Address—B. Anstey
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I'd like to speak this afternoon on the chapter of the Disciples mistakes.
Let's turn to Luke Chapter 9.
It's a long chapter, we won't read all the verses.
But to introduce the subject, I'll read the 1St 2 verses.
Luke Chapter 9 verse one. Then he that's the Lord Jesus called his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases.
Sent them to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
This is an amazing chapter. And as we know the gospel of Luke, the Spirit of God has given the loop, the evangelist here to put things in a moral order rather than a chronological order. And So what we find in Luke's gospel is he departs from chronological order, puts things in a moral order so that we may be taught certain lessons and be instructed.
In the path and so we find in this chapter as I said.
Many of the disciples mistakes, I've counted about a dozen of them and I'd like to look over them this afternoon and see how that the Lord met each one of those shortcomings and brought a little lesson out for the disciples out of their shortcomings and their failures. I would say also though, that these shortcomings that we're going to look at are not exactly positive willful sins, but rather just missing the mark.
And not being in communion with the Lord and our.
More on the class, I suppose we could say of shortcomings and mistakes.
To give perhaps a little bit of the context of what we're seeing here, in the 8th chapter we have the Lord Jesus demonstrating the power of grace perfectly in his life and in his ministry. We find there in the 8th chapter that the Lord Jesus is.
Demonstrating power and discourse where you have the parable of the sower.
And his ministry is such that it brings forth fruit.
30 fold, 60 fold and 100 fold. Then the next incident in the 8th chapter we find the Lord demonstrating power over disaster and there we have an incident before us about a storm on a lake. The ship that the disciples were in with the Lord was about to be capsized and he made a great calm and showed his power over the elements that he created.
And then we have after that another incident, and there we find the Lord Jesus demonstrating his power over demons.
In casting out the many demons from that poor person of whom we call legion, After that we find that he demonstrates his power over disease with the woman that comes to him and has a issue of blood for 12 years. Then the last incident in the late chapter we have the Lord's demonstration of power over death, and there he raises Jarius's daughter.
Power and discourse over disaster, over demons.
Disease and death a perfect demonstration of the power and grace of God.
Then in the 9th chapter we find he calls his disciples together and He confers that same grace upon them and empowers them to go out and to multiply that grace in the land of Israel. And He sends them forth as we have read to us already. But it's interesting that when they return there is no mention of any significant results of their mission. It does say that they healed some, but we don't have any mention of any conversions or any coming to acknowledge the Lord as.
Messiah and I suspect that one reason is that the nation was hardened against Him in unbelief. But also I believe that the disciples had much to learn with regard to ministry if there was going to be power and what they did and what they said for the Lord. And so the Spirit of God takes a number of incidents and brings them all together in this 9th chapter to instruct us as to certain things that we need in our lives as disciples that we might have a more powerful.
More effective and more fruitful ministry. And so we have these various mistakes and shortcomings before us. Let's look at them together and see the lesson that God would have that the Lord taught each of his disciples and he would have as a lesson for us as well. Let's look at verse 12.
When the day began to wear away, then came the 12 and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and the country around about and lodge and get vittles, for we are here in a desert place. But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We have no more but 5 loaves and two fishes, except we should go and buy meat for all these people.
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For they were about 5000 men.
And he said unto his disciples, Make them sit down in by 50s in a company, And they did so, and made them all sit down. And he took five the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and break gave to his disciples to set before the multitude. And they did eat, and were fulfilled, and were taken up of fragments that remained to them 12 baskets.
Here we have the first shortcoming of mistake of the disciples and that was.
To send the multitude away. They had been with the Lord Jesus all that day and they knew within their own resources that they had no way of feeding the people. And so they handled the situation by mere human. And they said, let's send them away to the villages, that they may get something to eat. But the Lord said don't send them away, you'll give them something to eat.
And when they looked over their their resources, they realized there's no way that they could do that.
All they had was 5 loaves and two fishes, but the Lord showed them that if they would put that in His hands, He could make it a blessing to the multitude, regardless of how many or how few there were. And so we have a good lesson here for us, and that is that we might be willing to let the Lord use.
US and what we have, little as it may be in our hands for His.
Service and for His glory. Many of us have the idea that we could never be a help to any of God's people because we don't feel we have any distinctive gift or any great knowledge of Scripture. And our ways with men are a little crude perhaps, and so on. But the Lord would have us to know that He is not necessarily looking at our abilities. It's not a question of our abilities or our inabilities. It's a question of making ourselves available to Him.
To use for his glory and for his praise. And so when he calls his disciples together, we find that they give this little lunch that they had there, and he multiplies it and makes it a blessing for the people. And so the lesson for us is that we need to be willing to let the Lord use us if we are going to be effective in our Christian service.
Many Christians.
Are.
Not even open to letting the Lord use them. They think, well, we should just leave that to our minister or to a preacher or to an evangelist or to a missionary. But that's not what the Lord wants us to do. Not too long ago in our meeting we had a couple of that came all the way from Romania from an open brethren gathering, and they were very happy to be among us in our meetings and drinking in the things. Anyway, a younger brother had been visiting with him who had been carrying them back and forth to meeting.
Found out that they were a little weak on the subject of eternal security of the believer. There have been some.
Of the Romanian believers that have imbibed that false doctrine, these people had not exactly imbibed that doctrine, but.
They were weak on it because there was so much exposure to it and they didn't really know how to handle it. And they were asking him certain questions. And when he heard that, do you know what he did? He said, just a minute, I'll go get Uncle Bruce.
No, give he them to eat.
So when he came to me, I said, Oh well, just tell them the truth of that. Just go right ahead.
Well, he looked into his basket or his bag and he saw only 5 loaves and two fishes and he said OK, So he went back to speak with him and he gave him a couple of verses and I think that the Lord made it a blessing. It wasn't until a little bit later that we had some special meetings on the subject and we took up the subject in detail, not only showing what scripture teaches, but looking at some of those verses that are erroneously used to support the false doctrine and explain what they really do mean. So that there is.
We left. No, we tried to leave no stone unturned, so to speak. But I just used that as an illustration here because you're going to be faced with situations. And if you leave it to your own human reason, you think, oh, well, I could never answer. I'd better call some older brother. No, the Lord is saying, I want to use you. Dear brother, dear sister, I want you to have the privilege of letting my power and grace work through you to be a blessing to another. You know the Lord doesn't need anyone of us.
But he's pleased to use us, and if we keep in a state of communion with the Lord, he will use us for the blessing of his people. And look at the blessing that came here. There were 100 groups of 50 at least that were here seated.
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And they all got something to eat because the disciples, though reluctant, but they were willing to put that into the hands of the Lord and he used it. And so, dear young person and older person, let's be willing to let the Lord use us in his service as the opportunities come. For those who are a little bit older. Do you ever go and visit? Of course you do. And the brother and I are just longing to have someone get up and speak, maybe take the gospel. What do you say? Well, actually I was thinking about going.
Before the meeting, how many times have we heard that That's not being willing to let the Lord use us even if we feel we're incompetent. It's something to encourage the hearts of the Saints to hear and see someone come from a distance from another gathering and open the scriptures and give a little something. It's not necessarily a question of gift. As I say, it's not the question of ability or inability. It's the question of availability, making ourselves available that the Lord may use this.
Well, let's look at another one, number two, verse 18. And it came to pass that he was alone, praying at his disciples with them.
I see a little short coming here.
The Lord was alone praying. His disciples were with Him, but there is no mention that they were praying.
You know, as a brother back home says, you know, prayer is not a spectator sport. We don't stand around and watch other people pray. Prayer is something that he wants that all of us should be engaged in.
And it's quite interesting to see here that the Lord was praying and the disciples were.
Doesn't say that they were. So I was assumed from this that they were sort of standing around or standing around watching the Lord pray.
You know, there's no substitute for prayer and communion. We need to be in communion with the Lord and we'll find as we stretch through the go through the chapter that many of these mistakes and shortcomings that they.
Are have are related to these opening points of not necessarily being willing and not being in communion with the Lord. So the lesson here, of course, is that we might be in communion.
How can we expect the Lord to use this for any appreciable way if we are not found praying to the Lord?
Not too long ago I was reminiscing with a brother about Otter Lake. I was doing it here yesterday was Steve. But this is to do with the men's group. I had never been to that group. But years ago Gordon, as when he would shut up his cottage, he would call some of the men along, as you know, most of you know, and he would ask them to help them, you know, close it up, bring the dock in and whatever they did.
You probably could have got the work done in a day or 1/2 or so, but they stretched it into about 10 days because they used the opportunity to get into the Scriptures. At any rate, this brother said that Gordon, for some reason didn't sleep in the house like he used to do when the young people were there. He was sleeping the cabins with the men. And so at the end of the day, around 10:30 to 11:00 at night, they would go up to the cabins and they would pray and they'd get into the bed.
Well, this brother was fast asleep and he had to get up in the middle of night to.
I think use the bathroom outhouse is what it was. And as he rustled around a bit, he looked in the dark.
And he saw a figure kneeling beside his bed. He looked closer. It was Gordon Hale. He was spraying. He looked at his watch. 3:00 in the morning. What, he thought to himself, We all prayed and got into bed.
Was he praying all that time? He said, I don't know if he got up in the middle of the night to start to pray or he had continued on from the time when the rest of us were. But when I heard that, I said to myself, now I know why that man had such power in his ministry. There was a life of prayer that was behind it and that was a real exercise for my own soul that if I want to be effective in what I teach and preach from the Word of God, that there might be an inner life.
With the Lord of prayer and communion. Now the Lord quizzes or at least asks the disciples who do the people think I am? And you can see how that the Lord was rejected and their ministry never didn't seem to affect much result because they all had different opinions. Some said they thought well he's John the Baptist. Some said maybe it's Elijah, maybe one of the other prophets. Yet they had gone forth ministering that.
Of course, the other reason why was the nation was full of unbelief and they would not receive the Lord Jesus.
But the point is, when he asks Peter, well, whom do you say that I am? And he said, O thou art the Christ of God.
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Peter was crystal clear as to his theology, but that's not going to make your ministry powerful.
It doesn't appear from the record here that anybody from their ministry that when they went out ever acknowledged that I received the Lord as the Messiah. And so the Lord explains that there is another reason for the the the failure to get results in ministry, and that is that the nation was filled with unbelief. And so he speaks and announces his rejection and his eventual.
Crucifixion upon the cross. That's verses 2122. In the heels of that he speaks about.
The terms of discipleship, the need for everyone taking up the cross, denying themselves and taking up the cross and following Him. You know discipleship is different from salvation. He says in another place Matthew 11 Come unto me. And here he says, come after me. There are two different things. One is to come to the Lord for salvation. The other is to come after Him in the path of discipleship.
And if we're going to have a life, a heart rather, that is willing to surrender our lives to the cause of Christ and the path of discipleship, it will be born out of a life of prayer.
Prayer makes us more devoted Christians. Reading the scripture makes us knowledgeable Christians. But prayer makes us devoted Christians. And I believe that the reason why there is such a lack of devotion among Christians today is because we don't have the prayer life.
Of ones like Mr. Hajo and I think we need to consider that and be exercised about that. And so the Lord speaks about the need for denying ourselves and taking up the cross, identifying ourselves with rejection because the cross is what the world gave the Lord and following him in that path. He speaks in the next series of verses of the hindrances to that wanting to hold on to our life, to use it for our own selves rather than to.
To the Lord for his cause and to be used for His glory. We're all like that. I heard a young person say. No one's going to get my youth off of me.
You want to give your youth to the Lord.
Give him the blossom of your life, dear young person, not the fallen leaves.
Here we find that there is the temptation or the hindrance of wanting to retain our lives for ourselves.
You know, people of this world understand what discipleship is more or better than Christians do. For some reason. If you explain to a person of the world that you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior and you want to live your life for him, you know they're going to say, oh, you're throwing your life away. But you know what? That's exactly what discipleship is. You're going to give your life to the Lord Jesus.
And not retain it for your own selfish interests and whatever that may please you, you're going to give it to the Lord.
And then material wealth in verse 25 and also the fear of shame is addressed in verse 26. These things are a hindrance that we need to take care of. And then he speaks of coming glory and the reward of one who would take up with the past of discipleship. I particularly enjoyed the comment that was made in the gospel meeting last night about, well, when are you then going to?
Devote your life and give your life to the Lord. It's all very well indeed to say, well, I think I should do this and I know that it would be a good idea. It reminds me of the Reubenites. Remember there in Judges 5, the Reubenites were called with other tribes to come down and help in the battles of the Lord.
There was a need in Israel. The enemy was coming in. Well, it says there in chapter 5 that the Reubenites were talking to each other and they were saying, you know, we really should go. I think we should do it would be a good idea. But they never got around to it. The battle came when we left and the Lord affected a victory and they never even got away from breaking away from their.
Personal lives and their homes and so on. We can be that way too, the prodigal son said. I will. I will arise and go to my father. And then it says, then he arose and went to his father. It wasn't just a promise or a desire. He backed it up with action.
And he went to his father. And so there's a call for discipleship today, and perhaps more than ever before. Every man, woman and child is needed in this warfare.
And Christ is going to reward you for everything that you sacrifice for his glory. Well, let's go on. Now we come to another one, a third one, verse 28. And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings that he took Peter, James and John and went up to a mountain to pray. And as he prayed.
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The fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistening.
And behold their talk with them two men, which were Moses Elias.
Who appeared in glory, and spake of his deceit, or deceased, or his departure, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy, were sleep, and when they were awake they saw his glory.
And the two men that stood with him here, I see another short coming, and that is sleeping when they should have been awake. This is a nice little picture here for us. There was a little meeting on the top of the mountain and there were seven persons there. There was the Lord Peter, James, and John, there was Moses and Elias. And we'll find in a minute here that the Father was there too, and made his voice known. Nice little group of seven that shouldn't be of any surprise to you as you go through the book of Luke.
Groups of seven all the way along in the previous chapter we had that in Psoriasis House. There was the Lord Peter, James and John, the mother and the father and the little girl. And isn't that beautiful? You can find them scattered through the Gospel. Look, I don't necessarily have any teaching connected with it, but these little groups here we have one, a little meeting place they were called to at the top of the mountain.
And we find there that there was a scene of glory of the Lord Jesus that was before them. And here we find the disciples were fast asleep.
They were asleep. And so here we have the lack of vigilance.
We had first of all, the lack of the sense of the Lord's sufficiency. The second one we have the lack of prayer. Third one perhaps we could say is a lack of vigilance. They were asleep in the presence of this wonderful scene of the Lord's glory. And you know, he's been giving us little special meetings where we can be with him to observe his glory too. You know, the Bible says where two or three are gathered together into my.
There am I in the midst, and we had a privilege of that very thing this morning. It was a mountaintop experience. We saw His glory.
This morning it wasn't His Kingdom glory. We were looking at His redemption glory and oh, He showed us His hands and His side and what He paid as a price to redeem us. And it says here that they were asleep and missed that little scene. Is it possible that we could be asleep in the presence of the Lord when He would be showing us, when God would be showing us the glory of His Son? Yes.
Began. I've heard stories of young people playing with a cell phone in the middle of the meeting. If that's what you're doing, I'll tell you this right now. You are asleep on the mountain. You may be at the mountain, so to speak, but you're asleep. And it says when they were awake they saw his glory. And if you're asleep, you're going to miss it. A brother was speaking to me one time years ago. I guess he wasn't in communion as he ought to have been at the meeting. Anyway, the president were really enjoying.
We're speaking about it after the meeting. Wasn't that a wonderful meeting? He said to me. He said. I had a sense that there was something really good going on there, but I didn't get a whiff of it. He was confessing that his state was so low that he missed what was going on. Oh, brethren, could it be possible that we could be in the presence of the Lord and his redemption glory and to be asleep?
Playing poker on a cell phone.
Well, what's the lesson here for us? What's the lesson? Well.
Be attentive at such occasions, we're going to miss something that will never have a chance again to get you. Find here with the disciples.
There wasn't a second mount of transfiguration. They didn't have another opportunity later. There was that one opportunity and they needed to be a tentative at such times and so do we. If we're going to have power in our ministry, we need to be attentive to drink in those things of the glory of the Lord. Now let's move on verse 33 and it came to pass as they departed from him. Peter said unto Jesus, master, it is good for.
To be here let us make 3 tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias, not knowing what he said. And whilst he spake, there came a cloud and overshadowed them, and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud saying, This is my beloved son, hear him. And when the voice was passed, Jesus was found alone, and he kept it close, and told man, no man in those days any of those things which they had seen. Well here we have.
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Shortcoming, it comes out of the mouth of Peter. Master, I think we should build 3 tabernacles not knowing what he said. And here we have a lack of discernment. A lack of discernment on Peter's part. He thought it would be a good idea and he did it with all good intention. He was well meaning. He thought, let's build 3 tabernacles, one for the Lord, one for Moses, one for Elijah. It would be a great idea.
No, the father steps in and says, This is my beloved son, Hear him.
He distinguishes him, he sets him apart, and you know, there's.
There's times when we can do the very same thing, you know, not give the Lord.
His rightful place to lower him to the level of mere men, even if they may be gifted and godly men, still it's lowering him to the level of men. We must always seek opportunity to exalt the Lord Jesus as He is in all his glory. But that's what Peter thought he should do, and we can do that sometimes too. And so the lesson here for us is that we should never lower the.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ to the love of men. We need to be reverent and give him that rightful place and to show the needed respect that there should be given to Himself. I see it from time to time and sometimes in the way we hear people pray, we'll find that they address the Lord in a familiar way that sometimes you wonder if they are seeking to. I don't say they try to bring them down, but it just sounds.
Me at least that they're bringing him down to the level of mere men as you talk to another person. And that verse comes before me in Psalm 50. It says Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such as thyself. No, the Lord is not such as men and He needs to be addressed in reverence and with respect. I see it also in the ways we come to meet the Lord. We come sometime to the some of us come sometimes in a way that looks like we're ready to go to the beach or something.
Not understanding or not knowing really whose presence we are in. And so we have an opportunity to meet with him and we're very thankful for it, but we need to show some reverence and respect.
With regard to himself, now, I'm not saying for a minute that we brethren have a have a dress code.
The brethren where I come from never insist that anybody wear a tie, but they do leave it in the conscience for the conscience of the individual before the Lord, And they usually say something like, well, we.
We are going to go show our respects to the Lord and try to honor Him and therefore would be right that we would.
Dress in a respectful way. We leave that to the conscience of an individual as to what they may think that is.
I think that's good.
Just about a week ago, Lance Ferbert and his wife Margo were in our assembly. They were up that way and we enjoyed them. It's a black couple from the assembly in Bermuda. That's a British colony, you know. And he told me an interesting story with regard to respect for the Lord. And he had been going to the meeting dressed in a certain way. But anyway, what happened? Being a British colony in Bermuda, they had a visit from none other than.
Queen of England, she showed up in a big entourage. People went to the side of the road, he told me and he chuckled under his breath and he said to one of the brothers that was there with him, he said, I better go back inside the house and get my jacket, my sports jacket, because he said, you know, they've come to meet the queen and everybody's doing it. So he went back to the house. He got his sports jacket on to go out, stand beside the road to meet the queen. An older brother saw that and said, Lance, how is it that you get a sports jacket on to meet the queen, but you won't do that to meet?
Lord, oh, he said. That went through me like a knife. But when he was saying that, he didn't realize it was going through him, but was going through me too.
Because I at times have not used a jacket either when I come to meeting. In fact, in the summer months, it's very much a temptation. Now, I'm not going to give anybody a dress code here as to what you should wear, but you know, we do need to be presentable to the Lord. We're going to present ourselves in our basket of firstfruits to the Lord and we need to be presentable and we come into His presence. Now, I can just hear some of you young people saying, but it's just not what counts.
What's in the inside is where your heart is, is what counts. It's not the outside. I would say to you, yes, but you don't have all the truth. Now there is a line of truth in the Scriptures, John's ministry, that takes up the side of relationship and communion, and that certainly is very important. We must have that inward life with the Lord of communion. But there is the House of God's side of things which we had in our meetings.
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What sets before us another side? JC asked the question with regard to what the House of God was the meeting gone on? I didn't have my chance to.
Let's say what I thought believe from Scripture what the House of God is. Now I've got my chance. JC OK. The House of God, as I understand it, is the church. It's not different from the church. It's not something separate. It is the Church of God in a certain aspect. It is the church in an aspect of being a vessel of testimony in this earth, a place where God is known and therefore order and holiness is required.
To demonstrate what God is, this world should be able to look at the House of God and know the character of God.
And the epistles that take up the House of God take up the public testimony of the Church.
That is what we are before the eyes of men in this world. And those pistols, It's very interesting that it gets right, very, very practical and it gets right down to even the way we dress.
Because it's important how we carry ourselves in the House of God.
And so while there is true that there needs to be the inward communion with the Lord, we need to understand that we are set in this world as a public testimony. I'm not talking about just when we come to meeting, but seven days a week. We are the House of God, and we are to represent Him here in order in our conduct and so on.
So that they look at us and they know God. That is, that is, they know God's character. That's the aspect of the House of God.
Now, if you still say, I don't know if I'd go for that, I want you to do this next time you go looking for a job. When you go looking for a job and they you, they, you submit your resignation. What do you call it? Your, your resume, your resume. And on the second interview when you look pretty good that they're going to get, you're going to hire you when you go. This is what I want you to do. You make sure to get a pair of flip flops on a pair of cut offs.
You wear a T-shirt, preferably older. It says something like just do it, a hat on backwards. You go in, you go into the office where the man is and you have the interview.
I want to know what happens.
Just present yourself that way. Now, what's wrong with that picture? You know very well you'd blow the interview and you'd lose the job.
Isn't it what's in the inside? What counts?
You may very well be qualified too for the job, but the man is going to look at you and wonder what and earth is going on.
So when we present ourselves to the Lord, let's seek to look respectable as we would give him our basket of first fruits. Well, let's go on verse 37. It came to pass that on the next day, when they were come down from the hail of the mountain, much people met him. And behold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son, for he is my only child.
And lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out, and it teareth him, and he foameth again, and bruising him hardly departed from him, abesat thy disciples to cast them out, and they could not.
And Jesus answered and said, Oh faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you and suffer you? Bring me. Hit her, thy Son. And while he was yet coming, the devil threw him down and tear him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his Father. Here we have another, and that is a failure with the disciples to cast out a demon. The lack of power, lack of power.
Isn't this interesting? Remember I read in the first verse that the Lord gave them power to cast out demons, but here we find they can't do it.
This must have been awfully embarrassing for the disciples when they sought to cast out this demon and they could not do it. But you know, it just shows us that we cannot carry out our service for the Lord in mere formality. There must be our hearts involved, engaged rather with faith. And I take that because the Lord said, O faithless generation, it seems that they attempted to deal with the problem without really.
Having faith in what they were doing.
We find that they could not cast out the demon.
What a scene this was. You know, the Lord had just come down from the top of the mountain where there was a father and a son.
In perfect harmony with one another. It comes down to the base of the mountain and here's another father and his only son. And there is this terrible scene. What a picture. And the father, he cries out for compassion from the Lord when he says just look upon my son. And I think this is what was missing in the disciples attempt to cast out the demon. They did it more, I believe for more from a formal standpoint rather having their compassion.
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For the individual, and you know, if we miss compassion for those of our objects that we seek to reach, it is not going to have much power. Our ministry will be powerless. It is so very important that there is that in our hearts and in our exercise. And so they lack faith. I would take it and they failed in this regard.
And so let's turn on to another verse 40.
443 And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God, but while they wondered everyone at all things which Jesus did and said unto his disciples.
Let these things sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. But they understood not this saying.
It was and it was hid from them and they perceived it not and they feared to ask him of that, saying, OK, here we have another, we have the lack of understanding. Now the lack of understanding and our understanding was born of the traditional Jewish beliefs with regard to the Messiah. You see, Peter speaks about the two parts of the Scriptures that would refer to the Messiah he speaks about.
Of his epistle The Spirit of God Testifying and the Old Testament Scriptures of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow, and all of the Old Testament passages to do with the Messiah. They could be divided in one or the other. Those two categories, those things that pertain to His sufferings, those things that pertain to his glories.
Now the Jews.
Reveled in those ones that speak of the glory of their Messiah, and how that their Messiah was going to come and set the nation above all the Gentiles and bring prosperity and healing and all those many blessings. And they would read those passages of scripture for every Sabbath day in their synagogues, and that was their hope and so on. But they passed over the other side of the Scriptures. They did not see in their very scriptures their own scriptures.
That there was such a thing that the Messiah would suffer first before those glories would take place.
Sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow. And this led them to make mistakes in their life. I'm thinking now of the two that went down the road to Emmaus. You know, they were very discouraged because they were looking for the Lord after that one side. And when he died on the cross, they were dismayed. They didn't know what to make of it. And the Lord met them on the road. And what did he say? Oh, fools and slow of heart to believe.
All the prophets, what they said they had believed part of the prophets, that is the part to do with the glorious Messiah, but they hadn't believed the other side.
And understood the other side to do with the Messiah, and how that He would suffer, going to death, rise again, and so on. And so the Lord, it says he beginning at Moses and the prophets and so on, He expounded into them the things concerning Himself, and He took up both parts. And He said, ought not Christ to have suffered? There's the one, and entered into his glory, there's the other. And so He set things in their proper order for them. He rightly divided the word of truth, as we had in our meetings.
Paul was saying to Timothy, he said it in its right order. And so the lesson now here for us from this.
To be careful to rightly divide the Scriptures, otherwise we're going to come into misunderstandings as they did. Isn't that simple? You know, probably the greatest example in the day in which we live of not rightly dividing the word of truth would be those who are trying to take the Jewish blessings and mix them with the church. And I think that the church is some spiritual Israel and so on.
And it is really overtaking the Christian profession today.
And many seminaries, they are given up dispensational teaching and have imbibed covenant theology, what we call.
Covenantal interpretation of Scripture, which is not rightly dividing the word of truth. Well, let's be careful then that we understand where we are and what we're doing I was talking to Nick here yesterday he was talking about, you know, learning the truth is like building a house and we need to put up a framework and understand some basic principles and then we build the walls and so on and then finally we.
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The house with the various pieces of furniture that would be fitting to the room. And there are those divisions in Scripture that we need to understand and to put the furniture that belongs in those rooms in their rightful place. What would you think if I invited you to my house? I had a toilet and the living room.
OK, now let's go on.
Verse 46. Then there arose a reasoning among them. Which of them?
Should be greatest. And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child and sent him before him.
And said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me, and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth him that sent me. For he that is least among you, the same shall be great. Well, here we have another shortcoming and failure, the disciples, and this one here is a lack of humility. And the lesson of course here is that we need to.
Be humble. What was the problem here? Well, I believe that the disciples, they had seen a glimpse of the coming Kingdom glory, and they got to thinking, well, I wonder what place I'll have there. I bet I'll have a good place. And you could just see them going back and forth about this. But this only created strife among them. And how careful we have to be, and what a danger this is, and a hindrance from being effective in our ministry is that we have some notions of wanting to be great.
In this world, and I've told this story before, but Brother Kohler, I never met him from New York. Some perhaps have a long time with the Lord. You've saved out of the world. When he was in the world, he said my ambition was to make something of myself in the world. When I got saved, I had the idea that I wanted to make something of myself among the brethren. And he said I had to find out that both were wrong.
No, and the Lord teaches a very interesting lesson here by way of an example.
And he has a lesson here for them in this child that he takes. And he says here, if you be willing to receive a child in my name, that's what God is going to identify with and is going to be happy with and will reward you in that coming day.
And so there we have the lesson of being content to do small things.
Be content to do small things, receive a child, help a little child. He said, well, what's that? But the father up above sees that and he will reward accordingly. And that shows that our faith and our service is real because God looks at those little ones and they're real to him. They mean something to him. You know, we're naturally, we want to do something that brings us before the public eye. We don't want to do something that nobody's going to notice. We want to do something that will.
Before the public eye and how dangerous that is, wanting to be great, how careful we have to be.
You know, years ago when I was in my father's business, wholesale craft business.
There was a man that my father told me about it. He had met at a mutual client's place in selling and his name was morally brown and he would tell us stories about this man and we were fascinated with him because he was such a an individual. He was a big imposing figure, loud voice and he thought a lot of himself. He was full of self importance.
And he worked for a competitor's company and.
As I heard these stories and years went by, I secretly wanted to meet this fellow because I wanted to see what he was like for and real.
But I never had the opportunity. But at any rate, what happened was that the company that he was working for went bankrupt.
And we heard about it. So we made contact with the receiver and we went over there and bought up a lot of their inventory at 25 and 30 cents on the dollar. So it was a good deal for us. At the time when we went there, there was just the receiver and there was the old head warehouseman that had been with the company for 40 years, as long as morally brown. And so as we were working together, I thought about Morley Brown and I thought, here's my chance. I'm going to ask that man about this fellow.
And so I asked him about Morley Brown. He looked at me and he said Morley Brown.
We all hated him, he said. We had a work name for him behind his back, he said. We used to call him Big Fat Big Shot Brown. Everywhere he went, he thought he was some real big shot. And I'm sure he would have been mortified to think that people actually thought that of him, because he thought of himself as being a real, important and popular person, in his own eyes at least.
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That behind his back there were just big, fat, big shot Brown. Yeah, I thought about that. Is it possible that we could carry ourselves among our brethren in such a way as that? They say behind our back there goes big shot brother so and so.
Oh, what a thing that would be. How careful we have to be.
That we don't seek to put ourselves forward. It is only going to be the flesh in US. It surely will hinder the blessing that we would seek to accomplish. And as we reach out to others. And so let's be careful here and learn the lesson that the Lord Jesus lays down here. And that is to be content to do little things. Be content to do little things. You know, you have a conference. We hadn't too. And it's very interesting to me when you have a conference.
Rather than get together who it is that volunteers to want to do the public job.
Very interesting.
I'm not saying anything about the conference here, I have enjoyed it immensely, but it is just interesting how that our natures are such that we seem to volunteer for those things that people are going to see. But the Lord is saying if you want to be great in the Kingdom of God, be content.
To do little things for the Lord. He sees it, and he will reward accordingly. Let's move on. We have another one in verse 49 and 50. John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him, because he followed not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not, for he is that, for he that is not against us is for us.
Here we have yet another shortcoming of the disciples.
Here we have the lack of tolerance toward another that we're seeking to serve the Lord and to cast out devils in the name of the Lord himself. And I suppose John looked at this individual and he wanted to tell the Lord what he had done in forbidding this individual because he thought that the war was going to probably pat him on the back and say, that's good, John.
But the Lord said something a very opposite. He said forbid Him not for he that is not against us.
Is for us, and this is important, that we don't have this spirit.
Of.
Criticism toward other Christians.
That may be doing service for the Lord, whatever it may be. You see behind this, it was very, it was, it was particularly embarrassing because as I just said from verse 39 and 40, that the disciples were asked to cast out a demon and they couldn't do it. And now they turned around and they run into a man who could do that. You can imagine how embarrassing those must have been. And so they found something wrong with them.
Isn't that the way our hearts are when we find excellence in another person?
Well, then we find something wrong with what? The way they did it or the way they said it and so on. And that reminds me of a story that Dwight Al Moody used to tell on himself years ago. And he preached in Chicago and he had a church there where he preached. But anyway, he went on missions and tours around and he went into England with Sankey as his partner who did the music side of things, and they preached through.
England, and I suppose Scotland as well. But anyway, they came across a young preacher.
His name was Henry Morehouse. And they said, well, yeah, if you ever in America, you know, look us up. We're glad to have you preach with. Moorhouse was a preacher, too, but he was a young fellow at the time. And so they went on their ministry, their mission, preaching. And when they got back to America and in Chicago, it wasn't too long after that, a few months later, that he got a telegram from New York. Moorhouse was in America.
And he was wanting to come to Chicago to preach as he was invited by Moody. And he thought, what did I ask this full of four? But anyway, he said, OK, we'll bring him. And so he.
Told him in the telegram back that he would not be there the week that he could preach in Chicago because.
He had previous engagements in another city, but he said very welcome on. So the man came and they gave him a week of meetings where he preached in Chicago in that church and he preached on the love of God. John 316 was his text. He took it up every night and preached on the love of God. And it was not without little results. There were many that were converted and there was had a profound effect upon the audience.
Moody got home. He asked his wife. So how's the Englishman doing?
She did not answer it, so she said, well, he doesn't preach like you do.
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See, Moody was known for Hellfire preachings and he would hold a Sinner over hell.
And Murhaus was entreating them by the love of God. So she said, well, he doesn't preach like you do, He said immediately, I didn't like him. He didn't preach like me.
He didn't like him, so he said, I went to meeting with us, thought that I didn't like him. So I went to the meeting that night and I heard him preach. And the man made such an effect on Dwight Al Moody that it changed his preaching for for his life, for the rest of his life. And he became known as the man who shook the man who shook the world with his preaching. Moody was often known as the man who shook the world, but this was the man who shook the man who shook the world.
Henry Moorhouse He was among the brethren, actually amongst the open and.
But I just thought of that when Moody heard that he didn't preach like him, he said immediately I didn't like him. And that's just our hearts, brethren, just our hearts. Do we see someone that doing some work for the Lord that doesn't walk in the path we are?
Well, should we criticize them? Should we call them down? No, the Lord says just leave them alone and leave them with God. Notice the Lord didn't say well go join him. No, we have to walk in the path and in the light that God has given to us. But there are Christians all around us. If you don't know that are doing things for the Lord that I don't know if I could do. But nevertheless, we must leave them with the Lord and not seek to attack them because they follow not with us. And as you read this 49th verse, you can see.
What was at the bottom of it? They said we, we and us. They had the focus of the center of gathering all wrong. They had themselves at the center, not the Lord. They had lost sight of the Lord being at the center of their of their company of disciples. And they saw themselves and when anybody wasn't with them while they forgot them. Oh, brother, let's not get like that. I know there's such a thing as being zealous for our ecclesiastical.
And I want to uphold and to stand for the truth of gathering. And those of you who know me here would not want to compromise one ODA iota of the truth of gathering. But we don't want to get offensive toward those who have little or no light concerning this truth. We must leave them with the Lord. And so the answer here is we need to be tolerant toward others who are seeking to serve the Lord with the light that they have.
I didn't say be tolerant towards sin, I said just be tolerant with regard to those and to leave them with the Lord.
There's a lesson here for us because we can be zealous.
But in a wrong way and be offensive. And I know what I'm talking about. I'm talking from experience. Talking from experience.
Now let's go on to verse 51. And it came to pass that when they, when the time was come that they should be saved up, that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face. And they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples, James and Josh saw this.
They said, Lord, wilt thou that we should command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elias? And he turned and rebuked them and said, You know not about spirit, manner of spirit, you're of. For the Son of Man has not come to destroy man's lives, but to save them. And they went on to another village. Here we have another one, and here we have the thought of the lack of grace. The Samaritans rejected the Lord. The disciples said, I'll get them, Lord.
Send fire down from heaven and judge them on the spot.
Oh, that's not the spirit of a disciple.
Were to be characterized by grace, not vindictiveness. And so we find here that they lack the spirit of grace toward those who reject them. You see, what was happening here is that when the Samaritans learned that the Lord was going to Jerusalem and he wouldn't come and honor their place of worship and gerism.
They were bigoted and they were prejudice, and when they found out that the Lord was not going to honor Gearism.
They didn't want them, and so the disciples were jealous for the Lord and they wanted to.
This can't be. And so they've asked the Lord to consume them in judgment. But that wasn't the mission of the Lord, and it is not ours either. If someone rejects the truth that we give them, rejects what we have to say, we're not to take it personally.
It's the Word of God they're rejecting, not us. We need to turn it over, as the Lord Himself did in His ministry to the Father.
And say Even so, Father, for a nice sight, it seems good, a nice sight. And so we just leave it with God and don't reject you. They're rejecting the Lord now. We need to be grieved for it. Yes, that's true. But we don't want to get vindictive. I see our time is over. We have three more at the end of the chapter 3 disciples of the Lord, though they are not apostles, they were one would be disciples and these three men.
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Come and offer their.
Desire to follow the Lord in the path of discipleship. And there is a failure in connection with them, or at least something lacking, shall I say, in regard to them. And the Lord sets those things right too. But we don't have the time to get into it here this afternoon. But what we have had before us is a grouping, a moral grouping of various failures and shortcomings of the disciples and the Lord graciously taking each one of them and turning around and giving them a lesson and recording it in Scriptures.
We can learn something from it too, because we're just like the disciples. And that's why I thought we should sing that hymn that says that our sinful wanderings thou hast borne with grace and.
Anyway, we need to pray.
That's.
With love and patience, all divine. Isn't that so wonderful? The Lord is so patient with us. Let's bow our heads and thank Him.