Dorothy Conference: 1997
Table of Contents
Psalm 40:1-3
Reading
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Oregon.
They're going to change our alarms, et cetera.
I think so. I want to play.
In our life. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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Psalm 40.
To the chief musician of Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined us, and he had heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my going.
And here for a new storm in my mouth, even praise unto our God, Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies many. O Lord, my God, are thy wonderful words, which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us were they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee.
If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Sacrifice and offering out it's not desire. Mine ears hast thou open burnt offering and sin offering? Hast thou not required? Then should I law? I come in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will. Oh my God, yeah, thy law is within my heart.
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation law. I have not refrained my lips. O Lord, thou knowest.
I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation.
I have not concealed Thy loving kindness and Thy truth from the great congregation.
Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me. O Lord, let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me.
For innumerable evils have compassed me about mine. Iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up.
They are more than the hairs of mine head. Therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, oh Lord, to deliver me, oh Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame. That said to me, Aha, aha.
Let all those that seek thee rejoice, and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation, say continually.
The Lord be magnified, but I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help, and my deliverer make no terrain, Oh my God.
Just consider these words in verse eight. I delight to do thy will. Oh my God.
We think of the one who could utter these words in the past eternity.
And say his delights were with the sons of men.
Oh, we look at this glorious person.
The delight of the Father's heart and the heavens were opened.
And he said, This is my beloved Son, in whom all is my delight.
He can be filled with praise as we think of the things that.
Are presented to us in this song.
Joy it is to think of the one who has brought us up, and we're surely waiting.
To be taken up.
So.
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We think of the last words of verse 16.
The Lord be magnified, the Lord be magnified. May that be our desire.
We were singing the opening of this meeting, but going through the veil of sorrow, and I couldn't help but think that we have great joy in being here. There's a veil of sorrow. We've been praying for many that are going through trials, and yet we have joy. And it's in this one who is to be magnified and the one who lifted us up out of the horrible pit.
And the one who was willing to come down here on our behalf? The.
Take our sins upon him and carry them away. Fear the punishment of them, so we do have joy, don't we even in the veil of sorrow beautiful to be able to look up beyond the sorrows and enjoy the person?
Before we get too quiet.
I understand that all the psalms are set to metric, that is so that they could be some.
And.
There was indeed these that had.
A rule in this line of things, I like to think that the chief musician. There's only one chief musician that can bring melody to our hearts. We know who that is, and a Psalm of David would of course be a personal experience.
We can relate to that in a personal way.
There's also a line in one hymn. Excuse me.
That speaks of the name bringing Swedish music to God's heart, and so that precious name of Jesus.
And to him he is precious, and to us is this precious is made good.
David is really the one that established the courses. That is, he had the singers and the porters.
Connected with the temple.
And the singers.
Are important. We need our hearts touched and moved.
But we don't want to forget the importance of the porters to those that are exercised in a watchful way in the Assembly.
So those two things are brought out before us. I believe it's in.
Chronicles, isn't it?
First Chronicles.
26 time Which one quarters is the 26th?
26, yeah.
I think they're mentioned together somewhere. Is that 26?
Anyway.
They are mentioned as being established of David in the temple worship.
Particularly a thought as to why it was David and not Solomon.
Do you, Neil? Would you repeat then, Neil, I didn't hear. I think it's a nice thing that you pointed out the establishment of the quarters and the singers was the establishment of David, not Saul.
Rejection that these things were established supporters for the temple and the singers.
On earth, the song begins in having more sweet and loud, and it's here we're learning those two things, Faithfulness that's connected with the porters and the singing, which is connected with our joy.
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Connection with David and his authority and his rejection.
I don't know if it's the one John was looking for, but in First Chronicles 23 Five, it says. Moreover, 4000 reporters and 4000 praise the Lord with instruments which I made that David appraised with, there were an equal number of quarters and singers, praisers.
We know that David really had it upon his heart to build the temple.
His motive was right and pure and.
The Lord turned that around and said, now David, I'm going to build up your house. And David was astounded by that and overwhelmed with the grace of God that would single out his house in that way.
And David fully recognized the failure of his house.
But.
David, it seems from that point on, that is from that expressed desire to build the temple. And when he was told that he couldn't build it, he'd been a man of blood. But we see that from that point on, David did everything he could towards the construction of that temple and towards the temple service. He it's as though he was getting everything in preparation for that millennial day.
It's beautiful to see the exercise of heart. I think he amassed something like about $26 billion in gold alone just for the temple, as well as making preparation for so many things. So we see that David through all the hard experiences he had.
He could relate to these things, and we see how many Psalms of David we have, and in this first book of the Psalms he certainly voices the the experiences and the troubles of the godly ones that they will experience in the coming day. But.
The thought of the evenness in the porters and singers.
Is good exercise for our hearts.
And it's nice to to join together in Deuteronomy or in numbers, for I think it is. It speaks there about the the service, the burden of service. But the Levites laid down their burdens. But in First Corinthians, the First Chronicles 631, I think it is. It speaks of David appointing them.
In service of song.
And it's lovely to realize that.
We have work to do here, and it's a service, but it should lead on into the service of song. And if our hearts are fixed upon Christ, out of our hearts will come that service of song now to the Lord.
Isn't it very precious to see that?
All the things written before time, which we're reading here in the in the Psalms were written for our learning and we have something we can learn here as we read this portion. I just, I'm not going to read the I just, I want to don't pass up verses but I just want to drop down to verse four. Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord His trust.
David had just been saying, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and he heard my cry. And he goes on and tells where he was, where he was brought up out of the miry clay. And it isn't that the path of each one of us. And as we have these examples brought before us, God, there's a purpose in all this. We have a divine record here of what has been done, And God sends the message to us in this present day for us to see blessed or happy.
Is the man that maketh the Lord is trust. Am I making the Lord my trust, as David did at this point? That's the point here, isn't it? To see this, to apply it practically in our lives. Because if we read it just as to its historical era, we can be confused at many times on that. But when we see the example that God has given us to point to each one as I read it, he's looking at me and he's saying you are It should be exercised, as David was.
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So I think there's something very precious in all this.
The Lord Jesus is the example as a dependent man trusting in God and.
Taste this scripture. The righteous trusted even in the you know, it's beautiful to see that that was not only characteristic throughout all of his life, even when he was on the cross, you know he turns to God and none but God.
Although he could not receive any answer, when under the punishment of God, God did answer him. Thou hast hurt me from the horns of the unicorns.
It should encourage us that when we go through difficult circumstances that we continue to cleave to him with confidence and trust, and while his life of obedience was.
No doubt a great delight to the heart of God, don't you think? It was a great delight to him when he turns to him, even when under the punishment of God. And I think we can learn from that blessed Lord he perfectly trusted. We see in Job a beautiful picture of it too, in difficult circumstances.
Well, there are things in this Psalm that we would not apply to the Lord Himself personally, would we?
But there are things that we cannot but understand when we apply it to the Lord Jesus.
And Speaking of having been heard from the horns of the Unicorn, I believe it would suggest to our minds that he cried with a loud voice. It is finished.
The horn of the Unicorn would indicate all the wrath and judgment that was due, our sins, having been expended against that blessed man, having endured the cross, having waited patiently until every stroke of judgment had been laid on him. Then he said, it's finished. He cried with a loud voice. He was in the full vigor of the intelligence of his faculty, and then having expressed its.
Finish.
In absolute confidence, he says, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, waiting upon the Lord to give an answer. And he did.
In the resurrection of that Blessed One.
Just think of God's patience.
For 4000 years waiting till his son would come and to lay down his life in the cross of Calvary. And then we think of his patience and waiting nearly 2000 more years. And we read in the second Thessalonians of the patience of Christ waiting to come and claim his bride. And he's waited in long-suffering, because he's not willing that any should perish. And I'm glad he waited for me.
I'm sure you are too.
He's waiting for some still to come in, but we've been called home by now.
One of the hardest things for us to do is to wait, isn't it?
There are many young people here, and you know what characterizes the young? Impatience.
They want to move quickly and when they do, generally make a mistake.
Or fail. But I just thought of this little opening verse here. I waited patiently for the Lord.
And he inclined unto me.
It indicates to me that there was time given.
He waited patiently for the Lord. He might have waited for quite a while.
But I you you can talk to some of the young and some of them are here that.
We we've got to do it now. We've got to do it right. This is the now generation.
And I believe really what we need is to wait patiently, for the Lord doesn't move.
As quickly as we do, because he has a design in view, He has something in view for us. We move because we want to. But God has a purpose, and his purpose is to bless us even while we're here. And the end is eternal glory. So I think it's lovely to just just meditating a little on this. For I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me. There was time given He. He listened. He waited, and and he said, He inclined unto me. He listened.
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You wanted to hear?
And he heard my cry.
Well, that's a that's a little answer to it, isn't it? If we wait patiently on the Lord, he's going to, he's going to hear it. But we don't he he doesn't want us to jump into these things and do them in a in a quick way or a half haphazard way. So I think that in a practical way as I look at this verse, I think.
Of how beautiful it is to just to wait and be patient. Patience is a virtue that very, very few of us possess. So I think it's a good thing to know that not only the younger ones, we as older ones have that problem. Unfortunately, many times the story goes that this older brother said to his brethren, pray for me, I need patience. And the brethren prayed for him. But you know what they prayed.
Sent his brother Tribulation.
The brother said. I didn't ask for that. They said you forget that tribulation workers patient, you know, and that's the way it works in our lives, beloved brother. We need that because some of us by nature are more impetuous and have more of a problem with it. But the Lord knows what to bring into our lives to teach us that lesson, perhaps over and over again.
He said that Brother Heinz, because I was about to ask Brother Charles if he would allow a brother that's not a young brother to confess that I have a problem with that and I'm thankful you. You mentioned that I'm apparently not the only one. It's a verse in Isaiah number chapter 40. I like to read it.
He giveth power to the faint verse. 29 And to them that have no mighty increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary.
And the young men shall utterly fail, but they that wait upon the Lord might renew their strength.
That I said, right?
They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. It's the positive. And this is a wonderful thing, brother, that when we wait on the Lord and we pray, the Lord comes in and he answers our prayers, and we bring the Lord into the circumstances, and then we see the way the Lord works it out. But this, I think, is one of those keys. And so the next verse has got the wonderful result it says. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. How high does an eagle mount up? I had a friend of mine, he was flying a glider up at about 20,000 feet, and the southwest neglected us to make a noise like an airplane. And all of a sudden on the wing comes this big eagle flying right along with him in the thermals, those thermal updrafts that the eagle uses. You know you can't see a thermal updraft, but you can sure feel it when you're in an airplane. These bigger planes that go up high, they bump up every once in a while. You hit a thermal at a high speed and it goes like a bump.
But when you're in a glider, you circle around in the glider, rises on the thermals. They found that out years ago, these glider pilots. Well, what do you think about the Eagle? What do you think? He flies on the same updrafts that menus with gliders. And this friend of mine told me that Eagle came over by my wing, and he looked at me as much as to say hello. What are you doing up here? You know the wonderful thing about it? He says. And that Eagle flew along with me for a while, and finally he said that all of a sudden it went higher.
I had to go down, but he had the intelligence to go a little further higher. He had a longer glide ratio than I did. Who gave the eagle the glide ratio that was longer? You know who gives you and me the glide ratio? If I could bring it into that analogy to go how high? Oh, you know, if I stand up into the heavens out there. That's what that 139th Psalm tells us. So look what it says here. They shall mount up as Eagles with wings. They shall run and not be worried. They shall walk and not be faint.
This is that Pilgrim path that we've been singing about, the path that the Saints are treading, and the secret of them is with the Lord. And that's where we have that heavenly, heavenly fellowship with the man that was here once in this world, rejected now in the glory and our hearts and our desires, the Spirit of God, would you want you and me to be in communion with that blessed man?
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Like to point something out in connection with your comment and Brother Littles comment vocation. And in Ezekiel there where you have the four faces of the beast which show the character of God and how the government wheels of God's government move slowly and patiently, you have four creatures and if you could just look at it because there's a difference there between.
Ezekiel and the Book of Revelation.
See till chapter one.
In verse 10.
And for the likeness of their faces, they forehead the face of a man and the face of a lion on the right side and they 4/4 had the face of an ox on the left side and they four also had the face of an eagle. I understand an eagle from a very high height can see a mouse or and just come right down on a very small object. He doesn't miss anything. What would particularly arrested my comment. My thoughts about this in connection with Brother Little's comment was that here we have an ox, but in Revelation we have a calf.
And so in Revelation, it's the restless energy of a calf. But here now it's to place patient plotting of an ox. We've all seen an ox, and there's patience and slowness, so to speak, in deliberateness if you've ever seen an ox turning the millstone. But today is going to come when we're going to see it as the restless energy of a calf.
I think of this horrible pit.
And I believe we can all look back in our lives and realize.
We were an enemy of God.
We hated God.
Without a cause.
We were without God, but we hated God. We didn't want the knowledge of God.
God in his wondrous grace.
Has brought us up under this horrible pit.
He thought of the Lord Jesus.
And then in his sins and he said, let's kill him.
The Darling.
The heart of God. We hated him that much.
That he will crucify him on that cross. We hated it. We don't realize how deep the pit we were in.
Having to answer to God.
But the Psalmist could say he brought me up. And with God, it's all up, isn't it? He brought us up.
He established our goings. He's keeping us up.
And we're looking to the day when he will take us out.
My path is to take me away from God, in myself.
And go my own way.
But God loves me so much that I have one that's there for me as God is for me and He's.
Taking me along a road that would fill me with praise to God and to Thanksgiving. What a path this is a service of praise to God.
And how he delights in that which he exalts his beloved son.
The Marie Clay.
And the horrible pit showed to you and me the extent to which the Lord Jesus Christ took your place in mind.
He went down underneath. However, deep sin may have plunged me, and there is where he dealt with God as to the entire question of sin and my guilt.
And so when he has come out, we got him in the six feet Psalm.
That he would not be left in that place, the place that he took in love from my soul and yours.
In love to the Father, and going down underneath the load of sins and guilt. And so he is in that 16th song shown the way of life and burnt up out of the horrible pit. And he says at thy right hand, that's the extent to which he is exalted. Given a place, a name that is above every name, that is name every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that he is the Christ to the glory of God the Father. He is the Lord. So here we have the complete cycle of the Lord Jesus going down underneath the weight and load of all of our sins and guilt and being brought up out of that pit.
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God found us in the pit of our sins, unprofitable altogether. There we have it. And so the Lord went into that place and answered to God paid the full price of your redemption in mine. Now he's brought up, and his going has been established. He's at the right hand of God forever more.
It's a good comparison with the.
Ephesians chapter one, where we have the richest.
Revelation of of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit. And when they come to the second chapter, it's like the second verse here it's a backward look and it's a good thing for us, each one of us, to remember where we have come from. So when you read the second of Ephesians, think of the second verse and that tells us, reminds us constantly of where we have been lifted up from.
You should read the verse to his brother.
Read that verse to Ephesians 2.
Well, the whole the whole chapter of Ephesians 2 is.
You happy quickened, Who were what In trespasses and in sin? Yes, That's the thought that Yes. Yes.
Sometimes we go over these precious truths.
Remember, one said to me well.
We know all that.
Do we know it?
Ask yourself the question.
How much do you know of the grace of God?
How much do I know of the Precious Savior?
Am I really acquainted with him? I believe that the more we go over these precious things.
They're simple. They're what they call elementary, aren't they? Because it's that which God has already done for us, just noticing here.
Verses two and three he brought me up.
Out of a miry play, horrible pit in a miracle, he set my feet. I'm going to put the word he in there upon a rock. He established my goings. He has put a new song in my mouth. Even praise to our God. Do we respond when I think of that blessed one And what he endured for me on the cross bowed his holy head in death. It isn't just for this, for one hour on Lord's Day morning, that we should be praising him. We should praise him every moment of the day, every day of our lives.
And that day isn't far off. When every eye is going to praise me, every voice is going to praise him, every eye will see him. But now while we wait. But I just thought how, how precious it is. He is the one who accomplished it all for me. What is my response?
I just asked myself, he has put a new song in my mouth. He.
Praise unto our God, Do we sing that song, we just sing the words or does the song mean something for us?
I really believe that what he's saying here, he has put a new song in my mouth and.
I'd like to think of it in my heart, too.
Someone was recently telling me the man who had lived a very wicked life and he was hearing the gospel and he said, well, I just be satisfied to be forgiven.
And I was thinking of the words of Mrs. Bevins, him trembling. We had hoped for mercy, some lone placed within his door. But the crown, the throne, the mansion, all were ready long before. It might have suited that man just to be forgiven, but it wouldn't be suitable for God. God has higher thoughts for us, and so he has the the establishing of our goings, and a song in our mouth, not just to be forgiven, but a song in our mouth even praised.
For our God.
So he's given us many more things to rejoice in and give him praise for and simply to be forgiven. That's that's important. That's number one. But he piles a lot more on top of that. Although The Blessings of Ephesians one, for example.
You're thinking of the Lord Jesus said that he could.
As the stones, the worst of him.
But that isn't what he wanted. God wanted worshippers.
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And so he has chosen us.
And surely as we think of that, we think of.
What he is to us as our Father and what the Lord Jesus is as our Savior.
We think of the reality of this that.
These hymns that we have and those who have.
These hymns for us.
And the Spirit of God.
It caused us to be worshippers to be able to.
Come into the presence of God to present that sacrifice to God.
The fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name, presenting Christ to God. And I believe it's only when I.
Condone.
Through this glorious person is.
The I am the one from eternity.
The one who is the same yesterday, today and forever.
And I was young, like the Apostle Paul, who said that I might know him.
But an object we have.
Very object that God himself has, He's given to us, His beloved Son.
We should be directed by the Spirit of God into the reality.
Of who this glorious person is, what he has done, and all of this though that our lips might overflow and our hearts might overflow with praise and worship to him. And so we come, and we're here, and we're here as worshippers. We're priests here to praise and to adore him.
Brother John, I like to think of myself as one of those stones cried out. You know, my heart was a stone. And if you didn't get praise from Israel, he'd make the stones cry out. And we were without hope and without God in the world, and he put a song in our heart, and I think of that. But I just like to come back to what Brother Don said at the beginning of this. Maybe we skipped over this because I think it's important in helping us to apply these Psalms to ourselves. And that is to understand rightly the difference between Solomon and David, the character of what Solomon was doing. And This is why I believe David could have a real.
Song in his heart, though denied to do what he originally wanted to do. And together I'm Speaking of things that are well known to many. But David and solemn together form a picture of the reign of Christ. And it's most interesting and that David had not died at the time that Solomon took the throne. And so it really cements in our thoughts the thought that it is one continuous rain, but there are two characters to it now. And now we follow a rejected Savior. And So what is God doing? Is he building?
Outwardly something here now Or is he as you were pointing out? Is he appointing the porters and the singers? And that's really what God is doing. And we get our hearts into a lot of trouble if we don't realize what God is doing in an outward way. In the present time. It was for Solomon, when the Lord reigned in power that the whole assembled thing, so to speak, is going to be put together. And that's a rapture. Every St. is going to be a gathered St. at the rapture. I beseech you by our gathering together unto Him.
Coming of our Lord and our gathering together unto him.
That the Lord, when he comes, it's going to he's going to, so to speak, assemble the whole thing in an outward visible way. But now what God is doing is He's doing these two things. He's appointing the porters to watch. That comes from the French word faulter door. We think of them as somebody who carries the luggage in the hotel. But a Porter is a Porter's a door and it's one that watches the door. And then there was a there was the singers that is to sing praise to our God. And he was happy, though denied as you pointed out, what he wanted to do.
But he had a very fruitful work for God in preparing for what was going to be open in the manifestation of God.
I just point that out because there are those two characters, and if we don't understand what God is doing in our present dispensation, where we're robbed of joy and we're robbed of the privilege of serving the Lord in the way that he's really desired and set out for us.
Try to build something up in the world until we get in this first year that blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust and respect is not the proud nor such as turn aside to lives and you'll notice what the Lord said to the assembly of Philadelphia that He would make those that say they were Jews but are not but do lot. There's a lot of pride that we want a place we want to save or something that we're not in the world and we're nothing the.
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If I may apply this to our own hearts, is that for a testimony to nothing but the ruin and broken state of things. And David really had a heart after God, and so he recognized that he was a man of blood, that there was failure there, and that he was going to occupy the place. And that's really what caused him to sing and really filled his heart with joy.
But we'll get ourselves miserable if we don't see that.
So important that we that we realize some of the truths that we've been looking at.
Where were we before he picked us up? We were in the pit of destruction. We were in a place described as miry clay, where there's no sure footing, no real place to stand.
And then he sets us on a rock, and that rock is Christ. He is now put us in Him. I think of Ephesians to remember that ye were Gentiles in the flesh, the uncircumcision strangers from the Commonwealth of Israel and from the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus.
We are now in a new place set on the rock. And then it says He established our goings. How important to realize, as he said, that without me you can do nothing. The way of man is knotted himself. It is not in man that Walketh to direct his steps. Do you know that? Do we really realize that? That you can't find your way through this world, this maze of confusion that we're passing through, But he?
Directs our steps. Now how precious that is. He establishes our goings and we can't find our way, but he knows the way and he leads us and guides us. Well, I'm just making application to the Christian life from these verses. We haven't gotten very far into the sound, but it's very precious what we're considering.
Chuck, what you give us?
Explanation.
On these verses here verse six about.
Sacrifices and offering, though it's not desire.
Mine ears hast thou opened or digged? That most certainly refers to the Blessed Lord to these following verses. It doesn't mean, does it, that he did not prescribe these sacrifices. Would you agree that he was looking forward?
To that of which these sacrifices spoke and of the one who would bring the sacrifice and what was especially to the delight of God, was his obedience. And I think that's a good principle for us to recognize. You know, a lot of people want to worship God, but what about their obedience to do the will of God in their life individually? But there is especially explanation needed as to.
My ears hairstyle ***** right?
That's beautiful to see. That's in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation.
About 180 years before Christ.
In Alexandria, Egypt, a group of scholars translated from Hebrew to Greek.
And they translated that instead of my nearest Hast thou opened or digged a body, hast thou prepared me? And that's exactly what you get in Hebrews 10 That is the author of Hebrews the apostle Paul, I think.
Quotes from the Septuagint translation, Or at least he gives it exactly the same as found there, which shows that that's the thought of the Spirit of God. When the Lord became Incarnate, his ears were open to hear the voice of God his Father and to respond to it.
And when he had a body prepared him, he came into the place of dependence and submission and obedience. And he did it in perfection, did he not? That's what delights the heart of God, not bringing these sacrifices and going through all the ritual and the ordinances of the Old Testament, but what they pointed to, what the substance was, was Christ himself when He came.
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His ears were digged. He had a body prepared him so that he now, for the first time in his uncreated existence as the eternal God, the Eternal Son, He now takes the place of a servant and has his ears digged to respond and in obedience to the voice of God his Father. That's that's really what that's looking on to, isn't it?
The previous comment really explains the fifth verse about not being able to direct our paths because they just point out there in the fifth verse.
Many, O Lord, my God, are thy wonderful works, not my wonderful works.
And there's a lot of talking about my wonderful works, but thy wonderful works. Paul prayed that he might labor according to his working and also not our thoughts towards him, but his thoughts towards us. That was really what we want to be occupied with.
Just like to say a word for the younger ones. And that is the it's good for us as we sit here and listen that all blessing, every blessing, comes down from God.
And if you and I, younger ones here, older ones if we live in what we have heard.
We live in it in our daily life. It's going to go back to God in praise and worship and adoration. The circuitry is completed. It's not how much we know here as we sit here. It's how much I'm living. What I do know, Luke 818. To him that has shall more be given if you and I are living what we know might be small or it might be great.
But if we're living that God is going to give me more. But then the rest of the verse says to him that has not from him shall be taken, even that which he seemed to have. If I'm not living what I am saying, God is going to take away from me what I seem to have.
Very interesting. Not to belabor this thought of a song or singing, but are just going back to this verse again. In our chapter, verse three, he has put a new song in my mouth. Who put the song there?
God did. Then let's go over to Psalm 96.
Verse 10 Sing unto the Lord a new song.
Sing unto the Lord all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord, bless his name, Show forth his salvation from day-to-day. Now he's put that song there and wants to hear it. So that's Psalm 96. Then go over to Psalm 144.
And we see a nice response here. I've enjoyed this.
Verse nine, I will sing a new song unto thee, O God.
Just putting those three things together, I've enjoyed that. To see that as was has been said, that the truth of God flows into our hearts and it flows in absolutely perfect.
It's in all perfection. Whatever God does for us is in all perfection. But what is the response?
As it comes out, it's checkered in many ways. It doesn't come out the same way.
That it went in. So I think it's good to be reminded of these things over and over again, isn't it?
There's another one in the 5th chapter of Revelation, Charles. And they sung a new song saying thou art worthy.
That's what we're looking forward to in the heavenly choir, but we're in the enjoyment of it now.
Brother Mearns, you gave us a nice thought on the new song in Revelation.
It isn't just one particular song repeated over and over again, is it? What was your thought again?
My thought was that God is infinite in his resources.
We learned that at school that a study was made of snowflakes, and they found that there weren't 2 snowflakes alike and we can apply that to the sand of the sea or the grass in the middle and so on. And so with the Lord Jesus, when we get to glory, I believe that there be a continual unfolding of beauties and graces and loveliness.
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Proceeding from him by the Spirit to you and I, and this, I think, will form the basis of our new song.
We learn a new song down here and we sing it maybe six or seven times. Is not new anymore, but up in glory. There be a provision made through these continual duties being unfolded from the Lord which will so enthrall us that we'll put it into song and it'll continue on for eternity. Thank you.
That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. There it is, isn't it?
The fruit of the Spirit.
In the 5th of Ephesians.
Ephesians 5 and.
Speaking to yourselves in Psalms.
Then hymns and spiritual songs, This place we see that.
Truth that to be filled with the Spirit.
Verse 18 But be filled with the Spirit speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
We sing. Jesus Loves Me. We sing many children's hymns.
We enter into those things.
And they warm our hearts, don't they?
Spirit of God.
Before us in this.
Hymn book that we have for this glorious person and as the Spirit of God.
Causes us to.
Enter into that speaking to yourselves. They speak something to us individually, but when we sing them together, we enjoy them individually and collectively.
So this new song and what a.
A day of eternity, eternal day we speak on. I knew some that we will sing together, but individually and we will be individuals up there. I believe we'll enter into it as well.
Collectively, we're singing out in praise to him.
Just thinking of this expression in the 9th and 10th, 1St, both the great congregation that David speaks about and what answers to it, we know that Israel had 12 tribes and there were 12 loaves on the table of showbread that represented each one of the tribes. And now when we meet as gathered to the Lord's name, there's one loaf that speaks of one body. And if you return over later in the book of the Psalms.
We have an expression, I believe that is our continual privilege.
Connection with this in the 116th song.
Verse nine, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
I believe therefore I have spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, that all men are liars. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me? I will take the cup of salvation. I will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord in the presence of all his people.
Well, I just point that out that David Dole here in the Psalm, that now there was a fractured state of things, that the 10 tribes have been separated, they've gone off today. They don't know where they are for the most part. There were few that had come back.
Tribe of Asher and so on. But they don't know where they are. And yet here he could say, I said my haste, that all men were liars, and we may have to say that too, as we look around and we see the broken state of things. But he said, I'll pay my choice vows in the presence of all his people and the great congregation. And though we don't see things outwardly now in that state, that in spirit and in practice we can be at the Lord's table where every child of God is represented.
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And being at the Lord's table is the only place where we can bring our praise our songs to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
We've heard that said, you know, brother, I think it was from Smith's Falls, he said. To a Christian, he said, I saw you last Lord's Day at the.
Break your bread. And he said, well, I wasn't there. He said, I saw you there. And we do. We see every believer there. And so it is. Well, outwardly it's things have broken down. We can say I pay my choice vows in the presence of all his people. And I believe that that's what the great congregation answers to it. We don't. Our hearts haven't narrowed us to that. But there is a place where we can do that. There was a place in Israel where they could do that. So the tribes were scattered and there's a place for us where we can do that now.
That's where the quarters come in to come back to. That is the porters come in back to that is that in faithfulness that that place be preserved the Lord will.
Maintain a light in Jerusalem for David his servants sake. But the quarters are necessary to maintain that place and that's where responsibility comes in, in connection with that, that there might be a clean place where we can come and sing and to to speak of these things.
Tender mercies towards us and so on.
In respect to singing, and I'm almost fearful to even refer to it, but there needs to be a real exercise that what we sing.
Is founded upon the word of God, and, as has been suggested, is the outflow of the enjoyment of the truth of God we saw in speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
In Colossians, it tells us that we are to admonish one another and to encourage one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual.
So on As a result of the Word of Christ dwelling in our hearts richly. So it's very important what we sing. We notice, and many of us have enjoyed over the years, the fact that real singing only began after the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt. And so when we come into the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins and realize that the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has introduced us in the presence of God, it certainly incites our hearts to song.
But we dearly be exercised about what we sing, so that it builds up the Saints, so that it lifts the Spirit of the Saints to be occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ their needs dearly to be substance to what we sing.
And in connection with what you just said, your verses like verse 14 and 15, let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me a ha ha, Those are not Christian sentiments. They apply to the Jewish remnant. And it would be proper for them to so speak and sing.
But as you were saying, we ought to sing with intelligence. That wouldn't be something we'd sing because we're Christians, we're not Jews. And it's important that we realize that when we're singing, we're giving expression to the truth of God and to the position that he set us in. And it's a different one entirely, is it not from Judaism. So it's good to make that distinction. Not everything that's in the Psalms can be taken up.
And become the experience of a Christian. It wouldn't be so. There are expressions in the Psalms that are anti Christian. Actually we are to pray for our enemies and to do good that hate us and to them that hate us and so on. But for the Jew who was surrounded by enemies and they were earthly enemies, these sediments are proper. They can't come into their blessing until the enemy is destroyed and punished and judged. But our enemies already been destroyed and judged at the cross.
And we come into our blessings. Now we have them. Now we're just waiting for that crowning day when we'll have it. Even in our bodies. Our bodies will be redeemed. And when it says in Ephesians with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, that doesn't mean literally psalms from the Old Testament.
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I know there are different thoughts as to.
How to explain?
That verse in the New Testament, but I have enjoyed that It speaks of our experiences that we go through the difficulties and we have a lot of hymns that express that line of things and what the Lord is to us in our difficulties. I know others think that it has to do with expressing scriptural truth, right? But still I enjoy both thoughts.
There are those.
Christians who try to literally take that and put the sounds the Old Testament Psalms into melody and sing them. There are a lot of things that we can express even as Christians that are given in the Psalms, but we have to use spiritual discernment as to what is suitable for us as Christians and what is not seeing number 95 together.
242.
Seen allowed to God our strength, our strength.
He has brought us hitherto.
Thing with wonder of his love, he is.
Sing no loud to God.
Right here.
All of you, and you're speaking well. And I swore out of that time when I will walk I fall in heaven to do.
That you had number 95.
Number 95.
Break forth and sing.
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Every heart and I understand she will pray last day to our managing.
Oh.
Philippians 1:1-2
Reading
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Chapter one Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ to all the Saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons. Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.
Always in every prayer of mine for you all making requests with joy for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Even as it is me for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, and as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace, for God is my record. How greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ, and this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more.
In knowledge and in all judgment.
That ye may approve things that are excellent, That you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.
Filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God.
Would you should understand, brethren, that the things which happen unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel?
So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places, and many of the brethren and the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the Word without fear.
Some indeed preach Christ even of ended being strife, and some also of goodwill. The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel.
What then, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice? Yeah, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed.
But that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body.
By life or by death?
To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose I want not, for I am in a Strait betwixt 2 having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance.
And joy of faith, that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.
And in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.
Having the same conflict which he saw in me and now here to be in me, Paul wrote for the 14 Epistles, and four of them bring before us the Christian foundation of truth revealed by the the Lord to him, and that is the Ephesians and Colossians and 1St Corinthians and 1St.
Excuse me, Timothy.
Ten are how this truth is lived out or the experiences, and this is one of those.
Thought that was particularly before me when I suggested that chapter in connection with the comments and the number of the hymns and.
Thoughts that came out was how Paul lived at the we see at the end of acts and under house arrest, going two whole years in his own hired house, receiving all that came unto him and so to speak. Here he is in prison, looking out at a scene that would naturally dishearten and break a man, but how he had joy to go on in the pathway of faith.
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And to walk in what he had taught and was brought before what he had brought before the Saints, and really believe that that's what's necessary for our hearts.
In these days in which we're living, when Paul's doctrine is really under attack, Paul doesn't speak.
As he does in other officials.
Of his authorities for much here he's a servant.
And links you with with him.
In that service and addresses the Saints.
And it's interesting, too, He addresses the bishops and deacons at the same time. Now we know that.
The word Bishop.
Is translated or the word that is translated as Bishop is also translated as overseer or elder.
So.
They were local offices.
The bishops were responsible for the spiritual well-being of the Saints, while the deacons had responsibility to look after the material needs.
And all of this is very practical for us. And hopefully while we do not have people officially in that position, there will be those who will be serving in that capacity.
The Lord will raise up such who will serve without having an official title. This is attempted even amongst some brethren to give people an official title of an elder, but that is not according to Scripture, but.
We don't need official people in that position officially in order to for them to perform that service. These are very important services, especially those who watch over our souls.
Path through the wilderness, isn't it? The book of Philippians takes us through and I was thinking of the in the first chapter you have life and you have example in the second chapter. Then you have object in the third chapter.
And in the 4th chapter you have power. I thought I just just referred to a verse over in Proverbs.
Verse chapter 4 and verse yeah verse 18.
And this is an interesting verse because it seems to me it fits into this little book that we have of Philippine Philippi.
For but the path of the just.
Is as a shining light that shineth more and more under the perfect day. God is leading us through a wilderness, isn't He? And so He gives us life, He gives us example, He gives us a pattern, an object before us, and He gives us power to walk. And apart from that, we could not walk through this wilderness.
We'd be entrapped or snared.
So I think it's very beautiful to think of this little epistle 4 chapters, but it's it shows again, doesn't it, that cause desire is that we might be recognized his power and his willingness to bring us through a path of confusion and so on. So it's beautiful.
In connection with.
Bishops.
Turn to Acts 6. Acts 20.
And Acts 20.
It says in verse 17 Speaking of Paul and from my leaders, he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church.
And in verse 28, speaking to the elders, he says, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you. Overseers feed the Church of God. So the overseer and overseer that describes the office.
The function responsibility. The elder describes the person.
There are two different words. We have two denominations that are a takeoff from those two words. The Presbyterian Church comes from Presbyteras which is elder and the Episcopalian Church comes from Episcopal which is overseer. So those two churches.
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Come from the Greek of the New Testament. That's how they got their names. But it's kind of interesting, but actually an overseer is an elder. Elder is an overseer. The one is describing the person you sometimes you probably, you might have met some of these Mormon missionaries.
If they're in their 20s, they've just gotten in their 20s, they're very young and they call themselves elders. Well, they're not elders. They're not elders at all. They're they're just youngsters. And of course that that system doesn't follow the Scriptures, but.
That's this is the only epistle, I think that he includes the the bishops that's an overseer and deacons are a minister.
Umm, King James, who authorized, that's why it's called the Authorized Version. He authorized this translation to be made and he gave certain instructions. He said you must keep the ecclesiastical names such as Bishop, Deacon, church.
He wanted to keep those instead of for church, the assembly instead of for Bishop and overseer instead of for Deacon, a minister. We in in Christendom, when we talk about a minister, we can an entirely different thought. We we think of the pastor of the church, but really the word means a minister, one that takes care of the temporal needs of the Saints. That's a Deacon or a minister and the overseer or the Bishop takes care of the.
Spiritual needs of the Saints.
It says in Acts, it says it does not meet that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Serving of tables was the function of a Deacon or a minister taking care of the temporal needs of the Saints. Now we have that. We have those offices unofficially today. We don't have an apostle to appoint them. They they were all appointed by apostles or Apostolic delegates like Titus.
And Timothy, I think we get in those two epistles they qualifications for bishops and deacons. And so evidently those men had.
Were appointed of the apostles to appoint elders wherever they went. We don't have that today. So we don't have official overseers and deacons like they had in the early church, but they didn't have the complete word of God. We've got something infinitely better than overseers and deacons we have.
The word of God in its completeness, and that's far better, isn't it? Is it not what your thought is to why he called in the bishops and deacons here? Well, I didn't get what you said. What is your thought as to why he included them in this opening? Well, my thought is that this is this epistle.
Gives normal Christianity and in those early days it was normal for the church to have, it says in Acts 14 they appointed elders in every church where they had been. They didn't have the complete word of God and so they needed in order to maintain order and take care of these temporal needs, which the deacons did like attending on widows and so on.
And the sick and make sure they were cared for.
That was needed. Now we have the Word of God, which enables us to carry out those functions, but not officially. There's another reason for including them here. That's obscured in the verse that was read to us from Acts 20, and it should read in which God has made you overseers. And so I think the conclusion of them here is to show that they are all in the company.
Peter warns.
Carefully against lording it over God's heritage.
So we are all together in the assembly and though there are those that have different responsibilities, it is a it is a local expression of the body of Christ, as we have heard, and therefore it includes All Saints.
We need to encompass all the Saints in our thoughts and our prayers and our affections. So I think there's that inclusion here as well. Now, there's a moral reason now has been said, we don't have official elders and and deacons as such overseers.
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When the qualifications were given, or where they are given to us, these are moral qualifications that commend themselves to the hearts and consciences of Saints. And Paul says that who that desires an oversight desires a good work. And I do this work, or you do the work, or a brother does the work.
Out of exercise and conscience before normal. Well, the company sees this and they say, well then you should be our elder. As soon as that individual is appointed to official place, he can function. Whether he has any exercise or not, whether he's even the Lords or not, he may function. So we have to stay with what the Scripture suggests to us, that these are moral qualifications and one rises to that place of responsibility and labor amongst the Saints by growing up in the assembly.
The church never had any voice who the overseers were.
They did have a choice in connection with the deacons, those who were serving the tables. They picked out seven men, remember, in Acts that were to serve the tables. And it has been pointed out they were administering that which the Church supplied material things and therefore they had a voice. But they brought these to the apostles and they laid their hands on them, officially put them into that office.
It's important to understand that officers have to do with the house aspect of the church, not so much with the body of Christ. Their offices gifts have to do with the truth of the body of Christ.
As we find it in Pauls writings, in Corinthians and Ephesians and so on. But what is also important, there never was one overseer.
In the local church, like here, they mentioned in the plural.
Now we might run into a situation where there's only two or three brothers in an assembly. We also might run into a situation where there are no older men in an assembly when we, for instance, came to Brazil.
The oldest veteran that at that time when the table was spread, that took responsibility were 30 years old.
Now we told them that that is definitely your greatest weakness, that you don't have old mature brethren, but if you go on in humility, the Lord can preserve you and guide you. But the rendering in the King James that is unfortunate is over, which the better rendering is always among whom?
You know, such men who are in the lead are never viewed as being up there in the Saints down there.
You know, they're all brethren, you know.
And service is to be emphasized, not ruled. There is such a thing as rule and leadership. More leadership than rule, really. But it's not as.
One in an elevated position. We need that in connection with our collective path. And the Saints are admonished in Thessalonica.
They didn't have official elders yet because the apostles never officially put anyone into that position until they had proven themselves.
They established churches in their when they were on their missionary journey, but did not officially put them into that office till they had proven themselves. And that letter to Tesla Naika was written only weeks after their conversion. But already there were those who took the lead.
And the Saints have the responsibility to recognize them. Now we were asked that question in Malawi. How do the Saints recognize those that the Lord raises up, those who have the care of the Saints at heart? You know, that is the test. And it isn't that difficult to discern who such men are who really care for the spiritual well-being of the same.
And we ought to accept that, beloved Saints of God, that we need that kind of thing.
Even in our day, you know, this democratic idea that we have that everybody is in the same equal position is not scriptural. There are those who are in the lead and those who are left, and we better accept that and we need that kind of individual or individual that will serve in that capacity.
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There's a very good pamphlet. It was very helpful to me and I recommended it to any of our younger brothers and sisters. Would like to get a handle on this subject.
Both Office Gifts and Priesthood by AJ Molly.
Great help to me. It's both available and is available both in Spanish and in English.
And I recommend reading it carefully. One of the things that we want to make sure that we emphasize is that office is local.
The local assembly.
If someone.
Functions as a overseer and an assembly and moves to another assembly. Is not automatically an overseer and that other assembly.
Something local standing for the local assembly. Sometimes we overlook that, but it's important just mention that.
Through a book that can become a real blessing to many.
I have a question.
In the opening here, Paul and Simultius, the servants of Jesus Christ to all the Saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons. That doesn't tell us anything about about teachers doesn't.
Or does it? We're not told Paul was the teacher, but I don't. I was just wondering about how he he brought this truth to these Philippian believers and the responsibility then was among the bishops and deacons that were in that assembly. I don't know. I'm just asking this question. But in Timothy, Paul gives as one of the conditions for an elder apartment to teach.
But makes the office effectual.
Effective is that he has the ability to bring the truth of God to bear on hearts and consciences, and in First Timothy five he speaks of the elders.
That rule well should be counted worthy of double honor, especially Day, who served in Word and doctrine. And we have in Hebrews 13 those who have talked to us the word of God.
They are spoken of as leaders and guides, so we do see that it is desirable that those who are in that position have at least a measure of ability to bring the truth of God to bear on hearts and consciences, especially when there are spiritual problems.
Is there any significance to the fact that the words elders is only used by?
Paul and Timothy, at least Timothy and Titus. Is there any significance to that? Whereas here to an assembly?
The the word bishops and elders are used bishops and deacons. I don't understand your question well.
Paul in writing to Timothy and Titus, he uses the word elders.
But I don't know whether the word elders is used in any of the pastoral letters such as this one. To an assembly. It may not be of any importance, but I just wonder. It uses the words Bishop and deacons but not the word elders in any of the epistles to assemblies. But the Bishop is an elder, yes?
It's a question of translation.
Not necessarily necessarily presented that way in the original. I see the translators choose to use these words in these epistles. They could have used another.
Aren't they different words though? Yeah, they are telling us before that we have two different words. And I don't think that translators have changed the word. I think the first one is EPI, Scopus and the bishops or bishops or.
Looks over business and the other is Predator which is an elder and.
I don't think anyone took the liberty, so I think Brother Norman's question is a valid one, but maybe we don't have the answer.
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A book you mentioned, **** is a very interesting book. I read through that and what I was what struck me the most was what he spoke about, how he spoke about the the gift of the.
A gift, what a gift is, and he put it very simply, he said.
A gift is an expression of an impression.
If the brother has got something, if he's got a gift, he's impressed and so he's able to express that gift.
I just mentioned that because that was an interesting point in the book. It's very beautiful to notice that Paul writing this. He takes the very low place. He doesn't call himself anything but servants of Jesus Christ. What could be lower than that?
It's translated.
In the Doctor, the type of building up here where I live is called the first law that you have to lay is called the Deacon log. You've got to set that down in the dust and then you can start construction on your building. It's called the Deacon log and that's that's where that word Deacon comes from, in the dust.
But I like to be permitted to develop what **** was pointing out a little more because.
That it is a local office. I appreciate it getting cleared up on this wrong thought, but it is a local office.
And if I were, for instance, or any brother would try to act as an overseer in any assembly other than the local assembly.
We would act presumptuously.
We have no special authority for that.
And apostles office Apostle was a gift in an office.
Similar in character.
In that he had the care of all the assemblies.
And he had authority.
In all of the assemblies and he did not need the fellowship of an assembly to use his authority. The elders can never exercise authority without the assembly. These are all important principles to keep in mind. The elders also were the ones that had to take care.
Of matters and difficulties that arose.
When you take X15 when there was this problem in Antioch.
Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem not to discuss the matter with the church. I emphasized that they didn't go to Jerusalem to discuss the matter with the church. They went to Jerusalem to discuss the matter with the apostles and elders.
There is no spirituality in having hours and hours of discussions in with everybody in fellowship present or every brother in fellowship present. They came together in verse 6, the apostles and elders to take up that matter, not the church.
The apostles and elders took it up. They are responsible to look into matters. They brought the assembly into the exercise because in verse 22 we read then it seems good to the apostles and elders and the whole church.
So the apostles there in connection with the elders, after they had come to a conclusion, brought the assembly in. But it is never a spiritual thing. The whole idea that people have to argue things out in the assembly is not scriptural, it's confusion.
When an announcement is made and things proposed to the assembly, if there are any questions and objections, they can be voiced to those in responsibility, but not.
Have a public argument that's not scriptural order? Well, I mentioned these things, beloved, because if we would have seen these things more clearly in recent difficulties, it could have avoided some of the difficulties we dragged these young, unestablished souls.
Into the battle and into the arguments, and they become casualties. It's not for the young to get involved in these things. And if you have older, better be thankful that you have them and let them handle these things and pray that the Lord might make matters clear to them and that they come to make a proper proposal to the assembly and stay out of it. Because you might well become a casualty if you're not spiritually up to it. And I'm not saying that it is.
00:30:19
The only younger ones.
It might also be older people who are not material spiritually mature to get involved in these things.
I, I trust you, bear with me in bringing these things out. Let's be careful that we recognize God's order in the church.
Would it not be a good brother nice to for the younger brothers to be sitting in on the brothers meeting and hearing these principles? I have difficulties with that for this reason, Brother Berry, that we're living in 1997 and our generation is not used to just sit and listen. My experience has been that the young people are dragged into the battle and they voiced themselves very freely. I believe it is best for.
Not to be present, and I'm not saying that it can never be, but when it is a question of.
Serious, controversial matters. I think it's best that the elders, those whom God has raised up, handle the situation and then don't ignore the assembly. They need the assembly in order to make assembly decisions. Can I add an Amen to that? You know, my voice is here and you won't mind me saying this, but he was.
15 and recently gathered to the Lord's name. And so the brothers meeting was announced and he said Dad, am I supposed to come along?
No, I think what you say is the wisdom of God to become casualties and taking up matters that are really not that they're not fitted for yet. And it's a it's they ought to be taken off carefully and in the fear of God, as you've said, and to drag others in or allow others to come in, perhaps unwittingly.
You know, when I was first gathered, a brother who's not with us anymore immediately Said told me to come along to the care meeting and the Lord in his graciousness, he allowed me to learn things. I was older by sitting in the car meeting, but as you say, we are living in the 90s when people don't sit and just listen.
I believe there's a verse in Romans 14-1 That would substantiate the principle, and that is that the young or the weak in the face should be received, but not to the determining of questions of reason I used to tell children.
In school, they do not have a reservoir of experience that qualifies them to make the decision as to what's good for them educationally. The same thing is true in the assembly. They must grow up in the assembly under the sound of the leadership of the assembly.
Being subject to that leadership and then when the years one of the qualifications are one of the characteristics of melody is that experience with God. So I believe that there is wisdom and letting the fruit ripen a bit before it's taken into the questions of doubt or settling issues that may stumble them along the way. I have appreciated that passage in Deuteronomy chapter one.
I believe it'd be well to read it.
And verse 15 of Deuteronomy chapter one. So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men and known, and made them heads over your captains, and so forth. That expression wise men and known well.
Wisdom takes experience. It's got to be backed up by experience, and that doesn't come suddenly.
It takes a little time to gain experience. The reason I raised the question about the bishops and the deacons being drawn in at the very first of this epistle I I wonder if perhaps the apostle did not want to draw them into the exercise of this whole matter.
In connection with Philippians, now we know that.
Philippians is normal Christianity. You can see that the apostle is very free in his spirit.
Except there was a problem developing at Philippi, and he presses in verse 27 of chapter one that she stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. And then we see in chapter two he reaches out more to the conscience. It's Paul's style, isn't it?
00:35:03
Verse three. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in loneliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Look, not every man to his own things, their own qualities, but every man on the things of others, and then he gives them the perfect outstanding example in the Lord Jesus. But as we continue to read on, we see that the apostle names the problem in chapter 4.
This difficulty between these two and they were two that evidently were active in helping the apostle in faithfulness in the the gospel work, whatever it was. But I believe the apostle could see that this was affecting all the Saints. You know, where there's a root of bitterness, it says there by many are defiled.
So he he could see a thing that could come in.
And cause serious problems in this assembly that was going on, as we say in normal Christianity. Otherwise He's free in His spirit. But perhaps He wanted them all to be exercised over this manner. In fact, He calls upon others to help within the assembly in verse three of chapter 4. So I wonder if that may have some bearing upon it.
I remember when I was first got it.
With me a few seconds with this thought that we had the Lord provided a very good instructor in the assembly in China.
The honour Brother John W Bay there, and he made it his business to teach some of us younger brothers what the principles of the Word of God were.
I recall is.
Sometimes we discuss something in the care meeting.
Talk about it.
Come to an agreement, he said. Now, brethren, remember it's only a recommendation.
We are the ones that are.
That are making the decision, he said. No, the assembly makes the decision.
And he goes through the what I thought was almost a ritual of getting up on the Lords day and making the recommendation of the Brothers Care meeting to the assemblies. And he emphasized to us that the authority did not lie with any that might function as.
As overseers in the assembly, I agree with what our brother Reince has said. Never, Neil. I'm not disagreeing with that. But what I'm saying is that when it comes to a decision, it only becomes a decision when it's presented to the assembly. Some of us used to say to Mr. Beckman and the same people were there on Wednesday morning, but he says.
It's the year gathered together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what gives us authority.
To the acts of the assembly.
I'm glad for that. Would not the correct procedure be that the responsible brothers look into the details of the case? Some of them could be details that would not be proper for a young believer to be involved in, and then they come to their conclusion. They present that conclusion to the assembly as a recommendation.
With the scriptures backing up why they recommend it?
And then they wait a week so that the assembly, if there are any objections, the sisters can't speak. You know that they can make their objections known. And then the next week, in the absence of any objections, the assembly would take the action. That to me is the way it should be done.
But I'm sorry, just have to say it's not the way it's often done. And I think I would. Paul could have decided the case. It was a very clear cut, blatant case of sin in First Corinthians 5. But he didn't. He said put away from among yourselves that wicked person. He sought to get the assembly conscience exercise as to it. Otherwise the assembly just sits back and says, yes, the brothers are going to make that.
Decision and whatever they decide, we don't have any part in that. Well, that's not that's not an assembly decision. And there are groups of brethren that have an elderhood and they make those decisions and that's it. And the assembly doesn't have any say in it. And that's not an assembly decision. It's it's the decision of the pastor or the elders or whatever. But that's what Paul was seeking to do in first.
00:40:16
Corinthians to exercise the conscience of the assembly. They don't look into all the nasty details of the case. It's older responsible brothers that do that but once the recommendation and the scriptural basis for that recommendation unless they know unless someone that's composes the assembly knows something that.
These elders didn't know and can bring that to bear upon the case that might materially change the decision which gives them, give them a week to bring that up. If in the absence of any objections, then they can go ahead and the assembly could make the decision. But as you point out, **** very important point. In fact, we had this before us at the Montreal readings too. Same point. It's the assembly that makes the decision, not the brothers meeting. Brothers meeting has no authority.
To make an assembly decision.
But if there are objections raised.
I remember that Brother Armstead Ferry answered that question in Chicago years ago. Not long after we were gathered. Somebody said what if there are objections raised? He says. Those in responsibility have to judge whether these objections are valid or not. That does not mean that anytime an objection is raised that that does not allow an action to take place.
The the responsible brothers have the authority to judge whether the objections are valid or not, and they might well, when the action is carried, say objections were raised and give the reason why these objections are not valid.
Doesn't that come under the having confidence in the elders or the older ones that have sought to have heard these cases, Isn't it, Doesn't it mean that I have confidence when they when it's brought to the assembly and I have confidence that what they have searched out?
Is true. So I have that confidence in them. I, you know, some of the recent problems we've had, they did not believe what was found out. Well, I mean lack of confidence. I may say this in connection with your comment to me, Brother ****. And I think it's important that Scripture says that in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. And the facts are established in the mouth of the witnesses, not in the years of the assembly.
It is the testimony of the two or three witnesses that you say, Brother Heinz, that establishes and they're considered scripturally whether the two or three witnesses are valid witnesses. It's not in the years of the assembly. And my conscience doesn't need to say anything in order to be an exercise. What my conscience needs to do is it needs to be an exercise before the Lord and to join itself with the recommendation of the.
Overseers and so if I have a difficulty when I'm a bad state of soul, I look lightly on evil, or so on.
And I may be willing to Passover evil and so on. It's a reflection of my own state of conscience, not necessarily the recommendation that's put before me. And I may be in such a bad state of soul, I may separate myself from what is really a right decision of the assembly. I just say that, and I say that in connection with the 2nd Epistle to the Corinthians, because he says the judgment which was inflicted of the many is that that's not a criteria for a dissembly decision, but it's the reason.
The discipline was effective in connection with that man in First Corinthians five. He was put out from among yourselves, that wicked person, and the man was put out, so to speak. He had nowhere to turn to. He didn't get support from other places and so on. And so they're therefore God was able to put him at the assembly, put him in a place where he that work could be done in his soul without the support and encouragement of others.
Judgment was inflicted of the many or the body at large. Some of said Mr. Darby's translated. But the point is it's the reason why it was effective not.
Criteria for the assembly decision and so we can actually hinder a work of God because the man is put out by the assembly deliver such a one on to Satan Satan is the one who's to do the work for the destruction of the flesh that's what's to be done and the result is that the spirit may be saved that's the desired result and the reason that that was effective was because.
That the many joined their conscience in what was put before them. But I may be of adult conscience and not really join with the assembly in the matter.
00:45:04
And I think that that's why it's important that it is a decision of the assembly. It's not just something that's dictated, but that's not to somehow lay the blame on the overseers, but it's to really exercise my conscience. And my conscience doesn't need to speak in order to in order to or have something to say in order to be exercised. Isn't it true that there have been occasions where.
Men in the name of being overseers.
Our leaders among the people of God.
Have taken decisions for others and have swept hundreds of assemblies off the ground of truth.
I think we have to bear that in mind. I think there's a balance in Scripture between legitimate leadership.
And you might say.
Over riding the.
Conscience of the assembly and not even acknowledging that there is such a thing. And I think that's an important thing to keep in mind. We spend a lot of time on this point, but I think probably it needed spending time on because we don't understand it very well. But I think something that Mike said earlier is very, very important, that is that these things.
Have to do with the house act, not with the body aspect.
That's what you said, Yes. And brethren, we have to recognize that we must not insist on a certain formula at all times. Let me explain what I mean to say.
If.
The responsible element in the assembly does in oversight establish the fact that somebody is guilty of fornication or adultery. How can anybody have any objections to having that person removed?
You know, we have not in such cases proposed an action to the assembly. We made an announcement and established this fact. We didn't give details, but we would say that this person is guilty of fornication of adultery and therefore has to be removed. But there are cases, I believe, where.
These matters are not that clear, and where we do, well not to ignore the consciences.
Of others but this is not just in matters of discipline these are other matters where unfortunately sometimes we ignore the consciences of our brethren, you know, and that might well lead to further unhappiness and.
Disturbances amongst the Saints and it doesn't mean how many of them might have consciences exercised about a certain thing. We tend to ignore when somebody doesn't agree with our exercises and just go on. And perhaps we contribute towards the state of unhappiness amongst the Saints of God.
We are individuals and there are individual consciences involved and we do well to weigh their exercises, you know, and to just ignore them and railroad over them is not according to God.
I fully agree with what you just said. I want to make this comment though. The Corinthians were in such a state that he has to say to them, Ye have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed should be taken away from among you. They were just babes in a way. They hadn't confronted this kind of a case before.
And in the religion that they had practiced as pagans, this was common stuff that happened and never was looked upon as evil.
Paul had to bring their conscience into exercise before God that this is an awful evil.
You once tolerated it when you were in paganism. You're a Christian now. This has to be dealt with.
Judged. And so he brings the conscience of the assembly to that point where that's that's what a true leader does. A true leader doesn't decide for the assembly, but brings the conscience of the assembly into exercise so it can make a scriptural decision and deal with the evil and look upon it as evil.
00:50:08
If someone gets put away, and I don't think he should have because I don't see the evil of it.
I have to be, I have to be taught, don't I? I have to be instructed. This is evil. This is sin. We're living in a day when there's all kinds of things going on in Christian circles that are terribly wicked and they're tolerated. Christians even don't even seem to know that it's evil. And I mean, it's, it's sad that you have to say something like that, but that's, that's where we are.
And.
Fornication is evil and has to be dealt with. It cannot be tolerated. The world just looks at it as common thing and we we can have our thinking adjusted to that that line and that's absolutely wrong. Isn't it been pointed up that?
Not only in matters of discipline and we seem to get.
On to that, but in a matter of reception or other matters that require discernment.
For instance, an individual may well be.
Recommended by some who know the brother and have had experience with him. Our sister.
But the Spirit of God in the midst of the assembly as well inhabits the assembly, and He is there to give discernment. And some spiritual soul may have difficulty and not really know anything exactly wrong, but just be uncomfortable about it. So there should be waiting upon God.
As to what may be the problem, I know of one case where a brother was recommended to the assembly.
In good faith and one of the.
Weaker brothers, you might say, just said, I have some uncomfortable feeling about this before the next large day, the man was arrested and nobody knew that he was involved in that. So the Spirit of God is there to guide and to lead us into the mind of Christ to act.
For Christ, and Christ gives authority for that action, and remember its local responsibility. And if we do not judge the idea of involving other assembly in what is a local disciplinary matter, this problem is going to continue to cause problems among the gathered Saints.
There is the possibility of.
The truth of the body of Christ coming in that is that a teacher or several brothers might help a local assembly to clearly see what their responsibility is, but under no circumstances can another assembly take over the administrative responsibility of an assembly other than their own.
And I trust this principle will be totally judged among us, Because if it isn't.
It will cause further problem. Only the judgment of another assembly will justify our conscience was a statement made. But this kind of a thing is unscriptural, beloved brethren, but I trust we will always be open for ministry and that those who have the exercise of gift and responsibility to speak to us, that we give that opportunity.
You know that would not be.
According to the truth of God, if we would not allow any brother or sister.
Who has exercises to voice them to us? Even a sister? Yes, a sister might have exercises and has to be given an ear. Can I ask a question? We often speak of the conscience of the assembly as if such a thing exists. Is there anything other than an individual conscience? Could you say that louder? You know, we often speak of the conscience of the assembly as if there was such a thing.
But the.
Matthew 18 and 20 speak about two or three being agreed, but his conscience not an individual thing.
And so my burden of my question as we speak about the conscience of the assembly as if there was such a thing, It seems to me what we read in Matthew 18 and 20 is that when there's two or three agreed as touching something that it will be done for them of my Father in heaven. But do the what we often call the conscience of the assembly may be perhaps the state of the assembly that is.
00:55:04
General lack of individual exercise, but it's individually that we have to be exercised and join my conscience to the action of an assembly.
I put it as a question. I just.
Use this term as if it was something that we saw in the word of God. I just well, the seven churches in Revelation 2 and three, the Lord addresses the Angel of the church at Ephesus and Smyrna and so on and.
The Angel represents the responsibility of the assembly. You want to say the conscience of the assembly.
The Angel represents that element and he's addressing of those there who are responsible, who's they? They are to hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. So he's he's addressing the Angel, but it says to the churches, the Spirit is speaking to the churches.
So the Church has a responsibility and a conscience collectively, if you, I, I have no trouble with that, to deal with the evil. Otherwise, if it's just an individual, if conscience is simply individual, then then how is the assembly going to collectively act in putting out evil?
Versus 11?
Verse 11. Doesn't that suggest?
May not use the word conscience, but suggested there's a corporate reaction and I think that's what we mean when we say the conscience of the Assembly. I'll just mention the case that I know about that occurred in another country where.
There was a case that the brothers took up.
And the brothers ascertained the facts, and they said these facts are not.
Are suitable to be brought before the assembly, and they were right, they were not.
But they didn't even name the sin, they just said so and so has to be put away. Where was the what the grieving and the.
Diligence on the part of the assembly, not there at all. And so even though I believe as it was done, the Lord and the Lord.
Vindicated the judgment that was pronounced.
The Lord allowed that another case came up right afterwards because they hadn't gotten to the root of it as a company. And I think 2nd Corinthians 7, Neolith, if I'm not mistaken, and verse 11 gives us the nearest thing to a thought of a conscience of an assembly, doesn't use that word, but it sure shows that there was a corporate reaction to what was.
What had gone on?
I believe also that the expression that has been already brought before us of the many would include a corporate action of a collective conscience working. And it is never sufficient when the person that is guilty of sin sits back voluntarily, as if this clears the assembly. Never.
The assembly has to take action, they have to make an announcement.
This was one of the things that happened in.
Mozambique, the first matter of discipline there that occurred. They thought that it was sufficient that the person that had sinned was voluntarily sitting back.
And we wrote to them and tried to exercise them using the scripture ***** **** was referring to in 2nd Corinthians 7 to show them that they had to clear themselves of this matter. The name of the Lord needs to be cleared. It is never sufficient to say the person is sitting back and as if this clearing the assembly. No, the name of the Lord needs to be cleared and the name of the assembly.
Doesn't the case that they can show that to what does the Lord say they can't have sinned?
Now Israel, that's it, I say. That's the Lord lays on the conscience of Israel, I said.
I should say those plethora accepted that correction. You know, they were ready to see that that was their responsibility.
01:00:01
That was just a case of ignorance and they needed that's right.
Sin isn't mentioned in this epistle, is it? No. Interesting point there's there was a little difference. We read through this epistle, There was some little difference between sisters, apparently. But in every chapter we get joy or rejoicing, and I think that's a lovely thing to think of.
Paul was commending them here, he says in verse three. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.
Always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy.
For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident. So he had a confidence in these Philippians, didn't he? And I think it's beautiful just to rise above our thoughts here. I'm sure it's been very profitable. But just to see that in this little epistle, sin really isn't mentioned.
But there was a little difference. I don't think conflict itself was mentioned either. But there is a little difference between the sisters here. And Paul calls attention to that, that there might be that joy going on together. And is there not a difference in each one of us? We all have different thoughts, different views. God brings us together in such a way that I can look up to, to the Lord and get grace, more grace, as he says here, grace.
Unto you and peace from God our Father. You can get it. As we bring this together, we find that even though there may be little conflicts, there may be little differences, there's a real joy in going on for the Lord. There's two verses that come to mind in connection with your remarks that mother says in the Second Corinthians chapter one and the end of the chapter.
The apostle says, Moreover, I call God for a record upon my soul.
That to spare you, I came not as yet unto Corinth. Not that we have dominion over your faith, but our helpers of your joy. For by faith you stand. And so faith would want to be dependent on God, but also obedient to His Word. And that's the combination that brings to joy, isn't it? Not that we have dominion over your faith. And that's what I discern, as our brethren have been speaking, that I don't have the right to.
To take and influence my brethren's conscience except by the word of God, but a once comes to having dominion over the over their faith. It's just by faith you stand and that's individual isn't it. What was his confidence very interesting here in verse six being confident of this very thing that he which has begun a good work in you.
Will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
That will be the day of manifestation. God is going to complete that work. There may be a little difference now. There may be a little bit of a variation of things and thought, but God is going to complete that. It's going to bring it all together, isn't he? But the reason why Paul I think we get was confident of this in the Philippians is we find in the seventh person. I'll read the marginal reading in the King James even as it is meet or righteous of me to think this of you all.
Because you have me in your heart in as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, You are all partakers of my grace. It wasn't that Paul had them on his hearts, it was a source of his confidence, but the fact that they had Paul in their hearts.
That they were going to go on with Paul and faithfulness. That he was confident that God would finish the work that he'd started. And.
Gospel 1
Gospel—D. Bilisoly
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Let's begin our meeting tonight by singing hymn #2.
Verse 4.
Come, for Angel hosts are musing, or they sight so strangely sad God beseeching man, refusing to be made forever glad from the world and its delusion. Now our voices rise as one, while we shout God's invitation. Heaven itself re echoes come.
Some brother want to start that force.
00:05:15
Dear Ones, this hymn certainly expresses the great truth of the gospel, and that is that the work is finished and the invitation is to come.
And the Lord Jesus said, Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden.
And I will give you rest.
So the invitation still goes forth this late in history.
We all feel assured that the Lord's coming is very near at hand.
And yet he still is inviting sinners to come.
And I have a strange feeling that we have some sinners in the room tonight. Thank God for those who know Christ as their Savior, who are recognized now as the Saints of God.
But we don't want to presume. And if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, be honest.
And recognize that you need to settle that question tonight. And now let's pray.
Our blessed God and Father, we thank Thee for the gospel of Thy grace.
How our hearts are touched as we think of that love that reached out to us.
Individually, those of us who know he is our savior, we can look back and.
Remember the darkness we were in when we were without hope and without God in the world. What a miserable condition it was. And we do thank thee for the deliverance thou hast brought about through thy beloved Son, through his finished work, through his precious shed blood. And we thank thee that thou hast set our feet upon that heavenly Rd. We now can rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
And our God and Father, we look up to Thee independence this evening as we're about to open Thy precious Word. Together we know that Thy Word is living and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword. It's thy precious Word that will Pierce to the heart, to the conscience, and expose the Sinner and their guilt that there might be a work.
Of blessing. And we do think of each one here tonight. We wouldn't presume.
That all are the Saints of God.
But we fear for those who are blending in.
And perhaps convincing.
Most that they.
Our believers but thou knowest their hearts, We pray that thy word may be as an arrow of conviction. We count upon need to work in this way and so independence we look to thee, and we'd give thee our thanks. And the worthy and precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Turned with me to the book of Romans.
Romans chapter one, verse one.
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised before by his prophets in the holy Scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.
And declared to be the Son of God, with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience.
To the faith among all nations for his name, among whom ye also are the called of Jesus Christ, and to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be Saints, Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I first I thank my God through Jesus Christ, for you all, that your faith is spoken of through the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my Spirit in the gospel of His Son.
00:10:09
Now I just want to sketch a little bit through Romans, because the book of Romans is so much the doctrine of the gospel presented to us. And we see that the first mention is that Paul was separated and what a servant he was of Jesus Christ and called to be an apostle and separated unto the gospel of God.
Well, you might say that brings us right to the source.
God is the source.
We've got to go right back to the Source, whether it's creation, whether it's redemption, whatever the case is, we have to go back to the Source. There's no way that you can understand anything unless you go to the source in the beginning. God, if we if we went no further than that, it shows man's responsibility. And I press on you tonight, dear ones.
Whether it be young or old.
That you and I, we have to do with God, each one of us. That is a very solemn thing to consider, especially if we have been living to please ourselves, and if we have been careless and indifferent about his claims upon us. He's bought the world. He's got possession. He has rights. By Creator and by Redeemer, are you acknowledging His rights?
We read here in one of the verses for obedience to the fate among all nations for his namesake. It wasn't just to a certain select people like Israel, but it was to all nations for the obedience of faith. God wants us to be submissive to His word. He wants us to recognize what our need is and.
This has to do with all eternity. Oh dear ones, here tonight. Don't look at the faulty speaker. Consider what God's word has to say about you and your eternal destiny.
Now thank God that most here I can say with confidence have settled that question and now with Joy you can anticipate what's ahead and we can enjoy meetings of this sort.
Otherwise, for myself, I know back in the 40s and even in the 30s, I had no use for these things and I dreaded the thought of having to do with God. I wanted to keep it out of my mind and I believe that this is generally the way with most, and I have noticed, and you have too, how people will do all that they can to preoccupy their minds.
With any and everything but the things of God.
And the fact they have to do with God and they don't want to consider the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, dear ones, here, tonight, here in Romans, we have presented to us the very source of the gospel. It is God. God is the source. And then we see the theme of the gospel and that is the gospel.
Of his son in the middle of verse 9.
And then we notice over in.
It speaks about the gospel of Christ here.
In one of these verses later on.
16 Thank you.
Verse 16.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. That's the means He was the one sent in order to accomplish all to the glory of God.
And then we have.
The gospel of the grace of God there in Acts 20, that's the character of the gospel. It's all based on grace.
I was thinking as we had the last meeting there in the reading we were talking about.
These expressions that concern the word and Jude uses quite an expression, doesn't he? He talks about the faith once delivered to the Saints.
00:15:07
That applies to everything that we believe the faith once delivered to the Saints.
And so the gospel is the gospel of the grace of God. Now that's the only gospel for you. There's nothing else that can be offered. And there's absolutely no thought of any second chance as far as that's concerned. Now, you know, we read in Revelation about the everlasting gospel, which indicates that God has had a testimony, A testimony that begins right in the Garden of Eden.
And speaking about.
Hold your place and let's take a quick notice of that in Genesis. I'm going to make a statement that might.
Shake you up and maybe it should.
When sin came into the world. And of course right here in Romans.
In Romans 512 it says by one man's sin entered the world and death by sin.
So when we get back here to Genesis chapter three, we see what happened in connection.
With sin.
We see how that sin come into the world. And so in verse 15 of chapter 3 of Genesis he says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
The expression of.
Between.
Thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed. Oh, you know, dear ones, here this evening.
It seems to me that when we consider the seed of the woman, we are looking on to the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus, his entry into this world.
And those according to faith, you might say, are arranged under that family.
But here we have the seed of the serpent, you might say. Is that all under the arrangement of of Satan? What a solemn thing to consider. And what way are you going, dear ones, here tonight?
Are you the Children of faith?
The children of God by faith in Christ Jesus or what family are you attached to? And so it's a solemn thing to consider that. But here was an announcement of a glad tidings.
He would bruise his heel, but thou would bruise his head. That's fatal. That will be fatal to Satan. And that surely will come eventually, when that enemy of our souls will be put down forever. But anyway, when we get back here to Romans.
We see that here the apostle sets before us the gospel of the grace of God.
And dear ones here tonight, where do you stand this evening?
Are you saved? If you're not saved, you're lost. You're either in one condition or another. There's no middle ground. There's no neutrality.
You either know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior and you're saved, or else you are lost according to God's precious word. And it says the God of this world hath blinded the eyes that them that are lost. God wants the glorious gospel to shine unto them.
But I trust that we don't have in our company here any that would be labeled as children of disobedience.
You know in Ephesians 2 it talks about being among the children of disobedience, which indicates A resistance and a resistance to the grace of God. Is that your case? Have you resisted the grace of God, that the Spirit of God would not strive with you? I would not want to.
I would not want to put that on you. I trust that you're not in that condition. But we all were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, that that was our condition. But by the grace of God, I trust that you've been delivered out of that condition. Well, here we see that the apostle.
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Says in this first chapter.
He says in verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.
To the Jew 1St and also to the Greek.
What a marvelous work of grace that he would.
He would have the gospel go to the Jew 1St and the most guilty people on the face of this world because they crucified their Messiah.
But Paul?
Paul is confident here. He's not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
He knows the power and he knows that it works and you know it too.
If you've received the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you can attest to the power and the effect of it in your life.
It is indeed the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it.
We don't have to be ashamed of it. It is living and powerful. It's effective and it works, you know?
Several years ago there was a terrible storm in the Cabot Straits and we often cross the Cabot Straits.
And it so happened that there was a fishing vessel out there called the Enterprise, and it wasn't in the best shape. It was a wooden vessel.
And it wasn't in the best shape and.
They got into this terrible storm and so they began to send out a mayday as signal.
They were in serious.
Of sinking and.
There was 1 ship in the port of Basque harbor at that time. It was called the Patrick Morris. We had seen it before. It was a good sturdy ship. They used it a good deal for they used to take railway cars over and then they later used it for some trucking. It was a good sturdy ship, but it was the only one in port at that time and as I understand, they couldn't muster together more than a crew of about four people.
But they took that large ship out there.
With every good intent of rescuing.
The Enterprise.
But when they got there, for one thing, they could not. They could not do anything. The Enterprise had gone to pieces in the storm.
The only thing that they could do was the sad task of seeking to get the bodies out of the water.
But they made an error of judgment.
They opened their doors wrong and in short time they were swamped and they could not do anything. They lost control of the ship.
So the Patrick Morris went down with four crewmen.
Now they did everything that they could to try and rescue the others, but they could not even rescue themselves. So we see that they were helpless in that situation.
But the Apostle, as he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it. The power is there to save you, and he is an always home savior. You know the Lord Jesus says, him or her that comes unto me, I will in no wise cast out. He will not reject anyone.
You know, in connection with this passage, there's another story that comes to mind. I don't know, maybe some of the older ones may have remembered this. It was back in the time of about the 50s.
And there were some children playing around in a vacant lot.
In a residential area. An old residential area.
And all of a sudden, one of these children, maybe they were about.
Five or six years old, suddenly they were missing.
And the other children thought maybe the earth had swallowed this boy up. They didn't know what had happened.
And so they rushed home and they got their parents and they come looking for him.
And you know, I almost hate to tell the rest of the story.
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But that boy had fallen into an old well that was very poorly covered.
And not only that, but the well begin to funnel down and it was.
Full of clay and moisture, but it was a dry well.
And there he was, down in that well they shouted, and they could hear that he was there.
He answered, And so there was a great panic. Then what to do to get him out? I can't remember all the details of the story, but it was a thing of great human interest and a thing that was.
Great concern to everybody. It was front page news you might say. This poor boy caught down in a well, well, they tried to lower ropes to him. He was was not able to hang on to anything. And so they finally determined that they would get a skilled person that they could lower down, upside down to try and get a hold on that boy.
And it almost gives you nightmares to consider the whole account.
But this fellow was very brave to be lowered down into that narrow, tight shaft.
And he was able to get down and to get a hold of the hand of this boy, but he was so greasy with mud he couldn't hang onto him. And not only that, but the little fella slipped even farther down into this shaft. Now they were really panicking, not really concerned, and I don't recall how long this went on, but this went on for.
Several hours it went into a day, maybe 2 days.
But the poor little fellow was getting weaker. They could tell that. So they rushed in equipment, they had some big rig drilling rigs, and they began to drill a hole right straight down adjoining this shaft.
And they were doing everything that they could. Very skilled and capable men.
But could they rescue this boy? Or could they not? And the boy kept slipping farther down into the shaft.
They finally got all the way down with this. They tunneled over into the other place, but as I remember the story, it was too late. His life was gone, they could not save his life, and all these workmen were downcast. They were ashamed that they couldn't do it.
Oh, how sad to think of a thing like this.
But the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. To everyone that believeth no apologies.
It works, Oh dear ones here tonight, I can assure you.
That if you come to the Lord Jesus now, as you are, He will not disappoint you. He will save you.
And he is indeed an all way home savior. He's able to keep you and he's able to save you to the uttermost. So we leave that with you.
There was another account of a young fellow that was lost in Newfoundland.
And they searched and they searched for him. And when they found him.
They said here he is and everyone raised a shout that he was.
Discovered again.
But anyway, let's sketch down through our chapter here.
In verse 17 he says for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. It's on the principle of faith as it is written, The just shall live by faith. That's a quotation from the Book of Havoc.
It's interesting to see how the spirit of God would employ that little quotation. It's just a short, very short quotation, but it's actually the first place in the Old Testament that you have the mention of the word faith.
And so but we have faith indicated, of course. In fact you get to chapter 4 of Romans, and it goes into considerable detail about Abraham. How he was justified on the principle of faith, says he believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. So the principle goes way back, even early as we see, and it was the principle upon which really the Old Testament Saints were justified. But now here we have the doctrine of it.
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Set forth in the Spirit of God uses this little quotation from the book of Habakkuk at least three times in the Scripture, and I don't doubt that on each occasion there is a little different slant put upon.
This passage from the book of Habakkuk.
The righteousness of God is revealed on this principle of faith.
What a solemn thing to consider the righteousness of God.
What a solemn thing. But then you have the other side of the picture.
And that is the wrath of God. Verse 18 is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Because that which may be known of God is manifested in them, for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power. And Godhead. I believe that should read Divinity.
So that they are without excuse. Now, as you read on, you'll certainly see why the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness.
Amazing, isn't it? The word of God is timely. The word of God is always up to date because it speaks to the heart of man. It manifests the condition of man and it says his face answers to face and water. So does the heart of man to man. The heart of man has been no different since the time of the fall, and man's ruin condition has prevailed all the way through.
And even though we may be in a more enlightened time, and education has increased and knowledge has increased.
Still, has man changed in his behavior? Well, you know the answer to that.
In fact, it seems where there's greater advantage and greater privilege, there's a worse condition of things. The wrath of God is revealed. And I believe we have encompassed in these remarks through the end of this first chapter, everything that's going on in the world today. What a state of things.
But God lets us know that he has always been. He has always had a testimony.
But what occurred that brought this terrible state of idolatry that led into such a breakdown in every way?
Simply, they did not want to retain God in their thoughts. This is after the flood. This happened even in that most privileged family line of Shim.
And so we see here that they turn to idolatry. Oh, it may not have been a rapid change, but they change verse 23, the glory of the incorruptible God, into an image made like corruptible man.
Scripture talks about the beauty of a man.
But then it got worse to birds, and it gets worse to four footed beasts, it gets worse. And the creeping things. That's why it says wherefore God gave them over.
Oh, what a solemn indictment this is, dear ones here this evening. And if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you're classed with this state of things. And so we see how man lowers these thoughts of God.
Back in about 1977, I remember seeing an article where.
The Buddhists.
Were very grieved over the disastrous Year of the Snake. They were hoping that 1978, the Year of the Horse, would be more prosperous.
Well, that's the whole state and attitude of man when he goes apart from God.
As Christians, we ought to be extremely careful and sensitive about anything that in any way would change the image of God.
That would misrepresent him in a way other than God's precious word.
But I like verse 20 because it tells me that God has had a standing testimony in creation. There is enough, I believe in creation to witness to God's eternal power and divinity. Amazing, isn't it? Living in a land of Bibles, we may not consider that as much as we should.
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I like Psalm 19. We had that read to us the other day. Turned to Psalm 19 for a minute, please.
Holding your place.
Psalm 19 verse one The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
Day unto day utter a speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.
There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a Tabernacle for the Son, which, as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strongman to run a race. His going forth is from the end of heaven, and his circuit to the ends of it.
And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. Here you have a nice nice description.
Of the heavens, and they declare the glory of God.
It's a standing testimony.
Do you ever go out on a very clear night? You have to get away from the city, from the lights of the city. We appreciate that up where we are, because when we do have a nice clear night, how beautiful it is to look up into the sky and see those stars, They say that actually you can only see about 5000 of them from anyone place in the earth.
On a good clear night. But beautiful, aren't they? And if it's really clear, and this is so much appreciated, you can see what we call the Milky Way, which is a part of our Galaxy. And they say that the Milky Way is made-up of what is the 200 million stars.
And this composes this particular Galaxy that we're a part of.
But they claim that of all these galaxies, there's about 800 million of them. And I think it was maybe in January of just 1996, they claimed to have discovered about 1500 more galaxies out there. Do you think they found the end of it? Marvelous, isn't it, to consider that?
And justice, think of that standing testimony that exists.
Sam Martin gave me what is considered to be an authentic.
Letter written by.
A Russian.
During the heyday of communism.
And this young fellow from childhood was taught that there was no God. He had that ingrained and he was taught that. And now here he is out on the battlefield, and there's a great chance that they won't make it.
And it was a very starry night and as he.
Wrote out in this letter, he got to looking up in the sky. They were waiting for the call to go into the battle, and he got to looking up into the sky. And as he looked up there and studied it, he became more and more awed by the specter of all those stars and the beauty of it.
And he said there has got to be a God behind this, and in his letter that he pens to God.
He owns and acknowledges that there had to be a God in it, and he seeks to address this God that he never do, never had opportunity to.
He talks to him as one that he believed that he could trust, and he even expressed some hope that perhaps he would see him maybe soon. And they found this letter on the dead body of the soldier.
Now you know Scripture says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You know the work of Christ is so vast, it is so effective that if there is the calling upon God in true faith, he'll save a soul. It isn't that we need to understand about the work of Christ, although it is an amazing thing how many times we get the word being justified.
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In the New Testament, God wants us to know that we're justified freely by His grace. It springs from His grace and it says for it is God that justifies we're right back to the source again and it says He was raised again for our justification. There's the found the foundation of it and it says that we're justified by his blood. One of the few places in Scripture where it if we believe that Jesus died and rose again and.
And.
I can't remember exactly how that's expressed, but there's two places that seem to link faith up with the work, whereas many, many, there's many, many places that link faith with the person. What I'm saying is this, that if you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you get all the benefit of his precious work, all the benefit for all eternity. And so God is so ready to save. If there's a spark of faith there, how much faith does it take?
Well, the woman came and touched the hem of his garment, and that was sufficient. That was a little bit of faith, but she did it in great fear. And the Lord, the Lord wanted her to come forward. And so he said, who would touch me? Everybody was thronging to him.
But he knew, and she come cringing. But she learned very quickly the grace that was there.
And all beloved ones here, dear ones here tonight Scripture says poor but grace, are ye saved, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast so it's marvelous to see how God is justifying us. And right there in Romans it says, therefore being justified by faith, there's the principle of our justification. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And there's other places, too. There's only one place.
In the New Testament, where it talks about being justified.
By works. And that's only before men. I hope we understand that James brings out that line of things he does not. He does not question faith, but he says, let's see a proof of it and we will see a proof. We will see evidence. If you have received the Lord Jesus as your savior, if you really, truly come to him and received him as your own Savior, we'll see the evidence of it. The scripture says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath.
Before ordained that we should walk in them. There will be fruit. God will see to it that there will be fruit. But when we don't see any evidence of reality, boys and girls, then we raise a great, great question if you're real.
And perhaps an older one here.
And you know, these things are worrisome when we consider how that people can fit in so cleverly.
That's one thing about the parable of the five wise and the five foolish virgins that.
I thought about, and that is that there is no thought whatsoever that there was any outward distinction in the five wise and the five foolish. They all looked alike, and we can easily misjudge.
Someone that has been kept from a lot of sin and wickedness.
They may have some nice natural qualities about them, their appearance, and all may be rather convincing that are they a Christian? They appear to be. But God knows the heart. You cannot deceive and hide things from him.
But going back to this Psalm 19, I want to emphasize this point and that is that God has a standing testimony so that they are without excuse. But we have far more than the testimony of creation. We have the testimony of redemption, which we can preach to you now.
But I appreciate the way this is put, because it speaks of the sun like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. And that's the way indeed, the Lord Jesus will come first. He will come as the bridegroom to take his own, to be with him in glory, and then he will come forth.
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From his circuit, so to speak, in verse 6. And nothing it says is hid from the heat thereof.
Now, dear ones here the Lord Jesus came to die. He came to be a savior.
He did not come to judge.
He didn't want to destroy men's life, but rather to save them, and so he still stands as a savior. But we've had a good deal in our meetings together about the fact that he will come as a judge, and it is a very solemn thing to fall into the hands of the living God. How shall we escape? It says, if we neglect so great salvation? He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed in that without remedy. Those are very solemn words to consider, but he would rather save you.
Oh God, doesn't want anyone to perish.
He would have all men come to repentance, all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.
It was so costly for him to provide salvation and he wants you to veil yourself of it.
He doesn't want you to hold back. And the work of Christ is sufficient for all. It's unto all. It's wide open. That's what we have in Romans chapter 3. But it's only unto those that believe. It's available to all, but it's only upon those that believe. How about you? Are you in the class of those that have believed the gospel? Have you been obedient and received Christ as your savior?
Taken your place first of all as a lost and guilty Sinner, and then receive Christ as your Savior. Well, like Mr. Darby says, there's a method to the Psalms and here we have the standing testimony of creation. But then we have the Word of God introduced in verse 7-8 and nine, and we have in Romans chapter three, chapter 2 also.
It says what advantage hath the Jew much in every way, for under them were committed the oracles of God.
But is there anyone in the room here this evening that does not have a Bible in their hands? You have the word of God in your hands. All these things increase responsibility. Oh dear ones, here tonight. I trust you know the Lord Jesus as your savior. And if you have God's word and you know him as your savior and you read God's word, you'll say indeed verse 10 more to be desired, Are they than gold? Yeah, than much fine gold. Sweeter also.
Than honey and the honeycomb. It exceeds nature, God's precious word. And God wants objection to His word. Well, we see the question of the Messiah brought in in verse 20 the distress of the treatment against him. 21 We see God's answer. But 22 Psalm 22 brings out the fact that he had to die.
Mr. John Wilson in Denver some years ago. He used to enjoy riding the train, and he used that opportunity once in a while to speak to souls and he had a great fondness for Jewish people.
And sure as anything, a Jewish person was assigned to the seat next to him.
Happened to be a rabbi, and so Mr. Wilson.
Cleverly began to.
Search him out with a few questions.
And so he came to Psalm 22.
And Mr. Wilson said to this distinguished looking older man, this rabbi, he said.
Whose words are those in Psalm 22?
Well, as Rabbi said, it's a Psalm of David, he said. Of course it's David's words.
Mr. Wilson just said this, he said. Well, Sir, will you tell me when David's hands and feet were pierced?
See.
You read that in Psalm 22 They pierced my hands and my feet. Verse 16.
There was number answer to that. Oh how God desires the blessing of that people. How he desires the blessing of you here tonight.
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They they are set aside now nationally, and then there is no difference. It says God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all. So God's mercy now is reaching out to you and I of this Gentile world. And he wants you to come. And that's the grand invitation of the gospel. Whosoever will may come now, we'll go on. Our time is up. But look at chapter 2 of Romans.
And.
God gives warning of judgment.
In other words, here in chapter one you have this terrible condition described that has come into the world, and this came in early. This came in after Noah's day and as a result of the dividing of the nations.
And.
Chapter 2 seems to be.
The rising up of the philosophers, the moralizers, that questioned all of this terrible excess and extreme, but they were doing the same things. Verse one therefore, thou inexcusable old man, whosoever thou art the judges, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same thing. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
And thinkest thou this old man that judges them, which do such things and do us the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God. That's so much in people's hearts. People are continually comparing themselves with others. I well know I did it myself, and yet doing these same things.
Verse four Or despises thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Oh dear ones, here what would God do? What means might he use to lead you to repentance? He may use various circumstances in your life.
Some know about?
These dear ones in a place called Isle of Mort in Newfoundland.
And here Sheila learned from the doctor that their young boy had muscular dystrophy. Brian was his name.
And what a shock that was to Sheila to learn that. But they had been going on in different to the claims of God, and God used that jolt in her life to shake her up, that she turned to the Lord.
And now, after several years, her husband Greg, watching all of this thing, seeing this evident work of grace in the heart of his wife and such a true devoted companion with chaste conversation coupled with fear, moved his heart and Ryan's faith too, because Ryan, even though he was deteriorating in this condition.
Trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. Just a young fellow. Just a young boy. Trusted the Lord.
So this was more than Greg could handle. And the Lord graciously used all the witness and testimony of this to melt grapes heart. And he turned to the Lord Jesus as his savior. And now he takes a Bible with him to the boats in the Great Lakes and he wants the men to see it. He keeps it where it is prominent. Lovely to see that he's taken a stand for the Lord like that. And how about Ryan? Well, his grandmother was shedding a few tears because they knew.
They know that he doesn't have too much longer. He's getting worse and he's getting more deteriorated.
But Ryan said to his grandmother, he says Grandma Nan, they call him there. He says, Nan, I don't want you to shed tears at my funeral because he said I'm going to be with the Lord Jesus.
So.
They knew not. But it was the goodness of God that brought all this about. And I'll tell you that it's a story in itself to talk about a fellow by the name of essential. Have you ever heard of anybody called essential? He changed his name. His real name was Lamentation.
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You can tell he wasn't appreciated and.
And poor lamentation. He lives in Nigeria.
He was depicted on one by his stepbrothers and so finally the real critical thing happened and that was that the father moved these sons to kill a neighbor that they resented over some land disagreement.
And they put the blame on poor lamentation.
He couldn't do anything to get out of it.
They imprisoned him. He was stuck in prison for seven years. We were hearing some of this. He was so bitter and so angry.
That he consulted. He consulted native doctors. Which doctors?
To curse these brothers, to put a death curse upon them.
Well, it didn't work.
And then his wife, who stayed true to him all this time, he says I'm going to poison myself. You get poisoned. Shoot. No, I will not do it. I will not do it.
Well, finally.
Poor lamentation had no other way to turn but.
And the Lord saved his soul.
And he came to know the Lord Jesus as his own precious savior.
All the bitterness was removed toward his brothers and he decided that.
That wasn't the name to carry. So he he decided that he was essential to the Lord. The Lord saved him, got him out of prison. And so essential is a real soul winner. He loves to hand out tracks and he's going on very happily now in Nigeria in the assembly. Marvelous. The grace of God. It took a lot though, to crack that shell because he was a very wicked man.
He lived a very wicked life, but his dear wife stayed by him. But anyway the Lord had to put a lot of heavy pressure upon him.
But just like it says.
The goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance, That's what it took. He didn't know anything about the goodness of God, but he knows now that's what it was. And dear ones, here tonight the Lord stands so ready, there's no problem on his part. He wants to save you. He wants to bring you into great joy and happiness.
He wants to bring you into the circle of fellowship, not to be equaled anywhere in the world, this poor world, You know, they want companionship. They want kindred ship. But oh, what a miserable state of things that it is and how wonderful it is to be a part of the family of God. And he's waiting, and he wants you to come now. And so the Lord Jesus invites you to come. Shall we pray?
Blessed God and Father, we do thank Thee for thy grace.
That waited patiently.
For those of us who know this, the Lord Jesus as savior.
But we know that the long-suffering of God is salvation.
And now it's still waiting. But thy precious word warns us that, behold, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. We pray that there's no one here that may put off or carelessly neglect so great salvation.
We do pray that if there's any boy or girl or older one here tonight, that thou would work by thy spirit in their heart, in their conscience, we would ask it all in the name and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Philippians 1:2-12
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Chapter one and verse 2.
Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, for you all making a request with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.
Confident of this very thing that he would have begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, even as it is me for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart. And as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, he all are partakers of my grace.
For God is my record. How great I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offence, till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God.
But I would you should understand, brethren, that the things which happen unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren and the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
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Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strike.
And some also of goodwill, the one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel.
What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And I there unto rejoice. Yeah, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayers and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
According to my earnest expectation and my hope that a nothing I shall be ashamed.
But that was all boldness, as always. So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death, or to me. To live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose I want not, for I am in a Strait betwixt 2 having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.
Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you, and having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherers and joy of faith.
That you're rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me, by my coming to you again. Only let your conversation be, as it becometh the gospel of Christ. That whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs. That you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition.
But to you of salvation and that of God, for unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which he saw in me, and now here to be in me.
Several times yesterday a comment was made that this this book gives us normal Christian experience, normal Christianity. I got to thinking about that in this first chapter, The Apostles in prison.
There are some preaching Christ with wrong motives.
There's a reference to the need of being of one mind.
In verse 28 it speaks of adversaries. In verse 29 it speaks of suffering.
That normal Christianity, well, it's wonderful, isn't it? It speaks of joy in this book more than anywhere. Any other book. Joy in spite of all these difficulties. And so the apostles in prison. But it's manifest in verse 13 that it's because of Christ and he has a benefit from that. He knows another place where it speaks about those of Caesar's household that were saved.
And the fact that some were preaching Christ not sincerely. Still Christ was preached that he he rejoices in that. You know, sometimes we hear criticisms of the way people are carrying on the work. They don't understand maybe what we feel we do, but Christ is being preached.
And I suppose we could go through each one of these five different things. Maybe there's more of that are difficult. And yet this is practical Christianity, isn't it? This is what we're meeting with in our lives. We don't always agree. We don't find everybody agreeing with us. But.
We go on together, driving with one mind and recognizing that there are adversaries and recognizing that we may be called upon to suffer for his name's sake. But I believe that's where Christianity really shows.
When there's difficulty and we can accept it and take it with joy in the difficulties and go on for the Lord, so it is really normal Christianity, isn't it? That's what's really touched my heart about disappear.
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Because you would think that the circumstances in which Paul found himself as Philip, I would break a man's heart. First of all, he was cast into prison unjustly, and it was his happy spirit, them singing there in prison. I believe that it affected not only the Philippian jailer, we had a little bit of that last year, his singing, but I believe the whole prison, because he said we're all here. It was like when Joseph was in the prison in submission, that it brought blessing into the whole prison. And I was thinking that of that brother Ken that you mentioned that, you know, maybe governmentally he may remain in prison for the rest of his life.
But God put him in a sphere. He's put a lamp stand in a prison there, and he can be a blessing if he really submits to the government of God. If he seeks to spend his life the way many prisoners do, trying to figure out how to get out, how to appeal, he can make his life miserable and unhappy. But if he really accepts the thing from the Lord, the Lord may lift the government, but he'll use them in blessing. And here was Paul in the midst of circumstances that would crush a man, He was put into prison wrongly. And there, you know, was mentioned yesterday. There was perhaps strife between these two sisters.
He was looking out, and he was seeing some preaching, Christ of envy and some of strife, and some even supposing to add affliction.
To his bonds. And yet the man is happy. He's thankful for the Saints, and he's rejoicing in his soul.
And then you think even he has to warn them against evil workers, concision and dogs. To think that there were Christians that were going back as a dog returned to vomit. That there were those that were turning Christianity into a legal system. The concision. And there were those actually coming into the testimony and bringing evil doctrine concerning the person of Christ, evil workers. And yet he was rejoicing in his soul and that's what we need for ourselves. I was so thankful that Brother Chuck mentioned at the end of the 40th Psalm that.
That the enemies that that's not. That's not Christianity. That's Judaism.
But we do face real enemies and we tend to personalize these things and we get into strife and conflict with each other and with our brethren and with the world, you know, protesting things. And and that tends to be our natural characteristics, some of us more than others. But here we find how Paul met these enemies in real spiritual power. And that's what we need in the day in which we're living, is it's not so much I'm not putting down learning more truth, but it's how do we take up and hold the things that we have and we just see. I think it's so lovely how Christ was magnified and Paul's body in the face of all this difficulty and sorrow and confusion.
And it's delightful. I do want to say this because the brother said, you know, yesterday as to the reading, he said it was very good and helpful what we had, but it wasn't Philippians. I'd like to suggest that it was that we get very much the government. We get the household of God and the order of God's house, which brings peace and happiness and submission. It was to Romans that Paul wrote, governments ordained of God a terror to evil doers and not the good. It was submission. It was submission that is going to bring peace in the assembly, to the order in the assembly, and it's.
Was in submission and in being in prison that let them. You know that he wrote to Rome there. And I don't know what occasion that the Chamberlain of Rome got converted, but as you pointed out, there was blessing from him being there. And Paul could even look at his life and say, you know, I got into this mess because I didn't listen to those elders at Ephesus. I insisted in going up there to Jerusalem, I didn't hearken to the Spirit, but he is not a man full of regrets. And he said I would, that she know. Brethren, the things that happened unto me were for the furtherance of the gospel.
And there's such blessing in our lives that we'll just submit.
And we just see the joy in Paul's soul as he saw, and the fruitfulness in the midst of all adversity.
And this is practical Christianity. I think we've all realized that there's no new doctrine brought out.
In Philippians. But there is real power to walk in what we have and that's what we need.
Contrasting. I was just thinking of Paul here in prison. And make no mistake about it, these prisons were not the palaces that we have today. There were dungeons. They were in chains. They were suffering. And yet he could speak of joy and rejoicing. But look at Solomon.
He had everything in this world, everything that this world could ever want. This man had it. And what does it say at the end of his days? All is vanity and vexation of spirit.
So we see the difference between affluence, what we possess.
And what the Spirit of God puts in our hearts? And I think of the dear apostle who had nothing at this time, but he had Christ, and he was rejoicing. There was joy in rejoicing. But Solomon couldn't say that at the end of his life, with all that he had, he had to say all his vanity and vexation of spirit. For the little do you think that the Lord used God used these two men in their own particular sphere, because it's Paul from the prison had written that all his vanity and vexation of spirit.
00:15:28
Of course I was in prison. I would feel that way too. And yet he used Solomon, that everything going for him to say that in this world he could not find anything to satisfy. Well then if Solomon had written rejoice in the Lord Alway, and again I say rejoice, we would say, well, you know, if I had everything Solomon had, I could rejoice too. But God didn't do it that way. He let.
Some and try everything.
And keep his wisdom while he did it too. And he says so. Vanity and vexation is spirit. So can we find any satisfaction here?
Or if we were in prison, could we rejoice? Is that the real lesson?
Freshly suffering, that hate, suffering. And yet it's what will really produce joy in our soul. And Mr. Darby said that prosperity and feebles the same. And it is that prosperity enfeebles us because we get to, you know, we get everything taken care for us and we're in prosperity. But then we get into difficulty and you see that it's really what is going to produce joy if we take these things from the Lord. And you'll often see find people. A sister just said this on the plane she goes.
Moved up to first class and she saw there at 8:00 in the morning. That's obviously a very wealthy woman.
Drinking her cocktail and you see already getting inebriated at the early hours of the morning and you say, why is there such bitterness and emptiness in the world?
Why is there in our own lives is because we don't really value the things that will produce real joy in our life.
And it's emptiness.
Three, I thank my God upon everywhere my whole remembrance of you.
As he was sitting there in the prison, I like to think of this, that he just had a wonderful remembrance of the Philippian Saints.
And he brought forth Thanksgiving, not grumbling Thanksgiving.
And then?
The remembrance of them that Weld forth in Thanksgiving. He remembers that there's needs too, and he's always says always.
Or making supplication for you all with joy constantly in every in every supplication.
There's.
I I think it's just sweet to think of him there in circumstances that you and I would not want to be in.
First of all, having this whole remembrance that brings forth Thanksgiving and his soul, and then he thinks of the needs too, and he prays for them with all his supplication. Do you think those prayers went up to God in a special way? I do.
I believe that coming from where they were, they were specially appreciated by the Lord.
And.
Many things of their fellowship in the gospel.
Fellowship in the gospel. From when did it start? When somebody came along and talked about some great work that was being done? No. From the first day until now, they had fellowship in the gospel. To me, that's very precious.
It's important to notice when we talk about the Lord about Paul rejoicing, the memory of them is just to turn over to the third chapter and not to destroy that lovely thought, but.
We don't want to have blinkers on, so to speak, because he says here.
Verse 18 of chapter 3 for many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. And so we don't need to pretend that there aren't real causes of discouragement there or things that might dishearten. But we see the reason was that they had fellowship with Paul, and that's where we want to be. Paul's doctrine is important. Fellowship is founded on doctrine, fellowship in the gospel, he said. It wasn't just in the work of the gospel handing out tracks, as we may say that was precious, but they were really with Paul and what Paul taught, and they stood with Paul.
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And we see this in the next verses here. I was thankful for a brother that pointed this out. It's clear in Mr. Darby's translation.
And I read the marginal region reading yesterday of this 6th and 7th verse in connection of the of this because it's connected with a a semi colon there.
This fellowship in the gospel, being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work, and you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. The verse does not stop there. Even it is meat or righteous of me to think this of you all, because you have me in your heart.
It was that they were really were attached to Paul's doctrine and that was really the source of Paul's confidence that God was going to finish the work in them that they they had started.
Justice doctrine that they had in their hearts or did they have him?
Yes. I don't rule out the other thought, but I think it's important to see that they had Paul in their thoughts, didn't they? It was affection for him. And I just say that that sixth verse has probably been, over the last 11 years as we've worked in the jail, one of the most comforting verses, because you see fellows that they start out well and you see them. What happened?
And then Brother Jim Robertson, who works with me, some of you know I'm he always says to me, Brother **** don't forget Philippians 1/6. He that has begun a good work in you will complete it until Jesus Christ Day. What a comfort that is to know that God will do that which he has set out to do in US and in those we work with.
That's, that's good, because the doctrine is real people too, you know, And we can't separate that. Some people say, well, I don't want to get the truth from books. I want to get it for myself. And that's true. We understand what they mean. And I I want to just stand for the truth. But it's not an alone thing. It's real brethren that we walk with. And it's not just the doctrine, but it was embodied in a person. And so the testimony too, we're not to be ashamed of the testimony. A little assembly going on two or three gathered to the Lord's name. We shouldn't be ashamed of it because.
That's where the doctrine is displayed and you can't separate the two from those that stand for the truth and the truth that they stand for.
There's a there's a little word in the in the psalms that says sila.
Pause and reflect.
Let's not. Let's leave room after one is spoken for, pausing and reflecting before someone else goes ahead. We're getting into the same snare of popcorn brethren that I call them, one right after the other. There's no waiting and and that's not a good sign. Let's wait and pause and reflect on the word of God and give room.
For others to take part.
We don't want to overlook verse two, do we, where it says grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace is ever our standing. No matter what we may experience with the government of God, our standing is still in grace and truth.
And it's a cheer to me to see that in Revelation 1 where again.
He says, Grace be unto you, and peace from him that is, and was and is to come. He's the unchanging. 1 And so he will never change his thoughts toward us or his purposes.
Were complete in him, and nothing can alter that. And so our standing is always in grace, the grace wherein ye stand. And we have peace with God, which can never be changed. So it is ever grace and peace. We need to keep that in mind, notwithstanding what the ways of God with us and the government of God.
Fellowship in the Gospel.
We can practice that today, can't we?
I think now particularly of John Kemp in his effort to bring the gospel to different parts of the world.
Many of us can travel like he does.
But we can have fellowship in the gospel, and that's a wonderful thing that we're laborers together.
00:25:07
And how wonderful that fellowship is.
You know, I'm sure in prayer they stood behind him too.
So we can practice that today.
And then practicing practical fellowship for those who.
At liberty to travel, as some of us are not.
We actually become.
Coal workers, fellow partakers. This expression used here is used in the first chapter of the Revelation, where it speaks of being fellow partakers of the Kingdom and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are here where He was rejected, and we are waiting for a glorious appearing blessed hope and glorious appearing of the Great God, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that way we are all fellow partakers. And so when we express fellowship and prayer in the practical ministry with the gospel for whomever it is, we are.
Co workers with them in God's service.
Gospel is more.
Than seeing your soul save that the glorious truth isn't it to preach the gospel.
That that one might be saved, might be brought out of darkness into light. But then what is further? What is more glorious than the work of the Spirit of God to gather a soul to the name of the Lord Jesus, the one who bore all the judgment for it on the cross? So when we think Paul speaks of the gospel here, I believe it's more than just a soul being saved. It's a soul being brought into the place of God's choosing. The little company at Philippines.
And so I think of this. Each time we speak about the gospel, we say, well, we can't go to some remote country. Others do and can. But can we not rejoice in those, even in the local gatherings that have been saved, brought out of darkness into light, and gather to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ? We don't want to forget that because Christendom today has Paul in prison yet.
They do not listen to Paul's ministry. That's why there's the confusion in Christendom today.
So I think of this each time I read these precious epistles to see what Paul brought out. God revealed this marvelous truth of the one body of Christ for the Apostle Paul.
Just like to call our attention to verse 8.
God is my record. How greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
Also the first verse of chapter 4.
Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved.
Long for my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
Because those lovely heartfelt respections is that he expresses this to those his brethren, he said. God is my record.
And God is our record too. But.
How greatly I long after you all, what a wonderful thing is to be with our brethren. And the time together here with our brethren is really special, is it not? And those beautiful words.
A little lonely.
Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved.
Long for my joy and crown.
Who stand fast in the Lord, My dearly beloved, it's wonderful to come to a conference and be with others that like precious faith.
But perhaps there are times when we go to meetings where there's only two or.
And perhaps in our own little assembly.
But do we long for them? Are we interested in them? And what is?
00:30:01
For their blessing, because that's what he really has on his heart, it seems. For their good and blessing because as you read the next.
3 verses in this first chapter.
And this I pray, and so on.
Things that are excellent and so on in those verses, how beautiful they are, and they would touch our hearts, and they should we should long for our brethren.
In connection with what Charles was saying.
Colossians One verse 23.
I've got 2 passages, and I don't know how to harmonize the two. But in Colossians 123, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven whereof I fall, and made a minister, now there he speaks of himself as a minister of the gospel.
Now to read on Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the Church whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill or to complete the word of God, even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations.
But now is made manifest to his Saints.
It seems as though Paul's ministry was twofold. It was He was a minister of the gospel. He was a minister of the assembly or the mystery Christ in the church.
Now in Ephesians 5, excuse me, Ephesians 6, there's an expression there.
Which maybe someone can give some light to it.
It's inverse.
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.
And watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints, and for me.
That utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
It seems as though in this passage the mystery of the gospel goes beyond what he says in Colossians one. It seems to be a broader, as Charles was saying, including.
All the truth that he preached, would that be correct?
Reference yesterday morning.
Was made to all calling the Efficient Elders.
For his farewell address and he very briefly mentioned.
I left his clinical his teaching and if you look at his acts 2024.
He has witnessed the gospel of God and then in the next 4 verses the.
Gives you spiritual definition.
What it is?
In verse one, rather the end of verse 24 is the grace of God, 25 is the Kingdom of God.
Verse 27 and the castle of God.
And verse 28, the highest.
Article is the Church of God.
Don't you make sure that we sometimes compartmentalize things too much in these things and not realize that the truth of God is a whole, isn't it? That is, we don't say, All right, well, you'll preach the gospel and I'll talk about the church. I believe that when we bring the gospel of the grace of God to someone, there's an ongoing.
00:35:06
Responsibility to set before them the whole counsel of God, and I don't like to hear.
Was compartmentalized too much?
What separate that is the, you might say, the Gospel of evangelization from the truth of the church. I don't believe God ever intends that anyone gets saved and just stays where he is. I think that's the whole point of verse six, that God is going to lead them on and.
What is it? Doesn't Paul say he strove to present every man perfect in Christ?
I just suggest that that there's a wholeness and a magnitude to it that we sometimes limit by our compartmentalizing the the gospel.
Yet better than having them.
After two Ministries of Fall in connection with Colossians one, he clearly speaks of two distinct ministries. And when Brother Child was promising, I was thinking of Second Corinthians chapter 4.
In verse four we read in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them, which believe not less delight of the glorious gospel, or better rendering hazardous.
Of the glory of Christ.
The image of God should shine unto them. This evidently has to do with the place of exultation that he now has, and our association with him in that glory. But it's wonderful. It's all part of the truth, you know. It's all one truth. And we ought to be exercised like Paul was, to bring all the troops of God before soul.
Not just.
One thing it's the danger is that if it is the.
Gospels. If somebody has the gift of evangelization, the tendency is that he put all the emphasis on that. The teacher tends to put all the emphasis on teaching, to shepherd, all the emphasis on shepherding. But the truth of God should be all inclusive, and we should embrace every aspect of the truth of God and that which he is seeking to.
Do.
Through various members in the body of Christ, so that the whole truth of God can be propagated.
Should not be.
Compartmentalized and should not be referred to as compartmentalized. It is the whole truth. But in Romans 12 it plainly points out that those who are gifted in a certain line should minister that.
In grace. And so we don't want to fall in the error that the systems of men have created.
All of these things combined in one person, So the evangelist, certainly.
Reveals his responsibility that the truth is one whole truth, and he brings the converts to the assembly, where the pastors and teachers can bring them along in the faith. But we must each fulfill in the body of Christ that function according as God has given each a measure of faith.
I think that helps explain the in Colossians why these two things are brought out distinctly. Because as to the gospel, Paul says where I am made a minister as he stepped into something that God was already doing, if I may put it that way. Just like to read in connection with that verse and Colossians that her brother read.
And not be moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I fall all and made a minister. So it seems as if he was stepping into something that God had already started. We see this in the I just suggest this. We see this in the 19th song, and we see this at Mars Hill as well in the way Paul takes this up. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament show his handiwork day on today, utterance, speech night on to night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone throughout all their work, the earth, their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Son? And so on? Well, there was a testimony to man. And then Romans 10 picks this up, this thought up, and he says.
00:40:16
Verse 18 of Romans 10 But I say, have they not heard? For verily their sound went out into all the earth, their words unto the ends of the world.
But I say unto you, and so on. Well, that's why God sends a preacher, is because a testimony has been given to man.
And that is why Paul takes that up and at Mars Hill then, and says.
This God you ignorantly worship. And so it seems as if Paul is stepping into this work of the gospel and plainly declaring, revealing who God's Son was and the work that he's done. But God in a wider sense had already begun that work. When man looked up into the stars, he saw that God was good and that that God was desired man's blessing. A man can't help but walk through the forest and see that there is a good God that desires this blessing, that he wasn't made. These things weren't made by heathen hands, and so by stone idols, and so on and so.
I believe that that's why Paul says whereof I am made a minister because the message in a certain sense already gone out. But in connection with the truth that was something in the in the next part there it was something that was definitely committed to Paul. And so I I believe that that's perhaps why he takes it up in a separate way, but I just suggest that.
You say something. Yes, he is, yes. Yes. Well, I I feel rather than that we're.
I don't want to be departmentalizing as **** has said, but I really believe that we are remiss in not presenting the truth that we value so much. And I believe that there are many surrounding us in our little assemblies or large assemblies that are searching for the truth. And Matthew 1818.
Says, if two of you shall agree concerning anything, it shall be done Of my father and I believe that we should be more concerned, not to neglect the gospel, but to present the truth. How shall they hear without the preacher? Now who can tell that truth?
Except those who by God's grace are being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I really believe that if we do make this a matter of agreement, as Matthew 1818 says, it will be done and our assemblies will be built up, and I believe that this is what scripture is telling us.
Sometimes you hear of well, I met a Christian and we we had fellowship together in the things that we can agree in which would be the gospel line. And there's never a mention made about church truth because that would bring in maybe disagreement.
But that's really what you're getting at, isn't it? Yeah. That we should bring out the precious truth of gathering to the Lord's name. I know many times I've said that the souls. And they said, well, I I think you're right. I think you're right. They don't. They don't carry it far enough where it moves their feet out, you know. But they will agree that the principle that you set before them is is correct. Yeah. That's really verse ten of our chapter, isn't it?
He doesn't bring out the lofty truth like we have in Ephesians, but he expected them to understand those things and to be in the good and enjoyment of them. After all, we're going to have to give an account in the day of Jesus Christ. So how are we holding this truth? Do we value it?
Do we really appreciate it? I believe that's verse 10.
That's truth that goes beyond what was given before Paul's time.
Sometimes.
Young people will ask.
You speak to them, speak to a soul, and.
About the Lord Jesus as through salvation.
And immediately they'll say what church do you belong to now I don't want to condemn.
Other teachings. I don't mean that, but I just want to say this. It's good for us if we stand forth and say I am gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm a part of the Church of God. Testimony will bring either response in in two different ways. It will either bring rejection or it will be bring a little question as to what this is.
00:45:29
And I think that it's a very good thing, I think, as our brother.
Here is speaks about fishing, and that's true too, isn't it? As we speak to these souls.
We find sometimes they belong to the Lord. Well then the first thing is what church do you belong to?
Well, I like to put the full thing. I like to say I'm a part of the Church of God and I'm gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's never forget that.
And then some will say never heard that before.
What? You never heard that before? You never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Well, then that brings further conversation. So I just suggest that that's been a Senate profitable to me to be able to do that, have that little testimony. Sometimes God gives us a picture and I'd like to turn to it. It's in the 10th chapter of Luke's Gospel and we get a little picture of what we've been talking about. I believe, brother, it says in that 10th chapter.
About the Good Samaritan, a certain man in verse #30.
A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance they came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. We're getting a picture developed here about what these representatives of man lost, the raiment of righteousness and holiness in the garden in the fall. You and I are sinners by nature, by Adam's race.
And so here we are, stripped. That's the picture. And the Lord Jesus is giving us a picture here. You know, pictures sometimes tell a story that's better than 1000 words. And what we've been talking about, I like to relate it into this little story. So let me continue. And likewise the Levites and when he was at the place, came and looked on him, but passed by on the other side.
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him.
Love and compassion. They go together, don't they? And they're all epitomized in the Blessed Lord Jesus himself. Where can I find one that would describe this word compassion better than what this narrative is about? Who was the Good Samaritan? Oh, it was the Lord himself in the picture. Well, let's go on.
He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast and brought him to the end. And it took care of him. The end. Oh, where's that? That's what we're talking about, brother. The Apostle Paul says, have not shunned the declare, indeed the whole counsel of God. Where did he learn it? Here's the picture of where we learned that was in the end. Where do you want to learn it? It's in the end. What is the end? It's where the Lord Jesus, according to that verse in Matthew 1820, would lead us. And then what does it say on the Morrow when he departed? He took out 2 Pence.
And gave them to him to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, And whatsoever thou spend us more, when I come again, I will repay the Now which of these three you think his son was neighbor of the him that fell among the thieves? So there's the challenge. And I'd like to ask if I could that man that was delivered to the hidden, I'd like to see what he has to say about it. That's you and me, brother. And what have we got to say about it? And you know, the glorious thing is that we can say just like you were bringing before us. The world doesn't understand.
About all this denomination and division. But there's one thing that you and I have. There's a man named Jesus, and he brought me to himself and he poured in the oil and the wine which speaketh of the Holy Spirit and the joy that I have in Christ. The joy of the knowledge of my sins forgiven peace with God. And I'm in the end. And then what? He says take care of him. And how long he says I've got to come back. Hey, brother. And I'm looking up. I can't wait. He's coming back.
And that's what you and I have the message about. Is that right?
With the 2 Pence beaters 2000 years.
That's a nice thought, brother. I think I rejoiced in it. I feel like I got 1 foot up in the air and say, Lord, it's about time.
00:50:00
It's very encouraging.
Office, but let's get back to.
I guess we're on verse 11.
Could I ask that we should explain?
The difference of the day of Christ and the day of the Lord.
That might be helpful. We have this day of Christ twice already. You know we have it in.
Verse 6.
The day of Jesus Christ and here the day of Christ in verse 10.
That does refer, doesn't it, to the date of his manifestation?
When they brought the Lord Jesus Christ before.
Tribunal and the judge pilot.
That was man's day.
This is your day in the hour. This is your day.
When the Lord Jesus Christ comes in power and glory, he's going to have his day. God is going to give him the reins or he is going to take from His Father's hands the reigns of government of this world and order everything in it according to God. That's Christ Day. And we're preserved until that time, kept by the power of God and the salvation ready to be revealed, revealed when when we come back as trophies of his grease, with him, united to him as his wife coming to role in this world where we have been rejected, just as he was rejected.
The day of the Lord, I believe, is a time of trouble that's coming when judgment is going to be on the ungodly and preparation for the Christ day.
The day of the Lord seems to actually begin in a certain sense with distress upon that nation, Israel, And of course, and Joel and some of those prophets they forewarned that it. It's a day of anguish. And so forth the day of the Lord. And we see in Peter two, Peter chapter three, that the day of the Lord really extends to the time of the destruction and the.
Melting of the elements and so forth, which then ushers in the day of God, but as you've already indicated.
1St Corinthians 4 is important to notice.
It's such a help to see that from Mr. Darby's translation, but we do have it in our in our margin.
Of our If you have a marginal reading in First Corinthians 4/3 it says, But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's day. May I judge not my known self. Well, the apostle is speaking about motives here in chapter 4, the motives and value of the work. We leave that to his judgment to that day of manifestation.
But man would assert his judgment in things. Now of course we know the critical spirit of man towards the gospel and towards the present work of grace, but Paul wasn't going to be governed by man's day in judgment of things. And these Corinthians perhaps were slipping into some of that spirit of the world in their criticism of Paul. So that's.
A sad thing to consider, That man's day is certainly going to come to an abrupt end.
When the day of the Lord commences. But I believe that we are looking for the day of Jesus Christ. It seems to me that that is even LinkedIn with the rapture, although we know it is the day of manifestation of all things. But we should ever consider that day. And His work, as far as each one of us as believers are concerned, will be complete in the day of Jesus Christ. We'll graduate, We'll go to the glory with Him.
So the day of Jesus Christ, you know, it seems to me that he will begin to have his rights, that is he's going to have his own with himself in the glory and what joy that will bring to his heart. But as far as the world is concerned, woe be to the world when the day of the Lord occurs because he'll come back in a warrior like way, like King David before his Solomon type reigns.
And he will put down all opposition to his Kingdom. That's what brings about the day of the Lord. And it will be divine intervention for Israel, because they would be undoubtedly destroyed. But he'll intervene, and he'll put down all opposition to His authority and to that glorious Kingdom He will establish. So the day of the Lord really commences when the Lord comes, but it seems in a certain moral sense.
00:55:12
That the day comes upon Israel, and by way of judgment, that is when the land is invaded and so forth. The Lord has to allow that as part of the time of indignation, to bring that nation to humility. And then we see that he will certainly intervene for their deliverance, and the putting down actually of all opposition to His glory, the day of the Lord. Well then would you say the day of Christ?
Would include embrace. Also the judgment seat of Christ? Yes, that's what I meant. The manifestation, right? Yeah, Well, the manifestation.
Judgment Seat of Christ is in heaven.
Manifestation will be when he comes back and all. We'll see what his evaluation of us has been. You might say it will be we'll come back in the same glory as himself, and so on. But it like it says in verse six, a good work in you. He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. And as you said, Don the Rapture would begin that, wouldn't it?
And then there there will be the judgment seat of Christ, where we'll get his assessment of everything down here. And then we come back with Him. And that's called the manifestation, when it will all be manifested. Seems as though the day of Christ is more our being with Him.
And then the day of the Lord is when we come back with Him and His rights are established out here in this world. Is that right?
I used the wrong term. I I was thinking of our personal the review of our lives in connection with the judgment seat of Christ.
You could be helpful for the younger ones to.
It says we are brothers and companions right now in the tribulation and in the Kingdom and the patience of Jesus Christ.
So we are serving him right now with the obedience of faith.
She is a great king, he says. That's true right now.
As disciples, we have the presidents of Akron right now. They simply is a lawful king.
Doesn't the answer, verse 10, as Chuck was bringing out, lay before us the thought of the day of evaluation of it all that you may be found?
That's the time of evaluation, isn't it? Pure and without offense being complete as to the fruit of righteousness.
I enjoy that thought that.
It's the day, of course, when the Lord has his own with him, but.
It certainly brings out, I believe, the time of evaluation and.
That we might be to our praise, No.
The fruit of righteousness is by Jesus Christ to God's glory and praise, so whatever is worked out in our lives.
Is not because of something we do, but it's he who does it. And I think that's borne out further in this chapter, a verse that.
Verse 29.
It's given to us to believe on him, but not only believing on him, but suffering for him also, and I believe.
Is another verse perhaps in this epistle to I can't remember, someone can help me that says that he he that works in us both the willing and the doing of his good pleasure. And that's a wonderful thought. Where is that Heinz, you know?
Two 13213 yes.
1St and verse 12 He tells us to workout our own salvation with fear and trembling.
I like to think of that this way, if some of our young men like to workout.
What do they workout? They workout what's in them already, don't they? And so.
That's I believe the thought is the outworking of what's there already. And then verse 13 says for it is God who worketh in you. King James says both to will and to do.
01:00:09
Trendy says both the willing and the doing of his good pleasure.
So that I love the thought that.
That there is a day when it's all going to be evaluated, but whatever is found to praise and glory.
At that day will be to His praise and glory, and it'll be because of what He does in US.
To **** **** First Corinthians 4-5. Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light.
The hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the councils of the hearts. And then shall every man have praise of God. So there there you get not only he is being praised, but every man will have praise of God.
But this whole subject of evaluation and manifestation has the practical effect of examining our activity in the House of God, in the building that God is building in our laborers, to cause us to walk in a way in view of that day so as to be approved when we get there. The day of manifestation is that we might be pure and without offense when we arrive at that place. It's for our present exercise to go on.
In a way that we had proved at the judgment seat, and so that when we are manifested, it will be seen to God's praise and glory that sinners have been picked up and this is what they've been made to be.
Now everyone will have praise of God. I don't think that that is so much connected with a public display.
I believe the public display, when he will come back with us, will all be for his glory.
When he shall be glorified in His Saints, and admired in all them that believe, but at the judgment seat of Christ, whatever there was of Christ in our life will be approved and will be rewarded. And of course we will have even a place in connection with His reign down here in this scene. But we must never forget it will all be for His glory.
And he shall be admired.
In us it will be seen what the grace of God has accomplished in us all based upon the finished work of Christ.
Death will be for his glory beloved Saints, but the the other is his well done, thou good and beautiful servant, and that will mean more to us than any public display for ourselves.
Is that what the law now at that point, truck?
Can we put a big one there?
I I.
Glory. Glory.
Everlasting.
Feature.
In good Lord God.
Waking our souls, my favorite thing.
If we raise the pitch below it.
The Humanity of Christ
The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength
Christ as a Man
Philippians 1:12-23
Reading
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As the Father hath loved me.
So have I loved you.
Continue ye in my love.
Shall we thank Him our Jesus to tell?
My love.
Or how it thrills our hearts.
To hear it from thine own lips.
As the Father hath loved me.
Why I loved you.
The one that was the Good Shepherd that laid down his life.
For his sheep.
Lord, we thank you that thou has given us this food.
From thyself these days.
That food that doesn't perish.
That's food that we feed on Christ in glory.
So we thank you, Lord, for these precious things that we've been hearing.
And we pray that thy spirit were to have that liberty to lead us on.
These things that we would rejoice about in praise and Thanksgiving to Thee, so when asked thy blessing and our on the word this afternoon, and look to the right direction and gardens.
That is made be made real and simple to our hearts. We pray and give thee thanks and praise and thy worthy name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Well, I would have, I would. You should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren and the Lord, waxing confident by my bond, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed, preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill.
The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then outwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I there and do rejoice, Yeah, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
00:05:06
According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed.
But that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose I want not, for I am in a straight betwixt, 2 having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.
Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all. We are further.
And joy of faith that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me.
By my coming to you again, only let your conversation be, as it becometh the gospel of Christ, That whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs. That you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God.
For unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him.
But also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which he saw in me.
And now here to be in me.
The Apostle Paul could say, be followers.
Of me as I also am a Christ, This verse, brethren brings to mind.
An incident that happened to one of our brethren many years ago.
Fell out just like it says in this verse. The things that have happened unto me have fallen out rather onto the furtherance of the gospel, and I think it might be appropriate if I just mentioned the incident. It was with our brother Eric Smith when he came from New Zealand to South America to preach the gospel in that land, and as he got on the train to go up high into the mountains of Bolivia, he was.
The interest of one of the passengers sitting near him.
Asked him, where are you going when you get up there? He said, well, I'm going to tell those people of the wonderful love of God. And so the man said that, that's interesting. Will you tell me about it? And so Brother Smith talked to this man and explained to him something of the gospel, of the grace of God. And this man seemed to show rather strong interest. He said, you know, I would like to talk to you again when you get settled in wherever you're going to stay. Well, the brother get up there. And he settled in this room.
And he told this man somehow.
I don't know whether the man that was there at the beginning, but he let him know where he was sitting at this rooming house.
And so a few days later the brother went down to the town square and started preaching the gospel. And the right away came the warning from some of those people that are anti gospel in that land. They have it all sewed up so to speak against the gospel. And they told him you're not allowed to preach the gospel in this city, he said.
Well, we have freedom of speech in this country, don't we? According to the Constitution, they said, well, you just don't preach the gospel. That was more or less the picture. And so he went out again and preached the gospel. And that night four men came to the apartment where he was staying, to the room where he stayed and took him and put him in the dungeon.
And what happened? A day or two later, this man that came, that he met on the train came to the house and he said, where's Smith? And the woman? With trembling voice said he's in the dungeon. They took him away.
So this man went down to the dungeon and he said to the gatekeeper, You have a man in here, but the name of Smith? Yes, Your Excellency, I want him out immediately.
And so Brother Smith had been in the jail 3-3 days preaching the gospel to the prisoners.
This man happened to be one of the generals in the Army with all kinds of authority, and he told the jailer, he said that if they ever put him in here again, he said, let me know, he said, And I'll take care of everyone who's putting him in something along that center. So three or four days later, the brother Smith was back preaching the gospel on the street unhindered this time. And then he went to the house and there at the house and knocked him in the door where he was staying.
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And there was a jailer from the prison, he said. Please, Sir, would you come back down to the prison?
And tell those men in the prison what you told them when you were in there. I never had it so good. They were all very quiet and obedient. I haven't had a bit of trouble. And I asked them how come things were so good. Oh, that man had that wonderful message about Jesus. And this verse reminds me of the story. I just say that, brother, never be ashamed to stand for Christ, no matter where you ask, Where you ask. There are some brethren among us today here that have been imprisoned for the gospel.
I should say the word arrested, but the Lord always made it fall out, I believe, for what the furtherance of the gospel. I just mentioned that to your encouragement, because these are days when we have the approach to tell it out, and we have the Lord to help us.
Some years ago, a young man was crossing the border between Argentina and Bolivia, or the other way around, Bolivia to Argentina.
And someone offered him $9000. I believe it was if he would carry a package across.
And of course, you know what that was.
And he knew what it was, but he did it anyway.
And he was arrested in the process of crossing the border.
He was put in the.
Prison in Salta, Argentina.
That's not surprising.
But what happened afterwards was.
A dear brother.
And the.
That's known to us down there. In fact, he's in Fellowship himself and now.
Was he was in his house and the police came to the door, knocked at the door.
Told him that he.
Had to come with them. Never explained why this took him and put him in the same prison with this young man.
Well, he tried to find out why he was there.
I think he was with a group of brethren not gathered with us, called them up.
They said, well we have a work for the Lord, but we don't have a prison ministry, so.
We're not going to come and see you.
Then he called the Baptist minister and the Baptist minister said if I go there, my ministry will be ruined.
But, he said, why don't you try Chavez, Avelino, Chavez.
And some of you may have known Abelino Chavez. He's with the Lord now.
Serve the Lord in Bolivia good many years in Argentina.
Ralph Chavez was afraid. He had never gone into a prison before, but he felt the Lord was calling him and he went in and.
Meanwhile, this young man had come to know the Lord, the one who had smuggled drugs.
And Avelina was able to give him further knowledge of the scriptures.
Dear brother Jose Alarcon, who was the man arrested without explanation, kept saying why am I here? Why am I here? Monday came around and they released him also without explanation and he said Davolino, I don't know if I ought to go home without getting an explanation. Avelino pointed to the other man and he says that's your reason, that's the reason. Can't you accept that?
Well, that brother.
Now a much older brother.
Now is a active evangelist in the Assembly in San Miguel de Tucuman in Argentina.
A very earnest evangelist Brother America, and I've often thought of that. Dear brother Alarcon, wondering why he was taken into.
Into prison. But the reason was this other young man.
Now it turned out that he did get an explanation. A lot of people wondered, well, why? Why was he in there?
He had been accused and denounced for having stolen a tractor.
And so he was put in.
His boss had accused him of stealing a tractor. After the whole thing got sorted out and the excitement, the story came out that he had gone to his boss's house to demand his pay. His boss had not paid him for quite some time.
00:15:09
The boss refused. He picked up a toy tractor off the coffee table and put it under his arm. He says when I get my check, you'll get your tractor.
And I don't think that was right. Now I'm not defending that. But when the police found out that it was a toy tractor, of course they let him go right away.
The Lord allowed that to happen for the furtherance of the gospel. I suppose we could go on all afternoon talking about things like that. But that story has always encouraged me because I've only know himself told me the story, and he pointed it out at America a couple of times. He said that is the reason why.
Brother Jose Alarcon had to go to the prison unjustly.
The first story illustrated verse 12. The second verse 13. It was for Christ that he was sent there not as a manufacturer, but for Christ.
Most of you know the story about my son-in-law, our son-in-law, and his Gilbert and his ordeal recently. And I do know that these verses from 12 to 20 were tremendous encouragement to him when he was sitting there wondering why.
All this happened after he was trying to walk with the Lord and and.
Wondering, why did the Lord allow this? But then he realized that there was an opening. There were many people he could reach that I couldn't. People who wouldn't come to our meetings in the jail, that he could one by one speak to them. And so he took encouragement from that.
The Lord was with them, weren't wasn't he? I was thinking of reverse over in in Genesis chapter 39 concerning Joseph. Very interesting.
Verse one and Joseph was brought down to Egypt and.
Modifier and an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard of Egypt, an Egyptian, brought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither. And the Lord was with Joseph. I like that expression. The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. He was in the House of his master, the Egyptian, and his master saw that the Lord was with him.
Interesting, isn't it? To see that the.
Results of what God puts in others are able to see this, and I think of it in connection with our chapter here.
It says so that my bonds in Christ.
Are manifest in all a palace, as they were with Joseph too.
And in all other places.
You know in connection with Joseph.
He never was cleared of that charge against him when he was put into prison.
And.
It may be that there may be cases like that where you have to bear something unjustly, but still the Lord will manifest all this thing in that coming day, and will have His approval or not in the matter.
So we have similar instances in the scripture that.
We won't see really what.
The purpose was I was thinking of Uriah, the Hittite.
And nab off with his vineyard.
So that the secret things belong to the Lord our God.
But the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children. We can enjoy those things and leave the secret things with the Lord.
00:20:07
I think the 14th verse is so significant because it says that many of the brethren and the Lord waxing confident by my bonds.
Are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
And so how wonderful it is that we hear of a case may be far away, even in our time in present years. And what does it make? Does it make us afraid or does it embolden us? And I think faith always likes to have that confidence from the word of God. That would encourage me to be bold. You think of all those, like you say, of those that were bold for the Lord. And what happened to them? Well, they suffered and so forth. But the Lord was exalted in it. And that's what our motive should be, that God the Lord be exalted in these things.
Not ourselves. We just are tools that the Lord can use. And sometimes I might have a tool that's not so sharp, you know, and I have to get out my grinder and my own and my sharpening stone and sharpen the tool if I use it. And I think this is something like getting sharpened, you know, we all need to get sharpened up about the gospel. And we have some of that in our reading today about about the gospel in the in the this first chapter here.
Now. And it fell. It fell out to the furtherance of the gospel. Well, may these things be real to us, brother. And I don't think you'll ever find the man that was in trouble for the gospel that wouldn't turn right around and go back, maybe, and even do it again.
A couple of weeks ago.
Brother Bill Prost and I were on a trip to the one of the far points of our visiting in Romania.
And I asked Brother Bill who we were going to visit, he says. Well, there's a Brother Moldavano that I want you to meet.
He was six years in prison during the Ceausescu regime.
For disturbing social order.
I said what did he do? He said he preached the gospel.
So we opened the door to his house, his wife opened the door and we went in.
And the dear brother, who's 75, was seated.
At a desk, Little desk, a board on his lap with his Bible open and studying the word.
And.
Bill told me that he had written 3000 hymns during that time of imprisonment.
So I asked the brother if he'd sing a hymn or two for us.
And he said I'd like to. His name is Maldiviano.
He said I'd like to sing one that I wrote under very unusual circumstances.
Said I was.
In prison with Richard Verne.
Same cell and the guard came in to humiliate us.
He told us to get under the bed and sleep under the bed during the night. He said if he saw us in the bed, he'd really make us sorry.
He said. I got under the bed and I asked the Lord to give me a saw.
While I was there.
The Lord gave him a song.
The song was wonderful, wonderful as our God.
I just. I've asked Bill to photocopy me a copy of the song. I want to learn it. It's beautiful, wonderful, wonderful is our God.
Now that's interesting because is that a circumstance with which you would normally think wonderful is our God? Here he is lying on the cold floor of the prison, and the next morning when the guard let him come out, he says, Now what do you have to say? He said. I'd like to sing you what the Lord gave me last night.
And he sang that song. Wonderful. Wonderful is our God.
I can't read Not only brought tears to my eyes, but it it gave me a wonderful understanding of how God can give courage to a man in the worst of circumstances and indeed give songs in the night.
00:25:05
We have scriptural examples of that too. Don't we have the apostles that were threatened and not to preach in the name of the Lord. And and they were beaten and they left the prison. They let him go, They rejoiced. They were counted worthy to suffer for his sake. I've often thought about that rejoice, that they were counted worthy to suffer. Rejoice.
We met a woman in the prison in Bermuda and.
We weren't sure if she really was the Lords until she started to talk to another prisoner to answer a question and she said, I can't remember her exact words, something like this, but it's good for me that I'm in here in the prison because I got saved here.
In other words, she felt it was better to be in prison on your way to heaven than out on the street and on your way to hell. She didn't say it that way, but that's what it amounted to.
A young woman 10 years in prison.
I think we see the heart of the apostle here too, do we? Not in some of these verses that we're just looking at and he says.
Verse 14 And many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident in my bonds, are much more bold to speak the Word without fear. Those in Christ spoke the Word without fear. They they realized that the apostle was in prison because of the testimony of the Lord. But there were others.
Who spoke inadvertently in another, different direction. So he says here some indeed preach Christ.
Of envy and strife.
And some also of goodwill. So we see there was always that difference there. There were those that sought to put down the apostles ministry.
But they preached. And Paul, how lovely to think, he says.
Support. But verse 17 But the other of love. Knowing that I am set in the defense of the gospel, what then? I think of this verse notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or whether in truth Christ is preached.
And I there endure Joyce day and will rejoice. We can rejoice when we hear around us some who preach Christ as a dear brother among us. Years ago we did a lot of visiting and he said it's nice for us to go and visit people when we think they have an interest and some that belong to the Lord. And he said, let's remember this. We know that they're not all going to be gathered to the Lord's name, but let's give them something that they haven't got.
And I thought that was a very good thought. You know, we'd go and visit these people and bring Christ before them. So the dear apostle seems to bring that thought out here, doesn't he? That whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. He rejoiced in that. And can we not rejoice when we hear wherever we are, we hear the name of the Lord Jesus taken in an honorable way, isn't it? Rejoice your heart to hear that it does mine.
There has been so much that man has brought in in connection with the gospel.
That is certainly not according to the pattern of the bird that it may cause some, especially of our younger ones. I know it was a good help to me to get this light for my own soul.
And there is real blessing.
In these methods and other activities connected with the gospel, that is not according to the scripture, but yet the message goes out.
Well, here is the thought God is sovereign, and he blesses His word.
The program.
The various techniques and so forth used.
God isn't blessing that He's blessing His word. He can bring blessing in the midst of those circumstances. Even though man has added that with so dishonours the name, the very name they're proclaiming that God is faithful. He blesses His word and sold her blasphemy. My heart is in communion with His heart. I'm rejoicing when sold her blessed because God is a source of all blessings.
As far as a servant is concerned, it's a question of reward, isn't it? A man is not crowned except he strive lawfully. So we have to be careful not to try to use some means that would be contrary to scripture just because somebody else used it and found a lot of blessing.
Gospel 2
Gospel—Euell Tonn
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It's a delight to welcome you.
The first of the Gospel Meetings, this conference.
I was at a conference similar to this in 19 and 70.
Where the brother responsible for the gospel said to the group Sinner, there's a six year old in this room praying for your soul salvation tonight.
And he told the story of a darling child coming to where he was sitting and asking if he were the preacher.
And upon finding out indeed he was, he asked if he would like to pray for the sinners tonight.
It says in John chapter 21.
When Mary discovered that, it was she to whom the Lord spoke.
She said. Ribbon I.
My master.
A little while later.
One of the Lord's own.
Who had maybe been a little discouraged, who had some doubts.
Upon seeing the Lord, the nail Prince in his hand, in his side the spear print, he exclaimed, My Lord and my God.
These are the declarations of devotion to one whose hearts had been touched by that blessed man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's he that we desire to bring before your souls tonight.
If you're here.
You dear young people.
Some of your age mates were in that room praying for your salvation tonight if you have not closed in with God's offer of mercy.
And you cannot believe the expressions of desire.
Of some in this room. Who?
We're praying for your blessing tonight. Let's begin with hymn #15, please.
Oh blessed Gospel sound.
Good news indeed, that God loves sinners. How glad of that I am.
That he loved me. And one dear preacher used to say to me, the more you can prove me the Sinner.
The more I can prove Christ for me #15 on your hem sheet, please.
Full blessed gospel.
00:05:51
Does it thrill your soul that there is still room?
We are glad that you are here.
And we trust.
That you will take a place in that blessed house above. If you're here, having not yet decided for Christ, let's ask God's help and blessing, please.
Our loving Father and our God.
We know.
That thy house will be filled.
And it is thy pleasure to announce thy love through the gospel.
That precious souls may hear and believe and be saved.
And as we are here.
To open Thy precious word that reveals to us thy beloved Son as savior.
We pray that not one in the room will leave without Christ tonight.
We were aware that the gospel is going forth elsewhere.
In a little while in Saint Louis.
Ask the Our Father to use Thy precious word, to call some precious soul to thyself in this room and in every place where the Gospel is going up.
So we feel the need.
For thy blessing for thy health.
For thy heart to be communicated to hearts in this room tonight. And we do not hesitate to ask because like what we had in the Word, we have confidence in thee our God, and we can have confidence 'cause I have saved many in this room and we are grateful. So we pray for help giving thee our thanks, our Father and our God, and the worthy and precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm going to read just a few verses.
And set as the Lord enables me before your souls, the Lord Jesus Christ, a Savior.
I'm glad that we do not have a system of religion to present you.
When God gave a system of religion.
It proves what you should already know from your conscience speaking to you.
The exceeding sinfulness of sin.
Mark chapter one, verse one.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And as I was meditating upon the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the expression the beginning.
I had to conclude that this is telling us of the beginning.
As far as his service for God in this world is concerned.
If we were to go to John's Gospel, we would learn at the beginning was long before this time in the history of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the beginning there was the word.
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of an only begotten with the Father, full of grace and truth.
The law came by Moses, that God-given system of worship and approach to him, came by a servant of old but grace.
Grace of God, coming into man's history and working in the midst of iniquity.
To bring blessing to sinners came by our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:10:04
So actually.
The good news from God originated in the heart of God.
Before this world was made.
Within the godhead.
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
In deep eternal councils of love and blessing.
Conceive the means by which.
Sinners of the deepest die.
Could have those sins forgiven, be made fit for heaven and suited for the presence of God for all eternity?
What can be more grand?
And to have one's sins washed away. And in the language of a prophet we hear words of our Lord Jesus Christ. When these councils of grace were consummated within the Godhead, say the Son said, Here am I send me.
Just a little while before the verse we read.
Had returned back to Matthew's gospel, we would heard the announcement of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
The Angel said to Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, Thou shalt call his name Jesus.
For he shall save his people from their sins.
His name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. So when we look at the person of our Lord Jesus Christ coming into this scene, we see what the word of God tells us.
That the mystery of godliness is great, That God was manifest in the flesh.
Scene of angels.
We read in the first chapter of John. Again, God is a spirit, and no man has seen him at any time but the only beloved who is in the bosom of the Father.
He hath declared him, And so we have the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Coming into man's circumstances.
To bring blessing.
What we read in Matthew's Gospel, I mean in Mark's Gospel, excuse me, is the beginning of that history.
It says of the Lord Jesus Christ, he went about doing good and healing all those that were oppressed, the demons.
The enemy is behind your willful commitment of sin against God.
By deception, he came in and introduced sin into God's creation.
And that enemy of your soul.
We're glad to take you into the flames of hell that was prepared for him.
And his angels.
So when we see the Lord Jesus Christ coming into this world, it's the beginning.
Of the gospel, the Good News.
Of salvation for sinners.
Are you a Sinner? Yes.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
You know, there are philosophers and educators, and having been one I know of which I speak, that would tell you that there are no absolutes.
Everything is relative, not so.
God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. That's an absolute.
One brother speaking on that verse one time and says and that's the end of that argument and leaves no room for argument.
That all is sin, not relative to fact. We are sinners by nature. We don't sin.
We sin because we are sinners by nature and we are not sinners because we sin. We are we sin because we have a sinful nature. So your actions of your own will the scripture tells us our sin. The simplest definition of sin and the word of God is sin is self will.
And those of us who are parents can relate to when that darling little infant at a very tender age begins to stiffen his back or her back.
The beginnings of that will let us at work that unjudged.
We'll take every individual to the lake of fire that was created for.
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The devil and his angels, so the beginning of the gospel.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are those.
Whose hearts God has touched.
Who would you like to tell the wonderful good news of God's salvation?
And he picked up a self-righteous.
Center.
Of whom he himself said he was the chief.
And he turned that man around to become.
A gospel preacher of the 1St order, he may have been, in his own estimation, the first of sinners.
But God.
Took that man who was breathing out curses and slaughters against God's people.
And we read in Romans. Chapter one separated me under the gospel.
Of God.
It's real interesting if you would read the 9th chapter of Acts.
That in the first verse that man was breathing out curses and slaughters against Christians.
And with authority from the authorities in Jerusalem to bind and imprison and slay believers.
I think it's about the 19th verse, which is not very far down the book.
And they sought to kill him. What happened?
He saw the man in glory.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
In glory arrested that man. We would to God tonight. If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have not yet come face to face with your responsibility to God as a Sinner, we prayed in the room tonight that you would come to the realization that you're lost.
And here, this wonderful message of God's love.
And respond to that love by believing the testimony that is being given.
The testimony that came from the Lord Jesus Christ himself, he said.
We speak that which we know, having been within the Godhead.
Within the councils that sought blessing for sinners, he could testify of that which he had seen. We speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and the awful judgment of some. There was ye receive not our testimony.
Would you receive the testimony of one who could not lie?
I may tell you a most unbelievable story, and I may tell it with such conviction that you say surely that must be the truth.
There are deceivers like that.
They will tell you that there are other ways to heaven.
But we read of this man that he was separated unto the gospel of God.
What is this gospel, this good news? What's it all about? The gospel of his?
Son Jesus Christ, the Gospel of God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ.
The Son of God.
Come down into your circumstances as a man.
And because you are a Sinner, and because he came into your circumstances as a man, he died for your sins.
It says in the Word of God that he died for all, and if one died for all, then were all dead. That is the condition into which you were found when the Lord Jesus Christ was here.
Not charging you with trespasses. When he was here, he did not charge them with trespasses. But he sought in Greece to reconcile sinners to God, be ye reconciled to God. And here we are tonight, through the much less grace.
Of our God that has reached our hearts, beseeching you in Christ stead, be you reconciled to God. God needed not to be reconciled to man, God's desire for man from the beginning, because God is love.
Sought man's blessing.
And so here is one who is separated under the gospel of God, and the gospel of God concerns.
The Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
And we read then in verse four he has declared to be Son of God by the resurrection.
From the dead we read in the first few verses of First Corinthians 15.
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The apostle says, I delivered unto you, first of all that which I have received.
Now that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
We are preaching to you from the word of God, the Scriptures.
Thy word is truth. The Word of God says the Lord Jesus said in the Word of God.
So it said He was declared in resurrection. Oh, the grave could not hold him.
In him was life. Death had no claim upon that blessed One.
What did the thief on the cross say this man had done? Nothing amiss.
What did he himself say? I do always that which pleases my father.
It is my meat and my drink to the will of him that sent me.
And to finish the work. And so here we have him who died, and that verse in First Corinthians 15 three tells us that he was buried.
Proof that he died.
He died. He died for sinners.
He died for you.
Are you going to spurn such love and grace?
That would cause one to come from heaven's glory, as we often say, from the highest place.
Excuse me?
And go down to the Lois place underneath all the load of your sins and guilt, and pay to God the debt you owed.
The word of God warns any who would be negligent.
By saying, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at first began to be spoken unto us by the Lord?
The Lord Jesus Christ brought this message.
But oh, how delightful. His going to glory did not terminate the message.
No, yet there is room.
And so the message that he began to speak is confirmed.
By those who heard him.
Those of us in this room who know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
Have heard him too.
Says in John chapter 5, the hour is coming when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and may that hear shall live.
We have heard the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ in this precious word that we preach.
Your opportunity is now. How shall we escape if we neglect?
Great salvation, which at first began to be spoken unto us by.
The Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.
So we are confirming to you.
That precious, wonderful message that God loves you, The Lord Jesus Christ loved you even to death.
And that the death of the cross.
One brother who used to labor amongst us, who is now with the Lord, often said all of the cruelty at man's wicked hands. Wicked man's hands did not atone for our sins, but it does prove how much he loved us.
And so we are glad to be able to speak of that Blessed One who is declared in resurrection to be the Son of God. He was, as we have said, Son within the Godhead.
Before the foundations of this world were laid the Lord Jesus Christ that he was there.
He is that Wisdom personified.
Wisdom come down from God to retrieve souls from hell.
He was Son eternally as God.
God the Son.
When he took up his ministry, if we had read just a few more verses in that first chapter of Mark's Gospel.
We would have observed that God from heaven declared This is my beloved Son.
So in his life he was Son of God. In his inception he was Son of God. That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called Son of God, Luke 125 And now here we have him in resurrection declared in the power of the Spirit. Had we quoted all of that verse in First Timothy 316, we would have seen that he was justified in the Spirit. Every breath a man breathes, every step he took.
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Every act of kindness he did.
We're in the power of the Holy Spirit that came without measure.
Oh, not Blessed One.
And so we have.
Blessed message to declare Jesus is the Son of God.
Before the world was.
When he was born, he was declared to be son of God when he.
Started his ministry, He was declared to be Son of God. And now in resurrection and ascension at God's right hand, he is the Son.
So it is a.
Wonderful message that we have to declare unto you the love of God.
I'm sure there are many young boys and girls in this room that can tell you.
That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever.
Believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Are you here tonight without eternal life?
This is eternal life that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent in all of this wonderful message. All of this good news that comes from God's heart is because God is love, and we often sing one line of our hymn of the Lord Jesus Christ. His very name is love.
In the First Epistle of John in chapter 4.
We read that herein is love.
Not that we love God.
No, there was not one.
Heartbeat of affection in this part of mind before I found the Lord Jesus Christ loved me and died for my sins. But what a thrill to my soul the night that I heard he gave himself for our sins.
That he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God.
God does not will the death of any. God is not willing that any should perish.
But that all should come to repentance. Do you recall or have you heard in your young life, boys and girls, young people?
Of that unprofitable servant who said to the Lord Jesus, thou I know us, that thou art an austere man, and that thou reap us without us, not sow, and thou pick us up where that's not strong.
Do you look at God and the Lord Jesus Christ as an austere individual who is demanding something of you?
The law demanded something. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and all thy soul, and thy neighbors thyself.
Have you loved God with all your heart?
Do you love your neighbor as yourself? There was a young man who came to the Lord Jesus Christ who made that pretension.
All this, he said. I have done for my youth up.
All the Lord said one thing, thou like us, go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor and the young man.
Went away sorrowing because he was had great riches.
No, he did not love his neighbor as himself. He was not ready to deny himself and take up the cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It was at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that his love was proved. It was at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that God proved that he loved sinners.
And I've often thrilled to witness that final scene.
With those two thieves and one who responded.
To that blessed man, and received him as Savior and that day.
Went into paradise with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We received a just reward of our deeds, he said.
Not so with that blessed born. And so we have that herein is love.
I'm reading in John chapter one, John one and verse 10. Not that we love God.
But that he loved us.
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And sent his son.
To be the propitiation for our sins.
That might be a big word for some of you boys and girls.
It might be a big word for some of us too. The propitiation for our sins is, in simple terms, the full payment of the debt.
So the Lord Jesus Christ.
Came as a manifestation of God's love, proof of God's love.
God, who spared not his only Son, but delivered him up for us all.
Is the testimony of God's Word.
Herein is the love made good to us.
Not that we loved him, but that God loved us, the Lord Jesus Christ.
To be to make full payment, all that God demanded us to sin in His Holiness. And you know what the prophet Habakkuk says.
Have you ever heard it, boys and girls, that God is a pure eyes, and to behold iniquity, and that he cannot look upon sin? We quoted that verse, that God is light, that means His Holiness.
Cannot allow one sin in his presence.
And so God sent the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pay the full penalty of sin even as believers that thrills our souls, because I know.
That the debt is paid.
Some of our brethren here may be pretty successful businessmen and they know that once they get a receipt stamp paid.
No Court of Justice in the land would collect that bill. And so the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ answers to God.
For your sins and mine.
God loved us and sent the Son. This is just a little fact of the Word of God.
But more than 40 times.
In the Gospel of John alone, it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as being sent.
And if he was, if he was sent beloved, he came, he became obedient unto death, and not the death of the cross, the most excruciating death that could be heaped upon any human being.
Was meted out against the Lord Jesus Christ after man and his cruelty.
Had done all his evil heart could conceive to do to that blessed man, it says in the word of God.
That his visage, that is, his face, was marred more than any man's.
He did not hide his back.
From the Smiters.
There is an instance in the Word of God where.
Two servants of God were beaten and imprisoned.
The Lord Jesus Christ did not hide his back from.
This matters. Who was that smiter of all the worst? It was God, my God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me?
Why says thou art holy Thou that inhabiteth the praises of Israel?
That Holiness demanded. If he is going to, if his son is going to take the sinner's place.
His son must pay the sinner's price.
And so he died. So herein is God's love that he sent the Son to pay the full debt.
I love the story of the Good Samaritan, and some of these boys and girls, I'm sure know that story too.
This Good Samaritan found this man dead and beaten, bruised and beaten and left for dead in the ditch.
And this Good Samaritan came right along.
And he went down where he was, right into the ditch with him. So the Lord Jesus Christ came.
And went down under the load of your sins and guilt, and picked you up if you believe His word and testimony.
And so we can tell you without hesitation or fear of contradiction.
The Lord Jesus gives his place.
To those who believe on him.
Because he took your place in judgment.
Under God's judgment, your place of judgment under the hand of God.
And so we read that he was sent to be the propitiation for our sins.
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We had noticed earlier in John's epistle. We would have seen that he was manifested. The Son of God was manifested to take away or to annull the works of the devil. The enemy brought in sin.
What does he say of the Lord Jesus Christ? That he is the Lamb of God that taketh away sin of the world?
So here we have a savior of sinners. Now in the next chapter we have a very solemn.
Issue to present to your heart.
I could relate to you some stories.
Of experiences at school or other activities.
And you would just believe it because it sounds so real. I saw a horrible accident. On the way to meeting, I would say to you, oh, was anyone hurt? Oh, yes. And I tell you the details and you believe that, Read it in the paper. You believe that, See it on the news. You believe that? Well, in the 5th chapter of John says if you receive the witness of men.
The witness of God is greater. What is the witness of God? That he said his Son to be the Savior. This is the witness of God.
Which he has testified.
What do you think?
Concerning his Son, The Gospel of God concerning His Son. And this is the witness.
That God has given concerning his Son, verse nine of chapter 5, and he that believeth on the Son of God.
At the witness within himself, I certainly know.
The Lord Jesus Christ is my Savior.
Says in John, 5 and 24 He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life.
If the Lord Jesus has borne my judgment.
I'll not come into judgment.
Because I have been passed.
By the judge into life.
He that hath this witness.
He that believeth on the Son hath the witness in himself.
Can one really know that his sins are forgiven?
What does the word of God say through this man is preached unto you?
The remission of sins.
Preach to people like you and me. Are you here tonight?
Without knowing that your sins are forgiven.
If you have the witness of God concerning his Son.
And then it solemnly says.
If you do not receive this testimony, you make God a liar. God says he loves you.
You don't receive the witness.
You become like some in the word of God.
The word of God tells us of some people like that, he said to the Pharisees. Ye would not come unto me that you might have life.
The Lord Jesus tonight is saying to you, come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Is he telling you the truth?
I am the way, the truth and the life, he says.
And he is the way to heaven because he paid the price for your going there with his own precious blood, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son. Cleanse it from all sin.
That's understandable. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. As a school teacher, we say there's not a monastery, there's not a there are all monosyllable words, not a double, not more than one syllable, any of those simple words.
The difficulty is not in understanding the words, it's the will.
Not receiving the testimony of God and the Lord, Jesus speaks to those Pharisees and lawyers.
And it says of them.
They as to themselves rejected the councils of God.
John the Baptist came to make preparation for the way of Messiah.
Had promised that he would send his messenger before his face.
And here he is pointing out the Lord Jesus Christ and saying to the whole world, his whole world.
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May prepare ye the way of the Lord.
And some believe that testimony they believed Messiah was coming.
But they weren't the fair seasoned the lawyers. You know who they were.
They were sinners, the publicans.
And the harlots? Oh yes, they said. We know that we are a generation of Vipers.
The lawyer said no, that's not us. We're the teachers of the law. We're the respected leaders in this community. They rejected that to themselves. The counsel of God they received, not the witness.
And they said, God, you're not telling us the truth. That's pretty horrible isn't it?
That's what a natural heart is. It's horrible in opposition to God.
And the only thing that will change that heart.
Love of God coming in through the gospel of God's grace.
Breaking that stubborn will and that hard heart and that heart in which there was number affection for God.
In that heart that had No Fear of God before their eyes.
When we were in Guatemala.
In February.
Not being very well educated in Spanish, when I had a man respond to my greeting in English, it was an invitation to conversation.
And what a sad event that was.
Can you imagine?
An atheistic Jew.
From Europe.
And when we presented him with a solemn truth of God's word, the fool has set in his heart no God.
Smile on his face, a scratch on his shoulders. Then I'm a fool.
God called him out of food one time a rich farmer.
Oh, he had an abundant harvest. So he said. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger, and I'll say to my soul, take thy knees.
God said, Thou fool.
This night I soul shall be required of thee.
How would it be with you?
Dear young person.
Older one if God should require of you an answer tonight.
What would your answer be?
I encountered a dear young lady in a West TX town on the way back from the Denver conference one evening. She was the night manager of the motel.
And when asked if she had settled the issue of where she's going to spend eternity, well, I'm trying, she said.
Oh, you can't get there by trying.
You ask a soul, how do you know? Can you tell a man how to go to heaven? Oh, do the best you can and God will take care of the rest.
Honestly, dear one, have you ever done the best you could in anything?
Does a Sinner dare to stand before God and say I have done the best I could?
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name given under heaven.
By which you must be saved.
Broad is the way and wide is the gate that leads to destruction and many.
There be that go in there at 1:00 because they don't receive God's testimony.
They don't believe on the son.
Says in John 336.
He that believeth on the Son hath life.
Now catch this difference. He that believeth not the son.
Hath not life the wrath of God abideth on him as a Sinner you are.
Exposed to the wrath of God.
And if you do not believe the testimony, like those Pharisees and lawyers rejected as to themselves God's counsel.
Then the wrath of God is still on your head.
And so when we preach the gospel.
We say to you from the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, the gospel, the good news that Christ died from your sins according to the scriptures, and was buried and rose again the 3rd day. That blessed message is the power of God unto salvation. We read in the word of God that he calls us by the gospel Many are called. It says there in the 6th of Matthew that I quoted a moment ago, many are called.
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But only those who respond to the message that God gives them is.
Brought in at the narrow gate, few there be that find it, and the few who find it are those who believe God's testimony against them and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. So that verse in Romans one says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, the Good News.
Of God by which ye are saved, it says in one Corinthians 15 again.
Power of God unto salvation.
To everyone that believe us.
Even those Jews, some of them who rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and lent their hands to His crucifixion.
Believe some of them.
Many did not to the Jew 1St and also.
To us Gentiles.
But that is not the end of that story, and I would not be faithful to God's word, nor to your soul.
If I did not continue here, for it says the righteousness of God is indeed revealed in the gospel.
The fact that God Forgives sinners is not an arbitrary or capricious act on God's part. He doesn't do it just because he wants to. A righteous foundation has been laid.
For God to forgive you your sins because he exacted he required payment from the Son of God himself, his only begotten son for your debt. So it's a righteous thing that's declared in the gospel. The righteousness of God is declared and its witness is given in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is on high at God's right hand when he, the Lord Jesus Christ by himself had made purgation for our sins.
When he had paid the price and washed away our sins in his own precious blood.
He sat down at the right hand.
Of the majesty on high, and there he sits appealing to you. Come unto me and receive blessing. Come unto me all you that labor, heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
And listen to what he says. His heart is so tenderly pleading for your blessing and all that come.
I will in no wise cast out, No Fear of rejection because he loves you and he's paid your debt.
Goes on to say, not only is the righteousness of God revealed in exalting the Lord Jesus Christ at his right hand, when we have recorded in the word of God the extent to which he went down, down, down, under the load of sin, though he were in the form of God having paid to God the penalty of sins.
Wherefore, God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow at every tongue, confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father's glory.
It's a solemn thing, beloved.
That some people.
Real persons in hell are going to have to admit that the Lord Jesus Christ is God's, that that Jesus is the.
Jesus is the Christ.
To God the Father's glory. But the tragedy is that there there will be no relief.
Says not only is the righteousness of God revealed, but the wrath of God is revealed in verse 18 it says in John in Romans chapter one the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness.
Ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
It says of some that they receive not the love of the truth.
That is, the love of God preached in the gospel of his grace going out to sinners.
They would not receive, wherefore God will send them a strong delusion that they should believe what is false or believe alive.
That they should be condemned.
It is true God loved the Sinner so much that he paid the sinners debt and the death of his beloved Son.
He says in Hebrews chapter 10.
If under Moses order of things, if under that old system of law.
They that despise that law died without mercy. And if you read some of those incidents that occurred.
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They did that. They died without mercy because they did not keep God's law, he says. How much sore punishment?
Shall the one who has done, despite the Spirit of Greece, God in grace, sent the Lord Jesus Christ out of the goodness of his heart to pay the sinners due how much sore punishment shall they be deemed who have done despite the Spirit of Greece, and trampled under foot the blood of the covenant covenant by which you are sealed? Oh, it's a solemn thing to not receive God's witness concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, or therein is the wrath of God revealed.
Against all unrighteous godlings and righteousness.
Who hold the truth in unrighteousness. It says in the 1St at the end of this chapter of some who practice those unholy and ungodly deeds, not only do them.
But take federal pleasure in those who do them. There are those we are.
Sad to say, who will not have the Lord Jesus Christ?
What did the Jews themselves say?
We will not have this man to rule over us.
Do you see the determined will of those people? We have no king but Caesar.
If you read some of the history of those men.
Godless wicked men ordering the death of those who trust the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior and reveling in their being thrown to the lions. That's what ungodliness does to man's heart. And so if there is one who has been under the sound of the gospel of God's grace at your parents table, I know a young man, He's not quite so young anymore. He's younger than I am, but that makes him a young man to me.
And I ask him how he got saved.
I got saved at the breakfast table.
Isn't that wonderful? Reading the word of God? And he was saved right there at the table. So if one has been brought up under the sound of that word, thank God that you have parents that want you to hear the wonderful love of God. But what shall it be if one spurns and is careless and goes on unbelieving?
It's really too horrible to contemplate. And so we tell you that God loves you.
The Lord Jesus Christ loved you unto death, the horrible death of the cross.
But if there is one careless soul who has heard this before and still does not respond to love, then wrath of weeks that individual, he that believeth on the Son, the person that has the Lord Jesus Christ as the object of faith, hath everlasting life. God, God's word is clear.
God won't tell you wrong, the Lord Jesus himself said. If it were not so, I would have told you.
And so if you receive that witness, you are sure that God will himself.
Usher you into his presence because it says in Ephesians chapter One that those who believe on him.
Having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
Until redemption's day.
We had it in the reading this afternoon. God, having begun a good work in you, will perform it.
Until Jesus Christ Day, Until a day when he takes the reins of this government and displays his work.
Trophies of grace reigning with him in glory. Will you be there? Will you be one Who occupies the Father's house where there's still room? The very fact that this Gospel message has gone out is evidence that there is still room. The Father's house is not yet full, we sang. It's failing fast.
Dear man who used to come to my house for Bible study, he was now with the Lord.
Said to me one night, Wouldn't it be marvelous to be the instrument that God used to bring the last soul in?
He said on the way up we could say, I told you so. The truth is here, beloved, and we are offering to you the salvation of your soul through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. Let's turn the page on our hymn book and sing #21.
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Decide for Christ today if there is one who has not yet made that decision.
Who are still putting off?
Who still thinks there may be time? The word of God says, boast not thyself of tomorrow, for a man knoweth not what a day may bring forth.
Let me illustrate that to you, dear ones.
One Thursday noon, I asked a man, have you settled the issue of where you're going to spend eternity?
And these are his words.
No. And I'm not asking questions and that settles that.
They found him dead in his bed Monday morning. How solemn. 74 years old, rejected. As far as we know the.
Last opportunity to hear So decide for Christ. If you're in their chair and have heard this simple story of God's love, decide and God's salvation, See.
Decide.
By faith, lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ for yourself, and he will indeed satisfy every longing of your heart for time and eternity. Let's pray together.
Gracious, loving father.
We thank thee.
At Salvation's door is still open.
Recite thee that the gospel of thy grace.
Still goes out.
But we know some precious soul is going to be the last.
And then there will be those here who are like some who were foolish.
And did not make proper preparation to enter Heaven's Gate.
Oh, Father, we pray that not one soul in this room would be so foolish as to neglect so great salvation. For we know the awful cost to thee.
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To give up the darling of thy bosom.
To lay down his life for sinners.
And so we commend the preaching of the gospel to thee, not only here in this room, but in every place. It's gone forth this evening, and is yet to go for.
We ask blessing for precious souls in the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
And if there is one here in this room who has decided for Christ? There are many in this room.
I would be glad to visit with you and hear of that decision that you have made.
That They Might Be One
Open—C. Hendricks
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John 17.
John 17.
We know this is the blessed Lord praying to the Father.
In verse 20 he says.
Neither pray I for these alone.
But for them also, which shall believe on me through their word.
That they all may be 1.
As thou, Father, art in me, and I am thee.
That they also may be one in US.
That the world may believe.
That thou hast sent me.
The greatest hindrance?
To that being accomplished that the world might believe.
Father that thou hast sent me.
The greatest hindrance is the lack of this oneness.
Among God's people, was his prayer ever answered?
Was his prayer ever answered?
Will it ever be?
Well, the answer to those two questions is yes.
It has been answered.
It will be answered again perfectly.
In Glory.
When we're all gathered together unto him.
Turn to Acts Chapter 2.
Acts Chapter 2.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with 1 accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house.
Where they were sitting.
Notice the 1St.
Mentioned the effect of the coming of the Holy Spirit is to fill the house.
That was literally the place where they were sitting. But I think it speaks of something deeper than that.
The Spirit has taken up his residency in this present day of grace in the House of God.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, each one individually.
Had this.
This new.
This new thing that God was establishing this.
Assembly.
Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth.
Inhabited, indwelt by the Holy Spirit collectively and each one individually.
This is what characterizes Christianity.
And the cloven tongues.
Saying that this is not to be limited to 1 nation like Judaism was.
But it's for all peoples and languages and tongues and nations.
On the face of the earth.
And they were all filled.
With the Holy Ghost.
And began to speak with other tongues.
As the Spirit gave them utterance.
Everyone heard the wonderful message of God in their own language.
This gift of Thomas used on that day to show that what God is establishing here, especially to show it to Israel.
With other tongues and people of other lips will I speak unto this people.
And this is the coming of the Spirit of God that produced this.
But if you turn to the 4th chapter.
We have something very exceedingly.
Precious.
The testimony was being opposed.
The greatest opponents to it were the Jews.
We'll start at verse 29. We know the account. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings.
And grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word.
By stretching forth thine hand to heal.
And that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
And when they had prayed.
The place was shaken.
Where they were assembled together.
And they were all filled.
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With the Holy Ghost.
And they spake the Word of God with boldness. Here you see a company, not just individuals, now filled with the Holy Spirit.
As on the day of Pentecost.
But you see this company?
Praying.
Unitedly, with one heart and one soul.
They were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
And the effect of that is that they spake the word with boldness. When you see someone that is filled with the Holy Ghost, there's boldness.
The fear of man bringeth a snare.
Fear of the Lord gives boldness.
Now notice verse 32.
And the multitude of them that believed.
Were of 1 heart and of one soul.
Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common.
And with great power.
Gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
And great grace was upon them all.
Neither was there any among them that lacked.
For as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the price of the things that were sold.
Laid them down at the apostles feet.
And distribution was made unto every man, according as he had need.
Well, this was the height. This was the height that was reached in those early days, before any divisions had come in.
But I want to read verse 32 as it is in the new translation.
The multitude and the heart.
And soul.
Of the multitude of them that believed was one.
The Lord's Prayer that they may be 1.
As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee.
That they also may be one in us that the world may believe.
Thou hast sent me.
The heart and soul of the multitude that believed was one.
The Lord's Prayer was answered literally answered.
Here was a company as a company. Never before, never since has this happened. I don't believe that they were all unitedly filled with the Holy Spirit.
There was a total selflessness. There was a total lack of anyone seeking a place or seeking to be recognized or looked upon as something.
Self was, for the moments at that time, gone.
And the Spirit of God was there to fill the mall with Christ.
And his glories and with great power.
Gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace.
Was upon the mall.
What a height. The very next chapter there was a certain man named Ananias in Sapphira, his wife, and they lied to the Holy Ghost.
They had covetous hearts, and so the blessing, the height that was reached in chapter 4 didn't last very long.
And so it is. That's the history of man.
He cannot contain the blessing very long.
But the Lord's Prayer was answered.
And we're looking on to that day.
When all the Saints none missing them.
Today we have the privilege of being gathered together unto His name.
He's not here, he's on high in the glory.
And he promises in his spiritual sense, to be in our midst.
But in 2nd Thessalonians 1, And this is what we're waiting for, the Rapture, when we'll all be gathered together unto Him, not to His name now.
But to him and that takes place.
There'll be none missing.
We'll all be there.
And again.
This prayer.
Will be manifestly seen.
It will be so as it was here in Acts Four. Well, as we think of this.
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Recently I picked up a book at our brother's house.
And it's on church history.
And I've been reading it.
And it's hard to read without tears flowing as you think of that which Christ died for, to gather together into one the children of God that were scattered abroad. That he died for that that we often think he died for my sins. That's true, and blessedly so. But he died to gather together into one, the children of God.
Again, the effect of his death will be seen in that coming day.
It was seen there in Acts 4.
Acts 4 that they all may be 1.
What would be the effect of that?
Why should the world believe our testimony? Why should it?
We can't get along among ourselves, we Christians.
And the world sees that.
You're hypocrites.
And in many ways, they're telling the truth, are they not? We have failed to walk together.
In Unity.
In Grace.
In Holiness.
And in truth.
Thank God.
There are those of us whose desire is to still do it with all our failure.
Still give him the place that he alone deserves.
And to do it together, What a privilege.
That is.
Christ's Desire for Oneness
Philippians 4
Reading
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This chapter 4 Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and longed for my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord. My dearly beloved, I beseech geodes and beseech synergy, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also true yoke, fellow.
Help those women which labor with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers.
Whose names are in the book of life? Rejoice in the Lord Alway. And again I say, rejoice.
Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true.
Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just.
Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things, those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you.
But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last year, care of me hath flourished again, wherein you were all so careful, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of one, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.
I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things. I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding you have well done that you did communicate with my affliction.
Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.
For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again unto my necessity, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all and abound. I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you.
An odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Salute every St. in Christ Jesus, the brethren which are with me greet you all the Saints salute you. Chiefly they that are Caesar's household. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen. In view of what comes at the end of chapter 3.
That is in view of the expectation that we have, the bright hope.
Power that God will put forth and transforming our bodies.
It's as if, he says then.
I love you all very dearly, just stand fast now.
And my oversimplifying that, I think it's what Chuck was talking about on his address. We're talking about this frail body and the glory that's to come. It's so indescribable that he was forbidden to try to relate it when he when he tried to talk about it. He says I knew a man in Christ about 14 years ago. Whether he was in the body or out, I don't know. But he's such a one caught up to the 3rd heaven and heard things unspeakable.
You know that's what we're coming into, Brother Unspeakable Lord.
And how could we ever how much can we enter into it now? Well, it's it says we walk with the Lord that we come, I believe, into some fellowship of the Lord and the joy that he gives us. It's his rejoice in the Lord.
I can do that.
The 139th Psalm, he said, he tells us a little secret there. He said, if I ascend up to heaven, thou art there. How long does it take you and me to ascend up to heaven just like that? A moment. Lord Jesus, help me or Lord Jesus, I praise thee. How long does it take? But there's an alternative in in that particular Psalm, the psalmist was reflecting on the way the Lord had dealt with him.
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There was another man that went the wrong way. His name was Jonah.
And where was he winding up? And so the psalmist could reflect and say, if I make my bed in hell, thou art there. It was a man, he says, out of the out of the belly, one of these, out of the belly of hell. He relates it to that, to that contrast. And you and I by our by the way that we bring the Lord into the circumstances or don't. It could be one way or the other.
And I think I mentioned it once, but there was a man that I met.
I visited with what a man that is a brother I believe.
But he got angry with his brother. Yeah. Could I agree with his brother that try to correct him? And he says, and in fact, I will not. And he got angry about it. You mean we can get angry? And the man said to me, Bob, I've been in hell for 16 years. I said, brother, you don't have to stay there. 3 little words.
You know what they were? Well, I just mentioned that because you bring in the side of things that stand past the chance, that we don't stand fast, sometimes we get eye trouble, and that we had some of those things brought before us, that we were in a body that's very frail. But what about the Lord? Is the Lord frail?
I don't want to be a technician, Brother Bob, but.
I think it's important for our young people to understand that and our older ones to to understand that there's a little problem in our ordinary translation with regard to the word hell. There are two original words, one meaning the lake of fire and the other which is Sheol or.
Hades in the New Testament and they are what?
Is referred to, Are they not in the passage you quoted in a Psalm 139? It's not the lake of fire. I think sometimes there's a confusion between them and it's important we keep them separate. I remember being very much helped as a young believer by another pamphlet by AJ Pollock, which is called Hades and Eternal Punishment.
And he draws a very careful distinction between.
Hades and Gahanna, or the place of eternal punishment, or the Lake of fire.
And I don't know if Brother Tim had that pamphlet out there on the table or not, but if not, I think it's still available from BTP. I was wondering if he could explain what Hades is. The Lord Jesus went there, didn't he? 16th son? Well, we find like prototype as indicated in the Old Testament we have the word shield. In the New Testament we have Hades.
Refers to the intermediate state between death and resurrection. It's only in the New Testament that we have light shed upon that which we don't have in the old, and that is in Luke 16 we have that. There are two compartments, you know, there where the damned are those who died in unbelief, like the rich man who Lazarus was in a place of bliss and happiness. But there is conscious existence in that state, you know.
Witnesses and Seven Day Adventists deny the conscious existence after death. They speak of the soul sleep. There's never sleep used in connection with anyone who has died in unbelief. Sleep in Scripture is only used for believers and not in connection with the soul, but in connection with the body. The soul is consciously in the presence of the Lord Jesus as we have had it in the first chapter. We didn't comment on that very much. To depart and to be.
Christ, which is better? Well, unconscious existence would be better than a life of useful service on earth. Nonsense. But if we are in the presence of the Lord Jesus, consciously enjoying being near Him, that is a wonderful place to be. And then in 2nd Corinthians 5, we have absent from the body present with the Lord. And these are things that we do well to understand, and there is no doubt, as we see from the rich man.
Torment, he's not in the body. Torments are explained for people who are in the body that they are true sufferings, torment of the soul, anticipating hell, not yet being in the lake of fire and take off those wicked rulers that have been in existence, they're now in that place, Adolf Hitler and those people you know, and they must be in tremendous torment even now. And no place, no possibility of get out of that place or out of that condition. They will be there.
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And then they will be raised and appear before the great white Throne, Revelation 20 and they will be cast into the lake of fire. These are important things to understand for all of us, young and old. But what a comfort. Our loved ones who have gone before, who love the Lord Jesus, are with Him in His presence. Glory has begun for them. You might say in that way that they are with Him. They will be with Him forever, and not yet in the glorified state, but they are with Him, and we long to be there soon. I think it will make an application, brethren.
Men that I've known, some women perhaps have used this description for their life here, leaving God out. I hope I can make not confusion about it, but some people have said to me, I've been in hell all these years. It was the experience where the left got out. That's the application I wanted to make. And I hope that I don't bring confusion about the real meaning of it, which I'm sure that we look into the teaching of it. I didn't want to get us off the track.
Because the track doesn't have anything to do with that. But I just, I know that people will say, for example, the Creed's even say.
That the Lord descended into hell based on our common translation. But I believe that we want to be careful about it and let's not spend the whole meeting on that.
Thinking of death, death is not a place. When we talk about death, death is a condition of the body without the spirit. Body without the spirit is dead. So death is a condition. Hades is also a condition. It's a condition of the spirit and soul in the disembodied state. And that's when we don't have a, you know, those that have gone on don't have a body. There's only one man in heaven that has a body and that's the Lord Jesus. We will have ours then.
So Hades or she'll is the disembodied state, just like death is the state of the body when it dies. The state of the spirit and soul when the body dies is Hades. And but the New Testament doesn't call it that for us, it says to be present with the Lord. So it's it's when when you say Hades or Sheil, that could be a place of bliss like they're like Lazarus or the place of suffering like good rich men. But for us, when you say present with.
We know that's or paradise. We know that's a happy place, don't we? Paradise also is a condition. You can use that word as well. Paradise isn't a place, it's a condition. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Well, the thief wasn't in heaven a day, but he was in that condition of joyful anticipation. I'd like to come back to Brother Dick's original comment.
I thought that, and again, we don't want to get into First Corinthians 15, but we have a similar thought there at the end of chapter 15 after the resurrection.
Has been described, you know, gone into and expounded. What does Paul say at the end of chapter 15, First Corinthians. Since there is a resurrect, we don't have to worry about anything that might come our way in the service of the Lord Jesus. He says, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord isn't that.
Thought is you had in connection with verse one here. I think that helps us. In other words, we might suffer in going on steadfastly for the Lord, but never mind, never mind. Don't worry about that. There's going to be a resurrection. You know, even if we are asked to pass through death, don't worry about it.
We will be raised and will be brought into full conformity to our blessed Lord. There's a problem with some here, and the Lord directs us to realize that the glory. There are things we're going to have that we have here. We're going to have the Word of God. We're going to be with the Lord Jesus, but we'll have our brother. So perhaps we need to keep things in the reality that we are one in Christ and we need one another.
Here we need to own anything that would hinder our fellowship together, and I leave. There's a great deal of it here in these early verses about his longing to see his brethren, his duty belong, and his problem with his two sisters and so on. So he goes down to verse four. He says rejoice in the Lord, and again I say rejoice.
Well, if you're rejoicing in the Lord, and we see one another in the Lord.
And we're going to be with one another for eternity. We need to have that bunch of sense that we need one another here. We need the fellowship of each other and we need to get rid of that which would hinder that fellowship with the Lord and with each other. As our brother Chuck was bringing out in the end of this third chapter. It's we have our citizenship is in heaven. And that's very interesting. But while we're here.
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As our brother John is just saying, there are difficulties, so he goes into that now, doesn't he for our for our pathway, for our wilderness journey. Therefore, my beloved, my brethren, my therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and long for my joy and crown. So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved repeated there in that verse. Why does he say this Because there's confusion. We get into these confusions we we're.
Always in accord and strength is gained by being of one mind, isn't it? In the early days of the apostles, no man just joined himself unto them. Why? Because they were one mind. Of course, Satan came in very soon. But I just thought of it here in this little epistle to the Philippians, and we need this. The keynote in this chapter is verse 13. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.
Say that's the key for this chapter, strength for the pathway.
So in order for them to get to wanted to bring them up to this point, he says I therefore my my my brethren, dearly beloved and long for my joy and crown, stand fast in the Lord. My dearly beloved, I beseech you odious and synteke that they've made they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I think this is interesting because even if sisters have a difference between them, if there's a difference with sisters, it can cause problems in.
You know it as well as I do, but how lovely to see that he just enjoins them. He doesn't say you've got to do this, you must do that. He just says he just prays that they might be of the same mind, they might be of unity together because it would cause a discernment, it would cause disruption in the gathering, in the little gathering are Philip I. So I, I believe I see in it a very tender way that the apostle says, he says that they be, they may be of the same mind in the Lord.
That's entreaty, isn't it?
Our desire is not to pound them and say don't do this. We want to get them before the Lord, to see that each one belongs to the Lord, and in order to get them to see, have one mind in the Lord, Not one mind as to our thoughts or views, but one mind in the Lord. See what the Lord has for us because they were His dearly beloved ones and He wanted to see them going on. I think we've already noticed in one of the meetings earlier that the fourth verse was spoken by a man in prison.
Lord always again I say rejoice and it shows that it's not a question of our circumstance comes out again on the 11TH verse. There's an italicized doesn't belong there that should read like this. Not that I speak in respect of want. I've learned in whatsoever state I am to be contented. You don't have to be content with the difficulty, but you can be content just the same because it's the Lord you're content and I was just looking back in havoc. You probably remember that portion in the third chapter havoc.
Nothing went right, and they rejoiced anyway. I'll read it. Habakkuk 3, verse 17. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation.
What a contrast. Nothing to cheer as far as earthly things.
No food and yet he rejoiced in the Lord and I think we need to get into the habit of rejoicing in the Lord even when things go well so that when we lose those mercies and mentioned also in these meetings. If we lose the mercies, then we could we still have one in whom we can rejoice. Lovely. The the terms that he loses Paul uses here in speaking, he says earlier, I beseech.
Cyndic and Eudis Euticus, and then he goes on in the third. I entreat also.
Through your the also true yoke fellow, help those women which labored me with me in the gospel. He entreats, he beseeches and he pleads. And I think this is very, very precious to see. And is that not should that not be the character, our character to just Lord, please, please plead with the Lord and and before the Lord to and beseech and seek to guide.
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Rather than than to command. I believe I see something here in this. It's a lovely little epistle because it does bring that out, doesn't there is this thought too. There's this thought also that I just suggest this that the apostle says here in verse one, my dearly beloved long for my joy and my crown. Why does he mention the crown in this respect? Well, I believe that he was considering.
The Lord's approval, that time of reward, and the apostle spent a lot of Labor in these places. Consider what he suffered at Philippi when he first came into that city and he says in one place, for now we live. If you continue that is, it's our life. And the apostle John even says, look to yourselves that we lose, not that which we have wrought. So the apostle had labored much.
For the glory of God.
And to see a threat upon this work was a concern to his soul. Now by the time you get to second Timothy, it looks like it's all going into ruin. And he says, I know who might have believed and am persuaded he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. He just entrusted it all to the Lord, even though it looked like it was breaking up and Asia was turning away from him. But I believe, it seems to me that the apostle.
Is concerned that there was a thing at work that could spoil this labor and he just touches on that and the crowds are important. We know that because this all has to do with that coming time when we'll be with the Lord and will reign with him and it'll be the token of his approval. So scripture speaks of crowns of righteousness and rejoicing and and.
So forth. I think it's Harry Ironside that in a little book called Illustrations of Bible Truth quotes a simple brother as giving these names as odious and soon touchy, odious and soon touchy and.
I believe sometimes those two things commended to bring differences in among believers. But I'd like to ask a question that has puzzled me for years. Who is the true yoke fellow in verse three? It's certainly personal. It's thee. It's not In treating the assembly, who is this true yoke fellow who is exhorted?
To assist the women.
Pressed that that was a paraphritis. I don't, I don't remember that, but that was the thought. I made a little note on that. But didn't the papparditis carry this epistle when Paul sent him back and he was the one that the assembly had sent to Paul what was lacking in the in their service? The last verse of chapter one.
Was that they had no way to send it to him. There was number Postal Service so Epaphroditus took that up and you have it in the end of this chapter A little later I am full verse 18 having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you an odor of a sweet smell to sacrifice acceptable while pleasing to the Lord and he's described in chapter one verse 25.
As my brother and companion and labor and fellow soldier.
But your messenger.
Wouldn't that be a yoke fellow? And you might say this about Epaphroditus. We see he is a reflection of Christ in that selflessness in giving himself. We see that there's three reflections in the second chapter of the Lord Jesus. Paul certainly was one in himself. That is, he was ready to be.
Poured forth as he speaks of and then he talks about Timothy who was like minded. He certainly was a real reflection of Christ.
In that way, and then we have Epaphroditus, we have these three mentioned in a special way in chapter 2 as those that reflected that same quality, that humility, that unselfish spirit that we see in the Lord Jesus. What a testimony this ought to be to us. We have the.
Perfect example in the Lord Jesus, God's beloved Son, but then he's given us the example of those men of like passion, and we see how that Epaphroditus was sick even unto death for the care of the Saints. So what a commendation of that man. We'll hear more in the glory too, for sure. In as much as the yoke fellow is not named, I think it is a word that permits exercise on the heart of.
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One to be a true yoke fellow with the apostle in making peace among the Saints. We are to be followers of that which makes for peace. The blessed is the peacemaker and so on. So that it is language that can let me put my own souls exercise as to whether I am joining in the Apostle Paul to maintain peace in the assembly and in the family.
I like to point out that at the bottom of the epistle and I don't know.
How accurate always these statements are that says it was written to the Philippians from Rome by Epaphroditus. If that's an accurate statement, then that supports the thought that Brother Little expressed that it was him that he is addressing and these ladies evidently along with others.
Had labored together with the Apostle Paul.
Epiproditus, no doubt. Nudist sisters? Well, but I like to ask this question for a little.
To be of one mind doesn't mean we always see things alike.
I think that's an important point, good point to bring out, because we don't always have the same judgment, although it is desirable that we have the same judgment, but we can still be of one mind, that is that we're seeking the glory of Christ and maintain his glory in the assembly and then not allow.
Differences unless they are.
Differences of a serious nature, such as doctrine or question of immorality and so on. But there are many times cases, and this was apparently one, where they had differences of judgment, but they could have gone on in peace in spite of it. And I think this is what we can learn from that.
There are circumstances where we don't always see things alike, but if you want to please the Lord.
And live for His glory in a corporate way. We can still go on together. I really believe, however beloved, that it goes beyond just what has been enunciated in as much as the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The highest authority that can be called upon us is that we speak the same thing and be of the same opinion.
Where the Spirit of God is given liberty to lead us into the mind of Christ, we will be of the same mind at the same opinion.
And we had brought before us in the in the address that there are those who are otherwise minded. Well then we have to be let our yieldedness as we get in verse 5, be known and wait upon God to bring us into one mind. But the level of communion should be that we all speak the same main, and as Mr. Darby says, be of the same opinion. But it it does not say one mind, it says the same mind.
And there's a difference.
The same mind is not quite the same as being one mind like it says in First Corinthians 12. It says the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God. There's a that's a very I think it's closer than just one mind. I agree with that brother. Thank you that we're in moderation comes in.
That's the reason I refer to it as your yieldedness. That's really the way it's translated in another translation. Let your yield in this be known in all things. If there is adamancy in my spirit, it's going to cause difficulty among my brother.
Any kind of difficulty has a very simple solution, but not an easy one.
Peter teaches us that we are to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and submit ourselves one to another and that's what makes for peace. What I've enjoyed in those two first 2 verses was the the expression in the verses in the Lord.
It speaks about that, be it, stand fast in the Lord. Then He beseeches them to be of one of the same mind in the Lord. And that's the key to me. That's the key. What was the Lord? How did the Lord conduct Himself? Meekness, gentleness, kindness, love, affection in every phase of His pathway. Or there were times when he had to speak very pointedly and harshly.
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To those religious leaders. But his whole spirit was of meekness, graciousness, kindness, and love. And I think when I think of in the Lord, I think of those thoughts. I remember the pamphlet by Mr. Darby on the Trinity, and he makes this statement. He says the persons of the Trinity are not of one mind, they are of the same mind.
And.
You know, you and I can be of one mind. We agreed. We agreed to agree on something.
But that's not quite the same thing as saying we're of the same mind. That is, the same mind is produced by the Spirit of God. It's not just an agreement that we've come to, but the.
God is so wrought that we are of the same mind. Would you say, Chuck, that if.
If I come, if I get before the Lord, to seek the mind of the Lord, and you get before the Lord to seek his mind, and when we come together, we're going to have one mind in the Lord. You'll have the same mind. That's right. You'll have the same mind. It'll be the Lord's mind, right?
Our yield is this, or gentleness or moderation.
That's very, very important.
Abrupt, rude dealing and the things of God is not ever becoming, but the other one is the Lord is at hand. And I think sometimes we've misunderstood that to, to think that it means the Lord is coming, He's about to come. But I really think the thought is the Lord is standing right near us and is and is the witness to all that's going on between us.
Least that's my own exercise that we have to remember that in everything the Lord is right there.
And the Lord is when it I think the Lord is near is a wonderful expression.
And that ought to govern our speaking and the way we talk, shouldn't it? The way we think, the way we act with one another, to remember that we stand in the presence or near. The Lord says, be careful, The Lord is always there. Well, I, I was just thinking, **** whether it's realizing the Lord's standing right there or that he's coming at any moment.
Wouldn't it have the same effect?
There was a question.
27 It has a one mind striving together from the face of the gospel. I was wondering what the difference is between that and having the same mind in the Lord as having one mind in the face of the gospel. Or it's the same thing. Don't take our silence, brother. It's an indication we don't appreciate the question because it may be just that we're it makes us stop and think. The first thing I do when I hear a question like that is look up the new translation. You see how it reads? It reads.
Only conduct yourself verse 27127 Well, I'll read the whole verse. Only conduct yourselves worthy of the glad tidings of the Christ, in order that whether coming and seeing you are absent, I may hear of what concerns you, that you stand firm in one spirit with one soul labeling, laboring together in the same conflict with the faith of the glad tidings. So he uses the word one there, one soul, one spirit and one soul. Doesn't it seem as though the apostle.
Really beginning to hint at the problem that he names in chapter 4, because evidently this had to do with the work of the Lord they were helping. And then a problem came up between them. Maybe it was jealousy or something of that sort. So perhaps it's it's leading up to the same thing in chapter two. He goes a little further with the thought.
In verse two, fulfilling my joy.
That she be like minded having the same love being of 1 accord of one mind. So he's going further with the thought and then he touches on the very thing that may have been the problem and that is let nothing be done through strife or Vainglory. Well brother, and that should speak to our hearts as to the motive spring of why we are doing what we are doing.
What's the motive of it? We need to really get before the Lord in that regard.
And then he goes even further. But in loneliness of mine, let each esteem better other better than themselves. If we're honest, we'll see that the other has quality or equality that we lack, and that we can do that Wingstein others better than self if we're honest enough to recognize.
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That there is quality there that we lack. But the apostle, then he gives them such a beautiful.
Example. It is Christ our example, as we have set before us in chapter 2. And so we have the outstanding example and the examples of Paul, Timothy, and a pappaditis. Why? Why should there be this vying for a better place or better recognition? It can be a treacherous thing to come into the work of the Lord in that way.
To have jealousies arising.
In the work of the Lord to each man, his work, the Lord has things for each of us to do, and we certainly need to be exercised in that way. And they were doing a work in connection with the apostle here, and so they were. This feeling was developing between them, and the result is that it affects others.
It seems whenever there's a problem like that.
It begins to affect others. That's verse six, I believe. Be careful for nothing. Don't get all filled with care. We tend to get preoccupied with a troubling situation like that. So I believe these things become very practical in that sense. This was.
We would consider perhaps when you look read the Epistle to the Galatians that was terrible, or if you look at the problem situations of Corinth, that was bad.
This seems like nothing in comparison to it, but the Philippians were going on so well and then to have this kind of thing begin to come in, the apostles saw the threat upon the well-being of the Saints and he's greatly concerned. It seems to me like he he is very concerned because they're going on sewing come into their midst. Would you say that this kind of correction wouldn't even be in Corinth because.
So much more severe. These are just little ripples on in this huge wave of problems in currents. Is that the thought you have this? Well, yes, because there was envy and strife in Corinth too, and that made them carnal. They were like babes because of this enviant strike. But he doesn't like you say, he doesn't go into detail of that. There were other things far worse, but here they were normal Christianity. They were going on well. And now to have this thing arise between the two, I'm sure.
Very dear sisters, and very needful in the work. And yet between them there was a feeling arising. And people, people tend to take sides, a root of bitterness arising whereby many are defiled. That's what happens when there's this root of bitterness. It begins to affect others and causes a defiling among the Saints. Well, we need to really think about it. You want to really.
Extreme example.
Of what has been referred to as affecting others it's found in the 12TH and 14th of numbers and the 12TH of numbers Aaron and Miriam murmured against Moses and then the 14th of numbers. A whole congregation and that's exactly what was referred to the root of bitterness springing up and many being defiled there by. So when these ripples come in they must be judged and that's the way to stop it there's only one remedy for.
Discord in that self judgment. So it's always desirable that the Saints have the same mind, but it's obvious that that is not always the case and therefore yielding Ness or yieldedness is a necessity, Brethren.
And our spiritual state, generally speaking, is not up to what we find even in the Assembly of Philippi.
So I believe in our situation, the spirit of yieldedness is very much in place for us. That's good brother. I was thinking someone explained this yielding Ness as as keeping ourselves under control.
Keeping under control that is not.
A check on our own wills, healing us. It's not always easy, is it? Sometimes older brethren who might have a more sound judgment in a given situation that arises in an assembly might have to yield to less experienced brethren. And I've sometimes said, don't be too much concerned if there are some mistakes made.
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The Lord might well use mistakes to teach lessons I have learned in my own personal life things through mistakes, you know, and I believe that is what the Lord can use, not that we want to excuse mistakes or.
Having had a wrong judgment in a certain matter, but.
It shows humility on our part if we're willing to yield and trust that the Lord will come in in due time to correct whatever situation might not be according to His mind and will. Couple weeks ago we were coming into the city of Fagarach in Romania and we were in a little bit of a Stew about finding a hotel.
They don't have many, no money, not many Holiday Inns or whatever else we're accustomed to, and we decided that we ought to let our request be made known to the Lord. We had no sooner finished we saw a sign on the side of the left side of the road Hotel, and it was the nicest place we stayed in in the whole time we were traveling. We.
Learned a lesson out of that I think.
Is to be anxious or careful about nothing. Well, we learn it for one week and then the next week we're kind of anxious again, aren't we? That's the way we are. But there was a piece after we just presented the thing to the Lord. There was a piece that came over our souls about it.
We had put it in the Lords hands and I think that's the point here isn't it? The peace of God.
Ruling or garrisoning our hearts, it protects US against all this, you might say.
Anxiety. Anxiety is a terrible thing, but if you just put it in the Lord's hands, he takes the anxiety away and you put it there and he takes care of the knee. He knows our needs. He knows them better than we do, and He knows how to solve them. He knows all the solutions.
And I think that's wonderful because it passes all understanding the peace that comes from putting everything in the Lords hands and not worrying about things. You know, there's a little course that says why worry when you can pray? That's not a bad course, it's a nice one.
But our sister Sue Hadley, sometimes if she hears somebody unnecessarily worrying, she says.
Why pray when you can worry kind of to reproach us for it. And I think that's a thing we need to get our our souls out of this worry business because worry is not a helpful thing. It's not even good for you physically. Is it worry? The thing about anxiety is it may arise in very, very severe circumstances and making the quest known to God may not change the circumstances.
You might not have found a suitable hotel, you may have had to accept substandard facilities, but where one gets into the presence of God as to those circumstances, as Paul did as to his thorn in the flesh, My grace is sufficient for thee, that thou mightest have all sufficiency in all things, so we can have peace in the midst of even adversity where we get into the presence of God.
About it and not have anxiety.
Along that same line, I think it was about 1968, it was a team of us went from RCA, from Switzerland, we went to Romania to Bucharest to negotiate a contract there and we had sent.
Telegram saying we wanted private accommodations, meaning each one of us wanted a separate room.
And when we got there, they said there are no hotel rooms, you're going to have to go with a private family. The Lord gave me very great peace about that because I felt he directed that we got to the private family. The other three fellows were stewing about it. We need to make a protest to the tourist division and all this sort of thing. And they went out to do the town that night. And I stayed at home and found out the Lord had put us with a dear Christian couple and.
In those days it costs something to be a Christian in Romania. And I remember saying to them as we were, as I was leaving, I said, brother, could I write to you? He said, please don't just talk to the Lord about us because we'd be in trouble if you wrote to us. But to put that to take it's an example you'll of what you were saying, God didn't give us a hotel room. He gave us a private home. He had something better.
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Fellowship with his own.
What verse 11 is telling us, be content with that state, even it was a poor quality. Paul was in prison. I might just suggest this in the context of what we've been considering, notwithstanding these excellent applications that we've all enjoyed and we've been comforted by in the use of verse 6. But it seems to me that still within the context of what we have here, they were there was the danger of them.
Preoccupied with this trouble in the assembly. So in verse four he says rejoice in the Lord. Are we? And again I say, rejoice. We can't always rejoice in circumstances. There was a problem there, but the Lord never changes. We can indeed always rejoice in the Lord. And then if a thing becomes a real burden to us, we need to really get before the Lord about it in verse 6.
These things that are so troubling.
To us in the assembly and a problem between two persons perhaps, but then it seems to me that God assures that he'll give a peace that does pass all understanding. Let's trust him he can work things out in these matters and sometimes there's nothing we can do but pray for these situations. You try and get involved and it's like taking a dog with the ears or something and so it it it becomes a very.
Dangerous thing.
But then the apostle marvelously brings in better thinking in verse eight. He gives us things to think upon. It's the other side of the picture. And I enjoyed especially what dear brother Lawrence Huff when we were young persons said to us when it was evident that we were preoccupied with some worldly things. And this dear brother in a most wise.
Way said, say you young brothers, have you ever have you ever read about God's divine sieve? We didn't know what he was talking about. What do you mean? He said, well read verse eight of Philippians chapter four. He says that's God's divine sin. That'll screen out a lot of things. And so when we consider all these qualities here.
Mentioned in verse 8, we can relate to the Lord Jesus.
In everyone of them. But we also see qualities in others too. We certainly see these qualities, many of these qualities in Paul and Timothy Epaphroditus in our local brother in the assembly. Oh, how good it is that we take note and consider these things of quality instead of the defects and faults of our brethren. It's such an easy tendency of our hearts, but.
We not see the qualities in our brethren, you know, it's like someone could tell it better than I could, but.
Brother Eric Smith come into this assembly down South and some unfeigned brother came up to him and said, see that brother there? He said I can't stand him. He says I can't stand him. And Mr. Smith said, well now brother, have you really tried to see Christ in that brother?
And he didn't say anything about it. But Mr. Smith came back another time. He says, now, what do you think of this brother? He said, oh, he's a lovely friend. Something to that effect. Why do we find Thanksgiving mentioning connection with prayer? You know, it is a similar thought.
Like rejoice so in other words, many times difficulties might so preoccupied our mind that we cannot rejoice in the Lord.
Research period said times in our lives, haven't we? Well then, we're not occupied with these problems in a spiritual way. You should be able to still rejoice in the Lord, but also when it comes to anxiety. What a wonderful thing that is to count your blessings. Name them one by one that he might have said.
And thank the Lord for those things that you can thank Him for. And there will be always reasons for thankfulness. And if we mix our prayers in that way, if I may use that expression, not just bring the concerns before the Lord, but also remember those things for which we can be thankful, you know, that will help us to not get over occupied.
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With things that do require prayer and supplication.
That's a very be thankful always. That's a very important point. Is it in connection even with prayer? We we look, we look on and we pray for certain difficulties, certain problems and we pray about it and we come to the Lord about it. But what about looking back at all that has been done for us? Are we thanking him? And I always think of that in A at a prayer meeting says.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication.
And and supplication is really getting into the presence of a supplicating, pressing God for our need. But then it says.
We're Thanksgiving. Oh, what has he done for me already? What is he doing? What has he done for the ones we've been praying for many things. So we thank him with that. I I've always enjoyed this verse in that sense.
With Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.
Just come as a giver or come as a as a as one said as an accumulator. But what about giving God praise for the things that he is I hasn't done already. I think that's really good to remember that. What's the next step following that Charles Peace is not anxious for anything in in in verse six. We bring it to the Lord regardless of what it is in a matter of prayer and we supplicate. We give thanks. There are many things to give thanks for making our request.
God now what's the next step waiting for the answer and what does God give us on the basis of verse six In verse seven, while we're waiting for the answer, instead of wondering is he going to answer my prayer or is he not? I wonder what he's going to do. It says the peace of God will pass, which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
It's just a perfect leading from verse 6 into verse 7.
How long ago did your father go to be with the Lord? I recall that the night before he went to be with the Lord, he was in Chatham. And he gave us one of the most lovely words I've ever heard on Philippians 4 and verse 8. And it stuck with me, one of the dearest brothers I've ever met in my life. And that is in chapter 3 and verse 13.
The apostle says, forgetting those things that are behind.
Now, of course, that's not our former condition. We really need to remember that we were once without God and without hope that we were ruined in sin. We need to remember that. But what is he talking about when he says forgetting those things which are behind? He's talking about past attainments, things that that the flesh could glory in, that we could take pride in. So the Lord doesn't want us to think in that way, but.
He does want us to think on these things, verse eight. He wants us to go forward spiritually and to consider these things that that have such quality and to think on these things. But past attainments. Let's leave it with the Lord forgetting those things behind. Who do we see? What do we see in that verse you just mentioned? And finally, brethren, in verse 8.
Whatsoever things are true.
Who do we see in this?
You go down through that verse, you can read in every clause of that verse Christ.
The perfections of that blessed One who has done it all for us. Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, beautiful. As I read this verse many times and I can only think of one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, that's all I can think of. I can't see myself there.
I can't see some of my brother in there, but I can see Christ there. And so he says, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Meditate upon the blessed Savior Himself. And there we see it all, do we not?
Get back to the 11TH chapter of Matthew. Why? The Lord says come, Then He says take, and then he says learn.
And then there's two words he mentions. Peace and rest unto our souls learneth me.
Open Mtg.
Open—T. Roach, C. Little, E. Tonn
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Dear brethren, could we turn to the 8th Psalm?
Something I've been enjoying recently.
I just have a little meditation on it.
Some ate the heading of it is to the chief musician.
Upon Gitteth.
A Psalm of David. They tell us that word get to means of that. Or oppressed, perhaps like a drum.
It may sound strange, but we're going to be looking at the majesty and Excellency.
Of the name of the Lord.
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Perhaps it was introduced in that way. We'll just read it. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name and all the earth.
Who has set thy glory above the heavens?
Out of the mouth of babes and suckling hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
When I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers.
The moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man?
That thou art mindful of him.
And the Son of man, that thou visitest him.
For thou hast made him a little lower than the Angel.
And has crowned him with glory and honor.
Thou made us him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet.
All sheep and oxen, Yeah, and the beasts of the field.
The fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the Seas.
Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name?
And all the earth.
What a majestic song, the very name of the Lord Jesus.
I say Lord Jesus because.
O Lord and the capital letters capital L capital O capital R, capital D stands for Jehovah.
And we cannot help in reading scripture and the more we get familiar with it, the more we realize.
That Jesus and the New Testament is that Jehovah of the Old Testament.
Known by a different name, Jehovah the Savior.
And his name is excellent.
And it's to be honored and respected.
He set His glory above the heavens, His Majesty.
And then it says out of the mouth of babes and sucklings has the ordained strength or praise. You know the New Testament, the Lord Jesus used that when he entered into Jerusalem.
And the children were saying, Hosanna, they were honoring him.
Save now, Save now and.
The Pharisees objected to that.
And the Lord Jesus used the Scripture out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. Hearst ordained praise. The children would praise Him.
In fact, the common people often thought of it that way. They said, don't our leaders know that this is a very Christ?
But then it comes down to creation.
And speaks of considering his heavens and the work of thy fingers.
The moon and the stars were silent, ordained. We read in Revelation 4 that he created it for his own pleasure. God created it for his own pleasure, but he's given it to us to see it too.
Maybe you've noticed this?
The Earth, of course, was created, formed to be inhabited, fell into some kind of a.
State of chaos and then God in six days remade it suitable for man, and when he finished.
He looked and he saw that it was very good. He saw that it was very good.
And who often had this thought? And we see a beautiful sight, a sunset or a scenery?
And after 6000 years of man messing around with it, destroying its environment is still beautiful. There's still beauty there.
And we think of the grandness of this creation and then.
In verse four it says What is man? Thou art mindful of him.
To get a lot of help from the footnotes in the Darby Bible because it's two different words used for man here. This first one is Enosh, like Enos the son of Seth. In Genesis it means it refers to the weak mortal man.
Not a man of strength, but the weakness of man. What is man? What is puny man?
When you think of the greatness of creation and yet.
Man has made been made a little lower than the angels, but crowned with glory and honor in that he's put over the rest of creation, and it names the creatures sheep and oxen, beasts of the field, fowls of the air, fish of the sea.
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Man has been put over that.
And as we look around, we see the mess that man has made of it.
Puny man that God has elevated to the head of his creation.
And.
The highest being.
On Earth.
Accepting Angels.
But man has spoiled what God has done.
And have not has not given him the Excellency of His name and the glory that belongs to him.
The Psalm beautifully ends with the same words that it begins with, typical of many psalms.
Comes back to the original theme.
But suppose we look at it again.
And when we come to that fourth verse, we remember that in the book of Hebrews.
This is sighted in regard to the Lord Jesus, in regard to.
Another man.
Without the atom nature.
Another man is introduced, the man Christ Jesus.
What is man that thou art mindful of him, the Son of Man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the Angel, and has crowned him with glory and honor.
A man has spoiled the creation that God has put here for us.
So badly that man says we have to take care of our earth.
As if it belonged to us.
Lent to us.
But you know this man has come, the Lord Jesus.
The first chapter of John's Gospel.
John the Baptist looked on him as he walked, and he said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Doesn't mean the sins of every individual in the world, but he's going to cleanse the world of sin.
His work is going to is effective. It's effective for the thinner now individually.
But it's effective to cleanse the world.
So there's going to be a time when this man will reign in righteousness over this earth.
Men have tried various forms of government and nothing really works because of sin, both in the leaders and in the followers.
Nothing works as it should, but when the Lord Jesus comes and reigns in righteousness.
And this true government?
Faithful government.
And no one can hide from him.
The center in that day of millennial blessings will be stricken down.
And taken away.
And God will have.
His Honor.
There are several times in one of the chapters of Ezekiel and in other places too.
That it says that God will be known. Jehovah will be known by his judgment.
That's a solemn thought.
It's too bad folks haven't learned to know God through His Majesty of creation.
Yeah, I just read something the other day.
Can't remember just where I saw this, but they have discovered, they say, some place down near Antarctica where this gigantic asteroid landed in the ocean 2.15 million years ago. Don't forget the .15. You know, they're very accurate and it caused waves 65 feet high. I don't know how they know that.
But they say this may explain how it is we find fossils of sea creatures on the top of the mountain.
You see, they want to disregard God. They want to get rid of the flood, the judgment of God that once fell on this earth. And they'll invent some story like this and make it sound scientific and you can laugh at the story they tell. It's so accurate and pinpointed and it happened 2.15 million years ago.
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They know all about it, but you know, when the Lord Jesus reigns and he's going to put things in order, it's going to be marvelous.
On this earth and God will be glorified in His Son.
So that when we come to the end of the Psalm, thinking of it in the person of the Lord Jesus.
Certainly, O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name?
And all the earth.
Well, I just thought that would be.
Encouraging Phyllis to think that when we look at the world.
Whether it's politically, economically or ecologically, whatever way you want to look at it, it's messed up and man tries his best.
And as best isn't good enough, it fails. Certainly spiritually, man has failed.
And some of you may be aware that the head of the largest Protestant denomination in Canada has boldly and publicly stated that he does not believe that Jesus is God.
And he says, I'm no theologian, but I don't think there's a heaven or hell either. A contradictory statement.
Well, the apostasy is right there.
The man who is supposed to be leading a Christian denomination.
Well, we don't want to get discouraged by those things because the Lord Jesus is going to come back and rule. He's going to judge this world in righteousness. But you know what we're all waiting for is that shout and He's going to call us up. He's going to take us away from this corrupt world. We're not here to make it better. We never could do that. But we're here to enjoy Him. And may we as we go on from day-to-day.
Faithfully in a small assembly, perhaps.
And feeling very much weakness.
And inability in ourselves, but just to honor that name.
O Lord, our Lord, our Excellent is thy name, and all the earth.
I'll set thy glory above the heavens, the majesty of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, if we can get a hold of that, and if we can keep before us the thought of Himself a glorious one. What a cheer it is as we pass through this troubled world and find it, as the Scripture says, getting worse and worse. And it will get worse and worse until he comes. Who's right it is.
And He will, in the end, have that glory. But it's our privilege to give Him the glory now, isn't it?
Just.
Enjoy that thought along with me. The Lord is excellent. His name is excellent.
And although mankind hath failed, there's that one man comes to mind, a statement of our brother, late brother Ernie Wakefield, he said.
If it were not that the Lord Jesus became a man, I'd be ashamed to be known as a man.
Because of what man has done, the atrocities. But when you get away from that.
And end with the thought of the glory and majesty of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Would be turned pleased to.
First, Peter.
Just for a few verses there.
First Peter chapter one.
Verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which according to his abundant mercy.
Hath begotten us again.
Unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
To an inheritance.
Incorruptible.
And undefiled.
That feedeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God.
Through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed. In the last time I was thinking our brother Tom mentioning the glory.
Well, that person.
00:20:00
You know if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
He's going to bring you into His glory.
His acquired glory.
And Peter tells us here that we have an inheritance.
But we want to look at something else. We want to see that the inheritance is a marvelous and precious truth that God has given us. Each child of God, every child of God, is going to enter into enter into an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and separate from sinners.
So here we see Peter bringing this out because Peter's ministry.
Takes us through the world as it were and says points up to heaven and says this is where our real blessings are going to be. Some of us were speaking about that at the table today. We have many mercies. Everything we possess here is the mercy of God and I believe it's interesting to see that He says His re mercies are renewed day by day. We know His grace is with us, but His mercies are renewed day by day. Every day we need fresh mercies.
From the Lord and we get them. But my thought here is to speak a little bit about this inheritance.
And see the contrast.
Between what we possess and the one who gives us this inheritance.
Oh, how precious it is. There are many people in this world that have great inheritances.
But they are not always occupied with the one who gives them the inheritance or allows them to have it or.
Passes it on to them. We would like to look just in a few verses.
To see if we can't recognize what God has done for us even at this very moment.
You have something, and I have something that we should review. Look at First Corinthians.
Just going to read a few verses here in One Corinthians.
Chapter 3.
Verse 20.
Therefore let no man glory the 21St verse. I'm sorry. Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours.
What is God saying to us?
What is the Lord saying to us? All things are yours.
And you know how we know that we have those all things? Because we belong to Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ bore all the judgment for us that we might be brought into a marvelous, glorious relationship. Has He given us something now? Yes. He's given us joy, peace, long-suffering, all these things that are ours now. The mercies of God, every day of our lives. Are we thanking Him for it?
Or are we just frittering away or talking idlessly about it? God wants to see a response from our hearts. But I'm just, I just want to point out here that I want to look at this in this sense that we're looking at.
An inventory, if you will. Some of those in business here know what inventories are required. I know I was required to take inventories every month in the place where we worked. So we go over what we have to see whether we're able to produce the product. So here.
Therefore, verse 21, Let no man glory in men, for all things are yours.
Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world, or life or death, or things present or things to come, all are yours. Ye are Christs, and Christ is gods all. Beloved, this is the most precious thing to consider this marvelous.
Inheritance that we have.
And it's an inventory of it, isn't it?
We don't always enter into the completeness of it, but God has it completely for us.
So it's nice I thought of it in this way to look at this verse as to thinking that we have an inventory.
Of wealth that will never, never be taken away from us.
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It's reserved in heaven for you. You, you. Each one of us can read these precious verses and see.
That God has reserved something for you.
And that's the fullness of God's love and great grace and glory. So as we read this.
This is an inventory of the Christians wealth before God.
Some of us were speaking earlier than this, just speaking about praying about a man who had great wealth in this world.
And, you know, his comment was in interviewed him and he said, you know, I may have a great wealth in this world.
But I'm not the happiest man in this world.
Dear ones, all the wealth of the world will never make us happy. So when we take the inventory as we go over the word of God, we see, hear a marvelous.
Wealth that is preserved, reserved for us, Peter tells us. Reserved in heaven for you. No one can take your inheritance.
Well, now I don't want to stress the inheritance, the marvelous thing. But we've got to see that there's more to it than just an inheritance.
I was just thinking if you go back to chapter one here in First Corinthians chapter one.
And we see here something else.
Where is the origin of this great inheritance?
Where does it come from?
Notice verses verse 30.
Well, verse 29 For all flesh, no flesh shall glory in his presence, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us, wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.
Where does this inheritance come from? From what source? It comes from the very highest source there is. It comes from God himself.
Down to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. So I always enjoyed this. I've enjoyed this for a long time.
The wonderful inventory we have and we see the source of that inventory.
And nothing can ever remove it because what God says, God begins. We had that verse before us. God is going to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
So how precious it is to know that there is an inventory, we can take that inventory now we can.
Read these verses and see that God has it for us.
And his desire is to give it to us. Oh, we have the salvation of our souls.
But we're waiting for the redemption, the salvation of our bodies, and then we're going to enter into.
The fullness of that marvelous inheritance that we have. But that isn't all either. Again, Speaking of the inheritance.
It comes from God. Its origination is from God.
And.
Justice, go over to Let's See.
Look at Romans chapter 8.
I know these are these are not new things. I'm not trying to present something that.
That no one knows. I'm not able to do that, but I just want to give you what is enjoyable, something that we can enjoy even now. So Romans 8.
In Romans 8 we have.
Verse.
Oh, there's so many verses could be read, but we're just going to read verse 14.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
That is your position and now mine. That is our position. Even now. Are we being led by the Spirit of God? We should be.
It was the Spirit of God who wrought in our hearts to bring us into the focus of our need of salvation. It's the Spirit of God that works in us now to assure us of the place and position we're in. It's a it's in, we're in a position.
That will never be taken away.
Oh, you say, well, I fail. Failure, yes, but God has made provision for that too. We have an advocate with the Father.
Jesus Christ the righteous to keep us, to bring us back when failure comes in. So the Spirit of God is working in our hearts now to assure us of this marvelous inheritance that we have.
Let's go over to.
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Revelation chapter one.
Revelation chapter one.
And we're going to see here what our dignity is.
You know, every child of God, we can walk through this world even now in the dignity. I'm not talking about pride. I'm speaking about the dignity.
That I am a child of God.
And I have an inheritance that you can never take. No one can take it away from me. I have an inheritance there, the assurances that we have in the word of God. So here it says here.
I'll just begin at verse 5 from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, all beloved Saints of God, He is faithful.
God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of His Son. Remember that we're very unfaithful. We get very we waver, we're unfaithful. But God is faithful and He's going to bring us into this inheritance regardless of what we may think.
Do or say because it's his, he's given it to us, but he wants us to enjoy it. So here he's gone even deeper than that by saying.
The faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, the Prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loves us. Read that in the present he loves us.
It says loved here, but does he stop loving you or me? Never, never loves us.
And washed.
From our sins in the blood of His own. What a precious truth this is. We're cleansed. We're ready for that inheritance.
All made ready. So this is the dignity by which we can walk through this world. No, Speaking of it a little bit this morning. It's good to confess his name no matter where we are. If someone wants to know what church we go to, where we go, tell them I'm gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is there any greater name than that? Is there anyone greater than that? Never, never was, never will be.
So how precious it is to be able to say this, And once you do, young people, if you do?
You're going to walk away with a joy in your heart that no one can take away.
No one.
The joy of the Lord is our strength. Remember that the only way we can go on through this world and face the difficulties is the joy of the Lord. And so He's brought us into this marvelous inheritance that is ours.
It's present in spirit. We haven't entered into it yet.
Because of the Ephesians. The sevenfold blessing in Ephesians is all up there in heaven. It's all reserved for you.
For me, for you.
But one of these days, when the Lord comes, perhaps even today, we're going to enter into that. But I'd like to go back again to Peter.
We're just thinking about this marvelous thing here. It's a dignity that God has given as he's given us. This marvelous inheritance. It's reserved for us. We can't lose it.
And also he shows us the source of this, where it came from the hand of God himself.
I'll just go back to Peter again. First, Peter.
A few little closing thoughts in this connection.
First Peter chapter one again.
And verse 4, I'm going to read that again. It's an inheritance that's incorruptible and undefiled, and the fate is not a way reserved in heaven for you.
Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice.
I have marvel at this verse wherein what is he saying here? He is saying that you can greatly rejoice in this inheritance that is yours. Greatly rejoice, yes, because it comes from the hand and from the heart and hand of God.
But there's something more. It's greater than that.
Just drop down a little bit while we just read these verses wherein he greatly rejoiced though. Now for a season if need be. You're in heaviness.
Through manifold temptations, God has given us this marvelous inheritance. But while we wait, his return.
We may be happy, we may have to pass through some, some heaviness, some sorrow, some difficulty. Does that remove God's love? No, it only increases it. To find yourself face by a doctor that says not much hope for you.
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What rejoicing it is to know that if we leave this world, we're going to go into the presence of God.
For eternity.
Well, just drop down, the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it might be found unto praise and glory and honor at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Now notice verse eight. We're seeing here a contrast between the inheritance and the one who gives us that inheritance.
Having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not?
Yet believing you rejoice.
Not just greatly, but you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Joy unspeakable. I'm going to rejoice in this marvelous and glorious inheritance given of God. But the greater rejoicing is when I look into the face of my blessed Savior who gave me this.
Who did it all for me and is doing it now. Oh, what a precious truth.
The inheritance, yes, that's secondary. We rejoice greatly. But when we see the Lord Jesus, we rejoice.
With rejoice unspeakable and full of glory. What a marvelous and precious truth. May we enter into the good of these things and enjoy them. Again I repeat that verse. The joy of the Lord is your strength.
We'll turn back to the second Psalm, I mean the 8th Psalm. Excuse me, where our brother?
Began this meeting.
And read one verse.
Verse 6.
Thou hast.
Excuse me, verse 5.
Made him a little lower than the angels.
And crowned him with glory and honor.
Made him a little lower than the angels. Found him with glory and honor.
My brother reminded us that.
This is said of the Lord Jesus Christ, so we'll turn to Hebrews 2.
Hebrews 2.
Verse 6.
But one in a certain place testified saying.
For this man that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of Man that I'll visit as him.
I amazed him a little lower than the angels. Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor, and did set over him the works of thy hands, and hath put all things under his feet.
Put all things under his feet.
I've often said and enjoyed the thought.
That God always couches his words in terms that have relevance.
That have meaning to those to whom it is written.
In telling the Hebrew Christians that God has put all things under the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ should hearken their thoughts back.
To the time when they actually brought those kings and each man's.
Put his foot upon the neck.
Of those who had been conquered.
And so this brings the Lord Jesus Christ before us.
As the one who has.
Conquered.
All of the enemies.
So that in him can be secured.
This inheritance that has been brought before us, the majesty and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ of that eight psalms set before us, gives character to the work that he did.
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When we realize who it was that did what He did, it draws out our hearts.
In worship and praise and adoration because it gives magnitude to the work.
At the Lord Jesus Christ is done.
All things put under his feet.
And then we get in chapter. We don't see that now it goes into verse eight there. We do not yet see all things put under Him. And that brings us up to the point that was brought before us in the first part of this meeting.
When the Lord Jesus Christ will come and remove all of the traces of sin from this scene, modify this earth, and bring the groaning creation into the liberty of the sons of God.
But we don't see that now.
But verse 9 tells us that we see Jesus.
Who was made a little lower than the angels, reflecting back to that verse we read in the eighth song.
For the suffering of death.
That by the grace of God.
He should taste death for everything.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Given.
Of God.
To have everything put under him.
Who is the only one who could claim such a place as a faithful and true witness as has been brought before us?
So that the apostle can say.
And the 1St and the 2nd chapter of Colossians, when he speaks to us of the mystery of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Father, in which are hid.
All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Everything.
Is found in Him. It is of God, as we have been reminded, that He has been made unto us wisdom.
And righteousness. And sanctification. And redemption.
So it's a marvelous thing to have our blessed Lord Jesus Christ before our souls.
An epistle that we have taken up in the reading. It's been called to our attention.
And we have him as our object.
The precious Hebrew Christians near the end of that last word that God gave them and that epistle.
Were admonished to look often away unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith, and that brings the Lord Jesus Christ before us.
As he was while he was here in this world.
There is the source of our.
Ability.
To rise above the difficulties and to be occupied with that which has been secured.
For our inheritance for which we wait and long.
So all of this I say to bring the Lord Jesus Christ before us.
And then to turn to 2nd Corinthians and consider.
Something as to the present position of the Lord Jesus Christ in relationship.
To the position that he took while he was here.
In Two Corinthians chapter 5.
We read in verse.
I won't find it in the first so I'll have to turn to the second. Sorry about that.
Verse 15 Two Corinthians 5/15.
And that he died for all.
That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him.
Which died for them and rose again.
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh?
Yeah, though we have known Christ after the flesh.
Yet now, henceforth, that is from this point forward.
Know with him no more.
It is a wonderful occupation for your soul and mind to look at the life of our Lord Jesus Christ as He passed through this scene in order to have Him as a pattern for our life as a believer on our way to glory. It feeds our soul.
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It's the manner that God has given come down from heaven in order to be sustained in the wilderness in which we have been left.
While we have the precious privilege of worshipping and serving the Lord Jesus Christ until He comes to take us to be with Himself.
I do not desire to occupy our hearts with the negative things that man has brought into the Assembly of God.
But it's a fact with which you and I live and have to contend as we seek to help souls.
To understand what it means simply to be gathered to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is a fact that most preaching that they hear.
Is to occupy them with the Lord Jesus Christ as He was in this world.
It does not take much reading in the epistles particularly to realize.
That the Lord Jesus Christ is no longer here.
When we think of those Gadarenes.
Who owned the swine?
Who had to deal with this man who was so violent that they could not bind him with change, and whose existence was among the tombs?
And see him clothed and in his right mind at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, who had dispelled the power of those demons.
With his word.
To see them expel the Lord Jesus Christ from their presence.
Desiring that he should depart out of their coast, we see exactly what is the attitude.
Of this world toward the Lord Jesus Christ when he was here.
Depart out of our coast. They judged that he was not worthy to live in the world he created.
As one brother has said, they were more.
Comfortable with the power of demons, and they were with the power of God and their midst.
When the Lord Jesus Christ.
Was about to raise a little girl from the dead. They laughed him to scorn the heart of man.
Had no place for the Lord Jesus Christ as He was down here and yet.
There are those that would occupy the hearts and minds of souls.
With the Lord Jesus Christ, and I certainly do not demean the value of your occupation with Him as a life to be patterned after to feed your soul as you seek to go on with the Lord Jesus Christ. In no way our desire is to occupy your hearts and minds with the Lord Jesus Christ where He has gone on high.
The apostle Paul say to the Corinthians, he determined to know nothing among them except Christ and him crucified.
A crucified Christ puts an end to man outside of paradise.
It is the end of the first man. It is the end of man's test.
When God had for 4500 years our soul tested man under law to see if there was one flicker of response in his heart to God.
And we read what the law could not do.
In that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
Condemned sin and the flesh.
So that the righteous requirement that the law demanded of man might be produced in US who walk not after the flesh.
But after the Spirit, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ was God's condemnation.
Upon our entire being.
Could not produce righteousness. The apostle reasons with the Galatians, that if the law had been given, by which life could have been received, and Christ is dead in vain.
So it's a wonderful thing for believers to be occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ.
As a pattern for our life. But it is a wrong emphasis.
To preach him as he was, and a man in this world to bring us to God.
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If we knew Christ after the flesh, because he has been rejected and crucified.
And is no longer in the flesh, He is in the glory, a glorified man.
It's a wrong emphasis to preach salvation for the man down here. This is what troubled the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They only saw him as Joseph's son.
As the Carpenter.
And so we say that if we had known Christ after the flesh, and these disciples had walked with him, John says we saw him, we contemplated him, our hands handle the word of life.
He says henceforth no, we no man after the flesh. That's a good word for us as believers too.
How do I view my fellow believers?
We are speaking along this line at home one time in a little home Bible study, and one of the sisters present made the comment. Well, we're just so accustomed to thinking about one another as natural people that this sounds rather strange that we know nobody after the flash.
Do I see you, my brethren, as in Christ?
Someone who said since we've been to this meeting that I look for Christ and my brethren and I found him.
A wonderful thing for our occupation is not to be occupied with one another as natural men, but as those who have been begotten of God and sealed by the Spirit and joined to ourselves as fellow members of the body of Christ, joined to Christ by the Spirit of God, to function in this world as the body of Christ and joined to one another.
To bear witness.
To the unity that God created when the Holy Spirit formed the assembly on the day of Pentecost. But if.
We do not view one another.
In respect to our natural.
Situations.
Are we to any less view Christ?
As he was down here.
I made a statement to a young brother not long ago that we do not. There is a danger is what I said. There is a danger of presenting Christ as he was down here. And he said, how can there be anything or any danger in Speaking of Christ into any way according to the Scripture?
And I told him the key to his remark was according to the scripture.
We quoted that verse last evening that he.
Rose again the third day, according to the scripture.
And God.
Raised him from the dead, and it set him at his own right hand, and therefore we do not know him.
Anymore as he was a man in this scene, he is now a man.
But he's a man in the glory. Turn with me to the 10th chapter of Hebrews.
It says in John chapter 12.
Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, yet abideth alone.
But dying it brings forth much fruit.
As long as the Lord Jesus Christ was alive in this world.
His life and this world was a barrier to man's entering into glory because unless he died, there was number way sinners could be brought to God.
Chapter 10 of Hebrews.
Verse 19.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest.
By the blood of Jesus.
By new and living way which he hath consecrated or made.
Through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.
And having a high priest over the House of God, let us draw near.
The way into the holiest for you and me.
Has been inaugurated by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He shed His blood.
What did he say?
Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it again.
Beloved, that temple of which he spake was his body.
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And what did men do?
We read of the Centurion.
Hurling the spear.
Piercing the side of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They crucified him.
They literally rent the body of our Lord Jesus Christ that in the veil.
That is his flesh, his being a living man in this world, was destroyed.
By those cruel hands of wicked men.
And this is the inauguration for you and me.
To be brought into the very holiest of all this is the holiest precincts of God's house.
And so now we have boldness to enter.
A new and a living way.
Through the veil that is his flesh, his death, his having died and dying, it says.
Brings forth much fruit.
There were those in the end of Matthew's Gospel.
Who held on to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And properly so, setting before us, I believe, a figure of those in the coming day, who will really worship Him at His feet when that nation is restored, as we had brought before us. And the 8th Psalm, when He orders everything according to this, according according to God in the world.
But when he rose from the dead, what did he say to Mary?
Touch me not, I have not yet ascended unto my Father and your father.
And my God and your God.
He is telling us, beloved.
That we may not any longer have him as he was here.
He has. Excuse me, let me go back. He came into our circumstances.
In order that he might die for us, he was made a little lower than the angels. He became manhood. He took your nature and my nature upon himself apart from sin.
He came into man's circumstances. God with us. Emmanuel. Matthew 123.
But he passed through the scene.
And rose from the dead. And now we cannot have him.
As he was down here, Go to my brethren, and say that I ascend. I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and my God, and your God, and the same. The one who ascended is the same everyone who descended into the lower parts of the earth.
And set us free, set men free, and gave gifts unto men. It says there in Hebrew and Ephesians chapter 4 and so the Lord Jesus Christ.
As a living man in this world.
In a very real sense.
Was a hindrance to man's entrance into glory. He had to die. I recall the incident where they put the man in the Was it Elijah's grave? And when he touched his bones he stood up. It is in death that the Lord Jesus Christ met you and me in our need.
And this is what is so valuable to us. Maybe a bit of a digression, but when we remember the Lord Jesus Christ in his death.
He says that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we shall announce the Lord's death until he comes. We declare publicly to angels and all around that we have a portion in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And though as has been pointed out in this meetings.
All are not present when we make this declaration. We do it.
In communion with everyone who has a part in that death, everyone for whom that death.
Appeals to bring life.
Are they with whom we are in communion when we eat the bread, when each partakes of that loaf? It's a public declaration.
Of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ in communion with all who are have a part have a part in it.
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From the time the Lord Jesus Christ went on high.
We no longer.
Have.
Him before us, as he was a man in this scene, he said I go to prepare a place for you.
He prepared that place when he entered heaven as a man.
The place is ready.
And we are ready. The inheritance is laid up. It is undefiled.
It cannot be taken away.
So we just wait.
So as we contemplate the Lord Jesus Christ as He is.
We can go back to the third chapter of the First Epistle of the Corinthians.
And reap the benefits.
Of being occupied with him where he is.
2nd Corinthians 3. Thank you brother. I I knew it was lost. I appreciate that it's Second Corinthians 3.
We'll read from verse 12.
Seeing, then, that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech.
Not as Moses, when he put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look on the end of that which was abolished, but their minds were blinded until this day remained at the same veil on taken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ.
But even to this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts.
Nevertheless it shall turn, when it shall turn to the Lord. The veil shall be taken away. Now here is the occupation for us as believers in the present time.
Now the Lord is a spirit.
And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
What is now our occupation?
We referred to that expression in the Hebrews chapter 12 to look off and away.
On to Jesus. Why often away? The entire impetus of the Book of the Hebrews is to turn the heart of the Hebrew Christians from earth to heaven.
That's where Christ is.
So now we look to Him there He is, the occupation for our hearts that enables us to be conformed to His image while we're here. And it's really a simple process of mathematics, beloved.
The more we are occupied with him, the more we are changed into his image.
When the Hebrews.
Read of him. The veil remains.
But when we now who know the Lord Jesus Christ?
Who now are brought into relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? It is not the relationship that He had when he was down here, it's the relationship with Him in resurrection.
The resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ is the basis of that inheritance of which we have been reminded.
It is the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ on which hinges all of our blessing now and all of Israel blessing in a coming day. So now we have with open face, beholding the Lord, nothing to hinder.
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Except my will and lack of desire to looking fully into the face.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ, and beholding as in a glass and the mirror.
The glory of the Lord, the God who?
Spoke Light out of darkness has shined in our hearts.
To reveal the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a hymn that says nothing between my soul and my Savior.
May God enable us to see the beauty of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ down here to enable us to go on.
In the pathway of faith, patterning our life after him who went about doing good.
And healing all those that were oppressed of demons, who always did that which pleased his father.
He occupied with him as a pattern for our life down here, but know that our relationship.
Our connection with Him is with Him in glory.
Oh Jesus, Lord and joy.
Oh my God.
So the beginnings of the beginning of.
All.
Open Mtg.
Open—D. Gorgas, C. Hendricks, H. Brinkmann
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Turn to Second Chronicles Chapter 30.
Second Chronicles, Chapter 30.
And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the House of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel.
For the king had taken counsel and his Princess and all the congregation in Jerusalem to keep the Passover in the second month.
For they could not keep it at that time because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently.
Neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem, and the thing pleased the king.
And all the congregation.
So they established A decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem. For they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written.
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So the post went with the letters from the king and his Princess throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.
And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers.
Who therefore gave them up to desolation, as you see?
Now be not stiff necked as your father's were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord.
And enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever.
And serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you. For if you turn again unto the Lord your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful.
And will not turn away his face from you if you return unto him.
So the post passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh.
He went unto Zebulun.
But they lacked them to scorn and mock them.
Nevertheless, divers of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem also in Judah.
The hand of God was to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the Princess.
By the Word of the Lord.
And they're assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month.
A very great congregation. And they arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense took they away and cast them into the brook. Keep trying.
Then they killed the Passover on the 14th day of the second month, and the priests and Levites were ashamed and sanctified themselves, and brought in the burnt offerings into the House of the Lord.
And they stood in their place after their manner, according to the law of Moses, the man of God.
The priest sprinkled the blood which they received of the hand of the Levites.
Verse 18.
The multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the Passover otherwise than it was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying the Lord the good Lord pardon everyone.
That prepareth his heart to seek God the Lord God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.
And the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah and healed the people.
And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great gladness.
And the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the Lord.
And Hezekiah spake comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord.
They did eat throughout the feast 7 days, offering peace offerings and making confession to the Lord God of their fathers.
Verse 26.
So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, and was not the lake in Jerusalem.
Then the priests, the Levites, arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard.
And their prayer came up into his holy dwelling place, even unto heaven.
This passage of Scripture.
Was much before my heart as we traveled through Romania.
We saw what a terrible confusion.
The enemy has wrought even in that in those brief years.
Since they have liberty to meet together.
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Divisions.
Alliances that are contrary to the word of God.
It was a heartbreak.
And I thought of this chapter, and we mentioned it a number of times to some of the brethren and I.
We'd just like to go over a few points that I feel the Lord would have us.
Think about today.
You know the story of the division of Israel. We don't need to go over that.
It's something that continues until this day.
And please don't fix your eyes on a particular division. It's not on my heart to talk about particular divisions.
But I want to talk about what Hezekiah did.
There was an exercise.
People were worshiping the Lord, or at least saying they were worshipping the Lord in many different places.
And you know, they had some justification for.
They're rebelling against.
Rea bone.
Don't get me wrong. It's still called the sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin. It was a sin.
It was a sin what they did.
But I'm sure all of us know that there was provocation too.
And I don't suppose there's ever a difficulty among the Lord's people, but what there isn't?
At least in the minds of those who leave a justification in saying.
Well, you know, we were provoked.
Hezekiah's exercise, beloved, is not to bring the people back to himself.
That has been so strongly brought to my soul. Look at what he says that they should come verse one.
To us? To Judah, No, To the House of the Lord.
At Jerusalem, to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel, God has been dishonored.
Many times through the history.
Of those who profess to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has been dishonored. His center has been set aside.
And what is our desire to see?
Ourselves vindicated? No.
We want to see the Lord have his place.
That the Lord might have his place, that they should come to the House of the Lord.
Are we ought to be out recruiting people to?
To our meeting.
May the Lord preserve us from that.
May we set before souls, and may our desire be.
That they be gathered unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now there was much weakness.
Notice it says that they did it in the second month. There's a provision in Scripture for that. If they couldn't do it in the first month, there was a gracious provision for them to do it in the second month.
When priests hadn't sanctified themselves sufficiently, verse three, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.
Oh, there's such lethargy in our hearts. Such.
Shall I say, without poking fingers at any of us, at myself, that there's a lack of spiritual vigor sometimes in the things of God?
There's a lack of exercise.
So they established verse 5A decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel.
All Israel.
Hezekiah, do you have a right? You're only the king of a small part of Israel.
You are only the King of Judah.
Give them a right to do this.
From Beersheba even to death.
They should come.
To Judas that what it says.
Come to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem God has established a center.
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And beloved brethren, it's on my heart to say that if we're promoting anything other than God Center, we are secretary.
We are secretary.
The shame.
Of the awful divisions among the people of God.
Bows our heads, doesn't it?
Even if we feel that God has preserved us where we should be, and I believe that with all my heart.
What is our spirit to be come to us? No.
The Lord is the one that's to have his place.
And I like the middle of verse.
Six. We'll start at the beginning. So the post went, with the letters from the king and his Princess throughout all Israel and Judah. Throughout all Israel and Judah, beloved brethren, we have a right.
To send to all the people of God to come back to where the Lord would have them be.
Not to us. Not to us.
Montreal conference a year ago.
Brother Michelle Payette gave a little word and he taught us a new English word and I haven't forgotten that new English word.
Him as I.
I thought when he stood up, I said, What is this Frenchman telling us? A new English word?
Himasa him, us, and I.
Oh, it's Christ first, Christ first, Christ the Center.
Have you read that little track by Charles Stanley? I say this for the young people especially because I I got a lot of blessing from that. Did you ever read Christ the Center or why did we meet in his name alone?
That's a wonderful little paper.
Christ the center, Christ the Center.
What do they say on the posts? They say Ye children of Israel turn again.
Unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you. Are you discouraged because there's just a little remnant going on?
Maybe almost.
The weakness may be unbelievable where you are.
It's on my heart to say this.
It's not coming back to us, it's coming to the Lord God of Israel.
And he will return to the remnant of you.
That are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. Beloved brethren, if any of us are gathered, and I believe we are on the ground of scripture to the Lord's name with himself in the midst, it's totally God's grace.
It was God's grace that brought us there, and it's God's grace that keeps us there. Don't lose sight of that. Don't get the idea that we're better than other people.
Were not.
And be not verse 7 And be not like your Father's, like your brethren.
Oh, brethren, it's not just our ancestors. It's like us too.
Our brethren, we.
I've been very much impressed recently with the prayer of Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel and those wonderful chapters.
They pour out their hearts. They take their place with the people of God in all the failure.
That had come in, and they confessed that failure as their own. Have we done that? Have we confessed, Lord?
Not only our fathers, It's easy to look back into your house. Our fathers, they were pretty bad fellows. But what about our brethren, Ourselves?
Can we confess that to the Lord?
They trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see.
We see it, don't we? We see the desolation.
And it's heartbreaking.
Now verse 8B. Not stiff necked as your father's were, and this is a wonderful expression, but yield yourselves unto the Lord.
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And enter into our fellowship. Is that what it says?
Is that what it says? Look at it, brethren. Look at it carefully. Enter into his sanctuary.
We don't, I trust, look at it as something that we own.
It's God's place.
God established it, and it's clear in the Word of God that it's the Lord your God that will establish that place.
Which he has sanctified forever. He set it apart forever. God's truth doesn't change because of our failure, beloved brethren.
Never will.
The.
But all brethren, it starts with yielding yourselves unto God, unto the Lord.
Serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.
Now verse 9 is encouraging. For if you turn again unto the Lord your brethren and your children.
Shall find compassion before them that lead them captive.
So that they shall come again into this land. I know this is speaking, talking about an earthly sanctuary, an earthly, earthly center.
But I think we can apply it and learn from it.
And this is wonderful, it says, For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful.
And will not turn away his face from you if you return unto him.
If you ever think the Lord has turned his way, his face from us, He will not.
If you turn to him, he'll not turn away in space. He's gracious and merciful.
Well, that's the content of the letter. Now what happened?
Verse 10 So the post pass from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun.
And there was a wholesale.
In gathering. Is that what it says? No. It says they lapped them, scoring and mocked them.
Have you ever heard that I have mocking because of the stand we take and where we are and the invitation to folks?
Come, come to the place where the Lord has put his name. Not come to us.
I remember Michelle saying us without him first.
Just isn't it Him, my son.
Him outside.
It's pretty discouraging, isn't it?
Their messages met with laughing, mocking.
I've talked to brethren who mock at the idea you.
God has a place.
Verse 11 is nice, it says, nevertheless, in spite of the mocking and the laughing to scorn.
Divers, various ones of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun, humbled themselves. That's the key expression, beloved.
It takes a humbling.
For one to come back to God's center.
It's humbling.
And they came.
To Jerusalem. It doesn't say they came to Judah, they came to Jerusalem. It doesn't say they came to Hezekiah. They came to Jerusalem. God sent her.
Now verse 12 is important, it says and also in Judah.
That is the place that you might say, where they were already there, weren't they? They were there where the Lord had placed his name, they hadn't left.
But it says the hand of God was to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the Princess by the word of the Lord. Oh, may the Lord give us to have one heart.
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Beloved brethren, to do what he has said in his word, not turn aside to one, one way or the other.
That's a work of grace.
It's the hand of God that does that.
May I share the great joy?
That was mine 43 years ago.
As Mr. Pierpotto and I and.
14 others from.
A little company in Brooklyn.
Came to the meeting on Gates Ave.
And sat with our beloved brethren, sat back at their meeting.
It was humbling.
And it was humbling to say we've been wrong.
We've been wrong, but what a blessing. What a blessing, beloved brethren.
Were we making much of the Brooklyn Saints? Of the gathered Saints? Were we making much of them? No. We're making much of Christ.
And that's the thing, brethren. It's Christ. Christ is the center. He's the one.
Whom were gathered.
Well, there was a result. It took away the altars. There was a lot of things that had come in that were not according to the mind of God. And with this company that had come and that together they they do away with some of the things they ought to not have there. The altars that were in Jerusalem, altars for incense.
They had the Passover verse 15, It says in The priests and the Levites were ashamed. They were ashamed.
Beloved brethren, have we ever been ashamed that things are so poor as we gather together to remember the Lord that we're not really clean before the Lord? We haven't.
Prepared ourselves.
The.
Now, things were not done perfectly here.
In fact, Hezekiah.
Lifts his heart in prayer.
You think he was wrong. I don't.
Because it says clearly here in verse 20 the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah.
And heal the people.
God is merciful and gracious.
The letters have just said that.
And God now.
Heals the people.
Who was great gladness? They praised the Lord day by day. Notice it says, singing with loud instruments unto the Lord.
Hezekiah spoke how?
Did he speak like Ribon?
No, he spoke comfortably.
I think we've all learned that the way Rehab spoke to the people was not comfortably and what was the result of it? Oh, I know that their hearts had manifested a state of things in the hearts of men, in hearts of the children of Israel.
But let us not give occasion.
Speaking roughly.
Let's speak comfortably to our brethren.
I've done my share of speaking roughly and I'm ashamed of it.
Let's see grace from the Lord to speak comfortably to the Lord's people.
The end of verse 22 Says.
Not only were they offering the peace offerings, but they were making confession to the Lord God of their fathers.
Heartfelt confession in the Lord's presence.
Is a wonderful thing.
Not pro forma confession, heartfelt confession, real confession. Not saying, well, you know, we've all failed. That's a wonderful euphemism. But God, I think, would say we have sinned.
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That is, God would have us say we have sinned.
To be specific about the sins, to name them before the Lord.
Verse 26.
So there was great joy.
In Jerusalem. For since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, there was not the lake in Jerusalem.
And I like verse 27. It says Then the priests, the Levites arose and blessed the people.
And their voice was heard, and this is the part that just strikes me particularly. And their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, even unto heaven. God heard that prayer, went off and was received by him.
In closing, I'd just like to share a little story that I used in about two or three years ago in the Dominican Republic with some of the dear brethren there.
I've recently translated it into English.
It's called the forgotten table.
The father of a large family was about to die.
He called his children together.
And he made a rather interesting request of them. Rather strange request.
He said. After I die.
And I'd like you all to meet together in my house at this very table.
Once every year on the date of my departure.
To have a meal together.
And think of Maine.
Well, they will love the father. So they said yes, sure we will. And for several years they did.
But you know what happens in times like that?
Squabble started at the table. One brother picked up his things and said I'm not going to eat here next year.
I don't see why I have to come here and take this abuse.
Another one said, well, you're just as abusive. And he got up and he wasn't. The two of them walked out and they from then on they decided to have the feast at their own table in their own house.
And as the years went by, one and another sometimes provoked by the ones that stayed.
They went and did the same thing until there were only three left at the table.
What a shame.
And sometimes they exhibited a spirit of pride among themselves.
Two of the brothers who had gone off, they thought about it a little bit and they said.
Terrible state of things.
Hey, next year let's have the dinner at your house and you and I will eat together.
Not a bad idea.
So the division between those two was healed.
And they were happy about it. So this is a good idea. Let's invite our other brethren.
And they did. They invited their other brother.
And many of them responded.
And they had such joy that even one of the three said.
I can't hold out against that.
That's wonderful.
And he went and joined with the reunited brothers.
And have a lot of joy.
And then?
The two that were left said this is a shame.
The Lord isn't pleased with this, and our Father wouldn't be pleased with it either.
And so they sat down and they wrote letters to.
All those who had gone through all the 16.
Dominican families are big.
I got laughed to scorn.
We mocked that, they said. Huh.
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You think you're right, We're wrong.
But God.
And a few of them humble themselves.
And came back.
To the forgotten table.
John 17.
John 17.
We know this is the Blessed Lord praying to the Father.
In verse 20 he says.
Neither pray I for these alone.
But for them also, which shall believe on me through their word.
That they all may be one.
As thou father art in me, and I and thee.
That they also may be one in US.
That the world may believe.
That thou has sent me.
The greatest hindrance.
To that being accomplished that the world might believe.
Father that has sent me.
The greatest hindrance is the lack of this oneness.
Among God's people that he prays for here.
Was his prayer ever answered?
Will it ever be?
Well, the answer to those two questions is yes.
It has been answered.
It will be answered again perfectly.
In glory.
When we're all gathered together unto him.
Turn to Acts Chapter 2.
Acts Chapter 2.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house.
Where they were sitting.
Notice the 1St.
Mentioned effect of the coming of the Holy Spirit is to fill the house.
That was literally the place where they were sitting, but I think it speaks of something deeper than that.
The Spirit has taken up his residency in this present day of grace in the House of God.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Each one individually had this.
This new, this new thing that God was establishing this.
Assembly, Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth.
Inhabited and dwelt by the Holy Spirit collectively in each one individually.
This is what characterizes Christianity.
And the cloven tongues.
Saying that this is not to be limited to 1 nation like Judaism was.
But it's for all peoples and languages and tongues and nations on the face of the earth.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
And began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Everyone heard the wonderful message of God in their own language.
This gift of talents used on that day to show that what God is establishing here, especially to show it to Israel.
With other tongues and people of other lips will I speak unto this people.
And this is the coming of the Spirit of God that produced this.
But if you turn to the 4th chapter.
We have something very exceedingly.
Precious.
The testimony was being opposed.
The greatest opponents to it were the Jews.
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Let's start at verse 29. We know that Kavi account. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings.
And grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word.
By stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the the name of thy holy Child, Jesus.
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
And they spake the word of God with boldness. Here you see a company, not just individuals, now filled with the Holy Spirit as on the day of Pentecost. But you see this company.
Praying unitedly with one heart and one soul.
They were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
And the effect of that is that they speak the word with boldness. When you see someone that is filled with the Holy Ghost, there's boldness.
The fear of man bringeth the snare. The fear of the Lord gives boldness.
Now notice verse 32.
And the multitude of them that believed.
Were of one heart and of one soul.
Neither said any of them, that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common.
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
And great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked.
For as many as were possessors of lands or houses, sold them, and brought the price of the things that were sold.
Laid them down at the apostles feet.
And distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.
Well, this was the height. This was the height that was reached in those early days, before any divisions had come in.
But I want to read verse 32 as it is in the new translation.
The multitude, and the heart and soul.
Of the multitude of them that believed was one.
The Lord's Prayer that they may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I and thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe.
Bowers sent me.
The heart and soul of the multitude that believed was one. The Lord's Prayer was answered literally, answered.
Here was the company as a company, never before, never since has this happened I don't believe.
That they were all united, filled with the Holy Spirit.
There was a total selflessness. There was a total lack of anyone seeking a place or seeking to be recognized or looked upon as something.
Self was for the moment at that time gone, and the Spirit of God was there to fill the mall with Christ.
And his glories, and with great power.
The Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
What a height. The very next chapter, there was a certain man named Ananias and Sapphira, his wife, and they lied to the Holy Ghost.
They had covetous hearts. And so the the blessing, the height that was reached in chapter 4 didn't last very long. And so it is. That's the history of man.
He cannot contain the blessing very long, but the Lord's prayer was answered.
And we're looking on to that day when all the Saints, none missing them. Today we have the privilege of being gathered together unto his name. He's not here. He's on high in the glory, and he promises in his spiritual sense to be in our midst, but in Second Thessalonians one. And this is what we're waiting for, the Rapture, when we'll all be gathered together unto him.
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Not to his name now, but to him, and that takes place.
There will be none missing.
We'll all be there and again.
This prayer.
Will be manifestly seen.
It will be so as it was here in Acts 4.
Well, as we think of this.
Recently I picked up a book at our brother's house, and it's on church history.
And I've been reading it.
And it's hard to read without tears flowing.
As you think of that which Christ died for, to gather together into one the children of God that were scattered abroad, that he died for that that we often think he died for my sins. That's true, and blessedly so. But he died to gather together into one the children of God.
Again, the effect of his death will be seen in that coming day. It was seen there in Acts 4.
Acts 4.
That they all may be one.
What would be the effect of that?
Why should the world believe our testimony? Why should it? We can't get along among ourselves, we Christians.
And the world sees that.
You're hypocrites.
And in many ways, they're telling the truth, are they not? We have failed to walk together in unity, in grace, in holiness, and in truth. Thank God.
There are those of us whose desire is to still do it with all our failure, still give him the place that he alone deserves.
And to do it together, what a privilege that is.
I like to turn to Matthew.
Verse well known, I'm sure, to most of us.
And that's in Master 18.
We have heard.
Of the divided state of God's people.
That is reason for all of us to be humbled.
We cannot divorce ourselves from the shameful history of the Church or the shameful history of that which God raised up 170 years ago.
What a shameful history.
But I like to especially.
Dwell on that which we have in the midst of such ruin.
Is we find ourselves in.
And diverse in Matthew 18.
Verse 20.
Over two or three are gathered together.
Into my or unto my name DMI in the midst of them.
You know in many places today.
The number has been greatly reduced, and many times there aren't many more than two or three.
But what a comfort that we have this verse, where two or three are gathered together unto my name. There am I in the midst of them.
The Lord Jesus promises his personal presence.
To be in the midst of those who gather unto his name.
Even if that number is reduced to two or three.
The Lord Jesus says, Damn I in the midst of them.
When we think of this shameful division in Israel.
There were two things, I believe, that those 10 rebellious tribes.
Manifested.
That was disowning the authority of the House of David.
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And the sin of rehoboam was that they set up.
Two opposing centers.
To the only center that God would recognize and that was in Jerusalem.
And this is what has happened in the Christian profession.
The authority of the Lord in the midst of his own has been ignored.
We often read Matthew 1820, and find comfort in the fact that the Lord promises His presence in the midst of the two and three. And it is certainly.
Well used application, but I believe the main force of Matthew 1820 is this.
That because he is there, his authority is vested in the midst of the Two and Three, and we better recognize that Beloved Brethren.
And that we bow to the authority that the Lord has vested in the assembly, and when it says of the one that had sinned against.
The individual, after he didn't listen to the efforts of seeking to restore that one, take two others with you. Then if he doesn't listen to them, tell it to the church. That is not the church universally.
That is the local assembly. The Lord has vested His authority in the local assembly.
And his presence there gives to the local assembly. I'm emphasizing that because we tend to forget that sometimes beloved brethren, he has vested his authority in the local assembly to deal with local matters.
What a privilege to be gathered unto the name of the Lord Jesus. He's in the midst.
He is the center.
Unless we are at that center.
We are not gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
Many profess to be so gathered, but unless you are at the center, since he is the center.
You're not gathered to his name unless you are gathered.
Where he is in the midst, he is the center. Sometimes you hear this expression about other believers.
Those gathered to the name of the Lord literally say they are gathered with so and so, brethren, as if they are gathered.
Well, it would be more correct to say the meeting with other Christians.
To be gathered means it is a work of the Spirit of God.
Which brings hearts to that center so that they are gathered around him.
You know, we had some comments in.
Regina.
This year, and we commented that that is as much a work of the spirit of God to gather us to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as it is to work with the Spirit of God to save our souls. It's his work, a brother said. Somebody else has said it's a greater work of the spirit of God to gather us to the person of Christ then our personal salvation.
I believe it's true. It's a work of the spirit of God, and if you and I.
Ourselves where the Lord Jesus is in the myths.
It's a work of his grace, a work of the Spirit of God that has brought us to where the Lord Jesus is.
People might ask themselves the question.
They might say.
Since there is such a divided state.
In Christendom.
Can we still give expression to?
The truth that there is one body that we are one.
At the time, allow a personal experience.
When we were exercised, where the Lord would want us to be because we had become convicted, that we did nothing, that where we were and had grown up, where even my grandparents already were.
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That we were really, truly gathered to the name of the Lord that we had to find where.
Those Christians were that truly were gathered through Christ, with whom he wanted to be identified.
So I called a brother, not gathered.
Who was in one of the groups of brethren? I had met him at a funeral.
And I said, brother, I said, we under exercise where the Lord would want us to be. We cannot continue where we have been all of our lives.
He immediately attacked the gadget, saying.
And he made this statement.
AC Brown and Chapter Brown out West. I talked to them and they had the nerve to tell me that they were not gathered in division.
And I immediately responded and I said brother.
If they are truly gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, they are not underground of division.
Let me repeat that if we're truly gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, we are not on the ground of division.
We are on the ground of the one body and the truth of God.
And the wonderful truth of Scripture is beloved Saints of God, is that we can give expression to the truth that there is one body.
Without having every member of the body of Christ there with us personally represented.
This is a great comfort.
For us to lay hold of. I hope we all miss our fellow believers.
You know, if we do not miss them.
There's something radically wrong with us, beloved brethren. And sometimes the Lord has to bring things into our own families and lives and relationships so that we would feel this pain more deeply, and if all of our children and relatives are all walking in the same path.
But you see, their brethren, beloved members of the body of Christ.
And we don't benefit from fellowshipping with them, because we have to walk in separation from them, because they are in a path of disobedience or in a path of indifference to Christ to His claims. And we cannot go on with them. But do we feel it a painful thing, not be able to walk with them, but beloved we can?
Give expression, even in this ruined state around about us, of the truth that there is one body.
How do we do that?
Turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 10.
Verse 15.
I speak as to wise men. Judge ye what I say, the cup of blessings which we bless.
Is a not the communion of the blood of Christ?
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the Body of Christ?
For we, being many, are one bread and one body.
For we are all partakers of that one prayer. Behold, Israel after the flesh on that day, which eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar.
What say I then, that the idol is anything for that which is offered in sacrifice to idols as anything. But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice the devils, and not to God. I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. He cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. He cannot be partakers of the Lord's table.
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And off the table of devils.
In this passage we have the truth of the Lord's table.
That which gives expression to the truth that there is one.
Body. That's what the Lords table stands for.
At the time when Paul was writing these things, there was only the Lord's Table and the table of demons, and we would not dare, shouldn't dare, to refer to any independent tables that men have set up as the table of demons. There's a difference, isn't it?
Places of convenience like it was in Israel when they worshipped Jehovah in high places they were not committing acts of idolatry. They worshipped Jehovah, but not in the place where he had said his name. They were specifically told that they should do so.
In Deuteronomy 12 and other passages that they should do so where he had said his name.
But how wonderful. The Lord's table expresses the truth that there is one body but.
While it says we cannot have part at the Demon's table and the Lord's table, it still proves one point that we cannot be at 2 opposing tables.
We cannot be at 2 opposing tables.
What we find today is that men have set up tables who fall short of giving expression to the truth that there is one body.
You know, if you take, for instance, the position of independent local churches or assemblies.
That's a denial of the truth, that there is one body that could never be the Lord's table. Those who meet in that way could never claim that they are at the Lord's table. They might truly in their hearts remember the Lord in his death. Don't tell me that I didn't before I was gathered to the name of the Lord. Maybe there were times when I did this, perhaps closer to the Lord in my soul, and since I am at the Lord's table.
But.
It cannot be the Lord's table if the position any group of believers occupied denies the truth that there is one body in practice.
What about those who amalgamate, who come together on the ground of mutual recognition on the basis of compromise?
Their position is that there are many tables giving expression.
To the truth of the one body in a divided state, preposterous can't be.
But it is possible, beloved Saints of God, to be at the Lords table today.
To meet with Christians strictly as members of the Body of Christ, recognizing the Lord in the midst, His headship, His authority, and to give expression to the truth. There is one body. And as I said, we do not need every member of the body of Christ in one given community be present there with us in order to express their truth. Remember what happened in Israel after they had divided.
Into the two and 10 tribe nation.
They still had the temple, didn't they? And they still had the table of showbread. How many loaves were on that table?
12 loaves were on their table.
There were only two tribes that were at the divine center, and some who humbled themselves and came, as we have heard, to that divine center. But they still give expression to the truth that all those people are one. The Lord Himself, someone has said, refuses to see His own, but as one.
He always sees them as one and a great comfort we find and should find in the fact that the Lord Jesus.
Is carrying on a work that our unfaithfulness does not ruin or destroy. He's building a house. Everything is perfect. He's adding to that body. Everything is perfect.
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For us to give expression to their truth, that's another story. But we also find, remember when the Prophet built that altar? When he faced all those priests of bail, Hundreds of them. How many stones did he use to build that altar?
12 Stones.
12 Stones.
He had the mind of the Lord.
He saw God's people as one.
You know, and he was a prophet in Israel.
You know, but he was a prophet of the Lord, well beloved Saints of God.
Should we not be thankful that it is still possible to come together in the name of the Lord Jesus?
As imperfectly as we're doing it.
We cannot but have to confess that we have given very poor expression to that truth. But I do believe the Lord and His goodness has preserved A testimony to that truth. We still can gather around the Lord Jesus. We still can be at His table.
And I hope we remember when we come together that in that law of every St. of God is represented. I think Neil referred to brother Albert meeting that Christian on the street. A dear child of God after the breaking of bread, he said. I saw you in a meeting this morning. I've never been in your meeting. I saw you in that meeting.
You see, he explained, we broke bread. And that bread did not only speak of the body of the Lord Jesus in which he suffered. It speaks of that one body that he formed, of which he is the glorified head. And by the Spirit we are linked to him a living head in heaven and to every St. of God on earth.
You know, I'm even thankful, beloved Saints of God, that to some extent we can even have fellowship with members of the body of Christ in our personal contact.
We've had a family stay at our house three times.
Dear children of God.
Love them, came to love them. Godly souls.
He stayed with us for a week.
And we took a walk the last day, he said. Heinz, I'm so thankful you didn't try to convince me about your position. Well, I said, dear brother.
If I would win an argument.
What would be gained? The Spirit of God has to bring you to see where you are to be gathered around the person of the Lord Jesus. It's obvious that I would be very happy if you would see it that way, but I have to wait till the Lord shows it to you. In the meantime, I was glad to be able to have fellowship with this dear St. of God, and we came to some extent have fellowship with those that we recognize as members of the body of Christ. And as we have opportunity, we can share the truth with them.
But remember, it has to be a work of the Spirit of God in order that it might be a lasting work. You know, it took me 20 years before the Lord.
Short I swear I had to go. I know dear Chuck gave up on us, he said. Heinz will never see you, you know. But the Lord did in his grace delivered us and brought us to be where he is in the midst.
But beloved Saints of God, He's holy and He's true.
It's a great responsibility to be so gathered.
And to give a true expression to the Church of God, and to be maintained holiness in the House of God.
Well, second, Timothy.
Two is another scripture that is of great comfort to us in the midst of the ruined state that we have Roundabout. And what does it teach us?
It teaches us that the House of God has become as a great house.
And.
There are good and bad vessels in that house.
And it is beyond repair.
01:10:07
I challenge anybody if you think that you can go into some church and try to change them to accept the truth of the church.
You'll have a great disappointment, and the Lord hasn't called us to do that. You know, I'm thankful for every soul that we can come in contact with, and the Lord might use us to try to help them. And what a joy it is when they come to see the truth. But.
The Lord hasn't called us to cause disturbance and turmoil in groups of believers. He has called us to go unfaithfully, and the need for separation is clearly taught there in two Timothy 2, if any man.
Purify himself. By separating himself, he becomes a vessel fit for the master's use.
I cannot do that for my wife. My wife cannot do that for me, neither can I do it for my children.
I wish I could pass on the truth to my children the way I can pass on material things.
That's impossible. They have to come to personal faith in these matters. Under personal exercise. They have to take that step of faith.
Step outside.
Not only the negative saying of separating, but the positive thing onto here to go unto him as we have it in Hebrews outside the camp, and what a wonderful encouragement we find there in Second Timothy. Separation is a painful thing.
Any of us who had to do that know very well what that means.
To have to separate from bread and beloved bread, and they let you to the Lord bread, and that taught you much of the truth of God you still enjoy. And then to have to separate from them.
Has given some of us nightmares.
To have to do that.
But beloved, it is necessary.
If you want to be faithful to Christ.
Brethren are not to be the object.
Priced this to be the object.
It's a wonderful thing to have, brethren.
Of like precious faith, brethren, who share the same exercises with whom we can walk in the path of faith. But the object is not brethren, the object is Christ.
If Prada Nadi objects, they sooner or later will disappoint you.
And if pattern are the object, we deserve to be disappointed.
But if Christ is the object, we will not be disappointed. He never will. But there is a collective path.
Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with them. They call upon the name of the Lord out of a pure heart.
Why is righteousness mentioned first?
Why doesn't it say love first?
Well, we have to withdraw from iniquity.
When it comes to separation.
What helps me in the German the word for iniquity is unrighteousness.
We have to separate from unrighteousness.
But then in the collective path, in view of the necessity of separating from unrighteousness, the first thing stressed is righteousness.
Of course, love is not left out, but faith is the next thing beloved Saints of God. It takes faith in the midst of general ruin to believe that we can still practice the truth of God as given in the word of God, even in a limited way, not having the benefit of many of our fellow believers.
Now wouldn't that be wonderful if every St. of God would be willing to meet with us every gift that the Lord has given to his people present? Don't you think there would be quite an edifying thing?
01:15:06
You know it takes faith, beloved Saints of God, to say the truth of God works.
In 1997, we can still practice the truth of God.
It's bound to be a feeble display because we are a feeble band. You know, feeble.
A number of Saints of God, but we can.
You heard me say that before. Probably some of you here we were out in California and went to.
To the Hot Springs for a couple days of relaxation after the LA meetings. And here I met a German man from Potsdam, Germany. And he was a man that went from Bible school to Bible school to teach. And he was even a chaplain on one of those mission ships you know, that they sent to these underdeveloped countries.
He made an American lady and I gave him Bruce Enstein's book on God's Order.
He knew English perfectly and he read in it for five hours.
And.
He came out of his room all excited. He said it's the truth. It's the truth. That's what Scripture teaches. But he said the people don't want it.
I said, brother.
Can we not still practice it?
But he wasn't willing to do that. He would have been out of a job if he would have been willing to do that. He didn't have the faith to act on the truth that he acknowledged.
Well, I trust the Lord will give us faith and courage to stand on the truth of God, on the word of God. And if at any time anything comes up among us, where there is a danger that the truth might be compromised, I trust there will be faithful, faithful voices raised to support the truth, to exercise our consciences so that we might be preserved in the path of faith.
What God hates is pride, beloved Saints of God.
There's absolutely no reason for pride if we recognize that it is the grace and goodness of God that has preserved the testimony to the name of the Lord Jesus and that you and I.
Are permitted to be part of it.
The young people, I hope, will come to see these things clearly.
And it is discouraging when you meet a lot of godly souls out there that perhaps in their individual life might be more faithful than many who are at the divine center, and the enemy can use that to confuse you.
You know, but have your eyes on Christ. Familiarize yourself with the truth of God and test the claims of man by the scriptures. Many will say we are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
Well, when you test their position it will be soon evident.
Whether they are indeed practicing the truth of the body of Christ, or whether they are together on the ground of mutual recognition, compromise.
And voluntary association.
It's not a voluntary association. The Saints of God, the Spirit of God, has put us together and we haven't necessarily picked those that he has put us together with.
I feel that obviously it's easy to get along with either.
He replied that very soon when you get to know us, you know, and there's patience and grace needed in that collective path. But if we all have one desire, that we want to please the Lord, that we want to go on for his glory, he will help us and help us to be a strengthening factor.
To his testimony, and perhaps even be used to be of help. To those who are seeking and searching. You know, there are those that are seeking and searching. And my prayer often is that they might come to see in the Lord Jesus the divine gathering center, and not stumbled by the inconsistencies that they see in us, who in grace are at the divine center. Let's be exercised, brethren, that we.
01:20:18
In our individual and collective lives, our real testimony to the Lord Jesus, don't you think he looks down with great delight?
At the same that want to go on for him.
In a book of remembrance was written in Malachi when those who feared the Lord spoke often one with another. The Lord recognizes anything that is truly for His glory, even in our day. Well, the path is not going to be easy and is not going to get any easier if anything's going to get more difficult. But the Lord is sufficient, beloved Saints of God.
He is able to preserve us and help us and keep us. We want to do we not be preserved at the divine center till we hear that child and be united to him forever? And what a comfort all will be there. All the Saints of God are gathering together unto him. Second tenless Thessalonians 21 What a comfort. None will be missing. All will be there.
All will be for his praise and glory.
Lord, we can see why you faithlessly.
Crying out there everything.
The Life and Writings of the Apostle Paul
Address—C. Hendricks
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When we survey the wondrous cross.
On which the Lord of glory died.
Our richest gain. We counted loss.
And poor contempt on all our pride 283.
When we survey.
Ed.
We come.
On and.
Oh.
Those first two stanzas.
I want to talk this afternoon about a man that these words were true of.
They're not true of the speaker.
When we survey the wondrous cross on which the Lord of glory died, our richest gain we count but loss.
And poor contempt on all our pride. Think of those words, so easy to sing them.
But to feel the the weight of them.
Poor contempt.
On all our pride, do we do that?
Our richest gain?
We count that loss.
Do we do that?
2nd stanza. All the vain things.
That charm us most.
00:05:02
We'd sacrifice them to his blood.
Would we?
Do we?
Well, I'm going to talk about a man.
That did that.
His name was Saul of Tarsus.
We know him better as the Apostle Paul.
In my experience, and I didn't know Paul personally nor did I know the 2nd man that I might mention, but I knew them both by testimony.
By witness from his friends. From their friends and enemies both.
That was another man that I think I could cite.
That this hymn would be true of.
His name was John Nelson Darby.
His greatest enemy said of him once, he said.
He bows like a fool to the word of God.
Another said that.
Is the only one that he'd ever seen live Christianity. Really live it.
I can't say that being conscious of my own shortcomings.
All the vain things that charm me most, I had sacrificed them to his blood.
True of Paul, though.
Let's look a little at the history of this man before we get into the chapter I want to talk about. Turn to the book of Acts in Chapter 7.
Acts Chapter 7.
In this chapter we have Stephen.
A wonderful testimony, a man full of the Holy Ghost. Verse 55. But he Stephen, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord.
This was Jerusalem's last chance.
They had rejected the Father's witness, they had rejected the Son's witness, and now they are rejecting the witness of the Holy Spirit in Stephen.
They cast him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. I think that's the first mention of Saul.
In the New Testament here, there's a Saul in the Old Testament. Don't confound him with this Saul. This Saul turned out to be the apostle Paul. The Saul in the Old Testament was the first king of Israel, and he was not a godly man.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus.
Receive my spirit. Now Saul was there. Whether he heard him say these words were not told, but he was there and he refers to the incident when he's speaking later, and we can look that up in a moment, refers to the incident. And he was there and he was in agreement with what they were doing to Steven.
And he heard him.
Lord Jesus, possibly he did receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice. Lord, lay not this into their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
And Saul was consenting unto his death.
One thing you could say of this man Saul who became Paul, that whether he was a Saul or whether he was a Paul, whatever he did, he did it with all his might.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. He did it when he persecuted the Christians, and he did it when he defended the faith.
And at that time there was a great persecution against the Church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.
00:10:03
As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house.
And hailing men and women committed them to prison.
Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.
And then you have a break in the action. We have Philip mentioned.
And the end of chapter 8 it says Philip was founded as Otis. And then Chapter 9 we have Saul again. And Saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went under the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way.
Any of the way, Remember the Lord said I am the way, the truth and the life. And and so those Christians were called men of the way.
If he found any of the way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.
This is the first recording. This is when it happened. And then the 22nd chapter he recites it, and in the 26th chapter again, and when he recites it, he says a great light from heaven, Acts 22. And then in Acts 26 he says a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun.
It's as though the light gets brighter as he goes on in his pathway as a Christian here, it's a light from heaven.
And this is what characterizes Paul. Paul's ministry. Heavenly light.
A light from heaven.
And he's the one that brought that ministry to us. And this is what characterizes Pauls ministry. And those who tend to be earthly minded and gravitate down here in this scene, they don't like Pauls ministry.
Because it's a light from heaven. It's a great light from heaven. It's a light from heaven brighter than the noonday sun.
As we heard in in the open meeting yesterday.
Christ in glory I think it was that meeting Christ in glory is the.
Characteristic feature of Christianity.
We're united to the man and the glory. We're not united to him as He was here in the in the flesh. He had to die first, as we heard, except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die to bite it alone. But if it died bringeth forth much fruit. We're associated with that Blessed One in resurrection life. And when he entered the glory, he sent down the Holy Spirit to unite us to Himself.
In the glory.
So it's a light from heaven, and all the ministry of Paul has that character to it.
Suddenly there shined round about to him a light from heaven.
And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul.
Why persecutest thou me now if you read Matthew 25.
There were those that were favorable to his brethren. In as much as you have done it unto me, you have done it unto them. You have done it unto me.
And there were those that persecuted his brethren.
But that's not the same expression that's used here. He doesn't say why do you persecute my brethren? No, he doesn't say that. He says why do you persecute me?
And that little sentence, that little statement contains the truth of the Assembly, that we are part of him, we are himself.
We are called the Christ. 1St Corinthians 12 Even so is the Christ.
As the body is one and half many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.
Talking about the members on earth, you and me, but given the name of the head in heaven, united to that man in the glory. So to persecute Christians is to persecute Christ.
00:15:07
Why persecutest thou me? That very first statement that the Lord Jesus spoke to Saul of Tarsus embodied in it the truth that Paul was going to bring out at such a cost to himself.
There was number truth that was more hated by the earthly minded Jewish oriented people who had a Jewish religion and a earthly religion.
The heavenly truth of the assembly which brings in Jew and Gentile on the same level and unites them to Christ in the glory where there's no advantage to the Jew anymore, was not palatable to the Jewish year.
And so they persecuted Paul.
Peter even says in his second epistle, Paul had in his writings things hard to be understood. It was hard for a Jewish mind to lay hold of that he had been taught, drummed into him from child on, that the Jews were superior to the Gentiles.
They had a distinct advantage. What advantage then hath the Jew? Paul says much every way, and then he lists their advantages.
But in Christianity he doesn't have any.
Has no advantage at all.
One body composed of Jew and Gentiles.
United to the head in heaven.
Why persecute us? Thou me and he said, Who art thou, Lord?
He knew it. He knew he was the Lord, but he didn't. He didn't have him identified it would seem. And the Lord said I am Jesus.
Whom thou persecutest?
He hated that name up to this point.
I verily thought with myself to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus.
The Lord Jesus says in John 16, the time cometh when he that killeth you will think that he doeth God's service.
And such was Saul of Tarsus. He thought he was doing God's service. He could say to the Jewish leaders, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day when he was persecuting the church. He thought he was doing the will of God. He thought Jesus was not the Messiah, that he was of an imposter.
That he was a false Christ.
He thought that the people of Israel, the leaders that crucified him, did the right thing. Had he been a false Christ, they would have done the right thing.
Because anyone that blasphemed as would have been what the Lord Jesus said blasphemy. They accused him of that. You know, we've heard the blasphemy. We don't need any more witnesses. They they asked him, art thou then the Son of God? And he says thou sayest yes, I am.
Well, we've heard the blasphemy. That was blasphemy.
In John 19.
Pilate tries to release him. I find no fault in this man.
We have a law.
And according to our law, he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
Well, he never made himself the Son of God, He always was. But they meant he claimed to be, and that's what he claimed to be, and that's why they crucified him, and that's why Saul of Tarsus persecuted him.
In the person of his.
Members.
His members.
There are those that teach ultra dispensationalists that the church as the body of Christ according to Pauls teaching didn't begin until Paul was converted. Well when the Lord says why persecute is thou me, that proves that's a false. That's a false theory.
Every believer was one with Christ from the Day of Pentecost onward.
Why persecute is now me? Who art thou Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the ******. He had witnessed Stevens testimony. He had heard it.
He had.
Kept the clothes of those that stoned him to death.
And he made havoc of the church.
00:20:05
The men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man. He was blind.
But they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus, and he was three days without sight. Neither did he nor drink.
Three days.
Shut in, in darkness to God.
All his religious energies had been spent persecuting.
Christ.
And his followers.
Those who are members of his body.
Three days. What a revolution took place in that man's soul.
During that time.
He was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink.
There was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and to him as said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
The Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the street, which is called straight.
And that's something.
Saul of Tarsus was now on Straight St.
That's where he was sent.
Inquire in the House of Judas for one call Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth. I don't think he ever prayed like that before.
He was in the presence of God.
He was in the presence of Jesus.
This is the most remarkable.
Stupendous conversion. Ever.
Completely changed him every conversion.
Should have the same effect.
With all of us. But it doesn't, sad to say.
Completely change this man.
The Lord said to him, Arise and go into the street which is called straight. Inquire in the House of Judas for one call Saul of Tarsus. Behold, he prayeth. And yet seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done unto thy Saints at Jerusalem, and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way.
For he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles.
And kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer.
For my namesake.
I don't think there was any of the apostles that suffered like Paul did.
Catalog of his sufferings is.
You might say beyond human endurance to bear.
And Ananias went his way and entered into the house and putting his hands on him, said brother Saul.
Brother Saul.
How that must have sent a thrill through his soul.
He who had been so wrong.
In his religious convictions.
There's nothing more.
Awful than religious persecution.
Many of our brethren are suffering that kind of persecution in other lands today.
Religious persecution. Bigoted. Intolerant.
And that this is what Paul was doing.
He was going to now experience it first hand.
He put his hands on him and he said, Brother Saul.
Lord Jesus.
Even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scaled, And he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized, and many had received meat. He was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And notice verse 20. And straightway he preached Christ, or I think it should be rendered.
00:25:20
He preached Jesus in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. That's the first time in the book of Acts that anyone preached Jesus as the Son of God. Peter an Acts 2 That he preached him as God made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified Lord in Christ. But it was Paul.
That preached him as the Son of God. Turn to Galatians 1.
For his account of his conversion.
Galatians 1.
Verse 13 He says to these Saints that.
Galatia, For you have heard of my conversion in time past, in my conversation in time past in the Jews religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it.
And profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in my own nation.
Being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father's.
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me.
That I might preach him among the heathen immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.
Neither when I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus, when he pleased God to reveal his Son in me.
Tremendous statement. And so he preached Jesus that he is the Son of God, the very the very truth that was the basis for them crucifying him.
Very truth that Saul of Tarsus would not have.
Would not have.
Well, the Lord said, I will show him how great things he must suffer for my sake.
The catalog of his sufferings is overwhelming as you read it. I don't know though, we have time for that.
Turn to Philippians 3 in order to appreciate some of the things that Paul says in this chapter.
We have to get a little bit of his history as we've looked at it briefly.
To see where he came from.
Philippians 3 finding my brethren we've had this chapter so many times, but I.
I make no apologies for going over it again because it's.
Christianity.
So what we get here?
Rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same things to you, to me, is not grievous. For you it is safe. We don't have to apologize for repeating these truths over and over again. We need that.
And then he warns them, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. I think all of those three things describe the Jews in their persecution of Paul.
Persecution of the Christian testimony.
The Gentiles, too, did it.
But the Jews were like a snarling dog that tears its opponent apart.
Evil workers, those that.
Said they were apostles and were not false apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, and so on.
And then the concision clearly in contrast with the circumcision, we are the circumcision.
The concision. You see a picture of the concision at the time of Lent every year when people will give up a certain vice that they have. They'll give up smoking, they'll give up swearing, they'll give up drinking, they'll go on a diet or whatever it might be to lose weight. They'll give up something that they like. And that's like the concision just cutting off parts of the flesh here and there, but not really addressing the flesh as such.
And that's what the circumcision is, a complete cutting off of all that we are.
00:30:01
In Adam and in the flesh circumcision of Christ, we are the circumcision. Verse 3.
Which worship God in the Spirit. Contrast musical instruments and choirs and all kinds of things that characterize the Old Testament worship ritual.
Ritualistic system was the Jewish system. We worship God by the Spirit or in the Spirit, or we worship by the Spirit of God.
And Christendom has picked up Judaistic tendencies and practices and they worship is with musical instruments.
You don't have to be saved to play a musical instrument and make it sound beautiful. In fact, many of those that are not safe can play it better than some of those that are.
But it has no heart, it has no soul, it has no spirit, this instrument of wood.
And strings, whatever it might be.
Christian worship is by the Spirit of God.
Playing on the hearts of Christians, producing worship from renewed souls like we had this morning when we were gathered around the blessed Lord at His table.
We worship by the Spirit of God. We rejoice in Christ Jesus.
We have no confidence in the flesh, no confidence in the flesh. That's Christianity. That's a clear statement of what it what it is in the in, in its basic principles.
No confidence in the flesh.
And then he goes on to say, though I might also have confidence in the flesh.
He had so many things that naturally, speaking as Saul of Tarsus, he could boast in.
And he lists them. He says, If any man, any other man, think that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more.
I've got more going for me than others do, and now he lists them.
Circumcise the 8th day.
Of the stock of Israel.
Of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law of Pharisee. Notice everything that he mentioned here is Jewish oriented.
He's bringing out those things which in the Jewish religion were to his credit and gave him a stature and a status that others didn't have, certain that the gentiles didn't have it. They couldn't claim any of these things.
And then he says concerning Zeal, he's listing those things which were in his favor as a Jew, the things that as a Jew he could boast in. And one of his crowning, one of his crowning glories as a Jew, was concerning Zeal persecuting the Church.
He was their champion, he was the one that they put forward to get rid of that new religion.
The religion of the despised Nazarene.
So he's not listing his sins here, he's listing his excellent qualities as a man, a religious man in the flesh.
What he could boast in in the flesh.
All the vain things that charmed me most, I had sacrificed them to His blood. Well, these were the things that he wants gloried in as a man in the flesh.
He is a touching the law. He was a Pharisee.
Concerning zeal, persecuting the Church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless. He kept the ceremonial law. He kept the precepts of the law, as well as any man ever kept them.
Outside of the Lord Jesus, of course.
Kept all of them. He never ate unclean food. He never ate that which was prohibited.
The garments that he wore didn't have woolen and linen mixed, didn't sow his seed with his field with diverse seeds and all the things of the law that were prescribed and prohibited and so on. He kept those things touching the righteousness of the law. He was blameless.
He could glory in it.
I know you're some of you are thinking of Romans 7 where he brings out the 10th commandment and says that thou shalt not lust slew him. Yes, that addressed the inner man.
00:35:15
That address the inner man. All the other commandments you can judge of outwardly if the person is guilty of them are not. You can't look at a person and see whether he's lusting.
Only God can do that.
But outwardly, he kept the law perfectly blameless, he says.
And then he says, what things were gained to me? These were all gained to him, these were all to his credit.
This, all the all of these things gave him up a position in the eyes of men, he was way up there.
And they eulogize the man.
He's the one they chose to stamp out the new religion.
He was educated at the feet of Gamaliel.
He knew Greek, he knew Hebrew, he knew different languages.
Very educated men. All the other apostles were just Galilee and fishermen and so on. Tax gatherers. They didn't have the stature that Saul of Tarsus had.
He was as equipped from the world standpoint as any man could be, and these were the things he gloried in as a man in the flesh.
I'm going back to verse 4 now, having made these comments, and read it again. Therefore I might also have, though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh eye more. Circumcise the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.
Now. Now he speaks as Paul the Christian.
But what things were gained to me?
Those I counted loss for Christ.
We sang all the vain things that charmed me most, sacrificed them to his blood.
He did that, he did it, he carried it out. There was a man that lived Christianity.
What things were gained to me? These I counted lost for Christ. That's a past decision. I counted them laws.
Yeah, doubtless, and I count all things but loss.
It's not enough to have done it in the past. He counted them right now, present tense. I count them, but lost. I have not changed my perspective with respect to those things because of all the persecution that's come upon me.
You know, persecution can make us change our stand for Christ, and many have done that and compromised the Lord's testimony because of persecution.
Paul didn't.
Yeah, doubtless I count all things, but loss for what? For the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
He had found not a system of rules and regulations and dos and don'ts and ordinances and all of these things. He had found a person that captivated his soul.
And made all the rest worthless to him.
You see a little picture of that in those early Christians in the book of Acts, I think it's 19, where they took their, their relics and their superstitions and all their, the things that connected them with their idol worship and that and they burned it off.
They wouldn't have any of that hanging over into their life.
How many of us have burned it all?
How many of us did it in the past and then we brought it in again in the present?
We didn't continue.
Said I counted it wrong but somehow it's back.
That wasn't Paul, was it?
I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. I don't think any of us can say that. I certainly can't.
00:40:12
Suffered the loss of all things family.
Intimate friends.
The loss of all things.
When one apostatized from Judaism and embraced another religion like Saul of Tarsus did.
They wrote the they read the death sentence over them had nothing more to do with them.
He experienced that for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.
And I'm so grieved about it. No he doesn't say that and I do count them, but dumb.
That I may win Christ or that I like Mr. Darby's marginal rendering here, that I may have Christ for my game. That's in, that's in. That's the opposite to verse seven. What things were gained to me? Now he says that I might have Christ as my gain.
Everything that was gained to me is worthless, and I counted but dross and loss in order that I might have Christ for my gain.
He had found.
Something, someone that was infinitely better.
Than all that he had lost.
And I may win Christ, have Christ for my gain, and be found in Him.
Not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, he had just said that touching the righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless.
But now he says.
To be found in him not having thine own righteousness which is of the law.
Which once as a man in the flesh he could glory in, but now he was no longer a man in the flesh, he was a man in Christ.
A man in the spirit.
That which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
That which God confers upon us, not something that we earn, not something that we can glory in, not something that we have won by our own efforts, but what He has made us in Christ.
His righteousness.
By faith. We get it by faith.
And then he says that I may know him. Oh, he knew him very well, but he yearned to become more and more and more acquainted with his blessed Lord.
That I may know him.
And the power of his resurrection, the power of his resurrection, is that which lifts us from earthly things to heavenly things.
Brings us into a new world, a different world, a world of which Christ is the head in heaven.
That I may know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. He certainly knew the fellowship of his sufferings.
I will show him how great things he must suffer for my sake.
Being made conformable unto his death.
He wanted to be so like his master as to even.
Being conformed to him in death.
If by any means, no matter what God chose, I might attain unto thee, it should read the out resurrection from among the dead. It's not the resurrection of the dead, but it's the it's the Christian resurrection. It's the resurrection of believers out from among the dead. The rest of the dead stay in the grave. That's our resurrection. If by any means I might attain unto that.
Not as though I had already attained. He wasn't claiming perfection. He wasn't claiming spiritual sinlessness, as some so foolishly have done, No.
He hadn't attained yet. He was still pressing forward, pressing on to the mark. He hasn't arrived yet, he says, either. We're already perfect. He hadn't reached that state of perfection. That was moral perfection, sinless perfection.
00:45:00
He was still in the body. As long as we're in the body, we haven't arrived at that point yet.
But I follow after, I pursue, I press toward the market that I may apprehend, lay hold upon that for which I have been laid hold of apprehended of Christ Jesus. He's laid hold of me, He said. He said He's laid of hold of me for the glory, and I want to lay hold of that.
I want to lay hold of that for which he's laid hold of me.
To bring me there.
We were living in the good of it.
All our toys down here that we speak so highly of, our expensive toys. I noticed the kids, they have a lot of toys. They're cheap ones, inexpensive. We've got expensive one, but they're still toys down here that we glory in.
And I've got a bigger car now, but it doesn't get me to where I have to go any faster than the other one. A little more comfortable.
Just a camel to get through the wilderness.
Brethren, I count on myself to have apprehended I haven't arrived at spiritual perfection yet.
But this one thing I do.
He was pressing on, constantly pressing on. He would not allow any setbacks and he had them. We all have them. He had them too. He was not perfect.
There's only one perfect man that's ever been in this scene, and that's our blessed Lord Jesus.
The best example we can come up with of a man which is Sapol himself still failed.
I think it was chapter Brown's comment. It's gone through my mind so many times. His comment was many of you have heard it. Thank God he gave the failures of the Saints and not just their successes, he said. If he hadn't done that, I would have given up a long time ago.
Because this choices servants failed.
So don't become discouraged if you fail. Just press on. Press on. Keep Christ before you.
Press on. Satan would try to get us to give up and and stop trying. Stop pressing on because we failed.
I count on myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do. Forgetting those things which are behind forgetting you, forgetting your successes as well as your failures, whatever they are, press on. Keep Christ before you.
And reaching forth unto those things which are before, that's what He's laid hold of us for, the things that are before us.
I confess I cannot even begin to imagine what the glory is going to be like.
I just can't.
I just can't do it.
I know it's going to be supreme happiness and joy, unspeakable, full of glory, but just what it's going to be like?
I don't know. Well Paul was caught up to the 3rd heaven and when he came back he said I can't tell you.
There aren't words that I can tell you. I can't tell you what I saw there and heard there. I I can't tell you.
And.
One thing I can say, it's going to be wonderful beyond anything we've ever dreamed of.
That always brings something to my mind.
Got a letter from my son David once after he'd lost his family.
And he said I'll not ever have them again, as my wife and sons and daughters will I.
He was reading that passage of Scripture that says in in heaven, there's the angels, they neither marry nor are given in marriage and so on.
And.
He said. I've come to the conclusion that I'll never have them back.
As I had them here and that's right, you won't.
So he said, closing the letter, he said I have said my final.
Goodbye.
To Susie.
Becky Gracie Invention.
You'll see them again.
But not as he saw them down here.
00:50:01
Well, no. It brought a flood of tears to my eyes.
But God has something infinitely better for all of us than the best thing we've ever experienced on earth.
Oh, we could just get a hold of that.
Anything we lose down here, no matter how precious it is to us, is nothing compared with the glory.
That lies ahead, and that's what Paul is Speaking of here, isn't it?
Wanting to get ahold of that.
I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling, of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore.
As many as be perfect, as many as have come to that maturity in the Christian life, to lay hold upon these things in some measure be thus mighty.
And if in anything you'd be otherwise minded, that is. We haven't really matured to that point.
We see that with our families. We there's some things you can't talk to your children about because they're just not mature enough.
I remember this story and I think it's worth repeating.
Father was walking through an airport with his little daughter. He was carrying this heavy suitcase and she asked him a question and it had to do with something she had heard with other children in that and it was a sexually oriented question. The father stopped and he set the suitcase down and he said, darling, would you pick it up and carry it for me?
And she tried and she said, daddy, it's too heavy for me.
And he said, yes, darling, the question you've asked is too heavy for you right now.
You'll understand it later.
You guys thought that was a good illustration?
Some things are too heavy for the little ones.
Don't burden them with these things. Well, that just came to mind that some in some ways that we haven't all arrived at this maturity. So if you'd be otherwise minded, God shall reveal these things to you. In the measure in which we have apprehended His mind, we can walk together and happy fellowship.
And then count upon God to reveal these other things to those that haven't.
Taken that haven't grown that to that point yet rather than be followers together of me and mark them which walk I be followers of me. That's really I don't like that translation. He says be my imitators. The only one we're really to follow is the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not to follow any man, but he said you imitate me as I follow Christ.
The followers together with me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example the imitators have made.
And then he talks about those that were walking in a way which is, sad to say, not Christian at all. Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. You remember the light that Paul saw was a heavenly light.
A great light.
Above the brightness of the sun.
That's where Christ is, and that's where our blessings are. That's where our portion is, and to mind earthly things is.
The opposite of that.
Conversation. Now that word there doesn't mean manner of life like it does in many places here. It means it's literally our politics, our associations of life. Like you say, I am born an Englishman, and so all the things that pertain to Englishmen were pertaining to the one that was so born.
Are some would say our citizenship. So it's similar to that thought is in heaven.
Is in heaven. Our associations of life are there.
From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, That's where he's coming from, going to come and fetch us there. Who shall change our body of humiliation? So that's a, there's a bad translation. This is not a vile body. Spirit of God dwells in this body. It's a lowly body, It's a frail body. It's a body of humiliation. And what are we going to have? We're going to have a body of glory.
00:55:04
This body is subject to suffering, to pain, to sorrow, to disease, even to death. It's a body of humiliation. It's not a vile body. Sorry that they translated it that way, but that's really not a correct thought.
I've changed it in my Bible to a frail body. That's what it is. He's going to change this body of humiliation, that it may be fashion night like unto His glorious body or His body of glory.
According to the working whereby he is able, the working of the power, new translation, whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto himself, how is he going to do it? Sometimes we get asked the question.
How is he going to do it?
He spake and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. He said let there be, and it was.
By faith, we understand that the world's were framed by the word of God, and someone is going to wonder how he's going to resurrect us. There's no problem for him.
That's no problem for God.
We limit God by our puny thoughts, thinking that you can't do that. There's a person that's went overboard and the fish ate them up, and where's his body? That's no problem for God.
No problem whatsoever, according to the working of the power which he has, even to subdue all things unto himself.
And when he says come forth, we will come forth.
And meet Him in the glory.
Has prayer.
There is One Body
Address—H. Brinkmann
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I like to turn to Matthew.
Verse well known, I'm sure, to most of us.
And that's in Matthew 18.
We have heard.
Of the divided state.
Of God's people.
That is reason for all of us to be humbled.
We cannot divorce ourselves from the.
From the shameful history of the church, or the shameful history of that which God raised up 170 years ago.
What a shameful history.
But.
I like to especially.
Dwell on that which we have in the midst of such ruin.
Is we find ourselves in.
And diverse in Matthew 18.
Verse 20.
Over two or three are gathered together.
Into my or unto my name.
There am I in the midst of them.
You know, in many places today.
The number has been greatly reduced and many times there aren't many more than two or three.
But what a comfort that we have this verse.
Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.
The Lord Jesus promises his personal presence.
To be in the midst of those who gather unto his name.
Even if that number is reduced to two or three.
The Lord Jesus says damn I in the midst of them.
When we think of this shameful division in Israel.
There were two things I believe that those 10 rebellious tribes.
Manifested it was disowning the authority of the House of David.
And the sin of Rehoboam was.
That they set up.
Two opposing centers.
To the only center that God would recognize, and that was in Jerusalem.
And this is what has happened in the Christian profession.
The authority of the Lord in the midst of his own.
Has been ignored.
We often read Matthew 1820 and find comfort in the fact that the Lord promises His presence.
In the midst of the two and three, and it is certainly well used application, but I believe the main force of Matthew 1820 is this.
Because he is there, his authority is vested.
In the midst of the two and three, and we better recognize their beloved brethren.
And that we bow to the authority that the Lord has vested in the assembly, and when it says of the one that had sinned against.
The individual after he didn't listen to the efforts of seeking to restore that one. Take two others with you. Then if he doesn't listen to them, tell it to the church. That is not the church universally.
That is the local assembly. The Lord has vested His authority in the local assembly, and His presence there gives to the local assembly. I'm emphasizing that because we tend to forget that sometimes, beloved brethren.
He has vested his authority in the Local Assembly to deal with local matters.
But what a privilege to be gathered unto the name of the Lord Jesus. He's in the midst.
He is the center.
Unless we are at that center.
00:05:01
We are not gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
Many profess to be so gathered.
But unless you are at the center, since he is the center.
You're not gathered to his name unless you are gathered.
Where He is in the midst, He is the center. Sometimes you hear this expression about other believers.
Where those gathered to the name of the Lord literally say they are gathered with so and so brethren, you know, as if they are gathered.
Well, that would be more correct to say the meeting with other Christians.
To be gathered means that there is a work of the Spirit of God.
Which brings hearts to that center so that they are gathered around him.
You know, we had some comments in.
Regina.
This year, and we commented that that is as much a work of the Spirit of God to gather us to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as it is to work with the Spirit of God to save our souls. It's his work, a brother said. Somebody else had said it's a greater work of the Spirit of God to gather us to the person of Christ.
Then our personal salvation. I believe it's true.
It's a work of the Spirit of God. And if you and I.
Find ourselves where the Lord Jesus is in the midst.
It's a work of His grace, a work of the Spirit of God that has.
Brought us to where the Lord Jesus is.
People might ask themselves the question.
They might say, since there is such a divided state.
In Christendom.
Can we still give expression?
To the truth that there is one body.
That we are one.
At the time, allow a personal experience.
When we were exercised where the Lord would want us to be, because we had become convicted that we did not think that where we were and had grown up where even my grandparents already were.
That we were really, truly gathered to the name of the Lord. That we had to find where.
Those Christians were that truly were gathered to Christ with whom we wanted to be identified.
So I called a brother not gathered.
Who was in one of the groups of brethren. I had met him at a funeral.
And I said brother.
I said we under exercise where the Lord would want us to be. We cannot continue where we have been all of our lives.
He immediately attacked the gadget, saying.
And he made this statement.
AC Brown and Ch Brown out West. I talked to them and they had the nerve to tell me that they were not gathered in division.
And I immediately responded and I said, brother.
If they are truly gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, they are not underground of division.
Let me repeat that if we're truly gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, we are not on the ground of division.
We are the ground of the one body and the truth of God.
And the wonderful truth of Scripture is, beloved Saints of God, is that we can give expression to the truth that there is one body.
Without having every member of the body of Christ there with us.
Personally represented.
This is a great comfort.
For us to lay hold of.
I hope we all miss.
Of fellow believers.
You know, if we do not miss them.
00:10:00
There's something radically wrong with us, beloved brethren.
And sometimes the Lord has to bring things into our own families and lives and relationships so that we would feel this pain more deeply.
And if all of our children and relatives are all walking in the same path.
But you see their brethren, beloved members of the body of Christ.
And we don't benefit from fellowshipping with them because we have to walk in separation from them because they are in a path of disobedience or in a path of indifference to Christ, to his claims.
And we cannot go on with them. But do we feel it a painful thing?
Not be able to walk with them, but beloved, we can give expression even in this ruined state around about us of the truth that there is one body.
How do we do that?
Turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 10, verse 15.
I speak as to wise men.
He what I say, the cup of blessing which we bless.
Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
The breadth which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
For we being many are one bread and one body.
For we are all partakers of that one thread. Behold Israel after the flesh on that day, which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar.
What say I then, that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything but? I say that the things with the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrificed the devils, and not to God. I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. He cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils he cannot be partakers of.
Lord's Table and off the Table of Devils.
Here in this passage, we have the truth of the Lord's Table.
That which gives expression to the truth that there is one body. That's what the Lords Table stands for.
At the time when Paul was writing these things, there was only the Lord's table and the table of demons. And we would not dare, shouldn't dare, to refer to any independent tables that men have set up as the table of demons. There's a difference, isn't it?
Places of convenience.
Like it was in Israel when they worshipped Jehovah in high places.
They were not committing acts of idolatry. They worshiped Jehovah, but not in the place where he had said his name. They were specifically told that they should do so.
In Deuteronomy 12 and other passages that they should do so where he had said his name.
But how wonderful the Lord's Table expresses the truth that there is one body but.
While it says we cannot have part at the Demon's table and the Lord's table, it still proves one point that we cannot be at two opposing tables.
We cannot be at two opposing tables.
What we find today is that men have set up tables who fall short of giving expression to the truth that there is one body.
You know, if you take, for instance, the position of independent local churches or assemblies.
That's a denial of the truth that there is one body that could never be the Lord's Table. Those who meet in that way could never claim that they are at the Lord's Table. They might truly in their hearts remember the Lord and His death. Don't tell me that I didn't before I was gathered to the name of the Lord. Maybe there were times when I did this.
00:15:09
Perhaps closer to the Lord in my soul than since I am at the Lord's table.
But.
That cannot be the Lords Table if the position any group of believers occupied denies the truth that there is one body in practice.
What about those who amalgamate, who come together underground of mutual recognition on the basis of compromise?
Their position is that there are many tables.
Giving expression to the truth of the one body in a divided state? Preposterous. Can't be.
But it is possible, beloved Saints of God, to be at the Lord's table.
Today.
To meet with Christians strictly as members of the body of Christ, recognizing the Lord in the midst, His headship, His authority, and to give expression to the truth. There is one Body, and as I said, we do not need every member of the Body of Christ in one given community.
Be present there with us in order to express that truth. Remember what happened in Israel after they had divided.
Into the two and 10 tribe nation.
They still had the temple, didn't they?
And they still have the table of Showbread. How many loaves around that table?
12 loaves were on their table.
There were only two tribes that were at the divine center, and some who humbled themselves and came, as we have heard, to that divine center, but they still give expression to the truth that all those people are one. The Lord Himself, someone has said, refuses to see his own, but as one.
He always sees them as one and a great comfort we find and should find in the fact that the Lord Jesus.
He's carrying on a work that our unfaithfulness does not ruin or destroy. He's building a house. Everything is perfect. He's adding to that body. Everything is perfect.
For us to give expression to their truth, that's another story. But we also find remember when the prophet built that altar, when he faced all those priests of Bales, hundreds of them?
How many stones did he use to build that altar?
12 Stones.
12 storms.
He had the mind of the Lord.
He saw God's people as one.
You know, and he was a prophet in Israel.
No, but he was a prophet of the Lord. Well, beloved Saints of God.
Should we not be thankful that it is still possible to come together in the name of the Lord Jesus?
As imperfectly as we're doing it.
We cannot but have to confess that we have given very poor expression to that truth. But I do believe the Lord and His goodness has preserved a testimony to that truth. We still can gather around the Lord Jesus. We still can be at His table.
And I hope we remember when we come together that in that law of every St. of God is represented. I think Neil referred to Brother Albert, meaning that Christian on the street, a dear child of God.
After the breaking of bread, he said. I saw you in the meeting this morning. I've never been in your meeting. I saw you in that meeting.
You see, he explained, he broke bread.
And that predict not only speak of the body of the Lord Jesus in which he suffered, it speaks of that one body that He formed, of which He is the glorified head, and by the Spirit we are linked to Him, a living head in heaven, and to every St. of God on earth.
You know, I'm even thankful, beloved Saints of God, that.
To some extent, we can even have fellowship with members of the Body of Christ in our personal contact.
00:20:03
We've had a family stay at our house three times. Dear children of God.
Love them, came to love them. Godly souls.
He stayed with us for a week.
And we took a walk the last day, he said. Heinz, I'm so thankful you didn't try to convince me about your position. Well, I said, dear brother.
If I would win an argument.
What would be gained? The Spirit of God has to bring you to see where you are to be gathered around the person of the Lord Jesus. It's obvious that I would be very happy if you would see it that way, but I have to wait till the Lord shows it to you. In the meantime, I was glad to be able to have fellowship with this dear St. of God.
And we came to some extent have fellowship with those that we recognize as members of the body of Christ. And as we have opportunity, we can share the truth with them.
But remember, it has to be a work of the Spirit of God in order that it might be a lasting work. You know, it took me 20 years before the Lord.
Showed us where I had to go. I know dear Chuck gave up on us. He said, Heinz, you'll never see it, you know. But the Lord did in his grace, delivered us and brought us to be where He is in the midst.
But beloved Saints of God, He's holy and he's true.
It's a great responsibility to be so gathered.
And to give a true expression to the Church of God, and to be maintained holiness in the House of God.
Well, Second Timothy.
Two is another scripture that is of great comfort to us in the midst of the ruined state that we have round about. And what does it teach us?
It teaches us that the House of God has become as.
A great house.
And.
There are good and bad vessels in that house.
And it is beyond repair.
I challenge anybody, if you think that you can go into some church and try to change them to accept the truth of the church.
You'll have a great disappointment, and the Lord hasn't called us to do that.
You know, I'm thankful for every soul that we can come in contact with, and the Lord might use us to try to help them.
And what a joy it is when they come to see the truth. But.
The Lord hasn't called us to cause disturbance and turmoil in groups of believers. He has called us to go on faithfully, and the need for separation is clearly taught there in Second Timothy 2.
Any man?
Purify himself. By separating himself, he becomes a vessel fit for the Master's use.
I cannot do that for my wife. My wife cannot do that for me. Leader cannot do it for my children.
I wish I could pass on the truth to my children the way I can pass on material things.
That's impossible. They have to come to personal faith in these matters.
Under personal exercise, they have to take that step of faith.
Step outside.
Not only the negative thing of separating, but the positive thing unto him, to go unto him.
As we have it in Hebrews outside the camp.
And what a wonderful encouragement we find there in Second Timothy. Separation is a painful thing.
Any of us who had to do that know very well what that means.
To have to separate from bread and beloved bread and then let you to the Lord.
Read and it taught you much of the truth of God you still enjoy.
00:25:01
And then to have to separate from them.
Has given some of us nightmares.
To have to do that.
But, beloved, it is necessary if you want to be faithful to Christ.
Brethren are not to be the object.
Christ is to be the object.
It's a wonderful thing to have, brethren.
Of like precious faith, brethren who share the same exercises.
With him whom we can walk in the path of faith. But the object is not brethren, the object is Christ.
If Platinum object, they sooner or later will disappoint you.
And if Peter are the object, we deserve to be disappointed.
But if Christ is the object, we will not be disappointed.
He never will, but there is a collective path.
Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with them that call upon the name of the Lord.
Out of a pure heart.
Why is righteousness mentioned first?
Why doesn't it say love first?
Well, we have to withdraw from iniquity.
When it comes to separation, what helps me in the German the word for iniquity is unrighteousness.
We have to separate from unrighteousness.
But then, in the collective path, in view of the necessity of separating from unrighteousness, the first thing stressed is righteousness.
Of course, love is not left out.
But faith is the next thing, beloved Saints of God. It takes faith in the midst of general ruin to believe that we can still practice the truth of God as given in the Word of God.
Even in a limited way, not having the benefit of many of our.
Fellow believers.
And wouldn't it be wonderful if every St. of God would be willing to meet with us?
Every gift that the Lord has given to His people present. Don't you think there would be quite an edifying thing?
You know it takes faith, beloved Saints of God, to say the truth of God works in 1997.
We can still practice the truth of God.
It's bound to be a feeble display because we are a feeble band. You know, feeble.
Number of Saints of God. But we can.
You heard me say that before, probably some of you here. We were out in California and went to.
To the Hot Springs for a couple days of relaxation after the LA meetings. And here I met a German man from Potsdam, Germany, and he was a man that went from Bible school to Bible school to teach and he was even a chaplain on one of those mission ships.
You know that they sent to these underdeveloped countries.
He married an American lady and I gave him Bruce Enstein's book On God's Order.
He knew English perfectly and he read in it for five hours.
And.
He came out of his room all excited. He said it's the truth. It's the truth. That's what Scripture teaches. But he said the people don't want it.
I said brother.
Can we not still practice it?
But he wasn't willing to do that. He would have been out of a job.
He would have been willing to do that. He didn't have the faith to act on the truth that he acknowledged.
Well, I trust the Lord will give us.
Faith and courage to stand on the truth of God and the Word of God.
And if at anytime anything comes up among us where there is a danger that the truth might be compromised, I trust there will be faithful, faithful voices raised to support the truth, to exercise our consciences so that we might be preserved in the path of faith. What God hates is pride, beloved Saints of God.
00:30:10
There's absolutely no reason for pride if we recognize.
That it is the grace and goodness of God that has preserved the testimony to the name of the Lord Jesus, and that you and I.
Are permitted to be part of it.
The young people, I hope, will come to see these things clearly.
And it is discouraging when you meet a lot of godly souls out there.
That perhaps in their individual life might be more faithful than many who are at the divine center.
And the enemy can use that to confuse you.
You know, but have your eyes on Christ. Familiarize yourself with the truth of God and test.
The claims of man by the Scriptures. Many will say we are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
Well, when you test their position, it will be soon evident whether they are indeed practicing the truth of the Body of Christ, or whether they are together on the ground of mutual recognition, compromise.
And voluntary association.
It's not a voluntary association. The Saints of God, the Spirit of God has put us together and we haven't necessarily picked those that He has put us together with.
And we're not always easy to get along with either.
You'll find that very soon when you get to know us, you know, and there's patience and grace needed.
In that collective pair, but if we all have one desire that we want to please the Lord.
That we want to go on for His glory. He will help us and help us to be a strengthening factor.
To his testimony and perhaps even be used to be of help to those who are seeking and searching. You know there are those that are seeking and searching and my prayer often is that they might come to see in the Lord Jesus the divine gathering center and not stumbled by the inconsistencies that they see in US who in grace are at the divine center.
Let's be exercised, brethren, that we in our individual and collective life are real testimony to the Lord Jesus. Don't you think He looks down with great delight.
At the Saints that want to go on for him.
You know a book of remembrance was written in Malachi, You know, when those who feared the Lord spoke often one with another. The Lord recognizes anything that is truly for His glory, even in our day. Well, the path is not going to be easy and it's not going to get any easier.
If anything, going to get more difficult, but the Lord is sufficient. Beloved Saints of God.
He's able to preserve us and help us and keep us. We want to do we not be preserved at the divine center till we hear that child and be united to him forever. And what a comfort all will be there, all the Saints of God.
Are gathering together unto him. 2nd 10 Thessalonians 21. What a comfort.
None will be missing, all will be there. All will be for His praising glory.
Hezekiah's Invitation
Address—R.K. Gorgas
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And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh.
That they should come to the House of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel.
For the King had taken counsel in his Princess and all the congregation in Jerusalem.
To keep the Passover in the second month.
For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently.
Neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.
And the thing pleased the king and all the congregation.
So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan.
That they should come to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem.
For they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written.
So the posts went with the letters from the king and his Princess throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye, children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.
And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers.
Who therefore gave them up to desolation, as you see.
Now be not stiff necked as your father's were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord.
And enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever.
And serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you. For if you turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful.
And will not turn away his face from you, if you return unto him.
So the post passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh.
He went unto Zebulun.
But they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.
Nevertheless, divers of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem, also in Judah.
The hand of God was to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the Princess by the word of the Lord.
And they're assembled at Jerusalem, much people to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month. A very great congregation.
They arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense took they away and cast them into the Brook Kidron.
Then they killed the Passover on the 14th day of the second month, and the priests and Levites were ashamed and sanctified themselves, and brought in the burnt offerings into the House of the Lord.
And they stood in their place, after their manner, according to the law of Moses, the man of God.
The priest sprinkled the blood which they received of the hand of the Levites.
Verse 18.
A multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves yet. Did they eat the Passover otherwise than it was written? But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, the Lord, the good Lord, pardon everyone.
That prepareth his heart to seek.
God, the Lord God of his Father's, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.
And the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah and healed the people.
And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great gladness.
And the Levites and the priests praise the Lord day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the Lord.
And Hezekiah spake comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord.
They did eat throughout the feast seven days, offering peace offerings and making confession.
To the Lord God of their fathers.
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Verse 26.
So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, and was not the lake in Jerusalem.
Then the priests, the Levites, arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard.
And their prayer came up into his holy dwelling place, even unto heaven.
This passage of Scripture.
Was much before my heart as we traveled through Romania.
We saw what a terrible confusion.
The enemy has wrought even in that in those brief years.
Since they have liberty to meet together.
Divisions.
Alliances that are contrary to the Word of God.
It was a heartbreak.
And I thought of this chapter and we mentioned it a number of times, the sum of the brethren. And I would just like to go over a few points that I feel the Lord would have us think about today.
You know the story of the division of Israel. We don't need to go over that.
It's something that continues until this day.
And please don't fix your eyes on a particular division. It's not on my heart to talk about particular divisions.
But I want to talk about what Hezekiah did.
There was an exercise.
People were worshiping the Lord, or at least saying they were worshipping the Lord, in many different places.
And you know, they had some justification for.
They're rebelling against.
Reabon.
Don't get me wrong, it's still called the sin of Jeroboam, the son of.
Knee bat which made Israel to sin. It was a sin.
It was a sin what they did.
But I'm sure all of us know that there was provocation too.
And I don't suppose there's ever a difficulty among the Lord's people, but what there isn't?
At least in the minds of those who leave a justification.
And saying, well, you know, we were provoked.
Hezekiah's exercise, beloved, is not to bring the people back to himself.
That has been so strongly brought to my soul. Look at what he says, that they should come verse one to us, to Judah, no, to the House of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel. God has been dishonored.
Many times through the history.
Of those who profess to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has been dishonored. His center has been set aside.
And what is our desire to see?
Ourselves vindicated? No, we want to see the Lord have his place.
That the Lord might have his place, that they should come to the House of the Lord.
Are we ought to be out recruiting people to?
Come to our meeting.
May the Lord preserve us from that.
May we set before souls, and may our desire be.
That they be gathered unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now there was much weakness.
Notice it says that they did it in the second month. There's a provision in scripture for that. If they couldn't do it in the first month, there was a gracious provision for them to do it in the second month.
And priests hadn't sanctified themselves sufficiently verse three. Neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.
All their such lethargy in our hearts such.
Shall I say, without poking fingers at any of us.
At myself that there's a lack of spiritual vigor sometimes in the things of God.
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There is a lack of exercise.
So they established verse 5A decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel.
All Israel.
Hezekiah, do you have a right?
You're only the king of a small part of Israel.
You are only the King of Judah.
Give them a right to do this.
From Beersheba even to death.
They should come.
To Judah. Is that what it says now?
Come to keep the Passover under the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem. God has established a center.
And beloved brethren, it's on my heart to say that if we're promoting anything other than God's center, we are secretary.
We are secretary.
The shame.
Of the awful divisions among the people of God.
Bows our heads, doesn't it?
Even if we feel that God has preserved us where we should be. And I believe that with all my heart.
What is our spirit to be? Come to us.
No, the Lord is the one that's to have his place.
And I like the middle of verse.
6.
We'll start the beginning. So the post went with the letters from the king and his Princess. Throughout all Israel and Judah, Throughout all Israel and Judah, Beloved brethren, we have a right.
To send to all the people of God, to come back to where the Lord?
Would have them be.
To us, not to us.
Montreal conference a year ago.
Brother Michelle Payette gave a little word. He taught us a new English word, and I haven't forgotten that new English word.
Him as I.
I thought when he stood up, I said, what is this Frenchman telling us? A new English word?
Himasa, him, us and I.
Oh, it's Christ first.
First, Christ the center.
Have you read that little track by Charles Stanley? I say this for the young people especially because I I got a lot of blessing from that. Did you ever read Christ the Center or why do we meet in His name alone?
That's a wonderful little paper.
Christ the Center. Christ the center.
What do they say on the posts? They say ye children of Israel, turn again.
Unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you. Are you discouraged because there's just a little remnant going on?
Maybe almost.
The weakness may be unbelievable where you are.
It's on my heart to say this.
It's not coming back to us, it's coming to the Lord God of Israel.
And He will return to the remnant of you.
That are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. Beloved brethren, if any of us are gathered and I believe we are on the ground of Scripture to the Lord's name with himself in the midst it's it's totally God's grace.
It was God's grace that brought us there, and it's God's grace that keeps us there. Don't lose sight of that. Don't get the idea that we're better than other people.
Were not.
And be not verse seven and be not like your Father's, like your brethren.
Brethren, it's not just our ancestors. It's like us too.
Our brethren, we we.
I've been very much impressed recently with the prayer of Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel and those wonderful chapters.
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They pour out their hearts, they take their place with the people of God in all the failure.
That had come in and they confessed that failure as their own. Have we done that? Have we confessed, Lord?
Not only our fathers. It's easy to look back and say, yes, our fathers, they were pretty bad fellows. But what about our brethren? Ourselves?
Can we confess that to the Lord?
They trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as you see.
We see it, don't we? We see the desolation.
And it's heartbreaking.
Now verse 8, be not stiff necked as your Father's word. This is a wonderful expression, but yield yourselves unto the Lord.
And enter.
Into our fellowship. Is that what it says?
Is that what it says? Look at it, brethren. Look at it carefully. Enter into his sanctuary.
We don't.
I trust look at it as something that we own.
It's God's place.
God established.
And it's clear in the Word of God that it's the Lord your God who will establish that place.
Which He has sanctified forever. He set it apart forever. God's truth doesn't change because of our failure, beloved brethren.
Never will.
But all brethren, it starts with yielding yourselves unto God, unto the Lord.
Serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you.
Now verse nine is encouraging, where if you turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive.
So that they shall come again into this land. I know this is speaking, talking about an earthly sanctuary, an earthly, earthly center.
But I think we can apply it and learn from it.
And this is wonderful, it says, for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful.
And will not turn away his face from you, if you return unto him.
You ever think the Lord has turned his way his face from us? He will not.
If you turn to him.
He'll not turn away his face. He's gracious and merciful.
Well, that's the content of the letter. Now what happened?
Verse 10 So the post pass from city to city, through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun.
And there was a wholesale.
In gathering, is that what it says? No, says they lapped them scorn.
Mock them.
Have you ever heard that? I have Mocking because of the stand we take and where we are and the invitation to folks.
Come, come to the place where the Lord has put his name, not come to us.
I remember Michelle saying us without him first.
Just isn't it.
Him I saw.
Him last night.
It's pretty discouraging, isn't it?
Their messages met with laughing.
Mocking.
I've talked to brethren who mock at the idea.
God has a place.
Verse 11 is nice, it says, nevertheless, in spite of the mocking and the laughing, the scorn.
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Divers, various ones, of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun, humbled themselves. That's the key expression, beloved.
It takes a humbling.
For one to come back to God's center.
It's humbling.
And they came.
To Jerusalem. It doesn't say they came to Judah. They came to Jerusalem.
Say they came to Hezekiah.
They came to Jerusalem. God sent her.
Now verse 12 is important, it says, and also in Judah.
That is the place that you might say where they were already there, weren't they? They were there where the Lord had placed His name. They hadn't left.
But it says the land of God was to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the Princess by the word of the Lord. Oh, may the Lord give us to have one heart.
Beloved brethren, to do what he has said in his Word.
Not turn aside to one way or the other.
That's a work of grace.
It's the hand of God that does that.
May I share the great joy?
That was mine 43 years ago.
As Mr. Pierpotto and I and.
14 others from.
A little company in Brooklyn.
Came to the meeting on Gates Ave.
And sat with our beloved brethren, sat back at their meeting.
It was humbling.
It was humbling to say we've been wrong.
We've been wrong, but what a blessing.
What a blessing, beloved brethren.
Were we making much of the Brooklyn Saints? Of the Gathered Saints? Were we making much of them?
No, we're making much of Christ.
And that's the thing, brethren, It's Christ. Christ is the center. He's the one.
To whom we're gathered.
Well, there was a result. It took away the altars. There was a lot of things that had come in that were not according to the mind of God.
And with this company that had come and that together, they do away with some of the things they ought to not have there. The altars that were in Jerusalem, alders for incense.
They had the Passover.
Verse 15 It says in the priests and the Levites were ashamed. They were ashamed.
Beloved brethren, have we ever been ashamed that things are so poor as we gather together to remember the Lord?
That we're not really clean before the Lord. We haven't.
Prepared ourselves.
Now things were not done perfectly here.
In fact, Hezekiah.
Lifts his heart in prayer.
You think he was wrong? I don't.
Because it says clearly here in verse 20 the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah.
And heal the people.
God is merciful and gracious.
The letters had just said that and God now heals the people.
With great gladness they praised the Lord day by day. Notice it says singing with loud instruments unto the Lord.
Hezekiah spoke How?
Did he speak like Rio Bond?
No, he spoke comfortably.
I think we've all learned that the way Rehoboth spoke to the people was not comfortably.
And what was the result of it? Oh, I know that their hearts have manifested a state of things in the hearts of men.
And hearts of the children of Israel.
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But let us not give occasion.
By speaking roughly.
Let's speak comfortably to our brethren.
I've done my share of speaking roughly. I'm ashamed of it.
Let's see grace from the Lord to speak comfortably to the Lord's people.
The end of verse 22 Says.
Not only they were they offering the peace offerings, but they were making confession to the Lord God.
Of their fathers.
Heartfelt confession in the Lord's presence.
Is a wonderful thing.
Not pro forma confession, heartfelt confession, real confession, not saying, well, you know, we've all failed. That's a wonderful euphemism. But God, I think, would say we have sin.
That is, God would have us say we have sinned.
And to be specific about the sins, to name them before the Lord.
Verse 26.
So there was great joy.
In Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, there was not the lake.
In Jerusalem.
And I like verse 27. It says then the priests, the Levites, arose and blessed the people.
And their voice was heard.
And this is the part that just strikes me particularly. And their prayer came up to His holy dwelling place, even unto heaven. God heard that prayer went off, and was received by him.
In closing, I'd just like to share a little story that I used in about two or three years ago in the Dominican Republic with some of the dear brethren there.
I've recently translated it into English.
It's called the forgotten table.
The father of a large family was about to die.
He called his children together.
And he made a rather interesting request of them. Rather strange request.
He said after I done it.
And I'd like you all to meet together in my house at this very table.
Once every year on the date of my departure.
To have a meal together.
And think of me.
Well, they will love the father, so they said. Yes, sure we will.
Several years they did.
But you know what happens times like that?
Squabble started at the table. One brother picked up his things and said, I'm not going to eat here next year.
I don't see why I have to come here and take this abuse.
Another one said well you're just as abusive and he got up and he wasn't. The two of them walked out and they from then on they decided to have the feast at their own table in their own house.
And as the years went by, one and another, sometimes provoked by the ones that stayed.
They went and.
Did the same thing until there were only three left at the table.
What a shame.
And sometimes they exhibited a spirit of pride among themselves.
Two of the brothers who had gone off, they thought about it a little bit and they said.
Terrible state of things.
Hey, next year let's have the dinner at your house and you and I will eat together.
Not a bad idea.
So the division between those two was healed.
And they were happy about it. So this is a good idea. Let's invite our other brethren.
And they did.
They invited their other brother.
00:30:00
And many of them responded.
And they had such joy that even one of the three said.
I can't hold out against that.
That's wonderful.
And he went and joined with the reunited brothers.
And I had a lot of joy.
And then?
The two that were left said.
This is a shame.
The Lord isn't pleased with this, and our Father wouldn't be pleased with it either.
So they sat down and they wrote letters.
All those who had gone through all the 16.
Dominican families are big.
I got laughed to scorn.
We mocked that, they said. Huh?
You think you're right. We're wrong.
But God worked.
And a few of them humble themselves.
And came back.
To the forgotten table.