Denver Conference: 2005
Table of Contents
Christian Warfare
Address—Bruce Anstey
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Let's look at 3 opening scriptures, Luke's Gospel chapter 14 to begin with Luke's Gospel chapter 14 and verse 31. Or what king going to make war against another king sitteth not down 1St and consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000 or else while the other is a great way off, he sendeth an ambassador.
And Desirous conditions of peace. Second Corinthians, chapter 10.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 10.
And verse 3-4 and five. For though we walk in the flesh, or should be in flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself.
Against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity.
Every thought to the obedience of Christ, and in Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers.
Against the rulers of darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places. I'd like to speak this afternoon of Satans operations on the Saints. And I'd like to speak about Christian warfare. And I like to bring about the some point of various scriptures that would speak about the conflict that we are presently engaged in.
And to see how that God has made a full provision for us, that we might be victorious.
In our Christian lives. So first of all, I thought we would read these three scriptures.
To bring before us the fact that we are in a spiritual battle, we're passing through what we might call an enemies land. We are in a conflict against an enemy as we read from the Luke 14 who is much stronger than we are. And then we read also in Second Corinthians that the nature of the battle that we are engaged with is a spiritual nature of a spiritual nature.
Where the enemy is seeking to work in spiritual ways.
To corrupt and to lead us aside from doing the will of God. And then also in Ephesians chapter 6, as we've just read here now.
We see that the enemy that we are up against is a very wily foe, with much power and knowledge, and able to deceive. You know a while is something that is fair and innocent on the outside, but a soul can be beguiled and deceived by it.
And I understand that Mister Kelly's translation reads it this way, that we stand not against the Wiles of the devil, but he translates it the stratagems of the devil. And you know, the word stratagem comes from the word strategy, and a strategy is the.
The science of military warfare. And we are in a spiritual conflict as we have had in these three scriptures, and we're up against an enemy.
That is seeking to overthrow our faith and to cause us to go aside in the path. And we need to realize just what kind of a conflict that we are up against. And then we'll look at the provisions that God has made. And so just to say this at first, that the enemy that we're Speaking of here has Wiles or has a strategy with regard to each of our lives.
What I'm saying now, dear brethren?
Is that the devil has designs on the lives of the Saints. He wants to, as I said, overthrow our faith and to lead us into paths of unrighteousness. Now you may wonder, why would the devil want to be so occupied with the Saints? Well, I believe it's this because his primary objective is to sully the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he knows that that which bears his name is the most useful.
In sulling the glory of the Lord Jesus, it's been put this way that what God is most set for, the devil is most set against, and God is most set for the promotion and the exaltation of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in this world and in the world to come. The Millennium.
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But the devil is most set against this. He does not want Christ's glory.
To be manifest in this world and as I say, the Christians are left here in this world. As Mr. Darby put it, the Christians business in this world is to manifest Christ.
That's the very last thing that the devil wants to happen, have happened. He does not want to see Christ being manifest here in this world. And so he's going to do everything he can to turn us aside from living a life for God's glory. And so we see here that the devil has strategies with regard to the lives of the Saints and the plan that he has for your life to overthrow you.
It may be a little different from my life because we all have different tendencies.
And interests in life. But whatever the case is, there is a design on our lives. Now that's a very solemn thing to think about, that there is a foe that is stronger than any Angel, stronger than any power that we have. And he has set his sights upon the Saints of God with the aim to break up the unity of the fellowship with an aim to bring us into paths of dishonor so that the Lord Jesus glory would be sullied in this world.
And so we have to be solemnized, we need to realize the dangers of the pathway and to be sober. There's a number of verses that tell us in the Scriptures that we need to be sober because the end of all things is at hand. And so there is strategies that the enemy is working with. A number of years ago, the late Gordon Hangover, we had the opportunity of having him in our home for a meal and he came with his wife and.
No sooner did he get in the house and it was just a few minutes and he had spotted something in my house, he saw a chess board and their pieces were set up on the chess board. And he told me a very interesting story that I like to relate to you. Now. He said that when he was in Europe one time, now, I don't know if he saw it himself or he heard about it, but anyway he said that in Europe in some city and he could not remember which city it was.
That there was a famous mural on the side of a.
Huge wall in that city. And on that, in that mural was a picture of a chess game. And on one side of the chess board there was a young man. And on the other side of the chess board there was the devil. And it was painted up on what we might call the artist conception of the devil. You know what I mean? The horns and the pitchfork and all of this, which of course is not true.
But nevertheless, there was this mural that he told me about in this city.
In Europe, and it was such a fateful situation for the young man because the pieces were set up on the board in such a way as that the young man was about two or three moves away from checkmate. No matter which way you would go. Naturally speaking, the devil had him and he was just waiting for his fate. And then he related the story to me that what happened was that.
And this had been accepted in the city that there was no hope for the young man. And it's been around for generations, as far as I know, this mural.
Anyway, there came into the city a man who was a grandmaster.
And he looked at that and of course it attracted his attention. He was stayed there and he said for a number of hours staring at that mural. And after a long time he declared, I no way that I can deliver that man, that young man from the devil. And he wrote down the various moves that had to be made to get him out of that bind. And I believe he said that it was even published in the paper because the town had all accepted the fact that.
On that mural there was a hopeless situation, and so he likened it unto the Lord Jesus.
Who has come into this world and under his guidance and power, he can deliver us from a conflict and an enemy that is far greater than we. And, you know, just as we have in that game of chess, we have, of course, there are moves that are made before the actual capture of the enemy forces. They don't happen all at once. You don't capture the king, as you know in that game. And the first two or three moves, there are preliminary moves to set up for the strike. And you know, that is.
Like the enemy of our souls, he is working as a chess players do many moves ahead to wait for his kill, for his opportunity and naturally speaking HUD. Doesn't matter how brilliant you may be or how brainy you are in this world and it's things, you have no chance when it comes to this spiritual battle.
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But we're thankful to report to you this afternoon, just as there was a Grand Master that knew how to solve the problem for that young man and that mural, we have the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible says greater is he that is in you than he that is in this world. And so we're thankful that the Lord Jesus, through the Scriptures, the inspiration of the Scriptures, has written down for us the way in which we can avoid the pitfalls of life with this enemy and that we don't.
Need to have a life of failure that we can live a life that we can be victorious and if we'll just live according to the principles that have been laid down in the word of God, we can have victory over this enemy that is so much greater and powerful than we are. One more verse in first John which would bring that before us. First John chapter 2.
And verse 14, the latter half of the verse is before me. I have written unto you, young men.
Because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one, or ye have gotten victory over the wicked one. And so this tells us how there can be victory on our part over this enemy that is so much powerful, more powerful than we are, and that is through the Word of God. And so.
God is marked out in the Scriptures a safe and happy path for us.
Not only that, if we keep our feet in that path, we are going to be delivered. But not only that, we have also in the scriptures disclosed to us the enemy's battle plans, His tactics have been disclosed.
It tells us in Second Corinthians that we are not ignorant of Satan's devices and God has given to us, I believe in the Scriptures, the various ways in which the enemy is going to plan his attack on your life and mine.
And he's given us a remedy with regard to it. And I'd like to look at some of those things this afternoon in application to our audience here. And so we find that God has made provision in the word of God. You know, this reminds me of Pilgrims Progress. That was a story that an allegory that John Bunyan wrote hundreds of years ago. And there's one scene in that book that.
I would relate now and that is Christian was going up to the Celestial City and he got to one point in the.
His journey and he heard the roar of lions, and he realized that there was no chance that he could make it through lions if they were up ahead in the path. But he studied his map, his guide, and he found out that the lions were chained. And the chains on the lion from where they were chained were not long enough to reach the path that he was to be going on. So as long as he kept his feet in the path, those lions could roar all they want, but they couldn't touch him.
And so that gave him courage to continue on. And in a certain sense, it's exactly the same for us as Christians as we move our way through this wilderness world in a scene of conflict. And that is that if we keep our feet in the path that the Word of God is marked out, the enemy cannot touch us.
But my fear this afternoon, especially for the young that are here, is that they may not know the principles of the Word of God and unwarily put their feet in a place where they're vulnerable to the enemy's attack. And so we want to speak about just the various ways in which the enemy works and to see more clearly those tactics and how God has made provision that we can rise above it. Let's look at Mark chapter 4.
For the first one.
Mark's Gospel, chapter 4, verses 14 and 15.
The source soweth the Word, and these are they by the wayside where the Word is sown. But when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. Here's the first tactic that I'd like to speak about this afternoon, and that is Satan's attempt to take away the Word of God that is sown.
The devil to make it very plain here this afternoon.
Doesn't want anyone of us here to get anything out of the meetings that we've been attending this weekend. His objective is to make sure that you don't get anything out of these meetings. He wants to distract your minds. He wants to make sure that even though you may have heard some wonderful truths and some things, that they somehow get taken away out of your mind so that when you leave this place, you do not profit.
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The devil is interested in taking the word of God away from us.
Because he knows that is that which we are built up in the most holy faith. He knows that the Word of God is the very thing that will defeat his ruses.
And so how careful we have to be when we're sitting under the sound of the Word of God, that we drink it in, we take it in in such a way as that it becomes part of us and that we will take something away. Now the Word of God. And you notice that verse that I read there in first John chapter 2, it says that the Word of God abided in them. And that is so very important that the Word of God would be found abiding in us, not just so much.
In our intellect, but it becomes part of our life and our being. It becomes part of us.
So that we act on it as being part of us. That is so very important.
And I believe that if we take up the word of God in such a way as that there is a state of soul of having passed judgment on ourselves, that when the word of God is ministered to us, it will take hold in good soil, and the enemy will not be able to take the word of God away. Let me give you a verse in first John in James chapter one. James chapter one, verse 21.
It says lay apart all filthiness of superfluity, of naughtiness.
And receive with meekness the engrafted word or the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. And so we find here that the word of God has a power to save our souls. Now this is not talking about saving our souls molest eternity that you get to go to heaven because we we believe the gospel. He's talking about the practical salvation and the life of the believer. My soul has a tendency to being drawn.
From the enemy, by the enemy, by his various Wiles, and so on. And I, my soul and your soul needs to be preserved from the enemy's tactics. And the word of God is what will save us, as it says here. Now notice he says, though it's important that we lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. In other words, there needs to be a setting aside of certain things so that the word of God will take hold in the soul.
Peter says something the same, he says.
And first Peter 21 Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile on a hypocrisies and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, or says grow unto salvation again. Again, it's a practical salvation in both cases. In these verses that I've read to you tell us that there needs to be a practical self judgment on our part of those things that would not allow the word of God.
Take hold in our hearts. You know, if there are weeds in your garden and you go and plant the very best seed that there is on the market, what's going to happen?
They're not going to take hold because the weeds have will choke it out as we know. So there needs to be the pulling up of the weeds in the garden of our heart by self judgment so that when the word is sown, it falls on good ground and it takes hold. That's the reason why so often we hear the word of God and the enemy gets in there and is able to take it away so that we get nothing out of it. Sometimes we've asked young people, but where did you get from the conference that you went to or the meetings that you're at?
And they don't want to say nothing but.
You can tell by the way they hedge back and forth that they really didn't get anything much, if at all. We trust they did get something. And the reason why is because there hasn't been that proper state that I'm Speaking of that is so necessary for the Word of God to take hold in our lives. I'll give you an example. It's not, I'm not talking now about the intellectual apprehension of the Word of God. And talking to a young brother one time, wasn't myself, it was reported to me, and he was really getting a hold of the doctrines of Scripture, and I'm glad.
For you young men who are trying to get a hold of the Scriptures, give it all your might and soul. It's a wonderful subject that you need, but it needs to go farther than that. Brother Clausen mentioned that to us yesterday. It needs to be more than just an intellectual apprehension of things. It needs to be brought into the very life so that becomes part of our being. It becomes an engrafted word. At any rate, this young man was getting a hold of the Word of God, and we asked him.
They asked him about sanctification. Oh yes, I know about sanctification. There's three parts. There's three kinds of three kinds of sanctification. And there was this and there's this, and the destiny had it, right.
You know, and then a couple hours later he was heard saying I was reported to me that he had a few days off and he was going to rent a few movies and kick back and just enjoy things. You can rent a few movies and sit back and, and enjoy your, your, your. Obviously, the truth of sanctification hasn't gone very far with that man. The very idea of practical sanctification is that we perfect holiness in our lives. And I'll tell you right now, if you don't already know.
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Sitting around watching movies isn't going to perfect holiness in your Christian life and so you know there is an example of things being taken in truth being ascertained and and be able to lay it out in an orderly way of someone. But how about has it affected my life. Has there been a implanting of the word of God? If not the enemy is there to take it away. Now let's move along to another passage. We'll see yet another thing. Luke 22.
The 22nd chapter of Luke's Gospel, Luke 22, verse 31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fill not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Here we never have another tactic or design of the enemy.
Upon the people of God, and that is to draw us away into bad company. And that's exactly what happened to Peter.
It says Satan hath desired to sift you, and you know what sifting is? It is to Draw Something out from the rest through a disturbance. And that's what the enemy wants to do, is to draw us away from the fellowship of God's people into bad company. And we find later in this very chapter that says a Peter, that he followed the Lord afar off. How did it happen that he was in perhaps the most precious spot that a man could be in?
In the upper room where they were breaking bread. And within hours he was following the Lord afar off. And then he got himself into bad company. As you know, he warmed himself at the fire of those people of the world who had intentions of rejecting the Lord Jesus. And in their presence and in their company, we know what happened. He fell under their influence. And the Bible tells us evil communications, corrupt good manners and Peter.
Denied his Lord with oaths and curses that he ever even knew him. What a sad thing and it happened so fast.
So we learn here that Satan's another one of his designs is to draw you away into bad company. Bad company. He knows that if we get into following the Lord at a distance like this, that surely he'd be able to introduce principles and things into our life that we are going to dishonor the Lord and it's going to come back to, to be against the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I speak now.
Particularly to the young that are here, do you realize that there is an enemy that you're of your soul that wants to draw you away from the bosom of the assembly where the fellowship of God's people is enjoyed and get you off following the Lord at a, at a distance get you into bad company where you will not do things that you normally would do because of peer pressure and so on. You know, it tells us in Acts chapter 2.
And they continued steadfastly, and apostles, doctrine and fellowship, and breaking of bread and prayers.
That's often been said at the very inception of the Church of the first day the church was born there. That that is the four anchors of assembly life. If we keep those four things in our life. Apostles doctrine fellowship is what I'm talking about here now. Breaking of bread and prayers that we are going to make good progress and we are going to be preserved because there is much.
Preservation by walking in those four things. But at the end of that same book, the book of Acts.
You find that they had four anchors in that ship ride that they were making in Pauls Voyages, they call it. And you find what happened with those four anchors. Do you remember the story? Well, they were in a storm and they got worried. They thought that they were going to crash and they were going to have a terrible danger. So they cast out the anchors.
And the anchors that helped them from going into the rocks, which was a good thing. And we need to have the anchors in our Christian life.
All four of them, if we have just but two or three, we're going to move, drift toward the dangers of the rocks and make shipwreck. But we need all four of those anchors. Well, as the story goes on, in the 27th chapter of Acts, you find what happens. Those who are the master and the owner of the ship, they thought, well, since it's getting daytime, I think we should be making progress here. Let's get on with it. And so they got this idea. You have to read it only you only get it in a Darby's translation. It's not found in the King James Version, but.
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Says you know what they did? They cut the anchors off and they committed them to the sea and they tried to make a run for it to the shore, but when they cut the anchors off, they went into shipwreck. 1A lesson that is for us. You cut off the anchors in your Christian life and you're headed for shipwreck. You let go but just one and think, well, I'll just skip maybe the.
Maybe the prayer meeting, that's usually the first one that goes, you know what's going to happen.
Your life will begin to drift. But if you cut off another and like some do, they come to only the breaking of bread. Only what happens is that the progress of drifting is going to be increased and we are going to fall upon the rocks and make shipwreck of our Christian life. And so how careful we have to be to keep close to the Lord. I'll give you another verse, Deuteronomy.
Let's turn to a Deuteronomy 33.
Maybe we could say this is the remedy for these, this ruse of the devil. Deuteronomy 3312, Deuteronomy 3312, And of Benjamin, he said, the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him, and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders, shoulders a peak of safety. Isn't that a beautiful verse, the beloved of the Lord?
Dwell in safety by him. I emphasize that by him, if you're going to be kept in safety, you need to keep close to the Lord. Nearness to Christ is what will keep us. That's what happened with, that's what didn't happen with Peter. He got following the Lord afar off. And So what happened was that the enemy moved in and he sifted him as wheat. There's a difference, you know, with him and Judas. Judas was sifted as chaff because he was a false professor.
But Peter being a true believer, he was sifted as wheat and he needed a second conversion.
That's what it says there when thou art converted and Peter needed a second conversion. Some people think conversion needs to be saved like that you get at the gospel meeting, but they don't realize that conversion simply means to have the heart turned around to God. And if your heart gets turned away through the enemy's work, then you need another conversion to have your heart turned around. I was talking to a brother that had quite an experience in life. He'd gotten away from the Lord and I had mentioned to him about did you know that it's possible that a Christian may need to have a second conversion?
He said, oh, I know about that. I can speak from experience. He said, well, perhaps we all can. But anyway, this verse in Deuteronomy 33 is so wonderful. The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him. Make it an object of your life that you keep close to the Lord, and that means that you're going to have to keep short accounts with God, passing judgment on anything that you may have allowed to happen.
In your thoughts and your words or in your deeds in your life by confessing it to the Lord.
The Bible says in first John 19 that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But isn't this beautiful here? Benjamin, he says this of little Benjamin. We read in Psalm 80. I think it is little Benjamin. Why do they call Benjamin little Benjamin? Well, if you know the history of Ben, the tribe of Benjamin, because of their own failure, they got down to as many as 600 men.
It was almost extinct, that tribe, and God built it back up again, but it never became a prominent tribe in Israel. It was always looked at as little Benjamin. And it's so beautiful to see that when the great cleavage took place in Israel's history, I'm now Speaking of the cleavage of the 10 tribes from the two tribes. When Jeroboam rose up and led the 10 tribes away, who was it that was preserved?
Little Benjamin.
Isn't that sweet? You know the tribe. The situation of the tribe of Benjamin is right next to Jerusalem.
Right next to Judah, where Jerusalem is and isn't that beautiful? Benjamin kept close to the Lord where he was in the midst. And when this great cleavage came and the more part, the mass of the children of Israel were led away by this man Jeroboam, little Benjamin didn't get LED away because Benjamin was.
Was in safety by him, by the Lord, and so if you're going to be preserved, it's going to be because you keep close.
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To the Lord. Now let's look at another one. First Peter Five, First Peter 5.
I'm going to read from verse 5 to get the connection of the passage first. Peter 55.
Likewise, ye younger, submit yourself to the elder or to elders.
Yay, all of you, be subject 1 to another, and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud, or sets himself against the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.
Be sober, be vigilant, vigilant because your adversary, the devil as a roaring lion, walk of the boat, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who have called us unto eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After ye have suffered a while, make you perfect.
Establish, strengthen and settle you. To Him be glory and dominion, forever and ever.
Amen. Now here we have the operation, another operation of the devil and he would like to.
Do in the lives of the Lord's people and we find here in this passage that there are two states that we have to be on guard against in our lives and the first one is just to be puffed up with pride and self importance. The 2nd is to be cast down with discouragement and either of the two of these certain these two circumstances, these two states.
The devil can move in and work, and Peter knew what he was talking about when he wrote these things because he experienced both.
You see, first of all it says, I says I say not to be danger, to be careful, to be not puffed up with self importance and pride. Well, you see Peter, he thought that he was the best disciple the Lord ever had and he didn't mind he telling people about that. And when the Lord said that all you are going to forsake him. And when the when the shepherd would be smitten. But Peter said I can well understand that they would, but not me. Of course you're not referring to me, you're referring to the others.
Oh, Peter, it says here.
God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Peter was deceived by his own importance and the enemy saw that he took note of that. Just like in a chess game, a good chess player, when the opponent makes a move that is foolhardy, he records that he's going to use that. And the devil knows when we make a fool of ourselves by getting pumped up with self importance in some way.
Why he is going to move in?
And he's going to use that in some way to our demise.
Well then we find that it says here, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Here we have the other extreme, and that is one who is overburdened with the cares of life to the point where they you, you just feel that you are discouraged. And discouragement is perhaps the greatest of all the tools in the hand of the enemy. Today. He wants to wear out the Saints of the Most High. We learn from Daniel seven. He wants to tire out the Saints.
He wants to discourage the Saints, discourage us into.
Giving up in the path, How many times have you heard, maybe you've said it yourself, I just feel like giving up. I can't go on anymore. And you know, the enemy watches for that and says here's our opportunity. And so we have to be careful of these two extremes to be puffed up with pride and self importance or to be cast down and discouragement because the enemy will make use of that.
And so how careful we have to be. It says here, be sober and be vigilant, because the devil, the adversary, is like a roaring lion.
He's going about looking for those who are in those states that he can take advantage of. Now, isn't this interesting here?
It says as a roaring lion that he walketh a boat seeking whom he may devour. Now that word devour is only used two times in the New Testament, and the other time that it's used is in connection with another person that is very overcome with discouragement. And I just, I'll just turn you to it, but you don't have to turn to it yourself in the Scriptures. And that is in Second Corinthians chapter 2.
About the man that was overcome with this terrible moral sin and there was repentance that worked in his life.
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And what happens was, is that because the brethren were dragging their feet and receiving this man back there who had been repented in the apostle, I had to write to them about this. We find that the apostle says that he was.
Swallowed up with over much sorrow. And that same expression, swallowed up with over my sorrow is the same word that is used here in the devil trying to swallow up or devour God's people, and he knows how to use discouragement to that end.
Now that may be what the case is with some of you here.
Perhaps you have been praying about things in your Christian life and you haven't seen any sign of the Lord answering it. And you don't know why he would not answer your prayers. Because you know in your own soul that you're seeking to go on for the Lord and to please Him in your life in the in your way as you can, and yet as you ask Him for something. And maybe you have prayed about this for a very long time, and yet you find that the Lord is not answered your prayer.
Be careful of not allowing yourself to get cast down in discouragement, in prayer.
The Bible says that men ought always to pray and not to faint because the enemy would love to use his powers to take you out of the way. How many have been let out of the path because they got overcome with discouragement and the devil swallowed them up and he has brought their life and testimony to ruin because they allowed discouragement to take over their life? I just want to say to you, if you've been praying for something.
And the Lord has not yet in his good time and his perfect wisdom and not answered your prayers the way you would like to see it. Just persevere. Don't give up. Don't allow the enemy to come into your Christian life and to discourage you. And you want to throw your hands up and say it's not worth it going on because the enemy of your soul is going to make use and he's going to move in and he is going to bring sorrow into your life. You think you're discouraged and you're unhappy because maybe the Lord is not answered.
That you may be praying, I tell you, you don't know how much sorrow the devil can bring in your life when you lead you into a path that would dishonor the Lord. You wait on God. He honors faith. The Lord honors faith. He may try your faith and delays are not denials. You know in John Chapter 11.
And Mary and Martha, they prayed that the Lord would come. They called for the Lord to come. And it says on the Lord abode there yet two more days.
And in those two days, Lazarus died. When the Lord came, they said, Lord, if you were to come quicker, we could have saved them. You could have raised them up from his sickness. But the, you know, it's so wonderful. The Lord's delays are not denials. He came at the right time to demonstrate his power and he brought Lazarus back, as we know, from the dead. And so the Lord knows what he's doing in your Christian life. And if you submit to it by verse seven, it says casting all your care upon him.
For he cares for you that you're going to get the blessing. See in verse 10. He goes on to say that if you resist the devil and not allow yourself to get overcome with discouragement that God is going to perfect things in your Christian life. You are going to make you perfect. That's the idea of full growth as we had in our meetings earlier, and to establish you, to strengthen you to settle. These are moral.
Development in the Christians life that is so very important you see the Lord is interested in not just answering our prayers as if it's a as if it's a pop machine you come to it just push a button Lord, I need this push the button outcomes this and off you go he's interested in moral development in our Christian life and sometimes in these delays that he allows it's for the deepening of these exercises in our Christian life and to help us also to weed out those things that may be a hindrance in.
Life as we look over our life and seek to be more pleasing to him.
And with regards to what we may have in our lives, but the end is always the same that he would bring us to Christian perfection. And so the enemy would like to work in this way as well. Now turn to 1St Corinthians 7, First Corinthians 7 and our time is moving along. So I'm going to have to just read a quote, some of them the verses that were to do with.
The remedy 1St Corinthians 7, verse 5.
Deep deprive or defraud not one another, except it be with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and come together again that Satan tempt you.
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Not for your incontinency.
What he's talking about here is that the devil also wants to work in the realm of moral evil. He wants to tempt the Saints of God with moral evil. And the context here, as we know, is within marriage, but he works well outside of marriage too, among those who are not married. And we have to understand that this is another line of attack that the enemy is seeking to work upon the Saints of God and introduce moral evil into the life of believers. People think that they're going to bring happiness in their life and they bring sorrow.
And so the scripture tells us in Two Timothy chapter 2, flee also youthful lusts.
That tells us that we need to get out of any situation that would lend itself to getting into some sort of a moral evil. You know, there has to be a situation that a person is in to facilitate such things. Another verse that comes to mind is Romans 14. It says put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof and so.
Let us be careful about this line of attack, too. If we keep ourselves out of those situations where something like this could happen, we will be preserved from the enemy seeking to tempt us in this way. Well, let's move along now to Second Corinthians.
2nd Corinthians Chapter 11 verse 2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ, but I fear lest by any means.
As the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he come, he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached. Or if you receive another spirit which ye have not received, or another gospel which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him or with me.
Verse 13 For such a false apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.
And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing that his ministers, if his ministers, also be transformed as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. So here we have another thing, and that is, the enemy would like to beguile us with bad doctrine that would ultimately lead us out of the divine revelation.
And away from the.
Truth of God, you know the enemy knows exactly what he's doing and we will find that if we are very zealous for keeping the truth and desirous to learn the truth, then he says that's the realm I want to work on that's the place where I should work and so he would like to introduce some doctrine or some new thought or or whatever or someone may try to tell you it's not a new thought it's an old thought or whatever into your Christian life that will affect your your walk because all.
Eventually affects your walk. I remember listening to a tape by Chapter Brown one time. He says doctrine affects your walk. He says, why is it that I don't go with the Baptist today and meet with them down the road here? He said, in a word, it's doctrine. I see from the Scriptures that Scripture would have me meet together on the ground of the one body according to Matthew 18 and 20, and that has led my feet to here and not to there.
Well, at any rate, the enemy would like to introduce doctrine.
That would trip us up, and we have to be very careful because there are subtleties in connection with doctrine, little nuances that the enemy knows how to bring in that have great ramifications down the road. And so he was jealous of them. And the Lord is jealous of our affections too. He wants us to be, as he says here, not to be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. It doesn't mean that he wants us to always remain.
Believers and know nothing more than maybe the ABC's of the gospel that's nobody's talking about simplicity here has the idea of the purity of the truth of God's revelation and he wants our faith to stand in all of that purity. He does not want us to have corruption in our doctrine and because it's going to affect our ways. As I was saying, and he mentions how it happens. Satan uses men, even Christian men, well meaning men whom he gets a hold of.
Seducing spirits can get a hold of a mind of a Christian, we learn from First Timothy 41, and they can get going on a pet doctrine of some sort and begin to press that and soak. Satan will use men sometimes to introduce things to us that could trip us up, and he saying we shouldn't marvel about that because Satan himself can transform himself into being an Angel of light, something good.
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So as ministers can do the very same thing, they can transform themselves into ministers of righteousness.
And I don't think that these workers who, if they're Christian, are necessarily doing something diabolical in their minds. That is, they're rubbing their hands and saying we're going to trip up those Christians because I want to really see them get off the track. No, I think that they're honestly deceived. They think they really got something here and they're going to share this and push this on the Saints and press it. But alas, it is something that the devil has been working with.
And it is something that is heterodox rather than orthodox.
And so we find here its ministers transformed into ministers of righteousness. Isn't that interesting? The devil likes to work on the lines of righteousness.
Oh, what is right and what is good for the glory of God. It sounds good and we want to do what is right for the glory of God. And so we can get swooned by that. We can be hoodwinked by someone who comes on the line of wanting to act for righteousness sake. And very often you'll find trouble in assemblies happen because someone wants to stand for some little thing that they imagine it is so very important and so needful and it's for righteousness. And there's nothing more than something that the Satan can make use of to divide.
Saints and to bring in problems you know that's just the way the enemy works we have to be very careful in first John chapter four we have three tests whereby we can discern whether.
Those who come teaching us things, or those even from among us.
Present things to us, whether they are truth or whether they're error, and remember, it can very well happen. And I think that the subtlety of the enemy is such that he would probably use ones that would rise up from among us to teach us erroneous things than ones that would come in, because we'd be more wary of those.
Acts chapter 20 Paul said to the Ephesian elders that there would be grievous wolves entering in not sparing the flock. And then he says, and from among your own selves.
He's talking about the elders too. Shall men arise speaking perverse things to lead a way toward, to draw away disciples after themselves?
And that's that latter way that I suspect that the enemy would more likely work in because it would be more effective in his designs. But anyway, in first John 4, the 1St 6 verses or so, and I won't read them to spare us a time, you'll find these three tests that we can use to discern whether a man is bringing the truth or not. The first one, verse 2 is that every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come.
In flesh shouldn't be in the flesh, but in flesh.
Is of God. The first point that you see here is that he must uphold the truth of Christ, deity and his humanity. That's what that's talking about.
To to summarize it and put it this way very simply, does what he teach exalt and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ or not? That's a simple test. It can be. Now the reason why I say his deity and his sinless humanity is because.
It says here that he confesses that Jesus Christ is come in flesh.
The fact that it's come in flesh would bring before us his eternality, the eternality of his being.
The fact that he pre existed, coming into flesh.
See you and I are in flesh, but we didn't come in flesh. We did not exist before we were born in this world, but the Lord Jesus did. He pre existed, his coming into flesh. And so there you have the deity of Christ brought before us and then it's in flesh because it's his humanity. And these are the two places where most evil doctrines connected with the person of Christ are founded and his deity and his perfect humanity. But just to summarize it again, the main point.
Two is does it exalt and glorify the person of the Lord Jesus Christ or not? That is one very good test. Very often it'll exalt man, give man some place.
And not the Lord Jesus, Secondly.
Verse five and six.
They are of the world. He's talking about these evil teachers. Therefore the the they speak of the world and the world heareth them. The point here is that the world, those who are not even saved will buy into these things. But let's not just think that he's only Speaking of the world. That is people that are lost in this world. Also Christians that are under the influence of the world. In other words, worldly Christians. Do worldly Christians like that? What's that man may be teaching?
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Remember a man saying to me one time, well, go ask the most liberal and loosest Christian you know amongst in your gathering if he likes that doctrine?
I tell you that really tells the story. It really tells a story. Oh yes, I think that's fine, because one that's like that usually wants more.
Liberal, you know, liberty and so on. And it's a telltale sign.
That there's something that is Askew with this doctrine.
Thirdly, verse six, we are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of air. the US in this verse is the apostles. The point here is, does what they teach coincide with the apostles teaching?
Do what they teach coincide with the apostles teaching.
So these three tests are does it glorify the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do the world or worldly Christians buy into this and like it? And the third thing is does it coincide with the apostles teaching in the Word of God? It cannot be supported and properly from the Word of God. These things will give us a sign as to whether there is truth or error. Now as our time is running out, let's look in Zechariah 13 for another.
Of the Devil upon the Saints, Zechariah, chapter 13.
Chapter 3. Rather Zechariah 3, the third chapter of Zechariah.
And he showed me, Joshua the high priest, standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuked thee, Oh Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuked thee. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed in filthy garments and stood before the Angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him.
And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thy iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with a change of raiment.
And he said, I let them set a fair miter upon his head, and set a fair miter upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the Angel of the Lord stood by. And the Angel of the Lord protested to Joshua, and said, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, if thou wilt walk in my ways, and will keep my charge, and thou will also judge my house, keep my courts, and I will give thee a place to walk among these that stand by. Won't read any further Here we have Satan's operation to hinder the.
Process of restoration in a soul.
Here's Satan Satan's operation to hinder the process of restoration in a soul. The circumstance here is to do with the restoration of a remnant that came out of Babylon. The whole book of Zacharias to do with the restoring of God's people. He restores the priesthood first in chapter 3, and then we keep stores the governors, the leaders of the people, and later the people themselves.
God is working to restore his people today and we find here.
That Joshua was going to be closed. First of all, cleanse. The name is going to be clothed and then he was going to be crowned. And then fourthly, he was going to be commissioned with a work that God had him to do, but he could not in the state that he was in being defiled in the place where he was in Babylon. They used he needed to be, as I say, cleansed and needed to be restored. And so God is working today to restore souls. You may be someone that is.
Has gone away from the Lord. You haven't been walking through with the Lord as you know you ought to, and you know that you need restoration and you've come to these meetings and God would like to use this as a turn around for you. But there's the devil that wants to hinder that process of restoration in your life, just as he stood here trying to resist the work of the Lord to restore Joshua to his office.
Satan doesn't want us to. You get restored, but God would rebuke the devil here this afternoon.
And would seek to not only cleanse you, but clothe and crown.
And Commission you to a work that he has for you to do for his glory. Now, isn't this interesting? His garments were defiled garments. And Scripture speaks to us of the associations of life. You can see how that would come out as a type because and that's throughout Scripture too, because it's something that you're surrounded with. You know, I'm inside these clothes, It's all around me. It's the circumstances of life.
Well, his clothes were defiled. They were filthy garments.
And he needed to get out of them. And you know, if you're going to get restored fully to the Lord, you need to get out of the circumstances of your life that whatever it is that you've been in, you need to get rid of. The leper had to burn his garments that were were no good. And burning brings before us the thought of judgment. Fire is the thought of judgment, isn't it? And it wasn't the priests that were to burn the leper's garment. The leper himself was. And that brings before us the idea that we have to pass judgment on our associations of life because evil.
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Corrupt good manners. Then secondly, we find that he was put there were a new set of garments that were put on him. God would have us to have new associations of life and that is the fellowship of God's people and the Saints. He wants you to surround yourself with the Lord's people.
In this process of restoration and then we find that they he is crowned with a fair miter put on his head that would bring before us the thought of his dignity restored.
And then he's commissioned to a work that he was to do in the priesthood. And God has something for us to do as well. And so God would have us to to do, if there's anybody here in this state needing restoration is to allow the Lord to well, first of all, you need to get out of that garment that you got that you're in, but then allow the Lord to bring you into a new set of circumstances among the Lord's people and to experience the restoring.
Of our Lord Jesus.
Psalm 23 says He restoreth my soul. Do you know we are so helpful.
That we can't save ourselves. We can't keep ourselves. If we get away from the Lord, we can't even restore ourselves. It's all the Lord's work. He restoreth my soul.
Well, I didn't have time to speak about one in Second Corinthians where we find the Satans operations to divide the Saints and he uses as in Second Corinthians chapter 2 There. I'll just point it out that he uses a circumstance of sin amongst God's people to polarize the Saints and wanting some to go ahead and forgive the person before the local assembly had exercised administrative forgiveness and thereby bring in.
A disrupting of the unity of the Spirit.
Satan always wants to divide the Saints and he's waiting for an opportunity, whether it's sin. Then he moves in and tries to polarize the Saints, get to some emotionally wrapped up in the situation and get blinded and start to support the the the offender or whatever. All brother and Satan's working. And that's where you get that verse that we're not ignorant or Satan's devices. Paul was so concerned about that that he said he was working in the gospel and the Lord had opened the door in Troas.
And souls are getting saved might. We're getting saved mightily. There was a real work going on and he said I left that.
Because I wanted to go back to to the seaport there to wait for Titus to come to hear news whether the the Corinthians had picked up on his first letter and had corrected themselves. I asked an evangelist one time, would you leave an open door? And God was working and souls were getting saved because you had a care for the assembly more than your gospel work. He looked right in my face and he said I couldn't do that.
The Gospels dear to my heart, I said. But the apostle did. He realized that the work in the Gospel.
The Savior of life unto life and a death unto death. God is sovereign. Souls will be saved regardless of an evangelist or not.
But with the assembly, we need to give that our attention and be preserved. I seek to preserve the unity of the Spirit.
Numbers 10
Address—L. Smith
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But we turn to.
Numbers, Chapter 10.
As I was meditating on this portion before and some of you.
Have heard me give it a little different application.
There's a distinction in the new translation, and so I will read.
The first couple verses in that translation.
And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Make the two trumpets of silver.
Of beaten work shalt thou make them.
And they shall serve for the calling together of the assembly and for the journeying of the camps.
Notice the distinction that you get of beaten work.
And when they shall verse three blow them with.
Shall blow with them all. The assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation.
I want to be brief, but here.
These are of beaten work.
I noticed that distinction in the Spanish translation.
And here.
Perhaps in other languages as well.
And as I pondered it, I thought, why?
Why does it mention beaten work?
It speaks of Jesus, doesn't it?
We read of his life.
And we?
Who have come to love him.
Marvel.
At the perfection of that blessed man.
These trumpets.
Our silver and silver we know from.
Sound teaching speaks of redemption.
We have the blowing of alarm in this first few verses.
How Israel would set forward in their journey.
And we have a blowing.
#7 that's not an alarm to gather the congregation.
And we get.
Verse 8 The sons of Aaron the priest shall blow with the trumpets, and they shall be to you for an ordinance forever throughout your generations.
So they are definitely connected with the function of priesthood.
And we know that Israel is.
Greatly used of God to set forth His ways in this world.
God uses them down through the centuries to preserve a knowledge of Himself.
In this world.
You get the day of gladness and so forth. But in verse 9, if you go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets, and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.
What is war in the land?
I suppose we could give it many applications.
What if sin arises in the assembly?
It could be various aspects of leaven.
Could be doctrinal, such as you get in Galatians.
Could be moral, such as we get in First Corinthians, but this says.
You're to blow that trumpet.
And as I was pondering this.
You know, I was thinking of the beatings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I want to be sure to leave time for others.
But as you ponder, let's look at Hebrews chapter 5.
We know this verse verse seven Speaking of.
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Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears unto him, that was able to save Him from the death, from death, or out from among the dead?
And was heard in that he feared though he were a son, or were son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
We know from various scriptures that he suffered much.
From men.
We know when he was in the high priest house.
He was struck.
We know when he was before.
Pontius Pilate. First he scourged him.
To be crucified.
Yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
And when he is before?
Our God.
On the cross.
He is veiled in darkness.
Because he's suffering.
For our sins.
Suffering unto blood, as Hebrews 12 tells us.
Rather.
Then allow sin.
What a man, this blessed Savior.
In our chapter.
That we had in the readings.
I was thinking.
Of Christ's likeness.
I mentioned to someone else.
I think it was back in 1967 when I was in Hong Kong.
I was going to go visit the Christian Book Room and maybe Brother Collier School. One of the men on my ship wanted to go over with me. It really wasn't too safe to go alone.
So he chose to do that, though I told him he might be bored.
He wasn't the Lords and we went to visit.
And I whispered in Sister Helen Willis's ear.
This man doesn't know the Lord, He's a Roman Catholic.
And I went about the room, watching refugees painting these texts that you sometimes see on the wall, like the one over the main door back there.
We were there about 3 hours.
And when we left?
She saw us out to the courtyard.
And told us goodbye and we walked down the street.
The ways. And he says to me.
She's just like Jesus. You never want to leave her.
But a testimony.
What a testimony.
And I was thinking as these silver trumpets.
What are they? They're tubes.
Today we see trumpets and they're worried into circles with a few valves to change the length in the note.
I'm not sure what the shape of these were.
But they were for the priesthood.
And it's formed by something that speaks of redemption, and it's beaten into its shape.
Amazing.
Vessel.
Doesn't do a thing if you lay it down.
But it gets its life.
From the breath of priesthood.
And when trouble comes into the assembly, into the testimony of God.
The enemy in the land like it mentions there in numbers 10.
What's the refuge? It's always the Lord.
Says, Take that silver trumpet and sound it before the Lord.
There's a lot of ways that can be done.
I should say a lot of ways we might apply that.
It could be that.
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A letter of discipline comes from another assembly.
And you could say, well, that's that's trouble in the land.
It might be extremely necessary that priesthood in the local assembly.
Sound that out before God.
What happens? It says the Lord will save you out of the hand of your enemies.
It could be sin within the local assembly.
But I believe that there is something in this that could be helpful to us, and that is, is there something of Christ likeness in our ways, but so identifies with his sufferings?
That it gives the manner of expression.
When we cry out to God.
And say.
We have to be distance from that which God can have no fellowship with.
That silver trumpet.
Is sounded in the ears of God.
That he might come in.
And deliver from the enemy.
Why bring up Sister Helen Willis, I believe, when there is Christ likeness in that which must be expressed?
Before God.
It commends itself to conscience, as everywhere.
And makes it much.
Easier to see the Lord in what is done.
Yes, there is Divine Principle.
And we need it.
And there is a divine person.
Who has been shaped and suffering? Who is our object?
And we need him.
In our ways.
May He grant us grace.
To follow him.
1 Cornithians 2
Reading
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But I only suggest this. I don't insist on it. I think of First Corinthians two and three if we get into it.
1St Corinthians 2 And I, brother, when I came to you, came not with Excellency of change or wisdom, bearing them to you the testimony of God. So I determined not to know anything among you say Jesus Christ is crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear, and much trembling, and my speech and my preaching was not written entice the words of man's wisdom, but.
In demonstration of the Spirit and the power.
That your face should not stand in the wisdom of men.
But in the power of God, albeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world or of the Princess of this world that come to know, but we speak the wisdom of God in mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained for the world under our glory.
None of the Princess of this world knew, for had they known it, they were not crucified. The Lord of glory. But as it is written, I have not seen, nor hear heard, neither have entered into the heart of men of man the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has to remedy them unto us by His Spirit.
As a spirit searcheth all things Jay the deep things of God.
For what man N the things of a man save the spirit of man, which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teaching.
But which the holy dose teaches impairing spiritual things.
With spiritual.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
For who has known the mind of the Lord, that He made her construct him? But we have the money, right?
Three versus more. And I rather did not speak on the on the spiritual, but as under carnal, even as under faith. And Christ I fed you with milk, not with me, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able, or you are yet harmful, whereas there is among you ending in strike and divisions, are you not carnal and wrong as men?
Give that statement, you have the mind of Christ.
The Holy Spirit is in you if you are saved and belong to Jesus. The Holy Spirit indwelled you and He gives you the mind of Christ.
First, John 220 The unction of the Holy One. What does it say? There we know all things.
That mean you can close it, forget it, you know all things. No, what it means is anything a believer needs to know, to do the will of God here and to have a happy existence till the shout. He can know. That's it. There's nothing withheld by the Spirit. It doesn't mean you got it all now, but you can have it, and often it's as you need it.
So this is a very beautiful part. He even mentions the mystery.
But I think that's beautiful. There'll be much here.
You know, in the second verse I determined not to know anything among you say Jesus Christ and him crucified. Corinthians says I think it's the 2nd, 11Th. Maybe they crucified the Lord of glory. What does that mean? They gave the worst possible death ever meted out in this world to the highest.
Possible land that ever walked.
Here they crucified the Lord of glory. It's the contradiction of sinners against himself. Think of that. Well, that's what he that's all he preached. But of course, when you get into the Lord of glory, it never ends, does it? The preaching goes on and on forever.
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The subject in the first four chapters of the Epistle is that to do with divisions that were that had developed among the the Corinthians. And he seeks to correct that. And he traces in the first chapter the cause of the division that were there to human wisdom and worldly wisdom that had intruded the assembly and their thinking. And he goes immediately about to show the futility of such.
Human wisdom by showing that first of all human wisdom does not help in saving souls and their own conversion as an outstanding mark of it. Not many mighty, not many noble and so on as he speaks in the first chapter. But then in the second chapter he shows that human wisdom does also does not help in building up the Saints and giving them the truth.
And then in the third chapter, we'll find that he shows that human wisdom.
Actually hinders growth and development. And then a little further on in the third chapter, he shows the human wisdom does not help in our service for the Lord only bringing in defilement into the House of God. And so he seeks to show the futility of human wisdom at work in the things of God and the the need for the cross comes up in the first chapter verse 18.
To show us that God has done with everything to do with man in the flesh and all of his wisdom.
Then in the second chapter we have the Spirit of God coming in, and these two things are to be applied in the correction of every problem that there might be in the assembly. You might put it this way, that the cross shuts man out, but the Spirit of God brings God in and God's mind in. So as our brother was saying, how we get the mind of Christ is really before us in the second chapter.
By the Spirit of God having come down and illuminated our souls, and has given us the truth.
And there is a process here that you see that we'll probably see in the latter part of this chapter how the truth actually comes to us, that we get the mind of Christ.
God makes quick work of the wisdom of this world. He makes quick work of the world too. You know, we are not of the world even as I am not of the world. That's our position. We're heavenly people.
Not worldly, earthly either. And so he says in the 19th verse of the first chapter, it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the the understanding of the prudent. Where is the scribe? Where? Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?
I'll tell you there's masses of them that like to show their intelligence.
Wisdom by disputing creation. And they have all kinds of foolish ideas that had to come from the apes. I think, you know, can't come from wisdom. Not gods, all right.
For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them. That belief. Very simple, isn't it, Preaching.
Of the cross and the crucifixion and to God in Jesus. Dying on the cross brings out mockery from the wise of this world. Some of the greatest of this world can't grasp it because later on it'll tell you the only way you could grasp it. That's why the Holy Spirit, the teacher in you, the only way you can't without.
And I was thinking of foolishness.
Let's see.
Well, He destroys it, but every thought and every reason you have in spiritual things is wrong. That's what I say. It's completely wrong. Don't reason. If you come to a verse that you don't understand, leave it. Pray to God the Father that it will clarify it and when He does, thank you and He'll keep help with you.
By the Spirit of God. But don't wrestle with it. Don't use this. You know the reason they'll always put you.
00:10:08
In A at a point far from God, you know, the apostles in Luke 24 were the hardest ones to bring into the knowledge of what Jesus had told them. On the third day. I'll rise again. They couldn't grasp it, the apostles, the women.
Were the first group, they learned it quickly. And when the Lord told them by the angels, He's not here, he's risen, Remember what he said to you, what he was yet with you. They remembered and they went and told the disciples and the apostles what they do. They laughed at them. The women were so far ahead of the apostles at that time.
What did the apostles do? The Lord appeared in their midst because they doubt it. He rose and he said, Why do thoughts arise?
In your heart, never let your thoughts get involved with this book. Never. You'll be wrong every time.
This is what they needed, Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Simple, isn't it? That's our foundation. Everything now rests on Christ. Everything we have tomorrow morning we'll offer nothing but Christ to our Father, by the loaf his body, and by the cup his blood. And that's it. We're not going to divert and get away from it because it's too fast. We never exhausted. It's so wonderful.
Yeah.
Remember Brother Norman very speaking about when they crucified the Lord, it was in the place of a skull and they dropped the heel of the cross right down through the skull to show that man's wisdom was a thing of the past. And what a deliverance we still have very intellectual men. We, they're not lending ear to them because.
Their desire is to tickle the mind, and it's all apart from conscience and affectionate affection of the heart.
And so this is a guard, is it not, that when we speak the truth, we speak it from the affections of our hearts and our consciences is engaged, that we not speak anything that is not true?
And so they Corinthian Saints, they were intellectual brethren, and they were using their gift in competition to one another. Can you imagine that state of affairs to see who's number one and who's number two and who's number three? And by doing that, everything they said was nullified.
And so competition has been taken out for the Christian.
And thank God for that.
You have many teachers, they were gifted, but not many with a father's heart. And that's what we need. We needed to come out in love, not in learning. And you know that isn't the thought at all. Don't you take it in and love, I mean, God is revealing to you these great things. We can't hardly grasp them, but we believe them. We don't argue with Him, but He says it. I believe it.
Go on. So it's very beautiful.
Does the batter about his speech any more than Moses?
The Lord says Jehovah said to Moses, I'll be thy mouth. But why don't you just go? Who made man's mouth? Yeah, that's nice.
Well, we could make a lot of excuses, you know.
Well, it's been said that Paul could have come to Corinth and put all those.
Gifted men down with his own gift, but he knew the worthlessness of that spirit of things and the value of being moved by the Spirit of God. And that's how we're going to thrive is the operation of the Spirit of God in our midst, as you have mentioned.
Not with enticing words. Who can tell me on that question? I'm not raising question, I'm sorry. But anyway, what's the average word in the Word of God? All the New Testament, anybody could have a guess.
00:15:07
They're not enticing.
5 letters.
5 letters. The average word in the word of God. It's for everybody. It's not with enticing words, it's things you understand, you know.
Saved life. Hope you can keep going, Grace. I mean, these words are not big words and Paul used them. That's really something.
If you counted, if you knew the average word of Shakespeare in his place, you wouldn't believe it. Well, I won't get into it, but anyway.
We have a lot of enticing words going on today in this world, especially United States. There's a lot of pulpit ear itching features and they're enticing words make them feel good. As they leave, of course the collection gets bigger, but that that isn't God, that isn't for God. He doesn't use in typing words so.
It's been astounding to me, brethren, that.
We we now observe the fact that they do not call him the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's wonderful to hear his name, Lord Jesus Christ. They don't even know him as Lord. They seem to put him at a distance and they use God. They they use the word God in speaking in regards to him. Brother, we have a closer relationship.
To our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. God puts them at a distance, but we have access to the Father by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God himself loves to hear his his his sons name given.
The Lord Jesus Christ and I have to say too, brethren, that it's not a trivial matter as how we address.
Jesus Christ do not put him down command level, but put him up to God's level and how God sees him and we should not.
Soften the the strength of that precious name. We should not degrade him as to our dad, and I will have heard it expressed, brethren, that they call him dads. What a dishonor to our blessed Lord our God and Father.
But above all, to our Lord Jesus Christ is God manifest, God seen and heard, the heavens, beloved one he is, He's the He's there in the glory for us. And we have access to the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't forget it, young brethren, young sisters, we have a close relationship.
With the Lord Jesus Christ and with the Father and.
We have access into the Holy by the blood of Jesus, and so we have strength in the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who is the Christ? The one that the Jews were looking for, children of Israel. They were looking for the Christ. That means the anointed one of God sent as their Messiah. That's the Christ, and we ought to look at him as the Christ and call him that, because that's the one chosen of God and sin, That's the anointed One. What about Jesus?
Jesus is Jehovah.
Can't say Jehovah is Jesus, but you can say Jesus is Jehovah. The whole Old Testament speaks of him. Isn't that beautiful? And not the church so much as Jesus Christ, the one sin of God. They were waiting for the Messiah, and they crucified him. And every sign of prophecy of the Old Testament he fulfilled in his birth, his life.
His death, he fulfilled them all.
And they knew them. In fact, when he told the parable of the vineyard, you know, the scribes and Pharisees took account that he spoke this of them. Think of that. They do. And yet they crucified their Messiah.
00:20:17
What have you done with Jesus?
Well, I made him Lord in my life, not too good but the best I can. That's why I call him Lord. You call him Lord, Make him Lord in your life. Jesus means Savior also. He is Jehovah. Hova means to exist, eternal existence.
What Moses told to tell the children of Israel, I am sent you. That's over. That's Jesus. You never had a beginning, but I think these are wonderful truths.
But don't ever pray Jesus. I mean, the Pentecostals have a sort of corner on that go into a hospital room and there's a Pentecostal that the brother Kobe to go and people sitting around in pretty bad shape on their way into eternity his way eternity. And when I started praying with him, I heard a whole bunch of voices Jesus.
Jesus, oh holy Jesus, I could hardly pray anymore.
You know that's what they do not Lord in their life, not Christ, Son of God, Jesus. It isn't right. You demote him to our level.
No.
The new translation of Romans 10/9, I believe, brings out a very significant point, not only for those of us, not only the young, but the old and the old and the young. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, it should be Jesus as Lord. And how many?
And I hesitate saying it.
But unless we to the world, unless we look like a Christian, as far as they're concerned, we're not. And to think of honoring Jesus as Lord in our life, how many things would pass by and we wouldn't have anything to do with them? To think of the difference it would make in everyday life if we really owned Jesus.
As Lord, so I'm not trying to corner anybody or do you know?
Jesus, Oh yes, I sang Jesus loved me when I was a kid, you know, and I go to Sunday school. I was raised in the meeting. But to own Jesus as Lord, what a difference it makes and.
There's not one person in the narrative of the Gospels where we have the Lord's earthly ministry ever, ever recorded to us in the Gospels, who called or came to the Lord Jesus and called him Jesus, except demons.
Isn't that striking? For instance, the demoniac. What have I to do with thee, Jesus?
One of the few that ever told him Jesus.
Every other person called him Lord.
So on, but ought to teach us how we need to address our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. The demons know Him, they know His name, and they can really mess you up. Don't let him do it. Just own Him as Lord in your life and then give him his full title and God will answer your prayers because He said so.
Whatsoever you ask in my name, it shall be granted you by my Father in heaven.
It's a wonderful promise, but don't shortcut that name. He's worthy of it. You know there's only a change of one letter in that is to pass.
And it makes a world of difference for eternity in hell or heaven, just that is to have, it says.
Every knee shall bow to him, and every tongue shall confess Jesus Christ.
As Lord.
God is Lord, like we do as Lord, because they'll not own him that he is their Lord, they'll own him that he is the Lord. Then they'll go to hell and that thought will be in their minds for eternity. That's the word that dieth not forever.
00:25:00
Your conscience well, but I'm getting into that. What says in verse two saved Jesus Christ and each time that you come across the names and titles of the Lord Jesus, there is lessons in it. And when it's Jesus preceding Christ, it's usually you looked at it as the one who has come here to glorify God, come down from heaven to glorify God, as it goes on to say, and him crucified.
But sometimes you'll read in Paul's writings Christ Jesus turning it around the other way.
And that's referring to the man who has glorified God of the cross and has gone back to heaven and is seated on high in the glory as a man. So Christ comes first and then his manhood, the name which is Jesus, follows. And it goes along with what we have in Acts chapter 2 where it says that in resurrection it made him both Lord and Christ. And so we see his.
His title Christ put before his manhood name when it's referring to Him.
In his position on high, in the glory as a man.
Here it's Jesus Christ because he's talking about him coming into this world for the purpose of dying on the cross to settle the question of our sins.
But getting back to our chapters, you say brother Bob, but I think in the 1St 5 verses or so Paul is alluding to his manner of preaching to show them that the the the way in which the a Christian should really announce the gospel.
Is not anything to do with human wisdom, but to lean upon the the power of God by the power by the Spirit of God, and thereby working souls. And so you have there in that first verse.
And the style of his preaching that was not with Excellency of speech. He was not going to try to to tingle the ears of people with with eloquence. And then in verse two, you have the subject of his preaching that's Christ crucified.
He wasn't there to to intrigue people with a lot of paraphernalia. No, he wanted to bring out Christ and Him crucified. Then in verse three, you see there the spirit that characterized his preaching and that was with meekness and with trembling.
He was dependent on God. Then in verse four we have something more. We have there the the source of power in his preaching. Of course, that's the Spirit of God. He says that in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And then in verse five we have yet another thing, and that is the end. They had a view in his preaching. And what was that? That the Saints would stand in the wisdom not of men, but in the power of God.
So he wanted his ministry to stick in the hearts of this, those to whom he ministered, and he relied upon the power of the Spirit of God that would reach that end with them. And so if we have faith as we minister the Word of God, that God by the Spirit would use it and make it good in souls, we don't need to lean to all these human devices and appliances to try to make impact. Is that right, Brother Ron?
Indeed it is.
I was just thinking about a verse in Job 32 about.
Speaking otherwise enticing words. Believe it's a lie here that says in verse 22 for I know not to give flattering titles.
In so doing, my maker would soon take me away.
So if we try to be impressive and.
And so on and not have this spirit of things that you're bringing out here. What's going to happen when the Lord may just have to take us away because there's there's no fruit not getting fruit as a corollary. Amen to what you said Ecclesiastes 1010 If the iron be blunt and he do not wet the edge then must.
Put then must he put two more strength?
But wisdom is profitable to direct.
If we don't have the edge of the Spirit of God and what we say, then we have to use emotion. We have to to raise our voice. We have to try to move the audience by emotions. We put two more strength.
But wisdom is profitable to direct.
But only if the iron be blunt. But if it's not blunt, then we can follow.
00:30:04
In the household steps.
It says in Proverbs 4 seven. You don't have to turn to it. Wisdom is the principal thing.
And I believe it's true, you know, on the 8th chapter.
I wisdom dwell, you know that is Christ. He is wisdom personified.
Then if you look at First Corinthians, this is where it comes in so beautifully.
1St Corinthians 10 it says this.
Verse 15 I speak.
As to wise men, judging what I say, the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
He speaks to those that are white. That means the Spirit of God as it relates. No one else could understand it. No, I don't care how religious they are, how well read they are. They couldn't grasp this that we love so much. You notice here, it's not the breaking of bread, it's the Lord's table.
First, why? Because it's your standing. The blood is your standing tomorrow at that table. Because God doesn't see any sin in or on you. He sees you only in the preciousness of His beloved Son. That's all He can see. He doesn't see sin and it's gone. And then in the 11Th chapter.
What which comes first? Well, the table. No, what I meant was in the 11Th chapter.
Loaf and then the cup.
That's a beautiful, isn't it? But notice of teaching, you know, I have many who believe that Jesus was not until he was born.
But He's the eternal Son of God. Many Pentecostals, not all, believe that. Liberty Baptists and many of those free will Baptists believe that. And you know, you got much to talk about. But look how careful God is. Turn to Isaiah 9. Notice how careful He always is.
Chapter 9 of Isaiah, verse six. For unto us a child is born. Now notice unto us a son is given.
That's something, isn't it? Yes. He became a man incarnation. He was a babe in that Manger. Doesn't matter, but he was. But he was a son always, and God gave him. Just grasp that and then don't let him bother you. You know, you don't have to know all the counterfeits because there's a lot of them out there.
I mean you have to know the reason and the counterfeit has a bad sound.
Learn the real, the truth, and you'll take care of the rest.
Maybe a test of not merely the one that is giving out the truth, but the the ones that are receiving it? Which would we prefer?
We prefer a brother that came in weakness and in fear and much trembling. Why was that brother ever asked? I know of someone that my, you know, the words flow and I thought he was rather disconnected. But you know that test not only the giver but the receiver. And we need to be careful that we're not intrigued.
By the opposite of weakness.
The opposite of fear and the opposite of trembling, because it manifests a state of soul, each one of us. And how when the apostle Paul spoke, what did he have? He had revelations from God, from the blessed Lord. And if we accept the word of God in that manner, is it going to make it more real to my heart and conscience? Because a person can can be eloquent.
And if he came in weakness and fear, and much trembling.
I have to admit that I have to change channels to be able to really take it in.
00:35:06
The power of God verse 5 does not stand in the wisdom of man. That's a statement that's there. Romans 116.
Got to think about it. Not ashamed, not ashamed of the gospel of God. Or is it Christ? Whatever, it's the power, power of God under everyone that believeth. Now I use that on all my Letterheads and envelopes. It used to be back of my car but.
In my office, I had a big one. I like that verse. And one woman came in and I recited to her, she says, Mr. Obama, why don't you finish it? I thought.
Because you first and then the Gentile. She was a Jew. She didn't enjoy the way I said it. Well, I thought that taught me a lesson really, to Jew 1St and then the Gentile.
That first kind of like your face should not stand in the wisdom of men, black in the power of God. That's not a theory. And that's kind of what man falls into it, isn't it? I was just thinking about that man's wisdom.
And you go to Second Timothy chapter 2 and verse.
23.
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strikes. The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, and not to teach patients and make this constructing those that oppose themselves, God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth so.
We're Speaking of these things and man has his theories. He likes to act to the word of God.
And for instance, you might say we were speaking about this last night, brother and I.
We see in the Word of God that He chooses us. We're chosen before the foundation of the earth. So therefore there must be those that were not chosen. No, do not go beyond the Word of God. And that's what we.
Tend to do anything theorizing and adding to what's not there the wisdom of that.
Albeit 6 we speak wisdom among them that are perfect. How many in this room are perfect?
Define the word first. I want to.
Patience is the best thing. The second Timothy, I think it's wait a minute, Second Timothy 316 and 17 describes it beautifully, but many places, not just there, OK.
1St.
16 All scripture is given by inspiration.
Of God, we just had that with Peter permeating last night.
And is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Why, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Perfect is.
Is really.
A fullness of knowledge or able to take in the truth. I mean you're a babe before, but as you grow in grace, you become perfect. That means you can take in what the Spirit gives you from the word of God. That's a perfect man. It's it doesn't mean you never sinned. We know better than all that you know, but that's the description I have. You have a better no better than just the same.
Ephesians 4, verses 11 and 12. They gave some apostles and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints.
For the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, that the main point is for the perfecting of the Saints, and the the latter 2 clauses are the means to that end. That's the purpose of God and connection with apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.
00:40:01
Is for the perfecting of the Saints.
And also in Philippians 3 and verse 15. Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded. And he is speaking in that chapter of how that he had one object before him that was to pursue Christ. He had no other things in his life, no other pursuits or interests. It was totally Christ. And he says that is the mark of Christian perfection.
It's the idea of full growth and maturity, isn't it? So.
So coming back to our chapter with these 3 verses that have been brought forth, it would show us that he did not seek to minister the truth on the line of the flesh or the worldly Christian. He didn't seek to make it palpable, palatable to those who were on our Colonel lines.
But he sought to minister the word of God as to build up the Saints and to make them perfect. And I think this is important because many are trying to stress that we should keep the the ministry of the of the word of God always on a level that doesn't go beyond the the the gospel or go go belong the very elementary things in Christianity. But you see with the apostle that he sought to bring them into.
As he says in Acts 20, and not shun to declare unto you all the counsel of God. And so we want to give the Saints all the truth of God as they're able to hear it.
But you get it from the Word, from those that God has raised up.
They're a little, they're a little lineup online, line up on line and it begins to take. I know the first conference I attended probably 40 years ago was that.
Senior moment, I'll have it.
It's up in the balcony.
Anybody help me look down? They're all down there too, but I wanted to. I was so amazed.
Hamilton, Anybody was there 40 years ago, But there was Harry Hagel, George Hale, Albert Hey Hope, John Burton and Paul Wilson. I could keep naming. There must have been 20 laborers. And I look right down on them. And I thought Cardinal mind that I was. How great. You know how great. I wish I knew what they were talking about. I told my wife on the way home. I wish I knew what they were talking about, but I know.
Speaking truth from the Bible. This is it, young people, don't be troubled just because it's a little over your head. It's good if it's a little over your head. You don't want stuff that's underneath you and you don't pick up any truth. And so it wasn't long. In fact, the first year I was gathered, we, we attended 13 conferences and it wasn't long. That was beginning to get the idea.
And all it was wonderful.
You know, it is wonderful. I didn't understand it before, but oh, to hear it, minister, that's what God has in mind. You know, every joint supply. That doesn't mean you're you sit back. It means you can supply too, as the Spirit of God moves you. Everyone, every joint suppliers. I love that.
I think we can safely say that there isn't a meeting that we attend, that we can't get something out of it. Oh, yeah. And we don't need to be frustrated by the fact that we don't know everything that's said.
Because I hear things and what do I do about it? I take it home and weigh it over and wonder and.
And all of a sudden the light goes on.
And so if the Spirit of God has free course among us, we can't attend the meeting. Say I didn't get anything out of it If I say that I want to check my state of soul and.
The Lord said to Abraham as God Almighty said, Abraham, I know there's a lot of distractions, but I want you to walk before me and be thou perfect. And I thought, you know that just weeds a lot of things away just to hear the Lord say that to us. You walk before me.
I'll take care of the of your growth and see that your plan.
00:45:02
We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world and unto our glory, which none of the rulers or Princess of this world know or knew, For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Isn't that beautiful? Now the next verses are so so dramatic and and inexhaustible.
But I like this is the first mention of the mystery. But the mystery is pretty broad. And Paul brought it out. He got it from above and it was a mystery not because it was hard to find. It was a mystery because it wasn't revealed until Paul was allowed to do it. He got it right direct from the Lord.
And he gets something and look at look at Ephesians chapter 3.
Just a little here.
Chief 3 averse.
Pardon me here.
Fly well for the mystery of Christ. There it is, 434.
Chapter 3, Verse four OK, is that right? The mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not known or made known under the sons of men.
Abraham didn't know it, Moses didn't know it, Jonah didn't know. None of them knew it, but they had faith that somehow God would do it. Now are we blessed? We have faith and we know how God did it. Isn't that a great difference?
OK.
Revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. That's the only way that the Gentiles. I don't know if there's any Jews here, but the Gentiles of all things can enter into something that the Jews just could not grasp. Still, the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same holy the same.
Body and partakers of the promise.
Christ in Christ by the gospel. Wherefore I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God-given unto me by the effectual working of his power unto me, which have less than the least of All Saints. I wanted that title, but he got it ahead of me.
Is this?
Great is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world.
Has been hid.
God who created all things by Jesus Christ. That's a mystery. There's one body. You're going to preach it. You've got to believe it tomorrow. One body.
And.
One spirit.
And one God and Father of all who know him.
One Lord, that's mystery, but you were Gentile alike.
And as you read there in verse nine, it says it was hid in God. Some have thought that it was hidden in the Old Testament and just needed little searching and you'd find it. But that's not true. It was hit in the heart of God and not brought out until the apostle was raised up to bring out the truth of the mystery to us. And the mystery is not Christ in His person, His deity, and so on, because that's found in the Old Testament.
The mystery is not Christ that he would come here in this world.
That he would die up on the cross. It's not that Christ would rise from the dead and that Christ would reign in this world. All those things are given to us in the Old Testament. But what the mystery discloses to us is that when Christ would reign and that coming day of display, which we call the Millennium, he would have a bride as a compliment at his side who would transmit his glory to the wandering worlds and to the angels and to all.
00:50:11
Of created beings.
That was something that was not found in the Old Testament and required the mystery to bring it to us.
You know, you were chosen of God in Christ before one thing was made. That is, I mean, personally, He knew all about you. I mean, don't try to understand it. Believe it because it's in the Word of God, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
You're very special that we ought to really remember the Lord, as that position we have in standing in Christ is so special, brother.
Maybe you answered this question already, Bruce, but in the end of verse seven it says which God ordained before the world and this expression, our glory, what does that? What does that embrace our glory?
I just share a thought that I've enjoyed and that is in Isaiah chapter 60. It simply says thy God, thy glory. And so we come to the point where we realize that all the blessing that we have received has originated in the heart of God, and thus He is our all and all. But when you say more.
Did he just say Amen? Yeah, I did, I did. And we share that great glory that Christ will have in that day. Is that not the end of the.
Purpose of God to display Christ glory in this world and he will use the church to transmit that glory and So what a wonderful future is ours to have such a chosen place to be used to transmit the glory of the greatest person in the universe. But we will enjoy his.
Acquired glory, not his intrinsic glory. And he'll never share. Share that with anybody.
Yeah, although he gave a glimpse of it to, let's see, John chapter one. I think that I think they had a glimpse. I don't know, it reads like it, John, chapter one.
Let's see verse 14 telling us who the Word was in the first second verse. And the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us. Now he hasn't got the acquired glory.
Let's see and.
What is it like?
As at the and we beheld his glory. It had to be a glimpse, I think, of his.
Intrinsic. Yeah, because this is Him as incarnation God in flesh. We beheld that glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So I believe they had a glimpse.
Well, we'll not get that. I don't think I'll leave it. Help me. And I don't mean to make this humorous, but that's not a 5 letter word.
Intrinsic. Bring it down, bring it down. What does it mean? His intrinsic glory. His glory had from eternity, and he'll have for eternity. It's the glory of the one who inhabits eternity.
That's the only time eternity is mentioned in the Bible that I hold. I say that because.
NIV messed it up. But anyway, eternity can't exist without him. Who has that intrinsic glory? I mean he, he inhabits eternity. Without him, there's no eternity.
It's hard to grasp, but it's true.
This may not help, but it's also been called his essential glories. I know that's more than 5 letters again, but.
The essential glories of his person, yeah.
There's a lot of glories connected with Jesus. Oh yes, but.
His first acquired glory is that of creation. When He created the heavens in the world, He acquired a glory. In Psalm 19 tells us that the that the creation declares His glory.
00:55:06
But the greater glory is that what she acquired at the cross we call redemption glory, and that He shares with this those with whom He has redeemed. Then we have a sonship. It is His new creation glory also in the end of John 17, that He has a place that stands out above all the others, that in the new creation race of men.
These are always a result of him coming into this world, dying and rising again.
No, that would come out what you just said in John 17 verse 24. That's it. This is the Lords Prayer. And whenever they say insist, and I hope you're never there, let's say the Lords Prayer together, don't give the apostles prayer. It doesn't ring true. It's not the Lord's Prayer and then everybody's reciting out there.
It's this is the Lord's Prayer. Look at the verse 24. Father, I will.
That they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.
Which thou hast given me as they acquired glory. For thou hast loved me. Thou lovers me before the foundation of the world. Isn't that a beautiful verse? You know he only mentions his will three times in the New Testament. That's all.
The first time, he didn't.
Do away with it. In the first time, His will was the same as the Father's will. The leper said, if thou will, thou canst make me clean. He said I will. That's His will because that's why God sent him. That was beautiful, isn't it? And then the second time, let's see, that would be I shouldn't start something I can't finish the second time.
This will. Oh, it was.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, yeah, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass for me. Not my will, but I will be John now. He said his will aside because he would never will to be forsaken of God, nor would he ever will to be made sin. We don't realize how often sin is, but.
So he says I will be done and he came to do God's will. This is the third time he doesn't set it aside. Father I will that they also who now has given me.
Also, who can always give me, be with me where I am? I love that.
Whatever. I don't know what you're asking, but.
Where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou has given me.
Before.
For thou lovers.
I can read it. I just got one eye, but it's the other ones. No good. Anyway, love is me before the foundation of the world. I love that one. He didn't set it aside. It's exactly the same as the father. We'd be with you.
Forever hold his glory.
And we need to be instructed that we cannot add to His glory anything.
And as you are saying, we're going to.
Reflect His glory, but we have added nothing to His glory where there is trophies of His marvelous grace. And to think that He would allow us to reflect His glory and there will be no nothing deflective about it.
As the hymn writer says, to display to wandering worlds to come.
And you think of those companies looking up and wondering how do those people get there and what is their history?
They learn what our history is.
That would shake their heads in astonishment.
What a place we're about to have higher than the Angel.
It tells us in Isaiah 26 when thy judgments are in the earth, the world shall learn righteousness and.
So the world will learn the righteousness of God and so on by the judgments that he will execute, but they'll learn the grace of God by beholding the vessel that he has made for himself, for his own glory in the church. And so it's going to be a day of instruction for the millennial people. And I don't even just say the millennial people, also the the angelic beings are going to be watching and beholding and learning.
01:00:27
Of such wondrous grace.
I think we should look now at from verses 6 onward. I noticed in Mr. Darby's translation there is a paragraph marker.
He shows now from verse six to the end of the chapter how the truth of God comes to us. And you'll see here just at a glance that it's completely outside of the the mind of man, the scope and the the the capacity of the mind of man. You'll find 5 links in a chain here. I'll just point them out as we would go over them.
Verse seven it says it's wisdom that God first has ordained. Then secondly, we'll find in verse nine it is something that God has prepared, it's a step further, and then in verse 10 it says it's something that God has revealed a step further. And then going on to verse 13, it's something that God has communicated.
It says comparing spiritual things with the spiritual means it should read Communicating spiritual things with something that's something that God has communicated.
And then at the end of verse 14, he had a step further. It is something that is spiritually discerned. And so this is how the truth comes to us. God first ordained it before the world was made. And that would tell us that it's completely outside of them. There was no man what He made this wisdom.
When he ordained this wisdom.
And you'll see as we pass through these various things, it is entirely outside of all human wisdom and capacity. And that's why he says in verse 9 those three things. The I have not seen the ear if not heard, neither have the heart of man entered into. These are the three ways in which man acquires his wisdom. We might say that one of them is through observation, the eye. The other one is through tradition, listening to what our elders have told us and what history is given to us.
And then thirdly, what the heart of man would answer that would bring before us what is intuition? But notice what he says here that I have not seen, so you can say goodbye to all of.
Human observation then he says, an ear hath not heard, but you can say goodbye to all human tradition. And then he says, And neither the heart of man hasn't acquired it either, so you can say goodbye to all human meditation and intuition and all of that.
That's not how the truth of God comes to us though. Then how does it come? Well, he goes on in verse 10 to show that God has revealed it's by revelation.
Says in Job I think it's Chapter 11. Can't stop by searching find out God.
Yes, the occult, they would say yes, we just got to keep searching harder, get up earlier in the morning and meditate and all this. The answer is no, can't stop by searching, find out God. No, you cannot learn God by your own human searching. It comes and from only one way and that is by God revealing himself by revelation.
The great truth of the mystery is not only ordained, is prepared, it's revealed, communicated, and now discerned by those who have the mind of Christ.
God did not have to learn anything.
And yet he's going to pick up a creature that never had one right thought.
And fill that vessel with.
Knowledge and with wisdom. And to thank this morning that we can say that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him and that is what we can draw on and that wisdom will never perish. It won't change with changing time.
It's found in a person, in an unchanging person.
Christ is the wisdom of God.
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Interesting little thought and Ecclesiastes Chapter 9.
The Ecclesiastes.
Nice. Just.
14 There was a little city, of course that's Adam and Eve, because this earth was made for men to dwell, and that's the only that's the size of the time. There was a little city and few men within it, and there came a great game against it and besieged it and built great ball works against it. Now there was found in it.
A poor, wise man.
And he by his wisdom delivered the city, Yet no man remembered. Let's say poor man. Then I said, wisdom is better than strength.
Nevertheless, the poor man, poor man's wisdom.
Is.
Is disguised and his words are not heard.
Been pretty clear today, isn't it? I mean, you're not gonna get very far going down and Skid Row and start reading the pipe too much.
They don't. They want something dollars by proper separately. Not interested in these things.
Despise, but you still give it out. Make it responsible to God and the Spirit will do the rest.
We say #4.
Yeah.
1 Corinthians 3
Reading
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Just wondering if it would be alright to go into the third chapter and refer back.
Bruce kind of gave us a nice outline to close it, but we can have reference back that be alright.
Chapter and into the third.
And then? So where do we begin?
Along with the third chapter.
Ron suggested.
First Corinthians, chapter 3.
Thy brethren could not speak in the US under spiritual and as under carnal, even as under faith in Christ.
Said you with milk and not meat, and for Hitler to you were not able to spare it either. Yet now are you able? For you are yet carnal. But whereas there is among you can be strive and divisions, are he not carnal and walk his men? But while one says I am appalled, another I am appalled, Are you not carnal?
Who then is called? Who is a policy that ministers by whom he believed?
Even as the Lord gave every man, I have planted a Polish water, but John gave the increase, so then neither is he the plant anything, neither he the water. The God that give us the entry now he the slanted and heat of waters are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.
We are laborers together with God. Your God's husband should be our God's building.
According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I've laid the foundation. Another build is their loss. And let every man take heed how you build us there on. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid.
Which is Christ or Jesus Christ? Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stone, wood, a subtle, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's worth of what sort it is.
Many man's work abide which he has built their upon. He shall receive a reward.
Any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved. Yes, so as my Father, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.
The temple of God is holy, which temple Enos that no man deceived himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
It is written, He paid us the wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men, For all things are yours, whether Paul or Paulus, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours, and ye are Christ.
And Christ is gone.
Bruce, would you give that little summary that Ron spoke up just again?
Running on it particularly.
Kind of a number now. It's all right if it doesn't come 55 links to the chain. Oh, that's right. OK. Thank you, brother.
From verse six of chapter 2 on to the end, he he shows us how the the truth of God really is taken in by the Saints and how we get the truth so that we have the mind of Christ, which is the closing words of the chapter, but we have the mind of Christ.
And they are first of all verse seven, that they are ordained before the world was found, that as God has as made these councils and purposes in the eternity past, we learned from another scripture in Titus and in Ephesians 3 that He made a promise in eternity. And it has been asked, well, who did you promise it to if there was nobody there?
There was number men at that time, but the answer is that God the Father made a promise to the Son of eternal life that there would be others that would share eternal life with them. And also, of course, the truth that is particularly before us here in this chapter is to do with the truth of the mystery of Christ in the church. It was first ordained before the foundation of the world. That's the first language. Then secondly, in verse nine, it says it was prepared for them that love.
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You might ask, well, how is it prepared? It was prepared by the foundation being laid at the cross from the Lord Jesus went and paid the price for our sins and made a righteous basis upon which God could come out and be a blessing to men, and whereby we would be secured for that. Then thirdly, you have in verse 10 He has revealed it by His Spirit. So there was revelation given to the apostles.
And the apostles have given it to us.
And then it goes on in verse 13 to speak about comparing spiritual things with spirit by spiritual means. It should really read communicating spiritual things. So there you have not just the revealing of it, but the communicating it to the Saints. And then that requires, fifthly, a state of soul in the states that they would be found in a spiritual state, and so that they can discern these things. So verse 14 brings out the thought of discernment. So let me speak.
It was first ordained, then prepared, then revealed and communicated, and lastly discerned. So these are the way. This is the way in which God ordained that the truth should be come to the Saints, and it's completely aside and apart from human wisdom.
In the third chapter he shows us some of the consequences of human wisdom if it's not checked and judged, and we have here in this chapter one consequence is that it it hinders the Saints from growing. These ones were still looked at as babes when they should have been, had grown and gone on in their souls. That's verses one and two, then verses three and four and five and so on. We have another consequence, maybe perhaps down to verse nine, and that is that.
There comes a a spirit of rivalry.
God's people, which creates division.
Which was particularly the problem that they had there.
And then thirdly, from verse 9 or 10 on to.
Verse 17 or so we have yet another.
Sad consequence of the vision of human wisdom at work and the things of God, and that is that it does not help in the service of God. In fact, if one serves along that line, he's going to be defiling the House of God and bringing in those things which would answer to wood, hay and stubble and will not receive the reward of the Lord's approval. So in every way, whether it's our personal growth, whether it's our getting along in the assembly life.
And so on. Or is our service for the Lord and each way we he shows here that human wisdom has no part. So it's not just in learning the truth as we've had in chapters one and two. It's the growing and the getting along with one another. And also our service. It is entirely shut out and will not meet God's approval and any standard in any way.
Paul was writing some three to five years after.
He had visited the court. Acts 18 gives you the account of it and here he says.
He could not speak up to them as a spiritual, but as unto carnival, fleshly.
Even as unto bathes in Christ, this was a shame. They ought to have grown at this time, and yet he was still having to address them as being babes in Christ. Now you'll find in the New Testament three kinds of babes. You've probably heard this before. Here we have a babe by carnality.
Carnal and fleshly things had attracted their hearts and had hindered them from progressing. Then in Hebrews chapter 5, you'll find another kind of a babe.
Again, it is to their shame, and that is because the Hebrews were wrapped up in the legal system of Judaism and it had hindered them from going on and making progress. And again, he speaks of them as babes. There you might say it's babes by legality. And then you turn over to 1St John chapter 2 where he speaks of the various stages of growth in the family of God as fathers, as young men, and then as little children or babes. And there he's Speaking of.
Not in any derogatory way, but in a sense that what they really were, they were just new to the faith. There were new consciousness, and so you might say they were babes by actuality. So we have babes by carnality or babes by legality and babes by actuality, which is the only real one that should be. It exists amongst God's people. But here it was because of their own failure, leaning upon the arm of the flesh, whether it was philosophical.
00:10:19
Or just plain worldliness. Whatever the case was, the result was that they had not grown as they ought to have.
He spoke of the being, the need for being spiritual in the latter verses of the chapter before. We didn't exactly touch on it, but he does speak there about how that they are spiritually discerned and it requires one being in a spiritual state. But he says I can't speak to you as one, as a spiritual state because you've been hindered by the carnality that you've gone on with. And so he had to speak to them of the very most elementary things in Christianity.
As babes.
In Christ.
What does it mean in verse 14 of the last chapter? Natural land? What does that term?
It says but the natural man received it hot. The things of the Spirit of God. Who would be someone that's a natural man?
That's an unconverted man.
That has not the Spirit of God. Is that right, Ron? That is right. You have a striking example of Samson setting a Riddle before the Philistines.
And.
They thought about that Riddle and they just weren't getting anywhere and struggled with it for seven days. And finally they picked on the woman that he was going to marry to find out what the answer was to that Riddle, showing that the natural man cannot enter into the things of God, neither can he know them. And so Samson let it out.
And we're glad that there's an answer to that Riddle.
But it's just a sample of, as you say, an unbeliever cannot. He doesn't have the capacity or the tools as we may use to know that things have gone in the gospel to get the Lord.
Explaining things and when he takes the disciples away from the multitude.
I think it's interesting in our day we have so much Christian radio where really truths that belong to the Church of God are just broadcast everywhere. But it's interesting to see that natural men may hear that and to them doesn't seem to make much sense.
But there, there are family secrets, as it were.
It's that which God has given us by a spirit.
In Paul's writings he has a number of different men and been I studied to take up some time. Your young brothers are students of the Scripture he speaks about. Well, he had one already. The inner man and the outer man, and the old man and the new man. We have the 1St man, the 2nd man. We have the natural man and the spiritual man, which is in our chapter here. We have the carnal man and the wretched man.
Each of those Paul designates is Speaking of different states with regard to.
Humanity and and Christian doctrine.
But the spiritual man is one who has the Spirit of God and has is walking into the power of the Spirit so that he has the capacity to to discern what has been revealed.
God is not revealing truth today. Revelation was given to not to the Saints exactly, but to the apostles.
Who communicated those revelations to the Saints? But it requires on the Saints part a spiritual state to take it in.
Steve Coleman back home is quite a engineer with regard to.
Communications and so on. And he was explaining to us how that, you know, he has these Palm Pilots and he can, I guess it bounces off a satellite or something and comes back to someone else. But they were trying to hook one up there one day. I remember they were talking and the problem was that one was transmitting fine, but the other was not receiving. So they weren't getting anywhere. And so God has, in a sense, has transmitted the truth to us, but it still requires a state of soul.
For us to get it. And many Christians are not found in that. I lay my hand in my own heart, and it may be the reason why that I lack understanding and divine things. And so there requires a spiritual state. And this was what was missing in the Corinthians because of their allowance of human wisdom in their midst and leaning on this Greek philosophy and so on that had become mixed with Christian things. It was just nothing but muddying the waters up so that they could not get a hold of divine things.
00:15:12
In the context of what you've been speaking, help me and.
On both others Galatians 61 Brethren, if a man do overtaken in the fault, ye which are spiritual.
What is the?
The sense of that.
Verse Spiritual.
Where the ancient roundabout way the Corinthian Saints came out of heathendom.
And whether it's he than them or from any other quarter of the earth, that when we come into God's assembly.
That we can't bring things with us that are going to benefit the assembly. And this is a very difficult thing to become as a little child. Lord could say, shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of God except you become as a little child. What's the point? We come in as learners. We have to start in kindergarten.
We don't understand and to be able to learn the truth of God, but you know, you come in.
As an adult in the event in his all these circles and you think there's got to be something that I was involved in out there that was a little bit right. And so I bring in that little bit right and that seems to pass and I bring in some more and I believe that was a troubling corn. And so consequently now the question comes up.
Who's spiritual to be able to meet some of these difficult situations?
Isn't part of it at least that we have learned our nothingness and do not stand qualified as the doctor, psychiatrist, or whatever that does not dissolve spiritual difficulties?
I think you maybe add more than that in mind.
Well this may be nothing more than an Amen to what you said, but in the previous chapter in Galatians it says.
Fruit of the Spirit.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. I've wondered if it isn't an individual in whom the fruit of the Spirit is manifested.
Oh, but you're more capable whether you've been in the path longer. You seem to know more scripture, but.
The fruit of the Spirit, one that is living in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit.
Could it well be that they're qualified?
To be considered as spiritual, to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering myself.
Campfire.
It's it's expressed this way.
Inversely proportional, The amount of heat is directly proportional to the square of the distance away from the fire. In plain language, the further you get away from the fire, the colder you get. And if we keep close to the Lord, and we have the fruit of the Spirit manifested, we may hopefully be like Moses. That was not that as they shone.
But possibly that's the qualification.
Being able to go to someone and restore them. Scorch.
I had a delightful experience, the gratitude of a brother that came to me when I was a young person. He could see that my feet were getting on slippery ground.
And so he just entered into conversation with me at a very.
Good moment. And he began to speak and and I didn't know who he was speaking about. I kind of thought he was speaking about himself.
And he led me to believe that the Lord had to help him along in the Christian pathway. And, and, and so he delivered him. And you know, he went through that whole conversation without anything just being pointed at me. But afterward I thought, you know, I think he had a concern for my soul and he did.
00:20:00
But I thought that's a spiritual brother. He didn't come down on me and say, you know, if you go on that pathway, this is going to happen and.
Someone that I just realized here, somebody had a care and it's deserved, should I say.
And I believe you saved my life.
Perhaps the spirit that he also speaks to the Galatians here. This was really an arrow directly to the huts. Unfortunately, when we take up with human wisdom, we tend to confuse it with spirituality. My son, whether for good or bad for journalism class, has to read a magazine and read it, browse it, but have an article and call the spiritualical the spiritual state of America.
And it really points to that fact that we confuse human wisdom with spirituality. So this is what the apostle Paul says in Galatians he which is spiritual. Well, they thought that was so spiritual that they were walking in the flesh trying to judaizing Christianity. What what a what a word to the heart in in kind of the way that you just spoke brother wrong. He just says ye, that is spiritual. What a check now sold.
He was a spiritual.
Notice the babes in our chapter are seen as being in Christ.
You see, that term in Christ refers to our position of acceptance. That's a position that every believer has, everyone who believes the gospel resting in.
Finished work of Christ.
Is engulfed with the Spirit of God and has a position of acceptance before God. And if the term is used in Scripture over and again as being in Christ, it simply means to be in Christ's place before God. That's the place that we're all in. The very place of acceptance that Christ has before God, with all the favor of God resting upon him is my place and it's yours. And it's got nothing to do with the question of our state.
Or how long we have walked in the path, whether we're new Christians or old. Here you find that they're spoken of as babes, but they're in Christ. They had not progressed as they ought to have been, but their position of acceptance had not changed or altered because of the work of Christ.
If that was seen, there would never be a soul that would talk about not having the sense of eternal security.
I worked with a fellow. He was. He resented deeply and pointedly that I would ever mention about internal security. He resented it. He almost thought that I was gloring in it. Well, God forbid I should go receive the cross.
So whatever truth we have, whether it's being gathered to the Lords name or eternal security or the like, it's not a question of glorying in it, it's a question of being thankful what God is revealing.
But to think of being in Christ and then being concerned?
Steve isn't here tough, but he has mentioned publicly that some of the fellows that he graduated from high school with went to a certain church. And I can tell you the address for that's not important. But they don't believe in internal security. And it was so devastating to them that they just quit the church and just quit thinking about Christianity because if they didn't have a sense of eternal security.
What chance did they have to think of what it gives to the believer? And as you said, babes in Christ.
You know, I want to repeat that.
Maybe there's a reason, maybe there isn't, but it be as it may, whatever truth that we believe, whether it's being gathered to the Lords name, eternal security, the light is not a question of pride. It's a question of rejoicing in the goodness of God and the grace of God that has given us to see.
God forbid that I should glory saving the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And So what do we do if we were to meet a situation where ones have been stunted by their fleshly lifestyle and they have not grown or progressed as they ought to have? All we have it right here. Verse two, I have fed you with milk and not meat.
00:25:02
We don't disregard them and say, oh, you're not, you're not worthy that I should speak to you or something like that. No, we seek to give them what they need, where they are. And so sad to say that they still needed milk and ought not to have been the case, but it was. And so he met them where he where they were by giving them milk. And I think milk would speak to us of the elementary truths of Christianity.
Those basics he had to go back and lay the foundation pretty much again for their souls.
You notice he did speak of the mystery, but he does not disclose the mystery. There's only two epistles that disclose the mystery.
Though you'll have it mentioned in Romans 16, you'll have it mentioned in Corinthians a couple of times, and only two epistles really open up to us what the mystery is, and that's Ephesians and Colossians. As you know, there are two pistols that will give us the highest line of truth in the whole Bible.
He didn't. I guess they were not in a state to be able to take that kind of thing at that point at least.
Suppose they had bottles in those day that they had on, and I suppose they had super cups that someone was being fed with milk. It was being nurtured as a mother nursing her children. We have a first read to us at the Tone this morning about nurturing. And so the thought here was more than just putting things on the table and saying, OK, you can. I'll leave you with a bottle in the crib or I'll put a Super Cup on the table. You just get the milk.
There must have been that real closeness and nurturing as a thought connected with his feeding with milk.
The difficult thing is to to seek to minister to ones needs where they are, as these ones were abates and yet they imagine themselves to be at least fathers, perhaps beyond that, if there was even such a category. And that's the sad thing about the the the flesh is that when the flesh begins to have a place in our life that we become desensitized as to our own state.
And what happens is that they would probably bore the most surprised of all that he would speak of them as babes.
Because they had this gift and they had the intellect and all of the eloquence that and so on that he speaks of elsewhere in this epistle, but he speaks to them, to their conscience as well. That really you're still in the state of being a babe.
It's quite a contrast.
Notice the 1St chapter he says to them.
We come behind it and no gift.
And yet the same people could be called carnal and bathed in Christ.
It would do us well to not be too concerned with whether they had a gift merely to exercise what God has given us.
How much it's another thing that factors into this and that isn't the apostle Paul had spent a year and six months with the Corinthian Saints and you say what did they learn while he was there and how many teachers patiently have taught the word of God and and they look at their results and they are just disheartened.
And that's the reason that we need to go over the truth again and again. We learn very slowly.
We can't take it in intellectually and and hold on to it. It's got to grip the affections of our hearts and it's then now that we're able to keep it. But if we're just gaining head knowledge here this afternoon, I can guarantee it'll be forgotten before the sun goes down. But that which reaches our hearts, it's got a lodging place for eternity.
I may forget things, but they're there.
And there may be circumstances that it rises up and it's food for my soul and a defense against the enemy of my soul.
And so I think it was brother one day that mentioned this, he said that every truth of God that comes through the conscience and it resides in the heart is there for eternity. You know, I just enjoyed that statement so that we're not just wasting time here this afternoon and our brethren have invited us together, knows the need.
And we can go over these things again and again.
Someone has said the things that we know the best that are brought out again are probably more enjoyed than some things that we've never heard before.
00:30:00
I don't have the new translation open.
Isn't the word divisions in the third verse admitted? Yes.
I think there's a progression in the first chapter in Christ Divided.
Then it says here.
Where you're yet carnal, for as there is among you envying and strife. And then in First Corinthians 10.
11.
Well, first of all, when you come together in the Assembly, I hear that there be citizens among you.
So the third chapter is a little premature in connection with the thought of divisions.
But we see how the seeds of it.
They're developing and then we know what happens in the 5th chapter and so on. But then in the 11Th where there must be also a heresies among you that they which were approved. And so there was a progression, wasn't there? And with each one of us or an assembly, there is a progression which doesn't necessarily have to go on to that.
Net negative result God gives us. He speaks once, yet twice, and how important.
Individually, collectively, because it's going to be exactly what it says. I hear that there be divisions or systems among my partner beliefs, but there must be also Harris to do it.
Leave the assembly is the.
Greatest display the grace of God.
And you can find throughout the earth.
And the simple reason that we come from all walks of life, different backgrounds, different nationalities, different cultures.
And here we are all brought together.
And.
We say, well, there are natural divisions, but that's not what we're talking about. There's beyond in the old rich, in the fourth one, in the free, and we all sit down together and those are natural divisions, but they don't have to cause any trouble. Their divisions that we can't do anything about, but the divisions of Paul is speaking about.
Is the division that the will causes.
There's never been a division among God's people, and it hasn't been a long time coming. And finally, the Lord is not going to bear with it anymore.
And he knows exactly how to, I think it was, brother Judd said. He knows exactly how to get the weeds out of his garden. He's kind of a strong statement, but to help us to understand that when God brings in a division.
He's the one that's doing the dividing, but he's got material. We give him material to work with, sad to say.
So we think of rules that would have been relaxed.
And we're content to let the one who is the Son over God's house to manage his own affairs.
And let the assembly be the exhibition of his marvelous grace and love. Is that asking too much?
Or it is too much for the flesh.
Impossible.
I examine myself and if in any way my brother or a half a reflection of what I see in myself, it's hopeless. Hold up the tent is the Arabian and move on. But if it's.
Of the Spirit.
They take very sharp knife myself first.
Well, again in the book of Galatians, despite the devour as possible.
Not very spiritual.
Been a challenge to my own heart. My trust is to others.
Look around your home assembly.
Anybody sitting there that you would be glad to have gone?
Ouch.
00:35:01
And if the answer is no, that's a wonderful answer. But if it's yes, beware.
Because they belong to Christ.
And there are different degrees of the understanding of the Word of God, different degrees of light, different degrees of entering into the Kingdom of God.
And can't we be patient about these things?
Patience always wins a day. We check that out and you think, well, I don't have any more. Patience is running out.
Ask God for patience.
And watch for His salvation as you do it.
So where there have been overcoming of avoiding division?
It's deep exercises so, but it's worth it.
Rather than to be scattered, I think of some of my dear brethren who have left the Lord in the midst, and I see them out there wandering, and our paths cross once in a while.
He is hardly know what to say because the distance is so great. You don't know whether they love you or whether they want to hear from you, and they want you to know how happy they are to shut your mouth and so on. But.
Let us keep close to the Lord and.
In the place of his appointment, so the allowance of human wisdom and the things of God will not only hinder ones progress and development as far as our our.
Spiritual growth is concerned. We had that verses one and two, but in verse three onward he brings up this other point that you've run and have already addressed and that is the fact that there develops a rivalry amongst God's people and division results. There is a undue emphasis to put on the servants of the Lord as well saying I am appalled and I am appalled as he says in verse 4.
And so that leads the apostle to speak of himself of apostles.
And speak of how the servants of the Lord should behave as they minister in the Lords vineyard. And you see how they work with perfect harmony. One was waterings, one was planting, the other was watering. It wasn't something that was taking away from the others work, but they complimented one another's work. And this is normal Christianity.
But when there's the flesh and carnality in amongst the Lords people, there is going to be this tearing down that we've been Speaking of, biting and devouring, envying and strike as we've had here. And it's a pitiful thing because as you've already mentioned, if it goes on it will develop to something worse. As you say, there is a progression that you find in the epistle that ends up in heresy.
And heresy is a outward split amongst the Lord's people.
It starts with a schism which we had in chapter one, which is an inward division amongst God's people, though they're still together. There's a there's a difference of opinion and feeling and so on. I think schism, which is an inward division, what will that is left unchecked, it will end up in an outward break amongst God's people. Whether it's a party that actually separates itself from the fellowship of the Saints and goes out on some pretense, that's a heresy.
And he mentions that in Chapter 11.
Just underscoring what you had said already, brother. Yes, Chapter 11 and verse 19. There must also be heresies or could be translated half the seconds among you that they which are approved may be made manifest. But what ended up with a heresy starts with a schism. And what precedes a schism is what we're reading about in our chapter. That's envy and strife and that.
Scripture speaks about a damnable heresy. Second Peter 2.
First one I think, and that's talking about a party that is gathering around soul damning doctrines, which he speaks of in second Peter.
But not all heresy are stammable heresy. But the forming of a party and severing that from the fellowship of God's people is a very serious thing. It's an ecclesiastical evil.
And as you've been saying that sometimes because God is sifting amongst His people, He may allow Satan to get in and do that work, that ones may be sifted out and He will deal with them if they're His children in his school and His time and in His way. But nevertheless, we don't want to be a promoter of such things and it can simply be pressing the truth.
00:40:08
Until it's untrue.
In other words, getting along legged on one side and short legged on the other. You know, we are creatures of that, of that stamp of getting along on things and short on other things. And we think that balances things out and then.
That's what makes all the trouble is out of balance.
FW Grand.
Put together.
Track, if you will, on the subject of Old Testament Saints.
When you brought by the Spirit, he was told that it was not something that would encourage the Saints and he said I am going to publish that if it splits the brother and Cliff, I don't hear. I didn't hear this from Clifford on himself, but he said I looked 30 years later for a copy of that track and I couldn't find it. It was so important.
FW Grant View is willing to split the brother which.
But thirty years later, a copy of it couldn't be found. I'm not saying that there haven't been some here that have found a copy, but Brown could thought it was so relatively unimportant, or at least in the sight of God, that it couldn't be found. And yet he was willing to split the brethren. And you know.
There are things that come up, I may hear about them, you know about them, and if they're squelched, if they're held in their proper perspective, there are things amongst us that may not be exactly seen alive. I'm going to press that.
Sort of. There was a conference with dear brother Potter and somebody sitting behind him, said Brethren, baptism, it's vital. And without ever turning around, he said God has not entrusted vitals.
To his creatures.
That stopped. Now there may be something that I feel is far more important than baptism, but I have to be extremely careful that I don't press it to the point of yeah, I know this brother and that brother that agree with, I have automatically created.
Is that track that he wrote was called Life in Christ and the ceiling of the Spirit, was it not? And he taught all sorts of things in there as well, if you look at it more carefully, like the Old Testament Saints having eternal life and so on. And though we could have lived with some of those things someone said he showed himself to be.
A heretical man by forcing division.
And a heretic, just by the way, is one who engineers a division.
That would split off from the Lords, people said to say.
And you were going to say something more. No, it's just really just to say Amen. You know, it isn't like a ballot. There is going to be a city up north here about whether there's going to be a new Walmart store and they're going to put it on the ballot. But we're not putting the word of God on the ballot. I'm not. I should never think. Well, now, brother, so and so he doesn't see it my way, but this one does. I've automatically produced in my heart at least.
Heresy.
And I'm a hurricane. And if I can go on.
With my brethren, with some truth that I may think that I am the one, that I'm being a little bit sarcastic thinking that I see it better than the other, I would do very well to leave it before you or is going to be pressed just like the pressing of What is that?
Ringing of the nose bringing forth blood. So does the.
That's what happens. It will happen every time.
Mr. CalPERS form the progress of error. There's a little part of it that says must men go wrong with ingenious skill?
Bend a straight rule to their own crooked will, and with the clear and shining lamps applied, first put it out, then take it for a guide. Halting on crutches of unequal size, one leg by truth supporters, 1 by lies. They sighted to the goal, with awkward face secured, nothing but to lose the race.
I know others will do this, but you're our poet laureate.
I appreciate it. There's so much truth in it, you know?
00:45:01
The awfulness of the mind at work.
Things of God.
Question to be raised, it doesn't need an answer.
But how many of these men have been restored back?
To the Lord's Table.
The answer is solemn, isn't it? You give us some idea.
Get on this course, this unjudged course.
Never return.
The answer is what has been mentioned isn't. It's childlike. There's a verse in Jeremiah three I've shared with some here.
Struck me in meditating on it in the early part of well in Jeremiah's called the weeping prophet and in chapter one he.
Called to.
Throughout and pull down and destroy and throw down.
And to build another plant.
They had turned to idolatry. Israel had.
But when you come to chapter 3.
In verse 19.
I was trying to think of.
More than this, but there's at least two things that I that come to mind. Where God asks himself a question, He's never endowed the answer.
What in?
Genesis, he says, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?
And in this verse 19.
Says But I said, How shall I put thee among the children?
What's he talking about? Israel that had been turned to idolatry and had gone into captivity.
God asked himself the question. Job asked himself the question, How shall I put thee among the children?
Now I want to read the rest of it in the new translation.
And give the the pleasant land.
The goodly inheritance of the hosts of the nations, the footnote says. The most lovely inheritance of the nations.
Think of that. I believe in this verse. He's looking forward to restoring Israel in a future day.
And he says, I have to put you among your children. You and I as Christians have the secret of God.
Except you repent and become as little children. That's the answer, isn't it? He's looking forward to bringing in Christ.
And that Christ, the Messiah, what's it say they shall look upon?
In.
On me whom they have pierced, and mourn for him. What a change in language right there.
There's one mourn us for an only son. It's the childlike attitude that will restore. And no matter where men may go astray, if grace brings them to that again, they can be restored.
And here to think, to give thee the most lovely inheritance of the nations. And I said, thou shalt call me my father's, and thou shalt not turn away from me. Think of that future day in Israel.
And that's going to be the relationship they know, they shall not say each one to his fellow know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest. So it's going to come down to the person of the Messiah known and themselves. Nothing the childlike aspect.
Thank you.
Mr. Darby's remark?
I don't know I would quote it right, but something like.
00:50:02
You need to be content to be anything or nothing so long as Christ is glorified.
Apollos.
Felt differently than Paul about going to a certain place at one time.
Paul, certainly.
Was a remarkable servant of God, yet we talked I was thinking as we were talking about you with your spiritual restoring one such in one. And here's Paul. He's determined to go to Jerusalem and Agabus takes the girdle from off his his belt from somewhere and says whoever girdle this is.
It's amazing how God uses that man and that thing off of Paul's raiment.
To gently try to reach.
An apostles conscience.
But it didn't work.
I'm glad you mentioned that. That does fall and fall as that's in First Corinthians 16 and saying the book when verse 12 of the 16th chapter he says is touching our brother Apollos. I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren, but his will was not at all to come at this time, but he will come when he shall have.
A have convenient time.
You know, you think of the apostle Paul encouraging you to go. You feel like, well, maybe I should go. And so here's Apollos, and he knows that there's trouble in Corinth. And if there's trouble in a certain assembly and things are moving on, you might ask the Lord whether you should go there or not.
Because I believe that Paulus didn't want to go at this time because.
If you do go and you have a something on your heart, you may have two companies listening to try to figure out what side you're on.
Where you're going to lend your influence in this troubles situation?
The part of wisdom is not to go if you have a knowledge of difficulty in the assembly that's out of hand.
And so Paul was there. Paulus was not minded to go, even though he encouraged him to go and said, well, you know, you could be more of a help there than I can be. And so he don't dictate Dewey to one another as to what they should do and what they shouldn't do. We're not in that. They aggrandize upon us at Paul's expense, right? Paulus would not do it.
That's the point. Thank you.
Lovely words when it says Who then is Paul?
Who then is Paul? He's himself speaking, but that's the kind of self effacing whale which a servant should be. And they asked John the Baptist who he was. He said I'm just a boy.
I'm just a voice.
Who, then, is Paul?
You know the Saints make even too much of the Saints, or they give them to run the gauntlet the other way.
And of course, neither is right.
But Paul shows that they are but fellow servants or ministers of the truth and how that they work together.
In harmony, complimenting the word. And I believe that that's the way servants are to work. And this is a scriptural pattern. I don't just mean in the fact that one may come to a locality and administer certain things and another one come along and say, well, what he said wasn't exactly right and it was this that would be, I would be taking away and I'm doing what one has already done.
That certainly wouldn't be right either. But I'm speaking now at two or in one place at the same time. We have many servants here in this room this evening, this afternoon. And as we take part, even in a Bible reading like this, we should seek to work together. And they seem like a novel thought brother, but that should be the most elementary God. If one brother brings up a line of things, you want to work together with it instead of having a clash here trying to find out the other side of things and to make it a sort of a what was the word that was used?
A competition, all that kind of thing does not feed the Saints. It does not water. It does not plant, it does not water. It doesn't bring the increase. It tends to hinder the Saints from growing. Can you imagine the meetings in Corinth when they came together with these intellectuals were trying to outdo each other as to their philosophies mixed with Christianity. Saints were getting fed. The Saints were not getting fed. That's the point of what he's saying here and he's.
00:55:21
Down to the fact it was those teachers that were amongst them that were really hindering this growth as well as of course their state. And I understand that when he speaks of himself in the first chapter and also here and also in the 9th chapter that he's transfiguring his name here in a policies chapter 4 and verse six tells us that these things brethren, I have in a figure or in an application transferred to.
And to Apollo's for your sakes, that you might not think in us the lesson not to let yourselves, your thoughts go beyond which is what is written. I'm reading the other translation. What I'm saying here is that it was not exactly that the Corinthians were saying, well, I'm at the school of Apollos and therefore we're going to gather around what he teaches and the others about Paul and another about Cephas. He was only transfiguring his name in there rather than actually pointing out which teacher it was by name.
That would be not very tactful. And So what he did was he transfigured his own name and apologises there, but they knew very well who he was talking about. And there you see the Spirit of God left for the Spirit of God to reach their conscience. But whatever the case was, there were teachers in their midst that they were rallying around, making too much out of and the the the fleshly and intellectual.
Competitive type of thing that was going on there.
Was not feeding the Saints. In fact it was dividing them and so he shows from himself and Paul Apollos. Now in reality how they worked and that is the model for servants to work to get together today. An example in the Old Testament by type would be a holy and Bezalel. Remember the two men that that were used of the Lord to to build the Tabernacle or at least to oversee as contractors to make the Tabernacle.
They work beautifully together. And what did they make? That which God could use, that God could use to to for the glorious of himself.
Rather, we need to. I'm speaking now to those of us who take part in meetings, whether it's in a conference like this or in local meetings. Do we work together with one another?
This is something that we we need to be exercised about so that when the Saints come to our meetings week by week, that they actually get something. They don't come to see a war, they don't come to see competition.
Apollos was not jealous that Paul did the plantable.
That would be envious. It would be childish. We all have a different gift, even those who may be teachers, who may have a gift as a teacher in a little different way. But whatever the case is, we need to work together and value what one has and to build with it and build onto it. So Paul was doing planting there. He was the 1St in that area, as you know from Acts 18. But Apollos came along and sought to build up what was going there, and God blessed it with the increase.
That's a happy thing.
If you start to think.
Number one, that the Bible is the word of God. It's divine, therefore.
There are depths.
Beyond which none of us could just take our little bucket and we can fill our little bucket. So you have a bucket that's twice as big. How much was left in the ocean? And so if we think of it that way, if someone is used of God, maybe a little bigger bucket, maybe a smaller bucket, but to think of how much is there and to be thankful that God has given them.
An insight, I may not say it.
I wondered what adverse meant and many a time it's come out that and I think it's nice to let a brother end a statement and then there's dead silence and he wonders if maybe he was 270° off off center. But instead to say to say that was nice, you know, and if you want to say I've never seen it before.
Because it really was.
01:00:00
How much better?
Someone has said that if we wished we had somebody elses gift.
That we're neglecting our own just by doing that. God has given us each one a gift.
And if you want somebody else's gift, you're going to be disappointed at the results because it's not your own.
There you go. A lot goes into a gift, doesn't it? Born into a family, were raised there and trust that we're in a Christian household.
And we hear the word of God in the home and in the assembly, and the Lord takes us by the hand and leads us through some valleys and and we learn Him in the valley. This is all making up a gift that in the process of time it will be exercised and it will be profitable.
Are you telling us that these valleys have that kind of a?
Desired effect by our Father.
And there's something about those valleys. And that is we get to the other side and we look back and we say, well.
I wouldn't want to go through that again, but.
What I've learned in that valley, I thank God for it.
Brother Ron, you used to say.
Many may envy a servant's gift, but none will envy his discipline.
You see, a brother like Brother Landing was mentioned. Oh, I'd like to be like that. The young brothers. I know I was one of them probably.
You know what he went through. You know the Lord has to bring us through things before that ministry can be.
Have power. And so if we're speaking about the valleys, just remember that when you see a servant, you may be seeing some of the finishing touches on a servant as he ministers the word. But there has been a lot of discipline in the school of God. And while we may envy his, his, his gift or place we see amongst the Saints, you won't envy his discipline.
No, Sir, number one of Brother Lundings disciplines was headaches.
That he could not read very many verses at a time.
And it forced him to meditate between nurses.
Kick back his head and think of what he did.
Headaches.
I just wondered.
Tell you a little human interest story.
We were living in Pittsburgh and I guess we realized that it was Des Moines conference time. But we made my wife and I made a special trip and we stopped off and intended to stay and did for that long weekend at a nearby motel to be able to visit with Mr. Lundeen. So we were over there Saturday morning.
And there was a little bit of a smile came on his face and he said, aren't you going on to the Des Moines conference? And I said, no, we set out to come here and this is where we're going to stay.
Well, that was when he was very much older.
So we were able, I really forget whatever ministry there was, but I'll never forget the effect. And here was a brother that we had known him when he lived in Seattle, Bob Provolo's garage fitted out with an apartment.
Various things, but this was when he was just about ready to depart.
What a privilege. What a privilege to sit there.
Without your brother.
And I suppose he took it quite favorably that we thought that.
He was what God had directed us to rather than the Des Moines conference. But let that be as it made. That's what we enjoyed. That's what we got.
01:05:05
In a large orchestra.
There's the music set before each instrument.
Each one asked to have their skill.
But there are periods in.
The piece where some are totally silenced.
Maybe they play 3 or 4 scores and nothing else. The rest is a piece.
That there are others that are.
Seem to be out in front, but it's a composite, isn't it? The beautiful sound of the orchestra has to do with each individual discipline and skill and.
And it's.
It's far, far short of a good illustration what the Church of God ought to be as it functions properly.
Just add to that there was a great band and a great bandmaster and.
The hall was just filled with music and all of a sudden the bandmaster called a hoe.
He looked around.
They wondered why he stopped them and he says where's the piccolo?
And take a little looked at him and he said well I didn't think I could be heard so I stopped.
You know you can. You get the point, don't you?
As our brother was saying that every member is needed as a part and it may be the Piccolo party to say, well nobody's going to hear me so I'll just lean back and I'll don't.
We need the pit bull.
Go ahead. Well, I just close this first Christ from whom the whole body fitly joined together and impacted by that with every joint supplier, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part made an increase in the body onto the edifying of itself love.
Excuse me brother, I'm just going to say in the Tabernacle they needed the knot tires.
And Mr. Berry, I don't know how he figured it out, but he said that there were some 950 knots needed to be tide and united each time they fetched and moved on their night, their daily journey.
And that you may seem if you were one of the knock knock tires as being one that was insignificant. But what happens if one day they said, well, I'm not going to tie the knots?
Well, you know what would happen? It would fall down. And so we need every person, even the knock tires.
If I could just say a word for particularly the young people of mine, just put yourself in common. We've been speaking about what the Apostle Paul has been instructing them.
But think on me briefly, not well on it the other side, what it would have been like to be in that assembly. You say I come from a small assembly or a large assembly and this trouble, people are bickering and all these things you're talking about sounds so nice. They don't happen where I come from.
Put yourself in current. There were divisions. Move on to the fifth chapter of this letter. Move on to the 6th chapter of this letter. Read 1St Corinthians 3 Assault. Think what that assembly was like. Put yourself there. So what are you going to do? Well, I'm going to give up. I'm going to go to some church down the road.
Wait a minute. There was no church down the road. We live in a day in Christendom where we think we have options, where we think that, oh, if there's a better group that I can get fed with down the corner, then that's where I should be. Wait a minute. The very first issue that's addressed in current is this question of division. Sure, it's developed throughout the book, but why not Chapter 5? Immorality.
Why not Chapter 15, the resurrection? No, it's it's bickering the the infighting that's causing the division that's addressed first.
Don't think that you can go and join some little group that thinks like you do and that you're going to honor God in doing so. You may be more comfortable there, granted. You may even learn things there, granted. So I just want to make one brief comment about those others interested in around us. Do I condemn them? No, when I get a flyer in my mail that.
Glorifies Christ and speaks of the gospel. How thankful I am that there is some group down the road.
School preachers and carries on in some way the word of God, but it does not give me liberty to think that I can just go down there and pop out of the earth and.
01:10:21
Just to add.
We have fixed in our hearts that there's a.
No place else to go. We'd make good and we'd do better in our own souls and in in seeking to bring more where we are. But it's the thought that we have the option of some place to go. We don't have any place to go. Lord, to whom shall we go? But thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure there are the Christ, the Son of God.
When there was death in the pot, they were told to bring meal.
You might think there's death in the pot, so to speak, in my local assembly. I'm going to stay away. I won't drink it. That pot, no, he says. Bring meal. So it's what we need to contribute.
At such times rather than to to upset ourselves at second Kings 4.
There is, maybe you should say what the meal is. You know, people know what the branch the meal is, Christ the meal is. We need to bring something of Christ to the meeting. If you say I don't think I could speak up like some of the older brothers, well, you can bring Christ in your walking ways. You can bring Christ in your ministries. You can encourage a number of different ways of bringing Christ.
Into the situation.
There's a hymn I talked to knowing about it as far as a tune is concerned.
#240.
247 Of Thy love some gracious token grant us, Lord, before we go, bless Thy word which has been spoken, life and peace on all the stoves. When we join the world again, may our hearts with Thee remain, will direct us and protect us till we gain the heavenly shore where Thy people want no more.
#247.
Gospel
Gospel—L. Smith
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I was thinking of a verse in Psalms.
We sang of the glory of the grace shining in the Saviors face.
Telling sinners from above, God is light and God is love with it. Last night we had before us Saul of Tarsus.
He saw the Lord in glory. He.
A victorious Savior in Psalm chapter 2.
We get those who are opposite.
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed.
Saying let us break their bands asunder and castaway their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore all your kings, and be instructed the judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the sun, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust.
In him.
Well, that's looking forward.
Isn't it? But what a mighty.
Conflict is going on. We were reminded of warfare and how important it is that we see it. This is an Old Testament.
Viewpoint. But the fact is, the one who is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners.
He's going to be exalted in this earth regardless of how much counsel is taken against him. Shall we look to God in prayer? Think of that. Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
He says in another place, Set thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
He's still sitting there.
But He accomplished something for you. We had just what, 2-3 weeks ago? The verse some you children remember it.
Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. The memory verse.
How important that is, You know, if we go to the book of Exodus, we find there in chapter 12 That they were to take a lamb, set it apart. It was to be a lamb without spot and without blemish.
They were to set it apart and then they were to take it. Was it on the 14th day of the month? And they were to kill it between the two evenings. And then they were supposed to do something with the blood. What were they supposed to do with the blood? Put it on the doorpost? Let's look at first, Peter.
Chapter one and verse two reads Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification of the Spirit.
And this was the phrase I was thinking about unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. The sprinkling of the blood. What does that speak of?
It's the blood applied. What about your soul?
Dear boy or girl, man or woman has the blood.
Been applied.
You could have it in the basin, you could have a dead lamb, you could have a clean house.
And if the Angel of Death came by that night, and the blood was still in the basin?
The first born would be killed. The blood failed to be applied. What an amazing thing.
Let the work of Christ is so great.
That God is going to give him.
Everything that was ever created.
00:05:04
Ask of me and I'll give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. The uttermost parts of the Earth. It's not even just limited Earth, is it?
What a victorious Lord.
And so in Egypt the blood was applied and a great company came.
And as they came towards the Red Sea.
There were mountains on one side and mountains on the other.
And the Egyptians had changed their minds again.
They wanted to take him back as slaves.
And the Lord.
He lets the cloud come between.
And he lets it be darkness to the Egyptians and light to Israel, and there's a sea in front of them.
And he says to Moses, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.
Pick up thy rod and put it over the sea.
The sea parts.
And they go over on dry land.
Marvelous. What a story, and we're all familiar with it. Let's look at another verse.
In 2nd Corinthians 3.
That I was thinking of.
In verse three it says.
The Epistle of Christ.
Written.
Not with ink.
The Epistle of Christ, written with the Spirit of the living.
God.
Not on tables of stone.
But in fleshy tables of the heart.
You can know all about.
Marvelous histories that are in the Word of God.
But the vital thing is that you have something written in your heart.
By the Spirit of the living God.
That he take the work of Christ.
And it's written right in fleshy tables of the heart.
Quite a thing to read about in the Old Testament of God's finger writing those 10 commandments.
Not just once.
When Moses beheld idolatry and the people, he broke them without even a command to do so.
And he goes up, and they're written again.
We come to the book of Daniel and we have Belshazzar making a feast, and he brings in the gold and silver vessels from the House of the Lord.
And there's a part of a man's hand and it writes in the plaster of the wall.
And it's not good news. It's not gospel.
It's judgment.
Mini mini Tekka you Farsan our weighed in the balances and found wanting.
That night.
He's killed.
And his Kingdom is given to someone else.
There's writing in stone tablets, there's writing in plaster, but is there writing?
In your heart.
By the Spirit of the living God.
In fleshy tables of the heart, you know if you attend gospel meeting in your assembly.
Let's say 50 * a year. There's 52 weeks.
You might be sick a couple times.
Might be in someone else's assembly, but how many times have you heard the gospel?
And that's not the only place that you hear the gospel. You hear it from Mom and Dad.
You hear it again and again.
But is it written in fleshy tables of the heart?
Christ, my Redeemer.
You know, the blood has to be applied. That's very important. Let's turn.
00:10:00
To Micah, I think it is.
Micah, Chapter 6.
Verse 3.
There's a phrase, that first phrase. Oh my people.
Now, if you sit here tonight and you're you're a member of a Christian family and you've been raised in an assembly.
You fall under a.
How can I say it? A sphere? An umbrella of blessing?
And God wants you to possess in your soul His truth.
And life from God.
All my people.
He's talking to Israel after they'd gotten away. What have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee?
Testify against me.
Now he tells what he has done. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
We know that Egypt is a figure of this world.
According to nature.
And you get this term throughout Scripture so strongly out of Egypt, many, many times you get it.
I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. We've just spoken of the sprinkled blood, and it sheltered them from judgment. And they came to the sea, and those waters parted. And we know in this room, probably most of us, but the parting of the Red Sea was Christ death for us.
And once we've believed in him and have him as our Savior, we appreciate that.
More than just knowing about it, it gets written in those fleshy tables of the heart.
And redeemed the out of the House of servants. Let's look at Romans chapter 6.
And we'll go back to this other portion, so keep your place there.
Romans, chapter 6.
And verse 17, it's talking about some that had become Christians.
But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin.
But you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
So where are you tonight?
Are you a servant of sin?
Because you haven't had the sprinkled blood, the blood applied to the.
You can't erase the past.
It just looms up there. God requires that which is past.
Is he going to require it of you?
Are you going to receive his substitute on Calvary's cross and say, Oh, I believe in thee, Lord Jesus?
I'll take thee as my substitute.
He wants to not only redeem you out of Egypt.
Bring you out of Egypt, but redeem out of the House of ******* out of the House of servants.
I think a verse in the Psalm says something about Joseph I took him from.
The baskets, he must have been carrying something.
And he brought him to be a ruler in Egypt. Amazing change.
He redeemed the I redeemed the out of the House of servants back in Micah 6 verse 4.
And I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
Now that's kind of interesting, isn't it?
God.
Had spoken through Moses to Moses in the burning Bush.
And God used a family to lead his people through the wilderness.
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But he says, I sent before thee.
In Romans 10 we read How shall they hear without a preacher?
How shall they preach, except they be sent?
God sent these three servants.
And he's bringing a whole people, some estimate probably a million, and a third, 600,000 men, wives, children.
But they're covered by the blood. Are you covered by the blood tonight? That's what is so important.
Then in verse five it says, Oh my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted.
And what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him from Chittim unto Gilgal, that you may know the righteousness of the Lord. Shall we turn to Numbers chapter 22?
What?
Balak, king of Moab, consulted.
I don't want to read all this, it would take too much time. But Balak got scared in verse two. He saw what Israel had done to the Amorites and says in verse three, and Moab was so afraid of the people because they were many. Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.
And.
Balak is king of the Moabites. Into verse four he sent messengers unto Balaam the son of Biore, to Pithor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying.
Behold, there's a people come out from Egypt.
Behold, they cover the face of the earth.
There's those millions.
And they abide over against me. Come now, therefore I pray thee, curse me this people.
For they are too mighty for me.
Per adventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land. For I want that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou curses his cursed.
So what is his counsel?
Curse.
The people of God.
Dear young person.
Ever since you believed.
The Gospel.
And had that writing of the Spirit of God on your fleshy table of the heart.
You're blessed of the Lord.
You're blessed of the Lord, every redeemed soul in this room.
Is hated by the enemy of souls and hated by the world.
But here's counsel that says curse those people.
Well, Balaam.
He's acted as somewhat of a priest in this Pagan country before.
But God came to Balaam verse 9.
Verse 12 God said to Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them. Thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed.
And so he tells the messengers that came after him, go back to your land. Verse 13. And Balak sends again verse 15. And.
In verse 18.
You know, Balaki, he's so earnest about this. If I can just hire this.
Shaman, if you please, or.
You could almost say which doctor.
In present day terms.
But this man was not Jehovah's priest.
But he wants them to curse them.
Verse 18 Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to bless, to do less or more.
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Now therefore, I pray you, tarry he here, here also this night, that I may know what the Lord will say unto me.
God comes again.
If we went to the book of Jude, we would read in the 11Th verse.
About.
Balaam.
Seeking reward?
Here he has just mentioned a house full of silver and gold.
Let's go on chapter 22 a little later.
He's writing his *** and he's going between two walls and he gets his foot crushed against the wall.
Because.
This little animal sees an Angel standing there.
The end of verse 32 Says Thy way is perverse before me. You know when someone tries to curse the people of God.
God looks on it.
He sees it.
You can't curse whom God is blessed.
So.
In verse 31.
The Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way.
Sword drawn in his hand and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face.
We don't talk much about angels.
But we read about elect angels, and those are ministering spirits sent forth on account of those that shall inherit salvation.
How thankful we can be for angelic care. Sometimes we.
We don't see them.
Most of the time, probably all the time nearly, we don't see them, but we can see the effects of their care.
So there, here's a man he's not even affected by his donkey talking to him.
But when he sees an Angel.
He fell down, bow down. His head fell flat on his face.
You'd think, oh, this man might have something going here.
Verse 34 Balaam said unto the Angel, The Lord, I have sinned.
For I knew not thou stood us in the way against me.
Now, therefore, if it displeased thee, I will get me back again. He's been told not to go.
And he seeks to look to the Lord again, though he knows the mind of the Lord.
Now he says if it displeased the amazing isn't it?
Well, it comes finally to Balak.
And he says.
Well.
Verse 39 Balaam went to Balak, and they came unto courage at Houth.
And Balak offered oxen and sheep, and sent to Balaam, and to the Princess that were with him. And it came to pass on the Morrow that Balaam took Balak, took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Bail, that thence he might see the utmost part of the people.
And Balaam said unto Balak filled me here 7 altars, prepare me here 7 oxen and seven Rams, And balak didis Balaam had spoken. And Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a Bullock and a ram.
And Balaam said unto Balak, Stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go for adventure. The Lord will come to meet me. Whatsoever he showeth me, I will tell thee. And he went to a high place, and God met Balaam.
And he tells God what he's prepared, and the Lord tells him what to say. Verse 5.
There's Balak standing there, waiting for the answer.
I thought it was interesting in perusing this portion.
That though he sees the people, he never seems to see the cloud or the pillar fire.
He doesn't have the eyes of faith.
He took up a parable, verse 7.
And said Balak, the king of Mome, hath brought me from Aram out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me, Jacob, and come defy Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? How shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defy? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him. Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
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He tells us in the New Testament Friendship.
With the world.
His enmity with God.
Where are you tonight, dear young person?
Perhaps already you can say the blood has been sprinkled on me. I know my sins are gone.
But but I I kind of like my worldly friends.
I like to be accepted by them.
Be careful.
Friendship with the world is enmity with God.
You see, God has placed you once you have faith in Christ, He's placed you in a place where you are blessed and you can't be cursed. Isn't that wonderful?
Verse 10 Who can count the dust of Jacob and number the 4th part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.
You know what?
Balaam's last end wasn't like his.
There are people around you that can know about you.
And know about the way God blessed you and never enter into your blessing.
Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and behold, thou bless them altogether.
He answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put in my mouth? And Balak said unto him, Come, I pray thee with me to another place, from whence thou mayest see them. Thou shalt see but the uttermost part of them, and shalt not see them all, and curse me them from thence. Isn't that interesting? He didn't want him to see the whole of Israel.
He brought him unto the field of Xofin, to the top of Pisgah, and built 7 altars, offered a Bullock and a ram on every altar.
We go through the same thing.
And he goes to tell him.
Inverse.
18 He took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and here hearken unto me, thou son of Zipper. God is not a man that he should lie.
Neither the Son of man, that he should repent, hath he said, and shall he not do it, or hath He spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Think of the Lord Jesus saying to you, Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. I give unto them eternal life.
They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. What a promise God hath said. Shall he not do it?
Verse 20 Behold, I have received commandment to bless. He had blessed, and I cannot reverse it. Isn't that wonderful about eternal life? Blessed. Irreversibly blessed.
Oh, precious soul, think of it.
God has taken all that's vital into his own hands.
And once you've trusted Jesus.
You're irreversibly blessed. You have life in the sun if any man be in Christ. Oh, think of that. What a position you have.
Verse 21. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.
The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.
Oh, what a position that nation of Israel had at that time.
We get God's viewpoint, not the enemies.
We get God's viewpoint. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel. How's that? They're covered by the blood.
God brought them out of Egypt.
He hath, as it were, the strength of a Unicorn. Surely there's no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel.
According to this time, it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, what hath God wrought?
Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion. He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey and drink of the blood of the slain.
Oh, this shows.
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Their position before God, how God looked upon them and what they were going to do. And it applies to Israel, but we can it. It's interpretation is Israel, but it we can apply it to ourselves, can't we? Once you and I have trusted in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's been applied those sins that bothered us, that House of ******* the servant of sin we now become.
By faith in Christ, the servants of righteousness.
No enchantment against him. You know, there's tremendous revival of witchcraft in England.
And in this country, some of the centers are northern Idaho.
New Orleans.
Other places there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel.
You know, there's, I've heard of a young person that was fascinated.
With the occult.
You know, even as a believer, you could find it fascinating. I remember brother Bob Tony telling of being in a city in South America and.
There was a man, there was some crowd down the street. He thought he would go and see what was going on and.
Turned out it was somebody.
Entertaining the crowd by that kind of thing. I don't know how close he got, but it was just enough distraction that his.
Satchel was stolen out of his truck.
You know.
Satan is a wily foe, as we've had before us.
In the city of Cedar Rapids, one of the books hard to keep in the library is about witchcraft and Satan.
I don't know what it is around here.
Why are young people turning?
Away from light and revelation from God.
Because they want something of power, something that makes them different from the other guy.
In an age when everybody's dressing and acting in a way that says look at me, look at me.
Itself, isn't it?
God says all.
Precious soul.
I've looked down through eternity at you.
Your need is so great.
It requires the death of my son.
And I'm going to give him for you.
That's power. That's love that can Pierce through the darkness, take you out of Egypt, redeem you out of the House of ******* give you to be a servant of righteousness.
Verse 25 Balak says unto Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.
Balaam answered.
Told not I thee, saying all that the Lord speaketh that I must do. And Balak said unto Balaam, Come, I pray thee, I'll bring thee to another place. This guy won't give up.
He's going to go through his incantations.
The slaying of all these creatures.
Trying to get a word of cursing.
God's not going to give it to him.
Verse 28. Balick brought Balaam unto the top of Peor that looketh toward Jeshuman.
Here we go, 7 altars.
7 bullocks, 7 ramps.
But there's a change of.
Mind by God's over ruling in verse one of chapter 24. And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not as at other times to seek for enchantments.
Now this is contrary to the man's practice.
But he set his face toward the wilderness, and Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes. What's he see?
Well, you know, there were specific positions for the tribes around the Tabernacle.
What he saw from the heights of the hills was order.
What is the Church of God today?
It's pretty much by man's responsibility. It's in ruin, isn't it?
00:35:02
But the Lord is going to have a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
He saw them abiding in their tents according to their tribes, And the Spirit of God came upon him, and he took up his parable, and said, Baal in the son of Beor hath said, In the man whose eyes open hath said, He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance, but having his eyes open. How goodly are thy 10 So Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel, as the valleys are they spread forth as gardens by the Riverside, as trees of Lionel elos, which the Lord hath planted.
And as cedar trees beside the waters, all this speaks of something fresh and invigorating.
He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his Kingdom shall be exalted. God brought him forth out of Egypt. He has half, as it were, the strength of a Unicorn or Buffalo. He shall eat up the nations of his enemies, and shall break their bones and Pierce them through with his arrows he couched. He lay down as a lion, as a great lion, who shall stir him up.
Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee.
Here, this man who was really a wicked man.
He's finally come to realize they don't matter.
How many alders we built?
Many offerings to give up.
God's gonna bless him.
This is still true of Israel.
Anyone who knows the word of God?
Well, no, you don't dare curse the Jew.
Years ago when brother Ruskin Gill went to England during World War 2.
They were quite worried over the battle.
And he said.
No.
I will bless him that blesseth thee, and curse him that curseth thee.
What the Axis powers, the Nazis, are doing to the Jews, God's going to take it up.
I don't know what his exact words were, but this verse is still true for them.
Thirstin and Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam and he smote his hands together.
And Balak said unto Balaam, I call thee to curse mine enemies. Behold thou salto bless them these three Times Now. Therefore now flee to thy place.
Well, in verse 15, he then takes up another parable.
His eyes are opened to see the people of God as God sees them.
Verse 16 Yet said, Which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance, but having his eyes open. I see him. I shall see him, but not know. I shall behold him, but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob in a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Chef, And Edom shall be a possession, and Cyr also a possession for his enemies, and Israel should do valiantly.
Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion.
And shall destroy him that remaineth of the city.
And so forth.
It's a marvelous thing to have God's view of his people.
But are you one of them?
Perhaps raised in a Christian family.
You haven't believed in the Lord Jesus yet.
And you can't say.
The blood has been applied.
The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
Provision has been made.
Your record is before God.
What are you going to do about it?
The only thing you can do about it is trust him.
And then those sins are washed away, and you stand in this blessing that we've been Speaking of.
There's another facet here.
And it's in chapter 25.
We read in Revelation. Let's look at Revelation chapter 2.
Before. Let's hold your place there before we read that.
00:40:07
Let's read in Romans chapter 4.
We have in what we read in Micah six. I'll just read that verse. You don't have to turn for it to it in verse 5. All my people remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of your answered him from Chittim unto Gilgal in the last phrase is this, that you may know the righteousness of the Lord. What is that?
In Romans we read about the righteousness of God.
In chapter 4 of Romans, where we have just turned, we read.
There.
Verse 3 For what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God.
And it was accounted, counted unto him for righteousness. Do you believe, God, that the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin?
Verse 8.
Verse seven. Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
How important that is. But now?
There's another there's not only not imputing sin, but in verse 11 it speaks of of.
Abraham receiving the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had.
Yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that what's this righteousness might be imputed.
Set to your account.
We sang about.
God in mercy sent his Son.
We sing about Him in the glory.
And he's looking down from a victorious place.
And there he is, after having had my sins on him. Can you say that my sins are on Jesus?
He suffered for them. His blood was shed.
He was put in the grave, and the grave couldn't hold him. Therefore, I know that in victory over those sins He lives at the Father's right hand and from the glory.
What are we getting? Righteousness imputed?
The glorious Lord.
He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Look at verse.
13.
The end of it says through the righteousness of faith, the end of verse.
Well, we look at verse 20. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that He was what He had promised, he was able also to perform, and therefore it was imputed to him.
For righteousness, verse 24.
Verse 23 But it was not written for His sake alone that was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.
There's a man in victory.
Raised again for our justification.
And it's imputed.
In Micah it says that you may know listen to what this man tried to do Balin Balak.
What's it say that you may know the righteousness of the Lord?
He views his people standing in the.
Righteousness of Christ, how wonderful.
Christ our righteousness in resurrection life. You know there's many that preach today that the righteousness in the life of Jesus is the righteousness you get by faith when you believe in Him.
Many preach that, but it's Christ gone down into death.
Perfect, yes, suffered, bled and died, and he's in resurrection life. Christ on the other side of death. That's my righteousness. That's yours by faith. But if we go back to Numbers 25.
00:45:17
We find there's something else comes up.
Israel abode and Shittim and the people began to commit ******** with the daughters of Noah.
If we turn then to Revelation chapter 2 and verse 14, it says.
And it's speaking to the Church of Pergamus.
I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there then that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. You see, when he couldn't curse him, he says, here's how you can trip him up. You can get God against them.
By drawing them into sin.
You see, God's government is very real.
You may be a young person here and you say, Oh yes, I I know I'm saved. I know I'll never be lost.
And you might start toying around with the world in a way that endangers you.
And the blessing God fully wants to bestow.
Chapter 25 of Numbers. That's what he teaches.
You know, I live in Cedar Rapids, IA, just 19 miles north of the University of Iowa at Iowa City.
And they're so heavy into sports, I call it Iowa Dollar Tree.
Are you so heavy into sports?
It's hard for the Lord to get your attention.
It's a grief to the Lord.
That the world does everything it can to defile the children of God. Can't curse them.
Bunch of his.
They can ruin your life, it can make you miserable. It can turn God's hand against you in government.
What's the town of university of a university like today in many places?
Party, party, party.
I know of several.
Young men.
Who started out to get an education and partied so much they dropped out of college.
Here in Numbers 25, it says they began to commit ******** with the daughters of Moab, and they called the people under the sacrifices of their gods. That's idolatry and the people that eat and bow down to their gods. And Israel joined himself under bail. Peor, in the anger of the Lord, was kindled against Israel. I thought you couldn't curse him. You can't.
But you can bring him under God's government in a way that brings great sorrow.
Dear young person, there is the truth of the gospel. There is the truth that you're blessed.
The enemy can't curse, but the Lord doesn't want you to have a life of sorrow. Let's turn to Acts 15.
We've been reading in Corinthians.
And here.
In the early church the gospel went forth to the Gentiles, and many were saved. And the man who heard the gospel from glory, Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul, had gone throughout.
Many regions of Gentiles and preached the gospel with great fruit, but now there were people that wanted to bring them under the law.
And so they had to settle that matter and they came to Jerusalem and they went over the matter. And I just want to our time is almost gone. Let's look at verse.
25 It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have sent there for Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth, where it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.
00:50:07
Let Ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication.
From which, if you keep yourselves, you shall do well. Fare ye well.
You see?
This was clear right out of the early church.
Yes, there were Gentiles saved from an awful past. It gives us a terrible list in First Corinthians 6 and it says and such were some of you. But here these were part of the commandments to the Gentiles that believed, and they hold true today. Do they not abstain from meats offered to idols?
And from blood.
2-3 years ago, as with Bob in Argentina and we went out.
To a smorgasbord and when I went over to where you could get your meat I saw this black looking sausage and I said what is that and they said it was.
Blood sausage.
And the cook assured me it was very good.
And I said no.
I will not eat that.
One of the brothers I was with is a sausage maker and.
Maybe it was kind of light to him to go over this verse.
It still holds true you're not to eat blood.
And from things strangled, the blood still in them.
And from fornication.
How important that is, you see, when Balaam couldn't curse.
Then he knows how to defile when the enemy of your soul. First of all, he wants to keep you from getting saved because he doesn't want you to go to heaven. To the glory of God and the glory of the Lord Jesus.
And when you've managed from his viewpoint, when you've become a Christian, then he says I'd sure like to wipe out your testimony.
I don't want to see that person glorify God.
And so he introduces something that will defile, and it can start with something so simple as partying.
An idolatry.
And associations that.
Are not to our spiritual health things that bring the government of God into our life in a marked way. May God keep you from that precious soul if you're in this room tonight.
And you say, you know, I'm so glad Jesus has died for me, that his blood is shed and I'm covered by that blood, and I really want to go on with him. I know I'm blessed and cannot be cursed. And I really want to walk in a way that's according to God's mind for me with that blessing that was even set forth in the early church.
Don't fall under.
Balaam's Doctrine.
And if there's a precious soul here tonight?
That has failed.
Praise the Lord, there's mercy, there's grace.
For recovery of so much.
It still holds true. If you're blessed, you cannot be cursed.
God wants the utmost of happiness for each soul.
The Blessings of Captivity
Address—R. Klassen
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.
Might turn back to the book of Jeremiah that was referred to in the reading.
Jeremiah chapter 29, just to preface, just for a little bit.
We're going to read a letter.
That was written probably about 2600 years ago.
Jeremiah the prophet, and that letter is as good today as when it was written.
That we can draw things out of this letter.
Just as though it was written to us, we have several letters in the Word of God. But think of how Paul wrote a personal letter to Philemon here. It is divinely inspired and we can read that letter. Probably been a blessing to many generations and many different circumstances.
And so we'll read this letter with this in mind, verse one.
Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem under the residue of the elders, which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. Verse 4.
Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives.
Whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon.
Build E houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them.
Take ye wives, and begets sons and daughters. Take wives to your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, and that you may be increased there and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city. Whether I have caused you to be carried away captives.
And pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Let not your prophets and your diviners that be in the midst of you deceive you. Neither hearken to your dreams which he caused to be dreamed, or they prophecy falsely.
Unto you in my name I have not sent them, saith the Lord.
For thus saith the Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you.
Perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me.
And I will hearken unto you, and you shall seek me and find me.
When ye shall search for me with all your heart, and I will be found of you, saith the Lord.
And I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places. Whether I have driven you, saith the Lord. I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. There was a time.
In the life of the Lord Jesus.
When he was in a place called Caesarea Philippi, the far northern border.
And he was there with his disciples, and it appears that he was beyond the reach of the Pharisees and in their interference with his pathway of service. And there's a time of quietness. And if we could picture.
Them sitting there, perhaps resting.
And the Lord Jesus says to his disciples, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, AM?
To thinking.
When someone spoke up and said, well some feel that thou art John the Baptist.
Another spoke up and said, Some think that thou art Elijah.
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Someone else spoke up and said some think that thou art Jeremiah.
Somebody else said. Or some prophet.
And I was thinking about why did they bring Jeremiah?
Why did they look at the Lord and what was there about him that made them think that He might have been Jeremiah come back and resurrection?
We have here the thought of being taken captive.
And it's one thing to be taken captive.
To a foreign land, strange land, and try to put your roots down there and.
And try to live some near normal way.
And there's another captivity to be captive in your own land.
As the children of Israel were in the days when the Lord Jesus was here, they were captives in their own land and the Romans ruled over them.
You know either situation, I don't know which is the worst or the best, but I don't think we had volunteer for either one. It's oppressive, it gets things riled up and and rebellion is just right under the surface and breaking out.
But you know when Jeremiah wrote this letter?
It was not rebellion.
It was submission to the will of God.
No circumstance can we be in.
That we can't look to the will of God.
And to submit to those circumstances.
Now before we develop this any further.
We want to notice what the preliminary was to this letter. There's a prophet by the name of Shemiyah, and Shemia seemed to have his own.
Popularity in mind, should I say.
And so he heard Jeremiah prophecy, he heard what he was saying to the people as to how they could save their life by making it a prey and going out and submitting to the Chaldeans.
And they didn't like that and so.
He comes along, we'll just read what he says.
Verse three of the preceding chapter 28. Verse 3.
We're in two full years. Will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lords House at Nebuchadnezzar? King of Babylon took away from this place and carried them to Babylon. You know, that would be a message that your heart would just grab onto. The only problem is it's not true.
And so I may accept captivity as long as it's just a little short span of time. And he said two years and Nebuchadnezzar power would be overthrown and everything had come back to Jerusalem and returned to normal notice.
What it says here in the 16th verse.
Jeremiah says Therefore. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will cast thee off the face of the earth this year. Thou shalt die, because thou hast taught.
Submission, No rebellion against the Lord. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.
You know, Jeremiah was a was a weeping prophet.
And.
He was born in the time.
When the good king Josiah came into power.
And now those must have been wonderful days in Israel.
And perhaps you could hear the statement made. You know, we're just getting back onto the track after such terrible bloodshed in Jerusalem like Manasseh did.
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And we're we're just kind of easing into being normal and idolatry is being dealt with.
And Jeremiah was a part of the choir of the singing men and singing women.
And things were going on normal. They kept the Passover in a very unique way. And all of a sudden, one day that's just chopped off.
And it's gone.
The staying power.
Of going on in godliness was removed.
And if we read the history?
From the time that Josiah died, things started down.
And I enjoyed someone saying that Jeremiah was there to keep Israel.
From falling.
To try and stay there, fall or try to break it.
And so he ministered the word of the Lord, and it looked like they were going to go, and he steadied him up a little bit, but it was still a downward pitch.
Until finally it came to the point where the Lord said there's no remedy, they're going to have to go into captivity.
Well, what a day.
Don't we look over to that land today and think of the disengagement?
That those dear people have gone through established 2530 years.
In their homes and one day to be evicted.
And to get into a bus and to go somewhere.
But it's not going home.
What are they going to do about it? What is their spirit going to be? Well, we know there was an awful rebellion.
And we say we don't blame them.
That we find in this chapter.
Now Jeremiah gave some wonderful advice.
But before I leave this point of thinking of the blessed Lord Jesus being there in that land under Roman rule, that there was no thought in his heart of being a revolutionary and and getting men together and try to overthrow or break down the resolve of the Roman Empire.
No, it was submission again. And so he too sought to break the fall of Israel that they are our obviously going to when they took and they crucified their Messiah.
And the cross of Calvary.
And he was went into death.
Rose again.
And then we go on to Stevens testimony, a final testimony to stay the awful situation that was on the horizon. They rejected Stevens testimony and the veil went over their hearts and they went on to AD 70.
To be slaughtered, to be carried off captive, to have no nation that they could call their own.
It's strange, isn't it? Whether it's man or whether it's ourselves, we have a very difficult time learning from history to look back to see what happened.
And we can read it. We can think about it.
But what have we gained? Or if we could see the rebellion in this world this afternoon rebelling against government and authority?
You know it crushes, but it's just simply.
The heart of man.
And the rebellion is all against God. They may be targeting a man, but here we have that they are rebelling against God.
Well, we want to consider another man before we go into this chapter and this man is Shemi. I think I said this got the wrong name on this other man is Hananiah.
This is Shemi Ayah.
And the day came when Nebuchadnezzar came in, and he took.
Captive, those that were in Jerusalem, right in the seat of authority, they just marched right in and took these men of influence and wealth and so on and off to Babylon they went. And so this is when the first prophet said they'll be back in two years and they'll bring everything back to the temple.
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Now notice this man, they get Jeremiah's letter and they read it to those that were taken captive.
And notice his reaction verse 26.
The Lord hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest. He's writing back now to Jerusalem.
That he should be officers in the House of the Lord. For every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou should have put him in prison and in the stocks. Now therefore why hast thou not reprove Jeremiah of Anoth, which maketh himself a prophet to you? For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying.
This captivity is long.
Build ye houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat the fruit of them. Can you hear the tone of sarcasm? Verse 31.
Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus saith the Lord concerning Shemiah the Nihilomite, because that she Amaya hath prophesied unto you, And I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will punish Shemayah.
Then eh Alamite and his seed, he shall not have a man to dwell among his people.
Neither shall he behold a good that I will do for my people, saith the Lord.
Because he has taught rebellion against the Lord.
We had this afternoon.
That it's not an easy path for the servant of the Lord.
This was not an easy matter for Jeremiah.
But to think of the grace of his heart that he would write to those captives there in Babylon, and write such a letter of hope and peace and blessing.
Oh again, it's the spirit of submission.
To the will of God.
And so we see the consequences in these two men.
They lost not just their life, but the last man lost his whole family.
How did he come by that?
I poisoned his family.
The Lord didn't just do something to cut them off when there was number reason.
No, the Lord only backs up.
What man does in his folly to poison his children against the Lord and against his people? Well, we come to this letter, and he says, Build ye houses and dwell in them.
And plant gardens and eat the fruit thereof.
We were to determine to the book of Ezekiel.
Ezekiel went out in the second captivity and some of you know there was a third captivity, but Ezekiel's was called a great captivity where the mass were taken away.
And the Lord said to Ezekiel, I want you to go to the river Chibar.
And I want you to sit where those captives sit.
So he did. You know, sometimes that's a good thing.
To go and sit where others sit before you make any judgment of things.
If you do that, you're going to learn some things, you're going to hear some things.
The Lord is going to see to it that you do.
And then after seven days.
Sitting among these complainers and hearing all this rebellion, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel.
To give them a word from the Lord.
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And I can just imagine this company here.
Looking at their circumstances there in Babylon, saying what are we going to do? We don't fit in here.
He says build houses.
And plant gardens.
And eat the fruit thereof. You know, that's, that's wholesome, isn't it? That's what we call the fundamentals of life.
And so to see these complaining captives.
Stopping to consider what the word of the Lord was to them.
And this calls for to be industrious and to have purpose, and it's something that you delight in.
Recently.
We were in a home. We were invited there for a meal.
And I sat down to this meal.
And almost everything out on that table was out of the garden that morning. Corn, potatoes, red beets, cucumbers.
And rose lamb. And when the dessert came, there were blueberries and strawberries and Kiwi and pineapple. What a meal. You know this translates spiritually, doesn't it?
That's practically now what does the Lord delight to do to His people spiritually?
Oh, to feed them with the finest of the wheat and honey out of the rock.
Oh, it's so wonderful to be fed spiritually, to have a meal like we had practically.
And so to think of digging the ground and planting a seed and watering it and then the day.
Comes to eat out of that garden.
Couldn't have better food in all the earth.
And so this is an encouragement to us because, you know, we're in captivity too. First we are in captivity to Satan, bound into the chains of sin. And the gospel came and delivered us and showed us the precious Savior, and now we're captives in the chains of love.
What a captivity. We're not free to live down here as we dare please.
We can't afford one rebellious day in our life. It's too costly.
But to love.
That perfect?
And good and acceptable well of God. Good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
And so we try rebellion.
Thank God when it throws us down, let's us down.
But it goes on here, and it says, Take ye wives, and begets sons and daughters, Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, that ye may be increased there and not decreased.
You know, I've known a couple.
For quite a number of years.
And this couple is a Christian couple.
And they agreed before they got married that they would not have any children.
I wonder why did they make an agreement like that?
To come to find out that they said this world is so wicked that we have no mind to bring children into this world.
You know, I've watched them over the years and they build an empire.
The wife worked. They can do anything they want.
But I look on that situation and you know, my heart just aches. I wonder down in the deep recesses of their heart if they realize what a foolish.
Agreement they entered into.
And I suppose that there were those in Babylon, as they looked around, they said this is such a wicked place, we're not going to bring children here.
And they have to contend with all this confusion.
Jeremiah says yes, you go on, you have marriage and you have children.
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And don't just barely be making it, but increase. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wholesome?
What a godly desire to have children in a wicked world and know that he's going to take care of them. And not only that, but to embrace our little one to our heart and say, you know, this is one of his elect. And I have the perfect liberty to treat that little one as one of his elect. And I look for the day when they realize that.
They have a sinful heart and that they need the precious Savior.
They need to be born again. That is such a wonderful experience and to hear your children confess the Lord.
Don't give up your gospel testimony, brethren, in your assemblies.
That is a wonderful testimony. How many hundreds have been saved by that feeble effort? Had my children say I got saved tonight? And the vessel that he used just astonished me.
Such are the ways of God.
You know.
When it comes to the captivity, naturally our hearts rebel against it.
But I want to look just for a little bit.
At the blessing of accepting the truth of captivity.
We turn to the 17th chapter of this same book, Jeremiah 17.
And verse 7.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is, for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when he cometh, but her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought.
Neither shall cease.
From yielding fruit. You know if you could look in my Bible you would find.
Five stars.
By verse 8.
As to the blessing of accepting captivity.
Can you imagine being in Babylon in a strange land?
And this be your portion you say. Is that possible?
Yes, it certainly is. And you know, it's a preserving principle.
In our Christian pathway and in our assembly life, and I'll tell you what I mean.
There was a time in my life that I was very grieved.
With what was going on in the assembly.
To the point where I said to my own heart, I wonder if the Lord is really among us.
Or not, you know, I was preparing to leave.
And as I was contemplating the moves.
The voice of the Lord cut through my thought pattern.
And said to me, Well, ye also go away.
That broke my heart because I had questioned whether he was there or not.
Calling into question.
And oh, he drew me back.
To accept the captivity.
Of going on where He is in the midst, and allow him to take care of his own affairs in his assembly.
Oh what a change came over my life and I thought of that being a green tree.
And not take cognizance of every little thing that goes on and who said what and this thing and that thing. We've had some good things this afternoon in connection with avoiding the pitfalls of division. And to see what happens when things get to that point, we turn to the Psalms again.
To.
Chapter 92.
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Like to go on with the thought of the trees. You know people are trees.
And it's nature itself teaches us.
And there's two trees here.
Psalm 92.
And verse 12.
It says the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree.
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Two trees.
The palm.
Is out in the desert.
In that harsh climate of heat and sandstorms.
And there it survives.
Where other trees can't survive. And here's a cedar up in Lebanon and the lofty heights of Lebanon, and it's subject to intense cold and snow.
And wind and so on.
We might say, you know, I wouldn't choose, I wouldn't choose any path like that. But you know.
It's unavoidable if the Lord is going to take us up.
For if we are without chasing, then are we ******** and not sons?
And the remarkable thing about these two trees?
In their harsh circumstances is that they're green year round.
Life.
Vitality.
Say.
Are you still talking about the captivity? Yes, I am.
To the cedar tree, choose to be up in the heights of Lebanon. No, that's where God planted it, out there in a desert with no other trees around.
Picture 70 palm trees and 12 artesian wells just pouring out. The Lord isn't going to forsake us. He's not going to put us out there and say, well, we'll just see how you make it. If you don't, I'm sorry, sink or swim.
No, He's got provision for us for every circumstance that He puts us through. And when we go through these things, these trials that he tempers them with His mercy have an eye for that.
To look at your trial and say, well, when I think about brother so and so's trial, it sure minimizes mine.
We won't turn to it, but.
The blessed Lord Jesus.
Is on his way to the cross.
Condemned to die.
The greatest miscarriage of judgment has ever been carried out in this world.
He's on his way to the cross and he said if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
You know there's not just one.
Thought and scripture you know that there are facets.
And I thought of the Lord Jesus as that green tree.
That perfectly submitted to the will of God and none of us would choose His path.
To get up in the morning, the think of the rejection that would be there waiting for you be the song of the drunkards, and yet manifesting the grace of God to the needy. What a man.
And so he's that green tree that suspended up on the dry tree, the cross.
The Roman cross that man awarded to him.
What is this world going to do?
In the dry tree.
No life.
No, it once had life, but it's gone, gone forever.
And I see that blessed man this afternoon lifted up on the cross.
Submitting to the will of God his Father.
And looking at.
Us and he would rather die than disobey his father.
To bear our sins in his own body on the tree.
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To hear that cry of abandonment. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Do you have?
An offended heart this afternoon.
Are there those things that sorely displease you? Have you been treated in an unkind way?
And that vengeance should be taken.
Or do we go to the cross?
And I hear that Blessed One.
Confessing and burying my sins before a holy God.
What can I say?
Love the hymn writers words, he said. We love the.
For the glorious worth which in myself we see.
We love thee for the shameful cross endured so patiently to think of that shed blood that flowed from his ribbon side.
And we can say this afternoon that precious blood will never lose its power.
Tell every ransom St. of God be saved a sin no more.
What a glorious moment that will be.
When the Lord calls us out and will sin no more.
Oh, to be redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, to be delivered from myself, delivered from my foolish thoughts.
And to be brought to be brought into reconciliation to that man who stood in the breach between a holy God and bankrupt sinners.
Let's go back to Jeremiah 29.
Jeremiah has some more good advice.
Notice that there in verse 7.
And seek the peace of the city. Whether I have caused you to be carried away, captives.
And pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
You know, and that's just asking too much, isn't it?
Seek the peace of the city. But what happens when you do?
You know, the children of Israel.
It says that when they left Egypt that Egypt was glad to have them gone.
But just for a little bit. And they gathered their army to go and bring him back. Why? Because they missed the spirit of things.
You know peace is a cushion and living in a neighborhood where things can turn upside down.
Oh, they're just those remarks of peace that disarm the bullets that would fly from the mouth.
And so they were to pray for the peace of the city.
You know, the assembly is likened to a city. There's an operation in the assembly that's marvelous, that love and care for one another.
Just let somebody come into sadness like our brother Peter on.
And you feel the flood of sympathy.
Immediately among his people.
You know this is normal Christianity. It's normal assembly life.
There are many here.
That have only heard about dear brother Harry Hale.
But I was in my teens when he came to town several times and I heard those sentence sermons that meant so much to my heart.
And one of them stands out clearly, said brethren.
Never.
Never disturbed the peace of the assembly unless the glory of God demands it.
Never disturbed the peace of the assembly unless the glory of God demands it.
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Well, you know, if this was taken to heart.
We wouldn't have to talk about division. We wouldn't have to weep over its consequences today. But we do.
That somebody thought something was so important that God, that the Lord Jesus could not manage the affairs of the assembly.
You know, if you have any questions in your mind about His ability, I can tell you one thing. You can't second guess what the Lord is going to do. You try it. And that isn't what he did. He touched in another place that seemed to be unrelated.
He takes care of his own affairs. Let me submit my heart.
To the will of God.
It's good and acceptable and perfect.
Well, you know.
There were those that took this Council to heart.
You know, there's a danger on our part of always overdoing things.
We take counsel and it's good counsel and we just throw our heart into it 100%.
You know what happened is that when that 70 years was up?
Wasn't like coming out of Egypt. There were those that were stationed there, they were rooted there and they stayed there.
And there were those that went and entreated with him come on back to our captivity is over and we could go back to Jerusalem.
And rebuild and so on.
Some weren't treated and went back. That many just stayed where they were.
How is it with us?
Are we ready to go when the Lord calls us?
I search my own heart.
If all of a sudden the Lord is there and I know the issue, I'm leaving earth and to be in heaven in less than a moment of time, would there be just a little bit of hesitation?
There's hundreds of reasons why.
There could be a little hesitation.
You may know him better than I do.
But to accept the captivity of God?
Whatever it may be, in circumstances that I don't like, the Lord has had to bring those circumstances into my life to preserve me in the path of faith.
I don't like to admit that, but it's absolutely true.
And it takes a while to say Lord Jesus.
I hear it was right. I needed that.
And so for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
Now there's one more thing that Jeremiah says here, that among other things, but verse 11.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you an expected end.
You know they could have their calendar.
The years go by.
And it's getting closer to the end of 70 years.
Thinking about how they're going to pack and how they're going to transport and so on.
That expected end is there as we have an expected end.
All we have the blessed hope.
And are we preparing in heart for that meeting in the air in every way that we can?
Is another part to this expected end in chapter 31?
I'll just read The Hope in verse 17.
And there is hope.
In thine end, saith the Lord.
That thy children shall come again to their own borders.
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I think of how many?
Dear ones, Babylon has robbed us of.
I could weep like Rachel.
Leaping for children.
But there's an expected end.
Thy children shall return to their borders.
All we would like for them to return to the assembly to enjoy the feasts that we enjoy.
You know they give an ear. Try to check out what took place at this conference.
They won't come back.
Because of the cost they think is too great.
A cost that they're going to feel bad about.
That there is loss and yet as a parent's heart.
To look off.
And see the family circle unbroken, perhaps to our amazement.
That God was true to his promise, lest we should be cast down and in total despair. Paul isn't a wonderful.
To be a captive in the chains of love. There we have in Ephesians chapter 4 that He led captivity captive, and he gave gifts unto men.
It seems kind of disconnected, but you know what it is what it means. It means that the work of the cross, the precious Savior, has won our hearts. He's delivered from us from the captivity of Satan.
But he's taken us captive.
In the chains of love. And he gave gifts unto men. What are those gifts? Those gifts are to Harold. The victory that was won at the cross of Calvary. Let the whole world know.
About that work, how it affected your own life and changed you completely. Oh, what a captivity.