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Chapter 3 and verse 10 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 Jew circumcision, nor uncircumcision, barbarian, 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 thankful. 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 ye do in Word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
Wives, 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, lest 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 what will ye do? Do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord, ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance. For ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall we see for the wrong which he hath done. And there is no respect of persons.
We really didn't look at verse 9, and I think the one point is very important.
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Lie not one to another.
This is very important. You know, there's truth. And anytime we're not speaking the truth, I mean the truth. You're telling a lie. That's important. You know, lie was the very first thing with Cain, although I should say the second thing. The first thing was the deed, and then the lie. And that's Satan. It's Satan. If you look at John.
Chapter 8, John, Chapter 8. I believe we'll see it and it's important to get this into our heart. John, Chapter 8 and verse 44.
Speaking to the religious leaders, mind you.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because I tell you truth, you believe me not. This is very important principle. Now we know what we consider lies, but there's something even stronger than just.
The little white life, which is a lie. There's no such thing as a little white lie. Abraham told. A little white lie. It was a lie.
She's my sister.
Tell Pharaoh and his men you're my sister. But she was his half sister.
You know, Farrell had more decency, I should say, than Abraham at that moment.
In fact, you might be good to read what he said.
Genesis. This is important, brethren. We sometimes think it's all right to get away with the little things, but it becomes a big thing. Let's see in Genesis, if somebody It's probably about Chapter 12. Someplace in there, Chapter 12.
Verse 13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister.
Thou art my sister. I'll say it now. Verse 18 Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this thou hast done unto me? Why did thou not tell me she was thy wife? Thou said, thou, She is my sister, So I might have taken her to me. Dwight, Now therefore behold thy wife, Take her and go thy way.
He was more honorable at that moment than Abraham. You know, this really speaks to me. One last thing, because I'm not going to dwell on this, but it's very important. Revelation. Revelation.
The 21St chapter.
And the 27th verse.
There shall in no wise enter into heaven.
Or glory, anything that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination.
Or maketh a lie. But they, which are written in the Lamb's book of life, have often thought of that expression, make us a lie.
If you do not believe the truth, you make yourself alive. And if you die in that position, you're alive for all eternity. Solemn thought, isn't it? Make it a lie. You know I will read one more verse here.
I think it's. I know it. It brings it out. Also, maybe I won't think of it right away. 15th of 22, verse 15 of 22, I think. For without our dogs, sorcerers.
************ murderers, idolaters, and whoso loveth and maketh a lie.
There's one point I could like to back you off. I wasn't done. But go ahead. Pardon me. That's all right. Well, sometimes.
It's in the 101St Psalm that has to do with the Lord. The psalmist refers to the house there, and it's been something from my own conscience, but in the 101St Psalm.
And then we get We could dip in at the fourth verse. A fraud heart shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked person who so privilegedly privily slander at his neighbor Him will I cut off him that hath an high look and a proud heart. Will I not suffer? Now here's the here's the one that comes to focus. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me. Isn't that lovely? The Lord wants you and me to dwell with him.
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But now he's going to set out something that's very much to your the point you raised for us, brother. And so he says He that walketh, in a perfect way he shall serve me. He that worketh to see shall not dwell within my house. He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. What a word to my conscience and to my soul, that I should be honest and upright with the Lord. And sometimes a man will tell us something.
And this is what has happened a while back. And it was a lie. And when I tried to tell him about it, he brushed it off that he didn't want to hear anymore. So these things are real among the gathered Saints, because you and I are in the household of faith. Is that not right? And God is not going to have the seat in the household of faith. And we've seen recently where he got out to broom and he swept the house, Am I right? Amen. That's when the Lord gets the broom out. I have to get on my knees and cry to him and say Lord.
Lord, keep us and that little song says Lord, keep us cleaving to who? Thyself and still believing what? Believing the truth. Is that right? Amen. Well, I just didn't mean to. I'm glad you brought that out, brother. It's nice. One last thought. Romans 33 don't turn to it.
The Jews denied the truth. Romans 33 Paul said. Let God be true and every man a liar.
Let God be true and every man a liar and brethren. If we put our thoughts to this precious word and use it the way we think it is, we're a liar.
Isn't it very serious that this verse in the last chapter of the Bible says loveth alive? You know, it doesn't necessarily mean that that person lies, but he embraces a lie and he loves it, and that's a very serious thing. It's not just a question of not lying, but are we going to embrace a lie? And I just warned 97.
Chrysanthemum is going to be bombarded with lice. They're going against Genesis.
97 is going against Genesis. They've started already. Little preliminaries are coming in, but they've already said that's what they're going to tackle and lies will be bombarding us. But we've got something, and I hope our young people hold firm to the truth. It's coming. Even the Pope now has publicly embraced evolution. He says he believes in creation, but he believes in evolution. Evolution that had developed. And there are those among the gathered Saints that have appraised that to some extent.
It's alarming, you know, I took up the subject of creation in Des Moines, and I was amazed that I got flak from those gathered to the name of the Lord opposing the truth that we have always held about creation. You know, it's really alarming. And people allow themselves to be influenced by these scientists who take the creationist view but have unscriptural ideas about creation.
Well, I didn't mean to get off on the fence. Now we don't want to continue with that. Well, I just like to say one more thing because it said two of these words said make us a lie and worketh a lie. And her brother told me at one of the business schools they have a course called creative prevarication where they teach you how to lie. And to tell the truth is the unvarnished truth is not to construct the facts in a way that's suitable. And so we need to be open about the truth. And if sometimes people ask this questions that are none of our business, their business.
And it's best to say nothing. But when we have the responsibility to account something, we ought to tell it unvarnished facts. And the world will teach you how to construct the facts as Abraham did, in such a way that they're favorable to themselves.
I remember I was working for a company in the office and the boss said in front of me phones and tell them I'm not here.
And I can't do that. That's a lot. You're here.
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You're not taking your calls right now. You're not available for the telephone.
You're not here and I think.
There's no lie. And it's so easy to do. I'm sorry. It's so easy to do. I confess now. And I was in working when I was a working man. I told my secretary tell him I'm not in the office, and I stepped into the hall. Now I did. I didn't want her to lie, but he did. Abraham want his wife to lie. You know. That's sad, isn't it? You all know what I'm talking about. You all do it.
Let's don't do it. But here it is a question of lying not to one another, Christians lying to Christians cerebral. And in Ephesians it says lie not one to another, be our members one of another. What is implied is we wouldn't lie to ourselves, would we? Well, if we lie to our brother it is like lying to ourselves. And this is what is so serious that we expect this kind of a thing in the world, but we should not expect it amongst those Christians.
Who profess to knowledge? Either their savior. Who is the truth? In the first chapter of in first John in the second chapter? Just one verse. It's short and it's to the point and it's in the 20th verse, it says in the end of the verse.
You know that no lie is of the truth. That distills it right down to a very simple statement. And this is where sometimes men try to push something on you.
I remember having to quote this to a brother one time when he wanted to tell me a lie and I just quoted this verse. To him, no lie is of the truth, and that would sum it up in a nutshell, right?
And it's so that um.
It's brought in right here where it says.
Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.
These things don't always come as we've heard from without us.
They come from within us.
That's what belongs to that old man.
And when I see it coming from within me, and sometimes it's more comfortable to tell a lie.
But it's better to be uncomfortable with a good conscience in the presence of God than later on to have to tell the truth and tell the truth that you lied about the truth.
Well, it said with his deeds. And I believe you've got the secret there. The lie isn't first.
The deed is first.
When you get murdered his brother.
Pardon me if I interrupted you. Cain murdered his brother. And then the Lord said, Where is thy brother? I know not. Then the lie. It covers the deed. And and you find the light covers the deed. You've done something and then you lie. You don't just lie for the fun of lying. And that's the key.
What Brother Michelle said was important because I think when we go to work, sometimes our bosses will try to impose their bad conscience on us and get us to do things that we shouldn't do and we need to be clear for the the truth and just refuse to do those things. We have a responsibility, first of all to God.
Having put.
That's what we did the day we were saved.
We put it off, we said.
I want to be rid of all that belong to what I was.
And at one place in the scripture, doesn't it say you crucified the flesh? That's what we did today. We were saved.
Mr. Darby said never trust an Irishman and we come down a little bit and I think he put off the old man. I don't know whether he was Irish, he had a connection to Ireland. I've got a good bit of Irish in me but I think it was putting off the old man was to make a statement like that as I don't trust that nature and we it's not just the bad flesh that we need to mistrust, it's if I may put it, I don't want to create 3 natures but it's the good flesh that causes a great deal of problem. It was Peter's good intentions.
That he wouldn't deny the Lord that led him into trouble. It wasn't his bad intentions, and that's a difficult thing for us to learn as believers is it's our good intentions that often flow from our nature. One people wants to always be accommodating, and they want to always be at peace with people. That's a good natural characteristic. I connect that with the cedar wood in scripture. God made the cedar tree, but it's a humbling thing to have to take a firm stand for the truth and go against a person's natural.
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Characteristic. And to take a firm stand for the truth. Another mate by their natural national characteristic or natural characteristic, want to be firm and clear about everything, and they find it impossible to get along with their brethren. And so Paul, he put off all that was connected with his natural condition, and he was a man in Christ. And that's our position as we need to not just get rid of the bad flesh, but the good flesh too, if I may put it that way. I think you understand what I'm saying.
And that's often We've talked to people about the gospel, and it's not their sins that keep them from Christ. It's their good works. And you talk to a person and they say they'll admit to you that they're a Sinner. They'll say everybody's a Sinner, but then they say, but I'm a good person, but they don't really believe that God is going to cast the fearful and the unbelieving into the lake of fire and that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. Why? Because they were abominable? No, because they changed the truth of God into a lie.
And man, you tell a man he's a Sinner and he says I'm not a Sinner. He doesn't believe what God has said.
And so I believe that that's what it means in part to put off the old man is it's not just the bad things that I did, the bad flesh, but it's the whole thing. And I believe that that's what Mr. Darby meant. And I think we can say that we all have natural characteristics and I think we can recognize what they are without pointing them out. But Paul comes down to this as Christians, and we can recognize.
Recognize national characteristics in one another, but we're not here.
The world tries to put off national characteristics, but they haven't filled themselves with Christ. And so we can't just sweep the house clean, so to speak, of what we are by nature. We have to be filled with Christ. The world would like to level everything and say there's no difference between the Irishman and the Englishman and the Frenchman. Well, there is a difference.
But when we put on Christ, then we can recognize when we go down in the verse that there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcision, nor uncircumcision that we can go on together. But we do need to recognize that all connected with the good and the bad. And sometimes it's the good characteristics in man that are the greatest obstacles, the standing for the truth.
Verse 10. And having put on the new, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, that's a beautiful thought, being renewed. We need that. Don't we, brethren, be renewed? I was thinking I'd done that. Come out in Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3.
I think it's one of those 316. There's a lot of them, by the way. A Gym Visions 3.
I think it is 16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inter inner man. That's the 4th.
Need that, do we not?
Before we get too far away from verse nine, I want to read in Ephesians 4 and I'm I'm reading from Mr. Darbys translation because he makes it very clear in Ephesians 4. I'll I'll start from verse 19, who having cast off all feeling, have given themselves up to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greedy unsatisfied lusts.
But ye have not thus learned the Christ.
If ye have heard him and then instructed in him, according as the truth is in Jesus, namely.
You're having put off notice. He puts it in the past. You're having put off, according to the former conversation, former manner of life, the old man which corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts, and being renewed in the spirit of your mind.
And you're having put on the Newman, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness. Well, he talks about the truth as it is in Jesus.
That's where we see the truth lived out. It was lived out in a man down here who was the truth himself. They asked him, who art thou? And he said altogether that which I say to thee, he was all that he said and all that he did. He was the perfect embodiment and expression of the truth. The truth is tells what is, and he is here as the in the sense of the objective truth that we have. The Spirit of God is spoken of as the truth.
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Subjectively, he is within us. He makes good in our souls what is true of Christ outside of us. But the truth is in Jesus, it's in that blessed man. And then he says, namely, you're having put off the old man with his beats. That is when we come to know the one who is the truth. All the characterized, the old man, all the evils and the lies and the deceit and the corruption has been put away.
And we're no longer have to do with that man. We've put on the Newman which, after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Just want to say this again, brother Chuck, because in connection with Peter, we see this again and again in his life, but it's not just the corruption that we have to put off. When Peter said tried to keep the Lord going to the cross, it was human sympathy and that wasn't a corrupt thing. It was a corrupt thing because it was against the truth. And that's a hard thing for us to judge. We say, well, I'm a kind person, I wouldn't do a thing like that. And man says if God was kind, he wouldn't send the Sinner to hell. And it's not kind to say that, but there's a time.
When that characteristic is connected with the old man, and not in faith and obedience to the word of God.
And that is what it is to put up everything connected with our the old man. Not just the vile things, so-called, but the nice things. Let me read in connection with what you're saying. Let me read a verse from Luke 18.
This is the worst sin.
It's not fornication. It's not adultery. It's not lying. This is the worst sin. There's something worse than that.
Verse 10 of Luke 18 Two men went up into the temple to pray the one of Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee, I'm not his other man, our extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this publican.
I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. There was a man that was filled with pride, and that's the worst sin that we have. Is pride is the world calls it self esteem that you esteem yourself. Well, that's pride. That's the very thing scripture condemns. That's the very thing that the Lord was so hard on the Pharisees about. They were morally.
An upright class.
But filled with high thoughts of self and low thoughts of others, they looked upon others and despised them, filled with pride. And and what you're talking about, Neil, is that very thing the the upper crust of society.
Those that have nothing but.
High esteem for themselves and low esteem for others. That's abominable to God because we're all sinners and the Pharisee would. Now you know in Luke 15 when the Lord speaks about joy in heaven over 1 Sinner, that repented more than over 99 just persons which need no repentance. Who's that? That's comparison.
That's the one that doesn't think he needs to repent. I thank thee. I'm not like other men. And that's the worst sin that we have is the sin of Christ.
7 Abominations. That's what God keeps. And what is it that heads the list? The number one abomination is a proud look.
#2 is the lying tongue and then a little further on a false witness that speaks lies.
Six things he hates. Six of those things he hates, one is abomination.
Sowing discord among brethren.
Let's put it in the right order, isn't it, that we're talking about the difference between, for instance, in the Old Testament?
And the law given to man.
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And that would exercise his conscience to judge that man.
The log was given, and that to what men ought to be, and man would listen to that will say, and would judge in himself in that man that which was not in accord with it.
But we're not talking about that. We're talking about the total man set aside to have a new man.
And the measure of that, setting aside the measure of the breach between the two, is seen in Christ now.
Dying is passive. Dying is weakness.
Putting to death.
Is power.
And we're going to put to death. That's power.
That is.
You know, we're talking here in this passage about life.
And life is that within us. It's my life, although it's in Christ.
And as we begin to look at these things, lying comes from within.
Now as I begin to see those things.
As they emanate, as they come from an old nature, that which really was connected with the old man.
We want to remember that a brother said it recently in our brother's meeting, as concisely as as as I could have ever had, I ever heard.
Subjective truth.
Is good to discover to me a fault or a defect in me?
When subjective, truth becomes the solution to that problem.
Then it's misused. Christ is the solution of the problem. Looking outside myself to Christ, we see these things as they pass in us. We'll say that these lies, these things come from within. Anger, wrath, malice. Nobody else can be have malice for me.
But I discover these things. They belong to a total man that is set aside, whether he be good or bad. He set aside as a new man, not just a conscience against that which is bad in a man. It's a total new man as seen in Christ, and as mortify requires power to put to death.
So in dealing with these things as they pass and transpire inside of Maine, they are there. It'll never get any better. That old nature is there and it's going to be there until, like the brother said yesterday, I'm held under the water for 10 minutes until I go to be with the Lord now as it passes within me.
That which will give me freedom and joy as we're going to find as we go on, is looking off onto Jesus for the power to put to death those things that are still operating there. But the Word of God is the final guide, isn't it? It says in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.
And of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So they accused the Lord Jesus of pride, as they said, Who makest thou thyself? But it was absolutely true what he was saying. He was God Incarnate, say David's brothers accused him of pride. They said, I know thy pride in the naughtiness of thy heart, to see the battle hour to come. But he had come to please God. He had common obedience.
So it's God's approval that counts. And sometimes the world may even accuse us of those things.
And we have to be content, follow the word of God, and we have the truth. Thy word is truth. And it's the, shall I say, the direction for all our conduct. I just say that because sometimes he may be a feared of being proud. I'm sure that some of us who say I know I'm saved, As someone said, oh, you're very presumptuous to talk like that. We're not presumptuous. We stand upon the word of God that tells us.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. So let the word of God be the thing that is a standard.
That decides for us what is right and wrong, and then we're sure that we have the truth.
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The Lord Jesus himself is the truth and His word is truth. Adversity quoted really helps because sometimes you don't really know.
We have a feeling and we feel that the Lord has LED us or directed us in a certain way. But then somebody quotes as this verse of Scripture and it kind of rankles us and it's like that life that divides us under what is of the soul and the Spirit. And so if we take it in that way, then we want to put off all those things connected with the old man. And that's really what I believe is helpful in what you said in connection with faith, is if we act in obedience to the word of God, then we can safely leave it with the Lord and he'll separate the precious from the vile.
But if it's a matter of self, then we have something to defend we don't have. But where it's a question of obedience to the word of God, David could simply turn and say, is there a cause? And so, you know, people say, well, why do people, Why are people so resentful about the fact that you say you're saved, You're gathered to the Lord's name because it rankles their pride. They say, well, everything's busted up, you can't go on in the truth anymore. And then they find out there's a company that is, it's a practical testimony.
To the fact that they're unbelieving as to God, and so it is. It is humility. God gives grace to the humble.
If we humble ourselves under the hand of God, but we're often rankled when somebody takes out the sword, so to speak, with us. And it cuts a little bit, but it's a good thing because it separates what is of the soul and of the spirit. Well, I believe it is also good to mention that it is not just.
Natural love and affection that can be a problem in a believer's life. I believe that there might be situations that we have witnessed in our own lives and in the lives of others.
Where there is genuine love and affection for the Lord and the desire to please the Lord, but not following the word of God and.
One of the examples in the Old Testament that illustrates that very well is Jonathan. You know, his heart was genuinely attached to David, and even after his death, David expresses how much this love meant.
But this love by itself was not enough, you know, Consistent with that, love and affection for David would have made him join David in his rejection. And this is beloved where many times.
We are motivated in our actions by love and affection for the Lord, but we are not looking, as Doctor Gordon has repeatedly at these meetings, tried to point out.
That we look at the word and that these love, that this love and affection is not only strictly governed by love, it's governed by the word of God. And take for instance Peter when Peter said to the Lord this shouldn't happen to you. I don't believe that that was natural kindness towards the Lord. You know he loved the Lord and he didn't like to see the Lord suffer and go to the cross and be rejected. And of course.
His Jewish hope, all of this was wound up in this question. You know, he was looking for the glory.
Of the Kingdom rather than the sufferings first and then the glory to follow. But what the problem was that Satan used genuine love and affection of Peter for the Lord to try to use Peter to interfere in the Lord path of perfect obedience and subjection to the Father's will. And the Lord puts the finger where it belongs. Get thee behind me, Satan. You see, Peter wasn't Satan.
But Satan was trying to use Peter's genuine love and affections to interfere in the Lord's perfect past of service. So people stress rightly that we should love the Lord and that we should be attached to him, and that there should be a motivating force in our lives. But there are other things that have to come in, that which is faithfulness to him in view of the path of rejection that he presently has, and that we would join him in that rejection.
And be content to join him, as it were, in the Cape of Adalam. That's where Jonathan should have been, because he genuinely loved the Lord, but he did not act consistently, You see. He was governed, obviously, by a false sense of loyalty to his father. You know, he shared his father's death, you know, that's a very solemn thing. A man that so genuinely loved David joined his father.
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Dying on the Mount of Gilboa with his father.
Those are very solemn lessons for us, beloved. We should love the Lord with all our hearts, but we must always allow the word of God to direct our affections in the right way. Same with our children, in our family relationships and so on. You know we cannot just be governed by love and affection. You know we many times that would lead us to exercise discipline and to be firm. The ultimate answer is one word in the next, verse 11.
I'll read the verse though, where there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcision, nor uncircumcision, barbarian Scythian bond free, but Christ in all. That's the answer, you know. That's why Paul could say First Corinthians 2. I think the last verse we have the mind of Christ. That's a very wonderful statement. We have the mind of Christ. He's in US.
Our life is himself, and that's the thought of if any man be in Christ.
He's a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold all things that become new. There's a solution, and I think it's brought out nice in Galatians chapter 3, I believe Galatians, and this is what we've got to keep in mind. We can say we do this and we do that.
But we can do nothing and in Galatians verse 26.
Three, I already said, I think, 326 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized unto Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor free male.
We are all one in Christ. And if you be Christ.
Then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise?
That's it, brethren. That's it. We have Christ in us. We have the Holy Spirit.
John 220 We have the unction of the Holy One. We know all things. We know all things. Is that strong statement like we have the mind of Christ? Yes, there's strong statements, but they're true. There isn't anything that we need to know for a happy walk and one in obedience that we can't know because the Spirit of God the teachers in US and here in our midst and we have.
The mind of Christ, the Word of God.
He is the word. So there's the chi. I think there are very versed in Colossians 3. There's only three groups in the world. We like to say when we preach the gospel, there's only two groups, those that believe and those that believe not. That's all there is. We know that.
But there's three groups. There's the Jews and there's the Gentiles. There's the Christians. Christ in them. That's so positive to me.
Just like to.
Add a word to what's been said.
Let's not fear loving because of the danger of abusing it.
Hereby know we that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His word, I believe keep His commandments.
That's the soul that wants to know, is he really loving? He wants to love.
And he wants to love as before God.
He needs to know.
That so sometimes we might fear loving because of the danger of it if we're out of the presence of Christ and leading us astray. Like the Apostle Paul, he loved the Jews. He went back at the end of Acts. But it's not pure loving. Let's just fear leaving Christ a spirit not walking in communion with Christ.
Love is the capstone, isn't it? The perfection? Isn't that what it says? Here the bond on cherry put on chariot your love, which is the bond of perfectness.
That should characterize us is love.
Like you said, brother connects with love. In the 2nd Corinthians 12 and 15, the opposite say, I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though you're more abundantly I love you.
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Plus, I be loved. That's the application of divine love, isn't it? It's not always welcome.
That's still very important to see, Earl.
What's happening is.
Possible there is because of the fact that he was stable with the Corinthians. He cuts their conscience, and they responded in the way in which they did, and you and I, If our conscience someone brings something before us that rubs us the wrong way, then we then we lash back.
See that you know. You see that very often. I was thinking of this here, put on there for as the elective God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering.
These are all fruits of the Spirit you know. And then it goes on to say, forbearing one another and forgiving one another and a man of a quarrel against any evenness Christ forgave you. So also be and above all these things put on charity or divine love, which is the bond of perfectness. Now second Peter, chapter one, you have all this, add to this, this, add to this, this, add to this that and then we don't have finishes. Maybe we should turn over there and just look at that. The second Peter chapter one.
Important. Very important.
Verse 5 Second Peter, Chapter one.
Beside this, given all diligence, add to your faith virtue to virtue, knowledge, and knowledge, temperance, godliness, godliness, brotherly kindness to brother, kindness, charity. There it is brotherly kindness carried. 4 If these things begin here and found, they make you, that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are things for the heart, aren't they? These aren't things for the head.
You know, an individual can have a lot of knowledge about the word of God. Someone among us is dead. He can be as clear as an icicle and justice as cold. And The thing is, our Christianity is something for the heart, isn't it? And these things are in US. It it, it sees here what it tells us here, what it's but verse nine, he that lack of these things is blind. That's interesting.
Don't all believers have sight that they receive thought here of discernment? Isn't it that true spiritual vision and the charge to the assembly and play to see it was what? Poor and blind and miserable and naked? Is it possible for a believer to be miserable? Yes, it is.
Yes, it is. But how? How instructive, then, for our hearts are these precious things.
God is light and God is love, and the important thing is to keep them in their proper balance.
God is angry with the wicked every day, but He still loves them. And the Lord wept over Jerusalem, even though he had to pronounce judgment upon them. Fast display. I love that in Revelation.
11 I think it is.
Chapter 11.
Verse 17.
To give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art and West, and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry. And Iraq is come the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that thou should us give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the Saints, and to them that fear thy name small and great, and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.
And there were lightnings and voices and thunderings, and an earthquake and great hail.
The time has come, as we read in this chapter, when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.
And God, who is a God of love, has to act in judgment. But what does he do? He opens heaven and shows the ark there. And on top of the ark the blood was sprinkled as though God were saying, I didn't want to be your judge. You forced me to be your judge. I wanted to be your blesser. I provided my son, and he is the propitiation for the whole world. There's not a single person of Adam's race that can say there was no opportunity for me.
And install the last display as it were, before God acts in judgment, is to say I didn't want to have to act in judgment because I provided for the blessing of sinners. And that's very important, I believe, brethren, for us, none of us are perfect in this. We all fail in one extreme or the other. But in God there's perfect balance. Light and love are in their perfect balance. So the Lord was angry. It says He looked round about upon them with anger, but he wept over Jerusalem.
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Beautiful perfectness that we see in the Lord Jesus. And if you and I are walking, walking in the Newman and by the power of the Spirit, that evenness will be displayed in us. Sad to say, we usually go extreme in one or the other. We fail because we're not perfect, but if we follow the light of God's Word, allow the Spirit to have His way in our lives, there would be that balance that there was in the Lord Jesus, because He is our life and the Spirit is the power.
There's a principle about divine love that we have to keep in mind always. Divine love is never at the expense of truth. Never. And we may say we love that, brother, we overlook this, That is not divine love. And if we say, well, we're doing this, it isn't quite right according to the word of God. But we love our brethren. That is not divine love, and it never is at the expense of truth, if you really want to show love.
It will be according to truth, always.
And I think a good definition of love would be given unconditionally.
Together without any congestion whatsoever and I think I was thinking, how can I love?
We really love to find selfish selfishness to get things from people or from the world.
And you know that God is love because God is not selfish. He gave himself and son and the person of his Son. And Speaking of a verse in first John.
First Dog Doctor 3.
B.
I.
We still have this world judgment and see if the brother at least and shut us off in bottles of compassion from him how as well as the love of God's in him.
How can I present to be loving and caring Christian myself?
Learning things, or even learning things that might be legitimate.
How can I be loving with the love of God?
If I want things for myself.
Think as I said love is giving without any condition whatsoever. But.
Giving from God with the love of God who wanders. And especially to our brothers and sisters. Divine love is selfless. That's number one, and it can love the unlovely thing. That's number two and it loved me. That's wonderful, isn't it? That's divine love. Now they tried to get definitions for it and we're in danger when we do this. But one man who was asked and this I read in one of the old books.
What is divine love? And he says the best way is to go to the cross and you see it and cross. And it's like the fragrance, the sweet fragrance from a rose, a beautiful rose, when it's trampled on their foot. That's divine love. I thought that was pretty close. But we can't give definitions of this. It's selfless. That's good enough for me. It's God. But when our brother was saying.
He was really describing the difference between human love and divine love. Human love is always based on what we can get out of the object that we love. That's even that way in the marriage relationship. But divine love loves unconditionally, you know. And divine love is manifested to us when we were enemies of God, you know. And so this is divine love.
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Now this love is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and we love.
Because he first loved us, we are able now as those that have a new life.
The new nature, the imitators of God as beloved children, well, we will all be ready to admit that it is very weakly displayed in us, but that is nevertheless what we are capable of doing if we live in communion and fellowship with the Lord, that this love can be radiating from us to others. Are you saying we can love our unlovely brethren?
Thankful. I'm sure thankful they love me. You know, I heard this. I heard this just before the departure in our assembly. Brother, can't you love us even though we don't agree with you? I said we're in kindergarten. I love you all.
But I can't walk with you the way you're thinking, That's all. Yes, I love them. I still love them.
I just love them. I'd love to see them back. That's what we're talking about, you know? You love me in spite of myself. You see Christ. That's it, isn't it? We're one in Christ, you know, This love is so precious.
Might look at that verse and remember that it says shut up his bowels of compassion. It doesn't say shut up his pocketbook.
It may be you see a brother in need.
But you know, you can't set it. It can't settle that need right now.
You don't talk about your pocketbook here, You talk about your bowels of compassion toward it. That's governed love. That's love. That is is coming radiating as a reflection. We'll say from the love of God to us. And you might just read this verse and say whosoever has the Lord's goods.
The truth and see his brother in need.
You see, you shut up your bowels of compassion toward that brother. You see? What is that?
In other words, there is that balance. But I fear sometimes we fear loving.
When really I just see it again. We should fear not walking with Christ. That's where the problem comes in. Not loving. If it's love, it flows from God. If it's my own personal affection and so forth, that's another thing. But I believe in our chapter we we have brought before us life.
And life is that which is within me, though it's in Christ, it's my life. He's given it to me. And it's not so much the Spirit of God before us in our chapter, I don't believe.
But it's the life, and we know that.
In a believer, they are five things, right? Body, soul, spirit. That's that's natural. The new life that's given, life that's in Christ, but he gives it to us. And then the Holy Spirit dwells there when we believe the gospel. So we have those five things there now.
That life living and living in me, I'm alive in Christ.
And we want to acknowledge these things. And I know every day that I'm no different from anyone else. Every day inside of me, their past is a history.
That my brethren don't see.
Now if I don't deal and live with Christ there, they will see.
But I have the privilege and access and full access and total communion with Christ.
To live with Christ there.
And the history of the heart will, if I can use that expression you see, is that which really determines my outward history. And that's what we have here, that Christ is everything and enjoying the word of Christ, dwelling in US and so forth are among us. But we don't want to Passover or ignore the fact of life and that which is within. Again, I say any problem you see there, the solution to that problem is the person of Christ.
Attracting our souls out to glory and.
We use an illustration sometime about love.
Practical thought that.
You know, you see, a young man will say. And he.
He's he really doesn't pay that much attention about whether his hair is combed or his shoes are shined or his shirts pressed and.
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And he goes through life, you know, like we all have done, but all of a sudden he sees a young lady.
And now everything is different.
I mean, he'll comb his hair now and he's concerned about that and his shirt being pressed and he wants his shoes shine. Well, what's made the difference? What's the difference?
Oh, love has made a difference, and that's with you and me, brethren. If if the love of God is perfected in US.
You see, I will love and I will be changed, but it's all connected with an object before us that is altogether lovely, altogether lovely. There's nothing we'll ever find that's not lovely in Christ. And that's what, in drawing my soul out to him, then I can love my brethren, rightfully, I can love as he loves. And that's what gives stability to the heart, as well as to the feet and the hands and so forth.
First, Timothy, chapter three. We have the two things brought together. I think, verse 15 of First Timothy 3. But if I tarry long that thou mightest know how the oddest to behave thyself in the House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, and without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit scene of angels preached under the Gentiles.
Believed on in the world, received up into or in glory. Here we have in First Timothy the Church of God in order, and in these two verses I believe we have the pattern, we might say, of what the assembly should be in the 15th verse. It's the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. The Church doesn't teach, but the church is responsible to hold the deposit of truth that has been committed to us.
We have the word of God, and the world isn't the custodian, so to speak. The church, the true believers gathered according to the mind of God, stand for not just part of, but for the whole truth of God. But I believe this sixty verse is instructive also without controversy. Great is the mystery not of God, but of godliness. What is the secret of godliness? Where was it perfectly displayed?
In the life of the Lord Jesus we have the pattern of godliness.
And I think that's brought out so beautifully here. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit. Here were a group of people gathering, confessing their sins. The Lord Jesus comes, and in wondrous grace identifies himself with that company. But God wouldn't allow that, as though his Son were part of that company. And the Spirit of God comes upon him and marks him out. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
And then it says he was seen of angels.
The angels looked down and saw one because we're a spectacle to the world and to angels and to man. The Bible tells us sisters wear a covering because of the angels they're looking down. In the church is displayed the manifold wisdom of God and his purposes. Here was one walking in this world, and there the angels could look down and see one who was in this world walking to please his Father. They'd never seen that because.
Right from the time of Adam's sin it was very opposite. But here was one that did. And now he preached unto the Gentiles. I think that's lovely too. He said, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. But when he was rejected, that grace in his loving heart couldn't find, shall I say, an outlet to the nation he wanted to bless. And he reaches out to the Sarah Phoenician woman to the Gentiles. What do you and I do when someone rejects us? Do we still go on in love? That's the way the Lord acted. That grace that was in his heart couldn't be held in. And so he reaches out to the Gentile and.
Where was? Where was the fruit for his blessed pathway of love? At the end of his life his disciples forsook him and fled the nation, rejected him and said we won't have him. He's not our Messiah, but but isn't this lovely? It says, believed on in the world. And that's what the spirit of God brings before Timothy through Paul and second Timothy. Timothy, if you're going to go on and labor as you should.
Don't look at the results here in this world you have to count upon what is going to be manifested in resurrection. Remember Jesus Christ of the seed of David raised from the dead? According to my gospel, too often we get occupied with results. Here were the results from the work and pathway of the blessed Savior. By grace, we're the testimony to it. Was it seen in His life? At the end of His life it was rejected. Well, it's blessed just to go on.
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And then received up in glory he was, it says he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
God raised that Blessed One, seated them at the right hand of the majesty on high.
What is going to be the secret of going on for the Lord? First of all, the assembly is responsible to hold and maintain the whole truth of God. And if I can put it very practically and it condemns me is it should be that if people looked upon us as a company gathered to the Lord's name, they'd say two things about us. There are people who stand for the whole truth of God, and if you get to know them, they're like Christ. That's the point. And that is when the House of God is in order.
Too often it's been disorder. All had to write in the second epistle about it in disorder. But here we have it in order. And rather, you and I possessed the life of Christ. That's the life that we have. We have His word for direction. We have the Spirit for the power. And this is what God would have us to be, individually and collectively here in this world. Christ is not only the example, but he's the only motive spring for anything we're asked to do.
Is the only motive spring and I just mentioned I know our times up, but it says forgiving one another, forgiving one another. How can we have that motive frame? Well, I know we're done. But even as Christ forgave you, so also to ye. That's it, isn't it? Can we think 336 has been given out.