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Collections one, not the third verse. I would just like to take the liberty to read one verse from chapter 3.
Defeating the reading of our chapter and it's the third verse that was brought before us into him that we sang. Maybe we'll maybe there will be some connection between this verse and our chapter Blossoms 3 and verse 3. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ and God.
Chapter 1 and verse three we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the law which you have to all the Saints, for the whole which is laid up for you in heaven.
Where have you heard before? And the Word is the truth of the gospel, which has come unto you as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit as it does also in you, since the day you heard that, and knew the grace of God and truth, as you also learned of Epicrass, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ.
Who also declared unto us your love in the spirit.
For this 'cause we also sense the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will, and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being, fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Strengthened with Almighty, according to His glorious power, unto all patience, and long-suffering with joyfulness.
Giving thanks unto the Father, which have made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in life, who have delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature?
Or by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist, and He is the head of the body of the Church.
Who is the beginning, the first born from the dead?
That in all things He might have the preeminence for it please the Father, that in Him should all wholeness dwell, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him. I say, What do they be? Things in earth, or things in heaven, and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by?
Yet now hath He reconciled the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable, and unruh provable in his sight. If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven.
Whereof I fall, and made a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you.
Fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh.
For his body's sake, which is the Church.
Whereof I am made of minister, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generation, but now is made manifest to His Saints, to whom God would make known. What is the riches of the glory of this mystery among?
The Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man, and all wisdom, that we may present to every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Where unto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
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Perhaps we could say there's a connection here with what we have in connection with the children of Israel.
They were sheltered under the blood in Egypt, they were brought through the Red Sea, they were brought through the wilderness, they had crossed the Jordan, and now the time was come to possess that good land which God had given to them, and their Lord appeared to Joshua.
As the captain of the Lord's captain of the Lord's host, who was going to bring them into the enjoyment of that possession that have been given?
Only our possession is not an earthly Canaan, but as we have here in this fifth verse, the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, where have you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel? So we see ourselves in this epistle as having gone through the wilderness. We've come, as it were, through the Jordan, and now it's a question of the possession of the land.
And enjoying the portion that is really ours.
We're not seeing as yet in the possession of it, but recognizing the headship of Christ. And as we recognize that, then we come into the enjoyment of all that for the Lord, as the captain of the host LED them into the enjoyment of that good land that God had given to them.
And so Paul was giving thanks for the place that these dear Colossian believers were in, and desiring that they might lay hold of this.
Well, it's a blessed thing when we lay hold of what our portion really is, see where grace has brought us, and live in this world as those who really belong to heaven. So is there a difference then between our position as seen in Colossians and that in Ephesians? Maybe you could enlarge a bit on that forest.
Yes, in Ephesians, where seed is already seated in heavenlies in Christ. So we know as time went on, Israel were brought into the possession of the land of Canaan, but there was a continual conflict, for the enemy didn't want them to enjoy that land that had been given. Here they're seen as not yet in possession of it, but the hope is laid up for us in heaven.
In Ephesians were seen as already.
Seated in the heavenlies in Christ. So there's that difference. So there is the necessity of acknowledging the Lord as the, shall I say, the captain, the one in whom all fullness dwells. See the glory of that blessed person that is particularly brought before us in Colossians. And so there's the practical side of it too, is wrecking ourselves dead and all these.
Truths so that we might be in the enjoyment.
Of this, but there is the need of entering into and enjoying these things.
But were looked upon, as I say, is not yet entered into heavenly places, for we're not yet in heaven, but we're in this world in a wonderful standing. Perhaps I could just mention in connection with what you said, the blessings that are ours mentioned in the 12Th verse, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light.
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, Who hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 4 Things that we have and that we can enjoy even here and now.
But we always need to be careful that we're giving the Lord Jesus.
His rightful place and all the glory of His person, and that which belongs to Him as Head of the Body, the Church.
Though there is a difference in point of view of the two epistles, there is no difference in the sphere of our blessing. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies as we know there in Ephesians chapter 1, and here the inheritance is reserved for us, and we are made suitable for subjects to be partakers of the Saints and late. So it's very important for us that they hold of the fact that our blessings are heavenly.
And that we are a heavenly company. Though we are viewed here as still on our way to the ultimate fruition of what God has provided, it's still very true. Ye are not of the world. Go in it. Even as I am not of the world, and as the Father has sent me into the world, Even so have I sent you. So here we are, in the very place that we have been sent, in the same nature and character that our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Percent from the Father, and we are ambassadors to Christ, beseeching men in his bed to be reconciled into God. But the sphere of that blessing is entirely in heaven and not down here.
Perhaps I could just say too, that the question has seen in three different possessions. He is seen in this world that is in the land of Egypt. That's where the children of Israel were in slavery, But children from judgment by the blood. And every Christian, every true Christian can say, yes, I'm still here in this world. A world is under judgment. I'm sheltered from the judgment that's coming under the precious blood.
Of Christ, and that was the position of Israel in the land of Egypt.
We are in that sense, in that position in this world still. But what does this world become? This world has become a wilderness. So the second position that we're looked at is being here in this world that is now a wilderness. Not a great system of things like Egypt, but a wilderness where there's nothing that satisfies the desires of the new man. Our provision, everything that we need came daily. The manna fell. The water came from the smitten rock.
The Lord provided for them as each new need arose. That was a wilderness, and many of us feel we're still in the wilderness. We're viewed in these three positions, shall I say. It isn't that we leave one that or another, but we're viewed as in those three positions. And there are different exhortations given where to remember that this is a present evil world. But then we also find it a wilderness where there's many trials.
And are the two lessons of the wilderness were.
That they should learn their own hearts and that they should learn the heart of God. That they would humble themselves as they learn what they were, but they would be thankful that every time they felt a special need, then God came in and met that need. But then when they crossed the Jordan, now they come into the good land. And that is another, the third position we're seeing in only in Colossians. They're not yet in possession of it.
Their steed as being important to recognize that there is a captain of our salvation leading us into these things.
And if we don't recognize him, we'll never enjoy the precious things of Ephesians unless we give the Lord Jesus His rightful place. He is the captain of our salvation. As we give him that place, then He leads us into the enjoyment of our heavenly portion. Don't know whether those thoughts help us to understand the way the Scripture brings before us the believers position in this world.
This world has become a wilderness.
But also in our souls we can enjoy heavenly things, and if we give the Lord His rightful place, He leads us into the enjoyment of these heavenly things.
Across the Jordan.
Seek those things which are above and with Canaan before us. That's our own spiritual heritage.
But I like the way the last part of that verse goes. It says where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. And it is a comfort to realize that in this new position across the Jordan now with heaven before our souls, that there is one who is there, as supreme as Joshua when he went across the Jordan with the children of Israel.
Met the man with the.
Drawn sword and said, Art thou for us or for our adversaries? And he said, nay, but as captain of the Lord's host, am I now come? In other words, there is one who is supreme in his authority. As you mentioned, there's conflict in this new place to going on and enjoying the position that is ours but to realize, brethren.
Not on our own strength that we can take yet, but there is one there when supreme authority, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so in chapter 1 and verse 13, you have that thought too. We've been delivered from the power of darkness. All Egypt's darkness is behind, is gone, and we've been translated. We occupy now a new position. Where is that?
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In the Kingdom of his dear Son, it's a place where we recognize the authority of the Lord Jesus. Now He is so important to realize we've been set free, but not free to do our own thing, our own will.
Free to recognize that in this place there is one who is supreme in his authority, and that is real liberty, brethren, to be brought into that position.
The children of Israel learned the practical truth of that very quickly, because when they went up to take Jericho, they went up in the strength of the Lord, recognizing that there was this one going before that was going to fight for them. There was complete dependence, and what a great victory there was at Jericho. Didn't even have to raise a sword. And the walls came tumbling down.
But then they lost sight of that and they said, well, AI, the next city, that's just a little city and.
We'll go up. We won't even send all our men. And they went up. By their own scheme and devices, they were soundly defeated because God was teaching them that apart from them recognizing the authority of this one who was going ahead to fight for them, they couldn't possess the land. And isn't it interesting that the real conflict for Israel never started until they crossed the Jordan? They had a few little skirmishes in the wilderness, they met with Amalek and so on. But the real conflict?
After they crossed the Jordan. And I believe in the measure in which you and I seek by grace to possess the land, as it were, to enter into the enjoyment of all that is ours in Christ, that vast panorama of heavenly blessings. And as we seek to walk by grace in the practical good of it, the enemy is going to be right there to seek to rob us of the enjoyment of it. The enemy does not want us to walk in this world as a heavenly.
The enemy does not want us to enjoy that which is our portion to enjoy now. And so there will be there was that conflict with Israel and there will be that conflict, but greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. The man was the captain of the Lords Host and he's the captain of our salvation, bringing many sons to glory.
Then the practice and the practical side of it, it's very important because we know that many, many dear Christians know that heaven is their home, know that all these blessings are theirs. But man has made so much of. I remember a remark of our brother. Chapter Brown, christened Amica has become a vast arena where men strive for honors for themselves and always see a great deal of that in Christendom.
Christian men seek honors for themselves, but brethren, if you and I are going to lay hold of the truth of God.
We must give all the honor to the Lord Jesus, even though God may use man to use Joshua's wonderful leader, but he had to take off his shoes from his feet and say I'm not the grill captain. The real captain is the Lord himself. And if we're going to do anything for the Lord.
I remember 1 Time 1 brother said they went out preaching on the street and the Lord seemed to give them real liberty and when they came home he said let's get down on our knees and recognize that there's going to be any blessing. It's not what we have done, it's what the Lord is going to do. And unless we realize that, there's not going to be anything accomplished even in our meetings unless we acknowledge the glory and the lordship of Christ.
He that in all things he might have the preeminence.
For those that are a bit younger than some of us, here is a test in which you can put everything that you hear or read, and that is, which man does it exalt? If it exhausts the first man, it must be rejected. If it exhausts the Lord Jesus Christ, it must be embraced.
So put the test of what you hear here, what you read, what you are exposed to in the world. Which man does it exalt?
So many times, Brother Yule. It's a mixture, isn't it?
There's the exaltation of Christ and there's the mixing of the will of man and the system of men and that's what makes it so difficult. If it was just clearly this and or clearly that be easy to see the distinction and what's of God in this thing. I've heard it said amongst us and a shame on us that there's nothing of God in the system that's wrong, absolutely wrong. There's a lot of that's of God in those men that are preaching in the.
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But the whole, the whole thing is wrong in principle, the the system is wrong. But those that preach in there, some of them are servants of God and they're preaching according to the light that they have, but at the same time they're upholding the system that they are a part of. It's sad to hear that when they do that.
Of what they they do do it and but I'm thinking more of ourselves this afternoon. What is the remedy?
To what is the remedy for the pathetically poor attendance at our meetings?
We tend to think of others and talk about others so, so often. What is the remedy? I'll come to a meeting Lords Day morning and the room is almost full.
And you come Lord's Day evening, it's not a work day and one third, one fourth are present. And this is this is this, you know, that grieves my heart. I'm sure anyone that travels and visits the Saints when he sees that he feels that it grieves his what does it do to his heart? What does the Lord, how does the Lord feel about this?
When we can stay home, we can. Sunday night, instead of coming to meeting, there's a meeting.
Oh, it's just the gospel meeting. So that's not Oh yes it is. Well, let's go and let's go to Walmart instead.
And these are things that happen. And it just shows you how cold we, we, I just sometimes I wonder, I don't like to come across as as condemning things, but what can we do to to reach our consciences and our hearts to to make us realize our presence?
There, when there's a meeting that the Assembly has announced as a meeting, our presence there is not an optional thing. We, we, we don't ask. Our children are going to meeting tonight. That's where we go. And the meeting is there unless there's some great sickness or something. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about when we're perfectly able to be there.
There are those that have sicknesses where it's very, very difficult not talking about that.
Talking about when there's good health and yet you're not at meeting when there's a meeting.
I don't know what more to say. I'd like to hear some thoughts on it because it's it it, it grieves me. We often speak sort of condemningly about those in system and that the system is wrong. But.
What about ourselves?
My reading in Jeremiah the Heart Problem.
That's right, Chick. Clem, It's, it's really a heart problem like what we had today. The treasurer is there. Will your heart be also? Excuse me, Clam.
Nehemiah, he had problems, and what a zeal that man had. But when he got there, he found he had problems. And what did he do? They prayed. He got down and prayed, prayed.
I think this is a word to those of us who are parents of children and young people, and I appreciate our brother Chuck bringing it up because it burdens my own heart. And I'm thankful as I look back on my life growing up in a Christian home and in the Assembly. I'm thankful for parents who planned our lives around the assembly, and I don't ever remember sitting at the dinner table on a Tuesday or a Thursday evening.
And a question being raised if we were going to go to the assembly meeting or not.
I don't remember on a Lord's Day evening a question raised at the dinner table as to whether we were going to the gospel meeting. Now, perhaps there were times through some circumstance that we couldn't be there, but looking back, though, I didn't always appreciate it as a child and a young person.
I am thankful that I understood very clearly what was important to my parents and parents, our children and young people are watching us. They know what's important to us, and they also know if this is something that we're carrying out just as a routine or because we feel obligated or whether it's something that really delights our hearts. As again, as I look back, I'm thankful to realize that it wasn't just a form in our lives.
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Growing up, just, that wasn't just something my parents felt they had to do, but they really wanted to go to the prayer meeting, they really wanted to be at the Reading meeting. They really wanted to go and hear the Gospel Lords Day evening. And not only so, but their desire was to take their, their children and brethren. We cannot expect our children and young people to place any more value on the assembly meetings.
Or the gospel meeting, or whatever it may be, whatever function the assembly has called us together for.
That we cannot expect them to place more value on it than we ourselves have placed on it. And let me just say this again, that I believe it is so important and especially in this day in which we live, where there's every kind of thought and activity and.
We're on a roller coaster pace of society. It is vital to plan our lives around the assembly, and I fear that the tendency of our hearts today is to plan our lives and try to work in the assembly. Brett, brethren, that's not going to work. The enemy doesn't want us there in the presence of the Lord. He doesn't want us there to hear the gospel. Lord's evening, and he's going to bring in everything.
To distract and take us away. But if we have exercise, of course it's a matter of the heart, as our brother Buchanan has said.
I understand if we are exercised to plan our lives around the assembly and we it's a joy to us as parents, then I believe the Lord and it's only the Lord of course. But then the Lord can take that and use it to exercise our children and young people so that if the Lord leaves us here, then they will hopefully have that same exercise and joy before the Lord.
A brother said to me in Denver one time.
Back in the 20s during the Depression, the attendance was pretty good at the prayer meeting. You know, Deuteronomy 32. We ought to think about it.
And verse 46 And Moses said unto them, Set your hearts.
We have that before us in the last meeting and here is a very.
Wholesome exhortation set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which He shall command your children to observe, to do all the words of this law, for it is not a vain thing for you, because it is your life.
And through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, whether you go over Jordan.
To possess it, I believe we really need to be exercised about that. I know that the Saints in Africa don't seem to have too much trouble sitting for two hours in a meeting every day, every maybe through the day and through the evening, and maybe they have to sit on rocks. And this is true in Bolivian and South America, too. I know so, brother, And I'm afraid we're just taking up so much with things. We really need to be exerc.
Our brother Hendrick was just mentioning the two meetings that I've enjoyed, the similarity between the remembrance of the Lord and the gospel meeting. What are we doing in the remembrance of the Lord? We're occupied with the glory of Christ and what He has accomplished, and we're telling God, if I might say in worship, how we value His beloved Son and that glorious work that He accomplished. Isn't there a great similarity between that and the gospel meeting? What are we doing in the gospel?
Meeting we're telling sinners the same message we're telling about the glory of the person of Christ. We're setting forth the glorious work that he accomplished for our eternal salvation and for their blessing. And it's the theme is in that sense is the same. It's the glory of the person of Christ, the work that he has accomplished on Lord's Day morning. Well, aren't we interested in others knowing about this wonderful story of God's grace and love.
Well, that's what we're doing in the evening. We're telling the same thing and we're telling the sinners, but in the morning we were telling to God in Thanksgiving and praise. It seems to me, Brother Gordon, on that point.
That the evangelist.
Have the most gift of praise in the worship means because they're used to talking about the same person is talking to somebody else.
Have you noticed that?
No, that's very nice.
I think we have to realize too, brethren, we live in a humanistic society and it has had its effect on us. I think it is good for us, healthy for us to recognize that, confess it to the Lord that we are affected by the society we're passing through. It's too bad to say, but it is true, and we need to get our eyes open, not so much to what we are.
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But as to who he is?
That's what we have in this chapter. I often think of those two that were on their way to amass and I would guess it was late in the day when they got to Emmaus and they went in and they sat down to have a meal and as soon as their eyes were opened as to who he was.
There was no question in their minds as to where they belonged, and it was the same.
Hour the night they got up and they walked all the way back into Jerusalem what happened what made the difference? What gave them such energy they got their eyes opened as to who he was and to me that's the secret rather I I must say I've been challenged by some of our Bolivian brands. Maybe I've told this story before but.
In southern Bolivia one time we were at a breaking of bread meeting and a sister.
Sitting across the way, we were waiting for the time to come to start breaking, the breaking of bread meeting and brother beside me said. You see that sister across there? She's an older sister, probably 7075.
Said yeah, and he says she walked 19 kilometers to be here at the breaking of bread. And one of the things she's completely deaf, she won't hear a thing today.
That she's here looking at that sister was a real blessing to my soul. Why did she come? What was the purpose? Couldn't she just stayed home and enjoyed the Lord? Brethren, we need to get our eyes open as to who He is and that's what we have in this chapter.
Oh, what a glorious person.
Lord deliver us from humanism, being occupied with ourselves, they say. It runs through our society. We meet up with it all the time.
Give it to yourself, do what you like. It's runs through the whole warp and whoop of our society and we're affected by it. Lord help us to get our eyes off ourselves and to get them on to who he is.
And I wonder, Brother Bob, if that isn't perhaps why sometimes the weeknight meetings are so poorly attended. Do I really realize that on Wednesday night the Lord is there, just as he is on Lords Day morning? If I really believe that he's there on Wednesday night just as he is on Lords Day morning, and my heart was attracted to that person, wouldn't I want to be there in his presence with the people of God collectively?
And so I think we need to keep this in view that whenever a meeting of the assembly is an assembly meeting is called, the Lord is there, be it a meeting for the remembrance of him, Lord see mourning, be it a meeting for ministry of the word of God, be it the prayer meeting. Let's keep the person in view. Because if, as you say, if we keep the person in view, then we're going to be there, then we're going to be preserved.
I'd like to tell us the story of a book I read.
The first time the gospel.
Went to Jamaica, British W Indies. It was in the 1800s before all all these dreadful divisions that have plagued us.
And this brother was sitting, and these dear Saints were sitting around, and he was ministering the word to them, things they had never heard before.
Got to be 10:00.
Close this Bible.
They said. Doesn't the books say anymore, brother?
Yes, well, we're here.
So he opened it.
For another hour.
Close this Bible, same question. Doesn't the book say anymore brother?
They were so hungry.
For what we take so for granted.
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Although we make value.
This precious book.
And the one of whom it speaks.
Somebody said, Well, I get a blessing in reading my Bible at home, why should I stir myself to come to the meeting? And the brothers replied to him, Well, what blessing do you get about reading him? Hebrews 10/25 He says, What does that verse say? And then he read it to him. Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.
And so much the more as you see the day approaching. Perhaps he got the point.
We don't want to prolong the discussion on this one issue, but I wonder if we could suggest that even more than building our lives around the assembly, which I thoroughly agree with, would it be perhaps more accurate to say that we plan and organize our lives around the Lord Himself?
In Revelation chapter 2, we find that Ephesus was doing everything right, and it would probably have been true that they were at the meetings, wouldn't you think? In Ephesus there, when they're addressed, they were going on well and in many ways their conduct was exemplary. But the apostle John, through the Spirit of God, lays his finger on the very thing that was the.
Crux of the problem.
They left their first love.
Can we generate that by our own efforts? Can we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps? Can we say well?
And I don't want to be irreverent, but with the Lord's help, we're going to go to meeting from now on, and every Wednesday night or every Tuesday and Thursday night, we're going to be at the meetings because this is important, is what we've got to do.
That won't work. We'll run out of steam, won't we? We'll run out. That's human energy. No, it has to be what I was enjoying. Just I'll just read the verse here in 2nd Corinthians 4. We're all familiar with it. You don't need to turn to it, but it's verse 6.
God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
Hath shined in our hearts to give what? The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's not something that should be. That's a fact that's stated. But as our brother London used to remind us, an apple tree will produce apples unless you deprive it of water or throw a big tarp over it or something like that. You can stop it.
But we have been given these things.
The light of the knowledge of the glory of God has been shown to us in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we let hindrances come in the way and I speak to my own heart and I can identify with what some of our brethren have said here because we find the same thing in Romania. And if I may be permitted to say, the last time I was there with our brother **** Gorgas, he said to me on the day before we were due to leave for home, he said don't you hate to go back to North America. I knew what he meant. We wanted to go back. We wanted to see our wives and our families and our brethren. But there was an atmosphere amongst.
Believers there that we might welcome it here. Well, can I produce that, reproduce it by human energy? No, I can't, but I can get before the Lord and say why is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ not more of a present living reality to my own soul? And then it won't be a question of saying, well, getting to be 730 time to go to meeting.
That's important, and as someone has said, we're creatures of habit, so it's good to make good habits.
But at the same time, there will be the desire in my heart to say, as we've already put it, the Lord is there and I want to go to meet him. I want to be there.
So the Hebrews 13 says, Let us go forth therefore unto him, the person that makes the place. And Peter is the same language, he says.
Too soon coming. It's the person we go to. But I was thinking in our chapter verses 4:00 and 5:00.
Present something in this assembly that was there to keep them.
On that kind of a course is faith, love and hope, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have to all the Saints for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, and so on.
00:40:11
When those three things are existent with us in practice, faith, love, and hope, we're going to get on well.
In connection with what our brother Bill was saying, could I just also read him? Malachi 3 and verse 10. Bring ye all the ties into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me. Now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Perhaps this is a little word to exercise any of us who take part, that there might.
Meet in my house that there might be that ministered which would refresh the hearts, occupy the soul with Christ. And perhaps that speaks to any of us who take part that we should think of that not just dwelling on knowledge, but it's that the souls might be fed. So that was the exhortation that was given in Malachi where they were not assembling themselves together as they should.
And God was making a special record of those that did. But.
In the 10th verse he's a little word of exhortation that there may be meat in my house. Isn't it true? Often we've gone to a meeting and we felt really refreshed. There was some brother whose heart was just full of Christ and the every, everyone got a blessing just like Mary. I don't think everyone was in the same state as Mary, but she came with that alabaster box of ointment and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
She didn't have to say one word, did she? No.
It's wonderful that we have in this modern day the ability to tape meetings, tape ministry. And sometimes you hear it said, well, a tape was made and so I can hear it at home, but you cannot recapture the blessing of being there if you just hear it at home. It's not the same.
You might get the same precious truth, and we're thankful for it. There are shut insurance that can't come out.
Or for with the sickness can't be there. They can get the benefit. But there's something that we lose when we're not there with the Saints. And we know most of us have failed in it, but there's something that we lose that we won't get back. It's it's gone.
I've enjoyed a little expression in connection with Hezekiah in that regard. We won't take time to turn to it, but just follow it out. You find that when he wrote those letters, and there were a few that responded and came up to the House of the Lord, there's a little expression that used several times concerning them, it says. And those that were there and those that were there, and they were the ones who had the joy of keeping the Passover, they were the ones who had the joy of being with their brethren. They were.
Who had the joy of being where God had, and so they had to be there to receive the blessing. And we were talking about ministry and Bible on our own and not very important. Reading it in the family circle is very important. But someone has said that the assembly doesn't teach. But brethren, it's in the assembly we learn as taught by the Spirit of God. And when the Spirit of God, the assemblies, the pillar and ground of the truth, when the Spirit of God is given.
And the truth is given out, it might be an ever so feeble away, just rather here. And you're going to go home if the Lord leaves us here to literal twos and threes and little companies that meet on Wednesday night or whatever it may be. You say, well, there doesn't seem to be much ministry. We read the portion. We don't seem to get a whole lot out of it.
The Lord is there, you're there. The Word of God hasn't changed and the Spirit of God is able if we come together and maybe in ever so much dependence, but that's what He wants. And so we come together and we read a portion, maybe just a few comments are made about it. But if you're there with a real desire and exercise to get something, then I believe the Spirit of God wants to feed us and refresh us and teach us. But if we're not there at those meetings, we're not going to receive.
Blessing that our brother Chuck has said brother Chuck, I'd like to take it. Just make a little comment and what you say about the tapes and how nice they are. Little louder please. You mentioned referred to the tapes and the help that they are, which I agree very much.
00:45:05
That some years ago.
We had a little calendar. It didn't happen to be the the Christian counter, but we have that one specialty. But there was another little meditation.
On a calendar and.
The little meditation was to pray for those that are on beds of illness and those are on sofas of Wellness.
And so to prayer meetings. It might help the assembly if we prayed for both because there's a need. I'm sharp.
And also to pray for the Saints when they're going on well. And I was thinking of that in connection with what we have in our chapter, because this morning when we had the prayer meeting, there were several needs mentioned for prayer, and rightly so. Some who are sick, some who are going through sorrow, some who are going through difficult circumstances. And brethren, it's good and important to pray for our brethren when there's a no need, but just notice here in our chapter.
Three, he says we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice this praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and so on. And then drop down to verse 9. He receives this report from Epiprass and it says for this 'cause we also since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and so on. And I think it's nice to.
In the Paul's epistles, the times when he mentions praying for the Saints are often at a time when they're going on very well. Just as an example, the Saints at Philippi were going on well for the most part, and there was a freshness and a testimony in the gospel, he said, making mention of you always in my prayers. The Thessalonians were in the freshness of salvation. They were looking for the Lord to come, he says. I.
Pray for you day and night. Here were these Colossians. Epiphros had brought up a good report to the apostle of the faith and love and work of the Colossian brethren. He says I'm going to pray for you because I believe rather than that Paul understood very clearly that when the Saints were going on well.
The enemy was going to be right there. And brother and I believe if we would use prayer both in our private prayers and in the assembly prayer meeting, if we would use it as a preventative measure, it would save us from many things. I had a bit of a rebuke from a sister one night after the prayer meeting. She came to me somewhere. I was visiting and she said, Jim, why is it that in the prayer meeting we only pray for those who have a known problem or need or those?
Not there because of maybe coldness or whatever, she said. Why do they never pray for the Saints who are there and the Saints that are seeking to go on for the Lord? That was a rebuke to my own soul and I believe it would save us from many things if we would carry this out and think of the heart of the apostle Paul.
As he prayed for these brethren, that they might go on, and that there might be a fuller and deeper understanding and appreciation of the truth of God and of Epiphras, who I think it was pointed out this morning in the 4th chapter, he labored in prayer for who? For his brother, and not only in his home assembly of Colossi, but of Heropolis and Laodicea. Do we know what it is to labor in prayer for our brethren, that they might be preserved in the past?
A pepper fries partly and spent some time in prison with the apostles. He speaks a member of his and well, they might shut him up in prison, but that didn't keep him from praying he and it's been pointed out what a wonderful service prayer is prayer if that's if one doesn't have anything more than that.
That is, it is a, it is a service.
Which the Lord would recognize and the service which I believe the Lord will bless very much, if that's what all one had to do on all one could do, just to pray for his president from one another and for the gospel.
I read a statement recently, Brother dear. It said a Christian may not always be able to hear, see, communicate or to work, but he can always pray. I thought that was very good.
But he finds it difficult to pray, and he's not used to it.
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He he finds his mind wandering.
He falls asleep.
If you haven't prayed much, try praying for an hour.
One hour without distraction.
You'll find it very, very difficult if you haven't been praying.
So don't get discouraged if you haven't been praying, pray 5 minutes, next day 10 minutes and so on. It's it's like exercise. You can't go out and run 100 mile, not 100 miles.
A long distance race until you're in shape for it.
And prayer is a real exercise, isn't it, Spiritual exercise. I think it's a good exercise too, to pray for those in your assembly by name, because who knows them better than a local brother, you see? And so I think that's a real service to the Lord for each of us to consider the individuals of his assembly. It seems to me that we have more of the thought of.
Developing here from verse 8:00 and 9:00 and then over in chapter 4, I believe there was an urgency in Epiphros laboring fervently in prayer. Sometimes we know of special needs.
A special condition of things, and he keenly felt the burden of it, and he labored fervently.
I believe it's all in that connection because we see what was happening here at philosophy. It was a treacherous and a subtle thing. It was the wisdom of man. It was couched in philosophy and legality to both, the both. And then we know what happened at Laodicea. So you see, there was a 'cause there was a reason for this, I believe.
Urgency.
Praying is not easy brother. I think we need to realize that it says epiprass.
Laboring fervently, the margin says, striving fervently for you and correct Ephesians chapter 6. It's in connection with the spiritual warfare. I must say sometimes, brother, they try to pray every day that I must say, I find it.
Real labor at times it's striving, there's spiritual warfare in connection with it and it's not easy. You'll look at the chapter 1, the end of the chapter 1. It's Paul is Speaking of the mystery and in the last verse 29 were unto I also.
Labor striving according to his working, which worketh in the mightily.
It's the same word that's used in chapter 4, verse 12, Connection with epifras in prayer. He strove fervently for them in prayers. It's not just merely getting down on your knees and mentioning some names.
It's pleading and supplication that is not easy matter. It's it's real striving with God about souls to read the first verse of the next chapter.
21 or I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.
James tells us that Elijah Elias was a man of.
Delicate passion as we are, you just like you guys. But he says he prayed earnestly. He prayed earnestly that it might not rain.
And.
And it rained not on the earth by a space of three years. And he says and he prayed again.
And the heaven gave reign, earth brought forth.
So there is a there is a real with his real earnestness. God will bless that.
But think of what he prayed. He prayed that it might not rain. He prayed for a family. He prayed that they might go through the most dire circumstances. The hardships wasn't praying for blessing on them is playing, praying for something that would awaken them from their their spiritual state, which was terrible. They were so hard on him that he put his head between his knees.
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That's the way he prayed. I believe that. Yeah. I'm thinking about that claim.
It's nice to notice, though, that he didn't have to pray earnestly that it might not rain. You know, when the blessing? Yeah, when the blessing was to come. It didn't require earnest prayer. God was so ready to bless. You mean when it we prayed for it to rain.
What do you think of the Blessed Lord in the in the garden?
He prayed.
And then?
He goes back and finds them disciples were asleep.
And he goes back again.
And he plays more earnestly than God sends him an Angel down.
And his sweat was, as it were, great rocks and blood falling down on their ground. And we don't know anything about that, do we?
But he prayed. It was prayer.
It's nice to trace his life in Luke's gospel as the dependent man and I believe you'll find that seven times in Luke's Gospel, you he's in prayer as the dependent man. And I want to say this carefully, but if the Lord Jesus says the perfect dependent man could feel the need of prayer in his pathway here, how much more you and me. What an example he's left us that we should follow in his footsteps and just one incident.
Comes to mind when you find Him the night before He chose his disciples, those who would be closest to Him during his public ministry, those he would associate with himself. It says these words, He spent all night in prayer. Now brethren, I must confess I've never spent all night in prayer. But so dependent was the Lord Jesus as this, the weight of choosing His disciples rested upon him that he spends.
In prayer, how little time I spend in prayer in connection with some of the very weighty decisions that need to be made in life. Young people, you're facing many crossroads decisions as to those you will associate with in various ways, maybe even us to a partner in life. Do you spend that kind of time in prayer and dependence before you make those decisions? If there's that spirit of dependence with us, then He wants to guide us and to show us.
One of those that he prayed for that night, all night long with Judas. Judas. Yes, that's what I was going to say.
You can expand that a little more well.
It had to be according to the scripture. You know my known familiar friend hath lifted up his heel against me.
And as Mr. Darby and others have said, we see man in an entirely new test situation to consider all a privilege that Judas had and to witness those gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth and miracles that were just outstanding never performed before, you know, opening the eyes of one blind from his birth.
And raising one that was 4 dead, A day's dead is Judas witnessed all that, Yet in the hardness of his heart he retained covetousness.
It it's terrifying to think how wretched our hearts are, but he made that choice. There had to be a Judas. But Judas didn't have to be Judas. He didn't have to be the one, you know?
It was mentioned that prayer was in accordance with the word of God and this takes us back to Elijah that prayed that it shouldn't rain and this is according to God's thoughts. His prayer was effectual because it was formed. His thoughts were formed by the word of God. The Lord Jesus Christ says in John chapter 15 and verse seven that if my if you abide in me and my word abides in you.
You ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. So if we are before God, and our thoughts are governed by God's word, and we ask anything according to the instruction of the word of God.
One brother writing about it said it's tantamount to a blank check for the Christian.
Just say this to the young ones among us. It's been a real help to my own soul to find a place where I can pray audibly. If it's not nearly so difficult to hear your voice in the meeting and the Spirit of God prompts you to give expression to prayers and praise, if you have heard your voice in the secrets of your closet, it's much easier also to not allow the mind to wonder. So difficult to keep the mind fixed.
01:00:24
A prayer if we're just praying slightly. It's nice to find a place where you can pray audibly so that you don't be frightened at your own voices. The Spirit of God should prompt you to pray in the meeting.
I remember an old brother said to me once. He said I come home from work.
With all the.
Interruptions, activity, and the hassle of the day. It takes me 1/2 hour to an hour just to get calm, Just to get calm in the presence of the Lord and to pray. Just to to really pray. We talk about prayer.
It's saying prayers, but I think of those that in on a ship they said their prayers every night and then when the storm came, then they prayed.
And.
He, he, he just talked about how long it took him just to get disentangled from the, the hustle and bustle of life. And we're living in such a fast lane nowadays that is very difficult to get a loan with the Lord. I mean, really get along with the Lord for you. And here together you can talk to him. And how many of us really know what that is?
And to supplicate rather than that word is used.
Quite often in Scripture, I really wonder how much do we know about really supplicating. It is pleading with God. Not that we want that we can make God change his mind, but that's the word Scripture uses supplications and it's it's really getting into the presence of God and pleading for souls.
I think of Elijah. It's been mentioned that he prayed after the famine was about to end.
But it's interesting the way it speaks about it in first Kings 18. There he knelt down and he prayed, and then he told his servant to go look on the horizon, and there was nothing. And he did that. A second time, nothing. A third time, nothing. 4 * 5 * 6 times, nothing.
Seven times, finally.
A little cloud besides of a hands man, a man's hand it it. It takes perseverance, brother, and we need to learn what that means.
This morning in the prayer meeting, John 1414 was read. I'll read it again. If he shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. And I was thinking later of John 15-7 if you abide in me.
Now that's Communion.
That's walking with him, and my words abide in you.
That's intelligence. Now that His word is abiding in us, we're abiding in Him, and His word is abiding in us. We're been in the Word. Ye shall ask what she will, and it shall be done unto you. Because when we ask, then with His Word abiding in us and we abiding in Him, we're not going to ask amiss. Like James says, you ask and receive nothing, because you ask and miss that you may consume it upon your lust. But here we have one that's walking in fellowship.
The Lord, and he's inviting in the Lord and his word is abiding him. And then what? He asks.
As John says in his epistle, if you ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And we know that if he hear us, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him so many times. We will ask for things that are not in his will, not in his will. And of course we don't get, we don't get the answer that we are looking for.
But this is a case where we're asking in his will.
Biting in him and his word abides in us if we if this book fills our souls and we know what his will is. Brother Doug was saying, what would you think of a child that never is in the father's, his father's presence and knows what his father's will is? How could he possibly please his father if he doesn't know what's pleasing to his father? Well, this is how we learn what's pleasing to our father, isn't it the word of God And then we can pray intelligently. We can.
01:05:23
According to His will. And then we know we will receive what we've asked, because it's according to his will. That's the way the Lord prayed always.
I wonder if the brethren would allow me for a moment in this subject of prayer to.
Go back to that book of Esther. There's something for my own soul that is so beautiful as to the principle of prayer and supplication, Brother Bob, that you were talking about. Could we just for a minute turn back there? And what I have on my heart is simply to make an application as to helping us, young and old, to know how to pray.
Now we know that story well, so we'll just pick it up in.
Chapter 5.
Nestor goes into the presence of the king.
And, and I won't go into it. It's beautiful. She's accepted. The golden scepter is held out to her and she's accepted. And all the the grace and acceptance that that king could show to her.
But she but he says to her, what do you want?
What do you want, Esther? And you know, brethren, if we were facing what she was facing, her death and the annihilation of her people, it would not be unnatural to assume she would have fallen down at his feet, weeping immediately, crying for mercy that he and his mercy would spare her people. And I find it so interesting that she says, I want you to come to a banquet.
And Haman.
And so there's a banquet of wine. And at the banquet, again, the question is, Esther, what do you want? And she says, I want you to come to another banquet.
I think that's so lovely, brethren. I don't mean to set formulas, but it's wonderful to realize the joy of learning how to pray, to get into the presence of the Father just to enjoy Him.
As a child. And she went in there and she submitted. I'm going to make the application to God's sovereignty. Haman was there. We're in a world where there's an enemy that wants to destroy us. But you and I can still, in those circumstances, go into the presence of God and enjoy, first of all, a time of joy and fellowship with our Father. And then there's another banquet.
That's the, That's the request. I want you to come again.
And it was the second time that she opens her heart and she says, my, I and my people are going to be slain. And she opens her heart to request. But first of all, I think it's so beautiful. The first time, the first banquet, it was simply, you know, you can.
We could imagine naturally a lot of things that she was doing, but brethren, in application, she was enjoying the presence of the one who accepted her in her, in his presence, and loved her. And she was just there enjoying that. And then the second one, she opened her heart. But then look at this now and I would like to read this.
After Haman the attempts the the effects of Haman he's he's destroyed.
She didn't stop. Chapter 8. And brother Bob, I was thinking about this when you talked about suffocation. It says in chapter 8 of Esther verse 3. And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagi, and the device that he devised against the Jews. The king held out the golden scepter.
Toward Esther, I think it's so lovely that there was supplication. There was, first of all, the sense that she was in the presence of one who loved her, and secondly, she could go in there with a request that was much on her heart, a burden for herself and her people.
And it was answered, and now she falls down a third time in weeping and supplication that this awful design might be reversed. What's the answer? Well, I, I just an application, brethren, think of that golden scepter as a picture of grace. It's held out to her. And we, every one of us, let us approach the throne of grace boldly Go before the throne of grace. We're accepted there. We can go there. But I think.
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What I what I'd like to encourage us to realize is that there are heavy things that are on our hearts. There are burdens here that are so heavy that they can't even be spoken.
And the Lord wants to hear those things, but He wants us to come there, that banquet of joy, to just be in His presence and realize, brethren, we're loved and we're accepted and we're welcome there. And won't that then with that realization of His love and His acceptance, won't that then really intelligently open our hearts that we can really then pray for those things that will bring that blessing?
I just, I say that only an application, but I tell you, I've often been encouraged as I've gone into that closet thinking about Esther and what she did. And brethren, it's OK. I think if we do that and go into His presence, realize we're loved, we're welcome there by His grace and then open our hearts in supplication.
I think Mr. Darby made the comment that prayer is based on the privilege of having common interests with God. And I've got a wonderful thing when we think of it. God brings our souls and communion into the things that interest Him, that He cares about, lays them upon our heart, then we have in His work.
He's going to do the work, we're not going to be able to do it, but we have part in it in laboring fervently in prayer. Perhaps I could illustrate it so all would understand, even the young people having common interests with God. Supposing you. I have something that I would like to give my wife and.
I think about, I wonder if it would please her. And then one day she says to me, if you ever want to do something that pleases me, she asked for the very thing that I was going to get for her.
Isn't that a lovely feeling that she's I, I wanted to give her this thing and I see it's right, the things she wanted. And isn't it lovely that God can bring our souls into common interest? God had common interests for his people, and Elijah entered into that, that is.
The people needed to be corrected and that burden Elijah to think that this correction was necessary before they could get the blessing. And so he just asked for something that would be a reminder to them that God was in control, withholding the rain. It wasn't actually a judgment in one sense, but was holding something from them. But God wanted to bless them, but they didn't feel their need. And finally, when they were brought to take that place of feeling their need.
Then his heart was full of blessing toward them, opened the windows of heaven, we might say, and poured out a wonderful blessing. And I believe that's why I say that it's so important that we're in close to the Lord and we're not just asking for things, feeling that if we pray often enough He'll answer them, but rather that we would be so in communion with the Lord that we would be asking for those things that He delights to give and having that.
Joy, just as my wife and I said, oh, that's wonderful. That's the very thing I was thinking of, and now you're asking for it. And God our Father delights in our blessing, and he delights to bring our souls into communion with himself. So we're asking for the things he delights to give.
Mr. Chapter Brown used to say.
If you want to learn to pray, just pray.
Just pray.
You don't have to take a course in prayer.
Just pray.
There's a nice verse, brother dear, I was thinking of in that connection. In fact, turn to First Timothy 4, because I think this verse was very helpful to me and it's along the line of what our brother Doug was bringing out in connection with us there.
In First Timothy 4, and I know this is in connection with something very specific here, it's in connection with the food that we eat, but I think there's a nice principle. It says in verse 5, for it is sanctified. That's the food we eat by the word of God. And if you notice Mr. Darby's translation, he translates this word prayer as freely addressing God. And that's what prayer is.
Isn't it a wonderful thing, brethren, to think that we who were once.
And enmity with God, we who were once sinners, no response in our hearts. We have the privilege now of coming and freely addressing God. Because I believe that prayer is more than just making requests. That's part of it. That's what we had before us.
01:15:13
But again, if you'll just allow me to go back to another Old Testament example along the lines of what Doug was bringing before us, I've enjoyed it in connection with Daniel at the near the end of his life. This notice a verse in Daniel chapter 6, because I believe that prayer was really the secret of Daniel's life, was the secret of a life of power and truth and test for God.
But just notice something very interesting and instructive in the 10th verse of Daniel 6. It says Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed.
He went into his house, and his windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled down upon his knees and prayed three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God. Now I want you to notice this little expression as he did a poor time.
Brother, And I've been struck by that expression, and to my own soul, what it says is that Daniel didn't just pray when he got into trouble. Now, it's true there was a real burden here. There was a real need, and Daniel wasn't overwhelmed by it. He knew where his resource was. And he went into his room and prayed with his window and noticed. It doesn't say he opened his windows toward Jerusalem. His windows being open, if he'd opened them on this occasion, you'd say he was.
Persecution. If he closed them, you'd say it was a coward, but it was the habit of his life to keep his window open toward Jerusalem in the provision that had been accordance to the provision made of the dedication of the Temple. And there he it was the habit of his life to pray three times a day when he got into trouble. No, three times a day as he did a four time. The reason I say that is because it seems for some time under the new King.