Chicago Conference: 1986
Table of Contents
Temporal Loss Eternal Gain
Address—Dn. Spence
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Ask for the prayers of every Christian in the audience tonight.
For the salvation of someone who is lost in this room.
I'd like you to add, I'd like to ask you to pray.
Continuously through this meeting, that someone might be saved.
I'd like you to turn in God's Word, the Bible, to the New Testament.
The Bible is divided into Old and New Testament. I'd like you to turn to the New Testament.
Toward the latter part of your Bible.
In the Gospel of Mark.
Second Gospel, Second Book of the New Testament.
Mark chapter 8 and verse 34.
Mark 8 verse 34.
And when he had called the people unto him, with his disciples also he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it.
But whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospels, the same, shall save it.
Now listen to this verse. For what shall it profit a man or woman or boy or girl, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
For what shall a man give?
In exchange for his soul.
I'd like to ask you the question tonight.
Would you be interested in a plan for your life?
That gave you temporal profit and eternal loss.
Would you be interested in that something that would give you a profit?
For a number of years.
Through the span of your lifetime and then loss for all eternity.
Or would you rather have something that might cost you something?
For a number of years and then have eternal gain. I think that's what he's asking in this question. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
That question I want you to answer tonight.
I want you to answer it.
What will it profit you if you could gain the whole world?
And lose your own soul.
I want you to answer it.
You know, there's a lot of ways of gaining things in this life.
I want you young people in the room tonight to think of.
A new car?
A brand new car if you could have that car tonight, if the devil would hold it out and say here it is.
You can have this car.
But I want your soul.
Would you give it to him?
I want you to think of the most of the most handsome young man in your high school class.
The most attractive young lady.
The devil can get her or him for you, and if he could give her or him to you tonight.
Would it be worth it if you lost your soul for all eternity?
I want to ask you.
Young married couples.
If you and I'm going to direct this to the husband, perhaps, or anyone in the working world today, if you could climb the management ladder into the president's chair at your company, If you could become the director of all of this wealth.
If you could have the sports car, the motorhome, the yacht.
00:05:03
The Mountain Home and all of those things that go along with it. Would it be worth it if you lost your soul in hell for all eternity?
I want you to answer those questions inside.
That's what he's asking. What shall it profit a man or a woman or a boy or a girl, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Rudolph Diesel was a man who was seeking to gain the world the technological world of his day.
He developed what we know today is the diesel engine.
And he went right to the top, engineering wise. Over in Germany, he had everything that he could ever want. He bought it. He built a castle. He went to every place that he could ever go. He enjoyed everything that he could enjoy.
And yet when he packed his bags for the trip to England for new business for his company.
He left a note behind to his wife which she would find after he jumped off the boat in the English Channel.
He gained the world, and not only did he find it to be an empty world that he gained, but he found then at that point of death it to be eternal loss.
God breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living or never dying soul. And every person in this room tonight has that never dying soul.
So we'll go on throughout all eternity in a place of everlasting torment or a place of everlasting pleasure and joy.
And because of the Garden of Eden and man's sin, man became a Sinner, and you inherited and I inherited A sinful nature, a nature that has the wrong perspective.
A nature that has that is not capable of pleasing God. A nature that is spiritually dead.
And no matter how many good works you may perform in your lifetime, God will never use them to balance out.
The bed that you have done.
Our friends, I want you to consider this tonight.
I was talking to John Rule just a few days ago and he was telling me over in Africa where he visited, that there were people who actually make a pact with the devil.
And they make an agreement that they will sell their soul to the devil if the devil will give them anything they want.
And they get it.
And this pact will last a number of years according to the agreement, and at the end of that time that person goes.
He goes, he dies, he loses his soul.
Now, the work of the devil in this country is not so in the open. The devil is subtly offering to you tonight the world. He's offering to you pleasure. He's offering to you All those things out there, you may never get it.
It's like the carrot. He's hanging the carrot out there and he's saying there it is, go after it, but you're going to lose your soul.
When we back up in these in these verses that were read to verse 34.
I'd like to spend some time, in fact most of the rest of the meeting on this.
This verse that these words that Jesus spoke.
Middle of verse 34 Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
You know, if you follow Christ tonight.
It will lead you to a cross.
And when you come to that cross and accept that cross and what was done there for you.
There's a pathway that will lead you into heaven.
That is the only way to heaven.
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That's the only way that you can ever get to heaven through the cross and what was done there?
Jesus came down from heaven. He was God's Son. He lived a perfect life. He died as a sin bearer, He went into death. He arose bodily from from the grave, and he ascended back into the glory to God's right hand. No other man has ever done that.
No other man will ever do that. And that's why there is no other religion on the face of the earth from the beginning of the history of man until now.
That could ever save your soul.
Jesus Christ was the Lord. He was God's Son. He came down and he spoke these words that you might hear him tonight, that you might listen to him.
He says. Whosoever will come after me.
What does it say? If you want to come after him, let him deny him.
Let him deny himself.
It's going to cost you something.
It's going to cost you something if you're going to come to Christ.
It might cost you a lot temporarily. It's going to be eternal gain.
You know it says you must deny yourself.
I see younger people, and I know what is going on. I see younger people with the world in one hand and a confession of Christ back in their past somewhere that they're hanging on to.
I see them going after the pleasures of sin.
I see them going into the bars of this world.
I see them going to the parties.
Some of you in this room have done that.
Your folks don't know it. The people in your church don't know it. The brethren don't know it. But God knows it.
And in order to soothe your conscience after you go after the pleasures of sin, the drink and the drugs, the sex of this world, in order to soothe your conscience, you say. I remember a time when I was saved.
I had a young person tell me that not very long ago.
Oh.
It scares me to hear that I it worries me when young people are older people go after the world with all that they have and say sure glad I got saved when I was a kid.
What Jesus is saying in this verse is that if you're going to come to him, you've got to deny yourself. You've got to deny yourself.
You've got to say no to that world of sin. You've got to say no to those lusts that are eating away at your at your heart. You've got to say no. You've got to deny yourself.
Maybe the person that you have done some of these things with is sitting next to you. You may have to say no to him. That may come later. But I want to encourage you tonight to say no right now, within yourself, within your heart, to recognize that those things that you have been doing, that you have been going on with, that only you think you know about.
God knows about them, and you must say no, You must deny yourself.
You know, sometimes I look at a little portion in the book of Hebrews. Maybe I will just quote it to you so you can listen to it.
Moses. It says that about Moses.
That he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
He made a choice in his life. It affected his eternal destiny. You will make a choice here tonight. That is going to affect your eternal destiny.
Moses made the choice for Christ.
If you make that same choice, you will end up in the same place as Moses.
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If you decide against Christ tonight, you will be eternally lost.
And you'll go to that place where the rich man went, where he was suffering in the flames of eternal torment.
Moses looked at the world of his day. Moses was riding the Crest of a wave that was taking him to economic and political power.
In the most powerful and rich nation of the world.
Moses graduated from the best university, the University of the Sun. Moses was headed for the top in his country.
And he looked out there, and he made a choice.
Sometimes I've looked at the pleasures that Moses had to choose from.
And I start all of the pleasures with AP.
I say, well, Moses could have been the Pharaoh of Egypt.
He could have had the biggest position. He could have been the most powerful man in the world of his day.
Moses could have gone to the palace.
He could have had the biggest house in the world of his day.
Moses could have had prosperity. He could have had the biggest bank account.
In the world of his day, Moses could have had a pyramid.
He could have had the biggest tombstone in the world today.
Moses had all of those things available to him, and he chose Christ.
He chose to suffer. He chose to say no. He chose to deny himself and say no to the world of his day.
And to the pleasures that were available.
Why? Because he esteemed the riches that were in Christ to be greater than the treasures of Egypt. And my friend God gave Moses some treasures that will be for eternity.
The greatest gift that God gave Moses was the gift of eternal life.
Moses chose to deny himself.
So let's read that verse whosoever will come after me.
Let him deny himself and take up his cross.
And follow me. You're willing to do that tonight? Are you willing to do that right now?
To deny yourself.
Now notice the next thing that says and take up his cross.
And follow me.
Follow who follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
A cross is a symbol of suffering and shame.
We're going to talk a little bit about it, but what it's going to mean for you to become a Christian tonight.
Is that you're going to have to be willing to be rejected by your friends.
You're going to have to be willing for others to maybe put you down.
To laugh at you.
That person that is sitting next to you in the audience tonight that is passing you the note that is whispering in your ear, you're going to have to be willing to say just a minute.
I want to listen to this gospel meeting.
They may make fun of you.
But.
You may be saved. You have to be willing to suffer rejection. That's what the cross means.
I would like you to turn to.
The end of the book of Mark.
I'm sorry, the end of the book of Luke.
Luke, Chapter 23.
We're going to look at a man who carried a cross.
Luke, Chapter 23.
And verse 24.
And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required, and he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison.
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Whom they desired, He released another prisoner, But he delivered Jesus to their will. And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon a Cyrenian coming out of the country. And on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.
I want to skip down a little bit.
To verse 33. And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors went on the right hand and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do, and they parted his raiment and cast lots.
I want to skip down now.
To verse 44.
And it was about the 6th hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour, And the sun was darkened in the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, And having said thus.
He gave up the ghost.
If we were to go back in this chapter, we would find not only in this chapter, but in the other Gospels.
In the Gospel of John as well as the Gospel of Matthew that they took Jesus.
They had a trial, a mock trial, in which they brought in false witnesses.
To convict the only perfect man that ever lived.
And due to a lot of pressure from religious leaders, a Roman judge named Pilate.
Succumbed to the pressure, he backed off. He was afraid. He washed his hands of it. He didn't want anything to do with it.
But in the process of this trial, he took Jesus and sent him out to be scourged.
I'd like to describe the scourging.
They took a man.
They took him out, they took off his robe, they tied his hands to the top of a pole like this.
Sometimes they stretched him like that, his hands to side to side, but normally they tied his hands to the top of a pole.
They took a whip, a whip that was especially made for the scourging that had lead or iron balls with jagged broken stones in it, and a three tailed whip.
And as that man stood there.
With no clothes.
Two Roman soldiers from either side took their whip and beat the back of that man, one from one side, one from the other.
And that whip was of such a nature because of those steel balls and those broken stones, that it bruised, broke, tore open the flesh to the point that the whole back from the top down to the bottom of the legs, was a quivering mass of bleeding flesh.
Many died from the scourging. Many were left in a state of weakened shock.
Jesus went through this.
And they gave to Jesus this it is in the minds of many the thoughts of many a cross or a crossbar that he carried through the streets of Jerusalem on that painful bleeding back.
The cross, Wade or the crossbar weighed about 100 lbs.
And as he went through the city, he was followed by a mob, a group of people who were bent upon his crucifixion.
And he gets through the gate of this city.
And as they come to the gate, scripture records that they laid hold on. This man Simon has Cyrenian. He was from the country.
I don't know why they got ahold of Simon, but I'm going to, I'm going to speculate just a little bit.
I believe that Simon didn't like what he saw.
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Simon was from the country. I know that many of you tonight here are from the country.
And I know what people are like from the country.
Sometimes people in the city get used to violence. They see it every day in the streets.
See it at school and all of those things, they see it going on. And you find in the papers of your city sometimes recorded the fact that someone is beaten to death before the eyes of others and nobody cared. Nobody called the police.
But people from the country?
Reject some of that. They can't stand it. They don't see it every day. And here was a man who stood at the gates of the of that city. And as Jesus was coming out, he didn't like what he saw, and I think it showed in his eye.
He saw a man who was walking through those streets, stumbling, perhaps along, weakened by the scourging.
He saw a crowd that was venting their wrath and their anger, their ridicule upon him and he didn't like it. And so they said, I think Simon, if you don't like it, you carry his cross.
And Simon carried that Christ up Calvary's hill for Jesus.
And there, on the top of that hill, they took those men who were going to be crucified and they threw them on the ground.
And they nailed them to the cross.
Hand and foot.
Put the cross up in the air.
And in all of the pain of.
That terrible moment.
Jesus lifts up his voice and says Father.
Forgive them, for they know not what they do.
The The death of a cross.
Is perhaps the most painful way a person can ever die. He dies slowly, with terrible cramps in his muscles, with searing pain in his hands and feet.
And as he does so, with all of this pain and all of the awfulness of that time, the crowd stands around.
And it hates that person who dies. It ridicules him, as they did with Jesus.
Do you think that Simon walked up Calvary's hill, saw the nails driven in his hands and went home?
Absolutely not. I don't think so. And I'll tell you why, because later on you find two sons of Simon the Cyrenian.
Who were saved by the grace of God.
I think that Simon stayed there through all of those three hours when Jesus suffered that terrible physical pain and suddenly in the darkness.
The darkness came, the darkness so great that he could not see his hand in front of his face. God blacked out the sun. And in the blackness of those three hours, from 12:00 to 3:00, God took the sins that I deserved, and he laid them upon Jesus Christ his Son.
And he punished him for it, a punishment that would have taken me all eternity to pay.
And at the end of those three hours of darkness, Jesus cried, as we have in the Gospel of Matthew. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
I have a friend.
And this friend lives in Colorado Springs. His name is Bill.
And Bill is a Jew.
He was born a Jew. Jew. His folks are Jewish.
And about a little over a year ago, Bill accepted Christ as his savior.
And Bill saw, I saw him last year in Denver and he came up and he said I've got a question for you. And I said what is it?
He said. Why did Jesus say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
He said. In other words, why did he put it in a question? Why didn't he just say, God, you have taken me. Why didn't he make the statement?
Bill asks such simple questions that are hard to answer.
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And I think if I were to meditate on that for all eternity, I would not sound the depths of that question.
But I said, Bill, let's suppose that you and I stood at the cross and as we saw all this terrible suffering going on, we saw.
The darkness suddenly come, and for three long hours that must have seemed forever, we stood there in silence, saying nothing.
And then suddenly, before the darkness broke, we heard this cry. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Question.
I said, Bill, don't you think that we would look at each other and say it was for me?
My friends, if you're willing to stand at the cross tonight and say it was for me that he died, it was for me that he was forsaken.
That will save your soul.
That will save your soul. It will make you a Christian.
Because you recognize that Jesus, the Son of God, has died on your behalf. That's what salvation is.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him.
Should not perish but have everlasting life. That's what saves you.
You know, there on Calvary's cross, the greatest load that has ever been born was born.
The load of the sins of many.
For it is appointed unto man wants to die, but after this the judgment. But Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.
The greatest load that has ever been carried was carried there at the cross and it was paid in full.
In the Old Testament, when you see a sacrifice, the fire came down and consumed it. But on the cross the sacrifice consumed the fire of judgment. The fire of judgment was consumed, and God can offer to you a salvation plan tonight that is paid for in the death of his Son, signed in the blood that was shed on Calvary. God cannot lie. He offers it to you free tonight.
The greatest load that was ever born was born on the cross.
The greatest loneliness that has ever been known was known on the cross Jesus suffered there. God turned his back on him as the thunderbolts of judgment came down.
The greatest love that has ever been shown.
The reason that Jesus Christ came to this world to die was because he loved you tonight. He loved you. He did not want to see you suffer forever. He wanted to save you. He wanted you to be his companion forever. He loves you right now, and he's asking you to come to him. If you reject love like this, if you walk out of this door tonight and you reject the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He can do nothing else but let you go your way to a lost eternity. You make the choice.
You make the choice.
And I think that Simon stood at this cross and saw all of this. Heard the voice of Jesus, commit himself to the Father, saw the soldiers come along and take a spear and place it between the ribs and rip a a gaping hole in Jesus side. Saw the blood come out. Did not understand fully until later on that it was that blood that washed every sin away from his record of guilt.
I don't know how bad your record is. I know that mine is bad. I think it's a lot worse than I think. But I know that if you were to go up to heaven tonight and say, let me see the record of the speaker in this audience, he would look under that name, Dan Spence, and you would see blank pages.
Why? Because I've lived a good life? No, because the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed upon the cross. God's Son.
Wiped it away.
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And I'm trusting that Precious Blood to take me all the way home.
You know, my friends, tonight I want you to turn back and consider again those verses in Mark Chapter 8.
Mark chapter 8 and verse 34.
Middle of the verse, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross.
I want to stop there. I want to talk to those of you who are going on with things that you know are wrong.
It's going to cost you a little bit. You're going to be rejected.
That friend, Perhaps you've been involved in immorality?
It's possible that person is sitting by you tonight.
And you are going to have to say no at the cost of being dropped by that friend. Is it worth it?
You're going to have to say no when those people invite you to the parties.
You're going to be rejected by your friends, but you're going to hold in your hand, in your heart tonight the certificate of eternal life.
Is it worth it?
The Lord Jesus Christ loves you with an unchanging, never dying love that took him into the worst suffering any man has ever known, he says. I love you with all of my heart. Please come tonight to me. Please come and accept me. He's knocking at the door right now.
Out in California.
There's a young woman.
His name is Bunny Mendel.
Bonnie Mandel is a person.
Who has a little daughter who comes to our afternoon Sunday school.
Her daughter has accepted Christ as her savior. She's told her mother about it. Her mother rejected it, didn't care if she went, but she didn't want it for herself.
I'm going to tell you why, because Bonnie Mundell was a.
Heroin addict?
I know that for many of you in the room tonight, you do not know the depths.
That a heroin addict goes to.
They say that that drug is so powerful that one shot makes you an addict. The power and slavery of that drug is so great that a person cannot break it by themselves.
And what they go through to break that habit is one of the worst nightmares that anybody could ever.
Could ever imagine.
Bonnie Mandel, who was the mother of this little girl who was saved, did not want Christ. She wanted her heroine. She wanted to be an addict.
She wanted the pleasures of sin.
And yet, because of the effects of that drug, she had tremendous ups and tremendous downs. But as time went on, it kept going lower. Those ups were a little less high, and those downs were greater every time. She found that the drug was so addicting that she needed a shot instead of once a day, twice a day.
She had to steal to support her habit.
Her little girl sometimes did not have enough food to eat because the drug habit was so expensive.
I'd like to tell you the story tonight of Bonnie Mandel.
But maybe it would be better if I let her tell it to you.
From the prison at Frontera, California.
Maximum security prison for about 2000 women.
Bonnie is serving her time in this prison.
While she was out and her little girl was brought back, she had a young lady named Mary come by and she would tell her Bonnie Christ can set you free, He died for you.
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Well, let me let Bonnie tell you the story. It's better if she tells it to you.
Bonnie never wrote poetry before the prison, but I'd like you to listen to her story and poetry. This is called the Merry Go Round to Hell.
Once I was writing to hell on a merry go round.
Following others with no way but down. Going in circles, getting nowhere. A massive confusion. My soul was my fear.
Running a race to torment and grief, wanting to stop wanting relief. All the smiles on those faces turn to torment because they're friends, not understanding in circles. I went up, went the horses and then down again. I kept hoping my horse would stay up.
But then I looked toward the center. Inside the whirlwind I saw a sick creature with a hideous grin, laughing at making a wreck of my life. He was the master of lies and deceit and strife. I tried to jump off, but froze on my horse. I struggled and strained, but was stuck to that course. He kept planting suggestions of guilt and of fear. I screamed for help, but I knew no one would hear.
As I started to sink for about the last time, words began to make sense.
From a true friend of mine.
Little by little they all fell in place. Something about God and salvation by grace. Something about Jesus setting me free, something about him and his love for me. She said that he died on the cross for my sins, but my thoughts were too jumbled to grasp it till then. She told me the victory Jesus had won, what harm just to ask, and his name to be done. So I prayed for belief and for trust and for faith.
Then he softened my heart to receive his strength, and he lifted me off of that merry go round, and planted my feet on his higher ground.
He said, I'm your shepherd. My sheep know my voice. I could tell by his touch that I'd made the right choice. For once in my life, I received Peace of Mind. I could leave all my troubles and failures behind. He said just to follow him, not to look back. Your sins are forgiven. Just walk in my path and I'll show you what life with my father can be. His love is too big for the depths of the sea.
He has beauty in mansions and streets made of gold. Too much glory for those here on earth to behold. I will sing songs of worship, sing songs of praise. As I am nearing my goal, I am changing my ways. Thank you, dear Jesus, for pulling me through. Help me, dear Jesus, to be more like you. Thank you, dear Jesus, for rescuing me. Thank you for dear Jesus for letting me see.
Thank you for setting a course for my life.
Thank you for taking my guilt, fear, and strife. My prayer is to learn more about you each day and to share you with those who have not found their way.
It's a story of Bunny Mandel.
My friends were at the close of this gospel meeting.
The time for you to make your decision.
I've asked you in the audience tonight to pray.
I want to ask you again, as this meeting comes to a close, for that son, that daughter, that young person, that older person who is lingering tonight in doubt.
That this might be the moment that they would come to Christ.
I want to ask you to do as we were singing in that little hymn. Come, tis Jesus gently calling. I want to ask you to come to him simply by faith, to say, Lord Jesus, I come.
I'd like you to sing together.
1 Peter 1:1-2
Reading
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First Peter, chapter one. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bathinia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled. And the Tate is not a way reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, ye love.
In whom though now ye see him knock, yet believe.
Rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently. Who prophesied of the Greece that should come unto you, Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them, did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ?
And the glory that should follow under whom it was revealed, that not under themselves, but unto us, they'd administer the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into. Wherefore gird up the loins of your minds. Be sober.
And hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As obedient children, not passing yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who without respect to persons, judges according to every man's work.
Past the time of your sojourning here in fear. For as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a line without blemish and without spot, Who barely was 14 before the foundation of the world.
But was manifest in these last times for you who by him to believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.
Seeing you have purified your souls, and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.
Being born again, not of corruptible seeds, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass Withers, and the flower there all falls away, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
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In Peter's epistle we are looked on as pilgrims and strangers, just as the children of Israel when they left the land of Egypt. They were pilgrims in the wilderness with that land of Canaan, that land flowing with milk and honey before them. And there were many testings and trials, and the government of God was manifested in their wilderness journey. And so here we find that instead of being called to an earthly inheritance.
We have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and the fate of not away reserved in heaven for us. And it's important for us to realize this, I believe, brethren, because there is always a tendency for us to settle down in this world, to try and find our rest here. But God allowed many things to make the children of Israel feel that there was no arrest for them there in that wilderness, but rather that they would always have.
Cain and in view.
But they were put to the test there, and the government of God came in upon them. And so I was thinking how it should be a lesson to each one of our hearts that in these days of materialistic.
Things that everyone going after, the things that are so material, it's very important for us, I believe, to have our eyes set upon heavenly things. And I believe God brings in trials into our lives with the purpose of detaching us from this present evil world.
And so that our hearts might be drawn out to Him. And so He also brings in His governmental ways if we go after them, stirring up the nest as it were. She wants us to be enjoying our portion in Christ, and as it says here, to have what it speaks of.
In the 8th For assume having not seen, we love, in whom though now you see him not yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
He wants us to be happy, not in the material things here, but in the enjoyment of our heavenly portion.
Not allowed.
Allowed these elect ones to be scattered in this way.
That they might trust in the Lord more and feel their strangership down here.
And as we feel our strangership here, we get to thinking, well, I don't really belong here. This is my home and I'm going somewhere else. And just like Abraham, he was a Pilgrim going to the promised land. But we're pilgrims going to our promised land.
In the glory, Israel's promised land, Canaan is simply a type of the heavenly land that belongs to us where the Lord has gone. And we need to remember that, that we don't belong here. We're strangers here. Our citizenship is in heaven. And the more we think about that, the more we think about the Lord up there and the love we have for Him. And as we think of his love for us, it grows.
And we want to be with him, and it should be that way no matter how long we're here or how old we get.
That thought should be before us, and I believe if we're before the Lord going on with Him, thinking about His love for us, it just stirs up love in our hearts. And how can we help but love Him? And how can we help but want to be with Him and be where He is?
Interesting to see. There is a contrast here. We're seen as strangers and pilgrims. For as in Ephesians, it says we're no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God. We've got to be strangers in one place or other. If we're not enjoying heavenly things, then we'll feel strange when we get there, because that has not been a habitual home of our hearts. But if we really have been in the enjoyment of it, then when we get there it'll immediately be our home. It will not be a strange place to us. There are no stranger. God shall meet thee.
And so we're strangers here because we'll not be strangers there, but brethren, if we lose the sense of our heavenly things, then we'll feel strange there, but we'll feel too much at home down here. So in this one, we're seeing as in this world, in the wilderness, and we're strangers and pilgrims here just like these scattered ones. In the opening part, they had been looking for the Messiah to set up the Kingdom. And when the Messiah does set up the Kingdom, why they'll feel at home in the millennial blessing of that day.
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But now they must realize that they have been called not to that blessing of Canaan, and not to the millennial blessing, but rather to a heavenly thing.
This version here is that.
In connection with what has happened to them as the earthly people of God.
That they were scattered abroad among the Gentiles, but it was the government of God upon them as an earthly people. But now that they had come to know the Lord Jesus, those who had been saved, they had become strangers who might stay in a new way, because even if they would be found.
In the land of Penang, somewhere still there, but they would not have any portion here anymore. So they were strangers in a new sense, because they had a portion that was outside of this world altogether. That was the portion that was reserved for them in heaven.
Is there a thought that first verse they're called strangers but in the second verse elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, and so we are strangers down here, but chosen of God?
Interesting thinking of the blessed Lord in resurrection. This word stranger in acts. I mean, in Luke 24, Cleophus says to him, art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem? Well, really he was he was the heavenly mind rejected, cast out a stranger in Jerusalem. And it's it's striking that they addressed him that way.
Well, that's that's the place the Lord even had in resurrection and certainly we, if we follow him, are going to feel something of that. There's also the word scattered here in this first verse, the stranger scattered, but we get that scattering in Acts chapter 8 that arose there in Jerusalem in the first verse, Acts 81, and so is consenting unto his death.
And at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. In Acts 2 we read of somewhat of the same group that Peter writes to.
These words honest, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asian bathinia. At least three of those appear in Acts 2, where Jews had come from those places.
And heard the preaching of Peter and 3000 added to the church there now for their faithfulness to Christ. They are scattered and they are strangers on the earth, and their inheritance is in heaven. And that's a similar position that any Christian will find himself in if he walks with God for Christ in this world, he'll be forced to be a stranger.
Then you can look for that heavenly inheritance.
That word he left means chosen, but we have an Ephesians chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Who of us doesn't revel in the fact that we were chosen in Christ in eternity past, before the foundation of the world? Just think of it. God chose us.
Chose us, He wanted us.
God wants children, God wants a family, and He chose us to be his children.
And not only that, this is brought in in connection with the church, because we also find out that when we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit and we're joined to that one body and we're members of the body of Christ this election or this choice that has been made.
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Totally on the part of the sovereign grace of God is the thing that we need to dwell on God's side of things. I have found that in Christendom there's a great dwelling on man's side of salvation and not much dwelling on God's side of it. But what really helps us and establishes us is dwelling on God's side of the salvation to see what He has done for us and what He wanted for out of us. He wanted us for Himself.
And that is simply by the sovereign grace of God. He has done this. God's side is what we need to think of Christ side of it all.
They have a lack according to the foreknowledge of God the Father we have for know in Romans 8 and 29 for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. I've enjoyed the thoughts that He knew all about me before He ever picked me up, and yet knowing that He still chosen us, that we would be conformed to the image of His Son.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
It's very hard to have a feeling of being rejected. None of us enjoy that feeling that we are rejected. Young people don't like that feeling at school. They don't like it at the job or whatever. And So what is it that God gives us to cheer our hearts and face of this? Here were these Jews cast out by the nation as it was read to us in Acts. They had accepted the Lord Jesus as Savior. They had been identified with Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
Who had seen Jesus at the right hand of God, and now the nation doesn't want them anymore. What is it will sustain our young people? What is it that will sustain any of us in a world like this? Oh, just to think that here we are, those whom God has chosen. Not because there was something in us to like, because there wasn't. It was sovereign grace. He chose us when there was nothing desirable. We were enemies, and we've been reconciled to God by the death of His Son. And so just as Israel were a chosen people.
For the blessing that God purposed for them on the earth, and that sustained Abraham when he was a Pilgrim and a stranger in that land, He wouldn't even let the king of Saddam make him rich, because he had been blessed by the possessor of heaven and earth. And so now these Christians, as I say, are scattered. And brethren, I think in applying it to ourselves, we need to have a sense of this in our souls. How nice to walk down the street and feel out of this whole world.
God should choose me and choose me to be part of the bride of Christ, to share that heavenly inheritance. What a thing too, for those who are young growing up and feeling the rejection. And I think it's stronger in this day because the world system is becoming much stronger and young people are drawn into it because the world wants you to become part of the system. But to know that we are part of something else.
The Bride of Christ, part of that heavenly company. The sense of this, the enjoyment of it in our souls, will sustain us in the path of faith.
It's interesting that I was just checking that out.
The 11Th verse we have two words used, dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. It's the second word translated pilgrims, which is here translated strangers.
And the new translation renders it Sojourners. I was thinking of the.
The words that they said to to Lot in Genesis 19, they said this one fellow came into sojourn and he will be a judge among us. So it's really the thought of sojourning, not settling down. It's not making this our home, but just passing through on the way to another home which is on high. Sojourners or pilgrims. That to be our character, isn't it?
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And the more we're identified with the Lord Jesus, the more we will have that.
Stranger character here because the world will not recognize us or want us as their own because, he said.
If they hate you, they hated me before.
The servant isn't greater than the Lord, but we shouldn't expect anything from down here. But the more we go on with him and live in the truth of the fact that we have a whole, this isn't it.
This was our home in that sense. We should have a tent and have that character of Abraham. He had a tent and that's what identified him. He wasn't he didn't belong here. He was on his way. And how wonderful it is that chain and that we expect to be and will soon be perhaps today. Good, good words to commence the day. And it sets your heartstrings right for that walk as a stranger in Pilgrim down here. But a stranger is one that's going through the land that doesn't belong.
He doesn't belong. And if you notice in Numbers the verse 20, I sort of like this particular verse because you can apply it to us chapter 20 and verse 17 of Numbers chapter 20 and verse 17.
And this is what they said as they wanted to go through an enemies land. Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country. We will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the well. We will go by the King's highway. We will not turn to the right hand nor to the left until we pass thy borders. That's a good attitude to have as we're going through this world, because we need nothing from this world to sustain us as believers.
We get everything from above, everything from Christ and the Word of God.
And so the fields would speak of what you need for sustenance. And brethren, we get it all from there. We feed on Christ. That's enough. And of course, the vineyards speak of joy, the source of joy. And we shouldn't find any of our happiness in this world as we're going through it. We have all of our happiness and joy in Christ. I would that my joy be in you, and your joy be full. That's His desire. And we have an inner joy that the world cannot know.
Anything about its obedience. That's in this fortune in first Peter, obedience. And there's a joy the Lord had of simply doing the Father's will so we could read who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. That's obedience. There's something there that the world can't know about, but we don't need. Any of the joy that this world can give is false and empty, and it'll lead you on into its ways. And then, of course, the water, the whales are a source of refreshment.
And we don't need any of that in this world either. It shouldn't be a place of refreshment for us. It's a growing creation, brethren, because of sin. And we should feel it. All our refreshment should come from the Lord. And then it says we are going on the King's highway and that lovely thought, there's a path. There is a path for the strangers and pilgrims in this world who belong to Christ and.
The vultures, I can't see it. And the lion, the lions, wealth cannot find it. It's safe. And only the Redeem walked thereon. Isn't it lovely? Well, brethren, is the King's highway. And you know, it gives us the thought and the attitude that though we're nothing, let's never forget that. Nothing. It's all grace. The Father is the King. Our Father is the King and we're going home. And so it puts dignity in a walk of a believer if he's on that path.
Without pride. And now that's really what marks all the stranger in Pilgrim, if he belongs to Christ. It's lovely, isn't it? And then we don't turn to the right or the left. We don't need anything here, brethren. We have with this poor world needs. And that's the ministry of reconciliation. We have what they need. They can't give us anything.
I think sometimes we miss some of our duties.
Of the thoughts of the mind and policy.
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Concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was mentioned a while ago.
Goes in him from the Lord, the foundation of the world.
If you will turn to Psalm 139.
I think you will see one of the most precious.
Portions of the mind.
Of the Lord in eternity.
Expressing.
The thought of God.
As the godheads together and speaking.
With the end of person of the Son himself.
Psalm 2 tells us some art thou comedian, then it says.
This day survived the golden teeth.
Another word tells us.
I have drawn you with the cards of a man.
When the band of love.
Now we're going to see one who was spoken to.
And Isaiah 6 I heard the voice of one saying.
Who shall I send?
And who will go for us?
Ben said I here am I.
Send me.
And he said, go now this is the mind of God in the person.
Of the Son become a man being sent into this world. Now let us see his thoughts in Psalm 139.
Gives us a half been the first few verses of who the person is spoken of.
Rest is here in one portion, the sixth verse says.
Such knowledge is to wonderful me. For me it is high. I cannot attain until.
Speaking in the mind of the Spirit, the Psalmist.
Tell us something in the thoughts.
Of the Lord Jesus is becoming a man.
31St.
Thou hast possessed my grace.
Thou hast covered me.
In my mother's womb.
I will praise these.
For I am fearfully.
And wonderfully made.
Marvelous hard eye works.
And that my soul knoweth right well.
Now the fortune that speaks of the thoughts of the mind of Christ in eternity.
As to the future.
My substance was not his from thee.
There was love if we saw it from the mind of God.
We're speaking to his own people in their language.
Best word here is my bones.
We're not hidden from thee. All that love here are parts of a bond.
When I was made in sacred.
I curiously rocked in the lower parts of the earth.
Beloved, He came from glorious heights and came down not only to earth, but he went into the lowest parts of the earth in death.
For you and I.
To have us all this is sweet.
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A little further.
Thy eyes did see my substance.
Our brother Brother Darby speaks of an unformed substance.
Well, true it is. It was an unformed substance in that mother's room, but at first it is just a mass of cells. Beautiful.
Because if we went.
To their language given to them through put down by the Spirit of God, this word.
My substance is here, my embryo. We can understand that language. He's speaking to us in words that humans can understand.
It had only been transmitted to us that way.
It would be perfect because.
He goes on to say being yet unperfect, it was not fully formed.
Lovely.
Well, we go off.
And in thy book.
All.
Which in continuance.
We are fashioned now, as in they are all my members. It is implied in the discussion of bones and embryos.
But it continues, which were in continuance fashion, whereas yet there were none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts, And to me, oh God, how great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in numbers than the sand. When I am awake I am wispy. Could there be a more beautiful description?
Of the whole redeemed company.
Of believers joined to the head. Who's speaking?
In anticipation.
Of this coming to this scene, truly a stranger Hastings despised.
Laid on a cross.
Going into the lower parts of Earth.
And rising from among the dead, and then by the Spirit of God first on earth.
The parts of his body, all of which everyone.
I find a favorite, a tool, a foot clutter, all joined together in one mile and this.
Given to us properly hidden in the precious Word of God to tell Jesus.
Cause concerning his body to be formed for all eternity to God's honor of praise and glory.
Would you say, then, that this portion you have read brings to us the nearest of finding the church in the Old Testament?
We do not find the church in the Old Testament, but this is so close that you can't.
Failed amiss something there that indicates like that.
This exactly was poor man, so he understand the wonders of what he was doing in terms the four weak humans like we could understand. It is it is most sweet, most precious to think of the blessed Lord and the Spirit of Christ coming out in the Psalm so fully and his feelings in the sufferings.
To gain a people to have with him there in glory.
Now coming back to our.
Chapter about the strangers and what was remarked about the pilgrims. For the sake of younger ones, I'd like to tell what chapter Brown told us.
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It has a warning about strangers and pilgrims.
Saying that we ought never to be spiritual tramps. None, he told a story about.
Going along a highway and seeing a trap and stopping to pick him up and give him a lift. And the man had his pole and his little sack tied on the pole. Just tramping along the road and.
He asked if he'd like a ride. He looked surprised, said no, I don't suppose I would. I'm just as happy right here as any place else. Well, you see, he was a tramp. He didn't know where he's going.
A stranger is away from home, and a Pilgrim is killing home. Now we get these thoughts in our chapters here. We are strangers in this earth because the Lord is a stranger. He's put out of it. And we are Pilgrim because we know where we're going. We're going toward Him. And that's where the Kings Highway ends, into the glory where he has gone. And then the love of God to bring children in there. And the Jewish remnant may come out in the Psalms too.
But here was a Jewish remnant who were brought into the church, and that's the way they get into that blessing. And that's that's where we fit too.
In the New Testament, it tells us that ever remember is a necessary part of that body.
That I cannot say I have no use of the ears, The foot can say I have no use of the nose, nor any other, and every part is necessary.
Inside a lovely collection of words that speaks of this very song we've read.
In this verse, here too we have the C3 persons on the Godhead brought before us the Father and the Spirit and the Lord Jesus. And I think this is very precious because in the Old Testament God was revealed in one God in distinction from all the idols around. But now God has come out and made Himself fully known. What a wonderful thing for an Israelite save now to know God as His Father.
And to know the work of the Spirit of God. They were separated from the nations around them by ordinances. That was the middle wall of partition between them and the Gentiles. But now it's sanctification or set apart by the Spirit of God. So the Spirit of God sets us apart from this world He has wrought in us. He has given us a new life. That new life is heavenly and its character. And so it tells us the world knoweth us not because it knew Him not. The world can't understand the motives and desires.
Of the one who is walking here as a true child of God, as a heavenly person. And so it tells us here.
Knowing God is Father, set apart by the Spirit and then called unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. I think it's important to see this about obedience too, because obedience is the characteristic of the new life that God has given to us. Even the obeying of the gospel it says.
In Romans they have not all obeyed the gospel, or even in our chapter it says here in the 22nd verse, seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit. The character of the natural man is lawlessness, just doing his own will, doing as he likes. But when we were brought to know the Lord, why the first thing was obedience. God had a claim over us.
And we're called to obedience. The perfect example of it was the Lord Jesus himself who walked in this world in perfect obedience to His Father. And brethren, they sought to characterize us. And we have been, as it says unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ were not part of this world that's under judgment at all. We've been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. We walked through it in that way. The Lord Jesus was the one.
Who walked in perfect obedience to the Father's will. And now because we have been redeemed by his precious blood, we have been brought into a position that we too are walk, are to walk in obedience here in this world. We're called to that. Well, I, I was just thinking how precious it is that now in Christianity God is fully made known. We know God is our Father. We have received a new life by the Spirit.
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We have a new pathway through this world and we can rejoice in the fact that we have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. In connection with that, we might read a couple of verses in Galatians chapter one. It's very nice. You've been Speaking of God as our Father and his doing the will of the Father.
And I noticed that we have Galatia mentioned here in our first verse of Peter. And here's an epistle to the Galatians and in the.
Third verse. Grace be to you, and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. Now you might say that a Jew in the Old Testament time could have told you what the will of God was. That was the law.
And what is revealed there but now in the New Testament, it's it's the will of God. And our Father brings us into that wonderful relationship. A father to know the will of our Father for us to deliver us from this present evil world and here to purify.
By the Spirit, through obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, this work of God to bring us to Himself.
And according to his will.
And it says through the sanctification of the Spirit, that's a wonderful thought, that it really means we've been set apart from this world, but we've been set apart for himself. Sanctification carries both meanings. And the children of Israel when they were brought out, said I have brought you out, that I may bring you in. It's a lovely thought, but there's there's.
Eternal sanctification, if I might use the term, is what we're Speaking of here.
And when God, who has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, sets us apart, it's by the work of the Spirit of God. Once we receive Christ, we're washed by the precious blood of Jesus, we're clean, and we're indwelt by the Spirit of God, and we're set apart. That's all sanctification means. We're set apart once by God Himself.
For his son. What a wonderful thought this is. Now there's practical Swank sanctification, which in the second chapter Peter gets into and on through this precious Thistle. But I would just like to say we were mentioning the three things, and in First Corinthians 6IN verse 11, we have the same three parts of the Godhead.
And such were some of you. Well, you could go back on the list.
And you can see a Sinner lost, you can see a Sinner described, and such were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God, washed by the precious blood of Jesus that brings his work in the sun, and sanctified by the Spirit and justified by God the Father. It's lovely to see that.
There's the work that all of us are in by grace, and so we are no longer a part of what we once were, sinners of this world. Earth dwellers were set apart, brethren, by the work of the Spirit. And it's a wonderful thing. And as our brother was bringing out, once we're set apart, we're automatically a member in this body, automatically a member in the body of Christ and part of the family of God here.
Well, you know, in First Corinthians 12, describing the body, it says in every member is a member in the body in particular. We're not just a group thrown together in particular, each one of us and every member has been set in the body as it pleased him. Oh, that makes a wonderful, wonderful picture. We have, as our brother was describing, hidden in the Old Testament but now revealed in the new.
That we are all there according as it pleased God in the body and we're there as members in particular. Well, what a beautiful picture it is. And if you realize you're in that family, the heavenly family of God, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ soon to be united to head in glory, that begins to affect your walked out down here. That's really what Peter has in mind for those scattered.
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Jews here.
Who are now Christians, not part of the body.
2nd Corinthians.
Hand and verse five we have the thought of obedience again.
Casting down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
To bring every thought to obey as Christ obeys.
How far short one comes of sex offender?
That's a that's a very important comment that brother just made to obey is Christ obeyed. I think in order to really get the sense of what he's talking about in verse two, he often.
Uses expressions that are drawn from the Old Testament and if we turn back to Exodus 24.
I think we'll get the.
Force of this sanctification by the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. In Exodus 24 verse seven, it says Moses took the book of the covenant and read in the audience of the people, and they said, all that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient. There you have a different kind of obedience. It's the obedience which the children of Israel pledged themselves to.
When they heard the law read to them all that the Lord has said, will we do and be obedient? That's a legal obedience.
And then Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. So here you have the same thing, that that Peter speaks of the same two things, obedience and the sprinkling of the blood.
But in Exodus 24, the thought is entirely different. It's legal obedience, which they promise to give, to render when they heard the law, and not realizing the sinfulness of their own hearts and their total inability to keep the law, they say they keep it. And then Moses sprinkles the blood. What's the significance of that? The thought of blood is death. If they disobeyed, the punishment of death would come upon them.
So you have the two thoughts in Exodus 24, when the law was given, they commit themselves to obey that law. And then he sprinkles the blood that's significant of death and judgment that would come upon them when they disobeyed. But what are we sanctified to? We're sanctified to obey, yes, but as Christ obeyed and altogether different kind of obedience. It's not the obedience of compulsion. It's not obeying a command that my nature does not want to obey. That's legal obedience.
And it's not the punishment of death upon disobedience, but we're sanctified to the sprinkling.
Of the blood of Jesus Christ. So we have these two things, and that's really the answer in Christianity to the old order of things. The obedience that they promised to render and failed to render only brought death and judgment upon them. We're sanctified, given a new life, sanctified by the Spirit, born again, receive a life that delights to do the will of God, to obey as Christ obeyed, to walk down here, delighting in the will of God.
And were sanctified also to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, a place of safety and security which never changes whether we obey or not. It's the place of blessing that the blood of Christ has brought us into. So you have in Christianity you have obedience and blessing, and Judaism disobedience and death and judgment. How beautiful to see the answer in grace that we have in Christ now to what they undertook by their own strength to accomplish in so miserably fail to render.
I believe that's the truth that's set before us in Titus 3, isn't it? Titus chapter 3.
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Verse 4.
Or after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shared on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That being justified by His grace, we should be made errors according to the hope of eternal life.
This is a faithful saying, and these things I will thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable on demand. Their brother's been bringing before us. We have been sprinkled by the blood. The whole question of sin and guilt has been settled before God once for all. But when we stand before Him in a new life, a life that cannot sin.
And this is the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, because now we have that new life and we have a new power. And this is what Paul is exhorting there in Titus to bring before these believers that God wasn't requiring something from them that they didn't have a life to produce. He had shed upon them and abundantly that new life, and they possessed the Holy Spirit of God and reminded of this.
As though God were saying to us, you have a life that delights in obedience. You have a life that wants to please me. You've been redeemed with the blood of Christ at a great cost, but you've also received this new life now displayed in a practical way in life, that new life that I have given to you. And I believe this is very important because one is often commented, God will never ask us as Christians to do anything that the new life doesn't find delight in doing.
It's not, as you were saying, the legal obedience of the law, but it's the very thing that was seen in the life of the Lord Jesus. The good pleasure of His Father's will was always His delight. And rather than we possess His life, we have been set apart at great cost. We've been redeemed by His blood. We have been washed and made new creatures in Christ Jesus. And now let's display that new life that He has given to us.
And this really, I believe, is what he's bringing before them here in Peter's epistle.
That now they had been brought not into the position that they were once brought as under the law, but into this wonderful new position as Christians with a heavenly inheritance ahead of them.
Could I just add to that the what's been so precious to my soul? The Father was so glorified by the pathway and the light of the Lord Jesus that He has now been pleased to communicate to us, those who are the trophies of His grace, that same life and nature. He's given us the same Holy Spirit. He's given us an object outside of ourselves, Christ in glory.
To draw us after Him and to empower us and a strength and power within us.
And His precious word. And what is Christianity? It's the extension in you and me, in US who believe of the very life of Christ lived in all its blessed perfection. So imperfect in US, true, but it's the same life, it's the same spirit, It's the same principle of obedience. That is to animate us, that animated that blessed One when He was here below. And I love to think of us as just being an extension.
Of the life of Christ lived out down here when He was here. He did say it. He abideth in him ought Himself also so to walk even as He walked. And Peter himself tells us in this very epistle that we should follow in His steps. How is that possible? Well, we as our brother was just unfolding to us, because we have his life and his Spirit and all that we need to walk just as He walked.
There's the thought of fighting. 12 And the Lord was here. It was said of him that he was the light of the world. He said I am the light of the world. Now he's gone to glory. He's not here. But we're told ye are the light of the world. Is that a different light? No, it's that same light with which the Lord Jesus Christ shone out here in this world. We are children of light, and we can shine here with that same light.
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That is in the Lord Jesus Christ and.
It's really marvelous. Just think of this, that we have the same life in US, and we're sanctified to that same obedience of that life that was in Him. We know that it was perfect in Him. It's hindered much in US, and we're sanctified to that sprinkling of blood too. We're set in God's sight, cleanse from all of our sins.
Our sin is all gone. God has forgiven us all because we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us and his blood was shed. We're set apart to all of this and we should be the happiest people here that were, and we should really be showing it too because God has done so much for us. And that word for knowledge, it's really a deep word and I'm afraid we don't understand it fully.
Sometimes for those who think that it applies to.
God knew that I would believe in Him, and so I'm saved. But that isn't what the point is there. God whom our person, He knew us. There were some of whom the Lord spoke. I never knew you, I never knew you. But here He has known us. God has known us from all eternity on the basis of that.
He accuses us and he does all of this other part. We were in the thoughts of God.
All eternity He knew us, our person. Not of anything that we would do or not do, no, but our person He knew and He chose us. And it was all because of what was in himself.
It was not because there was anything in US. He didn't love us because there was anything lovely in US. He didn't choose us because there was anything good in US. Nor He just chose us on the basis of what he is himself and knowing us, he chose us.
And you see, you get into a line of things here that you just get overwhelmed and you can't really express it fully because this is God's side of it.
What you allow that the foreknowledge could be beautifully expressed in that he set his affection upon us.
And then he elected us according to this, not because of anything in US, but he said his affections upon us. It's all greedy, yes, right.
After bringing out all these precious truths, Peter said grace unto you and peace be multiplied. You know, as you mentioned, it's all sovereign grace. Everything in our salvation, everything in our new life is grace, sovereign grace. But Peter brings in that expression multiplied, and it's lovely. He brings both grace and peace together here. Now everyone that is saved has the peace with God because being justified by faith, we have peace with God. That's about the sin question. It's a beautiful thing.
And it's by grace that were brought into it. But now grace goes on and peace gets deeper and more precious. And so we can end up with the peace that passes all understanding if we walk with the Lord in this scene dependently upon him as lovely, isn't it? So Peter's bringing that out. And I was thinking as the grace in Ephesians, I believe it's in Ephesians chapter four, we have a nice thought about the grace, the ongoing grace.
That we can have and enjoy verse 7, but unto everyone of us is given grace. It's a grave. It's a gift according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Isn't that a wonderful thought? You cannot really get into that fully. But it means that whatever the circumstance of your life, whatever the trial is Peter Warrens are going through, you can have the grace to go through it.
And the Lord with it is according to the gift of Christ. And it's a wonderful thing to be able to go through these trials. As Peter said, there's a need to be, there's a purpose in it. It lets you know more of what Christ means and is to you, and it strengthens your faith in Him. That's what's wonderful. Well, that's grace, but peace. In John 1427, the Lord says peace. I leave with you. It's my peace.
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I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. It's a peace that can let your heart be free of trouble and concern. It's a peace that that is inner peace to all believers. Well, Peter brings it right out now. Grace and peace be multiplied, and then he starts into the blessings. The blessings.
100 nations or also here's another precious thought in you mentioned brother.
He said and he ascended up on pond. He then kept 30 and gave gifts on the man. Now that he ascended, what is it?
That also descended first, enter the lower part of the earth. There is not expression and time as oppression never descended into the lower parts of the earth. We'd all been lost in half.
He that descended isn't set also that ascendant far above all heavens, that he might feel all faithful.
And he gave some of us.
Come from.
Some advanced, some.
Speech for the perfect of the Saints, for the work of the ministry was identifying of the body of Christ. That's the fairly soul of all that was given that.
Somebody.
There we sing 197.
1 Peter 1:3-7
Reading
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Verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a livelihood by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, And that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.
That the trial of your fate, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, ye love.
In whom, though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, Who prophesied of the Greece that should come unto you?
Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them, did signify, when it testified beforehand, the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, under whom it was revealed that not under themselves found to us, they'd administer the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
Which things the angels desire to look into. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not passing yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance, but as he which has called you is holy.
So be holy.
In all manner of conversation, because it is written.
Be ye holy, for I am holy.
And if He call on the Father, who, without respect to persons, judges according to every man's work past the time of your sojourning here in fear, For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by condition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ.
As of a lamb without Fleming and without support, Who verily was Bourdain before the found east of the world?
But was manifest in these last times for you who by him to believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory. That's your faith and hope might be in God, seeing if purified your souls, and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as a flower of grass. The grass Withers, and the flower that all falls away, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.
A couple of comments for the epistle are helpful. In the Epistle of Peter we have the government of God in connection with the House of God. In the first epistle, its connection with the House of God. In the second epistle it's in connection with the world. And so it tells us in the first epistle, time has come, the judgment must begin at the House of God. And then in the second epistle we have the judgment of God falling upon this world.
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It's destroyed by fire, and there's a new heavens and a new where is it? And so here we have this government of God that is His ways with us of having taken a place of profession, and we have his dealings. We have to remember that God our Father is holy. We need to remember too that He deals with us without respect of persons, the cost by which we have been redeemed. Perhaps just a little common in connection with the government of God.
Just as in a household, a father seeks to maintain a certain order in his household. If it isn't, why he may have to use some form of discipline in order to maintain that order? Because he loves his family and he desires that they should go on in a way that they could be blessed and happy in the family life. Well, God our Father has that care in connection with the family. We call upon the Father who without respect of persons, judges according to every man's work.
I just mentioned these things, brethren, because in Peter's epistle we don't have the truth of the church as the body of Christ. Now that is brought out in Paul's ministry, and it's very precious in its place. But I believe this other side of things is good for us to bear in mind, for we cannot escape this government of God, nor can we fail to receive the blessing as we walk in a way that is pleasing to Him. There's joy unspeakable and full of glory in the path of obedience.
And so obedience brings true joy and happiness to the heart of God and to us too. And this is what is brought before us. And so he contrasts it with the children of Israel called out of the land of Egypt with its slavery, going through the wilderness and God's dealings with them as he brought them to that promised land, and shows us that now it's a comparative thing to the position that we're in. This world has become a wilderness.
Although they were not traveling to a better place in this world, not looking for our rest here as we sang, but rather an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us. Well, I just make these comments because I believe that if we see the character of the Epistle, we can receive a great blessing for our souls in understanding these ways of God with us and with His people. Another thing we might mention in connections with the first existence is that.
Fear continually in every chapter reminds us of the sufferings of Christ, the cross of Christ. There are the glories to follow, but He brings out those sufferings. He was there and saw that cross, and he never forgot it. So He reminds us of the sufferings of Christ. And I suppose that judgment in the House of God is based upon that if we think about.
What grace suffers?
Our sins than we are to go on holy as our chapter says.
Remind, reminding our souls of what he paid to put away our sins. And then in the second epistle, in the second epistle.
He brings before us what He saw when he was with the Lord on the Holy Mountain. The majesty and the government of the world is brought before us in connection.
His Majesty, he who is God over all things, blessed forever, shall be set up in the determinate council of God to cleanse the world and to bring in even the eternal state. And I thought of this first verse we read. How remarkable that a fisherman could write language like this. And the whole of the chapter, the whole of the epistle.
And Peter himself gives us the key. In the second epistle. He says Holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now here was one of those holy men of God, Peter himself, and speaking these things to us by the Holy Ghost.
And we ought to go back and speak a little more about the stranger. We remarked on it yesterday. And to see that Peter is writing to his own brethren in the flesh, Israelites.
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The dispersion. And if we go back and think of that people, they had been chosen by God.
And.
Cultured and brought into the land in Joshua never possessed the whole thing. It was promised to them. They got a part of it, and God brought in the kings and the glory of Solomon's reign. And then there was declension, turning away from God, turning to idolatry. And in the days of Zedekiah, the Jews, that is, those of the line of David, were carried away captive even as before that.
The 10 tribes had been carried away captive and dispersed.
There is still the diaspora come down today, over there in Israel today, but coming on down in the history, a little remnant had been brought back out of Babylon.
Be prepared to receive their Messiah. He was presented to them.
He rejected. They rejected him. Now let's read in Psalm 69.
What the feelings of the Lord are in connection with that?
We get much of the sufferings of Christ from the hands of men in the 69th Psalm and how he felt that.
Verse six of Psalm 69. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake.
Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, oh God of Israel, he says, God of Israel, because for thy sake I have borne reproach, shame, I covered my face. Now notice this verse. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.
For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me.
And yesterday we referred to what Cleopas said.
To Christ in resurrection, before he knew who he was talking to, he said, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem now? That's what he had become to his own brother, that is in the flesh.
But he came in and revealed himself to Cleopas and.
Those faithful and they learned to know him, who he was as a Savior.
And the truth of Christianity.
So then coming down into the book of Acts, we have the gospel, and it went forth to Israel, as we noticed in Acts 2.
It went to them first.
There were still those there who heard the gospel of Jews.
Of Israelites and they believe, and they were added into a new thing.
But then they have to be learned, had to learn and to be taught that like the Lord, they were to suffer strangership down here. This was not their home. This was not their inheritance. It was polluted. Israel had lost the inheritance as to attest under the law completely. Now Peter takes it on by the Spirit of God and brings it on and tells us about the inheritance and even the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
He's going to come and take up his people, earthly people, again after this dispensation. And then I believe these books will be precious to the Jews. But what he's writing to here is Christian Jews who were scattered. And I believe the purpose of scattering, as we get it in Acts 8, was to disperse the gospel, to do bring it into other regions as it did in the history of this book.
And is still doing in the remotest regions of the world when I was in.
Brazil a few years ago, I learned it came out in the news that they had discovered.
A tribe in the Amazon basin they didn't know existed. Well, I suppose there are still those who haven't heard. But the range of the gospel is not just to the Jews, to whosoever. So we have to learn that our inheritance is not here on earth too. It's reserved and kept up there for us. So we are to learn what strangership is down here.
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Then about.
The house I need your name.
He writes about the assembly.
He relates about the remembrance of the name of the Lord.
He never uses the common terms.
Of worldwide Christendom today.
Always speaks in precious home in the name of the Lord Jesus, and speaks also of the joy when they go down to the river to baptize those who become the member of the assembly in the city of Jerusalem last year. Man knows the heart, Jesus Christ.
Disciples.
Of the whole Jewish type, so the Lord Jesus and to the glory and the joy, right in the midst of all the patriots. Peter himself, Peter himself in Acts 15 says we believe that we shall be saved even as they so the Jews have to come into the blessing in this age the same way.
As the Gentiles, so we can see where we fit in this chapter 2 The love of God would reach out and get all of us Gentiles as well as the Jews. His heart is large. He he sends the word to all and wants to bring all into blessing. But when we get this blessing, then we find we're strangers down here and that our hope is in the glory.
Now that you had a hope beforehand, as our verse says.
Hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. The Jew in the old dispensation had a hope. His hope was in dawn, but it wasn't this living hope. Now, through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, the Jew has a living hope. But we Gentiles have the same hope brought into the same place. But you have to get his blessing the same way as a Gentile today.
He calls an abundant mercy here because we know that God thrown across that nation, not my people. And now in his abundant mercy, just as the Lord Jesus in resurrection said that repentance and remission of sin should be preached among all Christians beginning at Jerusalem, just think of that wonderful mercy that God extended, that the first message of grace and pardon through that redemptive work of Calvary was to go out to that nation.
And that they would begotten, be begotten to a new thing, it says, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible, fully corrupted that lamb when they entered it. And then it says, undefiled, the land was defiled under the inhabitants, and then they followed in their ways. And then it says, Fadeth not away. They lost it, they were carried into captivity. Oh brethren, what a wonderful place we have been brought into.
This especially written to those believing Jews, but it's for us too, because.
This portion is ours and all that we would enjoy it. Too often we get taken up for this world as though our hope is here.
But we need to never, never forget that we don't really belong here. We're called from above and heavenly men by birth, what a blessed portion is ours. And then he tells us too, that it's something that can't be lost. And there's a double reservation here, tells us in the fifth verse, we're kept by the power of God. And then it says in the end of the fourth verse, reserved in heaven for you. He might have a reserved seat on the plane, but that's no assurance you're going to be there to fill that seat.
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Seat might be reserved for you, but you might be hindered getting there. But brethren, how wonderful there's a place reserved for us. Every seat in heaven is going to be filled. 4 and 20 seats, and on the seats 4 and 20 elders, every believer will come to the full enjoyment of his portion and as a worshipping priest around the throne, praising him, and every seat will be filled. There's no question it's been reserved for us and we're kept for it. These things ought to fill our hearts with joy.
And truly separate us from the world.
Going noticing an axe to Peter, speaking to the Jews, says Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But Paul in Romans 10 and 13 says exactly the same words Going to the Gentiles, the Romans, whosoever shall call in the name of the Lord shall be saved. The same message going out to everyone.
For all the blessing is in resurrection.
To our living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So our blessing is found in resurrection.
Now since Peter is writing to the Jews, some of these statements have special meaning for Jews, especially through here. This third verse begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of the Lord from among the dead, because they had really forfeited everything by rejecting and crucifying their Messiah. But then, how wonderful this death.
Is the basis and the resurrection for a new blessing into which to be brought. The same is true of the second chapter when in verse 10 it says which in time past we're not a people Now if you apply that especially to the Jews and you better already refer to the Old Testament statement, the judgment that was pronounced upon them low my, not my people that is especially.
A special meeting meaning to a Jew they were because of the government of God.
No longer recognized as a people, but now, since they had come to the Lord Jesus, they were again part of the people of God in a new way, no longer because of their descent from Abraham, but because of their personal faith in the Lord Jesus. And us Gentiles, it's certainly true of us. We never ever were part of an earthly people. We were without hope, without God in the world.
And we too have been brought in to be part of the people of God. But there are some of these statements that have special meaning for the nation of Israel that had rejected their Messiah. And now, since He has come forth triumphantly from the dead, there is a New Hope, but it is no longer connected with the earth. And let me say, this world is not a wilderness because of all the sickness and the sorrows and the grief.
That we might have to face the wilderness. The world is a wilderness because he is not here.
I believe that's a good point to get a hold of. This world is a wilderness because he is not here. He has no place here, and that's why it is a wilderness to us. That's why it is a barren land.
The Lord appeared to both Peter and Paul in a special way.
Thank you, young leader.
The Lord after the resurrection, it says in Luke's Gospel, appeared unto Simon.
That's all that's said about it. We're not told anything about what went on there.
But surely Peter must have been greatly impressed by the fact.
That the Lord Jesus Christ had risen from the dead.
It was something special to Peter.
And surely This is why the Spirit of God brings it in here, because there is something special about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is very important that this must be connected with the Gospel.
And we find when the disciples or whoever went out preaching the gospel as recorded in the book of Acts, that they put emphasis upon the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in more than one case that became a subject of controversy because it's so important, because by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, God raising him from the dead.
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We read you. We read that he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
In death, the Lord Jesus Christ had glorified God. He had taken care of the sin questions, He had taken away all the offensive sin in the eyes of God, and he had answered to all God's holy claims against sins. And it was such a wonderful work that God must raise him from the dead. It was God selling his seal of approval.
Upon the work that the Lord Jesus Christ had done in going into death, taking the judgment for our sins, and God must raise him from the dead. It's God's seal of approval on that work. God has accepted that work by raising the Lord Jesus from the dead, showing it that he accepts it. And that's why the resurrection was opposed, because as soon as you speak of resurrection, it shows that God.
Recognize the value of that work of Christ and raised him from the dead and that's like was opposed and you'll find today that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is opposed. It was opposed in the very beginning. The story went around that the disciples had come and robbed the tomb and carried his body away someplace. The devil wanted that fact hidden that the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.
Then we come to the apostle Paul. He saw the Lord in glory. The Lord revealed himself unto him, and the voice comes from heaven.
Saul, Saul, why persecute us? Thou me?
Well, Saul as a good Pharisee, as a good Jew, recognizing that whenever a voice came from heaven, it was God's voice. He knew that this was God's voice.
But he was surprised in ears when he asked, Lord who act out, he says, I am Jesus whom thou persecutors. Saul of Tarsus got the vision there of a resurrected Christ, and even up there in the glory. And that has been the important point in Paul's gospel too, because he speaks of it when he writes to the Romans, and he speaks of it too when he writes to the Ephesians. Raised from the dead by the mighty power of God.
He was so overwhelmed by this vision that he got that every time he went preaching the gospel, he was preaching the resurrection. We thank God for these revelations to us, what we have about all of this, because we need that to understand that the life we have is resurrection life. It's the power of God, and we not only have life, but we have the Holy Spirit who is the power of that life. That's why it's a living openness.
At the grave side, that tomb of Jesus, those dear women with hearts heavy, but their affections still going out to him, to angels. Why seek ye him that liveth among the dead? And that's the victory cry of a Christian, isn't it? A man is in glory, He died, but he lived, and he ever lives for us. And that's the living hope. And I was thinking that resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead is abases of everything.
And you know you have it in the Old Testament throughout the one beautiful place that you find it is in Exodus chapter 12. And of course these things are hidden, but they come out once we have the New Testament and we have Christ. And you get the mystery brought out. But in verse two of chapter 12, this month shall be unto you the beginning you speak, the redemption, the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.
What is that month? Well, 13th chapter, verse four, it's Amen. It means first fruits. And so you begin to get it right there, the first fruits. And so we go to 1St Corinthians in chapter 15, the resurrection chapter, and in verse 21 we find this so practically brought out 1St 20 but now is Christ risen from the dead.
Become the first fruits of them that's left were sent by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as an animal die, Even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order cries the first fruits the month Amen. Afterwards they that are Christ at his coming. Well, that's why we have this blessed hope. It's a living hope. It's by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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And Peter was begotten that way and we have been begotten that way. It's a new life and the life we have is the life of Christ. And our brother mentioned this is an ignorance fisherman. That's true. But you know in Luke 24 we read the Lord opened their understanding that they may understand the scriptures.
Then the Holy Spirit indwelt themselves.
And they remembered the word of the Lord. And so Peter can write as beautifully as Paul why it's the Holy Spirit of God that moves him and gives him an understanding. And brethren, we have the same. Isn't it wonderful? The Holy Spirit of God is what makes these meetings precious to us and what gives us thoughts in a language that the world doesn't even know, doesn't even know the things of which we speak, nor can they.
From among the dead is important.
Because in the Old Testament we do not have that truth revealed. This is part of Christianity. That's why in Hebrews 6, the things that we should leave or go beyond is the resurrection of the dead. We have more than death. We have the resurrection from among the dead, and we will be raised in the same way in which the Lord Jesus was raised.
But I think what we have to see in this epistle, brethren, is we have to look at it like in the view of the apostles.
Let's remember that in John's Gospel, when Nathaniel came to understand who that person was, he says Thou art the Son of God, the King of Israel.
And the Lord opened the eyes to his disciples. They saw him to be the Messiah. They saw him to be the King. But now he's crucified. His earthly people have rejected him.
And we see how depressed the disciples are underway to Emmaus.
They had hoped that Kingdom to be set up. They again expressed that in Acts chapter. One will tell at this time. While the time has not come, but we see how depressed they are. And I believe that we will read this new and living hope in view of the disappointment that the disciples said they saw in Christ the Messiah. But he was crucified. But what a revelation it was to them that he was alive.
That He was living and He had given them a preview of the Kingdom. All was not lost. Just before He went to the cross, He gave them that view on the mountain, those 3 disciples, so that they would not think that all was lost. It wasn't. And the resurrection is to prove that it isn't all lost. I think that, and it helps us that this living hope begotten to a living hope by the resurrection is especially of significance.
In view of the fact of what the disciples saw when they walked He on earth with the Lord, what they saw in Him, and all their hopes shattered, so to speak, but what a change the resurrection brought in beautiful, but not only was the Kingdom not lost, that was all still coming, but at the present time they had something far more blessed. They had heavenly things, and that is especially also brought out in Hebrews.
You know, so that even the earthly hopes for Israel are not all gone, but they have something more precious now. They have the heavenly things, that which is preserved for them in heaven, but it's all because the one that they thought had been taken away from them in such a violent way. He's not dead, he's living. He's risen. It has a great impact upon Pagan people to have this brought before them.
That that sacrifice that we have is for sacrifice for our sin arose again from the dead. When I was in Africa, we were there for 10 years. We were in a tribe that had never heard the name of Jesus.
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And when I was speaking to them about the death of the Lord Jesus, that He was God's sacrifice for our sin, I spoke to them of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, because this would be a very important thing there amongst them. I would ask them the question, when you sacrifice a goat and you sacrifice that goat to your idol, and perhaps sprinkle some of the blood on the idol and perhaps on the sick person.
Have you ever seen that goat come back to life again? Why, No, no, we've never seen that. Has any of your sacrifices, whether they're chickens or goats, ever come back to life again? No. Well, it was a wonderful way to impress upon them the superiority of God's sacrifice. And you see, in all of the Pagan religions, they may have some person that they venerate and worship.
But that person dead is still in the grave. He hasn't risen from the dead. And you can bring that in in all of these places. And sometimes the pagans are so violent that they will oppose it, even in spite of bringing before them the fact that our sacrifice rose again from the dead.
They have to see who He is. He is God, He's the source itself of life, and until they see that by faith, they can't take it in. But God gives them the faith and the word of God is how they receive it, isn't it? What a wonderful truth. He is life. No man taketh my life from the I take. Lay it down myself. I have power to lay it down, but I have power to take it again. This commandment I've received from my Father, always obedient, but He had that power in him, his life.
That's what we're talking about, brethren. In Him is life, and that's our life. It's eternal, no beginning and no end. It's God, and until they see that, they'll never believe.
Jesus was the beginning of a new order of things entirely. Israel were a sample of man in the flesh and they were given everything as it shows us in Isaiah. It says what more could have been done in my vineyard that I have not done in it?
Wherefore when I look that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes. There was no fruit for God at all from the first man. And so we find when the Lord Jesus went into death. It's a picture to us of the end of the first man. So we might say in connection with the work of Christ, there were three things. The blood of Christ puts our sins away. The death of Christ is the end of all that we were as children of Adam, and the cross is what separates us from the world.
But here is particularly the resurrection. The Lord Jesus lay in the tomb on the Sabbath day, and that was the day they thought so much of and put such emphasis on. The Sabbath was God's pledge of rest on the earth. And the very fact the true Messiah lay in the grave on the Sabbath was to show them that there was no Sabbath for them at all through any works of their own. We know that through the works of their own they hope to obtain a rest, but they didn't, because they didn't keep God's holy law.
So the Lord Jesus is the end of the law for faith. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. And we see in him a new position entirely in resurrection. And while this particularly has to do with God's dealings with the nation of Israel, we see also that as Gentiles, we begin at the place where, so to speak, they ended. If I can put it in that way, Israel being a sample of man in the flesh, everything broke down and failed and saw.
Death of Christ, we see the end of it all. And that's why the Gentile is not looked upon as being the subject of covenants, because the covenant with Israel was a, shall I say, a conditional thing. If they could keep God's holy law, they could get the blessing, but they forfeited every right in that way. So God says now there's no, yeah and nay in Christianity. All the promises of God, in him are yay, and in him Amen.
To the glory of God by us. So the Jew is brought in through the resurrection of Christ into this new position. The Gentile was never put under the law, never put under that test, so to speak. And we too are brought in through this work of Christ. And so he brings particularly Israel. It's written to the dispersed, but it has to do with us, President. And I feel it's very important that we should realize that what we have in this epistle has its application to us.
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This is where we begin. We begin with a risen Christ. We begin with seeing Him up there and our hopes up there.
But we also have to go through in our experiences very much in this world where we learn what kind of a world it is.
And that our home is not here, and that God is going to deal with this in such a way as to remind us constantly that He wants us to walk here for His glory, and that He would have us realize that we can't find our rest here in this world. But oh, how blessed it is. We were saying that all is reserved for us. And we find in the Epistle to the Ephesians, where he came and preached priests. To them which were afar off that was a Gentile, and to them that were nigh.
And through him were both brought nigh through the blood of Christ. So both are brought into the one common blessing. And even though it's particularly to the dispersed of Israel, he takes it up because they would understand what they had to experience in the wilderness. And we as Gentiles have to learn to experience it in a spiritual way, what they had experienced in a natural way. But let's not lose sight of that risen Savior. Let's not lose sight of the glorious future that's ahead of us.
Realize that all His ways with us are to draw our hearts to Himself, either to woo us by His love, or to wean us by the trials of the wilderness. Saw that we set our mind upon things above, and where Christ is.
In Matthew 16, where you have the first mention of the church, the very, very important truth that we're talking about, the resurrection is brought before us.
The Lord asks, who do men say that I the Son of Man AM? And they said, some say, thou art John the Baptist or Elias or Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And he says, But whom say ye that I am? And he answering Peter answering said, Simon answering said, And it's only in Matthew that we get the confession in this way. And the other gospels we get the confession, the Christ of God. But in Matthew he says, thou art the Christ.
Now that's the Old Testament confession. That's what he was to the Jews. He was the Christ, the Messiah of Israel.
And at that point in the Gospel of Matthew, they rejected him as the Christ. And then he goes on to say the Son of the living God. And that brings before us what we've been talking about. Christ in resurrection is the Son of the living God. Romans 14 says he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead.
And so it's the principle of resurrection that establishes beyond all doubt that he is the Son of God. He was declared it by the spirit of holiness and by resurrection from the dead. And if we could for a moment turn back to Leviticus 23, we see this. I was thinking what our brother Bauman was bringing before us in First Corinthians 15. Christ the first fruits afterward, they that are Christ in his at his coming.
And Leviticus 23, we have the seven feasts of Jehovah and the 1St 4 divided in four and three. The last three feasts are all on the in the seventh month. And they all have to do with Israel, the blowing of trumpets, their future regathering, the Day of Atonement, they're brought to repentance, and then the Feast of Tabernacles when they'll be brought into the blessings of the Kingdom. But the first four, the first one is the Passover.
And then the feast of unleavened bread, that holy life, which is to be the portion of all those that come under the value of his death. But then I'm thinking of the 3rd and the 4th feast. The third feast is mentioned in verse 10 and it speaks of the resurrection of Christ.
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you become into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits. Christ the first fruits. Bring up the sheep of the first fruits of your harvest under the priest.
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And you shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted, for you notice on the Morrow after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. So that was done on the first day of the week. It must have been hard for a Jewish mind to understand this. All their feasts were connected with the Sabbath, the 7th day. Now here's the feast connected with the day after the Sabbath, the day on which Christ rose from the dead. Then if we go down to verse 15.
Where you have the feast of Pentecost and it's called the feast of Weeks because they counted 7 weeks from the waving of the sheaf of first fruits plus a day and that brought them to 50 days, which is the meaning of Pentecost.
Verse 15 You shall count unto you from the Morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that he brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be complete. That's 49 days. Even unto the Morrow after the 7th Sabbath. There's your 50 days Pentecost. And that's that again was on the first day of the week, shuggy #50 days. And ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. He shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of 210th deals.
My brother Hale has been bringing before us that Peter, though addressed to the Jews. That would be the first wave. Loaf on the day of Pentecost also applies to us Gentiles. That's the second wave. Love. Acts 10 When the House of Cornelius was brought into the one body and baptized by the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit embraces Jew and Gentile, for by 1 Spirit were ye all baptized into one body.
Whether you be Jews, Acts 2 or Gentiles, Acts 10. And so we have the baptism of the Spirit embracing those two companies, which is really all men on the face of the earth. And you get this here. But notice what it says, verse 17. He shall bring out of your habitations two wave loads of 210th deals. They shall be a fine flower. They shall be bacon with leaven, because the Church has sin in it.
Not upon it, but so there was leaven there. Notice it says they are the first fruits unto the Lord. And as brother Bowman was reading that in first Corinthians 15, how precious that the church is called the first fruits, as well as the Lord Jesus, we are identified with Him in resurrection.
His life is our life, and it's not just that he gives life, but resurrection, as has been brought out, puts us onto new ground, thoroughly and completely separates us from the world, and identifies us with a new position. He has become the beginning, the first born from the dead. He's the beginning of a new creation in resurrection, and that's where we begin. And that's why Peter talks about a living hope.
And in the second chapter, verse four, to whom coming is unto a living stone, verse five, ye also as living stones. We have his life. He's the living stone. We are the living stones. We have Christ in resurrection as our life. And so it's a living hope. It's all living. It's all in connection with resurrection. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, Christ in resurrection.
Beyond sin, beyond death, beyond judgment, beyond the law, a new creation in risen life with Christ. That's the, that's Christianity. And it's so beautiful to see it in the tapes. It's, it's supported by Old Testament Scripture as well as new, and it's so beautiful to see that from the word of God.
James points out something about first fruits. James chapter one and verse 18.
Of His own will He got the US with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruit of His creatures. There we have the being born again connected with the first fruits, and we're spoken of there as a kind of first fruits.
It is true that all these things Peter is telling them now, the Jews, the ones he came to his own, didn't expect or understand, but they should have, because the Lord had told them. He didn't lead them to believe the Kingdom would be set up now. He told them plainly what was going to happen, but they weren't able to take it in. And so when he speaks up to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fate is not away, reserved in heaven.
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That's the new home, because apart from Christ and being there in our Father's house, there is no inheritance. It's all in connection with Him. And yet He told them all about what was to happen. Even though after He was crucified, was in the tomb, they were so depressed. And even after He arose and had appeared unto them the first time, they were still in doubt. Because that's man's heart, isn't it? And the mind of man. But I'd just like to mention in.
Many times, but in Mark's Gospel and chapter 10, and you can find it over and over again. Here's a good example verse 32 and at the end Mark 1032 And he took again the 12 and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered under the chief priests.
And under the Scribe. And they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, and they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him. And the third day he shall rise again. Now he told them that many times. But you see, they weren't able to take this in, because he was the one that was raising those from the dead before their very eyes.
He was the one that when they came to take him, disappeared through their myths, for his time was not yet come. And so they couldn't understand this, but it took Pentecost that we're Speaking of to give them the Spirit of God indwelling when he opened their understanding. And all the things that he said, such as I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you under myself that where I am.
You may be also. That's what we're getting here now. That's what we're getting here. And they can now take it in and Peter is able to tell it out because now his understanding is open. But all these things were told them. It's beautiful, isn't it? All these things were told them by him.
But it's just that His word came back to them and was made good, and their understanding open. And brethren, it's no different with us. We take the same word and the Spirit of God opens our understanding. And now we can enjoy these precious truths that are beyond the the mind of man, beyond the mind of man.
In resurrection we have this inheritance that we cannot lose.
And thinking of that inheritance, we greatly rejoice. But then there is something more in each verse. Whom having not seen ye love, in whom, though now you see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. So it's not only the inheritance, but it's the person we're going to be brought to and brought to now.
And we'll know him and see Him face to face. And contemplating that blessed 10 we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Israel had that inheritance in Canaan, and yet we find in Exodus 19 the Lord bare them on eagle's wings and brought them to himself.
And, beloved, we have been brought to himself, to the Person of Christ.
The one that died for us and rode the gate.
Beautiful to see how Peter learns the Kingdom truth.
He doesn't lose sight. I don't believe how the Lord's promise.
That he gives to the 12 apostles in Luke 22. Ye shall sit upon 12 Thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
James held that to the rights to the 12 tribes scattered abroad. Paul mentions our 12 tribes instantly serving God day and night. Hope to come. He had that hope likewise.
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But Peter has learned now.
Of that better inheritance, the heavenly, the living hope that we are brought into through resurrection.
In the first chapter of Acts, Peter performs the work given to him there by the Spirit of God, speaking to his brethren, saying that.
Are those that accompanied with the Lord.
From the baptism of John till he was taken up, there had to be one appointed to fulfill to fill the office that Judas had fallen from.
So that there would be those 12 apostles to sit upon those 12 Thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel in the coming Kingdom. But then he goes on and says they must be chosen to be a witness with us of the resurrection. Now that's what we have today to bear witness to the resurrection of Christ from the dead. It's perhaps the most important truth that you and I are set here for.
To be a witness of this resurrection which brings us Gentiles saved by grace through faith into that living hope and that inheritance too, that's reserved and kept for us. And we will enjoy the heavenly side of the Kingdom. But there will be Jews taken up and blessed on the earth under Christ in the 1000 years as well. Peter seems to hold all these things in view here in this chapter to me.
Just as all those precious promises in verse 3-4 and five are so true. And we enjoy them now in four tastes. We will enjoy them fully when he comes for us. Six and seven is in the meanwhile. And there is a meanwhile, brethren, this is the place of his rejection. And Peter feels it here as he's writing. And these Jews scattered were feeling it. And you know Peter writes later in the 4th chapter.
About this so he assures them that it's coming, but he says in verse 12, beloved, it's nice whenever Paul or Peter speaks about trials and tribulations, he reminds them their beloved, beloved, think not strange. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice in as much as your partakers of Christ suffering.
That when his glory shall be revealed, he may be glad also with exceeding joy, if he be reproached for the name of Christ. Happy are ye? This is a little different than they expected, but this is what naturally follows from walking with the Lord Jesus in this scene. It naturally follows. Now the Lord had warned Peter about it and everything that's coming out. Peter had been warned. And so if you just look for one verse, maybe 2IN mark.
10 Again, just before where were we reading Mark 10 and verse 28, Peter said to the Lord, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, verily I say unto you, there is no man that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lions, for my sake in the gospel, but he shall receive.
An hundredfold now.
In this time, houses and brethren, sisters, mothers and children and lands with persecutions and the world to come, eternal life. He warned him. And brethren, that's what we have. We have all the promises of God in Christ. They're ours now to enjoy. And when we come together like this, we enjoy them. We ought to enjoy them always. With persecution, brethren, there is a reproach of Christ.
Not, not to us.
We could go on and not do many things that the world does and say we just don't feel it's good to do those things. There may not be a reproach, but if you go on in the light because you belong to Christ, there'll be a reproach. It's the reproach of Christ. And this is the only time and the only place brethren will ever have for all eternity to have that privilege. If Paul speaks of in Philippians 121.
It is given unto you not only to believe in the name of Christ, but also it's a privilege to suffer for His sake. And this is the only time when He comes and we expect Him today, it's forever over. You'll never be able to be identified with that Blessed One here in His rejection and reproach. Never again.
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Much of our difficulty is because we don't want God's timing. We like our own timings. And that was the problem with the disciples. Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?
God is going to fulfill all His promises, but I think we all have difficulty in our lives of accepting God's timing and we have the glorious end and the future ahead of us. We have a present joy, but just to accept in our lives that He may allow these trials and difficulties, persecution and everything that we have to endure. Constantly reminding us that our arrest is not here and our longing is to find our rest here and that the timing is that we have to wait for our rest.
There remain up there for a rest for the people of God.
And so we may not always understand God's ways. Brethren, I believe when it says here in the seventh verse, the trial of your faith being much more precious than a goal that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. It isn't a trial of faith if we understand. It's a trial of faith when we don't understand, when God passes us through something and we don't understand, but we look up and trust Him just the same.
Then that glorifies him. We understand this with our children. There may be some problem and we say, I can't explain it to you right now, but you just hold my hand and everything will be all right. If that child has that confidence to do that, aren't you pleased? Doesn't it give a joy to your heart that that child trusts you, even though it's not explained just at that time why it's happening? And brethren, there's a day coming when we will understand.
Everything that we've had to pass through, whether it's persecution, like some, we're sitting here in pleasant circumstances, are in prison and suffering for Christ sake in other lands. They might say, well, why is America enjoying such liberty and not ourselves? There may be some who have faced particular physical trials, why should it happen to me? And so on. All these things we're going to understand, but what is it that glorifies God?
What renders the brightest testimony to the world? To see a Christian who can't understand why, but rejoices in the midst of his persecution and trial because he sees that God is perfect in all his ways. It says in the Psalms there's a similar thought there As for God, his way is perfect. And then he says he makes my feet like Hinds feet.
That I might be upon my high places.
Well, you know the little hind when it comes to a difficulty, you don't have to remove the hedge or you don't have to remove the gate by it just can spring up and go over it. And that's what the Lord is teaching us. And I believe rather than it's very important for us. And it says it's going to be found on the praise and honor and glory as we read about Joseph and how he was sold by his brethren, how he was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife and put into prison.
How he was forgotten by the Butler. He must have often said why? But all that's going to be found on the praise and honor and glory in the coming day. What a time it will be for Joseph when many a believer goes up to him and says, Joseph, your life was a blessing to me. I saw how God sustained you in all your trials and how in the end you got the blessing he intended for you. And what a cheer has been to us. What praise and glory it will bring to him.
So I just want to say to any who are going through difficulties and trials right now, something you can't understand, trust in the Lord, count upon Him. There's a glory awaiting you that will far exceed anything in your highest expectations and to count upon God.
To have a smile, to have a triumph of faith in that glorifies him. Perhaps even more than preaching the gospel or doing somewhat by seeing like a noble service. One has sometimes said that the more our service puts us in the public eye, the more danger there is to do it for the eye of men.
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Quietly endure persecutions or to go on quietly in home life seeking to bring up a family for the Lord amid all the difficulties, I believe that we may be surprised in that day of manifestation that there will be more praise and honor and glory brought to the Lord by some of these hidden things. So let's not be discouraged if we understand that it's not a trial of faith, but if we say, I don't understand it, but I know God's way is perfect and He gives me grace to rise above it that glorifies Him.
338 expresses some of those thoughts.
1 Peter 1:8-25
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Peter one verse 13. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not passing yourself according to the former lusts and your ignorance. But as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy.
In all manner of conversation.
Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And if you call in the Father, who without respect the persons, judge us according to every man's work past the time of your sojourning here in fear. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Father's.
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without Flemish and without spot, who barely was for ordained before the found east of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who by him to believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.
Seeing ye have purified your souls, and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto uncaned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
The grass witherers, and the flower thereof falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
In the 9th, 1St we have what we already possess, the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. That is when we believe the gospel. We didn't get heaven at once, but we received the salvation of our souls and them. In the verses that follow, he shows what has been revealed to us as our future. The Holy Ghost has been sent down from heaven to lead our souls into the spiritual enjoyment now of that which belongs to us.
And those things are what sustain us.
As we go on in our wilderness life and then where we began, we have those governmental ways of God with us. He either woos us or weans us so that our hearts might be attracted to Him and drawn out to follow Him. But it's important for us to realize that God has not promised us now the salvation of our bodies. He hasn't promised us material things now. All that we can say that we have already received is the salvation of our souls.
But the blessing that belongs to us, our portion in Christ, the future that's ahead of us, they're such wonderful things that as he says, the Holy Ghost has been sent down from heaven. And these are things that the angels desire to look into because we're going to have a more blessed place than the angels who never sinned. This wondrous grace ought to fill our hearts and make us desire to live as the 13th person on, bring before us in a way that would be pleasing to him.
So that he can encourage us instead of dealing with us in his government.
The 11Th verse, there's an order that is important to notice, speaks of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow. We've had something of that in a type of Jonathan just now, and it was the course of Christ himself. These things were revealed in the Old Testament, the Spirit of Christ all through the Old Testament.
By the prophets witnessing to these things, the sufferings of Christ so fully told out in the Psalms and in Isaiah, for instance, and other scriptures. And then the glories that should follow. This should be plural, the glories that should follow, and they are infinite. Now for you and I in our course, it's going to be the same order. Today is the day of suffering.
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With Christ and the glories are going to follow.
The cost of falling peaks of that that if we suffer, we shall reign with them suffering first. Raining time is coming, I'm afraid. Most of us perhaps would like to rain before the time, but it's suffering time now. And to be associated with Christ, identified with the Lord Jesus Christ, as we're in this world means suffering. Can we expect to escape suffering?
If the Lord didn't, the Lord already reminded his disciples about that, that if they persecuted me, they'll persecute you also. So we're not to be alarmed if we get persecution. Sometimes we think that becoming a Christian will mean a rosy path, force, but not necessarily. We may have our times of happiness and rest in the Lord Jesus if we really have him as our Savior and trust Him.
But we can't expect it to be easy here. But we have something in us that really wants that, and that's why we want to settle down. We want to make everything as comfortable for ourselves as possible. I I'm guilty of the same thing. We all have that in US that we want to make it easy for ourselves. We want it comfortable. But did the Lord have it comfortable? No. He suffered like no one else suffered in this sea. And he's going to have the glories. There's no one else.
But think of it, Paul speaks of reigning with him, and that means that we are going to be associated with the Lord Jesus in those glories. What more could we ask?
His first eleven I believe is a key verse to understand following chapters.
Some have had some difficulty.
In the third chapter in connection with the.
The the 19th 1St.
Well.
1919 and 20 I was thinking of the 19th verse speaking by which also he went and preached out of the spirit in prison.
Some of the and I believe is taught in criticism that the Lord Jesus went down into hell. The priests under those spirits. But I believe this 11Th verse of the first chapter really gives us to understand it's a key verse searching what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them. In other words, with the spirit of Christ in those those days and Noah's days that preach to those people. They're now in prison in the prison House of the lost.
The spirit of Christ of Noah's day that really preaches that so so I think it's helpful to notice this eleven first. It is a key verse to understand what we have in chapter 3.
It also shows us the difference between Old Testament revelations and New Testament. Those prophets had to sit down and study their own prophecies. You know, they realized that it was Speaking of a time to come, but they didn't know. They didn't understand the things that were communicated even through them. And they searched and they studied. But what a wonderful thing they were, prophetically Speaking of salvation that you and I.
Enjoy today and in the trials and difficulties. What struck me so in verse 6 is.
Wearing he greatly rejoice that is that salvation dough now for a season if need be here in heaviness to manifold temptations, beloved.
Let not the enemy rob us of their joy. Let's rejoice in that salvation.
And remind ourselves of how great that salvation is. This is what helps us to be sustained in the trials, and the difficulties to rejoice, as here he says greatly in that salvation.
That which the prophets prophesied has come to you and to me.
The word grace comes in placed in our chapter and it's rather important to notice that in verse 10.
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Who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you? Well, it has come. It's all great, the salvation of our soul. It's all of grace, it's all it has come to us. But where we began reading in the 13th verse, it goes farther and says, Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, and be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The grace there in verse 10 is connected surely with verse 9, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your soul. Now go back to verse 5 and you have another salvation work kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Well, this brings in surely the salvation of the body when the Lord comes.
So to me.
The verse 13 at the revelation of Jesus Christ is the first time we see Him. When He comes, we will get that salvation of the body too, and grace that just will go on and amplify and magnify throughout all eternity.
Verse 13 Country where, Wherefore, having girded up the loins of your mind.
And so it seemed, the one that girding up with the loins, that place of strength should take place.
Immediately or all the time, we should be constantly girded.
The more we read the precious Word of God girding up the loins of our minds, and then there will be that which would keep us.
Knowledge of the Word wouldn't keep us, but it should draw out our hearts to Christ. In Ephesians 6 we have.
Girding up the loins as part of the armor.
Your lawyers dirt about this truth.
We have to be careful how we allow our minds to wander, don't we? Because the enemy works upon the mind, the God of this world that blinded the minds of them that believe not, and we have to be careful. It was also read to us in one of the other meetings in Two Corinthians 10. It says casting down imaginations or reasoning and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And so we have to constantly be watching our minds.
We find the same thing in the 12Th chapter of Romans. Just turn to it for a moment.
Romans, chapter 12.
Verse One. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable or intelligent service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
There are many things that the Levites were called upon to do, and the priests in Israel that was not an intelligence service. They didn't understand, but they did it in obedience. You asked them why did you cut the animal in such and such a way? He just did it in obedience to God, but without understanding mine. But you and I are called to an intelligence service, and we ought to know why we're doing things, because we have that instruction in the Word.
And we also have the Spirit of God indwelling us to lead us into all truth. And so we need to have our minds renewed, brethren, constantly in the world. We have the world's thoughts, the world's way of looking at things constantly before us. And we all know that all the advertising and all the comments that we hear are to look at things as men of the world look at them. But when we come into the presence of God and we read His words and we look at things from God's viewpoint.
And then our mind is renewed. And that's the importance of coming to the Bible reading and the prayer meeting. Very often we've had our mind filled with all kinds of worldly things and prospects, and we come to the meeting and our vine gets renewed. We learn what the will of God is. And if we have really learned this about presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, then we say, well, I'm not going to let my mind just call Helter Skelter after everything that the world thinks about.
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But I'm going to bring my mind into subjection to the Word of God so that the things that we desire to do, the things that we live for are, shall I say, our true values in life are important things. They're all governed by the Word of God. And I believe that's what it means. Gird up the loins of your mind. Don't just let it run everywhere, but you've presented your body to the Lord. Now let your mind be under control of the Word of God, and you'll learn his perfect will. For in that will there is blessing out of that will.
He loves us too much to let us go our own way. So then we have what follows the governmental ways of God, how He may have to deal with us if need be, if there's something that He sees needs to be corrected and He brings something into our lives to correct that because we didn't allow our minds to be renewed by His word. So he says, well, you have lots of time to think about it if I set you aside perhaps for a little while, and now you have time to think about my will.
So that you'll do it.
Brother Gordon, would you give us some thought on the third verse of Romans 12?
The way that reads in the new translation, it says for I say through the grace which has been given to me, to everyone that is among you, not to have high thoughts above what he should think, but to think so as to be wise. And then.
Some thoughts on Colossians 218 but first Romans 312. Three, if you would.
While I'd like to connect that with if we could turn to Galatians chapter 6.
Galatians chapter 6 and verse 3.
But if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another, For every man shall bear his own burden.
I believe there's a reference here to the Levites. They were all brought to Aaron, and Aaron appointed to everyone his service and to everyone his burden. And the coat sites carried the ark. The sons of Barrera did a different work and carried different things. If one of the sons of Murray were to say, well, I'm going to carry the heart today, he was thinking of himself more highly than he ought to think because that wasn't given to him.
By one of the coercise said, well, I, I think I'm too proud to be always bearing the art. No, he was, he was having right thoughts because that was the work that was assigned to him. He was to do it humbly, but do it as something that was assigned to him and given to him. And I think you can see that context if you read on in Romans 11, because he talks about teaching, he talks about ministry and so on.
And prophecy and that each one was to know the function that was given to him in the body of Christ and to fulfill it. If he aspired for something that was not given to him by it was not really his particular word. But the Lord might give to someone like to the apostle Paul to be a foundation layer. Well, that wasn't given to me, but it was given to him. Was he taking up too high a place to save as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation.
No, he was thinking soberly. God had given him a work to do and he was seeking to do it. Did he do it with high thoughts? No, he said he was less than the least of All Saints. He was nothing, but he was seeking to do the work. And I think it's very beautiful there in Galatians. It says for them shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. I think it's possible for us to be wishing our lives away that we were doing some.
Workout in Africa or out in some other foreign country and thinking we're wasting our time here back in this country or at the desk day by day. God says, oh, not at all. If I called you to be at the desk every day, you're not wasting your time. You can be happy there because I wanted to witness in that office and that's why I put you there and I wanted somebody else out in Africa. They can be happy because that's where the Lord wanted them. And I might just comment that when it says.
00:20:03
Every man shall bear his own burden. There's a different word for burden than in the place where it says the verse before and the second verse there you want another's burdens. And then it says after speaking to us, having rejoicing in our work, then it says every man shall bear his own burden. Those are two different words for burden, brethren. In the first one, it has to do with a burden and heat of the day. And if you see a brother in trial or a sister.
Go and share the burden with him, help him. He needs help, he needs encouragement, and you can help him to bear that burden. But the other word is the one from Matthew Chapter 11 where the Lord said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Has the Lord given you something to do? Don't try to give it to somebody else.
The Lord gave it to you to do you do it and do it humbly. Do it with love for Him and love for His people. But that's the word that He gave to you and He wants you to be happy in it, whether it's being a help in the assembly or whether it's being a preacher or whether it's being a mother in the home.
What a wonderful service the mother of Moses and Aaron and and Miriam did, and just bringing up three wonderful children like that. I've often said to people, do you know the names of the mother and father of Moses and Aaron and Miriam? Very few people ever heard their names. I said, did you ever hear of Priscilla and Aquila? Oh sure, I've heard about them, but I don't know the names of the parents. Well, Priscilla had a different word, but these, this father and mother had a quiet work where they were hidden, but the results of their work were three children.
Who grew up to be so useful for God. So it's doing what God wants us to do and being happy in it. And you're not thinking too much of yourself, just to do what God wants you to do humbly. And is unto him not seeking recognition for mothers, just satisfied that that's the burden appointed to you.
In in Psalms 56 along what you just mentioned the different meaning of burden verse 22.
It says I'm sorry, it's 55 verse 22.
Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. And the gut margin here has gifts, but.
JND in his translation has a note and it says you're assigned portion and I believe it is a gift of God, but it's your assigned portion. That's the thought of the second meaning of burden.
Would you please give us a thought now on Colossians 218? Peter tells us to gird up the loins of our mind, and there we read about something vainly popped up by his fleshly mind.
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility in worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the hens.
Well, I suppose in what they were doing, they were introducing those things which had quite a good appearance. It looked very humble for them to put on a show of humility and worshipping of angels was something that had no proper place. But it looked like something that was done in a spiritual way. Just like even we find John falling down to worship the Angel. He had received such wonderful communications through that Angel. He got occupied with the servant who was just an Angel.
And that looked as if he was very humble falling down. But the Angel said, no, don't fall down before me. You worship God. We find the same with Peter. When Cornelius fell at his feet, he said stand upon thy feet. I myself also, I'm a man. So we can like put on a show of humility. And it's our own idea. It's something in our own mind. It's not by the direction of the word of God. The direction of the word of God would cause us to hold a hand.
And if we if God has granted to us those who can help us in the Scripture, we thank him for it, but we're not to exalt them.
Perhaps we recall that our brother Mr. Darby, in his time someone put out a publication and put a little introduction giving a great word of exaltation for Mr. Darby, for he was an eminent teacher and all this kind of thing, and he wrote a letter to the man.
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And said to the man, he said, if you ever publish that again, don't put that in about me.
If you want to say I'm a servant of the Lord, that's enough to say about me. Well, it sounded very nice. And you can find in the publications of the day, you'll find pictures of people and all the degrees they have and all the things they've done in their lifetime. All. Let's forget that God won't forget anything that's done for him, brethren.
Let's forget anything that's done for him. God's got the record up there where to hold the head. But we can put on a show that exalts the flesh and gives honor to man, but the flesh profits nothing. Is it not food? Food, if you might think higher of ourselves than we ought to think. That's true. But I believe there is also a danger that the Saints put us in a place.
Which is not given to us of the Lord and to come right down to so we can understand what I'm driving. It is a brother is exercised about preaching the gospel and no doubt has a gift in it and he gives up his employment and he desires to serve the Lord. The Saints tend to give him the podium for teaching the Saints and all this kind of a thing I believe.
We sometimes spoil our brethren by trying to push them into a place for which the Lord has not qualified them, and really, the sphere of service that the Lord has given to them is suffering as a result of it. I believe there is such a thing. We certainly are happy for any encouragement that comes to the sayings by any brother, but let's remember that the brother has a sphere of service.
And let's not try to push him into a sphere that has not been given to him of the Lord.
That's what it says in Romans 12, doesn't it, the different services in the body of Christ and that each one, the person himself ought to recognize that though, and I know that our brother Martin has gone to be with the Lord, but he felt very much that he was called to the gospel and he he sought opportunities to preach the gospel and reminded the brethren constantly that his work was the gospel. Well, I thought that was good on his part and I think the Lord blessed him in his work of spreading the gospel.
There's another thought here in verse 12.
About the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
We must not forget that the Holy Ghost was not sent down from heaven.
During the Old Testament times, there were certain ones that were empowered by the Spirit of God. The Spirit came upon them to do a special work, whatever work the Lord had called him to do. But that wasn't the Holy Spirit coming down here on this earth to dwell. What characterizes this dispensation is that the Holy Ghost is here in this world. He's in the assembly, and He's in the hearts of each believer.
And we must forget that the Holy Spirit is here, and the Holy Spirit will always guide us according to His Word. The Holy Spirit will not guide anyone, contrary to the word that He has indicted, because holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. I remember being in Kansas one place.
And having some gospel meetings in a schoolhouse.
And along in the preaching, a couple came in and sat in the back. Well, a lot of these people were not known to me when they came the first time, but this couple sat there in the back and they stayed there until I got back to the master of the service. And I got to talking to them. And I found out that both the man and his wife were preachers.
And I asked him, well, do you both get up into the pulpit to preach? Yes.
I pointed out to them that verse in first Corinthians 14 about the women being silent in the assembly and also in Timothy. I suffer not a woman to usurp, but to teacher, to your usurp authority over the man. All but she says, when the Spirit of God comes on me, I got to get up and preach.
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I said the Holy Spirit is the one who filled the apostle Paul and guided him in the writing of this letter.
It's really written by the Spirit of God, a direction by God, by his Spirit. How can you go contrary to that? Well, there wasn't any answer. I don't know what the result of it was, but we take so much liberty with the fact that the Holy Spirit is here, and perhaps we get the idea. Well, now we can do anything we want to, but we must be guided by the Spirit of God who has given us that word. If we're not guided that way by the Spirit of God, we're not guided of God at all.
God guides us by His Spirit, using the Word to enlighten our hearts and enlighten our minds and empower us too to give out the gospel. It's not by miter power, it's by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. And I have seen pagans converted over in the mission field just reading the gospel, the word to them that I translated and preaching to them in a simple way in their own language.
And the first thing you knew, you know, there was something happened in them. It wasn't my preaching. It was the word of God used by the Spirit of God. He was the one that was working in their hearts. And we need to remember that when we're standing up to preach the gospel, whether it's on the street corner or in the in the meeting or even talking individually to people, it's not by my eloquence or the way I present it. I must be guided by the Spirit. But it's only by the Spirit of God that that word is going to do anything in the soul of people.
We must be remember that, but let's remember the Holy Spirit was sent down to heaven from heaven.
And he is here to guide us and to direct us and to empower, to do God's work, to do God's will, to please the Lord and to help souls. That's what he's here for. In the Old Testament, even they were exhorted to trust God.
Because Zechariah was told, or Zechariah says in his prophecy, not by might or by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. And what were they doing? Well, the children of Israel were back from Babylon, from captivity, and they were building the temple. Well, they got the foundation laid, and then it stopped. There was so much opposition there from the enemies that they got discouraged. Well, God says to Zechariah.
And tell them, and it's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, if they will trust me. It's like God saying you trust me, you trust my Holy Spirit, and I'll empower you to finish that temple. And when the preaching was done, they began to work and the work was finished. Now it doesn't make much difference what it is, what kind of work it is we're doing. If we're in the Lord's will in it, He'll help us in doing it. But especially in spiritual things, we must.
Depend upon God by His Spirit to work and to guide us and to lead us and empower us, because without the Lord we can do nothing, and without dependence upon God to work in and through it by His Spirit, nothing will be accomplished.
Believe. That's why in the 14th verse we have as obedient children. It's a lovely thought because we are the children of God now, before we were children of disobedience.
And now we are the children of God, and we have the Spirit of Christ in us, as it says in Romans 8. And He always did the Father's will. That's obedience. And so that should characterize us, should it not? You notice in the second chapter he says in verse 7 unto you therefore, which believe he is the preciousness, the other translation. But under them which believe not, Oh no, under them which be disobedience, that's the Spirit.
Of us before and the spirit of all without Christ their disobedient and then the other translation is said is that disallowed said he's castaway as worthless to them that are disobedient. It's preciousness or castaway is worthless. And the difference is we have the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of obedience and it's lovely to see that as you say the word of God with the Spirit of God brings in the difference I just mentioned.
00:35:01
I was going to mention it for prayer, but there's a nice work going on up in Saskatchewan among the Crees and the reserves. It's a continuous work up there now and I think it's something we should pray about. It's an open door and a vast field ripe for harvest. And I've gone up there several years just to encourage Brother Harold Bateman, who does go up, and he's not as well. But there's a lot of young ones there and Regina that are going up and working with them and bringing them in. But at any rate.
This year Harold had it on his heart to get back and visit some that have received Christ and have the word sent into their house weekly, either by the messages of the love and tracts and other things, and have a Bible. And you know, I was so discouraged in former years on the reserves at the filthiness, the terrible degradation, the the terrible scenes that you'll see everywhere in and out of the cabins and houses.
But this time we went to seven reserves and just visited. Those who had one or more in the cabin received Christ. And the difference is beautiful. It's clean, it's picked up. The children are clean. They have text on the walls. They bring their Bibles. There's a difference. There's no one continuing with them like we have brethren where we have our brethren to encourage us. They're there alone in that, in the in the heat, darkness, in the terrible evil.
But the fruit is there and what is it? It's the Spirit of God within them, thou and the word of God taken by the Spirit of God. And it says here as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to former lust in your ignorance, but holiness. And that's done by the as you mentioned, it's, it's the Spirit of God now working within a soul. Well, pray for them up there. There's a nice work going on.
And it's continuing now from Regina and Craven on up. There's 200 reserves of Greece alone. And there's other thought holes and and the Sioux and the Jeb boy and the Sinner boy and others. But they're mostly Crees and they receive the word, the, the young ones, the little ones and the parents threw them.
Halloween knows the nature is that the Newman is created in righteousness and true holiness. And so being in the family of God, what characterizes the family of God is obedience and obedience and holiness, and holiness is the abhorrence of evil with delight in good. So this is the character of the new men. But we are affected by past habits and past environment and so on, and we have to remember that God's standard doesn't change with different nationalities or what His standard of holiness and what is due to Him. It's the same.
And so it's important that we should learn this. And then as it says in the 17th verse, if you call on the Father who without respect of persons, judges according to every man's work past the time of your Assad journey here in fear, perhaps we could put it simply like this. We don't get away with anything. Perhaps we can get away with things with our earthly parents because they don't always know what we're doing. But he says God doesn't make any respect of persons.
He doesn't have favorites. He doesn't say because we're this or that family, that he's going to let something pass. He's the one who judges without respect to persons, and we ought to fear his government. It isn't the fear of dread, but a fear of displeasing him. And I believe that's important for us. It says feed out in the fear of the Lord all day long. And again, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so that ought to characterize the Christian.
That he's afraid to do something displeasing to his Lord. It isn't, as I say, dread, but it is that we don't get away with it. And God will have to deal in his government. But it's love, it's for our good, but he delights to bless, and he wants us to walk in a path of obedience. He said to Peter, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. And if we're not willing to put our feet into the hands of the Lord Jesus and let him wash our feet, we're going to lose the happy privilege of having part or fellowship with Him walking in his company.
His Leviticus 11 we had a chapter that speaks of the clean and unclean animals.
That the Israelite was permitted to feed on or not to feed on. And in that chapter we have this same statement that we have here in Peter in verse 45. Be holy, for I am holy. I believe this is very instructive. How can we form or how can we?
00:40:14
Be conformed by our former lives. I think you can learn from that chapter in Leviticus 11, because these characteristics of the unclean animals speak of not feasting on that which might have an adverse effect on our character. It forms our being in character. We take character from the things that we feed on, and we know what the world turns to for their enjoyment and pleasure.
And in most cases it has to do with lust and the flesh feeding the flesh. Well, we have to be aware that we have to avoid these things and otherwise we are still feeding the old nature, the flesh. And we must not be surprised if unholiness is manifested in our walk and in our ways. But we don't have just a negative side, we have the positive side.
Of feeding on that which speaks of Christ and that which speaks of the new nature. Like the animals they were permitted to feed on were animals that had split hoofs and chewed the cut, so they were taking in the truth and word of God. And it was shown in their walk outwardly with the fish they had to have fins and scales.
So there was that which spoke of the divine nature which by which we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, and it doesn't allow the evil to penetrate. But it also had to have fins that would speak of the energy of that divine nature which enables us to go against the stream, not to be drifting along by anything that comes our way in the world of entertainment and pleasure. And that sort of a thing we can feed on that which will.
Creating us, you might say, the same characteristics and it might be reflected in US. Be holy, for I am holy. Let beware of what we feed on. It's significant, is it not, that in that chapter where it speaks of these clean and unclean animals, we have that same statement that we have here in first Peter. One be holy if I am holy.
And numbers 5. The children of Israel had to put out of the camp every leper.
Everyone had an issue, everyone that was defiled by the dead, that you defile, not your camps in the midst where all thy dwell. It's the same today, whether it's collectively in the assembly or as an individual. There must be separation from evil because the Lord is in the midst. We cannot go on with Him and go on with evil at the same time.
While I believe you're saying holiness is really a nature, and so it's the abhorrence of evil, the delighting good. Adam and Eve were innocent. They didn't have the knowledge of good and evil. So there's a difference between innocence and holiness. After they had sinned, then they had a fallen nature. They delighted in what's evil, but they didn't have delight in good. Their nature was fallen. But when you and I received the Lord Jesus as Savior, then we received a new nature.
And that new nature delights in the things of God, abhors that which is evil. So it's spoken of as being created in righteousness and true holiness. Now that's to be the manifested character in our lives. The world is to see that new life in US, and that's why it tells us in John's epistle, the world knoweth us, not because it knew him, not because we look like children of Adam, but we're really children of God.
And so they say, well, I don't understand those people. They have different motives and ideas and they live a different way. Well as far as the food that we eat, it's the same and many things that we do, but that which has to do with moral and spiritual things. While then we have God standards and not man's and they're in direct conflict. That is the morals that God sets before us in His word may not be in agreement with the morals that are taught in the world.
00:45:06
The standards of what is right and wrong. We have standards that have been founded upon the word of God and not Oh well, everybody is doing it. It can't be so wrong. It's important that we should see this and we have this character, though we have received this new life. Now let's just play it, he said. Because one is often said that Christian is like a house with two tenants. We still have that old nature. We still have that fallen nature that once did all those other things and it's there.
We're told to reckon the dead, but we're told that we should put on the Newman.
Or having put it on and display it in a practical way in our lives.
There's a verse in Numbers six. It's verse eight that brings it out to unholiness.
And the verse says, All the days of his separation, he is holy unto the Lord. Now this of course speaks of the Nazarite, who separated himself under the Lord, and wholly characterized him. And.
The word Nazareth, the word separation, the word consecration in the Hebrew, all from the same root word Nazar. It's the same thing. He consecrated and separated himself under the Lord, and he was only He is holy because the Lord is holy. Three things.
No wine or nothing from the grape, not even from the seeds to the skin. And that means all of his pleasure, all of his joy.
Was found in the Lord, not here in the Lord. The second thing was no razor to his head, and that meant that he would seek no place for himself in this world. It was all for the Lord. The third thing is what we're talking about. No dead body and that sin in its effects.
Holy unto the Lord, So you see, it says all the days of his separation. The key is separation. The key is separation.
From everything down here that defiles and then you can be holy because he's holy.
And we've got a life that can do that. It delights in the good things of the Lord and it hoards the things down here. It's only that old nature we've been speaking about that rebels in this things of this world. And Satan knows how to attract it. But we can be have the character at least of the Nazarite.
Today the Lord was the perfect example of a Nazarite.
And always it helps us to look at him, just to be watching him. And if you want to have a good look at the Lord Jesus Christ, just read the gospel. Read the gospel.
And read about him to see what the apostle said about the Lord. Jesus ought to have him before us and that perfect life, what a help it is to us. And we've groaned within ourselves when we see how far short we come. But if we go to the Lord who is on the throne above as a high priest to get grace and mercy to help us in our time of need, we'll get it. We must go back to Him.
It's not only to Calvary.
But it's to him as an example after we've been saved, and it's looking at him and watching him in his life, which we get in the Gospels. We don't have to have it portrayed on a screen. We don't have to have the movies and all of that. Just read what God has said about His Son hearing the word of God, and it will serve to sanctify us.
Like it's beautiful brother, instead of the connection which holiness is mentioned here going on the next few verses versus 18 and 19, and the Lord Jesus is brought out as the lamb foreordained, and the cost of our redemption is that precious blood of Christ. In the Old Testament there were two feasts of Jehovah that were linked together, the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The Passover came first, and immediately following were seven days in which they had to be careful not to eat and not even have in their dwellings leaven, which speaks of evil. And so I really think there's a connection in these verses when it speaks of holiness and of passing the time of our soul journey here in fear, fear of displeasing Him. Why is it? It's because He paid such a terrible price on Calvary to redeem us to God.
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And I think that's the real power in holiness is to get back to the cross of Calvary and see there that terrible agony that the Lord Jesus suffered for our sins. How can we stand there and gaze at it all and then go out and freely go into this life of sin? It's impossible to do the two things go together that.
Precious blood that saved us, that terrible cost that was paid. Contemplating that is what's going to help us to live lives of holiness to the Lord.
It says let us keep the feast.
In verse 81 Corinthians 5, Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness.
But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, you speak of the Feast of Unleavened bread these seven days. That's a complete cycle. And when it speaks of keeping the feast here, I believe it refers to the whole time of our life that we're here after we're saved, all that cycle of our life till the Lord takes us home and not to give up.
They were not to give up this feast one day out of the seven. They were not to take any vacation, no holiday here. Let us keep the feast through the whole cycle that we're left here on this earth until we're taken home to glory, the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
We have on the end of the chapter, then the blood in the water. You have the blood that has put away our sins before God, and then we have the water of the Word and we have purified our souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit. We're born again by the Word of God and it lives and abides forever. So we have our past and all our sins. Not only our past, but the whole question of our sins has been settled and we have become creatures in Christ Jesus.
And so we find that we have a life here now that doesn't glory in the flesh, doesn't glory in all the things of this world, but now attracts us.
Brings before us those things that belong to Christ and what is pleasing to Him. So it's by the washing of water, by the Word, that we walk in communion with Him and to please Him.
160.
Wait
Address—R. Pilkington
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I'd like to speak this afternoon about something I feel.
That if we can learn it when we're young.
Will be a tremendous help to us.
And yet I know.
That this characteristic.
It's very needful.
In older life also.
Can we turn to First Samuel, chapter 10?
This is where they choose the king.
And Saul is.
Chosen to be the king.
And see if I can put my finger on the verse. Just a bit of background.
Here it is chapter 10 and verse.
We can maybe start with six and read to 8.
Mr. Samuel speaking to SO.
For six, in the spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophecy with them.
And shall be turned into another man.
And let it be, when these signs are come upon thee, that thou shalt do his occasion serve thee, for God is with thee.
And thou shall go down before me to Gilgal.
And before and behold, I will come down unto thee to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days shalt thou tarry, till I come to thee, and show thee what thou shalt do.
Background only to say that Sammy was told that he'll be another man.
And he's given specific instructions notice.
In verse eight, he said, Wait seven days, wait seven days until I come and I'll tell you what you ought to do.
Very specific instructions specific.
Command to him. Verse #8 it says.
Verse #7 It says, and let it be, when these signs are come upon thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee. Perhaps he had a bit of.
He could. It says there's a occasion arises, then you do what needs to be done. But in verse eight it is not. It is a specific instruction. Wait seven days until I come to offer the burnt offering and I'll tell you what you ought to do. Now let's skip over and see what Saul did.
Chapter 13.
Background to what happens is verse number 567. Verse number 567 and the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel 30,000 Chariots and 6000 horsemen and people as the sand which is on the seesaw in multitude, and it came up and pitched in mishmash eastward from Beth Haven.
And when the men of Israel saw that they were in a Strait, for the people were distressed.
Then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits. And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad. And Gilead, as foresaw he was. Yet in Gilgal all the people followed him trembling.
00:05:15
Now Saul is in trouble. He's in the right place, Gilgal. That's where he was told to go.
But there's real pressure on him now because the enemies have come up against him to fight.
Let's continue reading for safe.
And he tarried seven days according to the set time that saw Samuel had appointed. But Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him.
Situation is getting worse.
The people start to get scattered from him. The pressure is becoming greater and greater.
Verse nine and Saul said bring hit her a burnt offering to me and peace offerings and he offered the burnt offering.
Came to pass, that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came and saw a window to meet him, that he might salute him.
The burden of my heart this afternoon.
Is one word weight?
Wait, so did not feel that he could wait. The pressure was on him, real pressure, real responsibility for the people of God. Even they get scattered from him. He didn't feel that he could wait for Samuel, according to.
To the word of Samuel, he said, Wait seven days until I come.
And so he offered up.
The burnt offering.
And we see in verse 11 his response to Samuel.
Samuel said.
What hast thou done? Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at mishmash. Therefore said I, the Philistines will come down upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the Lord, I forced myself.
And offered a burnt offering.
And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly.
Dear young people, older ones, I suppose, all of us.
Wait for the Lord. I feel it to be so necessary in these last days of weakness.
When everything seems to be going wrong.
Look at Samuel. Think about it. He had every reason not to wait, he tells Samuel in verse 9, verse 10. He gives all his reasons, valid reasons. They sounded sensible.
But they were in direct disobedience to what he was told to do by Samuel the prophet of the Lord.
And Samuel says, Saul says, And I feel for Saul, he says, I forced myself. I forced myself. But.
Samuel is very blunt.
He said you have done foolishly. You have done foolishly because.
You have not kept the commandment of thy God, which he commanded thee.
I feel that this is a day.
Have tremendous pressure. I know it is in Hong Kong.
Just last week, a young person.
Said the very same thing to me. Life is so pressure, I just don't have the time.
And we need to take time.
To be quiet before the Lord, to seek his mind.
A brother who some of you know, Larry from Hong Kong, he told us, he said.
Don't be mistaken, God is not a lawyer. Some people treat God as a lawyer where they rush in when they have trouble, and if they don't have trouble, they just simply don't go and see Him. And you can't treat God that way. You have to take time to be quiet.
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Have you ever had the experience?
Like I have.
In the morning of sitting down, opening your Bible.
You read the words, but there's nothing there. It doesn't seem to have any message for you. Ever had the experience where you are under pressure to act?
You feel that you must act. You see the situation around you disintegrating and you say if I don't act now, it's going to be worse.
But have you waited for the Lord?
Can you act? When you act? Can you say I have a direct command of the Lord? Do you do it in quiet waiting upon the Lord? Do you do make your decision? As you make your decision, do you pray over it?
Samuel said to some You've done foolishly. You didn't wait. You didn't wait. The burden of my heart this afternoon is that wait. I know we can be lazy and we're going to come to it in just a second, Brother Bill pointed out to us. Saul sitting under pomegranate tree.
But so often, it's so easy.
To rush about and not really be aware of what the will of the Lord is to a young person. I plead with you, make sure beforehand. There are times, on the other hand, I don't want to distort the view. There are sometimes in my own personal experience.
When I have to act.
And I would be afraid to say God told me to do this.
This is the will of the Lord, I'm sure of it.
And the way I treat it is, it's very simple. If I knew exactly what the will of the Lord was 24 hours a day.
I'd be the most proud person on the face of the earth. And so sometimes I'm not quite so sure. But in those situations, before I can act, I quietly say to the Lord, the time has come to act. I'm not trying to force your hand. I think this is what you want me to do.
Now, Lord Jesus, I'm going to take a step. Please feel quite free to step in to my life and hinder me if it's really not your will. And then.
If I find a roadblock in the road, I really have to think hard of whether it's Satan trying to hinder me or whether it's really the Lord putting a roadblock to stop me from doing something that's not his will. And so I begin with this little story of Saul.
He couldn't wait. He couldn't wait. Oh, I feel so much in my own heart. I get so busy and I so wound up just like a brother. Appreciate his humor. He said. We get or like little toys that, you know, you wind them up and away they go. I can't stop them. They run up against the chair and like the wheels keep spinning. So easy to get like that today because there is real pressure in life. There is real pressure in life and our lives are very busy.
Not only in business wise, but socially wise.
Socially wise, do you take time out?
To be quiet with the Lord.
You say I can't, I'm too busy. Every night of the week seems as if there's something. Why don't you, why don't you make an appointment with the Lord for one evening? Someone says come on over to our house and do something, say sorry, I'm busy that evening.
We're quiet with the Lord.
Get along with him.
To quietly pray and read. I found so helpful in my own life that when I'm really under pressure in Hong Kong, I like to get out to the mountains, to the reservoir roads way back in, where nobody else can get in.
And I like to walk along those quiet tracks, sometimes kneel on the track and pray, sometimes walk along quietly, praying to the Lord and say I'm under pressure. I don't understand the situation. It seems to be getting worse. Lord, could you talk to me please and help me? I don't demand that the Lord answer me within 5 minutes.
He is not to be commanded around, but when I have asked him I try to make sure I'm listening.
When a brother or sister talks to me, when I'm sitting in meeting, if suddenly a verse occurs to my mind, I make pretty sure I remember what that verse is. And not only that, I go back to the word of God and look it up and I see what comes before that verse, what comes after that verse. And sometimes I find that that passage of Scripture 100%.
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Fits my situation and then I can say with assurance.
I feel that this is the voice of the Lord to me.
Take time to be quiet with the Lord, to wait for Him in your situations.
Samuel here couldn't wait, and the Lord said you're foolish, you, Samuel said to Saul. He said you have done foolish, you are really foolish, and you have disobeyed the commandment of the Lord. What was the result? He said.
Verse 13 And for now would the Lord have established thy Kingdom upon Israel forever, but now thy Kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.
Sometimes it's not so much.
That we did the wrong thing.
But we did it too fast. We didn't wait for the Lord's time.
And so I encourage each one of us, young people especially, learn.
While you're young.
To have time to be quiet before the Lord. You can find your own spot. For me, it's a mountainside.
For you, it might be your house, quiet, your apartment might be your room, somewhere where your heart.
Can feel at ease and quiet.
You see I couldn't probably use my room because it's piled high with Bible light stuff that's waiting to be done. I probably sit down and I say OK, I had my 5 minutes now I'm going to get get on with the work, get it all finished up to get away from all its pressuring you and to be able to spend time. And the judgment came quite quickly on saw because he couldn't wait.
But dear young person, I want to on a sounding note.
Let's just skip.
Down a little bit.
Chapter 14.
In fact, our time is going away and I would like to look at four people who either knew how to wait or didn't know how to wait. Therefore, I'm not going to read it because Brother Bill went over this story. You know the story. If you haven't go over it yourself. Chapter 14. What I wanted to point out was two things. First of all, that Saul was sitting under a pomegranate tree.
While Jonathan was getting the, the was was getting the the victory.
And especially probably down in verse #17.
Verse 18.
Verse 18 and 19 And Saul said unto Hey, I bring forth, bring, hit her the mark of God. For the ark of God was at that time with the children of Israel. And it came to pass, when Saul talked under the priest, that the noise that was in the host of the Philistines went on and increased. And Saul said, under the priest, Withdraw thy hand.
And so on all the people that were with him assembled themselves, and they came to the battle, and behold, every man's sword was against his fellow, and there was a great, very great dyscompture.
To young people. You can see his attitude here. He calls for the ark of the Lord, but he doesn't wait for an answer. He can't wait. He can't wait. You know why?
Because I don't believe.
That's all.
Belong to the Lord.
How should I put it? Was the saved man whatever term you want to use? I suppose that's not correct to use that term in the Old Testament, but you know what I mean. Unsaved.
So if you.
Are sitting here this afternoon and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
It's an outstanding characteristic that a person cannot wait for the Lord or for His guidance in your life. It doesn't even become a factor in your life if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Saul couldn't wait. He couldn't wait. It's a characteristic.
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Of the old nature restlessness.
Restlessness never can wait, never can wait. Either too fast or too slow, but never on time.
Because.
An unsafe person does not have the Holy Spirit within them.
And they cannot understand the things of God.
So I urge you, if you do not know the Lord Jesus, of course that's the first thing. Don't be like Saul. He tried to put on a good front but didn't work.
He didn't work. His restless old nature came to the fore all the time.
He couldn't wait for the priest to get the message out. He said hold on now, I'm off to the battle later on.
He wanted to kill Jonathan, the one who had saved the people of God. Always doing the wrong thing to young people. Take a look for your profits at the history of Saul. It's a painful one, really painful. He did the wrong thing at the wrong moment. You'll find a division if you go through the book of Samuel up to a certain point. He seems that the Bible seems to present his good points first.
But then when you get him, the Lord says you go and fight against the Amaleks from that point on. It seems to me when I read it as if he did everything wrong after that. And it wasn't that Saul was a bad man, it was just showing that the unsafe person has no power to live for God or to do his will.
Let's just follow him to the end. Chapter 28 for Samuel. Chapter 28.
Same situation.
Same situation, enemies pressure.
And Saul saw the host of the Philistines, chapter 28 and verse five. Saul saw the host of the Philistines, and he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. And when saw inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by the prophets.
Now he's in real trouble.
Like I said before, many people treat God as their lawyer. When you're in trouble, get in contact with Him. When you're not, stay away from Him.
But the Lord will not be treated in that fashion.
And it says here.
The Lord wouldn't answer him, either by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. No answer for Saul. No answer for Saul. There's no answer.
Before you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior, you must be a saved person to.
To enjoy communion, to enjoy the connection with the Lord.
If you get no answers, no wonder you don't get any of them. If you're not saved, you don't belong to Him. He loves you, yes.
But you have nothing to do with the will of God. You must come to him as a poor Sinner and say, Lord Jesus, I submit to you as my Savior and my Lord.
What does Saul do?
Samuel said you've done foolishly. You didn't wait. You're done foolishly. What does he do? He's really foolish this time he goes to see a woman that has an evil spirit. Let's just jump down to where Samuel comes up.
Verse 15, chapter 28 and verse 15. And Samuel said, So why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul said, I was sore distressed, For the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
And Samuel said, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and has become thine enemy?
The Lord hath done to him as he spake by me. For the Lord hath rent the Kingdom out of the thy hand, and had given it to thy neighbor, even to David, because thou obeyest not the voice of the Lord, nor executeth his fierce wrath upon Amalek. Therefore has the Lord done this thing unto thee this day.
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And moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me, and the Lord shall also deliver the host of the Israel into the hand of the Philistines.
Then this all fell straightway all along on the earth, and was so afraid because of the words of Samuel, and there was no strength in him, for he'd eaten no bread all day, nor all night, and so on.
That's the end. That's the end.
No hope for him? Why he didn't belong to the Lord.
But it all began in that little point that I want to stress this afternoon Weights.
For instruction from the Lord, so necessary in our details in our life. Wait for the Lord. Wait for the Lord. If you're going to wait for the Lord, we're going to see. It takes real energy to wait quietly.
And so this is soft. I'll leave it with you. He couldn't wait for the Lord, he said I forced myself. There's always excuses. God doesn't take excuses. You may feel that you are forced to act.
But try always to get quietly with the Lord so that you can.
Understand.
What he wants you to understand and so that you can act at his time and in his way. Let's just take one look at the second person.
Second Kings chapter 6.
Now this is the story of.
Ahab.
And there's a great famine. Second Kings chapter 6.
There's a tremendous famine.
Because the king of Syria in verse 24 has come up and besieged Samaria. King of Syria has come up and besieged Samaria, and there's a great famine, verse 25.
And behold they were besieged, until Anassis had sold for four score pieces of silver, and the 4th part of the cab of a dung doves dung for five pieces of silver. And as the king was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help my Lord, O king.
Notice his answer.
And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?
Ironically, he says out of the barn floor or out of the wine dress.
He said if the Lord doesn't help you, who will?
I can.
Another unsaved person.
No new birth.
So he learns about the woman.
With the two women, with the two sons.
And he is appalled.
By the condition that the people of God have come to.
And verse 31 is this reaction.
Then he said, God do so, and more also to me, if the head of Elijah, the son of Shifa, shall stand on him this day.
So he's going to cut off the head of Elisha.
Solve the problem.
Now I want to show you what he says in verse #33.
1St #33 Chapter 6. And while he yet talked with him, behold, the messenger came down unto him, and he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord.
What should I wait for the Lord anymore? Our new transition says. Why should I wait for the Lord anymore? This evil is of the Lord, why should I wait for him any more?
Terrible thing to say is now this evil is of the Lord. This situation in my life is of the Lord. What, what, what? Why should I wait for him any longer? He's not solving my problem. He's not helping me at all.
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Of course, you and I that know the Lord and love the Lord, we wouldn't dare say such words.
But this is the answer of someone who doesn't know the Lord which had a wait any longer. I better take care of myself.
The Lord takes care of those that take care of themselves or some silly saying like that they have.
And so here he says, the Lord, the evil is from the Lord. He recognized the fact, and he said, what? What do I wait any longer for?
But the actually the it's very ironical that he should say that because even if he wanted to do something about it, he couldn't do anything about it. The troops were around the city. He had no means of changing the situation. So he says, behold, this evil is of the Lord, why should I wait any longer?
I want to encourage you. He's one of us, that we would wait for the Lord, wait on the Lord. In some situations it is necessary to calm ourselves and to be quiet and to wait for the Lord to work. Let's pass on to two people who had to wait.
In Genesis one in Genesis 2IN Genesis I guess first one Abraham in chapter 12.
Genesis chapter 12.
And chapter 12, the Lord calls Abraham when he's 75 years old.
How did the land of.
Aaron.
And they go out to the land of Canaan, and the Lord promises that he will give to Abraham a son by Sarah.
But the time becomes long and let's skip down to chapter #16.
Chapter #16.
Now Sarah, Abraham's wife bare him. No children.
And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarah I said unto Abram, Behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing, I pray thee, go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearken to the voice of Sarah.
Sarah also recognized the hand of the Lord in the circumstances. I don't believe there's a person sitting here this afternoon.
That would not admit to that fact that our lives are in the hands of the Lord.
But we forget that fact sometimes.
We should remind ourselves and perhaps we wouldn't fall into Sarai's mistake, she said. The Lord has kept me from bearing, so she had a solution to the problem.
It was a painful solution. It brought pain and suffering to that family. Why?
Because she couldn't wait.
Because she couldn't wait. Abraham was also responsible.
Sarah was also responsible. She couldn't wait. Sometime when you have the time, look up and see the trouble that came out of this. Abraham taking the Egyptian mate.
Verse FOUR. And he went unto Hager. And she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. Results come quick.
You don't wait for the Lord. Results come quick and they're quite painful.
I want this thing to say to you this afternoon. Wait for the Lord, Wait for the Lord. And if you must, act.
He's a pretty well dangerous sign if you act out of a sense of desperation.
You should act.
Especially if you do not know clearly the mind of the Lord either, don't act.
Or act with a broken spirit and great humbleness that you don't know the mind of the Lord because He wants you to know it. He's willing to communicate it to you. And sometimes it takes time. Sometimes it takes time for the Lord to clear some obstacles out of the way before He's willing to communicate His mind to us.
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Because.
Is it not a great mercy?
Of the Lord, when he sees in my heart and he knows me through and through and better than I know myself. And he says, if I tell you to do something, I know right well that you're going to rebel against it. Your first reaction is going to be absolutely rebellion against what I tell you to do, and you're going to disobey and you're going to get into trouble. And so sometimes he keeps from us a sense of his will. He doesn't tell us what his will is.
Because He knows we have to be prepared. First of all, he has to break down that wheel so that when he does say, please do this for me or this is the way I want the situation handled it, then we'll be willing instruments in His hands. And so that, dear young people, that is the key I feel in understanding the will of the Lord. We have to say, Lord, I have to know what to do.
But any other things you like to tell me about, I'd be quite happy to hear about them.
If I'm warning you, they're painful sometimes because you've talked to you about yourself and the stubborn wheel.
And he has his own methods in his own way of breaking that stubborn will. He is. His own methods are making our years willing to hear what he has to say. And so here Sarai acted. She couldn't wait, the Lord had promised. But she couldn't wait. And she brought a lot of pain and suffering into that family.
Chapter 17.
Respond.
When Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be perfect.
Verse six. I will make the exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
99 years old, How long have you waited for your prayer?
Abraham left at 7599. How many years? 20.
Four years. How long have you waited for the Lord in your life? 24 hours.
Might seem an awful long time, sometimes 24 months. Two years seems an awful long time to be waiting for the Lord. Abraham waited a long time.
But he got the blessing in the end. Through the grace of God. He was kept and preserved so that he might wait until the end. Sure there was, Hagar.
A trouble and a pain.
By the grace of God, may each one of us have the patience to be quietly waiting on the Lord, knowing that his choice is best and He'll do it in His way and in his time, and it'll be perfect then.
I love to think, I like to put these things into practical thing. Just last month there was a brother in the assembly was having problems in his marriage.
I never spoken to him, but I wanted to because I love him.
And I spoke at his marriage. I love him.
So another brother was just moving at that time and we were helping him to move, do some stuff and we worked late and left around 10:33 of us two brothers and myself.
And we got we dropped off one brother.
And I was left with this one brother that I wanted to speak to.
In my heart I know how rash I am, how quick to talk.
And I prayed quietly in my heart and said, Lord, I could talk. Now there's only the two of us, but I want you to open the opportunity. So we drove for 10 minutes.
He talked about everything under the sun, but what I wanted to talk about, we are only about 3 or 4 minutes from his home.
He brought the subject up. He said, Did you know about us and our problems in our marriage?
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And I thought to myself, I'm glad I didn't talk before.
Because after that he told me some factors and things that were very useful.
Do you wait like that on the Lord for your opportunities?
And then you can speak with a calm heart, a quiet heart not unprepared, but a quiet heart not rushing in.
And so.
Abraham waited a long time for that little sun. Let's jump down to verse.
1718.
Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and said, In his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is 100 years old? Shall Sara, that is 90 years old there? And Abraham said unto God, All that Ishmael might live before thee.
The old problem because he wasn't willing to wait. Dear young people, you can ruin your whole life.
You can spoil the leading of the Lord if you rush. Try to do it quietly. Try to spend time with him alone, in quiet prayer, discovering what the will of the Lord is. Wait for the Lord. Don't run before him.
And here Abraham.
He is amazed.
That the Lord would be able to help him. Sometimes in our lives we just say there's no solution to my problem. There's just simply no solution. You don't know what the Lord can do, how He can heal, how He can guide and direct for blessing. Wait for him.
Chapter 20.
The end of the story.
No, this is just the last step before the story. I'm not going to read it. You have to have time to look at it yourself.
They are the last onslaught of Satan to try and spoil it to get Sarah to spoil Sarah but God's grace. Chapter 20. Keith, Sarah clean the grace of God chapter 21.
Verse 6. Verse five and six. Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that here will laugh with me.
And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah should have given children stuff, for I borne him a son in his old age.
The end of the story. The end of the story by the grace of God, the end of the story. It can be the end of your story also in your problems or in your life.
Seek the Lord while He may be found.
Wait for him.
Cupboard A sense in your heart.
To know what the Lord's mind is for you in your life and in your situation, Sarah says. Who would have thought, who would have ever said to Sarah that she would have a child?
There are many sitting here or older.
Who can say? By the grace of God, that's my story. I would have never dreamed of the grace of God in my family and the blessing of God in my life. I would have never guessed it. I want to encourage you. God is good. God is good. He wants your blessing. He wants to make your life full. He wants to make you a blessing to your friends about you.
Wait for him in every situation.
Now the last person, please. Perhaps the most beautiful of all, Joseph.
He had a lot of waiting to do, too.
Psalm 105. Psalms 105.
00:45:10
Psalms 105 and verse 17/18/19.
For 17 he sent a man before them, Eve and Joseph, who was sold for a servant whose feet they hurt with feathers. He was laid in iron.
Until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him.
The king sent and loosed him, and even the ruler of the people let him go free.
I simply want to go over the story of Joseph. We all know it so well. We have no time.
Joseph has a dream that his brothers, mother and father even will bow down to him. He will be supreme ruler, rebuked for it, despised for it, hated for.
So he goes in love to look for his brothers, you know the story well. And they grab him, throw him into a pit.
What had he done wrong? Nothing.
Psalms 105 Give the secret. God sent him. God sent him. Dear young person, quite often in our situation we would say, I would rather not be here. I would rather not be here. I wouldn't like to be in a small meeting. I'd like to be in a big meeting where there's lots of fellowship. God sent you. He's put you into that situation.
Maybe it's a job.
Whatever it is, he's put you in that situation. Wait for him, wait for him.
He has plans, a blessing for you and for others. Wait for Him.
So he's sold.
I can't go over this one. I have to read it to you just so that we don't get a sense of falseness.
Genesis chapter 40.
Two.
Chapter 40.
Alright, I'm looking for this person 42 Sorry chapter 42 and verse 21.
Chapter 42 and verse 21 And they said to one another, These are the brothers talking. They said to one another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear. Therefore is this distress come upon us.
We saw the anguish of his soul.
The facts are related simply in the story. You can't see that. But the brothers say we saw the anguish of his soul, The young person. Sometimes you get into anguish too.
When you feel as if you're trapped in circumstances.
Joseph is not someone who didn't feel the circumstances. Let me show you another example. When he's in prison, let me leap down to where he's in prison. And then he tells the dream.
To the that we'd have to go backwards, wouldn't we? For that, he's in the prison and the dream is being explained. Here it is.
It is chapter 40 and verse.
14.
But think on me when it shall be well with thee, he says to thee.
Chief Butler, he says, Think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness. I pray thee unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. Now look what verse 15 says. You see a little heart, little look into his heart. For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of Egypt. And here also have I done nothing, that they should put me into the dungeon.
Can you see into his heart? He.
Felt.
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That he was in a prison, wrongly so.
But wait for the Lord and what is the end of the story because our time is up. Flip down to where He reveals Himself to His presence.
And verse chapter 45.
And verse 5 now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me, hit her, for God did send me before you to preserve life.
What Joseph?
You mean to say that God sent you?
To be sold by your brothers, Betrayed. Did God send you into those dark dungeons? Yes, says Joseph. God sent me.
The young person, I comfort your heart, many situations that now you don't understand. When you get older and you turn around and look back, you will understand, You will see the purpose of God in your life. Wait for him, trust in him. I want to give you that little verse, Proverbs chapter 4, right? It says trust in the Lord with all your heart, with all your heart. Don't lean, don't lean.
Don't make it a tendency to lean to your own discernment.
But in all your ways, it is something you can do. In all your ways, in the little details, acknowledge him, put him first, and the promise he will direct your path. And the last little thought I wanted to give to you, dear young people, Romans chapter 5.
These are the results of waiting.
Romans, chapter 5.
Verse #3 Not only so we glory in tribulation trouble, we glory, we're happy for it. What are you happy for trouble for?
Because we know what tribulation works, Patience or endurance. Lovely to see a young person, an older person that can go on quietly, under under fire, not breakdown, just going on quietly, walking with the Lord, producing good to those around him, happy, content to be where the Lord has put that person.
Because we know that tribulation or trouble works. Endurance.
And endurance. Out of endurance comes experience. What's the good of experience? It says out of experience comes hope. You look back, you say the Lord provided for me in that trouble. I waited for Him. He delivered me. He straightened out the situation.
Out of endurance comes experience, and out of experience comes hope, and hope does not make a shame.
Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, we're sure of one thing. We might not be sure of the will of the Lord, but we are sure of one thing, and that is that He loves us.
Let's wait for him. Let's pray.
Individual Faithfulness
Address—B. Prost
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I'd like to turn this afternoon, please, to First Samuel, chapter 13.
First Samuel, chapter 13.
And we'll read the 1St 4 verses.
First Samuel 13 verse one. Saul reigned one year and when he had reigned 2 years over Israel, Saul chose him. 3000 men of Israel where of 2000 were with Saul and Mishmash and in Mount Bethel and 1000 were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin and the rest of the people. He sent every man to his tent.
And to Jonathan Smote, the Garrison of the Philistines. That was in Giba, and the Philistines heard of it.
And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear, And all Israel heard say that Saul had smitten a Garrison of the Philistines, and that Israel also was had an abomination with the Philistines. And the people were called together after Saul to Gilgal.
Just make a few remarks before we go any further here. You know, I have been struck in reading this passage over and in what we will read subsequently, how that what we have here answers very much to the day in which you and I are living. Because if you read the history.
As we see it here, you find that things were in a very low state in Israel. You find that the judges had completely failed.
And if you want to read a sad book in the word of God, read the book of Judges there. It says several times over that every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And I don't know of a sadder book in the Word of God, but the judge is having failed. We find that the people wanted a king. And in this, of course, they did not have the mind of the Lord, as we know. And so God gives them a king, but he gives them the kind of a king that they wanted, they said give us.
King that will go out before us like all the other nations round about us. And the Lord, as it were, said, all right, Oh, let you see what kind of a king he will be. And so here we find that things were in a very low state in Israel. The king whom Samuel had anointed Saul turned out to be a failure. Peter turned out to be one who wasn't a man of God.
And eventually God had to remove him and put his own rightful king on the throne.
The man after God's own heart, David.
But in the meanwhile, I believe the Spirit of God delights to record the encouraging account here of a young man, a young man. And you know, I often think that when things are in a low state amongst the people of God, individual faithfulness stands out. And so I want to speak a little this afternoon of encouragement from the life of Jonathan.
Now, you know, we usually think of Jonathan in connection with failure, and the Spirit of God in faithfulness, you know, records both the failures and the faithfulness of his servants in the Word of God. And so we find Jonathan's failure recorded, and I believe each one of us can look back and.
You might say learn from it, but the Spirit of God delights to record faithfulness.
And here, before all the failure sets in, we find signal faithfulness on the part of Jonathan in a day when everything was in ruins. Notice the situation here. Here we find Saul just having reigned one year. Now, we don't wish to comment on this, except that to mention that perhaps the one year is not strictly accurate in the translation, but that's not really important.
The important thing is here that the Philistines were the adversaries of Israel.
And, you know, all of these nations in the Old Testament that were adversaries of Israel have a typical meaning for us. And it's a very instructive study to notice what each one of them represents. And the Philistines, you know, were not, strictly speaking, some of the Canaanites who are named by the Lord as having to be driven out, but they were to be driven out. But they had a special character.
A Philistines were a thorn in Israel's side all through their history.
And they bring before us, I believe, man, the intrusion of man in the things of God, and taking away that which belongs rightfully to God. And so they were found right in the land, and they were continual thorn in the sight of Israel, taking away that which belonged to the Lord.
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Well, we see here that Saul wants to go out against these Philistines, but there's no power to do it.
No power to do it. And Saul does all the preliminaries. He chooses 3000 men and 2000 with him, 1000 with Jonathan.
But there doesn't seem to be any power to carry out the mind of God and to get rid of these Philistines.
And you know, very often we find that state of things among the people of God today. We find that there is a recognition of the difficulty involved, but no power to deal with the situation. A recognition perhaps, that there is something wrong in our lives. A recognition perhaps, that the enemy has taken that which rightfully belongs to the Lord. A recognition that things are creeping in which are not according to the mind of God.
And yet no power as it seems to deal with the situation.
But here we find a young man by the name of Jonathan, and we're not told how old he was.
But we find him taking those thousand men that were delivered to him, and as it says here in verse 3.
Going out and smiting the Garrison of the Philistines.
Well, I say to you young people, and especially to the young brothers here, this needs to be an encouragement to your heart and to mine, because Jonathan wasn't evidently concerned with the number of men that he had to deal with. No, he went out with 1000 men, 2000 more with his father Saul. But he goes out on his own and he gains a victory.
And you know, the power of the Lord is still there. We'll find later on in the next chapter.
That Jonathan gains an even more signal victory with only himself and his armor bearer. But here he took 1000 men and went out and gained a victory. And so, dear young people, don't be discouraged by the fact that you see failure all around you. We own it. You'll see failure in others. You'll see failure in your brethren. You'll see failure in your fellow young people.
And most important of all, you'll see failure in yourself.
But that shouldn't discourage us because God has given us the Ways and Means of dealing with that, and if there is a true heart before him and self judgment before God, then I believe that God delights to give the power to go out and deal with the difficulty in the problem.
But you notice what happened here. Jonathan didn't tell anybody about the victory. He didn't have to. The Philistines heard of it without any problem. But what happens in verse 3?
And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear, and what was the result? And all Israel heard say that Saul had smitten a Garrison of the Philistines.
Well, you know, sometimes when you go out and do something for the Lord, someone else tries to take the credit for it. And here we find that a man who didn't have the energy of himself, who didn't have the mind of the Lord, didn't have the spiritual power to go out and deal with the situation when his son went out and did it. He takes the credit.
Well, we often find that happening in the things of God, and I believe this is a category that we need to be careful of.
The man who would seek to take the credit to himself for that which others have done. Let you and me not fall in, or let you and I not fall into that category. No, but on the other hand, we don't find that. Jonathan raised his voice to try and set the record straight. Never try to defend yourself. I can still remember our late brother, HE Hayhoe saying that over and over again, to us at least.
Several times in my hearing.
Never defend yourself. Never. And so Jonathan doesn't go out and set the record straight. He simply.
Goes on with the Lord, content to leave what he had done for the Lord's approval.
And you know, in the day in which we live, we find men making a great show of things. And sometimes that creeps into the Church of God, and sometimes there's more outward show than there is spiritual power underneath. But here we find a young man who was content to act for the Lord, and he didn't worry about who heard about it or how they heard about it. He left it for the Lord to vindicate.
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Go down a little bit in the chapter here.
Verse 17.
It would be nice to read a little more of this, but we don't have time to consider it in real detail. But there are some things here that I think are important to notice. Verse 17 and the spoilers came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies. One company turned onto the way that leadeth to Ofra under the land of Shual, and another company turned the way to Beth Horan, and another company turned to the way of the border that looketh to the valley of Zebolm, toward the wilderness.
Well, the Philistines weren't beaten by 1 onslaught and don't be surprised if when you deal with one situation, the enemy raises up another one. You know, the word of God hasn't promised us an easy pathway, and I often think that sometimes the difficulties that the Philistines brought upon the people of Israel are difficulties which we might encounter amongst the people of God because the Philistines had a sense of.
The true God was, although they were descendants of Ham, as we understand, and no doubt were idle worshippers as we read later on, but they had some knowledge of who the true God was. And yet there was only constant opposition to the people of God. And often I think that the opposition that we encounter from the Philistines in the land of Israel is typical of that which we might encounter amongst those who take the name of being the.
God. And so here we find that once again they come out, but this time in three companies.
Oh, you might say that's even worse. One goes this way, one goes that way. How are we ever going to deal with the situation?
Well, it can be pretty discouraging. And as we said before, it was a time in Israel's history when things were at a very low ebb. But I love to think of the fact that here in Israeli history, everything had failed. The priesthood had failed, the judges had failed, the king had failed, and now what was left? What was left?
Oh God was shortly going to put his rightful king on the throne.
And beloved young people, the Lord is shortly going to manifest his rightful King, his Lord of all. The Lord Jesus Christ is going to come perhaps today, and you and I be caught up to be with him. But in the meanwhile, we find, we find tucked in between the failure on the one hand, and the display of God's rightful King on the other, we find the individual faithfulness of a young man who counted on God.
Notice what happened Here, though, Things were even worse.
Not only were the Philistines going out in three companies, but notice verse 19. Now there was no Smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistine said, lest the Hebrews make them swords or Spears. But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share, and his Coulter, and his axe, and his matic.
Yet they had a file for the mattox and for the cultures, and for the forks and for the axes.
And to sharpen the goats.
Just imagine, not only were the Philistines attacking, but no Smith throughout all the land of Israel. And so here we find that the children of Israel, whenever they wanted to have anything done by a blacksmith, they had to go down to the Philistines to get it done. They had no one in their own land and of their own nation who could do that for them. And of course the Philistines, very naturally, having control of the situation, would be very glad to sharpen farm tools.
For them and to fashion the things that are mentioned here in connection with farming. But a weapon of war? Oh no, they wouldn't allow them to have those. What a condition for the people of God to be in. What a condition I say for the people of God who only a short while before had subdued the land of Canaan under Joshua, and the Lord had said, no man should be able to stand before you. And how God had given them such wondrous victories.
And yet here now they're reduced to such a state that they don't even have a sword or a sphere.
With which to fight.
You know, I often think that that's the way we look at things today.
Most children of Israel, you know, they had to go down to the land of the Philistines to get their things sharpened. And sometimes, you know, you and I might begin to feel that, well, there's nothing amongst the Saints of God. We have to go out somewhere else in order to get food for our souls. In order to get that which we need to be able to carry on, we have to go out somewhere else. And you know, beloved young people, if we do that, we'll find that others are going to take control of the.
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Situation And here they were in the land of Israel. The enemy was glad to see them spend their time farming, but to what end? So that the Philistines could come in and collect it all. But if there were a question of defending that which rightfully was theirs, oh, then they saw to it that there was no spear or sword in their hand.
Well, may that exercise your heart and mind. Do we have to go down to the land of the Philistines? Do we accept it as a matter of course? Do we accept the fact that perhaps there isn't ministry amongst us that is needed to meet the need? O beloved young people, and I say it to my own heart, the Lord delights to give that which is needed. The Lord delights to give that which is needed. May we never be content to rest in that state of affairs. But may we be exercised before.
God, as to why this has been allowed, Why was it allowed in Israel? What had happened? Oh, I believe the Lord was displeased with them for their walk in their ways. They had failed under the judges, signally failed. The king had failed. They had asked for a king and reluctantly, after they insisted on it, Samuel gave it to them. Samuel anointed the king. But now God is letting them see the fruit of their own will. And I say it again to my own heart.
The difficulties and problems amongst the Saints of God today are the fruit of the allowance of our own ways and the fruit of worldliness which is crept in. And the difficulty here was that there were a large number who didn't seem to care, who didn't care about it. That was the problem.
But notice here in verse 22. So it came to pass in the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the handy of hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan. But with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found.
Why was that?
Here were two people that had weapons, one who didn't know how to use them, but he had them, and one who by the grace of God was going to use them for God's glory. Let me say, beloved young people, if you want to have a sword or a spear and you're exercised about it, God will give it to you. Where did Jonathan get it? I don't know, but he was exercised about it.
And you know so much of the difficulty. And again, I speak to my own heart.
Amongst the people of God today is the want of heart for Christ, the want of heart for Christ, and if there were more heart for that Blessed One and for what is due to Him, oh, then may I suggest there'd be an exercise as to why there wasn't a Smith in the land of Israel? Was it that there was no Israelite that was capable of learning how to be a blacksmith? Was it that there was no Israelite that could do it?
No, I'm afraid it was that they simply said, well, what can we do? I'm not a Smith. I don't know how to do it.
So we'll just have to go down to the land of the Philistines. And of course, the Philistines impoverished the people of God.
When they were the ones whom God had brought into that good land and promised, as we read in Deuteronomy and other scriptures, that they would be the head and not the tail.
Now I don't mean to imply that we should speak in that spirit. I merely imply that when it is a question of the Lords honor and glory, let us never be satisfied with anything less than what God gives. Let us never be satisfied to give up that which is precious to the heart of God. And you know, if there's an exercise in your heart and mind, God will provide. You'll remember in the book of Judges how that Gideon when the Philistines came in, or rather the Midianites came in and impoverished.
And burn the crops. What did he do? Oh, he thrashed wheat behind the winepress. Oh, that was valuable to him. And he wanted to have that which God had given. And God used him in blessing and deliverance to the whole nation. Here we see a similar example of a young man. Although there was no Smith in the land of Israel, he said, by the grace of God, I'm going to have weapons. And he did. Now he didn't yet have the opportunity to use them, but when he had the.
Happens and God gave the opportunity.
May I encourage you, young people?
I've said it before, but it bears repeating.
Haven't exercised before the Lord.
To enjoy that which he has given to you. Do you enjoy the blessed truth of God which he has given? I was talking to a young man not too long ago. I don't think he's here today, but I don't think he'd mind my mentioning this incident. We were looking over some of the good written ministry which we have. And I said to him, you know.
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You should read this good written ministry that we have. You're at the age now when it would be good to start.
Yes, he said, I've got some of it. Well, I said, this is the age to start reading it. May I encourage you, dear young people, to read our good written ministry, to get yourself a sword, to read the word of God for yourself, so that you'll have, you might say, those weapons which are necessary in order to enjoy the portion that God has given you.
Well, notice what happens in verse 14 in chapter 14.
Now it came to pass upon a day that Jonathan the son of Saul, said unto the young man that bare his armor, Come and let us go over to the Philistines Garrison that is on the other side. But he told not his father.
Oh, here we find that once again the Lord stirred up Jonathan to act for him, but it doesn't seem that this time he had 1000 men with him. It seems that this time he and his armor bearer all alone.
And you know, you might say, well, how can we manage to do anything for the Lord? How can we manage to serve the Lord in our assembly?
There's just a few there, just a few gathered together. It would be nice to be in a large assembly where there's a real work of God going on and perhaps a real interest in the Sunday school and in the gospel.
But you know, here we find that it didn't take a big crowd for the Lord to act. Only two, Only two. And so Jonathan says, let's go over. Looked like an impossible situation because the Garrison of the Philistines no doubt was a large number of men. And yet here Jonathan goes all on his own. And notice he didn't tell his father.
Here's an important principle, dear young people, if you're going to do something for the Lord.
And you feel the exercise before the Lord, it's well to perhaps share that exercise with another who may be one with you, as Jonathan did with his armor bearer. But don't broadcast it around. No need to do that. No, it'll only spoil the work of God. And I think Jonathan here has seen how that his father had spoiled the work of the Lord previously, and how that instead of being a help to him, Saul had been a hindrance. And so he doesn't tell his father.
About it, which was wise.
Notice where Saul is verse two, and Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree, which is in Migron, and the people that were with him were about 600 men.
Oh, how sad.
I speak to my own heart. How often I have been sitting under a pomegranate tree when there was work to be done. How often I have been found relaxing when there was work of the Lord to be done. And you know, I don't mean necessarily something that takes.
The form of service, such as preaching the gospel, or going out to hand out tracts or going out to visit someone.
May I speak plainly, and I trust you'll bear with me.
Have we sometimes sat under a pomegranate tree instead of going to the prayer meeting? Have we sometimes sat under a pomegranate tree instead of going to the reading meeting?
It's much more relaxing, isn't it? It's easier after a hard day at work to come home and sit under a pomegranate tree, so to speak. But oh, may I suggest you, dear young people, as I do to my own heart and to each one of us. We'll never have a sword or a spear or the ability to act for the Lord if that's the way we go on. Am I sitting under a pomegranate tree? Instead of stirred up about the state of things amongst the people of God, here was a man who had a sword and a spear.
And yet he sat there and didn't know how to use them and notice what happens in the end of verse three. And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone. Well, they didn't even notice when someone else was acting for the Lord, which was just as well in its way. They didn't notice that Jonathan was gone. They were so busy, as it seems, taking it easy, that they didn't notice that someone else had had the energy to get up and do something.
Verse four and between the passages by which Jonathan sought to go over under the Philistines Garrison.
There was a sharp rock on the wooden side and a sharp rock on the other side, and the name of the one was Bozes, and the name of the other Sinai. The forefront of the one was Scituate, northward over against Mishmash, and the other southward over against Gibeah.
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It wasn't going to be easy, was it? The world has an expression about our being sometimes between a rock and a hard place. In other words, there's not very much room to maneuver. That's the way Jonathan and his armor bearer found it. There wasn't much room to maneuver. It was going to be a difficult thing. And you know, if you set out to do anything for the Lord, the enemy is going to throw every roadblock in your way that he can, and he's.
To try and persuade you that it's not worth the effort. And you know, dear young people, it's harder in this day and age than it was perhaps even some years ago. I can well remember being at the funeral of the wife of a dear brother. The brother himself is now with the Lord, and at his wife's funeral we were talking over.
Some of the good things that God had given his people, and one brother made a remark to him like this, he said.
You know, it would have been blessed, perhaps, to have lived in the days when God was really working. And you know, we look back to those days, he said, when those giants of the faith who dug out the truth for us in the last century, We're so characterized by devotedness to the Lord and by faithfulness, he said. We look back to those brothers and to the wondrous reward that the Lord will give them for their faithfulness.
And the old brother made a wise remark. He said, You know, brother, he said that's true.
But he went on to say, I think there may be an even greater reward for those who are prepared to go on in faithfulness to the Lord in a day of ruin, because when things were happy and healthier, one could be born along by the crowd. But now it's a question of putting out real energy in order to follow the Lord. And dear young people, that's the way it is today, and it's not just true.
For you, it's true for any of us. But it's more true for you because the devil knows that if he can get you dear young people turned aside, the assemblies will gradually dwindle down. And how sad it is to go to an assembly and see older people sitting there at the meetings, but no young people. Oh, I often think the devil loves to see that because he knows that as those older ones are called home 1 by 1, unless there are young people to take their places, the testimony will fail.
Well, here we find that poor Jonathan and his armor bearer were between 2:00 sharp rocks. Not just rocks, sharp rocks. Difficulties. But it doesn't turn them back.
Verse six and Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor come and let us go over under the Garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. Oh what wondrous faith here where Jonathan says, let's go over to these Philistines. We don't need a big a big crowd in order to.
Work for the Lord, he doesn't need a large number. And you know, no doubt Jonathan had looked back at those days.
When other men had gone out and had fought for the Lord in a remarkable way.
And he says, oh, there's no, there's no restraint. The Lord can save by a few. And you know, we need young people who are willing to take this step of faith. We need young people who are willing to go out not in their own self-confidence. Now, let's make no mistake, but in the sense that in spite of its being a day of ruin, the Lord has not changed.
But notice verse seven. And his armor bearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart turn thee. Behold, I am with thee according to thy heart. Oh how blessed. You know we can't all be Jonathan's, can we? We can't all be Jonathan's. But may the Lord give us more armor bearers. You know armor bears have a special place in the word of God.
And you find out that Joab's armor bearer.
Is named in David's Mighty Men, while Joab himself is left out. You find that these armor bearers who were men who stood in the background, men who simply carried the armor for the one whom they served, yet had a signal place in the ways of God on occasion. And here we find the armor bearer who's not named was the one that encouraged Jonathan to go on.
Beloved young person, maybe you say to yourself, I don't have the kind of energy to go out and do this.
Could you be an armor bearer? I love to see a sister who's an armored bear. I can think of some right now who have been armored bears in assemblies. I can think of one right now who was a real encouragement to me some years ago. And many a time there has been a sister who has acted in this capacity to encourage even a brother or another sister when it was a question of doing something for the Lord.
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Notice that little phrase in verse 7?
Turn thee. Why did he say that? Oh, I believe because Jonathan was losing heart. Jonathan had looked at the difficulties in the way he'd seen those sharp rocks. Perhaps he thought of the big number of the Philistines that was there and he, as it were said to his armor bear. I don't know. He turned around to his armor bearer to say what he said in verse six. The armor bearer says turn around. Jonathan, turn. I'm I'm with you. I'll stay with you. You take the lead.
And I'll come behind you. Isn't that blessed? I can remember a young man who had the exercise to go out and speak on the street corner, and he wanted to go, but he felt a little timid about going on his own. And so he asked an older brother if he'd go with him. And the older brother said yes. He said, I don't want to say anything because I'm supposed to speak this evening and I don't want to ruin my voice.
But he said, I'll come with you and stand with you while you speak, if you like. And so they went together.
After the young brother had spoken, the older brother stepped out, ruined his voice or not. He felt so in the enjoyment of the things of Christ. He wanted to have something to say, to preach the gospel and what to God that there were more of us who were exercised. Here was an armor bearer who evidently had the interests of God's people at heart, who valued the land that God had given and who wanted to see that land defended for the Lord. And so he says to Jonathan Turnley, you know, if you see.
Young person or an older one wanting to do something for the Lord. Oh, sometimes I think we don't have any idea what an encouragement it is for someone to come to us and say go ahead, I'm behind you, I'll help you with it if you like. Do you have an exercise to do that I'd like to be of help to you? What an encouragement that is.
Verse 8 Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will Passover unto these men, and we will discover ourselves under them. If they say it us unto us, tarry until we come to you, then we will stand still in our place, and will not go up unto them. But if they say thus come up unto us, then we will go up, for the Lord hath delivered them into our hand, and this shall be a sign unto us.
Well, Jonathan still didn't have very much confidence in himself.
And that, in one sense, was good. He did a little bit of the way Gideon did before he put out a fleece, because he wasn't really sure that the Lord was going to use him. I don't think that Jonathan had any doubt about the Lord's power. I don't think that Jonathan had any question that the Lord could work, but it was a question of wanting to be sure that they had the Lord's mind about doing it.
And you know, that's a good thing. It's a good thing to inquire of the Lord. We find that David did that constantly throughout his life.
And we should never be in a big hurry to go ahead unless we feel that we have the Lord's mind. And so Jonathan, as it were, puts out the fleece and he says, all right, we'll go up and we'll let them see us. And depending on the way that they respond, we'll decide whether we're going to go ahead. And so they go up and notice what happens.
Verse 11 And both of them discovered themselves under the Garrison of the Philistines, and the Philistines said, Behold.
The Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves.
Well, be prepared to take a little persecution if you do something for the Lord, If you act for the Lord, be prepared to take a little persecution. Here are the Philistines made fun of them. Oh, they said, look at this, the full of the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they had hid themselves.
Well, Jonathan and his armor bearer weren't disturbed by that, but they give the right answer. The men say in verse 12, come up to us and we will show you a thing. And so there God as it were, gave them the signal that he was going to work for them. And so Jonathan and his armor bearer go ahead and notice what happens verse 13.
And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet, and his armor bare after him.
And the and they fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer slew after him.
Again, it wasn't an easy task.
00:35:02
It was degrading. They had to climb up on their hands and knees.
I don't know whether any of you have done that on occasion. I know I have done it, and I can remember an occasion or two and I've had to do it in front of other people and been laughed at. I can remember on the farm where we used to live, sometimes going down to a big Cliff or ravine, and sometimes, if we weren't careful, we'd slide down and have to climb up on our hands and knees with our friends at the top making fun of us and so on.
Well, it wasn't anything too serious, but it was a kind of a humbling way to go out to battle, wasn't it?
It didn't have much outward show connected with it to have to go up on your hands and knees toward a group of men that were standing there making fun of you. And you know you'll find once again that if you're going to do something for the Lord, the Lord may allow it to be done under circumstances where all the glory has to be to Him. Someone has made the remark very aptly, that the service that humbles you is true Christian service.
And any service for the Lord that lifts us up in pride.
Is probably not according to the mind of God. Now sad to say, no matter what we do for the Lord, self tends to get into it. But just the same I believe the Lord has ways of humbling us and showing us that all the power and all the glory must be to him. And so here we find that the Lord didn't allow Jonathan and his armor bearer to advance as it were on their feet with everything seemingly going for them.
No, they have to defeat the Philistines through weakness.
And you know what reminds us of the way that David had to approach Goliath a few chapters further on. David had to go with a stone and a sling. He had to go with Goliath mocking him and telling him that he was going to feed him to the birds and that how was he going to fight with him when he didn't have any weapons and so on. And so be reminded, dear young people, that our blessed Savior won the victory in the same way. And the more that you go on for the Lord.
So the more you will find that the truest sign of the servant of God is humiliation. And we find, I believe in the New Testament, that the greatness of the servant was in inverse proportion to his humiliation. And so we find one like the apostle Paul, whom God used so mightily.
Being humiliated over and over again, not only did he have to be able to say that he was the chief of sinners, but he had to say in Ephesians that he was less than the least of All Saints.
He had to go through numerous trials and difficulties, as we find in Second Corinthians.
But God gave him the greatest revelations that man has ever been given from a risen Christ in glory.
And so if you want to serve the Lord, the Lord will take away from you everything that has to do with pride. Don't, don't, don't worry about that. Never mind. Because all the power must be from him, and the glory must be for him. And so here they call up on their hands and knees. But having gone through all these difficulties, notice what happens verse 13. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer slew after him.
And that first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made.
Was about 20 men within, as it were, and half acre of land which a yoke of oxen might plow.
Again, it wasn't anything outstanding by man's standards. Quite an astonishing feat though, for two men to have killed 20 men on their own without any help from others. But it wasn't a very impressive sight. Only a small piece of ground, only a small number of men driven from it. But oh, it was the work of God. And again, dear young people, let me say this, never despise the smallness of the work.
Because.
If it is a work of God, the Lord can use it. And here it wasn't a question of the smallness of the work. No doubt it would have been more fitting, perhaps, if Jonathan could have gone out with a large army and completely routed to Philistines. But all we find that God begins in a small way to exercise individual faith, and then the Lord begins to work. And so don't be discouraged by starting something small.
Because God often works that way. He works that way in order that we might realize that all of the power must be from Himself. But notice what happens next. Verse 15 And there was trembling in the host, in the field, and among all the people, the Garrison and the spoilers also they trembled and the earthquake. So it was a very great trembling.
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And the Watchmen of Saul and Gibeah Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude melted away, and they went on beating down.
One another.
All we find now here the Lord begins to work, the Lord begins to make his power felt. The Lord allows things like an earthquake and a trembling in order to melt those Philistines away. And you know, if there's a real exercise of faith, dear young people, you and I can draw an unlimited resources of power and limited resources of power.
Now, I don't mean to be misunderstood here.
Jonathan gained a victory this day. It was a small victory compared with the victories of David when he came on the throne. But you know, these victories were precious, I believe, to the eye of God because they were done under such adverse circumstances. If I might say so reverently, I believe it was easier for a man to be a soldier under David than it was to act as Jonathan did here, because David went out with wondrous power.
And it's not recorded in Scripture that David ever lost a battle, and fittingly so, because David is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ coming in power and glory to set up his Kingdom. But oh, here we find that these things that were done were precious to the eye of God because they were done in a day when everything else was given up. And you know, there is a work that God would have you do for the Lord, perhaps in your own home assembly.
And if you start off doing it for the Lord and with real faith and dependence upon Him, I believe you'll see the power of God manifested there. I know those who are right here in this room who have seen that happen.
I may be forgiven for this next remark, but I'll excuse it by saying it's not original with me.
An old brother amongst us once made this remark to a few of us.
And again, I say it reverently and humbly, but I believe it was a voice to my own heart.
He said. I think we need to be careful how we use that term, laboring brethren.
He said, you know, he said, who in my estimation really labor as much as those who travel around, and I know that my brethren here who have that privilege would agree with me. He said those who really labor just as much are those who day after day, week after week, month after month, and maybe year after year in their own local area, carry on a work for the Lord and make the necessary.
In order to do it, I say it reverently. Is God going to give a reward for that Sunday school class that you took week after week, month after month, where nobody saw it? I believe he will. Is God going to take recognizance, reconnaissance of those things which you have done in your own local area, which Nolan saw? And maybe you had to make a sacrifice. Maybe you've been a help to someone in the assembly, you've been faithful at the meetings, you've tried to help that.
Who needed help? You've tried to be an encouragement to someone. You've kept a gospel testimony going in your own local area. But perhaps in a small way, Oh, the Lord takes notice of that. And it often takes more spiritual energy to do that kind of thing because day after day, week after week, it's perhaps the same difficulties, the same discouragements, the same problems that are always there. And the devil is going to make it in this day and age, so difficult for you to do.
That you may end up, as I may, sitting under a pomegranate tree. Well, May God give us grace not to do that, but to have the spiritual energy to go out for Him, and earnestly, first of all, to contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints, and then, as it says, to be ready to every good work.
Well, we find here that finally, if I can say so, without.
Without being funny, this all begins to catch on. Saul begins to catch on. The man who doesn't have the faith himself says, oh, there's something going on here, but he didn't yet know who was doing it, and he had to make inquiry to see where it all came from. And you know, that's the way it should be.
Saul only saw what was the evidence of the Lord's work. He didn't find out until long afterward.
That Jonathan was in the background and then the only thing that Saul could do was to try and spoil the work of God.
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We don't have time to go into that later on in the chapter. I leave it to you to read it for yourself. How that Saul, in attempting to intervene again, almost was allowed to destroy the instrument that God was using in his work. Well, it's blessed, you know, when the instrument can be kept in the background and that we, when people see a work going on, they see the evidence of the Lord's hand and not your hand or mine.
Well, notice also some of the encouragement that happened here though, and I want to draw attention to these things.
Verse 19 And it came to pass, while Saul talked unto the priest, that the noise that was in the host of the Philistines went on and increased. And Saul said unto the priest, Withdraw thy hand. And Saul and all the people that were with him assembled themselves, and they came to the battle.
And behold, every man's sword was against his fellow, and there was a very great discomfiture.
Oh, we find that Saul, while he's busy trying to find out who started that work of the Lord, there's so much commotion going on that finally Saul says to the priest, don't bother, let's go and be of help. Isn't that blessed? And you know, when a work of God begins, we often find that some who perhaps don't have any heart for it themselves.
Are drawn out by the evidence of the Lord's work and they come over to it. Now Saul didn't yet know who was responsible for it. He didn't yet know who D started it all. But there was so much going on, he said, as it were to the priest. It's not it doesn't matter who who started it. Don't bother. Let's go over there. Well, the work of the Lord is an attraction to others, even if their hearts are not right. But it's a blessed thing to see that when the Lord works, it reaches out even.
Whose hearts are cold? But there were others that came to the battle. Notice in verse 21.
Moreover, the Hebrews that were with the Philistines before that time, which went up with them into the camp from the country roundabout even, they also turned to be with the Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan.
Now this is a very striking verse. It seems that some of the people of Israel had gotten so discouraged with the condition of things that rather than be identified with Israel, they had gone over to be identified with the Philistines. Isn't that sad?
Has it happened to some amongst us? Have there been those amongst us who, ashamed to be identified with those gathered to the Lord's name, have gone out and become identified with others? There's still hope. There's hope. Oh, there's always a way back. And here we find that the work that Jonathan began for the Lord was such that those who were in a wrong position were unable to see their wrong position, and they were encouraged to.
Back and identify themselves with the people of God. Isn't that blessed? Well, it doesn't give them an excuse for going off and identifying with the Philistines. Oh no, Oh no. And you notice the word that God has to use in describing them. He calls them Hebrews, but he doesn't call them Israelites. He calls them Hebrews because they were identified with the Hebrews, that is, with the nation.
But it was the term, you might say, of contempt that was used.
To describe them, whereas here we find the word of God says those that were with Saul and Jonathan were Israelites, Israelites. Oh, you know the name Israel was the name that was given to Jacob. That means a Prince with God. And oh, how blessed to be identified with that divine place, with those who were going on perhaps in much weakness, but in the place where the Lord had put them, but nevertheless, how blessed.
That that work of the Lord which began was used of God to draw back those who were even in a wrong position. Well May God give us grace to be exercised, that if there have been those who have gone out from us, that we not turn our back upon them, but that rather we seek by the grace of God, that there might be that amongst us which would draw them back. Because, as one brother used to say, there ought to be enough power amongst us to attract every true Christian in the area.
Now if you think about that for a moment, it's the most profound statement. There ought to be enough power amongst us to attract every true Christian in the area.
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Verse 22 Likewise all the men of Israel which had hid themselves in Mount Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after them in the day of battle. Oh, how blessed here were those that didn't go as far as the others in going off into the land of the Philistines and identifying with them. But they were afraid, and they'd hidden themselves here, it says in Mount Ephraim.
Oh, I often think there are many amongst us who hide themselves like this.
Some who want to be identified with those gathered to the Lord's name. And you ask them, do you wish to continue being in fellowship? Oh, yes, I do. But sad to say, they've hid themselves in the caves, in places in Mount Ephraim. We don't see them very often. Something has to draw them out of those hiding places. What will draw them out? You and me, No.
Oh.
Attraction to Christ, seeing that which the Lord is doing and you know, may we have grace that there might be that amongst us which would attract them to Christ so that Saints which are continually going off into hiding places will be attracted back. You know, it's well sometimes to visit individuals like that and to try to be a help to them. But you know, they're first of all has to be an attraction to that Blessed One himself.
They have to be attracted to Him. But you know, if you and I are exercised about that state of things, I believe that God, you might say, would bring that about, which would cause them to come out of their hiding places. And so here they come. And what does it say? They followed hard after them in the battle. Oh, it wasn't just a feeble going on, but they were encouraged to go right out there and get right into it with the rest of them in order to act for the Lord.
Said, may I say to you, dear young people, if there is someone who's come to these meetings, who's been in a hiding place for a while, oh, don't stay in a hiding place. The Lord is the same and he wants you to come out. But May God give you not merely to come out of your hiding place when you see a work of the Lord, but oh, May God give us more Jonathan's and more armor bearers who have the courage to rely on the Lord in a day of ruin and to act for him when everything seems against them.
Notice verse 23. So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle passed over unto Bethaven.
Notice it doesn't say that the battle ended. No, dear young people, the battle will never end until the rightful king is on the throne. And don't expect to gain a good victory and then be able to rest on your laurels, because that's just the time that the enemy will come in more strongly than ever. And that's why it says in Ephesians chapter 6 when the armor is in question.
It says and having done all to stand, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand, that simply means that we may go out and buy the power of God, and in relying on Him be used of the Lord in a marvelous way. But then we tend to sit down after the battle and think, Well, we did it.
And then the enemy can get an advantage.
And you know, nothing is worse than a great victory if it's not recognized that we have to go back to Gilgal. And so we find here that Gilgal figures prominently in the things of God. And I believe that's the important thing to remember, that after every victory we have to go to the place of self judgment and recognize that it was all of the Lord and that he gave the power and the encouragement to do it all.
Well, I say again, the rightful king was just about to be manifested.
Just go on a chapter or two and we find that God brings David onto the sea. And Jonathan, it says his soul was knit with the soul of David. Oh, he recognized that here was the man that God was going to use to deliver Israel fully from the clutches of the Philistines. But before that king appeared on the scene, I believe God used Jonathan in continual warfare to maintain his rights in a place where.
Enemy was seeking to overrun them. Well, May God encourage your heart and mind as we await the Lord's return. We're just on the very eve of it. I feel it. And so I'm sure to most of you, perhaps all the Lord is coming soon. May He encourage our hearts to go on for Him who is the same and who never changes.
Maybe we could sing. I know.
A Saved Soul but A Lost Life
The Root and Offspring of David
Desire for Christ
Love and Understanding
Open Mtg.