Des Moines Conference: 1998
Table of Contents
Hebrews 13:1-7
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And could we all stand as we've seen this hymn of praise?
Look at a passage. I'd like to read a verse in Matthew chapter.
14.
Matthew Chapter 14.
And I'd like to read parts of verses.
We will start with verse 14 of Matthew 14.
Jesus went forth.
And saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion towards them.
When it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place.
Send the multitude away.
Verse 16 But Jesus said.
Give me them to eat.
Verse 17 They say unto him, We had there but 5 loaves and two fishes. Verse 18 he said.
Bring them hit her to me.
Verse 20 they did.
All eat and were filled in verse 21 and they that had eaten were about 5000 men decide women and children could we just continue in prayer?
Our blessed God and our loving Father.
And fish to eat a multitude.
May we?
See. So save the fish, follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men.
Fishers of men, and bread for the soul of thy people. May we feed our souls, have food needful and appropriate for us to feed our souls, and be edified and strengthened.
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But God has for man.
Is Christ.
We have latitude 5 loaves and the two fishes may refer to the Old Testament and the New.
Well, God is speaking in these last days in his Son.
And he is seeking to gather people around himself.
The emphasis is on the word of God, whatever it is, Hebrews says.
The Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword.
Piercing is a dividing ascent of soul and spirit, and of the joints and mirror, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And it makes God know.
I would just like to suggest that in a practical way, we take the last chapter of Hebrews instead of the first, going back and referring to the first or any others, because it's so important. The word of God, the word of God, and He's speaking, He's speaking to you, He's speaking to me, and we are in the last days.
And perhaps the last of the last days. But there is a divine center, and there's an expression of it.
And the chapter begins with very simple, practical things. Would it be all right to read the 13th chapter Hebrews?
Edwards, Chapter 13.
Let brotherly love continue be.
Not forgetful to entertain strangers or thereby some have entertained angels, unaware us, remember them that are in bonds, is found with them, and then which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all the bed, undefiled the ************ and adulterers God will judge, let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. What He has said. I will never leave thee, nor forsake me, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear.
What man shall do unto me? Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you, the word of God, whose faith followed, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ the same, yesterday and today, and forever be not carried about the diverse and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with me, which have not prompted them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serves Tabernacle for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the High Priest of sin.
Are burned without the cans. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp there and his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come by him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not, for such sacrifice as God is well pleased.
Obey them and have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not grief, or that is unprofitable for use. Pray for us, but we trust we have a good conscience and all things willing to live honestly.
Beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you, the sooner now the God of peace that brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in your sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom he glory forever and ever. Amen. And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation.
Where I've written a letter on to you in few words, knowing that our brother Timothy is set at liberty. With whom is he? Come shortly, I will see you salute all them that have the rule over you and all the Saints. They have Italy. Salute you. Grace be with you all. Amen.
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Perhaps those five loaves and the two fishes.
Referred to in Matthew 14.
Go back to the five books of Moses which begin the Bible.
And pick up the Psalms in the prophets.
The Lord spoke to those two on the way to Emmaus.
Referring to all those books of the Old Testament.
Now this book of Hebrews.
Gives us another speaking and it couldn't be more important.
God in time passed fake unto the fathers by the proudest. The first verse of this book of Hebrews God, who at sundry times, and in diverse manners, and in time fast speak unto the Fathers by the prophets, refers to the Old Testament.
We can use all the books.
When Hebrews is so interesting because it is teaching upon the Old Testament.
And it brings in figures and shadows.
The types.
How wonderful it is to be based in your upbringing and reading the Bible. You get into homes where the scriptures are read every day and always a blessed thing for that home.
You think of Timothy. He came up that way with a godly mother and grandmother. What, in the Old Testament?
Paul was learned in the the law.
Pharisee of the Pharisees have the word of God. Then was.
But we have it. Then we come to the New Testament, that wonderful book of Matthew, the first one.
I just like the 1St 2 words. The book, the book. This is the book. It's the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
So it's Christ. The New Testament is Christ revealed.
Now the book goes on through the Gospels and the Acts.
And the epistles.
Comes down to this last one written by Paul we believe.
Hebrews so interesting that there is no author within the book, so much so that some people couldn't say that was Paul.
But in our chapters, there's enough indication to know that.
And yet.
The word of God tells us more definitely who wrote the book of Hebrews than any book in the Bible, right? Let's go to Peter. The Lord brings it out through Peter.
Peter found what Paul said was hard to be understood.
The last chapter of Second Peter.
Verse 14.
Second, Peter 314. Wherefore, beloved, now that's you, brethren. Here us. Seeing that we look for such things, the prophecies opened up.
We've had much of prophecy opened up amongst the gathered Saints. Be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace. Peace. Peace be to the President and love with faith God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. God wants peace.
And God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the Saints.
Be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless, and account.
That the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, that is.
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Computer was writing this had been.
4000 Years of history gone When?
We're reading it for 6000 years of history gone.
And that means that God is not hastening to judge. He's not willing that any should perish. So he has spoken to the time pastor, the Father by the prophets in the Old Testament. In the New Testament he used the apostles of prophets.
And Christ was the author of all of it. We're getting more here, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood.
I'll refer to it 3 words and.
Matthew 15 to help us here.
There in Matthew 15, I've forgotten where you can find it. The three words are here and understand the word is the teaching upon itself. Hear what God says. So much so that when he writes to the churches in Revelation 2 and three, he ends up with He's 1/2 an ear. Let him hear what the fear says to the churches. The Spirit of God uses the word of God.
And.
He has written unto you.
Peter wrote to the.
Dispersion. You might find the word Diaspora used in connection with the remnant of Israel that's brought back to the land over there. Now they're known, the dispersed. Some of them are brought back. Peter wrote to them. James wrote to them.
And Hall wrote to them.
So he was the human author.
But to get this straight.
Hebrews 4.
But tell us who the apostle was.
Hebrews 3.
Hebrews 3 tells us who the apostle was.
That brought this book to us using Paul, who was caught up to the 3rd heaven, to humanly write it, but to keep himself out of it so that we would see Jesus talking to us.
God hath in these last days spoke unto us in sun.
How important the word of God is? All of it. But this book in particular is pointed out so that in the first verse of Hebrews 3. Wherefore, Holy Brethren. And that's you. If you're one of the brethren, you're one of the Holy Brethren.
Partakers of the heavenly calling.
He called us the first hymn we sang today.
He called. He called us out of this place. Aren't you glad you're not going to stay here?
A heavenly calling?
Considered here he is the apostle.
He was the center. He's the apostle That particularly is pointed out as giving us Christ speaking from heaven. This wonderful truth which is teaching upon the Old Testament. Well, that's kind of an introduction, but isn't it kind of shocking to get what we get in the beginning of Hebrews 13?
Why would we need to be told?
Let brotherly love continue.
Way of introduction to what we've been given that this is actually the last word of God addressed to these Christian Hebrews.
The epistle James has been referred to.
As you know, it was written to the 12 tribes, so there we have a mixture.
In that first voice that God spoke to the people.
A mixture of that which is distinctly Jewish. Some of the things that I could apply only to a mixed multitude.
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And that's God's first voice.
The Epistle.
The epistles appear as has been pointed up, were written to the.
Dispersion. But it's to the sanctified that are in Christ Jesus.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God. So this is written as a second voice of God to the people.
To those who are truly the Lords.
Sanctified unto the sprinkling of the blood, and the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God.
And now we come to this last epistle, the last voice of God.
In which the Christian Hebrews are addressed.
To finalize the thought of separating their minds from an earthly religion and transferring their minds, be occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ and to see.
The transition is complete at the church.
Is not an extension of Judaism the Lord Jesus Christ as head and the body here?
Is superior to every facet of Judaism.
We know from the Epistle to the Galatians that to bring that Judaism back into the assembly is enough dudlock and adulteration of the truth. So here God is speaking lastly to the Hebrews to move their thoughts from the earthly religion to that heavenly company that have been joined to the Lord by the Holy Spirit. And so we pass through.
The Epistle to see that the Lord Jesus Christ is superior to every aspect of that earthly religion. Superior to angels, superior to Moses, superior to Aaron.
Superior to Melchizedek and on and on the Lord Jesus Christ that in everything he might have the first place.
And then we come to the chapter in which.
The Spirit of God has directed us to take up and we have at the very end after proving the superiority of Christianity.
The admonition based on the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ above everything else, that is, that we have an altar, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one we worship.
At which altar those who serve the Tabernacle have no right to eat, The end of Judaism, The beginning of worship in the Spirit and in truth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if there is to be introduced those elements of Judaism, they have absolutely no place.
Because at that altar worshipping of the Lord Jesus Christ who became the center.
Has no place in Christianity. And so finally and then end of our chapter that was read, we have at the heart should be established in grace and not meat. Meets in that category, referring to all the sacrifices and sensual exercises embodied in Judaism. So the last word of God to these Hebrews is let us go forth unto Him.
Without the camp he was He was crucified outside of that system, and his crucifixion was the end of it all. Now we go forth unto Him, where the heart established in grace, and not in physical things that embodied in the whole system of Judaism.
I think there are seven reasons in the next versus number. Verse #2, Verse two has to do with hospitality. Verse three has to do with compassion. Verse four has to do with purity. Verse five has to do with contentment. Verse six has to do with confidence.
Verse seven has to do with obedience. Verse eight has to do with our example, the Lord Jesus. And the basis for all of that, for every one of us in this room, is that brotherly love continues. What, may I say it this way to each of us here, whether young or old. What good is it for me to talk about compassion and purity and love, as in vital and important as those things are, if that essential root of brotherly love?
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Concern and love for one another, which is what Christ wants in our hearts. That's what he desires for us. If that's lacking, how will I? How will I go on and talk about and make much of these other things? I'm not beginning at the right place. If there's no brotherly love there, these following things are going to be difficult to be worked out in my life. And so for the beloved young people too, if you're going to go forward and enjoy the blessings that God has for you, and all of these things are important in your lives.
Let it start with brotherly love. Let you let it be.
That that is seen practically in your life. And beloved brethren for all of us, Let it be seen practically in our lives that there's love for the brethren as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. What an example that ought to be in our lives. And then these wonderful things that come before us will be practically worked out as they ought to be in our lives.
This book doesn't indicate A practical application of that which God has wrought in our hearts. Every child of God here is a recipient of divine love.
And if that's not for an exercise, we can get very careless. We can get, we can forget. And so it's it's interesting that it begins. Let brotherly love continue. We can't say that about divine love. Divine love will never, never cease. It will always be the same because it comes from the heart of God himself. And I'll tell you the exercise for us, isn't it? Let it continue. Sometimes it doesn't. And there's where our failures are. That's why we're not always happy. We're not always on the mountain top, if you will.
We let brotherly love fade away. We see their faults, We see their things that come into their lives. We accuse. Well, I believe it's nice to remember that God's love has come to us without let or hindrance.
Is divine love and divine love and brotherly love flows out from a divine love, doesn't it, when there's a comment?
Important to go back and see what has been previously said. And so if we go back into the 12Th chapter of Ways, we guess words like this in in verse 15, looking diligently, lest any man fail, of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. And so perhaps when we get something like that, then we go on into this chapter and it says now let brotherly love continue.
We have a verification to the family about what we're talking about, it says there in the third chapter.
And it's been a verse number.
Hereby we know.
That we have passed from death and alike. Thank you. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. That's the verification of it, brethren. And if you want to test your faith, just read that verse because that's the character of the family. But sometimes we get out of the character of the family and that's why we need to have that thought of walking with the Lord Jesus and communion day by day. And that's why in the first chapter it says Fatima sins.
And what is the what is the issue there that we confess our sins? And one of those sins is when I have an evil thought in my heart.
And I have to put this in brackets. It's very easy to have it because that's kind of a heart that I have. I have a nature that has all of those attributes of the flesh, and we get the list of them. In the 5th chapter of Galatians, the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these With all There's another work, and that's the work of the Spirit of God. And what is it? That's the work of the Spirit of God. Hereby we know, or it says that in verse 14 we know, that we have passed from death and the light because we love the brethren.
He that loveth not his brother Abiath and death we get John speaking in absolutes here. There's some things that we get are absolute. And it's good that you and I know how absolute we are in Christ when we have that love flowing out. And that's natural for every believer. A brother said to me just recently, he says, you know, brother, I love you. I said you can't help it. You know he can't help it because he's got a new nature that's it's the carriage of that love. But you know, still we need the admonition to let the brother in love continue because there's so many snares that the enemy would want to put in our way.
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And one of them is the accuser of the brethren. And you know what the accuser of the brethren says to you in your ear when you first saved? You're not saved. You're not saved. You ask any new believer after he gets saved. And I've asked a lot of my say, well, you've had it pretty tough the last few days, haven't you? And he said, how did you know? I said, well, when I got saved, the first thing that happened was Satan wanted to tell me that God didn't love me, that I was a hypocrite, and all of the big long lists that Satan would use against the people of God.
The accuser of the president is still around, but one day is going to be put away for good.
To his accusers in the 7th of acts it comes down to the end and says.
Ye have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
Then they took up some of the stone. Now the law was given by the disposition of angels. The Old Testament came in that power. So there are 12Th chapter takes that up. But the emphasis I think we ought to get here is who is saying these things to you? Who is saying these things to me back in the 12Th chapter?
Verse.
25 That he refused, not him, that speaketh. Then he goes back and picks up what Stephen was saying, more or less.
For if they escape not, who refused him that spake on earth.
Much more shall not be escaped if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.
The law is given by the dispositions to a people here on the earth for an earthly test.
But that broke down completely because.
They didn't do what the law said.
But God bore with them, and Lenny sent praise to them.
So that this verse says.
If they refuse, if they escape, not who refuse him, that's fake on Earth.
Much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. Now this is Christ, and particularly it's Christ in Paul's ministry for the Apostle, the 11 of them.
Got their Gospels and their teaching from Christ on earth.
And that was the beginning.
But Paul was caught after the third ever.
And he got his ministry not from the apostle, he got it from Christ in heaven. So what he's referring to here is him that speaketh from heaven is Pauls ministry.
And in particular, it's this epistle where Christ is put as the apostle.
So we can think Now these things are said to us not by angels, but by the Lord.
Let's go ahead and read here in 26, whose voice then shook the earth. Well, that was demonstrated.
But now he has promising yet once more I shaken off the earth only, but also heaven.
He's referring to another shaky and that's coming, that's getting closer. And it's not water this time, it's fire, he goes ahead and tells us.
And this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken. I heard they had a big earthquake in Bolivia yesterday. I guess we ought to pray for a brother down there. I haven't heard anymore, but God shakes the earth once in a while. Let's just feel it.
As of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain, wherefore we receiving a Kingdom.
Now this is crazy cable which cannot be moved.
This is the stone cut out of the mountain without half. It comes and shuts down the four great gentile power and Christ Millennial Kingdom will come along. We must be getting close to this. It's a great thing to rejoice in the fact that Jesus is God's King.
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He's the Messiah.
He is determined to put him upon his holy hill of Zion, who is over there now.
Do they have peace? I think it's so interesting to notice what's happened around Jerusalem and the multitude of the ethnic groups that are there that don't agree and can't agree and can't settle out anything because York is the only one that can and he'll bring in that Kingdom. We receiving a Kingdom which cannot be removed. Let us have grace, dear Brett. He brings us right down to the very beginning of everything.
Great and grace and the Kingdom that's going to go on forever and ever.
Whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and God with fear. You know you can do that.
Because it's in the book.
Serves God, not yourself. Not exactly.
Creatures, although serving God, except they must with reverence and godly fear, takes in everything. Then he gives one more warning. Our God is a consuming fire. He goes back and refers to the judgment.
That comes from God now, he says.
Let brother love continue. It's there. It couldn't continue. Let it continue. In spite of everything. Oh, brethren is said to us because we need it. Then he takes up. I'm so glad to hear what Doug gave us on those verses. You want to give it to us again, Doug? I've forgotten those things.
Right.
Much more, but I just enjoyed, as when I was sitting here, that verse two in general has the thought of hospitality. Verse three has the thought of compassion. Verse four at the thought of security. Verse 5 the thought of content. Verse 6 the thought of confidence. Verse 7 the thought of obedience, and verse 8 the enjoyment of the example, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was perfect in all of those things, and it seems like those are things that we certainly.
Need very much today to apply in every.
One of our lives, wherever we are, young or old, for those who are elderly, these things, those who are young, those who are middle-aged, each of us need to apply these things in our lives.
In you means that it is there to begin with, and I found it helpful, brethren, to realize that there's two words in the original that are used when it's Speaking of love. Here it is phileo love.
The other word is agape love, which has been referred to in First John chapter 3, but they're very closely associated. The Leo love is the love of mutual appreciation, and that ought to be always there, brethren. Sometimes it gets stopped up like was mentioned, and we need the exhortation to let it flow and off times in the scripture you'll find the two put right together.
Let me refer to one in First Thessalonians 4 that speaks of the both in one verse. I found it kind of helpful to see that they're put together.
First, Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 9 as touching brotherly love. That's what we're speaking about. The fileo love you need not that I write unto you semi colon or colon.
For ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. There's the agape love, so they're put right together. And sometimes I hear the complaint.
In that assembly, there's no love.
If that's the case, the person who complaints is the first one guilty because.
Agape love is love that loves when there's nothing lovable, and so the two things go together. There should be that outflow, that mutual appreciation one of another at all times. But if there isn't that, Peter says in his epistle.
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Amongst other things, to your faith, add brotherly love. And to brotherly love, add love. The two things go together, and I think it's so helpful to see you and I have a nature that is capable of loving the most unlovely person. That's the nature you have if you're born of God, but how important it is, brethren, to seek to.
Find ways to let that flow and as it's been mentioned in the verses that follow.
Very practical channels in which we can.
Show our love one to another, brother. There needs to be that. That's what's characteristic of Christianity. The Lord Jesus said By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. If you have love one to another, he says this is my command. He doesn't say this is a suggestion.
This is my command that you love one another.
As I have loved you. And I love that brethren, because the Old Testament commanded them to love their neighbor as themselves. In other words, in the Old Testament love, the reference point was myself. How much do I love myself? I love my neighbor in that same measure. But in the New Testament, the reference point is completely changed.
It's no longer myself in the picture at all. What is the reference point? The Lord Jesus Christ, as I have loved you. How much did He love us, brethren? He loved us all the way to Calvary, brothers, all the way through that cross right into death.
And even death could not quench that love. That's the love, brethren, that now ought to flow, ought to be evident in our lives. And it has been a serious challenge and and something that's made me search my heart rather than that in John's writings 7 times over we have the definite command to love one another. Isn't that amazing?
It's there, but we're commanded to. Why? Because I think it's just has been said. It's too easy to let the flow of love get stopped up.
That verse last night, I believe John 13, the first verse. I'll just read it now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world. And to the Father having loved his own, which were in the world, I understand it's really truly having loved his own which were in the world. He loved them through everything.
I like that. I think that's beautiful, to think that God's love will never be deterred by our failures.
But we need to be reminded of this. That's why we have the verse before us, to let it continue.
Better to buy, and I've enjoyed it, that when we go home to heaven, that faith and hope are going to cease, that love will abide. And so the flow of this love among the Lord's people certainly gives us to breathe the very atmosphere of heaven. And I often think of the Lord looking down on us and giving us what it's going to be like to be in heaven.
But he's asking us this morning, what is it like on earth? Should it be any different than what it's going to be there? Let it abide.
At the early history of Brethren I was just reading a little history back in the early 1800s that the public testimony to the Brethren from others was one that of of a great understanding and great knowledge of the word of God, great ability to.
Be expositors of the word of God. And that's wonderful. And there certainly was love connected with that.
But in the end of the age, we've been reminded through various comments that have been said and through prayers, we're just on the on the border of being called into the presence of the Lord Jesus. Any any moment, literally we could be called into the presence of our Lord Jesus and perhaps we have to hang our heads. But we also have to say that what characterized the brethren publicly in those early days certainly doesn't necessarily characterize today in terms of great knowledge and.
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Wisdom and great gift and great ability. But great love often characterizes, and whether it's the beginning of the working of the spirit of God, or whether it's in the very end, there ought to be no change in the love. That character Isis, as a people gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, ought to characterize his collectively, and it also characterizes individually.
I'd like to say too, that, brethren, the Lord help us.
To not focus on what we are because that will not propagate the flow of love. It's focusing on, as we've had mentioned here in these meetings already, the glorious person of God's beloved Son. That's what's going to make a bright testimony sometimes. I've said we ought not to try to be a testimony. We ought to be.
Occupied with God's glorious man.
The Lord Jesus Christ. Then we will be a testimony, a proper testimony, but not occupied with what we are. It's true we can look at things like you mentioned Doug and I don't think that's wrong. But we need to be careful not to be introverted and looking at ourselves, because that will stop up the flow of love faster than anything else, perhaps.
I had an old brother.
Young never cry to love God more than you do. Just be occupied with His love for you because.
Love begets love. Turn to God, Focus on him, on Craig. That's where this epistles focus very much.
Versus that we've been referring to here, as her brother Doug has already mentioned, but in verse 8, the practical application of that which God has imparted to us or given us the liberty and even the power to exercise in these verses, it ends this little section ends with those that precious verse Jesus Christ.
As you're saying, brother, it's the person of Christ, isn't it? If if I'm occupied with that blessed man, then there's going to be an outflow. There's going to be a flowing out. Not because I'm trying to gender up something, that's not it, but it's just occupation with the person of Christ, and it flows out. And so these these things that brought me have been brought before us in these verses 7 through 7 here. And the end there is Jesus Christ, because he's always the same. We're not the same.
Change, but he changes not so he's the same yesterday. When was that?
When you got saved, wasn't it yesterday and today, right now, Not tomorrow, right now, today. But it's going to go on forever, isn't it? So I think it's so beautiful to put those verses together and to see the focus is on the person of Christ because he's always the same. And how. What an expectation this is to my own heart.
To think that I'm not that way and I need these expectations. I need to be reminded over and over again.
Verse.
Five as a promise on these points.
The last part of it.
I will never leave thee nor forsake now. This is the one who is the same.
And the first time that that promise is given, I think, is Genesis 26. Let's look back and see if we can find it, because it means a lot when we see who.
The Lord said that to the first time.
It's a person that some of us are quite a bit like him.
00:50:01
Genesis 26.
Somewhere here?
We find that promise.
Thank you.
First verse? Which verse?
2624.
2624.
Abraham appeared unto him the same night, and said.
4.
Somebody else reads it. I don't see it.
The Lord is here. I've had the same night that I am the God of Abraham, thy father.
Fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee and multiply thy seed my for my servant Abraham sake.
Jacob 28th chapter, is it not in verse 15, I believe. Perhaps that's the verse you're referring to.
I'll read the Genesis 28.
Verse 15.
And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places where there's outgoers, and I will bring thee again.
Into this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. Now that's still to be fulfilled in his fullest. God has that people in view. And if Jacob couldn't drive the Lord away and make him give up, neither can we. So he tells us that promise in our chapter. I will never leave thee, nor for safety. It means a lot when you see.
Who that was said to the first time, and that's still a promise that we complain.
There's something very lovely.
We leaving for safe If two folks are walking down the street, companions, friends enjoying fellowship together, it may be possible that one of them will get tired of the of the companionship of the other and will leave. That's one thing we can just sometimes decide. We just don't want to be around someone and so we leave them. But if I forsake somebody, I'm walking down the street with them and I see a huge angry dog, for instance.
Artists, that looks like he's going to do damage. If I forsake my friend, I run away because danger is coming. Well, it's beautiful, isn't it? The Lord will never tire of our company and the Lord will never leave us when we have a problem. And brother, in the practical aspect of that is brotherly love continues. We're going to treat our brethren that way. We're not going to tire up them and say I don't want to walk with this company anymore. I don't want to walk with you anymore. I'm just tired. I just don't enjoy this. No, that's not the heart of Christ. Let brotherly love continue.
And our brother and I, each one of us, we have times in our life of real stress and problems, and we need our brother not to forsake us then and love won't forsake. Love is going to say I'm going to find some way to seek to come in and be a help and an encouragement in this time when there's a need that my brother has. So the Lord Jesus will never leave us or forsake us in a brotherly love continues. We won't do this, and we will, in some measure at least, not leave or forsake our brethren either.
Because when we get on into the verses that follow, let us go forth therefore unto him.
Without the.
Bearing his reproach.
Or in our experience as brethren, in our own hearts, we have found this so easy to give up. And it was what the Lord charged Ephesus with in Revelation 2, showing his feelings. I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first life. Doesn't say that they lost it, they just left.
And it's a.
00:55:01
These are cardinal things. We're coming to the witness that God has in the world today, at the last days.
Are you and I going to stay with the Lord in the outside place and bear His Republic and enjoy his company, or are we going to drift away?
Five, the particular exhortation is about covetousness. We're living in a world of tremendous materialism, and the American Dream is to have everything you want, and that'll satisfy you. But that is not the remedy.
Isn't that wonderful, brother, That the remedy of being our lives? Because conversation really means.
Manner of life being without covetousness, always wanting something more and something more. The whole American.
Way of life seems to be based on that system of approach and thinking. What is it? It's to be content. Oh, contentment is a beautiful thing when it's there. Content with what you have right now. Yes, that's what it says. Why? Because he has said I will never leave you nor forsake you. And when we have him with this, there is not need to satisfy the heart of things.
This world, in fact, brethren, I think those of us who have had the privilege of traveling to third world countries and seeing some of our brethren that are poor in this world in general, I can say that they're much more happy than Americans are. Why? Happiness does not consist in having a bunch of things. Happiness is the enjoyment of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. With us. We have hearts.
That are made-up in such a fashion that they cannot be satisfied with anything in this world. They are made-up in such a way that they can only be satisfied with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and He's always with us.
We need to, really.
Really come down sometimes I've heard people say. I just feel the Lord has forsaken me. I don't feel that He's with me. Brethren, it's not a matter of feelings, it's a matter of what he says. You're going to believe your feelings. They're pretty topsy, Jersey, and you're going to be upside down sometimes. Believe what God says in His word, he says.
I will never leave you nor forsake you. Face your life on what God says. It never changes. He will always be there, even when you feel like he isn't. He's right there for you. Oh, it's a tremendous to for young people to get a hold of these things because we are in a difficult world. And in the next verse it says we may boldly say.
Oh, I love that the confidence of that the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man shall do.
This is apart from our chapter, but according to what you've been saying, Brother Bob, years ago, Brother Alicon came to the Chicago conference. That was the first time I ever met him and he was asked to speak to the young people. Now I made these. Others may have heard this too. He was asked to speak to the young people at Chicago conference.
So he is first he gave out to him and he prayed, and now he said before I say anything.
I want to tell you young people from the US and Canada that your brethren in Oaxaca are praying for you, that your prosperity doesn't take you away from the Lord. I'll never forget that comment as long as I live, because that was his first comment. Marvelous to think of that. All living in mud huts down there and they're enjoying the Lord. But he said, your prosperity is going to take you away from the Lord.
Interesting.
For at first, but I was just thinking about entertainment is it's a wonderful way to get to know our brethren.
Sometimes treat our brethren like boss because we store things in the basement tomorrow, beach toys or gardening tools. And we said, I know what's in that box. You really get to know the brethren that we can love them and we can take up with them the way they are. But in this it goes on then to say remember them that are in bonds and we're living in a day when we want to escape suffering at all costs and we're living in ease of every kind and just to avoid suffering. And it's good to remember those that are in bonds and those that suffer.
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You were not ashamed of Paul because he suffered for the truth. And we feel that the pathway of truth is going to mark on a pathway that is not connected with suffering. And we're going to get into trouble and many of our troubles as believers, if we try to escape a pathway of suffering, to show fellowship with those that have suffered for the truth, to stand with them to those that have suffered in the body too, Perhaps you can't understand directly why will really foster brotherly love and understanding.
And then we see what is in the world today is there's a giving up of marriage. It's everywhere, all over the world, especially the Western world. People don't bother to get married anymore. And what you have is on bridal blocks. It's the desire for law, but not in the way that God is intended. And it's a wonderful thing.
When you see what's going on, young couples getting married and having children and raising families in the world, even in the Christian world, is a despised thing, they say, how can you raise children in a world like this? But just to go on for God and the way that God has established from the very beginning without a need, you see that the world's giving up that. And so now we have great unsatisfied desires and lusts in the world because they want that law, but it's not in the way that God is intended.
And so God has given a channel, even in the natural sense, for the fulfillment of the desire of these things. But I believe we have a pattern for these things here, that we might enjoy these things in the very last days of the Church here on earth.
Fatality that sometimes we think will, that involves preparing a meal for those that would we would invite into our house. So I'd like to suggest that it doesn't necessarily involve a meal. And sometimes we're robbed of fellowship because we have that thought in our minds. And I believe that hospitality is an invitation to come into the house to enjoy fellowship together.
And some of the sweetest times that I've enjoyed is for an old sister that wants to prepare but she can't. But she wants a visit, and you go in there and you can hardly get away for the happy time that you enjoy together. And so I believe, if we can be relieved of this, that we'll find that a meal is easier to get afterward when our hearts are filled with heavenly things where the Lord Jesus Christ.
I just wanted to interject that as we speak of hospitality, I wonder if this is speaking about Abraham. He seemed to understand who his guests were when they came to visit him in the 18th chapter of Genesis, but this says some unaware.
At this point, I feel there's an apology called for.
Due to a blunder of mine, I missed the last five minutes of this Reading meeting.
Which I felt wasn't a very nice ministry and wish I had not missed it, but I did.
I did, however, take a few notes.
And I'll try and give briefly the gist of what was brought forth.
And we're speaking on Hebrews 13 four.
Which is kind of a delicate subject for a public meeting, but I really appreciated the way.
They spoke of it.
It was wholesome and yet firm and kind.
They compared the intimate relationship of marriage with fire and water.
Both are very useful in their proper place.
The fire We heat our homes.
And there's many other useful purposes.
Water, likewise water is used to generate electricity in many cases.
And it's nice to have in our faucets.
But when those two elements that out of control.
All right, about to act outside of their proper bones.
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Destruction comes in.
I compare that with the intimate relationship of marriage.
When there is transgression in this matter.
The Shall I tell you the bad reputation?
The.
Sticks with the person.
To some extent, all their lives.
That's very sad.
I think that is about the gist of what was said, but I can't begin to.
Give the feeling in which it was said.
It was very helpful and.
Awesome. And I feel that so very needful thing in this being which we live.
I trust that we'll make up a little bit for what we missed.
Hebrews 13:7
Reading
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10303.
Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Look to the Lord.
Hebrews 13 What verse would be good to commence with?
Verse 8 Hebrews 13 Beginning with verse 8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today, and forever be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines, or is a good thing that the heart be established with grace.
Not with meats which have not profited them.
That have been occupied therein we have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat, which serves the Tabernacle for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high Priest through sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach.
00:05:05
We're here. We have no continuing city, but we seek one to come by him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks unto his hands. But to do good and to communicate, forget not, or with such sacrifice, as God is well pleased. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief, or that is unprofitable.
Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly. But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner now the God of peace that brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ.
Who won't be glory forever and ever?
Amen. And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation. For I have written a letter unto you on a few in few words, knowing that our brother Timothy is said of liberty, with whom, if he comes shortly, I will see you salute all them that have the rule over you, And all the same they have Italy salute you. Grace be with you all. Amen.
To this book of Hebrews.
That's the name of it.
Well, who were the Hebrews?
Paul says in Philippians that he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
Back in Romans Chapter 9, he identifies the Israelites.
As that people through whom Christ came. Let's look at that verse in Romans Chapter 9.
And the love, the affection of Paul for his fellow countrymen.
Now Paul was raised up to be the apostle to the Gentiles.
But he was in Hebrew of the Hebrews and the Pharisees. The Pharisees and the Hebrews and the Pharisees had had great things given to them that the Gentiles had not had.
In the old economy.
The book of Hebrews is.
Goes back to that and teaching upon the Old Testament, and in particular the.
Tabernacle but in Romans 9.
He says in verse three. I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen. According to the flesh, you are Israelites.
To whom pertain to the adoption and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law and the service of God.
And the promises.
Whose are the fathers? Now look what it says, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came. Who is overall God? Read it that way. Christ is over all. God bless it forever.
So our book of Hebrews begins with God. Jesus is God.
And the full revelation of God comes out in the New Testament. But the blessing was very great for the Israelites and the Jews.
Before that, when Paul was perhaps the top man.
And concerning zeal, persecuting the church.
He could write, He could say, I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day, persecuting Christian.
And his conscience didn't bother him till he met the Lord. Well, that changed everything for him.
Now this book was written about 63, is that about right you think?
Yeah.
00:10:00
About 63. Well, I think it helps you find out when it was written and to whom it was written.
And see the circumstances that they have in that day.
Oh, persecuted the church, but.
Let's look in first Thessalonians to get a relationship.
Between the suffering Saints of the Gentiles.
And the suffering Saints of the Hebrews in First Thessalonians.
We enter in just a little bit and to these feelings of the opposition of the world around us when we live godly in Christ Jesus.
1St Thessalonians 2 Verse 14 He brethren.
Became followers of the churches of God.
The churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus.
Well, certainly the Hebrews.
The epistle must have gone to Judea, perhaps Jerusalem, but it's addressed to Hebrews going on reading here.
For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen.
Even as they have of the Jews.
That is, they suffered over in vessel Anaika like they did in Judea of opposition against crazy and what had been introduced of the better things.
And it was written to those in Judea.
Who embraced Christianity?
They had all those things that were an advantage to them under the law.
And then they got the light of Christianity, and they embraced it.
And they were in danger of pulling away. Just notice in our book Hebrews Chapter 6.
What was given to them in Christianity, as well as all that they had before that?
And this is where we get the warning that comes down to today. It's the warning about falling away from what has been committed to us.
We will start reading in verse four to make it a little bit brief.
It is.
64 Hebrews.
It is impossible for those.
Who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away. Now that's giving up and the epistles written to us for that purpose. At the end of the age we're coming up to that. That is those Jews in in the year 63 who received this.
And had embraced Christianity. They could not.
At that time, give up what they'd learned of Christ and of the particulars of the Holy Ghost, and go back to their old religion, which was God-given to even though the temple was still standing.
It was impossible. That was apostasy that was giving up.
So much of what is written in this book is for us not to give up.
The whole path that which is committed to us.
We never were exposed to the Chapel and the old.
Testament religion given of God As for us to keep.
As Gentiles it was never given to us, but these Jews at that time had had that.
Wonderful favor of being Hebrews, even Paul was.
But he got light from heaven.
And it turned them around completely.
And God had selected him to write to the Gentiles and to go to the Gentiles, and he did that. But his love for the for the Jews was still there. So I believe that God in grace.
00:15:14
As we tried to point out on Saturday.
Used the Apostle Paul without naming him.
Except through Peter as the writer of this book.
What a favor that was. He loved those people so much.
Then if we go to the 10th chapter to pass on to another example of the Jews at that time they suffered from their countrymen, and they took joyfully to the spoiling of their goods in chapter 10.
But there is the danger of apostasy still.
And in the 10th chapter we will begin reading in verse 26.
If we.
Sin willfully. After that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. That was especially to those Hebrews who had embraced Christianity.
And then there was a danger of the willful sin the will get again.
And going back to what they like better under the law and there was number more sacrifice for sins. That is Christ came when that's so beautiful. Yesterday he completed the work. I think what I read in Genesis 24 is not generally noticed.
Abraham told that servant, beware that thou bring not my son hit her again in Genesis.
22 in the tight the son had died.
And in Genesis 23.
Sarah had died.
That's typical of the Jews set aside.
And that's what happened.
When the Jews crucified the Lord Jesus, they were set aside as a nation, as a government in the earth. They were set aside earlier than that. But then Christ came and he was presented to them, and they rejected him. They sold their Messiah. That's the 12Th chapter of this book of Hebrews.
They sold him for 30 pieces of silver.
They could have had their Messiah.
He came unto his own the Jews, and his own received him not then we get the general state, but as many as received him them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So we're in the new economy, Christianity, and it's given to us and.
The type goes on, and I must hasten on to get to the things that we have here.
To our age.
Christened them.
Has had so in it.
The Bad Seed, The Kingdom of Heaven, Christmas.
Has had the bad seed sown in it on top of the good seeds, and the bad seed has grown up.
And has become a great secular thing in the world, and it's filled with internal corruption.
So that.
Our time is parallel a little to when these Hebrews.
Lived, and the temple was still there and set aside by God, and heard for them to catch a hold of that. So God was merciful to them, and there was a time of reformation. I referred to the.
Those who are born.
Under the law had grown up in the God-given religion.
And then Christ had come.
And he had been rejected.
And then he had Christ had finished the work, and he'd gone up on high and set down the Holy Spirit to begin the new thing.
00:20:00
Today.
Christianity has gotten old and the.
Great House has gotten large and christened them, in which the church is formed.
Has the results of the bad seed along with the good.
Now that's another thing.
But.
We've come down, we're coming down now to the person who makes the place. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp.
Bearing his reproach. That's the central point of the teaching, I believe, in this book. The climax of the book of Hebrews is right here in the last chapter. God has given all this teaching to the Jews.
To help them to understand where they had been and where they now are in Christianity.
Now that's kind of like being born in America.
In the western world and having the.
Great mixture.
That men call the church and make churches out of it.
And have their own ideas as to worship.
But God has his own way of worship, and the way into the holiest of all is made manifest.
It was not made manifest while the first was standing.
But when this book was written to the Hebrews, they had the way into the holiest made known, so that in those chapters 6.
And ten we have an invitation.
Let us.
Come forward under the Throne of Grace.
To find help in time of need. Now that's an invitation to come into the presence of the Lord.
Preach from our sin to ask what we want as we did this morning.
Then.
In the 10th chapter, we're invited to drawn here in the full shirts of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
That's for praise and worship.
So the ways opened up, but now this last chapter I really think we're getting.
Into that place, the person is the place.
And justice as there was a warning to those who had embraced of the Jews, Christianity, the 6th chapter, not to fall away, that's apostasy. Not to commit the willful sin, that's the same thing. So there is today a danger of giving up. That's what falling away is giving up late, once known.
All of us here.
Have experienced seeing that?
Dear brother, giving up what was once known, let's look at the third chapter of Hebrews to get the warning for us about that.
The 12Th verse.
I'm speaking to ourselves as a brother.
The word is that. Take heed, brethren.
Don't give up. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.
Brethren have had the light of the truth of the Gathering Center.
Since 1827 about.
The Lord in the midst.
Where the two or three are gathered to his name.
It has been a most wonderful place to have the light of the truth fully developed.
And in our generation and our time, there seems to be a definite effort.
00:25:04
To break that up, now I know that God will keep it.
What keeps it? Faith. Believe God.
And so in this book of Hebrews, there is a great contrast between faith and unbelief. I'd just like to point you out. Then I'd like to hear somebody else say something to the 12Th chapter again as to where faith brings us today.
There are eight things that faith brings us to today.
And we're in danger of letting them slip, giving, giving them up, not listening to the Lord, speaking from heaven. And the better things I enjoyed so much what was brought out about the good. So I thought, brethren, we've got, the better we've got, the better the heavenly thing. So that in the 12Th chapter of this book.
It tells us what we are come to in faith, I believe, beginning with verse 22.
Ye are come unto Mount Sinai. That's grace. That's grace. That's grace. We're come to grace.
And under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly. That's the second thing we're coming to. We're come to grace, to Zion, and we're come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
And to an innumerable company of angels to the General Assembly, that's the third thing. Faith brings us right to these things.
And.
The second clause of verse 23 Church of the first born, which are written in heaven.
There's the true church, everyone whose name is written in heaven. We are come to that. What a wonderful thing this is.
And to go up the judge of all or come to God. The book starts with God.
Faith brings us to God.
When we're met together and the Lord Jesus is there, we have God, we have God, He is God whoever come to God the judge of all and.
In the spirits of just men made perfect.
They're ugly. They're ugly. There are others who come to them.
And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, that's the better covenant that this talks about. We come to that.
Still more.
And I think it's so remarkable the last one and.
To the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things and that available, that's the last thing, because that precious blood is the foundation of everything we've got. Now we're come to that. Let's don't give it up. Let's hang on to the truth, what faith has for us, which is eternal.
And not be turned aside by arguments and reasonings.
What would say you? People think they're better than anybody else. You think you're the only one that's got the Lord?
Well, where is the Lord?
Is Christ divided?
That question in First Corinthians chapter one is.
Full of me.
I'll give you another question that's raised in First Corinthians that we must rejoice in and hold on to in the 10th chapter because it expresses.
The fact that Christ is not divided and that there is an expression to that fact.
And nobody can bust this up.
God maintains it. First Corinthians 10.
And verse.
00:30:01
21.
He cannot drink.
The cup of the Lord.
And the cup of devil he cannot be partaker of the Lord's table there let's singular.
The Lord's Table. There is one Lord's table where the Lord is present and at the table of demons.
Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Now this is the other question. Are we stronger than He?
Are we stronger than He? Is Christ divided? No, He can't be. There is a place, and we're called to go forth to Him without the camp bearing his reproach.
I was thinking as you were speaking as Paul.
Better thing. And so he's going into the sheepfold and he's leading his sheep out. That's the Hebrews.
So he's convincing them in Hebrews that it's better things than Christianity than they had in Judaism. They had someone composed of, and that's what all of our hearts want. There was a temple and there were law and ordinances that distinguished them from all the people around about them. And now in Christianity, he bled them out. He's leading them out and showing them that in Christianity we have better things and sold it. You were thinking a little bit about that, but see.
The scripture said, no man having faith in the old wines, straightway desire of the new, the new. There was something. There was an old wine connected with Judaism. There was a temple.
You can take people to something. You can point them to the most beautiful building on earth. There was ordinance that there were priestly garments. There was an order of service that had something to please man in nature that he could point to, that he could boast. And that was above the heathen religions in which most of our ancestors were engaged. It was a beautiful thing.
But now in Christianity, we have Christ and Christ alone. They didn't have the temple anymore. They didn't have the ordinances. They didn't have all of these things. How Christianity has become a debate thing, and it's not really exactly a return to Judaism. But the camp has built up a system where there's something for man in nature. So they built churches with swimming pools and gymnasiums and all kinds of things for the natural land. But what he showed us in Hebrews is that he's LED us out to something far better and asked Christ.
And I believe in our chapter he lays the foundation for it, and the foundation. He goes right back to the very beginning, the marriage, and then to our conduct with respect to things in this world, covetousness. And then he speaks of the the ones that have gone before, that have walked in the pathway of faith to show that no God has LED us out into something bitter, that God's moral ways and God's moral principles don't change. And so all of Christianity raised rest on the foundation of marriage.
It rests on my conduct with money.
And my conduct in this world and then we're to observe those that have been our leaders so to speak, we passed over that verse that have spoken the word and we can look back at the conduct of those who have gone before with respect to these things and we can see the goal. God has let us out. And though we weren't Hebrews, but it let us out of that system where there was something for man in nature that he is really his moral ways in connection with nature haven't changed and they're very important.
And so I believe that that's why we have the first verse that we have here, Jesus Christ, sustained yesterday, today and forever, that God's moral ways in connection with these things don't change. So he's going to lead us out of the camp. He's going to lead us to Christ. As you've been pointing out to the true gathering center unto him till the gathering of the people be. It's not a physical place, it's not a temple. And Judaism, there was a place, there was a physical place where they could go.
They could find it whether they had any divine life or not. All they needed was a man. But now we have a place and it's Christ. And so he's leading us to this, the most wonderful way that you can see how all the Lord desires to lead his people out. And so as you pointed out, there's a time of reformation. And so now from heaven, he's got all the complete the work that he started in the gospel of leading his people out of the fold of Judaism and into the blessings of Christianity.
I think it's so good to.
Verse 13.
Unto him without the camp. Sometimes we emphasize without the camp, and that's important. But the attraction brethren is his glorious person, and that's what set before us so vividly in the whole epistle of Hebrews, right from the very start of the book, the first chapter, the glories of the person of the Lord Jesus.
00:35:18
Are presented in our hearts are to be attracted to him. So many people think that Christianity is another worldly religion like Judaism was. The idea I find amongst Christians so often today is that Christianity is an extension of Judaism. It really is not that. It's really a certain way because it's the opposite of Judaism.
Judaism was something that focused on man in the flesh. Christianity focuses on our God, and that's the way this book starts. It's his glorious person, that Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the attraction when he presented himself to this people that were specially privileged under the Judaistic religion that was God-given.
There was number place in that religion for Jesus. They took him outside of that camp, that religious Judaistic camp where there was everything for men in the flat, and they nailed him to a cry outside of that city. Now is there going to be a place for me in that religious system of things that I can enjoy?
Not when they refused and rejected my Savior. He's outside, and my place necessarily is to go out to him. But I think it's so important for young people, for all of us. Brethren, what is the attraction to this place of gathering? It's not we, brethren. We don't compose the place. What composes the place?
It's the person.
Glorious person of God's beloved Son. And so in this epistle we have almost. It's interesting to look through the epistle. Almost more time is devoted to the glories of His person than even as to His work, His work is is brought out as well. You cannot divorce that from His person, but you don't get His work taken up in so much detail as until you get to.
Chapters 9 and 10.
It's this person that is the attraction and I think that's so important for our days, brother, and it's not a system of religion.
You lookout and young people sometimes see great movements in Christian circles and they say, what is this?
Brethren, it's not great movements. It's not people that should attract this. It's the glorious person of God's beloved son. That's Christianity. Christianity is really looking at it in the book of Hebrews is not a religion.
Christianity as a person, the person of God's beloved Son, and were called unto him in the Old Testament. When there was idolatry in the camp, Moses took the Tabernacle and pitched it outside the camp.
Far off from the camp and it says all those that sought the Lord.
Doesn't say they sought people.
They thought the Lord went out to seek him, where the Tabernacle was pitched outside the camp.
I think that's so important to keep that focus before us in the verses before, in our chapter 13, in verses 9 and 10, it mentions things that are connected with that Judaistic system of religion. And I think we have to recognize brethren because it was a religion for men in the flesh. There are things in that system that attract.
Our hearts naturally speaking.
Music is one thing that really attracts our hearts. Naturally speaking. Why don't we have a piano in our worship? Why don't we use instrumental music? It's attractive, but brethren, it's not. What's to attract us now? What's to attract us now is God's glorious.
00:40:12
Son is the Lord Jesus. That's the attraction point and I think that's so important to get a hold of.
Not meat that we have in verse nine. It's not an altar that we have in verse 10. It's interesting that in many Christian circles they actually have in the front of their what they call a sanctuary and altered.
But if you serve the Tabernacle, there is an altar that you have no right to eat, because to go back to those Judaistic principles is to deny Christianity and all that has been done.
By the Lord Jesus in his work of redemption, it denies the whole thing and so one is a contradiction of another. They they're not compatible. Judaism, Judaism and Christianity are not compatible.
And you use the word movements and idolatry and sex and Christianity are what idolatry was in Judaism.
I'd just like to explain what I believe that statement means. Idolatry is that man forms an image of God that is suitable to himself. He may even take an attribute of God and make of it out of Woodard stone, something that he can worship. But it is God according to his own imagination, or an attribute of God that he takes and he worships. They made a golden calf. And in Judaism and Christianity, what has man done to show you the seriousness of sex and division?
Taken a part of the truth, heresy means to choose. And if, as you have right before, it is, Christ is our object, and I have no choice to make, it's the whole truth of God. It's the first name of Christ to whom I go. It's not to a part of the truth, but it's to Christ. And so sex and divisions of common people have been carried away with things because they've been occupied with parts of truth of Christianity, things that may be true but have taken their hearts away from the Lord.
And so now in Christianity our hearts have been drawn out to the Lord and sex against. To repeat what her brother said, sex is to Christianity what idolatry was to Judaism. It's just fabricating a view of form of worship that is suitable to man according to his own appetites and desires. And so he mourns us about this in this verse, not to be carried away with divers and strange doctrines. I would like to just say something about me, because in Judaism they have strict rules according to what they ate.
But now in Christianity, our hearts are established by grace. So we take up the word of God. We take up the Old Testament. They had to eat fish and it had to have scales and fins. They couldn't eat an eel because an eel splithered along the bottom and didn't go, couldn't go against the current. And so now we don't take these things in a carnal way, a totally unregenerate man, to understand that he was doing this kind of fish and not to eat an eel. But under Christianity, we take up those scriptures and they provide life for our dwellings.
And we can use those scriptures, our hearts established by grace as our brother was saying, to act against evil flow of the world. And so all this instruction that God is beforehand given in his precious word now becomes light for our dwellings. Not a system of rules to distinguish us from others, but that we can take up and see in these pictures and images something that can help us embrace to oppose the evil current of the world. And so in everything in the Old Testament now we don't see rules and regulations, but we see Christ.
Now, something like that question then.
In connection with what Bob was saying too that.
If we turn to Exodus 33 and maybe it would be helpful to read some of these scriptures, don't ask the question why is it? Does God not work then outside of the assembly? Or do we not see works with God in in the gospel and so forth apart from the gathered Saints? Well indeed he does work and God is sovereign. And I believe we get a thought here in Exodus 33 verse 7.
We'll read from verse 7. Moses took the Tabernacle and pitched it without the camp a far off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass that everyone which thought the Lord went out under the Tabernacle of the congregation which was without the camp. And it came to pass when Moses went out under the Tabernacle, that all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door and looked after Moses until he was gone into the Tabernacle.
00:45:19
And it came to pass as Moses entered into the Tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the Tabernacle. And the Lord talked with Moses, and all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the Tabernacle door, and all the people rose up and worshipped every man in his tent door.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, face to face, as the man speaketh unto his friend, and he turns again into the camp. But his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tabernacle. Now I was my thought was that that Moses, as a type of Christ, to believe here, has a prerogative, shall we say, to go back into the camp. But Joshua did not. And as gathered to the Lord's name, we we are thankful that the Lord works with others.
And in his sovereignty and and blesses the word of others in the camp. But I believe as as Joshua we are like Joshua we have no right to go there just because he does so. And do we not get that little picture here, that as Moses went back into the camp the Lord blesses the gospel His word in other places. But I believe we have no right to go there ourselves because Thistle.
Because the Lord is here, it's unto him and.
He is outside of that whole system as to a gathering center, but he does bless his word in other places. We can be thankful for that.
I believe it is often red.
Medical for.
That is not where we are to be.
I want the young people particularly to take peace. I've heard the thought of my attention a few years back.
You can be outside the camp.
You may not be onto him.
So be careful.
That you have a person.
God's son that you are attracted to.
They caused by brave and the day of her brother Dart that just as you know a priest and I think the separatists were in a sense outside the camp, they disallowed the the Church of England I believe is what Kirkstrae said. That was not enough. The point is.
We feel we separate ourselves from the systems of men and we're outside the camp, but they love it. We have been gathered to a church.
And we have to embrace the full title.
Not Jesus, not Christ, not God, the full Bible, all combined together in the Lord Jesus, right? If we do not own him as Lord and we're not gathered to him outside the man, we love it, remember? Because if we do not be gathered unto that person, I'll fight the camp where in trouble.
That's a very important point.
I remember an incident at home where we met up with some folks that we knew.
And this man said, well, we too are. We've gone without the camp.
So dear brother Jacobson was with us at the time and he said you've left out a very important word.
And that word is unto him.
If it isn't unto him, we're just separating things from our for our own views. So the point as you brought out, I think is a very important one. And and who is this Jesus Christ? The same yesterday, today and forever. The one who was a divine Messiah was revealed, died on the cross for us. And his word is authorized in this book. And his person that is his humanity is brought out in this book. And here in the end of this book, we find Jesus Christ and He is the center, He is the one.
00:50:06
To be to be gathered.
Not just a group to separate from other things that they're not interested in, they would shepherd themselves. But the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is really the keynote, isn't it? There's another one.
Think about Brethren in connection with this verse 13 is that sometimes we might say, well, we're without the camp, and that certainly should be where we should be. But sometimes we allow principles of the camp, and I say, especially to our young people, to understand what are the principles of the camp. It's Judaism, Brethren.
And it's that Judaistic system of religion. In the Judaistic system of religion, there was one tribe that was chosen to do the service of God, the tribe of Levi. Of that one tribe, one family was allowed to go into the presence of God, the family of Aaron. And of that one family, one person could go into the very holiest of all.
Only once a year. That was the high priest Aaron when he was High Priest. But in Christianity we find that we are all free.
Brothers and sisters together are priests and sometimes.
As we were mentioning perhaps some yesterday, the tendency is when we come together.
To break bread, we sit back and we are not exercising our priestly service in the presence of the Lord Jesus. We kind of let others do all the priestly service. Is that not?
A tendency towards Judaistic principles. Are we not called out of that brother? I think we need to be exercised because.
As I say again, our hearts naturally tend to like those Judaistic principles. They are attractive to us in the flesh, and we need to be exercised about those principles. Young brother in the Lord, when you come together, do you sit down in the Lord's presence with the attitude, Lord, I'm here in your presence. I want to be a vessel ready for your use, if you want to use it. Or do we just say no, I'm not going to take any part.
Brothers up there, I'll do the taking part. Is there exercise about that?
Brethren, we need to be exercised about these points because they are part of what is that Judaistic system.
Music is a big thing and sometimes young people get attracted by music.
Nothing wrong with a little honey. In the Old Testament, we're told to take a little honey, but a little, it says. But brethren, that was not allowed in the sacrifices of God, never to be allowed in the sacrifices of God that honey. And so they were their Judaistic principles that are attractive to us in the flesh.
And if we allow music?
Worship. We are really mixing in Judaistic principles that are characteristic of the camp.
The Lord give us to be exercised about these things, not just merely to say the canvas out there.
But realize that our hearts have a tendency to be attracted to those same principles. The Lord give us to the exercise study.
I'd just like to point out that often we say, well, is the Lord not with others. I'd like to turn to loose chapter 24 just so we might understand it. Because she said low I'm with you. Oh, it's even on the end of the age. That is true of every style of God on the face of this earth and he's going to be with them. But I believe we see a distinction here in Luke chapter 24 and.
Verse 27.
They were going away from the place where the disciples met and where they were to wait for the descent of the Holy Ghost.
And so in Luke 24 we read in beginning its Moses and all the prophets who founded unto them, and all the scriptures, the things concerning themselves. And they knew nigh unto the village whether they went. And he made as though he would have gone further if they kept walking to China. He would have walked with them. He was with them, He ministered here. And God is not going to leave his own on his bed. I believe that's what you're referring to.
00:55:27
What it says but they constrain him, saying, abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went to carry with them, and it came to pass, as he said, and eat with them. He took bread and break it, and blessed it, and break it, and gave to them, and their eyes were open, and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight. They had to go back to Jerusalem to find a place where the Lord was in the midst.
He They perceived him, He manifested himself to them. But He would have gone on with them, and they never would have perceived it with the Lord.
And in connection with what Brother Bob would say is that we need to have our eyes on the Lord and I believe in latency. And we get a little picture of this where they're blind and they have everything there they were rich and increased with good. But the Lord said you're blind and what's full to my heart when I was in division was the verse that were true. And we are gathered together on the my name there are mine in the midst And I looked at latest he is there and he said, behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice.
I will come in and some with him.
The Lord was outside, I believe, the place where I was. And so Lord is with the individual and he will never forsake his own. But if we want to know the collective presence of the Lord, they're gathered together under my name because the Lord died that he might gather together in one time that are scattered abroad. He died for that. We don't treat sectarianism as a light and as a light frivolous thing.
Died that he might gather together in one. The children of God are scattered abroad.
Two things about this portion that my brother's been speaking about in the Luke's Gospel again when they were away from the center.
It says, Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures of things concerning himself.
But they were away from Jerusalem then, and as has been brought out, the Lord will never forsake his own. I will never forsake leave thee, nor forsake thee. So he's always with the individual. But what about the corporate testimony in the where he is in the center? Then we go back, and we go on over in that chapter. When they return to Jerusalem, the divine center at that time. Then notice verse 44. These are the words which I spake unto you.
While I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written.
In the law of Moses.
And in the prophets and in the Psalms, why the Psalm? You know, the Psalms bring before us the feelings of Christ.
Read through the book of the Psalms and we find how he felt the sorrow that was felt by that blessed savior. And I think it's very important to see when we're in the right place. We know what the feelings of Christ are. We know what his heart desires of us. And so being away, yes the false the the Moses and the prophets that they have that but do they know how it how the Lord Jesus feels.
His soul exceeds.
Unto death. Do they know all this? No. We find this in the book of the Psalms. And it was back there at Jerusalem that it's recorded Moses, the prophets and the Psalms concerning me, the reason that.
That trolls turn away from the truth, I believe.
As has been mentioned, we've seen it ourselves of late and we're saddened by it. But the reason I believe is because their hearts have not really the first of Christ is not really been an attraction to their heart and and so they turn. He is not, He is not satisfied their souls, they're looking at other things and I believe if we ever get that feeling in our own soul.
01:00:04
It's a dangerous thing because if we don't judge that first thing, you know, we're going to be dissatisfied with that little assembly where we are. And it's because we're not looking at Christ in the midst. We're looking at those about us and we're looking at the weakness of things and so on.
And so how do we, how do we overcome that? Well, we first of all go through the word, and then I believe we need to look at at the the whole picture through the eyes of Christ, what is, what is precious to him. Are we looking at this whole picture through his eyes or through the eyes of man? And I believe if we do that honestly, brother, we will, we will get that remedy very quickly.
Because he is there in the midst and and that's where he will stay. And he doesn't accommodate himself to our desires and to the imagination of the man and say, well, here's a nice group and I, they're bigger and I I believe that's where I will have put my presence. But no, we go to Hiandra. We don't gather together and then he comes in our midst, but we go to him.
Story where a brother said Now if the Lord were to come back here.
To which group would he go?
Well, there was silence for a minute and then another brother said he wouldn't go anywhere, brother. We'd go to him. And I believe that's the truth.
Don't know that.
Is in a beautiful example. Is in John 6.
And the feelings of Christ come out there, and the direction to whom to go is in John 6.
He had been teaching them that he was the bread of life, and things were hard for them to to accept those Jews at that time. And so in verse 66 of John 6 from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
What were the feelings of Christ about that?
Well, you can imagine him looking at the 12 verse 67 and saying, Will ye also go away? Simon Peter has the right answer this time he said, Lord, to whom shall we go? It's a person. Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe in our sure that there aren't that Christ, the Son of the living God. To whom shall we go with the person to be attracted to that person?
And they know his feelings about it. Are we going to foster time of this epistle to the Hebrews Was written that they might not turn away in unbelievable, that they might not fall away, that there might not be the willful sin of the flesh going its way. But subjection to Christ and the way into the holiest of all is made known in the Scripture that's made known especially in this book of Hebrews.
Now that they can do here in.
Having.
Just pick up the verse here.
Yes, verse 13.
Therefore, let us therefore.
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp.
What's the next part of that verse bearing his reproach?
It's a reproach, the reproach of Christ, isn't it? When I mentioned when someone says, well, where do you go to church?
In that term, well, I'm a Christian gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Never heard that before.
Oh, you never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ before?
It's a strange thing how what Christendom has done, they've robbed us of that. So by our confessing his name, there's a reproach connected with that, and that's blue. It's been always beautiful to me to think of it in that way, that if I'm gathered to his name, I want to let them know to whose name I'm gathered. I want to let them know.
That it's the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is where and then you'll get, you'll find, there'll be reproach. There's reproach connected with that name.
01:05:10
And visible to the eye, the temple, the beautiful adornings of the temple, the priesthood, the robes that the priest wore, the beautiful music. It was all outward and visible.
They can point to a specific city, Jerusalem. There's our center of worship. They can point to a building. And that is important for us to understand that there is nothing in Christianity that is visible to the human eye. There is nothing to attract it that we can see with the material eye. We have the eye of faith, of course, that it's nothing visible. And if it is something visible, brethren.
If it is the group of brethren that we have our eyes on.
Brethren, let's be careful. We're going to be tested. As has already been said, if it's something else that attracts us there, that is not the person of Christ. That is what is not characteristic of Christianity. That was what was characteristic of Judaism. And we're called out of that to be attracted to one whom we cannot see with our physical eyes.
How do you know that Jesus is here with you? How do you know that he's present? We can only point to the scriptures only by faith. We have these things that are talked about in this epistle. I think that's so important. It says in verse 14 we have no continuing city. We seek one to come. That was mentioned in Hebrews 12. That city that we.
Have arrived at in Christianity, that city that is to come, but we don't have anything we can point to in an outward way, and in that way it is a reproach, like you said.
But the disciples didn't say where is the place. They said where do all themselves because he makes the place very, very I'd like to have is there a person says.
If he be reproached for the name of Christ happy, are ye for the spirit of glory of God resteth upon you? Right. There's a policy side of that reproof. And could we suggest that what is visible, what should be visible, is what we get in the latter part of this chapter.
It says in verse 15 by him we go forth unto him.
But then it says by him, And if there is nothing visible in a natural way, could we say to our own hearts there ought to be something visible in a spiritual way?
Brother Ron Clawson, would you quote that part of verse 9 again that you quoted in Jay and Darby's translation? I enjoyed it.
Concerning great.
The heartbeat confirmed with grace.
Isn't that beautiful? Converted with grace and unto him? Well, if that is true, what will the result be?
An older brother among us used to make this remark. It meant much to my own soul, he said. There ought to be enough power in every local assembly to attract every true Christian in the area.
Order, rebuke, and So what we have here in the latter part of the chapter, our time is gone. But I believe what we have here is what ought to be visible. The praise in verse 15.
They're doing good and communicating in verse 16 the obedience in verse 17.
The prayer in verse 18.
And so on the making.
Of us perfect and every good work to do His will working in you, that which is well pleasing in his sight. There's a need in the day in which we live to witness against, isn't there? And increasingly so much so, very much so. But as our brethren have been bringing out, never, never let what we witness against assumed such proportions that it eclipses what we witnessed. For because that is the attractive power to where the Lord is in the midst, isn't it?
01:10:25
Outside the camp.
And they're both in verse 11.
There is Body and Blood in chapter 10 and verse 19.
We enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. As another said, when we're inside the veil, we're outside the camp.
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.
So when we're inside the veil, we're outside the camp, and it's the flood it was brought there. But the position of the body in this chapter, verse 12, is to sanctify the people, and it's outside that camp.
What a person.
Has wrought in our hearts that we might find him everything.
Let all the rest drop off. He is worthy.
Nothing but Christ as only threads the gift on Christ cause living bread.
Staff in hand and feet well shot, nothing but Christ, the Christ of God.
Nothing but Christ.
13th chapter of Hebrews.
13th verse. It has 13 words in it and him is the middle of the verse.
And to have the wonderful privilege of sitting in His presence without rank and file.
To realize that Christ is the glory of God.
Open Mtg.
Open—M. Conley, L. Ludvicek, B. Prost
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OK.
If we look at Psalm 45 for just.
Just a minute.
Well, that's where we'll start.
Psalm 45, verse one.
My heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of the things which I have made touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
Thou art fairer than the children of men.
What I have on my heart.
This afternoon.
Turn to.
1St Corinthians 13.
I did not start this Christian life.
By the will of the flesh.
By any strength of mine own, I don't have any strength for this battle. We're all in a battle. This life is a battle.
As I've said many times, I don't like it here. I don't like this world.
00:05:00
But God has his purposes in it.
The Lord Jesus is going to be glorified in this world.
And it is a work of grace. It is a work of grace in the hearts of his people.
The Lord loves a cheerful giver.
He does.
But a wonderful thing to be a cheerful giver.
The Lord Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the light.
God wants us to deal with facts.
To truth. He wants us to deal in the truth, because the truth is the only thing that's going to set you free.
It's the truth.
He wants to. He wants.
And and and you shall know the truth.
And the truth shall make you free.
Says in First Corinth or it doesn't matter first or second.
Says you're not narrowed in me, the apostle Paul says. But you are narrowed in your own affections.
Our own ways bring us into *******.
It's the way we are. We bind, that's the way we are.
The Son therefore shall make you free. You shall be free indeed.
There it is. I am calm that they sometimes I say verses and I change the words.
I'm not saying I changed the words to the first inviting, I change it just to make obvious what the Lord is saying. But I have to be very careful.
I want life.
That's what I want. I want life. I want it abundantly.
He promises it.
My life apart from Christ is a worthless thing.
God wants us to deal with the facts.
What does he say about my life?
He says it's a vapor.
I say, well, it's very important to me. God says it's a vapor. Who am I going to believe?
Say, God help me to see my life. It's a vapor.
Well, we don't have that naturally, but God can give it to us. He gives us wisdom in these things, to see things for what they really are.
Now the apostle Paul says, let's go there for justice a minute. Philippians 3.
Philippians 3.
The Apostle Paul. None of us, I think, are going to say that we're in competition with the Apostle Paul for religious zeal. I am certainly not.
Philippians 3.
Verse 7.
But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ.
Did the Apostle Paul bemoan his loss? No.
Why?
Because he saw things right.
Because he could see, he had vision. Look what it says. He doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the Excellency.
Of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dumb. That is the Apostle Paul's estimation of all the things that he lost.
Dawn, I said to a brother in between meetings, I said. I said, if if I called a big dump truck to come and out on this very nice lawn out here to dump a big load of dung out here, how much would you want in your trunk?
00:10:02
Well, he said none. Why? Because he could smell it. He'd know what it is.
It says in Hebrews. It says for those that have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
If we see things for what they really are, we will walk much differently.
But we're blind. It's the way we are. The Lord knows it's OK. You just come to him as you are. You're helpless.
The wonderful thing. But that song is so sweet to me. Just as I am without one plea. That's me. You come just like you are. You know you got problems.
You want the glory of this world as an attraction to you? Well, you can't do anything about it.
Who come to the Lord, say Lord Jesus, and you know Isaiah, Isaiah 58.
You come just as you are, and then you'll have no problems casting that crown down. It is feet.
Isaiah 58. Such a nice chapter.
It says.
Look at this verse 3.
No, well, let's read first one, cry aloud, Fear not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression in the House of Jacob, their sins. Yet they seek Me daily and delight to know My ways as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They asked of me the ordinance of justice. They take delight in approaching to God.
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou see us not? Wherefore have we afflicted our souls? And thou take us no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure.
And exact all your laborers. Behold you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. You shall not fast as you do this day.
To make your voice to be heard on high. It's such a fast.
Is it such a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bull rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? We'll call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord. Is not this the fact that I have chosen to lose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free?
Says, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
You know the Lord wants us to walk as free men. I want to be a freeman.
To walk with the Lord by choice to long to have his company to.
To share common thoughts with him, there is nothing sweeter.
You know, and I don't know, I know, you know, I feel like a child and my wife says I act like one, I think.
But that's OK, you know, I am what I am. It's a wonderful thing to me.
That God has accepted me.
And that's what.
Moves my heart towards him.
And causes me to desire to serve Him.
Because he's taken me just as I am.
Isaiah 58. Look at this, you know.
It's a wonderful thing, the term the fruit of the Spirit, to see that fruit coming.
And I I don't think that the tree, I know that trees.
They don't work hard, but they're in a good environment and they bring forth that fruit and it's so sweet.
But anyway, that's what it says. 7 verse seven, is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry? And that's I'll bring the poor that are cast out of thy house. Wait a minute, That are cast out to thy house, Okay. When thou seest the naked death, thou cover him.
00:15:09
And look at this last verse, the last part of this verse, and that's I'll hide not thyself from thine own flesh that is spoken to me much.
All things are naked and open to the eyes of whom we have.
The eyes of whom we have to do.
He knows everything about you. Everything. More than you know, More than you'd ever want to know.
And he still loves you. And that's amazing that you can have a love and this is the thing, you have a love you can depend on. Never going to fail.
Nothing that you have to hide from him and think if he knew this, he couldn't accept me.
You don't have to hide anything from the Lord Jesus because He knows it all. Does your heart good to tell Him.
So here we see these wonderful things in this last part of the verse. It says that they'll hide not thyself from thine own flesh.
What that speaks to me of is don't kid yourself.
Don't kid yourself what you really are.
It's not pretty. It's not pretty. It's not pretty what we are inside.
New creations in Christ the Apostle Paul as he went through his ministry.
He went from the least of the apostles to the chief of sinners. That's a downhill. He went downhill, but he went uphill too. He went uphill too.
Let's look at.
I have, I say it again, I have no strength for this Christian walk.
It's very normal to try and carry it on in the energy of the flesh. We got examples in the Word of God of men. Moses tried to carry on in the energy of the flesh. Failed.
Peter, what a nice example to us. Let's try to carry it on in the energy of the flesh. Failed. Well, you're not going to do any better.
There'll be no success.
But we have to learn. We have to learn the flesh. You know? You serve the Lord in whatever capacity you have, right where you're at.
God will reveal these things to you.
You just go with what you got. You come as you are and then.
And serve the Lord now What we are, we are.
And we need, we need to admit we have terrible blindness.
Terrible blindness.
Lord, help me to see see if I saw things. The clearer that I see things according to God's Word, the better I'm going to walk. And I don't mean that I see them up here.
But I mean as the Lord Jesus becomes more and more precious to my heart.
I see the world for what it is.
And I see the assembly more for what it is.
And my children, I see them for what they are, better and better all the time.
And you know what? You act differently then. Why? Because you see differently.
And that's what we need. We gotta see. We gotta see. And I don't mean just Bible knowledge.
But it says they took note of these men, that they had been with Jesus in him, or he had all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
You know, and I am not a great reader. I, I am too, Anthony.
So, you know, and I tell you, the library is not my favorite place. I don't think I've been there for so long unless they had nice pictures up or something.
I am not. I am not a reader.
I'm Anthony, just like my dad. He was antsy. I'm antsy. I like to move around, but what a wonderful thing when I move around, I can think, I can chew the cud and I can sing.
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And it's so precious to think on his love for me. It causes, it causes our hearts to expand because our hearts get very narrow.
My old brother was talking about those old people in the nursing home, you know.
You. You go on in your own strength and in your.
Your own thought.
You're going to end up in a real tight spot.
I don't want that tight spot.
Was the apostle Paul say right before that verse where it says you are narrowed in your own affections? The Apostle Paul says.
I am enlarged. You know, the apostle Paul, what is out of his belly was flowing rivers of living water, wasn't it? Was just gushing and splashing. He had a big heart. Well, I want a big heart, but I don't know. I can't make my heart big.
But God can, and that's that's what we need. We need God's operation.
On our heart, that here in Isaiah 58.
God, it's not for us to go out and start doing this, but it's to go to the Lord Jesus and say, Lord Jesus, you got to work on me. I need an overhaul. I need to be changed. I don't see very good I got. I'm willful. The world's glory is so attractive to me.
You spend time with the Lord Jesus, you think upon him, and you start to get wisdom. It says, what's a verse? I am wiser than all my teachers, for I observe thy testimonies. Something like that. I wouldn't suggest you go and tell your teacher that you just have that quiet to yourself.
That God gives wisdom.
It says he preserves the simple. He gives wisdom to the simple.
Okay.
First Corinthians, Let's just look here for a minute.
Once I had this, once I had this plaque that someone gave to me and it was and it said on it. It said on it.
Love. Love is the sweetest thing.
That's not a scripture, as far as I know, but it certainly is the principle. It certainly is a principle, isn't it? Love makes everything sweet.
If my if my dear wife did all the right things and didn't love me.
You know, we went camping the other last week, my son and I, we went camping. We were gone for six days. And you know what? I wouldn't have been in any hurry to get home if my wife didn't love me. I don't let you know what, I was really ready to get home. I really wanted to go home and see them.
But if I had a wife that did everything perfectly, maybe I should state that differently.
But I mean, if she did everything perfectly, I mean, it's really close right now. Really close.
But.
But she didn't love me.
It wouldn't be very sweet, would it?
You know, you know.
And that's what the Lord Jesus desires is.
Is our affections.
Because when the heart, when the heart is just so attracted, that's why Eve. That's why Eve went into spin.
Because when Satan spoke badly about God.
Saying to Eve, you know he's keeping something from you that would be really good for you. He believes that lie.
If Eve's heart would have been close to the heart of the Lord, she would have said no way. That's not what God's like. He wants everything good for me.
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When she doubted God's love to her fell off into sin, her heart was not in a good place.
Well, First Corinthians 13 verse one, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels.
And have not loved I am become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. I don't want to be that. I don't want to be a tinkling symbol, I don't want to be that. I have great tendencies to move in that direction, but I don't want to go that way.
Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, this guy is really smart. Not me though, I'm not like that.
But that's OK. Some are Apostle Paul. Very bright. Very bright man.
Well, that's not me, but that's OK. God can use me. He's designed me. He could have made me a lot smarter, but he's designed me for a purpose. He's designed you for a purpose. What a wonderful thing not to say. Don't say to yourself. Don't say. Why am I like this?
God's made you like you are for a reason. You shine you you, you can shine a little piece of Him.
A little facet of the Lord Jesus can shine in your life. We all, we all have a little fact that of the Lord Jesus to shine, it's, it's the body, right? The one body. What a wonderful thing to see a body operate in a coordinated fashion, you know.
So anyway, God has made you the way you are for a reason.
Don't question his handiwork.
Just trust him, arrested him, and use what he's given you. But first at the heart. What's most important is that the heart is attached if the heart's not attached.
Then nothing's going to be right.
And it's not going to be worth anything.
That's what it says here to me, verse two. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge.
And though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing. And and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor. And though I give my body to be burned.
And have not love it profits me nothing.
Well, love is the sweetest thing. Without it, it just ain't worth going on.
Wonderful thing we have that resource of love in the Lord Jesus.
Never to look at ourselves and try and find it because it just ain't there. But we have a nature, a new nature. Those that know the Lord is their savior that can respond to His love.
And bring forth really wonderful things.
Lovely things.
I'd like to turn to 1St John chapter 4.
In verse 19.
It says we love him because he first loved us.
Or we could say we love because he first loved us.
I would like to tell a story.
That you know, we like to see a young bride. I was, we was recently at a wedding and you like to see a a young bride and groom and the smiles they have for each other and the love they have for each other. Well, it was approximately 6 weeks after a young couple like that had gotten married and the bride.
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She wanted to say something to me apart from everybody else, where nobody could hear.
She wanted to say, I don't know if I should be telling you this, but I don't love my husband.
And before you could see that they were a bright couple, they had, they had. She had had a smile on her face, and now it had gone away.
And.
Began to talk to her. I said well, the object of.
The object of your own heart and wondering how much you have love for your husband is the wrong object.
You shouldn't be looking at yourself, you should be looking at your husband's love for you.
And that's all I told her, you know, And I was really concerned. I prayed about it. And you know what I saw the next time I saw him? They were smiling, they were holding hands. And her whole focus had changed again. And isn't that?
Much like us, if we begin to wonder how much love we have for the Lord Jesus and our focus turns in on ourselves and we look at our own heart, we may not see any love there at all.
But, and if we look at the Lord Jesus and we see His love for us, what does that do? If we have the focus on the one who loved us and gave himself for us, what does that do to our heart?
I was thinking.
In the.
Some of the verses that Mike mentioned and I was thinking in John eight, he made reference to their the Gospel of John.
And.
Verse 31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him.
If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed?
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
And they answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in ******* to any man.
Well, brother Mike was talking about.
That there are things that we get in narrow ways, we do get in ******* there are things that.
Our hearts can be filled with that cause ******* but the Lord Jesus says, and ye shall know the truth.
And the truth shall make you free in Colossians chapter 3.
And verse 4/4.
It is the part the phrase I wanted was When Christ, who is our life, shall our shall appear.
Then shall we also appear with Him in glory? But the part I wanted to focus on.
As Christ, who is our life.
We have the very life and the very nature of Christ.
We have been given everything that pertains unto life and godliness.
And as I look around.
And I see different ones in this room.
And sometimes someone you might see, someone you might have concern for.
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If they have the life of Christ and they have the Spirit of God dwelling within.
And Mike was talking about he receives this just the way we are as sinners.
And another thing Mike likes to say, and I've heard him say before, he receives us just the way we are, but he loves us too much to leave us that way. And he begins to work in our hearts and our souls and.
Knowing the truth.
And the truth having delivering power, we begin to.
Be changed, as we had before us in another meeting. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And as that begins to take place, things are changed.
And I would like to talk a little bit about the mind.
And we could say, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
But I think about our minds and what we allow as we got in Philippians chapter 4.
And maybe I could read that there.
It says in Philippians 4/8.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, what sort of things are pure? Whatsoever things are lovely, what sort of things are good? Report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.
There are things to fill our minds with. They are good things. There are things in this world that would seek to cause us to conform to this world and not to be transformed or not to have liberty to serve the Lord Jesus. There are influences all around us that would influence US1 way or another.
In Proverbs chapter 23.
And.
For seven.
It says.
4S and four.
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.
Now, being a parent and having children, we often see the. So is he.
And there's so easy. That's just the behavior.
But there's a route. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
There's something behind the behavior. There's something behind your behavior. There's something behind my behavior.
It wasn't that long ago.
I was talking to a lady who had an unfaithful husband.
And her husband? They're both professing Christians.
We've had in Hebrews that in marriage in Hebrews 13.
That in marriage the bed is undefiled.
And we had.
The proper bounds of which God has given.
And this husband was telling his wife.
He said. I thought it wouldn't matter.
He said. I fantasized and had bad thoughts and I just didn't think it would matter and soon.
His behavior became what his thoughts were.
You know what a tragedy.
Where are your thoughts?
Do you know that you are responsible?
To keep your minds pure, Do you know that you cannot have coinciding good thoughts with bad thoughts? Do you know you need to know scripture, and that's why scripture memorization is so helpful? Do you know that you are in an enemy's land?
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Do you know that? Do you know you can never afford to, as it were, lay down in ease in this world?
Scripture needs to be before your mind when you wake up. Scripture needs to be before your mind when you go to sleep. Scripture needs to be before your mind because what will your mind be filled with if it is not?
What will your mind be filled with? If it is not? It won't be things that are true and lovely.
It won't be things that are right.
It needs to be.
Those things that are true and right.
And lovely.
As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
When my children there's a behavior, you might want to discipline the behavior, but then you might want to go and find out why is the behavior and saying what is he thinking?
And what are our thinking? You could call them thinking heirs, belief errors, or belief systems.
You think about we were reading about our state, struck by First Corinthians 13 and the love being the motive.
A Christian life is not what you would call a tactical life, that we do everything out of tactics.
If I do this, this will be the result. If I do that, that will be the result. It has to be the motive of love.
Love, the love of Christ, constraineth us. It needs to be the love of Christ.
The love of the Lord Jesus needs to be working in all our lives. I would like to go a little bit more in Matthew chapter.
Maybe I'll stop.
Chapter 5 Think.
This may regress a little bit, but I'm going to go on from here.
But it says in Matthew 528.
It's just to talk about thoughts.
But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
And again, that brings me to the seriousness of.
A case that I not too long ago.
A real tragedy.
And to say the world says it doesn't hurt what you think about, just what you do.
Well, thought is the beginning of the departure of anyone down any course.
In Matthew 16 and verse 16.
Her brother was mentioning something about this in between meetings.
How things were revealed here to Peter is what I'm getting at. Matthew 1616.
And Simon Peter answered and said, well, I best back up, it says.
Verse 13.
It's when the Lord Jesus is asking.
He asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, AM?
And they said, some say thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremias are one of the prophets.
He saith unto them, But whom do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered, and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Borjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.
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We can get things that are revealed to us in our thoughts from the Lord Jesus. For things that come to us that way. We did not originate it. It came from God. And that's what the Lord was telling Peter. You did not get this thought yourself, Peter. This came from the Lord.
And later on in the chapter.
In verse 21.
It says, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how he must go up to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things of the elders, and the chief priests and scribes, and be killed and raised again. The third day Ben Peter took him and began to rebuke him. Peters rebuking the Lord.
Saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee.
But he turned and said unto Peter, Gifty behind me, Satan, for thou art offense unto me, for thou savours not the things that be of God, those things that be of man.
As if the Lord would say, Peter, this thought you got this time was not of God, it was from the enemy. And that's what I want to say.
Is that your thoughts? You may not know where your thoughts will come from. Mr. Darby had a pamphlet written. It says Thoughts unbidden and unwanted.
And sometimes thoughts come and sometimes when a thought or a wrong thought comes, you are not responsible necessarily for the origination of it, but your dwelling on the thought or what you take up on meditation, you are responsible. That is your choice. If I tell you something wrongly, you can say no I'm not going to listen to that. And if you get a wrong thought you can say no I'm not going to listen to that.
But what you meditate on and what you dwell on?
What what you think on you are responsible for?
You are responsible and if you think.
If you meditate on the things as we have in the Psalms.
Is it psalms one day and night? What will it do? It will preserve you, it will keep you, it will keep your heart and mind. And if you are focused with the love of the Lord Jesus for you, what will it do in your life?
And there are things that are natural.
And there are some things that maybe you can't even talk about.
In a meeting like this that maybe is is for fathers and maybe we have in scripture that the older women are to teach the younger. We have that in scripture too. There would be some things that wouldn't be proper to talk, but there needs to be that care for the young people. There needs to be things that are said and care.
To tell them what is natural and and so they don't get mixed up between what is natural and what is the enemy. And so they don't get things all mixed up. Because Scripture says you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And the enemy is the father of lies and he seeks to deceive and to mix up people and get them going every which way. Helter skelter. But it's the word of God that we need to apply to every situation.
And it always isn't it to do what is.
When I was a young person.
You might say, is this right or is this wrong to do? Is this the black and white? It's not always that it's what's the wisest thing to do. And as we heard, I was a brother. Hey ho, he would talk.
And I think it was young people, we tend to do it more, but we can even do it as older people or as we get a little older. But the story of the man, I'll tell it once more. Many know it.
But there was a man wanting to hire a taxi and it was a horse drawn taxi and they were in the.
Was in a place where there was cliffs and he went around asking each one of the taxi drivers, he says. I want to hire the best taxi driver here. How close can you come to the edge without falling off?
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And each each one had a higher boast how close they could come to the edge.
In fact, one fellow said I could come this close to the edge. Would that be the taxi you'd want to ride with?
And then he came to another man and he said, how close could you come to the edge? He said why, I'd stay as far away from the edge as I could. He said you're hired.
I want to ask the young people in this room, how close can you come to the edge or how close do you want to come?
Are you trying to go, well, there's nothing wrong with this? Are you saying is this the wisest thing to do?
What is the motives of your heart?
Is it the love of the Lord Jesus? Is it the Lord Jesus constraining you?
Are you seeking the wisest path, or are you seeing how close you can come to the edge?
There's a lot of danger out there.
And you live in an enemy's land.
If you're going to live for the Lord Jesus.
You need the purpose in your heart to do something.
Need to be before the Lord in prayer. Have the word of God before you, focusing on His love for you and what He's done for you.
And the Lord can lead you, guide you, deliver you, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
And I have just three words on my heart.
Second Chronicles, I think it's chapter 35.
Second Chronicles, chapter 35.
And verse 20.
Just the 1St 3 words.
After.
All this.
We don't have time to consider the history of the passage that is found in reference to these 3 words, but they concern a man by the name of Josiah.
A man who lived in times that I would like to think correspond to the times morally in which we live.
There had been a partial revival under Josiah great grandfather Hezekiah.
But that had been followed by probably the most wicked rain, and one of the longest rains too in the history of Judah, the reign of a king by the name of Manasseh.
And that then again, followed by a relatively short rain of Josiah father.
And then this man comes to the throne at the tender age, as it tells us in the 34th chapter of eight years, 8 years old.
And his reign had been blessed by a remarkable series of things.
He felt the condition of things amongst the people of God.
They found the book of the Law in the temple.
We don't have time to read all this. You can read it.
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And he sent them to.
A woman by the name of Holder, the Prophetess.
And she gave him the most remarkable answer by the servants that he sent notice in the 34th chapter what she said. We won't read it all, but notice the 27th verse of the 34th chapter.
Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God.
When thou hearest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself before me, and didst rent thy clothes and weep before me, I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord.
Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace. Neither shall thine eye see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and upon the inhabitants of the same.
So they brought the king word together.
God didn't say I'm going to turn things around. God didn't say I'm going to take away the judgment against Israel, but he did say to Josiah, you're going to be taken away before it happens.
Could we say that that morally, in your day and mind, corresponds to the hope of the Lords coming?
Could we say that the Lord has given us the promise? Why? But was it in Josiah that particularly impressed the Lord? Oh, that he humbled himself, that he recognized the condition of things?
But he wept.
And simply said, Lord, here I am.
And holy gives through the mouth of his servants, And of course we know what was from the Lord that blessed promise.
And what is the result in Josiah's reign?
Did Josiah sit down and say, well, there's nothing to be done except just.
Wait until I'm taken off the scene.
Notice at the end of that same 34th chapter what happens.
The last verse.
Well, maybe read the 32nd verse.
Or the 3030 first, I'm sorry, 31St verse of the 34th chapter. And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes.
With all his heart and with all his soul to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.
And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it.
And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did, according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers.
Oh, he had a wide influence.
He had a wide influence.
Here he was the king only of those two tribes, the 10 tribes having long since separated themselves and corrupted themselves.
But you'll notice here that it says Jerusalem and Benjamin first of all in verse 32, and then the influence goes, it says all the countries, verse 33, that pertain to the children of Israel and all that were present not only in Judah and Benjamin, but also in Israel.
Oh, there was a wide influence.
Because of the faithfulness.
Because of the humbling of that man.
What else did he do? Notice the first verse of the 31St 5th chapter. We're over. Josiah kept a Passover under the Lord in Jerusalem. And notice what God says about it in verse 18.
And there was number Passover like that kept in Israel.
From the days of Samuel the Prophet.
Neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept.
And the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present.
And the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
All her blessed.
On the one hand, a covenant to follow the Lord with all their heart.
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And on the other hand, the keeping of that Passover, so precious to the heart of God, because it looked on to that day when that blessed One whom we remember this morning would be the true Passover.
Our brother read that verse this morning with desire. I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
And here God restored it all to that man, while at the same time very clearly telling him that the judgment wasn't going to be taken away.
But that he would be taken away before it came.
And then it says in verse 20.
After all this.
After all this.
Oh, I speak to my own heart more than any other.
Here we find that King so blessed, so signally blessed.
Coming to the throne in his youth and yet having a heart for the Lord.
Turning to the word of God with all his heart, seeing the wonderful blessing that God allowed, spreading outside the boundaries of his own nation, right out to the 10 tribes, and then it says all the countries.
I don't know what all they were, but it says that pertain to the children of Israel.
We know there were many countries over which kings like David and Solomon ruled.
That we're not, in actual fact, part of Israel.
After all this, what happens?
He goes out against the king of Egypt.
I appreciated what our brother Bob said this afternoon. That worldliness begins.
When I think highly of myself, and I don't want to read into this passage what isn't here, but it is often seemed to me that Josiah thought.
Who is this king of Egypt to be going to war as it says here?
In the 30 or in the 20th verse against car chemist by Euphrates, he was crossing right over that land. Those countries that way back, way back in the law, God had promised that land to Israel, but they never got at all because of their failure. Their boundary was the Jordan River on the eastern side.
Should he have?
Shall we say, And if things were proper, should he have been the one to be?
Running the show and looking after things, yes, things were out of place. Things were out of place.
And he wasn't content. He wasn't content.
With that wonderful influence that God had given them.
And he meddled in what didn't belong to him.
I've quoted this before.
To a few brothers privately.
Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to quote it publicly.
There are probably those here who can remember the words that were said.
They were said here in Des Moines over 40 years ago.
Was that a reading meeting? Not at a conference, I don't think. I think it was in the Buchanan St. Hall.
And a brother sounded a warning against Billy Graham, who was just getting off the ground, if I could say it at that time.
And preaching the gospel.
Very, very widely and a brother thank you to give a warning.
Against.
Some of the compromising that he was doing even at that early date.
Brother HE Hayhoe, who was sitting there.
Said something like this, He said, brother, I agree with that warning. I agree with that warning. But then he went on to say this and I think I am quoting it almost word for word.
He said, Brethren, my father used to tell me.
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But in the early days.
All the Gospels in the hands of the Brethren.
And he said when we began to fail.
It was then that God raised up preachers in the camp to reach the masses.
Now we said, brethren, don't be discouraged by that. Don't be depressed by it.
But remember that those men are where they are today.
Because of your failure in mind.
May I suggest that Josiah morally didn't recognize that he didn't recognize?
There had been failure.
But he no longer had the right militarily to go out and interfere in the way that perhaps his predecessor David might have done.
He no longer had the moral power. He no longer had the approval of God.
And when the king of Egypt, it's remarkable, the king of Egypt says here, what does he say?
At the end of verse 21, God commanded me to make haste for bear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, Oh my, with me, the king of Egypt, that country from which Israel had been delivered so many hundreds of years before, That country where God had showed his power and his glory against the Pharaoh at that time, God with him.
Yet it was so. Yet it was so.
And Josiah failed to recognize it. And as a result, he goes out, he interferes. No doubt he had a conscience. No doubt there was something there that said, Josiah, be careful.
Because like.
Ahab of old, he goes out to battle in disguise. He doesn't put on the normal accoutrements and so on that would have clearly identified who he was. He says I'm going to go out, but I'll go in disguise.
But all just as the arrow found its way between the joints of the harness of Ahab's armor.
So the arrow finds its way here to Jehoshaphat and is a relatively young man.
He dies.
Oh, I say to each one of us.
Things are not the way they should be today. Things are not the way they should be in the Christian world.
And it is not intelligent, I believe, for us to expect to turn back the clock.
But oh, how precious to think that what God gave to that godly king morally, he gives to those today who wish to be faithful to His Word.
And Josiah, if we could say it humbly, should have been content.
But there the word of God had gone out, that Passover was kept all. How wonderful. No such Passover since the days of Samuel Prophet. What? Is it possible that God looked upon that Passover with more joy and more favor than that which had occurred in the brightest days of David and Solomon?
Ah, yet it was so. Yet it was so.
But what a lamentation occurs.
Verse 25 and Jeremiah lamented for Josiah.
And all the singing men and the singing women speak of Josiah and their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel.
We didn't read the last clause of verse 24 and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
And what does it say at the end of that 25th verse? And behold, they are written in the Lamentations.
Did Jeremiah lament in the Book of Lamentations over the condition of Israel? Indeed he did. Did he lament against all about all that had happened to his beloved people? Indeed he did.
But reading this verse, if I may say, it has added a dimension to Lamentations that I at least had not noticed before.
Because I believe in reading through that book. The lamentation, perhaps.
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I don't want to say more than anything else, but it seems to be that this is directly connected with it.
Was the lamentation against that which had started out so brightly.
And ended so sadly, the lamentation about that which had showed such promise in those declining years of Israel's history.
The lamentation against that.
Which had been such a bright spot.
Amidst all of the rule, and because if you read.
The book of Jeremiah, you find out that even in those days of Josiah, the condition generally of the people had not changed. It was not that the whole nation had suddenly turned around, no.
But God had raised up one who must have been such a joy to that godly prophet Jeremiah to see him going from one thing to the next.
But he wasn't content. He wasn't content.
Now does that mean that we sit down on our oars and say yes, I'm content?
All mine know indeed, No, indeed. Oh, I believe if there is a sense in our souls of the solemnity in the days in which we live, it will energize us even more.
Energize us even more.
To serve the Lord, to praise the Lord as we've had brought before us to live for Him.
But to be content, to be content, to be that which God has given us to be. I don't say it exclusively, don't get me wrong. It is a privilege for every believer I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
For the Spirit of God to bring these things before us, for our hearts to lay hold of them, and to walk in the good of them.
But let's be content with what God has given us.
And remember that our best testimony, our best testimony.
Is intelligence in the things of God? Our brethren have been bringing before us the importance of seeing things as they really are.
Seeing things as they really are.
And I believe that that's what.
Dear Josiah failed to do.
And he tried to assume a role. He tried to assume a position that God hadn't given him.
And even when he was warned.
Warned by whom? Worn by the man.
The King.
Who he was going out against, he says. Josiah, keep out of this. I haven't got any quarrel with you. It's not you I'm after. He would have left them alone.
But he meddled with it, and as a result, he loses his life. Now you and I may not lose our lives.
But morally, we will lose.
Will lose like Jonathan did.
Who died there on the battlefield of Mount Gilboa? Because there wasn't wholeheartedness for David.
And morally, you and I can be dead on the battlefield, even though we're alive.
Because we want more than what God has given us in the day in which we're living all how precious to enjoy these things that God has given us, to recognize that that testimony that we may bear is not our object, but rather to have Christ and all that he is. And then like Josiah here, he was a testimony. Everything that had to do with what he did according to the mind of the Lord had an influence far beyond.
The little company of people over which he ruled.
But be content with what God has given us and at the same time to remember.
But morally, Josiah was told, Josiah, you're not going to see the evil, It'll happen after your day. How wonderful. But you and I at the same time can look forward, not to death as dear Josiah had to in the Old Testament, but to say the Lord is coming.
And that is going to be the end of what God has given us down here.
01:15:13
18.
In the 15th chapter of John's Gospel Before we Pray.
John's Gospel 15 and verse 9.
As the Father hath loved me.
So have I loved you.
Continue ye in my love, and then to Romans chapter 8.
Romans 8 and verse 31.
What shall we then say?
To these things.
If God before us, who against us?
He despaired. Not his own son.
But delivered him up for us all.
How shall he not with him also?
Freely give us.
All things shall we. Thank you.
Open Mtg.
Open—B. Imbeau, S. Brinkmeyer
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.
This afternoon a subject which trusts will be practical.
Having to do with our gatherings, the assembly.
And.
Perhaps.
Encouraging us to go on in a simple path of.
Unity.
To honor the Lord Jesus Christ.
I do remember some time back I heard Mr. Anderson, Mr. Dan Anderson speak and he spoke on.
Or he brought into his talk a bit of something that was called independent assemblies.
And at first I didn't really understand.
What he was talking about, and I guess that was good, certain naveness.
00:05:06
I heard him talk about it again sometime later, brought it into another address that he happened to have.
And it made more sense.
To me.
I tend to feel that there's a certain.
Direction that perhaps we might be going, which might might be towards independent assemblies, towards what's sometimes called autonomous assemblies. And so I thought just take a look at a few scriptures that.
Might help out.
And perhaps also some practical things and also some things that come right down to ourselves individually that would tend toward autonomous assembly, something that perhaps.
In our dealings with one another, that would be good to avoid.
Turn 1St to 1St Corinthians chapter one and I'll just read a few.
Versus that might be a little disjointed.
Perhaps this?
First Corinthians chapter one verse one Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ to the will of God, and thought beneath our brother unto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called Saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.
So we have a letter here to the Saints in Corinth and it's, it's, it's to all really with all that in every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Word of God has been given to God's people, for all of God's people.
Now I may receive it or I may not receive it, but it's still written to me.
And what was written to Corinth was written to all the brethren everywhere and.
A very simple idea, shall we say? Some people's minds. That's very revolutionary.
And perhaps just to be said again, that's what the Spirit of God has for God's people.
Is for God's people.
In other words, if I have an exercise that has to do with the church or with the gathering of God's people, and if it's an exercise that is from Scripture and is motivated by the Spirit of God, it is something for all of God's people.
It's not a matter of.
Some over here have a particular exercise concerning certain things. Some over here have a different exercise considering different things.
Even though they might consider themselves being in fellowship. It might be a union, but it would not be a unity.
Unity is bound in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ and to His Word, brought before us by the Spirit of God.
And it was kind of interesting.
Him that was sung last.
Meeting.
Just read it here.
Our God is light, and though we go across the trackless wild, our Jesus footsteps ever show the path.
For every child.
And so it's not a matter of some doing one thing over here and some doing something else over there. It's it's the Church of God and the word of God is brought to all.
Now.
Have enjoyed the thought that in scripture you never get the expression in one church.
You get the expression of one body, but not one church.
And perhaps.
The closest that we get to it is in Matthew 13, about the one Pearl of great price.
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And yet that which is the church is brought before us as a bride. It's just one. So we know it's one. So scripture uses the plural. Let's turn over to clash. No, excuse me, Galatians, the 1St chapter.
Galatians chapter one.
Paul, an apostle not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren which are with me unto the churches, plural to the churches of Glacier.
To speak for myself, I overlooked that little plural for many, many years.
The Glacier was a region like Iowa, you might say the churches or the assemblies that are in Iowa. And so here he says the churches or the assemblies that are in Galatia. And you know, the same word was brought to them. It's just these six chapters and each of those assemblies there in Glacier were delivered. This word of God has inspired from the Spirit of God and penned by Paul the apostle.
Over in Colossians.
Maybe we should just make reference to these, but Colossians mentions the assembly of Laodicea twice. One of them is in Colossians 2 and verse one.
And I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.
Now maybe there's another reference, but at the end, chapter 4, verse 16.
And when this epistle is read, among you caused that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans, and that he likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.
And so the word of God, again, that's given to the people of God, is for the people of God.
Wherever they might reside.
The Book of Revelation.
Is written to seven churches, and yet it's one book. The entire book is written to all of them.
And they were to have the same words of God before them or instruction, and for edification and for correction, guidance.
You know, while we're in this world, we don't want to give.
An expression.
To the assembly. That's different than what God view of the assembly is. And God's view of the assembly is that it's one.
We are separated through geography.
But in terms of spirit and in.
The leading of the Spirit of God and the presence of Christ in the midst of his people. It is the same from assembly to assembly. We're all here together in this rather large room, but we don't have this opportunity from week to week because we live in different locations.
But if I'm in Cago Falls, it is exactly the same as being seated in a Pleasant Hill.
During the assembly meetings, the breaking of bread, it's exactly as if I were sitting in Pleasant Hill. There is no difference. The same word of God has come to all of us and has instructed all of us.
And it's very simple to see that there is not only a union, but there is a unity.
That the Lord produces among his people, and in a practical way we are to express that in this world it is identical my breaking of bread in Cayuga Falls and any other assembly that.
Takes the same ground.
And that's very, very important, and it needs to be brought out in a practical way we do not want to express.
Anything more than that God has one church.
We do not want to categorize assemblies as on different levels.
Otherwise, you have what we started with autonomous assemblies.
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In other words, if I come to an assembly and I say and I listen for a little bit and I say, you know, I don't like what I heard here, so I'm not going to come back.
Well, you know it's possible. The Lord may not direct your steps back there. That's very possible. But if you have made a conscious decision not to go to an assembly.
Then it is only a union and it's not a unity.
Because when you break bread, wherever you break bread, it is identical to you sitting in that assembly. There is no difference.
And we need to express that very clearly. And it's very simple. There's nothing complicated about it.
And that the Lord brings us to an assembly. That's where we go. We have the opportunity to.
As a matter of fact, if you heard things that you did not like in assembly, perhaps the Lord is is using you to be helpful there and to give that needed ministry which will stir up the Saints of God and get their sights.
You know upward and sights on Christ Himself.
So we can be a help among the people of God.
Because it is one.
Unity.
Perhaps I go to an assembly and I find that there's not a matter of what someone has said, but I actually don't like someone who is there and so I say I am not going to break bread with that person.
And so you go to another assembly. You break bread there.
You know, to break bread at the other assembly was identical as sitting next to the brother that you decide you didn't like and breaking bread with them. If it's not true, then it's autonomous or independent assemblies.
We need to give expression.
A practical expression to what is true.
That the Lord is brought.
About a unity which is expressed in the testimony of the Church of God in this world.
There was a time.
That there were some that thought they could ask some not to speak in their assembly and they said that was an assembly decision and it was only for their assembly that brothers were not to speak.
There. Well, what principle is that?
That's independent assembly. That's autonomous assemblies.
And.
Felt that that was dealt with, that that was shown to be wrong.
Because if the Spirit of God has liberty among us people, wherever his people are gathered to Christ.
Then it can't be a different principle from one assembly to another assembly.
It is identical as to be identical as if you were sitting in one place as another.
And so there's unity, not just union.
There's unity, not independency or autonomous.
There are letters of commendation that are written.
And we have scriptural example of that like Romans chapter 16.
They're alluded to also in Corinthians.
Where Paul says he is a letter written in their hearts.
And so someone signs a letter, or two or three brothers sign a letter.
Saying that.
So and so is an happy fellowship at the Lord's Table.
And that letter is brought to your assembly.
Now it's not a matter of the brothers there evaluating the letter. It's not a matter of the brothers there evaluating you. No, because it's unity, not autonomous assemblies. Autonomous assemblies.
00:20:12
Whether they are so-called open or whether they're so-called exclusive doesn't make any difference. Autonomous assemblies would take that letter and say.
Well, we need to see about you breaking bread or not.
We need to evaluate it.
But that is not how it is to be done, because when you broke bread at your home assembly, it was identical as being seated in that assembly last week anyway. And the letter is, just as it's called, a letter commendation here is.
A brother or sister.
And then it's signed by people that are known.
A letter like that is not to be turned aside.
If a learner like that is turned aside, we've given expression.
We've given testimony to the fact that there's more than one church.
If an assembly has a Bible conference.
Like this?
And it's felt by some brothers.
Or sisters. Or whoever.
That it is not appropriate to attend it. That's their responsibility.
But if there is a boycott against it.
Isn't that an expression that there's two churches?
That there is an appropriate conference and an inappropriate conference and that there's two churches in this world.
The Lord Jesus Christ, gathered in the midst of His people, is the same in every place.
Every time.
And perhaps.
You have a difficulty or I have a difficulty with certain things?
But my breaking bread and my home assembly or my breaking bread in Pleasant Hill is exactly the same as sitting down and breaking bread somewhere else or everywhere else where the Lord's name is honored.
Otherwise you have autonomous assemblies, a ranking of assemblies, a hierarchy.
A union but not a unity.
We use the word fellowship.
And we know in first John chapter one there I should probably read it.
Because I'm not real good at quoting things. But first John chapter one.
Verse three. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.
And truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son.
Jesus Christ. Well, certainly that's the very basis of fellowship, isn't it?
We also have Acts chapter 2.
A very well known verse.
Verse 42. They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship.
Perhaps rightly, it should read the Apostles Doctrine and Apostles Fellowship and In Breaking of Bread.
And in prayers.
Well, that's certainly the basis of fellowship, true fellowship business, what was in the Father and in his Son Jesus Christ.
It's what has been given through the Spirit of God, through the apostles doctrine and their fellowship. And it's it's our coming into that recognizing that God is right and that we take a position of just accepting what Christ has given to his people.
00:25:24
Here's the thing that is. I don't know what others might call it, but I'd like to address it because.
It.
Tends towards autonomous assemblies and it's something that I call personal discipline.
You may have another expression for it that goes like this.
I'm sitting breaking bread with a person. Perhaps I'm right across the aisle from them.
And the loaf is passed. I pass it to this person that's on the other side of the aisle, and the cup is passed around.
And meeting is then over at the end of the hour or so.
And when we get up, I get up and I turn my back on that brother because I don't want to shake hands with him.
And so I turned my back on him and I walk away.
Let's turn to First Timothy chapter 6.
First Timothy, chapter 6.
There are certain things that Paul brings out about servants and masters in verses one and two, and that the people of God, whether they're servants or masters, are to get along because they are brethren.
And then to verse two, it says these things teach and exhort. Well, that certainly makes sense that the Spirit of God would bring before us words of exhortation that whoever we are and wherever we are, there is to be a getting along.
And verse three, if any man teach otherwise, namely.
I'm sure this applies to a lot of things, but right here in the context here, if you're going to teach that people should not get along, that there's some rationale for them not getting along, it says if any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. And as a doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud.
Knowing nothing but doting about questions and stripes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputing of men, of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth. Supposing that gain is godliness from such, withdraw thyself. The godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, certain we can carry nothing out.
Of the expression at the end of verse five. There, from such withdraw thyself.
Mr. Darby felt that that expression was not appropriately in the texts.
Go to Second Timothy, chapter 2.
Two Timothy, chapter 2.
And verse 6.
Verse 15 We know the character of Two Timothy and A Day of Ruin.
Encouragement to go on.
With them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
And verse 15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun.
Profane and vain babblings.
Shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase in the more ungodliness, and their word will eat as Duff, a canker of whom is humanious, and Felitas, who concerning the truth have erred.
They did not shun profane and vain babblings, and so they took up with false notions and things that were not true.
00:30:05
From the Word of God.
But we should shun profane and vain babbling.
Not shun people that we break bread with.
But shun vain profane and vain babbling.
Verse 24.
And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men.
Apartment to teach patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves if God prevention will give them repentance to acknowledging of the truth. How interesting.
That the servant of the Lord was to have these characteristics. Gentle.
Unto all.
And his brother Clawson pointed out all is a very large word apartment to.
Teach, but he's not to ignore these, but in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. Isn't that something?
And these people were apparently.
I would gather.
Might even be lost people because it says in verse 25 that God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and.
But anyway, they'd certainly gone far afield, like way far afield. And what were what was the servant of the Lord to do to?
To try to instruct them.
Try to instruct them if it were possible.
Surely the brother that's sitting across the aisle way there, who perhaps from a natural point of view, you may not want to shake hands with.
Surely if we can instruct someone like this?
Then there can be a word of instruction. Can't there be? I think so.
Now when we come to the Lord's Table, it is the Lord's Table.
If the Lord's table.
If the Lord himself is in our midst, if we believe that which is true, if the Lord is in our midst, sitting with every brother and sister in the room, breaking bread from this wall over to this wall, from this wall back to there, come tomorrow morning.
If the Lord of glory, the very one who gave his life for each and every one of us.
Will.
Be here at his table where we will eat.
The bread and the wine.
Then surely my discernment concerning each person in here who is going to break bread.
My discernment doesn't exceed his, does it?
For him to come and be in the midst is far more than a handshake.
I'm sure it is.
But I need to be faithful.
Yes, faithful.
Faithful means full of faith.
Faithful means loyalty.
Faithful means dependability.
And there's other usages of the word, and it generally comes back to those three things.
You know we have the very word of God before us here, right in our hands.
And if I'm going to be faithful, namely full of faith.
Then certainly I'll trust the word of God being brought before a soul and the working of the Spirit of God that is in each believer.
To do it, tremendous work. Now there's faith.
Faithful.
To assume that my handshake is more powerful than the bringing forth of the Word of God and committed to the Spirit of God.
00:35:14
Is quite an assumption to make.
And certainly would not be full of faith.
And loyalty.
Loyalty to Christ himself, who has gathered His people around Himself to enjoy His presence.
Let's turn to the Book of Numbers.
Numbers chapter 20 and this is mentioned more than once.
Numbers chapter 20 And we know this story of how water was needed. Water needed to come from the rock. We know that God asked Moses to speak to the rock, and Moses went and he struck the rock twice.
Verse 12 And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, and this is what God said. This is God's assessment.
Because.
Ye believed me not to sanctify me.
Moses was very upset at people.
He was very upset at people.
But when all was said and done.
The Lord said, Thou is not sanctified me before the people.
Really upheld the principles of God himself.
And Moses?
Didn't do that.
And it was a problem for Moses. He didn't make it into the Promised land.
And we need to sanctify the Lord before the people that the Lord is #1.
That his presence is sufficient in spite of who is sitting there.
That His Word and the Spirit of God is sufficient to come before the souls and the spirits of men. We need to sanctify God before the people.
And hold them up in every circumstance, no matter what might be in my own natural heart.
In terms of relationships that I might have.
Let's turn to the book of Romans.
And.
17.
Now I beseech you, brethren, that's chapter 16, sorry. Romans 16, verse 17. Now I beseech you, brother, mark them which caused divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them.
For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceived the hearts of the simple. For your obedience has come abroad unto all men, and so forth.
This is not written to an individual anymore like in Timothy, but to an assembly.
There are matters which assembly must take action.
And that's different than what I do personally.
This verse does not give me license to plow a head on my own.
And to say that my discernment is far greater than the Lord's discernment who sits in the midst of his people.
And brings them to his table.
And the same there's a similar verse.
I think it's Thessalonians.
2nd Thessalonians.
It just.
Verse six of chapter three of Two Thessalonians. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which is received of us. For yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we have behaved not ourselves disorderly among you, and so forth. And so yourselves know how you ought to follow us. And so that's kind of where we started at. The word of God is given through the apostles.
00:40:23
And that is what we are to follow together altogether.
What is for one in connection with the Church of God and with the people of God is for all, is for all.
And so.
If.
If a brother gets up to or is known that a brother is going to have a meeting.
And you go, well, I don't like that man doctrine. And so I and my family, we're going to go somewhere else. We're not going to listen to that because I'm being faithful.
Well then that should be the path for every believer.
That should be the path for every believer. Every believer.
Is to take that stand that that is unity.
The Spirit of God is power, and He will impress the unity upon us, and He's able to.
Say, well, maybe the rest of the people are faithful to, but maybe they just don't understand, and so forth.
You know, it's for all, it's for all. Otherwise we have denominations. Otherwise we have independent assemblies. Otherwise we have autonomous assemblies.
The Christ has called us to a unity, not simply a union.
And so if it's faithfulness for you to do something, then it should be faithfulness for all the people of God to do that.
So we should see the.
The impression that Christ wants to make upon us as members of the Church of God, as the Assembly of God in this world bearing witness.
Bearing witness to what is true.
And bringing it out.
Individually bringing it out together as we come together as the Lord's people in the Lord's midst to honor Him and to take what's from above.
That heavenly vision that was given to the Apostle Paul.
And walk in the good of it, as all believers should. We should only be doing what all believers should be doing.
And that's a blessed and simple pathway that God has given us.
I just want to make one little comment about discipline, because we know that in the testimony of God there are those that exclude themselves.
Moral and doctrinal evil.
And they come under the discipline of the Assembly and again, just like the letter of commendation that we talked about.
If someone is under discipline in one assembly, they are under discipline in all.
It's not a question of review. Otherwise it's independent assembly.
And if there is a discipline which is exercised in one place, it's the same exact discipline that's in all places.
We gave the example of some that tried to get around that.
Or try to do something different than that. That's not right.
Whatever occurs in one assembly is to be the same in the next, and in the next and the next.
Times may be different.
There may be different types of you know there will be elders and or I should say bishops and deacons that are local.
And so forth. But if you go from assembly to assembly, it should be the same atmosphere. Now that's unity.
00:45:07
If we pose some other concept than that.
And that if you go from assembly to assembly and there's a different atmosphere, a different.
Way of I shouldn't say way of doing things, but a different imposition.
Of disciplines and and whatever, then that is not.
Unity is but unity.
Well, may the Lord just encourage us to go on. I have felt that that some of these things are are taught, perhaps not brought out clearly with some examples maybe, but.
Our life is to be a practical life that the things that we see in the Word of God exercise in a practical way here in this world together and as we seek to go on with the Lord Jesus Christ and with his people. And to the Lord comes. May it be that we had ever see that there's the unity that Christ gives, just not a union that man can bring.
With the Lord's help, I'd like to look at a portion in First Samuel chapter.
6.
Someone somewhat along the similar line that our brother Bruce was bringing before us.
Perhaps we could start with the first verse, First Samuel chapter 6.
And the Ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
And the Philistines called for the priest and.
Diviners saying, What shall we do to the ark of the Lord? Tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place.
And they said, if you send away the ark of the Lord God of Israel, send it not empty.
Verse 10.
And the men that men did so, and took two milk kind.
And tied them to the cart and shut up their calves at home.
And they laid the ark of the Lord upon the cart.
And the Colfer with the mice of gold and the images of their Emirates.
And the kind took straightway to the way of Bathsheimish.
And went along the highway, blowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.
And the Lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Beth Shemesh.
And they are Bashima were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley.
And they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.
And the ark came into the field of Joshua. I bet she might, and stood there, for there was a great stone. And they played the wood of the cart, and offered to kind a burnt offering unto the Lord.
And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord, and the Cofer that was with it. We're in the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone. And the men of Bashemash offered burnt offerings.
And sacrifice sacrifices the same day unto the Lord.
And when the five Lords of the Phil Science had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.
And these are the golden emeralds which Philistines return for a trespassing trespass offering on to the Lord.
00:50:04
For Ash Dodd one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ecron one and the Golden Mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines, belonging to the 5 Lords, both of fence cities and of country villages. Even on to the great stone of Abel, whereon they sat down the ark of the Lord, which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua, the best she might.
And he smoked the men of Bashir mesh because they had looked into the Ark of the Covenant. Excuse me, into the Ark of the Lord.
Even he smote other people. 50,000 and three score and 10 men.
And the people lamented, because the Lord has smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
And the men of Bashima said.
Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God, and to whom shall he go up from us?
And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath, Jerome saying.
The Philistines have brought again the ark of the Lord. Come ye down.
And fetch it up to you.
Turn to.
1St Corinthians 11.
Verse 27.
Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
The letting man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.
But he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
For this cause, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
Well, there are many aspects I believe to this portion that we read in.
I Samuel. Chapter 6.
And certainly I don't intend to cover each and every detail, but there are a few things that I believe are instructive to us.
In the first place, the ark of the Lord, which was to the Israelites, was not in its rightful place.
It was being held by the enemies of God's people, the Philistines.
And I believe that arc was.
Delivered into their hands because it was wrongly used.
By the children of Israel when they went into warfare, I don't believe they had the mind of the Lord when they took that ark and put it before them as they went to war.
Does it tell us if we read in the previous chapter verses?
Doesn't tell us that they sought the Lord's mind before sending a fourth, but they took it.
They thought it would deliver them.
But instead it was taken from them.
As we consider the portion as the arc is delivered back to the children of Israel.
Several things are striking.
Perhaps one thing that is very impressive has been to me is that.
Besides taking the cart.
Philistines took the cart, and they put the ark of the Lord upon it.
That's not how God had instructed his people. People to carry about the art was to be born upon the shoulders of the priests.
The Philistines built an ark and placed it on it.
Perhaps it brings before us that many times the world.
May wrongly.
Use and apply God's Word and it may seem to us that perhaps they might get away with it.
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Perhaps we may not feel the same liberty or exercise that they might that the world might.
But God has long-suffering, isn't he? He bears with failure.
Thinking that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
But one thing that I believe is quite interesting is that they took.
The melt pine as it says the cows.
And they took from them their calves and locked them up.
And then as these.
Cows were pulling his cart. Where on was the ark of the Lord? It was in the opposite direction where the calves were shut up.
I believe.
Mothering instinct is a natural instinct given of God, and I believe we see it as it.
Transcends throughout nature.
It's very unnatural, isn't it, for a mother to turn her back on a child, especially a crying child. And so it's very unnatural for these cattle to walk away from their calves who were shut up, no doubt crying for their mother. We see these cows taking this, pulling this cart in the opposite direction.
And we see that they turn neither to the right hand nor to the left, but they went straight to a definite location.
And I believe, as we read in this portion, there are some other things that come before us that perhaps would.
Indicate that it was truly the Spirit of God I was directing these.
House, as they hold this cart we're on, was the ark of the Lord.
It tells us that they went straight away.
To the way of beshe mesh.
As I understand, trying to locate that she mesh on some maps.
It appears that it's on the northern border of Judah.
It may be right along the border.
And it tells us that.
When it came to Bashimus, there were Levites.
I've wondered about that. What is the significance of it?
And I believe perhaps there may be a lesson for us in that.
When the ark was delivered back.
It was at the time of the wheat harvest.
Now, if we recall the feasts of Jehovah.
I believe the wheat harvest was about at the time of the Feast of Wheat.
Which speaks to us of the Day of Pentecost.
When the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus came down and then dwelt.
Believers there in Jerusalem.
And so I believe it's that spirit, is it not, that was leading these cattle to this.
City of Dashiemes.
And we see that it went to a field.
On the 14th, 1St the Ark came to the field of Joshua eBay she might, and stood there. There was a great stone.
To me it's rather significant that it mentions as stone.
The Great Stone.
Speaks to us of the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't it? We know that he was that stone that the builders rejected, but He's become.
The Cornerstone.
So plainly spoken to us.
In the New Testament.
He is the.
Rock upon what she builds his church.
And that arc is set upon that rock.
And I believe it brings before us, dear ones, that.
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The Lord Jesus.
And the Father are of one mind, where the redeemed ones.
Would be found.
There is a place where he would have his own be found.
It's not left up to us to decide whether we go to this place or that place.
But it is plainly marked out in His word where he would like us to be.
And it's.
Been a nice study to go through scripture and see how many times.
The one place.
Is mentioned in scripture.
And this, I believe, is just further confirmation of that truth, that there is one place this ark was put on this stone in the field. Josh Joshua.
But you know, it doesn't stop there, does it?
After that arc is placed on that stone, sacrifices are made. It tells us that.
The men of the Shemesh.
Looked into the Ark of the Lord.
And it tells us in that 19th verse that there were men that were slain.
He smote of the people.
Now the King James translation says 50,000 and three score and 10 men.
I believe Mr. Darby's translation says.
Three score and 10, which would be 70 men.
But I don't believe that the number is important. It's the principle that is being brought out here that's important.
And that principle, I believe, is that the Ark and the things associated with it were misapplied and misused, and men died because of it.
Perhaps it might be helpful to look for a moment.
To see what was in that arc.
Just to help us understand.
The Ark perhaps could be pictured as a a trunk, a flat top, and on the top of that was the mercy seat.
We're on God dwelt.
We're on the.
Power of God was made known and manifest to His people, but there were certain things that were put in this ark.
Hebrews, Chapter 9, verse 4.
Perhaps we could start with the third verse.
And after the second veil, the Tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the Golden Censer and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid roundabout with gold.
Wherein was the golden pot that had manna and Aaron's rod that budded?
And the tables of the covenant.
Let's see for a moment about those items that are mentioned that are contained in the arc.
Because I've.
Wondered why was it that these men were smitten? Why did they die? Because they looked.
Into the arc.
Perhaps there's something for us to learn that we can think about today in this time.
When the things of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are being so loosely treated.
And perhaps talked about irreverently.
Let's look first or consider first the golden pot that had mana.
Gold speaks of divine righteousness.
Manna brings before us, does not the bread that the children of Israel fed upon in the wilderness.
Sometimes we hear mentioned to us today.
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Some thoughts that.
Are inconsistent.
About the Lord Jesus.
Some things about him that may be irreverent.
One thought probably all of us have heard is that the Lord Jesus put his sin if he wanted to.
You love it. That is simply not the case.
There is no support for that in Scripture.
There is none whatsoever.
Even the type itself.
Would suggest to us.
That the Lord Jesus was perfect and without sin in every way.
Here we have the golden pot, the gold again, divine righteousness, the blood Lord Jesus or the bread. I'm sorry.
Spoken of by the manna contained within that pot.
We can look at the humanity of the Lord Jesus throughout the Gospels and we see that there is no sin in Him.
And he came, and his desire was to do the will of the Father.
Perfect obedience, perfect desire, perfect in every way.
So when we hear one speak.
Irreverently about the Lord Jesus.
We need to put it from our minds.
It is not God's thought concerning His Son.
But it's the thought of the enemy trying to distort.
Trying to taint the blessed Lord Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for us.
Next we have Aaron's Rod mentioned.
It says Aaron's rod that budded.
If we turn over to the 4th chapter of Hebrews.
Believe we have.
The High Priest nature of the Lord Jesus Aaron was the high priest of the children of Israel.
Lord Jesus is our High Priest, spoken to us of in these verses.
Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 14.
Seeing then that we have a great High priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
For we have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Chapter 5. Verse 5.
Soul also Christ glorified not himself to be made in high priest.
But that he.
That said unto him, Thou art my Son today have I begotten thee.
Sometimes we may hear different ones speak.
Of the Lord Jesus as being.
A brother.
Oh the Lord, he was just like me. He was my brother.
Do we have that in scripture?
No, he was pleased to call.
His own, his brethren. Now let's be careful that we don't.
Call him our brother. He's our savior.
And as it tells us.
Here in these verses in the 4th chapter.
That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
That's our great high priest. He knows our need. He knows our weakness.
He knows how to help us.
He's our Lord and.
And our Savior.
He is passed into the glory.
He is seated there at the right hand of the Father.
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Making intercession for us.
Presenting us to the Father.
As holy.
And acceptable in history.
And so that is how we should consider one another, isn't it?
Not as our brother mentioned.
That we have the right to be selective.
In our Christian fellowship, one with another.
We have a responsibility to own.
That other believers are our brothers and sisters.
We have a responsibility.
See Christ in one another.
And I'm afraid sometimes.
That our children hear from.
Those of us that are parents.
Some thoughts or utterances regarding others in the assembly.
That we may not have much appreciation for.
And that attitude filters right on down.
To our children and to the young people.
And it should pain us when we hear young people speak I'll of other young people.
Where did they learn it?
How did they learn it?
Young children.
Our great mimickers, aren't they?
If we want to perhaps see get an appreciation for some adults.
But ask the children.
Sometimes we may not be very pleased with what we hear.
But I am concerned.
That sometimes.
The behavior that we might see in young people.
Is a direct result of the behavior that we who are adults display 1 towards another.
A brother mentioned to us that.
Moses used the rod wrongly. He was to speak to the rock.
And people would be given water.
Instead, in his anger, he smote that rock.
And he spoke against the people of Israel.
If we were to read on in that chapter, that was referred to.
Right after that, shortly after that, Aaron is taken up into a mountain and he dies.
And furthermore, Moses is prevented from going into the.
Land of blessing, the land of Canaan.
I believe we need to be careful.
How we speak about one another.
We may be prevented.
From receiving a blessing that the Lord would have for us.
By the comments that we make about our brethren.
Going back to the 9th chapter of Hebrews at 4th verse.
The last part of it.
3rd item that was in that arc.
Speaks of the tables of the covenant.
It's turned to John, 13.
Verse 34.
A new covenant I give unto you, that ye love one another.
As I have loved you.
That ye also love one another.
In our meeting this morning, it was plainly brought out the difference between divine love and brotherly love.
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And I believe that this is what should motivate us.
As we consider the divine love that the Father has for you and for me.
Again, we're asked to love one another.
As I have loved you.
Ye also love one another.
There are many responsibilities that we have.
And I believe when we go back to that 6th chapter of First Samuel.
We can see a responsibility that the children of Levi had.
It says that it was the Levites. They should have known better, shouldn't they, than to look into that art?
It doesn't tell us specifically that they were Levites that looked into it, but it could have been.
They knew they had the instruction.
How they were to treat the Ark.
And they did not treat it correctly.
Now, one thing that surprised me when I learned it.
A while some time ago.
I always had in my mind that the Levites were selected because.
They were. They were selected to be the priestly order.
Because they had been true and faithful.
But if we go back to look at the history of the Levites, we'll find out that they're associated with murder.
They were associated with wickedness.
And it brings before me that we too.
Were closed in wickedness and sin.
Unrighteous. Unholy.
But we can turn to Epistle Peter, can't we, and find out that we are a royal priesthood, we are a holy priesthood, and we've been made that through the work of the Lord Jesus.
Being raised in a Christian home.
Being exposed to the.
Gathering assembly.
Being exposed to many truths and doctrines from God's Word.
I think many times that we've become very complacent about what we have.
And we just become.
Almost robots.
We go through the motions.
We go through the actions, we may do them appropriately, we may do them correctly.
But do we really appreciate those truths?
That have been given to us, that we outwardly practice.
Upon the first day of the week.
And maybe we go to the meetings of the assembly during the week.
But do we really value?
Those truths that have been delivered to us.
Or are we just going through the motions?
Our brother and.
Maybe getting the right impression from us by what we do or what we might even say. But has it really found its way into our heart, into our thoughts, into our walk?
Or as are we, perhaps, as these men of Bashir.
They acted wrongly.
And they died as a result of it.
Let's turn again to that.
Chapter Those verses in the 1St Corinthians 11.
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We won't read the entire passage again, but let's read verse 28.
1St Corinthians 1128 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.
How many times before?
I go to remember the Lord. How much time do I spend examining myself?
Before I get there.
Or do I think about it as I'm sitting down with the loaf in the on the table and the cup there?
Do I then start to think about examining myself?
About the.
Thought of anger I may have had towards someone.
Are they discussed?
That I may have felt or the ill will.
So I examine myself before I sit down.
I have to admit that I don't do it like I should.
And I believe Satan takes opportunity to that. And when I should be having precious thoughts about the sun.
I'm having thoughts about the past week.
It's just what the enemy wants, isn't it? To distract our thoughts, To turn our thoughts away.
From him.
How many times do we?
Sit in a remembrance of the Lord.
And there's no prayer.
There's no.
Maybe there's not even meditation as I sit there.
But I'm thinking about all the other things during the past week that may have prevented.
My being occupied with Christ.
Now I say to each one here.
Doesn't take gift to praise the Lord.
It doesn't take gift.
Thank the father for the son.
It takes a broken heart.
Takes a thought, a feeling of Thanksgiving.
I know there are many young people here.
There are many young brothers.
Many young sisters.
You all have your part and your place in your home assemblies.
When it comes to.
The remembrance of the Lord.
Your attitude may be well, that's for the older ones to take care of.
No, it's for you.
Brothers and sisters to be occupied with the Lord Jesus.
You may not OfferUp the word of praise or prayer.
You may not give out to him.
But what you're thinking is exactly what the Spirit may take and lay on the heart of a brother.
Comes forth as praise and worship.
We're all aware that we live in days of weakness and failure.
And if we're left here, these older brother who we respect.
And admire. They're going to be taken from us.
And you are going to be left here.
Have you?
Started to think on that responsibility.
Will you be willing to?
Continue on in an assembly where there are only two or three.
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Or are you going to throw up your hands and say what's the use?
I'm going to go down the street where there's more people.
Let us not be irreverent.
And disrespectful.
Of those tremendous truths and privileges that we enjoy.
Because of the finished work of Christ on the cross.
And the fellowship that we have been brought into, let us not take it for granted and become complacent.
In our attitude toward it.
Five Loaves and Two Fishes
Address—R. Klassen
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Sending the prayer meeting and the reading meeting and.
Him is sometimes given out and you've been out in the world and seen it's.
Complexities and and the clutter and it's just such a restorative hymn to my soul and I'd like to sing it this afternoon. It's clearing away the clutter and the pressure of life. Just the thing. The 1St 4 stanzas of 275.
Great job.
Let's look to the Lord for His blessing and health.
There was a thought that was advanced this morning about the five loaves and the two fishes.
And that little lunch filled a multitude, fed a multitude.
And it was brought out.
How the five loaves would represent the five books of Moses?
And the two book two fishes would represent the Psalms and the prophets.
And I'd like to look at one of the fishes this afternoon, the first one from the Psalms, the Book of the Psalms.
Concerning himself, turn to Psalm chapter 34.
Like to just preface a little bit before we read this chapter.
This chapter was endeared to my heart by the boys and girls of Oaxaca.
We had the privilege of being there and the brethren enjoy and order where at the end of the general meetings, that's usually in the month of February, that they announced the chapter for the children to commit to memory. And in the next general meetings, when their time comes, they have the privilege of standing up and quoting the Psalm that has been designated. And if they do it perfectly, then they get a reward of a Spanish book or a Spanish Bible, maybe other things.
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But as one was observing this going on, I noticed just a little might of a girl just barely making five years old. And I can see her kind of get encouraged to lift her hand. And after a while she got it up and she was called on. And I thought to myself, I wonder how this is going to go. So I snuck up to the bench behind her so I wouldn't distract her to listen very carefully.
To those beautiful Spanish words just rolling out of that little mouth with such ease and clarity. And I don't know Spanish. But as I was listening, I could hear her say, oh, senor, oh senor.
Well, she got through that perfectly and went up and took her reward and sat down.
And I got to looking at this chapter afterward, and I noticed that the name of the Lord comes sixty in 16 verses of this chapter, 22 verses long.
And looking at it closer, there's another verse that has He and another one that has Him. So we really have 18 verses and at least 4 verses without the name of the Lord mentioned. And those four verses are verses of exhortation.
Now another thing is we meditate upon this. I would like to notice that the apostle Paul read this chapter. How many times we don't know, but he drew something out of this chapter for his own soul.
We also can find that Mary, the Mother of the Lord Jesus, read this chapter perhaps many times, and we want to notice what she drew out of it.
And then we can go on further and we can find the Apostle Peter that he drew out of this chapter, quite a large part of it, which was obviously a blessing to his own soul. And then last of all, we have the Apostle John.
Solo read it with this preface in mind. Verse one.
I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad.
All magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked upon Him, and they were lightened.
And their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.
And saved him out of all his troubles.
The Angel of the Lord encampeth around about them that fear him, and delivereth them, or defendeth them.
All taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. All fear the Lord, ye his Saints, for there is no one to them that fear Him. The Young Lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. Come me, children.
Hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days?
That he may see good.
Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their crying. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and save us, such as be of a contrite spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of the mall.
He keep up all his bones, not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants, and none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.
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Now it's good to be reminded that the heading of these Psalms are also inspired. We'll go back to the heading to give us the setting.
A Psalm of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed. I would like to add the words to The Cave of Adalom.
Well, the life of David. His boyhood days charm us, do they not? It's kind of like a storybook to think of a young boy leading his sheep out into the Judean hills.
And to see them feed upon the tender grass.
And to have those hours out there alone with the Lord.
And then to have that call to come to the King's palace to play on his heart, to soothe the heart of the king.
And then there is that time in the Valley of Elah when the armies of Israel gather there.
David goes back to the sheep. Perhaps in those forty days he had the battle with the lion and the bear and triumphs over them, preparing him for the triumph of Ela.
And then at the end of those 40 days, he goes to the Valley of Elah.
And we know the story. He went down to the valley and he dropped the giant in the dust.
And after that he was called to the King's court and given the honors that were promised, and he married the King's daughter, and he led the armies of Israel.
In victory.
Marvelous Life.
And we would like to volunteer for that.
But you know there's a javelin in the hand of Saul.
And he threw it at David three times, and the third time he had to leave and escape for his life, and he went to the priests of Knob for refuge or something to eat.
And it just looked like everything just fell apart.
Perhaps David was vexed in his mind. What could I have done different? How could I have saved this situation and justice? Look at it from every angle.
And just go on with a heavy heart distress because there's no answer and there's no refuge.
Every way that David would turn, there was number refuge for him. So he decides that he's going to the King of Gath.
And we gasp, we say, David, you just dropped their champion in the dust a little while back, and you're going to the King of Gath.
This sounds incongruous.
So we want to dwell on that just a little bit, but I enjoyed someone pointing out the thought that in order for David to leave the priests of Nob and go to the King of Gath, he had to pass through the valley of Elah.
Well, if that were true, you can imagine what a walk that would be to stand there where he heard that that enemy of God's people say, send me a man that I may fight.
And to walk down the slopes to the brook and see where he chose the five stones, and then to walk to the spot where he dropped that.
Giant in the dust in gloriously.
You know the valley is silent.
There was a shout of victory when that happened, but it's just strangely and everybody has forgotten the victory that had been won.
You know, I think there's something very significant about the Spirit of God giving us this life because it's somewhat of a pattern.
To our lives as we grow up in Christian homes and Christian privileges. This is not a strange life.
And so he goes on to the King of Gas. Now what is he thinking? Oh dear ones, let me speak plainly. There are those who administered the word of God to us in time past, and they faithfully warned us about the systems of man and being taken up with man running things, and warned us to keep close to the Lord. And then we have seen some that minister this to us go out.
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And they join the very ranks in which they spoke against.
And they stay and we don't understand.
Well, you know, if we'll join the ranks of those that we have spoken against, being gathered to the Lord's precious name, they'll welcome us. They'll give us a position and a responsibility.
With the stipulation, of course, that there's certain things that we should honor and recognize.
And so I believe that's what David felt and knew, and went there to the King of Gas. And you know it would have worked except for the Lord. And the Lord, as it were, just turned to ground under David's feet. The quicksand and the spittle began to run down his beard, and he was scribbling on the gate of the city.
And feigned himself as a madman. And Abimelech looks at him and he says, I got enough of those kind of fellows around here.
Get them out of here.
All the mercy of our God.
And so David leaves that place. There was number refuge there for him. I'd like to Note 2 verses that perhaps depict Davidde thoughts as he turned and he looked at the Judean hills that he knew very well as a young man taking care of sheep. The first one is in the sum 142.
Some rather yes. 142 and verse 4.
I looked on my right hand and be held.
But there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul.
Well, you know, I think we realize why the 34th Psalm is filled with the name of the Lord, because it's a soul that is cast entirely upon the Lord. There is no other refuge.
Then if we turn back to the 121St Psalm to the second one.
And verse one.
I will lift up mine eyes onto the hills.
The heels of Judea and it should be now a question from whence cometh my help?
He has the answer. My health cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth.
And so is he, standing there at this great crossroads of life. Where shall I go?
I don't know how David knew about The Cave of a dullum. Perhaps he discovered it one day while he's caring for the sheep. And he went in there and he looked at this structure and he wondered, I wonder why God created such a thing.
And as he's standing, standing there with a few men, wondering what to do.
So I'm going to take refuge in The Cave of Adelaide.
Well, he goes.
And there were those men that came to him that were in distress.
And disheartened. And in debt. Why? Why were they in that condition?
Samuel had warned the people that if they chose a king that they were the king was going to take their daughters and make confectionaries out of them and bakers, and that they were going to he was going to take their land and give it to others.
And so many of these dear men knew Samuel's ministry. They valued it. They knew that God was going to unite Israel under one head, and they didn't fit into the economy of the man after the flesh. And they lost their land, and they gathered to David, and he became the captain of their salvation.
As David takes up this position, I'd like to suggest that he.
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Adds a new word to his vocabulary. That to me is very important. And it's a little word, but it's the word all.
We as parents take the liberty to warn our children how they use that word all and never. Don't say all the time and don't say you never will. It's not our language to be used. And so it may kind of put a little damper on this word all, but David uses it and I believe it's a comfort to our hearts.
In the circumstances that we may be in this afternoon.
Six times and I'm going to just note it. Verse one. I will bless the Lord at all times.
Verse 4.
I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears.
Verse six. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
Verse 17 The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
Verse 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him.
Out of them all.
Verse 20 He keep us all his bones.
So you know, this is the language of faith.
And faith has the wonderful prerogative of counting upon that all before the Lord.
Oh, what a consolation that is to my heart. What consolation it must have been to David's to be able to use that word all.
Well, we come now.
To think about the Apostle Paul reading this chapter.
And I think of him reading the first verse. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Well, you know.
As these men gathered together, they had a lot of sorrows, disappointments. Life just broke down on them.
Where does this language come in? I will praise the Lord at all times.
You know the Lord delights to take our sorrows.
And our freshers and affords them into a song of praise.
And only God can do that.
And the Spirit of God will do that for us. So consequently, if we would have come to The Cave of a Dolan, we could have heard perhaps 400 voices singing this as a song together, the song of praise.
And so the apostle Paul then gives us a New Testament light in the Ephesians chapter 5.
How he draws from this verse?
Ephesians chapter 5.
And verse 19.
Speaking to yourselves and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I love that always.
For all things.
Oh, what a latitude we as God's people have, and what beautiful hymns have been forged out of these kind of circumstances.
We were saying the other evening in heavenly love, abiding no change my heart shall fear.
And I wondered what this sister must have passed through Miss Warren. And we had opportunity to look at it. And she lived to be 90 years old. She was not married. But, oh, you know, she writes from a vantage point that was beyond the borders of earth. Her heart was beyond. And she has given us a beautiful hymn to sing, and perhaps we have sung it when our hearts were.
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Pretty well pressed down and it lightened the weight that was pressing down upon us. Speaking to yourselves in psalms.
Well, we turn back.
And we think of Mary the mother of the Lord Jesus, the mother of the Messiah, pouring over this chapter and verse two. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. All magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
Let's turn to Luke, chapter one.
Luke chapter one and verse 46.
And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord. My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior, for he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden.
We'll just stop there. There are those words that were written in the Old Testament in this Psalm of David. And now when she learns that she is to be the mother of the Messiah, which was something very special for an Israelite, godly Israelite woman, but she takes a place of such humility. But what formed it? Oh, is the word of God, the word of God formed those thoughts.
So that at this time she just comes out and she says my soul doth magnify the Lord. And it's just like she looks at us and says, I want you to join into the singing of my with my soul.
Well then we come on down to verse 7.
It says, The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and defendeth them.
Well, did David say that? Because he put some pretty good Sentinels out on guard duty.
No, David, in some respects brings before us the reality of the armies of heaven that are on patrol at all times.
There was that time when he was to wait until he heard the sound of the rushing of the wind and the Mulberry trees, and that was just simply David's invincible allies taking up their position on the battlefield. And all David his men had to do is just to go and collect the spoil.
What a wonderful sense. Sometimes we may suffer our car to be broke. Our car is broken into and we say, well, didn't the armies of heaven see that? Were they looking somewhere else? No, they saw it. And they not only saw it, but they know who did it and they know exactly where that person is right now.
But it may be an opportunity for us to glorify the Lord and perhaps to learn valuable lessons as to.
How tenaciously we hang on to things down here rather than to have our minds and hearts set on things above.
And so he defendeth them.
And so nobody could touch David's men, nor did they, because the armies of heaven were on patrol. The Lord of Hosts is his name.
1St And the Young Lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.
Oh, you can imagine the sensitivity of David's men as they gathered there in The Cave of Dolem and looked at David and said well.
What's going to sustain us?
Where are we going to get food to eat? Make it go out and look around and see those skinny lions walking about the hills said, you know, we don't want to get looking like them. And David said they may suffer hunger, but they that wait upon the Lord shall not want any good thing. And that's exactly what happened. And as long as David and his men were in exile, they were wonderfully taken care of.
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And then at the end of that exile, they had the battle with the Amalekites and took all that great spoil more than they could handle.
And David remembered everyone that had shown kindness, and he sent portions to them and appreciation.
You know a cup of cold water shall not lose its reward.
Yes, how sensitive is the one we love? And he's going to reward a cup of cold water.
But it's sometimes a matter of waiting, and it's hard to wait with impatient spirits. But they prove wonderful things there in The Cave of Dome.
Now we come to the Apostle Peter, and I see him reading verse 11. Come ye children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. You know Peter did that to his dying day.
What man is he that desireth life?
And loveth many days, that he may see good. Keep thy tongue from evil, and my lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
Well, I believe that when these men gathered together in The Cave of a dolem with David, that you would just hear one sad story after another and stories of injustice and violence and and everyone had a real story to tell the other. And this probably went on for quite a while. And David.
He'd one day say men.
We can't go on with this bitter spirit. We can't go on carrying this load.
We've got to be delivered from it.
What man is he that desireth life and loveth days?
That he may see Good. All these men knew that David was going to sit on the throne of Israel.
And they learned after a while that God had to put David through these circumstances.
So that when he was put on the throne of Israel that he would represent God to the people. And so if he was going to sit on the throne, would not these devoted men share in his glory there? Oh, you know they would. These are men that were tried and found in fidelity and they weren't going to change masters. They love David.
And so.
Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.
All here are the words of exhortation. They often come home to my own heart when there's that getting bowed down under things and Satan comes in with his suggestions and.
Depart from evil.
And do good and seek peace, you say. But I can't seek peace under these circumstances.
Because what I had was violently taken away from me. Well, we like to take the microscope and look at things as they are right now. And we need to telescope to look down the way to God's purposes of blessing for us. So if we turn to first Peter 3.
Verse ten of first Peter 3 for he that will love life.
And see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips, that they may speak no guile. Let him ask you evil and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open under their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
Brother Hagel used to tell us that every exhortation of Scripture is not a matter of attainment.
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It's not getting up to, but it's a matter of possession, and God uses exhortation in His Word to show us what we possess. We have a new nature that delights in divine guidance, and we learn that there is nothing better than to follow that divine guidance.
Going back to Psalm 34 for John.
John's reading this chapter and he says he keep all his bones and not one of them is broken.
You know that interested me, that statement. He keepeth all his bones.
And not one of them is broken.
Allow me just to suggest something.
Don't know that happened or not.
But you know, when 400 men are in this precarious situation and they're in caves and on ledges and up with the wild goats, there's a good chance that you could break some bones.
How easy is it to break bones? We could do it right here in this room, but they didn't have a hospital.
And I just wonder if day after day there just were no bones broken and it really became a very obvious thing.
And so out of this situation comes a beautiful prophetic statement concerning the Lord Jesus.
Beyond chapter 19, how we read there that they came to break their bones, they came to the first thief and they broke his legs and sent him straight to paradise.
They broke the legs of the other and, sad to say, perished into hell for eternity.
And they looked at that middle cross, they saw that he was already dead, and they break not his bones.
Oh, what a thrill this must have been to John as he read this chapter. He saw the prophetic beauty of it and he applied it there at the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's Hill.
What a sight. They will not touch that man because he's the truth. Then the bones would speak of the structure of truth. It cannot be broken.
Wonderful thought. The truth of God cannot be broken, though men may try to break it. It stands.
Like the clothes now with rather a solemn thought. And it's going to fortify what was said this morning.
David, you know, he had a fall morally.
And the result of that was so terrible that he spoke about groaning.
His bones crying out is just as though the experience of that fall was to have broken bones.
You know, that's just the way it is if we violate the Word of God. And so David in his restoration in the 51St Psalm, he could say.
'Cause the bones that thou hast broken to rejoice.
And so may this just be something that we can learn here this afternoon. Every one of us can join with these that read this chapter ahead of us and gained such wonderful blessings and stability in their lives. We can join him and gain a blessing according to our needs this afternoon from this very chapter.
Could we return to our hymn books? Sing the last two verses of 275?
Scenes of stride.
High grades of love.
Hard desert.
We learn to drive.
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And Love Is All.
Saying.
Our God and our Father.
Love and Sacrifice
Address—R. Thonney
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Eight and maybe to get the circulation going a little more, we can stand up and sing #8.
Oh Lord, we adore thee.
Oh Lord, we.
Adore.
You.
Forever.
And grow.
Let this God our daughter.
Like to read first of all a verse in Ephesians chapter 5.
To start this meeting.
Ephesians chapter 5, verses one and two.
Be therefore followers of God as dear children.
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us in offering, and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.
Yesterday in the reading we were speaking something about love, divine love, brotherly love. Very much related.
Brotherly love is divine as well.
But there are different aspects to it. But something that perhaps was not mentioned was that love, when it's spoken of in scripture, is always mentioned in connection with sacrifices.
For God so loved the world that he gave the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it, and here we find that Christ loved us and hath given himself for us, and offering in a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. My desire this afternoon is to speak a little bit about the subject of sacrifice.
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It's I feel my own limitation in it because I'm afraid I don't know enough what that word means.
And so please don't focus on the speaker this afternoon. We want to focus on that glorious person we were focused on this morning, the person of the Lord Jesus. It seems like this morning the Spirit of God especially directed our attention to the sufferings in a very special way of those three hours of darkness.
Oh, the sacrifice that he made for you and me. And who was it that hung on that cross?
Dear fellow believer, it was number mere man that hung there. It was God in the fullest sense of the word manifest in the flesh, the one who was the brightness of that eternal glory. He was the one that was taken into Pilots judgment hall that was judged to be worthy of death.
That was delivered to those Roman soldiers.
He was the one they stripped. He was the one.
That pilots took.
And scourged him. He was the one that those soldiers.
Hit directly in the face.
Can you imagine it? God, our Creator God, the fullest manifestation of all that God is that it was ever made in the person of the Lord Jesus. They took him, they crowned him with thorns, they took sticks and beat those thorns into his brow, and then they let him out.
I marvel at the everlasting God let out of that city of Jerusalem.
Led to that hill of Calvary.
His hands stretched out and nailed there to that cross, the only one that ever had a right to live.
Because he was completely sinless.
Spotless, perfect Lamb of God allowed them to stretch out his hands and nail to cross.
Oh dear brother and sister, in the Lord Jesus, that sacrifice was a complete sacrifice. There was no reserve there. He went all the way.
In those awful hours of darkness.
Something will never fully be able to understand. We stand in awe as we view that Mount Calvary and everything gets dark and it's silent for three hours.
No utterance from that middle cry.
But in those three hours?
Is when God laid on him.
The iniquity of us all and the fury of God's judgment broke on His blessed head.
There's no complaint through those three hours, at the end of those three hours.
There's a cry. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
There was one whose meat whose drink was to do the will of God.
And now God himself forsakes him, as he does to the full the will of God.
Oh, what an object for our hearts to feast upon, that roast lamb.
Then he died. He gave up his life.
No man could take it from him. He gave it up of himself to let you, and I know.
Just how much he loved. He loved all the way young people He loved without reserve. Dear brother and sister and the Lord Jesus. No reserves there.
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That was the sacrifice he made for us. Like to read in John chapter 12 what the Lord Jesus himself.
Speaks of his death.
John chapter 12, beginning with verse 23 to get the context. Remember that there were some Greeks that had come up to Jerusalem to worship at the feast.
Philip and Andrew come and tell Jesus about it and then the Lord Jesus says in verse 23.
Jesus answered them, saying the hour is come that the Son of Man should be.
Glorified. Isn't that interesting?
You would think that immediately after it would say something about.
His glory.
But I think it's such a tremendous lesson for us to learn and something perhaps that we're learning all our life long.
Path to the glory.
Leads to the cross. And so the Lord Jesus immediately follows it, not Speaking of his exaltation, but of his death. He says in verse 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you.
Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die. It abideth alone.
But if it die, it bringeth forth.
Much fruit, very evidently referring to himself his death. He had every right to go back into the glory, but he would had to go alone.
He didn't want to go alone. He wanted you and me to be included in that. And so instead of going back to the glory alone, he went to the cross and there he was, alone.
As no one ever has been alone before.
No, there he was alone, says in Hebrews chapter 3. Having made the purgation of our sins by himself, he was alone there on that cross, making the purgation of our sins.
So he died, that corn of wheat.
Died. And through that death there is.
Much.
Now notice verse 25 and 26.
He that loveth his life shall.
Lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me and where I am.
There shall also my servant be any man, serve me him.
Will my father honor? Oh what a precious privilege to serve the Lord.
And every believer in the Lord Jesus is a servant of the Lord. Don't think that that brother that gets up on the platform, that's the servant of the Lord.
You if you're out digging ditches.
You are told to do everything that you do as unto the Lord. You're serving the Lord digging ditches.
If you are an attractor going through the field.
Weary hours. Do it heartily as unto the Lord. You are serving the Lord doing that just as much as anybody that's on a platform.
Oh, I think the idea that to serve the Lord we have to leave our secular employment and go and preach the Word has done tremendous damage to the Christian testimony.
Because people think that if they don't do that, they're not serving the Lord. And so they get sloppy in their Christian testimony at their regular jobs.
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Now wherever you are, you are serving the Lord. Do it horribly as to the Lord. But what I want to point out here in this verse is that the same figure that the Lord Jesus uses as to himself going into the ground and dying is now what He applies to you and me who want to follow Jesus.
He says in verse 25, and I want to draw your attention to it again. To me it's pretty strong language. He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that.
Hated his life in this world, shall keep it into life eternal. Pretty strong language hating your life.
Or loving your life. Which is it?
And I think it comes as a severe challenge to me.
Living here in the United States of America and brethren, please don't get the idea I'm pointing a finger at you. If I want to do anything, I want to point it right here at myself.
I feel that I've been affected far too greatly by the spirit and the current of living in this country. That is self pleasing, doing your own thing, doing what you like and telling anybody else. Say no to me. This is the spirit of life here. And maybe we don't go all the way up, but I think we have to recognize, brethren, that we have been infected by the Spirit.
Of self.
Pleasing. It's the whole current of life and I personally don't know if we can live in the society without being affected by it in some way. It has affected me. I have to confess before you. I cannot speak for you, but I can speak for myself. I.
I confess that I've been affected by the spirit of self pleasing.
The Lord helped me.
The Lord is putting here before His disciples, those that want to follow Him, His own example.
If his way to glory was by the cross, is there any other pathway for the servant of the Lord? He that loves his life shall lose it.
It's tragic to me to see oftentimes young people.
In the vigor and freshness of their youth, strength, intelligence, sharpness. And yet they're directed in this direction of self pleasing.
I want to point out that there's another direction that the Lord Jesus is showing us here. It's the direction of self sacrifice.
It's not pleasant, naturally speaking. Sacrifice. Why? What need is there a sacrifice? Everything's put right there at your hand. It's available. You don't have money in your pocket. You can get it on credit.
Why sacrifice?
Dear young people, dear older brother and sister in the Lord Jesus.
This is the pathway to the Lord Jesus is pointing out to us here.
He that hates his life in this world, I don't know that I can understand that very well, but that's the word that the Lord Jesus uses and they're pretty strong word evac hate his life in this world shall keep it until life eternal. Tragic to me to see people sometimes ending their lives.
In an old folks home, people who have had it all in their life.
Been doctors, Lawyers.
Wealthy people, they've lost their minds, they're sitting in a wheelchair. Nothing, absolutely nothing before them but the blackness of darkness forever. They have been directed in the pathway that this world shows itself pleasing. God grant, we might be able to turn around and go against the current dear young brother and sister in the Lord Jesus.
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I challenge you to turn around. You may not even find too much sympathy for it amongst those who are fellow believers. This is an individual matter you must determine between yourself and the Lord.
If you think that, I'll wait till some of the other young people want to do it and then maybe I'll consider it.
It won't work. This is a matter you must determine between yourself and the Lord.
Keep it into life eternal. I'd like to turn to three scriptures this afternoon.
That speak of sacrifice.
And touch on them because they touch on practical areas of our lives. First of all, a well known verse in Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter 12. In fact, we're going to read the 1St 3 verses.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.
That you present your.
Bodies a living sacrifice.
Holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
That you may prove what is that good and acceptable.
And perfect will of God, for I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you.
Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.
But to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man, the measure of faith.
Not going to read any further here. I'd like to point out though that further on in this chapter it deals with the truth of the one body of Christ and the gifts that are given in that one body.
And I really want to challenge each one here.
As to the place the Lord has put you in the body, any gift he may have given you for the good of the body of Christ.
But there's not this wholehearted rendition, surrender to the Lord Jesus first, presenting our bodies in as a living sacrifice. We're going to find that we probably won't be very useful in this way.
But all the need is great and I want to encourage each one here. God has given you something.
One day we're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and we're going to have to give an account of how we use.
That something the Lord gave to you and to me. We're going to give an account. Now is the time to wake up. Now is the time to use what He has given you for the good of every other fellow member of the body of Christ.
Here we're told that Paul exhorts, I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God.
He's been meditating on the mercy of God in the last chapter, and he shows although that God was dealing for a time with his Jewish people and then with the Gentiles, and then he's going to return again to his Jewish people, but he's brought them all. Verse 32 of the last chapter says God has concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon us.
Oh, the ways of our God in bringing us down to nothing.
And now, if that's the case, if God has had such mercy on you and me.
Isn't there something due as a response from my heart, from your heart? Yes, there is something do. And he beseeches to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, All the sacrifices of the Old Testament.
00:25:00
Were killed and then offered. They were dead, sacrificed. We are exhorted here to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. And then he finishes up that verse by saying, which is your reasonable service. I understand the word reasonable and original is the same word we get our word logic from.
In other words, we could say it's the only logical response.
Seeing that God has done what he has done for us.
In the sacrifice of his only begotten Son there is.
A logical response, a reasonable service that becomes this. What is it to present our bodies in living sacrifice?
Dear young brother and sister, and older brother and sister in the Lord Jesus as well, I want to address your heart as I would address mine.
That there are often in our Christian lives pockets of reserve.
I want a touch.
Your conscience a little. Please permit me.
About those pockets of reserve.
We want to serve the Lord. I have no doubt every true believer has that desire.
But what has impressed me in traveling around, especially in Latin America, I meet up with quite a few different Christians.
Sometimes those who are not gathered to the Lord's name, there is no doubt a lot of zeal and a lot of right desire before the Lord. But what impresses me is that everybody has their agenda.
Yeah, they want to serve the Lord, but this is the way I'm going to do it instead of simply laying themselves before the Lord as a broken vessel.
And allowing him to direct and everything. No, I have my agenda. This is what I'm going to do. And another says this is my agenda.
Do you have an agenda too?
I'm not going to judge your motives. I know you may truly want to serve the Lord.
But what God can use in a real way is a broken the.
When the apostle Paul, before he was saved, he was Saul of Tarsus was on the road to Damascus, he thought he was doing God's service.
He had to be broke.
And the vision of the Lord Jesus in glory.
Made him fall to the ground, and for three days, blinded by the brightness of that light in Damascus, he lays there.
In that town of Damascus. And then the Lord tells them what to do.
So often we have our own agenda. I want to encourage you to present your body a living sacrifice. It involves the will and I honestly believe that our hearts facility people at times that we persuade ourselves were doing God service, but the will is so involved that we maybe are doing more damage than we're doing good.
So it's important that there be this surrender of the will.
A presentation of our bodies, a living sacrifice. When something put on the altar and sacrifice, you can't fix percentages on it. You can't say that the sacrifice is going to be 60% for the Lord. You can say it's 95% for the Lord, 5% I'd like to have for myself yet.
It doesn't work that way and I suggest that it is an insult to the Lord Jesus and gave everything for us that we would have those pockets of reserve in our heart.
It hinders God from using us in the way He wants to use us. A vessel is given up to his sin, to him, to whatever he may then allow. And I've been amazed, your brother and sister and the Lord Jesus, how often he uses vessels that are physically broken up.
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Remember a brother out in Gresham OR that I had the privilege of getting to know, to know only once I was there to visit him. His name was Albert. Some of you maybe got to know him.
But in his youth, the doctors made a mistake and he was paralyzed from the neck down. And what?
He had control of his face was ******* and it was almost he almost felt ashamed to look at him, so contorted was his face. His limbs twisted as he laid there on a stretcher or on his bed.
That Oh, and a brother that went with us started talking about the Lord Jesus. What a testimony.
What a great testimony. Why does God have to sometimes break the vessel so drastically so he can get the glory? We don't do it of ourselves, dear young people. Hasn't got shown.
How much she loves? Hasn't the Lord Jesus made enough sacrifice? How much does He have to show it more to convince us that we ought to render our bodies in living sacrifice to Him? I say it's the only reasonable thing that you and I can do, seeing He gave everything for us.
For me to say to him, Lord 95% but I'd like to have a little pocket or reserve when I do my own thing over here.
That's an insult. Please don't do that.
Let your surrender be complete.
Jonathan saw David go down into the valley of Elah and defeat the Giants. Jonathans heart was one. And as David comes back, his heart was knit with the heart of David. And he takes his princely robe and gives it to David, his sword and his ball, his girdle. David, this belongs to you. I surrender.
But there was an area, a pocket of reserve, in Jonathan's life. He never could seem to leave his father's court.
And where does Jonathan end up?
Dead on the battlefield with the Philistine and when David comes to the throne, he laments.
The loss of Jonathan's companionship, oh, what a tremendous example of how important it is not to leave those pockets of reserve in your heart for your own pleasure.
Notice it speaks about the will of God in verse 2.
Many people often speaking about the will of God say I want to know the Lord's will. I want to point out something here in this verse two, it doesn't speak about knowing the Lord's will.
What does it speak about?
It speaks about proving.
What is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God?
In other words, if your desire is to know the will of God, and then you'll decide whether it's convenient to do it or not.
You're not going to know what God's will is. God does not reveal it to one in that fashion, just merely to know it.
We prove God's will by rendering our bodies in living sacrifice holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service, the only reasonable thing that you and I can do for Him.
Time is going fast, just like to mention here before we go on.
That it speaks about not being conformed to this world. What is worldly not?
You look at verse 3.
The exhortation is not to think of himself to every man among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God is dealt to every man. The measure of faith we're only not is thinking high of oneself, and it can take a number of fashions. Sometimes we think that worldliness is merely worldly dressed. It may be manifested that way yet.
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But there could be somebody who wants to be so godly that everybody notices him.
And that having a high opinion of yourself, that's worldliness just as much as the other. The Lord help it that our focus might be on Him and not on us. When there's that surrender, it no longer matters what people think of me, it matters what people think of Him. There's the focus.
Lord help us like to go over to the chapter we've had in our readings to speak briefly about.
The other two areas of sacrifice.
Hebrews chapter 13, verse 15 and 16 please.
By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Notice that in verse verse 15 and 16 the word sacrifice or sacrifices.
Are mentioned.
Verse 15 is the sacrifice, God word. Verse 16 is the sacrifice.
Man work and in both areas there is room for us to be exercised, dear brother and sister in the Lord Jesus.
I really want to speak fairly directly about this matter of praising the Lord. We had the verse in the address yesterday. I will praise the Lord at all times.
I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall be continually in my lips.
Here it says, Offer the sacrifice of praise to God.
Lords de Mornin, is that what it says?
Says continually.
I really feel we need to be more exercised about this sacrifice, brother.
Praising the Lord.
Sometimes traveling around we get to meetings where maybe the numbers are not that large.
And sometimes there's long, long gaps of silence.
In the breaking of bread meeting.
Brethren, what's happening?
Our testimony is focused.
On the Lord Jesus, if we're looking at ourselves and thinking about our testimony, brethren, it's going to go down the tubes.
Because we're nothing.
Were just a bunch of big zeros.
Somebody has said the Lord Jesus is the number one up front that puts the value to everything.
But if we think that we're something, brethren, we're not.
We haven't learned our lesson very well yet.
The Lord Jesus is the number one.
We need to open our mouths and praise Him. Why is it that there's so little praise sometimes on Lord's Day morning?
Must say it's a challenge to me, brethren in Latin America. Sometimes the brethren go a little bit to the other extreme and they need to be instructed on the leading of the Spirit in their praise, but sometimes they stumble over each other and giving out hymns.
And many times have been down there. Three or four brothers get up to praise the Lord before the bread is broken.
If we profess to be in the very presence of the Lord of glory, the one who fills the universe with His glory, how can this mouth of mine be silent? We have a beautiful hymn book full of beautiful hymns. We can just sing a few old brethren. May the Lord exercise our hearts about it. I really believe we need to be more exercised about praising Him. Maybe it's because.
00:40:03
We don't praise him continually, maybe only when we come together.
We sing. I want to encourage you to sing at home, to sing wherever you have a chance. Praise him.
In that day, his praise is going to fill the earth.
Oh, how we need to praise Him more right here and now.
When the Lord Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, you'll remember.
The little children were praising him, calling out Hosanna. Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.
And the Pharisees didn't like it.
Tell him to be quiet.
And the Lord says that these should hold their peace. The stones would immediately cry out. Brethren, God is going to have His Son praised, and if you and I will not open our mouths to praise Him, God is going to raise up others to praise Him. The Lord stir you, young brother, and the Lord Jesus. So often I go around and I see young brothers sitting there, fully capacitated to OfferUp praise to God.
As we heard yesterday, it's not a matter of gift, it's a matter of being a priest. It's a matter of understanding the way God has opened the way into the very holiest of all.
And that, we are told, to come with boldness. I say this if there's any reticence on my part to come before him. It reflects badly on the work that opened the way.
Think about it, dear young brother and sister.
Because the sisters are involved in praising just as much as the young brothers, they do not take the lead in the assembly meeting, but they are to be exercised every bit as much as a brother but the young brothers.
Who are to take the lead in praising? I want to encourage you.
So often what happens is that we start thinking about ourselves. Maybe I'll make a mistake.
Maybe somebody will think I'm doing it just to get attention. I'll tell you what.
The Spirit of God never occupies us with ourselves except to judge ourselves.
Beyond that, we're not authorized to be thinking about ourselves.
We're told to be occupied with the person of the Lord Jesus, and if you are occupied with Him, I guarantee your mouth is going to open and overflow with His praises.
Time is up but I want to touch one other.
Area that is in verse 16 to do good and to communicate to give.
This is sacrifice as well.
Dear brother and sister in the Lord Jesus, we live in a land of affluence.
And I really think we need to be more exercised about how we use our affluence.
We're told here.
To sacrifice.
One thing to give off the top, what doesn't hurt?
But it's another thing to sacrifice in giving. Christianity is known for what it gives, not for what it asks the people. We're living in a world of tremendous need, and I fear, as I stand before the throne of God in the judgment seat of Christ, that when?
The means that were put into my hands are measured there, that the percentage I used on myself, my own comfort in comparison with what I gave in sacrifice.
Is going to be something that will cause shame.
Someone mentioned some time ago, and I don't know where he got his figures, but he said that Christians in North America are known to give about 3% of what they earn.
I think that's a very sad testimony as to our giving. I'm not saying that I can point the finger and accuse anyone here of that, but I'm saying that we need to be exercised. We live in a world of affluence and there's people starving to death by the millions in other parts of the globe. There's people in China that are pleading for Bibles.
00:45:16
Believers.
For the gospel is spreading in a large way.
They're pleading for Bibles. We have Bibles.
Extra Bibles sitting around our homes, I'm sure.
But are we to feel the need? Are we going to just talk about communicating, giving? Or is there going to be something practical in our lives, a real giving? Everything belongs to him. In the Old Testament times, it was a matter of 10% that was tithing. But in New Testament times, it's not 10%, it's 100% that belongs to him.
We are only put there as administrators of what God has put into our hands.
That oh brother and the Lord help us to know how to be exercised more in what is in our hands as to giving to the need that is so evident in different areas of the world. I know I've gone a little over time, but I just want to end by.
Telling you a little story I read in the book not long ago that really impressed me.
As a man, a brother, and the Lord who had gone over to China, his specific purpose was to take Bibles into China, and he was at a meeting over there of believers. I don't know, they're over there. I don't think they have denominations. That's what they call house churches.
But he noticed in the congregation that was together that day, there was only maybe about 10 Bibles.
And that was to about four or 500 people that were present.
And he was sitting beside a lady, older lady, who had her fingers completely twisted up. They're all twisted and it looked completely deformed.
And you notice she didn't have any Bible either. And so after the service was over, he said to her, you do not have a Bible. And she said no.
And he said I have two extra Bibles in Chinese that I would be willing to leave with you. If you want to come and wait outside my hotel, I'll bring them out to you.
And so as they were walking towards the hotel, he asked her what happened to your fingers? Were you born like that?
She said no, I wasn't born that way, but during Mayo Tisang's Cultural Revolution.
The Red Guards were given full power to go into any home to search for religious literature which was counter revolutionary.
And their idea And the Red Guards came into my home one day and I had my Bible hid in the ashes underneath my little stove, and they ripped up my whole apartment, turned everything upside down, and finally they found my Bible in the ashes there.
And as they grabbed the Bible and were turning to go, she grabbed the Bible out of the Red Guard's hand and instead of knocking her down during her immediate harm, said, You foolish woman, why do you want that book? It's the only thing that tells me about my Lord Jesus Christ.
And I can't let it go.
And so instead of taking it away from her, they let her out into a large open area of the city, and there they made her stand on a.
Box the pedestal.
And they stripped her.
As she is holding that Bible and for three hours under a blaring, blazing sun, she is made to stand there, and the people passed by and spit on her and hit her and called her all sorts of names, and she just held her Bible tight.
00:50:01
And finally, the Red Guard, seen that she wouldn't be divorced from her Bible, came up and knocked her off the pedestal.
And.
Threw her to the ground.
And she lay face down on the ground, and she extended her hands with the Bible still in it.
And they took lead pipes and they started beating her hands. And she says, finally I couldn't hold the Bible any longer. And that's the last time I've had a Bible in my hands.
And she he said as he gave her the Bible, the two Bibles he had.
She was too overcome by emotion.
To say thank you, even she went out and was lost in the sea of Chinese humanity.
But that's how much they value a Bible. Brethren, our brethren are in need in other countries. We're going to just enjoy the affluence of this country. I know we look at others and say maybe they're wealthier. The brethren, it's not a matter of.
How much we give, it's a matter of what we do with what we have, that's what it's a matter of the Lord. Exercise your heart and mind as to what sacrifice really means.
Please excuse me for going over, we'll just pray.
Blessed God are.
The Heart and the Mind
Address—B. Prost
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Could we sing together?
The first three verses of #77 in the appendix.
Reading verse 30, Christ, or verse two rather. Oh Christ, He is the fountain, the deep sweet well of love streams on earth. I've tasted more deep. I'll drink above.
The background of this hymn is very interesting and very touching. If you look in the list of authors in the back of the book, you'll notice that it was written by a woman by the name of Mrs. Cousins.
But it was inspired by a man by the name of Samuel Rutherford.
Who lived well over 300 years ago in Scotland.
Very, very devoted man to the Lord, and I suppose he didn't know.
As much truth, if I could put it that way, as many here in this room know.
But oh, there was a devotedness to Christ in his heart.
That inspired him and many of his brethren to endure persecution and suffering.
Of the most intense kind.
He died, I believe, in 1661 and for the next 25 or 30 years in Scotland there was just a terrible time of persecution.
And these were the kind of things that sustained those people during that time. 77 in the appendix, just the 1St 3 verses.
The sons of Time are.
You.
Overnight.
For the landing *****.
00:05:20
Pray together.
After the last meeting, a brother came up to me and spoke very briefly to me.
And Justice told me that he would be praying for me.
But he said some words that I rather appreciated. And it was a very, very humbling thing to hear those words. He said, brother, we have just been on a mountaintop in that. And he referred, of course, to the reading meeting. And I said something back to him. Yes, brother, it's going to be, in a manner of speaking, rather a tough act to follow.
But I trust that the Lord would have something for us in these.
Next few minutes that would encourage and warm our hearts and what I have before me.
Is to speak a little bit about what Scripture says concerning the heart and the mind.
Turn first of all, then, to a verse that is well known, perhaps to most of us.
In Jeremiah chapter 17.
Jeremiah 17 and verse 9.
A verse that we need to remember.
Even though we have been saved for many years.
The heart is deceitful above all things.
And desperately wicked. Who can know it?
I, the Lord, search the heart.
All we need to remember, do we not, that our hearts naturally speaking our deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
I remember that being driven home to my soul a few years ago when our daughter was going to high school.
And she had some acquaintances there who had what we might call a passing interest in the things of God.
But when the Word of God was opened, and when these precious things were spoken about, there seemed to be so little response.
But I can well remember when a boy of their acquaintance, whom I had never met, got into difficulties with the law, and from everything I heard of that boy he deserved very much to get into those difficulties. He had apparently been guilty of something. He had been taken by the police, he had been, as I recall, put in jail. But what impressed me was to see the total emotion.
And what shall I say, going out of their hearts to that boy? There were tears shed, there were pleadings made, there were heart rending cries on his behalf, beseeching people to put up the money for bail in order that he might be let out of prison. Thinking of how sad it was that this had happened to him, and so on. And I remember thinking of this verse, the heart.
Is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. No heart for Christ.
No heart for that Blessed One who had, as we have heard more than once during these meetings, been taken by men's wicked hands and crucified and slain. But when one of their acquaintances, who was near and dear to their hearts, was taken, as far as I knew, for very legitimate reasons, oh, how much emotion it brought out of them.
And I thought how misdirected their hearts were. Oh, I say to each one of us, this is a voice. Because remember.
Jeremiah prophesied to those who knew something of the Lord in his ways. He prophesied to those who had a knowledge of the true God. And yet he has to remind them the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
But I'm so thankful that I know I am looking at a company that is composed largely, and maybe all may be completely, of those who have learned something, of the deceitfulness of their natural hearts, who have learned something.
00:10:00
Of what that heart is capable of.
And have thy grace allowed that Blessed One, the Lord, to search their hearts?
To see what is there.
And to come to Christ in order that they might have a new life, a new life.
And I'd like to turn to another verse that is more appropriate for us as believers. Proverbs chapter 23.
Proverbs 23.
Verse 26.
Proverbs 23 and verse 26.
My son.
Give me thine heart.
We're just going to refer to that verse in Luke's Gospel, the 12Th chapter, that is well known to us.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And normally we don't think of the heart having to be trained or directed in a certain direction. It goes to wherever the object is that is near and dear to the heart.
But oh, I believe there is a sense in which Scripture does speak of the heart being directed in the right way.
And I know as I speak to you, and I speak most of all to my own heart, that we do have a desire to follow the Lord. I look around here and I see dear believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, some very young, some middle-aged, some older. And I know that down inside what we get in 2nd Corinthians 5 is so true. The love of Christ constraineth us. Isn't that true in your heart? I know it is.
I know it is, and even the believer who has gotten, if we could say it this way, as far away from the Lord as he could get.
Yet there is still a cord that can be struck in that heart and if there is reality there.
There will be a response to the claims of that Blessed One.
But here it says, My son, give me thine heart. This is not spoken to unbelievers.
We do hear the expression sometimes. I gave my heart to Jesus, and I don't object to that. In one sense, I know what people mean and I know that they simply mean that they came to the Lord Jesus and accepted Him as their Savior. But I would point out very gently that that expression is not really scriptural. The scriptural expression is My Son give me.
Thine heart.
May I be forgiven if I say that this is one of the things that we need more than anything else today.
Is the heart to be right?
We have had so much before us in these meetings and I have thoroughly enjoyed them.
We have had positive truth and we need that. We have had warnings and we need that. We have had the pathway of faith presented to us and we need that.
But all why is it then that sometimes those who know so much?
Find it so difficult to walk in it and I point right here. I point right here. Why is there not more response to these things?
I can remember a few years ago there was a dear brother in India who was having difficulty with some of the things that were discussed this morning. He was having some real difficulty with the truth of going outside the camp, and not only outside the camp, but unto him.
He made a comment to me right to my face. We were talking together, he said. If some of those dear brethren who lived in the last century, who had such gift, who knew so much of the word of God.
Missed the path, he said. How can I, a poor simple believer, hope to find it?
Well, I don't know whether what I said made the impression on him that I hoped it would.
But I said to him something like this. I said, dear brother, it is not a question of knowledge that keeps us in the pathway of faith.
00:15:08
And I may say that some of us know that just a little too well.
No, it's not a question of what I know.
It's a question of where the heart is, because it's not the believer that knows the most, that walks the best. No, it's the believer.
That enjoys the love of the Lord in his heart the most. It's the one who has a sense in his soul of the Lord's love and who gives his heart to the Lord. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not in any way down grading the precious truths that we have in the Word of God. I'm not down grading the knowledge that we get in Scripture. To do so would be to slight the very one.
Who by his Spirit gave them to us. I have heard people say, quoting Scripture to support it. They would say, well, the apostle Paul said that he didn't know anything but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And that's enough for me.
Oh, is that the meaning of that verse? We'll talk about that in a little while. No, that is not the meaning of that verse. That verse.
Be used to excuse my enjoying all of the things that God has given me.
But the heart must be right before anything else can be right.
And I would challenge my own soul, as I do each one here this afternoon, to say where is.
Your heart turn over to 1St John for some verses that I have felt spoke very definitely to me.
I.
First John, chapter 3.
And to get the connection.
Will read from verse 18.
First John 3, verse 18.
My little children.
Let us not love in Word, neither in tongue.
But indeed and in truth.
Excuse me?
And hereby we know that we are of the truth.
And shall.
And shall assure our hearts before him.
For our heart, condemn us.
God is greater than our heart.
And N all things.
Beloved.
If our heart.
Condemn us not.
Then have we confidence toward God?
I'm sorry.
Not reading this very well, am I?
But what do these verses really mean to us?
We may take them in a simple way.
And I enjoy it.
But if I have allowed that in my life.
Which I clearly know.
Is sin.
Then my communion is broken.
And I don't have confidence toward God.
And I wouldn't take away from that thought in the least.
And that there is a need to deal with what is there.
It doesn't go deeper than that.
Does it go deeper than that? I wonder if it does.
It doesn't say here if our conscience condemn us, does it?
00:20:00
And if I have sinned, my conscience condemns me.
But here it doesn't say if our conscience condemns.
It says if our heart condemn us or condemn us not.
My heart can condemn me when my conscience is clear, can it?
Is that possible?
My brother yesterday spoke in the open meeting about a woman who had been married six weeks.
I think I heard him properly.
And he said she came to him and said maybe I shouldn't tell you this.
But I don't love my husband.
And perhaps there was nothing.
Overtly, that she had done.
Maybe she had not and, let's be explicit, gone out.
And gotten involved with someone else.
Maybe she had not actively done that, which someone could point to and say.
You have sinned.
But her heart condemned her. Her heart condemned her. Why? Because there wasn't the response in her heart that deep down inside, she knew ought to be there.
And I wonder if that's the force of these verses.
And I believe there is something here that speaks to our hearts and yet is an encouragement because it says in verse 20 if our heart condemn us.
Should her heart condemn us? I believe that's the thought there.
God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Oh, I believe we see a case of that in the 21St of John where poor Peter is having his heart probed by the Lord Jesus.
Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?
And twice over, Peter answers.
But he changes the word.
Because he doesn't, shall we say, dare to use.
The word for divine love that the Lord used in addressing Him. He uses the word filio.
For human love.
But all the Lord wasn't finished yet. The third time he says to Peter love a sell me and he uses in that last instance the word that Peter used for human love.
And poor Peter, finally he has to say, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
I don't know how you take that, but the way it comes through to me is, Lord, you know what's there, You know how real it is.
You know.
Whether it's true or not, you can see everything and all I would say to each one here this afternoon. If our heart condemns us, if my heart condemns me, what does the word of God do? Oh, it directs me first to that One who is love and who knows all things. It emphasizes what has already been said in these meetings, that we should never try to love the Lord any more than we do. But just to think of how much.
He loves us.
But oh, then it says here.
In verse 21, beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
Oh, it's a wonderful thing to have confidence toward God, isn't it? Not that you and I would ever get to the point that we would feel that the response of our love to the Lord's love was such that we are satisfied with it. No, no, I don't believe we will ever get to that point, at least not down here.
But nevertheless, scripture talks about our heart condemning us not.
To go back to that incident that we referred to a moment or two ago to that young bride, and I believe we could call her a bride married for only six weeks, who says I don't love my husband?
Would she feel comfortable in her husband's presence? Would she have confidence toward him? How could she?
00:25:04
Perhaps there was number change in his life. Perhaps the response.
Of him to her had never changed.
But how could she feel confident? How could she enjoy his presence? There was something lacking.
Oh, that was what the Lord through the apostle John had to bring before Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2. Thou hast left thy first left, and that was the beginning of it all. The declension of Laodicea started with that.
Which the finger of God identifies in connection with Ephesus.
Thou hast left thy first love.
And if we are going to carry out anything that we have had before us in these meetings, practically in our lives, that must be the mode of spring.
I speak again most of all to my own heart, because I had the privilege of being brought up amongst those gathered to the Lorde name and I can remember from my very earliest days sitting in meetings like this.
And I can freely confess to you how many times I went away from meetings like that when I was old enough to take in the truth, when I was old enough to take, as it were, some responsibility for my own walk and saying.
With the Lord's help, I'm not going to slip again. I'm not going to get cold again. I'm not going to let these things go. I am going to live for the Lord. I am going to speak of Him. I am going to walk more faithfully. I am going to live out all of those things that we have had brought before us.
And I found out to my sorrow, that, to use a common expression, I ran out of steam.
I ran out of steam and maybe others here have found the same thing, and that's what's happening to many today.
The Word of God in a number of cases uses that expression that we faint not.
And I'm no Greek scholar, but if you look up the Greek word that is used in that connection, it has the sense of losing heart. Losing heart.
And that's what's happening.
And it's happening to me too, if I'm not careful. What do we need?
A pep rally? That won't do it.
Know what we need?
In the sense of His love in our soul, because it is His love, and our affections drawn out to that Blessed One.
That will keep us going. That will keep me walking before him.
Never ignoring my fellow man, we have it right here in this chapter. We read that verse, not loving in Word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
But all who set the example for us, who gave everything in order that we might be his.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
While our time is going, we said we would speak a little of the mind.
And Scripture distinguishes between the heart and the mind.
Now, in some of these things, we have to.
Recognize an overlap, and we have to recognize that perhaps we cannot define all of these things strictly in human care.
But Scripture talks about the heart and it talks about the mind.
And the heart speaks more of the affections.
But the mind speaks more of the intellect.
And the heart is drawn out by affections.
But the mind, and again our brother yesterday afternoon made mention of these things. The mind and where it goes is an act of my will.
That's why it says in Colossians chapter 3. I believe it is.
And our King James translation says set your affections on things above. But if you'll notice, J&D reads set your mind on things above, and where my mind goes is an act of my will.
00:30:02
I can train it to go in this direction or the other. I can train it to do certain things.
Or I can let it go.
During the course of these meetings a brother made reference to water and fire, both of which in their place and under proper control are very, very useful to each one of us, but both of which when do tremendous damage. The mind is like that.
Turn, first of all, to 1St Corinthians.
Because, although perhaps not using the exact words.
I believe scripture recognizes.
A natural mind.
A carnal mind.
And a spiritual mind.
First Corinthians, chapter 2.
Verse 14.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.
Neither can He know them because they are spiritually discerned.
The last verse, Verse 16. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ.
There are so many verses that we could refer to.
Let's speak of the mind.
But here we have the natural man, the natural mind referred to.
The natural mind, perhaps, would bring before us.
I know I don't want to pigeonhole these things too tightly because once again, sometimes these things have to be felt in the soul rather than defined in human terms.
But Scripture distinguishes between that which is natural and that which is carnal, and to me that which is natural brings the forest, that aspect of man's mind which perhaps.
In one sense, is good.
Do you have an ability? We'll say, for example, in mathematics, God gave you that.
Do you have an ability to work with your hands because you have a mind that goes in that direction?
God gave you that.
And men have been given brilliant minds in this world. I can remember reading about a man by the name of Tesla who came from Eastern Europe, whose name will be forever, at least as far as this world is concerned, connected with the invention of alternating current in electricity. A tremendous man. And when you read about him, his mind could envision all of those things, even though tangibly they weren't there before him.
And he would talk to people about his concept because prior to that time there had been only direct current.
And he tried to persuade people that alternating current was the way to go, and he would draw pictures in the sand in order to try and convey to people what was in his mind.
He'd say, see my electric motor now see how I reverse it, wondering why other lesser minds, at least in that capacity, couldn't get through their heads what he was trying to convey.
And you and I all know today how well it worked the.
The mind a tremendous thing.
But oh.
The natural man receiveth not the things of God. Why do I emphasize that? Oh, permit me to say this.
And the tendency again is right here.
So much of the trouble that develops amongst the people of God is because the natural mind, perhaps a brilliant mind, starts to get at work in the things of God. And instead of being under the control of the Spirit of God, it thinks that somehow that brilliant natural mind, wonderful vote is can take up the things of God and work its way through them.
No, Why not all? Because the truth of God, the things of God are infinite, and your mind, no matter how brilliant, is finite.
And dear JND put it so well when he made this comment. Permit me to quote it. He said. Dear brethren, let us never forget that it is not we who have kept the truth, but it is the truth that has kept us.
00:35:12
How needful that is, because Scripture doesn't occupy me merely with the truth, but with the one who is the truth and in having him.
I can live and walk in the truth. I can handle that truth.
But under the control of the Spirit of God. Now, does that mean that God cannot use your mind and mind? Indeed he can't. There are heights and depths of meditation in the Word of God.
That your mind and mind can never get to the end of it.
And I have marveled at times when I have read some of our written ministry and seen some of the tremendous things that our dear brethren have brought before us. But sometimes they don't even develop them. And those of you who have read know what I'm talking about. They'll say there's a there's a road up that way, Follow that. There's probably something interesting to meditate on up there. But then they never take you up that road. They leave you to follow it on your own. And here's another Rd. up there.
And they kind of give you a few brush strokes, as it were, to point you in certain directions.
Till you end up feeling like a child on the shores of an ocean and say how can I ever even scratch the surface of it all?
And dear brethren, that's all we do. Because for all eternity, those things.
We'll rejoice our hearts and will never in an eternity get to the end of them.
But all it's all said in verse ten of our chapter here.
Well, the last clause of maybe read verse nine, first Corinthians 2:00 and 9:00. But as it is written, I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.
All the natural mind is not going to get me anywhere in the things of God. The mind can be used, but all can only be under the control of the Spirit of God.
Now blessed, how blessed that is.
Well, our time is going turn to Romans 8.
For Romans chapter 8.
Verse 6.
Again, we could read many many other scriptures, Romans 8 and verse six. For to be carnally minded is death.
But to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh, or perhaps in flesh, cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ.
He is none of his.
All the carnal mind, I say again, in one sense, is the same as the natural mind, but they are distinguished because.
The carnal mind is the flesh.
And the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Reread in Galatians.
So that you cannot, or perhaps more accurately, you should not do the things that she would.
And we don't need to say much about that. Our brother covered it yesterday afternoon when he pointed out that I may not be able to help. Wrong thoughts coming before my mind.
But I can help whether I let them stay there.
I may not be able to help things.
Coming into my mind either from within or from without. But I don't have to let them.
Carry on there, because as we had brought before us, as a man thinketh, so is he. And the more my mind goes over certain things, the more it's going to become the very natural tendency simply to carry them out. And when a believer falls into open sin.
Let us never forget that it is not a sudden thing, Not that we are capable of it, not that the flesh couldn't do it, But I don't believe the Lord allows that to happen to one of His own as a sudden thing. To put it bluntly, I don't believe that the kind of sin that requires assembly discipline happens overnight.
00:40:10
I can remember well what a brother once said, and I thought it was very good, he said. There have been times in my life when I was in such a low state of soul that, had the temptation presented itself, I might well have done something which would seriously have dishonored the Lord in a public way, and demanded the discipline of my brethren.
And he said there have been times in my life when I was presented with such a temptation.
But had I been in a low state of soul, I might well have fallen into that temptation.
But he said, I thank God that he has not, at least so far.
Allowed those two things to happen at the same time. I appreciated that I can identify with that.
But sometimes the Lord does allow those two things to happen at the same time, and it doesn't happen suddenly. It happens because my thoughts have not been under the control of the Spirit of God. I have been carnally minded, and that can take many forms, can take the form of immorality, which, sad to say, is so rampant today, and you and I are bombarded with it on every hand. It can take the form of violence, which is also very rampant today and with which we are bombarded.
And those two things are the two ultimate attributes of the flesh corruption and violence.
But it takes many other forms.
That are related to those two things.
A carnal mind. But we don't have to have a carnal mind, the apostle says very clearly here, you are not in the flesh.
That's not your condition and by the grace of God we can look up and say Lord.
I thank thee that I am not.
Answerable to the flesh anymore that old sinful nature has no rights anymore.
And he says here in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you, are you saved? Then you can take that position where God is placed here. And remember, it is not a question of saying I have to keep fighting the flesh in order to get to a point where I am acceptable to God and I can say I'm in the spirit.
No, no, if you fight with the flesh, you'll get just as defiled as if you embrace it. I need simply to look up and say, Lord, I thank thee. And that position that I am in is that of being in the Spirit. And that's why in this verse that we just read, verse nine, it speaks of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Why the two are they not the same? Of course they are. But the Spirit of God brings before us more than nature and power of that one.
That person of the Godhead that indwells every true believer. I suggest that the Spirit of Christ.
Brings before us more the practical exhibiting of the fruits of the Spirit in my everyday life.
Or May God give us our time is gone.
To have our hearts and our minds right in these last days.
In order that we may be able to live out practically some of those good things that we have had before us.
Let's sing the last two verses of our hymn.
77 in the appendix.
Oh, I am, my beloved.
And my beloved is mine. He brings a poor, vile Sinner into his House of wine.
We never get beyond that, do we? We shouldn't anyway. Should never get beyond that.
Can well remember, don't mind my reminiscing a little bit. It comes naturally sometimes.
But I can remember.
Our late brother Harry Hay Holt.
Telling us that his father who went to be with the Lord.
Way back in 1913.
And who had been a man much used of God all his life?
One of his last requests was he said make sure and sing these last two verses.
At my funeral, why did he say that?
Because all of the knowledge of the word of God, all of the precious things.
00:45:06
Ultimately depend.
On that blessed man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and what He is to our souls.
77 In the appendix, the last two verses.
Will cry on my beloved.
Mind.
Hey.
Oh no.
Blessed God, our Father.
Things that Happen at Midnight
Children—R. Dear
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.
Well, boys and girls, I'll share a little secret with you.
If I had known before I came to this conference that I was going to be standing up here this morning, it it's possible that I might not have showed up. But anyway, with the Lord's helpful trust that He'll give us something this morning, and I was.
Mr. Brinkmeyer gave me this little card with my name on it and it said Sunday school and I wondered where did he ever get that card? I wondered where that came from anyway.
I got that here and.
Anyway, sure, good to see you all here, boys and girls. And we're just going to pretend like I was told that I'm just talking to the boys and girls. So I'm going to concentrate on these front rows here and there's anybody else back here. The boys and girls want to come up here. That's just fine because we're just going to pretend like there's nobody else in the room. OK, It's just us up here.
Now, first thing we're going to do is sing a bit. So, umm, maybe we could swing like the 1St and the last first of each one, if that's all right, that we give out and we'll take turns. How about a girl? Does a girl have one first and then we'll get the boys? How about one of the girls?
From the hem sheet here.
More.
Oh, OK, fine. Right over here. Which number would you like?
#40 OK, yeah, that's good.
Why don't we sing 1-2 and five of #40 Jesus loves me.
Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so little one for him belong. They are weak, but he is strong.
Yeah, he is right.
You know, boys and girls, forgive me for repeating a personal little incident, but I remember one time in the hospital where I was working once a little girl came in and she was supposed to have a test and.
We wondered how we're going to keep her still for so long. She was just a little tight about that high maybe. And so we had her under the machine and I thought, well, maybe we could just maybe if we just whistle a little tune, maybe it'll help keep her quiet and still. So I started whistling, just kind of softly.
Like that. And she perked right up and she said, hey, I know that song. She says, I said, you do. She says, yeah, I said, would you like to sing it? She says, yeah. And so she started breaking right into the song. And here's the way she sung it. She says, Jesus loves us. This we know. And that sounded, you know, good. I I had never heard it that way sung before. And so I said to her, did did you ever sing it? Jesus loves me. And so he started singing it that way. And then she joined right in. And we changed all the uses to me.
00:05:16
But I never heard it sung. When Jesus loves us, this we know. And that's very true. But you know, boys and girls, it's so wonderful to know that Jesus loves me. And you can point to yourself and say that means me. Okay, how about a boy now? Okay #16 okay.
Whosoever heareth shall chap the sounds and the blessed time.
Around forever.
That word whosoever has another little song tells us that means me too, doesn't it? This song isn't on the Backpage of our hymn sheet. But whosoever means boys and girls too doesn't. It means each one. Wonderful to know that the gospel of God's grace goes forth to boys and girls everywhere, and it means each and everyone.
Now who? Let's see, we're ready for a girl. Now how about a girl? Okay.
12 good #12.
This one goes quick. Let's bring all of #12.
Just.
You know, it's wonderful to know boys and girls that.
The way of salvation has been made so plain and simple. You know that even a little child can come and you know, to come to the Lord Jesus, the word come, you know, it's, it's the word that even the youngest probably could understand. I can remember my little niece when she was just barely able to to talk, she'd say come, come like that. She knew what that word meant. And you know, boys and girls, it doesn't matter how young you are, you can come to the Lord Jesus. He wants you to come to him.
OK, let's have. Let's see. Is it the boys turn this time? OK, how about you?
Eight, OK.
#8.
First and last of #8.
Shall we get?
Yes, boys and girls, the Lord Jesus is coming and He could come any day now. And this kind of fits in a little bit with what we want to talk about this morning. So I tell you what, maybe we'll not sing anymore right now. And if we have time, maybe we could sing up a little later. But right now, let's ask for the Lord's help, OK?
Our blessed God and loving Father, we just.
00:15:02
I know maybe boys and girls where you go to Sunday school, you might be used to saying a verse. And I, I wasn't going to ask particularly that anyone say a verse today, but I don't want anybody to be disappointed if they had looked forward to seeing a verse for Sunday school. So is there anybody this morning who wants to say a verse?
If you just raise your hand, you're more than welcome to say a verse. Otherwise, I think we'll just.
Pro ceed with what I had to say. OK, any hands go up? OK, there's a little boy over there who's got his hand up. Would you like to say a verse? Fine.
I'm sorry if I don't know your names, all OK.
OK, that's all right. That's good that you're ready anyway.
Well, I tell you, boys and girls, I brought something with me here this morning. And this is something which you will all identify readily, I'm sure. And.
I think maybe I can. Maybe I can set this. Well, let me just hold it up here for the moment and everybody see this.
OK, and what do we call this thing I have in my hand this morning, huh? OK, how about this little boy in the stoop here? What is this thing for? Or what is this called?
A clock, right? This is a clock. OK, and what do we use a clock for?
OK, telling time, right? Well, our subject this morning isn't exactly a clocks or not exactly time, but in a sense it's a very specific time.
And.
How many, how many boys and girls here this morning know how to tell time? Raise your hand if you know how to show you what time it is. I don't know. Maybe I'll put that down there. Can you see it? All right.
And a low but.
Who knows how to tell time? Oh, that's good. You got quite a few here. That's good. Well, OK, can you tell us what time this clock says over here? I got the hands lined up pretty good. That's the second hand. I couldn't do much with that. What time? 12:00 That's right. 12:00 And you know, boys and girls in a, in a 24 hour period of a day, we have two. 12:00 Right. We got noon.
Noon is the time when usually.
The sun is up in the sky and we are probably having our lunch or having having dinner or whatever a lot of times and then we have another 12:00 which is 12 hours later and what do we call that?
If I had a if I had a say I had a black or black dog or a Black Horse and say he was totally black, what might be a good name for him?
What do you think? Midnight. That's right, midnight. Well, boys and girls, that's what I want to talk about this morning. I'd like to look at some scriptures to talk about midnight and.
You know, some very dramatic and momentous things have happened at the hour of midnight in the word of God in the Bible.
And no doubt in secular history too, no doubt things have happened at the hour of midnight.
A member in school reading about the midnight ride of Paul Revere. Did you ever hear about that one? Yeah, he warned the colonists. I think that the the British were coming and they better get ready.
And you know, in our house we have a beautiful clock that was given to us.
And every night, well, every time at noon and at midnight, this clock goes, it gives the chimes, and then it goes bong, bong, bong, bong bong bong bong bong bong bong bong bong bong. Like that. And I'm not always.
Awake to hear that, but sometimes I do and it's kind of I kind of like to count them just to see I know that's the most number of bongs it's going to give and I know that it's working all right if it if it does 12 of them so.
Now let me ask you boys and girls, what would you say most people are doing at the hour of midnight? At the midnight hour? Or maybe I should say, what are most boys and girls doing at the midnight hour?
Okay, George, sleeping. Yeah, that's right. I think that's safe to say that most people are at the hour of midnight are sleeping and.
00:20:08
They're either sleeping or trying to get there.
Umm, I know last night I wasn't sleeping too well myself, but I could sure tell. I looked at the clock, it was a little after midnight, but.
It was quite apparent to my ears that others in the room were sleeping. So sleeping is at the hour of midnight. Generally we're sleeping.
But you know, boys and girls, the first thing passage I want to look at in the scriptures is in.
In Exodus, and I'm going to read verses there, we'll try to move along because I want to look at 3:00 or 4:00.
Incidents that happened at the midnight hour.
And if we look at Exodus, I'm going to read in Chapter 11 first of all.
And verse 4.
Exodus 11/4 and Moses said thus saith the Lord about midnight.
Will I go out into the midst of Egypt?
In all the first born in the land of Egypt shall die from the first born of Pharaoh who sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first born of the maidservant who is behind the mill, in all the first born of beasts.
And now if we look at Chapter 12.
And let's read verse 12, for I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast.
And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord, and the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt.
And now if we look at verse 29 and it came to pass that at the midnight that at midnight.
The Lord smote all the first born in the land of Egypt from the first born of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne.
Unto the first born of the captain who was in the dungeon, and all the first born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
You know, boys and girls, this is a very, very sobering story.
And God gives us this little picture in His Word in the Old Testament.
It's a picture to us of judgment, of the judgment of God that's going to fall upon this world, that's going to fall upon sinners.
And you know, boys and girls, I don't think there's any one of you here probably who hasn't been to Sunday school before and knows.
That God tells us that we are all sinners, that all have sinned. Does that include boys and girls too? Yeah, sure does, doesn't it? That's boys and girls too. And, you know, we remember the the story here, how that God's people were down there as slaves in Egypt under the ******* of Pharaoh and and the Egyptians.
And.
Their work was so hard and it was becoming increasingly more difficult, and it was almost unbearable. But the Lord said that He was going to deliver his people from there, from that place, from Egypt. And we just read in Chapter 11 That He said all the first born in the land of Egypt shall die.
And.
That he would pass through the land of Egypt.
And everyone of the houses of the Egyptians, there would be somebody dead in that house. And that's exactly what came to pass at midnight. At midnight it says that the Angel of the Lord, he went out into the land of Egypt and he smote all the first born.
Now there was a difference though, boys and girls.
Because we don't believe that there was anyone in the among God's people where their first born was slain.
And so God made a difference. He made a difference between the Egyptians and his people there in Egypt.
Now I'm going to ask you boys and girls, what was the difference?
How come nobody was slain?
Among the Lord's people there.
How come nobody was slain? OK, can you tell us?
00:25:01
That's exactly right. You know, we didn't read probably the most important part here, boys and girls, but in chapter 12, and it says at the beginning of the chapter that every man should take a lamb according to their house.
And they were to slay this lamb, the little lamb.
Was to be slain. His blood was to be taken. It was to be sprinkled on the door, on the sides of the door, and on the top of the door. Blood was to be put there. Now did the little lamb, Did he have sinned? Did he deserve to die?
What do you think?
Did the little lamb deserve to die? No, no, no, boys and girls, the little lamb didn't deserve to die. He wasn't a Sinner. But you know, boys and girls, this is a little picture to this is a little picture to us of what the Lord Jesus has done as God's Lamb. You know, boys and girls, it's the precious blood of the Lord Jesus who is slain on the cross. It's the precious blood of the Lord Jesus that was shed there on the cross that shelters.
You and I, if we put our trust in Him and the Lord Jesus that shelters us from the judgment of God against sin.
You know, the wages of sin is death, and death is the penalty for sin.
And we read that everyone in the land of Egypt, all the Helms there, somebody had to die.
And so boys and girls, it wasn't because God people are any better than anyone else. It wasn't because they were better than the Egyptians or that they bad things or something like that as Egyptians. It wasn't that at all, but it was because they had the blood on the door. Now boys and girls, we want to ask each one of you here very plainly.
Do you have the blood on the door, as it were? Have you asked the Lord Jesus to wash your sins away in His precious blood? That's what the Lord Jesus desires to do and invites you little boys and girls to come to Him and have your sins washed away this morning.
When I see the blood that says I will Passover you.
Now, how many here are the first born in their family? You know what that means? It means like you'd be the oldest one. Let's say you're the oldest one in your family.
Yeah, there's a number here. Yeah. Well, that's all I'm to think about, you know.
If I was there that night and.
Do you think there might be scared that maybe I was in our house there and.
With my brother Wally and I would, I would think why, you know?
Is there something going to happen to him tonight?
You know, you know, But would I have to be scared? Do you think I'd have to really be scared? Why not?
OK.
OK, he said. If we're Christians, that's right. But how do we get to be a Christian?
Who can tell us that? OK.
That's right. OK, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that brings us right to our next portion of midnight in Acts Chapter 11, No 16. I'm sorry, Acts chapter 16.
Acts 16 And here's something that happened at midnight.
Now this was quite a story Here it says in verse 25.
And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the.
So that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awakening out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been flat. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas.
And brought them out and said, Sir, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
Now, boys and girls, isn't that, isn't that a story? You know, Paul and Silas were there in that prison. And the reason they were there in prison was because that they had been preaching the gospel and telling people about the Lord Jesus. And there were those who hated the name of the Lord Jesus and they were very angry, very vexed about that. And so they they beat them and they.
Saw to it that they were thrown into prison, and this prisoner or this.
00:30:05
This jailer here, the Philippian jailer, he took them and he.
Right there in the inner prison. And you know, it says here though.
And he put them in a stock too. That would be a miserable condition to be in, wouldn't it?
They're probably bleeding and having a tremendous amount of pain and and then they have shoved their feet in the socks and down there in the darkness and here it says. And at midnight, Paul and Silas, they start to to sing and pray. They prayed and sang praises. Isn't that wonderful, boys and girls? Think of it.
Anywhere down there in that prison, you know, it's all dark. Down there was the inner prison. It was probably dark in the daytime, let alone at midnight. But it says they they were down there singing. At midnight they start singing and the other prisoners heard them. What a testimony that must have been.
And then something happened. What happened?
OK.
What happened?
Yeah, they had an earthquake, didn't they? And the doors came open, flew open. Has anybody here ever been in an earthquake?
No, probably not. Well, some hands go up in the back here. Yeah, yeah, There was just an earthquake a couple, three days ago in Bolivia. I think of La Paz, where I understand a number were killed.
I was, I felt the tremor one time. I remember in Oak Park where I used to live, that I remember the, my mom's China closet, the dishes started rattling all of a sudden. So I'm like this, you know, and the cups were, you know, hitting together and wondered what was going on there. There was a little tremor from an earthquake. And I remember one time down in Lawrenceville, I was staying there and I, I still remember I was up in a bedroom staying at, at Tim Buchanan's house. And I was up in a bedroom and there was a metal bed, I think. And there was, there was no carpet on the floor and.
All of a sudden the bed started shaking at night, and I wondered what is going on here. The bed started shaking. I really didn't. It lasted for about a minute. And I thought, you know, I had something to do with the plumbing or something like that, you know, or I wasn't sure what it was. So. But it turned out he told me. He asked me the next morning if I felt that last night. And sure enough, yeah, I sure did. And he said, yeah, that was a little tremor from an earthquake that was centered somewhere else. I don't know, but.
Anyway, boys and girls, this was really an earthquake though, and you know, the doors flew open, the foundations were broken up. It says that the prison.
And we're shaking the foundations of the prison. And the doors were open and all the bands came off the prisoners, you know, they, they had them in chains probably so they couldn't get away. All the chains come off them. And so this poor jailer, he thinks, well, this is the end for me because it would be his life for theirs if anybody got away then.
His superiors would see to it that he was put to death and he thought, well, what's the use now? You know, rather than them kill me and I'd be humiliated like that, I'll just, I'll just kill myself.
What a what a sad condition, isn't it? But you know, boys and girls, the Lord intervened and Paul calls out and he tells them, no, don't, we're all here, Do thyself no harm. And it says he sprang in there with a light. Well, you know, boys and girls, that man was really in earnest.
He was in the darkness, wasn't he? He needed the light. And he sprang in there. That means he jumped in there real fast. He wanted to get in there. And he, he, he fell down before him, it says, and he says, what must I do to be saved? He wanted to be saved. He realized that he was lost. And you know, boys and girls, if you don't have the Lord Jesus as your Savior, then you're lost too. You know, you're lost too.
All we hope, boys and girls, that there's nobody here who's still lost. Now Paul and Silas, they told them believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. And that's the same message, boys and girls, for you and for me today, to put your trust in the Lord Jesus, to believe on him and you'll be saved. We hope that each one here has done that.
Now we're going to look at another midnight scene in Matthew 25.
Matthew 25, we have another.
Midnight.
Scene.
We're doing this a little quickly. I don't like to do that, but umm.
00:35:03
We read here that the Kingdom of heaven is liked unto 10 virgins, 5 wise, 5 foolish. They took their lamps.
And they went out to meet the bridegroom. The bridegroom was coming.
And it says that the foolish, they took their lamps, but they had no oil in them, and the wise they took oil in their lamps.
So everybody had a light to start with, it looked like.
And then it says that the well the bridegroom tarried. They all slumbered and slept.
That's what's usually happening at midnight. They weren't watching or sleeping.
But it says at midnight there was a cry made. Behold, the bridegroom cometh.
Throw ye out to meet him.
And it says all those versions arose and trim their lamps. And the foolish said, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are gone out or going out. But the wise answer saying, not so, unless there be not enough for us. And you, you go rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bride boom came.
And they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.
Afterward came also the other virgin, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
You know boys and girls.
The Lord Jesus is this Bridegroom.
And he told us in his word that he's coming again.
And boys and girls, he's coming again soon.
And you know, boys and girls, we want to ask each one here today, Are you ready if the Lord Jesus should come today, if the Lord Jesus should come this very day or even before this meeting is over, about 5 minutes or so, Are you ready for the coming of the Lord Jesus? Or would it be that like we had last night that you would be left behind because you didn't have the Lord Jesus as your savior? Oh, boys and girls, that would be so, so sad to just we, we, we don't even like to think about it.
Be left behind to know that maybe dad and mom are gone to be with the Lord Jesus and here I am still here for boys, boys and girls. It doesn't have to be that way. If you ask the Lord Jesus to be your Savior, put your trust in Him and ask Him to wash your sins away and His precious blood, he'll do that for you boys and girls. He'll do it right now as you sit there in your seat. If you ask Him to come, hit your heart and then you don't have to be afraid if the bridegroom comes, if the Lord Jesus comes, you'll be ready. And it says those that were ready, they went in and boys and girls, the Lord Jesus is coming soon to take all those who put their trust in Him, to take Him home to heaven.
That could happen anytime now, boys and girls, anytime. Old boys and girls, we hope and trust and pray that you'd be ready, ready for the Lord Jesus to come.
I want to read another verse about midnight in Mark Gospel.
Chapter 13.
Mark, Chapter 13.
And verse 35.
Watch ye therefore, for ye know not when the Master.
Of the House cometh.
That even or at midnight.
Or a car growing. Or in the morning. Yes, boys and girls, the Lord Jesus could come anytime.
We don't know when he's going to come.
He could come anytime today, he could come this morning, he could come this afternoon, he could come tonight, he could come at midnight.
Boys and girls, don't wait, don't wait. Be ready. Be ready for the Lord Jesus to come. Put your trust in Him. He wants you to come to Him and have your sins washed away in His precious blood.
I'd like to refer to one more thing in closing.
And this is referred to in each of the Gospels and.
Perhaps while we're here in Mark, we can look at chapter.
14.
No, I'm sorry. Chapter 15.
We've been Speaking of the 12:00 midnight.
But you know, boys and girls, there's another 12:00 we talked about, and that was at noon.
And you know, in the 15th chapter of Mark here and in the end of the other gospels.
We have the the wonder story and the sad story of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, God's beloved Son.
00:40:11
And we're told of all the cruel and inhumane and wretched things that a man's heart could devise against the Lord Jesus.
When they put him there on the cross, and all the things they did to him just before he went to the cross, and after he was on the cross there, all the cruel mocking and scourging the crown of thorns.
The robe, the smiting, the nails.
The mockery, all these things the Lord Jesus suffered from the hands of man, but you know, boys and girls were told.
In verse it says let's see verse.
33.
After the Lord Jesus was hanging there for the first three hours it says, and when the 6th hour was come.
There was darkness over the whole land until the 9th hour.
When the 6th hour was coming, we believe, boys and girls, that the 6th hour is was 12 o'clock 12:00 noon, when the sun is high on the sky, suddenly everything became black, dark, dark as midnight. And no, no human eye could penetrate that darkness.
When boys and girls, the Lord Jesus was bearing the judgment of sin from a holy and a righteous God, He was bearing that judgment in His own body on the tree. Then God shut out all human eyes from that scene.
Only God knew what was transpiring there. Only the Lord Jesus knew. But you know, boys and girls, the Lord Jesus was bearing your sins in mind. You put your trust in Him.
And the Lord Jesus, he bore that judgment and eternity of judgment in those three hours of darkness. He drank that cup and he drank it to the last drop. He didn't leave anything, boys and girls, He didn't eat anything. For you and I to suffer from the hands of God for our sins in that way.
He drank along until he could stay at the end of that time.
He said first he said, why hast thou forsaken me? And we know why. It was because he was made sin and God was judging sin. But boys and girls, then he could say it is finished, and boys and girls the work is finished for your salvation and for mine.
And so once more, boys and girls, we plead with each one of you, and the Lord Jesus would plead with you and hold his arms out to you and say, come to me and be saved. Have your sins washed away from my precious blood. Lord, boys and girls, the Lord Jesus wants you. He wants you this morning.
If a person goes to a lost eternity, boys and girls, not because the Lord Jesus didn't want you, because you didn't want, you didn't want him. Anybody who goes to lost eternity is true. So we trust that each one here has put their trust in the Lord Jesus. And if you haven't done so, boys and girls, do it now. Do it right in your seat. Ask the Lord Jesus to come into your heart, be saved, wash your sins away. Let's pray.
Our blessed God and loving.
Nitrogen Accident
Gospel—K. Harman
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.
The enormity of this is so great.
I would trust that each one is attentive to the Word of God tonight.
And I would especially.
Direct my comments tonight to those in this room who are here.
Without Christ as your Savior.
I want to welcome you here tonight, and I trust that the Lord has something for you.
I'd like to begin with #17 have you any room for Jesus?
He who bore the Lotus sin.
As he knocks and asks Submission center, will you let him in room for Jesus?
Lord of glory, hasten now His word. Obey. Swing the heart's door widely open. Bid him enter.
While you may, shall we stand sing #17.
We just bow our heads and ask God's blessing.
These meetings in Ezekiel, chapter one.
00:05:04
It's not my intent to follow through Ezekiel.
I can't do that.
But you know, I was impressed and have been impressed before that what we find there in Ezekiel chapter one.
Now we just read verse 26. Maybe we'll just read that again. It's too long to go. We don't have enough time to read all of it because this isn't really what I have before me. But I would like to introduce my subject with this.
In verse 26.
Let's read verse 25. There was a voice from the Firmament that was over their heads when they stood and had let down their wings with the Seraphim churches.
And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne.
As the appearance of a sapphire stone, and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness.
As the appearance of a man above upon it.
And I saw as the color of amber, as the appearance of fire around a boat within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire. And it had brightness rounded up as the appearance of the bow, that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round above.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.
And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one.
That state now turn over to the Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible.
We'll read this verse from verse 12, and I turn to see the voice that spake with me.
And being turned, I saw 7 golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks 1.
Like unto the Son of Man.
Clothes with the fur, garments down to the foot and girt about the paps with the golden girdle his head.
And his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were as a flame of fire in his feet, like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace. And his voice is the sound of many waters.
And he had in his right hand seven stars, None of his mouth went to sharp 2 edged sword, and his countenance was as the sunshine in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.
Chapter 4.
Verse six and before the throne.
There was a sea of glass, like under crystal.
And in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts, full of eyes before and behind.
And the first beast was like a lion, and the second like a calf. The third had a face of a man, and the 4th was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts or living creatures had each of them six wings about him. They were full of eyes within him and the rest. And they rest not day and night, saying, holy, holy, holy Lord, God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever before, and 20 elders fall down before him.
That sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Verse chapter 5. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within.
And on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
I'm not going to read any further.
My purpose was to give us a little bit of a picture.
Of that unseen world.
You know, we can go about in this scene and we're not conscious.
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We're not conscious really of what's going on up there, are we?
And the center goes on in his sins.
As though nothing is going to happen because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. Therefore the heart of the sons of man is fully set in itself to do evil.
And they go on and on as though it's going to last forever and they are not conscious of what is going to, of what is going on up there. But you and I have seen from this book that there is a firmament not only under heaven, for you and I are, but there's that which is above the firmament.
And that's what we are dealing with tonight, my friend. That's what I want to present to you tonight and to each heart here, the fact that we have to do with him.
That same one that was seen in Ezekiel is the same one who came to this this earth to seek and to say that which was lost.
The same one that man crucified and nailed to the tree.
And then sent back to heaven saying we don't want him.
Is that what your heart is saying? Don't tell me about him. I don't want him. Don't rock the boat. I've got my prosperity. I've got my fame. I've got my.
Whatever it might be to keep you occupied down here. And you don't like to be reminded that you are responsible to us, right? Holy God.
Holy, holy, holy.
We have bread, Lord God Almighty.
Him, that was and is and is to come. He's been here once and he's coming again.
He came to seek and to say that which was lost, and now he's going to come back again very quickly, very soon, to take unto himself those who have received His word and His work.
Have you, Are you sitting here tonight in your sins or in Christ?
There are only one of two places.
Were you in the meeting this morning?
You know, there's children here.
I don't know.
Where you stand as far as your soul salvation is concerned.
But but I want you to know that he knows.
The one who was above the firmament.
He looks down into your heart and he knows whether you are real.
Or whether you are showing feigned obedience to Him. Not a solemn thing.
There's nothing. All things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
You can't get by with anything.
The meeting this morning we sang a hymn.
I'm just going to read some of the verses.
The Tempest's awful voice was heard.
Oh Christ, it broke on thee. Thye open bosom was my ward.
It bore the storm for me.
Thy form was scarred, thy visit marred, now cloudless peace for me, for me, Lord Jesus, thou hast died. Can you say this? You children, you young people, you sat in the meeting this morning.
And you sang this here, did you?
For me, Lord Jesus, thou hast died, and I have died in thee. Thou art risen, Thy bands are all united, and now thou is to me. The Father's face of radiant grace joins now in light on me.
I was impressed with that meeting this morning.
How it must have looked from above the firmament.
As he looked down, he was here in our presence this morning. We didn't see him.
Except by faith.
And we know he was there.
And we sang at him.
Did you sing it out of reality at all? As he looked down.
I just, I kind of pictured myself up there with him beholding.
That that song of praise that went up.
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And I thought, you know, this is only, there's only 500 of us here. What's it going to be like?
In the glory with Him.
When it will be all the redeemed from all ages?
And all the hosts.
Thousands upon 10, thousands upon 10. Thousands of angels.
I can't begin to even comprehend what it will be like, but I know I will be there with my voice raising that song of praise. Will you? We sing sometime, Will you be there, and I will you?
Where were you this morning? Did you sing that hymn? Can you say for me, Lord Jesus, thou hast died, and I have died in Thee?
Or are you hardened to these things? I am thinking of a family at this moment.
Who have children? Some of them are saved, but they have one boy.
Teenager now.
The testimony concerning him is that they do not think He is safe. He has sought in the gospel meeting time and time and time again. His Father preaches the gospel faithfully.
Doesn't seem to fit. It just runs off his back like water off the dock as they say. And you know it's possible.
To do that, for that to happen.
And I hope there's no one in this room like that.
You know, as the word of God is proclaimed to you, you are responsible for what you do with it. You will not leave this room the same way you came in, for you will be doubly responsible.
For what you do with Jesus.
God is not marked.
No, he's not. And God's love for you and me was so great that he sent that one who is above the firmament. He sent him down to this scene.
In love for your soul and mind.
And he saw him go through the cross of Calvary, and he saw those wicked hands take him and nail him to that tree.
They heard those voices say away with him. We will not have this man to reign over it. And your voice and mine was in that, in that crowd.
I want to tell you something that perhaps you don't realize.
That he paid the price.
To purchase you.
He owns you.
Did you know that?
And he owns me.
Even if I do not put my trust in him, he owns you because he bought you.
You want a word for that?
Turn to First Peter, chapter 5.
I'm sorry not first Peter chapter 5 thinking of his different one.
Second Peter, chapter 2.
I'm thinking of one phrase in here. There were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privilege shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.
He paid the price. The Kingdom of heaven is like.
Unto a man who found treasure in a field.
And he saw, when he saw this treasure, he, I'm not quoting it exactly, I'm kind of paraphrasing it, But when he saw this treasure, what did he do? He sold all that he had and he bought the field.
The field is the world, and he owns this world not only because he created it, but because he bought it.
And now he wants to buy. He wants. He has paid the price to set you free.
Do you want to be set free?
Does it mean anything to you that you belong to him by purchase?
And if you don't trust him, if you don't accept the offer that he gives you to set you free?
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It's mutiny.
It's like a man who is the captain of the ship. He owns a ship and he, the crew belongs to him.
And they rise up and they mutiny in a way.
And so if you leave this world in your sins with that offer of salvation.
There in front of you.
How responsible you are?
And there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Because of it all, my friends.
Don't tamper with the word of God. Don't play with it. Don't think that you can sit here tonight.
And listen to this and have this word open before you would think that you can go out of that door.
As you came in, you cannot do it because God holds you responsible for what you have heard.
And he wants your heart, my friend.
Give it to Him in all its sins, and you'll wash your sins away. The blood has been shed, the price has been paid, never to be paid again, and He offers it to you tonight.
Full and free.
All you know, there's so many things that can happen in this world so quickly.
That can rob you of that opportunity.
Where I work, I work for a place that makes vegetable oil.
And we sometimes send it in bulk cars.
And some of the customers demand that these bulk cars are purged with nitrogen.
Nitrogen is an inert gas. You can't live in nitrogen.
You can't live without it, but you can't live in it.
You If you're in nitrogen for four minutes, you're dead.
If you get into nitrogen.
Only nitrogen. You're out like that.
You don't know what hits you, you suffocate and in 4 minutes you're brain dead.
So this these cars are purged with nitrogen.
And I was working with these fellows.
One day.
And I went for lunch.
And when I came back, the ambulance was there and the police were there.
And everybody was running around and I wondered what had happened and they said there's someone in the car.
And I said who? And they told me, well, I've just been working with him an hour before.
And then I then I found out that there was two of them in there.
One fellow went into the car and he's out like that. He went down. All the safety things were in place.
And it was foolishness to go into that car with all these things in place, the masks, the.
The hoist, the lifting up, it was all there.
But he went down to retrieve a spout that had broken off and fallen in and had to be taken out before they filled it with the oil.
And he went down and lost his wife for that foolish thing.
And one of the fellows that was working with him saw it and he went down after him and he just got his head below the Hatch. And he was, he fell off the ladder and he landed on the and the bottom of the car he was gone too.
And by the time I got over there, there were three in there, three men.
And one of them was still alive because of the quick thinking of one of the fellows. This man had gone down. The third man had gone down because his brother was down there.
Now the word of God tells us that no man can give to God. Give to God a ransom for his brother. He can't save him. Nobody can save. You can't save your brother. Only God can do that.
But this man had gone down for his brother.
He had the mask on, he had the gas tanks on and he couldn't fit through the Hatch.
So he said take them off and hand them to me when I get in there.
And as he went down, as he went down, his head went below the Hatch and he fell off the ladder just like that, and he was down there. Fortunately he fell down with his face up, and the man had quick thinking that was up above, and he left, he turned the oxygen on and he left the mask down and hovered it over his face.
00:25:11
Kept them alive until the rest of us could get some oxygen tanks from the lab and we opened the **** at the bottom of the car and we forced oxygen up inside the car to try and expel all the nitrogen in there.
But they hauled three men out of that. We didn't know for sure whether the third one was going to make it.
By the grace of God, he made but as I saw them bring those fellows up out of that car.
There didn't look like there's anything wrong with them.
They looked like they were asleep, but they were in eternity.
They didn't know that this was going to happen.
At 11:45. By 12:30 they were dead.
Can happen just like that. You don't know when your time is up.
Foolishness to not be ready. Foolishness to not heed the word of God. We warn you tonight.
Because there is wrath beware lest he take thee with away with a stroke, And a great ransom cannot deliver me.
Don't trifle with the Word of God. He wants your heart and He wants it today.
Tomorrow may be too late.
I was thinking of that little verse that we get in the book of Ecclesiastes. There was a little city and a few men in it.
And the great king came into that city, and he besieged it, built a great bulwark against it.
And there was a poor wise man in that city, and he by his wisdom delivered that city.
And yet no man remembered that poor wise man. What's that all about?
We remembered that poor wise man this morning.
The Lord Jesus is the man, the King is the devil, the city is the world. And that's why I say he bought the world. He purchased it with his blood. He paid the price in order that he might set you free. Do you want him?
Do you remember what he has done for you young people, children?
Is it nothing to you? All ye that pass by? He would say, Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like under my sorrow.
It pleased the Lord to bruise him, to put him to shame Jehovah.
God smoked his Son for you.
He suffered at the hand of man, yes, but he suffered at the hand of God, because God required that a sacrifice must be made in order for you and for me to be set free. We couldn't pay the price ourselves. We were debtors and if we had nothing to pay?
Bankruptcy.
What could you offer to him Who owns the world?
You can't offer anything but yourself. Oh my friend, he loves you.
He died for you.
Let's turn for a moment to the book of.
Samuel.
First Samuel.
Chapter 25.
I'm going to read the whole chapter except for a few verses.
And will comment on it as we have time, but I think as we read this chapter you will probably get the picture.
We'll read from verse two. There was a man in Mayon whose possessions were in karma, and the man was very great and he had 3000 sheep and 1000 goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
Now the name of the man was Mabel, and the name of his wife Abigail, and she was a woman of good understanding.
And of a beautiful countenance. But the man was churlish and evil in his doings, and he was of the House of Caleb.
And David heard in the wilderness the Nabel did shear his sheep, and David sent out ten young men. And David sent said unto the young man, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabel, and greet him in my name. And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity. Peace be both TV and peace be to thine house, and peace be untooth all that thou hast.
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And now I have heard that thou has shearers now thy shepherds which were with us, we heard them not, neither was their ought missing unto them all while they were in karma. Ask thy young men, and they will show thee. Wherefore let the young men find favor in thine eyes, for we come in a good day. Give I praise thee whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David. And when David young men came, they spake to Mabel, according to all those words in the name of David and thief.
And Naval answered David's servants and said, who is David and who is the son of Jesse?
There will be many servants nowadays that break away from every man from his master. Shall I my water and my flesh that I have killed for my years, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be. So David young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those things. And David said unto his men, Gird you on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword. And David also girded on his sword. And there went up until after David about 400 men, and 200 devode by the stuff.
But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabel's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master, and he railed on them. But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything as long as we were conversant with them when we were in the fields. They were a wall unto us by both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do. For evil is determined against our master and against all his household, for he is such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him.
Then Abigail made haste, and took 200 loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready, dressed in five measures of parched corn, in 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 cakes of figs, and laid them on *****. And she said unto her, servants, Go on before me, behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabel. And it was so as she rode on the *** that she came down by the covert of the hill, And behold, David and his men came down against her, and she met them.
Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness.
So that nothing was amiss was missed of all that pertained unto him, and he hath requited me of evil.
For good. Verse 23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted and lighted off the *** and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and fell at his feet, and said, upon upon me, my Lord, upon me, let this iniquity be, and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak of thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid. Let not, my Lord, I pray thee regardless, man abilio, even Mabel, whereas his name is so is he, Nabel is his name, and folly is with him. But I, thine handmaid, saw not the young men of my Lord whom thou did send.
Now therefore, my Lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord hath withholding thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, Now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my Lord be his neighbor. And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath wrought unto my Lord, let it even be given unto the young men that I that follow. My Lord, I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make my Lord a sure house.
Because my Lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in the all thy days, yet a man is risen up to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul. But the soul of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God, and the souls of thine enemies them shall be shall he sling out as out of the middle of a sling.
And it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall have done to my Lord, according to all the good that he has spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed the ruler over Israel, that this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offensive heart unto my Lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my Lord hath avenged himself. But when the Lord shall have dealt with my Lord, then remember thine handmaid. And David said, Abigail, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to me.
And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou which hath kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with thine own blood.
Verse 35 S David received off her hand at which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house. See, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person. And Abigail came to Nabel, and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabel's heart was merry with him, for he was very drunken. Wherefore she told him nothing less or more until the morning light. And it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of naval. And his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him.
00:35:20
And he became as a stone. And it came to pass about 10 days after that the Lord smote Nabel, that he died. And when David heard that Nabel was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil. For the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail to take her to him to write.
And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they speak unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee to take him, take thee to him to wife. And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth.
And said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord.
And Abigail hasted and arose, and rode upon an *** with five damsels of hers that went after her, and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.
A beautiful picture we have here.
And yet a solemn picture, because it typifies, it's typical, you know, of the man of the world that he.
Is ignoring the God of all grace that has approached him with this offer of salvation.
And man goes on his way. He has heard about Christ.
He has heard about the cross.
There are many that say they have not, and I believe it too. But I'm talking about those who have heard it and they they can say, as this man of Belial said, who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? Are you saying that tonight, my friend, in your heart, what have I to do with Christ? Who is he?
You might not be saying it with your lips, but you're very denial.
You're very denied. You know, I was impressed with someone in the prayer meeting tonight mentioning that we pray for those.
Whose answer will be? I'm not. I can't remember exactly how he put it, but we've trust and we pray that the answer will be toward Thee.
It will be, yes.
It can only be two answers, right?
And the very denial of him is to say.
Who is David? David is a picture of Christ, you know.
And here's David, he this scene that we have here, David is fleeing from Saul and he is, he has been living in The Cave of Adelaide with 600 of his of his faithful men.
And he has been going from cave to cave to cave, no doubt, and from hill to hill and from place to place, trying to avoid saw who was out to slay him. And it's a picture of the Lord Jesus in this day.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not, and so he's in a place of rejection right now.
They sent him back saying we don't want him.
And he's in the place of rejection.
And so man goes on his way.
And he says, who is David? Who is Christ? What am I to do with Christ?
All, my friend, you have everything to do with him because he owns you.
He owns you and you have. He has a right to you.
But you can't belong to him unless you accept what he has done for you.
And he paid an awful price, my friend. He laid down his life. He shed his blood upon the cross. He suffered at the hand of a holy God who brought down that judgment upon him, stroke upon stroke, that you and I might be set free.
For me, Lord Jesus, thou hast died.
00:40:05
Well, we find him running.
And now we find him in the field of this man Nabel, whose name means a fool.
And he approaches him in grace and he says he's looking for a positive, positive response from this man.
And he goes to him and he needs, he's in need. He wants some food.
And what does he get instead? He gets a slap in the face. And the Lord Jesus got the same treatment.
They slapped him in the face. They pulled his beard.
They plotted that crown of thorns upon his head.
We read in the Word of God that his face was so marred more than any man, and his form than the sons of man.
Does it mean anything to you?
What are you going to do with Jesus?
When he's done so much for you.
And so he sends his young man to this man and tells him what to say. And the he tells them.
What he thinks of David.
He's just like any of these others that have blessed their masters. And so who is he anyway?
He's just a rub.
And so they come back and tell David, and David rises on.
He rises up and he says, gird on your swords. We're going to settle the scar. And you know, there's a day coming, my friend, when God is going to bring judgment on this world. It's the God of all grace right now.
But the day is coming when you know God. All judgment has been committed to the Son.
And that same Jesus who hung upon the tree.
And who you knelt to the tree and sent back saying you don't want him, He's going to come in power and glory.
And all are redeemed with them when the Lord Jesus shall descend from heaven.
With his mighty angels and flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, from the glory of power?
When he shall come to be revealed in his Saints.
I'm going to be with you. I'm going to be with him that day, in that day when he comes.
With a sword and he's going to bring judgment on those that have refused him.
That's his strange work. He does not want to bring judgment.
But God is not only a God of love.
He's a holy and a righteous God, and the day comes when God says my spirit will not always strive with men, and he's going to bring judgment to this world.
And so David Gert on his sword and and he's going to come and he's going to execute that judgment because David is God's anointed. David was God's anointed and Nabel didn't care.
If he knew it, he didn't care.
But Abigail knew. Abigail knew all about him, and Abigail was his wife.
Are you going to say that you don't know what the Lord Jesus is worthy of? Are you going to say that you don't know anything about him?
When you have listened to the story over and over and over again.
You are responsible, my friend, My dear young person, my dear children, you are responsible for what God has laid before you.
Your parents are praying for you. We prayed for you in the room there and I tell you.
I understood a little bit about what it says in Acts when when the room was shaken as they prayed.
That's how I felt.
00:45:00
Because there was prayer for you.
And there's prayer for each one that was not saved here tonight. Is that you?
I don't know who you are, I don't know your soul, I don't know your heart, I don't know whether you are still in your sins or not. But God knows.
And you're responsible with the eye of God upon you tonight.
To do something with it.
What are you going to do with Jesus, which is called Christ?
Are you going to turn your back on him? Are you saying tonight?
Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?
Who is Lord Jesus?
Well, Abigail heard about it and she made haste, and she came to head him off, came to stop him from doing something.
That was not of God.
You know, sometimes.
We get angry by the way people treat our Savior, don't we?
I don't know whether that's the right spirit or not, but it upsets us.
When we think of such grace that God has manifested to a soul, and they spurn it, they mock it.
They turn away from it. They treat it like Nabel did. It bothers us, and in a way I understand, David.
But you know, God in grace, the grace of God that bring us salvation to all men, has appeared.
And we're still in the day of grace. God has not brought judgment yet.
But he that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life, but the wrath of God died from him.
And you are under the judgment of God. You are in a very dangerous position, my dear friend, my boy and girl, my young person.
Are you safe?
You know, a few years ago there was a young person, 19 years of age that was saved in the breaking of bread.
At the remembrance of the Lord, wonderful.
And she said to me afterwards, I want to remember the Lord.
I want to be baptized and I want to remember the Lord because He's done so much for me.
As soon as I said when? As soon as possible.
I also know of one who was put away from the Lord's Table and 10 years afterwards he was saved.
According to his own admission.
It's possible, you know, to be in that place of privilege and that place of profession.
And be still in your sins. What an awful position to be in. But there's still time.
You're still here. You can still change that.
Stop and think about as we've had before today. Stop and think about the love that He had to you and that will draw with your heart to Him.
Stop and think about this hymn here again.
Death and the curse were in our cup. Oh Christ, it was full for thee.
But thou hast strained the last art dropped his empty now for me that bitter cup loved, drank it up, left. But the love for me. Jehovah lifted up his rod. O Christ, it fell on thee. Thou was forsaken of thy God. No distance now for me. Thy blood beneath that rod has flowed Thy bruising healeth me. I want you, my friend, to stop and think of that.
Apply it to yourself.
Supposing you're the only one in this room and God was speaking to you.
He is, He is speaking to you, and if you are in your sins, He is speaking to you, because this is to all that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Are you a whosoever tonight? Are you here as a whosoever? Of course you are.
He bought the world and you're in it. And so it applies to you. The offer is to you. The offer is to you and to me. And I want to tell you, my friend, I took it and I found that it was real. And he gives me a piece of my soul.
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That this world cannot give.
Are you still trying to find your satisfaction in this world?
I talked to a man. I in fact, I worked with the man once.
He was a scorner of the gospel, but he was a Sunday school preacher.
He wouldn't take the joyful news calendar that I offered him, but he would take any other kind of calendar. And you know the kind of me, that's the kind of man he was.
And he got fired from the company, or at least he got.
Ingloriously let go.
From the company because of harassment to some of the ladies.
And they graciously extended his his coverage, his insurance coverage for another year or two while he found another job. And so when his time was just about up, he came to the office to renew his insurance policy, and he just renewed it. That was on a Monday morning to be before noon. And at 2:00, he was dead.
Just like Naval, his heart died within him.
This very same week.
A dear brother who used to come to our meetings, not gathered with us, but he was a dear brother.
His name was Ploss Krueger.
Some have met him, but he used to enjoy coming and sitting in the reading meetings and he participated. We enjoyed it.
And it was the highlight of the week for him if he could come to our meetings and sit under the sound of the word and just participate in the reading of the word.
The very same week he dropped in.
There were two funerals that week, this man and dear brother Krueger.
He was standing there. He had a heart attack before and he was standing there. His wife had just had just helped him get in in the washroom and she turned her back and started to walk away and there was a thud. She turned around and he was on the floor and he was gone. He was gone before he hit the floor.
But what a release.
What a difference between these two men.
Where will it be with you, my friend? If you should suddenly, if your heart should suddenly die within you tonight, where would it send you?
What a solemn thought that is. Because you are responsible, I say again.
Our time just thought up.
Naval died.
And as we go on there, we find that now.
He was like everybody else in this world that has a good so-called good time. What was he doing at the time he was partying?
He was having a good time, wasn't he?
But God. But God, here is David out there patiently waiting. David had given him a warning. God has given you a warning. David was waiting God's time. He could have taken his own hands, but he dare not. After this, Abigail interceded.
And so we'll just go through it quickly now because.
God's purpose for you and me is not just to save us and let us go.
He wants to save us and to set us free, but is like the little, the little slave girl who the men purchased. He was up there on the on the on the block and he was bidding on her, bidding on her. And he kept on bidding higher and higher and higher. And finally he got her. You've heard the story. Does my heart good to hear it again though. So I'll tell it again. And he and he bought this little slave girl and she said, and now she was so afraid.
What was her new master going to be like?
And so he goes up to her and she says, oh master, master. And she says, I blocked you, and you belong to me.
And I'll set you free.
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She says, oh master.
Oh, Master.
I'll serve you forever.
She didn't want to be set free.
No.
Be a bond slave forever.
With a master like that, you are serving the wrong master if you are not serving Christ.
And he's going to. He's leading you down the road to hell.
That's where he is. That's where God has provided that place for the devil and his angels, and he wants company there and he wants your company.
But the Lord Jesus wants your company to He has died to set you free. He paid for you. He bought, He paid that price, the ransom for your soul.
What will you do with Jesus?
Who died for you?
You want something else, my friend, because the day is coming.
When he's coming back again and God is gathering out of this world of people for his name.
And for his son, it's called the church.
And when he comes?
There's going to be that shout, that trumpet sound, and we're all the dead in Christ will rise.
And those who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord.
And that's what he wants.
We will. He will usher us in to the Father's house. You know, there's a wonderful story.
About the Jewish wedding.
I don't have time to tell her, but I wish I did.
But, you know, so beautiful.
And when the man came, I'll just go to the end of it, when the man came to claim his wife.
When he came to.
To get his wife, he came to her father.
And he came with that which would the proof of purchase that he could support her. He came with with a document of a spousal. And he came with a flask of wine.
This is.
This is the old the way they used to do it. I understand years ago in at this point.
And when he would come to her father, and he would present this to him, and if he accepted.
He would call his daughter and if his daughter accepted, she would drink the glass of wine.
And the trumpet would be blown.
Then he went away for a whole year.
And he went to his father's house and he prepared a room for her. He prepared accommodations for her. And he didn't know when, the day, the marriage, these would take place. Only his father knew. Would you believe it? Only his father knew.
And when his father was satisfied that it was that everything was ready then.
Then he told his son, go and get your wife.
And then the last Trump.
Was born, you know, at the last Trump. Not beautiful.
And then he went. And during this time his wife was preparing herself. She was preparing her.
Entourage and she was waiting and she put a lamp in the window.
And in case he came at night and found her not ready.
She carried another flask of oil.
So that when he thought if he came at night, he would find her ready.
And then he would come.
And he would take his betrothed, and he would take her back to his father's house.
And his father would receive them, and he would take his hand, her hand, and put it in the hand of his, of her bridegroom, and they became man and wife.
And then he would take her.
Into the place that he had prepared.
And he would say, I want you to put on your most beautiful garment and I'm going to take you up.
And I'm going to introduce you to my friends.
And he would take them out, take her out, and he would present her to his friends of friends of the bridegroom.
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And then the feast would begin. Beautiful. That's what He wants for you and for me. Are you going to miss it?
By saying no to Christ.
That's what he wants for you, my friend. He wants you to become his bride.
You belong to him.
But He wants you closer than that. He wants you redeemed, to set you free and to become his own beloved wife.
Let's pray.
Announcing the Glad Tidings of Jesus
Gospel—J. Bilisoly
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Hospital meeting this evening.
I wonder if we could stand together and sing hymn #10 in our hymn sheet.
There is a city.
On high in the glory, a Savior who suffered on Calvary's tree, a Savior as willing to save now as ever.
His arm is almighty, His love great and free will. Come now to Jesus, that dear loving Savior.
Receive him this moment, and peace shall be thine. But someone raised the tune, please.
Oh.
Should we just ask God for His help in this time together?
I'd just like to begin by reading a verse in the book of Acts.
Acts Chapter 8.
And verse 35.
Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture.
And preached unto him Jesus.
Or, as another translation, Mr. Jay and Darby's translation puts it.
He announced the glad tidings of Jesus unto him. I like that He announced the glad tidings of Jesus unto him. The dear ones, that's the purpose of this meeting this evening that has been scheduled is to announce the glad tidings of Jesus unto you.
You know, I wish you could have been in the prayer meeting that was held just before this meeting.
And I wish you could have heard.
The tender and loving appeals that were made for your soul if you are without Christ this evening.
I don't know if there were physical tears in any of the eyes of the brethren that prayed in that room across the hall.
But I know that in their hearts they were crying out for your soul, and they were beseeching a loving God that He would speak to you.
And so we just desire that this evening, that's their desire in prayer, that if you are without Christ, that you would come to that Blessed One.
Not put it off, not even wait till the end of this meeting, but that you would accept Him as your savior.
And so we're not here tonight to.
In any way entertain.
Or anything of that nature. But we're here to present to you the Lord Jesus. You know, I thought it was nice this morning as we were considering what to have before us in these meetings.
And it was suggested that we have Christ before us. And it came over me. Could there be a more worthy subject? Could there be a better Object for our hearts to be occupied than with Him? No, there couldn't, because there. And so it's our desire tonight to announce the glad tidings of Jesus unto you, as this dear faithful evangelist Philip did to this Ethiopian eunuch here.
He pronounced unto him the glad tidings of Jesus.
You know, I had just stopped a little while ago to buy some gas and I went in to pay for the gas and the lady there was doing some other things and she didn't see that I was there. So I waited a minute and then she turned and.
She came over and took care of me and.
She said.
That pretty gloomy outside, isn't it? Kind of dreary? Not a very nice day. Yeah, it is a little overcast and.
She said you must have worked today, did you have to work? And I said, no, I I'm attending a Bible conference here in Des Moines. She said, oh, that sounds fun.
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And.
They said, well, it's been very nice and then I gave her a track to read. But you know what, the thought came over me that.
It's too bad, isn't it, that it seems like so often.
Things are measured in this life by whether or not it's fun.
And whether or not it's enjoyable to us.
And so I guess I wouldn't measure a conference in that way, whether it's fun or not. But I can tell you this, dear friend.
That if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
And if you feel attracted to him?
Then I can say that being at a conference and having him before you will bring joy, the pleasures of this life.
Cannot offer. It will bring you joy to be occupied with him as we were this morning.
Is that what you want? Is that what you're looking for?
It will bring you joy, but what I had before me.
This evening was to leave with you 5 expressions that are given to us in the Word of God.
And the first one that I want to look at is in the book of First Samuel. Now these expressions are all very short.
I think most of them are maybe 4 words and a couple of them are three words.
But this first one that I want to look at is in First Samuel chapter 17.
And my father-in-law touched on this portion earlier today.
It's not my intent to go into any of these portions. I just want to pick out these phrases and with the Lord's help, try and.
Blend them together.
But in First Samuel chapter 17.
I just want to look at this forward expression in verse 10.
Give me a man.
Now that's quite an expression. Only four words.
Now, I don't know if the man that made this statement, the Philistine warrior, the giant Goliath of gas, I don't know if he made this statement every day for 40 days. It says he presented himself 40 days.
But suppose he did, and each day you had this statement ringing in your ears if you were among the armies of Israel. Give me a man.
Now how would you respond to that dear 1:00 tonight?
If we were to read the beginning of this chapter, we would find.
How formidable.
And intimidating this mighty foe was.
He gives us some details. The Spirit of God gives us details about this man, about his stature, about his strength, and we get the feeling that he's an overwhelming enemy.
And he comes, and he defies the God of Israel.
And he comes and he says to them, He challenges them with these words. Give me a man.
Now how are they going to respond to that? How would you respond to that dear friend tonight?
Who would you send out to represent, to represent you against this mighty foe?
Do you have someone in your mind? Is there someone that you would say, oh, I would send?
So and so Do you have a man that you look up to? Do you have someone in your life?
That you would say I would send him against that foe.
Were there any in the armies of Israel that were willing to go out?
Look at verse 11.
When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
I think it's.
It's remarkable that it says specifically when Saul and all Israel heard those words. Now turn back just a few chapters to the 9th chapter of this book and let's see what kind of a image we get of Saw who was the leader of God's people, Israel the king at that time.
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Chapter 9 and verse one. Now there was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish. Verse 2.
And he had a son whose name was Saul, a choice young man and a goodly. And there was not among the children of Israel a goodly or person than he. From his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people, dear ones.
Here's the man that you might say was the most excellent person.
That the flesh could desire. This was the best, the goodliest in Israel among all those numbers of the children of Israel. It says there wasn't a good Lear person than he Here's the best man that's a flesh man in the flesh can offer.
The sin saw out against this man, this giant.
But what does it say?
Back in our 17th chapter.
They were dismayed and greatly afraid. Saul was dismayed and greatly afraid. He's not going to be able to go against this enemy.
Who would you send dear? 1:00 tonight?
You know, the world has their leaders. I'd like to tell you about an experience that I had.
Probably something that I'll never experience again.
This happened less than a year ago.
I work downtown in Denver, Co.
And to the West of where I work, there's a city and county building that's quite imposing. It has a very nice groomed land in front of it, landscaping and so on. And it's kind of a natural.
An area where they they often use for get togethers and rallies and so on.
And before you get to the city and county building, there's a library. Now, not too long ago, the library was just an average library. I mean, it didn't look impressive or or any different than than most buildings or libraries, but.
Couple of years ago, they put a lot of money into the library and greatly enhanced it and expanded it and made it very, very impressive. And if you ever have an opportunity to be in our city, you might want to take an afternoon and go to the library and look at it because it is unusual, I think at least from any library that I've been in. Well, they decided that.
The the President of the United States decided that he would host an economic summit.
With eight world leaders in this library, and that took place in June, I believe it was the last year.
And I knew that this summit was going to be going on because it was posted all over. They had banners on the streets and so on.
Well, I, I had to go into work on the Saturday that the the summit was going to begin. And so knowing that this was going to be going on, I thought I would take the binoculars along. And I work in a building that's eight stories tall and there's some windows that provide an excellent view of where this all was going to be going on. And our building had not been secured in a sense of sealed office, some of the other buildings in the area.
Although there was more police and protection than I'd ever seen before. Well, anyway, when I got there and looked out the window, I could see that things were beginning to happen. And they were. They had rolled out a big red carpet and there was a man that was grooming this carpet, so it was just perfect. In front of the library. They had a color guard that was very impressive on both sides of this carpet.
They had guards, color guards, stationed at the entryway into this library, and the one on the right or left had an American flag and the other one on the other side had the flag of the country that would be approaching.
I don't remember all the countries that were there, but there was the United States and Canada and Great Britain and.
France and Germany and Japan and perhaps another one, don't remember, but each of these countries have their own motorcades and escorts and attendance and a whole trail of vehicles. And they would come up one by one, and the band would begin to play. And President Clinton would come out of the library and he would need the dignitary from that country, the leader. Usually he would embrace and they would turn and pose for pictures. He would motion to the stands where all the press, the media were, and then they would turn and walk in towards the library, turn and they get more pictures taken, and then they would go on in.
00:20:29
And then the next country would come and so.
I was somewhat spellbound to be that close.
Perhaps with the binoculars, it seemed like maybe from here to the front row there and see all these men come in these world leaders. And it came overcame me to think this. Just think of the power earthly speaking, the power that these men will these eight men, these leaders.
And it was very impressive to see this. And then I my thoughts turned to our blessed Savior.
And how he came into this world and how he left this world and the treatment he received while in this world.
Nothing like that that I was witnessing before me.
And I thought in view of what we've had this evening.
Would you want to send anyone of those men? Would you want to send them before this giant? Before this bow? Oh dear ones.
Who are you trusting tonight?
Who are you putting your trust in?
Well, there was number man in Israel to go against this giant.
They were all dismayed and greatly afraid.
But you know, it's beautiful, isn't it, to see how the Spirit of God introduces to us in the very next verse.
God's remedy. It's like God is going to take.
The enemy up on his challenge.
He's going to send a man that can overcome him.
And David. And so it begins in verse 12 by saying, now David was the son of that epithet.
And we know, don't we? We know and enjoy much of what we have about David.
The name David means the love.
And I would just leave this to your own meditation.
But I've enjoyed looking into the New Testament.
And searching out the use of that title of his, My beloved son. Can I just leave this with you to look into yourself? But as far as I could tell.
It's referenced 8 times in the New Testament, and one of those times it's.
Not really a title, but by way of reference in Luke 20 there the connection with the man that had a vineyard and let it out to husbandmen. And we know that that story so nicely pictures to us the Lord Jesus being sent by the Father.
They will reverence my son, my beloved son, but what do they do? This is there. Come, let us kill him and seize on the inheritance.
And so.
Seven times it's mentioned by way of a title, My Beloved Son.
Look it up and enjoy it for yourself.
So I like to think of that as I think of David here, his name meaning beloved.
And to think of God's beloved Son coming into this world, the one in whom he was well pleased. Oh dear ones, tonight.
Do you know him? Do you know him as your savior?
We know the story here, how the David goes down into that valley of Elah, which means an oak perhaps springing before us, the thought of the cross. David goes down into that valley and he goes and he meets the giant, a picture of Satan, and he overcomes the strongman and spoils his goods, doesn't he? The dear ones, tonight we have a Savior in high in the glory. He's willing and ready to save you. Are you going to trust to some man?
To take care of you. I don't want to speak.
Hill in any way of these dignitaries? I don't mean to do that at all.
But you know, when it comes to your soul, they can't do anything for you. They may have a lot of power and they may have a lot of influence in this world.
But they don't have any power to save your soul.
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No one can by any means redeem your soul or give to God a ransom for you, no, only the Lord Jesus Christ.
Through his precious blood shed on Calvary's cross. And do that for you tonight. Let's move on to the next expression that I wanted to look at.
And that's in John 4.
John, Chapter 4.
And justice, the 1St 4 words of verse 29.
Come see a man.
Oh dear ones tonight.
This is God's man we're talking about God's man. For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The enemy pictured there in the Goliath of gas of Satan would say, Give me a man.
And God takes up that challenge and he provides a man that can overcome the enemy.
And this woman here, this woman of Samaria that had met this man.
She says come see a man.
Have you ever stopped and considered that, dear one?
Perhaps when you think of God and the things of God, you think of that which is not.
Attainable or that which is distant and mysterious. We hear all kinds of thoughts, don't we? Man's thoughts, as to those things, divine things. But I want to tell you tonight.
He's a man. He was a man in the scene. God come in the form of a man. He took a body just like your, yours and mine, that he might die upon the cross, that he might shed his precious blood.
In order that you could have life.
He's the man. And this woman, she says. Come see a man. Dear one, that's an invitation to you tonight too, to come and see a man.
We want to direct you and point you to the Lord Jesus. We want to tell you about the one.
Who was in this scene? One who could walk through the scene and he could become weary with his journey.
It tells us that in the first part of this chapter, it would become thirsty in the scene, the very one that would later stand up in this book.
And I'll just read it in the 7th chapter.
In the last day, verse 37, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Just think of that dear ones, the one that could say come unto me and drink is the very one that was thirsty in the theme too. He was weary with his journey. He was a man.
And this woman meets him.
And her whole life has changed. He exposes her sinful heart.
Maybe you don't like that.
Maybe you say I don't want to come because I don't like exposure.
Well, we don't like exposure, Dewey. But let me tell you something, dear friend.
He would only expose you to.
To bless you. He wants to bless you. He wants to give you eternal life. He wants to give you water, that water of life so that you would not thirst. You have a thirst. You have a longing in your heart tonight. Is that why you came tonight? Because there's something missing in your life? So I want to point you to a man and I want you to invite you to come like this dear woman did.
This woman that was exposed, did she want to get away? Perhaps at one point in this conversation she wanted to. She would like to have fled a man that could reveal all of her sin and degradation. And yet.
He wanted to bless her.
And it's like she can't contain it any longer and she.
Goes to where she had come. She went her way into the city. She leaves her water pot.
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She goes into the city and she says to the men, come see a man.
Which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this for Christ. Oh dear ones, he was a man in the scene.
And he wants to bring blessing into your life.
He wants to take care of that thirst in your soul. He's the only one that can.
Don't turn anywhere else.
Allow Him to expose your heart to let you see what you really are, that you are a Sinner before Him.
But then he wants to turn around and bless you and.
Impart salvation to you.
So that you can be at rest in His presence and enjoy His company.
And as a result of this woman's testimony, it tells us in verse.
41 That many more believed are inverse.
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, and then in verse 41 and many more believed because of his own words. Oh, dear ones, this is God's man, the Christ.
Come be a man. An invitation to you tonight.
And as you come and as you are with him, you're going to find more and more that you delight and being in his company.
Where will you find him? Well, I would encourage you to take up the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 4 accounts that we have given to us in the inspired Word of God. Take it up, come and see a man in those books. You will find out which answers to that first in your heart.
Don't put it off. Come see a man.
If we could look on to the.
19th chapter, the same book.
John, Chapter 19.
The last three words of verse 5.
Behold.
Amount.
Who said this?
Well, it was Pilot, wasn't he, that Roman governor?
He said that at the time when they were about to crucify the Lord of glory.
And perhaps.
Pilate said it in lightness.
Perhaps in mockery.
I don't know.
But what a profound statement. Behold the man. And if you'll notice, there's an exclamation mark at the end of that statement. Just three words. But oh, to think of all that they contain those 3 words.
Behold, the man. Perhaps Pilate had no idea.
Of the significance of what he was saying in that brief statement might have turned and lightly made it.
To the crowd that was gathered there, behold the man as he presented the Lord of glory to them, the dear ones.
I would like to encourage you and I.
And especially if you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior to behold Him, what does that mean to behold?
Is it just a quick glance in his direction? No.
It means to fix your eyes on him.
Like the dear sister wrote in her hymn, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful faith, and the things of earth will grow strangely down in the light of his glory and grace.
Behold the man.
I'll tell you another little story that happened not far from where I work. I was not walking at lunchtime one time, and this was about six years ago.
And the Democratic Party political party in this country was having a rally out there in this the same area that I mentioned just beyond the library, between the city and county building and the library and this large grassed area and.
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Presidential candidate Bill Clinton was there and he was going to give a speech.
So I was just walking along and you could hear speeches going on of dignitaries in the city that were.
Preceding his speech.
And then pretty soon, I heard the booming voice of the announcer saying, ladies and gentlemen.
And now I present to you the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, Mr. Bill Clinton.
And there was a lot of applause and so on.
And then afterwards, after his speech.
There was a quite a rush to get near him and I saw him pass from that podium to his vehicle and.
People were thronging him just to touch him, just to get near him, just to shake his hand if they could.
That impressed me to think.
Of the numbers of people that were there and the efforts that they made to get near a man.
What about this man?
Behold the man.
If we were to behold him.
As he's revealed to us in this precious word, dear ones, tonight, where would we begin?
If you begin in the beginning of the Bible, he's there in the very first verse of this blessed book. In the beginning God.
Below him the Trinity.
Supreme.
You don't enter into it, do we?
He's there though, the Creator. And if you go to the last verse of the Bible, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. There he is again, dear ones. He's throughout this entire book. He's revealed to us.
Behold him.
Well, we could look at many scriptures.
Tonight.
But speak to us of beholding Him.
But I wouldn't know where to begin. There's so many.
Let's speak of this Blessed One.
I might just look at one why we hold our place here and look for.
Tell us a little bit about this Blessed one.
In Luke 4 and verse 18.
I might read verse 17. And there was delivered unto him, that is the Lord Jesus, the book of the properties, Zaius. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captive, and recovering of sight to the blind, set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And look at verse.
22 And all bear him witness. And wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, It's not this Joseph's son.
You could behold him there in that portion of Scripture. You could spend a long time, couldn't you?
Thinking of that Blessed One and what his mission in this world was, do you fit into any of those categories of those that he came?
To heal. To bless.
To minister to.
Or we might turn our thoughts to.
Another aspect of this lesson 1.
You know, dear ones.
His glory is just shine out from this book. We couldn't begin to Plumb the depths of it.
He couldn't hide his moral glories, could he? They'd just shone out.
And I was thinking of Colossians one there where it tells us that by Him were all things created in verse 16 that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things subsist.
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The one that sustains the universe. Can you explain it to me?
We can't explain it, we can't enter into him, but this is the one that we are to behold.
Behold the man.
What a man to behold for our hearts.
You know Him, dear ones. Do you want to behold Him? Come to Him and accept Him as your Savior. Own your need as a Sinner.
And let him impart life to you, that you can behold him, and begin to behold Him as the one who is everything to you.
We'll just look over a chapter before this for the 4th one that I wanted to look at.
In verse 40.
Now we've had before us.
This Blessed One, and we've touched a little bit on some of his glory. We've beheld Him, as it were, for a few brief moments.
Now, what is the response to this blessed one? What is going to be the response to this crowd that has gathered around or the response from them?
Look in the middle of verse 40.
Not this man. Oh dear ones.
I can hardly think of anything more awful.
Than this statement here.
Not this man.
Is that what you are saying in your heart tonight as we have sought, and admittedly feebly, to present the Lord Jesus to you? Are you saying in your heart not this man?
Oh, dear. One, tonight I would plead with you, I would ask you to consider, reconsider.
Don't. Don't say this in your heart as these people did.
After they had seen perhaps some of the miracles that he had done, perhaps they had witnessed.
Some of those things, maybe they have been recipients of some of his goodness.
Maybe they had had their thirst satisfied in a temporal way. Maybe they had had their hunger satisfied.
Navy, They had touched him.
But then in their hearts said not this man. Can you imagine such a statement from the lips?
Of those that had witnessed all they had witnessed, to think of their measure of responsibility, to have had the testimony of this man, this blessed man among them for three years.
And then to turn and say.
Not this man.
Oh, I can't think of anything more fatal.
Anything more awful?
And then they stood, and they cried for his blood.
They cried all again saying not this man.
But Barabbas.
And if we were to have read further.
In verse six of the next chapter.
It says they cried out saying crucify him, crucify him.
Oh dear ones tonight. How awful.
I want to tell one more.
Event that I witnessed.
Again, I was in the building at work.
And I noticed outside that there was a huge crowd that was beginning to gather. They were coming from everywhere. I have never seen so many people. And I asked someone.
You know what's going on? I said it's it's a rally.
Looked at me kind of strangely, like why I didn't know, didn't understand, why I didn't know. It was a big event.
Well, what was happening was they were gathering together to honor the football team.
In our city that had won a world championship.
And they just kept coming and coming. And Groves.
And I heard someone estimate later that there was over 500,000 people down there.
I've never seen anything like it before. I just stood at the window there for a while and watched all these people. It was hard to get anything done. Anyway, my my office wasn't very far from the window and the noise was deafening.
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Over 500,000 people.
Packed together in an area probably maybe the size of 40 acres.
Quarter of a mile by 1/4 of a mile I would say.
I don't know how they all got in there, but it was packed in there and they began to chant and they began to.
Shout.
And it was something else to to behold that many people packed together.
But you know, they weren't crying out for the blood of these men. The.
They weren't saying away with them.
Oh, they were praising them.
They were praising these men. It was almost like they were overcome.
They were beside themselves, if you will. Not that they were getting out of hand, but they were just overcome with the emotions of the whole thing and I thought, that isn't it.
But now take that picture.
And picture this blessed man standing before that crowd and they're saying, not this man, crucify him. Crucify him, dear ones, that's your heart. Is that what you're saying tonight? Again, I would plead with you to reconsider.
I want to look at the last one now.
In First Timothy.
First Timothy, chapter 2.
And the end of the last four words of verse 5.
The Man Christ Jesus.
Hello dear ones, tonight.
I trust that you decide for Christ tonight.
But I want to tell you that even if you don't.
That oh far be the thought that you wouldn't. But even if you don't.
God has exalted this man.
Whom perhaps you and your heart have said, Not this man, I want to tell you, God has exalted him.
And he said him at his own right hand.
And there's the day coming when every knee is going to bow.
And every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Oh dear ones, I want to just leave that with you.
That God has highly exalted this one and given him a name which is above every name.
And if you don't own him as Lord now, you're going to in a coming day. But I want to tell you this.
I don't know what you're going to do with Jesus, like Pilate asked. What then shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ?
I don't know what you're going to do with him.
But I can tell you this.
God has highly exalted him.
And so I would urge you tonight, in closing, to turn to this Blessed One.
The one who is the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. So in summer we've we've had the enemy that would present that challenge. Give me a man.
And then?
The earnest appeal to you come see a man.
Behold the man. Oh, and I trust you don't say not this man.
Because God has exalted him, the man Christ Jesus.
Could we, in closing, sing?
#21 together.
Decide for Christ today in God's salvation, see yield, soul and body, heart and will to him who died for thee. Someone please raise the tomb.
Please do it again.
You know, a number of years ago we were in Newfoundland as a family. And my brother Tom, I don't think he would mind me telling this.
We we had been in some little outport village. I don't remember all the details. He would have been about 8:00.
And somehow in the confusion of leaving from that place.
We left poor Tom behind.
And there was a few fishermen there that tried to comfort him.
But when we came back, I don't remember how long it was before we realized he wasn't among our number.
And we turned and hurried back to where we had left. And there was Tom. I'll never forget. He was standing on that Wharf surrounded by those fishermen, and they were trying to comfort him as best they could, but they were total strangers to him, and he was sobbing.
Thinking that he would never be found perhaps.
And knowing that if we went back home without him, it would be so far he could never get back. I don't know what all that went through his mind, but he, he had been left behind. And dear ones, we don't want you to be left behind.
Let's pray.
Followers of God
Sacrifice
Trials of Life