Chicago Conference: 2012
Table of Contents
Things Concerning the Kingdom of God
Address—Bill Prost
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
All those mercies for exceed all we can do.
Our thing.
I see.
My people.
I will give you.
Honourable friend.
For the.
Brethren, there's.
Dragging a hymn. Keep the temple, please.
Praise.
And give my state our goal.
Great day, Lord.
Man.
I suppose no one would argue with the comment that we are living in the last days.
And our brother Dawn in his prayer, and our brother Bob, Tony mentioned it too.
Concerning the fact that we are witnessing moral corruption around us.
Of an unprecedented extent.
I don't think any would argue with that. And more than that, the pace.
Of degeneration is accelerating.
What does that mean for you and me?
Oh, I have a burden on my heart for something very fundamental, because I believe that while on the one hand God would have us to hold very tightly to the precious truth of the church, thank God for it. Thank God for the precious truth of the heavenly calling of the church, for the truth of the one body of Christ.
For the privilege of gathering to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, let's never let that go.
But when the apostle Paul summarizes his ministry in talking to the Ephesian elders.
In the book of the Acts.
He mentions three things. He mentions the Gospel of the grace of God. This is in the 20th chapter of Acts. He mentions the things concerning the Kingdom of God. And then finally he mentions.
00:05:01
Let's turn to it just to read it accurately.
He mentions all the counsel of God accurately, but I want to get that second phrase.
Just as it appears here. Acts Chapter 20.
And it's at the end of verse 25.
He says.
Ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
And it's about those things concerning the Kingdom of God that I want to speak today because as we know, once we are saved through the gospel of the grace of God, God looks for a moral state and a walk that is in keeping.
With the position into which he has brought us.
Many years ago in a Bible reading, and I mean many years ago, long before my time, probably about 150 years ago, there was a small Bible conference here in the United States.
And there was a very well known.
Brother there whose writings we esteem today.
And he said, what shall we take up?
And a brother suggested Ephesians, which they proceeded to take up.
The brother who had said, What shall we take up was very able to expound the book of Ephesians, and they had a happy time. But.
But his comment afterward? He said.
I wondered whether we should get into Ephesians because I thought perhaps our state would have rather dictated that we should take up Romans, something far more basic.
But he said, after all, it really didn't matter because no matter where we go in the epistles, we always end up in Romans anyway.
What did he mean?
He meant, I believe that when you get into the book of Ephesians with all that high truth, the highest truth I suppose, concerning the believer's blessings that we find anywhere in the Word of God.
You get to the 4th chapter and if we could use the expression, you come back to Romans with rather an uncomfortable thump.
Because you find that the Saints have to be exhorted of all things, not to tell lies.
Really, a man who is risen and seated in heavenly places has to be told not to tell lies.
Yes.
Not to steal.
He has to be told not to steal. Yes he does. Not to get angry with one another and all the rest of it, yes he does.
And what I want to talk about today is something very basic and that is dealing with the roots of sin that caused so many problems in our lives.
Let's turn to Romans, first of all, chapter 5.
Romans chapter 5 and verse one.
We aren't going to dwell on this verse except to bring it out because we have already mentioned the gospel of the grace of God. But in Romans 5 and one we read, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, let nothing ever cloud that precious truth that once and for all God has settled the question of sin.
On the cross, through the finished work of Christ, let nothing ever take away from the precious truth that through the blood of Christ you and I are once and for all cleansed from all sin. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. I don't think in this company I need to belabor that truth. I don't think there is anyone here that would raise a question about that.
I suppose it is possible that there is someone here that is not truly saved. And if you are not, God's word makes it abundantly clear that you may come to Christ, repent of your sins, and know that God through Christ has once and for all settled the issue, and that you can know that you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:10:19
But that isn't the end of the matter.
I've mentioned this before, but not too long ago.
I was told about a little boy who very happily and very brightly confessed Christ as his Savior.
But about a week later, he came to his father very distressed and said, Daddy, I'm saved. I accepted Jesus as my savior.
But he said I still do bad things. He was shocked and surprised. He thought that somehow all that was going to be behind him and that life was for that, from that point on, going to be a victorious life. And he realized that the old sinful self was still there.
Let's turn over to the next chapter of Romans.
Verse one.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid, How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Know ye not that so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death.
That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man, excuse me?
Is crucified with him.
Let the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Verse 11.
Likewise, reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now to that familiar verse in Galatians 2. Galatians 2.
Verse 20.
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
I suppose once again that what we have read in these last verses in Romans 6 and in Galatians.
Two are familiar to 99% of those sitting here.
Because not only has God at the cross made provision for my sins judicially to be washed away through the precious blood of Christ, but through the death and resurrection of Christ, He has made provision for you and for me.
No longer to have to be the servants of sin. No longer to have to live continually under the threat of sin in our lives.
We can have the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.
But how many of us live, at least to some extent in our lives, in ******* to sin?
I remarked a few moments ago that we are living in the last days and some of us who grew up in more, shall we say, conservative days and in times that were, at least outwardly, more godly.
Are I suppose the word appalled is not too strong when we see the moral breakdown that is overtaking us in this world and especially in these Western countries which have had a gospel testimony.
And an open Bible for hundreds of years.
00:15:05
All this I have to point out, and you know it as well as I is having a serious effect on us. And if I may be allowed, may I speak particularly to those who are younger, because you are being bombarded with all of these things. And it is a fact that the condition of things in the world around has always been that which dragged down the condition of the people of God. And that moral breakdown is having an awful effect on believers.
I have to say in my own personal life that I have been acutely aware of it in the last little while by seeing those who name the name of Christ and yet going on with what you and I would well recognize as serious sin in their lives. And yet somehow the awful moral breakdown around has caused them to have such a callous approach to that awful sin that no longer does it seem to bother their consciences.
And with one breath they can talk about the Lord's things, and yet a few moments later they can be engaged in that which the Word of God would strongly condemn. I say to your heart and mind, What is going on? Oh, the fact is that we are in danger of doing just what Romans 6 brings to our remembrance. Shall we then continue in sin, that grace may abound?
More than once in Paul's epistles he talks about turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
We don't use that word lasciviousness in common language today, but it simply means unbridled lust or unbridled permissiveness, which literally says I have been forgiven and the work of Christ has looked after my sins. And because of that, I can afford to take a very casual approach to sin because after all, the work of Christ has looked after it all. Oh, what an awful thought.
And don't think for a moment that I am preaching at you. Don't think for a moment that I am not affected by it. Some of us that are getting older, as I said a few moments ago, are appalled at what we see going on around us. And yet at the same time, don't think for a moment that we don't feel the awful effect of it in our own lives. Don't think for a moment that we don't feel the awful effect of all of this dragging us down to the level of what we see going on in the world.
What does that do for you and me as believers? And I know all this sounds pretty negative, but don't worry, we'll get to the positive side in a few minutes. But what does all this do for me and for you and me as believers? First of all, it spoils our testimony in this world. Because if there is anything that is going to stand out in this world today.
And which is going to support back up and lend credibility to your life and mine and your testimony in mind. It is the way we act, as Paul says, concerning the things of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is an expression in Scripture that brings before us the moral character that is suitable to God's Kingdom. Now, today, there isn't a visible Kingdom.
We know that that has to wait until the coming day. The rightful king has been rejected. But nevertheless, if God has raised up those like you and me in this world who recognize the rightful King, who know who he is, who know that.
He is going to have his Kingdom. Then he looks to you and to me.
To exemplify in our lives the moral character of God's Kingdom. And that is what is going to lend more credibility than anything to what you say. That is going to bear a witness to this world more than anything else, because they will say there's an individual who is different. There is an individual who doesn't succumb to the tide.
Of everything that is going on around them, I can remember reading a story a few years ago in a secular magazine about a young woman.
Young, to me anyway, she was about 35, who undertook to teach in an inner city school in one large American city, and I just forget which one it was. And during the course of her time there, she ran into a lot of bad behavior and a lot of things that went on. I have no reason to believe that she was a Christian. She might have been, but at any time, at any rate, at one time or other.
00:20:26
Some of the students were to cost her and say you don't act the way we do. You don't do things the way we do. You talk differently, you act differently, you do things in a right way. Why?
And she said.
I do things because of the way I think and the way I believe, not because of what I see going around going on around me. And as some of you young people can imagine, the inevitable response was oh.
That's cool, that's cool.
She didn't bring the name of the Lord into it, but they recognized that was interesting. Here was someone who didn't do things just because everyone else did it that way.
And you know, you and I have an even higher motive than just.
Swimming against the current. Oh, there was one up there in the glory who has made us his own.
And who has given everything in order to have us for His own? Who's paid a price that I don't suppose anyone of us can possibly understand, in order to make us His, in order that we might spend an eternity with them. And He is glorified, He is honored when there are those in this world who walk to please Him.
We take a popular American magazine in our home called Newsweek. Not that I believe everything it says, it has a decidedly liberal bent much of the time, but it gives an in depth analysis of news around the world and tells you what people are thinking. And they ran an article in a recent issue having interviewed a woman in Saudi Arabia who was a Muslim and who had a number of children, including a number of daughters.
And they interviewed her as to how she was raising her family and how she was dealing with what you and I would consider the ultimate strictness of Muslim life there. And her attitude was, she said, I hope all of my daughters will grow up to live the kind of life that I live. She lived very strictly. She never drove a car. She never went out of her house unaccompanied by a man. She never went out in public without.
Wearing the burka and everything that went with it, so that she just had kind of little slits out of which she could see. And sometimes she even had some mesh over that too, so that it was a very restricted as to what she could see and yet.
Her son, who was only about 8 years old when he met up with this woman who was about to write the article, who had come from America and who in order to conform, was wearing all of these things as a woman has to there in Saudi Arabia.
This young boy at 8 years old was attempting to convert this American reporter to Islam and was telling her how to say her prayers and how she could attain salvation by believing in what Mohammed said and all the rest of it.
There was no shame involved in that. And when I read that article I thought to myself, Oh my, how Satan loves to counterfeit what God would have believers do, and how Satan will take that which is utterly false.
And yet make its adherent so fanatical that they will live more closely and more religiously according to what they are taught, than those who have so much in the life and liberty of Christianity. Well, let's go on. The point we want to make here is that.
God has called you and me not to live under the ******* of sin, but to live in liberty before God. We don't have to live with that old sinful self constantly causing problems in our life. Yes, you and I, each one of us knows that it rears its ugly head more and more.
And let me tell you, the more you want to live for the Lord, the more the old sinful self.
Will try to assert itself. Don't look for anyone, particularly if you do at some of those who are older and perhaps whose lives you think, and I'm not talking about myself, but if you look at some of those who are older and you say perhaps they've gotten to the point where the old sinful nature is burning itself out. If this meeting could be a little more informal, I would pinpoint a few older ones here and ask them if the old nature gets burned out so that they never have to worry about it anymore. And I know full well what their answers would be.
00:25:29
As would mine, it does not get burned out. In fact, it was very interesting that back 100 and some years ago in the 1800s when there was a very godly man who had been much used of the Lord in ministering the word of God and who was well known to for his godly walk.
Someone who was an intimate friend of his made a rather unusual remark.
He said. I don't remember ever meeting a man in whom the two natures were evidently so strong.
What did he mean by that? Did he mean that that brother exhibited on the one hand the life of Christ in a wonderful way, but that he acted in the flesh equally as much? That wasn't the point. The point was that when he saw that man seeking to live for Christ.
And in all that he did in his exemplary life for the Lord. And don't think for a moment that I'm singling out men, we could just as easily talk about godly sisters. But what he meant was that when he saw that man's godly life and knew him as an intimate friend, he recognized how often that man had to deal with the.
Fleshly desires that constantly reared their heads. And how often he had to judge before the Lord, that old sinful self.
Yes, we do on the one hand reckon ourselves to be dead. We have the right to do so because Jesus died and rose again, as it says here in Romans 6, our old man is crucified with him.
God has seen the end of the first man. We don't want to be technical about it, and we're not going to go into a long explanation of it here, but don't equate the old man with the flesh. They're not exactly the same expression. The old man is what we are as born as children of Adam, and God has seen the end of that at the cross, and now we are called upon.
To reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.
The flesh will continually rear its head, but I can say it has no rights anymore. I am dead to sin.
I can well remember being at a facility in New Jersey quite a few years ago now, 20 years ago I suppose, with our late brother **** Gorgas. And it was a facility where men went to be rehabilitated from drug addiction and alcoholism and many other things like that. It was a Christian facility. **** used to visit there many times and he and I went there because we had an opportunity to speak to the men, but one of the men that was introducing the evening before.
**** and I got up to speak, was a believer and he had himself once been seriously into drugs and alcohol and had been delivered from it. And I'll never forget his words as he in a 5 or 10 minute introduction said to those men in very strong terms. He said men you need to come to Christ and he said man, if you have come to Christ and I know many of you that have.
And he wasn't speaking perfect English, but he said, man, a dead man don't do drugs. A dead man don't get into alcohol again, a dead man don't have any attraction for those things anymore.
We all know that.
We're to reckon ourselves to be dead, but if we were to go over to 2nd Corinthians 4 we would find that it's a daily thing, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. It's not something we do once and for all. In one sense we do. We reckon ourselves to be dead and we take that position, but daily we have to come to grips with the flesh.
Can we do so? We can.
00:30:00
Do we sin? Yes we do. But what I want to talk about this morning?
Is dealing with some of those issues.
Because what we sometimes see in a believer's life is, on the surface, an admission of what we have here in Roman 6. And perhaps, if I could call it an intellectual ascent to this truth, and a recognition that, yes, not only has the blood of Christ put all my sins away, but, as brother Harry Hayhoe used to say, in his inimical way, the death of Christ has put me away.
Meaning that what I was as a child of Adam no longer is there before God, but that God sees me in all the perfection of Christ himself and now calls me to let that new life exhibit itself practically in my everyday walk.
We may well believe that.
But we may not be applying it in the proper way.
Let's read a couple more verses again, most of them very familiar. Turn to 1St John chapter one.
First John one.
And verse 9.
This is the way to restoration if we have sinned, and we all know this verse if we confess our sins.
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Now turn back to Philippians Chapter 3.
Philippians 3.
Verse 2, Philippians 3 and verse 2.
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers. And here's the expression Beware of the concision.
To get at.
What I'm talking about, I'm going to use an illustration that I've used before. Many of you know that I grew up on a farm. My father was an avid gardener. I guess I've inherited a measure of that, although I don't do as much as I used to. And when you keep a good garden, you have to pull up weeds. And I don't know how you call those weeds down here, but we had plenty of them up home. We called some of them pig weed.
We called some of them lambs quarters and those weeds for the most part had a long taproot that went deep into the ground.
If you went out after a rain and gave the weed a good careful pull, it would come out by the root, but if you tried to pull it out when the ground wasn't moist, it wasn't unusual to snap it off at ground level.
And leave the root in the ground.
Was that a good thing? No, my father wouldn't allow that. No, you didn't pull a root. You didn't pull a weed up that way. You had to get that root out, otherwise what would happen? That route would send out shoots more and more.
Couple of years ago a tree, fairly good sized tree, came halfway down in our backyard as a result of a violent storm.
And after somewhat disconcerting attempts to get a tree service to take that tree out.
I ended up doing it myself.
Took me a long time because I'm not as young as I used to be.
And I took the stump out.
Was a big job.
I thought I'd gotten rid of that tree, getting that stump out.
Some here have no doubt done that. It's quite a job. Leave about 6 feet of trunk for a bit of leverage. I didn't have a tractor at my disposal without going up the road and borrowing it, so I used our Jeep with four wheel drive and it did the job. But I had to cut those roots off with an axe and so on when they surfaced and eventually I got the stump out.
00:35:02
Covered it all over, but what happened?
Later on I found out that that tree had sent little roots out here and there in the yard and little sprouts started to come up because it was a locust tree and they're famous for that.
Well, the lawn mower looks after that pretty well, and that tree isn't as we would say. It isn't going anywhere. But at the same time, it reminded me of what sin is like in our lives.
In Psalm 19.
We have the expression, Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me.
I have to say.
That in a remark that our late brother Harry Hajo made many years ago, has come back to haunt me many times, because as an old man at the time he made the remark, he said, brethren.
And let me lay some emphasis on this.
Please young people, don't take this the wrong way.
But let me lay emphasis on it, and I'm going to repeat what he said. The sins that I refuse to judge in my younger years will have dominion over me when I get old. I may be able to keep them under control with human energy when I'm younger, but when I get older and that human energy isn't what it used to be, those sins will have dominion over me.
And many times you see individuals, sad to say, in a nursing home, where those presumptuous sins have gotten dominion over them.
It's sad enough in an unbeliever.
We don't expect them to deal with sin the way you and I have the ability to, but it's even worse when you see it in a believer whose older days are characterized by.
A presumptuous sin having dominion over them because they are no longer able to control it.
What does Paul mean by the concision in Philippians 3 the thought of concision is that I.
Snip off the chutes of sin without dealing with the root.
In one John 1:00 and 9:00 It's not enough to confess our sin. That is important.
That is important.
But there's an end of that verse. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
First of all, let's deal with the beginning of the verse if we confess our sins.
I think it's OK to tell this story. It happened so many years ago.
But I remember very well in an assembly and it wasn't where I lived. There was a dear brother who had been out of fellowship for a number of years. He hadn't been put away, he had just left.
When he came back, his local brethren felt.
That this should be at least some admission of failure in having walked away simply because of a condition of thing in the things in the Assembly.
And the attitude was Well, brethren, we've all failed, haven't we? We've all failed.
Was that really getting the root? No, it wasn't.
If you read Leviticus 5 and don't turn to it now, but you can look up the verse, it's in Leviticus 5 when a man was guilty of trespassing against the Lord and he brought a trespass offering, he had to confess that he had sinned in that thing, in that thing. Is that difficult to do?
Tell me about it.
It isn't easy, is it? It's harder for some than others.
But it's difficult, and especially if someone else has sinned, because my natural reaction if I have been faced up with a sin is to do several things. I may blame someone else for it. I may say, well, circumstances this and circumstances that, and you don't realize the pressure I was under and you don't realize what happened and you know the story.
00:40:03
The other reaction is to find fault with those who are laying the sin before me and to say well, you, blah, blah blah, blah or whatever it might happen to be and that way the heat is taken off me and placed it on someone else. That tendency is in my heart too.
But that again is not getting at the root of the problem.
A worse tendency was exemplified.
By what I read once.
Where a Christian man was attempting to.
Take an individual who had actually come to him for help down a road. He was trying to take him down a road to help him to deal with a serious sin in his life. And it wasn't in his case, a particular overt sin in the sense that we would think of it, but rather it was an attitude that was casting a long shadow over his whole life. And that attitude and spirit, which in itself was sinful.
It was like tree roots, it was like tentacles. It was invading like a miasma every area of his life.
And he knew that that man would never be able to get free of it unless he was willing to deal with the root.
And so he was trying to take him down that road to make him see.
That route.
He was skillful, he knew the man well, and he didn't simply blurt it out and say you did this, this is your problem.
He made him by questioning and by carefully working with him.
To go down a road where he would realize where he was.
And when they got to the point where the man would have had to admit, and he was a true believer, that this is what the root was and this is what he needed to deal with.
The story went that the man put his hands over his ears and ran literally out of the office shouting no, no, no.
He didn't come back.
Why would he act like that? Why did he do that?
Because facing the awful truth of what his old sinful self was capable of and what he really was.
As a natural man was so painful for him that he would not face it. The truth was so painful that he could not face it. And before you and I say too much against him and shake our heads.
Let me take a long hard look right here.
Have I been guilty of that in a lesser way?
I can well remember a dear brother many years ago who was faced up with a sin in his life and his attitude was But that's the way I made. That's the way I made.
Was true. He was made that way. I knew him well, although I wasn't the one facing him up because I was young enough to be his son. It was someone who was older than he. That's the way I'm made.
That's the way I'm made too.
Whereas someone has put so succinctly.
Yes, God accepts us the way we are. He accepts us the way we're made. But he loves us too much to let us stay that way. He wants to see growth. He wants to see us become more like Christ.
Shall I say it in another way? Is the Lord Jesus Christ not worthy of the fruit of His sufferings in your life and mine down here? Does it have to wait till the glory?
You know, dealing with the root can be a difficult thing and we find it in Scripture.
Our time is going and we don't have time to go back and read about it, but let me refer to it refer to a couple of occasions.
When Abraham went down into Egypt.
You will recall that he said that Sarah was his sister instead of his wife.
And it caused trouble.
And eventually things got straightened out, but it caused difficulty.
What was the root of the problem? Oh, you say he had a penchant for lying. He was telling lies without the root of the problem. Abraham didn't know what you and I know, but let's use it in Christian terms. Suppose Abraham were to have come to the Lord and said Lord, I've lied and I confess that as sin. Would that have gotten to the root of the problem?
00:45:17
No, that wasn't the route. The route went deeper than that. Why was he in Egypt in the first place?
Oh, it was a lack of faith. Abraham, the man whose life is characterized by faith.
Failed in his strong point.
Excuse me?
He went down to Egypt.
Because he didn't have faith to face the famine in the land of Canaan. And one failure leads to another.
Until he had to realize that he had failed in his faith.
Another example when David failed in his adultery with Bathsheba.
Would it have been right for David to go to the Lord and say, Lord, I have been an immoral man, I have committed the sin of adultery and I confess it as sin. Was that the root? No, the root was deeper than that. And it's instructive that when Nathan, with the mind of the Lord and with the Lord's instruction, comes to David to speak to him, he doesn't even mention the initial act of adultery, but whether he dwells on the cover up and everything that took place subsequently.
Yes, the adultery was involved, but the deeper sin and the root of the problem had to do with Davide abuse of his power and authority as a king. No one could have manipulated events, including the adultery unless he had the power and authority that David had. There was a deeper root and often the root of sin in our lives is not perhaps so readily discernible. But I say to you and to me if that.
Terrible fruit continues to manifest itself in my light.
Young people, brethren of any age, dig for the root. Let's ask the Lord to show us what the root is and pull up the root.
Now, I hasten to say that pulling up the root of a particular sin doesn't always mean it'll never surface again.
Just as I got out the root of that locust tree.
Didn't mean that never, never. Little shoots coming up here and there in the lawn again, there had been old roots under there, which obviously I wasn't prepared to deal with because I wasn't going to tear the whole backyard up, down to about a depth of two or three feet to make sure that there was no root of that locust tree anywhere to be found. But once I'd gotten the stump out, once I dealt with the root.
Those little shoots are easy. They could be mowed down with a lawnmower. They were no problem. They aren't going anywhere because.
They can't. I can nip them off quickly and they're gone.
And once the root is identified, once it's confessed before the Lord, oh what a difference it makes. Then I have faced the issue, then I have gotten it out between me and the Lord.
Out of Morning Star Camp, people sometimes like to get up and perform on Talent night and sometimes they sing a song.
And I can remember a song which I had never heard before, but which some girls got up and sang, and some here will recognize a few lines from that hymn. The hymn starts out My Heart is Like a House. And in the course of that song, and I can't repeat the whole thing, but the Lord wants access to all of the rooms in that house, and he wants to go into a certain room.
And the individual says Lord.
That room in my house.
I don't want you to go because I've got some things in that room that I don't want no one to know. Not such good English, but you get the point. Do we have rooms in our hearts that we don't let the Lord into? Sometimes we're afraid because we say that place is so black, that sin is so awful, that part of my character is so bad.
That I can't even bear to let the Lord in there. Oh, I say to your heart and mine, He knows what's there. And not only that, but He's dealt with it at the cross. It's been dealt with. We don't need to fear in admitting how bad that old sinful self is, because we can reckon it to be dead. God see the end of the old man, never mind how bad it is.
00:50:22
Never mind how bad it is.
Years ago when they were building a railway in Uganda, there were lions that came out.
And they killed all kinds of people that were working on that railroad. I've mentioned this before, but a couple of those lions are in a museum right here in Chicago now. They eventually got them, but not before they'd gotten a good many people who were trying to work to build that railroad and after those lines had been shot. Excuse me.
Some of the Ugandan natives didn't even want to approach the carcass of that lion because they said it's done so much damage. They didn't even want to go near it. And they had to realize it's dead. No matter how big those fangs were, how powerful those claws and everything to do with that lion, it was dead. And Christ has suffered for all of that in order that you and I might have the victory, in order that we might lead Vic.
Lives, I say to your heart and mind, this is ever more necessary today, ever more necessary that there be careful watchfulness, ever more necessary that you and I.
Be on our guard more and more as we see the moral tone of this world going down. Allow me to say this, that I am very shocked.
And it's not only, in my experience, among those gathered to the Lord's name, but in meeting up with and speaking with and getting to know other believers at what dear believers are willing to pass over in their lives because, quote, everyone's doing it. Everyone's doing it.
Does this mean that we adopt A legal attitude? No, we don't adopt A legal attitude. That is not the answer. We don't make a whole list of do's and don'ts.
But what we do?
Is recognized.
But I have a new life in Christ.
Recognize.
But God does not want me to be under the power of sin.
Recognize.
That I can come to Christ, I can confess that sin before Him.
Whether it's something I've done or whether it's a deep root that is there that is taking over my life, that is causing me untold difficulties.
And I can say Lord.
You have already dealt with this at the cross.
I am dead and risen with Christ. I reckon myself to be dead, and now by the power of Thy Holy Spirit, give me grace.
Not to succumb to those desires, but to be dead to sin, but alive unto God. Will He give the grace for it? Indeed He will. He wants to see you and me become more and more like Christ.
As time goes on down here.
That's going to have a wonderful effect on you and me and on our testimony in this world.
I hasten to say that we shouldn't be occupied with our testimony.
We should be occupied with Christ. But as we go on and the days get darker and as the pathway gets rougher, we're finding many dear believers are not only giving up the precious truth of the church, but they are giving up that godly walk which ought to characterize the believer in this world.
And you and I need to pay attention to all of that. We need to be on our guard lest we fall down to the level of the way that the world is going so that the world says, well, they talk very well, but look at the way they live and look at the things that they do. It counts on everything in our lives, whether it's our appearance, whether it's our talk, whether it's the way we conduct business, whether it's the way we deal in our family lives.
00:55:12
God looks for everything to be in conformity to his beloved Son. Well, May God give us grace. And again, we want to dwell on the positive side of this because it is not, I repeat, it is not to take a harsh legal attitude in our walk through this world. That is what false religions do. And it has been the bane of Christianity right from the very beginning when the Judaizing principles.
And the influence of those who tried to put believers under law constantly dogged the Apostle Paul steps and over and over again he has to minister against it. That is not the answer. Rather, it is that.
Moral likeness to Christ. And what will it do? It will not only keep you and me from evil, but it will give us that which is positive. If I can say it this way, it'll put a smile on your face because you are enjoying Christ. You aren't occupied with the negative, you're occupied with the good. And the strongest, shall we say, power to keep you and me from evil is not so much a set of do's and don'ts.
But rather the contrast of the good with the evil. And so the energy of the Spirit of God on our souls occupies us with Christ in a sense of grace in my soul will put a smile on my face. It'll put a spring in my step, it'll put joy into my life. So that not discouraged.
Burdened, Yes. Occasionally weeping over the condition of this world and even the condition of things among believers? Yes.
But at the same time never discouraged, but rather going on with that which honors the Lord, and realizing that His coming is near.
Let's sing a hymn that exemplifies our place in Christ #67.
Like thee, O Lord, how wondrous. Fair Lord Jesus, all thy members are a life divine. To them is given the bright inheritance of heaven.
#67.
Like.
They all.
Romans 8:1-4
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We go to meet the.
Strength.
No, no.
Because.
1 #201.
Sin can't condemn for grace has justified.
Sin shall not reign, for grace has set us free.
Sin we abhor, since Christ are sure he died.
His grace now rules our souls in liberty.
#201.
We fly not now from.
The.
1St * since I sprung.
00:05:02
For.
Me.
Yeah.
View of what our brother brought before us this morning. Brother and I would like to suggest we.
Go to Romans chapter 8.
I'm not sure how.
Far we can get there's only two readings designated as readings, but perhaps there might be more.
The Lord guides.
But I feel, as Bill had on his heart this morning, the importance of understanding the life.
That we have been brought into in the Lord Jesus.
And I suggest that I.
Submit to my brother and if they feel that something else should be taken up to.
Yeah. Very good, Bob.
Read the whole chapter.
Romans chapter 8 beginning at verse one.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh?
God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in US, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flush, do mind the things of the flush.
But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Before to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, Neither indeed can be so. Then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit, which dwelleth in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, but to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit do mortified the deeds of the body, ye shall live, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God.
They are the sons of God.
For ye have not received the Spirit of ******* again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA, Father, The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ.
00:10:15
If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckoned that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in US. For the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God, For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who had subject.
The same in hope.
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and triathlon in paying together until now, and not only they but ourselves also, which have the first fruit of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit.
The redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. But hope, that is, that is seen, is not hope.
But what a man here. Why does he hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with the patients, wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, For we know not what we should pray for as we are, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the the mind of the Spirit.
Because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God, and we know that all things work together for good to them the love God to them who are called according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren, moreover, whom he did predestinate.
Them he also called.
And whom he called them he also justified. And whom he justified them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spare not his own Son, but deliver him up for us all? How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died. Yeah, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God.
Who also maketh intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or Pearl, or sword, As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, no things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Chapters 6-7 and eight go together, as we all know.
Chapter 6 gives us the doctrine of deliverance from sin.
Chapter 7 gives us the experience that leads to it.
In chapter 8, which we're reading, gives us the result of the two.
In deliverance lived in a conscious, practical sense.
The chapter really is to do with the believer's deliverance.
Both the present and a future deliverance is before us in this chapter.
00:15:02
It's so interesting that in the very first pages of the Bible.
When Satan came to man, he said, you shall be as God's knowing good and evil.
But The Dirty little secret there is that just knowing the difference between good and evil didn't leave the happiness, didn't leave or provide the ability to choose the good and to reject the evil. And his brother said so, so nicely and succinctly a second ago in in Romans 7, you even have a person who has a new life, budding regenerated life in them, with all kinds of good desires.
But at the end of the chapter, it says, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death. And there's the experience, as someone put it, Romans 7 describes the past experiences of a delivered man looking back and remembering the feeling of.
And the experience of right godly desires without the power, the spiritual power, to choose the good, to walk in it and to enjoy it.
And that's, I think was William Kelly who wrote that from Romans 7 into Romans 8. So it's one chapter goes to another is like a hinge, the beautiful hinge. And you just swing that door that way and all of a sudden the wonderful, happy, normal Christian pathway can be realized that that new life does have a source of power and energy where the new desires could be realized.
And I'm sure others will develop. It's the wonderful privilege that we now have of God's Holy Spirit indwelling us and being the energy for that new life.
It's important to notice and understand that the new life that we possess is a dependent life. It's a life that needs power and an object. The man in Romans 7 has neither, but we see them both, found beautifully in the 8th chapter, with Christ the object and the Spirit of God in the believer working for power for deliverance in a practical way.
The first.
8 chapters of Romans is divided into two parts right up to chapter 5. Verse 11 is the first part and from chapter 5 verse 12 on it takes up the question of sin or that sin nature that produces the sins. So God in the work of Christ is not only addressed the one, but is addressed both issues.
And the first five chapters, up to verse 11 of chapter five, we have him addressing the question of our sins, those ungodly deeds that we have committed.
Is resolved that issue.
But what about the nature that produces those sins?
In those other chapters then, we find that God has addressed that issue as well, and it's very important to realize it, like Bill was saying.
You in his address.
Sometimes after we've been saved, we realized that I thought I was going to be different.
And we start looking in. Instead of looking out to Christ, we start looking in and we get all discouraged.
And it seems to me that sometimes, especially those of us who have been brought up in Christian circles and have.
A rather protected life from the corruption of the world sometimes have the tendencies tendency to think, well, maybe I'm just a little bit better than the rest of the world out there. And so the Lord allows the experiences we have in Chapter 7.
What a miserable, miserable experience. I remember going through some of it myself in my own experience.
In my growing up years and the Lord and.
I would prefer not to ever been born than to have to go through all this. What is this about? But we have to come to the conclusion that the Apostle Paul comes there. I think it is in verse.
17.
He says in verse Chapter 7.
Excuse me, it's not 17 is verse 18, for I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
Completely rotten to the core.
I'm not any better than that criminal.
00:20:01
And the president out there?
No, not one bit better in the flesh. And so finally at the end he comes to like you say, brother Bruce, he comes to that point where he says who shall deliver me?
And he turns from himself and he finds the answer in the Lord, and then the door swings open on chapter 8. What a beautiful chapter Chapter 8 is. But I think if you're going to appreciate chapter 8, it helps to understand those previous chapters as well.
Perhaps helpful to go back for a moment to Chapter 5.
Where as Bob just described the subject changes.
But in chapter 5.
In verse six he says, for when we were yet or still without strength.
And then in.
Following that, he speaks of us joying in our God.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ in verse 11.
When Roman starts, the concern of the need of the soul is to be right with God.
And he's worried about his acceptance with God because of his sins.
And when he puts his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He immediately has a joy that results from it. He joys in God. He feared God before, but when he realizes that the Lord Jesus has paid for his sins, then he finds an immediate joy in his God that he didn't have prior to that.
But in a general sense, God said you were without strength.
But in the Christian life, we also have to learn that.
That in ourselves we're still without strength. We have a right desire. We want to please God. We have joy in things we didn't have a joy in before. But there is the necessary process that God has to work with us and in us to recognize that yes, I want to please God. I love the Lord Jesus. God is I have peace. That God has saved my soul. And yet there's a difficulty in living it out in a practical sense.
And so the discovery process of the root in US of sin.
Somebody says you've got sin in you and that's the problem. And yeah, we hear the words.
But it's it's not easy for the soul to accept it.
And everyone has to go through it in the recognition, in the practical sense of not only in me dwelleth no good thing, but there's no strength in me either to do the good. Now that I want the good, I still don't have the strength to do it in myself. And consequently, when we get to chapter 8, the 1St 30 verses emphasize the spirit of God.
Because the Spirit of God is the power of the Christian life. And as Bruce already mentioned, we have the object to set before us that we need as well. But we often don't learn dependence.
Until we learn our helplessness and the experience of the man in Romans 7 was to learn his helplessness in the face of something that he discovered in himself, which was his own sinful nature.
And then when he recognizes it, he's ready for a deliverer.
Who shall deliver me? And many of us can spend years of our lives going through that process because we.
Don't have to, but very often we do.
And until we can say who shall deliver me?
Romans chapter 5.
In verse 14.
The spirit of God brings us before us 2 two men in Romans chapter 5 and I believe it's it's very helpful to get ahold of of the two men that we see here. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses. Even over them they had not sinned. After this military of Adams transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come?
We have the subject.
Of really our our being an atom.
And the condition that were found in Adam. God really only sees two men. He sees Adam and Christ, and in his purposes he wants to bring us into the conformity of Christ.
00:25:15
And so he introduces and if if if you read the rest of the 5th chapter, you find the comparison of these two men.
Adam was a complete and total failure, but God is not occupied with Adam.
Adams been fully and completely tested and he has proved to be totally unworthy of our occupation. So in chapter six we find what God does with Adam, we find what God wants us to understand about Adam. And at the cross God dealt with Adam and we see the end of Adam there in chapter 6 in the sense of our death at Calvary's cross.
In our connection with Adam.
And in Chapter 7, I like to think I've enjoyed the thoughts that you've brought out about Chapter 7, but I also like to think of Chapter 7 as being delivered from law.
It's through law that we find the power of sin. Sin is that which, when we're brought in contact with the law, we realize the inner workings of the power of sin. The law has that effect on us. It has a tendency to show us exactly the power of sin in my Adam nature. And so in chapter seven we have also Adam introduced to death.
So that he becomes free from the power of sin and he becomes free from the claims of law, the demands of law. Death is the answer.
To being under this *******.
And so in chapter 8, what do we have here?
In this first verse we have two things that are very significant. In Chapter 8 we have Therefore there is therefore now no condemnation.
That, therefore, is referring to the chapter before in which the soul was learning the power of sin.
Due to its exposure to law.
Well, he finds himself delivered from law. And what does he find himself? What? What happens? Then he realizes.
There is therefore now no condemnation. The law brings condemnation.
And when a soul realizes he's dead to the law, he is freed from the condemnation that law brings. And so there is liberty. I am no longer under condemnation. But there's also something else here in this verse, and it is those that are in Christ Jesus. Remember we talked about in Romans 5 the introduction of the two men Christ.
And Adam?
Well, we've seen in position our death.
In our connection with Adam and in Romans 8.
We're fine now. We find now that we're in Christ Jesus, we're no longer seen in Adam. Our connection with Adam is over.
And our our connection now is in another man in God's man in that man that is going to endure Christ Jesus.
These are things that have to be laid holed up by faith, and like our brother Bill is bringing out in his address, says in Romans 6, reckon ye get there for yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.
I don't feel dead to sin.
When those temptations come around, I don't feel dead at all.
We have to learn not to go by feelings, brethren. They have to learn to go by God's word.
And what is our position now as believers in the Lord Jesus?
In Christ Jesus.
Wonderful place.
And I must say, my own feelings sometimes battle around inside of me pretty violently.
00:30:04
But I don't base my faith on my feelings. Feelings are very real.
And I don't say you can totally ignore them, but our faith is not based on feelings. Faith is based on fact.
And the fact is that as believers in the Lord Jesus.
Our place is in Christ Jesus.
I often give the illustration here in this verse one of chapter 8.
Of Noah in the Old Testament. The Old World was under condemnation.
And God said he was going to destroy it completely with a flood.
And in time.
God said to Noah and his family, Come thou and all thy house, into the ark. Noah went in with his whole household, and God shut the door.
And after another seven days.
The rain came down.
How many drops of water?
Touch Noah and his family.
Not one single drop. It all fell on the Ark.
Noah and his family were protected brethren. That's the picture we have here. We are in Christ Jesus.
Our feelings might.
Vary violently.
But we must learn to base our faith on the facts of the precious word of God, the Lord Jesus on that cross.
The storm of judgment broke on him in all its fury. He bore it all, he said. It is finished at the end.
And if we are in Christ Jesus to suggest.
That any condemnation, any judgment could fall on us is to put a big question mark on the Lord Jesus and on his work of redemption.
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
Beautiful, Bob. Because if someone were to come to us, at least the majority of us here in this room, and raise a question about their salvation.
Raise a question about whether their sins were all gone. We wouldn't turn them to feelings, would we? We would turn them to the word of God.
And with no uncertain or with no uncertainty, I should say we would bring scriptures before them that would point out.
Their blessed position, as you say, in Christ.
It's the same with deliverance from The Power of Sin, isn't it?
Someone says I don't feel safe. What gives me the assurance? The word of God. Someone says I don't feel delivered. What gives me the assurance? The word of God. Now the Lord says, you act on that which I have already given to you. You live up to the position into which I have already put you. And that's the way Romans 8 starts off, doesn't it?
Just as an addition to that, is it right that the last?
Couple of clauses of this verse really should not be there, that is.
It shouldn't read as if there is a condition on there being no condemnation, the condition, namely that I walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. The whole thing really is the position into which we are brought. Is that correct?
At the end of verse four, Really, doesn't it? That's where it's properly.
But it's characteristic, perhaps you could say, of a believer, but it's not conditional. It should not leave any question marks in our minds at all.
So at verse one we get acceptance, verse two we get deliverance.
Before a person can know deliverance in a practical way, he must first know his acceptance in Christ, and we've touched on that already. The term in Christ Jesus, I think it's something like 48 times in the New Testament. And it refers to that position in which the Lord Jesus now is in at the right hand of God. And all the favor and acceptance that rests upon him in that place from God is the very measure of the acceptance that I have and you have as believers down here in this world.
00:35:16
For his place is ours, and there's a nice verse in First John chapter 4, and it says as he is, so are we in this world. As He is is in the measure of his acceptance and the delight of the Father that rests upon him. As he stands there in God's presence, so are we in this world.
To be in Christ means simply to be in Christ's place before God. You can remember it that way. It's a simple way of remembering it. I say that for the younger brethren that are here in Christ simply means to be in Christ's place before God.
That's your place. That's mine.
Question mark on your salvation. You'll have to lay that question mark on the presence of the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God.
What follows?
Impossible. Impossible.
Verse two, he says.
Continuously. I recall when I was first saved the difference between a believers standing in his state, and I don't know if those two expressions are as commonly used today as when I was younger, but I found it very helpful to learn that my standing as a brother has already.
Explain is tied to God's acceptance of the man, Christ, Jesus, and glory.
But also my standing is the same as every other believer. It can't be affected. It can't be improved upon. God has placed me there and it nothing can be taken from it or added to it. And this is really quite something to think about, that we have this standing that that is just so solid in the way God sees us in Christ.
And you notice as you read through the epistles of the New Testament that when it gets down to the practical side of things, which will take up shortly, I'm sure.
The Spirit of God, I'd almost say always, but I can certainly say often.
Brings up the standing by way of a point of reference, a point of solidity in our minds.
Typical example is Colossians 3. Since or if you be risen with Christ, that's the standing. You are indeed set your mind on things above. That's the practical side. And so the practical side flows from the standing. And this is the opposite of the way a religion would work, or the way something that man would invent works as well. Do this to get back.
And God says all that is over now. His brother has explained with respect to Adam, This is where you are now. I placed you there. I've given you all that you need there. And now live it out manifested. Enjoy it, display it in your practical life and so.
You know, but the two are connected. Because if I become careless in my practical life, I lose the enjoyment of my staffing. It's the Holy Spirit indwelling me that sheds God's love abroad in my heart.
And keeps reminding me and assuring, assuring me how much I'm loved, how privileged I am. When I get careless, the spirit of God is going to be grieved, seeking to nudge me and wake me up about my carelessness, more so than shedding God's love abroad in my heart and taking the things of Christ and showing them unto me. And so it's interesting in First John where it says.
I think it's in the 4th chapter.
Brethren of our hearts condemn us. Not then have we confidence towards God. So the two are related in that way, respect to our enjoyment.
Verse 2.
It says the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
That brings before us how the Lord Jesus Christ lived his life.
And to recognize, to learn how we have a practical deliverance.
God starts by showing us the character of the life of the Lord Jesus here on earth.
His life was lived in this way.
I delight to do Thy will, O my God, every morning He woke up, if you will, and the very fixed purpose and desire of his life.
00:40:11
Was to delight, to do the will of God.
And every day of his life.
The direction the working in his soul of his living out of his life was according to the working of the Spirit of God in him.
To live it according to the will of God.
And that in this verse is called the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
You and I might immediately say, I'd like to live a life like that.
I'd like to practically live like the Lord Jesus lived his life.
And if you will, God could say to us, that's the life I want you to live. And so I'm going to give you everything you need to live that character of life.
First thing I'm going to give to you is life, the life of Christ. If you're going to have a life like his, then you need that life. And so he gives to us. As Colossians says, Christ is our life.
That eternal life which we have is that life. That is it Christ.
It says the law or the principle of the spirit of life in Christ. And the Spirit was the one that directed and empowered every motive and activity of the life of Christ. You say you want to live that life. God says yes, I know you do. And so I'm not only giving you the gift of life, I'm going to put my spirit in you so that with my spirit in you, you also.
May walk in a practical way in that character of life, the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus.
And if you do.
Live it out. That way. It delivers you from the type of character of life you had before, which is the law of sin and death, or the principle of sin and death. When I lived the life of Adam, if you will, with his sinful nature, I lived a life that could be called the law of the Spirit.
Of death, sin, and death. Because the only results of that life in the flesh was that producing sin in me that leads to death.
But in order to be practically in the enjoyment of it.
It's necessary for us to 1St see the life that was in Christ, that God has enabled us to live that same character of life.
And then to live it out in a practical sense, of which the verses which follow show us what the conflicts are and what we need to judge, perhaps, and what we need to depend on in order to walk in that character of life.
Saying that first Peter chapter 4 verse one is the living out of the teaching that we have here in this verse.
For as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that has suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.
The practical making the flesh suffer not in the sense of the concision, but recognizing what Christ has done and.
Not gratifying the flesh. Would that be right?
The Spirit of God to give us the power to fulfill what Peter instructs us to do. And that's because the flesh in US never changes.
You're born with it. As long as you live in this world, you're going to have it. And it absolutely, and its desires never, ever changes.
It loves sin.
It loves what's sinful it has.
The desire to have its own will regardless of what God's will is, or what God thinks, or what anybody else thinks, for that matter.
We have a nature in us that says I do not want to be under.
Anyone else's law of any sort, or anyone else's authority. Sin is lawlessness and we're born with a nature that loves lawlessness and.
00:45:11
Not to give it its way.
Causes suffering.
In a practical sense, as Peter brings it out.
It's a little bit off the subject, but I think it's it's kind of helpful to recognize the society in which we live.
And the conflict, the natural conflict of the society in which we Live Today with Romans 8 and the truth for Christianity. And it's this.
God put Adam in a garden and he gave him a rule.
That he was to be obedient.
Man is a creator of God to be dependent and obedient, and God is never going to change that. Even in heaven we will be dependent and obedient creatures.
We are to live our life as dependent and obedient.
And man's tendency is I don't want to be either dependent or obedient. I want to be independent, and I want to have the character of being free to do my own will.
And the consequence is the society in which we live is going on toward the direction of absolute lawlessness, which means every man is free completely to do his own will.
In the spirit of independence, and the ultimate of it is that the Antichrist is called the lawless 1.
Because society and this country and every young person and every older person is constantly bombarded with the idea of.
You do what you want.
It's up to you.
Morality is your choice, whatever you believe, whatever It allows man to be independent and lawless in his character, and it's the ultimate thing of which God is going to judge.
In in government he's already judged it at the cross, but he's going to bring his hand upon it in governmental judgment at the end of After the Lord takes us home. But in the contrast of of this man.
In what we have in Romans, we have to recognize that we resist. We, as Bill said this morning, it's turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and that lascivious means the unrestrained.
Activity of my own flesh.
And that's where society is going.
Good point to make that our brother just brought up, because what we get here in Romans 8 is victory, isn't it? It's that new life in Christ being lived out in the power of the Spirit of God and with Christ as its object.
But in a world that is still characterized by sin, a world in which sin still is present.
In seeking to live that new lifeout, it's going to result in suffering. There is no way out.
Let's take an example. And we don't want to spend a lot of time on it, but suppose I'm a poor man and I don't have the money to buy food and I'm hungry.
And I walked down the street, and there I see that which would satisfy my hunger.
I'm tempted to steal.
But I don't steal because I want to please the Lord. What's the result? I suffer in the flesh. My hunger isn't satisfied In a normal world, if we could say it that way, in a world like the Garden of Eden, that would never happen. But in a world that still has sin in it, the one who wants to please the Lord will sometimes end up suffering in the flesh. So we need to be prepared for that. But we have a resource for it just the same, don't we? We can go to the Lord.
Because he was one who, as dawn has brought out in seeking to do the Father's will and not his own will. If we could say it bluntly, it cost him his life, didn't it? He suffered right to the final end, as you could say, of suffering even unto death.
Principal and that verse you mentioned this morning in Galatians 220 says I am crucified with Christ.
Anybody here like to be crucified?
00:50:02
Did you find that pleasant?
Nobody. It's excruciating. And the flesh.
Complaints. Come on, give me a break.
And you'll have to Simply put it into effect. Recognize that's where I have been put. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, so life is in a different area.
What we live for our living. And so in this verse 2 here we have two laws broken up. Sometimes the word law is used as a principle of.
Life. And so is this law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Has made me free from the law of sin and death. The law of sin and death is what prevails in this world.
Sin, which is lawlessness Don has been talking about that brings death. Are there any exceptions to that? Anybody that lives the life of sin does he get away from?
Death. No, it's a law. You sin, you die. The soul that sinneth it shall die.
But now we're going to introduce a different law, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, And it makes us free from the law of sin and death. Wonderful to realize our deliverance in this way.
South America amongst the brethren down there, they I use a different illustration and perhaps some of you can appreciate it, I think.
Some of you have heard of Simone Bolivar. He was the Liberator from the Spanish in South America not the only Liberator, but there was 1 Liberator that.
They know well on the western side of the continent pretty well.
But the Spanish dominated for many years down there with an iron hand, and Simone Bolivar came and he liberated the continent from the power of the Spanish.
Supposing there is a town in the mountains of the in the Andes mountains, very isolated, and they have not heard that the Liberator has liberated them.
So here comes one of the Spanish agents of the King of Spain.
Says you've got to pay your taxes obligatory, you've got to bow. And since they don't know that there has been a Liberator, what are they going to do? They're going to just say, OK, we'll have to do it.
And a Christian that doesn't know our place of deliverance.
Temptation comes along. Yeah, that's what everybody else does. I guess I'll do it too.
That's not our place. Our place is somebody something completely different.
And so those agents of the King of Spain come to another town where they know they're liberated, and he tries to foist on them, paying taxes to the king of Spain. What are they going to do? They're going to make that man get out of there as fast as humanly possible. That is treason.
Now that they have been liberated, brethren, we've been liberated.
Soon death no longer dominate. It's going to mean, yes, suffering, as we've heard, to enjoy this new life in Christ that we've been given life in the power of the spirit of God, life, independence on the Lord. But this is the life that we've been given. And it really exercises me, brethren, that I see sometimes young people just living to please themselves.
Is that what Christian life is about?
I suggest that Christian life is something completely different.
It's the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. We've been given a new life and the object is not pleasing ourselves.
The object is pleasing that one who died for us and rose again. What a wonderful place we've been brought into brethren. Oh, that we would revel in it. Dear young people, live the life you've been given in Christ Jesus.
00:55:02
The other life is a.
Is a lie.
The American thing, like Don was saying, the culture we live in, please yourself.
Often say, Burger King says have it your way, OK?
I don't mind if you don't want onions on your burger, but it's the principle brethren. Just to do things your own way is not what Christian life is about. It's not at all.
Sometimes I think it's difficult for us to understand when it speaks of the law of something.
We we can, we can maybe be helped in understanding that principle by thinking of gravity. It's a force. It if you throw a basketball up in the air, the law of gravity is going to bring that ball down. It's there's a force behind it. It's it there's there's power there. And we're not talking about when we speak of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. We're not talking about some concept. We're not talking about some idea. We're actually talking about a force.
Of new life exhibited in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in Him. We have the same life under the direction and power of the Spirit of God that causes things to happen.
It changes. It brings about a change. If it exists in our life, there will be results because it is a law.
It's a governing principle.
It's reality.
I have the last chapter we read.
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God.
Now the Pharisees were.
Serving the law, they were under the law.
And they are criticizing the disciples of the Lord Jesus.
And the Lord Jesus says whatever they tell you to do, do.
Where Don't do after their walk.
And that's what we have then later here to them which are in Christ Jesus.
So when we are in Christ Jesus, that means when we are safe.
We don't walk after the.
But after the spirit.
Now we walk after the spirit.
Don't we sin anymore?
Because elects first speaks about sin, all the same words actually speaks about sin.
And in first John 3.
We read about.
Sin. You know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin.
Whosoever abideth in him, sinners not.
Whosoever sinners had not seen him, neither know him.
So if we sin.
Don't we know him anymore?
Because we are capable of sinning.
But we are not looked at as sinners because we are looked at being liberated from sin.
And then we believe that Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin.
And death.
Well, we also made free from death. That doesn't mean either that we don't die anymore.
But we die also unto the Lord Jesus Christ, don't we?
So when we die, we don't go to be condemned, so we don't go to hell.
I wonder if I could just add one more thought to the thought that I just brought out.
The the Spirit of God often teaches us.
By way of contrast, oftentimes he'll take he'll he'll take things that we do understand.
Something that we can, we can readily get a hold of. And then he'll he'll teach us a principle from that.
01:00:05
Well, the law of sin and death is something we do understand.
We're well familiar with Adam.
And what characterized Adam was sin and death.
And so.
There, there we understand the power of sin.
We understand that force, don't we? The law of sin and death. We understand that because we've actually experienced it, and we know what it is to be under that law, that governing force.
Well, we have a new law and a new governing force now.
And that new governing force is the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
What a wonderful thing to experience this in our life as we allow the Spirit of God liberty to bring about that that that the power of divine life in our life.
Say something that I heard years ago at a conference that.
Think it was AC Brown that used to say it, that he was contrasting the commandments of the Old Testament and the commandments of the New Testament. And he put it this way, and I found it very helpful. Commandments of the Old Testament were Do this and you will live.
Commandments of the New Testament.
Is live and you will do this.
And that's basically the thought, because he gives us life. And what kind of life is that?
It's life in Christ by the power of the Spirit, and so there are commandments in the New Testament.
Can't say that there's no commandments now, but they are commandments given to a life that delights to do the will of God.
Verse and it's been touched on by Brother Phil. But just to reemphasize it again, the point here in this second verse is that God has brought a new principle into the life of the believer, a new power by which he is able to live a life pleasing to God and above the propensities and the inclinations of the fallen sin nature. And that's of course is what we have been saying. It's a new law, the law, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
And it has made me free or set me free from the law of sin and death.
And so we can thank God for the greater power, a greater principle that's present in the believer by which deliverance can be had. And I thought someone would have mentioned this illustration already but an old illustration has often been used to to really illustrate this is, suppose I hold up a book or something and I I hold it over the ground and I let go of it. What's going to happen? It falls to the ground because there there's there's such a thing as the law of gravity. It pulls it down.
It is a fixed principle. It happens every time you do it. I could hold my book up 10 times and let go of it every time. It would fall to the ground because there is that power of gravity at work on the book.
But suppose I bring another power to override that book falling to the ground, and I tie some balloons filled with helium to the books sufficient enough so that is it, that when I let go of that book, the book no longer falls to the ground, but it actually rises. What has happened as as the experiment of tying helium balloons?
To the book, Taken away the law of gravity? No, it's still there.
But it's a greater power at active, and it causes the book not to fall to the ground anymore, but to rise. And so when God has saved the believer and given us the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God, he has not taken away the flesh, as brother Don has been telling us, and some of the others that the flesh is still there. The power of fallen sin nature is still there with all of its propensities, but God has brought a greater principle, a greater power, into the life of the believer, which will override that every time.
If we allow the Spirit to do His work, if we walk in the spirit, we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And from verse five onward, he's going to show us how we can have an ongoing practical deliverance from this in nature in a daily way. In the 1St 4 verses, he's just mentioning the principle of it. But there's another thing altogether of having the practice of it as a daily thing in our lives. So let's remember that that there's a greater principle in the life of the believer today.
01:05:00
The power of the Spirit of God.
Notice what it says in chapter 6, going along with what we're saying here in chapter 6 and verse 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey it in the lust of the thereof. Nor does he doesn't say Let not sin dwell in your mortal bodies, because that's something we can't help. It's going to be there until the day we die or until the Lord comes. So he doesn't make any expectation to tell us to get rid of the sin nature, as if there's some way of doing that.
But he says let not sin reign in your mortal body. We are responsible to not let that fallen sin nature have dominance in our life because of this great deliverance. It's because of this great principle that is now.
Available for the believer in his life in the power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Said that, the flush does not change when we become believers.
I would submit, Brother Don, that if there's any change, it's always for the worse.
And I still remember how impressed I was.
Some of you remember Brother Eric Smith, dear brother.
He used to talk about an old brother that used to pray, Lord, help me not to die a wicked old man.
Impressed me.
The flesh in US never gets any better. If anything, it gets more putrid.
So don't look young people at older brethren like Bill was saying and think that they've got it all taken care of. We don't. It's a struggle as long as we're here in this life.
The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these things are contrary to one another, so that you might not do the things that you would. So there's going to be that struggle. But thank God we have a principle of life now that is stronger by the Spirit of God.
We have a principle of life.
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God.
Well, that's what I'm supposed to do.
In verse six we read.
But to be spiritual minded is life and peace.
Now that's what I'm supposed to live by, to be spiritual minded. And then I have life and peace.
So I have eternal life.
And I have peace with God.
Now how do you work without practically?
#200.
A stranger's light to.
Play with.
For souls from.
01:10:03
Glory Hill, I promise.
You.
Romans 8:3-8
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
A prospect, price and a baby for dark shines shall shine. Invite 169.
Lord, we can see by faith in the prospect.
Bright, unfailing.
Where God shall shine.
In my divine, in divine, in glory.
Glory.
And joy.
The story.
That way our spirits.
Down.
And learn to flow in love.
Glow with hearts like joy surrounded.
No more.
Assurances.
To fear I'm horrific.
No more to thank the.
Lamb of slain but.
No more.
No, I jaws and kill it.
But drinking fish?
Grace that gave them.
Fortunate.
Of love. Let's pray.
That prospect, right?
Shall join us, shining.
Before we ask for help.
May we read together in Nehemiah chapter 8.
Nehemiah, chapter 8.
In the first verse.
And all the people gathered themselves together as one man.
Into the street that was before the Watergate.
And they spake unto Ezra the scribe.
To bring the book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.
And Ezra the Scribe brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women.
And all that could hear with understanding.
Upon the first day of the 7th month.
And he read therein before the street.
That was before the Watergate.
From morning until midday before the men and women and those that could understand.
And all the ears of the people were attentive into the book of the law.
Now verse 8.
So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly.
00:05:00
And gave the sense.
And caused them to understand the reading.
So that's when Ward's help.
I would suggest you go on Meditation on Romans chapter 8 while it's.
The subject is still fresh and doesn't get disconnected from what's necessary to make it complete and what follows.
Romans chapter 8.
We start at verse 3.
Romans chapter 8, verse 3.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walked not after the flush, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flush do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be so. Then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ.
He is none of his.
Christ be in you. The body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh, For if ye live after the flush, he shall die, but but if he through the flush do mortified the deeds of the body.
He shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the Spirit of ******* again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, ABBA, Father, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.
If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who had subject the same in hope.
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit. Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for?
But if we hope for, that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he thus searcheth the heart, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession.
For the Saints according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose, for whom He did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate them he also called, and whom he called them he also justified.
00:10:27
And whom he justified them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God before us, who can be against us, He that spare not his own Son, but deliver him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, Who is he that condemneth.
It is Christ that die. Yeah, rather that is risen again.
Who is even at the right hand of God? Who also maketh intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers.
Nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Lest we lose the thread of things that the Apostle is bringing before us, or just passed over, a couple of things in a measure of in a way of outline in the first verse, we've had a new position.
And then in verses 2-3 and four we have a new law to govern us, and then verses 5 through perhaps 10A new sphere to live in verse 11 will give us a new prospect of our bodies being quickened when the Lord comes.
So those first 11 verses go together very beautifully before he comes in with some very important practical expectations based on that at verse 12.
Therefore, brethren, he's got something to say. Now we're going to put this truth into practice.
And so he shows what is characteristic of a Christian who lives in the power of the indwelling Spirit.
What Romans 8 really brings before us is what is characteristic of the Christian. You may say, well, I know some Christians. Or you may look within your own heart and say, well, I don't label like that. I wish I did. That's not the point. He's talking about what is characteristic of a spirit filled Christian who's walking in the power of the spirit of God.
So having said that, in verse three, we might wonder after speaking about the the new law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus being available.
There for us to live a life above the propensities of the sin nature. Why would he bring in this subject in verse three with regard to the condemning of sin in the flesh and all that? What has that got to do with it?
And I think it's just that we need to understand that God himself could not improve the fallen nature. He's done away with it in the death of Christ, He has condemned sin in the flesh.
Might wonder, well why is it that God would affect deliverance in this particular way, which we've had in verse two. It's because he could do nothing with the flesh but condemn it. He could not improve it. He could not embark on some sort of a renovation of the flesh.
And bring the Spirit of God to apply his principles to the flesh and try to improve the flesh or educate the flesh. There is nothing that could be done but to bring judgment upon the flesh. And so that's what he brings in in this third verse showing that even God himself could not improve the fallen sin nature. And I was saying to Bruce behind me, you hear between the meetings, you know we have two natures, we have two natures, We have the new nature, we have the old nature.
00:15:05
And both natures cannot be improved. Think about that. Both natures cannot be improved. The fallen nature can't be improved. But the new nature that we have, which is the very life of Christ, it can't be improved either. It's there's nothing better. And so God has not embarked on some sort of a program to improve the flesh. He has condemned the flesh, set it aside, and has sent the Spirit to work in that new life that we have.
Last chapter says that the law is holy, just and good. So there was number problem with the law was there?
But it only proved how fallen man was.
And the whole Old Testament, in a certain sense, was a test of man in the flesh. How did that test end?
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sin of flesh. In other words, he is not flesh full. He doesn't have sinful flesh. He was sinless, He was holy at his birth, but in the likeness of sinful flesh.
If there was anything good in man, certainly it would have responded to the Lord Jesus. But what It was their answer The most awful rejection and the most awful death awarded to this sinless.
Son of God. They nailed him across. God, in effect, said the test is over.
I'm no longer looking for anything good. In man, sin in the flesh is condemned. It's important to see the difference between our sins, which he forgives. But sin in the flesh is never forgiven, it's condemned sometimes. Give the little illustration.
You have an apple tree that produces sour apples. Man. Can't use them anyway. All you can do is get them together and throw them away.
And let's let's dig around it. Let's fertilize it, let's give it every chance possible to produce good apples. And instead of producing any good apples, it just produces that much more.
Sour apples.
What do you do with that tree? It's condemned. You cut it down.
So sin in the flesh is condemned, and it's important to see that God is not trying to improve any longer sin in the flesh. And we cannot do that either, brethren. And what Brother Bill is bringing out this morning of some who try to take up legal codes to try to get men, men to cooperate is simply recognizing that the flesh isn't all bad. We can put some legal codes here, and we can get something good out of it.
You cannot, because God has condemned sin in the flesh, and so legal codes don't work, brethren.
No, we're in a completely new position now in Christ Jesus.
Law.
Legal code.
Really is has been introduced to man in the flesh, hasn't it? The purpose of the law was to generate righteousness.
From the first man, and I think that we need to be very careful because we have by nature a legal nature. When God told man that he wanted to bless him, the first thing man did was he said.
OK, God, all that you say unto us, we will do. That was man's immediate response.
Was you just tell me what to do and I'll do it. That is our nature.
And we probably don't realize the effect that the law has, even as believers.
In our own lives, sometimes we might experience difficulties in our families or difficulties in our assemblies.
And if we're for before the Lord about about them, the Lord just might trace the route back.
Back to the principle, the fact that we are under law, that we've placed ourselves under law, we've placed our families under law, we've placed our brethren under law.
00:20:08
Why? Well, the the motive is good because we want to produce righteousness.
But it never, it never takes us to that, to that.
End Why? Because of the weakness of the flesh.
If we want to see results in our lives, if we want to see results in our family's life, we want to see results in the assembly, we must point them to these truths that we're having today.
That we have a new life and as we communicate these truths that.
Righteousness is going to come through the Spirit of God working in the new life of Christ that has been given to us. Now that might be a little bit hard for us to communicate to small children, and there may be some need for a few boundaries to keep children under.
Walking in a in a path of order.
But as soon as we can communicate to them, they have a new nature, they have a new life, they have the power of the spirit of God to help them in producing righteousness. Then that is what is going to bring about results. And so this verse here for what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, just let's just remember that.
If we're trying to, we're trying to improve.
Adam, there's always going to be that problem that the flesh is weak.
We present to souls that they have a new life.
Of the Spirit of God. And that's when we're going to see them. If we go on to verse four, we see that the righteousnesses of the righteousness of the law is produced, and then that walk in the Spirit.
Principle to be seen in it, and that is.
Knowing good.
Knowing what's good before God.
Does not give me the desire to do good.
Nor does it give me the power to do so.
We live in a world that has the false impression that education, for example, can change the world.
Well, yes, education has its place and it has its helps. But if it's treated as something that, as some would suggest, well, if man only understood the consequences of his behavior, you just need to educate him and he won't do it. It's not true.
It's not a correct conclusion. God gave man a perfect rule of life called the Law and in verse.
Three, it's the Law of Moses that's in view. It's not, as we were talking in the first reading, the principle.
Of something, but it's referring to the law of Moses. And the law of Moses was a perfect rule of life, but it was used of God to teach us that man.
Is not changed.
By a perfect rule of life, he's still what he is. His nature doesn't change. And so if he wants his own way, even though you give him a perfect rule of life, he still wants his own leg.
And he has. Even if he says I'll do it.
Having that rule does not give him the power to do it easier, because it doesn't change the desire of his heart, which is controlled by that thing in him called sin, which has its own will.
And there's the will of the flesh, and it always wants that which is.
In keeping with what it is and it's corrupted.
And it's a corrupted will. It's a corrupted set of desires, and they remain such. And so God used that perfect rule to teach us what man is, and then He condemns the nature that's in us, that sinfulness, and he replaces it in us, that we might live pleasing in His sight by giving us a new nature, which, as Bruce already said, can't be improved on because it's perfect.
It wants to do the will of God and nothing else. That was the life of Christ when he was here, Even though he was in the likeness of our flesh. Like us, he didn't have sin in him. And his every desire was to do the will of God. And he lived by the Spirit of God, so that he always did the will of God and nothing else and further than that.
00:25:19
That was the source.
Of the joy of his heart.
If you tell somebody to do something they don't want to do, it only intensifies in them the desire to do what they've been told not to do. And so the law added intensity to man's desire to have his own will because it was contrary to what he wanted.
In contrast to that, God has given us a life that wants nothing but the will of God, and He's also given us the Spirit to enable us to live above the power of the flesh in US. And so is the verses that follow contrast What it means to be in spirit, in contrast to be what it means to be in flesh and to be in spirit is is that which enables us to rise above.
The fashion us the sin in us that wants to drag us down to do the old.
So that follows in verse four that the righteousness of the law. Notice it doesn't say that the law might be fulfilled in US.
But the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in US, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. There we have those.
Uh, lines that are proper.
And so the believer is not under law.
The law said Thou shalt not steal, since we're not under law.
Shall we steal? What does it say in Grace says let him that stole steal no more.
But let him rather labor working with his hands, that he may have to give to him that suffers need.
So we fulfill the righteousness of the law.
Without really being under the law.
And we really go far beyond that.
Not only have we not stolen, but we give to the person that suffers need so that perhaps an unsafe person doesn't have to steal either. You'll have something to eat.
So it goes way beyond the law when we walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh.
Like the expense on the comment were not under law.
What that statement means is.
Our relationship with God is not based on a law.
The relationship of Israel to God was based on the law.
They had that conditional relationship with God that if you keep these rules, you live.
If you fail, you die. That's what it is to be under law. It's to be into a relationship with God, where as it was with Israel. Your life and your death is based upon the fulfillment of that relationship.
And so if you were under the law and you sinned, you died.
God has established a new and different relationship between US and God that isn't based on the law, it's based on the work of Christ at the cross for us. And God, having established us as righteous before him on that basis of that work, has brought us into a different relationship with himself. He's brought us into a relationship that's based on his own grace.
And so we stand before God, not living or dying by keeping or failing to keep a set of rules. We stand before God, perfectly accepted in Christ.
And our relationship is based on the righteousness that's established in the work of Christ with God. So we're not in that way under law anymore.
But when it says the righteous requirement of the law, what it's telling us is.
If you live the Christian life, if you live the life that has now been given to you, you will actually do the things that were required of those who were under law. You will keep the righteous requirements that the law placed upon man, and God will be honored and glorified in that. And so to a Jew under law, if he stole, he died.
00:30:15
But for us not to steal is to glorify God and honor God in our as His children, but it doesn't touch our relationship with Him for His children through faith in Christ Jesus.
In connection with the law, you know, sometimes it's nice for us to be able to recognize even in our own lives, or possibly when there's difficulties amongst brethren.
The, the, the the existence of the law, the principle of the law at work.
And one thing that the law will always do, the law will always occupy me with myself.
Because there's an effort to live up to a standard and the question is how am I doing? And then if I feel like I have gained a certain level of success.
Then the effect of the law will have a tendency to ask the question, how are those around me doing?
And that is the tendency of law.
But the.
Working of the Spirit of God is just the opposite.
If we were to turn back to Romans 7, we would find I mentioned how many times.
A bunch of times because the question is, the individual there is under the effect of the law, and so I is the focus.
But when an individual is delivered from law, the Spirit of God has the.
Liberty to do what he does.
Occupy the soul with Christ.
And so that is, I trust that can be a little bit of a help for us sometimes to detect in our own soul, sometimes when we're being influenced by the wrong principle in order that we might live righteously before God.
The law will occupy me with myself.
Or with my brethren, because the.
Focus is righteousness.
The Spirit of God where there is liberty and the new life.
Will occupy the soul with Christ.
We talked about.
What motivates us?
It's a very common thought in each one of us.
What motivates us? What makes us want to do?
The things we do, how do we come to the decision?
Of doing this or not doing that?
One of us lives, lives where there's a very fundamental issue of what motivates.
And the words are not used here, but the thought is embodied in what's being taught here if you go back to Chapter 7.
It says.
In verse 23 bringing me into.
Verse 23 I see another law in my members.
Warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Sometimes we know where we have a conflict in us because we seem to have mixed motivations. We want to do this, but we don't want to do it. We want to do something else. And we say as a if we have life in Christ, I don't want to do that. And then we find ourselves doing it.
The very thing that in our mind we say I shouldn't do that, I don't want to do that and yet we would say we feel powerless.
Because we go ahead and do the thing that we may hate. And that's what he's bringing out in verse 23 of the 7th chapter. There is a principle here. It's not the law, Moses in verse 23, it's that principle. It's that principle of sin that is.
00:35:07
Intent upon what it wants.
Its desires, the desires of the flesh, and it motivates the person to act according to those desires. And even though the mind wants to do otherwise, the body, because that sin is seen as in the body, the body acts according to that sin which is in it to fulfill its desire and it doesn't.
And we say everyone in this room.
Probably innumerable times in their lives, even little kids have said that was bad. I don't, I'm not going to. I'm not going to do that again.
Our mind said no, that was bad. I'm not going to do that again. And we did it again and again and again. It's because there is sin in the body. It's seen here in Chapter 7, is in the body and it has the ultimate, if you will, in Adam, it has the ultimate control of the behavior, even though there might be motives which are otherwise. And that's why in the deliverance in our chapter.
He speaks of the contrast of that which.
Was and that which is that which was is walking after the flesh, walking in the manner in which I just described. But now that the Spirit of God has come in us, he brings in a new and contrasting principle of life.
It's life, the spirit of life, as we already had in verse 2, but which he now is going to explain more. It says they that are after flesh, do mind the things of the flesh, that person, that that's the way it works, that's the way it is. That's what's going to motivate and that's what's going to win.
If you will. Even though the mind says no, I don't want to do that again. And so it says they that are after spirit mind, the things of the Spirit, the Spirit of God working in US, occupies us with different things than the flesh occupies us with. It occupies us with the Lord Jesus Christ and his things. And it gives us the desire of that new life to do them because it wants to.
And so it introduces a whole different way of forming.
The motives of the heart in us that result in obedience to the will of God.
And so God forms the motives in us by the Spirit of God, and empowers us.
To do them.
To fulfill them.
And as I think it's Mr. Darby or someone said, there's nothing so strong as the spirit of God, and there's nothing so weak as the flesh. And so the moment the mind turns to the way of the flesh, that's what acts at that point. And yet the Spirit of God is greater than this, than what is in us in the flesh, so that there is victory.
When the Spirit of God is given the place.
Freedom to direct the soul into that path where there's liberty.
So these next verses are searching brother.
Verse five, They that are after them flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
What do I mind in my life?
I'm talking about my everyday life.
What are the things that I occupy myself with?
We live in a culture and a world where the stream.
Of perdition is very strong.
And I think it's important, brethren, to not deny the fact that we are affected by it as we pass through it.
We are.
But that is not our life.
And we need to mind the things of the Spirit.
I sometimes say.
00:40:01
In South America, go out into the countryside.
And there's an animal wallowing in the mud.
I say what animals should that could that be?
They always say a pig.
I say, Are you sure it's not a cheap?
Yeah, we're sure. Why not? Why are you still sure a sheep doesn't do that?
A pig does that.
What are you minding in your life? Are you minding the things of the flesh?
Or the things of the spirit.
He's telling us here how the spirit is minded and how the flesh is minded so it's searching as we're passing through this world. It's so easy.
To get under the influence of things.
All around us.
I'm going to park myself in front of a TV screen.
What is it going to make me mind? You know what it's going to make me mind? It's not going to be the things of the Spirit. It's going to be otherwise.
And it's not going to be positive.
So these things are searching, brethren.
What are we minding in our lives?
Where somebody mentioned that verse in Colossians chapter 3.
If you then be risen with Christ.
Set your mind on things above.
So it's a definite exercise on our part.
What do you allow your mind to be occupied with?
Is there searching?
Considerations, Brad.
These two spheres in which we can live in, and it's our responsibility to live in the right sphere, and they're designated by, as what you've already mentioned, the things of the flesh and the things of the Spirit.
And he's saying that if we live in that realm of the things of the Spirit, there will be a practical, ongoing power of deliverance evident in our life. If we choose to live in the sphere of the flesh and surround ourselves with all those things that the flesh goes into, we can be sure that the flesh is going to lift up its ugly head in our lives, and the Spirit is going to be quenched. And so now the onus is on us. Which of these two spheres am I going to live in through the day? And I have a choice to make every single day, and so do you.
Where am I going to live? What am I going to occupy myself with? And so practical, ongoing deliverance of the Spirit depends upon the believer living in the right sphere. We have the power. The principle of it has already been taught in verses 2.
But now we have a responsibility of the believer to live in the things of the Spirit.
Someone said if you pamper the flesh.
You'll hamper the Spirit. And if we live in the things of the flesh we can surely be, we can be sure that the Spirit of God is going to be grieved and quenched.
Such an important matter to be careful.
Of our thinking patterns, brethren minding.
Look at the 12Th chapter There we're getting into the.
Practical side, But notice what it says in verse two of chapter 12. It's the practical.
Implementation of what we're talking about.
Be not conformed to this world.
But be ye transformed.
How? By the renewing of your mind.
That ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Living in a world that is contrary to God.
Everything needs to be.
Challenged by the light of the precious word of God renewing your mind.
The Lord help us in that, brethren.
We speak of the things of the Spirit. Someone may be asking the question, well, what things are they? And that's a good question. It's a fair question to ask What are these things? Well, there are things concerning the interests of Christ.
And where He is the center of all God's thoughts and his purpose. And so if we're occupied by those things that pertain to Christ his interest in this earth, we're going to be occupied with the things of the Spirit, because that's where the Spirit is occupied with glorifying Christ.
00:45:12
And so if I take time to read the scriptures and take time to pray, take time to write and communicate letters to my brethren in spiritual matters, Or if I take time to phone somebody, visit somebody with a word of encouragement, and take time to sing, and take time to hymns I'm Speaking of. And all these other things that we could speak of that are what a Christian ought to be occupied with. If I live in that, the power of the Spirit will be evident in my life to keep the flesh in check. But as I say, if I choose to live in the things which the flesh go in for.
And surround myself with all these things that the world has to attract my heart. And all this I will not have that victorious Christian life that the Scripture speaks of.
And then I began to think, what's going on? There's a power failure in my life.
I have the spirit. I know I do because I'm saved. And when every saved person has the seal of the spirit, he's indwelling what's going on? He's been hindered. That's what's been going on. Because I live in the wrong sphere. I'm living in the sphere of the things of the flesh. And so it really is an exercise, as you say, as to how much of Christ we want. You know the old saying that Mister Hayne used to say, we can have as much of Christ as you want, and your life shows how much you want. It's so true that it hurts.
The things of the Spirit.
Everything that is communicated to my soul of Christ. Everything that is communicated.
Of this book every truth that I receive.
Is the work of the Spirit of God in my soul.
I it's not that I have been occupied necessarily. It's not effort on my own, you might say. I realize we need to take up the word of God. We need to read it, We need to spend time in it. But if I receive something?
It's via the Spirit of God. It's through him He is He is the communicator of of of all of God's truth. If I receive, if I sit on in Lord's Day morning and I'm in the enjoyment of the Lord's death, it's because the Spirit of God is at work and he's generating those thoughts within my soul.
It's not some activity that I'm generating, you might say, apart from him.
Responsibly exercised in the matter. The Spirit of God has been given and we may say, well, it's up to the Spirit to do it. You know, I'm just going to sit here, but that's never the way scripture presents the truth. There are two sides of things. There's a sovereign side that God has and there is also man's responsibility. And that's why when he gets down to the practical side of things and verses 12 and 13, particularly verse 13, he says and if he live after the flesh you shall die and is after the things of the flesh, you should be translated. And there we show, it shows that we have.
Responsibility to choose what sphere we live in.
And then he shows the outcome of it all. He says you shall die. He's not speaking literally literal death, but a moral death where there is a separation of our communion and our lifeline with God if I live after those things. That's the aspect of death that's mentioned here. And so that's a that's a very, very big if.
And he writes it in this way to make us responsibly exercised about the matter.
Six. He says the same thing.
What's characteristic of the flesh to be carnally or fleshly minded is death. That's the direction it leads.
Do you want that in your life? You want that direction but to be spiritually minded?
Is life and peace. What a tremendous contrast.
Which is characteristic of our lives, brethren.
This is what God desires for us. Life and peace. Beautiful.
I'd like to read 2 verses connection with these things.
1St is back in Romans 5.
In Romans chapter 5.
How to find in verse 11?
00:50:02
And not only so, but we also joy in God.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
For commenting on it, I'll go over to Philippians chapter 3.
And if I get to Philippians instead of Ephesians, I might find the verse I want.
Philippians chapter 3.
And.
Looking for the verse for me to live is Christ.
1/21.
Thank you John Philippians chapter one, not three and verse.
21 For me to live as Christ.
The Spirit of God.
Delights to work in us to fulfill the very purpose of our existence.
God created us as creatures.
To have a creature that could know him and with whom he could have fellowship.
And God wants us.
To find our joy in himself.
And in fellowship with himself, he made us for that purpose.
And the Spirit of God delights to fulfill that purpose of God.
And every day, in a very practical way, when we wake up in the morning, we wake up with the privilege and the opportunity to go through the day.
And fellowship with God.
In the enjoyment of himself.
And the enjoyment of what he enjoys.
And the great object of his own heart is his own beloved Son.
And the Apostle Paul, in a very practical way, had learned that because the Spirit of God working in him gave him to say for me to live as Christ, because he was the one and is the one that is the center of all God's heart. And when God created us to enjoy himself, he wants to enjoy what he enjoys, and that is his beloved Son. And his purpose is to glorify or.
Display himself.
In the majesty of his own son.
And so the Spirit of God in us practically delights to occupy us with that which God is occupied with, which is his Son and his honor and his glory.
And it's the same character of life that the Lord Jesus lived as we had in verse 2.
He delighted everything. To his soul was his fellowship with God.
And every single day, everything he did, he did to please the one with whom he had his fellowship in that day. And God has given to us a life that finds his satisfaction and its delight in the same thing. It isn't something we have to produce in ourselves. It's not producible by us.
But it's rather the Spirit of God.
Would bring us into the enjoyment of that which God has brought us into.
In that which he has given to us as a gift and made us his own. And I believe that's something of the essence of what it is to live by the Spirit is to live by that which the Spirit of God, the things of the Spirit that bring us into the fellowship with God and that which he enjoys and we enjoy. And the moment I seek my satisfaction, which the flesh always does, What's the flesh say?
We will not have this man.
The flesh says I don't want him. That is Christ. Get rid of him.
And it'll never change as we have in our chapter Romans 8. The flesh is that enmity against God. Enmity means it has a fixed ill will against.
00:55:01
God.
Because God wants one thing and the flesh wants another. And if God lays down a rule and says you're not to do that, there's ill will in man against God for telling him to do something he doesn't want to do. And so he struggles against God. He doesn't want to have God in his knowledge. If God sends the Son into the world, his enmity says I won't have him.
I don't want you and I don't want your son, because man in the flesh is at enmity with God and it will not change. The only way that we were reconciled to God is through death.
Not through a reconciliation. Well, let's get together and talk it over and come out of this.
Man, peace with God and reconciliation and those truths are founded on the work of death at the cross. And we are only brought into peace with God on the other side of death and the work that accomplished it. So for us to live this life that we're talking about.
The practical enjoyment of it starts, if you will, with the responsibility side is.
I want to find my joy in God.
I want to find my life, my joy. I'm going to find it in my God, and anything which hinders it isn't worth it.
If you find yourself occupied with something that is a hindrance to your enjoyment of God, give it up.
Say it's not worth it.
One other comment and I'll stop, and that is fellowship with God must be in absolute light.
John First, John, Chapter one. This relationship of fellowship with God by the Spirit. There can be no darkness in it at all. The moment I allow something in my heart and in my life which is inconsistent with God.
I cannot in that have fellowship with him, because God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. In First John one the principle is we want to have fellowship with him, but it must be with everything open and out in the light and consistent with it.
We had a comment to that too as to the whole question of joy.
We have some children that come to our Sunday school back home.
And they like to come up to our home.
But it's a major problem to entertain them. Why?
Because they can't stick at anything for more than about 3 minutes, and I don't say that unkindly. That's the way they've been brought up and that's what they're used to. And in order to keep them entertained, you better have an awful lot planned because anything that lasts more than a few minutes.
Anything that has any matter of routine or stick to itness involved in it is not going to work.
And I've thought of that as being characteristic of the natural man, the carnal man.
It's always having to have something that continually stimulates because there's no satisfaction. And so we talk about these things, and I hope that none here are thinking that we are advocating a dry formalism where there is no real, shall we say, for want of a better word, real fun or anything like that, but that I'm always sitting in a chair reading my Bible or on my knees in prayer.
If my heart is right, those will be wonderful times. Never a duty, never a ritual.
But will it keep me from going about everyday life in the normal way? No. If you're a young child, you'll get up in the morning, you'll have your breakfast, you'll go off to school in one way or another. You'll do a certain amount of work. If you're in high school or college, same thing. If you have a job, it'll mean getting up, going about it, and so on. And there will be the element of routine in just about everything that we do.
Someone who was writing many years ago made a beautiful comment that I've never forgotten, he said. I would attach more significance to peace than to joy.
And we use the word joy, and I think it's a right word to use because in a general way it does express what we have in Christ. And there are times of very special joy that the Spirit of God seeks to give us. But there are other times when it is simply going about the normal, everyday responsibilities of life, whether in the home or in the workplace or in connection with education or whatever it may be.
01:00:11
But it's a wonderful piece, a wonderful rest in the soul, simply to have the sense that we are walking with the Lord, that the Spirit of God is free to minister to my soul whatever he would.
Alternately, that the Spirit of God is free to use me in whatever way he would, and then at the end of the day, to lay my head down on the pill with the conscious sense, as Don has said, that there is nothing that I know of that is between me and the Lord.
And that I have the conscious sense that I sought to please him during that day.
It's not that I'm always if we could use a common expression on a high, no. But there is that calm peace.
In going on with the Spirit of God.
Able to minister Christ to my soul, Able to give me that peace and rest and joy, then I'm not going to find that circumstances are going to ruffle me in the same way.
I'm going to find there's liberty to take my circumstances to the Lord, to look for, to look to Him, independence for what I need, if a difficulty arises, and ultimately to learn something from everything that he allows in my path.
It's a wonderful experience. I don't say that I've done it constantly, but I believe that God would have us to be able to live that way and to enjoy Christ in our hearts.
You think about routine, Bill. It makes me think of the Lord Jesus himself, who we get a glimpse of him at 12 years of age, and then we really don't see him until he's about 30 years of age, 18 years. What was he doing in 18 years? We're talking about the creator and sustainer of the whole universe. What was he doing?
The only thing we can get from scripture that he was the Carpenter.
In a Carpenter shop.
Is that the only place he was? Far as we know, didn't that speak volumes to your soul? I mean, it speaks so tremendously to me of the value of good physical labor.
And in a routine.
We don't know, even after he went out into public ministry.
I'm impressed, brethren, with how simple his life was.
Some think he may have had a house, but I mean, that wasn't the focus of his life.
As he went around, you never read of him having a piece of money in his hand. He asked to see denarius one time.
But when it came to fulfilling the scriptures and writing into Jerusalem.
On a donkey, he had to borrow one to do that. His life was the ultimate of simplicity.
Oh, brethren, to me it's tremendous just to look at this life we're talking about.
But getting back to our chapter, because our chapter, our time is just about gone here, I like to just focus a little bit more on this verse seven and eight before we close.
The carnal mind, Don has been talking about this.
Is enmity against God.
That carnal.
Nature in me is an enemy of God, just as much as that in the case of any unsaved person. If I allow that to act, I am going to act as an enemy of God.
O brethren, it shows the importance of living in the Spirit, the place that we are called to.
And then it says it is not subject to the law of God. Neither, indeed can be.
Why give the law then, if it cannot be subject to the law of God?
And then verse 8 says so. Then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
That's a pretty strong, definite statement.
But notice the next verse and this is beautiful and just like to end on this.
But ye, he's speaking to the believers.
01:05:00
Are not in the flesh. If we were in the flesh, brethren, we would have to obey the demands of the flesh. We are not in the flesh.
But in the spirit, isn't that wonderful to realize that this is the place that we occupy?
Now not in the flesh, but in the spirit.
296.
Glory.
My God.
In love.
Will pray.
For me.
Number 87.
Number 87.
In Jesus.
Himself.
The.
01:10:38
Could we read one verse before we pray?
Book of James.
James Chapter One.
Verse 23.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer.
But a doer of the work.
This man shall be blessed in his deed.
Gospel 1
Gospel—Bruce Conrad
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Well, if you've just joined us here for this meeting.
My privilege on behalf of the believers here in Addison to extend you a warm welcome to the Gospel meeting.
Unless I forget, if you have questions this is probably not a group you're just going to raise your hand, but that I really would be fine with that, but it's probably not going to happen. If you have questions or want to speak to someone afterwards, just catch someones eye where you're sitting or find me if you'd like, and we'd be delighted to address any questions you may have that we may be able to answer.
I don't know most of you, my name is Bruce Conrad. I'm from I live near Denton, TX.
The message I have for you tonight is not from Denton, TX.
From heaven itself.
The scriptures speak about good news from a far country.
And the privilege weighs upon me tonight to speak to you.
On behalf of God.
To give you good news.
But the gospel message is kind of.
It's kind of strange, I know Paul speaks of the mystery of the gospel.
It would be certainly a delight.
If you and I could reminisce someday and you say you know that night.
And wherever we are.
What neighbor village in Naperville I.
Accepted Christ that night. That would be wonderful.
But I really don't want to be the one.
When you stand before God.
Which you will.
And he just looks at you.
And says, son, remember.
The horror of that.
Is beyond our thinking.
Tomorrow morning, Lord willing, there'll be probably this room filled and we'll have the privilege to remember.
The Lord Jesus and his death, as he's asked us to do.
That's a happy thing to do. The memory of the just is blessed.
But it just staggers our minds to think if you should be like that rich man.
Who woke up in a place from which he would never escape?
That was so horrible.
In eternal judgment.
And God had to just say, Son, remember?
And so, with God's help, let's begin our meeting. I know we've all mostly been sitting today, so let's stand and start with hymn number.
25.
We'll sing this hymn and then take up some things from the scriptures and if we have time, sing one more at the end.
And that's the way we'll go, God willing, if some brother could start hymn #25.
Life at most is very great, like the falling of a leaf, like the binding of a shame.
Bleeding, never telling fast, Let the light will soon make us and the vagal light be passed.
I bring, I make.
My voice again.
What you consider, do not wonder, all last you steal your orchestra.
Big time.
May I Make Heart.
You on your way, you make my.
Trust today.
It's fine.
We turn to John's Gospel first, chapter 3.
Really was thinking.
To read just three passages.
Before I do.
This hymn we sang about life at best being very brief.
Was speaking with somebody near where I was sitting and saying how it you go to work when you're young and you're the youngest guy there and everybody's older and you blink a few times and you look around and you're the oldest guy there.
And older ones are kind of nodding their heads. That's the way it seems. Life is so swift.
I think it's in job. It says it's like a Weaver shuttle just.
And it's gone.
And we have a quick, a quick time here, a short time here.
And the opportunity, the wonderful opportunity, is now and this time to make a decision that effects our eternity.
I'm old enough when I was saved to remember reading the scriptures for the first time.
And I found it so striking when I finally got up to the book of Job, which took a while.
And to read all these questions that different ones in the book of Job were raised.
When I was a little boy.
Raised in Pennsylvania before the days when air conditioning was everywhere.
In the very humid, hot summer nights and diligent parents back then put you to bed at a certain time no matter what was going on outside in the street or how hot it was.
And after staring at the ceiling a little while and it would get dark a number of times, I don't know how many, I'd sneak out. Don't. Don't you do this.
I would sneak out the window onto the roof and I'd climb up and there was a flat spot up there in my pajamas in this little development of little tiny brick houses. I didn't know if I was six or seven or eight or I think it went on a number of years. And I can remember like it were yesterday, asking these questions.
00:10:22
What am I doing here? What's the purpose of all this?
And you see the stars and you say.
What's this all about?
Look down who made me? What am I made for?
And I found it so striking that 15, some 20 years later and I get to the book of Job and all those questions are there in the Scriptures. Why did you bring me forth out of the womb?
What is my? What is my strength that I should hope? What is my end?
Can a man be profitable unto God?
And then as you get a little older and it doesn't take you to be very old before you have a sense of sin and of guilt.
And you say?
In a little boys mind, the equivalent of how can a man be just with God?
How can he that is born of a woman be clean in the sight of God, even the heavens?
Are not pure in his sight.
And so when I finally got to the book of Job.
I was so fascinated to see that I wasn't the only one, that God had worked and works in so many hearts.
And he oftentimes doesn't give answers, he gives questions.
And whether it's in the workplace or in spiritual things, it's always so encouraging when someone asks the right questions.
When you ask the right questions in spiritual things with an honest heart, God will answer every question.
You'll notice the Queen of Sheba, when she went, it says that Solomon told her all of her questions. And so these are good questions. And this precious book, the word of God people call the Bible.
It has every answer we need and more to all of the good questions in life.
You know what I was wondering sitting in my chair today and somebody, I think it was Bill mentioned and when he read in the book of Acts, Paul speaking about coming amongst them and speaking or testifying the gospel of the grace of God. And that's what we have tonight, the good news of God's graciousness and goodness to you and me.
But it also he also calls it the mystery of the gospel.
And it's not my purpose to take that up tonight, but there is a sense in which the gospel.
Is the secret in plain daylight?
And the brothers were praying before the meeting about this gospel hardened land we live in.
And to you and me, it probably see who our believers. It probably seems like everybody has heard the gospel 1000 times.
Not so it's not so I don't think. I know this deluded 22 year old. 23 year old. I walked right past it.
When I was saved, I was just shocked. How could I have missed this? Does everybody know about this? This is a this is a secret in hiding in plain sight.
But it's not the Gospel that's hidden, it's the God of this world hath blinded the minds.
Of them which believed not.
The veil is on our heart and in our minds.
And God is able to take that away and He did for me. And so many in this room, they will for you.
So with God's help, just take up a few verses tonight, the 1St in John chapter 3.
And verse 16.
A verse that has probably been translated into every language.
On this Earth, and there's probably a lot of languages.
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.
Now let's turn for just a SEC over to Romans chapter 5, where we work today.
Romans, chapter 5.
And verse 6.
For when we were yet without strength.
00:15:00
In due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
And then in verse eight, what God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We'll get to the third verse later, Lord willing.
It is my great privilege to be able to tell you, with all the assurance I have about anything I've ever known, that God loves you.
I don't have to know a thing about you. I don't have to know how good you are, how bad you are, how smart you are, how rich or how poor.
It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever learned.
Is that you have the authority from this book to be able to walk up to anybody in any country at any time. Look them right in the eye. Sick person in the hospital prisoner Brother ****.
Slide that little thing that some of them are in behind. Sir, God loves you.
That's an amazing thing.
The brothers were speaking today about our attitude and our emotions.
And oftentimes we feel a little bit like it's a struggle to control our thoughts.
To have right thoughts and a right attitude.
To have right emotions and right feelings for the that are appropriate for the time, for the person, for the situation. God speaking reverently.
Can be anything he wanted to be.
You think anything he wants to be. He's God and he chose to love.
The world, you and me.
Could have been anything.
And he has characterized himself and told us about it, that he loves us so much that the scripture says God is love.
And God is light.
God didn't just love the church. He didn't just love the believers.
But God so loved the world.
There was a sacrifice that God made in the very beginning.
Of this world, when he provided a sacrifice for a man and his wife.
That was an act of mercy and of love.
He made a sacrifice for a family later on.
And then he widened it to a whole nation.
There was a lamb for a house and then goats in atonement for the whole nation.
But today is for whosoever, it's for the world.
All different. There's so many people in so many languages and so many countries. Doesn't matter. On the behalf of this book, you can say, my friend, God loved you and Christ died for you.
We we can easily take love for granted, I suppose, and we throw the word around kind of lightly.
But I'm sure there's a lot of people in this world that have never, ever been loved by anybody.
Sometimes you read about things happening where.
It just reminds you of that scripture.
Can a woman forget her sucking child? Yay, they may forget.
A woman that just delivers a child.
And I don't mean to be callous or disrespectful, but they throw the jaw in the trash.
And there's people if they.
Places of poverty and the stress of a world that has been contaminated and corrupted by sin.
They're not so much.
Brought up as they just grow up.
Women taken as wives that are never really loved.
Children and families, they're just one more mouth to feed, one more number.
And I'm sure there are countless people who have never been loved by anybody.
But think of the message that you could walk up to a person like that.
And say maybe your father never knew you never cared to.
But God loves you.
00:20:01
God loves you.
Is a staggering thought. We just breezed through it so much. God loves you.
And because God so loved the world, as it says here, he gave his only begotten Son.
Now many of us in this room have had sons born to us.
And they've had a beginning when they were born. They have a history.
God's Son is eternal.
The Son of God was with the Father before the worlds were made, Proverbs 8 tells us.
His delights were with the sons of men.
And in the habitable parts of his earth.
And God so loved the world that he's decided to send his only begotten Son.
And so you say, well, what makes you me qualified?
To speak here about what I'm speaking about tonight, I have no theology degree. I can say, as it says in the Scriptures, I believed. Therefore, am I speaking or have I spoken? That's my qualification, I believed.
The Son of God came into this world.
As one with God his Father throughout all eternity.
God, in his love to man, said. I want to communicate to man so plainly, so clearly.
All that I am nothing left out.
And so he doesn't send or raise up a profit in this case.
He doesn't send an Angel.
He sends the darling of his bosom, His own and only begotten Son, into this world.
We read in John's Gospel.
In chapter one.
Let me just turn back to that. It was about 6 verses crowding my mind, but I'll read verse 14. The Word was made flesh, or became flesh, and dwell among us.
And we beheld His glory, the glories of an only begotten, of a Father full of grace and truth.
Had it only been that God?
Sent his son to display all that he is, in love and in holiness and in every moral beauty.
In all wisdom, that in and of itself.
Would have been.
The most dramatic, amazing thing that had ever happened on this earth.
If he had just merely come and displayed everything that God is.
I love that.
Him, I think it goes.
Come dwells in his bosom, knoweth all that in that bosom lies came to earth to make it Tim known that we might share his joys.
The son's knowledge of the father is perfect and intimate and complete.
And he could stand in front of Pharisees and Sadducees and everyone else and say, I and my Father are one.
He could say to the disciples, If you have seen me, you have seen my father.
It makes the hair stand up on your head to consider the import of those statements.
This is God come forth in human vessel form.
Displaying all that God is and Paul could write later on, in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
All of it, nothing left out.
And if it had stopped there, that had still been the most amazing.
Event that had ever taken place on the Earth, but it doesn't stop there, as you know.
When it says He gave his Son, he gave him as a sacrifice for sin. He gave him as the Lamb of God's own, providing that he may take up the question of sin.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
We're on that, Lord willing, in a minute.
00:25:05
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
And you say, if you haven't heard this before or haven't considered it, perish. Now where does this come from?
I'm good with God loving me.
You might say, but perish. Why would I perish?
And so in the gospel, there's good news and there's bad news. The bad news is, my friend, that if you haven't accepted Christ.
You're on a broad Rd.
That could end at any moment and it leads to destruction.
That's the facts of the matter.
The facts of the matter are that you were born in sin and that's why you started to sin before you can remember. The scripture says man is born into trouble like the sparks fly upward.
And that's your history and mine.
God is light and Him is no darkness at all, as we consider today.
And yet you and I were born as an unclean thing. Vain man would be wise though man be born like a wild ***** cult.
And what our brother was describing today in the flesh, That's the wild ***** cult.
That you and me by nature.
The nature that produced those sins is obnoxious to God.
And the fruit that you and I have produced.
That bad fruit?
Is obnoxious to God.
The soul that sinneth the scripture says it shall die.
You say, well, yeah, that's what I was, but can I tip the scale a little bit? I haven't done X or Y for a long time, and I've done AB and C too.
I can remember the first time I read this verse after I was saved as I was reading my way through the Bible. God requires that which is past.
I said man.
Every religion in the world.
Is kind of turning its back on the past and looking forward and saying, well, let's do some good things. The law has so many flavors and so many religions, but it's all the same. It's do good and get good.
Do bad, get bad? That's religion. Every religion man invents is some variation on that theme.
But it doesn't take up yesterday or last week. God requires it of you, my friend.
It requires your little 4 year old sins and your 6 year old sins, or your 12 or 16 year old sins. He requires it of you.
And on God's behalf, I warn you tonight.
And God misses nothing.
There is wrath, and beware lest he take you away in his stroke.
And even a great ransom cannot deliver you.
Tonight, there's a ransom.
Christ Jesus gave himself a ransom for all. There's a ransom tonight.
Now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. There was a time God winked at men's ignorance, but now commanded all men everywhere to repent.
Maybe you're invited somewhere to buy something, or to buy Tupperware or buy a mutual fund or buy whatever they say. Oh, buy this thing. But if you don't, OK.
It's a free country, right?
God loves you so much He's now commanding you to repent than to believe the gospel.
God requires that which is past.
And so God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
I.
The thought.
Is there any Wakefield used to say?
God blocks the path of every Sinner with a cross.
00:30:00
Of Christ, you're going to have to walk right by it.
You see people out on the street in the violence situations and you say I wonder if that person has ever heard the gospel. I believe God is faithful.
God is faithful.
And he puts those outstretched arms before you.
And God so loved the world that He gave His Son, not just as I was saying, to display all that He is in His nature to man.
But he provided him as a sacrifice for sin. We read in Romans chapter 5 that he died for the ungodly and he died for all. And so again, on the authority of this book, I can say to every man, and so can you.
You can say on the authority of this book that God loves you and Christ died for you.
You can say that because that's the truth. God loves you.
Christ died for you.
But we need to be clear about something.
And that's this word. As we used to tell our children when they were little at the table, we called it the B word.
Believe.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
If we were to turn to 1St John chapter 2 and I think maybe I'll just quote it.
It says there that he referring to Christ as the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only.
But for the whole world.
And again, I think it's in the 4th chapter of First John here in his love, not that we loved him, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation from our sins.
That's a word that we don't commonly use, propitiation. I think it's only in our English Bible. Three times. Once you kind of have to look it up and it's there, but two times it's out there playing in the King James Bible. And I just quoted both of them.
But propitiation is that side of the cross which really is Christ laying the foundation before God, before a holy God, to establish the foundation where God can come out and bless the vilest Sinner and still be just in doing it.
Let me use an illustration we sometimes use with the children.
And suppose you, you go away, you've come away to this conference. You left your home in your neighborhood.
And a boy comes from down the street and he totally trashes your home.
You don't know who it is, but somebody just totally trashes your home.
Almost unlivable defiles, it defaces it. Everything you can imagine, just in sport and in mischief.
But before you get home, a close friend of yours realizes what's happened and he just drops everything and diligently goes to work and not only repairs your house, but uses the occasion to make your home so much more beautiful and glorious than it ever was before.
And you hear on the phone what has happened and your intrepidation, and you come back not knowing what you're going to find. And you have that sense of being violated. And someone broke in and it's such a horrible feeling. And you come back and you see your home in a condition beyond the way you left it by a long shot.
That is a feeble illustration for this aspect of the work of Christ on Calvary's cross, where Christ Jesus came in and laid down his life, offered himself as an offering for sin for God.
And by doing that, as John could say in the very first chapter, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
And it says of the Lord Jesus worked prophetically in the Psalms. Then I restored that which I took not away.
In the Old Testament, when you stole something, you had to add the 5th part.
And the Lord Jesus not only restored that which He didn't take away in this world, but He added the 5th part so to speak, in that He glorified God in the putting the way of sin.
In such a.
00:35:02
I don't have an adjective.
But that's what he did.
When the Lord Jesus and the majesty of that man Christ Jesus could look up to God and say, I have glorified thee on the earth in anticipation of going to Calvary's cross, laying down his life, offering himself for the ungodly, for you and for me.
And so that's God's side of the cross. That foundation has been laid in God. God's holy claims have been met.
By the glorious work of his son on Calvary's cross. But what about the boy who did it?
What about that boy?
Is the fact that your friend came and rebuilt the place? Not only rebuilt it, but.
Refurbished it into a condition beyond what it was before. Does that take away that boy's guilt?
You think it does?
We still have an issue here, don't we?
We still have an issue.
I was in a gospel meeting once, put on by a.
Young fellow. We were both young and he was in the next town for me in Massachusetts, and I don't know How I Met him. He was a believer.
And he was having a gospel meeting in his home.
And invited me down, and I took one of the boys and went down and sat in the living room and listened to his gospel message with, I don't know, seven or eight of his neighbors.
And the man I was sitting next to, after it was done, I stood up and he stood up and I said.
So what do you think?
He said. I don't see what the problem is.
He said from what I got tonight, God loves me, Christ died from me. I don't see that there's a problem.
And I learned a lesson from that.
And I learned a lesson that I think is taught in the scriptures.
That we just read that the Word of God carefully distinguishes propitiation, what Christ has done to glorify God with respect to the outrage of sin.
Is different than the transfer of guilt.
And so to repeat myself again on the authority of this book.
Without knowing who you are, I can say God loves you. I can say Christ died for you.
I can't say he took your guilt away or he bore your sins in his own body on the tree. Let's turn to that in First Peter chapter 2.
First Peter, chapter 2.
Who when he was reviled? Verse 23 reviled. Not again.
When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that Judith righteously, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live under righteousness. By whose stripes you were healed.
Let's turn back to Isaiah 53.
For a similar passage.
Isaiah 53.
In verse 6.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us.
All.
Further down in the same chapter.
Verse 11. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Verse 12. At the end he hath poured out his soul unto death. He was numbered with a transgressors, and he bare the sin of many.
You'll recall how in Leviticus chapter 16 there are two goats.
One goat.
The Lord's lot falls on that goat. The other goat is the scapegoat.
One goat is kind of like I think represents what propitiation speaks about its God's side.
God is the one who made this world.
Everything belongs to God.
God is the one who all sin ultimately is against God.
00:40:03
And that goat dies for God.
The other goat is interesting, The sins are confessed on the head of that other goat and it's taken by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, never to be seen again. I think is what it says, a picture of the other aspect of the work of Christ.
That only a believer can say he bare my sins in his own body on the tree.
So perhaps you can fill this in for yourself.
I give you the first part. God loves you. You know that there's many other scriptures that tell you that God loves you because God has loved and that's what he chose to do.
Christ died for you because God loves you.
And he sent.
He sent one like no other, his own and only son, to accomplish a work that he alone was qualified and willing to do, laying down his life as a sacrifice for sin. On Calvary's cross, the foundation is laid.
Christ died for the ungodly.
What about the last part?
Whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
And perhaps that boy in that figure who trashed out that house, if he's found out he's taken, injustice will be served.
Because it's a separate thing.
Are you able to say that he bore your sins in his own body on the tree?
Have you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ? You say, well, this is complicated. I hear the brothers speaking about his death and the shedding of his blood and propitiation.
And this one brother I read.
He said.
Don't get your head all hung up and trying to understand all the details of the work of Christ. You've got time for that.
Believe on the person, on the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows what He did, and when you believe on him, when you put your trust in Him, even if it's just the hem of His garment, all the value of all that He's accomplished on Calvary's cross is made good to you.
And you can say God loved me. Christ died for me, and he bore my sins in his own body on the tree. He was my substitute. I was the guilty one. I'm the one who deserved the wrath of God. I'm the one who deserved those stripes. I'm the one who deserved eternal punishment.
And Christ was willing to take my guilty place and to die for me, the just, for the unjust, to bring me to God.
I can't promise you, no matter who you are, that that's true of you, but you can take it for yourself.
By what we used to tell our little kids is the B word believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord.
Shall be saved.
He runs to and fro throughout the whole earth, anxious and desirous to show himself strong on behalf of any that would call on him, the young, the old, the rich, the poor.
He bear our sins. I can say He bare my sins in his own body on the tree.
Let's sing in closing.
Hymn #24.
If some brother could start #24.
Oh, there's a bright and a glorious.
Heart where all are really being held with you. So slow. More brilliant.
With everyone.
Singing.
That was was.
Made my favorite.
God.
If you take.
A.
Call.
When he die.
All the way.
When he gathers his own.
Way.
Why Did Jesus Have to Die?
Children—Mark Breman
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good morning.
Time to have Sunday school this morning. Glad to see all the children up here on the front rows. And if anybody else would like to, there's still some some more seats up here that the children can use. Do each one of you have a hem sheet like this?
OK. I think we're going to sing off the back of the hymn sheet this morning.
The first number you will see there is 40 to know that you're on the back, but you can choose hymns off of the back of that. OK, So who would like to have the first one OK.
#44.
#44.
Into a tent where a gypsy boy lay dying alone at the close of the day.
News of salvation recurring. Nobody, ever.
To a little kid. To a little kid.
Salvation. Sorry.
Nobody ever has told me before.
Salvation.
Story.
Nobody. Ever.
Salvation Story.
Till I can say children, man, nobody.
Never asked for me before.
Well, thank you. That was a very nice one to start with this morning. Tell it again, tell it again.
I wonder if there's any boy or girl on the front row here that can tell me what that's talking about. Tell it again. Tell what again?
The story of Jesus. The story of Jesus. That's a wonderful story to tell. Again, how many of you have never heard it before?
How many of you like to hear it again?
Isn't that wonderful? It's a story that will never, never wear out. It's a story that everyone needs to hear. And it says here telling of the story a little bit, God sent his son. Whosoever said he then I am sure that he sent him for me. Now you know that not everyone knows and are is sure that God sent his son for them. And so we need to tell it again.
00:05:17
And like we heard last night, if you were at the gospel meeting last night, that there are people right here in this country who have never heard it and never known it.
Tell you a little quick story. One of my daughters is a photographer and she actually works for a company in Chicago here, but does her work in Iowa. And she goes around to all the schools in Iowa and takes pictures for all the students at the schools. And there was a lady, I believe she was 67 years old, I think it was last week.
Lydia had to go pick her up and take her to the school and on the way there, but he was visiting with her.
And she says what? What do you mean by Lord Jesus?
And she said, why did God have to die?
67 years old.
In a neighboring town from where we live in Iowa.
Didn't didn't know some of the things that you boys and girls already know.
That solemn.
And we'll talk about, Lord willing this morning, about other people who don't know the Lord Jesus. But this morning we're very interested that each one of you boys and girls come to know the Lord Jesus. That is so important. So who has another song that we can sing about the Lord Jesus this morning?
Jesus loves me.
That's number 40.
Jesus loves me, the signal for the Bible tells me so. Little ones, do you?
Hear from.
Yes, she's so slow, Sir. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, he's a slow.
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me.
And escape to open life.
He will watch away my sin.
Let us all fire on me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves you.
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me though. I love.
And he wasted.
Love ways to hold me in Hillsong.
He's been saved from every arm.
Yes, he's so slow as me.
Yes.
I.
See, the Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me, loves me still.
From enjoying.
Yes.
It's a slightly.
Yeah, Jesus loves me.
00:10:06
Oh my, God tells me so. Jesus loves me.
Will stay close beside me all the way.
Here I trust him. Should I join, he will heal. He will take me.
All my.
Yes, Jesus.
Loves you.
Yeah.
I will tell me so.
Well that was nice. I get to hear you boys and girls very well seeing that. And it's nice to know that the Lord Jesus hears each one singing to and knows if from your heart you really mean that. Yes, Jesus loves me. Why don't we close our eyes and bow our heads and let's ask God for His help this morning.
Our blessed God and loving Father, we come to Thee at the beginning of this little Sunday school time to seek Thy help and Thy blessing and Thy guidance and Thy direction. We thank Thee for each one of these boys and girls here this morning and anyone who is in this room who is listening now. And we just pray that Thou would by Thy Spirit take Thy word and direct it to heart and conscience, to wherever the need is. Lord Jesus, for.
For blessing and for thy honor and glory. And so we ask for thy help this morning, as we would have thy word open before us. It is thy word.
And we take it as such, and we bow to it, and we just give thee thanks for it, and pray that if there's anyone in this room who has not yet received the Lord Jesus as their Savior, that this morning they might come to know the Lord Jesus whom to know is life eternal. We give thee thanks and praise in Jesus name, Amen.
OK, let's sing one more song before we start talking.
We had a boy and a girl and there's a boy down here.
#47.
When he called.
Like the stars of the morning is.
Joining.
Right chance for his crown.
He will gather. He will gather thousands for his Kingdom.
All the same ones, all the bright ones.
Is all like the size of.
The boring.
Is brightly crowned.
What is wrong?
Little children, little children.
Who are?
The jewels.
Look, the stars of Love is fighting for.
00:15:07
We sang about little gypsy boy who didn't know of the love of the Lord Jesus. Then we sing about Jesus loves me. That little boy, he came to know that Jesus loved him. And it is our desire that every boy and girl this here this morning doesn't only know that the Lord Jesus loves them, but they will know that they are a Sinner and that they need him as their Savior.
Then they can enjoy what we just think about now when he cometh, the Lord Jesus is going to come and take all those who love Him home to be with Him. And this is Speaking of Jim's shining in his crown. Did you know? Did you know that we who love the Lord Jesus someday are going to come back with Him?
Is appearing. Isn't that wonderful? And maybe in our talk this morning a little bit, we'll discuss why it's so important to live for the Lord Jesus, even in view of that day and have that day before us as an inspiration to live for him and and please him.
OK.
We had a Sunday school paper in Pella, and I wonder if it's the same verse that some of you kids might have learned. It says I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. Isaiah 4422. Does that sound familiar? That's when you learn. OK, who would like to say it?
OK.
I have blotted out as a thick cloud that in aggressions, and as a cloud thy sins returned to me for every D&D Isaiah 4422. Thank you anybody else.
OK, here's a girl.
I brought it out as a thick cloud that can't scratch it and as a cloud license.
You turn on to me 5 Originally I say 4422. Very nice. That's very nice. Somebody else wants to say it. I bought it out as a thick cloud dye transgressions and it's a cloud dye sense. Return unto me 5 Redeem thee, Isaiah 4422. Thank you.
Do we have anybody else?
OK.
Some brothers and sisters here.
Plot it out. I plot it out.
It's a cloud.
Transgressions.
Is a cloud.
I sense.
Return it to me.
I.
Isaiah.
3422, very good. Thank you very much. Anybody else okay?
I'm watered out of the thick cloud light transgressions, and as a cloud lies in return to me, for I have redeemed thee. Isaiah 4422. Thank you very much. Anybody else?
OK.
Well, let's turn to that Isaiah 44.
Isaiah 44 and.
What what is happening in this chapter is kind of sad.
Maybe we'll talk about what's happening in this chapter a little bit.
Let's pretend. Let's pretend that there's a big tree right here, OK? And oh, that's a nice tree. OK, I know we can't see the tree. We're going to pretend a little bit. We can see this tree here, OK, And might look a little different than it does from me to you, but it's a big tree there. And I'm hungry and, well, I'd like to cook my food.
00:20:02
And oh, a nice tree. Well OK, I'll go get my axe. OK, so I go get my axe and come back over here and start chopping on this tree and chop, chop, chop. How long does it take to chop tree down? Who knows?
Who knows how long it takes to drop a tree down?
An hour and 30 minutes, an hour and 30 minutes and well, that's a long time. Well, we at our house, we cut down a lot of trees every year to heat our home. And my boys, sometimes they like to go out and cut trees down with an axe for the fun of it. And their grandpa got them a cross cut saw and it takes a long time to cut a tree down.
Thank Abraham Lincoln said if he had six hours to cut down a tree and spend the first five hours sharpening his axe.
So the tree falls down, we go over and we cut some limbs off of there and then we come over here and we take the take these pieces and cut them all up. And we go ahead and we stack them all up here and we build ourselves a little fire. OK, And we light a fire and oh, that's nice and warm. OK, so maybe we go over and then we get our our bread and our meat or whatever. And we have this little great thing that we put it on. We.
Send it over the fire. And we just sit down and we just enjoy the fire and watch it cook. And everyone, I'm getting kind of hungry. How about you? Yeah, me too. OK, well, boy, that smells good, doesn't it? So let's see. Boy, that's good. We eat our food. Look at there. There was a tree. Let's see. I'm not hungry anymore. I got warm.
I'll cut Oh.
Well, there's still some tree left.
You know, that tree did nice things for me. Now I'm not hungry anymore and, and I'm and I've been warmed and fed and, and all. What do I do with that? I take my axe and and I'll just, I'll carve me a thing out of this tree that looks like a person.
And then I'll stand it up and the rest of the tree there because boy, it sure benefited me because I got my tummy full and got warm and everything. So I carved this thing out. Looks like a person. Thank you for.
That even sound right. I say thank you to this thing that I carved out of a tree for.
For satisfying my hunger and warming. Does that even sound right?
No, no, it doesn't even sound right.
You know, there's people that do that every day today.
There's people probably in this community around here that that do it every day.
In the same way, I got a little something to show you.
I.
Maybe Brother Bill Pros knows what this is, but maybe the rest of you don't. He's probably seen plenty of them. What is this?
A little table. It's a little table. That's right. What a nice little table. Somebody made this by hand. Yeah, they made that by hand. Isn't that interesting? And they spent a lot of time put that Peacock on that little table. But, you know, this little table has a special name. It's called a tarunga. OK, It's called a tarunga. And you know what this is used for? You know what that means?
Tarunga, it means the seat of the God. The seat of the God. And there's a man, it's a Hindu man, and I've worked with him a while. He came over to India to do some work and he's still here, and I spoke with him much about the Lord. He thought I would like a tarunga to put my Bible on the seat of the God. I told him that my God is too big to fit on his tarunga, and I wish he could come to know my God.
Very interesting talking to him about God's and things like that.
00:25:07
There was we were standing out in front of where I work and a man took off on his motorcycle, went through the gears real fast. Front end kind of came up a little bit as he was going and down the street he went.
You know what he said? You look at that man going along on that motorcycle, he says, see that motorcycle? That's his God.
Isn't that amazing?
That's his God.
Yeah.
Well, let's talk about this verse a little bit. Thinking about that. I'm going to, I'm going to put this down here kind of.
Or we might have. Well, I think we set our man up over here, didn't we?
There, OK.
Speaks in verse 20 about a deceived heart. These children here, they said no, that that wouldn't be a good idea to do a deceived heart. You know, the enemy is so clever and deceiving.
You know.
I I would like to attempt to deceive somebody this morning to show you what deceived means. Okay. Is there anybody who doesn't yet know how to read? I want somebody who, who cannot read, who cannot read. Can you read?
Do you know how to read?
Come here a minute.
Come here a minute. I want you to help me. If we look up on the wall up here, can.
Can you see a football?
Yeah. Can you see there's a volleyball up there? Yeah.
Can you see there's a basketball?
Do you see that there's like a shoe with wings on it? Yeah.
Now look over at the next picture. See there's two handicapped people there and their friends, and they're trying to help one another. Is that right?
And do you see the next picture over there? Two people haven't seen each other for a long time and they love each other.
That's sad, isn't it? Those people really aren't friends, are they? They're not handicapped. They're very well fit, and you know what they want to do? They want to outdo each other. They're not friends.
They want to outdo each other.
You think those other people there are really happy with each other? I want to give each other a hug.
I saw some of that going on on the grass out here yesterday.
Now those two people are not on the same side as one another either. One of those pictures.
The enemy likes to deceive us, doesn't he? And he'll take just a little bit of what we don't know, maybe we don't know how to read or whatever it might be, and deceive us with things that might look like something that they might think, Oh yeah, and deception is a sad thing, isn't it?
Well, these people that did this with this tree, they were deceived, weren't they? It's a sad thing. It's a sad thing. And you know, last night in the gospel meeting, the brother who gave the gospel told us of a verse in the Word of God that says that the God of this world is blinded. The minds of those that believe not, they're deceived. Now let's talk about how to get that, get that blinder, blinder away. Let's go to Luke 18.
Luke 18.
In the last part of verse 13 says God be merciful to me, a Sinner. The real thought is God have compassion on me the Sinner, as if I was the only one who offended God.
Boys and girls, we need to come to that point where we say God have compassion on me, the Sinner. I can't look at my neighbor, the one sitting next to me and say.
00:30:00
Well, they've done wrong too. No, it has to be between me and the Lord. There's a thick cloud that clouds between US and God. If we don't know the Lord Jesus as our Savior and it is our sins, let's go back.
I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions. Now this verse is telling us that this is something that the Lord has already done. So let's talk to those boys and girls who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, because I am sure that there are many of you boys and girls here this morning who do know the Lord Jesus as your Savior already.
This is some that we spoke of in the conference meetings already yesterday, isn't it?
This is along the same line. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgression, and as a cloud thy sins Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee I.
Now we know that if there was an image made here of a man, if we would turn, we won't take time to do it to Psalms 115. It would tell us that they have a mouth, but they can't speak. They have eyes, but they can't see. They have ears, but they can't hear.
And they have feet, but they can't walk and those kind of things. And we know that, don't we?
But what are we putting on the seed of the God that is making a cloud and hindering? What is it Speaking of here in in this verse? Here the Lord is saying, Return unto me, I have redeemed thee.
Now, we could put all kinds of things on that little table right there. And you know, oftentimes you hear of illustrations for boys and girls that we could make anything an idol. And and you know, a boy, he could make a bicycle is idle and a girl could make a doll her idol. But have you been to Walmart lately? Do they only have bicycles and dolls at Walmart for kids?
No, you mean they don't have bikes on one side and dolls on there have been in the toy aisle lately? What's in there? Who can tell me what's in there? Legos.
Pool stuff. Pool stuff.
Barbies.
Beyblades, which Beyblades are like, OK, a new thing to me, OK.
Nerf guns. I would like that. Yeah. Nerf guns.
Whole There's a whole bunch of things in there, isn't there?
And you know.
We could say anything just like this man that I know that's a Hindu, saw the man riding off on his motorcycle and he said that's his God.
Sad, isn't it? Anything that displaces the Lord Jesus in his rightful place in our heart. It's not just toy things, is it? It's whatever takes the place of the Lord Jesus. It can be our job, our school.
Our diet.
We can use anything to step in the way to displace the place that the Lord Jesus rightfully has in our heart.
And, and this one's not good, I don't want to break my Tarunga.
So I'm going to prop it up so I don't hurt it here.
But how about that?
What if we put ourselves up on our Tarunga?
Then what? That's not good, is it?
It'll be like.
They'll fall into lots of pieces. That's right. That's right. The end is ruined.
Anything that comes into the place of the Lord Jesus Christ will end in ruin. We could put anything we want.
On there and whatever it is will destroy our joy in the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is saying, return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.
00:35:09
Here's another one.
It's a rock.
This rock means something to me. Probably not the same thing it means to you. I'm sure not. It's a rock, and I got this rock a couple years ago from somebody.
Somebody special? What does it say on there?
Who can read?
What does it say?
I love you, Daddy, on my rock. See that? And I keep that rock on my desk at work, and it's been there a long time. Now I'm going to illustrate something that we might do to the Lord sometimes that might make a cloud come in between.
Oh boy, that's a nice rock. I love you, daddy. That's a nice rock.
I like that rock.
Yeah.
I like that rock.
Plus, you're a nice rock.
What should I really do?
Come here, Lance.
Thank you for that.
Thank you for that, rock. I love you too, bud. Yeah.
He's the one that gave me the rock.
The Lord Jesus gave us all kinds of wonderful things in this life.
Many mercies he's.
Why is it that things and items and maybe people and different things get in the way of the Lord Jesus?
We forget that He redeemed us.
We let other things come in.
Like to read a verse in first Peter?
First Peter chapter one.
For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things.
You were not redeemed with corruptible things.
Stuff.
I don't know how many people in this room have a cell phone. Go ahead and raise your hand if you have a cell phone if you own one.
Yeah, how many of you need need your cell phone for things other than just talking on it?
How many of you would be?
Upset if you lost your cell phone?
It's a value thing, isn't it?
Several years ago, I was at work and there was a man who liked race cars and he was all excited because there was this man who had won a race and he was emotionally excited. And I remember right, he said this man's name was Mark Martin. I don't not sure. I think he was what they call a NASCAR driver and he had won a race or something.
And he was so excited. I don't know why the I felt like the Lord wanted me to do this. I don't know why, but.
00:40:00
I came up to him and his name was Jerry, Jerry Newman. And I just, I was walking by him when he was very excited and I said, Jerry, did Mark Martin die for you? And I turned around and I kept walking.
You know what wasn't very long later? Somebody said Jerry Newman is going to church.
Jerry Newman is changed his behavior.
We're not redeemed with corruptible things.
Things that are tangible.
Verse down says what we are redeemed with.
The precious blood of Christ Now sunny school is not over, but let's bow our heads for one moment and thank the Lord Jesus for his precious blood.
Our blessed God and loving Father, we pause for a moment to thank Thee for the precious blood of the Lord Jesus.
We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for going to that cross and shedding Thy precious blood to bear our sins away in thine own body on the tree.
We pray for each boy and girl here this morning.
That they would come to know the value of that precious blood. That they might be saved. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
And you know.
There's something else about the blood of the Lord Jesus.
Spoken to us who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior.
Is redeeming Blood and grace Titus chapter 2.
Titus, chapter 2.
Yeah, in verse 14 says who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, speaking to those who knew the Lord Jesus as their Savior, much like we had in our meeting yesterday.
The grace of God In verse 11 it speaks of a wonderful thing, the grace of God.
That bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, and it does something for us. It teaches us something if we appreciate that grace. It teaches us that denying those things that we talked about in the meeting yesterday, ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly.
Righteously and godly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope that is every one of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. When the Lord Jesus comes, we'll go home to be with him. But that's not all. It doesn't stop there. It says. And the glorious appearing. And that's what we're doing. Your Sunday school song.
About the gyms shining with the Lord Jesus.
You want to be there with him that in that coming day.
The glorious appearing of the great God, our Savior Jesus Christ. And let's don't forget who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all inequity, boys and girls, if someday we're going to live and reign with the Lord Jesus.
Shouldn't that inspire us to lay aside those things that we would want to set on at the Taruna of our heart?
And put those things aside in a way to live only for the glory of God and the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who knows what the last verse is? Maybe you don't know of the book of first John. I'll tell you. It says little children.
00:45:00
Keep yourselves from idols. That's not just kids, is it? But.
Remember boys and girls, if you learn while you're young to seek the Lord and give Him the first place in your life and in your heart and walk in His joy and His fellowship, He can use you for His honor and glory in your life.
The Lord Jesus would say to each one of you boys and girls like we had in our verse, for I know that even boys and girls can get cold in their hearts. To the Lord, return unto me, for I have redeemed me.
Three Great Enemies - World, Flesh, Devil
Address—Bruce Anstey
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Turn in your handbook to 100 and 49149. In our hymn book third verse it says unto thy death baptized, we own with thee, We died with thee. Our life were risen, and shall be glorified from sin, the world, and Satan. That's the three things we want to speak about this afternoon we were ransomed by thy blood and here would walk as strangers alive with thee to God. Let's sing the whole hymn #149.
Lord Jesus, we realize.
All my soul forever.
Joy.
No the.
So I.
I strangers.
All right with the truth.
Of all.
Let's turn to the book that is illegal in 53 countries in this world.
The Bible.
Let's treat it as a privilege, as it really is to read a book that is so outlawed in so many places.
We can come here this afternoon and meet like this, no man forbidding as the scripture says, and to read the scriptures together. Let's treat it as a privilege that God has given to us in this land. Let's turn first of all to Ephesians Chapter 2.
Ephesians chapter 2.
Verse one, and you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, were in time past. You walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others were but God, who was rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us.
00:05:18
Even when we were dead in sins, hath he quickened us together with Christ by grace are you saved, And it's raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
As I alluded to in the giving out of the hymn, I'd like to speak about these three great enemies of God and man, and that is the world, the flesh, and the devil. I read this passage here because we find all three of them together.
We find the course of the world, We find the Prince of the power of the air, which is Satan himself. And we see also in the third verse the lusts of the flesh, the three great enemies of God and man.
And we know in this passage here we see them working to hold men in their sins and in their trespasses, and at a distance from God and from Christ, dominating men in this world and bringing them onto a course that will lead to an eternal hell.
We've also read in this passage that God has been rich in mercy and grace and love, and he's reached out, and by his power and grace he has saved some. And I believe I'm looking into the faces of those who have been saved, something many of us, if not all of us here this afternoon, I believe have known. I do know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. And so God has broken through and has delivered us from that course that would lead to an eternal hell. But we mustn't think that because we are saved that these enemies just run away or hide themselves or go away.
Not at all.
We might put it this way that these three enemies reinvent themselves and then seek to stumble the believer, and so the world, the flesh of the devil, are indeed enemies of the Christian as well as the man in his sins. And since our brother Bill is already communicated to us in his meeting with God's way of victory with regard to the flesh, I'd like to speak about God's way of victory in regards to the world.
And then the devil this afternoon. So let's turn first of all to 1St John, Chapter 2.
First, John chapter 2 and read a few verses with regard to first of all, the world. We want to talk about what it is and then talk about God's deliverance and his way of, or rather his way of deliverance.
So first John chapter 2, verse 15.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, and all that is in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever or for eternity. So here we have a warning with regard to the world.
But I would say at the beginning here that the world is used in three different ways in the scriptures, and we need to look at the context of the passage in which it's found to understand which aspect it's referring to. So there are three aspects. First of all, the world is looked at as a place. Secondly, it's looked at as a society where Christ is excluded.
And thirdly, it's looked at as the people that are wrapped up in that society that where Christ is excluded.
Give me Let me give you a couple of examples. First Corinthians, first Timothy, chapter one, verse 15 comes to mind. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Which aspect of the world would that be? Well, it would be the world as a place. He came here into this world, this very planet where we live and came to die for sinners that we might be saved. God so loved the world. He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Which aspect of the world would that be?
Would it be this place?
No scripture ever tells us that God loves the hills and mountains and the valleys and so on of this world couldn't be that aspect, and it couldn't be this world as a system of things that man has built up in his alienation from God to keep himself happy. Because we're told right here that we shouldn't love it, and because it's an enemy of ours. So surely God couldn't love that. It would have to be God loving the people that are wrapped up in the world.
And so as you look at the various passages of Scripture that speak of the world, just take a little bit of time, look at the context, and you'll see whether it is referring to one or the other of these three aspects of the world. Now, of course, having said that, in our chapter here.
00:10:10
The loving the world or love, not the world as it says here, of course, would be the world as a society where Christ is excluded. This had its beginning, a way back in the days of Cain, when he went out from the presence of God and he and his posterity did all they could to keep themselves happy.
And comfortable at a distance from God.
Built up a vast system of things over the many generations, and these things are all been fashioned by man for the purpose of trying to keep them happy and satisfied away from God. And it has not worked. And it is a very complicated system because there are many, many departments, something for every person in this world. No matter which way you're wired, which way you're built, whatever your interests are.
This world has something to attract you, to keep you in your sins if you're not saved, or to distract you as if you're a believer. And that's the aspect of things that we're warned about here, and where he says love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. And so we're enjoined as Christians, as children of God, that we need to watch our affections because the world is an enemy and we need to treat it as an enemy, as the word of God speaks.
And what I do like about the exhortations that are found in the New Testament, in the word of God, is that many times God will give us exhortations, if not always, and he'll explain why. So it's not just a duty or something we're supposed to do, and we really don't know why. That's a vast difference.
Approach to things than what you get. In the Old Testament, the children of Israel were told to do many, many things with regard to the sacrificial system and what they had to do and what they weren't to do and so on. I think there's 613 different injunctions given in the laws and the statutes and so on.
And many of them, no one in that those days even know why they were to do them. If they went to Moses and asked them, Moses, why does God want us to chop the sacrifice in this certain way and do this and do that? And he would have to say, well, I'm not sure, but he told us to do it. We'd better do it. But in Christianity, when God gives us exhortations, it's so nice. He explains why, so we can intelligently carry out the will of God. That's what's referred to in Romans chapter 12.
When he says we have an intelligence service, it's a reasonable service in the King James Version. But in Mr. Darby's translation and intelligence service, that is, we can intelligently enter into the service that we should render for God and be able to give a man a reason if anybody should ask. And that's what we have here. Love, not the things of the world. Why? Well, he goes on to explain why. And there are three very serious reasons that are given to us here, and it's important that we see that.
First of all.
It robs the believer of the enjoyment of the Father's love. Look what it says here. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. This world has a way. If it takes a whole of a believer and the attractions that there are in this world take a hold of the believer in any certain way, it is going to rob the believer of the enjoyment of the Father's love. In other words, it's going to attack our communion with God himself.
Because God and this world are at variance and we cannot at the same time enjoy the things of this world and the things of the Father enjoys. It's just not possible. And so that's a very serious reason why we need to be very careful and wary of this enemy that we're going to speak about.
A second reason for all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and is not of the Father.
But is of the world verse 16. Here we have another reason, and that is because it excites the basest instincts of our fallen nature.
Of lust and of pride, and it sets the believer on a course and the flesh rises up as we say. It lifts us ugly, ugly head, and it can take control on a believer's life. We've already had that yesterday, and our brother's address.
And so that's another very serious reason why we need to treat the world as God sees it as an enemy of our souls, because it has a way, And let me say it again, of exciting the basis of our nature and lust and pride and all such things that are only going to lead the believer in a course that would be for the dishonor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, the world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. That's verse 17.
00:15:08
And here we have a third reason, and that is that it encourages the believer to live for passing things, for things that are just here for time. And that's not a thing that we want to be doing necessarily or at all, because the world, as he says here, will pass away. And everything that's connected with it, it's going, it's under judgment and it's going to be set aside at the appearing of Christ. He is going to judge the world.
In righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. That's Acts chapter 17.
And so, worldliness, one person has put it, one of the old writers said. It is really just the love for passing things, things that keep us intrigued, promising satisfaction, but never delivering. And those who are wrapped up in that system are not enjoying the Father's love. They're in danger of the flesh taking over and ruling their lives, and they're wasting what could be preserved for eternity.
Because he that doeth the will of God, this verse says, abides for eternity. And so to waste our lives and the passing things of this world is a pity, is a shame, is a tragedy. To waste a Christian's life on such things, which we need to speak about now. Why is it that the enemy of our souls is so interested in getting us wrapped up in the world? Well, as I said, there are three enemies that work together like a coalition. Satan, we might say, is the commander in chief.
And what he does is he presents an attraction of the world where he knows that it will excite the flesh, and the believer gets rolling in that direction. And we've often spoken of the world, the flesh and the devil as being an one being an external enemy, the other being an internal enemy, and the third being an infernal enemy. Now you know what I'm talking about. The external enemy is the world. The internal enemy is in the flesh. And the infernal would be the devil himself. He's an infernal being.
They work together and they are seeking to trip up the believer, to draw the believer out of the path of doing the will of God. And why it's always because of this. Because he hates Christ and he wants to dishonor Christ. And he knows that the best way to bring dishonor on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is to get his people who bear his name into a course of things and into a line of things that will dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so it's important to realize that the enemy is seeking to trip us up as believers, because he's really trying to bring dishonor to the glory that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we have three reasons here. There's probably more.
But how is there to be deliverance from the power of these attractions? And it seems that the world is getting more and more complicated, more and more detailed, more and more things to intrigue every person that's out there. Well, let's turn over to the fifth chapter, and in keeping with John's style of writing, he presents the the answer to this question, how we can have deliverance from the power of the world in our lives.
But he gives it in, as I say, an abstract way, that is to speak of the the, the IT in its essence, without Speaking of any specific object. And we're going to look at it here first in its essence as far as the principle is concerned. And then I'd like to turn to a few other places in the Scripture that illustrate it to help us to understand the truth more clearly. First John, Chapter 5. Now and verse four and five.
Whatsoever we're all who are born of God overcometh the world or could be translated gets the victory over the world. And this is the victory that is that overcomes the world or gets the victory over the world. Even our faith, who is he that overcometh the world or gets the victory over the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.
And so he gives the principle of it here and you can see that God's way of deliverance or overcoming the world is A2 fold thing.
One side of it is the sovereign side, the other side is man's responsibility.
And often the truth is presented in this way because God wants us to be responsibly exercised about those things in the past.
00:20:01
On God's side, we have the thought of being born of God, and that is that he has communicated a new life to every believer, and that life has the capacity to enjoy things that are far higher and greater, the things of crowd and the things of Christ. And so each one of us have in us a life that delights in something that is far greater than what this world could ever offer and would be able to satisfy.
It's the life of Christ being born of God. But you find that there's more than that. Being born of God is not enough for us to have deliverance from the world. And so he goes on and speaks about how that this victory is also connected with our faith, our faith being in a person, Jesus, the Son of God. And so not only is there the need to have that new life that has the capacity to enjoy divine things and heavenly things which are better and sweeter.
And so on than what the world offers. But also we need an object for our hearts. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And so, as I say, he gives it to us in the most abstract way here without explaining anything more. He's not speaking about believing in Jesus as the Son of God for salvation. Very often we read scriptures like this and we think, well, he's talking about the gospel here. No, he's not. That's not the thought here. It's really having living faith in the person of the Son of God himself, who is the center of a whole other world that's far higher.
And over this world, and when our faith lays hold of him where he is, and those things that are at the right hand of God, that are ours in him.
This world will lose its power and its attractions, as simple as that, Mister Darby wrote. I think it's in one of his letters. Speaking of this in a hypothetical way, he said that, you know, you suppose a baby and he grabs something that's very dangerous. Perhaps a very sharp knife could hurt himself. What do you do? You present a brighter toy to him and he drops the knife and he takes the toy and you quickly remove the knife out of his hand. And he says it's just as simple as that God has set before the believer.
A brighter object and he would have our faith to lay hold of that object the person of his Son, the Lord Jesus. And when there is a laying hold in some degree to Christ, where he is at the right hand of God and the things that are ours in him, this world loses its power and its attraction. Let the soul lay hold of Christ the Son of God, and the world loses its power. And that's the secret of deliverance from the world.
Many have tried to.
Meet the dangers of the world.
By bringing in the principle of separation and making it the object or the goal of their life. And that's not God's way. I'm not saying separation isn't important. I'm saying that the principle of deliverance from the world is to have an object before the heart and the capacity to enjoy that object, and separation will come as a result, not an object. And many Christians have had to learn by experience that having separation as being the object, it doesn't work.
And we're going to speak about that in a few minutes here and demonstrate that.
But just to say that to if you and I were writing this, perhaps or many Christians.
If we were writing this, we would say, well, I know how to beat the world separation. We need to be separated believers and insist on strict separation from everything to do with this world. And there are dear Christians that are well meaning and earnest who are seeking to beat the world in that way. But it will never be a lasting thing, because it is not God's way. God's way is Christ. We need to have him before our souls in the way in which he can hear speaks. And so it's important to see that. Now let's illustrate it a little bit. I'm going to look at a few different lives.
And the Old Testament. First of all, let's look at Hebrews Chapter 11.
The life of Moses. I'm just going to lift out one verse here.
To illustrate my point.
By faith it's verse 27 Hebrews 11/27. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
00:25:01
Isn't that interesting? He forsook Egypt type of this world because he saw something, he saw a person, an invisible person. But this invisible person was sold before his soul that he left Egypt behind. And that illustrates by way of the life of Moses just what it is to have Christ before our souls in this way.
He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.
For he endured seeing him who is invisible.
And so my point is this.
If we're going to have victory over the world, we absolutely have to be enjoying something better than the world, something higher.
And God has that for us as Christians, we absolutely have to be enjoying something in our souls that is better. If we put it another way around and put separation as our object, and it's going to break down and it'll often implode. And very often we've seen people who have taken up things like that, give it up and to go further into the world than they were before, because it's not God's way. He doesn't grant blessing in that way on that principle. So what's important that we are enjoying something.
And this means, I say this particularly for the younger brethren that are here. This means that we need to establish a quiet time in our lives every day where we get in the presence of the Lord Jesus with our Bible open and have a little time of fellowship enjoying Him and those things that are ours in Him and reading the Scriptures together. Because when we're enjoying Christ like that, there's going to be the soul being filled and we're going to have the displacement of.
The world and its attractions. It's as simple as that. Let's look at another passage now, this time in Genesis Chapter 14.
This is in the life of Abraham.
Genesis Chapter 14.
Verse 17.
And the king of Sodom went out to meet him. That's Abraham after he his return from the slaughter of killed Omar, and of the kings that were with him in the valley of Shava, which is the King's Dale or Kings valley. And Melchizedek, king of Salem brought forth bread and wine. And he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him and said blessed be Abram.
Of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, blessed be the most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand.
And he gave him ties of all. That's Abraham gave him ties of all. And the king of Sodom said to Abram, give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. And Abraham, Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I will lift up my hand. And I have lift up my hand to the Lord, the most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread to a even a shoe latching.
And that will I not take.
Anything that is thine lest thou should say that I have made Abram rich.
Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me inner eschol in memory, let them take their portion.
Abram had won a great, great victory that day with regard to those kings in the valley, and he was returning from the valley. He's returning from the victory and he's met by two kings. One is the king of Sodom, his name is Bira, and the other is the king of Salem, which is Melchizedek. And if we interpret this, and it's for its typical significance, we have a beautiful illustration of this principle that I'm seeking to establish here this afternoon.
Berra, the king of Sodom is a type. Sodom is a type of this world, and Bira is the type of God and Prince of this world.
And Melchizedek, as we know from Hebrews 506 and seven, is the type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have this man that is met by two kings.
They both have something to offer.
And it's interesting to see which king met him first. It was Melchizedek, and he offered him the bread and wine that was from the Most High God, as he was a priest of the Most High God, and he gave Abraham that which when which would speak to us of fellowship with the Most High God. And Abram responded by giving ties of all to Melchizedek, and it's a little picture of having fellowship.
00:30:23
With divine things with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He took the bread and the wine. He speaks to us. So as I say, fellowship. The bread would speak to us of sustenance for the soul. The wine would speak to us of joy in the soul. And the giving of the ties wouldn't perhaps speak to us of giving or acknowledging the rightful what is rightfully due to God and to the Lord Jesus Christ. What a beautiful picture to see. Abram here eating the bread and the wine with this print this priest of the Most High God. That's what God would have us to do. Take a little time of fellowship.
With the Lord Jesus and to enjoy the joys that he enjoys. You know, there's a beautiful verse in Psalm 36. It just comes to mind here that I just love al shalt make him to drink of the rivers of thy pleasure. I just love that verse, you know, that's what God wants us to do is to enjoy the rivers of his pleasure. He has pleasures that are forevermore at his right hand. And he wants us to drink that river of his pleasures ourselves to drink and to feed on those things that he enjoys and he finds pleasure in.
And when we do that, there's going to be the moral power and strength in our beings to let those things of the world pass right by our nose because we've touched something better. So immediately upon this little time that he had with Melchizedek comes, along comes the king of Sodom, Bira. As I say, he's a type of Satan, the God and Prince of this world. He's called the God of this world because he is the head of its religious system. He's called the Prince of this world because he's the head of its secular system.
He is both at the head of both aspects of this world, and here we find that Bira comes to Abram.
And he says something. He says give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. He offered Abram the purse with a curse. He offered Abraham the purse. But there was a curse connected with it. And that's exactly what Satan is offering to every believer. He's saying take the world, take as much of it as you want.
But he wants the persons, the souls, and that's what happens. Satan brings souls into the system and they get people so wrapped up in it that you think there would be no deliverance. And how many dear believers not being careful of God's way of overcoming the world, have been drawn into it because of the offers that this world is making to and the devil is making through the of the world to them. And here we find them taking.
Of those things. But what did Abram do?
He refused it, didn't he? It says I have lifted up my hand to the Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth. He was in fellowship with the one who had possession of everything in heaven and everything on earth. He said, what do I need and what you've got to offer. And what became of those things that beer was offering him anyway? Well, you know the story. They were all burnt up in the fire that came down from heaven a couple of chapters later. It was only.
Reserved unto fire anyway. And so Abram, he got the victory that day, someone said he actually got two victories. He had the victory over the kings in the valley, but he had a victory over the seductions of Beira, the king of Sodom. He was able to refuse.
Was offered by the King of Sodom because he realized what he had in his connection with the Most High God. So he says I will not take a thread to a shoe Ledger. That's a strange thing to say.
But he's saying knock down to the even the smallest little thing. But it is significant that he should mention a thread and a shoe legend. What's a shoe latchet? I think it would be like a shoelace for us today. But the shoe, you know, is connected with the wok. And that's one of, that's one of the things that we need to be very, very careful of because this world has a way of saying, well, just take a little bit, you know, just a little string, just something. But it could be something that would could stumble us in our walk in one way or another. And Abram was careful not to even take to a thread or a shoe latchet of those things which Bira was offering.
And he did not want to bring any.
Credibility to beer of the King of Sodom. He wanted to give all the glory to the Most High God, the Lord himself, and so he was able to beat the world if he could put it that way, to get a victory in that sense. And again, it illustrates this point that we have to absolutely be found enjoying something that is higher and better if we're going to get deliverance in God's way from the attractions of this world.
00:35:28
Now notice what it says in the last verse, save only that which was the young men of Eden, the portion of which was with me, and so on. Einar, Eshkol and Namri, these were young men that helped him in the battle. And it's very interesting to see that Abram didn't didn't legislate what was going to be taken by them. He left those young men with their conscience to be exercised before God as to what they would do in this matter. And so he said for myself.
I'm not going to take a thread to the shoe latchet, but for Rainer, Eskal and Mamrie, I'll leave them before God. They can take if they feel and they can work these things out themselves. And I think that's interesting and instructive for us here this afternoon, because the tendency for us is to see things in a certain way from a principle and immediately legislated across the board for all God's people. And they're not left to really be able to be exercised about the things, these things themselves, the strongest thing that Abraham could have done here for these two.
These three young men was to give them a good example and that's what he did. And I think that's what we need to do for our younger brother and our younger young people is to give them an example of what we know to be true with regard to these things and to make a warning. But we need to really let them to to be exercised about it themselves. You know, I remember reading of a a story long ago that captured my attention.
Way back in the days when there was these slave ships that would take these black slaves from Western Africa and bring them into America across the melantic ocean and Britain was a free land, they were the leading power in the whole world and the British Navy was the most powerful fleet in all the world. The HMS I think they called it, and they had their, I think they called their ships the men of war, Men of war. And they would sail the the oceans and they would very often.
Try to intercept these slave ships that were coming across, delivering these poor slaves to the West Indies and to America. And one of the things they would do is they would set out a chase. And of course the the slave ship would try to hightail it as fast as they could away from the British sailing ships. But those were men of war, were fast, and they would always catch them, and when they did, they would commandeer the ship. They would come on board.
And they would call all the slaves up to the top deck, and they would denounce to them that this is the British flag flying here, and every man that stands on British soil is a freeman.
And he said, all you slaves have to do is to make this step from this ship onto this ship, and you are a freeman.
But what had happened when the slave ship owners realized that they were in danger of being intercepted so many times at high seas that what they did is they had a way of handling that. They kept it away down in the hole, a couple of kegs of Brandy and a few cases of trinkets and fiddle things that the Africans were.
Captured their attention in their mind, as we know was part and parcel of their lifestyle. And when they realized that they were going to be overcome by the British men of war, what they would do is bring those things that they cracked the barrel of Brandy or whiskey, whatever it was, and give it to all the slaves. Get them good and drunk, and then give them all a few trinkets each. And they thought this was great. And so when the British would step on board and announce freedom under the British flag, the first thing that happened was they burst into laughter and thought this was crazy. Why would they want to do that? This was great. They had.
And they were also warned by their slave masters to.
To don't step on there because those people are going to beat you and maybe kill you and so on. And so they listen to the voice of the enemy. They remain captive in the captive ship. And the British could not take them aboard because they refused because of the attractions that were given to them. And you know, Satan is doing exactly that today. He's got more trinkets to attract the heart of man and believers.
Than he's ever had before. There are so many devices and things and it's amazing really. This world is so complicated with its departments that attract, whether it's you know, sports or music or art or politics or religion, you name it. There is part department after department all set up to attract our hearts and Satan is trying to give us his.
00:40:20
These opiates to get us to believe the lie that we're happy in the things that we have and the trinkets. And I just mentioned that because, you know, we're not exempt from that. Let's not think that only the man in the world is lost in his sins and doesn't know Christ can be tripped up by the trinkets of this world. Let me ask you the question, this question Do you have a trinket in your life?
Do I have a trinket in my life that's attracting my attention? Let me tell you this, If you're exercised about such a thing, I want to tell you you won't be able to get rid of it unless you do it in God's way. If you try to get rid of something out of your life in that sense, it'll come back with vengeance later because of the fact that we're trying to do it by setting it aside, or at least by removing it without replacing it with what God has.
For our hearts. And I just want to emphasize that point here, because very often, and we've all tried it and many of us have failed, that you try to get rid of something, but it isn't long before the thing attracts you. Again, it's because it has not been replaced with Christ as the object. It is so very, very important that we get a hold of that. Let's look at a couple other principles, a couple other examples. I'm thinking now of Isaiah.
Just to show this principle, I want to have a hammer at home, but I want to emphasize it here.
Isaiah Chapter 7 and verse 15. Butter and honey. Shall he eat that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. That's the principle that I'm Speaking of here. Butter and honey. Shelly, what is butter and honey? Well, those are the fruits of Canaan, isn't it? And Canaan speaks to herself of the heavenly things that belong to us in Christ. And when we're eating heavenly things, when we're feeding on heavenly things, we're going to have the power to.
Refuse the evil and choose the good. Turn on to Jeremiah 15.
Jeremiah 15.
Verse 16 Thy words were found and I did eat them.
And thy word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by thy name, Oh Lord God, I sat not with the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoice. I sat alone because of the hand and so on. Isn't that interesting? He found the word of God. He took it in, He tasted of it. It was joy and rejoice into his soul. And the next thing we find I sat not with the assembly of the mockers. You see, that principle brought in over and over again. And if we turn over to the 11Th chapter of Luke, just to drive home this point again.
We find.
You know the story there about.
Let's read it. Luke 11, verse 24. The unclean spirit, when it's gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places and seeketh rest. Finding none, he saith I will return to my house whence I came out, and when he cometh he findeth that swept and garnished. But then he goeth and take us to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. See, there was a vacuum here, and what happened is the thing came back.
Now I know that in Matthew's Gospel where this comes up, it's really Speaking of the history of Israel, the Jews particularly that when they were engrossed in idols and spiritism and so on in the land of Israel, and God came in in judgment and he removed them to Babylon. And when they were released from Babylon, they came back to the land. They did not bring their idols with them, and we cannot accuse them when they came back, even to the time when the Lord Jesus came of the Jews in the land of Israel being marked by idolatry.
Idolatry remained out of their hands.
At that time when they had come back, and for those 400 years, even to the time of Christ, but they did not replace it with what God would have them to replace it, and that is Christ or the Lord himself. And then when he came and presented himself, they rejected him and would not have him. And he warned them that because the house is empty, swept and garnished, it is a house that is going to receive the the demons and the spirit worship, and so on 7 times worse. And we know it from Matthew's Gospel again, as it teaches the dispensational side of things, that there is a time coming.
00:45:09
When the Jews are going to receive Antichrist and the land is going to be filled with that, and they're going to be 7 times more powerful. But in Luke's gospel, he takes up these things not with the dispensationalist aspect of things, but the moral lesson behind it. That's my point here. The moral lesson behind it and the moral lesson is if we try to get rid of those things that are not right and we put them out, but they're not replaced with Christ before the soul, there's a tremendous danger of having a vacuum. And when there's a vacuum in the Christian life.
There's the danger of these things flooding back in and seven times worse. And so I'm just emphasizing this point here this afternoon. Let us be careful that we take up with the God's way of deliverance from the power and attractions of this world by having Christ, the Son of God, the center of our attention, and tasting those things, the butter and the honey, so to speak, and the joy and the rejoicing, then the world.
Its attractions lose their power.
That's God's way of deliverance.
I'm not sure what time it is. Does that say 2:45?
Is it?
Thank you. Now for the next few minutes, let's look at God's way of victory with regard to.
Satan the Devil.
Turned back with me to 1St John where we get the abstract principle again and then we'll see an illustration of it elsewhere.
First John Chapter 2.
Verse 14 I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known him, which is that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. I still just a lot of words that I'm thinking of overcomes the same word as got the victory.
He's now Speaking of the young men. They had victory over the wicked one. That's Satan himself and how it was because the word of God abided in them. There was abiding in them.
I didn't say because the word, you know, the word of God or you can quote the word of God, but because the word of God abideth in you, that brings before us the thought of the word of God actually taking having a place in the person's life, the believer's life, in the sense of being an integral part of us being. And I think that if we receive the word of God, we learn the truth of God and it becomes part of our life, a part of us it is going to give us.
The wisdom that we need with regard to the various overtures of the wicked one, who is seeking all He can to do to take us out of the path he wants to present something to us.
That looks plausible. That looks very tempting. But behind it, it is to take us out of the path of faith. And as we know, he often uses the things of this world. That's why it goes on to speak about loving, not the world.
I don't think there's a better illustration of that in the life of the Lord Jesus himself, so let's turn to Luke chapter 4 for a few verses.
Luke's Gospel, chapter four. We have the temptation of the Lord Jesus, the 1St 13 verses, and you all know that there are three temptations. One was in the area of natural needs, the other is in the area of worldly possessions and glory, and the third was in their area of religious advancement.
And these are three areas that Satan particularly likes to bring people, or at least to deceive people and lead them into.
Out of the path of doing the will of God. And these three temptations, as we've all heard many, many times, were met by the Lord in perfection.
With the Word of God. With the Word of God, he came each time.
And each one of these things was the Lord had an answer for the situation, as to whether he should accept the suggestions of the enemy of our souls. Or should he? What should he do? And it was always given to him in the word of God. He had the word of God abiding in him. Now it says in Psalm 119, I believe it is thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee? And the Lord Jesus perfectly illustrated that, exemplified that.
You know Brother Bob was mentioning what did the Lord do through those 18 years in his life that we have no mention of really in Scripture? Well, there's one thing I can tell you, and that is in verse 16.
00:50:16
He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. Notice what it says that his custom was. So now we know something. Anyway, what he was doing, he was taking a regular attendance to the meeting place in the land, because the synagogue is a meeting place. And he was handling the scriptures and reading the scriptures. And as I say from Psalm 119, he was storing that in his soul as he grew as a young man and through his life until he could say thy word, have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
And when these situations arose, he had the right scripture for the situation that gave him to know the will of God. And I believe that is illustrated here for us. You know, this temptations are mentioned in Matthew's Gospel as well, but it's a little different there in Luke. He set before us as a dependent man. He set before us as the one who would be our example. And the way in which the Lord met these, these temptations of the enemy, are what we are way we're to meet these things.
And the enemy is very, very subtle. And the while of the devil is just simply something that means that.
It looks fair and good, but behind it we are deceived, and the enemy of our soul wants to take us from doing the path, doing the will of God and the path of faith out of that path so he can dishonor the Lord Jesus. We're looking at this very carefully. You find, first of all, as I say, temptation in the area of natural needs, being verse two, being tempted 40 days of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing, and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone, that it should be made bread. And Jesus answered him, and saying, it is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. I think this is instructive for us here. We all have needs. The Lord Jesus had needs, physical needs, natural needs. And we find that the enemy here comes in in A2 fold way. First of all he questions whether he's the Son of God, and then he suggests that he make a step outside of the will of God.
To complete what he needed for his natural needs. And he's doing the same thing with us. He's doing all he can to suggest these things. Isn't this interesting? Just prior to this, at the baptism of the Lord Jesus in the third chapter, heaven opens and God says thou art my beloved son. Next thing that happens is a long genealogy. And the next thing that happens, really, we come to chapter 4, which I've just read.
And he Satan comes and says, if you're the son of God, God says, thou art my son, He says, Well, if you're the son, if you're the son, he would look after you an awful lot better than what he's doing. Why, he hasn't even provided food for you.
I suggest that you make a step.
To satisfy that need.
After all, God doesn't want people to hunger to starve. He's a good God.
And of course the Lord had the answer. The answer was that man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You know, men naturally speaking, are more interested in what goes in our mouth than what comes out of God's mouth. But we need to put God's claims 1St. And that gave the Lord the answer to this situation.
He didn't exactly quote the Scripture as some sort of a charm to ward off the power of the devil, but rather it gave him light for and wisdom for the path in which he was.
Faced with here and he realized that that of course or understood being the Son of God as he is, that he would never take that step. Being perfect as he was, he would never take that step. But has the devil not come and tempted us in that way?
He said, you know you have natural needs, you're a normal person that has needs. And you know if he would like to lodge a doubt in our hearts as to the goodness of God and that he's not really looking after us as he promised in his word, after all He would provide this or that natural need, something that we are maybe praying about and we would like to have. And it's not wrong from scripture and we find that God is not granted that at the time that we would like to see it.
And Satan comes along at times when there are these kinds of tests that come in our life circumstances where we're really tried as to our faith. And he comes along right at that time and says, well, you know, and he launches a dog in our hearts.
00:55:17
A little suggestion that maybe God isn't looking after us as His word promises, and then suggests that we take a step that's outside His word, outside of His will. Well, what is going to give us deliverance from this is the word of God and we need to have it abiding in US. And so it means that we need to not only know the word of God, but we need to be guided by the word of God. And that takes some time along with God to learn the scriptures. As I was saying, the Lord hid the Word in His heart.
You know you're not going to be getting deliverance in this way if you're not a person that opens your Bible. The Christian that neglects his Bible is not going to know the principles of God's word. And when some suggestions are, some temptation comes along to take this step or that step in your Christian life, you may be ignorant as to these principles. And so it sounds good to me. And you make a step and you get let out of the path. And how many Christians have been misguided because a lack of understanding of principle in the word of God? So I want to enjoin everyone of us.
Learn the scriptures, hide the principles of the word of God in your soul so that you're able to meet these these deceptive suggestions that will come our way. Moving right along here, because we don't have much more time, we find that the next temptations in connection with worldly possessions and glory. He takes the Lord up to the top of the mountain and in a moment of time shows you how pitiful and how.
Thin the things of this world is, he could show it all to him in a moment of time.
And he tells him that he would give it all to him if he would just bow down to him. And it's interesting here to see in these verses here, verses 6 through 8, we won't read them because we're short for time that the Lord answered the situation again with the word of God. Now it says here in verse 8, get thee behind me, Satan. But you know, if you check the more critical translation that's not found in there.
If you correct the critical translation of Darby, it's not found in there, it's not in the text. And the reason for it is because the Lord has set before us as a dependent man as an example for us, and we won't have that kind of divine power to to dismiss Satan from our presence. And so we find that he beats the devil's temptation not by using his divine power, but by obedience to the word of God and knowing the word of God for the situation. I'm not saying he didn't say get thee behind the Satan because you go over to Matthew and there it's found, but he's found, there is the king who has the authority to.
Addressed the devil in that way, but in Luke's Gospel it's not found. As I say, it's an example for us.
And so he beat the devil as far as this demonstration was concerned, by the word of God, not by his divine power dismissing him. And so the temptation here, and it was very insidious. Each one of these are far more insidious than we realized. We find here that what he was saying was, I know that God has promised to you the kingdoms of this world that you can have. And he says you don't have to go to the cross and suffer for all that. I'll give it to you now if you just compromise and bow down to me.
You don't have to go to the cross and you can have it all now. And that's a real temptation that Satan is presenting before us in this world. He really is. He's saying, you know, you don't have to wait God's time for things in this world. You can have it now. It's a real habit now. Society and many people are taking these suggestions, compromising principles in their life to have things that God is not given to them in their life at such a time because they want it. Now let us be aware of this.
He met this by the word of God, again reading from the book of Deuteronomy, which is the guide for the child of God in the land.
Of Canaan, which is where the Lord was. He said thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou worship. He wasn't saying to Satan that you should worship God. God does not want the worship of Satan. He's saying that the word of God guiding a child of God is he should worship only the Lord God. Well then he couldn't worship Satan. He was only to worship God. So he got light and wisdom from the scripture here that told him that he should not be bowing to Satan and again he was delivered.
Now the next temptation we find Satan is a wily foe and we find here that he notices something. He says he cooled the scripture on the first one and that delivered him. He quoted the scripture in the second time and that delivered him. He's as much as said, I know what to do. I'll bring the scripture before him that'll do it. And so in the next temptation, which is in the area of religious advancement, he brings the word of God.
01:00:09
Into the picture himself. He even quotes a scripture from the Bible to tell the Lord to make this false step. How insidious was this? But you know, he misquoted the scripture. He left out a part of it, you know, with regard to his feet falling at all times because he was suggesting or at least hoping that he would fall at this time. And so how careful we have to be when someone said Satan is never so Satanic.
Than when he has the word of God open in his hand. And that's an interesting statement. Satan is never so Satanic than when he has the scripture in hand. And I believe that Satan's greatest weapon is the scriptures misused scriptures. He has time and time again taken the word of God and caused the children of God to go the wrong direction when they heard the word of God.
How many Christians there are have been misled by some charlatans, some false teacher who has brought something from the word of God before them? And the enemy of their souls has LED them out of the path because they have misunderstandings. The description. Let me give you an example. I know a young man. You haven't seen him for years, but anyway he left the gathered Saints. He went amongst those who hold covenant theology. And when his explanation was, or at least his, his response was in talking to some of the younger brothers who reported it to me, he said, why they have a verse for everything?
Yeah, well, Satan has a verse for things too. But is it the right verse? The JW's have a verse for everything. Does that mean that it's the right path to take? No. This verse was greatly taken out of its context that Satan brought before the Lord Jesus. And you can see the insidious thing behind this temptation. It's time to close. And that is that he was to take him to the top of the temple, the pinnacle of the temple there, and he was suggesting that he jumped down and the angels would just give him.
Help him down. He could just float down into the middle of them, you say. Why would he tell him to do that? Well, what was behind it, you see, was this. The Lord had come to present himself as the Messiah of Israel. He wanted his people dearly to receive them. And you can understand that. And what is a tremendous disappointment to them when they rejected him, that's when he said, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight and so on. And so he dearly desired that the people were receiving his Messiah. And so Satan says, well, I'll tell you how you can do it.
Show off a little. Just get up to the pinnacle of the temple and jump down, you know, and you'll float right down into the midst, and they'll see who you are. You can tell them I'm the Messiah, they'll say, Oh yes, and they'll receive you.
But it wasn't the will of God, no? And what would it produce in them? God would. The Lord would never take the Kingdom in that way as be reigned as their Messiah, because there was no faith involved. Remember in John Six, they wanted to receive him as a king.
And he wouldn't have it because there was number faith involved. And so the enemy is very, very subtle. And especially so in the realm of religious things. We have to be very careful. And his he uses the word of God.
I know I've gone overtime and I'm very sorry. I'll just bow my head down, pray.
Romans 8:9-13
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
#303 as well.
Jesus, the bread of life is given to be our daily food within us dwells that well from heaven.
The Spirit of our God.
When Israel binding.
What does it run?
They found throughout the world.
Oh, great sourcing for.
Our.
Still have a lot of territory to cover in Romans 8, brethren and.
There's nothing else we could.
Read there.
I think we got down to verse 9.
Romans, chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 10.
Oh, verse 9.
If you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead.
Shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
00:05:00
But if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.
But if ye, through the Spirit, do modify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For ye have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA, Father.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in US. For the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of of God.
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who had subject the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and not only they, but ourselves also.
Which have the first fruit of the Spirit, Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Likewise.
The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He thus searched the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit.
Because He maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose, for whom He did for know. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate them he also called, and whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified.
Them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spare not His own Son, but deliver Him up for us all, How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died, yeah, rather that is risen again.
Who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for thy sake? We are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors.
Through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor hide, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
00:10:24
We were speaking yesterday about the difference between being in the flesh, or perhaps.
Leaving the article out in flesh as opposed to being in the spirit or in spirit.
And how that?
The old man, the old sinful flesh.
That we have in US operates in that way, and that to try and live the Christian life in the energy of nature and the energy of the flesh just will not work.
The new life that we have is meant to be lived in spirit, that is, in the power of the Spirit of God.
And so.
One isn't looked upon as being truly saved unless he has been indwelt by the Spirit of God. The Spirit may begin a work in an individual we know and so 1 can be what we might say quickened and in that sense.
Have new life.
New desires. Properly, I suppose that's the real condition of the man in the 7th of Romans who hasn't yet really gotten deliverance. He's not really.
Property indwelt with the Spirit of God. Now I don't mean that a believer can't go through perhaps a modified experience of what we have in Roman 7, but the reality of Roman 7 belongs to one who has right desires but no power to carry them out.
And so one isn't looked upon as being truly saved unless he has the Spirit of God.
But I'd like to ask a question, and it's an honest question and I'd like someone to give us an answer.
What is the difference here between the expression in this verse, the Spirit of God, and then the Spirit of Christ?
And we find that expression a number of times in the Word of God concerning other things.
At the end of this chapter we have the love of God and the love of Christ.
In other scriptures we have things like the peace of God and the peace of Christ, the Word of God and the Word of Christ, the power of God and the power of Christ.
What is the significance of those things sometimes being referred as being of God and sometimes being of Christ?
When the Spirit of God is mentioned it's in connection with the new position that we have, but when it's the Spirit of Christ is to do with the spirits work and the formative character of Christ in the believer.
I don't know if I could go any further than that, but so that's why he goes on and says and if Christ be in you.
Which is the Spirit's work of forming Christ in the believer.
We have in chapter verse one in Christ that's of the position, but now we have in verse 10 Christ in you and that's the the result of the Spirit of God.
And his formative power in the believer.
So I could just say it again succinctly as I could the Spirit of God is in connection with the new position that we are in. As He says, we're not in the flesh, we're in the Spirit.
And then the the Spirit of Christ mentioned in the parenthesis. There is a parenthesis here. The latter half of verse 9 is a parenthesis that sentence.
And there he mentions the Spirit of Christ.
And it's to do with the spirits work, formative work of forming Christ in the believer.
You could probably add to that brother Bill.
Not really. I think that's pretty much the way my thoughts had run. It seems that when God is used and not particularly restricted to the expression, the Spirit of God, but in other things too, it has the sense of nature and power. It has the sense, perhaps, as you say, of position here. But when Christ is brought in, it's if we could use a common expression without being irreverent.
00:15:13
It's where the rubber hits the road. It's the practical side of things worked out in our lives. And so it says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom over at the end of the chapter.
When it talks about separating us from the love of Christ, it's things that are practically faced by you and me in this world. And so in one sense, it's not a separation. It's all the same love. It's all the same spirit, but there's a different emphasis placed on it, whether it's something that is our position or the power of God, the nature of God, what he is. But then there's.
The practical side, which is worked out in US.
In our lives, as you say, the formative power.
You agree with that, Bob? Yeah, that's good.
I think it's helpful to notice that when it speaks here in verse 8.
In the flesh or in flesh? It's not talking about our physical bodies, is it? Because sometimes young believers think, well, I'm still in my physical body and the Scripture uses that. In first Peter Four it says Christ having suffered for us in the flesh.
But it's not talking there about that nature we're talking about, or it talks about his physical body.
That's where he suffered. But here it is the nature we're talking about and the believers position is not in flesh, but in spirit. That's the position and it's, it's really helpful, especially for younger believers. But for us all to realize if we were in flesh, if that was our position, we would have to obey the demands of the flesh. We are not there, brethren.
We are in spirit and so are position is a place where the Spirit of God.
Is the power of life and the one who directs US1, who gives us guidance. And I think that's really helpful to distinguish that.
Spirit of God is the seal that marks us out. You go to Ephesians chapter one.
It's helpful to see when the Spirit of God.
Seals a person.
Ephesians one and verse 13 because there are sectors of.
In Christian circles that teach that after a person is saved, they should ask for the second blessing, the Spirit of God to come on his life.
But here we find that.
The moment a person believes the gospel of his salvation, they are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Let's just read it.
Ephesians 113.
In whom Christ?
Ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth.
The gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed.
Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory. So the moment a person believes.
The gospel of his salvation.
Recognizes that in the work of Christ we have.
Where we can rest our souls forever, God says the work of salvation is finished in that person any.
Seals that person with his spirit.
And so that goes along with our verse here. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
So that's what marks a person that is a real believer, this presence of the Spirit of God.
It's been said many times really in the last couple of days, but just to say it again.
When we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:20:03
Many things immediately result from it, but two of them that are particularly emphasized here is.
Change completely.
The condition and state of our beings.
We were born in that condition of things called in flesh.
With that awful thing in the flesh called sin.
And that was the whole condition of our being in our lives and before God.
But when there's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God gives us a gift of life.
Eternal life, the life of Christ.
And it's it's mentioned in right here where we're reading If Christ be in you.
The Spirit is life. It's a tremendous thing. It's I don't think any of us in this room can completely comprehend the tremendous nature of the change of our being.
It's not the truth here in Romans that's brought before us, but we immediately begin to participate in a new creation.
But the first part of it is we have a life that we never had before. We weren't born with that life.
And now we have a life. Christ in you, Christ our life.
The second thing is.
God himself.
God the Spirit.
Comes to dwell within us.
And again, I say I personally don't think a single person in this room is capable of fully comprehending the immensity of such a thing.
That because we outwardly look the same, because our thoughts maybe are ones of joy and simplicity, that we know the Lord Jesus is our Savior. We're not really aware of the tremendous change in our state of being. That we are creatures now in whom there has been given a life that we didn't have before, the very life of Christ in US.
And connected and coupled with it the Spirit of God.
In our being and those.
Two changes.
Change the total characteristic of what we are.
From that point on to eternity and they represent a complete change in our relationship with God.
We were seen by God one way.
But when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our position before God totally changes, but also our condition and our state changes well in how our relationship with God is seen. A little later we see one of the results of the Spirit dwelling in us. Not only is the power of the life given to us, but also.
Are very understanding, or the understanding isn't the right word, but our very realization.
Belong to God as a child is by the spirit of God's work in us that puts within us that.
Statement of heart ABBA father.
We can't necessarily even explain that, but the very.
Indwelling of the Spirit of God makes us the creature. Now look at God and say God's my Father.
And that's a total change of relationship and it it has these characteristics connected with it that little by little, perhaps we enter into a bit, but it's a tremendous thing.
Just mad one little footnote not to change anything that's been said. I don't disagree with a single word that's been said, but in in the there's also connected with the Spirit of God, that which is God himself in his work in US.
And for us and in the Spirit of Christ, it's particularly connected with the life. And so the Spirit of God is particularly the power of God working in US and in that life. And the Spirit of Christ, as it goes on to speak a little more of it, also particularly emphasizes the life itself that is been given to us.
00:25:23
But the two are combined into one here and seen together.
Another detail that is very interesting in this and other portions is that Christian life is what follows death.
You know life in this world is terminated by death.
So we live and then we die and that's the end. That's the way people look at it.
The Brethren, the life we possess is a life that is beyond death.
And again and again we have that. We had it yesterday in our readings. But just look at verse 10. If Christ be in you.
The body is dead because of sin.
But the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
It's life and resurrection that we possess in the Lord Jesus, Bill quoted.
That verse yesterday in his address. I am crucified with Christ. Anybody that's crucified is as good as dead.
But he follows it immediately. Nevertheless. I live.
What kind of life is that? It's a life, brethren, that we possess that is beyond death. And I think that is so tremendous to get ahold of. It's in quite a few scriptures. Just look at one other place that in the Second Corinthians chapter 4.
Where the Apostle Paul is speaking about.
This and he says in verse 10.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. First it talks about the dying of the Lord Jesus, then the life.
Verse 11 For we which live are always delivered unto death.
For Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
So it's a life that's beyond death. That's the life that you and I possess. Isn't that wonderful, brethren, to get a hold of it?
That's the life we possess in the Lord Jesus, and that's why he died. He rose again. He is in a life that death cannot touch any longer. That's the life you and I possess in the Lord Jesus.
But going back to our verse 10, it says if Christ be in you.
The body is dead.
Because of sin.
Christ died once to sin.
And now that he lives, he will never again die. He cannot die.
And so that's the position we we are in right now. We are in that position. And it's important to see that so that sin doesn't have.
Any place in our thinking I I can't say that it doesn't have any place, but it's the.
It's a sometimes we sin because our thinking process is not right, brethren, and we need to adjust it. This is the position you and I occupy as Christians in a life that is beyond death.
00:30:01
Well, we have in verse 11 a new prospect, and that is that there's going to be a quickening of our mortal bodies by a spirit that dwelleth in you.
It's interesting that he does not say.
In that 11Th verse.
He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also raise up your mortal bodies or your bodies.
Because that would be putting death before the Saints. He sees the Saints at the time of the coming of Christ, which is when this quickening action will take place as being alive, as being. So he doesn't see it. We know many of the Saints are passed on to be with the Lord and they will be raised at that time. But the Christians proper hope is that he's going to quicken our mortal bodies.
We look for the Lord to come this afternoon.
That's a new prospect.
All is a result of this new position that we're in and the new state and so on that we've had in the preceding verses.
The First Corinthians chapter 15 takes up the other side of it with regard to the Saints that have passed on. He says this corruption shall put on incorruptibility, this mortal should put on immortality. The corruption of course, is referring to those Saints that our bodies are lie in the earth, and the graves that are corrupting they are going to put on their bodies are going to put on incorruption.
But we are seen as the mortal and we're going to put on immortality at that time.
And small corruption as well, wouldn't you say? You're not going to have Gray hairs in that day, are you brother?
I may be mortal, immortal, immortal, incorruptible.
Might be helpful. Also. I hope it doesn't confuse but going back to Chapter 7.
In verse 23, the law of sin, which is in my members verse 24, the body.
Of this death and then in our chapter.
And verse 10 the body is dead.
Because of sin.
When it's specified that thing in us that is so hateful that here is referred to as sin, It's I believe when it's.
Identified precisely, it's always connected with the body.
And because it's part of the body or associated with the body, the body has no it's it's a body of death.
And what God has done in saving our souls as He is redeemed, the whole person, spirit, soul and body.
And later on in this chapter, we await the redemption of the body.
The work was done at the cross, but the actual redemption of the body is still future and that's.
Associates with the fact that when the rapture takes place, when we're taken to heaven, God is going to remove from that body.
That thing called sin.
And it is going to enter into that immortal condition that we will have when we are taken to heaven. And yet in other aspects in which he is presenting the truth to here, he's showing us that even though we still have a body of death in which sin is in its members, that we can live as has been said it victoriously, and over it it doesn't have.
Any more of the power to dominate?
Or control our lives. But woe to anyone that comes to the idea. It's not still there. It's constantly there and it never changes. And it's a condition that of our being that will be with us until.
The process that will take place at an instant of time when the Lord takes us home and then we will be forever delivered from the body of death and enjoy the full results of the.
Redemption of that body.
That's why in part it says in the likeness when it uses the expression flesh.
00:35:05
It's quite often referring to the flesh is that condition of our being, particularly the body, and sometimes emphasized because it has sin in it.
And so we were born of sinful flesh.
Because of what's in us. The Lord Jesus was born in the likeness of sinful flesh because there was number sin in his being.
And he was perfect, and in Him was no sin.
But for us, it's there, and even though we receive the Lord Jesus Christ and we have a new life.
We still have sin in the body, and so it remains in that looked at as a body of death.
I suppose in that sense we could.
Point out that when sin is committed, there has to be a body.
By which that sin can be committed, doesn't there? And so we can't divorce in that sense.
The sinful nature from the body in which it's contained. In one sense we can, and I don't tell the story to be funny, but it illustrates the point about how that quite some years ago now, there was a man who was a Christian in the southern United States, I forget just where, who got away from the Lord and fell into temptation.
And ended up stealing.
And in due time, he was caught and brought before a judge.
And it so happened that the judge himself was a believer.
And so after the evidence had been presented and the case came to a point where the judge was going to pass sentence, he said to the the accused, he said as his customary, Sir, do you have anything you wish to say for yourself before I pass sentence and the man?
Said yes, your honor, he said. I want to point out that it wasn't I that did it. It was the old man.
Using the language of Scripture, the judge understood exactly what he was getting at. And he said yes. He said, I heartily agree with you. And because of that we're going to put the old man in jail.
Well, how did they put the old man in jail? By taking the physical body that had exercised the desires of the old man. And they put that body in jail. And that's what is really brought out here, isn't it? We are identified with that body of death, with that body which is so prone to commit sin because of an old sinful nature. But thank God we don't have to use that body to.
Fulfill the needs, or not the needs, but the desires of the flesh anymore, because we have a new life in Christ. We have a new energy of that new life, the Spirit of God. And now that body can be used to please the Lord.
And verse 10 says, if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. So if we have a sense in our souls that Christ is in US, are we going to sin?
I don't think so.
The Spirit is life because of righteousness. That's what should be manifest in the life of a believer.
And verse 12 Says, therefore, brethren, we are debtors.
Not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
What good thing has resulted in giving place to the flesh?
Are we debtors to the flesh to live after that?
When he goes on in verse 13 to say, if you live after the flesh, you shall die.
Living that way.
Leads in the direction of death.
Don't live that way.
But if you, through the Spirit, do mortify.
There it is again, death, the deeds of the body.
Ye shall live. There's life on the other side of death.
That's really where our Christian life lies, isn't it?
On the other side of death.
It's interesting that in verse 13 it speaks of the mortifying, the deeds of the body. It's similar to what Bill is just presented. The body is not to be the subject of mortification. And I know over the centuries the monastic approach where.
00:40:12
Where people have.
You know, kind of try to aggressively attack or restrain their bodies with all kinds of extreme lifestyles and so on. But I don't believe in and that ends up being kind of the flesh trying to work on the flesh. You know what I mean? But it's interesting. It says in verse 13, mortifying the deeds of the body.
And those those actions that are produced by yielding to the flesh and think over in Colossians, it's somewhere thought where it says mortify your members. So it's it's one way, another place where the precision of Scripture is apparent in this, this distinction between the body as kind of the platform or or field upon which this is played out versus that.
Fallen nature that needs to be kept in check.
And we know that in the natural realm, if man is animated by his old sinful self.
Then the threat of punishment is sometimes sufficient to deter him from doing something wrong, and God provided for that in the law. If a man was guilty of sin, there was punishment provided and God ordained government in the world in order that there might be the curbing of wrongdoing by.
Punishment, even to the point in some cases of carrying out capital punishment, and the government is still responsible. I believe in God's sight to do that. But is that the way God wants to govern you and me as Christians? Is that what should animate us as believers? Oh no. And as our brother has just mentioned, there were those with good intentions too, like Martin Luther and others who actually whipped their bodies and caused all kinds of physical pain.
In some excuse me, in some vain hope of preventing.
The repetition of sinful acts.
They went through agony. They really meant it. They really wanted to control all of their old sinful tendency by physical pain and suffering. But then they found out that God had a far better way. The physical suffering had already been dealt with at the cross. The whole question of sin had been settled once and for all.
Sin was forever put away.
And more than that, Christ had died and arisen again in order that one might not have to, as you say.
Whip his body and cause all kinds of pain in order to prevent sin from rearing its head, but rather by simply turning to Christ and in the energy of the Spirit of God allowing that new life to display itself.
It's not the body that's the sinful bad thing that God created it good, but it's the nature that drives that body that is has to be brought into subjection, isn't it?
It's been helpful to me to see in visiting.
Youth villages where you have young minor.
Boys and so on that have fallen into gangs and been driven to crimes in a very young age to see the struggle they go through.
And especially as they contemplating contemplate being let out into society again.
And their fear of being able to face those temptations that dominated and controlled them, they're afraid to go back into that environment because they don't know the power of the Spirit of God dwelling in them to give them a power to overcome that. And it's very real. These are real experiences. I don't want to get us back into the 7th chapter, but but that's, that's what that.
Person was going through and.
But when a soul can get ahold of the fact that the Spirit of God gives not only new life, but the power to live and to resist sin and Satan.
Inasmuch as being obedient to the guidance of the Spirit of God.
00:45:01
These young boys, they, they're in a they get in these gangs and they, the gang has so controlled them, they know they can never disobey. They've learned they can, they should not disobey the gang leader or what the gang decides to do. They know they have to go with it whether they like it or not, and they know it's wrong, but they don't have the power to resist it.
That's what man in the flesh is, with only his own power to deliver him.
But this is what a wonderful thing to know. You have in you the Spirit of God that is greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
The only thing that stops sin is death.
And that's where we are in Christ.
Dead with Christ.
But risen again, and in the power of the Spirit of God.
So we come to verse 14 here, and this is a beautiful verse to meditate, brethren, as many as are led by the Spirit of God.
They are the sons of God.
So the characteristic of a believer is to be led by the Spirit of God.
I must slaver other than it has been an exercise in my own life that we live in a world where.
Bruce is talking about it in his address, where there's so much temptation.
That appeals. There are influences that appeal to our bodies.
Our spirits, our souls, and.
We find the Lord Jesus like the temptation. He was hungry. It's not wrong to be hungry.
That was very proper experience of being a human being.
But.
He did not.
Obey his own feelings.
He were lived by the word of God.
So the Spirit of God in him use the Word of God to resist that temptation.
And we have to learn. And I don't know, it seems to me that we need to be awakened, brethren.
As to the fact that the Spirit of God dwells in US and He's there to lead us.
We go through life and we are geared to respond to this demand and that demand and this feeling of ours and that feeling.
Brethren, the the light that we have in Christ is a life that is led by the Spirit of God.
And it's a beautiful thing to realize, but I just feel for my own self that so much of my life is responding to other influences.
And not simply led by the Spirit of God.
I present that I trust some others. We'll take that up a bit because it seems to me that.
We need to be awakened.
What a tremendous thing, brethren.
God, the Holy Spirit dwells in this body of mine. Why is he there?
To lead me.
In everything. Let's read another verse in John chapter 16 that says basically the same thing.
And verse 13, the Lord Jesus is speaking here of what was to be true.
In the future, he said, albeit when he.
The spirit of truth is come that happened on the day of Pentecost.
He will guide you into all truth.
He shall not speak of himself.
Whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. There is the Spirit of God.
There to guide us.
00:50:02
Are we dependent on that? Are we sensitive as to his presence with us?
I mean, sometimes we speak about it when we come together in assembly meetings. This is where the Spirit of God.
Should guide us.
Brethren, are we exercised in that way?
I know this is not exactly the the focus in Romans.
More of the focus in Corinthians, perhaps?
But it's the case in all our life. We should be guided by the Spirit of God.
And I don't know, I, I, my desire is that we would be awakened. We'd be more sensitive as to his presence and power.
To guide us.
Into all the truth and so when we are together in assembly meetings, younger brother and.
I have to say that I am guilty of the same thing sometimes. I remember coming to assembly meetings when I was younger.
With basically the attitude and I'm not going to open my mouth, no way.
I might make a mistake.
And then somebody, some older brother, might have to correct me.
And brethren, let's just come together in simplicity.
And be sensitive as to his presence with us in the assembly. He's there collectively and so we are to interact together.
Spirit of God dwells in the House of God, and he's there to guide as well, and it's beautiful where that the Spirit of God has given liberty to do that.
I must say it hasn't been impressive to me, brethren in South America, sometimes in assemblies where?
There seemed to be no evident gift.
But where brethren come together in simplicity, looking up to the Lord.
Independence and recognition that they are so weak that they in themselves don't know hardly how to proceed. How the Lord comes in their eyes on Christ. Spirit of God leads to wonderful times in the Word. That's the Spirit of God and He's not limited.
You may say I don't have hardly anything to offer.
Give what little you may have be exercised when you sit down in assembly meetings.
To give what the Spirit of God may lay on your heart.
And I encourage younger brother and two in assembly meetings, maybe small assemblies.
Learn to ask good questions.
That opens things up sometimes. I know young people say, well, I don't want people to think I'm really that stupid and.
But if you have that question, it's a good chance that others do as well, and sometimes.
Bridging that gap and asking a question of an older brother.
Has the effect of opening up the subject in a way that is very helpful. I have found that to be the case even in the Lord's ministry and.
John chapter 14 you have two disciples asking a question.
And the Lord's responses were beautiful.
And so, Lord, give us when we come together.
In meetings like this to be exercised, I don't say we'll always take part, no.
But just sit down with the exercise of heart. Lord, here I am. I don't feel like I have anything, but if you want to use me, help me to be ready for your use to be an exercise in that way. Spirit of God is here to guide us.
And not only in assembly meetings at all times to guide us and to all truth.
Lord help us, brethren.
To be LED is one of the basic characteristics of the Christian life.
00:55:00
That well known him, trust me and obey are both parts of being LED. You have to trust and you have to submit and obey and be let alone.
I think is apparent, you know, when our children are real little, we're kind of in.
The command and control mode.
Gospel 2
Gospel—Bob Thonney
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Have you been to Jesus for this cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb #14 Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb #14?
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you watching the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His graces sock?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
Are you washed in the blood? In the soul blending flood of the land?
Our air garment spotless. Are they white guys? So are you washed in the blood of the land?
Are you walking daily by the Savior side?
Are you washed in the blood of the land?
Do you rush a man in the crucified? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you wise in the blood in the school? Glenn's in blood of the world?
Are your garments?
God bless. Are they white as snow? Are you washed in my blood of the land?
When the bridegroom comes, will your ropes be white? Your employer in the blood of the lamb?
Will your soul be ready for the mansions bright and be washed in the blood of the land?
Are you always in the blood, in the soul, planting blood of the land?
Spotless. Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of land?
You are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb, without blemish and without spot. Let's pray. Gracious God our Father, oh how we thank Thee for the power of the blood of the Lamb to remove the stains of sin.
From before thy sight.
This evening we're here to open Thy precious Word and to speak the gospel, and we pray that Thy Spirit may have liberty.
To speak it rightly.
We don't know the condition of each person here.
In this within the sound of our voices, but we pray that if there's somebody that still hasn't got it settled that tonight he might get it settled. We pray wherever the message goes out for blessing in the name of our Lord Jesus.
Amen.
Re going to sing another hymn here number.
34.
Precious, precious blood of Jesus.
Precious, precious blood of Jesus.
00:05:02
Shed on gathering.
Chamberlain and *********.
For free.
Precious, precious.
What a Jesus.
All right.
By now, it's often.
Lord, I sheds, I read like prison.
Even Scarlet Glory.
We live in very serious times in the history of the world. The Word of God speaks about a time of judgment that.
Seems to be just right on the horizon of this world's history.
And the words of the Lord Jesus are that there was not a time so awful before, nor will there ever be such a time.
As this time, that's just ahead.
Seems like the enemy of our souls tries to lull us to sleep.
But I want to say tonight, God is serious about sin. He takes it extremely serious.
And he has addressed the problem of sin in the person of his own son. We want to speak about that tonight.
In the Old Testament it is said.
The life of the flesh is in the blood.
And I have given it to you for an atonement upon the altar.
For it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul. You know, blood is not exactly a pleasant subject, and I find that sometimes people kind of turn off on the subject. But God addresses the question of blood kind of gruesome.
To remember one time in the Dominican Republic.
In the north of the island.
We were there for some special meetings. One of the brothers brought a young steer to be slaughtered for the food for the occasion.
They had him tied outside.
And it was not exactly pleasant to watch that animal being slaughtered. They tied him so he couldn't get away.
One of the brothers took a knife and rammed it into where his heart was and then the blood started gushing out.
Gushed as the heart pumped, the gushed out. The poor animal cried out in pain, stood there for quite a while, and then finally lost so much blood. He finally staggered to his knees and then fell over dead.
The life of the flesh is in the blood. That's the kind of life we know down here.
But why do we have to speak about these things? Because of the question of sin. We've been dealing with the question of sin in our Bible studies here. It is lawlessness. It is that principle that we all have in our nature. We don't like anybody to tell us what to do.
00:10:15
All do what I like and don't you tell me.
No, and I have the right to do it.
Well, you might feel that you have the rights under human government, but I want to say to you, God has something to say to that question of sin. And you and I, because I'm a Sinner just as much as anyone else here, have to face this question. If you refuse to face it now, you will face it in a future day with God, because He is the ultimate authority.
You know, sometimes people think I have my rights to my own religion, my own thinking. Yes, you may have your rights to your own religion, to your own thinking, but in the end there is a God from whom no one will escape. You have to meet him.
And you have to do with a question of your sins. There is no way out.
And God has dealt with this question in the Old Testament. We have many.
Stories of blood fact, the first perhaps, took place.
Just after Adam and Eve.
Sinned and God clothed them with coats of skins. Necessarily there had to be victims that died so that they could be clothed with skins.
Yes, sin brings death.
But God has addressed that question and, you know, all through the Old Testament story. I just want to run through a few of those stories because they are so helpful. People of Israel were in the land of Egypt.
And God, so that Pharaoh would let his people go, sent plague after plague after plague upon Pharaoh.
And his people, The Egyptians.
Sometimes he was able to exempt his own people from those plagues, but at the last he sent one more plague, and he said, with this plague, Pharaoh will let you go. It was to be the death of the first born. And since sin, since death is the result of sin.
God could not make an exception.
For his people there because they were sinners, just like the Egyptians, but God gave his people, the children of Israel, a substitute.
A lamb. They were to take a lamb on the 10th day of the first month. They were to keep it up till the 14th day of that same month. For four days they were to observe that land to make sure it was without blemish.
You know God from Adam to Christ.
Was 4000 years that God was observing the whole human race to see if there was anyone that had not corrupted their way? And he gives the sentence in Psalm that he found no one, they were all corrupt, they are all had gone their own way until one day.
The Lord Jesus came onto the scene and John the Baptist seeing Jesus, says behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.
What a wonderful, wonderful declaration. But going back to Egypt, there were the children of Israel, and they were told to take that lamb that they observed for four days, and on the 14th day of that month they were to kill it.
In the evening and they were to catch its blood.
Was not enough that the blood be shed, it had to be applied and they were to take that blood and they were to apply it to the two doorposts on the outside of their houses in the upper door post. They were to paint that blood on the door and then they were to go inside and eat that lamb that night.
00:15:15
At midnight.
God told Moses that He was going to pass through the land of Egypt and he was going to execute judgment. There had to be death in every single home in Egypt that night. If it was not the death of the Passover lamb, it was the death of the first born. And there was only one question asked as the.
Destroying Angel went from house to house through the land of Egypt.
Is there blood on the door?
So here we come to a house. Maybe there are nice people that lived in that house.
Renata, any questions asked, are these nice people or are they bad people? No question like that asked. The only question is there blood on the door? If there was blood on the door, he passed over that house. That's why it's called the Passover next house.
Is there blood on the door? No, no blood on the door. In he went. Where's the first born?
Kill them immediately.
There was not one house in that. There were. There was not one dead.
What a solemn thing.
The only thing that protected them from the judgment of God.
Was the blood not only the blood shed, but the blood applied to the door of the houses where they were?
And I know everybody here understands and has heard the story of how Jesus died. And that's why we're going to what we're going to talk about tonight.
But it's not enough to know that Jesus died. It has to be applied that blood does. And I ask you tonight.
Dear children, dear young people, you know that Jesus died. You know that he shed his blood. But have you applied the value of that precious blood to your own soul? Are you washed in the blood?
Of the lamb.
Rather, last night spoke about propitiation.
And that blood that was on the mercy seat, that first goat that died on the great Day of Atonement.
The high priest took it in.
To the holy place, in little further to the Most holy place, and there on the mercy seat, that golden plate that covered the Ark of the Covenant, where the two cherubims, the executors of God's judgment, were looking down there, he took that blood and sprinkled it on the mercy seat.
Atonement means a covering, and so sin was covered once more by the blood of that goat.
In the New Testament, it's interesting that we really don't have the question of atonement because it's not merely covered in the New Testament, it's completely put away by the sacrifice of himself. Wonderful, wonderful truth.
Well, that's the story of what happened in the land of Egypt that night. Only one thing could save them from the wrath of God. It was the blood of the Passover lamb. And I say to you tonight, there's only one thing that will protect you from the the judgment that soon to fall on this world.
I tremble and I think of how awful it's going to be right here in the United States of America.
I don't know how many people are going to be absent after the Rapture.
00:20:01
I've tried to think about it sometimes. I don't know. I don't speculate too much on that, but the United States people are fairly well armed and you can just imagine the awful, awful scenarios that are going to take place in a city like Chicago.
Terrible. I'm thankful that I'm not going to be here at that time.
But I'm concerned lest there's somebody here who up to this time has made a profession of faith but is not real.
You know.
In recent years there's been a number of young people.
That have been breaking bread at the Lord's Table, and today they profess to be atheists.
I cannot look down into your heart to see where you stand with God.
But something happened.
Something happened.
And I want you, in the presence of God, to search your soul. Are you real with God or are you faking it?
Please, for the good of your own soul, consider where you stand with God tonight. There's only one thing that will protect you from the wrath of God. It's the blood of the Lamb.
Children of Israel were still in Egypt.
God didn't leave them there that very night. They marched to leave the land of Egypt. They came to the Red Sea and God, by Moses rod of power and judgment, opened the Red Sea and they marched through to the other side.
That's redemption by power. God took them completely out of the land of Egypt. And you know what if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, God does not even look at you as in this world any longer. Yes, we are here in physical presence, but we are not part of this world system. We've been protected by from the.
Judgment of God by the blood of the Lamb, but God.
Has taken us completely out of Egypt. We are not looked at as being in that position any longer before God.
Well, we go on in the history of Israel, and we find that many, many sacrifices were made in the Old Testament.
Perhaps the largest sacrifice that we read about in the Scriptures is at the dedication of the Temple. Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings. You remember how many animals he offered.
22,000 Bullocks.
120,000 sheep. I can't even imagine of that number of animals.
I've seen large flocks of sheep out western United States and I understand that some shepherds take care of maybe as many as 5000 but think of it 120,000 sheep and A and 22,000 oxygen.
Rivers of blood flowed.
Rivers of blood. Did that satisfy God? You know what? It was only a foreshadowing of another sacrifice that was going to be made. Let's go to John's Gospel chapter one to begin with.
We've already quoted a verse from this chapter.
But let's start from the first verse. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
00:25:07
In him was life and.
The life was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
Verse 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Verse 18 No man hath seen God at any time, the only.
Begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared him.
Now, verse 26.
John, this is John the Baptist, answered them. The ones that were sent from the Pharisees.
Saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not he it is who coming after me is preferred before me.
Whose shoes latch it I am not worthy to unloose? These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing the next day.
John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Here we have the Lord Jesus presented as the Lamb of God.
But I want to stop a moment.
To meditate on just who is this person, the Lamb of God? In verse one it says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
Word is what we use to express ourselves. If I stood up here this evening and didn't use any words, just looked at you, you'd say, what in the world is he trying to communicate?
We use words to communicate. God is so great.
So infinite in his understanding, there is no way that we could comprehend him in our human condition.
God has become a man in the person of the Lord Jesus. He is the Word of God, and it says the Word was with God. In other words, in the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, He was a distinct personality. He was with God, but the Word was God.
Isn't that just blow your mind? The person that we're talking about is no less than God.
Incarnate, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Incredible. Totally incredible.
I mean, it says in verse three that it was through him that all things were made.
And that without Him, nothing was made that was made. He is the creator of all things.
Can you imagine the vastness of the universe that he made?
You know, I don't think we grasp it.
I love going down to the Andes, the South American going across them.
There's something about the untamed wildness of those Andes.
Some of you have been down there, not everybody.
But in Peru, Bolivia, there are two major ranges.
Of the Andes mountains, what they call the inner Andes and the outer Andes. And in between those two ranges there is what is called the Altiplano, and it's a High Plains that varies maybe 75 to 150 miles wide that runs down through those countries between those two ranges.
00:30:21
This last March I was down there in.
We visited the city of Porto Sea, which is to the east of the well. I should say it's on the inner Andes, more to the east of the Andes range.
What I see is a city of about 13,000 feet altitude and after we broke bread with the brethren in Potosi, we decided to take the road across to the city of Uyuni, which is on the High Plains and it's a brand new paved Rd. across there now. And we got there and you get to the edge of the Andes and then you drop off to the 12,000 feet altiplano and as you're looking out across there.
It looks so flat. Looks like you could actually walk off the edge of the earth out there.
But in certain areas, there's these huge Andes that stick way up above the level of the Alteplano.
There's something about just standing there and taking in the vastness of it. But you know what? That's nothing in comparison with the universe that you and I are part of, because we live on planet Earth, and planet Earth is a pinpoint in the Galaxy we live in.
I think some of you are acquainted with the fact that in our Galaxy there are probably at least they calculate now something like 200.
Billion stars in a circular format that is whirling around in space.
200 billion and from 1 edge of this Galaxy to the other edge is 100,000 light years light traveling at the rate of 186,000 miles per second.
Takes 100,000 years to cross our Galaxy alone.
Stop and think about this. The light that started crossing the Galaxy when Adam was placed in this world is not even a tenth of the way across our Galaxy yet. That's how vast this Galaxy is. And we're not talking merely about this.
Galaxy.
They calculate that there's at least another 100 billion galaxies in the universe.
The person we're talking about is the one that created it all.
He spoke and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. He gave the word and whirled them all out there. You grasp the immensity of this person we're talking about.
Just blows my mind.
And yet the moment came when he was born into this world.
A seemingly.
Helpless little baby.
I say seemingly helpless, because at the same time he was lying in that Manger.
Where his mother wrapped him in swaddling clothes the same time he was maintaining the whole universe with the word of his power.
But he came.
To pay a price.
You know God is love. We heard about that last night. God loves us.
That God manifested His love in giving His only begotten Son.
I've often mentioned it this way.
I have two sons in my family.
00:35:02
I would have a tough time.
Giving up one son to die for an enemy.
God had only one son.
If I was looking out the window of my house one day and saw people torturing my son outside.
You think I could just sit there and watch it happen?
Norway.
I'd run out there and say hey, you leave him alone.
You can beat on me, but don't you touch him.
But God watched.
When they took his own son and they planted their fists in his face.
He came up and spit in his face.
I can't think of a worse insult to come up to a person and spit square in their face, and that's what they did to him.
Like to go to John's Gospel chapter 19 where we have.
The story according to John's Gospel.
Of what took place at the end of the Lord's life down here.
John's Gospel, chapter 19.
Here is the Lamb of God.
The word of God.
The Son of God.
Verse one.
Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged.
Him and the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head.
That put on him a purple robe and said hail.
Of the Jews, they smote him with their hands.
Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find.
No fault in him.
Isn't there something out of order here?
Here he says, I find no fault in him, and yet in verse one he took him and scourged him.
If you read books about the Roman scourging, it was awful.
Romans 8:14-27
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Save your way long to.
Go and come.
Close one where it is.
We are not.
Gone.
Like the virtual soul.
And make my grace.
And Father.
The sunshine.
Goes on.
My Christ, my life.
Baby.
All right, brother Bob, how far did we get?
About verse 14 and I would suggest just to read down to verse 27.
Romans Chapter The Book of Romans, chapter 8, beginning at verse 14.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA. Father, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and the children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.
If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who had subject the same in hope.
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption.
00:05:03
To wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for, as we ought, but the Spirit itself.
Maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
I wonder if I could just give a quick summary of the 1St 11 verses and I'll be very quick.
He's bringing before us in this 8th chapter.
Really the.
What characterizes the full Christian position?
And in the 1St 11 verses we have a series of things that we've touched on already. We see the believers standing in a new position in Christ. That's verse one. And then verses 2-3 and four, we have a new law to govern us. And then in verses 5 through 8 we have a new sphere to live in the things of the Spirit.
And then we have in verses 9 and 10.
We dwell in a new state or a new condition where in the spirit of Christ is able to form the character of Christ in the believer.
And then lastly, in verse 11, we have a new prospect of being glorified when the whole person will be made.
As it says, to quicken their mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in you. Then from verse 12 on, we have some very wonderful results. We're able to live the life that we have at verse 12 and 13. Verse 14, we're able to be LED of the spirit. Spirit of God will never leave the flesh.
And if we walk in the Spirit, the Spirit of God can lead us. And we've touched on that yesterday. And what we come to in verse 15 is we're able to commune with God.
And intimacy as true sons, because the subject there in verse 15.
Is the spirit of sonship whereby we cry ABBA? Father? ABBA brings before us the thought of intimacy. Father brings before us the thought of intelligence. So we have intelligent communion with God his Father, because we are sons.
After the yesterday's reading, it was we touched on the question of being led by the Spirit of God and.
Several made comments as to maybe we could focus a little bit more.
About what it means to be led by the Spirit of God. It's the characteristic of the.
Sons of God to be led by the Spirit of God, but living in a world where there are so many.
Impulses that lead us according to the way people in general are LED. But we need to understand what it means to be led by the Spirit of God.
What do we mean?
Cecil.
Mentioned yesterday the importance of keeping in mind that the.
Spirit of God always leads us in conformity to the Word of God.
Very important point to keep in mind. Never contrary to the word of God. So that's a check.
And.
We, I think it would be helpful if we could have more thoughts about that. I mean, we talk about that sometimes in our meetings.
That we seek to leave liberty for the Spirit of God to lead us.
But it's the characteristic of the believer at all times, not only when we're collectively together, but in our own lives individually.
What does it mean to be led by the Spirit of God and.
I would like to put that forth so.
Meditate on a bit, I think it might be helpful.
For all of us, brethren, it seems like so many of our assembly lives. It seems like we leave it.
Come together and we leave it to certain brothers to function.
00:10:02
When there really needs to be exercise before the Lord, each one of us to be led by the Spirit, the sisters too.
It's clear in Scripture that the sisters are not going to take part in a public way.
But their attitude?
Is of equal importance to the attitude of any brother.
And when there's attentiveness and the right spirit.
You, dear sisters, have as much an influence as to how a meeting progresses as the brothers do, so it's an exercise. We meet together as members of the body of Christ.
How many members of my body are functioning? I hope they're all functioning.
If there would only two or three functioning, how would my body work?
Wouldn't work very good, let me tell you.
Needs to be an alertness on the part of all the members to the directions of the head, and that's the way the body works.
We say these things, brethren, sometimes when we come together in assembly meetings.
We really forget about the practical implications of that truth.
Well, it's certainly a wonderful truth, and as I guess I have sometimes commented before, but it bears repeating, the New Testament is not written like the old in that respect.
We've already had it brought before us in these meetings. At one point, I can't remember just who mentioned it, but in the Old Testament there were minute instructions given that governed pretty well every circumstance, and worship was not in the spirit, but rather simply following.
The instructions that had been given by Jehovah. In most cases they didn't understand why they did things in a certain way. They simply obeyed what Moses had been given.
In the New Testament it's entirely different, isn't it? Because you and I have new life in Christ that is to be lived out in the power of the Spirit of God. And so the New Testament doesn't give us minute instructions in everything. For example, where do we find instructions in the New Testament about how to carry out the remembrance of the Lord? We do have the simple instruction as to the loaf and the cup, but.
As to anything else connected with it, we only have little hints here and there. It's the Spirit of God that is here to lead and guide. We don't have everything spelled out in that way, do we? And the same in our everyday lives. We have principles in the New Testament to guide us, but they are intended to be applied practically in our lives by the leading and guidance of the Spirit of God.
Which takes every circumstance into consideration.
As one brother once remarked, and I thought it was excellent, he said, the presence of the Spirit of God here on earth during this dispensation is at once our greatest potential strength, but also our greatest potential weakness.
If we're walking in communion with the Lord, the Spirit of God is there, dwelling in every believer individually. Dwelling among believers collectively is the House of God to lead and guide in everything. What a privilege that is.
Was never true before the day of Pentecost. It won't be true after the Lord calls us home that the Spirit of God is here on earth as an abiding presence. But.
You and I, in this dispensation of God's grace, have that wonderful privilege.
But if we get away from the Lord, if we're not walking with the Lord, Oh my.
What difficulty results and as you brought out Brother Bob?
If we're not careful, what happens is that as the power of the Spirit declines.
Then the spirit of clarity starts to rise up. Leave it to someone else. And we all know from the history of the church how quickly that came in.
And how, as the power of the Spirit declined, and the sense of.
00:15:02
Walking in the spirit, individually and collectively, was lost sight of that.
Men began to look to others, to take the lead and to take the responsibility among them. Until, if I can say it kindly, and most of Christendom today, that is the norm. That is what is expected. You have a pastor, you have a minister who looks after a congregation and he is supposed to embody, I suppose, all the gifts wrapped up into one person.
But that's not the way God intended it, did He? And so it's a most wonderful privilege to live and move during this time when the Spirit of God is here on earth.
And.
Yes, to have the Word of God before us, we need that. But then it's the Spirit of God that interprets it to us. It's the Spirit of God that leads and guides in its use, whether in personal life or collectively as the House of God.
4/16.
Just give us a little.
Thought on what Bob was saying.
And.
Nurture says for whom the whole body fitly joined together.
And compacted by that which every joint supplier.
Corny effectual working.
Measure every part.
That's the whole body functioning together.
When you say, Bill, that the power of the spirit declines, you, the spirit itself, its power doesn't decline, but our perception and our evidence of it here on earth is declines and our action on it. That's what you mean. It isn't that.
Yes, thank you for that clarification. It's not that the power of the Spirit of God is in any way influenced by our low state, but the Spirit is grieved when we.
Walk in a worldly way and don't give him his rightful place. And then of course, the clerical spirit takes over. Yes, that's that's very true. It's not that the spirit, as someone has said, wherever Christians gather together collectively, the Spirit of God is there.
And if he's given his place, he will lead and guide. But all too often, man substitutes human arrangement for the Spirit of God and effectively displaces him. In our own personal lives, we can do the same thing. We can exercise our own wisdom and not allow the Spirit of God to lead and guide. And in that way, the Spirit is displaced from doing.
What he?
What God intended him to do.
We live in a time when there we do not see active evidence of power around us, we see much rather much weakness and there's a tendency perhaps for us to lose sight of the Spirit of God by faith and our in our way we act and.
Almost suppose that he's not present. Well, that's wrong, isn't it? And.
So we need to realize that the power of the Spirit.
Without actually focusing attention on the Spirit, that's another.
Error that we can fall into around us and I think it was referred to yesterday, but back in John 16 where the Spirit where the Lord Jesus speaks of sending the Spirit of God might just read those verses 13.
John 16 verses 13 and 14 again.
Because I think it might is helpful for us to realize.
The character that the Spirit has here on earth.
John 1613 How be it when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of or from himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak.
00:20:02
And he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. So you see here clearly that the focus of the Spirit of God is to not testify of Himself.
Etcetera. He's in the background, but he's present. He testifies of Christ. And so this is something that we can focus on.
While waiting on the spirit, our brother was speaking yesterday too about being LED. It seems to me that's somewhat of the character that we need to be here.
In our meetings or in whatever the Lord gives us to do, whether individually or collectively.
Is to be in that state of waiting before him, conscious of his power to to direct and give us.
Something to say or do.
Rather than focusing on brethren, present or gift, or what we know.
Those are all important things.
If we wait before him, he is able to give direction.
He will lay go ahead like to make a few remarks on the 14th verse.
It says as many as are led by the Spirit of God. They are the sons of God.
There's a very important connection between being led by the Spirit and being a son of God.
And in order to be a son of God, we first have to be in the family.
And if you're not in the family, you can't be.
We might put an Ant here on the floor somewhere and it's not going to be led by the Spirit of God because that Ant does not have a life and a nature which is capable of being LED intelligently, led by the Spirit of God. It has no conscious relationship with God at all. So the very foundation of being led by the Spirit of God begins with being in the family and having the very life and nature of the family.
And if I have the life and nature of the family, then I am capable of following that which is appropriate to the family.
The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of what it is to be led by the Spirit of God. He is the eternal Son of God. He came into this world as a man.
But still the Son of God.
Still, having that, what was the foundation on which he was led by God? I suggest there are multiple things, but two very important fundamental ones about them.
Was first of all, not to have a will of his own.
Very often we miss the mind of God in every detail of life because we start with the will of our own.
The Lord Jesus, as a man was led by God, by the Spirit.
As having no exercise of his personal will.
It was focused entirely upon doing the will of another and the moment my will is introduced into the question.
And moments you hear words like, well, the Bible doesn't say I can't do this or that. There is liberty to do this or that. Not every time, but very generally it is. I have a will and I don't see some restraint.
Opposed upon me that I can't exercise my own will in the matter.
That's not being LED of the Spirit of God, the Lord Jesus.
In multiple instances in his life something came up and the circumstances would say act Lord act, go down there and save Lazarus life and so on. But.
He had to have a word from the Father.
That's why in his temptations he always went back to the Word of God, because it was the Word of the Father.
That brought him to action, and if there wasn't a word of the Father, he waited. That's where you wait on the Spirit of God. You wait on the Word.
To to do the act. But the other thing which characterizes the difference between what Bill was saying about Old Testament Saints and New Testament Saints, Old Testament Saints were not in the family.
00:25:09
In the sense in which it's given to us in the new they were directed of God in a different way. But you and I who are in the family and to go back to the 14th verse. It says our sons of God that word sons here is very fundamental to being LED of the Spirit of God because.
To illustrate what God is saying to us, when you're brought into the family, you have the life that gives you the capability of being LED, but you start out as a little child, and a little child does not understand and does not follow father and mother's instructions.
Immediately. Very well.
They have the capacity, but they don't have the intelligence or the understanding yet, and so mother and father have to teach them.
Their will.
No, do this. Don't do that. But the intent and scripture of being a son is to be brought into that intelligence of relationship in which you know the heart and mind of the Father.
And to be led by the Spirit of God is to be LED according to the heart and mind of the Father, and we grow into that. We grow into that. We're not born in the family of God and immediately intelligent in that way.
But when you say, is it the mind of God to do this or not do that, it's often because.
We haven't entered into that nature of life in which we have fellowship with the Father so that we know his heart and his mind. That's the difference between the Old New Testament. In the New Testament, its principles, because its principles in which God brings us into a fellowship with himself as his children, as his sons, that we are brought to know his mind and so just like a husband and wife.
Relationship.
You want to know the mind of will say the husband in a matter who are you most likely to know it from the wife if there's a happy marriage relationship because she more likely than any other knows the heart and mind.
Of the one in whom she has this intimate life of fellowship together. And so when we want to know the mind of God and the Spirit of God delights to bring us into the fellowship and communion with the Father to get to know his heart and mind. And in that way when situations come up, we don't consciously say, well, Spirit, what do I do now? But rather our hearts are formed in such a way that.
We say, ah, I know what my father wants.
That I do.
And so, brethren, it's a wonderful thing to be a son of God. And it's as sons that we are led by the Spirit of God. If we're not sons, we'll never know God's will or life. And if we get into the mindset that, well, I wanted, I got this situation and I know what I want, or that very often we're not being led by the Spirit of God at all. We're being led by our natural natures and.
Our natural natures have some of us are pushy forward, some are hold back, and we all have different natural characteristics.
And they tend to guide or lead us in many decisions of life. But the child of God, the Lord Jesus personally was, I do always those things which please the Father. That was the foundation stone of being led by the Spirit in his life. I do always those things which please the Father. In other words, he, he took upon himself no will of his own. He didn't look at it as well. But God doesn't say I shouldn't do this or that. So I'm free to do this or that, no.
If the only one to do one thing, what does the Father want? I want to please him. That's the whole motivation on which I act is his will and none other.
So it's very important for everyone who is a child of God, son of God, to.
Take for granted that the Spirit will lead and guide us. He's there.
00:30:04
In verse nine of our chapter, that's what it says, doesn't it?
Says Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
And verse.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, so the Spirit of God dwells in US, and he is the power of that new life.
And a comment that I remember as a young person that helped me a lot.
Taken from Galatians 5. We don't have to look at it, but it says there that the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and those things are contrary to one another. The comment was this.
The allowing of one nature is the disallowing of the other.
If I allow my flesh to act, it will disallow the Spirit of God to act in my life.
If I give place to the Spirit of God, it will disallow the flesh, but it takes time and like Don says, we grow.
In understanding and we need to for that reason be reading the scriptures.
I enjoy looking through the book of the Acts because some people have said that it should be properly called the Acts of the Holy Spirit, and there you find one of the characteristic expressions is filled with the Spirit. When the Spirit of God came to those about 120 in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, they were all filled with the Spirit.
And as you go through the book, you find one person after another filled with the Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?
In Ephesians chapter 5 there's an exhortation about that and just mention it to.
Uh, be exhorted.
In chapter 5 and verse 18 it says.
And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess.
But be filled with the Spirit, and it seems to put those two things in contrast.
When a person is drunk with wine, he's under the influence.
The wine that he has drunk controls him.
But we are to be filled with the Spirit, and it is beautiful when there are individuals.
Their testimony we have in the book of the Acts filled with the Spirit.
You have one such testimony. And Steven, what a beautiful discourse he gives in Chapter 7.
And at the end, says Stephen, filled with the Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God.
The Spirit of God down here filling the human vessel to be occupied with a man in the glory of God. That's Christianity, brother, A man in the glory of God. The Spirit of God down here to occupy us with him.
And the testimony was so bright.
They put it out, but the Spirit of God is still here.
And I just asked myself, as I ask you, dear brother and sister in the Lord.
How much place do you give to the Spirit of God in your life? Are you filled with the Spirit? That's the exhortation. B Filled with the Spirit. And if it's an exhortation, it means that it's our responsibility.
Why are we not filled with the Spirit? It's because we allow things that disallow the Spirit of God in our lives, and so it's a thing that should exercise us.
And the Lord help us not only when we come together.
To be led by the Spirit, but every aspect of life, he's here.
He dwells in US, it says in John's Gospel, forever. He will never leave.
There are other exhortations that tell us not to quench the Spirit of God.
00:35:02
Another exhortation not to grieve the Spirit of God.
And I think those are things that we do sometimes because of what we allow in our lives.
But the Lord help us, brethren, to give the Spirit of God place in our lives. It becomes so evident sometimes that the Spirit of God has hardly any place, so that people around don't even guess that that's a Christian person.
Brethren, if we give the Spirit of God place in our lives, people will know there's something different about us.
Lord help us in reflecting on those practical matters.
Christianity.
In Luke 2, it's Simeon comes by the spirit into the temple.
Because he has been long time occupied with the coming of the Redeemer.
And he takes the little child up into his arms and blesses. God is content to let life end now. He has seen God's salvation.
And I was thinking of.
Second Chronicles, chapter 16.
Also before the days when the Spirit of God is indulging the believer.
But in Second Chronicles 16 and verse.
Nine we are getting.
A. Some words from.
Kane and I the Seer.
Rebuking ASA because.
There is a lack of relying on the Lord in verse 7.
And he makes this remark in verse 9. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in behalf of them, whose heart is perfect toward him.
The question.
Well, the fact is God is doing something. The question is.
Am I up to doing it with him then in chapter 20?
There's another conflict comes up, but in this situation.
There is trust.
Verse 3 Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaim the fast there is.
Assessing the situation for what it is.
There is really assessing their own condition.
Verse 4. Seeking help of the Lord.
And.
Crying to him, verse 6.
And acknowledging.
Past History verse 7.
And.
It's just generally it's a beautiful portion to read because they they turn independent to the Lord.
And then they are told.
Verse 14 by Jahaziel.
The Spirit of the Lord comes upon him that verse.
And they're told to not be afraid. Verse 15.
The battle is not yours, but God's the end of the verse.
They're instructed they don't have to fight for 17.
Stand ye still and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not, be not dismayed, And so forth. And the result is worship.
And obedience.
Under singing verse 21. Verse 22.
Go over it when you have more time. But I'm just thinking the beauty even in those days.
Of dependence owning our condition. I read something the other day I thought a little amusing.
And instructive.
You can tell you're getting old if you've lost your marbles.
00:40:03
Now, I didn't say lost your marbles.
You can tell you're getting old if you've lost your marbles.
We have a marvelous savior.
We have a marvelous person in the Holy Spirit.
We have a marvelous relationship.
With God our Father.
And let's turn to 2nd Corinthians 2.
2nd Corinthians 2.
The apostle Paul is stating.
Verse 14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ.
And maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place.
For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ.
In them that are saved, and in them that perish.
Thanks be to God, which always causes us to triumph.
He has not lost his marvel.
And neither should we.
At the end of our chapter 8.
We read the verse 37.
In all these things we are more than conquerors.
Through him that loved us.
And I really believe that's part of our problem today.
Is the lack of or the problem of unbelief is a big one?
And the unbelief of believers.
He's the saddest hindrance.
In our testimony.
We we need to acknowledge truly.
What he is.
As well as own our true state.
The the enemies against us. God is for us. We learn it right in this chapter.
I would like to mention.
2 examples that stand in contrast to power of the Spirit.
The example of King Saul when Samuel told him to go and wait seven days.
And when the seven days are ending?
Saul seized the Philistines gathering together and he's afraid and he forced himself and he made a sacrifice that was not appropriate. I know it's a different dispensation, but I think the principle applies. Not waiting on the Spirit of God to guide. And he forced himself and he as a result was he was rejected from being king.
His he saw the urgent need and he looked within himself for courage and to stand up to this great need. There's a tendency for us to do that instead of waiting on the Spirit of God.
Bob mentioned in Acts we have many examples of the being guided by the Spirit. Turn to the 13th chapter and I think that this is an example of just the opposite of what Saul did in verse two of chapter 13.
Of acts as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work were unto. I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
Very special case, I know, but still you see this attitude of waiting before the Lord, dependence on him, fasting in prayer. And the Lord, the Spirit of God was present, and He guided them.
And they go forth with confidence. They're not afraid.
It's when we wait on the Spirit, we get directions. That's when there's real confidence to go forth and serve.
00:45:10
Connection with this Bert well.
In the Gospels we see the disciples.
Lives.
Led by the personal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He brings them into his relationship with himself. He calls them. They become his disciples, and as long as he lived, He personally directed their lives.
And so they waited upon him.
They came into his presence.
He sent them forth, they did what they were told to do, they returned to his presence, and in so doing they learned his mind and acted according to it.
What we had in John 16, the Lord said I'm going away.
And I'm not going to be there anymore to do that, to fulfill that need and that function in your lives.
But don't be sad.
As it says in John 16, it's already been read. I'm going to send the comforter and he's going to take my place.
In fulfilling that function in your lives, the word comforter isn't, to our English mind, a very adequate word to really express the thought in it. But I would suggest this, he said. I'm going to send your life manager.
I'm going to send one to guide and direct your life as I have done it, but I'm not going to be here to do it anymore and so I'm going to send the comforter.
To manage the affairs of your life.
Just as we had in this verse. Just read it, said the Holy.
Ghost said Separate Who's managing here?
Who's directing?
The Spirit of God.
And that's what the word lead means. That's the very sense of the word. Being led by the Spirit of God implies within it a submission to the leadership of someone else.
And the moment my own will gets involved in the matter, I am at risk at missing the leading and the mind of the Spirit of God, because now I have my mind and my will to apply.
To the situation, but here they simply the Spirit of God said.
Separate me, Paul and Barnabas, And so it is that the Spirit of God.
Is to have his authoritative place.
In the life.
And.
What we tend to do.
Is have a pattern of life.
In which we manage everything we think we're capable of managing.
And then when we run into situations which we don't seem capable of managing, then we stop and say, what's the mind of God? What's the will of the Lord? I'm having trouble with this one. I'm not quite sure, so I'll ask him.
And so in those cases we ask the Lord, and we say, Lord, what do you want me to do and when?
We are sincere.
But we kind of want to divide up the management of our lives into those things that we manage because, well, we think we can. We're not trying to be disobedient about it. It's just, well, I can handle that one and we handle that one. And we run into something we don't feel capable of handling or not quite understanding and so or.
Quite often somebody elses life, we don't think they're handling it very well and they need to see it differently. So we say Lord.
Work in them, make them see what they need to see so they can do it right and so on. But I believe the intent of the word is we need a manager for everything.
You're going to go sit down. I'm going to go sit down and eat.
You as much need, and I as much need a manager when we walk into that room as we do when we're making some major, just quote, major decision affecting our lives. But we're not conscious of it very often. We're not. We don't realize it very often. And so the word of God has to bring us into that sense of the Lordship of Christ.
00:50:21
He is Lord, and if he is Lord, it means that he has the.
Responsibility not only the right, but the responsibility of.
Directing every step of every day of our lives and the Spirit of God is God the Spirit acting with and in connection with the Lordship of Christ to direct us through the activities of each day. But quite often we sort of in practice.
Unconsciously I can manage this. So we manage it and then we run into something. Well, that's that's a big decision. I'm not quite so sure. So we then look to the Lord to manage it. But being led by the Spirit of God has that sense in it of dependence.
Dependence. If I don't think I need the spirit, I can manage. I manage and so.
Being led by the Spirit of God, the disciples were brought into that sense of Lord, what wilt thou have us to do? We don't manage the affairs of.
This or anything. And so often the Lord sent them out by His direction. You might say, like the Spirit sends us out by His direction. But when that work is done, then they came back into His presence, and they sat there until He directed them.
And part of being in his presence was to learn his mind so that they could go out and acceptably fulfill whatever function.
He had for them. And so I say we can learn about the leading of the Spirit of God by seeing the way in which the Lord Jesus personally directed the life of the disciples when he was here.
And apply that as to how the Spirit of God today will lead us.
Because He has taken the Lord's place in that function in our lives today.
That chapter that Doug read in Acts 16. Acts 13.
You go down to verse four, it says so they.
Being sent forth by the Holy Ghost.
So the Holy Spirit that sends out in the work of the Lord.
It's not a church, it's not an assembly that sends out.
They ministered to the Lord, they prayed, they fasted, they laid their hands on them, which shows fellowship.
Solomon - Largeness of Heart
Address—Doug Buchanan
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Wonder if we could open our meeting this afternoon with hymn #46 in the appendix.
Have I an object, Lord below, which would divide my heart with thee, which would divert its even flow in answer to Thy constancy? Oh, teach me quickly to return, and 'cause my heart afresh to burn. 46 in the Appendix.
Today my spirit really will.
Enjoy.
Our Lord.
I wait for the dream.
I would like to use the last meeting here to direct our.
Hearts to the things of the Lord.
There's a man in the Old Testament.
Well known for his wisdom.
His good understanding.
But there's a third thing that it says about him that I would like to speak of this afternoon, and that is largeness of heart.
Who am I speaking about?
King Solomon.
And we know Solomon had his failures later on, but the Lord did give him.
00:05:10
Large heartedness.
And I believe God would like us to be like that today.
The Lord Jesus told his disciples, Freely ye have received, freely give.
To be large hearted we have some have to have some a source.
A source of.
Joy, a source of blessing, a heart that is in tune with God that would share.
There is.
That scattereth and yet increases there is that withholdeth more than this meat.
And tendeth to poverty.
Sometimes we feel poverty stricken in our souls as Christians.
We who are gathered to the Lord's name have much truth. We have a heritage of things that have been committed to us as the Lord's people that are enjoyed by few Christians. And because of that we ought to be the most generous of all people on earth. And yet we find often times it's not so with us.
Were selfish.
We like to take a blessing and enjoy it by ourselves.
Job could speak of not hiding these things in his heart.
He made them known.
The Lord Jesus would speak about.
A Goodman out of the good treasure of his heart.
Bring us forth things new and old.
As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. You know there are many verses that we know so well about the heart.
With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.
Our salvation that we have is made good to us because we receive it in that innermost part of our being. That's the real me.
Our heart.
And I believe that God would have us.
Let our heart manifest itself in our daily life.
Not just an academic thing that we talk about when we go to meeting.
But something that's enjoyed in daily life, not put on, but really from the heart.
As a father.
Raising children we we soon find out our children figure us out what the real dad is.
Is that the dad that talks in meeting on Lord's Day, or is that the dad that's behaving Saturday night?
It's what we really enjoy, brethren.
That is of real value to us and it's what we really enjoy that others notice about us and want.
King Solomon.
Did that and I want to go through the expressions of that he used in his prayer at the dedication of the temple as the basis of our comments on the heart because at least 810 or 11 Times he speaks about the heart in that chapter. So if you'll open up your Bibles to 1St Kings chapter 8.
00:10:09
We're going to read portions of this chapter. We're probably not going to turn to many more scriptures.
We'll begin reading from verse 12. First Kings 8, verse 12.
Then spake Solomon.
The Lord said that He would dwell in the thick darkness.
I have surely built thee and house to dwell in a subtle place for thee to abide in forever.
And the king turned his face about, and blessed all the congregation of Israel, and all the congregation of Israel stood. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled it, saying, Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city.
Out of all the tribes of Israel to build and house, that my name might be therein. But I chose David to be over my people Israel.
And it was in the heart of David, my father, to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel.
And the Lord said unto David, my father, whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name.
Thou didst well that it was in thine heart. Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house, but my son that shall come forth out of thy loins, He shall build the house unto my name. And the Lord has performed his word that he spake. And I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel.
As the Lord promised, and have built in house for the name of the Lord God of Israel, and I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the Lord, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land.
Of Egypt.
Well, this is so touching to see Solomon here at a time of great glory and blessing, after he had abundantly worked and built a house for the Lord to dwell in.
And I think it's significant to see how that he connects this all back.
To the idea that originated in the heart of David.
To do so.
You know David is called the man after God's heart.
Isn't that lovely to think that God looks down into our hearts to find a heart that would correspond to his heart and say that man?
Has my heart.
Who but a man like that was better suited to come up with the right ideas?
Where God would dwell.
He's been done a wonderful thing, brethren, that our hearts.
Can be united together to know God's heart.
Appreciate it.
Do something about it.
God must look down today in each of our hearts.
We're all different.
Yes, we can say God probably put that idea into David's heart. But looking at it humanly?
David.
Was dwelling in a House of cedar, and then he thought about where the Lord dwelled, and he came up with this idea.
Are building a house for the Lord.
00:15:00
God told him afterwards that he wasn't to be the one. Well, we live a long time later and we know the historical.
Significance of that that even really Solomon wasn't going to be the ultimate fulfillment of it, but he was a partial fulfillment of it and so as we read this we we see the right way to behave the white the right way to have our heart before the Lord and.
Act, express our heart.
Don't be afraid to express your feelings, brethren, your heart.
Be real.
I suppose this is a little easier for the sisters to do than the men folks. We tend as the as men folks, we tend to be a little more reserved in our expressions. Well, we need balance and all of these things, but.
David expressed this and through going through this exercise.
God guided David as to where the temple was going to be built.
Now we could, we could go off on a tangent here in connection with being gathered to the Lord's name and just briefly mention that, you know, how do you know where the Lord would have you meet together as a believer in this day?
There's really no substitute for getting acquainted with God by the reading of His Word, to know His heart, to find that place. That's the way the disciples found it in the upper room, that first.
Time that the Lords supper was instituted and they said where, where wilt thou we we had much about being guided by the Spirit of God.
In our last meeting and this, they were guided by the Spirit of God and it became apparent and God is able to guide us today.
In our situations, he didn't tell them to go to such and such a street. He told them to go where there was a situation that they had to make a decision about a man bearing a pitcher of water and follow the man. And so it was abundant proof.
Of his guiding hand, Solomon here had been guided.
Largely through his father.
We might say a little word about generations, you know.
I tend to feel like, and I think I mentioned it in our prayer, that.
We're kind of a new generation. This is my viewpoint of it.
Our older brethren are gone.
They have, they have handed down to us truths that we have learned to appreciate. And now the ball is in our court. We are the responsible representatives of the Lord here, a new generation.
And Solomon was that he got a lot of his instructions from his father. His heart entered into what his father had gone through, and he made it on his own, in his own heart and followed it.
Some of us as men, folks sometimes want to be independent. You know, I can look back and when I was a young person in my late teens and wanting, realizing I wanted to establish my identity as a young person, I didn't want to just be a replica of my dad.
And that's proper.
But those things that I see that my father and others before walked in.
By the grace of God.
They found entrance into my heart too and became real. I'm not just puppeting what other brethren before me.
Lived like it's a part of me. God wants us to take these things into our heart and to make them our own. And then.
00:20:13
It's both fulfilling what the Father David had received of the Lord and Solomon, and so he says here.
It was in the heart of David, my father. Verse 17 to build a house.
This is especially significant when we think of what had happened, of the rivalry that had.
Happened shortly before this when other sons of David aspired to the throne.
And perished.
It was not of God.
Who was it that?
Set Solomon to be the king it was of Jehovah, and how appropriate now then for him being as Jehovah chose him to give the Lord his place in the building of the temple. So it's a question of David fulfill Solomon fulfilling.
What was in the heart of His Father? And I look at that as a picture of how we as believers discern the heart of God.
Make it our own.
And then show it out how we live.
What a privilege.
It will not leave us feeble and dried up, and then of poverty when our hearts are refreshed in this way.
Closely close to the heart of God and giving expression of it. You know, I was reading just this past week of some of the some excerpts of letters of Mr. Darby wrote and he I was struck by how he referred to how he had been extra busy.
Doing certain jobs.
Jobs in the sense of ministry, having meetings. He was having so many meetings. You know what the burden of his soul was?
He was concerned that his heart not get too far removed by being so occupied with what was given him to do that he didn't remain close to the Lord and his heart.
Refurbished or fed? Fed by feeding on the Lord Jesus Himself personally.
There's such a thing as being overly occupied with doing so much that you don't get your own soul fed.
That leads to poverty.
Verse 18.
It was in thy heart, David. And the Lord said unto David, whereas it was in thine heart to build a house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart.
Nevertheless, thou shalt not build the house.
David.
David did not.
God chose to have someone else do the work.
And of course, we know that it was only the Lord Jesus who ultimately could be that one who would build the house. Now we'll go on. I want to drop down to the next occasion in verse 20. We'll start with verse 22.
And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hand toward heaven. And he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven above, or on earth beneath.
Who keep us covenant and mercy with thy servants, that walk before thee with all.
Their heart.
Could we say this is the undivided heart?
00:25:01
Our brother spoke to us yesterday in the address about loving the world.
And when we love the world, the love of the Father cannot be there. Those two things cannot go on together. It's one or the other. And so the heart must be undivided.
All for the Lord.
And this receipt in Solomon.
An undivided heart.
We sang of that in our hymn every time we sing that hymn. 46 in the appendix of my.
I think there's some others that have expressed this same thought. It takes them in thought back to our late brother Eric Smith, who I remember having given out this that hymn on many an occasion. And I, I, I remember it because I believe we saw in that man, by the grace of God, somebody who was really dedicated to what the Lord gave him to do.
And we see the results of it today in the fruit that has has the blessing that's been throughout Latin America. I being one who is a witness of it and have seen it since its beginning. An undivided heart, a life where the heart is totally given over to service of the Lord.
Is a means of great blessing. You can't divide it up the heart. It won't work.
Now we'll go down to.
A little later in the chapter.
Let's drop down to. I want to make sure I don't miss them here.
Verse 37.
First Kings 837.
If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting mildew, locusts, or there be Caterpillar, if their enemy besieged them in the land of their cities, whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness, there be, what prayer and supplication so ever be made by any man, or by all the people Israel.
Which shall know every man the plague of his own heart.
And spread forth his hand toward this house. Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do and give to every man, according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest.
For thou, even thou alone.
Only knowest the hearts of all the children of men.
That they may fear thee all the days, that they live in the land which thou gave us unto our fathers.
Now, first of all, here we have the plague.
Of our own heart. Now this gets down to where there has been failure and difficulties, and Solomon foresaw this in his prayer.
And he prayed.
For the Lord's forgiveness and for the Lord's blessing. In such a case, how gracious is our God, who knows our weaknesses and our failures and the results of those failures, brings what is spoken of here as a plague of our heart.
And I think we all have experienced this, the results of failure here and there.
It's a wonderful thing that it's not all over. When we fail, there is provision made.
And so the Lord knows that.
When you're in a problem, it's hard to see beyond that problem and sometimes these plagues of our heart that the bitterness, the difficulties that enter into our soul.
00:30:10
The consequences of things that have happened.
Maybe not necessarily always because of our own failure, but in our walking together, even with our brethren, and sharing together.
And the weakness and failures as a public testimony.
Does God want us to feel these things?
Yes, I believe he does.
And I believe there is a blessing in letting these things go all the way into your heart.
You know it speaks in Hebrews 12 about despising, not the chastening of the Lord.
Sometimes we may react that way when there's failure and we may as we're trying to Garrison and cover our hearts and not really let it affect us.
I don't believe that's necessarily the mind of God.
Says about the Lord Israel, in all their afflictions he was afflicted.
Does the Lord feel?
And understand when there's a plague.
In our heart, when we're reaping the consequences of failure.
Would he have us blindly, stubbornly go on as if there was nothing wrong?
No.
The very process of going and feeling a plague in your heart can bring you close to the Lord.
And he can help and sustain, and he will.
And then it goes on in in verse 39.
And you have what I'm going to call both in the individual sense and the collective sense.
Verse 39 It says, Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and give to every man, according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest.
A wonderful thing to know that the Lord knows that heart.
It's kind of like, could I give an example of the woman of Samaritan, The Samaritan woman at the well when the Lord exposed her life.
She didn't run away and hide.
After she had known that man, the blessed man, the Lord Jesus there, even though he opened up her whole life and she she realized he was a prophet, she after her heart had been exposed, you might say, and there's other examples you could take the woman in the eighth of John who was made a public scandal. You know, sometimes it's hard to.
Let your heart be known.
Sometimes we want to hide these things, bear it all alone, keep it secret.
She the woman of the Samaritan woman says come see a man told me all things that ever I did.
She wasn't just talking about the good things she'd done.
The blessedness of the man that knew all the evil and the wretchedness that was there that yet would still love her was a man worth getting to know better.
That's the heart.
The Lord knows the heart.
That hard He knows our heart and the collective sense too. And it goes on. Thou knowest in the verse knoweth the hearts of all the children of men. Everybody else too. As face enters the face, so the heart of man to man it's all.
It's all out there, other people. It ought to help us too, in reaching out to those around us. You know, we're not really that different from each other. We're all made out of the same dust. We're like a lot alike.
00:35:08
Go on to verse 44.
Now let's shorten it up a little bit. Let's start in verse 47.
Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captive, and repent and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captive, sayings we have sinned and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness, and so return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward.
Their land.
Which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, in the house which I have built for Thy name. Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause, and forgive Thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions, wherein they have transgressed against the.
And give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them.
Now here you have the restored heart.
This restoring of the heart.
We've often enjoyed Daniel as an example of this and how he confessed the sin of the people. He did not isolate himself as as a different from the rest of the bunch. He said we have sinned and he identified if there was anybody in that land of Babylon that hadn't sinned, it was probably Daniel. And yet he chose to identify in a collective way.
With the failure of the whole people and this was the means of a blessing. The blessing being that he was given the prophecies that really are the key to the understanding of the whole Bible.
The 70 weeks of Daniel and all the times of the Gentiles. And he was given an answer in a symbolic or in a figurative way in the in interpretations or in the dreams and so on of that Daniel received from the Lord. So that the Lord answered Daniel's prayer by pointing him to a future day when really the Lord Jesus would be the ultimate fulfillment of and bring the people of Israel back.
But it was also an encouragement for the remnant during the interval. And so for us today, brethren, we live in the Christian testimony when when there's been a lot of collective failure.
The remedy is not to separate from those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. It doesn't say out of a perfect heart or a sinless heart. No, out of a pure heart.
There's such a thing as identifying with the failures of the people of God.
And the restored heart.
And I believe that's happened in our lifetime here and the experiences that we've been through.
And it gives me real peace.
Not that I see the brethren as having done everything right, but I see that they have identified themselves with the failure, owning the Lord Jesus in His rightful place and seeking to give Him that rightful place, and it brings restoration.
Now we have a couple more.
Verse.
We'll drop down to.
Verse 58.
That they may incline, let's read verse 57. The Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. Let him not leave us nor forsake us, that he may incline our hearts unto Him to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which He commanded our fathers.
00:40:25
Could we say here it's the dependent heart inclined?
Our hearts, they're going on for the Lord in this time like this, when there has been failure.
Is is through dependence, and we had that book before us in connection with the guidance of the Spirit of God.
It's the person who waits on the leading of the Spirit, the inclined heart that will be guided right?
Verse 61.
Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God to walk in all His statutes and to keep His commandments as at this day.
A perfect heart.
Not perfect in the sense of sinless necessarily, but with no apparent.
Failure. The Lord wants this, he desires it be ye perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect the perfect heart is that heart that the Lord can relate to and make himself known to and so when we incline our heart and when we are honest with ourselves and.
Submissive to the Lord.
Then there is that perfect heart. And lastly we have in verse 6665 and six.
And at that time Solomon held a feast in all Israel with him, a great congregation from the entering of Haymath unto the river of Egypt before the Lord our God, seven days and seven and seven days, even 14 days.
On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king, and went unto their tents, joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people. So here we have the joyful and glad heart. What a wonderful thing when there is this ability to enjoy the things of God.
In such an abundant way. And so it was with Solomon. It's a picture, of course, of the Millennium. But I believe individually, each of us, as we walk before the Lord with our heart, right, the results will be the same.
A glad and a joyful heart. May the Lord make us, brethren, this kind of a witness. May it be real with us, brethren, where our our meetings are over, we're going to go home. And I trust that there will be something of this, of a joyful and a glad heart as we go back to our homes and work.