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Two verse 14.
For He is our peace, who have made both one.
And have broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity.
Even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. For to make in himself of twain. 1 Newman, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body, by the cross having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were far off, and to them that were nine. For through Him we both have access by 1 Spirit unto the Father.
Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the buildings fitly framed together, growth onto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit.
We've been looking at the.
The counsels of God being worked out in time with regard to the formation.
Of the Church which would be the body and bride of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we have seen yesterday.
Or rather, two days ago when we took this chapter up that.
Death was overcome by the power and grace of God. We've also seen that distance has been overcome by the.
The work of Christ and reconciling us to God, bringing us nine and now we have in verses 14 on through the end of the chapter, the the problem of the obstacle of dissension.
Being overcome, I'm now Speaking of the disunity or the disagreement that there has been for ages with regard to the Jew and the Gentile. It has been the purpose of God that He would make the body of Christ out of converts from both the Jew and the Gentile. The great obstacle is that they don't like each other. There's been an enmity that's been there for generations, and yet we find here by the power of the Spirit of God.
That he works to overcome that and it says there in that 14th verse.
That we are made one that brings before us the thought of unity.
Until we've had being made alive, we've had being made near, made nigh, and now we have being made one in the construction of this new vessel of testimony, the church.
It says He is our peace.
And also mentions there that he has made peace.
Between these two.
And this is just a part of the work of Christ and what he has accomplished.
In securing peace and I like the the the comments that Lord Cecil made in one of his books. I can't just remember which one I got it from, but he says that there are three parts to our standing in peace you have there in Romans 5 verse one therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God there we have.
An external piece with regard to the fact that man has been an enemy of God and the two have been reconciled by the grace of God. And then you have in the 8th chapter of Romans another aspect of peace, and that is peace that comes, an inward peace that comes as a result of knowing deliverance and having the possession of the indwelling Spirit. I'll just read a verse there. In Romans 8, verse five, it says, and they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
And verse six it says, and to be spiritually minded is life and peace. And so there's an inward peace to the heart that is known by everyone that rests in the finished work of Christ and has the indwelling spirit. There is a peace in the soul. But what we have in this chapter, Ephesians 2, is yet another part of our standing in peace. And this is a racial piece that's here.
00:05:19
That is, between the Jew and the Gentile, God has made peace, and so there are three parts to our standing in peace.
And this is a beautiful aspect of things because naturally speaking, you could never.
Bring these two parties together apart from what God has done, and let's remember, it's not the bringing of the Jew and the Gentile together on the ground that they once were.
The work of calling the church is really calling ones out from among the Jews, Jews, and also out from among the Gentile and building them into an entirely new thing that God is, is working. I'll just give you a couple of verses for that in the book of the Acts, Acts 15.
And verse 14.
Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, now notice to take out of them a people for his name.
And then in chapter 26 that would be the Gentile. Chapter 26 is a verse that is to do with the Jew.
Paul Speaking of his own conversion, and we all know he was.
From He was a Jew in the tribe of Benjamin.
Acts 26.
And.
Verse 16 But rise and stand thou upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both to those things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people, should read, taking thee out from the people. Same words that you had in the 15th chapter. The people he's talking about here is, of course, the people of Israel.
And then he goes on to say, from the Gentiles, unto whom I now send thee, and so on. So you see that the the work of God is to take ones out from among the Jews and take ones out from among the Gentiles and build them into this entirely new entity that God is is fashioning, which is the the church.
So it's not the bringing together of those two on the ground that they once were that is a prominent idea in the Christian world today, sometimes known as a covenantal interpretations of Scripture. No, God is pulling and taking ones out by grace and forming an entirely new thing, the church.
What, what was happening there in Galatia in the book of Galatians, when Paul had to rebuke Peter? That was a terrible thing and Paul's mind, because it was causing dissension, that was really trying to almost reversing what was taking place here, wasn't it? We go to the Galatians, chapter 2, it says.
Verse 11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I was stood into the face because he was to be blamed.
For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles, but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews assembled likewise with him in so much that Barnabas also was carried away with the dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly, according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou being a Jew livethest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Jews to live as do the Jews?
The Gentiles delivered through the Jews. We who are Jews by nature are not sinners of the Gentiles.
And so on. And so that whole, that whole ground of truth was being undermined by what Peter and Barnabas were doing. And, and Paul had to to withstand them to the face very strongly because it it, it was not, it was not the ground of peace, but it was ground as a simulation going back to that which which God was delivering him from and bringing him into that one body.
It was a practical denial, wasn't it? It was a practical denial of the truth that we have right here.
It's vital to realize that the Church is not an amalgamation of Jew and Gentiles, it has already been said, but the establishment of something brand new.
And sometimes Christians will come along and they will say that the church is spiritual Israel, but really what they're doing is they're not rightly dividing the word of truth. And when we go back to the book of the Acts, we see that this was a great difficulty and controversy in the early church.
00:10:14
Because those who were saved of the nation of Israel, of the Jews, they cried in the early Acts to make Jews out of the Gentiles. They said they needed to be circumcised and certain rights and ceremonies needed to be carried out for them to be part of the Church of God. And we quickly see the gross error of that, and it's taken care of in the 15th chapter of Acts. But it is very important to realize this because I feel like more and more these kinds of principles are being reintroduced in Christian circles.
And it's important to rightly divide the word of truth and the whole to dispensational teachings. And I just like to say a word about that because.
Risk has alluded to becoming a theology and this kind of thing that is permeating Christian circles today. And what what it does is, for instance, if you if you pick up the line of covenant theology, what you're really saying is that all scripture in its strict application.
Applies to the church and we know that that is not true. There are scriptures that apply to Israel. There are scriptures that apply to Israel in a future day. There are scriptures that apply to the church, God's earthly people, God, heavenly people. You've got to keep it sorted out in the what context in which it's given in scripture or you're going to become very, very confused. Just a little point, but I think one thing that has caused some confusion is when the King James primal was put together.
In English and the way we have it, sometimes the little headings at the top of the page are confusing. They're certainly not inspired. They were added by the publishers or whatever. And you go back to Isaiah and you look at those little headings, it'll say the church such and such, not the church at all. Now we can take the Old Testament Scriptures and apply them to in a practical way, we see illustrations and types and figures of the church, but you have to keep the Old Testament in its context.
And so it was very important and to see that, as he said here, to make a plain one new man. The church, it has been said, is something brand new. It's not an amalgamation of Jew and Gentile on the same ground that the Jew was on. It's not a.
If something introduced us brand new, it's like the Lord says, and then so new cloth on an old garment, do they put new wine in old bottles? Judaism. Man sailed under the law and he sailed under Judaism. And it's a principle with God that when man fails, failed under a particular test or administration, God set that aside and introduced something brand new. And so we find that the cross, that was the end of the law for righteousness sake, and God introduces something brand new in Christianity.
We that those of us who can save us, the Gentiles, those of whom savor the Jews.
We're not the church is not spiritual Israel and important to realize that the hope and calling of the church has called out one is completely different than Israel. Israel has a hope and a calling that yet going to be fulfilled in a future day that maybe we should disconnect. 2 verses one is in Ephesians here, but go to Matthew 24 and I think you'll see the contrast.
I want to read what you're doing.
There's more thyself.
Never been studied to show myself approved on the border Westman that made it not any issue rightly dividing the word truth they're susceptible to.
Yeah, Yeah. That's very helpful. Let's look at this first in Matthew 25.
And verse 34 just looking on to a future day for Israel. Verse 34 of of Matthew 25 Then shall the king say unto them, on his right hand, come, blessed of my father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you. Now I want you to notice the expression from the foundation of the world. Now just keep that in mind and go back to his season one.
And verse four, according as he has chosen us in him. Now notice this.
Before the foundation of the world, I believe is a very important principle here in rightly dividing the word of truth, and that is to realize that Israel's blessings are from the foundation of the world, not before, but from, because their blessings are connected with this earth and they will yet be brought into blessing when there's the shout of a king amongst them. The Lord Jesus takes the throne of his glory and intercedes of the gap, and so on.
00:15:25
Their blessings are from the foundation of the world. But so careful is the Spirit of God in the New Testament to detach the Christian from this world in every way as to his goals, his hopes, his aspirations, his calling, the 26th of our blessing and our being chosen in Christ, It's not from the foundation of the world. It's before the foundation of the world showing that we're not connected with this world.
In any way now I just want to make a comment too on the Burke brother, George Red, because we're to rightly divide the word of truth or draw straight lines when it comes to the truth. And I'm going to say this particularly to the young people because I know you're bombarded with things from your Christian friends at school and work, covenant theology and setting aside of this sensational teaching and so on. And sometimes dispensational teaching is brushed aside as Darbyism or brethrenism or whatever.
But if you do not go to dispensational guidelines in Scripture, you're never really going to understand Scripture and God's purposes in His healings with man at various times. A dispensation is simply a time frame in which God has dealt in a different way. It's called an administration. And God has dealt with men at different times, in different ways on the earth. He has placed so much under, given them life and placed them under responsibility as to that light.
And usually at the end of the dispensation, God then comes in in judgment when man fails and introduces something brand new. But if you do not local dispensational guidelines, I say, you cannot rightly divide the word of truth and you're never really going to understand what you're calling is.
Borussia.
A breaking of the other ones between two brothers and they resulted in a tremendous upheaval, but there was a it didn't happen. And second Peter chapter 3 and verse 14 we read something beautiful that brings us together to show us that the peace between these two brothers. Continue reading from second two years 3 and 14. Wherefore for love seems that you look for such things.
May be viral of him and he without thought and blame him and account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation even and here it is as our beloved brother Paul.
Also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you what beautiful grace was showing there in Peter recognizing beloved brother Paul. Now that was necessary to stand up. But how many of us would we have tried to stand up to some things that we found were contrary felt we found were contrary to scriptures probably introduced a little character of possibilities. As a result was.
Not this kind of thing.
And so as an encouragement to our heart, we need to be faithful. We need to do in love. And then you get a lovely conclusion so that that relationship wasn't broken and the Lord saw to it that those two situations were recorded for us for the year 2005 to give us an example of how we can deal with each other as well. Now I'm I'm a tight state personality, so I react sometimes and it's to mind seeing and devastation to bring in an ice. I have technical proper.
Who can touch love and gentleness?
And reduce them or be quiet or defuse the problem as it happened here firmly. And then the result is what was it that what was it that Peter learned? He learned grace. And so he could say at the end of that chapter, he'd speak about growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So it was grace that enabled Peter to react in that way. And so it is with us. That's the only thing that will diffuse anything is to to grow in the grace of the Lord Jesus.
00:20:21
Is that right? Indeed. I was going to say, Ruth, there's mentioned some something mentioned about.
A new covenant, new covenantism or theology, those sort of things. And you mentioned once about the how the Scripture is divided into various, the, the percentage that is prophecy and and so forth. What was that again? Do you remember 85% is prophetic or something like that, or I think 2 Thirds, 2/3. Yeah, it's quite amazing.
And then?
Continue There was something else in there too, about the how that prophecy was divided into another percentage. I found that very interesting because a lot of times we think that the word of God is we we go to the word of God and we think it's only for for the Christians and and yet very little percentage of it has to do with us.
Maybe you should turn up your hearing issue.
Roughly 2/3 of your Bible is a prophetic with regard to God's designs for Israel and her blessing in the earth under Christ and His earthly reign. Very little of the Word of God is written directly to the church. In fact, we have the Epistle that is what is directly written to and for the church. Now we can take from all the Word of God types and principles and so on and lessons for ourselves.
As we have there in that verse in Romans 15, it says that all Scripture is written for our learning. It doesn't say that it was written to us, but it is written for us. You've probably heard that before. And so we need to take it up in a typical teaching, learning the principles and the lessons. But the pencils are are what is directly into the church. And then the biggest percentage of that prophecy has to do with the last 45 days. Yes.
Yes. Well, he speaks of a reconciliation here, reconciling both, and this is a little different than the reconciliation that we spoke of yesterday. We're reconciled to God through the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus within the world, reconciling the world to himself. And we mentioned how that it's not a question of God needing to be reconciled to man, but man being reconciled to God because God, man had put himself at a distance. But now he speaks of these two opposing.
A nation and a racist, so to speak, the Jew and the Gentiles at odds with one another and enmity with one another. But now they're, they're reconciled. You know, it must have been a wonder to the disciples when the Lord in resurrection and preparation for his departure back to the Father told them to go into all the world and preach the gospel. You know, they must have wondered at at that. Now they understood it later on when the Spirit of God was given.
But the oracles of God has been given to and the revelation has been given to the nation of Israel up until that point. And so it they must have wondered why they were to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And even up until the 10th chapter of Acts, this was very difficult for Peter, who had been given the keys of the Kingdom. It was very difficult for him to understand this. And that's why the Lord before he sent him to the House of Cornelius.
He had that sheet let down in the vision and told him to arise, play and eat. And Peter said, Oh no, Lord, I'm not going to touch anything. I've never eaten anything common or I'm clean. And he said, what God has sanctified called out a commoner or unclean. And what he was giving him there was not just the thought that he could now eat food that had been unclean under the Levitical order, but he was preparing to send him to the Gentiles.
Who Peter had been taught were unclean. They were dogs. The Lord even referred to them in that way as dogs. But now there was a purpose was going to be carried out in bringing the Gentiles into the Church of God. But it was a struggle for the disciples in the early days, and it was hard for Peter to go to the House of Cornelius.
Really needed a push from the Lord to go ahead and preach the gospel to the to the Gentiles. I might just say this too, that on the day of Pentecost there was the baptism of the Holy Spirit when the Spirit of God came down and those about 120 believers who were saved on the day of Pentecost were brought into the Church of God. And but in the in the 8th chapter where the Samaritans are brought in and the 10th chapter where the Gentiles are brought in.
00:25:25
If I can put it this way, it wasn't a repeat of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it was a little extension of it because the Spirit of God is very careful in the Acts to guard, lest he ever think there's a Jewish church.
And a Gentile church, Oregon, even a Jewish Gentile church with A-NO. As we said yesterday, there is Jew and Gentile and Church of God.
And when a person gets saved today, they are not baptized with the Holy Spirit. That is a one time thing that took place.
As you say to to form this the body, what's happened when a person gets saved, they're sealed with the indwelling spirit and they are added to this body that has already begun the work of the Spirit of God to baptize is.
To begin the body, to form it. If the Spirit of God was still baptizing today, that would mean that he's forming more and more bodies, which of course is ludicrous.
So I just mentioned that because many times you'll hear Christians talking about how that they were baptized with the Holy Spirit and some are talking about some experience they've had after they've been saved and others are talking about when they got saved and both are really wrong. The the, the truth of the matter is that the baptism of the Spirit of God happened at Pentecost and there was an extension of it as has been said to taking the Gentile Act 10. And you'll find that there's only 7 mentions of the baptism of the Spirit of God in Scripture.
You'll find that some of them are uttered before Pentecost, when the Spirit came down and formed the body.
And some are mentioned after and they all point to that one point in time.
Maybe I could use this a little illustration to help us understand what we're saying. You know, sometimes when you come to a city, Oregon, a town, you see one of these famous signs that says the churches of Regina welcome you. I think we have one. If you came to my hometown, the churches of Smith Falls welcome you. That is not scriptural. The only time you have the word church that's in plural in Scripture is when there was, it's in connection with the local assembly, the churches of Galatia.
Welcome here. The churches of Galatia greet you, however he puts it. And so there were a number of assemblies in the province of Galatia for geographical reasons, but that is the only time in all these church singular, there was one church. Now let me use a little illustration. It's not original, but it helps me. When I was younger, on the day of Pentecost, there were about 120 believers. And it's interesting that numbers in the book of the Acts are not definite. About 120 believers, about 3000 saved. About 5000 saved. You always find that.
It's not people make a great deal of numbers and so many got saved when they had a gospel meeting or a special campaign or something. Numbers are never definite when it comes to that kind of thing in the act. But let's here's these 120 believers. They're the fear of God comes down and the church is formed through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Let's picture it as 120 or so deep on the table. And so if someone comes along and they take those individual bees and they string them on a spring a thread.
As they form a new unit that we would call a Netflix now, there's still 120 or so individual to be, and we are individual believers. We often speak of individual position and responsibility as believers before God, but we are also collectively the Church of God. Again, a little aside, but what helped me in studying the New Testament is to realize that when there's a truth concerning the individual aspect of things.
There is always a comfortable truth concerning the collective side of things. I'll just give you one example.
Individually, the Son of God who loves me and gave himself for me. Collectively. The comparable truth is Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Very important to see that and to keep those things in their proper context as directly dividing the word of truth. But now let's go on with our illustration of the Netflix. Suppose later on we obtained some more beads. What do we do? Well, we untie the threat and we add some more beads to it.
00:30:16
Now, you wouldn't say that we formed a new network. We only added to what was already formed. I think that helps us to understand what has been going on since the day of Pentecost. The church was formed, 120 or so believers initially made-up the Church of God and then as Bruce has already quoted, the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. Just like every once in a while we may get some new being and we add to that Netflix.
Once in a while we don't form a new Netflix, so sometimes these illustrations just help us to understand some of these things that we're Speaking of. But I wanted to stress again the church in Scripture as to what God began on the day of Pentecost and will complete just before the rapture. It is always singular, the church.
And so we need to be careful that we don't say we're the church. There are many regime ones in the city of Regina. They're all they're all you might say that these that Jim has told us, we need to remember that.
Because there is also a redeem with a threat and a lot of Christ and there is no word that says except and so it's wonderful to know that it is there is a a a group. There are those that are saying they all have the same edge award. That's why it's important norm when we have a loaf on the table on Lord and say morning to recognize that in that one lobe that it was yesterday, it wasn't many loaves, it wasn't wafers, it was one loaf and in that one loaf.
God went to the eye of God rests on it. He sees every member of the body of Christ, every believer alive on the face of the earth, whether they know it or not, whether they understand it or whether they practically express it in the breaking of breath, they are seen in that one loaf. That one loaf on the table on Wednesday morning does not just represent those who are there on that occasion, nor does it represent just those who practically express that truth from week to week.
In the breaking of bread, and I believe if we lose sight of this rather than we become narrower sectarian in our view. I think what Norm said is very good. We need to realize that God looking down, he sees every believer in Christ as part of the Church of God, as members of the body of Christ. And later on in this very epistle, he says there is one body. You know, we sometimes use an expression, and I know what rather mean when they use it, but sometimes we say the church is in ruin.
Now I realize what rather than mean when they use that expression, but that means the explanation because the church, as far as the building of God, what God is doing, it is not in ruin on this rock. I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I would just suggest that it's perhaps better to say the testimony is in ruin. Why do we see those signs we were talking about? Why do we see church steeples and buildings on every corner?
Because the testimony is in ruin. But as far as the church, as far as the body of Christ, God says there is one body and he will complete an imperfection in the coming day, and then it's going to be viewed with himself all in its completion and perfection. But if we say the church is in room without qualification, what we're really saying is that God has failed, and that cannot be.
The making of the one Newman is the mystical body of Christ being linked by the Spirit of God to Christ ahead in heaven. They make one new man, and the idea of the one new man is that we should.
Display and manifest.
The moral features of Christ here in this world, and as you have been saying, that required, of course, the reconciling of the two unto God and taking away the enmity. So we're thankful that God has made this wonderful, this work.
00:35:01
That would result in the one body being formed. Let's remember when we speak about the body of Christ, it's referring to every member of of that body that is alive presently here in this world at any one time. When the body is spoken of in the scripture, except for one time, which is in the first chapter, it is always referring to those that.
Are saved and are indwelt with the Spirit of God at anyone time on the face of the earth. What I'm saying is that my Father, who is now home with the Lord, has not looked at in the present expression of the body here in this world.
The body is composed of those who are living at this one time. Now at the end of chapter one, we do see the completion of it. And in that coming day, the Millennium will all be there. So I'm not saying for a minute that he's lost his place in the body, but as far as it's.
It's a place here in this world he's not seen as being part of it.
I think that's important to remember, just to put that in perspective.
It's helpful to see that the Church of God is taken up in free context. There are various aspects, but in free context, sometimes it looked at as every believer from the day of Pentecost when it began, to the rapture when it's completed. And you get that in the end of Revelation where you have the city that we spoke of, we have the Lamb's wife again, the Lord Jesus said on this rock, I will build my church in the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and so on. So sometimes it's every believer from Pentecost, the birthday of the church.
To its completion. Sometimes it's the local expression, the church which is in my house, the churches of Galatia and the assembly in Smith Falls or Regina or wherever you are from. We seek to express the truth of the one body being gathered to the Lords name and breaking bread with a loaf and a custom on the table. We're not the assembly there at Regina. We're an expression of it. Other believers around us who are not in fellowship with us.
Who don't even understand this, this process truth. And so there's the local expression of the church or assembly and then there's the context in which Bruce speaks of it. And you get that in Corinthians where the body is functioning, the members of the body are functioning here for the good of the body. And every member of the body has a particular function just like in our natural body. And again I thought of it connected with my father. He functioned as a member of the party of Christ here on earth and.
The assembly in Smith Falls was often said, though he was not a vocal brother, he's missed in various ways because he carried out little functions of cement as a member of the body of Christ that he's no longer carrying out. Now he's beyond that. So I think it's helpful to get these contacts. I'll just repeat them. The church is sometimes looked at him and priorities from Pentecost to the Rapture, sometimes the local expression of the character assembly, and sometimes it's looked at in a sense that Bruce has said as the members of the body of Christ alive on the face of the earth. And that's why I said in connection with the law, it represents every believer alive on the face of the earth at that time.
And when he says in verse 17, it came and preached peace to you, which were far off.
And to them mature now you may say, Well wait a minute, when did the Lord Jesus?
Ever go preaching to the Gentile? You can look in vain in the Gospels to find that no, the Lord Jesus was a minister to the circumcision and he didn't go outside the limits of Israel to preach to the Gentiles. But yet it says here this because he's Speaking of this one Newman, the head in heaven and the members of the body on the earth. And he has preached to the Gentiles through the members of the body. And that's how the gospel reached those ones in Ephesians in in Ephesus.
He says he came and preached to you. When did the Lord Jesus in his lifetime ever get out to Asia Minor where Ephesus was? And of course he didn't. He stayed, as I said, in the land of Israel, but it was through the members of his body of this one Newman that the gospel is being carried out and the preaching of peace is now reaching out far throughout the world and souls have been called in and not just Gentiles as he said to also them that are not. He's talking about those who are positionally not like we had.
00:40:01
A couple of days ago, which are those from the nation of Israel. They were in a covenant relationship with God in a place of nearness by that place that they occupied were called to. But as we were saying, they were really far off morally in their hearts anyway and still needed the reconciliation that we spoke of. And so it's important to see that that now the the the work of reconciliation is still being preached in the earth, but it's through the members of the body of Christ.
Now we find here that we have access by one's spirit unto the Father no longer Jehovah. They know him now as Father. I go on to my Father and your Father, my God and your God. What a revelation that was to to Mary when the Lord spoke that to her.
Something brand new.
One of the things that characterized Christianity, you know, God as Father.
The essence of eternal life is to know the only true God in Jesus Christ in the ascent. This is something that the Old Testament Saints did not have.
Before.
This took place. They knew God, as you say, as Jehovah.
But here we have the privilege of access by 1 Spirit unto the Father. And so it's an extreme privilege as a Christian to be able to address God as our Father. Get the Trinity right there in that verse access.
To through Him right? We both have access by 1 Spirit under the Father. They're all active in that formation of that body as they are salvation of every soul.
And we're decided to have that access that's not limited to those of us who are older.
In Romans and in Galatians we have the expression of our father, and what a wonderful thing it is that we can address them that way. We know that our children and our grandchildren use that simple expression. How about father? And so the youngest person in here can come and have that access.
It's not limited in war understands that language and we've got to be careful that they don't draw hard and fast lines who can't and we cannot. The Scripture does not make any restriction in that way, except they can come.
It's really Speaking of the priestly privileges of a Christian.
That have access like that, isn't it? And I'm thankful in our local assembly in the recent months and perhaps the last couple of years that some of the older brother hardly have an opportunity to, to pray in the prayer meetings because the younger brothers take the time and it's just lovely to hear their voices. And Uncle Al will attest to that. And that's really understanding the priesthood of the, of the truth, the true priesthood of every believer. We're all equal priests and have access to the Father.
Our brother's been saying that this idea of reserving it only for a certain class or for those who are more experienced or older is not found in the Bible. This access is belongs to the very newest Christian as well as one who's been on the road for 50 years.
It's good, conversely, to really all those of us who are a little older and perhaps take an active part in the assembly to give opportunity for the young brothers. I sometimes wonder if the reason we don't have young brothers pray at the prayer meeting, for instance, is because by the time the older brothers have prayed for 10 or 15 minutes, they feel there's nothing left to pray for. Give them something to pray for, you know, long prayers public. You don't have long public prayers and scriptures.
Long prayers should be saved for our closet. It's interesting that the longest prayer in the Old Testament public prayer is Solomon's prayer, the dedication of the temple. Read it sometime and find out how short it really is. The longest public prayer in the New Testament is the Lord High Priestly Prayer in the 17th of John. Read it. Sometimes it won't take you very long to read it. And so I just say that because it is a thrill and an encouragement to those of us who are a little further along to hear our young brother take part.
00:45:14
But I think sometimes perhaps we don't give them the opportunity to do that. And it's not a question of gift. It's a question of office. It's a question of being a priest. And every believer is a take gift young brother to give out to him on March the morning. It doesn't take gift to be directed by the Spirit of God to read some scriptures or give a short word of praise on March the morning. It doesn't have to be long.
Sometimes I have felt that short words of praise, just a sentence or two, are more in the spirit than perhaps longer. Let's say there's times when there are longer words of phrase, perhaps, but sometimes just a short word. And again, maybe I can say this to those of us who are a little older. Let's not sit in judgment of our younger brother now. It's good to give direction. It's good to learn to pray intelligently. It's good not to confound the persons of the Godhead when we pray.
And so on. But let's, let's not jump on our younger brethren if they don't express something in exactly the way we think it should be expressed. Let's have some patience and grace. And let's remember the words of that hymn that says to all our prayers and praises Christ adds his sweet perfume and love. The sensor raises these odors to consume. But I do want to back up for a moment. We've talked about it publicly. If you don't, if you don't, learn to pray.
And thank the Lord in your closet and individually, you're not going to be a vessel ready to use publicly. And this access, I believe, begins individually. Every one of us have this access. And the Lord Jesus in preparation for his departure in the Upper Room ministry, I think four times, and it's a little different context each time, but four times he exhorted the disciples that they were going to have the privilege of coming.
To the Father in his name, something as he said to them, you've never done before. Lord was here. They didn't have to come to the Father through the name of the Lord. They could come to the Lord directly and have been said in the Old Testament. They weren't brought into this relationship of Father. God was almighty and then Jehovah and so in various relationships. But just think of it rather we who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, we who have been saved, we have the privilege.
Upcoming by the Spirit of God into the very presence of the Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus to speak to Him. Think of the access we have, and think of the Old Testament Saints. There were those who enjoyed a relationship of nearness to God in the way that He was revealed to them at particular time, but they never, never, never. Abraham, Moses, Joshua, they never had the access and the place of nearness and relationships.
That is ours and Christianity now. Are you availing yourself of it?
You speak about prayer and you know, I remember something in our brother Dan Anderson said many years ago. I never forgot it, he said it occurred meaning you don't have to say everything, leave a little bit for the next product. The other thing I remember a young brother and I actually paid him.
That I didn't hear many more and I said why? He said, well, Arkansas, there are expectations of me if I pray for my peer groups. Good. That's a good kind of precious young brothers, invite him encourage you to break in your molten whatever the language is. Sometimes we try to emulate the older brothers so that you use those right expressions. Don't worry and bother with that.
Thank the Lord for a two second prayer rather than a 10 minute prayer. And I believe that that's not going to be all better anyway. And then, you know, reading meeting like this, I don't, I'm not a teacher, but there are teachers and I do think that is it's appropriate to defer to those.
And see each other that we learned something but but speaking about the young brothers there are a lot of them here. You know I speak to all of you. You put a bit of a curve in the last night before they gospel me. You would have heard and seen something that we don't see in our permission. There were twenty brothers or more there at every party as I can. I don't know I'm pretty sure everybody's great and they prayed quickly. There was no interruption in our prayer being sometimes there's a lot of.
00:50:21
Time wasting? What are we there for? To praise?