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General meetings Montreal, October 1973 First reading meeting.
Real second chapter of the season.
And can we at the forest?
On my heart.
See who captured.
And you have a question.
Who were dead in trespasses and.
We're in time past, she walked, according to the course of this world.
And according to the Prince of the power of the air.
The spirit of now worketh in the children.
'S.
Among whom also we all had our conversations in times past in the lust of our flesh.
Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
And we're by nature the children of Ross.
But God who is rich in mercy.
For his great love, or which he loved us even when we were dead in sins. That's quick enough, together with Christ.
By praise your faith and have raised us up together and made us fit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
That in the ages to come, he might show.
The exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves. It is a gift of God.
Not a work lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus, and the good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in that.
Wherefore remember.
That he being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision.
And the flesh made by hand. And at that time you were without Christ.
Being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
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For he is our peace, who have made both one and have broken down the middle wall of practition between us, having abolished in this flash the enemy. Even the law of commandment contain an ordinance for the making himself a claim. 1 Newman.
Soul making peace.
That he might reconcile both under God in one body by the cross.
Have explained the enemy thereby, and came and preached peace to you, which were afar off, and to them they were not. For through him we both have access by 1 spirit under the Father. Now therefore you're no more strangers and foreigners.
But fellow nevertheless with the things 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 under one holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God.
Through the spare.
It's me, and I get a little hotline of the chapter by clawing attention to the first words and you in the fourth verse. But God.
That is what man is.
And then what God is. And then in the 7th, 7th, 11Th verse, wherefore remember.
Tiles and so on, without God and without hope in the world. Then the 13th verse, but now?
So you get but.
And you but God.
But we were, and now in Christ Jesus.
In the first chapter, we have God's thoughts.
As to his people.
And this is what warms our cold hearts, is it not?
And in order to appreciate this second chapter rightly, we will first have to.
Enjoy, but we have in the first chapter and how it was his own will.
And it was his own counsel back at eternity, that we should be not only children, but sons, and be brought into that special place of relationship with his own Son, who is exalted to the highest place. Now this, this should warm our hearts when they think of God's thoughts towards us and the means by which He brought us to Himself.
That is.
The work of redemption. And then he speaks of the forgiveness of sins. Now he tells us what we were in contrast. And then again we have God mentions after that.
I believe that's very important because in chapter one, where you get the Councils of God is only an indirect reference to our guilt.
Referred to the guilt. Our guilt isn't developed in chapter one at all, though the remedy is needed. Verse seven shows that. But in chapter one we have, as you point out, and I believe we ought to get hold of it, God thought before man ever came into the position of responsibility.
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God's purposes were established, but now in the second chapter, we learned how bad we were and what he had to do to bring us there.
We could mention brethren that the 1St 3 chapters of Ephesians.
Deal with our standing, with our standing.
The last three chapters deal with our state.
And there's a great deal of difference. But one of our old writers has remarked that Chapter 2, and it's been remarked by our brother Clarence.
Unfolds the great and wonderful truths of Chapter One.
I believe that's true that chapter two really unfolds these marvelous tools that we have enumerated in chapter one.
Where we get a perfection of heavenly blessings mentioned there.
Which we shall not dwell on now, but simply to mention those blessings there in chapter one are all heavenly, and there's not one earthly blessing. They're mentioned, they're all heavenly. So there is an unfolding.
Undoubtedly in chapter two of the blessings that are found in chapter one.
Before us in the first chapter, those eternal purposes, all centering in his beloved Son, that in the dispensation of the fullness of time he might gather together in one of all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in Him. So He opens up to us those eternal councils, not only as regards our blessing as being part of the Church.
Thought the blessing of the whole scene under Christ. But then when we come to the second chapter, we see the kind of material that God picks up to display in this wonderful scene of glory. And to me that is most marvelous. When man is going to put on a display, well, he hunts around to find the best material so that this display will look like something very grand. But what kind of material did God pick up? Well, he picked up those who were dead in trespasses and sins.
And the work is all his. He gave us a new life, a life that could respond to all his counsels and purposes, a life that could enter into and enjoy his counsels and purposes. And I think that is what is developed in this second chapter, the first chapter giving us these councils, all centering in Christ and Christ too, as the head of the body, the church. And then in the second chapter we see that what she is doing now.
And gathering in a people, both Jew and Gentile into this place. A building being put up in this world is spiritual building soon to be completed. And then Christ will have his rightful place, and he will not take the inheritance until he takes it in his Saints. He's waiting for that day when he has his people with him, because the display would not be complete if Christ were not there as the center with his bride.
I'm sure we've all heard it said that Ephesians.
If the Joshua of the New Testament, and in a remarkable way.
We find that the first chapter corresponds very strikingly with the first chapter of Ephesians because the first chapter of Joshua.
Gives us the boundaries of the Promised Land, just as in Ephesians. One, we get how we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. But then when we come to the second chapter, we get rehab brought in.
So it shows that God in his wondrous grace, just as in Ephesians and as her brother was saying.
Takes up the very worst of the human race to display his counsels and his purposes. And so we have a poor, degraded gentile brought in to those listings that Israel were going to enjoy.
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Which they are, which they must enjoy.
Well, the poor Haroon creature of Jerry for that city that first came under the judgment of God.
Did you allow Brother Smith, that although we have the standing here that there's a word for our consciences in the second verse? Almost assuredly, and there's a point here that sometimes.
Young people miss concerning the work of Christ. The Lord Jesus has dealt definitely beloved and eternally with the question of sin.
He has fully satisfied.
The holy, The righteous claims of a holy God against it.
And.
Therefore.
Our standing, our standing, We find ourselves in all the perfection of that Blessed One before the Father. This is a truth that we seek to emphasize very much among the Latin Saints, and they seem to enjoy it perhaps more than we might people.
As regards our sin.
We thank God that he bought them in his own body on the tree, now being dead indeed unto sins.
Might we might live unto righteousness.
By whose stripes we've been healed. What a wonderful savior we have. So here we have what has been done for us all. There's something very specific here.
All the believers, for those who were once lost and undone, brought into such favor.
Enrollments. The center is seen alive, and in a sense, and so their death is a blessing. There with death, with Christ. But here is the national state in which God's grace found us dead and trespasses and sands. And here we don't need death, We need quickening. We need light. And so I think it's helpful between those two epistles to see that in Romans, alive in our sins, deliverance comes through death with Christ.
And here in Ephesians, it's quickening with him.
There is however, what our brother mentioned about the second verse, that we are looked at as being alive and thin there. And what was the kind of conduct that we had as being alive in our sins. It says in time past he walked according to the course of this world.
According to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, we were dead in our sins, so that there was really no movement godward but another. In another way. We were alive, but we were alive for this world, going on with all that it had to offer, walking according to its course, whether it's the evil, the greater part of the world.
Or whether inside, which is perhaps the clean side, but for man's exaltment and honor, We find a great deal of that in this day of prosperity and the advance of science, people will say, well, what's wrong with that? Well, anything that ministers demands pride.
Is really part of the course of this world building man up in his alienation from God. A whole system of things in which we live, where man is the standard, but God has another standard and that is his beloved Son. And in that new scene of glory that we spoke of in Ephesians one and 10, the Lord Jesus is to be the center of that scene. And in that scene all will be to his praise and glory. But this is a very solemn indictment, as our brothers mentioned.
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Of what our course was. And if there's anyone who is unsaved here, that's the course of this world.
That's the course in which the unsaved walk, whether it's in the degraded part or whether it's in that which seems clean but exhausts man instead of exalting Christ. It's a course of things. And brethren, there's a warning for us too. We can be caught in the current of this, and especially in this day of materialism, how easy it is to be caught in the current of this kind of thing and go along with it. And I would suggest that Satan being spoken of as the Prince of the power of the air.
The air is that which comes between US and the heavenlies, and Satan is doing all he can to keep our minds and thoughts in this world and centered in everything that's going on here in this airy world, everything that's going on here. He points out to us constantly as being of interest. Something that we should live for, something that if it goes wrong, we should be depressed about anything that will keep us from looking up.
But when we look up, we look above the air. We look up to where our blessings really are, and they're in the heavenlies. And that's where all our blessings are. But our course was dead toward God, but alive in all the activity of this world. But God has come in, and He's given us a new life.
That connects us now with another scene, and we can say, like I believe Brother Kelly did, which world this world is going on to judgment, or that new scene of glory where Christ is the one who is the center of it all, God's beloved Son.
You can see him that there's a paradox. Dead man walking. Well, this city is full of dead men walking.
So as our own source, Chatham, every place should go your dead men walking and the Spirit of God has been pleased to take this figure to show how desperate man condition is.
If it's the matter of being defiled like the leper while this cleansing.
If it's the fact that he is disobedient, there's forgiveness. There's forgiveness.
So there are different views of God's grace coming in and salvation to sinners, but here in Ephesians, the Spirit of God gives us the most desperate.
Figure that's possible of the sinners condition that is dead that is when they have one has drawn his last breath and the doctor said hope is gone.
He's dead. Well, there's nothing more that man can do.
So as far as man in himself is concerned, his case is absolutely hopeless.
I read of a case said during the time when they were trying to raise volunteers in England, they put up a crime.
Wake up. Your country needs you and someone, unfortunately.
Packed up one of these signs in a cemetery and there bread wake up your country in Asia. Well, of course that was a laughable mistake, thinking waking up dead people. Well, as far as man and anything he can do his case with justice.
Helpless and just as hopeless, whatever is wonderful, adverse. In John 5 the hour cometh, and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that here shall live. So God's voice is sounding out through the gospel today, and any poor Sinner that will listen to the voice that.
Speaks to his soul through the word.
Of his lost condition and his need of a savior, God imparts divine life to that soul, so he lives.
There's a special contrast here, is there not as well in this chapter between the Jew and the Gentile.
In this chapter, of course, the two are brought together in one body. As to the doctrine, I mean, but the Jew was.
Nigh to God, he had the oracles of God, and he was under the law.
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Now we know that it wasn't carried out, but still he was in that place of nearness. But the gentile was afar off, and he was he was in the place simply of an outcast, as it were, from the things of God.
And so we have here really the extreme case when the gentiles are mentioned, not those that have had the instruction and light.
That God would give a special people the Jew, but those who have no life, no understanding of the things of God except creation, perhaps.
Now in in first Peter 4, I'd just like to read.
Verse or two, because I believe that there is a word for our consciences here who are believers as well.
This was to the Jew, no doubt.
In a special sense.
But the 4th chapter first, Peter.
For as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that have suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.
That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of man, but to the will of God.
For the time pass of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, and then he gives a list of all that we walked in. But I was thinking especially of that expression, for the time pass of our life may suffice us to have rock the will of the Gentiles.
A regeneration has put the believer in an entirely new position.
And the language in this chapter, second chapter of Ephesians, is where in time past you walk. It doesn't suppose the flavor to be walking in such a path now.
That's three times repeated in this chapter, and it seems to me to be very, very searching, searching to the point where we would wonder that it would ever have to be said of anyone. I wonder if he or she really had life. But when it's spoken out here, a new remark There is a time past of our life, and there is a present, and there ought to be such a distinction between the two, according to this chapter, as would leave no wonder in anyone's testimony.
To whether there's really life or not.
You would say then that in verse two we have a description of the Gentiles, whereas in verse three we have a description of the Jew.
And there is just this difference. It says we're in time past Ye you see that's Gentiles. And then in the third verse, among whom also we all identifying himself with the Jews as an Israelite.
But in describing the condition of the Gentiles, they were walking according to the course of this world, and then according to the Prince of the Prince of the power of the air.
Spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience. You don't find that when the we or the Jews are mentioned that.
They are under in the same way, the Prince of the power of the air, because the end the Jewish economy there was that light that Satan couldn't penetrate or Satan works in the dark.
But the Gentiles without the revelation of God, the articles of God the Jew had.
Was in a more desperate condition for we know all the idolatry was really Satanic and.
The Gentiles were subjected to.
All that awful controlling power of state.
The solemn thing that in our day that more and more in the very countries where the light of Christendom has been shining, that there is a turning away even to the worship of Satan.
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Going back to the very condition that Christianity has called for, those who have been brought under the gospel have been delivered from. So we're fast nearing the solemn end of this present dispensation of grace.
To that when he describes the condition of the Jew in the third verse, that he identifies it with the condition of the ones in the second, because he starts, among whom also we all had our conversation and time passed in the lust of our flesh.
Even although they were so privileged and had the oracles of God, still, if they were dead in trespasses and sins, their ways were actually no different. And that's what the prophets were continually telling them, that they were doing as bad or worse than the Gentiles.
And he had to say to them, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.
Now that is their conduct with soul, that it was difficult to tell any difference between them and the Gentiles, although they were more responsible because they had more light. And that's the solemn thing about Christendom. Today it has more light.
But the only unregenerate heart of the heathen and the unregenerate heart of a person in a Christian land is no different. And they both desire the same things. But because they're in the light, they don't want to go too much against public opinion. But as soon as public opinion goes down to a lower level, they do the things because they always wanted to do them, and they were only restrained by the light. And this is solemn, and this is what is taking place.
They say people are changing. They're not changing, but what was in their hearts was restrained by the light of the Bible and of Christianity. But as the light of the Bible is removed from the schools, as it's not read in the home, as we see the changing standards of the world, we see the people we never expected are doing things just because the unregenerate heart of man is always the same.
And the solemn warning is, as it's been remarked, that our hearts are the same. And if we're not walking with God, we think down to the level of things around us and become controlled by public opinion instead of by the word of God. And that's why when he brings out the blessed truth of new birth and a new life and being brought into this wonderful place, and then he also brings before us that we are to remember that we have been delivered from all this and that God has ordained good works, that we should walk in them.
It's a marvelous picture here of the grace of God to both Jew and Gentile, and where God has brought us. And the new life in the believer shows itself in the same way, whether it's in the heathen land or a Christian land, just as the unregenerate heart shows itself in the same way.
Brother Barry, could you give us a word on the difference, if any, between the children of disobedience?
Children of wrath.
I gotta hear what you have to say. I'd like to hear you, brother.
I really believe in the end of the second verse in Sons of Disobedience, is it not?
Sons of disobedience. And that is what characterizes man and his natural state.
Sons of disobedience. And I believe the Spirit is very carefully enough to say that we want some children of our sons of disobedience, but we were among them now when it comes to children of wrath.
It isn't a question of that responsibility before God, as it is that we were fit subjects of God's wrath and judgment. Now we were children of wrath. By nature we deserve the wrath of God. But sons of disobedience, I believe, are those who will go on and on and on and resist and resist and never receive the gospel of the grace of God. So he doesn't say we were sons of disobedience. He says we were among them.
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We all mixed in with them. We didn't know who they were and we couldn't point them out. But I believe there's a serious distinction. If we go on and on rejecting God's grace, that marks us out, sadly in that position as sons of disobedience, but every one of us will by nature the children of brand. What a deliverance we've got, we've got.
Do you think that would you suggest on that there should be the Bible reading in the homes?
Indeed, it's so important that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water, by the word, and much more So today, as our children are hearing the new ideas and the new morality and the new thoughts of men, How is it going to be corrected? The only way is we have it in Romans 12. It says be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
There's a certain course in this world, and if you hear those things and see those things continually, you're liable to take that shape. You pour some Jelly into a mold and you put it in the refrigerator and a little while it's taking the shape of the mold. And that's the thing. If you're continually left in this atmosphere with nothing to ever change it, we're liable to take the shape of the mold. But the the as it goes on to say that.
He transformed by the renewing of your mind that he may prove.
That good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Where are we going to find the will of God? We're not going to find it in the writings of them. We're going to find it in the word of God. And as we read it, while our minds are renewed, we say, well, this is God's truth. These are God's thoughts.
This is the wisdom that comes from above. And then we prove walking in it that it is good and acceptable. It's a happy path. And so if I might continue the illustration, if you pour that into the mold and then you take it out in 5 minutes, it doesn't take the shape of the mold. But if you leave it there, it does. And so it's certainly if there was ever a time when the reading of the word is needed in the home today. More than ever before, I believe.
You believe that if we neglect this that we will replace it with other things and that's the danger today.
Of replacing.
With other things, that which has always been.
The mind of God for his people, even in the Old Testament, they were not only to read these things, but they were to bring them before their children. And if we as parents are faithful in bringing the word of God before our children, our children will be preserved when they're exposed to these dangers from the outside.
Is that right? Yeah. The word of the Apostle Paul to Timothy the young man was in second Timothy 2. My son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Well, how are we to be strong if we don't plead?
Just as we need nourishment day by day, our breakfast and lunch and dinner, we need this to sustain our bodies, now we need this spiritual nourishment day by day. And wherever the word of God beloved is neglected, you'll find a low state among God's dear people.
My son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Reading the word of God, getting on our knees in prayer, Some young people get up in the morning, say good morning Lord, and go out to work. Well, they do acknowledge that, but.
Oh, how the need such a need of getting some spiritual nourishment before we go out to work. Just a few verses. You may not have time. And I do know that so many of God's dear people.
Do not have much time. They get up early and they go to bed late, back from their work. And we feel for our dear brethren who work that way. But just a few verses. The old method was the father would read a few verses at the meal hour and then get on his knees and commend the children to to God. It was a wonderful testimony in those days. This is largely being read.
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Neglected, don't you think? Well, we need the daily meditation reading, feeding upon the word of God, How we're to be strong if we don't and then in prayer.
Not to forget that and war. What about our war? And this word conversation here is really behavior.
I'll walk through this seam.
And Mr. Hayhoe used to always say another aspect to that. He said there is to confess Christ to others. That keeps you happy. Now that's a good thing to to do, to keep you happy. The Lord make him known to others.
A real exercise for one and all how far we are being conformed to this world. People are watching our waves or the way we dress, the way we in any way imitate the the waves.
With Lost World, that's going on hasting on to its judgment, so we can each one take that home.
I let her know where any way being conformed to this world. But then it is to be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may know what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
One wonders how many are reading to their children the book of Proverbs.
Now I believe it's very important.
To gain the principles found in the book of Proverbs.
I'm going to refer to 1.
In the 24th chapter.
Proverbs.
And verse 3.
True wisdom is an house builder.
And by understanding it is established.
And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
A wise man is strong, yeah. A man of knowledge increases strength.
Now I believe we can apply this in this way.
That each one is building a house spiritually.
And.
We find now it's connected here with it.
You know wisdom and knowledge together bring understanding.
And understanding is the wellspring of life we learn in Proverbs.
The reference here no doubt is to the honeybee, The honeybee.
Has a house filled with little chambers.
And as these chambers are filled which are 6 sided, I understand.
It's covered over, with the seventh sealed up.
Now that's what.
Should be the.
The practice not only of each one of us, but for our children.
To to give them that reserve that they might call on when they need it to build up in these little chambers.
That precious, that sweetness, not just knowledge as we speak of knowledge, but as that which is enjoyed in the soul. Because, brethren, I don't think we have any truth if we haven't enjoyed it.
It's really Christ, after all. And if we want the practical side, it's his life that's before us. And now are we filling these chambers and sealing them up one after another? The day is coming when we'll need it, and we'll find ourselves at an extremity, perhaps. And then we'll run to someone and we'll say, oh, could you give me a verse for this? I'm in trouble.
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Well, that started late, isn't it? How about filling these chambers so when the time comes, we have a reserve and we can we can rest on the principles of the word of God.
There's a verse in Psalm 103. I think it is.
He said his word and deliver them now if we don't have the word stored up and the sweetness of it.
How can the Spirit of God recall it to our?
So at the time we need it. So I believe this is a practice that we should have ourselves and for our children continually to store up the word of God.
I believe we get that principle for the young and Ecclesiastes 12/1. Remember now like Creator in the days of thy youth. So how do we do that? Well, by filling our souls with the word of God. I can remember that the first Bible was ever given to me.
To be my very own way back in around 1913, the Sunday School teacher wrote that verse in the flyleaf of my Bible. Remember now thy Creator. In the days of thy youthful He gave me something to remember the Creator by. I could read the word of God and and rejoice in what God has done, what Christ has done. And so I believe that we start with our youth to have our soul filled with the word of God.
And the water pots are filled with water. The Lord will see to it that the wine will take place.
The joy of.
That chapter gives us the reason why we remember the Creed in the days of well, the evil days come not in years to arrive, and I shall say I have no pleasure in them.
When I visited dear brother Tom Jones, about two months before he died, before he went home to be with the Lord, what was the soul filled with? The word of God. I can just sit down, listen to that product. Both the scriptures and how when he couldn't sleep at night, this farm had come before him and that why did he have all that preciousness of Christ in his soul? It wasn't sudden that was built up over those 98 years of life. Whatever how long he lived from the days of his youth, the soul was filled.
Word of God. And so it is that we remember our Creator in the days of our youth by reading His Word and meditating upon it, acting upon this lessons.
This 4th hers should should really touch our hearts because.
It was God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness in the first place.
And the Apostle Paul uses that in the 4th chapter of Second Corinthians.
To apply it now to the heart of man, God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
Has shined in our hearts.
To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. And so this this is really touching as we think of this. It's connected here with mercy.
And it's when we were far off as Gentiles.
That this mercy came to us.
We were destined to. We were without any resource whatsoever but God.
Two very important words are brought before us.
Mercy and love.
And he's rich in mercy. And it's according to his great love wherewith he loved us. And when did he love it? Or it wasn't when we were seeking after him? Well, there's none that seeketh after him. They've all gone out of their way. Dad was when there was not one single movement in our hearts towards him that he loved us. Now that's divine love.
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And we can't base it.
It's beyond man to think of the Blessed Lord's love going out even to those wicked soldiers that drove the nails to his hand.
And it's interesting to notice that when the Lord told His apostles to go out with the gospel, they were to begin at Jerusalem. Why Jerusalem?
Oh, it's just as all the Lord said. I want you to go back to the very place where they nailed me to the cross.
I want you to tell those poor soldiers that there's forgiveness for them. I want you to tell a soldier that thrust his tear into my spine that this full salvation forgiven. I want you to tell that gravel that cried away with him crucified, that I loved him and I want to share all my glories with him.
Well, that tells of his wonderful love.
That goes out to his enemies. For it was when we were enemies that we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.
And even as believers.
A young sister came to me and said brother smell Mr. Smith I I don't seem to be able to love the Lord enough, the Lord Jesus enough.
Could you make any suggestions? Well, I said.
Suppose you reverse it, and you dwell on his love for you instead of you thinking of your love for him. Well, she did, and she was wonderfully restored. She dwelt on his love for her. Or it was a real victory for that young woman in her Christian life. So it is, beloved. It's.
Not that we loved all, but that he first loved us. His love for me. Oh, that's wonderful to think of that, isn't it?
God delighted to assure his people of His love toward them, when we would perhaps least have expected it. Think of the 31St chapter of Jeremiah. And Jeremiah is the weeping prophet was announcing to them the judgment of God it was going to fall. But in that 31St chapter it says, Yeah, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.
And then to through their wilderness journey, we find that the end of the wilderness journey. We read these words. Yeah, he loved the people. All his Saints are in my hand that we turn over to Malachi. And there was a little remnant that had come back from the captivity. And it burdened the heart of Malachi the things that were going on and how they had departed. But he opened the letter, the word to them by saying.
The burden of the word of the Lord to Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord. I think this is very wonderful, because there might be some thought in our mind that the Lord loves us because we are going on with Him. But we see here that he loved us when we were dead in trespasses and sins, and he continues to love us, not because of anything that we are in ourselves, but rather, as our brother remarked, if there is a time when we perhaps have got away and we might doubt His love.
He wants to assure us that he hasn't changed, though we have, and that there's a way to come back and to.
Enjoy that long and I think it's lovely in the 15th of John, where the Lord speaks of this, he said. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love, And then the next verse says.
I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His law, and if you keep my commandments, she shall abide in my love.
Now that is, he loves us perfectly, but the enjoyment of it is according as we walk in obedience to him. The Lord walked in that path perfectly, so he always perfectly enjoyed His Father's love. There was never a moment when there was a shadow between him, he could say, at the grave of Lazarus. I knew that thou hearest me always. There was always perfect uninterrupted communion between him and the Father, and he walked in that path of.
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Obedience. Now He tells us that in the path of obedience we can enjoy that law, and if we have lost a sense of it, perhaps there's something that's come between. It isn't that He has changed, but when it's on we find that He is the same and we can enjoy it the same as before.
We had it brought out in a reading. In LL is a city of three and a half million souls.
And during winter, it's winter time. There, it's covered with a blanket of fog.
We were never warm, beloved until we got in bed with a hot bottle. It was so bitterly cold, the coldest winter on record.
But we were reminded that behind that fall bank, the sun was still shining. Well, it's wonderful to remember that there may come between your soul and the Lord Jesus form bank.
How is that dispelled communion, to dwell on his love? The sun still shines, although the glass skies a Gray one, and behind that blanket of fall.
The sun was shining beautifully when we got up into the plane at 35,000 feet, there wasn't a cloud.
His love never changed. I like that what you said, brother, concerning Israel. I have loved you.
Can we have? We can't find words to express the doubt. Have loved thee with an everlasting love. What a wonderful love And everlasting love never ends.
Well, we do well to dwell on this. And don't forget, beloved, there will be fog banks in your life and mine, but behind them his love shines for just the same, just the same.
All the objects diversity. I think it was brother GV Wigman and wrote those lines. Nothing but mercy will do for me. Nothing but mercy full and free of sinners. Sheep, what put the blood to calm my soul before my God. And yet as to his awkward life, he he lived a very conceptive life even before he was saved.
Robbie mothers fence that he was living but an object of mercy.
Now, I'm willing to be corrected in this, but Curtis said something like this that Grace is being brought into what we don't deserve.
Mercy is being spared what we do deserve.
Is that right?
So that brother, we need, don't we grace to sustain us along this Pilgrim way and mercy to restore us to communion? Well, those are not my words. Mr. Kelly mentioned that that we need grace to sustain us and mercy to restore us to communion. I like that statement. And so to the individual, its grace, mercy and peace.
But not so to the assembly. Mercy how we need it individually, especially so, beloved in these days of declension and untold problems that confront God's dear people. Oh how we need mercy to restore us.
To happy communion with his heart of love, now at the end of the of the Lord Jesus High Priestly Prayer, John 17.
There's a word there of excitation to us. From his own blessed lips he says that the love were with thou hast loved me be in them, and I in them.
Well, can we fathom that the love wherewith the Father loved him being us?
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We are to love one another too, with the pure heart fervently, and some render that at white heat, which may be a fairly good translation of it.
But that high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus, knowing that while we're in the world and we're not of it.
Said, I pray thee not to take these out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. And then he ends that high priestly prayer, such a wonderful prayer that the love were with Thou hast loved me being them, and I in them.
So we get in the first chapter in the seventh verse according to the riches of His grace. And here in the verse we're considering the fourth verse of the second chapter. God is rich in mercy.
So he's rich both in grace and rich in mercy too.
Now we shut it down as an active, that is.
Anytime the word God follows the blood we have blessings. But man follows and man pain follows the perspective. He introduced the sin and wickedness. I think of First Kings 11 where it says what Solomon lost many lives and so on. He gives us sin and degradation.
If we think of the second change of the flag of the Navy and it speaks of Navy and that is a plot, he was a level. Not only that, if we took as many of these references, we could see that where May and James followed what we're going to get saved and degradation.
And the failure rule. What if it's God's name College. But then we're going to get richness with mercy and blessings. But God commended this talk to us. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. How blessed them to see in this fourth verse but God wishing mercy?
And then at the end of it, where it says, ah, who loved us, we've had brought before us and verse two in time past the Gentiles in verse three, among whom also we Jews. And then we have a combined verse four. What God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, were written wrong off centers of the Gentiles, Jewish sinners, He loved God. One other thing in Acts 15.
Look at the grace of God that was operative in the soul of this man Peter, when he said that that council on the 15th of Acts.
Speaking about the Gentile verse 10. Now therefore, why can't he God to put a goat upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? And here's the verse I had in my verse 11. While we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and how lovely this is, we do shall be saved even the same Gentiles, he doesn't put it the other way around. A Gentile shall be saved as we but we we sinners.
Of Jewish people that had a place of nearness and closeness with the oracles of God, it says that we shall be saved, even if they how blessed to see this grace of God that was offered in the soul of the Apostle Peter, who expressed such words of those.
Raises back Not it doesn't only go on through eternity, but it reaches back into eternity. And the fourth verse of the first chapter We have according as he have chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. I was thinking of that in contrast to.
The star of the earthly people is since the foundation of the world.
But the believer today has been brought into a circle that we say that had no beginning. We have a beginning here, and it was a sad one. But the grace of God now has come in to his mercy. We're saved, but we were loved.
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Before the foundation of the world. And we were to be brought into that circle of love which is in large upon in the third chapter, where you get the inner man spoken of and that line of things to know the love of Christ.
There's the there's the end of the path that is it's to be brought into that sphere where only love is known forever and ever, but it's in God's counsel.
We were brought into it before the world began, now in the fifth verse.
He brings Jew and Gentile together, does he not, and.
Together with Christ.
So that I believe he's referring, is he not to both June Gentile brought together in one.
But in Christ.
So that it's one body, but it's in Christ.
I suppose all understand here that the word quickening simply means to give life for the words the new birth, but in this phrase it's not simply.
In connection with an individual being born of God and receiving life, divine life. But it's quickening together as soon as there's life, while then we find ourselves associated.
With all the people of God, and then it's all in Christ. So it's a wonderful view of life and connection with that wide circle, bringing in both you and Gentiles, all believers, in association with Christ himself.
We get love every chapter in this epistle, don't we? Thinking again, referring back to that verse that our brother has referred to in the fourth verse of the first chapter, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
That we should be avoiding and without blame before him in law. This is a purpose, wasn't it?
He chose us that we might be before him in love. And then in our chapter in the fourth verse, God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, He continues this fame, doesn't he? It seems like a a golden thread that goes through this epistle. And isn't that? Won't that be the eternal theme unto him who loves us and washed us from our sins in His love?
Precious this is and then in the third chapter and.
Verse 17 Then we have the prayer of the of the Apostle here that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that he being rooted and grounded in love. This is his desire for it, isn't it?
Well then in the 4th chapter.
We find also in the 15th first were to speak the truth in love, and grow up into him in all things. And this is the the purpose, isn't it? The whole body in the 16 first fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplier, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes an increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love.
Well then in the 5th chapter in a second verse he says the followers or imitators of God and dear children and walk in love. This is the theme of this whole purpose of God in love, isn't it? And then in the 25th verse, that precious verse there God of Christ love the church and gave himself.
For it nothing greater than this this love of his. And then he ends the epistle in the 6th chapter and the 23rd verse. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What a fullness.
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There is this lovely epistle begins with his choosing us for the purpose of love and in a past eternity, and it will continue, as our brother said, for all eternity, to another comments on that diverse that you refer to a brother in the third chapter, I think is important.
In connection with what we have before us this morning, and that is.
17 verse of the third chapter that Christ.
May dwell in your hearts now. This is not merely receiving him as our savior. This goes on.
That Christ may dwell, make us about live in your hearts.
By faith that she being rooted and grounded in law, that's the result may be able to really apprehend with All Saints. So I I believe the reason that so many of us are so slow to lay hold of the truth of God is because.
This is not really true of us in the fullest sense, that there are so many things that.
Come into our hearts and replace this.
But the Apostle here in his prayer desires that Christ might dwell in our hearts.
By faith, then, the result is that we will lay hold of that which pertains to the love of Christ, so on. So we'll throw in our souls, be enlarged in heavenly things, because in in love is our eternal portion.
I was wondering if we could connect this fifth verse with what we have in John 20, where it says that the Lord Jesus in resurrection breathed on them. He took his place as the head of new creation and imparted in that sense resurrection life saw that what we have here is life quickened us together with Christ. I believe that there is a position that we're brought into now in Christianity.
In the Old Testament, undoubtedly there were souls that possessed new life. In fact, there could be no blessing apart from that. And also we're told in the coming day that God will take away the Stony heart out of their flesh and give them an heart of flesh. New birth will take place. But there is something distinctive and peculiar to this present dispensation, and that is that we possess life in a risen Christ which we can now enjoy by the Spirit.
And enter into and enjoy the very thoughts of God. And so we have here quickened us together with Christ. And the sixth verse has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. Now this life that we possess now is a life in Christ risen. In the 4th chapter of Galatians we see that in the Old Testament they were in the position of a child under tutors and governors.
Not in the liberty of sonship, but when the fullness of the time would come. And then God sent forth his Son, and now consequent upon the work of Christ, and that he has risen and glorified, now we are brought just like that boy who was once under tutors and governors. Now he's in the full liberty of his position. He's declared as a son. He's an heir to the throne. Well, isn't it a wonderful thing that now?
We can sit here and possess the light and by the Spirit of God enter into and enjoy what is in the heart of God in a relationship that could not be enjoyed in this way in the Old Testament and will not be enjoyed in the same way. Even in the millennial time. There is a very special privilege that is ours now and God sees us, is already in the heavenlies in Christ and able to enter into and enjoy these wonderful things that we've been talking about.
I agree with you, Brother Hale. And then it's Dad. For by grace all you saved best we should in any way exhaust fell for a single self or a very superior to Israel. He reminds us it's holy of grace, not a merit in favor that you're brought into all this.
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Oh.
My father.