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244.
Bright and blessed morning.
Ask yourself.
Our Father. We've had some precious times in my word here this weekend.
We've seen so much.
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And we confess we've barely scratched the surface of.
Enjoying what has been provided for us and we have much left in this chapter which we've had before us to cover yet. And we just pray that by thy Spirit thou would make the points that are most needful to us quite clear that each one of us would have that which would be our blessing. We just also pray that we would not get caught up with the too caught up with a theoretical and enjoy that which is truly ours. We just ask this and ask thy blessing on this time in the name of thy Son the Lord Jesus.
Perhaps verse 11.
And whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated, according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things, after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory, Who first trusted in Christ, and whom He also trusted. After that He heard the word of truth.
The gospel of your salvation, and whom also after that he believed you were sealed.
With that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.
Under the praise of His glory. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the Saints, cease not to give thanks for you. Make the mention of you in my prayers with the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints.
And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead, and set him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might, dominion? And every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and have put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church.
Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all.
There is something very precious I would suggest here that we can enjoy.
It brings in in verse 11 The inheritance.
What is the inheritance?
But simply, it is all created things. We as believers are not the inheritance. We read further down in the chapter in verse 18 His inheritance in the Saints. That is, he does not take his inheritance until he has us with him.
But that inheritance I believe I believe brings out a very precious thought here.
Verse 10, as was correctly mentioned this morning, refers to the millennial day, and that is when the Lord Jesus will be vindicated in the world in which He was rejected.
But if the Kingdom has a finite period of time attached to it, 1000 years, the inheritance is eternal, isn't it? We get that clearly we don't need to turn to it. But it's in Hebrews Chapter 9, eternal inheritance.
And I would just suggest we don't need to spend a lot of time on it, but it's beautiful to consider that if there is going to be a millennial Kingdom, and there must be in order for.
The vindication of God's holy nature in the world where his Son was rejected and crucified.
There is going to be an eternal state for the everlasting satisfaction of God's heart. And in that sense, the inheritance and the enjoyment of all that we have in Christ is not limited to the millennial day. You get that and we again, again, don't need to turn to it, but it's beautifully displayed, I would suggest.
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In Revelation 21.
Because verses 9 to the end of the chapter.
Give us the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem.
Displayed in millennial glory.
And there the bride is displayed as a city.
But prior to that, in the 1St 8 verses of the chapter where you find the eternal state brought out, you find the city portrayed.
As a bride. Why is that? Oh, because the administration of the Kingdom is pictured in the city, and that is what is going to happen during the 1000 year reign of the Millennium. But what happens after that? After the Lord, according to First Corinthians 15, has delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father? Oh, then the Church is still there as the bride for all eternity.
And as Brother Lundine used to remind us, when God gives his son an inheritance, he never takes it away.
An old brother now with the Lord long since used to make the remark. He said the Millennium will be a wonderful time, but it is really the front porch to the eternal state. Well, we don't need to dwell on that too much, but just to point that out here in connection with the inheritance for our enjoyment, if the Kingdom has a period of time attached to it, the inheritance which you and I will share with Christ for all eternity.
Is eternal and the relationship that we have with Him as his bride, that is eternal, so that when it says here at the end of the chapter that we are the fullness of him that filleth All in all that has no time frame attached to it.
So that's good because we want to make it very clear that when we speak about the inheritance, it's very different than the blessings, isn't it? The blessings are spiritual and we've had that before us. We've never seen any of our blessings by the physical or the natural eye. And so they are spiritual, but the inheritance is something physical, isn't it? And so as Brother Bill has said, it will begin in the eternal state when, I'm sorry, in the Millennium when the Lord Jesus.
Takes the throne of his glory and he there's the redemption of the purchased possession, and he reigns in righteousness and then go on into the eternal state. I'd like to just go to first Peter because it's brought out there too again, and it's brought out in first Peter when Peter is writing to those who had been saved from Jewish backgrounds, those of the Jews. And there must have been a tremendous encouragement to them when he speaks of the inheritance in First Peter one.
Because before I read this, just to get the setting, they'd lost everything. Naturally speaking, the ones that Peter was writing to, they had, were had been Jews by birth. They'd now been saved, brought into the Church of God. And what had happened, why they lost their homes. They've been driven from the their land. And they might have said, well, what's happened? We've tried to be faithful to the Lord. And when our forefathers were faithful to the Lord, they were promised earthly blessing. And now we're suffering fiery trials. We've been driven from our home and from our homeland and so on.
But just read this. Let's just read this for our encouragement as well. I'll start at verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively or a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Notice this and this is what Bill has already stressed to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away reserved for heaven in heaven for you who are kept.
By the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time their earthly inheritance had faded away. It was corruptible, it was gone, but they had they were looking forward now to an inheritance, to inheriting all the to to an inheritance when Christ would take his rightful place. And nothing was going to spoil this. And again, it shows, doesn't it, that it's for eternity. It's an eternal inheritance. It's incorruptible, it doesn't fade away.
Not only that, but he says the inheritance is reserved for you and you're reserved for the inheritance. Now let's apply this to ourselves, brethren. We're going to reign with Christ. We're going to be coheirs with Christ. You know, some somebody might promise to leave you an inheritance after they, they die, but you know, after they, when they, they finally die, maybe the inheritance has been used up. Maybe they needed some extra health care in their later years and so on.
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And the inheritance is gone. It wasn't reserved for you. But even more than that, you might predecease the person. You're not preserved for the inheritance. And maybe the inheritance has to go to someone else rather. Either way, we can't lose. We're going to be part of this scene when the Lord comes back and takes his inheritance and shares it with his bride. And he's not going to take it till he has his bride with him at his side to share it with them. Brethren, this ought to thrill our hearts. And again, as we said this morning, it ought to adjust our perspective and our behavior now.
You know, the Corinthians were trying to take possession of things and reign before the time Paul said I would that you did because if you, if you were, because if you were, we'd be reigning with you. But this is not the time. But brethren, is there any doubt that this is going to unfold? No, he's going to work everything after the council of his own will. Nothing is going to frustrate the purposes of God.
It would deliver us from materialism if we really enjoyed this.
I remember in the Dominican Republic one time a brother who has gotten gotten caught up in material things and one of the brothers was talking about the inheritance and says brother, why are you?
Making yourself work so terribly hard. Now, if we're going to just inherit it in a few small years, we're going to inherit every created thing. And I think the sphere of the inheritance is the widest in verse 10, like it's been mentioned, all things in heaven and on earth.
Brethren, this is our inheritance and we can live as pilgrims and strangers. Mr. London used to say the characteristic of a Pilgrim is simple living habits. I think that's so great if we could be more simple as to material things.
It would leave us more.
In enjoyment of eternal realities.
Brother Bill.
Your wife's grandfather, can you tell that story about him on the train talking to the young man next to him? You remember that story? Well, I think you can remember it quite well. I I only heard it from him in meeting.
Go ahead. I don't know if I have it all straight, but anyhow, he's traveling on the train in Eastern Canada and.
The time when there's a lot of harvests ready to be harvested and there's a young man beside him and he said to the young man what beautiful terrains these are, and then said yes.
This all belongs to my father.
Oh, how interesting. And they kept on going for a few hours and he repeated that this is all my father's as well.
Your father must pretty be pretty wealthy. Yes he is, and I'm the heir of everything.
Wow, what is your father's name?
My father is God, and if your new brother, Harry Hayhoe, I just barely remember him as a boy. He lived in the enjoyment of it rather than he really did.
This is reality, brethren. I don't know. Is this just doctrine that's going to hit our heads a little bit, or is it going to sink into our souls? This is for us.
And Peter isn't the Peter. The inheritance is over our head, but here we're looked at being in heavenly places, so it's under our feet. It's not theoretical. These are facts.
And that's why it says in first Peter, and it's important to see it. It doesn't say reserved in heaven, period, because the inheritance is not in that sense.
Strictly speaking, reserved in heaven. It's reserved in heaven for you. That is, we inherit everything on the heavenly side. We have a heavenly calling. Christ is there in heaven. The inheritance has been given to Him. It's reserved for us. And as Jim has mentioned, we reserved for it too.
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It's an interesting study to go through the Scriptures, and I just want to give one verse that speaks of the inheritance in the Old Testament in Psalm 2. And I encourage young people to get into it because there's a lot of details given to the inheritance. We know that when the Lord Jesus takes his inheritance, it's going to be liberated from the ******* of corruption that it now struggles under.
It's all marred out there. Now, it's not going to be that way when the Lord Jesus takes his inheritance. But in Psalm 2 it says in verse seven, I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth.
For thy possession, thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potters vessel. Referring to when he takes the Kingdom, he's going to put down his enemies. So there's a lot of detail in the Old Testament about the inheritance the lion.
Is going to eat straw like the ox, the lamb and the.
What is it the lies down with the bear? The bear? Anyhow, the the animal Kingdom is going to be changed.
Oh, it's going to be a beautiful place, this world in comparison with the way it is now. But there's a lot in Scripture about the inheritance, and it's something that's put there for our enjoyment, brethren.
It's always connected with sonship, isn't it? Inheritance and sonship go together. It's another attribute of being assigned. You get that in the parable. The husband, then this is the heir whom he sent his son. This is the air. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. So we sit on Lord's Day morning, remember the Lord, and the traffic's busy outside. What's the world doing?
They've seized our savior's inheritance and they're setting about to enjoy it as best they can. They're ill gotten gains, but there's a day coming he's going to take it back in college and it says for this cause pay tribute also why they're taking care of our inheritance. We can afford to pay taxes. They're just keeping it up for us till the day comes when he takes it back.
I think too, and we speak about the inheritance. We have to remember that really prophecy has to do with the taking of the inheritance. Sometimes you hear the thought that people say, well I'm really not interested in prophecy because doesn't have anything to do with me, but it's the way that the Lord is going to take his inheritance and that should have a very real interest to us because we're heirs of God and Co heirs with Christ. So when we read in the Psalms and we read in the prophets about the.
Millennium and about what leads up to the Millennium, that has a real interest to us, doesn't it? So it's a wrong thought to say, well, you know, prophecy just over my head, I'm not that interested in it. And I had a brother, remember a brother in our meeting room once came up to me and made that very same statement had been gathered for probably 30 years. And he said, oh, I'm not really interested in prophecy, doesn't have anything to do with me. But that's not true. It's our inheritance too. But first of all.
The important thing is that it's where the Lord Jesus is going to be honored and how that is brought about and then we're going to share it with them. This is bride. There's a beautiful type of that with regard to Joseph. Verse 10 seems to be a answer to Josephs 2 dreams.
Remember in his dreams there was the sheaves that bowed down and worshipped him. That's the earthly side. But there is also the heavenly bodies that worship Joseph. That's the heavenly side. And those two dreams marked out Joseph, his destiny. Well, we know he was rejected by his brother. Picture of the rejection of Christ by his people. But in his rejection he was exalted to the highest place there in Egypt, the typical, the pleasant present place of Christ and exaltation now.
But in his rejection, Joseph received a bride, Asanath, and her name means beauty. It helps to clarify the distinction too again between the bride and the inheritance that Joseph took. A bride asked enough beauty, the one that was ravaged his heart in his rejection while he was absent from his brother in an exaltation. And the word goes out, bow the knee. And as Joseph goes out to reign over all Egypt, there is a bride by his side.
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The one he finds his delight in and so it's a beautiful illustration, I believe of of Christ delight in us, but he takes the inheritance as we have here in the in the Saints.
So it's not that there's anything left to be done to secure the inheritance, it's simply the fact that he doesn't have his bride at his side yet. And I sometimes used an illustration. I don't think it's a, it's not original, but I've sometimes used an illustration in connection with a young man. Well, suppose there's a very wealthy young man and he owns a beautiful home, beautiful mansion and a big estate.
But he's living downtown in a small apartment while he is courting the one who is later to be his wife. And then they're engaged. And suppose you met that man on the street and you said why are you living in that little two room apartment on the third floor in some?
Building downtown when you've got that beautiful estate and you've got it all prepared there and it's already just to move in and beautifully furnished. The grounds are groomed. What would he say? Oh, he says, I'm waiting till I have my bride. I'm not going to take possession in that way. I own it. It's all mine. But I'm not going to take possession by of the possession of living in it until I have my bride by my side. And when I walk through that door for the first time to live in that home.
The one I love is going to be with me. And isn't that a beautiful thing to consider? Brethren, it's all the purchase has been made. It's all secure. The inheritance is his and ours, but he's not going to publicly take it and bring about that wonderful millennial day of glory to you. And I are at his side. We're going to be there as the Lamb's wife. It's interesting that there's two characteristics of the bride there in the end of Revelation. She's.
Or maybe more, but at least two. She's the bride and the bride is her freshness on to what she means to his heart and will mean for all eternity. But she's also referred to as the Lambs wife. The wife is relationship. You know, there is someone in the in the White House today and in the official residence of the Prime Minister in Canada today who's there not because they were elected, but they're there because of relationship.
And they have a part, a different part, but they do have a part in the administration of the country. And wouldn't you be surprised if the Prime Minister of Canada or the president of the United States or any other country was had his picture splashed across the national press?
Took part in official functions and at least some of the time his wife wasn't at his side to participate in some way. You'd say that's very strange. When the Lord Jesus comes back to execute righteous judgment and to reign here in this world, his wife is going to be at his side, the Lambs wife.
The bride, that's her freshness, the freshness of what she is to his heart for all eternity. The wife is relationship and the part she's going to play in the millennial reign.
Well, predestination is mentioned again here, and as we had brought out before, there is a difference between election and predestination. Predestination is always to something, isn't it? It's 2 something. And it makes it so beautiful here that God chose us, but not merely chose us.
That chose us for something way back in a past eternity. God had in his purposes that you and I should be associated with his beloved Son and that we should be with him for all eternity to enjoy that inheritance. And I might say, and we mentioned it if I could refer to it in the address that.
When they first started to preach the gospel after the day of Pentecost, generally speaking, man's need was paramount. But when Paul preaches the gospel, he starts with God's purposes in Christ. And that, I believe, is the order we have here. We have God's purposes in Christ in verse 10. Then in verses 11 and 12 we have you and me brought in.
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To the picture. What does that do? That puts Christ at the center, at the head of things, doesn't it? It keeps us not in any sense in the background as not sharing it at all, but it gives, let me rephrase that. It puts my need and what I might want into the background and puts God and his purposes in Christ in the foreground.
And all too often I feel that in this dispensation of grace, and there's not nothing wrong with it, but we consider what?
Christ is to us.
And in this epistle that is brought out very clearly, it is what Christ is to the Church.
Or rather, what the church is to Christ, I should say, but at the same time.
We need to remember that God has his beloved Son and His purposes before him, and He wants us to see things from His side, from God's side. And when I get up there and see things from God's side, I'm far more blessed and God is far more glorified than if I simply look at things.
From the vantage point of my need, yes, we did have a need, and we still have needs. We had a need when we were in our sins, and we have needs as we walk through the desert. And that is a blessed thing to remember. But here we're seen in heavenly places. Here we're seen with heavenly blessings, wanting to lift us above this present scene to see everything from God's vantage point.
I can still remember the first time I took a plane trip. It's good. Many years ago now and it actually happened to be a flight from Toronto, ON out here to Los Angeles, CA.
It happened to be a very clear day in the summer.
And I can still remember how fascinated I was to be able to see everything from 5 miles up in the air instead of traveling along the ground. I can still remember the thrill of seeing both shores of Lake MI at the same time. Just couldn't believe it. God wants to take you and me, as it were, up above this world so that we see things from His vantage point, from His point of view.
And to live in that enjoyment.
I need to press on brethren. Verse 12 Says that we should be to the praise of His glory. Who first or pre trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted.
I suppose that refers to the Jewish believers. There are the ones who first believed and the Gentiles, the Ephesians were Gentiles. After that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. This is the third section that you were talking about, Brother Eric and.
I think it is.
Really tremendously wonderful, the truth that we have in verses 13 and 14.
Ceiling is assurance, isn't it? Knowing that we belong to him. When I'm sealed, I have assurance of my salvation. But Ernest is rather knowing that we have things that belong to him, that will enjoy with him.
That's enjoyment. So sealing is assurance. Earnest is enjoyment of the inheritance we've been speaking about.
Might be help if somebody would explain this kind of explains the difference between being born again and being saved. And that would be nice if somebody could because there's some people that are never heard these things before. Just like in the Old Testament, it was the blood.
And then the oil so.
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Go ahead. Rather. No, I'm, I, I, I'm aware of what you said. It takes a gift to give it out. It doesn't take a gift to take it in. I take it in.
You've been a help to us too, brother. Yeah, well, I, I think that.
This is salvation is really.
In the sense of the New Testament is when we believe the gospel of our salvation. It's not when we're born again and have and receive divine life.
So it's just that difference and it makes it clear here, doesn't it says?
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also after that ye believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. So it's the gospel here. It's not just merely the person of the Lord Jesus.
But the gospel takes in the work of redemption, and when souls realize that in the work of Christ every demand of God's holy character has been satisfied, God has been vindicated, and now in simply believing what He did there for us, God says the salvation of that soul is complete. And I put my seal upon it. Being born again is.
Different, and the Lord Jesus speaks about that in John chapter 3.
That we're born of the water and of the Spirit, the Word of God.
Is taken by the Spirit of God and God to those that hear the word imparts life, but it may not be exactly the same time as this. What we're talking about here. The ceiling takes place because he says right there the wind blows where it listeth and you hear the sound of it, but you know not once it comes or where it goes.
So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Where did that come from? Don't know. Where is it going? Don't know. But when a soul comes to understanding the truth of the gospel and simply trusts in the Lord Jesus and His work of redemption, God says the salvation of that soul is complete and He puts his seal upon it. Is that the way you understand it, brother?
Absolutely, Absolutely.
Perhaps it also might be useful for all of us to understand this purpose that God has for us and.
Brother Bob, just read this phrase very quickly and perhaps we could look at it a little deeper. So we should be to the praise of His glory. This chapter is bringing out the purposes of God. The reason that we've been brought into this blessing, as we have right here, is that we would be to the praise of His glory. I'd like to read one verse in the first Peter chapter 2.
1St 9:00.
I'm going to read it in the new translation because I I really like the wording that it uses here.
It says a year, a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation of people for a possession, that ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful life.
What a just what a place we have that are that we do have a purpose here and.
Perhaps some people, younger people, wonder what their purpose is in life if we can understand that we are to be just to set forth the praises of the Lord Jesus.
And everything that we do should stem from that and be for that purpose.
The thought of the first trusted in Christ or pre trusted in that in reference to the Jewish believers that come in to bless you now before the nation at large is is restored to God. It's not in reference to necessarily before the Gentiles, is it? But rather it's those Jews that have been saved before the nation at large comes in the blessing. And then he turns from them to the Gentiles, dogs of the Gentiles that we were.
Now it's interesting in the verses our brother just quoted there in first Peter, that God hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Who's he talking about? Pagans. No, he's talking about Jews under law, taken out of the darkness of Judaism into the brightness of the light of Christianity. And so if that was darkness, how much greater was the darkness of we were among the Gentiles, but brought in that special place of favor And just something else that might be helpful to the younger, older brother mentioned this to me when I was a young man.
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He said there's three liquids you need to keep in mind, water, blood and oil. And if you go to Leviticus A, you see the order of this and the, the anointing of the priestly family. The first thing applied to them was the water. It's a picture to us of new birth, cooking. And if you will, man is dead in his sin, so he needs life imparted to him quickening. And that's a sovereign work of God. The flesh profits nothing. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. If there's to be blessing for man, God must act, God must move.
God must impart life. That's water, that's the new birth born of water. But now that God has worked that soul comes in to recognize just like the the the the at the brazen altar where the blood was on four corners. Now he realized the death of Christ for us. The blood was shed for me. And now when I believe the gospel based on accomplished redemption. It should be having believed when I received the gospel.
Is at that time I am sealed with the Spirit of God. That's the oil. So the water representing new birth, the blood recognition of the acceptance of Christ is atoning work and consequent upon that is the gift of the Spirit indwelling. It's one thing for the Spirit of God to impart life quickening of the Spirit. That's a different thing than the indwelling Spirit. That's only a result of accomplished redemption and belief in the gospel. At that time the Spirit of God indwells us and then at that time we can lift up our hearts and the power of the Spirit of God and cry out the Father.
And if it is the Spirit of God, which is the earnest of our inheritance, as it says here, can there possibly be any doubt that God will carry it out? If God, we speak reverently, sends down a person of the Godhead to indwell the believer as a proof, as the down payment, if you like, that he's going to complete everything that he says he will do.
Can there be any possible doubt that God will carry it out? Can there be any possible way that and we trust no one here has any doubt about it, But can there any be? Can there be any possible way that we can lose our salvation? Is God going to give the earnest of that inheritance and then take it away again if I fail in my life? Impossible, isn't it?
How much more the Spirit of God is worth. I remember our late brother Gordon Hale making the illustration to some of us at Otter Lake. And of course this was back in the days when houses were a lot cheaper than they are today. But he talked about someones buying a home and.
Maybe the price was $20,000 and you could get a home for that kind of a price when I was growing up.
And of course, when you sign the deal to buy a home, usually they want a bit of a deposit on it, he said. Supposing a man came to buy a home for $20,000 and when the real estate agent says now, would you like to put a deposit down on it just to.
Make it clear that you mean business and that this offer is good. Oh yeah, no problem. Here's a check for $200,000 to make it clear.
Oh, he'd say, what are you talking about? The properties only worth 20,000? Well, I just want to make sure that I get it. Would there be any question about it? Of course not. And what are you and I compared to the Holy Spirit of God?
What are you and I to deserve? The indwelling of the Spirit of God?
As the seal and the earnest of our inheritance.
It ought to mean more to us than I speak to my own heart. It ought to be more of something that fills our hearts when we think. And of course the Spirit has more functions than our developed in this chapter, and we don't need to go into that. But what a seal and an earnest God has given us.
00:45:04
Amen, Brother Phil, I really believe we don't grasp the tremendous import that God the Holy Spirit dwells in this body. Incredible to think about it. Are we sensitive, brethren, as to His presence in US individually and collectively when we come together?
I love to see it as has happened in these conferences, some of our younger brethren get up to pray. That's that's great because praying is a priestly activity and we need to be exercised and sometimes we are looking to brethren on the front rows.
If you do that, you are quenching the Spirit of God. Don't do that. If God the Holy Spirit guides you to get up and pray, I trust you have the grace simply to obey. Sometimes you say, well, I might make a mistake.
Yes, we all make mistakes, but for that reason, the Lord Jesus is our great high priest because of our weaknesses and infirmities. And so to realize the Spirit of God dwells in us, what a tremendous thing. He's there to guide us. He's there to teach us. And I have been amazed brethren in Latin America oftentimes when conferences where their brethren that don't have very much education.
On a on a intellectual level, but when the Spirit of God is let to have his liberty, the tremendous joys of hearing the truth of God that comes forth don't limit the Holy Spirit. We are limited, yes, but all the wonderful truth of the Spirit of God in US. Here it is as Bill was mentioning as.
The earnest for security, it is the.
I should say the the seal for security, the earnest for enjoyment, and you can keep that in mind. It is there so that we will enjoy the inheritance before we get it. That's ours. Could we say too that?
If a person is born again, they might not have the assurance that they're really saved. And so you this is more common than you might think Back in Canada, where the Mennonites, I was surprised to find that there's whole groups of people who don't believe that you can really know that you're saved and you're not free to worship until you are assured.
That Christ plus nothing saves you. And then when the spirits seals you, you don't have any more doubts. Now I'm free to worship the Lord. Before that, I'm always wondering, how does this Fit? Am I saved? Am I, you know, am I?
I mean I Fit. So until a person is sealed of the spirit, he really not capable of worshipping it sets you free. You don't ever ever question anymore. Am I safe that you can just praise the Lord and worship the Lord?
The prodigal son. How would you have liked to been sealed when he was on the way to the father? He was an he was an anxious person. He thought maybe I get there and and and he'll still remember what I was like and he'll say I don't want a thing to do with you.
But when he got there, you know, then when the father put his arms around him and smothering with kisses, that's like ceiling he didn't have. Now he can enjoy eating the the fatted calf with the father. So it it's very important. I suppose Cornelius is an example is indeed in the in the Acts in Acts 10. He was no doubt a quickened soul. As that chapter opens. He prayed in his house. He gave alms.
He had, there was piety in his life, he was God fearing, but he didn't have the assurance of his salvation. And so the Lord sent Peter. Of course, that's where the Gentiles are brought into the church and that's another subject. But just on an individual basis, it confirms what you say. And I believe there are many souls who have been given divine life and we don't know when that happens. The wind blows where it lists, and thou canst not tell whence it cometh.
00:50:08
Or whether it goes so is everyone that is born of the Spirit. But as we said earlier, you would have never responded to the gospel of your salvation if you didn't have light a dead person. We're dead in trespasses and sin. If we had a corpse here on the floor, we could shout at it all day and tell it to stand up and and leave the room.
But it wouldn't respond. And so God imparted divine life to me. And how did he do it? It's we're born again, not of corruptible seed by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever. It is through the Word. It's the Word of God applied in the power of the Spirit that God uses to impart divine life to us. And I just on a practical note, I just say this to those who preach the gospel or give out the gospel in any way.
Always use the Word of God. My telling a story about someone who almost drowned in the gospel isn't going to save a soul. It might help to make a point or illustrate a truth, but that's not what saves souls or imparts divine life. It's the Word of God in all its living power.
And I just say to the young brothers who are starting out, maybe the day will come when the Lord will use you in a public way as an evangelist. Memorize and enjoy and learn the Word of God now. And when you preach the gospel, preach the Word of God. That's where the power is. And that's how God imparts divine life to us. But our time is going. We've only got 24 minutes left, and we want to just make a comment, some comments on this prayer at the end of the chapter.
But before we do that, I'd like to just comment on the two verses that lead up to this prayer. Let me just read verse 15 and 16. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the Saints, cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers. And then I hope we can have some time to have some comments on what this prayer is. But what leads Paul to pray for the Saints?
He heard of their faith in the Lord. He heard of their love to the brethren. Now he is going to pray for them that they would go on. Not that they would get more blessings, not that they would get more power. They have all the blessings, They have all the power, just as we have all the blessings. We have all the power.
We don't need to pray for blessings, the second blessing or the third blessing or any blessing. We don't need to pray for more power. We don't need to pray for the Holy Spirit. What we need to do is have our eyes opened by the grace of God to avail ourselves of the power we have and enjoy the blessings that are ours.
But I want to just say this on a practical note. When you have in Paul's epistles and there are several times he mentions praying for the Saints, it's usually not in connection with something, some physical malady, or as one old brother said, it's not about the lost button.
Now I'm sure Paul prayed for the Saints when they were going through trials and problems and when he heard of sickness and so on amongst the Saints of God. We don't want to discredit that at all. But when Paul prayed for the Saints, it was more in connection with their spiritual growth and well-being.
And brethren, I suggest that if we would take heed to this, and yes, it's good to pray for someone who's going through a real trial, someone who has cancer, let's not forget that. But if we would pray for one another as to our spiritual growth and well-being, brethren, wouldn't it preserve us for many things? This was the desire of the apostle Paul. And it's interesting in the various epistles that when he prays for the Saints.
Usually when he's heard they're going on well in some aspect of their lives, individually and collectively.
Why is it so often we wait to pray for our brethren or an assembly till there's a problem with that those brethren, or that family or that assembly? Brethren, if we would use prayer as a preventative measure, it would spare us, I believe, for many things. And why did Paul pray particularly for brethren who were going on? Well, because he knew they were going to be a special Target of the enemy. He knew in Ephesus where they could take in this wonderful truth.
And where they were going on so well, he knew that was an assembly where the enemy was going to be right there in Philippi, where the there was a testimony in the gospel and there was a freshness. He could see a little wedge coming in and started. He knew the enemy was going to attack that because the enemy didn't want a testimony in the gospel of brethren, I just say this in a practical way. Let's learn to pray for one another, give thanks for one another when things are going well. And maybe we won't have to pray for one another when troubles come in because they may not come in at all.
00:55:27
Their love was to all the Saints, wasn't it? And I think that is a beautiful thing too, brother. Never should we be straightened in our hearts affection toward all God's people.
That's not just those gathered to the Lord's name, is it, Bob? No, we are just a small fraction, all God's people. It will really mean that if you don't, that you're perhaps a sect in your own heart. What's on God's heart is all the Saints. If what's on his heart is on your heart, you will be loving all the Saints. If you don't, then it's a barometer.
You might have become a sect in your own heart.
One verse from him #114 has been a real encouragement to me as to praying. Much incense is ascending before the eternal Throne. God graciously is bending to hear each feeble groan to all our prayers and praises Christ as His sweet perfume and love. The sensor raises these odors.
To consume.
Well, like you say, Brother Jim, the apostle does not pray for more blessing. We pray that way sometimes, but if we take it in the context that we have here as brethren, there is no way we could be more blessed than we already are.
And So what he prays for is that the eyes of their understanding, or the eyes?
Of their hearts would be enlightened. Remember in the Old Testament 1 juncture, Elijah was in the city, and the king of Assyria came and surrounded the city and.
In the morning the young man, the servant of Elijah, gets up and goes out and sees them surrounded by the armies. And he says to Elisha, alas, what shall we do?
And Elijah didn't seem to be worried at all.
Wasn't he realistic?
Yes, he was realistic, but his eyes were open to something that the young man did not see. And so he prays the Lord opened the young man's eyes that he may see.
And he opened his eyes and he saw horses and Chariots of fire. And it's interesting the way I put said it doesn't say roundabout the city says round about Elisha. And so he needed his eyes open. And I say, brethren, that's what we need to have our eyes open to view these realities again. I say these.
Things are our portion forever. We can never lose them. They are not material things, they are spiritual realities. It says in Second Corinthians chapter 4 that which is.
Seen is temporal, that which is not seen is eternal. These are eternal blessings. There are ours forever, and we ought to be enjoying them.
But we need our eyes open. We get our eyes open and judge everything according to material values. And in business you have to do that. I don't understand. I don't negate that. But the point is when we're talking about these things, we almost have to shut our eyes materially and enjoy the things in a spiritual level. Never forget. And I think I've told the story before, but it was so impressive to me when.
Yeah, that's one time. I was with brother Columbia Cannon in a little town in the Dominican Republic called Michis, and we were visiting a brother who was extremely poor, materially speaking. His house was just some sticks stuck in the dirt for the walls, with the appropriate place for the doors and the banana leaf roof. And when it rained hard, you had to situate yourself so it wouldn't drip on you.
01:00:28
And the brother had invited us for a meal, and there was number place else in the house to sit but at the table. So we sat down at the table, even though the meal wasn't ready. And that dear brother, he sat down at the head of the table with his Bible.
Here's a black brother. But oh, I can never forget the joy that radiated from his face as he opened that book and started to read. At least I thought he was reading.
Afterwards I found out he didn't know how to read. He was quoting by heart the Scriptures. But I just had bow my head right there and say, Lord Jesus, please help me. Then I might not be so blinded as to the spiritual realities that we have in Christ, so blinded by material things. And brethren, even though material things don't have to blind our eyes as to these spiritual realities, let's admit it. I have to admit it.
That it does take away our appreciation of spiritual realities.
O brethren, may the Lord help us. This is what the apostle Paul prays for.
That the eyes of their understanding or their hearts would be enlightened. And let me say this, that it's the heart that is the proper home of the truth of God. It's often been said that it has to pass through the mind and it needs to go through the conscience. But the proper home of the truth of God is the soul or the heart where we enjoy the truth of God.
Mr. Hajo used to say it's not what you know that affects your life, it's what you enjoy and that is true. So meditate these things, enjoy them, it will have an effect on your life.
Might say it.
It seems like it takes more than I've got. More than anything, I have to think of trying to lay hold of those things in a practical enjoyment of them in my life, with every hindrance that might be before my soul, whether within or without.
The next verse is, Take that up, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believed according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ?
When he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places.
What is the power that is available for you and I?
To enter into and enjoy these things and overcome every obstacle in the way. It's the same power that raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and seated them in heavenly places. There isn't a greater power in the universe than the power that is there for us every step of the path.
I'll quote Mr. Darby. How feebly I believe it.
So there are the three things, aren't there, Brother Steve, that he asks that they would know. The first one is in verse 18. What is the hope of his calling, our heavenly calling, those heavenly blessings. The 2nd is what is what? The riches of the glory of his inheritance.
In the Saints, that's the inheritance we've been talking about. That's something. The first part is what we already possess, those eternal blessings that are ours forever.
But the second part is the inheritance, and we need to enjoy that as well. Have our eyes open to it brethren, and enjoy it. We don't have the inheritance yet, but we are going to receive it when the Lord Jesus takes the inheritance.
What we have now is the earnest or the earnest of the inheritance.
01:05:05
And then the third thing like you mentioned is tremendous. It's the power of God in resurrection, isn't it?
Power of God and creation is incredible to think about how He created the whole universe by the word of his power. He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. But here we're talking about a power in a completely different way. It's the power of God not in creation. It's the power of God in resurrection, taking the dead one and raising to life. And he didn't quit raising him.
Until Jesus.
Could we just give a bit of a balance and I think of a something I read by Mr. Ballot and he said there's nothing wrong with having money, but there's always a danger.
So it's, we need to, I think balance that because like somebody said, the water is free, but somebody has to put in the plumbing. And so there there you can use those things for, for the things of the Lord, but there's always a danger that they'll make you independent.
Their mercy is that God gives us, and we should use them as good stewards, the manifold grace of God. But they are not, properly speaking, our blessings. They are mercies that are loaned to us, and the Lord can take them away too. But our heavenly blessings no one will ever take away, not even God. And we don't want to despise the mercies that God has given us. We've enjoyed many of them this weekend, and we're thankful for this venue.
And that the Lord has provided abundantly for our brethren so that we could enjoy this venue this weekend. But I hope to be at a conference in a few days and the venue will be a little different. But you know what? We'll enjoy the same truth in the same bundle of love and fellowship. Because the mercies that we have are not the bottom line to our enjoyment of Christ, to the appreciation of our blessings and our enjoyment of the inheritance.
And we're thankful, aren't we? In the history of the gathered Saints, for those who have used their resources in a way that has propagated the truth, the printed page, much of what we have in still today preserved to us in the books that are carried on the back shelves. That was those printings were started through wealthy brethren coming forward and using their resources to print that which God had.
Raised up men to write and so on. So we're thankful for it, but our time is gone. And I just want to make a little comment in connection with the end of this, in connection with the church and Christ. I think it was Brother Bill mentioned earlier that what we have in Ephesians is what the church is to Christ. Before I comment on that, I just say that in Colossians it's a little different. There are some very similar expressions in Colossians, but scriptures tremendously accurate.
And in Colossians, it's what Christ is to the church, and there he's the head of the body. Because if I can put it this way, a body without a head is an incomplete unit. And in Colossians we learned that you and I, as members of the body of Christ here on earth, could never function properly for the glory of God and as to his purposes for us without being linked to our head and taking our direction from our head in heaven.
That's why in Acts, once the Spirit of God was given in the second chapter, they never cast lots again. They cast lots in the first chapter.
For a decision, but they took their direction directly from the head in heaven, because He is the head of the body, and they got their direction there for the function of the members of the body on earth. But in Ephesians it's a little different. It's what the church is to Christ.
In other words, a head without a body is an incomplete unit to if a body without a head is an incomplete unit, a head without a body is incomplete. And brethren, I think this is so tremendous I can't really wrap my mind around it. I can't grasp the enormity and the blessedness of it.
But he's incomplete without us here in Ephesians. We are the fullness of him that fill it All in all. Now, brethren, at the end of these meetings, now all we've taken up, if that doesn't do something to your soul and mind, then I don't know what goes on within our hearts and in our souls.
01:10:11
To think that the head in heaven is incomplete without his body. We are part of the Christ. When it speaks of the Christ, it's the head in heaven, The members on earth linked so close by the Spirit of God that he looks at both and he says it's the Christ. One is incomplete without the other. Brethren, that ought to affect our lives in a practical way now and cause us to rejoice as to all that is ahead in that future day of glory.
The body would never be complete without me and you and everyone else. Tremendous.
Saying #330 but raised the wondrous thought, Or who did it suggest that we the Church to glory brought, should with the Sun be blessed #330?
What raised the wondrous?