Denver Conference: 1995
Table of Contents
Linked to Christ Calleth by Name A three hour walk
Open—B. Warr, C. Hendricks, D. Imbeau
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Oh.
No.
May all day down South side of the sun.
He was a little coming forward because I want to add a thought or two that connect with the last meeting.
And then I will give way to others I'm sure can.
John, 10 again, please.
Verse umm.
13 the hireling fleet.
Because he isn't hireling and carrieth not for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd, know my sheep, and am known of mine.
As the Father knoweth me, Even so know I the Father, I lay down my life with the sheep.
Another sheep I have, which none of this fold them also must bring. They shall hear my voice. There shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down on myself. I have power to lay it down, and power take it again. This commandment have I received. My father was thinking of what brother said when he says for child is Christ.
And when they go to school, they get out. There's Christ.
And then later on they go out in the work world, there's Christ. What does that mean?
What are we saying when we say that?
When we say, oh, there's Christ for you or for us older, there's Christ, what are we saying? What do we mean?
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So I'd like to follow a few thoughts.
About the the about Christianity.
As it is linked to Christ.
Here we have the word sheep in verse 13. Then we get the wondrous statement of intimacy in 14 and 15. I am known of my sheep as the Father knoweth me.
Now, that's not the measure of knowledge.
That's the manner of knowledge.
That is, we will never know the Son as the Father knows the Son in the measure of the knowledge, but it's the man, or it's an intimacy that belongs to us.
An intimacy that resides within the Godhead.
And one of the members of the Godhead, the Son, left his place in inaccessible light and came as scent, and is here in the same intimacy that he always had eternally. This man Jesus, who is God the Son, now in the same manner of intimacy, he's bringing the sheep in.
That is.
There is no restriction to our enjoyment of Christ.
And then he is as it were, he talks about other sheep.
That I must bring.
Bring where?
O into the enjoyment of this intimacy.
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold them also I must bring.
And entering into this intimacy that he has made for us, entering into his place there and our acceptance, He says they will hear my voice.
As verse 16.
And there shall be one flock.
It is the hearing of the voice of the Son of God and the intimacy that we enjoy.
That results in one block.
That is.
I have heard his voice, you have heard his voice. There's nothing else.
For us, it's just himself.
Now I'd like to look at a couple of scriptures that talk about knowledge. The brother mentioned one in the meeting, one in well say Romans one which puts A level of knowledge.
And verse 19 well known verse that which may be known of God.
Because that which may be known of God is manifest to them is better, I believe.
Are among them, for God hath showed it unto them, and as creation, and we live in the middle of, and all around us is evidence of.
God and power.
God and power, and that is known by his creation.
I'd like to look at another verse.
1St Corinthians 13.
At the end of verse 12.
Now I know in part.
But then shall I know even as also I am known? No.
Knowledge passes away, knowledge puffeth up another verse. Then I shall know as I'm known again. It's not.
The measure of the knowledge I will have. God will have sovereign knowledge. I'm omniscient. We will never be that, but there is a knowledge that we will have after the manner of that knowledge. It's not the measure of the knowledge, it's the manner of the knowledge, the manner of knowing.
That we will have.
Verse that was referred to in the prior meeting as Ephesians chapter 3.
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Verse 19 To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.
Love of Christ which passeth.
Knowledge. I want to point out this.
That there is something in Christianity, true Christianity, in Christ that belongs to us and in an area in which we live and know and we move about. He has something beyond that.
And in the intimacy we've referred to in John chapter 10, he says there are other sheep I must bring also.
And He wants to bring us as His sheep into this intimacy of knowledge and relationship, after the manner of that very intimacy that He has in the Godhead as the Father knoweth me, and so forth. And it is knowing Him as the Good Shepherd on earth, but in the intimacy that He has after the manner of that He wants you and me.
To enter into that, he wants to bring us into that.
And that's what I gathered when when the brother was speaking about there's Christ for the children, Christ for the teenagers, Christ for the young ones, Christ for the old one. It's himself.
As he is set forth.
Now I want to use just to refer because one of the principal characters as I read my Bible and enjoy is Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus.
She tells you and me by a life.
Where we'll find everything we ever thought we wanted.
Sitting at the feet of Jesus.
And they awaited his. She's found him.
Now in John chapter 10, he says that the Father knoweth me, I know him.
And he says.
I have other sheep I want to bring into this intimacy and they'll hear my voice.
And what do they hear? Therefore doth the Father love me?
Oh, I can see the Lord Jesus, and there's Mary sitting at his feet.
And he would just go down and say, she would say, well, what would you tell me?
You know the Father loves me because I'm going to give my life that I can take it again.
Now in the Father loving him, that's an eternal statement.
He always loved the Son, but here this one, the Son of God.
Eternally came into the world and he's going to talk about this, the love of the father of him. Not a different love, just a different of fresh motive for it's the same love that was always there. But he's going to talk about that love in a way that he can tell her about it. He's going to talk about it in time.
Related to an act in time.
And going to share with her what fills his heart.
You see, to talk about Christ, we're talking about a person, a person that Mary found one day, and she found him, and she saw in that person everything she wanted, and she didn't have any other life to worry about living. She was just drawing from Him, and there at his feet she could return to him in what little measure which would delight his soul.
Illustration the.
The Sarah Venetian woman who wanted a blessing from that man.
And he hadn't really preached to her.
She just looked at him.
And should I know who you are? And if you're here, I'm going to get a blessing.
He tried to hide himself. You know, righteousness will do that whenever. He's just flooded with all sides with evil because the world is nothing more than an ocean filled with what flows in the heart of man. He had just said that, and so he tried to hide him. Couldn't be hid. Did he make a mistake? No. He did what a righteous man should do.
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But he couldn't be hid. God had a woman over there and she saw him and she says I know who you are.
And I'm going to get that blessing. And he ignored her. The disciples were saying get rid of her, give her the blessing. You know, he wouldn't do it. She saw in the personal she wanted. She knew if he was here, everything was well.
She got the blessing, the other one, the one that anointed Him in the House of Simon, the Pharisees. She loved much. She was forgiven, loved much, because she saw Him, knew he was here.
The Simeon holds a baby.
Gives thanks for the salvation of God.
It's in person.
It's all in a person.
I want to talk about.
2nd Corinthians 12.
Now we've talked about having Christ.
What does that mean? What does that mean for my soul? I'm going to go out in this world and I'm going to be tossed in with people and I'm swamped under with sounds and words that are nothing more than man's idea.
And you know it's nothing but a lie.
What am I going? What does it mean? I need Christ for my soul.
2nd 12.
We get a kind of an illustration of the apostle Paul caught up out of the knowledge that will pass away.
And his soul lifted up into that knowledge, which is after another manner.
That doesn't suit.
Down here.
Segments 12, verse one. It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago.
Within the body I cannot tell, how the body I cannot tell. God knoweth such an one caught up to the 3rd heaven.
And I knew such a man within the body of the body I cannot tell. God knoweth how he was caught up in the paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will like glory. Yet of myself I will not glory but in my infirmities, for though I would desire.
To glory I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth now I for bear, lest any man should think of Maine above that which he seeth me to be.
But here is of me, unless I should be exalted above measure.
Through the abundance of the revelation it was given to me to thorn the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice who might depart from me. And he said, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure.
And infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions, distresses for Christ's sake.
When I'm weak and I'm strong.
Just to point out an example of one who was walking in the path of faithfulness.
And he was stoned. I believe this took place in acts maybe 14 or so when he was stoned.
And God used that occasion to lift him up into.
A sphere? A place?
That when he came back, it didn't suit. He had his heart full of it and he couldn't tell about it.
Now I want to be mystical.
I don't want to talk about things that are smoke or anything. I'm talking about a reality of life.
When I go out to meet this world, for instance.
And I am presented with a whole atmosphere of man, as we heard yesterday, and his thoughts.
Brought across my mind a temptation, an attraction, an opportunity, something that they would persuade me that oh, this is great, you can do it.
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And I say no.
No, I have heard the Bible says.
That I should not do that?
Now what do I expect?
All I want to tell you.
Expect Christ to come in and make it good to your soul as a power to do it and keep it, and Christ to be the reward at the end of it.
Obedience.
Has an end and a beginning.
Obedience has a motive. It's the person of Christ. If you had talked to Mary, she would say, let's go down the street and and we'll go down and find a lunch somewhere else. And she say, well, no.
Well, we can go down and we can do some good works among the poor people and we can, she would say. Well, no.
Because in him she drew from him.
And he went back to him.
That's what I wanted. Just simply to add that is saying we're talking about Christ.
We're talking about something that's a treasure that God has hidden in resurrection glory, that man Christ Jesus.
And he's worthy of all the glory we spoke this morning, of his glories will fill all the earth that won't hold it.
Will say, Well, his glories will fill all the heavens that won't hold it.
And yet that man.
In manhood he had his full part and he came down to sit down.
And have Mary sit at his feet so he can bring her in. Other sheep I buy that I need to bring in.
And when she got there, he started talking to Mary about, you know, my father loves me because I lay down my life, but at the end of my life that I can take it again. The father wanted all of his own and his own embrace.
And he was talking about that to Mary, bringing that wondrous truth out of eternity down to her at his feet.
And that's where she found her life. Everything.
He was bringing her in, too.
That so I would just finish off the thought of.
Christ, He's the reason why I would want to obey.
He's the motive and the object.
Of Christian obedience and my place is in an intimacy in Christ to enjoy what has gone on in the heart of God, what is going on in eternity. He has brought it down to you and me to make it our portion in the world that exists as we heard, simply as a test to see if that's what I want or not.
That's what God wants.
That's what God wants.
And so there may be a test to come up in life to say, well, look at this wondrous opportunity, but.
You'll have to devote your life to it in this schooling. You have to go to school. You don't have to study day and night. And it'll be a profession and take up your time and you know, the rest of life. There's there's an opportunity in this profession.
And you just stop and say, well, I wonder if that's what the Lord wants.
That's what it means, Christ.
I want to draw from him, he said. You should live because I live and draw from him and in drawing from him to.
Expect. Expect.
To enter in with him as he explains the things of eternity in the love of God to my poor heart.
As He did to Mary, to expect that to be my portion as I walked through this scene. Not only when I'm home in glory, I know it'll be there as I'm walking here now. That's our safety. Christ before me, Christ in front of me, and one other verse.
In Colossians 3.
Just to point out something about this pathway and may it drive us to Christ.
Made these statements cause us to run to him?
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Verse 5.
Mortify.
Therefore, your members, which upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, and Norman affection and evil, so forth.
Want to emphasize simply the word mortify.
Doesn't say resist temptation.
Doesn't say start out our battle the rest of your life where you're going to fight this enemy. These these these things that are temptations as they come on.
It calls on an act to mortify, to put to death as an active thing.
Just to die is passive.
But I have died with Christ.
And it says put to death.
You know.
You can't do that and I can't do that.
Only he can do that.
And therefore, when it comes to a temptation that would be there to attempt to tempt me, to attract me off to one side.
To put that to death is far more than just resisting it and starting a battle of resistance to these things. The rest of the path home to glory.
How do I do that?
Oh, I refer you to him who knows how to do it.
And him who is willing, him who is ready to do it, and who wants to set us free, mortify those things have done with them how?
At his feet, at his feet when Mary found her place, at his feet and God writes about her. Oh, what a joy it should be for you and me. Just to say, you know, I think I'd like to go sit by Mary. I'd like to hear what the Lord is saying to her because she's like the three sons of Israel in the fiery furnace. We don't know what they talked about in there. I'd like to know someday.
Like Peter walking on the water with the Lord, I'll know someday what they talked about as they strolled back to the boat.
And not talking about something that is some grand mysterious thing that you can.
Convince yourself, as psychology would do, to think on better things and expect better things and look for a better roses. Now I'm talking about the living God who has presented His Son as everything for you and me. And then he's told us how to just go sit at his feet and in Him.
There will be everything, just like he says. I want to bring them in.
Hear my voice and he talks to her. I'd like to tie that with John 10 when he says, well, my father loves me because of this, he wants to bring us in there.
Another thought in.
We've had before us.
The thought of eternity as it touches time.
That is the eternal things of God as they are seen in the man Christ Jesus in time.
They science and so forth, physics, they measure nanoseconds, or I forget the other one, but billions of seconds, one billionth of a second, I can't even figure. I can't contemplate that.
They measure distance in light years. That's not far light travels in a year and multiples. I don't even. That's beyond my way of thinking.
But however much man ever gets in.
In his measures into time.
In either direction, either dimension or whatever. Or into space anyway. You'll never be eternity.
Because eternity can't be measured. You have to get beyond anything that's measurable to get to eternity.
The Cross of Calvary. There were three hours of time as it appeared.
Here.
But in that darkness.
Of three hours of darkness.
Work without measure.
And when the Lord Jesus sits there and he says, therefore does my Father love me because I lay down my life for the sheet, might take it again, That's what he can tell her.
There, when he went into those three hours of darkness, the work that was done was a work that had no measure.
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How do we grasp that? We don't. God does.
We used an illustration somewhat like this. If you threw, if God threw every Sinner, every Angel, the sin, every, every creature in the lake of fire forever, he'd never have the opportunity to tell you how much you hate sin. If I would never go out, he'd never get through saying how much you hate sin.
Calvary was his only opportunity to tell you how much he hates sin.
He poured it all out on his beloved son.
Tell how much he loves you.
You know he says he then the age is to come. He shall show forth the exceeding riches of his grace and kindness for you and me forever and ever and ever. He'll never finish. He'll never use it all up. He'll never finish telling us how much He loves us there. Calvary was his only opportunity. How much he loved.
Oh, that's why, as the brother mentioned in one of the meetings, I forget the cross.
And sit there, the cross of Christ.
We can't see that he closed it in.
For himself.
When the Lord Jesus sat there be and was talking about to these Pharisees, I guess about the sheep and I apply it to him and Mary, my my father loves me because I lay down my life that I might take it again all the the the wonders of the the victory that he won of Calgary.
God being able to invite us in the Father's house, access to the Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The wonders of all these things and what they mean to him.
Because that's where he was talking. Therefore doth my Father love me? It's what they mean to him. And he would bring us into these things to sit and wonder. Can we analyze them out and codify them and put them out in formulas? And so it'll never be because it belongs to a knowledge that's above that which we have is natural knowledge. And He must bring us there. He must reach down, as it were, in the power of the Spirit of God and lift us up into these things.
And that's what I should expect when I am obedient.
Not just to obey, to obey, to obey, to enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not just to obey because my mother read me that from the Bible or my fault and that.
My mom and dad did and that I'm thankful for but it's because it's what he wanted from me and he will make sure that I have everything I need to do it with. The only thing my part is to just say yes and no.
Yes to the Lord and note everything else and he'll take care of everything else. Don't worry about anything else.
But it lifts everything of Christianity up into a place where.
He is a place where nothing can be a competitor. There's no rivals there.
It's up where only He is, and yet there He sits with you and me to be the object of our hearts and to be everything for us. Not only in eternity which He will be will be caught away, but in time also He'll be everything to my soul anyways. I believe that's what is meant when we say have Christ.
It's a reason for the life.
And the end of the life is have Christ for our souls.
Turn again to John 10, please.
In verse 3.
To him the Porter openeth.
And the sheep hear his voice.
And this last part of the verse.
And he calleth his own sheep by name.
And leadeth them out.
They have a beautiful illustration of that in the 20th chapter which we look at.
John 20 The Lord is risen.
And we'll start with verse 11.
Well in verse one, the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early.
When it was yet dark under the sepulchre, and see if the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
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And then she runneth.
And cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved. And saith unto them.
They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
She did not understand at this time the resurrection.
She thought someone had come and taken his body away.
And then to continue with Mary, in verse 11, Mary stood without it, the sepulchre weeping.
The others had come and witnessed and gone back.
Says in verse 10. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. There was not in their souls the same attraction.
To him that there was in Mary's soul.
Mary, this is Mary Magdalene. Our brother was talking about another Mary.
Who would speak more of entering into the mind of God, the intelligence of His mind? But here we have the heart of the disciple, not so much intelligence with this Mary, out of whom he had cast 7 demons. She was completely under the power of the enemy, and He had set her free, and she had found an attraction in His person.
That compelled her to stay there where she had last seen him placed.
They all went back to their own homes, the apostles.
But she didn't have a home without Christ.
He was her home.
He was such an attraction to her heart.
That to have lost him was to have lost everything.
To her, this world was nothing but a graveyard.
They have taken away my Lord. We know not where they've laid him.
She had but one object before her.
So in verse 11, Mary stood at the sepulchre, weeping. She didn't go home.
Whereas she had last seen him placed dead.
She knew nowhere else to go.
She wanted to be near him.
We see that in a natural sense sometimes where those who have lost a loved one.
Christians, they know they're not there. They know we've gone to be with the Lord, and yet they will, they will go there to the grave and just stand there. Just they want to be there.
Where that body is.
It wasn't intelligence with Mary, but it was affection for Christ. So she stood at the sepulchre, weeping.
She had lost the one that.
Was everything to her.
And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre. Now she saw something that the others didn't see.
Her affection kept her there. She sees 2 angels in white sitting, the one at the head, the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain.
And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?
She saith unto them, Because they, whoever they is, they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
My Lord.
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing, and she knew not that it was Jesus.
The tears were flowing freely. It was maybe still still dark. It says it was dark in the first verse. She went back, got the apostles. They came and she followed.
And she stayed. They went home.
So often the sisters.
Put us to shame us brothers, in their affection for Christ.
And so they say, Woman, why weep The star?
She says, Because they've taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. Still no thought that he was risen. No thought.
Just the attraction of a heart that was so taken up with one that she had lost.
And that meant everything. He meant everything to her.
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Same question that the angels put.
Whom seekest thou?
Another question. He knew the answer. He knew her heart and he valued that. He knows your heart. He knows the love that you have in your heart for him. None of us knows that He knows it, and it's precious to him. There isn't anything more precious to him than that.
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Whom seekest thou?
She's supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me what thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. That would have been some chore for a woman to take that precious body, but the intensity of her love was such that she would have done it.
She would have taken him away. She wanted to be with that one.
Jesus saith unto her, He calleth his own shape by name Mary.
He calls her by name and immediately this arrests her attention in a way that.
Hadn't been there before.
And she turned herself, and saith unto him, Raboni.
Which is to say, Master, now she's about to have unfolded to her soul a truth so wonderful, exceeding anything that had ever been told to the disciples up to this time. It wasn't to Peter, it wasn't to John, it wasn't to an apostle that this truth was revealed. It was to one who stayed there where he was.
As far as she knew.
Wanted to be where he was. Tell me where thou hast placed him and I will take him away.
He says to her, touch me not immediately. She wanted to apprehend him, to lay hold upon him, I've lost you once, I'll not lose you again. And he says.
Touch me not.
He's about to bring her now out of the sheepfold, this Jewish sheep. She wanted him back as her Messiah.
Now he's going to bring her out of that and into the blessings of Christian position.
Touch me not, we read. In Matthew's Gospel, the women held him by the feet.
A beautiful picture of the Jewish remnant, who when they see him come back, will believe. He said to Thomas, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. That's our portion.
And so he's going to bring her, this Jewish sheep out of the sheepfold of Judaism into our portion Christianity.
Don't.
Cling to me, Mary, you can't have me in the old way. Paul says it in doctrine. He says, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. You can't have me as the Messiah after the flesh any longer. Mary, I'm risen. I died, and now I'm risen into a new life, the head of a new creation.
If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation. All things are passed away. All things have become new.
And she's now going to be brought into that.
Man's Day
YP Address—R. Thonney
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Our poor son in the age of God.
To come.
Where all the.
Way and he will fall.
And share it all.
Where it is.
Come from heaven.
God.
Is love.
All thy word made me.
Honored where? The wind itself?
Lovely glory's way.
The Lord.
No.
Worry.
Hear my eyes now pray.
The holy God.
Lord to the earth.
And.
The walls to save.
Scarlett died.
What?
00:05:01
From everything and.
Brought us.
My.
We are a strange.
Oh, earthquake gave me by the grave.
The process.
And ties with.
Founders here life.
So far, treasure.
In a bright.
Curse me.
That's great. Gracious Father, Thanks so much for that calling with which we've been called. And this afternoon we have a few brief moments to open thy precious word, and we confess, Gracious Father.
Our incapacity to be able to speak in an adequate way when we consider the vast place we've been brought into.
That, gracious Father, may there be the liberty of thy spirit in what is said, so that something of fruit, something of profit, may remain for thy people. Pray especially for our young.
Commend ourselves for these minutes together in the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
Let's read first of all from Luke chapter 22.
Just a couple verses here.
Luke chapter 22 and verse 52.
Then Jesus said unto the chief priests and captains of the temple, and the elders which were come to him.
Be come out as against a thief with swords and staves. When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me this part. But this is your hour and the power of darkness. This is your hour and the power of darkness. Now let's go over to.
First Corinthians, chapter 4.
And verse 3.
But with me, the Apostle Paul speaking, it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you.
Or of man's judgment, I'd like to refer to the marginal reading. Many of you have your margins.
Man's day, yeah, I judge not mine own self, for I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified? But he that judgeth me is the Lord.
In Luke 22 where we read it speaks of man's hour, he said. This is your hour in the power of darkness.
The Lord Jesus was being taken, he had presented himself to his people and he was being taken to be crucified and he said to those people, this is your hour and the power of darkness. Here the apostle Paul comes to makes reference to something of the same thing when he speaks of.
Man's The marginal region is man's day.
This is the day we live in, and I think it's important to understand it. Young people, if you and I are going to understand our position in this world, you're going to have to understand that we're living in a time which is characterized as being man's day.
God sent his son into this world and they said we do not have any room for this man in this world, religiously, politically, any way you want to think about it out. And they took him outside the city of Jerusalem and nailed him to the cross. It's man's day. Sometimes people say, why doesn't God intervene in all the human suffering that there is in the world today?
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It's because it's man's day. Man's.
Has taken it upon himself to refuse God. It is man's day.
And what is becoming increasingly evident, especially here in the United States, it's interesting to go between countries and to see the effect that the United States has on other countries.
Going to Bolivia and other countries of South America, you see the effect of the media, the United States in South America, and you can see that the thinking that is so evident up here in the United States is permeating the world.
What is that thinking?
The thinking is that man is the center of his own world.
Man is the reference point in his own world. It's sometimes called humanism.
It's also known as the New Age religion.
So sure, some of you may have heard of it, but basically it isn't anything new. It's the same basic lie that Satan told Eve.
Right in the second, the third chapter of Genesis, where he said ye shall be as God's knowing good and evil. In other words, you take charge of your own life. God has told you not to eat that of that tree. You don't know what you're missing. Go ahead, do it.
Be your own reference point. And so Eve ignored what God had said and and took of that fruit of that tree.
And the ruin is evident on every side in this world. But this principle of things is developing, and to me it's a tremendously.
Scary thing to see the way things are heading here in the United States. We are on our way down to South America and we stopped a day or two in Florida to visit a bit.
And then Daytona Beach, we happened to meet up with a man.
I thought was very interesting. He wanted to sell me something, but I wasn't really interested in buying. So to turn the stream of conversation, I just said, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? Oh, sure, sure, sure. I know him. Yeah, I've known him a lot of way, a lot of a long time. I I've got a lot of faith, he says. I was raised a Methodist, but he said.
I haven't been to a Methodist Church for many years, but.
I've got a lot of faith.
You know, the way he talked might have.
Fooled a lot of us that he was a real believer, but in the course of conversation.
He said to us, you know, there's a man alive in the world today that's going to save this world.
And he says the Catholic Church knows who that person is, and they won't tell us he's in the United States somewhere right now.
And I said, Oh yeah, I know who you're talking about. You're talking about the Antichrist.
He said yeah, but you know what?
The different religions paint him as evil, and you know, he's not evil, he's good.
But that thing of making man the reference point in everything has permeated the thinking of the United States. And I'm going to go a step further and say it has permeated.
Christians far more than they realize.
Brethren going back and forth between South and North America, to me one of the greatest.
Veins to the Christian testimony is materialism. It's not that there's anything wrong with material things that we may possess, but it is the basic thought that I order my life. You want to talk about Christ? Sure, no problem. Go ahead and talk about him.
But if it's a question of anything that deals with my life, don't you put your finger on me.
00:15:01
I'll determine my life. That's the principle of the new age.
That's the principle of humanism. It's making man the center and God, you stay out of the picture.
That's what's developing in the world today. I don't think we realize.
How much it permeates the media, how much it permeates educational circles where our children have to go many times. I don't think we're aware of it. I really believe that the majority of believers in the Lord Jesus are asleep as to the development of things. It's the spirit of Antichrist.
And I really do believe that it is a very real possibility that Antichrist is alive and well in this world today.
It's clear to me in Scripture.
From Two Thessalonians chapter 2 That it is.
He will not be revealed until that which hinders is taken out of the way. But that spirit is permeating this world.
Now what I want to challenge you young people about is.
That general idea that I'm speaking about, it is not that you have material things or you don't have them. That's not the point. The point is that you take it upon yourself to determine your own course in this world. That is the spirit of humanism and that.
Affects believers in the Lord Jesus.
Far more than we realize.
Is there any area of my life?
That I control myself? That God in his word has no dictates about. Is there anything that I dictate?
And I will not listen to anybody else, no matter who it is that speaks.
That's humanism, and I say the spirit of it can affect you and me. Let's be a little more Frank has affected you and me as believers in the Lord Jesus.
I have to confess, brethren.
When I come up here to the United States, when we move back up here five years ago.
I find it a snare to go into a Walmart. Why? There's so many good bargains that I can use. I got to have this and I got to have that. God doesn't enter into the picture. It's my own desires that I want to satisfy. Comes to eating out. Got to eat out, OK?
Where I'm going to go?
Brethren, where is Christ dictating in this?
Where is Christ, Lord of all in our lives?
We've been affected by humanism that I realize, brethren, that we recognize these principles that we've been speaking about precious principles to hold. And it's easy to sit around and speak about them, but then go out and live our lives like we were in command and that Christ is not really in the picture here. We may not say that in our in our with our mouths. We may not say that even in our hearts.
But that's the current of things in this world, and it's sweeping Christians along as well.
So several things I want to challenge you, I want to exhort you in the name of the Lord Jesus.
To change your thinking about these things.
To repent is what scripture says.
Like to go to Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter 12, beginning with verse one. I beseech you therefore.
Brethren, by the mercies of God.
That ye present your bodies a living.
Sacrifice Holy.
Acceptable unto God, which is your.
Reasonable service and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
That ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly.
00:20:13
According as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith, here's the exhortation from Scripture itself. Paul says. I beseech therefore, by the mercies of God, he just got through detailing in Chapter 11 some of the tremendous.
Counsels of God for blessing, and he ends up, when he views it all, with a tremendous doxology in verse 33 of Chapter 11.
Oh, the depth of the knowledge, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, and who hath been his counselor? Who hath given to him? And it shall be reckoned unto him again. For of him and through him and through him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen.
When Paul views it, then comes the exhortation view of it. Brethren, what God has done in sending His own beloved Son, the Creator of the universe, come into this world as a little baby.
Born growing up and then offering himself without spot to God on that cross of Calvary.
Now, he says there's a response that's due from you.
Young people, I'm speaking to you, but I'm speaking to us all and I'm speaking to my own heart here. Please don't think I'm just got the finger at you.
What's the response to say Lord Jesus, here's 50% of my time, but I'd like to have 50% for myself. I'd like to determine something. I'd like to have a good time yet.
Is that reasonable to say to him?
No, not really. How much did he give the creator of the universe, the one who's greater than the whole universe and his glory?
What's reasonable to say?
Shall we up the percentage? Shall we say 90%? Now that's given a pretty good slice of my life to the Lord, surely? Wouldn't mind if I had 10% to dictate for myself to do the things I like.
Is that reasonable?
99% not reasonable.
Until you come to 100%, there's only one thing recently.
To say, Lord Jesus, you gave everything for me, I'm all yours. There's nothing else reason and that's what Paul is saying here. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. The word in the original understand is the same word. We take the word logical. It's the only logical thing you can.
When you consider how much he's done for us, I'm no longer the focus here.
The person of Christ, what he has done is the folks, there's been a complete change here, a complete change. And then he goes on to exhort here in verse two, be not conformed to the world, this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
It's interesting to me to look through the New Testament and see how many times.
Our thinking, our minds are touched on how important it is to be careful about your thinking procedures.
As a man is in his heart, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
That's why it's important you are what you think about if a man would never think about something that he did not possess himself.
That he would like it. He would never become a robber.
The man never thought about a woman that was attractive and that was not his wife. He would never become an adulterer.
It's because he thinks about it. He allows that to occupy his mind, that he comes to those extremities.
00:25:01
Be careful what you allow to occupy your mind.
There's an apparatus that fits into the homes very comfortably today.
Television.
It's man's thinking completely.
Fill your mind with man's thighs.
And there may be some good things on there, not saying they're not all wrong, but I say it's going to be the ruination if you let that machine control your thoughts. It's not only that machine, your magazines that you allow to occupy your mind. Be careful what you allow. Be careful of your thought patterns. I remember as a young person how I struggled with my thinking at times.
It would run off in One Direction and another in areas I knew were wrong.
And I had to try to bring my mind back to the scriptures, to the Lord Jesus.
I love what it says in Hebrews 12.
Verse.
1-2 and three in the Spanish. The way it renders it, we're not going to look at it right now, but the Lord Jesus is presented to us as the object of faith. There we're told to lay aside the weights and the sin that besets us, and to run with patience the race set before us. And then it speaks about the Lord Jesus, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
And then it says in our English translation, it says consider him.
Spanish translation says reduce your thoughts to him.
I love that.
We go on weight reduction programs. Let's have white or thought reduction programs.
If your thoughts go helter skelter, reduce your thoughts to him. That's what it means in first Peter chapter one, when Paul says gird up the loins of your mind. Don't let your mind go all directions. Control your thoughts. Gird up the loins of your mind, Paul, Peter speaks. Peter exhorts. But what is this conformity to the world?
Member.
Brother that helped me quite a bit commenting on it and he connected it with verse 3.
What is worldliness?
It's thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. It's basically that it's making ourselves the reference point in any detail of our life, even if it is in connection with the things of the Lord. If I make myself the reference points, that is the characteristic of worldliness.
Now God has ruled out man in the flesh. I don't figure anymore before God as a man in the flesh.
God has another man, and in him I stand. I'm accepted perfectly in him. We're seated in heavenly places in Christ, we're accepted in him. See, young people who want to be accepted with their schoolmates, with other people, they strive to be accepted. And who you can understand why a person wants to be accepted.
But what are you thinking about when you're talking about being accepted? You're thinking about yourself.
When in Christianity we are already accepted at the highest level possible, accepted in the beloved. I don't have to strive to be accepted any longer. I already am. I can transfer my thinking of myself to thinking of Him in the glory. Oh, how important that is. I'd like to in the free remaining moments.
Focus just briefly misses the subject. We could go on and on about so precious.
But have two cardinal truths. We've spoken about this at times.
I'm not going to apologize for going over it again, brother. I can't.
2 Cardinal truths of Christianity.
Number one, there's a man of flesh and bones at the highest pinnacle of glory.
In the heavens.
The Lord Jesus Christ Never before in the history of the world was that the case, as it is true in our dispensation.
00:30:09
#2.
The Spirit of God is down here in this world.
Indwelling believers.
And occupying them with Christ in glory.
We have the two things brought together.
In.
John 7, which was mentioned this afternoon in the reading.
Where it says the Holy Spirit was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. When Jesus was glorified consequent upon his death and resurrection and exaltation, then the Spirit of God was given. We have the two things brought together in an example, a brilliant example of faith in the 7th chapter of Acts.
In Stephen, Stephen was.
The first martyr, and it says he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, said I see heaven opened and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. That's those two cardinal truths of Christianity.
That's our reference point.
You know, the other day I was talking to one of my girls and in her physique I already needed one of her classes at college, she said the professor.
Upset her by saying nothing can be proved by scientific investigation.
And it upset her.
I said that's relativism and that's what permeates the world today. And the reason why is that man is at the center of his own thinking. If I am the reference point, I will have to say that I can't prove anything to you.
Why? Because we're relative in our position to this Earth.
Where we live in our relationships, one with another, it's all relative if you're going to make a statement.
That will be firm. That will be unchallengeable. You're going to have to start with the absolute.
The first verse that was read this morning gives us the only absolute that I know, Paul said. I commend you to God and the word of his grace. I know of no other absolute universe.
I sometimes say to the young people, I can stand up here in front of you and I can point up and I say that direction's up and you can prove me wrong because that direction on the other side of the world is down.
I'm reasoning from myself when I say that direction is up and that's why you can prove me wrong. That's relativism. I reason from a relative. I cannot get to any conclusion, any firm conclusion.
Dear young person, you and I are in a world where that's the way people think. That's what controls their thinking. I want to challenge you not to think that way, to change your way of thinking, if that's the way you are thinking, to repent. Repent means change your thinking.
And to think based on what God says in his Word.
And I want to say here what I believe is extremely important for young people.
It's not what I say about Scripture here this afternoon. That is absolute. It is Scripture itself. You may be versed in what brethren say about Scripture. That is not a right reference point.
Now remember when I was brought up in the meeting too? I learned these things that I remember when I went out into the world to seek my living and I got challenged. I knew what brethren taught, but I had never set my own feet down on these rock bottom principles.
And I felt terribly shaken in my soul when I got challenged and laughed at, but it made me scramble and start searching the Word, not because brethren said that and this and that. It may be helpful what they say, but it's because God himself says it. And that settles it. The Lord Jesus said heaven and earth shall.
00:35:13
Pass away, but my word shall not pass away. Everything we see down here.
That is visible to our eyes, things that look so strong and firm.
And solid are going to be shaken to bits.
If you're founded on those things yourself, you're going to be shaken too, dear young person.
I want to challenge you to get into scripture for yourself.
Now, first of all, to just take that first cardinal truth of Christianity.
This is the reference point dear young person. Not myself but Christ. I marvel at how strong a following the self esteem movement is found amongst Christian circles.
And even amongst some who have been gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
Why? Why has that happened? It's because we've become affected by the spirit of this age.
Where man is the center.
Whereas scripture teaches that we are dead.
And buried and risen, agreeing with Christ. Can I esteem something that's dead and buried? No, we bury it because it's not to be esteemed, it's to be put out of sight, out of mind.
In our life, where is it with Christ in God? It's hidden there. Oh dear young people, let me direct your tension above. Don't look at us as brethren. Don't look at any of us. We are not the reference point. Christ is and can be the only reference point. He is our life. There He sits in highest glory.
And I just want to mention some of the titles that he has in that position.
In the glory.
Spoken of in chapter 4 of Ephesians as the head of the church.
Tremendously tremendous truth to get ahold of. There he is. Everything that touches you, he knows about it. Maybe somebody slighted you, Maybe they've wounded you. Maybe nobody knows about it. You haven't told anybody.
He knows about it because he's head of his church.
When Paul learned this truth, it was the very moment he got saved.
He was laying his hands on believers in the Lord Jesus out of heaven said.
Saul saw why persecute us thou me Paul never forgot the fact that in touchy believers he was touching that one who was exalted in heaven. Tremendous truth. But here in Ephesians 4, just to get the picture, little Betty Speaking of the gifts that are given from.
An exalted Christ and the.
In verse 13 on he speaks of the purpose of those gifts.
From verse 12 on, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith.
Verse 14. That we be henceforth no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, in the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Those gifts are given, so that we would not be carried away with all these winds of doctrine that are blowing.
But speaking the truth in love may grow up into Him in all things.
Which is the head, even Christ? In other words, what does it mean to grow up spiritually?
It is to have him as the reference point in everything, in all things. Grow up into him which is the head and from which the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every.
Joint supply, according to the effectual working of the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body into the edifying of itself in love.
There we have it. Growing up spiritually is to have Him before our souls.
How important that is, dear young people, we tend sometimes when we have questions, to run to one brother, to another brother. Nothing wrong with getting good counsel. Nothing wrong with getting.
00:40:09
Asking questions, but what is our first response?
To go to him, he's growing up into him in all things.
None of the titles that the Lord Jesus has in his exaltation and glory we find in chapter one. It's a little different than what we considered in chapter 4.
But I want you to notice it because I think it's important.
In verse 22, he says he hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body. Here's a little different connotation of the truth. He is not only head of his church, He's head over all things to the church. In other words, everything that affects you and I as believers in the Lord Jesus, He is head over that circumstance, over that person.
That affects you.
How, if we would lay hold of this truth, dear young Pearson, how this would liberate us from bitterness one with another?
No trial ever comes your way without at first coming from him. That is head over all things to the church. He controls it. That person that you think has so much trouble in your life, he is head of that person.
Those set of circumstances that you think are the reason why you messed up in a certain situation in your life, he has head of those circumstances. I love the way Apostle Paul took it in the 4th chapter. In the first verse he says I therefore the prisoner of the Roman empires. That the way he puts it.
He looked beyond the Roman Empire. The Roman authority was the one that took him prisoner, and he could have well said that.
That would have been true, but Paul looked beyond the Roman Empire. He looked to him, that is not only head of his church, but head over all things to the church, which is his body, though the tremendous impact that that truth would have on us if we'd lay hold on.
Our times gone, young people, we haven't really had much time to really.
Reflect on those reference points, but my purpose here this afternoon was to challenge you.
To not be affected by the thinking of man's world.
And if we have been, and I have to confess that I'm one that has been affected and I had to challenge myself constantly, is this my desire or is this the desire of the Lord for me? I belong to Him. Not only 99 per cent, but 100 per cent. He has rights over my life. I have no rights in Elon. He has all the rights.
Have you come to grapple with that situation? Have you made that decision, dear young person?
Or are you still dictating your own life even if it be in that 1% still? I exhort you.
I plead with you.
I beseech you.
That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. It's the only reasonable thing you can do. Let's just pray, gracious Father, bless thy precious word. We pray, commend ourselves to thee now for the remainder of the afternoon and the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
4:15.
Jehovah the Unchangeable One
Address—C. Hendricks
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You cry in the skies abroad.
And.
What?
Swelling.
Of course is my.
Our father's plans are.
And he was gone to come to him.
I'll be.
Right back with.
Great grandson as we.
Go to the land. We saw it in his quarantine.
And failed me to the world.
Lord Jesus.
We have been singing of thee.
And we would again ask thee the question.
Couldst thou be delighted with sinners such as we who, when we saw these, slighted, and nailed thee to a tree?
Unfathomable wonder, mystery divine. The voice that speaks in Thunder.
Says Sinner. I am thine when we consider who thou art.
Lord Jesus, Jehovah.
Over all blessed forever.
To be delighted in the likes of us.
A wonder that has passed our comprehension and understanding, but we rejoice in the truth of it. And now, as we consider thee to this afternoon, we ask that Thou wilt help us and feed us, Encourage us as we learn more of Thy blessed person. Lord Jesus, we ask it and thank Thee, Father, for him, and ask it in his precious name.
Better. Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 3.
Exodus chapter 3.
And verse 7.
And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters. For I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land, and a large unto a land flowing with milk and honey, under the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the parasites, and the Hiveites, and the Jebusites.
And now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come unto me. And I have also seen the oppression where with the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel.
Out of Egypt. And he said, Certainly I will be with thee.
And this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.
00:05:06
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them.
The God of your Father's hath sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am that I am.
And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am.
Hath sent me unto you.
And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham.
The God of Isaac and the God of Jacob hath sent me unto you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
And in the 6th chapter.
Verse one And the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh? For with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of this of his land.
And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord. And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God almighty.
But by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in *******. And I have remembered my covenant. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and will read you out of their *******.
And I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgment.
And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you of God. And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land. Concerning the witch, I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you. For an inheritance, for an heritage. I am the Lord. And I think we all know that when the word Lord is in all capitals, it means Jehovah.
And we have the definition of that word in the third chapter. If you'll turn back there when Moses asks him, What is thy name? What shall I say?
And he answered, I am that I am.
And we would translate that expression.
We would have to translate it the same.
He is the same. He is who he is.
Is the same, the unchangeable one. It's the name that speaks of his.
Essential.
Being it's his name forever, he says, This is my name forever, this is my memorial unto all generations. And then he condenses the expression, and says, Thus thou shalt say I am hath sent me unto you. And now if we would translate that, we would translate that as the eternal 1.
It's the name of his essential existence.
He is the same, and He is the one who lives in an eternal present.
There's an expression in the Book of Revelation, and I'll read it to you. It's in the first chapter and I believe it's in the fourth verse. That doesn't use the word Jehovah, but it uses the equivalent expression to what Jehovah means.
And I'll read it in Revelation 14, John, to the seven churches which are in Asia.
Grace be unto you in peace from him. Here it is from him which is and which was, and which is to come. And that's what Jehovah means. He who is he? Who was he who is to come, The one who inhabits eternity.
The Eternal God, the Changeless, the Unchangeable God.
The same.
Turn to Isaiah 57.
Isaiah 57.
00:10:09
Verse 15.
For thus saith the high and lofty one, that inhabiteth eternity.
Whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place.
With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.
To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart.
Of the contrite ones.
What a vast scope we have in that verse.
Thus saith the high and lofty one, that inhabiteth eternity, if it had said, inhabits heaven.
We can grasp that with our minds. Heaven is a place. Eternity. What is that? That's an expression of timelessness.
He who is and who was and who is to come, He inhabits eternity. He is everywhere, not only in space, but in time.
Can you grasp that? I can't grasp it.
He is the I am that I am.
The same. And He is the I am the eternal One, the name of His essential existence.
Now only he can say that I have seen the blasphemy in print.
Of men who claim to be I am.
Puny creatures, Creatures of time who had a beginning and who will have an end as far as their space down here, Who will could record their birth. You go to any graveyard and you'll see their birth recorded and their death recorded. And he died.
But here is a being.
Who is eternal?
Remember a brother saying to me once I can, I can grasp in my mind someone who exists today and will live forever.
But I cannot grasp a being that go back so far as you can.
To the beginning of time, and then beyond that he had no beginning.
The I am the name of his self existence.
Essential Existence turn to First Timothy Chapter 6, please.
One Timothy, Chapter 6.
Verse 13.
I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession.
That thou keep this commandment without spot unrevuable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed, and only potentate the king of kings, and Lord of Lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach, unto whom no man hath seen, nor can see.
To whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.
Who only have immortality. No creature has immortality, essentially.
No creature has immortality.
If God sustains him in immortality, that's another matter.
But only he has it, essentially.
The I am.
And he's unchangeable.
The Eternal God and as we sang in this little hymn.
The great I am and could he be delighted?
Could he be delighted with creatures such as we who, when we saw him, slighted and nailed him to a tree?
Is that one that became a man? Is that this person that we're talking about?
Well, let's turn to the 102nd Psalm, if you will.
The 102nd.
The Messiah is speaking in this Psalm. It's called a Messianic Psalm.
00:15:03
And he says in verse six he says I am like a Pelican of the wilderness.
I am like an owl of the desert. I watch in them as a Sparrow alone upon the housetop. Mine enemies reproach me all the day, and they that are mad against me are sworn against me. I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping because of thine indignation and thy wrath, for thou hast lifted me up and cast me down. My days are like a shadow that declineth, and I am withered like grass.
And he is addressing God, And he says, But thou, O Lord, shall to endure forever.
And thy remembrance unto all generations, and then a little farther down in the Psalm.
He says in verse 23 he weakened my strength in the way he shortened my gaze. Now this is the one speaking who is eternal. He is the I am. And yet he's speaking here as a man. And he says he shortened my days. He only lived 33 years as a man. He was cut off in the midst of his years as a man. And so he says.
He shortened my days. I said. Oh my God, take me not away in the midst of my days.
And then God answers that prayer right in the middle of the verse, we have the divine answer.
You might say, how do you know this is the answer of God to him? Well, we'll get that in the New Testament where this passage is quoted.
God says to him, the Messiah, Thy years are throughout all generations.
Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens Of the work of thy hands they shall perish, but thou shalt endure. Yeah, all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture. Shall thou change them? They shall be changed. What is characteristic of every creature is that he is changeable. Every creature changes. Everything that is created changes. They shall be changed. This is the word of God to the Messiah. But thou art the same.
That ought to be a capital S Wherever you read that thou art the same. He is the I am that I am.
Thou art the same.
And thy years shall have no end.
As man the Messiah says, don't take me away in the midst of my years. And then God says.
You will live forever. Thou art the same. Thy ears shall not fail. Let's look at the quote of that in Hebrews 1.
Hebrews one where the Where the Apostle Paul the author is setting before these Jewish believers the glories of the sun.
The glories of the sun. We'll pick it up in verse 5. But unto which of the angels said he at any time thou art my son this day have I begotten thee? Did God ever speak in such language to angels? They're called sons of God simply because they were created by the Creator directly. Adam was called the Son of God because he came from the hands of the Creator directly. And so all the angels individually created. There's no such thing as a family of angels.
Each one individually created sons of God, but he never pointed one out and said guard my son.
So he says to which of the angels This shows he was not an Angel, he was above the angels and he came below the angels to reach us.
To which of the angels said he at anytime Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee?
Thou art my son, is an expression referring to what he always was. He never became that.
Never became the Son. He was always the Son. This day have I begotten thee, is when he became a man, when the eternal Son of God came into time and was begotten.
Of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin.
And again, when you bring us in the first Begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels of God worship him.
He's not telling angels to worship another Angel.
No, he's showing that he was infinitely above the angels.
They worship him. That's the Messiah. When God brings that Messiah back into this world, all the angels will worship him.
They were there at his birth and proclaimed it and at his resurrection. And when he comes back, they'll see it and they'll worship.
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And again when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith let all the angels of God worship him. That's still future.
And of the angels he saith, who maketh his Angel spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire, they are the ones that carry out his bidding.
But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, here is God the Father addressing his Son, and he addresses him as God.
Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
This is all a quote from that 102nd song. And thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands They shall perish, but thou remainest, and they all shall wax old, as doth the garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold him up, and they shall be changed, like at the end of the day. You take your suit coat off, take your clothes off, you fold them up, you lay them aside.
That's the language that we have here, and this is the Messiah that he's talking to.
And then he says, But thou art the same.
Thy years shall not fail that again, that ought to be a capital S It's the name of Deity.
No creature is ever called the same, because he's not. He changes. All of us change. We change, He changes not. Our Christ can never die. To which of the angels said he at any time sit down on my right hand till I make thine enemies? Thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? And again in the 13th of Hebrews, we know the verse so well.
It is verse 8.
Do you ever notice the verse isn't the complete. It's not a sentence. It has no verb. Jesus Christ. The same yesterday and today and forever. You have to supply the verb. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. But I like to think of it as this. He sets before them who he is. He is the same yesterday, today and forever unchanging.
Unchangeable the I am that I am, the eternal I am.
And once he says that he doesn't have any more to say, he is everything, so he doesn't continue the sentence. He just stops with that glorious person. Now turn back with me to John's Gospel chapter 8. We've been in John's Gospel chapter 10 and we'll just read a few verses in John chapter 8.
And verse 47 he says he that is of God heareth God's words.
Speaking to the Pharisees, ye therefore hear them not, because you are not of God.
Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast the devil?
Jesus answered. I have not a devil.
But I honor my father, and ye do dishonor me, and I seek not my own glory. There is one that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast the devil, Abraham is dead, And the prophets and thou sayest if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death? Art thou greater than our father Abraham? Was he greater, infinitely greater?
Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? And the prophets are dead? Whom makest thou thyself?
Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father that honoreth me, of whom ye say that he is your God.
Yet you have not known him, but I know him. And if I should say I know him not, I should be a liar like unto you.
But I know him, and keep his saying, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. What day is he referring to? It's a day of his glory, the day of the Kingdom reign. Abraham looked on to that day, and he rejoiced to see it, and he saw it by faith.
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Your father Abraham, rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it. And he was glad and said to Jews unto him, Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? And now we have the most stupendous statement in all Scripture.
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, when he prefaces any comment, any statement he's making with those two words, that means truly, truly listen. This is something that is most important. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, before he was born, I was no, it's not what he says. He could have said that that would have been true, but he says something infinitely more majestic.
Before Abraham was I am.
We read it. We ponder it.
We don't meditate upon this enough.
He is the I am and this is the Messiah. This is Jesus of Nazareth.
That speaks these majestic words. Jehovah become a man, his name forever, he only who has immortality.
He says I am, I am. Before Abraham was, I am, and they knew what he was claiming. Of course they understood it. They knew that scripture that we started with in Exodus 3 and in Exodus 6. They knew those scriptures well.
He had revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the Almighty God.
Now he reveals himself as the I am.
The name of his essential existence.
Tremendous, awesome, majestic truth.
Then they took up stones to cast at him, but Jesus hid himself. The I am.
They were in the presence of one who could have spoken a word. They would have instantly been destroyed.
But he hides himself.
Of his essential glory, and passing through the midst of them.
Led his way. He dwells essentially in light, which is unapproachable.
Which no creature has seen nor can see.
He only who has immortality, He who inhabits eternity.
Who is not defined by time and.
Past, present, future, undefinable. He's everywhere that.
Every moment that has ever existed. I don't know how to put it.
It's beyond human language to express.
How can we express his being and they didn't understand how many?
Could be that person.
Do we understand it?
The glory of it that he, the Creator, the eternal I am the one who dwells in unapproachable light, the one who only has immortality.
He became a little baby.
Born in a stable lady in a Manger.
Foxes head holes. The birds of the air hadn't nesting places, but he had nowhere to lay his head.
He was asleep in the boat.
The enemy stirred up a great storm.
Master, Karast thou not that we perish?
He rose and said peace.
Be still.
Jehovah doesn't sleep. 121St Psalm says he neither slumbers nor sleeps.
You can call upon him at any moment of anytime in the day or night. He's always awake. He'll always hear you. But here he was asleep in the boat. That's his humanity.
Then he stands up and stills the storm. One word. Peace. Be still.
What manner of man is this?
That even the winds and the waves obey him.
Is there anyone here that doesn't know this person?
As his very own savior.
If you don't, you're missing the very purpose for which you were created.
00:30:01
The very purpose for which you were born.
We missed everything.
We missed everything if you don't know him.
And he came to where we were beloved Saints of God.
That we might know this infinite being that we've just touched upon just a little this afternoon.
I made a study of the expression. You do it with Mr. Darby's translation.
Starts out some. I think it's in Deuteronomy 29.
And it's the same, the expression the same all through Scripture.
There are quite a few references to it. It's a wonderful study.
At our conference at Bridgeport a few years back, Don Bilaslly gave us a an address on that subject. I found it most precious.
Many, many scriptures. I've just referred to a few. Now in the time that remains, I'd just like to look.
In this precious gospel of John at the I am statements.
Of the Lord Jesus.
Turn to John 6.
John 6.
Verse 35. And I want you to think of the immensity of the statements that he made.
Starting out, I am.
Jesus said unto them, verse 35 of John six, I am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me.
Shall never thirst.
I am the bread of life. Tremendous statement. And then he says he that comes to me shall never hunger, and he that believes on me.
Shall never thirst. How anyone can read the Gospel of John and read these I am statements of the Lord Jesus.
Jehovah God and deny his deity.
Is unbelievable.
Verse 48 He says I am that bread of life. Your father did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven.
That a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living Bread.
Which came down from heaven.
Now let's turn to the.
8th chapter.
And I've already read it, but I'll read it again, verse 58. And Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was.
I am.
Chapter 9.
Verse five As long as I am in the world, I am.
The light of the world.
I am the light of the world. Back to chapter 812. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Then he says, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. The 10th chapter. We've had this before us. Verse nine, I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved and.
Shall go in and out and find pasture. Verse 11 I am the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Chapter 11 verse 25 Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me.
Shall never die.
No doubt I will miss some.
But in chapter 14 he says in verse 6 Jesus said, saith unto him.
I am the way.
The truth.
And the life no man cometh unto the Father but by me. How anyone could read these statements. These I am statements. There are many more I've only touched. A few time has passed.
00:35:10
I am the way.
The road.
He's the truth. There's no truth outside of him.
No truth of a moral and spiritual character is the truth. There's no life outside of him. He's the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me in the 15th chapter he says, I am the true vine.
My father is the husband of men.
He is the true vine.
He is the Great.
I am.
18th chapter.
Verse 4.
Now let me read from the first verse. When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brooks cedron, where was a garden into the which he entered, And his disciples and Judas also which betrayed him, knew the place. For Jesus oftimes resorted thither with his disciples. Judas then having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and tortures and weapons. Jesus therefore knowing all things.
That should come upon him went forth, and said unto them, Whom Seek ye they answered, him, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus saith unto them, I am he, or you notice that he is an italics, he just says, I am.
And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with him. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am, they went backward, and fell to the ground. Then asked he them again, whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he. If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way.
That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gaveest me, I have lost none.
And then Peter tries to defend him. The Lord says, put your sword up.
They that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
And he says, the cup which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it?
And then they led him away to crucify him.
The I am all he had to say were the words.
And they went back, he said in the 10th chapter. We had it before us. In the reading. No man taketh my life from me. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. His commandment have I received of my father. He did not die a martyr.
He died as a sacrifice. He gave himself up to die for our sins. On the cross there are his martyrs, sufferings and the world is responsible for inflicting the monium.
But the truth is that they couldn't touch him.
Until he allowed it.
Because of who he is.
I have read such blasphemous statements by men that do not know his person when they took him up to the top of the hill in Luke chapter 4 to cast him down headlong. He passing through the midst of them went his way, and statements such as had they thrown him over, he would have died. He would not have died. He walked away unharmed at the foot of the hill. But he didn't choose that method of delivering himself. He was invincible.
Death had no claim upon him. He had no sin. The wages of sin is death.
He did not have to die. He's the only one that was ever here that didn't have to die. But he did die for you. For me.
The I am.
This eternal one, the same yesterday, today and forever. Do you know him?
You know him as your Lord and as your savior.
Let's just sing 2 verses of #59, the first verse and the last verse of #59, Wisdom, Jehovah's First Delight and so on. Verses 1:00 and 6:00 please.
Someone raised the two.
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Take my love words.
All his words.
Create.
Time was beyond.
His brother.
Was in this.
God.
Our God and our Father to this afternoon, we've we've pondered, We've considered him a little.
Thy fellow.
The eternal Son.
Become a man.
The I am the eternal 1.
The same yesterday, today and forever.
O our God and Father, we praise. We worship Thee and Him for who He is and all that He has accomplished for thy glory and for our eternal blessing.
We pray for each one that's in the room this afternoon that each one might have faith in him.
Whom to know is life eternal?
We praise thee for Him, our God and Father.
May our thoughts be raised to consider him more and more.
Who he is and all that He has done our God, we just stand in awe and amazement and wonder at these immense realities that we've been looking at. From my precious word, we thank thee for Him, our Lord Jesus in his precious worthy name. Amen.
Love For Christ Heart Trouble
YP Sing Address—R. Thonney, K. DeGraaf
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
42.
Love my receipt and my word, Jesus.
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Jesus.
And explain.
Redeem the wall.
If you see the other, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Everything has arrived.
You're just so quiet.
What are my sons? It's like being on my bed.
Praise the Lord in heaven.
And my children to get the heart and God of love. Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God. Search respective.
Start out with a question this evening.
Anybody know in the Bible?
Where we have the expression in love.
You know, we talk about being in love.
When you know, man meets a young girl that he likes.
But is that a scriptural expression? Does anybody think of a verse in the Bible that talks about?
In love.
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Come on, you know, some of you probably know.
What book is it?
Song of Solomon, you don't know the verse or the chapter.
Uh-huh. Wiped out that one.
Well, I'm going to have to tell you or Neil John, you got it's an Ephesians.
Huh.
Ephesians, chapter one.
Listen to it according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be wholly and without blame before Him in love. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus, you are in love.
That tremendous thing to realize.
You don't have to wait for some special person to come along.
You.
Right here and now, just like you are are in love if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus.
Another verse I'd like to enjoy with you. Well known verse in Jeremiah 31.
And verse 3, something more about this love.
That, I think, is so interesting and important to understand. The Lord hath appeared of old, and to me saying.
Yeah, I have loved thee within everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. The love that the Lord loves us with is in everlasting love. It's an eternal love. In other words, it's a love that loves in spite of anything that we are.
He loves us the way we are.
But He loves this too much to leave us the way we are, and so He's working in everyone of our lives. And you may come into questions about other people. You can hang question marks on your brethren, perhaps, but never question His love for you. It may not appear at a certain moment in time that the Lord really loves you.
But I want to say never.
Measure.
The Lord's love. According to your estimation of present circumstances, you will always measure wrong.
The Lord loves you with an everlasting love.
And nothing can change it. You can be ornery. You can be hard headed.
But that's not going to change his love.
And he's going to have the last word because he loves you that much.
Another place in Ephesians chapter 3 speaks about love.
I think it's so important that we understand the Lord's love.
To us, verse 17.
Of Ephesians 3 that Christ may dwell in your hearts.
By faith that ye being rooted.
And grounded in love, there's the expression in love again.
Ye being rooted and grounded in love, nothing is going to hold you steady.
But the realization of the Lord's love.
It was never displayed in any place as much as it was displayed at Calvary. When Jesus hung on that cross, you stand there and look at that awful agony he went through. Not only the physical agony.
We need to think about his physical agony. Sometimes we don't think about that much in Lord's Day morning when we come to remember the Lord in his death.
But just think what it must have meant to hang on nails through his hands and feet hour after hour.
Think of what it meant to have himself crowned with thorns.
And to have his face beaten until it was perhaps not even recognizable as a man's face, it was so beaten.
So marred more than any man's the Spanish translation says his face was disfigured we know that there were no bones broke but think of those soldiers that hit him square in the face again and again and soldiers don't hit easy, they hit hard and think of.
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The reproach that broke his heart. Anybody have a broken heart one time or another? That's a tough thing.
Wound is one thing, but a broken heart is far harder to take. Reproach broke his heart. He came to do him good, and they just did the worst they could. And then of all things, on that cross, during those awful hours of judgment, from 12:00 noon to three in the afternoon, God put on him those filthy sins that I've committed.
You ever felt incensed that somebody for accusation you for doing something you didn't do?
Wasn't true.
How do you think the Lord felt when they laid those filthy sins, when God laid those filthy sins on him that I've committed and God punished him as if He were the guilty one, when He was the Holy One of God?
There's the measure of his love, and if you want to get a true measure of the love of Christ.
Again, I say, don't try to measure the Lord's love by your present circumstances.
You'll always make a false measurement because you don't understand what God's doing in your life.
Go back to the cross. That's where you're going to see the full measure of the love of God. But here it says being rooted and grounded in love. Somebody'd told me that the root system of a tree is about the same as you see above the ground on a normal tree. The root system underneath is about the same as the branches and what appears above the ground. It's that big.
And it's important, you know, to be rooted. Roots are something you do not see on the on the surface.
I look at you and I can't tell. If you're rooted in love, I can't tell.
But it's an important thing to send out your roots into the love of Christ. To be rooted and grounded doesn't say rooted and grounded in knowledge. You can know a lot about the word of God, but I've known a lot of people who were really intelligent in the Scriptures and they're gone to the winds. They're wandering around. Knowledge is important in its place, but it will not keep you. It will not root you and ground you.
It's rooted and grounded in love.
Oh dear young person make up point of enjoying the love of Christ in your life. It's what's going to keep you in these days that we live in when there's so much change rooted and grounded in love. It's interesting in South America, maybe I've told you some of these, some of you this, but we lived for a time in the Amazon jungles and what happens there in the Amazon jungles of eastern Bolivia is that the.
Native people go in and they cut down a section of jungle and they let it dry for a few weeks and then they torch it.
And it burns off. And then they plant their rice in between the trunks that didn't burn.
They have little hand machines that they do that with, and sometimes they come to a huge tree that is so big that they don't bother trying to cut it down. Just too much work. And since it's just one tree and doesn't have any branches near the ground, they'll just leave it standing. But they've told me that even though there are huge trees there, when they're standing amongst all the other trees, they can stand.
But when they are standing there alone, a big wind will come up and they'll often topple those big trees because they didn't have very much roots system build up.
You can stand in the midst of a lot of other believers like we are here at conference. It's nice to be at a conference, to meet other young people, to be encouraged. But this is not where the root system is built up. It's when you're getting the hard winds of affliction.
In contrast, on the high Altaplano of Bolivia, where there's very few trees, you'll find a few trees up there. You can sometimes there's eucalyptus trees up there and there's a few other trees that will grow at that high altitude of about 12,000 feet.
That's interesting. Those trees have been beaten by the wind one way and another from their youth, from when they are small up. And those trees are extremely difficult to push down, very difficult to push down. They are almost impossible. You have to get a get a chainsaw or some kind of a saw and cut them down. That's the only way you're going to get them to fall.
00:25:04
So they say to you young people, maybe you.
Live in a place where there's not a lot of young people to encourage you. Maybe you have a lot of tough times.
I want to encourage you to enjoy the love of Christ. You're going to build a root system in the love of Christ that's going to stand you instead when the afflictions of life come along. The Lord didn't put all the Christians in one spot. He wanted us to be lights in this world, and he spread us out. And sometimes we're in areas where there's not a lot of encouragement, but I want to encourage you to enjoy the love of Christ. It says in the Epistle of Jude.
Yourselves and the love of God. How do you do that?
Really what it means, I really believe, is keep yourselves in the enjoyment of the love of God.
I'm loved talking about the Song of Solomon. I don't know if it's the one you were thinking of, Jeff, but.
Says in the second chapter, He brought me to his banqueting house and his banner over me was love. Think of a young man and a young lady, and this is the voice of the bride speaking. And it was just so evident, written across their faces. It was just as if that young man was holding a banner over.
Her head as he walked to the banqueting house.
I love this girl. I love her. Do you and I walk through the streets of the city with a sense in our souls. I'm loved with an everlasting love, with a love that can never change.
That will never change. I want to go to one more scripture before I finish here in Song Solomon chapter 8.
And this is the voice of the bridegroom.
Which is for us, applying it in principle, the Lord Jesus speaking to us.
And he says in verse six, set me as a seal upon thine heart.
As a seal upon thine arm. For love is strong as death, and jealousy as cruel as the grave. The coals there of our coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. The man would give all the substance of his house.
For love, it would be utterly contempt.
Especially that sixth verse I want to speak a little bit about. Set me as a seal upon thine heart. You know our hearts are the sphere where we feel love. It is the place that God has made us with affections, with capability of showing love, of feeling love. We all like to be loved.
And hear the Lord Jesus says, Set me as a seal upon thine heart, in other words.
The Lord Jesus is saying I love you, but I don't want you to go sharing.
Your love with others. I want you for me and nobody else. Just like when a young man asks a young lady to marry him.
What would he say if she said?
Sure, I'll marry you, but I'd like to have maybe 10% for another fella I've got on the string.
You know that it could not be tolerable. Absolutely. Even though she would say maybe only 5% for somebody else. Absolutely not.
Everything or nothing? And are we giving to the Lord Jesus less than what we would expect from a girl if we would ask her her hand in marriage?
The Lord Jesus is saying to you, set me as a seal.
Upon your heart, if you're going to accept my love, I want you all, not just part of you. Everything.
Oh, it's important, dear young people, to respond to His love.
Maybe I've told you before, but I remember when I was.
Still single and.
Longing for a companion in life, I went to the Los Angeles conference at that time. It was.
00:30:05
Forget where it was held exactly.
But directly after the conference, Doug Buchanan and I were going down into Mexico to preach the gospel, an area of Mexico called Durango where they still sling their guns and use them on each other. And it was about a 24 hour bus ride down into Mexico and.
The conference, my friend Doug, he was a good friend of mine for a long time. Doug Buchanan, He'd gotten married and kind of left me feeling kind of lonely, and he was sitting beside me, but he didn't know.
That in my heart I was miserable.
And unconsciously, at that conference, I had gotten my thoughts on a companion in life I'd like.
A companion to be my wife.
And I was miserable and I finally came to myself and.
Said Lord. Here I am going down to tell these people in Durango how they can be happy by accepting.
His savior and I'm the most miserable guy on this bus. What's wrong? I was just as if the Lord came to me and said.
But you've got some other object in front of you.
You want to be married?
And he said to me at that moment, he said, could you be satisfied just with me?
If you could never be married.
Oh Lord, don't ask me to do that.
That's too hard. You ordain marriage. What's wrong with it? And the struggle went on in my soul.
It was tough for quite a while, Doug didn't realize what was going on in my heart.
But finally, the Lord gave me the grace to say, Lord Jesus, I know you can satisfy my heart. I'm willing to say no to marriage.
And I could never forget the change that it was. My soul was like from night to bright day. He just flooded my soul with his love. He wants you, dear young person, but he doesn't want you to put up reserves.
He doesn't want you to put conditions, he wants you all.
And was shortly after that the Lord showed me my wife wasn't that he wanted to deprive me, but he taught me that lesson before I got married. And I thank God that I learned that lesson before I got married. Christ and Christ alone can satisfy your hearts.
Set me as a seal upon your heart.
Don't let any other love in, even the love of Christ. And then it says as a seal upon thine arm. For love is strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave. I can never understand that for the longest time. What does it mean? Love is strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave.
No, the Lord is jealous.
He gave his life to pay for you.
To buy you back from Satan's power. To redeem you.
And he's going to have US1 way or the other, he's going to have us.
You know what the death does? It shuts out all other loves.
And the grave put somebody in the grave can't embrace that person any longer.
He's saying I want you.
100% still remember down in Bolivia one time.
We were asked to go preach the word at a funeral of a man who I suppose was nominally Catholic, but he wasn't.
In good stead with the Catholic Church. So when he died suddenly through an accident of getting burned badly.
It was two weeks before his wedding was to be held need die. 75% of his body was burned.
And.
We were called out there and had a good opportunity to preach the gospel to the people that were there. But I could never forget in Bolivia they have these big walls of niches and holes that you slide the casket in and then seal it off.
And there was the casket sitting outside the hole, ready to be shoved in, sealed off. And the Gray and graveyard workers were waiting there to do their work. But before they could push that.
00:35:15
Casket into that hole. That poor girl had lost her husband to be ran up to that casket and put her arms around it and and and cried in a loud voice. They had to come and pry her loose, love.
As strong as death, jealousy, as cruel as the grave. If you don't let the Lord have his claims in your life, he may allow something drastic to happen. Just as if he would say.
You don't enjoy my love here, you let other things come in to impede your enjoyment of my love when I loved you so much.
I went into death for you. Now I'm going to take you away to a place where you can enjoy my love without any impediment.
Doesn't have to be that way, dear young person, but he's a jealous God.
He doesn't want you letting your heart run in after everything there is in this world.
He wants you to enjoy and reciprocate his love. One other further thing I want to challenge you young people with love is not so much what we say, it's shown in what we do. It's easy to say I love you.
But it's another matter to show it and love. You show more than you talk about. If you and I love the Lord Jesus, let's show it. How do you show it? By serving Him is one way you show it by being obedient to Him.
He's asked us to remember him in his death. Are you doing that? It's not a great thing he's asked you to do. Remember Me, he said.
And then to serve him. I'm astounded when I go into South America and to.
Areas that are very inhospitable, how many people are willing for other purposes, sometimes for political purposes, sometimes at the risk of their lives, they're willing to go in.
And risk their lives for some kind of A cause? Is it too much to ask you, dear young people?
To serve the Lord, it has to start in your hometowns, in your home assembly.
There's some.
Person that needs help, some sister perhaps that has.
A lot of family to take care of that needs some help, maybe some old sister that doesn't have anybody to take care of her house. Remember washing windows for an old lady in the meeting where I was a number of years in Chicago. It was a blessing to me. But there's a lot of things that could be done for the Lord Jesus. I don't want to challenge you to use your life.
To show your gratitude to the Lord Jesus for His love for you. There's so much that could be done.
There's people starving in other parts of the world. Never.
Having heard the precious name of Jesus, I heard the other day that they say there's.
Approximately, they calculate 1 billion people that have never heard the name of Jesus even.
Do you have any responsibility in connection with that fact? I feel convicted.
I feel convicted about it.
I just want to leave that with you. There's a lot that can be done. You say I'm weak.
I can't do very much. I say you have something the Lord has given you that you can do.
For Him, serve Him in love. That's the response he looks for in your life and mine. Just pray, gracious Father, thanks for Thy precious word. Thanks for the way it speaks to us so plainly. Lord, help us to listen.
Thy word might not have been spoken in vain tonight.
Commend ourselves for the rest of the evening and the.
Food, we think, is waiting for us upstairs. To Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Next, we're giving thanks to the refreshments. We do have a refreshment young people. I think what we'll do, we have to set up a table here to bring it all down here. And I think if you would like, some of you should take a chair to go up and sit out back lawn. There's a medical back there.
00:40:17
Pass in front of the table there in the kitchen and pick up what you'd like. There's some drinks, there's some cookies such as this and and let you go on outside that'll get you out of here. A bit cooler out there.
Or you come back here and keep your.
Gospel
Gospel—B. Warr
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We have time.
Sometimes we think because of what we see around us and we're victims of routine and custom.
Think that time is permanent.
This song tells us that time is gliding swiftly by.
But really, in a certain sense, it isn't.
Time doesn't pass. Men pass. Time waits for them.
What time they spent here is waiting for them.
One step away in the fire. This world is already condemned. First Corinthians Chapter 11, verse 32. But when we were judged, I'm not talking to an unbeliever here. I'm talking to believers that might be sitting in this room.
And you might be looking at us. You might be looking around to see what you can see in us believers. You might be deciding your eternal destiny based on what you see around you.
This verse tells us that it's true. God will chasten us. We are His.
But he chastens us so that we should not be condemned with the world.
Not be condemned with the word.
Where is already condemned? Where would you take your stand? Where would you be?
And God closes it all in. He finishes his offer of mercy. And it may be that I don't finish the sentence I'm working on right now because the Lord Jesus is coming.
God owes it to Jesus Christ to shut this place down and bring him back in glory.
He owes it to Jesus Christ all the glory which belongs to him.
This world because it took its place.
Against Christ is condemned.
Anyone sitting here tonight?
Refusing the Lord Jesus will be condemned with this world.
Time for you is passing.
Your opportunities are going by.
Maybe this is the last one, because the Lord Jesus is coming and he's going to take it and make a shout and all of his own, All of us belong to Him by faith. Everyone over the face of the earth, we're going to meet him in the clouds.
Never again.
You hear a lot of mercy from God.
Sealed in a doom unavoidable.
Because.
He refused God's offers of mercy, eternal love, offering eternal salvation.
Refusing by a hard heart who says no, I'll take my stand with this world against God.
Condemned with this world.
Like to read some passages First I'd like to go to Luke 16.
I want to read about a man who was here.
He is not here now, but he is.
Luke 16, verse 19.
And I read it this way for emphasis.
There is.
A certain rich man.
There is a certain rich man.
Which was clothed.
And purple and fine linen. And fared sumptuously every day.
There was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores.
Desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.
Moreover, the dogs came and licked his swords.
It came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. A rich man also died and was buried in hell. He lift up, his eyes being in torments.
See if Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.
Cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me.
In Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water. Cool my tongue, for I'm tormented in this flame.
Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things, likewise Lazarus, evil things.
Now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
Beside all this, between US and you there's a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from instant you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from fence. And he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou would send him to my house, to my father's house.
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We have 5 brethren. He may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith on him. They have Moses and the prophets that can hear him.
And he said, Nay, father Abraham, But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
Instead unto him, if they hear not Moses in the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though 1 rose from the dead.
It was a man.
I should say here is a man.
That man is tonight.
I mean, it's not he used to be here in this work.
And he passed his days in this world.
And he lived sumptuously. He lived in pleasures all of his life.
Let's look at Ecclesiastes Chapter 7.
In verse 4.
The heart of the wise is in the funeral parlor.
But the heart of proves in the House of murder.
Verse 6 Where is the ********* of thorns under a pot? So is the laughter of the fool.
This also is benefit.
You know, we're passing through a world.
And the only hope this world has is what this book says.
And we're passing through this world that is in such a condition.
That the only wisdom it has.
Is in a funeral park.
He goes universities. You don't learn anything about the truth.
You go to the president's palaces, you don't learn anything about the truth.
The only place in this world that is telling the truth is the House of mourning.
I don't think I've ever heard in my life anyone said, well, let's go out tonight, let's go to the funeral parlor.
That's where the truth is told. Death is here, sin is here, and the Lord Jesus, I want to tell you, was here.
No longer here.
Least fools, this world of fools and the world is existing now for a test for believers and to manifest fools.
Immersive Foods.
How much effort is spent in this world to create laughter?
They get a little chuckle out of people.
Like the ********* of thorns under the pot.
Am I telling you something that isn't evident and true?
Is there someone here who would join Remain with the Fools?
And say, I'll take this world, I'll believe what it says. I refuse what God says.
Cain did that.
Cain was not ignorant.
Cain heard God say the earth was cursed, but he believed what the devil said. No it's not. Tells us that in first John that he was of the wicked one. He believed what the devil said.
And apart from this book and all that blows from this book.
You're just believing what the devil says.
Total system built up down here.
By the enemy of souls, to deceive people until they.
End up in the Lake fire.
This man, back to our chapter.
This man, he lived in pleasures and he was a fool. He lived in the banqueting houses.
God and His faithfulness had left at his doorstep.
A witness.
And I say that because.
He sees Lazarus with Abraham as a messenger because he says send him to my father's house. I have brothers there.
God laid at this man's doorstep.
A beg.
And this man passed him by, I believe, many days on his way out to have fun and pleasure and living sumptuously every day. And there was a man who was there saying, you've got to acknowledge God.
00:10:07
You've got to come to terms with God. This life has an end. You're going to die. He laughed at it and chose.
Verse.
25 Abraham. By the way, this is the first. I guess it's the only prayer I know of in the Bible is made to ascent.
Today, many prayers are made sense.
Don't work. They can't help. Abraham himself didn't help. Abraham is not a savior.
This man could claim Father Abraham. Abraham would look at him and say son.
That man in hell is his son, remember?
That thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things.
That man has made a choice.
He says these will be my things, this is good, that's bad. It was thy good things, his own choice that he made, and he spent it all because what he had chosen had nothing beyond this life.
And he had received everything that he had come.
And by his own choice.
You know they one day they held his funeral.
While his friends are on earth, sorrowing and weeping, perhaps over his death, he was in hell lamenting his life.
He didn't get away from that life.
Time didn't pass for him. He passed through and went on outward. That was waiting for him. All that he had spent in time was there waiting for him.
A fool.
Pass through the scene.
Opportunities is every day.
Refused to choose.
Good in this world which is totally used up.
The days you spend here, nothing leftover.
Only one light.
Will soon be fast.
The entire.
Only was done for Christ, but last.
Again, I say that God owes it to the man Jesus Christ to shut the whole system down because it's against Christ.
May put on a facade.
That has a name of Christian over many places in it. The Bible calls it a present evil age. The Bible says that God made foolish the wisdom of this world because it was the wisdom of this world, a crucified Christ.
Was not an uncontrolled mob.
Was the legal court system. It was the religious leaders of the day sitting down to calculate the very best thing to do.
Crucified. Crucified.
It's the world we live in.
That's the world we're going to leave.
The Lord Jesus one day in Acts chapter one, he just ascended up on high.
I was impressed by the brother that read the verse yesterday. I believe it was they said Jesus went on his way.
You know, he was rejected, he was insulted, he was, he was smitten, he was beaten and he just kept on his way.
And he went on his way in Acts chapter one in Resurrection. He ascended and left this world as it was.
You know we're going to send very shortly us who believe and leave it just like it is.
Will be found left behind, condemned with this world.
Be in time. These words are not just words that we have here as some way to to speak things that aren't true. They're solemn words. And if this man could speak for himself tonight.
But he can't. You have God's word.
That's enough.
Believe what God says.
God to save you sinners.
Men in Hell.
With the bizarre.
We don't know that they ever prayed before this.
Here he's found praying.
Nobody can help.
00:15:01
Nobody can help.
And tonight you are on your way. If you do not have the Lord Jesus, they're on the way to join this man.
And there you lift up your eyes. You won't see other men around you. This man has no complaints. He's not. No. He has no accusations. It's also evident in his own soul. He says I deserve to be here.
He's not accusing anybody, he's not finding any friends to have fun with. He's in utter misery without and within, and he can only lift up his eyes and see what.
When he lost.
I think that the stinging, burning conscience forever will remind a lost Sinner what he lost, what he had God offered him and he refused it. And he's there justly and righteously. This man doesn't see heaven open before him, he doesn't see all the people, and he only sees that messenger that he kept saying no one laughing at and wouldn't even help out a beggar.
He only sees him and Lazarus and Abraham, in whom he had trusted as his.
Father by natural birth he sees those two.
And they're far off from him.
There is an abyss.
Fixed and you can only see an accessible things that once he could have had.
He wants a drink of water. I'm tormenting this fling from without. He's burning. Oh, he says. If I could just have a drop of water in my tongue. He didn't have a tongue.
He had these things he just craved for he could never satisfy. Part and parcel with his sufferings, the loss of tournament.
He's not asking to get out. He knows that's where he belongs.
Are you trying to fool me tonight?
Kind of fool your mother and dad.
Maybe your friends?
There's no pulling off.
And this man lives sumptuously every day. I imagine a lot of his neighbors said, oh, that man has everything.
But he leapt up, his eyes in hell.
He will write this moment. He's still in hand. From now on he will be in torment on into the lake of fire forever and ever.
We talked much about the Lord Jesus and his glory is One of his glories is.
Turn all the sinners there.
God owes it to him, He will do it.
Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things. What are your good things?
Maybe some good thing that you say, No, I want this. I won't choose this. God is setting forth life and death. God is setting forth life in the Lord Jesus. He's setting forth death in the refusal of the Lord Jesus.
He's setting forth that you may have another minute in this world and you may not.
Because.
Time is riding swiftly by, and you have no guarantee that you'll ever see another sunrise. You have no guarantee you'll ever see the moon come up.
You're only here at his good pleasure, and He's offering in his own good pleasure. He has kept you so you can hear this word again.
And he's warning you without Christ.
That it won't go on forever. It's going to stop. This message will be stopped.
We may be left outside.
Concert practices come from the Lord Jesus.
The doors open.
Won't always be open.
This man looks up.
He's in torment.
All clear now.
All of his life is clear. Abraham knows about it. I don't know about he wasn't God. He's not on a mission. He not hadn't been up there looking down on this man, following his life. No. When you get there, when you pass through death, when you pass through that, everything is cleared.
Close all set.
And all with no solution.
Soil, Abraham says to him. You, you made your choice.
00:20:05
You chose your good things.
Say that Lazarus chose his good things. I mean his things that he called, He was said that he received evil things. But that's the only evilness world as it appeared to me. Just as this man chose his good things, Lazarus was just obedient. He received what appeared to man to be evil.
Because it was the will of God and Lazarus might have just pleaded with this man over and over again.
But now it's too late.
And tonight, I'm sure anyone here that if they knew you were lost, if they knew you were just hiding behind a friend or a relative, everyone here would plead with you. Everyone here would be on their knees weeping to cause you to stop. Stop before it's too late. Because this offered a wondrous glory of that man Christ Jesus setting being set forth as.
Sinners is going to stop.
We're going to be caught away in any instant after that moment.
This gospel is over.
Where would you be?
Who said you are where you want to be?
If you want to be with the Lord Jesus, oh he's got his arms open, a welcome. Come, come unto me, all you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest.
Verse 27 he said, I pray thee, therefore, Father, that was sent into my Father's house.
Five Brethren.
Testifying to them, lest they also have come into this place of torment.
This man didn't love his brother.
There's no love down there.
It would only add in their presence would have only been another pain in his conscience for those times he had lived in such a way to influence him to get there.
Nothing but the misery, then.
He no, he wouldn't have had he seen his five brothers there with, with Lazarus, he wouldn't have been comforted. Oh, there's no comforting.
You know, we have a very easy life, most of us.
A lot of comfort in our times of trouble, A lot of help.
A lot of prayers. There's a man who ended up all alone. Utter misery, no hope.
Is that where you want to go?
Are you willing to tell God?
No, one more time.
You know this book ends with the word Amen.
One of these days, God's going to say Amen to what you say. You're going to say no, you'll say Amen. Shut it up.
I want to say no one more time.
No, I would take the side of the Lord Jesus Christ and I would say come to the Lord Jesus, come.
Believe and be saved.
2nd Corinthians chapter 2 I believe it is.
Verse 14.
And thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph, or always leads us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place.
We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved, and in them in them that perish. To the one we are a saver of death, and the death, and the other savour of life unto life.
Who is sufficient for these things?
I look at this world as a place.
Where when they look for wisdom.
A man would be walking down the street, we will suppose. And you see what? What is all this? Where can I find any answer to what I see here?
Someone would direct him over there on the corner.
It's a funeral parlor over there.
Let's say, well, that's the funeral park.
That's death.
That's the answer.
A House of mourning. He looks at it. He says, well, that's foolishness.
00:25:02
That God made foolish the wisdom of this world, and the world by wisdom with whose they rejected God.
They look at the things of God is foolish and they would say that's foolishness.
House of mourning.
But the Lord Jesus has turned the House of mourning into a House of rejoicing.
As for you, me, for everybody.
Don't be deceived by what you see with your eyes. Believe what this book says.
I look at this passage.
As we've been told, or we've heard before of a general who has gone out and he's conquered the foe and he comes back and trailing behind him is a string of captives and chains.
And here's this man, this general, coming in with all the incense and honor and glory of a winner, a victor.
And he comes down the street and there are these in changes. Somebody would look and say, oh, those poor people, they're going to go down and they're going to be killed. They're going to be burned down here in the middle of town.
Look at those poor captives.
I look at another one who would see that He'd see that general going by.
So let me be one of them.
Let me take my place with him.
I'm getting I won't let my place in the chains to follow that general.
As a savior, we want to talk about tonight. To the world, it looks like he's It's all foolishness and death. But there is that beloved man who is leading on his own out to where he wants to have us.
How does it look to you?
Is it a savour of death? Hunter death?
Life unto life. Oh, for anyone here who has.
But themselves in the chains to follow that general, they would shout at me just life unto life.
Kind men speak of time passing. They have past times.
This poor man in our chapter.
Found out that he couldn't get away from his time.
Time and eternity come together here. This man steps from time out into eternity.
He didn't leave it all behind. Oh how he could wish he had never been born. Oh, I could wish he could just walk away from that life that he had chosen. That to him, looks so good.
We all waited for him.
As he lift up his eyes in torment in the fire.
Thought Abraham would be able to help him.
Abraham couldn't help.
He wanted God to give him, give his bread and another, give him a chance, send Lazarus back over there. I had my chances. I heard Liza and I refused him, sending to my brethren too late.
Too late.
Like to read and apply a few verses in Matthew's Gospel. I believe it's.
17.
16.
Verse 26.
What is a man profit that if he gained the whole world?
Move his own self.
Precious treasure of your soul.
We would be impressed if a man came in on this city block.
A man that might own the city was a state.
We'd be impressed with such wealth.
God looks in on it and says, Thou fool.
If you gain the whole world.
Lose your own soul.
But till a man give.
In exchange for his soul.
The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels. The Lord Jesus is coming back.
I say it again, God owes it to him.
He'll come to the clouds and give a shout.
00:30:03
Everyone of us who believe we're going to have the happiest day of our lives.
And we see Jesus.
We're going to leave behind.
I'm afraid maybe someone from this very room this don't have the Saturday.
Their lives they will have said no to God on time to men.
Never again. Another opportunity, say.
Bible says a person who's heard this word and said no to God in this word, God himself will send him a working of error that he would believe a lot.
And the Lord Jesus, he uses this. I want to apply it to us today. The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father. It's a day on down when we come back from heaven with him.
And then he will reward him and go his works. Very not seeing you there be some standing here.
It shall not taste of death.
So they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.
You know if he comes and we expect him to night.
The only seven years old over.
We come back to this point. How old are you, 2017?
30.
30 years old. At the age of 38, this would have already happened to seven years in some.
Very close and when the Lord Jesus was standing there, he was Speaking of his own glory manifest to them. But I want to use this tonight to say.
Could be someone sitting in this room tonight.
Not pass through death until they see the Son of Man coming on the floor.
Sinner, heed the warning voice.
And to Lord, your happy choice.
And all heaven will rejoice.
There's coming that moment.
When the Lord Jesus.
Has to have his public glory. He has to have is his waiting there in glory, waiting for you to say yes.
He's waited this long, almost 2000 years to hear you say yes.
You will say yes.
The offer holds this.
But it's not saying that tomorrow he's going to offer to you again.
In time, this end is surely coming. And he has given us this story. He has opened up his book and he's telling us about a man that's in torment tonight as a warning. He's telling about this man who had every opportunity, just as you have.
And refuses. He's there now.
In Torment.
The world is nothing more than a lie.
Built up to make these issues confusing.
That the Lord Jesus is the only savior. He's a willing savior, a loving savior, a pleading savior. We could use that expression.
And he wants to save you, as he saved me, as he saved many others.
John 10:1-6
Reading
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Verily, verily, I say unto you.
He that entereth not by the door into the seat hold, but climbeth up some other way.
The same as the thief and the robber.
But he that entered by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the Porter opener and the sheep hear his voice, and he called up his own sheep by name.
And lead it somehow, and when he put it toward his own sheet, he goeth before them.
Unless she follow him.
For they know of his voice.
And the stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him.
So they know not the voice of strangers.
This parable thank Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were, which he spake unto them.
That said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
All that ever came before me.
Are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door by me if any man enter in.
He shall be saved.
And so go in and out and find Pastor.
The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I am calm that they might have.
Life and that they might have it more abundantly.
I have the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
But he that is entirely.
And not the Shepherd.
Whose own the sheep are not. See if the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep, and flee it, and the wolf catches them, and scatter it. The sheep the Harding cleeth, because he is in hireling.
Sheareth not for the sea.
I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep, and have known of mine as the Father knoweth me. Even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Another sheep I have which are not of this whole. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold, one flop, and one stepper. Therefore God my Father loved me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man take a fish from me, but I lay it down on myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received on my father.
There was a division, therefore, again among the Jews for these sakes, and many of them said He had the devil and his mad. Why hear you him?
Others said these are not the words of him that had the devil.
And the devil opened the eyes of the blind.
And it was a Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.
Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long just thou make us doubt if they'll be the Christ? Tell us plainly.
Jesus answered them, I told you.
And he believed not The works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me. But you believe not, because you're not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
My sheep here, my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them.
Eternal, right?
They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father, which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand.
00:05:04
I and my father are one.
Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them. Many good works have I showed you from my Father. For which of these words?
Release told me the Jews answered him saying for a good work we stoned enough, but for blasphemy, because the thou being a man make us thyself God.
Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law? I said, We are gods, if he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken. Say ye of him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, God blasphemous, because I said, I am the Son of God.
If I do not the works of my father, believe me not. But if I do.
Though ye believe not me, believe the words.
That you may know and believe that the Father is in thee, and I in him. Therefore they sought again to take him.
But he escaped out of their hand and went away again, beyond Jordan, into the place where John has first baptized. And there he evolved.
And then he resorted to him and said John didn't know miracles, but all things that John's think of this man were true and many believed on him there.
I think you know this chapter in the light of.
Number of prayers that have referred us to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe we get him.
In this chapter in some unique ways.
First verse he says, I say unto you.
That should give way to what we see here.
Then he is the door.
And there is a door out.
The door in and out.
You don't go out, you won't go in now.
Out of man and his efforts to please God, to find a standing with God, or to merit some goodness, merit some favor from God.
Get out of that, into what God is for us, and then we go in and out into His own heart.
Let's see.
An example in the chapter of Going In is.
First verses 14 and 15.
And take the period out from between the two. I believe is the new translation to give it its force.
I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, Even so know I the Father.
And have known of mine as the Father knoweth me.
That's going in.
What do we see when we get in there? Oh, for this cause my father loved me.
Brought in to joy.
Was there in the heart of God there for us? This man, this one, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who the Lord brings us there. He personally brings us into those things.
Can I say without going out?
We don't go in and out. Those in verse 7, verse six, they understood not what he said.
Because they were still standing before God on some merit of their own.
Those who these Pharisees to whom he's speaking.
This is a very.
Very important chapter and I say it gives us a dispensational picture of a change in dispensations. The Lord enters the sheepfold, which is Judaism, through the door, which is the proper way of entry. We all came in through the door. When we came into this room, I didn't see anyone climbing through a window.
00:10:02
We all came in through the door. The proper way of entrance into the sheepfold was.
According to the scriptures of the Old Testament.
He was to be born of a virgin.
Of the seed of David.
Town of Bethlehem, and you can cite many, many scriptures that were literally fulfilled when He entered his people, Israel. He came unto His own. His own received Him, not the way in which He came was according to the scriptures of the Old Testament. There are others probably more capable than myself to cite them.
I can refer to a few, but the the sheepfold is Judaism.
And he found in the sheepfold Jewish sheep.
His sheep that were in the sheep fold.
And he's the door of the sheep says in verse seven, he was the proper way of the sheep who were in that sheep bowl that confined that Christianity is not a fold. Christianity is a flock, a liberty not in a confinement such as a sheepfold is that was Judaism.
It was a constricted place. They were separated.
By strict walls of separation from the gentile nations round about the.
And one that was born into that sheepfold was a Jew. Question wasn't raised in the Old Testament whether he's born again or not. But if he was in that sheepfold, he was an Israelite. And in that sheepfold, though, there were those that were born again, those that were not. So he had his sheep in that sheepfold. Not all of those that were in that sheepfold were those that he could say were my sheep.
But those that were his sheep.
He called them out of that sheepfold into something far grander and more blessed. That is the liberty of Christianity. So in the first verse, he enters by the door into the sheepfold. That's the door of the sheepfold, just like we entered the into the by the door into this room.
So he came by the door, then he becomes the door of the sheep. He becomes the proper way that the sheep can leave Judaism for a Jew, even if he was a saved Jew, even if he was born again to abandon Judaism until the true shepherd of the sheep had come.
Into the sheepfold and LED them out would have been apostasy. They couldn't do it. They had to remain in the sheepfold. The only way they could legitimately leave the sheepfold was for the shepherd of the sheep to go into the sheepfold through the door and then be the the door of the sheep to leave them out. And then in verse 9, he's the door of entry into the blessings of Christianity.
So he's the door of exit from the sheepfold bringing his Jewish sheep out, and then he's the door entry.
Into the blessings and we can develop all these precious things into the blessings of Christianity. And then he tells us later on in the chapter, other sheep I have which are not of this sheepfold, they're not Jews, they're Gentiles. They also, I must friend, there shall be one, not one full. That spells the whole picture. One flock. We're not a fold, we're a flock. Now the folder refers to Judaism, the clock refers to Christianity. Well, that's just a little outline.
We have here, but it's such a precious truth developed.
We can enter into developing the epistles, so one week please. Ephesians 2 speaks up the same thing, only there.
That isn't Speaking of us as Sheikh, you know. It speaks of that which has to do with the body of Christ consisting out of Jews and Gentiles. But they're true. There's this new thing formed.
Why would you not reach out that to sleep in the cold? We're not necessarily only referring to those that were born again, you know, because this is one important truth. In this 10th chapter he refers.
To us from among the Gentiles as she when he had not yet heard the shepherds voice. How do we understand that we can only understand that when we know election and predestination you know and Paul was told in Corinth that he should remain there because.
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Bob had a lot of the Lord had a lot of people in that city that were yet to be saved. Is that tremendous. The Lord refers to people as his sheep when they haven't heard yet the shepherds voice, but he will call them and isn't that tremendous find word is she called you know this is what he's still doing today. You know and Paul says I'm going to do all things for you for your life's sake that they also.
Change salvation and Christianity is already That is not a legal enclosure. It is not a set of rules.
And yet we do see that the natural mind always tries to look at Christianity in a similar way as Judaism. You know, that it is set of rules and regulations to which we abide. Just think of the Amish and people like that, you know, has deteriorated completely to outward things. There are those amongst the Mennonites who are affected very much by outward things.
Yet there might still be much of the gospel left with some of them. But.
When the emphasis is on rules and regulations, that destroys the spirit of Christianity, safety and Christianity is found by following the Shepherd. You know, it's tremendous to realize he leads them all. He doesn't drive them home, He leads them all. But I remember her. Gordon made the comment once when we were reading this chapter.
In verse four, when he put it forth his own sheep, that seems to be a more forceful way, you know, leading out or putting forth. You know, sometimes we give the care for the hard time to lead us out of legal ideas that we have and legal associations and he might have to make more of a push, you might say.
We put it forth his own sheet.
Wonderful that he had a shepherd, and safety as Christians is found in walking closely to the Shepherd and following him, having our eyes on him.
What's characteristic of a block is that it has a center, a shepherd point of attraction. That's the difference between a full. The full, like has been said, is a corral, as the word is used in Spanish. It's a fence around that she keeps the sheep in, but there's no point of attraction in that fence. It's just a fence that keeps them together.
That the clock is the thought of a central point of attraction.
That's why in this chapter the person of the Lord Jesus is brought out so beautifully. Brethren, if we're not attracted to Christ, there is no power in the truth gathering to us. It's so important that Christ be magnified His person. It's not what we are as brethren. It's not even what we stand for. That is the point of attraction. It's the person of Christ that is the point of.
That's the flock. That's the thought of the block. It's interesting that in the 9th chapter you get an illustration perhaps of what we're talking about. In this 10th chapter you have the man that was blind and was given his sight by the Lord Jesus, and he was cast out of the synagogue, the Jewish enclosure.
And then he meets with the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus asks, And dost thou believe on the Son of God?
And he wasn't that intelligent, yet he says, who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
The Lord Jesus puts his glorious person before that man, and he believed and he worshipped. That's Christianity, having Christ before it's being drawn to him. Otherwise, brethren, for as much as we might put up enclosures.
Our young people, our children are going to climb the fence and go off otherwise.
They won't keep in keep offense won't work. It's already been shown that it just won't work.
God is set before us, a person to be attracted.
Verses of our Lord Jesus.
And could you not say but about we don't get the right understanding of Chapter 10 unless we read Chapter 9? Because these men who cast out the men born blind were in the position of shepherds in Israel. But what kind of shepherds were they? And then he contrasted to them. You have the Good Shepherd, good chapter 2.
00:20:23
And he wasn't intend to present the truth in such a way that that we look upon ourselves as the faithful plot and the others are outside in their really enclosures, vehicle enclosures ourselves.
Inside amongst ourselves, it's just natural to us to become legal and to to make a little fence around a certain group, another fence over here there's a certain group based upon certain beliefs. Are we not capable of doing that? Have we not guilty of doing that this year?
And that's why it's so good to see what Christianity is in the mind of God, and then ask ourselves, am I in conformity with the mind of God, or have I reverted back to a form of Judaism?
And that's so natural to us, isn't it? If we can't say I, we can say we were occupied with ourselves as a little group, Mr. Darby says. Sectarianism is getting interested in a little circle around ourselves to the exclusion of others. What characterized the Brethren movement in the first?
Years was a heart so large as to embrace all the things of God, but walking in a narrow path. And I fear that what's happened is the path has become broader and the heart has become narrower.
And this is the great evil that we have to deal with and recognize and judge. We have to judge. What can we do about it? We have to judge you and say, I was that way once. I can say that I was that way once. I trust by grace I've been delivered from that spirit. It's a wrong spirit.
And this is what we see here as Bob was just saying, it's it's, it's being around a person, Christ the Lord Jesus and.
Maybe more can be said on that, but I see all that here. Like to defeat a verse in First Corinthians 11 along that line.
Verse 18.
Thank you.
Well, first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you.
And I partly believe it or partly give credit to it or something like that.
On them because of their state of salt.
That is, it was a state of soul that was brought about by preferring people. Brothers, they don't say I am of the doctrine of baptism.
They say I am appalled or I am a seat. They were referring to brothers that they preferred and gathered around the brother.
You see, that's our danger is that we have preferences.
But all our brethren are there.
Now, as to the center of attraction for my heart.
Only one.
That boy, we cannot say go to the Church of your choice because there's only one attracting center, one Christ that will break us. If I still have another attraction, then I have a choice.
The Christ, the presentation of God the Son, the eternal Son of God in the world. When he came here, he just eliminated everything and he clips everything else and he himself.
Is the manifestation God Manifestation flesh?
And drawn to him. And that's where my where I'm drawn to him. My heart will include all.
But if I'm impressed by some brother and I'm drawn to some brother to the exclusion of others.
And I was just about reading it referred to 1St says you popped up for some against another. You cannot be puffed up for some without being puffed up against another. Only Christ.
Him before the soul he might. Joy gives me that liberty of loving all my brethren.
00:25:04
How do I know I love the children of God? Well, John tells us, I love God. He was command.
There shall be one clock. We had very much ministry about the one body. I believe we should have emphasized this statement in John chapter 10. One plot, one shepherd.
And when they look round about and even look into our own heart.
We can think of my clock, you know, the minister of our church, my people, we might say our assembly, our reaching, you see, isn't any physical the same thing you see? And in Luke Chapter 9.
We have to decide for.
Tell the Lord Jesus that they saw some two miracles in His name who didn't follow with us.
Sectarianism, you see, And the Lord answers accordingly and he says.
And in the correct rendering, it doesn't say he did. He's not against us. He says he that is not against you is for you. Know the answers according to the Secretary of Ideas manifested in the objection, but in Chapter 11.
We have what Jesus saying he that is not with me is against me and he gatherers not with me together you see, and the sectarian ideas people are not following with us. What difference does it make better people follow with us or with somebody else. The difference is today follow Christ. Are they ready are because of him? Are we where we are?
Because we believe the Lord Jesus is there, then we are where we're supposed to be and we are in the right state of soul. But when we are where we are because of some gifted teachers there or some nice people, sooner or later they'll disappoint us and we deserve to be disappointed.
But when we are where we are because of Christ, because we see Him in the midst of this ability to our course, and then He is what the Lord is looking for, there is no man may ever be as godly and as gifted worthy as being made the center of coming together. There is nobody like that but prizes. And that is in God's thought, the center given to God's people.
Himself.
Fall two. It's not just the fact he told me to be there.
That he is there.
And I fear, you know, we pick up a salt like stay in the boat because he said to be there.
But the real thought is he is there and I am drawn to him, and then he becomes a Sinner. He becomes my source of life. I live because he lives. Not that I'm just keeping some commandment to be where he told me to be. It's a difference.
There were, getting back to the chapter, there were false shepherds and they were those that climbed up some other way, he says. The same as the thief and Robert, but.
He that entered in by the door, proper way of entry into the Jewish sheepfold is the shepherd of the sheep. He met all of the scriptures. He fulfilled them all. No one else did. That's how you can tell who is the true shepherd, Who is the one that entered in by the door? Who's the one that came according to the scriptures of the Old Testament predicting the coming of the Messiah, the shepherd of the sheep.
There was only one Shepherd and all the others were false.
They were thieves and robbers.
And then it says in verse three to him the Porter open it.
And the sheep hear his voice. That's what characterizes the sheep. They hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. Not only did he enter in by the door, but the Porter, the Holy Spirit, opened the door as he entered.
He He was born of the Spirit, He was begotten of the Holy Spirit, He came, and the Spirit of God, even through John the Baptist, announced Him as the one that came to him before her open.
00:30:05
So he came and he was says in First Timothy 3/16, He was justified in spiritual spirit of God. He was born of the Spirit, he was led of the spirit.
And the door was opened.
The Spirit of God came upon him.
As adult, and in a vote upon Him upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on Him, the same as He with Baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw on their record that this is the Son of God. There we have the testimony of it to him. The quarter opened, the Spirit of God came upon him. Open the door. It was the turn the side.
I think it's important that little comment.
Verse three and then mentioned the number of times through this chapter.
The sheep here, his voice, I just like to stop that it to reflect on that. It's so easy to sit in meetings like this and listen nearly to what's being said about the Scripture, and it's helpful. I'm not saying anything against that, but.
Do you and I, as we come together, have an ear that's open to his voice? It's easy to have these ears of our.
They were passing on the side of our heads open and we're listening to what's said, but do we hear his voice? Sometimes it's interesting and preaching the gospel sometimes to notice those that are listening. You can tell sometimes that there are those that are listening to what's being said, but they're listening in the way that you can tell that the ears of their heart are shut. They do not want to let the word get in.
And how important it is when we open this good brother, young people and children that are here to have your ears open, to listen, to let the word penetrate, not to put up any conditions. As that word comes into our heart, let it penetrate right into the depths of our hearts. Are we listening? Are we listening?
It's possible to sit in the meetings and not listen, even though you're listening to what brethren are saying.
Saying that, you're not really listening, you're not really hearing.
Seven times over and it addresses to the seven churches. The challenge is given he that half an ear tooth here, let him hear.
Rather than I sometimes sit down in the morning to read my chapter and I read through it, there's so many other things in my mind that when I get done with the chapter, say what have I heard?
I have to confess I haven't gotten any. It hasn't penetrated. I have to go back over the chapter again. Let something penetrate into my heart. Let something be heard of his mouth. Oh, it's precious. And that's what's characteristic of a true believer in the Lord Jesus. One of the ones he calls my sheep, that they hear his voice. Are we hearing?
Young people, are you listening?
But the ear thing?
I said Princess among brethren, give a weight to the word because somebody so and so said it and takes away from the weight of the word because somebody else said thinking of some of three scriptures in relation to what was said about the Lord Jesus coming as the quarter opened the door. One is in loop, the end of loop, a well known verse that says.
Luke 24.
And verse 27.
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded on them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Then in.
2nd Corinthians chapter.
3.
Verse 17.
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If you notice the parenthesis in the new translation for the Darbys translation, what I say will, I think, coincide with it, puts the printers there. Now the Lord is that spirit. That is the spirit of the Old Testament.
We don't see the Lord in those Old Testament scriptures. We haven't gotten the mind of the Spirit there yet. The Lord is that spirit of it, of the Old Testament, and He is capitalized because it is in the power of the Holy Spirit. Colossians, chapter 2.
Verse 17.
Which are a shadow of things to come. But the body is of Christ. That's the substance of truth that casts the shadow.
Christ is the substance of it all. Christ is the body of it all that casts that shadow that we see in the Odessa shadow of things to come. Again, I say, reading our Bibles.
Everywhere you find Christ. If you don't, you don't yet see I say you, meaning us.
We don't yet see the mind of the Spirit of verses. He is going to unfold the wonders of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ in all these things, and there is no scripture exempt from these. He has in mind His beloved Son everywhere He writes anything in his book.
Would you tell us, brother, that the story of Joseph would be one of those pictures?
Really great. Now we're talking about that story on the way in this morning. It's just a captivating story.
Just unfold a little glimpse of some of the wonders of that man who is God and the power of it is sometimes when we tried to share. I was on the airplane a few years ago and I tried to I shared that story with the Jewish man. He was a Jewish doctor and very educated and I said to my you're familiar with the Old Testament, the story of Joseph. He said a little. So I rehearsed it with him and when I get up to Ace and that was the.
The daughter of the priest Iran was it that Joseph had for a bride?
When I got to that, he said stop, I don't want to hear anymore.
The power, that's what the point that I wanted to make. And you have presented to us the thought of what the Old Testament brings before us in picture form. And it all points to Christ. And that should be the delight of our hearts and how many ways we have opportunity to use for our own good and for the blessing of others.
In that chapter, the thread in Luke 24.
That incident.
He reveals to them everything in the Old Testament concerning himself, but then it's He himself who opens their understanding. That is it by the Spirit of God that we have come the ability to comprehend all that speaks of Christ in the Old Testament.
Not only is there that in the Old Testament that speaks of himself.
That we can lead and enjoy, but it's only by himself that is the spirit of God that can open up our understanding. We can't we can't get ahold of this or take it in in any any sense as to the natural our natural ability. We have nothing. He then open he verse 45 in that chapter then open he.
They're understanding the Lord Jesus.
Alone open up all that the Old Testament brings us concerning.
Yeah, I just answered that in verse 27.
We have this statement beginning. And Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself that was on the way.
10 in verse 31.
Their eyes were opened and they knew him.
And he panicked out of his side. But then in verse 45.
This is now in the midst of this home. That's significant. That's what I want to emphasize, the Lord in the midst of his own.
00:40:03
It says then open key, then understanding, and there is a difference, is it not? To present the Scriptures and then to open their understanding? And it is significant that that is mentioned in connection with Him being in the midst of his own. Isn't it true when Christians simply gather under the name of the Lord Jesus?
Having him in the midst that was then that the Scriptures, the understanding of the Scriptures were over. We're still drawing from there. We're benefiting and there's very little that we ourselves have dugout, you know, but what has been dugout when Christians simply met in the name of the Lord Jesus with Christ himself in the midst that they got the understanding and there is still that way.
And I think.
It's so important that we stress that we don't do wrong to stress it again and again. Christ in the midst makes the difference, you know, and we have to have our eyes on here.
Who's the thought we were?
Looking at recently in the First Corinthians chapter.
Or.
Verse one.
Stewards.
Let a man saw account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
That is, let a man sow account of us.
Steward is responsible to handle and distribute that for a master. He's a delivery man, if you might use that expression.
The the mystery is what's the value?
And I enjoyed the connection with that with Joseph again.
When he instructed his steward to fill the sacks of the Joseph brethren.
And they had to sack and they could walk off with it and, you know, like a borough. That's what they did. They put on the borough and they could walk like a borough and never opened the snack.
And all that happened maybe an ugly.
But they had to open the 2nd.
Oh, the wonder the open didn't. They found their money right on top. The truth cost something by the truth is telling them. But he had the money back and then he had food for the way.
Just to emphasize what's been said to us, he had no mail order programs. You couldn't order it by mail. You had to go to Joseph to get your sacks full.
And not knowing him when, as I remember reading it, when they saw the money the first time, they were afraid.
They got all these blessings just heaped up on them and all they thought they had paid. Oh, I suffered so much for this. Or I did this to get that. That's law. And I did this to get that. And he put it all back with interest, so to speak. It's his heart toward us going to know him. Then that's you see, that's fine. I want to find the money in the top of the site. But then in special times the trial, just to finish it off. Special times the trial, you'll find his cup.
And that's the wonder of all these mysteries. It brings us back to himself.
You can't get me without going to him.
His cup, what a thing it is to be privileged that we have our sacks filled by him and there's no way I can see it again, there's no way going to get it built and go back to him.
Well, it's nice to know the Spirit of God opens to us these wonderful blessings. And in that third verse of John 10 is to him the quarter over. He opened the way for the Messiah to come. He announced him, He pointed him out, He came down upon him and sealed him.
So when you hear his voice characteristic of all sheep of Christ, they hear his voice and he call it his own sheet by name. I was thinking of that. My brother said sometimes you preach the gospel and look around, you see there are those that are not listening.
If they would hear the Lord Jesus say to them, Timothy Thomas.
00:45:00
Right away, his attention would be arrested. Bob Miller. Sorry.
George Bob. And if he would, if we would hear him say to us our name.
Wake out of our sleep and listen. We haven't heard his voice speaking to us. Our name. He knows our name, He knows who we are and he wants to get our attention and then we will make progress in his. He's so interested in each one of us. He knows each one of us by name. He doesn't just say hey you.
Oh no, he calls this by name.
And third, John says, greet the friends by name.
He greets us by name. Nicer. We can do that with one another. But then we listen and make progress. Call it the zone sheet by name. Leave it them out. What does he leave them out of? Out of Judaism.
They had 1500 years in the sheepfold of Judaism and haven't made any progress.
Moses give you the law and none of you keep up the law, he said.
Stephen speaking by the Holy Spirit, said, You who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it 1500 years of that kind of thing, dos and don'ts.
And now he's going to come into that cheap fold and leave them out into something infinitely better. Leaves them out. And that's what we've been going into.
I often said that Judaism was what man was for God. Christianity is what God is for men. And really it was a test. Judaism wasn't that she she pulled. And what man was in the flesh. If there was any good in man, it certainly would have been revealed in that.
1500 years of testing in God's part. But how did that 1500 years end?
Ended with the Son of God, the fullest expression of the love of God. It ended with him nailed on the cross. And God says, in effect, the test is over.
Sin in the flesh is condemned by the coming of the Son of God.
The test is over. Now he's leading his own sheep out of that system.
And what's been said about Judaism, I think we need to recognize, brethren, that Judaism is attractive to ourselves in the flesh. It still is attractive to us. And there's a natural tendency of my heart to go back to that again and again. And I have to continually challenge myself in spirit not to go back. If we were only more obedient, we would enjoy more of the things of the Lord. We'd enjoy more blessings.
Yes, we would enjoy more, but we wouldn't have any because our blessings don't come by obedience, they come because of our position in Christ. We get to enjoy more when we walk in obedience. Yes, we don't have more blessings rather than because of obedience.
We enjoy.
So there's a tendency always to go back to Judaism and heart remember. Rather He leads us out of that. You need to constantly challenge our hearts about that matter. I already say that for my own soul. Is that why the Spirit of God brings up the question and the third chapter of Revelation, which say they are Jews and are not?
It's a character that is assimilated by those that are in a position of being in the church. Because we get the seven churches, don't we?
But in that particular address that Paul gets there to Philadelphia, he brings him this remarkable ingredient of how does a man say that he's a Jew and he's not. It's the very thing that you brought before us, that we have the tendency in our hearts individually and especially collectively. And some men say, well, I'm going to start a church.
And the first thing he does is he stands up in the front. He's going to be the priest. He's going to take the place of the Holy Spirit.
He's going to be the leader and this attracts especially. The man is gifted. And I may say what a wonderful man he is and we get the man, but it's the wrong man. And the solemn script say, mark the perfect man, where is he? Or he says, there am I in the midst of them, and only the eyes of faith can see him there. And as I read the precious word of God and it's made good by the Spirit to my heart.
00:50:08
And so I want to be there where that man is, and he's in a rejected place now.
And the Lord says, don't you be Jewish, don't be Jewish. You just look at me and you'll have a life that is about Judaism. That's the old thing. When the veil of the temple was ripped from the top to the bottom, that's when God says that system is all over with.
But I think it's one of the writers, says Josephus. They sewed it up again and they started going back to that thing and the Lord had to say, too bad I got a there won't be one stone upon another. It's all coming down in 70 AG. That's when got into that temple thing that they were so drawn to. Now, what are they going to do? Well, men seeks out many inventions as you bring before us. We've got that natural tendency that we want to see.
Somebody is something that we can gather to and perish the thought other than Christ.
How we must bring out the point that is mentioned in Romans chapter 8 in Romans chapter 8 verse 4.
That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in US who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Norway be great out the truth of the grace of God, the sovereignty of God that brought us into blessing apart from work. The danger is that we might get the idea that we do not have a responsibility. Remember in Ephesians it says.
That we're saved by grace, not by works, lest any man should go, but unto good works which God had prepared. And what is the difference when it comes to the righteous requirement of the law?
Under the law or under grace, the difference is this.
The law was given to man in the flesh.
The way man naturally is, but that nothing was given him of God to do what God required, and he was unable to do what God requires. He had no strength in himself. And so man is a miserable failure tested on that basis. But in Christianity, before God expects anything from us, he gives us a new nature.
That nature delights in the law.
She lights in the Word of God, and then He gives us the Spirit of God to indwell us to do that which mean the flesh we are not able to do, and we are able to do more than was ever required of a Jew under the law predetermined on the mount. The standard is much higher, not I5 and truth for two so.
You have to stress that because the danger amongst Christians who understand that we're saved by grace is to neglect the other side.
You know they ought to be dead in my life, in your life. That's a manifestation that the Spirit of God indwells this body and gives me the power to do what I never was able to do.
As a man in the flesh, even on the ground of the law. And so we are not on a legal ground. We are rejoicing in that which God put before us. We delight, according to Romans, in the law of God. That's the new man.
New life that we have enables us to delight in these things, but we need a power, and that's the Spirit of God. So if we are failures as Christians so not to do what God expected of a Jew, and even more, that is because we're not letting the Spirit of God dwell within us. But what is brought out in this chapter is the emphasis that Christianity is not.
Enclosure. It is not a set of laws. We are on a much higher plane and we ought to live Christ. That's Christianity, you know, Christ is the one that is to be manifested in our lives. For me to live is Christ process.
When the children of Israel, when Moses came down off the mount and he gave them the law, what did they say? They made a promise. They were promise keepers, right?
Promise keepers around us today, but it's not going to work because it didn't work for the children of Israel. They said all that the Lord God commanded that what we do and they couldn't do it. And then we got the danger among us. Am I going to be a promise keeper? And I'm going to keep the law. But I wanted to go over to the side that you brought before us, brother, the 4th chapter of John the Lord says to the woman by the well. He says, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water.
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Give him shall be in him a well of water springing up, springing up into everlasting life. And that's what we have, a new life as you brought the course from Rome, springing up. Now, what's going to make it spring up more? Oh, and I think what he did for me in the cross, this should be the response of praise and Thanksgiving and worship as I walk every step, every day. Is that right?
Yes, the right man, just for a moment on that.
Both times and Bob. Interesting comment Bob made and very true.
Obedience is not going to increase what we have.
Not one thing, but.
What you say is part of being.
Belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so in that aspect we demonstrate that we are a Christian.
But it's not going to change our position. It's not going to change our blessing. And so Bob says that we often get to the point where we think of it, of doing things that get us under the thought of the law. That's because we think we're going to do something that's going to merit something before God. Well, that isn't true, is it?
The work of Christ on Calvary did everything when he said it is finished. That's exactly what we get, but you can't forget that what is pleasing to me and if we're going in an ungodly and disobedient way that's certainly not pleading and Bob made the comment we're going to enjoy the blessings if we follow and how true they if we want to enjoy the person of Christ.
That's what I believe by John 15 tells us that.
And so those two things go together. It's like the two tracks, the two rails in the railroad, they just keep going parallel. They never meet, they never separate.
Is part of it faith, trust, elbow together. But we don't do things because we think we're going to merit something. But.
When another illustration may be helped.
Last Lords Day morning.
That I come to the breaking of bread meeting.
Because I said to myself, I really ought to go.
That's all because I said I want.
Is that quite a simple enough for anybody to understand?
I don't know because I want to go. I need to judge why I don't want to go.
I think in this verse that was in first in Romans 4, Romans 84, the righteous requirement of the law, that's as far as Romans looks in in in in this point.
It is fulfilled.
That is, we should not forget that it is fulfilled in US.
Refer to the verse that says it is God that worketh in you, both the willing and the do.
And underlying my book of righteousness, my practical life, What do I see under there?
Is it a law?
Is there a regulation that I have to do to get something from God?
Or is it confidence in here that he's going to do that? Do I pick up this book as a set of rules for me to keep to impress God?
Or his promises that he's going to do in me, but he's going to do them and me. It is a righteous regard that is fulfilled. And don't forget Hagar.
Had the promises he thought he had to help God.
Let's not mix them up.
Romans 14.
Series of things there are instructions as to practical life and underlying is love.
Galatians truth is underlying. It is law.
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The outside one may look Galatians, may look better.
Ways where it comes from.
We've said before in Colossians do not taste, do not touch, do not. You lost your liberty to do it.
Because it's founded on a legal basis and not a love basis. It's love possible said I could be this to that, that to the other. So what that souls might be saying. So I don't think there is a formula to set forth that would lay all these things out that we can analyze them and walk away from Christ.
We'll only understand how these two principles of sovereignty and grace and responsibility.
As being in grace meet as we sit in His presence.
As we get away from him, my love grows cold.
Love as I should again, within my conscience is numb. I don't have a conscience like I should.
To the to the divine way of a path of life that God has given to you and me to it just won't work without Him, that person in Jesus Christ as my object and my joy every day and really the motive of life.
You were talking recently about, I was thinking about what was said. If you notice that there are three portions in scripture that deal with separation from evil or three, I will mention there probably more and I just don't know them.
One is you cannot take of the Lords table and another table.
The other is.
If a man will purge himself from these vessels to disarm.
That is, separation from persons, their vessels unto dishonors. They characterize the group they're associated with.
The last one is let us.
Let us go forward, apostle and writing Hebrews, he says. Let us, recognizing as we've heard the danger that these principles can come into us.
The two others are outward, as it were, separation from things that defiled.
In the portion in Hebrews it probably referred to or talking about that. Let us there is that danger. Let us go through Christ and not Christ and something just himself who's efficient. Would you also comment how you reconcile what you have pointed out now? How do you explain in first John 3?
And it says every man that has this thought in him purifies himself. There seems to be something that we have to do then the same in 2nd Corinthians 7 verse one having the equities promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God practical holiness communication. The verse that you already.
2nd Synergy is a man, therefore church himself. So there seems to be dead side of the truth of God that presents our responsibility. Of course. Would you agree we cannot do that by ourselves. We need to find help for these things. But there are things presented as our responsibility to purify ourselves.
And to purchase ourselves and as we have it here.
We cleanse ourselves in secondary and settle. He's that. He's at half this coat in Christ.
It's not the hope that I have that dwells in me, it's the object of my hope. Purifies himself is the evidence of it.
Having been these promises.
Let us the promises.
You're not rules the ball. If I pick up the book and I read I should love every Believer, how am I going to do that?
I know impress God by loving 10 believers or 15 when he says love all only he's going to be able to do that in a minute. I believe responsibility and I don't want to sit down and set the rules for that or a formula, but I leave responsibility touches in the bottom of my soul.
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When in the presence of Christ I find something that's interfering with these things, I don't love all my friends.
I need to run to the shepherd.
I don't see a desire to go as a brother, Jackie said. I don't see a desire to go. I don't see a desire to study the Word of God. I need to go talk to him about that. But it's always him. He's the one that's going to solve the problem. I can bring him and lay every problem at his peace. And he loved me so much that He's allowed the problem, so I'll come and bring it up. His glory is going to be just like that.
You won't have any more. You have himself forever.
I still remember, brother, a little antidote, if I could call it that, because we all need it. I need it too. But there were many years ago, you'll remember the story that Eric Smith told us. He said there was a brother, that he had animosity toward one of his brothers, and it was a great stumbling block to his community with the Lord. And isn't that the capability of any of us? In a moment I could think of some evil or some distance for the brother.
And so this brother, he was in a in a down.
In a discouraged state of soul. And Eric Smith said to him, Brother, I'd like to give you a little advice. He said. You go and look at that brother through the eyes of Christ, and then you come back and tell me what you've seen.
And a couple of weeks went by and he saw the brother and he said, brother, tell me, did you do what I told you? He said, yes, brother. He said, tell me, what did you see? So lovely, brother.
That's the remedy, the eyes of Christ. How does the Lord look at his sheep? Oh, that's the vision. I need him for my eyes. Lord, give me, give me eyes like you have that I would see the sheep the way you see them. And here we're getting this chapter that's about how the Lord looks at his sheep, doesn't.
Second Peter, chapter one.
I think might help. It would help me.
With these issues of considering sovereignty.
Great. And responsibility.
Peter chapter one and verse 2.
Great, and he multiplied unto you.
Knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power, has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding grace and precious promises.
That by these you might be part anchored of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption.
That is in the world through lust. I just just enjoyed this thought. You've given us all things after change and delight and to godliness. There's no excuse for me and my path to ignore that. And you think of it, brother, you've been given if you have trusted in Christ as your Savior. And this is speaking to believers.
And if you're sitting here tonight yet in your chin, this isn't speaking to you. You need to come to Christ and accept Him as your Savior. But then, as you argue this, you've been given.
Divine light you've been given that which is the power from God to go on. That is the Spirit of God to empower you to live that life before God in holiest. I've enjoyed that in each one of the epistles. It seems that the one that writes would put the armor on the Saints.
And the river stood there and the armor is placed, you know, this piece of the armor that needs to get, especially in Ephesians don't like. And then the apostles would turn to us and say, now go on, dear brother.
Walk and wait upon him. Christ, you've been given all things that pertain to life. That's a God. And how wonderful that in Ephesians we might look at that just a moment. Ephesians 1.
And verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ, according as he has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.
We can enjoy this position of holy men and blamelessness before God, and then we go to Ephesians 4 verse one. I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, may teach you that you walk worthy of the vocation.
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You have this armor put on you and go forth and fight the fight of faith, Paul said That I have spots fight the faith. You had that privilege today to go forth not in pride but in humility, but in also in dignity. As one who are Saints of God. We're not seen before them as centered any longer.
We're seeing before him at Saint of God, so go on, dear brother.
Go on your sister walk in this location, this place that you can set in sovereignty in grace. Go on walking chapter 5, verse one.
Be therefore imitators of God. Why would he ask us to do this if he hasn't encrypted all we have? He's given us all things that pertain to light and predominantly so if you see a need that which is the flesh in operation.
But I have no excuse not to go on and I could grow in the grave and even knowledge of the working.
That's why he says my sheep hear my voice. I know them like our brother referred to the names. He knows every one of us and he calls us by name, he says, and they follow me.
Nearness for the Shepherd is going to give us that confidence and that power to walk through this world. Is that right?
Voice is a little more than word and follow is a little more than do what I say.
It's all in himself if we have anything.
If we have anything that I can use apart from Christ.
It's wrong. Hearing the voice saves us souls according to John chapter 5.
Giving the voice of the sight of God and living. But then it becomes a way of life for the believer you know.
I she feared my voice and they follow me. You find me wrong in the chapter the danger for us after we are indeed the Lord Chief and have heard the voice and relive his There is such a thing as selective listening, isn't it? You know, we have a certain idea and we want that to be supported and what we hear in the ministry. What suits that idea, you know.
You selective listeners, instead of listening to all what the Good Shepherd has told us.
You know, and if we don't, then we all need correction.
There's none of us that never needs to be. Correction needs to be corrected. We may remember the staff and Iran they comfortably you know and.
The rod is to test if there is a sheep is lame. You know it's not for eating the sheep, but to test the sheep.
And so we better let that sink into our conscience that we are not selected listeners, you know, the whole truth of God is for a sheep, you know, and we need all the truth of God in order to be preserved in the path of death.
I'd like to ask a question on your point brother.
In the household of faith.
There's times when we err, we might say the word yeah, but you know, you talk about being selective and we want to be sometimes selective and we say, yeah, but then this and that, we bring in other things. But there's a there's a verse that's been in big encouragement to my own soul.
And I like to pass it on and it's over in Ecclesiastes. I think it's in the 10th chapter, but please ask these.
And we can turn over there for a moment.
And this has to do with with our attitude.
Yes, the 10th chapter in the fourth verse. It's a spirit of the ruler. Rise up against thee.
Leave not thy place the some that get offended sometimes at correction and I've gotten offended at correction. I have to hold up my hand and be caught up with that number. I get offended with correction. Should I? Well, here's the verse that gives me. I believe the answer This has to do with what is my attitude when I need correction and our brother. Our brother and have been bringing divorce.
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There needs bees of the Christian path, if the spirit of the ruler rise up against the leave, not thy place.
The Lord says there am I in the midst. Don't leave the place, but listen to the answer for yielding classified great offenses.
Yield, yielding, that's the secret. Brother A yielded myself to his tender embrace by faith taking hold of the word. They him right a ***** yielding to his desire for me, and sometimes his desire for me is you will mention, Brother Doran, the rod. Am I under the rod sometimes?
You know the Paul says if we're not under the rod, we're not sons.
This is that if we're not chasing of the Lord, we're not real, and the Lord wants to.
Chasing us and sometimes the Spirit of God in the midst the Lord Jesus in the midst the Spirit of God, he rises up because we have to say with sin and when when the one who was in captivity.
There Daniel, he says we have sinned Daniel was an exemplary example of a man that had faith and he he had the moral power to resist the priest the caprices of.
The enemy there, when they tried to get a case against him and what happened, he wound up in the dead of lions.
But his faith never failed when the Lord calls it for an example for us of a man that had faith, but when it came to the failure of the people of God, he said with I have sinned, he put himself right into it. And so when the spirit of the ruler rises up against you and me, don't look at the brethren that the Lord might use to speak to your conscience or to try to reach your heart to tell you that you've missed the path.
What does it say?
Bring the Lord into it and say, Lord, what's the matter? And you, you may, you may say, well, I don't want to yield, but that's your brother.
I said.
And a certain brother speaks. I can't hardly hear him, can't hardly listen to him.
And the brother said to me.
Despise non prophesied was a good word to me and I think it's really important. Perhaps you don't appreciate it brother, for some reason. Still, you need to listen.
Still, you need to listen. Doesn't stop there. The scripture says continues there to say prove all things, hold fast. That which is good doesn't mean that everything that may be said is exactly right. Listen, despise not.
John 10:7
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Gospel chapter 10 and verse 7.
Then, Sir Jesus, one of them again, burly, burly. I say it to you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pastures.
That he cometh not both for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am calm that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd, The Good Shepherd given his life for the sheep. But he that is in hireling, and not the shepherd whose home the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leave with the sheep, and flee it and the wolf.
Scatter at the sheep a hireling fleet, because he is an Harley and careth not for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and unknown of mine, as the Father knoweth me. Even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Another sheep I have which are none of this fold.
Then also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, And there should be one block or false, and one shepherd.
Therefore does my father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man take it from me, and I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment I received in my father. It was the division, therefore among the Jews for these things, and many of them said he had the devil and his mad. Why hear ye him?
Others said, These are not the words of him that hath the devil, and the devil opened the eyes of the blind. And it was at Jerusalem, and the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long does thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believe not.
The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness in me. But ye believe not, because you're not of my sheep. As I said unto you, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
My father, which gave them me, is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them out of my father's hands.
I and my father are one.
Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father, For which of these works do you stole me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stole Milan, but for blasphemy, and because that thou being a man, make us thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law? I said, your God?
If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken, say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified?
And sent him to the world, thou blasphemous, because I said I am the Son of God.
I do not the worst of my father, believe me not.
But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the worst, that he may know, and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him. Therefore they sought again to take Him, but he escaped out of their hand, and went away again beyond Jordan, into the place where John at first baptized. And there he evolved. And many resorted unto him, and said John did no miracle, but all things that John's think of this man were true. And.
Believed on him there.
I suggest we try to move along in this chapter. We haven't covered many verses.
Stick to the passage.
00:05:00
Commented on 7th, didn't we?
Yes, we can. We can really go beyond that.
Shall go in and out.
It's very interesting that in is mentioned 1St and then going out and then it says and shall find pasture. I don't think that that is so much connected with going out. There are three things to meet anyway presented here and.
They're going in. It has sometimes been used in this way. We go into the presence of God.
You know, as worshippers and and priests.
And this is of utmost importance, the order. And then they're going out, you know, with the gospel and ministry, whatever. But it has to come from the place of having been with Christ, having been in. And what we find in Christendom service is stressed.
Faiths that have just been converted are pushed into service.
I always associate that with him used to point out that that you was not expected to go to war when he had built a house or when he had gotten married. You know, for years he was extended. He had to come into the enjoyment of his possession before he was to go out to fight. But then also.
To find pasture to feed our souls. These three things worship service.
And then feeding our own souls how important these things are, and feeding in the pasture that the Lord has taught His people.
You know, like in the book of Ruth, Ruth was instructed not to go through another field. You know, there was a place where she was to bleed and where she was in a place of protection.
That ninth verse, I am the door. He's really the door of entrance now into the full blessings of Christianity. He said these words, of course, before he had done the work which would be the basis for the for this all to be accomplished, which was across his death and resurrection.
Finance a picture of what would follow his death and resurrection.
So he says by me, if any man enter in, enter in through that door into the into the new position. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. There's a new creation, old things are passed away. All things have become new. So that's what we have in in Christianity, all things becoming new. It says he shall be saved.
He understand he shall be saved. He comes into the full blessing of salvation.
Which is far more than just a new birth getting born again. We have the common expression to that's used throughout Christendom to determine that the person is is saved but.
You're very, very rarely hear them say is he saved? Why they don't use that expression. That's what's used in Scripture so often. He shall be saved. That's something far beyond just having a new life that's being brought into a new place and a new standing, a new position.
In Christ then it says he should go in and out and find the pastor. So once he's brought into the new order of things in Christ and then he amplifies that in the next verse. He says defeat cometh not before the steel and to kill and to destroy I am come that they might have life and that they might have it abundantly. Take the word more out that implies that the Old Testament Saints had.
Life and we just have it more abundantly. But that's not the truth here is that they have life and we have abundant life. They have life in the power of the Holy Spirit and in a new position in Christ, risen from the dead.
Which is what saved refers to. How did he save us? Titus three says by the washing of regeneration. That's a change of position, taking us out of Adam and putting us in Christ. By the washing of regeneration. Just like when the children of Israel went through the Red Sea, they were saved. They weren't saved in Egypt. They were saved in Egypt under the blood. And they weren't saved until they crossed the Red Sea and they could look back and see all their.
00:10:15
Dead on the seashore, Pharaoh and all his hosts destroyed. Hebrews 2 Says that through death he destroyed him and had the power of death that is the devil, and delivered them, set them free, save them that through poor death were all their lifetime subject to *******. So there weren't really a saved people in Egypt, and they were safe under the blood, but not until they crossed the sea. And that's what the Washington regeneration speaks of, isn't it?
He saved us by the Washington regeneration. They were delivered out of the old and brought into the news. And then it says, and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost. So there's a new life that goes with that. And then it says which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That's the abundant life that he's talking about here. The Spirit of God's being shed upon us. Not just that we're renewed by the Spirit, which was Old Testament truth, but we have.
And were renewed by the Spirit and then he's been given to us abundantly to be the the spring John Thor. There should be a fountain of water springing up the dual lasting life. That's life in the Spirit, isn't it? The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the loss in death.
That's full Christian position.
Springing up in worship in chapter 4 and the source of power in service in Chapter 7. How to put belly shall flow rivers of living water. This is not understood. Unfortunately, some among together things do not understand the difference between new birth and eternal life and the 10th of Acts.
Chose a man who was obviously born again.
But he needed to hear words by which he was to be saved. You find that in Chapter 11. And what ought to occur when you read Peters message to him? He presents the person and work of the Lord Jesus.
You know, and when that is received by faith, the Spirit comes and it dwells. Now people ask the question to make it sound complicated.
Didn't they have life before the Spirit of God came through them? Yes, but the life takes on a new character when the Spirit comes to indwell that person. Because eternal life does not just mean that it is a life that never ends.
But it's a quality of life and that is associated with knowing God is Father, this is life eternal. That they might not be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. Salvation in the New Testament sense goes way beyond New earth. You could never refer to any Old Testament saying as a Christian.
But they were all born again. But a Christian is one who is indwelled with the Spirit of God. What constitutes you and me a Christian?
Is not only that we have life. Sure we couldn't be a Christian without having new birth first of all, but what constitutes you and me a Christian is that the divine guest in drought is Bobby and that's the Holy Ghost. And that makes me a Christian and that makes me different from every St. that ever lived before the Spirit of God came to indwell the church collectively and the individual believer individually.
You get that thought and just look at it in Galatians 4.
And I'll read from verse one. Now I say that the air as long as he is a child, give her nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all that he has. He has title to everything, but he's just a child. So he doesn't differ from a servant. Now that's really a picture of the of the status of Old Testament Saints. They were in the position of children.
But he's under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father. Even so, we we Jews, when we were children, were in ******* under the elements of the world.
They were under the law, but when the fullness of the time was come, God set forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them. That were under the law that we agree to might receive the adoption of sons. Now we're now replaced as sons before himself. We're not just children.
00:15:03
Under tutors and governors differing nothing from the servant, but now in the place of sonship adoption and then he says in verse six, bringing in the Gentiles and because you indeed referring to the Gentiles our sons God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying have a father.
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son stalking. Now the Jewish believers that you're not a servant for the son. And if the son America through Christ. So that's the that's the difference. It's the same light. It's not a different light. It's the same life that we got when we were born again that the Old Testament Saints had. It's the same life. It's divine life.
But it's life now, in the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit.
And in association with Christ in resurrection and in his ascension, redemption being accomplished.
As was said, being able to call God our Father. And that was all new, That was all.
Christianity, isn't it?
Might get an example in John one of.
Going out, go in and out.
Verse 14.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld this glory, you know, the glory as of and only begotten from with the Father.
The only begotten of the Father, that is.
He comes out.
And he, he veils over his glories as we speak. You know, their glories is intrinsic glories he built. But here is something you can't bail over with the elders, Laura.
And the expression, as I understand it, Lens thought that he brought with him and exhibited.
Savor and tone in the presence of the Muslim Father.
That's what they saw in him, as one who had just says it were stepped out of the bosom of the fall. He couldn't veil that.
Didn't bail that.
Now in our chapter.
Again, it was mentioned earlier versus 14 and 15.
I believe it's this way in the new test. In the new translation, the end of verse 14 says and am known of mine as the Father knoweth me.
That is, we are brought in then this new position.
Into the very heart.
Was McDonald's? Well, it was in Christ.
And our Christianity should find its home, Larry, should. Our souls should be at home, say.
And it exceeds all that ever was contemplated in the Old Testament.
Not only of life. Do you like that? It is.
Is a life that was with the Father.
All his desires to go back there.
And going in into that for my own soul that is enjoying what I have in Christ.
In the coming out will be in the same sense as he came out and it would be something you can't hide, you can't bail it over a glory of his.
That he couldn't bail over that they saw.
Well see, that's what he would bring you and me into.
Everything that God is manifested, we see God manifest in flesh. There's no reservations with God for you and me. He opens out his whole heart, all his thoughts, everything he feels and thinks open to you and me.
And gives us that interest. And what do I think I've got to go work my way or buy my way in or something? No, it's in Christ. And the power of the Spirit of God is not only to set me free from sin that it is.
But always to fill my heart, all that fine. I'm very hard at God. That's my place now. I'm accepted in the beloved and going in there now and coming out.
Coming out there like the Lord Jesus seen the Word made flesh, he comes out.
00:20:03
And he sets forth those things well, in contrast to this one liberty, we have an access to know our God.
We have.
Hirelings.
We have sheep foes. See some places bucket the sheep off so they don't get into the heart of God.
Just remember, you know, if you're reading ministry and it comes in the camp, it's ministry to keep the sheep quiet away from heart of God because it will lead a milder fold if it doesn't. It gives them the truth and the liver that we have is being Christians is for every believer, every believer who has that nothing special.
Has that access.
And whenever we're gone, the Spirit of God goes with us. He won't be indwelling those things in the Tribulation period. They won't have this inference in access.
They won't be in wealth of the Spirit of God. I think that right.
Right, so only us. This day of grace, this church is pride.
As his entrance right into everything that he has there is man it says he shares with us. But brother Bill, that passage you put it in John, one that could be held his glory, the glory as as of an only begotten from with a father.
We'll let me share that's a unique glory which only he has. He is the only he got him son and he's alone. He's alone. We will not show. Thank you. It's the it's the it's the pictured example you get of of something couldn't hide when he came out. If we go in, we will come out with that which can be here. We can say it this way. We will share everything that is possible.
To share.
But that's beyond the creature. Amen. That's right. That's the portion of the eternal Son of God.
You would certainly agree that there is some food for the sheep even in the camp, don't you think so? Oh, I would certainly agree. There's food for the sheep in the camp, food to leave them in the in the fold. Yeah, that's true. But I'm sure that the Lord in a sovereign way and there are faithful men there.
Who do feed the sheep according to the measure of understanding that they have. And so I just thought that remember when Joshua was complaining that they were both assigned in the camp, you know, and Moses, the answer was we wish they all would cause the side. So let's be thankful for whatever faithfulness there is.
Out there, and God sees to it.
That his sheep are fed and maybe we sometimes have to hang our head in shame that there is very little food for the sheep among those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. But I'm not trying to do away with the danger of staying there because they're attracted to those men who do have something to offer.
Which is indeed feeding their souls, but it must not be made.
It must be Christ you know and I enjoy too. Let me share with you this God and tell me if I'm wrong, that the thief comes and his purpose is to steal and to kill.
Is he Ely permitted to kill? The Lord won't allow him to kill, right? But then we see the wall.
He comes and he catches them and scathers them. But again, the language used assures that he's not going to destroy them, you know, but he can scatter them. And we have seen the effects of the wolf.
Gathering the sheep.
We see it all the time.
But to me, it is encouragement, encouraging to see he is not committed to kill. You know, he's not committed to really destroy the souls of the sheep, even if he succeeds to scatter them. That's what he would do if he could. Those are the things that he's striving for. But he can't stand this.
You're going to ice days old if we're near enough to Christ, He cannot accomplish any of his evil designs.
He has no power to the Christian at all if we stay close enough to Christ and.
00:25:05
You don't have to fear him if you walk close to the earth.
You know the.
Hireling and the thief. Two different things, yes.
God and His sovereignty will take care of me if you He will never let us.
Has nothing to do. It does not weaken the character of a hireling, nor of a Pope.
The Devil finds opposed a very happy thing. He knows right where to go.
It's a very, it's a very convenient thing. A bowl is for a thief. You know where the sheep.
The character the foe. The character the hireling.
Is not weakened or change any form by the sovereignty of God that features aren't sheep. He's gonna be fighting anything.
But again, to view these things.
I view a hiring of someone who is entrapped, deceived by a hireling. What is he missing? He's my brother.
Christ has died to open everything out in glory to this one.
And there's somebody who's got him in a fold and he's not without his responsibilities.
To see that Fold should have its true character to my soul as the damage is doing to my brother who is in traffic there.
I'd like to ask you a question, a picture of one of these Harleys.
21 after name and the leper, and he took a reward. Would that relate to what you're telling us? Would that be a picture of it? I don't know.
Because it says that he was the.
The judgment that Elijah gave him was that he would be a leper, white as snow, and Leviticus 13 tells me that the man that was elaborated snow was pronounced clean.
And I've always thought that this is a character, a character that's displayed of covetousness on the part of that man. And if I missed the path of faith, I may be like a servant of Elijah who would represent Christ. But go about.
Increase general and I don't think that that is characteristic of all those who hire themselves out to preach. You know, there are those who indeed preach free salvation and salvation by grace, but in his eye.
Spoiled the picture that salvation was free. That's what was the wicked, but that's the character what's in the camp around us in many places. Thank God it's exceptional, but I think we had that earlier, but it says the ironically it because he's entirely and careth not to the sheep and John tells us that if we don't love the children of God, we're not his.
That would imply to me that the person doesn't have nature.
The hireling doesn't care for the sheep. If you have a divine nature, you're going to care for the sheep. I know a man that pastors a small church in our area. He earned a living by laying park. You know he isn't in what he is in to make money.
No, I admire the man. You know he's wrong in accepting the position of a pastor over a church, but I believe he laborers for the law and he's not out for the buck.
He won't be where he is. Can be what the in the garbage translation. The hiring was translated search for wages. He's not searching for wages. He's serving the Saints and making his money elsewhere.
Would money be the only way?
To whom we all honor, Oh no, many things say to love, to honor, honor, respect, respect.
There are wages that it's a place. He wants a place.
But in this passage, the hiring is one that's serving for the money.
Places but his money the only way he did that.
In this passage, yes.
To get his weekly picture.
Wait, what? I made it though. I want to give him the give him a drink of water.
Regardless, I want to exalt Christ.
If I tell of Christ I'm giving a drink of water, I don't know.
00:30:00
I think we're a very dangerous ground that we try to determine who out there to save and who is the septimity 2 Says the Lord is. Our responsibility is not to try to dissect and determine if he's saved or not. I've been asked like, is Jimmy Baker saved you? I don't know. The word knows that.
And these other men, they, they have to answer to him, not to me. In my opinion, it doesn't mean anything anyway, because I don't know. Neither do you. God knows. But what is our responsibility? That everyone in the name of the name of Lord, depart from an injury that we can't do. And if the Saint of God is involved in what is unrighteous and iniquity, they depart from it. I don't have to say, well, he's saying to God, I can't depart from him. No, I don't have to determine that. I just separate from either. That's very simple, isn't it, you know?
Pray for Mr. Spurgeon and his ministry. They were thankful for his ministers.
So let's be careful. Every servant standard falls to his own master, and I personally believe there are many who truly love the Lord and want to serve the Lord and they're in the wrong position and they don't understand the truth. It's a different thing. We met a man in California after the conference.
Boston, Germany. And we were relaxing at the Hot Springs and he was there. His wife is from California. He gave him Bruce's book on God's Order, and he read in it for five hours and he came out and he said that he was a man that was preaching in the Bible schools. You know, he was going around the freelancers and he said, I agree, I agree. That's the truth of Scripture, but people don't want it.
But I said to me, brother, can't we practice it?
Is it still not possible to be practiced? But you see, the man would lose his job if he were. There's a different situation. The man acknowledges the truth yet is not willing to practice it. Now many out there who do not understand it and they truly love the Lord. And I'm thankful that there are doors that feed those people, although they might be in a wrong position. Well, that's what the Jews said about the word Jesus. They said if we let this man alone.
He will take away both our place.
And our nation.
Actually their nation is under the color of Rome, and if they let him alone and he had gained the.
The the leadership was king then he would have set them free, but they weren't in a moral state to receive them. But their first concern was he'll take away our place.
Bread and truth, truth of God, it really is. It's not our truth. It's the truth of Scripture was accepted by the clergy. They would lose their jobs. They lose their jobs.
And the system is a result of the enemies work.
Systems of men are not God's work.
Devil's work.
And he would have us kept out of our true portion.
We're talking about principles that can affect you and me if if wages do not only mean money.
But they mean something else that I'm looking for from my brethren, or from being gathered, or from some level of knowledge of truth, some recognition of some sort.
It's the same principle that entrapped them. We're not exempt from these things. Let us go forth unto him without Him. Then when we get there, he's outside there. There was a place right in the center of the camp of Israel.
Right in the pure sin of the camp that was outside the camp. It was a little cute inside the oldest ball. No one can go there.
Outside the camp.
And for you and me outside, the camp is inside the same The blood that was offered inside the bodies were burned outside.
And this being outside is inside. We have an in and an out. We have an indigo in.
All that God is manifested in Christ.
And the systems that exist around.
They have a negative effect on our brethren who were there.
And I once said to a man.
Can't have love without hate.
I love you. I'm going to hate whatever is against you.
00:35:00
God says the works of Nicolaitans I hate.
We can't let the presence of our brethren water down the real truth about what these systems are, and they ride on the back of hire links.
Save your loss is not my question to determine whether saved or lost. Actually rewarding them is not my problem either. I can't say he's a faithful servant insofar as he is. Like, I don't know.
But the truth of the matter is isolating the work of the enemy from the work of God.
We need to honor the work of God, and all that we've got is His.
Set aside completely the work of the deaf and don't let them get confused in our understanding.
That's good, but you just said.
The you have to make a distinction between wonders of God and what is of the enemy, the constant reformation.
As it came by the spirit of God recovering the truth of the all sufficiency of this book justification by faith, apart from works that was worth the Spirit of God. That was the word of the spirit of God. May I say in as much as yes.
But to just make a blanket statement that that whole thing was a word of the devil is going way too far. It started out by a work of the Spirit of God recovering 2 precious truths. Bible is the all sufficiency for our faith and for our salvation. Justification like they applied for words both of which.
The Council of Trent by the Roman Catholic Church rejected and became apostate body from that time forward.
They are in a ***** but because they have rejected the truth that was recovered at the Reformation, let's not call the truth that was recovered the Reformation were decision. It was not. It was the work of God. It's interesting that to note that historically the Protestants were as much against John Wesley as the Catholics when he was preaching the gospel of salvation by grace. They both were trying to kill him in his day.
That is, it had dropped right back to where it started from.
But the truth is the truth wherever you find it. A Christian is a Christian wherever you find it.
Presence or what he says, make wrong right no more than the right can make.
Wrong. It won't work.
I hope we're getting down to say this.
We need to hold the truth in love.
That is, I got it. It'll only be there in love.
I must love my bread and wherever they are. I can't love them truly if I'm going to be.
Not hating those things that are against them.
They're holding them out of what their true portion is. Christ is the definition of their fortune. It's like it is for me and you. And if I think that they're the only ones in danger of not entering into our portion.
Deceived. I am in danger, Let.
US go forth without the camp, let us have Christ as our portion and not go back, as we heard this morning, to the things that belong to a veil over the presence of God, because that is characterized as Judaism is available.
Over the entrance to the presence of God here in our chapter going in I have enjoyed the thought that going in is stated for us as and have known of mine as the Father knows me is a power of light that belongs there. That's his home, eternal life. It was with your Father. There's a power in the God himself, the Holy Spirit dwelling in us to bring us into that as our place of life.
It's possible because they are Citizenship is in heaven to bring us there, to live, to draw our life from there, to shape our lives from that place, that the glories of that place should form our character, form our lives as we walk down here. Nothing less than that will make us.
Like Christ, we with open face, behold one room are transformed.
Now the camp you mentioned.
And figures that we should go outside here. We have read about the old. It's really the same thing.
And what you find in prison them is that people have really not followed the leading of the Good Shepherd outside of this legal fold or outside the camp. You know, because that fold was not only illegal closure, the law of Moses, there was also a system where they were a select group of people that were servants in the sanctuary and the rest of them could not enter.
00:40:12
You know, the clergy system was taken from that.
System so really when you extend carefully where our president Christ fail in the systems of men is that they have not turned their back on what is being Jewish in origin and nevertheless.
The practices that they have maintained or reintroduced in their origin in the legal Jewish system and people ought to come out now. It has been on my mind. Is is verse in Hebrews 13 we have an altar of which day they served the Tabernacle have no right to eat. That's quite a strong statement, isn't it?
You know, in other words, there was a time when the Lord walked graciously with the Jewish believers who had difficulty seeing there was no more value in the Jewish system, but after it had all been proven in Hebrews that whatever they considered valuable.
And precious in that system had no more value, because they had that of which these things were attacked, and that's Christ.
Now, after this is all brought before them, they are told, if you continue to remain at the altar in Jerusalem, you have no right to meet of the feet of the order from which we.
I think this is something that should be weighted. The Lord expects people to believe that just like he leads the sheep out of the pole, he also wants his own to leave the camp, the Jewish camp, and go on to him. He's an Indian, you know, he's a part of it.
If he would be part of it, we would have to be there, you know. But he's outside of it. Therefore we go on to him.
Bearing his growth, there is still reports connected with walking in the truth and turning our back on that which is unscriptural, which has its origin and Judaism, you know, and they will call us proud and conceited and all these kinds of things. There's no time connected with following to the word of God.
There is pride connected with thinking that we can act contrary to the Word of God.
And adhere to a system that is not supportable in scripture. That is prime because the man says he knows better than God.
You put that verse in the 13th of Hebrews, brother. I think it's good to be very emphatic about the beginning of what you quoted it the 10th verse it says we have an altar.
Now the question to the young. So what's that?
Well, on Sunday morning we have the ambulance of the death of Christ. Christ in death is what we're gathered to. Will you call that the altar that we have for the position that we take as being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? But what do we have? The Lord says as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show my death till I come. Now is that the counterpart to what that verse is about?
Because we have an altar, Isn't Christ the altar?
He's the sacrifice, He's the priest, he's the author, he's everything that's recited. In one sense, we have an empty altar because the work is already finished. And what corresponds to that is what we have in the following verses. But by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifices of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. That corresponds to the golden.
It was found in the Tabernacle, not the brazen altar. And then it also says, but to do good, and to communicate and forget not. But with such sacrifices. God is wealthy. In Hebrews 10, He offered Himself once for sin, and put away our sins completely. In contrast to the many, many, many, many offerings of the Old Testament and the many authors that they had multiplied to sin. We have one altar of Christ, one word.
You stand before God and the value of that and it will never be repeated. Chuck, would you agree with this, that the altar also in one sense stands for the principles of conviction sacrifices?
00:45:01
Can you elaborate on that as well? See the.
Jewish altar because the Jews became.
Or came in contact with that author if he wasn't decreased to the fees off right and the peace offering there speaks of the fellowship that exists between Jews that brought sacrifices and so the altar.
Speaks of the fellowship that exists, you know.
In connection with our fellowship with Christ, you know so.
Someone might be more eloquently expressed, but that's very similar to what Ernie was saying. Yeah. By him, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. By him, He's he's our altar. And it's, it's the principles of Christianity now that govern our worship and not principles of Judaism. But we also know that the Lord's table, of which the peace offering is the closest in the Old Testament.
Speaks of the Lord's Table, you know, the unity that exists. Think of the altar of 12 Stones, you know, Speaking of the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel, although they were divided, he didn't accept it. You know, He brought and set up an altar that spoke of the unity of the people of God.
And in that sense?
And helps us to understand that there is more.
Than just the Lord Jesus himself that it speaks of it speaks also of the unity of God's people now as Christians united in one you know we come together to not only express the truth that the Lord Jesus died for us we at the Lords Cable express the truth there is one body you know and.
So the principles upon which we come together, even when we remember the law that is connected with the truth, there is one body.
And then somewhat like when you get to before close, they get to the thought of out.
Go in.
Come out, go in.
And we come out, there won't be anything that we have brought out. Everything here will have to fall in place according to what we saw in in the presence of God.
So going in there and enjoying the thoughts of God there in Christ, enjoying God in the intimacy of the being in Christ Jesus, then coming out, I won't be holding principles that don't suit that place.
Those principles will be established based on where is it all leading to go to him.
And won't be pastured. That's not related to that place or it's going in and out and find the pasture they're all connected to what feeds us along the way is that which is going to take me all the way up to glory. It's it's characterized by the end. It was mentioned earlier that's mentioned first go in then coming out to where I walk down here.
And my testimony in, as we mentioned the Gospel, but it's also.
In all my wealth down here is a testimony that is related to that it takes its character and its form of what's in.
That is seen in my life out and the food I have is food all the way home and find passenger life abundantly. It's that life that finds it has no limit except God Himself. It's still very life of Christ. It's eternal life. I give unto them eternal life and nothing less.
Would suit his heart a lot less would suit my heart, but nothing less than that would suit the heart of God.
Going to be there to his joy, not only to mine. And if he had withheld anything from you and me, he'd never be happy about it because love isn't happy to hold it. So being in the presence of God according to his delights and his joys that should form my life belt here in my my pathway. And then if there's a principle that someone would suggest that would have some limit lasting than a believer being in Christ in the presence of God.
00:50:05
I see. By the way, it won't it it doesn't give me my access there.
But the problem is not going in, you see, to have something that can encourage believers and help them along and give a lot of things that are truth to the life and the path down here and praise the Lord if they get played by. But the truth portion for every Christian is the very presence of God and St. intimacy.
That the Lord Jesus had said.
Now the time is up, but we should make records to the fact that he laid down his life and he took it again.
Now, there's a tremendous truth connected with that, and that is that the Word of God presents the resurrection in two ways.
Was raised by the glory of the Father, and then as we have it here in John 10, that He takes that life again. Why is that? Because He's presented to you as the Son of God. You know, He lays down His life. He takes it again and triumphantly.
Support from the grave because he's the Son of God and all justification is connected.
With him being raised by the glorious of Father.
You know, God has given proof that the work has been accepted, but what a wonderful person the Lord Jesus is that he can lay down his life for the sheep, and that he can, in his own power, in virtue of him being the Son of God, take that life.
That's the blessed Lord, our state.
Say no, man, Take it. That's from me. I'll lay it down on myself. I have power to lay it down, a power to take it again. But who did he have and view what he did?
She and I love to think of a little chorus that says she laid down his life for the sheep. His shepherd, so kind, had me in his mind when he laid down his life for the sheep. It's nice to be able to think about it sometimes too.
Let's sing. We'll sing it with Shepherd. Good night.
903.
I.
We'll save.
The light.
1 Timothy 4:12
Address—D. Whitaker
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Turn with me please to.
First Timothy.
Chapter 4.
This has been announced as a meeting for the young Christians.
And before I read this portion today will be mainly talking to young Christians and if you are not a believer on the Lord Jesus is the desire of every believer in this room today that you would come to know him because he's precious. He is he's precious, perfect in comeliness.
Thou art.
Perfect and communist thou art, and if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, and you've been on the path a little while, he becomes more and more precious. That's what Peter says unto you, therefore, which believe he is precious now.
In One Timothy, chapter 4.
1St 10 Maybe, For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe.
These things command and teach. Now we're going to teach something here today.
Let no man despise thy youth.
But be thou an example of the believers in Word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
I believe there's six things there that we're going to look at, and what I propose to do with the Lord's help is to look at.
6 distinct separate stories.
That have that have to do with young people and their ages are not given. So I think we can take it from the from the earliest age up to the oldest one here the application.
And these six.
Examples in Word.
Conversation, charity, spirit, faith and purity. And I have chosen.
6 headings that go something like this we've got.
We've got the first one would be in Word. I was thinking of Daniel and his three friends. Next one's conversation, that would be Nam, the little maid that waited upon Nam's wife.
Charity, Moses, Sister Miriam, and you'll see what we'll be getting at momentarily. Spirit, Paul's nephew.
Faith, Rhoda.
Purity, Joseph.
Now, with that in mind, we will turn to the book of Daniel.
If you're wondering if I have notes, yes, I have notes.
And these things who will be talking about today?
Our brethren over the years have told us these things and for most of you or many of you, they will be things you've heard before. But we have in the room today some brand new ears. Well, maybe not new ears. They've been around for 12/13/15 seventeen years. And maybe these things haven't been talked about yet and we're going to talk about them again today. So if you've heard these stories before.
Bear with me.
All right, we have in Daniel chapter one, we've got verse 17. As for these four children, As for these four children now.
I take it they're young people. We think of children as someone that you pat on the top of the head, but these were young people and they were children of Israel. And as we read these stories today, you'll notice that most of them that God has given to given them to us by inspiration. We're in difficult circumstances. Just about all of them, maybe all of them, they were, they were in very difficult circumstances. They were carried away into different countries.
They were being persecuted by authorities. They had the edict that the man child, the baby boy should be slain. Terrible circumstances. And you say, well, which do you want to be in the Bible? Would you like to be a Miriam? Oh, yeah, that would be fun to be a Miriam. Or would you like to be a Joseph? Oh, that would be wonderful to be a Joseph. Well, it would be wonderful to be a Joseph. It is a wonderful to be a Joseph. Think of how many times. Think of how many times.
Story of Joseph has been told in this world. Bibles have been printed in almost every language.
00:05:06
And the story of Joseph has been run off on the printing press millions of times.
And there's a reason for that. And we're going to read about that reason. Joseph was a faithful man. And you young people today, you're, you're in a terrible world. And it's easy to go astray. It's easy for an old man to go astray. And I think to be a, I'll put it this way. Have you ever heard of a 17 or 18 year old man starting a division? Never. Who is it that starts divisions? It's this age here. This is what where we really mess up.
So you young people, you have a distinct advantage you don't have.
A whole trail of troubles and I go into it.
A pathway of turning aside and so on. You have a fresh, brand new, a precious life before you and you can take and now you can live and lead that life to the glory of God. And these stories have been given to us so that we may do so. We got to get on here.
Daniel chapter one and verse 17. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill and all learning wisdom, and Daniel had understanding and all visions and dreams. Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the Prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar and the king commune with them, and among them all was found none like Daniel. Hananiah Michel Azra therefore stood there before the king in all matters of wisdom and understanding.
That the king inquired of them. He found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers, astrologers that were in all his realm.
Here you have in Word these men. They had the word of God and they were willing to communicate it. Now, there's something very precious and wonderful in this that God does for His people in this way.
He will do nothing but except he revealeth his secret to his servants, the prophets. That's Amos, I think 37.
God will do nothing, but He's going to tell one of his his beloved ones about it first. So there are people right now in this world that know what's going to happen to this world exactly.
And it's those that are His servants, those that love him, those that spend time in His word, those that listen to and hear what He's got to say.
Well, that's beautiful. And here's Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They were given those names. I can't give them to you. Belshazzar gave them other names there, according to the Hananiah, Michel and Azrai. They were given other names according to the gods of that country. And that's true. They may have been off into a different land. They may have been carried away. The nation may have been in a state of real failure and ruin, perhaps like the Christian circles are today.
That didn't change their pathway before God did it. No, Sir. And do we love to read the story of Daniel and his three friends? Oh, we read it and read it and read it. A little 3 year old, a four year old child will read it. And someone that's 90 years old read the very same story and they both enjoy it, both of them.
It's beautiful. Go on.
These men had understanding and those around them, the wise men of the day, the astrologers, the magicians and all those soothsayers and all those people had no understanding as to what was going to happen in this. And it's told Daniel and three friends what's going to happen in the latter days. And that's where we are now. It's important to spend time with the Lord and you know what's going to happen in the latter days.
We're going to go on now to conversation Second Kings 5. We'll just pick a little something out of these stories.
Second Kings Chapter 5 This is the second.
That it speaks of there in First Timothy 412.
The second one is conversation, which would be our manner of life. Now here's another situation. This little girl, where was her mother?
Nowhere around. Well, where was her father then? Well.
He wasn't there either. Where was the uncles? Where were the cousins? Where was some family he could lean on?
Where was the brethren, You might say They weren't there. They were gone. This little girl had been carried off into a far country, and there she was. And was she pouting? Oh, she was a powder. She complained. Was she? No, no, no, no, no. She had a manner of life. She had a conversation that when she spoke, her Master listened. Master listened because what she said carried. Wait. And what a blessing. How many times is the story of name is made?
Spoken of in this world. How many times has her story been printed? She only said about 20 words there. In the whole of recorded history that we have, how many millions of times? Millions of times is that story of what that little girl did that day been told and was their blessing? Oh my, think of it. Well, let's read it.
00:10:17
2 Kings 5 Now name and captain of the host of the King of Syria was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
And the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid. And she waited on Naamans wife. And she said unto her mistress, What God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy. She had faith, she had faith, and in this case she exercised this faith to someone that she loved. Oh, just think if she had that precious knowledge that there was a man down in there in Israel, prophet of God.
Could recover her boss.
And she says, I don't like him and I'm just going to let him die. No problem to me. No, no, no. That's not the heart of a believer. The heart of a believer is to reach out and bring blessing. And she did. And what happened? Oh, when this man, when this man went down there and there's a lot of things there we could talk about, but that's not the point today.
When he went down there and he says, I thought he was going to come out and strike his hand over the place and wave his hand and recover the leper, And are not my rivers of abandoned? And far, far better than all the rivers that all he was, He had all these ideas and thoughts.
But this little message here.
Right here it says there's a man down there that can heal a man of his leprosy. And then of course the prophet comes in. But that man humbles himself to the point where he says instead of I thought, he says, now I know that there is a God in Israel. What set this blessing off on its course? It was that little maid. And you can pick whatever age you like, young people. God doesn't give it to us here, the age.
But it can be your age. Just let it be your age.
And so when this man was healed and he came back, think I don't think I'm stretching it to say that when he came back home, there must have been a a joy. There must have been a a song of praise as Ben has two mules burden of earth with him. And he said that girl, look at look at here. We have the right ground and we're going to give thanks and we're going to give praise to God.
And we're going to sing together. And I suppose that that girl became closer than a child than his own daughter, if he had one.
Think of it. Oh, that's beautiful. What set it off on its course? A little girl whose conversation, manner of life, she said about 20 words and he says, hey, what did she say? I'm going to do it because her word had power and weight and God was with her.
Now we come down here to charity. Could we turn please to Exodus chapter?
Hello charity and love.
All right, verse.
Eight again. Here we have the children of Israel.
Difficult circumstances.
Naaman that little made their difficult circumstances.
Children of Israel I rather that the four children in book of Daniel difficult circumstances God allows difficult circumstances and then he brings out his ways and he brings out his faith in his people and it in the end result is of course glory to God and that's why we're here and that's we do have difficult circumstances. You know those people just digress for a second here. Those people that were with David there's 400 of them and by the way it increased to.
600 that it increased to the point where they said, David, now thou art worth 10,000 of us. Then it increased where they said it became a great host. The point is like the host of God. But going back to The Cave of Abdullah, if you were to look in that cave and you were to see people in there that were discontented and they were in distress. Well, let's say you looked into a cave and you saw people in there that were not discontented, that we're just having a good time here at the wrong cave.
You look in there and you see people that are discontented.
They're discouraged, they're in debt. You got the right cave. You got the right cave. Okay. So it's under pressure that he enlarges us. It's under pressure that he, he works in us in such a way that he gets glory through our lives.
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Well, here these dear children of Israel, they had had some hundreds of years now and the the whip had been, Can you imagine, laid to their back and they couldn't do a thing about it. Nothing. They were completely cast upon God. They had no other resource. God was bringing their hearts around slowly, slowly.
Therefore, verse 11 did he set over them taskmasters? Oh, this world, the devil, he'll set over you taskmasters. I see him come into my business often. Young people, young men, handsome young men, young women, beautiful young women. God had favored them. But something was wrong. The sparkle was gone.
The smile was gone, and a hardness takes over like clay.
I've seen it hundreds of times. Then you see a couple, they'll come in that have Christ as their Savior. There's peace written all over them. This. These are the facts. These are the facts, young people.
And after dealing with them for 40 years, you start seeing that it's just the facts.
Then we come down here to.
12 The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied, and so on verse 14, they made their lives bitter with hard ******* mortar, brick, all building up this world, building up this world.
Said, Well we come down here now. Verse 22 Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter he shall save alive.
Oh, I became a grandpa about 10 months ago and all over again you find out that joys of caring for a little one.
I don't know what I'd do if I was in that Kingdom at that time, this wicked king, he said. That boy has to go into the river. Oh, what a river of death that must have been because a lot of little boys were being born to that nation.
And they would put them out into that river and they would die out there.
And that river had these babies floating down at that river. That was to be for the blessing.
Of that nation of Egypt, Nile started up in heaven, the clouds of heaven, you might say, and the rains came down and it came down that White Nile, the Blue Nile, whatever they called down into Egypt, the only source of water that they had there. They lived because of that river and they had filled it with these dead bodies. Almost sounds like 1995. Terrible.
Every.
Son.
Born shall be capped into the river, cast into the river. And there went a man of the House of Levi, and took the wife, a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bear his son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, he was fair to God.
She hit him. Oh, that's what you do with something that's precious. You hide it. You hide it.
And when she could no longer hide him, the child was starting to make noise. And so on. And I've got to, or we'll, we'll lose everything. I've got to put that child in the river.
She took for him an arca bulrushes whose living plants.
Cut them down, daubed it with slim and with pitch and put the child there in and she laid it.
In the flags by the rivers break. Oh, can you picture this? What went on in this woman's heart?
These parents was it Amram and Jacob Bed?
And they took that little baby and they put it in that ark. And I suppose when they, when they put that pitch or that SAP or whatever it was, they, they, they floated with their hand and they looked for leaks. And that's what parents are doing today. Christian barons, They, they, they got you in Christ. And they make sure when it comes to the person of Christ and comes to the way of salvation, there's no leaks. There's no leaks.
There was no weakness in that. When they put that pitch in there, they made sure that that thing was going to float because they didn't have a chance to make a trial run. They would be spotted out there.
Well.
By the flags, by the rivers brink. There was something growing out of that river that had life and I think of the.
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The parents that take and put their little children in school and they grow up in different neighborhoods and so on.
We want to make sure we have some living plants, and those living plants, I believe, are our brethren.
And no, she didn't take that arc to the edge of the river and put it in the river and say, well, and Moses didn't have a name yet, you know, just a little child that was fair to God. And she, she, the mother, didn't push that baby way out in the mainstream. Say, well, do the best you can there.
No in the flags, but.
Those living plants, well, that little art just bumped around amongst those living plants and that's what these parents are doing by bringing their children to the gospel meeting and to the prayer meeting, to the reading meeting and to the breaking of bread like we had this morning. Children, you could see maybe they didn't know the Lord. Now don't be frightened if you say, well, all these people seem to be know, know the Lord and seem to be praising the Lord, but I don't have that in my heart.
Don't really be shocked at that because you were born little one.
Teenager, young person. You were born with a heart that had was nothing to do with God. Nothing. It's a fallen nature.
It's a broken nature, but God wants to give you a new nature, a new heart that now can praise him and now can thank Him. And like those, those 10 lepers that were cleansed, Oh, that was a beautiful first step brother. Read this morning.
One turned back and with a loud voice, glorified God. And then that yearning went out. Where are the 9? Where are the nine? Well, we got to get on here.
The daughter of Pharaoh came down. Verse five of Exodus chapter 2. She came down.
Well, first of all, verse four. And his sister, his sister stood afar off, to wit, what would be done to him. Now, the mother couldn't do that. The mother couldn't stand there. But here's this little girl. She could because she was small. She there was a place that she could be looked like she was just an innocent bystander there. But oh, she'd watch this whole thing and she'd held that little baby Moses in her arms. I take it this is Miriam here.
She'd held that little baby in her arms.
Out to little brother.
Now there may be older sisters in this room. I'm talking about teenagers, maybe early 20s, and they have a younger brother and they love him.
And we find out that the mother has to put that child into school or out into the playground or something.
And the older sister can be standing there and watching, Watching. Oh my, what a privilege that is something that the older one can't do sometimes.
And so she's.
At the right time, she's right there.
Now verse five and the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river. Oh, Can you imagine this? That river floating with these dead bodies?
This woman that will wash herself in that river.
You know this world around us.
This is the only river they've got. That's the only river that flows through that country. That's all they've got. And it's just littered with death and dying, dead and dying.
And that's all they've got to refresh themselves with in, in.
No, no.
You and I, as believers in the Lord Jesus, we can come a different river altogether. We're in that river right now. This morning when we were singing praise to God, river was beautiful. It was flowing with crystal clear and it comes from the throne of God.
Singing the glories of Christ.
Well, what do we have here? That woman? She was able to wash herself in that filthy, dying river, and her maidens walked along by the Riverside, and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
When she had opened it, she saw the child. She saw the child.
And behold, a baby wept. Oh, you know, sometimes when young folks say they're on the playground or something and somebody comes along and hits them right in the face, their fists or kicks them in the stomach.
Or plays a dirty trick on them. The young folks, they say, well, they cry. They cry. What is this? This is not like my home. I'm not used to this.
And so there that baby was, been pictured in the in the river of the world, and it's lonesome.
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It's lonesome in his crying.
It's crime and she had compassion on him, thankful for that, and said this is one of the Hebrew's children.
Now this sister steps right up, doesn't she?
Then said the sister to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? Or she knew exactly, she knew exactly what that baby needed. She knew she knew who that baby needed. And oh, there's that mother, that mother. I can imagine that mother was home.
Praying, praying. Can you picture such a thing? Well, that's this world we're going through. Don't forget it.
Don't forget it.
It's a place of tears.
And then what?
Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go, And the maid went and called the child's mother.
And so on. And the story goes on. It's beautiful. Now you'll find out too, in connection with the way the Lord uses these young people that we've been Speaking of in the scripture.
Almost without exception, He uses them to promote, preserve, and protect the testimony. Very interesting. You watch that. We'll go down through the list one after another, and we'll see how that the Lord used these young people to preserve something that's very precious to the heart of God here.
Now we're going to go on to Pauls nephew in Acts chapter 23. Did you know that Paul had a nephew? There was somebody in the previous story.
Here, that's going to take care of their uncle.
Well, we'll have to find it here.
Paul is being in the Jewish Council.
And there are men that have risen up against him.
People still don't like the Apostle Paul.
Christian people, some of them think that Paul is is, is shouldn't even be in the scriptures.
And that be said.
Well, anyway, here.
We have.
Verse 10 of chapter 23. And there arose a great dissension. The chief captain, fearing Les Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle. And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, For as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome. And it was day, And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded themselves together.
And bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.
This is Acts chapter 23, verse 13. And they were more than and there were more than 40 which had made this conspiracy. And they came to the chief priests and elders and said, we have bound ourselves under a great curse.
That we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul. This is as far as a man can go.
And 40 of them and more than 40 of them. And 40 is the time of testing is more than a test. Isn't it 40 minutes? We're just single. That's it. There's nothing else in our lives until we get rid of that man.
And see the verse 14. And they came to the chief.
Priests and elders and said we have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul.
Now therefore ye with the council signify to the captain that he bring him down to you tomorrow, as though you would inquire something more perfectly concerning him, and we, wherever he come near, are ready to kill him. And when Pauls sisters son heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle and told Paul. Then Paul called one of the centurions unto him, and said, Bring this young man unto the chief captain, for he hath.
Thing to tell him. So he took him and brought him to the chief captain, and said, Paul the prisoner called me unto him, and prayed me to bring this young man unto thee, who hath something, something to say unto thee. Then the chief captain took him by the hand, and went with him aside privately, and asked him, What is this that thou has to tell me? And he said that Jews have agreed to desire that thou would spring down Paul tomorrow into the council, as though they would inquire someone of him more perfectly.
Do not thou yield unto them for their lie, and wait for him of them more than 40 men, which have bound themselves with an oath that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now are they ready, looking for a promise from thee. So the chief captain. Then let the young man depart and charged him. See thou tell no man that thou has showed these things unto me.
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And so on and then they take and they get Paul out of the area.
Right away. Now, of course, we know Paul would have been preserved because God had a big mission and a work for him to do. But in the counsels of God, God allowed this young nephew to be at the right place at the right time. And why? Because he had an ear out for his uncle.
And they were going to.
Kill him. They were going to do away with him now.
That's what love does. It takes care of your brothers and sisters, your wife, your mother, your father. Rahab, remember that story. And here, taking care of Uncle Paul.
Now, there's an interesting thing here that I'd like to talk about for a second. That's in the middle of verse 10.
And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces. Now this is what he heard about. They're going to pull my Uncle Paul into pieces.
You know something today I.
I see this going on. It's really sad. We have the inspired word of God.
And we have people who want to take Paul, his doctrine and pull up all the pieces, don't they?
They want to pull everything away that Paul has. Now, Paul brought us some beautiful things. Beautiful things. Now I granted, you have to stretch this a little bit here, but I think you'll have patience with me.
Paul brought us some beautiful things, and one of the things he brought us the principles.
Of the ground of gathering.
He brought us.
The principles of eternal security.
He brought us the principles of sinless humanity of Christ. Wow, that's important. Let's give you a reason why.
Let's say that you know many people say Christ.
He didn't sin. Of course we know he didn't sin, but he could have sinned. And as a man he could have sinned. He was a man like you or I, and he could have sinned, but but of course he didn't. They feel they're giving him credit and giving him honor by suggesting that he didn't sin when he could have. But let's say you and I are in Christ.
And if we believe we are in Christ.
And we're in the glory and we're 10,000 years into eternity enjoying that blessed place.
And this savior that could have sinned options to sin, then what?
Think about it. That's why when these brothers in the meeting, sometimes young people can't understand it. They talk about this verse and they talk about that verse and they compare these two verses and they say, well, this is this way. And that's I can't understand what are they doing? They're making sure that that arc has no pin holes in it for you children, no pin holes in it.
The doctrine of the Person of Christ is preserved.
Apostle Paul doctrine is being torn all to pieces.
And a young person. A young person.
Can be a preserver of the testimony, a preserver of the truth.
In an unusual way.
Oh, let no man despise thy youth.
Come down here now to.
Faith. Let's go to Acts chapter 12.
What about the faith of this girl here?
I'm probably going to stretch this story a little bit too, and I trust you'll have patience with me, but I don't want to talk. To say anything is doctrinally wrong, but I can imagine this girl being at that.
Prayer meeting wrote as her name. I can imagine her being at the other prayer meetings that they'd had, can't you? And when Apostle Peter was talking about the precious blood of Christ and the precious, the trial being much more precious than a goal that perisheth.
And of the precious faith and all these precious things that Peter talked about, talked about, talked about. She was there as she knew his voice. She'd heard him.
And so here they are. Peter's in jail. In prison.
Probably figuring his head's going to be taken off in the morning. His brother over at John Mark's house, praying.
And praying and praying, beseeching God. And there's a knock at the gate.
00:35:00
And wrote up.
Again, a young person could do this, whereas an older person probably couldn't got away with it. She goes out and in her innocent appearance she says yes. And Peter says it's Peter. I'd like to come in.
Oh, Peter, I know your voice and you know, like a young person.
They instead of letting him in, she goes back because it's such an exciting occasion. She goes back in and she says Peter's out there. No, you're crazy, you're mad.
Now young people, it could be, it could be that sometimes your brother might think some of the things you do might be crazy, but go on with God. Just go on with God. You're looking at digress again here. You're looking for identity in this world. Let him be your identity. Who could be? Who could you be linked up with that's greater than the God of the universe?
And the Christ of God, there's nothing bigger than that.
Oh, people follow people and they end up in the grave. Why? There's people over in Tibet that that follow the Dalai Lama? He wears glasses just like me. His eyes are dying out too.
Men follow men, and it ends in death.
If you follow Christ, if you get in that family, oh, it's life all the way through that's wonderful. It's beautiful. It fills my heart with joy. When you bring a little family into this world, it's tough, not easy, but you have Christ when they when you bring them home from the hospital there even before you have Christ, you can sing those precious hymns in that child's ear and was time when they go out, you might say the three months of their life and it can no longer be hit. What do you have for them?
Oh, you've got Christ for him again.
And then it's time to graduate. Time to graduate, and it's the work world out there. Well, what are they going to do? Bring Christ into it again?
And then let's just say marriage comes on. What for that? Oh, Christ again? Talk about a happy home. You just have Christ.
You take a.
A string. You put a button on this end of the string and it comes around your finger like this and a button on this end of the string.
And just say this is the man and the wife and they both have their eyes on Christ and Christ is leading them. You pull that string along those two buttons coming right close together. And so God can get glory and honor out of our marriages too. You know, God doesn't always put people that love tennis with people that love tennis. He put some pretty odd people together. You know, some people like this and some people like, you've noticed that happening, brother. Well, God does that for a reason, but he may get.
And our minds conform to him, not maybe to each other so much, but when we are drawn along by him, we find out we're together and our object, our desire, our hopes are fulfilled. We have a happy home. I have a fellow that works with me. He's always listening to such and such a kind of music on the on the radio country western. And they're always thinking about love, thinking about. I said, John, I don't listen to that kind of thing because I have love. I got it in my home. I don't have to sing.
Or worry about it. I got it. Keep ripping them about that. Well, the poor fellow has a home all broken up. Well, we'll go on here. Here's.
Here's this girl and she knew Peters voice do young people.
Go to the go to the prayer meeting. What a cheer that is, what a joy that is. That's the powerhouse, the preserving part of the assembly when brother and pray together.
Support them and when they see young people walk through the door, oh, such a joy. It gives them strength to one of the one. Because you know, this is not payday exactly. We do get some wonderful rewards for walking with God. This isn't payday. Payday is someday. Someday is coming and God is going to declare to the whole universe who it was and what they did.
He's going to show everybody the whole created universe is going to see heaven and earth is going to witness and see.
When there was this little girl that waited on Naaman's wife, this little boy that took care of Uncle Paul and these poor men that were in that palace there in Babylon and, and Joseph and all, it's all going to be declared. Now, some of these were declared in the Scriptures wonderfully like, like Joseph. And this little maid doesn't say any more about her. This little boy here doesn't say any more about him.
00:40:05
But that's what's coming, you know, it says.
And time would fail me to tell if Samson and Jepthen, Gideon and Berican of the prophets. And so time has failed there. And then you get over another place that says, I suppose, that the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
Well, what's that? Well.
And then it talks about the love of God that passes understanding. So we're so limited.
There's coming a day, I believe, when these stories that we read about here and these people that aren't named are just barely named and very little is said about them and your life, what you've done for Christ is going to be on display. And think of the joy it is when even now when we talk about someone coming to know the Lord and the joy that's involved.
Think about the glory land when there is enough time to speak of Samson and Jeptha and Gideon and Berk and and Mary and John and each one of you and and the books that are going to be written, you might say, of of our lives. And when we see the whole unfolding of the heart of God and leading us day by day in our circumstances.
Oh, it's going to be wonderful, brother.
Be beautiful.
Now we come down.
Oh, so much could be said here of these of these Rhoda. Well, purity, let's go to Genesis 39. I don't like to speak about these things, but the word of God tells us to when Speaking of Joseph.
This this man.
Don't know if there's anything recorded in all of the scripture about any failures in Joseph life. Maybe he got a little bit impatient and I can imagine this when he said to the to the Butler he says.
Remember Me, Remember Me when is well with thee.
Remember Me when is well with thee, I take it. I don't take that as being a failure, but.
That man has his his life of rejection when his father had made in that beautiful coat of many colors. It's a picture of the multifaceted colors of the Christ.
It's like that rainbow, beautiful rainbow, more colors. I deal with colors. That's my job is colors. And I look at some of those colors and I'm amazed where, where do they find colors like this? Look into some of those Blues. So true. I said, I don't understand where they could find that in nature. Well, you look at Christ, young people, and you'll see those beautiful colors. And at the conference like this in your own private readings, you'll see the colors start to flow.
Out beautiful colors, various colors of Christ. The angels look down from heaven. They see in the church the manifold wisdom, the multi colors of Christ displayed in his people.
Beautiful colors and that rainbow. Think of that for a moment. There was Calvary's cross, that dark cloud. Here's the white light, the pureness of God coming down and refracting off that cloud. And what do you have? A display of color, the rainbow, the beauties of Christ. And along with that promise.
Never, never judge the earth with water ever again.
Never beautiful. So Joseph, for that coat of many colors, loved of his Father. What did those brethren do with that coat? Oh.
You know.
You know.
And they brought that coat to their father. Is this thy sons coat or no?
Was was this man Joseph in difficulty and trouble in his life? Lots of it, lots of it. Do you have troubles, young person in your life today? You probably don't have as much as Joseph, but if you live, you enjoy Christ and you let him be your life and your song and your hope and your the object to which you're following.
It'll all turn out well, beautifully well and it'll your life will be to the praise of God. You know that's what you're here for. The brethren said that earlier. You're here to give glory to God. That's why we're here today. We want to give glory to God. Don't give glory to some man. They'll disappoint you. You know, it says these be the generations of Jacob and then it says.
Esau and his family. I'll just look at that for a minute.
00:45:01
Genesis.
Chapter.
38 I think.
Maybe 36?
Yes, Genesis 36 and verse nine. And these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites and Mount, Sir, these are the names of the Esau, sons of pies. And it goes on one name after another name after another name after another name after another name. It wasn't God's man, wasn't God's man. But now turn to.
See 37.
Verse 2.
These are the generations of Jacob.
Joseph.
And that's the only.
That's the only thing you get, Joseph. God wants to.
Portray before your vision, young person, One man, one man. Now if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. All things are of God. As in Adam. All die. They all die. Everyone. Even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Oh, young people are so easy to follow, to follow. Who are you following?
There's a man that just died recently.
A famous singer.
He had an entourage of people just like him that followed him around from concert to concert to concert to concert. Something about Grateful Dead. Will you think that when he died, they'd be very grateful?
They mourned, they suffered over that, stepping through a dark doorway that they tried to cover up and camouflage. No, it didn't work. And he died also.
Find out tonight in the deep recesses of your soul, are you in Christ?
Are you?
We've had the gospel preached to us last night. We've heard it from our youth up. There's people in this world that haven't heard it yet. Why should you get to hear it tonight also?
Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. So we've gotten down now to this man Joseph in in Genesis.
39.
It's a little warning here, and I think we should for seven. It came to pass after these things that his master's wife, now he's been carried down into this land again. He's in this. He's in a place where it's not home, not home to him. Where's his mother and his father? Not there. Where's his brother? They're not their family. They're all gone. He's all alone down there. And he might have said, well, I'm sick and tired of all this.
It's too rough.
And if he'd have said that, we wouldn't be reading about his story today, would we? We wouldn't be here. Mothers and fathers that have taken their little children upon their knee for the last 2000 years and given their children the story, the beautiful story of Joseph.
They wouldn't have had it if Joseph would have had this attitude that I'm going to speak of now.
Well, I'm away from home.
I'm lonely, I've been in trouble, I've been in distress. My brother don't want me. I haven't seen my dad for years.
I'm going to give up.
Give up.
So we read here.
Verse six rather Genesis 39.
His boss. He left all that he had in Joseph's hand.
And he knew not aught he had saved the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person and well favored. That's the condition, these young people in this room today, all of us.
Goodly and well favored. We've had the word of God open.
Verse 7 And it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, and she said, lie with me, but he refused.
And said unto his master's wife, Behold my master, what if not, what is with me in the house? And he hath committed all that he had to my hand.
There is none greater in this house than I. Neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?
And it came to pass as she spake to Joseph day by day that he hearkened not now we're going to go on to the middle of the 11Th, 11Th. And it came to pass about that time that Joseph went into the house to do his business. Now this is where problems develop is in the business place, school place. We go about our daily business there. There comes a continual pressure, a continual wearing.
00:50:15
And there's this There's an enemy of our souls that wants to wear out the Saints, whether it's this type of evil or some other evil.
It's a continual wearing and if you see it, identify it and ask God for strength to go on. He'll help you.
Well.
Where is it that he says I cannot do this thing against God? You find that verse for me, brethren? Yeah. Verse nine. I'm sorry. The last part of the verse, I read it. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Turn with me, please. The Proverbs, chapter 6, verse 26. This man was a precious life.
He was a precious man, wasn't he? How we enjoyed reading about Joseph. Such a precious man.
Proverbs 626 For by means of a ******* woman and man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life, precious life.
Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot, cold, and his feet not be burned? You know, there's seminars today, believe it or not, run by people possessed by the devil, and they say you come walk on the coals of fire. We'll show you that it can be done, and they do it.
They do. It talks about that in Isaiah.
And the devil says, And the Lord says, can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned? The devil says, yeah, you can't, I'll show you.
Oh, can't do it. Her guests are in the depths of hell.
So is he that goeth in unto his neighbors wife. Whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. So we'll leave that subject.
And we'll go on. I think we'll stop. Matter of fact, we've had enough here. We've had.
In Word and conversation, in charity, in spirit and faith, in purity, you find those in First Timothy chapter 4 and verse 12. They were all accomplished by young people. And as you look at those people there, so many of them are connected with preserving the testimony. Miriam watching over Moses, Who is Moses? He's one of the greatest men that ever lived.
And Paul's nephew.
Took care of Paul, the great apostle Paul.
What an encouragement. Oh, don't give up. Like little brother. He's from Portland. Used to say we're almost home, Almost home. Don't give up. Wouldn't it be stupid to give up now, Really, after all we've had? Let's pray.