Conference: 1969
Table of Contents
That Your Joy May Be Full
Address—A.C. Hayhoe
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General Meetings, Glendale, December 1969, addressed by Albert Hayhoe. I'd like you to turn with me, please. First of all, to the Second Epistle of Peter, Chapter One.
Beginning at verse eight, Second Peter one, verse 8.
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you, that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and have forgotten that he was once purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure.
For if he do these things, he shall never fall. Verse 12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things.
Though ye know them.
And be established in the present truth.
Verse 15 Moreover, I will endeavor that he may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance.
Not my intention to speak on these verses at all. I simply read them, as shall I say, an apology for that which I feel laid on my heart this afternoon, I trust of the Lord. For I assure you that you will find it nothing new whatever you'll find it to be that which you have heard and read and meditated on before today. But as I read these scriptures, and see how the whole soul of God's servant Peter.
Was involved in this solemn responsibility of putting before the Saints of God those things which were real to him.
He warns them after that which they lack, if they are short in these things, of that which will be their blessed portion, if they're in the enjoyment of these things. And he says, as long as I am among you, I want to remind you continually of these same things.
Though he know them and be established in the present truth, you're not going to learn anything this afternoon. You're going to hear that which you know already. But I take this as an encouragement. Beloved Saints of God, as we open this precious book and read that which we already may know and know quite well, we find it so helpful, so encouraging, so refreshing to our souls.
To go over those very things which we have known for many years here, even made the the expressed desire that after he was gone, these things not something new, but these same things might continually be ministered to the Saints.
I'd like you to turn then, please, first of all to one verse in Exodus.
Chapter 29.
Exodus chapter.
29.
Verse 29.
And the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons after him.
The holy garments of Aaron.
They'll be his sons after him.
That which I feel laid on my heart, I approach with embarrassment and with fear.
Because I believe, dear Saints of God, that this precious book that is open before me presents to us a wonderful desire in God's heart. We have had brought before us in these meetings the love of God's own heart displayed to us so perfectly, so fully in the sending of his own beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I hope you know as your Savior.
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But all can we ever fathom the love of God's heart.
Over and over again, in the precious word of God that love is revealed and the purpose of.
God in law is made known to us, and I believe it. We we find it to be the delight of God to bless in families, to bless in families, and this is very, very often emphasized in the word of God.
And when this scripture first came to my attention.
It searched my heart.
Deeply.
Well, I stand here as a son as well as a father.
And in Speaking of the relationship of son, I think I must say I do so with embarrassment because it will mean.
Reference to the way in which I was brought up, and my dear parents are now with the Lord.
And Speaking of the responsibilities that are mine as a father, I do so with fear and with trembling, but I can speak with the authority of God's Word.
The holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons after him. What else did he have to leave? Aaron was a priest. Aaron was a Levite. Aaron had not one possession on the face of the earth.
Flocks, no herds, no possession of any kind except the holy garments which he wore from day-to-day, and these were the heritage he left to his sons.
May I look solemnly into the faces of the dear fathers who are here today.
Permit a son to speak to you.
A son who was privileged to witness these holy garments.
I thank God to be able to say this privilege to witness these holy garments. Garments are those things that are very close to us, things that are very much in evidence to those around us. And it's an exceedingly searching thing that burdens my heart this afternoon. For as I look around upon this company, I know that there are burdened and sorrowful and weeping hearts here today.
And my own is touched with fear as I approach this subject. But I believe it's a solemn and wonderful and precious statement. We have here the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons after him, as our beloved children look upon us, do they see us leave our Christianity at the meeting room and come home to live an entirely different life before them?
In the home, we're going to look at some other scriptures that may bear on this, but it, beloved brethren, is a very precious promise and a very searching and solemn responsibility that Aaron.
Had the responsibility to privilege the joy of leaving to his son those priestly garments which he himself had worn, Would you turn, please, from this passage to Deuteronomy?
Chapter 11.
Deuteronomy, Chapter 11.
Verse 18.
Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your hearts and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, Speaking of them, when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the Way.
When all lies down, and when thou ridest up, and thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house, and upon my gates, that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children in the land which the Lord swear unto your Father to give them as the days of heaven upon the earth. Doesn't that have a wonderful ring? Just let me read it over again.
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As the days of heaven upon the earth.
Isn't that grand? I think it's worth underlining.
The days of heaven upon the earth. I've been in and out of many homes, and I have witnessed this in some of the homes that I have visited. The very days of heaven upon the earth I know, and it's most evident to all of us, that this is an earthly promise to an earthly people promising them long life.
And the blessing of the Lord down here, but with that very happy description, the days of heaven upon the earth. I want to emphasize that because there I believe as we go over these verses slowly.
We need to be reminded that the purpose of God in the instruction given is.
Our happiness. Oh dear Saints of God, He wants you to be happy when you take John's gospel and you turn page after page and read of his loving desire that our joy might be full over and over the Lord Jesus.
Presents that happy expression that your joy might be full and we find ourselves, do we not? Sitting down and thinking, well, if this circumstance and that were changed a bit, then my joy would rise much higher than it is now.
Forgive plea the quotation that you'll immediately recognize, but I heard it more often than you did.
Happiness is a state of soul, not a question of circumstances. Have you ever heard that before? I suppose there's a generation here that haven't heard these things that I heard since my boyhood days. But I know that the true statement and in going in and out among the homes of the Lord Bill of People, how I have seen it, all the radiant joy and happiness that I have seen in.
The continent and the home and the life of some of those who circumstances you and I would not envy for one moment.
And yet they have the joy of the Lord in their souls, and it shows to all around. Let us remember that I say again, as we go over these verses slowly, that the purpose of God in bringing it before us is because he wants you to have personal happiness.
That he wants you to have a happy home and family. Now let's go back, shall we? To verse 18. Therefore shall he lay up these.
My words.
Beloved, forgive me again, I said. This would be embarrassing.
But this book was Beloved, much Beloved In a home in which I grew up greatly, Beloved continually referred to. It seemed to be woven into the topics of conversation day by day. And when I read this word, lay up, it's not something that happens suddenly. You don't wake up all of a sudden one morning.
With a good knowledge of God's precious Word laid up with in your memory or your heart. And I'm going to look at everyone here who is able to read and recommend to you that you read God's precious Word regularly, daily, and in an orderly fashion.
I won't ask this for one moment, but if I did, I wonder what I would see.
How many could raise their Bible and say I have read God's word?
From the first Word of Genesis to the last word of Revelation without missing anything, I wonder what I would see if I asked for this to take place.
You and I cannot lay claim to laying up the word of God in our heart and soul unless we read it.
Read it with diligence, read it with prayer, and I can say you'll find yourself reading it with delight. To lay up these My words in your heart. Is that grand? The heart seems to me in God's word to speak of the affection.
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And know how lovely it is to see someone who reads this precious, precious book, because the affection of their heart yearns for more and more of a preciousness and the loveliness of Christ, and to discover in this book.
The boundaries beyond which I will be transgressing, but rather those things which will please the one who loved me for the love that is stronger than death.
When young believers come to me and say, is there any scripture against this? Is there anything to condemn that? I am reminded of what our dear brother, HF Clawson told us in Montreal quite a number of years ago. He had a large piece of construction paper and on one side.
He had a square drawn, and inside that square number of scattered dots. And he likened this to the people of God in the Old Testament, who were kept in by definite boundaries, laws beyond which they dare not go. And if they went off in this direction, they soon found a law which forbid them going any farther, And he pictured this to us in some detail. Then he turned the card over and on the other side.
He had one prominent blacktop in the middle, no boundaries to be seen and clustered right near that black dot. Quite a few smaller dots, some farther, some farther till somewhere dangerously near the edge of that piece of paper.
And he reminded us that now it is our happy joy and privilege to remember that we have one who loved us and who gave himself for us, who has put into our hands his most precious book, which doesn't bind us in with the laws and the restrictions of the Old Testament.
Present to us one who loved us, with a love that took Him to the cross of Calvary to redeem us, and the motive implanted in your heart and mind by His grace to live to please Him. You do want to please the Lord Jesus, or you're not born again.
You do want to please the Lord Jesus, or you have no new life within you all, my beloved friend. I believe it's a solemn, solemn thing to realize that there are altogether too many who have this precious and this wonderful book and have had it since the days of their childhood, and they can perhaps quote a good many of its passages. But is there really any affection in their heart for the person of the Lord Jesus Christ?
As we listen to the conversations that take place between meetings, do we find an indication that there is a real love for the Lord Jesus Christ? All God grants that it may be more so that this precious word may be laid up in our heart?
And that the reading of God's precious word may stir and quicken the affection of our hearts. The next thing is the soul. I believe it's generally considered that the soul is the seat of the appetite and the desires. Are you willing, and am I willing, that this also shall be under the authority and the control of God's precious words? Do I read it with that in mind?
That it may actually have its powerful and constraining influence upon my very heart and soul. I say it's a very, very searching passage to read. And yet it brings with it such wondrous blessings, and it was given to us because he loved us.
So much and again, I would encourage each and everyone to make it your daily habit to read this precious word of God and allow it to reach into your very heart and soul. So do your affections are governed by.
The precious book that in all things he might have the preeminence in all things.
You know, I don't say this to make anyone smile, but I believe perhaps it's a practical consideration.
I was talking to a young man far from here, who told me that he was never going to get married because he didn't feel it was at all right to take a measure of the love that belonged to the Lord Jesus and bestow it on his wife and thereby have that much less.
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Bestow on the Lord Jesus. He was very, very sincere about this.
And I asked him, what would become of a man who, having married a wife and perhaps finding four or five children to grace that home, now had to take the affection that belonged to his wife and divide it thinner and thinner still among the children who came to bless that family.
Oh, he said it doesn't work that way, does it? And I said, no, indeed it doesn't. Nor does it mean that your affection for the Lord Jesus is in any degree lesson, nor that he has any less of preeminent place because he has given you, by the grace of God, a partner who also loves the same practice Savior, and wants to please Him. I just passed this on to you dearly beloved young people, because I believe.
But these bonds that God in wondrous grace has put before us in this precious book all the affections proper to them.
Call us, I believe, to look up with increasing gratitude to the one whoever put these affections within our hearts, they're not natural to us. Naturally, we were hateful and hating one another for how beautiful to see.
The heart and the soul governed and controlled by the word of God. Now notice it seems to become more practical. Bind them for a sign upon your hand. First of all, that which cannot be seen, that which is within, is controlled by God's word, the heart and the soul. And then we found it, very Word bound upon our hands, that that which we do.
Is controlled by the direction and the wisdom of the Word of God. Is the Bible really that up to date? Surely you can't take a book written this long ago and use it to help you in making decisions concerning what your hands might do in 1969. Yes, thank God there's nothing that ever needs to be added to this precious book and it has impressed me very, very much.
And visiting in other lands where their language and culture and custom is so totally different from that which we are accustomed to.
To find that this same book contains all the light and wisdom needed in order to live to please the Lord Jesus according to the pattern of this book in any nation under heaven.
All let us just look at those hands of ours and realize that they have been, as we've just been told, redeemed.
You're not your own. You're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.
I'm going to repeat what I may have mentioned before.
The occasion when a young man traveling over in England entered one of their trains. The trains over there are different, a bit to our own. Here They're not made-up of 1 long continuous coach, but rather in each coach there are compartments in which there are usually about 6 passengers. Well, when this young man entered the compartment, there were already three young men in that compartment.
And no sooner did he sit down and the train began to move, than one of the three young men reached in his pocket and pulled out a deck of cards.
And he shuffled them and handed some to one, and handed some more to the second, and offered some to the newcomers. And the newcomer sat there with a happy smile, with his hands folded, and he said, no thank you, I don't have any hand.
Well, of course. The one who was offering the card looked at him in bewilderment. He could see what appeared to be a perfectly normal pair of hats. Well, he said. Maybe I ought to explain. These hands don't belong to me. That didn't help the matter at all. It still sounded dust as bewildering as before. So he went on to explain further. He said. I am redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. I am not my own. I am but with a price.
And I just don't believe it would please the one who redeemed me if I took these hands and used them for such a purpose. He didn't hunt all the way through the Bible to find a verse that condemned the use of those things. He knew that redeemed with the Precious Blood of Christ. And in a desire to live to please that one who redeemed him at the infinite cost that he could well hold his hands, not with a frown of disappointment, but with a smile of real gratitude that he was redeemed with the Precious Blood of Christ.
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Not only the hands, but the eyes, the affection, the very appetite, that which we do, and our eyes perhaps would look outward to that which is even beyond the things that we can grasp. And in what direction are your eyes and mind turn beloved friends?
Are your eyes and minds governed and controlled by this precious book, the word of God? May I just remind you again that that which we have here in verse 18 is the preparation in a home?
For bringing up a family, isn't this pretty searching?
The heart, the soul, the hands, the eyes. And you can't hide these things from your family.
They'll know. It will show they can tell, beloved, whether these things are real to you or not. And I believe, as this fourfold charge was laid upon the fathers in Israel, that it ought to be felt very, very, very solemnly by every one of us. Now the next verse, says Angie, shall teach them.
Your children.
Isn't this a happy privilege? And isn't it a very continual responsibility to that which has brought joy and happiness to us for the grace of God? Oh, do we not desire the same thing for our dear children?
But what can we expect if our heart is not controlled by the word of God?
What can I expect if the appetites and the desires that are natural to me are not controlled by God's precious Word? So my hands engaged in those things which redeemed hands are free to use to the glory of God.
And if my eyes turn away to those things which would only distract me from the loveliness which is in Christ Jesus.
And then to turn and teach them to our children all beloved. It's embarrassing and it's a serious matter, but here it is in God's word, and I dare not shrink from what it says.
He shall teach them your children. Speaking of them, when thou fittest in thine house, are we so busy now? Is our timetable so taken up that we don't have time to sit down in our house with our children and with the precious word of God? And when we do so to the children, have the feeling that Dad's just trying to get this over with because he's got something else on his mind anyway, and get this reading over with, because there are other responsibilities much more important than this.
Quick little reading in the morning or in the evening, Oh, dear fellow believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, this precious book that He has given us with all its unfolding of His loving heart, with all its wisdom, and with the glorious hope that it puts before our souls.
Surely should be worth more to us than anything else that might intrude upon our timetables.
Speaking of them, we're now finished in my house. And when thou walkest, by the way.
Precious memories come back to me as I read this.
Beating up them.
Forgive another quotation. We ought to read the word of God until we become so saturated with it that our very thoughts are formed in the wisdom of Scripture.
May I please just say this, that there were many, many times when this rebellious son right here wanted his own way very, very much.
And I would present what I wanted very, very much to my father, and he would answer me in the language of Scripture.
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You can argue with your dad, but you can't seem to argue against the word of God.
At least I didn't have the heart to. And when the answer was interwoven with the wisdom of God words, it seemed to be just what this stubborn heart needed all I can remember. Yet on one particular occasion, there was something so educational and attractive.
To be coupled with something that we naturally felt was out of place for the believers. And so the easy conclusion was, well, we'll attend until that commences, which we wouldn't approve of, and then of course we'll come right home.
The answer was he that trusteth his own heart is a fool.
That's a pretty straightforward answer. He that trust us, his own heart is a fool. Would I not be trusting my own heart to have the courage to pack up and leave when these things began, which would be quite a novelty to a boy brought up the way I was brought up, I would want to just stay around for a little while and see what this was all about. And then, perhaps just a little while longer, to trusting my own heart, I would find out what a fool I was.
Oh, let me remind my own heart, for these responsibilities still weigh heavily upon my own shoulders, and I say it with fear and inward fears, that I mention what I speak up today. I can mention my memory. But that which lies ahead the Lord alone knows. But here is the wisdom. Here is the promise.
From his own loving heart, who so earnestly desires your happiness and blessings?
May I turn a moment from perhaps addressing parents to addressing children who are being brought up, as by the grace of God, I was brought up.
May I remind you that someday I believe you will thank God for it. You will thank God for the many times you saw your father and your mother on their knees.
And you knew they were praying for you. You heard your very name come from their lips in prayers. And when you so much wanted your own way, when you were the only one of a group that wasn't permitted to take part in this or that, you felt your parents just didn't understand you. They had forgotten all about their own youth, and all such thoughts went through.
Your mind, as they did through my own.
They loved young people. I stand here and thank God.
That I was preserved by his grace, and through the firm hand of a praying father and mother.
From those things which would only have brought sorrow and disappointment to me.
Speaking of them, when thou sittest in mine house, and when thou walkest, By the way you know, the Bible is the most wonderful book. As we walk by the way, and see the handiwork of golf, no wisdom and the skills, and shall I say, the thoughtfulness with which his hand has wrought, it makes a never ending topic of conversation.
You know, when we were down in Oaxaca, every time we left one village to go to another, they would all gather together, and they would sing so lovingly and so heartily. I will lift up mine eyes under the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord that made heaven and earth. They would sing that song through if their tears would permit them to do so. And all it made the hills of Oaxaca very precious to me.
Right. Look around and see those hills, and I would think from whence come of my health from these hills all my help cometh from the one that made heaven and earth. Why, the sight of those hills that existed so long before you and I were born, just turns our thoughts to the one who made them.
The little flowers that bloom, all the feuding, the majesty, the thoughtfulness that is behind it all.
I hope I'm not digressing too much in these practical things, but I can still hear the comment that would so often be made at the table as an exceptionally nice meal was set down in front of us. You know, children, we ought to be so thankful there's no nourishment either in the color or in the flavor of this food that you're eating. It all looks the same. It all tasted the same and could nourish your body just as well. But here are these nice mashed potatoes.
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Here's this lovely roast beef. Here are these peas and these carrots, and they look so attractive and they each have their own taste and generally considered to be very pleasant. Why did God give us that variety and the ability to recognize these colors and flavors and to enjoy them fly?
Just to sit down there eats away. An animal would eat all right. Tell you somehow or others.
Conversation such as this caused our hearts to look up in gratitude to the one who had been so kind and so thoughtful in everything that we saw all around us. When thou walkest, by the way.
To see the beauty of God's handiwork in creation, and to be able, as we walk along, to realize that the loving eye of Him who put all His beauty around us is looking down upon us as we walk along the way. Oh, that's been a precious thing to me, and some hours that would otherwise be pretty lonely. To think that the eye of Him who created all things is looking down at me.
Wherever I may be, And looking down at you, oh beloved, I tell you with a grand thing to be a Christian. And that doesn't mean simply to have your sin forgiven and know that there's a corner of heaven where you're going to find yourself at home. It means that there's a failure who loves you enough to die for you. It means that there's a Savior living in the glory at this very moment, who wants your joy to be full.
Your home, to be a happy home, wants your family to be a rejoicing family, sheltered by the fresh and flood of Christ, and once every one of us to look up day by day with the eager anticipation of soon hearing his voice. When our citizen man host. When thou walkest, by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up it dust doesn't seem to leave any time out as Paul does it.
It just seems as though the word of God belongs in all the experiences.
Of the believers. And so it ought to be. Thank God, beloved brethren, if you and I are found at the Bible reading.
And at the prayer meeting and at the remembrance of the Lord and at the gospel meeting. But what about the rest of the time?
I was in the office of a professional man a long, long way from here. Not one single person in this company knows who this is at all, so please don't try to even get but he didn't know I was in the reception room. He was in his consultation room, and he was really telling somebody off in strictly vigorous language, and his voice was rising in greater and greater heat of anger.
I didn't know that I had to walk out to save embarrassment or not, but presently the door opened and out he came with the other gentleman who'd been with him and he saw me sitting there.
And when he got this third party out the door, he turned to me. He said Christianity is one thing and business is another.
I was very sorry to hear him say that Christianity is one thing and home life is another. Is that true? Christianity is one thing, school is another. Is that true? Oh, I believe that this precious book, with all its precepts and wisdom, can be taken by you into every area of your life and if you perchance are in some occupation or situation.
That you cannot feel at home with his practice book. You're in the wrong place. I say again, you're in the wrong place simply because I've traveled a bit. I get asked quite often to speak when I get back home in places that I personally just don't feel free to speak in and when they will ask me. Now, would you come and give us a talk on such and such a trip you've taken? I usually say well.
I'd be glad to, on condition that I could bring along my Bible and hold it in my hand while I speak.
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Well, I have to consult someone else about this too, so I'll let you know tomorrow. I've never heard back from any of them. They just don't seem to want someone standing up there with a Bible in his hand. And I do recommend this to you, dearly beloved brethren and sisters in Christ, and dearly beloved young people, as we see in this little passage in Deuteronomy the place that God word up to have in our life and our heart and our home.
Don't ever let yourself be found where you would not wish to bring this precious, precious living book.
And we don't live to ourselves. We don't die to ourselves. The attitude that we take in these matters has a profound effect upon others.
I remember one time they came to our particular town in Canada, they found a new branch of one of these well known.
Society's service clubs, as they call them.
And they came to me and asked me if I would be interested. They said their particular activity was concerning young men, and they knew that that was somewhat of an interest of mine.
I didn't like to cut them off too promptly, so I asked for a little further information and all the while wondering what I might say.
And finally, I asked them the same thing. I said what do you what day do you have your regular scheduled dinner meeting? Well, every Wednesday at noon. I love every Wednesday at noon.
One question Would I be free to bring my Bible with me to this dinner on Wednesdays at noon?
And you know, they made it quite plain to me that that Bible of mine would be totally out of place and unwanted. They didn't even wait till tomorrow to tell me that it just wasn't flooded.
So they went out again. And you know, I didn't know the sequel to that story until we were having a Bible reading in the Assembly at home a couple of weeks later.
And one of the brothers in town, who is a businessman, said, oh, by the way, they're starting a new branch of such and such a service club in the town and they have approached me to see if I would be interested in being an active member.
He said. I didn't know exactly what to say to get out of it, so I asked them who they already had among their members.
Though they read off quite a list of names, came to the end and said, and we think we're going to get hey ho, the optometrist to sign too, he said. That's fine, I'll sign my name right under his.
But that's the way he left his wisdom. You know, I just mentioned that beloved brethren, to show you that we do not live to ourselves. But if the precious living word of God is effectual, beloved Saints in this heart of mine, as it ought to be.
As we had together with the dear young people.
Draw me.
We will run after thee. There is no heart that's ever drawn after the Lord Jesus, but what it has is happy effect on others, and we read the sad contrast where Peter says I go fishing.
And immediately the answer is we also go with the.
All beloved friend, which is it? As we read this portion of God's word and feed a claim of that word over a four hour good and four hour happiness and four hour blessing, and for the welfare of our families, what shall we do? Shall we dare to suggest that these claims are too much, That this is going to restrict us in some way or another? Restrict us? I shudder when I hear that word, and yet I've heard it from the lips of those who are truly the Lord.
There's something about the claims of Christ that they find restricting and they shatter at the word separation, as though it had a ring of legality about it.
We were at a very beautiful wedding the other day at which I heard the same words repeated that has so often been repeated before.
As the young lady stood waiting to flip her arm through that upper expected bridegroom, she was asked a very talented question. Do you promise that, forsaking all others you will please to him only so long as he both shall live? Have you ever heard that question before? I heard it addressed to a young lady 27 years ago.
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And she said.
Yes, he said. I do. And you know, I don't believe that in any of these cases that I have witnessed, has there been any hesitation or thought of the legality involved in that, the privileges and whatnot that are going to be abandoned forever, forsaking all of their cleave to him only so long as he both shall live. I like the sound of that. May I put those words to you this afternoon here God has opened up his heart and said, I love you.
Very much I want you to have fullness of joy.
And I want it to be in your family too. And here is what I am going to put before you.
The word of God, with all its light and wisdom and bliss and story of love, reveals hidden in the heart and the soul seen in the activity of the hands and in that which we seek after talk over with our dear children. Not just once or twice, not just in order that they might know a verse for Sunday school, a fine thing to do, but just a topic woven into the conversation of every day.
What a memory. Well, now it says here in verse 20, and thou thought right them upon the doorposts of thine house. I like this. It seems that the house itself is recognized and stands out from others as a home where the word of God.
Is love and reverence. Would you like that to be the testimony of your home?
Dearly beloved parents, is it not true? And I speak with my own hand accusingly on my heart. Is it not true that we have ambitions for our home and our children that we need to judge before God?
I heard my father say to us.
Quite a good many times.
Suddenly I would sooner see you sweeping the streets of the city of Ottawa for a living and pleasing the Lord and making the biggest income in the problem.
I would sooner see you sweeping the streets of the city and living to please the Lord and making the biggest income in the province. And you know, as God gave us a family and the memory of those words came back to me.
They challenged me till I didn't know which way to turn.
I felt I couldn't honestly say such a thing. I felt that God knew that the desires are less and wrong. Desires that were in my heart. We like our children to be popular. We like them to be pointed out. We like them to excel in this or that.
By the only current that has to make such a confession is your desire. Is my desire that they might live for the glory of God.
If this precious book might mean more to them than it's ever meant to us.
And that the freshest claims of the Lord Jesus might lay hold of their hearts in a deeper way than it's ever touched our own. Always those ambitions of yours and mine are to see them advance in this world. We'll live to regret it. We'll live to regret it. I've seen it happen again and again. Ambitions raise those children higher and higher in the esteem of their fellow classmates at school. Until.
The charm of it all takes them completely away from the joy that is promised of fear in these passages.
Thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house. I was standing on the front porch of a home some time ago with a dear old man and a couple of little girls walked fast, and I saw them looking up at the dear old man, and he smiled and waved to them, and they went past and he hung his head. He said, Maybe I shouldn't tell you this, but you know what I heard one of those girls say to the other when she passed this home a while ago.
She plucked her little playmate coat sleeve and pointed to his house and said that's the home where they loved Jesus and talk about him.
Isn't that a nice testimony for a home? The word of God found upon the doorpost of such a home? Is that your home? If the Lord leaves us here, will that be the memory? Or children will take forth from the doors of your home? A home with the Lord Jesus was loved, where his praises were sung continually.
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Where his word was read with glad submission, I say again, beloved.
Will this be the memory that your children will take with them when they walk out one day from the front door of that home to set up a home of their own?
Bound upon the doorpost of the house and upon my gates. I suppose that's a little farther out, perhaps a little more public testimony. But this comes last. It begins in the heart. It works its way through the soul.
The hand, the eyes, is given to the children in such a precious and continual and natural way, and then the whole house is characterized by it. And finally the geek public testimonies. And then the wondrous promise of the Lord, the days of heaven upon the earth. Oh, beloved, I told you at the beginning, and it was an embarrassing and a very frightening thing that I had before me today.
It's the responsibility of parents.
And homes today, it's a big responsibility.
And I I don't think we realize but a difficult world our dear children and young people are facing. But if they're hedged about with the word of God, they're well protected.
You know very last verse of the Old Testament. I will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite thee first with a curse. It just seems to me that last picture.
When things are so dark and so indifferent and so evil, as though those fathers were just putting their arms around their children, that there might be found for them a bulwark against the evil that was in that day so dark, Let me go back again, please to that verse in Exodus 29. The holy garments of Aaron shall be his son after him.
Now, mind you, there is no father here or on the face of the earth.
That would ever think for one moment.
Of pointing to his children as though God had rewarded his faithfulness.
Every father and every mother would have to own in all honesty with their heads, Bob Lord with the tears running down their cheeks. But thou, blessings of the Lord upon our children, is sovereign, matchless, undeserved grace, And I own it before you.
Sovereign matchless.
Undeserved grace. But do we have a promise or do we not? Yet, beloved, we have the promise of God.
From the day that little one was given to us, we have the promise of God. May God grant that we shall lay hold upon these promises and display before them in our own life and testimony the fear of the Lord and the joy of the Lord. May I repeat that please? The fear of the Lord and the joy of the Lord, for I believe they go together. I guess a lot of folks considered my dad to be.
A very legal man.
I don't think he was.
I'm prejudice, of course, but I don't think he was. I think I have observed this in going in and out among the Lord's people. Now there's quite a distinction between the fear of God and legality.
A legal man is not a happy man. Do I not speak the truth? A legal man is not a happy man, but a man who walks in the fear of the Lord.
Is a happy man. He may have a conscience about the same thing that the other man, abhorred by His conscience, is governed by a joyful control of the fear of the Lord in his life. And I truly believe, dear Saints of God, that that which our children will remember if we walk with God in this.
The fear of the Lord and the joy of the Lord was the character of the home in which they grew up. And this we earnestly seek, with God's help, may be true of the homes and families represented here. Oh dear boys and girls and beloved young people, you buy only realize what a treasure we have in this book, and how needful it is for you and for me to read this precious book prayerfully, earnestly, and I.
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Hardly know whether to say this or not, but I sometimes recommend reading it on your knees. I was traveling with a young man some time ago, and each evening before we retired, this young man got his Bible, opened it with such loving reverence, and knelt down and read for a good long time on his knees. He didn't do it just to show off in front of me either. I knew him well enough for that. He had formed the habit of reading God's word on his knees.
And it shows in his life the young man that walks in the fear of God, and bears a testimony of real joy among those who know him well. Oh, May God grant that it shall be true, and that the holy garments of Aaron, made by the grace of God, be handed down from Father to son. You know, we ask the Lord bless you.
Two Paths - Saul and David
Address—C.E. Lunden
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So we turn to First Samuel, the 9th chapter. I'd just like to review a little bit of Sauls life and of Davide.
Connection with a Psalm that we might read also later. We read a verse here and there, first Samuel 9 in the second verse, Speaking of Kish. And he had a son whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a good lady. And there was not among the children of Israel a goodly or person than he. From his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.
And the ***** of Kish, Saul's father, were lost, and Kish said to Saul his son.
Take now one of the servants with thee, and rise. Go seek the assets. Now while he's seeking the ***** he turns, and he meets the prophet. So we read from the 19th verse, eighteenth verse. Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate and said, Tell me, I pray thee, where the Sears house is. And Samuel answered Saul and said, I am the seer. Go up before me into the high place, where you shall eat with me today, and tomorrow I will let thee go, and will tell thee all that is.
Heart. And As for thine ***** that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them, for they are found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee and on thy Father's house?
Saul answered and said, Am not I of Benjamin, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Wherefore then speakest thou?
So to me. And Samuel took Saul and his servant, and brought them into the parlor, and made them sit in the cheapest place among them that were bidden, which were about 30 persons.
Verse 27 And as they were going down to the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Bid thy servant pass on before us. Then he passed on.
But stand thou still a while, that I may show thee the word of God.
Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the Lord has anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance? I turned to me with the to the 15th chapter. We read in this chapter how the Lord had told Samuel to tell Saul to go out and to slay all the Amalekites, and now he's returning. 12Th verse. And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel saying.
A Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set him up.
A place and has gone about and passed on and gone down to Gilgal.
And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord.
I have performed the commandment of the Lord, and Samuel said, What meaneth? And this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear, And Saul said They have brought them from the Amalekites.
And the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord has said.
This night. And he said unto him, Say on.
And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, was thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed the king over Israel.
And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites.
And fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and deceive on the side of the Lord?
He Saul said unto Samuel, Yeah, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amli, and have utterly destroyed the Malachites. But the people took of the spoil sheep and oxen the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal.
Samuel said that the Lord his great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord.
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.
And to hearken than the fat of Rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. 30th verse.
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Then he said, I have sinned yet honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people.
And before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord thy God.
So Samuel turned again after Saul, and Saul worshipped the Lord.
35th verse. And Sam became no more to the seesaw until the day of his death.
Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord repented that he had made Saul.
King over Israel. Now, in this portion that we've read, we've had the history, and part of it at least, of a religious man, the man who had been appointed as head over God's people.
That is when he was little in his own sight.
And we find that he was very surprised when he received this appointment.
It was something that perhaps he had never thought of, that he would be in such a position.
And as far as his natural characteristics were, he was the choice of the people.
He was the man that the people loved to have as a king, head and shoulders above the rest.
A good lady, to look upon everything that the natural man desired. Now this is a picture to us of the man after the flesh, religious flesh, if you please.
And we find that God is going to test everyone.
There are two kinds of people that profess the name of Christ.
One of the mayor, one of them is.
One who is a mere professor.
He may go along outwardly as Saul did. He was even among the prophets.
Prophesying.
He gave every indication outwardly of the position that he took in a spiritual way.
But God tests everything.
He tests everyone, he tests the person, and he tests the work.
And so we learned that.
Everyone shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice with salt.
A test. Now this 15th chapter is the test.
He sent him out to destroy the Amalekites.
But instead of obeying the voice of the Lord, he used his own natural wisdom.
And no doubt he did it to please the people.
Though we find that he loses his Kingdom.
Through disobedience.
If we were to read more of the history of Saul, we would see in the 10th chapter of Chronicles, I believe First Chronicles, the end of that man.
And we see how he has to go, finally, having disregarded the word of God.
God will no longer hear him, and he goes to a witch.
The Witch of Ender for his instructions, only to be told of his doom. What a what a beautiful beginning for a man, and yet what a sad ending.
Now turn with me to.
A little further in First Samuel.
In the 16th chapter, immediately we find God taking up another man to be a king.
In Israel the Lord said unto Samuel, How long will thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Bill Einhorn with oil, and go out assembly to Jesse the Beth of the Mic, for I have provided me a king among his sons.
Samuel said, How can I go? If Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take an heifer with thee, and say I am come to sacrifice the Lord. He called Jesse to the sacrifice. And I will show thee what thou shalt do. Thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee.
Now we have the various sons passing before Samuel and the 11Th verse.
And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children?
And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and behold, he keepeth the sheep.
And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch it, fetch him, for we will not sit down till he come hit her. And he sat and brought him in. Now he was ready, and with all of a beautiful.
Uh, countenance and goodly to look to.
And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he.
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Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.
Well, this is all we need to read about David.
It makes us think of another one who is to be anointed in the midst of His brethren.
The Lord Jesus.
God has anointed him already, but he's going to anoint him publicly in the midst of his brethren.
We find David here, that the Spirit of God came upon him from that day forward.
Well, this is a rather an interesting connection the Spirit of God.
If we were to trace the rest of Saul's history connection with David, we'd find that it was only David that could drive that evil spirit away from Saul.
Through playing on the harp.
Because Saul was possessed.
More or less from this moment on with an evil spirit.
But we find David a man after God's own heart.
That possessed another spirit, not indwelling perhaps as we have today, but the spirit came upon him from that day forward.
And so this sets before us a different kind of life, dear young people.
Then was found in Saul.
Saul's life was prompted by the flesh.
And the activity of the flesh. And God has said the end of all flesh has come before me.
We see the sad end of Saul.
How different was David's end?
As David's life goes on, it brightens into those beautiful, beautiful psalms that he left us.
And we'll turn to one in a moment.
Because it's the expression. The sounds are the expression of a kind of life.
A new life.
And oftentimes we find in the Psalms the very expressions of the Lord Jesus himself.
Because it's the same life as it not, dear young people. The very same life that was found in the Lord Jesus is found in those who put their trust in Him.
And so we find David then, anointed, but one who was keeping the sheep, his father's sheep.
Was occupied with his father's ***** David with his father's sheep.
One would suggest that which was unclean.
But the other the clean.
Well, that's the that's the course of a newborn soul.
One who has put the Lord always before him. Now if you'll turn with me for a few moments to Psalm 16, because it's David who wrote this Psalm 16, I take it.
And it's the expression of the heart of a young man.
Who?
New God.
He had that light.
A young man who had that life that pleased God.
I believe this title gives us the thought that it's a golden Psalm of David. That is, it's a very special Psalm.
Golden Song.
Of David.
It's the very breathing of that new nature. And as we read this Psalm.
Let's not think of our circumstances for the moment. Let's not think of all that surrounds us.
But let's think for the moment of what we have in Christ, that new life that is within us, and the way it expresses itself.
Because that's the subject of this Psalm. Other psalms later take up the circumstances, the trials and difficulties of the people of God.
But this Psalm rather takes us into the inner circle, the inner man.
The vital things.
Preserved me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust.
All my soul that was said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord, My goodness extendeth not to thee.
To the Saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
Their sorrow shall be multiplied, that hastened after another God.
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Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer nor take up their names into my lips.
The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup.
Thou maintainest my life.
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yeah, I have a goodly heritage.
I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons.
I have set the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand. I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope.
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One, to see corruption.
Thou will show me the path of life. In Thy presence is fullness of joy.
At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
This Psalm takes us through from the very moment.
The beginning of that new life, until we're home in the glory.
What a path.
Doesn't show us the path of the wilderness. No, it shows us the path of communion all the way through until we reach the end.
Oh how good this is.
I'm sure that it's a Psalm that particularly refers to the Lord Jesus.
And that's what makes it the most important instruction for us.
Because it isn't so important, you know, for us to be occupied with ourselves.
But if we're Speaking of this new life, it's Christ.
And so as we trace him through this Psalm, we see the very same life that we have.
Now the very first breathing of a newborn soul is this first verse.
If you can't say this, you don't have life.
Preserved me, oh God, for in thee do I put my trust.
I ask you, dear young people this afternoon, has this been the expression of your heart?
Isn't the expression of your heart?
Preserve me, O God. Now he goes straight to God here.
For thee do I put my trust.
You know no creature of God will ever live in his creation.
Forever, except in the place of dependence.
That's what characterizes man dependence.
Isn't that lovely to see the Lord Jesus taking this place?
Coming down, taking the place of dependence. That verse in the last, the last verse of the 14th of John that was read to us this morning, and that the world may know.
That I love the Father even as he has given me commandment, so I do.
And I believe that first was referring to his going straight to the cross.
Even as He has given me commandments, so I do though the blessed Savior.
Our Savior.
He came down to where we were.
He took the place that man had fallen from.
And he showed that man was to live in complete dependence upon God.
The cast himself entirely upon God.
And ever so even in the 22nd of Luke.
When he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood.
In complete dependence, he offers himself up as a sacrifice.
He offers himself.
He doesn't demand that, he offers himself.
And so he could say in John, therefore does my father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. This commandment have I received of my father.
Now, dear young people, does this sound like what we read about Saul?
No. But isn't it nice to see in the Old Testament, one after another, who in some little way manifests that that new nature that was seen in Christ down here, one who would walk in obedience, dependence?
And these lovely examples that we have in the Old Testament that have been brought to our attention so often.
Of different ones who walked in the path of faith. Hebrews 11 for instance.
Just a bright light here and a bright light there, showing out something of that new nature.
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Response to what God has.
Desired.
Now, I suppose it isn't so much obedience here.
As it is dependence that we have in this chapter and the heart responding.
We find the Lord Jesus before us.
Beautifully here preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust.
Now, dear young people, is this the language of your hearts as you go to carry out your schoolwork?
All the opposition that you find around you preserve me, O God, for thee do I put my trust.
This is the only way of safety.
If you think that you can trust your mind.
The word of God says he that trusts his own heart is a fool.
How lovely to find our place at the very start of life.
Independence upon God preserved me, O, for in thee do I put my trust.
And I'd like to ask if there are any young people here who have never put their trust in the Lord Jesus?
What will you do, my friend, when the day of judgment comes? Who is going to preserve you then?
All that you could say this afternoon preserved me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust.
If you haven't said it, say it now.
And put your trust in the Lord Jesus.
Now we find in the second verse.
In all my soul.
Thou has said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to thee.
We find the Lord Jesus taking his place down here as a man.
And as a man, he takes the place of faith in obedience.
This was something new, and we say it reverently.
His place always was to command.
He was the creator. He is the creator.
But now he takes the place of dependence, and so as such as one independent a man.
He could say to God, My goodness extendeth not to thee.
It's a place God never took. As such, He always was in the place supreme.
Now one might say, well, how does this apply to you and me then? Surely we could never say a thing like this because we're so far off from any goodness at all. There's none at all with us.
Well, only in the sense you know that we're associated with the Lord Jesus in that new life.
And so we find that it's it's so, but think of the blessed Savior coming down to take our place.
Being made sin for us.
Down to the very bottom, that he might win our souls, but to the Saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. Now this is the delight of the new nature.
How about our companions, dear young people?
The Lord Jesus found his companions with those who were at John the Baptist baptism.
Those who owned righteousness, that God was righteous in condemning the Sinner, and that their sins would have cast them into hell.
And they repent and they're baptized, and the Lord Jesus takes his place, and we see him baptized in the midst of them.
He identifies himself with this little remnant of faith.
Well, that new life is expressed here, and so it is with the.
Believer today your young people. Where are your companions? Who do you choose for your companions? The Saints?
The excellent of the earth, as God speaks of them.
And so the Lord Jesus found his company down here, those who honored the Father.
Those who responded to his precious word.
Those were his companions.
And he chooses from them 12 disciples.
Contrast their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God.
What does this mean? Well, you know, we become a servant to that which we cannot do without Anything that our heart goes after instead of Christ becomes a God to us if it becomes an object. And so it wasn't Jacob's house. And there came a time when God told him to go to Bethel, and he told his family to put away their gods, whatever they were.
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Anything that was taking the heart away from the purpose that was in view to go to Bethel, to the true God.
And so there are hundreds of things that may come in the lives of.
A man, and even the Christian, that may become, as it were, a God to him.
But sorrow is ahead for that course.
The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and my cup. Thou maintain us my lot.
Now we have the inheritance and we have the cup, you know, with the priests of the Old Testament.
When God divided up the land through Moses, the priests were not given an inheritance.
We might turn to Joshua. Joshua the 13th chapter and the 14th 1St.
Only under the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance.
The sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel, made by fire, are their inheritance.
As he said unto them, verse 33. But under the tribe of Levi.
Moses gave not any inheritance, for the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto them.
Well, now the people of God today, you know, are spoken of as priests.
We don't have any inheritance down here. We're strangers and pilgrims. Well then, dear young people, what is our inheritance? The Lord is our inheritance, and so as we go on, we're looking forward to the moment, not when we will be in pleasant surroundings.
Not when we will have a little place off on a hill by ourselves, as some people put it. No if, if that if that new life is.
If we're in the enjoyment of that new life, it'll be a person.
Not some particular circumstance that we think of Indiana connection with the inheritance.
Because you know, God has so made these hearts of ours.
That it's only a person that can satisfy.
The human heart.
Is Christ?
And so it's the Lord that is the portion of our inheritance.
Now this takes it in as the whole portion.
But then each day you know we have a cup, don't we? Just a measured out according to what we need.
And He's that too. It's as the Spirit of God brings to us day by day what we need. And what do we need? Well, Christ is the answer to all of it, but we find it, do we not? In His Word. And how are we going to have this cup of ours filled each day unless we read His precious Word? The lines are fallen. Thou maintain us my lot.
Thou maintain us my lot.
How is it that we can keep a steady course through this world? How is it that we can be preserved?
According to the first verse.
Well, the Lord is our portion, He maintains our lot. He's the cup, the portion for each day.
There's no wavering here, not with the right object before us.
I will see David pushing his way through. Do we see him sitting on the throne? But yet we find that it was God that placed him there, but it was faith continually that was cast himself upon Jehovah. And as you read the Psalms, you'll see through the various trials of David's life as he writes these Psalms in the midst of these trials.
Which are a blessing to us.
And will be a blessing to the people of God in the coming day. But with a very breathings of David's own soul as he passed through these trials and testings. Well, our chapter is the way through, but it's the soul that's in the enjoyment of heavenly things. It's the soul that's in the enjoyment of the Lord as his portion.
In this chapter.
So the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. You have a goodly heritage. Why? Because I have a bank account.
Because I have been brought up in good circumstances.
No, dear young people.
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It's not that at all. It's because the Lord is the portion of our inheritance in our cup.
That's why. That's why the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places.
And if we look on to the end, we'll see why, because it's his desire to bless us spiritually, not in temple things, and how often these temporal things rob our souls of that which is really life, because we're occupied with them, and they may even become gods to us.
No, the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places.
And in this connection, I'd like to read a verse in John.
John 14, John 15 and 11, these things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Now what was His joy? That's what we've been Speaking of in this chapter. It was communion with the Father.
We find the Lord in this 16th Psalm is saying these words. The Lord is my portion. It's the Jehovah on earth, the man Christ Jesus that's looking up to God independence and there's these objects as he passes through this world. We're applying it of course to ourselves because we have that same life.
Now he says to his disciples.
He wants the same joy that he has fulfilled in themselves.
That's the joy he wants them to have, the very joy that he himself has as he passes through this world.
I will bless the Lord who have given me counsel.
Now it's a wonderful thing when we need it to get counsel.
But unless we go on in the enjoyment of communion, as we've had so far in this Psalm, how can we expect proper counsel to go on in a worldly way, and then suddenly, when we find ourselves in difficulties, to expect counsel?
It just doesn't sell and then we make mistakes.
We find ourselves in difficulty.
That the Lord Jesus always as a man down here acted in keeping with that new life at every turn, every movement that he made was in keeping with that new life because that was he was the author of it, but He was the full expression of it as a man down here.
But also having counsel, it may come through a brother you know, or even a sister.
God has his own ways of giving us counsel, but it is through His word, of course.
But then we have also.
My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons, and so every believer has the Spirit of God indwelling him.
He has the anointing of the Spirit, and through that anointing of the Spirit we have the intelligence and discernment that we need as we pass through this world.
There are times when we need special counsel, that's true. But we're always.
At the place where this is available to us, the anointing of the Spirit.
And how often times when we get away from the hustle and the bustle.
Of this life alone with God. I suppose that's what the night season would suggest.
Then our minds and hearts are clear to understand the path.
My reigns instruct me in the night seasons. Now what's the result? Oh, it becomes a joyous path. I have set the Lord always before me. How the soul is enriched here.
Now it's the sense of his being at my right hand and there's confidence.
I shall not be moved.
You want to be established in your soul.
That's first Peter 5, isn't it?
He's called us to His eternal glory after you suffered a while and after you're established.
Well, this is the path then to be established.
My right hand I shall not be moved. The right hand is the place of strength.
I shall not be moved.
Therefore, my heart is glad.
You know, sometimes young people think that they can be made happy by the present things of this world, the things that glitter, the things that attract the five senses. But that isn't what brings gladness. Dear young people, if you're a child of God, you'll find that gladness comes.
00:35:12
Gladness of heart comes through this path we have set before us, this path of life.
You know, Moses didn't call upon God to show him a path through the wilderness. That wasn't what he asked for. If you'll read in the 32nd chapter of Exodus, you'll see that he called upon God in this way. Show me thy way, O Lord, that I might know thee.
Would there be any question of the path then?
No. If we have God's way, we might know Him. Surely he has a path.
That the vulture's eye hasn't seen.
It's only faith and faith alone that can tread this path and the path of gladness and joy.
Of heart.
My flesh also shall rest in hope, confidently, confidently.
Well, this takes us then through until we reach the glory.
And I suppose the 10th verse, although it has a special application to the Lord Jesus, it has a moral setting here.
It's the path locked in communion down here.
Leads on through death, straight into the glory, and that's the end of the path of faith.
For the Newman.
Thou wilt show me the path of life. Think of it. Thou wilt show me the path of life. It's right through death. No, there's nothing that hinders that new life, not even death.
That will show me the path of life in Thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures plural forevermore. Well, now compare the path of David and the path of Saul, and Saul wins his way across.
The battlefield that night to get his instructions from a witch, only to find out that he would be destroyed the next day in battle.
And here, David, in this ending of this lovely Psalm.
As Thou will show me the path of life, in Thy presence is fullness of joy, fullness of joy. Notice that at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
But what a choice David made. What a choice Saul made by Clarence Lundbean.
Clear him #139?
This world is a wilderness wide we have nothing to seek or to choose.
We've no thought in the ways to abide. We've not to regret nor to lose. The Lord has Himself gone before. He has marked out the path that we tread. It's as sure as the love we adore. We have nothing to fear nor to dread.
Luke 4:16
Gospel—A.C. Hayhoe
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I'd like you to turn with me please, first of all to the Gospel of Luke, the 4th chapter of Lukes Gospel.
16th verse.
And he, Jesus, came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.
And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read, and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives.
And recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are frozen to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. I believe you and I have noticed before that if we were to turn back to the 61St chapter of Isaiah, which is being quoted and read here in these verses, we would find that there is one more statement following that which we just read to preach.
The acceptable year of the Lord and.
The day of vengeance of our God.
There is quite a difference, is there not, between a year and a day.
One is 365 times greater than the other, and I love to think of that as I read such a statement as we have here hear. The Lord Jesus stands in the company of those who needed His love and grace and mercy and pardon, and He says with joy that it is His mission.
To open the eyes of the blind, to heal a broken heart, and to preach deliverance to the captives.
Preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he doesn't finish the statement.
The next part of the statement which he leaves unread is this, the day of vengeance of our God. And I find this to be very, very significant, for I feel that we find in that comparison the matchless, wondrous grace of God in all its largeness as compared to.
That vengeance which yet will certainly fall.
The year, the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of bending. Oh, how this magnifies the wondrous, matchless, loving heart of God.
In grace it precedes the mention of judgment, and it abounds far above the description given of judgment and vengeance, even as a year exceeds a day.
So the grace and love of the heart of God far exceeds that mention of judgment which we find here. And this is very much on my heart tonight, the acceptable year of the Lord. Now you and I can measure a year, 365 days and a little more.
And at the beginning of the year, in the month of January, we know that there's quite a bit of that year left yet to run its course.
But when I read these verses here, and when I see these words to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, I ask you, in what month, in what day of this acceptable year of the grace and long-suffering of God, do you suppose we are this very light?
I feel firmly convinced, and I know I'm by number means alone in this, that we are right at the very end of the acceptable year of the Lord. We're right at the very end of the long-suffering and matchless grace of God which has looked down in lingering love and mercy.
00:05:19
To a world which spit in the face of his beloved son.
And crucified him and sealed him in a tomb as much as to say we put him to death and we don't ever want to see him again. And God has looked down in love to this guilty world for over 1900 years since they put his beloved Son to death. And I am sure from the testimony of this book and I am sure from.
Which I see around me today that the very last moments of the acceptable year of the grace of God are upon us this very night.
Though there's kind of strange feeling that comes over us as the last moments of an old year ticked slowly by.
I guess quite a good many of us have remained up and awake in order that we might just have that unusual experience of observing the last few moments of an old year passed by and the first dawning moments of a new year ushered in upon us. And I must say, as I stand here with God's precious Word open before me, and look into the faces of those.
Who are bound for eternity, that I feel firmly convinced, my beloved friend, that I am witnessing the last moments of the acceptable year of the Lord. But I stand here expecting at any moment they hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we were reminded today saying.
Come up, hit her.
I was reminded today of a dear brother who can neither hear nor speak, and he expressed a little concern about the prospect of the Lord coming with that mighty shout of triumph because he had never heard a human voice in all his life. Well, I remember visiting a dear old man. His name was Brother Wilkins.
Of Thomaston, New Brunswick. He was not stoned deaf, but pretty close to it. And I went to one year and I hollered a verse of scripture in that year.
And he shook his head in disappointment while I walked around to the other side. And I tried the other ear. He shook his head again. I walked back again and made one more attempt.
And again he shook his head, looking a little bit sad, and then all of a sudden his face brightened up with joy and he said, never mind brother, I'll hear the shout when it comes. Are you able to say the same thing? Do you mind if I just look right straight at you and ask you that question? Will you hear the voice of the Lord Jesus?
If you were to call right now in this very room, everyone who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
Everyone whose heart is cleansed from every stain of sin. In a moment the acceptable year of the Lord comes to an end. And in that moment the sound of His voice with a shout of glad triumph is heard. Oh, I thank God, I stand here and say, I'll hear that voice. In that glorious and joyful moment I'll hear his voice, and I will be gone.
If that were to take place during the course of this gospel meeting, the meeting would suddenly come to an end. I would be gone.
Oh, as I look at these rows, I wonder. As I look at you, I wonder, would each and every row here be totally vacated with that seat?
For you are the empty. What an awful thing it would be. What a terrible thing it would be if suddenly, and you know I am not drawing upon my imagination, you know I speak the truth, if suddenly in this very meeting.
00:10:05
You were found sitting alone in that rope, and you looked around with.
Horror to realize what you had heard over and over again and what you thought wouldn't happen for a long time yet has suddenly taken place. You would know right away what had taken place. There are a lot of people in this land, a lot of people in Hessler and where I come from, who know nothing whatever about it. I think they would be taken by complete surprise.
They would be bewildered. Where are these neighbors of ours?
Where are these people whom we used to know? They've suddenly vanished and we don't know what happened. I can picture the dismay, the bewilderment in a town where I live at this moment, which is most certainly going to take place.
And who will tell them what has happened? Who will answer their?
Question.
I'm sorry to have to tell you that the ones who will answer their questions and tell them what happened will be.
The sons and daughters of Christian parents who heard about this over and over again and didn't intend to be left behind. Oh no. They intended to settle the matter and be numbered among the redeemed in order that they also might be called away. But they were left.
Really awful, awful reality of telling the bewildered people I know what's happened. I can tell you where they have gone. The Lord has come. I heard my father talk about it often. I've heard it preached in the place that I attended over and over. My Sunday school teacher told me it was going to happen. And now I'm left behind.
Oh, I tell you, I am not imagining this beloved friend. This is going to take place.
The acceptable year of the Lord. Oh how matchless is his long-suffering and the day of vengeance of our God. Or when I put the two side by side, it seems to me to magnify the love and the grace of the heart of God. The acceptable year of the Lord.
You know, I will admit that as we were together just before this meeting in prayer for the blessing of the Lord.
There seemed to be laid on my heart the special thought of the passing of time. I think because that there's something very significant about today.
That rather sets it apart from all the other days on the calendar. Am I not right in thinking that at midnight tonight we're going to turn back our clocks so that we actually experience, if you wish, 25 hours instead of 24 today?
Is that not true? Is this not rather an unusual day, that there's going to be one extra hour, by man's reckoning, given to us today?
And I feel that this may have influenced my thoughts as they turn to that which God's Word declares concerning the passing of time and the grace of God that accompanies the passing of time.
And yet the warnings that are found in God's Word as the years and the months passed by. Shall we turn from this to?
Exodus, the 12Th chapter of Exodus.
And the first verse.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of month. It shall be the first month of the year to you. This to me is a very, very beautiful story. Here are the children of Israel in captivity, slavery, ******* in the land of Egypt.
Day after day they wept and they groaned under that *******.
And the eye of God looked down upon their sorrows, that the ear of God heard those groanings. And God said to Moses, I'm going to deliver them from this. I'm going to take them cleaner of the land altogether, and set their feet in a land that flows with milk and honey. And the wondrous story of deliverances introduced with these words, This month shall be unto you, the beginning of month.
00:15:10
It shall be the first month of the year.
To you, it was going to mean the end of their slavery and their *******. It was going to mean the prospect of a land that flowed with milk and honey and all. Beloved friend, as I stand here, I look back to the days when I too was a slave.
In *******.
A burden of sin, a burden of guilt, and a cruel taskmaster. And my face set not toward the glorious land that flows with milk and honey and all the blessings of God, but my face sat downward on the broad Rd. that leads to destruction. And God looked down upon me and in wondrous, matchless love and mercy.
There came into my life the beginning of months.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, having gone to the cross and accomplished redemption, having shed His precious blood in order that God might have the joy of offering pardon, full and free forgiveness from every stain of guilt, in spite of this offer of mercy.
I still was on that broad Rd. I wonder is this true of anyone else here?
These things are not new to you, you have heard them before.
And I don't believe there's anyone here that can turn away and say.
I don't believe that these things are true. I don't believe that there's any burden or stain of guilt in connection with my life. You know very well there is, friend, and I beg of you to remember this, that God's record of your life is stained with many, many more sins than you could possibly remember or I.
For God's reckoning of sin is not according to man's. God says the thought of foolishness is sin.
And every act of anger, jealousy, disobedience.
Any of these things in your life or mine have been solemnly written down by the finger of God on the record of your life. And now I want to ask you that if God were to turn those pages and open his book at the page where your name is written down, what would be found recorded there if there were to be found but one stain of guilt, Just one.
My friend, there would have to be written beneath your name that solemn word.
Lost.
Now it's serious enough, beloved friend, to be lost today.
In the moments of time to be lost during the acceptable year of the Lord, to be lost while yet there is hope and the offer of pardon. But oh friend, remember this, that as that solemn word loss stands written underneath your name.
There are souls who are even now in a lost eternity. I find myself thinking of this over and over again as the responsibility of preaching the gospel is laid upon my shoulders. For as I look into your faces and know that God is giving you this opportunity of hearing the gospel.
I cannot help but be reminded again and again.
Of those who had this privilege and they're not here tonight.
They're gone. They've gone into an eternity without Christ and their lost forever. They're lost forever.
A solemn thing that is now here. We find in Exodus 12 That God, having looked down upon these people, says to them through Moses, that this month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you, so wondrous was the event that was to take place.
That God just sort of stopped the calendar and said we're going to start all over again.
From this day onward, this is going to be a new beginning.
00:20:00
Now in the ways of God, in matchless grace with this rebellious soul of mine.
It so happens that I was born again on New Year's Day.
The first day of the year just coincides with my spiritual birthday. I know that's rather unusual, but so it is. And when that New Year's Day comes around, by the grace of God, I remember the matchless, long-suffering grace that brought me to my knees to own that I was lost and guilty.
And to receive from the hand of God that which He had offered me again and again and yet again, the forgiveness of all my sins, the gift of eternal life, and the certainty of a home up there in the glory.
He is offering this to you tonight.
Will you not, will you not give him the joy of making that grand and wondrous new beginning? Also in your pathway, you right now are either on a broad Rd. that leads to eternal hell or you are on the narrow Rd. that leads to eternal glory.
Can you answer, friend? Can you answer? On which of those two roads are your footsteps this very night? You entered this meeting room either lost or saved. You entered this meeting room either guilty or pardon. You entered this meeting room either bound for eternal hell or bound for everlasting glory. There is no middle stand between those two.
Could you and you and you would everyone here truthfully answer tonight Which of these two conditions describes my case?
Lost, guilty and on your road to hell.
Or save and pardon, and on your road to glory. Is it any wonder that we find words like these? This month shall be unto you the being beginning of months. It shall be the first month.
Of the year to you. I'm pretty sure in the life of everyone of us, we look back to certain very outstanding events, something that took place and we said I'll never forget this day as long as I live. Some of those things that seem so important at the time of rather faded away, have they not? But this event was so important that God stopped the calendar and started it all over again on that day.
And all I say to you, as we look at this wondrous story of the Passover lamb slain and its sprinkled blood on the lentil on the two side posts sheltering those Israelites from the judgment of God, I say, what a marvelous picture.
And what a wonderful and yet solemn statement this is. This month shall be unto you. The beginning of month. It shall be the first month of the year to you.
I don't believe we need to go over this story, for that was not really my point in turning to this passage. However, I believe we ought to say this that judgment fell on absolutely every home in all the land.
The Egyptians and the Israelites alike, judgment fell upon every home. On some homes it fell on the first born. On others it fell on the lamb.
A substitute.
Judgment fell upon the lamb. There wasn't a home in all the land, be it an Israelite or an Egyptian, that God could look down and say there is no need for judgment to visit this home. Our friend, judgment must fall either upon me or upon my substitute, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you do not yet know, the Lord Jesus Christ as.
Your own personal savior.
Then I must say this in faithfulness to you and in accordance with God's word, that the judgment of God hangs over your head right now, no matter how respectable, clean, upright, honorable your life and testimony may be, I say once again, the judgment of God hangs over your head.
00:25:11
Unless you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
And so we see in that land the homes of the proud and self-righteous Egyptians and the homes of those slaves, the Israelites. And we look one by one at the homes of those Israelites. And we see on every home the sprinkled blood on the lentil. And on the two side posts it could actually be seen although.
When the Lord went by at midnight.
I suppose no human eye could see it, but his eye could, even though it was midnight. And you know, right now in this meeting, as I look up and down the rows, there's something that the eye of God can see that I cannot see. Permit me, then to look up and down these roads and to remind you as I do so, that the eye of God is looking.
Not at a company of people, but at you, my friend, right where you sit on that road.
The eye of God is looking at something which I cannot see, nor can your father, your mother, nor whoever may be sitting beside you.
That God's eye at this moment sees that heart of yours, and this heart of mine, either cleansed from every state of sin by the precious blood of the Lamb of God, or with those stains of guilt still there.
Would you not wish that this might be for you also, the beginning of months, this day in which we are granted that one extra hour? Could it not be just that special day for you when by the matchless grace of God, your needs?
Are bowed in His presence, that you might accept Him as your savior.
I was visiting in a home just a few days ago.
And there sat before me a young man just in the vigor of young manhood, and he bowed his head and he said, I have turned my back on the Lord since the early days when I went to Sunday school in Montreal. Again and again and again and again. I have not only turned my back against Him, but I have.
Fought against him tonight when you or this afternoon?
Will you please show me how I can receive him as my savior?
And he knelt down. He owned that he was lost. He owned two that he had turned again and again away from it against the Lord.
And he received the Lord Jesus as his Savior, and he rose from his knees and spoke with joy of what it means to have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my own Savior. Oh, I was so glad to hear those very words from his lips. Have you ever told anyone in all your life?
I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ.
As my savior, perhaps the best that's ever yet been gotten out of you is when someone cornered you and said are you saved? And you said yes because you didn't want them to bother you any further. Am I not speaking the truth?
Come now, I'm going to ask you plainly, and I want you to answer before God. Have you ever in all your life told anyone I know the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior? Permit me please to repeat that which I know I have mentioned before the occasion of a gospel meeting.
In which there was a deer, but sad old lady sitting on the front row. Her heart was sad because her dear son Henry had turned his back on the Lord and had not been seen under the sound of the gospel for many years. And to my astonishment, unknown to her, I saw her son Henry come in and sit on the back row.
Well, it caused me great joy to see Henry sitting there. But you know, at the end of that meeting, he turned.
00:30:00
He turned to Doctor Harold Hewitt, who was present at the meeting. And he accepted the Lord Jesus as his savior. And he said, I'm going up to the front to tell my mother I'm saved. And someone heard Henry say that, and they tapped him on the shoulder and said, Henry, if that's really true, you can tell your mother something better than that.
Said what better than to go and tell her that I'm saved? He said yes.
Could you tell your mother tonight I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior? He smiled and he walked right up the aisle and all I can see it get from his dear mother saw that he'd even been at the Gospel meeting. Her face lighted up with joy. He sat down beside her. He said, mother, I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ.
As my Savior, God's Word says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth.
The Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved.
I'm going to ask you again, have you ever told anyone in your life?
I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, the acceptable year of the Lord. It's just about run out.
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. Let's turn over to 2nd Corinthians and we'll bring it down closer still. Not a year this time, not a month, but Second Corinthians chapter 6, the last part of the second verse.
Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is.
The day of salvation.
Now is the day of salvation.
Tomorrow, as we speak of things, is Sunday or the Lord's Day. But could anyone here stand up and say now I am absolutely sure that tomorrow I am going to do this or that?
You may have your purposes. You may have your plans for tomorrow.
But God's Word would stop us short right here.
Mention of a year, no mention of a month. But here we find it brought down closer still. Now is the accepted time. Behold, what does that word mean? It means take heed, pay attention, look. Now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
Oh, I am looking tonight into the faces of those whose hearts are filled with Thanksgiving to the Lord, that there was a day in your life when you were brought to your knees to own your lost and guilty condition and to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Perhaps you can't specify just exactly even the day or place.
But you know that this occasion has taken place.
You know that on the authority of God's precious Word and by virtue of the precious blood of Christ, that that day of salvation has already taken place in the years that have been entrusted to you. Is that true of all of us? I'm trying tonight to present the message to anyone here.
Who may not get known with God-given certainty.
That this matter of which we speak is a settled matter between your soul and God. You may have heard the gospel so often, and remember its message so well, that you could turn to others and direct them where they're they ought to go.
And tell them the way to heaven, and yet be among those who are lost forever.
You know, I remember one time I was on my way to Bermuda and I was at La Guardia Airport in New York. Now, this is quite a while ago. They don't fly from La Guardia to Bermuda any longer, but that's the way it was at that time. And I had my passport and I had my ticket and I had the number of the departure gate and I knew the time and number of the flight.
00:35:11
And I looked at my watch.
And I said no, I'm going to listen very carefully for the sound of that flight number being called.
Well, I don't know whether others are fascinated by the activities of an airport the way I am, but I found I remember quite well a nice plate glass window in the TWA office and I could see that Cummings and goings and it fascinated me. I heard flights being announced one after the other, but I didn't hear mine until suddenly I looked at my watch.
And the departure was within about 3 minutes.
And I had a long way to go to the gate where I was supposed to board that plane and.
I'm sure the folks I passed by looked on and bewilderment as I rushed past one gate after another. And I came to the departure lounge and there was no one there except the girl behind the counter. And I said, as the flight's been called for Bermuda, she said, call, everybody's on board. And I said, where's the plane? She said out there. And I looked out and there the steps were still up the door and there was a stewardess standing at the door looking just a little bit puzzled.
And I ran.
And I went up those steps and I can see her yet as I handed in my boarding pass, she just shook her head like that and closed the door behind me. You know, I sat down, puffing and puffing and thinking to myself what a fool I was. There was a passport, there was a paid ticket, everything in readiness for departure. But I was so taken up with something which was not the least bit wrong, but so taken up that.
Moment of departure almost caught me at unawares. Now, my beloved friend, you sit here in this gospel meeting tonight with an open Bible in your hand. You heard God's way of salvation over and over and over again. You know that all it was necessary has been fully paid for the Lord Jesus Christ in hanging there upon the cross of Calvary.
And enduring that awful load and burden of sin pride, it is finished.
All the price was paid, but you, my friend, in this world that is so filled with that which attracts the attention of man today, have perhaps forgotten at the moment of the return of the Lord Jesus to take His own away, may find you with everything necessary as far as the knowledge of the way of salvation is concerned.
But there's one vital thing you have forgotten.
You have not yet personally owned your lost condition and received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. May I ask you one further question? Perhaps you say? Oh yes, I'm pretty sure.
I remember when I was a little boy this took place. May I ask you then this other question? When did you last thank Him for paying that mighty debt for you?
For shedding his precious blood, that you might be redeemed. Oh, I think this is a question that we are entitled to ask you. You claim to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You claim to rejoice, to know that you're going to spend eternity up there with him in the glory. Is it possible?
That having received from His loving hand that wondrous and costly gift, the forgiveness of every stain of sin, the wondrous reality of eternal life sent from above, and the certainty of a home with Himself up there in the glory. All this you claim to have received. But do you thank Him for it? Is there still something that you wish me to believe happened a long time ago?
From that day onward, you've just gone on as you did before.
Oh, friend, let me ask you, you who would wish me to take you for a believer, when did you last thank the Lord Jesus, or that which He did for your guilty soul and mine upon the cross of Calvary? Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. I'd like to turn to one more scripture. This one is not at all an appeal to the.
00:40:08
Unbeliever, but a solemn verse in Luke's Gospel.
Luke Chapter.
22.
Luke, chapter 22.
And verse 53.
The Lord Jesus is speaking here.
When I was daily with you in the temple. He stretched forth, no hands against me. But this is your hour and the power of darkness.
Permit me please, just to speak of this hour of which our Lord Jesus referred here in the moments of time has come, that occasion when the Son of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ sent into this world from the loving heart of God to reveal that heart of man is now faced with that which He refers to as the power of darkness. Oh, I have looked and looked at that statement and bowed my head as I realized that I will never know what that statement really means.
The power of darkness. I was under that power. You were under that power.
You and I were held captive in a ******* that we will never realize how dreadful it was. We have been rescued from an eternity which, thank God, we shall never realize the awful reality of it, the power of darkness. Nor did the hand of the Lord Jesus simply reach into that awful darkness and smash you and me out of it.
He himself, beloved face that hour. He himself went right into the awful darkness of that hour.
There he bowed his head, while a son refused to shine on the waves and billows of God. Wrath and judgment, which ought to have fallen upon me, which ought to have fallen upon you, and I, who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior during that awful time of darkness.
It fell instead in all its power upon God's beloved Son, who I can call.
My Savior.
Whose sins did he bear during this time of darkness and suffering? Whose sins?
And you truthfully and thankfully say thank God in that hour of darkness, He bore my sins. Is this true? Have you made him? Have you accepted Him as your own precious Savior? You know, I suppose I could be exceedingly.
Thirsty and I could have placed before me a glass of delightful.
Pure water. And I could thank the one who brought that water. I could believe that it was just the very thing that I needed in order to quench my thirst. I could point it out to others as being the very thing and the very best thing to quench the thirst of any man and yet die of thirst within reach of that glass of water.
And I believe that there are many in these Christian lands.
Surrounded by God's precious Word and having heard again and again.
The wondrous pleading notes of the Gospel of the grace of God, and yet go forth from such a privilege into a lost eternity. Oh friend, this is solemn. The Lord Jesus Christ is facing in the moment that we see pictured in this verse, the very power of darkness. This is your.
Hour, The most solemn and the most dark power ever to stay in the history of man's.
Man's life here on earth.
The hour when the Son of God was crucified, that during that time, my dear friend, He took my guilt upon Himself, laid upon him by the very God who had that awful record, and the wrath of God poured out upon him, in order that you and I might even hear the gospel of his matchless grace proclaimed.
00:45:14
Our time is slipping by I would like to turn to.
1St Corinthians 15.
1St Corinthians 15.
For we come down now to this last.
Recording of time.
A 15th of First Corinthians.
And the 52nd verse.
In a moment.
In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, this has not taken place yet.
But it is very near at half, just a moment, without anything preceding that moment to give us a little advance notice. Everything that we need to remind us of the imminence of that moment is surrounding us this very day. And I say with this blessed book open before me, that I'm expecting this moment to be upon us.
At anytime, I thank God I can say with joy. I hope that moment comes to pass before tomorrow's sunrise.
Now I say again, if the Lord spares us, there will be one extra hour added tonight.
But God doesn't even promise that you'll be here to see that extra hour. For here we find not a year, nor a month, nor a day, nor an hour. But just a moment, beloved friend. Just a moment. And that moment might take place before we close this meeting. In a moment, in that twinkling of an eye. That's a good deal less than what you and I call generally a moment.
It's a very small fraction of a second, the twinkling of an eye. You have linked your eyes a good many times since this meeting began, and you weren't conscious of it at all until this moment that I mentioned it. And now for a few passing blinks, you'll think of it. But you have blinked your eye good many times and didn't even notice the interruption in your vision. And do you know, my friend, that just as quickly as that?
One moment looking into one another's faces down here and in a brief Spanish.
Sprinkling of an eye, we will be gone. The eagerness and the joy of His heart in having us home will be realized in that brief span of the twinkling of an eye.
Oh, let me remind you, in the midst of the joy that floods my soul at the very mention of it, that if that moment, if that twinkling of an eye, were to come to pass this very evening.
Where would it find you, my friend? Would it find you in the joy that is described here?
That glorious moment finds you transferred from this world of sin and darkness into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved and died for sinners. The answer to that question is this. Have you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? You may have many.
Another answer. But I warn you solemnly that those answers will not stand you in good stead in that day.
I remember one time arriving by ship at Trinidad and we were called up on deck to meet the immigration officer. As the ship approached the shores of Port of Spain, we were told to have our passports ready.
And I stood there on deck with my passport in my hand, and I noticed that the young man in front of me who had boarded the ship at Saint Vincent had no passport. He had a white envelope in his hand, and he didn't seem to be a little uneasy.
00:50:12
And I can see the immigration officer yet. He was busy with his books. And each passenger would set down his passport. The man would look at it, look up at the passenger, stamp it and hand it back. And this young fellow right ahead of me put down the envelope with a letter inside. And the immigration officer didn't even look up and said, your passport, Sir. And the young man said, Sir, if you'll just read that letter, it will explain everything.
The immigration officer said. Your passport, Sir.
The young man again tried to cover up by saying, Sir, if you'll just read that letter, it will explain everything. And he sat down his pen and looked up. I can see him yet. He glared at him. Do you or do you not have a passport? Young man said, no, Sir, but if you'll just please read that letter, it will explain everything. And the man turned and picked up the ship's telephone and phoned for the police barge to come.
And I watched while the police barge came out from shore.
And took that young old man away and locked him up in jail. The 24th day of December it was locked him up in jail. And I stood by helplessly. There was one thing I could do. That young man, I don't know what was in that letter, but he had tried to enter Trinidad without a passport.
My friend, are you doing something much more foolish and serious than that? Do you have that which God requires for admission to those courts of glory? If this moment, if this twinkling of an eye, where to separate the redeemed from the lost and this company, in which would you be numbered?
There will be no opportunity to get that passport at the last moment.
You know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. If you are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, then you have that which is required for admission to those courts of glory. You may have everything else that man respects so highly, but I warn you that God will be no more lenient than the immigration officer that locked that man up in prison.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the redeemed of the Lord will be called home to enter the unending joy of the presence of our Savior. There's a verse in Job. Perhaps we could just turn to that in closing.
The 21St chapter of Job.
Job 21 and verse 7.
Wherefore do the wicked live? Become old, Yeah, are mighty in power. Their seed is established in their sight with them and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear. Neither is the rod of God upon them. Verse 13. They spend their days in wealth and in a moment.
Go down to the brave.
This is Psalm, friend. In a moment. There is a moment coming, beloved friend, which will find you and me by the matchless grace of God, either in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, or lost.
Forever.
That moment, that brief moment of time.
Will reveal.
Your eternal destiny and God's word declares as the tree falls.
So shall it lie. There will be absolutely no changing of that eternal destiny.
The acceptable year of the Lord, I warn you once again, has run its course.
We're in the very last hours. I don't know that I'm entitled to say that we're in the very last moments of the long-suffering grace of God, what it cost him, that you and I might even share together the wondrous, loving story of the Gospel.
Grace and Truth
Address—J. Smith
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Somebody is sad that Mercy is not receiving what we deserve. That is punishment. But grace is receiving what we do not deserve. Let us receive it at Mercy is not receiving what we do deserve punishment, but grace is receiving what we do not deserve.
Pleasant. Let's turn now to.
The New Testament.
And to the Gospel of John for a verse, John Council chapter one, verse 17 John 117.
For the law is given by Moses, but grace and truth came.
By Jesus Christ, now those have observed that something very interesting about.
Of this verse in the original language.
Are in some language other than English where we can see whether the verb is a plural or singular.
In the English we lose the force of it because.
We can't distinguish it, but in my Spanish Bible we read the grace and truth came added to verb in the singular.
Not in the flora. Faith and truth came by Jesus Christ. Well, did the Holy Spirit make a mistake in grammar when He was guiding the penalty of Papa John? No one did. He did. He has his own grammar.
And according to all his friends, grammar, grace and truth, and the person who Lord Jesus.
We're not two things, but grace and truth.
Just one thing.
When a piece of cloth is woven that we have what the we would call a warp and the work of the club, the friends that are in her life and unless you have both.
You don't have thought? Well, no, it was in a large case. Drive the grace and the truth.
Answered to the walk and the work of a piece of fine cloth. They couldn't be separated.
The one from the other.
I think quite a few children here this evening and.
I was signed to 11. How many letters in the word Jesus?
Five. Yes, five. How many fingers on your head?
65 all right.
Jesus.
Just exactly so as soon as.
Jesus.
Just exactly to understand the very fact that His name is Jesus tells us that He is the Savior.
For the word Jesus means grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Well, the first part of the verse tells us that the law was given by Moses, now Moses.
Himself got condemned by the law, he lost his temper with the children of Israel, and he called him a bunch of rebels and he took the honor to himself that belonged to God when he said.
Here are you, rebel. Must we bring you water out of this rock?
Well, they were very thirsty, those people in their cattle. So the Lord left the rock, and abundance of water flowed out to satisfy their search. But he took Moses inside and said, look, you didn't honor me before the people, and now you're not going to get into the left. You're going to die on this side of the chart. I'm not going to let you go.
So the winner gave them off himself could not go across.
And of the promised Land, because he broke.
So as Moses going to get across how much less the rest of us.
Because we're all there and we've all come short of God's glory. We've all broken his holy laws. And even if we aren't, even if we are Gentiles and Moses law wasn't given to us, Gentiles nevertheless our Bible tells us.
00:05:18
That the law.
Is profitable if it shares lawfully.
They tell me that down in Mexico.
The way the brother in approach people is on this wife, then he meets another on the trail, he's not safe and he says to his fellow Indian, do you know that you're a Sinner well.
You start choosing the law lawfully on him and if the crew turn that he is and if it acknowledges that he is a Sinner when he tells him about how chase besides her Sinner.
But if you want to acknowledge it.
He lives in standing there and passes on.
The law is all right if a man is lawfully.
It's to be used to convex the sin to bring your back.
I remember hearing from his own lips, that is from my brother Maximo Garcia in the Dominican Republic.
How he got converted?
He was a very strong young man, the grandson of a pure spanner on his mother's side, a tremendous fellow, and.
A tremendous center one day find South in a little home up in the Hill Country in the Dominican public.
And along came an evangelist preaching the gospel.
Well, the evangelist sized up this tracker young fellow over there, and he heard a little bit about him, I suppose, and so he proceeded to use the law lawfully on it and bring the 10 commandments before it.
As we brought out one commandment after another, and maximal Garcia gullier than ever and.
By and by is the brother of the habit of doing. There they observed that somebody is paying close attention and very serious, they're liable to speak to them directly from the wherever they're standing in the room.
We don't have things like this there very often.
Well, how about you, Monsieur?
Are you there well?
They came from daughters. Well, it's all for me because.
I've broken almost all of them, if not all of them. He thinks that he was Kelly Center.
One month ago, how would you like to have all those sins forgiven?
Well, if it were possible.
Well, it's possible you're going to have your sins all forgiven.
And he told him how he could.
That Christ has suffered for sinners adjust for the unjust brings to God.
That very day, this number one center of those hills.
Experience that forgiveness is death. He is a married man after three children already boy perhaps six or seven years old. So I went home rejoicing and said to his wife Maria Francisco and Maria.
That's my title, Mary. I'm safe.
She's not even too long to take much stock in that, so he had to prove it.
And the Dominican folk are very much inclined to make use of that verse forces truth is most to know today. By their fruits you shall know them. Now I hear somebody say I'm safe. As they say, we'll watch the tree a while until it kind of crisp bear, and then we'll tell whether they save or not.
Over here she started watching this tree, see what kind of food it was on a bear. Well, she soon found out it was a new tree and it was very good fruit.
00:10:09
Mark Simar rather lay down some laws in the family.
Not going to be anymore of this that nearly in this household we're going to serve the Lord.
It took a firm outright status in the beginning, and God bless him, he's only a very short time until Maria discovered that she needed salvation as much as her husband and she got saved. Well, it's gone unhappy many years and they're 83 grandchildren, 12 Children, 83 grandchildren and 12 in-laws and a flock of great grandchildren coming up.
That quite a congregation. All of this by the grace of God.
And it's wonderful to see how.
God's grace is working among the poor people of this world. The trouble with us folks living in the United States is that we are satiated. We're absolutely satiated with everything under the sun as the heart of man can wish for. We have comfort multiplied to us until we're utterly spoiled and.
The folks down there, they hear about people up here and they think we're all millionaires.
And that the $5 bills were on trees and all you have to do is pick them off. And that's their concept of us. Well, we're not too far off, but I remember the day back in 1929 and 30 and we had the Great Depression in this country and when all of us had to tighten our belts and keep them tightened for quite a long while.
You all, you all know that at that time we were prospering more spiritually.
And then we are today because we didn't have a material thing to enjoy that we have now in our spiritual effort was better while we're digressing a little bit from the thing blowing on here.
With the Lord Jesus as we found them.
Of Grace and let's go to chapter 4.
John 4.
Let's read, save time, converse to 13 and John 4. Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never start.
But the water that I shall give in shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
The woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water that I search not, neither come hit her to draw. She finally had enough confidence to ask him for that water that he had promised. Jesus said to her, Go call my husband and come hit her.
Alone answered and said I have no husband. Jason telling her dogs well said I have no husband and so on.
We would like to look at a few passages where we see in the Lord Jesus.
These two qualities have been made, so speak grace and truth, he said to the woman. Call my husband and come hit her. Well, he knew her altogether, but he said come, that was great.
When she confessed she had no husband, he told her all about herself.
To her great surprise, well, that was true.
The Lord drew her.
As he has drawn.
US.
Giving us the invitation to come.
And at the same time, he exposes to us what we are.
Not only God can do that.
He exposes the center, but at the same time he draws it.
The Law of Moses never did that. There's a little defect in our King James Bible in Galatians 3 where it says.
If we look at in the moment, the words you're in italics to keep us from falling in the air, but in Galatians 3.
00:15:00
We see there.
In verse 24.
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster.
Now notice the words to bring us are in our text. They were inserted by the translators, and they're not there in the original at all. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ. We might be justified by faith. That's the way it should read. But if we read it here with the inserted word changes the meaning. Wherefore the law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. Well, I thought so, as we all know in our experience.
The law never brought anybody to crime. The law was given the brain convection is there. The law was added for the sake of transgression, and the law doesn't work peace with God. The law works right. Raise the judgment of God down on our defensive hand. But the law of our schoolmaster until cracked to Christ. Well, what was the lesson the schoolmaster was teaching man and the Jews?
Why he was trying to teach malady was a lost Sinner. That was a lesson the law was ditching and the time came when the when the large agents was sent and then.
The schoolmaster was no longer leader after that. Faith has come. We're no longer under schoolmaster. The Lord Jesus brought salvation to us. The law never brought salvation to anybody. Well.
The Lord didn't apply the law to this gentlewoman.
He spoke to her and grace and truth, so that her heart was attracted.
Finally, when she tells him the only thing that she knew about God for certain, verse 25, the woman says unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When he has come, he will tell us all things. And she spoke out what she knew that was the limit of her.
What shall we say? That was the limit of her intelligence and prescription? Well, as soon as she said that, the Lord Jesus gave her the answer to her soul. Later Jesus said unto her, I that speak on the day, and he hardly speak in thee. That was the truth.
But unto thee that was great.
The Lord Jesus wasn't revealing to the Jewish religious leaders.
That he was in crime, he had said, and done enough for them to believe and they wouldn't believe.
But if it may use the word for lack of a better he condescended to speak to this woman.
I could speak on his knees under a thing like you.
And the so great strong in their heart. And she went away in the city.
Laid in the water pot behind it. She brought it out there to throw the water and carried her out.
That's another thing we have in our day is water pipe to every point in the house where we want it under a good working pressure. 4050 sixty pounds per square.
But the American Republic and in the good many places in tonight, we can still carry the water from the pump or out of the strain. And the Dominican Republic, that's the ladies job and the girls should carry the water. You never see the one of the boys carrying water.
I don't even do it. The girls from the time they're little, they start out with about a A1 gallon can on their little head and then they put a leaf off of a big plant that put a big leaf in the top of it and that serves to keep the water from splashing over because you don't have any left. And as the child grows.
They get a bigger and bigger cat until finally, when they're young women, they carry 5 gallons.
And 60 lbs of water there about.
4740 odd pounds of water on their head. My brother known various drugs. How wrecked all the women were.
They had to be elected during that water in their head.
How do you like to carry water in your head? That's the mile to your house as many times a day as you need it. 5 gallons of water. What is that?
00:20:04
Well, this woman left a water plunge. She forgot all about it.
Because.
The Lord Jesus Christ and fill her heart. She was just full work. 29 Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the crime? Then they went out of the city and came unto him.
Have you ever thought that?
The ****** that felt the evangelist did in Samaria later on.
Followed the the showing that the Lord Jesus did that day.
In the heart of this woman.
When Felt the Evangelist came along years later, these Samaritans were prepared in heart to receive the gospel. And many, I would say.
Well, if we go on here to Chapter 5.
We see grace and truth again in the Lord Jesus.
And this time, it's a man.
Chapter 5.
Verse two. Now there is a Jerusalem by the shape mark of the pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five portraits.
Worth 5 and a certain man was there which had an infirmity 30 and eight years, when Jesus saw him alive and knew that he had been now a long time. In that case he said under him.
Will thou be made whole? The impotent man has to insert.
I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me in the pool, but while I'm coming another step is down before me. And Jesus said unto him, Rise, take us thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man's main hall, and took up his bed and walked.
Now, verse 14.
Afterward, Jesus fighted him in the temple.
And better than him behold thou art made hope then no more.
Let the worst thing come on to me.
Evidently this man's infirmity.
Was a testament from God.
Because he had sinned, as the Lord Jesus said to him, Sinned no more, unless the worst thing come unto me.
Well, the Lord governmentally forgave his sins. Why take up your bed and want He was healed perfectly.
But afterwards, when the Lord found him in the temple, he said, Behold, thou art made whole sin no more, unless the worst thing come to me.
Well, again, that was grace and truth. Grace regarding the sin, but truth admonished him.
To be careful.
From now on out, let's the worst thing before it. The Lords words with grace. We're all safe, and you saw.
Now we go to.
Chapter 8.
John's Gospel, chapter 8.
Um.
The scribes and Pharisees thought they would.
Get the large incident of trap so if you could have something to accuse him of.
And verse five we see that they quote the law of Moses to him.
Now Moses, Willah commanded us, that should be strong, but what they're stopped according to law of Moses Jesus.
This person should be thrown to death, but what have you got to say about?
Oh, now we've got it. Now we've got it.
00:25:02
And he says, no, no, let it go. Oh, so you're making light of sin, are you?
Now, now I know what kind of man you are. On the other hand, is that yes daughter today?
Oh, but you've been going around forgiving people there, and now you say don't this poor creature, they're not showing any mercy like you did to the other.
Well, Needless to say.
When people.
Confronted the large Asus.
They were confronting the one of whom it has said the Lord is a God of marriage by him actions that way. He weighed up the situation and he answered them.
First dipping down and riding with his finger on the ground, and as they continue depressing, verse seven says he lifted up himself and sent him to them.
That is, without ceremonial letting first count it's doughnut.
The Law of Moses, Holy John and God.
And the man said that public center.
And then fraction in this case is to be met with start. But which of you is capable?
Of carrying a sentence and execution.
Which of you is without sense?
And again he took down and rolled on the ground.
Now we do not know what the large agents wrote, but we are very certain of this, that he was not idly.
Moving his finger in the dark, he was riding something.
And some have thought that it was the same finger moving that was moving when the 10 words were written on the two tables of stone written with a finger of gone.
Whatever the Lord wrote on the ground, and he wrote twice, once and again, whatever he wrote on the ground.
Was for those accusers to look at.
And read. And he had said, he that is without sin among you, but he first cast the stone out. Well, if it was the law of Moses that he'd written down.
There was what God required of every two everyone.
Make a look at it and judging part of them. What was the result? They returned being convicted by their own conscience, without 1 by 1 beginning at the end. Why did the oldest man go out first? Because he had the most sense.
Whatever Jason said, written on the ground and whatever registered in that country. Get the oldest man in the heart. And out he went, The red found one by one until there wasn't a single accuser left. Well.
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
The truth evacuated the place of all those merciless accusers.
And Greg left the poor woman back. He's there with the Lord. And when Jesus had lifted up himself and brought none with the woman, he said unto her, woman, where are those united killers?
Half no man condemns it. Well, they're all gone. She's had no man, Lord. And Jane had said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee.
Go and say no more.
Neither do I condemn it right. Go and sin no more.
True words are great things, and so it's most refreshing as you read through the gospel.
To notice the grace and truth that always exhibit themselves in the large ages, and they're always inseparable.
The cure all is fine together.
Even when it came to the large, sharpest enunciation against the Pharisees, He gave him a chance first to examine and be safe, and when they wouldn't heed, at last He had to tell him, I tell you the truth.
00:30:13
One thought of that solemn word that the Lord speaks to God and Ezekiel chapter 38 all God, I'm against thee. What a terrible thing it is when.
The living God has to say to a Sinner, I'm against it. Woe to that man.
To whom God has to say, I'm against you.
I speak reverently.
Man drives God to the point of having a judgment.
Or, as we say, he forces God's head.
Because we learn time and time again reading the word of God that is rich in market, that is going to lead man to repent, that he's not willing that any should bear it, but all should come to repentance.
Jonah got mad at the Lord because.
When he did go to Nineveh and praises the Lord had been him instead of running off the Tarshish and the ship. When he did go and preached yet 40 days, and then we should be overthrown.
Why all the people repented from the king on down to the peasant, and then God repented him of the evil, and she said he would do and further city. So John was exceeding this place.
And he went out outside the city and sat down there and got himself a booth, a little shelter of little children of 6 and whatnot. And God prepared a nice guard, and it flourished and set up its copious foliage and protected Jonah's hair from the blazing Oriental stunt.
So he sat there to see what happened to the city.
He wanted to say none of the destroyed because.
He has prophesied within 40 days God with his choice, his reputation was going to suffer.
Johnny he was completely out of tune with the Lord. So the next day the Lord prepared a worm, and the worm went over there to the lid of the guard.
And in and on. And then the lovely forage that cover is little boots all dried up. And then the Lord prepared a vehement E wind, an Oriental hot wind on the desert, with a good hot oil stuff, until Jonathan was like to die from sunstroke.
And then the Lord spoke to him.
Jonah.
You read compassion on the poor Lord that grew up in a day and perished in a day and shouldn't I have compassion on these 120,000 people that don't even know their right hands on their left and the thought much cattle and there was like a Jonah Ant for the large question, but to John and John allowed to think about it.
Our merch will God in our reluctant.
To strike down that in judgment. Remember our late brother Hale say that he did not believe that God ever struck down the center without giving him at late 2 warnings and he was quoting the book of Job. God speaks once the age one and then just says no.
There have been men who have been saved and God has spoken to them, not just once or twice.
But general cut.
This center knows that in his own case.
He had the gospel faithfully given to him as a boy or young man not less than three times.
And it feels every time.
And if the Lord had left his center to his desert, he wouldn't be saying any night.
Would be also aware of some work are already in the 5th.
So God spoke once more and opened his heart right now.
00:35:04
Yes, God is rich and mercy, rich and mercy.
With great love, worthy love.
What a blessing it is, boys and girls, to be born into a conference.
So the Bible on one hand and the M book and the other.
You know, the boys and girls down at the mainstream public and down in Bolivia.
El Salvador.
They're born with nothing in their right hand and nothing in their left, and many of them grow up and live and die. There's nothing in their right hand and nothing in their left. But you're born here with a Bible in one hand, in the hymn book and the other, and every Christian privilege under heaven.
And you hear the word of God day in and day out, the blessed word of God that can save your soul.
Are you taking it in and believing it because it's for you? It's for you?
Remember the Lord Jesus spoke about.
People that were going to be.
They're going to be punished with a whip. And he said those that didn't know their last as well, they be punished with a few strikes. But those that knew their match as well and didn't do it, they'd be punished with many. I suppose that means that the poor heathen that has never heard the good news of salvation.
And have committed sin are not going to be punished in very many crimes.
But those who got from Christian families and don't give heed to God's word.
Don't receive a large agent as a savior.
They're going to be punished and and get many strikes.
Their punishment will be more severe because God tells us the more likely have.
The more responsible that we are.
We see that in everyday life, but now.
If somebody in Southern California that lives there all the time.
Runs a red traffic light.
But pretty soon the cop catches up with him and does, let me sit here, drivers license and he has his little book and puts the fire license from a little clip up there. And he starts writing out his tickets. And I'm supposed somebody instead of Washington is driving in California. And he runs a red light in a strange place and the cop calls him up. He said 45.
You see your driving classes well.
Oh, it's madness. Mr. Washington, how long have you been here? Well, Sir, I just got in. I don't know the streets very well. And I was looking for a house number. And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to run the red light. I was trying to look at myself. Well, let's take his booking and say, well, we understand, but.
Well, keep your eyes open and don't let it happen again, and you can go now. So the traffic cop, he makes a difference between the one who knows the rules and the one who doesn't, you see Well.
God makes the difference between those who have much life and those who have little.
Now we want to go over to another illustration of God.
Dealings with men in Acts chapter.
9.
Acts Chapter 9.
First one, and so yet breathing out threatening and slaughter against the disciples of Lord, went under the high priest and desired him letters to Damascus, to the synagogue, if he found any of this way or the way, whether they were men or women, you might bring them bells on the truth forever.
Does he journey? He came here, Damascus, and suddenly they're shining out about him and life in heaven.
He fell to the earth and heard a voice saying him in.
Saw so why weren't you good as thou means? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? Lord said I am Jesus whom thou persecuted. It is hard for thee to kick against the British.
00:40:05
The knee trembling in the sunny steps. Lord, why? Without having to do the Lord telling him, arise and go into the city, and it should be told me what God must do.
No.
Verse 10.
A certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias.
And the end said the Lord in the vision and not. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said.
Unto him arise and go into the street, which is called straight, and inquiring the House of Judas for one, call Saul outside.
But behold, he prayed, and had seen in the vision a man named Anna Knight coming in and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sighs.
Then Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard from many of this man how much evil he's done to thy thing at Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priests to find all that call in thy name.
At the Lord tell them, go thy way, for He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentile and King as a joint of Israel. So I will show him how great things he must suffer the My name says.
This is perhaps the most striking example.
In the whole word of God.
Of his grace.
Being extended to a Sinner.
Here was the greatest enemy of Christ, whoever lived.
This young man, Paul, made it his business to arrest Christians, to drag him off to jail and when they were put to death.
To get his vote against.
He was so extremely mad against them that it didn't suffice him to arrest all the Christians he could find in his own land of Judea. There he has pocket full of letters to go to the distance city of Domestic, the capital of Syria, and the rest of them there, and drag them off the drizzle. It seems that the Roman authorities who were over the whole country.
Dense metal with the Jews administration of their own several matters and so these Jews were.
Taking these Christians prisoners and killing them, and the Roman government wasn't doing anything about it.
In fact, Pilate wanted to sidestep responsibility for judging Christ by saying you to as well. You take him and judge Him according to your love. You think he should die according to your love? Well, execute the citizens.
But dog members in that and they said, no, it's not lawful for us to put anybody to death because it's already prophesied in the word of God and that Jesus would die by crucifixion.
I pierced my hand and my feet.
But here Public Enemy number one of the Lord Jesus Christ and the worst Sinner ever lived. He called himself the chasing sinners. He never gave up the title. He never relinquished the title to anybody else. Christ Jesus came in the world to say, sinners of whom I am not what whom I am keep.
Hugged.
I know how terribly a large job with him.
He said Saul, Saul, white pressure could have found me.
And the tone of his wife.
Would have modified also the word that he spoke.
If we've been the Lord, we'd have doubtless said.
You miserable rebel.
I'm going to bring it to Chris.
00:45:02
I remember an old man at night that called us out and he was a boy in Ireland of about 15.
Because the the large dangle me over the pit and I could smell smoke.
Magnum There was a bit of a small smoke and then he was being convicted of his death. You know, we were better than came to the Lord. He didn't want to drop into hell.
Well, here the Lord suddenly meet this man in the height of his fanatical race. You can't assume it's just a question. So why do you persecuting? Well, John knew that this is God speaking to it. The life that's shown upon him, as he mentioned to King Agrippa was above the brightness.
Of the noonday sun. It was the glory life.
Forth, the Lord acknowledged him as Lord, but confessed his ignorance.
All his religion has been completely useless. He didn't know who the Lord was.
And Jesus replied, I am Jason. Now he mentions his name.
I am Jesus whom God friendship.
It is hard for me to kick against the prank or for a long time I didn't know what that meant and.
Eventually when I saw them goating the ark.
But they are frowned. Then I understood.
A young ox when he's put into the oak for the first time, he's rebellious. He's never had a yoke on his neck and he doesn't intend to move way but but the the plumber has a has a long stick and 10 feet long.
And on the point of the 6th is fastened an iron or steel sharp point.
And he takes that and jabs the ox in the flank and.
So the young oxy kick, kick. So the plan was Jazzing again. It kicks jazzing again. And the more he kicks, the more he gets jammed. And then finally he stepped forward. He's got to go. It's just as though the large test is all the grace of consideration.
Yes, I know. So it's hard here to kick against the fix, but from now on, you're not going to go your way. You're my service, you're my odds now on you're going to go my way. So it might just as well stop kicking against the script if you don't go my way.
How considerate was the largest to say that to this man? And I wondered whether.
The conscience of Soul was aroused and tall at the time. He held the clothes of those that were stoning, saving the deck this young man made himself. He held the outer rope of the older man who threw them off so that they could take the stones and her own Mcsteven.
There's more. I wondered whether it's all darkness, beholdings, and hearing him say.
I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God and then hearing his prayer, Lord Jesus.
And again.
Lord, laying out this night, I wondered whether that didn't enter some in Willy nilly into the heart of God and.
Italy. Well, God knows, but chase itself in the corner of the city and you'll be told what you must do.
Now the Lord had this poor disciple Ananias there.
Toby appeared in a vision and sent him to Saul, and as soon as that, and I have heard that he was to go look up that fellow, he hastened to inform the Lord, to tell the Lord about him. But Lord doesn't know how this man.
Well, he's got a Commission here from the Jay praise to find everybody that calls on by name and I'm heard by many about this man. How much eagerly done have I spent in Jerusalem. He really thought he should inform the Lord about this though Lord doesn't criticize analyze for.
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The superfluous information again, he just said go your way, for he is a chosen vessel to me.
To bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the Chong of Israel.
Adani gets informed about something that had never entered into his heart. You can see that this number one enemy of Christ people was a chosen vessel to the Lord.
So we're thin around this grace and much more abound. And then verse 16, I will show him how great things he must suffer.
For my name.
Is the principle of the word of God that whatsoever man thought is actually also read now the Lord Jesus really forgave. So all he said judicially he was fully forgiven and could never come into judgment any more than you and I if we're on the shelter, the precious blood of Christ. We can never come into justice, but I will show him how great things he must suffer.
From my name says in what Paul suffered as Christ ambassador.
He got back in his own body what he's given to others. He got persecution, He got the whip. He got almost every form of persecution that amended could be saved and still be alive in his body.
Well, it's all the way through.
With our Lord Jesus Christ, grace and truth, just in that perfect balance that can't be seen anybody else but in him. Go on through your go on through your New Testament and you have some time and just trace the Lord Jesus manifesting grace and truth in all of his dealings with people.
It's delightful and it can occupy us for good many hours.
And it will make us appreciate that much more than He's our Lord Jesus Christ.
A New Beginning
Address—P.L. Johnson
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John three and verse one. There is a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher, come from God.
For no man can do these miracles, that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he ever the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
Rather not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
The wind blows blood lusted, and thou hearest the sound thereof, that canst not tell whence it cometh. And whither doeth, Sir, is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knoweth not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak, that we do know and testify that we have seen, and you receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things, and no man hath ascended up to heaven?
But he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
So God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth in him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world. And men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. You know, in this man Nicodemus comes to speak to the Lord.
He comes as one who is.
A very respectable person, he comes as one who is.
Prepared to talk about the spiritual things, religious things.
He is not a man who is a dissolute character, a drunkard or an outcast from society.
Nicodemus was a very honorable and respectable man, I'm sure that.
In the day of which we live, a man of the character of Nicodemus would be highly respected in any community, and that people would be very happy to have such a man in their neighborhood.
We are often perhaps inclined to think of the Pharisees as being very unsavory persons because of the way the Lord speaks to them as hypocrites. That we must realize that when the Lord speaks to them as He does, it is because He is speaking according to the truth of what there is. He sees them not as how they appeared before men.
They certainly did not have an unsavory character in the presence of their fellow man. The Pharisees were the most respected of the Jews in their days.
There were highly attractive men because of their deportment.
And they will accord it to their nation.
As the discerning eye of God is concerned, he could see through that that outer whitewashing to see what the state of heart was. But as far as their conduct before men, they were righteous and they were respectable persons. So when Nicodemus is before us here in this chapter, we do not have brought out a man who is, who is an utterly worthless person as far as society is concerned.
And I mentioned this because it seems to me here that the Lord says to him something very remarkable, and in view of the fact of his character, the Nicodemus turns to talk to the Lord. Why, right at the very outset the Lord puts him in his proper place by saying, Nicodemus, you have to be born again to see the Kingdom of God.
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And accept a man be born again, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
What are you saying that Nicodemus is that you have to start all over again?
You have to make a fresh start. There is nothing that you have in yourself that you can bring to God.
You have nothing which you can offer to God. All that you have is.
In the sight of God as a filthy rag, so to speak, you have nothing at all to offer to God. You have to make a fresh start.
As I say, that's a very remarkable thing to say to a man like Nicodemus.
You know, when we think ordinarily a person's making a fresh start, you think of someone who's made a, a wealth or a failure of their life. I remember not long ago reading of a man in Texas who spent many years in prison, and righteously so because of crime, a crime that he committed. And after he was released from prison, he, he made this remark that he had to start all over again because.
He had made such a rash and failure of his life. I think he was imprisoned his his very young man.
And he said, now I have to start all over again. And I thought of that, that that's usually.
The way we speak of it, I say we, I mean the persons in this world without Speaking of it, according to the mind of God, that for those who have made a wreck and a failure of their life, then they have to start all over again. But you know, that wasn't true of Nicodemus. He hadn't made a a failure of his life as far as man's estimate and standards were concerned. And yet the Lord says, now you got to start all over again.
Nicodemus understood that, he says, well, how can I start all over again?
He says, how can a man to deserve be born again? He says, how can I start all over again? He understood what the Lord meant. He understood that the Lord was saying to him that Nicodemus, you have to make a fresh start, just like someone, just like a little baby born in the world is just starting your life. You've got to start all over. What a blow to this man who was, as I say, a very respectable man. And this is characteristic of John's gospel.
That the Gospel of John.
Take that man not as a responsible creature before God, not as one who is being tested as to his responsibility as to how far he would respond to God, but he takes up man as being worthless. He takes up man as being perishing, as man without life and without resources.
Without one thing that he can offer or bring to God.
Now, you know, we find very often that human nature is not exactly reticent to admit the fact that all have sinned.
It's a rare thing to find anyone who would crawl with that statement. All have sinned. Oh yes, we've all sinned. But the thing that we find that human nature resists apart from the work of God and human nature would resist is the fact that not only have we sinned, but the man in himself is without resources for God.
There is nothing in human nature for God.
Or you say that's strong. That's really the standpoint of the Gospel of John and that's the the beginning. Or you might say the the starting point with John's Gospel is that there is nothing in man for God. I'm not saying that that there is nothing in man that is that is good.
Why I I think it would be wrong to say that every man is just as thoroughly bad as he could be, and it would be wrong to say that there are no what we might say, amiable traits in human nature there are many things we see in the in persons and individuals that are amiable and.
Beneficial and even pleasing. But when we speak about nothing in human nature for God, we mean that man in himself, in his own nature, as born into this world of natural generation.
Does not seek the glory of God. Here there is nothing, therefore God's glory. There is no fruit to God.
We find that the condition of man is as being without life toward God and he's perishing, and as such he's under the wrath of God. Notice in this third chapter verse 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. It does not say he that believeth not the Son shall lose his life.
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It says he shall not see life because he is seen in John's Gospel as already being in a state of death, and being in a state of death he will never get out of it.
Without the Lord Jesus Christ, man in a state of death, in separation, moral separation from God, will remain in that condition throughout eternity unless he comes to the Lord Jesus Christ and receives eternal life. And not only that, he says the wrath of God abides upon him. It doesn't say the wrath of God will abide upon him.
It doesn't say that he will be exposed to the wrath of God. He's already under the displeasure of God. Man, apart from Christ is lifeless.
And under the wrath of God, that is, God is displeased with him.
God does not find that in man, in human nature, that we are by nature and every man in this world.
That which brings him pleasure, he finds that which brings him displeasure, because man's nature is is centered around himself. For instance, turnover to two passages, first in Ephesians 2. And again I say we're not saying that that there is nothing.
Good about man you know we find in scripture.
Sometimes the same word and used in a different way in the context has to give us.
The proper meaning we read in Romans.
Chapter 3 is it not? There is none good? No, not so much as one talking about men. There's none good. And yet we read in the 5th chapter that scarcely for a righteous man would one die, yet for a good man one would, would, would die, give his life for a good man. So there we see that there is such a thing as good men.
There is such a thing as a Goodman. Well, there is no contradiction there. What it means when it says there is none good? No, not so much as one. It means that for bad use for God there is none good. There is no one apart from having this eternal life from the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no one who is is a good for God's use. It's just like you might say one goes to a marketplace.
And.
You you go to a stand there and you want to buy some fruit and as you pick one up you see a little rotten spot. You say, well that's good for nothing. You pick up another one and you find that the whole batch is of no use. As far as you're concerned, it's no good for your use. Well, that's man. As far as God is concerned, there is none good. But when it comes to man's treatment of his fellow man, when it comes to.
One's walk through his fellow men here it is entirely possible.
They want to be doing good to his fellow man, to be a Goodman in that sense.
And so there is a sense in which there are those that are good and there are good things that people can do.
One would never deny that. I think that the word of God would bear that out there. When we speak of men being lost and perishing and there's none righteous or none or none good, we mean as far as you might say the benefit of God is concerned. Because a man might be the most benevolent man on earth. He might be the most patient, the most kind, the most thoughtful, the most unselfish, and not have one bit of love in his heart for God the Lord.
But as far as God is concerned, he's no good for him. What can God do for it with a man in his presence? It doesn't love him. What could God do with a man in eternity in his presence that is a Christ hater. And yet that man who is a Christ hater might be a benevolent man toward his fellow man. He might be kind and liberal in all of those things. So we're not talking about the fact that there is no such thing as a person being good to his fellow man.
Then we speak about man being no good and without resources and lost and perishing and under the wrath of God. We mean that he does not have a heart that beats for God. He doesn't have the love in his heart for God. It is not the love of God that motivates him even in his good deeds. There are many men and women in this in this land who seek to help others.
Not because of our love for God and our love for Christ.
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But because of the loss of their fellow man and a desire to aid society.
Well, all of those things are beneficial for man. One would not deny it, and certainly one would.
One would admire, in a certain sense, those who do go out of their way to help their fellow man. That's not the thought we're talking about. But all of this may exist without a love for God. And after all, you see, as far as life in this world is concerned, it's all temporary anyhow. The whole provision from the beginning of creation of Genesis One through the day which we're living now.
And on through any days that might be afterwards is all in a sense just a temporary provision.
Just a little spot in eternity and God is going to have a great eternal day in which they're going to be souls enjoying himself and enjoying the Lord Jesus Christ. And in conditions of eternal life where there is no death, no sickness, no sorrow, none of the things that is marred life in this scene, but all of them are going to be God lovers, lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's going to be no one there no matter how.
Benevolent he may have been to his fellow man who doesn't love the Lord Jesus Christ. It would spoil the whole scene to have one discordant note.
It would be, as it were, a reenactment of what has taken place in this world to have in that scene one who is not in the possession of eternal life, that is just in in human nature without the love of God.
Well, turn out of Ephesians 2.
Now these are in the past tense because of course he's writing to believers, he said in verse 3.
Among whom also we all had our conversation, our manner of life in times past.
And the less of our flesh.
Now this word lest in the King James Version.
Merely means desire.
It's what one likes. You know, we don't use the word less than this sense today. It has acquired a more restricted sense. And you never hear of a young person, some, some girl or something say, oh, I, I lust after that. They would never say that, but they would say I like that. It's something I desire, something I like. Well, that's all this word lust means. It just means that you like to do.
The the likes or the desires of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Desires of the flesh means bodily things, things that just satisfy ones that bodily appetite.
And then there's also the metal things, desires of the flesh and the mind.
Well, this is this is what human nature is apart from the work of God. This is not eternal life. This is not the knowledge of God. This is this is not in this is not bringing one into communion with God. No, this is what alienates man from God. Fulfilling, living this life, fulfill it, fulfilling the desires of the flesh in mind is that which alienates one from the life of God.
Then turn to Titus.
Chapter 3.
Again, he speaks in the past tense.
And verse 3.
So we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers less than pleasures. Now that expression again here.
Serving various desires and pleasures is where it should read various desires and pleasures. Now what are those desires and pleasures?
That it varies at first with each individual. It varies as to age groups.
What what are the very what are the desires and pleasures that belong to children do not necessarily interest the the older ones. And then of course the young adults and then the middle age and all the way through life there are various desires and pleasures, but the man who knows not Christ, just man in the flesh, man in human nature.
Apart from the worth of God and apart from the possession of the Lord Jesus Christ his whole life, from beginning to end, there's nothing more than a fulfilling of the various desires and pleasures. Whatever brings him pleasure there. There are people who get pleasure from helping others.
It isn't done for the glory of God. It becomes it brings them a personal satisfaction for having, of having done something for someone else serving whatever is their own pleasure or their own desire. Now this is what man is by nature. This is not eternal life.
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This is certainly nothing for God in this. So we see that Nicodemus, of course, as I said, was one of those who was a was a character of.
A sterling said he was not a man who was dissolute, a man whom society would cast out. So we see that the reason that there must be this fresh beginning, no birth starting all over again, is because human nature being what it is, just fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind and serving just.
The desires and pleasures.
That comes to 1 whatever one wants to do by all of this.
Is what man is by nature. So there has to be a fresh beginning. A fresh beginning. Ye must be born again as far as man is concerned.
He is without resources. This is his state and his condition. So I say this is.
One of the characteristic features of John's gospel, in fact, he begins from that standpoint that there is nothing in man. He has no resources. He's just living in, in desires and pleasures and without life toward God. And he's going on in this perishing state. He's not presenting anything to man as far as man's responsibility is concerned.
And in this we have a distinction between John's Gospel and the 1St 3, Matthew, Mark and Luke.
In our Matthew, Mark and Luke we have the Lord Jesus presented to man for man's acceptance.
In Matthew as the king of the Jews to the Jews and Mark, we have him as the servant of Jehovah, and his service is presented there. And in Luke we have, you might say, heavenly grace presented in the man Christ Jesus. But in all of these he is presented to man for man's acceptance, and man rejects him. But when we come to John's Gospel.
There is nothing presented to man on man's responsibility.
Man is seen to be without resources.
Lost and under death.
And now then, there is a question of what God is bringing in from above. Now notice in this third chapter that we read another verse that gives us the key to John's Gospel.
13.
While it's set in the dark background of man's condition, in verse 13 we read no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. So John, the gospel is characterized by that which has come down from heaven. Now it is seen that as far as man on earth is concerned, there is nothing here for God in man.
And there are no resources in man in this world.
These without resources, and if there's going to be anything for God in man at all, and blessing for man in his soul, it must come down from above.
It must come down from above, and this is what we find in John's gospel. It's what God introduces.
From outside this world you might say out of heaven itself, bringing forth into this world, displaying it in the person of Christ.
And then, through his work on the cross, communicated unto us. And what is that but eternal life?
We read in the Epistle of John.
That that eternal life that was with the Father. That eternal life that was with the Father.
And was manifested unto us. Well, it was manifested in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and now communicated unto us.
Through his work on the cross of Calvary, no man hath ascended up to heaven.
That he that came down from heaven, it's what God is bringing in from heaven.
You know, I thought of how how that man today is so interested in in things that are outside and beyond this this earth, these explorations of the universe, and he's so interested in what's outside. But here we have in John's gospel something that God has brought in, you might say, from from outer space.
He has brought something down from heaven itself right into this world. We don't have to go up into heaven to find out about it. God, in His grace and mercy, has brought that eternal life right down here into this world in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And it's communicated into everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. The bow down into this world in the person of the sun. Turn back to the first chapter.
Here we have the way the Gospel of John starts, the way it begins.
Shows us what God is bringing into this world and where it comes from and its connection.
Notice in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. As has been often pointed out, this beginning here is.
Goes back beyond the time of Genesis 11 where we have in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
This goes back into Jesus and the word was with God and the word was gone.
And I believe John starts off his gospel in this way to assure us.
That what we have in his gospel.
Is now that man is seen to be totally corrupt and without resources. Every trial has been given unto man. The final trial being as we have in the first three Gospels, the presentation of Christ demand that final trial and rejected. Now then it's a question of what God is going to bring in from himself. God then comes in himself.
With resources from himself in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice how this is brought out in verse 4.
In him was life.
Not only was he the Creator.
This one who has come down into this scene, but in Him was life, and then in verse four also the length was the light of men. It was not only that, as I say, He was the Creator and He was one who had an uncreated thing in Himself life.
But this life that was in him, as we read here was the light of men. It was something for man. Now coming down from the glory above in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ was that life that was to be the light of men. It was for men by the grace of God. When I hear in these first few verses of John's Gospel, we don't have brought out how this life is communicated to us, how we get it, but what we have here is.
That is true of the person himself in whom this life is displayed.
It's we look, we have a view of the Lord Jesus Christ as to who He is in Himself and what is found in him. He was the one in the beginning with God, and He was God. He was the Creator of all things. He is the one in whom length was found, and the only one in whom who has life in Himself. And now this life was the life of men, and the light shines in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
But at least the light did shine in the person of the Lord Jesus. The darkness here, of course, is the moral condition of man.
In darkness and departed from God. Well, this is what God has brought down into this world in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As you said in that third chapter, verse 13.
No man hath to send it up to heaven.
But he that came down from heaven.
We find this all the way through John's Gospel, that one which came down from heaven.
Because as I say, there is nothing in man here below for God and there are no resources in man. And if there's going to be anything in man for the glory of God and blessing for man in his own soul. And if man is going to be brought out of this condition of of perishing and lost forever, it has to be and though that which is brought down from heaven in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well then, he goes on in verse fourteen of our chapter 3.
And verse 15 and 16. And you'll notice now in these 3 verses he unfolds.
The wonderful thought of God for men. The purpose of God for man in verse 15. At the end of the verse he says that they should not perish but have eternal life.
And at the end of verse 16 it says they should not perish, but have eternal life. Now the King James has everlasting in 16 but.
Why they why they made this variation? I don't know. It's the same word in the original. It should be eternal life in both cases.
They are the exact equivalent that man should not perish but have eternal life twice at stages.
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As bringing before us what we might say is the thought that God had.
In his mind, for man, what is it that God? What is it that God had for man?
As we read in Romans 6, the gift of God is eternal life now.
That's not the same as saying that the eternal life is a gift of God, which is true. Eternal life is a gift. But it's more than that. That is the gift of God. That was the that was what God had in his heart for man, eternal life.
This was the grand purpose and design for a blessing for man. The blessing that God had in his heart and mind for man is described as eternal life.
Well, we know, of course, that eternal life in its complete and full sense will only be realized when we are in the glory with the Lord Jesus in conditions of eternal life. In John's Gospel we find eternal life as a present possession by faith. The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has that eternal life in his soul.
We find in the writings of the Apostle Paul that eternal life is considered in the future sense.
The end of the pathway, because they are looking at it in two different aspects. Eternal life is both the present possession of the believer in his soul. He has eternal life. He has that life now the life of Christ, that the eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested in this world is communicated to the soul of every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has it. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
But also eternal life in its full.
Purpose, as far as God is concerned, for a man is seen in the Lord Jesus Christ, now in the glory of God, on the other side of death.
In other words, as far as eternal life is concerned, we do not have it yet in all of its fullness, because we still have death working in our bodies.
And we're in a scene of death and decay. We see just the opposite of eternal life. All the way around us. We find debt. Death is the is the most characteristic feature of this world. I'm sure we all recognize that. And it is. If there's any one thing you might say that you could put a label on this world, you'd have to put death on it. It's the one thing that is sure and certain and is universal.
And certainly we do not see the conditions of eternal life all about us.
With death on every hand and sickness and sorrow, and we have this death, as I say, working in our bodies where we have unredeemed bodies.
Eternal life in its full sense will be when we are in the glory with the Lord Jesus Christ. We see it now in Him there.
As the glorified man, he's beyond death. He's beyond judgment.
He is not even in a scene where death and sin has anything to do. He's in all of the bliss and glory of God.
Well, this is the full thought of God, of every believer on the Lord Jesus.
If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, his thought for you is, as I say, not only that you have that life now so that you will never perish. And in that life we have the enjoyment of the Father and the Son, even the present time, that the full thought is that we should be in those very conditions of eternal life so that there is no death either working in the body or the soul or even.
In Roundabout, in our circumstances, taken completely out of the very scene of death itself, so that it no longer exists.
Well, this was the grand thought of God here. This is the gift of God, eternal life. Now I might say too, that this eternal life is characterized by the knowledge of the Father and the Son, as we have in John 17.
This is eternal life, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. Eternal life is more than just living forever.
Of course, eternal life obviously is a life that is for eternity.
But it's more than just living forever.
We find that man in the scripture is presented to us as having an immortal soul.
That is, he has a soul that will exist forever. When God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life, he became a living soul.
No animal was brought into existence in such a way.
It's only of Adam that there was that direct connection from God himself. God breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul.
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And as possessed with a living soul, if you want to use the word living, you shall live forever. It's not really life at all. That which is really life is eternal life. But the soul of man will exist forever, so eternal life is not just eternal existence.
Eternal life is more than that. Eternal life is really that life that was in the presence of God, that life, that life that was found in the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God even before he came into this world, as John says, that eternal life that was with the Father, that's where it was. Eternal life never had a beginning.
It was always with the father and the Son.
Now it had a beginning as far as man in this world is concerned, and that's what John's epistle verse one of chapter one means when he says that which was from the beginning.
Eternal life, as far as man is concerned, had a beginning in this world and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested in this world in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, it never had a beginning of itself.
It did have a beginning as far as its manifestation in this world, in the Lord Jesus.
So it's more than just living forever. It is that life, that life of Christ that never had a beginning, communicated now to believers. And it brings us into communion and fellowship with the Father. We know him as the true God. We know Jesus Christ whom he has sent. It involves that, that fellowship in communion with the Father and the Son. So it has a, we might say, a qualitative character.
As well as duration.
Surely it does apply to duration. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. But it also has that quality of communion and fellowship with the Father and the Son. When I here we see that this was God's purpose. But now notice in verse 14.
While it was the purpose of God, the desire of God to not only manifest this eternal life, but to give it as His gift to those that believe something had to take place first, it wasn't enough for this life to be manifested in the sun.
That would have never brought this life into our dead souls. No man would have ever had a life.
If it were merely that it was manifested in the person of the Sun here below.
No, that's why he says that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Something had to take place before this eternal life that God had in his heart from man could be communicated to those who believe. Something had to take place first. This is a necessity. It's a must on God's part. Now, on man's part, you must be born again. That was a necessity. Manward we might see.
But here is a necessity, Godward.
In other words, if God is going to give this gift of eternal life, he has to do something first.
There's something He has to do before He can give that eternal life, and that is that the Son of Man must be lifted up upon the cross. Well, I'll turn over to the 12Th chapter where we see what this lifted up refers to. When He says the Son of Man being lifted up, it doesn't mean his exaltation to the right hand of God. Verse 32 of John 12 and I, if I be lifted up from the earth.
Will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.
It's not his lifting up into heaven, not his being taken up into glory, it's his being lifted up from off the earth.
Signifying what death he should die. It's the death of the cross.
It's not merely that he should die, but what death he should die. He should die of the death of the cross. He should die of the death of one being condemned, not only rejected of man. That's true. He's rejected off the earth by man, but he's not received up into heaven either. The view here is of the Lord Jesus, as it were, suspended between heaven and earth, rejected by a man off the earth.
And not received into heaven by God, because here He is on the cross, He was made sin.
Not only was he rejected by a man, but he was made sin, and God judged him as sin. He was made sin for us there on the cross of Calvary. That's signifying what death he should die. But this is what is involved when he says to Nicodemus that the Son of Man must be lifted up. He must stand in that place of condemnation. He must take the place.
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That belonged to you and me.
He must take that place in judgment before God in order that everything that hindered God's giving unto us eternal life might be removed. And what was it that hindered it? God could not righteously communicate this eternal life unto us as long as we were in a lost and guilty condition, as long as there were sins chargeable to us.
As long as we were those.
Who had a debt to pay unto God? This community, this eternal life could never be communicated. He has to do it righteously. It has to be done in a righteous manner, because God is light as well as love and His righteousness demanded that the Son of man be lifted up in judgment, bearing our sins in His own body, standing in that place of condemnation for us.
In order that the barrier, the hindrance to His communicating eternal life unto us might be removed. That's the thought of 14 and 15. You might say that here was God and his thought of eternal life, His purpose of eternal life, and in between himself and the accomplishing of that purpose stood our sins and all of our guilt.
And that had to be removed because it would have. It would have.
Established a barrier. It would establish a barrier to prevent that blessing of eternal life being brought unto us. For his righteousness would demand that the Sinner die. The soul that sinneth it shall die, which is a righteous pronouncement on the part of God. And so the as the serpent lifted up the as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
Even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up, and he must be lifted up there.
In condemnation on the cross of Calvary. And then this grand purpose of eternal life is given unto all of those who believe that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. Of course, it's believing in him as that one who hung upon the cross, as the one who bore our sins in his own body, the one who stood in the place of judgment.
It's not believing on Him as the one who manifested eternal life.
You remember in the 9th chapter of John's Gospel there was a man who was born blind.
And I have no doubt that's a picture of what we've been saying about man in his lost and helpless condition and without resources. A blind man, well, he can't see anything. I remember when the Lord, before the Lord opened his eyes, when he went to him, the first thing he did was to make.
Mud from the clay, and he put it upon the eyes of the blind man. Well, you might say that made him doubly blind. He couldn't see by nature. And now with this.
Mud peak upon his eyes. He certainly couldn't see that. Didn't open his eyes, did it? Well, you might say that as far as man is concerned, he's blind by nature. And the Lord Jesus coming down in manhood, of which that clay would speak, He's coming down into manhood and manifesting eternal life here, would not open our eyes either.
He says he said to Nicodemus, except the man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God was displayed in the person of Christ, as he said one time to the Jews that the Kingdom of God is is among you in your midst. Another time he said, the Kingdom of God has come upon you in his own person. The Kingdom of God was displayed in Christ. Well, they couldn't even see that. One could not even see that, even though it was there. The light shines in the darkness.
But the darkness couldn't see it, so the light shining did not bring light into the soul, just as putting that Cliff on the eyes of the blind didn't open his eyes. But what did open his eyes? When he told him to go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And we're told what that means. Siloam means scent. It was when he saw him as the scent one from God, when he saw him as the one whom the Father is sanctified and sent him to this world to die on Calvary's.
His eyes were open, and so the believing on him here is not merely believing on him as the one who manifested eternal life.
But believing on Him as the one who was sent of the Father to suffer on the cross of Calvary, to be lifted up as the Son of Man. And when we see Him lifted up as the Son of Man on the cross for our sins, and one can say by faith, for my sins, he was lifted up on Calvary cross. Then the eyes are open, the eyes of the blind are open. Then to see Him and to eternal life as we read here is communicated.
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Unto such an one. And now, verse 16.
That verse that is so often quoted John 316.
Here we have again the thought of God that eternal life should be given to those that believe.
And why are the repetition?
In verse 15 we have that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
And the middle of verse 16, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Why is it repeated? Because I believe that God would want us to know that it was not merely the fact that it was a necessity that the Son of God died upon the cross, the Son of man. It was not merely that His Holiness demanded that Christ die.
In our room instead. But it was the love of his own heart that gave him.
To die upon the cross of Calvary in order that we might know the disposition of the heart of God.
That the center might know that not only was it we might say a moral necessity for Christ to die for God to give us eternal life, but it was that the Lord that God himself gave this and provided this way because of the love that was in his own heart. You know, it's a it's a wonderful thing when one is brought into the to the understanding and the appreciation and enjoyment of the disposition of the heart of God. Now what do.
You remember when the prodigal son decided to return back to his father?
Why he wasn't sure what his father was going to think about him when he after he had taken all of the money and gone out and lost it all and had lived such a terrible life. He wasn't sure of the father's thoughts. And on the way back, he, he made-up the little speech, you know that he said, when I return, I'll say to my father, I'm not worthy to be called to thy son. Make me one of thy hired servants. And when he came back and the father fell upon his neck.
And kissed him.
He still wasn't sure about the father's thoughts, but after the father brings him into the house.
And gives him the best robe, and the ring upon his finger, the shoes upon the feet.
And he kills the fatted calf. Then we don't read anymore about. We do not read anymore about.
This little speech of the prodigal to make me as one of Thy hired servants. Why he wouldn't dare say that? Because he knew the heart of the father. He knew his father's thoughts. He knew the disposition of the heart of his father. He knew that his father loved him. He knew that love had provided all of that, that he was enjoying there at the table of his father. And he couldn't say such a thing. Well, this is what God would want us to know, not merely that He is willing to forgive us all of our sins.
Not merely that He has, that the Son of Man has suffered on the cross for our sins, but the disposition of His heart toward us is one of love. God loves us. God so loved the world, and this is the manner in which He loved the world. It's not an adverb here of degree, it's an adverb of manner. In other words, it's this God in his love for the world.
Loved us in this manner. That's a particle. Now. It wasn't necessary for the father to kill the fatty cat.
And that's why that elder brother couldn't understand it. Why did he do such a thing? It wasn't necessary. He could have received that son back without killing the fatted cat. He could have received that son back without giving the best rule. He didn't have to do all of that. He could have received him back in his rags. But if that wasn't the desire of the father's heart, the manner of the father's love was seen in those things that he gave him.
Well, that's what it is here. We could be saved and taken to heaven as servants, you might say.
We could, perhaps there may be some other thing that God could have done for us, but this is the manner of His love that He gives His only begotten Son, in order that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life, that we might be brought into that place of nearness with Himself, to have the life of His beloved Son Himself. I don't mean now the life and deity, I mean that eternal life that was in Him and manifested now in this scene is communicated into us.
He that hath the Son hath life.
We have life in Christ. The very life of Himself is now our life. That eternal life is ours in Him. This is the gift of God, and it comes from that heart of love. God so loved the world, and He loved the world in this manner that He gave His Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Well, this is I, I believe, a very simple thing that even the youngest as well as the oldest can play hold upon.
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Simply by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Seeing him as that sent one of the Father, knowing that he was there on the cross.
For our sins. And now God gives unto us that eternal life in our souls. We have it now as a present possession.
And then we're going to have it in all of its fullness when we're taken to be with Him in the glory.
The Jewel Box of the Whole Bible
Address—H.E. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Now our talk this afternoon.
Will not be the gospel. It's going to be an address to young people, and I'm going to speak a little slowly because it is far better to get hold of the truth.
And have the very thought of it in our hands.
This is the only book in the world.
That is light amid the darkness.
Truth amid error, Comfort in every time of sorrow.
And the blessings of God that are promised in that book are all.
Yay and Amen in Christ Jesus.
Absolutely certain of fulfillment.
And every believer is blessed equally.
I'm going to say that again, it's so important. God has no favorites in His family. Every believer is equally blessed.
The jewel box for the whole Bible is Ephesians 1. Can you find it?
And it's the third verse of Ephesians 1.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now that that's true of every believer, young and old, rich or poor, whoever you may be, God has no favorites, each one.
Is equally blessed.
Your enjoyment of the blessing depends upon your walk, so when you turn over to the Gospel of John.
Can you find John's Gospel and read?
Verse 15.
Or chapter 15, brother.
And verse 9.
I've often said you ought to memorize that, this verse and say it every day of your life, young, old.
And never try to love the Lord any more than you do.
Never try to love him any more than you do. Sit down and think of how much he loves you.
The Savior who died for you went through every form and kind of suffering that it was possible to go through.
What force put your sins away? Oh no, that was part of it. That was part of it, but that was not all of it. Why did he go through so much suffering? Why was it necessary for him to be hungry? To put your sins away or to be weary?
Why did he go through so much suffering?
Show you how much he loves you.
So it says in this ninth verse, as the Father had loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love.
Are you a Christian? God loves you with an everlasting love. As the Father have loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. That verse has cheered my heart and caused me to burst into praise many times. Many times.
I remember well, particularly going from New York to Woodbridge, NJ.
And as I sat in the Newark station and saw them pouring out of the tube.
Men quitting their work. And I was sitting on the bench amid all that crowd. This this verse came to me. And as I sat there, I thought as the Providence I loved me, so have I loved you.
And I couldn't help but burst into praise.
Never try to love the Lord any more than you do. Sit down and think of how much He loves you.
Now the 10th and 11Th verses is the road to happiness.
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You know when God created this world.
And he pronounced everything very good.
And he put man, Adam and Eve in the midst of a scene wherein they have done nothing to produce the good.
Before Adam and Eve were placed there, it was the Garden of Eden, and God pronounced it very good, and He put Adam and Eve in the midst of it. He told them not to eat of the knowledge of the tree, of the knowledge of good and evil.
And then afterwards he came into the garden in the cool of the day. In the cool of the day. What did he come in for? He came in to a whole communion with Adam and Eve, but they were hiding because they sinned.
They were hiding and you can't think of a good gift that you ever enjoyed since you were born.
Whether you're saved or unsafe, that didn't come from God.
Did you enjoy your dinner today? Who made the food grow?
Who gave you the sense of taste to enable you to enjoy it?
Who provided it for you?
Ah, it was God in his goodness to man. You can't think, I repeat, of a good gift you ever enjoyed in your life that didn't come from God.
Take man's artist work.
Well, it's all a copy of God's creation, for man can never improve on that which God has created.
It was very good and man can never improve on it. And I repeat, all our failures, whether we're children or grown up, springs from unbelief of the goodness that's in the heart of God.
Are you a Christian?
Make it the habit of your life.
Never to take a step without consulting the wisdom of God. And there you'll find it in the world.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, that is for the next step.
And a lot of my past. What does that mean? To show you where the path ends for end? It will down here and it will.
By so many look upon the Bible as a book to tell them how to be saved and go to heaven when they die.
Even Christians are wrong when they look upon the Bible in that way.
The Bible of the book not only to tell you how to be saved and go to heaven, but how to live in this present evil world with light for your past, wisdom for every step of the way, and the blessing of God.
To rest upon your pathway. So notice this John 15 verse 10 now.
If you keep my commandments, nothing about dying, nothing about.
Forgiveness of sins here. If you keep my commandments, she shall abide in my love.
Oh, every word of God comes with as a commandment to the child of God that has learned the love of Christ.
If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.
Every father wants to see his children happy.
Every true father wants to see his children happy, but sometimes I as a father, have made mistakes.
But I've got a father up there that never makes any mistakes. Never, never.
Ah, remember, the Bible is a book not only to tell you how to be saved.
But how to live in this present evil world with the blessing of God upon your pathway through?
Unhappiness is a state of soul, not a question of circumstances.
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No, I think you keep that John 15, and I'll bring you to a Psalm that will show you that.
Can you find the Psalms are right in the middle of the Bible and it's for £39.
I said I will take heed to my ways now. This is not how to be saved.
This is how to have happiness after you are saying.
I will take heed to my ways that I sin, not with my tongue. Oh, the tongue is an unruly member, isn't it? You say something and then you're sorry you said it.
Watch what you think about and judge every unkind thought and every evil thought.
For the thought always precedes the action.
Never go to bed at night with an unkind feeling toward anybody in the world, no matter how they treat you.
No matter how they speak.
There is it not written, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Was it because it was a world that was toward Him? In love? No, hearing it, Love not that we love God, but that He loved us.
And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins at first, John chapter 4.
You know God loves you when you were in your sins without a thought. God worship.
Here in his love, not that we love God, but that He loved us.
Oh, how precious to think his love never changes.
And to walk in the sense of it is to have a happy Christian life.
When I come to these general meetings and I see you boys and girls, and you know I love boys and girls.
I love boys and girls, I had come on them and I've got some yet.
God wants to everyone of his children to be happy.
But the world is dressed up to defend you, so it says here a little further down.
In this 39th Psalm, in the fourth verse, Lord, make me to know my name and the measure of my days, What it is that I may know how frail I am. Behold, I made my days as an handbag.
And my age is as nothing before thee. Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. And then a little word is added. He lost. Every man at his best estate is all together vanity. And the words of vanity is really vacuumed, nothing empty.
Empty.
So it says in the next verse. Surely every man walketh in a vain show.
You know, vain and empty show.
Every book you read, unless it has the wisdom of the word of God.
He simply followed.
For the wisdom of this world is.
That so empty that the word of God tells us. Perhaps I better send you to which those children remember it. Can you find Corinthians?
First Corinthians.
We're in a chapter 3.
And verse 19.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
20th verse and the game the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are very.
Empty. The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
All yes, there's no wisdom in this world Well, we used to tell our children when they went to school children, you take your arithmetic and algebra and you could in composition from your school teacher. But when she talks about anything moral.
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She sure to be wrong. Unless.
Her thoughts are governed by the Word of God the Lord, nor the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
Every book you read, unless it is.
Governed by the wisdom of God will tell you to lay up your treasure down here.
To lay up your pressure down here that the things that are highly esteemed among men.
Our abomination in the sake of God. You'll find that verse in the 16th of Luke.
The things that are highly esteemed among men are abomination in the sake of God. I'm talking to you as Christians.
Six times over, the Lord says. Twice in Matthew, once in months, twice in Luke, and once in John.
That that a man that walks in the wisdom of this world is walking foolishly.
He's to lay up his treasure in heaven.
Where neither moth nor rust of corruption. Where thieves do not breakthrough nor seals.
Lay up for yourselves, treasure in heaven, heaven, anything that you do.
Simply to please God in the past of obedience to His word will never be forgotten. It will be blessed and every act in your life and mind either to please set or to please God.
I often ask myself, why do you want to preach? Is it please self?
If you did everything right, nothing would be right except the motive was right.
And you and I are enabled by the word of God.
To judge whether the motive is the glory of Christ.
Jesus could say down here, I do always those things that please him.
I do always those things that please him, I often say to our young people in Ottawa where I live.
Young Christians, remember this.
No.
Through this world to please God and at the end of their pathway said I wish I hadn't done it for the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich.
And we added no sorrow.
The blessing of the Lord is maketh rich.
And he added no sorrow with it. And gifted, even gift is not godliness.
David was a good king and God blessed him as a king, but he was a poor father and he had to suffer for it.
For you and I, if we're Christians, we're in the House of God and come under his government.
Now I'm going to give you a little rapid outline of that in first Peter.
In the five chapters, we can turn over to First Peter.
The first chapter of First Peter is salvation.
I'm not going into the detail, but notice the first verse. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered through a pompous Galicia, Cappadocia, Asia and bikini babies. They were the scattered of the tribes of Israel.
Elect according to the knowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit.
And I'll tell you what that means. Even you children can understand.
Sanctification, meaning of the Spirit, means this.
That the Spirit of God always, always, always occupies us with Christ and our heavenly portion. Sanctification of the Spirit.
For the Spirit it tells you in the 16th of John.
The Spirit taketh of the things of Christ.
And shows them to us.
And so it's sanctification of the Spirit.
Unto obedience.
Unto obedience.
The first thing that's spoken of is obedience. Are you a Christian? Are you a child of God?
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Never take a step in your life without consulting the wisdom of the Word of God.
For that, again, I repeat, don't look upon the Bible as simply a book to tell you how to die and go to heaven when you do die.
The Word of God tells us how to live in this present evil world and live with the blessing of God, for God desires the happiness and blessing of His children.
So it's unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ that added, Because none of us walk in the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus, so the sprinkling of the blood is necessary for us, though it was not necessary for him.
Grace unto you. Grace is the unmerited favor of God, and peace be multiplied.
O Peace.
Is more than simply peace through knowing that my our sins are forgiven. This is the peace of God that passes all understanding.
Keeps us in the world filled with evil for the God.
And Prince of this world is Satan.
And so it is. We can walk in perfect peace. The world was never in such a troubled condition as it is right now.
But God is behind the scenes, moving all the scenes that He is behind.
And Christ is head over all things to the Church, which is his body.
I've often said to my brethren in Ottawa, there's no one in them in this meeting and no one in this world can speak an unkind word to me unless the Lord allows it. And never look at the person that speaks unkindly to you. Ask the Lord why he allowed it, why he allowed it.
Shall I give you a simple illustration?
I had a mother. There were seven of us children. I never remember my mother losing her patience with us. Seven children never remember it.
Or were we perfect children? No, we weren't. We tried there, I'm sure, but I never remember her speaking an impatient word.
When anybody speaks unkindly to you, just take it as an opportunity to show the patience and grace of Christ.
The patients never go to bed at night with an unforgiving spirit or an unkind thought toward anybody in the world, no matter how they treat you.
Carry always a forgiving spirit. Nothing happens by chance. God is the God of circumstances.
Oh, if my mother walked in that room.
My heart had overflowed.
I'll never know how close you walk with the Lord. Do I see somebody speak unkindly to you and find out how you act. How you act. Nothing happens by chance.
All is ordered of God. The circumstances, the weather, the conditions of life in your home or in your business, everything is ordered of Him. Why?
God is the God of circumstances, and it is well always to remember it so.
So your grace and peace be multiplied.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy have forgotten us again unto a lively or living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible, an undefiled, and that faded not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God.
Through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
When this is contrast for Israel was promised the land of Palestine and they were to have blessing in the land, they will have it in a future day. Meantime a jewel that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ has heavenly blessing, for the middle wall of partition is down, and Jew and Gentile are made one in Christ.
00:25:04
This is our school life.
Now watch what I say next.
There are some things you learn down here that you can't learn in heaven.
You can't learn in heaven. God is the God of all comfort, where you won't need any comfort up there.
You can't learn God as the God of all patience in heaven, for we'll never do anything in heaven that requires His patience.
These things we learn down here. As dear old brother Daddy once said, it's worth being sick.
To learn whether comforter God can be.
Can come in into your room in the day of your sickness and be such a comfort to you that your heart will overflow with praise. You can't learn that in heaven. Why doesn't? Why didn't God take us to heaven the moment he saved us? What do you leave us down here for? To make money, no. To have a good time as men speak, no.
He left us down here in the school of God to learn.
But we can't learn in heaven, learn him as the God of all grace.
The God of all patients, the God of all comfort. And it's worth going through this world even in sorrow.
To learn what a comforter he can be.
I ran well. Remember when I was a boy?
They thought I was lost.
And I was supposed to be home for supper and I didn't get home till about 9:00 or 10:00 at night.
And I'll never forget to this day my mother opened the door.
And know how she burst into Thanksgiving into her arms around me, she said. Oh, Harry, you're safe. I thought you were dead.
That very trial brought out the.
The heart of my mother, that's made her very precious to myself.
Oh, what a Savior Jesus is. When we get home to glory and we look back over our lives and see how He has been so patient with us, so gracious with us, so forgiving with us. Oh, how we look into His face and burst into praise. It's a privilege to be saved when you're young.
To be saved when you're young.
Thank God I received when I was a little boy.
Where he, that love of his life, shall lose it. What does that mean?
That means he that lives to please himself will be unrewarded in glory.
And it is worth having the sorrow to learn what a comforter Jesus is.
Oh, you dear boys and girls.
You come to the meeting. Perhaps it's a long way to come, I remember.
This was in Philadelphia many years ago. An old brother, Hamilton, lived way up. A forgotten Erdenheimer was called, and he and I were coming down on the Street car.
And he was sitting beside me and he said, oh, brother, hey, who? I'm tired of this long journey from Erdingham down down to the meeting. It was right downtown in Philadelphia. I looked at him and I said, but Brother Hamilton, you must have a big reward waiting you in heaven for all that long journey that you wouldn't have had if you lived next door.
He burst into laughing and he said, oh, I never thought of it that way before in my life. It'll make the journey easier. Have you a long way to come to the meeting in Chicago? Have you a long way to come? Got to get up 1/2 an hour earlier.
When you get the reward for it for it, you'll be surprised.
Measured every mile you took. He's measured every step you took. He's measured all of the costume or it's a privilege to do anything for that precious Savior who loved us and gave himself for us, as you heard me say at the opening of this meeting.
There's much of the sufferings of Christ that were not necessary to put our sins away.
Why did he go through it?
In order to be a sympathetic high priest.
Should I give you an illustration that you children can understand?
Supposing you had to walk from here to Spokane, WA, That's a long time and you had to walk every mile of it.
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And I knew you'd be tired.
And I knew the heat of the day would be oppressive to you. And I said I'll take the walk to Spokane myself.
In order that I can sympathize with you in your weariness of body and all that you go through.
Well, I don't think I've got a heart big enough to do it, you know, I think I'd rather take the train or an automobile.
But you know the Lord Jesus walked every weary mile, hungry and thirsty, and we will journey. What did He do it for? To put our sins away? No, To be a comforter to us.
To be a comforter to you. Are you misunderstood by your brethren? The Lord was misunderstood by the Baron too. Are you persecuted by the world? The Lord was persecuted too. Was that to put your sins away? No, no. Why was it that Paul and Silas sang in prison? Why was it they sang in prison?
All they learned in prison what a comforter God was.
And how their hearts burst forth into praise, and the prisoners heard them.
And it was a testimony to them.
How much we learn in that way of that blessed, precious Savior with whom we're to spend eternity.
Oh, dear, young boys and girls, I can't tell you. I would like to tell you the joy that awaits us when we step into the Father's house in Yonder glory. We're not only going to have bodies like Him.
But we will be like him morally as well as physically, and we learn that in the Father's house, the depth of the divine bosom in a way that we cannot learn it fully down here.
Well, I must go on with my subject or I won't get through it all. The 1St chapter of Peter is happiness and blessing.
Through faith in Christ I read the 18th verse to show.
For as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold in your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
Now the second chapter, Wherefore laying aside all malice.
And all that and hypocrisy and envy and all evil speaking.
Now why does it say that the 1St chapter is salvation through the blood of Christ, The 2nd chapter is growth through the word of God.
Do you read the Bible every day?
Well, the first verse of the chapter is the pulling up of the weeds, laying aside all malice.
You won't enjoy the chapter you're reading in the morning if you allow malice in your heart.
Now you notice these are the things that can't be seen.
Malice and guile and hypocrisy and envy. Evil speaking is the last thing but the first four things that are mentioned.
Are the things that can't be seen. If you've got guy or hypocrisy or envy, I can't see it.
Now watch my next statement. If you judge the evil thoughts that your brethren do not see, you'll never have to judge the evil actions that your brother induces.
That thought comes before the action.
If you if you have an evil thought, judge it at once.
Now, as newborn babies desire their sincere, that word sincere means unadulterated. It's sinusera in Latin.
The unadulterated nook of the word, that ye may grow thereby.
How do I grow as a Christian? What's the book that is Food for the New Nature?
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We used to tell our children when sometimes they'd say, well, what's the harm in it, father?
We used to say, well, is it a new nature that wants it at the old?
Well, I just, I think it's the old nature. Well, what do you do with the old nature?
Put it in the place of death.
In the place of death, you ask yourself, you've got a problem right now in your life as to what some step to take. Is it the new nature wants it, or the old?
Well, if it's the old nature, you have to keep it in the place of death, aren't you? Isn't that simple?
Isn't that simple when something comes to you?
Why Is it the old nature or the new nature as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word?
That he may grow thereby, if so be he have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
On all house full of grace.
Are full of grace. Grace is the unmerited favor of God. Now watch my next statement.
Please watch it. Every Christian blessing is so large that it couldn't be larger. Every Christian blessing is an apex. God couldn't do more than forgive you and make you one of his children.
And through all eternity, God will never remind the believer of any of his sins.
He says your sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Excuse me, lovely.
Early Christian blessing is a mountain peak.
If God hasn't won your heart, what more could he do to win it? What more could he do? He couldn't do more than make you a child of God and Christ, make you a member of his body. And then he says in First Corinthians 3, all things are yours.
Sometimes when I'm traveling on the train, I lookout the windows and I say to the man beside me, you know, all that property out there belongs to my father, and I'm one of the heirs to the estate. Of course he thinks I'm crazy, you know?
But then I give them the Scripture. Scripture says that we're heirs of God.
And join their heads with Christ. That's Romans 8, heirs of God. Who does the Chicago belong to? Who does the whole world? The earth is the Lord and the fullness are all the world. And then the gallery. He hasn't taken possession of it yet, that's all.
But it belongs to him, and the Christian is an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. So I say doom well.
The Bible tells you that if you're a believer, you're an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ.
And someday he's going to take possession of it, and you and I will possess it without buying it. It's always yours and dear Christ, and Christ is God's. Isn't it lovely to be a Christian?
Isn't it lovely?
I don't know any blessing possible.
That could exceed the blessedness of being a Christian.
Here we are, just on the end of the journey the Lord is about to come.
Of anything to fear, No no, it's all in his family. But God is behind the scenes, moving all the scenes that he isn't behind and Christ his head over all things to the church which is his body. All is yours and your Christs and Christ is God. Well the 2nd chapter then is the way a Christian grows.
Do you want to grow?
This is the food of newborn babies. Desire the sincere or unadulterated milk of the word, that she may grow thereby.
Now the third chapter is happiness. Turn to the third chapter and the 10th verse. First Peter 3 and 10. The 1St chapter is salvation. The 2nd chapter is growth. The third chapter is happiness.
For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no God, let him eschew evil.
And do good. Let him seek peace and into our pursuit. Never bring anything up in your home life, or in the office where you work, or in the assembly.
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Never bring anything up that will spoil the peace.
Of your home life, or your business life or your assembly life, unless it is necessary to do so for the glory of God.
Never defend yourself.
NEDER, never defend yourself. Are you right and the other person wrong will leave it. God will make it all plain someday.
Make it all clean. Make it the habit of your life never to defend yourself.
Never to defend. No, never. Never. Never to defend yourself. No, no. Leave it with God. He knows what happened. He knows all the circumstances. You can leave it with the Lord always.
Always, always.
What do we find here?
In the 13th verse. And who is he that will harm you if he be followers of that which is good, but and if he suffer for righteousness sake?
Oh, happy are you?
Isn't that wonderful?
Suffer for righteousness sake. When you say I would write my sister was wrong or my brother was wrong. If you suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord. Sanctify means to her. Set apart the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man asking you a reason of the hope that is in you.
Meekness and fear.
17th Verse For it is better, if the will of God be sold, that she suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
Why they put Paul and Silas in jail? Where they right in doing it?
Well, the Pollens, I was saying in jail, were they unhappy?
Want the unrighteous to put him in jail?
Did he say when I get out, I'll get after them about this business? No.
No, he was happy.
All this could be developed, I'm only just giving you a few little points as I pass on from chapter to chapter the next chapter.
Use the flesh suffering and the spirit rejoicing.
The 4th chapter.
For as much then, as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, Christ suffered for us in the flesh.
What does that mean?
Likewise arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that has suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.
What does that mean? Didn't the Lord suffer in the flesh? Yes, I have already told you. He was weary with his journey. He was thirsty. Did he feel the accusations that were thrown against him? Oh yes, he says in the 59th Psalm. Reproach has broken my heart and I am full of heaviness. I look for some to take.
The sympathy within.
But there was none, not one. I looked for comforters and I found none. I've often said that when I visited in the hospital, there's some Christian there. I've said to the Christian lying in bed, the Lord suffered and he looked for comforters and he found none. But you can't say that when you got hurt, didn't your mother put your arm around you and try to comfort you?
With the Lord and said, I look for comforters, and I found none. His heart felt it.
Did he go through it to put your sins away? No.
No what we go through it for.
To show you how much he loved you and to be an example.
Of how you and I are to walk through this world and so you do the right thing.
Perhaps in the meeting?
Perhaps it's in connection with the matters of a meeting that is held.
Shall I tell you a little story to illustrate? I remember we had a three days conference in Ottawa many years ago.
Many years ago, I guess about 30 years ago.
Brother said well I'll cook the meat. We said all right, thank you, that's fine. But he cooked it very, very rare and wasn't done. And a good may the brethren coming down.
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The meats not cooked right, meats not cooked right. And so he said, you know, I heard him say it. He says I'm never going to cook the meat for the meat anymore. They're just criticized me. Oh, I said, brother, I thought you were doing it for the Lord.
So I was, he said. Well, I said, did the Lord tell you to stop?
And you profit by it and do it a little better next time.
And he did.
Next conference he had to cook the meat and he didn't. Better job. But he was going to give up. He was going to give up. So perhaps mothers told you to do something. Our father or some of the brethren have criticized you for something you did. Did you get cross and give up? Or did you say, Lord, help me to do it better next time?
Wouldn't that be the right way? Wouldn't that be the right way? We're so here.
The Lord suffered. He felt it.
He that has suffered in the flesh, that ceased from sin.
Makes me think of driving my car to the meeting in Ottawa where I live and my brother.
Were saying about some ball game he was going to, he was in the car some ball game he was going to. I looked at him and I said, brother, do you ever read first Peter 4? It says he that has suffered in the flesh had ceased from sin. Is it the new nature wants to go to that ball game of the old one?
Yes, it was the old one. Well, what are you to do? I said with it. He that has suffered in the flesh that ceased from sin, aren't you to keep the flesh in the place of death, even if it means suffering?
Never thought of it that way. Well, why not? Why not? It's astonishing how people read the Bible and walk away from it and never stop to think what it means with their Jesus plain. I didn't write that. I didn't write it. God wrote he that are stubborn in the flesh. Are you and I to please the flesh?
Either have suffered in the fleshes, because even though you're a Christian, you've got the old nature, the fleshy new that loves nonsense, loves foolishness. Perhaps it's some bitter nonsense and you're going to tell it to your sister, brother, somebody else. Don't do it. He that has suffered in the flesh have ceased from sin. Now watch my next statement.
Paul gives you the doctrine.
That were dead with Christ. Peter gives you the carrying out of the doctrine.
And what it will cost to carry it out.
And the Old Testament gives you samples of those that walked to please God and what God did for them in the end.
Like Joseph or David or Daniel?
They walked to please God. What was the end of their path? Blessing.
He that has suffered in the flesh and so if you have a desire to do something.
Just ask yourself the question, am I doing this to please God or to please myself?
Oh dear, these young people, the time is drawing to a close. Oh, I say from the bottom of my heart.
If you and I would only live to please God, we never lived to regret it for the blessing of the Lord. It maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.
Blessing of the Lord, it maketh a rich to put down. Put your knees at your bedside at night with the consciousness that you've sought to please God during the day. He's the sweetest thing that the new man can enjoy.
Or how precious to have his blessings.
How precious it is to have the inflow of His love into our soul. It's the peace of God that passeth all understanding. And you lay your head on your pillow and go to sleep.
In the quiet assurance that your ways have been pleasing to the Lord, again I say never defend yourself.
Defender the Lord, defend the word of God, but never defend yourself.
Leave all with the Lord. What is of Himself will be owned and blessed of Him.
So first Peter one is salvation, First Peter two is growth through the word of God. First Peter 3 is happiness through obedience. First Peter 4 is the flesh suffering and the spirit rejoicing. The 5th chapter is where it will end. So we just conclude with the 5th first Peter 5.
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Verse seven casting all your care upon him.
For he cares about you, For you be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion. Walk at the boat, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist tedpath in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren which are in the world, but the God of all grace, who has called us.
To his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that you have suffered a while. Make you perfect.
Established, strengthened, settled you.
To him the glory and dominion, forever and ever. Amen.
Where is it going to end?
Oh, it's the God of all grace, and it's an end in the Father's house and glory.
What an end, put it. Glorious end. O brethren, I feel how imperfectly I have spoken of these things, but they're so precious, so blessed, so important. We're living in the crucial days of the Church's history.
There will not be a revival that will be in any sense worldwide.
Scripture says hold fast that which thou hast, that no man takes thy crown. And I want to see this air. I close my top.
I'm not a young man. I look back over my life.
I had a Christian father and mother that brought me up in the truth. I've read many books. I haven't done Shadow of Death, but what the truth as taught in the Word of God is held and taught in our various assemblies.
And to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There were light and wisdom of the word of God is honored in the assembly where you meet, or perhaps great break is an exceedingly blessed privilege given to you of God.
And you young people, the enemy would try and turn you aside. And if you ever leave?
The place where God has put his name, where Christ has put his name, and where the Word of God is honored and its ministry is faithfully given. It's the most precious spot on earth, the most precious spot on earth.
Value it and don't let anything ever happen in your life. It will cause you to turn aside. Hold fast that which thou hast. Why does it say hold fast?
A mother gives a child something that is valuable and says to the child, hold it back. Why? Because there's a danger of not doing so. And there's always the danger among our young people of not holding fast the truth that you've learned from your parents.
May God give you grace and faithfulness to hold fast the truth and walk in it and walk in it in Lowlands Independence. And if you're tempted right now to give up, get on your knees before you get into bed and cry to God for the grace and strength that is needed to walk in the truth until Jesus comes.
God's Registry
Address—N. Berry
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Would you please turn with me to the book of Chronicles, the first book of Chronicles? It's very instructive to notice that in the books of Samuel and Kings.
The Spirit of God.
Tells the story of the history of these divided kingdoms back and forth, going from one to the other. But when we come to the book of Chronicles.
The story now is told by God himself in a heavenly view of these same happenings, and it is lovely to see that the very first word of the book of Chronicles is Adam. God would go right back to the very beginning and tell His story of grace and love to mankind and in those early chapters.
It is very sweet and precious to to see how that God has his men.
All the way along through those long lists of names, God has His royal line, that line which would eventually lead to Christ and all. How precious it is. Beloved young people here to know that all and everything would only lead us to Christ if you and I are redeemed by that precious blood in the glory it is going to be to gaze with.
Hiring wonder and love and adoration upon that blessed will face. And so it is ever the will, the desire of the Spirit of God to occupy us with that blessed One. Now as we know, this book was written long before the blessed Savior came to earth, but it is very remarkable, as I said, to trace those.
That royal line that was given to us in these early chapters, however.
I would like to go on now to the 9th chapter and it is very interesting to and I trust profitable to each one of us.
To go down, not to take up each verse by itself, but just to pass on a few thoughts which I have enjoyed in meditation on this chapter. And it is very remarkable to see that in this first verse.
God makes us sweep just tells in one brief verse that which was at the end. I don't know who wrote the book of Chronicles, but the Spirit of God brings the very end of almost to the end of the days of history of Israel prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It tells us here in this first verse. So this is the first.
Chapter 9, verse one. So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies, and behold, they were written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah, who were carried away to Babylon for their transgression. Now I have received quite a bit of help by referring.
To the new translation in some of these passages and you'll I think to might we might be helped.
If occasionally we will be quoting from Mr. Darbys translation and it tells us there in that first verse, So all Israel were reckoned doesn't say was reckoned, it says were reckoned. It was an individual matter. Every one of them was going to be registered as the new translation gives it registered.
All beloved young people here today.
Have you, are you registered if we could use that expression, is your name written in the Lambs Book of life? Dear young ones here. Oh, we're living in difficult days and we're living in times when Satan would divert your thoughts and your eyes away from Christ. And we do pray that each one of us that is here today.
I can say yes, thank God my name is written in that Lamb's book of life.
What a wonderful registry that is. And so here it says that they were individually registered and behold, they were written in the book of the kings of Israel. Oh, it's wonderful too, to realize that your life and mine, if we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. All beloved young people were the object of that love.
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Of of God, he cares about every one of us. They would tell you in the schools and in the universities that people don't understand you, but all there is one that understands you.
That blessed the heart of God and it would beat to encourage you.
Through the Scriptures to turn to God's precious word. And so here it tells us that everything was written down in the books. And then there's a break there. There's a period after the word Israel. And then it says and Judah was carried away to Babylon for their unfaithfulness. Well, we would wonder why.
God would would bring in unfaithfulness right at the beginning.
To that we might, we might become discouraged. We might say, well, why would God do this? Oh, I believe it is this, dear young people. And that is that God would would know. We would know that sometimes we do fail. Sometimes we do turn away. Sometimes we get back into this poor sad world. And yet God would encourage us with the rest of the story. He knows.
Feeble frame. He knows the problems that you have here in this in our in our world in this difficult time. He knows all these things. And though very often, as I said, we do get cold in our souls, how wonderful to know that we can fall back on the grace of God, which we're going to see in the following verses.
Now in this chapter there are different groups of people.
I'm not going to be speaking about the mall, but there are three particularly before me that I would like to speak up. Nevertheless, to get into the the the thoughts of this chapter, we might just pick out a few, it tells us.
That in the second verse. Now the first inhabitants that dwelt in their possessions in their cities were the Israelites, the priests.
The Levites and the nephronyms, well, it tells us there that these were important people in God's sight.
The priests and the dear young people, or we will learn from first Peter two and five, that if you have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, you are a priest before God. You are brought into this place of favor now where you can come through the veil into the very presence of God. But then also we are leave lights, and that is that we have.
Work to do down here, a service for God. And so the Levites were there too.
And then there were others in these families and we'll go down now to the.
10th verse and of the priest. Then it lists quite a few names.
All ordained of God, everyone written here, some of the names hard to pronounce, nevertheless God has recorded every one of them. And oh how beautiful this is to realize that you dear young boys and girls that are here today, God speaking reverently, He is vitally interested in everything of your life, every little detail.
Everything is known to Him. He would encourage you to go on in these last closing days. Well, so there were priests there. Now then in the 13th verse.
And their Brethren Heads of the House of their Fathers, 1703. Score 1760.
Well that was a quite a number wasn't it? I wondered why this number was was given 1760 and I just pass on these few simple thoughts to you. It is 40 * 40 and in the scriptures we know that 40 is a time, is a number that denotes testing. Well now here was testing to the essence, wasn't it 40 * 40?
Or how these men were tested. But what does it say now in the next part of the verse, that 13th verse, very able man for the work of the service of the House of God. Oh, isn't that lovely? Could this be said about us all? We have to hang our heads in shame so often and see and know. But nevertheless God saw that there were those.
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Very able men. Oh, may you and I realize that this is the day of privilege to be living for the Lord. The day is coming when we're going to be in the glory, and how close it is we do not know, but it might be this very day. Oh, our day of service is limited to this earth and faithfulness to Him, faithfulness to Christ.
Or might it be true of each one of us? Might it be true as this verse puts it?
Now then, the 14th verse changes to the Levite and of the Levite. Well, as I said, the Levites were connected not with the with the worship of God in connection with the Tabernacle, but in the service of God carrying the sacred articles across the wilderness. And I might just say in passing that when you and I are in the presence of the Lord, it is as priests.
We're in in the Lord's presence, as priests in worship.
But when you and I are on Monday at school, Oregon work, wherever it might be, we're leaving before this world, and it is our privilege as the Levite to carry those sacred articles, every one of which would point to Christ. Or that we might be faithful Levites.
As we pass through this world in front of our classmates or those with whom we work, might we be faithful Levites? Now then, 17th verse and the porters. Now this is the first group of those that I would like to speak up. The porters, They were at the door and I was wondering why it would be that they would be.
Mentioned here, but as we go on in these few brief verses, we'll find that God in his wisdom.
Places them there first. They were those who guarded the doors. And as we go on we will see this 17th verse and the porters were, and it mentions their name, 18th verse, who hitherto waited in the Kings Gate eastward. It wasn't very much to wait, was it? Waited.
They just waited there. Well, isn't the true dear young people that waiting?
For God is one of the hardest things, isn't it? It requires such patience. We have a tendency to want action and not to be waiting. But here were these men that waited. That's all they did. It was waiting there hitherto waited in the kings gate. Or is that lovely? The King's gate. Not in the world's gate, The King's Gate.
Eastward they were door keepers, door of the camp of the children of Levi. Well, we'll see this developing. They were first of all mentioning here as the doorkeepers. Now then, 19 and Shalom, the son of Corey, the son of.
EBay Asaph, the son of Korra and his brother.
Of the House of his father the korah height were over the work of the service keepers of the.
Thresholds. You see that in the margin keepers of the thresholds of the tent. Well, who are these? These were descendants of Korah. Korah for his unfaithfulness.
Felt the judgment of God.
But all his, his descendants now are listed here as faithful men to God, as doorkeepers. Wasn't that lovely, that very thing wherein their Father had failed? Here they are sighted now for their faithfulness. Oh, we might say, well, sometimes.
Some of those who have gone before may not have been very much of an example to us.
Oh, isn't it wonderful to know that we can count on the grace of God to come in as surely He did here and fight these faithful ones as being at the the threshold of the tent?
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And their fathers and their fathers notice as we go on very often, fathers and sons. Well, I know you're hearing a great deal these days about the generation gap, but I was thinking as I read over this chapter, I don't see any generation gap here. I find that the fathers and the sons were standing together. Oh, beloved Saints of God, I speak now to us. Who are fathers? Are we?
Our sons and our daughters, are we pointing them to Christ? Is Christ the subject of our home around the table? Are we feeding our young people upon Christ? Fathers and sons going on here faithfully to God together? Or may we be kept in these difficult days?
Well now then, we go on in that 19th verse, and their fathers.
Set over the camp of Jehovah were keepers of the entrance were keepers of the entrance. Isn't that nice? What would this be? I believe it's faithfulness to Christ, faithfulness to God's Word.
Care to be maintaining the Word of God? Care to be maintaining the truth and to which you and I have been brought? We're living in days when the truth is being given up everywhere.
Subtly substituted by those things which are not according to the word of God. Or we have to be on our guard to be at the threshold to be faithful to Christ according to His precious Word.
So here we find these ones, the fathers at the entrances. Now then the 20th, 1St and Finna has the son of Eliezer was the ruler over them in time past and the Lord was with him.
Well, I like this little note. Here is Eliezer. He must have gone on before now because it says there who was in time past. But it's nice to realize we'll see it farther on.
Here we have a a priest cited for his faithfulness, Eliezer, one who had stood apart from his family in faithfulness to God. And now God remembers him, and he cites him as one who is faithful, who has gone on before. And what does it say there? And it says the Lord was with him. Oh, isn't that lovely? The Lord is with us.
They love it. Young people, He's with us. He'll never leave us. He wants to encourage you and me to keep on though the days are dark. Finna has faithful one who had passed on before. Oh, we know many, do we not? Our mind, our thoughts go back to those who have gone on before, and we can surely say whose faith follow. May we have the grace to go on and realize that God has.
By His grace to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He has entrusted us with the Word, this Word of God and that truth to which upon which we can speed and which we can hear in our reading, meetings and wherever the Word is ministered.
How? What a great privilege it is for you and for me to sit under the ministry of those who have tasted the good word of God and who are able to pass on and to encourage those of us who come on after. So there was finna head. The Lord was with him. Now then the 21St verse and Zechariah.
Well, Zechariah is cited here. What does his name mean? Remembered of the Lord?
Oh, isn't that nice? The Lord remembered Zechariah and here it tells about him. The son of Michelin and Michelle Amaya was doorkeeper and we still have this group now. Doorkeepers at the entrance to the 10th of meeting.
Now we might pause here for a minute. We must remember now that it wasn't in the great and palmy days of Solomon that we're speaking. It was in the days before this, in the days after the journey, long journey of the wilderness was over. But now they're in the land, but they don't have the temple yet. They only have a little tent, just a little tent. And it wasn't very much the guard and it wasn't very much to point at in the.
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Solomon, they could proudly say, oh, look at this wonderful building in the tent. It was certainly very, very, very little to attract the eye. And oh, isn't this true? Dear young people, unless you and I value Christ as the gathering center, we're just liable to say, well, it's not very much to look at. And somebody says.
What a religion are you? Well, it causes us to turn a little bit.
We shrink away from it, don't we? And we're afraid to say so often. I'm gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ here. These men were guards at the 10th of the meeting. Nothing much to look at. But oh, how much they valued that privilege. Do you and I value the blessed privilege?
To which has been given to us of being gathered to that precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So here was Zechariah sighted 22nd verse all these.
Were chosen. Wasn't that nice? All these were chosen. Chosen.
You belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. You have been chosen to all. Chosen what for? Not only to be servants, but to share with God the Father His delight in His beloved Son. Forever to be brought into this wonderful place of sweet communion with him, with a Father, and with the Son, and with one another.
Oh, how sweet it is then to realize that that we're chosen. Chosen before the foundation of the world.
What a privilege does it make it make us proud should cause us to have our faces in the dust. We really are realizing this wonderful place to which we have been brought. And that person, I don't want to speak too much about the place. It's the person of Christ that I would emphasize. And so all these were chosen.
To be porters in the threshold.
Where 212 These were registered by genealogy in their villages. A semi colon comes in there. A stop just in their villages. Wasn't very much. Very much.
Prominence. It wasn't in Jerusalem, but in the villages. And some of you come from small assemblies. You might say, Oh well, if I were in a big assembly, why I surely would be.
Much more faithful to the Lord. But here they were in their little villages. You might come from a little village, you might say, well, a lot. I don't have very many young people to encourage me. Ah, the Lord is with us and he will encourage you. And so they came from their villages.
Now then, it says here, David and Samuel, the fear had.
Ordained. I'm not sure how that goes in there in their trust.
Well, David and Samuel are brought in here. Now I mentioned before Eliezer, who do we have here in these three thoughts? Prophet, priest, and king and king all brought before us sighted.
As those who were involved in this faithfulness to God, pointing us to Christ, Prophet, Priest and King, so here these ones had appointed these faithful men.
Now then, 23rd verse.
And they and their children had noticed there again, children or sons had the oversight of the gates of the House of the Lord, namely the House of the Tabernacle of the ward. Now I'm sorry, I should go back to that 20 second verse because there's a nice little point there.
It says in Mr. Darby's translation.
David and Samuel had appointed them on account of their faithfulness. Well, isn't that lovely? In the first verse we found that they were carried away because their unfaithfulness. Here we find that they were appointed because of their faithfulness.
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Oh, isn't that nice? Wonderful to realize that God is looking right down into the life of everyone of you, dear young people. He will reward you. We don't act for a reward, but surely we can know that the Lord would reward you and me for faithfulness. Here. They were rewarded for their faithfulness. Now then, 24th verse.
At the four quarters were.
The doorkeepers toward the east and West and North and South. Well, as I said, it was just a little tense, but there was an east and a West and a north and a South door, and there were porters. There were doorkeepers for each one of these. And oh, again, I say, dear young people were living in dreadfully difficult times.
We need to be on our guard on the east gate and the Westgate in the north gate. In the South gate we can't afford to say, well, it doesn't really matter.
We can give in a little bit here and a little bit there. Oh no, here there were gay men, faithful men at each one of those gates eastward where the sunlight, where the sun rises. Oh, isn't it wonderful to realize that if we belong to Christ, we're facing the sunrise, we're looking toward the east. This is our night, dear young people, but our day is surely coming.
And for those who are unsafe, they face the West.
Eternal night, that darkness that shall be forever. But we have to be on our guard in all these four directions we have. We never know when the attack is coming, where it's coming from. How subtle are those attacks? You know better than I do in school. You know how subtly the enemy is working.
To divert your eyes from Christ. Or may we be standing guard then east, West, north, and South. 26th verse.
Four these Levites 4 in their trust.
These four were the chief doorkeepers. Well, here are four for their faithfulness. Again appointed to these 4 doors.
Wonderful, isn't it, to realize how God carefully notes and appoints as those that were faithful to Him Now then 27.
Four, this is a a lovely verse. Four, they stayed round about.
During the night they stayed round about during the night. Oh, it would be one thing to be around this tent when there were a lot of people around and it might be noticed that there was quite a bit of faithfulness and standing around.
But what about when all the folks went home?
Well, here they were. They stayed around at night, during the night. Oh, isn't this lovely? Dear young people, this is our night. As I said before, our day is coming. This is our day. This is our night. This is man's day. But it's our night and all. May we be standing faithful to the Lord during the night, during the night.
Do we say well, meetings one hour and when the clock starts to get towards the last 15 minutes, glancing up at the clock.
That our thought or are we enjoying being in the presence of the Lord? Are we realizing how privileged we are to be hearing the precious word of God open and hear these ones stayed there during the night. Well this was recorded. They might have it might have been some cold night and yet God in heaven. He saw their faithfulness and he saw that they stayed there all.
During the night, oh, as I said before, may we realize that this is the day that God has given to you and to me to test us, to see how real the truth is to us, how precious Christ is to us. Is He attracting our heart?
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As we often say, if the Lord Jesus doesn't attract our hearts, God has got nothing more in the glory. If we get tired of heaven speaking reverently, and we know He never will, God has got nothing else but Christ. No one else but Christ, whom I have I in heaven but thee. Oh may then that blessed person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
May be the attraction of your heart and mind as the days.
Darkened now then the 28th verse.
It changes here. No longer the doorkeepers, they're important as they were. Now we come to those who were preparing as the instruments and those things connected with the Tabernacle. And I think this is wonderful too. I think this is the next step in your life and mine. First, that we must be faithful doorkeepers.
At the threshold, guarding the truth, and guarding the word of God, and guarding the glory.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ, his divinity. And then we go on now into this next group.
And here's what it says about them.
And certain of them.
Have the charge of the ministering vessels or instruments.
Of service, that they should bring them in and out by tail or numbered. Well, now there were all kinds of instruments. Every one of these instruments would bring before us Christ in some way or other. And here were these ones now who were in charge of the instruments.
Might not again have been very prominent. They might have been looking after the instruments back at home. Nevertheless, they were keeping those instruments carefully, clean, ready for service. They might not be the ones that would use these instruments, but they were getting them ready. Oh, isn't that lovely to know that God takes note of everything that is done? And so here they were.
They were to bring them in and to bring them out, some of them.
29 Some of them also were appointed to see.
To oversee the vessels and all the instruments of the sanctuary. The word holy there is the holy instruments of the sanctuary. Well, pause there for a minute. Holy instrument. Oh, isn't that grand? Do you and I realize that we have that we are gathered to the precious name of the Lord.
Jesus Christ, holy instruments that we sit in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, pure gold, pure gold to gaze with the eye of faith upon the Lord Jesus. Holy instruments. These men were preparing and keeping us fit. And the fine flower, well, that's nice too, isn't it? Glorious subject, trace through the Old Testament.
Fine flower, Christ in all his beauty, his loveliness, his evenness, the fine flower, that beloved person, how lovely it is to to to to read of his life of perfection and even fear. And so there were some of the men that prepared the fine flower.
That's what their work was, just a fine flower.
And the wine. Here were some more now that would bring joy.
Some of those we might listen to, they would tell us of the loveliness of Christ. Some others, some other brother might stand up, bring before us the joy of our heavenly position, the beauty of Christ. Here were some of the men that brought the wine and the oil, the power of the Holy Spirit.
Or this is the one that keeps you and me. Now in these difficult days there were some of the men that prepared the oil and the frankincense. Isn't that lovely? Oh, the frankincense, the beauties of Christ, all that he is to his Father, that frankincense that was poured onto as though at the altar, and there that cloud filled.
The Tabernacle and the temple. The frankincense.
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The beauty is the loveliness of Christ. Oh, isn't it lovely to hear some of the brethren sometimes lifting our hearts up as we are occupied with Christ? Oh, they're the ones that are bringing the Frankenstein and the voices. 30th verse. And it was.
One of the sons of the priests who compounded the ointment of the spices.
Now here, it's nice, it doesn't mention who this one was. No mention of it as name, no prominence given to him. Would he say, well, why wasn't my name mentioned there? I don't think so. Why? Because he to him was given one of the greatest privileges of all, and that was to compound those holy and sacred ointments and.
Sweet voices.
Christ again, in all his beauty, no one was ever to put on those.
Ointments on themselves. If they did, they would be cut off from the congregation of Israel. Oh, it's Christ in all his beauty and loveliness again. And one of them, one of the sons of the priest. How sweet a privilege it would be for you, dear young people here to be engaged in some of these things. Privilege. Yes indeed, open to us, yes indeed, as the old ones pass on.
You younger ones, you're going to have to. If the Lord doesn't come soon, you will be filling their places. Are you being prepared? Are you preparing? Are you feeding on Christ? Are you reading God's precious word? It would be one of those ones that would be be bringing these sweet spices, as again I say he might. This man might not have ever been seen. He might have been preparing these things at home.
Wasn't that a good place?
What is our testimony at home? That's where we are. That's where it all starts, doesn't it? That's where faithfulness must begin. And so here this man might have been preparing these spices, as I said, to compounding them according not according to his mind, but according to the word of God. So much of this and so much of of other of the other beautiful.
Fragrances all again as I said.
Christ in all is beauty. So here was one of them, unnamed, but all recorded in God's Word. And well does he know who this man was, or then might we be like some of these men. And now just the 31St verse. And Matthias, one of the Levites, who was the first born of Shalom, the Korah height, had the set office.
Or the word of trust or was in trust over the things that were made in the pan. Well, I haven't got time to go into these details, but here. And we find some of the other offerings that were prepared in the pan. Again, as I said, might be prepared at home and brought them to the Tabernacle. And that was the end of his work. But God records it and there they were faithful to him.
And other of their brethren of the sons of the Cohesites were over the showbread to prepare it every Sabbath. While here was some more of the men. What were they doing? They were preparing the bread. 7 loaves of of showbread had to be prepared and changed every Sabbath. The priests, of course, would be the ones Aaron and his sons would go in bringing.
12 loaves that had been prepared by this, these men and in they would go into the Tabernacle and there in the courtyard they would eat those 12 loaves. But here was the man that made them unsung. You might say no, indeed recorded of God, all beloved ones, young people, I trust that you are getting this message that God knows he knows that you're faithful to him. What?
Of your heart, you might say, well, I just can't do very much. Or is it the desire of your heart to live faithfully for Christ? He knows that and He records it. And you will surely be richly blessed. Never mind what others might say. Here were some of these ones working in the night, working at home, behind the scenes, unnoticed. But God knew, and God looks into your heart. And if there is some, there are some here today.
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Have a desire in your heart to live for Christ or He will help you and he will, He will record it and he will bless you and he will record it and He will reward you. Now then we come to the last group, 33rd verse. First the doorkeepers, then those who prepared the the articles for the worship of God.
And now we come to the singers. Last but not least, singers.
Privilege ones, these surely work, and I might say the result of the other two. And surely we realize that as only as you and I are faithful to the Lord as doorkeepers, only as we are engaged, occupied with Christ in the offering up of Christ to God and worship, that's what will be the result.
Song. The praise will flow out of our heart. Songs in the night. So here we come now to the 33rd verse. And these are the singers.
She fathers of the Levites, who?
In the chambers were free from service. Well, that's nice, isn't it? Free from service. They weren't encumbered now with the other works that some of the other ones had. Everyone had their own work. Some might be guards at the door, some might be busy preparing these different articles at home.
Some were free of all the service and what were they?
Singer. Oh, isn't that lovely? What a wonderful privilege it is for you and for me there to be a singer too, singing the praise of God, exalting the blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thinking about His blessed name.
Sing then. Oh yes, those songs of praise will come out of our lives.
What, are we singing a foolish songs of this world, or are we singing those songs that we will be singing in the glory praise to our God, such as we had in our hymn? 317 And so here they were, for they were employed in that work day and night, day and night singers.
Day and night, they didn't just say save.
Remnant Truth
Address—P.L. Johnson
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Read first of all in the first chapter. A few verses there to.
At the beginning is of this and have a desire to speak on this evening.
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his Kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying Thus the Cyrus king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth.
And he has charged me to build him and house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Who is there among you of all his people? His God. Be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the House of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is in Jerusalem.
And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold and goods.
And with beasts beside the free will, offering for the House of God that is in Jerusalem. Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah, and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the House of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem.
And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, beside all that was willingly offered. Then the third chapter. And when the 7th month would come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.
Then stood up Joshua the son of Joseph and his brethren the priest, and Zerubbabel the son of Shot Heel and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel.
To offer burnt offerings there on, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.
And they set the altar up on his basis, for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries.
And they offered burnt offerings their own unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening. They kept also the Feast of Tabernacles as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of everyday required. And after it offered the continual burnt offering both of the new moons and of all the set feasts of the Lord that were consecrated, and of everyone that willingly offered a free will offering under the Lord.
From the first day of the 7th month began they to offer burnt offerings under the Lord, but the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.
They gave money also under the Masons into the carpenters and meat and drink and oil, and to them of Zaiden, to them of tire to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Jaffa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus, king of Persia. Now in the second year of their coming into the House of God in Jerusalem, in the second month began to rubble the son of Sheltio and Joshua, the son of Josedac, and the remnant of their brethren, the priests and the Levites, and all they that.
Come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem, and appointed the Levites from 20 years old and upward to set forward the work of the House of the Lord.
Since to Joshua with his sons and his brethren, Cadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah together to set forward the Workman in the House of God, the sons of Hinnad with their sons and their brethren the Levites. And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asus, with symbols to praise the Lord after the ordinance of David, king of Israel.
And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord, because He is good for his mercy endureth forever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praise the Lord.
Because the foundation of the House of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the Fathers, who were ancient men that had seen the 1St house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice. And many shouted aloud for joy. So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people. For the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.
Well, I read considerable in order that we might have.
Enough before us that we might fill in between to understand the circumstances.
Of this little remnant that returned from the land of the captivity back to the place of the divine center, the place where the Lord had put His name. And I thought we might consider for a little while this evening some of the principles that we find here in this portion of the book of Ezra in connection with a remnant testimony.
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Because it is important for us to realize that the day in which we live, and of course I'm not, when I say the day in which we live, I'm not just limiting it to this decade or this generation or even this century.
Because for many years the testimony of God in this world has been of a remnant character, a remnant testimony.
If you were to take up the seven churches of Asia, as we have in Revelation 2 and three, you will find that.
In the fourth stage of the Church's history there in Thyatira.
We have mentioned for the first time a remnant, while the Church in general had become corrupt through the teachings of that prophetess of the one who called us. Have a prophetess Jezebel. He speaks of a remnant, the rest in fire Tyra who have not.
This doctrine, a remnant is mentioned and from there on in the church's history, it's been a a remnant testimony, a remnant testimony. And what do we mean by that? We mean that as far as the Church of God established in this world.
Bearing a faithful testimony in its entirety. It's all over. There is no such thing as the.
Church in general, in its entirety, bearing a faithful testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ into the truth of God, though it was set up in this world for that purpose.
We see in the history of the Church, prophetically even in the Book of Revelation, that when it reaches the stage of fire, Tara.
It is given up as far as general testimony is concerned.
And its testimony is in ruin and failure, and from fence forward.
God is occupied with a remnant testimony, that is, that there would be those who can.
Bear testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the truth of the Church.
But they cannot claim to be the Church in its entirety.
A remnant. Of course, the very thought of a remnant is that it's not the whole thing. Isn't that true?
If you have a bolt of material and there's only you speak of a remnant of that, it means it's not the whole boat. It's only a remnant. It's just what's left. It's a part of the hole.
The client cannot claim to be the whole, it's only a part of it. But there is another aspect in the thought of a remnant is this though the the remnant is not the whole thing in its entirety yet the remnant is just like the original. In other words, a remnant of something is not something different from what it was originally. It it maintains the same characteristics of the original, but it's just not in the whole thing in its entirety.
And I thought for a little while this evening we might consider some of the principles that are brought out here in Ezra in connection with the remnant testimony. Because we will see that when this little remnant returns back to the divine center, they go back to the original pattern, they go back to what things were in the beginning.
With some exceptions.
And this is important too, with some exceptions.
Well, now, first of all, let us just give a little.
Resume of the.
Of the history of Israel. It brings us down to this point. We know, of course, that.
That nation after it was established in its Kingdom.
Under David, and in all of its glory, under under Solomon.
His glorious reign. The Kingdom was established there in a peaceful and glorious reign in Solomon, and God gave the word to Solomon that if he continued to walk.
In the ways of David his father, and if he walked before the Lord in integrity of heart.
Then God would not only establish his Kingdom, but perpetuate it that he would see that there would be.
Successors who would maintain the glory and power of the Kingdom.
But we know that Solomon himself failed in this. Solomon failed in the.
In heeding the word of God, and multiplying horses out of Egypt, and multiplying wives to himself. And then his heart was turned away from the Lord to serve other gods. And the result of this was that in the days of his son Rehabon, the Kingdom was divided, ran asunder in 10 tribes, revolted under Jeroboam, leaving only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin under the House of David. And we know something of the subsequent history.
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Of these two separate kingdoms now as recorded.
And the in the Book of Kings, how did the 10 tribes of the north went from bad to worse? And the the kings continued in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebad, who made Israel descend, until finally they were carried away into captivity by the king of Assyria. And the Kingdom of Judah for a while fared a little better. There were from time to time godly kings whom God raised up, and there were notable revivals of course, under.
And Josiah and the Kingdom of Judah continued a little longer. And finally.
Because of persistent wickedness and idolatry.
And turning from the Lord, why God brought to the adversary Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, against.
The against Judah and finally the city was was besieged and there were they were carried away into captivity and then the final rebellion under Zedekiah and the king of Babylon comes up again and burns the city with fire, destroys the walls, and then all are carried away with the exception of just the poor of the land. Well, we know that this the city lay in desolation and ruins that glorious temple that.
Been constructed in Solomon's day was was destroyed and so the Israel, the Jews were not allowed to continue their worship there in the divine center of the place where God had put his name. He abandoned it, as it were, and they were carried away into captivity. But we know that God gave the word as we read here in Ezra through Jeremiah.
That the land would lie rest for 70 years, but that he would bring them back. He would cause the them to return.
And we know, of course, that Isaiah prophesied about this man Cyrus, as being the servant of the Lord, who would be the instrument for the return of his people back to the place of his appointment in Jerusalem, the divine center. Well, and what we have now here in the book of Ezra is the fulfillment of that promise of God to to restore a little remnant. And it is only a remnant. The 10 tribes never returned.
They were carried away into captivity by the Assyrians and they have never returned to the land as a group.
We know, of course, that they were individuals from those tribes who found their way back to the divine center even before the Assyrian captivity and perhaps some later. We know that even when the Lord came into this scene, there were those from the from these 10 tribes we we know that Anna was of the tribe of Asher. She was not of the tribe of Judah, but chiefly those who were back in the divine center belong to Judah and Benjamin.
The 10 tribes have were lost and they have never been recovered even in a partial way like Judah and Benjamin.
So it was only a part of the nation. First of all, this this return of the remnant involved only the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, and then not all of both.
All of those who were carried away captive into Babylon did not return.
Very enumerated here the families are brought out and we see that there was a there was a sort of a, you might say a little sample from each group of the of the Jews, but not the totality. It was just a remnant brought back to the place of the divine center, the place where the Lord had put his name. When I first of all, I would like to point out.
That the first principle we see in in the recovery.
And remnant testimony is that there is a return to the divine center, the place where the Lord is pleased to put his name. They owned that there was a there is a divine center and it's there that the Lord had placed his name. You see, they, they were not, they did not set up a center in Babylon and they did not seek to make a new center in some other place.
The desire was to go back to the place where God had originally originally.
Placed his name in the city of Jerusalem.
Well, we might make a little parallel here as to the history of the professing church, the church here in this world, and comparison with that, an analogy with the history of Israel. We know too, that the church was set up on the day of Pentecost in this world and in its early stages there, as as recorded in the book of Acts. We see its power and its glory. We see, its purity, we see.
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Shining testimony for the Lord Jesus. It's heavenly character why they were so engrossed.
With their heavenly calling in those early chapters of Acts that they didn't even call the things that they owned their own. They we read as Juan Barnabas who had the houses and lands and he sold it and brought the price and delayed it at the apostles feet. They were so engrossed with their heavenly calling and such a holiness was maintained in the church that where there was hypocrisy and lying to the Holy Spirit.
Why immediately it was judged?
And we see that there was number mixture of the world and the church, because we read that the believers were together in Solomon's porch, and of the rest, the rest of the people. No one dared join themselves to them.
There was number such thing as joining a Christian company for convenience. No, they wouldn't join because of the.
Of the evident power of the Spirit of God in the midst, and the holiness that was maintained. What a wonderful picture of the Church in the early chapters of Acts we have, we see.
But we know that the church did not continue in that state.
But we know that, as Paul said, there arose men among them to speak perverse things and draw away disciples.
We know that grievous wolves entered in not sparing the flock and as Jude had to say that ungodly men had crept in unawares. Paul had to say later all those that are in Asia be turned away from me. He had to say that some heard from the truth, heard concerning the truth, saying the resurrection is passed already and overthrow the faith of some. He had to say that they have turned away, the time will come when they will turn away their ears from the truth.
He had to speak of a demonus who had once been a a a Co laborer with him as having forsaken him.
Having loved this present world, so we see how that things did not continue, and we might say that the Church went as it were into captivity. For we read in the message to Pergamos, the Lord says to the to the assembly there as characterizing the period of the Church's history when it became merged in the world. He says, I know for thou dwellest even where Satan's throne is.
That is, the Church, as it were, became in captivity.
To Satan in this world, it came under the domination of the world. It became a pawn of the world, and that's true.
And for many years it was so the church in the world waited together. But God has graciously from time to time.
Made recoveries and a remnant testimony has been brought out.
No doubt the Reformation itself in one sense, could be considered in that light, because there was much truth recovered there in respect to the soul, salvation by faith, and in respect to the supremacy of the Word of God over any of the words of the so-called church in any farm, placing the Word of God where it belongs as the supreme authority for the.
Faith and conduct of the believer, but more especially I believe.
God by His Spirit recovered remnant testimony last century.
In the recovery of truth, not only in respect to justification by faith and in respect to the supremacy of the Word of God.
But also as to restoring the true character of Christianity itself.
Which had fallen into much darkness, and into the recovery of the truth of the Church and of the Lord's coming.
Well, perhaps we can liken some of the things, the very circumstances of the book of Ezra to a situation like that where God has has affected a recovery, has affected a recovery. And I thought that it is very important for us in our day to be acquainted somewhat with the principles.
That were that were a part of that recovery and belonged to a remnant testimony, because it will be a remnant testimony until the Lord comes.
There will be no longer a united, ecumenical, worldwide testimony of the Church. Now, when I say worldwide, I mean by the Church in general.
As it was in the early, early days of the church.
Until the Lord comes, we will continue to be a remnant testimony, and these are the principles that we want to be guided by that we would seek to maintain by the grace of God. Well, with that rather lengthy introduction, let us turn to some of the thoughts in the book of Ezra in connection with these principles.
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First of all, when they come to the to the city, to the land in verse one of chapter 3.
We see that they gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.
Here is the thought of their gathering in unity as one man, and it was in Jerusalem, although they were in their various cities. Notice here it says.
When?
The children of Israel were in the city.
But they gathered as one man to Jerusalem.
They didn't just remain in their in their cities and independency of one another. They didn't say, well, now this is a day of ruin and failure. And this is not the days of Solomon. This is not the days of David. It's not even the days of of revival under Josiah or Hezekiah. These are days when when everything is in weakness and ruin and failure. So we'll just each one stay in our own city and.
According to our own thoughts, what we see is here. They said no, Jerusalem is the divine center. There is a place where the Lord has placed his name, and it's there we should meet. And also they gathered as one man.
This would suggest to us that in connection with a remnant testimony, there should be the recognition of the divine center, the place where the Lord has placed His name.
And I have no doubt that what the Lord Jesus had this in mind in Matthew 1820.
When he utters those words for where two or three are gathered together.
Under my name, there am I in the midst of them.
I've often wondered why he said two or three.
Why did he not just say where my disciples are gathered under my name? There I'll be in the midst.
Where the Saints are gathered into my name, there I'll be in the midst. Why did he specify two or three?
Well, I believe the Lord was looking forward, as it were. I don't say that this is necessarily what they understood by it at the time. But the Lord was looking forward and He knew that they would become a time in the history of the church in this world, that He would be only a remnant testimony, and that the two and three would be literally all that could be gathered together to act on such a verse.
That you could only get two or three who would, who would take the place of gathering to the Lord's name? And he put that figure in there, that number two or three, in order, I believe to to to have a word that faith can act upon in a day of ruin and failure and confusion for two or three. And they have the authority of the Lord in the midst.
They have the authority of the Lord in the midst, he said to the disciples earlier in that chapter, You know, 18.
That whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven.
Well, one might say, well I can understand that in the early church when all that believed were together, but is that true in a day of ruin and failure? Well, I think that's why the Lord said where two or three are gathered together under my name. For that verse comes in in connection with the disciples gathered for discipline or in prayer when he says, when if any two of you on earth shall agree as touching anything, it shall be done as my Father in heaven.
Forward two or three are gathered together under My name. There am I in the midst of them.
Well, we see that in remnant testimony. In a remnant testimony, the principle of the divine center is found, the divine center with the Lord in the midst, giving authority to the acts of those so gathered to His name, even though they cannot claim to be the whole church. Just like this little testimony, this little remnant couldn't claim to be the whole nation, Israel, and they couldn't claim to have all the power that Solomon had.
We shall see in a few moments, the Lord willing, some of the things they couldn't do. There's some things that can be done in a remnant testimony, and there's some things that can. And the things that can be done, we find in the Word of God, authority, Father. Things that cannot be done, we leave into the hands of the Lord. And that's what this little remnant did here. But they could gather to the divine center that was entirely, as it were, within their power to do so.
It was something they could do, and it is something thank God that we can do in this day. We can gather to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and know Him in the midst.
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And know His authority in the midst of those so gathered.
Well, another thing is here they gathered at one man. This would suggest to us too, the principle of the one body.
We know that the word of God says in Ephesians 4 there is one body.
One spirit, 1 Hope of your calling. And these are three things that all of the ruin and failure of man, and the unbelief and unfaithfulness of the Saints of God can never alter and take away. There is one body.
It's connected with the one Spirit, and it directs us to that one hope of the Lord's coming. These are the essentials.
You might say of that which is real Christianity, one body composed of every true believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, indwelled by the one Spirit, and they all have the one hope of his coming. And that's true today.
And faith laid hold of that.
You know when.
In the when the Lord came and in the days of the.
This early days of this dispensation, when the apostles went forth with the gospel.
Why? We know that the 12 tribes of Israel were scattered. As we've mentioned, the 10 tribes were carried away by the king of Assyria.
And they were never restored.
And yet, you know the Apostle Paul speaks in the book of Acts when he is defending his preaching of the resurrection.
He says which hope our 12 tribes instantly serving God, hope to come. He speaks of the 12 tribes and James writes an epistle to the 12 tribes scattered abroad.
Well, the to the 12 tribes of Israel, we see that to faith.
They recognized that the 12 tribes still existed as a unity before God. That is, the the national unity of Israel was a fact and a reality to faith. Who recognized that God saw that unity? That is, God sees all the 12 tribes, though they're scattered and peeled and man doesn't see them.
Well, in a similar way, today we can say there is one body.
And we know before God the one body exists.
It is seen by God and by the eye of faith. We can say there is one body, though we can't point to it.
And give a demonstration of it as far as saying there's all the members of the body right there.
Because we know that some of the members of the body are scattered, but still to face there is one body. And we act on that truth, that principle, when we gather to remember the Lord. And there's the one loaf upon the table. We're told that we that expresses the one body of Christ. And our partaking of that one loaf, we give expression to the truth of the one body. That's what 1St Corinthians 10 says.
Maybe ought to read it.
1St Corinthians 10.
And perhaps we could we could just refer to it, but in reading it, it may have more force for us. 1St Corinthians 10 and verse 17.
In the 16th verse, the bread is an emblem of the body of the Lord in which he suffered on the cross.
The Lord's own body, but in verse 17 For we being many are one bread, one body.
For we are all partakers of that one bread. Now the partaking of the one bread. Here is the bread on the table.
The bread which we break it has A2 fold signification.
It is first of all an emblem of the Lord's own body. Then it is also a symbol of the what might be called the Mystical Body of Christ, the body of Christ composed of the many members we who are believers. And in partaking of that one bread we give expression to the truth that we are members of that one body. It's the very ground on which we gather as members of the body of Christ.
We do not break bread as being members of any religious sect.
Or of any particular group. We break bread as members of the body of Christ, and we own that.
One time a brother told me, he's a well known brother, I will mention his name that has labored among us for years. He said that in speaking to a fellow Christian about taking his place at the Lord's table, It was a man apparently who had much light on the Scripture, but he had never really taken his place at the Lord's table to remember the Lord, where the Lord's people is a member of the body of Christ. And he was visiting him one day and this, this brother.
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Says to his Christian friend. He says, you know, he says.
I saw you in the break at the breaking of bread last large day morning and this Christian friend says, well, I don't know how you how you did that. He says I wasn't there. Oh, he says you were there. He says, no, I wasn't at your meeting last Thursday morning. He says I saw you in the loop as a member of the body of Christ. I saw you in the loaf and you have a place there as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and there was no, no scriptural hindrance to his breaking bread. Well.
Saw you in the loop there on the table. Because in the loaf he discerned not only the Lord's own body.
But the those who are members of the body of Christ, and we express that as we read there in First Corinthians 10 in the breaking of bread. Well here we see the two of the principles, the principle of the divine center and the ground of gathering on that divine center. You see this, this really constitutes.
The position, by the grace of God, that we would seek to take as gathering to God's divine center on the ground of the one body, as members of the body of Christ. And so they gathered as one man to Jerusalem. Well, now I mentioned that there are some things that they couldn't do.
We see the things that they could do, and there's some things they couldn't do, and perhaps we ought to consider some of those.
In the second chapter we have a.
Some of the things that they were unable to do.
We read here in verse 61 of the Children of the Priests.
The children of Abaya, the children of Cause, the children of Barzillai, which took a wife of the daughters of Brasilia, the Gileadite, and was called after their name. They sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found. Therefore were they as polluted.
Put from the priesthood, and the Tishata or the governor said unto them that they should not eat of the most holy things till they stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim. And I hear we read a some who who claim to be in the priesthood and.
Attempted to take the place of priests and to enjoy the privileges of the priests.
And to perform the functions of the priesthood.
But they weren't allowed to. And why were they not allowed to?
Because they were not priests. Because they didn't belong to the priestly family? No, that isn't it. They may have been.
In the priestly family, but the reason they were not allowed to perform the functions of the priest and to enter into the privileges of the priest is because they could not prove their connection with the priesthood by their genealogy.
So we see here that when this remnant returned, there's a little change in in the activities as far as the priesthood is concerned. And we know, of course, that this would be typical. The priesthood would bring before us and type our drawing near into the presence of God. And I would connect it with our gathering together to remember the Lord.
As not only those to remember Him, but as true worshippers, it would be involved, as we have in Hebrews 10, about coming within the veil.
Through that new and living way as worshippers in the presence of God. But here were some who were not allowed that privilege and were not allowed to function in that capacity.
Because they were not able to prove their connection with the priestly family.
Not that they were not, so they didn't know, but they couldn't prove it. Well now, back before the captivity, before the temple was destroyed and the city was in ruins, this was not necessary.
The genealogies were untouched. The genealogies were kept very ardently.
And there was number possibility of one being in the priestly family and it not being known, it was known who were in the priestly family because the genealogies were intact. But what had happened, of course, was that in the destruction of the city and in the scattering and so forth, these genealogies were interrupted. And perhaps some of them didn't value the genealogy, perhaps the record that they had in connection with their priestly.
Function was not very important to them. They felt well now.
We're in captivity in Babylon. We won't need this anymore for the cities and ruins. The temple is destroyed and perhaps they didn't value it and they lost it. They didn't. They weren't careful to maintain it. So the result is now when they come back, they couldn't prove that they were in a priestly family. They couldn't prove it. They had no genealogy to prove it. So first of all, we see here that in a remnant testimony and a day of ruin and failure.
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There there is the such a thing as putting to the test a person's profession.
You see, in the early days, the profession did not need to be tested because.
The very fact that one made a confession was generally evident of reality. For it entails such persecution, it entails such a precarious life and walk that it would of course have been a very unheard of for one to make a profession for convenience. And also there wasn't the scattering, there wasn't the false teaching and so forth. But in a day of ruin and failure, it is necessary to to test.
Confession of those who profess to be the Lord. In other words, it isn't everyone who can be brought in.
To the Lord's table, and afforded the privileges and functions of those who are at the Lord's Table to remember the Lord.
Because they have to prove their genealogy, there must be the pudding to the test, the profession as to whether or not they are really the Lord. Turn to the second chapter, second Timothy, just to make a reference. There. We see that this is brought out in this portion. Here we see where the the confession is put to the test and remember as what we read there in Ezra 2.
The governor.
Did not say to those who could not produce their genealogy. He did not say to them. Now you're hypocrites.
You're not in the priesthood at all, you're just trying to get into something that doesn't belong to you. He didn't say that, he said now we don't know. We don't know, and all we can do is wait until a priest arises with the Urim and the thumb, someone who has absolute authority and absolute discernment, who can unravel this and determine whether you're not Well, of course we know that there was no priest with Urim and Thummim in those days and there never lose 1.
Because of course, in a day of ruin and failure, that absolute authority is lost, and it is resident in the Lord alone, and we see this in Second Timothy 2.
In verse 19, nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.
That answers to the priest who would stand up with the Urim and the thumb and give an authoritative answer. Only the Lord knows them that are his. In a time of ruin and failure and remnant testimony, we cannot determine absolutely who are and who are not, who are not. So you will notice that the governor there in Israel, he didn't even consider as to whether or not they were in the priesthood.
That question was never raised.
The whole question was, could they prove they were in the priesthood?
And today we do not raise the question actually as to whether one is really the Lord.
It is only do they prove does their profession stand the test. Sometimes individuals say, well I know this came up one time in which I was personally involved and I visit the individual that that was not received and the person said you have judged me and you have practically said I have not a Christian by not allowing me to break bread. I said no, we haven't done that.
No, we haven't said. We didn't raise the question as to whether you're a Christian or not, but I said we did raise the question as to.
Whether or not you are associated with those things that you cannot associate the Lord's name with, you profess the name of the Lord.
Now the test for the profession of the name of the Lord is to depart from iniquity. That's what we have here in the very verse that I read to her. The Lord knows them that are here. We do not, as it were, say that one is not the Lord's.
Notice his second Timothy here. The Lord knows them that are his, and let everyone that name it the name of Christ, or it should be as we have in the new translation. Name is the name of Lord. Depart from iniquity. And if one does not depart from iniquity, known iniquity that is brought out to them, and they continue to go on with it, then they cannot complain that they are misunderstood as to their profession of the name of the Lord, because here we see that in profess.
Name of the Lord 1 cannot associate iniquity in any form with it. It cannot be associated with iniquity, the name of the Lord naming the name of the Lord.
Profession must be put to the test and one who continues in association with iniquity.
00:40:01
And continues on willfully. Then he is not carrying out what his profession called for. He's not really proving his genealogy.
And we have to wait until the Lord comes to find out really who are those his and who are not, but one declared his pedigree or his genealogy by departing from iniquity. That's really the way we we show the reality of our profession of the Lord. You profess to know the Lord because you know if one really knows the Lord and you stop and think about it, you know that the Lord and iniquity does not go along together.
The two things cannot be combined.
You cannot combine the Lord's name with iniquity.
Well, let everyone that name it the name of Lord depart from iniquity, and they could not.
Act and something beyond them. Well, another point we find here is this.
We noticed that the governor back in Ezra too.
The governor said to them that, uh, they had to wait until there was a priest with Urim and Thummim.
That is, they did not have official authority and capacity to act beyond their power.
They couldn't act beyond their power. They didn't say, all right, well, now we do not have a priest with Urim and Thummim. That's true.
We don't have anyone that can say I have the Urim and the thumb so I can act with authority.
But since we have a case here, decide we're going to, we're going to use some expediency and we will, we will appoint certain ones to act as if they have this authority. They didn't do that. They didn't try to imitate anything at all. They merely left it alone and said, well, we can't do anything. We don't have the authority to act what we see in a day of remnant testimony to this principle that we cannot act beyond the authority that we have.
We can't go back and act with the authority that they had in the New Testament.
We can't, for instance, appoint elders. We can't have all of that power of the Holy Spirit that they had in the beginning. We're not going to have it in remnant testimony.
You know, there are those today who are increasingly getting on the line of of some emotional outbreakings as they speak of is the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with tongues and healings. And only recently I had a woman who is in a in a denomination that is ordinarily not associated with those things at all said that she was.
Very much impressed with the thought of this divine healing and even with tongues.
And she said. I thought that maybe the reason we don't have more of it is because we don't have enough faith.
No, I told her. I said. That is not the reason. That is not the reason. It is because of the ruin and failure of the professing church.
God is not going to publicly accredit the ruin and failure by giving great powerful manifestations of the Spirit. Just like this little remnant that returned back to the divine center and gathered as one man Why? I suppose it was rather humbling in a way for them to have to say, well, we just don't have the power to deal with this. We have to leave this with the Lord. It no doubt was humbling for them to realize that there was once a time when there was a priest with Urim and Thummim in their midst.
There was a time when when there was a priest who could say, now I have the Urim and the thumb and this is the mind of the Lord.
No doubt it was very humbling for them to realize that they were in such a broken state that they didn't have such power.
But they didn't try to imitate it. They just accepted and said, we'll act on what we can. We can gather as one man to Jerusalem, We'll do that. And another thing they had, they didn't have all of them. But I like to think of this too in the in the second chapter we read there in verse 36 about the way they had priests, they had the worshippers. And in verse 40, they had some Levites.
The Levites, of course, were those who did the work of the service of the Lord, and they had singers in verse 41.
You know, we can still have singers and the remnant testimony worshippers and service servants and the singers and also in verse 42, the headquarters. What about the porters?
Oh, you know, the porters were those who who stood by the doors. They, they had, they had, they were in connection with the entrance into the, to the temple. The porters. Well, we see here that in this little remnant they had, they had the worshippers, they had servants, they had singers, and they also had those who, as it were, watched for.
The less that would enter in their midst, which was not of the Lord.
And so you know, we read about in Hebrews 13.
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Obey your guides or your leaders, for they are those who watch for your souls, and it is of the Lord that there be the porters.
Now we know in that holy city Jerusalem in Revelation 21. Why?
The doors are never shut. You don't need any porters there because there's nothing enters there that defiles or make a lie. But we're not there yet.
And there are many influences about in this world that will defile and will make a lie. So the porters are necessary in a remnant testimony. We can't let the the bars and the gates down and open the doors there. There is necessary that there be the porters, those who would watch for the souls of the Saints and for the glory of the Lord, that there be not introduced and brought in that which is not according to the mind of God, which would spoil the testimony. Well, they had also the Netanyahu.
And Solomon servants these various connections of of service for the Lord. They had all of them well now back again in the third chapter.
There is another point I would like to bring out here in connection with what they did with the principle for us in this day.
We read that the first thing they did was to set up the altar of on his basis.
They built the altar in verse two, and in verse three they set up the altar upon his basis.
They set up the altar. That's the first thing, the restoration of the.
Of the place where there was worship to ascend unto God, where they offered their burnt offerings.
Perhaps this would bring before us that in remnant testimony there is the there is the restoration of the true principles of Christian worship, the restoration really of of what the truth of Christianity is, as we some of us had before at last Lord's Day, mourning the thought of the true worshippers as set free in heart and conscience and worshipping God in spirit and in truth.
True worship and contradistinction to.
The worship that is, that is found around about in that which is false in connection with outward farms and ceremonies.
True worship, and you know, worship is different from ministry.
And they found sound like a very simple statement, but there's multitudes you've never stopped to think of such a thing.
And how many times someone speaks of a worship meeting and you go there and a man preaches.
Well, ministry is God speaking to His people. It's coming down from God to the Saints for our health and blessing and edification. But worship is that which ascends up unto God from the hearts of his people.
Well, the worship is different from ministry, but we see here that they restored, but we might speak of as the true character.
Of Christianity. The altar was set up upon his bases. But now, no. It's a little expression in the third verse.
For fear was upon them because of the people of those countries.
Now, you know, this sounds a little strange. Really. If they were fearful of the people round about, wouldn't you think the first thing they'd do is to build a wall?
To protect them from the people.
Well, the first thing they did was to build an altar.
And somehow or another they looked upon that altar as being protection from their enemies round about. And I believe this is true for a remnant testimony in our day in the church that we will not prevent the incursion of the enemy with false principles or false practices by building up a legal wall around about the only way in which we will be able to prevent the enemy from coming in. And.
Bringing in false doctrine or false practices or sin and things of that nature, and anything that would disturb the Saints and gathering to the Lords name, is by an entering in to the truth of true Christianity, of what Christianity is.
Well, this would involve, of course, many things. It would involve an entering into the gospel in its fullness, not only the gospel that saves us from our sins, but the gospel that attaches us to Christ in glory. It would involve to the truth of the church as members of the body of Christ. It would involve 2 also our being partakers of the heavenly calling, and that we're pilgrims and strangers.
It would involve two of the fact that we are a holy people.
It would involve many things then in fact all that we find written in the New Testament concerning true Christianity. And you know, if we stop and reflect a while, we will find that that Christianity has been greatly Lord in its true character in among professing Christians here in this world.
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Because Christianity is more than just the gospel, it encompasses the.
The walk and the future and everything of the child of God true Christianity well when we enter into that in its fullness enter into it more and more set the altar up on his bases then we will find that this is protection against the enemy without and I believe this is a very important principle because you know those I was mentioned about the recovery.
Now truth last century. Well now those men of God.
Did not sit down and determine and say, as it were, now we're going to start a new thing.
They didn't say we're going to start a new company. We don't like the various denominations. We we've sampled them all and we don't like them, so we're going to start anew. They didn't do that. They found written in the word of God, truth in connection with the church, in connection with the Christians calling, in connection with its separation from the world and the worldly methods and principles and all of these things. And they found that that truth put them outside the camp, put them outside the religious.
Man in which? Because these principles were not being acted on in those places.
And I feel that this is an important point for us in this day, that it is only as we enter in to those truths that have been recovered will we be able to be will be maintained in the position of gathered to the Lord's name. Otherwise things will arise and we will eventually find that the path is a little difficult and things great upon us and there are things to try us. And if it's just a gathering.
Little group of Christians, and maybe we say we don't like this group, we don't like this group, but I like this group.
And so I'll be with this group because I think they have more light and they have more truth. Well, sooner or later something will arise that we find out they're not the group we liked after all. And so we'll go off to another group. We find this constantly happening among those who are truly the Lord, sampling this group in that one and and determining which one they like best.
Oh, but that isn't really setting the altar up on his basis, entering into the truth of Christianity and acting on what we find written in respect to the church.
And the assembly and walking in these truths puts us in a certain place and in association with those who are walking likewise in these things, as we find in the Second Timothy 2, with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. And we also realize too, that there is such a thing as bearing with one another, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. Well, we see here that this is what this is what kept them from the incursions of the enemy roundabout.
Well, these are some of the features that belong to a Remnant testimony. I don't say that it's all of them.
It's all we will consider tonight, but we have some important ones here in respect to gathering to the divine center.
On the ground of the one Body, and with the testing of the profession of individuals and of the leaving of things in God's hands for which we do not have power, and acting on that which we do have power to act on. And carrying out of His Word, and entering into the truth of the Christian calling and standing and the Christian's destiny.
In order that we might be kept from the inroads of the enemy, who would seek to mar and hinder the testimony to the name of Christ.
In our day, well may the Lord give us exercise in these things.
Shall we pray?
One thing have I desired
Address—H.E. Hayhoe
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The most wonderful truth that I have ever discovered.
All my Christian life is this, that God has become a man in Christ.
Died for me as a man.
Gone back into the glory of the man and remained the man for all eternity.
In order to have our company, God is sufficient unto Himself in everything but one thing.
And that is in his love.
We must have objects to love, and His love could not be displayed in deeper, richer measure. There's nothing like the cross. It will be our theme in glory. And while eternal ages roll, we'll never forget.
That he went to that cross of Calvary.
And bore the judgment of God.
His form was more marred than any man's, and He's visited more than the sons of men. Many of the sufferings of Christ were not to put our sins away. Many of the sufferings of Christ were but to tell us the depths of the divine bosom, that we might know in richer measure how much He loves us. He couldn't love you any more than He does.
He couldn't have displayed it in a richer measure.
And every blessing that God is the soul is a mountain peak beyond which God could not go.
And if he hasn't won your heart and mind, what more could he do to win it?
And this book that I hold in my hand is the word of the living God.
That gives us the pathway of blessing.
And oh, how full of blessing that pathway.
The secret of a happy Christian life.
Is learning to commune with the Lord as you live with a dear friend. I wouldn't like to have children.
That never talked to me except they wanted something.
I like to have them talk to me when they don't want anything at all.
Because the relationship is there and the affections of it.
Oh will hold communion for all eternity.
Will never have a divergent thought or a desire unsatisfied.
For God is going to have a family in heaven that he'll never need to correct.
The growth thinker, he thinks and enjoy what he enjoys forever.
What a future.
And praise the bridegroom of the church is going to have a bride in glory.
Without one divergent thought or one unsatisfied desire.
What an eternity to look forward to.
How blessed it is that God in His grace has saved you and brought you to the knowledge of Himself.
Now we made this remark in the meetings.
All our failure, whether as sinners or sinners, spring from unbelief of the goodness that's in the heart of God.
Why doesn't the Sinner come to Christ?
He wants happiness.
Why doesn't he come? He doesn't believe the goodness that's in the heart of God. And you never met a believer.
That were sorry that he accepted Christ.
And as often say to them in Ottawa, you never met a Christian that walked with God.
And then at the end of their lives said I wish I hadn't done it.
That's the path of happiness.
Just notice some scriptures when you turn 1St to the 19th of Luke.
In the 10th verse for the Son of Man. I may stay here for you that are Christians.
The Lord doesn't take the title of the Son of Man until he first rejected as a Messiah the Son of Man is.
Blessing that he flows forth from his heart to all nations.
As the Messiah, he's the promised King to Israel. As the Son of Man, He's the source of blessing to all mankind. The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.
00:05:10
I hardly need to ask you to turn to Romans 3 that says there's none that speaketh after God.
No, not one.
But the Son of Man has come to speak and to save Savior. From what? The judgment that must come upon this world. A judgment so severe that the world has never witnessed the like of it before, as it tells you in the 24th chapter of Matthew. Now will we notice another verse that we had in our readings yesterday? John 4.
The 23rd verse, the hour cometh.
Now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in certain truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
It's not worship he's seeking, but worshippers.
Cry, brethren.
Or in creation displayed the wisdom of God.
And the power of God.
But there's only one way in which God could unfold.
His bosom, his heart.
Worship is the fruit of knowing the heart of God.
That's why John 316 precedes this. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
Here let me say for the instruction of you of believers.
Every time you get the word some in scripture it.
What he was to the Father's heart.
Doesn't say he gave Jesus, although that truth his only begotten Son.
Could he give more?
No. Would he give less? No.
His only begotten Son, that we might not perish, but have everlasting life. Then He seeks such to worship Him, worship Him in the knowledge of the divine bosom.
For the key to the whole Gospel of John you'll find in the 18th verse of chapter one.
No man Athene God at anytime.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.
He hath declared him.
That verse is the key to the whole Gospel of John.
Oh brethren, God is satisfying his own heart.
In having us as children before him.
Children with a nature capable of enjoying what God enjoys.
And in the measure in which we enjoy it down here, we get a taste of heaven before we're up there.
Before we're up there.
Now I'm going to take you to the 27th farm.
Or I first take you to the 34th Psalm, Psalm 34.
Verse 10 The Young Lions do lack the lion is a type of strength.
The young lion is super strength.
And suffer hunger.
But they that seek the Lord shall not want any.
Good thing.
You can't live without an object.
You can't live without an object. Ah, God has given us an object for our heart. Perfection.
And it's the same object that satisfies the heart of God.
Oh well, the heavens burst asunder.
When he was down here.
This is my beloved son, in whom I have found all my delight.
The first attempt of the enemy is always to rob your soul of the enjoyment of cracks.
It's not what you know that controls your life.
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You may be very intelligent as to the general outlines of scripture.
But it's the enjoyment of Christ in the heart.
Truly separates us from the world and as we shall see.
It brings up peace and a contentment and a happiness of which the world knows nothing.
They that seek the Lord shall not want any good things.
Did I not say that all our failures spring from unbelief of the goodness that's in the heart of God?
You want a happy Christian life? Knowledge won't give it to you. What will give it to you?
The enjoyment of Christ in your soul.
The enjoyment of Christ in your soul.
For happiness is a state of soul, not a question of circumstances.
Pearl and Silas could sing in prison.
What made them think? What made them sing in prison?
The world would tell you that you must have much of this world's goods and comforts in order to have happiness.
Happiness is a state of soul, not a question of circumstances.
Know they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. Now turn to that 27th Psalm. The Lord is my life and my salvation.
Why does it say that?
The Lord is my life. All the promises of God, in Him are yay, and in him Amen unto the glory of God by us.
Nothing can frustrate the purposes of God.
They're absolutely sure of fulfillment.
If you want the proof of that, notice the 13th verse of the 27th Psalm.
I had fainted.
I know it's in italics, but the thought is really in the verse unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Now I shall make a remark here. Every promise in the Old Testament is concerning blessing on the earth.
The first time in the Bible that you get.
The Christian hope and blessing is John 14.
I'll quote it, but you all know it. Well, let not your heart be troubled.
While there's a Spirit of God, say that to the apostle because it's John Mattel wrote the Book of Revelation and tells of what's coming upon this world, but he says, let not your heart be troubled. Why?
God is behind the scenes, moving all the scenes that He is behind, and He'll never let anything happen in your life or mine but that which is according to His purpose.
And his desire for your blessing and mine.
You remember the verse in Romans 8. All things work together for good to them that love God.
To them that are the called according to his purpose.
And then he tells us what his purpose is, that we might be conformed to the image of his son.
Oh beloved, that in my heart thrills when I read that.
You know when I look at your face in glory. And if you're a Christian, I am.
I'll see nothing but Christ in you. Nothing but Christ we have to bear and for bear with one another down here.
But we won't have to do that up there.
God will never rest until everyone of his children.
Are just like Christ in glory, morally and physically.
Oh, in that day you'll be glad you were ever born.
Whatever the difficulties of the way, they'll only tell out these purposes of love.
And the Lord will never allow a difficulty in your path but that which is and needs be.
For God has two ways of taking our hearts up there.
One is ruining it with his love.
The other is weaning it through circumstances.
Ruin us with His love and weaning us through circumstances.
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Or if you ever tried to make a Garden of Eden down here, God will blow on it.
He wants your heart up there.
You want your heart up there, and happiness is a state of soul, the enjoyment of Christ.
Or to enjoy him in our souls is to have a taste of heaven before we get there.
That's John 7.
But I'll go on here.
In Psalm 27, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?
Have you got any fears in your life of what's going to happen?
Remember, nothing can happen in your life.
But that which God allowed.
Why 2,000,000 Israelites got up in the middle of the night with their cattle.
Another dog bark.
Why? You can read that in the 11Th of Exodus.
Did God control the God's tongue? Yes, he did.
And they marched out of Egypt and come to the Red Sea.
The word is stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
And he brought them through that Red Sea and into the wilderness.
And all how he cared for them all through that wilderness journey, in spite of their murmurings, and brought them into the land. It was his work.
Oh, how wondrous, these ways of God.
Never allow a trial in your life without a need to be on your part.
And the purpose of love on his part.
Keep this 27th Psalm and I'll turn you back to the 19th Psalm.
Verse the 1St 6 verses.
Speaks of the heavens.
In the fifth verse it says which is a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoice up as a strong man to run a race.
You know why it says that?
Well, there are weddings that are planned down here that never takes place.
But there's going to be a wedding take place in heaven.
And the Lord Jesus, the Bridegroom, is up there, and he's rejoicing as a strongman to run a race.
Why? Because the wedding is sure to take place, and if you're a Christian, you're sure to be there.
Are you rejoicing in view of it?
He is, he is.
Where have your thoughts been today?
Why we read in Colossians, do we not set your mind? It shouldn't be affection.
That your mind and things above, not on things of yours.
I met a Christian lady on the train.
Believe she was a Christian, but she shortly she picked up a magazine. I looked at her and I said, lady, every magazine you read will make the horizon of your thoughts the world in which you live.
Bible is the only book in the world that will tell you to set your mind on things above.
And it will tell you to lay up your treasure there too.
Lay your treasure up there. He's rejoicing as a strongman to run a race.
Why all this world is in a disturbed condition?
But no disturbance.
Nothing can ever happen that will frustrate the purpose of God.
That wedding is planned and every member of the body of Christ will be there.
His going forces from the end of the heavens, and a circuit under the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
All half you compares it to the sun.
Why? Because man can interfere with events down here. He can interfere with the earth and the surface of it, but he can't interfere with those heavenly bodies.
No, and that's why it's brought before us.
And so the purposes of God in grace can never be frustrated.
Now he says in the seventh verse, the law of the Lord is perfect.
Now, brethren.
Every time you read law in the Psalms, it's not the 10 commandments. The law is the revealed mind of God in the Word.
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You could read it. The revealed mind of the Lord is perfect.
Oh, how lovely.
The Word of God, it's wisdom for us.
And it's the only true wisdom.
And the wisdom of the Word of God is not an extension of man's wisdom. It's not an improvement of it.
In every case, it's the opposite of it.
The world will teach you ambition. God teaches you contentment.
He knows how to.
And the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and the addeth no sorrow with it.
The law of the Lord, then, is perfect. Converting has the thought in this calm brethren, of restarting the soul.
That is to say, the soul is the seat of desire and appetite.
And everything you read that man has written will make your thought.
The center down here, your ambitions to center down here.
Restoring the soul means take your heart desire away from this world.
And lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust up corrupt, and where thieves do not breakthrough nor seals. That's the thought here in converting or restoring the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure.
For all the purposes of God, inhumer, yeah. And in him, Amen, Making wise the simple. The simple is the the uninstruction.
And if you want true wisdom, you'll find it in the Word of God.
You'll never find it in anything that manners written unless.
The.
He has been taught of God.
Because there is no wisdom in the first man, and you'll never find it there.
The statutes of the Lord are right. A statute is a decreed limitation.
You never go beyond Scripture.
If God says no, remember that it is love and wisdom that says no.
The statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart.
Is God says be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers?
Oh, that's both wise and right.
Never question it.
And faith doesn't reason, and reason isn't safe.
Faith doesn't reason, and reason isn't faith or how God delights to take.
Care of those that trust him.
Till I tell you a story comes into my mind. It might be helpful, but dear old brother John Sobeck and Scranton.
I knew him well. He had eight children and he was just a minor.
And didn't make good pay. And I told him if he didn't join the union they would fire him. And he had no income. So they came to him and told him. His answer was well, he said I'm a child of God.
And if you throw me out of employment, you'll have to answer to God for how you treated one of these children.
The man went away and told the Union Leader and they left, left him in the job. They said they better leave that man alone.
I knew him and loved him and God.
Was gracious to him and blessed him.
Faith doesn't reason, and reason isn't faith.
Trust God.
He knows how to take care of you.
And there is anyone that ever trusted God and he disappointed them.
He may test your face, but he will never disappoint your face.
Only test your face, but he won't disappoint your face. Trust in him at all times.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
He knows everyone of his children, and you and I should walk in the fear of the Lord.
What kind of fear all knowing the holiness that becometh his house?
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We seek, as the apostle enjoins in the Epistle, to these reasons. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption.
Watch.
So that the.
Fear of the Lord characterizes your whole Christian life.
That anything that is suggested to your mind that is not pleasing to the Lord rejected at once.
As we remarked, he may test your face, but he will not disappoint your face.
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
God never makes any mistakes in his judgment.
I will remember walking along Backstreet with dear old brother William Crockley.
It was a little difficulty at the time in the Ottawa meeting where I live, and I was telling him about it.
And I'll never forget his quiet remarks.
He said, Brother Hale, let us quietly walk with God, for God makes no mistakes of these judgments.
And the end will always prove the perfectness of his way.
Oh, I've never forgotten. Are you misunderstood right now, perhaps in your home life?
Perhaps in your business life, perhaps in your assembly life, quietly go on and walk with God.
He may test your face, but he won't disappointed.
For true and righteous are his judgment, as it tells you here.
More to be desired today than gold. Yeah, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Oh, there's nothing that brings blessing like walking in the path of loyalty and obedience to the Word of God. It has its rich blessings for, as one is often remarked.
Hit your circumstances from the Lord.
And your difficulties to the Lord?
He allows every circumstance.
And in his wisdom, he sees to it that the trial never goes farther than it needs be.
And the end will always prove the perfectness of His ways and the richness of the blessings.
Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them is great reward. That's connected with the next verse, so I'll read it. Who can understand these errors? Slim thou me from secret faults.
Is that a good prayer, brethren? Indeed it is.
Who can understand these errors? I'm sure you dear brethren.
Can see ye thoughts and failures in me, perhaps unknown to myself.
Ah, we should remember that the word of God is that which alone can give us light and wisdom.
And when we do not see it, God allows what happens in our lives.
You see it in the case of Job.
He was a perfect and an upright man, one that feared God in the stewed evil. And yet God saw in Job that which needed correcting.
On the past job from form to form in his school, the dross to consume and the goal to refine.
If you'll turn to job.
We'll see that.
Brought out in.
The 7th chapter of Job and the 17th verse.
What is man that thou shouldst magnify him for? I must stop there.
What is man?
That thou shouldst magnify him. That's the first time in the Bible that you get that expression.
You find it afterwards in the book of the Psalms, but this is the first time. What is man that voucher is magnify him.
Why does God interfere in your life and mine? Why does He interfere? Why doesn't he let you go?
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Why does he interfere? He wants to do you good at your latter end.
That's why what is man that thou should magnify him? Is that his purpose? Yes. As I said to you at the opening of this address, the most wonderful truth I ever discovered in the Bible is the fact that God in Christ has become a man.
Died for me as a man, gone back into glory as a man, and remained the man for all eternity.
Put forth why? Where does he remain a man for all eternity in order to have our company?
Oh, what a joy it will be.
To have the company of Jesus.
To be with him and like him morally and physically.
Oh.
The glory of that poet.
That you Yonder home up there would have lost its excellence to my own soul.
If the precious Savior was not there, oh, but He is there and will remain a man for all Infinity.
And I repeat in order that the emphasis be in your mind.
That the secret of a happy Christian life is learning to take all your circumstances from the Lord and communing with Him.
For it's in communion that we enjoy the truth in our souls.
A little talk with Jesus how it smooths the rugged road, and it seems to help me onward as I think beneath my lobe.
When you have nothing to ask for.
When you have nothing specific on your mind, remember you can talk with him.
But he says, Let me see thy faith, let me hear thy voice, for sweet as thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. That's in Song of Solomon, chapter 2.
Well, notice.
That thou should have set thine heart upon him, That thou shouldst visit him every morning, and try him every moment. How long will thou not depart from me, nor let me go alone till I swallow down my spittle? Now they are. Read the next verse as it is in Mr. Darby's translation.
Have I seen what do thou I unto the old, thou observer of men?
That's how it should read. Brethren, have I seen? What do I unto thee? Oh, thou observer of men.
God has been watching over you and me. He has an individual tuition for everyone of His children.
And his ways are always ways of love and wisdom.
And they're always perfect. And the moment that Job learned his lesson, God removed the trial and brought him into blessing in the end.
Why does it say in Revelation 5? I'll give you a thought there. Perhaps you haven't noticed.
So turn to it. Revelation 5.
Verse 14.
And the four beasts said Amen.
Now I'll speak slowly.
If the four living creatures, it's the cherubim.
It was only two with Israel. The reason why was this. Israel was set to be a testimony to God's government on the earth. You don't find far till you come to Ezekiel because before is universal testimony. That's why there's four here.
And the four living creatures said, Amen, That means this between you and I get home to glory, we'll say Amen to all the ways of God with us.
Nothing has ever happened in your Christian life.
But what the wisdom and love of God planned it all, when it should take place, the severity of it, and when it should end. And when you and I get home to glory, we'll say Amen to all the ways of God with us. And that's what's meant there, brethren. The four living creatures said Amen, And the four and 20 elders fell down and worshiped him. Oh, brethren, we worship him better after the judgment seat of Christ takes place.
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Or we worship him when we see him. But we worship him in a fuller measure after the judgment piece of Christ. Why? Because the judgment seat of Christ will only reveal the patience, the grace, the goodness of God in all our life history. I remember walking along a road with a dear old Christian and he said, the brethren don't understand me, brother, hey home. I looked at him and I said, yes, but.
He understands you.
And his ways are in perfect love and perfect wisdom.
And perfect grace with everyone of us all. Brethren, let us who learn.
To take our circumstances from the Lord.
Exercised thereby.
Exercise thereby, but never question the wisdom and love that allows it. But it was always perfect.
Oh, I was burst into praise and Yonder glory when it's all revealed, The wonderful patience with each one of us, the wonderful wisdom, the wonderful grace will gaze into his face and burst into a phrase. And though it is.
In the Book of Revelation where you find doxology after doxology in that book?
As the heavenly sink break forth into praise. Now going back to the 27th Psalm and the fourth verse. One thing that I desired of the Lord. Oh it's a great thing to just have one purpose in life. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
One thing that I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord.
All the days of my life now, when it's the House of the Lord.
In the New Testament, the question is conduct. So if you'll turn over, keep this 27 Psalm and turn over to Timothy, Epistles Timothy, the third chapter of the first Epistle and the 15th verse, that if I carry long, that thou mayst know how the artist to behave thyself in the House of God, which is the Church of the living God.
The pillar and ground of the truth.
I'm not going into that, brethren, but the next verse and without controversy.
Great is the mystery or secret of godliness.
As if Paul said to Timothy, Timothy, do you want to know the secret of godliness in the House of God?
Then he unfolds it. And what is it? It was for Timothy to make Christ the pattern of his walk and ways in the House of God. One has often said, love all your brethren.
Serve them faithfully, overlook all the faults you can, but never make any of them the model of your Christian life and walk.
Merry big crack. I'm going to say that again. Love all your brethren. Serve them faithfully.
Overlook all the faults you can, but never make any of them the model of your Christian life.
Let it be great.
And that's just what's here. Without controversy, Great is the mystery or secret of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh.
Where will I see government or sin? All its perfection. I'll see it in the precious Savior that died from it, manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit. Should I seek that? Yes, if you walk with God.
The Spirit of God will pesticide to the rightness of your ways. The rightness of your ways, and the peace of God that passes all understanding will Garrison both heart and mind, so Peter says when Speaking of the House of God in our conduct in it.
He says if he'd be reproached for the name of Christ. Happy are you?
Happy are you, and if you suffer for righteousness sake, happy are you. Happiness is a state of soul, not a question of circumstances.
Is to have the secret approval of God in your life.
Is it possible to have it? Yes, not at it.
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Before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. Oh, I say, there's nothing sweeter in Christian life than to go out to bed at night with the consciousness that you have walked with God during the day. Let it be a secret, but it's a sweet, precious secret. It gives quietness of spirit and a happiness that is so deep that your hostel just burst into praise. Scene of angels, of the angels looking down.
Yes, and they're seeing in the church the all various wisdom of God, each taking our place. That's why our sister should wear a covering on her head.
For the angels received the wisdom of God in the House of God.
In the measure in which we have Christ.
Before our souls and the wisdom of the Word guiding our feet through this.
Troubled, tangled world.
Where God and His Word is set aside.
Preached unto the Gentiles. Where does it say that? Where does it say preached unto the Gentiles? Because the only time in the Bible that it tells you that Jesus rejoiced in Spirit is in.
In the Gospel of Luke.
And it's when Israel as a nation rejected Him and grace could flow out and out of the Gentiles.
That it is recorded there, I'll turn to it because it's the only.
In the New Testament where that is stated, Luke's Gospel, the 10th chapter and the 21St verse. In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank the old Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them on the base. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in my section.
They will, you know they were going to preach the gospel in Asia and the Spirit of God suffered them not.
But afterwards the word went forth in Asia or I gain. I say, brethren, let us always learn to take our circumstances from the Lord. He orders the circumstances and his ways are perfect. I told him this in the Bible, reading a little story. I'll tell it again about one. It wasn't myself, but it's in Ottawa and he took his car that needed some repairs.
To the garage and when he brought it home it wasn't fixed properly and he got somewhat annoyed.
Because I don't want to go back to that garage. It's quite a distance and it's raining.
But he went back a little perturbed because he had to make that second visit.
But on his way there he met a brother who had left the Lord's Table and was drifting into the world, and he picked him up and gave him a ride and he said, oh, it was worthwhile. He said to me it was worthwhile. He hopes, he said, the talk I had with him, I'm sure he's exercised about the wrongness of his path. And I wouldn't be surprised to see him restored, he says. I'm glad my autumn will be able to get fixed the first time.
Take their circumstances from the Lord, Oh brethren.
God is behind the scenes, moving all the scenes that He is behind.
I can take you to scripture after scripture right now to prove the statement.
God's ways are perfect and He knows your circumstances. He knows where you live. He knows everything that has ever happened. If we'll only take our circumstances from His hands and learn that wisdom is behind it, He has a purpose in grace.
The coming day will reveal the perfectness of his ways. So here's preached unto the Gentiles, believed on the in the world, received not into glory, but received in glory.
He went up with a glorified body.
Received in glory. Is that the end of the path for you and me? Yes, brethren.
That's the end of the past.
Will now go to that 27th Psalm again, and the fourth verse, One thing of I desired of the Lord. Oh brethren, would you permit me to repeat it? One thing, ONE, one, one thing that I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after.
That I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty.
That word, duty, brethren, should be graciousness.
For it's the undeserved favor of the Lord.
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And to inquire, Now put in two words there. Inquire of him in his temple. You should put in those two words. Inquire of Him in his temple. Never take a step in your life without consulting the word of God about that step.
And getting down on your knees and asking God to guide you.
In the past, for he delights in the blessing of his people, and this is the way of blessing.
For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion or tent. Now that's not the the same word as in the House of the Lord in the 4th chapter, in the fourth verse rather, but here it finished 10th or in in the immediate presence the 10th was pitched, you know, outside when the people.
Had departed from the Lord.
So it is in His presence that we learn His mind. Bring the time of trouble. He will hide me in His tent, in the secret of His Tabernacle shall He hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine, enemies round above me. Therefore will Ioffer in His Tabernacle sacrifices or shoutings of joy. I will sing. Yeah, I will sing praises unto the Lord.
End of the path If we seek the Lord, the end of the path is always blessing.
Blessing. Oh, how he delights in the blessing of his people.
Now in delight in it, brethren, and what we find in Scripture all the way through is.
God delight in the blessing of his people. So I'll turn you over now to John's gospel. Before I close, we'll turn to the 17th chapter of John or the 15th prophet 1St and I'll repeat what I often repeat among you brethren. Faith and salvation go together. Obedience and happiness go together. Every Christian isn't happy. Faith and salvation go together.
Obedience and happiness go together. Now the road to happiness is in John 15 verses 9:10 and 11:00.
This is not the way of salvation, but it's the way of happiness. As the Father had loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. Now in order to understand that, if you turn back to the 12Th chapter and the 50th verse, because it's not generally understood.
I'll try and make it clear I know that his commandment is life everlasting.
That means this, that the new life that we have received.
Is characterized by obedience. That's the meaning of that phrase, that his commandment is life everlasting. That is, that new life is characterized by obedience. Remembering that if you turn to the 15th chapter again, for all the exhortations of Scripture, without any exception whatever, are founded upon what you possess.
It's never getting the thing by your own effort. And another remark I'm going to make slowly.
Because I want you to get it. Every believer is equally blessed.
I haven't one blessing that you haven't got.
And you haven't won that I am God. God has no favorites in his family.
He blesses everyone equally. All to enjoy is another matter. To enjoy it is another matter. So if you keep my commandments, you shall go to heaven. No, you shall abide in my love, even as I've kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full brevin, if you're not enjoying the Lord right now.
You're over Communion, your other Communion. Why, you say, oh, but Mr. Hill, you don't know my circumstances.
Ah, no matter how severe your circumstances may be, you can still enjoy the Lord.
You can still enjoy the Lord.
Circumstances.
Often bring the Lord in a very precious way.
Into the late history of a Christian, a dear old brother, Daddy says it's worth being sick to have the Lord at the bedside to comfort you. I'm going to say that again. Dear old J&D said it's worth being sick to have the Lord at the bedside to comfort you. Oh blood brethren, not one of us in this room, the speaker included, knows how much the Lord loves us.
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He couldn't love you any more than he does, He couldn't be any wiser than he is, and his purposes couldn't be more pure.
All you and I should rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. So the 15th chapter, then is the road to happiness. Now we'll turn to another in the 17th chapter and find something else brought before us. The 11Th verse. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to the Holy Father.
Now stop and think when you read.
The habit of meditation.
Get the habit of meditation. Are you a child of God? You've got a holy nature.
Of course you have. Aren't you a born of God? What kind of a nature did you get? A holy one? And what's a holy nature? A nature that abhors evil and delights in good.
So he says Holy Father, because we are born into that family, and the possessors of a holy nature keep through thine own name. What does that mean?
Does that mean the name of God? Not here. It means to walk in the consciousness that God is your Father. That's what that means. Keep to thy no name. Those whom I was given me, that may be, may be one as we are, one as we are.
Oh, how wonderful. That means wonders of enjoyment and desire.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in my name. That's the Father's name. Those that thou gave us, me I've kept, and none of them is lost, but the Son of Perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy.
Fulfilled in themselves in the Gospel of John, brethren, you get first.
We have his life. We're born into the family of God.
Then we have his peace, we have his love and his joy, and then, at the end of the pathway, his home.
Following Hard after Christ
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I'd like you to turn with me this afternoon to the 63rd Psalm, Psalm 63 messing up the first verse.
Oh God, thou art my God early when I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longest for Thee, in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is to see Thy power and Thy glory. So as I have seen thee in the sanctuary, because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee.
Will I bless Thee while I live, I will lift up my hands in Thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips. When I remember Thee upon my bed and meditate on Thee in the night watches because Thou hast been my help. Therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.
My soul followeth hard after thee.
Thy right hand upholdeth me, but those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword, they shall be apportioned for foxes. But the King shall rejoice in God. Everyone that sweareth by him shall glory, but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.
Well, I thought in reading this Psalm today is that it brings before us the Lord is the one who is able to satisfy our thirst. He's the one who, as it says in the fifth verse, shall be satisfied with marrow and with fatness. And in the eighth verse, my soul followeth hard after thee. You know, it's not just no doctrine. It's not just to know a great deal about the truth of the Bible.
But is to have a person before us and when God would bring this before our hearts. It's lovely to see that he picks up a person who is in very difficult and trying circumstances. There's a little heading on this Psalm tells us a Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. We know that David was anointed to be God's king.
But he was haunted and persecuted by Saul.
And he had to flee for his life, hiding in caves, being haunted here and there. And what was it that filled his heart with joy and rejoicing in those adverse conditions? It was the Lord. And so it is today. No matter how adverse our conditions, no matter how difficult the time in which we live, no matter how trying.
The Lord is sufficient.
No, it's lovely to see how that.
In inspiration, God takes up different people and puts them in different positions and conditions and then uses them to write His word. Some have thought that the Bible was just written as if they will say a man might dictate a letter to his stenographer and she writes it down. Well, maybe her heart is in what?
The employer is saying, and maybe it is not, but you know, the Bible has not been written that way.
God has put people in certain positions and then has filled their hearts with joy and rejoicing and has used them to write His word. If He wanted to show us the emptiness of things in this world, He didn't pick up a man who had nothing. He didn't pick up a man who was at the bottom of the ladder, who hadn't learned what success is.
No, if he was going to show us the emptiness of the world, he picks up a man who had everything.
And that's the book of Ecclesiastes. Here was a man, King Solomon, I suppose we could say he rose to the highest pinnacles of success. He was a great king. He was the wisest in his generation. He had, shall I say, money without limit. He had influence without limit. And it tells us I withheld not my heart from any joy. He tried everything.
And as I say, he was in a position to try it to the full. And what was the result of it? Well, God used him to write the book of Ecclesiastes. And after trying everything and enjoying it as much as it was possible for him to enjoy as a natural man, he said all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
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And so if God wanted to show us how He was sufficient to fill the heart of a person.
He takes a person who is in the most trying and difficult position. He takes the Apostle Paul, and here he was in a Roman prison, denied all the natural things of life, with hardly enough food to eat, so that he could say, I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. He know how to be knew how to be full. He knew how to be hungry.
And there in the prison did he say all his vanity and vexation of spiritual spirit.
Oh no, his heart was overflowing. And from that prison he wrote the beautiful Epistle to the Ephesians and the Epistle to the Philippians and many others, to show that his heart was abundantly satisfied with the Lord Jesus. And so, dear young person, perhaps you think I'm going to study hard. I'm going to get a good job. And when I have plenty, and when I have.
Then I'll be satisfied. But perhaps she'll be just like the King Solomon. And when you get it all, you'll find out then, to your dismay and to your sorrow, that it doesn't satisfy. But if you set the Lord before your soul and seek to live for him, you may be deprived of health, you may be deprived of friends, You may be.
In need in one way or another.
And yet within your heart you will have a satisfaction and a joy that God only can give, because you know God has made the human heart so that He alone can fill it. He never intended that our hearts should be filled and satisfied with material things. He never intended that there should be enough.
In all the wonders and in all the wealth of this world, to satisfy one single soul.
Because it says, what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? So if you could accumulate all the wealth of the world, if you could find out all the learning of this world, it would not satisfy. And dear young people, it's a grand thing to find this out while you're young.
It's a sad thing when you have to find it out later in life when you've spent the best of your life and you have to look upon it and say.
Like Israeli, the Prime Minister of England said, He said youth is a mistake, manhood is a struggle and old age is regret. That was his retrospect on life. But all how different for one who knows the Lord is his savior and sets out in youth to follow him. Just think of such a man as John Nelson Darby, a man who was born into a very.
And wealthy family. And yet he gave up his life to serve and follow the Lord. And as he came to the end of his life, did he look back and say youth is a mistake, manhood is a struggle, old ages, regrets all know. As he approached the end of his life, his heart was filled with joy and happiness, and he looked back and was glad.
That he had spent at least part of his life.
For the one who loved him so much and dear young people, this is the burden of my heart this afternoon.
I'd like you to discover while you're still young, what is really worthwhile. What strikes me and going to school in these days is that young people have to decide quite in quite low grades what they plan to do. And so by the time you come to entrance, you come to Grade 8, they're already trying to get you.
Interested in different callings in life?
So that you can make your decisions and study the right subjects so that you will be able to go forward and make progress. Now, if it's possible for a young person in grade 8, perhaps 12/13/14 years of age, to be making decisions about what he's going to do when he's grown up, isn't it also possible for you at the age of 12/13/14?
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To be setting your sights a little higher than the things of this life.
Then just thinking about what you're going to follow as a material way of providing your income, isn't it better to set your sights, shall I say, at that age or those things that really count, that you might first of all receive the Lord as your Savior and plan your life?
Saw that you would be able to live for him. How often a young person finds out.
When he has gone so far that he has become involved in something, that's going to make it very, very hard for him or her to follow the Lord Jesus. And so I want to encourage you to realize that the Lord Jesus is the one who is worth living for. He is the one who can truly satisfy your heart.
The one who made your heart. The one who made this world.
Has something better than material things to fill the heart? He himself must do it. Adam made his great mistake when he thought that departing from God was going to bring him happiness. He took of that forbidden fruit, and misery and sorrow came into this world. But you and I can realize that.
This same Blessed One who planted that garden and placed out a minute has loved us so much.
Now that he sent his Son to die for us, as someone has said, when Adam sinned and was driven out of the first paradise, God said, well I know you've failed and you've lost the first paradise, but I'm going to open a better one to you. And so the Lord Jesus went to the cross of Calvary and died, and he's gone up on high and he has opened the door of a paradise that is infinitely better.
Than the Garden of Eden He has opened the door of heaven so that we might enjoy in his presence all that is in his heart and all that he wants us to enjoy forever and forever. And it's down here in this world that we can begin to learn about these eternal things. We can live for the Lord even here. So let us notice here in our Psalm and remember that David was.
Very difficult spot. He was being haunted by Saul. His life was in constant danger, but he said, oh God, thou art my God. Now I want to ask if there's anyone here that's not saved. You can't say that God is your God. You can't say that Christ is your savior.
Until you have received Him into your heart by faith.
And if there's anyone here that has not done this, what a wonderful thing it would be if you received them as your Savior today. There's no better time than right now to bow your head and bow your heart in His presence and acknowledge that you're a lost Sinner. Acknowledge that you deserve his judgment, and thank the Lord Jesus for dying in that cross of Calvary for you. He wants you to be saved. And then you'll be able to look up and say.
God is my God.
Christ is my Savior, the Lord is my shepherd, God is my Father. When Paul was in need in prison, he could say, my God shall supply all your need. And to think that the God who made this whole universe is the one you can say he's my God and he's my Father.
What an immense privilege, what a grand thing. And it's all by a simple decision.
In receiving Christ as your Savior. And then it says early, will I seek thee? Well, this is just what I was Speaking of. I don't say, well, when I get to be about 25 or 30 or perhaps later, I think then after I've tried out what this world has to offer, I think then I'd like to start and follow the Lord.
It says early will I seek thee?
Early. How soon can you start by little? Little Hymn says a little child of seven or even three or four may enter into heaven through Christ, the open door. Yes, you can do it very young. And more than this, while you're still young, you can set out to follow him.
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King Josiah was eight years old when he came to the throne and Judah. And by the time he was 16 years old, it was in his heart to establish the Kingdom in such a way as it would be honoring to the Lord. And he began to break down the graven images and to establish the Kingdom in a way that was pleasing to God. Imagine at 16 years of age you say when I'm 16.
I can get my car license and I can do this and that. I can do a lot of things.
When I'm 16, but what was he thinking about when he came sixteen at 16 years of age, he was breaking down those idols, those idols that perhaps you and I are setting up in our hearts. Those things that we think are going to make life really worthwhile. While he was breaking them down and he was establishing the worship of the Lord God's land at 16 years of age.
Early realize safety. Oh dear young people.
Begin early to follow Christ. He's worthy of everything and He doesn't want to take away your happiness. We'll notice how the happiness increases in this chapter as he learns that the Lord can satisfy and sets out to follow him. There is an increase in the note of praise, which we shall notice through the song. That is very beautiful because the Lord doesn't want to rob you of happiness. He's open heaven so you can be happy forever.
Those who reject Christ will be in a state of unhappiness, misery, sorrow, under the judgment of God forever. He wants you to be happy.
My soul thirsteth, for they now notice it doesn't say My soul thirst is for knowledge.
He didn't want to have a great deal of knowledge. Perhaps you say, well, I just like to understand. The whole Bible seems so difficult to me.
Somebody came to a servant of the Lord one time and he said, he said, I'd like to get hold of the truth of the Bible.
And this brother replied, he said, I'd like the truth of the Bible to get hold of me. Well, you may get a great deal of knowledge.
But here it says My soul thirsteth after thee. Would you like to be able to understand the Bible? Do you find many verses as you read and you say they're so difficult? I don't understand them. I just can't seem to get hold of it. Well, my soul thirsteth after thee, and I can assure you of this, the more that your soul is thirsting after him.
The more your heart is really longing after Christ.
The more you understand the Bible, the more you'll understand it. When those two were walking on the road to a Mass and the Lord came and caught up with them, they got a tremendous knowledge of the Scripture. In a very short period of time, probably a question of a couple of hours, they got an outline of the most marvelous truths in the Bible and why.
Because the Lord Jesus was with them, they were walking in his company.
They were walking in His company and their young person. If you want to get a knowledge of the truth of God, walk in the company of the Savior. Walk in the company of the Savior and I'm sure if you walk in His company you will get to know more of Him.
My soul thirsteth after thee. That is, are there really longings in your heart after Christ? I'm sure if you came to these meetings.
And there was a friend who perhaps lived in another city. Do you know that friend was going to be here? You were looking forward to meeting that friend and now you're enjoying that friends company. And you say I was looking forward to it for a week and now I can enjoy that friends company. Well, here it tells us, my soul thirsteth after thee, are we?
Longing after the enjoyment of the presence of the Lord Jesus.
Is it possible to walk through life with the Lord Jesus as our companion, as our friend? Yes, it is.
Enoch walked with God. I don't believe he knocks eyes his whole lifetime ever saw God physically.
But he walked with God. How could that be? Well, he walked by faith, and everything in his life referred to God. It was an evil day.
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Things were getting worse and worse. The flood was looming when God was going to wipe this earth out with a flood except for eight souls. And yet here was a man in the midst of that, and he walked with God. And you, dear young person, can consciously walk in the company of the Lord Jesus. You can walk just as if he was beside you.
Do you really desire this? Can you say, like David said here, my soul thirsteth after thee? And he said My flesh longeth. Were they not only my soul, but my flesh? He said. When he said that, I believe he means that very often we find this world a worrisome place.
I'm sure there isn't a young person here that doesn't get discouraged sometimes.
And you say, well, I know I'm trying to follow the Lord, but I get discouraged. Well, he says, my soul thirsteth after thee, my flesh longest for thee. That is. Perhaps we could put it like this. He longed to be at home. He longed to be with the Lord, where he can enjoy his company to the bulls. Why? Because he found this world.
A dry and thirsty land where no water is.
And as one person remarked, every person in this world has found out that the world doesn't satisfy or he's going to find it out. He's either found it out, he's going to find it out. This world is a dry and thirsty land where no water is. There may be something you think, if I get that.
If I get such and such a thing.
Then how happy I'm going to be. But when we get that thing, you'll find it doesn't satisfy. It doesn't satisfy. And that's true of every single thing that you can seek after in this world.
But if you're, if you're seeking after Christ, if you're seeking to follow him to walk in his company, you'll not be disappointed. But I tell you again, this world is a dry and thirsty land where no water is.
It cannot satisfy the possession of those things, cannot satisfy your inner longings, for the soul is the seed of the appetites and desires of the man, and there's nothing in this world that can satisfy them. And he says to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
Might mention in connection with this verse that at this time David was not able to go into the House of the Lord because he was haunted and persecuted.
But he remembered those happy times, and in his possession of being deprived of it, why, he remembered all about it. He said, to see thy power and thy glory. Notice those two things. Thy power does the Lord have power to undertake for us in every situation.
There's never a circumstance, there's never a situation that's too difficult for the Lord.
Perhaps you'll find yourself in a difficult spot. You say, I don't know how I can get help in this particular position. Well, the one to whom we turn has all power. He may deliver you out of the circumstance, or He may leave you in it, but there's no question that He has power, and we rely upon His power. That power is soon going to be openly displayed by taking us out of this world altogether.
Because when the Lord Jesus gives the shout, we're going to be taken out of this world. That voice that will speak will have such power that every saved person in this room, if he were to come now, just go right up and the ceiling would be no obstacle. We go right into his presence. He has power. The power that he displayed here as man, the power that was displayed when Christ was raised from the dead, that power is toward us.
And it says thy power and thy glory.
Someone has defined glorious manifest of excellence, manifested excellence. Now you know there's a lot of human glory.
You can buy magazines that tell you about all the wonderful things that men are inventing in these days. It's amazing what God has allowed man to discover the things that he has found.
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In the material universe and how he has been able to use the laws of nature and how he has been able to make use of the materials that God has put in this world and put them to such uses that it truly is amazing. And many people are just stunned at all the progress. They talk about living in a period when man is breaking through, when he is just coming to the point where he is learning more of the wonders of this.
Just imagine being able to make a shot at the moon and they go even farther yet if God doesn't intervene. Think of all that he's done with young people. There is a scene of glory waiting you.
That far exceeds all these things. Who put all these marvelous things in this creation in which we live? This God who put them here, who gave man the ability to discover them? God gave them that ability.
You think God doesn't have something better from all that for you all? I tell you that when I get home to glory and put our foot inside that glorious home above, we're going to think, why did we ever think men's inventions were so wonderful? It's going to be so grand and so glorious that I'm just waiting for that. I'm just waiting for that time.
When we step inside that home above and see what God.
Has prepared for those that love him. All the best of this world will look exceedingly dim. And here was a man out of the woods in the forest, his life being haunted, and what was he desiring? What was he saying? I wish I could get back and enjoy the comforts of the court and all the fine things that I could have as a king.
Now he said, to see thy power and thy glory.
Dear young person, do you ever get homesick for having you ever have longings for that scene that awaits you with Christ in glory? I hope you do, I hope you do. You never have had lungs for what awaits you there. You've missed a great deal. Because what the Lord has for His own is infinitely better than the best that this world has to offer. So he tells us in the next verse.
Because thy loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise thee. The magazine called Life. This magazine devotes itself to all the things that can be seen under the sun, takes up new subjects and shows what man has, is doing and two men of the world. That's life.
But I can tell you there's something better than life. Better than life.
That is, to enjoy the loving kindness of God. How many people have material things and don't have love? Don't have love? It has been said that what every heart desires is satisfied affections, satisfied affections, and you can have all these material things and not have satisfied affections.
But to enjoy the love of God in your soul is the best thing that you can have in life. It's better than what the world calls life.
You say I'm going to see life and you'll see death, you'll see misery, you'll see sorrow, you'll see disappointment. But if you say I want to enjoy the love of God more than I do, they want to walk in the sunshine of His love more than I do, well then you have something that is really worthwhile. Thy loving kindness is better than life.
Oh, don't allow anything, dear young person in your life.
And robs you of the enjoyment of the love of Christ. If you do, you have allowed the first thing to come in to make you an unhappy person, to get you away from the Lord, to perhaps ruin your life. Thank God a true Christian can never be lost. But there are things that can come into a Christian's life that can make him the most unhappy person. Indeed, I have said.
A Christian can be the happiest person on earth.
Or he can be the most miserable. Say, what do you mean the most miserable? Well, when you're saved, you're spoiled for this world. You can never enjoy the world in the same way as you did in your unconverted days after you're saved, you're spoiled for it. And if you don't enjoy the Lord, you're going to be a miserable person, a miserable person.
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Of thy loving kindness is better than life. And now he says.
My lips shall praise thee. Yes. Here's the beginning of rejoicing. It causes praise. And I'll tell you this, that if you're enjoying the love of Christ in your soul, I don't need to ask you if you're happy. I don't need to ask. I know you are. I know there's praise in your heart. But if you're not, you're not happy. As a Christian, you're not happy. Maybe you look at some other Christian. You say, I wish I was happy.
Lord like he is. And why is it? Is the Lord not sufficient to fill your heart? Yes, He's able to restore your soul. So it tells us here. Because thy loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee. While I live, I will lift up my hand in my name. I believe the thought in lifting up the hand is owning his lordship.
You know how during World War 2A, man raised their hand like this to Hitler, and this was the person that they honored. But you and I, to whom do we lift up our hands? We lift up our hands. We give honor to that one. We acknowledge Him as Lord. Who has authority, Who has the right to tell us what to do? Now the next one, the fifth verse.
Notice in the first verse it says, My soul thirsteth for thee. Now notice the fifth verse, my soul.
Shall be satisfied, my soul shall be satisfied. In the first verse there is a longing after the Lord, there is a desire created and there's a longing and now he comes to the point, he said my soul shall be satisfied. Or the other translation is my soul is satisfied, is satisfied. Yes, when we have.
Found in him the one who is able to fill the heart. Are we unsatisfied?
Do we say I need something more? My soul is satisfied. Yes, he does satisfy. He can satisfy. He will satisfy. Is he able to satisfy? In the year 1969? People say, well, of course, those things were all right for an age when people didn't know as much as they know today.
But with all we know today, that's all outdated.
Not as a dear young person, not isn't. The trouble with this world is that they're trying to find satisfaction apart from the source. Apart from the source, it's just as possible to be filled with joy, to be thoroughly satisfied in 1969 as it was 100 or 200 years ago.
My soul is satisfied and you show me a Christian young role.
Who is truly following the Lord? And I'll show you one who has found satisfaction. Satisfaction. Well, I don't say a person that's religious is found satisfaction. There are many religious people that are miserable. But we're talking now about a person. And that person is the Lord of life and glory. He is the man that died on Calvary's cross. He's the one that lives up on high.
My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness. I notice how the note of praise increases here. And my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.
As time goes on, as the joy getting less, is it becoming dimmed? Often when you set out for something, you work hard for it. There's the pleasure of anticipation, but when you get it, it's a disappointment.
But here is one, and he has set out to make the Lord his object. He set out to make the Lord the one to whom he lifted up his hand, for whom he lived. And when he gets hold of this, he can say, My soul is satisfied, My soul shall praise thee with joyful lips. Oh, he's not a disappointment, dear young people. And if you set out to follow him, if you live for him.
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He'll not be a disappointment.
In all worldly possessions, the pleasure is in going after them. When when you get it, it doesn't satisfy. It's like a bubble, it bursts.
All heard of that great man. I believe it was Alexander the Great. And when he had conquered the known world at that time, he sat down and wept. Didn't he get his ambition? Yes, he got his ambition. He conquered the world. What did he weep for? Well, he wished there was another world to conquer. And my brother said to me.
He said he attended the graduating class in a school out in the West. And he said the man that spoke said, he said, never, never set your plans at something that you hope to attain to because you'll be disappointed when you attain it. Always set it higher than what you can attain to. Well, that's the world, dear friends. Isn't it a proof that it just doesn't have what satisfies? But my soul is satisfied.
Mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips, when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches because thou hast been my help. Therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice, when I remember thee upon my bed that is.
Often a person can be very happy and very vivacious and company what do they like when they get along?
And they get in their own room and they go to bed at night all maybe as they look back, they say, I made a fool of myself. I did a lot of crazy things. I wish I hadn't done them. But if you're following the Lord and you're living for him, isn't it nice? You can put your head on your pillow at night and you can look back and say, well, I'm glad I tried to live this day for Christ.
I'm glad that today I spent it attending that meeting at Hesperor. Yes, dear young person, at the end of the day.
Instead of looking back with regret and say, well, I made a fool of myself. I wish I hadn't done some of those things. Isn't it nice to seek to live the day so that when you put your head on your pillow at night, you can find the same blessed person that you were trying to live for right there beside you in the quiet of your own room, still able to fill your heart? And so that's what leads to the next verse and I'd like to call attention to.
It reads in the new translation. It says, Because thou has been my health, therefore in the shadow of thy wings I will sing for joy. So first of all, he says in the.
In the third verse my lips shall praise Thee, and the fifth verse he says, My mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips, and the seventh verse it says.
I will sing for joy.
How nice this is. Instead of the joy becoming less, the joy increases until he is found singing for joy. And it isn't in our own strength, it tells us here.
Thou hast been my help because I think I hear a young person saying, well, I've tried to follow the Lord, I've tried to live for him, but it's a difficult path, you know, brother, hey ho, it's it's not easy. It's it's hard.
Well, he'll give you help. We may pass through testings and trials. There may be difficulties, but the Lord will be your help. He'll not fail, Little Song says. Earthly friends may prove untrue. Doubts and fears assail 1 still loves and cares for you, and he will not fail.
Now this brings us to the last one.
My soul, follow us hard after thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me. First he's thirsting after the Lord, next he's satisfied with the Lord. And now there is a decision and a purpose. My soul followeth harder, we might say in modern English.
Close by, my soul followeth close to thee.
Close to thee all. May the Lord grant that this will be the decision of our hearts to say, stay close to His side, close enough, as the rest of the verse says, that He can uphold us. You remember when Peter got his eye off the Lord, he began to sink. But it's a good thing that he was close enough that the Lord was able to reach out and catch hold of him.
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And all sometimes we follow afar off, we don't keep close to Him all let us make the habit of keeping close to Him. And if we have got away from him, if things have come in, he can restore. But I believe this could be and should be the decision of our hearts that we really want to.
Walk close to him.
We know that little hymn that we often sing. close to Thee, close to Thee, close to thee, close to thee. All along my children journey, keep me walking. Lord with thee He is enough. He can satisfy your heart, He can keep you close to Himself. He can restore you when you have wandered away.
Well then, there's just a little warning here. The ninth verse. Those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword. They shall be a portion for foxes.
There are always those who are trying to hinder us from following Christ. I remember a boy said to me when I was going to school and I told him I knew the Lord and I didn't want to do some of the things that he did. He said, well, I'm sorry for you, I'm sorry for you.
Yes, he pitied me because he thought he had a better time. The last I heard of him, he had anything but a good time. He'd had plenty of sorrow in his life. I wouldn't trade places with him for anything. Oh, dear friend, there may be young people at school. There may be friends that you meet and say, well, I'm sorry for you, you can't do this and that. No, you can feel sorry for them.
Indeed, I'll tell you that I said this to this boy I was going to high school.
And we were walking home from school, and that was when he said it. And I told him I was sorry for him, but he didn't know Christ. And when your friends tell you that they're sorry for you because you have to walk the straight and narrow path, you tell them what you have in Christ. You can well be sorry for them, because how short are their pleasures and then to be lost forever.
Oh, how awful. And another word I would say to there might be even a real Christian.
There would be a hindrance to you. It's a serious thing to hinder another Christian from following Christ. Dear young people, never do it. There's somebody else that you know that's trying to follow Christ. Be careful not to hinder another person from following the Lord. Not only for ourselves. The Bible says none of us liveth to himself and no man dies to himself.
So we may, may we not only live our own lives to please the Lord.
May we try to be a help to others too, so that we wouldn't hinder them in following this blessed, this wonderful Savior who can and does, fully and eternally satisfied.
Outline of Scripture
Address—H.E. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Now I'm going with the help of the Lord.
To give a Bible outline addressing myself to you as Christians believers.
Will you open first?
At Isaiah 5.
And verse 4.
The verse I'm about to read.
Is the key to the whole of the Old Testament from the first verse of Genesis to the last one of Malachi.
What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
Now will you turn to Isaiah chapter?
42.
And verses 18 and 19.
Hear ye death, and look ye blind, that ye may see who is blind but my servant, or death as my messenger that I sent, who is blind is he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's? 7th Now that verse is not generally understood.
When it says who is blind as he that is perfect, it means this.
That Israel was perfectly tutored and cultured of God.
No parent can say that he did that for his children, but God was perfect in tutoring and culturing His people. Israel.
But notwithstanding it, they were both blind and deaf.
Man's trial is over when you close the the Old Testament.
The New Testament begins with the fact, which is never stated in the Old Testament.
That man is lost.
That he is dead in trespasses and in sins.
That he must have a new life.
He must be taught of the Spirit of God or he remains in utter darkness.
That truth never comes out in the Old Testament. It's found in the news.
Will you turn to Ephesians one and 10 now?
And the verse I'm about to read now is the key to the whole Bible.
It is the ultimate the finality, the consummation, the completeness of God's purposes.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth even in Him.
The next verse is our association with Christ in that headship.
Verse 11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated, according to the purpose of Him who work of all things, after the council of His own will.
Here I make a remark.
That the heart and will of God is the source of all blessing.
The Sinner needs to know that.
And the seat of God needs to know that.
All our failure, whether as sinners or Saints, springs from unbelief of the goodness that's in the heart of God.
Man is seeking happiness. It cannot be found outside of Christ.
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And to know him.
Is to know the heart of God.
For creation displays the perfect power and wisdom of God.
But the cross of Christ tells the heart of God.
And language fails when I think of the matchless, marvellous grace of God.
That could send his own beloved son into this world.
Not only to put sin away, but to win your heart and mind.
And if he hasn't won your heart, what more could he do to women?
For Christ went through.
Every form and kind of suffering that it was possible for a righteous man to go through.
And he has brought such infinite blessings to those that believe that glad tidings of his grace.
That no mind of man is able to grasp the fullness of it.
For every Christian blessing is a mountain peak beyond which God himself could not go.
And the blessed part of the present dispensation is that he has sent down the Holy Spirit as a divine person, not only to be in the Church as the House of God.
That it might be an habitation of God by the Spirit, but to dwell in your body and mind, in order that by the Spirit we might enter into these things, enjoy them in our souls, and have a taste of heaven before we get there.
All blessed it is, beloved.
Well, now we shall turn to Colossians that we had before us and touch on a point there.
The first chapter and the 24th verse.
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you?
Oh, stop them think.
Pearl was a devoted Jew that loved his nation so deeply.
That he would. He could wish that he was accursed from Christ for his brethren according to the flesh. But now he's writing not to Jews, but to Gentiles.
And he says, Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you?
And fill up that which is behind the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the Church.
Paul and suffered in bringing out the truth of the church.
As the body of Christ.
And he rejoiced in his sufferings.
For the while, the precious Savior accomplished that work upon the cross.
It was not until after the Lord Jesus had gone back into glory.
That the Holy Spirit came down and by 1 Spirit baptized believers into one body.
Then Paul is caught up to the 3rd heaven and has the revelation of this wonderful secret that was hidden in God as we find stated to us in Ephesians 3.
Now this morning we remembered the Lord in his death. So will you turn to 1St Corinthians 11?
Verse 23.
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For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.
Were they not breaking bread before Paul was converted?
Yes, they were, as we learn from the book of the Acts.
Before Paul was ever converted.
Why does Paul say, For I have received of the Lord that which I also I delivered unto you. This is why.
Previous to this point in the ministry of Paul, they were breaking bread and remembering the Lord in his death. But Paul gives them an added truth.
Joy of their hearts. What is that added truth?
Turn back to the 10th chapter and we shall see First Corinthians chapter 10.
The 15th verse I speak as to wise men.
Judging what I say, the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
That comes first.
Because it is the blood.
That cleanse us from all sins and he who is cleansed.
Is cleansed according to the true nature of God.
So that he is clean in the sight of God, as first John one verse seven tells you so preciously.
Are quoted if we walk in the light as he is in the light.
We have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sins.
That means this.
That all the life makes manifest, the blood cleanses from so that the pressure, the light, the cleaner we look.
The brighter the light, the cleaner we look for were cleansed accordingly.
To the holiness suited to God's own presence.
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
That's Christ going into death.
And in the death of Christ we ended our Adam history before God, so that if you were intelligent in the breaking of bread this morning, you broke bread as a new creature in Christ Jesus.
Your full Adam history of God.
Then the next verse goes a step farther.
The 17th verse.
For we being many are one bread. You notice we just had one loaf on the table and the word one bread could be translated and correctly. So one loaf.
One body where we are all partakers of that one bread or one loaf.
The only time in your history and mine as believers in Christ, that we can give expression to the truth that Christ and we are one is in the breaking of bread.
All how precious it is thus to break bread.
Not simply as forgiven sinners.
Not simply as accepted in the beloved, but to break bread as members of the body of Christ.
That Christ and we are one.
All to lay hold of that would produce the deepest sense.
Of worship and praise. And here I would say, for I'm trying to give an outline of truth.
There is a difference, dear young people, between worship and praise. We worship Him because of who He is. We praise Him because of what He has done.
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Always keep those two thoughts separate in your mind.
We worship Him because of who He is.
Ah, who was it that died for us on the cross? The.
Creator of the universe, the one that upholds all things by the word of his power.
We worship Him because of who He is. We praise Him for what He has done, but if intelligent in the breaking of bread, we do it in the conscious sense that Christ and we are one.
Remember, dear young people, and older ones too.
That the truth is only enjoyed through meditation. Get the habit in your life of meditating as you read the word of God.
There is not a blessing contained within the covers of the this precious book that is not ours. 1St Corinthians 3 definitely declares all is yours and ye are Christ and Christ is God's. All I add again is that blessed Savior hasn't won your heart.
What more could he do to win it?
It's Paul that says in 2nd Corinthians 5, the love of Christ constraineth us.
And remember in all your service.
That is not what you do, but why you do it.
For every unsaved person in this world lives to please and exalt self.
The Christian is to live to please and exalt Christ.
The object in your life and my should ever and always be the exaltation of Christ, for anything that exalts man is not all God.
Let me read a verse that will tell you that.
Very solemnly in Galatians chapter 6.
And verse 3.
For if any man think himself to be something.
When he is nothing.
He deceiveth himself.
If any man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
And all human religion.
Is of that nature that exalts man in the flesh.
All the exhortations and commandments in Christianity.
Are moral.
Never are they.
Duties to perform.
The unsaved person can perform.
It's not nothing of the ritual of Judaism. That's all set aside so that every Christian exhortation is moral.
And if, according to the mind of God, it springs from the new nature in the power of the Spirit of God, and the object of all that is done that is pleasing to God, is for the exaltation of Christ.
So go back now to Colossians again.
We read the verse 25 of chapter one.
Whereof I have made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill. Now that word fulfill should be complete the word of God.
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That means this.
That the truth of the Church.
Completes all that was in the mind and purpose of God.
Look back into a past eternity, and all eternity looked forward to that moment.
And all eternity will look backward to that moment. Never again in the eternal ages will there be another secret to be disclosed.
The truth of Christ and the Church is the deepest.
Richest, most wonderful secret that the heart of God contained, and in His great grace He has recovered to us in these last days.
What a mercy of God.
And here let me say, lest I forget it.
That in the New Testament you'll find that Paul's doctrine was given up before the gospel.
His grace was given up.
Why?
The enemy always opposes that which is the truth of God at the moment.
And the enemy is definitely opposing.
The heavenly calling and hope of the Church. We are approaching the end.
The moment of exaltation and triumph is about at hand, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shelter.
The voice of the Archangel, the trump of God, the dead in Christ, shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And then?
The marriage will take place in Yonder glory, and as we're told in the 19th Psalm.
And Speaking of it figuratively.
He's rejoicing as a strongman to run a race.
For that, wedding is sure to take place.
And he's looking forward to it with joy and gladness of heart. One is often said to one's beloved brethren in Christ. It's the welcome you get at the end of the journey that will surprise you.
God is satisfying His own heart.
In thus blessing us in the liveness of his heart, and in the riches of His grace.
And the more we meditate upon these things, the more our hearts well up in Thanksgiving and praise.
But here I revert to my former statement by saying.
That Paul rejoiced in his sufferings? What for? In telling out the gospel how sinners might be saved? No, he rejoiced in his sufferings in giving out the truth of the church, that Christ and we are one.
Now in this in the end of the chapter.
Colossians 1.
I read from verse 26 even the mystery which had been hid from ages and from generations, but now?
Just a point there, you dear young people, when you're reading the Word of God, notice that little word.
MOW.
It's a very, very important word.
Which is now made manifest. You will not find it in the Old Testament.
Now made manifestly Saints, to whom God would make known. What is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles? Which is Christ in you, the hope of God?
Are you a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? Christ dwells in your body.
And all your happiness and intelligence depends upon how you treat.
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The divine guest that dwells within.
But he dwells there, and he will not leave you if you are a real Christian.
But all your happiness and all your intelligence depends upon how you treat the divine gas that dwells within you, Christ in you, the hope of glory.
You remember, Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 13, Know ye not that Jesus Christ be in you, except ye be reprobates?
Isn't that a marvelous truth? What a wonderful thing that your body, as you sit on that seat is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
And Christ dwells in your body.
And God dwells there. Oh, what a wonderful thing it is. Be careful how you use that body.
Be careful where that body is found.
Wherever you go, if you're a Christian, you take with you the door, that divine person that dwells within.
Whom we preach, warning every man.
Now that's what was on my heart in speaking.
Learning every man Why? Why doesn't Paul say that concerning simply the gospel by which a Sinner is saved?
Satan's special attack today is against the truth of the Church as the Body of Christ.
And here let me say, I never met a Christian in my life that was intelligent as to the Bible.
Unless he saw the distinctive place of the church.
Well, there's no real understanding of Scripture apart from it.
The enemy knows that.
And thus he would rob you of the truth, warning every man, and teaching every man.
In all wisdom.
That is important.
That is very important to show you what I mean, if you'll turn back to Acts 11 for a moment.
And verse 19.
Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that rose about Stephen, traveled as far as Venus and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none, but under the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Sardini, which when they were come to Antioch, speak under the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned them to the Lord.
Then in the 22nd and 23rd and 24th verse.
You get the pastor in Barnabas exhorting the mall, that with purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord. Then in the 25th verse you get Barnabas seeking Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass for the whole year they assembled themselves with the church.
And taught much people and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
There you get the evangelist, the pastor, and the teacher. Now why did I turn you to it though?
That in the early days, they didn't leave believers.
Simply with the knowledge of forgiveness of sins. The moment these folks got converted, the desire was for pastoral care over them and that they might be taught of God. And that's why I turned to it. So if you'll turn back to Colossians, you'll see the force of the claws that I was about to read.
Verse 28.
Whom we preach.
Warning every man and teaching every man.
Ah, are you a preacher of the gospel?
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Never leave a convert simply in the knowledge that his sins are forgiven.
If you are a true servant of the Lord.
You will desire their pastoral care.
And that they might grow in the knowledge of the truth.
That Christ, and we are one. I call attention to it again, teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus Paul with a devoted, faithful servant of the Lord. And may he give the poor servant that is before you this afternoon to be more faithful in my.
Ministry.
Where unto I also labor striving according to his working that worketh in the Major League.
He's working that worketh in me mightily that show. Does it not, brethren, me, very great importance of the truth.
The very great importance of the truth.
Isn't it important that every believer learns it and walks in the good of it?
Indeed it is, Indeed it is, and I believe that those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
Have a special responsibility not only to give out the gospel.
But to see to it that with the gospel they present the truth of the mystery of Christ and the Church. Now if you notice Colossians 2.
I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, that word conflict.
In the Greek language is the same Luke word as agony. He agonized in prayer.
And for them at Laodicea, why is that mentioned? Oh, why was there lukewarmness?
Italy to see her or I believe that Laodicea had lost the truth that we find here.
You'll never be a leader sin if you live in the good of the truth that Christ and we are one.
Whether you never will, you'll never be a leader to sin if you live in the blessedness of the truth.
That Christ and we are one that's right brought in here.
And as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted. Why is that?
All there were suffering persecution.
And many of them lost.
What men value down here? Their property by accepting Christ.
But their hearts were comforted how and wherein that they had a home above, with Christ in glory.
A home abroad with Christ in glory.
How precious it is that no persecution can ever rob us of what we have in Christ.
That home above in younger is assured to every child of God.
And no persecution, no confiscation of goods down here can rob us of the inheritance up there. Oh, how precious that your heart may be comforted being knit together in love. As I looked at my brethren as we broke bread this morning, I looked at you as a member of the body of Christ. And you're just as dear to Christ as I am.
And thank God I'm just as dear to Christ as you are members of His body.
In that wonderful Knit together in love. When you meet your brethren in the home or at the station or in a meeting, always remember that we're members of the body of Christ, and grace has given that blessed nearness and position. Knit together in love.
Under the full assurance of understanding, understanding.
Ah, we need to have our understanding opened. And how will we have it open?
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By the word of God, by the word of God, not one right thought of God ever enters man through his intellect.
The truth of God is by revelation, and every blessing that you enjoy is on the ground of faith.
I'll put it simply, have you got the forgiveness of your sins?
Did Reason tell you our faith?
Have you got eternal life?
Did Reason tell you our faith?
You believe in the resurrection of the body? Did Reason tell you our faith?
Every Christian blessing is enjoyed by faith and in communion.
Out of communion, the very truth that we know lose their blessedness in our souls. And if there's anything in your life or mine.
That is, on our conscience as being contrary to the mind of God.
Judge it and give it up.
For the cost is too late.
For the enjoyment of Christ is the fruit of walking in obedience to the Word of God.
For the Holy Spirit that dwells within us will never occupy us with any progress of soul that we may have made. The Spirit will either occupy us with Christ or speak to us about our failure. But why does He speak to us about our failure?
In order that we might judge them. And oh, how precious it is.
That if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. That's first. John 19.
The subject of that chapter is not salvation, but communion.
Communion. Ah, why does that verse communion? Because communion is broken.
And confession restores it, as quiet as God wants the restoration of your soul.
All the thought is so immense and precious. He values communion with these people.
Or let me enlarge for a moment and tell you this.
Creation didn't satisfy the heart of God. What will satisfy the heart of God for all eternity will be the communion of His family.
In that, Marvel isn't that precious.
Well, I must go on now with me to Second Timothy.
Chapter 2 and verse 10.
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation, which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Now going back, just for a moment.
Paul rejoiced in his sufferings that the truth of the church might come out. He agonized in prayer that they might know it.
And here he endured all things for the elect's sake.
That they might be saying no, that's not the thought here, That they might also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Is there trouble in your little meeting where you came from? Is there difficulties? Are there problems? Are there things to bear with?
Paul suffered, He endured all things that the truth might remain with the Saints. For in Timothy you find that all Asia had turned away from Paul.
But he was ready to endure all things that the truth that was so preciously and blessedly committed to Him might remain with them. And beloved brethren, that's a voice to my own soul as I travel in and out among my beloved brethren in Christ. There are difficulties. There are problems.
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There are things that take you to your knees in brokenness of heart sometimes.
But are you and I willing to endure all things that the truth might remain amongst us?
That the truth might remain. Oh beloved brethren, I feel my utter inability to tell you how blessed is the truth, how rich is the truth, how precious is the truth that Christ and we are 10 How wonderful it is, how blessed it is to walk down the street in the conscious sense.
That we are children of God and members of the body of Christ, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. And that when we come together to remember the Lord in his death, we come together as members of his body. So near we cannot near thee, so dear we cannot dear Thee. And one is often said in Yonder glory.
Not a look will cross his blessed face, Not a word will cross past his precious lips.
That records any failure in our lives.
It will all be gone, he says. Your sins and iniquities will. I remember no more. We are fully and without blame before Him in love. That is the truth to be enjoyed in the soul now, but in the coming day of glory it will be in full radiant display.
Oh, how lovely. How lovely, brethren, how lovely. Will now turn to the last part.
Ephesians 6.
Verse 10.
Now I'll go back for a moment.
In order that you keep up the connection.
Paul rejoiced in his sufferings that the truth might come out.
He agonized in prayer that they might know it.
He endured all things that it might remain with them, and in Ephesians 6 he tells them to take the whole armour of God.
That lest they lose it, lest they lose it.
Why isn't the ticking of the armor of God found in the epistles of the Romans where you get the gospel? Why is it found in Ephesians?
Where is it from here? Let me state, brethren, what will help you young people too.
Not only read the chapter, but meditate upon why that chapter is found in that place.
For God is perfect not only in the revelation He is given, but every unfolding of His purposes is placed in the Word of God in the very place.
That is most important and needed.
And so here the whole armor of God is in the epistles of the Ephesians, where Paul had told us in the first chapter that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
And then in the third chapter he tells us of this wonderful mystery that was hidden God that was given to him to communicate. Then in the 4th chapter he tells them to forebear in love with one another.
For the display of it will take place for the future day, but in this 6th chapter.
He shares finally, brethren.
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
What? That lest you lose the knowledge that your sins are forgiven? No, that's not the thought here. Must you lose the truth that Christ and we are one?
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. When it's the devil, it's the tempter. When it is Satan, it is the adversary. When it is the second, it is his subtle goal. Here it is the Wiles of the devil. He knows exactly.
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When to bring a trial into your own personal life?
And exactly the right time to bring a trial into the assembly. Where you break bread, he knows. The enemy knows. Your spiritual state of soul. Where you're breaking bread, the enemy knows. And he knows the right time, the right time, and he knows the right person to pick up to you.
Of the devil, ah, he's the tempter to get you tempted off the ground. That is so blessed for us to walk that path. To Jesus comes the bridegroom of the church.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against power, against the rulers of the darkness of this world.
The rulers of the darkness of this world.
And so the whole world is in darkness for the God of this world that blinded the minds of them that believe not.
I have read many books in my day, and I have had to read books that I I was going to say that I wish I didn't have to read in order often to to help some poor dear St. of God. And you'd be surprised at the subtlety with which evil doctrine is presented in such a plausible way.
That if you are not sound in the truth, you are carried away with it.
You will always find this as a principle. Always.
The ancient and honorable. He is the head and the prophets that speaketh lies. He is the tale. You'll always find evil doctrine in the tale of the book you read.
There will be an admittance of a good deal that you can accept, but gradually is it slips away from the ground of the truth, The ancient unpotting Isaiah, the ancient and honorable. He is the head and the prophet that speaketh lies. He is the tale.
You can connect that with Revelation where it speaks of the scorpion who and how true it is. It looks attractive, but the end of the road is always bitter. Oh, I've been to the bedside of some Christians that have departed from the ground and oh, how one saw and found.
That they had bitterness.
Their sorrow, the joy of the Lord, was lost.
Perhaps not the knowledge of salvation, but the joy of the Lord was lost.
Wherever take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand an evil day, and having done all, to stand.
The evil that perhaps things go on pleasantly and happily for the time, but there comes a moment when the enemy attacks and he knows just when to do so. As we remarked already, whether in the individual life of the believer or whether in the collective life of those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
He knows the present state of the assembly where you break bread.
And.
As dear old J&D said, after a time when brethren went through a real trial, he said, Brethren, let us learn to walk with God, for the enemy will attack again.
He will attack again, for he'll never leave the Saints in the enjoyment of the truth without disputing it and getting them off the ground by some subtle means.
The only way is for you and I to walk with God.
And never allow in our individual lives anything that the conscience and the word of God condemns.
Because to do so is to lose strength in the past of faithfulness to the Lord.
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Stand therefore having your lines good about with truth.
That means walking in it.
Where God hasn't given us the truth simply for our intellect, that we may display our knowledge.
He's given us the truth in order that we might walk in it.
As the 86 Psalm says, teach me thy way, O Lord, unite my heart to fear thy name. And there's a little clause I left out, and it is this I will walk in thy truth. You'll come to the meeting here in Chicago or Wheaton.
Is it simply to gain more knowledge or is it with the sincere desire in your soul?
That your life daily might be more pleasing to the Lord. Why did you come here? Did you come here in order to get more of the knowledge of Christ? That your feet might walk in the truth?
Well, what does it say? Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the best plate of righteousness. Don't allow your affections to go out after that which is not true righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Ah, never introduce anything into the assembly that will spoil the peace of the assembly. Unless.
The the glory of God demands it.
Remember that our object should always be His glory. We must stand for the truth when it is attacked, but the principle governing our lives is peace.
And above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Ah, how often they come in.
And even Saints of God breaking bread have doubted their salvation.
But if you and I walk in the truth.
And get the habit of judging what is not the mind of God in our lives. Exercise to walk daily to please him. Then when the enemy comes in attacking, we've got up the shield of faith, confidence in God.
Why you couldn't walk with God without having confidence in Him?
You couldn't walk with God without having confidence in him and so.
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Now the word here is not the same Greek word. I'm not a scholar, but it's not Lagos here. It is the sayings of God. For sometimes I'll hear a brother say, well I got my sword with me, meaning he's got his bike. But that's not the thought.
The thought here is that you're walking with God in communion.
So that you have the very sayings of God to meet the attack of the enemy. How did the Lord meet the attack in the fourth of Matthew, when he was tempted of safety says Thus it is written, Thus it is written, Oh dear young people, as I'm about to close, read the word of God until you're so saturated with it that you think in the language of Scripture.
Then by a walk with God in communion by the Spirit, he'll give you the right word to you when the enemy attacks the truth.
He gives you the right word to use when the enemy attacks the truth, but there's no substitute for communion. And let us walk in in that conscious sense of our own weakness, leaning upon the Lord, going to Him in every difficulty in trial.
He'll never fail those that turn to him in weakness.
For he is the God of all compassion, the God of all wisdom, the God of all power. May our trust be in him.
But perhaps we just close with prayers. Our time is up.