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Take Me Home to.
Holy day.
Everyone.
'S burning all of the heart.
We are.
Colossians Chapter 3.
If he then be risen with thrust.
Which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Such a affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members, which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil, concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience in the which he also walks sometime when he lived in them. But now he also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Why not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the Newman, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him?
Where there is neither Greek nor Jews circumcision, nor uncircumcision, Barbarians, Sethian bond, nor free, but Christ is all and in all put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any.
Even as Christ forgave you, shall also do ye and above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful.
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Let the word of Christ dwell on you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
And whatsoever you do in Word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
Why submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord? Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger unless they be discouraged.
Servants, obeying all things, your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever will ye do do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done.
And there is no respect of persons.
I was thinking in the prayer meeting when we were singing, how apt we are to turn the eye from the Lord and to listen to the enemy that.
It's the same in India and it's the same in Mexico. And the devil is the same and our hearts are the same as theirs. And whether it's poverty or abundance, he seems to take away and rob us of our.
Joys and other things of the Lord.
Like the Midianites taking away the food in the time of Gideon, but the remedy is God and His word, isn't it? That's what we have in this chapter. Wonderful.
I believe the word if here could be sensed, it has that thought sense. And he then be risen with Christ. That's our home, brethren. This is not our home. Our home is heaven. Sometimes they say where are you from? I say heaven. I'm just so journeying here. I'm sent here for purpose. We're ambassadors of Christ. You know what? Ambassador doesn't belong here. But he's a testimony to home and to the sovereign who sent him.
That's our role, isn't it? So since we be risen with Christ, that's the motive spring for how we act and how we live. That's the thought we're in Christ. Then it says seek those things which are above the good things. That's what we're seeking today. And if we look to the Lord, we're going to have them. We're not going to have anything in this world today, I trust we're going to have things with Christ, the good things, where Christ sitters in the right hand of God, the place of power.
You know, just as I was speaking, I thought of Deuteronomy. I think it's.
Either 6:00 or 8:00, but I don't know. Maybe one of the other. I'll go there. Deuteronomy because I.
This is what was wrong with the What's wrong with us too so often?
Someone might help me 5-6 or six?
7-8 I'm thinking of OK, it is 8 Deuteronomy 8 verse.
9.
A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, You know that's Christ.
In that beautiful Christ, he's our bread. He's the bread from heaven. He's the manna.
I am the bread of life. OK, you have bread without scarceness, and thou shalt not lack anything in it. A land whose stones are iron. Out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. And when thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless Jehovah like God for the good land which he has given thee. That's what we ought to always do.
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Beware there it is. Beware, Colossians, that ye forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping His commandments, His judgments, His statutes, which I command thee this day left when thou has Ethan, and are full of all these good things, and build goodly houses, and dwelt, and when thy herds and etcetera. 14 Then thine heart be lifted up, and I'll forget Jehovah by God.
Which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of this world, and from *******. And I could go on and on and on. You know, that's collections. They they they left off the head they let go.
Brethren, we can't do that. It always has to be Christ. All in all, it has to be Christ who's all to us. That's what we're going to get, isn't. It has been pointed out that when we look at the epistles in Philippians, we have the wilderness. When we look at Colossians, we, as it were, are on the resurrection side of Jordan. We have gone through Jordan. We're just about ready to enter the land. Ephesians shows us entering into our.
Possession and it's wonderful to know that the man I was for the wilderness journey.
And in a certain sense, we are in the wilderness and we can feed on Christ.
The manna, the one who came down into this world, and it's beautiful. It's the bread of God that we can feed on, but then we also have.
The old corn of the land, you know, the manna seized once they crossed their Jordan, and so that is Christ in glory that we can feed on and to lay hold of that which is ours. Now Israel entered into an earthly possession, the promised land, but for us it is heavenly blessings in the heavenlies that we ought to buy faith, lay hold of, and the enemy will try to hinder us from doing that.
You know, and he will do this.
You know what we do have in Matthew? It's the.
Worldly things, you know or the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, Or in market is added the lust of many things you know. That's what the enemy would occupy us with and prevent us from laying hold of that which is our faith in Christ. But the Spirit will always seek to bring those things of Christ before us.
That we come to understand, enjoy them, and then find grace to walk in them. So it takes spiritual energy to turn our back from that which is hindering us in our spiritual progress and then reach out for that which we have in class. Oh, that's the question in the 6th chapter of John, do we not get about the Bread of life in that way that we've been speaking, that our brother referred to us?
And so the Lord Jesus in the 6th chapter of John the 48th verse, he says I am that bread of life.
Then he refers to the man in the wilderness.
But then we come to verse 51. Well, we should read verse 50. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, that a man may eat thereof. You mean, brethren, that you and I can appropriate Christ right now? Is that what it's about? And if I, if I'm feeding on what this would infer, I come into such a wonderful blessing because it fills my heart each day with joy and gladness.
Because I'm well fed. And then what do I do with what is leftover? I give it out. And so it says to us, way back in the Old Testament and Ecclesiastes, it says to cast something in the water. You mean you're going to throw some bread in the water? How are you going to apply that? Look what the disciples had said to the Lord. They said that this is a heart saying, who can hear it? See. So how can you and I understand that it's by the spirit of God made good as our brothers been bringing before us in Colossians.
This wonderful life that we have in Christ, Christ in you, the hope of the glory. But look what it says there. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And I am the bread I am. And the bread which I give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Well, that's appropriation, isn't it? I remember the Catholic priest a while back. She says to me, But you have to eat of his bread and drink. You have to eat his bread and drink and drink his blood.
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He was referring to this. You know, they get the doctrine of transubstantiation from that chapter. I said, Sir, I disagree with you. That's appropriation. Making it my own. How do I make Christ my own? Well, you know, it says I commend you to God. And the word of his grace, which is able to what? Build you up. Build you up? What about the young people? How are you going to build them up? Give them bread. Right. I found thy words and I did eat them.
And they were to me the joy and rejoicing of the heart. That's all we're talking about, isn't it? Beating on Christ. He is the Word. It's very simple, but without the Spirit of God, it can't be understood.
The Christian has actually seen in three positions, isn't he? He's still here in this Egypt world that's under judgment, and in Egypt they fed upon the royal slam. And it's a wonderful thing to know that we have been redeemed from this present evil world. We're not part of it at all.
And then they entered the wilderness. Those are the experiences that we meet in our pathway here through this world. And so the manna was their food for the wilderness daily came down. And isn't it true in our lives that the Lord daily meets our needs in all the trials and difficulties of the wilderness pathway? But I believe that Colossians brings us to the point where they had crossed the Jordan. And as our brother was saying, you remember that.
The Lord appeared to Joshua as captain of the Lord's host, and that's really what we have in the first chapter. The glory of the person that is in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He's the one who is the captain of the Lorde host. And now they were also warned first to recognize his leadership as captain of the Lord's host. And then they were warned not to touch the accursed thing. And I was thinking, that's really what we have in the chapter.
There they were so blessed, having entered that land that God had given to them to enjoy. But there were going to be snares, and so they had to 1St lift the knife on self before they made any swords for the people of the land. They made sharp knives to lift not upon the people of the land, but upon themselves. And that's what we need, brethren, to begin with self judgment, to bring the knife upon self.
To recognize the Lord as the captain of the Lord's host, that is, the one from whom we take orders, if I can say it in that way.
Who directs our whole pathway? What wilt thou have me to do? And then to the warnings about all the dangers that there are, because a lower have been brought across the Jordan and have entered the land. Nevertheless, we can't enjoy these things if we don't continually practice self judgment, and that every time they won a victory they had to get back to Gilgal. That was where the knife was lifted on self.
And then go forward again. And if they neglected that, then the enemy got the advantage.
Because they hadn't practiced that. And I believe this is really where this chapter places us across. The Jordan having entered the land, but all in the snares and pitfalls. Because we don't recognize, as this chapter tells us, Christ is all and in all He's the captain of the Lord's host. Are we recognizing His authority in our lives and recognizing that he alone can direct us the right?
And self has no place that comes out right away. In 3-4 ye are dead.
And it says in five mortify your members. That's Gilgal. You got to go back. You know, Paul could say, I know that isn't in me. That is my place is no good thing. But he has. We have to say that again and again and again, don't we? Once isn't enough because the enemy works and there's a there's a Trinity of evil working all the time.
You know, it's our flesh. It's still in us. We're not in it. It's in US. But it's the flesh. The devil in this world, the Trinity of evil. And it's never quit working. So we got to tell ourselves that in the morning and night, many times during the day. Practice it now. I know that in me that is myself is no good thing. Reckon it is dead. I don't say I don't say this as though I'm doing it. I've done it. I don't mean that this is what I ought to be doing.
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Now we have the blood on the door.
Delivers from the penalty of sin. And then we have the Red Sea that delivers us from the power of sin and Satan and the world. The Red Sea is really the deliverance from the world. Although as Brother Gordon said, in a certain sense we're in the world but we are delivered spiritually. Speaking from the world in the Red Sea presents that side of the death of Christ. But we need more than the deliverance from the penalty of sin.
As we see it in the blood on the door, we need more than the deliverance from the power of sin and Satan.
We need to be delivered from cell. We our cells have to die, and that's what we see in Jordan.
You know the 12 Stones that were put in the middle of Jordan, representing the twelve types of Israel, and then 12 Stones set on the other side speak of our having died with him, and that we're now a new creation in resurrection. And this truth is so important to lay hold of by faith in order to be fit for the conflict that is before us. But along with that comes.
Circumcision.
Judgment upon the flesh. Nothing can be accomplished in the spiritual warfare in the energy of the flesh. But how important it is that by faithfully hold of that not only has Christ died for me so that I don't have to face judgment, not only has He died for me, that I be delivered from the power of sin, and Satan, he has delivered me from myself. I myself was executed in the death of Christ, and I'm now a new creature.
And that's so important to lay hold of that five faith and that makes us stand fit for the conflict that is before us. When they got across Jordan, you just mentioned, they're in the land.
But you know, they went to Gilgal, but they didn't drive out all the Canaanites nations, did they? They left the enemy, some of the enemy in the land. That was their problem. Brethren, how much are we leaving in our heart? That's the thought is that I shouldn't start mentioning samples. At any rate. There's many of the samples, but they left the enemy in the land. They should have driven them all out. Then they would have had what they should have had, a piece that passed us all understanding.
We leave things in. I don't know what you've left in or what I've left in. I know some of the things, but those are the enemy, and he takes advantage of them. The worldly things, lots of this place and all that. It's the enemy. You can't leave them.
The stones that were taken out of Jordan, They were pitched in Gilgal by Joshua, weren't they? What would be the thoughts there in connection with the the same place where they used the knives or stone sticking out of Jordan were there?
I believe they first took them to their lodging where they lived, and that's a very important thing that we take them personally to ourselves. But it seems that when they were taken there and pitched in Gilgal.
That it's more of a collective thing, those stones that were there.
And that's the character of the assembly, isn't it? Here are the circumcision, which worship God by the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus.
And have no confidence in the flesh much of the system.
About us is build up upon something that recognizes the flesh, but it was they brought them to their lodging but Joshua took them and put them there in Gilgal. And so how important for us that we recognize in the assembly that the flesh profits nothing and that Christ must be all and in all That's really what we get in connection with the Jordan that in Joshua chapter 3 which helps.
Bring out what's been said about this in Joshua chapter 3 and verse 16, perhaps 15.
And as they that bear the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priest that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, or the Jordan overfloweth all his banks at the time of harvest.
That the waters which came down from above stood and rose upon a very upon a heap very far from the city Adam, which that is besides Zaratan, and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea failed and were cut off. And the people passed over right over against Jericho. So that really that's what Jordan represents, is it's the complete judgment of man. I understand the Dead Sea is the lowest spot on earth. It's 1000 feet below sea level.
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But right from the city, Adam right down to the salt sea, that the waters were rolled back, and in the wilderness they were looking for something in man. And in an individual sense where we may be looking for something in ourselves, or in a collective sense, we may be looking to a man in the wilderness. But the great lesson is that Christ might be All in all, and so that they had to learn that lesson. And that was the lesson of Jordan, that there had been the judgment of all in connection with the first man right from Adam right down to the very end.
In the wilderness the flesh was tested and salt, and it says two things, to humbly and to prove thee, and to show thee what was in my heart. They and then to realize the all sufficiency of the Lord, that he met their every need with the manna her clothes didn't wear out. They learned those two things, that the flesh profited nothing, and that Christ was sufficient for all their needs. But we don't see the end of the flash. It was still being tested all through the wilderness.
But as you pointed out when the waters were cut off at Adam, you and I were born with an atom nature and it came to its end there. And that's what we need to recognize our dead. Not you should be dead, but he are dead we tame. The flash came to its end before God.
In that in the death of Christ, figuratively in their crossing of the Jordan. Now they're to reckon it dead.
It had been tested for 40 years and it was proved there was number good in it. But now they put the as it were in the place of death and they crossed the Jordan. They take these they stones. It's interesting it says the stones that were placed in the bottom of Jordan. They're there to this day. They're there to this day because in the death of Christ before God the flesh came to its end. But it doesn't say that the ones they brought out are there to this day because I'm sorry to say that we still give the pleasure place in our lives.
And so we know that before God, it came to an end in the death of Christ. But in a practical sense, we don't always recognize this. And this is what the third chapter of Colossians is about, to reckon ourselves dead. To really put the flesh in the place of death, that it might be, in a practical way, applied to our everyday life. So we might.
Look at this.
I was thinking of what it says.
Risen with Christ.
You know, for instance, Lazarus was risen by Christ.
But this is more than just to be raised in power.
But is risen with Christ.
I was thinking of the verse in Ephesians 1.
Verse 15.
Wherefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love to all the Saints cease not.
To give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father Glory may.
Give you.
These things begin with God.
To give you a spirit of revelation, and he goes on to develop the glories of Christ.
And those glories head over all things revealed to the Church.
The Apostle.
Here in the first chapter he is calling on God for the benefit of the Saints, and in chapter four he begins to call on the Saints.
And justice. To remind ourselves, brethren, the Christian path is not just avoiding evil.
It's enjoying all that's in Christ.
What is it that says that? Some fault that passes in the bottom of my heart?
Is bad.
Does it hinder my enjoyment of Christ?
All that he is because God is not asking me to produce something to merit these blessings, he says.
The apostle says he wants God to give it to you.
So if I don't enjoy, I have no excuse.
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Because it's a gift of God. It's not a purchase.
And so Christ, if he is not all in my life.
I have no excuse, I asked the Lord. Go to the Lord and find out about it. And if I don't, I'm willing to just let it go.
What does that say? I have not set my mind on those things up there. Another verse that comes to mind is an application like the make of a verse in Romans 2.
Verse 14.
Just an expression in this verse.
Do by nature.
When the Christian path becomes a thing for me, that is a burden.
When it becomes a thing that I have to calculate and think about and figure out.
What to do instead of do by nature?
You see, then I need to talk to the Lord because I have a nature. That's what we have before us, a light now.
And the Spirit of God is power, and everything we have is in Christ.
We have no excuses left. When he gives us everything, he takes away one thing that is all excuses.
So what we have is the present enjoyment of Christ. And if that's not true, in my daily path, that's what decides what's right and wrong in the bottom of my heart.
And if the path is difficult?
That's deciding. There's something there that I'm letting pass in my heart. We've talked about cutting off the flesh. Call everything there what it is. How do you cut it off? Practically speaking, what's the knife you use? Call it what it is.
Say Lord Jesus that sin and let him take care of it. Don't try to correct ourselves. It's Him. He's everything to us. And if He is everything, everything that would pass in my heart, that would dampen or weaken the light of his love and glory toward me. That is what I would say is wrong. It's bad not excuse those things that would come in that are gained to me.
But if I see it there and I want to play with it or excuse it to preserve a little pride.
As it passes in the bottom of my heart, it's going to reflect itself in my daily path.
One other thought I've enjoyed.
We speak of passing over into resurrection.
Land, you know, if you want to walk in the value of resurrection.
There's one way one step gets you across the Jordan.
That's obedience. You obey, and you're living in the power of God.
He does not expect us to go to war at our own charges.
When I obey, I have all that he is at my disposal step across.
That the River Jordan tells us of death.
And there I can stand and walk in the good of all that and justice one more.
It was totally Elijah. Elijah, the journey is too long for you.
And that's what it is for you and me. Not too long for him.
If I want to toy with thoughts that preserve self or pride as they pass in my heart, or I want to call them what they are, that's sin and tell the Lord that's sin and that will you see, call him in and my behalf, in a practical way, to give me what I need to undergird the path of faith.
But I asked the question about the Jordan back there again in Joshua or in the in the in the 6th chapter, this man, Aiken, I was going to ask the question, do you and I have a heart like Aiken? Well, I believe that we do, because the very thing that Aiken had a problem about the apostle addresses here in connection with this covetousness. And so Aiken, he crosses the Jordan with the rest of them.
You and I have crossed the Jordan in principle, but then what happens? They have a curse comes in among the people of God.
And finally when Aiken is confronted about it.
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Yeah, it's in the 7th chapter of Joshua. Let me read the verse.
All I got to find it again.
Joshua 7 And it's in verse 19. And Joshua said unto Akon my son, give I have prayed the glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done. I did not for me. An Aiken answered Joshua, and said, Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. And then he tells what happened when I saw among the spoiled.
Oh, a goodly babylonish garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of 50 shekels.
I covered them and took them. They are whole. They are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent and this silver under it. So this is the thing that comes to a point. What is the point that comes with us? It's the same principle, isn't it? In that verse, I think it's the fourth verse in the Colossians. It says no, the fifth verse. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.
And here Aiken he had this one that the same. 1 The apostle Paul confessed he had the problem about.
Covetousness, which is idolatry. Covetousness. What is covetousness? We don't know a thing about it, do we, brethren? It's so inherent in our hearts we can't get away from it because it afflicts the same way. So how am I going to overcome it? Well, there's a man of the glory. He wants me to have his eyes fixed on him. And so I love to think of that verse. And we've been having it before us in such lovely ways expressed already. But Hebrews says we see not all things put under him.
All these things are going to come into judgment that you and I can see. Is that right? But what do we see? We see the man in the glory, and it says we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. Do I see Jesus crowned with glory and honor? And am I identifying myself with him each day that I'm one of his? I'm part of him. That's what it's about. I'm part of Christ. Is that right? Amen. So I should be in the enjoyment of it. And the apostle Johnny says then that and that first, the first epistle of John and the first chapter.
He says, these things. Have I written unto you that believe on the Son of God, on the name of the Son of God, that your joy may be what full? And the Lord wants you and me to be in the enjoyment of it? What about the young people? They say, well, you know, we got to we got to train them up and so forth. No, the joy of the Lord is where we're going to find our strength and the Lord's joy. And seeing you and me being, like the brother mentioned, obedient. And what was it that mark the blessed Lord? Two things.
The first was obedience and then was dependence. Is that right?
Like the real lesson of Akon is the assembly truth, brethren, just don't forget it. We get occupied with details. But he took all these things. They were cursing, and he buried them in his tent. But he buried the silver under them. The silver speaks of redemption. And what happened? Thou God saw it. Nobody else saw it. But God saw it.
And the whole, all children of Israel, all the work, were affected by that.
Act, brethren, what we do fix.
Every assembly. That's the truth of this, I believe. It's so important. Let's watch it. Because this is worldlyism. It affects us all, of course, but there's doctrinal evil too, which permeates faster. Satan will use that faster. And let's remember it. Real good thing of the Akon to me is assembly truth. What affects our assembly, What we've done effects every assembly in the world.
That's a God to me.
Christianity has become a great religion of do to get. I think that's what our brother was saying, is that man is laboring to do something, to get something. But in Christianity we are seated already in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that every exhortation of Christianity flows from what we have. And so we need to be grounded in that. And if we're still looking for something in the first man, we're going to come up short. You know, Philippians, you mentioned that Brother Heinz, that it was the wilderness, but there was concision. They were whittling away at the flesh bit by bit.
Brother that I'm visiting, he said his pastor gave him a list of six things he wasn't to do if he was going to be involved in the church. And he listed six things. And he said, you know, I read it and he said why would a believer want to do any one of those things? But I said the list is too short and that's what will always happen, is to whittle away at it bit by bit. But then when we see the end of the first man and we see it's Christ, then it's a desire to please him and to go on for him. And that puts us on a completely different ground, not looking for something in man.
00:40:30
But looking to Christ, and so we can't get to the fifth verse without the 4th. When Christ who is our life shall appear, He is our life. We're not trying to get Him as our life. He is our life. We need to see that.
There are three things I believe.
He are dead. Reckon yourselves to be dead.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus as to our standing, every believer in this room.
Before God, the old man came to its end in the death of Christ. But in a practical sense we need to recognize that and learn that blessed truth and not expect anything good from the old man. In me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, but it isn't a thing we can do once for all. It's a daily thing. So it says always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
Solelykan had crossed the Jordan.
In the figure, he had really recognized the end of the old man, but he didn't try in a practical way. So he saw those things that he wanted and he went after them. And every one of us, brethren, have within us that old man before God. It doesn't exist. We are dead. It came to its end, but in a practical sense, it's still there and will be as long as we're in this body. And so it's a daily thing for us.
None of us could say in this meeting I'm not going to allow the flesh anymore. There it is. It's there. It's unimproved. We have to do it as a daily thing, and that's the important thing for us. But I'd also like to say that God has given us, as our brother was saying, a new life.
Created in righteousness and true holiness, the same new life we're going to have in heaven. Christ is the believers life, but that new life needs direction, and the direction is the word of God. And so the desire is in our hearts to please the Lord, But we need direction, and that's why it's important that we read the word of God. I'm sure there are thousands of real Christians who are trying to please the Lord, but they're doing things that are not according to the word of God.
Just like David wanted to build a house for the Lord, that was a good desire. In fact, the Prophet told him.
It's good that it was in my heart, But he also needed to listen to the instruction. No, David, it's not for you to do that. It's for your son Solomon. And so we need direction. That's why we need to be encouraged to read the word of God, for there we'll learn the mind of God. They tried to bring up the ark. That was a very good desire, but they brought it up on a new card. Wasn't it a good desire? Wonderful. But David then searched the Scripture.
Said I've learned in the scriptures he didn't ask anybody's advice. He said I've learned in the scriptures that the Ark is to be carried upon the shoulders of priests. So the next time they did it, the same arc, but they did it according to the mind and will of God as revealed in His word, and they carried it on the shoulders of the priests, and it was great blessing when they did. I just mentioned that because it's fine to have a desire. Every true Christian has a desire to please the Lord.
We need to reckon the old man dead. It is dead before God. We need to reckon that dad daily. But we also need the direction of the word of God, so we would know what is pleasing to the Lord. I quote the verse again by the word of thy lips. Have I kept me from the paths of the Destroyer? Where did they get the idea of a new card? In the Philistines? From the Philistines, Brother, Let's don't get any ideas from anyone in this world.
Or any group in this world, Chris is up or not you know, that comes out and Duro Deuteronomy turn to it. Deuteronomy, chapter 12.
After saying.
6 Signs And there will be a 7 unto the place that the Lord thy God has chosen.
Place his name there. That's where you worship. Now notice in verse 30. Take heed now at the end. Now inquire not after their gods. How did these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so.
00:45:12
Pretty strong, isn't it? We don't have to inquire what they're doing around us. We know it isn't right. That's it.
Don't inquire. Don't wonder.
Rejoice, because the Spirit is God has shown us something. My depression.
Consider it and hold fast. That's what we have to do. But it's wrong to look around. You're going to. Satan will take advantage of the look around. Let me Are you telling me that obedience and happiness go together? Yeah. Harry told me that.
I like it. Let me point out something that I think is important, and that is it doesn't say that we should not set our affections on things in the world.
It will says not to set our affections on things on the earth.
You know, when they were in the wilderness, they lasted after the things of Egypt. That's the world. But here just to bring across.
As a father and husband, I have the responsibility to provide for my own. If I don't, the word of God says I'm worse than an unbeliever. I have denied the faith, but is this the purpose in my life?
To accumulate things for my family. Many have fallen.
Into that snare, you know, justifying going all out to making the buck, you know, because they want to be faithful providers and all the energies are directed in that direction, that earthliness, you know, or anything in that direction. We should love our family, you know, we should have affections within the family, we should love our wives and so on. But is this all we're living for? You know, there is a movement in Christendom.
Focus on the family as if the family is everything. You can idolize your family. You know, certainly we have these responsibilities and oftentimes fall short in them, but our life is Christ.
You know, of course, we have at the end of this chapter our responsibilities within the family and all of this, but it has to go along with our spiritual warfare and entering into that which is ours in Christ. And so I hope.
You understand what I'm trying to say. There is worldliness and there is earthliness, and we can be so occupied with legitimate responsibilities that we lose out spiritually.
God made the Melons and the Leeks in Egypt, and yet their heart lusted after those things. That's really what you're saying is that there are many things that may be right, and sometimes we ask the question what's wrong with it? And in fact, often it's the question that's wrong. We ought to set our things on.
Above that your affection on things above and we wouldn't be asking the question what's wrong with this and what's wrong with that and as you said going looking in other places for things but to just to be occupied with what we have.
Last century there was a flavor in France. Very wealthy man. Nothing wrong with being wealthy. Use it for the Lord. Consider everything you got for the Lord. Well, he built a Manor house or a mansion, I don't know which, but it was beautiful and he did it with the right motive. He wanted to use it for the Saints. He wanted to entertain the Saints and but he knew one more thing. And a poet, a very famous poet. I can't remember his name now, but I could get it. He visited among many others.
And as he went into this beautiful place, he saw a gold letters over the entrance. La Gwenda. I must leave it.
And that struck that forward's heart. And he wrote a poem, and I can't remember how it goes, But he said write the word la gwenda over yourself and over your business and on the forehead of your wife and over your children. And he kept going in that poem. I must leave it. Yeah, that's it. This world and everything here, you know, we're going to leave and we'll be like Christ, we'll think right. And he had the right idea there with that word. I must leave it now. Thank God for good stewards for not saying sell everything.
That isn't the idea. Use it for the Lord.
What the Lord said to Peter in in Mark chapter 10, Bob in connection with that it says in.
00:50:09
In verse 28, where you can just link it up there with. I'll just take the time to read this stuff from verse 23.
And Jesus looked round about and said unto his disciples, how hardly that they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God. And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answered again, and said unto them, children, how hard is it for them to trust in riches and into the Kingdom of God? It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God. And they were astonished how to measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? Jesus, looking upon them, saith with men it is impossible, but not with God, For with God all things are possible. Then Peters began to say unto him, Loyal, we have left all, and have followed thee.
And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, Here it is, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lens, for my sake and the Gospels, that he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the world to come life eternal. But many that are first shall be last, and last shall be first. What an instructive, what an instructive Scripture this is.
The Jewish aspiration was when you see it in Deuteronomy that if a man followed the Lord, he was blessed.
But what a, what a thing this was when the Lord told them here in this new relationship, that when you follow the Lord, you've got to leave all this behind and continue on. It's like Bob says nothing wrong with wealth, but it's like the sower, the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this life. They come in and they just spoil everything. OK.
Again, don't forget, Peter didn't leave his ship. He didn't leave the accrue of it for fishing because that's what he was doing at the end. He didn't leave his wife and his family, but he didn't put them ahead of Christ. That's all we're talking about, and that puts the thing in the right order. Just don't put anyone, not even your wife, ahead of Christ.
One thing to.
Get some of my possessions or my possessions. It's one thing to get them out of my heart.
He may not take them out of my pocketbook right now.
That Acts. In the early chapters of Acts, they had such a sense of grace that no one said that anything they owned was theirs. It was ours, that is, it belonged to the people of God.
Well, that's getting out of the heart. But then they, I think, made one step too much. God never told them to put it out of their pocketbook into a common fund, and that led to problems.
But it's the thought, is it not? Have your mind or your affection set on that man in glory. I think that's the word that's used in Romans and Philippians and.
I believe it's one of the writers. Earlier writers says that the word means that it's a combination of of desire and will.
Desire and will, and I've thought of it as the word we use for priority, desire and will.
And it's have your mind that let this mind be in you, which was in Christ, have the same priorities he had.
But then let's say that we don't. I mean it's true of all of us. We all sit here and say, well, I don't. I mean we have to be honest because the Lord's watching. We might can fool our brother in a little while.
You know, I thought of it this way. He's everything. If I look up and say Lord.
I saw. That's what Aiken did. I saw.
Then later on he covered it and he took. But when I say, Lord, I saw that you know I wanted that.
He would say to me, yeah, I know that. I know you did.
He sees everything. He knows every movement of all the hidden things that go on in your heart and mind, and he's everything. Tell it to him.
Because sometimes our problem comes and we think we have to straighten it out. We think we can correct ourselves.
He's everything. And if I don't have my mind, if I don't have my affections, if I don't have my priorities, they're with him first.
He already knows it.
But he's my escape, he is my freedom. And he is also the measure of all blessings that I have him alone.
Verse 4 emphasizes that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory, the coming of the Lord. And that isn't this. The coming of the Lord is a endearing, loving thought, isn't it?
00:55:19
The appearing of the Lord is an exercising thought, and that's what we're bringing out, brethren. We're going to appear with him, but you know, all these things that are done in flesh and for self are going to have to be burned off.
You can't say one thing good about them. Get rid of them. You know they'll be lost. That's that's the appearing. We'll bring that out. Well, what's left will be shown to the world will be shown off too, because we're all right. We're in Christ. But there are those things we're doing. That's their period.
How to use the World First Corinthians 7. But it is not abuse, it's the thought of not possessing it as our own. And I believe the Lord does give us the things of this world, our homes, our cars and so on, and we're to use those things, but to realize that really they do belong to him. That's not the thought.
Possessing these things as our own and even our children, I think of how Hannah just noticed in there in the first Samuel chapter one and verse.
27 Hannah She says, For this child that's Samuel. I pray. And the Lord has given me my petition, which I asked of him. Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord.
The margin says We turned him.
As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord.
Well, it's nice to see our children. They have life the Lord has given them to us, and they really belong to Him.
Maybe someone should give us a thought and make good use of the mammon of unrighteousness.
I haven't the right thought perhaps.
That I go to write.
Oh, it's going to abide, isn't it? The way we use it, the maven of unrighteousness is going to fail. You won't need money in heaven, but the way we have used what has been given to us, that's going to abide. And so he says, make to yourselves friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness, that when it failed, he may be received into the everlasting habitation. So as it's been said in these meetings, these things are necessary. You need money to buy a car and a house and clothes.
To rent this place and everything. We need it and we're to use it, but we're to recognize what it is. It's the mammon of unrighteousness. It's part of a world system.
That is going to come to all its end. But when it fails, the way we have used it is going to remain and that's all going to be made manifest, whether we were good stewards in what God had given to us or not. Isn't that So? That's, that's good.
Could somebody give us?
What is conveyed in our life is hit with Christ in God, and it seems to also.
Hate to be explained that when he shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory. You know, we have really had not had any comment on that. Can you help us, Chuck?
Well, I've taken it. Ye are dead.
And your life is hid with Christ in God, in the presence of God.
People don't see our life.
Which is Christ. They don't see that.
Manifested outwardly, there's no glow on us like the often portrayed by some artists. And that.
Christ is only seen when we live Him down here. So our life is really hid in the presence of God. With Christ. He's our life and it's hid there. It's going to be manifested. We're going to be seen with Him in glory.
And the world will then know that the Father sent the Son, and He has loved us even as He's loved the Son. Get that in John 17 When we appear in the same glory, and it will be then known that we have the same life and the same Savior, it will all be manifested in that day.
01:00:06
Well, that's that's coming, isn't it? Day of Glory. I might just read that verse in John 17 that I was referring to.
Some may not be that familiar with it. It's good, and sometimes make comments and take for granted that everyone here understands. In John 17, verse 22 and the glory which thou gave us me, the Lord is speaking to his Father, He says, I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one, I and them and thou in me.
That they may be made perfect in one. That's the oneness in glory.
And that the world may know that thou hast sent me.
They'll then know that and has loved them as thou hast loved me so when they see us in glory with Christ, they will. They will know that that the same love that the Father loved the Son He's loved us, brought us into that same glory. What a day that would be.
But we think there's also a reference to something like Gideons Ban. They were told to take a light and put it in a picture. There it was hidden but waiting a moment that the vessel was broken down and then the light shone out. And so when the light shone out.
They didn't announce their own names. They didn't say I'm this, I'm that. They said the sword of the Lord and of Gideon and God granted a great victory so the world doesn't see, but they ought to see. As we put the sentence of death upon self. Then the life of Jesus is seen in us, and I believe that was exemplified in both men. I don't suppose as I sit around the camp anyone realize that they had those lights there but all of a sudden in the middle of the night.
300 Going torches, and a great shout, the sword of the Lord and the Gideon.
Well, it says.
Your life is hid with Christ and God when Christ, who is our life. And you know, I have the thought that it's what what the Father sees when he sees us And you know that's our standing in the eyes of God. Really, we're in Christ. Our life is Christ.
I have that life of Christ and you can say it 1000 ways and not not be able to explain it, but it's true. And so when we come into the holiest of holies, Lords day, mourning within the veil, we come boldly. Why? Well, because God sees them and he accepts us in all the preciousness of his Son. That's the principle. And I think it's so wonderful now we are exercising when we realize that.
Examine ourselves, but we eat. And there's a real wonderful principle that's practical, but standing is there. We're in Christ. That's where God sees us. We're accepted by the Father in the beloved. I sometimes like to put it this way.
He sees us at that moment in all the preciousness of his son. Now that almost means take off your shoes. You're on holy ground. I can't explain it any farther than that.
When it comes to the thought of exercising as you mentioned.
In John 13 we get where the Lord is.
Glorified.
Expression in God or in himself, I forget.
Verse.
31 and.
32 They go together. Yeah. Thank you.
Therefore when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified. This is the cross.
And God is glorified in him.
As the cross, if God be glorified in him, that's the cross. God shall also glorify him in himself.
And shall straightway or immediately glorify him, glorified in God, tells us that there is nothing that is created that is worthy of Christ. Everything is left far, far far behind, and he must go all the way out beyond everything created in God.
01:05:02
And to the heights there he is glorified now.
It's true. God sees me like that.
But I wonder if it isn't in our chapter that I see me like that.
And it's been said every blessing that God gives.
Has the implied responsibility that I enjoy.
Do I see myself that I have that blessing?
That my life is hid with God, hid with Christ in God.
And when he is a manifested, he's going to manifest my life.
And do I measure my daily path by that? Again, I want to repeat, Christianity is not just the avoidance of evil. It's the enjoyment of good. It's the enjoyment of Christ. And if I'm not enjoying it, just tell the Lord about it. Our biggest problem I don't have. We have a big problem. We want to correct ourselves.
There's nothing to correct it with. We have nothing, nothing in US. Is it that in me that is in my flesh both no good thing and instead of justice telling the Lord, just have it out with the Lord so he will really is everything to us.
That was just one.
Followed our attention to verse 32 of John 13. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself. We get that in John 17. I think it's verse five that the Lord praise Father, glorify thou, Me with thine, own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
So he asks, as man, to be reinstated into the glory that he had with him. As the eternal Son before he became a man, He now asked to be glorified in that same glory. And that's what you have here in John 1332. He shall glorify him in himself, a man glorified in God. Think of that. We know that God was glorified in a man.
When the Lord was down here, and especially at the cross as to sin, but here now we have a man glorified in God.
And that is.
You might say that's the characteristic truth of Christianity, isn't it? That there's a man in that glory and we're going to be there too.
18 in the back.
18 and the offender?