Conference: 1975
Table of Contents
Four Types of Christ in Old Testament
Samuels Dwelling Place
We Would See Jesus
Paul's Journey to Rome
God's Solemn Record of What God Sees
The Treasure of Christ Hid in this World
Philippians 2:9
Within the Vail Outside the Camp
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Like you read part of this 10th chapter and then also part of the 13th chapter, and I was thinking particularly of two things that are brought before us in the 10th chapter, our place inside the veil, and in the 13th chapter, our place outside the camp. I believe these things are very important for us to see, and they're brought out very clearly in these portions of God's Word.
Well, let's read from the first verse of Hebrews 10.
For the Law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
By most sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering. Thou wouldest not but a body. Hast thou prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin? Thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me to do thy will.
Oh God, how about when he said sacrifice, and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin? Now what is not? Neither has pleasure therein which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, he taketh away the 1St, that he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
Once for all.
And every priest stand the daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
Whereas the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.
For after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now her remission of these is There is no more offering for sin.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having an high priest over the House of God, let us draw him here with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.
For He is faithful that promise. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Well, in this chapter, as we can easily see, we have the truth of being inside the veil brought before us.
You know that that Tabernacle, we are told earlier, was a pattern of things in the heavens, and here we find the Spirit of God tells us how all these things have been fulfilled. Now the shadow has been fulfilled in the substance. The Lord Jesus has come, the work of redemption has been accomplished, and that which none in the Old Testament could enjoy is now to be the common and enjoyed portion of every believer.
A place of nearness that could never be known as long as the old Tabernacle in the temple were standing. That is, in the Old Testament God dwelled in the thick darkness. He didn't come out, He didn't make himself fully known. And this couldn't be until redemption was accomplished. The Lord Jesus said I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straightened until it be accomplished? That word straightened as we no doubt.
Always have not straight like a straight line, but STR AIT. It's an old English word means restricted, held in. And so the Lord Jesus was held in, so to speak. All that was in the heart of God could not be made known, could not be revealed, until redemption was accomplished. And how the Lord Jesus looked forward to that time when redemption being accomplished, there would no longer be a hindrance to all.
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Within God's heart, being made known, told out, and by the Holy Ghost, enjoyed in our.
Souls, that's why it tells us in the 12TH chapter of Hebrews as say that ye refuse not him that speaketh, or if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven?
And that is, it's so important that we should realize, and that is the voice of a glorified Christ from heaven that brings us into the full blessedness of Christianity. I remember hearing our brother Brown made this comment.
He said when I was a young man and attending one of the systems of men, he said we studied the birth of Christ, the life of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ and his ascension. And he said we stopped when we saw the cloud receive him out of their sight. But he said Christianity begins the other side of the cloud.
Well, you know, that's a blessed thing for us to realize now that is it wasn't until.
Lord Jesus was glorified at the right hand of God that the Holy Spirit comes down. Those precious revelations were given to Paul that lead us into the full fruit of that work that he has accomplished, and how blessed for us to be able to know and enjoy these things. This is what grieved the heart of Paul about these Hebrew believers. He said when for the time he ought to be teachers. You have need that one teach you again, what be the first principles?
The Articles of God.
And he said that they only have been feeding with milk, but they needed meat now.
How many dear Christians have truly touched the hand of Jesus garment in faith? They know Him as the one who died for their sins upon the cross. But the blessed truth of the church, the blessed truth of our present place of standing and acceptance in Christ, what true Christian worship is, they haven't entered into because they haven't enjoyed what is brought out in Paul's ministry, what he calls my gospel.
That precious unfolding of truth that has been made known to us.
Now, just as you're walking along the street and the sun is shining brightly in, a shadow comes up and sort of passes by. You realize that somebody's coming behind you. Look at the shadow you you might be able to tell possibly whether it's a man or a woman, but you're not just sure. It's very indistinct. But when the person passes and stands and looks you in the face, now the shadow isn't necessary anymore.
You have seen the person.
You know who that Shah who is that shadow it was that was right beside you, because you can now look into their face. And so it tells us that all the glory of God shines.
In the face of Jesus Christ.
So this chapter tells us the law having a shadow of good things to come, but not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect. Now that is, he's addressing Hebrews here. It was hard for them to give up that which they had gone on with for years. The temple, its ritual, it robbed, its singing, its sacrifices.
All this appealed to them and to give this up.
And to come into the place of blessed liberty in Christianity was difficult for them. I don't suppose there's anyone here that's been brought up in Judaism. But dear friends, I must say that a great deal of what goes on in Christendom is but a carry over from Juliet.
It is really bringing into Christianity that which was originated in Judaism, so that we could say much of Christian worship today is really a mixture of Judaism and Christianity. And in that sense it applies to us now that it's hard for us to give up those things that appeal to the eyes and to the senses and to enter into the spiritual enjoyment of our place consequent upon.
Finished the work of Christ and a glorified man at the right hand of God.
And then he shows us that in all those sacrifices, the comers weren't made perfect. No one ever had a cleansed or a purged conscience.
How? That is, it was accepted to make an atonement, that is, an atonement comes from the Hebrew word to cover, and it was accepted for the time, in view of the time when those sacrifices which could never put away sin would then come to their end and fulfillment in the work of grace.
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And so this is what he is showing. Was it possible that the blood of bulls and goats should put away sin? No. Then why did God require them? Well, they were a shadow. They were a constant reminder to all those Israelites that sin, the penalty of sin, was death. The wages of sin is death. As they saw those countless number of animals die, how it reminded them over and over again of the seriousness of sin, and that nothing less than the.
Of a substitute, nothing less than the blood of another could put away sin before God. But as I say, it's interesting to notice that never.
All mention of the sacrifices in the Old Testament, does it ever speak to that, those sacrifices putting away sin? No, it speaks about them being accepted to make an atonement. Just like I might have a ton of dirt here and I put something over it and you can't see it, but it's not gone, is it? But if I took it away, then the covering has now been completed, so to speak is no necessity anymore to have something to cover it because.
That is put away and saw. How wonderful to know that in the finished work of the Lord Jesus, as it tells us in the end of the 9th chapter, He came to put away sin.
By the sacrifice of himself. What a marvelous thing to put it away, and so that blessed work of Christ.
Does not just accept it to make an atonement like those sacrifices of old, but as we often say in the atoning, work is done.
So now sin has been put away and this is what he is bringing before them in these verses, that there's no need that a remembrance should be made of sins every year. Because when the Lord Jesus did that blessed glorious work, it was once for all. And now the believer can rejoice to know that the sacrifice doesn't have to be repeated.
One lady who had accepted the Lord as their savior.
As she came to the gospel meeting and oh, she was so happy to know her sins were gone, but it wasn't very long after she began to be troubled again because she realized that she had sinned since she had been saved. And what about this? This really troubled her. And you know, there are many Christians just like that. While they don't go back to the sacrifices of Judaism, it's amazing how many Christians think that when they accept the Lord as their Savior, then all their.
They're gone and they have no idea about what is going to happen after that. So they try by all kinds of efforts to keep themselves safe, to establish some kind of standard of holiness or something after they're saved, because they don't really enter into the blessed fullness of the work of Christ.
Well, she was quite troubled and after about a month or so and she said to the brother who had been speaking, she said, I know all my past sins were gone when I accepted the Lord as my Savior. But she said, I'm afraid I've sinned since I've been saved. What about those? That's what troubles me. All the brothers said then I want to ask you a question.
How many of your sins were future when the Lord Jesus died?
Well, she said, I guess they were all a future. I hadn't even been born. That was right, wasn't it? Well, he said, I'll ask you a second question. Is the Lord Jesus going to die again?
No, she said. I don't think so. And the scripture says no. It says in that he died, he died on the same once.
But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. But he said, If the Lord Jesus didn't settle a question of your sins of Calvary, they never will be settled.
No, dear friends, it's blessed for us to know that we can have that peace of knowing that God has been glorified in that once for all work, that blessed sacrifice that put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
So as it tells us in this fifth verse, it was not possible that they should put a ways to take away sins. But the Lord Jesus came into the world, and it says he said sacrifice and offering. Now what is not but a body? Hast thou prepared me? Perhaps you wondered why it says this sacrifice and offering, now what is not? And in the next verse, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure and doesn't.
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Scriptures say that these sacrifices were a sweet savour to God. Why does it tell us that he had no pleasure in them?
Well, you know, God had no pleasure in the death that sin had brought in all those countless number of animals that were slain on Jewish hills and offered upon their altars. And did God find pleasure in the fact that all those animals had to die? No, it was necessary. I thought He didn't find pleasure in it. But there was, they were all.
In view of the one and the only one.
Who could offer one sacrifice and put away sin? So when the Lord Jesus came into the world, he said a body. Hast thou prepared me? How marvelous.
This Blessed One took a body not.
Subject to death, like you and I have a body, and if the Lord doesn't come, the body is subject to death. Every one of us are getting older by the day and by the month and by the year. Yes, death is working in our bodies, whether we like to recognize it or not It's so.
Never saw the Lord Jesus.
He he saw no corruption.
When the time came that he was to leave this world, he dismissed his own spirit. Death had no claim over him.
He was capable of going through death, but he wasn't subject to death.
Blessed one, or the only one who had power over his spirit. It says in Ecclesiastes, there is no man that hath power over his spirit to retain his spirit. There's no discharge in that war. But there was one who had power over his spirit. And that one was not just an ordinary man. He was, he was a perfect man, but he was also gone.
The God man.
And so he said, a body hast thou prepared me?
And then tells us, will I come in the volume of the book. It is written to me to do thy will, O God. The whole history of man is doing his own well. But here was one who came to do the will of God.
And the will of God was your blessing and mine.
Someone has said that the heart of God and the will of God are the source of all our blessings. There's nothing comes to us that's good to our own wills. Our own wills get us into trouble.
We turned everyone to his own way. I thought it was his wealth that he came to do the will of God his Father, and his will was to do that well. And so He has fulfilled that on the cross of Calvary for our blessing.
And so he speaks of this again in the ninth verse. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, he taketh away the 1St, that he may establish the second. Now that is the first covenant was conditional a man's obedience. He said this do, and thou shalt live. Was there any blessing to man on that ground?
Could anybody claim that he would fit himself for the holy presence of God under the first Covenant? Well, the First covenant said that if they kept it, they would live. If they didn't, the death and the curse were their penalty.
What did they earn?
And it says, by the works of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
How could anyone get blessing on that ground?
So in the first covenant had to be set aside and.
Now God is going to make a new covenant for the House of Israel. He's going to bring them into blessing on a new ground. And it's not because they kept the law. It's because of the one who came to do his Father's will, and through that one and through that one only his blessing either for Israel or for ourselves. It's all through the one who did his Father's will. And what a what's the thing this is? He taketh away the 1St that he may establish.
That is, if any of us had to meet God according to the claims of the first covenant, we would just be under the curse. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For what is written cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things that are written in the in the book of the law to do them.
But then it says Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. And so there's going to be blessing for Israel, but now on the ground of the first covenant.
Now it'll be with us New Covenant, but that was just founded upon the death of Christ, the only ground of blessing for man.
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So it goes on to say in the 10th verse, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Here we see sanctification as to our position, what might be called positional sanctification now that is the work of Christ has set the believer apart. He's no longer under the law. He's no longer part of a judged world. He's been set apart. What a grand thing this is, to know that we have been set apart through the work of Christ.
In a practical way, we're exhorted.
That we might be sanctified practically, Paul said. I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body.
May be sanctified.
And so it tells us also in the prayer of the Lord Jesus in the 17th of John. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. That is, in a practical way, we should be set apart from this world. We shouldn't live as if we were part of it. It's under judgment. We shouldn't go on with all that which is going on, which is borrowed from Judaism because we're identified with another.
The one who has written again.
And in him there's a new creation.
So sanctified as to our position is a blessed reality. In a practical way, we exhorted that it might be so in our lives that we would practically be set apart.
And every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man.
After he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God.
There was one article of furniture that they didn't have in the Tabernacle.
There were no chairs.
There was no place for any of those priests to sit down. Why? Well, they were just continually offering sacrifices. There was no end to them. It had to continue and continue and continue. But the one who offered that one perfect sacrifice has gone up and.
Seated himself down at the right hand of God, and he's not going to rise up again to offer another sacrifice. When he rises up, it'll be in judgment.
He has seated himself down as the one.
Who has completed the work and.
So how lovely this is.
How many there are who think that they have to go on with something to fit themselves for God?
But here is here is this blessed truth brought before us this man.
Offered one sacrifice for sin forever sat down at the right hand of God, and the 14th verse for by one off and yet perfected forever them that are sanctified. Isn't it beautiful to notice those two words forever in the 12TH verse and in the 14th verse, the one who offered the sacrifice has now seated himself down at the right hand of God.
And because he is seated there and we are perfected.
Forever, just as his sacrifice has eternal efficacy in the presence of God.
So we, in our position before him, are perfected forever.
There's an advice that it doesn't say here, I want to ask them. You have perfect until you sin again by one offering you a perfected forever than that are sanctified. Such is the place into which the believers brought such as a standing. Surely we have every cause to rejoice.
Now that's why in the end of the 9th chapter after it's speaking.
Of him appearing to put away sin by the sacrifice of of himself. And it says in the 28th verse.
Though Christ was once offered to bear the sins of man, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. That is, He's not going to come again to settle a question of sin that's been settled forever settled.
Are they going to come again to bring our full salvation? Because we now have the salvation of our souls?
The Lord's coming, we'll have the salvation of our bodies. Now is our salvation mirror than when we believe.
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So he's coming without sin, but I see my precious Savior again. He's not going to raise the question of whether my sins have been settled or not.
No, that's so wonderfully complete that it says your sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
My boss is going to come for my salvation now, that is to Take Me Out of this world of sin and sorrow, to get rid of the two things that are a hindrance down here, these bodies of humiliation and the fallen nature that's within them. We won't have either one in heaven.
Of all nature will not be in the glorified body, and these bodies will be fashioned like unto His glorious body. He's coming again without sin unto salvation. So we are perfected forever.
And then he tells us too the 15th verse, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.
For after that, he said before, well, I won't go into it here in detail, but the the new covenant has to do with the House of Israel.
But God hasn't yet made that new covenant with the House of Israel, even though they're going back to their land as a nation. I don't mean that there aren't Jews being saved, but as a nation they're going back in unbelief. They still are rejecting the One who came to bless them as a nation.
But God's gonna bless that nation and another.
Day and he's going to make a new covenant with them.
But before that time comes.
He has brought those of us who were saved into the blessing of that new covenant. Now that is, we are blessed on the.
Same ground as Israel will be blessed in a coming day. We have to remember this is addressed to the Hebrews and what he's telling us here, that we don't have to wait just like we had last night. The thief said, Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom. But it's as though the Lord said that we don't have to wait until the Kingdom.
You will be with me in paradise today. And so we don't have to wait till a new covenant is made with Israel. We are brought into a place of nearness and blessing through the work of Christ, even more wonderful and more blessed than Israel, but on the same ground. On the same ground.
While they're singing in heaven is thou art worthy, For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.
Every kindred and tongue and people and nation.
And in the 7th of Revelation, where you have an earthly company, they wash their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
The earthly company have the same ground and blessing as those who are inhabited.
So the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven now in his present period, is a witness to us, bringing us into the good of that blessed work that Christ has accomplished. And now he opens up this blessed truth we spoke of, of our possession inside the veil, something that the high priest, even in Israel could never enjoy with liberty once a year.
He went in with blood and insights.
The next year it had to be repeated again.
There was never any liberty or boldness.
And going into the presence of God, it was always a repeated thing.
And if he didn't go in exactly the right way, he might be smelting bed like Nadab and abide you were.
But how different now?
When the Lord Jesus died, when he shouted, it is finished for veiled the temple.
Was Raymond Twain from the top to the bottom?
God, why does it say from the top to the bottom? Well, because it wasn't. Mama did it. It was gone.
God's holy claims have been satisfied fully met.
And now, if we can put it in this way, and there are two blessed things, God comes out in all the riches of His grace. He no longer has to dwell in the thick darkness. He no longer has to hold back all that was in his heart. He comes out to bless, and we go in consequent upon what He has done in boldness.
Through that precious blood that now gives us access into the presence of God.
And so our place now before God is no longer at the distance. We're not like Israelites, but we have a place we can go inside the veil. And that's what that's where we worship as Christians.
We know that after the death of the Lord Jesus, it seems quite apparent that they sewed up the veil again and went on with the sacrifice.
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They didn't. They didn't enjoy that blessed place of nearness into which the believer has been brought.
And how how christened them Today, as so many of them are, they still don't enjoy the place of nearness that the believer has a right to enjoy. The whole idea of dividing people into what's called the clergy and the laity is nothing more than a denial of the present place of every believer as a priest. And some places they can't even have the remembrance of the Lord unless they have a humanly ordained.
Them to carry this on. Can't you see how the people are kept at a distance?
And only certain ones have a place of nearness. Well, that's the way it was in Israel.
Only certain ones, only the high priest, and then the Levites too, as priests had a place, and the sons of Aaron had a special place, but the people didn't have that near us. But in Christianity every believer is a priest, every believer has access into the very presence of God as a purged worshiper. And so it says, having therefore brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest.
That's the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus. What is it that gives me this title of blood of Jesus?
What a blessed thing then, that every believer can come and sit down in the very presence of the Lord as a purged worshiper, and know that at this place of nearness is His through the work that Christ has accomplished. Isn't this something in which our hearts can rejoice? Isn't this wonderful to be inside the veil?
And then so it tells us here by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.
That's a new thing because, as we said, it was never so in Judaism and more. It's a living way.
Because, you know, only as we possess a new life can we really enjoy the presence of God.
Now, that's why many people, even though they're not born again, they can enjoy fine music, they can enjoy robes, they can enjoy a grand religious building. You had a neighbor who lived next door to us back in Ottawa, and he told us how he just loved to go into some of these beautiful cathedrals. He said they're just a sort of a religious feeling comes over you when you go into a building like that.
Well, that's just what man like.
They like that sort of feeling produced by external things.
But what true worship is that which is produced in the heart by the Spirit. And unless you're born again, you can enjoy a meeting where we worship in conscious nearness around the Lord. Now, how often a person will come in? Well, where is the organ? Where is the choir? Where is the preacher? They don't see that this place that we have been brought into is a place of nearness to the Lord.
And we worship in spirit and in truth.
So it tells us here it's a new way because Christianity is not an improvement on Judaism or an extension of Judaism. It's something new entirely.
And it's a new thing. And again I say you have to have a new life to enjoy.
They don't have to be born again to enjoy ritual and good singing, but you have to be born again to enjoy the presence of the Lord. It's the most uncomfortable thing to a person that hasn't been.
As it says here consecrated or if you have a margin in your Bible, you'll notice it says new made. He has made new for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh.
The Lord Jesus death was that which opened this up for us. There was no other way that we could be in such a place only through His death. And now we have this place in of nearness to Him.
I might say that the veil in the Tabernacle, and you remember it was blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen. Well, all those different colors bring before us the various glories of Christ.
Blue, the heavenly one, the purple the royal one, Scarlet, the one, the only one who had right to him and glory and the.
Find violin his perfect life. And then it was wrought with gold, the cherubim.
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All this brings before us the various glories of Christ. But what did that beautiful veil?
Really, Clay, to anyone who stood there and looked at it.
Practically sad that there's no entrance here.
There is no entrance here.
And So what did the perfect life of the Lord Jesus say to me? It condemned me.
Says you haven't measured up to this, you have fallen short. But when he died, I see a way opened up. Now it's through his day at the veil, that is to say, His flesh. He gave himself our poor hearts to win. Brethren, we're not saved by His perfect life, it's by His death. We're reconciled to God by the death of his Son. Christ died for our sins, and so the access was made through his death.
And so here it tells us.
Through the veil, that is to say is flashing, and having an high priest over the House of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Here we have now the 21St verse, having an high priest fell to the House of God.
Now let me say here that the priesthood of Christ now is not to offer sacrifices. He made one, a perfect sacrifice. He was the priest and He was the offering both, and he has completed that. But he is my great high praise. What does it mean? There's a high priest out of the House of God all as we go through this world, there's so many things to test us and try us, and isn't it lovely?
The Lord Jesus, the one who died for us, is living up there to keep our souls in the enjoyment of Himself, to keep us in communion, and in every temptation and trial that we meet, we can look up and ask for grace to help in time of need.
We have a high priest over the House of God. We would never get through the wilderness journey if it wasn't for the grace and the health that he supplies. So he has gone in.
And we are now seen as accepted in Him. Our place is inside the veil and for all the help that we need, he's there.
As our High Priest, let us come boldly under the throne of grace.
We may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
So now we have in the verses that follow the three things that characterize Christianity, faith and hope and love. In the 22nd verse, it's faith that is drawn here with a true heart and a full assurance of faith. Now that is, in what confidence can I come into the very presence of a Christ, holy God, into the very holiest of all? How can I do it?
Well, I just accept what God tells me.
By faith He tells me how that my sins are gone. He tells me the blood of Christ has cleansed me. He tells me that I'm accepted in the Beloved, and I come into his presence now with a full assurance of faith. The enemy says all but you failed all that I say. The word of Christ has fully glorified God has fully met my knee.
And in this blessed confidence I can come into the presence of God. I'm not speaking now of failure in the believer's life, because that isn't the thought here. What is being brought before us in this passage is rather the place that we're brought into through the work of Christ. When we have a family in John's Gospel, John's epistle, I should say, then we have provision made for failure in the believer's life. But here, where the grand theme is the fullness and blessedness of the.
Christ, why the believers standing is brought before us and it's unchangeable, perfected forever. So there I come into the very presence of God with a full assurance of faith, the heart sprinkled with a from an evil conscience. What is it that has removed sin from my conscience?
A blood of Christ.
And only has to be applied once. The hard sprinkle from an evil conscience.
And the body washed with pure water from Jesus side. There was the blood and there was the water.
And the precious blood of Christ has fully met all God's holy claims and put away sin.
And then the water is referred to as the washing of regeneration in Titus chapter 3. And so not only has have my sins been met in the presence of God, but I come into His presence as a new creature in Christ Jesus.
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My Lord said to the disciples, here it is washed. He does not save to wash his feet, but is clean every wet.
So let us remember this. The blood puts away sin before God in connection with all his holy claims against sin.
About the water rings before us now, that cleansing by which we are brought into the presence of God as new creatures in Christ Jesus.
And this is not and might say for those that perhaps are a little older, this is not the thought of the labor where the disciples had to launch, where the priest had to wash their feet and the Lord said that we needed to have our feet washed. That's not the thought here. This is that washing all over.
Which is once for all through the work of Christ.
So how blessed it is to know that this is our standing when we wash our feet. That has to do with our state. Now. That is has to do with the same thought as what we have in John's epistle where we have his advocacy and restoration when we have failed. But we're not restored to our standing. That is always the same. We're restored by confession to fellowship with God.
But the standing is ever the same, because it's bounded upon the blessed once for all the work of Christ.
So faith rests upon this.
I might say that in the 23rd verse the proper word in the new translation is hope. That is, hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He is faithful at promise.
I mentioned that there was faith and hope and loss.
So here we have faith gives us this confidence to go into His presence. We hold fast the confession of our hope. What is our hope?
We're going to get through the journey. You know, there are a lot of temptations along the way. And we have made a confession of hope. We say that the Lord is going to bring us safely home. We have said that he's going to bring us through. Just like Israel when they cross the Red Sea. They sang. Thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. We made a confession to the world.
Now that the Lord is going to bring us through.
Well, the enemy says, oh, but you're often unfaithful. But he is faithful.
He is faithful and would never get through if it wasn't for His faithfulness. It's His faithfulness on which we rest as the captain of our salvation. He's bringing many sons to glory.
And so we hold fast if it depended on us, if it said if you're faithful you can hold fast, well, then we might get discouraged by the way. But it says let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he is faithful that.
Promise, and then the next is love, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a manner of.
Has been guarding on another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Now there's that outflow of love that goes out to others. How important this is too. His love has won our hearts.
And now there is that outflow that goes out to others.
And we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brother. There's no love in your heart to the children of God.
I can't believe that you're a child of God. We're taught of God to love one another, but we are told here now in a practical way, to consider one another, to provoke unto love and the good work. May I just make this little practical remark for myself and for each one? Wouldn't it be lovely? Every time we thought of our brethren, we thought of it in this way. What can I do to encourage?
That believer to love and to.
Good works. What can I do to encourage in him that affection for the Lord gave us and those desires to walk to please him?
Wouldn't it be grand if we all have this occupation? What a difference there would be in our meetings if we always remembered this in a practical way and how often we provoke one another the wrong way.
Back another one many years ago, an older brother said to a a younger sister, she had just been married a short time and he said to her, do you provoke the Saints?
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She said I hope not, but he said you should.
Yeah, sure, I think you said the Scripture says have revoked to love and to good works. We often provoke them a long way, but here's the right way to provoke them. To provoke means to stir up, you know how to stir up our brethren the wrong way to get them upset and angry and troubled. But isn't it lovely to seek their good, to stir up those divine affections which God has implanted in the heart?
Well, now let's look just briefly at the 13th chapter. We see here what it is to be outside the.
Hebrews 13 verse 10 We have an altar where they have no right to eat, which served the Tabernacle, for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp.
Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
At a school for us, therefore unto Him, without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here have we now continuing city, but we seek one to come by Him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices.
Thought is well pleased.
Well, here we see our place outside the camp in the fulfillment of the type we have been now brought into, the very holiest of all as Purge worshippers.
But there is still existing in this world that which is patterned after Judaism, that which bears the character of that old thing which is but the shadow of good things to come. Now Scripture designates it as the camp. Now that sort of thing, how that is borrowed from Judaism. And so here was the Jewish believer. He now saw that all those types had been fulfilled in Christ.
He spiritually was inside the veil as a Purge worshiper, and he looked at the Tabernacle of the.
Temple and all that was going on. What was his place of relation to all that?
Well, he saw that, seeing it was all fulfilled in Christ. His place was outside of all that that was still going on.
And so it says we have an altar where they have no right to eat, which serves the Tabernacle.
That is, there were not the two things.
Now the Jewish believer.
Perhaps God and his patients have borne with them for a while.
Until they learn this less of truth, and we should be patient with one another too. But here we find that is seeking to, as it were, taken by the hand, and lead them out of all that system of things to a rejected Christ.
Because he shows them that back in the 16th of Leviticus on the Day of Atonement.
There was the animal whose blood was taken and brought in and sprinkled on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat, and by that God formed the basis by which He could go on with the guilty people. Now that was inside the veil.
But then the body of the animal was taken and it was burned outside the camp.
It was taken and there was a place outside the camp where the body would burn. He said, well, the Lord Jesus has fulfilled the tithe. He has entered into heaven by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He said that's our place of nearness. But he said there was also the other side of the site. There was a sacrifice made outside the whole, the whole Tabernacle and all that.
Where the body of that animal was burned and he said the Lord Jesus suffered outside the game. And he said if we're going to be identified with him, why we have to go outside too. And he makes it very clear here that if one type was fulfilled, that gave that.
Way of entrance into the presence of God. Then he said the other must also be fulfilled, and our place is to be identified with the one who suffered outside of Jerusalem. So he goes on to tell us here.
The 12TH verse Wherefore Jesus also and.
True sacrifice.
That He might sanctify the people with His own blood suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him, without the camp there in His reproach. Well, this is a place of reproach.
Because for any Jew to leave behind all that ritual which was so dear to him and to his family, and to identify himself with a rejected Christ who was crucified outside of Jerusalem, that was a real reproach.
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And so with us today, if we seek to take our place as gathered to our rejected Christ, if we seek to take our place in simplicity gathered around him, apart from all that which is borrowed from the ritual of Judaism, we'll find the same reproach too. We'll not be understood, but it's a blessed place because it says, let us go for therefore unto him.
It's to a person we go.
It's to a person, I say, Not just to a position, but to a person, and that person is the one.
Who said in John chapter 12 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Now that is, and the next verse says this, he said, signifying what death he should die.
And that is Tony was telling his disciples before he went away, he said I'm going to be lifted up on the thrust. And he said that'll be the new gathering center.
That I'll draw all man unto me. The reason it says all man, it doesn't mean that every single person of Adam's race will be drawn to Christ, but it simply means it will be no longer the nation of Israel.
By Jew and Gentile both.
Brought into this place around the rejected Christ, because if you recall the occasion of Edith sometime in John 12, it was when some Greeks came up and wanted to see Jesus.
And the Lord said a corn of wheat had to fall into the ground and die, where it would abide alone. And then he went on to tell him the cost of discipleship, and then tells them till the time's coming, when those Greeks can be gathered to me.
But they'll have to be gathered to me as a rejected one, the one lifted up, the one crucified, the one who died outside the gate of Jerusalem.
As well, this is a very Psalm verse to me. We have an order of they have no right to eat which serves a Tabernacle. But we can plainly see that God was no longer going to go on with the mixture of things. He had born with an impatience for many years, but He was no longer going to go on with that mixture.
As they were going to be in the path of his choosing, it must be.
Gathered to a rejected place, they could enjoy all the blessed holy liberty of being inside the veil, pitted for His holy presence as purged worshippers, that they could know the blessedness of faith and hope and love in all its preciousness.
But it would be a place that would be outside, around the person who had been rejected and crucified outside the city wall.
Don't tell us here how we know a continuing city. Have we seek time to come? This is very simple, because Jerusalem was the place where the Lord had put His name. Is there any place on earth that could be said? For now? Jerusalem is no longer the place, but it's a certain city. It's such and such a city. And that's now the.
There might be some people who say, well, it's Salt Lake City, people get all kinds of ideas, but it's not a city, it's a person that only gap.
If the person and as a blessed thing to be gathered to Christ.
Gathered around himself, for two or three are gathered together in my name.
Where am I in the midst of them? Well, I'm a Jew, might say. What sacrifice can Ioffer? I know if I went into the Tabernacle, if there was a sacrifice, if I go to the temple, I know the sacrifices that are required. What can Ioffer now?
That the sacrifice of Christ is complete. What sacrifice is there now?
Isn't this beautiful by Him? Therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Here we do have a sacrifice. And what do we do as we gather around the Lord Jesus?
Why would just simply, if in communion with him, offer the sacrifice of praise?
Further, RF giving thanks to his name. It's not how well we can sing, but it's whether it's in spirit and in truth.
As the Lord said to that woman in the 4th of John, the hour cometh, and now is.
When the truth was that they shall worship in spirit, and worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. So we are now gathered to worship in spirit and in truth, and as we gather around the Lord Jesus to remember Him and His death, the only true worship about ascends.
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Is that which is produced in our hearts by the Spirit of God. Notice the absence here of anything connected with Judaism. There's no mention.
Of music there's no mention of.
Fine rules. There's no mention of a special building, but all a person.
And the heart overflowing in praise by Him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise, giving thanks to his name. And then there's another sacrifice.
In the 16th verse, but to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Now that is when our hearts have really entered into these blessed things and enjoy them by then there's always an overflow, there's always a going out and.
Thinking the good and blessing of others.
Christianity would never make us selfish or self-centered. It would always enlarge our hearts.
Saw that we would seek to.
Shall I say reach out to others that they might be brought into blessing too so and to do good and to communicate or a privilege that we can do things now in the name of Christ.
Were gathered toward rejected Christ, but we also have a place in this world where the world ought to notice that there is that character that was seen in the Lord Jesus. He said he went about doing good.
There's always that character in his blessed pathway of entering in sympathy and love into the needs of others about him and embrace, seeking to meet their needs. Without ought to characterize us too. It is a sacrifice. It means we have to give up something sometimes so that we can be a help to others who are in need. And another verse says, as you have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men.
Especially for the household of faith. So we have a large sphere, we have good news of salvation, we have kind acts that we can show everywhere, and then we have a special responsibility to those who are the children of God. Well, what a blessed thing to see that Christianity is an entirely new thing.
It's not a patch on the old garment of Judaism.
It's an entirely new thing.
And it's a new and living way of worship. It's a place that not pleasing and acceptable to a man in the flesh because it's a place together to reject it from Christ. Well, May God by His Spirit make these things good to us, that we might have grace to walk in that path that He's marked out in His Word. There is a path for faith. There will be until the Lord Jesus comes.
And may we have grace to go on, and this with faith and faithfulness, until we hear the shout.
Living the New Life Not the Old
2 and 3 John
The Dependent Man
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Perhaps just before we begin this, I don't know if we'll read a couple of verses in the 12TH chapter. 12 Psalm help Lord for the godly man ceaseth for the faithful fail from among the children of man. They speak vanity. Everyone with his neighbor, with flattering lips and with a double tongue do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things.
Who have said?
With our tongue will we prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? Then the 14th Psalm. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.
They are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Now the 16th Psalm. Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust. O my soul, Thou hast sent unto the Lord. Thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the Saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. Their sorrow shall be multiplied that hasten after another God.
They are drink offerings of blood. Will I not offer nor take up their name?
Into my lips the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot.
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.
My soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One, to see corruption, Thou wilt show me the path of life. In my presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
Well, we've been speaking this morning about the second chapter of Philippians in which we have the pathway of the Lord Jesus as the perfect example for us. His pathway here, the one who emptied himself, made himself of no reputation, walked through this world as a man, has a perfect example, so that we too might have a path that we might walk him in his poor troubled world.
And in his 16th Psalm we have the expressions.
Set before us by the Spirit of God of the Lord Jesus as the dependent man. And the reason I've read the verses in the 12TH Psalm and in the 14th is to show us how the character of the evil day in which the Lord Jesus was here. And truly as we read those words, we can say this corresponds very much to the time in which we lay over. And I believe it's very important that we should realize.
The character of the day.
And also that there is a path in the midst of all the confusion in which we can walk, in which we can walk safely, in which we can walk in peace and joy. The Lord Jesus was the one who walked that path perfectly. And the 16 Psalm brings before us the pathway of the Lord Jesus as the perfect dependent man.
There's a great deal in the world today about.
About people finding themselves, We're just talking to a young man. Well, he wasn't so young. He's probably 30 or perhaps a little more now, but he was still talking about finding himself. He's past 30 years old. I think he's a real believer, but I don't believe he's really found himself. And he said he was trying to, in an effort to find himself. Well, I said the only way to begin finding yourself is to remember.
The word of God says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins. And I know, dear young people, as you go to school and there's a great deal of talk about this finding yourself in this world, but you know the reason people are having such a problem and finding themselves.
Is because they are setting aside the word of God they're rejecting.
God's precious word that tells us why we're here, that tells us the purpose in which God has.
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And while we were here, what life is all about and where our pathway is going to end. How foolish it is to try and find yourself without accepting the light and wisdom of God's Word. Let us suppose that I went to work in a large company, and when I started in the company, I said to everybody in the office, I'm trying to find myself.
And they say, well, didn't they? Didn't your boss tell you what your job is?
Oh, yes, he told me. But I'm trying to find myself well in the office. If I had any difficulty in knowing what my responsibilities are and what my job is, there's a man who's placed over me. This man can instruct me about this and tell me what are my responsibilities. And if I reject what he has to say, I suppose I would be in a great deal of confusion.
But if I accept the position he has given me, the work he has given me to do.
What my responsibilities are, I have no problem. And if someone says why are you doing that? It's very simple to say, well, Mr. so and so asked me to do this. And so it is in our pathway here. Life becomes very simple when we are willing to accept the our responsibility to God, when we are willing to take the place that God has given to us.
Here in this world and recognize what?
Responsibility we have to the one in whom we live and move and have our being. And as you've often heard me say to your young people in talking, that I think as I grow older, I feel more and more the importance of this blessed book. Because if men give it up, it's all the more reason why you and I should cling to it. Because all the confusion in the world is the result.
Of man churning his back upon God and upon the Wisdom.
Of this blessed book that God has given to us.
And as the psalmist said, I have more understanding than all my teachers, because I testimonies are my meditation. How thankful we should be like Timothy. Many of us can say from a child, Thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. Again, it says the all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.
For reproof, For correction and righteousness.
For instruction that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works. And so in a world where it tells us here the godly man had ceased. Where it tells us the faithful fail from among the children of man, Where it tells us they spoke vanity with their neighbors. And this flattering lips and double hearts, anyone who has much to do with the world.
Finds very much that this is the character of things that we see.
See in the world all about us, and they say our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? In other words, we can say what we like. Things that were once left out of the newspaper because they were too disgraceful to print. Now we finally put in the newspaper. They're not ashamed to print any of the most horrible and vile things that people say.
Because they're saying our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us?
And the one who seeks to please the Lord finds himself in the midst of all this kind of confusion. Then we find in the 14th Psalm, the Lord looked down and how many did he find who feared God? Why? It says that all got out of the way. They're together, become unprofitable. They say there is no God. And so this is the character of this poor world about in the midst of this we come to.
The 16th And we find that there was one who came into this world, and heaven could look down with perfect delight upon that one. The Father's voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well placed. The Spirit of God could come and light upon him like a dove, and in every step of His pathway we see that He walked in Wisdom's ways. He walked in obedience to His.
Father and He showed out in a world full of self seeking, full of confusion, full of all kinds of darkness. He showed how one could walk to the glory of God. Well, dear young people, what an example for us, what a pathway. And so we not only have the instruction, but there is One who has gone before, who has given us an example that we should follow in His steps.
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And soon is 66 Psalm begins.
Where the expression of dependence.
And so it is with us. We are made dependent creatures now. That is, our life is in the hands of God.
How quickly he could take it from us. Before this day is over, He might have taken any of our lives, for in him we live and move and have our being. And no man has power over his spirit to retain his spirit. There's no discharge in that war. We are walking here in this world, in our life that we have at this moment. God has given it to us and He could take it away.
Do we know what it is to walk as dependent ones?
Dependent for every step. We find this in the Lord Jesus. He never did one thing to please himself.
You and I naturally like to please ourselves, it says in the 53rd of Isaiah. We have turned everyone to his own way and our natural hearts like our own way. We like to please ourselves, but even Christ please not Himself.
He walked through this world as a dependent 1 and has all this power of evil was round about his prior to his father was. Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust. And O dear young people, I warn you that this world is getting worse and worse. We're not expecting it to improve the powers of darkness.
Are gathering for the final showdown and we have been reading at home in the Book of Revelation.
And we see there what is coming, the exaltation of man, until finally he rises up and the beast and his armies makes war with the Lamb and makes war with the Saints. And so it is, we can expect to see this progress of evil coming out more and more in the exaltation of man. And these false religions of the East that are coming in are nothing more than the exaltation of man.
Now bringing him into a place of importance and so that he is looked upon as being part of God Himself. About here we find the blessed Son of God, the one as we read in Philippians 2, who is God?
Who came down into this world and took the place of a dependent man. And I would say to myself and to each one of you, dear young people, we need to pray this prayer each day. Preserve me. O God. It's so easy to get caught in the current of the age, get carried away with all this self importance of man in which he exalts himself, in which he says.
Our lips are our own. We're going to do as we like.
We're going to throw aside all these blue laws and this is the world, but I say it improves itself into our way of thinking if we're not careful. It's surprising, this young man that I speak of, past 30 years of age, who hadn't yet found himself, His whole problem is that he has gotten mixed up in things that have to do with the exaltation of man. And the result is.
He has never truly taken the place as being thoroughly and completely dependent upon God for every step of His pathway. And then it says, for in thee do I put my trust. Now that is, there's dependence, but there is also confidence. You might depend on a person and the person lets you down. The person disappoints you.
I suppose we've often had such an experience. We've depended on someone.
And that person has failed us. We thought he was our best friend. He failed us, He disappointed us. And you say, who can I trust? And the Lord says, you can safely trust me. The Scripture says they that know thy name shall put their trust in thee. And so you and I need to learn to be dependent on the Lord.
Because we can safely trust Him for every step of our conscience.
As we sing a little song together, earthly friends may prove untrue, doubt some fears assail 1 Still loves and cares for you. And he will not fail. Jesus never fails. Oh, may the Lord grant that this might be for the daily prayer of our hearts. Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust. And when we think of the Lord Jesus, who is God coming down to this world.
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And walking in that path every day in the Gospel of Luke, where he's brought before us as the Son of Man, we find him spending all night in prayer to God. We find him seven times in prayer. He was the perfect dependent. 1 here in this world. And then it says, O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the Saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent in whom?
My delight.
Here is this one who is the God himself, and having taken the place of dependence here as a man, he says to Jehovah Of Thou art my Lord now that is, he took his place as the obedient 1 here in this world. And he said, I came not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me, and that little expression that might seem difficult to understand.
My goodness extendeth not to thee.
Is simply the thought that the Lord Jesus here in this world that didn't go about?
In the display of his God had glory before all man. It's true that faith often recognized who He was and worshiped him, but as man that glory was veiled. And so he walked through this world, and he could have turned stones into bread because He was God, but he wouldn't do it without a word from His Father.
He could have. He could have made life much easier for himself. But as it's often been remarked, he never did 1 miracle for his own ease. He could have easily made it so that those long, weary days of travel. He could have done just a miracle and been at the place where he was going. But we find him, he wasn't here, as one of the little poems says.
Nor yet.
Triumph passing, but human infancy. He came down to this world in weakness. He was born in a Manger. He walked through this world in dependence upon his father. But where did all his goodness extend? Where was the display of all that power? Oh, isn't this lovely? If he never did any miracle to please himself, he did hundreds of miracles for the blessing of others.
And over and over again.
We see him opening blind eyes, healing the sick, weeping at the grave of Lazarus, and then raising Lazarus and giving him back to his loved ones again. Oh, what a constant display. There was a power for the good of man, but never for himself. What a pathway. You know, if you and I have power, we like to use it first for ourselves.
For our own ease, that is, we think of self first, naturally.
Were not very careful. How can I make life life easier for myself? How can I do something to help myself and make my own path pleasant? Isn't this the natural thought? But just think of 1 here in this world. And every thought of his blessed heart was first for the glory of God his Father, and secondly for the blessing of man. What a pathway he trod here, dear young people.
What a pathway have you and I learned this secret?
Oh, it's a lovely thing to learn it when we're young, but do it wait. Like this boy that I speak of, he came to Sunday school, he heard the way of salvation. And now at this age, he still hasn't found himself and he is still confused in his own mind. But isn't it lovely now that in youth you can learn this path? You can go on through life walking in that path and think of the Lord Jesus here in this world. He came from that.
Of light and love down to this world. What for? So that he might have those who would share that home of light and love. And he said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That where I am, there he may be also. They were they felt lonely. He said, I won't leave you. I won't leave you orphans. And by his spirit he.
Come to us to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts. He knew that life was going to be difficult, and He said, that My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, give I unto you. He knew they were going to be deprived of many earthly joys, but He said, let he scope these things to his disciples, that their joy might be full. He came to give. He came in order that blessing might flow out and.
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Young people, how much are you and I enjoying what he came to give? Are we enjoying thoughts about heavenly home? How much have he enjoyed his love today? How much have we known of his peace in all the circumstances of life which are so trying? Perhaps you say, oh, I have such problems at work, it's so difficult. Problems in the home, problems in the assembly.
Oh, isn't it blessed? Here was one walking through this world. What were the scribes and Pharisees like? How did they treat Him? How much did the people appreciate the things He did for them?
Why, we find that after a day of healing not one person invited him to their home. And it says every man went to his own house. And Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. For you say my friends disappoint me. The Lord Jesus said my own familiar friend, in whom my soul delighted, hath lifted up his heel against me. Did he feel all these things in his pathway? Yes, he did.
But isn't this a lovely expression? It touches my heart.
My goodness extendeth not to thee. That is, He wasn't walking here in this world displaying his own glory, so to speak, before man, but rather showing out the heart of God to man in all the loveliness now that was seen so perfectly in Him. And it says.
To the Saints that are in the earth, to the excellent, in whom is almighty delight. And who were these excellent, these disciples? Would you call them very excellent? I don't think I would call my friends very excellent if I was in a time of trouble, and every one of them forsook me and fled. But the Lord called them the excellent He. He stood by the well and talked to a poor woman who had a terrible record, and she was one of the excellent of the earth.
He saw a blind man.
And he healed that blind man, and he is another one of the excellent of the earth. And Mary Magdalene, and we could mention so many, they were the excellent of the earth. Oh, is this lovely? What is it that makes them the excellent of the earth? Oh, how blessed. We have been brought into the family of God. We have been brought into a place of acceptance in Christ. Oh, how often we fail in this.
That we don't look upon the Saints as the excellent of the earth, but think.
Of the pathway of the Lord Jesus, and His goodness constantly extended to those disciples. Never did he weary of caring for them, of sharing their difficulties, of helping them, and even the very time when they forsook him and fled, He said, Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations, and I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed you, and when he knew how.
Confident Peter wise, he said, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. Oh how lovely that grace that shone out as he looked upon those who were going to share his glory above. And your young people that this is the place you've been brought into. If you're saved, you're going to share that glory above. And so here we find.
The Lord Speaking of his own in this way. And then there's a little warning.
In this fourth verse their sorrow shall be multiplied, that hastened after another God. Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. Oh, how often we multiply sorrow in our lives, because we go after things that never satisfy.
The Christian is entitled to be the happiest person on the face of the earth. As I say, the Lord has given us his home.
His love, His peace, and his joy. But more could love have given. Is it possible that sometimes instead of having multiplied joys, we have multiplied sorrows? Yes, we can multiply sorrows in our lives if we go after the wrong things, if we go after the things that don't satisfy. And your young people, as I speak to you.
How many decisions are made in life? How many are made in youth?
Perhaps by the time you're 20 or 25 years old, you have made decisions that are going to mold the rest of your whole life.
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How important that we set the Lord before us, that we have Him, because sometimes these sorrows that we bring into our lives, that we have brought them upon ourselves.
Poor Abraham, when he took Hagar, what a sorrow he brought into his home for 14 years. And when poor David looked in the wrong direction and went after things that he shouldn't have, he brought us sorrow that lasted for the rest of his life.
The sword shall not depart from thy house forever. O dear young people, I plead with you.
May the Lord Jesus, your confidence, look to Him, count upon Him, ask Him to preserve you, and seek to find that pathway of joy and blessing that He has marked out for you and walk in it.
Then it says here in the fifth verse, the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance.
It doesn't speak about all that coming scene of glory that's ahead of us. It doesn't even is referred to Israel. Talk about the land flowing with milk and honey. Doesn't talk about heaven with its St. of gold. But he says the Lord or Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance. And what is going to make heaven Heaven to us? It's true, it'll be a place of endless delight, but it's not the street of gold.
It's not the gates of Pearl, it's not the glorious foundations of that city, but it's because His servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads. And we may not have very much of an inheritance down here in this world, but if we can say the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance.
We're living, of course, in days of prosperity. Many of us have had more than we've ever had in our lives before. And sometimes we don't know how to abound as well as we should.
But let us cultivate the habit, even in this present state of prosperity, of making the Lord the portion of our inheritance to get occupied with Him. Because, I warn you, we don't know when all this sort of thing will collapse. It may all come to an end. We don't know. The Scripture warns us of a day when a measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny warns us of a time when there will be famine, when there will.
Poverty. We don't know what's ahead as far as the conditions of things in this world are concerned. What we do know, if we know the Lord Jesus is our Savior, we can say the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance. As you read that verse in Philippians, I know how to be a base and I know how to abound. I remember one time a brother was saying, well, it's hard to be a base because we all seem to know how to abound, but I don't know whether.
You I don't know whether we do. Do we know how to abound? If the abounding prosperity of these countries goes to our heads and gets us occupied with earthly, we all know how to use it in the right way. May the Lord give us grace to know, in whatever kind of a society or whatever kind of an environment we live, to know how to recognize that we belong to the Lord. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance. All let us ever.
Remember that, because if sickness comes, if loss of material things comes, this won't change. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and then it says and of my cup. Isn't that lovely? We think of the inheritance as all it belongs to us in Christ, the unsearchable riches of Christ. But then the cup and the cup is the present enjoyment. It's what we have for today, shall I speak?
You might have a great deal and you just dip in a cup and you take out a cup full. Well, it's out of a a great deal that you have. You might have a bin full of oats and you dip in and take One Cup full. Well, the bin's still full, but you took out One Cup for a present need. And so isn't it nice that it's not only what awaits us up there, but also is Christ my portion today?
Am I enjoying him today? Oh, you know you'll be happy in heaven. He never doubted that.
But is He the enjoyed portion of my soul today? The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. Isn't this lovely? As soon as you get anything in this world, immediately you find that people are at work to take it away from you. If you get a good job, there's going to be people that are going to try and take it from you. If you have anything, if you have money, well, somebody's going to try and break into your house and get it.
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Whatever you, whatever you get in this world.
So as soon as you get it, why then, as one man said, you spend half of your life trying to get things together and the other half trying to keep people from getting them away from you. And that's just about the way this world is. People are always trying to take away what you have got together. But isn't this lovely? Thou maintainest my lot, the Lord said. Not of the world, Give us, give I unto you, he said.
Your joy no man taketh from you, he said, having loved his own, which were in.
The world, he loved them unto the end. What you have in Christ you can't lose you can't lose thou maintainest my life. Oh dear young people, you can't be robbed of what you have in Christ. Isn't it sad that sometimes we have to lose earthly things before we value our true inheritance, before we drink of our present cup, before we realize that there's one who maintains our life and many of us have learned more of our.
Christ in our trials now than in the easy times of life when things went well.
And then it says the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yeah, I have a goodly heritage.
I rather enjoy this little verse because it brings before us, I think, times when it seems that difficulties overwhelm us. They become too great. And then it says the lines are falling under me in pleasant places. And I suppose we've all had the experience. Perhaps a day when everything goes wrong. Nothing seems to work out right. It just seems that everything goes into reverse. And then some verse of Scripture.
Comes to us, and the lines fall unto us in pleasant places. And we say, Oh, that verse was such a comfort to me that day. And that's, I believe, what it means. Let me put it like this. Here was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego down in the burning fiery furnace. But what was it that made that a pleasant place to them?
Oh, the Lord came down and walked in the fire.
With them the Lord came down and I've sometimes said, someday I'm going to meet Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego up in heaven. And I wonder if I said to them, can you tell me the most pleasant place you were ever in? Now I'm not older, I wouldn't be surprised to hear them say I the most pleasant place was the fiery furnace. What could that be? A pleasant place? Yes, they said, the Lord walk with us.
And that, that was the most marvelous experience of Earth.
When we were down upon this earth, that was a marvelous thing. And so it is how often in trials and difficulties God brings some verse to your soul. There may be some verse for that. You say that verse is one of the most precious verses in the Bible to me. And if I asked you why, you'd probably tell me of some experience in your life, and you'd say, well, there was such and such a day, and things went this way and.
Verse just came home to my soul.
It's meant something to me ever since the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yeah, I have a goodly heritage. All think of the Lord Jesus here in this world, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, despised and rejected, unappreciated by his disciples, and yet he ever walked in the light and sunshine of his Father's love. And so as we see in that pathway.
Although he was.
The Man of Sorrows. He was also the one who was ever spreading light and joy and happiness upon those about him, because he came to give, not to get.
1 is often said one of the remarks made by our brother Darby has been such a help to me in my life, where he said.
He said Christianity is known by what it brings and not by what it finds.
And you know, we're always looking for something and we get disappointed. But the Lord Jesus came into this world to give. He came to give and his whole pathway was doing his Father's will and giving. And so in that pathway he found delight. He could say, I have meat to eat. If you know what I'm that was his pathway of love and service.
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Then the seventh verse I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons.
Well, the precious Savior ever saw his Father's will. He found counsel, shall I say, so that he could say.
That he did nothing by himself, but as his father gave him commandment, Even so he did. And I suppose there are some young people here today and you're facing some great decisions in life, some things that you realize are very important and may affect your whole life. And you say why? I just wish I could get good advice upon these subjects because these decisions are so momentous here, we find.
Such a lovely verse. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. As it says in Isaiah, His name shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the Father of eternity, the Prince of Peace, That's the one who can give us counsel. And then my reigns also instruct me in the night seasons. I believe the rains bring before us the inner morals of our hearts.
We often do things, but there's a reason for doing them well. What the Lord Jesus did was not only always perfect as regards the actions, but the mood was always perfect too. But sometimes it's not so with us. We can do a right thing from a wrong motive. I might do a right thing to please some friends and not to please the Lord.
And movie, it looks very nice, but the Lord doesn't get any glory from it because it really wasn't done for him. He wants us to do things for Him. And sometimes I feel that it's only when we're alone with the Lord that we discover motives in our hearts that we're not aware of. I suppose we've all found this that sometimes it wasn't until we got alone in our bedroom and we said to ourselves, now why did I do that?
Can I really do that for the Lord? Was He really the object in my heart in doing it? Why did I make that decision? Did I really seek His mind and His will? And so it says. My reigns instruct me in the night season, and I believe it's good for us. The Lord Jesus, as I say, was always perfect in everything, the very motives of his heart. But we find him the night before He chose the 12 disciples. He spent the whole night in prayer to God.
You say, well I have some big decisions to make. We'll be sure they're accompanied with a great deal of prayer and heart searching. Do we really want the Lord's will or are we really just thinking of ourselves? Sometimes we we want the Lord to decide something for us, but self is at the bottom of it, not His glory. But isn't this lovely? My reigns also instruct me in the night season I have set the Lord.
Always before me.
He's often said that sometimes we would like the Lord's mind in some big decision, but it isn't true that we always want his vibe. But here it says I've said the Lord always before me.
And because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Now that is, when we seek to act before Him, when we seek to act in obedience to His Word, then we have solid ground to stand upon. And He says, I shall not be moved. And so it is if we make His word our God really seek to do His will. Then we have discovered that there is a path in which we can walk safely. And by what shall not?
Humble, as the scripture says.
And then just Speaking of these 9th, 10th and 11TH verses.
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 wilt show me the path of life. In Thy presence is fullness of joy. At Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Perhaps I could just say simply in connection with these 3 verses.
The rest of the Psalm brings before us the.
Jesus in his pathway of dependence. And where did that pathway lead?
Well, it led to the drop, but here we find the Lord Jesus as the dependent man. He looks beyond the cross, He looks beyond all that he would pass through there in going down to death, and he looks to the other side, and he said, Thou will show me the path of life. He looked on to resurrection, and he said in thy presence is fullness of joy.
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At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore, and dear young people sometimes.
Don't look far enough ahead. We don't look far enough ahead, I sometimes said. When we look back, we don't look far enough back. We need to look back all the way to the cross.
If we look back yesterday, maybe we get down over certain things that happened yesterday. But if we look back to the cross, we see God's love so mirrorlessly displayed toward us. And there we see his love toward us, overcoming all of us against us, bearing our sins, and opening up the way of such blessing to us. And then perhaps when you're looking ahead, you're not looking far enough ahead.
You say, well, you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
Neither do I, but if you look far enough ahead, I can tell you what's going to happen. Yes, when we look far enough ahead, in thy presence is fullness of joy. At Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. And the Lord Jesus, this man down here, walk that perfect pathway of dependence and obedience, seeking the glory of his Father, owning his.
Authority and walking. Here is the obedient man. He sought the blessing of others. He looked upon His own as the excellence of the earth. He went about doing good. He found His own peace and joy in the path of His Father's will. And then as He came, as we often sing, Thy path, uncheered by earthly smiles, LED only to the cross. As He came to the end of that blessed pathway of love and obedience, He knew what was to have.
But he looked beyond all that and he looked on to the glory, and there He's in that glory now. He's there with the Father. We look up by faith and see him there. He's the man of patience waiting now, and he's going to have us with himself. And dear young people, I would say to you, there is a pathway in this confused world. If the godly man ceases, if they're doing all kinds of evil things, if they're going on saying there's no.
God, they're making self the center of their life. It doesn't need to change the path for you and me. There's one that's gone through before us. There's one who's marked out the path. And dear young people, I covet for you the joy of walking in that path, of knowing the company of the One who loved you and who gave himself for you. Of knowing what it is to be in the enjoyment of His home, His love, His joy, His peace and walk.
This world conscious of this and then knowing too that soon, perhaps this very day, he'll call us into his presence where there's falls of joy. Would you trade to this world? Are you going to have to you going to hasten after other gods that only bring multiplied sorrows. Only God give us grace to make Christ the object of our hearts, the object of our lives. The example for our pathway this is.
Way and peace, and it's a safe path even in 1975. May the Lord give us grace to walk in it as we think of the nearness of the return of our precious Savior.