Open—R. Ruga, C. Little, B. Conrad
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You know, there are a lot of things we can consider.
And the Word of God exhorts us to consider certain things.
But we occupy our minds with during the day. Usually forums are a character.
And then what we're occupied with is usually what we speak about.
For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
But when I was thinking of a scripture in the book of Haggai in the Old Testament.
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai and Zechariah in the first chapter of Haggai.
In verse 5.
That one verse.
Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways.
Saying that lovely hymn, what will it be to dwell above and with the Lord of glory reign? You know, brethren, you have any idea of the joy that will fill our hearts when we get to be with the Lord right now in the Spirit of God, I sense is often occupied with, uh, calling to our attention, our deficiencies, how far short we come.
Of what we know we should be. And we grieve the Spirit of God repeatedly. And the Spirit of God has to spend so much time exercising us as to our ways and bringing the word of God before our heart to search us into correct us, examine ourselves before we even come into the Lord's presence as to remembering Him in death. This morning we're told to do that in First Corinthians chapter 12. Often we have to consider our ways.
Uh.
And it hinders us from communion with the Lord, because our ways are not pleasing to the Lord.
Is the verse in the Song of Solomon, it says, uh, that the, the fox, the foxes, they, they spoil the vines, the vines are tender. How, how very easily communion is disrupted, isn't it, brethren, by very little things that come into our lives. These little foxes, they, they intrude themselves so easily and uh, immediately we find ourselves out of happy communion with God our father.
Because we had not considered our, our ways, would our eyes be held? You know, the Bible says mine eye effect is my heart. What we see during the day, it affects our, our heart and our meditation and we're passing through a polluted theme. Uh, it's very easy to become defiled, isn't it? It takes constant washing of the water by the word, meditating upon God's precious word, getting up early, reading the scriptures and meditating upon what we've read throughout the day.
We have to what this prophet Haggai says to consider our ways here. Those to whom Haggai is writing they they weren't considering their ways. They were neglecting the construction of the the temple there and the remnant and that was restored to Jerusalem. And instead they were discouraged by a report and they went back to building their own houses.
And while they were doing that, the House of the Lord was lying lakes.
Often we, we suffer spiritually in our souls because we are too much occupied materially with present circumstances. I know such is the case in my own life. We're we're so diligent, you know, as to our business and providing for our families, necessary though that may be, and we neglect the feeding of our souls.
Haggai says consider your ways. Was this the time for them to dwell in field houses the brother yesterday was speaking to us about?
Are being occupied with so many things in this life that we forget our heavenly calling.
Well, here the prophet says, you know you haven't prospered, you've so much and you've only brought in a little wine because you didn't give the Lord the preeminence. Do any of us really give the Lord the preeminence in our lives?
We allot the Lord so much in our lives and that's all. The rest is for myself. Well, we have to consider our ways. The Lord exhorts us to this. If we want the blessing of the Lord, we have to be exercised as to giving the Lord His rightful place in our lives, the preeminent place. Another scripture that comes before 1.
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In the Psalms, the 8th Psalm.
O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.
Who hath set thy glory above the heavens?
Out of the mouth of babes and supplings hast thou?
Ordained his strength, or established praise because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. And this is the Scripture. Happy for me when I consider thy heavens and the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained.
You know, coming driving up here to the conference where you're passing some beautiful mountain ranges, lovely green trees, and we, the wife and I, considered the handiwork of a Lord. The Lord made all beauty.
Lord, Lord for it by sin, but still nonetheless we see traces of the handiwork of the Creator and all that which He has done, still visible to man, in fact the Lord Himself when He was here.
Uh, on earth, He says, consider the Li, the lilies, how they toil not, neither do they spin. I say unto you, that Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like unto one of these. So the Lord would have us to consider, uh, his handiwork, these flowers that we so admire their beauty. Another occasion the Lord says, uh, consider the Ravens, which have neither storehouse nor born, and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Really not much more care for you, or you have little faith.
So the Lord would have us to consider his animal creation. This verse brings before us the celestial creation of the Lord, the moon, the stars which thou hast to ordain, whether it be the broad expanse beyond or whether we consider the the minute under a microscope, it doesn't matter. We see the handiwork of God and we we realize how great and how powerful God is. And you ever think, dear young people, especially that that same great powerful God.
Loves you so much.
His love is as great as His power. He knows neither measure nor end. Uh, sometimes we think we're very small and insignificant, but small and insignificant as we are, the Lord loved us so much that He died for us on Calvary's cross. The same great God that created all these things and He would have us to consider them all. He says, you know I love you and I'm going to care for you just like I care for the Ravens, worthless birds, unclean birds, I care for you.
And, uh, we, we consider the majesty of God and, uh, the great power and, uh, we, we, we think of the love of God. This morning as we were remembering, uh, the Lord and his death. And we, we realized that it was incomprehensible. It was beyond our, our taking in with our finite minds, uh, the love of God, we could never fathom.
It's great. It's a good thing to realize God and to acknowledge him as the Creator. Man, especially in this age in which we live in 1994, likes to shut out the Creator from his own universe. They don't want the mention of God in the school system or any reference to the Bible or any quotations from the Bible and newspapers entirely different than what it used to be. We used to read the scriptures in the school and you hear many a newspaper they have at least the violent Times Journal had a a verse of Scripture every day on the top of the newspaper.
No more, but God would have us to consider that He made all these things.
Another thing the Lord would have us to consider we've been taking up in the 12Th chapter of Hebrews.
Hebrews, chapter 12.
Verse 3.
Or consider new translation tests. Or consider well him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.
Consider well Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. There are many things that can occupy our time and our minds. You know, we go to school, we get an education, we go on, we get higher education and then we get a job and you need further job training. It seems to be endless the things that can occupy our minds when here the Bible says we are to consider well Him.
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The Lord Jesus Christ to endure the contradiction of sinners against Him. Did He deserve this contradiction of sinners?
You know, you read that 53rd chapter of Isaiah and it says he is despised. Despised this man. Why, what was so despicable? Nothing. He was perfect in all his ways. He was sinless as we heard, but yet man rejected him and rejected and despised of men. Here's the one that the Lord would have us to consider, I believe.
Get our ways straightened out before the Lord. It's all right to take up with astronomy and microbiology and all this, but above all things, we come to this consideration. Consider Him. Do we consider the Lord Jesus Christ?
What a meditation it is to have the Lord daily before us in our way is so that we can be transformed into His image and be more like Him as we await His soon return.
Could you turn, please to Isaiah?
Chapter 51.
I wanna read read a few verses here.
Umm in con connection with what our brother has already brought before us to consider. And so before we can consider, we have to hear what God has to say to us.
I want to read Isaiah chapter 51 and verse one.
Hearken to me.
Ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord, look unto the rock, whence ye are hewn into the whole of the pit, whence ye are digged.
Drop down to verse 4. Hearken unto me, my people.
And give ear unto me all my nation.
For the law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for the light of my of the people.
Go on over to verse 7. Hearken to me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whom? In whose heart is my law.
Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings.
Well, I believe we have here three different.
Thoughts connected with hearkening. You know, today they say, are you listening? You know, sometimes I thought of it. We we're speaking to someone and they're they're looking at us and they're listening, but are they hearing what God has to say?
And I believe it's very important to see that God has given us the whole scope of His precious Word. And as our brother has been saying, consider various things to consider. But if you don't hear what he has to say, how can you consider? You've got to listen to God's Word. And very interestingly, I want to show you in these verses a little clause he says in verse one hearken.
To me.
Verse 4 Hearken to me.
Verse 7 Hearken to me, what is he talking about?
God is talking to his people.
And those of us that are the Lords, he's talking to us too at this very moment. He wants us to hear what he has to say. And I think it's important to see, you know, we hear many things in the world and we we hearken dear young people, you're probably listening and hearing many voices in this world. But are they the voice of God?
Are you listening? Are you hearkening to what God has to say? Not just while at these meetings, but the rest of the week, Come, come the following or in your contact with those at school, those in contact with, in contact with those in your employment, wherever it may be. Are we listening? Are we hearkening to what God has to say? It's interestingly the interesting that he, God doesn't say.
Are you listening?
You know, he says. Are you hearkening?
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Are you giving ear to what God has to say? The only place you're going to know what God has to say is in this precious book, as our brother has been pointing out, to consider him and to consider your ways. And in that book of, uh, that our brother was referring to also is quite an interesting thing that goes on there. Consider your ways because.
Your ways may wind up with an empty heart.
And an empty grave and a lost eternity. So it's very important for us to hear what God has to say. But this isn't all he says here. I just call attention to these three portions. Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness. Are you really following after righteousness?
You know you have none of your own if you're a child of God. The only righteousness you have is Christ. Are you listening? Are you hearkening to what his word has told you or instructed you? And I believe it's so very important to see that God isn't speaking to the world here. He's speaking to his people. And I believe, as our brother **** was mentioned yesterday, how important it is for us to realize that God has called us out of a condemned world.
A people for his name up there and what are we doing with our time? Are we listening? Are we hearkening to the word of God? Are we being exercised? Are we considering these are practical things. You know, we know a lot of doctrine and we know a lot of truth. It's not my thought to go into the to the doctrine of this epistle or of this of this book, but it's just to to pick out the thoughts that God has for us here hearken.
Ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord.
Well, I'm sure if I were to ask you young people, if you're seeking the Lord, you probably are. And I, I must agree with that. But are you listening to what he has to say or is it just a moral ascent, a an ascent of saying, well, I know the Lord is my Savior. I believe it's very important to see that he's bringing that out here. Ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord, look unto the rock, Quinciar Hyun.
And.
And the whole of the pit when you're digged, what does this bring before your soul? Am I? We had it this morning before us in the remembrance.
The rock is Christ. The whole of the pit is where we were.
We've been digged, We've been brought out of that. What is our response? Are we hearing what God has to say to us? Are we listening, hearkening?
Well then, I'm not going to take a lot of time here, but I just wanna point that out to you. Look, listen, Hearken. Then he noticed. He says in verse 4, Hearken to me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation, for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for light, for light of the people. God's desire is your blessing, not your judgment.
And so for this people, he could say.
They a law shall proceed from me. I will make my judgment to rest for a light. He's going to hold it back. He doesn't want to judge his people. He wants them to be brought into the light, but he wants us to listen. He wants us to hearken to what he has to say. Then going to verse seven, consider hearken unto me ye that know righteousness. He had spoken about following righteousness and now here he says hearken to me ye that no righteousness.
Do you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior? Truly know Him? Are you acquainted with Him? Do you talk to Him every day? Did you talk to Him this morning before you ever came to meeting?
Interesting, isn't it? He desires your company. He wants to hear your voice. He wants to hear your words. Because he loves you. He gave himself for you the rock from whence you were digging.
The the hole from once you were digged and you're on solid rock.
But as our hearts that's solid. Are we not melted in the presence of the Lord Jesus, So he says ye that no righteousness. The people in whose heart is my law for us here was the nation of Israel. We apply it now.
To ourselves. What is in your heart? What has God planted in your heart? The Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God is here implanting Christ in our lives. The Spirit in whose? In whose heart is my law? Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings. Here's a good word for each one of us, each one of us, older and young. Many times we fear man.
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The fear of man is a snare.
And the only way we're going to hear what God has to say is not to fear man. So the fear fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. Now I've read to you three places where he says, hearken, hearken, hearken. Now let's look at a little further here.
Look at verse 9.
Awake. Oh, here's something else.
If we hear.
Are we awakened?
Awake, awake, put on strength the arm of the Lord. Awake as in the ancient days. Here was the nation, of course, and they were asleep. They were not awakened. They were. They didn't listen. They didn't hearken. Read the history, They didn't hearken. Is our history any better? Not in the least. We too have failed. We have not hearkened and we've been asleep.
I think of that verse in Ephesians.
Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from among the dead.
Can a child of God be asleep? Yes, he can. And so the word here is awake, awake, awake, put on strength. But interestingly, he gives us this three times.
You know in the amount of two or three witnesses. Let every word be established. God establishes His truth in threes.
And also in sevens, but I believe many times it's established in threes. So just notice verse five of our chapter. Awake, awake, put on strength.
O Arm of the Lord of Wake, as in the ancient days, dropped down to verse 17.
Awake, Awake. Stand up. Stand up.
Don't Crouch down in a beaten fashion. Stand up, he says. O Jerusalem. Stand up, O Jerusalem.
Then going to verse chapter 52.
Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem. To me this is beautiful. Three times over, he says, hearken, hearken, hearken. Three times over he says, awake, awake, awake, wake up. The world is asleep as to the person of Christ, and judgment hangs over like the sword of Damocles.
And it's going to fall just as sure as we breathe. The judgment of God is coming.
But he wants us to hearken.
And then He wants us to awaken and see what He has for us. Oh, God has wonderful, glorious truth for you. You can have some of it. You have some of it now. If you're a child of God, you have the indwelling Spirit of God.
To make it good to your soul. You've been brought into the light, why go to sleep?
Why sleep? Why go back into a, a, a lethargy? Why not go on not only being awakened or hearkened, but to be awakened very interestingly, ver uh, chapter 52 and verse one awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion. Zion was the place of grace, wasn't it? And we have been brought by the grace of God into a marvelous place, a marvelous position as children of God.
We've been given the grace of God, has wrought in our hearts and brought us into a place of blessing and nearness. And He wants us to.
Awake and realize this and enjoy it and the only way you can do it is by if you're awake to it.
If I'm asleep.
I may dream, but that's not reality. But if I'm awake, then I can get, I can see the reality of what God's love is for me. Oh dear young people, please please, Please remember that God's love is for you.
And he wants you not only to hearken and listen. Oh, you know, you read verses, we read verses. You go to Sunday school, Bible class, so on. I'm sure most of us here do. But are we listening? Are we awakened? Are we, are we hearkening? And are we awakened to what God has to say to us? Because he loves you. He really loves you. He's proved it. We've had it this morning, remembering him, remembering him and his death.
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A death that we will never fathom. A love that we can never, never find its depth.
Oh dear young people, each one of us, may we be not only awakened, but may we not only to hearken, but really we have awakened. Awake, awake. Put on thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments.
You know every child of God is clothed with the righteousness, God's righteousness, which is Christ. You have a new garment which you didn't have before.
And he says, here, awake, enjoy it.
Respond to it.
As he says, awake, put on thy beautiful garments for Jerusalem, holy city. For henceforth there shall be no there. There shall no more come unto thee, the uncircumcised and the unclean. The beautiful picture here. I want to go into doctrines on this, but just to bring this out to you, that this is so beautiful to me. Zion, a place of grace. We have been brought by the grace of God into a marvelous place. We've been given a new garment.
We've been clothed out of God's righteousness, which is Christ, and he wants us to be awakened to this, and not only so. If we are, then he says, for henceforth there shall no more come unto thee. The uncircumcised and the unclean separated past is our path not to be mixed up again and go back into the darkness from whence we came and and be confused and cover up.
Or really despise that beautiful garment of righteousness which is Christ. So I, I, I think of these three portions, Harken, harken, harken, awaken awake and awake. I just thought it might be of interest. Sometimes you can read it over yourself. Consider it. You may get some blessings from it. I did. And but I just pass it on to you that God's desire is for each one of us. As he says, awake thou that sleepest.
And arise from among the dead. Don't be like the rest of the dead.
Awaken, Hearken, Hearken. Hearken and awaken. Awaken, Awaken.
We turn to Luke's gospel in the 11Th chapter.
I don't know how I get into these situations. Being the last one up, I've exposed myself to David's.
Pronouncement, but hopefully time will be not an issue here.
Luke Chapter 11. I'd just like to read part of verse 5.
The middle of verse 5 Which of you shall have a friend?
I'd like to speak for a few minutes about friends.
And I was.
I feel particularly.
Happy to speak about the subject because for some reason or other I've been.
UMM benefited. I don't know if others have benefited as much as I have from having good friends. UMM and I know.
There are many times when I sense that I would have been turned aside.
Or made shipwreck if the Lord hadn't used the Instrumentality of friends in my life.
And.
If I get distracted as we go along and taking up what we take up.
I want to just say at the outset here.
And certainly, as we read in the book of Proverbs, I think it's at the end of the 17th chapter, there is a friend which sticketh closer than a brother or another translation has been a lover. There's no friend like him.
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And if you were old enough.
When you were saved to know a little bit about what it's like to be out in the land of the prodigal, and you can remember the experience in your life when no man cared for your soul.
How expendable that you felt, and what a amazing thing to have a person, the very Son of God Himself, come into your life, not merely not only as as the Lord, but also as one who.
In spite of the fact that he is the Lord of Lords, and God over all, blessed forever has condescended to come down and to take up and consider the things which belong to the sons of men.
And to call us his friends. To think that he has a desire to commune with us and tell us his thoughts. I want to hear ours. There is no friend like him.
Which of you shall have a friend? Are any of us that feel like we don't need or want friends?
Sometimes at meetings like this, there's people sitting away back in the corner.
Or those of us by nature. Maybe our personality is such that we are what people sometimes call loners.
We allow for all of that, but still no one knows our hearts like God and on the authority of Scripture, we can look at each other and say your heart is like mine for as in water, face answers to face. So the heart of man to man. And someone once said that the human heart has 22 deep needs to be loved and to be understood. And uh, I've been thinking about that on and off for 17 or 18 years from the time I first heard it. I think it was in a conference.
And I never seen anything in the Word of God or in my experience that would tell me that that isn't so, that we have a desire not just to be loved.
If you could remember times in your life, or maybe in your childhood or in your youth, when you felt that you were loved by your parents or your brethren but you weren't understood, there's something missing there.
And how awful it is to feel that we're understood but not loved. That's.
Like being in the presence of light without there being any love, and that's an exposed feeling and we wouldn't want to be in that situation to be understood but not loved.
We like both. We desire both.
And.
It's something worth pondering how it is that the Lord weaves our lives with people coming in and out of our life's experience while we go through this journey on our way home.
Whom we desire to call friends.
Well, to start with again, just to confirm that.
Let me put it this way.
What's the what's the source of of friends?
Oh, so we often have, sometimes we have young people's meetings and we feel that young people are the only ones sometimes that have decisions to make special times in their life of difficulty and perhaps the temptation or a special influence to the effect of friends. And I'm sure that's so.
That there is special time like that in the lives of young people, but I think we've seen it in older ones, too. We've seen men and we've seen women in their 60s and 70s who have come under the influence of friends who are not for their help and profit have been turned aside. And so I don't think any of us, old or young, are exempt from the danger of having friends that aren't a help to us.
And also.
Uh, open to the benefit of walking with those that are help to us, that when we perhaps have a thought to turn back or if we should stumble, to have someone there to help us, to prop us up, to stir us on unless we faint in the way.
You know, it's interesting that as.
As many times as we have taken up the subject in Revelation 3 of Philadelphia.
Which is a profitable thing to meditate upon. And certainly we would aspire, all of us, as believers.
To the state of of being those that.
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That would like to follow the Lord closely, knowing Him as the one who is holy and true.
And we aspire to have access to the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who has the key of David.
As the one who has the administrative authority over the treasures and riches of God. As David could assemble all those treasures for the House of God, but he wasn't allowed to build it. Solomon did. But David amassed all those riches and building materials, if you will, and he had administrative authority over them. So Christ has that has the key of David. He opens and nobody can shot and he shots and nobody can open.
And then we would all of us aspire to keep his word and not deny his name. But we so rarely. I don't know if I've ever heard anyone speak much about the name Philadelphia, which I believe means city. It's a city of brotherly law. And so it's something that I feel constrained to speak about a little bit this afternoon, along with the subject of friends to encourage one another, especially those of us that are maybe a little keep our.
Feelings and thoughts very close to the chest, so to speak, those of us who are males.
Uh, we tend to keep our cup very close.
And this is.
Uh, not conducive.
Of creating.
Wholesome, helpful friendships. And at the risk of hearing about this from my my closest friend and partner all the way back home tomorrow, I'd like to speak a little bit about that friendship, which we call marriage as well.
So back in the book of Proverbs, first of all.
I think it's in the 13th chapter.
Proverbs 13 and verse 20.
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Kind of company do we keep is the question we can ask ourselves who do we walk with who do we surround ourselves with someone said in between the meetings that in this world when men are let go as we speak of the disciples being let go they want to their own company when the world is let go they run to their sports or wherever who do we walk with who do we surround ourselves with when we have so-called free time say well it's my relatives, my family or my.
People I work with, the people I go to school with, and all of that.
No matter if a person is a relative, they may not be a suitable friend to walk with.
It's a hard saying perhaps, but it's, I believe, born out very faithfully from the Lord himself and in the Scripture, that just because someone is my brother, my brother-in-law, my sister, my father-in-law, does not mean I can walk with them. How can two walk together except they be agreed? And it may even come, as some of you have been tested in ways I haven't, or even in spiritual things.
And things that come up in the House of God, tests come up where we find we can no longer walk, but those that we feel closest to by nature. And what a test this is. But he that walketh with wise men shall be wise. And how susceptible we are, if we company our spend our time and company with fools to learn their bad habits.
Their, uh, pick up attitudes, speech and things that.
Would distract us and turn us away and leave us with a bad conscience.
In Psalm 119.
A well known verse. Verse 63. I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.
And so that really, as a believer, if you belong to the Lord, whether you're six years old or 60 or anywhere in between, you have no right to choose your friends.
You're not your own anymore. You're bought with a price and you belong to another.
And that other one.
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Who is your Lord is going to determine is to determine who your friends are and who you walk with.
And the psalmist said, I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.
Much as we like to, sometimes we can't choose who's going to be at the Lord's Table in the place where we live.
You and I may just in our minds, just pluck out of our mind all of our favorite brethren.
All of the favorite Christians we know and say that's who I'd like to have right in the assembly where I live.
And someone said that'd be a recipe for disaster.
And I believe it would.
Lord, as head of the Church, sets us in the body as it pleases Him in a general sense.
And we know that providentially, if we could call it, that, he orders things.
So that our pathway is.
We go in and out amongst those who are intended by Him to be a help to us. And so we don't choose our friends, we don't choose who we walk with. The Lord chooses the path for us and He puts others in it. And it's our responsibility and our privilege to walk with those whom He has put in the path with us. And that'll be our happy path. And it'd be a happy thing. If we could say this, then it could be true of us that we are companions of all them, not just a few special ones.
But of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.
Speaks even in the Old Testament of a highway. The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. And in Second Timothy 2 it speaks of individuals who purge themselves from vessels to dishonor in what is likened to a great house. It speaks individually to an individual person if a man purge himself. And I can remember when I was young and was faced with these issues in that particular passage I was convinced and other Christians were convincing me.
That I was gonna be all alone, and I thought they were probably right, but I didn't know what else to do.
So I, by the grace of God, obeyed that verse, and lo and behold.
Like it says in the very next verse, to follow righteousness and so on with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Where did the with them come from? You follow down through that chapter and it's individual. If a man if a man if a man and he goes out and you think now he's going to be lonelier than ever.
As those who led me to the Lord told me, they're gonna be unfruitful and you're gonna be alone.
And I thought they're probably right, and I had no answer. Lo and behold, we can say as many can in this room, by being in the way. The Lord led me to the House of my masters, brethren.
And what a happy thing to find out that we're not alone, that others have.
Walked, gone through these exercises, and that there is God sees to it that there is with them, that there are others who also, having departed from evil, find themselves in the highway of the upright. And so in a general way, we can start with this and aspire that our companions would be those.
That would be those that fear the Lord, that keep his precepts and as it says in Proverbs 13, that are wise men. You know, it says in the First Corinthians, I speak as to wise men when it refers to the Lord's Supper on the Lord's table. And so it's not just referring to older brothers or older sisters, but those who have been initiated into the secrets of God, the mystery of the gospel.
And the mystery of God's will, which I'm sure many of those that are not even 10 years old in this room, would qualify in that scripture as being wise men.
In the book of Proverbs.
Verse seven. Chapter 17. Verse 17.
Just to read the 17th verse. Proverbs 1717.
How do I know what a friend is? A friend love us at all times.
A friend love it at all times.
There's none like him.
Who loves us, having loved his own says and John's gospel. He loved them through it all or until the end. And then someone read the passage yesterday even to ***** head to the end of our journey. I believe it was our late brother Eric Cokington that told the story about the man that had apparently been a shepherd with with sheepdogs and on his deathbed he as Eric told the story.
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He was whispering something like they caught me, they caught me. And people are saying what caught you, what caught you? And they couldn't understand. And they kept saying they're catching me, they caught me, they caught me. I know some here know the story. Finally they said what caught you. And he said, goodness and mercy, they've been following me all the days of my life. They finally caught me. And Eric likened them to two sheepdogs under the command of the shepherd, following them all his way through.
Finally catching up to him. A friend. Love us at all times, and this is the friend we have in Jesus.
Well, what a happy thing it is when the Lord raises up others and when we cultivate the friendship. The brotherly love of our brethren doesn't happen automatically. You and I could be raised two houses away. We could be cousins.
We could eat dinner together every Lord's Day afternoon. We can go to reading meeting Tuesday night, prayer meeting Thursday night, the breaking of bread, Lord say morning and the gospel Lord say night, and go to conferences together.
And never really be close friends.
This is what I have on my heart.
Nothing wrong with going together like that. Nothing wrong at all.
But I believe there's something that we need to cultivate. Now. Is this just my thought? I don't think so. If we turn to the Book of Philippians.
We see that it was the exercise. Let's just go there.
We see it was the.
OK.
Philippians 127.
Middle of earth, whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the face of the gospel.
Chapter 2. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies fulfill you, my joy that you be like minded, having the same love, being of 1 accord and of one mind.
I think the Darby translation has joined in Seoul thinking one thing.
Mr. Darby was one who, though he never married, made the statement that there's no bond as powerful over human heart like devotedness, mutual devotiveness to Christ.
And we see in David's life that when Jonathan was slain.
And David laments for Jonathan. He speaks of Jonathan's love and sayings. I love to me.
Just came and went.
I think the second Samuel 1.
I'd love to meet with Wonderful, I think it says.
End of chapter one. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant hast thou been unto me. Thy love to me. What's wonderful? Passing the love of women. How are the mighty fall and the weapons of war perished?
Bond between David and Jonathan A picture perhaps, in some sense, of a believer with Christ, but also of two hearts with the United object. How much more wonderful if man and wife as believers have this bond, so that the natural tie of marriage is deepened further still by mutual devotion to Christ.
We see in the book of Philippians that the apostle had a burden, among other things, for the desire, his desire for the Saints to be bound together in soul, not just to be laboring together, doing the right thing.
But doing it together in the spirit and with A1 mindedness and with a a jointness of soul that would bind their hearts together.
If you turn over to Peter.
Who we think of as the man of action. And we say, well, wouldn't be natural for Peter, Peter to think about these kind of tender things.
First, Peter.
First Peter, chapter one, verse 22.
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Seeing you have purified your souls, and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.
Or with a pure white heat. I think someone translates that.
In the fourth chapter of the same book, first Peter four verse.
I'll read verse seven for the context first. Peter 4:00 and 7:00. But the end of all things is at hand. Be therefore sober and watch under prayer. And above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Above all things, all things.
It's an amazing passage of Scripture above all things. Next time you go to the brothers meeting, to the care meeting, think of that Bruce. Think of that above all things. Differences over translations, our translations, an unimportant issue. It's a very important issue. I, I happen to feel, and I'm sure you will agree, very important issue.
And other issues and other things that come up. But above all things, have fervent, active, outgoing love amongst yourselves necessary.
Amongst the Saints of God, for us to continue along in a way that will please the Lord.
You know, when I was the boy in school, they used to teach us, uh, square dancers and, uh.
I don't know how old I was, 10 or 11. I was at an age where to me it was a very uh.
Something I I didn't desire to be near to girls being a boy, but we had to dance the square dance, you know, in gym class and you had to touch the girls and swirl around. And I thought that I didn't like this. But you can't really dance those dances right, You know, unless you're relaxed enough and can hold the hand of the partner and swing around and do all those things. Well, sometimes in the assembly, you know, this is the way we are. She'll excuse rather.
Mundane analogy.
But God intends the assembly to work in a certain way, and the way He intended to work it needs.
This activity of love can't work other ways than that. We cannot just come in as as strangers.
And break bread together and it just doesn't work.
Not God's intent or thought. Fervent charity among yourselves. We could turn to John and see added what we want.
Back to the book of Proverbs again.
The encouragement to walk with wise men, to be companions of those that fear the Lord and a friend can be.
Someone sent from the Lord at the right time to help us.
A friend can also be a terrible, terrible snare.
They say, well, a spiritual person should be reserved.
And you know, even the Lord said He knew it was not what was in man, so He did not commit himself to any man. So therefore I feel that I should just not get too close to anyone because difficulties come and people leave and my heart is broken. Is that the way the Lord walked? The Lord was the one who said that it, it said of Him in John chapter one. But when we read the Psalms, we read of one who had the tenderest of heart. And it always strikes me how it says of Him in the Psalms prophetically, He looked for some to take pity.
And found none. They say, Well, this man like no other in his, in the majesty of his bearing.
We see him in John's gospel just majestically going through all of the shame and the spitting and the insults.
No matter what they did, the Son of God always is proceeding through it all.
Then came Jesus forth. I mean, it's just majestic in John's college, such a one as that. And yet in the Psalms it speaks of his heart. He looked for some to take comfort and pity and found none.
He felt it when his own familiar friend, with whom he did eat, friend, they walked together to the House of God, lifted up his heel against him. He felt it.
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And we can say of the Lord as a man down here, that in his love he extended himself.
And ultimately, of course, on Calvary's cross, the surety for the strangers.
He paid and was sore broken for it, but he extended himself and his love nonetheless. It's an extending thing to preach the gospel from the heart.
It's a wrenching thing to have a care for a soul, whether as to their soul salvation or that they would go on in the truth.
And so do we withdraw? No, I believe the Lord would have A to abound. You know that verse that we.
Used, though often helpfully with each other in Two Corinthians about being not unequally yoked together.
2nd Corinthians 6.
Verse 14 Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, well known important principle of Scripture, but right before it. Verse 11 OE Corinthians Our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. You're not straightened enough, but you are straightening your own bowels now for a recompense in the same I speaketh unto my children, be also enlarged.
Before the apostle speaks about a narrow path, he speaks about an enlarged heart.
And these things can perhaps be a real difficulty to a young person, a young believer. They were to me. I could not understand. I feel I sincerely could not understand and come to grip with how it could be. I knew that in the Word of God I was to love my brethren, and that I did love the brethren because I was now a child of God. It's the proof of it in first John. We know we passed from life, from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
And I knew I loved the brethren, but how did I reconcile the love for the Brethren with walking in what was not to them a very loving?
Relationship.
And it was on January 1St in Colts Neck, NJ, probably 1977, when our late brother Adrian Roche stood up in the open meeting and answered. The Lord just raised him up right like that to say that. And among other things, he said we need a large heart and a narrow path. And it just clicked. And he expounded on that for 20 or 25 minutes. And that was an immense help to me, a large heart in a narrow path.
And I'm not sure we can walk in a narrow path. Maybe legally we can, but spiritually I don't believe we can without an enlarged heart. I don't think we can be preserved in this world without a large heart.
Because like it again in Psalm 119, I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart without a large heart.
The fresh affections for Christ and a willingness not to shun the promised cross.
Without that, our pathway will become broader and broader, because true separation is the work of the heart.
It's in love to a person, and devotedness to a person is the only way I believe we can ever walk in a narrow path.
You know, on the subject of friends.
While we're there in Proverbs, if we could turn back to Second Samuel, First Samuel.
Sorry, Second Samuel.
Second Samuel in chapter 13.
Second Samuel 13.
One of David's sons.
Amnon came to pass after this, that Absalom, the son of David, had a fair sister, whose name was Tamar, and Amnon the son of David loved her, and Amnon was so vexed that he fell sick for his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin.
And none thought it hard for him to do anything to her.
But Amnon had a friend. Isn't this solemn? But Adnan had a friend.
I would hope when the record of my life is written and when the record of your life is written, that there's no chapter like this.
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That there's no turning point where a divine author could put at the heading of what was to follow an expression like this. But Amnon had a friend.
The marginal rating in my my Bible for verse two. Adnan thought it hard for him to do anything.
I don't know what basis the translators have for this. It was marvelous or hidden in the eyes of Amnon to do anything to her. Almost seems to imply, and if others could help me, let appreciate anybody had light on this. But it seems to me that he had no thought of acting upon this wicked lust that came from his fallen nature. Seems to me he had no thought to act upon it, but he was plagued with the existence of it. You and I would speak of these things in different terms.
Because since the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit, we have a different character, a different relationship to God in Christ. As new creatures we have the Spirit of God indwelling and so there is a different character to the warfare which is not our subject this afternoon. A flesh warring against the Spirit and independence. We would seek to be guided by the Spirit and not to fulfill flesh's lust.
That's not the subject here.
But I just point out that it seems from the scripture that he had no thought to act upon this.
What I'm not had a friend. Our friend's important this point. This friend comes into this young man's life and suggests a way. Just read verse three in its entirety. But Amnon had a friend whose name was John Adab, the son of Shimia, David's brother. He was also a relative.
And Jonadab was a very subtle man. And he said unto him, Why art thou, being the King's son, lean from day-to-day, and so on raises questions.
Always the work of the enemy to raise questions. Far more questions than ever could be raised than ever could be answered. Some senses.
The Friends important You find yourself at a crossroads at a particular point in your life of weakness or vulnerability.
What if he had had a different character of a friend? What if he had a friend he could have confided in? And so I've got this terrible problem I need to speak to you about.
And if he had a friend who could have appointed him in the right direction, it would have spared his life, and it would have spared other lives and lives that were in some measure ruined by sorrow.
There are other examples, beautiful examples in the life of David and his family of faithful friends. A time where I think our brother put it before us and Dorothy a few years ago when Jonathan was going up against the Philistines and his armor bearer turned out to be a very good friend to him. He said turn me, go up, do all that is in thy heart.
And other occasions we can read about, you know, why is it in the at the end of the book of Romans, the epistle to the Romans in First Corinthians. When I first began to read the Bible, I thought how strange that all of these these personal references are appended in the Bible after the main part of the Epistle. I thought it was strange. I don't think it's so strange anymore. Probably you don't either. All those references verse after verse after verse of references to.
Different of the Saints and to the relationships that the Saints had together very important.
Proverbs 27.
Verse 6.
1St 5 Proverbs 27 and five. Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Verse 9.
Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, So does the sweetness of a man's friend. By Hardy council, or in the margin, the council of the soul.
What a wonderful provision from the Lord. The Lord himself is the one in Isaiah who read about whose name is called wonderful counselor, and he is the counselor with the capital C.
But just like in the things of other, the things of God, in instruction we have not many fathers, but we have 10,000 instructors in Christ. He is the teacher with a capital T but we are taught by others.
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And he is the counselor with the capital C on how grateful we are. If you're like me and you are, I'm sure you can look back to times in your life when the Lord has sent someone, a visitor on their way through with their family, someone maybe you didn't know that closely at that time yet. But the Lord allowed you to have fellowship together, true fellowship and communion, and to feel comfortable speaking to one another. And you received what it calls here in Proverbs 27, the Council of the Heart.
Ointment and perfume, the sweetness of a man's friend.
By hearty counsel.
If you have a friend that loves you enough to correct you. A friend that loves you enough to risk hurting your feelings.
Out of necessity, out of love for your soul and for your benefit would encourage you to cultivate and regard that regard that friendship very highly in the Lord, a valuable, valuable thing. You know, as men we can be as, as males, we can be, uh, pretty thick skinned, or at least we can give that impression of it. Many of us, some of us, and we can really rob ourselves as a blessing.
That would be ours and the practical help, if others felt more comfortable to address us and to give us hearty counsel. It was quoted yesterday from the book of Romans. No man liveth unto himself. We affect one another. We are members one of another. We're going to be together throughout all eternity. And this life is in view of eternity, the eternity of eternities. How important, how vital.
To liken the in the picture in the book of Deuteronomy.
For a man's ox or his *** runs away. Well, what do we do? Just say, oh, I saw it and I just let it go. So in Deuteronomy, we're instructed to, to take it and to keep it by us. And when the man comes looking for it, to restore it to him. And sometimes the ox is a picture perhaps of, of, of usefulness and of, of strength. And sometimes there may be something that I allow in my life that is robbing me of usefulness and strength. How good if my brother.
Sees that captures that arc, so to speak, keeps it by him. And maybe someday when I come by, so to speak in the language of Deuteronomy, he has it by him and he can deliver it back to me. And I say, well, you know, I've been feeling kind of discouraged lately. You know, sometimes a person just comes and they want us to talk. And how wonderful if you've had the care and the conscientiousness to to retrieve to capture that ox and you can give that back to them and help them along in their liberty. It's very beautiful the way the apostles speaks of not desiring to have dominion over there faith, but to be fellow helpers of their joy.
To help the things along in their walk of liberty in Christ.
Verse 10 Thine own friend, and thy father's friend forsake not.
I never could understand why I should feel sorry.
For I was 23 when I was saved and shortly thereafter gathered to the Lord's name, and I lived in a remote place.
And I didn't realize until I started going to conferences number one, that I was a young person.
With a capital Y, capital P, and #2 That I was deprived because there weren't others of me all around where I lived.
And I felt very richly cared for in the Lord. And I'm trying not to be just merely facetious. I felt so thoroughly cared for in Christ in the assembly where I was. I used to go to the reading meetings on Tuesday nights and get there. And it seemed like the whole meeting was the fruit of somebody following me around all week long and knowing intimately what all my problems were, and then giving it to the brothers to minister it in the meeting. And I just felt so richly blessed.
My friends were some of them are with the Lord, like with he.
Some of them are Floyd Temple with the Lord and known to some here. Some of the older sisters are still here, still on fellowship and the brothers in their 60s, seventies, 50s and me in my 20s. We had beautiful times together.
Beautiful fellowship, did things together. Fishing, I never was much of it, but we went and did. It didn't matter. Go to pick up something at the store, it was wonderful.
The Lord ordered that place from me and brought me there. He could have brought me some place 5 miles from where I grew up. I lived in another city for a while, and I was four blocks from the meeting of the Saints gathered to the Lord's name in that city. Walk by day after day, Lord brought me to that place.
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And it was an end, still is, and it was furnished and still is, and it was a blessing.
So I found it hard to feel, and I must confess I feel hard to feel sorry for anyone that is an isolated circumstances because I feel that if the Lord has LED you to the Lord's table, He's going to provide for you richly. And I do not mean to make light of loneliness.
You know, without times of loneliness and times of weeping in a Christian's life, there will not be depth in our souls. What I wish on my own children or myself or any of my brethren here, times of sorrow and isolation, I wouldn't.
I can feel it as I stand here. Times of reproach.
I wouldn't wish that on a soul. But if you read through the Little Flock hymn book, you read through the lives of the Saints, whether in Scripture or in other accounts, and you see that some of the sweetest fragrances, the most precious hymns we've seen young sisters, married at 17, widowed at 19, gone to be with the Lord in the 20s.
Lies of sorrow.
Tears.
And that is the backdrop against which the Lord perfects and and extracts precious fragrance of Christ in our lives. We shrink from it. We always perhaps will shrink from it. What a precious thing it is. And Lord allows it in our life. Our widow is here. There are widows and widowers. There are those who perhaps will never marry and others for whom their partners have left. And they may go along single, raising children in all kinds of situations.
Others with unbelieving partners and we feel for anyone in these situations, others in isolation, but those are the valleys of Baca of weeping, and the Lord can come through and make these times wells.
And I'm happy that the younger folks, in all seriousness, can get together. So a lot of them have left now by now and get together and be together. And it's very wholesome and very good. And I enjoyed it too.
But I can't feel sorry for you if you come from an isolated place, because that's where the Lord has you and that's where the Lord is going to care for you and He will make it rich and a blessing for your soul.
My own friend and my father's friend. How wide is your source of friends? Is it the world? Well, you don't want that. You don't want the world to be your source of friends. But amongst those that are walking in the path of faith, look a little wider.
Don't forsake your father's friend. As time goes on and even a natural sense, I think we appreciate our fathers, our our grandparents and their friends. Maybe I'm not, maybe I'm not the only one that has always enjoyed older people.
Cultivate these friendships. If all of your friends are in your same age group, you have nobody to give you a frame of reference for things you haven't gone through except the Lord. But if your friends are in all different ages?
You have all kinds of help in people that can counsel you and help you in ways in which you are weak, and the same will work out for those who are older. How encouraging and refreshing it can be to be with those that are younger. Verse 17. Iron sharpens iron, though a man sharpeneth a countenance of his friend.
And how important it is to remember Romans chapter 15, where the apostle says, I myself, brethren, am persuaded of you, that ye also are.
Full of goodness.
Filled with knowledge, able also to admonish one another, It's a serious thing to step in and give counsel to someone in their life.
There needs to be a pattern of goodness towards that person. If we only go to speak to someone to correct them, they're gonna dread seeing us come across the room. And also we have to note we're speaking about come and speak to someone and give advice that it's contrary to the word of God. That's not good advice.
But with the knowledge of the Word of God and a pattern of goodness in your life towards me makes it easier for me to receive the counsel in correction I sorely need. So brethren, like it says Nathan's parable to David about that little ewe lamb, that.
Laid in his bosom, ate his meat, drank from his cup. There was an intimacy there, a beautiful picture of marriage which the clock has precluded us getting into.
David is going to push me off here in a second, but a beautiful picture of what marriage should be.
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See the meat a cup people don't, you know, everybody's got their own cup at the table, don't they? Cup is generally something you don't share. It's my cup in front of my plate on the table.
And that's the way we are in this plan, right? I drink out of my cup. You drink out of yours. And in the palms, I believe the cup speaks of our personal portion, but that Ulam was raised like one of his donors and it drank out of his cup. And it's a constant struggle, if I could confess this before so many, a constant struggle for me to open up to those that love me and to share within my cup. It's a blessing when I do. And if you have the same problem, I encourage you to work on it too.
Umm, I know some brethren and every couple of years I sit down with one brother that I know has a big heart and he feels no one loves him or understands them. I say, brother, you gotta open up to the Saints that love you, share your thoughts, share your concerns and your fears. And I said you'll find a real source of camaraderie and help and your brethren that'll help us go along until the Lord comes. We say we're getting weaker and we look all around and we see the numbers dwindling at the meetings of the Saints and that can be disheartening.
But really no weaker than we were before when there were thousands, really.
Really no weaker, the Lord's just shown us what we are. But how much more do we need one another? And not just in a formal way, at a arm's length way, but to seek grace and tenderness, to be able to walk together in the bonds in the bowels of Jesus Christ. As it says there in the book of Philippians, that our love, seeing you have purified your souls into unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another of the pure white heat.
You think together hit #84 and the bending.
The number 84 and defendant.