Address—H. Short
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Tea. And I'm particularly.
Thinking about the second verse, thus may we abide in union with each other.
And the Lord and possess in sweet communion joys which earth can never afford #17. Would someone start that, please?
I feel, I guess about as comfortable right now is.
As I would if my wife said to me, honey.
We're having company for supper tonight.
The ingredients are in the kitchen where you prepare a meal for them.
And I kind of think I got the ingredients, but how to put them together I'm not sure of.
But what is on my heart?
Sometimes thing gets on my heart and I don't want to talk about them, but I can't get out of it.
Is the other morning I was reading in the book of Exodus.
Chapter 38 and this will introduce our subject.
I was reading from Mr. Darby's translation and I read that.
But I'm alone.
And I don't know why I never noticed this before, but it was emphatic to me a couple of days ago and I want to share it with you.
In Exodus chapter 38 and let's read from verse 9 and speaking about the Tabernacle and it's being built.
He made the court on the South Side southward. Hangings of the court were a fine twined linen.
And 100 cubits.
Their pillars were 20. They're brazen sockets 20. The hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver, the word fillets. I was astounded how Mr. Darby translates that Connecting rods.
Connecting odds there And then you find it. The end of verse 12, they're connecting rods of silver. Verse 17, they're connecting rods of silver.
Verse 19. They're connecting rods were of silver the fillets or the connecting rods of silver. Now call your attention back to verse chapter 37.
And verse 38 And the connecting rods with gold.
I don't usually single out.
A company of a believers, but I'm going to.
Right now for my sake to try and get myself at ease.
Probably won't let the young sisters that ease though that I want to just say a word for your young sisters about connecting rods because might not bring to your mind what it brought to my mind, but I'd like you to think about a connecting rod in my mind when I read this.
00:05:20
You know that little car you own or now they own? Big cars too? BIG4 Wheelers and such. There's something that makes me really nervous.
When I travel.
It frustrates me and I'd be going down the Interstate and following a little bit slower moving semi and I get over in the passing lane and I'm taking my time passing them.
And up becomes behind me, one of those four by fours, I think they call them or one of those little racy cars and I'm a little bit worried they're going to push me right off the road. They're coming so fast.
And so I speed up and I get out of their way as fast as I can. Now that doesn't frustrate me, but what frustrates me is when I look over and see that the driver is a young girl. Oh, and I think, oh, that young girl, she's intimidated me. And if I had just known it was a young girl, I wouldn't have been intimidated. But.
Why I want you to know how that relates to this subject is because I always think you know those little girls. They.
You know that black pedal on the right makes that little car go fast, and the other pedal on the left stops it and they don't have a clue what's going on to make it do that.
And I'm going to give you a clue what makes it do that inside that engine.
Depending on what kind of an engine it is, there's four cylinders, and there in those four cylinders are 4 Pistons.
And those four Pistons, all they do is go up and down. They don't wander anyway. They just go up and down.
And the lower you press that black pedal, the faster they go up and down.
Down below them, somewhere not far away, is what's called there's a crooked piece of metal and they call that crankshaft, and all that little piece of metal does is go round and round and round.
And the faster you press that black pedal, the faster that crankshaft goes round and round and round.
But neither the piston nor the crankshaft would go anywhere by you pushing the pedal if there wasn't between that piston and that crankshaft a connecting rod.
There is a little rod in there and it's quite an amazing little thing because.
It not only has to go up and down with the piston, it has to go around and round with the crankshaft. And when you are speaking down the road, your Mitt, you're you're taxing that connecting rod.
And if you do it enough, it gets loose and it breaks and you find yourself alongside the highway.
And you'll say, somebody stop and help this poor little girl. But don't feel bad because my friend Gus, he taxes his boy Wheeler too much. He's going to be on the side of the road. I'm just teasing him because he was showing us one time last winter how that thing would go through the snow drifts that most of us carefully avoid.
So.
I tell you.
We tax in our lives.
The connecting rods.
But without the connecting odds, there will never be one Tabernacle in the book of Exodus. Interesting book. A lot of it is given to the making of this Tabernacle. I'd like to go back a chapter or two. First thing I want you to remember about those connecting rods is that except for one case, they say.
Eight times they're mentioned in the Scriptures, and all eight times in the Book of Exodus, except.
Perhaps, and Mr. Darby doesn't use that word. In Jeremiah the pillars had these fillet, this fillet that seemed to hold it together. And in the judgment of God on the people of God, when the House of God was dismantled that Philip, it's not called the connecting rods, not even called the Philip there, and Mr. Darby's translation, but it was removed and disbanded.
00:10:24
In the House of God.
Dismantled.
Connecting rods are really important. In chapter 36 about the Tabernacle, we find a lot of things brought.
To Moses for these workmen, we may come back to this.
But down in verse 13 they had all these things brought, and it says in verse 13, And he made 50 tax. They too, you know, were connecting things but of gold. And couple the curtains one unto another, Or Mr. Darby translates that together.
They couple them together and that's what a connecting rod does. It holds things that.
Are at least two and sometimes more.
But a connecting rod makes them into, as it says here, one Tabernacle.
Now when I was first saved and came into the assembly, I had a spiritual father named Mr. Brown.
And early in my life he said this to me one day, or else in some ministry. But I took it for myself. Wherever he said it, he said it in my hearing.
And I think it was to me personally, but I'm not sure. But he said what God hath joined together.
Let not man put asunder.
God has joined a lot of things together.
Thou in thy house.
We might look.
We'll just quote it for now from Matthew 19.
Now let's look at that, because that's what's on my heart. Two things are on my heart, in particular, our marriages.
And the assembly.
The assembly is mentioned in chapter 18 of Matthew.
And for some reason the spirit of God has been pleased. And I would say this too, in Matthew 18. It's a functional assembly that you and I have responsibility. And it's not the assembly of Matthew 16 that Christ is building, but the functioning assembly. And then in Chapter 19.
Down in verse six it says.
Verse 5 And they said for this. And the Lord said, they asked him if it was lawful to put away his wife for every 'cause, you know, they wanted to separate something that God had joined together. And they said as far as they were concerned they were they were saying for any 'cause we can do this separation, and I feel sometimes loved ones that we approach life that way.
We'll separate what God has joined together for any 'cause the.
And so the Lord takes them up on that view, and he says to them the.
He says in verse 5.
And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be 1 flesh, you see.
If there's just one person, you don't need a connecting God. But if you're going to bring 2 into one, you're going to connect the piston with the crankshaft. You've got to have a connecting rod. You've got to have something that's willing to to be able to go up and down, round and round to maintain unity and oneness. That we have something that is functional and we tax. We tax severely sometimes.
The connecting rods in our lives. And so he says What Therefore God hath joined together.
Let not man put asunder, They say unto him, Why did Moses in command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? And he saith unto them, because of the hardness of your hearts. And then in Ephesians chapter.
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Two. I think I want a verse there.
And this will give us the doctrine as the basis of this exhortation, this exercise of soul.
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 15. Having abolished in the Lord's flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to make in himself of twain 1 Newman, so making peace, that is, the uniting of the Jew and Gentile into one Newman. And there they are brought together with this connecting rod.
Then in chapter 4 of Ephesians he speaks of giving gifts.
And I believe this is the doctrinally sound application for us.
These connecting rods, it's not just a figment of our imagination, but it's a it's a living reality in our lives.
And he soon as he went back to heaven and formed this church down here on earth, he had a concern for it. And he gave these gifts in verse 11 and he gave them in verse 12 for the perfecting of the Saints. Now down in verse 16 he says, Well, I would like you to notice in verse 14 that we not be tossed to and fro.
Carried about by every wind of doctrine, slight of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Sometimes, you know, we think the answer to our problems is separating what God has joined together, and it is never the answer to our problems.
To get away, to do away with the connecting rounds, whether it's father and mother, husband and wife, brother, sister and the assembly, brother, sister in the family, it doesn't matter. God has joined things together and difficulties come in. They do come in and these connecting rods are tried. They're put to the test.
But you get rid of the connecting rod, you're never going to improve your circumstances. So let's get these connecting rods covered with silver, get them in working order and determine and purpose in our heart that we're going to be a connecting rod in these relationships of light. And so these gifts were given, and here is why.
He says in verse 15. But speaking the truth in love may grow up unto him.
In all things, which is the head from whom the whole body fitly joined together?
You see, there was to be connecting rods. All of these members are to be connected together. The Lord's thoughts were never that. You know that book, Chapter 11 of Hebrews. It's preceded by chapter 10. And Hebrews like the book of Exodus, where this oneness is insisted upon, where this oneness is formed in the Tabernacle, chapter 10, it says, don't you forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of summit. Listen.
You think you can dispose of your brethren? You think you can go on without your brethren?
You think you could throw the connecting rod away between you and your brethren? I tell you, if you do it, it's going to be a costly, costly thing in your life if we're going to make it through Chapter 11, through the wilderness. And that's the burden of the book of Hebrews, just getting from here to there. That's the book of Exodus. Where? Out of Egypt. But we're not in the land of Canaan. And all of these connecting rods are found in the book of Exodus. It's here where we need this exercise.
To be joined one to another in love, and these gifts were given.
And it says.
And compact it by that which every joint supplier for every joint of supply. I personally believe the joints are these gifts that were given by the ascended head. It isn't. The joint isn't exactly a member. The joint isn't the piston or the crank shaft, it's the connecting rod. And God gave these gifts to keep us going on connected together that we could grow up to a normal full strong.
00:20:23
Full grown man that's in the assembly now. We've had it in Matthew concerning our marriages. It's here in Ephesians concerning our marriages and we've had it concerning the assembly now in the home. Now I'd like to go back and kind of tie in with our brother. Don's speaking about Abraham as a friend of God. You know we had.
Chapter 12. And I want you to notice something, remember.
Chapter 13. Remember those connecting rods were of silver?
It says of Abraham in chapter 13 of Genesis, Abraham notices carefully went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had lot with him and to the South and in this expression and Abraham was very rich in silver. That's not all that's mentioned, but that's all I want to call our attention to.
Here was a man that was very rich in silver. He could, we'll see he did it here, and he does it later. He could cover a connecting rod with silver and keep things going as they should have been going before when trouble came in. It's a wonderful thing, beloved, to be very rich in silver. And I'm not talking about a bank account, but something. I'm only applying this silver now.
As to that one function, it had.
Of covering the connecting rod.
Being covered, if you didn't have any silver, you couldn't cover your connecting rod with it. And Abraham was very rich in silver. You know, there came a time in the nation of Israel history.
They didn't consider it very rich to have silver, and there came a time in Solomon's day when silver was counted as nothing. I don't think that was a good thing.
Gold was in such abundance that the silver wasn't counted as worth anything.
That Solomon went on and he went down. When it says that he was on a downward course, God had told Solomon, I'll make you rich, I'll increase you and make you rich. That didn't satisfy Solomon. He had go out and hire Hiram and he had to go out and heap to himself horses and go out and get more gold and more gold. And pretty soon in Solomon's day, silver was not esteemed of any value. And what happened at the close of Solomon's day?
The Kingdom was divided. The connecting rod was not there in the nation of Israel broke into the connecting rod. What God had joined together had been put asunder by man because silver was not valued. I'm just using it in its application to the covering of the connecting rod. Well now here. Notice when this takes place.
Abraham went up out of Egypt. What had happened in Egypt? He had denied. He had put asunder what God had joined together. And so at the close of Chapter 12, you know, he had made this agreement. We might say in Chapter 12 we have.
Abraham standing down through verse 9, his position before God. We might think of that as that.
Golden connecting rod. It can't be broken.
The silver cord can be broken, but here is our standing and we, I think our early brethren. They uncovered our standing, and they uncovered precious truths about the assembly and its relationship with God. But somewhere in our history, since 1830s, the silver has not been valued. We've emphasized the gold, our position before God.
00:25:08
But we haven't given much heed to our practice, and in verse ten of our chapter 12 we find the practice. The walk that should have gone with this position is faulty in Abraham's life and he does fail as we had brought before us and and he denies his wife's relationship, he says.
It's because she has she. Verse 11 he said unto Sarah, I his wife. Behold, now I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon. Therefore it shall come to pass. The Egyptian shall see thee, they shall say, This is his wife, and they will kill me, but they have will save the alive. Say, I pray thee, Thou art my sister. What was the connecting rod here that was lacking?
It was lacking. The connecting rod is love, having our hearts knit together in love. And Abraham didn't love his wife enough to die for her. That's the standard for us who are husband. We are to love our wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. That's the standard God has for you and me in relationship to one another. We ought to lay down our lives for our brethren. That's the connecting rod of love. And it wasn't there. He wasn't willing to take that step.
And so the Lord has to reprove him, but it says there in verse 16.
And and he entreated Abraham well for her sake, and so on. And then the Lord brings in these plagues and his sovereignty. And then he says to Abraham in verse 18 Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me?
That she was thy wife. He knew there should have been this connecting rod between Abraham and his wife. But things that come in and Abraham wasn't willing to sacrifice his life to keep this connecting rod together. And so the Lord has to painfully teach him. But it's kind of lovely he learned it. And you know, this has happened in all of our lives. I might say this, you know, burn on my heart is true.
Known up here is not truth bought, and we might know the doctrines of Christianity and be able to put them into into discourse. We can teach others about them, but if we don't know how to apply these truths to our everyday life.
You don't have to go to Brazil or Mexico or I saw Brother Bob knew what I was thinking about this morning when I woke up, he said, Brother, you here come down to Mexico with me last night when I was getting ready to go to bed.
I saw this coffee maker in the corner. Oh great, now I can make my coffee in the morning. I don't even have to go downstairs. I don't even have to pay for it. I just make my coffee which I like every morning. I'm a soldier you know that knows how to endure hardness and if I don't have this coffee. So this morning I woke up and I took my shower and I came out and excitedly tried to get that dumb package loose. 1St that I got it.
I was determined to get that coffee out there and I got it in and I put the water in and I pushed the button and I thought, I wonder why this red light?
Doesn't come on.
The motel of this stature and a dumb coffee maker doesn't work.
So the Lord says now in me.
Is that a necessity of life? You see how hardened I am as a hard soldier? Jesus Christ? I thought I couldn't possibly make it through the morning without my cup of coffee. And you know, there in a moment I said Lord Jesus.
I'm sorry. And then he said, you know, well, why don't you go over and flip that switch on the wall and see if it'll come on? It did it. Did you know? Why am I saying this? Because, friends, brethren, if we don't know how to bring the Lord Jesus into every little detail of our life, why talk about going out and serving him in the gospel if we don't know how to accept?
00:30:02
A coffee maker. You know, I can tell you another great trial that happened to me this morning.
I always wake up before my wife, and when we're in a motel room it makes a little hard because I have to turn a light on. And I looked at my beloved 40 years she's born with me, and I looked at that sofa in that lamp beside it, in that nice coffee table in front where I could put my legs out, and while I read that looks inviting, but that's the way my wife's face was looking.
And now if I turn that light on, it's going to shine in her eyes and then this real hard hardened soldier for the Lord went through this struggle. Now I'm like going to go over there to that black leather chair, which is a nice chair all right, but there's no footstool and I won't be self enjoying my coffee and my Bible reading.
And I made a decision. Then I said, I'm going to love my wife and I'm going to endure this morning by sitting in that leather chair and having my feet on the floor.
I'm not saying it just to make you smile, but I'm telling you.
Christianity is real. You know what came to me when I made that decision? Went over. It's like the Lord said, hear me see that wastebasket down there? And I did. And I picked up. It was good and sturdy. See that garbage or that laundry bag over there? It's nice and soft. And so I connected those two things together and I put my feet up in this comfortable leather chair.
But if I can't take this from the Lord, if those things are trials for me, how do I ever expect to live for the Lord? But that's what the little foxes are that spoil the vine. You get upset because your car won't suck. You get upset because something that irritates you come into your life. Your wife doesn't do something just right. You don't do something just right. And so all these connecting rods are stressed and sometimes they're broken, and it's all because.
We're not rich in silver. We're not rich in silver. And when Abraham was rich in silver, it says in verse one of chapter 13. Abram went up out of Egypt. He and his wife, the connecting rod was restored. Now look in chapter 20.
Oh.
I I don't mean to be irreverent. Rather, but.
Your Christian life is that simple. It's that real and don't. That's why I feel that we need to spend more time in the book of James than the Book of Ephesians, because we've lost the silver that covers the connective out. We don't even know the basic, fundamental truths of how to get on with each other. We don't know what these connecting rods are. We're not willing to sacrifice and become that little thing.
They have to go round and round and up and down to keep something moving smoothly.
Abraham failed again. He broke his connecting rod again in chapter 20. I think it is. Yes it is with Abimelech.
And again in verse 14 have been elect took sheep and oxen him in certain women serving and gave him untrue Abraham, and noticed his expression and restored him Sarah his wife.
Oh, the connecting rod had been broken again in Abraham's wife in Abraham's life, and Sarah is reproved.
Said she said. He says to Sarah, It isn't always US men's fault, you know, we're not always alone in the problems of life. He says, verse 16 And said unto Sarah, he said, Behold, I have given thy brother 1000 pieces of silver. He needed a silver to cover this connecting rod. And then he is rejoined to his wife, and we see.
In chapter 21, the blessing that comes from Abraham.
And Sarah becoming connected again as man and wife, not as brother and sister.
00:35:01
Do we have riches in silver? Now I'd like to go to another man.
Let's go to the book of Hosea.
This came before me when my brother Don.
Was speaking about.
Being a friend of God.
That's a That's a high privilege, beloved, but it's not the highest.
I suppose I don't think of Agnes as my friend. She is, but I don't think of her as my friend.
There's something higher beloved than a friend.
And it's a wife, and we're going to see it here. And you know, dear Hosea.
We just had our 40th anniversary and.
I said, honey, they're wonderful. I said the wilderness journey's over. We've completed our 40 years together. It's all downhill now.
But you know what happened the day after our 40th anniversary? She woke up still married to me, and I woke up still married to her. And the wilderness is not yet over.
But through that wilderness, in God's mercy and grace, the connecting God has stayed connected. You know, you're younger men. The young, younger. You know why I don't call you young people? Two reasons I don't want to separate from you.
Probably the real reason is because if I call you young people, it implies I'm not and I don't want to get old, so I'm not going to separate it. But when I was a boy growing up, the importance of connecting rods was a little more vivid to us. You'd go out to buy a car and I don't know if this was true. Some of I think Marvin could probably confirm it or say it wasn't true.
But I tend to be inclined to fancy looking car. I look more for rust than I do anything else, and sometimes I got bit. I remember my brother did that too. He bought a beautiful 38 Chevy and before he got home it could hardly pull itself up a hill.
But he had a beautiful car anyway, but it wasn't functional and one of the things they warned us about was the connecting rounds and we heard the report that.
A clever car salesman might put either heavier oil or perhaps even a little sawdust in there to to muffle down on a loose connecting rod, because that was a bad thing to do to buy a car with a loose connecting rod.
And so we kind of learned the value of having good, solid connecting rods. And that's what Abraham learned. And now here, Hosea, he too is going to give us an example of a man who didn't lose the value of silver. He didn't lose the importance of having an abundance of silver in his life. And this dear prophet he's told in chapter one.
And think about this, beloved, the beginning of the word of the Lord, verse 2 by Jose and the Lord said to Hosea, go take dear wife of ********* and children of hordes.
Not exactly the kind of wife you and I would like to be married to.
You couldn't get into a more difficult trial than this.
The Proverbs teaches that to an odious woman when she is married.
You might say to Hosea Hosea, there's no possibility.
Of you keeping this thing together?
Oh, you know, might say. Well, at least he was a man, a husband who really blame his wife.
Most of us.
You know, we can do it. We have to recognize and own that. The biggest problem with my wife is the man she married. And that's the way it was. But it wasn't so in Jose's case. And is he going to be able to keep this connecting rod? Is he going to be able to keep this woman of ********* as his wife Go take it says to the Lord, the Lord says to him, take thee a wife.
00:40:16
Well, she is unfaithful to him.
And then the Lord brings in chapter 2.
And he says, well, I want to come back to chapter 2. Let's go to chapter.
3.
This woman wasn't faithful to Hosea. And then the Lord says, Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet love a woman beloved of her friend. See, this is a demotion for Jose's wife. I assume it's the same woman he took in the first chapter. He's now calling her his friend.
She doesn't want her to stay that way, but for now he has to call her and give her that relationship of being a friend. I think it's alluded to in the Song of songs. That woman says, this is my beloved, this is my friend. I think that isn't really a high appreciation for her husband. I think she was still struggling to accept the fact that her husband loved her.
And that he wanted to be known to her as her husband, as his spouse. And he spends the whole book gaining her confidence. So she will take that place in his presence as his wife. But Jose had this problem, and he says, the Lord says, take a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress. Here's a real difficult situation, beloved hitting impossible situation, one that Hosea could have said that for it. We're breaking this connecting rod.
I'm justified in breaking this connective connecting about, you know, that's the first thing we do when we want to break a connecting rod. You know, they we've never been divorced, obviously, never even considered it. Not a word in our vocabulary. But we have been divorced in times, in our marriage when something like this, something serious came in, like she may have said, you tore your pants again or why didn't you put on those dirty work clothes?
To go out and do that with your good clothes on, and that was a serious thing for her to say to her husband. After all, I am her husband and so I just broke the connecting. I'm not going to talk to her again.
Oh, beloved.
And So what happens when you do that? Well, in my case, I don't know if that was the incident, but it's an incident similar. I go out and.
I'll show her. You know, we've said our last words for the rest of our life as far as I'm concerned.
So the Lord let me one time ahead if somebody gave me this old travel trailer with the lid on a camper, Not a camper, but. And I lift it up and the Lord pushed it back down, broke my thumb.
All right, Lord, I'm sorry.
And that's the way the Lords had to with me in my life.
Always bumps on my head.
Abraham got bumps on his head too, rather, and he failed too. And the Lord took him up and said, okay, you better get that connecting rod back together and hang out. I don't know how we made it, but I've had a lot of connecting rods, I guess, and we made it to this hour. Well, Jose had a problem worse than anything you and I have faced, perhaps. Can he connect this thing together? Can he get it together? And here's what it says in verse two of chapter.
So I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver. He took her, and he said to her, I said unto her, Verse 3 Thou shalt abide for many days, thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man, So will I also be for thee. And then the application is made to Israel and their relationship with the Lord.
Hosea said honey.
We've had a breach in our marriage.
00:45:01
You've had problems in your assembly.
This wonderful beloved you have problems in your assembly to never allow the thought. The cure to that problem is me leaving.
At sewing away the connecting on forsake, not the assembling of ourselves together.
I wish the Lord had a love for divorce sometimes.
In the assembly I'm talking, I kind of wish sometimes that I'd been able to separate from my brethren.
But I knew I couldn't. God had joined me together with them. And what God had joined together, let not man put asunder. But you might be thinking today the answer to my problems is to break this connecting rod with my brethren, with my wife, with my husband. That is not the answer. And Hosea said it's not the answer to put away my wife. And he bought her with the silver. Now go back in Chapter 2 and you see.
The application of it what happened, beloved, when Hosea brought this connecting rod back into his marriage? And we I say it's a type of Israel and the Lord.
And in chapter 14, or chapter 2, verse 14, therefore will I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
We all Gray heads were slow to learn.
A soft word to Our wives do a lot more than that stern look.
Will ever do, but we're slow to learn it.
But the Lord comes out and he speaks comfortably to this bad woman.
You got bad, brethren, You got people causing your problems. I enjoy that. That they say if you got an enemy the way to get rid of this, make them your friend.
Can we do it? Do we have the silver? Do we? Are we rich in silver? Are we able to cover this connecting rod with silver and bring it together? I will give her vineyards from thins the valley of Acor for a door of hope. That's where they were going to be stoned. And she shall sing there. Lovely to sing, You know. My wife and I sing every morning together.
We don't put it on tape because we don't want anybody else to hear it, but we sing every morning together. You sing in your life, you and your wife, you and your brother, and you enjoy being out of sing with your brethren.
It's it's embarrassing because of the way I sing, but I love to be with a sing with my brother. I love to be there. I love to sing with my brother. And he brings her here and there's going to be this singing and she shall sing.
As in the days of her youth, she's restored Beloved, the connecting rod.
Jose had this silver to buy her with. The connecting rod has been restored and then it says.
As when in the days of her youth, when she came up out of the land of Egypt, you know, Abraham came up out of Egypt rich in silver. And then here's what she says, and it shall be in that day, saith the Lord, Thou shalt call me, Is she my husband?
My husband, he restored this marriage, and that day she shall call me is she, and shall no more call me Bailey for Lord.
That time of discipline was over. You know God has connected his children with himself as father.
The brother was telling me, you know God wants to be our father. But while you cannot put asunder what God has joined together, neither can you put together what God has put asunder. And so if we as his children love the world, we become the enemy of God. We have the love of the Father in US. And the Lord says, you come out from among them, and I'll be your father.
And so we separate and we find their God is able to come into our lives not simply as our Lord, but as our Father and the Lord. Jesus could come into our lives and as simply as the Lord, but as our husband, that one who nourishes and cherishes and builds up his body, the church, he loves it and we enjoy that nourishing and cherishing. And we don't have to call him Lord. We don't have to have that trailer lit fall and break our arm or other things that have happened.
00:50:21
Table saw cut my finger. These are things that happened to other men in the course of work. They happened to me in the course of rebellion. But the Lord doesn't want us to always be in that kind of a relationship with him. He wants this connecting rod wholesome and good. And now in closing, I want to go to the end of the book of Exodus. That book, remember where these connecting rods are found in chapter 39.
And as I say, no, as the Lord said, you get rid of that connecting rod and it's over for you. You're not going to be able to function as the Lord wants you to function. And so we have to address these things, these little foxes in our life that break the connecting rods where tax them severely. But you know, we don't talk much about Israel this way. Very rarely do we speak of her and her beauty.
That people that came out of Egypt. But I tell you does she not put us to shame here in Exodus. You know this is that wilderness journey and.
I might say whole Chapter 39 and and I'd like to go back. Well, no, let's just go on here.
The Lord had wanted them to have this Tabernacle one, and they did that in the verse 32, it says. Thus was all the work of the Tabernacle of the tent of the congregation finished. And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so did they. I kind of liked the way Mr. Darby translates that they have done.
All that the Lord had commanded them. And they finished this Tabernacle, and then this verse 33 And they brought the Tabernacle unto Moses. Moses is that man of the wilderness. He's the man that wouldn't leave the children of Israel to perish in the wilderness. You know he had occasions when he could have said to the Lord, Lord, go ahead, wipe them out and start all over with me.
He wouldn't do it. He was, as we heard, a friend of God. And he said, Lord, there's got to be a connecting rod between you and this people, and I can't let it be broken. And so he interceded, and the Lord hearkened to his intercession. And Moses came up with this connecting rod. The Lord said, Moses, I'll be with you. He said, that's not good enough. Lord, you got to be with us. And this man of the wilderness, he had this joy this day, because this people had done the work of the Lord.
As the Lord had commanded him to commanded them. And they present this Tabernacle unto Moses, this Tabernacle it over and over again was identified, that the Tabernacle may be one. And they said, Moses, we want to give you this present.
We want to give you this present, and they present it to Moses. And here is the result, the man of the wilderness below it. Yes, the Lord is going to present the church to himself unspotted and unwrinkled. But how are we presenting it to the Lord today in the wilderness? Can we do what the children of Israel did? Can we say, Lord? I've endeavored to keep the unity of the Spirit, and in the uniting bond of peace I've done, Lord, all that you commanded to me to do. I've been humble amongst my brethren. I've been meek amongst my brother. I've been yielding amongst my brother. My my brother have never had any problems with me.
I've gone on so well for the Lord. No, it's not true. We haven't been able to present the Tabernacle to the Lord in oneness. We haven't been able to finish the work the Lord has given us to do. The Apostle Paul could say, I have finished the course. He had finished the course. But you know, someone was saying something about the young folk and their ways. And I said, well, brother, I said, when you consider what we gave them to work with.
We ought to thank God for what they're doing. Well, thank God. And I want to tell you something, young Prince. I'll separate from your little distance right now.
00:55:04
My father's father and I'm talking about spiritual father, so he'd be my grandfather.
And there was Brother Potter. I never met him. I've heard a lot of good things about him, But he was my father's father. Mr. Brown was a father to me.
And after Mr. Potter had gone home to be with the Lord, another brother was talking to my father, Brother Brown.
And he said, You know, Brother, Potter told me once, I'm so glad that the Lord is raising up Clifford Brown to care for the flock of God.
Young friends who very brown said. You know what he said. Mr. Potter never told me that, he said. Well, maybe he couldn't have trusted me to tell me that. Well, I want to do something. I want to tell you I thank God for the young men and the young women here this afternoon.
That God has raised up to carry on a care for the flock of God.
I want to do it to you now so you'll hear me say it. I don't want it to have to come to you after I'm dying, after I die, because I might not die. So I just want to tell you that now I appreciate you and we haven't given you much to work with, but the children of Israel brought this lovely present to Moses. And then it says.
In verse 42, according to all the Lord commanded Moses so the children of Israel.
Made all the work. They kept those connecting rods beloved, in place. And Moses did look upon all the work, and behold, they had done it as the Lord had commanded. Even so had they done it. And Moses blessed them well, beloved, they finished the work that the Lord had given them to do, according to the word of God.
Presented it to the man of the wilderness, Moses, the dear servant of God, who must have touched his heart to see with all the failures of this people. They accomplished their work according to the word of God, and it says Moses blessed them Well. Beloved, in a few moments, perhaps now very far off, you and I are going to finish this wilderness journey, and we're going to come before our Moses.
That one who has carried us through the wilderness and he's going to review the work that we carried on in the wilderness and he going to look for these connecting rods. He's going to see if we have kept together what he had joined together or if we've put asunder what he has put together. And he going to review it at the judgment seat of Christ. And when it be nice when that judgment seat is over that there could be.
Blessing that there not be just a big pile of wood, hay and stubble to go up in a bonfire that the Lord's heart could be delighted. Beloved with your life and mind. Our journey through this wilderness as friends of God and as beloved of the Lord. Well, beloved, a lot depends.
And whether you get rid or value the connecting rods covered with silver, don't despise, don't tax, and certainly don't break those connecting rods, Lord Jesus.