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General meetings, Montreal, October 1973 Second reading meeting.
We're right at the Long Island.
Captain of first.
Verse verse 7. The Cat Seasons, chapter 2.
Verse 7.
And in the age of the count.
He might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us.
Through Christ Jesus or by grace are you saved? True faith, and that's not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.
Not a word that any man should vote for. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus and the good work.
That God has before ordained that we should walk in that wherefore remember.
That he being in time past Gentiles in the place, who were called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision on the sash made by him.
At that time you were without Christ.
The aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel.
Rangers from the Covenant, having no hope and without God in the world, But now?
In Christ Jesus.
Ye who sometimes were far off, or made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace was made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in the flesh.
The enmities and the law of commandments contained in ordinances, or to make them himself a plain. 1 Newman, for making peace.
Now it might reconcile both under God and one body.
And thereby and came and preached peace to you, which were afar off, and to them were not. For through him we both have access by 1 Spirit under the Father.
Now, therefore, you're no more strangers and foreigners.
A. 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, grow up unto unholy capital in the Lord.
In whom yells, who are building together for inhabitation of God through the spirit.
He didn't comment on being seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so we really should go back to the sixth verse.
We did have reasons up together then we have made to sit together in heavenly places, not with Christ Jesus. Notice that they're reading carefully, but in Christ Jesus. To be seated with Christ Jesus's future. And someday that will be true.
00:10:10
Or will be not only down here in the scene, but we'll be up there.
And we'll be seated on his throne. We'll be seated with him. But now the believer is seen as in Christ before God, as you get in First Corinthians, one and 30 of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification.
And redemption. Now that's a present truth. And as to our standing, God sees us already as seated up there, because we're in Christ. And since Christ is there, we're seen as seated there in Him.
Words heavenly.
Places where period five times in this epistle. Notice please in verse three of chapter one.
Blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
In Christ, that's one. Then where we are in verse 6 and made us sit together in heavenly places.
In Christ Jesus. But in verse 20 of the same chapter one we have the words again.
And set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
That's three times mentioned and over in chapter 3 in verse 10 to the intent that not to the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.
Now in chapter six we have the same words.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, that's verse 12, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places or in heavenly places. As you notice, beloved, these are demons here in chapter 6, but in chapter 3.
And verse 10. They're good angels there. I'm sure you've noticed that. They're good angels. They're not demons there. And it is wonderful to notice that these reading in the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.
Now in the translation of this, we've put this way, they read in US the many colours.
Wisdom of God, like the rainbow. And these are angels that read in the Church, read in US the many colored wisdom of God. Someone suggested that they sing. But angels, as you know, don't sing, they say.
They say, but what do they say?
I just don't know when they see a believer walking badly.
One who is away from the Lord, a backsliding Christian. What do they say?
Or a disobedient believer. What do they say? I don't know. They understand one thing That's absolute obedience. But what do they say?
When those who belong to Christ are walking in dissension.
It's a very sad condition to be in, Beloved. What do they say? I wonder. But they read in the church.
The many colored wisdom of God will five times over in this one epistle these words appear, and I'm sure you've noticed that.
When I asked a question that if we are seen seated in heaven in the heavenlies that's we we think of Christ at the right hand of God and the heavenly glories. Why is there the necessity for the armor and conflict if we are in the heavenlies?
00:15:11
Wouldn't that give us another view of Joshua be said, which is?
Ephesians is that Joshua the New Testament? When and Joshua is the Ephesians of the Old Testament, and we find the children of Israel on their wilderness journey, and when they cross the Jordan, they're in the Promised Land.
But did they find rest or did they find warfare?
And conflict.
Canaan is often taken as a figure of our heavenly home and crossing the Jordan as Death taking us into the Father's house. But strictly speaking, Canaan.
As a picture of what we get in Ephesians as the heavenly places, that is where our blessings are found. The wilderness is the pathway from Egypt.
Where we learn what we are and we learn what God is for his people. But in Ephesians we have special we have the the subject we have in Josh Williams, a type.
And we find that as soon as they have crossed the Jordan that they are told that whatever they put their foot on, that was their position.
But they had to take that position out of the hand of the enemy, for there were seven nations. They are ready to oppose their progress. And so we're getting a spiritual view of our present blessings in Christ. They're not down here, they're up in the heavenly scene and.
Those.
Blessings are outside of this world.
They're all ours, oh what blessings we have. And as Ephesians starts out, blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
The beloved Saints of God, Satan, would rob us of every one of those blessings.
That is as to our eternal relationship with Christ.
Having eternal life that we can never lose, and as to the hope of his coming.
And as you are not belonging to this scene, but belonging to a heavenly scene, our heavenly calling.
All those wonderful truths that separate us from a world that's ruled by the Prince and God of this scene, Satan, would rob us and have us to go home in compromising way over this lost world.
So we are there in spirit already to enjoy those blessings, and you can't think of any more perfect way of expressing or being in possession of those blessings than being seated there to enjoy them, to enter into them, and to make them good in our souls. But there is the enemy seen in the 6th chapter, and so we find that no sooner has.
Joshua passed over Jordan. Then he meets the man with a drawn sword. That is that he was going to find conflict.
They must oppose the enemies.
And interim rule they took.
In the wilderness, Israel did have some conflict with Amalek, the flesh Speaking of the flesh. But the wilderness was not the proper place of conflict, as you pointed out. It's when the Lord introduced them into, shall we say, the area of the fullness of their blessing that the opposition comes. Now Satan doesn't mind well, he he would hinder us believing in Christ that if we're Christians.
00:20:04
Keep us worldly minded. He's accomplished his purpose and God would have us occupied with those glories of Christ in heavenly places where we are seen in association with Him. But if we do not have the armor we are not going on with those things. Then the enemy will gain the advantage as happened to Joshua and his armies at the city of AI where there was not the proper self judgment they they failed.
God brought in mercy later, but judgment fell too, and so I believe it's important to see that heavenly places. It brings before us the area of proper Christian conflict with Satan. Not flesh and blood, but spiritual wickedness.
We need to be in the enjoyment of the fact that it's already ours, because before they started that conflict at all, God outlined the limits of the land and told them that it was all theirs. Then what they their soles of their feet rested upon became theirs in actual possession. But they must know that it was all theirs before the conflict would be worthwhile.
And so how wonderful it is that we start out with the knowledge that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. But more than this, we're already seated there. Now that is in God's purposes. He sees us already in the possession of these things. The enemy doesn't want us to enjoy them now, as we shall in the future day enjoy them without any hindrance. Just as in the reign of Solomon, Israel enjoyed the land without conflict.
Because that was a picture of the rest that God will bring in for his earthly people. And so we look forward to the time when conflict will be over. We'll enjoy those things without any conflict. But now to enjoy them requires a conflict, because the enemy doesn't want us to enter into these things by faith. And I, as we remarked before, I believe that's why he's called the Prince of the power of the air.
And a spiritual conflict in the heavenlies. That is, he doesn't want us to lift our eyes above this scene and be in be in the enjoyment of those things. And that's where it comes in. But let us be clearly settled about this to start with, that they're all ours, and that God sees us already there and no matter what failures they may be along the way, now that God is going to bring each one of his own safely through to enjoy it.
What a loss both to our own souls and in testimony when we're not enjoying them down here. That's why we've been left here, the Lord Jesus, in his prayer said. I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the evil.
I'd just like to say in connection with the so-called Lord's Prayer. And when the Lord taught the disciples to pray, they were praying for the Kingdom. Thy Kingdom come. But the king has been rejected and the Kingdom has been postponed. And saw the 17th of John when the Lord prayed, he didn't pray thy Kingdom come, Instead he prayed. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me out of the world.
For they are thine. In other words, He didn't ask for the Kingdom then. He wastes the Father's time for that. But all brethren, He prays for us that we might be in the enjoyment of our portion now, that we might be preserved from a world that would hinder us from enjoying these things as we pass through. And the enemy doesn't care what he uses from within or without, if he can only keep us from the enjoyment of these things.
But the Spirit of God would lead our souls to enter into them and enjoy them today.
I was thinking of your comment on Joshua brother.
When they crossed over Jordan.
There they were met by one with a drawn sword in his hand.
The Lord Jesus met him there, and he goes up to him. He says, Art thou for us or for our adversaries? And the answer is very wonderful. Nay, as captain of the host of the Lord and I come, and we read the Joshua, Phil, on his face, And the word from the Lord there was take those shoes, Walk your feet. The place on which thou standest is holy ground.
00:25:20
Well.
It's just like it's individual as well as collective belong. The Lord Jesus would teach us that he is supreme.
There he is supreme in the Assembly.
As he desires to be supreme in each life.
And there is Joshua. Just as if the Lord would say to Joshua you're a pretty good general. But I'm boss here, and there's nothing more unseemly for a soldier to have bare feet. He was Joshua with bare feet.
Well, there he was, without any shoes. He was just a soldier.
In the ring, the Lord Jesus was chief there, supreme there, and it's a nice lesson for us now. Later on, of course, the children of Israel are driven out of those pastures, and they reach a place called bokim, which means place of tears, and there they weep before Jehovah.
Well, I've often thought of it, brethren, in connection with.
The division among our dear people there is mercy invoking, but what about the wasted years?
Came to my mind was this. There was a rent among us 20 years ago in one of the main meetings in Bolivia through a leader, one who posed to be a leader to take the supreme place. He was well to do. He had minds, antimony mind, he had a big business and he took over with the result that half went with him.
Now I just got a letter before I came here from one of the laborers saying, Brother Smith, you remember the rent 20 odd years ago.
The leader has been taken away.
He died an unhappy man. And all the others, 15 of them have requested their place at the table again and they've been received, and happily so. Although he he said we don't perceive them in groups, we prefer to receive them individually. But there was a work of grace. Well, there's mercy. Invoke him, beloved. But what about the waste of years?
Oh, that's the sad part of any trouble in the assembly assemblies.
The wasted years. We thank God this mercy there. But the wasted years.
May we be very careful what we do, any decisions we take that are not according to word.
Don't you think? Brother Smith is very striking? The answer?
The man with a drawn sword gave to Joshua. Joshua says, Art thou for us or art thou for our enemies? A a trip on quoting that right, that was the thought. But he didn't say, I'm for you on all occasions, but as captain of the hosts of the Lord and my sins.
Now as long as Israel where the acting in the spirit of the hosts of the Lord and it was only as obedient men, they could be the hosts of the Lord. Their victories were sure when they went to Jericho they were acting and obedience to the command of the Lord to surround the city 7 times.
With Ram's horns blowing preceding the Ark and so on the when he went to AI, was the was he there the captain of the host of Israel? He was not. He let them go down in defeat. So it is we're going to be victorious in connection with the attacks of the enemy. It must be in walking in the path of obedience.
For the Lord may allow us to realize how we have missed His mind, how we're acting in the spirit of independence, seeking to have our own wills to please ourselves in some way instead of seeking only the mind of the Lord.
00:30:19
Our brother Smith made reference to both him and I remember there on that passage in Judges is a very striking statement there.
It says the Angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Vulcan. The children of Israel had left Gilgal. They left the place that spoke of self judgment and humiliation before God, that we should speak of their confessed weakness and nothingness. And they had gone up from there. They had gotten into a higher position. And so it says the Angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal. If Israel were going on as they should have, they would have been remaining at Gilgal, as it were. They would have been going there themselves.
In self judgment. And so was it was God's grace. The brothers pointed out that he sends the Angel up from Gilgal to go after them and give them the message that brings the tears. But again there was there was those lost years. They they lost much blessing through their disobedience. But I believe Gilgal is the secret of it, that that's what the failure was when they went up to AII believe.
If there are not some years of self judgment, there will be the tears for lost victories, because the Lord has to deal with us. He loves us too well to leave us to our own self will, but it surely cast us upon him that we might be humble before him. Because I thought of Joshua saying that art thou for us or for our adversaries, we would think that such a spiritual man of Joshua would have recognized who this was.
But doesn't it show how? We can't trust our own hearts, and we may not see the Lord's hand in a circumstance that he may be sending, and that ought to have been a time of blessing Instead of this, there was a time when even Joshua had to be humbled. But I feel that there's a real lesson in the fact that such a wonderful man is Joshua didn't realize and had to say, art thou for us or for our adversaries?
We ought to see the Lord's hand in every situation that comes because he has allowed it for some purpose. And what they were or should have been learning Mayor at Gilgal was going to be necessary for them, not only then, but in every future occasion and every future victory. If there was such a thing as victory, if they neglected Gilgal, it would be defeat. There would be tears, but they would be tears for what was lost instead of tears of self judgment.
Well, when we get to the seventh verse where our brother began to read.
Were carried into the coming ages, to be revealed that he might show the exceeding riches of his grace.
Any kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Brother Albert Taylor, I've heard you give a contrast with what Satan said to the Lord in the temptation. Would you give that?
Well, I think it's mentioned that when he was taken up to an exceeding high mountain, he was shown all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and the scripture says in a moment of time.
That apparently is all the time it took to show to the Lord all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. But it seemed an interesting contrast here that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. That is what we have before us as compared to what the world has to offer is just not worthy of comparison, and it just seems to be so beautiful in linking the two verses together.
To see what we already possess, where we already stand, and what it gets before us.
Dust seems to me to be no doubt at all that if this were real to us, all of the world has to offer would certainly be something to be turned away from. The Lord found it no claim. A song. Where had he come from? He had come from all the glory of heaven itself. What did the glory of this world look like to one who had come to this world from the glory of heaven?
00:35:20
Though we are already, by the grace of God, possessors of all those spiritual blessings.
Seated together in heavenly places in Christ. And we're soon going to be there, I'm sure of that.
I imagine this morning in the.
The riches of his grace. And then in the fourth verse God who is rich in mercy.
Lovely to see the way the Spirit of God advances in giving us this thought of riches. For in this verse it's not only the riches of his grace, but the exceeding riches of his grace.
Sometimes we need to just go through Ephesians.
And justice seek to discover how rich we are.
Now the third chapter, you get the the riches of his glory, don't you? That takes us to another thought. That's beautiful. The unsearchable riches of Christ too, in chapter 3 and 8.
Would this be perhaps the picture intended in that verse? You know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich.
Yet for your safety became poor, that he through his poverty might be risk. I remember a long time ago meditating on that verse and thinking of the literal actual poverty that the Lord sees us experienced when He was here from his birth onward. But I really felt eventually that that was not the thought, because his material poverty has not resulted in a promise for our material riches.
But rather the riches that we possess are those which are spoken out here. And perhaps that which he endured stands out in, to me, very beautiful contrast to the richness that we possess.
I don't know whether I should elaborate on it, but it is so wonderful to me. I hope you'll forgive me, but it seems to me that every rich blessing that we enjoy so much has in Scripture as a contrast that which the Lord Jesus endured in order that we might possess it. I've never come to the end of it, but perhaps just a few that would start us thinking that is.
The Lord Jesus Christ, my God, my God, by hast thou forsaken me.
He turns to us, and says, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. He says, I look for some to take pity, and there were none like the father pity of his children. So the Lord pity of them, and fear him. I look for comforters, and I found none. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. They parted my raiment among them, and cast lost upon my vesture. Bring forth the best robe and put it on him.
They pierced my hands and my feet, put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. They planted a crown, thorns, and put it upon His head, whose crowns thee with loving kindness and tender mercy, away with Him, Crucify Him, Let us draw near with a true heart. It's just the beginning, but there really is no ending. The very blessing that should mean so much to us, if taken in relation to that which he endured, seemed to become that much more beautiful to us.
We find, too, that it's a subject that will never wear out.
Ages and ages before us, and the seeding riches of His grace will be just as precious, just as wonderful, just as much delighting our hearts as we can enjoy them now. So beloved, are we not enjoying something very wonderful.
00:40:01
Something amazing, this grace of God. This God is rich in grace and rich in mercy. To think that.
We're considering the subject that will fill all heaven with a theme that never, never wears out.
What he wants us to realize too, is that it's all of grace, that we didn't deserve it. Under the law, man was to gain something if he could this do and thou shalt live, but he couldn't get any blessing on that ground. But how marvelous that God starts out here with us dead and trespasses and sins. He's rich in mercy. He has great love. And then this grace has been shown to us, and there's no end to it.
And all were so reliable to think about. Well, I am a poor failing thing. I don't deserve this or that. Oh, brethren, let us not forget it's all of grace. It's not at all because we deserved it, even the very faith to believe, as we see here as a gift.
Saw that God acts from himself, He acts for himself in blessing us. And if we get hold of this then we can, just as it were, relaxed as they did at the Red Sea, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Then they marched forward into ground that had already been prepared, and they didn't have to push back the waves. They didn't have to swim across the sea. It was open for them. And they walked through it. They just stood still and saw it.
And that's the important thing. Christendom is full of telling people to do this and do that, for the principle of law is very natural to the human heart. We like something that we can take credit for ourselves about. Before we were saved, we wanted to feel we could do something to earn salvation. And after we're saved, we're still able to get occupied with doing this as though it were going to obtain favor from the Lord.
All of us start out with this glorious fact that we have here, that God is acting from Himself and that the blessing that He bestows is not because we deserve it or ever will deserve it for the ages to come. We're going to be continually reminded that it's all of grace, and if we get hold of this of them, this is what gives us power and desire to live to please Him.
To try to please him, to obtain a blessing, or to obtain his favor, is to return to the principle of law. But to realize that all this is ours by sovereign grace, and then to do what we do and how little it is, but just out of gratitude for Him, And that is what is brought before us. That's the kind of return of heart that is precious in His sight, even little as it is, He values any small response there is to His love.
And singing care of that word kindness.
Toward us through Christ Jesus.
That would remind us of the man that was stripped and beaten and left half dead on the roadside.
Seeing the priests and the Levi pass and go on the other side, and then the kindness of that stranger to go there and bind up his wounds and pour in all the wine, set him on his own beast.
Taking to an inn and take care of it. I'm sorry to a young man one time that was in the war.
And he told me that he was shocked and fell into a shell hole. And he said there was a wounded Germans down in that shell hole. And he said he let up a scream and a groan. And he said I shook him. And then he said I lay down and he said, what did that German do? He said he took off his coat and put it on me and covered me up. And he said when I woke up.
That German was dead without his coat.
There I was.
Blessed by the kindness.
Of that soldier that I treated so unkindly when I fell into the shell hole. Well, I don't know if the man was a Christian or not, but we can certainly say this.
00:45:01
That there was something Christ like, wasn't it? Instead of showing resentment toward an enemy who was fighting and who treated him so, so without any mercy?
To show nothing but kindness to him in his trouble.
The prodigal would have been satisfied to be made a servant, but I was thinking of the kindness of the Father's heart. If the Father had received the prodigal back as a servant, it would have been a permanent testimony to the prodigal sin. Why is he a servant? Oh, he went off. That would never, never have satisfied the father's heart. The father eradicates every feeling or or doubt as to the acceptance of the prodigal.
And he doesn't allow him to save and make me as a servant. He's brought there as a son. What kindness, what mercy that he should be brought. And so here we have seen in this high and exalted position, together with Christ, and God is going to unfold the glorious person of Christ to us through all eternity. Is there going to be gold in heaven? Wonderful trappings? I don't know. But if Christ is going to be there, he's the center of the scene and it's he is He's the one.
That will fill our hearts with joy, and they ought to be filling them with joy and satisfaction now if we will allow it.
He deserved death and will. Ordinarily, when a man becomes a king is David, Then under those circumstances he would do away with everyone else who challenges right to to the throne. But instead David showed the kindness of God to him and brought him to his own table out of the servant.
But as one of the King's songs and as he sat at that table.
His his disability was under the table. He was lame on both his feet, out of sight and to look around the table, you wouldn't know that he had anything wrong with it. There he was sitting as one of the King's son at Davis table and that position that we're in by grace.
I like the translation of the Romish Bible concerning Ephesians 2 and five.
For by Greece are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, purely natural.
Lest any man should vote.
Well, purely natural. Yet how difficult it is for that system to not charge for everything that they do?
Wanted to speak, disparaging of them. But that's the rendering of the Roman Catholic Bible. Purely natural.
No, there's nothing we can do to merit. It's all of grace, dear brother. Jackson used to always say brother, it's pure sovereign grace. Always used to say that it's pure sovereign grace all the way through.
Lovely in our little hymn book A little flock that it should begin with. Of all the gifts thy love be stole, thou giver of all good, not heaven itself. A richer nose than the redeemers. Blood faith to that trust, that blood through grace from that same love we gave as sweetly as it suits our case. The gift had been in vain.
So not only are we indebted to God for his grace in giving Christ.
As a Savior for our sins, but for the faith that enables us to trust in the value of His precious blood.
That was one of copper's him. But it seems remarkable that that should be the beginning of all those beautiful hymns.
Faces the response to that grace, is it not? And there wouldn't be salvation without faith, but it's the response of the heart to the grace that show. And so the soul answers in that way because the righteousness of God that's given to man is on the principle of faith. It's God's righteousness, but it's true faith, and so without faith it's impossible to please him.
00:50:16
It isn't simply that we take up with a certain line of doctrines.
But the soul sees himself as a guilty Sinner, and the apostle Paul said that he he ceased not wherever he went to preach repentance.
In connection with this faith, we get that in the 20th of Acts I believe, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. So those two things go together.
And I think that today there's a great deal of stress laid upon simply.
Ascending to a doctor but.
We find in this chapter that first of all the condition of man's soul. He's dead and trespass and sins, and there is such a thing as repentance connected with salvation. So I believe that here where it says faith, it embraces. That faith includes the owning of what we are in ourselves and accepting what God gives as the remedy.
Otherwise there would be no need of a remedy.
This subject is really a family secret, isn't it? We don't preach this to the world.
But we can enjoy it after we're saved to see that the very faith that has enabled us to accept Christ and to trust in Him was just as much a gift as the Savior himself.
Our brother, Clifford Brown, has put it in this way.
That if my faith was.
Dependent on myself or then I would say, well, I know I was just as bad as my neighbors. But there's one thing I had better judgment than my neighbors because I believe the gospel. He didn't. And so I'd have something to boast of after all. So the very faith that accepts the Savior is the gift of God.
Divine work in the soul.
It could be shined to a verse in Romans 8 to relate to this.
Romans 8.
And.
Verse 7.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God.
Lord is not subject to the law of God. Neither, indeed can be. This verse, I believe, settles for us.
Three things.
Man's total depravity, his inability to come to God at all. Next, it establishes the need which God foresaw of exercising his sovereign grace and choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Then if God has chosen the in Christ, the third thing is I've got to be eternally secure. So man's depravity, eternal security, and God's sovereignty and salvation all go together. This verse in Romans 8 shows that it's impossible for me by any natural ability of my own to lay hold of this salvation which God offers in grace. I'm responsible. I don't. I don't want to do away with man's responsibility. I'm responsible to receive it.
I'd like to repeat I got in under the tail end of Brother Potter's ministry. I was quite a young man. He was right at the end of his days, but he summed this up. I've been 6 words.
All.
May none will, and some shall remember that, and I believe that gives us the whole picture up. But Romans 8 gives us the key to the need of this faith being given to us.
See, when we consider the sovereignty of God, we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
So God had us already marked out, and when the time came in His grace, He gave us the faith to believe, so that we have nothing whatever to boast of. It's all of himself.
00:55:12
With our brother remark, God must bring us to the end of ourselves, and so that it isn't repentance, and then faith it is. Repentance is of faith. The very fact that a man repents or a change of mind, is because God has wrought in him that confidence.
In his Word that tells him of his true state. And then when one has learned from God's Word what his true state is before God.
Now then, God imparts the faith to believe in what Christ has done to meet us in that need. There is a translation of the Bible that sort of gives the sort of denies the thought here that it's faith that is the gift of God. But it's very important for us to see that it's not merely that salvation is a gift, but the faith to receive it as a gift and as that verse in Romans tells us, and also in John One.
Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So the beginning of the work in the soul is God himself giving light, and when he does, then immediately he gives life, Then there is confidence in him.
And a man like he finds himself in a terrible condition that he doesn't, he didn't realize before.
Perhaps you go to the doctor and you think you're all right, but he discovers something. If you have confidence in the doctor, immediately, you acknowledge that that's your condition and that you need a remedy. And I believe it's important for us to see too, brethren. Now that face cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, because there's an attempt made today to establish the truth of the Bible through science. Now, if we just believe the Bible because science proves it's true.
Then we actually believe science and not God. Because if you only believe a thing because of someone elses word, then you haven't believed it on the word of the first person who told you. If you told me something today and I said, well I'm going to ask several people if that's true and I come back to you in a week and I say, well, I believe it. Now you'd say, well you didn't believe it because I told you.
You believe that because of what others said. Now if we only believe the Bible because we have some external proof, it's not faith in God, and that kind of thing will be shaken. And that's why it says that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And so I quote that verse again, have faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And here again it comes what our brother remarked this this morning, the importance of reading the word of God.
People say, well, how do you know it's the word of God? Isn't God able to reveal himself? Every one of us in this room who are saved this afternoon are a proof that God has revealed himself to us through his word, and we need nothing more than the fact that God has revealed himself and given us the faith to believe. We may find many things in science that bear out the truth of the Bible, but that's not why we believe it. We believe it because God has made himself known to us through His words.
Have often said the Thessalonians, when they heard Paul preach, they didn't go and seek some other testimony. It says they received it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth the word of God. The result was, they believed, when he preached at Berea.
They listened. They compared it with the word of God. And therefore many of them believe, oh, may the Lord grant, that we'll recognize the authority of the Word of God. And the God is able and still does reveal himself through His word. Our dear brother Miller of Hamilton has just gone to be with the Lord. I can remember how he used to open the Sunday School in Hamilton, and he would mention that verse.
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. He pressed on the children the importance of the word of God, the prodigal, when he was in the far off country, and he had spent all.
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It says he came to himself.
But what was it that made him come to himself? That's the point. It was.
The Spirit of God brought before him thoughts of the Father's house.
Now in this book that we're considering the first chapter, we have the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the first chapter, and 2nd to have a great deal to do with the subject of God. It's his nature and the judicial side of things. But before we finish the chapter, we'll notice that we have access to the Father now.
That's developed in the third chapter, more so it's the Father that's in view because it's relationship that we enjoy now as children. We've been brought into that place of relationship. But who was it that taught us this? We didn't learn it from anything that was in our own minds. No, the Spirit begins, and when he begins, he begins to teach us about the Father. But it wasn't until he found himself.
In these dreadful circumstances, without resource.
Now that was of God, was it not? And so it isn't the severity of God that brings us to repentance.
He may allow the severity, but he uses it to awaken the soul so that he can speak those things that will bring the soul to repentance. That's the goodness of God. And so on. The prodigal starts home. Now he's going to approach his father on certain grounds of his own. He hasn't yet learned the fullness of the grace that would meet his name. He feels he can go to his father.
But as a servant, but on the way home, he must have learned some more because he never mentions when he gets home.
About being a servant, he just says, Father, I've sinned and I believe that that's that's a beautiful picture for our souls of the Sinner. And if there's one coming to God, if there's one here in the room this afternoon, who has come to himself.
Why? It's the Father's house that's before you. God is offering you salvation. He's offering you deliverance, forgiveness of sin.
And you'll remember them no more if you simply believe in Jesus as your savior. Don't you think, Brother Dundee, that the reason why he didn't add the part that he intended to say when he made-up his little speech in the far country that make me as one of thy hired servants? How could he, when the father's arms were around him and he covered him with kisses? That was the kiss of rank and reconciliation. He'd received him back not as a servant, but as a son. So he just omits that part.
Yes, I I think that's right.
But don't you think that there was some preparation when the woman swept the house? The whole all three are one one parable, it says, the shepherd seeking the sheep, the woman sweeping the house with a coin that was lost, and the father who embraces the prodigal. And so it seems to me that the spirit of God was working on the way home, so that when that moment came, he was ready for it. I believe it will help us to understand the 15th of the move from Nevada and mine.
There could be no exercise. The soul of the sheep, the silver, could show no activity. So if we didn't have the particle sun, we wouldn't have God's side of working in his soul to bring him back. And so as you point out, that it was exercised. The prodigal Son gives us the the crowning part of the parable, showing God's working exercises in his soul, which could not be brought out in the sheep or in the silver.
In John's gospel, I just want to want to ask a question here in connection with this in this 5th chapter of John.
We find in the 39th verse.
In John 5 and verse 39 the Lord Jesus says, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me, and you will not come to me that you might have life. Well, I take it that these scriptures testified of him, and so they set their wills against us. They searched the scriptures, but it wasn't there. They didn't see the person of Christ.
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Then when you come to this, that's man says the Lord Jesus says you will not. That is, man says his will against this doesn't he sets his will against God. But then you go over to the 6th chapter and the 44th verse and the 6th chapter we find the Lord Jesus, the bread of life. And so he says here in the 44th verse of the 6th chapter, no man can come to me.
Except the Father which has sent me draw him. Well, I was wondering if this wouldn't be like the constraining love that was in the Father's heart. We set our wills first against the Lord Jesus. We say we will not, and then then we can't come except the Father draws. There's a there's that drawing, constraining love, the Father that draws us. And so in the end we can't say.
That this fate was something that I acquired myself. I was just wondering if that. But it's the it's the it's only the the drawing heart of God that gives me the faith to believe. It's only his drawing that brings me to Christ.
Just submit that. I wondered if that was all right.
Makes me think rather little of what I was told about Brother close. He was preaching on the street and dressing.
Many years ago. And there was an infidel that was listening who made it his business to try to keep up the Lord's servants or anyone that was a Christian. So he followed Brother close and asked him the question, what does that mean? No man can come on to me except the Father, which has sent me drawing rather close, turned around and he had very piercing eyes. He said, You better listen to that one that's calling that's growing you.
And left him. That was really a shock for his conscience.
I think it's lovely to see the heart of God in all that because although we do realize with Thanksgiving, I hope that the blessings that we enjoy are the result of the sovereign grace of God.
Yet I wonder sometimes if when we get thinking about it, it might seem to affect liberty in preaching the gospel that whosoever will I wonder if there are those who have pondered it and found a little problem in that Well, a very strange picture in Scripture gave me a wonderful relief after that, and it was the Lord Jesus weeping over Jerusalem.
And you know, just to read that, and I hope it's all right, just a picture to oneself. The Lord Jesus standing on the hill overlooking that city with I believe it's right that tears running down his cheeks as he said, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem is the prophets and kill us then that are sent unto thee. How often would I have gathered thy children together?
As a hen gatherer her brood under her wings, and he would not, And so the sovereignty of God grace that has reached out and picked us up, and redeemed us, will be a cause of eternal Thanksgiving. But I certainly need not hinder the liberty of the Evangelist, who would preach the love of God to whosoever will, for when the Lord Jesus, who had the destiny of souls in his trust, if we might say so.
Wept over the city of Jerusalem. With longing like that, the early week and pride, at least two may have something of that spirit.
Don't you think till we learn a very important lesson from what the Lord says there in the 6th of John, that no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me. Draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day as the Lord the perfect servant.
Independence until the Father drew a poor Sinner to him, and then he saved him and gave him eternal life. There's such danger of wanting to see some evidence of work of results in our gospel preaching that perhaps we don't wait unless the Father bring the souls that he is exercising to a place.
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To give us an opportunity.
To point them to the savior of sinners, the Apostle Peter and the 10th of Acts preached to a whole house full of the elect. The Apostle Paul on Mars Hill didn't have quite such a selection. There were a few that heard and believed. Others mocked. Others put it off. So God in this grace will give one servant to reap a large crop.
Evidently so. And others. There may be just a few that seemed, but as long as they're those that the Father has given Christ, it's a wonderful thing to be an instrument in that way to bring them in.
I'll never forget what Brother Clifford Brown said once to me. He says there'll be no more souls in heaven because of my faithfulness, and there'll be no more souls in hell because of my unfaithfulness.
So he says all I can do is to fit in with a Divine plan and if I get to thinking that the Lord can't get along without me, He may give me a vacation. I hope that thought fitting in with the Divine plan is very important for us. That is, if God is going to use any of us as His servants, He is going to use us to just accomplish.
Some of His eternal purposes that He had in Christ. And if we think that we're important that we're doing something, He may let us down and let us realize how we've missed His mind.
Good to notice too that in Second Corinthians chapter 2 it says we are under God a sweet savor of Christ. In them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we are a saver of death unto death, and to the other the savior of life, unto life.
And who is sufficient for these things?
We must always bear in mind that the gospel is concerning God's beloved Son.
And the first thing in the gospel is the glory of Christ. And so it's for the glory of Christ that the gospel, the message of his love, should be announced to the world, whether they receive it or not. If people were to break into your home and steal, and you offer to pardon them, and they refuse it, when the case comes up in court, your name is brought before the court as one who was willing to pardon these people even though they refused it.
And God delights to honor his Son, and he loves sinners. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so in telling out the gospel, I believe, rather than that we should have this first thought that it's for the glory of Christ. The gospel is concerning God's Son.
And then the blessing of the Sinner comes in. But it's part of God's plan for the glory of Christ. And so if some receive the pardon, why there's going to be glory brought to Christ because of that wonderful work is going to bear fruit in their blessings. But if they reject it, God is still glorified that he loved the Sinner enough to send his Son to die and to offer salvation to whosoever will.
And I think if we keep in mind that the thought in the gospel is the glory of Christ, that it will help us to tell it out according to his heart. Or it's not just to tell it out, but it's a serious thing and a blessed privilege to be in this world is representatives for Christ to seek to tell out what's in the heart of God, to seek to tell us the love of Christ, the sinners. And unless we have done it in the Spirit in which the Lord wept over Jerusalem, we haven't properly represented his heart.
He loves sinners. He seeks their blessing. But he's not going to be frustrated. And if all refuse, he's going to see to it that summer brought in. That's his sovereign grace.
Well, we read, wasn't it, when Paul and Barnabas were preaching that as many as were ordained to eternal life believed? And yet that didn't.
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Make them feel that they shouldn't give out a message to everyone that was.
They're listening to the Word. They certainly must have preached the Word to whosoever, but after all they're they're preaching. The ones that God had marked out for glory were the ones that got saved. But if if we only try to go on and and just talk to those who are the Lords who are going to accept the Lord, we will find ourselves and.
Restricting our work.
There were a brother that said in talking about preaching to the elect, there is a group in all that say they only preach to the elect. Well this brother said if you could put a chalk market, chalk mark on all the electrical, I'll just preach to them.
But who can do that? But that wouldn't be according to the heart of God, would it? Because God wants the message told to even those who reject it, whereas under God a sweet savour of Christ, and then the perish because God delights to have the love of his Son announced.
Even if sinners refuse it. And oh how wonderful the privilege I think of the Lord Jesus.
Going over to the parts of del minutia and they wouldn't receive it. And the Lord Jesus sighed deeply in spirit and returned. Did he make a mistake in going when there was no fruit? Oh no, He was there, and they had the opportunity. They saw that he had crossed there and come there in grace. And so let us not be weary, brethren. God delights to have his son well spoken out. The end of that story is it not?
Rather that when the Lord came back, the man that he had left behind, that he wouldn't take with him, had brought a whole company down to the shore of me, wasn't that right? And so that the results of being left here.
The man who wanted to go with the Lord, he wouldn't permit him to go with him, but when the Lord returns to that place having.
Told them what great things the Lord had done for him, why he has a great company, waiting for the Lord to be blessed when the Lord returns. I was thinking too, and this connection, that in Matthew 13 we have the seat received in four different ways.
Now three of the ways there was no fruit, but were the ground was plowed.
And the seed fell into good ground. It bore fruit varying degrees.
I believe that the one who is sad if he speaks the word faithfully as.
Under the eye of God can expect the word to reach the conscience of those that hear, because in Matthew 13 it says the seed.
Fell into the heart, that is that was fell by the wayside the enemy came, or the birds of the air as the illustration used to ****** those those seats out of the heart.
You'll notice that if you read it, it fell into their heart. Now it wasn't received in the heart, really, unless it went through the conscience, but it reached it. And I believe that if the one who's preaching the gospel.
Preaches, as said of God, to preach the word. Conscious that the Lord sends him. He can count on the fact that it will reach the conscience of those who hear, whether they receive it or not.
And so we got that expression that was read to us in Corinthians, a savior of life unto life, or of death unto death.
I'm glad that side of it has come up. It reminds me of an occasion that I I think Gordon may remember the number of us had been to one of the communities outside Ottawa and returned home on Saturday evening feeling a little cast down, I think because there had been so little, if any interest in the place where we had been trying to preach. And we made known our feelings to father, and he quoted that very first to us.
To encourage us a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that Perry and I remember the illustration he used, he said. Suppose there was a family down the street that was in desperate circumstances. So we make up a basket of groceries and I say to you son, takes this down to that needy neighbor and tell them that we simply send it with love. So after a while you return home again with your clothes rather torn and your nose bleeding. And I I say, son, what happened? Well, as soon as I offered them this basket and mentioned your name.
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They pushed me down the steps and said they didn't want anything to do with it.
So I say, well, son, let's wait till tomorrow and we'll try again. So the next day you go back and come back treated the same way every time I send you down to that neighbor, it would simply magnify the love and generosity and kindness that we want them to know about. And every time you present Christ, even if that's the kind of treatment you get, it presents the heart of God to man, and God is delighted to hear it.
Oh, I believe that is an encouragement to those who try to preach the gospel. And I'm glad that side of it came up that it does rejoice the heart of God to hear that lostrom play. And I I remember hearing it remarked even in connection with the verse that was mentioned a moment ago. As many as were ordained to eternal life believe that Acts 13.
Q. Versus further down in the first verse of the 14th chapter, it says they sow space.
They're a great mother to believe. Well, to put those two verses together I think is quite interesting. In the one verse, as many as were ordained to eternal life believe. But this didn't make those who were presenting the message the least bit indifferent as to the reality of that which they were presenting. For a few verses further down it says so spake. Is there a suggestion there that in presenting the message, it's not just simply a take it or leave it message?
They sow, spake. There's something in that little expression that I think should reach our heart. It should be presented as though it were that which had stirred our own heart, and we're anxious that others should know it too.
The thinking of a of a, of an instance of two brothers. One was responsible for a funeral and he was quite exercised about it. And he said to the other brother with him, he said that now if you were responsible for this funeral, what would you tell these people there so many there that were not saved. They know nothing of the Lord Jesus.
But if you were responsible, what would you tell those people at this funeral? Well, he gave him 5 words. Tell them that God loves them.
The message Tell them that God blessed. I thought that was very nice. I remember an incident in Bolivia, brethren that really touched my heart.
One morning a young fellow put in appearance at one of our little centres and I said, what brings you so early?
We said my grandpa sent me to see you and take you back, he said 22 years ago.
Grandpa said you dismounted from a mule and pulled the book out of your pocket and preached in the Inca tongue in a ranch where the priest had said never listen to that fella if he ever comes here.
Never listen. So I do remember that there's not a soul insight.
But he said grandpa wants you to go back because he was listening behind the door and he got saved. And now he says we're 12.
Let us count heads, beloved, you never can't count heads. Well, wasn't that touching? Well, we had a long way. We couldn't go. It was 20 miles and had to climb up 15,000 feet. And I said to Francis, we just can't go. So I asked one of the younger brothers to go and see them. But just just wonderful, isn't it? Grand powers behind the door. He was scared to come out, and one was sold to be seen. But he was listening behind the door.
Well, let us take courage, brother. There's a remarkable verse in the 7th of Jeremiah which.
I take encourage from and you might feel sorry for Jeremiah. You had to go under these circumstances.
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27th verse Jeremiah 7.
Therefore thou shall speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee. Thou shall also fall into them, that they will not answer these.
Jerry have definite words that there would be no results, yet he was told to go anyway.
Well, we have and Timothy first. Timothy 2. God will have all that to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He sees to it that they hear the message. They get a word from him, and it's God's will that they would hear it, but they have a will too, and their will is not God's will to turn away from it nevertheless.
We can take courage to tell the news has been already pointed out, but I don't think any of us have ever had a word like this. They will not hearken unto thee. We don't know whether they will or not.
That's #302.