the temple. It was yet the divine Center for them. They were not yet brought on to Christian ground. But the type is the same. Ought to have the Lord in the midst. And what were they doing? Praising and blessing God?
This is our privilege, brother.
Isn't it a happy as far as Bethany, didn't they? And that's the new position, that's the assembly.
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That's the place where He found His delight when He went into the temple and looked around about upon all things, and went out to the House of Mary and her sister Martha and Lazarus. And that sets before us the assembly, and that's where He leaves us here when He goes into heaven. He went out as He led them out as far as Bethany. No further yet.
We'll soon be home, and isn't it lovely, brethren, to think that we may walk the streets of glory?
Yet today.
Oh, how precious. How precious to think of it. And As for the little assembly where you are, it may be very small, but remember, there's always a pot of oil.
What's that? It's the Spirit of God in the midst.
Christ in the midst, but the Spirit of God is there as the one who leads.
And he's indwelling every believer. There's always the pot of oil.
I was going to say that what our brother Clem has pointed out here seems to me beautifully pictured in the 12Th of Deuteronomy. Without turning to it. We're familiar with it. There the Lord indicated the particular privilege of his beloved people to be where he delighted to put his name. But in encouraging them to seek and come to such a place, he said, And thither ye shall bring.
And that's what we have been hearing of. And the very next verse says Angie shall rejoice.
Ye and your households, and I think we see that pattern beautifully presented here. Well, I was just going to say in connection with what you remarked, brother, the Lord himself asks, shall I say, and they are able to present to him what was available so we can come bringing. And it ends with such great joy all to be in the company of the Lord Jesus, to be able to bring into his company that which we feel in infinite.
Grace would gladden his heart to be, if you wish, a cup bearer to the King, surely would send every one of us home rejoicing and our household. I'm just going to make this one remark that this chapter ends with that which is definitely characteristic of Christianity. We worship one we have never seen.
We are on earth, He is in heaven. Notice that they worship Him after he's ascended into heaven.
We worship a heavenly glorified Christ while ourselves are on earth. And just like Rebecca, who went to be the bride of a man she had never seen, so we are going to be the bride of a man we've never seen except by the wondrous report.
In the Word of God. So this is characteristic Christianity not cite as with Judaism, but worshipping a man in the glory, the Son of God, whom we've never seen.
Awake Thou that Sleepest
Address—C.E. Lunden
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We'll start reading in the 14th verse of Ephesians 5. Wherefore he saith.
Awake thou that sleepest.
And arise from the dead or among the dead.
And Christ.
Shall give thee light.
See, then, that she walks circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but the understanding what the will of the Lord is.
And be not drunk with wine. We're in a success, but be filled with the spirit.
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns.
And spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church.
And he is the savior of the body.
Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives.
Their own husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it.
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word.
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy.
And without blemish.
Sought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord, the Church.
For we are members of his body.
Of his flesh and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother.
Shall be joined unto his wife.
And they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery.
But I speak concerning Christ and the Church nevertheless, that everyone of you in particular.
So love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Now, dear friends, I just want to make a few remarks on the book of Ephesians.
Principally from this chapter.
In the first chapter we have the counsels of God set before us.
And there are 7 specific things mentioned that you will notice as you read it.
That we have come into in blessing.
The sovereign grace of God and the work of Christ at Calvary's cross.
We have two prayers in Ephesians.
In the first chapter.
The apostle praised that the eyes of the heart might be open.
To know what we have.
In Christ.
Connected with his exaltation and glory.
In the second chapter we have the subject of where we were taken from the pit from whence we were digging.
And now he's taken both Jew and Gentiles and formed them into one body.
In the last verse of that chapter, there's a habitation of God on the earth, for God now has gathered his people.
To the precious name of Christ.
And in the third chapter there is another prayer, and in that prayer.
It's not the open public demonstration of glory that we have in the first chapter, the exaltation of Christ.
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In all his glory, publicly.
But it's that Christ might dwell in your hearts by faith.
And ye rooted and ground in love, may be able to apprehend with fully with All Saints.
The height and the depth and the length and breadth of what?
All beloved of all the glory.
That he has brought in through his work at Calvary.
I'm not going into detail, I want to call attention to the outline.
And in the last chapter of that third, the last verse of that third chapter.
I believe you have the highest point reached in eternity furthest into eternity.
For the glory will be to God by Christ Jesus through the church.
Now why does the Spirit of God?
Bring us to the 4th chapter.
Here well to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The practical expression of this glorious truth.
That is being given up today.
The practical expression of the truth of the one body.
The working of it down here.
The gathering together to the person of Christ, acknowledging the truth of the one body in contrast to all evil.
And how God has given the gifts for the nurturing and care for that body.
Until Jesus comes back, and he's coming.
Now.
In the next chapter, we're exhorted to walk.
As dear children.
You see, it begins with the counsels of God.
He shows us the pit from which we were digged.
And then he speaks of our putting into practice those precious councils now that the Spirit of God has come down to the earth in the midst of the assembly for the power.
And.
In the beginning of this next chapter.
The 5th chapter.
Imitators of God as dear children, is that too much to ask?
Oh, you say I shrink from that imitators of God.
Yes, think of it.
Imitators of God as dear children. Whose children?
God, children.
Has it ever come home and power to your soul that you're one of God's children?
That God Himself is dwelling within you, the Holy Spirit.
What effect does that have on our conduct?
In every move I make here do I realize that God is indwelling?
Is he pleased with everything I do?
And more what I do Am I an imitator of God as a dear child?
Is there any whip here?
Not a bit.
No, Drawn by the chords of love.
You know, law is wonderful.
It had its effect.
In other days in a special way with Israel.
That is nothing like the wisdom of God.
Did God create the world by a law or wisdom?
Read in the book of Job and other places. Wisdom, of course. What is wisdom?
Christ.
And he is made unto you wisdom.
Christ Wisdom is the mind of God.
Why do we have precepts in Scripture?
In the book of Proverbs, but also in Psalms.
We have commandments.
Different expressions that speak of the word of God, but we have the word precept. Why we have them here?
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Sort of a little picture given up repeated from Genesis 2.
As to what God's counsels are.
Why precepts? Why do they differ from law?
The laws of commandment.
But a precept is given.
As an invitation for you.
To discover the teaching that God has in view, it supposes a ready mind.
A precept It's instruction.
And these are for his dear children.
Voters warning to the unsaved. There's warning to us too, but principally precepts now.
In this 4th. In this 5th chapter.
The Spirit of God suddenly drops us right down to the very bottom. Why?
Because of that old nature that we have.
And what does that old nature do?
If we allow it, it will rob us of all the preciousness of the counsels of the first chapter.
Be there for followers of God, as dear children, walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.
And hath given himself for us an offering of sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. But fornication, uncleanness, and cover or covetous, let it not be once named among you. Why?
Oh, because your followers of God is dear children, that's why.
Is this law?
Commandment of love, though.
Do these truths appeal to our hearts? Are these harsh things?
We spoke of law and we spoke of wisdom. What else, love?
And that's what characterizes the book of Ephesians as well as the whole Word of God, really.
But in a special way, Ephesians love.
To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. Why does it pass knowledge? Because it's divine.
And who is it for those who have a divine nature?
Divine nature.
But now we're going on.
To where we started reading.
In the eighth verse, he tells us.
Now are ye light in the Lord, and walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light it should read is in all goodness.
And righteousness. And truth.
Goodness, Righteousness, Truth.
14 first.
Awake thou that sleepest is he speaking about.
Slumbering as we generally speak of it. No, he's speaking about the soul.
What does it mean to sleep here?
It means to settle down in a fixed religion here on earth and satisfied with a few basic principles.
They'll get us by, as it were.
The soul gone to sleep.
All, beloved, when God has given us so much as we have in the book of Ephesians.
It takes us to the very, very heights.
Of the glories of Christ.
Both as to the outward display in the first chapter and all those deep, deep interior truths in the inner man in the third chapter.
That have to do with the riches of his glory.
Is it right?
I ask my soul this afternoon, is it right for me to go to sleep?
And to be satisfied with the few basic principles of truth that I've learned, perhaps as a child.
Christ shall give thee light.
God has one object for our poor hearts.
And in this 4th chapter, he reminds us of how low we can go if we don't have Christ before us.
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The Christian.
And how low some of us, shall I say, have gone.
Because Christ was not a light before us.
Isn't that sad?
Years of loss.
Because of it.
16 First redeeming the time, taking advantage of opportunities.
17 verse be not unwise, but understanding.
What the will of the Lord is?
Now understanding is the product.
Of knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge by reading and wisdom on our knees.
The product is understanding and understanding is the wellspring.
Life, the wellspring of life.
Now the next thought, because I don't want to dwell on this.
18th and 19th verses. I won't read it, I'll just put it this way.
Be not inebriated, but the spirit of this day.
But satisfy your new soul, your new nature, with heavenly things.
Am I going too far?
Be not inebriated.
With all that surrounds you.
That Satan has made a special issue of in these last few years.
To steal your hearts away from the precious truths of the Ephesians 1.
But then satisfy your heart with heavenly things.
What's next?
He brings up the subject. There's a pattern here, wives.
Submit yourselves to your husbands.
I'm not going to speak of that line of things.
Because here we have hidden again the precious truth of Ephesians.
In which lie the counsels of God for his Son.
There is a verse in the 40th Psalm that's quoted in Hebrews 10.
Lo, I come, I delight to do thy will, Oh my God.
In the volume of the book it is written of me.
Now what is the volume of the book?
I don't know except this.
That it's all the counsels of God from eternity.
Eternity has no beginning and no end.
We think in terms of time, but time is only a bubble on eternity.
And all those counsels of God, beloved, had to do with Jesus as a man.
Down here doing the will of God.
That's the way I interpret that verse.
Why? So we watch home with Him in the heavens, that's why.
The father wants to embrace you like you did the prodigal.
Christ wants you for his bride.
When the Father and the Son wants you to enjoy it now.
Not just then, now.
And what's going to hinder the enjoyment of it being inebriated with present things?
Oh, you say that there's no harm in that. Is there no harm in that?
It may be perfectly good, and that's the deceit of Satan, but it keeps Christ out.
Why didn't Abraham stay down in the place where God called him?
There was plenty of fruits and dates and nuts, pomegranates and everything that the heart would desire in a natural way. Why didn't he stay there? Because the God of glory appeared to him, that's why.
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All, beloved, as the God of glory appeared to you, I know you're a Christian, but I say as the God of glory appeared to you, have you got a glimpse of the glory like Paul did?
I ask my heart that this afternoon.
But I want to go on. I just have two or three thoughts here now. I don't want to take too much time.
The subject of wives and husbands comes up.
And the apostle breaks forth.
Now in the counsels of God.
Those councils in the volume of the book that is written to me.
It's filled the heart of the apostle.
What was written? Jesus, a man down here seeking a bride.
What's going on at present?
25th verse.
See this precious truth couched in the exhortation of wives to their husbands and husbands to their wives? Don't miss it. Oh, how many times we've had this red at at weddings beautifully. What a beautiful picture and what a beautiful thing a wedding is because it speaks of Christ in the church.
Yes it does.
Husband, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church.
And gave himself for us.
Now, what does this mean? I don't know. I can only speak of a few things that I've enjoyed.
I know this.
But all that Christ is as a man he has given to you.
Have you ever traced the lovely graces of Jesus in the Gospel?
Given to you.
Oh, they are not developed fully in you yet or me, but they are given to you.
He is the head, the churches, his body.
One man.
Gave himself.
All beloved, it's enough to overwhelm the heart.
Gave himself. It doesn't simply that he went to the cross for you. He gave himself all it is.
And although you don't know it, perhaps when you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior received him for all that he is.
The man Christ Jesus all it is as a man.
And what's more, the day is coming when you and I are going to be just like him.
But the purpose of this, I believe the next few verses, is that you and I might be morally like him now.
We will be physically like him then.
But.
To be imitators of God as dear children.
We will be morally like him now.
Let's notice two or three things here.
That he might sanctify.
That word means to set apart or to make holy.
To sanctify.
And cleanse it.
With the washing of water.
By the word, there's no difficulty in that verse.
He's cleansing it, he's setting apart, he's making it holy in a practical sense, by the washing of water, by the word. There's no difficulty there, is there?
In what way?
Giving us to enter into those precious things mentioned in the first chapter.
Adoption accepted in the Beloved.
Redeemed by the precious blood, given intelligence, given an inheritance, all these things, you know what they are.
The Holy Spirit sealing us.
All the precious truth.
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Washing the water by the Word is occupying your soul with Christ and these precious truths of all that's laid up in store for you and me when He comes and gives that shout of victory.
Think of it.
That's not all.
It says cleansing.
Oh yes, it's the word of God that cleanses us. That's true.
But this involves discipline.
The discipline that's allowed in our lives is in view.
Of that preparation.
To make ready for that moment when he presents her to himself without spot or blame.
But beloved, beloved, remember this.
I want you to get this.
What is complete up there?
I say again, what is complete up there?
When he get home.
Is a result of this work now.
Now, I'm not Speaking of redemption's work that's already finished. I'm Speaking of the present work of the Spirit of God in our soul.
For the believer.
What is complete up there?
The result of the work of the Spirit of God in our souls down here, and so the cleansing.
With the washing of the water by the word.
As something like what you have in the 13th of John.
As the Lord Jesus washes the disciples of feet.
What for? So they can enjoy the 14th chapter of John. That's the Father's house.
Cleansing away all the definement of this pathway through this world. Anything that would hinder communion.
Though they will be happy, but not only happy and cleared from any defilement refreshed.
Refreshed because that's what the water does.
Refreshes the soul and I trust that my heart has been refreshed.
As I sat under the Ministry of the Word in these meetings.
Whatever cleansing was needed beside.
Because, beloved, there's never chastisement with us without a reason.
But there's never chastisement without his love.
Never.
Sometimes we as fathers.
Allow anger to arise if we chasten our children sometimes.
That that's not of God.
But not with our precious Savior, or shall I say the Father, because it's the Father who chastens his children.
Washing of water by the Word, The two things occupying us with all the precious truth the Spirit of God has brought to us.
The full revelation of the truth of God, and then.
Anything in our ways that's contrary to that truth must go.
That there might be that deep, sweet communion.
That Christ might dwell in your hearts by faith.
Rooted and grounded in love, may be able to apprehend with All Saints.
What is the depth, heightened depths and breadths and light?
And to know the love of Christ.
Which passeth knowledge?
That you might be filled to.
The fullness of God that is to be brought up where you can dip into that fullness and enjoy it. But one more thought and I'm going to close.
Two more thoughts 27 first.
That he might present it to himself.
A glorious church.
Could that be this afternoon?
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Yeah.
Doesn't it thrill your soul, dear Christian, dear young people that they can be this afternoon? Is there one thing in my life this afternoon that I say I wish I wished he'd wait another day. I got to get some things cleared up. Oh, is it so, dear, dear ones this afternoon?
I have to get some things cleared up.
It could be today.
That he presented to himself.
Without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
Holy and without blemish.
Now one more thought.
29 First, no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord, the Church.
Beloved, that's just what he's doing now. He loves you so much.
And he loves me so much.
That he's occupied with us every single moment.
Nourishing.
And cherishing.
I ask my soul, and I ask you.
Are we answering to this, beloved?
Some little answer to that precious Savior in His love and all that He has done for us and what we notice here that He is doing for us now.
May the Spirit of God.
Awake thou that sleepest.
That Christ may give thee light.
Grace
Address—R. Thonney
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Like to turn to Second Timothy chapter 2 This afternoon.
This meeting closed this morning.
It's just as if we had a conference already completed, so wonderful to contemplate the glories of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, and then in the last chapter to follow him right up into heaven where he is now interceding for us and where we're waiting for him from heaven and.
I don't think I can add anything more but I.
Would like to just point out a few principles in this chapter in Second Timothy.
That I feel are really important for us who are younger in these last days that were left down here, principles that we find here that Paul was writing to his son Timothy, his son in the faith. And I think we all know that this was perhaps the last.
Book last letter that Paul ever wrote. And so we have mentioned the perilous times of the last days. These are the last things that Paul is commending to Timothy. Things had gone to pieces, it seemed, although we know that there was still those with whom he could meet, as it says in chapter 2 verse.
22.
He could follow still with some, but things in general had gone to pieces and it seems to be that we are living in these days. Today seems like everything is going downhill and it seems like especially young people are getting discouraged and I'd like to encourage the young people here this afternoon especially.
Do not get your eyes on things around.
To put your eyes on the blessed person of our Lord Jesus Christ that we've been meditating on in these conferences, this conference and just like to read a few verses in the beginning of chapter 2. Perhaps we'll go farther down later this time, but just the first few verses to begin with chapter 2, verse one.
Thou therefore, my Son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness.
As a good soldier of Jesus Christ, no man that worth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him.
Who hath chosen him to be a soldier?
Let's just stop there for now.
In verse one.
Paul says, Thou therefore, my Son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
The more I've meditated this verse in my own soul, the more important I feel the principle that we have here for our souls. What is the power that's going to keep us in the path of the Lord's choosing in this day of decline that we live in? It's being strong in what? Being strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
You know, sometimes it would seem and.
Man has done it all around in the systems he has formed. He has laid down certain rules, certain regulations that have to be complied with. And if you ask why these rules and regulations have been laid down in that form, they say it is to hold things, to control things so that there won't be a decline. Well, is that the way that things are going to be controlled? Are we going to lay down?
Rules and regulations, is that going to stop the decline? No, it won't stop the decline. In almost every situation, these institutions that have been formed by man with real rigid rules have gone downhill. What is the secret of maintaining that pathway that's pleasing to the Lord?
Oh, it's being strong in grace, in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Paul says to the Corinthians, You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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That though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. And so that's the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in that past eternity, rich in his glory with God his Father.
Rich there, but he left it all. He was born into this world in a Manger. There was no room for him. In the end. He had to be born where the cows he were, the sheep eat.
And as they grew up, we never read them in the Gospels that he had even a piece of money in his hand. He had to ask to see a piece of money. And when it came to paying the tribute.
Why he had to tell Peter to go to the sea and fish and the first fish he would catch have a piece of money in his mouth.
And so outwardly, although still God in his very being, outwardly he became the poorest of men, and we followed him through his life of perfect service to God right to the end, when he was taken by those same people that received such blessing from his hands and.
Nailed on the cross of Calvary, given the most cruel, ignominious death that man could think of.
And then we would think that God would respond in some way in judgment on such a such a crime committed against His only Son. But the marvel of the grace of God is that through that very terrible act of man against His Son, God has turned that thing into the most marvelous fountain of grace.
For us and all I say to my dear fellow young people here.
If our hearts haven't been touched by the grace of God, by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
What could God do more to show you His love and His grace? We know grace has often been explained as unmerited favor, something we do not deserve. But God, because He is love in His very being, opens His heart and gives.
And gives and gives again. Oh, this is the grace of our God. And how important it is to go back to Calvary, how important it is to see the display of that love and that grace as it was displayed there.
In Ephesians 2, you just look there. Just a minute.
Ephesians chapter 2.
Verse one through three we see the black condition of ourselves. Naturally what we were by nature. In verse 4 the whole picture changes. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith He loved us even when we were dead, and sins have quickened us together with Christ, by grace are you saved.
And at the rate is up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace.
In his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So here we find grace is what saves us. By grace are ye saved through faith. God's unmerited favor took us when we were dead.
In trespasses, his sins, when we were children of disobedience, when we were children of wrath, God took us in his infinite mercy and his grace and saved us. Oh, how wonderful.
To understand this and not only understand it in our heads, understand it in our souls and enjoy it. Oh dear young people.
I really feel it sometimes when come back up from South America.
Brethren down South, they're not big thinkers, great thinkers like we are.
We've been trained from our earliest years to be thinkers.
And I fear sometimes that we have a tremendous understanding of the Word of God.
But an understanding the word of God in the head will never keep us, and we're going to lose the precious truth of God if that's all the place that we've received the truth. No, this book that we have here is written for our hearts. It's not written for the head merely. It's written for our hearts. And if we don't get these truths down into our souls and enjoy them.
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We're going to lose them. We're going to lose them, and it seems like this is what is happening in so many cases.
So I challenge you, when you read the Word of God, don't read it only to understand. Read it to meditate on it. Read it to get it down into your soul.
To enjoy it there, then it's going to have effect in your lives, then you're going to see the results, you're going to see a change in people's lives.
So many, that goal amongst us, so many young people.
That sit in these meetings.
But when I look around, sometimes see a totally disinterested person and a person who absolutely, you have to almost imagine that they're saved if you're going to look at their life, There's no fruits in their life. What is the what is wrong? What is lacking? Oh, it's the taste of this grace.
This infinite fountain that comes direct from the heart of God.
We failed to taste, we failed to enjoy it in our souls. Why is it that still we desire those paltry, those those things of this world? Yet why is it that they attracted so much? It's because we haven't tasted this fountain, this infinite fountain of grace that comes from our God.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and this is what is going to make us strong as we've seen in.
First Timothy, thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Be strong. Oh, we need strength in these days. There are days of weakness in ourselves. We have no strength, but we can be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. It's not sitting down a lot of rules and regulations that's going to keep us in the path of the Lord's appointment, no.
It's being strong.
In the great feeling, how infinite was his mercy and grace and reaching down.
And it's such a terrible, terrible task to pick us up and make us his own and sit us right in the heavenly places in Christ.
Also infinite are those fountains of grace that the fossil has to say here that's going to take the ages to come to show the exceeding riches of His grace. We had in the conference and often been stated that the devil showed the Lord and the temptation all the kingdoms of the world, and it's their glory in a moment of time.
But when it comes to showing the exceeding riches of His grace.
Ages, ages are going to pass, and we'll never exhaust the exploration and eternity of the exceeding riches of His grace. Isn't that enough for us now? What is it that we desire so much in this world that attracts our hearts so much more than this Grace touches the heart.
Law a person could obey in an outward form and get along, more or less.
Let grace touches the heart, and the heart is the spring of life.
Has your heart been touched by the Lord Jesus? What more could he do to touch it if he hasn't? If you haven't been touched yet, what more could he do?
Well, there's other things I would like to speak about in connection with Grace in Titus as well. After Timothy Titus chapter 2, we find something else that graced us.
Titus 2, 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 swabberly, righteously and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God in our Savior Jesus Christ.
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Here we have the grace of God mentioned again, and here the grace of God teaches.
Teaches us we need to be taught. What is it that's going to make these lessons?
Get down into the soul where they belong. Oh, it's grace. It's his infinite grace again.
It's not just merely, and I would like to appeal to our older brethren as a younger brother.
I don't want to get out of my place, but I would like to entreat my older brethren, His Father's. When you minister the Word, minister it to the heart. And if you're going to minister it to the heart, it has to come from your heart too. There's so much that seems to be very intellectual.
Very reasonable, and I don't say that it's not without place.
But if it's just to the head, it's not going to stay. It has to get into the heart. It has to get into the soul. And so it's so important that these lessons be applied practically. Don't be afraid, I say to my older brethren again, don't be afraid to be practical. Speak out plainly of times we don't understand when.
There are when you exhort.
Because they're figures of speech, almost. Don't be afraid, brethren, to speak to us plainly.
If it's done in love and if it's done in the spirit of Christ.
I'm sure there won't be a fence taken, I'm sure.
Well, Titus tells us then that grace teaches us, teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly likes.
We should live soberly, righteously godly in this present world.
Denying there's something to that we ought to deny dear fellow young person in our lives. We do not know what it is in our lives to deny ourselves we're not going to enjoy.
The rich fullness of the grace of God.
No, the Lord Jesus said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. We live in a country, perhaps the richest country in the world. Everything that we might want, everything that we can think of, we can go and buy and enjoy and use.
But I challenge you this afternoon, young people.
To learn to deny yourself when you think of something that you want.
Can I deny myself this for the name of our Lord Jesus?
Because when it speaks of worldly lusts here, sometimes we think of.
Of down and out, outright moral sin, drunkenness, fornication. But I really believe that worldly lusts includes a lot more than we think. Things that we might think we're all right and respectable and clean in their place.
That are there things that this world desires and we desire them too?
And we ought to deny ourselves.
Ungodliness we're only lusts. We should live soberly, righteously, and godliness present.
Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God in our Savior Jesus Christ. That's what we have before us. We don't have anything down here.
If you have a career before you, dear young person, as the object in your life.
If you have some desire to get married as an object in your life.
I say get it out of your heart right now. No, there's nothing wrong with having a job. There's nothing wrong with being married. They're right in their place. And the Lord will give when it's His time and when it's in His wisdom if we wait for Him. But I say, let's not put our hearts on these things. Let's not put our objective in these things.
If we do, we're going to get turned aside, no.
What do we look for in this world? We don't look for anything more than the coming of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Not only His coming for us, but His glorious appearing as well. We look forward to that. We should normally look forward to the coming of the Lord for us. We should look forward to this appearing in glory in this world.
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When all his righteous claims are going to be.
Righted here.
In this world where He was so desired, oh, it's going to be a joy to our hearts that day of His glorious appearing. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 13 for a minute.
Excuse me, Hebrews chapter 12 first.
Verse 28 Hebrews 12/28 Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom that which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.
Oh, sometimes we get the idea as young persons, and I confess I had it myself.
That because we are under the grace of God, we can do pretty much what we like and it's all right, We're saved. That's, that's all that counts. That's the main thing.
That here we find that grace is not to do what we would like, what we like, whatever we like. Grace is to serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. In the Old Testament you remember that the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu went into the presence of the Lord.
But they didn't take the fire from off the altar. It seemed that they took other fire, Strange fire, it says.
It wouldn't didn't seem like a very serious offense, but immediately.
Fire consumed them from the from the presence of the Lord.
God changed. No, he hasn't changed. He's the same God. And it's a serious thing to think that we if we say we're saved by the grace of God.
It's a serious thing to make that the license for all that we would like to do.
In Jude, and I just like to refer there to speaks a little more of this type and I just like to offer a warning to young people who perhaps are careless.
Jude speaks of these same persons that use the grace of God as an excuse to sin.
Verse four. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation.
Ungodly men turning the grace of our God unto into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Lasciviousness is uncontrolled desires or lusts, and often in this country.
I confess that I.
For a time, was of the same opinion.
To felt that a person who had received the Lord.
Savior at least profess to receive the Lord as Savior, but then got off into ways of sin.
I felt, well, they're still saved. But you know, when I went down to Latin America, I found that the brethren down there don't look at it that way. It's not that they question eternal security. No, we don't want to question eternal security. Person who is saved truly in his heart, who is truly taste of the grace of God is saved for all eternity can't be lost. It's impossible.
So what I'm saying is that there are those amongst us.
Reason to feel we are passing amongst us as Christians, but they are careless in their attitude.
They're doing things.
That this world does things that would probably shock the majority of us if we knew about it.
Just want to say, if there's anybody like that here today, the word of God holds out no comfort to you as to being saved, no comfort whatsoever.
And so here the apostle speaks of these type. Let's say, oh, I'm saved.
I'm all right, don't worry about me. And then they living in sin, all sorts of dishonorable things. Has that person really tasted the grace of God? We can't judge the heart, but it makes one seriously doubt.
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I'd just like to really challenge young people here today to search your hearts. If you're careless and your walk before the Lord and you say that you're saved, you'd better get into the presence of the Lord and search yourself real.
Had some experiences in Latin America that have really shaken me.
As to those who are walking in our midst.
Who are perhaps baptized and breaking bread at the Lord's Table.
And they get off into the world.
No sign that they were ever saved.
In the first place, no sign whatsoever.
And some I know down South that have gone into a lost eternity, I have no reason to believe they're with Christ, no reason to believe no reason.
Oh, I challenge you if you are careless.
And your attitude. You have no reason from this book to have comfort that you're saved, no.
Makes us doubt if you really knowing what the grace of God is, because one who takes of the grace of God, his heart is a captive to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Another verse in Hebrews going back to Hebrews chapter 13.
Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 9 says, Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meat which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
Here we have what the apostle speaks of as doctrines, diverse and strange doctrines.
And today?
More than ever, it seems like these doctrines.
Are flooding through Christmas.
Especially has been mentioned in these conferences, the charismatic movement that is penetrating all Christians. Dear young people, what is going to keep us stable so that we're not going to be drifting as a light piece of paper in the wind? Wind comes from the.
From the north blows it S the wind comes from the South it blows it N It's never stable, has no weight to it.
What is going to give us? Wait, what is going to give us something that will establish us? It's the grace of God enjoying that grace. Oh, if we've tasted in some way the graciousness of the Lord in our midst, that's going to keep us. It's going to establish us in our souls. And this is what we ought to desire.
There's one more verse in connection with Grace in Torrent Things there's a lot of.
Versus There's two more verses in Corinthians. I'd like to look first of all in First Corinthians chapter 15.
First Corinthians, chapter 15.
In verse 10, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace was.
And His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Hear what does grace do? We've had that grace makes saves us. It makes us strong. It teaches us, it establishes us. And here we find that grace is the power of service for the Lord. It's only tasting the love that of our Lord Jesus Christ, enjoying it in our souls. It's going to make us.
Strong to labor, Paul labored as no one else had labored. But he says, it wasn't me. It was the grace of God that was in me.
You've traced it, you've tasted the grace of God. Dear young person, your desire as well is going to be to serve the Lord. It's been mentioned several times in this, in these meetings, importance of worship. Worship is perhaps we can say a service to to God, but there is too the necessity and there should be a desire in every true believers heart. The grace of God has worked there to be of service.
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To the Lord.
To his people, to the lost as well.
And each one has that privilege, that responsibility. Every believer in this room has a gift from the Lord in one way or another.
To help, to be of some encouragement perhaps in the body of Christ, Paul says in Ephesians 4. Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
And so it's the grace of God that worked in Paul to make him labor as he did now. Second Corinthians Chapter 11.
For chapter 12, excuse me.
Here we find that Paul.
Was taken to heaven.
The 3rd heaven and saw things so wonderful that he couldn't speak about him.
But he.
Afterwards the Lord gave him a circumstance, we don't know exactly what it was an infirmity, perhaps, in his flesh. It was a circumstance that he had to bear with in his life so that he wouldn't become exalted.
And he besought the Lord, because oftentimes circumstances and situations, infirmities in our lives are very trying.
And the first thing we think of is how can we get out of this circumstance?
But I just want to say to you, dear young person, it is not always the Lord's answer to get out of circumstances they're displeasing.
It is the Lord's answer, perhaps, to be an overcomer in the circumstances that the Lord has placed you.
And if they're trying, remember what he says here, the Lord said to Paul in verse.
Nine. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
They're things that are extremely disagreeable to us, circumstances we do not like. But don't be your don't let your first thought be to try to get out of those circumstances. Seek the Lord's grace in those circumstances. He has lessons for us to learn. And if we're going to just try to get out of the circumstances, He'll have to bring the lessons in another form because He's faithful. He's not going to let us go our own way.
He's going to speak to us.
And I'd just like to go back again to Second Timothy 2.
We've meditated on the grace of God and the power it should have in our lives.
It does have power, if it really has laid hold of us, it's made us strong. Verse 2 Paul says to Timothy, And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
Here we have faithful men. What are faithful men? He doesn't say, Timothy, You try to find some intelligent young men. No, he didn't say that. He didn't say Timothy, you find some young men who seem to be really gifted in preaching. No, I didn't say that either. He says faithful men. What is? What are faithful men?
Are men who are obedient.
I'm sure this would include young sisters as well.
Those who are obedient to the Word of God. It's not those who have a great display of gift, perhaps.
It's not those who are intelligent in their way of thinking, exactly.
No, it's those who are faithful that God is going to use to maintain the testimony, those who are simply obedient to the Word of God. What a tremendous lesson. And if you notice in this verse you have 4 generations was mentioned in the conference in Joel chapter one, there is 4 generations too. But here we have 4 generations, Paul being the 1St.
Timothy was the 2nd and then he was to teach faithful men who in turn would be able to teach others also.
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Generations. This is God's way of maintaining the truth.
And I would just like to pause a minute again and appeal to our brethren again.
To I hope I'm not going too far. If I am, please bear with me.
But I feel so much for my own soul and for others I've talked to, to the need, dear brethren, of being established in the principles, the New Testament principles, upon which the church is based and grounded. We know that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.
All scripture but the Church is grounded is based on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. We read in Acts 2 That they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship.
And so this is the groundwork where we stand as the Church of God in part. And if we do not understand these things, I say, don't. I say to my older brother, don't be afraid of repeating, don't be afraid of going over these New Testament Scriptures. I know sometimes perhaps feel that we ought to try to say it in a little different way or a little different fashion.
The Lord, that's the guide, each one. But I say, don't be afraid of repeating these things.
We need them, and I really feel we need them far more than we realize.
We as young people, I feel up my own soul.
The Word of God is 1 glorious whole in the Old Testament. There are wonderful pictures that help us to understand. But I would like to say again that the Word of God is to be rightly divided to realize that the Old Testament scriptures were written to the Jew in the majority. The New Testament scriptures and the majority are written to the Church of God.
And so the basis that we stand on is the is the.
Our foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone.
I say this because I have a feeling sometimes that sometimes some of us were younger are getting Old Testament principles and are applying them in a way that really almost comes to deny New Testament principles upon we were which we are based. What is the reason I feel that is we haven't got a real basic.
Understanding yet of principles of the New Testament.
Upon which we are grounded. So I'd just like to encourage older brethren to be faithful, minister faithfully and and directly as the Lord leads in love. Don't be afraid of offending. We need it. We're living in days when everything is being shaken. Every single thing around us, everything is changing immense.
The only thing that's not going to change is this book that we hold in our hands.
That won't change. Never.
And I feel the need more and more as things begin to shake of planning our feet on the word of God. This these are the landmarks that we heard about the other day, the hedges that we shouldn't breakthrough. But I just feel immense importance of having ministered the New Testament principles so that we can get a real basis for our.
Action in our assemblies.
Forgive me if I spoken to directly.
In chapter 2 again of Two Timothy.
Verse three speaks of now a soldier.
Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No man that worth entangled himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who had chosen him to be a soldier.
In the day in which we live.
There's so much a drive toward human rights, individual rights of every person.
That I suppose we don't really grasp like we ought to, the thought of a soldier here.
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A soldier is one who has to be entirely and unconditionally at the command of his superior.
In Bolivia they're a little more hard in the service and really discipline their soldiers, right? I'm sure a lot more than they do here in the States. The one young brother who had before been in the.
Army, he told me. An experience he had just show you that they absolutely do not allow for any flinching.
In their obedience and.
Evidently he had been a student and the Army since it has trouble with the students off times there because the communists get into the schools and work with the students.
When they get ahold of some students, they like to treat him, give him their share. Plenty hard treatment. Anyhow, he was taken with some other students, I think it was before he was even saved and.
At dinner time he had all their plates on the table and Sergeant gave a command to eat.
And.
It wasn't very good food. I guess they made it really rough food for him to eat. And so he just quickly and quietly slipped his plate on the table and dumped it out, put his table and plate back on the table, expecting not to be noticed, but one of the sergeant's son said to him.
After the meal was over, came up to him, said didn't you like your food?
No.
So he says, motions to another fellow. Bring 3 plates of soup, please.
They brought three plates of soup. Bring some kerosene. Please mix it in some kerosene.
Now you eat those three. He had to sit there and eat them all three. And when he got up, another Sergeant came over and said, OK, we're going to give you a lesson you'll not forget. And they said he put them between the two of them and they just beat him until he fell unconscious to the ground.
Well, he learned obedience.
Not in the way, not trying to give the idea that we learn the obedience in the same way. It's not the thought. But what I want to get across to you today is the thought of obedience, unquestionable obedience to what the word of God claims in our lives. He said the next morning says I was the first one in line at chow. And I said, I said even that all that stuff was almost mud since I ate it.
And thanked him for it.
Thank the Sergeant for, well, he learned obedience, learned to do it cheerfully, too.
Well, we're not obeying because of fear of punishment now, but Oh dear young people, if I can only communicate a little bit what's on my heart, if that immense fountain of grace that's in the heart of God, that love that's in his heart towards us hasn't laid hold of your heart.
To where every whisper that comes from him.
Every word doesn't hold an unconditional place of obedience in our hearts. What kind of soldiers are we endure hardness. It's going to be hard. It's not going to be easy. Don't expect to be easier being a Christian. You know, sometimes it's it's preached. Receive Christ and everything will go a lot easier.
Well, it's true that it's wonderful to have the companionship of the Lord Jesus when you belong to Christ.
In your trials. But it isn't easier. No, it's going to be hard.
Satan.
The Prince, the God of this world, has put himself to dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he wants to dishonor us as well. He's put himself in direct.
Direct.
Array against the person who has decided to obey the Lord Jesus.
Oh, that that might hold in our hearts.
Something, a place that nothing else could ever gain grace is going to make us serve Him in that way.
We're going to put down a lot of rules and regulations. Not going to work, Not going to work.
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But grace is going to lay hold of our souls in such a way.
That we're going to be good soldiers, Jesus Christ.
No, nothing can come before his orders. A soldier in the army, he's commanded to clean a room by an officer. He can't say, oh, I'll try to do it tomorrow. No, he has to obey and obey immediately. No question.
Why is it that we when we read the Word of God and see something that applies to our hearts, why is it that we immediately start reasoning to see if we can get around it?
Oh, they're young people were missing the blessing. We're missing a tremendous blessing.
Before doing that.
No, a soldier above all things has to learn obedience. If he's ordered to go into the direct battle where the bombs are bursting, he can't even question that he has to go. Doesn't matter whether it's his life that's in question. Have we learned that devotion to the Lord Jesus?
That even life itself is not dear to us. That he be obeyed, That he be glorified.
Oh, if Grace has spoken in our hearts, that's the type of devotion there will be in our lives. That's the time.
I just like to go to the Old Testament, to take two instances, if we have time, of persons who are touched by grace and who did things that seemed quite, perhaps we might say drastic, but they were the only response of a heart that was touched by grace.
In chapter 18 of Second Samuel.
Chapter 17. We know the story well of David and Goliath, how the armies of Israel and the armies of the Philistines were arrayed.
On either side of the valley, ready for the battle.
And Goliath.
That huge fellow came out and defied the armies of the living God.
David, a small shepherd boy from the country.
Comes.
And he and his confidence in the God of Israel.
With a little sling goes down to meet that giant.
And the giant evidently, was a little bit incensed that they would choose such a man to fight with. He wanted a man of war to fight with, evidently.
But when he saw David, he was ready to.
Kill him. Let the Lord gave the victory to the armies of Israel that day through David. David took his head off. Well, there was someone standing in the horse of Israel there that day. It was the Prince son of King Saul. Jonathan chapter 18 verse.
Excuse me, It's First Samuel. Sorry. First Samuel, chapter 18.
Verse one And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking into Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
And Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more to his father's house then Jonathan. David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. Jonathan stripped himself of the road that was upon him, and gave it to David and his garments, even to his sword and to his bowl and to his girdle.
Who told Jonathan that he had to take all this off and give it to David? Did David demand please give me all that? Jonathan, No.
That one, he had seen what David had done. There was no question in his mind what he should do any longer. It was all David's. Is that the attitude of our hearts, Dear young people, we've really trade taste with the grace of God. Yes, that'll be the attitude of our hearts. And then going to the second Samuel, chapter 23, I think it is.
Here we have the story of David's mighty men.
Verse.
13 and three of the 30 chief went down and came to David in the time harvest time into The Cave of a Dolan. The troop of the Philistines pitched in the valley of of Raphael. And David was then in on hold in the Garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. And David Longman said, Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate.
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And the three mighty men breakthrough the host of the Philistines and drew water of the well of Bethlehem.
That was by the gate and took it and brought it to David.
We have another instance. David never gave a command to do this thing. David had a desire of his heart. There's only a desire he expressed, perhaps almost as a whisper. He may have expressed it, but there were three men near him that heard that desire. And to a heart that's touched by the grace of God, even a desire, it's enough. One word from the word of God.
Acts as a command on the heart. These three minute danger their lives broke through.
The host of the Philistines drew that water from that well and brought it to David. Every single small desire was a command to those men. Grace had worked in their hearts. Oh, dear young people, may be so as we go home from these meetings, that we've tasted a little bit of the glories of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the grace, that great fountain of grace.
That's in his heart towards it'll never dry.
No, let's rely on it. Let's just pray.